Dawn broke upon the dewy plains of the Lanayru Lowlands, its marshy landscape already broken apart by Hylians trudging out to work their fields, unaware of the rag-tag assortment of Champions preparing for the day's trekking just above the extent of their fields. To be fair, given the night before, most of the Champions weren't exactly aware of the Hylians either; other than Mipha, the rest of the collection were either tired from lack of sleep, or were Revali, whose plumage allowed him a rather restful, deepening sleep at the sensation of being bundled up in the cold. Still lost in his own sleep, Zelda was forced to push herself up to her feet, refusing to go to sleep until Mipha's return was assured, and begin the process of traveling anew.

"Mmmmrgh," chortled Urbosa in a lazy complaint, turning away from Zelda's prodding touch, "Five more minutes…"

Zelda frowned, "You said that-"

A yawn escaped even her.

"-twenty minutes ago…"

Urbosa ignored her plight, leaving Zelda to make her rounds, attempting to rally whomever she could, though only Mipha arose, her restful night having been as assured as her return, thanks to a certain knight. Nevertheless, Zelda unleashed a bedraggled growl if a yawn as she began packing up her belongings, leading to a concerned glance from Mipha, who'd begun much the same.

"Are you sure you don't need some more rest?" she asked plainly.

Zelda assured with an unconvincing twinge of exhaustion in her voice, "No, no. I'm the leader of this troupe- I shouldn't be allowing sleepiness to overcome me anyway."

Unable to withhold a slight giggle at the sight of Zelda swaying back and forth in imbalance as she rolled up her sleeping pack, Mipha muttered quietly as she began assembling her own pack, "Thank you."

"Hmmgrr, for what?" grumbled the tired Zelda in reply.

"Staying up until Link and I returned. I know it was to your detriment this morning, but- it meant a lot," Mipha explained, "I wasn't always one to be waited on growing up, so-"

Zelda eyed her wearily, "Hey, we're Champions. We stick together."

She turned to the others, all currently succumbing to the wiles of slumber, continuing with unease, "…even if it doesn't always seem that way."

Mipha grinned once again, returning her attention to her own equipment as the two fell to silence, varying degrees of energy guiding g them to completion as the others eventually began to arise, an assortment of disgruntled groans emerging as if the morning were an encumbrance better left ignored.

"Five more minutes…" Urbosa complained yet again, awoken by Daruk's rocky pads of hands pushing him to his feet before tearing into the air with a yawn.

"Okay," Zelda suddenly pointed out, "I'm still not in the least bit interested in dissecting Daruk or anything, but isn't anybody else the least bit interested in why Gorons need to yawn?"

Slipping on his boots, Link smirked, "Sounds like a dissecting issue to me."

A boisterous laughter left Daruk as he answered, "I wish there had been work already done to give to you, like biology books or something, but we Gorons don't exactly think in those terms. We think more outwardly, I suppose; we're known for our fantastic rock sirloin, not exactly our introspection."

His face turned in disgust, "Plus, studying our dead? That's a bit creepy."

"I mean, yes, I suppose," Zelda replied, taken aback by how legitimate his observation might have been, "But all the knowledge you might gain by doing so! You could combat diseases, or better know how to help your bodies with-"

Her eyes shrunk in realization, "You don't have diseases, do you?"

"Not unless you count fits of laughter," Daruk answered, almost teasingly, "That might be an epidemic if it does! Bwah ha!"

Zelda eyed Link, who merely grinned in reply, "I believe this is a battle you're never going to win."

Visibly shaken by the prospect of forever untapped knowledge, Zelda curled her lips with discontent while her fingers ran along her closed eyes to better help their weighted exhaustion, leaving Daruk to merrily continue with his preparing for the day, gently pressing a foot against Urbosa's side to bring her back to the waking world.

"Hrmmgll," she answered suspiciously, "Five more minutes…"

Daruk frowned, leaving Mipha to chide quietly, "Speaking of battles one cannot win."

"Enough of this nonsense," Revali suddenly spoke up as he crawled out from his own sleeping bag, remaining on all-fours as he shook bountifully, allowing his plumage to flutter about as though in exhale before rising to his feet, clearing his throat to add some decorum, "Allow me to demonstrate the goddess Vurla's awakening lullaby, sung to our fledglings as they begin their days. Such rambunctious vocals to bring one's soul alight! It's said that, when the wind carries just right, such screechings can be heard across the whole of Hyrule!"

Fighting back tire, Urbosa managed to begin meandering upright, at least finding herself seated as she rubbed her eyes, grumbling lowly to herself, "Please, don't…"

Revali frowned with disappointment, crossing his arms, "Such a shame! Do not worry; perhaps I shall indulge you all at a later time. You know, it is a great honor to hear such a thing at all, much less from a warrior such as myself."

"O-Oh, absolutely!" Zelda replied with worry, "Please, if it isn't too much trouble, we'd all love to hear it, if you'd be so kind."

Link and Urbosa both shot silent glances toward the young Princess, causing Zelda to raise her shoulders in quiet inquiry, their behavioral gone unnoticed as Revali proudly raised his head, "No, no, I shan't be a nuisance by offering such a song beyond the time for awakening! Though, I do suppose a scholar would have need of such things outside of the proper times. Very well, I will recite-!"

"Hey, Mipha!" Urbosa blurted aloud, "I'm going to go gather some water; would you be kind enough to accompany me?"

Mipha's brow curled, "Actually, I was rather intrigued by-"

"Trust me," interrupted Urbosa, wrapping an arm around the Zora's shoulders and pulling her into her side as the two pressed on, "With your sonar hearing, it might churn your brains into jelly. I'm a Gerudo and I fear for myself in kind."

Giggling at her intense desperation to escape, Mipha acquiesced, the two's departure leaving Revali with a glib expression, though it failed to stop him from progressing, "Very well, I will begin by offering the ceremonial warming of the palatoglossal arch. Let me just- Hwawk! Hwawk!"

Throwing his body forward, Revali's throat began creating a gurgled, choking symphony of vibrato swirled alongside magnificent crescendos of what seemed to be phlegm, forcing the others' faces to churn in shaken terror. Zelda did her best to maintain her air of willingness, though found it increasingly difficult amidst this odd ritual of the Rito.

"Goddess," Link muttered achingly, covering his ears, "They're birds, so why does he sound like a cat being strangled?"

Zelda released an immediate frown, "You know, you don't have to react with disgust at every little-"

Her spine trembled at a particularly sour note that shot from Revali's cadence like a firecracker, "-every little thing. He could very well have a rather melodic voice once he's warmed up- you have no idea. I'm sure there's plenty more about him that-"

"Oh, don't worry, there's less," Link confirmed with a pithy attitude.

Crossing her arms, Zelda questioned, "How exactly did you two start off in such bad terms, anyway?"

Link turned to her as he spoke up, "Well, you might not have realized it, but…"

He comically drew his shoulders forward, turning his head side to side as if in detection of wandering eyes, before finishing, "He's kind of a jerk. Shh! Shh! He'd rather it remain a secret!"

Despite Daruk's glee, Zelda merely rolled her eyes in reply, shaking her head, "You know what I meant; when you two first met."

Link shrugged, "We were on assignment out west. The party of Rito we were dealing with were cordial enough until Revali showed up, insisting he was a member of theirs, and causing a hubbub over the whole meeting. There's little worse than being the cause of a ruckus that impedes a routine procedure; that, and being a massive headache. Needless to say, the party of Rito weren't exactly pleased; they were far too quick when it came to apologizing- and let me tell you one thing, the Rito never apologize to anybody beyond their race."

"Like I said before, he should know his place," Link surmised.

Zelda's brow furrowed, "You once knew your place. Now look at you."

Link felt the Master Sword almost tug against his shoulder.

"Perhaps his standing isn't nearly so concrete," Zelda countered easily, a sudden gusts of spittle preventing Link from reporting in kind, the three spinning toward Revali as he completed his hacking into space.

"HWAH! Hmm mmm. Alright, that ought to do it. A good trachea exercise is good for the soul- never hurt anyone. Are you all prepared?" asked Revali rhetorically, already patting the plumage at his chest with his hands.

"Bring it!" Daruk challenged with a fierce grin, caught between wanting to be genuinely impressed and wanting to be entertained.

"Allow me to present to one and all- the songs of Vurla!" Revali proclaimed with enough pomp and circumstance to lift his words skyward, carrying his bravado, "Ahem! A one… A two… A-"

"'DERE HE IS!" came a shrill, unraveled shout from behind him, forcing Revali to whip around to find three Hylian children in a mad dash down the dirt road, right toward him, "Gedd'im!"

Trapped by the sudden shock of such a rabid occurrence, Revali merely recoiled, though did little else, as the three children surrounded him, weakly slamming the smallest of sticks against Revali's hocks as the Rito began scurrying in place to evade their nagging swats.

"What are-?! You cretins! You beings of deplorable acts!" Revali charged in a slight panic, "Have you any clue who I-?!"

"Ged th' bird man!" one of them cried aloud, leaving Revali speechless in his astonishment.

"B-Bird man?! You vapid little whelps! Let loose those ill-constructed weapons this instant!" Revali demanded angrily, still attempting to shoo away the children.

From their spots a mere few paces away, the others looked on with a wide array of glances, Daruk, for one, finding the amusement he had been half-pining for, laughing boisterously at the sight of such articulate speech in the face of rampant children. Link smirked at the sight as well, leaning closer toward Zelda as her mouth fell agape in a mix of confusion as well as fright.

"See? There's less," Link chuckled under his breath as his eyes remained fixed on Revali's in-place dancing as he attempted to escape the children's clutches, his better instincts preventing him from doing much in the way of harm to the fledgling Hylians.

Zelda dropped her head, incapable of coming up with a solution within the heat of the moment, though Revali's anger quickly tempered, forcing her attention once again as Revali slammed a foot into the ground with an outrageous squawk that accompanied his plumage bursting forth while he lowered his stance, forcing his body to appear as though little more than a ball of angrily postured feathers. Less the presentation itself and more the suddenness of his motion, the children suddenly jerked away in terror, dropping their sticks and screaming as they charged toward the others, rounding Link's legs and clutching onto the hem of his tunic as they shielded themselves.

"GAAH!" one of them cried, "S-Save us!"

Link shrugged as he turned to Zelda, who immediately answered with a swift, "No! Now, we're going to handle this with- Revali, are you okay?"

His fully orbed posture notwithstanding, Revali's glare remained steadfast on the children, leaving Zelda to instinctively position herself between the Rito and the children before crouching down with a smile to offer a hand in greeting, "Hello there. Where are you all from?"

Still frightened, only one of them managed to motion down the slopes toward the lowlands, Link turning to find the slight numbers of workers out tilling. Perhaps these were children of the workers who'd gotten carried away, he figured. Still, Zelda nodded dutifully, taking back her hand once it was clear she wouldn't receive a handshake.

"It's okay; Revali wouldn't hurt a fly," she assured softly, hoping to avoid any comment to the contrary from the Rito himself, "Trust me."

"B-But!" one of the children stammered to life, "The bird men! They done came and picked off're people in'a night!"

"Yeah!" chimed another, "We have to protect're families!"

Zelda sighed, dropping her head in defeat, "Now, you kids know those are all false legends, right?"

"No way! Tobin's brother told us himself!" came from the third, "They prowl along the mountaintops, skittering along the sands, their wings whipping up dust as they-!"

"Tich!" Revali scoffed aloud as he stood up straight, straightening out his mantle, "As if a Rito would allow such a hideously inane act as 'whipping up dust'. I swear- think of the- I mean, you all witnessed it enough in the desert!"

The first child finished, "And- And- Their wattles bellow in the breeze!"

"I BEG your pardon?!" Revali charged, forcing the children to recoil against Link's legs once again with terrified vocalizations.

Zelda groaned defeatedly as she stood, though her determination was true; she turned toward Revali and implored, "Revali, would you- Please- Just offer something of a friendly gesture?"

He only eyed her with suspicion.

"Look, half of why we're doing this is to better improve relationships between all of our people, correct? To do that, we'll have to challenge these sorts of things, right?" Zelda explained, coming to a head with an excited voice, "Oh! How about you do your aerial acrobatics! When we first met, I was so impressed; I'm sure these kids would be so excited to-"

"Niq!" Niq!" Neeeeq!" cried the children in a chorus of excited tones, the trio bursting away from Link's body and stampeding in the direction of the returning Urbosa and Mipha.

Zelda groaned, "Okay, well never mind…"

Smirking devilishly as though to tease, Urbosa boasted, "Neek? Now what are you calling me? I oughta-!"

Despite her excitement, the three kids blew right past Urbosa, much to her displease, and she followed them with her eyes as they clustered around Mipha, hopping up and down excitedly as they fell under the Zora's welcoming smile. Urbosa crossed her arms with malcontent, turning toward Zelda as the Princess came up to her side.

"Talk about rude!" Urbosa complained, "Don't they know I'm the fun one?"

Zelda frowned, "Tell me about it."

The children's incessant throes of elation continued as Mipha knelt down to come to their level, their cheering finally coming through, "Candy! Oh, please! Pleeease!"

Mipha smiled so serenely, wholly incapable at this point of doing much of anything to disappoint this youthful audience, "I do apologize, but I don't actually have any candy with me. I do, however…"

She turned her attention to the satchel at her back, rummaging through it while the kid's eyes gleamed excitedly. Even more, the remaining Champions grew further curious, not only at the name used to address the Zoran princess, but by her apparent playing along as well.

"Here," Mipha spoke up gently as she pulled three stones from her pack, earning her the reaction one might expect from children.

"…rocks?" one of them wondered with pithy incredulity.

Mipha smiled, "Yes, but- If you cup them between both your hands-"

She demonstrated herself, the kid's dismissal gradually returning to intrigue, "These stones are from little tiny tidepools at the top of Lanayru Mountains. Now, if you do this, close your eyes, and reeeally concentrate, you can almost catch a picture of the mountains themselves."

Link shut his eyes, lowering his head to avoid showing a grin, thinking of a similar exercise promised by Mipha the night they'd met underneath the stars at the Bazaar. Even he had been warily trusting then, so when it came to children-

"Really?!" one of them shouted with elation.

Mipha nodded, "Yes, really! You just really, really have to concentrate, alright?"

Immediately pawing for a stone, the three of them started off with a mad dash in the direction they'd initially come from, leaving Mipha with a whimsical smile as she rose to her feet, watching them as they passed Revali without incident, the Rito shooing them off with a blustery motion of his arm, shaking his head with disgust. She quickly stopped upon realizing her place atop the group's collective center of attention, her head jolting down toward her chest as embarrassment overtook her in a split second.

"Okay," Urbosa chimed in first, making a hand gesture suggesting Mipha approach her, "Spill it, Zora."

Mipha trembled beneath the weight of bashfulness, "Well, uh, I used to tell the same thing to my brother when he was a little taddie."

"Not that," Urbosa clarified swiftly, "That thing they called you- Neep."

Rather quickly, Mipha returned her head upright with attentiveness, "Oh! Actually, it's Niq- Like 'unique', just…not."

Her head tilted to the side thoughtfully, "I suppose now that I think about it, they would largely be around this region, so no wonder those children thought- Anyway, the Zora have always been a rather spiritual people, but we don't have a single religion or anything; especially since we've started exposing ourselves to the outside world, a few cults have sprung up, with the Niq being one of them, and I mean, there are tales of Zora worshipping giant fish throughout history, so they're not exactly the farthest cult 'out there'."

Going on, Mipha explained, "They believe in a crimson-scaled deity that will one day arrive and bring about a new age of prosperity amongst the Zora, and the vague nature of that idea has made them rather popular, even if personal cults are still on the fringe. Warbass types believe they will come and conquer the whole of Hyrule, while the more peaceful members take it that he'll simply come and usher in an era of knowledge and technological mastery."

"In any case, they're also rather open-natured," Mipha noted, pointing off toward the Hylian farmland down the rocky slopes, "They're more than happy to walk the world and make friends. They're known for being supremely friendly, so I suppose those children had come across a Niq and simply associated such kindness with all Zora, but- My father has always been wary of spiritual awakenings and such, but the Niq are generally friendly and offer us Zora a good reputation across these lands, so far as we know, so he hasn't much issue with their goings on."

Zelda's studious glance had already fallen in thought, a hand lazily scratching at her cheek in contemplation, "Hold on, you said crimson-scaled deity?"

"I caught that as well," Urbosa muttered, "Isn't that just the mark of Zoran royalty?"

Mipha sighed, "Well, that's why the Niq have remained more counter-culture than anything. A lot of people don't buy into it due to that fact; it could just be a king-worship cult, after all; the entire royal line, as you see upon my own body, bear scales of crimson. But they're adamant, never failing to prescribe to the idea of an arriving god-like being wearing scales of scarlet. They also have the image as those who employ the more…seedy of followers. Most of them are scared, bedraggled, often downright frightening, despite their good works. One of the more well-known members is named Nerim; he's rather unforgettable, as his dorsal fin was ripped from his head, which is generally regarded as heroic if resulting from battle, but we know too little about him for it to be anything more than a target of ridicule, sadly. Still, nearly begrudgingly, he remains helping other Zora, traveling about, helping the Hylians or the occasional Goron to find their way around this area. He's merely a rugged, kind soul, I think."

"Now that you mention it, I do recall Gorons who return from their travels and speak of such friendly Zora," Daruk nodded with a smile, "They made quite the impression; that's when our own tourism board was created! We thought your Zoran travelers were advertising Zora hospitality or something! Some enterprising Gorons figured to do the same!"

Zelda quizzically requested of the Zora, "Why are they so adamant about- I mean, I understand the religiosity of it, but- The crimson scales just seem weird so far as prophecy goes. If every generation of Zoran royalty Bears the same thing, can it truly even be a prophecy? Any one of them could be its answer, even you."

Shrugging, Mipha explained, "To be honest, I don't understand, or even know, the finer points of the Niq beliefs; just that they seem to be more of a positive group than negative. They aren't a nuisance, which is good enough for most of Zora's Domain."

"That's more than you can say about the Hylia cult," Revali sneered distastefully, "On the whole, anyway."

"Sadly, you're quite truthful when you say that," Zelda sighed, "Still, that's yet another thing I hope to address with our excursion. I understand my ancestors weren't always benevolent toward your people, but I'm hoping to help mend those histories as best I can."

Revali frowned, "You could start with him."

His eyes widening in surprise at being called out, Link gave a heavy shrug before reply, "What?!"

Zelda groaned, burying her race into her hand with exasperation, her eyes still war-weary with tire as she sighed aloud, "Gah, I'm too tired for this…"

Smiling from ear to ear, Daruk raised his arms, "I shall take a cue from those of good will that Mipha speaks of! Allow me to carry you, if you would so allow me the privilege!"

Shaking her head with sudden nervousness, Zelda waved her arms back and forth, "N-N-No, that's- that's fine! I can manage!"

"Fear not, should you require my help," Daruk assured proudly, "Ask Link! I had to carry him once due to heat exhaustion and, despite my brusque and rugged mantle, I ensured he was in the care of one ever so careful with his protection."

Zelda grinned at Daruk's description of himself, particularly the world 'mantle', before assuring him, "No, truly, I'm fine."

Daruk nodded in reply before Urbosa's skeevish expression caught his eye, her head cocked to the side in guarded inquiry , "…well? What happened next?"

The Goron watched her curiously, though Link caught Urbosa's intention, forcing him to intervene, "Don't give her an answer; she's just hunting for a fantasy."

Urbosa's glare cast down upon Link with intensity, "Why, what are you hiding..?"

As the bickering continued, leaving Zelda exhausted and Revali incredulous of the group he'd been found a part of, Mipha merely smiled, even as Urbosa began pantomiming activities with her hands which forced blushes amongst the Hylians while Daruk remained oblivious. She had long forgotten to listen to what was going on, besides the very general fact that she was traveling with this boisterous cluster of bodies that seemed so out of place together, yet seemed to match perfectly in their torrid makeup.

Surely, she reminisced of the night before, these were the best days.