"Welcome back! I'm sorry, it looks like there's only one free bed tonight," Ollie said as they paid for their stay at the Shuteye Inn.

With little choice, Zelda agreed, with Link sleeping on top of the blankets, like he sometimes did when he held her through her nightmares. He slept warm anyway, and the inn was warmer than usual with more people inside the small inn.

Nightmares plagued Zelda's dreams yet again, forcing Link awake with her trembling, tossing, and turning in her sleep. She woke up with a fright and her tear-stained eyes desperately looking for Link, and she placed her arm over him. He rolled over to face her.

"Ari, I can't help but wonder if you're having so many nightmares because you're dwelling on the past too much," he whispered.

Zelda immediately felt anger rise up within her. "That's easy for you to say, as someone without most of your memories," she snapped. She turned away, tears still rolling down her cheeks, staying silent for a while as Link's heart broke for the pain in hers and because of the abrupt reminder of his lost memories.

"Link?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I know your lost memories aren't your fault. You're right. I do need to focus more on living in the present."

He was right. She had been fixated on the events of a century ago, and she needed to enjoy her time with Link, even if he didn't remember her yet. Her joy of seeing him alive and being with him again was being overshadowed by her grief over the impossibility of expressing her love.

Link looked at her with great sympathy in his eyes. "Ari, I don't know what all you've been through, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I just want you to know that I'll do whatever I can to help you through it. You don't have to be afraid to open up to me."

You have no idea how much I wish I could. "I know, Link. Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek, then Link brought his lips closer to hers. Zelda pulled away, still afraid of becoming a distraction for him. She rolled over, facing away from him. It broke her heart.

"Goodnight, Link." She tried not to cry again.

"I—Goodnight, Ari."

They woke up the next morning and ate breakfast in bed together once again, and they studied their map.

"It looks like if we head northeast from here, it will get us to the path that leads to Zora's Domain," Zelda explained, "but first, let's go say hi to Impa before we leave again."

Link nodded, and they both left the inn, thanking Ollie, and walked across the street to Impa's wooden staircase.

A red-faced Paya answered the door, wide-eyed in surprise to see them. Impa's voice called to them from her usual place across the room. "Back so soon?" She was smiling. "Come in, come in!"

"We rescued a dragon! It's kind of a long story, but we got pictures!" Link shouted excitedly. Link showed Impa the pictures of Naydra covered in Malice, then without. Impa raised her eyebrows. "Impressive! Great job, you two. Link, you're still the same Link I remember, always looking for adventure. Just don't get too sidetracked," she said with a wink to both of them.

"Link gave me this dragon scale, Impa. It's it beautiful?" She brought Naydra's scale out from the inventory and showed her. "It's still bitterly cold to the touch."

"Very nice find! You'll want to hang on to that. I hear they're valuable. Very well done, both of you! You have done a great service to the Goddess and the dragon gods, and I can't help but think you will be rewarded for rescuing her." Impa smiled, taking them each by the hand. "I assume you met with Purah?"

"Yes we did…your sister is rather…interesting, isn't she?" Link said with a worried look on his face.

Impa laughed out loud. "Yes, well, my sister is an Eccentric Genius, after all. She's the same Purah she was a hundred years ago, and you were also good friends with her. Do you have any more of your memories back, Link?"

He hung his head. "No, Impa."

"Chin up, Master Link. It will happen. Just be patient." She tugged on their hands and drew them both in for a hug.

"It's probably time you both head to Zora's Domain. I heard some rumors that their situation is becoming dire with Vah Ruta. If you leave now you may be able to reach the Inogo Bridge by nightfall."

Link nodded, and Zelda hugged her old friend tightly. "It was great seeing you again, Impa."

"And you as well, my friend. Take care out there."

They left again, heading on the worn path to their left past the inn. They came to a cliff that overlooked the vast landscape below, and multiple orange towers and shrines greeted their vision, surrounded by shallow looking waters sparsely scattered throughout the land below.

"Shall we?" Link asked, removing his paraglider.

"Are you crazy, Link? That drop is insane! That's a lot farther than even a tower!"

"It's the fastest way down." He grinned at her.

Zelda sighed. I guess if I'm going to start living in the present with him, there's no better time than now.

"Link, I swear if you kill me, I'm going to come back and haunt you forever!"

He laughed out loud at her threat, grabbing hold of the paraglider. "Ready when you are, my lady."

She smirked at him and grabbed on, and Zelda screamed as they jumped off the side of the cliff. Link was aiming for the nearest shrine. They could see the wetlands below, the water rife with reeds and other aquatic plants spread out over the large area. Zelda saw the black Lizalfos near the shrine he was heading to before Link did.

"Link, watch out! There are two Lizalfos by the shrine!" She readied an ice arrow, and as soon as their feet touched the ground she aimed at them, and the pair of evil lizards were instantly frozen at the first touch of her ice arrows a split second later.

Link grabbed his Knight's Claymore and made quick work of them, destroying them easily with such a powerful weapon, and they picked up the parts the monsters dropped. Seeing no further enemies around, Link turned to Zelda. "Do you mind if I finish this shrine while we're here? It shouldn't take me long. I'm getting much better at solving them quickly."

"Sure, Link. I'll wait right here."

Link finished the shrine within a few minutes, emerging with a new Silver Longsword on his back.

"Nice weapon you've got there, Link!"

He gave her a wide smile and brought out his Sheikah slate again, placing a pin on Lanayru Tower.

"You read my mind, Link. That's exactly what I was going to suggest."

They continued on in the direction the slate was leading them through the wetlands and battled the numerous Lizalfos marring the landscape as they went. Zelda made quick work of the boulder-spitting Octoroks that got in their way, popping their heads and destroying them with normal arrows. The bottom of their pants were soaked by the time Link suddenly stopped and turned around to face Zelda.

"Guardian Stalker!" Link suddenly whispered, desperately pointing. Zelda responded with an answer he didn't expect.

"Oh good! Watch this, Link."

He stared at her as if she were crazy as she walked recklessly toward the Guardian that was facing away from her.

"Ari! What in the name of Hylia do you think you're doing?"

She turned around, smirking at him and quickly drew her bow and readied an Ancient arrow as they approached the Guardian. Link noticed the strange orange and blue glow at the end of the arrow. "What kind of arrows are those?!" Link whispered, incredulous.

Zelda said nothing and aimed the arrow at the Guardian Stalker the same time it spotted her. It took aim at her with its red laser beam, and Link immediately ran and got in front of her with his shield. Her eyes instantly filled with tears when he did this. It took her right back to when her Triforce power awakened, and she had done the same for him—only instead of a shield it was her own hand. She quickly snapped out of it. "No, Link, wait! Watch this!" The laser fired, striking Link's shield and parrying off to the side, but his shield broke in the process.

Zelda shouted, "Link, just trust me! Watch!"

He couldn't think of anything else to do in that moment with another laser aimed at Zelda and no time to ready another shield, but she let her arrow loose in plenty of time. The Ancient arrow landed square in the eye of the Guardian, instantly destroying it and sending multiple Ancient parts flying out of it.

Link stared at her. "Where are you finding all of these crazy weapons?"

Zelda grinned. "Impa told me about them when we visited, but I already had some. These are Ancient arrows, Link. If we go to the Akkala region and see Robbie at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, we can get more of these. Robbie is the director of that lab and invented them fifty years ago."

Link could only stare, wide-eyed. "Impa told you that? She didn't tell me that! Can I have a few of those?" he asked, slightly jealous. Zelda patted him on the head, chuckling. "I don't have very many, but I'll give you a couple until we can get our hands on more of them. Let's go, Link. We need to get to Lanayru Tower." It wasn't far from them, but they had to cross a field full of Lizalfos leading to a small forested area sparsely dotted with trees. There was a small wooden bridge across from them, which Zelda was trying to get to. The bottoms of her legs and feet were beginning to feel cold from sloshing through the shallow water of the wetlands to gather medicinal plants. The two of them made quick work of the remaining Lizalfos, and they walked through an opening in the trees.

Suddenly they heard the sound of snoring, and it didn't sound like it was coming from anything small. Link instantly spotted it: a large round creature with its hand on its humongous belly, snoring away.

"What in the Goddess' name is that, Ari?" he whispered.

"It's a Hinox—something we definitely don't want to tangle with right now," she whispered back. They quietly and slowly crept past the shirtless sleeping giant with a single eye like a Cyclops, making it to the wooden bridge. They both sat for a few minutes, catching their breath.

"I see another wooden bridge over there, but there appears to be a Bokoblin patrolling it," Link whispered quietly. He felt a pain in his temples as he suddenly remembered what Hinoxes were. "I remember Hinoxes. You're right. We definitely didn't want to tangle with one of those right now."

They approached the next wooden bridge that was leading them to the tower, killing the Bokoblin with bomb arrows. As soon as they started farther up the path, they heard a horn.

"Ari, it's a camp! Go around on that side to those rocks and hide! We might be able to scale them."

She did as Link told her, avoiding the enemies that soon came running for them. They watched as the Bokoblins and Lizalfos looked around, then went back to their positions.

"Let's keep climbing. We might be able to avoid a lot of these monsters guarding this tower."

"Good idea, Link." They scaled two levels of the winding path, and as soon as their feet touched the ground they immediately heard rumbling.

"Watch out!" Link shouted. A boulder rolled past them, obviously sent down by waiting monsters above them on the path. They dodged the onslaught of several boulders, killing all of the Bokoblins along the way. Zelda took to climbing nearby boulders to snipe enemies while Link distracted them with hand-to-hand combat, which worked perfectly. The tower itself was surrounded by a steep cliff covered in large rocks, and thanks to Zelda's archery capabilities, they forged a clear path through the enemies to scale the steep pile of boulders just below the base of Lanayru tower.

"Great job, Ari! You're amazing!" She grinned at his compliment, then followed him up the side of the tower. Zelda hadn't climbed a tower before, so Link happily allowed her to follow. They rested on each platform along the way to make sure they could continue on. Finally, they reached the top, and Link made quick work of activating it and downloading the map.

The map on the Sheikah slate opened, and Link placed a pin on Zora's Domain.

"Look Ari, there's a glowing orange shrine way over there. It looks like it might be near an outcropping on the side of the cliff. That looks like it's close to the Inogo Bridge, where Impa was talking about…at least according to the map."

Zelda took a look at the map on the slate and agreed. "And let me guess, now we go down," she said, sighing.

Link gave her a grin and waved his paraglider at her.

Zelda protested playfully, but she realized it really was the quickest way to get to where they were trying to go.

"Link, you remember what I said! I will haunt you!" She closed her eyes as they jumped off the tower on the paraglider together, heading toward the glowing orange shrine in the distance.