Zelda was on the bed, anxiously awaiting any news of Link. She was watching the time. It had been twenty-eight minutes since she and Sidon started the timer for their bet. Three more minutes and victory would be hers.
Prince Sidon's singsong voice abruptly came from behind the door. "I'm totally going to win!" He was teasing her as he sang.
"Good luck with that," she snorted, and he had apparently heard her.
"No, seriously, I'm going to win," he said in a normal speaking voice this time. She whipped her head around as she heard the door open, and there was Link standing there beaming at her, holding one of the biggest swords and bows she had ever seen! He was dirty and sweaty, and was that a burn and a large cut on his face? But he was alive!
She shrieked and ran at him, knocking him over as they threw their arms around each other and kissed passionately on the floor in the doorway, forgetting they had an audience.
"Oh, for the love of Hylia, get a room!" Sidon teased. Zelda rolled her eyes at him, grinning, and Link laughed.
"Link! You did it! I'm so proud of you! Oh my goodness, your face! Are you hurt anywhere else?
"No, but would you mind putting some of your balms on my face? That Lynel was tough, but I was tougher! Thanks for that elixir, Ari. I think it really helped. I used the Stasis rune on the slate since Purah's upgrades allow me to use it on some enemies now! And I even managed to Flurry Rush a couple of times!"
Of course! The Stasis rune! How did I not think of that? And did he say he Flurry Rushed? She lowered her eyes as the realization came to her of how independent and strong he had been.
Link was still talking. "And..." He pulled from his quiver a pile of yellow-ended arrows he had tied together into a large bundle. "...I think I got enough shock arrows." He was holding at least 30 of them!
Prince Sidon was beaming at Zelda, and Zelda was beaming at Link. "Now we can fix Vah Ruta! Link, you're amazing!" She threw her arms around him and held him close as she rested her head against his neck, then looked up at his injured face.
"Oh, right. Let me take care of that for you." She materialized the disinfectant, Blood Balm, Pain Balm, and Burn Balm from the Sheikah slate, applying each to their respective areas, and she carefully placed a bandage over each of his wounds.
"Ahem." Sidon cleared his throat and held out his hand toward Zelda. "I believe you are forgetting something." He was grinning.
With an exaggerated sigh and playful roll of her eyes, she materialized a single silver rupee from the slate and plopped it into his hand, unable to hide her smile. Sidon's eyes lit up, and he ran out of the room yelling, "I win! I win!"
Link just stared. "What was that all about?"
"Oh nothing, Link. Just Sidon being Sidon." She chuckled to herself and put her materials away. She walked over to the door and closed it and kissed Link again. He kissed her back passionately, moving to her neck as he knew she loved, and so did he.
"Wait, Link, I need to talk to you." Zelda's eyes were sad. Her face grew serious, and she lowered her head. She began.
"I'm so proud of you. I bet the way you battled out there would have been an amazing sight to see. I never doubted your abilities, and I'm sorry if I made you feel like I did. I was just so afraid of losing you. I realized, thanks to Prince Sidon, that I need to allow you to be who you are destined to be, even if it's scary and doesn't feel very good for me. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you can't do anything without me. I'll try harder to let you be you from now on, okay? I hope you're not too mad. Will you forgive me?"
Link looked at her with love in his eyes. He was overjoyed at her words. He had been starting to get a little resentful of her not allowing him to battle on his own sometimes.
He smiled at her. "Ari, I could never stay mad at you. Of course I forgive you. Just remember we're a team, but team players still need to be strong individuals, too."
She smiled at him, and they shared another passionate kiss as the two of them sat on top of the waterbed.
She decided she would tell him tomorrow about the second piece of Zora Armor Mipha had made. They snuggled close to each other with Link wrapping her in his arms as they slept.
When morning had arrived. Zelda immediately brought out the treasure chest from Sidon from under the bed. "Look what I found yesterday."
She opened the hinged wooden lid and pulled out the female Zora Armor. Link's eyes widened.
"Is that armor for...you?" He was clearly confused.
"I don't know, but it fits."
Without thinking she removed her nightdress in front of him, her feminine form only in her underclothes. Horrified, she suddenly realized what she had done when she noticed Link staring at her with eyes like saucers. Thinking quickly, she came up with an idea.
"Hey! Eyes up here!" She pointed at Link's eyes then her own with two fingers, just as he had done to her several times. She could hardly contain her giggles as his embarrassed eyes met hers again and he turned a curiously bright shade of pink. She swiftly placed the Zora Armor over her and covered her legs with a blanket.
He was having trouble with his words, just like she had when she first stared at him in his Stealth armor, and this amused her. "Uh…yes…it does fit. Where…did it…come from?"
"I guess Mipha made it." She couldn't hide her grin at how cute he was when he was flustered, and she wondered if he thought the same thing about her.
Link silently thought maybe Mipha made the female Zora Armor for whoever he had loved a hundred years ago. Perhaps the Zora misunderstood Mipha's intentions for my armor? He couldn't be sure, but he didn't want to keep staring into space.
"I'm glad it fits, Ari. Now you can swim up waterfalls with me! You'll love how fun it is! But we'll have to hang on to the paraglider together again to safely land. We should practice first on smaller waterfalls." He was still blushing, still thinking about the glorious sight he saw a few minutes prior.
Zelda remembered watching Mipha once swim up a large waterfall with a young Prince Sidon. Mipha was graceful; she definitely was not.
After leading her by the hand to one of the shorter waterfalls, Link showed her how it was done, then they practiced together swimming upward. She held her breath against the cool, rushing waters as the Zora Armor seemed to lift her up effortlessly, defying both physics and gravity as she soared straight upward using the magical armor. She and Link each had their hands on the paraglider, opening it as they emerged from the water, and they landed safely onto the ledge below on their first try.
"Perfect, Ari! You're a natural! It took me a few times to get it right."
They shared a picnic breakfast at the top of the waterfall, choosing meals from the Sheikah slate Link had cooked earlier at the cooking pot in the town square.
Prince Sidon's friendly greeting called to them from below at the base of the waterfall. He quickly swam up the cascading waters expertly, just as Mipha had once taught him. He landed with graceful ease on two feet after performing a perfect backflip in midair.
Prince Sidon joined them on their picnic blanket. "The time has come for us to strategize over taming Vah Ruta. Allow me to explain my plans."
The elephant Divine Beast was surrounded by a built-in weapons system, designed to deter intruders from approaching. Its form of weapons were massive ice blocks, reminiscent of the ice blocks formed with the Cryonis rune. It also contained a new type of ice weapon, round ice spheres with spikes protruding out of it that would explode.
The idea was that Zelda and Link would ride on Sidon's back as he swam around Vah Ruta. Zelda would hold the Sheikah slate, attached to one of her wrists securely to avoid dropping it in the water. She would use the Cryonis rune to shatter the ice blocks it would be hurling at them while she sat facing backward on Sidon's back. She was good at holding on with only her knees; she had done this countless times on horseback.
As soon as the round of ice blocks were destroyed, Sidon would swim to the base of one of the waterfalls cascading down the sides of the Divine Beast. Link would then hop off Sidon's back, swim up the waterfall, remove his paraglider, and take aim in slow motion with his bow and shock arrows at the lit-up orbs controlling the water flow. There were two orbs on each side that Link would have to activate with the shock arrows, so they would repeat the process of destroying the ice and swimming up the waterfall four different times.
The task seemed daunting to Zelda, but considering Link just survived a Lynel battle, she knew he was more than capable. She was more unsure of herself.
Seemingly reading her mind, Prince Sidon asked Zelda to pull up the Cryonis rune on the Sheikah slate. If she placed some Cryonis blocks in the water, Sidon would slap them toward her as practice for the hurling ice from Vah Ruta. Link was not thrilled with the idea of having ice blocks hurled at Zelda, so he insisted she practice with still blocks first, then move on to ones Sidon would send her way, gently at first, then picking up in intensity as she practiced.
She got the hang of breaking the stationary ice blocks quickly, then moving on to Sidon hurling one at her, then two, then three, and increasing in speed and intensity. She easily broke them, never once getting hit by the blocks Sidon hit toward her. He did the same thing again, this time slapping them at her as fast as he could, and she again hit every last one before it came close to her. They continued practicing until she was completely comfortable with the controls on the slate and hitting the fast-moving targets.
"Excellent!" Sidon praised her. "Remember the ice blocks from Vah Ruta will be much faster, and more dangerous with the ice bombs, but at least we know you can expertly shatter moving targets!"
Next, she practiced sitting backward on Sidon's back while he swam, slowly at first, gradually picking up speed until he was flying through the water like a bullet. This was a thrill for her, as she loved the feeling of coursing through the water on his back as if she was on a carnival ride. Unfortunately, as he reached top speed, she slipped off his back and right into the water. It was a good thing the Sheikah slate was waterproof. His slippery fish-like skin allowed him to easily swim at top speeds, but it made it very difficult for her to ride bareback on him as if he were a horse without a saddle.
The thought of a horse gave her an idea. She took some of her materials and started sewing a rudimentary makeshift saddle for herself. She had to borrow some supplies from King Dorephan, but she managed in just a few hours to make herself a crude saddle with a belt that went across her lap to help hold her and another belt that went around his waist. When she was satisfied, she brought it to Prince Sidon.
He wasn't thrilled about the prospect of feeling so undignified having to wear a saddle as if he were a horse; he only did it because they were such good friends. He secretly hoped his fan club wasn't around to take pictures.
She helped slip the saddle over him and gently tightened the belt around his waist. He hopped into the water with Zelda close behind him, and she settled herself into the seat and tightly secured the other belt around her own waist.
"I'd like to make sure this doesn't hinder your movements or your speed in the water, Sidon. We don't want anything to slow you down."
He began swimming, and Zelda found it much easier to keep her balance while secured in the saddle. He gradually picked up to top speed, and she didn't even slip once as he swam like an arrow cutting through the water. She let out a whoop as he rounded the lake they were practicing in, and he hugged her across one shoulder after they jumped out of the water together.
His voice was low and Link was not nearby. "Princess, you rise to any challenge set before you. You are every bit as amazing as I remember, as the stories I have heard, and as Master Link said you were." She blushed. Link talked about me to Prince Sidon?
"Thank you, kind prince! I look forward to our mission together," she said officially. She walked over to where Link was still practicing for his portion of the task and watched.
For Link's training Prince Sidon placed multiple bullseye targets at the top of one of the waterfalls. Link practiced riding on Sidon's back through the water to get a feel for what it was like to quickly hop off his back. He was able to keep his grip better than she had done, facing forward and holding onto Sidon with both hands. Next, he practiced swimming straight up the waterfall with the Zora Armor on and opening his paraglider, then taking aim with a regular arrow at the bullseye targets Sidon placed.
Zelda could see Link was becoming a skilled archer; he only missed a few times at first while he was still getting the hang of it. He easily made perfect bullseyes directly in the middle of the targets every time after that. She was so proud watching him, knowing she had helped teach him, and she wondered if he had felt proud of her a hundred years ago when he taught her.
By the time they had finished training, it was getting into the early evening, and the three of them, confidence boosted, were more than ready to take on Vah Ruta. Their goal had been to at least get the water flow back under control, and if they had time, board the Divine Beast to take it back from Ganon, but it was seeming as if they would only have time for the first phase before dark.
Making sure they had plenty of shock arrows ready to go, they made their way to East Reservoir Lake, where the elephant Divine Beast Vah Ruta was awaiting them.