V.

A Menagerie of Friends

It had been a long day, but Link refused to remove his knight's armor until he left Zelda's side for the evening. First, they had to reconvene in the meeting room with all Hyrule's ambassadors and their champions, here to meet this stranger and to learn anything about the fight they just had. All sat down looking more and more concerned. Link had given up his seat to their 'guest' in favor of standing guard over Zelda. All eyes glanced back and forth from Zelda to Link to Oi-Wan and back again, no one knew who would speak first but the room felt ready to burst.

In the end it was the ambassador from the Gorons who spoke first

"HEY! I heard this little guy right here saved the Queen, three cheers for him!"

"ROCK, ROCK, HOORAY, ROCK, ROCK, HOORAY, Rock, rock… hooray?"

The Goron ambassador had been the only one to cheer with Yunobo doing his best to hide himself and his embarrassment at the elder Goron. The was enough though for Zelda to gain the room's attention,

"Yes, thank you Ambassador Brokon, I will now let our friend here introduce himself."

Obi-Wan Kenobi had seen nearly every corner of the explored galaxy, had even fought on many of these worlds, and even rediscovered a planet at one point, but he had never in his life seen lifeforms like the ones before him. Three, not counting Zelda and Link whom he had previously met, were basically human, at least near-humans, a species that looked similar to that of Quinlan Vos. The other six were perhaps similar, but again unlike any species Obi-Wan knew to exist. Two of them looked like the Karkardon, but he never knew them to come in such vibrant colors, nor to have tails coming from the side of their heads, as well the tallest one had a smile unlike that of any Karkardon he had ever met, it was pleasant, reassuring even, not ready to bite the head off anyone any his way. Two of them were bird-like, but different even between themselves, one had a large, rounded beak, and an instrument Obi-Wan noticed hidden under the table, while the other looked nearly like an eagle that had decided to stand up, a bow was slung on his back, simple yet ornate looking still. The final two were certainly new to Kenobi, until the largest one had stood to cheer his heroism, Obi-Wan had hardly realized they weren't just large boulders that were in the room.

"I- yes, thank you, Brokon was it? But it was your queen who saved herself, I simply alerted her to the danger coming her way. In any case, my name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I come from a very distant land, however, I'm not entirely sure of how I got here if I'm being perfectly honest."

Rising to his feet the elderly fish-man asserted, "and what if he's working for Ganon, or whatever threat amassed this army?" The eldest fish-man seemed to even look pleased with himself, as if he was the only one who realized this could be a charade.

"Obi-Wan, you'll have to excuse Muzu," The larger and younger of the fish-like people stood now, towering over his associate, "ever since the Calamity he's been less than trusting of those outside of the Zora's domain, isn't that right, Link." With that he shot the young warrior a wink. "Oh, my manners, I never introduced myself" straightening his posture he threw himself into a cheesy grin and with a thumbs-up announced "I am Prince Sidon, of the Zora! And the man next to me is one of our family's oldest advisors, Muzu, an old, but loyal, curmudgeon."

Others began standing now to properly introduce themselves as well, the two bird-like people, Kass and Teba, members of a race they called the Rito, then came Brokon and his champion, Yunobo, of the Goron race, and finally the three darker-skinned women stood, addressing themselves as Chief Riju and her bodyguard Bularia, and their ambassador to Hyrule, Tanmara. Obi-wan had noticed it before, but was still amazed, rarely did a planet develop more than one or two sentient races, and five was nearly unheard of, there was truly much to discover about the world he found himself on. Obi-wan greeted them each warmly, hoping to assuage anymore suspicions they had about him, it wouldn't do to turn every major figure of this world against him before he had even spent one night here… if here even had an average night/day cycle.

"Your Majesty, I must ask, what were those creatures that attacked before, I had never seen anything like, well, any of them."

"Those, Obi-Wan, were monsters bent on nothing less than complete chaos. The reptilian lizalfos, the runty and pig-like bokoblin, their bigger cousins the moblins, and at the top of their line was the massive hinox that interrupted the battlefield, though they tend to sleep and aren't much trouble unless they are disturbed. Most dangerous of all however, are the Lynels, the half-horse-lion-men with the cunning and strategy to back up their brute strength. These monsters are typically scattered and not much trouble within settlements, they raid and pillage, but other than that they are not often much more than nuisances, that is until they are being led by some darker force. In the past this has often taken the form of an entity we have come to call Ganon, a dark malicious force that has haunted Hyrule for thousands of years, but we are certain it was not Ganon, it would have been too soon for him to return, if indeed he still could." She sighed at that, "No, we are not sure what could have gathered all of those monsters together. Whatever it is, it is a dark force that can bind their wills, a force I do not know if this land has the strength to repel again."

Link looked over to his oldest friend. "It can't be him right, we just beat him, what was the last hundred years for if he were to just come back so soon, the prophecies make it seem like a once every hundred generations thing." He almost looked panicked now. "Not just could Hyrule take it, could we take going through that again?"

Zelda rested a hand on her friend's shoulder, "It won't come to that again, you know that I have awakened my sealing powers, and the Sword is not too far away, we'll be ready this time." She lowered her voice a little and whispered in his ear, "I promise you that it won't be like last time."

He wasn't fully calmed but Link was able to steel himself in front of the others. He could almost always do that much. Slamming his hands on the table (only to pick them back up again), he addressed the room.

"Well, representatives and champions of Hyrule… and our… esteemed guest, it wasn't always easy to convey sarcasm through sign, but years of working with Zelda gave him plenty of practice, how should we proceed."

Teba stood, "I'll have our scouts begin following the horde of monsters, we can convert the Sheika Towers into watchtowers, honestly I can't believe we didn't think of that before."

Sidon spoke next, "I'll get a group together to watch from the rivers, don't worry lil' Link, nothing will get by us.

Ambassador Brokon looked like he could barely contain himself when he spoke, "Little Pri-Queen, you won't believe your eyes when I tell ya what we old Gorons have been cooking up, rock canons, like those we used to keep Rudania away, but we gave'em wheels! You could roll'em almost anywhere in Hyrule, and they'll pack a wollop! I can get them to start moving some to every major settlement, won't no one be without protection while the spirit of Daruk lives on!" at that he all but threw Yunobo into the air raising the younger Goron's hand for him. "Don't you worry your queenship, we'll have Gorons moving the canons wherever you need'em."

"Queen Zelda," Chief Riju spoke up, "I know we have a tentative truce with them, but I can have my troops scout the Yiga lands for anything unusual, they've been quite since Link defeated their leader, but it's just like them to be hatching another nasty scheme." At her still young wards words, Bularia could not help but smile at the leader she was growing into. I know Urbosa would be proud of you, little one.

As her ambassadors and champions worked and planned together, Zelda felt a tear come to her eye. Never had she thought she'd see Hyrule so united, before the calamity they were a collection of separate people living on one continent, and after the calamity they were even more isolated, for more than a hundred years, she reminded herself, but now, now they are working together, coming to the aid of the land, as one people. She glanced up to Link. All because you had the courage to keep fighting, Link.

As if sensing her thoughts, Link merely nodded for her to attend to her court.

"Ahem" getting everyone's attention, Zelda continued, "friends, I could not be more pleased to see you all working and coordinating so well together, know that the army of Hyrule stands ready to assist wherever this horde strikes next, no one will be without the full weight of all of our peoples behind them. Thank you all for your generous offers of help, I am pleased with all you have suggested."

"Yunobo, will you be able to get to Death Mountain and begin transferring those canons?"

"Y-yes your majesty."

"Good, head there immediately, but wait for word from Teba and his scouts before moving the bulk of them, we need to know where the horde may strike first and make that our top priority."

"Teba, please let us know where the horde may be moving, if we have a direction, we may be able to head them off and prevent further terror"

"Yes, Queen Zelda." And with that, the warrior was off to Rito village to alert its forward scouts.

"Sidon, I would appreciate you all keeping an eye on our water supplies, if those were to be tampered with, things could get much worse, sending scouts out would be good as well, even monsters need to drink, and with you on the opposite side of Hyrule, your scouts and Teba's can meet in the middle."

Per his usual self, Sidon shot the princess an impressive smile, "You can count on the Zora, Queen Zelda. Now Muzu, make sure you're nice since ambassadors are guests in the castle." And with that the impressive Zora leaped out of the window just above the castle moat. To his credit, Muzu simply huffed indignantly at his prince.

"And finally, Riju, please, nothing would make me happier than making sure those Yiga creeps were on their best behavior, however, do make sure your scouts do not start anything, if this dark force is not in league with the Yiga, we may yet need every able body in Hyrule at her defense."

"Queen Zelda, you have the full might of the Gerudo warriors at your disposal." At this Riju left, not for the Gerudo desert yet, that could wait until morning, for now, a good night's sleep was in order.

Dismissing the rest of the ambassadors, there were now but three in the meeting room, Link, Zelda, and their new would-be-friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Well, your majesty, it looks like you've got quite the handful here."