Watching the two younger Champions as they debated both the benefits and drawbacks of eating fish cooked, smoked, or raw and-from what she could gather and to her private disgust-very much alive, Urbosa decided there would never be a better time to ask.

"So the Rito and Zora are related. How does that work?"

Both Mipha and Revali paused in the middle of what was likely the most amiable of conversations the Rito had been involved in all day, in spite of the fact that he was trying to convince Mipha that fish was much better smoked than roasted over a fire.

Mipha considered her fellow champion briefly before answering. "The Rito used to be Zora, according to legend. A long time ago there was a flood that covered the land of Hyrule, or so the story goes. During that time, there were Zora who left the Great Sea and took to the air."

Urbosa considered this. "Wouldn't a flood make things more comfortable for a water dwelling race?" she asked, genuinely curious.

Mipha shook her head. "Not if we're talking about the kind of changes such a flood would bring. The Zora now are used to living in fresh water. We can visit the sea, but staying for long periods of time is uncomfortable at best. Possible changes in temperature could have been a problem as well. And there's no knowing how such an event would have affected the food supply."

"But still," Urbosa pressed. "It seems just a little far-fetched." Revali rolled his shoulders at the assertion.

"One of our great Sages in times long past was a direct descendant of Laruto, Earth Sage of the Zora," he offered, the statement lacking the confrontation tone characteristic of the Rito. Urbosa felt an eyebrow lift.

"Laruto? That sounds an awful lot like Vah Ruta."

Revali shrugged. Mipha looked thoughtful.

"It also sounds like a story," Urbosa continued, wondering if the Rito would recognize the invitation to share. She also wondered whether he would do so; for all that he liked to talk, he had so far offered very little detail about either his personal life or his people, preferring instead to offer harsh criticism, thinly veiled insults, or to brag about his own abilities. She doubted very much they would get anything from him about this sage.

Revali rolled his eyes, shifting slightly in front of the fire as all eyes came to rest on him, and Urbosa was sure he would bolt.

"Fine," he said, surprising everyone. For a moment he stared into the campfire in silence. When he spoke, it was in a different tone than they had heard from him before. The words came clearly, even and measured, as if it were a story he had heard-and told-many times before.

"In days of old and times long past," he began, "a great flood covered the land of Hyrule. It was said that the flood was an act of the gods, a great storm sent to wash the land clean of evil. The people of Hyrule fled to the mountains to escape the rising waters, and from there a new civilization was born.

"Among those who fled were Zora, leaving behind a world that had become cold and desolate to cling to the mountaintops in an attempt to reach the heavens. As the years passed, they changed, trading scales for feathers, fins for wings, and water for sky. So the Rito were born."

Revali paused to resettle, or perhaps for effect; Urbosa had to admit she was enjoying the story, and Revali was telling it well. He also seemed to be enjoying the attention.

"In the early days we were not as we are now. In those days a fledgling had to earn their wings before they could learn to fly. Upon reaching a certain age, they were gifted a scale from Valoo-" here Revali cut himself off to explain, "Valoo was a dragon worshiped as both a god and protector by the Rito in ages past," before continuing.

"Trained from an early age in the service of Valoo, the Great Sage Medli, descendant of Laruto, Sage of the Zora, became concerned when the Rito's guardian deity seemed to turn his back on them. His anger was great, it was said, and the pleas of the people went unheard. Of all the Rito, Medli alone had the courage to enter the cavern in which he did dwell.

"With the aid of a traveling hero, Medli was able to find the source of Valoo's discontent, a creature of great evil, and destroy it, appeasing the god and causing peace and prosperity to return to the Rito."

"And she earned her wings?" It was Daruk who spoke, most likely interrupting, but surprisingly Revali did not seem to mind.

"She did." He nodded. Considering the Zora Champion seated beside him, he added, "According to legend, she wore the symbol of Nayru, the goddess of wisdom."

"The symbol of Nayru?" Mipha repeated, frowning.

Revali shrugged, then gestured toward the necklace she currently wore. "My understanding is it looked something like that."

"Oh," Mipha reached up to touch the likeness. Smiling, she told the others, "We don't cross paths with the Rito as often as we once did," she admitted, "but it used to be customary to greet them as cousins."

"Oh?" Urbosa asked, turning to Revali she asked, "And do they return the gesture?"

Revali sighed. "We do still consider the Zora our...flightless...cousins," he admitted.

Urbosa snorted. "You told that as if you had practiced it," she commented idly. "Are all the Rito avid story tellers, or is that just another of your many talents?"

For a moment she thought he wouldn't answer, and that she would have to be content with what little she had gotten already. His reply, when it came, was honest and without hostility.

"Everything gets passed down orally," he said. "Our history, legends, myths, even old recipes. We grow up hearing these stories. We're expected to one day be able to pass them on. If we forget them, we lose our history, our culture. We lose ourselves."

"We commit our past to stone," Mipha offered. "There are Zora who train their whole lives to learn how to care for the tablets that carry our history."

"We use song," Daruk looked thoughtful, "passing them down from adult to child, much like the Rito. We have more important uses for stone," he added.

"Dinner," Urbosa intoned solemnly, eliciting a giggle from the Zora Princess. Daruk grinned as the Gerudo continued. "We also use primarily stone, but instead of tablets we carve our history into the very walls around us, so it is not forgotten. We do tell some of our legends to our children at night, to get them to go to bed." She grinned wolfishly at her fellow Champions. "Some of them are more pleasant that others."

Revali sniffed and stalked off to take inventory of his arrows; Urbosa figured the Rito had been sociable enough for the evening. She was frankly more than a little surprised things had gone so smoothly, though she was pretty sure they would not continue that way much longer. Revali had a knack for turning the most pleasant of evenings into an argument.


Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda Universe, Breath of the Wild in particular, does not belong to me.