"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." Impa wondered, briefly, why she even bothered trying to warn the Rito. Nothing that she had seen of him since they had first met offered any indication that he would actually listen.

Revali paused to offer her a glance that she could not quite interpret before continuing inside the small house.

They were in Karakiko Village. Their group had been offered the building, currently empty, to stay in for the duration of their visit, much to the delight of nearly everyone. If no one had thought to wonder why it was currently abandoned, Impa felt no need to explain the situation.

There had been enough space to move in two to a room: Zelda and Urbosa, Mipha and Impa, Link and Daruk. Revali had taken one look inside and insisted he'd rather sleep on the roof before anyone could suggest anything else. Frankly it was a relief not to have to worry about him and Link trying to bunk together, and it wasn't as if no one in the village ever slept outside when the weather was nice.

Impa shrugged and went about her business. Let him find out the hard way that anyone in their right mind found somewhere else to be when the Princess decided she wanted to try cooking something.


Revali scowled at the sharp, acrid odor wafting from the back room. He had not spent much time inside the building-he was not entirely comfortable with the closed in walls most other races seemed to prefer-but guessed based on the scent that the back room was, in fact, a kitchen. The fact that he could register the smell from just inside the front door was a sure sign that something was amiss.

He considered the situation for a moment before shrugging to himself and making his way to the back room.

He found Zelda there, seemingly oblivious to the mess that threatened to consume the room, staring with watery eyes at a blackened lump of...something.

The lump, he realized, was the source of the horrible odor that had drawn him back here.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and the princess jumped. Spinning around to face him, she tried vainly to hide her deformed creation behind her back even as her face flushed. She began blinking rapidly, and the Rito briefly considered throwing himself out the window before the girl actually started to cry.

But Zelda sniffed, and tried to regain her composure, taking several deep breaths before reluctantly offering the burned lump for his inspection.

"I was trying to bake a cake," she admitted reluctantly, her face still bright red and more than a little blotchy.

Revali considered the object before him. Raising an eyebrow, he could not help asking, "Do you actually know how to bake a cake?"

The girl's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I didn't think it would be this difficult."

Revali felt his eyebrows lift. "So...no cooking experience?" he guessed. The girl shook her head.

"Father thought it would be a distraction."

The Rito had lost count of the number of things the girl had admitted her father apparently thought would be a distraction from her alleged true purpose, using the goddess's powers to seal away Calamity Ganon, and marveled yet again that the child had somehow not cracked under the pressure.

Saying as much would accomplish nothing. Looking around, he asked, "Do you even have a recipe?"

Out of their entire group, the Princess seemed the least bothered by his admittedly rough manners and often short temper (Daruk did not count, the Goron never took offense at anything), rarely taking him personally and instead devoting her energy into trying to resolve whatever difference or disagreement had arisen between him and anyone else in the group. It was annoying, but he understood it, and generally tried to direct his ire away from the girl.

"I couldn't find one," she admitted sheepishly.

Revali resisted the urge to sigh. "And you couldn't ask Link to make one for you? The guy may be intolerable, but his cooking is above reproach." It was the only compliment he would ever willingly give the Hylian, but really, the man's skill with a cookpot was unmatched.

Zelda, if possible, looked even more embarrassed. "I wanted to do it myself?"

Revali did sigh this time. "Throw that out," he told her, his voice gruff. "And scour the pan. Are there any clean dishes left in the kitchen, or did you dirty them all?"

The princess gestured vaguely toward a shelf, and Revali set about clearing space to work and stacking dirty dishes in one corner where they wouldn't get in the way.

"Now. Butter and sugar." Revali directed the girl in measuring the ingredients. Taking the bowl, he started mixing. "Look, you have to make sure it's smooth. If the butter's too cold-or too hot-it doesn't work properly. Eggs?"

"Right here." Zelda hesitated. "Will it bother you? If I..." she trailed off uncomfortably, and Revali snorted.

"Long as they're not Rito eggs, I think we'll be fine," he told her. Sobering when she still looked unconvinced, he explained. "Look, we're not, we're not vegetarian, right? We eat meat. Fish, venison, wolf," the girl did not quite keep from shuddering, "and poultry. Just like the Zora eat fish and whatever else. So cucco eggs? Not a problem."

The girl did not seem entirely convinced, but added the eggs to the mixture. After that came milk and vanilla.

"And now we mix it till it's smooth again, see? You don't want any lumps in there. Get another bowl, and mix your flour, cocoa, salt, and soda ash. So why are we making a cake?"

"Oh," Zelda measured out ingredients as directed and began mixing. "It's...it's for Urbosa." She wondered briefly if he would leave-his relationship with the Gerudo woman seemed tenuous at best. Still, she had yet to see him give up on something once he had started it. "Today's her birthday," she added.

Revali continued stirring his own bowl without comment for a long moment. Looking down, Zelda realized her own ingredients were well mixed. "What now?" she asked.

The Rito set his own bowl down. "Slowly add yours to mine," he told her. "You want to continue stirring as you add the dry ingredients. When you're done the batter should be nice and-"

"Smooth?" The princess suggested innocently. Revali sniffed, but he was trying not to smile.

"We'll make a baker out of you yet," he quipped. He continued stirring as she carefully added the contents of her own bowl to his.

"Where did you learn to cook?" she asked after a moment. "Did your parents teach you?"

Revali shook his head. "I just kind of picked it up over the years. Got enough practice not to be terrible at it," he admitted. There was something distant in his tone. "Into the pan now. You greased it so it wouldn't stick, right?"

Zelda nodded and took the bowl of cake batter. Carefully she poured it into the pan.

"We can make some frosting while it bakes." Revali decided. "And then we clean up while the cake cools."

Zelda resisted the urge to groan. She had known, on some level, that if she were going to bake something she was going to have to clean up afterwards, but that didn't make the prospect any more enjoyable. Her only consolation was that at least the Rito Champion did not seem inclined to abandon her to complete the task alone.


Urbosa stood in shocked silence, staring at the baked confection before her. For the longest time she remained frozen, unable to come up with any sort of response, while her fellow Champions and the rest of their group stood around her.

Daruk snapped her out of it by slapping her heartily on the back. "Happy birthday!" He beamed at her, and she felt something loosen in her throat.

She smiled back at him, then turned to grin at the others briefly before focusing her attention on the Hylian Princess standing before her, her face flushed with accomplishment and pride.

And no wonder; it was, as far as the Gerudo knew, the girl's first successful attempt at cooking anything.

"It's beautiful," Urbosa told her, as proud as any mother might have been. "Is that chocolate?" Zelda nodded. "And you did that all on your own?"

The princess faltered. "I had some help," she admitted, and Urbosa briefly wondered if this success had not been primarily the work of a certain Hylian Champion, but then the girl's eyes drifted in the direction of the Rito standing beside her.

Urbosa lifted an eyebrow at him, and Revali huffed.

"I helped clean up afterward," he grumbled. "I've never seen anyone make such a mess in the kitchen.

Zelda started to protest, suggesting that he had most likely been more involved than he claimed, but the Rito elbowed her rudely, nearly causing the princess to loose her balance. "Learn to take a complement," he told her, ignoring a glare from the girl's bodyguard. "You wanted to make a cake, the woman likes it. Mission accomplished. Now, are you people just going to stare at it all night, or are you going to cut it up and serve it?"


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