The girl who had shown them to their rooms arrived shortly after most of their group had found seating in the dining room. "I hope everything was satisfactory," she greeted them, receiving polite nods as she looked around the table. "Can I get you started on dinner, or would you prefer to wait?"

Urbosa looked around to confirm that Revali was the only one missing. "Perhaps we should wait," she suggested, though in all honesty there was no knowing how long the Rito would be. It was possible he was still upstairs. Equally likely he had wandered off somewhere. Sometimes it was difficult to tell.

Daruk shook his head and smiled at the girl. "They should probably go ahead and eat," he told her.

The girl looked him over briefly before reddening. "Gorons eat rocks, don't they?" she sounded incredibly self-conscious. "I'm so sorry-I didn't think-"

"Don't worry about it!" The Goron assured her. "I just came down for the company. I've already eaten." He flashed her another over-sized grin, which she nervously returned before turning to the others.

"We have fresh bread, stew, honey-glazed ham, and roasted apples as the evening's specialty," the girl offered.

"Sounds wonderful," Zelda breathed. The rest of the table promptly agreed, and the girl scurried back to the kitchen to relay their orders.

"So why aren't we waiting for Revali?" Urbosa asked as she tried to settle into a chair made for a somewhat smaller person. Nearer Central Hyrule most inns, shops, and other buildings took into account the fact that potential customers might be taller and larger than Hylian standard. Here, no such thought seemed to have been given in the construction of the furniture.

"He was still preening when I left." Daruk admitted. "I asked him if he wanted you to wait for him, and he laughed at me. He said it would likely be hours before his feathers finished drying." The Goron looked thoughtful. "He also muttered something about redoing his braids, but when I tried to ask he waved me off."

Dinner, when it came, was delicious, and the group took their time, savoring every bite. It was nice to sit at an actual table, in actual chairs, and eat inside, without having to worry about where they would sleep that night or what the weather would be like or even whether any monsters might show up. They took their time, lingering over each course, and feeling more relaxed than any of them had in a while.

"So what's your name, little one?" Urbosa asked the girl who had been serving them. Though she still seemed slightly self-conscious around them, she did not seem to share the innkeeper's dislike for non-Hylian races, and in fact seemed to be trying her best to accommodate everyone.

The girl managed a shy smile-she found the tall, heavily muscled woman much more intimidating than even the boulder-shaped Goron. "Roshea," she answered, offering a stiff curtsy.

"Roshea," Urbosa repeated. "And how did you come to work here, Roshea?"

The girl blushed. "My father owns the inn. I'm sorry for the way he treated all of you earlier. When I take over all races from all over Hyrule will be welcome here."

"Very good," the Gerudo nodded approvingly. "Dinner was excellent, by the way. Please send our compliments to the cook."

"My mother will be most pleased." The girl curtsied once more. Suddenly thoughtful, she considered the much taller woman before her. "Should I have food sent up to your other companion, or would he prefer not to be interrupted? I could also have food set back for him. All he would have to do is come down and ask for it in the kitchen."

"That would do nicely, I think." Urbosa told her, warmed by the girl's thoughtfulness. At least the innkeeper had not passed his dislike for other races on to his daughter. "I'll let him know, when we head back upstairs."


Urbosa followed Daruk back upstairs some hours later; the two had stayed at the table long after the others had finished and retired to their rooms for the night, talking some, but mostly enjoying the chance to relax without worrying about their much younger companions getting into trouble.

Daruk knocked on the door to the room he was sharing with Revali and entered. "We missed you at dinner!" Urbosa called from the doorway, figuring it was only fair to warn him that she was there as well.

"Unlikely," came the snide reply as the woman entered to find him seated cross-legged on one of the beds, a small wooden bowl filled with odd trinkets settled before him, his hands reaching behind him as he deftly braided an impossibly tight strand of what appeared to be a mixture of feathers, leather cord, and strips of cloth. Every now and then he would remove a trinket from the bowl and add it to the braid.

He had nearly half a dozen braids already completed; clearly he had been at this a while.

"Am I interrupting?" she asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Only if you want me to do something," Revali retorted. "I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"I see. How long does that take?" she asked, curious.

"Hours."

"I take it you finally got your feathers dry."

"It's a process." Revali grumbled. "It's hard to keep clean, traveling the way we have been. You wanted to know why I was constantly preening myself? I believe you compared me to a love-struck teenager?"

Urbosa remembered. "You can't just take advantage of the nearest stream, can you?" she asked.

"No."

"So are those all trophies?" she asked, watching as he pulled out what looked like a piece of bone and added it to the braid he was currently working on. "From past battles?"

"Some," Revali confirmed. "Others are mementos. The arrowhead is from the first archery competition I ever took part in. That is supposed to be actual dragon bone, taken from Dragonbone Mire during one of my first solo flights outside of the village. This is a piece of antler from my first successful hunt."

"What about that?" Urbosa pointed to the tiny stone, wrapped in wire. It looked to be some sort of opal, or part of one.

"It's pretty," Revali told her, and while there was amusement glinting in his eyes, he was perfectly serious.

She turned to study the braids he had already completed. Tightly woven strands of blue and gold were occasionally interspersed with pieces of bone, tooth, and other tokens the Rito had collected over the years. "Blue feathers?" she guessed. Revali grunted confirmation. "What's the gold for?"

"It's just strips of cloth."

"So decorative? No special meaning?"

"Not really."

"They do this for tourists, don't they? In Rito Village?" Urbosa vaguely remembered Zelda trying to decided whether to have the Rito at the inn braid her hair, and Impa talking her out of it.

"Not like this." Revali finished his current braid and started another. "This takes several hours. Most tourists don't want to sit that long to have them done, and they would need help taking them back out-which also takes hours. These are meant to last for a couple of months at the least. Most tourists would be back home and tired of them by then. It still takes an hour or two, depending on the amount of hair involved."

Urbosa squinted at her own hair thoughtfully. "How long would it take to do mine?" she asked. "Just as a point of reference."

"I am not braiding your hair. We would still be here well into tomorrow."

"I wasn't asking."

"Oh."

They both fell silent as Revali continued working on his braids. The room was empty; Daruk had at some point wandered off. Urbosa wondered briefly if she should leave.

"I could do one braid." The Rito finally broke the silence. "Just as a point of reference."

Urbosa looked up. "Only if you want to."

Daruk returned to the room he shared with Revali just as the Rito finished Urbosa's braid. The tiny, neat braid began at her temple and worked its way back until it joined her ponytail, the braid continuing to hang down her back with the rest of her hair. Woven into the braid were bits of blue feather, sometimes seeming to hang loose, sometimes seeming to form stripes of blue that intertwined with her own natural red hair. The affect was, both Goron and Gerudo had to admit, striking.

"You know Zelda will want you to do hers next," Daruk pointed out mildly, and the Rito groaned.


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