Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda or any of its characters.
Splash!
The water was warm on this spring day in Lord Jabu-Jabu's pond behind Zora's Domain. Link and the Zora princess, Ruto, were in the pool, enjoying the peace following Ganondorf's reign over Hyrule.
Link swam back to the platform and sat down, cross-legged on it. He shook his blond hair to get the water out of it.
This was the nicest day the boy had seen since his days with the Kokiri children and the Great Deku Tree, before he'd had to start his seven year long quest. It was strange for him, not having to worry about monsters taking over the land of Hyrule and what evil Ganondorf would inflict on his friends. This was a carefree age, and while he'd had to grow up quickly, the ten-year-old boy inside of him emerged unscathed when the adventure was over.
"Hey Ruto," he said as he gazed at the big fish he'd once been eaten by and expelled by once the monster inside had been killed. Link had met the fish girl, Ruto, inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly seven years ago… or was it only a few months? Link always got confused by the time travel thing…
The fish girl surfaced near the platform and looked at her friend, "Yes?"
Link always had to suppress a weird look when he saw Ruto. She was certainly nicer looking than King Zora and many of the other Zoras, but she was still a fish girl. Link was Hylian and human… He could never understand how she could have a crush on him. She had given him what she'd called the "Zora's engagement ring" and at the time, Link hadn't known what that meant, but Navi had eventually explained it to him and "as any ten-year-old boy would be) he was pretty freaked out once he understood what that meant.
"Lord Jabu-Jabu is pretty big, eh?" He observed while the previous thoughts passed through his head.
Ruto gave him a weird look, "Yeah… I suppose…" she was used to his random comments and didn't get offended by the word he'd chosen to describe the Zora's god.
When Link realized that Ruto wasn't following what he was saying he added on, "I mean… he's REALLY big and he's in this tiny little pond. There's no river feeding it so how did he get here? Was he planted here? "
"LINK!" Ruto yelled, her temper flaring.
"Gah!" Link yelled in surprise and fell on his back from the force of her temper.
Her blue eyes flashed a deep crimson in her rage and Link drew his sword and shield to defend himself with but she never actually attacked him, "How could you be so disrespectful to our guardian god, Lord Jabu-Jabu!" She yelled.
"I… um… but…" Link stammered, holding his shield up to defend himself from Ruto's wrath. Finally, he managed to get a sentence out, "It was just a question!"
That seemed to calm Ruto down, somewhat. "Well… I guess you don't know any better… your father being a tree and all… I'll tell you, though. It's the most famous and important of all Zora legends!"
Man! Does she ever get mood swings! Link thought, as he nodded and sat quietly, ready to hear the story.
"Many centuries ago, three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule." The girl began. Link suppressed a sigh as he realized that this was going to be another boring story about how the world was created. Goddesses this, Triforce that… He'd heard it enough times already, but he listened politely. "Din, with her flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru, pouring her wisdom into the earth gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, with her rich soul, created all life forms, which would uphold the law.
"One such life form was our guardian god, Lord Jabu-Jabu. The goddesses created Lake Hylia for him and he lived there for many, many years, defending the lake from evil and creating the Water Temple at the bottom of the lake. Once the temple was built, Hylians began going to the lake and since Lord Jabu-Jabu is hard to miss, they decided to try to catch him.
"Of course, Lord Jabu-Jabu could not allow this to happen, so… LINK!"
"Huh! What?" Link said, sitting up quickly.
Ruto glared at him, "I thought you wanted to hear my story?"
"Umm…" He said, scratching the back of his head, "Your story is kind of boring…"
Her jaw dropped, "I can't believe how rude you are sometimes, Link! You wanted to know so I tell you the story and you tell me it's boring? I should just stop now and let you wonder. Maybe then you would appreciate what I have to say!" She turned around, crossed her arms and pouted.
Link rolled his eyes. "Well… I want to know… I just want to get to the action part, is all." He paused but when it was obvious she wasn't going to say anything he added, "I mean, when is the hero going to come out of no where and slay the evil monsters with his sword? That's the cool part!"
"You're so vain!" Ruto said over her shoulder.
"What's that mean?" Link asked, confused.
He could hear her sigh then turn around shaking her head. "Fine, I'll tell you the rest but you've got to promise you'll listen!"
"You never told me – ok fine…" He said, giving up on trying to find out what 'vain' meant.
Ruto cleared her throat and continued, "So the people tried to fish for Lord Jabu-Jabu but he couldn't allow that to happen so one night, he blessed one of the strongest fish in the lake and in the morning, he became the first Zora. His name was Mikau. The first of Mikau's tasks was to find a new place to bring Lord Jabu-Jabu where he would be safe from the Hylians who wanted to catch him.
"Mikau traveled up the river, but didn't get very far before he was confronted by a massive waterfall. There was no way he could bring Lord Jabu-Jabu over that waterfall, so he had to turn back and go over land. It wasn't long before he discovered that he would quickly die if he stayed out of water for a good length of time so he had to travel fast.
"The first day of his traveling was very bad. He got nearly a quarter of the way across Hyrule Field, then night fell and Mikau was forced to take shelter against the cold night and he still hadn't found any water. The King of Hyrule happened to be out that night, coming back from a diplomatic visit with the desert people when he came across Mikau and brought him to the castle. The King revived Mikau and in the morning, he agreed to help Mikau find a place for Lord Jabu-Jabu and also sent some guards to protect Lord Jabu-Jabu while they searched.
"The next day, Mikau was able to follow the river from the castle all the way up to a massive cavern with water flowing inside of it. He traveled up the natural pathways in it and was eventually led out of the caverns to a secluded pool: Lord Jabu-Jabu's pool!
"With his first task accomplished, Mikau had to then find a way to transport Lord Jabu-Jabu to the pool. He agreed to meet the King at Lake Hylia in two day's time and he swam down the river back to the lake and Lord Jabu-Jabu. It wound around the castle and before Lake Hylia was the waterfall he couldn't get up but he shot over it and down the rest of the river and into the lake. There, he awaited the King and spent the rest of that day trying to come up with a way to bring Lord Jabu-Jabu to the pool without him drying up.
"At night, he prayed to the goddesses to help him and in the morning, Lord Jabu-Jabu was wearing some strange garments. When the King arrived, they constructed a device to carry Lord Jabu-Jabu on, while a horse pulled him to the river. They thought they'd have to move quickly but when they brought him out of the water, they discovered that he was covered with a protective layer of water so that he would not dry up. The magic was coming from the garments he wore."
Link held up his hands, "Hold on! If the goddesses could grant Lord Jabu-Jabu some magical garments that kept him wet, why couldn't they just make him a new place to live and save everyone all this trouble?"
Ruto rolled her eyes, "Link! Do you have to question everything?" The truth was that she didn't actually know the answer… but she'd never admit that to Link.
"Because it's what I do." He replied impishly.
She glared at him as her only reply to that comment then continued with her story. "Anyways, so they brought him all the way up to the cavern and through the cavern to the pool and that became his home. As a reward for helping him, he created more Zoras and they lived in the cavern by his pool, which Mikau named Zora's Domain. Mikau became the first King Zora and he and the King of Hyrule became allies and good friends. That friendship has lasted to this day through both their children and their children's children and so on."
As she finished her story, Link gazed at Lord Jabu-Jabu thoughtfully. Ruto raised gave him an inquiring look, and finally the boy spoke, "I still think it would have been better with some fighting."
Ruto tensed with frustration, "You're hopeless!"
Link blinked at her in confusion.
"Whatever!" She said, rolling her eyes, "Let's go." She swam back to shore and walked back into the cavern. Link stood up and followed her deciding it would be easier not to ask what she was upset about.
As he walked through the cave and away from the pool, Lord Jabu-Jabu got an amused look in his eyes. As to what he was so amused about, only he would ever know.