Zelda's POV:

We trudged on towards Zora's Domain, making our way past the Dueling Peaks mountains, Link remains on guard. Looking out for any monsters hiding in the shadows. As much as I'd like to enjoy the scenery, I must stay on guard as well, after all, who's looking after Link? There are many more monsters since the influence of the Calamity, it will take time to rid Hyrule of these many pests that have taken up space here. There seems to be many small groups of bokoblins that have made a camp for themselves by the nearby river. Link quickly takes note of them and looks back to me,

"Wait here," he holds out his hand attempting to stop me, I roll my eyes at him, here we go again.

"Link, I can help,"

"Not this time, I don't want to risk it," he says quietly,

I scoff, I nearly saved his skin the other day, before I begin to protest he points at something sitting nearby the bokoblins, looks like a red barrel. He pulls out a different looking arrow, it's got a red flame looking tip than a normal arrow. A low heat radiates off it and he draws the arrow back so gracefully, as if it's completely natural for him.

Taking a moment to aim, a small breeze comes blowing, he quietly exhales and releases the arrow and a flame bursts as he shoots.

The flame travels in the air unwavered and lands directly in the red barrel, immediately followed is a blinding explosion.

Link immediately places himself between me and any fallout that could come our way. I see the bokoblins engulfed in fire as they jump around, trying to extinguish the flames on themselves to no avail, their swine-like screeches in agony briefly bring me back to my imprisonment...Calamity Ganon's ear piercing screech still haunts me after his death.

I hold my hands against my ears, trying to block out their voices. Link remains close by, patiently waiting for them to make their next move, until one by one they go silent and fall over limp, the flames leaving their charred bodies behind. Link walks towards the camp to make sure there are no others hiding, and glances over the corpses ensuring their demise. He picks up some remaining monster parts and searches in nearby crates for any other loot. I carefully tug on the edge of his Hylian tunic in slight shock.

Feeling slightly troubled by those haunting screeches, when I look down at one of the bokoblins, seeing its lifeless eyes looking back to me. I can't help but shiver,

"What a horrid sight…" clutching onto Link's tunic.

I hate that such simple monsters can bring me such fear…how long will the Calamity haunt me? Link looks back to me in concern.

"Is everything alright?" he places a hand on my shoulder, his touch brings me back to reality. I shake my head and let go of Link,

"Y-Yes, just remembering something…unpleasant, " looking back at the bokoblin. Link takes note of my uneasiness, and has a guilty look on his face.

"Sorry, I'll give you a warning next time,"

"N-No! It's fine, really, I need to learn to get used to things, I-I'm just overreacting…" he scratches his head nervously, it's quite a charming quirk of his that brings me such peace.

"I don't think you are…" He looks back and continues to search around for any remaining loot nearby.

"Monster hunting is unpredictable, you never know what can happen, getting ambushed is always a high possibility," he warned, while picking up remaining produce that sat around.

"If you ever want to turn back just say the word," he says sincerely, staring back at me with his ocean eyes.

"Thank you Link, but…as long as you're out here, then I'm not going anywhere,"

I have to be strong…I can't let everything hold me back to restoring Hyrule…if I falter at a mere sound…then what good will I be able to do? I just see Link looking at me with a small smile on his face, but he holds back his worry behind his grin.

He takes out the Sheikah slate and begins to register all the items he's picked up and one by one, all the items start to morph into tiny blue strands, disappearing from thin air. This is the first time I've ever seen him use the Sheikah slates storage register capabilities, I'm in complete awe.

"I see what you mean about the storage mechanics, it's incredible!" I say excitedly. A small chuckle escapes him and I look over to him with a small smirk.

"Did I say something funny?" I jab, he tries to shake away his laughter, "No, no, nothing, just your reaction is all," he says, I feel my cheeks go warm slightly, he hands the slate over to me,

"You wanna give it a try?" I nod my head eagerly. He points to the remaining items he has piled nearby,

"The camera does most of the work; just point it at the items and tap each one," he instructs.

The screen has a mushroom and some monster parts near it, I slowly bring my finger to the screen hesitantly. Looking over to him with a scowl, trying to see if he is possibly playing a prank on me. He looks nervous and slowly backs his head away from me, I look back and begin tapping all the items, and sure enough, the items begin to disappear.

"W-Wow! Where do you think they go?" I ask, turning back to Link, he shrugs his shoulders still smiling,

"Obviously inside the slate, duh," he jokes, I ignore his uneducated guess,

"It must be a small pocket dimension…" I theorize as we begin walking back to the horses. I look at the map on the slate and see where we are pinned on the map,

"We're still a ways away from Zora's Domain…" I say out loud, Links over my shoulder, noting our location,

"We still have plenty of daylight left, don't worry," he said calmly. "Besides, no rush…right?"

"S-Still! The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can—" Link looks over to me and tilts his head in confusion,

"'We can…' what?" offering his assistance to help me up, I gladly take his hand and hoist myself up and he quickly jumps on his. With little instruction, our steeds begin to slowly trot,

"We can recover more of your memories…i-if you remembered something not with the help of the Sheikah slate…then, then there must be more right…? Sometimes memories can be triggered by experiencing something that makes you feel similar of said memory, like deja vu almost,"

It's clear to me he doesn't remember everything that's happened between us…he's merely scratched the surface.

I shouldn't tell him…he seems happier than before…I don't want to be any more of a burden to him than I already am.

Whatever happens, happens.

And I must accept that.

He looks over to me with his jaw dropped, followed by a huge grin forming on his face.

"You'd really help me with that?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I help you?"

"Well then…what're we waiting for?"

Clicking his heels, Epona gallops away, within mere seconds, he is already meters ahead of me. I look at him ahead in awe, the speed, discipline, and bond of his horse is incredible, his control. He slows down and looks back to me, waving me on,

"Last one to the Domain cooks dinner!" he laughs maliciously. Epona neighs excitedly, rising up on two legs as if she's waiting on me too…

Is he…challenging me?

I'm not the best rider, and the idea of galloping for such a long time with this little one…I'm quite nervous, it's like she's reading my mind, because she lets out a huffy snort and stomps its front leg impatiently.

"J-Just so you know…I'm not the best at this," whispering to her, and click my heels, and we quickly begin closing the distance between me and Link.

He has an excited look on his face and quickly has Epona turn around and take off, thwarting any kind of progress I had made. Even so, the feeling of the wind rushing through my hair, going this fast…it's invigorating!

Link remains ahead of me, smiling to himself, every now and then, looking back to me, checking on me. He jokingly sticks his tongue out at me, taunting me. My face scrunches up and I click my heels once again, tightening my thighs around the saddle,

"C'mon Little One! We're not going to let them beat us!" She neighs back to me, in what I can only hope is agreement.

Surely enough, she picks up her speed just slightly. I determine Epona is currently at a resting pace because they have both slowed ever so slightly, enough for us to come charging closer to them, catching Link by surprise.

I meet up with him and then tauntingly stick my tongue out at him in retaliation, and quickly race off. I pet Little One's mane as she pushes herself to the limit. Perhaps I'm not such a bad rider after all…

"We're going to win this!"

My small moment of victory is quickly taken as I take notice of another horseback traveler that suddenly appeared, and every positive I had of myself being a decent rider were dashed in a second.

Shoot.

How do I slow down?

The other horse, rightfully so, becomes frightened by our speed and afraid of our impending impact. The rider quickly pulls his horse away.

I try slowing my steed down, but she's going too fast. My sudden nervousness rubs off on her and stops abruptly, rearing me off, launching me clean off her saddle.

I crash down on the dirt road, rolling away a couple feet, getting covered in mud, getting scraped up by the loose gravel, eventually landing on my back, taking the breath right out of me. I hear my horses disgruntled neighing, and Link's voice from behind with Epona's steps quickly approaching me.

"Zelda!" he shouts, jumping off Epona as soon as he gets close enough and runs over to me. Holding my temporarily limp body in his arms, as I try to get my breath back. He looks at the rider who is still focused on his now calmed down steed, and then looks down to us,

"Everything okay?" he asks, Link doesn't say anything and looks at him suspiciously.

I nod my head slowly, "Y-Yes, my apologies for that sir…" he looks over to me and bursts out in laughter,

"Haha! Nothing to worry your pretty little head about lady, it's easy to get lost in the moment when you feel wind rushing behind you, just remember to slow down every once in a while," he says sympathetically.

He stares at me and Link for a moment and then starts to trot off in the direction where we were coming from, he waves off with some parting words.

"There's a lake past the next bridge, you should go there and get cleaned up, ya'll take care now,"

I look down and see my whole traveling outfit is dirtied with mud all over, I look over to Link who's now covered in mud where he was holding me.

"W-What's the next bridge?" asking him carefully. Link looks so serious watching the lone traveler become more and more distant, he looks over to me changing his expression and chuckles slightly, picking me up slowly,

"Can you stand?"

"Yes, no broken bones as far as I can tell," patting myself all over. I walk over to my white steed petting it softly. "I'm sorry Little One, I got a little carried away there…" I hear it huff as I lean my head against its mane.

"The Owlan bridge is just up ahead, over there is Batrea lake, we can find some privacy for you, get you cleaned up,"

"And what about you?" I ask, he looks down at himself, "I guess that means me too," he laughs softly. We waste no time mounting our steeds and making our way to the upcoming bridge.

"It's incredible that people still make the journey to travel in such a dangerous time…"

"It's rare, but people are still curious as ever," Link boasts, his expression soon changes after a moment, like he's thinking back on something…

"Most people travel in groups, very rarely do you ever see anyone traveling alone like that,"

"Then you and that man back there have something in common,"

He looks over to me with a smirk on his face, "And what would that be?"

"Being reckless of course,"

"Har har,"

Up ahead there's a fortress of trees and a small sparkling glint, shining through the thick leaves. According to the Sheikah slate, there should be a body of water just ahead, no doubt this is the lake that traveler and Link were talking about.

Quickly upping the pace with my steed and I could've sworn I heard Link whisper something to himself behind me…

"...would be reckless for them…"

I want to turn around and ask him what that was but before I can, my horse once again, just stops abruptly in its tracks making me lose balance and I fall off once again. This time Link sounds more relaxed and I even hear him laughing a little bit.

"You two are getting along nicely," he climbs down from Epona and comes walking towards me as I pick myself back up.

"Perhaps we need to spend more time together," I admit, the horse snorts through its nose and quickly looks away from me.

"What is with you huh?!" I scold her, she looks away pouting and stomps its hooves sassily. "Listen here, if we're going to be riding together, we might as well try to get along?"

Link begins to chuckle softly, trying to mask his laughter by muffling it with his hand over his mouth.

"Maybe she's upset she didn't win that race," he says, beginning to pet the pouty horse's face and of course, it begins swooning over his touch.

"Are you trying to make me jealous?" placing my hands on my waist in a powerful stance. He grabs the reins hanging on the bridle and he looks over to me,

"Maybe," he had such a cheeky smile. "Go ahead, this areas a good place to bathe, I'll put the horses up and keep watch,"

"Oh…you're not joining me?" I tease, he quickly turns away embarrassed, "C-Call me if you need me!" he storms off,

"No peeking!" I burst out into laughter seeing him walk away all frazzled.

Looking back to the sparkling lake before me, I take in a deep breath of the fresh air all around me, the wind is blowing through the trees softly, so much wildlife is around, but thankfully no one else.

I look behind me one more time, mainly looking for Link, not that I think he would be peeking through the bushes despite my teasing. But I would feel safer knowing he's nearby.

I…probably wouldn't mind if he joined me either…

W-WHAT?!

Get those lewd thoughts out of your head Zelda!

I don't see him, shrugging my shoulders and nervously start taking off my clothes, starting off with my muddied boots, shimmying my pants down, I take off my bow and set it near my bag, and start undoing my top, and before I pick it up, I hear the wind harshly blowing once again, shuffling the leaves in the trees and the nearby bushes, making me nearly jump in fright.

Don't be scared…you've bathed in the wild before Zelda…you can do this…

The wind is so strong…

I feel so…uneasy…

I bite the bullet and quickly take off my top, now all I'm wearing are just my undergarments. I take a deep breath and exhale quietly, I listen around one more time…

It's quiet…

I quickly undo my garments and I jump bare into the lake, wanting to cover myself as fast as possible. The water is lukewarm, but it feels so nice against my skin. I start scrubbing the now slightly dried mud off myself and continue to listen out for anything irregular.

I look around once again, making sure there's nothing around, I hold my breath and dunk my head in the water, canceling the whole world around me out.

You're worrying about nothing Zelda, there's nothing out there…

Trying to shake away my nervousness, and bringing my head back up to the surface and begin splashing water in my face, washing away all dirt patches on my skin. Just from being here for a few moments, I already feel so much cleaner, letting my body relax, the scent of the flowers in and around the lake begin to become overpowering. Letting my body float in the water momentarily, I feel weightless as I sit, letting my hair soak. Beginning to comb through my hair with my damp fingers.

"This feels nice…"

Letting the sound of water droplets falling into the lake quietly, rippling across the lake,

I wonder who Link has in mind for the new pilot for Vah Ruta..

I'm interested to see the relationships he's formed since he's awoken. He seems well acquainted with everyone we come across so far. It's a far cry from the man I knew from back then but…it's so lovely…seeing him smile more often. I can't help but giggle to myself, thinking of his cheeky face.

Has he always been like that? Perhaps the memory loss has made him have a different outlook on life…or an attitude change…

I wonder…if he still feels—

Wait…there's a quiet rustling sound, before I can turn around and see what it is, I feel a sharp curved edge less than a centimeter to my throat.

"Having a nice bath are we…Princess?" a maniacal voice laughs.

"W-What is thi–?"

"Shh…shh…" He presses a finger against my lips, "Soon…you'll be bathing in your own blood…"

My eyes begin to scan my area looking for my bow, I try to run away and reach for it once I find it, but I feel a tug on my hair keeping me in place,

"Ah ah ah! Sorry, but you're not going anywhere…" pulling my head back, I begin to scream out, splashing the water in the lake, trying to make some noise,

"HE-HELP—" and a mouth covers my mouth,

"Don't you even think about calling for your little knight either…you wouldn't want him to see you like this would you?" He laughs maniacally, removing his hand to pull back on my hair again to hold me closer to his weapon, gesturing to my whole nude body with his weapon, sliding it up my stomach, the blade barely grazing my body, it's so sharp, I can feel a small slit form from the blade as he brings the sickle up to my neck once again, pressing it closer and closer, I feel the metal start sinking in the skin.

"L-Link!" I cry out, I don't know what else to do, I feel tears in my eyes, as this perpetrator holds me hostage, threatening my life. I can't move without him surely slicing my own throat,

"Killing someone from behind…you're such a coward…" the assailant becomes angered by my name calling and gripping my arm and sinks his nails in and turns me around aggressively.

"We Yiga…are no cowards…" he says menacingly, finally, at least I will get to see my killer face to face.

A tall lanky male figured Yiga clan footsoldier wearing their notable reversed eye mask. He holds me in such a tight grip, his nails feeling like glass. I have no chance of escaping, I'm ashamed that he's seeing me…like…this…

I can hear him chuckling and he leans in close to me,

"Maybe you should have slowed down Princess…"

"That was you…"

This was a trap all along…

How long had he been following us…?

I look up to see him raising his arm with his sickle about to cut me down.

No…

Not like this…

Link…I-I'm sorry…

"HYAHH!"

I feel my body get pushed down back into the water, hearing a struggle going on. I look up to see the foot soldier on his knees with Link pointing the Master Sword to his chest, Link's normally calm blue eyes are raging like a storm now.

He kicks the traitorous Yiga in the face with god-like strength as soon as he turns his head towards me, flinging him to the closest tree, the footsoldier barely gets to his knees and holds his hands in formation.

"I'll be back…don't think this is over…" he says coldly,

"Not if I can help it!"

Link charges, jumping at him trying to strike him down in his rage, but he disappears before his attack can land, his maniacal laugh fading away in the wind.

"L-Link!"

I stand up, quickly covering the front of my body with my arms folded over, the Yiga are tricky enemies, I look around checking to see if he may have hidden close by. Then turn towards Link, worried for his safety…

"Zelda!" he shouts back in a panic, turning around looking back at me.

Thank the Goddesses…it looks like he's not injured…

He looks up and down at me when his face turns a deep red, as if he's just registered what he's seeing, and covers his eyes, turning around quickly.

What's wrong with hi—

Oh…

I look down, realizing I'm standing bare in front of him,

"A-AHH!" I scream as I drop as low as I can back into the water, and hold my head in my hands in pure embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry—I didn't mean to—"

"I-It's fine…c-could you please get my clothes?" I asked nervously, pointing to my bag with the rest of my spare clothes, bad enough he saw me nude, but I didn't think this through enough to keep my spare clothes nearby. I hear his soft footsteps, going near my bag and placing it gently next to the lake.

"Th-thank you…"

"You're welcome…" he says as his back is turned,

I get out of the lake, the sound of the water dripping down from my body is enough for him to tense up, I grab my clothes and begin to dry off quickly, and shuffling into my new clothes, just an ordinary Hylian tunic Link had a spare of, and some normal looking trousers. Link's ears are twitching and are burnt red,

"A-Are you…okay?" he finally asks.

"Thanks to you…y-yes…" he exhales deeply,

"I heard you struggling, but I never would have thought it was the Yiga, if I had gotten to you a second later…you would be—"

I embrace him from behind, holding him close, shocking him so much that he pauses what he was saying.

"You saved me…" is all I manage to whisper,

"If I hadn't been here…" I squeeze his torso tightly from behind,

"But you were…"

Letting him go, stepping into his view, he looks at me with guilt written all over his face. He places so much guilt on himself over something he can't help…he steps forward and pulls me in for an embrace.

"Link! Y-You'll get wet—"

"I don't care…I…I'm just glad you're okay…I'm not gonna let anything happen to you,"

I nod my head into his chest, he places his hand on my head, I hear his heart beating so fast. He feels so warm…

"Guess this means you'll have to bathe with me next time," I stutter, trying to tease him, hopefully to make him feel better.

"W-What?"

I push away lightly, "Never mind! Forget I said it,"

What am I doing? What am I saying? I just nearly got killed, and the person I have INCREDIBLY deep, passionate feelings for, saw me completely nude right after. How am I supposed to even process that? This is maddening! When I look at Link, I immediately go back to that moment and I quickly look away with my cheeks burning.

There's so many questions I should be asking right now, and one of them is inappropriately being…

What did he think of me…?

For Goddesses sake Zelda!

Now's not the time to be thinking about such…things.

I cleared my throat, and unknowingly created a distance between us, while hiding my face from Link. I need to change the subject…fast.

"H-He followed us here…"

"I know," he said coldly, his unusual tone makes me look back to see him, his face is stoic, reminds me how he used to be…

"How do you know?" I ask, did he hear what he said to me? He looks down, contemplating what he was going to say,

"How can I say…he appeared…out of nowhere,"

"Yes I suppose, but I was being reckless,"

"Even so, he didn't seem so…surprised to see you, almost like he was expecting it," shivering at the memory of the encounter now, I was face to face with a murderer…twice in one day.

"They hide in plain sight so well now…"

He pulls out the Sheikah slate, "We should get going, we'll get proper baths and wash your clothes when we get to the Domain, we still have the Wetlands to get across, then we'll nearly be there,"

I look out to the horizon, it's still early in the afternoon, hopefully we can make some progress…this attack was…unexpected to say the least. Link walks ahead, then waits on me to catch up with him. I can see his uneasiness through his body language and quickly loads up our few items on the horses and hoists me up on my steed.

Link takes out two root looking items from the Sheikah slate and feeds one of each to Little One and Epona, they don't hesitate to eat whatever treat they are given. Once they both eat it, they both neigh in joy, excitedly prancing their hoofs about.

"What did you just give them?" I asked, Link looks over to me as he lets himself onto Epona,

"Endura carrot, it'll give them an extra boost, really nice treat for them," he answered.

"Hyah!" commanding both horses to press onward, without me even needing to do anything with mine, I quickly tighten my grip to the reins praying I don't fall off. The wind once again blows through my now wet hair. I want to scold Link, giving me zero warning, but when I catch a glimpse of his face, he looks so cold and distant. Laser focused on getting us to our destination.

Now that the Yiga knows where I am…what happens now?

What has become of them since I've been imprisoned?

They still use such dirty tactics, we have to find a way to stop them at the source…what should we do?

Whatever we do, I have to be better prepared next time. I was so helpless, I couldn't do anything.

The horses are being pushed so hard, putting in their all, crossing a long bridge, galloping on the paved road ahead, we appear to be heading towards the path that leads towards an overly grassy, tree filled area, the pathway begins getting thinner and more bare as we continue on. We continue onwards, I begin to hear splashing noises coming from each step the horses are taking as we go off the path, it looks to me like we're near a sandbar. Passing through the last bit of trees, they reveal to us a wetland wasteland.

There's shallow water all around us and the destroyed remains of an old village, burnt houses and old wells withered by the winds of time. Moss begins to grow over everything around I see as we continue going more inland to this…unsettling sight.

I look around and try to piece together what may have happened. It doesn't look like this village got flooded, there's damage to the roofs…and holes in the center of homes…the edges look charred unlike the rest of the wood, the texture of the wood on the inside where the damage is, it's smooth as well…like it was burned.

"W-Where are we?" I ask horrified,

Link hasn't said a word since we've taken off, he's been scanning the whole area for anything unusual. He pulls out his bow and quickly shoots an arrow at…something? At first it looks like the arrow is floating in the air until an angered Lizalfos stomps its legs and looks around dazed on where its attacker could be. He shoots again effortlessly, finishing it off. He looks over to me and says in a stale voice,

"We're at the remains of Gopongo Village,"