Chapter 17: Balance

Snow twisted around the cabin as the train clambered up the mountain side, as if trapping the two inside, the winds fierce howl burying the engines chug. Ahead of the train, Link caught flashes of track that seemed to snake around the mountains edge. Pulling his hands from his shivering arms, Link tugged at the drive shaft, slowing the train around the perilous corners in exchange for letting the icy needles stab into his arms once again. As the cold crawled up his back, he shot a glance at his companion. Here he was dressed in enough layers to bury a Moink and could still feel the freezing in his toes, while the princess - much to his annoyance - had simply thrown a plain white coat over her usual outfit, yet seemed perfectly happy leaning against the cabins railing instead of enjoying the insulated carriage he longed for. She seemed to notice his look as her voice rang around the cabin.

"What's wrong?"

"You're crazy, choosing to stay out here," he said, noting her eye roll, "I mean it, how are you not cold?"

"I suppose I'm just tougher than you are." She said teasingly, stumbling from her perch as the train rocked beneath their feet, tentatively making her way to his side. The train thunked into a dip in the rails and Zelda's hand shot to his shoulder for support. Steadying herself, she kept a firm grip on him as she continued, "besides I don't want to be in a stuffy carriage, it's much more fun up here."

He feigned a gasp, hands shifting controls by memory alone as he spoke, "I can't believe you'd insult my carriages like that, and to think I fixed them up for you too."

"That's sweet of you," she shot him a wink, "although if you've put all that effort in I may just take you up on that offer." As she finished speaking the train shook and Zelda stumbled, the train's motion pushing her around like a dog battering its ball.

It would be a lie to say he tried to stifle his laughter. "See, you upset her – she might throw you off next time."

She tugged on his shoulder, pulling herself upright, other hand flying to the cabin's wall in an effort to find some semblance of support. Taking a moment to make sure no other surprises threw her off she spoke. "And yet I don't believe you'd let that happen."

"I don't know; you can be really mean sometimes; I may just get fed up of you." He said, elbowing her side.

Zelda, proving her jackets lacklustre protection, squirmed at his touch, giving him a light smack in response. "And yet you still asked me to come along, I must be doing something right."

The train shifted beneath them, a corner was coming. He absentmindedly pulled on a leaver and the engine slowed.

It was then, with the engine's noise reduced to a smooth chug, that the lack of wind whistling around them stood out. He glanced upwards, past the cabin roof to a now much calmer sky, only broken by a steady stream of snowflakes floating down. Zelda let out a gasp, hand leaving his shoulder as she bounded to the cabins edge. Thoughts didn't even enter his mind, curiosity taking over and pulling his gaze to follow her.

The scene may have been the greatest he'd ever seen. The train, having leaned around the corner, allowed the blizzard to draw open and reveal New Hyrule basking in the mid-afternoon sun. From where they were, high up the mountain side, he could see everything in the kingdom. In the far off distance the castle breached the sea of trees, themselves flowing into a smooth, calmer white as they splashed into the Snow Realm. Above them shone the bright sun, and while being closer to it than he'd ever been, it's heat failed to break past the sharp chill in the air to reach him. It's light on the other hand slipped through, shimmering off snowflakes and coating the view in a soft twinkle. From up here, despite quite literally looking down on everyone and thing he knew, in some ways it seemed like he was smaller than ever before. And yet as a cool breath filled his lungs, in an odd way, it was soothing.

Then he looked down.

The same breath stabbed at his lungs and he spun back to the controls, clutching onto them in some desperate attempt at comfort. As the storm had pulled away, it left the clear sight of the cliff edge, falling away into an endless, tumbling pit. His legs froze in place, as if buried in snow, too weak to break free but refusing even enough movement to let him fall to the ground. The leavers wooden handles began to splinter under his grip, tight enough he could feel the marks embedding into his palm. His heart shook as Zelda's hand landed back on his shoulder.

"Are you alright? You look awful." Zelda said, apparently unaware that she'd nearly sent him to an early grave.

He swallowed, attempting to muster some energy into his voice. "I just…we're a little close to the edge is all." His words petered off and he was unable to look at her. Logically, the train would follow the tracks as it always did, so they couldn't fall from here. To think otherwise would be silly. That thought brought him little comfort. But as Zelda's hand tightened its grip on his shoulder, a reminder of her standing by his side, it'd be a lie to say some strength didn't return to his legs. "It's nothing, I'm just being stupid."

"You don't have to worry you know," she said, tilting her head so she fell round into his view, hair streaming out to the side as she held a soft smile on her face. "I mean you've seen me be afraid of far more insignificant things, can you imagine if a mouse was here too? We may as well just go back to the castle!"

His shoulders jumped as a small laugh escaped him, a little bit of warmth returning to his body and pushing the fearful thoughts to the back of his mind. How did she manage that? Just a few words and she'd already brought about a better mood.

"Thanks. It's just…we've travelled around the entire kingdom, fought monsters and here I am afraid of a cliff, something that literally can't do anything by itself. It's just… embarrassing." He bowed his head, eyes falling to his hands as worry mixed in his stomach. This was stupid. This was supposed to be a fun trip, that was the plan at least, why was he telling her something like that.

The worry morphed into confusion as she began to laugh.

"And here I thought you were trying to comfort me." He said, but despite his words the muscles in his arms relaxed, hands no longer splintering the leavers.

"I'm sorry – really – I just realised that sounded familiar." She said, using her free hand to fish around the bag plastered to her hip and pulling out the familiar blue book that had brought them here in the first place. "Apparently my Grandmother shared your opinion."

He scanned the tattered pages she held open, a continuation of those that described this route in the first place, noting the rather extensive use of language he'd only heard Alfonzo use when dropping train parts onto particularly sore areas. And yet, true to Zelda's word, they also described tall cliff edges, mirroring the thoughts rattling around his mind moments ago. A smile tugged at his face.

"I suppose sharing anything with someone brave enough to travel the whole ocean is a little comforting." He said, leaning against the controls for support.

Zelda laughed, snapping the book shut. "Brave? I suppose that was how she described it too," she said, gently placing the heirloom back into her bag. "My Grandfather on the other hand said she was just reckless."

"Funny, you definitely share that with her." He said, his voice returning more and more to its previous volume with each word. She stuck her tongue at him in return, using her now free hand to grab onto the cabin wall by their side once again.

Actually, that did bring something to mind, a topic he'd wanted to ask for a while but had yet to find a moment. "You know you don't mention her much; your Grandmother I mean. In fact, I think this trip may be the first time we've really talked about her at all."

The trains chug echoed around them, filling what otherwise was a moment of silence. Zelda spun away from him, the hand on his shoulder falling away as she began running the rim of her coat through her fingers.

He'd made a mistake. Clearly this wasn't something he should have brought up at all. "Sorry it doesn't matter. I didn't realise-"

"You don't need to apologise." Her words cut off his own, despite their shakiness. She let her hair whip around in the wind as she stared over the kingdom below before continuing.

"It's not that we didn't get along, I-I have a lot of respect for her, my Grandfather too." She gestured to the land below them. "I mean they founded all of this, led countless people to live better lives, it would be difficult not to. It's just…" She took a breath before quietly adding, "It's a lot to live up to." Her hand turned into a fist, clutching the cloth of her coat into a scrunched up ball.

"You don't have to apologise either you know, if you don't want to tell me something that's ok." He stepped to her side, gently placing his hand on her shoulder, flashing her a smile as she turned to look at him. "Thanks for telling me that much. For what it's worth I think you've managed to keep up their legacy well."

She matched his smile back. "Thank you." Her eyes glanced down, past the cabin's edge to the sight he didn't even want to imagine below. "So you've managed to overcome your fear after all then?"

Every muscle in his body creaked as he forced his eyes to stay on her. "Please don't remind me, in fact can we go back into the cabin. Please?"

"Hang on I'm thinking. This means you ignored that to comfort me, right? That's very sweet you know?"

"See, you're doing this on purpose, I said you were mean. I should just leave you here."

With that, Zelda's warm giggle pushed whatever cold was left from the cabin and Link couldn't help but notice that, really, he didn't mind that she'd chosen to stay up there after all.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Sorry that this has taken a while to bring out, but I do want to say that seeing that you guys have enjoyed this has meant the world to me when writing this.

So this is the start of what I intend to be lacing/having some actual plot throughout coming chapters. I feel I should say that the general idea I've always had for this story was that each chapter should be readable as a standalone one shot. That being said, I do have ideas for plot and adventure to happen, so how interested would you guys be in me adding more of those elements to future updates?