Author's Note:
Thank you for your kind reviews! Hopefully the story is still to your liking up to this point. It's a slow burn, I know. But I think it's good haha
There's a part in this chapter where I use a -.-.-.-.- it only means some time has passed, but it's still from that character's POV
I don't want to give anything away. I'll just say:
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter XVIII
Deception
They spent the rest of the day walking and talking, they passed Traysi on their way to the Great Bridge. Zelda lifted her hand intertwined with Link's and raised her eyebrows.
"Was that really necessary?", Link sighed, as Traysi began to furiously scribble in one of her notebooks. Link thought she'd manage to write some juicy rumor about them, Zelda's new hairstyle and, if she asked around -and he knew she would- about some unusual nightly noises.
"Yes. Yes it was", she said smugly. Heads turned in their direction. Link wasn't used to attracting this many eyes, it was hard enough to talk at the funeral with the whole world (quite literally) watching. Granted, they had been holding hands when they arrived. But two nights ago they hadn't... he wasn't...
Even thinking about it made him blush uncontrollably and walking became incredibly difficult.
"All I'm saying, is we never know who is watching us", Link warned her. Zelda scoffed.
"Am I allowed to enjoy a morning stroll with my boyfriend or not?", she said with a very red face. It seemed this was as new for her as it was for him.
"I guess...", he conceded. Zelda's scoff turned into laughter.
"I'm as nervous as you are, Link", she said, looking at their hands. "But I haven't felt this happy since I was a very little kid, riding on the shoulders of my father". Her eyes glistened, but no tears fell down. She looked inmensely happy. His heart soared.
On their way out, as they neared the other side of the bridge, Link spotted a reddish spot dashing downhill and into the water. "Oh, Sidon... ", he whispered. Zelda lifted her head, looking for him.
"Where is he?", she asked. Link pointed towards the Zora River. "Oh!", she exclaimed.
"Yeah...", Link replied, "about that, I need to tell you something", he said, remembering he had to tell her how his fish-friend was... seeing a hylian girl. "Remember how we just guessed he was seeing someone down south?", he asked tentatively.
Somehow, the story of Sidon having a relationship with a hylian -who by all accounts wasn't even remotely related to royalty, didn't take her by surprise. She made a mental note to talk to him. Love shouldn't be anything to be ashamed of. Even if it had taken her so long to realize that.
They had gone into a morning (evening) hike to visit Vah Ruta. Zelda had told Link that they could go investigate while having some time to themselves. Link merely nodded in agreement. She noticed that the looks he used to give her when he thought she wasn't looking, were the looks he gave her every second now. It was as if he couldn't take his eyes off of her. She wasn't complaining, though.
"Are we expecting something different than with Naboris?", Link asked a bit out of breath as they made their way uphill. She shook her head.
"I'm not expecting anything", she confessed. "But it is worth checking out, remember Urbosa's message?", she somehow thought that if Mipha had left anything behind, it would have been for Link. She chastised herself for feeling jealous.
Her new haircut proves to be practical, her neck didn't sweat as much, and her hair didn't get in the way everytime the wind blew. She felt lighter too. It had been the first time in her life, that her hair had been shorter than her hopes for the future.
On their way up they saw quite the number of tourists. Now that the watery domain was open and monster-free (almost), people from every corner of the Kingdom came to visit. Their chronicles carved in stone drew the attention of many visitors. A party of Gerudo were on their way back, surely from watching Ruta guarding one of the peaks over Rutala dam, they were candidly speaking about something when they crossed paths with a tall caped man. His head was covered with a hood, but she could make out what his legs looked like. He wore golden sandals. She gently elbowed Link, motioning him to look ahead. At the same time a goron bumped into them, making them both to fall to the ground.
"Excuse me, brothers", the goron timidly said.
"No harm done, brother", Link replied, helping her up to her feet.
"I was trying to figure out this thing, my friends tell me it captures reality. I don't understand how reality could be kept inside a tiny piece of stone and glass, but still...", he said holding out a very familiar gadget. Link and Zelda looked at eachother, knowingly.
"Can I ask, where did you get it?", she asked with abroad smile. The gerudo held the sheikah slate with his index and his thumb, it looked ridiculously small on his hand. He nodded.
"Ever since Ganon was banished from our realm, more goron go down to your kingdom. We know him as Robbie. He's selling them like it's hot bread!", the goron exclaimed. They smiled at him. They excused themselves and continued their way up.
"Seems like Robby and Purah are back in business", her knight pointed out. She sighed in agreement. But was it good business?
They encountered fewer people as they neared the top of the mountain. Both were silent, saving their breaths, merely looking at eachother and nodding periodically. Some time later they arrived, the zora had designed and built a beautiful lookout. Only one other person was there, the tall hooded person. Panting, they both reached the spot where the stranger was, leaning against the white stone balaustrade, looking at the colossal statue of Ruta. He barely turned his head and nodded at them.
"That's quite a view, eh?", he told them. Now that they were beside him, she realized he towered over them, she could even say he was as tall as Sidon. She had only met one other man that was this tall.
"It is", Link replied before she could open her mouth.
Before she could get a good the same goron they had bumped into earlier, pushed the stranger, making him grunt something inaudible, and walked away without another word. The goron who was still trying to figure out his sheikah slate mumbled a quiet apology that the towering stranger never heard.
They both smiled at him, he was hopeless.
The three of them stood there in silence, taking in the view. It had been a while since Zelda fully appreciated the beauty of a view, rather than finding theories or fighting fiends. Granted, she'd rather not be around the sloppy goron friend, but he meant no harm and was otherwise harmless. She leant her head on Link's shoulder, he did the same on her own head. It felt as if though they were trying to share the same thought.
"I guess we should actually go and take a closer look", Link said, with a voice that said the absolute opposite of what he was telling her, "Who knows, maybe Mipha left us some extraordinarily strong trident we can shove up his ass". She snorted loudly.
"That would be something", she conceeded.
The thing he was enjoying the most was the fact that he no longer had to be on guard and keep everything he felt inside his head. Granted, they couldn't have possibly stayed in bed for ever -not for lack of trying though. He enjoyed this new freedom of looking at her, and letting her look at him. It was as if they had never laid eyes on each other.
A very friendly old zora rented boats on one of the many piers, for only thirty rupees you could have a rickety wooden boat for two all day long. Zelda offered to row on their way to the other side. Link wasn't allowed an opinion, but he at least was allowed to row on the way back. He watched her puff and sweat and get red in the face. She frowned the whole way to Vah Ruta, deep in concentration.
"Are you sure you don't want me to-", he offered midway through. She cut him off.
"Just shut up and let me row, bubble boy", he chortled at her remark and nodded.
The last time he had been here, actually in the water. Sidon had made it all look so easy and effortless, mostly because he was twice the size of them, and he also had fins, gills and an otherworldy strength. The sun was beginning it's descent, as the sky began to color itself a pale shade of violet.
"Almost... there...", Zelda panted. He stuck to nodding. He knew she'd be out like a candlelight as soon as they came back. Rowing was not an easy task...
When the keel bumped into the small beach that led into the small peak where Ruta had last stood, Zelda practically tossed the rows. Link offered his hand, he felt her arms tremble as she pulled herself up.
"Let's see if there's anything left for us to see here", she said, as she strode with determination out of the beach. He nodded again to her back. She was relentless.
The ascension to where Ruta was proved to be another straining task for both of them, as they encountered many semi-vertical parts of the way, Link told her the best ways to place her hands and feet onto the stone. He was worried, but he tried his best not to show it. He needn't have to, though, because she grasped the basics of mountain climbing pretty fast. He was helping her up in a particularilly tall stone, when he looked down and spotted a tall dark figure. He didn't know why but he had the feeling it was watching them.
Past that set of small cliffs, they were able to finally walk again. He looked towards the dam again, but the figure was gone.
It was a surprise to them both that Vah Ruta was surrounded by wooden scafoldings and makeshift stairs. A single zora was working -doing only Hylia knew what, near Ruta's head. Zelda told him it was best if they announced themselves before they climbed up. She clearly didn't want to give the poor zora a heart attack.
"Excuse me!", she shouted, puting her palms on each side of her mouth. Link started to wave his arms. After a few more shouts, the zora finally located the source of the sound and waved them back, after a few seconds he motioned them to come up.
Panting and sweating they finally reached the level where the zora workman was. He was a tall and pale blue skined fellow. His head fin was really long and it ended with a sharp, bony needle.
"Hello, there!", he happilly greeted them. "You must be Her Majesty, Princess Zelda", he said bowing to her. "And of course I recognized those yellow unruly bangs of yours, Link". He seemed to know him, he wasn't particularilly surprised, since he had spent quite a lot of time here, back when... things were different.
His gazed wandered over his for one second longer than he felt comfortable with, the workman, realizing Link hadn't recognized him, cleared his throat.
"I'm Raltis. Royal Architect to his Majesty, King Dorephan the first", he said, extending a very long hand to him.
"We are very pleased to meet you, Raltis", Zelda replied, kindly. Raltis nodded rapidly at her, but his eyes sticked to Link's face. Expectant.
"We used to play together, it's foolish of me to think you'd remember something like that" he blurted out, smiling . at him, but he heard his voice had a tiny smudge of hurt in it. He shook his hand.
"I'm sorry", he mumbled. "My memory is a bit messed up lately... you see", he suddenly felt the need to get out of there and sleep for three weeks straight. He hated not remembering folk.
"No need to feel bad!", he said reading his expression. "I'm the one who brought it up!", he said half laughing. "So! My King asked me to make preparations for your arrival. I take it you're here to investigate inside Ruta, yes?", he had a very frantic way of speaking that had them both looking at each other before Zelda replied with a very sound 'yes!'
He clapped his hands together in agreement. "Now then, where are we going first?!", Link automatically looked at Zelda. She looked as composed as she ever did in these situations.
"I would like to visit the inner sanctum". Raltis' expression changed, he looked at her knowingly and nodded respectfully. "Very well, follow me", he said starting to walk. Zelda spoke again.
"I was under the impression that King Dorephan wanted us to investigate this ourselves". Raltis stopped in his tracks and turned around. His expression had changed back to his frantically happy one.
"Ah, yes, yes. That is very true, Highness. Although the King has instructed me to escort you whilst you are here, inside one of our most revered places of worship".
"Worship?", Link said in an incredulous voice. He hard it rising with every word he said. "You worship the place where Mipha was slaughtered by that bastard?", somehow he was glad he didn't remember Raltis. He was as unlikeable as the food he had first made after waking up from his century long slumber. Zelda put a hand over his shoulder, he looked at her and found her green eyes calmed him down with every beat.
"I'm sorry, I just find it odd that you find this to be a place of worship". He apologized.
"No need to apologize, Link. As I was saying,. This", he extended his arms around him, "is our newest place of worship. That is why you now see so many people climbing up to see Ruta from the lookout. As it is known that Ruta is the reincarnation of our fabled demigoddess, Ruto. Direct descendant from Hylia herself". Even Zelda looked surprised at his remark. She voiced none of it.
"We want to be as respectful as we can, we will abide to King Dorephan's request. Please, lead the way", she said in a polite, but very cold way. Raltis bowed and beckoned them to follow him inside.
The place was excactly as he remembered it. The only thing missing was the malice that had once corrupted the ancient machine. But other than that, it was but the same stone cold moving statue he had once known. Out of the four beasts, this was the one he felt was the least scary, since the sunlight reached every nook and cranny. Leaving little in the shadow. The inner sanctum turned out to be the place where he had killed the blight. The water had now evaporated and all that was left now was a room the size of the Temple of Time, which in its floor had four square-shaped pillars. Right in the middle of the room someone had placed a blue piece of cloth adorned with familiar white shapes and lines.
"Mipha...", he whispered, walking towards her tunic. He knelt in front of it, touching the fabric, it still felt warm. "Where did you find this?", he asked Raltis.
"Oddly enough, we found it hanging all the way up in the ceiling", he said pointing upwards. A small crack could be seen. "We found it alongside her tiara. They were hanging from a now very broken chandelier.", he said grievously.
"Did you, by any chance, find anything else?", Zelda asked cautiously. Raltis looked at her blankly. Then outrage dawned on his face.
"The fact that we found more of the Princess' relics is a miracle in itself!", he screeched. Link shook his head and returned his gaze to her tunic.
"I'm sorry you died here, all alone...", he whispered to the tunic. "I'm sorry...". He grabbed the tunic carefully folding it and tucking it inside his travel bag. Raltis looked positively scandalized.
"Wh- WHAT DO YOU THINK YOURE DOING?!", he screeched. His fins stood all on edge menacingly. His eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets.
"We will return it, promise. We need it... for research.", he said lamely. Zelda's eyes were as menacing as Raltis'
"As Link has said, we're conducting royal research with the four tunics of the champions. Their properties seem to defy the test of time. My royal scientist and close friend Robbie has requested we take them to him so he can find out more about them", Zelda lied.
"I- Oh... very- thisisquiteunorthodox", he stammered, confused. "Very well, you can take it. I'm sure the King wouldn't want me to go against the Queen's wishes", he said more to himself than anyone else.
Suddenly Link's satchel weighed more with the guilt that was now attached to the blue fabric.
Zelda was fuming on their way back. They had found absolutely nothing else inside Ruta, nothing other than dust and utter contempt for that Raltis. In her mind's eye he was nothing but a slimy fin-licker. She knew his comment about Ruto was on purpose just to get a reaction out of her, as was his mentioning of Ruta being a place of worship, when it was nothing more than a tourist attraction. Not to mention the enormous lie she had told him because of Link's attachment to a piece of clothing.
You kept Urbosa's skirt. A voice inside her head told her in a sing-song tone.
Shut up, she told herself.
The way down proved to be more difficult than the way up, because she had to look down very often to see where she tread on. She found out she was afraid of heights. Link on the other hand handled it quite well, obviously. She felt very irritated at that, for some reason. Huffing and scoffing they made their way back to the boat, which was lazily floating under a starry sky.
Link offered his hand so she could hop inside. She shook her head. "I got this", she said, rather coldly. She smacked herself mentally. Why was she being like this?!
As she saw Link row back to the other side, she remembered how she used to despise the way he was with her. Respectful and tolerant of her outbursts. It still drove her mad that he didn't argue or even offered some stupid argument or apology. Nor was she expecting one. Even though they were together now, it would have been foolish of her to think that Link would have forgotten all about Mipha. She had been after all, her best friend.
"You know, I remember this one time", Link suddenly spoke. He was panting a little, but not as much as she'd done. Her eyes suddenly attached themselves to his face. Her ears drank every word. "I remember I was all the way up, on Ruta's trunk with Mipha". He smiled at something, his eyes were seeing something she could not.
"She said many things to me that day..." he seemed to trail off, but after some silence he continued, "but I'm sure she knew before even I did...".
"What did she know?", she asked almost in a whisper, the only sounds around them was rows dipping gently into the water.
"That I was in love with you", he replied with a sad smile.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Three days later, a guard had told them what she already expected.
"His Majesty humbly requests the presence of the Royal Princess of Hyrule and her Appointed Knight at tonight's dinner". The guard slightly bowed at her.
"We'll be pleased to join King Dorephan tonight", she replied. With that, the guard left the room silently. She felt Link's gaze on her neck.
"It's not your fault, Link. Stop doing that!", she said without looking at him.
"I'm sorry!", he admitted, "I can't help it! I don't know why I said something so stupid! I should have sticked to the truth!", he smacked his forehead with his palm. Zelda thought the lie had now become a convinient excuse to collect all four of the champions' robes. She had thought that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea that Robbie took a look at them. She didn't find it that normal that the clothes were in such good state after being out in the elements for so many years. She was still thinking how anyone would miss them just hanging there for such a long time. Food for thought.
"It's okay!", she calmed him down. "It's not your fault. This was going to happen sooner or later. That Raltis is a piece of work. He's hiding something and I want to know what. But I need you to stay calm. I will handle him". Link looked at her intensely and nodded.
"You're the boss", he said very seriously.
"No, I'm not!", she exclaimed. "I'm not your boss! Were in this together. It's just that you're better at things I'm not... and I'm better... at talking to people like him...", she said.
"You're right", he said thoughtfully. "Your cooking was never very good", he joked. She smacked him across the face with a pillow.
"You're in trouble, Princess", he said menacingly.
"Am I?", she said mocking smugness. Link threw a pillow at her that dropped her on her back over the bed. She started to laugh uncontrollably.
"Yes, yes you are", he said before kissing her intensely.
Some hours later they both welcomed a nocturnal feast. Hungry and thirsty they entered the great zora hall, where King Dorephan and Sidon were waiting for them.
Sidon had swam the best part of the day along Hylia River, and then through the many subterranean currents that ended up near Lake Floria. From there it was only a matter of minutes until he reached Lurelin Village. He never told Link out of an unjustified fear that he'd make fun of him, but his heart ached when he wasn't near Ahanna. He had never felt this way before for anyone else in his life. It had been as if they both knew what the other was thinking before they even said it. His mind was sharper when he was around her, he felt stronger when she was near. This was something that his father would never understand, having married her mother merely ouf of necessity, as the sea zora and the river folk needed to be unified as one people. His grandfather knew that and arranged the matrimony between his father and the sea princess.
He was just crossing Atun valley when he spotted her, standing under the crooked tree they had made theirs. As soon as she saw him she waved at him, beaming.
"Sorry I'm late", he said lifting her up. She started to giggle.
"Don't be, I only just got here", she admitted.
A faint wind made some bushes move, some lizards ran under their feet. He wasn't particularilly fond of small creatures, especially the ones that slithered. Ahanna laughed at him.
"The mighty prince of the zora. Scared of tiny little lizards", she said smiling.
"You knew?", he asked, taken aback. She stood on the tips of her toes, but he still had to kneel to be somewhat level to her head.
"Of course I did!", she said smacking him very lightly in the head, "Everything about you screams 'Sidon, Sidon!'", she said pretending to be a crowd chanting his name from afar.
"I thought I had concealed everything that would give my royalty away... ", he said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner...", Ahanna pressed her finger against his lips and shook his head.
"Don't be. I think I know why you kept that from me. I don't blame you for it.", she gave him a peck, "I never thought I'd feel this for a zora... ", she said kissing him again, "But here we are".
Another gust of wind swept through the valley, lifting her skirt and making her giggle again, a strange echo made it sound as if more than one Ahanna was giggling, that in turn made him laugh. He carried her uphill, to their secret hideout, as the sounds of more bushes and small animals running filled the air.
She heard the girl giggle. He lifted her up like she was a feather, and laughing they were out of her sight.
Kaheru giggled too.
Many miles from Zora's domain, Makeela Riju woke up in the middle of the night. Her recurring nightmare woke her up for the tenth day in a row. She jumped off her bed taking in the fresh night air. A wolf was howling in the distance. To her right, two guards stood to both sides of the entrance to her room, she nodded at them.
"Where is Buliara?", she asked.
"I believe she is with her partner, your Majesty", one of them replied. She nodded.
"Good, that's good". She sighed.
I'm being stupid. It's just a nightmare.
Buliara is fine.
Author's note 2:
Buliara gets a doppelgänger, Ahanna gets a doppelgänger, everybody gets a doppelgänger!
lol
Seriously though, Sidon's in trouble now.
