Zora's Domain was as beautiful as Zelda remembered.

The smooth blue stone glistened in the morning sun, grand arches and columns stretching upwards in the signature Zora style. The average visiting Hylian would find the Domain enchanting, but rather small; barely larger than the Temple of Time, and lacking most of the amenities of a true city. However, Zelda knew that the Domain that she could see was but a fraction of its true self. The Zora were an aquatic race after all; the only reason they built above the surface was for the benefit of those who wished to visit and trade with them. Below the cerulean surface of the surrounding waters, Zora's Domain continued, spiralling outwards in all directions, the second grandest metropolis in Hyrule (well...with Hyrule Castle Town destroyed, she supposed it was now the grandest).

She'd seen it once, when Mipha had still been alive. The Princess of the Zora had taken her down into the depths to sightsee after she had consumed a potion that temporarily bestowed waterbreathing.

The thought of Mipha briefly darkened Zelda's mood, before she rallied her thoughts. She was not here to dwell on her own grief. She was here to meet with King Dorephan.

As their small party walked towards the King's above-water reception pavilion, Zelda noticed the Zora whispering among themselves. As one of the longest lived races in Hyrule, she knew that several of them recognized her from before the Calamity. The harsh glares that followed the whispering confirmed it. They still held grudges over Mipha's death.

She didn't blame them, she supposed.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the King's Pavilion. The Guards let them pass without protest, as Sidon was escorting them, and soon, Zelda found herself before the King himself.

The ravages of time had left King Dorephan almost untouched. He was a little larger, a little more wizened, and she noticed a few more scars littering his gigantic form, but aside from those, he looked exactly as he had a century ago. Zelda inclined her head towards the King, and he did the same to her.

"King Dorephan. Thank you for allowing us passage into your great city, and for the assistance of your son. Time may pass, but the Zora remain the most graceful people within these lands."

Dorephan rumbled in laughter, then said, "Ah, I see that the last one hundred years have not dulled your silver tongue, Princess Zelda. You and your party are most welcome. When your letter arrived, it filled me with joy to know that you had survived, and that you had defeated Calamity Ganon alongside Link. But come now. Let us dispense with pleasantries and manners. We are old friends, are we not?"

Zelda smiled up at the King and nodded, then her lips twisted into a frown.

"King Dorephan...I know that it has been a long time, and I do not wish to open old wounds but...I must apologize for what happened to your daughter. Perhaps if I had unlocked my power sooner–"

The venerable Zora raised his right hand to silence Zelda, then looked down on her with a considering gaze.

"Young one, nothing that happened was your fault. My Mipha...she knew the risks she took when she became a Champion. I protested at first...I dreaded her death, and made her promise to come back alive after her duty was done. In the first few years after the Calamity, I admit...I cursed your name, Princess, as did many of my subjects. As time passed, though...I came to realize that without my daughter's sacrifice, the outcome would have been worse. I came to realize that the true villain, the one who should bear the brunt of my hatred, was the monster who caused it all. So...I thank you for your apology, but it is not necessary. There is nothing for you to apologize for."

Zelda looked up at the King with shining eyes, sniffled and discreetly wiped an arm across her eyes.

"Ah. Yes. Thank you."

The King nodded ponderously, then raised a hand and said, "Now. I don't know about you, but I have yet to break my fast this morning. What say we treat you, Link, and the rest of your companions to a hearty meal of the Zora's finest?"

Behind Zelda, Link nodded rapidly. It had been too long since he'd last tasted Zora cuisine.

. . .

Beedle sat beside his love, the radiant beetle Bretta, and practiced his numbers.

"Inu, twan, bek, bam, efai, zur, mik, kweti, guur...furi?"

Beretta, the vision of loveliness and patience that she was, shook her head and responded "Chen'e. Es Fu'uri, nes Furi."

"Ah. Fu'uri. Bensorai neku Bretta."

"Awa...yes. Wel'com, Beedle."

Beedle smiled at the lovely lady, and she looked back with her enormous, beautiful black eyes that he could almost fall into. The past few days had been a grand tapestry of new experiences in this strange town of bugs. The villagers (who were no less fantastic than Bretta, even if his heart belonged to her alone) had been hesitant of Beedle at first, but once it became clear that he meant no harm and that he was staying with Bretta, they'd gradually opened up. Not that he could understand most of what they said; while he had spent many hours practicing with Bretta, his grasp of the bug's tongue was rudimentary at best.

But, Beedle was not one to back down from a challenge. Where others rode on horses, Beedle went on foot. Where others saw danger, Beedle saw opportunity. And where others saw monsters, Beedle saw the missing piece of his heart.

Delightfully, it seemed like Bretta shared his love. He had been worried that she found him odd, or hideous, but through judicious use of pantomime and scratched pictograms, it became clear that she was just as enamored with him as he was of her.

Glorious. Surely their meeting had been fated by the gods.

Ah, but he was getting distracted again thinking about her. He needed to practice, so that he could write poetry worthy of her grace and beauty. And he needed to teach Bretta Hylian in turn, so that she could make her talents in writing known to all of the peoples of Hyrule.

"Let's see. Names...gemanai, che? Hyrule, your turn?"

"Yes. Nam'us. Awa...Tarrey Town...Zora Do-do...Do'mani?"

"Do-main. Do-main."

"Awa...Do-main. Zora Do-main. Wel'com. Ah...Go'ron Citi?"

. . .

Zelda examined the little charm in her hands, turning it this way and that to catch the light.

"It increased your strength, but only when striking someone?"

"Yes, Princess. Some form of knockback enhancement."

Humming in thought, Zelda looked over to Link, who was looking at a charm of his own. After the breakfast feast of all manner of Zora foods, she had spoken at length with King Dorephan, and during their conversation, he'd mentioned the peculiar charms that two of his scouts had brought back to the Domain. The scholar in Zelda had been filled with intense curiosity, and now, here she was.

"I see. Link, when you were there to confirm Fyson's story, did you see anything like this?"

Link shook his head, so Zelda turned her attention to Fyson. The Rito also responded in the negative, saying "I was only in Dirtmouth once, when we first met the bugs. I don't remember any of them wearing charms...but they could have easily concealed them on their body somewhere."

Zelda hummed again, then looked back at the charm.

"Well...I may not be a master of magic, but I can feel...something. The power seems to rely entirely on the wearer's own reserves of energy, the charm itself holds no power to act on its own. I need to test this."

Across from Zelda, Link was already ahead of her. He'd pinned the red skull-like charm to his tunic and stood up. Then he crouched down and took off at a dead sprint, vanishing from Zelda's sight quickly.

It didn't take long for Link to return, though. Her loyal knight skidded to a halt back in the pavilion and unpinned the charm from his tunic, then he began signing at Zelda.

{It's a 30% increase in running speed at minimum. Maybe even 50%. We'd need to use the slate to time my sprints for accurate numbers, but it definitely works. Oh, and it drains vitality. Not permanently, or very quickly, but I noticed myself becoming more fatigued than usual.}

Zelda's eyes narrowed.

"Stamina-based magic? Or...what do you mean by vitality?"

{I don't know. I know it isn't hurting me to use it...I don't know how I know that, but I know it. Beyond that, it's just making me a little more tired.}

Zelda nodded slowly, then flicked her charm towards Link, who caught it easily.

"Well. Let's try the other one. And if there's no ill effects from using that, then we can try two at the same time."

. . .

Yunobo walked down the road, sulking. He still couldn't believe that the Boss had forced him into visiting a town full of sentient bugs. Bugs! They were terrifying monstrosities of chitin and sharp mouthparts! The best part about living on Death Mountain was that any bugs got roasted in the heat.

The one time he'd been away from the mountain, he'd been chased by wasps who'd crawled all over him. One had even gotten into his mouth, eugh! And sure, they hadn't really hurt him, he was a Goron after all, but still. Terrifying.

Thankfully, he was close enough to Death Mountain that he shouldn't see any bugs for awhile. They started to exist near the hot springs. But he was in no hurry to reach them, so Yunobo walked ponderously, not curling up into a ball to roll downhill to speed up his journey.

An hour later, when he reached the hotspring, Yunobo braced himself for the worst. Or at least, what he thought was the worst.

The ground shook, very slightly. A member of any race other than a Goron wouldn't have noticed; while Gorons had the poorest senses of smell, touch, taste, sight, and hearing of any Hyrulean, they made up for that by having a superb sense of subtle vibrations in the ground. A Goron could sense a Hylian walking before they'd be able to see them, and they could tell when the mountain was shifting.

This wasn't the mountain though. Nor was it someone walking. It was a vibration that Yunobo had never felt before, and it was getting closer.

Yunobo gulped and began to shiver. That...felt like legs. Many, many legs. Attached to something very large. Almost like a...centipede.

The vibrations continued to grow in strength until they came near the surface, close to where Yunobo was standing. He heard a rumble, a wet draining sound, and then there came a horrifying hissing roar.

The ground broke open, and a positively enormous centipede burst out. It was covered in scratched black chitin, it had more legs than Yunobo cared to count, and it was livid. He could see that one of its eyes was gone; it must have tunneled into a pocket of hot spring water and gotten burned.

Yunobo screamed, and then tucked up into a ball and began rolling away as fast as he could.

"AHH! GIANT CENTIPEDE!"

The hideous beast, either hearing his scream or feeling his vibration, dove back into the ground. The chase was on.

. . .

Teba and Harth lazily drifted on a thermal as they passed near Death Mountain. The hot rising air from the volcano made for easy flying, which Teba appreciated; it was a long flight from Rito Village to Akkala, even if they'd taken a break from flying to search Hyrule castle for bows, arrows, and other weapons.

Their stopover in Hyrule Castle had borne wonderful fruit though. Teba had snagged a Royal Bow and a quiver of fire arrows, while Harth had found a small stache of ancient arrows and a very nice knife.

Teba couldn't wait to give Tulin the Royal Bow. It'd take the boy a few years to work his way up to it, but when he did, he'd get a bow that was only rivaled in quality by the Great Eagle bow itself.

"Hey. You see that?"

Teba grunted at Harth's words and looked downwards. It didn't take him long to spot what he was looking at.

Far below them, a Goron was absolutely booking it. Teba hadn't seen many Gorons before, and he'd only seen them do that ball-roll thing that they did once, but that had been nothing like this. Whoever this Goron was, he was nearly matching Teba and Harth's flight-speed, which was honestly impressive.

"Wonder where he's off to in such a hurry?"

Teba swooped lower to take a closer look.

"Oh, ok, guess we're going in to ask 'em."

As they descended, Teba began to hear a low rumbling. Rito had good hearing, not as good as Hylians did, but good enough. So once he was lower, and the wind wasn't whistling in his ears, he noticed the sound, and how it was emanating from just behind the Goron.

"Is that the mountain? It's not going to erupt, is it?" said Harth

"No. Sounds like it's localized. Something's chasing the Goron." said Teba

"Wait, so why are we flying down, it's not like we can do anythi–"

Whatever Harth was going to say next was cut off, as an enormous centipede monster breached out of the ground. It's jaws, wide enough to swallow a Rito whole, snapped shut on nothing as the Goron rolled frantically to the left.

"Holy fuck, what in Farore's name is that!?" yelled Harth.

Teba shared his best friend's agitation, but he didn't voice it. Instead, he reached behind his head and pulled out a bomb arrow.

"It's trying to eat the Goron! Too large for normal arrows, use your specials! Aim for the eyes and the mouth!"

"Yeah, and whatever you do, don't get eaten! I'm not about to become a snack to a giant bug!" responded Harth, who was already swooping away.

Teba's loosed bomb arrow came too late to hit the beast's head, but it did impact the body, and he heard a hissing roar echo throughout the valley. He stowed his bow on his back once more and resumed flying. He'd be ready next time.

Unfortunately, Teba was caught off guard when the centipede again erupted from the ground, but this time, it did so directly underneath the Goron. Sharp mandibles meant for moving tons of earth snapped shut around the Goron, and Teba feared that they were too late. But, somehow, a shield of red light appeared around the Goron, one that the beast's jaws couldn't break through.

Teba's second bomb arrow flew straight and true, and it hit the side of the bug's head. The thing let out another roar, and the Goron in its mouth popped out and fell to the ground. A streak of blue light pinged off of its chitinous hide near the eye, and Teba heard Harth curse.

"Damn it Teba, I had that!"

"Shoot faster next time!"

However, it seemed like there wouldn't be a next time. The beast, thwarted in its attempts to devour the Goron and hurting from the two bomb arrows Teba had hit it with, sank back into the ground. Teba and Harth circled around where it had dug into the earth for several minutes, but when the rumbling had long since faded and nothing had come back out, they descended to the ground to check on the poor Goron.

When they alighted, Teba approached the Goron and knocked on the red shield that encircled him. It took a little while for the big guy to stop quivering, but finally, the Goron uncurled from his ball and the shield deactivated.

"Oh my, thank you thank you thank you! I was so scared! If you two hadn't come along I would have been eaten!"

Teba nodded, then asked brusquely, "Are you hurt? We didn't see the whole chase."

"N-no, it never touched me. Got close a few times, and then that last one! Oh, I thought I was a goner, but then when you shot it, I popped right out."

Harth grunted and said "That was your magic? You a mage?"

"O-oh. No, it runs in the family. My ancestor was Champion Daruk."

"No shit, really?" asked Harth.

"Yes. I'm-my name is Yunobo."

"Teba. This is Harth," said Teba, "Any idea what that thing was?"

Yunobo shook his head.

"N-no, I've never seen anything like that! I would remember if we had big scary b-bugs like that near Death Mountain."

Teba looked at Harth, who looked back, and they both saw that the other had the same thought.

"This came from Hallownest."

Yunobo's eyes widened.

"W-wait! Y-you mean...there's more bugs that size in…"

The Goron made a low moaning sound, and then fainted.

Author's Note:

Aye, thanks for reading the chapter. Thanks to some comments on my last chapter, I thought I'd address the topic of invasive species. Yes, some kinds of Hallownest bugs are going to become problems in Hyrule (though it's not like Hyrule doesn't already have such monsters). I'm not going to focus on it or anything, but expect the occasional aside on how the two ecologies have impacted each other.

In other news, I have been watching Fubuki play through Hollow Knight though. It's been really cool to watch someone from Japan experience one my favorite games of all time (even if I only understand what she's saying half the time thanks to loyal translators in the chat). I can't wait for more Hololive girls to follow in the footsteps of Ina and Fubuki and play HK.