Chapter 4

In which Revali Gets What He Deserves

I took the long way back from Sanadin Park, crossing the Regencia at the Manhala Bridge and skirting around the Great Plateau. It was just me and the big white stallion, and the silence of the road was a blessed relief. I was in no hurry to get back to the castle. Zelda had become obsessed with the shrines since that day on the Plateau. Now, Instead of wasting all my time posted outside of her door, I was wasting all my time pacing around the castle docks while she investigated the shrine there. It was not any less boring, and she was not any less annoyed at my presence.

She had wanted to stop and explore every single shrine we passed on the way to Goron City. It wasn't all bad– I was able to spend an extra day in Goponga while she poked and prodded the structure on the south side of town.

"Is she…quite well?" Aryll whispered to me, as we watched Zelda chip at the dark stone surface with a hammer and chisel, muttering to herself all the while.

I shrugged. As far as I could tell, this was normal for her. She could get like a dog with a bone, never letting go until she truly understood a thing inside and out. Unfortunately, the shrines seemed unwilling to give up any of their secrets. I'd nearly had to carry her off of Death Mountain when our fireproof elixirs ran low.

"Just one more hour, just another hour" she said again and again, until only just enough of the elixir remained to get us down to cooler temperatures without combusting.

"The Princess is a strong personality!" Daruk had told me, while we stood on the deck of his lizard-like Divine Beast. "So strong, she can't see the range for the peaks!" Truer words had never been spoken, and I was glad someone had finally come out and said it.

We had spent a few weeks back at the Castle when it was decided that we needed to set out for Rito Village and Gerudo Town to check on the Divine Beasts and their pilots. I immediately volunteered to go fetch Tian from the Park. It was a wonderful distraction from the suffocating atmosphere of the castle.

Imagine my surprise and delight to find that the Equerry, now in charge of the entire stud, was none other than Hector, from the Ranch.

We walked out to the pasture together to retrieve Tian. I looked at Hector sidelong. He looked well; his shoulders had broadened over the last few years, and he'd gained a healthy tan. A crisp breeze blew down from the mountain, ruffling his hair slightly. His soulful brown eyes still made my stomach flutter a bit.

Tian nickered when he saw Hector, and trotted up to greet us. He rubbed the horse's broad face, speaking gently to him, then fished an apple out of his pocket. He used his front teeth to bite off a chunk, and handed it to Tian in the flat of his palm. The horse munched the proffered fruit happily, nose nuzzling for more.

"Now, now, don't get greedy, friend." He shooed the horse away from his pockets and slipped a halter and lead over Tian's head. "I was glad to see this one back. He's a fine horse, but he needed a little bit more time to mature. I've been working with him every day. I think he'll have calmed down enough for your princess."

His voice was so even and pleasant, without even a trace of bitterness. I would have thought he would be angry at me – for putting him in the middle of my conflict with my father, for my complete failure in looking out for him. I felt the need to apologize, to set things right after everything that had happened. But I was having such a hard time getting it out. I stumbled over my words before he mercifully cut me off.

"Link. It's alright," he said. "You don't have anything to apologize for. They may have thought that sending me all the way out here was a punishment, but I'm much happier here, in the shadow of the mountains, with the young horses."

Still, I insisted, I should have been more careful. I should have thought about how he would be impacted.

"You stood by me, that meant a lot. I'm sure you were punished for that. You don't have to keep punishing yourself."

I swallowed, remembering the smell of my oozing flesh as I recovered from the flogging my father had ordered.

"Everything worked out in the end. And I've been able to change things here – hopefully we'll be sending fewer horses up to the Ranch that need to be fixed in the first place. And there's someone I've been seeing, he's an actor in the Rito Players. People know. No one cares, as long as I do my job well. You know what they say, heaven is high and the Castle is far away"

I felt an odd pang of…something. Jealousy, maybe, or nostalgia. Or perhaps wistfulness for a time when I still thought I might have had some say in how my life turned out. I thanked him for everything he had done with Tian, and how glad I was that he was doing well and happy.

"Of course," he said, his smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. "But what about you, Link? Are you happy?"

Are you happy?

I thought about that question all the way back to the Castle, and as the Princess and I set out to Hebra. I thought about it while I argued with her to move on from investigating a shrine on a hill above the Tabantha Stables. The road to Rito Village passed through a narrow slot canyon, and Lizalfos sightings had been increasing there (as they had almost everywhere else). We needed to get to the village before dark.

What would happiness even look like for, ones such as us? I pondered that, as I settled Tian and Selene in at the stables at the foot of the village. Freedom was the one thing we both seemed to want – freedom from predetermined roles, from responsibilities, from the weight of familial expectations. But that felt increasingly out of reach.

A Rito courier zipped Zelda right up to Vah Medoh as soon as we arrived, leaving me with little more to do than spend time with my friends. I was excited to see them again, even if they would find me even more tight-lipped than ever. On the other hand, I was not looking forward to enduring Revali's sneering taunts. He seemed to take the Sword I carried as a personal offense, another point scored against him in a game that only he was playing.

He didn't disappoint. I stepped out onto a wide landing on the north side of the village, getting ready to float over to the flight range to join Khomal, Qili, and Val for some target practice, when the shadow of the Divine Beast Vah Medoh passed over me. I looked up, watching it pass. It was an incredible feat, that such a large mass could drift through the skies as easily as a barge floated down a calm river. I could understand why Zelda was so intent on understanding the Sheikah artifacts. I could scarcely imagine the things we could accomplish if we could harness the same power. Suddenly, a vortex of winds blew up from below the landing. Revali shot up like a cork out of a bottle, landing on the railing in front of me.

I clenched my fists and scowled, just for a second, before relaxing. I wasn't going to let him see that he rattled me. Or that he impressed me, for that matter; he hadn't been simply engaging in puffery when he said he would no longer need the paraglider to get airborne. It really was quite the feat. He had overcome one of the greatest weaknesses of the Rito tribe, seemingly by sheer force of will. One could almost admire it. If only he weren't such a jackass all the time.

He started in on some self-absorbed soliloquy, yammering on and on. I halfway tuned him out, until he got in my face.

"Let's not forget, I am the most skilled archer of all the Rito. And despite these truths, I have been tapped to merely assist you." His tone suggested he'd rather be shoveling rhino dung. "All because you have that little darkness-sealing sword on your back. I mean, it's just…asinine."

He spread his wings wide, trying to intimidate me, I'm sure. I didn't give an inch.

"Why don't we just settle this, one on one?" Bring it on, you overgrown turkey, "But where?" he said, stroking his beak. "I know! How about up there!" He gestured grandly at the Divine Beast, then snickered. "Oh! You must pardon me! I forgot you have no way of making it up to that Divine Beast on your own."

He created another vortex, shooting up into the sky again. "Good luck sealing the darkness!" he called down.

Grinding my teeth, I took off towards the flight range, acutely aware that it was Revali who'd had it built in the first place.

I imagined punching him right in his smug face. That thought made me happy.

…..

This world was desolate, depopulated. My home had been befouled, and my childhood friends no longer recognized this awkward, gangly body. They were strangers to me now, save one, but she was out of reach forever. The loneliness was crushing.

The Sheikah youth had been a ray of light in these dark days. They had sought me out, made music with me, and moreover, there was something familiar and comforting about the violet eyes peering over the mask. So was I wrong, as we watched the sun rise over a restored Lake Hylia, to hope for some companionship? I heard a splash, and turned towards them, only to find myself alone again.

"Hey Link! Look alive!"

A pillow thumped into me, hard. I pulled the covers down, scowling at Khomal.

"You could have just called out to me, you know," I said a little petulantly.

"Hmmm, yes, I could have, but turnabout is fair play after all. At least I didn't throw chikaloo nuts at your face."

I gave a half shrug. He had a point.

"Get up! Get dressed! Come spar with me down by the pond. Revali's at the flight range today and we're all kind of sick of him."

Zelda was sitting up in bed, engrossed in a book, down comforter pulled tight against the chill of the open-walled inn. She waved me off, saying she had some meetings with the Elder this morning and was going to spend some time at the village shrine. She would come find me when she was ready to depart for the desert.

Khomal and I spent the morning trading blows with the various lightweight melee weapons that were a hallmark of the Rito. Mostly, though, we just soaked our feet in the small pond at the entrance to the village while Qili filled me in on all the latest village gossip. Val had brought down her dulcimer, and coached me through keeping time on a pair of shakers while she played.

Around midday, we headed back. Khomal invited me to eat lunch with them, but I decided to check in on Zelda and see what she wanted to do. I had hoped to get an early start so that we could made it to the Tabantha Inn well before nightfall.

"I've never known you to turn down a meal," Khomal said, laughing. "You really must be dedicated to this job!" He gave me a light shove up the stairs.

I went up to the shrine, smiling ear to ear. I hadn't had such a good time in ages. Seeing my old friends was almost enough to make me forget my precarious place at the Castle and my strained relationship with Zelda. Speaking of Zelda… where was she? I was expecting to see her muttering away to herself as she poked at the ancient structure, but there was no one here.

I made my way back down to the inn, wondering if I had missed her somehow on my way up with Khomal. I pulled open the curtain that surrounded her bed. The bed was made, and her pack was gone. I ran to the front desk, confused.

"The Princess? No, I'm sorry, I haven't seen her since she left this morning," the attendant told me.

I sprinted up the stairs to the Elder's gondola, hoping against I hope that I would find her there.

"Princess Zelda?" he said. "No, I'm sorry, Sir Link, I haven't seen her today."

Fuck. Without another word, I dashed back down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Link! What's wrong?"

"She's gone!" I ground out, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

"Gone?" repeated Khomal.

"Who's gone?" asked Val.

Think about it, Link, use your useless brain. You had one job, and you already fucked it up. Where could she have gotten to? She couldn't have left Rito Village– we had been camped out at the only terrestrial exit all morning. Could she have commandeered a paraglider, and set out towards Hebra? I couldn't imagine she had the upper body strength to hang on to a glider that long, especially with all her luggage. I imagined her falling out of the air and sinking to the bottom of Lake Totori. No, she wasn't that stupid. Where else could she be, unless –

"Missing something?"

I whipped around. Revali leaned against the railing, trying a little too hard to look casual as he adjusted the string of his bow.

"Not now, Revali, we're in the middle of something," Qili snapped.

"Oh, well, if you say so. But if you ask me, it seems ill-advised to trust the fate of Hyrule to this little hatchling who can't even keep tabs on a teenage girl for a few hours."

I saw red. I caught him square in the head with a furious right hook. I shoved him up against the stone pillar forming the center of village and pinned him there by the neck. His Great Eagle bow clattered down the stairs. He flailed, beating his wings at me. He was nearly twice my height, but he didn't weigh much. I imagined cracking his little bird bones like a roasted pheasant.

Val, Qili, and Khomal all cried out in alarm, but I ignored them.

"WHERE. IS. SHE." I roared.

Revali stopped struggling for a moment, seemingly shocked at my anger. I don't think I'd ever spoken more than two words to him and I tried to never, ever let him see that he had gotten under my skin. Until now. He quickly recovered himself though, and kicked a spurred talon out at me. I dodged to the left, which put me down several steps, only worsening my height disadvantage. I still had the spear strapped to my back though. I pulled it out, swinging the butt end up towards his head. I tried to rap him right under the beak, but he blocked me with a swipe of one of his huge wings.

"Link! Revali!" Val cried. "Stop!"

Neither one of us heeded her. So many months of bad blood between us, and my frustration, and his pride, had all accumulated into a pile of dry kindling. Revali's latest jibe had been the spark, but now we were neither of us unable to snuff out the flame.

I continued pressing him with the spear, up the stairs. The space wasn't really wide enough for him to get to his full wingspan, and if he wanted to come at me again with beak or claw, he was going to have to get inside my spear range. I kept coming at him, swinging the spear like a man possessed.

Revali dodged a wild swing, and the spear cracked against the stone wall. I was left holding half a shaft with a spearpoint at one end and jagged wood at the other. I still had enough sense left to keep from sending it at him point-first, but only barely. In the end, it was him who broke first. He screeched at me, a primal, animal sound, and pulled out a knife.

"Revali! Think about what you're doing!" Qili shouted, but Revali was past all reason, coming at me with the knife.

I lunged up at him, throwing the full weight of my shoulder right into his delicate legs. He was top heavy, and I flipped him right over my shoulder, sending him face-first down the stairs. I leapt down after him, snapping up the bow, and pinned each of his wings under my heels.

"TELL ME. WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Go to hell," he sneered.

I nocked an arrow.

"Alright, alright! She asked me if I would fly her back to the stables." Some genuine fear had crept into his voice. "She had somewhere she wanted to go and she said she couldn't so much as preen her feathers without you following her."

"WHERE."

"I don't know!"

I drew the bowstring back. The draw weight was immense. I allowed some grudging respect for the fire rate he managed on this thing. Only when I pushed the arrowhead into his neck did Revali seem to grasp the gravity of the situation.

"The Rayne Highlands!" he chirped pitifully. "Apparently there's some Sheikah ruins there, I don't know why she wanted to see them, you know how strange she is about those things."

The Rayne Highlands. I knew the place.

We stood on a high hill overlooking the canyon. A small but wealthy settlement had grown up here. In addition to beautiful views and fertile land, industry flourished. Using Sheikah technology, water was pumped from the river below, sending it down the slope to power all manner of machinery. In fact, it was a Sheikah we had come here to meet.

"Your Majesty, Chosen Hero," said the Sheikah monk, bowing to both of us. "My name is Tena Ko'Sah. I shall keep watch over this shrine, until such time that the Goddesses call forth the next Hero."

"Please, stand, dear Ko'Sah. It is we that should be bowing to you, for this great sacrifice you are making for Hyrule."

"The honor is mine, my Queen. I only pray that the Hero Foretold may have the strength to withstand these trials."

Zelda hesitated. "Are you concerned? The other trials seem designed to cultivate thoughtfulness in a Hero who seems to have no lack of bravery." The corners of her mouth twitched, and she shot me a look out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't forget, Your Majesty, that Princess and Hero must master the three qualities to show their worthiness: wisdom, courage, and power. This Shrine represents a major test of strength. He will need to bring all his power to bear against the foe here."

"Link! Let him go!" Khomal's voice brought me back to the present. I still had the arrow pushed into Revali's neck.

"Please don't shoot me," he begged.

I relaxed the bowstring, and keeping eye contact with Revali the entire time, tossed the bow over the railing. I didn't see where it landed, but I hoped it was in the lake. I leapt over his head, down the stairs, and across the lake to the stables, praying to Hylia that I would find the Princess unscathed.

….

As much as I wanted to tear down the road like a wild bandit, I tried to keep a good pace along Tanagar canyon. Short bursts of canter, long stretches of trot, interspersed with brief periods of walking, so Selene could catch her breath. I kept an eye out for lizalfos or any flashes of Zelda's brilliant blue tunic. Impatience got the better of me at the end, and I pushed her into a gallop for the last stretch up the hill to the ruins. Tian called out to us as we approached, catching Zelda's attention. She spun around, clearly furious. She marched up to me as I leapt off of my lathered horse.

"I thought that I made it clear that I am not in need of an escort! I, the person in question, am fine, regardless of the King's orders."

She stomped off. "Now, return to the Castle, and tell that to my Father please."

She was joking, right? She had to be joking. I couldn't think of a faster way to find myself under the headsman's axe than if I showed up and told Rhoam that. I stepped behind her as she walked away.

She whirled around. "And stop following me!" she shouted. I was taken aback. I'd never seen her this angry before.

It seemed stupid, but I couldn't help but feel confused and more than a little hurt by her reaction. She had to know that I never wanted this in the first place, right? That the King had placed me in this same impossible situation? Did she understand that her little game was putting me in real danger?

Aryll's words of admonishment floated up into my memory. "Not that you were ever at much risk, being a noble. But life is different for commoners, and you have to think about how your actions affect them." Maybe Zelda didn't understand. That was frustrating. But I guess I had been guilty of same.

She strode up to Tian, putting her foot in the stirrup and hauling herself up into the saddle. She clucked at him, trying to send him back down the hill. Now that Selene was here, though, he wasn't having any of it. He scooted backwards, and sideways, and even bounced up on his hind legs a few times. Every direction but forward.

"Will you just GO?! Stupid stubborn animal!" Zelda was nearly at the verge of tears.

I thought it was a bit rich for her to complain about anyone being stubborn. I hopped up into my saddle and sent Selene forward, calling back over my shoulder for Zelda to follow me.