The sun shone proudly on the patches of wildflowers it helped to grow as Zelda admired them. Their horses grazed merrily nearby and birds chirped in the tree above them. To say the day was pretty would be an understatement. Zelda knelt in the long grass, taking pictures of the flowers with the Sheikah Slate. "There's one! Oh! And another! The flowers we have in Hyrule aren't just beautiful. They're also quite useful as ingredients for a variety of things," she said, snapping photos.

Link watched fondly over her shoulder.

Zelda's attention focused on one flower in particular. "Mm. This one here is called the Silent Princess. It's a rare, endangered species."

Link crawled closer to see it, favoring one arm over the other due to his still-healing wound, but taking care not to crush any other flowers on his way. There was certainly something special about this one. It wasn't your typical flower. The Silent Princess had elegant, pointed petals like beams of light shining from a blue star. Leaves curled back between each petal.

"Despite our efforts, we can't get them to grow domestically yet. The Princess can only thrive out here in the wild." She fingered the blossom gently, then leaned back. "All that we can hope is that the species will be strong enough to prosper, on its own."

Link had the feeling she wasn't only talking about the flower. She always did have a bright mind, after all. It was as if the flower was a symbol of her. Zelda seemed more like herself out here, rather than when she was cooped up in the castle or praying her heart out to an unresponsive statue.

Suddenly her eyes widened with a little gasp of excitement, and she pounced on something in the grass. "Is that what I think it is? Look at this! I don't believe it, but I actually caught one!" She turned toward Link, scooting forward on her knees. "This delicacy is known to have very, very potent effects under the proper circumstances." She opened her hands, revealing a bright green frog with big yellow eyes. "Ta-da!" She spoke very quickly, hardly giving herself time to breathe. "Research from the castle shows ingesting one of these can actually augment certain abilities. We wouldn't be in a controlled environment out here, but with your level of physical fitness, you'd be a perfect candidate for the study!"

Please don't tell me... Link thought with dread.

"Go on," Zelda said, scooting closer, "Taste it!"

Link shied back with a sound of aversion. She pressed further, and he let out another, more exasperated grunt.

Zelda giggled. "I didn't mean right here, right now! We need to cook it to unlock its effects, anyway." She stuffed the critter in Link's pouch, then stood up and brushed off her pants.

Link tried to ignore the frog croaking and leaping around in his pouch as they found their way to a cooking pot in the castle's kitchens. Luckily, or unluckily, the cooks were on their break, as lunch was over and dinner was hours away. Zelda fished through his bags and pulled out the frog and a few monster horns. Link normally did the cooking, but since Zelda was so excited about this, he let her mix up the elixir.

A while later, Zelda danced over to where Link was sitting and handed him a bottle of suspiciously green liquid. He took it reluctantly, and, with further encouragement, he drank it.

The second he tasted it, he thought he was going to regurgitate it. The putrid stench of monster parts mixed with strange critter meat was a combination his body wanted to physically refuse.

"Oh my! Does it really taste that bad?" Zelda asked.

Link coughed and revealed his sour face.

She quickly pulled out an apple and handed it to him. He snatched it and wolfed it down to get rid of the taste.

"Do you... feel any different?"

He shrugged. Waited. Zelda gave a soft sigh and sat down next to him. That's when Link's eyebrow started twitching. He held up a hand and watched it begin to jitter.

For the next few days, the most popular subject among the castle's staff was how the Princess's appointed knight had been spotted dashing around the corridors, kicking off of walls and leaping over furniture.