IMPORTANT THING IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! IT'S UNDERLINED - PLEASE READ IT!

notaname: I don't really feel like specifying what happened, and it would actually take a long time to do so. No one really wants to read all that, so I'll spare you my life story (XD). I have heard of shootings in my area, but have you heard of jet ski crashes? That happened a couple weeks ago. It's sad, because I think they died, but who runs a jet ski into another jet ski?! How is that even possible?! *skipping over some things due to time constraints* As for how they become closer... you'll have to wait and see. What I meant was it was a thing I made up. It's a thing now! More stuff detailing that in the Author's Note, actually. Oh, yeah! I saw some pictures of that! And this one really sad comment where Link asked the Wind Fish one if it could still grant wishes... I'M NOT CRYING. Inconveniently placed cliffs, eh? That must've been a rocky landing... I'll go home now.

SomeGuest: Well, that's the whole point. What's a story without Link torture (XD)? Aw, thank you! Ah, I caught that reference! Thank you for your support! I think that, for English not being your native language, you wrote that pretty well!

Have a great week, Guest Readers! Now... ONWARD! TO VICTORY!

Chapter 19: Riddles

Gerudo Desert. That was where she was going. Princess Zelda did not care that she was going without any permission. She did not care that her father was most likely about to send a legion of soldiers after her. She did not care that she would get a severe scolding upon her return.

All she really minded was the knight that continued to trail behind her. Though his own footsteps were near silent, his horse's hoofbeats were always heard in the distance. However, Zelda had no doubt that Urbosa would uphold her city's tradition - that meant she would have, at the very least, a few days away from Sir Link.

She had been perfectly content as she sat down by her meager fire, the small flames sputtering meager embers into the night air, she caught the knight's silhouette in the near distance.

He looked so very alone. The way his shoulders were slouched, visible even in the dark of night, showed an exhaustion she hadn't seen earlier that day… when she had scolded him.

Guilt crept up once again, and this time it stayed.

Zelda pulled her diary out of her pack and began to write.

"I said something awful to him today…" She paused, thinking of where to go next with her words. "My research was going nowhere. I was feeling depressed, and I had told him repeatedly not to accompany me. But he did anyway, as he always does, and so I yelled at him without restraint."

Zelda hesitated. Maybe she shouldn't have been so stern. He was merely doing his job. Perhaps she could admit a small tidbit in her writing, then act as if she had never felt that way in the first place.

"I feel terribly guilty...and that guilt only makes me more agitated then I was before."

That seemed good enough. She slammed the diary shut with a slight huff and tossed it back into her pack. She had decided that her entries needed to be shorter and to the point - some of her last ones had been far too long. Besides, she didn't need to write all of her feelings for all the future monarchs to read. All of the journals she had read for her somewhat limited royal training had been extremely formal, more like a report on daily events than a collection of scrambled thoughts.

Though Zelda doubted she could do the same without going slightly insane, she could, at the very least, attempt to… while venting a bit at the same time.

Link had, at first, been confused as to where they were heading. It quickly became apparent when she turned south rather than continuing towards the east that they would not be going back to the castle. However, it became quite clear that their destination was Gerudo Desert, or something in the area, when they reached the Digdogg Suspension Bridge.

Then it became far too clear that he was right when she left her horse at Gerudo Canyon Stable.

But if she was going to Gerudo Desert… that would be a problem. He had heard of high Y... monster activity in that region. And he would not be allowed inside Gerudo Town. He had been inside once, when he was still very young, but now that he was older, there was no chance.

Of course, that had to be her plan.

"Master Link, there is civilization in the distance. My records tell me that the area is called 'Kara Kara Bazaar.'"

Sure enough, just beyond the princess's form on the horizon, was the trademark rock formation of Kara Kara Bazaar, decorated by draping silk banners embroidered with gold.

Gerudo Desert was such a strange place. With its uniquely musty scent and rolling dunes of golden sand, it certainly held a beauty not beheld in Hyrule Field. It definitely brought back memories, even though he had only seen it once. Memories of younger days of youthful oblivion. Days without duty, or shame, or guilt...

The faint smile that had begun to tug at the corner of his lips faded back into his emotionless mask. He had to figure out what to do next. The princess didn't want him anywhere near her, and the guards of Gerudo Town certainly wouldn't let him in.

He supposed he would wait it all out at Kara Kara's inn. Gerudo Town was full of six-feet tall warrior women, so the princess would be safe there. Surely the Gerudo knew how to tell an ordinary traveler from a… an assassin. He would follow the princess to the town, then leave as soon as she reached the entrance to the town safely.

Then he'd wait.

He hadn't been very patient when he was younger. Always raring to go, barely able to stand still. But his training had broken that wild child (though he shamefully admitted that he wished he could act that way again - but that child was long gone). There had been one time where he had to stand in one place for nearly twelve hours… and it had started raining halfway through.

This wasn't that bad. He could, and would, wait.

After a long day of dealing with Yiga thieves and Rito complaining about a lack of poultry, Gerudo Chief Urbosa decided it was about time she took a break.

Though the desert outside the city's walls was unpredictable, filled with Yiga and lizalfos, both masters of camouflage in the sandy environment, the city was filled with noise - she would never get a moment of peace.

Besides, Gerudo were trained from birth to withstand the terrors of their beautiful homeland. Though they usually went in groups of two, Urbosa, as the chief, was sure to be fine on her own. Going with someone would defeat the purpose of her outing.

As she walked out of the city, she spotted a familiar girl, mere yards away, practically stomping through the sand.

"Princess?"

Princess Zelda's eyes jerked towards hers, looking surprised. "Urbosa? What are you doing out here?"

Urbosa quickly made her way to the princess and engulfed her in an embrace. "I could ask you the same, Little Bird." Urbosa looked around, confused by the lack of company. "And without any sort of guard…?"

Zelda pulled away with a shake of her head. "No, he's over there," she said, her voice dripping with great spite. She pointed to a figure roughly twenty feet or so away, which had turned away. "I suppose he was following me until I reached the town, but he's turned around for some reason."

Urbosa recognized the blue of the man's - no, boy's tunic - even in the faded light of the twilight. It was Sir Link.

Basing her suspicions on the princess's demeanor, the distance between her and her personal knight, and the suddenness of her arrival… something had happened.

"Tell me everything, Princess," Urbosa ordered as she ushered the princess further into the desert, towards the place where Divine Beast Vah Naboris stood idly. "You will not spare a single detail."

"...And that's why I came here. I knew you could help me, Urbosa."

Urbosa cocked an eyebrow at that. "I think I understand - you came here to exploit the law of my town so that you could avoid your knight and get away from your father?"

The princess hesitated. "Essentially, yes. But your advice would be wonderful as well. You can read people better than anyone. Why is that knight the way he is?" she groaned.

Urbosa felt herself smirk. "You know, for hating your knight, you talk about him quite a lot."

Urbosa looked at the horizon ponderingly, ignoring Zelda's sputtered reaction. She had seen the boy very few times, but if her memory was correct, she had seen at a time long since passed, a mere vehvi trailing behind his mother. She had pleaded to let them stay for a few weeks until they found a safer place to stay.

The Gerudo Champion had certainly been surprised when she discovered that the very same boy had become the Hylian Champion. He was so very unlike the excitable child he had been. He was difficult to read now, even for someone like Urbosa that prided themselves on their ability to do so.

But there was always a slight darkness in his eyes - they were dulled and deadened, his shoulders always stiff as if carrying tons of bricks.

Urbosa looked to the princess, whose cheeks were still puffed from Urbosa's previous statement. Urbosa held in a chuckle. "Every human in this world has emotions," Urbosa said calmly. "Sometimes said emotions are very lacking in luster, of course, and that might be all you see in him."

Urbosa paused, thinking about how to give her the answer, but make the princess work for it.

"When I was young," Urbosa began again, "my mother told me a poem about the dusk. Though I don't remember all of it, this one line seemed to stand out the most to me: 'Through the twilight's beauty, something solemn hides - those who don't seek it shall never find.'"

The princess tilted her head inquisitively. "And what does it mean, Urbosa?"

Urbosa's lips curled into a sly grin. "I won't help you, and I doubt another knows - you will have to seek to find."

The princess rolled her eyes. "You're making me work for it?"

"No one can obtain anything in this world without a price," Urbosa said with a wink. "Not even a princess."

The princess looked down at her lap, her brow furrowed. "Then what about Sir Link? He… he drew the Sword that Seals the Darkness without any sort of trial or struggle!"

Urbosa frowned and looked back to the horizon, where the sun had begun to set, a strange sadness settling over her at the sight. They both remained silent, watching the light fade to dusk, and, finally, the dusk fade to darkness.

When Urbosa glanced over at the princess, she saw that she had fallen asleep beside her, her chest rising and falling rhythmically with her breaths.

Urbosa turned back to the night sky as she finally found the answer she had been seeking. The invisible weight on his shoulders, his deafening silence, the dull look in his eyes… Urbosa felt silly for not seeing it before.

"The price isn't getting the sword," Urbosa realized. To even hold that sword in his hands puts thousands of lives on his shoulders. He's not paying a price... because he's already sacrificing himself for everyone else.

That night, the princess dreamed of a faceless hero in blue, trudging his feet through deep mud and battling hordes of mechanical beasts. He continued to fight, despite the relentless downpour, deafening thunder, and wounds that gushed blood and stained the earth below him.

At the end of her dream, he laid motionless on the ground, gaping holes in his sides that left him in a pool of his own blood.

However, her dream mattered not - after all, when she awoke, all she could remember from the dream was the pounding thunder that had roared in her ears, and eyelids tugging over dulled blue eyes.

Well that's a nice ending. Nothing says peaceful like watching certain knights lie in pools of their own blood, right?

Sorry this is updated later in the day than is normal. I usually update at 6 AM (roughly), but last night I had a sleep study and was, despite what one would think, left exhausted. Wires hooked up all over you while you're trying to sleep will do that, I guess. SO... I didn't go to school today and slept instead. There's a bright side! But now I have more homework, so maybe a not so bright side at the same time?

I've seen Detective Pikachu twice and I love it.

Hmm... I wonder what Urbosa's poem is referencing. Definitely NOT Twilight Princess. What makes you think that? I'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING TWILIGHT PRINCESS RELATED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! *erases search history regarding Twilight Princess* *pauses* Ooh... new "If Link Could Talk in Twilight Princess!" WAIT, YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT!

Important! I'm starting to plan the next big story for after Before. There are three ideas I have right now. One is post-BoTW, but also BoTW AU at the same time. Because time travel. The second one is post Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, with the Hero of Time doing OP crap and figuring out about his past and stuff. Then the third one is a pre-Skyward Sword story, similar to Crimson Hope (another of my stories, which is done and needs some work), but with more detail around Fi's origin, etc. Basically the Skyward Sword manga, but also including times years before it. I'm going to put a poll on my profile, and the one that gets the most votes will be the one I do next. For guests, if they'd like to be heard, they can put it in a review and I will make note of it!

Thanks to all the reviewers! Guest reviewers will be getting less in depth replies on last chapter, because I'm late enough as it is, but I'm still trying my best to reply to everyone! If I missed you... I'm really sorry!

Once again, if you find any mistakes, point them out, please!

Subscribe to Mr. Beast! His wallet isn't as limitless as it seems!

Sincerely (*rocking out to Zelda remixes* Huh? Did you say something? Oh, yeah, right...),

Ari~