notaname: It's all good - I totally understand, considering how busy my own life's gotten lately! Thank you! I worked hard to try and make that conversation seem realistic, so I'm glad it turned out well!

notaname (2.0): Thank you :3

Chapter 30: Curiosity Killed the Cat

Though they were only at the base of Death Mountain, Zelda still found the heat nearly unbearable. It clung to her skin like the sweat on her forehead, leaving her panting like a dog.

She almost wanted to complain… but there was just one thing that stopped her. Her knight, unlike herself, showed no sign of being bothered by the heat besides the faint red tint to his face.

"They want someone stoic and strong. Ensuring their faith is my duty to the kingdom. I will not fail."

His words had continued to repeat themselves, playing on a constant loop within her mind. She had never before realized that a few words could affect someone so drastically, let alone herself.

He silently bears his burdens, all on his own, Zelda thought, determined. I can at least try to do the same. So she kept her mouth shut and kept walking, doing her best to ignore the heat that bore down on her like a fiery blanket.

Zelda paused on the trail, hearing the light clink of her knight's scabbard grow silent. He was very quiet in movement, yes, but she had learned what sounds to listen for - he could silence his own footsteps, but the way his scabbard moved was impossible to completely silence.

"This should be far up enough," Zelda explained, quickly looking around the ground along the sides of the trail. "Purah said it was only found around the base of the mountain… so there should be some around here."

She heard the light clank of her knight's scabbard yet again - he had most likely shifted his weight onto a different foot, or perhaps had nodded. It was a bit infuriating, but somewhat fun to guess what her knight was doing while she wasn't looking.

Zelda got down on the ground. "Purah said that the mineral is a shiny, metallic substance found in large clumps near the surface," Zelda mused aloud. "It's rather common around here, so it shouldn't be hard to find."

Sometimes she liked to pretend that her knight dropped his guard when she wasn't looking, making a bit of a game of it. She would turn around quickly, too quickly for one to react properly, but she would always be met with a face skillfully kept blank. She didn't know why she expected any different - she supposed that, after that night in the kitchen, she had decided she didn't know what to expect of her appointed knight anymore.

She always had liked surprises. And when she turned her head to find her knight, knelt on the ground and digging his way through the dirt and rock right beside her, the slightest tug at the corner of his lips (something that brought a smile to her own, though, had she seen it a few months previously, she would have found it arrogant and aggravating), she was reminded yet again of what an enigma he was.

He was a knight - a soldier, a weapon of war. Yet he had admitted that he was not fond of killing. He appeared cold and hardened, but she had witnessed him cradling a kitten in his arms with gentle hands befitting of a healer. He was a prodigy swordsman, a knight of the Royal Guard, and, for goodness's sake, the Hylian Champion and Hero of Hyrule, yet not once had she seen him parade his titles.

Now that she thought of it, she had never even heard him speak his title, or introduce himself at all - that, and all of those who seemed to know him personally didn't use his title. Purah even went so far as to call him "Linky."

That brought her mind to a pause. Other people knew Link. Why hadn't she thought to ask them about him?

Wait a second, she thought, this time her mind being brought to an abrupt halt. I did ask someone about him.

"Through the twilight's beauty, something solemn hides," Urbosa had said tauntingly. "Those who don't seek it shall never find."

The riddle! She realized. In that one moment, she managed to put the pieces together. This whole time...

Then she found herself chuckling. Urbosa, you knew all along that I was too stubborn to look close enough, didn't you?

"Princess?" she heard from beside her, that once infuriatingly blank voice now seeming so much more soft and soothing to her weary mind.

"Nothing," she said. "I just remembered something Urbosa told me about. A poem about twilight. She told me to figure it out…" Zelda trailed off.

"That poem?" her knight asked, surprising her.

Zelda jerked her head towards him. "What do you mean, 'that poem?'"

And then, quoted so perfectly it seemed second nature to him, he stated: "'Through the twilight's beauty, something solemn hides. Those who don't seek it shall never find.'"

Zelda gaped at him, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly before she managed to find words. "How do you know about that?" she sputtered. Had he heard that entire conversation? No, Zelda couldn't remember much of what had been spoken, but she doubted she had said anything kind about her knight.

Her knight shifted uncomfortably, his face clearly struggling to remain blank. "I lived in Gerudo Town for a short time when I was younger," he explained quietly. "Chief Urbosa used to throw that poem around like a catchphrase."

She was surprised at first, but… now that she thought about it… hadn't Urbosa mentioned something about Link that one night, shortly before the Yiga incident?

"It's rare that we get anyone that young in the desert, but… his situation required it."

What situation was it? Zelda wondered. So she voiced it aloud, her curiosity getting the best of her. "Why were you in the desert?"

Her knight, shocking her to the core, flinched. He flinched. It was slight, so very subtle, but clear as day. Who are you and what have you done with Sir Link?

"I…" he paused, trailing off. Then he fixed her with a blank stare, his fierce eyes sending a shudder down her spine, giving no emotion away. "It's none of your concern."

"I thought you said you had to answer me honestly," Zelda pointed out, referring to their conversation the night before.

Her knight frowned, looking down at the ground. It was a pretty low of her, Zelda knew, to use his own words against him. But her curiosity was killing her!

"...I was there with my mother," he said simply.

"Why wouldn't you want me to know about-" Zelda cut herself off abruptly as she connected the dots. "Your mother…" she whispered. "Is she…?"

Link looked away, silent. But his answer was clear enough.

Zelda didn't speak another word for the rest of the morning, continuing her search in silence. She was quite bad at interacting with her knight - she kept on bringing up the most cruel and horrific of topics. But this might've been a record worst.

His mother was dead.

The princess had become awfully quiet after she discovered what had... happened, Link had noticed. It was as if she took the blame for what happened to someone she'd never met…

It was my fault, Link insisted to himself. Mine and mine alone. The princess has never done a single thing to feel so guilty.

He closed his eyes momentarily, but he quickly opened them again - not before the image of a bloody corpse passed through his conscience, however, along with a limp hand held in his grasp.

Never again, he thought. Too many times have I failed to protect someone. Next time, I'll succeed, or die trying. Of course, with his record, the more likely of the two was the latter.

The princess had found and gathered quite a bit of the mineral (he believed Purah had dubbed it "Sh13k89," a name that gave him a headache just by thinking about it) - he suspected that Purah had only instructed her to gather half that amount. He had a feeling that she was dedicating herself to this search less for the original objective, and more for the sake of avoiding his eyes.

It wasn't like she hadn't acted like this before - mere weeks before she had hated him quite passionately, and when she wasn't ignoring him, she had scolded him (though sometimes it was much deserved) without restraint.

This, however, was different. There wasn't the cloud of hatred and rage hanging around her, rearing its ugly head whenever he dared to speak - instead, she held herself in a way that seemed so very small, so very helpless. He doubted it had anything to do with his mother - as he stated before, she...

-a scream of agony tore through the air, and he immediately knew that she, the only one he had left... she-

...had no reason to feel guilty about that.

Shaking off the flashbacks that hadn't been so frequent in ages, Link finally noticed something was strange about the area they were in - something was off. Something in the air was stiff and tense. It was too quiet, too still. He hadn't heard the scuttle of lizards across rock, nor had he heard the distant cawing of a territorial Eldin ostrich.

Something was off, and he didn't like it. It was a feeling that was all too familiar to him…

"Your Highness," he said quietly, looking towards her. The princess jumped, as if he had startled her out of her thoughts.

"What is it, Sir Link?" she asked a bit awkwardly.

She was clearly unnerved by the expression on his face - he couldn't bring himself to force his grim expression to change. She had to understand the situation at hand, and they had no time for games.

"I need you to get to the stable as quickly as possible," he said slowly and clearly.

"What?" the princess squawked indignantly. "Why?"

Her question was answered for him when a horde of bokoblins burst out from behind the rocks.

Heheheh... cliffhangers. We have a love-hate relationship.

HELLO THERE, EVERYBODY. I'M NOT DEAD. WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE I'M DEAD? THIS IS THE NORMAL UPDATE SCHEDULE NOW, SO WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE I'M LATE AND DEAD? ALSO, WE'VE HIT 200 REVIEWS, TOTALLY NOT FREAKING OUT OVER HEAR, YADA YADA YODA (haven't done a secret review phrase in a while... so Yoda it is). THANK YOU ALL, YOU'RE ALL GREAT, I'M NOT SLEEP-DEPRIVED, I SWEAR. I'M JUST INSANE.

Now that I've regained my sanity... I would like to thank you you all! I'm pretty sure that chapter thirty (sixty-seven if you count the old Before, which add up to 400+ pages) and 200 reviews is a landmark or whatever! You're all really supportive and helpful (motivation juice! Yay!)!

I've been really busy recently (school, homework, siblings, illness, almost dying 6573657819 times (the mile run can go jump off a microwave), and various other life related things), so I was not able to reply to all of the reviews (especially because of how many reviews I've gotten between last chapter and this chapter). I PROMISE I'LL GET ALL OF THEM NEXT TIME, AND IF I MISSED YOU, I'M REALLY, REALLY SORRY.

Other than that, I've nothing more to say. If you spot any errors (it's kind of late - I'm uploading this chapter to the doc manager the night before Monday so that there are no issues tomorrow - wow, thinking ahead of time! I've never done it before - it's amazing! (just kidding, I just don't do it often :b) But that also means I'm tired, so I don't trust myself).

Sincerely (wait, what were we talking about?),

Ari~