Once again... apologies for the wait between the updates. Time flies and I've told myself to not stay up until 3 AM to write chapters anymore, it wouldn't work when the sun soon will set around midnight and rise at 3-4 in the morning.

Happy E3! Let's hope Nintendo give us all the info we want.

Edit: HOLY SHITSALKDNMAOSDMAS OMGGGGG A SEQUEL TO BOTW AAAAAAAAAHHHH!

"I was thinking of going to Vah Ruta, if that's alright with you? It's almost like a second home to me by now."

Link walked next to Princess Mipha as they got closer to the enormous Sheikah construction. They crossed a bridge east of Zora's Domain to get to the East Reservoir Lake where Vah Ruta could be seen standing in the center. Once they reached one of the many platforms of the lake, Princess Mipha stepped into the clear water, which had already begun to reflect the colorful sky above them, and began swimming, tumbling around freely in the water while waiting for her friend to join her.

Link looked out over the water. The lake was large and he hadn't been swimming for a long time and wasn't quite used to longer distances. He doubted that he had the strength to make it all the way to the Divine Beast but, being stubborn or maybe too proud, he wouldn't give up before at least trying. He stepped on the shallow steps from the platform and into the lake, feeling the cool water immediately seep through his leather boots after just dipping the soles in and then completely filling them as he began to wade deeper into the lake. It didn't take long before he suddenly lost foothold and it took him by surprise for a small moment before he reasoned that Zoras probably had no need for shallow steps into the water since they fit perfectly in such environments. Link began waving his arms to keep himself afloat and began to swim towards Vah Ruta. He could see Mipha making a circle in the water underneath him before she came to the surface to join him. She was naturally much faster than he would ever be and he knew that she could most likely swim back and forth to Vah Ruta three times while he was still struggling to get there. Still, she didn't seem to be bothered by his slower pace and matched her swimming with his. She was too kind to not comment on it, and that was why he had always liked her. Her kindness was unmatched by anyone he had met so far and she always looked out for him like an older sister.

She didn't try to small talk but instead kept an admiring look on him. Link would take turns between keeping his eyes on the goal and his childhood friend, but eventually he kept them on solely the first instead. Swimming with drenched clothes was heavier than what he was used to, and the Master Sword which was still hanging on his shoulder weighed on his back as well. His boots slowly felt heavier and he had to be careful to not get water in his lungs as tiny ripples threatened to enter his mouth. If there was one thing he had admired the Zora for as a child, it was their ability to swim gracefully and easily. No matter how hard he had tried to be on their level, he had never been close enough and there had been times he even wished he was one. If only to win a race against Sidon and the other Zora children, he couldn't remember.

But Mipha had kept her attention on Link and noticed that he was becoming tired with each stroke he made. She lamented for a split second that she had suggested going over to Vah Ruta, seeing how Link was now struggling to keep himself afloat and going forward at the same time, but she pushed the thought away and did the best she could out of the situation.

"Here, take my hands."

Link took another stroke, and a second, and a third, before finally he gave in and grabbed Mipha's outstretched hands, grateful for her help the moment their palms met. She sped up gradually, her legs doing most of the work and letting Link more or less float along with her so he wouldn't have to do more than holding onto her. His own limbs were thankful for the break. Mipha swam effortlessly in the water even when pulling Link along with her hands and soon reached a moderate speed. Link knew she could do faster than that, be he was grateful she wasn't – the waves from such speed would most likely just hit him in his face and force him to keep his eyes tightly shut.

"I'm sorry for suggesting coming here" Mipha said when they reached Vah Ruta. Link shook his head at her comment. He hadn't disagreed on her suggestion after all. He had stayed silent, as usual. He didn't want her to think it was her fault when he could've said no.
There was a smaller platform on one of the Beast's sides and Link eyed it and saw that the entrance next to the platform. He began to swim closer but stopped when Mipha spoke. "Oh, Link, wait. I was thinking, since the sky is so pretty this evening, that it would be nice to see the horizon from the top." She pointed upwards where a waterfall flowed down from Vah Ruta, from its trunk, and noticed Link staring at it. She figured that he probably wondered how they would get up there. "It can be a bit tricky to get there, but… I could get us both there. Since it's a stream of water coming from the trunk, it won't be difficult to me. But…" Link swam back to her. "But you would have to hold on to me… more than just by hands."

Their gazes locked for a moment before Link broke it by looking up again. It was a terribly long way to get there but he had no doubt that she could do it. He turned his eyes to his friend again and nodded. Mipha smiled but he couldn't tell if it was from happiness or nervousness. Maybe it was a mix of both, but she had no reason be feel the latter, he thought, because he knew she could do it. "Will you let me take you there?" He nodded again and he was sure that the smile was pure happiness now. "Ok, then, just…" She twirled in the water and showed her back to him. "… make sure you hold on tightly."

Link slowly got closer and awkwardly crossed his arms over Mipha's shoulders. They had always been close but he had never really been physically so close with her. Except for when he gave her a quick, grateful hug after she healed his wounds as a child. But that was ages ago. Then he reasoned with himself in his mind, he had seen Zoran parents carry their children on their backs in a similar way he was holding on to Mipha now. This was no different than a piggyback really. The thought helped him to not feel so awkward in this situation and he relaxed – but why did Mipha's heartbeat feel quicker than normal under his arm?

"Ready?" He held onto her harder and Mipha knew that he was. "It'll go faster if we stay in the middle of the stream, but I'll make sure you can take breaths of air, ok?"

"Ok" he replied.

"Take a deep breath."

Link did as he was told and Mipha dashed through the water and straight upwards through the waterfall. Link kept his eyes closed and his face hidden in the slope of her neck, trying his best to not let the water enter his nostrils. He felt them coming to something of a surface sooner than the lack of air began to pain his lungs – kind Mipha, always thinking of the comfort of others – and he gasped for air before he hid his face again. This was repeated a few more times before he curiously opened one eye when he felt Mipha move an arm differently and saw, or at least he think he saw through the water, her maneuver the Divine Beast to change the position of the trunk and soon, he felt her swim in a different angle, more horizontal, and suddenly they had arrived. Mipha grabbed onto the top of the trunk, a tilted platform, and Link placed his palms on the stony surface and heaved himself up, made a loud splash, and almost crawled to get on top of it as quickly as he could manage. If he had been tired in the water earlier, it was nothing compared to the heaviness he felt once he was out of it – his body and clothes felt at least twice as heavy now. But he guessed that Mipha must have felt out of energy too, carrying a Hylian on her back couldn't be easy after all, and he didn't hesitate to help her up onto the platform. The red Princess didn't ascend from the water quite as loudly as he had and she got on the platform much more gracefully that he had. He let go off her hands and watched her maneuver the Beast again and flinched when it gave a loud noise, sounding like a hundred trumpets if he had to compare it with something, and the platform shook as it came to a flat, horizontal angle. Mipha hadn't seen him flinch, which he was happy for, and he could see that she hadn't been kidding when she said that the Beast was like a second home to her. She knew very well was she was doing with any command she gave it. Honestly, he was impressed. He would never have guessed that his childhood friend would do something like this in the future.

The water had stopped flowing from the platform and Link looked curiously down the middle of the trunk, but nothing could be seen than black darkness. He payed it no more attention and sat down on the wall surrounding the opening's edge. Mipha sighed happily when she saw the sky and turned around to face him. But her face looked more worried when she saw him.

"I'm sorry, Link, now you're all drenched." She crouched down to his level and he looked at her with eyes as if they were saying And so are you, trying to let his friend know that he didn't mind. She glanced over her arms and fins and giggled softly, "And I suppose I am, too." He smiled on the inside. She got it.

Mipha sat down next to him and her body glistened from the water drops as Link tried to squeeze some water from his clothes. Her silver jewelry chimed when she moved her head to look at Link and everything was quiet around them except from the wind. "Now," she interrupted the silence, "let me see your arm before I forget."

Link had almost forgotten about the scratch on his arm. The pain had gone from sharp to dull and throbbing, and he rolled up his right sleeve for her and reached it out slightly, enough for her to sit in a comfortable distance while healing him. She scooted a little bit closer before she gently took his arm with one hand and hovered the other above the wound. A bright white-bluish light lit up between his arm and her hand, a sign that Mipha's powers were at work. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both focused on the red, irritated skin on his arm, and Link could suddenly remember vividly similar moments from his childhood. Her hand was larger than his arm back then, he could remember how she had kept him still by grasping her fingers firmly but gently around his arm the first time she would heal him, he could remember how skeptical he had been at first and nervous too but he calmed down once he saw that her magic really did work and that nothing hurt and he began to believe her calming words. Now, his arm had grown and her fingers could no longer reach around his muscles. The only thing that had stayed the same since then was the feeling of nothingness on his arm as Mipha's healing magic did wonders – no stinging pain like when alcohol was dabbed onto wounds, no piercing ache like when needles pulled skin closer, no itch at all.

Mipha broke the silence after a few moments and Link turned his attention to her. Link was apparently not the only one who recalled old memories, Mipha did too, and she described a younger version of him with the same word as Princess Zelda did earlier this year – reckless – and he figured that may be a personality trait he would never be able to change no matter how hard he tried.
Mipha spoke with fondness over her memories and then changed the subject, admitting that she found it peculiar that he grew up much faster than she did. Link thought to himself that it must surely feel much odder to her than it did to him. He had never given it much thought, and he had always seen her as the adult, someone wiser and taller than him, and in his eyes, she still was. But, he figured, it must feel different to her. It was perhaps ten years since they first met and to him, those ten years felt like eons ago, but to her, to Mipha… She still looked the same, she still behaved the same, even Prince Sidon was the same from what he could recall, so it wasn't that strange if she found it funny that someone that was just a child in her eyes could quickly change so much.
She mentioned that she would gladly heal any of his wounds back then, and still would, and Link wondered to himself if that was her way of telling him that she would take care of him after Ganon was defeated.

The light from Mipha's hand faded and she moved her hand and let go of Link's arm. He moved his arm to inspect it, turned it over once – the red wound had disappeared and not even a scar was left as evidence of her work – and he looked at it in awe, still not fully able to comprehend how her power worked no matter how many times he had seen it in his life. He was just about to thank her when she spoke again.

He listened to her thoughts about Ganon, her worries and doubts, and he wanted to tell her not to worry, that he got this, but he shared the same doubts as she did and couldn't comfort her. If not even Mipha knew what Calamity Ganon truly was, then he guessed that his chances of someday finding out about his destined enemy were slim. Surely would Princess Zelda have told Mipha everything she knew about the Calamity to ensure that she would be prepare to strike when the day would come.

A thought crossed his mind that perhaps not even his Princess knew for sure what the Calamity was. Should he be worried?

But Mipha, kind and selfless as she was, only thought of him, and she promised him that she would always be there for him, that he could always count on her to mend any wounds anyone might dare to cause. That she would always protect him.

Why she said all of this to him, he didn't know. She had no obligation to act as his healer, and he understood that she cared for him but he didn't want to be a burden to her. And if he would end up with any ugly wounds after things were over… he wouldn't want her to see that. She would only worry of him, and there were surely more important things for her to do than healing his wounds. Wounds on her own soldiers must be a higher priority, wouldn't they?
And it was his job to protect her from the Calamity, her and everyone else in Hyrule. He hoped that she didn't see him as weak, just a kid who would stand against evil. That wouldn't make him look very… heroic at all.
He told himself that he was overthinking things and cleared his mind.

Link could tell that Mipha was nervous by the way she was behaving – voice on the verge of stuttering her carefully picked words, hands clasped together, gaze diverted downwards until her eyes finally landed on his – and he wished that he could say something back to comfort her. But he found no words comforting enough to tell because, honestly, who wouldn't be nervous about what the future would bring, especially when theirs were so uncertain? And considering that Mipha was a Princess, she not only had herself to worry about, but her people, the Zora. So he said nothing and listened instead to her as she expressed a wish for them to spend time together once things were over.
Link wasn't sure that would be possible, one, because he couldn't promise her he would survive the Calamity, and two, if he did, he would probably have to join the royal guard again and wasn't sure how long he could take a break from there. But he let his mind imagine for a moment that there would be nothing to stop him from doing anything he wanted to, if he was free to do as he wishes for a few weeks, then yes, he nodded, it would be nice if he could spend some time at the Domain with her. He had always liked it there and the pools of water and tall mountains surrounding Mipha's home would most likely give some sense of serenity and peace, something they both surely must feel the need for once things were over.

Mipha beamed shyly as her cheeks were becoming rosy. "You would? Would you really like that?" Link nodded again and she needed no further confirmation. She turned her head away in an attempt to hide a huge grin on her face but he saw it anyway and he was glad that he could make her happier. She turned back to him a moment later. "Make sure you come back soon, I'll have a surprise waiting for you once we meet again." Link raised an eyebrow, curious what this surprise was, but she wouldn't tell him and he didn't try to make her. He would hopefully find it out one day anyway.

The sun painted the horizon in an orange shade and thin clouds covered the darkening sky like veils. Zora's Domain looked so tiny from where they sat and Link could see some of the illuminating lights down there beginning to shine. His clothes were still damp but his hair had somewhat dried thanks to the breeze that came by being so high up. Neither of them spoke, and it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but he thought that he should take the opportunity to try to thank her for fixing his arm when he felt a sneeze coming and he couldn't stop it. Mipha snapped her head around and he sneezed again, and he was glad that he hadn't in her direction, and he felt her hand on his shoulder before she spoke. "Oh, please don't catch a cold. Maybe this was a bad idea after all."

He turned back to her to say that he was feeling fine but was interrupted by a third sneeze, taking them both by surprise. She giggled at that and he chuckled too, and she said, "Maybe we should return before it becomes a cold. We can't let you protect Princess Zelda with a runny nose, can we?"

He smiled at her. "I guess not."

Princess Zelda walked under a darkening sky and among illuminated paths in Zora's Domain, looking for her knight. Not for any particular reason, she wasn't exactly in need of him at the moment, but she felt as if something, someone, was missing when he wasn't following her every footstep and that feeling bothered her. And it bothered her that it bothered her.
She sighed. She told herself that it had been a while since she had seen him and she just wanted to know where he was. To check that he was fine.

She slowed her steps and sat down next to the fountain in the middle of the Domain, thinking that he might pass by if she just waited a little bit, and that's when she found him. Looking up slightly to her right, she saw her knight standing next to Princess Mipha, no longer wearing his champion's tunic and looking somewhat wet. They were standing at one of the pedestals surrounding the Domain, connected by what looked to her as water slides. But she doubted that they were used as slides. But what they exactly were called didn't matter right now. She only wondered why he wasn't wearing the tunic.

Her initial thought was to go to him now that she had found him, but she quickly changed her mind. She observed them for a little bit and she realized that she hadn't really seen Link stand so close next to anyone, apart from the guards he had to stand in line with but that didn't count. Mipha seemed to be in a good mood and Link more relaxed than he used to be in her presence. It would be rude of her to interrupt them now – she had almost forgotten that they were old friends and they would surely like some time together in private without her disturbing them. Her eyes stayed on them a little longer (she noted that Link didn't seem to utter many words to Princess Mipha either) before she thought that she should go somewhere else before they spotted her. So she stood up and began to corner the fountain when she heard Princess Mipha's voice call out to her. She would much rather let them be than joining them – what could she have to offer when their friendship went years back – but she couldn't pretend that she hadn't heard Mipha's sweet voice and twirled around. When she faced to see them again, she noticed that Link had already straightened his back and he looked more serious. It hurt somewhere in her that he would change so quickly when she was around, she wished he would treat her like he did Mipha.
Or was that was she really wanted?

"Oh, Princess Mipha!" She acted surprised. "I didn't see you there."

"Why don't you come and join us before supper is served?" Princess Mipha called back.

The Hylian Princess hesitated for a moment and gave in once Princess Mipha asked her again to come over. She made her way to them and made the mistake of looking over the edge and down at the lake beneath them once she stood next to her knight and fellow Princess. She backed away from the edge and looked up again. Her eyes landed on Link.

"Where is your tunic?" She didn't mean to sound disapproving and she didn't like the tone in her voice. She hoped they didn't notice.

Knowing that Link isn't very talkative these days, Princess Mipha took the liberty to answer for him. "I asked Link to swim a little with me so we hung it up to dry afterwards. I didn't want him to catch a cold."

"Oh." That would explain why her knight looked a bit wet. "I see." She searched for something to say in her mind but it didn't take long. "What about the wound, are you feeling better now?"

"He let me use my healing powers to mend him. I couldn't let him take care of the wound himself when I was free to help him."

"Oh." A sting of jealousy hit Princess Zelda's chest – how she wished she had magical powers too – but she quickly suppressed the feeling. This was not the time or place to think of such things. "That's very kind of you, Mipha, thank you." She mustered a smile.

An uncomfortable silence spread between them and while Princess Zelda tried her best to come up with something intelligent and interesting to say, Princess Mipha interrupted her thoughts. She took a step closer to the Hylian Princess and said with a kind and hushed voice, "Do not worry, Zelda, I'm certain that your powers will appear soon. Sometimes… the best thing you can do is to not think too much about it." Yellow eyes met green and Princess Zelda could really feel the compassion coming from the Zora Princess. "Don't hesitate to let me know if you want to talk about it."

She felt her eyes become watery and she fought to keep the tears back. "Thank you, Mipha, I… I will be alright." She smiled and received one back.

Princess Zelda felt slightly better afterwards and suddenly it wasn't difficult at all to talk and enjoy the company of her knight and Princess Mipha. She didn't feel like an intruder but rather welcomed. Time passed faster than she noticed and soon it was announced that supper was served. And if the delicious sea food wasn't enough to keep her bad thoughts away, the energetic Prince Sidon did a great job at stealing her attention for the rest of the evening.

Sorry all Mipha x Link shippers, my version of Link don't see Mipha in a romantic way.