Ties Chapter 1 – Collision
It had been days of traveling for the young traveler, well more like a week actually. Hyrule was a large place and Faron was a fair distance from Lanaryu. They maneuvered their upper body so that they could grab at their stuff hanging off their bag. Finding the object in question they took the hide canteen that had been hidden on their hip, opened it, and drank from it heartily. Their feet were so sore, they never liked wearing footings in warmer weather, but not everywhere was accessible by water. They were dressed in a reddish-brown tunic with a long hood and a scarf and a pair of trousers. They had light cloth wrapped around their forearms tied with leather string. To be honest they never liked wearing any kind of clothing, it was itchy and drying out their skin. It was a necessary evil, they didn't want a sunburn while traveling on dry land, that would be ten times worse than dry skin. The climate change was subtle at first but now the heat was really much higher. Wearing all these clothes were such a pain. The good thing was that they were close to their destination, was it really necessary to be wearing all them now? There was a familiar rumbling in their stomach, they groaned as they looked in their snack pocket. They shoved a hand in searching the pocket of their bag finding only crumbs of fish jerky. They groaned lowly, how could they be out of rations? They'd been snacking too often, no they hadn't dried enough fish last camp they made camp… This only meant that they would have to go fishing fairly soon. With a sigh they placed a clawed white hand over their stomach, stopped and knelt down pulling off their pack.
They pulled out a map that they'd inherited from their Hylian father. According to it, there were a bunch of small lakes around as well as the larger, Lake Hylia. Any one of them would be a good place to stop to rehydrate. They were feeling it, plus their water was running low anyway. They held up the empty canteen and held it upside-down as a drip of water fell out… Carrying so much water was a bother, but it was also necessary. Since they were of aquatic nature… This was their first time away from home on their own, and they were missing it terribly. They tried their hardest not to let it show, because even they knew they had to move on. They couldn't stay there forever, they'd made a promise, and they'd be unhappy there, they knew it. A single Zora living in a Hylian village, there wasn't really a place for them there. "Stop thinking about it Rethe…" a hushed voice told them self from under the hood. But… They traced a finger lightly over the tiny little drawing of her home. It was a tiny drawing of their house in the middle of the grasslands of Faron. Purple eyes went soft as they gazed down at it, memories flooding their mind. Taking in a deep breath, they cleared their throat, gathered their wits again, looking at the map one last time before rolling it up and replacing it back into the pocket it came from. They pulled the bag back on and continued onward.
They approached one of the smaller lakes on the map, though it didn't look small at all. They pulled off their bag yet again and set it down with a happy sigh, looking out at the water. It looked so inviting, like it was beckoning to them. They pulled off the cloth around their arms first. As soon as the string was off their arm fin broke free. That was so much more comfortable, quickly undoing the left arm next. They looked around shyly, their purple eyes scanning the tree line before they pulled down the hood and unwound the scarf. Followed by the red-brown tunic, they wrestled them over their head, the fabric getting caught on something before she carefully got it free. Straightening them, she folded neatly before laying them over the bag so they wouldn't get dirty. There was a black cloth garment under her shirt that looked like it had been made to fit a Zora. It was a one piece that went around their fins, going up over their chest having and open back and fastening around their neck. Pearly white scales shown through what was not covered. She was well toned, seemingly in pretty good overall shape. She covered her chest even though she was still covered by the black garment, she took another look around. Her pearly white scales shining in the sun so she sat and took off her footwear and slipped off her trousers leaving just the black suit.
Rethe folded them and set them with her other garments and looked back at the water. She was obviously not your everyday typical Zora, as the village children used to call her the Monster Zora. She had black horns that protruded out from behind her head flippers as well as the bottoms of them, like it was a claw. There was also spikes at the end of her head-tail above her tailfin. She had strange markings on her body, one particularly stood out just because of its location. On her forehead was a large symbol, what made them worse was that they were highly contrast to her white, black in color. She smiled walking forward and dipped a toe into the water, it was nice and cool, but not freezing. She walked in and waded into the deeper water before diving in. Whilst swimming around just to play a bit she noticed how deep it got. She never would have guessed that this lake got so deep. She was nervous but excited, to finally meet her people, but to eat was even better. Well right now it was. There were many different kinds of fish in the northern regions. Course with the mix of emotions it made it harder to catch fish. There was just so much room to swim here! A school of beautiful silvery fish swam by her in a hurried but relaxed pace. They knew what she was and they knew to avoid her. She grinned to herself, she was to wound up, even the fish weren't afraid enough of her to swim away. She had to mollify herself a bit so she had settled in a thick bed of seaweed to calm her thoughts. She had to straighten her thoughts for hunting, she could explore after she ate. Rethe rested on the bottom; the seaweed was thick enough the fish wouldn't see her unfortunate pearl white scales. They would forget she was there and she could try again, it would just take a bit longer than she wanted.
Just when she was starting to feel the tranquility return, heard a large splash follow by what sounded like someone swimming and realized she was no longer alone. She couldn't hear the splashing anymore so they either got out or went under. She suddenly got a predatory feeling in her gut, and fish starting swimming into the seaweed to hide, which made her all the more nervous and scared. She carefully took a peek out of the seaweed but didn't see anything, it was like all the life she had seen just vanished. A large shadow flew over her and she ducked back inside. 'Oh, this is bad this is bad, what if it's an animal a very large animal!? I don't know what kinds of animals they have up here, I should get out of here!' She decided quickly to make a break for it. Whatever animal it was she could definitely outswim it. So, she muscled up all her courage and sprung out of the seaweed only to be stopped when she knocked heads with whomever she'd been trying to run from. She immediately grabbed her forehead talking into the water something that sounded like curses. Her fighting instincts kicked in as she tried to throw a few swings at whatever was in front of her. After hitting what felt like a rock it was hard to focus on anything else but the pain in her head. She wasn't going to die down here though, not before she got to where she was going.
The red and white Zora before her, although the female had hit him hard enough to make him see stars for a moment, looked at her with concern. She had burst out of that thick seaweed rather fast while his curiosity had gotten the better of him. All he had wanted to do was take a peek when he'd spotted her looking out. He'd felt rather guilty, her eyes were closed tightly and she was on the attack. He wasn't sure if she knew that he wasn't an enemy. Perhaps she was confused, he grabbed her gently by the wrists, pulling her to the surface while she tried feebly to break free. Once they broke the surface, she still fought him. "Release me this instant!"
"Please calm down? Are you alright?" He asked. Rethe still had her eyes shut tight still fighting to get her hands free. He didn't sound like a wild animal, he sounded nice enough and she didn't have that predatory feeling anymore. But then again, she'd just rammed her head into someone else why wasn't he reeling in pain? She slowly opened an eye to look upon the one she ran into, then both. "Please I didn't mean to cause you pain."
"I…I'm uh…" she was looking at another Zora. Two bright golden yellow eyes looked back at her, furrowed in a worried expression…. Her cheeks flushed a light pink, she looked away immediately. She wondered if that feeling was just him. She'd never been around another Zora in the water before. But why was she not feeling it now? Was it because he was fishing before? Her confused expression gave him a look of concern. She noticed how close he was and her face turned bright red.
"You must have hit your head harder than I thought. I am Sidon, Prince of the Zora." He gave her a toothy smile. "I should take you back to the Domain so you can be looked over and be sure you are all right. What is your name?" He asked as he was trying to usher her gently towards the shore.
"It's uh it's Rethe…" as her mind was trying to process everything he was saying, she stopped when one thing he said finally clicked. "Wait Prince!?" She turned now facing his chest since they were in shallower water. She blinked a bit, he was tall, she looked up at him "I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to run into you… Oh Nayru! I TRIED TO HIT YOU!" he waved his hands to stop her with a chuckle.
"It all right Rethe really. No need to be sorry. It was merely an accident. And I mean no offense, but you couldn't have hit me the way you were thrashing about, especially with your eyes closed." He watched with interest. He'd never seen her in or around the Domain. She was even wearing Hylian garments which was a little bit unheard of for a Zora, except for Mipha of course, but that was not really clothing as it was a symbol of being a champion. Rethe walked up on shore and sat near her things which included a lot of Hylian gear. Sidon wondered if perhaps she was a wandering Zora. But she seemed to know so little about Zora ways. Even wanderers knew the royal family by name at least. And her fins were interesting, he'd never seen fins with claws before. Was she from a different clan?
"My apologies your highness, but you have quite the hard head…" this gained another chuckle from Sidon.
"I have been informed of this a few times before. But please, just call me Sidon." He grinned. "We really should get you to the infirmary." her stomach decided to rumble and she blushed and Sidon only smiled. "And perhaps something to eat while we're at it." Rethe raised her hands in protest.
"I can't ask you to do that I mean I..." she began but Sidon cut in.
"I might have given you a concussion the least I can do is escort you to the Domain and make sure you are well fed young one." He said with a smile and Rethe could only look down blushing partially embarrassed.
"But I'm the one that ran into you." She argued.
"Details… Now can you walk? Or shall I carry you?" Rethe opened her mouth to retort but no words came out, only a blush colored her cheeks. He'd just offered to carry her!?
"I can walk..." She said in a small voice. She gathered up her things and followed him to a nearby river. She watched his back muscles ripple under his scales as he walked in front of her and she caught herself staring and looked down quickly. 'Rethe you idiot!' she scolded herself. This was no time to be ogling a boy… Even if he was really attractive… 'Keep your hormones to yourself you don't even know him! And he's the Prince for goddess sake, you're not even on the same level.'
"We can get to the Domain from here." He said jumping in without a thought. Rethe on the other hand wasn't paying attention and saw they had reached the water already.
"Oh right!" she said louder than she had meant to. 'Smooth…' she thought. She went about putting her things on her bag so they wouldn't get wet and pulled out a bandana, tying it around her head.
"If you're worried about your things, they're definitely going to get wet. Save yourself the trouble." She only frowned at that. Just how wild was this river? She replaced the pack and walked in the cool water; Sidon watched her. It kind of made her uncomfortable, she blushed and hid her face in the water when she was deep enough. "Alright are you ready?" She nodded letting a few bubbles escape her mouth and Sidon smiled. He couldn't understand why she was so nervous; most girls were unbearable around him; it was actually a nice change of pace. She raised her head just enough to talk.
"How long does it usually take this way?" Rethe asked swimming with the current.
"A lot less time than walking there." he joked. Rethe laughed lightly, but it was very unenthusiastic. At least it wasn't fake, that was one thing he really couldn't stand was when girls fake laughed at his jokes. Or just complimented him on everything, when they weren't swooning or begging to marry him. "I wanted to ask is that a tattoo." he asked looking at the black symbol now hidden under the bandana." He asked swimming backwards. "And your fins are rather interesting what clan do you hail from?" he asked cheerfully.
"I... um..." she pulled her bandana down making sure the mark was fully covered. Sidon could tell she didn't want to talk about it right now so he let it go. And she blushed red again, she sure was a shy one. She hid her face underwater and bubbles escaped her lips.
"I don't speak bubbles. But I apologize if I overstepped my bounds." He chuckled which made her more embarrassed. She slowly raised her head out of the water not looking at him.
"No, it's okay, my parents were Hylians, I've been with them since I was a child. Since they died, I've been taking care of the house… and with the war I couldn't go anywhere... When the war ended, I packed up and left it behind." She said looking saddened.
"Your real parents, were they casualties of the war?" Sidon asked softly. It was a sore subject for him too.
"I don't remember my real parents… I don't remember anything really… Not before I awoke after the accident on the beach… my head was bleeding very badly I remember that much. And father came around the cliffside and he was so startled, but then he saw I was just a child and he came to me, helped me. He even used his favorite vest to bandage my head." she admitted, pulling up the bandana, finally showing him the scar above her left head flipper. It was long and jagged; Sidon swam over and took her face and she went bright red as he gently turned her head to examine it.
"Looks like it had been a bad wound. You're lucky to have survived this." Rethe just blinked up at him. Sidons' curiosity got the best of him when he noticed something else about her head. "Huh I thought these were fins but they are stiff." He tapped a black horn that grew out from behind her head flippers with a claw, she slipped from his grasp and ducked underwater with an eep. Sidon just blinked; she was really shy, or she didn't like them to be touched he guessed. He sighed, thinking way to go Sidon… He went under water as well, putting a hand on her shoulder patting it gently, giving her a half smile, she slowly rose, he followed. "Rethe, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. That's the last thing I wished to do. I overstepped my bounds... again… I meant no ill will please accept my apology, again. I was being a..." he cleared his throat "… curious jerk." Rethe didn't know what to say. Usually boys just made fun of her appearance, well the Hylian boys did. They never apologized for it, but he seemed like he really hadn't meant to offend her. He looked down right almost ashamed of himself.
"It's uh okay. I'm just used to people making fun at me, that's all." She said looking away. Sidon looked at her in disbelief.
"Really? But you're such a unique Zora, I would think they would they would have all sorts of questions for you. But they seem ignorant if they would rather harass you." Sidon said rubbing the back of his head.
"They did have questions at first. But when they realized I had no answers… I became useless to them I suppose." Rethe looked down.
"Come now cheer up, you'll feel better in the Domain. I have a feeling your future will be bright! You'll be able to make friends there! Build a new home there! And someday I'm sure you will meet someone who will make you very happy! I believe in you!" Sidon gave her a reassuring smile that did make her feel better. This really was a good idea to come here.
"Thank you, Sidon, your words are appreciated, more than you could ever know." she looked up at him with a soft smile. It was genuine, it took Sidon off guard and he didn't know why.
"You're welcome." They continued until they reached the first waterfall, Sidon thinking nothing of it swam right on up it. Rethe watched with an awestruck look on her face. He could swim up a waterfall!? She'd never swam up one before and just looking up at it made her dizzy. That might have been from cracking her head. Sidon peaked over the edge. "Are you coming?"
"I can't…!" she yelled back up but she wasn't sure he'd heard her over the roar of the falls. He jumped down, surfing down the waterfall before he was low enough, he jumped in, splash landing in the pool just a few feet from her splashing water on her. He surfaced next to her shaking the water off his head, looking over at her. She blinked at him awestruck again. He was just amazing, could all Zora do that?
"What is the problem?" He asked gently he wadded over to her, looking concerned again.
"I can't swim up waterfalls… There were none where I grew up." Rethe said. Sidon sighed slapping himself mentally, he hadn't thought of that. "I'm sorry." Rethe said in a small voice feeling inadequate.
"You don't have to be sorry; you don't make the landscape. Come on." Sidon smiled and swam for the shore. Rethe followed watching him as he sat on a rock to dry off a bit. "Come rest we'll have to dry for a bit before we continue." Rethe smiled a little, a rest did sound nice. She sat across from him and checked her bag to make sure that the things she wanted to keep dry were still dry. "Why don't you tell me about your parents?" That took her off guard a bit, he wanted to know about her parents?
"There's not much to tell. My father was a builder he liked to travel to gather materials to build the house, or anything he was building really. He liked to put an exotic flare into his projects, that's why he was at the beach that day. He drew pictures of idea's he had of what he wanted to build. He also loved to make maps. Since he was already good at drawing out house plans, drawing maps was easy and he just loved to do it while traveling. He designed my indoor pool from seashore rocks. They were all rounded and smooth." She smiled to herself. "Father drew the map I used to travel here. It's very accurate." She smiled talking about him and Sidon found himself enjoying listening to her stories. "Like father dug a pond for me and the built a gazebo over part of it so I'd have shade in the summer. The grasslands in Faron don't have many big lakes around, we were close enough we could travel to Faron sea once in a while though." Sidon sat and listened to her. He didn't know why he wanted to know about her life. Was it guilt for what he'd done earlier? No, it wasn't that or pity for the poor girl. Of course, he was curious about this accident, he was certain she was too. It must have been eating away at her for years. He was suddenly pulled back to the conversation when she laughed an actual heart filled laugh. "Mama was so mad every bit of me was covered in mud, but we caught so many fish, and they didn't have to pay for any that week."
"It is always wonderful to think of fond memories isn't it?" Sidon asked. Rethe nodded, her eyes looking down at the bag of things left for her from her parents. For a while they talked until, they were dry enough to travel again.
A/N: Revamp on the old since I wanted to try to make it more descriptive and fix errors. I hope it's not horrible lol