Link found an additional surprise when he rounded the alleyway exit, only to bump into Impa and Zelda! He'd nearly collided with Impa, running so fast; but she had surprisingly lightning fast reflexes for her age and managed to dodge within a hair of a second of making contact..! Link tried to correct himself, to compensate for his speed he thought he'd halt all at once. Rather than colliding into Impa, as he expected, he wound up losing his balance and tripping over himself. He rolled forward a pace and stopped sideways on his ribs, looking up at Zelda. Although her reaction seemed as if expectant, Impa was just as surprised to see Link as he was to see her and Zelda; however, much more concerned and composed. "Did you just come from that alleyway, young man?" She asked, sternly. Link half recoiled but nodded, standing up and brushing himself off.
Impa was very solemn, concerned for Link, and tried to explain the danger, "Lad, I wouldn't return there if I were you." She stated, pointing back into the narrow alleyway. "Downtown Hyruletropolis was built on top of almost half of the Lost Woods, this side of the river... ... Where concrete, steel, and asphalt cover the ground, no magic can take hold... But in the old days of Hyrule, before it became a metropolis and yet after it grew beyond a simple township: Everything was built with brick, wood, and stone. The Lost Woods were named for the people who mysteriously disappeared after venturing into them... Unlike metal, cement and blacktop, stone and wood are alive and channel magic as well as the air and water do... Brick amplifies it in the direction of its laying. Legends say that those who entered the lost woods would become Stalfos... Everyone who entered... Stalfos..." She seemed to gaze off into an unseen distance. "Oh, listen to me, going on about magic, you must think me an incompetent boob..." But fell short when she became self conscious in a sudden awkward moment of uncharacteristic doubt.
"Pardon the history lesson, I've come with the- young miss, to give her another lesson, it's already strong in mind." she smiled awkwardly, continuing. "But never the less: Hyruleans continue to get confused and lost, sometimes one or two will even disappear, if they find themselves in the alleyways... As they had in the old days of Hyrule City... Just as they had in the ancient Lost Woods... I hope you don't get lost as well..." Zelda stamped her foot impatiently "Well? Can we invite him in or at least get going already? You said you had something to show me here!" Zelda childishly scolded Impa, turned and smiled brightly at Link, "Hi Link!" and smiled with her eyes.
"Have you ever been in the Museum of Hyrule before?" Zelda asked him, scooting past Impa. Link nodded as Zelda continued without really waiting for his reply, "Impa told me the spires on the corners of the building were moved from the original castle, back in the old days when the town... and now I learned it was made of brick." smiling again with her eyes, cheerful and bright. Although her smile faded along with her sentence as she continued, "... and that we were here, today, to learn some important stuff..." seeming concerned with its importance. "Wanna hang out?" she asked, slowly reaching for his hand.
Link nodded his head again and Zelda suddenly grabbed his hand and ran up the steps toward the door, leading him in, calling impatiently for Impa behind her, who slowly followed up shaking her head. Zelda wanted to show Link the statue of the King and ran him straight to it before relinquishing her grasp. She stopped and stared up at it a while, silent, and awestruck; Link stared at her, confused. He looked up at the statue as well, and Zelda started explaining herself, still staring, gaze fixed.
"Sorry I ran you in here like that, I hope I wasn't, too, rude..." the pause was a bit long, "Impa told me she needed to explain things to me today... I was confused at first when she said we had to be at the museum for me to understand." She took a few steps back, still focused on the King's statue, still staring at his face. "But when I thought about my dreams I've had in the last few seasons..." Link walked back with her and stood beside her, listening, "I asked her if it had anything to do with the Royal Family. She seemed surprised, and maybe wasn't supposed to tell me then, maybe not until now, right here."
Impa had caught up and crossed the threshold into their hall, "Truly, I was not, but your question implied you'd been having dreams and visions." She said, catching their attention. "I felt pressed from both sides of my duty, I told you why you were named after The Princess Zelda from ancient Hyrule." Impa turned sternly to face Link as she approached the two, "Link, your name has become a thing of rarity amongst Hylians, more common for Humans and Gorons to be named Link in the last hundred years than your people, said to be bad luck for a Hylian. You two are not here together today by mere coincidence, and I am worried that you must leave now, Link. Perhaps it will be explained to you better in the future, but, my apologies, you should go. The museum has given me special privileges to open and close its doors, and this is not a public opening."
Link felt abashed, and awkwardly departed from his friends. Leaving the museum, he stared at the alley for a moment, wondering if he dared betray Impa's warning, his mind wandering to untold travels beyond Hyruletropolis, getting lost in the brick laden corridors, but turned to face the river instead, figuring he'd pay Ruto a visit today after all - An extra long route now. Link was pretty tired from the long pause in his run, so he sat on the steps and took a breather, got up after a few minutes and began stretching. He built his energy up quickly, warming himself up, and then took off immediately, no jog start.
He heard a call from behind him a moment later but ignored it, and rounded the corner to run past the skate park. He did a lap around the park, nodding his head in acknowledgement to Goron Link on his way past him and then headed back toward the mall where this day really began. He arrived at the mall and saw Krystal, on her way in the doors to open shop. She didn't see him and he didn't slow or say hi. Rounding the next corner toward the parking garage he slowed pace since traffic was starting to appear and the light ahead was red. As soon as it was green and the cars were clear, he dashed across the intersection and entered the garage. Many more parked cars filled the garage than this morning, so he tried his hand at some stunts again, weaving in and out of tight spaces between cars, rolling across roofs and jumping and sliding across hoods. An alarm startled him and he stumbled, rolled, and corrected himself, then exited the garage, all without breaking pace.
He got back onto the main street as it merged with the one he'd just come out of the garage onto, and found the old lady standing directly in his path on the sidewalk, staring directly at him; as if deliberately blocking him. He didn't want to be disrespectful or run into her and had to stop. So he did stop, directly in front of her; and she smiled, cackled gleefully, and told him he'd have incredible luck today, then got out of his way, still laughing. He stepped past, awkwardly, watching her from the corner of his eye.
Link was roughly a quarter of his way home from the garage, from downtown. Kafei's General Store was near here, and Link had his allowance on him. So he went in, wearing the Keaton mask, and bought an empty small bottle for 20r. "You shoulda sold the mask, kid! that bottle would have been 5r off for you if you had! Shame... Keep trying!" Kafei delighted to encourage the boy. "You look tired, have some water with that bottle" he finished, filling his bottle for free. "Come back if you need some more." Kafei told Link as he left the store.
Link drank down the water and felt instantly refreshed, so he didn't bother stretching and jumped right into sprinting. Again he thought he'd heard a holler, but again, it wasn't concerning him enough to stop after he'd already begun sprinting. He ran straight along the sidewalk all the way past his home and down toward the lake. Since there wasn't any real hurry, he didn't cut across the field or swim through the lake, but instead followed the main street until it turned into country road and lead along the river east of it.
He slowed to a jog and enjoyed the scenery of overgrown, grass and wide open field at the city's edge. His neighborhood was right there on the edge of civilization, between the rural country south of Hyruletropolis and the downtown urban sprawl north of Lake Hylia. It had been a very exhausting run, from Downtown to his house. As the lake came into view, he knew his jogging was over, and walked the rest of the way to Ruto's house.
Across the old covered bridge where the river split the lake into two large bodies: Lake Hylia to the east and Lake of Ill Omen to the west of the fork. Locals, however, never separated the two bodies, and considered them both one large lake. The impoverished Zoras who lived in coral-and-metal shanties built on top of an island in the west end of the lake all say the same thing: That "Ill Omen" is nothing more than a spiteful insult directed at the homeless Zoras who were kicked out of their own homes generations ago.
As he exited the other end of the covered bridge, he heard a shout this time "Link! Wait up!" Link realized Zelda had followed him all the way from the Museum and was calling after him the whole way! He turned around to see a huffing and exhausted young Zelda, hunched over, trying to catch her breath. "hhhh... And I thought Impa's... whew... training was intense... hha...wwwhh you're unreal!" She looked up, eyes heavy from exhaustion "Link, I-" she started, but hunched over again, breathing hard, still chasing her breath. Link quickly crossed the bridge again, back to her side, and lent a shoulder for her to lean on, smiling for her. "Thanks, Link. I think we should find some place to Talk..."
The way she emphasized 'talk' suggested important matters, but Link was still set on visiting Ruto. He nudged her toward town, looking in the general direction of Ruto's house. Zelda nodded and they slowly walked to the young Zora's home in silence.
They arrived at the same moment as Ruto, who was returning with a basket full of fish. She smiled warmly for Link and invited the pair in. "If you don't mind eating fish, you can stay for dinner too." she said to the both of them. Link helped Zelda to a chair and Ruto spoke to her "Zelda, right? We were all such little babies when we met, huh?" Zelda smiled "You remember! It's nice to meet you again, Ruto!" They smiled at each other, and Ruto asked if they'd stay for dinner. "I eat mine raw, of course, but I'll start a fire for you to cook yours." Zelda thanked her and Ruto got to work chopping up the fish and preparing them for the fire in an adjacent room.
Zelda became serious "Link." She initiated. He gave her his undivided attention, waiting on her words. Zelda fidgeted some before continuing, "Impa said my family are the descendants of the Ancient Royal Family of Hyrule, and that... I am, a rightful princess...!" Ruto was shocked and poked her head out, staring at Zelda and Link for a moment, unnoticed by the two as Zelda continued on, "She told me this morning before we ran into you... That's what she wasn't supposed to tell me, but it gets worse, Link!" Ruto darted back and got busy trying to ignore the story and focus on the fish, flustered and anxious.
Zelda stood up "Impa's always kept a close watch over me and taught me all kinds of important things and ways of taking care of myself. I used to think she was insane with her level of training and teaching and history lessons! But now I see why she did it all... She told me things today that I'm not supposed to tell you, not anyone... but... I know in my heart that I must. The right thing to do... I wonder if anyone knows... what the right thing is..? I feel this is right! You're going to save Hyrule!" Ruto involuntarily quipped a stifled squeal and caught Zelda's attention, who started to blush. Zelda opened her mouth to make an excuse, but Ruto held up a fin and spoke on top of her "I- It's okay, Zelda... We have a lot in more common than you'd think. My parents adopted me when I was very little. They found me floating down the river not far from downtown. They waited till I was ten years old to tell me that they found me in a basket and that I was wearing the Zora's Sapphire around my neck..."
This time it was Zelda who squealed, "Oh! So you are a Princess of the Zora people!" She happily exclaimed "This is too good to be true! Link, do you know what this means?!" Link stared back with a vacant look. "ugh!" Zelda cried out in disgust. Ruto covered a laugh. "Ruto can help you save Hyrule too!" Link held up his hands and began to back away. "You want to help us, don't you?" He was trapped between himself and his heart - He didn't want to betray his friends, let alone all of Hyrule, but he was scared that this was too much for one boy to handle. "Don't worry, Link! You'll always have your friends to count on!" Ruto encouraged, though he looked worried still! "Yeah! We'll be there with you every step of the way helping however we can!" Zelda finished. It was decided, and he saw there was no fighting it, Link confidently nodded with his hands on his hips. Both girls ran up and hugged him, knocking all three to the floor.
After eating the smoked salmon Ruto had brought home, Link and Zelda warmly waved goodbye and began walking back home. "I live on the north side of the downtown area, do you think you could walk me home?" Zelda asked as they cleared the covered bridge. "I managed to lose Impa after I lost you and found you again in the skate park..." She giggled "So I cant expect her to know where I am and show up in the van. Besides, after taking off on her like that, I don't want to call her and rush into trouble either." Link involuntarily laughed out loud. He smiled and nodded, and Zelda held his hand.
As Link's suburban community came into view, so too did a cyan racecar; barreling down the road, well over the speed limit. It barely made it past Link and Zelda before the squealing of rubber could be heard as the driver slammed on the breaks. The car peeled out and swerved around, toward the kids, halted, then peeled out, spun around, and sped off. "That was weird..." Zelda said with heavy concern, squeezing Link's hand. They continued silently for an hour, past Link's neighborhood and into town. The same car came speeding past from ahead of them a second time and slammed on its brakes again. Zelda squeezed Link's hand much more tightly and scooted closer to him, leaning to his ear. "I think we need to run." she whispered. The car peeled out again and spun around in front of the kids. Link kept walking slowly as the driver and passenger opened their doors. The children trudged past the car and the driver called out "Hey! Where do you think you're going? You're not gonna walk past us and ignore us like that!" They kept walking slowly, and the passenger spoke up "Yeah! See, yer in our territory now! You were saw walking out in the suburbs. Like, that's our turf now. Walkers gotta pay us racers to walk on our race courses!" He was referring, of course, to the streets themselves. They had walked just far enough and needed to run now "HEY! GET BACK HERE!" The driver yelled, Prompting Link to tug on Zelda's hand, as if to say "NOW!" and they bolted. "HEY! Get them!" The driver shouted more.
Link and Zelda dashed past the parking garage, down toward the mall, turned at the theater and entered a new place, somewhere Link had never been before. He slowed, and Zelda instructed, "Follow me!" as she turned the corner ahead. They ran hard, the cyan racers not far behind them, catching up to them. "Hurry! We'll lose them in the alley!" Zelda called out as they turned the next block. Navi's Curio was ahead across the street from them and Zelda darted into the alley. Link followed close behind, scared he'd lose her, scared they'd get lost.
She turned to the right at the T then Left at a 4 way intersection. They ran through a narrow passage with dumpsters on either wall, which link jumped onto one, off it to the next, skidding across it. Zelda simply avoided everything and dashed as fast as she could. She then ran straight past another 4 way intersection, turned left at a T, and then right again. The alleyway curved to the left for a long and wide arc, which Link ran across the wall for half the curve. When it straightened out, it blocked off with a Locked door. They ran straight into a dead end. "Oh no!" Zelda cried out.
They turned around and the Racers, hot on their heels, stopped, withdrawing a crowbar and a chain, threatening the children's lives. Link stepped forward and raised his fists. The driver couldn't resist it and started cracking up, easing his buddy's poise a little in the process, lowering both their guards. "guffaw! This kid! hahaha! Guy! You get a load of this kid? thinks he can protect his girlfriend, like, against both of us?! I like you, you got guts, kid! bwaahahahahaha!" The passenger raised the crowbar high above his head to strike Link.