Summary: The Hero and the Princess finally reunite, but he has no idea who she is and she can't reveal herself to him. Who are they now that their titles have been removed? Two strangers lost and alone in this world. We will also discover why Link can understand sign language.
Weighing out the small list of options she has, Zelda had decided to position a camp and wait for Link around Proxim Bridge. She's sure he'll have to cross it eventually if he needs to head towards the Dueling Peaks and thankfully, there already was a make-shift camp set up when she arrived, housing no current residents. On the far end of the bridge, a large damaged wooden roof was set up for weary travelers with a fireplace and a cooking pot abandoned just underneath it. Perhaps it was the makings of one vagabond left over for the use of another, but she's not really sure, though she's not complaining. On the other side of the bridge, closest to the Great Plateau lies an ancient, orange glowing shrine and it makes her happy that she had decided to shed some rupees for a journal and graphite so she could at least busy herself with research while she waits for Link to arrive.
It's surprising how quickly she's become comfortable with her new surroundings. Zelda had wasted no time to move a couple logs over by the fire so she could lounge next to the cooking pot and write by firelight. Even Jassa seemed to love the meadow across the path along the slow moving river and he never ventured far. She would spend most of her days investigating and sketching the Bosh Kala shrine as much as possible, then scavenge for berries and fungi, sometimes she'd swim laps in the river if it was particularly warm that day or train with either her bow or just her body. She'd spend hours in a meditative flow; flexing and stretching herself to new lengths and abilities. Truthfully, she's never paid much attention to how she loves the agility and feeling of exercise before her confinement with Ganon, never realized how strong her body feels, how focused and clear her mind is—or maybe that's a new feeling altogether.
She's having trouble remembering how things used to feel these days. After all, it's been a century since she's felt much of anything.
Zelda has told herself that if she was to aid the hero, she'd better increase her fitness level even though any strength she gained would be mere fractions to what he is capable of. Nevertheless, she has created several archery targets to practice on, but she had quickly excelled past its worth, so instead, she'd decided to test her strength and vitality on the nearest bokoblin camps. She struck every single one of them before they could even locate her.
It has been close to a week and still no sign of him.
She's starting to feel like she missed him, but that's surely impossible. He has to come through here in some way or another. The location she's chosen is a great vantage point to see all around her, in all directions, plus she could watch the wall of the Plateau for any sign of movement. Certainly, there's no way he had snuck around her while she slept because she doesn't. The physical activities she's spent her days doing certainly has kept any potential panic attacks away, but they did nothing for her nightmares. Zelda would rest an hour here or there, but she's never been a heavy sleeper and the terrors from the castle she had just escaped from would creep into her dreams any time she closed her eyes.
» . «
It's a sunny afternoon and Zelda is sitting on the edge of Proxim Bridge, one foot dangling over the side as she eats a late lunch of burnt mushrooms and runny eggs. How she managed to do that she has no idea. It's when she's picking over the last remaining bad bits of her meal when she hears birds begin to scatter. Head snapping up, she sees deer fleeing from the woods close to the Outpost Ruins. Then her eyes trace the path where the deer had just been running from and there are several bokoblins monsters—clubs at the ready—running towards the Great Plateau.
It has to be him, Zelda thinks. Please let it be him.
Glancing upwards, her eyes dart along the crumbling gigantic wall, frantically scanning for any kind of movement and there he is, descending on a paraglider. He's a mere speck by the distance between them, but Zelda's heart flutters like an electric darner at the sight of him. Her smile is so wide, she swears if he looked he could probably see it from there, but it quickly fades. All those monsters had spotted him and are quickly collecting to the spot where he's going to land. He's going to be outnumbered.
Fuck.
Without a moment's hesitation, Zelda rises to her feet, whistling for Jassa as she tosses her breakfast over the bridge, and grabs her bow and quiver. She leaps onto her horse, letting out a loud hiyah! and Jassa goes from a canter to a gallop, heading along the path that trails through the Outpost Ruins.
As she gets closer, she watches Link land and he's already in fighting position, waiting for the first monster to strike at him. And there's the Sheikah slate dangling on his belt—Goddess, she's thrilled to see him carrying it. He must have been using it to activate the shrines atop the Plateau and possibly even as a weapon because when the slate had been in her possession, there were still a few runes missing. Maybe he completed what she couldn't.
In his left hand holds a shield much like the ones the bokoblins were holding, and in his right held a… soup ladle? No, she can't be seeing that correctly.
Nevertheless, when she has an opening, Zelda lets several of her arrows fly. She critically strikes two of the bokoblins closest to Link who were crouching in around him, giving away her position entirely as Link snaps his head towards her, suddenly bracing for the huge black horse and its rider heading straight at him. His body tenses as she lets another arrow strike at a monster that has turned its attention towards her instead of the empty threat and a soup ladle. Her arrow lodges into the monster's temple before it even has a chance.
When she's within shouting distance and Jassa tramples a bokoblin in their way, she yells to him.
"Grab on!"
She holds out her hand, but doesn't slow the speed she's going. In response, Link grips her forearm tight as she pulls him up to sit behind her and immediately pivots the steed's direction back towards camp. A disgruntled moblin swings at them in the process, but misses and as she pulls Link to sit behind her, she can't help but take notice how extremely light he is to lift onto the back of a speeding horse. Was she really that strong? Maybe it's the rush, the adrenaline coursing through her veins or maybe even the physics of her speed as she pulls him upward. Either way, Link immediately wraps his arms around her waist and the contact of another person, even him, stiffens her. Jassa tramples over another monster as their path straightens back towards safety and she figures now is a great time to ask.
"Can that be used as a weapon?" She says over the loud pounding of Jassa's gallop and the grunts and shrieks of monsters.
Link's hands grip harder around her waist and his hair brushes softly against her neck. He turns an ear to her shoulder, indicating he didn't hear what she said at all. So she starts again.
"That thing on your belt!" She yells louder and twists her head over her shoulder, his face is inches from her own and she can feel his choppy breath with every gallop. "Can you use it to hit them somehow?"
He takes a second to process her question, but then unlatches the Sheikah slate from his belt. Working quickly, he removes both hands around her waist and Zelda can feel the device tapping against her back as he taps his fingers on its screen. The swishing sounds of something materializing chimes right behind her and then Link throws whatever it was as hard as he can. Seconds later, a loud explosion has Zelda snapping her head over her shoulder to see what it was.
"Woah!" She yells through a forming smile as the bomb's blue explosion sends a bokoblin flying high in the sky. She's never seen the slate able to do something like that before. "Throw another one!" She says, and he does.
On the second detonation, a bokoblin goes hurtling in the air above their heads and they both start laughing in response. A little relieved from making a successful escape and for how ridiculous the bokoblin looks as it somersaults into the sky. She's happy to see Link wasn't completely weaponless during his journey on the Great Plateau.
Slowing Jassa from a gallop down to a trot, they come upon Proxim Bridge. A few bokoblins had chased after them for a while, but gave up quickly once Link started throwing more bombs. Amongst the crumbling ruins, Jassa stops adjacent to the orange glowing shrine, and Zelda waits for Link to hop off first then slides off and walks over to her horse's snout to give her steed some affection, but honestly? She's just buying time.
It's been a hundred years… will he sound the same? Act the same? Meet her eyes and remember her? For the days since she's been a conscious being again, Zelda has waited for this moment, has played it out a hundred times each day and worried, spoke to herself over and over about what she's going to say and how she's going to say it, but now that Link is standing there, just out of sight and waiting to meet her, it's all just a bit overwhelming.
"Good boy," She whispers and Jassa whinnies in response. For several long seconds, she spends them by soothing her horse but in all honesty, it's more to calm her nerves than anything.
Eventually, Zelda sighs and side steps to put Link in her eyesight and only then is she able to finally take in the new sight of her cherished knight.
He's the most underdressed she's ever seen him in the daylight; wearing a white shirt with ripped sleeves around his elbows and slim, worn trousers that look a little too big for him. His hip bones are slightly visible above his belt and it manages to make her eyes linger at the spot. There's a damaged shield latches on his back and a ladle… yep. Definitely a soup ladle. Link was once a knight, a Champion, the stuff of legend; and he looks like he could do with a good meal. Or seven.
Muscle atrophy is obvious on his arms and legs, surely weakened by the immobile state he was in for one hundred years. That at least helps explain why she may have been able to pull him onto a moving horse so easily—he's nothing but skin and bones now. She can't help but feel a little guilty by how strong she feels when he looks so weak. The curved muscles of Link's shoulders and thighs that she once glanced at when she knew he wasn't looking are now gone, but that seems to be the only thing physically different from him. His stance is the same, chest held high and hands attentive, and it's relieving to see his astuteness still intact. His hairstyle is the same as well; tied low at the base of his neck and choppy bangs that fall messy across his forehead. His hair is now longer than hers but that is her own undoing. His earrings still jingle when he moves his head and his ice blue eyes are… wandering over her chest.
Well, at least she knows that if she didn't have to rescue him from a band of monsters, she'd get his attention some other way.
Instinctively, Zelda crosses her arms over her front and his eyes snap up by the motion. His cheeks and ears tint pink and he smiles nervously and that's when it sinks in; Hylia's words, her own warning, the mental build up that Zelda's been preparing for—it still hits her like a bag of bricks. He doesn't recognize her. Not at all. He has no recollection of his fall, their shared past, the heavy burdens he carried, they're all gone and what is leftover is just a cheeky lost boy. A little wild, a little out of sorts, reckless with abandon and clinging to nothing else but forgotten instincts.
They stand facing one another, blinking awkwardly without speaking—perhaps waiting for the other to break the silence first—but that's when Zelda feels a bubble begin to rise from her stomach. Unaware of what it might contain, it could be anxiety, maybe buried emotions hidden way down deep, a flurry of tears, or even nausea—Goddess she hopes she doesn't get sick all over his weathered shoes. It's probably the only pair he has.
Then for some dumb reason, she starts laughing.
Softly at first then all at once, she loses hold of the reins of her laughter. It's released in a flurry of gaggles, making her hinge at the knees and fold over her waist, clutching her abdomen in an attempt to contain any small amount of humility she has left in her, but it feels absolutely exhilarating and it's easing so much built tension that she can barely care about manners anymore.
And Link just stands there, perplexed and mystified, with an expression not much different than an octoroks and it only makes her laugh even more. Maybe he's considering that she's nuts, crazy, perhaps herself a little reckless and unhinged, but he just tilts his head and raises a brow and waits for her to explain what the hell is going on with her.
Coming down from her laughing fit, Zelda releases a long and botchy exhale, runs her fingers through her loose hair, then looks at Link and smiles.
"You tried to take on a horde of monsters with a soup ladle," she says, and coughs out a few more belly laughs that can't be held back. It's not even that funny, she thinks. She should have expected nothing less from the last remaining knight of Hyrule to scavenge for weapons if need be, but it just feels so good to laugh again. Gods, to see him again. She's so happy she can't care less if he doesn't remember her. Link is here. He's alive and standing, healthy for the most part, safe and unharmed. She would have reached out to him right then, kissed him the way they did back then, but she has to remind herself; he has no idea who she is.
He still doesn't speak, but slowly, a bashful smile begins to tug on the edges of his lips as his face unwrinkles from so much confusion. He lifts a hand to scratch the nape of his neck—something Zelda knows he only does when he's embarrassed or nervous. He must have realized how funny he probably looked; ready to battle with nothing but a badly built shield and a kitchen utensil.
"I'm sorry I laughed at you," she says still laughing, and takes a rather long inhale through her nose in a poor attempt to prove she has some sort of composure. "I've just never seen such…. resilience?"
He doesn't speak, but his face is still soft and blushing. The hand scratching his neck falls to his side once again and he looks down at the ground to kick a pebble with his boot.
"...Are you alright then?" She asks, voice calm but desperate to hear his voice.
He takes a glance at her, then averts his gaze and nods shyly.
Soon the air around them blankets with silence and it makes her uneasy. She's always had a hard time coping with the quiet between them. So desperately does she want to hear his voice, why doesn't he just speak to her? Did her presence make him anxious? Was he not ready to trust somebody just yet? Did his century long slumber remove more than just his memories? Her imagination is running wild, stirring her worries and fears because it could be all of those or maybe it's something much simpler. Maybe he just feels lost and confused and her laughing fit tore down the little remaining ego he has left.
So Zelda does something Link had taught her a century ago. She uses a different language to speak with him.
"Can you sign?" She asks, forming the words with a sway of her hands.
A joyful sound escapes his throat and Link's face lights up like a child's on the morning of the winter solstice. He signs to her over and over again. "YesYesYes."
"Good." She replies. She's happy to see he still remembers how to sign, just like how he remembers to use a sword and shield and battle enemies. It's buried there, somewhere deep within the fabric of his instincts and so far, he hasn't changed too much, though it saddens her to think he must have forgotten why he knows how to sign.
One Hundred Years Earlier
Coming upon a merchant along the road, Link asked if they could stop to see if the Hylian had arrows to trade. He was getting low after their encounter with the several monsters he fought that morning and she simply nodded in approval, deeming it a great excuse for her to stretch her legs for a moment and to elongate their trip if only for a few extra minutes. They had been traveling on horseback for hours without a break, returning to the castle from another failed pilgrimage. There had been direct orders from her father for them to visit several known holy places amongst Hyrule so she could pray, hoping her sealing power will awaken somehow, but it was just another failed trip, just like all the others.
The sun was close to setting and it was a beautiful evening of orange hues and pink skies, but she watched Link instead, completely fascinated when he began to use his hands and fingers to interact with the roaming merchant. No voices could be heard from their conversation and yet Link handed a few rupees to them anyway in exchange for some arrows in their bag.
He waved goodbye to the vendor then trotted back and climbed onto his horse, but she was still enthralled by him. There had been a time when Zelda thought she had Link completely figured out, but in that moment she felt like she barely knew him at all. That he was now a curious new stranger to her, and his silent conversation with the merchant had only piqued her newfound interest in him.
"I never knew you could sign," she said when they started trotting along the path back to the castle. Courtly, he nodded in reply.
"I learned when I was a child." He had recently promised he would speak more openly with her, and she had to admit he was doing a pretty great job so far—their silence didn't linger like it used to between them.
"It's a very valiant trait to know, why did you decide to learn it so young?"
Zelda watched as he shifted a little in his saddle and cleared his throat before he spoke.
"I didn't really have a choice."
"Oh?"
He glanced at her, then looked ahead on the path. "My mother is deaf."
"Really?! That's so interesting!" She blurted, but her face immediately went red. "I mean, not about your mother lacking hearing capabilities, that is… rather unfortunate. Not to say she isn't capable! I mean—! It is, um.. interesting that you possess the technique to interact with those who cannot hear or speak, that's what I'm trying to say. I… I never knew that about you."
Nervous, Zelda tried to swallow down her humiliation, but in an attempt of explanation that ended in nothing but stutters, it only made both of them more uncomfortable, so she tried again.
"Did you know, hearing loss is typically caused by a dysfunction within the inner ear or—or damage to the cochlea…?" She trailed off.
She felt like a snob. Utterly embarrassed, as if she stuck her whole foot in her mouth, but speaking so relaxed with Link was still so new to her that sometimes her own words would throw her off. Why was she so nervous? It's just Link. Some dumb kid that climbed through the ranks and pulled a ruddy sword from a pedestal, but that thought didn't make her feel any better about the awkwardness they were in right now. As discreet as she could, Zelda huffed and rolled her eyes at herself.
Nodding stiffly, Link sent a casual smile her way. He was most certainly unsure how to properly reply to her sometimes. It was clearly hard for the both of them to conjure conversations that didn't involve their duties or the inevitable Calamity and approaching more intimate topics were always a bit awkward between them. After all, she was still the Princess and he was still her appointed knight, but they were both determined to bridge the gap between them.
"I apologize, Link. My head spins when I see something new I can learn about."
"I know you well enough to know that, Princess."
She smiled and a soft heat teased at her cheeks. They were silent for a spell before she spoke again.
"Can you tell me about your mother?" She asked softly. "What is she like?"
"Well, um..." There was a bashfulness to his response that she wasn't expecting. Maybe it was because he hadn't been home since he was appointed, but they were trying to become friends and opening up this way seemed innocent enough. "She has brownish, red hair—I guess auburn, maybe? I don't... I don't really know hair colors. My um... my mom used to have long hair—like yours—but she cut it before I left home. It's at her shoulders now." He looked down in front of him as his horse continued along the path, smiling humbly at the memory of his mother. "She's actually the reason why I would visit Zora's Domain a lot as a kid. She... she has many friends there and so I'm friends with her friend's kids."
Zelda smiled, trying to imagine the woman and what kind of mother she was to him. An image was painted in her head of a little blonde boy smiling up at his mother as she taught him words to speak on his hands. Then her own mother's face popped into her head and she tried to push the saddened memories of her mother away, not wanting to linger on the past.
"Do you look more like your mother, or father?" Zelda asked, trying to keep the conversation light.
"I'm not sure," he stated, more relaxed this time. He rubbed his chin with his gloved hand. "I definitely have her pointed nose because my father has this funny-looking button nose, but it looks cute on my little sister. Hopefully it won't grow to the size of his though." They shared a soft laugh and he continued. "To be honest, I probably look more like my father, but he's very tall and I'm...well…"
"Not?" She answered and they both shared a chuckle.
"They keep mocking me about when my growth spurt will happen, telling me things like 'we were both twice your size at your age!' Or 'your sister's going to pass you up soon!' Like that'll help me grow." He rolled his eyes.
She smiled a little. "And your sister? Does she have the same sandy blonde hair as you, or like your mother?"
"Is my hair color sandy blonde?" He grabbed a long strand of his own hair and tried to look at it. It was clear he never really paid much attention to his appearance, but his movement made his jaw dip towards his neck, causing a double chin to appear on his face, which only made Zelda smile wider.
"I um... I think so? What would you call the color of my hair? Yellow or blonde?" She asked.
"No," He shook his head immediately, letting the strands of hair fall between his fingers, then gazed at her. "Golden."
Zelda's ear grew hot by the statement and it was her turn to clear her throat. "You were going to tell me about your sister?" She asked, steering the topic away from herself.
"Yeah, she's blonde like me, but it's more red. Like a strawberry," he began to chuckle. "It's funny because my father hasn't had hair on his head for most of his life, but his stubble across his chin is red. My sister and I always wondered where our hair colors come from, maybe a mix of my father's and my mother's."
"It can be from your grandparents, actually," Zelda stated. "Sometimes physical traits skip a generation."
"Hm," he pondered over her words. "My mother's parents are both brown haired like her, but I never met my father's parents, maybe one of them was blonde?"
"That must be it!" She said with new found enthusiasm and he smiled.
"Now the mystery of my father's ginger beard begins," he joked, meeting her eyes and smiling sweetly. In that moment, he wasn't the Chosen Hero, a knight, a fighter, and she wasn't the Princess, an heir, or part of a sacred bloodline. They were two kids getting to know each other.
They said nothing for a moment as their horses loafed along the path and although the silence was part of a new kind between them—warm and comfortable—she was determined to continue building their relationship.
"Link…?" Zelda said shyly.
He looked at her and a spark ran between them.
"Can you teach me to sign?"
He smiled and said softly, "If you wish, Princess."
"I do."
Link's signing lessons would fill the empty spaces along the road, and he seemed truly happy to finally be able to help her in a way he knew how. She loved the lessons as well because she could actually see her own progress with sign language as opposed to everything else that was going on in her life; her stunted Royal duty. It had helped them connect in such a healthy way, an innocent way, with no burdens or worrying doubts of failure.
One Hundred Years Later
Present Day
He's signing to her again with a light in his eyes and a wide smile, bringing his fingers to his chin. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it," she signs "it's the most action I've gotten in several days."
"I hope I was worth your arrows."
She signs back to him; "I tend to think it was," then blatantly drags her eyes down his body and she can almost see the wave of goosebumps shiver down his skin and it flatters her to see the effect she still has on him.
He signs again. "You should see me with a real weapon."
She doesn't skip a beat and says, "I'll take you up on that."
They smile bashfully at each other, their words making one another playful with the tease of flirtatious banter. She likes this new freedom, this ability to make him feel good, to bring a little spark and confidence back in his eyes. That's when it dawns on her that she can be who she wants in front of him, anyone she chooses. She can flirt with him and joke with him, smile and laugh and tease unconditionally, unrestrained without consequence if she desires it, and she does.
She wants this freedom so badly.
"May I ask you a question?" She says out loud.
He signs. "Sure."
Her brow raises in a mockingly suspicious way. "How in the Goddess did you get atop the Great Plateau?" Of course she knew how, it was under her orders that placed him there in the first place, but she wants to know what he knows.
For a moment, he's hesitant—that smile on his lips disappearing more and more as he considers how to answer, then signs. "I woke up there."
"Must have been some nap," she smiles, but his attention is starting to fall elsewhere.
Smirking at her comment, Link makes a gesture for her to follow and starts heading for the Bosh Kala shrine. Padded footfalls sound through the grass as he takes the Sheikah slate from his belt when he reaches the steps and skips up the platform. His shoes make a satisfying sound on the smooth surface before he holds the slate over the pedestal and in an instant, the whole shrine starts to vibrate. The glowing orange designs change blue, except for the top, like it's unfinished in its transformation. What was once just a black wall on top of the steps dissolves into an entrance with a glowing blue design on the floor.
Suddenly more shy than he was before, Link turns to sneak a glance at Zelda, but she's already beaming at him. Amazed, enchanted, utterly bewildered and honestly proud of him for understanding the slate and its mysterious functions.
They stare at each other before she says; "you sir, are no ordinary man with a soup ladle."
His voice travels to her; a soft chuckle escaping his throat and it sounds like a song she hasn't heard in what feels like a lifetime. It seems as if he's beginning to enjoy her company with such an honest reaction, a softened expression, on his face like that, but then Link is turning his back to her, about to enter the shrine and she panics briefly, not wanting him to leave so soon, but then he stops.
"Hey um... listen…" He turns back around. She's so shocked to be hearing his voice that she's frozen on the spot. "I have to… take care of something in here…? But are you—will you be around when I'm done?" He fiddles with his fingers until they steady on his belt and waits for her reaction.
She can only nod.
"I'd like to maybe do something for you?… y'know, in—in thanks for saving me back there." He nudges his head towards the Plateau.
"There's uh… a cooking pot on the other side of the bridge," Zelda says and points haphazardly, barely registering her own words. She clears her throat. "And I like roasted bass?" The thought of his cooking makes her hungry. She's been eating mushrooms and eggs for a week because she doesn't know how to debone a fish.
His smile brightens at the mention of food. "I can cook."
"Good, because I can't."
"Good. Well, not because you can't—" He begins gesturing with his hands a little awkwardly.
She interrupts him with a laugh. "No, it's definitely good."
Breathing a shallow sigh of relief, he smiles back at her before he swivels to leave, but then turns to her again. He's clearly a little flustered, but in the best possible way.
"What's your name?" He asks.
"My—my name?"
He nods slowly, a little apprehensive at her response. Right, of course she should know her own name.
"Oh, my name's uhh… Z—" She trails off.
Fuck.
This whole time she never thought to come up with a different name to go by. Would she even need one? How many people are named after the last princess of Hyrule in today's time? But Hylia told her not to provoke his memory so she had to think of something quick because he's still staring at her.
"Uhh...zel—luh," she stumbles out, clearly making it up as she goes along. "My name's Azella, but I just...go by...Zel." Was that far enough away from the name Zelda? She seriously hopes this is the only lie she would need to say to him because it felt foul and unnatural on her lips.
"Link." He points to himself.
"It suits you."
"Azella's a pretty name," he says walking backwards into the shrine's blue pedestal on the floor, "but Zel suits you."
"I'm glad you think so," she smiles weakly.
He signs. "See you soon Zel."
She signs back. "See you soon."
He's still smiling until he descends into the ground, no longer in her eyesight, and she's left in silence once again.
Now that Zelda is alone, she can't control another bubble rising from the pit of her stomach like earlier when she started laughing at him, only this time in the form of a panic attack that eventually engulfs her. Sweating and trembling but chilled to the bone, with heart pounding and tears falling, she has to clutch herself and sit on the steps of the shrine. Rocking back and forth where she sits, Zelda hopes he's underground far enough to mute her panting cries. Between containing her excitement, her questions, and curiosities on his experiences with the shrine and slate and how he's been able to survive alone these past several days, the memory of his long forgotten family haunts her. It breaks her heart to know he can no longer remember them, that he was never given the chance to even grieve for them, but the biggest reason that makes her break down entirely is just seeing him again after a century and not being able to touch him, kiss him, embrace him in the reunion they so rightfully deserve.
Her panic attack lasts for a painstakingly long time—until she's hoarse in the throat and eyes are bloodshot. Eventually, she trudges across the bridge to her campsite, doing away with her shoes and socks, corset and blouse, leaving her bow & quiver resting against a log. She walks over to the river's edge and stands in knee high waters, feeling the pebbles beneath her feet and the icy bite of the Hyrule River in the springtime. Folding her torso over the steady streaming, Zelda splashes water onto her face and washes away the anxiety, sweat, and tears.
They had finally met, the worst part was over, or had it only just begun?