Summary: Link gets to learn more about the attractive archer who saved his neck from a horde of monsters earlier. Who is Azella, 'Zel' for short? She seems harmless enough. In fact, she seems to enjoy his company. Will she be willing to help him to Kakariko? Perhaps they were meant to meet. Maybe in Hyrule... there is no such thing as coincidences.

That familiar feeling of weightlessness transports him back to the entrance of the Bosh Kala shrine, and Link's feet fall gently on the glowing blue platform. He had finished the shrine's trial easily enough even though he was still getting used to his paraglider. The challenge was going smoothly for a while; he had accessed the first treasure chest with relative ease, but then on his next glide further into the shrine, he hit a black metal wall straight in the face. Unfortunately, the intricate lace design was rough and scratchy, scraping his cheek and twisting his ankle as he fell and after that, he didn't even bother with the second chest although he probably should have—he really needed to not be battling monsters with a soup ladle.

As his body fully materializes, he can feel the warm rays of an afternoon sun on his face and a soft breeze through his shoulder-length hair. With the sun now lower in the sky, he figures that he was in the shrine for a couple hours—it was easy to lose track of time in those things. But today, his first day off the Great Plateau, was… not what he expected. For a week, he gazed out past the horizon staring at all the structures and landscapes in the distance, wondering what this strange world had to offer him. Link would walk along the Plateau's crumbling walls and stare straight down at the fog below him—mysteriously vanishing once he received the paraglider. The moment he had finally jumped from the structure, it didn't surprise him to see a horde of monsters congregating to attack underneath him. So he had been ready to fight, perhaps a little too confidently—too recklessly—strategizing a plan to have the creatures chase him around as he threw bombs at them, cutting their numbers down one by one. It would've taken longer, but he was low on weapons, his shield was damaged, and the pathetic bow he had looted from a bokoblin scout broke within a day. What he did not expect to experience his first day off the Plateau was a woman rider to literally sweep him off his feet.

At first, he wasn't sure if she was going to attack the monsters or him. She came barreling towards all the chaos with so much ferocity and brashness that it stunned him where he landed. Thankfully, she came to help him not trample him because he would've definitely been defeated if she had been an enemy. She had a giant black horse that could've squashed him in an instant, a steel bow that could've pierced his heart with one arrow, and such an intimidating aim that he would have been a goner if she simply decided to pick him off like the bokoblins she struck.

And her archery skills weren't the only thing that made her intimidating, either. When they reached the safety of the ruined bridge, she had ignored him almost entirely; attending to her horse for so long that Link nearly said something to gain her attention, but when she finally faced him, she just…stared. Her eyes had trailed his body like she owned it and that had only increased his curiosity about her even more. Her gaze had been fixated and lingering around his waist for a solid several seconds that he contemplated saying a joke about keeping her eyes above his neckline, but then when she caught him staring, he felt so embarrassed he secretly started making deals with the Goddess to let the world swallow him whole, but the only thing Zel did in response was laugh at him.

All words had escaped Link after that—still humiliated by sneaking a glimpse at her breasts and getting caught, but in all honesty; she stared at him first. Even when she came down from her laughing fit, he still couldn't form any words. Why had he been so nervous? It's not like he was shy around strangers—he had struck up a desperate conversation with the hooded old man immediately—but that was perhaps more to due with waking up in a strange and foreign place and being so disoriented, he would've spoken to anyone for some kind of answers. If Zel had never started speaking to him with her hands, they'd probably still be in a silent stand-off, waiting for him to say something.

He didn't even realize he could understand sign language, but then again, he has been learning new things about himself each and every day. Relying on forgotten instincts, it had helped Link to venture across the Great Plateau so he could be gifted the old man's paraglider and when that same old man revealed himself to be the spirit of the last King of Hyrule, King Rhoam had told him that before he slumbered for a century, Link had been a knight, a champion, a hero. He certainly doesn't feel like any of those things. Above everything else, he just feels weak, lonely, and confused.

He's so tired, his leg and cheek hurt from falling, his mind bombarded with unanswered questions, and his body aches from sleeping for a century, but he's looking forward to cooking some food and enjoying some much needed company.

» . «

Walking across Proxim Bridge, Link limps slightly due to his newly twisted ankle. He's not in a large amount of pain, just irritated. He's so sick of feeling weak and it makes his shoulders tense in agitation, but the scenery around him is stunning and it puts his mind at ease, if only a little. Even if this world is supposedly in ruin, like the King told him, it's still so alive with color, bursting with fascination and wonder. The sun hangs behind him, ready to cast orange hues across the sky at any moment as wild animals chirp happily in the distance. The trickling sound of the river flowing beneath the bridge would have been almost peaceful—if it wasn't for the splashing.

When he reaches the end of the bridge's broken stonework, Link looks down into the water below and spots her; knee-high in the water, trying to catch a fish with her bare hands. Zel had removed her eye-drawing white blouse and leather corset, had stripped down to just a white undershirt with thin straps and her riding pants rolled up to her knees. Even from where he stands, he can see through the thin, damp fabric of her undershirt, revealing a light blue brassier, and he has to force his eyes away. He's already been caught once, a second time could do him in. Instead, his eyes wander around her frame, noticing the smooth muscles on her arms and shoulders and her short yellow hair is damp, sticking to her forehead at weird angles like she may have just been swimming or had fumbled and fell in. Something about her blends in with the scenery around them; a little wild, slightly intimidating… but exceptionally breathtaking.

Tongue between her lips in concentration, Zel hunches over with hands hovering in the air above the water's surface. He's already witnessed just how graceful and coordinated this new stranger is, bearing witness to her impressive archery skills and agile talents, but here she seems a little naive, confounded albeit determined, he'll give her that much. He watches as she darts her hands into the water, missing a passing fish completely, and he can't help but steal a laugh. That's when her head snaps up and sees him, caught off guard by his voice breaking her focus, but she smiles when she realizes it's him.

"Hey," she waves gingerly, a little shyly.

He waves.

"I've been trying to catch a fish but—" she points at the water, "as you can tell, I'm no expert."

"Clearly."

Her hands drop to her sides, making a splash in the water as she purses her lips at him, perturbed by his comment, but before she could even come up with a remark, he dives into the river.

He springs up moments later with a fish in each hand and a cheeky smile on his face.

They walk across the path together, back to her make-shift camp. Her stuff is sprawled everywhere and she didn't even have a lot. She has a few korok leaves lying around to use as plates, a couple travel bags tossed around the campfire, and a well-worn journal by her bow and quiver. How long has she been here? He wonders. It's comfy for the most part—not a log cabin like the hooded old man's, but it's covered with a wooden roof and has a cooking pot and someone willing to share it with him. That's all he needs right now.

Feeling the hunger pains encroach almost immediately, Link kneels next to the fire pit and rekindles it—he really didn't want to waste anymore time by not eating. Without a word, Zel hands him her skinning knife, already aware of his appetite and perhaps she's starving as well, but she still hasn't attempted to put on another layer of clothing and it's slightly distracting as he watches her hips sway when her back is turned and he realizes another new discovery about himself; attraction.

"So, is that why you carry a soup ladle?" She asks, moving to the other side of the pit from him. He raises an eyebrow when their eyes meet, a little confused by her vague question. "Y'know, in case you come across any cooking pots to battle?" She mocks his fighting stance and displays a mighty exaggerated pout of her lips. Cute.

He didn't care too much for her jab considering he doesn't have many options for weapons at the moment. Obviously, he wouldn't be fighting with it if he had any other choice. He does have a few tree branches and a damaged bokoblin club in his inventory, but he had been hoping to trade them for some new weapons as he ventured.

"Sure," he snorts sarcastically, returning to his work in the fire. "Saving Hyrule one stew at a time."

She smiles at that, happy he's decided to play along. "Aren't I lucky then? Here I thought I saved you."

"Hold onto those words until you try my cooking."

"Alright," she smiles, but nods in agreement.

Link watches her out of the corner of his eye while he starts to filet the fish, but she seems to have the same intentions because Zel reaches for her blouse and pulls it over her shoulders, then rests her back against the log behind her and watches him, too. For a moment, he feels his cheeks pinken like the filet in his hands so he returns his attention back to his work, doing so diligently. Slicing through the bass with artistic talent even when her skinning knife isn't necessarily the best tool to use—something serrated would be better—it seems like in this world, Link will always have to work with what's been given to him or what he can scavenge for. He carves through the fish bodies from head to tail, trims the filet off from the carcass, and expertly slices the skin away in one easy glide, then repeats the process three more times, eventually producing four long filets of boneless bass. Two hearty pieces from each fish.

An enjoyable silence falls between them as they sit together quietly, allowing her to watch him prove his worth in one form or another. With the wind blowing gently through the decrepit lean-to as dusk settles in, Link becomes heavily focused by his cooking, suddenly famished, and his stomach starts to grumble deep in his core. He can't even remember the last time he sat to eat a meal. He'd either be too busy running between shrines or dodging monster camps this first week of his new life and his peculiar dinner date was staring at him. Zel remains quiet until he's separating the last filet from the skin when she runs her fingers through her drying hair, pulls her knees into her chest, and asks another question.

"...Are there many kitchens atop the Great Plateau?" She asks, mocking him again.

"Is that the last ladle jab or should I just learn to get used to this?" He snaps with a little more bite than he anticipated, but she doesn't seem to mind the extra nip in his words.

As cool as the breeze, she answers him. "Just expressing an interest in your hobbies, that's all," she flips her dampened hair, "but it wouldn't hurt to get used to it, either." She tries to smile confidently but her eyes deceive her. There's something hidden behind them and he can't quite place what it is.

She tries him at a different angle, and tilts her head observantly. "Anyways, I couldn't help but notice you were limping on our way back here. You weren't before you entered the shrine. You even have a little—" She touches her own cheek in the same location as his cut. "What happened in there?" Her eyes flicker towards the shrine.

Shoulders building a little in embarrassment, he goes back to his work on their dinner and takes a long sigh. He really wishes the subject change could have been anything else besides his lack of coordination, but he did just fall from the sky in front of her and, considering the look she gave him when he accessed the Bosh Kala shrine, a character like him is probably extremely rare to come across in a world such as this.

"I uh… fell using the paraglider," he grumbles.

"So it's that big inside the shrines that you can use a glider to maneuver about them?"

"Uhh, yeah? I mean—yes. I guess."

"Interesting." She reaches for the journal lying next to her and scribbles something into it. For a fleeting moment, he worries maybe he shouldn't be telling her this, but what harm could it really do? It's clear to him she's been alone out here for a long time, so who was she going to tell? She's already distracting herself by hastily writing notes into the parchment, so Link lays out all four filets on a korok leaf and unlatches the Sheikah slate from his belt. He taps a few times on the screen and it materializes a chunk of rock salt, Hyrule herbs, and an assortment of mushrooms, and it isn't until he's salting the fish that he realizes the look on her face.

She's staring at him, eyes wide in fascination, and says; "I never knew it could do that."

"What, this?" He asks, pointing towards the ancient device. "It definitely makes traveling a lot easier. I don't even have to carry a bag with me."

"Very interesting." She drops her nose into her journal and starts scribbling away again.

The silence that falls between them isn't cumbrous or difficult, but relaxing and sated in a way—their hunger pains being too far gone to focus on topics of discussion. He continues his work on their meal; coating the filets with salt and herbs, chopping the mushrooms and generously giving them a once over with the seasonings. She seems completely satisfied by placing all of her attention to whatever notes she's writing and soon their camp is encased in a luscious aroma of herbs, freshly ground salt, and roasted Hyrule bass as it sizzles together over a roaring fire. Link watches as Zel tilts her chin to the air and wafts in the new aroma, closing her eyes with an exaggerated sigh. Those innocently feminine sounds reach him and bury deep in his spine, creating a gentle warmth there and it makes him smile. It's the first woman's voice he's heard in over a century—or maybe it was the second. He's having a hard time remembering what that voice from the shrine sounded like.

When their meal is ready, Link dishes out half the pot's contents onto a korok leaf and hands it to her... and selfishly keeps the larger filets for himself.

After a while the cooking pot lays bare—appetites satisfied and lips salty. Link had scraped the pot completely clean, down to the very last piece of Hyrule herb. Neither one had spoken a word while they ate, both being too enamored by the food. He could've eaten several more fish and he considers going down to the river to catch some more, but then Zel throws her discarded korok plate into the fire and strikes up conversation again.

"Thank you for the meal, Link. Honestly, it was incredible. I haven't had roasted bass like that in… years." She looks into the fire and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. There's that look again in her eyes. He almost places it.

"Not a problem," he shrugs and tosses his korok plate onto her own. Noticing the wind change with the setting sun, Link repositions himself within the camp; scooting himself over so he's out of the fire's line of smoke. He sits comfortably with his back against a log and his elbows on his bent knees, facing north towards the path as she sits to his right, facing the bridge and river, no longer across the fire from each other.

"I'd like to make it up to you."

"Make it up to me? I thought I was making this up to you," Link says, picking herb out of his teeth with his finger.

She frowns at him. Maybe for his comment or because of his manners, he's not really sure. "Yes, well, I'd still like to owe you for the meal."

"Owe?" He removes his finger from his mouth, dropping his hand back on his knee in surprise, and gawks at her. "You're going to pay me?" He's almost insulted.

"No, please if I may..." Zel could sense his offense and reaches for one of her travel bags. Rummaging through it, glasses clink and clank together as she searches, then pulls out three glass phials with blue, green, and red viscous liquid each. Eyes bright with excitement, she looks at him as if he's a test subject. "I'd like to mend your injuries."

"Um... Are you some kind of healer?"

"Well no... but I assure you they work well."

"How can I be sure?"

She looks down at her lap sheepishly and rubs a hand over the top of another and that's when he notices them; two small, pale bumps on her skin.

"I used them yesterday on a couple bee stings."

"How'd you get stung by bees?"

"I was… trying to get their honeycomb."

He tries to hide his growing smile. "Why were you trying to get their honeycomb?"

She huffs. "I wanted to cook some honeyed apples, but when I shot their hive down they swarmed at me. Then I burnt the apples." She makes a disgruntled face at the memory.

The image of her swatting the air and shrieking as she's being chased by bees makes a laugh creep up his throat, but he suppresses it. "Aren't apples sweet enough already?" He smirks instead.

"Obviously," she rolls her eyes at him, "but I kind of have a... sweet tooth." Her diffidence is rather charming and he realizes he likes that about her.

"Noted," he smiles, tapping his temple.

She matches his smile, but rolls the phials over in her palm, returning their focus back to her original intention.

"May I?" She asks softly. He looks down at the phials, then back at her eyes.

"Alright," he huffs, "if you insist, but will I have to owe you something?—Again?" Not that he was complaining. In fact, he's starting to enjoy this game they're playing of owing each other things.

"Hm..." She ponders, a playfulness returning to her voice. "That depends. Can you do more than cook?"

"I can think of a few things. For one, I can eat your leftovers."

She laughs warmly. "I bet you could."

Rising up from where she's seated, Zel walks around the fire pit and repositions herself on the other side of him. Her back faces the bridge and gravel path as she kneels down next to his injured left ankle—which he's extended out towards the fire for her to inspect. Leaning back against the log behind him, Link tries to get comfortable, but his shoulders are still tense and he can't help but feel a little nervous for some reason. Maybe because he's still really confused about pretty much everything. He didn't really understand the ointments in her hand, or why she was being so nice to him. Is this just how most people are in Hyrule?—giving and generous? He doesn't want to assume such optimism for a world in peril, but possibly more than anything else, he's nervous about having such an attractive woman willing to place her hands on his dirty ankle.

When his eyes eventually lock with hers, she starts.

"I currently have topical elixirs, not digestives. Topical medicine is much more successful in the healing process since applying it straight to the wound allows a higher concentration of medicine to seep directly to the injury and blood stream as opposed to waiting for the medicine to pass through the digestive system first."

"...Okay." He says the word, long and drawn out, not understanding (and not really wanting to understand) most of what she's saying.

She notices his reaction however, so she tries to explain in a more simple tone. Holding up the blue phial, she points it at him. "This is a disinfectant. It cleans wounds really well. It's like soap, but stronger. Closer to alcohol." He nods that he understood and she drips some liquid into her hands, smoothing them over one another. She shakes them out, letting them dry in the air, then holds up the green bottle to show him.

"This is a pain reliever. If you'd like, I can rub some onto your ankle. By the slight limp, I assume you're in pain, correct?"

"Um… It's more irritating than anything—?" His shoulders feel like they're hitting his ears, he's so nervous. The thought of her rubbing anything is making him immensely stressed, but if she noticed, she wasn't commenting.

She lets fall several drops into her palm—the liquid definitely more viscous and oily than the first. She begins to rub her hands together fast, like she's creating warmth and friction, then she places her hands on him.

Immediately, he can feel the pain dissipate from his ankle as the oil glosses his skin and he finally takes an exhale. His shoulders melt away and his leg muscles begin to soften. Her touch is gentle but firm and Zel begins to rub soothing circles into his skin. She works slowly, leisurely, her eyes calm and attentive on easing his pain and nerves. She feels him relax into her hold and so she sends him a comforting smile.

"So Link," she starts, "you woke up on the Great Plateau with nothing but a soup ladle and a device able to access immensely ancient shrines." She states the information she has gathered about him so far, then meets his eyes briefly. "Where are you headed now?"

"Kakariko Village," he says, sighing by the easing relief of pain in his ankle. "I have to seek out Lady Impa."

"That's about a two day's journey on foot."

"Are you headed that way?" He asks, unexpected eagerness laced in his question, and feels suddenly shy.

Slowly, almost teasingly, her smile moves to one side of her face in a captivating way as she removes her fingers from his skin. His ankle feels suddenly cold from her absence.

"I go wherever I'm needed most, it seems," she shrugs indifferently, as if it's no big deal, and the tone she uses just adds more allure to her words. Zel reaches for the last glass bottle and points it at him. "Now this is a health recovery elixir. This should heal you by morning."

He nods in approval, and she begins rubbing the new ointment into his skin. Ankle tingling as if it had fallen asleep, the sensation quickly dissolves and he's left with a soothing warmth, comforting and relaxing—but he can tell her fingers are lingering on his skin, looking for more contact, more interaction somehow, and he realizes he wants it, too.

"So... What's your story?" He asks. He could kick himself for such a pathetic line.

"My story?" Shyly, she meets his eyes and her cheeks start to tint pink, those sun-kissed freckles on her nose darkening in the firelight. She's quiet for a couple breaths and Link wonders if she's going to answer him, but then continues. "Lately, I've spent most of my time researching the shrines, they're very intriguing to me. Such lost technology laying dormant for so long. I've spent the past week examining that one over there, trying to figure out what secrets it may contain….Would you like to see some of my notes?" She tilts her head at him and he nods politely.

Swiftly, she extends herself over his body to grab the journal lying on the other side of him. Her innocent action makes his entire body flush, too close and too abrupt with her waist hovering just inches from his groin. She doesn't notice his uneasiness at all though, too caught up in her own excitement to share her research with someone, even someone like Link who was just vaguely grasping what she was saying to him. Even still, Zel repositions herself shoulder to shoulder with him, both their backs leaning against the same log. She clearly has no regard for boundaries around him and he isn't entirely sure if he appreciates his personal space being invaded so quickly. Maybe she's like this with everyone? He doesn't really have another point of reference to know for certain. Perhaps she's just lonely? It's this thought that makes him shift closer, only in an effort to humor her.

Opening her notebook, Link sees mostly scribbles at first, then it all comes together. The white pages are covered in artistic sketches of the Bosh Kala shrine at different angles and sizes, mathematical equations with letters he refused to even want to know about. Most of the questions she had written were unanswered though; questions like 'What's inside?' 'Are they all connected with an elaborate system of tunnels?' 'What type of reward is received, if any?' All questions he could answer. But besides all the analytical jargon, he's more interested in the several doodles around the perimeter of the pages. Eyes drawn to the doodles, they're mostly botanicals and nature; a bee, a few acorns, an attempt at drawing a frog but it looks almost like a chipmunk, and a flower with five petals Link's never seen before, shaded darker in the middle, becoming lighter at the ends.

"Can you imagine how amazed I was when you opened that shrine?" Her soft voice has Link taking his gaze away from her journal to find she's already staring at him, a look in her green eyes that Link can only describe as adoration. They're glimmering in the firelight, her cheeks rounded like a heart by the flickering shadows, and he becomes heavily distracted by her. She has such enriching green eyes and they remind him of the King's, except hers were greener, darker. The colors of an evergreen in the snow or shades of a forest at dusk. "I should be asking about your story," she breaks their stare and closes her journal, then places it by her side.

Blinking out of his daydream, he clears his throat. "I—I don't have a story. At least not one I can remember."

By his words, she places a gentle hand on his thigh. He can feel the heat of her palm through his thin pants and even though they're merely acquaintances, he doesn't move away. The touch is too comforting.

"I'm sorry Link," she says with such strain in her voice, almost like it was her fault. "I'm really sorry to hear that."

A quiet moment is shared between them, mourning something she couldn't possibly begin to understand. Hell, he didn't even understand. And then she shivers, the cold creeping in by the sun casting shadows over their cozy camp. If he had any other clothes than the ones on his back and an itchy, ugly tunic in his inventory, Link would've given her something, but instead she stands and walks over to her travel bag, then pulls out an elegant long dark cape and wraps it around her shoulders. She had such fine clothing compared to him, his own clothing still damp from his dive into the water, but his hair is now dry and the cold never bothered him much anyways until the temperatures were below freezing. Maybe his blood ran hotter than others.

With nothing but a cough in her throat to reset the conversation, Zel closes the distance between them, picking up her medicine phials once again, then sits on her knees next to his hip, and speaks.

"Now, let's look at that cut on your cheek." She reaches for his face but Link reacts quicker.

He jerks away, his head snapping back so fast his earrings jingle, and he snatches her hand by the wrist, halting it in the air between them. Zel's breath hitches and she gasps by his lock on her, startled, caught off guard by his sudden recoil he'd made to escape such an innocent touch. They stare at each other, unblinking, both in shock by what had just transpired. She's the one that speaks first.

"Sorry, I—"

"No, I'm sorry." Link releases her wrist and he finally exhales.

"I should've—"

"I just didn't—"

They both say at the same time. She fiddles with the phials in her hand as his heart starts pounding. Zel's movement towards his face had surprised him, and his reaction had been instinctual. He has been touchy and sensitive to his surroundings ever since he'd woken up to this world and he already had trouble accepting her lack of boundaries around him. It's evidently clear that she's not a threat in any way, she's merely trying to help him for Hylia's sake, but the action of someone reaching out and touching his face is so unfamiliar, so exceedingly jarring that he reacted as if she was getting closer to him just to use him in some way and some how. Honestly, he hopes he didn't just hurt or frighten her, but in all fairness her closeness had startled him.

"Take these," she hands the bottles over to him gingerly. "You can apply them if you'd like. Remember, blue phial is—"

"Can you do it?"

By his question, she seems hesitant at first, but then nods. Taking the blue bottle from his own palm, Zel drips some blue liquid onto her fingertip, then slowly eases closer to his face—just in case he recoils again.

"This will sting," Zel instructs, and he blinks in approval, then she grazes her finger over his cheek.

The stinging feeling of liquid medicine seeps into Link's wound and the pain makes him suck in a breath through gritted teeth, trying to hold still. The sensation only lasts for several seconds and then it's gone and he feels slightly cleaner somehow, more calm as the sharp bite of pain eases away. Moving mindfully, Zel places the disinfectant down onto the ground, then picks up the next bottle—the healing ointment. She moves a little more confidently now, uncorking the bottle and dripping the oil onto her fingers, rubbing it between her index and thumb, then dabs it onto his face.

His eyes drop down to the ground as she dabs at his cheek, soothing his pain away. Why was she being so nice to him? So generous? Helping him with his cut and injury, sharing her space, her research notes, her medicine with him, and above all; saving his neck earlier that day. He's a stranger to her, a weird raggedy kid that descended from a desolate Plateau with an odd device strapped to his belt and absolutely no memory of who he was...or is. His mind is racing with thoughts, trying to figure her out, trying to understand how she could possibly be interested in him and not afraid of him, and the only thing he can think of is that she's just as lonely as he is. Perhaps they were meant to meet. Maybe in this world... there is no such thing as coincidences.

When she starts to apply the last bit of her medicine, Link's eyes flutter to hers. She works gently on his face, applying only the slightest amount of pressure and allowing the medicine to do all the work. Head tilted slightly in concentration, their eyes meet and she holds his gaze and the sweetest, softest chuckle escapes her, almost nervous but more welcoming than anything. The sound of her voice and the warmth of her friendliness reaching and climbing, cascading and plummeting, all the way down to the pit of his stomach—it helps assure him what he's already concluded.

They both were longing to be with someone.

Once she's done, Zel re-corks the phial and leans over to her side, placing the medicine bottles back in her travel bag delicately, and he watches as her messy hair falls into her face. She tugs at the seams of her cloak, finding the chill of the night seeping into their camp by now, and she hugs it a little closer—for warmth or for comfort, he's not really sure. He's quiet as Zel repositions herself next to him; eyes following her movements as she places an elbow on the same log he's leaning against and shifting onto her side, but she's keeping a considerable distance between them and he can't really blame her for not wanting to be closer.

"Can I ask you another question?"

He nods and naturally adjusts his angle, twisting his shoulders towards her.

"What happened after you woke up? Maybe I can help you figure this all out."

He's silent for a moment, unsure of how to even begin, but he knows he wants to share his experience. Maybe she was right, maybe speaking to someone could help him sort out this mess.

"I... woke up alone in some sort of glowing room. I was lying in a liquid bath, but I don't think it was water around me. I got up and searched the room for a while just...staring at everything. It felt really strange to walk, like I haven't used my legs in Gods know how long. Even my own voice sounded unfamiliar to me. But I uh… I started looking for exits so I walked over to the only other thing in the room, some sort of pedestal thing like the ones on the shrines, then this popped out, so I took it." He gestures to the Sheikah slate.

She nods slowly, absorbing his story, but her face has started to weaken and anxious crinkles begin to form around her eyes, and he wonders if he should carry on.

"I know how weird this must sound, I— I don't want to—"

"No, please." Her voice sounds sincere. Convincing. "I want to know."

Zel listens intently as he recites the last week he has had; meeting the hooded old man, accessing a strange platform that ruptured into a tower, and apparently it had resurrected several others across the land. He spoke in detail about entering four shrines which granted him runes on his slate like the bombs she witnessed earlier. He even showed her the icons of them on his slate; an ice block cryonis rune, a magnet that allows him to move metal stuff around, and another that can freeze an object in time. He tries to lighten the mood and tells her about the bokoblins he had to battle with a tree branch, and how he took down a whole encampment with just a metal box he hit them with over and over again. His attempt did make her smile, but her face still looked strained, her eyes still weary, and perhaps the mood that had fallen over their camp as he spoke was too substantial to avert from. Even though he notices she's having a hard time listening to his bizarre story—either it's too weird or just too pitiful—Link decides to drop the final piece of it anyways.

"Then this morning the old man gave me this paraglider and told me I've been asleep for one hundred years... That I was a knight who fell during the battle of Calamity Ganon and the Princess is containing the monster at Hyrule Royal castle." He pretends to scratch his forearm, staring down at his lap while he does, and waits for her words, her reaction, anything, but she's silent for so long that he looks up to try and read her face.

She's looking in the direction of the castle ruins, a deep and heavy thought seems as if it had washed over her face, encasing her in the same spell that dwelled in her eyes earlier, and that's when it occurs to him, that look. It's the look of distance, that the mind is no longer here in the present. Her eyes have glossed over and she's far from him now. It's a look that is somewhere else, gone, and away; recollecting and remembering. As much as she nodded and patiently listened, she still didn't seem too convinced at his last comment about the Princess. He doesn't blame her though—his story has been pretty ludicrous the whole way through.

He's afraid he might have lost her, assume he's gone mad and assessing the best strategy to rob him or leave him, so he leans in, searching her face, trying to redirect her attention back to him.

"That's impossible… right?" Link asks.

His feeble question must've broken her train of thought for she exhales, shaking off her momentary paralysis and returns back to him. She's still staring at the castle though. "From what I've learned about this world, nothing is impossible."

For some reason this makes him smile, but just barely. He was almost expecting her to leave, to politely excuse herself from the campfire or even start laughing uncontrollably again like she did when they met several hours ago.

"Plus, your story does make sense. Multiple towers rose from the ground at the time you mentioned. And it's um…" She looks at him briefly, then turns away. "It's clear to me that you've met with a terrible fate."

He leans in towards the fire, trying to catch her eyes again. "Why do you say that?"

She's shy when she looks at him again "Well Link, I—I can see you have multiple scars which my medicine can never cure, your knowledge about the fate of this world is definitely missing, and… you certainly hold yourself like a knight. Well, not now of course. You're still picking food out of your teeth."

He removes his hand.

For a moment, she sits quietly and watches him. She's trying to read him and it makes Link a little proud that she's having a hard time trying to figure him out because he's having the same difficulty with her.

Abruptly, she asks; "You don't really think you'll be able to reach Kakariko village with nothing other than an old slate and a whim, do you?"

Puckishly, he smirks. "What? You don't believe in me?"

"Have you considered finding someone to travel with?" She asks, ignoring his comment.

"Well, when I asked if you were going that way, you gave me a..." He pauses to search for the word. "...a vague answer."

She frowns at him and he knows for certain this time it's not because his fingers are scraping his teeth. She must have been expecting Link to invite her along with him.

"I could just lie and tell you I'm going to Kakariko," she quips.

"But you didn't."

"Of course I didn't."

"But you want to."

"To what?"

"Lie to me."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because you want to come with me."

"Yes—no, I mean I—" She huffs out a loud exhale.

Link smiles assertively, knowing where this is going, and he can't help but pester her. He wants her to ask the question, maybe because he doesn't want to be rejected in case she actually does say no or that he doesn't want to seem too desperate to have a travel partner. To be fair to him though, the advice the King gave had been in haste; 'head towards the Dueling Peaks, then follow the path north to Kakariko.' Link only has access to the Great Plateau portion on his map and has no idea what he's going to run into. He's already been bombarded by a swarm of angry monsters, what if it's even worse farther down the path? And if there was a calamity like the King had mentioned, this world would be nothing compared to the world from King Rhoam's past. How much has changed? It's been one hundred years since then—what if there were ruins and monsters and enemy camps that Link couldn't take on alone? Especially with just a twig for a weapon. He already felt weak, despite the aid of Zel's medicine, and her indication of a travel companion was extremely tempting.

Clearly a little agitated that he had been able to fluster her, Zel takes a long breath then sighs as if she made the mindful decision to admit defeat with him—both clearly wanting the same thing but not wanting to admit it first. When she speaks, her tone is soft and sweet but displays the slightest bit of monotone annoyance.

"You already know that I'm good with a bow, and um… riding on horseback would be much faster than walking, so... Would you like me to—"

"Yes." His answer escapes faster than he could catch it and Link manages to lose all dominance in their discussion. His voice was too fast, too high-pitched for his liking so he clears his throat immediately. "I mean, don't you have anything better to do?"

Surprise resonates on her face, but it quickly melts into smugness and contentment, like she's won something. She simply smiles at him and answers.

"I told you, I go where I'm needed."

"You should come only if you want to," he says.

She shrugs. "Want and need; they tend to be interchangeable sometimes, don't they?"

He just shrugs back and fiddles with the seam of his shirt. He knows there's an underlying meaning to her words, but he can't understand it just yet.

He's a bit surprised by what just happened, and how it was deemed more difficult than it had to be, even if he had been expecting it. He's looking forward to having her company along on the journey, if only for another couple of days until they reach Kakariko, and it's clear she feels the same. Slowly, a grin breaks along his lips and he tries to hide it by tucking his chin into his chest, cheeks flushing by the heat of the fire, but he just can't find it in him to be embarrassed because she offered to journey with him. He'd have someone to help guide him in a world so unknown to him, and with her knowledge on medicine and interest in technology, she might just be extremely valuable to him.

"Then it's settled." She speaks after it's clear he's decided not to answer her rhetorical question. "We'll get some rest here tonight then tomorrow we'll head towards the Dueling Peak mountains on Jassa. I believe there is a new tower and some shrines along the way that you'll probably need to inspect before we continue on." She picks up her graphite and journal and begins jotting down notes—their plans already swiveling and swirling around in her head. She begins narrowing her focus onto her work entirely but before she can get too caught up in it, he places a delicate hand on her shoulder. He can feel and see her body tense by his touch, and her head rises out of her journal with a look of unease. Staring at his hand, her eyes slowly trace up his arm, over his shoulder and to his face and eventually their eyes met. Those green ovals are glimmering in the firelight again.

"I don't think I've said thank you yet."

"You still haven't," she sneers and it makes him laugh.

"Thank you."

"You can make it up to me at breakfast."

He smiles and removes his hand from her shoulder.

Meeting his calm small, she's about to dive into her journal again when her head snaps back to him. "Actually, you hold valuable information to me."

"Yeah?" He scoffs, slightly worried she had just read his own mind somehow. "And that is—?"

"The shrines!" She almost shrieks. "You can tell me all about them! Now...do you pray in them? And to whom?—the Goddess? Or some other divine being? Do you get a reward if you pray hard enough? You must get something. And why were you using a paraglider? No— they must be puzzles then. Puzzles for… you. The Sleeping Knight. But then how did the builders know you'd have something to fly around with? Or maybe the shrines are obstacle courses? But that's a misdirect because typically shrines are for veneration, not for flying around like a bird and—" She catches herself as his stare goes wide. "Sorry. I get a little carried away sometimes."

"Clearly."

She shoves him playfully.

» . «

The sky grows dark around them and the cool night tries to creep into their campfire, but they couldn't be more distracted. The fire glows warm and bright, encasing and entrapping them in each other's company. They spend the next hour conversing about the shrines; Zel would ask a question which would lead into another, and then another, and then another. Link did attempt to answer all of them truthfully, though every now and then her vernacular would escalate over his understanding and he'd end up staring at her blankly and shrugging. Sometimes she would grow slightly irritated and argue back with "don't you think you should know that?" and it would only make him turtle into himself even more. She would scribble something into her notebook anyway. Eventually, she began to notice her commitment on the subject was overwhelming him, and started to silence herself in sketching one of the monks that he described to her. Every so often Link would reach over and correct a facial feature she drew or an intricate design on the monk's accessories.

After a while, he added another piece of wood onto the fire and settled more comfortably into his spot on the ground next to her. Relaxing his head onto the log behind him, he closed his heavy eyelids and listened to the crackling of the fire and the sound of her graphite scratching against the pages as Zel silently wrote and sketched all the information she had received from him. With his head angled at her forearm, occasionally the breeze would gift him the soft scent of a flower. He couldn't exactly place it but the smell was sweet and citrusy with notes of spice and rose. Between the peaceful sounds of the fire and her pencil and her lulling aroma, his breathing became longer, sated, his mind became blank and relaxed, and soon Link began to drift off.

When he came back to his senses a couple hours later, he noticed an unfamiliar weight on him. Blinking his eyes, Link tried to process his surroundings until he looked down at his lap and saw her. Zel's notebook was closed nearby and she slept soundly, curled next to him with her head and hand on top of his thigh. Experimentally, he lifted his leg slightly, testing the ability to move and trying to see if he could shift her onto the ground without waking her and instead, her body reacted instinctively in her sleep; her hand squeezing him just above his knee as she curled more into herself. She nuzzled her nose into the fabric of his pants, letting out a slow and lofty sigh, just like when she smelled his cooking earlier, and it sent another surge of warmth down his spine. He tensed by her touch and squeeze of his leg, the sound she made in her sleep, the proximity of them so close together, but he hadn't the heart to move her. She seemed so peaceful and desperately in want to be closer to someone. She must be as lonely as I am, he thought before he tilted his head back, sighed quietly, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep once more.

For the first time since their resurrection, Link and Zelda slept soundlessly without any nightmares chasing their dreams.