The next month felt almost surreal. The Faron winter was the equivalent of Central Hyrule's moderate spring, and it rained more often than not. The first few days were tedious, Zelda was willing to do anything to make life easier for Link; however, Link, ever the soldier, did the exact same for her. What made this different from conflicts with Father was that she knew the gentleness of the man's soul. He would not become aggressive to her unless she was a direct threat to his own life. That made it easier to confront him about their deadlock.
To say he was surprised would be an understatement. It was as if the thought that maybe she'd want to make his life easier after he literally saved hers had never crossed his mind. The poor look on Link's face… he looked so guilty, but for what? She put her researcher's mind to the test as she resolved to determine why this man was so unwilling to need anything but the bare minimum.
And she learned so much.
Link was afraid of Hylians… she'd suspected it during their first meeting, but his admission still shocked her. And why wouldn't he be? He'd spend his infant years in exile, believing Hylians followed a philosophy of 'the only good Wolfbred is a dead Wolfbred.' When his exile ended, and he and his father were summoned to the Castle, Hylians still wanted absolutely nothing to do with them except treat them as the warhounds they had been in millennia past. His view of himself, and of the world, functioned on a similar timetable to her own: Hylians began to treat him horribly after the Queen's death for reasons plucked simply from the air alone. His view of Hyrule functioned only in two colors: 'good boy' and 'bad Wolfbred.' Similar to Zelda's own childhood, the Queen of Hyrule was his only barrier from Hylian-inflicted abuse. Her father turned against her after her mother's death, and all Hyrule turned against the Wolfbred after the same event.
Apparently, the common folk of Hyrule believed that a Wolfbred's only reason for existence was to defend the Queen of Hyrule, and if she died by foul play then all Wolfbred were to drop dead from their failure. When the Wolfbred failed to fall extinct immediately following her mother's assassination, Hyrule was outright offended. Wolfbred were often beaten outside the walls of Fort Hateno. The residents of Castle Town tried to stone whatever Wolfbred guards they encountered. Her own father reassigned all his late wife's Wolfbred soldiers to Zora's Domain, refusing to be associated with them. Link's father, the Queen's most decorated bodyguard, protected the Lanayru region for about four years until Link's mother dropped dead.
Link refused to talk about anything that occurred after his mother died. It was fine, she didn't like to talk about the aftermath of her mother's death either. Plus, she knew a good portion of that history anyway. Link pulled the Master Sword about three years after his father's retirement; he returned to the Castle and was sent to the Military Training Camp to become a knight. From there, he was chosen from the crowd of recruits to be observed individually for a personal assignment, and while he was being observed, Link defended her from a rogue Guardian that had escaped the nearby Sheikah. The aftermath of that, the time between Link saving her from that Guardian and Link becoming the Hylian Champion… was also not a time she wished to relive.
Even though he didn't wish to relive his history, she learned so much about both him and the Wolfbred as a whole from just living with him.
He had a fully-Hylian conscience like she did, but he'd been trained in the military to live solely as a warhound. He was Hylian, like she was, but Wolfbred didn't speak typically Hylian, so the early days of their relationship as Princess and Knight like that of a master and his puppy. Link had only known commands in those days, which always came in the format of 'Command, Link, repeat command!' His blank stares during her rants weren't due to apathy or a lack of intelligence, but because she was yelling at him in a language he hardly knew, in a sentence structure he wasn't trained to respond to.
Zelda was able to piece together Link's history with Hylian training very quickly. He only was trained with a select few commands: Fight, here, stop, come and kill. Being hit equaled 'bad boy,' she learned during the first week after she raised her hand too quickly and he leaned away from her with eyes as wide as the moon. Having the base of his ear scratched seemed to be an equivalent to 'good boy,' or at least was a pleasant experience from his childhood in Hateno. He'd also been fitted with both a muzzle and a horse bit on at least one occasion: he was extremely protective of his head and Zelda found scarring on his gums.
She felt like a fool. She was so absorbed in her problems that she was assuming so much about him and then getting angry when all Link did was blink at her. She was lucky he even tolerated her enough after all she'd done to him that he even decided to defy her father in the first place. Zelda was nearly blown away when she realized that, not only did he tolerate her, but he had come to love her. A journey that she had taken in regards to him. She'd gone from sharing her father's sentiment regarding Link and his people and grew to, not just tolerate the man, but love him dearly.
Zelda laughed at herself. The worst man in the entirety of the Kingdom to fall in love with, save for Calamity himself, and here she was cherishing him daily. She was more afraid of what would happen to him when they eventually returned to the Castle than she was for herself. Of course, she'd be yelled at and every inch of her would be examined to verify if Link committed any high crimes, but Link would probably be imprisoned and Father would probably teach him a lesson about absconding with a female Royal using everything that made Link fear Hylians.
They had a duty to the kingdom. They had to return soon, it had been a month since they arrived at the small cabin in Faron. But Link was terrified for her sake, and to be honest, she was just as fearful for him.
She sighed, trying to clear her head of the possibilities, and headed outside. "Link?"
Link made a loud sound of acknowledgement from the middle of Corta Lake, a freshly caught trout between his teeth as he swam towards where she was standing on the Kamah Plateau, at the west end of the lake. His swimming resembled both a butterfly stroke and a dog paddle in ways she could not explain. When Link climbed out of the lake, he shook himself off and offered her the trout. "Caught you dinner," was all he said.
"Aww, Link. But what will you eat?"
"There's more fish in the lake. And I harvested plenty of wild rice earlier this morning. I was thinking of the traditional meat and rice bowl, but with fish."
He was so wet. Even though he'd dried himself off, the simple shirt and trousers he'd been wearing were still drenched. And even those looked somewhat dry compared to his course, fur-like hair. Knowing from experience, it was nothing a mid-afternoon nap on some sunny Zonai ruins wouldn't dry, but it remained amusing.
Having no Royal duties to attend, she kept him company as he took said nap while the fish he'd caught simmered in a pot. He'd offered her a spot on his warm ruins, but she declined. It was the least she could do to watch his cooking for him so he could have an undisturbed nap.
He was such a feral beast. To voluntarily lay across sun-warmed ruins day in and day out after an afternoon of hunting and gathering and a morning of being a clingy little Hylian Retriever who'd growl at and chase birds and leaves who came too close until he woke up enough to remember that they were safe and that leaves couldn't hurt her. He earned his mid-afternoon naps. He'll lose all that sleep in the form of sleepless, paralyzed-by-paranoia nights soon enough. After all… he was literally bred to protect, and every moment she could give him where he could relax was priceless to her.
She'd bring it up to him tonight, when his belly would be too full of fish to go into a clingy panic. They had to return to Hyrule sooner or later and, while their courtship would have to be hidden from the Castle, they'd still be traveling the wilds in preparation for Calamity. And she'd become of age in a little less than two years. In the worst-case scenario of the best-case scenario… she'd only have to hide their affections for two more years. The two springs in between would test them, now knowing more about the Wolfbred's biology, but the next two years would work themselves out in the end. Their return to the Castle would work itself out. She just had to trust Hylia. She had the Champions, she had Link… it would work out.
Link was a little antsy, but he understood. He understood both that he had a role to fill, but also that she couldn't just abandon her people for self-preservation. She knew that he'd rather never interact with her father - or most Hylians - again, so his agreement meant a lot to her.
Of course, just after reentering Central Hyrule, they were seized by her father's guards. Link was muzzled and imprisoned immediately, with the Captains of the Guards making a bit of an example out of him as he was trotted down to the Lockup. Of course, Link had not so much as laid within the same room as her since leaving Gerudo Town, so was quickly released with a muzzle and a slap across his face. The muzzle was removed about a day later when Urbosa and Dorephan, backed up by accounts from the remaining Champions, raised hell about why Link ran away in the first place. To prevent outcry, Rhoam had little choice but to completely reinstall Link as if nothing had happened. However, due to the violent interaction between Princess and King, Zelda ended up acquiring a full-blown Guard of her own with Link as its Captain. She made a point in appointing several of the Castle's remaining Wolfbred to her Guard, looking to Link for recommendation and approval of each appointment. When the dust settled, Zelda had a guard of seven men (three Wolfbred and four Hylians) including her Captain of the Guard, Link.
Zelda was certain her mother would be proud that her best guard's son was commanding her daughter's guard.
As frustrated as Rhoam was due to Link's impressive collection of titles: Hero, Champion, Personal Knight to Princess Zelda and now Captain of Princess Zelda's Guard; he was entirely to blame for the occurrence. And Urbosa took every opportunity to remind him of such.
Of course, despite all evidence, rumors of the Princess and her new Captain's integrity continued to spread around the Kingdom. Castle Town was especially horrendous, and it tired Zelda to hear what horrendous things the common folk were certain Link had done with her. His over-eagerness to protect her from literally anything within the Castle walls, which once led him to flip over the tables in the dining hall while the hall was full of soldiers, did not help to dampen the rumors. Link would always apologize to her after making a panicked scene, and she'd always assure him that she'd rather him be eager to defend her than apathetic about her safety.
Their honors eventually did right themselves, at least in regards to that specific incident. Of course, being publicly fond of a man from an exiled breed will always generate more incidents, but as Zelda's fondness grew into devotion, and then into full-blown love for Link, she began to care less and less. After all, Link's actions showed the world that the King is not completely free from the laws of the Goddess Hylia. And of course, despite all the drama that commoners come up with, there was still a Calamity Ganon to prepare for and defeat.