Chapter 6

Movement caught Link's attention back to the barn to notice Zelda walking out with a bundle gripped in her teeth. Once out of the camouflaged structure, she sat the bundle on the ground and looked around.

Careful of the tree that had been hiding him, Link rose to his feet and stepped out of the cover. Zelda noticed him and grabbed the cloth pouch before walking over to him.

Zelda sat it down before him and looked up, saying, "They spared as much as they could for us, even using a blanket as the bag."

"That was kind of them," Link offered.

Zelda pawed the blanket open to show Link it was mostly preserved meats as she explained, "Misha said not much grows anymore so this is what their diet consists of. Salted river octorok, lizalfos jerky," she looked up at him and added, "guess that answers that question." Turning back to the foods in the blanket she continued listing off what they had been given, "A loaf of bread, another type of jerky I forgot what she called it, and salted ham."

"They have pigs here?" Link asked as she carefully used her teeth to tie it back into a bag.

"Unless they have a creature just called a ham," Zelda offered, her teeth holding tight to the knot she was working on. "Take hold of that end so I can tighten this."

Link lowered his head and carefully took the corner she had opposite of her in his teeth. Once she had finished pulling against him he let go so she could pick it back up in her teeth. He lowered himself back to the ground and ordered, "Jump back on."

"I can walk," Zelda retorted around the pouch.

"I rather you didn't," Link said, eyeing the female cat before him.

"One day you won't be so embarrassed around me," Zelda said, walking around Link so she could jump on his back.

"And I'm sure you'll be disappointed because you won't get any enjoyment out of trying to embarrass me," Link pointed out as he waited for her to settle down on his back. Once she had stopped moving he turned his head to catch a glimpse of her sand fur and asked, "You ready?"

"Yaw!" Zelda ordered, a laugh in her voice.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Link said, a smile pulling at his face. He rose to his feet and turned around to where he remembered the black river.

"Couldn't be helped," Zelda threw off. "The only time I'll do that, I promise."

Link walked towards the river, trying to understand the natural compass of this world as he figured Death Mountain to still be in the north. Remembering the map Misha had drawn, Link asked, "Did you look at the map?"

"And how it's similar to home?" Zelda asked. Not waiting for a response she added, "It's almost like the stories of a mirror world."

"Mirror world?"

"There's an old Sheikah story about the world reflected in mirrors as being a separate world where each of us have a reflection of ourselves there," Zelda offered. "But the idea is that everything's supposed to be reflected. Evil is supposed to rein, you'd be right handed, that sort of thing. Here it just seems like Hyrule got copied."

"Charlo even said there was legend that they were people of Hylia," Link remembered as he found the river. He walked close to the remains of the tree line and asked, "Do you think she created them as well?"

"I can't see her as the type who would've abandoned them here," Zelda offered. "Maybe they came through a portal, like we did."

"I still just want to know where here is," Link admitted, keeping an eye to the sky as he walked. "It's another world, I got that, but how?"

"Maybe Hera might know," Zelda said. Claws found their way into Link's hide as she hissed, "To the right."

Link stopped and looked towards the woods on their right. Charred remains of trees and bushes left the forest a dark dead color. Red flame caught his attention as a flying skull floated around the remains of a tree. Its eye sockets landed on them as it opened its mouth to let out a cry.

Zelda matched the monster's cry with her own as she sprung off Link's back, front claws extended towards the flying skull. She made contact with the monster, bringing it to the ground with her. It disappeared in a purple cloud, vanquished by her claws, only for her to jump onto her hind feet. "Ow!" she exclaimed, her sand colored paws ablaze.

Acting quickly, Link grabbed hold of her scruff along the back of her neck with his teeth and swung her into the dark river. She landed in a hiss as the strange magical fire died in the liquid as her body fell into the dark liquid.

Zelda pushed herself back to her paws, shaking the liquid from her head. She looked down to look at her paws only to see herself reflected up in the thick liquid. She looked up at Link, the horse standing with worry on his face as he leaned over to look her over. "Thanks," Zelda offered.

"We learned something, don't attack flying flaming skulls," Link said, his heart still pounding as his adrenalin finally slowed down.

"I guessed it was one of those bubbles," Zelda offered, lifting her paws up to look at the damage she had done. Putting them back into the liquid she walked out and gave herself a shake.

Link stepped back, still uncertain about the dark liquid, as a few drops landed on his muzzle. Twitching his nose, he looked her over to notice the dark liquid had tinted her sand colored fur brown. "How's your feet?"

"Still hurt, but the quick dunking did help," Zelda offered, looking up at him.

Link lowered himself down, careful of the pouch he could feel in between his shoulder blades, and let her climb back on. Grateful she did so without any comment, he waited until she was comfortable before rising to his feet. He moved farther into the woods, making sure he could still see the river and said, "If those flaming skulls are bubbles, I wanna talk to the person who names monsters. In both words I mean. Chuchus, bubbles? They make you think they're more harmless than they really are."

"You sound like a doting parent," Zelda said, the hint of a laugh in her voice.

"Well, I care about you," Link offered, glad she couldn't see his face.

"Thanks," Zelda said, the laughter gone.

Realizing how strange of a response that was, Link asked, "How good of a parent was Mr. Lynn?"

"He wasn't," Zelda said, surprise at the sudden subject change evident in her voice. "He was my mentor."

"Than I've got about ten years of love to catch you up on," Link mumbled more to himself.

"Huh?"

Link threw a glance to his left, over to the river, and saw what looked like something the Gerudo would make. "You think that's the pyramid?" Link asked.

"Yeah," Zelda offered, moving on his back. "It looks like it's where the castle is in our world."

"I wonder if that's Nuttebaum Castle," Link thought aloud. "At least that means we're getting closer."

The two let the silence of the world settle around them, the only sound they could hear being Link's hooves against the ground and the strange gurgling the river made. Occasionally Link would kick himself, his back hooves accidentally smacking into his front as he struggled to get used to four feet. He may have grown up around animals, but he had never thought about how they walked. He just hopped he didn't have to run while still being in this body. A part of him feared he would just trip himself up and fall face first into the charred ground.

Movement on his back got his attention as Zelda placed her paws on his head. "Look, through the trees there."

Link looked up, seeing a paw pointing over his head. Following her paw he saw a strange gray cloud through the trees, blocking out the darkening sky, "Guess that's the cloud that rains fire," Link said as he came to a stop. "We should stop and eat dinner before we start climbing the mountain."

"I just want a drink of water," Zelda admitted.

"I wish there was water," Link said, turning to walk over to the river. "But this is the best there seems to be."

Zelda let out a grunt, dropping down from Link's head. A moment later she jumped down with the pouch in her mouth. The two stepped over to the liquid's edge, Zelda sitting the pouch in between them, and looked down at the black liquid.

Link lowered his head and closed his eyes as he lapped at the liquid, cringing at the sour taste it laid on his tongue.

"Ug! I'd rather drink my own urine," Zelda exclaimed.

Link opened his eyes and looked at her, a smile appearing on his face at the sight of her trying to remove the liquid's taste from her tongue.

Zelda paused, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, as she noticed Link staring at her. "What?"

"Just imaging you fighting your tongue in your proper body," Link admitted, turning back to take another mouthful of the sour liquid. He swallowed as an involuntary shiver ran down his spine, forcing the image from his mind. He took a step back and looked at Zelda as the girl forced herself to take another drink. Her sand colored fur seemed back to its normal color now that she had dried off from her dip earlier. A strange pattern in her fur close to her shoulder caught his eye, getting him to step closer.

"Huh?" Zelda turned to look up at him, noticing where his eyes laid. She turned to look at her shoulder asking, "Do I have something on my fur?"

"No, just hang on," Link said, squinting as he tried to figure out what he was seeing. "Look straight," he ordered. The pattern was something he knew he should know, he figured that much. She did as he ordered, letting her fur lay flat as Link recognized it. "The Tri-force!"

"What about it?" Zelda asked, turning to look at her shoulder again.

"It's kinda hard to make out on your fur, but it's visible on your shoulder like it would be on your hand," Link explained. He looked at himself, trying to find where his piece of the Tri-force was visible.

"Stop moving," Zelda ordered, turning so she face him.

Link turned his head so he was looking straight, fixing his left front leg so it was comfortable. He let out a snort as he could see out of his peripheral her looking him over. She disappeared around his back side, appearing on his other side without a word. Muscles clinched as she walked under him, wishing she wouldn't as her tail trailed against his stomach.

"Found it!" Zelda said, placing a paw on the inside of his left front leg.

Link struggled to look at where she pointed, her dropping her paw as he picked up his leg. Stretching it out he struggled to look down only to just see the lighter fur that must be the corner. He straightened back up, his neck hurting at the struggle, and looked down at Zelda as she walked over to pick back up their pouch of food.

"Well that answers that," Zelda said around the pouch in her mouth as she turned around. Link followed her as they walked into the charred woods, keeping an eye out for any more of those bubbles as he let her find a place to stop for dinner. She stopped, pointing a paw to an overhang created by a hill cut in half and asked around the pouch, "Can you fit under that?"

"I'm not that tall," Link retorted, passing her to step under the overhang.

"I'm used to your normal height, for one," Zelda said, sitting down the pouch at her front paws. Looking up at him she added," Two, you're a lot taller than me at the moment."

Link lowered his head, realizing he was taller than he realized, and stepped under the overhang. He turned around in the space, a log locking the space in the back to make it like a cave, and laid down with his legs to the side facing the overhang. Turning his head to look at the cougar watching him he said, "I'm good."

"Just don't kick that tree," Zelda said. She picked up the pouch in her teeth and walked over, placing it before him. Pawing at the knot, she opened the bag and asked, "What do you want?"

"Let me try that lizalfos jerky," Link said, pointing his nose towards the light colored meat.

With a claw, Zelda hooked the jerky and placed it on the corner of the blanket closest to him. She chose the ham for herself, the pink meat looking very similar to Hylian pig meat.

Link lowered his head and started chewing on the jerky. In silence the two ate their dinner, every once in a while Link glancing up at the girl as she crouched to eat. He noticed her tail laying along the ground behind her, he knew that to be normal for cats from the mousers that lived on the ranch, but every few bites the tip would twitch as if she was deep in thought. Swallowing the bite of jerky he had managed to gnaw separate, he licked his lips before asking," What'cha thinking about?"

"Huh?" Zelda looked up, a sliver of ham poking out of her mouth. She pulled it in with her tongue and quickly swallowed, resting her haunches on the ground. She looked down at the remains of her dinner and admitted, "Trying to figure out how to word a question."

"Okay," Link offered, reaching down to go back to work on eating his jerky. He stole a glance at her, noticing the look of surprise on her face at him just giving her the time to formulate her thoughts. He lowered his eyes, hoping to make her feel he wasn't in any hurry even though he was curious as to what she wanted to know.

"What do you want for your future?"

Link looked up, the remaining part of his jerky still in his mouth, to see her putting a paw on her ham. He quickly worked at gnawing off the mostly chewed on part of the jerky, letting the rest of it drop to the blanket so he could swallow what was in his mouth. "As in my career or just life in general?" Link asked, trying to narrow down what she wanted to know.

"All of it."

Link repositioned himself so his legs were under him, letting him look at her better. "Well, I hope one day I'll make it in the top ranks of the royal guard, maybe even one day making captain," Link started off with. "Maybe have a squire to train." He caught her eyes and said, "I want to marry you. I may not have known when we first met that I loved you, like you did with me, but I know I love you. I really hope no one calls me Prince Link though." He smiled as that remark pulled at her cheeks. His smile faded as his mind drug up old ideas of what the future might look like. He lowered his head to look at what was left of their dinner and added, "I guess it was stupid, but when I was little I always imagined being able to leave my kids in Grandfather's care so he could tell them the same stories he told me and the twins. It didn't hit me about how old he would be by then, he just seemed…" Link paused to find the right word, settling on "immortal." Focusing on her face again he noticed her eyeing her front paws, her head lower than her shoulders. Wishing he could take hold of her chin to get her to look up at him, wishing he could give her a kiss, he said, "For the most part, I just want to live a long happy life with you. Sure I have to keep reminding myself how well you can fight, but I just want you safe."

A low sound came from Zelda, Link quickly recognizing it as a cat's response to wanting to cry as her shoulders shook.

"Zelda," Link said, worry pulling at him. Carefully he pushed himself to his feet and reached over to take hold of her scruff with his teeth. As gently as he could, he picked her up and carried her over their dinner, placing her beside him. He laid back down, not caring about modesty as he laid his legs towards her. He did his best to nudge at her, trying his best to pull her into his front legs when she got up and stepped over so she was pressed up against his chest. He rested his head over her, pain in his heart. Realizing he not only had to show her love to try and replace the hurt from her childhood, he also had to teacher her love wasn't just what Lady Impa had been telling her it was.