CHAPTER 13

The next morning, Link awoke with the gradual rising of the sun.

Yawning delicately, he promptly composed himself – lest he should unintentionally disturb Ruto's slumber. After the miserable time that she'd had yesterday, and for heaven knew how long before that, she needed to rest.

Besides which, he was perfectly content to watch her sleep, for the time being.

Though he would always prefer her mature form (in the romantic sense), he couldn't deny that the Zora hatchling was rather charming and cute, in her own way. For lack of a more appropriate comparison, Ruto's hatchling form reminded him of a cat or a small dog. He resisted the urge to stroke her temples, yet again, as he patiently waited for her to wake up.

About an hour later, Ruto warbled and yawned. Stretching her tail and fins as far outwards as they would go, she gradually pried her large, inky eyes open and smirked in his general direction.

"Morning, Link," she chirped, rubbing her cheek against his chest.

Link had never seen her more contented than in this moment, as she listened to the same heartbeat that hushed her to sleep the night before. He reached into his tunic and gently stroked her back. "Morning, Ruto," he answered.

She responded to his touch with another trill, leaning against his hand in appreciation.

He hadn't yet expelled the lingering dregs of sleep from his mind and body – but, nevertheless, he thought it best to get moving sooner, rather than later. He had a fairy to find, and a dear friend to restore to her rightful age – and neither task was going to complete itself.

He cautiously sat up, lightly easing Ruto out of his tunic and draping her over his shoulders. Ruto, sighing serenely, wrapped her tail around his neck (taking care not to squeeze too hard) as he slowly stood and approached Epona. He rummaged through his saddle-bag and dug out three apples, along with a small full-tang carving-knife with a maple-wood grip and a brass pommel and guard. Epona ate one apple out of his hand with as much grace as her species would permit, and he hastily found a tree-stump to sit on while eating the other two.

Cutting a rather large wedge from the fruit, he held it up to Ruto's face. "Apple?"

"No, thank you," she answered, eyeing the apple-slice warily. "My race's strictly carnivorous, I'm afraid. Fruits and berries and the like will make us sick."

Shit. He'd utterly forgotten. "Even the hatchlings?" he asked, eating the wedge himself. "I mean – don't mind my saying so, Ruto, but you seem a bit. . . . . . . . .small for a predatory creature."

He wasn't wrong – pretty much any fish worth eating was larger than Ruto currently was. But just to quell his doubts, she leaned forward and grinned as widely as she possibly could – exposing many rows of periwinkle teeth, needle-thin and razor-sharp. Even Link couldn't help but shudder at the sight of those, though he (barely) suppressed the urge to scream.

"I, um – I stand corrected," he muttered, staring into Ruto's mouth with slight trepidation.

Her point being made, Ruto allowed her grin to fade. "Let me guess," she snapped. "Those absurd singing frogs have been spreading nonsense about my people again."

"The Fabulous Five Froggish Tenors?"

"Yes, them. Gormless chin-wags and tell-tales, the lot."

"But they could certainly sing."

"Of course, they could sing! Why else would my father tolerate their presence on the banks of the Zora River? Not that he ever bothered to leave the palace, mind you. . . . . . . . ."

As Ruto ranted on, Link let his mind wander. It immediately occurred to him that he might not be the best person to care for a creature that required meat for nutrition. He might long since have adjusted to a vegetarian diet himself, but if she was to travel with him, then he'd at least need to acquire some fish for her to eat – and he'd need to acquire them sooner, not later.

Ruto's feeble cough disrupted his thoughts. Quickly retrieving his water-skin from his saddle-bag, he offered the mouth to her and watched as she semi-gracefully took a swig.

"Thank you, Link. I needed that," she chirped, as Link drank some of the water himself.

"Of course," he replied, standing. "Now, we'd better get moving. It's mid-morning already."