As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 75 there... And if you guys haven't seen an update in at least a week, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get distracted and forget things. This story (and PTaL) are supposed to be updated WEEKLY from now until they're both caught up with each other (like I was doing with FwB until this weekend).

And if you're just interested in discussing things with other readers, of course, you can go to my DISCORD here: h- t_ t_ p-s -: -/ -/ -discord . g-g / N9yDA8t6Cw (taking out hyphens, underscores, and spaces of course).

Chap. 37: A Township Tour

After a hearty mutton, potato, and Swift Carrot stew and a surprisingly strong white mushroom wine with her lunch, Zelda resumed strolling the town of Hateno. This time, she was more of a mind to stop and talk with those who seemed either interesting or interested in her since most of her pressing business had been finished before lunch.

One of the first that the prodigal princess had stopped to speak to was a young boy of perhaps eight, who had dirt caking his hands from a morning gardening, who was running around a notice board near the southern end of the market. His eyes had gone wide when he had spotted the shrunken weapons on her belt and satchel. "Hey, Miss! Did you come from the big wide world out there?"

Zelda blinked confused. "Um... I suppose I did, yes. From a long way west of here."

"Cooooool," the young boy said, then offered up his brown-caked, and otherwise tan hand for a quick shake. "I'm Nebb! You look like you can handle that bow and sword pretty well, right? Are you really strong?"

A pigtailed girl who strongly resembled Nebb started running toward them after she had realized Nebb was distracted, but Zelda paid her only a little mind for the moment. "I... I suppose so. I think some people consider me skilled, at any rate. I am a fairly good archer."

"Cooooooooooooll," Neb said, drawing out the word even longer than before. "I bet you can use all sorts of weapons, even more than you have on your belt!"

"I can use some, yes," Zelda replied, blushing a little as she noticed the eyes of several of the townsfolk on her thanks to the young boy's loud voice.

"Well, if you can, you wanna help a kid's dream come true?"

The girl arrived then, and stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed up at Zelda as she crouched down to speak to Nebb a little closer to his own level. "That depends on what a kid's dream is, doesn't it? I can't very well call down a cloud for you to ride on, after all."

Nebb laughed at her joke, and shook his head, "Nah, nothin' like that, miss. See, my gramps died a year ago, or so. When he was alive, he used to be our town's best blacksmith. He loved weapons!"

"Oh, is- or was- he part of the Ventest family?"

"Yeah, we all are," Nebb answered, nodding his head quickly while the girl did a little more shyly.

"They do make good armor," Zelda told him with a smile, "I ordered a set to be fitted for me just this morning, in fact."

"That's awesome, uncle Seldon doesn't get to sell many of those," the girl chirped.

"It is," Nebb added, "but Gramps never got to see all the weapons he wanted to. So here's the deal! You bring me weapons, and show 'em to me. Then I can sketch them down for Gramps and give him all the low-down when I meet him again!"

"He's dead," the girl pointed out needlessly, "that means we put him in the ground to sleep a long, long time. He must be really tired."

"W- Well, I suppose I could... help with that," Zelda told the boy, "but I don't feel comfortable letting a young man like you have a weapon."

"That's okay," Nebb replied, shaking his head and waving her off with his hands too, "I already got lotsa weapons, I don't need any more. Uncle Seldon and Pa are teaching me how to farm and forge, like all us Ventest men do, anyway. I just gotta take some notes so I can make more weapons when I get older, and then show Gramps to teach him."

"Oh, I see. Well, in that case, I will do what I can to help. It may not be much, but..." Something about the boy's cheerful demeanor next to his more somber little sister's (or so she assumed) made Zelda feel incredibly sad, but also hopeful for the future. She, too, had lost family. Grandparents she could not remember, a father she only knew now as a ghost, and presumably a mother, too.

But here, even despite the Calamity, civilization flourished. At least, on a township scale. She would, she must, do what she could to help preserve their land's culture, even its weapons. Besides, it was a sincere request from a boy Zelda supposed was, in truth, one of her subjects. How could she refuse? What kind of leader would she be, if a relatively simple thing like that gave her pause?

"Awesome," Nebb cheered, even jumped up in the air a few times while pumping his fists, with the girl doing the same after. "I knew you'd say yes! You're so cool, Miss! But, hmm... where to start... Oh, I guess I'll test you with something easy. I know how to make one of these, but can you get me just a basic traveler's sword?"

"I'll see what I can do," Zelda promised, "I... I actually think I know where I can find one, and I'll be sure to bring it next time I come into town. Alright?"

"Nice," the girl copied her brother's enthusiastic reply. Zelda turned to her with a kind smile, "What's your name, little one?"

"That's Narah," Nebb answered for her, only to be punched in the shoulder by the younger girl.
"She asked me, meanie!" The young lady turned to Zelda with a wide smile right after her act of sibling violence, "I'm Narah! I love to run, because it's fun!"
"She also loves to talk," Nebb teased.

"I do love to talk," Narah agreed, her smile showing that she clearly didn't think it was intended to be mean at all. "Ask me anything!"

"I... I suppose I should ask... what you do for fun?" Zelda started.

"I catch bugs, especially shiny bugs, and I run, and I talk, and I play, and I eat dinner, and I play, and I run some more! Then I go to sleep!"

"Okay," Zelda smiled with her, caught up in the girl's own good cheer after her somber expression earlier, "What is it you like the most? I know Nebb here likes weapons."

"I like shiny rocks and gems! I like sapphire the most, it's like my eyes!"

"Who do you like, then?" Zelda asked, smiling widely now. "Is it your brother?"

"No," Narah said, sticking her tongue out at him, who returned the gesture. "I like my mommy!"

"I see. I like my mother too," the princess answered, despite not being able to remember her at all. She could see Nebb itching to start their game again, so Zelda stood up, and ruffled both children's hair a bit before the told them, "Alright, go on and play, I won't bug you anymore. I'll try to bring that sword to show you soon, Nebb."

"Alright, Miss! Bye!"

"Bye, bye!" Narah added, waving as she turned to chase after her brother, who was already running out of the market as fast as his short legs could carry him.

Zelda soon realzied she had walked straight past the notice board, since she had been distracted by the children's eyes and play. With a roll of her own, the adventurer backtracked. There were a half-dozen parchments nailed or tacked to the wide planks, and thirty or more scraps from older posts. Most dealt with simple requests for help with harvesting a crop, since it the season was coming on, or notices that one farmer or another was going to marry another during the spring, or so on.

But there was one in particular that caught Zelda's eye.

Will someone please deal with the monsters at Hateno Beach?! Only 'please' had been underlined seven times. It was signed with a simple name and location, Koyin, Hateno Pasture.

"Monsters are something I'm quite familiar with," Zelda murmured, then turned to one of the nearer passers-by. "Excuse me, sir? Where can I find the Hateno Pasture?"

"Oh? Right enough, young miss," the middle-aged man grunted, and turned to point over his shoulder toward a pair of distant windmills. "Up past the mills, see? There's another tier up the valley, that's where you'll find the pastures. Most of 'em, anyway. Just don't go up too far- if you hit the crazy lady's house at the top of the hill back there, you've gone too far."

"Alright, thank you, kind sir," Zelda smiled, and gave the man a quick nod.

He blushed faintly, "Anytime, Miss."

Thirty minutes later, Zelda had wandered to the south end of the market, and checked out a dozen or more stalls for various items like a new metal ladle for her field cooking kit and some simple spices like pepper and a bit of ground salt since the large chunks she carried- which had paid for a sachet of the ground crystals on a two for one basis- was unusable to her. As she wended her slow way further east on the south side of the market, Zelda was distracted by another sign and a distinctly different form of architecture.

Most of the Hateno buildings were yellow clay over wooden frames, with wood or red clay shingles. But the small neighborhood the sign stood at the entrance of, some two and a half dozen homes at most, were of a far more modern design and craftsmanship, as far as Zelda's untrained eye could tell. They were boxy, almost as if the houses were built out of a series of interlocking cubes with white corners and edges, while each 'cube' was painted a different color. Red, green, blue, yellow, purple, and white were the most common, but a few were more exotic colors, too.

The sign was a little confusing at first, but Zelda quickly put one and one together. "Bolson Construction built these homes, did they? I'm not... truly a fan of the style, but I can't deny the craftsmanship they show."

Zelda soon found herself wandering through the neighborhood, glancing at the strangely uniform, but uniformly strange, buildings as she passed most of them. That was, at least, until she came across a rather sudden edge of the town. Just past the last few houses, there was a small fork in the road that had become more of a rarely-used trail. To the left, it rose up a hill to what was clearly a Sheikah Shrine at the peak. To the right, it kept going more or less straight across a sturdy-looking but old wooden bridge that crossed a stream that fell into a ravine a few hundred feet between the two paths, and beyond that a large yard and home that seemed almost completely abandoned.
It would have looked completely forgotten, if Zelda could not see six men walking around the place, doing things. One was hammering on one corner, another was putting up a post, and a third seemed to be climbing to the roof, perhaps to pull away shingles. One man with a severe balding gray head and eye-wateringly pink pants seemed to be supervising, as he was occasionally pointing and yelling something to the other men that Zelda couldn't quite hear over the breeze and distance.

It was all very fascinating, watching the burly men work... but Zelda felt like she had more pressing matters, with the light of a Shrine showing a sunset orange glow from the nearby hilltop.

The Myam Agahna Shrine was wide, and open, a vast space with only a little filling it. Directly ahead of Zelda, ten of the tall, blue crystal-tipped pillars lined a walkway, five on each side, that lead to the portcullis gate guarding the ancient Sage's resting spot. Near that distant room, a ramp moved up and to the left, itself with grillework on either side, leading to one of the giant glowing bowls she had come to associate with the receptacles for some of the Sheikah's mysterious, orange-shining orbs.

Nearer her, a long staircase began at her right, moving up three flights of stairs in a straight line. Two floors up, she thought, and nearly to the extended ledge with the bowl. From the top of the stairs, more grillwork formed a walkway with a familiar, but strange-looking gyroscope which shone orange, pulsing light as the three pieces of it spun endlessly.

Finally, floating in the air, Zelda could see a smooth, flat rectangular surface of the dark stone blocks with a pole-shaped fence circling it. Only, it circled it with a great many gaps. At first, she could not deduce its purpose. There seemed to be no treasure, no key, or other puzzle to access the Sage's chamber. But once the Sheikah Slate was held over the gyroscope's control apparatus, things were much more clear.

Beyond that, the reason for the Shrine's huge, open interior became clear. High above the floating platform that hung in the air was a barely-visible chute from which a familiar orange orb appeared, then dropped into what Zelda could now see, from her higher angle, was clearly a maze.

A maze with holes in the wall, much like a wooden puzzle she had been gifted once in her youth. The objective was simple: Use two levers on nearby sides of the maze to tilt the platform in a certain way, and cause a marble to roll from one side into a slot at the other.

This, she reasoned, was much the same, only she would have to somehow get the orb (which, hopefully, would be replaced if she missed!) into the long ramp, which would then probably, almost certainly given the general skill of Sheikah engineering, deposit the orb safely in its receptacle.

The treasure that was nestled inside the labyrinth of pole-fencing, well... that would probably require her to run up the ramp herself, but the princess was in far better shape than she had once been, and felt practically eager to get it done with after her long rest the night before.

Fortunately, she had always been a dexterous woman, judging by the quality of her archery, so Zelda had little problem moving the ball around and getting it to the end of the maze, which was a short lip. Flipping it up, off the end and onto the waiting ramp was a bit harder, and proved that yes, the orb would come back down the chute if one fell. Thankfully, the second time she succeeded, and soon the intelligent young woman had realized something else.

She could simply move the lip down and jump with the paraglider (if that was even needed) down to it, then climb up the sloped ramp to one of the other corners, and glide down to the starting platform. It might even be easier than trying to haul herself back up the other way and run down the ramp again.

Trading her worn, simple bow used for practice or beginners of the yeoman's art for a Sheikah's Phrenic Bow was definitely worth the work, Zelda decided. Even if she'd barely made it back to land on the starting platform once more after jumping from the floating one, which might have given her a minor heart attack.

She felt much better as she received another Spirit Orb, which brought her back to four again. Which meant, if she saw a Statue of the Goddess (at least one cared for, she supposed), she could pray again and receive another of Hylia's blessings.

Which would... make her so very horny again.

But as Zelda rode the lift behind the Sage upward, she supposed it was worth it. One desperately powerful need to orgasm that demanded satisfaction did not seem such a great price for the strength and stamina she had gained, or the endurance, from her two previous blessings.

Besides, she had an arrangement with Prima. Surely she could wait until that night? That was, if she saw such a statue today, since it was already midafternoon.

First a handsome young man who made Zelda's nethers throb in anticipation despite him showing no interest in her, and then a rather ugly, hugely-built man with a terrible, tall bowl haircut directed her to the man in pink pants, who was now behind the house as Zelda approached it, curious as to what they were doing.

Getting it ready for demolishment, it seemed.

"Excuse me, Sir?" Zelda announced herself, "Mr. Bolson?"

"That's me," the man, whose name she had been given by the younger, more handsome of the workers she'd spoken to, looked over at her with a curious glance. "Did you need something, Ma'am?"

Aside from his name for her making Zelda feel old, she found his demeanor friendly enough. Still, she had business, if what she supposed they were doing, and what her plan going forward was going to work.

"Your men are demolishing this house, right?"

"That's right," Bolson said with a nod, "Times are tough, and there aren't a lot of buyers right now, so the town's decided to knock this place down and put in another orchard."

"Is it... still sturdy?"

Bolson snorted, "Sure, they don't make a lot of houses this well anymore- only our own company, Bolson Construction, can claim they do, really. All the old homes in Hateno- or pretty much anywhere else around here- have been handed down for more than a century. This one's about that old, and it's still going strong aside from some minor issues. Missing a few shingles, a crack in one wall, a bit of lost stucco around the bottom, like you can see here with the bare stone... Town just doesn't need it. Most folks want to stay close to family given the danger, anyway, not live way out here on the edge of the town."

Zelda grinned, "I'll buy it, then," she told him.

Bolson snorted again, louder, then turned to face her fully for the first time. He was a well-toned man with a tan all over what would otherwise have been a pale complexion, with stormy gray eyes and a lighter gray cast to his beard the the remaining ring of hair around the back of his head. "Look at you, young moneybags... just gonna buy a house, huh? Just like that?"

"I don't see why not," Zelda answered, waving a hand toward it, "I've got plenty of money- well, most of the time- and-"

"Look, Ma'am, let me lay it out for you," Bolson interrupted her, "This house has been vacant for years. The villagers all voted to tear it down- or most did. With demolition costs, associated fees, permits, and other details- come in at fifty thousand rupees. So when you say you wanna buy it... You got that much on you?"

Zelda felt her face heat even as her stomach dropped out of her belly. That was... a lot of Rupees. "I... don't have that much on me, no," she answered quietly, "but- but I can get it! If I can pay in installments, then-"

"Look, you seem like a nice young go-getter, young lady, but this kind of investment is meant to last a family for a long, long time. Unless you've got some real scratch coming in..."

"I just spent three thousand rupees on a set of armor and upgrading my supplies," Zelda told him seriously, "that's the only reason I'm not already carrying that much. I'm an adventurer, and apparently a pretty good one. I can get money, it'll just take me some time."

Bolson sighed and looked away to stare over the wide, forested valley at the distant, blue-lit tower. "Okay, say I believe you. I like your attitude. And the town would save some money if someone bought the place and paid taxes, and all that. So I can bring it up with the mayor, he's an old friend of mine. I think- think- I can get him to just sell me the place. In return, I can sell it to you for the price I pay."

Zelda's green eyes narrowed, "Then there's a catch."

"Smart kid," Bolson chuckled, "I like that. Of course there is. See, the house is sturdy enough. Minimal real damage. But it isn't really suitable to live in, yet. Needs a lot of cleaning, some repair work. Needs a lot to make it a real home, if you know what I mean. So... if you contract with us, Bolson Construction, to fully upgrade this place... get it fixed up, all the bells and whistles and appliances, furniture, and so on... then I'll make money, we'll have a steady supply of work for a while, and you'll come up with a shiny, nice house to raise a family in."

Zelda's face heated once more at the mention of a family. She... Well, she might well enjoy the act of creating some children, but actually having them... of settling down and getting married? She wasn't quite sure she was ready for that. But this home, especially on the outskirts, seemed like it would be a good base of operations for her work around Hateno.

"Alright," Zelda nodded, "I'll take that deal- as long as I can decide when it's fully finished."

"No way," Bolson shook his head with a laugh, "but I'll let you have my personal promise we won't be making work for us. That's against our company motto. Just what you need to get the place all spiffy."

The princess considered it for a moment, the nodded and offered her hand. "Deal."
Bolson shook it eagerly too, despite his verbal reluctance. It seemed he was as pleased by the negotiation as she was, which Zelda supposed was how it should be, if everyone was to remain happy. Both ends- or all sides- of an agreement were better off if everyone was happy at the end. "Alright, so, to get started- mostly with the fees I'll need to give to the mayor- you'll need to get me three thousand rupees or so for my initial costs. We'll stop work today, but to actually show me you're serious about all this, start with that. Oh, and I'll need thirty bundles of wood, too. Building materials, for your house."
"Thirty? Is that all?"

Bolson seemed to think she was upset, "You don't have to deliver them yourself Ma'am, but-"

"I've got that right here. Where do you want me to unload them?"

Bolson's eyes widened as Zelda started pulling bundles of her explosive- or axe-carved wood out of her satchel, two or three blocks of wood at a time, then dropping them in a loose pile near the cliff the house was nestled against.

"Alright, you're starting to show me what you're built of," Bolson eventually said with an amused shake of his head, "Just... pile it up there, I suppose, and bring me the rupees. We'll stop work for now, but we can't wait forever. Maybe a couple of weeks 'till the mayor starts to ask questions."

"I think it'll be just a few days," Zelda told him, "but I'll return as quickly as I can either way. Thank you, Mr. Bolson."

"Just Bolson. Mr. Bolson was my dad," the older gentleman chuckled, then hollered loudly, "Alright, boys, listen up! Stop what you're doing, gather 'round the cookfire! Time for an early- or a late- lunch! We gotta have a company meeting!"

"Thank you either way, Bolson," Zelda repeated, giving him a pleased smile and nod. He shot her a jaunty wave in turn as he walked away. When Zelda finally had dropped off the last bits of wood he requested- she hoped she'd counted right- Bolson was happily telling his crew that instead of tearing it down, the boys would have 'a few days off', then repair the place, instead.

Zelda crossed the bridge once more, smiling proudly. Soon, she would own a home. Not a castle, of course, but a home. A place of her own. One she'd paid for (hopefully, sort of) with her own money, not something handed to her because of her birth, or birthright, and not something she'd scavenged from a monster's corpse.

A home... a place to live, if nothing else, to rest. A permanent place, once it was done.

The princess surely had a distinct spring in her step as she returned to the marketplace an hour later.

It was now nearing sunset, but she was far from done.

She heard a few interesting tidbits of gossip as she strolled through the down, with many of the farmers returning to the residential areas from their hard days' work in the fields for dinner, the streets were far busier, so it only made sense.

One woman spoke of a trio of peaks north of the town in a line that each held a single large pine tree at the top. Supposedly, by following the line they made to the east, near the coast, one could find a 'mysterious treasure'.

Zelda would have dismissed it as rumor and hearsay alone, if she hadn't already noticed the three peaks on the map of her Sheikah Slate, to the south of Mount Lanayru. Perhaps, if she ever ventured into the upper reaches of the mountain range, she might well investigate it.

Another pair of gossipers were overheard talking about a young, white-haired woman who had suddenly appeared at the Research Lab a few weeks before, when by all accounts only adults lived there.

Finally, the last man Zelda spoke to seemed to be a bit of a creep, as she caught him staring at her chest... and that of every buxom woman that walked by. She ignored him for the time being, as the hour was getting toward dinner, and she was starving once more. Besides, she had a date with a very beautiful woman that night.
She should probably have a bath. Even if Prima had to suspect what she would be bringing up the hot water for.

Maybe it was cause her to anticipate the night as much as Zelda herself already was.

Of course, on her way back to the Great Ton Pu Inn, Zelda did notice a set of standing stones, some with flags, some stacked up, some painted, with simple offerings... and a larger, carefully cleaned statue of the Goddess Hylia tucked away in an alcove behind them, as if the smaller shrines were children she was caring for.

The streets were already starting to empty with the oncoming night, so Zelda was not particularly worried about being attacked as she knelt, and began to pray.

Flashes of light. Of heat. Sweat of skin against skin, warmed by fire or simple heat, or the scorching sun, or passion itself.

Her own body, driven near-mad by lust, as a thick, hard, silky-smooth member drove itself into the hungry chasm between her legs, ever-needy and ravenous. He pulled out, and then thrust back in with force, driving her body hard against the tree that supported her.

Another flash, and then her beneath him, the faceless, toned warrior who had taught her so much, whose name she knew, but whose face and mannerisms she could scarce recall.

Link.

Her... Knight, the ghost of her father had said. Her Appointed Knight, her personal bodyguard, the man most ultimately responsible for her safety.

Her lover.

An exquisite man, full of fire and strength and determination, who she had once despised and hated for he seemed to represent... something. She could not rememer, even in her dream, why she had despised him so. Only that she had, and she hated that fact now as she felt... differently.

Another flash.

Scales, crimson like blood, and white like the shell of an egg, shifting beneath the same man's hand as he dared... dared to kiss another, right in plain sight of her! How dare he!

How dare he want her... she was the Princess' friend, not- not his! Not his lover!

A flash. A white-haired woman, casually beautiful, with a warrior's body. One of the first she had ever lusted after, thought she had loved. Another bodyguard, yes... a close confidant, second only to her Appointed Knight himself, and that only after she had learned the true strength of his character.

Bare breasts in the bath, as the two- teenagers at the time, she thought, younger than Zelda appeared- shared some alone time, chatting and gossiping as friends rather than princess and guardian, while Zelda had a hard time (for whatever reason) keeping her eyes free of the lathered-up warrior-woman's body.

Light and heat again.

The petals of a woman's sex, shown clear and wide and glistening, just before Zelda's face, before she leaned in and began to lick, her own body on fire with lust.

Flashes.

A penis in her mouth, rock-hard... the man's, her Knight's.

Flash.

Her astride him now, her hips rocking back and forth as he held her gently at the hip with one hand, the other on her breast, his eyes- his eyes, she could see his eyes!- crystal-clear, blue, shining with so much emotion he could never say.

Flash.

Her Knight, taking the same white-haired woman from behind, her heavy breasts- the ones Zelda herself so admired and wanted to hold- swaying as her body rocked with his thrusts, the mingled cries of their passion and pleasure music to her ears, even as it stung at her heart.

Clarity.

She stared, the same scene frozen in place before Zelda's waking dream-presence. Slowly, the princess moved without walking, until she could see the woman's face. Her knight's, for its part, was still visible only as a blur, aside from his eyes, which were hungry, forceful, but also caring. He liked this woman, liked being with her. They were friends, too.

Zelda's friend, was his. And her lover was her friend's.

Impa.

She knew that face, now. Impa, as she had been a century and more younger.

Link, her knight, her lover, was also fucking Impa, her best friend.

She wanted to rage, to spit, to hate...

But her hand had just come into view at the foggy, unfocused edge of the scene. Her dress, an achingly familiar dress, swaying as her body stepped forward, her face not full of rage, but eagerness and happiness. The dress was half-off, showing one of her own bare breasts.

She was coming to join them, an indistinct smile on her face.

What...

What did it mean?

Flash.

Clarity.

Silence.

Zelda's green eyes woke in the dark, star-lit night of Hateno Village, and her body burned like she was lit with fever.

Without conscious thought, she staggered to her feet, and started moving, as quickly as she could, toward the Inn.

She had to get help, and now. Her body demanded it. Her mind demanded it.

Her soul demanded it.

And even more, the Goddess Herself demanded it.

Zelda, half-drunk on lust and divine... something, staggered into the common room, which still held nine slowly-eating guests.

"Prima," she gasped as she saw the woman.

She was already imagining her naked. "Prima... b- bath. Please."
She could not wait. The bath was just an excuse.

She could not, not, not, not, not wait. She had to have her, have someone, take away the desperate, pounding need.