POV Link
"Impa, what do I do now?" I ask, feeling hopeless.
She gives a slight, enigmatic smile. "Breathe. Calm down. Don't make any decisions yet. The answers will come when it's time for them to come. And when they do, have the courage to accept them."
Well, that doesn't help me at all. But I accept the advice. I notice then that the room is darker. How many hours have I been here, talking with Impa? I suppose it will be night soon, so I decide to look for Zelda so we can leave before it's too late to travel.
As I stand to say goodbye to Impa, I hear the door open. I turn to ask Zelda if she wants to stay the night here in Kakariko, since she didn't have much time to talk with Impa. However, when I look towards the door, I see only Paya, who looks strangely distressed. My muscles tense immediately.
"Paya," I greet her. "Where is Zelda? Did something happen?"
"Oh, hello, Link. Zelda has already left. She said she had arranged with you to return earlier..." her voice trails off as she sees my reaction to her words. "Right?"
"How long ago did she leave?" I ask urgently, uninterested in the details. They are irrelevant.
"Just a few minutes... maybe twenty or thirty?"
Overcome by urgency, I stride to the door. "We were talking about the day the Yiga stole the relic, and she suddenly said she needed to leave because she had some commitment with Purah and..." Paya continues as I pass her, but I barely hear what she's saying. She follows me, anxious, as I run down the stairs.
"Which way did Princess Zelda go?" I ask Dorian and Cado. Paya reaches the bottom of the stairs, watching the scene with anxiety, wringing her hands. Even Impa has come out of the house—though she remains near the door—to assess the situation.
"Through the upper exit, Master Link, where you arrived," informs Dorian.
I nod, nimbly mount Epona, and leave without saying goodbye. They had only one task this afternoon: ensure Zelda's safety while I was with Impa, in a rare moment away from my duties.
Gradually, a new emotion seeps into my veins, and I realize, surprised, that I am feeling anger. It's not a common emotion for me. None are, really. I never had time to spend on emotions. However, this one is far more intense than my willpower—which took a significant hit after my collapse while talking with Impa.
Rage floods every cell of my body. I'm trembling, wanting to scream, run, give up everything. Indignation begins to carve a path through the fury, questioning why the responsibility always falls back on me. Haven't I had enough for a lifetime? For dozens of lifetimes?
Why did she leave Kakariko alone? Ganon was eradicated yesterday, but how do we know if all his monsters vanished with him? We haven't had time to scour the forests to ensure they're completely safe.
And worse than Ganon's monsters, the Yiga are certainly still out there. They're just Sheikah soldiers who turned against the royalty, not born from the Calamity's demonic energy. Not only are they definitely still free, but they're also thirsting for revenge—since I killed their leader a few months ago. If any of them cross paths with Zelda and she can't control her powers to defend herself...
The thought injects more adrenaline into my veins, and an icy worry joins the chaos happening in my brain at the moment.
I urge Epona to go even faster, and we fly across Hyrule's fields. "Sorry, girl. But we need to find Zelda as soon as possible."
In a quarter of the time it took us to get there, we reach the bridge leading to the Dueling Peaks stable and inn. I consider stopping to ask if Zelda passed by there, but my instinct tells me to head towards Hateno.
A few minutes later, my heart leaps as I see my worst fear unfolding. Still too far away, I witness someone Zelda was talking to disappear and transform into a Yiga soldier. She looks back, terrified, as he lunges at her.
I push Epona even harder, though she's already at her limit.
There won't be time to reach them.
Desperate, I see Zelda get hit and fall from her horse.
No, no, no, no.
Faster.
She moves on the ground, and, relieved, I realize the blow wasn't fatal. Yet. But something is wrong with her arm, and she can't support her weight on it—or even move it easily.
The Yiga slowly walks towards her, holding his scythe in one hand and caressing the blade with the other, sadistically. My blood boils, and a severe headache pulses in my temples.
Just a little more.
He leans towards Zelda and raises the scythe, seemingly saying something—his uniform includes a mask that covers his entire face, so it's impossible to be sure.
The moment he begins to lower the blade to strike her again, I reach the scene and trample the soldier with all the speed Epona was running.
The Yiga is likely dead from the impact, but just to be sure, I jump off Epona and, entering that trance state where everything seems to move in slow motion except me, grab my bow, pull an arrow from the quiver, and shoot the bastard right in the throat.
I land on the ground with a dull thud, wait a few seconds to ensure he's not moving anymore, and turn to Zelda, who is staring at me, astonished and panting.
"Link, I..." she begins, but this time I can't hold back and interrupt her.
"What were you thinking?" I exclaim, startled by the harshness in my voice. She also seems surprised to see me showing emotions instead of being composed as usual.
"I..." she continues, looking confused and fearful, "had to leave Kakariko because..."
"Had to? What reason could you have to need to leave Kakariko? Did you want to get into trouble again? Do you need to be rescued all the time?"
She gets instantly irritated, her eyes filled with hurt. "I don't need to be rescued; I can defend myself!"
"I see that," I respond with sarcasm in my voice. I didn't even know I was capable of being ironic.
"As I recall," she retorts, her voice growing louder, "the one who needed rescuing last time was YOU, who would have died if I hadn't stopped that Guardian! And it took you a HUNDRED YEARS to recover!"
"And none of that would have been necessary if you had accessed your powers sooner!" I state, regretting it immediately.
I witnessed firsthand every step of her training and the years of failed attempts she endured. The pain in her eyes is so intense that it completely disarms my anger, and I am overwhelmed by the shame caused by my words.
Zelda falls silent and looks away to the ground. I see a tear roll down her face, and she wipes it away angrily. She winces in pain as she moves, reminding me that she was hit by the Yiga before I arrived. I kneel behind her to examine the wound. She starts to protest, but the pain must be too intense, as she soon accepts my help without saying anything.
The cut is deep, and I see it narrowly missed a nerve. It's still bleeding, and her tunic is quickly getting soaked. I go to the bags attached to Epona and grab my canteen, which is full of clean water. I also look for first aid supplies. I always carry a small kit with basic items that can mean the difference between life and death—considering I'm always in an eternal battlefield.
I kneel behind her again and wash the wound with water. She trembles with pain. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know how hard you tried to awaken your powers."
Zelda tries to shrug, but the movement causes her pain, and she lets out a sound of frustration. "You didn't lie," she sighs. "If I had accessed them sooner, we would have avoided many problems," and she gestures with her functional arm to the field in front of us, where the last battle before my fall took place.
"Still. I'm sorry," I reiterate.
"I'm sorry for running away. I... I got angry during the conversation with Paya and couldn't control myself."
I'm curious about what kind of topic could have caused such a reaction. I remember Paya mentioning they were talking about the day the Sheikah relic was stolen and try to understand what could be offensive about that.
We fall silent for a few moments. After cleaning the wound, I take a needle and thread from the first aid kit and start stitching it.
"Ouch," she complains. A playful smile appears on my face. She has been through so much, spent a century in a trance, even destroyed a demon, but a slight prick is what makes her complain. "Go easy."
"I'm almost done." I try to get her to talk again, to distract her from the pain. "What did Paya say that bothered you so much?" I ask before continuing to stitch the cut, learning to allow myself to talk more and express my interests.
"She..." Zelda starts but stops. "It's not important."
My curiosity increases, and I insist. "If it's not important, why did you run away?"
Zelda looks back, irritated, and her abrupt movement makes me pull too hard on the stitch I was making. "Ouch! I'll end up with a horrible scar at this rate!" she grumbles.
"You get used to it," I joke. My body, even after 100 years in the resurrection chamber, is full of scars from the day I almost died. They don't bother me, as they remind me that despite everything, I survived. "So?"
She rolls her eyes, annoyed. "She was saying she got so scared of the Yiga that you had to spend the night with her."
Ah.
"I was just fulfilling my role as a soldier of Hyrule..." I start to justify myself as I finish treating the cut, placing a bandage over the stitches.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure it was a hardship spending the night in the room of a pretty girl, chatting away. Are you done yet?" she asks sharply. "I'm tired; how long will it take to get to Hateno?"
Confused by her reaction and slightly irritated by her judgments of the situation, I respond sharply as well, the camaraderie vanishing again. "One or two hours from here. If you prefer, we can stop at the Dueling Peaks inn."
"That might be better."
"Do you need help getting on your horse?" I ask. She nods, reluctantly. She probably would prefer not to need assistance, but unable to move her dominant arm easily, she knows she has no choice.
We approach her horse, and I hold her waist to help her up. But for some reason, unlike the hundreds of times I've helped her with this same gesture, this time, as I touch her, the air immediately feels charged with tension. My breathing becomes a little faster, and when our eyes meet, I can't look away, getting lost in her green eyes for a few seconds. Zelda also seems slightly breathless, but she tries to hide it.
"So, are you going to help me or not?" she complains, pretending not to be flustered.
I shake my head, trying to reorder my thoughts and nod. This time, I manage to give her the necessary boost, and she settles on her horse. I mount Epona, and we set off at a gentle trot back to the inn.
