A/N: I checked with Tale to recall Zevan's name, but I forgot that he gets murdered in Scales, which sort of maybe happens between the two stories, so yes, a name has been swapped, and Tovar is actually Zevan

"With that done, all we needed was to blow some hot steam into the octorok's air sac, and we had something really useful going," Trello explained with a nostalgic smile that stretched across his face, "Necessity is always a good teacher, I suppose."

"Or the mother of invention," Link recalled simply, arms held tightly to his side as he ambled forward against the ferocious gusts of wind.

Trello nodded, "That too. Lady Mipha's time with outsiders has truly brought some very interesting customs, tools, ideas- not all of which are largely accepted, of course."

Pondering for a moment, Trello wondered, "We've always been a more solitary people, and those ideas don't vanish overnight. It will take time for my people to be as understanding as Lady Mipha and myself; to understand that our customs can remain deeply revered while also adapting to the world around us."

"Good things like this Yuletide business- Lady Mipha has a knack, it seems, for finding foreign ideas that are easily winning over all. We'll need to grow more aware of Hylians, the Rito, Gerudo- If Lady Mipha is correct, a time will arrive where we will need to stand united with all peoples of Hyrule; we won't afford a chance to remain separate."

Link's brow curled thoughtfully, "If-?"

Chuckling, Trello nodded, "While I believe Lady Mipha's assertions, they remain a rather…"

He grit his teeth, thinking of a polite way of putting forward his thoughts, though Mipha quickly interjected, "A lot of my people believe me to be crazy."

"Well," Link shrugged, "You must admit, it does sound rather farfetched. Though, given her current strategy, it might be productive to tell the Zora some of our more out-there stories about warriors traveling to light and dark worlds, or the whole world flooding and submerging the entirety of Hyrule Kingdom."

Laughing, Trello admitted, "They might like that last one!"

"I don't believe the Zora are around in that story," explained Link with a frown, "The odd storytelling in such a tale were the Zora around, I'm sure."

Shrugging, Trello bit back playfully, "No doubt more hatred toward my people. Reminds me of our tales of Hylians eating entire smorgasbords of caviar while sitting atop Zora-skin rugs."

The Zora laughed, "Quite a fun morality tale for our young ones."

"Where's the moral in that?!" Link wondered with surprise.

The three strode through the landscape winding along Zora River, trudging along Ruto Mountain with only a minimal amount of luck. Most of the wildlife had already burrowed away or run off, leaving little in the way of sustenance; a few small fauna were the only things within Trello's pack, but the three had agreed that much more was needed, keeping them on the hunt.

Their conversation coming to a halt, Mipha crouched down, signaling the others to do the same, quietly relaying, "Two wild boar up the incline there."

Nodding, Trello readied an arrow, the two animated Zora contrasting with Link's meager frame as the cold began to grow even more. It had forced Link to wrap his head in fabric, leaving only his eyes and a few strands of hair exposed, the situation causing him to frown in dreaded realization that not all cold felt the same. This cold had begun to freeze his bones; he could feel his joints seize up, his body slowing, much like a Zora, he surmised; even Trello and Mipha had begun to slow.

"One shot and we'll be able to return," Trello breathed heavily, focusing on his aim for a few moments until a *THWIP* pierced the air, marking his target in a near instant.

Link's eyes tensed as he turned to Mipha, catching her worried expression before noticing what she had: Trello's arrow had not yet left his bow.

A thunderous rumble arose around them, like mountainous footsteps. The three of them remained still, watching with trepidation as a lynel stomped from the opposite end of the hill, standing over its prey and examining the landscape as though in challenge for the two boar he had masterfully taken with a single shot.

"Stay still," Mipha coached, knowing Trello hadn't ever come across one of these creatures, though the warning was wholly unnecessary, given the man's terror forcing him to freeze in any case.

Deftly enough, Link slowly reached up to grasp the arrow readied in his bow, further preventing Trello from accidentally letting loose the rock-toothed weapon. The three remained still even as the lynel resigned itself to its successful hunt. They reached down to grab hold of one of the boar with a single hand, draping it over its hide before returning for the second one, though this time, the lynel simply took a bite of the boar's frigid remains.

"Goddess…" Trello muttered quietly.

Link waved him away, speaking up in a whisper that only barely carried along the whipping gusts of wind, "We'll back off slowly."

He knew even if the lynel had noticed them, now that its kill had gone unchallenged, the creature should merely warn them off with a fierce stare, though with the weather making food scarce, Link didn't care to risk the creature turning on them for a meal for later. Trello lowered his bow to better balance himself, the three taking excruciating pains to skitter backwards back toward the trail.

"Well, that was an interesting development," Link sighed once they had escaped the lynel's immediate vicinity, "We couldn't have expected lynel to migrate so rapidly, but I suppose the climate is forcing desperation from more creatures than us."

Mipha frowned, "It appears so."

She glanced up toward the sky, recognizing her own body begin to tense with the cold, "Do we need to call it quits?"

Grumbling in defeat, Trello inquired while pulling up his backpack, "Well, is this enough?"

"I don't think so, but we might just have to make due with some hunger," Mipha concluded with a sigh, going over the list of provisions she had inspected in her head, "Link has gone without before."

He eyed Mipha expectantly, "You're not wrong. I can go without and Zelda can take my provisions."

"If she'll allow that," Mipha smirked, "We can schedule out hibernation periods if need be, as well, though without full stomachs, I don't think each individual session will last terribly long. We're at the mercy of this weather regardless."

Trello sighed with a worrisome nod, "Lady Mipha speaks the truth. We should head back. If anything Daruk should be more than capable of foraging if necessary?"

"If you're looking for herbs, sure," Link answered, too cold to chuckle, "He's either too kind or too scared of any living animals to be of much use in that department."

Link followed Trello's knowing glance, the two watching Mipha for direction while the wind whipped at their bodies. Rather quickly, Mipha explained simply, "Trello. You return alone. You can reach the bottom of this slope and make it there faster than either of us in the river. Link and I will rendezvous with Daruk at the bottom; we should be able to meet up at the same time and Daruk will be able to carry Link to safety."

Biting her lip while turning her head skyward, Mipha worried, "Then we hope we've just enough to make it through this storm."

Despite his own reservations, Trello nodded obediently, understanding time to be of the essence. Without even a verbal reply, the Zora captain rushed away as best he could, noticing his energy to have been sapped by the weather, though he pushed on.

Link turned his eyes up toward Mipha, his voice dark, "Your life comes first, I assume?"

She nodded, knowing that Trello, and Daruk's, first and foremost mission would be to retrieve her, even at the expense of the man she loved.

"Just as well," Link's eyes curled to signal a smile, "I suppose we had best start moving then."

Mipha watched his heavy steps collect exhaustion with each and every movement he made. She did her best to follow along, though Mipha felt the rising torpor within her, forcing her body to slow with each step. Recognizing her physiology beginning to betray her lover, she shoved those thoughts from her mind; were she to collapse, Link would die dragging her, and if not that, than atop of her to protect her from the threats now ever-increasing around them.

Another step. Her tendons seized along the lengths of her legs. Another step. Her shoulders ached, becoming stagnant in their movement. Another step.

"Remember Death Mountain?" Link asked.

Mipha's mind flared quietly, wanting to beg him to be silent and conserve whatever energy and heat he had left.

Link shook his head, "I never thought I'd experience a heat that intense. Feeling my pores crying out loud, feeling like that night we swam together- just sweat constantly covering my body. I wanted nothing more than to rip off my clothes, tear off my skin- remove everything that forced those dreadful sensations upon me."

A small chuckle that buried itself into silence along the blowing wind, "Goddess, if we'd had this to think of to take our minds off of it."

Mipha opened her mouth, but no reply came.

Link routinely would look over his shoulder to check on her status; every time a constant reminder to Mipha to order him to stop and conserve his energy. He finally paused his gait, turning around and reaching an arm out to wrap around Mipha's shoulders, pulling her along as well as preventing her from simply collapsing.

Were ever she able to find a time to despise this man's loyalty, it would have been now. Subjecting her to the pain of watching him die in front of her.

Link's head dropped, shaking back and forth in perplexed thought, "I think I know how you felt now."

Mipha shut her eyes. Her same sense of dedication had forced Link to do much the same. He had watched her die in much the same situation, had held her, guided her spirit back to that golden magic that had since remained a passing dream in Mipha's mind. Perhaps she truly had no judgment to offer.

She only had that endless affection for this man that had chosen to give up so much for her.

A pang carried through her heart, giving her a slight pep in her step.

Nodding, Link spoke up, "That's it. Remember those magma pools like they're right here with us."

Smirking, he went on in good humor, "Unless that's the paradoxical undressing speaking."

He held Mipha closer, "There's that cave up ahead. I think we're going to wait it out there. There won't be a rendezvous if we attempt one now. I've got everything we'll need in my rucksack, and Daruk would lift away and toss these mountains to find us; we might have a chance."

Mipha had a chance. She knew that her own body would lose nothing by the end of this winter storm; yet Link remained using the collective 'we'. The thought forced a knot in her throat as though tears were forming, though none came.

With every step seeming to force another powerful pump of their hearts, even as snow began to fall, they trudged along, finding some ease along a particularly steep decline, coming nearer to the shallow cave Link had scoped out on their way up. This presented an entirely new and soon-to-be-present danger, Link recognized, but ignored that nagging worry, leaving it for once they actually arrived within the safe confines of their rocky haven.

Though, as the snowfall quickened, Link's terrors hastened in time.

He tried to take more forceful steps, begging his and Mipha's bodies to hurry along, though it remained a futile effort. Soon, a flurry whipped up; at this rate, Link knew their visibility could be skewed, leaving them entirely helpless.

Breaths forcefully escaping him with hurrying constrictions of his lungs, Link shut his eyes, tight, focusing his thoughts on anything to compel his body to press on, ignore the frigid cold, to keep his hold on the woman he loved- whom he'd walked alongside to death's door once before.

He couldn't bear the thought that they might be doing it all over again.

The festivities had come to a halt. The Zora most knowledgeable about caretaking had already begun figuring how to ration spouts of shallow hibernation to account for their royal guest, trying their best to scramble for information: which individuals even were aware of their torpor period, how lengthy was it, so on. Despite Daruk's presence, it had been decided to keep a handful of Zora warriors at a time in defense of the Domain; lynel had been seen trudging along the peaks surrounding the sunken town, and the thought of allowing Zora's Domain to lie dormant had rubbed many the wrong way to begin with.

While Daruk was more brawn than anything else, he was tasked with guarding the tidepools specifically, where the youngest Zora would rest in their own elongated sleep, putting him toward the hind section of the Domain, but close enough to be alerted to any danger should he need to be called away.

As for Zelda, she'd been holed up within Mipha's quarters, which had already been cloaked in thick tapestries to shield her from the wind. She had been sitting her for the better part of a half hour, racking her brain in an endless cycle of toxic thinking- convincing herself of her own faults in this matter, wrapping her mind around how she would have to console King Dorephan of his dear daughter's demise, should she return him deceased, and if not that, how she would counsel her best friend on the death of her lover.

Guilt stuck to her thoughts like knives shoved through the very tapestries that protected only her, now. She had learned many times from her father that very rarely can all lives be saved- that sometimes you must sacrifice the few for the many. Yet, it was a separate matter, entirely, for Zelda to understand that lesson. to truly detest that lesson. Had she magic, she knew…

Then, in those moments of clarity, she stopped to examine the situation rationally, thinking of those great tomes of hers in the library, examining things in logically precise terms to eliminate the very emotion that had so plagued Zelda's gut the last few hours. She sat down beside the tiny portable fireplace that Link had set up upon arriving, sighing to herself in deepening thought.

She eyed King Dorephan's grandiose cloak that she and Mipha had been working on as a Yuletide gift for the Zora princess' father. It forced a miserable twist of her expression as she dropped her head forward, held up with her fists while her elbows dug into her knees. This weather was unlike anything in recorded history; a history that somehow stretched a few millennia. Something was different. but what? The previous year had seen no rebellions, nothing egregious related to Yiga attacks on Hyrule Kingdom- nothing much happened at all. But then again, much of the previous year had been spent on the road with her Champions. and even then, she knew even less about world events beyond the borders of her and Urbosa's peoples.

Zelda clenched her teeth, digging her fists against her head, thinking-

Her head raised up in realization. She stood up toward the eastern barrier of Mipha's quarters, pulling away the tapestry to glance up toward the tall mountains of Zorana that hung over her like a daunting, overbearing father. Zelda resigned herself as she hurried to her supplies, slipping on another layer of clothing and covering her head with a balaklava before throwing on her rucksack and rushing out onto the Domain. She hurriedly looked for anybody in authority, though the area had already largely been vacated now that the snow had begun falling in droves, piling atop the Domain floor and threatening to ice over the entire landscape.

Zelda instead rushed to the tallest reaches of the Domain, knowing the King's throne room wouldn't dare be devoid of soldiers, and surely enough finding two immediately confused guards upon her arrival.

"I need the king!" she shouted through her muffled facemask, leaving the two guards even more confused.

Raising herself to peer through into the throne room, Zelda's eyes widened at the sight of King Dorephan slumped deep in his throne, eyes only barely open while he succumbed to his biology.

Now panicked, Zelda spun around, "Who's in charge, then?!"

"Princess of Hyrule!" came the voice of Seggin, who stomped up the stairway after her, "I'm afraid I must insist you follow orders while-"

"Are you in charge now?" Zelda asked with a mixture of desperation and urgency, "You're a sergeant, right?!"

Seggin eyed the two guards, who both shrugged, leaving him to reply, "I'm the senior authority in this vicinity, yes."

"Can you get me to see Vah Ruta?"

The two guards grew wide eyed in time with Seggin as the demon sergeant stared at Zelda with sudden suspicion, "Why?"

"I think the Divine Beasts might have something to do with this weather," Zelda explained, "I mean, this phenomenon is so radically different from everything we know. Us introducing ourselves to the Divine Beasts and just now starting to fully understand them- I think, maybe, there's something she's doing that we don't understand. If there's any single takeaway from mine and Lady Mipha's excursion, it's that there's so, so much about them that we don't know, and may never know! But if I can speak to her-"

"Speak to her?" inquired Seggin with an incredulous tone, "I'm aware of Lady Mipha's reports, but- You two haven't been spending too much time with Navo?"

Zelda groaned in time with her eyes rolling, "Look, I just need an escort to ensure the Watcher won't run me through. If you can't grant me an audience, I'll find somebody who can!"

She strode past him, sliding to a pause only after Seggin burst aloud through gritted, "Hold on! I'll take you."

He growled to the two guards, "If this doesn't cause an international incident, anyway."

Zelda nodded, "Okay. We'll take the-"

"I'm your escort, Hylian princess," Seggin enforced with a tense brow asserting his authority, "We will take the eastern bridge up to the reservoir."

Zelda huffed angrily, "As I was saying…"