Time slips away from us in such a troubling way. It takes but a moment for years to slip into the past, turning our memories into precious jewels deep in the unknown corridors of our minds. One day we look in the mirror, or a clear summer stream, where a stranger stares back at us and we wonder, when did we become so old?

It is like this that the days of your life pass, Urbosa. Capriciously, like the leaves of maple in a bitter spring. Your joys and your sorrows slowly become old friends, only a few steps behind you, but never far from your gaze.

And now comes a changing of the seasons, and your life shall never again be the same.

Your grip scalds your blades at the doorstep of the desert, attended by a full complement of your finest guards. Each was personally selected for this most important of missions, each is among the finest warriors in Hyrule, each is ready for battle at the slightest provocation.

Excessive? Perhaps, but today, you take no chances. After all, it was only yesterday that a letter came via the Rito Post…

Queen Minerva would be in the desert the very next morning, and she requested an immediate audience with you.

You hardly slept, agonizing over what peril could bring her here, what terror could be driving at her heels. And now that she is ever so close, your senses are heightened to their absolute peak; not the slightest rumble of distant erosion escapes your attention. For what threat could dampen Minerva's fire? What danger could pull her from the castle? Could the King-

There! She is there! Emerging from the shadows to the glare of the desert light! She is, strangely, not sitting saddle atop her royal steed. Instead she walks gently at its side, while one of her most loyal guards leads the alabaster stallion by the bit.

Oh, Urbosa, what could this mean?

She sees you and radiantly smiles, waving happily with one hand, the other gripping tight to a small bundle. How you yearn to run to her and, like a grateful thief, steal the warmth of her embrace! Ah, but against all monumental odds and against all your mighty desires you restrain yourself, and hold back your spirit's shout.

Apprehensively you tense, like the bending of newly-forged steel. Your guard, well trained as they are, sense your agitation and anxiously shift their spears.

"Vasaaq, Queen Minerva. What brings you to-"

"Urbosa! I am so excited to see you!" she delights, beckoning you close, her hands frantic, "Quick, I do not have nearly as long as I would wish."

Oh, my friend, does her voice still spark the fires of Din in your heart? Does her beauty still inspire the very essence of your soul? Does she still possess your love, as she will until it all goes dark, and even then beyond? It matters not how many years have passed since her and Rhoam were wed, for in a moment it all comes tumbling back like avalanches from the peaks.

"My lady, is there danger? Has the King-"

Impatiently she grabs your arm and pulls you down to her, "Oh, just come here! I want you to be the first of our allies to meet her."

Meet her? Who-

Minerva unwraps the bundle, revealing a baby girl, adorable as anything you have ever seen, tiny tufts of golden hair sitting halcyon above her pointed ears. Her smile is sweet and carefree, as only a newborn babe's can be.

Your breath catches in your lungs. Even so young, you recognize that smile well.

It is exactly like her mother's.

How it lights up her face like a firework, brilliant as a star in an elegant, miraculous night! How it shines like the glimmering gold on your brow, welcoming the sun of the sweltering desert sands! 'Tis a smile bound for fame and glory, Urbosa, or at least a battalion of broken hearts.

Would that all of your life could hold such wonder as this! Would that you had known such joy! Indeed it takes only the shifting of a sand in an hourglass for you to cherish this sweet babe with everything you were, everything you are, and everything you will ever be.

Oh, shake the dust of the day from your skin, Urbosa. Forget and forgive the phantoms of endless fears. For today is a happy day, to be celebrated throughout the land. The Blood of the Goddess shall continue on! The Light of the Golden Three shines anew!

The Princess of Hyrule is born!

Glance shocked at Queen Minerva. Oh, the eyes she has for her daughter, all the love therein making all you have ever seen and all you have ever felt seem small by comparison.

She smiles.

"This is Zelda."

It takes a moment for you to find your speech again, "Zelda... hello, sweet dear. I-"

You pause, "What in the Goddess' name is the matter with you, Minerva? I hear you are with child, then no news, no envoys, no letters, for months! Then you give me no warning, only an urgent request by post? With only a few guards with you? I nearly had a heart attack! And you were blessed with a daughter too!"

Playfully, you shake your head, "For shame, Minerva. For shame."

She giggles, "I wanted to surprise you! My apologies, but everything happened so quickly."

You bend, placing a jeweled finger before the Princess, and she reaches the tiniest of hands up, curiously attaching herself to you. Such a radiant smile bursts from your face and soars deep into your soul!

Do you think that she will remember this day, Urbosa? Do you think that she will retain some bare recollection of the moment you two first met? Only the Goddess can say. What I know is that here a fire is sparked that will shape the both of you, and indeed shape all the world.

Zelda loses interest in your golden rings. She yawns like the dearest cherub the kingdom has ever known and then her gaze meets yours, her eyes sweeping in all their verdant green.

Can you see it there, Champion? Can you see how already she adores you, her protector, her companion, her friend? Can you see the future in her stare, so wondrous, so tragic, so terrible, so beautiful, all at once?

No. Perhaps not. You see now only that she is as precious as anything you have ever encountered in all your many years.

Oh, Zelda! What a blessing blooms in the desert! What tender and caring love is born in your breast! You would already give her the world if you could, and shield her from all its ills. In your heart you solemnly swear that whatever fate may fall, always Zelda will have a home in the desert, always have a place within your care.

And what a blessing that is, Urbosa. For her, and for us all to share.

Minerva gently and soothingly rubs Zelda's head, "I am taking little Zelda around the kingdom to formally present her to the allied races. But I wanted to be sure her Auntie Urbosa was the first to meet her." She chuckles, "Oh, and the laws of Gerudo Town dictate that Rhoam will be meeting us on the road to Rito Village, somewhere between Sandin Park and the Temple of the Sages."

Rhoam. You had forgotten.

Her smile is coy on her lips, "So, since the King will not be joining us in the desert, I will be able to spend a few days alone with my dear friend, without any troublesome husband bothering me. Which I imagine should make you rather happy."

Minerva is not wrong. This makes you very happy indeed. How little interest you have had in getting to know Rhoam these past few years. Most would likely assume you detest him, but the truth is you do not. One would not accuse you of liking him either, granted, but you have had few disagreements with him as a person. Your distaste is simply that he exists at all, and in so doing stole your beloved away.

Ah, but this is a quarrel with the past and not with the voe, just as long as he continues to make your Minerva happy, so.

The moment he does not, though…

"Could the King not have chosen to stay in the bazaar?" you smirk, "I hate to tell you this, my friend, but I believe your husband is afraid of us vai."

Minerva laughs like a light spring rain and your throat constricts, breath tight.

"I am sure he is! Now that I am busy with little Zelda I suppose I will not be able to protect him from us the way I would before."

She gesticulates, and offhandedly remarks, "Besides, Rhoam's movements have often been tightly tracked, dating back to his days as a duke's son in Akkala. If I travel alone, with few guardsmen, and on short notice, there is little chance for any stray Yiga to hear of it."

Your instincts perk, like a shiver in your spine. Yiga? There is a word you have not heard in a long, long time. Only half whispered rumors of red clad villains, who serve, not the Goddess, but her eternal enemy, wandering the wilds like a wolf in search of prey. Have they reemerged? Are agents of darkness reawakening in an age of light? Surely not. This is a time of peace.

…Right?

You snort, and discard your doubt, "Hmph. Well, it appears I brought my best guards out here for nothing." With a wave you dismiss them, their spears dropping with practiced ease.

Minerva's eyebrow raises, "Those spears are not ceremonial, it looks like. And neither is the armor," She turns to you, "You were very worried about me it seems."

"Of course!" you exclaim, "I nearly had the whole of Gerudo Town ready for battle! You really should warn me next time. My people tell me so much about the… trespasses... of voe. I was worried Rhoam had broken his promise."

Like the smell of flowers when your nose is close enough to kiss, Minerva giggles. She shakes her head, prompting a quizzical look from little Zelda, "You are always so worried about him! I have told you time and time again, he treats me like the Goddess herself made flesh."

Jealousy jabs at your stomach as she lovingly tells you how Rhoam's attention remains tightly wrapt on her. When she describes his days on the throne, absorbed by attraction, and his nights in the bedchambers, spent staring at baby Zelda.

"Rhoam is actually the one who named her," she chuckles, "We had been going back and forth for months before she was born, and then he suggested Zelda."

"He suggested it?" you react, eyes wide.

"I know. I was shocked too," Minerva laughs, "He is such a sweet man, but he is not much of a thinker, shall we say. But he said that he had been sure of it for weeks. 'Nothing would make me more proud than naming her in honor of your family's mighty history,' he told me."

Her face is entranced, as in love as she was on the day of their union. She sighs.

"After he said that, how could I possibly say no?"

If only she knew how these words lit the ache in your bosom…

Oh Urbosa, there are things about heartbreak that you have come to savor. Its pall has often been a comfort to you these last few years. Perhaps when you walk alone atop the ramparts beneath the gold of the setting sun. Perhaps when flesh trembles beneath your fingers as you fall into bed with an interim lover, your heartbeat steady in your chest. Perhaps when you carefully rise from your silken sheets, long before your companion awakens. But it is in moments like this, when Minerva stands before you, a reminder that she is all the warmth you would ever need in the cold desert night, that its solace abandons you, leaving behind only pain.

Could you not give Minerva this very same love? Would you not stare at her and her child all the days and nights of the year with this very same devotion? Would you not honor her and her family in this very same way, even if she were a simple beggar, and not the regal queen she is?

Alas, time's onward march has hardly quieted your heart. But better sequestered your love has become, remaining carefully preserved, isolated in that lonely corner of your soul like a relic of a bygone past still loved by a pitiless present. You hide it well, for whatever pain you feel goes unnoticed, even by Minerva, who knows you as well as if she were the Goddess herself.

Your ringed finger tenderly tickles and scratches at little Zelda's chin, and she giggles. A smile blooms begrudgingly on your face, and you meet Minerva's gaze.

"Rhoam named her Zelda, you said? In honor of your family?" You whistle like wind through the hills, "He must expect some mighty deeds from her, then. Poor girl. I cannot say I envy having a name like that to live up to."

Minerva quickly becomes serious, a frown spreading across her brow, "That is exactly what I am worried about."

"Urbosa," she whispers, hiding her concerned words from all but you, "Grave events are occurring all across Hyrule. As of yet, it remains a secret, known only by the highest members of the court, but I fear it will not stay that way for long. Rito scouts have reported an alarming increase in monsters crossing the great gorges, and King Dorephan has called for help repairing the Rutala Dam after the worst Decade Rains in even the Zora's living memory. Word this week was that the Gorons will soon have to abandon their pilgrimages to Gorondia due to rising lava levels. And then, a little less than a year ago, two priests attending to the Great Deku Tree even swore on the soul of the Hero that they saw the Master Sword faintly glowing."

Her frown deepens, "I hardly believed it myself, but now with everything else…"

Join your furrowed brow with Minerva's, as unease ripens in your gut. Evil omens abound, and all across Hyrule at that. Have the nomadic tribes not ranged closer to Gerudo Town than they ever have before? Have they not reported sandstorms, deep in the desert, that can strip the very flesh from bone? There is peril here. Could it be…?

Minerva wrinkles her lips, "You are thinking about the fortune teller from the wedding, aren't you?"

"No," you shake your head, "I had forgotten him completely. It seems you have not, though."

"I have not," she confesses, "He has often been on my mind these last few months." Her eyes peer into the distant desert, as if all the world has ceased to be.

"My dreams have been far more detailed since we last spoke of them, my friend. They intrude on me even when I am awake. When last I rode my horse through the hills south of the Great Forest, I could have sworn I saw a dragon of white and gold, as radiant as the sun itself, high above me. I learned I was pregnant the very next day."

She anxiously shivers, "I know now that the fortune teller's words were true, Urbosa. Something is coming. I can feel it in the air."

Indeed you feel it too, Urbosa. That sense of recollection echoing through your bones like the tumble of thunder. Think on the legends of your people, the tales told in the dead of the night to frighten children. As chieftain, privy to the secrets of history, you know only too well that these stories are not merely fables, but tell of the nameless nightmares of the Gerudo, and the horrors of all Hyrule. And now arise omens that even the most optimistic of seers would say precedes the coming of doom. Minerva's hushed words make all the more sense now. What fear must live in the hearts of those who know the truth!

Minerva shivers and shakes her head, "In any case, Rhoam and I have consulted the Shiekah. Once we conclude our tour of the kingdom the two of us will publicly declare the time has come, and we will begin a massive effort to find and excavate the Divine Beasts of legend."

"Hmm. I cannot say I have heard of them," you say, pursing your lips, "But then, history was never my strongest subject. I trust there are those who understand what I do not?"

Minerva nods, but a grimace still tugs at her cheeks, "In a way. The Shiekah elders have promised to dedicate their efforts to understanding what remains of their ancient technology. But unfortunately, we do not yet know what we may be up against, nor of what we can do to fight it."

Your eyebrows narrow, as serious and as somber as a midsummer day sadly spoiled with rain. So bleak, the future appears. Will you let yourself slip like a waning moon into darkness, Urbosa, resigned to an end bathed in fire? Will you watch the innocent people of Hyrule flee, leaving their homeland to whatever fate may bear? But then, Champion, what is innocence when we are all born to waves of blood, and all return to blood, slowly evaporating on the sands?

No.

Cease this resignation. Cease this despair. The world still remains, Urbosa, and no blood has yet been shed. There are no ruins yet to be picked through, clutching steel and tearing out clumps of hair. You will not leave Minerva to stand alone. Not then. Not now. Not ever. No life would be worth living without her, no death would be so glorious as one given for her and her kin. You shall stand by her side, and give her all of your strength, and the strength of the Gerudo, until your strength is gone, and even, then, beyond.

"It seems the Gerudo must prepare for the worst," you state, all your assurance packed into your words, "But I promise that, like the staunch desert flower, we will be ready when the rain finally comes. Is the rest of the kingdom ready?"

"We will be," Minerva confidently proclaims, "Somehow I know that we still have time. Right now I only have to worry about raising little Zelda. I only have to be whatever she needs me to be. And then whatever darkness eventually comes, I will gladly be her guide."

So, Urbosa, your gaze returns to little Zelda, who has calmly gone to sleep. You belong with her like this, at rest and untroubled in her peace. A flower grows within you, like a blossom bursting free. A prayer has been heard in Hyrule this day, whether by Hylia or the Golden Three.

The desert is calm behind you, for once, absent of any threat. You smile sweetly at the sleeping babe, and all fear do you forget. On her brow is a beacon of hope, which shall conquer any dread. Minerva, your love, your light, dreamily smiles at her daughter, and she sweetly heaves a sigh. Oh, what heights of love does she hold, outstripping the reaches of the sky. Minerva always adored reading poetry, of a kind she was never able to write, but such verses now slip from her lips, as if called from up on high…

"She is my Little Bird, Urbosa. Someday she shall spread her wings and fly."