The Next Day...
"Link, wake up, wake up!" "Zelda" coarsely whispered in Link's ear. Link was slow to rouse himself, so she began shaking him.
"Link, those wretched soldiers have found us! They bloody found us! We have to leg it now!" Realizing the seriousness of their situation, Link hurried to his feet and discovered six soldiers – all with yellowed skin, red eyes, and snarling expressions - at the entrance of the stable...stables throughout Hyrule have an entrance on a single side, a lousy design choice in the event of an emergency. "Zelda", realizing that escape was impossible, hid under a bed as almost everyone else in the stable cowered.
"WHERE...IS...SHE..." one of the vile soldiers snarled at the stable hand.
"What are you talking about?! Many women pass through these stables day in and day out!"
"THE LIGHT...THE BLINDING LIGHT THAT WILL BURN OUR MASTER...LET US BURN HER INSTEAD!" The stable hand held his nerve.
"I have naught a clue who you are talking about, but I'm NOT handing her over!" Suddenly the soldier put his sword at the stable hand's throat.
"WHEN WE ARE DONE WITH HER, YOU'RE NEXT!" As the soldier held the man at sword point, the other five – also armed with swords – rushed into the stable. Link barely had time to draw his own blade to meet them, and a fierce brawl ensued. Link exchanged blows for a few seconds before leaping out of the way of one of the soldiers and unleashing a counterattack, taking that soldier out; two more soldiers attacked Link and were rebuffed by his shield, buying him time to strike them down. The remaining two soldiers managed to get behind Link and seized him by the arms, but with tremendous strength he threw them both to the ground before delivering the finishing blows. Link pointed his blade straight at the soldier at the entrance; he flashed a psychotic grimace and moved his sword away from the stable hand's throat.
"HEH HEH HEH...YOU...HERO...MURDERER...THE DARK PRINCE WILL BE WATCHING...YOUR...EVERY...STEP..." With that the soldier leaped onto a sickly looking gray horse and hurried back towards Hyrule Castle. The entire stable enthusiastically applauded Link as "Zelda" cautiously came out from hiding...Link seemed embarrassed by the attention.
"Those damn soldiers deserved that for all the evils that follow them!" the stable hand exclaimed. "Zelda" approached the stable hand.
"You are a very brave bloke...what is your name?"
"Collin. And are you the 'blinding light' they wanted so badly?"
"Yes, Collin. I...am Princess Zelda. I am traveling with Link here to seek how to stop the Plague." His eyes widened.
"What?!" The entire stable was shocked at this revelation. Once he calmed down Collin decided to lend "Zelda" a huge helping hand.
"Here, Your Highness...take my horse, this magnificent black one here, Coal. He'll help you make haste on your journey...PLEASE be careful out there. You are Hyrule's only hope..." He then turned to Link.
"Guard this woman with your life, young man! Your skills are absolutely phenomenal...I know you can help the Princess stop the Plague. As for us...the Dark Prince WILL be back, and he'll probably massacre everyone in the stable. We must leave at once!" With that everyone began to evacuate the Wetland Stable...Link grabbed a royal broadsword (a gorgeous sword with a golden hilt) one of the late soldiers had left behind and abandoned his knight's broadsword before he and "Zelda" proceeded south on their new steed, "Coal". Before long they were passing to the west of the Lanayru Wetlands, with its scattered birch trees...before they could leave the wetlands behind them Link stopped "Coal" and had a heart to heart chat with "Zelda".
"What is it, Link?"
"You...Zelda...I do believe you are the genuine article, and I also believe it's really stupid for you to go around without a disguise right now. Here, take this." He pulled out the hylian hood from earlier.
"You'll be a lot harder to recognize with this hood covering your face..."
"Sure, I will try it on if it makes me hard to make out..." It was a size too big for Zelda...as Link had hoped; her face was now much harder to make out. It was also surprisingly comfortable...
"Link...cheers for thinking about my safety. We've only known each other a matter of days, and yet you seem to be putting me first in every way...you're lush, Link!" Link's expression screamed disbelief...
"Lush"? I'm just a lonely hermit with an attitude... With that the two continued their quest to halt the Dark Prince's mad plan. After leaving the wetlands behind them they skirted the Sahasra Slope before crossing Eagus Bridge. Upon crossing the Eagus the two found themselves in a series of grassy hills before entering the dense forests surrounding Batrea Lake. Upon arriving at the lake they noticed something...unusual in a tree within the lake. Zelda dismounted "Coal" to inspect the sight.
"Is that...a fort of some kind?" Zelda asked. There were several floors of wooden planks connected to each other by stairs made of large bones. At first glance it appeared unoccupied...but then the bellow of a ram's horn shattered the silence. Suddenly a band of bokoblins, most red but several blue (and thus stronger but not as strong as a black bokoblin), materialized out of seemingly nowhere, all armed with bows and explosive bomb arrows. Link quickly pulled Zelda back onto "Coal" and beat a hasty retreat as the bokoblins opened fire; they barely avoided being blown to bits by the bomb arrows, which nonetheless set the woodland ablaze. By the time they crossed the nearby Owlan Bridge to the west the entire forest was on fire...
"That...was bloody close..." Zelda sighed. "More of those wretched bokoblins...it is making me very worried, Link." The two watched the fire in shock for a few more minutes before urging "Coal" onward. Link and Zelda continued west for a time before veering south, eventually reaching several small settlements near the northeastern edge of the Great Plateau, a tall plateau on which the Kingdom of Hyrule was supposedly born.
"Good thing the Plague has not spread here yet...we can rest safely here, Link." Link and Zelda found a sizable tree to tie "Coal" to and were going to sleep there themselves, but an older couple changed their plans.
"Hey, strangers!" the man said, "I would hate to leave you two out overnight...monsters have been passing through this town often as of late. Please please, spend the night!"
"You sure?" Zelda asked. "We are complete strangers to you."
"Absolutely!" the woman added. "Please, stay at our humble abode!" Link and Zelda agreed, and they followed the older couple to their house. It was a modest, one story cottage, with a single window with metal bars to keep the entrance too small for monsters or criminals to enter and a wooden door. There was only a single guest bed, so Link slept on the dirt floor...
"Are you sure you are okay sleeping on the floor again, Link?" Zelda asked him.
"This is nothing...I've slept outside, in the snow, in pouring rain...seriously, keep the damn bed."
"You really sure, Link?" Link was adamant about keeping Zelda off the floor. Eventually Zelda relented and "allowed" Link to sleep on the floor...
The Next Day...
Zelda slept perfectly fine that night, but Link's sleep was constantly interrupted by various noises outside...the slightest rustle disturbed his sleep. Eventually Link heard the piglike snorts of some bokoblins outside...he wanted to go and off them, but as that would have woken everyone in the village up he reluctantly refrained. Needless to say, by the next morning he was absolutely exhausted...
"You look real knackered, Link," Zelda observed. "Did you have trouble sleeping?"
"I'm a light sleeper, Zelda...nothing to worry about..." Zelda let it slide for the moment.
The old couple that hosted Link and Zelda fed them a generous breakfast of bread and bird drumsticks. Link ate RAVENOUSLY – as if he had never eaten a calorie in his life. Zelda was much more reserved with her eating habits and seemed hesitant to eat more than one drumstick.
"We're not stingy, my friend!" the old man told Zelda. "Eat what you would like."
"I am still a complete stranger to you, and surely you only have so much food for yourselves...Hyrule is decidedly skint right now."
"Oh, it's fine!" the old woman replied. "We'll survive one way or another. Just eat a little bit more...you have a long journey ahead of you!" Zelda still hesitated, then finally decided to eat some bread and one more drumstick. When breakfast was over the old couple gave their goodbyes as Link retrieved "Coal", helped Zelda mount the beast, and continued their journey.
Link directed Coal eastward for a short while before veering south around Scout's Hill. They soon arrived at the massive Bridge of Hylia, which straddles the full length of Lake Hylia, Hyrule's largest freshwater lake. About halfway down the bridge, where a fountain was running, they encountered two hylian soldiers, clad in iron armor and armed with knight's halberds (a spear like weapon with a head resembling an axe)...Link immediately drew his blade. The soldiers turned to meet him...they looked perfectly normal.
"What are you doing?!" one of them called out.
"We're not infected scum!" the other continued, "We're trying to keep the Plague OUT of this part of Hyrule!" Link returned his blade to his sheathe. The two men then took a closer look at his passenger...
"Lady Zelda, is that you?!" Zelda quickly removed her hood and hopped off "Coal". The soldiers were quick to bow to her as she approached.
I guess her disguise is not foolproof...
"Are you alright?! Were you abducted by this man?!" Zelda laughed.
"No no no, he saved my life! I firmly believe he is the Hero and will help me save Hyrule..." The soldiers did not dare question Zelda's judgement.
"Please please, Your Highness, take a few minutes to rest here. We'll prepare some fish we caught earlier today for the two of you." The soldiers quickly started a fire with some firewood they had lying around and roasted some hyrule bass, at which point all four ate.
"Link," Zelda asked, "is it...ironic that a bird as afraid of water as I loves eating fish?" Link did not get to reply...before he could, Zelda's gaze whirled to something HUGE in the distance.
"Link, look, look!" she exclaimed as she yanked Link to the edge of the bridge. Near the shore of Lake Hylia was a massive, serpentine, yellowish green dragon with many short legs and a huge horn on its head. Electricity was violently coursing around its body.
"It is Farosh! Farosh, a dragon! A bloody dragon! I had never thought in all my life I would see a dragon! All my - " Suddenly she noticed that, in her enthusiasm to show Link the dragon, she had firmly taken his hand into hers...she gasped in mild shock, then cautiously let go as she blushed bright red.
"Link, I...I...I..." Link gave a reassuring smile, not a look he gave people often.
"Thank you...shall we...keep going?" Link and Zelda mounted "Coal" and continued south on the Bridge of Hylia as the soldiers escorted them. When they reached the other side of the bridge the soldiers gave their goodbyes and returned to their post as Link guided "Coal" into first the Finra Woods and then the Pagos Woods. When they reached the Sarjon Woods near midnight Zelda realized they had missed their destination...
"I...I think we missed the Spring of Courage...let us find a stable and try again in the morning." Link sighed in irritation and continued onward until they found the Lakeside Stable...a local merchant proved willing to buy the bokoblin parts Link had gathered the other day, so he was able to afford beds for both of them. Before they got to sleep Zelda got into a conversation with a massive middle aged man with dark olive skin, a huge nose, red hair in a bun, black trousers, and a black cloak.
"You two are up late," he observed. "What brings you to these parts?"
"We are looking for the Spring of Courage...do you have any idea where it is?" Zelda asked. Link just glared at the man suspiciously...
"Indeed! It is north of the Damel Forest...but you're going to need to do some climbing, so do not bring the horse. I would love to talk more, but I have an emergency I need to attend to...good night." With that the man abruptly hurried out of the stable...Zelda fell asleep shortly thereafter, but Link's mind was racing.
Something did not feel right about that man...are we going to walk into a trap tomorrow?
The Next Day...
Link and Zelda awoke late the next morning and prepared to seek out the Spring of Courage on foot."Coal" was already registered in the stable system, so the stable hand opted to hold him for free while Link and Zelda were traveling.
"Cheers," Zelda told the stable hand, "that is incredibly helpful. We should be back around nightfall."
"Take your time!" the stable hand replied. "It's our job to care for magnificent steeds such as this!" As "Coal" was being fed hay from a nearby feeding trough, Link and Zelda began briskly walking west towards the Damel Forest...eventually they reached the Damel Forest, and Zelda noticed the Zonai ruins she had somehow failed to notice the day before...
"Link, look!" she called out, "These ruins, these dragon like ruins...they were left here by the Zonai! I cannot believe I get to see them in person! Father...he...he always hesitated to let me go exploring like this. He...he..." Zelda suddenly began tearing up.
"He...he loved me so much...did not...did not want...anything to happen to...me..." Before she knew it Zelda was sobbing into Link's arm...Link seemed very unsure how to respond. When she eventually realized what she was doing, she blushed bright red again...
"I...I...Link, I...I am sorry...I am so sorry...just...Father is not with us anymore, and I...I miss him dearly...he was such a good bloke, and...and even...even though he did not always agree with my scholarly endeavors...he...he loved us dearly."
"Us?" Link asked.
"Us...me and...Daphnes, my bruv...he is not...not with us anymore either..." Link's heart was hurting...
Oh this brings up such bad memories...maybe the two of us have more in common than I gave her credit. He gave Zelda a few minutes to calm down before they entered the Zonai Ruins looking for the Spring of Courage. The Zonai Ruins, and indeed the entire Damel Forest, are covered in dense tropical vegetation that made navigation difficult. At first Link and Zelda simply followed the path in between the ruins, but eventually a river cut off their path...fine for Link (the young man swam like a fish), not so fine for Zelda. The two backtracked and climbed to the top of a nearby hill, following it north until they saw a massive stone dragon's head surrounded by a lake that looked like a pair of jaws...
"This...must be it," Zelda mused, still not feeling great. The two climbed down from the hill and entered the dragon's head, where surely enough the Spring of Courage was waiting. Zelda knelt before the spring to pray...but she did not get far before they were rudely interrupted by a pentad of marauding green lizalfos, bipedal, carnivorous chameleon like monsters armed with metallic lizal boomerangs. Link promptly engaged them in battle and quickly struck all five down, only to discover another group of lizalfos situated on the columns and other high points surrounding the Spring of Courage, these ones armed with metallic strengthened lizal bows and electrical shock arrows – not a good thing in a soaking wet rainforest!
"Link, should we leg it?!" Zelda anxiously asked.
"Just keep praying! I'll handle the damn reptiles!" Zelda reluctantly resumed praying to the Spring of Courage while Link engaged the lizalfos with his dragon bone boko bow (a wooden bow reinforced by fossils). It was a long, ten minute showdown...at one point one of the lizalfos' shock arrows struck Link, giving him a nasty electrical jolt and causing him to drop his bow for a moment. Nevertheless, Link continued weaving through the hail of arrows and eventually shot down all of the lizalfos, leaving behind several strengthened lizal bows and a plethora of shock arrows. When Link returned to check on Zelda nothing of interest had happened...she was visibly frustrated.
"STILL nowt...I sure hope the Spring of Wisdom awakens something in me, Link...I feel like I have done nothing useful for you this trip." As Link and Zelda began to leave the Spring of Courage he picked up the bows the lizalfos left behind, one for himself, several to sell, and one for Zelda.
"For me? But Link, I...father always wanted me to have a peaceful life, so he never taught me to fight." Link proceeded to spend the next hour teaching Zelda how to use a bow. Zelda was a quick learner and was soon a competent archer. She was pleasantly surprised.
"I...I never thought I could do this, Link. Thank you." She gave Link a gentle smile, and he smiled right back...the two returned to the Lakeside Stable to sleep.