As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 50 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(as well as ZpoW and PTaL) are supposed to be updated WEEKLY!
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. 27:
In Hot Water?
Dawn had broken over the mountain pool and its accompanying grotto by the time Zelda had broken her quick camp and washed herself clean of the disgusting Octorok juices. The sheer cold of the water at her elevation with the oncoming colder months had been torture against her skin, leaving her raw and shivering with every touch. Still, the princess had forced herself to scrub every bit of her body clean, especially her private areas. It was, after all, the most caked in that stuff, and it absolutely could not be tolerated against her any more.
It was strange, now, in the light of day to contemplate. But Zelda had little else to do as she ate a meager breakfast, smoking some of her bacon with apple slices over the ashes of last night's fire, and then start hiking upward out of the basin. She had been so very... well, different, lately. How she knew that, of course the amnesiac young woman could not truly say. At least, not compared to how she had been 'before'. The old Zelda, the one who was truly a princess in more than just name.
But the differences were there, and stark all the same.
That princess, as far as the fragmented memories she retained, had an intimate relationship with someone. She was starting to suspect it was her Champion, as illicit as that might have been- a knight falling for his charge! What scandal it must have, or would have, been if it ever came to light! And her to return it, if she had!
But beyond that, there were the memories sparked by Impa's tired old eyes, one they had been full of emotion, and hope, and affection, and... duty. Duty is what had pulled her away, Zelda realized as she stepped out into the warming sun for the first time. Duty told her that whatever feelings they had for the other- feelings Imp had never admitted, but Zelda suspected she felt all the same- were of no real consequence in the grand scheme of things.
She could not remember mourning, of course, but just thinking about that half-second shard of the past left a pang in Zelda's heart she had no name for except longing. Of the Champion, or whoever the strong, lean man she remembered only vaguely had been, there was indeed longing, but of a different sort. Requited, for one, though not fully. There had always been... something.
Something holding him back, and her, too.
Were there others?
She didn't know, of course, but Zelda knew that while they were intimate, and she was likely not a virgin in terms of 'laying with a man', given how easily the Ancient Screw had plundered her body, she could not say with certainty they had gone that far. Or if there were others, like Impa.
Something told her that the answer was... mixed. Perhaps she had been with others, on occasion, but it was the blonde she felt the most for, or at least the most with.
But that was...
Well, normal was the best word she had for it. A normal young woman- for all she seemed to be something like a priestess and a princess rolled into one- and her feelings and curiosity, her passion, and lust, all a confusing mess as one might expect from a girl of her age.
She had been... similar when she woke up on the Plateau. She could see the Bokoblins were base creatures with base lusts, and it had disgusted her. But meeting Mina, Mils, and then others... feelings had started to stir in her again. Nothing exorbitant, but definitely there, and present, and real.
Even the dream beneath the bole of the great tree in the Forest of Spirits had been relatively normal: a dream of passion, as one might expect on occasion. But the Shrine in Kakariko, so much like she had felt in the Cathedral of Time only more intense by an order of magnitude...
That had changed her.
Awakened the small spark of her desire into a raging inferno that had only been slaked, in the end, by being filled to the brim with oddly warm metal. That had only worked once, though.
After that, Sagessa had been the next to satisfy her, and how satisfying it had been!
This time...
While she had orgasmed with the screw, several times in fact, Zelda had to acknowledge something else as she reached the lower peak of the mountain that stood over the bowl with the pool, high above where she had rested for the night.
The screw, while pleasant, fun, would not have truly satisfied her. It might have taken the edge off, as fingering herself to completion had done before the screw in the Ta'Loh Naeg Shrine.
Sagessa might have satisfied her, but without the woman- or anyone else- present, it had... it had been a monster. A dead monster part, no less, just alive by the sheer malignant will of the Calamity. It wasn't even the pleasure, even if that was intense.
It wasn't the number of orgasms.
It was the feeling of fullness that still lingered deep in her body, though it was now fading. Whatever the hunger for pleasure, for passion, for lust, that had come over her since praying at the Shrine to Hylia in Kakariko Village was... it seemed endless. Now, for now, it was abated, but already she could feel it start to rise, little by little.
She had fucked a tentacle, one severed from the base creature, and she had loved it. Now she might feel disgust, she knew... but Zelda was no fool.
She had promised herself she could not do it again, could not give in to her base desires to easily.
Her duties were too important, her responsibility to great.
"Then why in Hylia's name did she make me so easily... distracted?" she whispered to the crisp, mid-morning air.
There wasn't an answer, nor did she expect one.
"I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end," Zelda mused as she raised her attention to the surrounding lands, "I'll simply have to exert all my will... or risk that disgusting thing happening again. At least it wasn't a Bokoblin."
She shuddered. Some of them weren't tiny, the stronger they got the larger their members were, so Blues were nearly as large as an adult man (she imagined, having only really seen Hino's). They might...
"No, don't think about that," she scolded herself aloud, and forced her attention away from sex to the landscape, as she had intended.
She was off the map according to her Sheikah Slate, somewhere south of the Bubinga Forest and the Blatchery Plain. The Dueling Peaks were to the northwest almost directly, and Mount Rozudo, with Oakle's Navel beyond that, just at the edge of the West Necluda area according to the Slate. Looking at the screen, Zelda noticed something odd: A nearly straight line, miles long, with a road moving straight through it. "Artificial...?"
It had to be, she decided. From the Squabble, north to the mountain ridge she had circumvented from the burned-out house where she had obtained her Fire Rod, almost north-south but not quite. The line wasn't perfectly straight, but far straighter than any of the roads which looked straight as she had walked them, unless they were actually turning. There was a clear difference, too: browns and blues representing water, the tan road, and the ground itself on the east end of the Blatchery Plain's marshland, and then a light blue grid over nothing, just like the place she stood now.
Empty territory.
She already knew there was a Tower there, she could see it from here in fact, some way beyond Mount Rozudo, sprouting from high atop another peak. She had seen two Towers turn from orange to blue already, and in doing so her Sheikah Slate had gained another region in stark detail. She could only assume the other Towers would do the same.
The numbers added up, anyway. From the Great Plateau, she had seen... what, a dozen other Towers? Maybe one or two more? Counting the relatively small Plateau itself, West Necluda, whose tower was on the western flank of the Dueling Peaks... that would match up, yes.
Fifteen Towers. Fifteen regions. States? Provinces? She didn't know what they were called, but she supposed it didn't really matter since Hyrule as a kingdom barely even existed.
Their lines, at least the old borders, were still delineated on the Slate, the blue borders of each 'explored' area on her map extended along squiggly lines as she scrolled through the map's available area. Some regions were huge, the bottom left, top left, and bottom right being the largest and the Plateau the smallest at just... what, about two fifths of the still fairly small West Necluda Region's total area. "And I still haven't explored all of that, for all my walking. There's still the hills southwest of the Peaks, the forest and swamp north of the Squabble beyond South Nabi Lake... Mable Ridge and the Sahasra Slope, not that I plan to go there any time soon. Not with Guardians about. I haven't even explored all of the Ash Swamp or eastern Blatchery. But I suppose I'll get there soon enough- the terrain to the east is getting rougher. I'll probably have to go down to the lowlands again before long."
That wasn't all there was to see, however. After idly tossing a rock aside from its resting place and earning a Korok Seed for her trouble, Zelda scanned further south. Mountain valleys gave way to highlands, forested and rocky. In the far distance lay the sea, just at the edge of the horizon once more. But closer, just a hundred feet or so lower than her own position, the highlands were not just forested with occasional spires.
Other things rose higher than the trees. Flag-posts, banners, from some long-forgotten fortress, perhaps, though the cloth of some still swung slowly in the morning breeze. Bones too, great ribs of some even more long-dead creature, with massive shadowed shapes moving occasionally through the trees. Once, she caught sight of a great horn, peeking out nearly as tall as the evergreens that surrounded it, shortly before one shuddered, and fell sideways with a groan she could hear from miles away.
Zelda climbed higher, reaching another, taller peak a short while later. From there, the next Tower was plainly visible, far below and to the East. Craggy ridges and meadows separated them, with a long, winding path leading from a high, cliff-surrounded plateau to the tower's higher mount. Even from miles away, it rise high above the surrounding landscape, though she was above its spire. Beyond that, the faintest slivers of smoke curled from...
Chimneys.
Actual chimneys, of actual houses. Of course she had seen houses in Kakariko Village, but these were more of a traditional style she remembered.
Beyond the tower a great, wide valley lay, with terraced farms for miles surrounding the village itself. "That must be Hateno," she said to herself, then turned her eyes along the ground between them. A few routes presented themselves.
She could stay on the ridge, following the mountain range- mostly, at least, there were a few valleys and canyons she would have to cross- and approach the village from above on the south side.
Zelda could also go north from here, descend the mountains she had spent so much time climbing, and follow the road past the storied Fortress that she now suspected was the source of the straight line on her map.
Or, alternatively still, go north from even there, follow that ridge, past the giant red creature, and... No. That was stupid, suicidal. She had no wish to tangle with whatever that thing was.
There were smaller variations, of course. She could go back and forth, take her time, and explore. Find more Shrines, if nothing else, so that hopefully, by the time she reached Hateno Village, she would be ready for another of Hylia's blessings. There was, after all, a lot of ground to cover.
Since Hylia had made it clear- despite other warnings to the contrary- that while time mattered it was not so pressing she had to rush in unprepared.
She was supposed to get stronger, gather strength, and more than just in her own sword-arm. Questionable though that strength might be, Zelda was starting to understand she was capable in her own right as a combatant, she was just not necessarily built for the front lines in the typical way of most soldiers.
If nothing else, she had survived this far on grit, determination, luck (very much), and no small amount of trickery. But it worked, and she had to admit she was not getting weaker.
"I'll cover the ground then," she decided, "make my way back and forth. My goal is Hateno, yes, but that doesn't mean I have to hurry. In fact, it's probably better if I don't."
That decided, she turned away from the highlands, certain she would have to traverse the ground eventually anyway in her possibly years-long quest, and started down the ridge to the northeast.
Shortly before midafternoon, Zelda discovered a small slice of heaven. Well, mostly. The place stank of rotten eggs, but the water was near boiling, and as she sank into the geothermal pool of water, naked as the day she was born, the blonde simply couldn't bring herself to care.
The Korok Seed she had already found by taking a plunge into the deepest part of the hot spring was well-earned, as she hadn't known the water was hot when she first jumped in, but the soak afterward was much nicer.
"I didn't know how much I hated sleeping on the ground until this moment," the princess sighed as she allowed herself to float upward on the steaming liquid. It lapped around her breasts and the mound of her belly, teasing her with an edge of cool against the heat, but Zelda didn't even particularly care for her nakedness. It simply felt too good, and she strongly suspected there wasn't anyone except a fox and a Korok (who may or may not be spying invisibly) for miles.
As she floated, more memory fragments returned. This pool, perhaps, had sparked them, or another one like it, Zelda could not be sure. What she did know was that, in the memories, the mountain air was cool, but the water scalding. The man beside her- still faceless, but with the same goldenrod hair and toned, scarred arms- idly floated alongside, clad only in a t-tied cloth around and between his waist and legs.
And he was blushing. She could make out no details of his face, but she knew he was bright red, having been caught looking.
At her.
In her memory, Zelda was completely nude in front of this man, possibly for the first time. Her face was heated, after all, from more than just the water, too. And he was looking. She had teased him for so long, and he had finally given in.
The memory broke, and Zelda was alone in the pool.
She did not realize until later that tears ran down her temples into the water, adding a bit more salt to the sulfurous mix. She missed him. She had... had shown herself, a princess, to her own knight. It had to be him, they were the only ones around. No one else would dare bathe in a hot spring, out in the wilderness, with a princess. At least, not without a dozen chaperones, or so she imagined.
She, Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, had bathed naked with a man... knowing he wanted her, but trying to tempt him to act on those feelings. It must have worked, then, at some point.
If her other memories were real, anyway.
This time, while Zelda was indeed slightly aroused by the memory of his almost-nude body so near hers, it was with a sort of quiet calm, rather than desperate need. She didn't feel pressured to touch herself to relieve the stress (and in fact, she imagined that might hurt in the current temperatures, and almost certainly lead to overheating in her distraction, too). Instead, Zelda simply ran her hands over her body a few times, then relaxed and let herself float a while longer as several clouds moved slowly across the sky.
It was, all in all, a wonderful moment of peace. One she felt, afterwards, that she had desperately needed.
... Even if her skin itched and stank until she was able to bathe again.
Which didn't help when she was shooting acorns for another Korok Seed. The distraction was just annoying. Far worse was yet another of the dastardly Forest Octoroks. Thankfully, she was well-used to their usual timing, and caused it to burst into fragments of monster-flesh with a single arrow before turning her bow back toward the Korok's dubious reward.
Her Bokoblin-made bow was fraying around the edges and starting to splinter by the time she got the last one thanks to the distractions, but at least she was able to get another tentacle she swore she would use only for alchemy in the bargain.
When she saw a trio of Bokoblins stalking a boar through the trees around Oakle's Navel a while later, she drew the arc of wood once more, determined to not only replace it, but to take out a few of the red-orange beasts on the way.
Clad in her Sheikah-crafted stealth gear, it was an easy enough job for the lithe princess to get close.
Her first two arrows dropped the farther Bokoblin, the one closest to the boar. A third draw, as they finally spotted her, snapped the string and sent her arrow spinning off into the woods. The fourth, drawn on a hastily-strung reinforced bow, the one she had used before, slammed the remaining Bokoblin backward, straight into its neck and pinning it to the tree it had just circled as it ran for her.
Neither had gotten within thirty feet.
The last turned and ran, but it didn't get far. Another arrow hit its rump, and it stumbled, while the fifth and final entered the base of its skull as it skidded in the long grass. By the time Zelda reached what was left, all three Bokoblins were gone aside from their scattered teeth and a horn.
Their spears, all the weapons the trio had carried, were of the poorest sort: A sharpened pole, and nothing more.
"Hardly worth carrying, and I'm stocked up right now anyway. I'll pass... too bad I couldn't get a bit of that boar though. Ah well, I have enough for now."
She wasn't done in the woods, however.
There were people.
People talking with Bokoblins, using the same guttural, halting, broken speech.
Two of them, both men, their faces painted red with some kind of mud, wearing the same primitive clothing and carrying the same kind of armaments.
One of the humans was clearly the leader, because he was giving orders to the others. "You no hunters, go find hunters, stupid. We need food. You and you, you go find more wagons. Need more treasure. Steal more."
It was a simple enough interaction, though terrifying in its implications. Worse was that the Bokoblins, four in all, listened.
In less than a minute, the other human and one Bokoblin had gone into a narrow tunnel, one in which Zelda could see a few glowing shards- Luminous ore. The others, three red ones, went further into the woods, following the bluffs to the south and east.
Which meant that there was just one human left.
A human siding with Bokoblins. By his own words, a human who stole from others. A bandit. A thief. Someone who preyed on the weak.
Zelda steeled her will, and raised her bow.
She could not take the shot. Not against another human.
Killing Bokoblins was one thing- they would simply be reborn anyway, and were clearly monstrous, something other than human.
This was a man. A brutal one, a cruel one, probably a killer as well, but... a man. A human.
Not Hylian- his ears were almost completely round- but human all the same.
Zelda sighed, and stood up from the bush in which she hid, the bow still up. "Stay where you are."
