You can find more of this on by Subscribe/Star (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted past Ch. 110 there. You can find the same on my new (via Discord per their ToS), under /WildErotica. The DISCORD is at h-t_t-p_s-:_/-/_discord-._g-g_/-N9yDASt6Cw (taking out hyphens and underscores, 'cause FFnet). If you prefer direct links, go to my Discord and follow the 'links in general' section to find the ones you want. All of my fics are well ahead of what I post here, often 10-30 chapters ahead.

You can also read my original fiction on Kindle, or Kindle Unlimited for free. My author page: www ._amazon ._com / stores / Kaja-Wilder/ (this time taking out underscores and spaces, but leave the one hyphen).

Enjoy!

A NOTE for those following other fics: I may be taking a few days off to binge some games and hopefully get over an illness. Kind of depends on how a poll on my Discord and SubStar go, but it's looking that way right now. If you don't see a PTaL don't panic, but I do think I'm going to still get BoF out (it feels wrong not to write in my Frozen fic in, well, December).

Chap. 82: Kakariko Cooldown

Zelda wiped sweat from her brow as she picked up the last few, smaller chunks of precious gems and ore that had fallen from the shimmering vein just outside the west part of the gorge known as Lanayru's Promenade.

A couple of miles away there was an actual gate that crossed between the two high-walled, grass- and moss-covered walls of the canyon, and an ancient road was visible wending in flagstones between roughly her location, the lush valley where Cotera the Great Fairy resided, and the Promenade itself, which passed under that massive gate.

She'd already collected two Koroks that morning since splitting off from Erika and Kass. The first had been following a disappearing, yellow daisy from almost where she was standing now (and while Zelda could not explain why collecting what she was fairly certain where the actual droppings of the forest spirits was more important than wealth needed to resupply and maybe rebuild Hyrule, it had seemed to be at the time). That trail had led her across the canyon to the northwest, and up a series of ledges and cliffs…

And brought her close to the second Korok, who lived in a trio of nearly-identical apple trees in a straight line. One had differing apples than the other two… and was a combination she had seen before.

With two seeds and a few more apples in her satchel, Zelda had glided back down to the vein and gotten to work mining.

"What kind of Princess or Adventurer spends her time mining the old-fashioned way, though," Zelda had laughed to herself half-way through the morning when she had taken a break, "When they've got a nearly-unlimited supply of bombs to do the work?"

But her break hadn't ended with explosions, aside from the crack of her hammer on stone.

And while she was exhausted at the end of it, when all visible gems and ore were now in her supply rather than embedded in the surprisingly generous hillside, she had to admit she felt… better, in some ways, for the exertion. "I should probably keep doing it this way, then," Zelda sighed as she stood up and cracked her back, arching toward the sky. "If nothing else, it's good exercise, and should help with wielding heavier weapons if I keep it up. But I should get going… having four Spirit Orbs means it's time to visit a statue of Hylia anyway."

So she started walking as she munched on a pair of her apples, then decided to eat one of her lighter meals as she walked for lunch. Her feet moved west now, half on the flagstone ruins, and half on bare grass or stone. Clouds moved in, covering much of the sky as she ate, and by two in the afternoon, there was a steady, light rain falling.

Zelda did her best to ignore it, or better yet enjoy it. Her stealthy Sheikah garb was little protection against the elements, thin and light as it was, so that her body felt every splatter and droplet that fell on her. Much of the next half-hour was spent walking with her face turned toward the sky, marveling in the sensation of simple rain coming down, a near-deafening susurrus against the canyon walls and grass that seemed to drown all else out.

Which was why she was startled when she suddenly heard someone mutter, "Oh, there… you there, hoi!"

Zelda nearly slipped, and put out both hands to steady herself, but was able to keep her feet half-way down. "Ah!"

"Sorry to startle you, Miss," the man called from twenty or so feet away, "But I could use some help!"

Swallowing her bruised pride, Zelda nodded, "Of course, one moment," and hurried over.

He was short, stocky but not huge, with green hair cut short and wide, pointed ears much like hers, only larger. Simple traveling clothes and well-worn boots matched the laden pack he bore, and the man shielded his eyes against the rain while she walked. "What can I help you with?"

"Ah," he murmured, "About a year ago, you see, I was walking along this road and saw a blinding light in the sky. I thought it was a shooting star at first. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I was looking at a shimmering object floating overhead… I just couldn't look away. The next thing I knew, the light covered me, and… and then I woke up in bed covered in sweat."

"That sounds like a fascinating tale," Zelda nodded excitedly, "It might well have been a shooting star, I've seen them close myself. You might have been dreaming though, you said it was at night, right?"

"Well, yes," the man chuckled nervously, refusing to meet her gaze, "but every month since then I've come out here, looking for the same phenomenon again. But you see, the bed I woke up in… wasn't my bed. It was a bed full of liquid in an empty room. And when I looked in the corner, there was a weird, glowing device."

Zelda's eyes widened. That sounded… all-too familiar.

"And when I touched the device," the man said, more softly now as his face fell, looking toward her through thin eyebrows, "I was overwhelmed with this weird feeling of… familiarity. And then, when I came to again, I was here. Right here."

"That's, um," Zelda replied, "it… it does still seem…"

"Familiar?" the man chuckled, grinning now as he looked back up triumphantly, "I thought so… Hylian Princess."

Before she could react, the man assumed a guarded, combative stance with his hands held out defensively, "Your story ends here and now, so-called Princess!"

Then he leaped away, and once more the illusion of a harmless traveler melted away in smoke and flaming, white paper tags. The man landed some fifteen feet away, the assassin's sickle spinning in his grip. "Again?" she growled, and drew her knight's broadsword, the Shield of the Mind's Eye that had served her so well and long already falling onto her other arm. "Don't you people learn? I can match you."

"Hah," the Yiga laughed as his hands formed a strange sign between them, "You've never matched me! I'm known as the Right Hand of Sooga, one of the Yiga's best fighters! Your paltry skill is no match at all!"

He vanished in another flurry of smoke, and Zelda cast her eyes around for several long seconds. She knew he wasn't actually gone… only somehow invisible to her eyes. He's got to reappear to attack, though, she reminded herself. At least the others all had.

But with the rain masking any sound of footsteps or breathing, she would have a hard time listening. Can I watch the grass for footprints…?

Of course, the moment she turned her attention to do that, there was another flash of flame and smoke from her right. Three tags drifted in on the wind past her vision as her blade blurred… but the man was already jumping back. "Too slow!"

He charged the moment he landed, sprinting toward her with his expressionless mask betraying nothing, though his every bit of body language expressed the intent to kill her, to slice open her throat with a single strike.

Zelda swung too early…

A feint.

The man laughed, "Fool, I've-"

Then just as his blade swung upward from where it had dragged through the wet glass, her shield lashed out too, smashing across the porcelain of his mask and sending half of it into shards of glass that impacted him and peppered the ground around them.

The princess' face twisted into a snarl, amazed she'd been able to time that properly.

A blue eye, lined with blood, accompanied a torn, bloody, glass-embedded lip as the Yiga snarled.

That blue eye was the wrong color, but her mind still…

Still…

"I know you prefer fencing," her Champion had explained after she'd complained about the weight of his shield, which he was forcing her to borrow for that evening's practice, "but having a shield at your side can be a very powerful defense. It's literally a mobile wall to absorb arrows, swords, and spears. Not as effective against hammers or clubs, but they still help. But a shield is more than just a defense. It's still a weapon in its own right, used properly. Here, let me see it, and I'll show you."

A few seconds later, the heavy weight of the shield, which bore the Crest of Hylia and had been her father's gift to the young man as a reward for pulling free the Sword of Evil's Bane, was off of her arm and on his. She couldn't deny it looked nice there, both ornamented and quite practical, as he assumed a stance she had now seen more than a dozen times in actual combat as the forces of the Calamity grew worse.

Mostly she was glad not to be holding it herself, it was heavy.

"Come at me. Stab me in the face. And I mean that, Princess- come at me as if you intend to do it. I am an enemy."

She'd hated that instruction the first few times he'd given it. They were already friends when he had offered to help train her and keep her skills sharp. If he'd made the offer before he'd saved her life in the desert, well… she might have just taken him up on it.

Now, though, she knew very well her Champion would not suffer a scratch. She liked to think she was alright at combat, he certainly said she was about as good as a well-trained soldier… but he was just better. Faster, stronger, and with a sense of battle, reflexes, she thought she'd never match.

So she took two steps, careful to maintain her balance and footing (for Link, while eminently kind, was never one to forgive a mistake if it had the slightest possibility of putting her in danger, such as bad footwork during a fight for survival could do), and thrust…

Only to hear a clang, and then be blinded by that same ornamented pattern of Hyrule's kingdom filling her entire vision.

Then the shield was gone, and Link looked at her seriously, "Now, imagine I had followed through. At the very least you'd have lost teeth, gained a black eye. Probably broken your cute little nose. Don't look at me like that, this is serious. A shield is a defense, but it is a weapon. Even those horrible bark-crafted ones the Bokos use. Take this back, and we'll keep working on…"

No. That wasn't him, Link. The eye was blue, but it was too narrow, and dark. Link's eyes were bright. And this man was clearly a Yiga. "Can't match you, was that it?"

Zelda's snarl was emphasized by a half-step in with her leading foot, the blade in her hand slashing down in an arc from above her right shoulder to below her shield on the left. The man howled as it cut deeply into his shoulder, but he'd rolled away at the last moment, leaving two spots in the grass that were already running as the rain began to pick up.

She kept after him, stepping forward as he twisted, legs kicking out defensively, and somehow spun to a crouch. Then he was on his feet, lunging toward her with the sickle in his other hand, held as if to gut her.

This time, she caught his blade with her own, twisted awkwardly as she hadn't had time to reverse her own grip. His fist came up toward her gut in an uppercut, inside her guard…

Only it wasn't. The lower half of a Shield of the Mind's Eye was long and thin, and it cut across his wrist as she slashed downward. "Hah!"

There was another crack. "Cut open shoulder, and broken wrist… you'll be lucky to use that arm again, even if you survive," Zelda growled.

The man frowned, then lunged backward. "Tsk… arrogant… but you're not wrong. You've been lucky, Princess. The next time we meet, it will be your last."

Hand-seals formed again, Zelda lunged too, thrusting forward for his heart…

But all she speared was a single banana, as she caught a bit of the man's pouch while he twisted out of existence.

She remained on-guard for several minutes, and only slowly relaxed. But there was no sign, and eventually even the sense of wary danger passed. It took her a minute to gather up the Rupees, twenty-six in all, that had spilled from the assassin's pouch. The banana, she left there… she would hardly want to eat it after it'd been cut nearly in two by the bloody point of her sword.

Another easy Korok's puzzle, one of the magnetic block ones, presented itself on the face of the canyon as she neared Kakariko once more, and the Princess, in no mood any longer to enjoy the rain, made quick work of it before moving on.

What had been a mostly pleasant few days since the torturous climb and even worse summit of Mount Lanayru (the Hinox aside, though she'd been pleased at how easily she had slain the beast) had been ruined by a single assassin.

I'd probably feel better if he were dead, and hadn't escaped. At least he left his sickle, those are potent weapons.

Her mood was at lest slightly boosted by the bounty around Cotera's fountain, though. Silent Princess flowers, Blue Nightshades, Endura Carrots, a Hearty Radish, and four more of the small fairies, two male and two female, that eagerly entered bottles to help keep her alive.

And of course, Cotera itself, which it felt like now no visit to Kakariko would be complete without. The voluptuous woman was happy to help, too, though the only equipment she could bless with her enchanting blown kiss was the newly-acquired Climbing Boots.

Kakariko itself was as bustling as ever, so though Zelda was starting to feel that strange, burning sensation between her legs, she found herself (and sometimes cursing her helpful nature) helping out with one errand after another. Helping old Cado, ex-husband of the archery store's owner, catch his missing Cuccos, helping teach young Koko how to cook, and even promising the artist, Pikango, she would get him a reference picture of Cotera's fountain were just a few.

As a result, the rest of Zelda's evening and the early part of night had passed before she finally found time to herself before the statue of Hylia that was maintained by Kakariko Village.

It was nestled on a small island surrounded y purple and blue flowers, ringed by torches, with water flowing around it and accessible by a short foot-bridge. Thus, protected by earth, water, and fire, and ringed with a slight breeze, it was a quiet little nook, sheltered, and set apart despite being in the center of the small village.

A quiet place to reflect.

For Zelda, a quiet place to talk to… what, her former selves?

She still wasn't sure what, exactly, she was praying to, but as Zelda knelt in supplication herself, yet again, that warm, soothing voice answered.

There was no wisdom, no lesson learned, however, with her selection of vigor and health.

Only that, blossoming like newly-kindled flames in her chest, and that same, burning need.

As her eyes opened some hour later, Zelda's mind turned at once to a quiet moment in this same village, when she had, purely by accident, come across a bathing woman and been entirely unable to look away.

"It's the same time of night," Zelda whispered, and then stood, glad she was already wearing her stealthiest clothing, dirty though it now was.

She moved like a ghost, or so it seemed, despite near panting with desperate arousal, and bypassed the night guards at the entrance to Impa's house by climbing down and around them, out of sight, before moving back up to the same hiding place she had used before, underneath the stilted dwelling.

And there she was, the same vision of white-haired loveliness, buxom but not overly so, fit, lithe, and toned and curvy all at once.

The taller woman was seated on a stone beneath the water, a floating tray with soaps and brushes next to her as before, this time wedged between a couple of the rocks as Paya was in an area closer to some of the waterfalls, with definite current that carried the bubbles away in streams that faded as the neared the far side of the small pool behind her home.

She was washing herself with a cloth and soap currently, and Zelda watched, enraptured by Paya's simple, understated beauty.

The princess did not even question herself as she slipped a hand into her pants and started rubbing softly between her legs. She knew she'd come here, at this time, for just that purpose, after all. There was no sense of guilt this time… only excitement. Yes, a thrill of apprehension should she be caught, but that only added to that same feeling of arousal. What would she do? Probably suck off any guard that was called or found her.

If it were Paya, give false apologies… and kiss her. Hah, that would probably shut her up, Zelda mused to herself as she worked circles around her clit, and maybe make her faint from embarrassment.

Zelda shivered… this wasn't enough. Touching herself while watching Paya bathe was amazing, stimulating in every good way, thrilling… but she wanted more. Her clothing was removed slowly, with one hand, while the other continued to play with her body, cupping one perky breast (so much smaller than Paya's, yet delicious in their own right, her mind supplied) or slipping between her legs again.

But she never took her eyes off the Sheikah maiden below her.

Paya was washing her legs when Zelda finished undressing and set her clothing down. Then, with her own soap and washcloth in hand, she stood up, baring her own flesh to the moonlight and whoever was looking in her direction, and dove.

Like a graceful heron, she hoped, but then… did she really care? The objective was getting close to Paya. Openly, naked, beneath the moon and stars. All other considerations were secondary.

And if someone saw, watched? So much the better. She could enjoy that thrill of exhibitionism, too.

Zelda hit the water with a splash, though a small one, and immediately arced up, heading for the surface in the direction of the muted scream of alarm.

She broke the surface about six feet away from the Sheikah woman, who was covering her breasts with one hand, while the other held a strange, triangle-bladed knife in an underhand grip. The eyes were scared… but determined.

At least at first. A moment after Zelda's eyes met hers, Paya softened, "P- Princess? What are you… I heard you were in town, and I- but I'm bathing!"

Before Zelda could reply, a window slammed open above them. "Paya, dear? Something wrong?"

Like a doe caught in a trap, dark blue eyes widened comically as Paya yelped, "N- No, grandmother! I just- a fish s- startled me!"

After a moment, there was a gruff harrumph, then Impa replied, "Fine, fine… try not to wake the whole town next time you get a tickle, alright? Some of us need a whats-left-of-our-beauty sleep."

Then the shutter slapped closed again.

"Sorry," Zelda apologized, genuinely this time, "I didn't mean to startled you badly… maybe a little."

"I… I… I'm still bathing," Paya squeaked, sinking down to her chin in the water.

"So am I," Zelda smiled, confidently swimming up to the other woman and feeling around for the bench, then slipped onto it next to the other woman. "Besides, we're both women, you know? Nothing I haven't seen before… unless you're afraid I'm going to ravage you, or something."

"N… N-no, I… I…"

Then Zelda looked at the woman beside her as her gaze turned a bit predatory, "That is, unless you want me to ravage you… because that doesn't have to be off the table."

She didn't know why she'd said it, but was amused she had.

Paya turned so red at the implication that Zelda wondered how the cool mountain water didn't burst into steam.

Unfortunately, most (not all) thoughts of lust and satisfaction vanished as the poor Sheikah girl swayed, and then slipped into the water in a dead faint.

It was a bit of a struggle to fish her back out, since Paya was a good foot taller than Zelda, but she was at least still breathing, and she'd only been underwater for two or three seconds.

… "Not that I'm going to pass up this chance," Zelda whispered to herself, as she pulled Paya against her. "Hylia… these tits are amazing, both in my eyes and my hands…"

Unfortunately, a few moments of groping was all Zelda could get, as Paya was already starting to stir. "S- Sorry," she murmured as she pulled herself away, "I… I was… that… but we're… and… and I… uhm…"

Zelda laughed softly, her own face pink… Had Paya been conscious, was she aware of Zelda's illicit fondling? Did she, Paya, care? Did Zelda?

"Don't worry about it, Paya," she told her after a moment, "I… I honestly think your shyness is… cute. I didn't expect you to faint when I jumped in, of course. I really did just want to join you for a bath… but I meant what I said, too. You're… very beautiful. You know?"

"Th… Thank you…" Paya whispered, looking away, "but… but I should finish. I still need to attend to my Grandmother. She has a hard time with the stairs lately, and she'll be ready for bed soon."

"Oh," Zelda replied, not bothering to hide a bit of disappointment. "Well… alright. I suppose I'll just finish myself, then. I hope you don't mind the intrusion… if this place is special to you, I can find another-"

"It is," Paya interrupted, still red-faced, "but you can use it! I… I was just surprised! And what you said, I…"

She didn't finish. Zelda smiled, "Then I will, if it doesn't bother you. It is quite nice, here… sheltered, but also beautiful. Like you."

There was another meep.

Unfortunately, despite the burning need, Zelda felt it necessary to let the other woman finish bathing in peace. It at least gave her a chance to give herself a real scrub, better than any she'd been able to manage in the wilds outside of the hot spring near Oakle's Navel.

And the frenzied movements of her hands beneath the water when her bathing was done and Paya long gone at lest took some of the edge off, if only because she was imagining Paya's head there, between her legs, her mouth moving just as feverishly.

Or maybe Paya and Koyin, while Celessa rode her face… ah… yes, that would do…