"Link, do you think...do you think we can rebuild Hryule's castle?"

The topic lingered for hours; the knight would always help Zelda, but this was a big project. They would be writing history.

Though, it wasn’t like they hadn’t already done that. Talk about a power couple--I mean duo.

Ideas of who to recruit for the castle, how to build from ruins, and who to run the castle bounced back and forth from the pair as they laid on the grass. They hadn’t noticed it, but the cool environment of night tinted the grass into an almost turquoise hue. 

"It'd take years," the princess said, seeming defeated. "And not to mention the issue with forming a monarchy once more. My father ran it so well."

"...You're not giving yourself enough credit, Princess." Link managed to choke out after half a minute. "You're the one who taught the Champions how to guide the divine beasts."

He was careful with how he used his tone of voice. What was usually a rough, static voice became soft and grateful. 

She smiled as a thank you, and replied,"You do know you don't have to call me Princess. I'm not--"

"I know that," He interrupted, "I don't call you Princess because of your royal status." He smiled, knowing Zelda knew exactly why he called her Princess, proven by the reddening of her face. He moved his arms from the back of his head to his side of his waist as the knight sat upright on the grass, his wrists making a popping noise. “I don’t know really what else to say. I don’t remember much of what Hyrule used to be, or the inner workings of the castle.”

“I don’t know if many people alive even do. If we're building the castle back to its former glory, we are going to need someone who does.” She looked up at Link, watching the blue of his eyes seemingly dance in moonlight. The emotion in his eyes never changed; even before his 100-year slumber. It was always in wait, expecting the next change of events, never antipaicating moment of rest.

“What would it mean to bring back Hyrule Castle?” He asked, having thought about it for a while.

“It...It would mean we could finally bring back a sense of normalcy to this land. All the villages and people, they’re all separated. Hyrule field was always full of teeming activity, but now it's seen as No Man’s Land.” For a second, she was able to pull her gaze off of Link and look into the horizon, past Dueling Peaks. “It could be my way to apologize, for being absent for so long. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had forgotten me.”

Her knight thought silently, unable to put words to his thoughts. He couldn’t figure out how to convey she didn’t owe anything to Hyrule; it was almost the opposite. Zelda was constantly giving herself away, whether it be her research, training, or mere presence, for the sake a land of which had nearly forgotten her. She needed to forgive herself for not awakening her powers in time; both of them knew it.

The moon was at its highest in its dance around the sky and its million spots of light. The night was quiet; it wasn’t filled with the yells of children and the chatter of townspeople. The night might’ve been feared by others; prompting anyone in the dark to fear the unknown, but if you just stayed still for a moment, you would see how the sky became a silent ballad, calm yet full of life, even in the dark. 

Zelda was zoning out for a bit, but the crack of Link’s joints as he stood took her out of her daydream. Nightdream? Not-keeping-track-of-what-time-it-is-dream? 

“Princess,” He began. “I will help you at any chance I get.”

“I feel like there’s more to your sentence, Sir Link.” She looked at him with inquisitive eyes and smile, still lying down on her back on the grass with her hands on her stomach.

“When you’re done rebuilding the castle, or Hyrule, or whichever comes first, you have to promise me you’ll forgive yourself.”

“For what?” She tried to turn a blind eye to the request. Something in her wouldn’t let her say or accept it.

Link’s response was his trademark eyebrow raise, knowing full well she knew what he meant. Zelda simply grumbled into her hands, coming out as a muffled “Mmmm.”

“You gotta promise me.” Link’s voice was teasing and slightly higher pitched than usual.

"How pushy," Zelda said with a laugh, and half closed eyes.

"Is that a yes?"

She slowly nodded, still refusing to admit it out loud. Link couldn't tell whether she nodded slowly because she was nearly drifting off to sleep, or because she was just as stubborn as she was a 100 years ago.

Zelda stood up next to Link, enjoying the comfortable silence of each other; it was one thing Link always enjoyed, when Link couldn't turn his thoughts into words properly.

A quiet yawn broke the gaze between the two, as LInk was interrupted, "You’re-”

"I'm not that tired, Link."

He paused for a second, surprised by how quickly she knew what he was going to say. "You know, I could've been saying that you're breathtaking." The knight was a bit tired himself; thus all logic telling him not to say that was thrown to the wind.

Zelda covered her smug look. "You're saying it now, so thank you, handsome.” On the outside, she appeared to be more charismatic than Link was at the moment, yet on the inside, she deeply regretted those words which caused butterflies in her stomach almost instantly.

Link was a bit more flustered; only because he was embarrassed that he didn't know as much about her as she did him. 

For what seemed the next hour, the royal and her knight became cicadas in the night; desperately trying to keep their volume down while laughing, joking, and most likely flirting. From their conversations, one would think they knew each other for years. Zelda? Yes, she did. Link? Not so much.

Painful as it was for him to admit it, Link only bore 13 memories of Zelda’s self before the calamity; he figured he would never gather any more, as the memories he had were already hard enough to recall.

Silence fell upon them once more.
“When do we start?” Zelda asked, walking to the wooden door to enter the house.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

- - - - - -

Surprisingly, Link was still sleeping in his chair when Zelda awoke. To be fair, it was quite early in the morning; if you looked outside the window, the stars were still slightly visible. The princess was quite the morning person however, so she stayed up and began to brush out her short hair. 

She looked down from the second level of the knight’s house. Their house? Link was surprisingly a deep sleeper, she concluded. When walking down the stairs, she had dropped the brush she was holding, causing multiple bangs of wood, yet Link slept.

In an informal white shirt and black trousers, she quietly walked over to Link's side and tapped him on the shoulder, squatting to his level in the wooden chair. “Hey sleepyhead,” she whispered. “Can I see the sheikah slate?”

Not fully awake, he softly grumbled and handed her the slate, not even pausing to question who he was handing the ancient piece of technology to. Maybe he already knew.

“Thank you,” She started to walk away from Link, but paused as her back faced him and green-blue eyes looking at him over her shoulder. 

Another time, she thought, her face slightly flushed, resuming her walk to the cooking pot outside. There was a pastel orange light laying about on the cream-colored homes of Hateno, softly waking the adults of the town awake; in turn, they would wake up the small children.

A 100 years ago, she had no idea nor any way to learn how to cook food on her own; it was all served to her, and not a second overdone. When approaching the cooking pot, her past self may have had trouble, but she had learned from Link while watching over him, and watching aside him. 

Efficiently, she took out a piece of flint stored in the slate and quite clumsily used one of the royal broadswords near the back of the house to strike it; no matter how much she watched Link, Zelda knew she wouldn’t be able to use it as gracefully as he did. Thankfully though, the fire had started and she could cook breakfast before the sun chased the night sky all away.

While waiting for her breakfast to heat to the right temperature, the Princess became lost in thought; something which quite frequently happened. It was a productive habit, as she was able to plan her day and things which she needed to complete. Granted, it would be more efficient  to use a notebook or paper of the sort, but Zelda’s method was convenient for her. As long as her thoughts didn’t lead into self-deprecating ones, she was fine.

She decided heading to Kakariko to seek Impa’s advice first would be of utmost importance, and it wouldn’t be too far from where they were already.
Just in case they needed it, Zelda put hearty foods into the omelet. According to her research, hearty radishes had the power to raise your overall health, which was something she thought Link would need later.

Dawn had just begun, and the princess was already off to a great start. Link, not so much; he could easily stay up a full night, but he had gone a week without sleeping, and it seemed the restlessness caught up to him. The Princess certainly wanted to leave by 10AM, but she also wanted him to have a good rest. From what she remembered, the two didn’t go to sleep until 1AM in the morning.

Oh yeah. Last night. 

The Princess’s face reddened; realizing all the flirts that were exchanged without a single hesitation. Nothing more happened than such, but it was enough to cause her pointy ear to turn from a light beige to a soft pink.

She knew all too well how she felt about her knight. She wasn’t in denial, yet she never once admitted it to herself. However, the compliments of last night prompted her to think about Link’s own feelings towards her. 

"You know, I could've been saying that you're breathtaking." Zelda recalled him say.

“He was,” Zelda traced her fingers into the ground, making tiny dirt circles as she scrunched her knees to her chest. “He was just tired, that's all.” Her voice was a barely audible whisper, despite no one else being awake to hear her thoughts.

The lie to herself helped lessen the pink tint on her face, and return to her cooking. It was finished, though not nearly as impressive as Link’s cooking. 

After eating some of the hearty omelet, Zelda knew Link's horse and her own would need to be ready to travel across the majority of Hyrule, or at least getting to Kakariko at the moment.

She fed the horses--Epona and Terrako--endura carrots, just for an extra kick in their step, or rather gallop, in this case. By the time Zelda was combing her fingers through her horse's pastel yellow mane, a half-awake knight came out of the house's door. 

"Morning, Zel," Link spoke out of nowhere, his voice small as if he were in the castle's library. 

It shook Zelda, not noticing him even appear out the door. She responded with a slight jump and raised expression, but exhaling upon seeing Link. His hair was quite unkempt; messy, light brown hair spilled from his back to his shoulder. You could never guess Link’s hair was that long until the ponytail was taken away.

She found herself staring at it longer than she'd like to admit; and was brought out of her thoughts by a concerned eyebrow raise from Link.

"Sorry, didn't mean to cause worry," she apologized; afterwards, she explained her plans for the day and where they would be going. That is, if Link was up to it today. 

He casually nodded to the plans to visit Kakariko village, signaling he wasn't all there. To make sure Link didn't fall asleep on his horse, she gave him an extra half hour to cook and wake up fully while she decided what items to bring.

Within that half hour, Link managed to cook an absolutely savory dish, Zelda gathered their items into the sheikah slate, and Terrako and Epona were properly spoiled with Endura carrots.

They waved to the gatekeeper of Hateno goodbye, and they were well on their way. The trip wouldn't be long, would it?

Not with Zelda and Link racing horses.

Both sprinted downhill, their dark hylian hoods flying in the wind, though Epona had only just a little more speed than Zelda’s steed. Both riders were breathing heavily as they began to reach Kakariko village, zooming past Fort Hateno for two reasons. One, the horses were already galloping pretty fast, and two, they didn't want to reminisce on any bad memories.

The joyful air got uncomfortably tense and they both slowed their horses to a canter, clopping against the stone of Kakariko Bridge. Link felt a rumble in his back, right where his sword was sheathed. He brought it out, and the Master Sword was glowing a foggy blue. As for Zelda, the triforce mark appeared on her right hand, and the air around her glowed.

The knight had seen something--or someone Zelda couldn't--to be fair, he was eyeing a regular hylian.

"Get out of here." Link's eyebrows furrowed, and his gaze became nearly suffocating.

The Hylian didn't move an inch, instead, they poofed into smoke and red tags, with a laugh that echoed. The Princess was a mixture of confusion and fear; the yiga clan member was supposedly gone, as noted by the triforce on her hand disappearing.

Zelda's eyes met Link's, as he gestured for them to keep moving forward on the path before they ran into trouble again. Once they were at the plateau of the hill, Link looked around him, as if every inch of Hyrule was trying to see him. After confirming no one was around, he stammered as he asked, “Why did the triforce activate? That only happened when I was near Ganon.”

The princess hesitated on her answer. She never heard Link with such a scared and shaken voice, even when he was dying in her arms those many years ago.

Her silence and facial expression had filled in the blanks for Link and he assumed the worst. But there was no time to continue that conversation, as the horses began to slow down into Kakariko.

The hood they were wearing didn't act as any disguise to the sheikah; the moment the royal white horse came into view, the villagers kneeled.

While Zelda still didn't feel right with people treating her like the Queen, she didn't feel like each person that came into view to be at ease.

The two reached the arch in front of Impa’s home, and took off their hoods to confirm to the two guards who they were. They quickly reached the room where Impa was sitting on her pillows, seemingly reading a book.

Paya, the same embarrassed girl as she always was, was the first to notice. "Y-your Majesty!" She quickly kneeled and ducked her head, white strands of hair flowing over her shoulder.

Impa looked up from her book and over to Paya with slightly furrowed eyebrows. "Paya, what is going-" The old woman's expression softened upon seeing Zelda. "Your Highness,” she politely dipped her head, and Link wondered how her large hat didn’t fall off in the process. “What brings you here?”

“We need your advice.”

-----------

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating in a while, I got busy with a lot. Of work. And this entire month is going to be ridden with boat loads of work, so maybe expect an update late April or early whatever month comes afterwards. I swear I'm smart guys.