[From Ruto's POV also... Time uses the Zora Mask to become Zora Link]

{One more thing- in this fic, Ruto's crown is the same one that Mipha wears in BotW and Time's in the same one Sidon has. Enjoy the fic!}

I had been waiting a while now for my Link to come home after his strange disappearance. The Zora were missing their enigmatic hero King. In complete fairness, so was I. So, imagine my surprise when a massive splash and a lot of foul language awoke me and stirred my curious spirit. As Zora Queen, I thought I should go and see what was out there and decide whether it was a threat to my people or not. I smoothed my fins and swept off my throne, striding over to the diving cliff, and prepared to jump from it. The Zora who hung around there watched me fall, having complete trust that I knew what I was doing. I flipped over, bracing myself for the water's frost but to my surprise, it was merely cool. I sped through the depths, enjoying the feeling of the water over my scales as I was carried by the current. Lost as I was in my own ecstasy, I almost forgot why I was swimming in the first place. I needed to find the source of the worst swearing I'd ever heard. My sensitive fingertips found the rocky ledge at the edge of the lake and I pulled myself out, showering the ground in crystal droplets of water. I quickly checked all my jewellery was present, my crystal earrings, bejewelled bracelets, a very special silver tiara. Yes, all of them were safe.

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I crept over to the exit waterfall, brushing it with my silky skirt-like hip fins. I took a deep breath, steadying myself to walk through the raging waters. Even for a Zora, this was a dangerous place. I'd known many an overconfident Zora who had been swept away by these currents. I'd never seen them again. Hopping through carefully, heart leaping uncomfortably as I slipped on the ancient stone slab on the other side, I gave an undignified yelp as I scrabbled to regain my footing, my smooth scales not doing much to help. I released the breath I'd been holding back while I panicked. A sudden noise caught my attention, and I turned to see a familiar, albeit sopping wet boy standing on the edge of the spiralling path, wringing out his royal-blue scarf. He seemed lost in his task, so I crept up behind him and shoved him in the ribs. His startled scream was the funniest thing I'd heard for a long time. I gave a jovial shout of, "Better luck next time, lover boy!" before diving into the rapids. I swam along the bottom of the river, following the Captain downstream, only to find a makeshift camp set upon the muddy river bank. Nine patched bedrolls, a fire with a chipped pot hung over it and eight boys and men sitting around it, comparing their scars. "What's wrong, Pretty Boy?" One of them drawled, blowing his pink hair out of his face. A boy with fluffy, short brown hair and tanned skin trotted over to the Captain, flicking him in the chest, "You look a little wet... Would you like to tell the Old Man what happened?" 

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"The first one to tell Time gets to choose dinner!" A heavily scarred kid with wild hair and only one ear proclaimed, a mismatched smile on his face, causing another with a wolf pelt to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose as if he were getting a migraine. I felt like I should know these boys, they had a certain energy about them that reminded me of someone, but I couldn't think who. I surfaced, hoping they wouldn't notice a silver crowned Zora was watching them. I scanned my eyes over the group at least twice before it clicked. The 'Old Man' was wearing ceremonial armour, had only one eye, had blonde hair parted in the middle and was fiddling with a necklace. The Zora Sapphire. It was Link. I was stunned, how had he managed to land himself with eight boys, and all of them were armed to the teeth. I stayed silent, but with a smirk on my face, I listened to their conversation. "Tell me what?" Link asked wearily, like he'd been in this place before. "Nothing, Time!" Chorused the boys like they were completely innocent. ""Anyway," A short blonde kid with a maniacal glint in his eye raised a hand questioningly. "When are you gonna tell us who your wife is? You've been sitting on the secret long enough. I think we deserve to know." Link's face paled slightly and he glanced around the river. I quickly sank to the bottom, I didn't want to be seen yet. "Well, take your guesses. You've gotten nowhere near correct as far. I doubt you'll get it." This sentence seemed to stir a reaction from the others, who began firing names at him. "Zelda? Is it Princess Zelda?" One asked, while another was just listing names he had heard places. "Saria? No? Oh well maybe... Malon? It has to be Malon, you speak so highly of her. There's no doubt."

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"Malon? Well, there's a new one..." Link said in an amused sort of voice. "But I regret to inform you you're miles off. All of you." The wild-looking Link piped up. "Is she a Zora?" I rose out of the water a fraction, I wanted to see his reaction to this. "Well, Wild, I'd like to know why you said that." Wild blushed bright red, all the way from his cheeks to the tip of his single ear. "It seems our friend Wild here is hitched!" The pink-haired one from earlier snarked. "Just out of interest, how many of you are in love with a Zora?" Most of the hands went up. I counted at least five. "Okay, now who wants to spill before I tell you who mine is." The wolf man went first. " His name is Prince Ralis and... Well, it's complicated... Considering I was able to save his life but not his mother's didn't go down well, but he's come to terms with it now. He gets upset if I do anything dangerous and is strongly jealous of Ilia. I love him, though, so I don't know what he's worried about." Pink Hair went next. "Oh, she's priceless. Her name is Queen Oren and she's a sage. I saved her from a very embarrassing situation, and then I saved her again, this time from being trapped in a painting. We spent some time together trying to make the Zora tribe civilised again, which made no difference at all, and ended up  getting married. End of." The tiny sailor boy went next. "She isn't technically a zora but she's the evolutionary descendant of one, so that counts too, right? Her name's Medli and she's the sage of earth. I was quite close to her to begin with because she was one of the first friends I made during my adventure and we kind of ended up together... Somehow..." Next was the Wild Boy. "Mipha, well... She's something else. I can't deny she's beautiful, but she's out of my reach now. Ganon did his work. She was killed. I never got to marry her officially, but technically I'm a Prince of the Zora because her spirit follows me around. Zelda and me are trying to find a way to restore her to life." Link smiled softly at the remaining Links, who were all fidgeting with something or other. "Ready to hear about my wife? Well, she's-"

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I took that as my cue to leap out of the river, spraying them all with water. I twisted gracefully in the air, landing lightly on my feet. "Right here!" I finished, smiling at my husband. He smiled back, and held out his arms. "Nuh, uh, not in this form. That armour burns my scales, remember?" He looked down at his armour. "Ah." He reached into his travel bag and pulled out his Zora mask. "Hey, Old Man, isn't that one of those masks you always refuse to talk about?" Link nodded, donning the mask and transforming into a huge, muscular zora with a silver feathered ornament on his head. He had a dark blue sash around his waist, fastened with a pin in the shape of Nayru's crest. He took me in his arms and whispered in my ear, like he always does, "Hello, my pearl. Miss Lulu ain't got a patch on you, as always."

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From what I'd heard, Lulu was my parallel counterpart in Termina, a little taller than me with a short purple dress, large, violet, shining eyes and a rounded face. She was apparently very beautiful, which meant I must be goddess-like. While Link was embracing me as the Zora King, the others were staring into space, thinking about their own Zora, I suspected. I nuzzled into Link's neck like I had when we were little, just after he saved Lord Jabu Jabu's life, and gotten my Zora's Sapphire back, which I had ended up giving to him after he told me of his feelings towards me, which I replicated. I had wanted this boy to be my husband. Obviously we kept it a secret from my father, who was firmly against me marrying a Hylian, but after he passed not long after I met Link in the Water Temple, we felt safe to get married. I was reliving those memories in the safety of my hero's fins.

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There was another monumental splash, but this time, more graceful as the clear night sky tore itself in half and spilled out two zora, one green thing that didn't look like a zora at all, and one Hylian-looking girl. "Oren! Oren! Over here!" Pink Hair was calling, waving to the green one. She came to him, taking his leather clad hand in her small scaly one. "Hello all. I am Oren, Queen of the Zoras. It is lovely to meet you all." I put my hands on my skirt-like hip fins, and smoothed them out, looking down at this new Queen. "My, my..." I said, not really sure what to do. "Zora really have changed, haven't they? Oren, I imagine your people are surely different to mine. For I am Ruto, Queen of the Zora, and this is Link, my King." Oren bowed her head respectfully. "My king is here too, though he may not be a Zora himself, he has other ways." A small zora boy tripped out of the river, flailing his arms in a very undignified way. He got his footing back eventually, however. From his jewellery, I could see that he was royal, so I expected him to speak as much, but clearly not. "Hey Liiiiiiiiiink!!!" He cried, rushing into Wolf Boy's arms. "Hello there my little fish!" A little girl, the one who had appeared Hylian, surfaced. I could see she had a beak in place of a nose. "Hey, Linky! It's been a while, ma friend!" Small sailor kid nodded and took her arm, leading her to the fire to dry out and warm up. I guessed she must be Medli. Oh, the horror of leaving our lovely scaly bodies for such strange, hylian ones. A final Zora surfaced, the wisps of spirit hovering around her. I thought at the time she was just in tune with the spirits, but no. She was actually, genuinely dead. Wild looked at her with a shocked expression, especially when the spirit wisps faded and colour was restored to the girl. I could however, only see one thing. "That is my crown! She has my crown!" Link patted my head soothingly. "Ruto, that isn't your crown." I huffed softly. "It sure looks like it"

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She walked over to me, her silver clinking softly as she moved. "Excuse me... Are you Princess Ruto?" I was surprised, nobody had called me Princess in a long time. "My name is Ruto, but I am not a Princess. I am a Queen." Her face fell slightly at her error. "Oh... My apologies, Queen Ruto. I am Princess Mipha. I-I... I have heard so much about you. You were my inspiration. I crafted armour for my Hylian love... But... Aren't you supposed to have married a Hylian? That looks like a Zora." Link stepped away from me, and reached behind his eyes, unhooking the mask and transforming back into a battle scarred hylian. "You were saying?" She blinked twice in confusion, before Wild came and crushed her in his arms, burying his ruined face in her scales, breathing in her sweet scent, like a fresh breeze over water. She returned his embrace, resting her delicate head on his chest and closing her big, brown eyes in delight. From my place in Link's arms, I looked over all the boys with their Zoras, laughing and hugging and generally being pleased to see each other again. I felt a warm sensation in my chest; was this what being a mother felt like? Being proud of these boys and their partners, even though I knew none of them and only just met them all? Regardless, I wasn't letting them go without a fight. If they wanted to leave, I'd go with them. They were all my boys now, my Zora princes.

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