7

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Puffer Beach

This place makes me nervous," Brigdo noted as Zelda gazed out at the same thing. Ancient guardian stalkers were gracing the beach lines. Reconstruction hadn't graced that area at all. Some stuck in the sand and some simply stopped with their feet in tact. Those felt the most dangerous. Traversing along ancient guardian stalkers always produced the worst feeling. There was no telling if any had survived and were just waiting for an enemy to show up to activate itself. Nekk wouldn't be able to tell either from his further lookout. They each moved very carefully.

Then they all looked back as they heard a horse galloping on the beach! Why, who would be so reckless as to ride that way around ancient guardian stalkers! Someone that clearly didn't know how to-

Oh, no. The opposite. Her heart swelled a little as she saw who'd been riding up toward them. Link. He seemed to get all over, it was hard to guess when they would meet again. She heard him slow down his horse. "Link. Whatever brought you all the way to Faron?" That look. He was mad about her leaving with her small injury? She'd moved with worse.

No, there was more than that. Oh. "You remember all the memories?" Yes, he did, he shook his head to confirm it. Now, she knew why he had followed her. He wanted her to let him come.

She knew the reason he was coming. Being around each other might trigger more than he could find in the photographs. He wanted to trigger the memories. All of them. Not just the ones he needed to make sense of what happened to Hyrule and his part in it.

Normally she would have been glad to take him back, but . . . she didn't want him knowing her secret.

At least she had a small reprieve, Nekk was coming down from his surveying. "Did you see anything?" she asked him.

Oh. He didn't look good. "There's a Stalnox hiding in the way."

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Link paid attention and watched the situation. The Rito bird had been a scout watching ahead for her. Zelda's wisdom had shown through. She wasn't someone who didn't know what they were doing, she had reliable help. Her stubborn personality didn't get in the way. He noticed her guards had changed too, he recognized them. One was the first person he ever met when he left the Great Plateau with the paraglider, and the other had read the moon. He had been helpful in knowing when a blood moon was coming back then.

Both were good men at heart.

But?

They wouldn't be able to scratch the Stalnox, take down that Hinox he passed, or take on an ancient stalker if one of them had been alive near the shoreline. Zelda was in dialogue with the Rito bird now. The only one that had a useful station was the Rito.

Link galloped ahead of them. He wouldn't play 'let's go around the entire area to a safer path' now that he'd found Princess Zelda.

When he went through the area, it was easy to see it. Right in the middle, it was so huge that there was no way to maneuver around it easily.

Link picked up his current sword, not his master sword. He didn't need it for that creature. Holding his sword he spun attacked him, whacking him several times and avoided his attacks back at him. He grabbed his bow and finished him off by his eye. Collecting the spoils, he got back on his horse and went back to Zelda.

"Are you kidding?" Brigdo couldn't believe it. "A Stalnox? Well? I-I know you helped with Calamity Ganon. Everyone knows that. It's tough to put it all into perspective though until . . ."

"A Stalnox is rare and strong, but if Brigdo had seen or experienced one before, it would put it into perspective," Hino noted.

Link was only vaguely listening. He was focused on Zelda.

"Thank you for your assistance, Link," she mentioned.

No. Not good enough.

"Would you like to come see the Horse Fairy God with us?" She invited him.

An invite was a way in. He nodded and went with them. As they moved, he continued to observe. Brigdo was glancing back at him sometimes, but mainly at Zelda. Not in a flattering way a guard should be looking at someone. Hino was studying the sky, which was dimming into the night, barely paying attention to the road. The Rito had flew back off ahead, probably checking out the situation further. The area had limited mobility around them and a fork in the road ahead. He watched the Rito bird come back and gesture which way to go. Now it was a straight shot along the path and to the bridge.

When they arrived, Hino got off his horse while Brigdo got off his. Link watched as Brigdo helped her down with Hino. She didn't need two people to help her down. He watched her footing. While everyone had acted fine, he noticed there were also some light rips in her cloth behind her good leg. She had ran into trouble, but had gotten away safely. She went forward having to be the one to ask Horse God Malanya for her services.

Link had visited the Horse God before, having run into her while exploring Hyrule. He wasn't surprised with Malanya's act of being scary. Zelda wasn't phased either.

Hino looked like he wanted to get out, and Brigo didn't look any better. Link watched the horse she had lost come back, and the brilliant smile that graced Zelda's face.

"Endura!" The horse came to her and she stroked it's neck. "I'm so sorry. I'll be more careful with you from now on." Her horse nuzzled her back.

"She is still a wild one, Link," Zelda said as she stroked the neck of her new horse. "I should have tried for something more like my first horse. Patience wasn't raised to be out here like this though." She tried to get on it. "How many times have you mounted a horse in your lifetime? From what you said of your father, I'm guessing several. How do you get so close to them when you can lose them in hard situations? Do you still form a bond with them, or do you ride them and then just let them be free?" She patted her neck again.

Link snapped out of the memory. He was right, it wasn't just the pictures, venturing with Princess Zelda could be the key to getting everything back. He waited.

Waited for her words.

That familiar smile that graced his memory.

The smile she had when she first asked if he remembered her.

The eventual invite to be her royal escort again.

"I am glad you remember, Link. I have nothing else I can offer except to take some more pictures where we once dwelled more often," she said. "I don't know if it will do any more good, but I will write the locations for you. I also have some ancient parchment. It's more official, locked up and not burnt to cinders. It might help. I will try to retrieve it for you."

That? No. No, something was wrong. He remembered her, and she was just telling him to go? After defeating the Stalnox even? "Ah?"

Her other guards didn't say a word as they helped Princess Zelda back up.

What was wrong? Why didn't she accept him? Why were the guards acting like that was absolutely normal? As they started to leave, Link blocked the path and stared down Zelda.

Zelda. It should be Queen Zelda since she was the last, but she never insisted upon a ceremony. Never said anything about the position. Even Princess Zelda, it didn't seem to be required with several simply calling her Zelda. She'd been distancing herself from the royalties name, while at the same time trying to perform duties. Link looked down at his master sword. It was glowing? It should have been weakened enough not to have as much power, it's why he fought the Stalnox with something else.

There must be an Ancient Guardian nearby, still active yet not being noticed. Where was it hiding?

"There is nothing . . ."

Link looked back. She had started to explain.

"There is nothing here triggering your sword but me, Link," she confessed. She looked at him, eye to eye. "I have malice in my heart."

What?

"I am Princess Zelda," she insisted to him. "A hundred years of being near evil, and . . . it was just too long. I think, I think it's the real reason father still haunts the castle."

Zelda. Malice. If people found out the truth?

"Knowing this, you can make your decision," she said. She revealed that there was an unhealing wound of scratch marks on her front chest. To show how deep they ran, she pulled down her shirt slightly toward her collar bone.

Deep, red gashes, with a small amount of malice hiding inside of it.

"It builds," she admitted. "I continually visit the springs of the goddesses for help. They slow it down and reduce it, but they won't remove it."

Malice within her heart. Her father still haunting the castle. They had to be connected. Link insisted they check out the castle first.

Zelda didn't like the idea. She'd been avoiding it, not wanting to feel her father's uncommunicating spirit.

Link moved closer to her horse. For some time, retrieving facts about the past was just that. Facts. Past. But for Zelda, regret for her father ran deep. It ran so deep, it may be the reason she couldn't connect with him. He spoke to her at length, trying to make her see reason into going there. He could connect with her father and he let her know that. He was even able to get clothes from him. Maybe he knew something that could help her, and maybe King Rhoam was simply waiting on him to communicate instead this time. Waiting the same way Zelda had waited for him.

A slight nod. The slightest of nods. The kind of nod that said she didn't want to, but she knew he never gave in. It was enough for him.

He whistled for his horse to get closer and started to help Zelda off the other horse. He heard a slight snipe from Brigdo but ignored it.

His duty was to her, not following along behind someone else's horse. He didn't-

"Your duty will be to my daughter, Knight. Her royal guard."

Link bent down graciously. He had been practicing to become the best knight, worthy of being of service to the castle. Instead, he had managed to outshine them all, having the sword that sealed the darkness. He was not only serving inside the castle, he was worthy of guarding King Rhoam's own daughter.

"Zelda may not be easy at first," King Rhoam informed him. "Keep on her. You will guard her but follow your King's orders."

Understood.

Link looked behind him at Zelda waiting for him to start to ride.

"A memory." She seemed to know. "I'm happy you are getting them back, Link. The castle is quite far away."

No, she wasn't sneaking out of it. Link clicked his horse's sides and they started to move.

King Rhoam himself showed Link how to handle Zelda. Respectfully but with a certain kind of demand. A subtle demand without words or belittling.

It didn't take long for Link to excel in it.

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