4

Link followed her back at the slower trot. Hiring a Yiga to get Zelda's thoughts out loud. If Link could have tracked him down, he would have taken him out. In the morning, the words he overheard while he was getting ingredients for breakfast would be shared with the world against her will.

When he first fought Calamity Ganon, his focus was on getting rid of the evil. He got strength from the monks in the shrines and pulled the divine beasts to him. He couldn't remember his past, and the more he learned, the more tragic it seemed to be. All of that would only distract him from what was important. Getting rid of Calamity Ganon for good. He'd seen the destruction of Fort Hateno and even read several stories. Yet, he should have been doing something else in his quests. Something personal.

-Tell me, Link . . . do you really remember me?-

He should have been finding those painful memories, regardless of how much they would have distracted him. When she first came back, he could see it there, in her. Eyes of welcoming he should have known. He was honest with her though. He didn't remember her, and so the former Princess Zelda had left to Zora's Domain on her own.

When he finally saw her, face to face though, he knew it was time to deal with his own memories. Calamity Ganon was gone, the Princess of Hyrule was saved as he promised King Rhoam, and it was time to discover himself. He'd had a few memories that hit him like a rock as he was helping to get rid of the divine beasts. Bits and pieces of the other Champions, with tiny nuances of her involvement. It was time to know more though, time to stop ignoring the bright areas of his memories.

Using his sheikah slate, he had to roam all over as he did with the shrines. From Gerudo to Tingle island. It only took discovering a couple of memories before he was going everywhere, looking for any sign or clue to find in those pictures. Pikango had been a traveler and he helped Link as he could.

Now, he was only one memory short. He didn't know if everything would be complete when he retrieved the last memory so he stayed silent on the subject. Princess Zelda had enough to worry about.

Dilapidated and torn down, he'd been there at the castle after the fact for more memories. There was a small area of sleeping bags and a table placed in the front entrance. Everything else still looked the same as when he went to find Calamity Ganon. Staying there couldn't have been easy, so he understood why she wouldn't stay there long. While she often stayed within Hyrule, she was always moving, and staying around in stables or small villages.

It took forever to run into her the first time he wanted to find her.

Link had known it hadn't been easy for Zelda. The day he was assigned to her in the past, he just did his best to stay up with her. Even if she didn't want his help. Back then, she spoke out loud to herself and less to him.

She had been his complete opposite. While he hated to speak, she chose to speak in the quiet all the time. After she started to see him as the knight he truly had been, she didn't talk as much. Before, when she hadn't cared, she had felt free to express herself. According to her own diary though, he had told her why he was so quiet. Most likely, he had to share something to make her share in that same carefree-

"Ooh, hang on!" She stopped her horse and got off, running away into the distant grass.

Link stopped his thinking, got off his horse and ran after her. The actions felt familiar, so familiar.

"Perfect! I was hoping I could get a hold of some of these soon." She was picking the most common type of mushroom in the region, the Hylian mushroom from the ground. "Now if I just had some hearty bass. I do have a hearty radish." She smiled at Link. "That's a meal in itself." She tucked the mushrooms away. "I want to cook plenty for my journey. When I don't have it I end up eating apples or simply mushrooms and it doesn't last very long."

She placed plenty of mushrooms in her satchel but what she just did was a dead giveaway too. He reached his horse, also taking plenty of mushrooms. When she got on hers, he kept looking back at her.

"What, the mushrooms? I will be leaving for Faron first before Gerudo. I'll stop at a small village for a day, and then I'll proceed through the stables and make my way to Gerudo."

He knew it. Faron. Lurelin. She wasn't putting Gerudo off and she would have been gone before he found her again. He'd go straight to Gerudo and she would have taken a detour out of the way. He shook his head as he trotted behind her horse.

Link had to deal with amnesia. He used his instincts and what people told him to keep going. That feeling? While he felt loss, the sensation of not knowing the loss-

"Rushrooms!"

Link watched her head off of her horse and count the big purple mushrooms on the side of the mountain. Just like before, it felt so familiar. She must have done that frequently. He got off as she started to climb up. "Aye," he warned her.

"I am quite capable of getting my own rushrooms," she insisted as she climbed.

Of course, she felt like she was capable of everything it seemed. Was she? No, but she strived to be. Link left the smaller one to her, but quickly climbed to get the rest. Seeing some ore up above, he went ahead and took a whack at it with his sledgehammer. Rock salt was prevalent, but sometimes the most common ingredients weren't found when you wanted food. Link learned a long time ago to scour everything in each direction. Some of the best items to get for an area were from a different one.

While he was picking up his rock salt though, he started to hear a traveler stop to talk to Zelda. He seemed friendly, introducing himself, but Link wasted no time in paragliding back down. When he was back on the ground, Zelda was still traveling down from picking her rushroom.

"It's nice to meet you." Zelda placed her rushroom away and acted as polite as she could to the stranger. The traveler smiled, just wanted to say hi, and then he was on his way. After he was properly gone, Link gave her his rushrooms. "I have one," she insisted. "You got six? How did you do that?" He tried to give them to her again. "Fine, we can share." She smelled them. "Oh, it smells so good." She looked toward Dueling Peaks stable, and then on the other side. "I wonder if Impa has had some in awhile. Maybe I should go share a meal with her. Half a day away, but it won't be bad by horse."

Yes. Impa.

And he would eat with them.