A Couple of Trials (ZeLink)

Chapter 69: The Misty Castle

"Hey, Princess..."

"Hm?"

The princess and the pilgrim stood by the riverbank with their horses, watching as Paya learned how to properly prepare her own steed. As the Sheikah struggled, dealing with constant neighs and snorts from her horse, Zelda and Celessa watched on, the roar of the swiftly flowing river beside them muffling their voices.

"I haven't asked since it felt like a touchy subject, but..." Celessa began, "how do you think Link is doing?"

"How do I believe Link is faring, you ask?" Zelda repeated without taking her eyes off Paya. The pilgrim nodded, to which the princess hummed again, only responding after a few moments of thought. "I'm worried, If I'm being honest. The last trials he had weren't very kind to him. I understand these trials are being given to him by the Master Sword itself, so logically I should have nothing to fear, but..."

Frowning, she looked away from Paya and back at the road that traveled up the hillside, the road that she knew led right to the dense, misty forest Link had disappeared into a few days prior.

"Sorry," Celessa said, noticing the princess's concerned gaze. "You just haven't talked about it, and... Well, I guess that's for good reason—"

"I think he's fine," Zelda suddenly said, turning back to Celessa. "I wish I could say he was better than that, but that would be too optimistic even for me. But, what I am sure about is that he's alive, and at least doing okay."

Celessa stared at Zelda, slightly taken aback by her answer, but eventually smiled.

"That's a good way to see things," she said as she went back to watching Paya now try to mount her horse. "I'm glad you have so much faith."

"I feel as though if I didn't, that would make me a fairly poor lover to him," Zelda said with a light chuckle. "He'll complete his trials and make it back to us safe and sound."

Noticing Celessa's nod in agreement, Zelda smiled before turning her attention to the castle in the distance, with only its shadowed towers visible beyond the trees.

He'll come back to me, the same way he always does, she thought to herself. Link... I do hope I'm correct. Please be alright in those trials.

As Zelda stared at the castle, she hoped and prayed that Link was safe inside the forest he had disappeared into; yet, unbeknownst to her, he was in an entirely different forest. This one wasn't suffused with the Great Deku Tree's magic; there was no wind to guide him nor torch embers to show him the way. He was in a place he had never been before, and it was a place Link certainly knew wasn't in the Hyrule he'd crossed many times over.

The rustling of leaves echoed through the forest as Link painfully made his way past the thick tree trunks and logs. He had already ventured through multiple caves, passing over bridges made of roots and rivers that had flowed around the few areas of grass and soil the trees hadn't overtaken. Still unclothed, bleeding from multiple wounds all over his body, and lost in an unknown location, he continued forward, passing through more caves and trees. Though he didn't know where he was, it still all felt vaguely familiar.

"Zelda—or, Hylia— said the Sacred Realm can take different forms," Link mumbled to himself as he continued on, using the trees to maintain his balance as he placed his palms on their bark with each step. "Last time, it was an ocean. Now it's a forest. Is it because this has to do with the Master Sword? It always finds its way back to the forest, doesn't it?"

Hee hee! A new friend! A new friend!

"Hello?" Link called out, stopping in the thick grass to look around. He could hear it, the faint, high-pitched laughter. It sounded as though it were coming from above, as if a child was jumping between the branches, a child he couldn't catch a glimpse of. "Is someone there?"