Link's POV
Sidon's enigmatic grin greeted me at the entrance of the Domain. I must say, it was a beautiful place. The glowing blue stone hammered intricately into place, the twisting fish perched at the top, the dark sky of the torrents of rain making it stand out even more, the elegance and beauty of this town was unbelievable.
He congratulated me on making it this far, and I admit, it was quite something for me to have survived this ordeal. He asked me to speak to the King, in order to get a better understanding of what exactly was going on.
Vah Ruta's endless water supply was making the water level of the East Reservoir Lake rise to an almost breaking point. If its rampage was allowed to go on, the water would spill over and submerge everything, and everyone. It was crucial for me to tame this Divine Beast before all was lost.
The King bestowed upon me a piece of armor that was apparently made by the Champion of Water, Mipha, herself. It was made with such care, every detail lovingly crafted, every scale shimmering. It fit me perfectly.
Wait... It fit me perfectly. A trickle of cold water that had nothing to do with the rainfall crept down my spine.
This armor was made by each generation of Zora princess for the one they hoped to marry. And it fit me perfectly.
What if... No, it couldn't be. But why not?
One of the King's advisors, Muzu, protested against the armor being given to me, but I could hardly hear him, so lost in my horror-struck mind, filled with questions and answers I didn't want to imagine. And the next thing I knew, Muzu had stomped off towards the statue of the lost Champion and Sidon had hurried after him.
Dreamlike, I trailed them, feeling the King's watchful gaze burning on my back.
Apparently, Muzu had figured out how to get enough shock arrows to enable me to board Ruta. When I found them, the advisor and the prince were still bickering, quieting as I neared.
"I've got nothing to say to you." Muzu snapped.
I needed to board Ruta. But I did not want to touch the Zora armor that had been so fastidiously made for me. However, it would seem that I had no choice. I pulled the surprisingly light clothes on, turning away to peel off my soaking wet Hylian tunic. When I faced them again, I could see Muzu's eyes widen.
"You see?" Sidon's tones were exasperated. "Proof! This is the Hylian for whom my sister had once had feelings for!"
(A/N: This dialogue, and most of the later in-game conversations, was slightly altered because I was too lazy to go search it up :P)
I turned towards the luminous statue of the Zora girl, smiling softly at the horizon, embracing a trident. Mipha, was she? Did she really love me once?
Something tugged at the edge of my mind, like a living thing struggling to escape its chains. I looked down, frowning. And then, suddenly, something burst into the open behind my eyes and I gasped lightly.
Mipha... I remembered. A fragment. A few moments. Barely enough. She was healing my wounds. She had looked at me with so much affection it was almost painful. That aching hope in her voice as she tentatively suggested that we should spend more time together...
She had loved me. At least, who I was before this whole thing happened.
I felt nothing for her.
Did she ever give me this armor? Did she have the chance to confess before the Calamity swallowed her? Did I love her back before she lost her life, and me my past?
I hated myself. She had been so kind to me, and how did I repay her? I was dishonoring her memory by the way I felt whenever I thought of her.
Sidon was staring at me with worry.
"Are you all right? You look ill."
I nodded, too numb, too cold, to sign. He didn't understand sign anyway.
Muzu finally capitulated and told me where to find twenty shock arrows. There was a terrifying man-beast that resided on top of a mountain called Ploymous Mountain and I was to slay it.
I wasn't scared in the least. I seemed to have lost the capability to feel anything other than shock.
Get a grip, I told myself. The concept that someone had once loved me was still so... strange.
Almost immediately after I engaged the Lynel, I was badly wounded and losing. I had never encountered the likes of such a beast, all the monsters that I had fought rather stupid, wielding high-grade weapons, but easily outwitted. This one however, it seemed to be able to gauge exactly where my weak points were. Within minutes, I was left holding my bleeding left side, hunched over, watching the blood slowly being drained from my body.
I did not have any food left. Even if I had, I would not have had the energy to move.
"Just kill me," I rasped, coughing up specks of blood, closing my eyes against the merciless rain. The Lynel stared at me coldly. "Kill me now."
I'm sorry, Mipha. I'm sorry, the rest of the Champions. I'm sorry, King Rhoam.
I'm sorry, Princess.
And then the Lynel charged at me, its blood-stained blade raised high, glinting against the dark, rumbling sky. I had one last glimpse at the expressionless face of the foe that would be my downfall before the blade hit me and all faded to black...
I was running, a hand in mine. Everything was blurry, indistinct, and a woman's voice was speaking, but I couldn't hear her. All I knew of was to run, run, run, keep her safe. Who she was, I did not know, nor care. I needed to keep her safe.
I was sitting on a windowsill, listening to the cheerful birdsong from the robins perched on the outstretched branches of a knotted tree nearby. I had a small notebook in my left hand and a pen in the other, but I had nothing to draw. Too empty. Too hollow. I had nothing.
My eyes opened into an unfamiliar place. It seemed like a small hut, with a merry fire crackling at the fireplace. I felt a dull pain where various wounds ran through my body, but it was with a detachedness I couldn't place, like I was feeling someone else's pain instead of mine.
A little girl no more than nine was standing tiptoe on a stool, frowning at my bare torso, her tiny hands flying over my gashes. Her golden hair was pulled back by a headband, and her brown eyes were narrowed, the tip of her tongue between her teeth.
Her eyes cleared when she saw that I was staring at her with a bemused expression.
"Ah!" Her voice was young, cheerful. "You're awake!"
I tried to sit up, to take in my surroundings, but the girl pushed me back down.
"Nuh-uh." She scolded. "You aren't. Did you know how close--" She placed her thumb and index finger so close that they were nearly touching. "--you were to death?"
I kind of did, but I decided to keep quiet.
"I mean," she continued, now wrapping some bandages around the worst of my wounds, "seriously, what were you thinking?!?"
I shrugged and tried signing. Had to do something. Needed shock arrows.
To my intense surprise, she understood perfectly well. Her eyes narrowed even further until they were just slits. "Hmm." She raised an eyebrow. "So you engaged that Lynel just for some shock arrows. Hylia. How inexperienced are you?"
I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. She was excruciatingly annoying.
How did you know all of this anyway? I gestured to her neatly wrapped bandages, the way she knew exactly how much medical extract to soak my gashes in.
I could tell that I had set off something in her.
"My brother," she said with exasperation, huffing, "is the worst dunderhead that Hyrule had ever seen. No competition. He could get hurt standing still. What's a little sister to do?" She sighed tragically as she pushed a bowl of soup into my hands.
The soup was slightly too salty. She watched my expression carefully.
"You know, I was never as good as my brother with cooking." She made a face. "Which is weird, 'cause I'm a girl and all. And by the way, you do look a lot like him." She pulled back to scrutinize my face. Then she shrugged and returned to smearing copious amounts of a nasty smelling ointment on my bandages.
What's your name?
"My name?" The girl laughed, a soft, silver giggle. "Aryll. And nobody ever spells it correctly."
Aryll. I tasted the word. I had heard it somewhere before, and not just once, but twice.
"There!" She leaned back to admire her handiwork. "All done!"
She was quite skilled. Already the pain was fading, the blood flow slowing.
Where are your parents? I signed, not expecting an answer. There was something... strange with this girl. Unworldly.
"Haven't got a pa." She said casually. "Oh, cheer up. My bro took the loss much harder than me. He never had much time to spare for me, but my bro loved him, learning swordplay from him, doing boy things. My ma is probably down in the market. Why d'you ask?"
Nothing. Haven't got a father either. Or a mother. I added grudgingly.
She hummed. "Tough."
Her sharp gaze raked over my bandages one more time, and seemed satisfied.
"You're done!" Her grin was bright as the sun. "Now don't fight any more Lynels!"
I couldn't promise that, but I smiled back. Thanks, A-r-y-l-l.
Her mouth fell open. "You spelled that correctly! Whoa! That's a first!"
My smile suddenly grew. Haha. You're a weird one.
"Yay!" She skipped cheerfully to the door and opened it. "Now shoo!"
She waved me off as I stumbled out the door.
When I looked back at the hut, it was gone.
Gone! Along with the girl!
I looked down at my body. All the bandages were falling away, dissolving, leaving behind no sign that they had ever been. The strange thing was, all the wounds were gone as well.
I took out the Sheikah Slate and stared at the map. I was in a small stretch of woods, the arrow representing me still tracking my movements. It couldn't have been a dream. If it were, then where were my wounds?
Anyway, this girl... Her brother must have been some sort of a traveler. If I met him, I would send her greetings and scold him for leaving his family for so long.
He had a family. He should have known how precious that was.
(Could I cram in the rest of the Zora quest? Hmm... Why not. It's gonna be really long, guys!)
I went back to Ploymous Mountain armed with experience. I had to use all of my best swords, dodging at split second windows, attempting parrying until I broke half of my shields, but in the end, as the Lynel bridled in its final burst of energy, I, exhausted and bleeding, had defeated it.
Victory.
Gathering enough shock arrows was no problem. I had also taken its parts and equipment. And wow. The equipment! Deadly, but so light and easy to wield.
I was ready. If I could take on a Lynel, I could defeat whatever was waiting for me within Ruta.
...
As it turned out, not quite. What I had to go through in Ruta was more difficult than all of the other Divine Beasts combined, and it was not just the mechanics of the dungeon and the boss battle.
Sidon was there, ready for action, when I paraglided down to East Reservoir Lake. I had to shoot the orbs on the back of the beast to slow down the water supply before I could enter.
When I let loose my final arrow, Vah Ruta balked and roared, as the clouds parted and a weak, watery sun sent its rays over the rippling surface of the azure lake. It was time to board Vah Ruta.
"You're here..."
The voice sent a shiver down my spine. Mipha.
"I must say... That I'm so happy to see that this day had finally arrived."
My hands shook. I was ready. I was not.
Every time I activated a terminal, every step I took towards freeing the Beast, her voice swirled around me. Her voice. Soft, gentle, kind. Encouraging. Hopeful.
Why did I feel so... uncomfortable, then?
My Sheikah Slate swiped the surface of the Main Control Unit.
Suddenly tendrils of malice burst from the glowing orange pedestal. I stagger back, but the poison passed me by, behind me, where it was starting to form a shape, a figure, twisting, writhing. A monster.
Waterblight Ganon. He had killed the Champion of the Zora.
I unsheathed my Lynel sword. I would avenge her.
The battle was... difficult. My feet slipped in the water as I tried to land a blow where he could not reach me. I ended up shooting volleys of shock arrows at his head, it reeling back every time I hit so I could finally use my sword. I was tiring rapidly, the back and forth resulting to almost nothing.
That was, until I figured out exactly where his unguarded points were. I narrowed my eyes, jumped aside at the precise moment, and felt the rivers of time pass me by. I rushed forwards, surety in my fingers, a fire in my eyes.
Waterblight Ganon, defeated. The malice gushed out of its broken body as it shrieked, purple light exploding from within, tearing it apart.
Mipha. She still loved me.
I could see in the way she kept her careful distance, how she looked at me, the way she spoke with such sadness. She knew that I didn't remember her as well and keenly as she did me.
I had failed her. I saved her, but I had failed.
She gave me her hallowed healing power. Her Grace.
Her final words were, "Save her, Link. Save the Princess... Save Princess Zelda..."
Princess Zelda. Save Princess Zelda.
As though she had given up all hope that she would ever receive my love.
I ended up back at Zora's Domain. I wanted to speak to Sidon. But when I was in front of him, my words died in my throat.
His face lit up when he saw me.
"Link!" He then burst into a speech about how amazing I was, how incredible, how skilled.
I wasn't amazing. I wasn't incredible.
I had failed her, in the end.
The Calamity. My fault. Your sister. Dead. My fault. I lead her to the Divine Beast, she accepted, she had loved me. I couldn't protect her in the end. My fault. My fault. My fault.
I was supposed to have been there for her. I was supposed to save her. I was supposed to love her back.
My fist clenched. I'm sorry.
I couldn't cry. Not here. Not now.
When I was alone. When there were no eyes on me. When nobody was present who saw me as some sort of a hero.
I did not see the shadow flit through Sidon's eyes, because he immediate responded with a blinding grin. "Sorry, can't understand that, my dear friend!"
I was given the priceless gift of Mipha's Lightscale Trident. I didn't deserve it. Give it to Sidon. Give it to anyone other than me.
I smiled and joined in the celebration with everyone else, tilting my head just right when I laughed, putting in just enough sparkle in my eyes.
Mipha wasn't there. Mipha would never get to see her tribe honoring her spirit.
So what sort of a hero was I?