Ten years has passed since then. The investigation with the missing Zora people has yet to be resolved. Even after all this time, pain still lingered in Zelda's and King Rhoam's hearts over the loss of the one they always held close.
But... The world continued to revolve.
On this certain day, Midna was hiding behind some seaweed stage curtains while holding several sheets of papers that were meant for Zelda. She peeked out at the audience, seeing the merpeople getting seated one by one.
It was the day of Princess Zelda's speech. Her first ever speech as the future queen of Hyrule. Letting out a sigh, Midna was anxious of how this was all going to turn out.
Even when Midna had been her tutor and guide for ten years already, it still felt like Zelda wasn't quite fond of her yet. It saddened her, but she understood overall.
"Midna." King Rhoam swam over to her. He was holding a golden trident in one hand with a stern look on his face. "Are the preparations complete?"
Midna nodded. "Yes, your majesty. Everything is set in place. We just have to wait for Navi's cue."
"Excellent." King Rhoam praised. "This will be Zelda's first ever speech. I look forward to what she has to say as future queen. Considering that you have been helping her study all this time."
Smiling nervously, beads of sweat appeared on Midna's forehead. "Yes. Of course." Truthfully, there were times where Zelda had ditched her studies to go to where who knows where. She had hoped that Zelda would be able to get through this speech today, despite not looking over the final drafts.
"Your majesty. Midna." Navi said while swimming towards them. "You may proceed on stage."
King Rhoam cleared his throat. "Thank you, Navi. Let us proceed, Midna." He began to swim onto the stage with Midna swimming behind.
The curtains were opening, cuing the merpeople who were present to start clapping. King Rhoam swam towards the podium, Midna stopping by his side.
In a straight posture, King Rhoam began his speech. "Welcome citizens of Hyrule! Thank you for joining us on such an important day. As you may all know... My daughter is of age to becoming queen. I have the uttermost faith in her. I believe that she will make a fine ruler of the sea. And today... She will show all of you how capable she is. Midna, will you do the honors?"
Midna swam closer towards the podium. "Ladies and gentlefish. I present to you... The lovely, intelligent, future queen of Hyrule... Princess Zelda."
The audience started clapping at the mention of Zelda's name. At the same time, there was a giant closed up clam shell rising up on stage. Once it came to a stop, it slowly started to open.
King Rhoam's face grew eager, excited to see how well Zelda would do with her first speech. His eager face turned shock when it was revealed that Zelda wasn't even in the shell!
The audiences' clapping turned into gasps. They were whispering among themselves, wondering where the princess could be.
Midna started sweating nervously. She could've sworn that Zelda had said she knew today was the day. She felt so irresponsible for not seeing if Zelda was even here.
Nervously looking towards the king, Midna saw that King Rhoam was furious. His golden trident started glowing, almost like it was reading his raging storm of emotions. "ZELDA!"
~•~
Somewhere out in the ocean, Zelda peeked her head out from a broken part of a ship's foremast. Urbosa was right by her side, her expression looked unsure.
Zelda was now an 18 year old mermaid, thinking that she was an adult who knew better. She hated that her father still treated her like a child, and wanted to prove that she wasn't.
Urbosa gulped at the sight of the broken up ships up ahead. "Are you sure you want to go there? There could be sharks, you know."
"Of course I do!" Zelda responded excitedly. "We've never ran into sharks before. I doubt that today will be the day."
"That's because we've never been this far out before."
"Relax. Everything will be fine. Now follow me! I have a good feeling we'll find something good in that ship!" Zelda began swimming towards the direction of the broken ship up ahead.
Letting out a sigh, Urbosa followed right behind. Looking around with her eyes, all she could see was darkness, a bad juju in the water. There had to be something lurking in these waters somewhere.
Swimming through the round window that lead inside of the ship, the two teenagers managed to easily slip through, successfully making it into the ship.
Zelda was eager and excited to find some rare treasure. On the other hand, Urbosa was swimming cautiously, looking around everywhere for anything suspicious.
"Zelda... Once we find what you're looking for... Just grab it and go."
Zelda stopped swimming for a moment, giving her friend a teasing smirk. "Are you scared, Urbosa?"
"I'm not scared. It's just... I can't shake off this uneasy feeling. I feel like we should leave sooner than later."
"I won't take long, I promise." Zelda looked up, noticing a hole through the ceiling. "Maybe something will be in that room." Swimming upwards, Urbosa followed right behind, not wanting to get left behind in this treacherous ship.
Peeking their heads through the hole, they both looked around with their eyes. Zelda raised her eyebrows in fascination, eyeing something that was in the middle of the ship.
Swimming over towards it, Zelda carefully picked it up. It was some kind of silverware that still had its shine. Zelda had no idea what the word for the item was that she had found, but knew that it was something Hylian related.
Zelda put the silverware in her little side purse. "Maybe Revali will know what this is."
Urbosa slowly swam up to the window, seeing if there was anything lurking nearby. She didn't see anything, but it felt like a pair of eyes were on her constantly. "Ok Zelda. We got what you wanted. Now let's go."
"But we just got here! I'm going to look around the room some more. I bet there are still tons of Hylian treasures!"
Urbosa let out a sigh, turning her back on the window. "I'll give you one minute."
"I'll go fast as I can!" Zelda began swimming around the room, seeing if there were any more treasure in the room.
The room got dark all of a sudden, feeling like something was right behind her. Urbosa didn't want to turn around, knowing that it was some kind of big dangerous fish.
At the same time, Zelda found something peculiar. It was brown and curved shaped, curious as to what this item could be as she put it in her bag.
Nervously, Urbosa turned around, seeing a giant shark just outside the window. Her pupils dilated at the sight. "Zelda... We need to run. Now."
"How co- Oh..." Zelda looked up, seeing the shark at the other side of the window.
Not hesitating for another moment, Urbosa swam fast out of the shark's vicinity. In result, the shark chewed its way through the ship. He began chasing the two teenagers who were just hunting for treasure.
Swimming in a rapid pace, Urbosa looked towards Zelda. "I told you I had a bad feeling about this place!"
"I'm sorry! I really thought there wouldn't be any sharks in this area!"
They noticed the shark wasn't chasing behind them anymore. Wondering where it went, something busted through the ship right in front of them. It was the shark trying to do a sneak attack.
They turned the other way, going back to the room they were just in. Luckily, the shark left a huge gaping hole. They were able to escape out of the ship easily.
But it didn't stop the shark from chasing them.
Wondering how to shake the shark off their tails, Urbosa saw a giant anchor on the ground. "Zelda! I have a plan!"
"What plan?!"
"We need to swim down towards that anchor. If we swim through the top of it, the shark will get itself trapped!"
"That's... A good idea! Let's do it!" The two teenagers began to swim down, having the shark take a sharp dip down.
Swimming towards the giant anchor, the two were swimming towards the top of the anchor where there was a hole that they could fit through.
Waiting for the right moment, they swam through the hole, luring the shark in their trap. Predictably, the shark ended up falling for it, getting its neck stuck in the giant anchor's hole.
Zelda let out a sigh. "Thank goodness that worked." She tapped on Urbosa's shoulder, pointing upwards. "Come on! Let's go ask Revali about what we found!"
Urbosa looked towards the shark, turning her head away while letting out a relieved sigh. "Yeah, let's scram. I really don't want to be around this psycho any longer."
Agreeing with each other, the two friends started swimming upwards towards the surface. The more they got near the surface, the more brighter it got.
Before they knew it, they got a breath of fresh air, feeling the heat of the sun on their skin. They were in the middle of no where, no person or animal in plain sight.
Zelda signaled Urbosa to follow her. "I bet Revali is at his usual spot as always."
Urbosa was staring at the clear blue sky, but snapped out of her daze as she heard Zelda's voice. "I'm coming."