Zelda was watching Rito fly in and out of the city while he cooked something for them. Zelda was letting him borrow her coat while she uses a blanket for warmth. He liked it. It was fluffy.
He had tried to make her take the coat instead, saying that he could stand the cold, but she insisted that he needed it.
Zelda surprised him by saying something out of the blue. He looked over at her as soon as she started speaking.
"If you're wondering where your sword is, I wasn't able to get it. I found it, but it was on the other side of the river."
She turned to look at him.
"What happened?"
His eyes widened a little at the question. He looked down, thinking. Why couldn't he remember? Something about being cold, leaving, the river, the paraglider. Did he fall into the river?
He looked back at Zelda.
"Dunno. Probably fell in while paragliding."
"Oh. Well, I'll send some one to get it for you, okay?" She stood up. "And... next time you want to be alone, be more careful when choosing where to go. Okay?"
He nodded. Now he felt bad for running off, just for some alone time. He was being selfish. He shouldn't do that again.
He remembered why he was there in the first place. He only forgot what happened after he decided to leave. But he didn't want to tell Zelda about what he was doing before. Anyway, that didn't matter. What mattered was that Zelda didn't want him leaving like that again. So he wouldn't. He'd stay near Castle Town.
●●●
He sighed. Zelda and Teba still hadn't returned. And Zelda had almost refused to take her coat. He had to essentially sneak attack her with it before she agreed to wear it.
Now, he sat by the campfire with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He wanted to go see the others, but he couldn't without the Master sword.
It was quite boring to just sit here. He didn't want to go do something else, though. Zelda could get back at any moment, and if he wasn't waiting for her, he wouldn't know that she was back, and she wouldn't know where he was.
Anyway, he was still cold. All he had was this blanket. Maybe he could walk around the stable. He would have liked to go into Rito Village, but like he said, then Zelda wouldn't know where he was.
He stood up and walked over to the stable itself. He looked at the horses, petting a few of them.
Shoot. He didn't have his horse here, or anywhere near here. He didn't want to make the stable people go all the way across Hyrule just to get his horse. Hopefully Zelda rode her horse here.
He looked at the path and sighed they still weren't back. It was starting to get dark.
He found Zelda's horse. So she had ridden it here. That was good. He found a container of apples nearby, so he took a few and walked back to the horse. He fed it the apples one at a time, watching the path.
The horse finished eating the apple and nuzzled his cheek. He looked at it and pet it, smiling.
"Link!"
He quickly turned his head to see Zelda walking toward him, holding the Master sword. She gave it to him and he nodded in thanks.
Zelda looked up at the sky and commented,
"It's getting dark. We should get some sleep before we leave."
"I'll stay out here for a while, if you don't mind."
She shook her head.
"No, I don't mind. You do that. Just don't... well, be careful, okay?"
He nodded, and Zelda walked away. Then, she stopped and turned around. She took off the coat and handed it to him.
"Here, take this."
He smiled and took it, then he gave her the blanket.
Zelda smiled back and walked into the inn, leaving him alone with the horses. He put the coat on and walked away, behind the stable and a ways away from it. He pushed the sword into the ground and vanished.
●●●
He appeared in front of the others, and they turned to look at him.
"Oh, hey, Wild."
"Hey."
"That's a nice coat."
"Yeah, it's Zelda's. Um, funny story, I almost died. Again."
Wind ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to the table.
"What happened?"
"I nearly froze to death."
"Well, that's fun."
"Yup. Very fun."
"So how did you almost freeze?"
"I decided that it would be a great idea to go sit around in a freezing cold area for a while. Turns out the sitting in the snow is not a good idea, and that taking a swim in ice water is an even worse idea."
"You swam in ice water? On purpose?"
"Might as well have been. I don't know what I was doing. I don't remember. I just remember thinking that I had to leave, then waking up in a stable."
"In a stable? With horses?"
"Stables have inns. I was not in the same part of the building as the horses. Dunno why Zelda would put me there. Especially if I'm practically an ice block."
"Oh no!"
"I was exaggerating, silly."
He gave Wind a little shove, smiling.
"Hey!"
Wind pushed him back. He smiled again and rested his chin on his hand, leaning on the table.
Zelda. Why did he keep thinking about that smile? It was stupid. Stupid of him to think about that so much. This would probably end up distracting him from protecting her.
He shouldn't think about it too much.
"Hey! Wake up!"
He jerked his head up to see a hand waving in front of him.
"Quit daydreaming!"
"Sorry. I was just... thinking."
Wind smiled slyly.
"Were you thinking about Zelda?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Do you like her?"
"What? No! Even if I did, that isn't something I should do. It'd be a distraction..."
He slowed down on the last word, realizing something.
"Shit."
He smiled awkwardly and stood up before walking away, rubbing his neck.
Maybe...
Eh. It'd never work, anyway. That was stupid.
He should stop thinking about that. Add it to the list of things to not think about. It would be a distraction.