Zelda leaned over the rail, yet again as she emptied the contents of her stomach. Small fish, she noted, seemed to love jumping through their pre-digested meal, which did not help her state at all. “Ugh, I need some red potion, I think.” But the thought of the burning medicine sliding over her tongue in its bitter healing style made her go over the edge again. When the girl finished spewing again, she looked at the smoky purple sky, quite near sunset, trying to decipher their direction. After her eyes became sore from staring at the bright orb, she decided she was extremely sheltered, considering she could not even tell where the sun was going.
“Southwest.”
“What?”
“Southwest,” Link said again, as if that would explain everything. Zelda returned his remark with a puzzled gaze. “We’re going southwest. I saw you looking at the sun, and when one does that, it usually means they want to know the time of day or their direction. Is that not what you were wondering?”
“Hero, you truly amaze me. How is it you know so much?” Zelda said, trying to put as much adoration into her voice as possible.
“Well, when you live in a forest for ten years learning how to live off the land then traveling all over Hyrule for months at a time in quite a few places and then living off the land for the same three days a hundred times, you pick up a few things.” the hero smiled broadly as he glanced up at the sky and adjusted their course. He looked so knowledgeable, as if he’d known how to sail his entire life.
“Where did you learn to sail?”
Link smiled cruelly. “I didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“I never learned how to sail. This is my first time on a real boat.”
“WHAT?”
“Zel, I know how to do this. When I was younger, the Kokiri and I would use wide pieces of bark and Deku leaves and vines to sail across the woods. You see, the Lost Woods canopy is so dense and thickly tangled with plants that it’s almost like water. So I know the basics of sailing. And when I was here, I relived the days as a Zora many times, so I could get to know the sea. I knew about it, and I wanted to know how to do it.”
“What did you--do you know about?”
“An old woman wandered into the forest one day. She said she was on her way to the ocean, but she needed a guide. At that point in my life, I had no idea there was even an ocean. It was then she told me off a natural phenomenon that only occurs every hundred years. Her mother told her, and it was her lifelong dream to see it. But she went blind, and being the hero I was, I promised I’d see it for her. It was my first goal. So I knew what I wanted to do even before I met the Deku tree. Now, I am going to fulfill her dream, and in doing so, mine.” Link closed his eyes, and heaving a great sigh, said, “I hadn’t known if there even was such an event as she described until I came here for the first time. The Zoras were in a tizzy because it was going to happen again, and they would all migrate to see it in the coming years. Six years, to be exact. They gave me the route to the island where it would occur and said, ‘We will meet you there.’ Since we have a boat, and they have to swim, they started the journey a week ago. Once we get there, if we stay on schedule, we’ll have two days before it happens.”
Zelda was in awe. She had no idea Link was so…sensitive. He promised something to an old woman even though he didn’t know it was possible. And now…he was going to keep that promise. “Link, you are amazing, you know that? And, if you don’t mind telling me, what is this phenomenon we are going to hopefully witness?”
“If I told you, there wouldn’t be any surprise.”
Suddenly, like a key in a lock, Zelda realized he had planned all of this. He planned all along to take her. But why would he do that? It’s not like he loved…unless… “Link, why did you take me? You could have taken Saria or Ruto or anyone else. Why me?”
“Well, I…you see, I thought…” he floundered for a while before Zelda walked to her cabin. Her suspicions had been confirmed. The Hero of Time was smitten.
Two days, two unending days spent flying over the blue breadth that was unchanging, ever-present, and much to Zelda’s dismay, very wavy. Both mornings were greeted with the exit of her breakfast. On the third morning, a tiny island appeared on the horizon. Zelda could barely wait to get off the boat and have something stay in her belly. She jumped around, racing to the edge and hurrying Link along with getting the boat to shore. As soon as the boat hit bottom on the soft sandy beach, Zelda shoved Link towards the edge and the rope ladder used to board and exit the ship.
“Come on! We have to go meet the Zoras! Go, I am not going to wait for you much longer!” But Link still had to drop the anchor so the boat wouldn’t drift. “Oh, it will be fine! We’re far enough on the beach to stay there. Let’s go!” Link admitted it did look like it would stay. And Zelda was so excited. So against his better judgment, Link left their boat, their only way to get back.
