15

Outside Gerudo City

The sands were a second home to her. Zelda stood in the middle of them, trying to listen to the words of Urbosa, but she was long gone. She heard a Gerudo call out to her in the darkness. She had picked up different clothes to try and keep others out of the loop of who she'd been. Zelda was running out of options. She needed someone to trust who had power, and finding that, wasn't easy. Gerudo was not a place to seek forgiveness, but it was Urbosa's home. Urbosa's land. Where Zelda had learned so much of what made her the person she had been.

She found herself coming face to face with the new leader of Gerudo. She bowed toward the young girl, Rija.

"An interesting blonde visitor who hasn't named herself has visited Gerudo. Many people visit Gerudo, but this one bears a particular resemblance to someone missing in Hyrule," Rija countered her. "What is your name and why are you in the land?"

Zelda pulled herself up, pushing her hands together, and had to take the risk. She would have to take a risk. She had two choices, and one she would not dare attempt.

Link had to be brought back after the defeat of Ganon, to help defeat him again. He could now find his bearings and make a new life. His battle was now over, and she would not bring him into this.

Her second choice was clear. "I cannot hide for long," she admitted. "Hiding who I am isn't easy when I speak differently and perform different actions than everyone else. Even you have spotted me. I have no choice but to trust in Gerudo, with my life . . . or with my death."

Rija pulled herself up more. "You are the Princess Zelda who went missing in Zora's Domain. Link has been looking for you. While King Dorephan declared you dead, he hasn't believed that. He'll find you, no doubt. He finds everything, and you are right. You can't hide yourself, not even in these isolated sands. Why are you running?"

"I knew Urbosa, personally," Zelda admitted to her. "I trust that her kingdom will choose the right choice, for I . . . I can't. I am most bias in it."

"Bias?" Rija asked. "Why?"

"Because it will mean the end of my life," Zelda confessed. "Although I have lived a hundred years, it does not . . . feel like it," she admitted. "I'm no wiser at 117 than I was at 17. I didn't grow, didn't speak, didn't form relationships. I just pressed down on the evil. Even now, the memories . . . down, just press down."

"You were inside of Ganon," Rija said to her. "A ball of energy against him. You were more a weapon than a person."

Zelda kept herself together. "I still am."

Rija stood up. "Tell me. Tell me the truth of why you left Zora's Domain and staged your death. Why you keep your own knight at bay. Tell me everything you have hidden, and I give you Gerudo's loyalty to help you as I can."

"Are you sure that you can make that promise?" Zelda questioned her. "Are you sure it's safe to make that promise to me?"

"Lady Urbosa and you were very close," Rija said. "It's the reason you came here. You are seeking a fitting end or a new salvation, and you'll only give that choice to Gerudo. Your second home."

Rija was smart. Urbosa and her were so close. Zelda bowed lightly. "You are right. We were very close."

"Then I would do Lady Urbosa's memory wrong, if I don't do what I can for you. Now. Say it. What is it that you've been hiding?" Rija held up an article. "Is this Nutcake Woman on the right track with her curious articles?"

"Yes, I'm afraid she is."

"How on the right track?"

————————————

Gerudo, Weeks Later . . .

"Vaa'saaq!" A clothes seller waved to Link. Link had been dressed in disguise as a female to enter Gerudo city. He had traveled to several places to look for Princess Zelda. There was no way she would choose to end the malice by a Lynel. Link continued to search for shrines, to find some kind of hope for Zelda when he found her. He found no shrines, nor Zelda. He had checked everywhere.

Then, he got word from Rhondson in Tarry town about something being off. She had visited Gerudo to show off her and Hudson's new daughter, Allison. Gerudo was an open home and community, but there was a hush bigger than the Gerudo Secret Club down there. She could feel it.

Link checked it out. Something unfamiliar usually meant trouble, and since she didn't give details, there may be a reason to her vagueness. Urbosa and Zelda were close. He didn't know how close, but he remembered that she was sleeping on Urbosa aboard Van Naboor.

He went toward the back of the town, to the elderly Gerudo that often stayed beside the goddess statue. Link noticed right away that the woman who once starved for conversation was very quiet.

The statue was well taken care of, and there even seemed to be a small pond surrounding it now. He admired the statue, trying to lure the woman into conversation again.

"It was the closest she could get to the springs," the elderly woman finally answered.

Zelda! So it was true.

"Don't go after her," she warned him. "Maybe after 100 years of service, she wanted to get away?" The old woman offered as an excuse to keep him away. "She never wanted that destiny. It was forced upon her."

/// "What if one day you realized that you just weren't meant to be a fighter. Yet the only thing people ever said was that you were born into the family of a royal guard, and so no matter what you thought, you had to become a knight. If that was the only thing you were ever told I wonder then, would you have chosen a different path?" ///

Link shook his head, he couldn't fall for it. He knew why she left, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to go through it alone.

"Hmm." The elderly Gerudo glanced toward the ground. She seemed to get the hint Link wasn't falling for it. "When I was young, I was a thing of beauty. Gerudos, we are beautiful. Look at me now." She hesitated. "Your Princess isn't the beauty you know anymore."

She knew Zelda's secret. It definitely had been the princess hiding there.

"She was back here, in Gerudo. The forgotten and unexplored area back here with the old Gerudo no one thought about, worshipping an old goddess statue. She stayed here until a woman came along and pointed out the same thing you did."

Rhondson.

"Others have been looking for her. They have different reasons." She touched the waters beneath the goddess. "Many believe Ganon will come back through her."

No, that was impossible. Ridiculous. The princess held back Ganon, she wasn't a vessel for him to return!

"You are the last Champion," she told Link. "She didn't want to get you involved in her mess again."

No, it didn't work like that. It was, it was one of the few things he was sure of from his memories. It was one of the few things he still had, that he didn't need a whole lifetime of memories to fulfill. His role of Knight. The Princess' Knight, that was him. He demanded to know where she had gone. The old woman warned him off again, but Link didn't give in.

That's when she brought it out. A recent paper of events.