Couple of the Wild (ZeLink)

Chapter 78: The Seal Race

The afternoon sun beamed its warm rays against the sandy dunes as the knight, with the Sheikah Slate in hand, stood up top the large rock formation littered with palm trees and wooden decorated boxes. He had checked every stone, every rock, and moved every oddly placed metallic cube in the desert. There simply wasn't a Korok left hiding in the area, meaning Link's distraction had come to an end, allowing for the dark memories of his previous trial to fill his mind again.

The knight sighed as he dropped the Slate to his side, now staring out into the barren desert waves from the edge of the Southern Oasis. He couldn't tell, Zelda. If he was taking it this way, there's no telling how she would react knowing how her mother figure had died. What if she blamed herself as she usually did? No, he would be fine keeping the memory to himself. He had been by himself the past year he had been awake, recovering painful memories in the past during that time. What was one more to add to the list of horrors? He could handle this; there was no reason to share with Zelda. Naboris had stopped beeping after the trial had ended so there was nothing else to look into regarding Urbosa. Everything was fine. All he had to do was breeze through the next trial. Easy.

The knight grunted in agreement with his own plans, placing his hands on his hips as he slowly nodded to himself. His eyes traced the tops of the sandy sea, trying to think of something else to do before heading back to Zelda, before noticing something rather unusual in the distance. The knight's eyebrows had furrowed, his blue eyes now squinting as he tried to make out the blurry features of what seemed to be Gerudo Town in the distance. From where Link stood, it seemed as if many Gerudo were flooding out of the town in haste, as if their lives depended on it. Link's chest instantly filled with fear, his breathing becoming heavier as his now sweaty palms instantly went to the Sheikah Slate. He pulled the Slates screen to eye level, instantly pulling out the camera rune. The knight zoomed into the town, watching as Gerudo ran from the entrances. Sweat dripped down Links face as his heart rate drastically increased. What was it? What was the danger? Was Zelda okay?

It wasn't until Link noticed the Gerudo guards that his state of being changed from nervous to confused. The guards standing at the entrance of the town that the waves of red haired women ran through seemed at ease; if anything they seemed rather envious of the horde of people racing out. In other words: they didn't seem alerted at all. With the utmost confusion filling the knights' originally worried mind, he followed the horde with his camera until he landed on their destination, the river of people flowing into an even larger crowd of Gerudo standing on the sidelines of what seemed to be the sand track where sand seal races took place.

"What in Hylia's name is going on down there?" Link wondered as he observed through the screen. He scanned the area, trying to see through the crowds before seeing two individuals in particular standing with sand seals at the ready, one a smaller than average Gerudo, and another a shaky looking Hylian girl. Link pulled his eyes away from the slate, closing them before shaking his head. There was no way, in the name of the three goddesses themselves, that she was sand seal racing. However, one more look through the Slates camera proved him otherwise. That was, in fact, exactly what was happening.

*   *  *  *  *

"Um... Riju, there are quite the number of people here, wouldn't you say?" Zelda said as she looked around at the cheering of the crowd Gerudo crowd now surrounding them, holding the reign's to a tame sand seal. Riju laughed as she ran her fingers through the dark colored mane of Patricia, the sand seal that seemed extremely happy to for once be out the sandstone palace with her beloved partner.

"Come on, Princess! This is exciting, isn't it!?" Riju asked enthusiastically, as she waved to the crowd. "Of course my people are excited. It's not everyday that their chief partakes in a sand seal race."