The Silent Prince (Zelink fanfic)

Chapter 9: Rainy travels

It was their second and final day traveling back from Gerudo town. The hours had been uneventful, Link never spoke about what happened their first night in the desert, but besides that he had been a little talkative. Over the couple hours he had figured out her favorite color, animal, and region and vice versa for Zelda. Even though it was small and useless talk, it was better than silence.

Their plans were to arrive back at the castle that evening, and were following it so far. It was a warm fall day, summer was dying out and stretching its finger tips out to last as long as it could, but the cozy winds shook leaves of the trees, and the days would get cooler than the nights usually were. It was sunnier earlier when they had left the stable, but during the afternoon an overcast took it's place.

Suddenly the temperature dropped a couple of degrees, and rain began to trickle through the atmosphere from the skies. Droplets landed on the ground every now and then, and sooner than later Zelda and her prince started to notice it.

"Mama used to tell me that whenever it rains, it is because the clouds are crying for a soul who has no one else to mourn them." He mumbled reaching his hand out, palm up to feel the water cool his slightly sunburned skin from the desert.

"That's..." Zelda commented.

"Unscientific? Yeah, tell me about it." He finished with a laugh what he thought she was going to say, but he was far off track.

"I was going to say sad, but that too." She smiled politely as to not cause offense.

The drops grew thicker and would come down faster than before in slightly larger quantities, and the wind had woken up to brush the leaves off trees. The pace quickened now and the rain started to pick up its intensity, growing heavier every second.

"Your highness, I believe we should seek shelter somewhere," She told him as she pulled up her hood. He nodded and looked around. They were in the middle of nowhere, not a single campfire or building in sight, but there was a cave nearby. "I think that will do," She pointed to the entrance into the hillside.

Once they had comfortably settled in the entrance of the cave, and after Zelda killed a likelike nearby, they started a fire and laid out their outer cloaks which were wet from the rain. Link was poking around some twigs in the fire while Zelda rested her face on her hand.

"I doubt this will let up anytime soon." Link commented.

"Storms like these often stay for a few hours, despite its suddenness." She replied.

"Father won't like my late arrival, can we not leave now?"

"Settle down, we've only stopped for a little less than an hour. Plus, having traversed this road many a times, I can confidently say that you do not want to cross Hyrule field in stormy and muddy conditions," She shuddered, "It is not fun." Her head turned towards him while he continued to stare at the beauty of the flames. "Plus, I don't think the king would like if I brought his son back with boots covered in mud and soaked to the bone."  Zelda added.

"It's a lose-lose situation." He with a shrug added.

"Yeah exactly," She let out a small giggle.

"Sorry. My father isn't very kind, just know it isn't your fault,"

"Oh, you needn't apologize, I find you do that quite too often in cases where you've done nothing wrong." She replied and his eyes dropped to the floor with a soft smile. "And if I may -with your permission- say something about the king,"

"Go ahead," He nodded.

"I find he's quite... controlling, is he not?" Zelda hesitated to speak, but felt that Link would share a similar opinion.