The Heroes of Hyrule °Wattys 2017°

Prologue

"It's been too long, hasn't it?" She ran a gloved hand over the diary caked with dust, "Far too long..."

Link examined the worn grey chamber, adorned with cobwebs and fragments of recollection. His fingers trailed along the ravines in the stone, the padding of his boots echoed eerily in the soulless chasm.

She smiled, flipping a yellowed page, "Sure enough, even with most of our burdens lifted, you still can't find the words yet."

Zelda glanced in her peripheral to witness a shy smile cross his lips.

"Maybe the words just can't find me."

"...Yet."

Zelda continued, "We'll root that silence out of you out in no time at all, besides you must tell me what you did while I was in this castle. It's going to be quite difficult to tell a story with your lips sealed like that."

"I will try my best, Princess."

"Call me Zelda now, won't you? I'm no longer a princess anymore."

"Then what are you?"

"A scholar at best. I cannot be labeled as a ruler now. It will be a title I will have to earn...by rebuilding Hyrule."

Zelda held the diary close to her chest, "No time like the present, I suppose. No use lingering here any longer. We should go."

Link nodded, he himself was carrying a book with crinkled and torn pages. As always, he fell back into his old place behind Zelda, for it only seemed natural to him now. He made his final glances at the palace before exiting the heap of rubble and decay once and for all.

"It certainly does look more appealing now that the red is gone. I'm so tired of that color now." She rambled as they walked to their respective horses.

"Oh, and please put this in your saddle bag, will you?" She asked as she mounted her horse, "...just don't read it."

Link gingerly took the two journals and place them carefully into the bags on either side of Epona's flanks before mounting.

As Zelda cantered down the emerald plains, the Sheikah slate on her hip bounced with her. Link had admitted earlier that he often times instinctively reached for it, before he reminded himself that Zelda was the true wielder of it now.

"Link wields the master sword and the Bow of Light and I wield the Sheikah slate along with the little bit of magic I have left in me." She told him yesterday afternoon.

The morning was aged now into early day and the sky was now the color of the silent princesses that largely dappled the earth. They trotted alongside one another, admiring the serenity around them separately.

"...You may not remember this," She shattered the silence, "but we used to ride around like this all of the time. You were my partner in all of those Sheikah expeditions."

"I actually do remember quite vividly. Specifically when we traveled to view Mount Lanayru from afar."

Her voice softened, "Oh yes, I do remember that. I had thought everything I had done up until Ganon attacked had all been for nothing."

Link steered from the subject, "Do you remember Zora's Domain at all?"

Her rich green eyes smiled, "Vaguely. I was counting on you to tell me about it! It's quite blurry, my visions of watching over you. All I have are blurred visions and old memories to remind me of Zora's Domain."

"It is more beautiful than I thought it would be. Everything is a soft blue or silver and I honestly believed I would slip on the flooring they had. It seemed so clean, it looked like a city that had never been lived in."

"That does sound like how I remember it. I suppose I will see it soon enough for myself, considering that we're headed that way."