New Horizons - A Skyward Sword Aftermath Story

3 - Conflict

As a reward for everyone's hard work today, Piper carefully prepared a large bubbling pot of vegetable stew, using the natural mushrooms, carrots and other findings within the wilderness. The late evening brought on a chilly breeze, that, thanks to the boys' woodcutting earlier, made the large crackling bonfire all the more pleasant to sit beside.

Groose hummed in delight. "Wow, this is delicious, Piper! Ya always know how to make somethin' amazing outta nothin'."

The woman stirred the stew with her enormous wooden ladle. "Ah, you do learn these things as you get older! There's times when you don't always have the ingredients you need, so you learn to overcome."

Piper turned to the large boy, with her ladle full of stew. "Would you like seconds?"

Eagerly, Groose leaned forwards, with a big smile. He held out his already empty bowl. "Yeah, sure! Thanks."

"Gee, it's not like we didn't have an enormous buffet last night or anything." Pipit jokingly muttered.

"Oh, shut up." Groose replied, rolling his eyes. "I busted my backside off workin' out there today! Can't a man eat like one?"

Pipit crossed his arms and smirked. "I gotta admit, we did a pretty good job today! What's the plan tomorrow, Zelda?"

Zelda blinked at the boy, once again remembering that it was her job to manage everyone. Her friends all looked over to her, waiting for her to respond. The sudden attention made her freeze up. Pipit tilted his head. "Well?"

"S-sorry! I was just thinking." She stuttered nervously. "Now that we have everything set up for now, perhaps tomorrow we can just take a break. Go and explore if you like."

"Ahh, sweet!" Karane exclaimed. "Exploring should be pretty safe now, right?"

Cawlin added to the conversation. "Yeah! Why wouldn't it be? Link and Zelda did all the super cool hero stuff, and got rid of the evil and all that."

Link shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He thought of a reply, but didn't dare say it out loud. "Perhaps we are safe,"

He looked up at the sky.

"For now."

Groose interrupted the brief moment of silence.

"So when are we gonna start building homes here in Grooseland?"

Everyone yelled back in unison. "WE ARE NOT CALLING IT 'GROOSELAND'!"

"Alright, geeze. Take a joke you guys."

"Oh we know you're not." Pipit replied.

Everyone began talking about their dream lives down in this mysterious new world. They talked about how Stritch wanted to live in the wilderness like an animal, and how Cawlin wanted to use the empty land to create the world's largest slip and slide. Pipit mentioned how he wanted to keep a bokoblin as a pet, and Groose, well, Groose basically dreamed about world domination.

Karane glared at the boys in judgingly. "You guys are so weird. I just want to stroll through the tall grass and relax in nature, not feeling a care in the world."

Zelda stared at her friend as she spoke. It was nice to imagine her own future like that too. It would be nice to just feel so...free. So free from the responsibilities, the titles the world has given her, everything.

Karane turned to Link. "What about you, Link?"

The hero suddenly snapped up, having previously been deep in thought. Accidentally, he made eye contact with Zelda.

"I... think I agree with you, Karane."

He looked off into the distance. "It'd be nice to not care about anything anymore."