Of Royal Blood - The Legend Of Zelda

++++
​

The next day you take it slow, to let the horses rest up for the next big push. Well, Zelda's horse as Epona seemed to be ready to race across all of Hyrule. If only Zelda had one of the royal mounts, the two of you could probably cover vast distances without stopping simply due to the super...horse strength of those steeds of Epona's class. Zelda seemed to be glaring towards Lanayru the entire time, seemingly mulling over something in her head she refused to speak about when you asked. When you finally stopped for the night she wandered off for a bit as you got a fire going, only to return with two rather solid looking sticks.

She tosses one towards you, that you catch with a raised eyebrow and questioning look towards Zelda,

"Teach me how to use a sword," Was her answer.

You don't question her about it, only climbing to your feet and beginning to instruct her. You can guess why she wants to use a sword.

Thankfully Zelda doesn't seem to mind that the few hours you spend instructing her doesn't bear much fruit, as you'd intended it mostly to just see what she was having trouble with. The answer comes quickly enough, it seemed she was mostly trying to stab with her sword regardless of whether or not it was appropriate to the situation at hand. She does fall to the ground a few times, mostly due to her overcompensating on a swing but she's immediately back on her feet, teeth gritted and ready for another go.

When you finally both lie down to get some sleep Zelda is covered in dust and some scrapes on her hands. But she was still clutching her makeshift blade tightly, even as she drifted off to sleep.

The next few days you repeated that routine, instructing Zelda and getting her to practice through her mistakes, Hyrule field slowly turning into forests and swamps. Zelda was actually a quick learner, even if you weren't the best teacher. Actually trying to articulate what you wanted Zelda to do into words was difficult but she shows a remarkable ability to interpret your wild metaphors and poorly explained techniques. She picks up the basics quickly and at least seems able to actually be able to hurt someone other than herself with a weapon now, also compared to you Zelda shows a remarkable ability to think tactically and engage in far more underhanded techniques.

She does still have many beginner problems that hamper her ability to actually hit you, more than a few nights she goes to sleep nursing welts and irritation at you. You do try to reassure her though, she's plenty strong enough to make up with brute force where she lacks with skill thanks to her archery training, and her superhuman acrobatic skills and dexterity already puts her above many swordsmen. Sadly this seems to result either in her turning her back to you or throwing something at you. But then the next day she's back at it with the same level of enthusiasm, hounding you with questions or asking for advice on how to fix what she was doing wrong.

Soon all your conversations either resolved around teaching, training, hypothetical combat situations and oddly music. Both of you had taken to your new musical instruments and whenever you just wanted to rest a bit the two of you would spend long periods of time just playing your instruments, practicing to better play with each other as a duet. Zelda knew a fair few more songs than you though, so oftentimes it was just her on her lyre while you either worked or rested. Often you would find yourself stopping to listen whenever she would start to softly sing along, sometimes noticing other travelers pausing along the road whenever they heard her voice.

However, travelers were becoming an increasingly rare sight alongside whatever wildlife you would have expected. Your food supplies were starting to vanish, and fishing or hunting to replace them was proving difficult. Even Zelda who was nowhere close to as good an outdoor survivalist as you was beginning to notice a strange silence through the woods. Rain clouds were starting to become a common sight, though none had dumped their payload on you yet. When the roads started to cross streams, creeks and muddy water you began to look for fish, snails or crayfish to little luck. You couldn't even figure out a reason why until one night Zelda shook you awake.

"Link! Link the water!"

"Mmm?" You say, shifting in your bedroll, you'd started stuff it with your cloak as the omnipresent moisture was making nights very cold.

"Oh just get up and come with me!"

You're dragged out of your bedroll, Zelda thankfully letting you put your boots on as she leads you off the road towards the river with a ball of light in her hands providing illumination.

"Look! It's glowing!" She hisses, pointing towards the water where sure enough swirls and diffuse clouds of glowing blue light traced themselves through the water.

"Huh, that some sort of algae?" You ask, rubbing the sleep from your eyes to make sure you were seeing things correctly.

"I don't think so... hold this, I'm going for a closer look," Zelda says as she tosses the sphere of light at a tree and walks down to the bank, feet sinking into the river mud that made up the wide banks. Which was a bit strange, its not like there's been a drought lately.

She trails her hand through the water, the glowing specks clinging to her skin. She holds it up to the light sphere, revealing some shiny substance clinging to her hand.

"What is it?" You ask, getting closer for a better look.

Zelda squints at it, squishing the rather disgusting looking substance between her fingers, "It's... some sort of silt? Where have I seen... oh... oh no....Luminous stone!"

"Luminous stone? What all those light posts are made of? That stone isn't toxic, is it?" You ask as Zelda quickly washes it off.

Zelda shakes her head, washing off her hand in the river, "Well I wouldn't drink the water, but from what I can recall it isn't toxic or cancerous in low doses to Hylians. At least it's magical and isn't radioactive."

"Radioactive?" You'd never heard that term before.

Zelda rubs her chin, "Ah well, radiation is this... invisible energy. Heat and light are forms of radiation, though there are many types. Certain minerals and substances release a very harmful energy that can make you sick or cause cancer, these are radioactive."

"Ooooh," You say, nodding, "Like a cursed aura created by dark magic that hurts whoever gets too close."

Zelda gives you a very odd look, "No Link that's..." She pauses, considering what you said, "Actually that is technically correct. Sure."

"So..." You begin to say as you both return to your campsite, "How bad of an environmental effect is all that Luminous stone dust gonna have on all the wildlife here?"

Zelda bows her head, her expression dour, "Bad, it can clog gills, destroy fish habitats, plants seem to find it nutritious so it causes large algae blooms. If it gets really bad it can destroy the entire ecosystem."

"We haven't been seeing many animals..." You mutter as you kick off your boots and climb back into your bedroll.

"We haven't even entered Lanayru proper yet, and the province is very large. There must be a careless mining operation nearby," Zelda says with some worry as she climbs into her own bedroll, "But... I am worried. All those street lamps... they must have taken a staggering amount of Luminous stone. I hope they got it all from Eldin..."

You silently agree as the Gorons homeland was rather resistant to environmental disasters due to it being rather difficult to environmentally damage an erupting volcano. Turns out everything being various degrees of on fire was sometimes a plus.​

++++
​

The next day it started raining, hard, and you began to long for Eldin. The rain battered against your face, arms, and legs while you tried to keep your cloak as close around your body as possible. It didn't help that apparently, your green tunic got itchy when it was wet. Eventually, the two of you called it quits and dragged your horses off the road to cover. Setting up a tent was considerably easier than doing it yourself with Zelda helping, and you even manage to set it up that you wouldn't have a puddle forming underneath you. Of course, you then ran into a rather distinct problem.

"Do we... really only have one tent?" Zelda asks, staring at the small leather and thankfully still dry tent.

"Do you want hypothermia?"

"I'm sincerely considering it, yes," She says with a sigh, "I need to learn some sort of fire magic..."

"I'll get a change of clothes, just climb into your bedroll and it'll be fine," You tell her while heading back to the horses. After making sure the horses are in a dry place and your saddlebags won't become completely soaked you grab a change of clothes plus your instruments and quickly sprint back to the tent. Zelda thankfully had hung up her wet clothes, set a light into the roof of the tent and seemed to be doing her best to hide under a blanket. Quickly changing out of your wet clothes and setting them to dry you set Zelda's bundle of clothes down beside her and then clamber into your own bedroll.

"Are you done yet?" She asks, peeking out from under her blankets as you begin rifling through a pack.

"Yeah, still got some bread and meat here so we'll be able to eat tonight even without a fire. Here," You say, offering it to her.

A pale arm extends out, and you catch a glimpse of crimson eyes peeking out from under the blankets. The arm stops extending out midway, as the eyes constrict to pinpricks and a strange choking noise seems to come from Zelda.

Feeling kinda chilly without a shirt on you just set the bread and dried meat down beside her which she snatches up and pulls into her bedroll.

"You're actually going to eat in your bedroll?" You ask, incredulous until you hear the sound of her trying to wolf down a piece of bread.

Shaking your head you eat your paltry meal, listening to the sound of rain hitting the tent.

"We really need to get a chess set, or cards or something..." You mutter, followed by a grunt of agreement from Zelda.

"You know, when I got really bored when I was living alone I always just... started to try and busy myself. Try to keep me sane, you know? I'd write stuff down then wipe it away cause I couldn't afford more than a couple pieces of vellum, read the same book a hundred times or I'd just talk to Epona..." You start to say, unsure of why you were bringing up, "Always felt like she was listening to me, like she understood..."

You know Zelda's listening, you saw her shift under her blankets.

"Sometimes though.... I'd get really dark thoughts. Just this... rage or depression that would just come boiling up from nowhere," You scratch at a finger, lost in thought, "Start to consider doing things I'd never think to do normally, one time I just walked off in a random direction with nothing but what I was wearing. Felt it wouldn't matter if something happened..."

You laugh, rubbing the back of your head, "Sorry, I sound like I went totally crazy don't I?"

"I don't think you did Link..." Came the whispered reply.

"Heh, well... Don't think I can really go back to that anymore, probably will go crazy..." You pull out panflute, before glancing over to Zelda, "Hey you mind if I play a bit?"

"No, I'd like to hear you play."

You smiled and nodded, before pressing the panflute to your lips. With the rain as the percussion, you played song after song, simple ones you played on rainy days just like this one until the light orb winked out and soft breathing came from Zelda's bed roll...
​

++++
​

"Link! Wake up Link!"

"Mmmm, just five more minutes..."

"Link our clothes are glowing!"

"Mmmmwha-?"

"Look!"

"Huh... looks like they're covered is that Luminous dust. But how..?"

"The rain... I dunno we must be close to a mine and dust from it mixed with the rain. The alternative is..."

"How bad?"

"Really bad..."
​

++++
​

The next day the rain had become a light drizzle, and the two of you spurred your horses on hoping to cover as much distance as possible. It was treacherous but you stuck to the main road to hopefully reduce the risk of your horses injuring themselves. You make a good distance, and by the evening the rain finally ends which allows you to get a fire going. You manage to collect some dry firewood that was buried under a fallen tree. When you return though Zelda is missing and a flash of fear goes through you until she emerges moments later with a bow and pigeons clasped in her hand and wearing an awkward smile.

"I uh... heard them so I just grabbed my bow and went after them. Thought we'd... have something nice to eat, you know?"

You nod and smile, and she hands the pigeons over for you to prepare. You swiftly do so, and soon the two of you are enjoying the first fresh cooked meat you've had in ages. Or at least, that's what you intended but...

"Do these taste... weird to you?" Zelda asks, chewing on a piece of meat.

"Yeah... I know I cooked out any parasites but..."

She shakes her head, "I think they're still edible, but what could be affecting them?"

You swallow the last piece of meat, but feel like you've just eaten a stone that sits uncomfortably into your gut, "We still don't hear any insects, frogs.... It feels like we're going somewhere dangerous..."

The two of you choose to use the tent again due to how damp everything still was, though with a bit less awkwardness this time around. The next day though proves to be a scrocher, the sun beating down on the two of you, combining with the humidity to make both of you absolutely miserable causing you both to just go through your water skins. None of you dared touch the rainwater or riverwater, so you ended up eventually having to stop and carefully ration your remaining water. Your horses somehow make good distance though, and you knew for certain you were now in Lanayru proper.

You don't use the tent that night, it being too hot and humid for you to even consider it. You dearly wish you did that morning though...
​

++++
​

You awaken feeling like someone was smothering you. You shoot upwards, opening your eyes to discover a haze had settled over your campsite. Zelda was hacking up a lung beside you and you soon join her as whatever this mist was irritated your throat, nose and eyes.

"W-what is this?!" You manage to choke out as you wrap your cloak around your mouth, you could barely breathe.

"ACK koff koff I dunno, but it's making my scars burn," Zelda manages to tell you as she does the same and the two of you race over to calm the horses. Thankfully the wind picked up, blowing the mist away and finally revealing what the culprit was dusted over everything.

Zelda wipes it off her, looking absolutely enraged, "Dust, it's all mining dust-ACK!! Goddesses how do people live here?!"

"It's killed everything else," You note darkly, using what water you have left to wash away the dust from Epona's snout.

You certainly hadn't seen anyone on the roads. Lanayru didn't look like it was the home of anything now, it was just a dust-covered pit now...​

​

You ended up taking a road off the main road, one that would hopefully remain uphill so you aren't caught in another blast of mining dust. Hoping that you were just near a mine you pushed your mounts to hurry on, trying to put as much distance between you and what you hoped was the mine as possible. Hooves thundered against the ground, your horses seemingly wanting to be as far as you did from that cloud that almost smothered you. When you finally slowed to get your bearings you were well off the main road but thankfully still heading towards the Zora capitol.

It was then you heard it, music drifting in on the wind. The sound of... an accordion?

Do you investigate?
[] Yes, you'll need somewhere to camp anyways.
[] No, keep going to the capitol.
[] Write-in.​