So I don't forget again

Entry 151: Zora's Domain

After training and lunch Sidon and I went searching for history again. We would have brought Bossa Nova, but he had wandered off during training.

We went searching around Ruto Mountain. It reminded me of when we were just walking around the cliffs that faced the Akkala region. Just walking around and chatting. He did give me a scare though when he accidentally slipped on some rocks and slid down a shallow cliff. Thankfully it was not a long drop and he found some more history.

It's rarer, but Sidon got embarrassed. He's rather cute when sheepish, he has this little habit of scratching his cheek, even if he tries to hide being flustered, that gives him away. He apologized for worrying me, saying a prince ought to have more awareness of his surroundings.

It was about Mipha, her trident. When she was born the trident was made for her. From the start she was loved by everyone, she was even skilled in spearmenship, easily mastering the Zora's form. After she died, everyone was devastated, it was like they all lost the most lovable, precious, strong person in the world. They tried sending her trident down the river as a funeral of sorts, but it began to glow, and they heard Mipha speak. She told them her and her trident were one, and to keep going on happily, to remember the past with fondness, it happened and not grief that it was over and to not cry. Since then, on the anniversary of the Calamity striking, they honor the trident as a holiday.

So, when I was given her trident, when I was told that with it she would be protecting me like she wanted, it wasn't hyperbole or a metaphor, or whatever, they literally meant it. Mipha is literally with me.

Sidon asked me if I was alright. I told him I was the one who should be asking him that. The gesture of being given this trident, what had become my main weapon, the one I almost always go to for battle, something that is considered to be Mipha, it just means a lot. I can understand gifting me the armor she wanted to give me, but her trident, it almost feels to be too much. I just wish I could remember more about her. I want to know what our relationship was, and if she really was as great as everyone says. She honestly almost doesn't sound real. Just perfect in every way. But then again, Sidon is here, so a person like that isn't too far of a stretch. Sidon said he wasn't perfect, but he strives to be, to be like his sister.

I asked Sidon if he was pressured to be like his sister. He admitted that at times, yes. Sometimes he felt he wasn't good enough and couldn't live up to her legacy, how when he was younger he would be compared to her often but that just meant he had to create his own legacy and be the kind of person everyone could love, but in a way different from Mipha. He said it's like what I've done. I... didn't understand. He seemed confused and asked to read through my memories, of the ones of my current time here. He told me there was something I hadn't noticed.

It seems so blaringly obvious now.

I'm not being compared to the Hylian Champion from a hundred years ago. We are separate people. There's the old, or I guess younger me, the me who fought with the champions, the one who Mipha loved, and the one who died. Then there's me, a new champion. One who is more expressive than the one from long ago, one who's made a reputation for being a troublemaker with an exceedingly kind heart. The new champion who gleefully plays with the children and help them with their pranks. The new champion who had such a big heart he searched across Hyrule's waters for one single person. The new champion who fought along side their Prince to save them all, a person who rose from death itself just to help people. Someone who even when injured still wants to help by becoming a teacher. They see the old champion and the new champion as separate people now.

They haven't talked about the past much being here this time, the old me. The old me exists, and is remembered, but I'm not him.

At times, it feels the Zoras speak of nothing of the past, but they live for so long, it only makes sense, it's not history to them, they all remember it all, yet... Mipha and Sidon are both loved, but differently, and I, though the same person, am thought of differently, and now even treated differently.