Across the Wild | A Zelink Story

Chapter 13: Zelda

         I watch Link walk across the bridge, then run in the general direction of Mount Lanayru. I sigh. I don't really trust him not to get hurt, but...I need to put that out of my mind for now.

Yeah, right.

I finish readying Storm, lead him across the bridge, then hop on his back. I snap the reins and steer him toward the road leading to Purah's Lab, dodging the townspeople to avoid running them over. Eventually, I exit the more populated part of Hateno Village and enter the area mostly occupied by farmland. I steer Storm onto the path up the hill to Purah's Lab, admiring the sweeping vistas of the quaint town.

His Royal horse gear glimmers in gold and purple as I picket him several yards from the Lab. I walk up to the doors–which appear to have some strange symbol painted on them in faded red—and knock lightly. "Who is it?" comes a young voice.

"Zelda," I reply hesitantly, barely believing that I'm about to meet Purah again.

The door opens slowly to the spectacled face of an oldish man. "What?"

I start to answer, but a young girl shoulders past the man and exclaims, "Zelda! You're here! So Link was successful! Come on in!" I follow her into a room full of books, paper, and Guardian parts. On a platform by the door is a glowing blue Guidance Stone.

"Where's Purah?" I ask, looking around.

The girl snaps her fingers. "You're looking at her! Um, I did an age-reversal experiment that sort of was over-successful."

I laugh. "Okay, Purah. Nice to see that you're still alive after all these years. Anything new? How was the past century? Tell me everything!"

"Well, I got a new assistant, Symin. He's over there." Purah points to the old guy with glasses, who's perusing a book in the corner. He briefly looks up and waves before returning to his book. "Yiga Clan attacked us once, but I fended them off with some Guardian parts I cobbled together to make a laser turret. I researched stuff obviously. It was pretty boring around here until Link showed up."

"Tell me about the age-reversing experiment."

"Well, I wanted to restore the few remaining veterans who fought in the Calamity, so I came up with a brilliant idea of making an age-reversal elixir to make them into a small fighting force.So anyway, I researched previous attempts, possible ingredients, and ancient tech that could help, and eventually made this bottle of bluish elixir. Within a few days, I was basically reduced to this," she finishes, gesturing to her young form. "I didn't have a lot of time to ponder the results, though, because Linky showed up a few days later."

We talk for hours, pausing only to eat a sparse lunch, and discussed various ancient technologies. I also explained how I discovered the Guardian controls and then we talked about their various possible applications.

As dusk begins to paint the sky red, Purah asks, "What's the deal between you and Linky?"

I'm taken aback by the question. "What do you mean?"

"You know, have you two been getting along?" she replies.

"Um, yeah, I guess." I reply cautiously. "He talks more now, and we haven't fought much since the Calamity."

"I see," Purah replies noncommittally. I can tell she wanted something else, but she lets it go and says, "Princess, I notice that now you're wearing regular travelling clothes. Don't you want better ones like you had before the Calamity? I hear Robbie's good with that kind of thing."