When I Was Your Age- a Breath of the Wild prequel

Reflection

With Urbosa and Aaliah asleep, Zelda had some time to reflect. Why had she really run away? A few nights ago, she was plagued with nightmares, and now she was on the run with a strange girl and her own handmaid.

She couldn't think of a more queer scenario for a princess to be in. She was supposed to be training to rule, training to nurse a sacred power, but instead she was out here, in the Gerudo Desert of all places, her father chasing her into the night.

The night was clear. The full moon beamed down at her like the eye of a doe, and she felt the sudden urge to hop into the water at the centre of the oasis. She slipped out of her ripped, dirtied dress, and sipped a toe into the water. It was cold. A leg. It was colder. She dove into the water going all the way under.

As she floated up, she took the hair out of her face and laid like a starfish on top of the water. Her hair fanned around her face like a halo, and her face was peaceful as an angel's. She drifted in the oasis, slightly rippling the water. The moonlight reflected off her damp skin, giving it a shiny texture, and-

A hand reached up from under the water, touching her back. She shifted her position upright with a gasp. She must had fallen asleep- this was just like a nightmare. It touched her again, but this time it grabbed her ankle. She struggled silently as it pulled her under. In front of her, she saw her new acquaintance, Urbosa, but her hair was longer. She looked older. She saw herself at her mother's bedside, the adult Urbosa next to her, consoling her. She looked at Urbosa, and their green eyes met. But Zelda didn't have green eyes. Her eyes were blue. And now that she thought about it, her hair was darker too. Urbosa caressed the face of Zelda's dying mother and her eyes flew open- the same blue as Zelda's. And she woke up.

She opened her eyes to bright sunlight and two figures standing over her, one with short hair, one with hair down to her shoulders. Aaliah and Urbosa crouched next to her, and she saw something moving. She also felt a sharp, pulsing pain in her cheek.

Once Zelda came to her senses, she realized that Urbosa had been rapidly slapping her face. With a concerned look in her eyes, Aaliah was calming down Urbosa.

"No! Urbosa, she's going to get a welt there! Urbosa!"

"She'll be fine. She's strong enough to run away from her home, she's strong enough to overcome a blemish," Urbosa continued slapping Zelda.

"Hey, hey..." Zelda sat up drowsily, " I'm awake, okay?" She swatted Urbosa away and stood. "I'm fine! I just had a nightmare."

"Yeah?" Urbosa raised an eyebrow, "You had a nightmare in the middle of a pond? How convenient! Just the way to DROWN YOURSELF!"

Urbosa went on scolding her as Aaliah took her hand, led her to the bank of the oasis and helped her get back into her tattered dress. The trio sat down, ate breakfast, and left Kara Kara Bazaar swiftly, leaving no clues that they had been there at all.