In Sickness and In Health || sidlink (sidon x link)

Nine

     "I'm sorry. You wasted your time coming here. I'm retiring from battle. My injuries were far too great when I assisted Link with Medoh." The male Rito's deep voice was cold and stern; he seemed to have no regret or guilt making this decision. "I won't put my life at risk again. My wife and son need me here." After making sense of his response, Saki stared at him longingly. Tulin, however, was more determined.

     Zelda was slightly devastated by this information, especially since she and Riju had tried so hard to convince him. There was nothing she could do, though—his decision was final, and she didn't want to push it. "I...understand. I didn't realize. We'll get out of your hair, then. My apologies for interrupting your recreation." She held her hand over her heart and bowed respectfully. She glanced at Riju, and then at Link, her expression full of disappointment. She turned away from the Rito family and began to walk, but she froze in place when she heard Tulin's voice from behind her.

     "Dad, what if I—" he cut himself off due to his father's authoritative gaze, but afterwards his voice was more confident. "I'm strong. You said so yourself. I should go in your place. They need all the help they can get. Besides, it would only be training for now, just like we've been doing."

     Teba sighed deeply and wiped his face with his feathers, clearly agonizing over this request. "I need to talk with your mother before I decide something so drastic." He walked closer to Saki, grabbing her wing affectionately. "Go chat with them for a bit, alright son?"

     Zelda turned her head over her shoulder slightly, smiling and holding her hand our to usher the growing bird out of the room with them. "So, you really want to have this responsibility? You're very young still, so I don't feel right encouraging you to join us, but..." She trailed off, continuing down the stairs to the platform of many memories.

     Once they were there, Tulin flapped his wings and flew up in the air to be level with Zelda, circling her excitably. "I want to be just like Master Champion Revali! I'm training hard every day to reach that goal." He expressed his hope with them, landing somewhat abruptly because of how exhausted he was from said training. "My dad and Link both told me stories about him. I want to be able to protect everyone too. I promise I won't let you down!" He spoke passionately, and to everyone's surprise, Link knelt down to his height and smiled subtly.

     'You know, all of the champions have a lot in common—one thing being that we all started training at young ages. It takes a lot of dedication and drive to stick to it, and it looks like you have both of those.' The blond boy signed to Tulin to instill more confidence in him, then reaching out to pet him gently on the head. 'You've grown a lot in a year. I think people underestimate your strength.' He signed again once he pulled away, but before Tulin could share his gratitude with Link, Riju joined them and smiled boldly at the young bird.

     "It's true. People will always underestimate you when you're young. I went through it as well. But you just have to prove it to them." Her words would surely stick with the boy; his eyes were glimmering with a newfound hope.

     As much as Zelda wanted to share her own experiences, she thought it better to stay strong and mature for her own sake. She knew if her father was here, he would be scolding her left and right for being too informal. "Would you like to meet the other champions, Tulin? They're just outside the village." She changed the subject in order to renounce the previous one, but to her delight, the young Rito appeared overjoyed by her suggestion. She didn't even have to call him to her side—he was ready to head that way without any hesitation.

     Without looking back at Teba and Saki, the group descended the village stairs and exited via the bridge within minutes. When they approached the others, they noticed they were deep in conversation, but that didn't stop Tulin from excitably skipping towards them. "Wow! I've never met a Goron or Zora before! This is so cool..." He outbursted impulsively, and though his mother or father would have likely called it rude, it didn't seem to bother Sidon, who reacted to his voice first.