the great calamity: two survivors

chapter 1 part 3 :rehabilitation

It took 3 weeks before she could start to walk again and it was hard work as she basically had to start from scratch. She managed to quickly recover her voice in a few days and she also healed the broken bones in her back as much as she could. Within a week she was able to sit up and mover her arms slightly. Every day she was thinking about link. Sidon had eventually told her that link had died in combat whilst trying to protect Zelda. It kept her up almost every night thinking about him. but she promised herself she would give her life to protect the domain and Hyrule. Its what he would have wanted.

Her eyes slowly flickered open as the birds around the domain sung in the distance. she rolled her head to face ruta. She laid there and admired the beauty of her divine beast. Ruta was so kind and gentle in nature. Unlike the other divine beasts, Ruta was built with support in mind. it had no flashy and over the top abilities like vah naborris or vah medoh.

in fact, Ruta would definitely struggle if it was down to a battle on land however ruta did have excellent positioning around the domain and could target a wide area if it was sat on the mountain overlooking Rutala river. She did wonder however if there were things about ruta she was missing, maybe she hadn't fully discovered what ruta was capable of yet.

She slowly sat up and stretched her arms. They were still quite weak but at least it wasn't too hard to move them anymore. She let out a sigh and stumbled to her feet as a guard walked in. "princess the king wishes to see you. But here let me help you " the guard took her arm and helped her walk to the throne room where she met her father. "ah my dear daughter mipha. "said king Dorephan " I see your recovery has been going well". "well I suppose it has," she said softly as she sat on a bench beside her fathers throne " but I only wish that I could recover faster somehow" . " hmm...yes I bet you do.....but after that battle do you really think your up to it? Do you truly believe it would be worth it?". She let out a long sigh and then went silent for a moment. "Father we talked about this and you know as well as I do that it is my duty to protect Hyrule. And since the others are gone I believe that It is my duty as a champion of Hyrule to avenge them...... please father let me do this all of my friends died to this great calamity and I see it as my duty to at least try to recover what is now lost."

Her words were like a piercing blade to Dorephan's heart. He knew she wasn't his little girl anymore but to see her having to grow up so quickly was the most terrifying foe he had ever faced. A foe that could rip him apart from the inside." very well..... I will speak no more of it but I hope you know you have a family here that cares about you"

"Yes, of course, I do father that is why I swore to protect it" she replied "anyway I must be off my water training will begin soon" As she got up she felt her father's fin push her back onto the seat again. "Ok, but could you wait a second?" Said Dorephan "of course father what is it?"

He places a beautiful necklace replica of the Zora sapphire around her neck. "Father t-this is amazing!" she examined it closely it seemed to be quite worn but it was still staggeringly elegant in its design "yes it is isn't it. It's a type of royal heirloom it is said to even date back to queen rutela's time but I believe it is nothing more than a myth. But it is quite a sight isn't it?"."Yes of course father. Thank you so much I will cherish it forever" she said as she flung her arms around him." oh you are definitely welcome my dear. Now please hurry off and don't me distract you again"."Oh ok, father, I'll be going" she laughed as she hurried off to her water training.

The weeks flew by as she worked on regaining her original strength. The rehab would be quite vigorous at points and she would often return to bed or ruta completely exhausted and unable to do anything more than sleep. But it was on the days that she wasn't tired she feared the most as she often laid on her bed or in the water thinking about link and what could have happened to him.

She sometimes went days without anything but him in her head. She appeared to be getting tortured by her own mind. She often thought about what if they swapped positions. What if he was the one that lost her. What would he feel? But she knew what he would want to do. And she was going to do precisely that.