Before the Wild

Urbosa's Hand

Three days later, Gerudo Desert, Zelda

The crunch of the desert sand under her feet made Zelda even more excited to be in the Gerudo Region of Hyrule. The dry heat of the late afternoon mixing with the bitter cool of the approaching evening reminded Zelda of her grassy homeland, especially the hot summer days in the Domain. Standing east of the Southern Oasis by a shrine, Zelda looked around the eastern desert, away from the Gerudo escorts around her to the cliffs of the East Gerudo Mesa to the thundering feet of Vah Naboris in the lower plains of the East Barrens.

Link was elsewhere, unknown to Zelda. For the first time since he was appointed her knight, he decided for himself to leave her alone and go off on his own. She appreciated the gesture, but it was his silence of the action that weirded her out. Matter of fact, Link has been acting weird ever since they left the Zora homeland. He returned to his original state of being an emotionless robot after meeting with Mipha, and thought it had to do with something the Zora Princess had said to him. But that notion changed the next two days when he continued the silence, and wouldn't look at Zelda in the eye or at all. While in a way she didn't care, the last few instances with Link made it seem that the two of them were breaking some ice.

Ah, whatever. She didn't plan on being Link's friend anyway. She has a power to attain, and a country to save and later rule. Maybe once Ganon is defeated she will fire him. She can do that, right?

"Princess." Zelda looked to her left, where one of the pair of Gerudo guards with her approached. "Chief Urbosa would like to meet with you upon Vah Naboris."

"Very well." Zelda followed her two escorts down to the plains below, making it to the Divine Beast of the desert as it "bent down" to receive its new arrival. As Zelda stepped up to the entrance to the beast, she could see its pilot coming to greet her.

"Hello, my little vai."

"Urbosa!" Zelda raced up to the Gerudo Chief, hugging her as tightly as a daughter hugs her mother.

The chief looked up to Zelda's escorts."Nabooru, Aveil, you may go now. C'mon little vai." Zelda followed Urbosa to the inner chamber of Vah Naboris. She bore witness to the giant gears in the huge belly of the Divine Beast. Urbosa, however, took the princess on a path leading outside the chamber to an exterior balcony. Stopping by a group of seating pillows on a blanket, Urbosa gestured to the seating area. "Here we are."

"It looks comfortable." Zelda sat down first, planting herself on the biggest pillow. "It is comfortable."

"Great." Urbosa sat down beside Zelda, looking to the princess with a smile. "So how did the survey go?"

Zelda sighed. "Nothing substantial. Same old stuff. But the freedom to actually do research is very refreshing. Being away this long from the castle is also very refreshing. Not having Father, Impa, or my damn destiny breathing down my back... I feel free but still in captivity."

"Because of Link being your appointed knight?"

"In a way, yes."

"How are you two doing?"

"We're fine." Zelda spoke faster than she wanted to, with a defensive tone. What else would she say? 'I hate being with him. He follows me literally everywhere I go, telling me what I can and cannot do, and when he isn't talking, he just act like a human Guardian, pun intended. Oh, he's stupid too! He took on monsters all by his damned self. The only thing likable about him is his looks.' No way Zelda could muster up that sentence. While Urbosa gave no argument, Zelda knew the Gerudo didn't really believe her.

Urbosa nodded. "That's good then. You need some male exposure of your age that isn't a noble."

"What is that suppose to mean?"