The ride across the moat was quick but gave Link ample time to figure out their next move. Trying to avoid any more guardians, he rushed to help the princess off the boat and onto the roads, where he assumed it would be safer. Before they went over the slope, Link lowered the princess and scoped their surrounding. Two skywalkers, but near the tops of the guardian towers, and one guardian towards the west... Wait... The flow of his thoughts rushed to a halt when he noticed the eye of the machine. The eye was the normal light hue guardian machinery was supposed to be, it was untainted by the deepening swirl of blue that the rogue guardians were seemingly possessed by. He was intrigued by the idea that that guardian was under control but he dared not to experiment with it and went along with the princess, safe and guarded.
The two were getting farther and farther from the castle now as they were on the main road to the nearby Rauru settlement. Though, Link planned for them to walk further to the Wetland stable in fear of pursuers. Zelda finally had the courage to lift her head up and back to see the calamity. Hyrule Castle, once a beacon of light and pride to the citizens of Hyrule, was now consumed by swirls of malice. The pictures of knights succumbing their fate on a pool of their own blood now haunted her mind. The screams and shrilly of the people inside the castle. The rumbling of the castle ceilings caving in and falling onto the people below. The thought of her own father being one of them. She vomited.
"I-I am so sorry." Zelda weakly said, covering her mouth and watching it run down her blood stained cloak.
Link looked upon her with worry, though Zelda was expecting pity, and reached under her cloak for her free and clean hand. He held it, squeezing it in attempts to comfort her. The Princess squeezed it right back, stumbling to keep up with him though he slowed down once he noticed. It was going to take at least a day to make it to the stables, he prayed to the gods that she could make it.
"Will you both be taking one bed?" The stable owner asked. Link quickly shook his head and raised two fingers. After several miles of walking, the two finally reached the Wetland Stables to rest before they had to figure out their next move. Zelda's feet tinged with pain from walking, though her sorrows numbed them. She could only look at the ground in shame and cling onto the knight she despised for doing his job.
"That'll be forty rupees." Link patted his pockets only to find one purple rupee. He turned to the Princess to look at her slowly sickening state. Link could deal with sleeping on the floor for the Princess.
"I changed my mind, I'll just get one bed." He stated, slowly and weakly, as the man nodded and accepted his rupee. Link toke the change and slowly guided the Princess to her bed.
"Dear, are you okay," The stable owner's wife cried, noticing Zelda's vomit and blood stained cloak. Her question brought a bit of Zelda's composure back.
"Oh, yes. I was just feeling a tad ill earlier when Link and I were walking." Zelda gulped.
"Would you like a change of clothes?" Zelda turned to Link who was patting her clothes to find spare change. "For free," The woman added, "Our teenage daughter seems to be about the same size as you, you can have a set of hers."
"Thank you so much," Zelda painfully feigned a smile. The two followed her to the tiny house in the back of the stable, where her family stayed, and Link stayed right outside of the house.
"Do you mind if I asked how you ended up in this state," The woman questioned, searching through her family's ratty wardrobe for her daughter's old clothes.
"No, not at all. We... um..." Zelda toke a pause to think about what she was going to say. "We were on our way to a royal function and our carriage was intercepted by thieves." She lied convincingly though it pained her to remember reality.
