Chapter Text
Moments after the fall of the calamity, a full and glowing white moon shone over Hyrule. Every hint of remaining malice was decimated under the holy beams. The fatigued princess and battle-worn knight finally fell to their knees in exhaustion. For a minute anyway. Then they witnessed a miracle.
As a final gift from the divine light, long lost friends slowly reformed in front of them, eyes wet with tears of victory.
Zelda cried out in delirious elation and stumbled towards the revived warriors.
Revali tried to hide his joy, but even his defences dropped for the night as the princess of the fallen kingdom held him close and sobbed into his feathers.
He caught Link's eye for only an instant. The knight... nodded politely but had already cast his gaze down as he did so. Cool. Detached. Infuriating as always. Maybe... there was some comfort to be taken in that though. In a world where everything had surely changed, he supposed that there was something to be said for at least one thing remaining the same.
The celebration began with them all sprawled out in the center of the sanctum, exhausted but together.
The conversation started sombre, as they discussed all that had happened since they had parted ways that day at Mount Lanayru but it soon grew light with the anticipation for tomorrow and talk of the futures they never dreamed they'd have.
At some point, unbeknownst to any of the weary warriors laying flat on the ground, Link sulked off to tend to his wounds.
Soon after that one wonderful night, with their mission now completed, they separated.
Mipha returned east where she was welcomed back with loving arms. One hundred years was hardly any time lost to a Zora.
Daruk headed back for the mountains. While no one remained of his original brothers, he was recognized immediately as his face had been memorialized in stone. Even though his family was no longer of this world, he found quick camaraderie and a sense of home with his descendant and new brethren. The chief prior had been getting on in years, he happily stepped down to accommodate the legend himself.
Urbosa journeyed back to the far southwestern deserts of her birth. He hadn’t heard much of her after, and it wasn’t like he could visit Gerudo town to figure out how she was readjusting. (not that a distinguished rito such as himself would ever cross that furnaced wasteland to do so, she would only be so honoured). He had heard from Zelda though that she was getting on well with her granddaughter.
As for Revali, he was the only one who stayed behind with the princess in the ruins of the castle. He was questioned ceaselessly about it but he always managed to avoid giving an answer for his reasons.
Finally, the Hylian Champion… the hero with the sword to seal away darkness. Well, Link had seemed to have disappeared entirely.
It was a hard thing for Revali to wrap his head around. There was a time where the Princess could not shake her silent shadow no matter how hard she tried, but they had grown close in the years before the calamity. None of the champions had missed those less than subtle looks she would send him indicating feelings stronger than she would willingly let on.
He had assumed she held a special place in the knight’s heart as well. Not that the rito was ever actually sure that he even had one. The guy was a stone-faced puppet of the king if ever he saw one. Yet he had heard that Link showed a softer side to the princess. He would even speak to her sometimes, something Revali had never managed to get him to do no matter how hard he would bait him with sharp words and taunts.
So why, the day after the calamity, while all of the champions were recovering, did the knight march up to the princess and announce his resignation?
Zelda, to her immense credit, took his departure in stride. She had fought Ganon alone for one hundred years, she wasn’t about to become the heartbroken damsel over some boy. While she still looked seventeen, she was well past that now in maturity.
But even then, he could still see her glance out the window now and again and sigh and it wasn’t hard to guess who that sigh was for.
He had caught her again today, glancing wistfully to the horizon midway between her endless scurrying about to organize the Castle Town reconstruction project.
He had let it go for so long but enough time had passed that he felt it only right to finally approach the subject. The elephant in the room so to speak.
“Well,” he said, her attention snapped over. “You are looking especially… cogitative today princess. Surely you can’t still be watching for that hasbin hero?” Honestly, he'd never get it. Sure, fine. He was a little more competent than Revali had given him credit for. He did somehow beat Ganon after all but... was an idiot with muscles in place of a brain or personality REALLY worth all this fuss and yearning? He would think not.
“I just worry,” she said. “It would be one thing if I knew where he had gone, but as far as I know, Link has still not shown his face to anyone since he left.”
“He’s fine,” Revali scoffed. “He defeated Ganon, he’ll hardly get done in by some moblin out in the wild. If he doesn’t want to be found that’s no feather off of my wing.”
But it was. He was IMMENSELY curious. Nothing had added up. There was something they must not know and it was eating him from the inside. Link would NEVER leave Zelda’s side so willingly.
“You didn’t see that look he had when he left,” she said. “Like he knew it would be the last time we might ever meet. I... know my goodbye for nows from my goodbye forevers.”
Of course he hadn’t. That insufferable hylian hadn’t even shown his face to the champions that morning.
After all the support they had given him!
If nothing else he could have said farewell to Mipha, Goddess knows she deserved something for the way he had dragged the two princesses along in that ridiculous love triangle one hundred years ago.
She glanced at the Rito nervously. “Which this seems like as good a segue as ever… you know Revali… I’ve been thinking…”
Uh oh. He didn't know exactly where she was going with this but it wasn't hard to sense the general trajectory and that he was going to hate it. He crossed his wings and fixed Zelda with a glare that directly conflicted with his next few words. “Out with it then,” he urged.
“I want you to find him,” she said.
She had to be pluckin' joking.
“And why would I do something so… pointless?!” He toned back his indignation as much as he could but his voice still had an unfortunate squawk-ish sound despite his best efforts.
“Because you’re the only person of whom I’d think could do it,” she said. Well that sure pat his ego a little and he did have to agree. A master of the air could go anywhere he set his eye on and the rito species sure had a keen eyesight.
“As well,” she said. “I think it would be good for you. I am the princess of Hyrule, it is my duty to lead this reconstruction, but it pains me to see you tether yourself to this place.” She glanced back sadly at the razed city and the ruined castle. “Even at its most beautiful, you had always hated it here.
“You realize you’re sending me out on a boondoggle of a quest. He could be anywhere! I have much better uses of my time,” he sniffed haughtily.
She gave him that look. That one that said she knew better. Through a masterful display of self-control, he swallowed his outrage and hurt pride. After all, it only hurt so much because she wasn't exactly wrong. He had been wandering purposeless in this world from the moment they had all returned. He had nothing but time.
“Please,” she begged. “If not for him, for my own peace of mind. Just make sure he’s alive, it’s all I ask.”
Something in the way his wings slacked must have betrayed his submission.
She smiled at him and pulled out her sheikah slate. “Take this,” she urged. “It will help you. I had taken the first twelve photos myself before the calamity but he seems to have filled the rest of the memory up on his travels. Perhaps they hold clues to where he might have gone.”
Revali took the device. “Fine, but if this turns into too much of a fox chase, I can't promise what I'll do to him when I do find him.”
She grinned and he bristled, muttering under his breath what a waste of his efforts it was going to be.
“Thank you Revali,” she said gratefully.
He just sighed dramatically and flew away.
That Link was always making a mess of things. It infuriated him to no end.
He just wanted to get this feather-brained task over with so he could return to… huh… return to where exactly?