#with link

“Hey little guy,” one of the knights said with a smile. “Whatcha up to?”

“There are frogs,” Link said. “I wanna see the frogs.”

“Oh? Where are the frogs?”

“I don’t know, that’s what I want to find out!” Link said. “You can’t know where frogs are if you don’t look.”

Neighbor Soldier giggled in that low way that Papa did sometimes. “I guess you’re right. Maybe there are some hiding in your bedroom?”

“That’s silly,” Link said. “Frogs don’t need beds.”

“Are you sure?” Braids Soldier asked. “I thought I saw one sleeping in a bed the other day.”

Link squinted for a second. That didn’t seem right. But he guessed he should really check to be sure. He ran back to his room, peeking under the bed, on the pillow, under the pillow, and in the blankets. Then he stared at the bed and got a little sad because Papa wasn’t there. But definitely no frogs.

He knew there were frogs here, though! And if there were frogs, what else was here? He had to find stuff, and then he could show Papa! And then they could practice fighting together! Papa loved sword fighting.

Link headed out from his bedroom. Paused and thought about it. Went back to his bedroom to grab Mr. Moo, who had come from home with them. He’d forgotten Mr. Moo the last time he went out and now he felt bad about it. He squeezed the little plushie cow tightly as he peeked around to see the knights standing guard.

Papa said he had to stay here. But Papa had seen him leave before and hadn’t gotten that mad. Except he got mad the other day. But Link wanted to go. But Link didn’t want Papa to get mad.

But Link wanted to go. So he went.

Outside of the area where the knights stayed was big and open and wet. Why was water everywhere? He guessed it was because of the funny fish people. Fish liked water. But they weren’t swimming in it, which was weird. They were supposed to swim in it. They weren’t actually fish people, then. They were just silly looking.

He wondered if the funny looking girl who made his cut go away was somewhere close.

There were lots of people here. He felt a little weird for being the only normal one, as they all looked weird and kept staring at him. But he wanted to find frogs, so he would.

Oh! Something different! It glowed too. But it was much smaller than a frog. It looked like a glowy snail! He’d never seen snails glow! It was weird because when he put it in the sun it was normal but when he put it in the shade it kind of glowed. He wanted to show Papa, so he put the snail in his shirt. It was kind of sticky but he stopped noticing after a while.

“Stop right there!”

Link jumped a little, looking around to see who had yelled at him. He saw another one of the funny looking people, but this one was small, like he was a kid his age. He wasn’t the girl who fixed his cut because he had black skin instead of pink, and his weird skirt thing and arm flap things were different colors too. He ran over to Link.

“You’re a Hylian!” he said, pointing at Link.

Link scrunched his nose.

“You look weird!” the boy continued. “That’s how I know! You don’t look like a normal Zora boy. You… you are a boy, right?”

“Yeah,” Link replied. “Are you?”

The boy stomped his foot. “Yeah!”

“Well you look funny too,” Link pointed out, crossing his arms.

“No, I don’t! I look normal!” the boy argued. “My name’s Bazz. My Dad is a knight and I’m gonna be one too, and I’m patrolling the Domain. You’re supposed to be with the Hylians.”

Link scrunched his face. “Where’s your sword?”

Bazz blinked. “What?”

“You said you’re gonna be a knight and you’re patrolling but you’ve got no sword!”

“We use spears,” Bazz huffed. “I mean. Some of us have swords too, but a lot of us use spears.”

“So where’s your spear?”

“I don’t have one yet!” Bazz answered. “I’m too little. But I can still patrol.”

“I have a sword,” Link said.

“No you don’t!” Bazz argued.

“Yeah I do!” Link argued back. “Look!”

With that, Link motioned for Bazz to follow him, and the two ran back to the home Link was staying in. Nor stared at him as he ran by, asking him a question, but Link ignored him for a second. Mama told him he shouldn’t do that, but this was important. He wanted to show Bazz his sword so he could prove he was a knight because Bazz was being dumb and he didn’t like it.

Link slid under the bed before pulling out the wooden sword. “See?”

Bazz stared, and he suddenly didn’t seem annoyed anymore. “Whoa! You have an actual sword? Well, it’s not actual, but—you have a sword!”

Link smiled, suddenly excited. “Yeah! You wanna see how it works?”

“You swing it, duh.”

“What are you two doing in here?”

The boys gasped, turning to see Neighbor Soldier watching them from the doorway. His freckles moved as he frowned, and then he asked Bazz, “And who might you be, little one? This is the Hylian area, I’m afraid. You should go.”

“But he’s my friend,” Link said quickly.

“Oh?” Neighbor Soldier laughed. “Well, if that’s the case, I guess he can stay a little bit. But listen, kid, I’m going to help you find your parents by noon, okay? No lunch here.”

Bazz nodded a little timidly, watching Neighbor Soldier leave. Link smiled at him. “Don’t worry, he’s nice.”

“Dad’s not so sure,” Bazz said quietly. “He says Hylians can’t be trusted. But you seem kind of okay, I guess.”

“I can show you how to fight with the sword,” Link offered, eager to share.

Bazz immediately smiled and laughed. “That would be great!”

The two ran out of the bedroom so Link could find something for Bazz to fight with. When Neighbor Soldier said Link couldn’t have a real sword, the two huffed and headed outside of the house area again. Link found another snail and put it in his shirt with the others and then when they couldn’t find another sword, Bazz said they could go outside the Domain and look for sticks there because there was grass and trees there. Link agreed, as it sounded like a good idea, but Bazz said he would have to sneak by guards, and Link wasn’t sure that was a good idea because Papa might get upset if he went too far.

But the sword fighting seemed really cool. So Link really thought hard about it.

In the end, though, he told Bazz they could sneak tomorrow. He would ask Papa. He wanted to show Papa his snails too. So instead of fighting today, Link showed Bazz Mr. Moo. Bazz thought Mr. Moo was really cool, and Link liked that. As the two talked about Mr. Moo, Bazz told Link about different things about the funny people (Zora? Bazz said they were called Zora) and Link liked hearing about it. Link asked about the girl from the other day, and Bazz said it sounded like Princess Mipha. Princess seemed like a weird first name, but Link didn’t mention it.

As Link said his goodbye to Bazz for lunchtime, he saw a familiar face, and he ran towards her. “Hey! You fixed my cut.”

Princess Mipha, maybe, looked at him and then smiled, though she kind of hid behind the railing of the stairs. “Yes. I’m glad you’re not hurt today.”

Link stared at her, wondering what he should say next. Then he held out Mr. Moo. “Do you want to see Mr. Moo?”

Princess Mipha walked towards him curiously, and the two sat in the water as Link explained all about Mr. Moo’s life back home. He wouldn’t let her touch Mr. Moo, though. He liked him a lot and didn’t want him to get hurt or wet.

“Link?”

Link gasped, turning. “Papa!”

Papa watched him confusedly, hand resting on his sword hilt, before he relaxed a little. “What are you doing out here?”

Link suddenly felt a little guilty, but he reached into his shirt and pulled out the snails instead. “Look what I found! I couldn’t find any frogs though, and I wanted to find frogs, but these snails glow, Papa! Like if you put them out of the sunlight they glow, they made my hands glow, but they’re not like lanterns because they’re not that warm and they’re kind of slimy.”

Papa looked between Link and Princess Mipha, and he did a strange kind of bow towards Princess Mipha. “Your Highness.”

Link looked at him, confused. Why wasn’t he noticing him? “Papa, look at the snails.”

“I see them, son,” Papa said. “But you shouldn’t be out here. We talked about this.”

“I was showing her the snails and Mr. Moo.”

Papa blinked. Then he blinked again. “Mr. Moo?”

Link showed his plushie. “I brought him from home.”

Papa smiled a little. “Link, that’s a heifer, not a bull.”

“Huh?” Link stared at his plushie and then back at Papa, frowning. “Mr. Moo is a cow.”

“But bulls are boy cows and heifers are girl cows,” Papa explained. “Your cow has udders, she’s a girl and she’s a mama.”

“Udders?”

“For milk, son.”

Link stared thoughtfully at Mr. Moo as Papa spoke to Princess Mipha. Princess Mipha said something about needing to see her father, and Link gasped as he realized something.

“She has boobies?” Link asked, staring at his Papa intensely and shaking his cow plushie.

Papa blinked again, making a funny face. “Link—”

Link gasped again, coming to an even better realization. “She has moobies!”

Papa coughed. “Link, no—”

Link immediately showed Princess Mipha. “I was wrong, this isn’t a mister! She’s a mama and she has moobies!”

“What are moobies?” Princess Mipha asked.

“Goddess Hylia,” Papa muttered, rubbing his face. Why was he talking to the goddess when he wasn’t praying?

“Moobies are for milk for cows, and boobies are for milk for Hylians!” Link explained importantly. Then he grew confused. “Do Zora have boobies?”

“Link,” Papa hissed. “That’s enough.”

Link could tell Papa was getting mad. He closed his mouth, not sure what was wrong, but he hesitantly held Mrs. Moo a little tighter. Papa sighed, telling Princess Mipha he’d take her to lunch. Link felt his eyes sting a little. Why did she get to go to lunch with Papa and not him?

“Papa, I’m hungry,” he said.

Papa paused, watching Link and looking a little sad. “We’ll eat dinner together, son. I promise. But go eat lunch with the other knights, okay? I have guard duty still.”

Oh, that’s why. But what did Princess Mipha have to do with that? Link sighed, hanging his head and going back towards the house place, but he wanted to see where they were going, so he hid behind a wall instead and watched Papa and Princess Mipha leave. Then he followed them, though he didn’t get very far before Bazz stopped him.

“What are you doing?” Bazz asked. “You can’t go to the banquet hall.”

“What’s the banquet hall?” Link asked back.

“That’s where the royal family eats.”

Royal family? Royal family. That sounded familiar. Wasn’t there a Hylian royal family? He remembered they were super important people.

Ooooh. Papa was guarding important people. That made sense. But then why was Princess Mipha there? That seemed silly.

Sighing, Link pouted, but Bazz told him they should explore the Domain together instead, so they did. Link couldn’t believe how big this place was, and the more they looked around, the more he kind of liked it. He was getting hungry, though.

Bazz introduced Link to a friend of his named Rivan, who was a little shorter than Bazz and had brown colored skin where Bazz was black. It looked like all Zora had two skin colors and then flappy fin and skirt things that had colors. But why didn’t they have hair? And why didn’t they wear real clothes? They were all really confused when he asked, and Link told them he’d bring them some shirts to try tomorrow. Bazz said he’d bring Link jewelry, which Link thought was weird because the only jewelry boys usually wore were earrings. He guessed sometimes he saw Grandpapa wear a necklace sometimes. But everything here was shiny jewelry, and that was kind of weird.

Link’s stomach growled, and he flopped in the water sadly. He wanted to eat. He missed Papa. Why did he have to guard important people?

It was his duty. That was why. Link knew that. But he still wished his duty could also include eating lunch with him.

Eventually, Bazz and Rivan said they had to go, and Link dragged his feet back to the Hylian house. Nor watched him and walked to him while Neighbor Soldier kind of didn’t.

“Where’ve you been?” Nor asked. “You know you’re not allowed to wander. Did your father not tell you that?”

“Oh, lay off the kid,” Neighbor Soldier said as he leaned against the wall. “He wants to explore.”

“He could cause problems.”

“He’s making friends,” Neighbor Soldier pointed out. “I’d be more worried about him getting hurt than causing problems. These Zora aren’t exactly the friendliest to Hylians.”

“I made friends,” Link pointed out.

“You sure did, kiddo,” Neighbor Soldier said brightly with a smile. Link smiled back. He liked him. “But Norri does have a point. You shouldn’t wander too much, okay? Not everyone wants to be your friend here.”

“I saw Papa, though.”

“And he didn’t immediately tell you to come back here?” Nor asked, looking annoyed.

Neighbor Soldier rolled his eyes. “Hey Link, why don’t you get some food? Go to the dining area, I’ll bring you a plate.”

Link got excited. He was really hungry. He hurried over to the dining area while the knights started to talk to each other. They sounded kind of angry, and he wasn’t sure why. Was it really that bad that he’d explored the Domain? It had been such a good day, though!

As Neighbor Soldier brought him some food, Link ate it really quickly, excited when he saw Papa come through the door. He was really tired, though, too, but he wanted to tell Papa about his day.

Papa picked him up, kissing him and making him giggle. But before Link could really talk to him, Papa laid him down for a nap, saying he should go to bed early since he didn’t nap earlier in the day. Link pouted at that. He… he just wanted to be with Papa.

Sighing, Link twisted in the blankets. Well. It wasn’t all a bad day. He was maybe kind of starting to like it here. He hoped the letter reached Mama soon so she could come too. And maybe he could talk to Papa tomorrow.