We all are animals anyway

The pair reassumed their walk, Zelda was glowing with pride at herself and happiness, Link was behaving like a caged animal. He walked from side to side, eyes fixed on the ground searching for animal trails. He had even found a study branch and peeled it into a lance to hunt… but to hunt what? There were no trails of anything.

LINK POV

This is a rabbit zone, I should have spotted rabbit footprint or feces by now, but it appears they died off or something hunted them down… if the last one is the case, my Princess could be in danger.

Link stops and takes off his jacket, he then hands it to Zelda.

"Use my Jacket" Raziel orders. 

Zelda looks at him in shock. The wind was blowing and the only thing semicovering his torso was the bandages.

"Why would you?... its COLD out here Link" Zelda starts stripping off her sweater "I will use your jacket if you put this sweater on, fair?"  

Link tilts his head in confusion, he was not used to the Princess caring for him, but he takes the purple sweater and puts it on.

The princess huffs "This thing is HEAVY, how have you been walking around with this on?" Zelda asks now sporting a jacket that is clearly too big for her.

"You get used to it"

He continues walking and searching, Zelda follows in silence, no longer glowing, she is scared now.

ZELDA POV

This… is not good, not good at all. Why is he making me wear his jacket?

[The Queen walks up to Link and grabs his shoulder with her left hand, breaths in deeply and uses her right hand to trust the knife at Link's belly with force] 

This jacket is made to act like a vest... are we in danger? If so, of what? We have not seen anybody, I have not seen foot prints, what is he trying to protect me from?

Link sighs with relief and turns to the Princess smiling.

"Welcome to the Military Training Camp"

Looking ahead, Zelda sees a sinkhole with several destroyed wooden towers at the bottom of it. The structural integrity of it all was doubtful.  

This is today's goal? It looks really bad... abandoned at best. The structures appear to be already sinking. But he seemed to be looking for this place in particular, is there something I am not seeing here? I am going to have faith.

"This looks depressing, you think there is a structure here we can still use?" Zelda asks silently praying to Farore for this to be a joke.

"Not in the camp per se, but there is bound to be a cabin or cottage around the camp, for the military forces to use when they come to here to train"

Zelda sighs in relief, silently thanking the goddesses "OH, THAT SOUND A LOT BETTER, let's hope it's in better condition that THIS… what do I do now? how do I help?" Zelda asks recovering her previous excitement.

"Get down there and fill the pot with water" Link says pointing at a zone where the ground was not depressed into a pit. It was still a steep incline, but she could use it "walk down there slowly and carefully, I don't want you to slip. I will search around the area to find the cabin, SCREAM if anything happens"

He doesn't wait for and answer, he just turns and rushes off.

All right, he is fast, let go fill the pot with water and be useful, I hope Link finds a place we can use to sleep, I mean it wasn't that bad yesterday, but still… I will feel safer under a roof, and if there is a bed it would be AMAZING.

Zelda starts going down almost slipping several times, but she manages to reach the bottom safely. Filling the pot Zelda notices a bird landed near her, she slowly reaches for a rock and throws it at the bird, but misses the shoot completely and the bird flies off. 

"I would love to say that you almost got it, but that would be a lie and I don't lie" Link says leaning against a tree.

How long has he been there? And yeah, I may have completely missed the shot but come on, I am a newbie at this, he is the one who should bring me meat to cook, HIS WORDS, NOT MINE.

"WELL, I HAD TO TRY, since you have not been able to hunt anything" Zelda reproaches him.

"I have not hunted anything, YET" Link answers in a defensive tone, brushing off a leaf that fell on him, he smiles remembering what he came to say "On better news… I think you are going to love the cottage"

"OH DIN, YOU FOUND IT, that was fast, it's not far I presume" Zelda says as she stretches tall to hand him the water filled pot over the pit she was in.

"Incredibly close, and in good condition, get up here so I can show you" Ziel says maliciously as he reaches down to take the pot form her.

"It would be faster if you just help me up" Zelda stretches her arms up for Link to grab and pull her up.

Link stares down at her with a smirk "it definitely would be…" he says as he turns and begins to walk away.

THIS MOTHERFUCKER CAN'T LEAVE ME!!! Not again...

[5-year-old Zelda, standing by the door, crying… pleading her daddy to stay.  Inside the house, Claire is sitting by the table, her eyes red, her cheeks stained with makeup, she had clearly cried… but was no longer doing so. Now Claire was irate.

Zelda continued to sob as her father climbed on a carriage without looking back]

She gets on four and begins to crawl her way up, dirt makes its way to her face, her clothes and her hair, but she does not care. She was trying her darn best to catch up to him, she desperately needed to prove to herself that she was an asset, that Link would be making a mistake by leaving her. 

Once Zelda finishes climbing her way out, she runs in the direction Link was heading. 

"Hold it lady" Link calls out to her from behind.

She abruptly stops and turns around looking at him furiously.  

"WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? You just left and…"

"I can't leave my charge out there unsupervised, what type of nanny would that make me? Your crawling was messy, but your climb was fast… and you are not afraid of getting dirty, I respect that" Link says smiling at her.

Wait… he never really left… I AM STILL ANGRY AT HIM, he made me believe he was getting rid of me, I was afraid, I would not last without him. Besides, the experience brought this back that I didn't want to remember. Was this level of cruelty necessary? [you are not afraid of getting dirty, I respect that] It pulled out my survival instincts, made me realize I am more capable than I thought… I guess it was necessary.

"Does this mean I earned your respect?" Zelda asks him with a cheeky grin. 

Link looks at her squinting, then slowly raises his left hand and uses his thumb and index fingers to represent that he now does… but just a little. He commands her to follow him with a wave of his hand.

This whole experience was scary as fuck, and stressing. I am covered with dirt from head to toe, BUT I EARNED RESPECT FROM A SWORD AGENT, even if just a little... I feel so happy about it, so accomplished. Is this how he teaches? 

I want this, I love feeling like this… And I know this is only the beginning. I don't mind it at all that he is not explaining, he is making me experience things first hand... Up until now my teachers just make me memorize stuff, his method truly reaches me, and I think I love it. 

Zelda was so focused on her thoughts she did not notice when and how they got to the cottage, she just felt Link gently pushing her inside with his hand on her lower back. It was small, but it had a table, chairs, a fireplace and 4 beds with sheets. 

"it's perfect" Zelda says with a wide smile on her face.

"I must go out to find a hunt" Link says as he places the pot on the table "I am going to lock you up in here for safety"

"Lock me up?" Zelda asks with a quizzical expression on her face.

"The latch is on the outside… convenient, isn't it? I am being sarcastic here" Links says rolling his eyes at the stupid design of the cabin.

"But… you will come back for me, right?" Zelda asks suddenly fearing to stay trapped there forever.

"Why wouldn't I? dust the furniture and choose a bed in the meantime" he quickly taps the tip of her nose and leaves.

The nerve of this guy, I am not a child for him to be taping on my nose. But all right, let's start dusting, I need to pick a bed and start dusting everything. Should I choose the bed closer to the entrance, or the one closer to the table? NEITHER, this one appears to be closer to the fire place, HERE WE SLEEP.  

Zelda dusts the bed, the table, 2 chairs and a few of the sheets from the other beds and places them on the chosen one. She stumbles upon a mirror, her reflection looks disgraceful, she begins to clean her face and hair from the dirt, she smiles at the end result, for the first time glad her hair is cut short, making it easier to clean and to finger brush. She then looks out the window and sees a fallen tree.

Creak! The door opens, Link comes in holding an already skinned rabbit, and closes the door behind him.

"COOL" the Princess yells pointing at the skinned rabbit "Link I need to ask you to do something, out there is a fallen tree, we could maybe us-"

"No, its heavy and I don't have the tools to chop it" Link states 

Zelda blows out air in exasperation "What are we going to use for the fire then?"

"The extra chairs, and some of the sheets if needed" Link answers 

"NO, please, I already placed those sheets on the bed and made it extra warm and comfortable, TRY IT" she exclaims proud of her work and sit on the bed tapping it for him to join her.

"No need, I believe you… did you left some for me to use on my bed?" Link asks her doubting she did. 

Zelda looks at him like he just grew a second head, then widens her eyes in realization and explains.

"This is it. This one is OUR bed… 

you are really going to make me say it, aren't you?

"It's FREEZING COLD out there, and you are like a living heater, YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH ME"

LINK POV

*Damn, I don't even know what to say about that… she is right*

That statement was bold of her, I don't know how to answer to that, and it would be weird if I just keep staring at her

*Don't answer, just please her and sit in the fucking bed, act normal like she didn't catch you off guard*

Link sighs, and walks towards the bed and sits right next to her, he rubs it with his hands a little and pushes down on it.

"It DOES feel comfortable and warm" Link says

Zelda beams at his comment, and stands walking to the table where Raziel left the rabbit.

"You should start the fire; I will start cutting this in pieces to boil it"

Link grabs on her left arm "Are you feeling better? If you are… I could clean the guts out if they bother you" he offers. 

"Why though? They don't taste that bad, its more food if we just leave them, AND the shrooms will improve the taste"

Link chuckles at her statement.

I have created an innards eating monster… sweet.

Link stands and proceeds to destroy the extra chairs to use them as fuel for the fire, he stacks the pieces and searches around the fire place

Come on, it must me around here.

*Maybe there isn't any, you read about this but it was an old military book*

THERE IT IS, great… saves time and effort.

Link stores the fire starter on his waist bag, he then leaves the cabin without closing the door behind him, Zelda just stares puzzled, but she does not dare close the door behind him, a few seconds later he returns holding a bunch of dry leaves to help start the fire. 

"I…have been meaning to ask you, the wound you have, it's not deep but it still puzzles me that it's not actively bleeding, why is that? Did you do something to it?" Zelda asks with genuine curiosity. 

"I cauterized it"

"Excuse me, I don't know what that is, could you explain it to me?" the Princess politely asks.

Link covers his mouth with a fist thinking on how to describe it "Remember the chess game you had on your desk? I grabbed one of the tower pieces, put it to the fire to heat it up, once the metal piece turned red, I stuck it on my wound, didn't do a great job since it still bleeds a little, but it dissolved enough tissue to seal off important blood vessels"

Link glances at Zelda and widens his eyes at what he sees. The color drained from her face, her lower lip trembles and her eyes start to moisten.

FUCK, she is going to cry, why? Did she cut herself? I don't see any blood… she doesn't really care if the cauterization hurt me… right?

"It did not hurt me, I had too much adrenaline and anger to feel anything Zelda" Link reassures her.

Zelda looks up at the celling blinking a lot, avoiding the fall of her tears, breaths in deeply and resumes cutting the rabbit and putting the pieces on the pot. 

"I… don't believe you" Zelda says as she starts throwing shrooms in the pot "can I use the fire now? I am hungry and I think you are too" she points at his growling stomach.

The howling of wolfs can be heard in the distance.