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The environment was a fresh breath of air that Link needed.
Away from the stuffy castle with its judging nobles and pressuring duties, away from the princess that he was sworn to protect that hated him - even if he had done nothing wrong.
The environment was just that - an environment. Trees and rocks dotted the landscape, and his boots crunched in the snow. There were no people constantly staring at him, whispering about the boy who had pulled the sword.
There was just something about it that was relaxing, where no one knew his name, or anything about him, just that he was a traveler, and he was there.
Of course, even that couldn’t last too long.
“Link!” The princess called, somewhere behind him. He knew it was selfish to leave her for a few minutes, but that day had been especially... difficult.
“Link!” There was some shuffling, before she bounded up to him, poking him the shoulder.
He turned, seeing as she examined him, her eyes narrowed.
“Did you not hear me? It’s time to continue moving! The soldiers have cleared the path.” He repressed a sigh, before turning around, and following Zelda back to their temporary camp.
They were making their way up towards Rito Village, having finally crossed Tabantha Great Bridge. The recently unearthed Sheikah Tech had been a large discovery, but the largest had been the large beings they now called Divine Beasts.
(He only knew because Zelda had taken him to the unearthing site - even if it was reluctantly.)
There were 4 of them, and as the Calamity approached, the King had decided to have 4 individuals from the 4 other kingdoms help pilot them, in hopes of keeping the peace treaty that they had established so long ago.
And of course, the Rito seemed like the perfect fit to pilot the large stone bird that they had named Vah Medoh. They had been assured that they would need the mightiest warrior to pilot it and help fight Calamity Ganon, and Zelda and Link had been almost immediately pushed to traveling to the village and meeting this “mighty warrior”.
The continued journey to the village was quiet, and the only sounds were the marching footsteps as Link and a group of soldiers escorted Zelda to the village, and she took photos upon photos with the sheikah slate that had been found with the divine beasts.
There was little fanfare as they arrived, and they were ushered into the village elder’s home. Elder Kaneli, was his name.
Link tuned out Zelda and Elder Kaneli’s discussion, knowing that Zelda was just barely tolerating his presence anyways. There was no point in eavesdropping, especially because he didn’t even know why she hated him so.
Instead, he watched as a blue-winged rito jumped off the side of one of the flight platforms in the village, before soaring upwards, and shooting all of the many targets that were set up as balloons floating in various locations. There was great skill that was presented in that move, and he wondered if all the rito’s were trained like that.
Link was snapped out of his thoughts as Zelda cleared her throat, giving him a disgusted look, before he realized that she was leaving the hut, presumably to introduce herself to the pilot of Vah Medoh.
He bowed in apology, both to her and Elder Kaneli - who chuckled but didn’t say anything - before he followed her out.
Zelda headed with purpose straight to the flight platform, and stopped before the rito he had just witnessed shooting the targets. The aforementioned rito landed on the platform, creating great gusts, before bowing, lowering his bow.
“You are Revali?” She asked, pushing her hair out of her face. Link stayed behind, only watching.
“I am. I can assume you’re Princess Zelda, then. I was told that you needed a mighty warrior to pilot the Divine Beat Vah Medoh, and here I am!” Links first impression of him was that he was overconfident, and slightly snooty. (His first impressions of everyone weren’t all that accurate though, so he didn’t really listen to them.)
“You will pilot Vah Medoh, then? That is wonderful news!”
Zelda and Revali started talking in hushed, animated whispers, and Link resisted the urge to fidget with the collar of his Snowquill Set.
“And who might this be?” Revali raised an eyebrow (can birds even do that?) as he glanced at Link.
“Ah.” Zelda looked displeased. “This is my champion, Link. He’s the one who pulled the Master Sword, and he is the one who you will be assisting in the fight against Calamity Ganon. If that is all, I will take my leave. Link, why don’t you introduce yourself to Revali?” This was a very badly disguised ploy to get him to leave her alone for a while, and Link could see this, but she was already in a bad mood, and he wasn’t willing to risk her temper again, not after what she had done last time.
He nodded in acknowledgment, before she left the platform, leaving the two champions alone.
“So, you’re the one who is destined to save the world.” There was something in Revali’s tone he didn’t like, but Link simply nodded in agreement.
“I see. Well, don’t let yourself think you’re better than me in any way for one moment. There are enough hylians who think they’re better because they have trained for a month, and I don’t need another.” The rigid tone that Revali spoke this in set off alarms in Link’s head, but he gritted his teeth, and nodded.
“You don’t say much, do you. Well, I have much training to do, after all not everyone is lucky enough to pull a sword and be promoted.” With those words, Revali strode off the platform and headed to what was presumably his home.
Link was tempted to give him a piece of his mind, but something stopped him. His first impression of Revali was that he was arrogant and overconfident, but from what he’d heard, he was just like the rest.
They all judged him for pulling the sword, but there was some comfort in hearing that Revali disliked him. It was better then placing expectations on him, and shifting his burden’s onto Link’s.
Maybe there was a chance for friendship after all.