Chapter Text
Without the Calamity looming over the kingdom a great number of excavations had begun. The best part was that Zelda had been able to take part in all of them. She loved every moment of it from the staking of the tents to the uncovering of old relics. She would run all around the dig site snapping pictures with her Sheika slate and sketching diagrams of what was found. She would share these with Impa, Link, and even her father. He had been happier since the defeat of Ganon, and was taking strides to repair his relationship with his daughter even if that meant listening to her talk about history for hours on end.
Recently there had been two ongoing excavations. One was near Kakariko Village, and the other in the canyon near Gerudo Desert. Zelda had just returned to the castle after weeks of camping in the hot, sandy gorge. She needed time to relax before visiting another dig site. Luckily, Impa had volunteered to oversee any and all progress and report back to her.
It didn’t take long for the Sheika advisor to come bursting through the princess’s door.
“Zel, you had better have been getting rest like I told you to.” Impa said it with a smile, but they both knew she took her friend’s health very seriously.
Zelda put down her quill and rose from her desk. “I have, I swear! I’m just writing some letters is all.”
The two hugged and Zelda noticed the wrapped parcel under her arm.
Her eyes lit up. “Is that from the excavation?”
“It is indeed! They found it on accident, but I knew you’d want to see it anyway.”
“Yes, please!”
Impa grinned at her friend’s enthusiasm. She carried the parcel to the desk and gingerly set it down. Zelda leaned in close bracing herself on Impa’s shoulder.
“You see, what they’re trying to find is old Sheika settlements. They’ve uncovered some things like pots and fossilized bits of wood that they think could have been houses or fences, things that say a settlement could still be buried deeper down.” She carefully removed the layers of cloth from the mystery item. “What they found that they couldn’t understand was this.”
It was a carved piece of wood in the shape of a beak. While the paint was faded and worn Zelda could see that it had once been a brilliant yellow.
“It’s in remarkable shape. How long do the researchers think it was buried for?”
“A long time.” Impa said. “They don’t really know how long, but they said that it’s probably from way, way back. Back when magic was a lot more powerful.”
Zelda furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”
Impa shrugged. “They said something about one of Hyrule’s past heroes using magic masks. I didn’t get all the details because my grandma wanted me to go find her some ammorath, and then my brother wanted me to listen to this new flute song he wrote-“
Zelda gasped. She ran to her bookshelf and pulled down a thick tome. “Impa, the masks the hero used weren’t just magic.”
She brought the book to the desk and opened it next to the wooden beak. Impa watched as she frantically turned the pages. It looked more like a story book with all the illustrations, but she recognized it as a collection of tales of Hyrule’s past heroes. All of them were blonde and looked remotely like Link.
Zelda found what she was looking for and pointed to the illustration. It showed sketches of various masks, with some resembling the races of Hyrule.
“The masks allowed the hero to transform into other creatures.” Zelda turned the book to another page. This time the hero (again a blonde haired boy) was holding a strange wooden mask. Next to him was a picture of a strange, large headed creature wearing the boy’s hat. It’s face looked just like the mask.
Impa raised a brow. “Is that supposed to be a Child of the Forest? It looks so creepy.” She looked up at Zelda and saw that she was smiling. Uh oh. That was the “I’m so excited I might do something crazy” face. Last time she’d seen it Zelda had begged her to help catch fireflies so she could feed them to Link, and see if they made him move quieter.
“What if this is one of those magic masks?” Zelda asked breathlessly.
“You want to put it on, don’t you?” Impa replied.
“Absolutely!” The princess reached for the wooden beak.
“Absolutely not!” Impa snatched the mask before Zelda could even touch it.
“Impa! Be careful! That mask is thousands of years old.”
“And it’s probably cursed,” Impa added. “I can’t let you just slap this thing on your face. For one, it’s dirty. And two, what if you’re right? What if you put it on and turn into a...a bird? How am I going to explain to the king that I let you turn yourself into a bird?”
Zelda smiled knowingly and held up the book again. “The hero of Hyrule could take the mask off as easily as he put it on. Even if I did turn into another creature I could return to my normal body just as quickly.” Then her voice turned softer. “Besides, I’m not the hero of Hyrule. Even if the mask did work, it probably wouldn’t work for me.”
Impa put her hand to her chin. It was a habit she’d picked up from Purah whenever she was thinking especially hard. “The princess in that story was kidnapped too?”
“Weren’t they all?” Zelda laughed joylessly. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be playing around with old relics anyways. It belongs on display somewhere so it can be studied.”
“Maybe,” Impa paused, “but before you turn it over you could run one experiment.”
She offered the beak to Zelda, who smiled brightly.
“You’ll let me?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Impa said, defeated. “But! If it doesn’t work we’re having Link try it. Now that you’ve been hyping this thing I want to see at least one person turn into something.”
Zelda laughed. “Deal.”
She took the mask in both hands and looked at it closely. It really was in remarkable shape. With a fresh coat of paint and perhaps a bit of polishing it would look like a modern work of art. Even so, Zelda could still see just how skilled the maker had been. It looked for all the world as if it had been severed from a Rito. The thought unsettled her, and made her wonder what Revali would think of it.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Impa asked worriedly.
“No,” she replied, “just getting a good look at it.”
“I looked at it plenty on the way here. Trust me, there’s nothing overly exciting about it.” The advisor huffed.
Zelda took a deep breath and pressed the beak over her nose and mouth. She had closed her eyes, but after a few moments passed she opened them again. Impa was standing in front of her, hands inches from the mask and ready to rip it away from her at a moment’s notice.
“Nothing?” she asked.
“I don’t think so.” She sighed and was surprised to hear the air whistle out of the mask. It even had nostrils carved into the top. Taking her own hands away she found that the beak stayed in place all by itself.
“You know, you kinda look like those pictures of the pre-evolved Rito.”
“You mean the ones where they’re just men with beaks?” Zelda laughed.
“Yeah exactly!” Impa giggled. With no threat in sight she relaxed. A devious glint entered her eye. “You know who I think would like this look?”
Zelda blinked. “Who?”
Impa rolled her eyes. “Come on. We only know one bird boy who likes you, Zel.”
Zelda flushed. It was a secret to no one that Revali and herself were extremely fond of eachother. Before the Calamity they had spent quite a bit of time together, and even now they still kept in touch. Zelda couldn’t justify traveling to Rito Village as much as she had pre-Calamity, so most of her and Revali’s conversations had been in the form of letters. She had actually been writing to him when Impa arrived. The quill on her desk was one of his secondary feathers. He’d gifted it to her when their meetings became fewer and far between.
“The future queen of Hyrule shouldn’t be writing letters with some common Cucco feather.” he’d scoffed. “I expect you to be using your finest tools. Especially when you're writing to me.”
Zelda shook her head. Thinking about it was making her cheeks flush. “I guess I should take this off then.”
“...Zelda.” Impa had taken several steps backward. She started at Zelda, wide eyed and mouth hanging open.
“Impa? What’s wrong?” Zelda looked over her shoulder and saw nothing. When she looked back at her friend she noticed something. Her perspective of the room was different. She seemed to be looking down at Impa rather than seeing her eye to eye. She looked down. The beak was still in view, but it felt...different somehow. She lifted her hand to her face but found feathers instead.
She stared at the brilliant yellow plumage covering her arm. No, not covering it. They were wings now not arms! She fumbled with one of her desk drawers. Her fingers-turned-feathers struggling to grab the latch. When it finally opened she pulled out a small, square mirror and gasped at her reflection. There was a golden Rito staring back at her. Her face was rounder than Revali’s or those of the standard Rito. She looked more like one of the yellow song birds that sometimes landed in the castle yard. Her hair had remained. It laid down her back with the two braided sections hanging on either side. Her dress was also still there, but it had morphed with her body. Now it looked more like the harness-like shirts that the Rito wore, while maintaining enough likeness to be recognizable. Blue circles surrounded her eyes. Vaguely she remembered that Revali had these same markings in red. Two white dots sat on either side of her face, just like Revali’s red ones.
“Hylia help me,” Impa whispered.
Zelda clumsily returned the mirror to her desk. “No, Impa, it’s alright. I just, uh, I just have to remove the mask.”
“What mask?” She cried. “It’s part of your face!”
“Relax, please. Let me just…” slowly she maneuvered her finger feathers to the corners of her beak. She applied pressure, and the beak came off into her hands. Zelda gasped. It had felt as if her face was falling off, but she was - blessedly - human again.
Impa had gone white. “Okay. Okay, so the mask works. That’s neat.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “OH MY GODS THE MASK WORKS.” She screeched.
“IT DID! IT DID!” Zelda yelled back. She jumped up and down rapidly unable to contain her excitement. “Did you see that, Impa? I was a Rito!”
“You were! You were a Rito!”
“This is incredible!”
“It’s insane!”
“I have to tell someone!”
“You do! You-“ Impa went still. She put a hand to her chin and looked to the side. When she looked up again she was grinning. “Zel,” she said, “I have an idea.”
Uh oh. Zelda knew that face. That was her “I’m going to do something in your best interest and you’re probably not going to like it” face. Last time Zelda had seen that face Impa had convinced her to dress as a boy and accompany her to town. While it had been nice strolling through the streets without everyone bowing it had been especially difficult to fend off all the Hylian girls who took an interest in “Sheik” (she had named herself such in a panic).
“We’re gonna keep this mask and what it does a secret for now,” Impa said, “and you’re gonna write a letter to Revali asking him to get his bird behind to the castle as fast as possible.”
Zelda’s eyes widened.
“What?” The Sheika asked. “You can’t tell me you weren’t gonna tell him about this! It’s a mask that turns you into a Rito.” Impa nudged her friend’s shoulder. “Maybe if you have a beak you can kiss him.”
“Rito don’t kiss!” Zelda cried, cheeks burning.
“How do you know? Did you two talk about it?”
“Impa you’re going to kill me.” Zelda put her head in her hands.
“Come on, Zelda. Do it for me? He might pass out and you know I would love to see that.” Impa smiled fondly. “Maybe it’ll even give you two the nudge you need to talk about how you feel?”
“What makes you say that?” Zelda peeked through her fingers.
Impa shrugged. “Revali’s a real wind bag until it comes to talking about emotions. Maybe if he sees what a stunner you are as a Rito he’ll be able to string some words together.”
Zelda looked down at the wooden beak. She hadn’t considered that her appearance could be a deterrent. She could feel that Revali cared about her, and she loved him without a doubt, but whenever it seemed like one or both of them were about to breach the subject the conversation was dragged in a different direction. Sure, she might not be ready to say it yet no matter how much she wanted to, but Revali was so gifted when it came to talking. He would speak his mind anytime and any place. Maybe she was the reason he hadn’t. Maybe it was because she wasn’t like him.
“Alright,” she said at last, “I’ll do it.”
Impa rubbed her hands together, eyes full of mischief. “Let’s get writing then.”