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“Looks like a snowstorm is coming in.”
Mipha glanced through one of the slats in the Flight Range’s hut to where Revali was watching the clouds rolling in from over Hebra mountain. They were darker than Mipha had ever seen from the rain clouds back home, and were very quickly approaching the village.
“Should we leave?” Mipha asked, feeling a little down hearted. Leaving meant returning to the stable, and cutting short her time with Revali. A year had passed since the Calamity, and while she was still seeing her fellow champions, it wasn’t nearly as often as she would have liked. It had been so long since she’d had time alone with just Revali too; she dearly loved all her friends, but there was always something special about seeing just one of them without the others.
“I don’t think so. If we leave now we might get caught up in the snow, it’ll be better if we bunker down here until it passes,” Revali explained. A wave of excitement flooded Mipha, until she looked around the open-air hut.
“Will we not get cold?” She asked.
“Of course not, we don’t build huts that can’t withstand a little snow, you know,” Revali scoffed, pulling down storm blinds around the hut. “Why don’t you start the fire, that’ll warm you up.”
Mipha nodded, grabbing the flint and steel and a hand full of kindling: small sticks to build the fire, and a small pile of old discarded feathers that the Rito kept for building fires. The flint very quickly sparked, setting the feathers on fire, the barbs burning quickly while the rachis acted more like a candle wick, slowly carrying the flames towards the small sticks. Mipha bent down and blowed on the glowing embers, which quickly sparked up, catching the sticks alight. Satisfied, Mipha grabbed some large sticks to start building up the fire, warming her hands as she went.
The targets outside were still covered in arrows from the last bout of their training: Revali had offered to teach her to shoot while she was visiting, how could she say no? He was a surprisingly patient teacher too, she’d always assumed he was as hard on his pupils as he was on himself, but even when she’d missed what should have been an easy target after a couple of hours of training, he hadn’t berated her for it. Her arms were sore now though, so unused to the very different movements archery needed compared to spearmanship. They’d taken a short break when Revali had spotted the clouds, but something told Mipha that the training for the rest of the evening was to be cute short.
By the time the hut was fully shuttered down, with only the small opening at the top of the hut allowing for the smoke to exit through, the fire was glowing hot. Revali sat down across the fire from Mipha, sat slightly further back than she was. With all the shutters down, the hut would have been incredibly dark, but the fire cast a warm glow over the entire hut. Mipha couldn’t help but notice how well Revali’s navy feathers let him blend into the near darkness, had it not been for the fire reflected in his emerald eyes and the slight flicker of his white feathers, she would have been sure she was alone.
Revali’s feathers puffed up slightly, as if he was embarrassed, which made Mipha realise just how intently she’d been staring at him, quickly turning her attention back to the fire while her cheeks got incredibly warm. Revali cleared his throat.
“It’s a good thing we brought food with us, I doubt the storm will clear any time soon.”
“I am sorry that we came out here so late,” Mipha apologised. They’d spent the morning fishing, and the afternoon foraging, and having seen Revali shoot down a flying bird with barely a passing glance at his target, she’d been inspired to take up his offered lessons. The lessons had started so late in the day that the sun had been setting, before the storm clouds had blocked out the last of its light.
“You apologise too much,” Revali scoffed, “If it had been an issue, I would have said no.”
They sat in silence for a little while longer, the sudden chill coming from beyond the shutters telling that the snow had started to fall. She must have started shivering, as Revali stood up and fished out a blanket from the Flight Range’s supplies, covering her with it with barely a word. Like so many of the Rito’s craft, it featured feathers, and the warmth was unbelievable. Was Revali this warm all the time with his feathers?
Before returning to his seat, Revali grabbed the food they’d gathered and returned to the fire, sitting closer to Mipha this time as he considered the food they had. “Should be enough here in case we get snowed in until tomorrow evening, although I doubt it will last quite that long.”
He looked through the food again, separating out a fish each, some berries, some nuts and some vegetables, considering each one before placing them in two separate piles. Mipha watched his quiet, thoughtful work in silence. Once the food was separated, he put one pile back, brought out a pot and took the other pile, inching closer to Mipha once more. “The rest will become breakfast, but this should suffice for our tea.”
Mipha looked through the foods Revali had selected: the bird he’d shot mid-flight, some wildberries and chilli peppers, hylian rice and some chickaloo nuts. “I can prepare the pigeon if you make the rice.”
“I’m not afraid of gutting animals, I always gut the fish at home,” Mipha told him, grabbing the rice and searching for some water, “Are you sure you’ll enjoy plucking it?”
Revali looked up, a handful of pigeon feathers already in his hand, “What do you mean? I do this all the time. And I wasn’t implying… Zora prefer fish to poultry, correct? Gutting a bird is a little different to gutting a fish.”
“I just meant, does pulling the feathers out of birds not make you feel queasy, since you have feathers yourself?” Mipha asked, carefully measuring out the water and the rice before washing the rice in separate water.
“I’ve never thought about it, we eat bird all the time,” Revali shrugged, “You can gut the fish for breakfast tomorrow then.”
“I look forward to it,” Mipha smiled at him, setting the cleaned rice into the water to boil. The feathers Revali pulled from the bird went back into the pile used for kindling, before he used a knife to remove the guts from the pigeon, throwing them into the fire. Once he was done, he turned the knife on to the meat, carefully carving it up and removing the bones, skewering them on sticks and placing them above the fire.
“What will the bones be used for?” Mipha asked. She doubted they’d just get thrown away, she’d barely seen anything go to waste in Rito village in all the times she’d been there, and she couldn’t recall a single time when Revali left waste either.
“I’ll probably use them for stock for another meal, it’ll take too long to make it tonight, I’m afraid,” Revali explained. Once the meat was prepared, he started on the chilis, while Mipha started crushing the nuts into smaller pieces. They chatted idly about the training from the day as they worked. Once the rice was cooked, Mipha took it out of the pot while Revali checked the pigeon meat. “Not long now. Throw the chilis and nuts into the rice, the meat won’t be long after.”
Mipha did so, stirring the dish as the spice from the chilis hit her eyes, making them water somewhat fierce. Revali laughed softly at it, offering to take over the stirring but she shook the offer off, keen to keep close to the fantastic smell coming from the fire. Simple, but warm.
As promised, the pigeon was soon thrown into the pot too, Mipha continuing to stir it until it was fully mixed in. Revali used a nearby towel to pull the pot off the fire, bringing it between the two of them as he handed her a spoon.
“I’m afraid we don’t keep bowls here,” He explained, “so, dig in.”
Mipha did so, taking a spoonful of the mixture with great enthusiasm, blowing on the still steaming meal to cool it down. As she was about to put it in her mouth, she noticed that Revali hadn’t even moved, just stared back at her.
“Is everything alright?” She asked. Revali didn’t even blink.
“Guests should get first bite,” He shrugged, averting his eyes now to look at the pot. As she brought the spoon to her mouth again, he returned to looking at her.
The heat hit her first, nearly making her splutter it all back out again. It was much spicier than she’d prefer, but underneath the heat was the earthy tones of the rice, the gamey-ness of the pigeon, and the enticing crunch of the nuts. Once her mouth had settled to the spice, she found it enjoyable to eat. With a bright smile that half closed his eyes, Revali brought his own spoon to the pot, eating his share.
They ate in silence, occasionally looking up to check that the other was still enjoying the meal. By the time the pot was scraped clean, Mipha felt incredibly warm all over, helped by the fire and the blanket still laid around her waist. And with the warmth came sleepiness, as she tried to hide her yawns behind her hand.
Revali set about cleaning up, wiping his knife down and lifting one of the storm blinds to get some snow to melt to clean the pot. As he peered out, however, he stopped, turning back to Mipha.
“You should see this,” he said, a grin stretching across his beak, lifting the storm blind up fully so she could see it where she sat.
The storm had lightened ever so slightly outside the hut, allowing the snowflakes, thick as rupies, to float and swirl around the flight range, carried by the soft winds across the front of the hut, and shooting up in the gusts from beneath the flight range. The sun had fully set now, but the night was not the normal black, but sepia, like an old painting. Mipha took it all in with a gasp, standing up from her spot to get a closer look as Revali dropped to the snow below to gather some up. It truly was beautiful.
“What a wonderful place to live,” she breathed. The luminous glow of Zora’s Domain would always hold the biggest part in her heart, but the view stretching out before her was a close second. Surely artists must come to Rito Village to despair, no painting could quite capture what she saw before her.
“It is, isn’t it?” Revali agreed, the greatest sense of pride in his voice, “How lucky that I, out of all of Hyrule, was chosen to protect it?”
Mipha stood staring at it for a while longer, before Revali gently placed a wing on her shoulder, “You’ll catch a chill stood here, come on,” he gently led her back inside, shutting the blind behind her, driving them back into the glowing hut. A surge of sadness filled her heart, but Revali was quick to dispel it, “You’re always free to visit me, you know. You can see that whenever you wish.”
Mipha turned to look into his eyes, seeing no lie within them, and smiled. “Thank you. When it snows back at home, it is never quite like that.”
Revali puffed out his chest with great pride, and started to use the snow to wash down the pot. Mipha knealt down to lend a hand, but he brushed it off, “It won’t take long, don’t worry,” Once he was satisfied it was clean, he stowed the pot away once more, a thoughtful look in his eye.
“I enjoy visiting your home too, wet and uncomfortable as it is,” Revali explained. “That glow is certainly reflected in its people.”
“What do you mean?” Mipha asked, which made Revali’s feathers puff out slightly in embarrassment.
“Well, I just- Oh, the fires dying out,” he pointed out. Mipha went to grab some more logs, but Revali shook his head. “It’s late, we should retire soon, and leaving the fire burning while we sleep is not safe.”
Revali made his way over to the supplies of the hut once more, pulling out a long piece of fabric that he tied to one strut of the hut, before carrying it to another strut. A hammock.
Mipha had never slept in one, but she had spotted the other Rito putting their children to bed in them, although she had retired before she had the chance to see if the adults did the same. The way Revali expertly set up the hammock told her he had good experience doing so, so she supposed they must. Truth be told, she was quite excited to try sleeping in one!
Revali finished stringing up the first hammock and grabbed the second, but then paused, looking troubled. “Is everything alright? Might I lend a hand?” Mipha asked. Revali startled out of his reverie, all his feathers puffing out in shock and embarrassment, making him look startlingly round, like a little song bird. Mipha bit back her giggles at the sight of him as he quickly tried to soothe his feathers.
“It’s going to get cold, and while the blanket will be sufficient for myself, you might risk frostbite,” Revali explained, thumbing the second hammock through his fingers, his beak set hard.
“Ah, what can we do about that?” Mipha asked, pulling the blanket tighter around her. Their tea had certainly warmed her up considerably, but it wouldn’t last all night. Revali’s feathers slowly started bushing up again.
“I suppose we could… share the blankets?” He offered, coughing loudly, “That way you can get two blankets and not freeze to death.”
“How do you suggest we share them?” Mipha asked innocently, cocking her head slightly. Revali’s feathers had gone back to making him look rather circular again. It was rare to think of him as such, being an incredible and arrogant warrior, but right now, Revali looked down right adorable.
“W-well, if we were to sleep in one hammock rather than two,” Revali offered, Mipha’s cheeks starting to warm at the mere thought, “You’ll have your blanket wrapped around you, and I’ll drape mine over us both, so we won’t be… touching, or anything.”
By Hylia, the warmth of her cheeks was probably enough to keep her warm throughout the night at this rate, but Mipha simply nodded instead as an answer, walking over to the hammock while Revali started to unfasten his pauldron. She considered the hammock for a moment, trying to figure out how she was meant to get in it, before pushing her hands onto the fabric and trying to climb in. It angled away from her as she did so, her ankle stuck in the fabric, causing her to hop along the floor until Revali grabbed hold of it for her.
“Here,” he kept the hammock steady while she clambered in, feeling awfully unsteady as the hammock started to swing when Revali turned back to the straps, his pauldron coming away with practiced ease. Once Mipha felt steady in the hammock, she started to tuck her blanket around herself as best as she could, hearing Revali stamp out the last of the dying embers until the hut was completely in darkness, the crackle of fire gone and replaced only by the gentle howl of the storm outside.
The hammock was held still again, and Mipha tensed up as Revali climbed in beside her, with much greater ease and less swinging than she had caused, bringing his blanket to cover both of them. It was a tight fit, and they both lay very stiffly in the hammock, until Mipha accidentally knocked her head onto Revali’s keel bone.
He was still wearing his under clothes, but she could feel his feathers beneath them, reminding her of the pillows they used in Rito Village, sacks filled with feathers. But where she could reach the feathers laying free, there was such unbelievable warmth that she subconsciously snuggled closer to it, feeling Revali tense slightly at it. His feathers were so soft too, she had to restrain herself from reaching out to stroke them.
After a moment of Mipha trying to subtly snuggle in between his clavicles, Revali wiggled his wing out to bring it around her, pulling her closer and resting his beak on top of her head. The blankets were too thick for her to feel his wing feathers, but maybe she’d get a chance to feel them another time. For now, she was toasty and warm, and felt safer than she could have ever imagined this far away from home.
A little slice of heaven in the frozen storm.