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It wasn't a very tall climb by any means, and Link made it to the top of Satori Mountain in no time. He stood tall, satisfied with the view of the sun falling behind the mountain far off in the horizon, painting a picture of serenity. He exhaled out of his nose and took a couple steps to the edge of the mountaintop, looking over at the almost-too-beautiful-to-be-real pond below. Taking a seat with his legs over the edge, he watched the blupees play about, whilst the Lord of the Mountain, Satori, watched over them – his mane gently flowing in the breeze. Link smirked, remembering the time he rode Satori to the nearby stable, and the reaction it brought out of everyone.
‘Has it really been 4 years since the end of The Calamity? Even longer since I’ve been here..’
Link's stomach suddenly growled, breaking him away from his thoughts. He reached into his satchel, bringing out a bag of dried venison jerky and a couple of apples as a quick dinner. As he ate, he got to watch the sun set further behind the horizon, the sky fading from blue to hues of purple and orange. He noticed a few of the blupees below had gone off to the side of the pond, where they peacefully laid to sleep after an exhausting day of playing.
' How simple life could be ,' he thought.
After packing up his dinner, he decided to quickly descend from the tall peak via paraglider. Landing upon the plateau, he sheathed his paraglider and slowly walked to the pond, so as not to disturb any of the sleeping spirits, nor their guardian. At the edge of the water, he took off his boots and socks, rolling up his pants as well. His feet slowly sank into the cool water, creating a small ripple that pushed the floating cherry blossom petals outwards from him. Satori had already taken notice of Link's presence, though he made no indication of worry. Link's eyes met the wistful guardians center eyes, feeling a sense of comfort and belonging emanating from within. Their mutual understanding met, Link delicately approached glowing spirit, neither of the two dropping their eye contact.
Slowly but surely, Link was face to face with the Lord of the Mountain. The spirit was absolutely massive, and bright to the point that he could illuminate the whole area, to even be seen from miles away. The face was that of a four eyed owl, perhaps simplistic in nature, but Link saw the wisdom, the grace, the benevolence behind its glowing yellow eyes. There was no mouth or nose on its features, though he could feel a gentle breath against his face. Satori tilted his head slightly, his left plant-like antler twitching once. Link smiled and slowly brought his hand up to the Spirits mane, running his fingers through the soft white hair upon his neck. Satori closed his eyes, relaxing into Link's gentle touch.
Link patted the mane gently, and Satori opened his eyes to look at the gentle being before him, making a low cooing sound -- one more akin to a bird of sorts than to that of a mammal. Link noticed the glowing eyes drift above where he was standing, as if they were looking to something else behind him. He took hold of the hilt of the sword strapped to his hip, keeping his eyes on the spirit standing wistfully in front of him. Satori was not startled by the presence that was behind Link, nor made any effort to back away or disapparate. Link noticed this immediately, though took no chances. In one swift motion, his sword was drawn, and he was facing the entity behind him. His sword immediately fell from his hand, splashing into the water below and startling some of the sleeping blupees around the edge of the pond.
"M-Mipha?"
"Hello, Link."
Link's mouth hung open in shock and confusion, almost believing his eyes were playing tricks on him, or that the mountain had released fumes that caused him to hallucinate. He blinked a few times, her apparition not disappearing or fading. The smooth scarlet scales, the glowing amber eyes, her shining jewelry, her meek, yet kind nature painted upon her visage like an artisans masterpiece. She smiled gently at him with her hands folded in front of her, as warm as her presence was, it did not calm his hammering heart. He was jostled from his hypnosis by a gentle nudge at his back. He looked back to see Satori with his head slightly lowered where he nudged Link. the giant spirit blinked slowly with a single nod, assuring him that it was alright. Link looked back to Mipha, gulping hard and breaking his paralysis to approach. Her smile widened and her eyes seemed to glow brighter with every step he took. Now less than a meter apart, he looked into her glimmering eyes and took a shaky breath.
“Mipha, I – You…” he stammered over his words, she smiled in understanding.
“ Are still dead, yes indeed,” She finished his sentence for him. He nodded sadly, wishing he could reach out and touch her, feel her scales against his palms, anything at all. She seemed to have read his mind, as she closed the distance between them, never losing eye contact. She reached her hand up and cupped his face, watching his eyes widen in shock that he could actually feel her touch. Her hand was cold, but it felt like hers. His head started to feel light as sensory overload started to take over, the same he had felt when regaining his memories along his quest to end the Calamity. His pupils dilated as he was warped to the past within his brain.
“Link?” my heart skipped a beat when I heard her voice. It was like hearing your favourite song for the first time again every time she spoke. I looked down at the bouquet of swift violets in my hand before turning around to face her. My breath caught in my throat, but I did well to hide it. Seeing her vivid colours contrasting from the pale white snow of Lanayru winter time was truly a sight to behold – any view with her in it was that way just as well. I could see her breath fogging up in the cold air, the chill bringing pink to her white cheeks. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Heya,” I said, trying to be cool while my insides were burning up. Her eyes glistened like there were tears welling up within.
“Link…” She started shakily, approaching me. “What are you doing here? Last I heard, you were on duty guarding the princess on her excursions.” She pushed her face into my chest, wrapping her arms tightly around me. I reciprocated her embrace, pulling her flush against me and placing a soft kiss on her head. I could feel her warm breath against my chest, and the sound of her happy hum vibrating against me. I softly brushed my hand up and down her tail and swayed gently in place.
“Nice to see you too, princess.” She leaned back with a small smirk, looking into my eyes.
“Do not mistake me, sir knight. I am most pleased to see you, I just… I must apologize,” she looked away and wiped her eye where a fresh tear had threatened to fall. “I was just having the most deplorable day and – well, when Bazz told me that I was needed at the eastern reservoir, I had only assumed it would get even worse – but you’re here, and…” She paused, looking back up to me, smiling. “Happy. I’m just so, so happy to see you.” She pushed her face back into my chest and squeezed once more before stepping back. I stretched out my hand with the bouquet of swift violets, bowing my head slightly.
“For my lady, her favourite flowers.” She accepted them graciously and took in their scent, eyes fluttering shut and sighing in happiness. Her foggy breath tickled the petals, which danced to the silent song of the wind. Her eyes opened back up to find mine once more – Those amber orbs could swallow my world and I would never even know. I look into them and feel a happiness of which I had previously written off as unattainable. Her beauty in all ways cannot be described in any verse, any language, any alphanumeric equation – there is simply nothing that could be said that would do her proper justice… But, I have to say something. Say something, you dope!
“You’re pretty!” I blurted out, immediately admonishing myself internally. She giggled in response, another sound that shook around the butterflies fluttering within me with wings bathed in fire. Before I could correct myself [or make an ass out of myself even further], her soft, cold lips had pressed against mine. I melted into her touch, pressing back against her with tender intensity. Her free hand was tugging the collar of my royal blues, keeping me in her perfervid liplock like her life depended on it. She was telling a story with her kiss, and I hung onto every word. Whether hours, minutes, or seconds had passed, I had no clue. All that matters is this moment, this feeling, this .
The kiss broke off slowly, without any rush to leave the intimacy behind. Our eyes found each other once more as if they were opposite poles in a gravity magnet. The cold feeling of her hand now softly resting against the right side of my face took over my senses as I leaned into her touch once more, resting my hand with a soft grip upon her wrist. I turned only to place soft kisses trailing up her wrist and upon her frost-chilled digits. Her balletic hand rested once more upon my cheek with the gentility and grace that she had displayed in every little movement she made. Though her hand was cold, I could feel the heat of her heart through her touch, and the warmth of her soul through her eyes.
“You always find a way to me when I need you most, almost like – “
“Like my heart is drawn to yours,” I interrupted. She looked at me as if I took the words right from her mouth. “And it is,” I said, kissing her hand once more and nuzzling back into it. Her eyes glistened as tears threatened to well over, nary out of sadness, but of joy spoken through her small smile.
“And mine, to yours. One day, I will find you just the same – that, I promise to you, Link.” Without another moment wasted, I leaned forward to kiss her once more. Her movements mirrored mine, her breath drawing closer and eyes fluttering shut. I closed my eyes, but instead of darkness, it was an approaching light I saw.
“Link?” Hearing her voice in his actual ears shook him out of his lucid flashback. Her hand still rested on his face, and he could still feel it – the cold, but real feeling of her hand exactly as he remembered it. Her scales were solid, but her touch was so gentle that it felt like a whisper that he could feel on his delicate skin. Tears that he did not even feel coming started to fall from his eyes. She slightly tilted her head with a small smile of understanding.
The first time he saw her again, he had but one small inkling of what they were, and a hazy-at-best memory of their time together. She was a stranger, one he held in fondness, though a stranger nonetheless. After years of chasing memories, hearing stories from those that knew them, spending time in the shadow of her statue – his heart yearned for the life that they would have had. The life they should have had. Seeing her spirit was one thing – Feeling her touch exactly as remembered, that was mind melting. His world seemed to shatter around him, but she stayed right there; gentle and tender as always.
“Wha.. What is this? Am I dreaming? A-am I dead?” She giggled exactly as he remembered in response. His confused expression did not change, and the tears did not slow down. Her rigid, yet soft thumb wiped a tear away from his face as she met his eyes with her own, along with a kind smile. Their colours were as vivid and explosive as he had seen in his dreams, and in his memories.
“None of the above, actually. This is real, Link.” She smiled again. Every fiber within his body wanted to break down and melt into her arms, but his fight or flight responses were overflowing within his brain, causing him to stay frozen exactly where he was. He stuttered, and stumbled over his words, but her kind and patient smile remained unchanged.
“Is – is,” He hiccupped. “Is Hylia finally punishing me for failing you? For failing everyone ? Did she guide me here to.. To taunt me?” A sudden, familiar sadness welled up in her stomach, one she felt while taking her dying breath. Failing everyone…
“You are no failure, Link. You saved Hyrule –”
“A hundred years after it needed saving,” He bit at his lip, looking up to try to stop the tears from flowing, then back into her eyes. “I let you down. You should be here, right now. Not me.” He exhaled shakily and closed his eyes. There was a thin silence between them, not uncomfortable, but heavy. Mipha's unoccupied hand moved to sit behind his neck, pulling him in to hold him the way she used to. She swayed softly as he put his arms around her, sobbing softly into her neck.
“While it is the truth that nothing can change the past – I seem to have kept my promise nonetheless, and you, the same.” He loosened the embrace to share his confused expression with her. She smiled in response to his confusion and gently teased his skin with the tips of her claws. “It looks as though we found each other when we needed it most.” He huffed with a smirk, gently brushing his hand down her tail.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked, barely above a whisper. “After all this time, after losing everything – everyone, all of my memories… My heart is still drawn to yours.” She said nothing in response, but she could feel her spectral heart hammering nonetheless as she pulled him closer. When their lips finally met, it was like the world had disappeared around them once more. She still tasted as he remembered, her lips just as soft as he remembered. Her spectral form still felt like her, just as perfect in every way as he had remembered. It was not a dream. It was just her.
The kiss broke off in no urgency, as theirs had always ended. He could feel her cold breath on his face, her cold hands behind his neck and entangled in his hair. He raised his chin and kissed her head, the way she so loved when she was still alive. Their foreheads rested together during their comfortable embrace. He exhaled into her neck, still unable to believe the situation he is currently in.
“If I’m not dead, and this isn’t a dream.. Then what is this?” Her claws grazed his scalp softly, in a way that stilled his worries like nothing else ever could. Her divine touch always affected him in ways he simply could not explain. It always felt like home in a way – perhaps, that may explain why he was so drawn to the wilds. The one thing that felt like home to him was no longer alive, and no one place, nor person ever could replicate that feeling for him. As confusing and disorienting as this is, the feeling of her in his arms did not change the homely feeling she brought him. She kissed his shoulder and the crook of his neck before backing out of the embrace to admire the graceful mountain spirit that watched over them.
“Satori mountain is the point of convergence between the realm of spirits, and realm of the living – where the energies on each end are strongest. Not only am I able to manifest here, but you are sensitive to the energies and spirits that manifest here.” She turned away, looking up at the two mountain ridges. “It is a tale as old as time – one you had actually taught me while you were distracting me from my duties –”
“You mean saving you from Muzu?” She turned her head and smiled at him over her shoulder silently inviting him to join her, to which he gladly obliged, looking up to the mountain peaks with her.
“Lovesick widows would travel from near and far to make an offering to the Lord of the Mountain, Satori, so they could see their loved ones once more, hear their voices, feel them.” She reached over and interlocked her fingers in his. He looked down at their hands, and then to her eyes, listening intently. “Being Hylia's own steed and trusted guardian of the great convergence, you can imagine that the offering for Satori to grant their requests was quite great. Men and women alike had dedicated years of their life to find a reasonable offering, some even dying in the process.”
“That’s beautiful, but really sad at the same time.” He squeezed her hand and she nodded in agreement. With every new memory, or story mentioning his past life, his heart pangs with a sad frustration in wishing for what could have been. “Wait.. I didn’t make any kind of offering, though?” Satori joined them and sat beside Link, looking down at the pair. Mipha smiled up at Satori who made another low cooing sound.
“He says that your soul, as Hylia's chosen hero –”
“Is bound to his.” She looked over to him in surprise. He looked back at her for a moment, then met Satoris gaze. “I can.. Feel it. I can hear him, and.. I can understand him now.” Satori closed his eyes, shook his head and made a long, low cooing sound in response. “What do you mean it’s about damn time?!” Mipha covered her mouth and giggled, and Satori made a slightly higher pitched, almost sarcastic cooing sound. “You’ve been trying to get me to connect with you since The Calamity ended? You mean I could have seen…” His voice faded as he looked back to Mipha. “I could have seen her sooner?” He looked back to Satori, voice slightly wobbly. Satori hummed quietly and closed his eyes. Mipha squeezed Link's hand and gently rested her other hand on his forearm to get his attention.
“He told me.. He told me that you weren’t ignoring him,” She started. Link looked down at her and started stammering, trying to not only make words, but rack his thoughts that were racing.
“O-of course I wasn’t! I wouldn’t! Mipha, if I knew –” she pulled him down and silenced him with a deep kiss, to say she knew. Satori made another sarcastic hum and rolled his eyes, the pair broke off their kiss to look up to him in disapproval. He made a quick trill sound, acting like he didn’t do anything. The pair looked at eachother and shook their heads.
“He told me that, even though your souls are connected, he couldn’t reach you in a way you would understand without another being with a strong connection to the plane between life and death to echo that message to you – wherever you were.” Link looked down thoughtfully, then looked back at Satori.
“Fi?” Satori made a low chuffing sound that was almost nostalgic in tone. Link looked down at the pond, guilt building within. “After I slayed Ganon, I just wanted to be done – I… The first stop I made when it was over was back to the Great Tree to put the sword back where it belonged. Fi said… She said that the sword belonged on the Hero’s back, even if the work was done. I didn’t – I should have listened. I was selfish, and.. And it cost me precious time I could have spent with you. I’m so, so so sorry, Mipha – I..” He choked on his words, tears welling within his eyes once again. Mipha’s face fell to a more serious tone as she moved to embrace him. He reciprocated her touch, quietly sobbing into her neck. She gently stroked his hair, staying silent and letting him find comfort in her embrace. Once the time felt right, she loosened up and looked up into his eyes.
“You were not – are not selfish for wanting to have your life back. You did not choose to be Hylia's destined hero, but you did not complain – you did your job, and now your duty is fulfilled. No one gets to choose what you do with the rest of that life but you – and you know that I would never, and could never blame you for that. You are here now, we are here now . Perhaps, not in the manner we had originally intended, but that is of no consequence. Besides,” She paused, placing her hand on his chest and smiling up to him. “It’s not like I'm going anywhere, any time soon.” His eyes squinted slightly in confusion, before widening in realization.
“Wait – you mean… You won’t just disappear after this?” She giggled quietly, reaching up to wipe the residual tears from his face.
“I’ve been here for the last four years, haven’t I?” He blinked a couple times, seemingly not having put that together beforehand. She could see the array of emotions change on his face – from confusion to surprise, from surprise to elation, from elation back to confusion, ending in an overwhelmed expression, with tears of happiness starting to fall. He pulled her back into an embrace that could crack bones, shaking from utter shock and laughing hysterically like he had just won a billion-rupee lottery. She giggled into his chest as she squeezed him back, as tight as she could.
“Goddesses, Thank you.. Din, Nayru, Farore – Thank you – Hylia,” He frantically repeated his gratitude into the crook of her neck. Satori, who they had forgotten was even there, made a sarcastic sound like he was clearing his throat. Link broke off the embrace and turned to Satori, looking upon him with bloodshot eyes full of tears in sheer elation. “Listen, you giant Blupee, I was getting to you,” He joked, wrapping as much of his arms as he could around Satori’s massive upper body. Link's chest vibrated with the frequency of the low laugh-like trills Satori made, while the giant spirit lowered his neck in a form of an embrace.
“I don’t suppose we get one of those, too?” A familiar voice questioned, breaking Link away from the moment. He turned his body with one hand still resting upon Satori’s silk-like fur, astonished by the sight that met him. “Took ya long enough to get here,” Urbosa joked. She, along with Daruk and Revali were sitting under the cherry blossom tree, with what looked like a feast laid upon a picnic blanket. Link was stunned speechless, mouth agape and blinking rapidly. While it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility considering the circumstances, he still couldn’t help but make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.
“What’s the matter boy, Remlit got your ton–” Revali started, getting cut off by Daruk’s boisterous voice.
“Hey, little guy!!” Daruk shouted, waving his gargantuan hand in the air to Link – who awkwardly waved back, still in shock.
“He is literally 20 feet away, you clod. There’s no need to shout,” Revali admonished, shaking his head in annoyance. Link looked over to Mipha, who was sharing a warm smile with him.
“How uh.. How long have you guys been here?” Link asked, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Oh fret not, we saw everything . You really have it bad for Fins here, don’t’cha?” Revali cracked, matter-of-factly half raising a wing while leaning back on the other. Mipha and Link looked back at each other, blushing.
“Can you not be an ass for five minutes? He just got here, for Din’s sake,” Urbosa chided.
“Exactly, I have to show him who is still in charge here!”
“Which is not you,” their banter went back and forth while Link and Mipha were still locked in wordless eye contact. The sound of Daruk’s laughter suddenly mixed into the faded sound of the background squabble. Mipha’s once embarrassed expression formed into a small, knowing smile. Link tentatively raised his finger to get the bickering champions’ attention. They did not stop immediately, until Daruk hushed them. Link’s finger then fell, pointing to the feast on the ground.
“Is that, like.. Do you actually need that stuff to.. Ya know, stay materialized, or..?” Revali sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes.
“No, we conjured all of this just for dramatic effect,” He replied flatly.
“Ah, gotcha,” Link replied, causing Revali to squint his eyes in annoyance. Link leaned over to Mipha slightly to whisper to her. “Was that sarcasm, or..?” She giggled and whispered back.
“Yes, Link. That was sarcasm.”