You open your eyes and see the bright sun fill the room you are in. You sit up and rub the tiredness out of your eyes. It takes you another minute to remember what happened before you slept.

After placing the Lightscale Trident in its how home in a weapon mount, you collapsed on your bed and unconsciously closed your eyes with sleep overcoming you. You still wore your hood and belts when you opened your eyes the next morning.

You look around and see Link is not there on the bed next to yours. You get out of the bed and strap your weapons on. You open the doors to outside with a fresh breeze hitting your face welcomingly. You look around and see Link on the bridge looking off the cliff. You stand on the porch and slight relief washes over you. Something in your stomach stirs as you watch how the wind sways his hair and how his eyes seem to reflect thoughts that you can't quite read.

"Glad to see you're awake," he says without looking at you. Your face heats up.

"You should have woken me up," you accuse. Link's mouth twitches into the slightest smile. He turns around.

"Whatever, we should eat. Could you teach me how to cook now?" he asks with impatient undertones. You give in with a smile and nod in response. He then motions you to follow him to the shed with the crockpots.

~

When you two finish, you hop on Ginger and head out to the next destination. Over breakfast, you decided to head to the next closest of the races, the Gerudo. Following the parts of the map that are complete, the main road that heads southwest was the best option. On the way, a team of horses grazing in the field catches your eye. You tug on Ginger's reins and tilt your head in the direction of the horses. Link takes the hint and sneaks up to one.

He approaches the nearest horse, a dazzling dark bronze with white mane and socks. When he is close enough, he jumps on the horses back. It lets out a cry and tries to kick Link off with all its might. The other horses gallop away in fear.

The horse manages to calm down and Link directed her toward you and Ginger. Ginger neighed at the other horse's presence.

"You were faster than me," you note, impressed.

"I had your example," he smiles and digs his heels into his horse's sides, heading down the path with a trot to the nearest stable.

~

Link jumps off the horse to get him registered and fills out the paper by the window of the inn.

"What are you going to name her?" you ask.

Link casts his eyes on the ground and thinks for a second. "E... pona." He speaks the familiar name

"Huh? What was that?"

"Epona," he repeats. "Her name should be Epona."

"Alright, go for it," you encouragingly nod to the paper. Link turns to scribble the name on the paper and signs his name on the line underneath. Epona is all saddled up and ready to go by the time he is done.

"Thank you for your patience." The stable master says. "Please have a good rest of your day and come again soon!"

Link jumps on Epona's back. You tug at Ginger's reins and he starts heading south toward the Faron region.

~

A little while later, you spot a Sheikah Tower in the distance. Its orange glow contrasted greatly against the already darkening sky.

"There's another tower ahead." You say before stopping Ginger. You see a beautiful bridge crossing over a magnificent lake of Lake Hylia. Your eyes scan all over the surroundings before you. You utter a small 'woah' in awe without realizing it.

You jump off Ginger's back and walk toward a nearby tree. A small arrangement of stones piled to make a perfect shelter by rounded statues. You then realize you don't see Link beside you.

You turn and see him looking around with squinted eyes. "Is this number seven...?" he mutters and gets out the Sheikah Slate to select the album. Something clicks in his mind and he freezes up.

You patiently wait as he recalls an event that happened 100 years ago where the two of you stand. Moments later, he gasps and looks around upon being brought back to reality.

"I remember again..." he says barely above a whisper.

"What did you remember?"

"Well," he starts, "it was raining and Zelda and I stayed here to take shelter. She asked me if I wasn't born into the royal guard, would I have chosen a different path."

"What did you say?"

"I don't know. The memory stops there," he says. You nod in understanding and look around again, wishing you could remember something.

"Let's get the tower so we can have directions," you say. He nods and follows you to the horses again.

You lead Ginger down and through the long bridge. Your path, however, is shortly blocked by a camp of Lizalfos around a fountain. You stop Ginger and jump off, annoyed.

You load your bow and aim directly for a head shot. You release and the monster quickly drops dead, alerting the others. You grab your Silver Longsword and hear Link doing the same. You run over and slash the Lizalfos as efficiently as you can. In just a few minutes, all of them are dead.

You put your sword away and sigh. You turn to Link grabbing one of the Lizal Tri-Boomerangs by the horses, but something about the fountain stops you from doing so. You look around and a resonating feeling in your chest rises higher and higher.

Suddenly, you remember.

--~--

(Y/N) rode down the Bridge of Hylia in a royal guard uniform riding a horse of a dazzling solid black in a royal bridle. Two guards followed closely behind. (Y/N) tugged the reins of the horse and stopped beside the fountain, looking at the grey horizon between the mountains.

"Is everything alright, Commander?" a guard inquired.

"...Yes," (Y/N) answered. "But... I think someone is here."

"I suppose--"

Two menacing laughs cut the guard off. The three guards of royalty looked around for who the disembodied voices belonged to. Their questions were answered as two sparklers of yellow materialized in front of the horses.

(Y/N)'s black horse whined in fear and kicked its front legs as the sparklers cracked into a red cloud of maliced magic. Two Yiga Clan footsoldiers transported themselves with the flash of the Anti-Sheikah symbol.

(Y/N) stared at the enemies never seen before with wide eyes. The two accompanied guards loaded their bows and fired arrows at the foes. Focusing again, (Y/N) grabbed a royal bow and drew two arrows back, closed one eye, and released, all in less than a second. The arrows hit right on target and shattered each of their masks.

Refusing to let their identities to be revealed, the two soldiers dropped their weapons and drew their symbol in the air before vanishing as fast as they arrived.

"What was that?" (Y/N) asked in bewilderment, breaking the silence. "Raiders?"

"The Yiga Clan, Commander," one of the generals answered. "Former Sheikahs who chose the path of villainy."

(Y/N) gazed at the ground in thought with a faint scowl. "This visit to Gerudo is going to be fun."

--~--

You jolt back to reality and see Link snapping in front of your face.

"(Y/N), are you alright?" he asks concerned. You nod and massage your throbbing head. You suddenly hear a crash of water to your right. You spin around and see a magnificent sight of a yellow dragon emerging from the depths of the waters. You run to the edge of the bridge to see the sight of wonder.

You stare at the dragon, speechless, as it circles around to you. Orbs of electricity surround it and protect its precious scales. Some sort of music seems to echo off of its long body. Link gets out his Sheikah Slate before the dragon goes away. You hear the sound of a picture being taken.

"This is Farosh. It is apparently the spirit of courage. It is an ancient creature created by the goddess Hylia," he reads off the screen.

"What? How did you know that?" You walk over to look at the screen. You see the picture he took and a description written next to it. You look back up at Farosh in complete wonder, grateful that you're given this encounter.

Shortly after, Link heads to the Lake Tower, leaving you to wait at the bottom. You look up and see the moon directly above you. No wonder you are so tired. You wonder how you are going to sleep tonight, as there are no villages nearby.

Link jumps off the tower and paraglides down to greet you. You end up building a fire and waiting by it until morning. Both you and Link take shifts to look out. You feel you barely had gotten any sleep.