Link leads you down a short path to a small campsite in the shade of an overhanging cliff. Worn blankets can be seen strewn around an unlit fire. Link steadily lets you down on top of a blanket.

He sits down next to you as you let out another groan of pain, hissing through your teeth. You prop yourself up with one arm as the other roughly frees yourself from your equipment's straps. You lie back down again and cry out as you twist yourself just the wrong way.

Link hastily takes off his equipment as well and tugs his tunic over his head, exposing his undershirt. He crumples the tunic up and lightly lifts your head before placing it beneath as a pillow.

"There," he softly says before reaching in his pockets. "Hold on, I'll get you some food."

"No," you interject and try to hold up a hand. "Save it. Remember Harth?"

"Right..." Link recalls how nothing worked to heal him. Nothing except Mipha's Grace. "Can I take a look?"

"Yeah, just-- be careful."

"I will."

You swallow thickly before taking deep breaths. You close your eyes and try to willpower yourself away from the flaring pain as Link gently rolls up your layers of clothing. After your undershirt, he is able to see the nasty wound on the side of your waist.

The skin was red raw with black charring the edges. Link slightly winces at the sight. He lifts his hand and calls upon Mipha's Grace. His hand begins to glow a soft blue with her power as he hovers it over your burn.

A wonderful cooling sensation washes over you like you were plunged in refreshing cold water. The pain subsides to nothing as the burn mends itself under Mipha's magic. You take a calming deep breath and sigh contently.

As he notices this, Link silently sighs in relief at your calm state. You feel your strength return to you and your muscles relax from tensing. Soon enough, you are able to talk without a great deal of effort.

"Where are we?" you ask him.

"We're at the Great Plateau. This is where I met King Rhoam disguised as an old man. He would bake apples by this campfire."

"How did we 'fast travel' here?"

"It's a function on the Sheikah Slate. It can transport to any location that has registered a travel gate."

"A travel gate? What would be here that has a travel gate?"

"The Shrine of Resurrection."

"Is that where we were? Where else has a travel gate?"

"The tech labs and the Divine Beasts."

"When was the Sheikah Slate able to fast travel?"

"It's always been able to."

"You're saying--" you force yourself to prop up on an elbow to look at Link. "You're saying we could've been doing that the entire time?"

"I--" Link scoffs. "I didn't think it would-- That was the first time I've tried it, okay! I didn't think it would work with animals, so I didn't try it earlier because I didn't want to leave our horses behind!"

"Okay, I get it. You're forgiven."

"Forgiven?" Link parrots in offense. "Also, you need to lie down."

"I am lying down."

"No, lie down fully."

"But, why--"

"I don't want you to hurt yourself again. Plus, I'm not done." Link adjusts his seating and uses his free hand to guide you to lie down. This made him end up hovering above you again, which was enough to shut you up.

You don't say anything for the rest of the time it takes him to use Mipha's Grace. Once he finished, he dissipates the power and leaves you feeling a lot better.

"Sorry I got us in this mess," you apologize and attempt to sugar coat the situation with a weak smile.

"Don't apologize," Link says finally as he rolls your clothing back down.

"But it's my fault--"

"Just stop," he argues, making you blink. "No one's at fault, okay?"

It was clear as day that Link blamed himself for what happened. "That includes you, you know."

"I kn-- I know that."

"Then stop looking so guilty," you say as you sit up.

"I'm not... looking guilty," Link defends himself, forcing a confused expression on his face.

You let out an amused breath. "Well, now you're not."

The sun began to paint the skies orange as it settled to the west. Night was imminent.

"It looks like it's too late to go anywhere else tonight," you observe. "Is there anywhere else we need to go?"

"We have a stock of food and gear for the castle," Link says as he places several pieces of flint in the dead camp fire. "I don't think so. Is there some place you'd like to go?"

"No..." you trail off as you look at the distant, mountainous horizon. "There's just so much we haven't seen yet. So many places we haven't gone."

"We can go there after we face Ganon. With Zelda, of course."

"Yeah." Your hand subconsciously raises and combs through your hair. Link unsheathes his sword and takes a large swing at the flint, causing it to ignite a spark. "I suppose so."

The spark catches onto the smaller twigs in the fire before building up larger. Link reaches for a stick to the side of the camp and places it in the fire.

"There's still three towers we haven't gotten yet," he says as he gets out his Sheikah Slate. "It is pretty unsatisfying to look at... Hold on," he mutters. "If I press-- Oh, what? (Y/N), look!"

Link holds the Sheikah Slate up for you to see. It displayed the map with three regions still empty. But across the regions that were mapped was a continuous green line.

"What is..." you squint your eyes. "Is that--!"

"It's been tracking where we've been ever since I got the slate!"

"Lemme see that!"

Link hands you the slate so you can get a better look. You use the touch controls to zoom in and out of the map, following the green line. "It's called Hero's Path Mode," Link says.

"This is so cool. What else can it do?" you muse. Your eyes search the bottom of the display and read what the other functions are. "'Play'?" you read.

You touch the 'play' option and watch the green line disappear. Overlapping the icon where the Shrine of Resurrection lay, a green icon appears in the shape of a person. The icon then begins moving across the screen little by little, leaving the continuous green trail behind. Link's entire journey leading up to the present was playing before your eyes.

You and Link watch in fascination as the icon travels across the Great Plateau in circles, exploring the terrain. "Wow," Link chuckles, "I didn't realize how long I spent on the Great Plateau."

"What made you take so long?"

"The quest the King sent me on."

"A quest? Oh, right. It was for the paraglider, right?"

"Yeah. They came from inside the shrines."

"There are other shrines? Not just the two for resurrection?"

"Yeah. They were built here on the plateau centuries ago by monks for the sole purpose of giving the hero their strength back. And once the shrine was completed, or all the puzzles were solved, the monks at the goal point would just whither away."

"Whither away? They were still alive in there?"

"No... I don't... think so."

"Oh, look. You just got off the plateau," you say as you watch the icon travel straight for Dueling Peaks. The little green person would occasionally get sidetracked and wander off the main road to investigate something too small to see on the map. Eventually it reached up the hills and to Kakariko Village.

It wondered around the village for a while before stopping at Impa's house. Then, it left the Village and headed to Hateno with another person invisible by its side.

"And now we're together," Link narrated.

You and Link watch the icon travel across the map to Central Hyrule, Kakariko, the winding roads to Zora's Domain, and into East Reservoir Lake. The green icon swirls around before stopping completely and vanishing in a flash. It then reappears at Zora's Domain.

"Wait, why did it just do that?" you question.

"Remember how we... what's the word... 'teleport' from inside the Divine Beasts to just outside the villages?"

"Oh, right. That's a nice detail."

The icon travels back to Kakariko, down to Hateno, southeast to Lake Hylia, then around Lake Hylia to the Gerudo Canyons. It goes back and forth between the bazaar and Gerudo Town, then north to Karasu Valley. As the icon makes a b-line for Gerudo Town after the Yiga Clan, you remember that you weren't conscious then.

"Hey, what happened after the Yiga Clan Hideout?" you ask Link.

Link hums in thought as he recalled the events many days ago. "Yeah, that was definitely one of the-- if not the scariest events I've ever endured." You turn to him and notice his weak smile that was slowly dying. "You wouldn't wake up. I thought he killed you, (Y/N)."

"Oh, right," you mutter and look away as you fidget with your hands.

"Luckily there was an easy exit from that main room we were in. It would've been the end if I had to get past those guards with you and the Thunder Helm. But, you managed to hang in there and we made it to Gerudo Town."

"That's good," you quietly say as you wish the topic didn't get so grim.

On the screen, the icon glides east to Hateno, and northwest to Korok Forest and Typhlo Ruins. It follows the edge of Tanagar Canyon and crosses the bridge towards Rito Village. After it completes its quest there, it visits a few landmarks down south before wasting no time getting to Goron City.

Before long, the icon caught up to the present and stopped in its tracks.

"So, Hero's Path Mode, fast traveling, what else can that thing do that we haven't found out about yet?" you say.

"I think the future only knows that answer," Link jokes.

"Hey, look," you scoot yourself forward to look out from under the small cliff's hangover. "The stars are out."

You lean back and lie down next to the fire, not close enough to burn yourself. Your eyes wander the inky sky as you hear Link join you. He lies down next to you and looks at the stars with you.

Silence passes. The only sounds that can be heard are a distant orchestra of crickets chirping in the grass and the crackling of the fire. You feel your thoughts begin to wander as you face the vast emptiness above. You begin not thinking of yourself looking up, but looking down. You were looking down into a void, and the only thing keeping you from falling into the obis was the gravity on the planet.

There is only here. There is only now. There is only you and Link. Nothing else. You take a deep breath and close your eyes as you listen to the small sounds.

Your eyes snap open as you hear Link gasp and sit up next to you. "What?" you panic as you sit up as well.

"I figured it out," Link beams. "Balance. I know what it means."

"How? What did you figure out?"

"Zelda visited all the springs, right?" he enthusiastically explained. "But they weren't balanced. She didn't hold all the traits of them. But at the graveyard, she showed courage and pushed me out of the way of a Guardian! Then when she finally showed courage, the three pieces were balanced!"

Your eyes widen as it all comes together. "That makes perfect sense," you gape as you run your fingers through your hair. "Impa told me that there is a fourth piece of the triforce, but that force piece can only exist when the three other pieces are together. The fourth piece represents balance and guidance. It all makes sense!"

You furrow your eyebrows and look at the ground. "Why didn't I think of that before?" you whisper. "That is brilliant, Link."

"I can't believe I figured it out," Link mutters. "And I can't believe it took so long to understand that one word clue."

"I know. Especially since... I felt like I was the one that was supposed to piece it together. I remember it drove me crazy a hundred years ago. That I had this higher ability but I couldn't use it to solve the most crucial puzzle."

"Hey, you're fine," Link assures you. "I wouldn't have figured it out if you didn't tell me Hylia's clue."

Your expression twitches as his words near patronizing territory.

"We should get some rest," Link advises as he looks over the night cloaked lands. Lights from stables could be seen from the plateau. And the glow from Ganon's corruption illuminated Hyrule Castle ominously. "We'll need it before we face Ganon."

Your face falls at the reminder and you try poorly to hide it. Link, again, takes note of your uneasiness.

"It's all so strange," you say as you move back towards the old blankets again. "At the beginning, before felt like a past life. Me a hundred years ago didn't feel like a part of me." You lie down under the small cliff's overhang with Link. "I feel like there are some parts of that me that I'll never remember. Like, Robbie mentioned Purah and Impa were like sisters to me. I don't even remember my real family."

"I feel like that too," Link says. "I had a memory where Zelda told me I was taking a path like my father who was part of the royal guard. She said, what if... no matter what I thought, I had to become a knight, because I was born into it. Then she asked me if it felt like a choice, then would I have chosen a different path."

"It's all destiny," you comment. "We had no choice from the very beginning."

"But aside from that," Link rolls over to face you as he lay, "what would we do if we weren't tied to prophecy?"

You think for a moment as you stare at the natural ceiling above you. "You'd be a cook."

"No I wouldn't."

"Yes you would. Come on, admit it."

Link chuckled. "What would you do?"

"I don't know," you muse. "I think it would be amazing if I traveled all across Hyrule, completely free will. It's a shame there are so many parts of Hyrule we haven't been to yet," you say.

"We'll get around to it after Ganon," Link speaks with certainty again.

You sigh sharply and decide to voice your troubles. "You talk like there is going to be an 'after Ganon'." You prop yourself up with your arm and frown, refusing to look at Link. "I'm not questioning your abilities at all. I just-- What if we under prepare? What if I screw up?" You groan in frustration as water gathers at the rims of your eyes, "Link, what if we don't make it?"

Link sits up with you. "Don't think like that."

You look over to him in surprise. His eyes meet with your reflective ones, the warm glow of the fire mixing with the color.

"Don't think like that," he repeats. "We can defeat Ganon, and we will defeat Ganon. He took everything from us a hundred years ago. He destroyed everything. Now we're going to take it all back by putting an end to this Calamity. Don't think about the what-if's. Don't overthink. Instead, think about what we can do. Think about the things we've accomplished together. We're more than capable of defeating Ganon. Don't doubt that for a second."

Your eyes roam over his face as you feel your worries ease by his words. A small smile tugs at your lips. You briefly look at the ground before looking back at him.

"You always know how to cheer me up," you softly say. And before you can stop yourself, you lean in, and press your lips against his.

The kiss was brief, but it was enough to feel each other's warmth.

You pull away and open your eyes. You feel your heart sink. Link was frozen with wide eyes, unable to register what just happened.

"I'm sorry!" you gasp and cover your mouth. You watch Link blink and break eye contact, his face flushing red. "I thought-- I'm sorry! I wasn't reading the room right. I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have done that!" You look away and brace for him to speak hurtful words.

"No," he utters and looks up at you. "Can we... do that again?"

You barely believe his words. You look at him in shock and slowly lower your hand. He moves closer to you and brushes a strand of hair away from your face. He tilts his head as you close your eyes. He closes the distance and presses his lips against yours.

The world erupts in color. Link cups his hand on the side of your face. You wrap your arms around him. He pulls apart just enough to feel your lips brush against each other before he kisses you again.

This...

He kisses you again.

This is the moment you want to last forever.

You break apart and look at each other, still in each other's arms.

Everything about this moment...

Slowly, you both lie down next to the fire. You faintly smile as you settle comfortably in the safety of his hold.

Is utterly perfect.

After all these years, the two of you finally fulfilled an unspoken desire that has been kept secret for far too long.

Link touches his lips with his fingers as he smiles to himself.

Completely and utterly perfect.