It wasn't the first time they'd met since Calamity Ganon. He had come by a few times randomly. He hadn't said or done much, like he was just trying to watch her, to remember. This time, the birthday was a good excuse. He was holding something in a small burlap sack. "For me? Thank you." He was more than a good guard in the past. He was a good friend back then, memory or not, so she gave him what he wanted.
She didn't pretend with him. He was the only person who saw every side of her personality, royally uncouth or not. "Today isn't going the way it was supposed to, Link," she admitted as she took the little sack gift. "I know everyone wanted me to have a wonderful day, to remember that we've made such progress in the last year, but it's very hard to do." She watched him take a seat at the table. "Perhaps I shouldn't have rejected an actual celebration for it, but it felt like it was too much. For not doing that, I feel like today I am being punished." She looked at his gift that was wiggling around in the burlap and opened it. "A frog and a recipe." She smiled as she grabbed the frog in one hand with the recipe in the other. He remembered the frog! He found a memory. "My theory was correct." She looked at the recipe. "Cooking it released the abilities." She glanced toward Link. "I guess you were right not to eat it raw." She laughed, a little beside herself he finally remembered that. "Thank you for the gift, Link. It truly makes me feel better."
It did. It was a small step, but it was a step. She had no idea how many memories he had retrieved specifically of her, but at least she knew he had one.
Then? The Nutcake woman was back. Not again. "I have no time for grievances for you to air, I am busy. Leave."
"Make me." She slammed her palms on the small table. "You can't reject me forever, the world deserves to know the truth."
"There is no truth and only pain in what you want from me," Zelda insisted, but then the crude woman tried to take her frog. Zelda pulled it away, but she kept reaching for it. Link stepped in and made her keep her hands back.
"What are you holding, and what's that in your other hand?" the nosy woman demanded.
"It is a frog and a recipe." Easily revealed.
"So you can answer that but nothing else I asked?" she demanded. "Do you feel 18 or do you feel 118, did you feel like you and Calamity Ganon were the same creature, did you feel its evil inside of you?"
She didn't answer, staying silent. 'Trouble, Zelda, she's trouble. Be careful.'
Link took it upon himself to escort the woman out. Speaking about the calamity probably didn't make him feel better either.
"I don't understand," Zelda said as he came back. "Why today of all days has someone chose to ask me those questions? Do I really have to answer them before she leaves me be?"
She covered her nose and mouth with her hands. She glanced at Link who just shook his head. His eyes. There was something else to them. He hadn't just remembered the frog incident. 'Could it be? Did he . . . remember everything?' Maybe. Until he said it, she wouldn't assume. "You're right. I shouldn't say anything that I don't want to. I simply remember the gossip mongers. I fear that she won't bring any more good than they did."
She looked on the other side of her. "Right about now, Urbosa would be saying something to me about it. She can't though." She wiped her eye briefly. "She never can again. None of them can. Sometimes I think 'what would father think of what happened to our kingdom'? Then I remember it doesn't matter. He could do nothing." Memories were being driven hard back into her mind. Oh great, the woman was coming back. Now what was she going to say?
"Is that what you do with the hero that defeated Calamity Ganon? Talk his ear off about your problems, really?" she criticized Zelda. "Like he doesn't have any problems and just wants to hear about you bawling about everyone being dead?" Then she left.
Thank the goddesses, she was finally gone. Now Zelda could focus on more important-
"Hello there!" A Zora came into the room. "I am Prince Sidon! Do you remember me?"
She had met him more than once. The Zoras lived a long time. She had met him both before fighting Calamity Ganon, and afterwards again about a year ago. "Yes. Hello, Prince Sidon."
"Ah, Link!" Sidon flexed toward him. "Still keeping up strong being the hero of the world?" Of course, Link didn't answer. Prince Sidon turned back to Zelda. "The Zoras need some extra help in our building materials. As you know we are building outwardly now to make the kingdom easier to access over the mountains, and we are in need of vast amounts of luminous stones."
"Yes." Good, something she could help with. "I am sure we can assist you in finding luminous stones." Even she knew where some had been at.
"We have some too," A different Goron said as he came in. "Hello!"
"Hello, Yunobo." Daruk's relation. Such a long way to travel. "It's lovely to see you again."
"I came for your birthday. Boss says I was excused for your birthday." He gave her a diamond. "Hylian's really like these."
"Thank you." He could have given her anything and she'd still be-
"Unless you want this instead?" Yunobo held out rock salt. He also held out topaz and a luminous stone.
"Oh, could I have that?" Prince Sidon asked him. "We need those."
"They are all over. Um?" Yunobo looked toward Zelda.
"Consider giving it to him as the gift to me," she said to him. She watched as Yunobo gave it to him. It was good to keep associations between everyone strong. "I need to visit Gerudo soon." The Zoras and Gorons were decent allies, but she should keep in touch with the Gerudos too. They were also bound to have problems, and their own leader was quite young. Younger than her.
Zelda glanced as Link laid a veil down on the table. He was warning her of the dangers. "I have traveled there before, I know its temperature dangers, Link."
He picked the veil back up, but not gently. Did she misinterpret him wrong? Without his memories and experience away from each other, she may have messed up something. Did she belittle him? Oh, she hoped she didn't do that. She had tried to watch for that kind of thing.
"I can go to make you feel better!" Yunobo said. "Gorons can go into Gerudo."
"No, that's quite alright," Zelda told him. Gerudo was not close to Goron City at all, it was far out of the way. She didn't want Daruk's son to get into trouble.
She heard the sounds of the master sword being picked up and drug against the wood of the table before Link simply left.
Or so she thought. Looking out the stable later, she had seen him. Guarding. Guarding the stable? 'Link. How much do you remember?'