As they approach, they'll notice him muttering to himself, inaudible.

...she listens attentively, in case he turns out to be saying anything interesting once they're close enough to hear him.

"The end is nigh... 're doomed..."

Well. Fair enough, honestly.

She detours to grab the travel gate on the shrine as they pass, but if Link isn't inclined to try the shrine immediately she won't ask him to.

Link squints in the direction the man is looking and opens up his Sheikah Slate's scope function for a gander, but doesn't seem to find anything worth commenting on.

They can come back for it later, since they can teleport back any time. Better to get situated first.

The man doesn't really notice them as they pass.

If they keep going, they'll come up on the deep pass between the Duelling Peaks, shrouded in shadow. Across the river, a Sheikah tower juts out of the rocks of the shallows.

The inside of the pass is more infested with Bokoblins than Zelda remembers.

Link juts a thumb in the direction of the tower.

"Map?"

She nods. "Let's go get it."

"By swimming?"

The river current looks pretty strong. He's not one hundred percent sure he can swim that in his current state.

He scans around for an accessible vertical ledge to jump off. None in sight, unless he wants to take the long route up the mountain.

He looks back at Zelda doubtfully.

She follows his gaze. "...hmm. You have a point. I was expecting it wouldn't take much effort to cross the river, but I hadn't thought it through all the way. We can come back for it later."

"Maybe you can... create a boat?"

He looks up at the shadow of the Dueling Peaks.

"If you take my Slate, climb up and glide over, pick up the travel gate and map for both of us, and teleport back this side?"

"...hm. Yeah, that could work. I'll leave your Slate with you while I'm fussing around with climbing, though; it means an extra trip, but only the short parts of the trip, and Slates are useful."

She can't put them in her magic pockets? Actually, can't she duplicate Slates anyway?

He doesn't say that, though. He's probably misunderstanding something. He just nods.

She jaunts up the side of that mountain at an absolutely unfair pace, glides down to the other side, and strolls up the outer frame of the map tower even more easily. Shortly she's reappearing at the shrine in a twist of blue light.

He looks at that and thinks I can do that except he, empirically, can't.

(Okay, not quite that fast and agile, but he ought to be able to scale a cliff face at a solid pace without getting much out of breath.)

He's waiting at the shrine when she pops back and offers his Slate. Or does she want him to do the second round trip?

She smiles, accepts the Slate, boops herself back up to the top of the tower, and within half a minute is back at the shrine again.

Link gives her a dip of his head that means "thank you", and they can be on their way?

If they're going through the mountain pass, he's going to, uh, run ahead and deal with that infestation first.

Sensible. She decides that the safest place for her to be while he's up to that is 'perched on a cliff face like a gargoyle' so that's where she waits for him.

He's getting faster as his combat muscle memory warms back up. They're dispatched in short order. He picks up a spit they were roasting river trout with and takes a small bite out of the fish.

He makes a face.

Another shrine, another travel gate.

Once they're nearing the other side, they see the more promising signs of civilization: a bridge that's not the one Zelda remembers from back in the day, and a large marquee across the river with a large wood-and-cloth effigy of a horse head on top.

There are people milling around the building, horses and stables by its side, and a well and some cooking and camping spots. There's even a merchant's wagon parked out front, stacked up with bundles of goods.

She smiles and lets out a relieved breath. "Whew. Signs of civilization."

Link perks up at the sight. His steps speed up.

"Horses—we should get horses." A pause. "I should get a horse?"

"You should get a horse," she confirms, smiling. "I'm faster than most of them and I can run for longer."

They'll get some looks as they approach the stable. No one knows what Princess Zelda looked like, but she's always had a face and complexion befitting of growing up on the best the King's treasury can buy, and she now has all of those appearance powers to boot.

No one will directly address them.

(There's also a shrine conveniently nearby.)

It feels different from the Hyrule she remembers, though she can't quite place how or where. Has she been to this exact stop on the road before? Did it even exist, before? She isn't sure.

She heads for the shrine first to pick up the travel gate, her thoughts racing ahead to the village. How long will it take them to get there? What will it be like? Will it feel somehow indefinably wrong, like this place does? Can she even remember, right now, what Impa's village is supposed to look like?

She finds that she's standing there, half turned away from the shrine's pedestal, holding her slate, staring through it like it isn't there, afraid to even wonder to herself whether Impa will still be alive.