Oh, dear, she's having feelings again. She should stop that.

The sense of being watched only intensifies as they approach the village. Link dismounts Starless and is about to offer her reins to Zelda when something prickles the back of his neck—

HIs sword is out of its sheath and flashing—

—towards an old woman behind them where she wasn't before—

—where it shatters on the fine edge of an eightfold steel blade.

"Whoa!" yelps the old woman, stumbling back at the force of the strike. She dabs a drop of blood from her collar where a flying shard grazed her. "Just the gate watch! Didn't mean to startle you... Kids these days, so twitchy."

She's dressed in the red, white and blue robes of the Sheikah, with a band on her head inscribed with the traditional character for "guard". She's shaken, but trying to hide it.

Link has a shield up and is indignant about the quality of swords in this age. When they're not whatever this woman is holding.

Zelda just barely manages to stop herself from jumping eight feet straight up in the air like a startled cat. And then it belatedly occurs to her that perhaps jumping eight feet straight up in the air like a startled cat might actually be a good idea, if someone did suddenly attack them. Seems likely to raise difficult questions in other situations, though.

"Um, hello," she says, flustered. "Sorry about that. We're, um. I guess we're looking for Impa?"

The old lady is now several feet farther away, fingering a slip of paper on her hip.

"Lady Impa? What for?"

Then her eyes stray to what's on Link's hip.

"My—is that—that's not a Sheikah Slate, is it?"

Then she finds what's hanging from Zelda's belt.

"Two...? No, you had me fooled for a second there! Haha!"

Everyone knows there's only one Sheikah Slate. Though there were those rumors from Hateno... She shakes her head.

"State your business, travelers."

Link eases up a bit once he realises Zelda isn't alarmed—are these the Kakariko natives? He still doesn't trust her, though.

He'll let Zelda do the talking.

"We would like to show Lady Impa our Sheikah Slates." She should perhaps have been carrying hers in pocketspace but it's too late now.

They look like what a Sheikah Slate is supposed to look like, but she's never seen one herself. It's probably a Yiga trick.

...How many times do they say "it's a Yiga plot" and it turns out to actually be Yiga? It's been twenty years since they've seen hide or hair of the Yiga Clan.

She sheathes her sword.

"Don't make any trouble," she warns, "and keep that sword to yourself, kid. Ask the guardsmen outside the Lady's residence for an audience."

They'll know better how to handle this. She does snap off her "suspicious person" silent alarm.

And she poofs into a cloud of smoke and illusory paper.

"Thank you!" she says, possibly to thin air.

She looks at Link, tilting her head in the direction of the town; does he wish to proceed or would he like some time to regroup?

No, they can go. Inside is probably safer than the outside. He'll stay on foot and lead Starless by hand.

The inside of Kakariko Village is, refreshingly, much the same as it was a hundred years ago. Little farmlets and coops interspersed with lovingly maintained homes, with a small creek weaving through it all, between paths and under bridges. The water splashes with carp. The trees growing along the road are the same ones that were here a hundred years ago. The same hidden root by the steps the trips her up every time, the same clothing store in that spot, the same sign with a chipped corner.

The residence of the village chief is the same place it always was, risen on the lower lagoon of Lantern Lake, surrounded by cascading waterfalls, with only a guarded wooden bridge leading up to it. In Zelda's time, the chief was Lady Kotomi, in her forties but only six years new to her post.

And now it's Lady Impa, which makes perfect sense but feels incredibly strange.

She leads the way up to the bridge and tries to offer the guard a friendly smile, but fails. "Hello. We'd like to speak to Lady Impa."

The guard on duty is a man with a bushy white beard and a longsword at his side. His eyes stray to the Sheikah Slates by their sides.

"Hm."

Lady Impa told the guard rotation to expect a tiny boy with a Sheikah Slate and "at least one sword, probably more". The startlingly pretty girl with a second Sheikah Slate was not in the briefing. Except... he's part of the Lady's Sworn and a member of the secret service. He hears things. The girl doesn't look a hundred years old, but there were those other rumors... 

"...Master Purah?"

"Not exactly, no!"

Oh dear. He shouldn't have said that, then. He doesn't let it show on his face.

"Then may I ask who you are? And this young man here?"

The boy does look like Impa's description of the resurrected hero. Perhaps the girl is an aide?

Now, how to play this... giving her name is going to cause even more trouble than the extra Sheikah Slate. She thinks for a moment... aha! Perfect.

"If you wouldn't mind, please tell Lady Impa that the annoying little rat who will haunt her to the end of her days is here to see her."

...That is a vaguely concerning codephrase, but that's not his concern right now. But it means she's not an aide, then. He nods at the junior guard behind him, who scampers the stairs to deliver the message.

After a minute, the other guard returns and whispers in his ear. He stands aside.

"Both of you may enter."

"Thank you!" she says sunnily, proceeding.

Link follows, not really understanding that exchange, but unperturbed by it.

A skittish-looking young woman opens the door for them and quickly gets out of their way with a few mumbled apologies. In the center of the house, seated on a soft mat with lanterns on two sides, is an tiny ancient woman, her skin spotted and sagging.

"It's... you," the woman croaks, breathless. She coughs. "I only hoped that I would have the chance to see you again... but did you have to remind me of that, really?" She lets out a toothless laugh.