The grip of the ancient sword hilt revealas itself to have a depressible trigger which makes it manifest a glowing blue blade. (If she unwisely has it pointed at herself at such a time, it thankfully doesn't create a hole in her and instead doesn't manifest the rest of the blade until she moves out of the way.)

There is no obvious trigger for the buckler.

Both of them look in really good condition, not like everything they dug up before the Calamity, which wasn't structurally compromised, mostly, but was certainly somewhat tarnished and scratched.

Fascinating!

She decides, after a moment's thought, to hike up to the local shrine to grab the travel gate on general principle, then head back to their room and try painting the view out the window until Link gets back.

It's a great overlook of the village!

Link does, eventually, drag himself back in a quarter past five. He's wearing a new burgundy bandanna on his head, replacing the Sheikah headgear.

How is her painting going?

Reasonably well! She turns and smiles at him. The canvas shows a mildly blobby but overall faithful reproduction of what the window has to offer.

Link does not know how to paint and is pretty impressed.

"How did your lessons go?"

Is the painting related?

"Very well! I learned how to cut a log in half with a sword. And smaller blocks of wood with a blunt knife, which is more difficult but oddly harder to make sound impressive."

...Huh.

"Cool," he muses.

He can... probably cut a log with a sword. He's not sure it's something he learned. Though if it was, would he know?

"You're going back again?" Judging by her pleased look.

"Mhm! Tomorrow. And I think we should make the trip to Hateno the day after, and then I'll have more lessons the day after that. In the meantime I am learning to paint, not for any particular reason except that it's something to do."

Link nods. He's not sure what to say to that. "That's good?" he tries.

He takes off his bandanna and holds it out to her.

"I found this in a shrine. It seems magic."

"Hmm! Do you know what it does?" She examines it.

"It makes me climb better, but I don't know how." He searches for words. "It improves my core strength? But in a way that's—gravity-like. But it's not making me lighter."

"—hmm." She hands Link back his bandanna and pulls a copy out of her pocket. "I think I'd like to try that out, actually."

Link looks around. Their room isn't really designed for climbing, but he remembers plenty of handholds on the outside facade, and the window opens?

The bandanna doesn't really feel like much when she's only just put it on.

She clambers quite cheerfully out of the window.

Is climbing noticeably any easier? If so, how? She expects she'll be able to tell even if the difference isn't much in context of her absurdity.

It feels like she has more—momentum, somehow? When she tries to pull herself up a ledge, she still has to put in the same amount of initial oomph, but it's a lot easier to ride the movement up. Like Link described, it feels centered in her core muscles, in that hauling motion. It gets easier to leverage with practice.

After only a few minutes, she climbs back inside, smiling.

"I see what you mean! It's very handy, isn't it?"

When she's back, there's a bunch of loot on the table, from giant toenails and tooths to ancient gears and screws and even a few giant hunks of amber and flint.

Link nods. "It doesn't work very well with the stealth mask."

Zelda cheerfully sets to picking things up and putting them down again.

"Where did you find all this?"

"Killed monsters. Saw them on the road, so." He shrugs. "The stable had a bounty for the Hinox. I thought it was better to take care of it. Gears are from the shrines—some of them have little guardians."

"That does seem sensible. And I'm sure Purah will be delighted to be showered in heaps of ancient widgets."

"Plans for tonight?"

"I don't have anything specific in mind besides organizing my notes... I suppose we could look for the Great Fairy Fountain that's rumoured to be nearby."

"Do you know where it is?" Link wonders. "...Also, I don't mind, but it'll be dark."

"I don't know much more than 'rumoured to be nearby'. I think I'm all right with the dark, though."