The Water Princess
by jadedofmara

The Water Princess

jadedofmara

Summary

Mipha would go out with the Guard and take stock of the Domain. She would eat fish fresh from the river and feel the sun on her skin. And when the sun began to set, she would be ushered back to her rooms and told to stay the night, safely in the center of the Domain. Nobody noticed when she slipped out, dressed in armor meant for a man who did not exist, exploring the world around her.

Notes

Imported from Archive of Our Own. Original work id: 19191439.

Before the Storm

Sidon was unstoppable. His skill with spear and net was unrivaled. He was loved by the elders and the people alike. His speed in the water was unparalleled. It was no wonder he was chosen to be Champion of the Zora.

Sidon was unstoppable. Tales are still told about the Zora champion who protected the Domain, explored all of Hyrule, piloted Ruta. Sidon, prince of the Zora, Sidon, greatest warrior, Sidon, protector of all Hyrule.

Sidon was unstoppable, right up until he wasn't.

Everything the Zora had worked towards for centuries was erased in one day. Treaties with the Hylians stopped mattering, because there were no Hylians to negotiate with. The Domain's borders shrank as travel became more dangerous every day. Ruta sunk beneath the waters of East Reservoir Lake.

And the sole heir to the Zora Royal Family was dead.

Dorephan and his wife were aging, and hadn't thought they'd need to have another heir. So after 20 years of trying, the entire domain celebrated their miracle heir. Right up until the day she hatched. Their miracle heir had just turned out to be a liability.

Mipha grew up in the shadow of the entire domain, watched over by the Council of Elders and the Royal Guard and the statue of her dead brother. The guards taught her to wield a trident and the townsfolk taught her to fish and weave and sew. The elders taught her that she would need a husband to rule the domain for her, when she came of age or her father died, whichever came first.

Zora's Domain had always had a queen. It had never had a queen who ruled alone. So her father began searching for a Zora of the right age. The Muzu and the elders began searching for a Zora of the right status. And Mipha began working on her Lightscale armor.

The Domain's borders shrunk, and with it, the population. This calamitous world was an uncertain one, and Mipha was the only member of her generation. She explored outside the bounds of the domain and found camps of monsters ever closer. She trained to take them out on her own, and no one saw her injuries. Mipha had always been a fast healer, but she wasn't able to explain how the worst of her wounds wouldn't even scar the next day.

It wasn't until Laflat was dragged back to the Domain that Mipha understood. The woman had helped Mipha in her studies, and was an ally and guide in the Royal Guard. Seeing her broken and bloodied after an encounter with a Lynel was shocking. Looking at her, Mipha knew in her soul she couldn't let her die. And so she pulled at something deep inside her, and her hands began to glow, and Laflat's wounds began closing up on their own. Or not on their own. Mipha was doing something. Mipha could heal not just herself, but those around her.

The Royal Guard were overjoyed at having a healer they could turn to, and Mipha was given more opportunities to work with them. The elders were happy that her talent had revealed itself, and happier that her talent was something they could write off as feminine. Surely, any high status Zora man would love a healer for a wife.

Speculation among the elders turned to other domains beyond the sea, other domains across the western chasms and canyons. Mipha continued practicing with her trident, until she could best even the captain of the guard in sparring. She finished her Lightscale armor. Nobody noticed it wasn't sized for a male Zora.

Things began to settle into an easy rhythm. Mipha would go out with the Guard and take stock of the Domain. She would eat fish fresh from the river and feel the sun on her skin. And when the sun began to set, she would be ushered back to her rooms and told to stay the night, safely in the center of the Domain. Nobody noticed when she slipped out, dressed in armor meant for a man who did not exist, exploring the world around her. This system worked, day in and day out.

Then the rains came.

At first, people assumed it was a simple rainstorm. As it went into its twelfth hour, Zora on the street began looking at each other nervously. When the rains did not let up overnight, the Elders met with her father, and didn't leave their chambers for the whole day. On the third day, someone went to check on the Reservoir. It was nearing capacity.

Worse still, the rain wasn't caused by any natural force. Ruta had awoken, and was shooting a stream of water straight into the sky. The water formed clouds, and when the clouds couldn't grow any larger, they poured down what they couldn't take. The mountains around the Domain formed a natural bowl. Now that bowl was keeping all of Ruta's water in.

The constant sound of rain at her window was more than Mipha could take. She began slipping out and sleeping in the waters under the Domain, beneath where even the common Zora slept. In the moments between wakefulness and rest, she heard the cries and curses of those above her. They cursed the rains that scared the fish and hid the monsters, they cursed the royal family and the Elders for not coming to a solution, they cursed their ancestors for building a dam without spillways, but most of all, they cursed Ruta.

Ruta, her brother's weapon and companion, was hurting those in the Domain. If sentimentality prevented those who knew him from acting, she would have to work around that.

In the night, shielded from the Elders and the rains, Mipha began to plan.

End Notes

ok so. sorry for such a small part of the fic that it takes up, im super obsessed with the hydrodynamics surrounding zoras domain. its dumb, i know.

SO! as a case study, lets use the 2013 floods in colorado. these floods were caused by constant rain over a few days, similar to what I'm portraying in this fic. IMO, zora's domain is very similar to estes park, and one of the issues in 2013 was lake estes (a reservoir) filling up past capacity. this put the engineers up there between a rock and a hard place, because if they released water from the dam, then it would worsen flooding downstream. HOWEVER, if they didnt release water from the dam, it could cause the dam to fail, which would DRASTICALLY worsen flooding downstream.

(a similar-ish situation happened with lawn lake in rocky mountain national park, where a dam failed and it killed a lot of people and theres still a scar on the landscape like, 40 years later)

so basically, dams are a risky business, but flooding like whats seen in this fic is pretty rare. anyways, whom else is mad that the east reservoir dam doesn't have a spillway you can ride like a videogame waterslide? just me? ok.

watch this video.

(oh also comments make me anxious if you liked this fic say something nice on a fic that doesn't have any comments yet)