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shirokh · 4 years

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Ch3 Gerudo’s Way

Zelda, followed by Impa reunited with Marth and Roy, who we’re now wearing Hylian blue tunics, and Link dressed with his Hylian knight garments.

Link greeted on a formal way, staying silent the rest of the time until princess arrival. , it’s not that he felt like socialising with “famous handsome fiancé”, who would be with the girl he never imagined loving that way.

From a special portal, using Sheikah tablet, they were transported to the outskirts of Gerudo dessert. Urbosa’s old friend, Kouka was already waiting for them.

-“That’s wicked mate! This Sheikah artefact, such a good invention” Roy enthusiastically said, never knowing teleportation before. Marth was also overwhelmed by it, as Altea did not have that kind of “transportation”

“Sav’otta! As you must know, it is an urgent matter, so I need you to accompany me into the village” the tall Gerudo said.

Zelda looked at Kouka, and then to her companions. They could not enter Gerudo’s village, as they were man, or voe as they called them

-“It’s better to follow Gerudo’s law, man’s access is forbidden, so you should wait for me here...”

Foreseeing this, Kouka interrupted

-“Princess, if you agree we could give them special vai clothes so they could enter, and we would save ourselves a lot of time...”

-“Lets do this princess, I see your concern, so I don’t mind changing Hylian clothes for Gerudo ones” He immediately proposed, entering Kouka’s tent.

-“Well... maybe it’s not like...” she answered dubious, looking towards Link, who avoided nervously her eyes, following Marth and Roy who were already undressing.

-“This is kind of a joke” Roy’s voice was heard trough the tent, laughing.

-“You have to admit that as a red head look more Gerudo-ish” he laughed again, after a moment the Altea royals came out of the tent. Zelda, who was drinking water from a bottle, started coughing and choke a bit from the impression.

-“Well, how do we look with veils? “ Roy asked moving his hands as if he was dancing, to wich made Zelda laugh sincerely. They were both wearing traditional Gerudo’s outfit, a blue top with golden engravings, a veil covering their heads and face with hanging ornaments leaving only their eyes exposed, a small jewel hanged in the middle of their foreheads. The pants were kind of bloomers, so they had their abdomen exposed, but their arms were covered by delicate silk sleeves.

-“I think you are completely approved” Kouka affirmed, smiling pleased. “If your skin wasn’t as white, and your hair so blue, for the stature you could be a Gerudo vai, your face factions are really refined, aren’t they?”

Still smiling Zelda nodded, after all she didn’t expect the prince to accept this kind of requests just like that

-“Well, this is the most femenine side you’ll see of me” he said while adjusting the veil, blushing under it.

At the end, Link joined them, he wore a green top and a similar veil, which left Zelda, Roy and Kouka open-mouthed

-“It’s your turn princess” she said pulling from her arm and taking her into the tent. “I have something special for you, sent by Urbosa herself.

-“But I don’t...” she said nervously.

-“Come on, come on! If we are Gerudo for a day, guided by a Sheika you have to have similar outfits so you don’t stand out”

Within minutes, a blushing Zelda appeared, closing her arms in front of her, covering her tiny abdomen on a shy posture, she never wore something so light, but she was kind of grateful, as the sun was starting to rise and you could feel the intense heat of the dessert.

-“Isn’t she beautiful?” Kouka said smiling, and presented her with a pony tail, similar to Gerudo’s, with a pale pink top, golden accents and a similar veil, a white hip bloomer pant, both Link and Marth blushed on sight, Roy smiled making the seven veil dance.

-“Don’t look!” She said embarrassed with a nervous laugh, looking the surprised faces, especially Link’s.

“Now I feel less embarrassment, as we are wearing the same Princess, this outfit fits you beautifully” Marth said smiling, offering his hand so she could step down the small rock stair outside the tent, and held her for a minute, something Link wasn’t happy with, and without a word he reached out the Sheika tablet to Zelda, so she had to release Marth’s hand.

-“Thanks Link, let’s proceed to the village”

Marth was a good observer, so he didn’t ignored this event.

Impa went into the village with them and decided she should get more information, so she left Zelda in Urbosa’s care, determining they would meet in a couple of days.

Urbosa was overflowing with happiness when she saw Zelda wearing the outfit she sent, and admired watching Link in Gerudo’s outfit, she almost didn’t recognised him.

-“You look charming Princess, I know certain appointed knight would not be indifferent towards this” she said, giving Link a wink, while she blushed.

-“Urbosa, please allow me to introduce to you my Fiancé”

-“Fiancé!? What did I miss? You are not wasting time! I always knew that you two...

-“He is Marth!! Prince of Altea!” She quickly interrupted, as Urbosa was assuming in advance she was talking about Link, and she liked to tease them about it.

-“Oh! Sa’oten, My goodness! This is a surprise, you are a voe! I thought you were a beautiful vai from the west” she told Marth, shaking his hand, watching Link sideways.

-“I suppose it’s lucky we met under this circumstances” he answered smiling.

-“Such a curious accent!” She said with animosity, sitting then on a big cushion surrounding a table with fresh incense and cold water, so the guests followed.

-“Everything happened near the subterranean water well, the one we use to irrigation of the fields, all the new sprouts began dying, even the flowers and cactus began withering, three of my best explorers went down to look for the cause of this, maybe the water spring was being contaminated, and they never came back... it gives me a bad feeling, Princess I sent down several search and rescue teams without success”

-“It will be better to go personally, maybe I could feel some dark power in the well”

The team walked to the wet zone of the water wells, going down a big ladder with some torches to light the way down, Marth and Roy insisted to go along too.

Trying to distract herself, Zelda summoned triforce power raising her hand, a light shining arised, lighting the way in the same manner than the torches they carried.

-“I can’t feel any presence” lowering her eyes, she took her hand to her chest, holding both hands to her heart.

After walk-in about an hour, Urbosa claimed

-“I might be imagining things, but I think I heard something” She lit her torch ahead, and a black goo turned off the fire completely, it was an eyeless creature, so it wasn’t a jelly choo.

-“What the hell..!” Exclaimed, snapping her fingers to cast lighting without any effect on the creature. She then tried to cut it with her double edge sword, wich stuck to the goo, sucking it.

Marth Link and Roy unsheathed their swords, as Roy atacked frontally with a fire thrust, but that only angered the beast, at the same time as if they were coordinated, Link and Marth attacked up, wich divided the creature in two parts, one of them went right to Urbosa’s ankle, the more she tried to release herself, the more tight she was imprisoned by it, going up her leg.

Zelda tried to summon her power, but a feeling that she shouldn’t think about him or her love for him, he was forbidden, he was going to voluntarily marry someone else, so her hand would only emit a soft ball of light, there was nothing she could do, in a second the creature trapped her leg and she fell to the ground, hitting herself on the rocks, the creature quickly advanced to her waist.

Link felt despair, he had to do something before this thing ate both of the girls.

While Marth tried to pull Zelda out, Link took out a few ice arrows and shot the black flap adhered to the champion. Soon the creature freezed and with a thrust Roy broke it into pieces.

He repeated the procedure with the left part of the goo to release the princess, and as they broke it, on its insides the shapes of three inconcious Gerudo were seen.

“¡Sa’oten! In the name of the Goddess!” Urbosa said, raising up quickly and checking on the young girls laying on the ground.

“It seems that thing stole their energy, they are alive but unconscious, we need to get them up and hidrate them, before we find out if we really killed this bastard”

The three guys help carrying the girls into their backs, and went back to the city. Marth couldn’t help but notice that the princess had several wounds on her shoulder.

-“Princess! You are severely wounded!” He said as his hand was about to touch the naked shoulder of the young girl to look at the bleeding, being interrupted by Link’s arm, who prevented his hand from touching her, holding the Prince’s hand.

-“Don’t... You’r highness, please refrain from touching the wound, it might get infected” Link expressed, with a quick uncomfortable silence until Urbosa broke the moment with a loud voice.

-“Ara! We have to get this wound treated, follow me, I’ll take you to my chambers”

Ther Gerudo girls were being treated on the nursery, and they assigned a room near Urbosa’s chambers to the boys.

-“You worry a lot about the princess, Link” ... Marth affirmation was made looking at him front, as Roy was making his bed on the corner of the room.

-“It’s part of my job” he coldly answered, looking the other side to the window. Not even Revali made him feel this annoyed like this guy.

-“Not a problem then commander, from now on it’s my job, after all she is my betrothed”

-“Oy! What are you on about?” Roy came, he sensed the tense ambient, and they were front to front.

-“Nothing, I’ll go and check on Vah Naboris” Link retired making a small bow and went through the balcony, going down the stairs.

-“I wonder what is he talking about? Vah Nawbee..what?

With a confused face, Roy looked at Link abandoning the room.

-“More than that, I’m interested on the ice magic they used in the arrow, they are different from Altea’s”

-“I’ve seen ice magic before, but never in an arrow, do you remember that dragon we went after?” Roy said

-“And I suspect there is more than that, Hyrule is filled with magic, when the kingdoms unite, think of all the power we could get, I read there are also dragons here...”

-“So... you are thinking seriously on marrying Zelda and have a lot of kids?” Row asked yawning

Don’t be a wanker! What are you thinking about!? Said Marth blushing fiercely while Roy went into a bed and covered himself with a blanket

Leaving the royals behind, Link went down the valley to the place where Vah Naboris was. He climbed up to the top and after sitting for a while looking into the dessert, felt someone’s presence behind him, relaxing when he saw it was Urbosa.

-“Sav’orr! Heroe... are you gonna let her go just like that?” she stood behind him

-“There’s not much I can do...” he answered looking down, then he realized Urbosa was talking about a purple rupee about to fall from his pocket to one of the lumps of the big camel, grabbing it at the last moment.

Urbosa, with a sassy smile sat next to him.

-“It would be perfect if you could just take whatever you want into your pocket, wouldn’t it? Even the heart of a certain princess” she told, stretching her hands to the sky. Link just blushed.

-“I wouldn’t... besides she already has someone...” he answered avoiding to look at her.

-“Well, it’s a progress, at least you realized yourself you r-e-a-l-l-y care about her... huh? appointed knight? “

-“I don’t.... I mean... damn! Is it that obvious? I would give my life for her no doubt...”

-“It’s as clear as water” the chief of the Gerudo laughed. “Probably clear since before Ganon even appeared, but you were the one who didn’t realise it, It still bugs me that she accepted the proposal of that voe prince... Marth is it? It’s strange, he came out of nowhere. I would have bet my right hand she only had eyes for a single knight, I’ll find out about it”

-“No, Urbosa, I think it’s better not to complicate things...”

-“So, are you gonna let her go just like that?” She pointed at his pocket, which made Link turn quickly to verify his rupees weren’t falling, but the bag was perfectly closed.

-“You should tell her how you feel Link, I’m sure that would make her happy, I don’t think she realises you care for her not out of duty, but out of love, more than she thinks of”

That word made the knight nervous, with a red face.

-“I... don’t know, I’m not sure it’s the proper time now that she has a Prince to marry”

Come on! If you wait for the proper time, a hundred year will pass, when will it be? When she is married? You can’t take your time hero!” She said out loud while going down the sacred beast, Link could not sleep that night, and he just dozed on the top of Vah Naboris.

The next day Zelda slowly opened her eyes, she had some trouble waking up, and the moment her lids were open, she found someone in front of her, a familiar silhouette.

-“Li...” she managed to pronounce before she was completely awake, and the blurring shadow became clear. It was Marth, who was closely watching her, standing on the side of her bed, surprised she sat on the bed.

-“Good morning” the prince said with a smile

-“Princess, I assume you must be exhausted, as you slept so much”

-“What time is it?” She asked rubbing her eyes, she felt as if she had slept a few minutes.

-“It must be past supper, I brought you some refreshments from the table, you haven’t had taken anything since yesterday “ he said as he took the tray to the bed.

“Oh, thanks but it’s better if I get up already...” she mentioned, feeling spoiled by the sovereign, but the moment she tried to stand up, the force on her legs went away and she could have fallen if it wasn’t for Marth, who was near to support her, kneeling down he embraced her.

-“It’s better if you rest more your highness, it seems you are a bit weak”

-“I’m fine...” she said taking his shoulder to stand, looking into his eyes, they were dark blue, contrary to Link’s reckleness, his eyes had a calming effect.

When she was about to get up, the prince carried her on his arms firmly, walking some steps to the table.

-“Marth! Stop! I’m not a baby, put me down please”

-“I refuse... until you accept to rest some more. Besides it’s not the first time I carry you like this” he answered with a smile looking at her amused “It makes me happy that you called me by my first name, can I do the same?”

-“I ... guess you can, as long as you put me down” she said blushing while avoiding his eyes, she didn’t realized she just called his name, and he must be referring to the incident with the alcohol she had, that time she didn’t remember how she got to her bed.

-“Ok then, Zelda” still smiling, the prince walked again to the bed, putting her down with ease, the moment Link and Urbos came in from the door.

-“What the!” Link said walking protectively whe he saw the blue haired man (who he disliked even more) with his hands on the princess.

-“How did the investigation went?” Marth asked, letting the princess on her bed to sit up.

-“Ther is no trace of the creature... but in our way back, Link found something you’d like Princess” Urbosa said, as Link went to his bag to take out some hydromelons and honey, and began preparing it cutting the fruit with a small knife.

-“Honey! Thanks, along with hydromelon is one of my favourites! She mentioned as her stomach growled, having had no food in the day.

-“I don’t know what is happening,... maybe I’m just tired” she said, taking a piece of the hydromelon with honey that Link prepared.

-“Maybe it’s your moon bleeding?” Urbosa asked casually, to wich Zelda blushed and the boys looked away.

-“Anyway, I’ll make the doctor come and check on you , it’s not normal you have so low energy, and I don’t know if I’m imagining things, but the power from the triforce on you, it’s quite weak...”

The princess nodded, she felt as she ran a marathon in the desert, and consciously she knew, what she felt about Link was forbidden, which prevented her from trying to express her power and the voice that resonated from the triforce was more distant every day.

-“There is not a prudent medical explanation, it seems like fatigue, Princess, you’ll have to be periodically taking this energy potion”

Gerudo’s medical doctor seemed concerned, after checking the young princess. Impa who was getting back from her own investigation. She also seemed worried about her health.

-“It’s better if we visit Kakariko’s village in our way back, maybe Prunia can lead us in the cause of your tiredness, if it’s triforce related, she’ll know what to do” Impa felt something was wrong, so she suggested that, thy would go to Akkala before returning to Hyrule.

-“We’ll see each other soon!” Urbosa said her farewells,

Once everything was ready, they went to a Kakariko’s near spot, using the Sheikah tablet. Impa’s friend, Prunia had her investigation lab there, they met on Impa’s house.

-“I like this place, we can dress manly here” Roy said, walking in the Kakariko’s village, admiring the beautiful waterfalls in the back of a big mansion with an amazing garden, to wich they accessed trough a wooden stair. Prunia was a young intelectual woman, she was assisted by a teenager called Rotver.

-“I’ll have to make some blood tests Princess, come with me please” Prunia said, taking her to the u

“Would you say there is something you might relate to your symptoms your highness?” She asked while adjusting a rubber around her arm

“It may be... related to feeling, you know...” she answered dubiously, not knowing how to express her idea.

“Feelings... you mean about your engagement?” She asked pulling a fine needle and punturing the princess arm to obtain a blood sample on a special container.

“I ... believe it’s about unrequited feelings...” she said, thinking about Link and Mipha. A moment later prince Marth came into the room opening the sliding door at the entrance.

“I was wondering how do you analyse blood, I’m sorry for intruding, I’ve never heard of such thing before in Altea” and as they went into an animated chatting, Zelda wondered how much did the prince hear about the previous talking, holding her arm on the puncture wound while Impa game into the room.

“It’s highly adviced for you to keep resting while we have some results, please Princess you have to do so”

“And so it’ll be” Impa stated before she could say something.

They went horseback riding on their way to Hyrule, as Roy and Marth insisted to meet some of the roads of Hyrule, they game back to the castle in half a day, just to find out a Zora ambassador was waiting for them to return.

-“I’m sorry to be intruding, I already presented the case to the council and they asked me to wait for you, your highness”

-“What is it about?” Link asked, knowing Zelda had to keep rest, and shouldn’t bother herself with this matters .

-“We can’t locate princess Mipha, that’s why the King sent me urgently to ask for your assistance, an strange creature was seen in the outskirts and it might be about something else”

Everyone kept silent due to surprise. This was unexpected, after all she was one of the champions, and under the protection of the Zora’s land that was so peaceful.

-“I must part immediately” Link said, checking his arrow stock and sword

Zelda look at him, taking her hands to her chest. She was worried about Mipha, and the commander’s reaction somehow made her feel in pain Why, why can I just simply accept it? His heart belongs to someone else, that person is missing, it’s logical he goes to look for her

Impa looked at the princess directly almost begging

-“Princess Zelda, it’s better if you stay here, I don’t consider it a good time to expose yourself again to this danger, until we know the results of the blood sample”

-“It’s better if you go....” she sadly expressed, handling the Sheikah tablet to Link, “Use it as long as you need”

-“Thanks, I think I should get going...”

-“Zelda, is it possible for my cousin to go along with the commander?” Marth asked, and to Link’s desmay he called the princess by her first name, something even he wouldn’t do not because of confidence but the hierarchy prevented him to do so, he never had even imagined to refer to her with such confidence.

-“Hey! I love new adventures. Aren’t you comming Marth?” Roy asked willingly.

-“I’d prefer to spend more time with Zelda, I trust you in this mission, Roy” He said, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking at Link directly, who only made a slight grimace looking away, Zelda was strangled by the prince actions.

-“You’ll lose it! Come on commander Link!”

-“Just Link it’s ok, Salif, lets go back to Zora’s city, excuse us your highness” Link said looking down and walking to an open area to transport along with Zora’s messenger and Roy.

-“Impa, please let Revali know” The princess asked, and she went after to the dining hall, escorted by Marth, as Impa took care of the remaining things to do’

At the dining hall, the princess barely touched her food, and answered with monosyllabic to the conversation the prince tried to have, a small tear came down her cheek.

-“Zelda, you may not want to talk about what’s worrying you, but I think your eyes do not lie” Marth came near her table side from the other edge.

-“I’m ok, I’m just tired...” she said faking a smile

-“You are gutted because of your feelings for the commander, aren’t you?” The question was quite direct, making her look at him alarmed.

-“Why should I? That’s unthinkable! And what does gutted mean anyway?!” She said looking away nervous, as the tears began flowing down more and more every time until her crying was continuous, Marth offered a handkerchief and made a sign for the remaining maids behind them to go and prepare some tea, leaving them alone in the big room, once she calmed down a little, he looked at her up front and continued.

-“”Zelda, could you fall in love with me?” He asked with a frank face and took her hand, she watched him in surprise without saying a word.

-“I know the bethrotal does not mean you have to reciprocate my feelings... but for me, the little time I have met you, I realized I want to protect you, I admire your dedication for the kingdom and the people, your braveness and courage, and above all, who you are, so I consider myself quite flucky to have your hand in marriage, but I’d like it to be more than an agreement, I would like to court you properly, even if I know your heart belongs in other place”

The prince held Zelda’s hand firmly, a second later he got near with the intention to kiss her. She still couldn’t believe her ears. She never had been in that situation where someone declared the intention to woo her, and she haven’t had her fist kiss yet. She kept asking herself How did he knew she loved Link? Shouldn’t that make him walk away? Why was he acting like this?

A few inches from kissing, before their lips made contact, the noise from the doors opening with tea and some desserts interrupted them.

-“Mart.. how did you find out about...? He is going to marry the same girl from the Zora’s kingdom who disappeared” she told while they served some sweet bread and rose tea from Altea

-“I realized, despite your kingdom is prosper, and problems are solved, you suffer day by day, besides you told me some things the day of the celebration I carried you to your room along with Impa, and I overheard something when Prunia was taking your blood sample”

-“Marth...”

-“Could you consider it? This is the first time I’m so certain of something, and it’s also the first time I declare myself to anyone...” The prince said, looking away a bit shy with a slightly blushed face.

Zelda could only see honesty. The foreigner, after a month or so of knowing her, opened himself to her, she felt he wasn’t capable of hurting her, something made her feel safe around him. She stood up and dismissed the maids,, then she walked to the big window looking into Hyrule’s twilight.

-“I can’t promise you a lot... Marth, you’ll see, I haven’t told anyone, but my power and the will to save this kingdom came from my feelings for Li....”

The prince approached without her ending the phrase and hugged her, she was surprised and remained still.

-“Can you forget about him? I know it’s selfish from me, but I want to help you. Come with me, to Altea, I’ll introduce you to my parents, you’ll know your future kingdom, maybe that way you’ll have a change of feelings, or maybe that way you’ll have eyes for me”

Go with him to Altea? She never occurred that possibility, to go away from Hyrule, to go away from ... Link.

-“I don’t know, I didn’t expected this so... so soon...” she stuttered, so much in so little time was overwhelming.

-“It might be rushed l, but please you should meditate this, I’m willing to wait for you, my Princess Zelda” and in the hug they shared, he left a sweet and gentle kiss on her cheek, why kept her eyes wide, and took her hands to her chest again. He kissed her, her first kiss from someone not family related. Maybe it wasn’t in her lips, but it was something that would not leave her mind so easily.

********

Thanks for reading!!! I was a bit lazy with the greyscale, and some pics are old. Give some love to Zelink

#zelink #fanart #legend of zelda #zelda botw #fanfic #zelmarth #breath of the wild #marth fire emblem #ooc #zelda #super smash bros #fanfics #out of character #princemarth #princesszelda #gerudo #urbosa

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punishandenslavesuckers · 7 years

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She has no throne. Girls without thrones should not have knights, but hers won’t go. Princess Zelda – the girl who killed Calamity – would love to fade into legend, but Link’s bought a house, he’s fighting off monsters, and he’s selling giant horses to strangely familiar Gerudo men. She'll never have any peace now. (ao3)

(chapter one) (chapter two) (chapter three) (chapter four)

Like in most villages, Link’s arrival at the Rito Village main bridge gets a disproportionate amount of attention. As they board their horses at the village Stable, half a dozen Rito drop out of the sky and into the yard beyond the fence.

By the time Zelda and Draga finish talking to the stable hand, Link’s surrounded by a small flock of the massive bird-like tribespeople, three of whom greet the shorter Hylian with a warm mo’a – gently butting their foreheads against his and turning their faces aside to briefly press along the side of his head. It’s a strictly Rito welcome. Not usually shared with non-Rito on the basis that non-Rito often find the bird-like race welcoming and polite but ultimately somewhat stand-offish after a certain degree of familiarity. ‘Stand-offish’ generally meaning that they liked you well enough to test your friendship a little, as was customary. But the average Hylian doesn’t know they should be excited about a bit of Rito ribbing and take the new cold-shoulder as a hint to get lost.

Link, having dealt with Revali (who did not actually want to be friends at all), doesn’t let ribbing of any kind deter him. Generally.

Link slings his pack to the ground as a massive white-feathered Rito makes a smooth but high-speed landing directly in front of him, straightening up to tower over the Hylian hero, head tilted with a positively predatory lean. He’s a warrior for sure – broad-shouldered frame roped with avian muscle, a massive bow clipped to his back. Brutal, eagle-like features make his expression difficult to read. Of the assembled Rito, he appears the most likely to embody the warrior reputation of his people – that he may slit a man’s throat on the raptorial hook of his beak and hurl them hundreds of feet to their squalling death. But presently, he just looks… worried? No. He looks impatient.

“Teba?” Link says, tone a sure sign he’s noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“Is this your priestess?” he says, wasting breath on not a single pleasantry. His voice, rough, shockingly deep, matches Draga’s for pitch and intensity. “You vouch for her skills?”

Link, startled by this, nods.

“Good. Apologies, but we need you immediately.” The giant Rito gets down on one kneel, facing her. “Get on,” he says, indicating his back.

“I –” She looks at Link for guidance and gets an urgent nod. “Okay of course.” She rushes to loop two arms around Teba’s neck, careful to sit high so she can rest her armpits over the top of his shoulders, weight against his chest and not his throat. “I’m okay. You can go fast. I’ve done this before.”

He takes her at her word and launches skyward.

The air screams, her stomach drops, but Zelda keeps her head tucked against Teba’s neck, feeling the impossible power in the musculature of his upper back and chest, freezing mountain air tearing her hair into a tangle. She peeks over his shoulder just in time to see a large wooden platform rising to meet them and she realizes, blankly, that it’s Revali’s Landing. Built like the rest of the village into the side of the impossible white spire of porous stone that marks the Rito stronghold – she knows it better than any part of the Village even a century later.

Teba drops into the center of it and lets her down. He leads her quickly to a private residence one landing up where a pink-feathered Rito in white physician’s garb is waiting at the door. Strange that there even is a door – most Rito homes are open air platforms left exposed in the day so their residents and come and go by sky as needed. The open walls have been enclosed in thick canvas and cloth tenting, creating an enclosed winter dome. She can smell incense and medicinal herb from the interior.

“You’re a healer?” the Rito woman demands, in a voice that would be musically sweet if she wasn’t deathly serious.

Zelda is ushered her into the tent, but Teba stays outside. Quarantine possibly? Zelda rolls her sleeves up as she enters.

“Yes. I read Teba’s letters. I’m ready to start.”

“Good. I am Saki. Head physician. Teba is my husband.”

Zelda nods. “Thank you for the letters. Where’s the –?” She stops cold, almost stumbling. “The patient?” she finishes.

There’s a Rito male lying on a reed mat near heated stone hearth. He’s lying on his back, visibly in pain, both his wings curled to his chest, pressing into his sternum. He’s breathing in short, wet, asthmatic gasps that rack the Rito’s whole body. There are patches of molting feathers along his shoulders and back. The floor is dark with them. Before the illness, he was probably blue-black and cream-colored in plumage, a beautiful mohawk-ish head crest and a dozen warrior braids. Now, he looks dusty and grey.

He looks, with some exceptions, almost exactly like Revali.

“What is it?” Saki demands, edgy. “Link told you what’s happening?”

“Yes, I… what’s his name?”

“Mishi. The illness started in the house of his father and mother, then spread through the rest of the family and –” She stops. “He’s dying. This is the last stage. I’m only asking you to… try.” Then, with un-Rito-ish desperation, she says, “Please.”

Zelda goes to Mishi’s bed side and very gently draws his hands away from his chest so she can see. He can’t speak by now. He looks at her. He’s less eagle-like than Teba in facial structure. More like a raven. His eyes are neon-green and afraid. She tries to smile as she, carefully, places two hands palm down over his heaving ribs. The feathers beneath her fingers are soft, more downy fluff than the plumage lining his shoulders and arms. Rito hearts beat faster than human ones, but his feels like a humming bird snared behind a hollow-boned cage.

“Hey, Mishi? I need you to stay with me,” she says as her palms begin to glow, begin to infuse a warm light into the dense muscle beneath her fingers. “Breathe, okay? Try to breathe big, deep breaths for me.”

He nods and, with great effort, tries to keep breathing. Instead, he coughs until he gags, then struggles twice over to breathe. She cups his throat, very gently with two hands then slowly moves them down, spreading them across the band of his clavicles, then over his chest, over his lungs, then down to below his ribcage where the Rito’s waist begins to come in. Then she does it again – dousing for the damage that’s killing him. Feeling it under her fingers as pressure and cold. Sweat runs down her cheek.

“You’re fine,” she says warmly. She can feel something burning away under the radiant gold that she’s flooding into the dark, afflicted interior of Mishi’s chest. “Stay with me.”

Her head is swimming a little from exertion – focusing entirely on the indefinable sensation of organic systems finding their right configurations by her hand. It’s a blind shot, the magic of healing. Done by instinct and repetition, like braiding her hair. Or drawing a bow.

“You’re pale,” Saki says.

“I’m fine.”

She hears heavy footfalls outside, voices. A triangle of light opens across the wall as someone draws the curtain back and a very large person enters the room.

“What are you doing?” Draga says.

She doesn’t look up from Mishi. “Healing. Where’s Link?”

“Outside. You’re using too much energy.”

“Go away. Send Link in here.”

“Why? Because he won’t tell you to stop?”

And he’s right, so she just redoubles her efforts. Light flares between her fingers, a heat rushing from her hands, lifting her hair from her shoulders. Draga immediately moves to kneel beside her, one fist set against the floor so he can lean near her without touching her.

“You need to stop,” he says.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snaps. Gold is gathering in her arms like candle flame. Her teeth ache from gritting them. Her head pounds. There’s a pain gathering in her lower back and mounting her spine. “I can do this. This is nothing compared to what I’ve done before.”

“This is nothing like what you’ve done before.”

Saki looks sharply at her.

“It’s taking longer than it should,” Zelda explains, glaring at Draga. “That’s all. I can do this.” Her arms are starting to shake. The golden shine beneath her fingers flickers. “Goddess. Where is it?” She stacks both hands over Mishi’s laboring heart. “Draga, just trust me. I can get this.”

“You need to stop or it’s going to kill you.”

Saki, hearing this, shakes her head and starts to push Zelda away. “Okay. I’m sorry, but I won’t allow that.”

“No! Just wait,” Zelda cries. “Please, I can save him.”

Saki glances at Draga, then back to Zelda. “Priestess, the champion descendent vouched for your skill and cited your healing work in Hebra and Akkala as proof of your ability. I trust his judgement as far as your skills collude it, but this cannot continue. I thank you for your efforts as they are.”

“I didn’t say we’re letting the boy die,” Draga says somewhat drily. He pulls a piece of white chalk from his belt and starts surreptitiously marking the floor in sigils Zelda doesn’t recognize, then stares hard at them. Zelda smells copper – like warm metal or blood. He looks at her. “Zelda, I think your power’s being drawn off. You won’t be able to heal him entirely, but you can stave off the killing blow. Pick something very specific to heal, then stop.”

Mishi sits up a little, making it easier for her to lay hands along the curve of his windpipe, then against his chest again. He’s breathing slowly now, evenly. By the time she’s finished, he’s dozed off into what Saki informs them is his first unlabored sleep in three days. Draga grunts, frowning at the marks on the floor. Then he sits forward, presses his palm down over them and Zelda watches a quick, dull flash of red snake across the lettering and fade. The markings smoke slightly, burned into the wood. He wipes his palm off on his trousers.

“Saki, Mishi is the last in his familial line. If he dies, that ends it, correct?”

Saki tenses. “How do you know that?”

“That’s not important. What else can you tell me?” Draga presses. “Was there’s anything special about Mishi’s family? Were they a political target? Did they have enemies.”

Saki looks shocked. “No. No, if anything the opposite.”

“Why the opposite?”

“They… they were from the same clan as the Rito Champion, Revali.” Saki does not notice the look on Zelda’s face or if she does, she does not give a sign. “But why does that matter? This is an illness. It began in their family and spread as the healthy family members came to help.”

“This isn’t a disease,” Draga says, calmly. “It’s a curse. I suspect one tied to his family in some way. I’m afraid if Mishi dies, it’s going to jump to the next group of tribesman that meet its… criteria.” He glances at their patient who sleeps on, surrounded by people, yet somehow completely unprotected. “I’m going to need time and Zelda will need to recover. First, we must break the curse. Then we can save your tribesman, but I would recommend you limit all Rito contact with him until I determine the vector of transmission.”

“But if what you say is true,” Saki murmurs, “then there is a murderer to blame for this?”

There’s a pause, because there’s a very Rito flash of… intention in Saki’s eyes. Like an archer seeking a target.

“Possibly,” Draga says. “Generational curses are indistinguishable, generally, from a pre-meditated hex. It could be one person in the family encountered a cursed object or entity and it spread from there down the line. I can try to find out and if there is a party to blame. Does this meet with your approval?” When he receives a nod from Saki, he turns his attention back to Zelda. “I will need you strong. Go get Link and get some rest. I’ll call you back when I have something for you to fight.” Then in Gerudo, “Is that acceptable, Princess?”

That annoys her, but she thinks he’s trying to make her angry at this point.

She stands up. “I can do that. Thank you, Draga.”

His expression loses a touch of its edge. “I’ll fix this,” he says.

Zelda manages a very brittle smile. “I think we got here too late for that.”

“Draga’s mad at me,” Zelda says.

Link sits forward, scowling, and signs, ‘I am also mad at you.’

“Right.”

She spends two more days sitting with Mishi to stave off the effects of the curse. Draga spends that same time stomping around the Rito Village, disappearing for hours to walk about the foothills around the lake, scaring off large animals and writing things in a small grungy notepad. Link goes with him sometimes. He stays with her other times. When asked what Draga is doing, Link’s not sure because 90% of what Draga does looks like “scribbling in the dirt” and “squinting really hard at nothing then cursing”. He says Draga is doing ‘spellwork’ to trace the source of the curse.

He kind of fumbles over a slang sign for ‘spellwork’ that’s dangerously close to ‘magical bullshit’.

They’re sitting together on Revali’s Landing, side-by-side with their legs hanging over the edge. Link is not actually mad at her, despite his insistence because he’s far too worried to make room for being mad as well.

Link signs. ‘Don’t worry so much. Draga will get it.’

Zelda sighs. “I didn’t even notice it could be a curse.”

‘Were you ever trained for that? Detecting curses? Who curses people? That sounds fake.’

“You literally fought an incarnation of ancient evil and fight magically tainted monsters all the time. You have several semi-cursed objects in your travel pack that are so magically afflicted that Draga hit you in the face once because he thought one of your masks was taking root in your skull.”

“Psh,” he says in that tone that is largely responsible for 90% of Draga’s anxiety. Then he signs, ‘Were you trained?’

“Well, no, but… I don’t know. I thought it would be natural to feel and dispel such things.” She sighs. “I am… resigned to the notion that my power is waning but I thought more highly of my abilities.”

‘Draga said it was subtle. It’s why he’s so annoyed with it.’

“Your point?”

‘It’s easy to miss.’

“All my training as a girl was so… academic. The powers passed from my mother and grandmother were divinely sourced. Not something one could learn from practical wizardry so, while I have some training, none of it was… none of it was anything I could practice. Nothing I learned were things I could take with me in any useful fashion and I find that so… frustrating.”

Link says nothing to that.

“I’m a little embarrassed, if I’m honest. Aren’t I supposed to be good at this?”

Link snorts.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Relax,” he says out loud.

“I can’t just relax,” she says, offended.

“Not with that face,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

He smiles at her.

“If you’re trying to improve my mood, you’re doing a poor job of it.” She stares out over the massive glacial basin that makes up Rito Lake, to the mountain range beyond. “If Draga is right, then someone killed Revali’s family while we were... elsewhere. I can’t stand it. I honestly… I can’t.”

Link’s not smiling anymore.

“It’s just absurd,” she says, aware that she’s starting to babble, to become frantic. “Because there’s nothing to gain from it. I mean… of all the Champions... Revali is gone. Revali’s abilities were singular. That was the… the whole point with him, you see, that he was the first of his family to do what he did. There was nothing he inherited. Nothing special in his bloodline. He did everything he did on his own so attacking his family is unwarranted and…” She shakes out her hands. She was clenching them, you see. “That’s stupid, Link,” she says angrily, choking a little. “That’s stupid. Why would someone do that to them?”

“Maybe no one did,” Link says gently. “I could be an accident.”

“That’s worse though! Don’t you understand? That’s worse!”

Link says nothing to that.

“They’re gone.” She covers her mouth with her hands. “They died while I was doing other things.”

Link says nothing.

The sun’s starting to fall in earnest now, a warm blush of orange receding from the clouds over the mountains. She can see her breath in the air and she thinks of sitting here, one hundred years ago while Revali filled the silence with assurances that, hey, most people are idiot nay-sayers and morons. Whiners and charlatans worthy of nothing but her contempt and fuck them anyways. They could go to hell. What did they know?

Zelda bends a little at the waist, leaning forward over the edge until the vertigo rushes her. Her hair slides forward over her shoulders and hangs, framing the fall to the icy waters below and –

“Did you know he was shot down?” she gasps.

Link, who instinctively looped an arm around her waist moments before, says nothing.

“They say he… he faced the Windblight on top of Medoh and he was… they all saw him fall.”

Link says nothing.

“He would have hated that.”

Link, still, says nothing.

“You know, we were friends?” she says though it hurts to do so. “He would fly to meet me at the castle and, sometimes, he would sneak me out to do field surveys when I should have been praying. He… he thought praying for salvation was stupid. He liked that I was trying to find practical ways to fight back. He said it was ‘very Rito’ of me.” She laughs, but it stings. “Goddess, it’s been one hundred years. Why do I keep thinking I’m going to see them again? Why does it feel like I still have time? And then I remember and its…”

Link has his arms around her ribs, somewhere between a hug and cautionary hold to keep her from rolling off the landing. He commits to a hug then, pulling her against him and kind of collaring her arms between her chest and his. He always hugs her way too tightly, but for whatever reason she prefers that – the feeling of being contained somehow. Like she could scream for days and it would be okay to do so. Link would just absorb it, like lightning coursing to ground.

They watch the sun set over Revali’s Landing.

Draga is looking up at her. He’s seated by a light source of some kind, a fire maybe or a hearth with the remains of a fire, something dim enough she can’t see his face in full detail but even in the dark she knows his features – the dark dramatic line of his jaw and brow, that he’s thinking about something, a hundred miles away. And yet, when he looks up at her he’s unfamiliar. His eyes – green in the dark, but there’s something beyond the surface, like live coals in deep water. The sands shift under her feet. She can see her own breath in the desert cold. Draga tilts his head and asks her what she is doing. He asks her very calmly.

He asks her because she’s fitting an arrow to the string of a bow. The bow is gold. Her hands are also gold, dripping with gold, a warm oily honey of gold soaking her arms from the elbow down. The shaft is platinum. The arrowhead has dull internal luminance.

“What are you doing?” he says again.

She draws the line back, smearing gold across her cheek.

“What are you –?”

She wakes up.

There’s a thin, watery line of sunrise visible through the slits between the rug walls of their room. For a moment, she can’t recall the strange octagon shape of the apartment, the feather bed and heavy quilt around her, the elaborate patterns in the tenting walls. The soft creak of wood brings her slowly back. They’re at the Rito Village inn – a sturdy wooden structure built (like the rest of the village) into the side of the impossible central spire that marks the Rito stronghold. The rooms are dozens of nest-style wooden platforms enclosed by retractable cloth walls and warmed by depressed stone hearths at the center of the floor.

She can hear the faint sound of birds outside.

She lies there, shocked by her calm. Horrified by Link who sleeps on undisturbed beside her. Horrified by the sham of his safety in her bed – one they share by habit now despite what that might suggest. For a while, she lies there, hopeful that Link’s sleeping façade will break apart and he’ll wake too. He’ll ask her if she saw Draga like he did once before and she will not be alone with it.

But Link lies dead asleep with his arm under his head, his bangs in his eyes, pale lashes laid against his cheekbones. Even in the dim dawn light he looks peaceful. Not like a man having a divinely shared nightmare. Not like someone she can blame for infecting her with some viral strain of violence. She hates the small hopeful part of herself eager to pin the problem on Link and rolls away from him, throwing the covers back so she can creep across the cool wooden floor and make use of the water basin and clean washcloth laid out by the door.

She dresses quickly, shakily. Picks up her water canteen from where she left it just outside the door to chill in the mountain air. She rinses her mouth out, puts on her boots and that’s when she hears a faint knock against the door frame from outside. She answers slowly, peering out into the cold dawn morning. It’s Draga. He’s over-dressed in Snowquill gear and a scarf. The cold in this region irritates everything in him that can be irritated, but it’s 4am and he shouldn’t be awake much less knocking at their door and for a moment a tiny frisson of dread curls around her heart and –

“Mishi is in danger,” he says.

She blinks. “What?”

“The curse,” he says impatiently pulling his scarf down. His nose is a red from the cold. She can see his breath. “I know it’s structure now, but it’s accelerating. I can break it, but I need you. Both of you.”

Link’s awake and dressed in seconds. They follow Draga up the multi-tiered spirals of steps and landings that comprise the Rito Village, rushing to keep pace with him as he only uses every other step to climb. The wood groans every time he pushes off, none of this village being built for someone his size and density.

“What’s going on?” Zelda demands.

“The spell is designed to resist magical defense,” he says, skipping two stairs and forcing the smaller Hylians to race up the steps after him. “Ancient sorcery. Something changed when you began to treat Mishi with magic and when I stripped out the obfuscation from the spell, it triggered some kind of failsafe.” He sounds frustrated. “We need to break it now, before it can get its teeth into Mishi. I have a… a way to do it.”

They reach the small quarantined platform that makes up Mishi’s apartment. The moment they enter… Zelda knows something is wrong. Mishi’s lying, seemingly asleep, surrounded by a series of wire and paper lanterns. Draga’s plastered paper protection wards on every wall. But there’s… something in the room. Like the air pressure inside his home is twice what it shoulder be. The air’s harder to breathe and tastes… chemical and sour. Like fermentation and machine oil. She knows that smell. She knows it in her nightmares and Zelda moves to kneel on the far side of Mishi’s bed, laying a hand over the Rito’s temple and forehead.

“He’s cold,” she says. “He’s breathing but he’s cold.”

She tries to heal, yelps when it rebounds against her palm. Frantic, she spreads her hands and tries to push a purification but, again, nothing happens.

“I can’t… I can’t heal him. What –?”

Draga shakes his head. “He’s not sick, the curse is drawing off his life. We need to break it to heal him.”

“How?” Link demands.

“I can do it,” Draga says.

Then he hesitates.

“Draga!” Zelda cries. Mishi’s breath is visible now. He’s shivering, violently. “Draga, he’s dying.”

“I can do this,” Draga whispers.

He sounds afraid. She’s never heard that before, not from Draga and it shocks her how profoundly she’d cemented him in her mind – a fixed point, unshakable as the fucking sun. Hearing him now, it puts a fine surgical line through the image she’d constructed of him. He looks at her and his eyes are undeniably lit by some internal flame – like fairy lights but darker and older and that fire of it sets something in her heart racing. He starts to say something but the words catch on his lips and that surgical seam splits into a wound, pulling it open and suddenly she can see past her assumptions: He’s not just afraid, he’s terrified.

“I can do it, but I need you ground me.”

“What?”

“You and Link. I need you to shield me.” He’s pushing his sleeves up to his elbows, kneeling now so he’s on both knees beside Mishi’s bed and there’s something… threatening in that: Draga on his knees. He looks at her, tone low, urgent. “We don’t have time. You source your power from Hylia so I need you to hide what I’m doing in that power. Do you understand?” And when Zelda stares, frozen, he raises his voice. “Zelda, do you understand me or not? I can’t do this unless you –!”

Link moves to stand beside him.

Draga stops. They both stop. The whole room (the whole world) seems to stop.

Link’s got the sacred blade out. (When did he draw it? Did she see it? Why?) He’s calm. He stares down at Draga and his eyes aren’t human for a moment. They’re composed of the same ancient metal as the blade, lit from the inside by the cold silver flame that sets the air around him moving. His breath is visible in the air, his hair and clothes disturbed by a wind localized to him alone and… Zelda can feel it. Her skin warming, her palms heating like a skillet to flame. She can taste whatever Link’s drawing on – bitter sweet, like licking the residue of sap from summer-hot skin. It makes her want to move… to yell… to set her teeth in something and bite down. She –

Link drives the blade point first into the floor next to Mishi’s bed.

Before their very eyes, thin sap-green branches start to thread up from the old floorboards, infused with borrowed vitality. Link goes down on one knee before the sword, reversing his hold on the hilt so he can grip it like a mountaineer grips a cliff-face, not a weapon but a handhold. Then he lays his opposite hand against Mishi’s chest.

The Hero looks at them both.

“Move,” he says.

Draga does not hesitate.

He pulls a blade from his belt and cuts his right palm open.

Blood splatters the floor. He closes his bleeding hand over a bone and ruby pendant at his neck. He rips it from the cord and holds it in his fist against his heart. His other hand he lays palm down on Mish’s chest, covering Link’s hand, but Link doesn’t even flinch, not at the blood, the violence of it, or the sick lurch in the air when Draga begins to speak. He casts in a language Zelda can’t understand – too old to fathom, in a voice that seems less like one man speaking and more like a dozen, three dozen, a hundred voices speaking at once – and the shadows gather in the corners of the room. Shadows deepen, lengthen, darken and suddenly the only light in the room is the silver from the sword, gauzy ribbons of radiance thrown around them on an erratic wind.

Draga sees the shadows, but keeps going.

He keeps speaking until he’s shouting and Zelda realizes the voices aren’t him. He’s trying to speak louder than the shadows in the room which are beginning to slither toward him, sending forth rhizoids of darkness across the flowering floor, probing the edges of the light, seeking a path to the source. The room stinks now – of blood, of rot, of flowers and fresh sap, of iron, and the forge. Draga is bellowing now, as loud as he can but the shadows are buzzing, are loud, a deafening cacophony rising like an infinite field of cicadas around them.

Zelda knows without knowing that if Draga loses his voice in the riot, the shadows will penetrate Link’s barrier wall and have every drop of blood from the caster. She knows without knowing, that every voice in the shadow has a name, and every single one of them knows Draga by his. They are clawing, frantic, cannibalistic and mad trying to get past Link to reach him. Link they know, but they can’t look at because (there is a Wolf composed of woven moonlight stalking through the valley of shadow) he’s impervious to them.

But she…

She is their Enemy.

Zelda moves now. She grabs the hilt of the sacred blade, her hand closing around Link’s, her other hand grabbing Draga’s bloody wrist where the pendants has begun to burn him now. She can smell the sick acrid scent of his palm. She can feel Link struggling to breathe. She closes the circuit of three, Mishi at the center, and the shadows begin to scream.

She opens her eyes. She thinks they’re filled with light.

“I can see you,” she says to the legion.

The screaming stops.

Gold runs from her palms like water, translucent and infused with sunlight, running down her arms and dripping from her elbows. Her skin’s begun to shine internally, golden light sparking along the tracery system of her veins then shining from within. Her palm on Draga’s skin steams, a gold mist rising from the place where their hands meet, like an ocean finding a lava-flow. Her fingers around Link’s are electric, rain infused with lightning.

“I can see you,” Zelda says again, louder, and the shadows flinch back from her voice. “I can see you, damn you, get out!”

in whose name, says the darkest corner of the room.

The shadows are burning away before her light, but the in the corner of the room, directly behind Draga, the darkness seems to pull inward, deepening infinitely into the wall, like a mouth opening behind him and Zelda can feel Draga feeling it – that there is something behind him. It’s nothing. It’s just a dark corner in a room. It’s a black hole. It eats every ounce of light that sears from her skin. She rises to her feet, gripping hold of Link and Draga more tightly. There is something in the darkness and she can almost see it.

in whose name, says the thing in the darkness.

Draga is still speaking, but when the thing speaks he falters. He starts to look.

“Don’t look at it!” Zelda shouts, pulling on his hand. “Look at me! Don’t look at it!”

in whose name, says the shadow behind Draga.

And Zelda can see now that the shadow is Draga’s shadow, cast against the wall but impossibly large.

in whose name, it says again, closer now.

Draga’s hair moves like something is breathing on him, some terrible maw inches from the back of his neck. But Draga keeps casting. A line of blood opens along Draga’s right cheek. But Draga keeps casting. The voice from the shadow shakes the room.

IN WHAT NAME DO YOU ACT

Zelda’s right hand ignites. The sword ignites. Link moves. Time twitches infinitesimally and he’s there, then gone, a silver after-image snapping into follow-through and the Hero’s put the Master Sword through the oak beam in the corner. But there’s no shadow there any longer. The blade’s dark again where it rests in the solid wood block, buckled and splintered outward now as though struck by a blow far greater than Link’s one-armed killing-strike. (If there were, in fact, a greater blow possible.) Link breathes hard, slowly, through his teeth, and Zelda can see a line of sweat run from his hairline to his jaw.

Then he wrenches the blade free and stares at the mundane wreckage he’s made of the wall.

“Zelda?”

“It’s gone.”

He turns, afraid. “Mishi?”

“He’ll be fine,” Draga says.

He’s wrapping his palm calmly in a clean strip of bandage. Mishi – still unconscious, still identical to her eyes as the fallen Champion a century past – lays quietly, breathing the slow, deep, even breaths of slumber. There’s nothing dark in the room, just the usual shade where the lantern light can’t reach and, in the face of true darkness, every shadow seems bright as day.

Zelda covers her face, pushing her hair from her eyes. “Thank the Goddess,” she says.

Then, she looks at Draga.

Link is also looking at Draga.

He finishes wrapping his other hand. Then he sighs, running a hand through his hair, disturbing only a few of the gold clasps there. “I guess we should talk,” he says.

They congregate in Draga’s room. He’s so big, the Rito gave him their only entirely wooden cabin – a sun-facing room, the balcony open to the dawn. There’s nothing but the mountain range stretched out beyond the basin, a long, jagged line against the horizon and beyond that – the faint shimmer of light from the highlands beyond. It occurs to Zelda, that he’s very near his homeland now. That it’s, perhaps, three or four days ride into the valley that feeds into Gerudo country and suddenly he seems strange – less the traveler on the road, more a desert creature drawing back relentlessly to the habitat that produced him.

That said, it does nothing to stop the three of them from sitting down, cross-legged in a circle near enough that their knees are touching while Draga tries to figure out the vocabulary in Hylian for what he did.

Zelda knows what he did. Link probably… has some notion, his intuition being a match for any academic knowledge. The Master Sword is laying in his lap. The naked metal, she knows, is comforting to him. His hand lays on the cross guard, bare fingers worrying the details in the hilt. Zelda has a hand on his knee because Link is her totem in times of uncertainty. Draga has his elbows braced against his knees, one hand set against his chin, fingers curled over his mouth. Thinking.

Eventually, Zelda makes the first move.

“Draga, that was unfathomably dangerous.”

“That is ironic coming from you.”

“I overstrained myself using my magic inefficiently. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you made a minor pact with a demon to break that curse.”

“With a spirit, Princess, not necessarily a demon, though several were present in an opportunistic capacity.” There’s a short beat of horrified silence from his Hylian audience. His eyes narrow. “I’ve been on the road since I was fifteen. I like to think I am fairly dangerous myself, Zelda.” He lowers his voice slightly, tone softening. “That does not mean I did what I did lightly.”

“You opened a door –” Zelda begins.

He cuts her off. “The door was left open decades ago. It wasn’t I that left it so or did you think I didn’t see what stands on the other side?” He looks away, staring at the floor between them. “What you saw… the shadow on the wall, Princess, was just that, a shadow. I knew the demon wouldn’t dare show its face in the presence of Hylia’s acolytes.”

Link, eyes never leaving Draga’s, speaks up. “The demon?” he says.

Draga says nothing for a while.

“Curses are difficult. I needed something more.”

Which is an evasion.

“The shadow we saw,” says Link, startling the other two. “It wasn’t there because you summoned it. It was there because it’s always there. You used blood magic, but that wasn’t dangerous. What was dangerous was that… thing in the corner because it’s waiting for you to slip up.” Link’s hand on the Master Sword curls into a fist and she wonders if the blade is speaking to him. “You’re cursed. That’s why you know so much about it, because you’re cursed. There’s a demon in your shadow.”

Draga, finally, looks Link in the eyes. He seems tired. “That was a lot of words and yet… succinctly put.”

Zelda leans forward. “Draga, are you in danger?”

He laughs, broad shoulders shaking with the effort. “I am always in danger, Princess. That’s the point.” He sighs. “But presently? No. The curse is dormant except in the very specific circumstances that Link described. It’s a family curse. So, I’m used to it.”

Zelda feels her eyes start to sting. “What?”

“Generational curses,” Draga says, almost conversational in tone. “They’re indistinguishable from a pre-meditated hex. My entire family for generations has carried the curse. We have no recollection now of where it came from or who crossed some demon in their actions, but it’s always been there on the edge of our lives. My mothers and my sisters and my ancestors before them were all ward-workers and war-maids of Din’s acolyte for a reason: to defend themselves.”

He shakes his head.

“So now you know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but, like I said, it’s dormant unless I try to barter for power beyond my own.”

“But you directly summoned a spirit to break the curse on Mishi.” Zelda waits, but he doesn’t answer and she feels this… heat rising behind her throat, behind her teeth. “Why would you do that?” And when Draga looks away, she sits forward. “Look at me, why would you do exactly what that thing has been waiting for you to do? I saw your face. I know it terrifies you. Why would you put yourself in its way?”

“I needed the power,” he murmurs.

“You can’t do that.”

He looks at her. “Why not?”

“This was our task, our responsibility. Link and I. You shouldn’t have risked yourself just because I wasn’t strong enough to –”

“Zelda,” Draga says, “believe it or not, perhaps I didn’t do it just for you and Link.” Draga’s staring at her, unreadable. “Perhaps watching an entire family die in the throes of abomination is more than I can tolerate and perhaps that was the entire reason I left Gerudo Town in the first place: To learn how to protect people from exactly this kind of thing.” He shakes his head slowly. “I understand that, for a time, the world largely revolved around you and your hero, but this was not about you.”

Zelda blinks, stunned.

“I… that’s not what I meant!”

“I know. You never mean it,” he murmurs in a tone that she can’t interpret any other way than affectionately sarcastic, which is really just a nice way of being condescending.

She wants to hit him so much her fist curls in anticipation.

He notices, pale green eyes flicking idly to her half-cocked arm. “Are you going to punch me, Princess?”

“No,” Zelda says. “You’re just… trying to make me mad to distract me.”

“So you’re not going to hit me?”

“I am,” Link says, which the only warning either of them get before Link lunges.

He punches Draga right in the face. So hard, it knocks the bigger man backwards onto the floor. This, apparently, was not one of the scenarios that Draga had anticipated because he ends up sprawled out, swearing over the sound of Link yelling, “Not about us, huh!?”

Link tackles the larger man with momentum that shouldn’t apply to someone his size, hitting Draga at his waist as he rises. He hits him the way a cannon hits a building, knocking the Gerudo back down with a crash. Then he’s on top of the other man and just swinging with everything he has. Draga tolerates that for exactly zero seconds and literally, again, throws Link off. But Link’s hitting his stride now so he comes out of the throw with one of those infuriating little… flip things that he does, landing on his feet like an absurd cat. Which makes Draga really mad.

And then they’re just brawling.

“Stop that!” Zelda shrieks. “Are you kidding me?!”

Link kicks Draga in the chest. Draga grabs his leg with one massive hand and throws him into the four-poster bed, smashing it. Link doesn’t even stop. He’s up and charging Draga immediately, body checking him so hard he crashes into the wall. Zelda, panicked, thinks they are doing the Rito Village a lot of property damage in a very short amount of time. Link and Draga are both yelling at each other now. Nothing intelligible, just angry fighting noises as they crash around the room, destroying things.

“We are half a mile up in the air!” she screams, jumping out of the way as Draga bull-rushes into the wall spine first because Link is trying to choke him from behind. “If you go through a wall you will fall to your death!”

Link’s still clinging gamely on, arm hooked around Draga’s throat from behind. Draga ducks forward, hard, throwing Link over his shoulder where he slams flat on the ground, air going out of him. Then Draga just sits on Link’s chest which, when you’re Draga’s size, is an effective end to most fights.

“I will light you both on fire!” Zelda screams, not sure if she’s serious.

“Are you done?!” Draga’s yelling at the man beneath him.

Link hisses. Literally.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Bite me!” Link snarls.

“What in the name of the gods is wrong with you?”

“Are you with us or not?” he snarls.

“What?”

“Are you with us or not?” Link repeats, through his teeth, shoving at Draga’s knee so he can sit up. He’s sweaty, hair sticking to his forehead, face red. “Well?!”

“Of course, I am, you infuriating madman!” Draga pantomimes like he’s going to choke the Hero of Hyrule right here on the floor. “I didn’t dodge a demon because it was the right thing to do, you dense son of a bitch! I did it because it would have killed you both to watch Revali die again like it kills you just to speak their fucking names. Are you happy now?”

Link flops back on the floor, exhaling. “Yeah.”

Draga, disgusted, stands up and marches out of the room. “I can’t even look at you.”

Link makes no move to follow him. He just lies there breathing hard, arms spread on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Zelda, very primly, kneels next to him so she can stare down at her duly appointed knight, who has bits of shredded feather pillow in his hair and a bloody nose.

“Really?” she says.

“He’s with us,” Link informs her.

It’s infuriating that, somehow, that was exactly the question she wanted to ask.

go to chapter 6...

#botw #loz #legend of zelda #legend of zelda breath of the wild #zelda #link #ganondorf #lozfic #in which the cycle with the triforce starts again #but no one warned them #and no one remembers the old stories #so if they accidentally befriend #the next demon king #it wasn't on purpose #this is all hylia's fault anyway #rae writes #raewrites

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dreamskept · 5 years

Text

REVALI’S VERSES MASTERPOST - will keep adding to it!

MAIN / DEFAULT SPIRIT CORRUPTED UNCORRUPTED TBA

MAIN / DEFAULT VERSE:

revali is a rito, which is a race with many bird-like features such as beaks and wings. he is extremely skilled in archery and considered the greatest of the rito in rito village, as well as one of the best flyers.

he has an ability called revali’s gale, which allows him to create a gust of wind that can carry him easily into the sky.

revali was chosen to pilot a piece of machinery known to be one of the most powerful in the land: vah medoh, a sentient beast powerful enough to take down the threat to his land of hyrule.

at his current verse, revali has been chosen to pilot vah medoh, but it is prior to his death. he is constantly working on his skills, pushing himself far past the breaking point to be perfect.

SPIRIT VERSE:

calamity ganon has infected vah medoh, inflicting it with a virus and corruption. the beast that comes from the corruption - windblight ganon - kills revali, slaying him in vah medoh’s chambers and capturing his spirit.

he waits. he suffers in the barest sense of consciousness, unable to do anything. and he waits for a hundred years, trapped and slowly dying in spirit as the rest of hyrule passes on without him below.

when link comes along and kills windblight ganon, it finally frees revali’s spirit from its chambers. his body has far decayed, but it will be long before his spirit passes.

it is saidd that if you approach vah medoh, perched ontop of rito village, you can see a figure of revali standing on the edge of it, surrounded by a light blue-green glow.

he is perfectly capable of communicating with living creatures, but prefers not to and instead spends his time watching the life of his home below him.

CORRUPTED VERSE:

the corruption doesn’t just affect vah medoh, it affects revali too. he can’t stop the red from crawling up his wings and the cries of ragehatekill from choking him.

he becomes windblight revali, ugly and monstrous, and parading the chambers of vah medoh. he keeps any rito from landing on the outsides of the divine beast. but even from afar, the rito speak about the ripped champion’s cloth around the scourge’s neck, the cracked bow around it’s back.

UNCORRUPTED VERSE:

link saves him! through a battle against windblight revali, the corruption finally leaves revali, and he’s left, broken and battered and bruised, in a whole different time.

haha! revali’s alive woohoo! he’s struggling a lot with his role in life because he feels super disjointed from the rest of the rito village, as well as a general absence in his heart and depression. he can’t fly as well as he used to, as the corruption messed up the pattern of his feathers, but he’s working on it.

oh my gosh hes STRUGGLING please help him

#rp w me in the c.orrupted / u.ncorrupted verse....#important.

0 notes

thelastpitchbender · 6 years

Text

Memory | Chapter 4

Summary: Link must relearn how to be a Champion before he defeats Calamity Ganon – but first, he needs to stop setting fires and backflipping off of cliffs. It’s too bad that his attempts to be a responsible hero keep getting interrupted by dumb things like owing people money, remembering hardly anything about who he is, and Yiga Clan assassins trying to kill him.

Rating: T for language, violence, dark stuff, and dumb, bad humor.

Read on: FanFiction | AO3

Chapter index here.

Chapter 4

The Underappreciated Art of Dying Conveniently

When Link woke up the next morning, Beedle was busy setting his massive pack down just outside the stable.

Beedle waved a greeting to Link as he stumbled outdoors. “Oh ho ho! We meet again! I swear, we must have been married in a past life.”

Link rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Possibly. Or maybe you’re just stalking me.”

Beedle snorted. “Nonsense. I have a set schedule I follow in my travels around Hyrule. I think that technically makes you my stalker!”

It was altogether too early in the morning for Beedle’s chipper merchant shtick, but Link chuckled anyway. It was always good to see him. Also, he was running low on arrows. “I thought I saw you on the road yesterday,” he said.

A flicker of consternation passed through Beedle’s eyes, but it was so quick he might have imagined it. “You know me,” Beedle said cheerily. “Sixth sense for danger and all that.”

Link gave him a suspicious look, but chose not to press the issue. He’d known Beedle to hide in the woods from enemies before. He was shockingly good at it for the size of his pack.

As Beedle began to set up his makeshift storefront, Link cast his gaze around the stable and rolled his shoulders. He hadn’t slept well last night, so he was stiff and sore all over. Even worse, it was only around eight in the morning and he could already tell the weather was going to be miserable. It was nice and sunny now, but the warmth and stillness of the morning air portended a stifling and oppressive heat later in the day. He narrowed his eyes in displeasure.

And maybe it was only Link’s imagination, but the air still seemed to be tense. Molo and Breen were treating him normally enough, but what if that was a front?

Kish was definitely still angry. When Link had dragged himself out of bed, the stable owner had shot him a glare and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Yiga magnet.” Great. This day was getting off to a great start.

Link flopped down onto a seat by the cooking pot and rummaged through his bag of supplies for something to cook. He ended up dicing chunks of meat and Hylian shrooms, cooking them, and stabbing a skewer through them. The skewer was unseasoned, but at least it was hot and fresh from the pot.

Molo was reading a book across the pot from him. Breen was tending to the horses, and Kish was in the middle of some negotiations with Beedle. Link slumped a little when he saw Beedle pass a bundle of arrows to Kish. He knew that the stable dwellers were just going about their daily business, but it was hard not to feel like they were avoiding him.

He was lost in thought when Shamae interrupted him. “Mister Link!” she shouted. “Are you going to fight more guys today?”

Link swallowed, aware of the stable dwellers’ eyes on him. “Uh, I hope not.”

Shamae frowned. “Aw, man! But yesterday was awesome! You beat them up and Molo punched a guy in the face, then I got one in the head!” She enthusiastically mimed her actions in combat as she said them.

Link glanced at the bandage on Breen’s forehead. “It’s only awesome if no one gets hurt,” he said quietly.

Shamae was clearly disappointed, but she got distracted by a butterfly fluttering past her and wandered off. Link abruptly decided that he wanted to leave.

Link stomped back into the stable to retrieve his gear and then slapped a purple rupee onto the counter. It only covered half of his tab, but he figured he could return and pay the rest after the Calamity was gone. He stomped back out and went to Breen, who was tending to the horses. “Horse, please,” he demanded grumpily.

Breen eyed him with a frown. She looked like she was puzzling through several possible responses, which only irritated him more. “You should be nicer to the people taking care of your horse,” she said after a moment, trying and failing for some levity.

Link let out a sharp breath through his nose, and Breen relented, leading Princess out of his stall. He gave his horse a cursory pat on the nose and let him snuffle against his hand until Link pulled out an apple to feed him.

It was suffocating, being in a bad mood around people who may or may not be equally as irritated with him.

Link swung himself onto the white stallion and nudged him forward to the dirt road stretching south. Beedle glanced up at him as he passed and scrambled to his feet. “Link, wait!” he called. “I have to get to Wetland Stable by nightfall. I’ll go with you.”

Link grudgingly halted as Beedle gathered his wares up and slung his pack over his shoulders. The sidelong glances Kish, Ashe, Molo, and Breen were giving him prickled at the back of his neck. He twisted the reins in his fists in impatience.

Beedle caught up to him, and together they set out along the road. Part of Link wanted to be irritated at how slow he had to go for Beedle to keep up, but he had to admit that this was a nice change of pace. He had spent far too long alone in the wild, usually at a hard gallop or climbing all of the hills, trees, and mountains he possibly could. This slow, relaxed pace with a friend for company was welcome. He felt himself relax more and more as they got farther and farther away from the stable.

They reached the Thims Bridge, a simple wooden structure that spanned the Hylia River. Link had only crossed this bridge once before, when he had wanted to scout the Crenel Hills for shrines. It had also been a good vantage point to observe Hyrule Castle from afar.

Link sighed at unwelcome thoughts of the castle, and turned to Beedle instead. Whatever he had been about to say left his mind as he saw the vaguely ill look on Beedle’s face. “Uh, you all right there?” he asked, trying not to laugh.

“I looked over the edge,” he muttered.

Link snorted and glanced over the side of the bridge. “At least it’s a river and not a canyon. Hurts less if you fall.”

“Please do not mention canyons to me,” came Beedle’s groan from behind him. “I had a very bad experience at Tanagar Canyon with a dragon.”

Me too, Link was about to say, remembering his very poorly thought out attempts to shoot Dinraal’s horn. True to form, Revali had mocked him when he had finally resorted to calling up a gale. “Did one of your failed cooking experiments spit a fireball at you?” the Rito had asked snidely.

But Link’s lingering bad mood moved the conversation in another direction. “Seriously, I can’t believe you manage to be a traveling salesman with your fear of heights and monsters.”

“It’s why I’m not dead yet, obviously,” Beedle replied with good humor. “Not everyone can be as good at fighting as you. Especially not half-naked and armed with only a boko bow.”

Link cringed. Right. The first time he met Beedle, he had gone swimming in a river, only to find that bokoblins had stolen his clothes and gear. His plan to throw explosive barrels around their camp as revenge had gone very badly, and he accidentally lured monsters to a stable when he tried to buy arrows from Beedle. Also, Beedle had managed to cheat him out of a lot of rupees.

That was definitely not Link’s finest moment.

“Whatever,” he said rudely. Beedle only hooted with laughter.

By now, they had crested the rocky hill on the other side of the bridge. The rolling hills and plains of Hyrule Field stretched out before them, endlessly green, and the sky was a cloudless blue over their heads. If Link angled himself the right way, he could block out the Malice-infested castle and pretend that all was right in the world. Just him and his salesman buddy, palling around Hyrule.

While Link had been zoned out, Beedle had already started down the other side of the hill, looking a little wobbly under the weight of his pack. “My bugs aren’t going to deliver themselves to the stable, you know,” he called back.

Link nudged Princess into a trot to catch up. “What are you now, a bug delivery man?”

Beedle shook his head. “Lawdon wants to visit Gerudo Town, so he needs to brew some elixirs. I already tried explaining to him that he won’t be able to get in, but I don’t think he believes me…”

Link snickered. Maybe Lawdon knew the same trick he did. Then that absurd thought was replaced by a more serious question. “Do you do these sorts of special orders a lot?” Ashe’s lecture the night before had made him realize just how little he knew about how the way Hyrule’s economy currently functioned. He hadn’t really spent much time in towns or stables after he had woken up, and certainly hadn’t given much thought to how they managed to obtain all of their stuff.

“Only if it doesn’t conflict with my path around Hyrule,” said Beedle. “Most people who want special orders want them regularly delivered every few months or so, when I drop by their place again. I’ve got it worked out to where I pick up stuff from my suppliers in towns and unload it all at the next few stables before I hit the next town…”

Link had started to tune out, but not because he wasn’t interested. An uncomfortable feeling was settling in his gut. It felt sort of like indigestion, but more ominous. The feeling had been his constant companion for long enough that he knew there was an enemy around.

He nudged Princess to a halt, frowning uneasily. Some small noise to his left caught his attention. A pebble clattering against a larger stone, maybe.

Beedle glanced back at him with a question in his eyes. Link held a hand out to indicate he should stop, then got off the horse. There was a cluster of boulders to his left, just a little bit up the hill. Was there a Yiga spy hiding behind them? Link wouldn’t have been surprised.

He carefully picked his way up the hill, trying not to dislodge any dirt from the rocky hill. When he got to the cluster of boulders, he frowned. There was no one there. No sign that anything had been there recently. There was only the sound of the wind and Beedle fidgeting with his pack.

Now it sounded like papers were fluttering in the wind, Link realized absently half a moment before he heard a shout from behind him.

“For the bana – I mean, for the boss!”

Link spun around with a panicked shout and pulled out his demon carver, flailing his arm. The pommel of his demon carver smacked against a Yiga footsoldier’s mask.

The footsoldier flew sideways, skidding and rolling down the hill. Link jumped off the cluster of boulders before hitting the ground and rolling. He came up into a crouch and angled his demon carver at his attacker’s throat before he could teleport away.

“Agh, how dare you – “ the footsoldier spluttered. Link only frowned. His voice, while still masculine, was switching between very deep and nasally high-pitched at random intervals. He tried to wriggle away, but Link pinned his arm down with his free hand. If he looked closer, he could see a fine crack spreading across the Yiga mask. Was the mask…how they disguised themselves as average travelers? Or how they teleported?

Beedle appeared next to them without his pack. “I know your voice,” he said in disbelief, pointing an accusing finger at the Yiga. “I’ve been selling you arrows!”

Link felt the footsoldier’s arm tense under his hand, and snarled, “Don’t.”

The footsoldier’s gaze whipped from Link to Beedle and back again. “Woodland Stable was a trial run,” he hissed. “Watch your back, Champion.”

Anger boiled in his blood. He leaned in close. “If you so much as touch anyone at that stable,” he threatened, “I will gladly go to your hideout and destroy your new leader all over again.”

The footsoldier was quiet at that.

“Go tell your friends that I’m not at the stable anymore,” Link said. He stood up, and the footsoldier scrambled to his feet and ran up the road in the direction Link and Beedle had come from, disappearing from view.

He glanced back at Beedle. The traveling salesman was pale and stared at the spot where the Yiga had disappeared. “I can’t believe he tried to kill you – “

“Did you know he was Yiga?” Link demanded.

Beedle flinched. “No. And I don’t want to sell to them,” he added, a bit defensive. “I think a regular customer of mine at Kara Kara might be one of them. He buys way more arrows than any one guy needs. Just like you, huh?” he finished in an attempt at humor.

Link shook his head, disbelieving. “They’re killers.”

Beedle shrugged. “Well, everyone only thinks they’re crazy. Running around, telling people they want to kill the Hylian Champion, like he hasn’t been dead for a hundred years…”

Link clamped his mouth shut, miserable. He didn’t like being lumped in with the people trying to kill him. Come to think of it, he didn’t like being little more than a legend to the people of Hyrule. His life would be so much easier if everyone just knewhe was supposed to destroy the Calamity. Doing it all himself was overwhelming.

Beedle could not force another word out of him for the rest of the journey to the stable. If your words show weakness, perhaps it’s wisest not to speak at all. Who had said that to him? The phrase had the feel of a memory, the voice that spoke it faded and indistinct like a century-old painting. Link shook his head. Whoever had said it, the phrase had clearly done its job.

He didn’t realize they had reached the stable until a cold shadow fell over him. He glanced up, startled, only to see the building’s massive horse head looming above him. He hopped off the horse, dragging his hands over his face. He had to get it together. Poor Beedle probably had no idea what he’d done to make him so upset.

Better outlook, Link.This stable probably hadn’t been attacked by Yiga yet. It was surrounded by trees, so there was plentiful shade to beat the heat. No one here would be mad at him, except maybe Beedle.

Feeling a little bit better, he led Princess to a water trough and pulled out his own waterskin from a saddlebag. There was a man wearing a typical stable hat whacking away at a practice dummy only a few feet away from him. With a torch, no less.

“You mind?” Link muttered when the torch got dangerously close to Princess’ flank.

“I am Yolero, wielder of the legendary Master Torch,” the man said haughtily. “I do mind.”

“I think it’s a sword,” said Link with a heavy dose of irony.

Yolero stopped hitting the dummy and turned to Link with a frown. “What is?”

“You know. The Master Sword. The sword that seals the darkness. Blade of evil’s bane.” Link waved his hand vaguely. The sword I’m supposed to have. Damn the Koroks.

Yolero scoffed. “My grandmother always told me it was a torch.”

It’s only been a hundred years, Link thought with a strange mix of annoyance and sadness. Surely his grandmother would have remembered stories about the Hylian Champion more accurately…

Or maybe she had sanitized the stories for a young grandchild. Dinraal’s fire, was he just a children’s story now?

Link shook it off with an irritated huff. This was getting ridiculous. “You’re fast, but try to control your swings better,” he advised Yolero. “You’re leaving yourself wide open.”

Yolero blinked at the unsolicited advice, then thanked him hesitantly. Link only nodded, then went to go find Beedle.

He found himself standing before Beedle’s pack, scrambling around in his mind for the proper words to say. “I’m sorry,” he blurted out after an uncomfortable few seconds. Beedle shot him a quizzical glance.

“I’m sorry I just stopped talking to you earlier,” Link clarified, bringing a hand to the back of his head in embarrassment. “I…I’m not good at talking to people. And I don’t like the Yiga Clan.”

“I can tell,” Beedle said dryly. Link panicked for a moment at the stillness of his expression. Goddess, had he actually really hurt Beedle’s feelings?

Then Beedle’s face split into a smile. “Gotcha!” he hooted. “I know you’re bad at talking to people. Your strengths lay outside the realm of social interaction. That’s what I’m here for!” He winked.

Link breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. “In that case, can I buy some arrows? I have some more monster parts for you.”

Hylia bless Beedle. He was the one who deserved to be a legend.

And it wasn’t the end of the world that Beedle sold arrows to a guy who may or may not have been Yiga. Right? He had to remember the root problem. The Calamity.

This new pensive mood was how Link found himself seated on a crate at sunset, studying Hyrule Castle for the first time in a month. He did not shy away from taking in the crumbling spires and the magenta swirls of malice that choked the castle grounds, just as visible in the encroaching dusk as in broad daylight. This felt like progress, he thought, self-satisfied. Maybe next time he could forget about his disastrous last visit to the castle long enough to defeat the Calamity. He would have to.

Okay, Link. What’s step one?

Step one was to visit Gerudo Town. Riju would know more about what was happening with the Yiga.

Step two: infiltrate the Yiga Clan’s hideout. And maybe, if he was lucky, he could somehow… Well, he wasn’t sure exactly how he could stop them, at least temporarily, but he could figure it out.

Step three: protect the towns and stables. That… Link didn’t really have any idea how to do that.

Step four: Defeat the Calamity. That was the most daunting step of all.

Well. Step one was good enough for now.

Without sparing another look back at the stable, he got on Princess and galloped down the road.

It had been nice taking it easy earlier in the day, but he couldn’t deny that he loved the wind tearing through his hair and Princess’s mane, the steady rolling gait of his horse, and how the wilds scrolled by under the last traces of orange, pink and lavender in the evening sky.

The Lanayru Wetlands and their ruins passed by on his left, then soon enough he reached Eagus Bridge. He grinned, exulting in the thrill of riding fast. He almost felt like he and his horse were soaring across Hyrule Field. He would have to give extra apples to Princess when they stopped.

They skirted the Great Plateau, faint moonlight illuminating the sheer cliff face. Before long, Link was facing the Gerudo Highlands and their orange steppes turned silver by the nighttime. He was almost at the Digdogg Suspension Bridge.

As he came to the top of the gentle hill before the bridge, he slowed Princess to a halt and cursed. Some moblins had set up camp right next to the bridge, and although they were sleeping now, they would be woken up by a horse passing by. What was more, a red wizzrobe was prancing around above the burnt husk of a house nearby.

“Ugh,” Link muttered. He was not in the mood for fighting, but that wizzrobe would definitely wake the moblins if he tried to pass by. Maybe with a well-placed ice arrow and a bit of luck he could sneak past the moblins…

He swung himself off the stallion and took out his duplex bow. He pulled an ice arrow out of his quiver and kneeled in the grass. The wizzrobe was still busy looking like an idiot as Link inched his way closer. Finally, he had a semi-clear shot.

This first shot has to work. “No pressure,” he muttered to himself.

He pulled the string back and let his hand come to its comfortable anchor point against his jaw. Wizzrobes were stupid. Stupid, and annoying. If it would just stop moving for one Goddess-cursed second…

There.He aimed carefully and released. The wizzrobe shrieked and dissolved in a cloud of icy mist. Link ran back down the slope to Princess and vaulted on, hissing, “Let’s go.”

They galloped up the road. Moblins in the camp startled awake and went for their clubs, but they were too slow to catch him, even as they gave chase. “Ha, suckers!” Link shouted after them.

Then the moblins stopped. Link frowned at the sudden halt, then shrugged. He turned back around in the saddle.

He found himself about to collide with a recently awakened hinox.

“Shit!” Link yelped, yanking the reins to the side to get Princess out of the way. He scrambled off the horse while he tried to unsheathe his demon carver. The hinox just blinked at him. Then tried to sit on him.

Link barely threw himself out of the way. Gasping, he hacked at the monster’s leg a few times. He whirled out of the way as the hinox tried to swat at him, but now he was facing away from the hinox and he could see the water far below him. Some strange feeling was taking over, somehow familiar yet disorienting. There was something at the edge of his memory, with the hinox and the water, at the tip of his tongue –

It suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. The moonlight gleaming off the Regencia River –

The moonlight gleaming off of Ralis Pond –

“There’s a hinox at Ralis Pond!” Bazz shouted.

Link squinted at the little Zora. “So?”

“So we should fight it!” Bazz pumped his fist in the air, and Rivan and Gaddison bounced around in excitement.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Link said, with all of the dignity and conviction he could muster from his young age.

Rivan shoved his way in front of Bazz with a pout. “Aw, why not, Link? You taught us how to fight!”

“I’m nine,” Link pointed out sagely.

“You beat that soldier in a fight yesterday,” Gaddison replied in a quiet voice.

“Only cause he didn’t try,” Link blustered, secretly pleased at the mention of his victory. “No one wants to beat up a kid.”

“Right, so that hinox won’t want to hit us!” Bazz shouted.

Link frowned. “Don’t think that’s how that works.”

“And how would you know, Mr. I’ve-never-seen-a-monster-in-real-life?” Rivan retorted, poking him in the back.

“Hey, ow,” Link muttered. “My dad is a knight and he fights monsters. Of course I would know.”

“Would not,” Bazz scoffed. “When do you even talk to him? You spend too much time with Kodah.”

“Do not,” Link snapped, just as Gaddison rolled her eyes.

“Link doesn’t even spend that much time with her,” she said. She was much less riled up than the other two Zoras. “You guys aren’t making sense. Boys are dumb.”

“Fight me, Gaddison!” Rivan was yelling, but Link was no longer invested in that conflict. He had just remembered that his father had told him to corral all the Zora kids back to their pools if it got late. And, judging by the fact that he could see the moon over the cliffs of Zora’s Domain, it was very late indeed.

“Aw, man,” Link groaned, head in his hands. “My dad’s going to kill me.”

When he looked up, the Zoras were gone. Link whirled around, heart pounding, scanning the waterways of the Domain. There, at the very end, he saw the three kids running off. “The Big Bad Bazz Brigade rides again!” Bazz yelled.

“No, you don’t, not without me!” Link shouted back, but it was too late. By the time he made it to the upper level of the Domain, he had lost them.

He cast his gaze around wildly. What would he do if they actually tried to fight the hinox? He didn’t have weapons! The Big Bad Bazz Brigade didn’t have weapons! His dad would kill him! He would never get to be a knight of Hyrule!

Completely at a loss, he brightened when he saw Kodah over by the inn. “Kodah, Kodah, Kodah!” he shouted, using up all of his breath.

The red-finned Zora turned to him, startled. “What’s wrong, Linny?”

Link couldn’t even spare the effort to be annoyed by the nickname. “Big Bad – Bazz Brigade? There’s a hinox – Ralis Pond – no swords – “ He bent over, hands on his knees, out of breath and a little bit panicky.

Kodah frowned. “I did see them run past, yelling like a lizalfos was chasing them. I hope they’re not trying to get into trouble.”

That was Kodah for you. Always the practical and mature one. Link was always privately worried that she would look down on him for hanging out with the little hooligans of the Big Bad Bazz Brigade, but she never did.

But now was not the time for thinking! “I’m more worried about myself!” Link called over his shoulder as he dashed for the bridge connecting the Domain with the cliffs surrounding it.

The gentle glow of the Domain’s luminous stones under moonlight usually mesmerized Link, but he was on a mission. The Brigade had a head start and an advantage, what with the water everywhere. He had gotten pretty good at splashing around in the almost two years his father had been stationed here, but he was no Zora.

Wait – there! Leaning up against the side of the bridge, in a little alcove next to a crate, was an abandoned silver sword. Link snatched it up, almost tripping over himself, and kept running. He ducked and weaved around the strange, luminescent plants growing on the cliff. His footsteps squelched in the grass, the morning’s rain doing its part to slow him down.

Ahead of him, next to a small pond, he could see a hinox getting to its feet and blinking blearily. Three small Zoras ran around it, dodging its line of sight.

Link’s heart jumped in his throat. Had he been that stupid when he was younger?

He was around twenty feet away from the hinox now. Before he knew what he was doing, he yelled, “Hey! Over here!”

The hinox’s gaze inched its way over to him. The hinox was very blue. And very, very big. Link swallowed.

The hinox took a great, lumbering step toward him. The earth shook when its foot hit the ground. Link held the silver sword before him, doing his best to ignore how the point of the sword wobbled.

The hinox raised an arm, and Link’s muscles tensed, ready to jump out of the way –

“Ya dumb monster! You’re as fat as King Dorephan!”

Link could only blink for a second. The hinox was just as confused, turning back around to face the source of the shout. Gaddison was smacking Rivan’s shoulder, exclaiming, “You can’t say that about the king! That’s mean!”

Then the hinox’s shadow fell over them, and their eyes widened. Bazz tried to pull them out of the way, but they were nearly trapped against a rock face.

Link let loose his best imitation of a battle cry and charged at the hinox. He slashed at the back of its legs, but now the hinox was turning and he was losing that good angle. He ducked under a swipe of its hand and stabbed right under its knee. The hinox howled in pain, a loud, monstrous sound that jarred Link right out of his focus. He didn’t realize the hinox was about to sit on him until a small Zora hand grabbed his and yanked him out of the way.

He stared in disbelief at the spot he had just been, now flattened by the hinox. “You’re welcome,” Gaddison squeaked, before beating a hasty retreat back to the bush the Big Bad Bazz Brigade was hiding behind.

Link ran forward again, able to slash at the monster while it was attempting to get back up. He noted with a fierce pride that he had done some serious damage to one of its legs.

He was interrupted again by a cry of, “Link!” coming from behind him.

Link whirled around on reflex to see a red-finned Zora with a gleaming trident sprinting right for the hinox. He watched in awe as Princess Mipha of the Zora gracefully launched herself into the air and drove the Lightscale Trident right into the hinox’s eye.

The hinox staggered back, clutching at its eye, but Mipha was too fast. She had wrenched the trident out of its eye and vaulted away before it could even come close to touching her. Thinking fast, Link hollered at the hinox, drawing its attention to him.

As it was distracted, Mipha sprinted around to the back of the hinox and, in a quick series of blows, brought it to its knees. With a final, decisive blow to the back of the neck, the hinox slumped forward, now motionless. Link watched thick, black blood ooze out of the hinox’s eye and legs, horrified and fascinated despite himself.

Mipha emerged from behind the monster’s corpse, somehow unscathed. She smiled. “Thank you for your help, Link.”

Link could not think of what to say for a second. Then he blurted, “Thank Gaddison! Gaddison saved me!”

“That’s right!” Rivan added from behind the bush. “She’s a real heroine!”

Mipha turned to where the members of the Big Bad Bazz Brigade were creeping out from behind the bush, matching sheepish and scared expressions on their faces. “Then I thank you for your help as well, Gaddison,” she said, that gentle smile still in her voice. How did Mipha manage to be so nice all the time? It was a complete mystery to Link, who was tired, sore, and cranky now that the adrenaline was leaving his system.

Then another set of running footsteps sounded behind him, heavier than Mipha’s. Link froze, pulse pounding. He recognized those footsteps.

He slowly turned around and came face to face with his father.

He was still wearing his knight’s armor, although his helmet was tucked under his arm. The expression on his face scared Link. It was a cross between anger, impatience, and fear that he had never seen before. “Link,” he began gravely.

Link bowed his head, terrified of the inevitable lecture he was going to get. “I’m sorry, dad, I – “

“You know that all of you need to stay together in the Domain when I’m in meetings with the Zora guard. I was specific about what time I expected you and your friends to be in bed by, wasn’t I?” His father sounded more tired than anything else.

“Sunset,” Link managed, willing the shameful tears away from his eyes. It was all his fault…

Bazz crept forward into Link’s peripheral vision, startling him. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s all my fault! I wanted to fight the hinox, and I’m the leader of the Brigade, so they all listened to me…”

Link’s head jerked up in surprise at Bazz’s defense. For some reason, faint amusement flickered in his father’s eyes for a moment, then it was eclipsed by the old, tired anger. “Just be grateful that Princess Mipha was here to save your sorry behinds.” He turned to her and bowed. “I can’t thank you enough, Highness.”

Mipha smiled, bringing the tip of her trident down to the ground in a relaxed stance. “If you would like, Sir Rossin, you may return to your meeting. I can bring the children back.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded, sending Link one last reproachful glance. Then he turned and jogged back to the Domain.

Link watched his shiny armor dwindle into the distance, miserable. To his surprise, Mipha laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Kodah came to find me as soon as you left. I explained to your father that you were only trying to save them. He won’t be angry for long.”

“Thank you, Princess,” he said glumly, unable to feel very optimistic about that.

“It’s all our fault, Princess!” Rivan yelled, Bazz and Gaddison looking suitably regretful behind him. “We thought we could fight it, but then Link did all the work!”

“Link did all the work?” Mipha echoed with a surprising amount of indignation. “But I killed the beast!”

“It was mostly Princess Mipha,” Link admitted, not even ashamed to say it in the face of her extraordinary prowess with the Lightscale Trident.

As the laughter of the Zora princess and children rose into the night, Link made a private resolution.

If his dad ever let him become a knight, he would train with both the sword and the spear.

He blinked, and he was facing the Regencia River again. The world was covered in a haze of red, and Link was briefly terrified – had he somehow miscounted the days? Was it already the blood moon again? – but then he realized what was happening.

Daruk was back! Link turned around to see the Goron’s ethereal, red form holding up the barrier. “Welcome back, little guy!” Daruk exclaimed, but Link didn’t miss the trace of worry in his voice.

“Sorry, I don’t know what got into me – “ Link babbled. He must have instinctively summoned the barrier while he was zoned out.

“It’s alright, I just took a few hits – “ Daruk pushed his arms out with a grunt, countering the hinox’s strike and leaving the monster off-balance and reeling. Daruk and his barrier fizzled out as he expended the last of the energy keeping him with Link.

Link did not waste the opportunity to dart around the hinox. But he was still reeling from the memory – Bazz, Mipha, his father – and he somehow found himself trapped between the edge of the natural platform and the hinox.

Then something hit his side with the force of a flying, massive boulder, and the world spun around him. He landed with a bone-jarring thud that forced the breath out of his lungs.

Everything went black.

Then he opened his eyes, crying out in pain, and saw Mipha. Everything came back to him in a rush. The hinox, the memory–

He ignored the pain seizing his chest and propped himself up on one arm. Mipha frowned, but he blurted, “I remember!”

Mipha’s hand hovered above his chest, confusion warring with faint hope in her eyes. “What do you remember?”

“I remember, Mipha!” He felt his face break into a broad grin. “That time Bazz, Rivan, and Gaddison wanted to fight a hinox and I chased them and you saved our lives – “ A sharp twinge in his side cut him off, but it couldn’t put a damper on his excitement or the joy that was slowly spreading across Mipha’s face.

“Then why are you having a harder time beating a hinox now than when you were nine years old?” she teased. “Come on. I believe in you.”

Link laughed, half in disbelief and half in delight. “I’m so happy, Mipha – “

Her form had faded and vanished, but Link’s joy did not go away. He jumped to his feet and charged at the hinox, roaring a battle cry. He remembered! He remembered something about his father, about his childhood friends, about his dear friend and fellow Champion Mipha.

Link hardly noticed when the steel of the demon carver fractured and splintered against the tough hide of the hinox, or when his arrow pierced the monster’s eye, or when it finally died and dissipated in a swirl of magenta smoke. The hinox had been carrying a royal broadsword around its neck, and Link picked it up to replace the demon carver he had lost. Not even the remarkably foul-smelling blood and guts of the hinox could bring him down.

He had been so convinced for so long that all he would ever have of his past life were scattered fragments, diaries, and hearsay. An uncomfortable proportion of his memories involved Princess Zelda being rude to him. He had given up on anything more, much less anything more revealing.

And now his father had a face and a name. Sir Rossin. A tall, broad, dark-haired man with intense blue eyes and a nose slightly crooked from where it had been broken before. Link could only assume he took more after his mother.

And maybe he would remember his mother soon! He had no idea why he had begun to remember now, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Poor Princess was still huddled by the edge of the bridge, tossing his head nervously. “It’s okay, horse,” Link laughed as he patted his nose and pulled an apple out of a saddlebag.

Soon enough, they were back on the road, flying through Gerudo Canyon. Link hadn’t felt this optimistic in ages.

#fanfic #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #botw #memory #link #beedle #MY PRECIOUS SON BEEDLE #to tell you who else shows up in this chapter would constitute a spoiler #sorry not sorry #guess you'll have to read it

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