#[ be careful impa. it could be a trap. ]

[sapientiiae]

@hyruleanlegends asked: "I'll do anything for a woman with a knife." flirty prompts

The words left the princess amused, though she was also tempted to roll her eyes. A kunai knife dangled from betwixt slender fingers, swinging back and forth as the Hylian continuously gave a small jiggle of her wrist. It would have been so easy to flick her wrist and send that same blade flying wherever she pleased, a skill that had been honed with the Sheikah’s assistance.

The general of the Hyrulean Army did occasionally manage to catch the royal off guard with pretty words or actions, which would then morph her into a silent and red-faced mess, but not tonight. Tonight the  royal was feeling too mischievous, as suggested by the impish grin that had found permanent residence on coral painted lips. With another flick of her wrist, she now sent the blade circling around her pointer before it was back to dangling precariously between her fingers once more; all the while, her gaze never once left the frost-haired woman that stood in front of her.

“Is that so? Are you certain? Perhaps even willing to make a bet?” Her grin broadened as she tossed the kunai into the air before catching it once more, her calculated precision preventing the sharpened blade from doing any damage. “Because I am willing to bet that despite the fact that I am a woman and do happen to carry a knife in my possession,” she continued, the very knife she spoke of glinting in the light, “I could think of a handful of things you would not be willing to do.”

[wayfayrr]

The Menace returns! And you choose Trauma so this is not a Link!Reader but someone who caused a trauma to someone else.

Here we go to the person that SCARRED our Vet to beyond belief. Marin!Reader and now I finally could write it down as I didn't want to make it a second dream section with all of the Chain as they all would be scarred for life and well, Legend would want to die. So and thanks to Gliphy I got the perfect idea with Marin!Reader.

They were the Marin on Koholint, so they are Legend's first love!

They live but just in a different world entirely. (My own theory on that)

They still remember Legend and hope he is doing well.

They still sing to animals and people.

After Legend finds them, he is at first suspicious. It could be a trap from the Shadow.

But his brain couldn't stop him from rushing to their side and holding them in his arms again.

They are a sweetheart and are holding Legends with such care when they sing him a lullaby.

The Vet will not be able to sleep without them in his arms anymore.

Their weapon is the Sea Lily Bell and Awakening Bell like in Hyrule Warriors.

The Chain is stunned and confused how a person with such a soft voice and delicate body fight monsters like a knight and with a bell no less.

I believe that there are two groups in the Yandere Chain.

Group one will be the one's that have practically a suffocating possessiveness and are overprotective. In the group is Legend, Twilight, Wild, Four and surprisingly Sky.

Before you scream, let me explain.

I think, that Sky would be possessive despite the usual Headcanons BECAUSE he lost Zelda during his journey multiple times.

Once she was led away from him by Impa, then she disappeared into a portal into the past, then she sealed herself into a crystal for that seal on Demise and lastly she almost lost her soul because of Ghirahim. Yeah, no way in hell you can tell me, that he wouldn't be overprotective and possessive over his darling after these stunts.

The second group is overbearing and/or cautious of Reader, not because they don't trust them.

No! They are cautious about the people around Reader.

Reader has a bleeding heart and would try to help anyone they found. Nevermind if it's a enemy or an ally.

This group has Wars, Time, Four (again) and Hyrule in it.

I hope everyone of them is self-explanatory.

Legend sees them as his future spouse. He knew them the longest! And has a history with them!

So he even sees the Chain as enemy, especially Wars.

But he would never kidnap them, he knew how they felt about being caged as he met them on Koholint.

But he talks smack about the Chain.

So he is more trustworthy than the others. So he stands in a better light than the others. So they fell rather in love with him than any of the other eight heroes. So they run into his arms if they got scared.

He gave them a ring, of course a magical one. But it's more than that, he wears the second one of them and as long as they both wear this specific ring, Legend is able to find them.

Legend is also clingy, very clingy.

Wars has to adapt plans so the Vet sees Reader. Because if he doesn't, he will go nuts.

He will use every trick he has in his sleeves to find them and if the others die in the process, he doesn't fucking care.

If Reader is tucking Wind into bed like an older sibling would and singing him a lullaby. Legend is so jealous but at the same time, he sees Reader with his and their children. So the jealousy disappears and he just watches them with Wind with fond eyes while daydreaming.

Sky teached them lyrics from his era, so they sing to him as he plays his harp.

Twilight has the time of his life as Wolfie, they sing to him, pet him, forehead kisses.

Bunny!Legend got it even better, he is very smug about it. Reader will carry him, pet him, kiss his nose, take care of his vest, protect him from Wild and if they are in an inn while Legend is a bunny, they will sleep with him in a bed and held him close to their chest.

They even bath together.

He thanked every existing deity, that Reader didn't know he was the bunny or he would die, happy but he dies.

Just because he saw them naked, something nobody of the Chain did only him.

Wars first, tries to find out how Legend was back then as they met but after falling in love he write poetry for them and they write with him song lyrics of ballads.

Time knows them from the War of Eras and is embarrassed to see them. Let's just say, Reader treated him like a child and never left his side through the whole war. But now he only sees the perfect parent in them.

They switch with Wild so he could sleep longer every once in a while and they cook breakfast in the meantime.

Hyrule sees how much the Vet loves their singer. But as a Fae he got drawn in and is always near them when they sing.

Four asks about the Bells as they are a strange weapon choice.

Their song is "Celestial" from Ed Sheeran.

How they met.

Legend's PoV:

We walked around my Hyrule, inside a forest to be more specific. We wandered through it and didn't found any monsters but there were little puddles and footprints inside the mud. So we followed the track until we found a person lying on the ground. All except for me run to the Hylian. Their blue clothes were so familiar like their hair and as they turned the person around. So we could see their face. I could see a red island flower in their hair and I saw a face of someone I thought would never see again. My brain cried out, that it could be a trap from the shadow but my feet just started to sprint to them. I ripped them from the hands of one of the others and held them close to my chest. I knew, that my house was near. So I picked them up and carried them to my home. The others just followed me and were calling out to me not to be reckless and even my brain still screamed that this was a trap but my body moved on it's own. I carried Reader into my house and laid them in my bed before tucking them under the covers. I didn't care if my bed got muddy or anything. I grabbed a chair and sat myself beside them. They had some cuts and bruises but nothing serious, thank The Golden Three for that. I held their hand in mine and even kissed their knuckles as I ignored the group who questioned me and my motives to bring "a stranger" into my house. My Love stirred and I felt a little more force as they squeeze my hand ever so slightly. They laid in my bed for few hours before they woke up and I can remember how relieved I was. They opened their eyes, they looked around and as their beautiful eyes laid upon me. They smiled and giggled their melodic laughter.

„Hehehehe... Seems like our roles are know reversed, did you found me on the beach as well?“

I snorted at their silliness. „Yes, our roles are now reversed but you laid inside a forest in mud and not in sand by a beautiful beach... But how are you here, Reader... You should be...“

„The Wind Fish fulfilled my wish! I had to do something for him but that was no big deal! Now I can finally see the world outside of Koholint, Link! Maybe you can show me around?“ I turned red as they said my name and right now I didn't care if it was a trap or not. They were back and real! I smiled at them and nodded.

„Of course, I can! I promised it on the log by the beach remember?“

„I know... But you also said you are a hero so you must be very busy... I don't want to steal your precious time... And I said you should forget about that!“ It was like an arrow was fired through my heart and my face and ear tips turned bright red. They were way too kind for the cruel world of Hyrule.

„Sorry, to interrupt your reunion? But who are you and how do you fight all these monsters inside the forest?“ asked the Captain and I just glared at him for interrupting our conversation.

Reader began to sat up, were I jumped up and helped them.

„Be careful.“ they still held my hand but I was more concerned about the Captain. If he tries to take Reader away from me, then he will have some things coming for him!

„Oh I remember you! You were the soldier in the war I should help out to get my wish fulfilled! I never asked for your name! I'm Reader and just like back then I dealt with them with my Sea Lily Bell and water magic.“ they smiled but I couldn't concentrate as THEY knew the Captain!

My head snapped to the Captain who seemed to recognise my first love.

„Ohhh the Hylian with that strange bell and has the Wind Fish as companion. How did you land inside the forest?“ I squeezed their hand slightly and they looked at me while squeezing back.

„I wished to be free from the island I lived on and wished to be with Link! I didn't see him for so long! But I wished that I had stayed awake then I could've greet him properly!“ They hugged me which I reciprocated to hide my even redder face in their shoulder and my ears which wiggled slightly.

I felt them pet my head as they said something which shocked not only me but all of us.

„Oh there are also the two kids from back then! Hey long time no see! You grown so much! One of you even outgrow me! Hihihihihi... But I still don't know your names as the war kinda kept me busy.“

I looked with my eyes to the others and saw how the old man scratched his neck and Wind rushed towards us.

„You are that Hylian with the cool water magic!? It's really been long, you didn't change one bit!!“

They laughed and combed through my hair that my head became drowsy and I felt sleepy.

„Our name is Link, Reader so that's why we are called by our title. You may call me "Time", the boy is "Wind", then there is Warrior, Twilight, Four, Hyrule, Wild, Sky and the one in your arms is called "Legend".“ they nodded and kissed my head.

„I don't care, if you call him "Legend" for me, he is Link!“ My hold around them grew stronger and I fell asleep with my beloved in my arms. It felt like I was finally being able to fall asleep after years of being kept awake...

This is how they met the "Singer" and Legend's first love! Of course, they all noticed how the Vet was acting around them. He was more open and expressive and less snarky. He will be going more and more possessive that even Yandere Twilight would be nothing against him. Wolves are protective over their mates and pups but Legend put that to shame. Sky always starts to play his harp as soon he sees Reader is near him, so they begin to play the bell and sing with him. They sometimes even do a duet with Wild. Apropos Wild, they cook together and dance with him just to have fun and to be silly. Time sees them as the perfect parent from his previous encounters with them but also loves to listen to them sing him a lullaby. But he knows that Reader would be never allowed to be on watch duty, especially not alone. And even thought they fought for being at least on watch duty. They are allowed to but only with Legend as they sleep in the same bedroll and they don't want to imagine what will happen to them and anything around them, if a sleeping Veteran noticed that Reader isn't beside him anymore. Wars talks to them a lot because of their magic and the different bells. Four learned specifically for them how to maintain their bells. Wind uses his "Little Brother Privileges" he gets lullabies, cuddles, playtime anything he wants until Time or Legend separate them, mostly Legend. Hyrule just loves to hear them sing. He isn't confident enough too even mention his feelings for them to the others. Twilight gets "Wolfie Privileges" but also as Hylian he gets attention from Reader. But none of them get as much attention as Legend as he is the closest to them after all.

The Menace will return next week with new words! INTO THE MENACE CAVE!!

I love the twist of being a different world rather than simply just the windfish's dream, legend deserves that little bit of healing at least after everything else he's gone through

And also I agree with how you've characterised the yans!!! I haven't put out my full headcanons for each of them yet (I really need to but they're pretty low on my things to finish and post of wips ngl) But I do have sky's out! and I do see him as very possessive but simply not showing it as much as the rest - he's a manipulative yan more than anything. <3

Legend has EVERY reason to be more cautious of wars, like you said of course legend has the upper hand since he has history with reader but so does warriors, he knew reader during the war of ages so of course he's going to be more defensive against him (time is only safe because he was a kid and doesn't see em in a romantic light)

the way they met is also really sweet, being the opposite of how legend and them met for the first time. I bet he simply wishes that it was after he was finished with this quest so that he could have them to himself instead.

[crazylittlejester]

(The) Trouble with Words (click for link to ao3)

Summary: Mask once again finds himself in a position where his actions might have severe consequences for Captain Link, and he feels incredibly guilty for the trouble he causes his brother. However… in his defense… the guy deserved it.

Author’s note: Another lil thing I did as a writing exercise! MAJOR fuckin’ shoutout to Emmie for not only beta reading this for me but for also helping me come up with a title because I was literally banging my head into the wall unable to come up with anything. go give her some love i owe her my life, she’s @hero-of-the-wolf on here and @/hero_of_the_wolf on ao3 I hope y’all enjoy!!

Fic under the cut!

Mask sat on a barrel outside the general’s tent swinging his feet, hands trapped under his thighs so he wouldn’t start picking nervously at what little was left of his fingernails after the past week of stress had destroyed them. He could hear Link and Impa’s forced calm voices drift through the fabric, but every time the other captain raised his voice, Mask couldn’t help but flinch.

That man was yelling at Link, because of something HE did. Once again, Mask had gotten his brother in trouble.

He tilted his chin upwards to try to stop the tears pooling in his eyes from running down his cheeks. He wasn’t even ashamed of what he’d done, in fact he’d do it again in a heartbeat, but the guilt that his brother was going to face the consequences for HIS actions tore at his insides and crawled up in his throat, choking him.

It was another half hour of sitting there on that barrel before the other captain stormed out of Impa’s tent fuming. He shot Mask a nasty glare, and Mask tried hard to stop the corner of his mouth from curling up when he saw what pretty colors the skin around the man’s eye had turned in the time since Mask had punched him. He’d really put his all into the blow, and it looked as though it would certainly swell shut by morning.

Not too many minutes later, HIS captain, his brother, walked out of the general’s tent, and Mask’s guilt grew heavier. Link looked exhausted as he came over to him, and Mask hopped off his barrel to meet him halfway, desperate to explain what had really happened. He was sure the soldier he’d punched had spit nothing but lies, and he knew if anyone would believe him, it would be Link.

Before he had the chance to open his mouth, the captain put his hands on his hips and let out a sigh. “Okay, what happened?”

Mask didn’t waste a second, he told him everything, taking care to be deliberate with his signs and not allow his frustration to make them sloppy.

He’d kicked a small rock along the dirt path that ran between the rows of tents at camp as he’d made his way back to his own. With Link having a private meeting with Impa to go over battle plans, Mask had been left to his own devices for the afternoon and he’d been very much enjoying the chance to just walk around. It felt like years since he’d been able to just roam around the woods, feeling safe under the trees, and while the orderly layout of camp and all its inhabitants felt NOTHING like the forest, the ability to wander on rare afternoons helped him feel calm.

Except he hadn’t paid attention to how close he’d come to a small group of soldiers and he had accidentally kicked his rock a little harder than he’d meant to, sending it right into the foot of a captain.

Mask had apologized immediately. Despite what many of the soldiers complained to Link about him being ‘mannerless’, Mask wasn’t stupid and he knew when to be polite, and it had really been by mistake. However, the captain had decided to take it as an opportunity to let out all his frustrations and accuse Mask of doing it on purpose.

“What are you even doing here, boy?” The man had sneered when he was done yelling at him, and Mask hadn’t been able stop his face from twisting into an expression of disgust.

“Fighting the war, s- s- same as you,” he’d snapped back, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mask had thought Link would be very impressed with him for not losing his temper entirely when the man mocked his stutter. The soldiers around had laughed nervously as Captain Asshole spoke in a high pitched voice and continued to make fun of him.

“I didn’t ask to- t- t-…” he’d paused and taken in a deep breath, intending to just pick a different word and continue. He hadn’t asked to be here, but this man hadn’t deserved an explanation from him, so Mask had decided he would be mature and just walk away.

But before he even could, Captain Dickwad had laughed at him and gone, “Spit it out already!”

And next thing Mask knew, the man had been knocked to the ground and Mask’s knuckles stung where his dry skin had split on impact against the captain’s face.

As his story went on his signs got faster and faster as the anger he’d felt when he’d punched the man came back to him, but at a certain point, Link just gently rested a hand on top of his. Mask realized then his brother must’ve been trying to call his name for a while but hadn’t been able to get his attention.

“I don’t want you t- to get in tr- tr- I don’t want…” Mask gripped the roots of his hair tightly and tried not to scream. He so desperately needed to explain himself, he needed to apologize for getting Link in trouble, but the more panicked and stressed he was the more difficult it was for him to speak. Speaking wasn’t easy for him anyway, he was always getting stuck in his words, but it felt so difficult and frustrating now he almost wanted to cry, and he was still full of that boiling anger at that man who DARED to make fun of him.

“Hey, hey,” his brother sighed, pulling Mask’s hands from his hair. “Take a deep breath, Sprite. It’s okay, you’re not in trouble.”

He stomped his foot hard into the dirt, teeth clenched, but then did as the captain said and took in a slow breath. He looked up into soft blue eyes and almost sighed in relief when it was clear his brother believed him. Link didn’t look upset with him, he looked concerned and upset FOR him, but not mad at Mask. He was telling the truth.

The captain then stood up very straight and cleared his throat, causing Mask to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“Now, what have we said about punching people?” Link asked, a bit louder than was strictly necessary given that Mask was only standing two feet away from him.

“Wh- What?”

“We need to have a serious conversation about this in our tent,” the captain told him, and Mask stared at him in fear. He thought Link hadn’t been upset with him?? Why was he now acting like he was? He just said he wasn’t in trouble!

That’s when Mask noticed the large crowd of soldiers that had gathered in the area, trying their best to look as though they were not eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Come along now,” Link said, rather loudly again, placing a thin hand on Mask’s upper back to steer him in the direction of their tent.

They remained in silence for the entirety of the brief walk, and the second the flap closed behind them, the captain’s posture softened and he pulled Mask into a quick side hug.

“You okay?” Link asked gently, pressing a kiss to the top of Mask’s head.

“It’s gonna take more than one fuckass to get to me,” he lied, wriggling out of his brother’s hold. He didn’t want him to realize how much that man’s words had really gotten to him, he didn’t want Link to realize how desperately he appreciated the hug.

“Impa’s transferring him out of here,” his brother told him. “His behavior was unacceptable, and you’re not the only one he’s harassed. You’ll never see him again.”

Mask screeched and cussed at Link when the captain ruffled his hair, glaring at his back as his brother walked to his desk laughing. He had a crafted insult on the tip of his tongue that he was about to spit out, but Link opened his mouth first.

“But seriously, we do need to talk about you punching people.”

His tone caused Mask’s breath to catch in his throat.

“Next time, aim for the fucking throat. I don’t want to have to listen to someone you’ve punched complain for that long ever again in my life,” Link whined, and Mask couldn’t stop himself from laughing when his brother shot him his signature crooked grin.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Well, y'all saw the Good Ganondorf part of the prompt, now it's time for Evil Zelda >:D

Have a snippet until I figure out what the heck I'm gonna do with this story.

This couldn’t be happening.

Zelda found herself standing before one of the many paintings of her ancestors. The Sacred Diplomat, one of her greatest predecessors, stood serenely, adorned in paint and silk, eyes closed with a gentle smile. The entire Triforce glowed on her hand, almost seeming to mock her.

She had fought a war and won. She had brought peace to her Hyrule. She had united all, despite the impossible circumstances. And she had done so with her Hero. She had married her Hero, had entwined their destinies in such a powerful bond that even evil itself shattered before them.

Yet here she was, crowned ruler only due to her own ineptitude leading to her father’s demise. Here she was, having only just gotten a shaky peace at the cost of so many, only to immediately lose it and her Hero. Here she was, responsible for resurrecting evil incarnate because she had suggested destroying the last seal holding him at bay.

Zelda felt cold dread coil around her, a fear squeezing her heart as if it were trapped in a vice grip. Her palms were sweating, and she balled her fists in determination. She would not go down this easily. She would not be the queen remembered for her failures.

Turning sharply on her heel, she marched along in the dark hallway, eyes alight with determination and cold rage.

XXX

By the grace of Hylia, they had found their target.

Zelda marched into the room, eyes cold as she glared at her enemy. Cia knelt on the ground, her hands bound behind her back, head bowed.

“She was in the Lost Woods,” Impa reported. “It seems most of her power has left her.”

“Most isn’t all,” Zelda reminded her general before returning her attention to the dark sorceress. She approached her slowly, channeling her own magic as she summoned her blade, pointing it at Cia’s neck. “I wonder how happy you are, knowing that Link is in peril? You never could seem to make up your mind if you wanted him dead or not.”

Cia flinched as cold steel met with her bare skin, though her eyes widened as she looked at the queen. “Link’s in danger?”

Zelda gritted her teeth, feeling fury surge through her. The energy it gave her drove her forward, and she pushed the blade closer, nearly knocking the sorceress onto her back. “Don’t you dare act like you care, you hag! You’re responsible for all of this!”

“Your Majesty—” Impa interjected, taking a hesitant step forward.

“Be silent,” Zelda hissed, not taking her eyes off her target. “You, witch, are going to help me. Use your magic to find Link.”

[linkedarena]

Official Chapter 1

(I lied this is the actual chapter. I wasn’t happy with the other one :/)

Link flinched at the sound of footsteps. He peered out of his hood and saw a piece of paper slip into his cave and then the footsteps ceased. He waited silently, unsheathing his sword before peering out. 

There was no one. 

But he had never received a letter. It wouldn’t make sense for even the princesses to send a letter to him because they didn’t know where he lived. Could it be a trap, somehow? 

He ripped the envelope open with the sharp end of his sword and saw that nothing was inside so he crouched down and picked the paper up and read it.

                       —————————

“Captain!” Someone called.

Link turned around instantly to see one of his faithful knights, Katari. “Yes?” 

“I was sent to deliver you a message from a person in a cloak. Before I could ask who they were they were gone. I suggest you regard this with caution.”

Link chewed his lip, before taking the letter and setting it aside. “Thank you. Now, return to the training grounds. We have work to do soon, the enemy camps are getting bolder.” 

“Yes, sir.”

“I wouldn’t disregard that letter, Captain Link,” Impa’s stern voice came.

“I’m not. I’m merely setting it aside for later.”

“From Katari’s description, this could be a messenger of the Goddesses.”

What? 

Link sighed. “Okay.” 

Impa narrowed her eyes at him as he picked up the letter before sinking into the shadows when he wasn’t looking. He carefully read the letter.

                       —————————

Link felt a tap on his shoulder and looked to see Malon there, an unreadable expression on her face as she held up a letter. “Someone came up to the ranch and told me to give this to you.”

“That’s weird,” Link mused, accepting the letter.

“I’m off to tend to the Cuccos, don’t make a mess!” 

“When do I ever? Those…beasts make more of a mess than I ever have in my entire life.”

“Alright Fairy Boy. Whatever you say.”

Link wiped away a fake tear at the clear disbelief in her tone and his wife rolled her eyes, heading out the door. He pulled out the letter and began to read with a curious expression.

                       —————————

“What shall we do today?” Zelda asked with a soft smile on her face. 

“Go out to town?” Link suggested.

“But you’ve already been to all the towns. There’s practically nowhere you haven’t been. In Labrynna and Holodrum too!” 

“Hytopia as well.”

“See!” 

Link laughed. “Well, okay then. What’s something new we can try?” 

“Now that I think about it, have you ever tried—“

There was a knock at the door. Zelda opened it and came with a letter, seemingly confused. “Do you know a Hero of Legend?” 

“Zelda,” Link urged, voice shaking with laughter. “Hero. Of. Legend.”

She had a moment of realization and laughed, a bright beautiful sound and handed him the letter. He opened the letter, Zelda peering over his shoulder.

                       —————————

Link came out of the forge, sweating but pleased with his work. He saw his father there,  talking to someone and hurried over as quickly as possible. But the person was gone in the blink of an eye. “Letter of sorts. Addressed to the Hero of the Four Sword, which is you?” Dad quirked a brow.

Link’s heart twisted painfully at the reminder of his most recent adventure and he nodded. “I’ll get to it later. I need to change and sell one of those daggers I made.” 

“Where do you want me to put it?”

“Just on the table is fine. Thanks, Dad.” 

He got to his wardrobe and paused, reminiscing of a time where he was Green, Blue, Red and Vio. He pulled Blue’s sweater on, wrapped Vio’s scarf around his neck, and pinned Red’s flower on the side of his head. His reflection shown in the mirror, green eyes meeting his. He thought he looked a little ridiculous but he didn’t care.

What a mess. 

He picked up his dagger ready to meet the customer but he saw the letter from before floating in the air in front of him. 

What.

“Fine, fine,” He took the letter into his hands and narrowed his eyes at it as he read its contents.

                          —————————

Link ruffled Colin’s hair with a wolfish grin. “‘Night Colin. Don’t forget what we have planned tomorrow.”

“I won’t!” Colin promised and hurried off once Uli ushered him away.

Rusl’s eyes twinkled. “Well, Link, it’s well time we talked.”

“What about?” 

“Ya aren’t th’ same since ya came home from that adventure ‘f yours,” Rusl explained, but his tone wasn’t accusatory, just gentle.

Link remained silent. 

“Those fangs, an’ nose are something new. I’ve seen ya behave differently. I’m worried. If it’s nothing ta’ be concerned about, lemme know, but…”

“Ya see, it’s—“

A knock. Rusl sighed. “Sorry ta’ interrupt ya kiddo.”

“Nah, ‘s all good.” 

“A letter? For th’ Hero of Twilight? Look I don’t know who this is. Does ‘e have a name other than that title?” Link overheard Rusl speaking but he didn’t hear whoever was talking behind the door.

Which was strange considering he had some special hearing. There was a pause. “I know him actually. Thanks, but who are—huh?” 

After a moment came back Rusl handed him a letter with a shrug. “Someone said this is for you, but dunno who.”

Link frowned and read the letter with anticipation.

                       —————————

Link looked proudly at the Surface village as it thrived with new buildings and people looking around at the new world with awe. He turned to Zel who rested her head against his shoulder. “I don’t think I could’ve asked for anything better.”

“You didn’t like Skyloft?” Link teased.

“Of course I liked Skyloft, but I’d already explored what I could. And the other islands didn’t hold as much. I think people will be much happier here as much as our old home was nice.” 

“I think you’re right.”

“You’re biased.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t think you’re right. Besides it’s true,” Link carded a hand through Zelda’s hair. “Loving down here is an entirely new experience for all of us, but it won’t be a bad one.”

“You two lovebirds done monologuing or can we open the new academy?” Groose called.

Link blushed but Zelda just heaved a sigh and got up. They headed towards the building they would call the Academy. They hadn’t strayed too far from its original design but changed it enough so that they could school littler ones too. “Oh but before you go, there’s a letter for you. Something about a Hero of the Skies.” Groose tossed a letter at Link and he barely caught it.

“Letter? We haven’t set up a mailing system down here. We should do that,” Link mused.

“Just get on with it!” 

Begrudgingly he opened the letter.

                     —————————

“See ya later, I’m off!” Link told Zelda, mounting Epona, who he had found out was apparently his horse before the Calamity.

“Make sure you get some research in!” Zelda called. “Purah and I are awaiting the day you eat that frog!”

“I’m not eating it raw! Experiment or not!”

“We’ll convince you someday!” 

Link scrunched his face up as he galloped out of Hateno. Those truffle-hunters were still out there. Honestly, he’d never seen them leave. At least they weren’t being attacked again. He hurried off the path once they reached the bottom of the hill and let his hair flow in the breeze. He grinned. It was so good to live in a world that was no longer haunted by Calamity Ganon, no matter how ruined it remained.

Suddenly Epona stopped, refusing to move when Link pushed. He frowned. Why…? That’s when he saw a figure in a white cloak standing there. “Letter for the Hero of Wilds…or you.”

He didn’t let go of Epona yet, getting ready to hop off and unsheathe his weapon. “Say, I have some bananas in my pouch. Would you like some?” 

“I do not want them. Now, here,” The cloaked figure handed him the letter, which he took carefully.

Before he could say anything the figure was gone. He just opened the letter, after soothing Epona who was still a bit shaken. 

                        —————————

Link felt the salty ocean air on his face. Tetra came over and scoffed. “Still have that eyepatch?” 

“It was a gift from my sister, I’m not going to not wear it.” 

“Yeah, and she gave you a telescope and you kept that stuffed away. I don’t see the difference.”

“How, pray tell, am I going to wear a telescope, captain?”

“I dunno, I don’t handle those things,” Tetra said dismissively. “Also I told you not to call me captain! That’s Tetra to you!” 

Link just grinned cheekily. The moment was over quickly though. “Captain! An intruder climbing onto the boat,” Alphonse yelled.

Tetra pulled out a sword and pointed it at the intruder, who didn’t do anything but pull out a letter. “For the Hero of Winds.” 

“Who the hell is that?” Tetra demanded.

“Link. Give it to him.”

Then as soon as the letter was out of the intruder’s hands, they were gone. Tetra held the piece of paper, blinking rapidly before sighing and tossing him the letter. “I wasn’t just seeing things…right?” 

“Aye, captain,” The voices of the crew resounded, including Link’s.

 “Well, read it! We don’t have time to waste.”

Link rolled his eyes and obliged.

                        —————————

“Ugh, I can’t figure this out!” Zelda exclaimed. “Why do things have to be so complicated. This is about trains for goodness sake.” 

“If I may,” Link walked over, peering over her shoulder to see the paperwork. “I would suggest seeing how many people agree with the statement, and deciding if it helps the kingdom and its citizens in any way.”

“When are you this helpful?” Zelda pouted playfully. 

“What, I can’t help you? Let’s just say it’s for going on that train ride with me.”

Link couldn’t help put notice the faint pink that dusted her cheeks and wondered why. He didn’t have that much time to ponder because soon a letter slipped under the door. Link picked it up and it was addressed to The Hero of Trains and more handwritten, beside it said, Link.

“What is it?” Zelda asked.

“A letter to me apparently.”

He began to read, feeling the princess’s eyes on him.

                         —————————

“Hylia I accept!” All of the heroes called once they had finished reading the letter.

Hylia heard their approval and thanked her messenger before sending rifts to retrieve Her heroes. “Farore, they all accept.” 

She heard the goddess’s smile even though she didn’t look. “Good.” 

                        —————————

Link stepped through the rift and immediately found himself in an empty arena. There was room to fit an audience, and two entrances. He heard a voice and realized he wasn’t alone. “Hero of Time, I expected to see you first.”

He turned around to see a woman, long blonde hair flowing behind her, the whites of her eyes completely golden, while her pupils were only a slight shade lighter. She wore a yellow and white dress that bore feathers and a shining crown lay upon her head. He raised a brow. “Who are you?” 

“I am the goddess Hylia, the name listed under the information on that letter. The others shall soon arrive.” 

Sure enough, nine other people came along, some looking like kids, other teenagers, other adults. Link sighed. He was already missing Malon. 

“I am the Goddess Hylia, I apologize for informing you of this on rather short notice. However, I understand that you know why you are here. To fight in this arena, and possibly obtain the Triforce. The fighting will not start right away, you have plenty of time to prepare. There are rooms along the hallways just outside of this arena. Each has Hero Titles engraved on the doors. If yours is on one of them, head inside and you will eventually meet your partner. I trust you read the details.” 

Nobody spoke but Hylia didn’t seem to mind. “Go on,” Was all She said. 

Link walked out, obliging, and walked along the doors until he saw the Hero of Time on the door as well as the Hero of Legend. He opened the door and saw the room had two beds on opposite sides. It was pretty much empty. He closed the door quietly and set the bag he packed down, sitting on the bed. Soon, a kid with pink hair came inside, noticing him and quickly looking away once Link met his gaze. The kid set his stuff down but didn’t acknowledge Link. “So what’s your name?” Link asked.

It couldn’t hurt to get to know this pink-haired hero if they had to be a team in this. The kid didn’t answer.

“I said, what’s your name? It’s not like I’m going to hate you for a name.”

“Link.”

Never mind. This sucked. 

“I’m Link too.”

The pink-haired Link gave him a raised eyebrow and Link shrugged. “Guess we need nicknames.”

“…What do you have in mind?” 

“Uh,” Link paused to think, glancing at his bag and trying to think before he spotted some of his masks peeking out of the bag and quickly shoved them back in.

Pink-haired Link noticed and then said, “Masks.”

“…Masks.”

“Yeah,” Pink-haired Link—you know what he was just gonna call him Pinkie. Pinkie said sounding borderline defensive. 

“Now, what about you?” 

Pinkie started off into space for a bit, fidgeting with a ring on his finger before he shrugged. “Reverie,” Masks decided. 

Reverie looked confused for a moment before accepting the nickname. “Call me Rev for short, though.”

“Alright. Now, do you have any idea what we’re supposed to do to prepare?” 

“No, but it might be a good idea to train sometime soon.”

Masks nodded along. Maybe this won’t be too bad. 

[gloryseized]

@mightiestbanana || [ cont. ]

Link's look borders on withering as he returns the blank face stare for stare, unmoved by his signing. Yes, Link knows he doesn't know his way around the Yiga hideout as well as the master himself, but that isn't what he's trying to get at either. Is it worth the effort to try to sign and explain the flanking maneuver plan he had in mind to catch the enemy off guard? Would Kohga even listen if he tried? His lips pinch together slightly, the only sign of irritation he deigns to reveal.

This must be some joke from Impa, he decides. Link can't think of any other reason he might be paired with the Yiga Clan leader to clean out their hideout other than Impa thinking it might be amusing. And Link can see some of the humor himself in an abstract sort of sense, if there's any sort of disconnected humor to be found with working alongside the Yiga at all rather than against them, but in the moment, Link would rather be doing anything else.

At least fighting monsters is much more comfortably in his wheelhouse.

Link's fist bobs in a simple nod, replying in the most passive aggressive way he knows possible. Yes. Before he turns to pad along the corridor, eying the spot Kohga indicated contained a trap. It's not written as a trap on the map, and the map has thus far been accurate, but he wouldn't put it past the Yiga to have more trapdoors than what might not be written on the Sheikah Slate. But Kohga could also be lying.

A quiet sigh darts out through his lips as he walks past the spot, giving it a careful berth, but not too wide, his attention already distracted by the noises up ahead.

They have already seen evidence of the place being infested by monsters and Link readies his bow to fire a bomb arrow into the doorway just ahead of him. If he's not going to be able to count on Kohga for a coordinated attack, at least he can throw the enemy into disarray. Peeking into the room, he sees a cluster of bokoblins gathered on the far side, apparently raiding one of the Yiga banana stores.

Lining up his shot, Link looses the arrow to fall right in the midst of the group. And the bananas.

[hyliasblade]

Quest

The abridged (non-canon) story of this specific Link’s adventure, because I felt like it.

Note that this may or may not make much sense. It’s 1am when I’m writing this and I’m taking inspiration from the LoZ games that I’ve played (and what I know of the ones I haven’t) to cobble together something of a story for my interpretation of a non-canon Zelda story. This takes place centuries after whatever events may transpire in Tears of the Kingdom. This story probably isn’t going to lay out how exactly a game would play out with it, i.e., I’m not going to list dungeons, mechanics, etc.

It started when Link’s home village (currently don’t have an idea for a name) was wiped out by Ganondorf, seeking to kill the Hero before they had a chance to oppose him. Most of the village’s children were safely evacuated, Link (aged 9 at the time) included, and took refuge in Kakariko, but Link’s parents did not survive the onslaught, nor did their older sister, Ani, aged 12, who was able to save Link and give them time to escape by temporarily tricking Ganondorf into believing that she was the one he was looking for. She was ultimately slain right in front of Link's eyes, and while Ganondorf was dealing with her lifeless body, Link, unable to do anything else, ran, catching up with the other refugees to venture to Kakariko.

The traumatic experience left Link almost completely mute for years, and he only began to partially regain his voice at the age of 13. To this day, he still feels most comfortable communicating in Hylian Sign Language most of the time, but can speak somewhat more freely than he could as a child.

Noticing the symbol of the Triforce on Link’s left hand and realizing that he must be Hylia’s Chosen, the village elders whisked him away to Hyrule Castle, where he was placed under the care and tutelage of Impa, Princess Zelda’s bodyguard. For years, Link trained under her, learning the art of combat so that they may one day face Ganon head on to take revenge for their fallen family and seal him away once more. This is also when Link grew to know Princess Zelda, and became close friends with her.

Zelda, too, had tasted loss at the hand of Ganondorf: he had killed her mother, Queen Zelda, and taken her father’s right arm when the King fought to protect his wife and daughter. It was only thanks to the King and Impa gravely wounding Ganondorf, forcing him to retreat, that Princess Zelda’s life had been spared. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before the King of Evil returned to darken her doorstep, Zelda implored Impa to teach her combat alongside Link, for she wanted to be prepared when the time came for her to defend herself and her loved ones.

On Link’s seventeenth birthday, he was given the traditional green garb of the Hero, signifying that he had graduated from his training, and was ready to take up the Master Sword to face Ganon. Sent in the direction of Korok Forest just days later, the resting place of the legendary Blade of Evil’s Bane, Link set off alone to draw the blade that was always meant to be in his hands.

But Ganondorf was clever, and had suspected that the Hero might have survived and would one day come to retrieve the Master Sword, and so he set a devious trap: a spell that would knock the young Hero unconscious as soon as they drew the blade from its pedestal, leaving them vulnerable, waiting for Ganondorf to come collect their sleeping form.

Upon arriving in Korok Forest, Link found the Great Deku Tree weakened by Ganon’s attack, cursed when the malicious Gerudo King had come to place his trap for the unsuspecting Hero. Too weak to even warn the young man, the guardian deity of the forest could only watch helplessly as Link fell to Ganondorf’s spell. Soon enough, Ganondorf had returned to claim his prize: the unconscious Hero of Hyrule, the Master Sword dropped uselessly at his side. For he could not touch the legendary blade itself, Ganondorf left it there as he stole Link away, the only sign that the Hero had ever been to Korok Forest at all.

(Addendum: I was thinking of where I could implement when Link regains his memories of his past lives; I’ll go ahead and say those memories came back to him as he grabbed the hilt of the Master Sword.)

When Link did not return to Hyrule Castle with the Master Sword, Princess Zelda and Impa grew suspicious, and set off to Korok Forest themselves, and were greeted by the Deku Tree growing weaker still, the local Koroks doing all they could to save their dying guardian. Zelda was able to use her magic to dispel the curse from the great deity, trying to heal him as much as she could. It would still take quite a while for the Great Deku Tree to fully recover, but he finally had the strength to at least tell the Princess and her bodyguard of the horrible crime committed against their Hero, and so with no time to waste, the two of them gathered up the Master Sword and left to find Ganon’s fortress to rescue Link.

Meanwhile, Link awoke, alone and defenseless, on the hard stone floor of a prison cell in Ganondorf’s dungeon. Outside the door of the cell, Ganondorf had been waiting for his new prisoner to return to consciousness, eager to gloat to the captive Hero his plans for them: With Link out of the way, he would capture Princess Zelda as well, forcing Link to watch as he killed her and took the Triforce of Wisdom for himself. Then, he would do the same to Link, and with the power of the full Triforce, nothing would stand in his way as he usurped the King and took all of Hyrule for himself. Taking great pleasure in Link’s devastating realization of just how helpless he was, Ganondorf laughed in the Hero’s face, and then left him alone as he got ready to enact the second phase of his plan.

Of course, Link set to escape as soon as Ganondorf had turned his back on them, but was dismayed to find themself thwarted at every turn: the cell was escape-proof, no nook or cranny or crack was in sight to try and dig out from, nothing to use to saw the bars of the cell down, the ever-watchful guards always keeping at least one keen eye on their prisoner.

Whether it had been hours or days that passed like this, Link couldn’t tell, but he was beginning to feel his rock-hard resolve eroding at every failed attempt at escape. Maybe this really would be his demise, he thought bleakly, when an arrow whizzed through the air outside his cell like a streak of light, embedding itself between the eyes of the current guard on duty. Footsteps running down the corridor, and a voice calling out his name– Princess Zelda had come to rescue him!

Quickly taking the key from the dead guard, the noble Princess unlocked the door of the Hero’s cell, and all but shoved the Master Sword into his hands as she spoke quickly: Impa was currently engaged in combat with Ganondorf, and they must hurry to help her.

When the duo arrived at the battlefield, it was to the horrifying sight of Ganondorf seemingly striking the final blow against Impa, felling her. Zelda cried out to her guardian, and upon seeing that Link had been freed, Ganondorf grew enraged, transforming into his beastly form, Ganon.

The battle was chaos, the Hero and the Princess throwing everything they had at Ganon, and Link himself was on the edge of collapse when he was finally able to strike the final blow: the Master Sword, lodged deeply into Ganon’s throat, was finally enough to subdue the beast that the King of Evil had become, and Princess Zelda was able to seal him into the Sacred Realm once more.

In the aftermath of the battle, the victorious duo could hardly stand, but still the both of them rushed to their fallen mentor’s side, only to find that Impa was not dead after all, merely deeply injured. Together, the three of them stumbled home to the castle, where they were treated for their wounds.

Months later, Impa retired home to Kakariko Village, leaving her bodyguard duties to Link, who had been appointed to Royal Knight for their heroic deeds. Years later, Link is still the appointed knight of Princess Zelda, and the two of them are finally able to travel the land and enjoy each other’s company without the threat of total annihilation looming over their heads. Traumatized and wounded, yes, but still living happily ever after, for now.

[digitalsatyr23]

Ocarina of Time Fanfic (Ch6)

Saria, Hero of the Forest Chapter 6: Sharpening Our Blades Characters: Saria, Impa, Sheik, Malon, Talon…

Saria began her training under Impa alongside the mysterious boy, Sheik. While Poppy watched from afar, Saria performed a number of strenuous tasks to help increase her strength, endurance, and agility – all without the help of the Goron’s Bracelet. When questioned, Impa explained that it was important to be able to take care of yourself and not rely on your gear (the bracelet multiplied one’s strength anyway so it would still prove beneficial later on). Saria had to walk tightropes with a basket of rocks on her back, hold her breath for longer and longer periods while completely submerged in the pond, as well as play “games” of stealth where she was struck with a rod anytime she was detected. There were normal exercises too, such as running laps around the village, push-ups, pull-ups, and hanging sit-ups. Of course, even ordinary exercises were pushed to their extreme.

So that’s why she’s so muscular, thought Saria. Impa must have done this all the time in her youth.

Every once and a while, Impa would take things up a notch and make Saria and Sheik run an obstacle course. This course ran all throughout the village, with such things as swinging metal balls, spiked fences that could be raised higher and higher with a turn-crank, trap doors disguised as normal ground that could open up at any time, and many other dangerous devices. Injury from the obstacles was punishment for failure. Impa didn’t get involved if someone was injured during the obstacle course, either, at least not until both Saria and Sheik had either made it across the finish line or were unable to continue.

Despite the harsh nature of Impa’s training, she was not completely heartless. She had a large supply of healing medicine on hand to treat any injuries sustained during training. Even so, Impa did everything she could to push Saria to her breaking point. Saria had to become faster, stronger, more agile, and more cunning every day or learn a new lesson in pain. The training was grueling and left her body aching every day, but Saria refused to give up. There was too much at stake.

“Two minutes, fifteen seconds. You shaved off a few seconds, Saria. Good work,” said Impa. The Kokiri, struggling to catch her breath, merely nodded her head. Impa continued, saying, “That will be all for today. Get some rest, you two.”

Then Impa disappeared. When training concluded for the day, Saria and Sheik had the village all to themselves, since Impa had to attend to other duties. Typically Saria would bathe and rest, or sometimes step outside and hang out in Kakariko Village, but she decided to check on Sheik first.

“What was your time?” asked Saria. “You’re always ahead of me, so it’s hard to tell.”

Sheik, who was sitting on the edge of a small cliff above a dirt path, said, “One minute and thirty-eight seconds,” solemnly.

“Wow, that’s fast!” said Poppy, joining the two. Sheik shook his head at this.

“It may be fast compared to your time, but I haven’t improved for a while. I’ve plateaued, as they say. I’m not sure I have what it takes to become a Sheikah. That’s what Impa says, anyway…”

“Oh, what does she know! I bet it’s been years since she’s run this course!”

“Did she keep record of her times from her youth?” asked Saria as she sat next to Sheik.

“One minute and twenty-five seconds.”

Thirteen seconds. It seemed like a small number at a glance, but Saria had seen Sheik traverse the obstacle course again and again throughout the week she had been training beside him. The way he slipped through barriers, hopped fences, and ran without making a sound was incredible. Each run through the course was nothing short of perfection, and yet there was still such a wide gap between mentor and student…

“It’s okay. You’ll make it there someday,” said Saria. “You may even surpass Impa.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Sheik.

With a smile, Saria said, “Maybe it’s just intuition, but you’re already this capable at such a young age. I’m certain you’ll go far.”

Sheik gripped his knees with his bandaged hands. “I… I do not understand.”

“You don’t have to,” said Poppy. “Just have a little faith in yourself!”

“Faith, is it?”

Sheik looked out across the village. It was midday, though there were enough clouds in the sky to cover the village in shade. A soft, chilling wind blew through the air, making the sweat clinging to Saria feel cold. She took a drink from a waterskin then held it towards Sheik.

“Thirsty?”

The red-eyed boy looked at the waterskin for a moment before accepting the offer, pulling down the cloth covering most of his face to drink. He was a handsome boy. Saria suspected he’d be very popular back in her village.

After Sheik gave Saria her waterskin back, Saria asked, “Have you always been training under Impa, or is this something new?”

“I’ve been training with Impa since I was physically able to,” said Sheik. “It’s been six, no, seven years I think.”

“Since you were that young? But why?” asked Poppy.

“I’m to be Impa’s replacement. I must be ready to defend the Royal Family with my life as other Sheikah have in the past.” Sheik paused for a moment, looking in the direction of the village entrance. “You’ve probably wondered why Impa and I are the only ones left. I was told that before I was born, there was a great war that threatened to consume all of Hyrule. The Sheikah before me died protecting the Royal Family – including my parents. Their bodies are buried in the graveyard of Kakariko. Surely you understand why I worry so. If I can’t live up to the Sheikah name after Impa retires, the clan will disappear. All their sacrifices, all their history… It’ll be nothing but a memory.”

Hearing this, Saria said, “Sheik… I understand why it’s important to you, but if you put too much pressure on yourself to succeed, the stress will wear you out faster than the training. You’ve got to relax and clear your head.”

“Do we even have time to relax? Just because Impa believes we have a month doesn’t make it true. Ganondorf could show up any day now with his warriors and monsters, and if he takes the castle, then what? Do I give my life to protect the Royal Family, or do I…?”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Sheik stood up. “I’ve been thinking. Have the Sheikah always served a specific family, or is it merely the family who holds power in Hyrule? Will a day come when I have to serve Ganondorf?”

Saria stood up as well, taking Sheik by their hands. “That will never happen. Not as long as I’m around. And even if Ganondorf takes over, you don’t have to follow tradition. Your life is your own.”

Sheik pulled his hands away, stepping back and turning around. “Is it, though?”

After that, Sheik walked away – likely to wash up, as they tended to after training. Saria would have to wait her turn to use the bath.

Saria collapsed onto her back, finding it difficult to stand. Poppy fluttered over in a panic, but Saria waved her away.

“I’ll be fine. I just wish I could help them. They must feel so trapped.”

Poppy laid on her back next to the Kokiri and said, “I can’t say I blame him. Pressure like that would drive me crazy!” Poppy then turned onto her side, resting her head in her hand. “Do you think he has any friends? I’ve never seen him leave this place before.”

“If he does, he likely uses a disguise of some kind. I get the feeling Impa wants the truth of her successor to be kept secret.” Saria looked over to Poppy. “And that means we can’t tell anyone about him as well.”

“W-whaaaa, why are you looking at me that way? I wasn’t going to say anything… Probably… Plus there aren’t many kids in Kakariko anyway, except for the boy who hangs out in the graveyard all day.”

Saria chuckled at Poppy’s reaction before falling silent and staring up at the sky. Grey clouds moved overhead with the promise of rain. If Impa’s prediction was correct, they still had lots of time to prepare. But if Impa was wrong…

“I’ll be his friend.”

“What?” asked Poppy.

“If he doesn’t have any, I’ll be his friend. Carrying such a burden alone must be exhausting… But if we shared it together, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“I’m not sure I understand, but far be it from me to tell you what to do. It’s not like you’ve listened to me since we left the forest.”

Somehow, Saria couldn’t help but burst out laughing. She grabbed Poppy and hugged her to her chest.

“H-hey! What’s the big idea!”

“I’m sorry, Poppy. Even if it seems like I don’t listen, I always consider your words carefully. And I’m here for you as well if you need me. We’re in this together, right?”

Poppy stopped struggling and relented, like a helpless kitten in an affectionate baby’s arms. “Geez… Of course we’re in this together. You’re all I have.”

Saria smiled warmly at this. “You as well, my friend. I’m glad I met you.”

The pair shared a tender moment together while waiting for their turn with the bath. Once Sheik was finished and its waters were drained, Saria filled it back up, put more wood in the fire beneath it, then soaked the pain away. In times like these, moments of respite were worth their weight in rupees.

---

Training continued into the next week. One day, Impa took Saria aside to speak with her.

“What is it, Impa? Am I doing something wrong?” asked Saria.

“Not exactly. Your training has been going well, I think. You’ve been improving steadily each day. No, this is about something that happened in Castle Town.”

Saria froze stiff, her eyes slowly meeting with Impa’s. “Heard about that, did you?”

“Is there a reason you think I wouldn’t?”

“So much time passed since then, I had hoped so…”

Impa shook her head. “Just to be sure, why don’t you tell me what happened. You’ve proven to be level-headed thus far, so even I was surprised when I heard about it.”

Saria explained herself, telling Impa about how she and her friend were cornered and threatened, their initial escape, the discovery of the trapped fairies, and how the merchant used the guards to make things difficult for them. In the end, Saria and her friend had had enough and dealt with things in their own way. After Saria was done, Impa had a subtle scowl on her face, like the way one’s face scrunches up after hearing a bad joke.

“I had heard rumors of that merchant, but I didn’t realize he was so crooked. I suppose when you have to focus on the politics of the kingdom, little things slip past you every now and then.”

“So you’re not mad?”

“Of course I’m mad. It was a foolish thing to do, especially given the tense climate we’re in. You attacked guards.” Saria tensed up, unsure what would happen next. Impa then said, “Still, it’s not like I blame you for your actions. My knowledge of fairies and what they were like was scant indeed before you came around. I suspect few others saw fairies as people.”

“So what now?”

“Well you’ve racked up quite the fine after everything you did, and I intend you pay it back in full.”

“What! But you said you didn’t blame Saria for what she did!” shouted Poppy.

“It would be troublesome if Saria couldn’t go back to Castle Town if I needed her to. Besides, I may not be a member of the guards, but I can’t have you flagrantly ignoring laws and doing as you please in a town we should be protecting.”

Saria hung her head low. “All right… What would you have me do?”

“I got a job for you on Lon Lon Ranch. When you’re not training, you’ll be helping the ranchers.” Impa smiled at the Kokiri. “That’s not a problem, right?”

Saria’s eyes lit up and she shook her head. “Not at all!”

“I’ve also done some thinking. With that merchant’s behavior, I can’t allow him to keep doing business in town. There’s no telling what trouble he’d get up to in the future. So if you earn enough rupees, maybe we can set up a new shop. Maybe even a Kokiri-run shop?”

“You really mean it?” Impa nodded, and Saria hugged the Sheikah. There was an awkward silence as Saria realized what she had done, and she let go, backing away slowly. “Ha ha… Sorry.”

The Sheikah sighed. “You Kokiri really are something. Alive for so many years, and you still act like children.” Impa looked across the village at Sheik, who was still hard at work training. “Maybe we could learn a thing or two from you.”

“So when do I start?” asked Saria.

“Today after training. That’s not a problem, is it?”

“Not at all.”

“Good. Then let’s make the most of today.”

Saria returned to training, feeling a sense of relief. While she suspected she’d be even more tired than usual in the coming days, knowing she’d be beside a friend gave her great comfort. But then it occurred to her that Sheik would be by himself on those days. Saria decided to broach the question at the end of training.

“You want Sheik to join you? Why?” asked Impa.

“I thought it could be a good opportunity for… Training. After all, working on a ranch is physically taxing, isn’t it?”

“And you don’t want an advantage over me. Is that it?” asked Sheik.

Impa – who likely saw through Saria – shook her head. “We’re training in secret for a reason. It’s one thing if you go out to work on the ranch, but it’s another thing entirely for Sheik to leave. However… If you were to assume a new identity when outside of this village, the work could prove beneficial for your training.”

“Then Sheik can join me?” asked Saria.

“Only if Sheik wants to.”

The young boy crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. After a few seconds, he nodded. “I’m curious what this ranch is like, as I’ve never been. I’ll join you.”

Saria jumped in excitement, hugging Sheik tight. Even behind his face covering, Sheik could be seen blushing.

“H-hey! Who said you could do that?”

“Ah, sorry. Bad habit I picked up on,” said Saria.

“I hope hugs aren’t a problem,” said Poppy, “because there’ll be a lot more of that on the ranch.”

“Really? Why?”

“Oh you’ll find out once you meet her…”

Sheik gulped, but then said, “That shouldn’t be a problem. It will be a good opportunity to practice defending against grab attacks.”

Saria imagined a scenario where Malon hugged Sheik from behind, only for him to throw the girl over his shoulder and slam her into the ground.

“Ha ha… Try not to take things too seriously, okay?”

After that, Saria and Sheik washed up. By the time they were done, Impa had prepared new clothes for them. They were overalls with undershirts and sturdy boots – dark and light green for Saria, blue and white for Sheik. Sheik was also given a straw hat. After thanking Impa, the pair slipped out of the hidden village and graveyard, through the shadowy outskirts of Kakariko Village, then across the fields to Lon Lon Ranch. After passing through the initial entrance, the pair found themselves between a pair of buildings just next to a fenced-in field and racetrack. Instead of Talon or Malon, the first person Saria saw was a total stranger. She suspected he was one of the ranch hands. He was tall, and outside a bit of stomach pudge, he was pretty scrawny. He had hairy arms, thick eyebrows, a mustache, wore pink and green, and had a harsh look in his eyes.

“Um… Excuse me…” said Saria, approaching the man.

“I can’t believe it,” the man grumbled to himself while working. “I, the great Ingo, am stuck on this dump of a ranch doing all the work myself! Talon said there would be another worker here today, but I haven’t seen them! What a joke. I, the hard-working Ingo, should be in charge, not that lazy bum, Talon!” It was then that the man turned towards Saria and Sheik, nearly jumping out of his skin. “Aah! How long have you two been there?!”

“Not too long, thankfully…” Saria sighed. “If you’re finished, we’re actually here to help. I was hoping to talk to Talon. Have you seen him?”

“He’s in his house over there,” Ingo pointed. “You shouldn’t have trouble finding him. He hardly moves all day…”

“Let’s get this over with, then,” said Sheik, walking past everyone. Saria was quick to join him, but as she walked away, Ingo spoke up.

“Say… Are you two really going to help out around here?”

“As long as you’re okay with it,” said Saria.

“Oh, of course, of course. It’s no trouble at all. If you have any questions, be sure to come to me first.”

The Kokiri smiled and said, “All right. Thank you, Ingo.”

Saria joined Sheik inside the ranch home. She was immediately greeted by the sight of over a dozen cuccos running around the house. There was even a cucco on Sheik’s head, flapping its wings and cawing. Despite this, Sheik remained ever the bastion of calm, their arms crossed and gaze intense. Resting on the ground with his back against a table, Talon was snoozing the day away. Saria tried to wake him, but she couldn’t, so Sheik flicked the man’s forehead.

“What the! Oh, Saria? Is that you? I didn’t expect you by so soon! And who’s this lad?”

Saria turned to Sheik who said, “My name is… Marth.”

“Marth? That’s an interesting name. Where are you from, Marth?”

“Kakariko Village.”

“I see! When I was told I could get a new ranch hand, I didn’t expect to get two for the price of one!” The man laughed out loud before saying, “I’m kidding, of course. As long as you two put in the work, you’ll both be getting paid.” Talon then stood up, dusted himself off, then made his way to the front door. “Let me introduce you to the others and show you what you’ll be doing.”

Outside, Talon gathered everyone together. Standing across from Saria and Sheik was Malon and Ingo.

“All right you two, listen up! This here is Saria – who I’m sure you already know, Malon. And this here is uh… Marth?” Sheik nodded at this, then Talon continued. “They’ll be our new helpers from now on, so feel free to boss ‘em around. Same duties as always, but now you can split the work however you like. And as for you two, this is my daughter, Malon. We’ve met a few times already, Saria, but Marth, this girl is the world to me. You be sure to treat her right.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Good. As for this fellow, his name is Ingo.”

“We’ve already met,” said Saria.

“What?! Then what was the point of all this! Ah well… As long as you all know each other, things should be fine. Today we need to clean the stables, refresh the hay supplies in there, and get the cart ready for a delivery tomorrow. The demand for our milk has gone up recently, so we’ll be sure to meet that demand. If nobody’s got any questions, I’ll show Saria and Marth around a bit.”

“That’s fine by me,” said Ingo.

“No questions!” said Malon.

“Good! Now Saria, Marth, come with me. I’ll show you to the stables.”

Saria and Sheik followed the man. As they walked, Malon joined in as well, getting close to Sheik. Avoiding eye contact, Sheik asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Nope! I just wanted to get a better look at you,” Malon smiled.

Sheik tensed up and walked past Saria. Malon giggled at this and went about her business. After that, Talon took the time to explain work duties to Saria and Sheik, what they’d be doing day in, day out, and how to best go about them. Talon also mentioned that he keeps a checklist of daily tasks inside the house that they can look at if they’re ever unsure of what to do.

“This all seems easy enough,” said Sheik. “Is there anything we should avoid doing?”

“Well let’s see… Don’t break my stuff? I figure anything worth worrying about is common sense. Anything you break will come out of your pay. That and try to be careful with the animals. It’ll take time for them to trust you, but once they get used to ya it’ll be fine.”

After that, the pair helped out with the remaining tasks of the day. They cleaned the stables, refreshed the hay for the cows and horses, and after washing up, they helped load crate after crate of milk into Talon’s cart so it was ready for delivery the next day. By the time Saria and Sheik were done, it was now evening time. They were paid a small sum of rupees and invited to eat dinner on the ranch. Since food in the hidden village was mostly nutritious gruel, they happily accepted the offer.

Upstairs around the dinner table sat Talon, Malon, Saria, and Sheik. The food for the evening was roast cucco, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sliced bread with butter. Ingo wasn’t much for socializing with the family and ate elsewhere.

“Soooo, Marth, was it? How was your first day of ranch work?” asked Talon.

“It was fine,” said Sheik. “I thought it would be harder.”

“Huh! It really wasn’t that bad? You must have a talent for this kind of thing! What about you, Saria? Was this your first time doing stuff like this, or did you work at all in your village?”

“Life in Kokiri Village is pretty carefree most days,” said Saria. “But I’m one of the oldest there, so I looked after the others.”

“Then you were like everyone’s big sis!” said Malon. “You must be friends with eeeeveryone there. How many Kokiri are in your village? Are there a ton? Can I come to your village sometime?”

“Calm down, child,” said Talon. “It’s been a long day for them. One question at a time.”

“It’s fine,” said Saria. “You’re right. Everyone knows me in the village. It’s a pretty small place. I would say no more than a dozen or so live there. As far as visiting, well… Maybe someday. If you did visit though, I’d probably escort you to keep you safe. We live near a large forest called the Lost Woods. There’s a kind of magic in that place. An old magic. If anyone besides a Kokiri wanders around in that place, they become lost forever.”

Malon ate nervously. “So don’t do what I normally do when I visit. Got it.”

“Is it truly so dangerous?” asked Sheik. “I had heard of people wandering in and coming out before.”

“Only after I guided them out,” Saria said. “Honestly, I may need to start putting up signs one of these days. Then again, they’d probably just ignore them and walk right in anyway.”

“It’s almost like they can’t help themselves,” said Poppy, sitting on the table and eating buttered bread.

“I think we Hylians are curious by nature,” said Talon. “It’s why we spread out so far and tried learning so many new things. I know it’s troublesome, but please forgive my countrymen.”

“What about you, Marth? You said you’re from Kakariko, right?” asked Malon. “I’ve been through the village a few times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.” With a mischievous smile on her face, she said, “Don’t tell me you’re that shy.”

“I prefer to live in the shade. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight,” said Sheik.

“Hm. I was wondering why you were still wearing your hat indoors,” said Talon. “Could you pass the butter, please?”

“Of course.”

As Sheik passed the butter over to Talon, the boy paused, as if listening to something. Saria heard it to. A tapping, or perhaps pecking on the rooftop.

“Huh? Is something wrong?” asked Talon.

The tapping and pecking continued increasing in intensity, to the point where even Talon and Malon could hear it. Before they could react, the windows shattered as a swarm of purple-feathered birds burst in.

“Malon, get down!” shouted Talon as he picked up his chair and swung at one of the birds. Saria pulled out her slingshot and Sheik readied throwing needles. The birds had small black eyes ringed with red and sharp orange beaks. Poppy ran across the table, using her bread as cover before flying towards Saria.

“What are so many guay doing here?!” the fairy shouted.

“I don’t know, but I doubt this is ordinary,” said Saria. She dodged a few of the birds that came swooping in, their beaks getting stuck in the walls like throwing knives. Malon joined in on the action, pulling out her club from before (which was hidden under her pillow) and swinging at the hostile birds. As the guay were thinned out, the sound of shouting could be heard from outside.

“That must be Ingo,” said Sheik.

“I’ll take care of it,” said Saria. “You watch over the others.”

Sheik nodded at this, then Saria dove out the broken window, rolling as she hit the ground below. Just as she thought, a swarm of guay were chasing after Ingo. While he had a pitchfork, he was too scared to attack and kept on the run. Dark storm clouds rumbled up above, and it almost seemed like the guay were coming from the clouds themselves. Saria tossed a deku nut to scatter the swarm then fired with her slingshot to thin them out.

“Get to the stables!” she shouted. “You’ll be safe there!”

“Okay! Thanks!”

Ingo ran past the Kokiri and shut the stable doors behind him. The sound of frightened neighs came from the field ahead, and Saria realized that there may still be horses grazing outside. She ran out to the fields, finding that even more guay were flying overhead, chasing and pecking the horses. She cut down the guay within reach and shot down the others that were two high up, doing what she could to lead the horses back to the stables as the wind picked up. With one pony left, Saria tried to calm it down and lead it away, but it proved too stubborn and wild, nearly knocking Saria down with its hooves.

“Hey, calm down! I’m trying to help you!”

The horse continued running around and making things difficult for Saria. Soon after, wind speeds reached new heights, and from the storm clouds came a giant guay, trumping even the largest horses on the ranch in size. It locked onto the wild pony and swooped down. Not wanting to let it have its way, Saria slashed the bird in its side with her scimitar, wounding it. The giant guay crashed to the ground, flailing about while snapping at the Kokiri with its oversized beak. Saria backed away, dodging the monster’s attacks. It didn’t let up, though, eventually cornering the girl. She shoved a deku stick into its beak to lodge it open, striking the bird again and again with her weapons while it was distracted. Finally, it stopped moving. Just as with the rest of the guay, it disappeared into flame. With the last of the monsters defeated, the storm clouds disappeared. Much to Saria’s surprise, the large guay left behind a small pile of rupees.

“What are these doing here?” she asked, picking them up.

“Maybe it liked to eat shiny things?” said Poppy.

“Saria!!” shouted Malon as she came running. “Are you okay?!”

Talon and Sheik came running as well. Even Ingo poked his head out once he realized the danger was over.

As Saria and Malon hugged, Saria said, “I’m okay. I would have taken cover sooner, but this pony proved pretty stubborn.” It was then that Saria realized that the pony was next to her, calmly nudging her leg with its head. “What the?”

“Epona?” questioned Malon, who pet the pony’s mane. “Geez, you can’t be doing that. You could have gotten hurt!”

“It’s okay,” said Ingo. “She was probably just-”

Epona headbutted the poor ranch hand when he got too close, knocking him over. Malon was quick to wrap her arms around the pony’s neck and hold her back.

“Epona! No!”

Talon helped Ingo up while Sheik approached Saria.

“What happened out here? Did you find out where they were coming from?”

“It looked like they were coming out of a storm cloud. When the wind picked up enough, a giant one came out. Once I slew it, the clouds dispersed.”

“Strange…” The boy looked up at the sky, which was now clear and full of stars. “Is this a taste of what’s to come?”

Talon had some spare windowpanes in case of storms, so after a bit of cleaning, the windows were fixed. From that day forward, whenever Saria and Sheik were at the ranch, they always kept an eye out for monsters.

---

Time continued to pass. Days of harsh training at the Sheikah Village and honest work at Lon Lon Ranch. Though the days were long, Saria treasured those few moments of peace and quiet she shared with her friends. She soon learned that Sheik was a master at conversational evasion, dodging every important question Malon had to throw at him. The questions he didn’t dodge were answered with lies, or at least what Saria assumed were lies. Sheik’s new persona steadily developed a false history, and Malon was none the wiser. When Malon wasn’t talking up a storm, she was usually helping Saria and Sheik with chores, eating lunch with them, or teaching the pair new skills. Malon was excellent with animals, and any time either Saria or Sheik had trouble with them, she was there to help calm things down.

At the Sheikah Village, Impa kept intensifying the training little by little. Beyond the typical exercises and obstacles, she also introduced training dummies that moved as you struck them, which helped Saria practice her form. This later advanced to Impa teaching new fighting techniques, both with weapons and hand-to-hand (in case Saria or Sheik were disarmed). At the end of each lesson, Impa had Saria and Sheik spar to help practice their new techniques. Sheik was much faster than Saria, as well as more flexible (both literally and in terms of adaptability). He proved a difficult target to strike. Saria’s experience with fighting and strategizing proved a boon here, as she would often have to bait out an opening in Sheik’s defenses in order to land a hit. As the two sparred, their strengths helped even out their respective weaknesses, and even Impa was impressed with their progress.

“Well done,” Impa clapped. “Keep that up and even the best of the Gerudo will be no match for you. That will be all for today. You’re both dismissed.”

As Impa went to leave, Saria called out to her.

“Wait, hold on.”

“Yes? What is it, Saria?”

“Have you seen a giant owl flying through the sky as of late?”

“Can’t say that I have. Why do you ask?”

Saria explained the nature of the owl and how she had met him several times throughout her journey. After she said her piece, Impa muttered to herself, “Wait… Could he be…?”

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I do find this strange, though. Why would he be gone for so long searching for the third stone? I thought it was common knowledge that it belonged to the Zora.”

“What’s a Zora?”

“You were saying?” said Sheik.

“Quiet, you,” said Impa. She then looked to Saria and said, “The Zora are a race of people who live in the water. They control every major body of water in Hyrule, including the river, which is named after them. As for the stone, it’s in good hands. Ever since they caught wind of Ganondorf attacking other settlements for their sacred stones, they’re doing everything they can to keep their domain defended. Even I can’t visit them anymore, let alone outsiders.”

“Then there’s nothing to be done about it?”

“It may be for the best. We have other things to worry about right now. Besides, as long as Ganondorf is missing even one of the sacred stones, he won’t be able to reach the Triforce.” Before Impa finally left for the day, she ended with, “I’ll ask around and see if anyone has seen Gaebora. If I learn anything at all, I’ll let you know.”

Saria felt a chill as Impa disappeared. She wanted to leave right away to look for the old owl, but Saria knew Impa was better suited to the search than she was. She decided to put it out of her mind for the moment and relax. There wasn’t any work to be done on the ranch that day, so both Saria and Sheik stayed in the village. As usual, they took turns bathing, then ate their gruel in relative silence. Later that evening, Saria found Sheik up on one of the building’s rooftops, staring out across the village.

“Is everything all right?” asked Saria.

“Hm… I was just thinking about the future. When this is all over and I’ve taken Impa’s place, I’ll be spending a lot of time with the Royal Family. The king, his court, and even the princess.”

“Do you not want to serve the Royal Family?”

“It’s not that, but… Will that really be my whole life? To be nothing more than another’s shadow? I don’t normally get to interact with others my age. Impa always tells me that the less others know about me, the better. But these days I’ve spent training alongside you or working on the ranch with Malon… It’s been nice. I’ve never really had friends before.” Sheik turned to look Saria in the eye. “We are friends, are we not?”

Saria smiled warmly. “Of course we are. And I’m sure Malon would say the same thing.”

Sheik smiled. “I’m glad. Do you think when I’m older, I may negotiate time to myself on the occasion?”

“I don’t see why not. Then again, people are always curious about the princess, so watching over her might keep you busy. Especially when she’s older.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, I’m still learning about Hylian culture, but my understanding is the princess will have to marry, eventually. And whoever marries her will be the next king, right?”

“I… See what you mean. I hope he is kind, like you.”

Saria wasn’t sure why, but hearing those words made her blush. Poppy, who had been quietly listening this whole time, grew a big grin across her face.

“Interesting…” she muttered to herself.

“Have you ever met the princess?” asked Saria.

“Only once. It was before I started my training with Impa. I was waiting inside a hidden corridor in the castle while Impa was discussing things with the king. There are all sorts of places like that throughout the castle. Hidden doors behind bookshelves, under carpets… They were built with the Sheikah in mind so we could always watch over everyone without being seen. By chance, I saw the princess after she had just been scolded for making a mess in the kitchen. She was crying back then. I wanted to say something, but I knew I couldn’t.”

“Were you not allowed?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.”

“It’s fine. I wonder if she’ll accept me when the time comes.”

“Of course she will. You’re strong, smart, and dependable. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to have you by her side.”

“And hey, maybe if you play your cards right, you can marry her and become king,” said Poppy.

Sheik narrowed his eyes at the fairy. “That will never happen.”

Sheik hopped down and disappeared into their quarters. Saria said, “Geez, Poppy! Why’d you have to go and say that!”

“What? I think it would be romantic! Just think, the tall, strong, stoic type that knew the princess since she was young finally confessing his feelings for her. Just thinking about it makes me swoon.”

“He’s clearly going through a lot right now, so can you try and be a bit more sensitive?”

Saria hopped down from the roof as well to check on Sheik. Poppy just crossed her arms and grumbled. “I gotta find some way to have fun around here. Those fireflies aren’t much for conversation, you know!”

---

The next day after training, Sheik didn’t go with Saria to Lon Lon Ranch. Given what they had talked about recently, she decided it would be best to give the boy some space. Work that day was easy enough. Cleaning the stables, fixing some fences, milking the cows… The work wasn’t hard at all. Yet with the worry for Gaebora and Sheik on her mind, Saria found it difficult to concentrate.

When night came, Saria and Malon sat out in the field looking up at the stars. Malon was pointing out all sorts of constellations in the sky while Saria sat in silence.

“What’s wrong, Saria?” asked Malon. “You’ve hardly said a word. You don’t have to sit out here with me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not that. I just have a lot on my mind right now,” said Saria.

“Hmm… I don’t know if it’ll help you, but whenever I feel down, I like to sing!”

Malon stood up, clasped her hands together, and sang. The girl’s beautiful voice echoed throughout the open field and soothed Saria, making her worries melt away. She pulled out her ocarina and played along, doing her best to memorize the notes. The two girls shared a moment of peace together, and then… The song was over.

Saria put her ocarina away. The small pony from before, Epona, was nudging Saria with her head. Petting Epona’s mane, Saria smiled softly.

“Hee hee. She’s really taken a liking to you!” said Malon.

“You think so? I’m glad. She was such a rowdy horse before. I guess saving her from monsters left a good impression.” As Saria continued to pet Epona, she said, “The animals around here really love that song of yours. Where did you learn it?”

“From my mother! I don’t remember her face, but I remember her voice. She had a way of making me feel safe no matter what was going on, and when I cried, she’d sing for me to calm me down. Since she didn’t leave any keepsakes behind, that song is all I have to remember her by.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind telling you about it.” Malon put her hands to her chest and closed her eyes. “Every time I sing, I like to think my mother can still hear me. Maybe that’s why I do it so much. She sang for me whenever I was sad, so as long as I keep singing, she’ll never be sad either.”

Saria stood up and ruffled Malon’s hair. “I’ll bet she smiles every day because of you.”

Malon held back her tears. “I hope so too.”

Soon after, Talon opened the door to his house and said, “Hey kids, supper is ready! Come and get it before it gets cold!”

“Coming!” shouted Malon. The girl ran towards the house, but then she stopped and looked back. “Saria?”

“I’ll just be a minute. Don’t wait up on me.”

The farm girl nodded and left the field behind. Now Saria was alone… Or so it seemed. The Kokiri felt a presence nearby. As the presence grew closer, Poppy said, “Wait… Sheik?”

The young Sheikah stepped forward, hand on his hip. He was wearing his normal training uniform. “I knew I’d find you out here. This is good.”

“Good? What’s going on, Sheik? Why aren’t you in your farm clothes?”

“Because I’m not here to farm. I’m here to fight.”

“What? But why?”

“I’ve been doing some thinking. When we sparred in the past, we always fought to learn, to grow, but never to win. If I’m to be a true Sheikah, I have to truly test myself.” Sheik drew a blade. “And that’s why I’m here. Draw your weapon.”

Saria unsheathed her dagger. As soon as she did, Sheik charged her. Their blades clashed and slid off of each other as the pair exchanged places. Dagger at the ready, Saria watched Sheik as he circled around her.

“This is crazy, Sheik. What if you get hurt?”

“That’s awfully confident of you. Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself?”

Sheik charged once more. Saria did her best to defend as Sheik attacked again and again. A slash here, a kick there; the warriors moved swiftly and gracefully across the field, their every move calculated. Yet even as Saria did her best to defend herself, Sheik found opening after opening. As the boy backflipped away and landed on his feet, Sheik held up his weapon. Blood dripped from the tip of his blade.

“You should start taking things seriously,” said Sheik. “Otherwise you won’t walk away from this.”

“Will you stop it!” shouted Poppy. “What’s the point in all this? Aren’t we your friends?!”

“Friends mean little to the Sheikah. We only keep around those who are useful to us. I’m treated the same way. If my blade ever dulls, I’ll become useless to the Royal Family and be discarded.”

Another exchange of blows. Another wound. Sparks flew as Sheik and Saria’s blades clashed. The boy stared Saria down as he pushed her back further and further.

“Is this all you can muster? How do you expect to defeat Ganondorf if you can’t even beat me? You’ll never get your revenge at this rate.”

A biting anger took hold as Saria forced Sheik back. Rather than strike with her dagger, she punched Sheik in the face. The boy went flying, skidding across the dirt and grass. In a moment of clarity, Saria realized she was wearing her Goron’s Bracelet. She rushed to Sheik’s side to see if he was okay, only to have a blade pointed at her. A bloodstain had formed on Sheik’s face mask where their nose would be.

“We’re not done yet. Don’t you dare take pity on me.”

Sheik spun around, getting back on their feet before charging Saria. The Kokiri went back on the defensive, even more hesitant than before. Sheik continued slashing with his blade, pushing Saria further and further back.

“Enough already! If you don’t fight with everything you have, I’ll kill you. Is that what you want? What about your people? Your friends? What about Hyrule? Don’t you care?”

Saria shoved Sheik away. “Of course I care,” she said, dropping her weapon. “And it’s because I care that I can’t continue.” The Kokiri spread her arms wide and looked Sheik in the eye. “I don’t know what madness has taken hold of you, but this ends now.”

Sheik narrowed his eyes. Springing towards Saria, he shouted, “I told you not to take pity on me!”

Saria had learned many hand-to-hand techniques while training under Impa. Typically they were meant for offense, as they were all about striking the opponent before they had a chance to react. Speed, agility, and cunning. These were the things Impa was trying to instill in her students. However, among the many techniques Impa had taught, only one was meant for defense. As Sheik charged the Kokiri once more, Saria kept perfectly still until the last moment. Then her body sprung to life, catching Sheik’s weapon with both hands. In an instant, Saria yanked the weapon (and wielder) to the side, throwing them to the ground. Tossing Sheik’s weapon away, Saria jumped on Sheik, fighting with the boy as they rolled across the field. In the end, Saria had Sheik pinned.

“Do you yield?” asked Saria.

With a bitter tone in their voice, Sheik said, “I do.”

The Kokiri got up, holding out her hand to help the Sheikah boy. He ignored this and got up on his own.

“I didn’t realize there was such a large gap between us. I’ve learned much this day.”

Just then, Malon burst out of her home.

“Saria, what’s all that noise?!”

While Saria was distracted by the farm girl, the Sheikah boy slipped away, disappearing into the night. Saria picked up the boy’s weapon and hid it in her overalls.

That boy… What was he thinking?

When Malon got closer, she gasped at the state Saria was in. “What happened? Was it another monster attack?”

“Yes,” Saria nodded. “More guay. I got careless this time, but at least they’re gone.”

Poppy gave Saria a knowing, worried look, saying, “It’s okay, Malon. I can heal her.” The fairy floated gently around the Kokiri and put her small hands on Saria’s wounds, healing them. Unfortunately this magic did not extend to the state of her damaged, bloody clothes.

“Thank you, Poppy. I’m not sure I’ll be good company at the dinner table in this state, though,” said Saria.

“It’s okay. You can borrow some of my clothes for the evening while we get yours all fixed up,” Malon smiled. “Now let’s get going. Talon is getting worried.”

The rest of the evening passed without incident. Saria spent the night with Malon, washing and fixing her clothes so she could be ready to return to the village in the morning.

When she dreamed, she dreamed of blonde-haired boys, and her failure to help them when they needed it the most…

---

Time passed. Training and work continued, though Sheik made himself scarce whenever Impa was gone. Saria tried to reach out to the boy several times, but he had closed himself off to her, even after she returned his blade. Saddened by this, Saria focused on other things. She finished paying off her debt to Castle Town, she checked in on her fellow Kokiri to see how their training went, she helped coordinate the construction of the new shop (of which a certain plump-faced Kokiri was happy to manage), and Saria even paid back the Happy Mask Salesman for the mask she borrowed.

“Finally decided to show your face, I see,” said the Salesman.

“Sorry about the wait,” said Saria. “There were some… Complications.”

The Salesman shrugged. “These things do happen. I’m just glad to see you at all. I’ve not seen your friend since you last visited.”

Saria tensed up. “Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to remind her the next time we meet.”

The Salesman grinned, showing his teeth. “Be sure that you do.” He then gestured to his shelves. “By the way, since you finally completed your first sale, I have more masks available for you to borrow.”

Saria looked over to the shelf, realizing a strange skull-like mask had appeared. “Wait, when did you-”

“Don’t worry about it,” the man grinned. “Would you like to borrow this mask? I hear its fearsome visage keeps certain monsters at bay. Probably because of how tough and scary it makes you look.”

Saria pondered this and then nodded. “I think I have a customer in mind for that one. I’ll take it.”

“Good,” the man said, handing her the mask. “Here you go. Next time, I would appreciate it if you returned as soon as you make the sale.”

“Of course.” Saria held up the mask. It was like the front of a misshapen horned skull, with four blunt teeth and round eye sockets. She pocketed the mask, said her goodbyes, then went on her way.

When the chance presented itself, Saria made her way to the Lost Woods. She found Taru sitting on his stump like usual, playing his flute. The boy sat up in excitement upon seeing Saria and hopped down, approaching her.

“Saria, Saria!”

The Kokiri bowed her head and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Taru. How are you getting along with the other skull children?”

“Not so good… I’ve been trying to practice the flute so I could play with them in their band, but they still won’t accept me. It’s why I prefer hanging out here instead of near where the rest of them are.”

“Well that’s no fair! I’ll be sure to give them a stern talking to next time I see them. In the meantime, I have a present for you.”

“Really? What is it?”

Saria pulled out the skull mask, handing it over to Taru. He looked it over thoroughly, his eyes lighting up.

“Quite an unusual mask you’ve brought me! Hee hee! I like it! I bet it’ll make me look real tough!” Taru reached into his pocket and gave Saria ten rupees. “Here you go. Thank you for this!”

“Wait, but this is a gift. You don’t have to pay me.”

“No, no. I insist!”

Taru put the mask on and flipped through the air, landing nimbly on his tall tree stump. His eyes glowed brightly through the mask’s eyeholes as he said, “So? How do I look?”

Saria clapped her hands. “You look wonderful, Taru!” At this, the skull kid lowered his head.

“Aaah… I thought I would look scary.”

“You look pretty scary to me,” said Poppy. “If I saw you at night, there’s no way I’d get close to you.”

“You really mean it?” Poppy nodded, to which Taru pumped his fist. “Yes! Thanks, you two!”

Saria said her goodbyes and returned to the Happy Mask Shop, only to learn that Taru had underpaid for the mask’s value.

“Oh… Is that how it is…” said the Kokiri.

Saria paid the rest of the mask’s price back out of pocket. She wasn’t exactly upset, though, since she had planned to give the mask away for free. After that, she was able to borrow another mask from the Salesman. It was a frightening thing that reminded her of the masks Redeads wore.

“Where did you get this?” Saria asked.

“Where? Why, from a priest of course. I had learned that Hylians are buried with special funerary masks, so of course I had to get some for my collection!”

Poppy said, “Well that explains things…”

“Hm? Is something wrong?” asked the Salesman.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Saria. “Do you have any advice for who I could sell this to? I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.”

“Not sure! It’s not a very popular mask in town.”

“I can’t imagine why…”

After tapping his fingers on his counter a few times, the Salesman said, “You know, I bet this would be pretty popular with pranksters. People who like to trick and scare others for laughs.”

“Doesn’t that boy who hangs out in the graveyard like scary things?” asked Poppy.

“Good point. All right, I’ll see if I can sell this thing. See you later!”

As Saria and Poppy made their way from Castle Town to Kakariko Village, Poppy said, “So why are we doing this again?”

“Do you want the short answer or the long answer?” asked Saria.

“Both?”

“The short answer is I need a distraction.”

“Fair enough.”

“And the long answer is there’s something off about that merchant. He may know more than he’s letting on. He could even be a spy for all we know. So I figure if I keep doing jobs for him and gain his trust, I can finally get some answers. Best case scenario, he’s unrelated to everything going on and I can put my mind at ease.”

“And he’s right in the middle of town just next to the path leading to the Temple of Time! If he is working for Ganondorf, he couldn’t have picked a better place to set up shop.” Poppy grew a smug grin across her face. “Such a smart girl. I really did raise you right!”

Saria smiled at her friend and rolled her eyes. She then ran up the stairway, through the village, and into the graveyard. Sure enough, the young boy was walking around, swinging his stick to and fro. She asked him if he was interested in masks, and when he said yes, Saria pulled out the spooky mask.

“Gyaah! It’s Dampé the gravekeeper’s face! … Oh wait a minute, that really is just a mask. I get a different fright from that mask than I do from Dampé… Can I have it?”

“Of course. Just try and not cause too much trouble with it,” said Saria.

“Woo! With this mask, I’ll be just like Dampé! Here’s my money!” The boy gave Saria a bag of thirty rupees. He then ran off with his stick held up to the sky. “I’m gonna dig and dig! Just like Dampé!!”

“What a strange boy,” said Saria. “I hope he has fun, at least.”

“Forget strange, where’d a little kid like him get all this money?”

“Not sure. At least we don’t have to cover any of the mask’s cost out of pocket this time.”

Before Saria could leave the graveyard, a familiar voice called out to her. It was Impa.

“Keeping busy, I see.”

“Impa! Back already?”

“Indeed. There’s something I need to talk to you and Sheik about. Come with me.”

Saria looked to Poppy, who nodded in understanding. The Kokiri followed Impa through the illusory wall and joined up with Sheik in the hidden village.

“You called, master?” said Sheik. “What is it?”

“Your training is almost at its end,” said Impa. “I have one final test for you both. It’s a test crafted by the Sheikah of old as a rite of passage. If you complete this test, you’ll be recognized as true Sheikah.”

“Even me?” asked Saria.

“Even you. The Sheikah do not care about bloodlines. Only results.”

Sheik clenched his fists and looked Impa in the eye. “What must we do?”

Impa escorted the pair to the far end of the village. Hidden behind yet another illusory wall was a metal plate on the ground. It looked like it could be opened like a gate.

“Beyond this door is an underground maze meant to push sheiks to their very limits. The maze is filled with dozens of traps, as well as special chambers that house monsters. As time passes, the chambers will open one by one, releasing monsters into the maze. You’ll have a week to find the exit before it locks for good.”

“Wait, you mean you can get trapped down there with monsters?!” asked Poppy. “That’s crazy!”

“It is not a test to be taken lightly. Furthermore, you will have to begin the test without any weapons or gear.”

“Then we must fight the monsters barehanded?” asked Sheik.

“Approach the challenge however you like. Sneak, use the traps to your advantage, or confront the monsters. It doesn’t matter to me,” said Impa. “In addition, I’ll be spreading all your gear throughout the maze in hidden chests. Find the chests and you can use your gear again. And it doesn’t matter who it once belonged to. This is meant to test your skill and adaptability. There is no such thing as fair once you enter this maze.”

“Isn’t this a bit extreme?” said Saria. “One of us could die down there. Are you really okay with that?”

“If we can’t pass this test, we’d fair no better at protecting Hyrule from Ganondorf,” said Sheik. “I accept this challenge.”

“Good,” said Impa. “And what of you, Saria? You are not of the Sheikah clan, so you are not obligated to take this test. You can walk away now if you’re-”

“No. I’ll take the test.”

“Are you sure, Saria?” asked Poppy.

“I’m sure. It’s just as Sheik said. This will prove once and for all if I’m ready to take on Ganondorf and the Gerudo.”

“Then it’s decided,” said Impa. The woman clapped her hands twice, and as if by magic, the gateway began to open. Its age became apparent as the metal creaked and groaned. Once it was fully open, it revealed a long cylindrical tunnel that led far below ground, with water at the very bottom. In many ways, it reminded Saria of the well in Kakariko Village… After Impa took Saria and Sheik’s gear, she disappeared. From there, Saria looked down into the tunnel.

“There’s no ladder to climb,” said Saria. “How are we supposed to get down there?”

“We go for a swim,” said Sheik. The boy then dove head-first into the tunnel, with the sound of a splash following shortly thereafter. Saria looked to Poppy.

“Looks like it’s do or die. Come on!”

The Kokiri jumped into the tunnel, falling for what felt like forever. She hit the water hard, causing a huge splash. When she resurfaced, she was joined by Poppy, and sure enough, the entrance up above sealed shut.

Saria looked around. The walls were moldy tan bricks whereas the floor was slick grey stone. Though no source of light could be seen, the passageway was dimly lit – perhaps through magic. After climbing out of the pool of water, Saria found herself in what looked less like a maze and more like a sewer. Metal chains dangled from the ceiling, their purpose long since forgotten, and wooden support beams bordered the passage up ahead. The final test of the Sheikah was finally underway…

[guideoftime]

hc + ⏳ for a time-themed headcanon

Thematic Headcanons. / Reset the Clock drabble.

   There is, possibly, no word that Sheik has such complicated and mixed feelings over. Time is subjective and as he tells Link, the flow of it is different for each person. Sheik spent seven years waiting for the Hero of Time to wake up, and within those slow moving seven years, he was trapped serving under a cruel man who had him do things he would have never wanted to if he had a choice. Time at that point seemed slow moving, suffocating, trapping him in an endless cycle of trying to make choices that wouldn’t break him while hoping for the seven years to finally reach their end. That Link really would wake up and bring Hyrule back into the light. Seven years, where each day the only thing you have to look forward to, was maybe coming out at the end of each day someone held together, can feel like centuries. 

   When Link finally did wake up, they were stuck on their journey attempting to save Hyrule, each day spent trying to keep the Hero ahead of Ganondorf, the Evil King’s eyes off of Link, and the word time falling from his mouth far too much to the Hero. It was a bit like a record stuttering, moving forward but jerking back to continue the same words over and over. Link could go forward and backwards along time’s river, change the path and adjust the future. He could fall in the past and stutter in the future. He could chase fleeting memories of his younger days and desperately clutch at the remains of his current time, each tick of the clock seeming to chip away at him. 

   Sheik watched the Hero get beat down by time, over and over, the hands of the clock turning and continuing despite the hardships Link endured. For it stops for no one, it doesn’t care if you’re suffering or not. 

   Then when all of it was ripped away, the entirety of Hyrule thrown into the past, Sheik’s entire world turned back on itself with the threat of his memories being stolen from him–time seemed to curse him.

    Forced to relive his childhood over, forced to accept that everyone he had, everything he knew, the world he became familiar with was gone and he was alone. Impa was the Sage, Impa was gone, Princess Zelda had a kingdom to run. He was the last Sheikah, in a village where the people he knew barely knew him anymore. A child again, far too old mentally, and stuck raising himself. The clock would keep moving, but he felt trapped in his own body and in a past he had never asked for. 

   And it came down to the same thing it always did.

   The flow of time would continue to run, he would have to be alright, and he would have to keep moving. Because there was no other choice. He would have to be what Impa told him he had to be, the shadow and the Sheikah Warrior. 

   For a while, he really did try. He fought with himself (he fought with the Castle soldiers mostly), he took the role that Impa once occupied at Princess Zelda’s side and he existed. He was the shadow, the protector of the Royal Family, the guide of Princess Zelda, and he let the clock move. Slowly again, but for an entirely different reason this time. It was drowning, pretending that everything was fine, that the memories weren’t choking him, that he felt like he didn’t have a purpose anymore. 

   So he sought a purpose. 

   He ended up in the Shadow Temple and time stopped having any meaning. 

   Sages don’t age, even though time continues to move. They’re stuck in time, expected to pray endlessly to protect the Sacred Realm. To keep the balance together and defend the entire world. He did what was expected of him even as the Hero of Time moved on from the world, replaced by the Hero of Twilight and eventually the Hero of the Wild. 

   It’s almost a numbing feeling. Knowing everything is gone and then seeing it actually faded from existence. Leaving only footprints on the memories and hearts of the people around them. 

   Time is cruel. 

   Everything that the Hero of Time fought for was taken away when Princess Zelda rewound the world on them. Only three of them and a tree remembering what wasn’t meant to be. Not even the history books recorded what Link did, other than the one forged by Impa and Sheik to try and remember what had once been. What Link sacrificed for them. Books that would eventually be destroyed with the fall of the Sheikah Tribe, left to rot like the clan itself. 

   Sheik doesn’t like the word time anymore. Doesn’t like the sound of clocks.

[airplanned]

All the Trashy Novels Part 27

It’s more smut.

Part 1...Part 26

***

Zelda did not answer the door for Link's quiet knock.  She did not answer the door when a steward came to deliver her lunch or when a currier came to invite her for dinner.  At that point, Link knocked again, and Zelda decided that the best course of action was to use a rope in her office to rappel down the side of the tower, slip into a tunnel, and plop herself under the bridge to Castle Town, where she could stare down into the water with her head in her hands.

It made sense that the Goddess hated her.  She'd been actively disrespectful lately.  Pretending to pray.  Reading smutty novels aloud at her feet.  She apparently even convinced Link to stop praying.  And then there was the sword.  She'd been openly derisive of the sword and everything it stood for.  Because if she were to believe the Sheikah when they comforted her, saying that clearly her sealing power was not yet needed and that was why she didn't have it, then how did they explain that Link needed the Master Sword?  And then there was Link.  She'd been absolutely awful to him.  Trying to embarrass him.  Getting him flustered and then abandoning him to deal with it, because she thought it would be funny.  He liked her and she'd treated him like garbage.  Why on earth did he like her?  He was either masochistic or deluded, because she was in no way worth it.

She curled over her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs.

The sun set, and she didn't move.  The fireflies came out, and she didn't move.  The noise from the taverns right across the moat grew rowdy, and she didn't move.

She had to strategize.  She needed a way to repent.  Maybe she should give up her research.  Maybe she should make a pilgrimage to one of the sacred springs or cloister herself away in the Temple of Time.  She planned the trip in her mind: first the Royal Tech Lab to hand over the Sheikah Slate and all her notes to Purah.  Then to the Spring of Power, then the Spring of Courage, then to the Great Plateau, where she would take a vow of silence so she no longer said cruel things.  She would request a Sheikah guard.  Maybe Impa, and release Link to more important duties.

Yes.  It was what needed to be done.

She uncurled from her stiff position, and stood, not even bothering to brush the dirt from her dress.  When she turned to head back to the castle, she startled.

Because Link was standing at the mouth of the tunnel.  As if he'd been standing there a while.

She was too tired to glare at him.

He took two steps forward, unsheathing his sword.  Then he took her hand and wrapped it around the hilt, holding her hand fast in both of his.  

"What are you doing?" she asked.  Her voice was hollow.

"Most people," he said, "can't get their hand within a few inches of it.  It pushes them back.  Those who can touch it are thrown back by a shock.  They say the sword has teeth.  That only its master can wield it."  His eyes bored into hers.  "But she allows you to touch her."

Zelda frowned at him.

One of his hands slipped from the hilt to the small of he back, easing her close, trapping the sword between them, and it was almost as if he were pressing her hand to his heart.  "She likes you.  I don't know if she can sense your blood or if she knows you're blessed by the Goddess, or if she just likes you: Zelda.  With your research and your trashy novels and your muddy boots and your experiments and your fruit cake and the way you smile at me when you forget not to.  She likes you.  And she has been apoplectic since I let you walk out of the library."

She didn't believe him.

"She's been screaming in my head for fifteen hours.  I need it to stop."

"I can't help you with that."

He winced, his eye twitching.  The sword really was screaming at him.  Screaming so loud it hurt him, and yet she couldn't hear it.

He pulled her closer and lowered his mouth to her ear, pressing a kiss and then whispering, "Can I apologize?"

She shouldn't let him.  She should push him away.  It was for his own good.

Then he kissed under her ear again, and she was so tired that she melted.

And then her back pressed to the cliff, and his mouth covered hers, and the sword was back in its sheath, and her arms wrapped tight around his shoulders.  His kiss was needy and desperate, begging her forgiveness, and maybe she was begging for the same, hungry to have someone care about her when she thought she'd burned that bridge to the ground.  His hand worked at the back of her neck, brushing her hair aside and popping buttons one after another, his other hand grabbing at her skirt to ruck it up and pull her thigh over his hip.

He pulled back abruptly with an annoyed frown--which of course would happen.  Heart breaking, but not surprising.  

He shook his head and winced, and then pulled his scabbard over his head, fumbling out of it, then setting it down against the wall with a glare.  Then he was back in her arms, cupping her face and teasing open her mouth with his tongue.

She pulled back to ask, "What was that?"

He looked confused for a moment.  "She's...I think she's giving advice?"

"Pardon?"

"She's been reading too many trashy novels lately, and flashing all these ideas to me."  He shook his head.  "Hard to tell which thoughts are mine."

"The sword wants you to do unseemly things?"

"Unseemly is...a nice way to put it."

"How would you put it?"

"Filthy," he said.  "I...think the sword is bored?"

"The sword is...bored?"

He nodded.

She stared at him.

She should ask if he really feels for her or if it's just the sword egging him on.  Instead she asks, "What kind of things does it want you to do?"

His eyes darkened, and a warmth built in her belly. 

His hands framed her sides, his thumbs tracing the grooves on either side of her stomach.  "Touch you here."  As his hands dragged up, she dragged in a breath, as if he was pulling her taller, pulling upward towards her chest, until his thumbs hooked beneath her breasts, his fingertips still touching her sides.  "Touch you here."  He kissed beneath her ear again, and she rested her head back against the wall to close her eyes and tremble as he shifted to cup her breast, to rub circles with his thumb.  She had one arm hooked around his neck and one hand gripping his wrist tight, and she ought to let go, but couldn't.  His free hand dragged back down, his thumb tracing the groove on the inside of her hipbone, and again, she felt draw upward, tighter against him.  "Touch you here."

"This doesn't sound so filthy," she said, her voice only shaking a little.

He dropped to one knee, bunching her dress in a fist.  And maybe she was a bit breathy and whimpering when his mouth met the grove inside her hipbone that he'd traced with a thumb.  She was a raw nerve of anticipation as he moved lower, lower, shifting his shoulders between her legs, his hands on her hips for balance as she tried to hold her dress out of his way and somehow keep her balance.  There was no way she was going to keep her balance.  He sucked another mark into her thigh, and she nearly screamed, then gasped as he licked her through her panties.  He hummed and she panted and he worked her as if she were delicious, as if it were his duty to please her.  Her hands scrambled on the wall behind her, and she didn't know what kind of sounds she was making as he pushed aside her panties and thrust his tongue in such a way that he had to shift his hold on her hips to catch her.  Her heart beat too fast and she couldn't breathe and she was so close to something, so very, very--Hi fingers dug into her thighs and a cord pulled too tight inside her snapped.  Popped.  Like glass shattering.  

She was lost, flying, and the only way through it was to cling for dear life to Link's hair.

When her vision cleared, she had sunk to her knees, into Link's lap to pant into his neck while he held her.

"Zelda?" 

There was something odd about his voice.  Maybe she'd hurt him and it was awkward for him to admit it.  Maybe it had been bad and he was regretting it.  Maybe he was regretting it for other reasons.

"...Did you know that you light up when you orgasm?"

***

Part 28

[luimagines]

So imagine a Reader that is trapped in a tower (kidnapping, tradition, audiences choice).

In a moment of sheer stupidity, Reader’s dad decides that whom ever rescues them will win their hand in marriage. This goes on for a few weeks/months when the chain arrive are asked by Dad to go reduce them without telling them the whole marriage thing (he wants a son-in-law and he doesn’t care which of the chain he has)

Of course that’s the moment Reader arrives, riding the dragon that was guarding their tower. They rescued themselves, thank you very much, so they get to chose who they want to marry.

Reader and Dad get into an argument in front of the chain and Reader, in a fit of anger, tells their Dad they’ll marry only one person who fits their criteria.

1. Must win the approval of their three closest companions (ie if this was HoF, it would be Lucky, Impa and Fas)

2. Must be able to fight with honour.

And the third thing make the chain double take cause Reader says something that is weirdly Super Specific to one of them.

Ie

Twilight - Must be able to turn into a wolf. Why? Reader likes wolves.

Legend - Must have saved more than Three Kingdoms. Reader wants to travel.

Hyrule - Must have magic power equal to the Triforce. So no one can put them back in the tower.

Sky - Must’ve fought a God and defeated them. Because Reader wants to feel safe.

Time - Must’ve fought the Moon. Same as Sky.

Warriors - Must’ve met at least Three companions of the Heroes of Courage. Because Reader is a history nerd and wants to learn about the companions.

Four - Must be able to spilt into four or more people. Chores would be done so much quicker.

Wind - Must’ve fought a ghost train to save a princess. Because Reader is afraid of ghosts.

Wild - Must be able to break even the Master Sword. Because that strength would give great hugs.

Ya know just a weirdly super specific thing that makes the Link in question ponder if they actually want to try for this very pretty person who saved themselves AND got a dragon out of the deal since the Link in question is probably the only person with any chance at all….

Reader- is trapped in a tower.

By tradition?!?!?

What kind of kingdom is this place running?

But hello hi, I love this????

Link could just be standing there awkwardly because he knows that he fits the bill but they just met???

And they're really pretty.....

And he's like the only person who can do it.

But also marriage??

That wasn't part of the deal??

He doesn't oppose the idea???

Someone one help him, he'd dying inside.

[sapientiiae]

@goddessofliiight asked: ‘ that’s quite a scratch you’ve got there.’  random dialogue 2.0

The royal’s brow furrowed as she stared down at the gash along her bicep. She’d narrowly avoided the arrow that shot off when the trap mechanism was triggered, luckily taking the brunt of the force to her arm instead of her chest.

Impa’s training had paid off. 

“I should have been more careful,” she remarked, though it sounded more like a scolding to herself than a reply. Had she taken Impa’s words of caution about the temples more seriously rather than neglecting the warnings, she might have been able to avoid the injury altogether. 

Though her disappointment in herself was apparent, she knew now was not the time to wallow in her self-pity or loathing. The scratch would cause pain for the time being, but it could be fixed with a healing potion or a visit to one of the sacred Fairy Fountains. Luckily, if memory served her well, there was a fountain not far from here. 

“I will be more cautious moving forward, so as to avoid having this happen again.” That was what was required of her for now. Link still had not awoken, which meant he was not yet deemed strong enough to wield the Master Sword. For now, the fate of Hyrule fell solely upon her shoulders. 

Alas, her attention shifted back to the voice, taking a good look at the woman that stood in front of her. Despite her frustration, the disguised princess could not help but to feel a sense of calm around the other. “It is dangerous to be in this region, especially this late in the evening. You should be seeking shelter right now.”

[obsidiangst]

Congrats on 100 followers! Could you do a thing for #47?

47: “How many more innocent people have to die?”

WARNINGS: Manipulation, vague nudity, non descriptive sex, body horror(?), stabbing, and open end.

Part 1 | Part 2

Zelda had to get out of this. The longer she stayed there, the more she realized she couldn’t just pretend that everything was so hopeless that there was no point in trying. She couldn’t abandon her people- Link didn’t die for her to do that. Though every plan she thought of to do something about her captivity was riskier than the last. If she was the last thing standing between Hyrule and mass destruction, she had to try to find something that wouldn’t kill her.

First thing: She needed to recover the Master Sword. Which would be difficult because the demon was keeping the sword in his quarters and despite being allowed to wander through the fortress, though she hardly did, she imagined she wouldn’t be allowed into his room for no reason. How would she manage to retrieve the sword then? What would come next when she did manage it?

While she sat in ‘her quarters’ deliberating internally about her plan, she looked over as the door opened, the demon entering as he did just about once every day. Whether he was checking on her or just coming to taunt, Zelda had no idea, but she kept her face flat. Link’s skin had long since turned a deep shade of charcoal grey and his hair was entirely silver. If his face hadn’t been the same and she hadn’t witnessed the slow transformation into this new appearance, she wouldn’t have known it was her Link at all.

“What do you want?” Zelda bit out, looking back down at her hands resting on the empty table before her.

“Well, that’s an awfully hostile way to greet someone who came to offer you a way to save the scraps of your kingdom.” He said dryly and Zelda looked back up at him sharply as he made his way to the chair opposite from her.

“You mean trick me into giving you something you want?” Zelda asked and the demon laughed.

“If that’s what you’d like to call it.” He said, pulling the chair back and taking a seat. “I have Castle Town under siege. At any moment I can say the word and have it razed to the ground.” He said, giving her a look like he’d just locked her into a checkmate in an invisible game of chess on the table before them. Zelda glared at him. “Or- I could call it off entirely.”

Her heart both sang and dropped into her stomach at this. So he was here to trick her. Wonderful. But- If it meant saving her kingdom, she would do whatever it took. Even if he wanted her head on a platter, she’d do that if he promised to end the attacks on villages and innocent people trying to live their lives.

“What do you want from me?” Zelda questioned, less harshly this time. Escape be damned, if she could at least do this one thing for her people-

“Marry me. None of your people will respect me as a ruler without a legitimate claim. If I marry you, then I will gain the right to rule.” Zelda stared at the demon dumbfoundedly. Was he serious? Just like that? When he had quite literally just admitted that he was doing so as a grab for power? As if she would-

She could trick him into allowing her into his quarters if she agreed. She would have easy access to the Master Sword then. She’d just have to lay with him- The thought almost made Zelda want to retch right there. If she gave herself to him under the guise of giving into his advances she could take the sword while he was asleep. It- Wasn’t the best situation, but- If she closed her eyes it could at the very least be Link in her head. And then she could kill him with minimal fuss. Zelda took a deep breath and closed her eyes, struggling with the idea of this plan. It seemed simple and yet-

“Think about it, Princess. I get what I want and you get to save your people. And you’ll get to be married to the person you love in a sense.” He edged her on, trying hard to convince her to accept his proposal. Oh- He really wanted this didn’t he? The demon who hadn’t even bothered to tell her his name since he had taken over Link’s body all those months ago-

“That’s-” Zelda stopped, unsure what to say still. She wanted the violence to end, but- She also didn’t want to use her own body in such a way. It was low and manipulative. But she had been being manipulated this entire time, so why should she care if it was or not?

“Come on, Princess. How many more innocent people have to die before you swallow your pride and submit?” He taunted her again. Oh, she wished she could slap him again right then- Her unease was cut through with anger. How dare he question her loyalty to her people- She’d show him.

“Fine.” She answered finally. “On the condition that you stop all violent activity against my people by this afternoon, I will agree to marry you.” He grinned wickedly.

“Consider it done.”

The demon was beyond pleased with himself and his guards had celebrated loudly for the rest of the day and well into the night at this ‘victory’. Oh, if only they knew the hell they would pay when Zelda got a hold of the Master Sword. Of Link’s sword. She’d make them wish that Link had killed the demon when he came to the fortress in the first place. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and she was a goddess and was fucking livid.

It was late the next evening when Zelda exited her chambers, padding her way barefoot down the hallway to where she knew the demon slept. Her heart was thudding loudly in her ears as she approached the door between her and the demon. Was this really about to happen? Would he be rough with her? Would she bruise? Would he talk down to her like she was nothing but a whore or would the tiny remnants of Link that remained in his behavior towards her come through and he would be gentle with her during her first time? She steadied herself before opening the door to the demon's chambers.

His crimson eyes fixated on her from where he was laid out over his bed that was much like her own. Odd that it wasn’t more lavish, but she supposed that wasn’t important.

“Oh? And to what do I owe a visit from my wife-to-be?” He teased her, propping himself up on his elbow and draping his other arm across his midsection. Damn him- He knew that was something LInk would do when she got his attention. Zelda slipped in and shut the door behind her.

“I’m- Tired of resisting.” She said, making sure that her voice had a tiny whine at the end of it. Like she was close to tears. Lady Impa would have been proud of her acting skills right now as the demon was eating it up. He raised a brow at her and smirked, gesturing her closer with a curl of a single finger.

“Are you now? Well, it’s about time.” He said, sitting up and watching her as she made a show of hesitantly locking the door behind her and ever so timidly making her way to the bed. “Don’t be shy, I won’t bite… Not that hard at least.” He teased, chuckling darkly and Zelda blushed.

Holy Hylia above, she was really about to do this. She didn’t have to fake the nerves as she crawled into his bed and let him touch her and disrobe her. The tremor in her hands as she started to touch him back was as real as the situation she was in. For all the demon’s aggression towards her in the past, he made sure to at least attempt to soothe her nerves, but every thought she had was plagued by the knowledge that this wasn’t Link like she was trying to pretend it was. This was a demon.

Thankfully, Link, or at least his physical body, was also inexperienced and wasn’t able to last too long. It had felt… Alright. Zelda would have been much more relaxed and emotionally fulfilled if she had been with Link instead of this spirit piloting his form.

“See, that wasn’t so bad.” THe demon rumbled into her ear when they were finished. He laid against her back, holding her naked form against his own. “I even made you finish~” He had, in fact, not done so. She had faked it to stroke his ego a little bit more into relaxing. She had been trying to focus on anything other than the demon the whole time: her plan to escape, going home and celebrating the end of the war, mourning everyone they had lost, mourning Link- But it was done now at least, she could turn her attention to her next step.

Of course, he didn’t make it easy.

With his arms around her waist and his face pressed against the back of her shoulder, it would be very hard for Zelda to get up out of the bed without waking him up. Especially because the way he held her wasn’t just a loose hold, he was gripping her firmly. Fuck, this may have been a mistake.

Though- She did have time to look around the room now. She didn’t know where exactly the sword was located or hidden, so she glanced around the parts of the room that she could see. There were weapons and baubles everywhere, but finally, Zelda was able to make out the golden triforce on the scabbard of the Master Sword in the corner of the room, concealed partially by a few other weapons.

Zelda shifted once. Then twice. Then a third time to see if the demon was awake or not. When he didn’t respond to her shifting in any way, his grip even loosening unconsciously around her, she knew it likely was safe to try and get up. If he woke up she could say she needed to use the bathroom or to… clean up from their activities. Carefully, Zelda squirmed and twisted from the demon’s grasp, finding the dress that she came in, not liking the bite of the cold air on her bare skin before picking her way carefully over to the corner where the Master Sword was.

There was no way this was going to be this easy- Surely this demon wasn’t so oblivious to think that she would just- Sleep with him without an ulterior motive. She had resisted doing it for months now, that wasn’t just going to change overnight.

She gripped the hilt of the Master Sword and carefully tried to move it from behind the other blades trapping it against the wall. Finally, Zelda was able to pull the hilt from behind the other blades and then carefully extracted the scabbard and blade from the tangle of weaponry.

That’s when a movement caught Zelda’s eye and she looked at the stack of blades on the wall. One of the swords crossguards caught on the Master Sword’s own crossguard as she freed it and it tilted precariously to one side, then started falling, falling- And clattered loudly on the ground, hitting two more on the way down, adding them to the noise as they also clattered against the stone floors.

Zelda whipped around to face the bed- Sure enough the demon’s eyes were open and fixed on her in a dangerous way.

“And what exactly do you think you’re doing Princess?” The demon questioned as he got up, not bothering to put clothes on as he put his feet on the ground and began making his way to her. This was bad! Very bad! But she had the sword! She had no idea how to use a sword, but! How hard could it be??

Panicking, Zelda yanked the blade out of its scabbard and sent a quick prayer to the Goddesses to help her as the demon paused in his advancements. Then he started to chuckle.

“Ohoho, is this really what you want to do, Princess?” He taunted, narrowing his eyes at her. “What are you going to do? Kill me? Kill him?” He said, edging around her, trying to circle so that he was between her and the door. Zelda stepped closer to the door, keeping her back to the wall and the point of the Master Sword towards the demon’s chest.

“You think this is all a game. You want to use me and him like pawns. It’s going to end. Tonight.” Zelda said. The demon tilted his head to one side and scoffed.

“Perhaps it will.” He said, raising a hand as a myriad of shadows congealed into the form of a blade not unlike the Master Sword but pitch black. “I should have guessed that you weren’t going to concede that easily, but- You put on a convincing show. You were rather determined to do this, weren’t you.” He said, gripping the blade tightly. Oh shit- Oh shit, they were really about to fight weren’t they? Oh this was bad- This was a horrible plan, oh goddesses help her-

The demon swung and by some divine fluke, Zelda parried the strike. How? She wasn’t entirely sure. She’d never used a sword in anything other than formal ceremonies before, by all means he should have just stuck her like a pig- Another strike and she parried again, her feet taking her back half a step, but she wasn’t dying yet so that was fine.

“What-?” The demon furrowed his brow and eyed her, clearly seeing the surprise on her face. “Stop doing that!” He snarled as he struck again. Once again, Zelda blocked. The demon snarled at her now and began rapidly trying to strike her. And as if the Master Sword had a mind of its own and control over her feet, Zelda blocked, parried, and pivoted away from each strike, much to the annoyance of the demon.

When Zelda thought that there was going to be no end to this cycle of strikes and deflections, she saw an opening. The demon raised his sword up as if to bring it crashing down upon her head- and left his entire abdomen open. Zelda pointed the tip of the Master Sword directly at his stomach and stepped forwards, putting her weight and everything she had in her behind the thrust.

The sickening sound of the blade cutting through flesh and sinew was far louder than Zelda had been anticipating and she let go of the sword, staggering backwards as she processed what she had- somehow managed to do. Waves of nausea overcame her as she heard the noise on repeat in her mind. Goddess above, what did she just do? The demon stared at the hilt of the sword as it stuck out of his midsection. The sword was buried so deeply into him the tip was also sticking out of his back.

Then a barrage of disturbing noises and gargles exited Link’s mouth as the demon shuddered, dark black liquid beginning to drip freely from his mouth, nose and eyes and then evaporating quickly away into the air like black little puffs of smoke. He dropped the jet sword, which also faded into smoke before it hit the ground.

“Damn, you- No! I-” The demon gargled out and more and more of the shadowy smoke began to leave Link’s body. Zelda watched in horror as Link’s charcoal grey skin lightened and his ash colored hair grew golden brown again and as his body wretched the last of the shadows out, crimson eyes blinked shut and finally opened blue once more.

Zelda could have cried seeing that beautiful blue.

“Link!” She cried, overjoyed that he seemingly was back for a split moment before a pained grunt left him and he went down to one knee, clutching at the Master Sword lodged in his abdomen. Zelda blanched as she realized that she now had to save Link a second time from something a lot more dangerous than a demon piloting his body. Oh- Oh shit-

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Another Age of Calamity

[I’m assuming it’s been long enough now that we can get away with posting Age of Calamity spoilers.]

Scene: Zelda, Link, and Impa, along with the diminutive guardian, have just escaped Hyrule Castle and look back from a distance as the swirling cloud of malice engulfs the royal structure.

Zelda, realizing the depths of her own failure, begins to despair…

BotW Zelda: I have … failed …

She falls to her knees.

BotW Zelda, crying: All of Hyrule … my friends … even my father … It’s my fault! Why won’t it awaken for me?!

As the princess cries, the little guardian approaches and attempts to console her with her mother’s lullaby.

BotW Zelda: Everything … Everything I’ve done … Ultimately … all of it was for naught!

The princess’s tears continue to flow, one falling onto the guardian’s eye and causing it to surge with power. A surge of light bursts from the guardian and splits the sky.

In the next moment, Zelda feels a hand rest on her shoulder. She looks up to see …

Samus, giving a thumbs up: Don’t worry princess, we got your back!

BotW Zelda: Who…? How…?

Samus: When we heard this game had time paradox shenanigans going on, we decided to use the mansion’s time and space twisting properties to intercept and lend a hand.

BotW Zelda: Mansion? What?

Samus: Er … nevermind that for now. The important thing is that we’re here to help.

Smash Link: That’s right!

BotW Zelda: HOLY SHIT did Link just TALK?!

BotW Link: …

Smash Link: …

Impa: … did the princess just swear?

BotW Zelda: *turning red*

Samus: … I vote we pretend this never happened and move on to the rescue mission.

Everyone: AGREED!!

—————————

Meanwhile, inside Divine Beast Vah Medoh …

Revali: Hmph. I suppose you think I should be thankful. Not that I was in need of any help, mind you.

Falco: Get off it. You were completely getting your butt kicked before I showed up.

Revali: I was merely testing the monster to identify its weaknesses. I assure you I would have dealt with it single handedly in a matter of moments.

Falco: Get real, Einstien! You were completely ineffective without me. You need me to intervene just like everyone always does.

Fox, firing his blaster wildly at Windblight Ganon: IF YOU TWO ARE QUITE DONE POSTURING I COULD USE SOME ACTUAL F@#%ING HELP OVER HERE!

Revali: Not until he admits that I don’t need his help.

Falco: And not until HE admits that he can’t do this without me!

Fox: Dear god how did I get stuck with TWO of them?!

—————————

And inside Divine Beast Vah Naboris …

Urbosa: That’s it! Come on boys, we got this demon on the ropes!

C.Falcon: Oh my god, she is so amazing! Ren, I think I’m in love!

Joker: What? I thought you said you were gay.

C.Falcon: I am, bro, I am. I’m one hundred percent gay for her.

[This quote based on a real conversation]

—————————

And inside Divine Beast Vah Rudania …

Daruk: Ha ha ha! Boy am I glad to see you kids. I thought I was toast for a minute there! You sure pack a punch for some little guys!

Meggy: What can I say? We’ve gotten pretty good at “smashing” things.

Ness: Yeah! We got this!

Lucas: As long as we work as a team, I’m not afraid …

Ashley: I’m just here for moral support.

Daruk: Alright! This firey punk is running out of steam. What do you say we kick this guy’s butt back to the abyss he crawled out of. I believe in all of you, let’s do this!

Ness: Okay Dad!

Lucas: …

Ashley: …

Meggy: Stripes, did you just call him “dad”?

Ness: Look, my real dad is a phone.

—————————

Meanwhile inside Divie Beast Vah Ruta, the battle against Waterblight Ganon has been overcome, and Mario is speaking with Mipha away from the rest of the group.

Pit: Wow, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. Of course, that might be mostly because we brought this guy along.

Waterblight Kirby: Poyo!

Young Link: Ha ha … yeah …

Pit: Is that nervous laughter? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you nervous before.

Young Link: Ah, it’s just … I’ve kind of had some bad experiences with zora princesses in the past.

Pit: Really? But Mipha doesn’t seem that bad.

Young Link: Yeah, she seems pretty sane. I’m sure I’m just getting nervous over nothing.

Mario and Mipha return to the rest of the group.

Mipha: And I should thank you warriors for your assistance as well.

Mipha, looking at Young Link: Hmm, you know, it’s peculiar, but for some reason you strongly remind me of someone I had a crush on in my youth.

Young Link: RUN! ABORT! ABORT!

Young Link immediately throws himself from the divine beast into the water below.

Mipha: ????

—————————

Meanwhile, within the malice-darkened walls of Hyrule Castle itself…

Sephiroth: So, possessing a robot, huh? Gotta say, not exactly what I was expecting.

Ganondorf: I must say, I never cared for the Calamity form, being so mindless and bestial, but attempting to take over two timelines at once? I’m actually quite impressed.

Bowser: But I don’t get it, if you’re the embodiment of all Ganons, shouldn’t you already know about everything that’s happening? Why is this all new to you?

Ganondorf: Calamity Ganon isn’t really “me”, it’s power and malice that has been leaking out of me that has accumulated enough to take on its own form. Remember, the REAL me is sleeping trapped deep beneath Hyrule Castle.

Bowser scratches his head in confusion, as Sephiroth nods sagely. Ganondorf then gives an evil smirk.

Ganondorf: What do say, boys? How about we go wake me up!

[normal-horoscopes]

How Your Smash Main Would Do in Bloodborne:

Mario: Clearly has pent-up rage issues, and therefore weak to frenzy damage, but has proven combat chops. Chance of survival goes up if mario gets his hands on a kirkhammer. Biggest obstacle would be surviving the Brain of Mensis.

Donkey Kong: Immediate beasthood, followed by a mad bloodthirsty rampage through the streets of Yharnam. 

Link: Hunters do not normally employ shields, ineffectual against the strength of the beasts as they tend to be. Would likely survive but would have serious difficulty adapting to the hunt. Imbibing the beast blood would likely make Link unworthy of the master sword, and they would be forced to use hunters tools.

Samus: Chattering horrors beyond the ken of men would not phase samus in the slightest. Power suit would protect against most nonmagical attacks, but would likely have to re-purpose her weaponry to incorporate blood/silver/rending edges in some way due to limited power supply.

Dark Samus: Would be revered as a great one.

Yoshi: Most likely immedeate beasthood. Clutches of malformed reptilian children in some forgotten hole of the forbidden woods.

Kirby: Regularly defeats Moon Presence level threats. Would, quite literally, eat the world of bloodborne for breakfast. Poyo.

Fox: Firearms expert, cyber-prosthetic lower body, known to be skilled with melee weapons. A natural fit for the world of bloodborne and would make an excellent hunter. It should be noted that Mr McCloud is already technically half beast, it is unclear whether or not this would be an advantage or a disadvantage, though a soldiers discipline would serve him well.

Falco: A similar boat to fox, though his reckless, maverick nature could be his downfall were he not careful to resist the allure of the beastblood. 

Pikachu: Immdeate dark-beasthood. 

Luigi: A timid, but truly brave soul that already has a mountain of experience dispatching the uncanny. A cowardly exterior betrays a core of dedication and resolve. Would make an ideal Hunter-of-Hunters. 

Ness: Already defeated Great One level horrors and well acquainted the strange and violent. with  A spell-heavy tonitrus user.

Jigglypuff: Already a nightmare creature. Immediate, and powerful beasthood.

Peach: Has been possessed by an ancient and nameless horror from beyond the stars and escaped completely unscathed. Would locate the nearest cainhurst dress and stamp out the beast threat with style and poise. 

Daisy: Already harbors violent fantasies of death and blood. Would last roughly six minutes before giving in to the bloodlust and going mad. 

Bowser: Would survive the hunt and defeat the Moon Presence accidentally while trying to capture Peach. Literally too oblivious for the Old Blood to have any effect.

Ice Climbers: Bloodthirsty to the core. Would make serviceable hunters for a short while before succumbing. Would need to be put down by a hunter of hunters. 

Shiek: Schooling under impa would make shiek a deadly and precise ally during the scourge of beasts. A dark and storied past would serve as a source of resolve for her, even in the face of further horror. Would make an excellent hunter of hunters.

Zelda: At first one would think Zelda had all the trappings of a good hunter, her steady mind would do her well against the creeping bloodlust, but her thirst for knowledge and proclivity for the arcane would likely lead her to the clutches of Mensis, or even worse, the adherents of Kos herself. 

Dr Mario: The search for a cure is an ill fated one indeed. Like all the Yharnam healers before him, this is a story that would end in failure and tragedy. 

Pichu: Immedeate dark-beasthood.

Marth: A soldier, a warrior, a general. Would make an honorable and just hunter, fit for the service of Ludwig. However, night after night of comrades-turned-beast would take a toll on the mind. To valiant a heart for the gore and death of the Hunt.

Lucina: Well acquainted with the realities of war, and the living dead. Would fair better than Marth, but friends turned beast can become a curse on the night of the Hunt. 

Young Link: A young, flexible mind would likely adapt to the hunt better than his grown counterpart. Has already faced horrors on par with that of the Hunt. Lighter weaponry would be advisable. 

Gannondorf: Would immediately, and willingly, become a vassal of the Great Ones in return for power. 

Mewtwo: Would be revered as a great one, or mistaken for one. Would care little for the struggles of men, and would likely feel more at home among the beasts.

Roy: Roy has demonstrated the tact and strength of mind to continue with his duty in the face of overwhelming loss and tragedy. The Binding Blade would make quick work of the beastly scourge. Not zealous enough for the Executioners, but would make an excellent addition to the ranks of the League.

Mr Game and Watch: Already on par with the Great Ones. Goals and motivations are impossible to divine. 

Meta Knight: A true student of the martial arts with arcane powers. Meta Knight has no interest in anything but testing his blade against any who would answer to his challenge. Unfortunately has shown to be susceptible to possession in the past. Would make an excellent member of the League, but would likely go mad before too long.

Pit: Regularly defeats Great One level beings with the help of Palutena, but perhaps would not be prepared for the sheer amount of violence the Hunt would involve.

Dark Pit: Might as well have an open application for malevolent gods to control him.

Zero Suit Samus: Lightly armored expert with a firearm that doubles as a whip weapon who regularly blows holes in gibbering horrors from beyond the stars. Would have Moon Presence dead in two hours tops. 

Wario: An opportunistic gig as a kidnapper for mensis followed by a one way trip down blood-frenzy lane.

Solid Snake: A firearms expert skilled in melee combat. The Powder Kegs would be begging to add him to their ranks. Stake Driver + Cannon. Literally too stupid for the Old Blood to have any effect on his mind.

Ike: All his friends are bloodthirsty beasts now. Who is there left to fight for?

Pokemon Trainer: Would last maybe an hour before their pokemon were infected and turned. 

Diddy Kong: Immedeate Beasthood, also has a gun that shoots peanuts. 

Lucas: Has already faced horrors akin to the hunt along with friends who survived the same. A timid mind betrays a young man who will do what needs to be done. 

Sonic The Hedgehog: Has canonically lived through being a POW and defeated an ancient god of chaos. Would make a terrifyingly effective but unbearably obnoxious hunter. 

King Dedede: Has been possessed by ancient malevolent gods several times. Would last maybe eight minutes.

Olimar: In a unique position. Has field experience with controlling hive-minds and an extensive knowledge of xenobiology. Likely too small to be of any interest to the Great Ones and would spend most of his time gathering specimens.

Lucario: Immedeate Beasthood. Psycic Lycanthrope with knowledge of martial arts.

R.O.B.: Completely and totally unaffected by most dangers in bloodborne, but would also have little interest in the suffering of the biologicals. A neutral party.

Toon Link: Has already faced down several Great One level threats. Would absolutely survive the Hunt. 

Wolf: Already a bit of a bloodthirsty psychopath. Would make an excellent addition to the Executioners before going mad with bloodlust.

Villager: A novice with ranged weapons and handy with an axe, but all in all would likely be another poor soul taken by the Hunt. 

Megaman: Cant contract bloodborne diseases if you dont have blood. Literally has a firearm built into their arm. Has been shown to be skilled with melee weaponry and to have the cold, unfeeling capacity for violence required of a hunter.

Wii Fit Trainer: Does not have blood and thus immune to the violent madness of the Hunters Curse, but decides to go on a murderous rampage anyway. 

Rosalina: Already the surrogate mother to a race of astral beings. Would be revered as holy. Essentially on par with Queen Yharnam. Great Ones would be tripping over themselves for her.

Little Mac: Stake Driver + Gratias Fist. Has canonically boxed a literal gorilla and won. Doc would immediately be eaten, but Mac would use this as a source of resolve to grow stronger and knock out god herself. 

Greninja: Immedeate Beasthood.

Palutena: As a literal goddess, every single Great One would see her as competition and would be out to get her. It is unclear as to how she would fair as the true extent of her divine strength is unknown. 

Pac Man: Eats Ghosts. More likely to be hunted than a hunter.

Robin: Though a competent soldier and leader, when it comes to the Hunt, allies become a burden. Would likely meet the same fate as the other poor Fire Emblem characters.

Shulk: While his skillset would transfer well to the Hunt, his mind would not. Shulk would not be prepared for the terrible realities of the beast scourge and would quickly give in to despair. Monsters are one thing, the sight of people being disemboweled is another.

Bowser Jr: A shame for one so young to face a night like this. Has the equipment, but not the resolve. 

Duck Hunt: Fused into a single nightmare creature like the crow-hounds found in the nightmare of Mensis.

Ryu: A valiant fighter not used to melee weapons who would make a competent enough hunter, but would likely fall to the maddening influence of frenzy. 

Ken: Would last longer than Ryu, but would most likely meet the same frenzied fate. 

Cloud Strife: A person from circumstances arguably as bleak as Yharnams with an outlook and experience to match it. The Buster Sword would make quick work of even the largest of beasts. The right mix of hopeful and serious to last through the horrors of the Hunt. 

Corrin: Someone almost uniquely acquainted with the beastly embrace. More likely to be hunted than a hunter, but this would not stop them from doing what was right, in fact, it would likely be a source of resolve.

Bayonetta: Would keep Vicar Amelia as a pet. 

Inkling: A half-cephalapod genetic experiment bred for war that comes pre-equipped with weaponry meant to fire bodily fluids. Would willingly give themselves to Kos and become a terrifying adversary to any hunter.

Simon/Richter: Would take the entirety of bloodborne as a personal affront and would cleanse ever single living thing in the entire game without a second thought. Beast Cutter + Ludwigs Rifle + Golden Ardeo + Radiance Rune.

Ridley: Xenocidal, nigh-unkillable, psychopathic space dragon whose only source of joy seems to be the pain of other living beings. Arguably more evil than literally any other being in bloodborne. Can and would eat the infant mergo alive just to shock and upset Queen Yharnam and Oedon. 

King K. Rool: Immedeate beasthood. 

Isabelle: Ruthlessness and skill that would rival Gherman and Lady Maria. Would approach the Hunt with the methodical, detached, attention to detail of a gardener ridding their flower patch of weeds. 

Incineroar: Immedeate beasthood. Watchcat of the Old Gods. 

Piranha Plant: Immedeate Beasthood. Confined to their pot.

Joker: A mind trained against psycic attack and a body trained in combat. Becomes a vileblood for the fashion. 

Hero of Light: An empty shell with no actual personality. Immedeate beasthood. 

Banjo and Kazooie: Immedeate Beasthood. Fused into a single nightmare creature. 

[sage-nebula]

I was thinking about how Zelda absolutely has PTSD from trapping Ganon in Hyrule Castle for 100 years, and that made me want to write about it. I ended up writing 2,483 words, and while this is in no way up to my standards and is also not polished at all (or even a full fic; it’s like little pieces strewn together until my brain ran out of steam), I’m still happy I actually managed to write given how hard that has been for me over the past year and a half due to my critical exhaustion. So I’m going to post this rough draft here, for any who want to read it. 

- - -

Every morning, Zelda woke with fire and malice in her throat.

 It was something strange to cough, to gasp, to choke on something that existed only within her mind. It was odd, a curiosity—but one she couldn’t care to study as she hunched over the crevice between the bed and the wall for the second week in a row, trying desperately to stifle her coughing and hide her sweaty face with her hair so that Link wouldn’t see. She coughed, and scraped her tongue with her teeth, fighting to rid her mouth of a phantom substance she tasted with every breath she took, and every morsel of food she chewed.

 She couldn’t, of course. It was impossible to rinse out something that didn’t exist. Even as she took the proffered cup of water Link had fetched the moment he noticed her stirring (knowing, she knew with shame, what was going to come next) and gulped it down her burning throat, she knew it was no use. One hundred years of saturating her lungs in Ganon’s essence with every breath she took meant she’d never really be rid of the taste.

 But even so, she drank the water, and smiled in thanks at Link as she handed the cup back to him. He smiled, too, but it didn’t mitigate the concern in his eyes any more than the water had mitigated the flavor behind her teeth.

 ———

 For one hundred years, Zelda did not eat.

 She did not sleep.

 She did not dream.

 At least, not in any real sense. There were moments, especially as the decades ticked past, that she let her consciousness wander. She thought back to days—to years long past, to faces she could scarcely remember and voices that were now nothing more than bad echoes of her own. She checked in on Link, as much as one could check in on someone in a coma, and tried not to let herself feel disappointed each time she received nothing but silence in return. She wondered how Hyrule was faring, in the wake of the calamity; wondered how they managed to rebuild, to survive, and—in moments when she allowed herself hope—thrive despite the devastation that had ravaged them. Had they left the ruins of their former lives scattered along the landscape? Were there any still alive who remembered what happened the day the kingdom was torn asunder, and so many lives along with it?

 Her consciousness always returned to her when her captive growled, guttural and menacing, and she could not say what emotion she felt when her awareness was yanked back into the castle in those moments, whether it was fury, determination, or something else altogether. But as she stared at the beast she held bound in her golden chains, and tightened her grip on them enough so that she could feel her own power burning through her palms, all she knew was that the rush of emotion she felt in those moments meant that she would never, ever let go.

 ———

 Zelda didn’t remember very much of the journey to Hateno Village, and she certainly didn’t remember the seven days she spent asleep in what had formerly been Link’s bed. (“Ninety-nine years and . . . a lot of days to go before you beat my record,” Link had said.)

 But it didn’t take her too long to become aware, and when she did, she wished she hadn’t.

 Every morning, she woke with smoke and malice in her throat. Every night, she was back in the castle. Her fists were taut around golden chains wrapped around her forearms again and again to give her better bracing. Those same chains wrapped endlessly around a monster, a demon of unimaginable horror who had murdered her people, her friends, her family. A demon who stared down a putrid swine snout at her, snorting and snarling in her face, thrashing and roaring like a beast aside from the moments it tried to catch her off-guard like a man.

 For one hundred years, Zelda didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. Any time she let her grip slacken, the chains loosened, and the beast took advantage of the moment to raise a bloody moon so his monsters could savage the people of Hyrule. Princesses slept; wardens of demonic beasts did not.

 The beast was gone now, and Zelda knew that. She had used her power to banish it herself the moment Link landed the ending blow. The beast was gone, and for the first time in one hundred years, Zelda was allowed to sleep.

 She wished she wasn’t.

———

 She didn’t know what day it was, but in a way, she supposed it didn’t matter. One hundred years after the calamity and Hyrule had moved on in such a way that each day was now very much like the last. Each night, she was back in the castle. Each morning, she had fire and malice in her throat. Each day, she did her best to get herself in order so that she could stop the cycle from repeating. So far, she had yet to succeed.

 But if there was one thing her life, both pre- and during-calamity, had given her, it was determination. She would not quit. She could not quit. Link was helping her; he had brought her to his home, had given her his bed (despite her insistence that he should keep it, or that at least they should share, at which point he pretended to hear his horse neighing for him outside and had taken the stairs three at a time to escape), was cooking meals for her to help her recuperate. One hundred years was a long time to go without food, he’d said, as he’d handed her a hearty meat stew (and had corrected her that it was indeed hearty, not hardy, because of the hearty truffles he’d put in, see?). She needed to regain her strength, albeit with foods that were easy on the stomach at first, so that she could get used to eating again.

 Not eating for one hundred years wasn’t why she kept rubbing at her wrists, or felt wobbly on her feet. It wasn’t why she woke every morning gasping for clean air, or why her hands shook around the cup of water Link always had ready for her. But he was trying, and she wasn’t about to tell him otherwise, not when she had been enough of a burden on him already.

 So that morning, after she gulped down the cup of cool water that Link had left on the bedside table for her, Zelda brushed her sweaty hair from her face and took a deep breath. Today, she would have Link show her how to cook some recipes, so that she could take some of that burden from him. She would feed their horses, and actually start to get to know the one Link had saved for her—the one that was descended from her own horse, one hundred years ago. She would suggest an activity for them, perhaps fishing, and then see it through without there being an incident. Today she would get herself together far more than she had any of the days previous, and put the past one hundred years behind her where it belonged.

 As he always was on the mornings he wasn’t at her bedside, Link was outside cooking breakfast. He looked up as Zelda stepped through the doorway, and smiled—but Zelda saw his smile for only a fraction of a second before the smell of the food hit her, and her stomach curled.

 Smoke malice fire Ganon—

 One second, she was standing in the doorway of Link’s home. The next she was behind the horse stable, one hand braced against the house, the other arm wrapped around her stomach as she heaved all the water she had just drank, plus a few remnants of last night’s dinner, onto the grass. She retched, skin clammy and body shaking, and might have fallen to her knees in her own vomit if it weren’t for Link gripping her shoulder with one hand, his other hand holding her hair back from her face. Zelda coughed, and swiped the back of her hand across her mouth as her heaving subsided.

 “I—” she began, and swallowed hard as her throat closed tight again. “Apologies, I’m not sure what came over me.”

 “Sickness, I think,” Link said, and if she didn’t know him as well as she did, she might have thought he was being sarcastic. He waited until she was standing firm (or at least as firm as she could) before he let her go. “And you don’t have to apologize for being sick, Princess.”

 There was too much she could say to that, and yet not a single thing felt right. “What—what were you making?”

 “Eggs and bacon, with a side of saus . . . oh.” Link’s eyes widened at something he saw on her face. “Oh no. I’m sorry. I’ll throw it out.”

 Zelda shook her head. “There’s no reason for you to waste perfectly good food. I’ll just . . . eat around the pork.”

 “No, I’ll get rid of it. I can cook any number of things for breakfast,” Link said firmly. “Tell you what, we’ll have wildberry crepes instead. How’s that sound?”

 She smiled weakly. “That sounds lovely.”

 Link smiled back in the same way he always did, with concern still alight in his eyes even as his lips soundlessly told her he’d do his best to make everything all right. He offered her his hand—and it was silly, and embarrassing, and a bit patronizing, because she could walk well enough on her own and she had to fight the urge to smack his hand away—and she took it. He led her back around the house and quickly indoors, away from the smell of the now burned pork on the cooking pan, and told her that he’d have breakfast done in a flash. And he would—she knew he would, he always did. But as she sank into a chair at the table, her hair sticking to her flushed cheeks, she also knew that wasn’t the problem.

 ———

 It was two months, by Link’s calendar, before she felt up to a trip to Kakariko Village—a trip to see Impa.

 She had seen Purah, of course. Purah hadn’t waited for Zelda to make the trip to Hateno Tech Lab, and instead had made her own way to Link’s house, though how she’d managed to get there on her own given her stubby six-year-old legs, Zelda didn’t know. Meeting with Purah again was . . . an experience, to say the least. She had the same spirit Zelda remembered, a bouncy countenance both familiar and overwhelming, and Link thankfully managed to distract Purah with something outside before Zelda was overcome with sobs. The strange thing was, in the moment, Zelda couldn’t have told anyone why she was crying. Even now, weeks after the fact, she still wasn’t sure. Mentally, she hadn’t felt like crying. She hadn’t felt it emotionally, either. But somehow, seeing and hearing Purah one hundred years later, it had all been a little too much. She’d cried before she could help herself.

 It was that, at least in part, that made her stave off the trip to Kakariko, before the guilt gnawing at her gut told her she could stave it off no more. Rather than warp with the Sheikah Slate, Link suggested they ride. It would be good for her to spend time with her horse, he’d reasoned, and it would also give her a chance to see a little of Hyrule. The Dueling Peaks stable was at the midway point between the two villages if it got too late, but even that was unlikely given that Kakariko was only a half-day’s ride from Hateno.

 Link hadn’t needed all the justifications, and Zelda thought that perhaps Link knew he didn’t. But he gave them, and she took them, and in the end she still felt that even the extra half-day wasn’t quite enough.

 It was one thing for an old friend to have the body of a child due to a science experiment gone awry. It was another to see one hundred years of lost time reflected in every canyon etched into another friend’s face. Impa’s hair had always been white, but her hairline had receded to reveal age spots and crows feet around sunken eyes. Her lips were thin now, her shoulders hunched with arthritis, her joints cracking with every movement.

 But when Zelda stepped through the doorway of her home, and their eyes met, Impa smiled as if not a day had passed.

 “Princess,” Impa said, her voice a warm wheeze around her words. “It is so good to see you safe and whole once again.”

 Zelda nodded and smiled. Tried to smile. “Thank you, Impa. It is . . .” She was safe, she was . . . “It is also good to . . . to see you.”

 This time, she wasn’t aware of her tears until she saw them fall upon the kerchief Link offered her, splashing as she blinked in surprise at the cloth suddenly put in front of her face. Impa’s smile was gone, replaced by a look of sadness—of pity?—as her granddaughter, who looked so much like Impa used to, squeaked something about calming tea and dashed from the room. Zelda sniffed, gasped, choked hear tears back as she dabbed them away with the kerchief, and tensed every muscle in her body to keep from throwing Link’s hand off her elbow as she said, “I’m—I’m fine.”

 For she was fine. She was there, standing there, in Impa’s home in Kakariko Village, with two friends and an oddly familiar stranger. She was safe, and she was as whole as she could be, as she ever would be. She was fine, even as she sobbed into the kerchief Link had given her, hands trembling too badly to take the tea that Paya brought out a few minutes later.

 ———

 “Y-You know . . .” Paya said, stretching her tunic over her legs as she sat beside Zelda on the grass outside, while Link and Impa spoke within the house. “I think it’s—it’s okay if you need to cry. You’ve been through so much. You were trapped in the castle with Ganon for one hund—”

 “No,” Zelda interrupted, before she could stop herself. Paya startled, and looked her way. Zelda could feel Paya’s wide eyes on her, but she did not remove her own from her wrists—wrists that could still feel the weight of heavy golden chains made of her own power. “I . . . was not locked in the castle with him. He was locked in the castle with me.”