#tea.fic

[tea-paint]

Link leads them to a little clearing that has a shack whose roof he personally fixed, a well-maintained fire pit, and a tree. It's the closest thing he has to a home, and here, he's never been in danger. Ever. Not even Ganon's servants can find him here.

Naturally, the others are curious as to why.

He didn't expect the veteran to be this curious, however.

[tea-paint]

"Rancher. Do you know my fate?" the old man asks. Link thinks back to their de-facto leader's comments about hypotheticals, the dread of living in paranoia, his tendency to self-blame, and clenches his jaw. “You already know that I wouldn't tell you,” he says. Looking him in the eye cues a nigh-excruciating wave of pain in Link's heart. “Maybe one day. I will, or I won't, and you'll have to trust me when I say it's for your own benefit.”

Link tries not to mourn the living.

[tea-paint]

Summary:

You chose this, Hilda reminds herself, you chose this, when you took the Light Stone from Alder’s hands.

Hilda walks through N's Castle with a dormant Legendary in her bag and a full team, including a Deino just one level away from evolving.

She wonders how this final confrontation came to be.

She wonders if she should evolve it.