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telemna-hyelle · 2 years

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Take This Happy Birthday to the Legend of Zelda!

It's still Februrary 21st somewhere in the world, so I'm gonna say that I made it *nods solemnly*

Happy Birthday, Legend of Zelda! You've come to mean so much to me, and i couldn't let you birthday pass by without doing something. So here, a little fic that I hope expresses how much this franchise means to me.

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There was a little boy kneeling besides an old woman. The scattered smoke of dying monsters filled the air here and there, evidence of a victorious skirmish.

The old woman was weak and faint, her hands shaking with weariness. The little boy pulled her arm over his shoulder and fumbled for his canteen, helping her drink. After several careful gulps, the woman pushed the canteen away, despite the shivering in her hand.

“Are you sure, mother?” the boy said, a little doubtfully, hesitating to put the canteen away. “You don’t look so good.”

“It’s not me who needs help,” the woman gasped out. “It’s—it’s the princess who needs help. Please, I have to be on my way.”

“The princess needs help?” the boy frowned. “Why? What’s wrong?”

The story tumbled out of the old woman—of an evil beast named Ganon, who had attacked the country, ravaged the land, and stolen one of it’s greatest treasures. “And the princess—she sent me away to find help, and sacrificed herself to cover my escape!” Tears slipped through the furrows on her aged face. “A nursemaid is supposed to protect her charge, not—not—”

The boy’s frown grew sharper. “What happened to the princess?”

“I’ve heard rumors that he’s imprisoned her in his fortress on Death Mountain.” The old woman tried to push herself to her feet, but the boy held her still, eyeing the shake in her limbs with worry.

“Please, young lad, I have to go—the princess told me I had to find a man of great courage; someone who can defeat Ganon!” She clutched at his hand imploringly. “You see why I cannot delay?”

The boy nodded. “This Ganon… he wants to hurt everything, right? The land, and the people, and the princess?”

The old woman nodded solemnly, tears squeezing out below her closed lids.

The boy carefully stood, helping the old woman to her feet, and took her hands in his. The woman opened her eyes in confusion, and stared in astonishment when the boy smiled at her. “You don’t have to worry anymore, mother! Ganon sounds like a bully, and I don’t like bullies.” He nodded firmly, and gave her hands a squeeze. “So I’ll beat him! I promise!”

The old woman stared at him. “But you’re just a child! Are you sure—”

“I’m twelve!” The boy said proudly. “That’s old enough to start an apprenticeship. Don’t worry, mother, I can do this!”

“But…” the woman blinked in astonishment. “Your accent—it’s from Calatia. You’re not from here. …why?”

The boy shook his head, and gave her hands another squeeze. “Because you need help.” He said simply, and shrugged his shoulders. “And I can help you. That’s all the reason I need!”

The woman burst into tears again. “I have heard tell of heroes of old, but I never truly believed I’d see one like them. Tell me, child, what’s your name?”

The boy grinned, and opened his mouth—

And Link woke up in his bedroom on Skyloft, clutching his loftwing stuffie and staring at the ceiling.

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Link spent the next day moping around Skyloft thinking about his dream. He had strange dreams sometimes—and by strange he meant not normal-strange, like the one where the loftwings wore clothes, or the remlits picked up Master Gaepora and flew him in circles around Skyloft.

No, this was a strange-strange dream. The kind that some part of Link’s heart said was super important and really true.

So Link spent his day with his head in the clouds, thinking about his dream. Nobody noticed anything particularly, as little Link spent most of his days with his head in the clouds anyway—nobody, that is, except for his best friend.

“What’cha thinkin about?” She asked, and plopped down beside him.

Link propped his chin on his hands. “I had a dream about someone. He was really brave, and when there was a big bad monster threatening people, he went to fight it just cause they needed help. I was just thinking… that’s what knights are supposed be like, right?”

Zelda screwed up her face as she thought about this. “I think so.”

Link laid on his back, staring at the loftwings circling in the skies above. “…I think that’s the sort of knight I want to be one day. Someone who helps cause they can.”

Zelda flopped on her back next to him, reaching out and nudging his elbow with her own. “I bet that’s just the sort of knight you’ll make!” She scowled suddenly, and gave him a harder nudge. “But if you want that, you need to stop slacking so much!”

Link ignored this. He was pretty great at the basic knight skill stuff, so why waste his time studying when he could be napping. Still, something was bothering him. Zelda noticed the odd tone to his silence and sat up, cocking her head to one side as she looked down at him.

“What is it?”

“I just…” Link pouted slightly. “The boy in my dream—he was gonna face a big nasty monster, but he didn’t even have a sword.”

Zelda crossed her arms, furrowing her brow in thought. “That’s not good. Every good hero needs a sword.”

Zelda frowned at the ground, and Link frowned up at the sky, when sudden Zelda’s head shot up. She grabbed Link’s arm and pulled his torso up, a bright grin on her face. “Remember, you carved a wooden practice sword for fun last year! Why don’t you make him one like that!”

Link blinked, and then a grin of his own spread across his face. “I could do that!!!” He scrambled to his feet, yanking Zelda along with him. “How’d you come up with it first?”

He started sprinting in the direction of Jakamar’s house to beg for the best quality wood he could get, Zelda clinging onto his hand, giggling like the waterfall at the far end of the pool.

“Cause I’m the smartest, that’s why!”

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Link grew older, and the dream faded into the background—though the feeling Link got from that dream remained. The idea of a knight who helped cause he could, who faced a monster to save people in need—somehow, they sunk deep down inside him, coiling about his very core, and gave him strength when his greatest trial came.

But that was over, and Demise was sealed, and now the time had come for Link and Zelda to settle on the Surface.

They were sorting through boxes stuffed in the bottom of Link’s wardrobe when he found it—a strange bundle wrapped in an old, musty blanket.

He pulled back the folds, stared down at the wooden sword, which had been laying forgotten for over half a decade—and suddenly he remembered the dream.

“Hey, Zelda, look what I found!”

Zelda turned from where she was packing his hoard of items from the surface into boxes, took one look at the sword, and smiled.

“I forgot all about that!” She quickly set the amber artefact she was holding down, and scrambled over to kneel at his side, holding her hands out. “Can I hold it?”

“Of course, my lady,” Link said, and handed the blade over with an overdramatic flourish. Zelda giggled as she took it, but the moment it was in her hands her giggles died down.

Link glanced up, even more attuned to her and her moods now, after all they had been through, and saw her staring down at the sword with a strange expression.

“Link… that dream you had, all those years ago…” She bit her lip, struggling to give voice to her thought.

Like a bolt of lightning streaking across the sky, Link realized where her thoughts were headed, and swallowed hard. “You’re think about the curse.”

Zelda’s fingers tightened on the sword, her knuckles yellowing under her grip. “…if it is true, and the spirit of the hero is reborn again and again… that boy you dreamt of may be real.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke, struggling to come to terms with… with everything that possibility meant.

Finally, Link reached out, laying a hand on the sword. “If… if it is, then I want the boy to have this sword, more than ever.” He grinned at Zelda, though the smile was edged with sorrow. “After all… I know how valuable having a sword by your side can be during an adventure.”

Zelda laid her free hand over his, her heart aching. Link took the chance to entwine their fingers, and they clung to each other’s strength for a long moment.

Finally, Zelda stirred. “Well…” She said slowly, straightening. “I am the reincarnation of a goddess. I’m sure I can pull some strings to make sure this sword is in the right place at the right time.”

Link’s eyes widened, and then he flung his arms about her shoulders, tugging her close and pressing a kiss against her cheek. Zelda squeaked in surprise, blushing pink, as kisses were still rather new territory for them, but she quite happily wrapped her free arm around him as he murmured praises and gratitude in her ear.

“Of course I’m happy to do it,” she finally giggled the first chance she got, which happened to be when Link had to finally pause to take a breath. “I’d do anything for you, you know?”

“I know,” Link said, but he didn’t let go yet. There was a brief pause, and Zelda grinned as she waited for what she strongly suspected was coming.

“…do you think you could use your goddess powers to, yknow, upgrade it a little?”

Yup. Zelda stifled a laugh. “What kind of upgrades are you thinking, Link?”

“Well…” Link said, and drew back far enough to aim her with his most adorable cuddly-remlit expression. “If you could give it the power to do something like the skyward strike, that would be really really cool.”

Zelda laughed, and pressed a kiss to his own cheek, grinning triumphantly at his own flush. “I’ll see what I can do.”

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Link eyed the old man and the object in his hand excitedly. Was that a sword? And was it for him? He didn’t want to assume, but the old man had said that he had a special gift for him, and then he turned back around holding the sword.

Link hoped it wasn’t too selfish to really, really hope he could get to keep it. He’d never had a sword before! He had to beat monsters to death with his trusty stick instead.

“It’s dangerous to go alone,” the man said, with a twinkle in his eye that was mostly kind and a little sad. “Take this.”

Link wasn’t quite sure how having a sword meant you weren’t alone any more, but he also wasn’t gonna look a gift mouth in the horse—or however that saying Mama liked went.

He reached out and laid his hand on the wooden handle—and all of a sudden he thought he understood what the old man meant.

The moment his hand touched the wood, a warmth filled him, as if there was someone standing there at his side, shoulder to shoulder, back to back. Moving on instinct he didn’t know he possessed, Link lifted the sword and stabbed skyward.

He stared up at his blade, at how the flames gleamed on the varnished veneer of the wood, and wondered why he felt so strange.

Like how he’d done this before, and yet also he was the very first one to do it.

“Very good.” The old man smiled. “The blade will serve you well, I think.”

“I think so, too,” Link said, his voice full of wonder, and he slowly lowered the blade to his side, giving it a couple practice swings and swooshes on the way down. He grinned up at the old man. “Did you make this?”

The old man laughed. “Oh, no. It’s far, far older than even I. I trust you’ll take care of it?”

“Of course!” Link said, and bowed gratefully, feet itching to rush out into the wild and try his new sword on some tektites or something.

“Thank you very much! I don’t know how I can pay you back—”

“No need,” the man chuckled, and waved a wrinkled hand. “I think the sword was waiting for a hero such as you.”

Link blinked. He didn’t know what that meant, but it somehow sounded right all the same.

“Now get going, lad,” the old man said kindly. “Don’t you have a princess to save?”

“Oh yeah!” The boy grinned, and turned to the cave door. “Thanks again! See you later!”

The man bowed his head with a smile. “Until next time, then, young hero.”

And Link ran out of the cave into the sunlight, his new sword bouncing against his leg, he lifted his face to the wind and grinned.

“Just wait, Ganon!” He said, and drew his sword with a flourish, stabbing it in the direction that he guessed (or hoped) was Death Mountain. “I’m coming to get you!”

And somewhere, deep inside him, a very old piece of his spirit sighed with contentment. Something long-prepared-for had meant it’s fruition at last… and yet…

The piece of his spirit smiled.

The adventure, after all…

....was just beginning.

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#the legend of zelda #happy birthday to the hero of hyrule and all the legend of zelda!#loz 86 #original zelda #original loz #zelda nes #loz skyward sword #loz sksw #tellie writes stuff #my fanfics #i think i'm about to fall comatose haha #posting on ao3 will probably have to wait untilt he morning.

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