Chapter Text
Link ran into a few people on her way to Kakariko Village. She saved a treasure hunter from a flock of Keese who didn’t seem very thankful but who gave her something to eat. Link crashed on through the night, almost being killed by a moblin. She finally found a campfire and sat uneasily until morning. In the morning, she was more cautious. At Dueling Peaks, she snuck along the cavern walls to avoid the monsters on the embankments.
When she made it to the stable, it was late and raining. Her one outfit was soaked, she hadn’t slept in two days, and her head felt like it’s going to burst. Tasseren gave her his usual spiel about the different beds, but Link’s overwhelmed brain can’t comprehend.
The concept of money was somewhat familiar, but she was so bone-weary and exhausted that she just couldn’t put it together. Panicked voices reached into the tent, and Beedle roused himself when he heard Tasseren mutter, “Link is usually a lad’s name, isn’t it?”
“Come sit down with me,” Beedle said as he lightly touched Link’s shoulder. “I have a dry bedroll you can borrow once we get you toweled off.”
Link blinked, eyes brimming with tears, and nodded before following Beedle into the stable.
“I appreciate you, Beedle,” Tasseren said. “Always solution-oriented.”
Beedle smiled winningly while guiding a shell shocked Link into the shelter.
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Link tried to repay Beedle with a gift of raw materials, which Beedle asked Link to sell to him instead.
There was a Rhino Beetle that ended up a happily given and happily received gift of friendship.
They go their separate ways, Link to catch a horse and ride to Kakariko, and Beedle to Riverside Stable, next on his route.
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A few weeks later, Beedle stopped at Wetland Stable. He spotted Link glaring over the Lanayru Wetlands.
Beedle greets her cheerfully, demanding if she has any more Rhino Beetles. Link is startled from her gloom, and they spend the evening talking.
“What do you know about Zora’s Domain?” Link asks Beedle as the fire dies at the stable.
“Mostly that it’s been inaccessible for a few months now because of the rain. I’m not much of a city person, but that’s a pretty dangerous road even if I was,” Beedle says. “Is that where you’re headed next?”
Link looks away and doesn’t say anything. But then she sighs and lets her shoulders fall.
“Yes. I don’t really understand, but I have to go there. I have to fix something.” She said.
“Sure, make sense other than it’s the vaguest thing I’ve ever heard,” Beedle said, making Link laugh. “I hope you’ll let me in on what you’re up to at some point.”
Link looked at him appraisingly over the dancing firelight.
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Beedle rests his heels at Outskirt Stable. It was touch and go through this trip. A moblin gave him a good sprint through the woods and his muscles haven’t forgiven him yet. Feet aside, Beedle is restless and chaffs at being stuck here.
Plus, Botrick has been needling him to move on essentially as soon as he arrived.
“Is your pack really just full of arrows? Why would you make so many of them at once? I just don’t understand your business model, or why you would travel without a weapon. Get yourself a bow! You could use those arrows!”
Beedle was willing his feet to stop aching when he noticed a newcomer talking to Aliza by her tree.
Link looked distinctly uncomfortable throughout Aliza’s story. Beedle could see the exact moments when “sacred tree” and “waiting to meet the Legendary Hero” came up. Oddly, Link turned beet red as she finished talking. Link muttered something that fired Aliza up.
“There’s no way you’re the Legendary Hero! Firstly no legendary sword! Second, you’re scrawny! Thirdly, the legendary hero is a real man, not some sex-confused child.”
Purple was an odd complexion for a sandy blond, and Beedle wouldn't say Link was pulling it off.
“Hey! Link! Good to see you, come over here!” Beedle shouted, waving his arms.
Link nodded gruffly at Aliza before practically running to Beedle.
“You didn’t hear that, did you?” Link asked, still flustered.
“I know Aliza’s lines pretty well by now. I’m pretty sick of hearing the ways I personally don’t measure up to the Legendary Hero, to be honest,” Beedle said.
“I don’t understand Aliza one bit,” Botrick said. “Where does she get these insults? Why on earth would she even be considering you as a Legendary Hero? The hero is never a girl!”
“Link, could you do a fool a favor and help me walk around the stable?” Beedle asked as Link’s face turned fuschia again. “I need help exercising my poor foot.”
“Sure,” Link spluttered.
Beedle leaned on Link as they hobbled away from the stable. He spotted a nice wide flat rock to sit on and did so with a satisfied sigh.
“Do you ever feel like you spend so much time in the wild, that you forget how to talk to people when you get back?” Link asked, pacing and running her hand through her hair.
Beedle laughed. “It’s especially bad at Outskirt because no one here learned how to talk to people anyways! I know what you mean though. It feels like I have to put on a persona sometimes, ‘the customer is always right!’ I feel way better when I'm away from civilization. We’re wanderers, you and I.”
Link smiled and flopped down next to Beedle on the rock. He coughed.
“Also, just to say, you’d be in good company if you started life with a different set of pronouns than the ones you have now if that’s the terrible thing Aliza said,” Beedle said, casually.
He pointedly was looking out in the distance so he didn’t see Link almost fall off the rock.
“What- really? I mean- Yeah that’s cool, and, uh... that’s part of it.” Link said, also pointedly looking in the distance. “You too?”
“Yup! I started presenting as male when I came here when I was thirteen,” Beedle said, smiling at his friend.
“Wow, I wonder if I even knew when I was that age…” Link said to herself.
“Trans folk look out for each other. If you ever need anything just ask,” Beedle said.
“Same.” Link said, finally looking Beedle in the eye.
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Beedle was just preparing to leave the Woodland Stable when he saw his friend stumble over the hill.
“Link!” he shouted in alarm. He often saw Link at stables, and he had loved watching her come into her own power over the last year or so. From that confused, soggy child at Dueling Peaks to the strong, confident woman that greeted Beedle as loudly as he greeted her, Link was always a welcome sight. He was honored that she was one of his good friends.
Now though, his heart thumped wildly as he abandoned his pack to rush to meet Link. She gladly took his arm when he reached her. Beedle couldn’t see any broken bones, but Link’s eyes were bloodshot and her limbs were shaking so hard that she could barely stay upright.
“It’s mine again,” she said smiling wanly at Beedle. “That was it, the last task. The only thing standing between me and the Calamity.”
“If it doesn’t hurt too bad, I’m just going to carry you,” Beedle said, hoisting a pliant Link over his shoulder. He concentrated on carrying his friend, but there was a buzz in the back of his head. This was it then.
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Months before, they were waiting out a blizzard at Snowfield when Link told Beedle the heaviest burden she carried. She whispered of ghostly kings, of recovering her memories, of her unfolding task to lay each guardian to rest. Link actually cried and let him hold her as she hiccupped and sniffed when she talked about how terrified she was to face the Calamity. She fell asleep that way, and as the tiny Hylian’s breath evened out, Beedle realized that Link wasn’t just a good friend. She was his best friend.
And she would be in mortal peril until this task was done.
Tears streamed down his face as he lay his head against Link in his arms. The night was bitterly cold.
The next day, Link walked into the blizzard and Beedle watched her become a shadow and then become the white snow.
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When Link awoke in Woodland, the first thing she did was pay Beedle back for the stay in a soft bed that he bought her.
“You buy so much garbage from me,” Link said, smiling weakly, “I don’t want to screw up your profit margins even more.”
“Only you would consider gemstones garbage,” Beedle said.
Their attention fell to the Master Sword, lightly glowing by the bedside. It so obviously radiated power, it hurt Beedle’s brain to look at.
He turned back to where Link was watching him sadly.
“I can feel how powerful I am. Even though pulling out the Master Sword took everything I had, I’ll be stronger than ever before by tomorrow.” Link said.
“That’s when you’ll go?” Beedle asked.
Link nodded.
“Okay,” Beedle said. He went back to his Master Sword headache.
“That’s it? You usually have a cheeky comment for everything,” Link said.
“I just… Link, when this is over, let’s travel for a while.” Beedle said. “I can take a few weeks off, we could go somewhere and just go wherever we feel like.”
“Oh! I… I would like that a lot,” Link said.
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Link sat on her horse as morning broke, and Beedle fed it a carrot.
“The world will be different when this is over,” Link said.
“And I hope to Goddess that we’re still in it,'' Beedle thought.
She put on her cloak, then turned to Beedle with a wacky smile. There was something in the air, a sort of hopeless hopefulness. If the world was either going to end or begin again today, what really mattered anymore?
“How about a kiss for luck?” Link asked ruefully.
Beedle laughed before saying, “Yeah, alright.”
He walked up to her charger, steadying Link’s hip as she leaned down.
It felt so spontaneous and easy to cup Link’s face at this moment, to bring her flushed, chapped lips against his. Right then, there were no revelations, though this moment would replay in Beedle’s head until they met again.
Link ended the kiss, something dark and lovely in her eyes.
“Good luck,” Beedle whispered.
Link smiled and pulled herself back up.
“Hiyah!” she exclaimed to her horse and they took off into the morning sun.
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The next day in the afternoon, Beedle was making arrows near the campfire when the sky turned screaming red, then white, then back to blue. He dropped his arrows as the entire stable ran outside.
“Look!” Shamae said, pointing at the castle. The blight that had flown around Hyrule Castle was nowhere to be seen.
“She did it,” Beedle whispered. He felt tears spring up in his eyes.
The stable celebrated that night. There was dancing, drinking, and music that, while nothing Kass would dignify to play, was joyfully made and joyfully received.
It was late when Beedle settled on the floor, just to stare at the ceiling through the night. Would people start living in the castle again? Would travel open up to Hyrule again? What would these changes mean for him? What would they mean for Link?
What woke up when the great beast fell? Would Beedle finally meet the infamous Zelda?
Beedle stayed at Woodside for another two days, just in case-
But on the morning of the 3rd day, he packed his back and started on the path to Snowfield.