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Language:
English
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Published:
2020-08-07
Completed:
2020-08-13
Words:
1,127
Chapters:
4/4
Comments:
40
Kudos:
183
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13
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1,678

To you

Summary:

A love letter is to gather flowers to make a fire.

A goodbye letter is to extinguish the flames with a kiss.

Link doesn't know what he is writing, but he does it anyway.

Or: Link writes sappy letters to Zelda.

Chapter 1: First letter

Chapter Text

Zelda,

 

I don’t know how to start this. I don’t know much.

 

A few days ago, snow fell and fell in Hebra. It was soft. Like cotton, like a dream, but it was cold. Its mortal softness was the earth’s veil, and flowers wouldn’t bloom until it was gone. Though, would it ever be gone?

 

In Hebra, I saw a Rito buried in snow. I helped him. Nothing was said while we descended the mountain. Before parting, he gave me a book. “Thank you,” he said. I didn’t reply.

 

Aren’t books meant to be given to people you know? To people you care about? I don’t know if anyone cares about me enough to give me a book. But this one was given to me out of kindness, so I promised myself to treasure it.

 

The book was blank, its pages delicate and soft. Empty. White… like snow. While I could make memories and create experiences, the book needed my pen to be more than the possibility of a written thought. Thinking about it made me nauseous. I was a blank page once, and your pictures are to me what my pen is to the book.

 

I kept it in my pouch. I didn’t think about it for days, until I had to cross a pristine and silent lake. It got wet. I put it under the sun to let it dry and… I don’t know. Seeing the crumbled, wet, ruined pages... Seeing them almost dissolve upon contact with water, I thought… it sounds silly, but it reminded me of myself. It was then that I decided to write something. Because even crumbled, white pages can be filled with something, anything. That, I do know.

 

I wasn’t planning to write a letter. However, your name was the first thing that my pen stroked.

 

Zelda.

 

If I’m so bold to use your name, it’s because you’ll never read this.

 

Although sometimes I wish you would.

 

Link.

Chapter 2: Second letter

Chapter Text

Zelda,

 

Yesterday, I was stargazing. With my body on the grass, I felt calm. The ground was warm, akin to a mother’s lap. Maybe that’s the reason why it’s whispered that Earth is the mother of all. I believe it, most likely because I don’t have one myself.

 

Watching the stars, I remembered something. A story, the kind parents tell their children before going to sleep. I will write it before I forget. I don’t want to forget.

 

It goes like this:

 

Stars waltzed in rings of plasma and fire. They kissed the cosmos, as if the void wouldn’t extinguish their gleam. Though it would, eventually.

 

A fateful night (for it was always night in the abyss), a star saw Earth, and even though it didn’t shine, it fell in love, for light isn’t the only thing bright.

 

The star travelled for millennia, a voyage of ice and solitude. When it arrived to Earth, it sacrificed its garment of galactic diamonds to be with its beloved.

 

But it wasn’t enough.

 

The star now floats, never caressing the hand of its dearest.

 

Sadness dimmed its light.

 

And so, the firefly was born.

 

The story made me smile. Partly, because someone must have loved me enough to share it, but mostly because I knew it to be false. Star fragments crash and collide against Earth all the time.

 

A false tale.

 

Though… everything I know is a tale. Goddess, even my identity is a tale. I became afraid. What if you…? No. It can’t be. It mustn't be. My blood, my spirit know you’re real.

 

My voyage of ice and solitude is to find you.

 

Link.

Chapter 3: Third letter

Chapter Text

Zelda,

 

The wind is ruthless. It crashes against the rocks, sharpens them and erodes them. It rusts metal and rasps the world slowly, patiently. What it turns into dust, it wields as a weapon. Dead particles caress things by its command, and the wind blows and blows.

 

Though, it can be gentle too. It dances with the flowers and they sway to its rustic song. Without wind, summer would only be stale heat.

 

There’s no dichotomy in its nature. It isn’t ruthless nor gentle. The wind… simply is. It only blows.

 

Sometimes, it carries your voice.

 

Tomorrow, I’m heading to the castle. The wind flees South, dragging the world with it, but I’m heading North. To you.

 

Many have spoken to me about duty, honour, nobility. Recently, a friend and his poetry sung to me about love, about… your love?

 

I don’t know if … I just want you to know that my desire to save you (my consuming, intense desire to save you), will save Hyrule too. I don’t know if these feelings are mine, or if I carry the emotions of a dead man. I carry his body, his hardships, his destiny. Do I bear his desires, too?

 

Even so, is it love? There is yearning without love, is there love without yearning? I feel yearning, and something else. It’s a curious emotion, a translucent shell that would break if held it too tightly. Fragile. Fleeting, as new things are.

 

Shall I let it grow, it may turn into something immeasurable. Maybe it already has.

 

If so, I’m bound by love, but my love is boundless.

 

Link.

Chapter 4: An Echo

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Link, 

 

Amidst the murmur of flowing rivers, the laughter and the weeping, the roar of beasts, the croaking of amphibians—amidst the noise and the silence that overwhelm and numb me simultaneously, I heard your heartbeat.

 

The last day we saw each other, I pressed my face against your dead chest, desperate to hear something, anything. I begged the Goddess to save you, and despite praying my entire existence, it was then that I met true devotion. 

 

Bump. 

 

A century later, you live. 

 

Link, it is... calmer than you think. It is only I, the void, and my memories. 

 

Memories. 

 

Do you remember me? Nevermind— don’t answer. 

 

I know you can’t listen to me. I know because the words bounce back to me. Even if they made their way to Hyrule, they would disperse in the wild. Some would land in a petal, echo in a cave, or fall like droplets of rain. The wind carries my voice, and if you listen carefully, you might hear the syllables of your name in the breeze.

 

Though, if my heartbeat reached you, it would be enough. Just as yours is enough. But the beats of my heart mingle with the beats of darkness. I don’t know if they’re mine anymore. 

 

Link, that fateful day, when I followed a trail of ashes to the castle, it was my love for Hyrule— my love for you, what gave me strength.

The fine line between courage and recklessness can only be overstepped by love, I know that now.

 

I can’t wait to see you again. 




Notes:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little fic. Do let me know if you would like to see more! 💕❤️