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You couldn’t have asked for better weather for a day of exploring. Zora's Domain was beautiful year-round, but this night had been especially lovely. The breeze was soft and gentle and the stars were out. It wasn’t too cold, but it wasn’t hot out either.
You'd come to visit the domain with Link, your husband of just over a year. The original goal was to visit with Prince Sidon again, but he'd unfortunately been pulled away on important business. You understood and had been filling the time by exploring Zora's Domain together. Link knew a lot of the secret little places, like the Bank of Wishes or all of the murals of Zora history.
There was something in your heart that pulled you to the history of the Zora, but you hadn’t put your finger on it yet. You weren’t sure if it was just their long and fascinating past or their present-day culture, but something made you constantly want to know more.
As night fell, Link was walking with you up the trail of a mountain, arm in arm and telling you wild stories of his adventures. You clung onto every word he said, lost in the way he would weave his tales. The moonlight gave his face a very subtle glow and made his blue eyes a little more vibrant.
Currently, he was going on about the time he'd beat a lynel atop the very mountain you were climbing. You remembered him returning to your home in Hateno barely clinging to life. You were able to save him, but the haunting memory still gave you chills to date. "You have no idea how satisfying it was to kill that thing. You know I'm not out for blood, but that lynel deserved it," Link said with a shake of his head.
"They don’t come back, right?" you asked as you continued to ascend the mountain. You weren’t looking forward to meeting the creature behind those wounds Link once had. You had never seen a lynel and you could probably go the rest of your life without seeing one quite happily.
"No, ever since Ganon was sealed away, there hasn’t been a single lynel spotted on Ploymus Mountain. Perfect for an evening of hunting some fireflies," he replied and gently bumped your hip. You relaxed slightly, but were still glad you were carrying your bow and Link had his prized sword on him. "Besides, there's a huge rock we can jump off of into the East Reservoir Lake when we're done catching fireflies."
"Sounds like fun," you agreed with a smile. You reached the top of the mountain and looked around. The ground had leveled out into a small plateau. There were little ponds scattered about between large boulders and trees. Some colorful flora decorated the hillside, where a small trail led up to the top of the mountain. "Wait, are you suggesting we jump from that? Way up there?" you asked him and pointed to the top of the trail. Link gave you a wide grin in reply.
"Of course. That's Shatterback Point. I promise it'll be fun." His tone sounded far too excited. Even from where you were standing, you could tell that the jump was high, probably a few hundred feet.
"That looks extremely dangerous."
"That’s what makes it fun, silly," Link scoffed. You put your hands on your hips and glared at him. You would definitely need to come up with a way to get out of it before you finished hunting fireflies. "Now come on. Those fireflies aren’t going to catch themselves," he sang and took your hand.
"Bet I can catch more than you," you said with a grin. "Loser has to jump off of Shatterback Point first." That way you can jump first and I can walk down, you thought to yourself.
"You're on."
The two of you snuck around the plateau and captured multiple sunset fireflies into jars you'd brought. The plan was to release them all at once and watch the sky glow as they flew off. You noticed a glowing light disappear behind a rock across the area. You looked over your shoulder at Link, who was busy looking elsewhere. You smirked and snuck quietly over, jar in hand and ready to catch your next firefly.
You rounded the large boulder and found the firefly flying low to the ground. You quickly swiped the jar and captured the bug, adding one more to your collection. "Gotcha," you muttered under your breath and put the lid onto the jar. You were definitely going to win. Link didn’t have nearly as many fireflies as you did.
You turned to head back to the rest of the plateau, but stopped when you heard a twig break to your right. Your head snapped to the direction of the noise and your blood ran cold. You were suddenly frozen in place and you slowly brought a hand to your mouth to cover your breathing.
The creature was less than fifteen feet from you. It had four legs and two arms. A dark red mane surrounded its face and two large horns stuck out from its head. Its claws glimmered in the moonlight and in that moment you knew exactly what you were looking at.
You did your best not to move, but you were shaking with fear. If that thing saw you, you were dead. It was armed with numerous shock arrows and a very heavy sword, one that you were certain would knock the wind out of you and send you flying instantly. It was slowly walking away from you, and if you kept quiet, you could probably sneak off unscathed.
"Hey, I caught another one!" Link's voice rang out. You tried not to groan too much when the lynel stopped and turned around. When its gaze landed on you pressed against a rock, you felt your heart stop. The beast was going to maul you to death and you couldn’t get your body to move.
The lynel drew his sword and let out a loud roar. You shrieked, unable to move. Your bow was pressed against your back and the rock and you found yourself cornered against the huge boulder. Your eyes darted to your left. You saw a small opening between the boulder and the lynel and you knew it was your only chance of survival.
Once you found your footing, you dove to the left, but the beast was faster. The lynel took a swipe at you, ripping open your tunic on your right side and giving you three large dashes across your side. You let out a cry of pain and collapsed onto the ground. You clasped a hand over the wound and your hand came back covered in red. Shit shit shit-
You rolled onto your back as the lynel raised his sword. You brought your arms up and tried to block the blow, but it never came. You could hear the clashing of metal on metal and opened your eyes. Like the hero he was, Link had placed himself between you and the beast, Master Sword drawn against the lynel's blade. He looked at you over his shoulder and jerked his head to the side. "Run," he demanded.
You stumbled to your feet and tried to run, but quickly staggered back to the ground. You dropped the jar and it shattered against your palm, leaving your dominant hand now useless thanks to the small shards of glass stuck in it. You tried to draw your bow towards the beast, but it forced the glass deeper into your palm and ripped open your gashes further. You quickly returned it to your back and got back to your feet. There had to be another way to help Link.
Link was currently fighting the lynel to the best of his ability. His shield and bow had been left behind in Hateno, making defenseless close-range attacks his only option. You could see a few rips in his tunic, but from your vantage point there wasn’t a lot of blood to be seen. The thought made your side ache even more.
You looked around the plateau. There were several large trees in the area, certainly large enough to bruise the beast. You noticed a rusty axe sitting near one of the pine trees and ran as quickly as you could to it. You picked it up and swung it at the tree, instantly gasping in pain. "Link, bring it this way!"
"Are you crazy?" he called back to you. "You're hurt! Get away from here!" Link slashed his sword and gave the lynel a good gash in its side, but it wasn’t lethal enough. You sighed and picked up a rock nearby, throwing it at the monster. It howled and turned to you, its eyes filled with rage. Link looked at you with wide eyes.
You stood your ground when the lynel started to charge. You swung the axe at the perfect moment and knocked the tree down onto the back of the beast. It howled in pain as you watched it struggle to get out from under the tree. You dropped the axe as Link ran towards you, grabbing your hand and pulling you away from the scene.
He sheathed his sword as he ran with you up the trail to Shatterback Point. You got a sudden sinking feeling in your stomach. "Link, we can't-"
"We don’t have another choice," he interrupted. "Just hang on," he cautioned as you kept running towards the cliff. You saw him pull his glider from his back and looked straight ahead at the impending jump. He gripped your right hand firmly and jumped from the mountain. You tried not to be sick when you noticed how far the drop was.
Link deployed his glider with his right hand and hung onto you with his left. When the safety of the ground was gone beneath you, you dangled from Link's grip. But as you hung, the pain of the glass in your palm combined with the gashes being stretched and bleeding down your side was too much. You hissed in pain and grasped at your side. Link looked down with alarm. He could already feel your grip lightening. "Don’t let go, just hang on."
"Link, I can't," you groaned. You tried to reach your other hand up to grip him, but in doing so you swung the two of you enough to knock your balance off. Your hand slipped from Link and you were suddenly falling to the lake below. He called after you, releasing his glider the minute you let go.
You tried to curl into a ball to avoid bruising yourself on impact of the water. You were usually a talented swimmer, but you had a feeling you weren’t going to be able to swim very quickly with your wounded side. You closed your eyes when you saw the water come closer.
With a harsh and cold splash, you fell into the lake. You sank several feet down thanks to the height of your fall. You struggled to kick your way back to the surface, finding yourself lacking strength and leaning to exhaustion. Your head was quickly becoming lighter and the water was so comforting. Maybe if you just closed your eyes and fell asleep, it wouldn’t hurt as bad…
A loud noise echoed through your ears. You opened your eyes and Link was swimming down to you. He wrapped his arms around your upper body and kicked as quickly as he could to the surface. You broke the water's surface and gasped down air. The water now felt warm compared to the suddenly cold chill of the night. Link could feel the exhaustion in your bones as he held you. "Hey, come here," he instructed. He wrapped your legs around his hips. Link managed to tread water enough that your heads were above the surface. You let him carry you as you tried to catch your breath. “You’re okay. Everything is okay. I’ve got you.” You nodded against his shoulder as you felt your energy coming back very slowly. "I know you're hurt. How bad is it?"
"It’s not great. But I think I can swim to shore."
"Absolutely not," he harshly replied. He shifted you delicately until you were piggybacking him. "Hang on. It might take a little longer for me to get to shore with your dead weight," he teased, making you crack a smile. You hung onto him as he slowly swam to the dock nearby.
It felt like hours, but you could only imagine how long it felt for Link. He managed to get you up onto the dock and out of the water. You fell back against the cold crystal floor and shivered. Your soaked clothing made you even colder. Link pulled himself from the water and quickly scooped you up into his arms. He walked briskly down the dock and you curled into his hold. He wasn’t much warmer than you were, but it was better than nothing.
Link set you down inside an outdoor space and quickly hustled to one of the cabinets nearby. You looked around and noticed you were in an open-air cabin of sorts. It was a small circular room with columns instead of walls and a roof above your head. You were sitting on a stool and across from you was a soft bed. "Strip down to your underwear."
"You’re much more charming about that usually," you scoffed and shivered. "Where are we?"
"It used to be a guard post for Zora guards in charge of watching Vah Ruta, but it stopped being used after we defeated Ganon," he explained as he pulled supplies from a cabinet. He set them on the counter in front of you as you tugged off your sopping wet shirt. You winced in pain when you remembered the glass in your palm. "Do you need help?"
"Maybe a little," you replied after you managed to get your tunic off. You were left in a tight wrap that showed off your bleeding midriff. Link set his things down when he saw it. He kneeled beside you and got a closer look. You wiggled out of your boots while he ran his fingers delicately over your wound.
"I don’t think it's deep enough to need stitches. Can you hand me that rag from the counter and the red bottle beside it?" You looked curiously at the bottle, but handed it over anyway. He uncorked it with his teeth and spit the cork onto the floor; a problem for later, no doubt. He poured the liquid onto the rag. "This is not going to feel good," he warned you.
"What's in the bottle?"
"Well, some of the guards found their shifts less than interesting. They liked to make things more entertaining by drinking some hard liquor while on the job. Looks like they were kind enough to leave some behind for us," he said with an apologetic smile. He brushed the rag against your side and you sucked in a breath. "Sorry love. Here, give me your hand," Link said and extended his free hand to you. You wrapped your good hand around his and gave it a squeeze.
He gently brushed the rag against your wound and cleaned the blood away. It stung worse than anything you'd felt before. "Can you hold it?" he asked and gestured to the rag. You nodded and took the cloth from his hands. Link tugged off his tunic, pants and boots and tossed them aside with his sword. He had minor scrapes and bruises, but nothing that looked in need of treatment.
Now in just his underwear, he hooked his fingers on your belt and pants, but stopped short. "Okay if I take these off? It's so you don’t catch hypothermia sitting in wet clothes on a cold night," he explained. You nodded to your husband and he helped you stand up enough that he could peel the pants from your skin. He gathered the clothing and hung it on a railing to dry.
Link returned to your side and took the now pink rag from you. He got a good look at your wound now that it was clean and suddenly felt the guilt surge in his system. This was his fault. He let you get hurt under his watch. "Let me wrap a bandage around you to keep you from bleeding," he said and stood. You sat there in your underwear and watched your husband dig a cloth strip out of the box he'd pulled out. He gingerly wrapped the cloth around you and pulled tight. "Is that too tight?"
"No, it's okay." Link tied the bandage off and stood up.
"Are you hurt anywhere else? Let me see your hands," he ordered, taking your wrists in his calloused palms. His eyes widened and he sat down on the stool beside you when he noticed the glass. "Shit, sweetheart, why didn’t you say anything?"
You helplessly shrugged. You didn’t have an answer. Link took a pair of tweezers from the box and held your wrist roughly with your palm facing up. He let your hand rest in his lap while he started to pull the glass shards out of your palm. He was being a little rougher than usual. He didn’t say anything as he dug into your palm with the metal tool, pulling out shard by shard.
Link was focused on the glass in your palm, but his mind was elsewhere. Every piece he pulled from your delicate hand was another reminder that this was completely his fault.
I should’ve been more careful.
"Link."
I should’ve moved quicker.
"Link."
Why wasn’t I paying more attention? Why did I let my guard down?
"Link, stop!" you cried out in pain. He stopped and blinked down at your hand. His knuckles were almost white with how hard he was holding onto you. Your palm was irritated red. "You're hurting me," you admitted quietly, tears pricking the corner of your eyes. He swallowed hard and loosened his grip considerably. Carefully, he pulled the last shard of glass from your hand and set the tweezers down. He tilted your palm to make sure his work was done before wrapping another cloth around it. You retracted your hand from his lap quickly.
Link leaned forward and put his head into his hands. He gave a heavy sigh and rubbed his face. You watched him, noticing the way he shivered slightly. It didn’t look to be entirely from the cold. "Hey, I'm okay. I know what you're doing."
"I don’t know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do. You have that look on your face. You're blaming yourself," you said and reached your hand out to tip his jaw up. "Link, we talked about this. You can't blame yourself like this."
"But this was my fault. I should never have taken you up there. You're precious to me, my flower. I can't replace you if I break you. I'm the one who dropped you into the lake. You almost drowned," he retaliated. You took his hand and pulled him from the stool. You led him over to the bed and sat down, pulling him with you.
"Look at me. Link, you saved me. If you hadn’t been there, that lynel would’ve devoured me," you said and took his hands. "If I had to choose between a few cuts that might scar or death, I'd take the cuts any day," you reassured him. He bit his lip and nodded.
"I'm sorry that I couldn’t-" You quickly placed a finger on his lips.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, my hero," you said and placed a kiss on his cheek. "If anything, I'm the one who needs to apologize. I made you carry me across a huge lake," you joked, making him smile slightly. You felt a chill go through your body from the cold.
"Here, under the blankets," Link said with a nod to the bed. You didn’t hesitate and slipped under the covers with him. He wrapped an arm around you and snuggled into the warm of the heavy blankets. He kissed your forehead sweetly.
"Don’t you ever forget that I am always here," you said and blinked up at him. His lips curled into a soft smile. "I'm going to be here for you through it all, even when you're too hard on yourself." You brushed your fingers along the edge of his jaw. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to your fingers.
"I don’t deserve you. I've got everything I've ever wanted in this life in you," he admitted and placed a kiss on your nose. "You scared me today."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"I'm glad you're okay," Link said and hugged you closer.
"Don’t think about it anymore. Just tell me that you love me and hold me tighter," you told him and buried your face into his neck. He chuckled and squished you closer.
"Tighter like this?"
"Link, wait-"
"Oh, you mean like this?" he teased and squeezed you tighter.
"I can't breathe," you said, a laugh barely escaping your throat.
"Oh, tighter like this," Link joked with a grin and wrapped his arms around you as tightly as he could. You wheezed for air, but smiled at your affectionate husband anyway. When he loosened his grip, you gasped down air. He chuckled and wound his hand into your hair, holding you in place while he kissed you lovingly. You found yourself lost in his hold on you. "I love you," he whispered against your lips.
"I love you too." Link was about to settle into bed with you, but stopped when he remembered something. He climbed out of bed and started digging through his bag.
"Link?" you called to him. He stood up and turned around. In his hands was a jar full of fireflies.
"Yours might have escaped, but mine didn’t," he said and climbed back into bed with you. Your eyes widened as you looked at the glowing jar. He had at least a dozen of them in there. You sat up in bed and shimmied closer to him, wrapping your arms around your knees. He handed the jar to you. "Want to do the honors?"
"Really?" you hesitated. Link nodded eagerly. You took the jar and popped the lid off. The glowing lights fled from the jar and spread out across the enclosed space. You set the jar down and lied down on your back. Link joined you and took your hand after pulling the blankets up. The blue crystal ceiling looked like the sky, with a dozen dazzling fireflies zooming around like shooting stars. They darted around until they dispersed out into the true night sky. You sighed and rolled onto your good side, letting your head rest on Link's chest. He curled an arm around you and kissed your forehead, settling in for a good night's rest. "Link?"
"Hmmm?"
"In the morning, can we make a trip to Tarrey Town and get breakfast? It would definitely help me heal faster." You felt a chuckle rumble through his chest as he tangled a hand into your hair.
"Of course, my love. Anything for you."