Work Text:
The two of you have always been close.
(“We’re friends,” you tell the others. “Best friends.”)
You grew up together. Learned to fly together. Shared inside jokes and laughed together.
(“Just friends,” but no one believes you.)
You see her every day. Even the ones that take you to opposite sides of town or opposite sides of the sky still begin and end with her.
(The sunrise in her smile. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”)
She’s always been there. Looking out for you. Believing in you.
(“There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”)
She’s the axis you turn on. The gravity that fixes you in place.
(Raging wind. She screams.)
You can’t imagine life without her.
(You reach for her, urge your Loftwing faster and faster but she falls and falls and falls—)
You don’t realize this until she’s gone.
(The last thing you see is the terror in her eyes, her mouth forming around a scream that the whirlwind tears away. You can’t shake the feeling that she was calling for you.)
Zelda is gone and you are empty. Not empty like a drained bottle or an opened chest; empty like a cavern – echoing and endless and so dark you can’t move for fear of falling.
(You should have fallen with her. You should have followed.)
Zelda is gone but she is not lost. The spirit in the sword tells you this. You are tasked by the Goddess Hylia to go after her. To rescue her.
(You never needed permission. Only a path.)
You take the sword. You take the armor. You take the square of white cloth she gave you, blue thread stitched into the shape of wings by her own two hands. Wings meant to catch you if you fall.
(If only she had kept it. If only you had given her a pair of wings in return.)
Your Loftwing hovers on the edge of the unknown. You gaze into the abyss and it gazes back, the wind whispering legends into your ear. It whispers danger. It whispers caution. It whispers fear, but you stopped fearing for yourself the moment she was taken from you. The only thing you fear now is the howling emptiness in your chest that grows with every passing second.
(The only thing you fear now is losing her for good.)
You close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Swear to yourself and to the Goddess that you will save her, no matter the cost.
(The terror in her eyes will not be the last memory you have of her.)