Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a Korok. Not a regular, two-foot-tall Korok, but a tiny one, barely eight inches tall, soft and green with a leaf that still curled on the edges. Its jingle was high and it called out in sounds that were not words, confirming what Link suspected: it was a baby, a sprout.

And it was being tossed in the air between a pair of gleeful bokoblins.

Link had agreed that he wouldn't engage any enemies on his own; that he would just scout out the valley and report back to the camp. But the Korok sprout was in immediate danger, and he had to help it. Yet there were so many bokos in this clearing. Maybe he'd have a better chance of saving it if he ran back for reinforcements first.

A third boko was trying to join in the game of toss. As Link watched, trying to decide what to do, the sprout yelped in fear as the new boko grabbed it, jumped around a rock, and ran toward the campfire.

It was going to burn it.

There was no more time to debate. Link dashed into the clearing, drawing his sword as he ran. With a shout, he slashed the boko just moments before it would have reached the fire. The sprout flew into the air with a squeal as the boko fell, and Link ran after it, dropping his sword and tumbling to the ground as he caught the little forest child in his arms. Keeping it clutched to his chest, he rolled and grabbed the sword just as another boko reached for it; then he slashed at the creature's ankles. It stumbled back, giving him a moment to stand up and continue his attack as more bokos charged at him with spears and clubs.

He slashed this way and that, barely dodging their weapons. He felt clumsy since he could not use his left arm for counterbalance. The Korok sprout clung to his tunic and whimpered as he held it tight, trying to defend against the attackers who had been robbed of their free entertainment.

They were surrounding him now, giving him no options of where to go. He swung wildly and took another one down, but the rest were closing in. A spear tip pierced the back of his calf, and he yelled and stumbled forward. Spinning around to slash at the attacker, he didn't see the red barrel next to him until it was too late.

The blast deafened him and flung him through the air. His sword flew out of his hand and he wrapped his body around the Korok sprout. He felt himself smash into a rock face before sliding to the ground, ears ringing, unsure of where he was or what was happening around him.

Trying to move, he cried out as a jolt of searing pain shot through him. Something was seriously wrong with his shoulder. He lay on the ground hunched into a ball, gasping as his consciousness faded.

~~~~~~~~

"Link! Link, is that you?"

What was that sound? A bokoblin? No, it sounded like words, and bokos didn't speak in words.

"Link! Oh my goodness, are you all right?"

It sounded like Zelda. Link opened his eyes, and the princess's concerned face slowly faded into view, backed by a craggy valley that was littered with bokoblin remains.

Oh, that's right. He had just fought them in this clearing. He had been defending a Korok sprout . . .

. . . which was no longer in his arms.

"Where's the Ko—GYAAHK!" he gasped, sitting up suddenly and then doubling over as another bolt of agony sliced through his shoulder.

"Link, oh thank the Goddesses, you’re alive. Don't get up. What happened? Tell me where you're hurt."

"The Korok sprout—it was just here—where did it go?" Looking at his empty hands, Link noticed a bit of Korok sap—not the clear kind that formed their tears, but the amber kind that formed their blood.

It was wounded. And alone. He had to find it. He tried to look around, but even turning his head made him gasp in pain.

"Link. Stop trying to move, and tell me what happened."

"There were—bokoblins," he grunted, hissing through his teeth as he spoke, "and they'd caught a—little Korok sprout. They were—playing with it, and they were about to—throw it in the fire. There—wasn't any time."

"And you blew yourself up to stop them?"

"I—didn't see—the bomb barrel. Hit it by mistake."

"I see. Well at least you took out the rest of the bokos; that's good. I just wish I could let you out of my sight without worrying you'll risk your life rescuing somebody."

"Zelda—if you could see the sprout—it's so little and helpless—"

"I know. You did a good thing. But now we've got to get you fixed up. Where are you hurt? Can you walk?"

"My right shoulder. But Zelda, the sprout—I don't know where it went. It's alone—and it's wounded. I—have to go find it."

"Oh no you don't. You need to get back to camp and get healed up. We can send someone else after the Korok."

Link now noticed a handful of the ragtag team of soldiers waiting behind Zelda. Apparently they had come to help find him when he didn't return from his little scouting mission.

"But I don't think—anyone else here—knows how to track Koroks."

"Link. You're in no state to go anywhere. We can only do what we can do. Now let me look at that shoulder."

Even with his tunic on, the shoulder didn't look right. Zelda touched it as gently as she possibly could, and Link gave a sharp wheeze that made her cringe. Carefully she lifted the collar of his tunic and peered inside. The shoulder was deep purple and visibly out of place.

"It's dislocated."

Zelda was no doctor, but she would do her best. Sadly, trained medical professionals were few and far between nowadays. Most villages had folk healers, but the Calamity had severely impeded access to medical research and proper training. Thankfully, Zelda had been salvaging medical books from the castle library and storing their contents in the Sheikah Slate. She now skimmed through them, looking for relevant instructions.

"Let's see . . . dislocation . . . shoulder . . . anterior . . . hmm . . . should only be attempted by a trained medical professional . . . as if we had one of those . . . hmm . . . all right. Link, I can try to put your shoulder back into place. It will—hurt, but it should feel a lot better afterward. All right?"

Link let out a weak sigh. "All right. Let's get it done."

Zelda carefully positioned her hands as she'd seen in the diagram, one on his shoulder and the other on his back. Link frowned and set his teeth, and he didn't see Zelda do the same as she took a deep breath, her face sweating. Causing him any more pain was the last thing she wanted to do, but it had to be done.

"All right, ready?"

"Mm-hmm."

"One, two, three!"

Link tried to be quiet, but it was useless. He jerked and let out an involuntary scream as she shoved the joint back into place. Zelda felt the ball slide into the socket with a pop that sent a shiver down her spine. She panted as she released the shoulder and moved her hand to Link's quaking leg, hoping neither of them would have to do that ever again.

Link was embarrassed that he had screamed. Not only that, but tears had formed in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks before he could stop them. And right in front of these recruits for the new makeshift Army of Hyrule. Surely they would think him a baby.

"There, the worst is over now," Zelda breathed, rubbing his knee in an attempt to calm him. "How does it feel?"

Drawing a quavering breath, Link rotated his arm. It still hurt, badly, but it wasn't the searing agony it had been before. "A lot better. Thank you."

"Good. Don't keep moving it. The joint is still damaged, so we need to immobilize it for a few weeks so it can heal."

"All right, I'll keep it still, but I need to go find the Korok . . ."

"No, Link!" exclaimed the exasperated Zelda. "You need to rest and heal, princess's orders! Stenn, Millik, will you two stay behind and try to find the Korok? Now, Link, do you think you can walk back to the camp?"

Link pushed himself up with his left arm and got to his feet. He stumbled slightly as he took a step, and Zelda noticed the blood on the back of his trouser leg.

"Oh Link. Your leg, too?"

"Oh, that’s right. A boko speared it."

"Do you have any more injuries I don't know about?"

"Uh, I think my left arm's a little burned. Just a little. It’ll be all right."

Zelda sighed. She quickly inspected the burn and was relieved that it wasn’t severe; then she crouched down and tied her handkerchief around the stab wound. She stood up next to him on his left. "Here, hold onto me and try to keep the weight off your leg. We'll finish fixing you up back at the camp."

Link supported himself on her shoulder and limped forward.

"You know," said the biggest soldier, Derken, as they inched along, "I dislocated my shoulder once. It's nothing to laugh at. Think I hollered even louder than you when my brother popped it back in."

Link smiled weakly, but genuinely. "Thanks."

Chapter Text

They weren’t far from the expedition camp, but by the time they got back, the handkerchief was soaked through with blood. Zelda guided Link into the tent and helped him down onto his bedroll. The other soldiers stared, but she let the ones who had accompanied her do the explaining. She set to work taking off Link's boots and rolling up his trouser leg.

"Oh dear, that's a bit deep. It will need a cleaning and some stitches."

Link made a vague noise of resignation.

"Brudge!" called Zelda as she rummaged in her knapsack for her sewing kit. "Bring me that Tabantha whiskey."

"I was gonna drink that . . . Never mind," the soldier corrected himself at the death glare from the princess. "Here you go."

"'Scuse me, sir." Hannel, a young soldier still in his teens, approached Link and offered him a knotted-up scarf. "Would you like to bite on this? It's what my mother had me do when I had to get sewn up when I was twelve." He gestured to a jagged scar on his arm.

Link smiled at the boy. He still felt a bit embarrassed, but these people were so kind. "Thank you." He accepted the scarf and bit down on the knot.

Zelda cleaned her hands and then soaked a rag in the whiskey. She wiped the surrounding area of Link's leg clean, and then she carefully poured whiskey into the wound, pressing it with a clean part of the rag.

Link tensed and grunted, and Zelda cringed. She had never wanted to be a nurse, but with her head for research and the lack of a medical community, it had fallen into her lap. She longed for the moment when she could stop hurting him.

Unfortunately that moment was not here yet. Resolutely she pulled a needle out of her sewing kit and cleaned it with the whiskey.

Link pulled the scarf out of his mouth. "Can I have some of that?"

Brudge opened his mouth and then closed it again.

"Yes, absolutely," said Zelda. She handed him the flask and he took a swig.

Zelda set in sewing while Link lay as still as he could manage. It stung, but having just gone through the shoulder-resetting, he found the stitches didn't hurt as much as he expected. Or maybe it was just the whiskey sinking in. He started to feel drowsy, and he wondered if Stenn and Millik had found the Korok sprout yet.

"There," said Zelda with a shaky sigh. "All done. I’ll just bandage it up now. Don't fall asleep quite yet, I still need to splint your shoulder and clean your arm."

Since the burn wasn’t deep, Zelda just rinsed it clean with water and wrapped another bandage around it. She then cut some more rags into strips and fashioned a sling that tied around Link’s chest and left shoulder, holding his right arm in place to keep the right shoulder from moving. As she was tying the sling on, Stenn and Millik came back into the tent.

"Did you find it?" Link asked.

"Couldn't find it," said Millik. "We looked all over the clearing, behind rocks and bushes, everything. We tried to see if there were tracks leading anywhere, but we couldn't find any."

"Did you see any rocks out of place?"

"There were lots of rocks. We looked around them. Turned some over, too."

"Did you see any yellow flowers?"

"Hyrule herb all over the place. Why?"

"Any flurries of leaves? Any circles or pinwheels or ticking sounds?"

Millik frowned. "Your Highness, do you think he hurt his head too?"

"No, he's all right. But he needs to stop worrying and rest. Link, I'm sure the Korok's family will find it. Here, have another mouthful of this." She put the flask to his lips, and he took it and drank. "Now lie back down and rest. You've done all you can do."

Maybe she was right. His pain was fading to a dull ache. His eyelids felt heavy. He curled up and let sleep take him.

~~~~~~~~

"I'll be just down the road, Link. Put your shoes on if you go play outside. And stay near the house; don't go into the woods."

"Yes, Papa," Link lied. He was going to go hunt mushrooms. If he came back with enough mushrooms for a whole dinner, surely Papa would realize he was big enough to go in the woods alone.

As soon as his father was gone, Link set out. There seemed to be mushrooms behind every tree today! He ran from one to the next, stuffing his bag until it was full to overflowing. Papa would be so proud of him!

He turned to go home, but the path led in a different direction that he remembered. Trying to follow it, he soon realized there was no path at all, and nothing was familiar. He dropped his bag and ran, but no matter where he went, the forest got darker and deeper.

"Papa!" he cried out. No one answered, but he heard a flapping of wings, and a keese nipped at him. He flailed his arms at the creature, but several more appeared, swarming him. "Papa! Help!"

The swarm of keese turned into a giant bokoblin. It laughed and thrust its spear at him, running him clear through in the shoulder, the leg, and the arm. Link looked down at his wounds and saw the amber sap flowing out of them. He squeaked and jingled, and tried to turn into a flower, but he couldn't figure out how. His little green legs were so short he couldn't run away. The bokoblin picked him up, cackled, and ran toward the fire . . .

Link woke up in a cold sweat. Moonlight filtered into the tent. Zelda was asleep in her bedroll, and beyond her, so were all the soldiers.

He hurt all over, but he sat up and slid on his boots. He had to find that Korok sprout.

Chapter Text

The moon was nearly full as Link limped back to the clearing, a torch in his left hand. He relit the campfire and surveyed the blast mark and the wreckage of the bokoblins. It was really quite surprising that he had survived. The Goddesses must have blessed him. He whispered a prayer that they would bless his search as well.

He noticed his sword lying among the mess, forgotten in the day’s events. He went to pick it up and realized that, having only one free hand, he couldn’t do so without setting down his torch against a rock. He also didn’t have his scabbard; and anyway, it wouldn’t have fit over the sling. Link tucked the bare blade into his belt. He’d always been taught not to do that, and it felt a little rebellious.

Picking up the torch again, he set to work looking for any signs of the Korok. Tracking them was tricky because you had to look for both natural and magical trails. When they walked normally, they could leave prints or smashed grass just like a human or animal. But when they hid themselves, they only left trails of things like flowers or out-of-place objects. Fully-grown Koroks also hovered on leaf propellors, but Link doubted the sprout knew how to do that yet.

He inspected the ground where he had landed after hitting the rock face. There were too many of Zelda’s footprints for him to see a trail, but he looked for other signs. A bit of human blood was soaked into the dirt, presumably from his leg. He held the torch close to the ground, and not far away he from the blood he found a tiny drop of amber sap.

He scanned slowly outward, and saw another amber drop not far away. Continuing in that direction, he was now far enough from the injury scene that he should have been able to see the sprout’s footprints, if there were any. But the dirt looked untouched and there was no more sap, so he surveyed the area carefully, hoping to spot a flower, a leaf flurry, or a rock with a hole in it. Nothing caught his eye.

He stepped forward carefully and moved on to search the grassy area beyond the clearing. There seemed to be nothing but normal rocks and plants. After a minute, however, he noticed a familiar shape.

For a second he thought he had found the Korok sprout. What he saw was certainly the same shape and size. But as he shined the light on it, he realized it was just a sort of crude statue, a Korok-shaped lump of stone. He reached out to pick it up, and it disappeared.

Well, he had never seen that before, but it was something. He held the torch up and looked around again, and several yards away he suddenly thought he saw . . . a bright yellow Korok? He approached it and realized that no, it was just a yellow flower, but a flower with a distinctly Korok-shaped blossom. When he got close to it, it too disappeared.

Suddenly it hit him. Korok magic might be an innate ability, but it still had to be learned, just like a child learns to walk. This little sprout was still learning how to hide properly. It could disguise its trail, but only with markers that looked like itself.

For some reason that made Link chuckle. He scanned the area for anything else Korok-shaped. Nothing caught his eye, and he started to worry that the sprout might also move in other strange ways he wouldn’t be able to recognize. But as he shifted the torch around, he noticed another drop of sap at the start of a line of indentations in the grass.

All right, maybe it couldn’t hide for very long yet. It was alternating between magical travel and walking. This might make things difficult. The Korok-shaped markers would be an easy clue, at least, but he also dreaded the prospect of repeatedly thinking he’d found the sprout and being disappointed.

No matter. He would find it eventually; he had to. Mental images of it cowering and bleeding, or worse, being recaptured and tormented, turned his stomach and kept him moving forward. He limped on, following the varied signs the Korok had left, ignoring the pain in his own body as the moon sank low and twilight began to peek over the horizon.

~~~~~~~~

The soldiers were awakened by the sound of Zelda yelling Link’s name. It came from all directions as she marched around the camp, first sounding questioning, then angry, then frightened. Finally she planted herself in the middle of the camp and screamed in a voice of desperation, “LINK, YOU FOOL, WHERE ARE YOU??!!”

Hannel emerged from the tent, rubbing his eyes and looking concerned. He was followed by Millik, who had wild bedhead that she was attempting to tie up into a bun.

“He left?”

“He left.” Zelda punctuated the word as if her voice were a fist. “He’s going to kill himself trying to be everyone’s hero.” She burst into tears. Hannel rushed to her awkwardly, unsure what to do but unwilling to let her be alone, and Millik followed.

Sounds of stirring and mumbling came from the tent. Derken emerged next, looking sympathetic.

“I’ll put a quick soup on the fire,” he said. “We don’t want to send the search party out on empty stomachs.”

~~~~~~~~

Link had crossed a hill and descended into another valley, following a trail that consisted mostly of footprints and lightly-trodden grass, with occasional gaps marked by Korok-shaped rocks, flowers, or piles of leaves. It has been slow going, but not as slow as he feared. The challenge took his mind off his throbbing injuries, and he expected any minute now to come across the sprout itself rather than another replica.

But here, the trail ended at a marshy creek. The mud on the bank definitely showed footprints, but he saw none on the other side, nor did he see any more magical markers. Could Koroks swim, anyway? They seemed like they would just float.

That gave him an idea. He looked around for a small stick, and set it in the water at the spot where the footprints ended. It meandered downstream, eddying about in the slow-moving current. Link followed it from the bank until it came to rest in a stand of reeds.

If the Korok was swimming or propelling itself at all, it would probably have reached the far bank somewhere between those two points. He would cross the creek here and inspect that section of the bank more closely.

The mud threatened to pull his boots off, but he managed to keep them on. Splashing out into the water, he found it deeper than he’d expected, and he sank to the tops of his knees. Oh well, at least it wasn’t too cold. As he squelched out on the other side and started back upstream, he spotted the little footprints resuming through some reeds and climbing up the bank. He smiled, still anxious for the Korok but hopeful that he would find it soon.

But the sun rose higher, and still the trail continued through hills and valleys. Link wondered how the sprout had managed to move so quickly, but then he remembered it had had several hours’ lead time on him. Still, it must have been very determined to keep going, for some reason. Or maybe it was just afraid to stop. The poor child.

He finished all the water in his waterskin, and by afternoon the sun was warm. But he didn’t want to lose the trail, so he decided to keep on tracking and just keep an ear out for any flowing water as he went. A couple more hours went by, and the dryness in his mouth got pushed onto the list of physical ailments to ignore, but finally he heard a trickling sound coming from a nearby stand of rocks.

He stabbed his sword into the ground so as to find the sprout’s trail again, and then eagerly made his way down to the rocks. Among them he found a small spring, trickling into a little pool that fed into a rivulet through the dirt. He crouched down, scooping water into his mouth and down his chin, and after many mouthfuls, refilled his waterskin.

As he stood up, he winced, and noticed his leg seemed to hurt a bit more than before. That’s odd, he thought. Oh well, he had probably just flexed it wrong and tugged at the stitches. He made his way back to his sword and continued tracking.

~~~~~~~~

Zelda followed behind Stenn and Millik, who were tracking Link’s footprints. She was accompanied by Derken and Hannel, and a few more soldiers behind them. Tracking was an infuriatingly slow business, but at least Link was making no attempt to hide his trail, so that helped. But when they came to the creek and saw that his footprints led straight through it, Zelda felt her anxiety spiking. Did Link have no sense? He couldn’t go tromping through marshes in his current state!

She took a deep breath, reminding herself that she had stuffed her knapsack with as many makeshift medical supplies as she could scrounge up. If necessary, she would use them all on Link.

Chapter Text

The sun was setting, and Link’s head hurt. He wasn’t sure why. At first he had chalked it up to dehydration, but after finding another stream and drinking plenty of water, the headache wouldn’t go away. Furthermore, the pain in his leg was getting harder and harder to ignore. He limped on, straining to follow the Korok’s trail with his aching vision, trying not to think about how every step burned like fire.

As he clambered down a slope into a shallow gorge, he stumbled, catching himself against an outcropping and panting. Just a little break. Please, just a little break. He’d been worried that if he stopped to rest, the Korok would get further ahead of him. But maybe resting up a bit would clear his head and help him move faster.

He sat down and leaned back against the rock, sweat dripping down his neck. Why did his leg hurt so badly if Zelda had already stitched it up? He touched the spot, grimaced, and wondered why he had done that. Well, as long as he he was resting, he might as well take a look at it.

He slid off his boot, rolled up his muddy trouser leg, and unwound the damp bandage. The stitches still held, but yellow pus oozed from between them. The skin around the area was a puffy, angry red, and it felt hot.

Well, that couldn’t be good. He opened his waterskin and poured a bit of water on the wound. It stung, but the coolness felt nice. He drank some more water and took some deep breaths, determined to go on in just a minute.

He had almost nodded off, very unintentionally, when he thought he heard a high jingling sound. He looked around and listened; yes, the sound was still coming from somewhere to his left. He couldn’t see the whole gorge from here, so he stood woozily and hurried toward the sound, leaving his boot and bandage behind.

As he rounded another outcropping, he peered through the twilight and saw the source of the familiar sound. There was the Korok sprout, on top of a large boulder, jingling and rocking back and forth. Link ran toward it in relief, about to climb up, and suddenly stopped short.

It wasn’t a boulder. It was a hinox.

Link froze and then stepped backward slowly. The monster was lying on its back, asleep and snoring intermittently. The softly-jingling Korok lay on its chest, tied up and barely able to move, a living pendant on its necklace.

Link wanted to yell in rage at the cruelty, but this was no time for that. Trying to breathe slowly, he slid the sword out of his belt. Even getting it out was awkward with only his left hand, and by the time he held it, he felt very unsure of himself. He was trained at fighting with either hand, but that didn’t mean both were equally good, and he was used to having his other hand either in a shield or free for balance. Furthermore, he couldn’t even reach any of the hinox’s vital points from here. He usually preferred to fight these creatures with arrows, but he hadn’t brought his bow.

He decided a stealth approach would be the best option. If he could reach the necklace and cut it off, perhaps he could sneak the Korok away without a fight. Carefully he lay down his sword, slipped off his other boot, pulled out his pocket knife, and tiptoed up to the creature, looking for an access to the crude cord.

There, at the back of the hinox’s neck, he could reach it. He realized he would need both hands for this, so he loosened the sling and freed his right forearm. Then he gripped the cord gently and gave it a slow, measured pull, just enough to get it out of contact with the folds of flesh. The creature gave a snort and Link froze, sure he was done for, but then it shifted slightly and resumed its slow snoring. Link felt pleased he had maintained his grip on the necklace, and he carefully started sawing at it with his knife.

It was slow going, and the hinox snorted two more times, making Link’s heart skip. But it didn’t awaken, and finally he sawed through the last fiber of the cord and held the two ends of the severed necklace.

Now what? Should he just pull the Korok down? There didn’t seem to be any other option besides climbing up to get it, which is what he had been trying to avoid in the first place. He released one end of the necklace and gripped the other tightly, and gave it a slow, gentle tug.

The Korok slid to one side and began to roll off the monster’s chest. Link leaned toward the hinox’s bulky neck and caught the entangled forest child. He breathed a soft sigh of relief and held it close, covering its mouth so it wouldn’t squeak and stroking it comfortingly.

Something shifted next to him. He turned his head, and found his face only inches from the pupil of a gigantic yellow eye.

Everything seemed to happen at once. Link turned and ran, the severed necklace trailing behind the sprout in his arms, and a giant grey hand smacked the ground right in front of him. He dodged and ran the other way, zigzagging back and forth as the hinox pounded the earth over and over, trying to smash him like a fly. Where was his sword? Could he even use his sword? There, a few yards away. He dashed toward it . . .

Tired of slapping the ground in vain, the hinox changed tactics, successfully. A kick from its giant foot sent Link sprawling in the dust. He gasped for breath, his lungs half-emptied, writhing at the impact to his injured shoulder. He scrambled to his feet, barely keeping his balance but holding onto the whimpering sprout. Had to run, had to get away, had to go somewhere . . .

There! He spotted a low cave, more of an overhang really, in the bottom of the cliff at the edge of the gorge. Could he fit in it? No time to wonder. Link dashed toward it and threw himself to the ground, sliding into the narrow space just before the hinox landed another blow. He lay on his side and pressed himself against the far wall, clutching the Korok tightly.

The hinox’s stubby hands clawed at the opening. Then it flattened its hand and shoved its huge fingers into the crevice, groping around. One of its fingertips poked Link in the stomach, and he knew he was done for. He hoped the monster would kill him quickly, eating his head first and not his limbs.

Tears filled his eyes as he yanked the cords off the little Korok. It probably couldn’t understand him, but he spoke anyway. “Keep hiding until it goes away. It’ll forget about you if it’s distracted eating me. As soon as it’s gone, run and find your family. Go live. Oh, Goddesses, please protect this child.”

He closed his eyes and waited to be dragged to his demise. But nothing happened. He still heard the scrabbly sound of the hinox’s hand, and felt its fingertip brushing him, but it did not grab him. He opened his eyes and saw its knuckles jammed against the opening, too big to go any further.

He let his breath out slowly. The hinox continued to grope around for a minute, but soon retracted its hand. Link held still. For a while it seemed to just sit there, waiting to see if he would come out. But finally it grew either bored or tired, and he heard it thump away.

He breathed another sigh of relief, and then felt a wooden paw on his face. Standing next to him in the darkness, the little Korok was patting his nose. It jingled questioningly, and he raised his hand weakly and stroked it.

“It’s gonna be all right,” he whispered. “Let’s wait ‘til we hear it snoring. Then we’ll get out of here and get you home.”

After several minutes he heard the desired sound. He inched himself out of the crevice, being reminded as he stood up of how much his head hurt. As he squinted in the fading light, he saw the hinox asleep in the narrow part of the gorge where he had left his boots and sword. There was no going back for them; he wasn’t interested in another stealth mission.

The little Korok came jingling out and touched his ankle. Link picked it up, realizing he hadn’t had a chance yet to examine its wounds. He held it up and looked it over in the moonlight. It had an amber gash across its side, but the sap seemed dry now. Link had no idea how to treat Korok wounds, so he figured the best he could do would just be to handle it gently and get it home. If he could get it to the camp, someone could take it back to the last shrine they’d passed and warp it to the Korok Forest.

He set it down briefly and re-tightened his sling. Holding the tiny creature would be a good task for his immobilized hand, leaving his left hand free for movement. He picked the Korok up again, shushing it softly, and started up the gorge in the opposite direction of the hinox.

In his panic earlier, he hadn’t noticed the sharp rocks under his bare feet. Now, he realized they were cut and bruised, and were probably going to become more so in this terrain. Oh well, they still didn’t hurt as much as his leg, head, and shoulder. He stepped as softly as he could and pressed on, looking for a path out of the gorge.

~~~~~~~~

Zelda had something of a panic attack when they found that Link’s trail led right into a hinox’s lair. As the soldiers convened to form a plan of attack, she sat down in the dirt, hyperventilating and holding her head. Millik came over and sat next to her, rubbing her shoulders and telling her to take deep breaths.

“What if he’s been eaten? He can’t fight in his condition. How would he get past it?” Her mind started producing images of Link gripped upside-down in a giant hand, screaming as pieces of him were bitten off by dull yellow teeth.

“He’s pretty good at stealth, you know,” said Millik. “You’re not giving him enough credit.” Secretly, she had her doubts too, but she wasn’t going to show them to the princess.

It was decided that Zelda and half the team would approach the sleeping monster so she could use stasis on it, and the other half would stay at a distance and shoot arrows. There were enough of them and their strategy was sound enough that Zelda didn’t really worry about whether they could defeat it. She just worried about what it might have already done.

After a few tense minutes, they made short work of the monster. As soon as it fell, Zelda ran to examine it, looking for any traces of human blood. It was hard to tell in the torchlight, but she didn’t think she saw any. However, when she found the hinox’s stash behind a rock, she was horrified to see a familiar pair of boots, a soggy bandage, and a sword. She sank to the ground. That was it; Link was gone.

“Hey!” shouted Stenn from the far side of the gorge. “I found barefoot prints over here!”

~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, the gorge seemed to be getting deeper as Link went. As the moon rose he stumbled dizzily along, still looking for a walkable path up the increasingly tall cliffs. He had tried climbing them, but he’d found his throbbing leg too shaky to be relied on, and his left arm not of much use without his right.

The little Korok had fallen asleep in his hand, its breathing body a comfort against his chest.

The ground started to feel warm under his feet. His whole body had been flashing hot and cold, so at first he didn’t notice, but as he went on he became certain there was a heat there that was not his own.

Somewhere up ahead, he noticed an orange light. Was it a traveler’s campfire? Or a monster’s? As he rounded a bend he saw it was neither; rather, it was a glowing crack in the darkening ground. He was getting into volcanic land.

Should he turn around and go back? He didn’t know where else he would go. There had been no way out except the one blocked by the hinox. If he continued on he might still find a path up. He kept moving forward.

The heat in the air slowly grew, compounding the heat in his body. The cliffs around him seemed to sway. His stomach churned, and he vomited on the ground. Still he pressed on.

The orange cracks in the ground grew more frequent. His feet began to alternate between throbbing and going numb. Were they burning? He couldn’t tell. His leg sure felt like it was. His head did too. He took another step forward, and then another, and then the ground seemed to fall up toward his face before he lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

The search party continued forward. Stenn and Millik kept losing the trail whenever the ground got hard and rocky, but they’d pick it up again in patches of dust and small pebbles. Zelda tried taking off her boot and stepping on the rocks; they were sharp and painful. How was Link managing this barefoot?

Even more concerning was the increasingly volcanic nature of the terrain in this canyon. She had seen land like this before near Death Mountain, and she was certain there would be active lava flows somewhere up ahead. It seemed to be the worst possible path Link could have taken. The orange cracks glowed in the early twilight, and Zelda touched the hot ground experimentally. It didn’t burn her instantly, but she could only hold her hand there a few seconds before it started to hurt.

Suddenly Hannel gave a shout. Zelda looked up to where he was pointing, and saw a filthy, crumpled figure lying on the ground. She dashed ahead of the others.

“Link? Link!” She knelt beside him, heedless of her burning knees. Turing him over, she cradled his head in her hand and felt his neck for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

“He’s alive,” she quavered. “Thank the Goddesses, he’s alive.”

~~~~~~~~

Morning sunlight spilled across Link’s face as voices muttered around him. His head still ached, and the world seemed to spin, but the sounds were peaceful. Where was he? Was he dead? He lifted a hand to his forehead, and found a cool, damp cloth covering his eyes.

One voice sounded extra familiar. “Is that Zelda?” he mumbled.

The voice made a relieved sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and soft hand touched his cheek. “Yes, Link, it’s me. Keep resting. It’s all right now; we’re taking care of you.”

“What happened?” He couldn’t seem to remember; everything felt hazy.

“You walked through a creek and got your leg infected.” There was chiding in her tone, but not anger. “Then you gave your boots to a hinox, for some reason, and got yourself trapped barefoot in a volcanic canyon.”

Oh. That sounded vaguely familiar. A small anxiety niggled at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t place what it was. Maybe something from a dream. “Where are we?”

“At the top of the canyon. We found a way up, and Derken carried you on his back. It’s not so volcanic up here.”

“Oh.” Link felt the ground with his hand; he seemed to be lying on dry grass. “Thanks, Derken.”

“Happy to help,” said the soldier’s voice from somewhere nearby.

“Here, Link, do you think you can drink this?” She lifted his head and held a bottle to his lips. “It’s an elixir to help fight the infection and bring down the fever. I’ve already applied it behind your ears, but if you can drink it that’s much better.”

He sipped the grainy liquid. It wasn’t good, but it seemed to stay down. Zelda followed it with cool water, which seemed like the most delicious thing Link had ever tasted.

“Good, good,” she said. “Keep resting. But I am going to have to take care of your leg right away.”

“Are you gonna cut it off?” he mumbled.

“No, thank the Goddesses. If you’d gone on another day or two, that might have been the case. But I will have to open it back up and excise some of the infected tissue. I’ll sew you up again, but you’re going to have a nasty scar.”

It took a second for the words to sink in. Link tensed and bit his lip, almost too exhausted to feel dread, but not quite.

“The good news,” she continued, “ is that Hannel here spotted a big bush of numbing herb on our way here. I’m steeping some into a poultice right now. So, you won’t have to feel it.”

Zelda saw the tension flow back out of him as he let out his breath in a half sob. Her heart broke imagining the amount of pain he’d been in. She decided numbing herb was her favorite plant in all of Hyrule.

As soon as the poultice was cool, she applied it to the infection site. After a few minutes Link reported that he couldn’t feel touch or pressure there at all, so she set to work removing the stitches and cutting the putrid area out of the wound. It was definitely the most repulsive procedure she’d ever had to do, but compared to the times she’d had to cause him pain, it was almost pleasant.

She noticed Hannel standing at a short distance. He seemed a bit uncomfortable but was watching in morbid fascination. Link pushed the cloth off his eyes and saw him too.

“Thanks for finding that herb. You’re a lifesaver.”

Hannel started, tearing his eyes from the procedure and giving Link a weak smile. “No problem. I just happened to see it. It’s not a very common plant.”

After cutting out everything that appeared to be festering, Zelda disinfected the wound and the surrounding area. She pulled out her needle and cleaned it too, and then glanced up at the young soldier, remembering the scarf.

“Hannel?”

“Your Highness?”

“Would you like to learn how to sew up a wound?”

Hannel started again, and his eyes went wide. “Me? Um . . .”

“It’s all right, you don’t have to. Only if you’d like to.”

“Um, I don’t know, maybe? Um . . . Yeah. Actually I would.”

He sat beside her and she started showing him what she’d learned. Link relaxed and felt the pain in his head subside a little. Despite knowing there was a gaping hole in his leg, it was so nice that for now it didn’t hurt at all. And it was nice to know he’d inadvertently provided a chance for the boy to learn a good skill. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep to the sound of Zelda’s gentle instructions.

~~~~~~~~

He woke in a panic. The Korok sprout! Where was it? How could he have forgotten? He rolled onto his side and looked around. Maybe the others had brought it with them?

The sun was just overhead, filtering through the canopy of a tree. Zelda and the soldiers were nearby, next to a cooking fire, chopping up some foraged plants and bird meat for a soup.

“Zelda!” He sat up. “Where’s the Korok sprout?”

Zelda sighed. “I don’t know, Link. Probably with its family. Koroks do travel all over Hyrule, you know.”

“No, you don’t understand! I found it! The hinox had captured it and was wearing it as a necklace. I cut the necklace and got it away. It was with me; it should have been with me when you found me . . .”

She took in his words. “So that’s why you left your boots and sword behind.”

Link scrambled to his feet and started unsteadily toward the canyon. “It’s hurt, it’s alone, it’s scared! I have to go find it—”

“Link!” Zelda grabbed him by the uninjured shoulder. The anger that had been suspended by relief that he was alive rushed back. “Why don’t you ever listen when I tell you to rest?! Why do you have to make everything your responsibility?!” Tears welled in her eyes as she yelled at him. “I clean your wound, and you dunk it in mud! I splint your shoulder, and you go challenging monsters! Don’t you care about anything I do for you?! Don’t you realize I’m trying to keep you alive?! You’re the only family I’ve got!” She sank to the ground.

Link stared at her, too startled to respond.

“I’ve thought you were dead three times in the past two days,” she sobbed. “I was so sure you were dead when we found you on the lava rock. You know you’ve already died in my arms once. Please don’t put me through that again.”

“Zelda, I’m—I’m so sorry.”

All this time he’d been so worried for the little Korok, he hadn’t realized how Zelda was feeling the same way about him. Probably much more so, actually. Caring for others was the way he went through life; he hadn’t realized that neglecting others’ care for him could itself be uncaring. He couldn’t sacrifice himself without forcing a sacrifice on her too.

“I was wrong. I should’ve thought about how you’d feel.”

“And you should value your own life,” she added. “It’s a gift, you know. Especially in your case.”

He sat down next to her, processing. Her words were true. He wasn’t sure how to live by them, but he would try to figure it out.

But also, the Korok still needed help. It occurred to him that if he had paused longer to rest, the search party could have caught up to him and helped him out. Of course, he hadn’t known that at the time, but he should have guessed they’d come for him. In fact, if he had taken the time to think and explain a little more, he could have asked them to come with him in the first place.

“Zelda, you’re right,” he said. “My—life matters, and I’ll try to take better care of it.” He took a deep breath, unsure how she’d respond to what he was about to say. “And, the Korok’s life also matters. So, I’m going to do what I should have done at the beginning.

“Zelda, I need to find that Korok. I can’t do it alone. Will you help me?”

Zelda stared at the ground through bleary eyes. She sniffed, and took a few deep breaths. “You shouldn’t walk far on that leg. How will you get there?”

Derken approached. “Your Highness, I’m sorry to eavesdrop, but . . . I can help with that.”

~~~~~~~~

Link again felt embarrassingly babyish as they strapped him onto Derken’s back like a child. The size difference between them was enough that he might as well have been one. But none of the soldiers laughed, and Link felt grateful. Maybe it was because they lacked most of the military training experience, but the new Army of Hyrule was so much more gracious than he remembered the old one being.

The team climbed back down the cliff into the canyon. Letting his feet dangle freely as Derken climbed was a strange experience, sort of nerve-racking and relaxing at the same time. He was a steady man and Link knew he would not fall, but having no control while on the edge of a cliff was not something that happened to him regularly.

His delirious memories of the canyon were muddled. Seeing it in the daylight and with a clearer head, he was amazed that he had thought it a good idea to come this far. The black rock was splintered all over with deep cracks, some of which belched out puffs of gas. The air was hot and dusty and smelled of sulfur.

It was also no place for a Korok, at least not one that couldn’t hover. No plants grew in the scarred earth. He hoped against hope that the sprout had managed to get away to somewhere survivable.

“Where to?” asked Zelda as they reached the bottom. “You guide us.”

“Where’s the spot where you found me? I don’t remember.”

“It was over here.” The group walked a few yards and she gestured to a spot.

“All right,” said Millik. “What are we looking for?”

“The tracks would be like little ovals, about this big and this far apart,” Link gestured. Stenn and Millik started examining the ground. “But we should also look out for magical markers.”

“Markers?”

Link explained about how Koroks hid and what their magic looked like. The two trackers listened with interest. When he got to the part about the sprout making replicas of itself, Millik squinted and gave an incredulous half-smile. “Well if we had known all this when we were looking in the first place, we might have found it then!”

Once again, Link had failed to recognize that he could tell others what was needed instead of doing everything himself. “Sorry about that.”

Stenn and Millik continued looking for prints, and the rest of the team looked around for anything Korok-shaped. Link couldn’t see quite as well from his vantage point on Derken’s back, but he tried to keep an eye out too.

“Hey, is this one?” called another one of the soldiers. “Oh—wait—it disappeared!”

“If it disappeared, that’s it!” called Link. “Where did you see it?”

“Over here, in front of this crevice!”

The team began to gather around the dark crack behind an outcropping in the wall.

“Could you put me down?” asked Link.

“Link, you’ve still got no shoes on,” Zelda sighed.

“Just for a minute.”

“Here.” Hannel spread his scarf on the ground in front of the crevice. “Step on this.”

Derken untied the straps and let Link slide down onto the scarf. He knelt in front of the crevice and peered in.

A little shape lay on the ground inside the small space. Link reached in and pulled it out, and froze.

It was the Korok sprout. Its body was no longer a soft green, but a rough, dry yellow. Its leaf was limp and had gone brown on the edges. It made no sound or movement, and its big lopsided eyes stared unseeingly.

The sprout was dead.

Chapter Text

Link couldn’t react. He knelt there with the creature in his hand, not speaking, not moving.

Zelda had never seen a Korok so small. All this time, she had been thinking of it as nothing more than a sidetrack to Link’s safety. Now, seeing the dried-out forest child, it suddenly hit her how horrific of a loss this was. Her stomach knotted. An infant, separated from its family, lost in an unsurvivable landscape, dying scared and alone.

And Link’s face. She saw in him the horror she had imagined every time she’d thought he had died these past two days. This was a pain worse than an infected wound, worse than a dislocated shoulder. And she felt responsible for it.

“Link. I’m so, so sorry.” She knelt beside him, a lump forming in her throat. “This is my fault. I should have listened to you; I should have realized it was in real danger. I should have gone with you to find it, or given you time to train the trackers. I should have—realized it matters when you’re worried about someone, too.”

Still Link didn’t move. Zelda looked at him, wondering if he had heard her words. Finally, his shoulders started shaking. He drew the little lifeless body to his chest and bent forward, his head on his knees, sobbing silently.

Zelda began to sob as well. She wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but felt unworthy to comfort him. After a minute, Derken crouched down and put a hand on Link instead. Millik followed his lead, resting her hand on Zelda, and Hannel put one hand on each of them. Soon the whole team had gathered into a huddle of mourning, some of them standing in silence, others weeping.

After a long time, Link spoke. “No, Zelda, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t gone off on my own, if I’d just asked for help—we could have saved it.”

Zelda finally put her hand on his shoulder. “We were both wrong,” she said. “But I’m the Princess of Hyrule, and the Koroks are a Hyrule protectorate. It was my responsibility more than yours. I’ll—take the body to the Korok Forest and tell them what happened.”

Link stood up, still cradling the dead sprout to his chest. “All right. But I’m not leaving it until it gets there.”

~~~~~~~~

Link rested his head against Derken’s big shoulder. He didn’t care anymore if he looked babyish; it was the farthest thing from his mind. In fact, his mind felt empty of thoughts altogether. He continued to clutch the dead sprout, staring into space as they climbed.

Derken felt warm tears soaking into his tunic. It really was reminiscent of carrying a toddler, he thought. But he said nothing. He knew well enough that every adult had a child inside that needed to come out sometimes.

As the team packed up the supplies at the top of the canyon, a light rain started to fall. No one complained about it. It seemed appropriate, like the sky knew they were mourning and had decided to join them. They trudged back mostly in silence as the rain grew heavier. Reaching the camp just after nightfall, they piled into the tent, soaked to the bone.

Neither Link nor Zelda said anything. She dug in the supply chest and handed him some dry bandages, then headed to her bedroll. The rest of the team separated as they went to their own spots, sharing the story with the other soldiers in somber whispers.

Link still couldn’t let the little forest child go, but he also couldn’t bear to look anymore at its lifeless face. Somehow he had ended up with Hannel’s scarf. He wrapped the sprout up in it and set it next to his bedroll, then put on some dry clothes, changed his bandages, and went to sleep.

~~~~~~~~

Something awakened him in the night. A sound, perhaps, but he couldn’t tell if it had been reality or a dream. He blinked and rolled over. The rain was still pattering down on the tent, making it hard to hear anything else.

But there it was again. A tiny, muffled sound, somewhere nearby. A . . . jingle?

The scarf was moving. Link quickly picked it up and unwrapped it. The little sprout yawned and blinked up at him.

“Zelda, wake up!”

“What is it?” Zelda mumbled as she sat up. Then she gasped, crawling over to where Link sat gaping at the jingling Korok in his hand. “It’s alive? But how?”

The sprout squirmed as if wanting to be put down. Link set it on its feet, still awed and in disbelief. It toddled over to the opening of the tent, stepped out into the rain, and plopped itself down in a puddle.

Link and Zelda followed it, crouching just inside the tent and watching it stare up at the sky.

“The rain!” Zelda breathed. “They’re plant folk, after all! It wasn’t dead; it was dormant! It got dried out and needed water!”

They weren’t the only ones awake, now. Soldiers began to crowd around the tent opening, gasping, whispering, and grinning.

Link was biting his knuckle, tears running down his face. As they watched, the Korok sprout got up and began to scamper around, dancing and hopping in puddles. Zelda let her own tears fall and put an arm around Link, and he returned the gesture. They sat holding each other and sobbing, watching the happy sprout like parents whose own child had just been saved.

Link remembered his desperate prayer, and he laughed in amazement. Rain. The Goddesses had protected the child after all.

~~~~~~~~

There was much rejoicing in the Korok Forest when Zelda and Link warped the sprout home. Apparently Elgi, for that was his name, had just learned how to travel magically, and had strayed too far from his mother when her back was turned. Bokoblins on horseback had been seen in the area that day, and it was suspected that they had picked him up and taken him far away. The Koroks had been searching for him all over Hyrule.

Zelda suspended the wilderness expedition for now, giving the soldiers a couple weeks’ leave. She commanded Link to go home and rest, and he slept for most of two days. The third day found him bored out of his mind, awake and alert but not allowed to go anywhere yet according to her orders.

A knock at his door was a welcome relief to the monotony. He got up and opened it, and found the princess herself on the front step.

“Did you come to make sure I’m staying home?”

“I came to check up on you, you silly goose,” she laughed. “I need to make sure your wounds are healing.”

“I feel fine.”

“No you don’t. You feel better. Not fine. No one heals that fast. But we’ll get to that later. First, I have some visitors for you.”

The little sprout toddled in, accompanied by his mother.

“Elgi!” Link didn’t think he would ever fail to feel overjoyed at the sight of the child. He scooped him up and cuddled him, flopping him down onto the bed and tickling his belly as he giggled.

“He’s healed up so fast, and his green has come back nicely,” chirped his mother, hopping up and setting a bundle of mushrooms on the foot of the bed. “I’ll never be able to thank you two enough.”

The thanks felt undeserved, but they accepted it. “Thank the Goddesses,” Zelda added. “We certainly can’t make it rain.”

The princess chuckled, seeing how much delight Link took in the little creature. “You know, they say being with someone you love can speed healing.”

Had he heard a hint of longing in her voice? Link lay on his back and looked at the ceiling as Elgi crawled around on top of him.

“Please,” he said to Elgi’s mother as he sat back up, “bring him by whenever you want to. Once I’m walking a little more, I could cook some—whatever you Koroks like to eat? And if you ever need a day off, I’ll look after him for you. Just come around as often as you like.”

He turned to Zelda. “And I know you’re busy with your duties and all that, but . . . you should come by as often as you like, too.”