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2023-05-07
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2025-05-07
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Chase the Wind

Summary:

A collection of Revalink ficlets originally posted on my Tumblr, that were too small to serve as standalones.

1 - Modern-day AU: Revali meets a mysterious merchant at the market.
2 - AoC: The Princess' bodyguard may be good with a sword, but his archery skills are severely lacking.
3 - Botw: Link knows what it is to fly before the King ever gives him the paraglider.
4 - Botw: The knight has gone missing from the royal house’s celebrations.

Notes:

All of these stories were originally posted on my Tumblr, and while I don't consider them complete enough to stand on their own, I like them too much to let them disappear in the bowels of the internet. None of these relate to each other unless otherwise noted.

Chapter 1: Modern-day AU: A mysterious merchant

Notes:

Written for the following prompt: 'Modern revalink where rito and the other races of hyrule aren't human.'

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The marketplace is one of those that claims to be open to everyone, but is really made for Hylians only. A Gerudo might still find her way around, but the stalls are built too low for the Zora, and the lanes are too narrow for any Rito to spread their wings. Truly, Revali would never have come here on his own. But Molli had begged for it, and he finds it increasingly hard to deny her anything.

He still isn’t entirely sure what her goal is. She walks through the market with single-minded purpose, ignoring all the stalls she passes by, even the ones Revali thinks she should enjoy. He trails after her, feeling wrong-footed between the many Hylians and disliking every second of it.

“Molli,” he calls out when she passes yet another stall he expected her to stop at, one with plenty of books and comics that should have been right up her alley. Molli doesn’t stop, but at least she slows enough for him to catch up to her.

“What’s wrong?” she chirps, eyes darting from side to side as she rapidly scans the stalls.

“What are you looking for?”

“A merchant!” she announces, as if there aren’t dozens of stalls and even more merchants in this square. Fortunately, she continues quickly. “He always knows what you need!”

That sounds entirely implausible to Revali. “And where did you hear that?” 

“Dalia told me at school,” Molli says, still stepping forward with determined strides. “He gave her some really nice berry seeds, and she never even told him she wanted a garden!”

Ah, a children’s playground story. No wonder Molli is obsessed. Revali follows behind her, amused enough to even brave the marketplace. Best case scenario, she’ll have an interesting story to tell her parents. Worst case, it’s a scam artist and Revali will have fun eviscerating them.

Molli only finds the stall she’s searching for at the very end of the marketplace, where the stalls have already thinned out and Revali finally feels like he can spread his wings again. Calling it a stall is probably giving it too much credit: it’s little more than a blanket spread on the ground with an eclectic collection of goods on it. Most of the people here try to stick to a general theme, but just from a quick glance, Revali has already spotted everything from a toaster to a dustbin to what appears to be a cuckoo clock.

The stall owner is another Hylian, pretty unremarkable as far as they go, with blond hair and a slight stature. He’s nodding earnestly as one of his customers gestures widely, clearly in the middle of expositing exactly what he needs. The owner frowns for a moment, before nodding and shifting item after item in the mess he’s made of his stall. He finally emerges again with… an empty glass jar?

It must serve its purpose, because the man looks ecstatic, thanking the stall owner profusely before skipping off. No payment has exchanged hands, Revali notices. He wonders what exactly this man is playing at.

Before he can warn her, Molli has already run up to the Hylian.

“Hello!” she says. Revali quickly positions himself behind her to provide some intimidation, in case the man thinks he can scam a child. The Hylian’s eyes quickly glide over him before settling on Molli.

“Hello,” he says. His voice is far softer than Revali had expected, not at all suited to a salesman hawking his wares. “Can I help you?”

Molli nods vigorously, but refuses to follow up when the man waits for more. Revali would chastise her for it, or at least say he did if her parents ask, but he’s grudgingly interested as well. If this man can really tell what a person needs just by looking at them, then figuring out what Molli is looking for should be a cinch.

“Ah, I see,” the man says with a faint smile. His blue eyes shine. “Did you hear the story?”

Molli nods. The man crouches, rummaging again until he reappears with an old leather-bound book, the front of it emblazoned with a white bird. Molli’s eyes go wide when she accepts the book, flipping through it. It’s completely empty.

“For your stories,” says the man, smiling. Molli chirps out an ecstatic thank you, but Revali’s eyes narrow.

“How much?”

The man waves a hand. “No charge. I have too many things anyway.”

Revali doesn’t buy it — nothing is ever free. But Molli is already running off again, happily clutching her new notebook, and so Revali has no choice but to follow, leaving the weird Hylian behind.

Notes:

Originally posted on Tumblr here!

Chapter 2: AoC: Archery lessons

Notes:

This ficlet takes place in a universe that's slightly to the left of AoC, where Revali doesn't resent Link nearly as much since Link hasn't yet drawn the Master Sword and therefore isn't the Hero of Legend.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

There is something uniquely frustrating about almost having to admit defeat to a Hylian soldier. Doubly so when the only thing that saved him were his trusty bomb arrows, set to go off in the soldier's face. Were it not for the Princess’ interference, Revali would have won, of course —

But oh, it was a far closer fight than Revali likes to think about.

The soldier — Link, Revali learns from the Princess’ frustrated bids for independence — has recently been made part of the royal entourage after excelling at killing a bunch of low-level pests. Admittedly, he wields a sword with unusual proficiency, for him to even give Revali a challenge, let alone come close to defeating him.

That is why it is especially galling to come across him during his first visit at Hyrule Castle and be forced to witness him treating a bow like a fledgling would.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, clicking his beak when Link nearly lets his arrow go wild. How does he purport to call himself an archer if he cannot even focus through the most basic of interruptions? Revali learned archery with someone always chattering at his head, until he wanted to scream at her to shut up, but at the end of the day, he could have a bomb go off next to him and still keep sight of his target.

Link lowers his bow, thankfully letting the string go slack when he does so. Revali has seen what passes for archery with the Hylians. He wouldn’t be surprised if they mishandled their bows as well.

“Champion Revali,” he says, with a wary kind of deference that rubs Revali entirely the wrong way. The soldier who fought him hadn’t held anything back. Now that he’s been assigned as the Princess’ personal guard, he keeps trying to pull away from the Champions. Mipha is clearly hurt by it, and that only serves to increase Revali’s annoyance.

“What are you doing?” he asks again. Link looks at the ground, clearly unwilling to answer. Revali tsks, taking his own Great Eagle Bow from his shoulder and holding out an expectant wing. Link stares at it for an uncomprehending moment, before some sense finally penetrates into his brain and he hands him an arrow.

Of course Revali carries his own arrows, but why should he waste a perfectly good Rito arrow on a Hylian?

He aims demonstratively, making a much bigger show out of it than he needs to. It’s not even a moving target — he could hit those without looking when he was still a fledgling himself. But hitting the target is only secondary. Perhaps this way, Link and any Hylians fortunate enough to be nearby can finally see what proper form looks like.

And Link is looking, he realizes with a pulse of warm gratification. He’s tracking the movement of Revali’s wings and shoulders as he takes aim at the target, and follows the arrow when Revali loosens the string.

It hits dead center. There’s nowhere else it could have gone.

Link nods, blue eyes very serious, and he takes up his own bow again. The way he mimics Revali’s stance may be a little clumsy, but it’s miles better than it used to be.

“Don’t keep your shoulders so high,” Revali says, and Link actually listens. He’s not used to the new stance, so his arrow doesn’t quite hit the center, but with enough practice…

Although, something has been bothering him since that time when they fought near Rito Village.

Link is undoubtedly a far more accomplished swordsman than he is an archer, but Revali remembers him trying to shield with his sword arm, even though his actual shield was carried solidly on his left. It was always just the barest of moments before he corrected, but a weakness nonetheless, and one he’d made use of more than once during the fight.

Like all the Hylian soldiers, he wields his sword with his right hand, and he shoots his bow with it too. But the Hylian army has the unfortunate habit of prioritizing uniformity over skill. Unless Revali is sorely mistaken, Link is much like him and would be a much better fighter if he were allowed to use his left hand instead.

There’s nothing he can do about it. Not right now, at least, with the Calamity looming ahead of him. Link will need all his skills to even survive the oncoming battle, and letting him use the hand that comes naturally to him would require significant retraining. For a Hylian, he’s competent enough with a bow. It will have to do.

But after the Calamity has been slain by their combined might, then maybe… Revali has been training fledglings since he was little more than one himself and desperate to contribute something to the village that had taken him in. It is hardly a challenge anymore, not when the Rito thrive in the air.

A Hylian, on the other hand… Earthbound as they are, that will be a challenge to mould into a proper archer. And it’s a challenge Revali looks forward to.

But for now, he can at least give a proper example. So he holds out his hand again, and the corner of Link’s mouth quirks when he hands over a new arrow.

Notes:

Originally posted on Tumblr here!

Chapter 3: BoTW: Muscle memory

Notes:

Written for Revalink Week 2023, in honor of that one time I started a new BoTW save, got to the cryonis shrine and promptly yeeted myself off the mountain and died because I forgot I didn't have the paraglider yet.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The hill had felt perfect, though for what exactly, Link couldn’t tell. It is meager consolation: when no reassuring tug jolts his shoulders to break the plummeting sensation of freefall, he realizes just how badly his memory has failed him again.

Ah.

Later, when he’s gingerly prodding at his bruised ribs and the scrapes his tumble earned him, he gives it some thought. What exactly made him think jumping was safe?

Really, the answer is obvious.

The paraglider in the old man’s hands had filled Link with a profound sense of wrongness. It was ill-suited to the man’s size, the delicate frame looking like it should break under the weight. More than that, Link had taken one look at it and known he’d wanted it, more fiercely than anything he’d wanted in his half day of memories. But even that fierce longing doesn’t explain his sudden recklessness. It doesn’t explain the vivid sense-memory he gets whenever he looks at the nearby hills and the far-off mountains, the tug of desire to make it to the highest peaks only to feel the rush of descent again.

It must have been his, then. He wants it back.

The thought of having it in his possession again spurs him on. He fights his way past the monsters with skills only half-remembered and climbs to the top of the icy mountains to reach the last of the shrines the old man indicated. When he emerges again, the power of a new rune in the Sheikah Slate, the old man appears with the paraglider and more empty promises in hand. He thinks of taking it by force, and only barely quells the urge. Then he thinks of jumping down the mountain again, and somehow that urge is even harder to fight.

When he finally has it in hand again, after a trek to the very top of the temple, he finds that he cannot even enjoy it. The revelations of the old man — of the king — weigh him down. The castle in the distance is no longer an abstract danger he planned to avoid, but the embodiment of his own failure. How is he supposed to succeed on his own where an entire army failed in the past?

At least the feeling of flight, of the wind rushing past his face, is enough to distract from it for a moment until inevitably, his feet touch the ground outside the Great Plateau. That night, when he has reached the first stable on his journey and has learned not to flinch whenever people’s voices get too loud, he takes out the paraglider again. The wood has been treated by an expert hand; the cloth has been made so well that neither rain nor heat affect it. Still, it is not new: time has had its effect on the paraglider as well. He begs needle and thread off another traveler and finds that his hands remember the action of darning.

He does not remember the symbol woven into the cloth.

“Looks like something from the Rito,” says the innkeeper. “There’s this Rito bard who comes around every so often. If you stick around, I’m sure you can catch him.”

Bird people, something in Link’s deeply buried memories says. It would make sense, for them to be the ones to create a way for a Hylian to fly. Up on the Great Plateau, he had seen the menacing shape of a giant bird circling the western reaches of Hyrule. His feet wish to take him there. But he has to continue his journey towards Kakariko Village. So he does not wait for the elusive Rito bard, but instead takes the path further north from the stable.

Lady Impa’s words at least give him an excuse to seek out the Rito. They also give him a name.

Champion Revali of the Rito. The words stir little within him, but they sound as if they should. He fought side by side with the Champions. So was the Rito Champion a friend of his, someone who would give him the tools to take to the sky?

It takes days and days before he can even find out. The plains of Central Hyrule are treacherous and leave him no chance to use the paraglider; the eternal thunderstorm above the Thundra Plateau makes flight a hazard. Even the mountains of Tabantha, so inviting from afar, are buffeted by harsh winds that would crush him against the cliffside given the chance.

But at least he gets there in the end.

Rito Village would be idyllic if it weren’t menaced by the Divine Beast Link spotted all the way back on the Great Plateau. No memory comes to him as he enters the village either, but that’s okay, because near the top of the spiralling staircase, he finally finds what he was looking for, in chipped paint on wood: the same symbol woven into the cloth of his paraglider.

Revali’s Landing.

This must be it, he thinks, elation making him light-headed. And then his memories finally catch up to him and crush his delusions to dust.

If Champion Revali was an ally of his, it was only in the most technical of senses. The Champion saw no worth within him, felt no desire to take to the sky and fight side by side with him. The trail he’s been chasing for so long is a dead end. Champion Revali could never have been the one to give him the paraglider.

He sits down heavily, hands clutching the cloth of the paraglider. Whoever gave it to him must have seen some worth within him regardless. But Rito history is short and fleeting. Their name, and who they were to Link, are long lost to time. All he has of them is this one gift and the freedom it has afforded him.

Notes:

Originally posted on tumblr here!

Chapter 4: BotW: Breakdown

Notes:

Written for Revalink week 2025, for the prompt Breakdown.

Warnings for this chapter: panic attack, mentioned discrimination towards people with disabilities.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The party is too loud.

Revali is used to noise. Rito Village has little use for walls, and so the chirping of fledglings and the chattering of their parents is a constant background melody to his daily going-ons, but this party is loud in a way that only a formal event can be loud: music that takes up too much space and shouted whispers that echo between the confining walls. Revali hates every second of it. Were it not for the status bestowed upon him, he never would have deigned to be present at an event organised by the Hyrulean King. As it stands, he had only planned to put in a courtesy appearance before absconding towards the open air, but in the hour since he arrived, he has been accosted by noble after noble, all eager to congratulate him on rising so high from such humble beginnings.

He bears it with ill grace and doesn’t bother to conceal his annoyance; as if he doesn’t soar higher than any of them. He isn’t Mipha or Urbosa, raised from birth to navigate these situations with ease. He isn’t even Daruk, whose good-natured words are enough to disarm even the sharpest of barbs. And he certainly isn’t anything like the little knight, who must be thriving on the attention even while remaining aloof as ever—

Revali pauses, thought process brought to a screeching halt. Where is their chosen knight? He’d been there when the party had started, following the Princess’ footsteps like the loyal little knight he is. He’d seemed content to stand in Daruk’s shadow for a while, and Mipha had of course tried to involve him in the conversation, but Revali hasn’t seen him since the main formalities have ended.

He’s not with the Princess. There’s something to be said there about dereliction of duty, but Urbosa is standing at her shoulder, so she’s probably safer than she could ever be in the knight’s presence. He’s not with Mipha or Daruk either. It only takes Revali a minute to ascertain that, no, he’s not even in the room anymore.

How peculiar.

Some of the more oblivious Hylian nobles make an attempt at conversation when he leaves the room, but Revali doesn’t even grace them with a reply. Certainly they will be offended. He’ll be long back in Rito Village by the time they manage to complain about it. 

The halls of the castle are no better than the dining room was. Too tall and wide by any sensible Hylian measure, yet far too small for a Rito. He abandons them quickly, choosing instead to scour the outside walkways of the castle.

In truth, he hadn’t expected to find Hyrule’s chosen knight. He should have been at the party, or perhaps at one of the more private gatherings of Hyrule’s elite. So spotting him tucked away next to one the castle’s many waterfalls comes as something of a surprise. He’s clearly trying not to draw attention and failing miserably. However small he tries to make himself, Revali would still be able to pick him out of any crowd.

For a moment, Revali hovers, but curiosity gets the better of him. He lands a little ways away, making no attempt to conceal his presence. From the way Link keeps himself — entirely still, not a single move — he’d already noticed Revali’s presence as well. 

“Shouldn’t you be among your admirers?” he asks. This does get a flinch. The knight draws further in on himself, eyes squarely fixed on a point in the distance. Several seconds tick by without a response and Revali scoffs. Of course he wouldn’t warrant a reaction. 

“—too loud.”

 Revali almost doesn’t hear him over the sound of the waterfall. It’s a rarity to even hear him speak, let alone to have his thoughts so closely mirror Revali’s own. That gives him pause. Why is he here, hidden away from the crowds that came out specifically to celebrate them? 

“… Are you okay?” he asks. The question almost pains him, but the way Link curls in on himself shows he made the right call. He may not be an expert on Hylian body language, but some things are universal. 

Link lifts a hand, fingers spread, then abruptly clenches it into a fist and drops it to his side. He finally looks at Revali, eyes haunted, as if he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t have. 

And Revali, with sickening clarity, understands.

However aborted the sign may have been, he recognises it. He’s seen Mipha use it whenever he saw her talk to her fellow Zora about the imminent Calamity. Trouble. 

Mipha’s used the underwater sign of the Zora with Link before; Revali’d assumed it was some sort of in-joke coming from their shared childhood. The last time he’d seen them do it, Link had been chastised for it later and Revali had taken some pleasure in seeing him be treated like an ordinary mortal. 

Seeing Link now, terrified at being seen making a single sign, makes his stomach burn uncomfortably at the memory of his own glee.

The Hylian army has always valued conformity above anything else. How do they treat a soldier unable to speak? 

He’s waited too long to respond: Link’s breath comes out faster and faster, eyes still fixed on Revali but entirely unseeing. 

“It’s fine,” Revali says quickly. He tries to follow it up with one of the other signs he’s seen Mipha make: thumb and index finger held together to form a circle — it’s okay, it’s okay. But his pinions don’t lend themselves to the Zora’s language; he can only muster a clumsy curling of his wings that Link clearly doesn’t recognise for what he wants it to be. 

“Why should I care about your Hylian rules?” he tries again, but Link no longer even hears him. 

… There’s one other. One that he saw Mipha make when the Princess stumbled under the burdens placed upon her. One that even he might be able to make.

“Breathe,” he snaps, spreading his wings and moving them from his beak and back. The first time, Link’s eyes remain unseeing, but when Revali repeats the motion, they abruptly snap back into focus. 

“Breathe,” he mouths, hands shakily coming up to mimic the sign. Revali drops his wings after another few iterations, when he’s sure Link can continue the gesture on his own. 

It feels like several minutes before he finally drops his hands, uncurling in the same motion. His breathing has normalised again and when he meets Revali’s eyes, it finally looks like he’s seeing him.

“Thank you,” he says, shifting to make room on the little outcropping. Revali takes him up on the invitation after only a moment’s pause.

“Don’t mention it,” he says. He still wants to ask why Link is here, but he doesn’t want to send the knight into another spiral.

Surprisingly, Link speaks of his own accord: “I don’t like them. Too many people.” 

“With the pompous twits that pass for nobles in your court, who would?” Revali scoffs. Link, instead of being offended, lets out a small huff of laughter. 

“Only them,” he says. Revali guffaws, and Link actually grins in return. It barely even resembles a proper grin, but it’s the most expression Revali’s ever seen on him. A rush of pride runs through him. He did that. 

“Clearly you require better company.” 

Link’s grin turns into a smile, small and only barely aimed at Revali, but it turns his pride into something heated, settling deep in his chest. 

“I’ll stay here, then.” 

Notes:

Originally posted here on Tumblr.

The signs here are based on scuba sign. Does Hylian Sign Language exist in this universe? Yes, absolutely. Was Link ever allowed to learn it? No-ope.