Chapter Text
It was a dark night. One of those nights where stars seem so much more than a galaxy away. When the moon took its night of rest, not a single beam of moonlight, or a single sparkle of a star to guide the way. A man was out in this darkness, a bundle of cream cloth in one arm and in the other, a lantern of blue flame he had snuck through Hateno in the dead of night to light from the research facilities burning furnace.
He had a long journey, you see. He couldn’t afford to lose his only light. Not when the darkness would only get worse from here.
He had known falling in love with a Great Fairy was a mistake, and as he rushed to the Gerudo canyon pass, he cursed under his breath. He didn’t even know that the Great Fairies were compatible with hylians in this way. He noticed a merchant with a cart at the start of the canyon, and practically begged him to be allowed to sit on the back of the cart and give his journey some more speed and urgency. The man almost said no, but looking at the pathetic stranger in the dark, he felt pity and gave in.
Halting at the canyon stable, the man took off in a sprint through the desert itself. Struggling to stay upright while sand shifted beneath his feet. It was cold, and as he felt the tips of his ears chill, he knew he must have looked a flush mess with both the chill and exertion.
Minutes later, Urbosa was trudging with tired feet towards the town entrance. It wasn’t every night a voe was heard bickering with the guards and demanding her presence. When she was awoken by it, she was almost tempted to get one of the other vai stirred by the drama to go out and pass the message that Urbosa really couldn’t be bothered.
Years on, she would be so glad that she didn’t.
But at the time, she wiped sleepy tears from her eyes, and approached the entryway, startled by how quickly the stranger ran up to her. He was short, shorter than most male or female hylians, but he otherwise had the build of a soldier.
It was then she noticed his occupied arms, and quicker than she could speak, he kissed the bundle of cloth, thrust said bundle into her own grasp, and took off into the night with the speed of a sand seal who had been penned for a week. The guards of the gate took after him, of course, yet they didn’t stand a chance against this man’s sheer willpower to escape .
Urbosa, on the other hand, noticed the bundle to be heavy, for cloth, as she stepped back into the town, and settled on one of the empty mats that houses the stalls in the daytime. In the twilight hour, they were abandoned, and a fine place to sit for a moment to avoid scraping skin against sandstone pavement.
Tugging at the bundle, she let out a soft gasp. In what was now a quiet night, it alerted the few woken vai around the plaza, and as Urbosa unraveled the small mystery, they gathered around.
A baby girl. A very small baby girl. Even by hylian standards.
It took no time for the group to realise the child’s frost-white fingers, toes, and ear tips. Urbosa stood slowly to keep the small thing she cradled in her arms asleep, but wasted no time rushing up to her bedroom. It didn’t take the other vai long to scatter and gather supplies before following her.
The small baby had superficial frostbite on all extremities, and the group sat up until morning with Urbosa tending to the tiny child. For starters, the poor little thing was damp for seemingly no reason. (If only they could have spoken to the father a moment more. He could have explained. Being born to a Great Fairy is no dry affair. They quite literally live in a pool of water.)
It was a blur to Urbosa the next morning, but if you asked the others years later what they remembered of the night, they would have been able to recount it by heart. They dried the baby off, fed her a bottle of warm formula, and warmed blankets over the fire before wrapping the child up in them, keeping little fingers and toes out in order to keep them gently submerged in warm water until the frostbite cleared. For the child’s delicate ears, soft cheeks, and tiny little nose, they covered them with damp, warm cotton towels, repeating the cycle until the child seemed warm. Safe. Comfortable.
The next day was a whirlwind of fuss, discussing if the child should stay, who the child might live with, if they should listen to the small paper that was bundled with her naming the baby ‘ Link’… and the most important matter, why the child seemed… uncannily delicate. Pretty. Almost like porcelain.
Thankfully, most of it was settled before Urbosa had to be up for another sleepless night. Link was hers. She was… honestly, really happy with that outcome. She knew she had wanted a child one day, and while it was sudden and jarring to just have one given to you one day… It worked out well for her. She didn’t have to spend time on medical leave from her job to recover, though she did have to make her schedule a little more flexible, it was much easier than it would have been for any other of the races around hyrule. Gerudo town was a woman only town. That means that the choices made were by women, for women. They had good and free childcare, and ran by the age old mantra of it takes a village. Kids are everyone’s responsibility. It was okay for your baby to come into a meeting. It was okay if you were late for lunch while handing your toddler to their grandma.
It took far too long for them to settle the matter on the child's uncannily pretty face, though. It actually came about as a surprise a few months into the Links' little life, after a gerudo warrior had gone to get a shoulder piece upgraded by their nearest Great Fairy. She had been making small talk when she mentioned the tiny hylian baby. Tera had asked the warrior to send for Urbosa to bring the child down to her. Tera had a soft spot for children of the Gerudo Town, or honestly, any child. She couldn’t get enough of their tiny little hands and feet, and their chubby cheeks. It was only when she laid eyes on the child, did Urbosa finally get an answer for how her child looked.
Link was half great fairy. Now that was quite the revelation for Urbosa! She noted to herself that day that she should definitely keep in touch with Tera.
After all,
Who knows what Link will grow up to be?
-
“This is stupid . You’re stupid .”
Urbosa was sure that all the books on child development said that this amount of drama and angst came when they were teenagers. Not eight. Then again, she really should have expected an attitude from her child. Her son, more accurately.
As soon as Link could talk and understood that boys and girls weren’t the same, he was very adamant he was a boy, not a girl. Some of the elders found it an atrocity that their leader just shrugged when it was brought up to her. Urbosa didn’t care. If Link was her little boy, then he was her little boy. The Gerudo had never kicked out the boys of their society before, rare as boys may be in said society. Link was a boy, and that was that. If he ever ‘changed his mind’, then Urbosa would say “okay!” And if he didn’t, she would be just as happy.
So, coming back to the tiny boy in front of her, he was being… rude.
He was Urbosa’s child. She’d known she was bound to raise a hard-headed kid. She was a little proud of that fact, but not when it resulted in him arguing with her.
“You can’t leave the town! You’re not old enough!” Urbosa groaned, very much over the back and forth that had been taking place for the past half-hour. “No children can leave the town until they are thirteen years old for those who pass initiation, and sixteen for those who decide not to be a warrior. It’s just the rules, Link!”
“Stupid rules!” The child bit back sharply, “I want to go and play in sand! It’s not like I’m asking to go to Tabantha !” He stomped his feet for a moment, but stopped after feeling a pain in his legs from stomping too strongly on hard stone. Ow. “I want to go out and be able to buy things! Mama !” The protest was slowly turning into a whine and Urbosa was more than over this public tantrum. She was beginning to feel like it would never end until Fera approached.
Fera was just one of many adult vai who lived there, but with the town’s small size, it was… well, everyone knows everyone. Most children call every woman aside from their mother “auntie”. This was no different. She crouched down to Link’s level, easier said than done, and proposed a deal.
“I’m going out all the way to Goron City today, little voe. Will you promise to stop begging your mother to change the rules if I bring you back a new mask ?”
Link had… an obsession with masks, to put it lightly. He already had tons of them. Urbosa lost count a while ago. They all did different things, and some were definitely infused with magic. A few even had her concerned enough that they were on display mode, as they had come to call it. Basically, she didn’t want Link to have them until he had passed his warrior initiation at thirteen, until then they were hung on the wall far above his small hands reach.
“Yes Auntie Fera! I promise!” Link squealed quickly in response, little toes bearing all his weight as he used them to bounce at her after she stood back up.
“Are you sure, little voe?” She hummed. “Keeping a promise for five years is an awfully long time.”
“Yes! I super-mega promise!” The child responded, and Fera grinned as she realised the ridiculous oath she had locked the small child into. And the kid kept his promises! He was a very honest child when it came to that. His promises lasted.
He promised her when he was four that he would never come into her house without washing his hands and feet at the door, and he kept to that promise. It was a common practice in Gerudo town, just because of the fact that it was possible and honestly not uncommon for people, especially children, to run barefoot within the town's walls. Washing your hands and feet just made sure you didn’t track any dirt or sand along with you. Kids often forgot to, but not Link! Not after he gave that promise.
“Alright then, little one. I’ll see you in a few days with that mask, okay?”
“Okay!”
Urbosa let out a sigh. Part of it was relief. Part of it was the realisation that she had yet to get far enough out of the doorway to reach the market stalls and buy her groceries. Taking her sons hand, she walked into the lazy plaza. If nothing else, Urbosa would always be thankful that home was no more than a few steps away from everything she could ever need. Her friends, her troops, the market, the stores, all of it was within a few strides of her door. She would never not be thankful for that.
She was also pretty thankful it was a quiet day. Thank Farosh practically no one saw Link’s theatrics.
“Well then, little one, what shall we have for dinner tonight?” It was no use asking what he wanted for lunch. Lunch was always fruit smoothies. She had objected a few years ago, but nowadays she went with it willingly. It had all the nutrients and sustenance he needed until dinner, it was cold and refreshing, and it was pretty simple to make. When you think of it like that, she really couldn’t have had an easier kid when it came to the food department. He loved to eat pretty much anything you let him try, and was always sneaking off to listen to the cooking class one of the older vai held. He also loved to help his mother cook.
“Creamy Chillshroom Souppppp…” The boy hummed out after a moment, looking up at his mother with a true set of puppy dog eyes. Urbosa wasn’t the biggest fan of mushrooms, but Link loved them, especially chillshrooms. When she thought about it, she couldn’t really blame him much. They help with heat resistance, and he was born a hylian—they don’t have very good heat resistance in comparison to the Gerudo! So she caved. “Alright, chillshroom soup it is. Ask her how much they are.” Urbosa prompted softly.
“Uh, how many rupees for the chillshrooms please?” The child paused, realising that his mother had passed a little bag of rupees into his hands. He wouldn’t notice until he was older, but his mother was making sure he would grow up well socialised. When Link was younger, he could be quite shy, but with careful coaxing and sneaky little pushes, he was much more social now.
“Sixteen rupees… But for you, I’ll do ten .”
Ah, the wonders of Great Fairy DNA making you irresistibly adorable whenever you interact with an adult. It has its benefits! The downside is everyone wants to pinch your cheeks… especially the older women. But Link didn’t realise any of this.
Link's eyes lit up. It really was his day! The promise of a new mask, his favourite food for dinner, and now he’s getting a discount ! He looked up to his mother to gauge how she wanted him to respond, almost buzzing with joy when she permitted him to take the lowered price.
“Ah-! Sarqso, that’s so kind of you! May I have four then, please?” He asked brightly, counting out fourty rupees from the array of multicoloured ones in his bag before holding them out as he was handed a small paper bag of his purchase. Urbosa took his hand after the exchange, bidding a goodbye to the vendor as she tugged Link towards the other side of the market, the small child yelping a quick “Sav’orq!” over his shoulder before his mother whisked him away to another stall.