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Chapter Text

When Gerudo Town wasn't under the threat of sandstorms, giant Sheika constructs that attacked with lightning, and gibdos shambling through the gates, it was a beautiful locale, and Riju was proud to be its leader.

She awoke to the distant rumblings of thunder, smiled and rolled over in bed. Despite the far-off storm, her room was bright with sun streaming in through the windows and a dry heat that wasn't too hot to be uncomfortable hanging in the windless air.

Riju was, like the rest of the Hyrule, at peace, settling down for rest after the disquiet of the Upheaval. She knew happiness awaited herself and her people for many, many years to come.

“Everything is perfect…” she murmured drowsily to one of her sandseal plushies, snuggling into its squishy form.

“CHIEF RIJU!”

Riju sat bolt upright, hugging her seal toy tightly as a woman burst into her chambers, with Buliara at her heels.

“I tried to stop her-!” Buliara began, looking extremely flustered. The head of the guard had never been so easily outrun before.

“Chief Riju, I am so sorry for the intrusion, but this requires your immediate attention!” The woman cried frantically.

“Sav’aaq?” Riju rubbed her face groggily, “What's going on? Buliara?”

“I don't know!” Buliara did her best to explain, “She just burst in, demanding to see you.”

“What's this about?” Riju turned to the woman, and, despite her bleary eyes, recognised her.

“What's the town midwife need to see me for that's so importa-” Riju cut herself off, green eyes widening to the size of saucers.

“...No.” She said, voice quivering.

“I'm afraid so, Chief.”

“This isn't possible,” Riju put aside her seal plush and got out of bed, “Take me to him. I need to see him for myself.”

Riju heard the baby before she saw him. The shrieks and wails of a small infant echoed through the street. The sound of such distress was such a stark contact to the beautiful day Riju had woken up to.

She looked up at Buliara, whose face was tense and unreadable. The chief got the feeling that the head guard was going to have a lot to say when she stopped being so stoic.

“Here, Chief Riju.” The midwife opened the door of a little house. It looked like every other house in the town, but somehow, this was where a child capable of changing the world had made his birthplace.

Riju stepped into the house to find an exhausted woman lying on a low bed, ignoring the cries coming from the basket beside it.

The Gerudo Chief felt something in her heart break a little at the sight, the stress lines marring that poor mother's face, and the squirming bundle of blankets bawling at the top of his tiny lungs, probably hungry, probably too hot, probably very upset that no one would hold him in his first few hours alive.

“May I hold the baby?” Riju asked, and the woman nodded weakly.

She reached down into the basket and picked up the screeching infant. Poor thing, he was too hot in the heavy blankets that he'd been wrapped in.

Riju pushed the folds of fabric off the baby's head and chest, letting the little one's sweating skin breathe.

“Sav’aaq,” she cooed to Gerudo Town's newest arrival, “My name is Riju. You're very special, did you know? Very special. We haven't had a voe in ten thousand years. Now, shhh, shh, don't cry little voe. You're going to get very well taken care of.”

Riju looked around at everyone in the room.

“What do we do with him?” She asked, dropping her singsong tone for a deadly serious one.

“I don't care,” the child's mother didn’t even look at the baby Riju cradled so gently, “I don't want him. I didn't want to be the one who brought Ganon back into our midst!” She burst into fervent tears.

“No, no!” Riju cried, “This child has nothing to do with Ganondorf! You did not give birth to something evil, I am sure of it. But there is the problem that he will hold that stigma…”

“Well, just to be sure, we should-” Buliara made a sharp slicing motion with her hand.

“Absolutely not.” Riju cuddled the child closer.

“Chief Riju, we can't pretend that this child isn't problematic,” The midwife interjected, “A voe among the Gerudo… we haven't had one for ten thousand years, and we took it as a sign that Ganondorf was gone from our species. When people find out about him, there will be uproar.”

“The reason we haven't had another Gerudo male in so long is because Ganondorf was preserved, and there can only be one at a time,” Riju reasoned, "Now that he is gone, it is only logical that the cycle continues in its normal fashion.”

“Well, you might be right,” Buliara said, “But explaining that to the entirety of Hyrule, especially considering everything we just went through, will pose a challenge.”

“Oh, I'm not going to tell the entirety of Hyrule,” Riju told them, “At least not right now. Everyone needs some time to decompress after all that has happened. Besides, this little voe won't matter much until he's quite a bit older. At least while he's a baby, we'll keep him a secret.”

“What about the princess?” Buliara asked, “Zelda should at least be told.”

“No,” Riju shook her head, “Especially not the princess, or Link. They've been through so much, and they're probably the most highly strung. But when the time is right, they'll be the first to know.”

Chapter Text

Ten Years Later

Link's eyes snapped open.

Something was wrong.

He sat up slowly, glancing around the shadowy house. He reached into the crib next to his bed and felt a tiny, warm body.

Good. She was safe.

He slid out of bed, walking across the rough floorboards. The night was chilly, and Link shivered as the freezing wind came whistling through a crack in the wall.

The very crack in the wall that he’d fixed only a few days ago. Or was that a different crack? The whole house seemed to be falling apart these days. Oh well, that wasn’t Link’s concern right now.

It took Link a good few seconds to look over the entirety of his little home, but nothing seemed off. Everything was just how he’d left it when he’d gone to bed.

He walked down the stairs, wincing as the steps creaked loudly under his feet.

A small cry sent him running back up the stairs to the crib. The little girl nestled in the pillows and blankets didn’t seem distressed, just awake, blinking her big green eyes in the dark.

“My white flower,” Link picked her up, and she snuggled into his chest like a soft, warm dumpling, “Did I wake you up?”

“Dad.” She said simply.

“Yes. Do you want to come outside?”

“Yes!” That got an excited giggle out of the little one.

Link smiled and put her down. She sat patiently as Link picked up his coat and shoes off the floor, then helped her put on her own.

“Let's go. Down the stairs now.” Link took her squidgy little hand, and together they walked down the stairs.

“Good job, little princess!” Link exclaimed as his daughter managed to toddle her way down the stairs using him and the wall to lean on, “You get better every time!”

“Thanks.” She put her fist in her mouth.

“Don't do that, flower.” Link gently pulled her arm down.

He flinched as his daughter began to wail.

“Listen,” he took a deep breath and tried to be firm, “Listen to me, Zelda. You can't keep-” he felt his confidence fade away as the name lingered on his tongue, “Why don't we go outside?” Link wanted to kick himself. It was his duty to discipline, but he had no power when it came to his daughter... especially when he had to call her by name. Diversion was easier, so he continued on, hating himself more and more, “Then after that we can make something to eat. Something yummy. Wildberry crepes, or egg pudding.”

Little Zelda stopped crying, and Link unlocked the front door, utterly seething at himself as he watched the little Zelda toddle into the moonlit garden.

He looked out over the sleepy Hateno Village. The almost full moon bathed the town in soft white light. The air was cold, but not as cold as the house had been- a more pleasant coolness that lacked the icy edge that the walls had somehow trapped.

As Link surveyed the village in the silvery moonlight, he noted that nothing seemed to be wrong.

The night was idyllic, but a nagging feeling in Link's gut still insisted that something was amiss.

“Come back here, flower.” He called to little Zelda as she walked around the side of the house, but she didn't pay him any heed.

He chased after her, and found her where she always ran to whenever she found herself outside.

The well.

Link always warned her not to go near there, but little Zelda was curious. It was one of her favourite places to play around. Link had no fear of her safety near the well; he'd boarded it up securely; but he feared that as she got older she'd want to explore it more, and her curiosity would get the better of her.

“Flower,” he called, “Come back here!”

She either didn't hear him or pretended not to.

Link sighed and walked towards her, trying to gather enough strength to do the right thing and just tell his daughter off for once- as he did, he heard something rustle in the little storage shed built onto the side of the house.

Little Zelda would be fine for just a moment, Link decided. He turned and opened the shed door.

As moonlight shone through the doorway, bathing the storage shed in cool, pearly light, Link saw a large rat skitter behind a barrel.

He wrinkled up his nose. Hopefully that was the only one lurking around his house. He didn’t know if he could deal with an infestation at this point.

As he crept towards the barrel that the rat had disappeared behind, he heard a soft, familiar chime.

Blue light shone through the gaps of an oblong wooden box that had before been sitting inconspicuously in the shadows.

Link's hands trembled as he lifted the lid.

The Sword that Seals the Darkness was glowing.

Link looked down, misty-eyed, at his old weapon for a moment, visions of a much younger, much better him dancing in his mind.

But wait…

The sword only glowed when…

Link's heart seemed to stop beating when he heard the sound of a child's scream get hastily snuffed out.

He ran out of the shed, looking around for his daughter, eyes darting back and forth, adrenaline pumping in his veins.

But she was nowhere in sight. No matter how desperately he looked, she was nowhere in his sight.

He looked back over his shoulder, into the dim shed.

Dim because the sword had stopped glowing.

“ZELDA!” Link ran to the well, looking for his daughter, “ZELDA?! ARE YOU THERE?! NO, NO, WHERE ARE YOU?! ZELDA!”

He yelled until his voice was hoarse, until his words became incoherent, until he’d searched every place she could be.

But the small Princess Zelda was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Text

Paya woke up in the wee hours of the morning with the sense that someone needed her, badly.

She got up, pulling on a light, silky dressing gown, and walked down into the main room, where she performed her main duties as chief of Kakariko Village.

Her gaze drifted towards three letters she'd cast aside the previous evening in despair- letters from Goron City, Rito Village and Zora's Domain respectively, all with frightened pleas from their rulers for help with the terrors that had so suddenly sprung up on them.

Paya had read a trilogy of horror in letter form and felt a paralysis come over her- not physical, but mental.

She didn't have enough resources within Kakariko Village to help a single settlement, let alone three.

The weight of the world seemed to be on her shoulders, and her shoulders weren't strong enough to carry it.

Her thoughts were disrupted by a loud, hurried pounding on the door.

Paya felt fear creep in more. A messenger from one of the areas in strife, perhaps? Or a new one coming from another region to inform her of more weight she would have to bear? One of her own people in deep trouble?

Paya gingerly opened the door.

And her heart leapt when she saw who it was.

“Link…” She stared down at the shorter man in the doorway, feeling a smile creep across her face, “You've come! Of course you came, you always do!”

She pulled him inside, a sudden optimism radiating off her.

Hyrule was in trouble, but Link was here. Link would know what to do. Link would be courageous enough to brave even the most terrifying challenges, and because of that courage, Hyrule would be saved!

“Link, you have no idea how worried I was- oh where are my manners?! I am so, so, so glad to see you again! We've all missed you this past year, everyone will be overjoyed to know you're out and about again! And with such good timing, we really need some courage right about now-”

“Where is Impa?” Link asked quietly.

Paya froze in her tracks, more than a little taken aback.

Link's eyes burned with an intensity that made Paya's heart beat a little faster than normal.

“Link…” Paya's voice shook, “Didn't you… get my letter?”

Link looked down as he remembered the various letters and notes that he'd received over the past year, all thrown away without being opened.

He didn't remember seeing something from Kakariko Village in there, but, like the rest of his mail, it had been ignored.

Link opted to stay quiet.

Paya sighed.

“You might want to sit down for this.” She said, taking Link's hand. It felt icy and hard in her warm, soft palm.

“I’ll stand.”

Paya felt a strange hardness in Link's aura. He had always been laconic, yes, but never in such a sharp, unfriendly way.

“Alright,” she nodded, “Then stand.”

She looked around the shadowy room, unsure how to begin. It seemed cruel to just dump bad news on Link without any leadup to soften the impact, especially since he'd already suffered tragedy enough after the princess' death, but Paya had never been good at speaking, and she found herself without any idea of how to break such news lightly.

“Link, my… my grandmother died a few months ago.” Paya murmured.

“No.” Link said.

Paya felt all the muscles in Link's hands go tense. There was an undertone of anger to his voice, one that Paya remembered distinctly.

“Yes.” She spoke calmly, trying to soothe Link before he did something rash, “I'm sorry, but-”

“No,” Link sounded like he was either going to burst into tears or throw something across the room in rage, “Impossible. She lived this long!”

“But that's the thing, we don't live forever-”

“But I need to talk to her!”

Paya let go of Link's hand.

“You can talk to me,” she said cooly, “Chief Paya of Kakariko Village is at your service. I can help you just the same as my grandmother could.”

Link was silent.

“You can tell me when you're ready. I’ve other business that needs attending to.” Paya picked up the letters from the various regions of Hyrule, unfolding the one from Zora's Domain and reading over it again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Link notice the handwriting, his eyes widening for a brief moment in recognition.

“There seem to be problems cropping up all over Hyrule,” Paya decided to indulge the interest that Link unsuccessfully tried to hide, “From the tone of his letter, I would say King Sidon is quite distressed over the events in Zora's Domain. And he's not the only one.”

She held up the other two letters.

“Yunobo and Tulin also sent for help. We've heard nothing from the Gerudo at the moment, but usually when problems arise in the other regions, they arise in the desert as well. The last time things like this happened was the Upheaval.”

“Well,” Link's voice and face were like stone, “I wish them luck. They'll need it.”

Paya put the letters down.

“Link,” she said, “Your friends are in trouble. Doesn't that worry you?”

“It worries me.”

Paya felt more than a little befuddled. The Link she knew would be out the door at the words ‘King Sidon is quite distressed', but this version of Link was lacking in the heroic attitude that Paya remembered.

“Link,” she made direct eye contact with him, “What's going on? This isn't you. Maybe… maybe we should talk. About what happened with Princess Zelda.”

Link turned and wordlessly headed to the door.

“LINK!” Paya stood up, “Don't just walk away! You can't just keep avoiding this!”

Link froze with his hand on the door handle.

“My daughter.” He said quietly.

“What?”

“That's why I came here. Someone took my daughter for me. I thought Impa could help. Somehow.”

“Your daughter is missing?!” Paya's eyes went as wide as saucers.

“And I'm going to get her back,” Link opened the door, stepping out into the pink dawn, “I'm going to save Princess Zelda.”

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful morning at Riverside Stable. Warm, but cool enough that work was bearable. Busy, but not busy enough to cause stress. Relaxed, but not so relaxed that the workers fell into idleness.

However, there was one at the stables whose temperament did not match the day.

“Woah, Epona! Woah! Down girl! Settle down!”

Ember was manning the desk when he heard the familiar noises of a flustered stablehand trying to soothe their most difficult inmate.

He left a note on the desk to say that he would be back shortly, and ran into the yard where his newest employee was struggling with a wild-eyed mare.

“C'mon!” The young Hylian woman dug her heels into the ground as the horse thrashed around, resisting the halter, “I'm just trying to give you exercise, okay?! Maybe you wouldn't be so frisky if you let us ride you regulaAAAAAAAAA!!!”

She landed on her backside in the dirt, and the mare ran to the other side of the yard, snorting and stamping, ears pinned back and sweat forming on her flanks.

“Ethea!” Ember ran over to her as she stood, dusting herself off, “Are you alright?”

“I'm fine!” Ethea dusted herself off, glaring at the mare, “That horse is mental!”

“Epona's a good girl,” Ember said calmly, “Just with a wild disposition. I don't know how the man who caught her did it.”

“With a whip and spurs, I would think,” Ethea tossed her head, “Those are the only things that could convince an animal like that to be a steed.”

“No,” Ember shook his head, “Nothing of the sort was used in her capture. Years back this young Hylian fellow stumbled in here looking all dazed and bedraggled-like. He asked me how to capture a wild horse, and I told him how to sneak up on and catch one. Well, he goes off, and comes back about twenty minutes later, riding this mare, bold as brass! She was but a young thing then, though even now that she's old she's not lost that crazy wild spark in her eye.”

“How long have you had this menace, exactly?” Ethea asked.

“About fifteen years. Give or take. That'd make her around eighteen, nineteen- maybe twenty? But she don't look nor act it. She's a good horse, yes, with a good strong body, but when the hero returns for her, I'd advise that he wouldn't take her on those long adventures anymore.”

“The… hero?”

“Yes,” Ember smiled up at the wide blue sky, “Turns out that young man was Sir Link all along.”

“Well,” Ethea looked over at the mare, who was beginning to relax, “I don't think he'll be coming back anytime soon. No one's heard anything from him since the princess died.”

“Ethea, Ethea,” Ember shook his head, “That's the thing about Sir Link- he shows up when you think he won't ever come.”

Ethea looked unconvinced.

“You’ll see,” Ember smiled, “Now, I should get back to work. Epona seems to have calmed down a bit, so just be gentle and take it slow.”

Ember walked back into the stable, humming softly, and Ethea was left with the feisty Epona.

“Alright, girl,” Ethea approached the mare slowly, grabbing her halter but not pulling too hard on it, “I'm just going to take you for a ride. First, we need to get saddled up, though, don't we? Come with me, Epona, c'mon.”

With a little patience, a few gentle words, and some apples as encouragement, Ethea got Epona over to where her tack was kept. She tied the mare to a post and began to saddle her up.

Ember had taught her how particularly Epona liked things. Her reins needed to be slack, she only liked one particular saddle blanket, she hated blinkers, she would buck if a saddle was too heavy, plus a million other little things that the wild mare would kick for.

“Right, there we are, almost finished…” Ethea carefully tightened the saddle buckles underneath Epona's belly (not too tight or she'll rear!) being very, very cautious about the beast she was at the mercy of, “Okay, finished.”

Ethea stood up, and did a double take when she saw a man patting Epona's snout, the mare not even flinching.

“Ah, sir!” Ethea warned, “You shouldn't pat her, she's not good with most people!”

“Don't worry,” The man said, “She knows me.”

“Sir, she's-”

“Wild?” The man gave a small smile, “I know. But she likes me.”

“...Are you Sir Link, because I highly doubt-”

“Yes.” The man gave her a sharp look, with the most stunning blue eyes that Ethea had ever seen.

“Ah,” she said, “Sorry.”

Ethea could have been forgiven for not recognising the hero, because, as it was, he did not look very heroic.

In every artist’s impression of Link, he was a lightly built young man in a blue tunic carrying the legendary sword.

This man seemed very far away from that image.

Though he was only in his mid-thirties he looked older, and tireder. Grey streaks shone in his fawn brown hair, which, currently, was in quite a state of disarray. His eyes, though still vibrant blue, were baggy and lacking in life. His clothing also left a lot to be desired, in fact, he honestly looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.

“Can I take my horse now?” Link asked.

“Yes. Umm, where are you planning on taking her?”

Link was thoughtfully silent for a moment.

“I don't know yet.” He gripped Epona's reins and swung himself up into the saddle.

“Okay because my boss just said she was getting too old for long adventures-”

Link flicked Epona's reigns and the horse charged off before Ethea could finish.

“WAIT!” Ethea yelled after him, “ARE YOU INTERESTED IN OUR PONY POINTS PROGRA- oh, no, he’s gone.”

She watched as Link and Epona charged off into the distance, becoming nothing but a spec in the scenery, then walked into the main stable building.

“Ember!” She got her boss’ attention by slamming her hands on the counter, “Guess who just showed up when we thought he wouldn’t ever come.”

“Oh?” Ember raised an eyebrow.

“He’s gone already,” Ethea said, “Took off North the second I said the horse was good to go. Oh, and, good grief, time isn’t being kind to him. But now I get to tell my future kids that I met Sir Link in person.”

“Good to see that he’s out and about again,” Ember said, “Especially with what I’ve begun to hear of.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“How old were you when the Upheaval happened?” Ember asked.

“Eight. I mostly just remember Mum being scared and not being allowed to play outside a lot of the time,” Ethea shrugged, “And I was two when the Calamity came to an end, so I don’t remember any of that at all.”

“Hmm. Well, we won’t discuss it here. I don’t want people overhearing something like this. I’ll talk to you after your shift.”

“Okay then.”

As Ethea walked back outside and Ember went back to his work, a Hylian woman seated against the wall pulled out a notepad and began to jot notes down speedily, muttering to herself.

“Hero out of isolation... said hero leaving establishment without even greeting the owner... repeat of the worst disasters in the history of modern Hyrule alluded to!” Traysi stood up, snapping her notepad shut, eyes wide with excitement, “Well, call me washed-up and desperate, but that sounds like a scoop to me!”

Chapter Text

Link rode North for a little less than half an hour before he realised that he had absolutely no sense of where he was meant to be going.

Not a trace of his daughter had been left behind, so what was his plan to find her? Scour the entirety of Hyrule until he picked up a clue?

It really seemed like the only option he had.

Well, he had to start making decisions. The day was getting on.

Picking a direction and riding didn't seem like the best idea. But going somewhere intentionally meant that he would most likely have to be confronted by someone who expected a hero.

Well, he didn't necessarily have to make himself known. Quickly scouting around towns would allow him to get information without the problem of being given a large number of tasks to do by the common people who couldn't find better things to do with their time than watch him run around collecting bugs or send him after elusive white birds.

With a a dig of his heels and a quick tug on Epona's reins, he set her on track for Lookout Landing.

As she broke out into a full gallop, Link felt something stir inside him that he hadn't felt in quite a while. A feeling given by the thrum of Epona's hooves and the smell of the grass and the wide blue sky.

He hadn't felt this way since Zelda-

Zelda.

Link had been so caught up in the freedom of the wild that he'd entirely forgotten the task at hand.

His little Zelda. She'd never been away from him before. She must be so scared…

The wind whistled around Link as he spurred Epona on again, and his eyes streamed from the cool, rushing wind.

Ganondorf paced back and forth.

He'd gotten Princess Zelda.

Now what? He hadn't thought the next part of his plan through.

He looked over at the toddler he'd kidnapped. She was asleep in the grass under a tree, looking positively angelic in the dappled sunlight.

When Ganondorf had first picked her up in Hateno Village, she'd been inconsolable. One tree felling and a few roasted apples later, the baby princess had calmed down enough to stop fussing and go along with Ganondorf willingly.

He'd found a little hiding place in a patch of trees, but it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. Ganondorf would need a better hiding place where he could think out his next course of action.

He sat down and began to mentally compose a list of everything he'd need for when he became King of Hyrule.

He would need a base, definitely. One that he could use as a hideout but was cool enough to be a lair fit for the bearer of the Triforce of Power.

He would need more monsters. He had already awoken the terrors to unleash upon the Zora, the Gorons and the Rito, but he was going to need a bajillion more for his army.

He would need food, for himself and the princess. He could get that by hunting with all the tricks Buliara had taught him.

Oh. Oh no.

Buliara was going to kill him when she found out about this.

And Frelly would be furious that he stole one of her sand seals to get out of the desert.

And Riju…

He couldn't imagine how upset Riju would be about this.

Man. He really hadn't thought this through.

Well, he couldn't go back to Gerudo Town now. He would get in too much trouble.

That was fine by him, anyway. He'd run away and didn't intend to go back ever again. He was born for greater things than that puny throne in the desert.

Ganondorf stood up.

He'd decided where his base would be.

“Hey Zelda,” He prodded the drowsy toddler awake, “You have to get up now. We’re going to my new castle!”

Link hopped off Epona about a furlong away from Lookout Landing.

“I'll be back for you soon, okay?” Link patted her warm, wide sides gently as she began to feed on the local flora, “Okay. Good girl. See you soon.”

Link headed over to the township.

Lookout Landing had become one of the biggest settlements in Hyrule and functioned like the beating heart of a great body.

It had become known as one of the best places to do business, and all the different peoples of Hyrule flocked there to sell their goods.

It had also become the military capital of Hyrule, building up a great army of Hylians, Zora, Gorons, Rito, Gerudo, Shieka- really anyone who could swear allegiance to the Hyrule Royal Family and hold a weapon of some sort.

Not only was it great in economical and defensive standpoints, it was also a hub of innovation. The largest ancient tech lab in Hyrule had been constructed in the town- and Link knew very well that going there was very much out of the question.

As he got closer to the town, his hopes of going unnoticed began to become slimmer and slimmer. Plenty of people saw him- none recognised him for who he was, but many friendly citizens waved and called out to him, exercising the welcome they gave to all new travellers in town.

Linked hoped that his commonplace clothes and lack of large shiny weapons would be enough to avoid recognition by most, and that he could avoid the eyes of those who could pick him in a crowd.

As he got to the main parts of the town, he took to walking through the less conspicuous streets, keeping to alleyways where he could listen to gossip and chatter and hope to find some pointers to his daughter's whereabouts.

After loitering around little shops and houses and finding out nothing (except that Imia had been seen with Daros acting like an item until suddenly Imia was spending a lot more time with Cigin and Daros was moving to Hateno Village and seemed to be quite upset about something) Link decided to take a gamble and get closer to the main square to find something more interesting to eavesdrop on.

He was not disappointed.

In the main square, he saw General Hoz speaking to a large portion of the army. The entire square seemed to be off-limits for the general public, as the space was only occupied by military workers and- Link shrunk back a little- Purah.

“Alright, we've received troubling news from Zora's Domain, Rito Village and Goron City,” Hoz addressed his men, pacing back and forth, “Each region is dealing with some sort of targeted attack on the people. King Sidon writes from Zora's Domain a distressed letter describing how the water in the area has become too dangerous to swim in, as, suddenly, it has begun delivering electric shocks to those who make contact with it, severely injuring many of his people.”

“Why don't they just move away?” One of the soldiers asked, “Or just stay on land?”

Hoz sighed heavily.

“You can ask any of the Zora here in Lookout Landing how hard it is to go without water for extended periods of time,” He said, a little impatiently, “And, if you so wish, you can be the one to explain to Sidon that he should just leave the glittering work of art that his ancestors lovingly created, the throne his father entrusted him with, and the only place he remembers or understands.”

“No thankyou sir.” He got a mumble in reply.

“Besides, this poses a bigger threat to all of Hyrule if this strange electric water spreads,” Hoz continued, “Moving on. Chief Tulin of Rito Village has sent for help under some very troubling circumstances. Most Rito that have left the village have disappeared without a trace. The one who delivered this message said they don't know how they made it here. Tulin has ordered the village into a lockdown, but writes that they'll run out of vital resources if this carries on much longer. President Yunobo, in his own letter, writes that Goron City has begun to flood at an alarming rate. And if any of you are wondering why they can't just leave,” Hoz paused for a moment to send a scathing look at the particular soldier who'd interrupted his speech earlier, “Gorons cannot swim. The one who delivered this message was the lightest one Yunobo could find, and it's remarkable he made it through. The water is described to move rather unusually, as Goron City is built at such a high elevation, yet the water won't drain away. Each of the regions ask for help, but, quite frankly, I don't know how to combat any of these issues. The problem with the Rito may be a fightable one, but I cannot stop floodwaters as they rise, nor can we overcome electricity with sheer manpower.”

Purah had been silent up until now, but at this opening she spoke.

“The Zora's problem seems to be a simple one to solve,” she said, “If we find the source of the electricity, we can cut it off, and the water will be normal again. The problem is finding that source… it could be anything.”

“Do you have any ideas as to what it could be?”

“I have… a theory. But it doesn't narrow down on anything in particular and if I tell you I want to be absolutely sure that the root of the problem is what I think it is.”

Hoz scrutinised her for a few moments, then turned back to the soldiers.

“Tomorrow I'll send a group of you up to Tabantha to scout around and try to find any sign of the missing Rito, or whatever's taking them. I'll lead a group up to Eldin to see what we can do about evacuating the Gorons. The Zora, I'm afraid, will have to wait, unless Purah can piece together what the issue is. The rest of you will stay here and perform your normal duties. Now, I'd suggest resting up for tonight, because if things continue as they are, we'll regret it if we don't.”

Link shrunk back into a sidestreet as the soldiers dispersed, returning to whatever duties they had or heading off to bed.

He felt some weight get lifted off his shoulders. He didn't need to deal with any of these situations, he could pursue his own interests without the problem of being forced to save Hyrule yet again.

“Purah,” Hoz turned to the scientist with a solemn look, “What was that about?”

“What was what about?”

“You won't share your theory because you want to be sure it is what you think it is first,” Hoz clarified, “What do you think it is, Purah? You must tell me, it's my job to know.”

“I think you already have some inkling.” Purah replied, looking downward, away from Hoz's eyes.

“Do you think…” Hoz looked around cautiously, “Ganondorf has returned?”

Purah gave one concise nod.

“Oh no,” Hoz murmured, “If that is the case… I don't know what we're going to do.”

“We're going to fight him, that's what we'll do.” Purah replied.

“But without the Princess… and with Link shutting himself off from the world- well, quite frankly, I don't think we have any hope of defeating Ganon.”

The pair began to come quite close to where Link was hiding, and he realised that if he didn't move they'd see him, but if he did move they'd notice the movement and see him anyway.

“We can manage,” Purah patted Hoz's arm, “We've managed before, we can manage again. Besides, Link won't close himself off forever. He can't. He knows he can't.”

“Right,” Link stepped out in front of Purah and Hoz, “Now I just want to make a few things clear.”

Chapter Text

“Link?!” Purah's jaw dropped.

“Well,” Hoz beamed, “Would you look at that! Our hero has returned just when we need him!”

“Link.” Purah said blankly, hands falling limp at her side.

“It's so great that you've returned after so long, I can tell you everyone will be overjoyed to see you again!” Hoz took Link's hand and shook it energetically.

“LINK!!!” Purah yelled, probably loud enough for the entirety of Lookout Landing to hear. She pushed Hoz aside to give Link a hug so tight it pushed the air out of his lungs, “I missed you, Linky! I was beginning to worry that you'd never come around!”

She took a moment and composed herself, stepped back and looked Link up-and-down.

“You've changed, Linky,” she realised, “I suppose you're getting older-”

“I suppose you would know,” Link snapped, “Being the resident expert on age.”

Purah's eyes widened, and her nostrils flared.

“And I'm not here to save you,” Link glared at Hoz, “I just want information. I'll be leaving by sundown.”

“You-!” Purah searched for words in outrage, but Hoz made a calmer approach.

“What did you need information about?” He asked calmly.

“I was wondering,” Link glanced between the two of them, Hoz just trying to be helpful, Purah looking like she wanted to charge like a bull, “If you'd seen a little girl a little over one, blonde hair, green eyes-”

“Link, did you…” Hoz trailed off and glanced warily at Purah.

“YOU LOST-” Purah took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, it was in icily calm tones, “Link. Come with me.”

If Link had tried to get away from her, he wouldn't have succeeded, because Purah grabbed his left ear with a surprising strength in her index finger and thumb, and marched him over to the Ancient Tech Lab like he was some disgraced five-year-old.

“Go away Hoz.” Purah snapped as the well-meaning general began to follow after them.

Link began to silently prepare a final prayer to Hylia as Purah pulled him into the lab, which was otherwise devoid of any people.

“You lost the Princess of Hyrule?!” Purah demanded after quickly scanning the lab for witnesses.

“I didn't lose her. She was taken from me. I knew where she was, I took my eyes off her for one second and suddenly she was gone.”

“Completely gone? How do you know she was taken away by something?”

Link explained how the master sword had lit up and then stopped glowing once Zelda had vanished.

“Your sword lit up? But it only does that when-”

“Something evil is close by. I know.”

“But most monsters have been killed off, especially around townships,” Purah frowned, “Then maybe my theory… Link, if Ganondorf has returned…”

“If Ganondorf has returned, what?” Link demanded harshly.

It looked like Purah's temper was about to flare up again, but she exhaled and composed herself before she bubbled over.

“Linky,” her voice was carefully measured and managed, “You've changed.”

“You already told me that.”

“I liked the old Link better.” Purah said coldly.

“What, the nervous child soldier who possessed the Triforce of doing what he's told?” Link snapped, “The one who just put up with all the beatings he got when he tamed Divine Beasts and fought Demon Kings because people said he was the one who had too, and he never questioned it?”

“I liked the Link who cared!” Purah cried, balling her fists, “I liked the Link who did those things because he loved Hyrule and he loved his friends and he loved the Princess! I liked the Link who didn't hesitate long enough to question because he had a heart!”

Silence. Silence for what felt like an eternity.

“I do care,’’ Link said quietly, “I care about my daughter. If Ganondorf took her from me like you theorise, then I will fight him. But I am sure Hyrule can support itself without me.”

Link waited for Purah to respond, but she didn't.

“Well?!” He said, “Don't you have some clever response? Some snappy comeback for me?”

“I just think…” Purah paused to make sure she was being absolutely careful with what she said, “I think you need to talk to someone about… about Zelda. It doesn't have to be me, but this isn't you, Linky. You’ve… changed.”

“Is that the only you're going to say to me?” Link demanded.

“For the moment, yes.”

“Well, in that case, I'll be getting on,” Link headed for the door, “I have a young Princess to save, if you'll excuse me.”

Purah didn't stop him as he stormed out of the lab.

Link met back up with Epona, and blindly began to ride back down South. He would need to get supplies from home, equipment that would be important if he were to traverse the wilds of Hyrule.

The sky darkened as night fell, but Link kept riding Epona just the same. It didn't matter whether the sun rose or set, Link had to keep going. 

He barely noticed the red tinge that the air began to take before the crimson moon took up the night sky, sending rays of malevolent light down onto Hyrule.

Link pulled hard on Epona's reigns as his eyes were filled with visions of monsters forming in legions across Hyrule.

Link.

He heard his name being called in a voice that he hadn't heard in a year, one that made him sob at the sound of the familiar, gentle tones.

Link!

The blood moon is rising!

Ganon had returned, and raises his armies of monsters with him.

There is nothing I can do to help you this time.

Please, my love, I beg you to be careful.

Chapter Text

Riju stood out in the desert, looking up at the blood red moon dominating the sky.

Buliara walked up behind her, coming to a halt a couple of feet away from the Gerudo Chief.

“I told you we should have killed him,” She said, “But the bud has not been nipped, despite the gardener’s good intentions.”

“I did everything I could.” Riju sat down hard in the sand, head in her hands.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Buliara tried to be comforting, “Cuddling a monster won’t make it any less of a monster.”

“But he wasn’t a monster!” Riju gestured wildly as tears poured down her cheeks, “He was just a child! He’s just a little child...”

 Buliara watched silently as Riju broke down into soundless sobs, looking very sad and small in the cold desert sand.

The red light slowly faded, and the moon ebbed back to its original size. Now all that there was in the sky was a bright, pale, very much normal full moon.

Buliara sighed and placed a hand on Riju’s shoulder.

“Shall we go find him?” The warrior asked gently.

“Yes.”

During most sunrises Hateno Village was quiet, save some farmers getting up for their early morning work and the occasional shopkeeper setting up for the day, but on this fair morning the whole populace of the town was abuzz about the events of the previous night.

“What does it all mean?!” Tamana paced back and forth outside the Great Ton Pu Inn, fretting the phrase a truly staggering amount of times.

“That’s enough, Tamana,” her fellow farmer Rhodes did his best to soothe her, “Repeating a question won’t answer it.”

“But we already know the answer, don’t we?” His wife, Ralera, pressed his hands in hers, “It means...” she trailed off, not wanting to vocalise it.

“It means that the Ganondorf has returned.” Agus finished for her.

All the villagers gathered in the square fixed their eyes on him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” The merchant said, stroking the nose of his donkey softly, “We all know it. It’s best that we just face it.”

“Agus is right,” Reede tried to sound brave, if not for his people, then for himself, “It’s no use pretending that this isn’t happening. Let’s admit that we’re in danger- and let’s remember that we’ve been in danger before. Hateno has withstood Ganondorf in the past, and we can do it again!”

Reede had led the village through such a multitude of difficult times, so he should have been a master of pep-talks, but inspiring hope when one was steeped in dread was a struggle.

Despite his own trepidation, Reede’s words were enough to make the other villagers stand a bit taller.

“Does anyone know where Link is?” Koyin piped up.

Everyone turned their attention towards the sheep farmer, with mixed looks of surprise and anger. The topic of the hero was a sore spot, especially in Hateno village. Unlike the rest of Hyrule, they weren’t dealing with a legend gone silent- they were dealing with a grieving man.

Reede opened his mouth to say something along the lines of ‘We should let him be’ or ‘He probably doesn’t want to be disturbed’ when his co-mayor Cece spoke.

“I went up to his house this morning. He didn’t open the door when I knocked, and the place was completely silent.”

Reede exhaled deeply.

“Thank you, Cece.” He managed. He would have thought that after a decade of working with Cece he’d get used to her more… forward methods, but he continued to prove himself wrong.

“Do you think he’s out, or do you think he was just ignoring you?” Amira asked, hands on her hips.

“I’m not-” Cece began to reply, only to get cut off by dull sound of hooves on a dirt road.

“Well look who it is.” Reede muttered as Link rode into the village on a large, tired-looking sable mare.

“Link!” Quite a few of the villagers cried out to him.

Link turned his horse and approached the group of villagers, looking even more tired than his steed did.

“What do you want?” He asked apathetically.

“Did you see the moon last night?” Ivee inquired while everyone else looked on.

“Why should I care about lunar events?” Link snapped.

The villagers flinched. Most of them had enjoyed living alongside Link before Zelda had passed- he had been so lively and sweet back then. His only fault was that he had been so shy, to the point where it seemed standoffish, but over the years he’d become more comfortable among the villagers that he barely had reason to feel awkward.

But in his grief Link had changed drastically, and the villagers had to suffer for it.

“It was… a bit redder than normal,” Reede’s wife, Clavia spoke up, “Red, like, uh, like blood, I’d say.”

“Oh, right,” Link shrugged, “Yes. I saw it.”

The villagers looked between each other, then at him, expecting something more.

“Well, if that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’ll be off.”

Before anyone could ask Link to stay, he urged his horse on again, following the road to his house.

“He’s in denial,” Agus noted, “Or he’s got some plan that we’re not welcome in.”

“Where was his little girl?” Medda asked, “He usually keeps her close by him.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if he left her at home by herself, poor thing,” Amira wrinkled up her nose, “He’s as soulless as a bokoblin nowadays.”

“Hey, no!” Medda was a usually mild man, but these allegations stirred his anger, “Don’t say such awful things! Link dotes on the little princess with all the love a father could give, and I won’t have you slandering his name like that!”

“Alright, enough!” Reede quelled them, “Let’s not worry ourselves with Link until he’s in a more agreeable mood.”

“In the meantime we can focus on fortifying the village,” Cece said, “Brace yourselves now, because I can guarantee that soon we’ll all have monsters breathing down our necks.”

Link jumped off Epona as soon as she came to a halt.

He gave her a few hurried pats as she caught her breath. After running for the whole night, Epona was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

“Sorry girl,” Link murmured, leading her over to the apple tree, where fruit had dropped and been left to rot, scattered across the ground, “Here, take a breather. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Link dashed into his house and began looking around for supplies. What would he need? Food, water, clothes, weapons…

Well, he had food, water, and a few sets of clothes he could take, though they were suited for the temperate village; hopefully his daughter was someplace with balmy weather.

Weaponry, however, would prove difficult.

Link didn’t think that there was much around his house that was more powerful than a simple woodcutter’s axe.

He did have one substantial weapon, but using it felt like returning to things he wasn’t ready to return to. Still, if it was for his daughter’s safety…

Link walked around to the storage shed, flung the door open and walked over to where the master sword lay in its crate.

Trying to ignore the battle raging between his thoughts, he reached for the handle. As he touched the sword, he felt a sudden drop in blood pressure, his head going blank, body reeling, vision spinning. He let go of the sword, collapsing onto the floor, breathing heavily. It took a while for him to gain enough strength to do so much as think.

“Well FINE,” Link said when he finally felt able to stand, “Be like that. I’m DONE proving myself to you.”

Link slammed the door of the storage shed behind him, and the master sword was left in shadow.

Chapter Text

Link and Epona rode up towards Mount Lanayru at a full gallop.

“I’ll let you rest when we get to the bottom of the mountain.” Link promised Epona as she began to tire. He felt a twinge of guilt- she was probably so out of practice. He’d go easy on her for the rest of the journey, but he wanted to get to Lanayru as soon as he could.

Eventually the terrain began to steepen and the air grew colder.

“Woah girl,” Link pulled Epona up and dismounted her, “Stay here and wait until I get back. If you see a monster, give it what for.”

He patted her snout and began the trek up the mountain.

The trip went smoothly, aside from a few scuffles with some lizalfos. By the time he reached the top of the mountain he had quite a few spears and an even amount of scratches.

The cold air stung Link’s face, and a deep, painful cold felt like it was consuming him, but he kept on until he reached the Spring of Wisdom.

As he gazed at the still waters of the spring, surrounded by spikes of ice and rock, he felt a deep nostalgia set in, and it hurt more than the biting frost.

“Here we are,” Zelda said, shivering in her thin white dress, “The S-spring of Wisd-dom.”

Link gave a small nod, rubbing his hands together. In his tunic and pants, which were made for adventuring, he found the cold unbearable; He couldn’t even begin to comprehend how Zelda was feeling.

“My last ch-chance.” Zelda’s teeth chattered.

Link nodded once again.

He wanted to say something, but what? Link was used to experiencing pressure, but what was on Zelda’s shoulders now was immense. The other champions were waiting, her father was waiting… if she failed- well, she couldn’t.

Zelda stepped into the pool and approached the goddess statue, and Link turned his back to her.

He heard her murmuring quietly.

“P-please, Goddess, hear my p-prayer. I c-come seeking help, regarding this p-power that has been ha-handed d-down over time. I kn-know p-prayer will awaken m-my power to seal G-ganon away…” Link heard Zelda’s voice crack, not just from the cold, but from tears.

“P-please,” Zelda began to sob, “Please it’s our l-last…”

Link turned around as Zelda fell silent. She stood with her back to him, shivering, breathing shallowly. Ice was beginning to form crystals on her dress.

He saw her form shaking like a pale leaf, skin going a shade of purple that Link knew wasn’t healthy.

“That’s enough.” Link said, firmly.

Zelda didn’t respond.

“Princess, get out of the water.” Link’s voice trembled.

Suddenly Zelda swayed where she stood, and began to pitch forward into the freezing water.

Link acted fast, sprinting into the pool, barely wincing at how freezing the water was.

“Forgive me, Princess.” Link said as he approached her from behind and picked her up by the waist, pulling her out of the water.

That woke her up a little.

“LINK! LINK PUT ME DOWN!!! I DEMAND THAT YOU PUT ME DOWN! LINK ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!?!!!”

Link was, in fact, not listening. No matter what Zelda liked, his job was to protect her, and, more often than not, he needed to protect her from herself.

Zelda struggled, but despite Link’s size he was strong, and he pulled her onto the dry ground as she gave in and burst into tears.

“What am I going to do?” She sobbed, “What am I going to tell everyone?”

Link found her hugging him, clinging to him. To her, he was the warmest steadiest thing, not just on the mountain, but in the whole wide world.

Link hadn’t known it then, but Zelda had told him about it as they’d walked away from Hyrule castle, arms on each other’s shoulders as the princess began to feel the effects of holding back Ganon for one hundred years, and Link’s adrenaline from the fight had worn off and left him shaky and weak.

“I knew you were the hero when you held the master sword for the first time,” Zelda had said, “And I knew you were a hero when you saved me from the Yiga Clan in the desert. But I only realised you were my hero when you pulled me out of the Spring of Wisdom the day of the calamity.”

When Link had told her he didn’t remember doing that, Zelda had seemed so deeply sad.

As he watched the long-forgotten scene play out in his mind, he fully understood why.

Because as he sunk to the ground, letting Zelda collapse into his arms, he saw Zelda cup his face and brush her lips just under his left eye for a small, fleeting moment.

Link stood motionless by the spring, paralysed by grief, until the realisation that tears were literally freezing to his face jolted him back to his senses.

It was so cold up here that Link would have probably frozen to the ground if he’d stayed still much longer.

He began to walk down the mountain, stuffing some food into his mouth as he did.

What had he supposed he would gain from coming up here? Some wisdom?

That had always been her thing. Of course it would lead him back to her.

Back to memories of her, that was.

Link had a lot of feelings that he didn’t understand- but mostly he just didn’t understand.

He had been given a woman so precious and perfect, and then she had been taken away.

He knew she was gone, but a tragedy like that didn’t seem possible. There had to be a way to save her, to bring her back.

Link had named his daughter for tradition, to carry on the bloodline… but, despite not wanting to admit it to himself, he’d named her Zelda because he hoped beyond all hope that something of his wife would be found in his daughter.

In Link’s whirling thoughts his mission became more cemented in his mind. He had to get his child back. She was the last thing Zelda had ever given him.

The last thing that mattered.

As Link walked down Mount Lanayru and the air began to get warmer he finally realised how close he had come to freezing to death. He hadn’t noticed that his fingers and toes were numb until the blood began to come back to them, nor how much ice had formed on his hair and skin until it began to melt.

He paused to wipe the rivulets of cold water from his face when something he hadn’t seen before caught his sight.

On top of a mountain just a bit further North was a strange, abnormally shaped structure, one that didn’t look quite like any building that Link had seen in Hyrule before.

Link knew that it probably had nothing to do with his daughter’s situation, but even if there was just the slightest chance that it did, Link had to take it.

It wouldn’t take him too long to trek over to it, and it might give him some vantage point…

Link set off towards the structure, keeping at a quick, steady pace.

As he made his way towards the structure he found himself under constant attack from lizalfos, which he either killed or outran. These attacks didn’t surprise him- the whole land must be teeming with monsters now, and lizalfos ran rife around Lanayru whenever Ganondorf was around.

What was strange, though, was the lack of attacks from the water. Link often encountered octoroks when he travelled past water, but even in the parts of his journey where he came close to the river there were no flying rocks to hit him in the back of his skull and cause him a brain haemorrhage. If Ganondorf’s army was back with vengeance, why were his enemies in the water absent?

At one point, while Link was being chased by a particularly dedicated lizalfos, he lashed out at it, pushing it into the water, and continued running. Lizalfos were usually excellent swimmers, but Link heard it give a dying shriek as it hit the water.

Link didn’t turn back to look at what happened to the monster, but he made a mental note of the strangeness of the situation.

As he reached the summit of the mountain, he realised he’d come a little further North than he’d initially realised.

The ridge overlooked the glistening piece of art that was Zora’s Domain.

The last time Link had seen the Domain it had looked greater than ever before- shining in the warmth of the sun, cool water flowing like a never-ending stream through the crystalline walkways and into the dazzling courtyard.

But now as he looked at it, the home of the Zora seemed to be lacking in one of its most quintessential components.

The place was dry as a bone. A bone that had been baking in the sands of the Gerudo desert for over a century.

While water still flowed in the river around the Domain, the actual building had been drained and left as a sere structure of rock.

Well, that wasn’t Link’s current problem. He turned and hiked across the ridge until he reached the structure he was really there for.

It was too small to be a place where anyone lived, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around at all. It was surrounded by overgrown pavement and built with dusty stone that seemed to have been eaten at by lichen and moss- how strange. Link had spent so much time around Zora’s Domain that he thought he knew the area by heart. This couldn’t be that old.

The structure had a heavy wooden door on it- and it didn’t seem to be rotten, but was covered, like the rest of the strange little building, in lichen and moss.

As Link approached it the door was raised to reveal a dark corridor, from which the sound of rushing water could be heard.

Well the building definitely didn’t seem big enough to hold that.

As Link stepped into the dark, the door closed behind him, leaving him in blackness.

The dark only lasted a moment, as the glow of luminous stones filled the room with a blueish light.

"Hello, Hero of the Wild."

Link heard a male voice speak to him, sounding like it was directly behind him. He jumped and looked around, but he was completely alone.

"We offer you this challenge to enhance your mind and body for the day when you fight our shared foe. We believe and put our trust in you."

Link turned around, and saw the source of the rushing water. A large waterfall spanned a rock wall in front of him. The room was clearly much bigger on the inside.

“Drat,” Link muttered, “I’ll need Zora clothing for this.”

Well, at least he knew what this was now. Some shrine of sorts to help him build up ability and fight Ganondorf.

Well, he wasn’t going to fight Ganondorf a third time, but these shrines would be useful for getting back into shape. He’d come back once he got his hands on some Zora armour.

He took a few steps back the way he came, the door reopened, and Link stepped back out into the bright daylight. He heard the dorr close behind him, and he stood in the sunlight, blinking as his eyes adjusted.

As his vision began to compute the sudden large amount of sun, Link’s other senses sharpened.

Just in time, too.

He heard footsteps approaching, and voices getting louder. Link didn’t want to be seen, he’d be recognised and brought to Sidon immediately- he had to hide.

He quickly scampered behind a cluster of bushes as a group of Zora came into view.

Chapter Text

It seemed to be just a few Zora guards on some sort of a patrol. Link relaxed. It wouldn’t be long before they were far away enough that he could get away unseen.

Link closed his eyes, giving a small, discreet sigh of relief. He would not be caught today-

“This was what I was telling you about, Your Majesty.”

Link’s eyes snapped open, his whole body going tense.

He watched as a guard led a tall, shark-like Zora man towards the shrine. Link shrank further into the bushes at the sight of his old friend.

“You were right,” King Sidon of the Zora examined the shrine, “This is strange. And it’s only just appeared today?”

“Late last night, Your Majesty,” a younger looking guard hung back, glancing around nervously, “We think it turned up when the blood moon happened.”

“This must have something to do with-” Sidon paused as he took note of the guard’s anxious behaviour, “Meve? Whatever’s the matter?”

“Nothing, Your Majesty, it’s just,” the guard clutched her spear tightly, “I just... I’ve got this strange uneasy feeling.”

“Oh no,” Sidon’s voice sounded both concerned and tired, “Do you have any muscle aches? How are your scales? Maybe... maybe you should go back to the Domain-”

“I’ll be alright, thank you, Your Majesty,” Meve said, “I- I don’t think I’m unwell.”

“Right, well,” Sidon relaxed a little, but there was still a tension in his frame, a stark contrast to how buoyant with enthusiasm he usually was, “Don’t strain yourself.”

He turned his attention back to the shrine.

“You are sure that it’s new, Vali?” He asked the other guard, “It looks quite old.”

“I was here yesterday, and there was nothing but rocks and shrubbery.” Vali confirmed.

There was a long stretch of silence as the three Zora stood looking at the shrine. Link kept very still, knowing that even the slightest rustling could give him away.

“I will not lie and say that I have no idea what this is,” Sidon said eventually, “But I really don’t want it to be true.”

“It’s a shrine, isn’t it, Your Majesty?”

“If it is- IF it is, that means that it is not just Zora’s Domain that is suffering.” Sidon turned and looked over his glittering kingdom, protected by the mountains, but not out of harm’s reach.

Once, when he was very young, he’d eavesdropped on Mipha talking with Sir Link and the Princess.

Sidon had been so excited that morning when Mipha had told him they were coming to visit. Zelda was always so nice to him, and while Link wasn’t much for talking, he was a good listener. But as soon as they’d arrived Mipha had pulled the princess and the hero away from Sidon for a quick ‘no kids allowed’ conversation. A conversation so quick that it went for hours, and the Zora Prince had watched the day go by as he waited very patiently for them to finish.

Eventually his patience ran out. Zelda had promised that they would play the next time she came over. Link had given him a small wooden sword the last time he’d visited, and Sidon had been waiting forever to ask the hero how to do some of his cool tricks. Mipha had said he would only have to wait five minutes.

Sidon had crept up to the room they were talking in, and pressed his head up against the door.

“Mipha, listen-” Zelda’s voice was cut over by Mipha’s.

“Princess, I know that being a champion is about protecting Hyrule,” Sidon’s eyes had widened as he realised that Mipha was crying, “But I also… what about my father? What about Sidon? If something happens to me… it will kill them.”

Sidon pulled away from the door. What could happen to Mipha that was so bad? Those words scared him.

So he’d hidden, huddled under a desk in Mipha’s private rooms. It had taken half an hour for someone to notice his absence. When his disappearance had been discovered, the Domain had been sent into a state of mass panic worrying about where their young prince was.

Mipha had very calmly walked into her chambers, sat down, and stared into space, humming a light, bouncy tune.

“What a pity about Prince Sidon’s disappearance,” She’d said loudly after a count of ten seconds, “I suppose he’ll have to miss out on dinner. And it was going to be such a nice meal too…”

When Sidon stayed hidden, Mipha had given an overexaggerated sigh.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing for it. I’ll just have to take his share-”

“HEY!” Sidon had crawled out from under the desk as his sister had feigned surprise and stifled giggles. Sidon had tackled her, and his sister had pulled him into a warm, comforting hug.

“Why were you hiding, Sidon?” Mipha had asked as Sidon snuggled into her chest.

“No reason.”

“Well, it made Father and Muzu very upset, so maybe you should come up with one.”

Sidon had been silent for a while.

“Are you going to die?” He’d asked eventually.

Mipha’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers.

“No, no! What would make you think that?” Mipha had cuddled him tight, but something in her voice had seemed forced.

“Because what if something happens when you’re saving Hyrule-”

“Oh, Sidon, don’t you worry about me,” Mipha had kissed the top of his head, “I’ll be fine, I promise. And you’ll be fine too.”

“How do you know?”

“Because… because we’re always safe here. Actually, Sidon, I have a very special job for you while I fight the calamity.”

“What is it?”

“You’re going to stay here and look after the Domain. Can I trust you to keep it safe for me?”

“Yeah!” Sidon had perked up, “I will, I promise!”

“Wonderful!” Mipha had smiled and given him one last hug before he wiggled out of his arms, “Now let’s go get some dinner. The Princess and Sir Link will be joining us-”

“YESSS!” Sidon had charged out of the room with a loud yell of joy, ready to eat and play and forget about all the threats and problems that Hyrule was facing.

“Your Majesty?” Vali’s voice derailed his train of thought, “Are you alright?”

“This can’t be happening again.” Sidon said quietly.

Link’s ears pricked up at Sidon’s words.

“Two times is enough,” Sidon’s voice shook a little, “I don’t want to deal with a third. I have too much on my plate as it is… if I am called on as a sage, I will be in completely over my head!”

“Your Majesty-” Meve began as Sidon paced back and forth, gesturing wildly.

“I am trying to run a kingdom and keep everyone safe,” Sidon listed, “Then the water starts hurting us, so half our population is suffering from electrocution and burns, so I have the water cut off and now we’re all getting sick, and Yona says we should just leave, but this is my home, and now-”

Sidon would have probably gone on, but as he reached the point about not wanting to leave, he burst into loud, uncontrolled tears.

“King Sidon!” Both the guards were immediately at his side.

Link felt a twinge in his heart watching Sidon sob and hyperventilate as the two guards fussed over him. He felt a tremendous need to comfort the Zora King, to see him smile brightly instead of crying like a scared child.

But that wasn’t the only reason it hurt to see Sidon’s tears. Because as Link crouched in the bushes, watching Sidon cry, for the first time in what felt like forever the thought crossed his mind that perhaps the rest of Hyrule wasn’t okay.

“Your Majesty, don’t cry, it’ll be alright!” Vali mentally debated how proper it would be to rub the king’s arm.

“Do you need a hug?” Meve asked.

“Meve!” Vali cried in indignation.

“What? He looks like he needs a hug!”

“I’m sorry,” Sidon blubbered, “You shouldn’t have to see your king like this…”

The two guards immediately started a disorganised chorus of ‘No’ and ‘It’s fine’, doing their best to reassure their king.

“Well... thank you,” Sidon smiled through his tears, “I suppose when a king cannot rely on his own strength, he must rely on that if his people.”

“Of course you must!” Vali decided that it was appropriate to give Sidon’s arm a small, comforting pat.

“We’re here for you, Your Majesty!” Meve smiled- then glanced around again.

Link quickly shrunk back into the bushes. He hadn’t even realised that he’d been peering over them to the point where he was half-visible.

“What’s wrong?” Sidon looked her directly in the eyes, worry and care for his subject taking over his own stress and strain.

“It’s that uneasy feeling again,” Meve looked around, “It almost feels like I’m being watched.”

Sidon and Vali both stared at her, then at each other.

“I... I don’t think we discussed any sensitive information.” Vali said.

“But if that’s an enemy spy and they know all my insecurities and worries-” Sidon cut himself off, wiping his eyes and taking deep breaths, composing himself and becoming completely stoic.

“Look around,” he said, “Find the eavesdropper.”

Link felt his heart begin to beat at a startlingly high speed as Sidon came walking directly towards his hiding place, scanning the area for intruders.

If Link didn’t move now then Sidon would be on top of him, but if he did Sidon would catch him immediately. He only had one good choice, and that was to make himself as small as possible and hope he didn’t get seen.

He huddled down in the shrubbery, thinking small thoughts, pretending he was a rock, whatever else he had to do to be inconspicuous.

Unfortunately, he achieved obscurity a little too well.

Sidon fully overlooked him, and Link could have gotten away completely unnoticed in an alternate timeline where the Zora King hadn’t stepped on him.

As Link felt the foot of a muscular male Zora about twice his height and at least three times his weight come down on his middle, he reacted in the most rational way to the scenario he was in and screamed at the top of his lungs.

Sidon shrieked too, and fell forward, arms windmilling, eyes wide with shock and panic. Link grabbed the Zora King’s waist in an attempt to stop him from falling, but, as previously stated, Sidon was at least three times Link’s weight, and the hylian simply fell with him.

The two crashed hard onto the side of the mountain, and rolled down the slope in a dizzying, bumpy, painful blur, only coming to a stop when they rammed into a large tree, which sent a torrent of apples down on them.

They both lay under the tree for a moment, battered, bruising, winded and more than a little motion sick.

“Oww...” Link managed with what little air was left in his lungs.

“I think I might throw up and then die.” Sidon sat upright, eyes dizzy and unfocused.

“Please don’t do that right next to me...” Link rubbed his grazed face.

“I... LINK!” Sidon shook his head, snapping himself back into focus, “What are you doing here?!”

“Wondering whether or not I just got a spinal injury...”

“You know you always do show up at the most serendipitous times!” Sidon cried, all his stress, grief and apparently his pain melting away at the sight of his friend, “Just now I was really thinking that I could use some help!”

“And I could use some help getting up.”

“And apart from business I am just SO happy to see you!” Sidon pulled Link into a tight hug, “It’s been far too long!”

“Sidon please I don’t need help cracking my ribs.”

“I missed you soooo much while you were- wait, are you okay?” Sidon pulled back, looking Link over, “Ohh no, you’re bleeding, hold on…”

As Sidon gently touched the cuts and already forming bruises on his friend’s face and arms, Link noticed that the Zora’s scales were dull and flaky, not shiny and durable like he remembered them.

Before he could comment on the substandard state of Sidon’s scales the two Zora guards came running down the mountainside, yelling for their king.

“KING SIDON!” Meve caught sight of them, and was at their side within seconds, “Are you- oh hi Link- Are you hurt?!”

“Me?” Sidon confirmed, “No, I’m not hurt. A little banged up, but okay. Link?”

Link was hurt. He’d just been stepped on, and rolled over by Sidon countless times before crashing into a tree. While Link’s own weight hadn’t done much to Sidon, the Zora King was much larger and heavier than Link, and it was a surprise that he wasn’t two dimensional after the tumble they’d taken.

Link wasn’t one for lengthy descriptions, but luckily he only needed one simple word to describe that experience: Ouch.

“I’m okay.” Link smiled despite his pain, trying to ignore his aching chest and all the various localised sites of agony all over his body.

“Good!” Sidon hugged him again as Vali caught up with them, hissing something along the lines of ‘how do you run that fast?' to Meve.

Link went tense, and Sidon let go of him, looking a little confused.

“Are... are you not happy to see me?” he asked, “I am very sorry for stepping on you, but you should have made yourself known. Wait... were you hiding from me? Why would you do that?”

Link couldn’t find words- because Sidon looked so sad and confused and Link didn’t know how to explain that he was actively avoiding him, yes, but also because pain was making it hard to think and his head was starting to spin.

“Unless...” Sidon went on, “Unless you were waiting for the right moment to surprise me! Because it has been so long since you last saw me, and you wanted us meeting again to be special!” Sidon gave Link yet another skeleton crushing hug, “Aww, Link, that is so sweet, but you should know that you don’t have to do anything for the return of my bestest friend in the whole world to be special!”

“I...” Link’s vision swam as Sidon’s hug managed to squeeze every part of his body that was sore and tender.

“And I knew I could count on you to help the Zora in our time of need!” Sidon stood up, brushing himself off and taking Link by the hand, “You must have heard about our water problem, I am so glad...”

As Link was pulled to his feet, Sidon’s voice faded out and a ringing in his ears took its place, his already blurry vision went black, and he seemed to fall into a dark, but strangely peaceful void.

Chapter Text

Ganondorf couldn’t sleep.

Usually when this happened he would find Riju and she would play with and talk to him until Buliara told them that it was past both their bedtimes and if the lamps weren’t out in five minutes there would be consequences and she didn’t CARE that they were both of higher standing than her, she was the one keeping them alive so they better listen to her.

And by the time that happened Ganondorf was so happy and drowsy that he could simply roll into bed and fall asleep.

But he wasn’t in the desert anymore, and Riju wasn’t here to play with him now.

When Ganondorf had heard descriptions of Hyrule Castle he’d imagined grandeur and greatness, a dazzling palace that had rooms the size of his hometown.

Those depictions failed to mention how cold and lonely the castle was.

After the Calamity it had been left behind, and around fifteen years of zero maintenance, along with the occasion instance of the castle getting ripped out of the ground, had not done the building any favours.

The once splendorous castle was crumbling, and Ganondorf felt as far away from a king as one could get.

He felt like a dirty, hungry, tired child huddling out of the rain in a ruined building, cradling a sleeping toddler and wishing he’d never left the desert. While Gerudo Town had sucked, Riju had always been there to make things better, and, although Buliara was tough on him, she never made him feel this miserable.

Zelda stirred in Ganondorf’s arms, beginning to fuss as she awoke.

“Hey, don’t cry.” Ganondorf tried to soothe her.

“Dad?” Zelda called out sleepily.

“You’ll see him soon.” Ganondorf had repeated this lie multiple times to the little girl, and he felt a heavy knot of guilt grow in his gut every time he told it.

“NO!” Zelda cried, sounding extremely frustrated and very upset, “NOW!”

Ganondorf sat there helplessly as she burst into tears, loud sobs echoing off the stone walls. He hated the sound of her misery, and flinched at the sight of her tears.

Oh, what could he do to cheer her up? She was still just a baby, maybe if he distracted her…

“Do you want some food?” He offered.

“NO!” Zelda bawled.

Drat. That usually worked.

“Let’s explore,” Ganondorf stood up, holding Zelda, but the little princess wriggled until he put her down, “Okay, walk by yourself then.”

Zelda still had to cling to Ganondorf’s hand as they navigated the unfamiliar castle, and she clung to him tighter as they went up and down stairs. She was still teary, but the more things that Ganondorf pointed to with over-exaggerated excitement, the less Zelda sobbed and whimpered.

As they walked into the library, Zelda gave a small squeal and pointed at a corner, “Look!”

Ganondorf turned to look where she was pointing, and gasped, his put-on exuberance becoming real.

Two tiny mouse-like creatures dressed in red and green were perched on a stack of books, looking back at Zelda and himself with wide, bright eyes. They chattered between themselves in a language Ganondorf didn’t understand.

“Fwends!” Zelda let go of Ganondorf’s hand, toddling towards the creatures.

The creatures didn’t run from her, in fact they looked excited as she plonked herself down next to the stack of books, at eye level with them, giggling with joy.

Ganondorf sat down beside her, a smile growing on his lips. These creatures, whatever they were, filled him with joy. He made a mental note to spare them when he took over the world.

He held out his hand, and one of the pair climbed onto it, speaking in it’s strange language. It barely weighed anything, and was about the size of Ganondorf’s thumb.

“You’re so cute.” Ganondorf whispered, eyes lighting up as the little thing held it’s miniscule hands up towards him.

He looked over at Zelda, who was laughing in utter delight as more of the little creatures began to pop their heads of bookshelves, cracks in the walls and other such hiding places.

They seemed to like Ganondorf and Zelda as much as the pair liked them, chirruping and chattering to each other joyfully.

Neither Zelda, nor Ganondorf, nor any of the little creatures noticed the thin silhouette slinking along the wall, keeping to the shadows and moving without making a sound, until-

“AIEEEEEEE!” Zelda squealed as she was scooped up roughly from behind, a sharp blade pressed under her tiny chin.

“NO!” Ganondorf cried out, the little creature in his palm leaping off in surprise as he jumped up and pulled the sword away from Zelda, knocking it out of her attacker’s arm and sending it skittering across the floor, “DON’T YOU DARE HURT HER, YOU-”

“King Ganondorf!” The Yiga assassin placed Zelda gently down and bowed, “I am sorry, I did not know attacking her would upset you!”

“Sel?” Ganondorf recognised the Yiga’s voice, “What are you doing here?”

“Master Kohga sends his apologies,” Sel was still bowing, “That he could not greet you himself. He has sent me to tell you that you have the Yiga Clan’s aid in your conquest of Hyrule.”

“Oh!” Ganondorf smiled, “Great!”

His night was definitely taking a turn for the better. From what Buliara had taught him, he knew the Yiga Clan was something to fear, and from what Sel had taught him, he knew the Yiga Clan was one of the most formidable forces in Hyrule. It was a great thing to have them on his side as he became king of the world.

But, more importantly, the Yiga Clan always had mighty bananas on them, and Ganondorf was starving.

“Hey, Sel?” Ganondorf asked.

“King Ganondorf?” The Yiga was still bowing.

“I’m hungry,” Ganondorf said, “Could you spare me and the princess some bananas?”

Sel finally straightened up, “Let us go to the kitchens,” He said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

As Ganondorf picked up the whimpering Zelda, his eyes fell again on the little mouse-like creatures. Now that he thought about it, Sel hadn’t seemed to notice them at all.

“Hey Sel?” Ganondorf picked up the one he had been holding before, “What’s this?”

Sel stared at the little creature on Ganondorf’s outstretched palm for a few moments.

“You insult my intelligence.” He growled.

“No, I’m not,” Ganondorf said, “C’mon, Sel, what is it?”

“Do not play your childish games with me, King Ganondorf,” Sel said sharply, “There is nothing there at all.”

He stalked off haughtily in the direction of the kitchens.

Chapter Text

“So, how much communication have you had with Sir Link over the past year?” Traysi asked.

“Who are you?” Purah didn’t look up from the large roll of paper that she was scribbling feverishly on.

“Traysi, former journalist for the Rumor Mill,” Traysi pointed to herself with a proud smile, “Now editor for the Lucky Clover Gazette.”

“Didn’t that close down years ago?” Purah’s eyes flicked up for a brief moment, then went back to her work.

“It’s not closed down,” Traysi forced a smile, “It just… hasn’t published for a few years.”

“’Kay, well,” Purah pushed her glasses up as they began to slip down her nose, “In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit busy right now. How did you even get in here?”

“Through the door.”

“Hah, funny,” Purah gave Traysi enough eye contact to communicate her lack of amusement, “I’m afraid that I won’t be of much use to you- the last time I saw him, he made it clear that he didn’t want to talk. Now, get out, I’m busy.”

As Traysi walked out of the lab, she began to scribble on her notepad: Hero cuts off friends. Why?

“That’s the question, isn’t it, Link?” She murmured, “I didn’t know you well, but I know you’re not the type to do that.”

Link came to lying on something warm and soft. This would have been nice, but the air around him was stifling. He shifted in discomfort, coughing and then crying out as pain shot through his chest.

“It’s okay, Link.” A soft feminine voice comforted him, one that sounded quite familiar…

Ah. So it had all been a bad dream that he was finally waking up from. Some terrible nightmare brought on by sickness, judging by how hot and pained he was, but it was okay, he was waking up…

“Don’t cry,” Her voice sounded so sweet as she brushed tears off his face, “I know it hurts, but you’ll feel better soon.”

Oh my darling, Link thought as he only cried harder, This physical pain is nothing compared to what I felt when I thought I’d lost you.

“Hey, hey, does it hurt that bad?” Link felt her gentle hands touch his own, “I thought you were mostly recovered, but Sidon did say you were knocked around quite a bit.”

Link’s eyes snapped open as the memories of falling down the mountainside came rushing back, and he realised that the voice he was hearing didn’t belong to Zelda.

He was lying on some blankets under the glittering roof of Zora’s Domain. He appeared to be in the sleeping chambers, though it looked rather different now that the pools had been drained. Despite it being a bright with daylight, the chamber was full of Zora- many in bandages.

While Zora’s Domain was usually cooled by the water that ran through it, the place was sweltering in its absence, and many of the Zora, both injured and healthy seemed to be suffering for it.

A light green female Zora was holding his hands in hers, watching him with concern in her eyes.

“Yona.” Link’s voice cracked.

“Link,” The Zora Queen smiled, letting go of his hands, “How are you feeling?”

“Bad,” Link rubbed his face, sitting up, wincing as his body ached, “How long have I…?”

“This is your second day asleep,” Yona said, “I am sorry that Sidon isn’t here, but he has his duties.”

“Don’t you have your duties too?” Link lay back down, trying not to think about how much time he had wasted while unconscious.

“I could only get Sidon to go back to work by telling him I would look after you.”

“Ah.”

There was a stretch of silence, which Link spent thinking hard.

He was exactly where he didn’t want to be. In Zora’s Domain, surrounded by his former friends, who believed he would go out of his way to help them. His daughter had been lost for three or four days now, so he couldn’t waste a moment longer, but now that he was properly in the grasp of Sidon and Yona he just might have to.

“Link?” Yona broke the silence, “Can I, on behalf of the Zora, ask you a favour?”

Oh. Here it came.

“What is it?” Link asked, hoping that Yona would be understanding if he refused to help.

“It might be a lot to ask, but I need you to tell Sidon to abandon Zora’s Domain.” Yona said.

Link stared at her blankly for a moment.

“What?!” He must have misheard the Zora Queen.

“I have tried to tell him over and over that we have to leave,” Yona said, “But he refuses to even consider it. He says that this is his home, that it means too much to leave behind. But everyday someone gets injured or falls ill due to the electric water and the heat. Our people are dying, Link, and if we stay here much longer then we will all perish.”

“So you want me to give your husband a reality check?” Link raised an eyebrow.

“Something like that,” Yona sighed, “Please, Link? He won’t listen to me, but he still might listen to you. We, the Zora, I mean, need you to at least try.”

“Queen Yona,” Link sat up slowly, wincing a little, “I will try my best.”

After one hundred and fifteen years Mipha’s private chambers still hadn’t changed. Her rooms had gone untouched since the day that Van Ruta had corrupted.

For the first hundred years the rooms had been left untouched in hope that Mipha wasn’t dead, that when Ruta was reclaimed the Zora princess would return to her people.

But when that hope had been shattered, and the logical thing to do was move on from their loss and either redistribute or do away with Mipha’s belongings, the Zora found that they couldn’t bear to do that.

And so Mipha’s chambers had been left frozen in time, a silent temple for a fair goddess that had fallen in battle over a century ago.

Sidon still came here when life got hard. He was now too big to hide under desks, but, thankfully, had grown out of that mentally as well. It was enough just to sit in the peace and quiet for a while, perhaps shedding a few tears or explaining his fears to the walls and the furniture.

He did both today.

“Oh, Mipha,” Sidon sobbed, “There’s not a day that goes past that I don’t wish you were here for. Especially now... you would know what to do. You always did.”

He wiped his eyes and continued.

“But... but Link has returned,” He smiled bittersweetly, “I am hoping he will be able to fix things like he did before. Actually, I am confident that he can! I just hope that he is confident enough himself. The death of the princess was hard on him.”

He sighed.

“Or maybe I am just projecting now,” he laughed sadly, “Well, I do feel marginally better now. Thankyou, Princess Mipha.”

Sidon got to his feet, made sure his face was completely dry, and, with one final wistful look around the room and one final wish that Mipha hadn’t had to go, he headed for the door.

Before he could touch the handle it turned as someone opened the door from the outside, and it swung open.

“Link!” Sidon smiled as he laid eyes on his friend. Link was battered, bruised and bandaged, but he was upright, a definite improvement on how he had been the last time the Zora King had seen him.

“Yona said I could find you here.” Link said stiffly.

“She was right!” Sidon felt all his fear and worry melt away, “I am very sorry about your injuries, if there’s anything I can do to make you feel better-”

“You need to take your people and leave Zora’s Domain.” Link spoke directly, straight to the point, a point Sidon found particularly pointy.

“... Excuse me?”

“You need to evacuate Zora’s Domain and find a new home, at least until the water problem is dealt with.” Link restated.

“I’m sorry,” For the first time ever, Link felt Sidon’s aura grow cold and stony, “When did I die and let you inherit my kingdom?”

“Not yet,” Link said, “But you may have to if you stay here. Your people are dying, Sidon.”

“And I am doing my best to fix that!” Sidon snapped.

“Well it’s not working!” Link snapped back.

“So you want me to give up?!”

“Well sometimes it’s the best option!”

“You must be out of your mind,” Sidon’s voice shook with anger, “If you think I will just leave my home like that. I made a promise-”

“OH, DON’T TELL ME ABOUT PROMISES!” Link yelled, and Sidon fell silent in surprise. The Zora King had never heard the little Hylian be so loud before.

“I made countless promises!” Link ranted, “First as a knight, then as a champion, then as a husband! It all means nothing in the end! Everything will die in time and then words are worth about as much as dirt!”

Sidon stared at Link in silence, shoulders tense, breathing heavy, jaw trembling.

“I promised Mipha-” Sidon began, eyes filling with tears.

“WELL SIDON SHE’S DEAD!”

Sidon’s mouth hung open as tears overflowed from his eyes.

“Oh, did someone forget to tell you?” Link snarled, a nasty sarcasm coming into his voice, “Perhaps you might want to know how she died. She died protecting her people- something that you’re failing disastrously to do.”

Link regretted each word as it passed his lips, but, oh, it was strangely therapeutic to watch someone else be in pain. He didn’t want Sidon to suffer, but to watch him suffer was like balm to a smarting wound.

Oh Hylia, WHAT was he doing? Hurting others to make himself feel better? Someone who valued him as a dear friend, no less.

“Sidon, I…” Link stammered, a crushing feeling of regret coming down on him, “I didn’t mean… please don’t cry…”

“‘Don’t cry’?” Link had never seen Sidon look so hurt, “‘DON’T CRY’?! And what, you didn’t mean anything by it?!”

“No, Sidon, I-”

“That’s KING Sidon to you!” Sidon shouted, seething and sobbing, “You… you… GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!”

Sidon slammed the door in Link’s face.

Link felt a wave of anger wash over him. He’d tried to apologise. But fine. If Sidon wanted to be like that, then fine.

He’d go.

Sidon could deal with his problems on his own.

Chapter Text

Riju couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding, and every muscle in her body burned. Sweat soaked her heaving, aching body, and if she couldn’t get water soon, she’d die of heatstroke and dehydration. It was too much effort to move-

“Stop being such a drama queen,” Buliara stood over her, arms folded, “You’ll have to get up if you want to get over the highlands by nightfall.”

“How far up are we again?” Riju gasped from where she lay on the cold rock, the only solace in this world of searing heat.

“We’re still at the bottom.” Buliara said.

Riju made a guttural noise of apathy.

“How would you feel about giving me a piggy-back ride?” She asked her guard nicely.

“I might say yes if you were still twelve.” Buliara didn’t sound too impressed with her chief.

“Maybe I should go back to town…” Riju closed her eyes.

“You’ll have to walk back.” Buliara was merciless.

Riju groaned and got to her feet.

“Alright,” She straightened up, facing the cliffs and mountains, “I think I can survive for another few yards.”

“That’s the spirit,” Buliara reached into the bag she’d packed and pulled out a length of rope, “We’ll be climbing for a while. Tie this around your waist.”

Riju did as she was told. Buliara inspected the knot, ensured that it was sound, and then tied the other end of the rope around her waist.

“Now, I’ll go first,” Buliara said, “But you will have to carry your own weight. Can you manage that?”

“I can try!”

“Reassuring,” Buliara dug her heels into the cliffside and began to climb, “Just… do your best not to fall.”

It took quite a while to scale the cliffs. Riju kept slipping and losing her footing, scraping her hands and knees, and occasionally lightly electrocuting Buliara on accident. About a quarter of the way up the Gerudo chief made the mistake of looking down and discovered the definition of ‘crippling acrophobia’, which meant Buliara was carrying dead weight during the five minutes it took for Riju to regain feeling in her limbs.

By the time they made it to the top of the Gerudo Highlands it was well into the afternoon.

“Let’s take a break.” Buliara sat down beside the exhausted Riju and pulled a hydromelon from her bag (Riju didn’t have the energy to question how it fit) and sliced it into quarters with her claymore. She handed one of the pieces to Riju who tucked into it, not giving a thought to what else that claymore had been used to cut in the past.

As she sat overlooking the desert she located Gerudo Town. Her home looked so small and insignificant down there in the vast expanses of sand.

“Buliara?” Riju got her guard’s attention, “Do you think the town will be okay without me?”

“Who did you leave in charge?”

“Risa. She’s the only one who volunteered.”

“Ah,” Buliara looked down at their desert home, “No. It’ll either get blown up or turned into a totalitarian dictatorship before we return.”

She stood up and began to survey the terrain on the other side of the highlands. Mountains, valleys, and rivers stretched out before them, a wide world of excitement and possibilities.

How was she to protect Riju from it all?

She looked down at her chief, and her heart dropped when she saw that Riju was silently wiping away tears.

“It was a joke,” Buliara said, “The town will be fine. Probably.”

“It’s not that,” Riju whimpered, “It’s… what if he’s hurt? Or sick? He could be dead in a ditch somewhere and I wouldn’t know.”

Buliara didn’t know what to say or do to comfort her, so she stood silently by as Riju fretted.

“What if he’s hungry? What if he eats something poisonous? What if he gets mugged? What if he’s freezing to death somewhere? What if he tries to make a fire and burns himself? What if he drowns? What if he gets caught in a storm? What if-”

“Chief Riju,” Buliara hushed her, “Don’t waste time and energy worrying. We should think about finding him before we think about the state we might find him in.”

“O-okay,” Riju wiped her eyes, taking in a few deep breaths, “Let’s go find him then.”

“Alright,” Buliara helped Riju to her feet, “We’ll be going downward this time-”

“Actually why don’t we stay up here for a while?”

“And that’s why Sidon and I aren’t friends anymore.” Link finished recounting.

Epona gave a loud huff.

“I know!” Link cried, “I tried to apologise but he just went off at me!”

Epona whinnied.

“You’re right,” Link sighed, “I did kind of deserve it…”

Epona nickered softly.

“Wha- no I’m not going back! I already tried saying sorry and I got yelled at- Oooh, Epona, stop!”

Link pulled Epona up next to a structure identical to that of the shrine he’d found in Lanayru.

“Wait here girl,” He dismounted, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

He stepped towards the shrine, and the ground shift under his feet, and the door creaked open. He was hit with an ongoing blast of strong wind that sent him hurtling backwards. He landed in the dirt a few feet away.

“Ack!” Link brushed himself off and got to his feet, shielding his face from the relentless wind.

He began to walk slowly towards the shrine, hair streaming back, eyes watering as the force of the gale stung them.

Even if the tears in his eyes weren’t born of emotion, it still felt good to cry.

Link stumbled back to the shrine, hunched over and half blinded. As he made his way inside and the door closed behind him, he found himself stuck in the dark, in what seemed to be a shrine that contained a hurricane.

Over the howling wind he heard a voice. It spoke the words that Link had heard in the previous shrine, but it was different… younger, more childish.

Hello, Hero of the Wild. We offer you this challenge to enhance your mind and body for the day when you fight our shared foe. We believe and put our trust in you.

Oh wonderful. Now Link had a kid putting his faith in him when he couldn’t even stand up straight because of a strong breeze.

As the shrine began to light up Link blinked the liquid from his eyes and looked around.

Before him was a pool of water with a small sailboat in it, facing some sort of obstacle course constructed from barrels, wooden poles and flags.

Directly in front of Link was a plinth bearing an inscription and a slim silver wandlike baton. It was surprising that the instrument hadn’t been picked up and blown away by the wind.

He approached the plinth and read the inscription.

This is a powerful instrument called the Wind Waker. It can be used to control the direction of the wind and harness the power of the gods. To change the direction of the wind in your favour simply raise it upward, then move it left, then to the right.

Once you have changed the direction of the wind use the raft to manoeuvre through the obstacles.

Link picked up the Wind Waker, following the instructions on how to use it. As he did so he heard a powerful, swelling music, seemingly from the air around him.

The overpowering wind began to shift, and Link willed it to change so that it was coming from behind him instead.

He ran to the sailboat as its sails filled, jumping onto the little boat as it began to speed towards the obstacles. Link gripped the ropes just in time to remember that he didn’t know how to sail.

Well, he knew how to make a raft go with a korok leaf, but that wasn’t sailing sailing.

He felt a hard thwack over the head as the sail swung around and the boom clocked him right in the cranium.

He almost fell over the side of the boat, but his foot caught in a strap on the inside of the hull, and he gripped one of the ropes attached to the sail as he hung desperately off the side of the boat.

This actually helped, as while he felt his core muscles seize up and he only just managed to balance, his weight on the side of the boat caused it to manoeuvre sharply around a barrel it would have otherwise crashed into.

Link tumbled back into the boat, grabbing wildly for something to balance with. He gripped the rudder stick, which turned the boat’s course just before it rammed into a flagpole.

The rope began to slip out of Link’s hand, and he fastened his grip on it, pulling it back, holding it tight, and as he did so the sail went tight and the boat sailed straight through the finish line and rammed into the edge of the pool, Link tumbling out. He lay of the cold floor beside another plinth for a few moments, breathing heavily and wincing as the adrenaline left his body and the pain from his injuries returned anew.

Eventually he pulled himself to his feet and brushed himself off, checking his body over to make sure he was still all intact.

“I don’t think I really deserve whatever this is.” Link hoped against hope that he’d never have to sail again as he touched the glowing green orb resting on the plinth.

Congratulations on completing this trial, the child’s voice spoke again and Link chuckled a little at being congratulated for being so clumsy that he’d inadvertently learned to sail, Please accept this Hero’s Token.

As Link touched the orb it absorbed into his fingers, and he felt a warmth spread through his body. Before he had quite realised what had happened, he was standing outside the shrine in the bright daylight, Epona at his side.

He felt through his pockets and found the Wind Waker still in his possession. Such a strange instrument, like one he’d never seen before, yet it felt oddly familiar to hold.

Oh well, he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Between his memory of Zelda, the shrines, Sidon and the Wind Waker he’d almost forgotten that he was out here to find his daughter. Almost.

“C’mon girl,” Link mounted Epona and they went off again, “No more distractions. We don’t stop until we find her.”

Chapter Text

Link lay awake, gazing up at the stars. His body needed to sleep, but his mind couldn’t.

So much had happened during the day that all he could do now was lie in silence, rotating it all in his head. As he mulled over the same things again and again, he built up grief and rage to the point where he was wide awake and distraught.

This wasn’t the first night he’d spent in this state. The past year had been filled with nights like these, lying in bed and questioning why everything had to be the way that it was. It was either that or heavy sleep that tormented him with dreams that tended to resemble nightmares, ones that couldn’t wake up from until he was sitting bolt upright screaming Zelda’s name and clawing desperately at thin air.

He didn’t know whether the conscious or subconscious torture was worse.

Link massaged his jaw, trying to relax the muscles around his cheeks and mouth, trying to let his jaw go slack and let the tension in his face loosen up. He tried not to think of clenching and grinding his teeth, but that added more thoughts for his mind to toss around.

“Why me?” He asked to the open air and the sleeping Epona, “Why did it have to be me? It could have been anyone else.”

Link could have been the most regular of Hylians, an average civilian without worries and responsibilities beyond his farm and family, and no one would place expectations on him beyond his small piece of the world.

But then he would never have met her.

And that was something very hard to imagine. A world where Link didn’t have her... He couldn’t believe something like that could exist.

Which was why he didn’t believe it now it was true.

He couldn’t remember it. No matter how much he tried he couldn’t recall the moment where her hand had gone stiff and cold in his.

What he could remember was the painful months before that. He remembered how pale she had been, how he’d had to hold her as she held the baby for the first time. He remembered being told that she would regain her strength and be up and about again soon.

He remembered how, despite her fragility, her eyes had sparkled as she talked about all the things they would do now the they had a child. He remembered her bright smiles as she sat, propped up on pillows, cuddling baby or reading or talking to him, and he remembered after a few weeks those smiles becoming tight and wan, an anxiety taking over that joy she had radiated.

He remembered her complaints of pain, how nothing helped. He remembered how the time she slept for became longer and longer. He remembered her hands shaking so much that she couldn’t feed herself, and how he’d sat by her sickbed and carefully spooned small portions of food into her mouth.

He remembered when she got too weak to even smile at their daughter.

He remembered how someone had placed a blanket over his shoulders as he held her limp hand in his, praying to Hylia that he could give her a little of his strength, that he could keep her alive.

All these memories danced over and over again in his head, causing an agony that was nothing compared to his own death.

Despite Buliara’s advice not to worry, Riju couldn’t do anything but lie awake and fret silently. She tossed and turned as images of all the ways her boy could die tortured her without mercy.

And anxiety wasn’t her worst tormenter.

Guilt stabbed her cruelly over and over again with accusations of failure. Content and satisfied children didn’t run away from home like he had.

Where had she gone wrong? Had she failed to provide for him? Had the attention she’d given him been inadequate? Had she not understood what he needed?

She had always thought he was happy. He had laughed and smiled, bright as the desert sun.

Perhaps she’d sheltered him too much. She’d let Buliara teach him some basic hunting skills, but had otherwise kept him away from weapons. She’d kept him hidden from the world outside of Gerudo Town, and she’d kept him from learning the history of their people. Perhaps she’d been a little too protective, but apparently that hadn’t been enough to protect him from…

She refused to think of it as his destiny.

Sidon paced up and down the throne room, cold and pale in the glow of the luminous stones that the Domain was so artfully crafted with. The otherwise empty room was so beautiful it hurt. How could Sidon leave this, any of this, behind?

“Darling?”

Sidon froze as Yona peeked in, her soft voice making his whole frame go tense.

“You should be asleep.” Yona approached him gingerly, her tone mild.

“So should you.” Sidon replied stonily.

Yona didn’t even flinch at her husband’s prickly response.

“Look, I’m sorry about what happened with Link,” Yona took his hand in hers, “And I know that you are angry and upset right now, but we still need to talk-”

“Am I a bad king?” Sidon cut over her.

Yona was silent.

“Yona, please,” Sidon’s voice was husky with tears, “Be honest with me. Have I failed? Am I a bad king?”

The Zora Queen spent a moment in thought, eyes fixed on Sidon’s hand in hers.

“I cannot tell you if you are a bad ruler or not,” Yona’s voice quavered as she looked up to meet his eyes, “That will be decided over the course of your reign. But I can tell you that you are a kind king. You are a king who cares about his people. You are a king that will do his best.”

“But I am a selfish king.”

“Perhaps. But that is your choice.”

The throne room was silent for a small eternity. Sidon cupped Yona’s face in his hands, gazing into her eyes as if trying to express all his emotional anguish telepathically.

“I am so tired.” Sidon turned his head away from her, rubbing his face.

“I know you are.” Yona took her husband by the arm and led him out of the throne room, “We can talk more tomorrow. Right now, we rest.”

Purah sat up in the lab long after she should have gone to bed. It was getting to a point where, even with her glasses, her vision was blurry, and her eyes wanted nothing but to rest. She was surrounded by notes, sketches, and the empty wrappers of energizing honey candies.

She popped another candy into her mouth, tossing aside the wrapper and picking up a pencil as the sugar hit rejuvenated her crashing stamina.

“This is a bad idea,” she looked over her notes, “This is a terrible idea.”

Purah adjusted her glasses and squinted at her sketches.

“But it could work.”

Chapter Text

“Can you play with me?”

Sel looked up to see an expectant young gerudo child bouncing up and down on his heels with energy.

“Can you not play with the girl?” Sel asked gruffly.

“She’s asleep,” Ganondorf said, “Besides, she’d too little to play properly. And I’m bored.”

“Find a way to amuse yourself, then.”

“I am! I’m asking you to play with me!”

Sel sighed heavily. To be of the Yiga Clan was a great honor, but at what cost? He did not become a blademaster to be sent to babysit the Great King of Evil.

“What sort of game do you want to involve me in?” He asked.

Ganondorf stood still for a moment, giving Sel a blank, innocent look, before reaching out and lightly tapping him on the shoulder.

“You’re it.” He stated, then turned and dashed down the hallway giggling in delight.

“You little-” Sel jumped to his feet. This was not just some frivolity for children, it was an insult to his title and training. Not just that, an insult to the entire Yiga Clan as well! Oh, he would show the young rascal. That little hellion would be ‘it’. Sel would make sure of that.

He gave chase, with all the skill of a warrior and fleetness of an assassin. He swiped at Ganondorf, but the boy dodged him with an impish laughter that enraged the blademaster.

“I’ll get you, boy!” Sel growled.

“I’d like to see you try!”

 Ganondorf turned back to give a mischievous grin to the Yiga just as they came to a flight of stairs leading down to a lower level of the castle. His foot missed the first step, and his smile turned to a wide-eyed look of horror as he fell.

The child rolled to the foot of the stairs and sat up, gasping in pain.

Sel leapt over the stairs and landed beside Ganondorf, about to tag him triumphantly when he noticed a patch of red blooming across the fabric of the boy’s left pant leg.

Ganondorf noticed it too, and his eyes filled with tears, his lips beginning to shake.

“No- Don’t-” Before Sel could stop him, Ganondorf began to wail at the top of his lungs.

Sel swore under his breath, scooping up the injured boy and carrying him to the top of the stairs as he shrieked like he was being burned alive.

“It is just a scrape, King Ganondorf,” Sel did not put much effort into consoling the screaming child, “Not a dismemberment.”

“It stings!!!”

“I should think the Demon King could deal with a little pain.”

Ganondorf fell silent as Sel placed him down at the top of the stairs. Sel was right. He was the King of Evil. He would not be weak. He would not embarrass himself because of a little graze. He hadn’t left the desert to continue being a wimp.

He held back tears of pain as he pictured how the other Gerudo children would laugh if they saw his tears.

Oh Hylia, let them laugh. It wouldn’t be long before he wiped those smug smiles of their faces.

The further he travelled, the more Link noticed something was amiss.

He hadn’t really thought much of it at first, as he hadn’t been meticulously picking up every stone that he came across, nor had he been searching for elusive yellow flowers, but the more he explored the more he noticed something was absent.

“We should have at least found a few koroks by now.” Link thought aloud to Epona as they trotted North of the Lanayru wetlands, taking the route around the mountains (and Zora’s Domain). As they got further away from the cool Lanayru region, Link found it getting hotter and drier. This made sense; he was approaching Eldin.

Link had a hunch as to why he could no longer see the children of the forest. Whatever it took to see them, whether it was to be pure of heart, or possess the champion’s spirit, or something else entirely, it had died with Zelda. So much of Link had died with her… he blinked back tears as he surveyed the land around him.

As Link scanned the terrain he noted that he was just across the river from Crenel Peak- but that couldn’t be right! That would mean that he was just East of Hyrule Field, but it felt much more like the environment around Death Mountain than it did the temperate grasslands surrounding Lookout Landing.

“This is…” Link frowned, “This is unnatural.”

Link slowed Epona down to a walk, studying the abnormally arid ecosystem. The grass had gone dry and brown, so that even a spark could send the whole area ablaze. The soil the grass grew in wasn’t much better- cracked and crumbling from a lack of moisture. Lizards seemed to be everywhere, enjoying the abnormal heat and the baked soil. Epona began to get antsy as flies harassed her, neighing loudly as she lashed her tail and bit at the insects in the air.

“It’s like the place has been drained dry,” Link murmured, “But by what?”

He continued on through the desertified land, unsure of what to look for to understand this strange change in climate.

Oh, if only Zelda was here. She loved this sort of thing. She would have an explanation for why all that was green had withered in this drought. She would know when the rain would come again. She would understand what this wasteland would need if it was to become a thriving meadow once more.

But Link didn’t.

His hands were slack on the reigns, but Epona continued on, following the river. Link didn’t notice how the river got shallower and more muddy the further they went, until at last he looked around to see that it had been reduced to a few stagnant puddles in a dry riverbed.

“What is hap-” Link cut himself off as he looked up to see the Lost Woods before him, dry and wilting, the river that usually surrounded it bone dry, large tree roots that were once submerged in cool water now exposed to the bright sun. Link stared at the empty river and the withering forest, completely motionless, unaware of all that was going on around him.

“Link?!” A voice behind him snapped him out of his unperceptive state.

He jumped where he sat in the saddle, which cased Epona to spook a little, but Link placed a hand on her neck to stop her from panicking. He turned in the saddle to see General Hoz running towards him, followed by a few soldiers, all battered and soaking wet.

“Link, it must be an act of Hylia that you’re here right now,” Hoz skidded to a halt beside Epona, doubled over and out of breath, pointing wildly in the direction of the volcano that loomed not too far away, “That water… it’s alive.”

Chapter Text

Hateno Village was such a peaceful, unassuming locale, Traysi reflected, just a town of farmers and fashionistas in East Necluda. But despite its insignificance it was where the hero of Hyrule had made his home, so to Hateno Traysi went.

She nodded and smiled to the various residents she passed on her way up to the house overlooking the town- a cottage just as unassuming as the townspeople she walked by.

Traysi considered herself and Link to be on good terms. There had never been any cause for him to dislike her. She had some hope that, if the hero was home, he wouldn’t immediately slam the door in her face. Although, with what little information she had gotten out of Purah, Traysi wasn’t optimistic.

Nevertheless, the journalist walked through Hateno Village with a confident smile on her face. She knew she could get something for her ground-breaking return article here in Link’s hometown, even if it wasn’t an interview with the man, the myth and the legend himself.

“Are you looking for the hero?” A woman asked Traysi as she turned to walk the road up to Link’s house.

“Uh... yes!” Traysi smiled.

“Well, you’re wasting your time. He’s been gone for days.”

“Oh,” Traysi’s bright attitude deflated a little, “Do you know where he went?”

“No clue. I wouldn’t go looking for him if I were you, hon, he’s not going to help you with whatever you’re wanting him for.”

“What do you mean?” Traysi raised an eyebrow. She’d always thought very highly of Link and his heroic attitude. This woman’s description of him felt like a direct betrayal of what she knew him to be.

“Hylia, lady, have you been living under a rock?” The woman put her hands on her hips, “Link has given up on heroism since the princess died-”

“He can’t have!” the woman looked rather taken aback as Traysi cut over her, “I don’t believe a word you say about Link! He’s grieving, yes, but he’s still... he’s still a hero.”

“Well, at least someone’s optimistic,” the woman gave Traysi a critical look, “But I’m telling you, sweetheart, whatever legend you believe in is gone.”

“It’s surrounding Goron City like a dome,” Hoz explained as Link handed him a bowl of creamy meat soup, “Some gorons managed to escape, but some were drowned, and most are stranded around the mines at the base of Death Mountain. We met a goron who escaped, and he told us that he saw the water moving overland like some sort of ball. It’s so strange… it’s not like anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Link didn’t reply, busying himself with serving the other soldiers.

Seeing that Link wasn’t going to acknowledge what he had just said, Hoz sighed and continued.

“The threat took us by surprise, but we plan to go back tomorrow,” He said, “To try and evacuate the Gorons. I think you-”

“I won’t be coming.” Link snapped.

“...Of course, that’s fine.” Hoz looked down at his soup, “Thankyou for the meal.”

“You’re welcome,” Link sat down with his own bowl, “Thankyou... for giving me someone to eat with.”

Hoz looked up at this strange choice of words, but Link wouldn’t meet his eyes.

The General supposed it would have been a while since Link had shared a meal with someone close to his own age.

“Link?” Hoz asked, “If you don’t mind me asking... do you...”

“Do I what?” Link snapped.

“Do you get lonely?”

Link looked down at the bowl in his lap, lips parting and then closing again.

“I just think... you’ve been keeping your distance from everyone for so long, and that’s not good for a person. If you’re feeling isolated because of... well everything, you have friends that care about you. You know there are so many people who want to make you feel better-”

“Hoz, just stop.” Link cut over him, some deeply pained expression coming to his eyes.

“Sorry,” Hoz said, “But you should consider reconnecting. Or you could get a pet. I’ve been told that helps with grief- Link, where are you going?”

Link walked away from the light of the campfire, into the dark hills. Nightfall had made the hot land get cooler, but in no way was it drier. The only moisture on the ground was the salty water that fell from Link’s eyes.

Hoz had meant well, but all he had done was bring up memories too painful to bear...

“You can fight calamities, tame divine beasts and defeat the demon king himself,” Zelda smirked, “But you’re scared of a cucco?!”

“Don’t laugh, you have no idea what those things have done to me!” Link snapped back at her from where he crouched behind a chair, peeking over the backing as the princess calmly shooed the farm bird out of their house. Link possessed the Triforce of courage, but that was nothing compared to what Zelda had.

The cucco barely paid the princess any heed, clucking as it wandered around the bottom floor of the house. Link ducked further behind his chair as the cucco approached him, and to his shock, Zelda picked up the demon bird.

“Hey, c’mon,” she cooed to the cucco as she carried to the door, “Out you go. Back to where you came from.”

Link stood up as Zelda placed the cucco outside and closed the door. She smiled at him.

“It’s not so bad!” Zelda said, “They’re very nice if you respect them.”

“There are some things that I will never understand about you.” Link had said, and Zelda laughed.

“Maybe I’ll get some as pets!” She giggled, “I’ve been wanting to study exposure therapy for a while now!”

Link had smiled at her teasing- but at that moment he realised there was something in Zelda’s tone that wasn’t quite happy. It kept nagging him throughout the rest of the day, this sense that Zelda was unhappy in some way.

And then, that night, long after Zelda had fallen asleep while Link stared up at the ceiling trying to work out what was the matter with the woman he was lying beside, it hit him: Zelda wanted a pet.

It would make sense. He had memories from before the calamity of them riding together, and Zelda seemed to take great joy in bonding with her horse back then. And she loved when they went to the stable for Epona, and would leave Link astonished by the sheer number of carrots she collected for his horse.

Throughout the next couple weeks, Link watched Zelda closely whenever there was an animal within their general vicinity. She always gave any dogs or horses she saw so many pats, and would excitedly point and notify Link when she saw wild animals like foxes and squirrels. Link sometimes had to stop her from giving the foxes pats.

A few weeks after Link’s initial realisation he’d been down at the stable alone, Zelda having gone out to Gerudo Town for some diplomatic visit, insisting that Link stay back in order to, quote, ‘reduce any tension created by having a man with me’. Link knew this was her way of delicately putting that she wanted some girl time, but he didn’t argue. He just warned her that if she swallowed anymore secret stones like the last time he took his eyes off her for more than five minutes they would be having words.

As Link approached the counter, the stable owner had asked if Zelda had come with him. When Link had told him no, the princess was out for the week, he had sighed and said, “Well, that’s a shame. One of our dogs had puppies not too long ago, and they’re getting old enough for us to start thinking about finding them homes. I know how much the princess liked them, and I was wondering if-”

“Yes. We will absolutely take one.”

Zelda returned late at night a few days later to find Link sitting up in bed waiting for her, a bundle of blankets on his lap. She hadn’t thought much of it, and had dumped her travelling bags on the floor and sunk into a chair with a weary sigh.

“Riju was acting kind of strange.” Zelda said.

“Hello, I love you too.” Link had smirked.

“Yes, Hello, Link, but I got the impression that she was lying to me about something,” Zelda continued, “She seemed very tense whenever we talked, and we barely spent any time in the palace. She took me out for meals and had me stay at the inn- which is professional, yes, but not quite Riju’s style.”

“Maybe she’s hiding a man.” Link chuckled.

“Riju wouldn’t. If she found herself a lover, she’d make it so he was allowed to stay in town. And I can’t think why she-”

Zelda was cut off by a loud yap.

She ran upstairs at a speed Link had seen only once before, when he had fought Thunderblight Ganon. Her eyes widened as she saw the blankets on Link’s lap wriggling around.

“Link,” She pointed at the squirming blankets, “What is that?”

“It may be the puppy I bought while you were out.”

Zelda gave an excited scream, jumping onto the bed as Link let the puppy free. It tumbled into Zelda’s lap, and they shared the wiggliest cuddle in the history of Hyrule.

“Can we keep him?!” Zelda laughed as the little dog climbed on her stomach, licking her chin.

“Of course!” Link said.

“Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!” Zelda hugged Link with one arm, the other preoccupied with dog, “Thankyou so much!”

“What are you going to name him?”

“I can name him!?!???!”

“You better, because all I could come up with was ‘Spot’.”

“I’ll call him Rogu!”

Time went by, and Rogu grew bigger and stronger. While Link had gotten him for Zelda, he loved the dog as well. Rogu would follow him around wherever he went, ‘help’ him with all matter of tasks and barked at anything that might pose a threat to his Hylians.

After Rogu had been a part of their lives for almost five years he suddenly ran off during a thunderstorm. Link and Zelda had run through the rain calling his name for hours on end, and eventually gave up, hoping that Rogu was hiding somewhere and would return after the storm died down.

He did, a few days later. Zelda had found him on the curled up on the doorstep, and had at first been too overjoyed to notice the blood matted in his fur.

It was unclear what had injured him. He was covered in bites and scratches, so the best bet was that he’d run afoul of some wolves and limped home after a lost fight. It didn’t really matter though- what mattered was that he was dying.

Link and Zelda hugged each other for hours on end, their tears intermingling, neither saying a word. The next morning, in the cold grey mist, Link dug a dog sized-grave. It was only after they lowered Rogu’s cold stiff body into the hole that Link managed to find words.

“We can get another dog.” He said to Zelda as she stood, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

“No.” She replied, “I don’t want another dog.”

So they didn’t get another dog.

Link stood in the dark. It had been five years since that had happened. He’d had plenty of time to process. But, Hylia, it still hurt.

Especially now.

Something he wondered about a lot was if Rogu and Zelda were back together again. That was a thought that made the pain bearable. That there could be a day when they were all back together. Him and Zelda. And their dog. And one day their daughter. And everyone else they’d ever lost too. Maybe he could see the champions again. Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa... Revali.

The thought of an eternity spent with Revali was enough to make Link grimace, and then laugh through his tears.

Oh Hylia. His soul hurt. And Hoz was right- he was alone.

He should go back to Zora’s Domain, talk to Sidon, make things okay. He should help his friends. They needed him. He needed them.

But first he had to get his daughter back. Above all things, that was the most important.

“Tomorrow.” Link said, lying down right there in the dirt, “Tomorrow, I will find her.”

And the exhausted hero fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“If you see Yunobo, tell him that I’ll be back within the week,” Link told Hoz as he and the soldiers went their separate ways, “Tell him that I will come to help as soon as I can.”

“Sure thing,” Hoz smiled at Link’s sudden change of attitude. He didn’t know what the hero had done after he’d stormed off last night, but he’d come back much brighter and more energetic, “We’ll do our best to evacuate all the gorons, and fight the… water.”

“I wish you luck,” Link mounted Epona, “See you down the track.”

He rode West at a quick pace with a newfound energy- or perhaps an energy he hadn’t experienced in quite some time. He breathed deeply, taking in the warm dry air that rushed past his face, heart thumping to the beat of Epona’s hooves.

“I’m going to save Hyrule, Epona!” Link exclaimed like a small child announcing to his mother that he was going to the moon, “I’m going to save-”

His heart dropped as he felt Epona suddenly go limp beneath him. The mare dropped onto the dirt road, and Link skidded off her back into the gravelly sediment.

“Epona!” He got to his feet, ignoring his own grazes to stumble to Epona’s head.

Her sides were heaving, but free from sweat. Link gently pinched some of the skin on her shoulder into the form of a little tent, and then released it. When it didn’t snap back to its original smoothness, Link felt a sense of panic wash over him.

“Why haven’t you been drinking?” He demanded to the horse, and then wanted to kick himself. There was no water anywhere here. Epona must be as parched as Spectacle Rock.

Hoz had given him a canteen full of water for the rest of his journey, and now Link reached for it, pouring some of the water into his cupped hand and holding it near Epona’s mouth. She licked at his hand, but most of the water slipped through his fingers, hydrating the cracked ground rather than the horse.

“I’m so sorry Epona,” Link sobbed as he repeated this process until the canteen was completely empty, and Epona was trying to drink from the small muddy puddle that the lost water had created, “I should have never let it come to this. This is all my fault...”

He stood up, tugging on Epona’s reigns.

“Please get up girl!” Link cried, “Just to the next stable, please. We’ll get you water, I promise!”

He didn’t know how long he spent in futile toiling, trying to get his horse up. Eventually he fell to his knees, exhausted from pushing and shoving her unmoving body, and distraught and stressed and in tears.

The air buzzed with the sound of insects as the sun climbed higher and higher in the sky. The salty taste of his tears and sweat intermingling left Link’s mouth dry, and his body began to ache for water. Water, which he, in his own stupidity and lack of foresight, had wasted trying to save his horse.

The effects of dehydration and heat came on fast, and as Link tried to stand he stumbled, his head reeling, vision swimming.

And then with a painful jab of hindsight he realised that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had anything to eat or drink. He hadn’t even ended up taking one mouthful of the soup last night, and then when was the last time he’d even had food before that?

Had he eaten anything since he’d left Zora’s Domain? He honestly couldn’t remember the last time food had passed his lips.

“I am so stupid.” Link lay down, resting his head against Epona’s overheated shoulders, “I’ve really done it now Epona... I’ve really done it now.”

He shielded his face from the sun with his right arm, trying to summon the strength to get up again, trying to ignore the throbbing of this head and fight off the crippling weakness overtaking his body.

“I’m sorry...” Link said faintly, eyes fluttering shut.

“Link?”

His eyes snapped open at the sound of a vaguely familiar voice calling his name.

“Beedle...?” Link could barely believe his eyes as he saw the silhouette of the distinctive, disproportionately large backpack.

“What are you doing out here?”

“I…” Link coughed, reaching upwards to the travelling merchant, “…Help me…”

“ROBBIE.” Purah burst into the Hateno Village Lab wearing stain-covered house clothes that looked like they’d been slept in, with a large bundle of rolled up papers under one arm, a bag with notebooks and paper haphazardly shoved into it slung over her shoulder, hair messily done up in an unkempt bun, and a wild look in her eyes.

Robbie almost jumped out of his skin. He dropped a small mechanism he was holding, and it smashed on the floor, springs and gears rolling everywhere.

“NOOOO IT’S RUINED!!!” Robbie ran his hands through his already wild hair, mourning his lost invention.

“That doesn’t matter now,” Purah marched over to the nearest table, pushed everything off it, and spread out her largest roll of paper, “This! This is all that matters now!”

“Oh good Hylia, she’s doing it again.” Robbie knew this mood of Purah’s well, as he was usually the one who fell victim to it, “Purah, when was the last time you slept?”

“Sleep is unimportant!” Purah’s voice was hoarse, and she spoke in loud, bombastic tone that was uncharacteristic of her normal state, “Beside, I have no time for rest in such times as these, when the world needs us more than ever! It appears Ganon has returned, but I have found a way to combat him!”

“Oh?”

“Oh, yes, Robbie,” Purah’s eyes glittered with creative insanity, “You remember the Divine Beasts.”

“NO-”

“All we have to do is use my Purah Pad tech and create a new Divine Beast and blast the Demon King into oblivion once again!”

“Purah, this is a terrible idea,” Robbie couldn’t believe he was being the voice of reason here, “Remember what happened to the original Divine Beasts? If this version of Ganondorf or his malice has any semblance of a memory of the calamity... well, he won’t be the one getting blasted into oblivion.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Purah said, “This is a terrible idea.”

“Then why would you even consider it?!”

“Because it could work.”

“Purah...”

“Well do you have a better option?! Link isn’t going to save us, he’s made that clear enough, and if we just sit here we’ll doom ourselves, and the entirety of Hyrule! We have the ability to do something, Robbie, and we’re not going to make our chances better by sitting on our hands! So let’s go try and save Hyrule! It’ll be better to die trying than die cowards!”

Purah’s eyes went from glistening madly to burning with emotion.

“Okay,” Robbie conceded, “Let’s die trying.”

“This place is… so empty.”

The Great Plateau was an isolated and empty place… and so deeply reverent. Riju felt like she was desecrating some sacred site just by being there. Like just by breathing she was disturbing something holy, like her voice was a harsh interruption to the hallowed silence.

Buliara was not so sensitive.

“You’re right,” She said, with no regard for how loud she was, “I don’t think he’s here. I don’t think he could get up here, anyway.”

“Hmm,” Riju looked around. Buliara did seem to be right, there was no sign of life other than the herons and squirrels that darted away shyly if the two women came too close, but as she surveyed the terrain something caught her eye, “There,” she pointed to a run down building that, while it had seen better days, still looked regal as it starkly contrasted the natural beauty of the plateau with it’s tall stone towers and long glass windows, “If he’s anywhere on this plateau, he’s in there.”

“How do you know?” Buliara asked as Riju set off towards the ruin.

“He always liked things that looked big and grand.”

“And you still think he doesn’t possess the Triforce of Power?”

Riju either didn’t hear Buliara or decided to ignore her as she ran off in the direction of the ruin.

The gerudo chief found weathered, mossy stairs leading up to the building. This place seemed so still and empty, but their could be a chance that he was here, there had to be a chance that he was here.

Should she call his name? She decided against it. If she yelled for him, he might run from her again.

But why would he run from her in the first place? The thoughts that ate Riju up inside began to gnaw again. What had she done so wrong that he would leave like he had?

Riju’s head was weighed down as she walked up the last flight of stairs, but as she stepped through the tall stone archway and into the ruin’s main building the thoughts holding her culpable were momentarily drowned out by wonder.

A wall and half of the roof had crumbled away, letting sunlight flood into the long hall. Long grass had overtaken the floor, and vines had dominated the stone walls. At the opposite end of this chapel-like building was a staircase leading up to a large statue of a winged woman- a depiction of the goddess Hylia.

“Did you find him?” Buliara asked, stepping into the doorway behind her chief.

“No.” Riju felt all her anxiety and remorse come flooding back.

Buliara watched as she walked further into the ruin, closer to the goddess statue.

“I wonder if… if the goddess could give us guidance,” she said, “Maybe she could give us something that could lead us to him.”

“Who? Hylia? She probably despises us gerudo. We are the people of the demon king, after all,” Buliara scowled at the statue, “And even if she would help us, she would not want to have anything to do with assisting him.”

“HE’S NOT GANONDORF!”

Buliara had never heard Riju yell so loudly. She didn’t think that such volume could come from so small a woman.

Riju spun to face her, eyes bubbling with tears.

“YOU’VE HATED HIM FROM THE DAY HE WAS BORN!” She sobbed angrily, “YOU NEVER EVEN GAVE HIM A CHANCE TO PROVE THAT HE WAS GOOD, YOU MADE UP YOUR MIND THE SECOND YOU LAID EYES ON HIM THAT HE WASN’T! WELL IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO BELIEVE, SO BE IT- BUT I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU VOCALISING IT BECAUSE IT’S NOT TRUE!!!”

Buliara stared at Riju in silence for a few tense moments.

“You’re right,” Buliara said, “I’ve thought he was the Demon King since the first time I saw him.”

“And?”

“And maybe I am wrong,” She continued, “Maybe I should have let him prove himself rather than assuming that his path would be the same as his forefather’s.”

More silence.

“I am sorry, Chief Riju.”

Riju smiled weakly, wiping her eyes.

“He’s not Ganondorf,” she said resolutely, “He’s my boy, and I’m going to go find him and bring him home.”

Riju strode past Buliara, out of the temple, and was faced with a view of Hyrule, stretched out before her, plains and mountains and villages tucked between them and the castle dominating the landscape like a shining stone jewel.

He was out there somewhere, and she would find him. She would find him if it killed her.

As she surveyed Hyrule she was hit by a realisation- a realisation that she had been forgetting a whole other factor.

“Link!” She cried out loud, her eyes going wide.

“What about him?” Buliara asked.

“If he thinks that… that Ganondorf has returned…” Riju couldn’t bring herself to vocalise it.

“He wouldn’t kill a child.” Buliara said.

“But if he thought that the child in question was his eternal enemy reincarnated?!” Riju cried.

“…We should hurry.” Buliara’s words were of no comfort to the gerudo chief.