Chapter Text
It was the first day again, but something about starting this cycle really struck him. Maybe it was one thing. Maybe it was everything. He didn’t know. He hasn’t slept or ate anything for days. He could visit the grandma at the Stock Pot Inn and fall asleep to her stories. He could take a chance with Anju's cooking, hoping she'd make something different. But the feeling like he's wasting time keeps gnawing at him and has taken over his thoughts. All he wants is to…
“...Stop.”
Link fell to the ground. He cupped his ears and shivered in place. He didn’t even care if he looked weak in front of Tatl. He couldn’t do this anymore. He wants to stop feeling trapped. He wants to go home.
“Link?”
Tears began welling in his eyes as he stared at the dirt.
“Stop.”
“What was that?”
“Stop.”
“Link, we can’t stop.”
Link continued to stare at the dirt, her response meaning nothing to him. He began shaking in place, causing Tatl to distant herself.
‘Is he okay?’ The spirit from the Deku Scrub appeared. Soon the other two spirits formed.
‘No, he ain’t acting right,’ Darmani spoke, ‘Was it because of the Great Bay pirates again?’
‘Oi mate,’ Mikau snapped, ‘Quit blaming it on the pirates. You’ve been sayin’ that for weeks now. He wasn’t fazed when we went into the fortress. The kid ain’t scared of pirates.’
‘Well he's been acting like this a lot lately and it's been happening ever since you came along…’ Darmani narrowed his eyes on the Zora.
‘Wow,’ Mikau huffed, ‘this ain’t my fault. Maybe if you and Tatl weren’t constantly pushing him to keep going, he wouldn’t be acting like this.’
Mikau crossed his arms, and raised his head.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?!”
‘Hey, everyone? What about Mr. Link? We-’
‘Honestly,’ the guitarist continued, now floating cross legged in the air, ‘You should be happy he took you in, because if I were him, I sure wouldn’t. Just a constant flow of nagging and worrying for no reason.’ Mikau smirked, showing off his shark-like fangs.
‘Why I ought a…’ and the Goron readied his fists. ‘I've had enough of your smart-ass talking.’
‘And I've had enough of your rocky ass griping at me. It wasn’t because of no damn pirates. Let. It. Go.’
The Deku Scrub ignored the Goron and Zora fighting when he noticed Link shaking. He walked over to him and placed his tiny wooden hands on his knees.
‘Mr. Link, are you okay?’ He asked.
Link flinched. He raised his head from the comfort of his knees, and gazed at the Scrub. His red eyes told it all. He looked miserable.
“N-no.”
Admitting it made our hero overwhelmed and began crying loudly. This broke up the fight between the two adults and Tatl.
‘Hey, you’re stronger than this, kid. You can’t go home until you save the Giants and stop Skull Kid and that damn moon.’
‘We’ve only got one more place to go, mate.’
“Link…” Tatl spoke, not sure what to do to help Link. This was unexpected behavior coming from him.
‘I’m sorry, Mr. Link.’ The Deku Scrub turned around to look at the others.
‘What do we do?’
“Well… I mean, we could… um-’
Link couldn’t hear anything the spirits and fairy were saying. He wanted to get out of this nightmare. He wished someone else could do this. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t it be an actual adult? What was he thinking? Pretending to be a hero again. Keeping up the facade was a joke in Termina.
Nobody knew he was an adult trapped in a child's body. Embodying the (adult) Hero’s body was once a luxury; like armor drenched in pride. But then he learned the cost of it all…Destiny.
The mere word caused a sense of impending doom that only made him spiral down his memories. Like when he awakened Saria as the Forest Sage, or how he wasn’t even a Kokiri, or his mother.
Something twisted inside him further and an unknown horror emerged. The thought of missing his own mother, who he never met, broke him. “Mama?”
The four stood still. Link looked up at the fairy and spirits, “Where’s mama?”
“Your mama?” Tatl was getting worried. “Link, get a grip! You don’t have a mother here in Termina.”
“Tatl, nooooo.” This caused our hero to spiral further, he began shrieking and collapsing into the grass. Everyone covered their ears.
‘Nice going, Tatl. You made it worse,’ Mikau yelled.
“Well I don’t know what to do. You two aren’t helping. The only thing you two are doing is fighting like normal.”
‘Oh, if I was still alive…’ Darmani began.
Mikau couldn’t resist, ‘Ohohoho, if you were alive, yeah, yeah…”
‘Well at least I died in honor. I died trying to get into Snowhead. You didn’t even get to the Great Bay Temple.’
‘Because I had more important business to take care of first.’
‘Like, what? Play music? I cared for my tribe. Every last one of them. You musicians are all the same; only caring about yourselves and your own reputation.’
‘Is your brain made of sawdust? I died trying to save my friend’s eggs.’
‘How bout you stand next to a Powder Keg and see what happens? Better yet-how bout I help you.’
The Deku scrub couldn’t shut out the fighting between the two spirits, so he decided to go and try to comfort Link again.
‘Mr. Link?’
Link was still shrieking and turned his face into the grass. The Deku Scrub began petting Link’s head. He too doesn’t have a mother anymore. She died long ago. When he asked his father about her, he got sad. The Deku Scrub stopped asking after a while.
He knew that the Deku princess didn’t have a mother either. He remembered how the King would always bring the princess flowers whenever she cried. That got him thinking.
He didn’t hesitate to start searching around the field. He found some wild flowers and began plucking them. He shuffled back with the large amount, hoping whatever he picked would make Link happy.
Link wasn’t crying anymore, but had curled himself up and looked like he was breathing heavily.
‘Um, Mr. Link?’
The Scrub startled him and he looked at the spirit, wide eyed.
‘I wasn’t sure which ones you’d like, but I got you some flowers,” which the Scrub extended out to him, ‘and they made the princess happy when she was sad, so maybe they can make you happy too.’
Link looked at the Deku Scrub, and his tears came back. He took the flowers and held them close, “thank you.”
‘Mm!’ The Deku Scrub rattled. He let Link settle for a moment, before saying, “I don’t have a mother anymore too.’
Link sadly eyed the spirit.
‘I didn’t know her either and dad wouldn’t talk about her, because it made him sad. Oh, but you don’t have a dad either. I’m sorry.’
“It’s o-okay. You di-dn’t mean anything bad by it.” His lips wobbled again. He gripped the flowers. Link began to cry once more. Scrub stayed by his side and awkwardly patted his back.
‘Hey, you know what though? We’ve been traveling a lot now and I think of you as my brother, even though we’re not from the same race.’
Link stopped crying to hear him out again.
‘Would it be okay if I could see you like that? As my brother?’
Link contemplated for a moment, not wanting to look at the spirit, but he reluctantly nodded.
“That’s okay, but I-” and he closed his eyes tight,“-I’m a terrible brother. I'm not strong. I'm weak and I want to go home…”
Link openly wailed again. The Scrub looked so, so sad. He turned around to look at the other spirits and Tatl. ‘Tatl, please? What should we do?’
Tatl flew close to Link's ear.
“Link, hey, I’m really sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean it, okay?”
Link gripped the flowers. He curled into himself further and shook his head, “S-s ok.”
Darmani watched the events unfold. Link reminded him so much of the chief’s son once he started thinking about it. Okay, so maybe the boy is acting like a child, well, he was a child, but more vulnerable like a child. He had to be a man now and act. He shouldn't have fought with that damn Zora again.
He floated over to Link. He noticed how the Deku was being too gentle with his touch (even though couldn’t feel it much to begin with). Maybe he didn’t feel grounded? Darmani went to put his ghostly hand on Link’s back, like he would do with the chief’s son.
Link flinched at the sudden contact, but began relaxing into the Goron’s faint touch. The large, strong hand felt soothing and his grip on the flowers softened.
‘It’s alright kid. You can take a break this cycle or for however long you need. We’re here for you.’
Link didn’t respond, but a distinct haziness began forming in his eyes.
“Oh! This is-!” Tatl began, but immediately stopped.
‘’This?’ What's ‘this’?’ Scrub asked.
“Ah, I mean… Nevermind. Look he's not shakin’ up anymore.”
Darmani squinted his eyes at the fairy and then went back to consoling the boy.
Mikau, a little irked that he couldn’t say anything to help, stood farther away. Honestly, he was grateful that he didn’t have to do anything. Seeing Link cry made him very uncomfortable. It reminded him of Lulu and the eggs.
“Link, hey, would it be okay if we go to the Inn and stay there today? You can get some sleep.”
Link nodded.
“Alright, let’s, uh, let’s get up now.”
He immediately got up and trailed behind Tatl, Scrub and Darmani. But Mikau couldn’t help but notice that Link was wobbling as he walked.