Chapter Text
Mama stared out the window at the rain. The house was close enough to the docks that she could see it landing on the churning waves. Lin could see it, too, when Mama lifted her up; she was too short to see out the window otherwise.
Mama looked away from the window for a minute to check on the pie dough in Lin’s bowl. It was nearly ready to be rolled out. They were making hand pies for Father.
Lin wasn’t sure why they were putting in so much effort. Father would be mad they’d taken so long no matter how good the pies tasted. Still, Mama said they had to do their best, and Lin wanted so very much to be good for Mama.
---
The boxes and chests crowded her, the darkness near overwhelmed her with terror, and still Lin pressed in deeper to the space under the bed, hands over her ears to block out the yelling.
She wasn’t sure what had caused it this time — Father got angry over so many things, after all — but Mama had yelled back for the first time in Lin’s memory. They’d been shouting at each other for over twenty minutes, now, and Lin just wanted it to stop. It was past suppertime. It was probably past bedtime, too. She was hungry. She was tired. She was scared.
The yelling stopped, the front door slammed, and the house became horrifically silent. Footsteps, almost unbearably loud, walked closer to the bed. Father’s shoes became visible. Lin pressed her hands over her mouth in the hopes of quieting her breathing further. She may want to be given supper, but she wanted Father to not know she was hiding under the bed more.
Father grabbed the bag he usually took to work and threw it on the bed. He stomped about the house, throwing things into it. Then, he, too, left the house. The door slammed with finality.
Lin slowly crawled out from her hiding spot and peered around the empty house. She couldn’t help the sobs that spilled out of her. Mama was coming back, right? Someone would come for her, wouldn’t they?
After a few minutes of crying, Lin took a deep breath and wiped her tears. If no one was going to come back for her, she needed to take care of herself. She’d been helping Mama make stew before the argument had started, so she’d just have to finish it herself. She pulled the step stool she used to help Mama cook over to the stew pot and stirred it. The stew was done, and so she pulled hard on the swing arm that kept it over the fire. It took all of her weight to get it to move, and stopping it was even harder. She yelped slightly when it bumped into her arm and burned her.
Lin sat at the table, alone, with the bowl of stew and ignored how salty it tasted with her tears. When she was done eating, she put the empty bowl near the washing basin. If no one had come back by tomorrow morning, she’d clean it herself.
She spent a few minutes staring at the large pot of stew, but she’d never been around when Mama put it away for the evening and so didn’t know what to do with it. Eventually, she shrugged, made sure the lid was on, and put herself to bed.
It took her a long time to fall asleep that night.
---
Mama had returned by morning, but Father took a couple of days. He didn’t look happy to be back, and Mama didn’t seem pleased either. They yelled a lot, mostly at each other but occasionally at Lin.
After a week, Mama started looking ill. She became pale and shaky. It became harder and harder for her to lift things. Lin had to beg her to stay in bed. Father refused to call the doctor, saying that they didn’t have enough money.
One day, Mama collapsed while Father was at work, and so Lin ignored her father’s orders and went to the doctor herself for help. The doctor helped get Mama in bed, but said that there wasn’t anything he could do for her condition.
Father had yelled at Lin afterwards like he never had before, but she knew she’d made the right choice even if nothing had come of it. The look Father gave Mama scared her.
---
Lin cried through the funeral. It was small, devoid of friends. A few of Father’s fellow fishermen were there, but not many. A couple of them apologised to Father. No one apologised to Lin.
---
A month after the funeral, Lin was tired of being yelled at.
She didn’t know how to cook as well as Mama had, and so Father got angry, despite her gaining at least one new burn every day. She didn’t know how to wash clothes as well as Mama had, and so Father shouted at her for leaving stains, despite her knuckles being torn up by the washing board. She didn’t know how to plan meals at all, and so she frequently went hungry, despite her having made the food in the first place.
Tired, so tired, Lin packed what few things she had in a small sack and left, only an hour after Father had gone to work. Hopefully, by the time he realised she was gone, she’d be too far away for him to find.
It was freeing to be out of the house. Lin felt more free than she could ever remember being, even with Mama. She stopped in the field outside of town to look at the pretty flowers. She let bugs crawl over her hands and giggled when they tickled her skin.
She was free.
---
She’d only been gone for two days, and already things were going wrong. She’d been fine when she’d woken up, curled up at the base of a tree, but by noon an aching had started in her chest. It felt like something had hooked her ribs and was pulling her back the way she’d come.
The further she went away, the worse it hurt.
Crying tears of both pain and frustration, she turned around.
---
The ache started to subside as she entered the small fishing town she’d grown up in, but it didn’t finally dissipate until she walked in the front door of what had once been her home. Father was thankfully at work, and so she was able to collapse to the floor with her sobs in peace.
She'd just wanted to leave, but something was keeping her here, in this house, and she hated it.
---
The second time she ran away, three almost-unbearable months after the first one, she made it a bit farther. She'd managed to go till the second night, where she could see the lantern light of a town in the distance.
She had to turn back, though, because the pain in her chest felt like it was tearing her apart.
As she walked back into her own town, one of the townsfolk looked at her worriedly. “Ya ‘kay, Lin? Ya look like yer ma did afore she got sick.”
Lin assured him she was fine and hurried home, but she couldn't get the thought out of her head. The paleness, the shivers that wracked her body, the way she felt so weak standing became a chore — it was the same thing Mama had dealt with.
Whatever was keeping her in this house had killed her mother. Lin just hoped she could escape before it killed her, too.
---
Nearly a year after Mama had died, Lin's uncle came to visit her and Father.
Lin had run away twice more in that time, despite her fear that every leaving might be her last. She'd made it to that other town once, though only for an hour. It wasn't a fishing town, and it was so interesting seeing the differences between what she'd known her whole life and this new place.
Uncle was from a big city, but it was inland, so it was far more like that new town that Lin had visited than the one she'd been born in. He told her many stories.
Unlike everyone else, Uncle also seemed upset at Father, rather than for him. He wasn't afraid to yell at Father, and even did it for Lin a few times.
Between his stories and standing up for her, Lin found herself liking Uncle a lot, and she was sad when she heard he was going home.
“Would you like to come home with me?” he asked her one day while Father was at work.
Lin wanted so desperately to say yes, but the fear of dying like Mama held her back. Still, Uncle had been very nice so far…
Lin explained what happened when she left, and how the symptoms seemed similar to Mama’s. Uncle's face became dark, but Lin didn't find herself afraid of it. It seemed more protective than angry.
---
Uncle handed her a pile of sparkly pink cloth with an explanation. Mama had been a mermaid, he said, and so was Lin. Mermaids could only go so far from their tails. Every time Lin left her house without her tail, it was hurting her.
But now she had her tail and could theoretically go anywhere she wanted. Uncle offered again to take her to his home. Lin happily agreed. Uncle hugged her and gave her a kiss on the forehead like Mama had done.
---
Uncle lived outside of Kakariko, in a large cottage with an apple orchard. It was beautiful.
At the back of the property was a small lake. Three days after moving in, Uncle took her to the lake to try out her tail for the first time in her life.
Her tail was beautiful when she transformed. It was a shimmering pink, but the edges of her fins bled sky blue. Moving through the water was easier than breathing. She felt like she'd been made for it. If Uncle was correct, she had been.
The rest of the time she spent climbing the trees in the orchard and running around with the squirrels and birds that lived there. Uncle said that it was weird that the animals liked her so much, and then called her his princess and ruffled her hair. Lin liked when he did that.
When Uncle went into town, Lin accompanied him. He didn't like her going alone, because of her age, and Lin didn't like going alone much either; some of the kids in the village weren't very nice to her when Uncle wasn't there.
It was fascinating seeing a large town like Kakariko. It was the closest town to the castle, and so there were many visiting merchants from all over the country. It was very different from the small fishing village.
---
Words were hard, sometimes. Lin would go to speak, and her voice just wouldn’t come. Occasionally, it felt like her mouth couldn’t move at all.
Uncle frowned at her the first few times she did it in front of him. One day, after coming back from visiting the castle, he offered her a solution. One of his knight friends would teach the both of them sign language, which was a way for Lin to speak with her hands rather than her mouth.
Uncle then taught her the few signs he’d learned that day. It was wonderful!
---
When Lin turned seven, Uncle got her a training sword. He'd been a knight before he retired, as had his grandfather, and his father before him. Girls didn't go for knighthood as often, he said, but they were still welcome to try. Lin wanted to try.
When he had to go to the castle, she’d watch the soldiers at the training grounds and then copy their moves later. Uncle started correcting her, teaching her how to properly wield a sword, knives, and even a bow. He also taught her the other parts of being a knight,, like the demands of honour.
Life was good.
---
Lin was nine years old when she woke up with the Princess’ voice in her ears, nine years old when she watched the dark blood of her uncle seep out from beneath his cooling body, nine years old when all of the knights of the castle declared her a kidnapper of the princess.
Nine years old when she saved the princess from her own dungeons.
“Thank you for saving me,” the princess said. “May I know your name?”
“L-i-n” Lin signed.
The princess smiled and said, “Thank you, Link.”
Link wasn’t Lin's name, but maybe the princess wasn't that good at sign or something. It felt close enough. Either way, she had other things to worry about.
She had no one to turn to, no safe place to go. She couldn't stay home for more than a couple of hours before the knights realised that she was there and tried to surround her. The wards kept them out of the house, but she’d barely escaped the blockade they’d made the first and only time she’d stayed too long. However, she also couldn't stray too far or stay away for too much time, either, or the pain started up in her chest.
She travelled and travelled, only stopping just long enough to rest. She visited home only once every couple of days, irregularly so that the guards couldn’t trap her by figuring out the pattern. She made sure to never fall asleep at home, always hidden in tree hollows or beneath bridges.
A month in, she finally looked further at her wanted poster. The writer was apparently under the same impression the princess had been, because it referred to her as Link. It also called her a boy. She wondered, if she dressed more like a girl, whether she might be able to go into town without having the knights called on her.
When she got the chance, she returned home and dug through her outfits for the most pink, frilly dress she owned. When she walked through Kakariko, no one looked at her twice. The guards weren’t summoned. Suddenly, despite being more colourful, she disappeared into the crowd.
It wasn’t something she could wear all the time, as she’d still need to fight and the skirt was just not made for that, but it was nice to wear it now.
---
“Psst. Come here.”
Sahasralah waved her into his house on her third visit to Kakariko since dressing up.
“I almost didn’t recognise you. Dressing up like a girl to hide from the guards? It’s very smart of you.”
Like a girl? Oh, he meant more girly, like frilly and pink. Some part of her rankled at the thought, but she just nodded and signed ‘yes’ in response.
Sahasralah went on to give her more information she’d need to complete her quest, like he did every time she visited.
He walked her to his door when she left. “Bye, Link. You be careful out there.”
She was halfway down the road when she realised what was wrong with that goodbye. Did Sahasralah think she was a boy, too, just like the knights seemed to? Oh dear.
Well, she could correct him the next time she saw him. Or not. It felt like a lot of effort and confusion for something that just didn’t matter that much.
---
When Lin finally killed Agahnim and Ganon, when she’d finally won, she still hadn’t corrected Sahasralah, Zelda, or the knights. She’d been a bit too busy to worry about being seen as a boy.
She was ten, now, and she wanted nothing more than for life to go back to how it had been.
She touched the Triforce.
---
Uncle felt different, now, though she knew that it was her that had changed.
He did his best to buy her the frilliest of dresses (in greens, blues, and purples, rather than pink, because she still hated that everyone saw her and immediately assumed her favourite colour was pink, because she had decided her favourite colour was now blue, because that was the most ‘boy’ colour and would therefore confuse people the most when they asked (it was still purple, currently, but it would get there)). However, being… not there… through the autumn, with Lin busy saving the country, meant that Uncle hadn’t sold the apples from the orchard this year and money was tight.
Lin found it increasingly hard to talk, as well. She went from occasionally using sign to rarely using her voice at all. All of the knights and townsfolk acted like the autumn and winter had never happened — as if they’d never betrayed her, as if they’d never tried to kill her — but she couldn’t stop her flinches when they looked at her for too long.
She spent a lot of time stretching her tail and exploring the lake.
---
Uncle took her to the sea. She’d been worried, at first, that they were going to visit Father, who she hadn’t seen since she’d moved in with Uncle, but apparently that wasn’t the case. They weren’t too far away, though.
They walked to the shore.
“Somewhere out there is a mermaid colony, your mother told me once. Her culture is the one thing I can’t teach you. I’d like you to go visit. Stay a few days. Learn what you can. We’ll come back again soon, if you like it.”
Lin walked out into the water and met her brethren.
---
At 12, Lin awoke to yet another magical voice in her ears, this time being the Triforce itself. It wasn’t real words, just impressions.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a grassy field in Holodrum. She was surprised that the ache of being so far away from her tail hadn’t started up yet, though she figured it would start soon enough. What was the Triforce’s plan with that? It hadn’t told her.
As she reviewed what she had with her — not much, only a change of clothes — she realised that she also had a new necklace on. The pendant was the same pink as her tail. Holding it filled her with the same feeling her tail always gave her. She curled a bit of magic into it like she’d learned to do with magic items a couple of years ago during her quest, and her legs started to tingle like they did when she was starting to change forms. She quickly removed her magic from the pendant so that she didn’t gain a tail in the middle of a field.
Still, it was wonderful that she didn’t have to worry about the pain starting up ever again, so long as she had her pendant with her. Unlike the fabric, it wasn’t eye-catching, so it should be easy to take with her. She’d never be without again!
---
Din had taken Lin under her wing, almost. She taught her to dance, made sure she was eating enough, and answered all of her questions.
A week into travelling with Din’s troupe, Lin noticed that one of the musicians took off his shirt and had breasts.
When she asked Din about it later, Din explained that sometimes people thought they were a woman but later realised that they were a man, and vice versa. Sometimes, they realised they were neither man nor woman. Sometimes they realised they were both. Sometimes, they changed frequently. Also, the realisation could happen at any time, young or old.
Karl, who Lin had seen, had realised a couple of years ago, not long after joining the troupe. Lin wasn’t sure she fully understood, but she was happy for him nonetheless.
---
It took nearly a year for Lin to rescue Din, and even longer than that to rescue Nayru in Labrynna, where the Triforce had sent her immediately after.
Finally, though, she was free to go home.
At 14, Lin set sail for Hyrule.