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After Calamity Ganon was defeated, Zelda still struggled sometimes. Link, her closest friend, tried to help, but she sometimes didn't even know what was going on. Issues started stabilizing as time went on, and Zelda eventually realized that she had retained her awareness of the land from her hundred year stasis.
Once she realized that, she recruited Link to help her (it was really easy, she asked if he could help her and he practically begged her to let him, he was both getting bored and he was concerned about her) and started traveling to the different locations she had the premonitions of danger in. Sometimes it was fairly easy (the Lynal on the mountain by the Zora only took Link about five minutes to defeat) and other times it was more difficult.
Like today. She had woken up in a cold sweat, then ran to Link's bedroom and explained that there was a storm on the southeast corner of the continent. He didn't question her. He grabbed the Sheikah Slate and teleported to the closest shrine. Fortunately, Purah hadn't dismantled that one yet in her project to dismantle all the ancient technology that hadn’t proven all that useful anyway.
And now, Link was summoning ice blocks and helping sailors from a sinking ship. Zelda, meanwhile, stood on the edge of the shore and extended her power to calm a line of the sea to the ship. It was taxing, but the only way for the Cryonisis rune to continue working. Not all of the sailors were adults either. Link was carrying a child, the youngest on the ship. The others were old enough to climb and swim, thank Hylia, but the child Link carried was so terrified, Zelda wasn't sure if the child's skill mattered.
Link deposited the child on the shore, then signed, “Going back for others!” Zelda nodded, her eyes following him. He scrambled over the slippery ice to the person in the very back, helped them up, then tossed all the people on the very back cube to the next.
Zelda’s hand trembled as an enormous wave approached, and the golden glow increased. The wave crashed against her barrier, and for a moment Zelda thought she had successfully blocked it.
She was wrong. Some of the underflow of the wave caught the furthest block, shattering it, dropping Link unceremoniously into the hungry ocean. She gasped, and she felt her control slipping.
Zelda gritted her teeth and kept up the shield, watching the water for Link's familiar blonde hair. He had to be alright. He had fought Calamity Ganon, surely the sea wouldn't claim the hero of Hyrule.
Zelda caught some motion outside of the barrier, and spotted Link, having climbed the deck of the sinking ship. He was signing, but Zelda was too far to see what he said. Her concentration wavered, the noise of the storm suddenly encroaching on her silence. Sinking ships were dangerous, didn't he know that? He wasn't safe there!
The second sailor reached the land, followed by a group of ragged seafarers. Zelda waited until the last one hit the sand, her eyes still on Link, before shrinking her shield to only cover the shore. The downpour of rain the shield had previously blocked made it impossible to see the ship, but Zelda was now an expert at understanding without seeing, especially where Link was concerned.
She stretched out her senses, locking on the life clinging to the ship. She felt Link's relief at seeing the sailors safe, then his panic as the ship sank. She felt him dive, felt the water surround him, then nothing. Her senses fuzzed away.
“Link? LINK!” Zelda opened her eyes and started running to the ocean. Someone caught her and held her back.
“No, he's still out there! Let me go!” Zelda tried to pull away, but the person was joined by others. She knew, deep down, that it wasn’t true. If she couldn't sense Link…
She collapsed, brine from the sea mixing with the tears she hadn't noticed, “Link…”
“Come to the inn. We'll keep a watch for him.” A woman's voice is connected to the hands that pull her to a bed by a warm fire. Zelda doesn't care. She just led her best friend (and if she was being honest, more than a friend) to his death.
~~~
“Princess, wake up.” A voice awaked her from her restless nightmares of the storm. Her eyes were red and tender from crying intermittently all night.
Zelda sat up, not caring enough to hide her pain, “What?”
“They found him.” The woman, the same one from last night, whispered.
It took a moment for it to sink in, “He's-he's alive?”
The woman nodded, “Yes Your Highness, but he's in bad shape.”
Zelda immediately shot out of bed, “Where is he? Bring me to him.” Her breath heaved, and she was suddenly full of energy.
The woman nodded, then led Zelda to a house she recognized as a healer's house. The entire walk had Zelda buzzing with anxiety. Was he alright? He wasn't out of danger now that he was out of the water. He had spent far too long in turbulent, freezing, waters.
“The princess is here.” The woman announced before allowing Zelda to pass her. Zelda dashed into the room, eyes skipping around until they spotted Link, stretched out on a mat. It was obvious he was in poor condition. His body was battered, clothes rags, covered with inflamed cuts of many sizes. He was mumbling incoherently, and he was twitching. An old man was sitting by him, tending to the cuts.
Zelda immediately leapt to Link's other side, “Link! I'm here, please wake up, please be alright.” She pulled out a healing potion from her pocket, glad she had thought ahead and stuffed it in her pocket on the way out the door.
The old man scanned it, “Healing potion?”
“Yes. I always keep one on hand for Link.” Zelda gave it to him. The healer grunted, then carefully uncapped it and started dabbing the cuts with the red substance. Gradually, Link settled down. Once, he opened his eyes, scanning the room, stopping on Zelda's face, raising a hand to sign.
“I'm here. I'm here Link.” Zelda grabbed his hand, stopping him from overexerting himself. He smiled at her weakly then returned to sleep.
She didn't know how long it took exactly. Days maybe. She didn't leave the hut. But the worst of the sickness and infection passed, and he woke up fully.
Zelda didn't seem capable of stopping her smile, “Link, you're alright.”
He half smiled, “I will be.”
“Please never do that to me again.” Zelda begged.
Link raised an eyebrow, “If you promise to not get hurt by Ganon again.”
Zelda thickly laughed, “Deal.”