hearth - chapter 15. Princess— I remember everything.
a botw & totk zelink AU. In which Link was raised as Ganon's right-hand man and is sent to kill Princess Zelda.
[ T-rated; rating subject to change // chapter 15 of ? // AU-canon divergence, temporary amnesia, slow burn, found family ]
> Read chapter on ao3
Or start from the beginning >here
Chapter excerpt:
“What is he doing—” Daruk gasped above her.
Zelda jerked her gaze across the field.
Her eyes widened when she saw Link surrounded by a swarm of monsters. With a sharp cry, he swung, hacking into their hide with— a sword swirling with darkness.
The gloom sword.
“—Link…?”
Zelda shuddered when her eyes met his. His blue eyes twinged with pain and alarm—
“Princess!” Link yelled, striking the blade deep into the ground.
Linked Universe x Genshin Impact AU : Groose's Redemption
Masterpost
You can probably guess what this one-shot is about just by reading the title. It's set during Sky's quest, so if you're new to this AU, I recommend reading this post to better understand what's going on. Or not, if you just want to read some good ol' Sky angst.
Enjoy! :))
~~~
The entrance of Mondstadt City looms over Sky. The tall, stony arch casts a shadow upon his slumped form. The two guards at the entrance look at him funny, but the Skyfell Knight is too tired to care. He just has to get some potions and ask around a bit about the mysterious Sheikah and their anemo-wielding companion, then he can get back out. It’s easy, in theory.
It should be easy. So why does it feel so daunting? He’s been doing this exact routine for weeks now. Search for Sun, defeat the fatui, kill the abyssal monsters, close the rifts, come back to Mondstadt every few days to restock on supplies, rinse and repeat. He’s been doing fine for this long. He just has to continue and walk through the gate.
A mocking voice jolts Sky out of his spiralling thoughts. “Hey, isn’t that the bird -brain?” It jeers.
The knight drags his eyes over to the owner of the voice – oh, great, it’s Groose. Mister pompadour-wearing Redfang Knight himself.
“What do you want, Groose.” It’s not even a question, flat with tiredness.
“You look really pathetic, you know,” the redhead goes on.
“Thanks, pompadour,” Sky bites out, the mocking nickname slipping out instinctively. “Is that all? I have things to do.”
He elbows the other out of the way and walks up the stairs leading to the plaza, Groose strutting pompously after him. He tries to hide the slight limp of his right leg, not wanting to look even more pathetic in front of his rival.
Evidently he fails, because his fellow knight stares him down from the side with something like unimpressed disbelief in his eyes.
“You really think walking on an injured leg is gonna save Sun?” his unwelcome companion snarks.
“I don’t see you doing anything better than that.” He suppresses a pained grunt when he puts a little too much weight on his ankle. “At least I’m looking for her.”
The redhead scoffs. “Oh, you think I haven’t been working?”
“When have you ever?”
The other sputters indignatly, but Sky tunes him out. He stops abruptly before the crafting bench in front of Luv and Bertie’s potions store. Groose, who probably doesn’t notice his sudden immobility, stumbles into him from behind. Sky gasps in pain and falls forwards, barely catching himself on the crafting bench. He sends a blazing glare over his shoulder.
“Watch your step,” he growls.
“Not my fault, you’re so short I didn’t even notice you just standing there.”
The Skyfell Knight rolls his eyes but decides arguing would be a waste of energy. He rights himself, leaning heavily on his uninjured leg. Luv, hunched over a steaming cauldron, finally looks over to him. Her mouth twists in a strange, almost concerned expression.
“Sky! Are you okay?” she asks, dusting off her hands on her apron as she walks over.
The knight offers her a very obviously fake smile and a strained “Just fine, Luvie. How’re you?”
She doesn’t comment on either, but the worry in her eyes almost makes him buckle here and there. Almost. He asks her for a refill and she takes his bottles, dipping them in different brews. She hands them back and, as Sky puts them away in his subspace, she takes his hands in hers. He freezes, startled.
“You gotta take care of yourself, honey, okay?” she states firmly, though there’s a softness to her tone that Sky doesn’t know what to do with. “Running yourself ragged won’t help Sun, and it won’t help you either.”
She smiles and pats his cheek, then goes back to her cauldron. The brunette just kinda stands there, blinking, hands awkwardly still halfway raised to his chest.
“She’s right.” Oh yeah, Groose is still there.
“Shut up, pompadour.”
The Redfang Knight tsks but doesn’t comment further.
Sky continues walking. Groose continues following him around.
He asks around the city, desperate for any news about Sun, the Sheikah warrior, the cloaked anemo wielder, or even Ghirahim. At this point, he may as well take any scrap of intel he can. The redhead jeers and snarks at him, trying to get a rise out of him. The Skyfell Knight just clenches his teeth and fists, annoyance boiling up to a simmering rage, but the ache in his limbs keeps him from fighting back. For the most part.
After another unsuccessful conversation, Sky finally snaps.
“Will you just leave me alone?!”
His rival seems satisfied, a smirk on his lips. “Well, you’re just so easy to rile up.”
“I don’t have the time to get riled up!” he snarls. “Sun is gone, rifts are appearing all over Mondstadt, the fatui are scheming something, there’s probably a Ganon Shadow out there, and no one in this city is doing a damn thing about any of it!”
His parched throat and heaving lungs are killing him. But if screaming in Groose’s face is what will make him finally leave, then Sky won’t hesitate to do it again.
But Groose doesn’t leave. In fact, he gets even closer. His broad shoulders and tall stature loom over Sky, like they did countless other times when they were at the academy and the redhead decided to slam him into a wall, a door, a locker, a table before the fists started to rain down–
Sky backs up a few trembling steps. His breath leaves him in shorter and shorter gasps. His hand twitches, itching to summon his whip.
We’re both knights now, he can’t do anything. He won’t beat me up over… whatever it is that got him like that. He can’t do anything. Besides, I’m stronger than him now. He can’t do anything…
Right?
But his body doesn’t seem to agree with him as his hands visibly shake, as his ears ring aggressively, as sweat slides down his temple, as he feels the beginnings of hyperventilation take over his breathing.
Groose’s lips move. Did he say something? He’s looking at Sky like he’s expecting an answer. The brunette swallows roughly.
“...W-What?” His voice is a shaky, strangled whisper.
The Redfang Knight sighs sharply. Sky flinches. “I said, what do you think you can do about any of it in that state?”
“What state?”
A deadpan stare is thrown his way. He tries not to squirm under it.
“Do I really need to say it? You’re sleep-deprived, starved and dehydrated, injured, paranoid, probably delirious, and if I had to guess, suffering from blood loss.” With each enumeration, he takes a step towards Sky, who can only hobble back, neck craned to look at the redhead. “You’re of no help to anyone right now.”
Anger slices through the panic. “I am helping!”
“Then prove it!” His rival takes a few steps back, summoning his claymore. “Fight me and win! If you lose, then you aren’t in any condition to help Sun!”
Sky stands there, wide eyes, fearful yet filled with anger, glaring at the other. Fighting Groose will only make him waste precious time. Time that he could spend searching for Sun. He could just ignore the redhead and be on his way.
But would Groose attack him anyway? Would he strike him as soon as he’d turn his back? Favonius Knights don’t attack from behind, even less so when the other person is unarmed, but Groose has never had any problem with breaking the Code – at least, back at the academy. They hadn’t run into each other much since they got knighted. Still…
The Skyfell Knight summons his whip. It feels heavier than usual. He holds it up defensively anyway, willing it to solidify – a sword will be easier to manage than a volatile leather rope right now.
Across from him, the Redfang Knight doesn’t move, watching him intently. It seems Sky will have to make the first move.
He charges forward, aiming high. Groose parries his blade with his (much heavier) own and pushes him back, then swings the claymore in a wide arc. Adrenaline pumping in his veins, the brunette doesn’t notice the pain in his leg when he leaps away from the blow. He throws himself to the side as the large blade comes down from above, nearly cleaving him in two.
The dance goes on. Sky parries, thrusts, dodges and slashes, while Groose starts to struggle after some time.
It’s been a few minutes – at most – when the Skyfell Knight leaps forward, ready to end this meaningless duel– but his right foot lands wrong, sending agony through his body. He crumples on one knee, leaning on his blade.
The redhead’s claymore rests under his chin, the tip millimeters from his throat. Sky’s breathing is labored, sweat soaks his bangs.
“You’re done,” Groose states darkly.
Still, Sky stubbornly pushes himself up and looks at his fellow knight with dazed defiance. His head swims and his muscles feel like jelly.
The taller knight’s brows furrow. “I said, you’re done,” he repeats, taking a few steps back, but there’s an undertone of uncertainty to his words.
The brunette raises his weapon once more, ignoring him. He takes a step forward–
–and is suddenly being supported by two strong hands under his armpits. Black dots dance before his eyes and there’s a loud, persistent ringing in his ears. He vaguely spots red and gold on the blurry ground– his whip? Wasn’t it in his hand just a second ago? And who’s–
…Is Groose the one holding him? That’d make sense, but also not. Wasn’t he supposed to be farther away? Also, doesn’t he hate his guts?
The last of Sky’s strength and adrenaline leaves his body, and he sags further into his rival’s hold. His eyes flutter shut against his will. Distantly, he feels the hands on him shift to support his back and legs instead.
No, he wants to say. Stop it, he tries to articulate. It leaves his lips as a weak, breathless mumble, something like “ssssth’p’th”, but either Groose doesn’t hear him, or he decides to deliberately ignore him. Rude.
As his consciousness fades, he vaguely hears the redhead’s voice, quieter than he’s ever heard it, but he can’t make out any words. It almost sounds… concerned? No, that can’t be right. Right?
His world goes dark before he can think more about it.
~~~
Ah, the classic losing-consciousness ending...
I hope you liked it! I might make a part 2 for the aftermath, we'll see
About the Linked Universe x Genshin Impact AU : Twilight concept art
Masterpost
...So it turns out Twi's quest is harder to integrate into the Genshin lore than I first thought. I mean, I could very well make it way less complicated, but then it wouldn't be half as interesting.
In the meantime, I managed to come up with a design that I quite like for him. In fact, I've finished these drawings for a while now and I was itching to show them so I decided to share them now as a teaser for the eventual lore post.
Official art ⬇️
This man is literally the embodiment of "there are two wolves inside of you"
Outfit details ⬇️
Twilight's boots are based off of horse riding boots.
OF COURSE his main weapon is the crossbow. Two reasons : 1) in this AU, he's from Springvale, which is a village mostly consisting of hunters. Yeah, a bow would've made more sense in that context, but that's where the second reason comes in because 2) Link's Crossbow Training was my first introduction to Zelda games and my fav Wii game way back then so I am an avid fan of crossbow user TP Link and I always make references to it. I need more people to acknowledge the crossbow.
The shadow crystal is made of pure, condensed abyssal energy (hence the colour change from orange accents to indigo) and was made to channel that power into a human body, so Twilight can use abyssal powers to an extent. This causes him to have a weaker grip on his elemental powers though, meaning he has difficulty controlling his regular elemental output. As a result, his clothes and hair and sometimes his skin tend to get covered in sparse patches of frost.
The pelt he's wearing is the fur of an abyssal wolf. Since these monsters live in complete darkness without warmth from the sun, they have to create their own warmth to stay alive, so their fur is even thicker and warmer than any animal living under the sun. Wearing this warm pelt helps Twi with his self temperature regulation issues.
He got his wooden whistle from a Windblume Festival stand a few years ago. The whistle caught his eye in particular because it looked very different from all of the other carvings at the stand. When he asked why that was, the merchant told him he knew this master woodcarver guy from Millhaven that gave him some of his pieces to sold from time to time. Twilight uses the whistle to call either Epona, Aquila (his falcon), or any other animal depending on how he plays it.
Other doodles ⬇️
Horsegirl Twilight propaganda
Btw in this AU I decided that Epona is, like, the biggest horse ever. Why? Because I like giant horses. I think they're very cool. She's also a draft horse, so she has some big strong legs.
I made Twi's markings a little more detailed than what he normally has in LU, and I also made them more purple because, well, the Abyss.
HOW DID I MAKE HIM SO HANDSOME LIKE GENUINELY HOW. I'm so happy I never gave up on art because sometimes my hand will slip and I'll draw a face so pretty I'll have trouble believing I made it myself. Do art. Be proud of yourself.
Anyways moving on
Elemental abilities ⬇️
(This is kind of a more technical/gameplay aspect of his character)
When he uses his powers, Twilight's eyes and markings glow white, edged with deep purple shadows; he uses both his elemental and abyssal powers at the same time because they're both too intrinsically linked together and to his being.
Concerning his wolf-shifting abilities : he can either turn himself into a real, flesh-and-fur abyssal wolf using his shadow crystal or summon an abyssal wolf made of pure cryo energy with his vision.
That's it for now! Hopefully I can find a way to integrate his lore into the story soon 😅
For @ixtaek 's LU March Madness 2026: "Incorrect Ancestor"
I like dabbling with the "OoT Link is Zelda's lost twin" theory from time to time, hehe. Just saying, it'd be cool if Time got his prophetic dream abilities from someone, that's all! >:D Of course this does have ripple effects... (Hope you enjoyed this silly comic!)
A Sort-of Part 2: Coming later this week or the next!
(💙Please comment and like directly from the og post in case Tumblr does weird things again! Tumblr reblogs are ok but Never Repost, thanks! <3)
Remember how I said that I had to redraw Sky five times?..
Well, this handsome man here had NINE concepts. NINE. That's like- all of the Links together!! And I'm only talking about the Old Man one, I haven't even touched the OoT Adult Link yet (I'm waiting to see him in the remake teehee)
Once again, huge thanks to @notahorseiswear for the idea of combining two styles of armor. Absolutely genius. It was still hard to adapt his full suit of armor in the universe where those don't appear much, but at least I had something to work with
Notes on the design:
Generally it does combine styles of two nations (water and fire). But factually, eeeeeh
That loose cloth underneath the armor comes from the Fierce Deity design that I haven't finished yet, but already have an overall image in my mind. The markings are also from Fierce Deity, they are a combination of the marks on the Painted Lady and marks of the Water Tribe (mark of the brave and mark of the wise specifically)
Fierce Deity is a Moon Spirit that he temporarily merged with during his second adventure. That is also when and why he got the markings. He got the scar much later
There are more marks on that half of his body, and the other half appears when he enters the Avatar state
The hairpin is actually a half of a hairpin. Malon has the other one
The kid design is unchanged except for the arm wrappings, there's only one now. There is a reason, but I am still playing with it so i might change it back
My stupid ass drew his scar on the wrong side because I'd been intensely staring at a picture of Zuko (as a hair reference) the entire time. It doesn't have anything to do with the design but I thought it was funny
hearth - chapter 14. Pick up the damn sword or I’ll make you.
a botw & totk zelink AU. In which Link was raised as Ganon's right-hand man and is sent to kill Princess Zelda. [ T-rated; rating subject to change // chapter 14 of ? // AU-canon divergence, temporary amnesia, slow burn ]
> Read chapter on ao3
Or start from the beginning >here
Chapter excerpt:
The wind swept across the tall grass around them. The blazing sunset bloomed in pink against the sky above.
Link stood before Princess Zelda again, his shadow looming over her. His blade firmly pressed against her neck.
He was ready to strike this time— ready to kill.
He breathed harshly through the violent churn in his stomach, the grip on his sword trembling.
The Princess squeezed her eyes shut with a deep shudder— resigned to her fate at his blade.
All her guards were still so far away, caught up in the smoke and chaos.
She was alone.
There was no one, nothing that stood between his blade, and her vulnerable flesh. One swift strike of his arm, and she would fall here today, her blood painting the fields red.
She was going to die at his hands.
No one was going to stop him.
> Read chapter on ao3
> My art tag for this AU
I was experimenting with a short fic comic (?) for this chapter art! I pulled direct quotes from the fic & plugged them into the pages. I think I like how the effects turned out hehe
Though, I usually don't work with greyscale so it was a hell of a struggle😩!
Also, I drew another picture for a different scene in this chapter! (Link is 12 here btw)
I thought of putting dialog at first 🤔 but them though that is more fun not to, so people could imagine what could be happening in each one hehe ...So tell me in the comments if you have some guesses 🤭
Thank you so much for all your support of the previous one!!
It is bad to say it myself but my favorite is the Time and Wind one hehe
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My final addition to my summer writing challenge! And it wouldn't be a proper addition unless I was posting 15 minutes before my deadline! I'll still be posting fics every now and then, but they'll likely slow waaaayyyyy down for now. Hope you guys have enjoyed reading!
