I was going to write this as a fic, a “Fierce Deity is the first incarnation of Demise/ Dark Link/Calamity” version of him, versus Hylia. But I have too many fics, so I drew it instead 😅. Here is just Fierce Deity alone
Link woke up with a groan, one that betrayed just how much pain he was in. He felt cool hands on him immediately and heard a gasp.
“Link, get up!”
He blinked his eyes open, watching her expression turn from concerned to horrified. He honestly wanted to just pass out. He wanted to hit the hard stone and wallow in self-pitying pain.
But Zelda wouldn’t let him.
“I’m not joking, Link. Get up!”
Begrudgingly, he pushed himself up so he was sitting, and he quickly saw what had her concerned.
“Oh, shit,” he hissed, looking at his torso.
Blackish green veins rose up his stomach, stopping just before his chest. And it burned.
“Zelda…”
“What is this? And your eyes! They’re practically red!”
Link rose to his feet and leaned heavily against the wall. His hands deftly pulled at the strings of his pants, and Zelda made a soft, strangled noise.
“Link? This is not the time.”
His hands stilled and he laughed hard. “Gods, Zelda, that’s… that not what I’m… hang on.”
When the knot was free, he pulled one side of his hip down and shook his head in frustration. The fabric of his pants was stuck to his skin, to the wound he’d kept from her. A wound that had blackish veins last night.
But he hadn’t wanted to worry her.
“Gods, what is this?” Zelda grimaced as she examined the slice in his skin, and the mess that surrounded it.
Link gingerly felt the skin. It was hot to the touch, and the light brush of his finger sent waves of pain down his leg. “Poison. It was on one of the arrows yesterday. Not the one that hit my back. One grazed my lag before you got to me.”
Zelda was on her feet in an instant. “Let’s go then. We need to go find that Great Fairy again, or steal the antitoxin. We have options, but we have to move and you not telling me cost us precious hours. You might lose the leg if we don’t get to fix it in time. I suppose that means that we actually want to find Ganondorf…”
“Zelda. It’s poison. We’re not going to get a cure in the middle of the woods. I’m going to die out here. It looks like it’s slow enough that I can get you out of here, but just grab our horse so we can go.”
Zelda rolled her eyes and went to grab the roaming horse, who miraculously didn’t roam too far from them in the night. And when she came back, her eyes on Link’s leg, she let out a haughty huff. “We’re going to get to an apothecary.”
“No. We’re going to get you home.”
Something about his tone almost set Zelda at ease. This was death they were talking about, and he was remarkably calm on that matter. It was almost like he didn’t believe it himself, and that had her relieved. Maybe it only looked bad. Maybe he knew something she didn’t.
But then she remembered his words last night.
“Please, Zelda, before I leave you.”
“This is why you kissed me,” she said, looking back at him, wide eyed and concerned.
He held his side as he headed outside, giving her a level glance, careful not to betray himself in any way. “I did that because I wanted to.”
“I don’t believe you. Link, tell me the truth. What is this poison?”
He hesitated, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”
“Are you dying?”
Link sniffed, turning to her with a small smile. “No. I don’t think I am. I think it hurts, but I’m fine. We’ll find an antidote, okay?”
“Okay,” she muttered, getting onto the horse and holding out a hand for Link.
He took it, grateful to be riding behind her. It obscured his face and all of his expressions from her. His deepest thoughts were his own. He let his hands wrap around her, enjoying the feel of her as she bent and moved.
Because deep down, one way or another, he knew it would be one of the last times he would ever be able to touch her again
Link was leaning heavily on Zelda’s back, so much so that Zelda was pretty sure he’d fallen asleep. It had been hours since they’d left the relative safety of their little hideout, and Zelda was getting concerned. She had no idea where they were, nor where they were going.
She’d been careful when she packed up their things: Link’s sword, the bow she’d taken during her escape, one arrow she’d had nocked— though the arrowhead that had been in Link’s back had broken, and Zelda carried it with her in the hopes of making a second arrow—and the meager supplies that had been left in the saddlebag. It was certainly not enough to
She turned to Link, not so much as to jostle him, but enough that she could see him resting. His shirt was back on, so she couldn’t see if the poison had gotten worse or remained the same. She gathered—since it was poison—that it was getting worse, but she had no proof other than his lack of awareness.
Riding in the forest was difficult enough, but the more Link slumped, the less control she had on the horse, with the poor thing responding to Link’s sagging body as well as her own intentional directions.
“Zelda…” he muttered after a while. She could feel his lips moving against her shoulder as he woke, nothing intentional towards her, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he was trying to form words.
“We’re headed east. I just needed to get us out of there. We were too obvious.”
“Okay.”
His head drooped back down.
Zelda closed her eyes and let out a shallow, nervous breath. She couldn’t tell him the truth. She couldn’t tell him where she was really going.
If an archer had poisoned arrows, he’d have an antidote. She needed… gods she hated to admit it… she needed to find Ganondorf.
There was one person in this world who wanted them alive, not dead. For all their trouble, she wondered if he’d killed them out of spite. But he knew that he wanted their powers.
All their running for nothing, their escapes, their sacrifices. Nothing.
She needed to bargain with the one man who could save Link. And she knew she needed to bargain with their freedom.
It was worth it to save Link.
She rode deeper into the forest, away from the edge they’d fought so hard to reach. It was a physical pain, something hard to accept. She was throwing everything they’d done away to save him. To save the man who she still felt conflicted over. The one who’d tortured her and kidnapped her. The one who kept her locked in a room, killed her rescue party. But who’d ended up helping her escape, and who’d taken care of her when she was sick, and weak, and injured. He was the one who trusted her, and she’d grown to like him. She liked talking to him and being with him.
And she didn’t want it to end.
She didn’t want him to end.
Zelda rode into nothingness, aimlessly making her way through the forest in the blind hope that she’d eventually stumble on Ganondorf. But that wasn’t the case.
Instead, he found her.
They were surrounded by armed soldiers in an instant, arrows and spears aimed at them, a circle that meant no escape.
“Please, he needs help!” Zelda said quickly, addressing the Demon King himself.
He made a face, a mix of concern and confusion. “Is that why you rode so carelessly into my arms?”
“Will you save him? I won’t run. I won’t fight. I’ll come with you.”
Ganondorf looked over them both, a scrutinizing look on his face as he surveyed the damage done to his Triforce bearers.
Zelda, for one, was looking particularly thin, ragged, tired, and dirty. She was hardened, the set lines of her face were not the same as the boldly naïve appearance she’d once had when she’d first arrived. And Link was positively pale, the color of the upcoming snows, or the sickly emptiness of a dead body. The only color in him was concealed by his clothes, and it was the spreading lines of purple. Gone was his lackey, the boy he’d once captured. Now, he saw a man with too much humanity for his own good, so much that he was willing to let it kill him.
“I might have something,” Ganondorf cooed, his triumphant look overtaking his face. It was laced with a smug sense of victory, knowing that this was his easiest way to keep his two most treasured assets, his keys to his greatest desires.
Link murmured weakly behind Zelda, and she wasn’t entirely sure he knew what was going on or where they were. She wasn’t even sure he could hear them.
“Do it now!” Zelda said, feeling Link slink off to the side, grabbing him desperately to keep him on the horse, though the motion had their mount shifting around uncomfortably.
“You don’t command me,” Ganon said, snarling in disgust, though he did as she requested, dismounting and sliding Link off the horse and to the ground.
For a long moment, he simply looked Link over, assessing the damage the poison had done.
Zelda looked on, though she still jumped, tense with nerves, when Ganondorf snapped his fingers. A soldier appeared and handed Ganon a vial filled with liquid, which Ganondorf held to Link’s lips, though he didn’t make a move to pour.
Instead, he looked up at Zelda.
Waiting.
His eyes flicked down, and she followed them to her horse. It made sense. He wanted her in the least likely position to run. So she dismounted and stood beside Ganon, watching on with a helplessly anxious expression.
Link’s breathing was heavy, thick with effort as his airways began to swell. His eyes wouldn’t open, and he made no move to escape, leading her to believe that
Ganondorf seemed satisfied, and dumped the vial into Link’s mouth.
“It’s fast acting and enhanced with power. He’ll wake quickly if he’s not too far gone already.”
“What if he is? Too far gone?”
Ganondorf hummed to himself, a disgusted look passing his features. “Then neither of you are of use to me any longer. You’ll be my prisoner with the hopes that a new Triforce bearer will awaken.” But Ganon smirked to himself, an entirely new expression on his face. “But it seems that won’t be necessary.”
Link’s eyes fluttered open, landing immediately on Ganondorf. He tried to scamper away, but he was held down by the larger man. His eyes were a brownish color: a mix of their usual blue and the burning poison that had rushed throughout his body. It shocked Zelda to see the drastic change, but she didn’t linger on it. Not when they shot to her, fear and confusion lacing his features.
“What did you do?” he asked breathily, gasping out the last word before drawing in some much-needed air.
“I did what had to be done to save you. Can you move, Link? Are you okay?”
Link looked warily at Ganondorf, who waited with a patient smirk on his face. Slowly, Link lifted up his shirt to check and see if the poison was still spreading up his chest from his leg. But to his surprise, he could see it slinking down slowly.
“What did you do?” he asked again, more forcefully this time.
But Zelda smiled sadly at him, shrugging a shoulder.
Link shook his head and looked away, trying to make sense of it all. But a foreign noise had him turning his head back, the sound of thick gurgling.
Ganondorf was bleeding from the neck.
And Zelda’s hand grasped a bloody arrowhead.
Standing there in shock, Link tried to will himself to move, but in the next instant, arrows were flying at them from all directions, hoofbeats were roaring as Ganon’s troops moved in, Zelda’s screams bounced off the trees.
Link looked at her just in time to see several arrows lodge in her legs, sending her to the ground as she let out painful sobs. She fell onto her side and threw her head back into the grass, tears streaming down her face, leaving a clean line where her tears washed away the dirt.
Link tried to move, but he was too weak still. The most he managed was to get to his hands and knees to start crawling over to Zelda.
He could hear Ganondorf choking still, though it sounded almost akin to a laugh.
“Smart move…no wonder you have… wisdom…”
Blood spurted from his mouth and neck, gushing too fast to be stopped.
Zelda clutched Link’s arm, trying to stifle the noises she made as she watched everything unfolding in front of her as best she could.
“Get the King!” several guards shouted, pulling Ganon limply onto a spare horse.
“I don’t feel his breath!”
“—his heart!”
“—too much blood!”
“Get him to safety, now!”
“Kill them!”
The last voice caught Link’s ear, and he quickly moved in front of Zelda, grunting out at the impact of two arrows lodged in his abdomen.
“Leave them! They’re good as dead out here! Get the King to safety!”
The ground shook with the company’s hasty retreat.
“No!” Link shouted as the last of his adrenaline left him. He fell back into the grass beside Zelda, breathing hard as his hand gingerly touched his agitated skin.
“It’s the poison arrowhead,” Zelda whispered out, still trying to move. But what she could manage only brought her pain. “If they make it, he’ll still die.”
“Wisdom,” Link breathed out, a laugh without sound.
“Link!” she cried, fear now finally replacing her brave face. “I can’t move.”
Link knew how she felt. Every inch he moved, sharp pain radiated throughout his body, shifting the deep arrowheads out of their organs they’d happily lodged themselves into.
“I can’t—” he hissed. “I can’t either.”
Another twitch and he let out a cry, grasping his wound. His body was shaking.
Zelda’s wide eyes were watching his, and she tried to smile. “He’s dead. He didn’t get the Triforce.”
“Neither did we.”
“My people are safe. I did my job.”
“And I failed mine,” Link groaned. “We’ll die here. I didn’t get you home.”
Zelda’s hand crept towards his, and she flipped her palm up. “Hold my hand.”
“Zelda…”
“I’m cold, Link. Hold my hand.”
Her voice cracked, and his willpower broke, threading his fingers through hers. Their hands were warm where their dormant Triforce pieces lay unawoken.
“The Triforce! Zelda, the Triforce!”
“We don’t have Power,” she said, breathing more heavily with every passing second.
“He died here. It might have lingered. We have to try; it’s only been a few minutes… we have too—Zelda?”
Only empty eyes stared back at him.
“Zelda!”
~~~~~~
Some soldiers say they went back for the bodies and burned them in a great pyre. Others said that they heard a scream and then there was nothing at all, no body, only a blood trail. A few claimed that a white light enveloped the earth, warm and brilliant and divine and entirely not of the world, and all evidence of blood and death had disappeared from the area, leaving perfectly healed grass and leaving a flower in their place.
But no princess returned to the throne. No Demon King conquered the land. His soldiers scattered upon his death. His favorite soldier, lost to memory.
Travelers reported being robbed in the woods by a couple, both blonde, and both mysteriously good with a weapon. Some say that the Princess herself was their neighbor on a remote farm, a young man sharing her home. Different travelers reported the same two as ghosts in the woods, pulling each other along as they happily passed through trees. Others heard nothing at all.
No history books recorded their fates, just that the Triforce Bearers had all vanished. But the world was at peace, and they were no longer needed, so no one continued the search for Power and Courage. The mysterious disappearance of the Princess was followed up on, but after the new monarchy was in place, she slowly faded from memory as well.
Only the next bearers of Wisdom, Power, and Courage would ever know what really happened to their spiritual predecessors.
Link took a deep breath and held it, letting his eyes open tentatively.
It was dark, so dark. He almost wondered if something far worse had happened to him and he’d lost his sight.
“You’re awake!” Zelda breathed beside him.
He groaned, letting out a pained noise as he tried to turn over.
Zelda’s hands were on him, holding him down. “Don’t. You were shot by an arrow. I got it out, I made sure to clean the wound. You didn’t bleed out, and it’s been about an hour now.”
He went to sit up this time, and was met by a frustrated look by Zelda and let her push him back down.
“Sorry,” he muttered, wincing as he laid back down. It took him a moment to realize that he was using her lap as a pillow, and he was shirtless.
He tried to sit up again.
“Link! Gods, stop it!” Zelda pushed him down. Again.
“Okay, okay.” He took another deep breath, though this one was much more difficult. “Did it hit anything?”
“Well… you.”
He scoffed. “Anything internal.”
“I’m not a healer, but it didn’t appear so. And you’re alive, so I’ll say no. Why? Are you in a lot of pain?”
He was. More than usual. It was a burning sensation that shot straight through his spine and made his body tense up. He felt nauseous, and it suddenly reminded him of Zelda.
“How’s your head?” he asked, stopping himself before he went to sit up again.
“It’s not too bad.”
Again, Link felt the burn rush through him. This time, he pushed past her hands as he sat up.
“Link, gods, you’re stubborn!”
He smirked at her and moved to his feet. “I need a minute outside… privately.”
“Oh,” she mumbled, gesturing vaguely to the entrance of the small hollowed out hillside Zelda had found for them, as if giving him permission to leave. She let the horse wander a bit, but she could still see it contentedly grazing in the distance, clearly disinterested in leaving them.
Zelda sat with her legs tucked up against her chest, waiting for Link’s return so they could discuss how to properly get away from Ganondorf.
So when Link returned moments later, pale and pained, his abruptness startled her.
“Tell me what my back looks like.”
Zelda stood, giving him a small smile. “Are you trying to make me compliment you?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “The wound from the arrow. What’s it look like?”
Zelda’s fingers pressed lightly into his skin, and he shot forward from the cold shock he felt, the lightness of her touch against the throbbing pain of his wound. It was soothing in more ways than one.
If she noticed, she didn’t say anything.
“It’s narrow, pretty small. A bit red and bruised. What are you looking for specifically?”
“Can you see my veins?”
She inspected his back again, making an indecisive sound. “I mean… yeah…but it’s not abnormal looking. Are you feeling okay? Do you think you have an infection or something?”
Link swallowed hard as he turned to her. “I just wanted to be sure I didn’t. Don’t worry.”
Zelda made a face, but accepted his logic, though not without a healthy bit of skepticism. “Well, how do you want to proce—”
She was cut off mid-sentence as Link moved into her personal space, an arm around her waist. His lips were so close that she could feel his warm breath on her face. And he was waiting. Waiting for her brain to catch up and to react.
“Link?” she asked, though it was less than a whisper.
“Please, Zelda, before I leave you.”
She could see his eyes were dark, his brows furrowed. His hand went up to caress her face, like he was trying to remember everything from the sight, to the touch of her. And though she didn’t understand his words, knowing that he didn’t have to leave her when they got back, that they could find a way or a place for him, she leaned forward and let her lips brush his.
It was all the confirmation Link needed to dive into her, hungry and desperate, like a man starved of air, and she was the breath he urgently needed.
Zelda surprised herself with her own eagerness, matching everything he did move for move. If he pulled her tighter, she tugged his arms. If he deepened the kiss, she welcomed it.
His hands surprised her. With the rest of him so intense, his hands were gentle, stroking the skin of her neck and throat, wrapping around her waist while his other cradled her face. Brushing her hair back so the wild strands didn’t end up in their mouths.
Though they’d both been careful to remember to breathe, Zelda needed to break apart, from him for a moment to get a real breath. And when she did, she gasped.
“Link? Your eyes. Do they hurt?”
He grabbed her hand and brought her knuckles to his lips, shaking his head no.
But they burned.
He was unwilling to close them, even for a second if it meant losing sight of Zelda.
“They’re bloodshot. Like, really bloodshot, Link. Lie back down, okay. We… we can continue our conversation later.”
Link snickered, but he obliged her, sitting down with her beside him.
“Get some rest,” she whispered, looking him over curiously. “You’ll feel better in a bit.”
But what she didn’t know was that Link was not going to feel better.
Not literally, of course, but she had taken on the mindset that she could endure and survive anything. After all, she’d survived the death of her mother, her father, her people, her own imprisonment, torture, mind control, and escape; she’d been near death, nearly starved, nearly killed, and now captured again. She could survive this, if it was all they had to throw at her. She would not break so easily. Not this time. This time, she was stronger.
The blindfold had been replaced over her eyes hours ago, and she was now enjoying the jilt and rock of the horse she sat upon. It was peaceful, like being lulled to sleep by music. But Zelda didn’t want to sleep. Not again.
The chatter around her was minimal. Whenever they did speak, it was small talk: things they drank the night before at the tavern, something about finally getting a warm bed.
She never heard Link’s voice.
They all stopped for—what Zelda assumed to be—the night. She could feel the heat of the fire, but she was not unbound, nor was her blindfold untied. In fact, there was another rope around her that kept her pressed against a tree.
She could taste the dampness in the air, something she’d learned in the cave during rainy days. It was about to be a storm, and they were likely warming and resting up so they could ride through it. She simply wished she could see, especially so she could know what had happened to Link.
Zelda found out the next morning.
Ganondorf’s voice jolted her from her sleep, and she tried to stretch as much as her restraints allowed. But Ganon’s voice grew louder until he was right on top of her. “Link, get her on a horse.”
No, she thought.
Rough hands hoisted her up, unceremonious, and without compassion, as he’d so often shown her. Gods, Ganondorf had gotten to Link again, and he was no longer free of the compulsion.
Still gagged, Zelda tried to sound out her words, though they were nothing more than grunts that went ignored. And when she was lifted onto a horse, she lost all sense of where Link had gone.
Rain had begun to fall, as she’d predicted, and the horses trotted just a little bit faster. That sound, too, was like music. It was horses in general, she supposed.
“Watch out for that hill!” one of the guards at the front called back to the rest of the group. “It’s hard to see.”
But Zelda… Zelda was invincible.
She carefully wiggled her way to the side and threw herself off the horse, relieved when she found herself rolling uncontrollably.
In the distance, she could hear the guards’ frantic shouts, but she could make nothing out.
Her brain no longer felt attached to her body as she tumbled down the cliff. There were moments where she was sure the things she was hitting were going straight through her.
A hard smack in her face had her reeling. Another as her head crashed back down into the hill. Again, a bang and a scratch. Finally, after seemingly falling forever, she stopped.
The world spun, and yet, by some ungodly horrid twist of fate, her blindfold had stayed on during the fall, and she cursed whoever had tied it. But she couldn’t get up if she wanted to. She wanted this gag out of her mouth.
She wanted to throw up.
Her ears were ringing, her body uncooperative. Her brain was thrumming, pounding like a drum. Her eyes became heavy, especially under the weight of the blindfold. She could let herseld drift off. She could. It would only take a moment.
Zelda only began to panic again when there was a pair of hands hoisting her to her feet. There was no way she had drifted off, right? No way they’d followed her so closely down the hill. There was no…
Her blindfold was pulled off, and the gag quickly followed. She only got a glimpse, blinking through the heavy rain and through her surprise before her thoughts could catch up.
“Link?”
She could feel him deftly unknotting her bindings. “You may need to run like this until we can… never mind.”
Zelda’s arms were free, and she stretched them before turning to Link, and stepping back. “Why are you helping me?”
Link looked at her with confusion written all over his features. “Why?”
“You didn’t help me before. You’ve been free and you didn’t help me.”
He grabbed her arms, pulling her with him to get moving as he spoke. “I got free only moments ago. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Ganondorf said…”
She didn’t bother finishing her sentence.
Link grabbed her a little tighter, watching her sway as she turned a pallid grey color. “Come on, we just need to get far enough away from them and then we can hide. Stay conscious, Zelda.”
“Conscious?”
“You’re bleeding. Your head.”
Her hand went up, but she couldn’t focus as they ran.
“We must have had the same idea to roll down the hill,” Link laughed. “I’m rubbing off on you.”
“Do you have a knife?”
“No, I couldn’t grab my things. All I had was something sharp I used to cut the binds.”
She nodded, and that’s where their conversation ended before they sprinted through the downpour, looking for anywhere that they might hide. They both were bleeding, and Link had a feeling Zelda’s head wound was going to take her out before long.
“Here,” Zelda said, kneeling beside Link as she set her things aside and threw another piece of wood into the fire.
It was dwindling dangerously low, and she wondered if Link had even managed to stoke it earlier.
She gently shook him, though it didn’t get a response from him. She tried brushing the hair from his eyes instead. That woke him.
He jerked back at the unfamiliar contact that she’d recently realized would wake him. “Zelda?”
“I brought someone to help.”
Link groaned, but for the first time, he stirred, turning over to get a better look. “Why?”
Zelda shrugged, her voice turning from concern into bland sarcasm. “I don’t know. Maybe so you’ll get better?”
“You shouldn’t have brought some stranger,” he mumbled, weakly trying to get a better look at Cole.
But the older man was already inspecting Link’s foot.
“Oh,” he tried to whisper, but both of them heard it. “Sorry,” he said quickly, apparently not realizing how loud he’d been. “Tell me, how did this happen?” He dug through his satchel and began pulling out roots and herbs, all kinds of plants that Zelda didn’t recognize. Not that she was proficient. She knew the bark trick, and at some point, she remembered watching the apothecary come to the castle to deal with a rat infestation, and that was about the extent of her herbal knowledge.
“He stepped on something at the bottom of the river. We don’t know what it was.”
Cole began mashing some of the leaves together in a mortar he’d pulled from his bag, grinding the pestle into the stone with a force that seemed almost impossible for someone of his age.
“Whatever it was must have been just been a breeding ground of germs for it to have gotten so bad so quickly.”
“I- I don’t know,” Zelda said, sitting beside Link. She watched him pull several ingredients that she hadn’t purchased in the shop, wondering just what the differences were.
However, despite Zelda’s attention, Link was alert now, sweating with a fever, but forcing his eyes open regardless.
Cole gestured to the cup that was discarded by Zelda’s side, and she handed it to him. The healer added some water and set his brew near the flames to bring it to a boil.
They sat in companionable silence for a while, only talking about small goings on or pleasantries, but nothing substantial. It was only to pass the time while the water boiled, and they knew it. No one tried to force any conversation.
Link glared at Cole, though his expression did little; combined with his ghostly pale skin and baggy eyes, he wasn’t too frightening.
When the water was finally steaming hot, the man let it cool for a moment before holding it to his own lips and taking a loud sip. “See? I’m trying to help you.”
Link relented, accepting the cup into his mouth as the man made him drink the burning hot liquid until it was gone. He let out a pained sound as it burned his throat, each breath nearly sending a puff of smoke with it.
“Hopefully, you’ll feel better soon and we can get out of here,” Zelda said.
But Link didn’t respond verbally. Instead, he grabbed her arm, pushing her with what little strength he had. Zelda looked at him in confusion before turning to Cole.
He was standing up slowly, watching Link and Zelda carefully before offering his hand to Zelda. “Princess, let me escort you home. Your people are concerned.”
Link made it to his feet before collapsing back to his knees, his eyes fluttering as he desperately fought to stay awake.
“Did you kill him?” Zelda gasped, grabbing ahold of Link before he could crash. He went entirely limp in her arms, and she struggled under his weight to lower him down. But she felt his neck and could still find his pulse, faint, but there.
“No, unfortunately. But he will be unconscious for the time being. Let me get you out of here.”
Zelda glanced at Link again. “Not without him. He saved me. He’s a friend.”
“You’re coming with me.”
Zelda balked, that statement reminding her of exactly who she was. “I’m the Princess of Hyrule. The Queen. You don’t command me.”
Cole smirked, reaching for something behind him. “I don’t serve you. I serve Lord Ganondorf.”
“Oh gods,” Zelda breathed, grabbing at her knife just as he reached for one of his own.
“He said he needed you alive. Said you could be in pieces, as long as you were alive.”
Gulping hard, Zelda contemplated running, but she didn’t want to turn her back on Cole. She couldn’t fight; that wasn’t something she knew how to do, and she wasn’t keen on aimlessly swinging the knife around.
As she contemplated her options, her body started to act on impulse, fear taking over. She lunged for the fire, grabbing one of the flaming branches. The heat was nearly unbearable, and as soon as she swung it at Cole, the meager flame went out. Instead, she attempted to use it like a club. Though that was met by her wild swings that had her caught in Cole’s grasp almost immediately.
She hadn’t noticed that there was something new in his hand. It was a black root, one that she recognized from when they’d flushed out the rats in the castle. Poison, likely to incapacitate her until he could administer an antidote for the ride to Ganondorf.
Biting her lips together, Zelda kept her mouth closed as she flailed. Suddenly, her head began to throb, and she felt Cole release her. She turned in time to see him stumbling back. In her flailing, she’d hit him.
And he’d dropped the root.
Letting out a breath of relief, Zelda grabbed the root off the ground and threw herself on top of Cole, holding him down as she pushed the roots into his mouth and blocked his nose until she heard him choke and swallow.
He was perhaps the only person she could have gained the upper hand over, but he stilled quickly after swallowing the root, black goo leaking from his lips. She checked his pulse. It was still there, but slowing with every passing second.
“Gods,” she whispered to herself before running back to Link. “Get up!”
When he didn’t respond, she tried smacking him hard in the face, but that also resulted in a non-reaction.
With all her strength, she pulled Link towards the river, dunking his face in the freezing cold.
While he didn’t shoot up, alert and awake as she’d hoped, his eyes opened a slit and he looked at her, though it was clear they were not focused.
“I need you to walk! I can’t carry you, and we have to go now, Link!”
His eyes drifted closed again, and Zelda helped him back down with a fusterated groan.
She was sure the consequences of her actions would hit her later, but for now, she gathered as many of their things as possible and threw what she could on her back, looking around for somewhere to hide.
After some investigating, she found a small cavern by a waterfall: shelter, warmth, water, and privacy. She set their things down and made her way back to Link, dragging him a few steps before looking back at Cole’s unmoving body.
She let Link down and went to Cole, feeling for a pulse again. This time, there was nothing.
With a panicked breath of resolve, she rolled Cole into the river before returning to Link, dragging him slowly to her new little shelter.
And she realized that she was already starting to feel the weight of what she’d done.
Zelda backed up against the nearest tree, holding her hand to the wound she’d sustained on her abdomen. It was burning, and she wanted nothing more than to succumb to it, to let the dizziness she felt in the back of her mind take over. She wanted to sink into the soft grass, to sleep, to close her eyes, even if she never woke back up. She just needed relief, and she wasn’t about to get it.
Not with Link standing in front of her, hand on his sword, ready to drag her back to the place he’d just freed her from.
“Please, Link,” she tried, wincing in pain. “Just let me go.”
He pulled his sword out, and Zelda’s eyes widened in fear. She didn’t think he’d use it on her, but at this point, she wasn’t even sure of that much.
So, when he planted the tip into the ground, she only relaxed marginally.
“I can’t do that,” he said, raising his hands for her sake as he stepped closer to her to examine her wound. “You’re as good as dead wandering around like that, though.”
She flinched away from his touch. “I’m as good as dead going back to Ganondorf with you as well.”
He gave her a guilty look, one that said he knew her words to be true. “I can help you there. We can escape another time.”
“No. Just leave me. Tell him you never found me.”
“I so wish I could, Princess. But I can’t.”
“Are you that weak?” she spat.
His lips twitched up. “Yes, in fact, that is exactly the case. That man raised me. Not only that, he raised me with corrupted magic impeding my own thoughts. For ten years, I’ve been a slave to his will. I can’t break free in a day. I was foolish to think I could. When I let you go, I don’t know what part of me took over, but it wasn’t me.”
“I think it was,” she said, taking another step back, this time, away from the tree. “I think you have it inside you to break free of his control. You’re kind, when you want to be. That’s certainly not him.”
“If I’m kind, let me help you.”
“Fine,” she relented, feeling the stabbing pain remind her that she wasn’t equipped for this.
“Lie down.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
Link chuckled. “Fine, lean against a tree then. You’ll need something to brace you. It’s going to hurt.”
Moving to a tree deeper in the woods, Zelda grabbed a branch that looked like it could be easily torn straight from the bark if she needed it.
Link followed her, tearing at his clothing as he did, cutting strips of cloth with his knife. The air was chilly without much sunlight, so he was glad he had more than one layer. So, draping the cloth strips over his arm, he moved up against Zelda, pinning her with his weight.
“You can’t fight me, or I could make it worse.”
She let out a long, deep breath and rested her hand against his other arm, the one that was mostly responsible for keeping her still.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
But she wasn’t ready.
Link bundled up one of the pieces to put into her wound to pack it, and she let out a wail, gripping his shoulder in a halfhearted attempt to push him away, and to have purchase on something. Her cry echoed through the forest and tears streamed down her face.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, though he didn’t lighten up or slow down his work. Instead, he tied the long strip around her waist, keeping the packing in place.
Her body was shaking with a mix of pain and simply from her tears. Gods, it hurt.
When he’d tied everything off, Link looked up at Zelda and hesitantly raised his hand, his thumb lightly brushing a tear away. He stared at his wet thumb, almost as if he’d never seen such a substance before.
“Link,” Zelda tried again, still pinned. “Please.”
“I… I can’t.”
In a swift motion, Zelda pulled at the branch she’d been clinging to earlier and ripped it out. With all the strength she had left, still dizzy and feeling her body ready to simply collapse, she swung the branch against Link’s back, offering her a brief moment of his shock to tear herself from his grasp.
He was too well trained, though, and recovered quickly, grabbing her around the waist so he could tug her close to him, close enough to wrench the branch from her hand and throw it to the ground.
She braced herself and slammed her head back into his chin, pretty sure she’d received the worse end of that. But it loosened his grip again. This time, she didn’t try to run, but turned into him and grabbed his belt, yanking a small dagger from its sheath.
He caught her wrist and pried it from her fingers, tossing that, too, to the ground.
Link had her firmly, but not tight. His head shook slowly as he stared at her. “Zelda?”
“What?” she spat back, realizing her struggle was useless.
“Zelda? It’s you,” he whispered.
“What?” she asked again, more confused than hostile.
“I think it’s you.”
His hand let go of her wrist and ran along her cheek for a moment before he stepped back, his other hand falling to his side. Frantic, he started grabbing his discarded weapons.
Zelda had begun walking when she felt his hand in hers. She spun around; her other hand ready to hit him.
“You’re going the wrong way,” he said, lightly pulling her with him. “I know my way out of these woods.”
She easily freed her hand this time, Link letting her go without resistance. “No. You’ll lead me back.”
Swiftly pulling the dagger back out of its sheath, he held it out to her. “If for a second you believe I’m misleading you, use it on me.”
“I don’t understand.”
For now, he was in control of himself. And he wasn’t sure if it really was because of Zelda, or simply his own desire to be free.
Link smiled at her ever so slightly. “Neither do I, really.”
When daylight broke, Zelda blinked slowly, adjusting to the fine lines of sunrise hitting her eyes as she awoke.
She’d stayed up late, keeping an eye out for Link. At some point, despite the fire, he’d begun to shiver and sweat all at once, and she gingerly placed a hand against his swollen foot, feeling it burn wildly. From her angle, she could see where she’d crudely stitched the large wound together. She still wondered if he’d stepped on a shard og glass at the bottom of the river, or a sharp rock. But it didn’t really change the fact that Link was not going to be standing on this foot while it was infected.
They had no bandages. They had nothing to keep it clean but the scratchy blanket Link had stolen. Zelda took it down to the freezing river that had seemed so glorious the day before, when she’d been so preoccupied with getting herself clean after all this time that she’d barely noticed the temperature. She dipped a small piece of the blanket into the river before returning to Link, wrapping it around his foot again.
He shivered at the cold against him, but he didn’t open his eyes.
At some point in the night, he’d fallen asleep, and he hadn’t had the energy to re-open his eyes since. Zelda was concerned, but she was less concerned when he’d grunted out a response to one of her earlier questions.
She rested against the tree, keeping the fire going as she twiddled the knife in her hands. At this point, she was the only thing standing between them and an attack from Ganondorf’s soldiers. They’d need to get out of the open soon.
And Zelda wasn’t sure how she was going to do that.
She crawled over to Link, lightly brushing his hair back to get his attention. If she simply spoke, she knew he wouldn’t hear her. She’d tried earlier.
“Mmm?” he groaned, though he still didn’t stir.
“I’m going to see what I can grab in town. If you can, just toss another twig into the fire in a bit, okay?”
“Be safe,” he muttered, drifting back to sleep.
Zelda smiled at him, tucking her knife into her belt and grabbing the bag Link had also stolen before heading into town.
Perhaps she’d spent too much time with Link, but her first thought was that she needed to find something of value to steal.
She was up with the sun, and few others were, so it meant that most people were still sleeping inside their homes. It left few places that she could think to steal any items from.
That is, until she passed a farm.
Far from all the other animals was a goat, disinterested in everything else around him. It was almost as if it knew that Zelda was willing to offer it an adventure, and it strode over to the wooden fence. This side wasn’t nearly as reinforced as the rest of the field, so she looked around and hastily pulled the goat over the fence, keeping a tight grip as it made to try for a mad dash away from its captor. Zelda picked up the small thing and hurried away before its annoyed cries could alert the farmer to her presence.
She rushed away to another farm that she’d already passed, relieved when she saw someone at the fence.
“Hello!” she called, grunting as she received a fierce kick.
The farmer looked at her suspiciously.
“I’m looking to sell my goat! He’s… uh… too much of a handful with all my other animals.”
“Put it down, lady,” the farmer said, soothing the goat as she did. “You have a female goat here.”
A strangled, nervous sound came from Zelda’s throat as she tried to think of something to say to that. “Right. Well, to be honest, I got this goat the other day and I honestly am in over my head. I wanted to have… cheese… readily available. But I just couldn’t handle this and I just want to get rid of him. Her! I mean her.”
“You donating her?”
“No, I’m afraid I can’t afford that. Would you buy her?”
The farmer looked the goat over again. “I’ll give you a hundred rupees for her.”
Zelda made a face. She wasn’t up to speed on prices of livestock, but she knew politics. And this was a maneuver she’d seen before. “I’m sorry, no. She’s worth at least double that.”
“Not in this condition. Looks a bit starved. You’ve been struggling with her for days, and it shows. A hundred.”
“No deal, then,” Zelda said, a little more confident when she heard his lie. He was trying to play her.
“One fifty. That’s as high as I’ll go.”
Zelda puzzled it for a moment before holding out her hand. “That’s fine. Thank you.”
The farmer went inside and returned with rupees for her, which she stuck into her bag before heading into the heart of town .
What a steal, she thought to herself.
She bought food, necessities for her and Link, a cloak as well, which she pulled tightly around her.
Then, she headed to the apothecary, explaining the symptoms, and paying for the ingredients she needed, prepared to go back to Link.
To go back.
She looked down the road. She had provisions. She had a knife for protection, fresh clothes, a bag, some money. She could go. She could do it.
But then there was Link, lying by a fire near a river, his foot infected, burning with a fever, unable to walk or run or defend himself.
He’d protected her when she needed him most—though, she was reluctant to admit that he had, in fact, gotten her into the worst of her situations anyway—so she was willing to go back to him as well. She refused to admit to any more than that.
“Excuse me?” an older man asked, hurrying over to Zelda. “I was in the apothecary and I heard what you bought. Do you need assistance? I’m willing to help if you’re willing to pay. I’m a skilled healer, and I have been for years. But business is slow for an older man like myself. All you young people prefer your own kind.”
Hesitant, Zelda’s hand went instinctively for the knife tucked in her belt. “What’s your name, sir?”
He smiled, toothless and charming. “Sir? I like you already. My name is Cole. Pleasure to meet you, young lady.”
Zelda blushed, unused to the courtesy of a stranger after all this time. “What’s your price then, sir?”
He chuckled. “Twenty rupees. I’ll have whoever’s ailing fit as a fiddle in no time.”
Zelda dug into her pocket, and grabbed the rupee, handing it to Cole. She needed Link on his feet sooner rather than later. They had to get moving lest Ganon’s troops show up.
She knew if they did, she’d be no match for them on her own.
