The Garden Doesn’t Know She’s Gone
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Fanfic by MythboundCal
Zelda’s garden doesn’t know she’s gone.
It still blooms like she’ll be back any second—like the sunflowers haven’t noticed she stopped humming to them, like the lavender didn’t watch her vanish into light.
Link stands at the gate. The wood is soft with age, half-swallowed by ivy. The watering can rests exactly where she left it in Hateno. Rusting. Waiting.
He doesn’t touch it.
Not out of neglect.
Just… fear.
That if he waters the garden, it might forget her—that its roots will stop searching for her footsteps, its blossoms will stop blooming in her colors.
So he lets it grow wild.
The basil climbs the wrong wall. The squash vines curl over the porch. The chimes still sing when the wind hits just right, a song no one ever wrote down.
And her gloves still hang on a bent nail by the shed. One turned inside out. He doesn’t fix it.
Somewhere beneath the soil are seeds she never named. He won’t dig for them. If they bloom, they bloom. If they don’t… he’ll wait with them.
Today, he sits. The Master Sword leans nearby, but he doesn’t reach for it.
The porch creaks under his weight. He watches the marigolds twitch in the breeze, reaching for hands that never come.
The villagers don’t ask anymore. He’s glad.
Because how do you explain a wound that grows flowers?
Even now, he hears her voice on the air—light, scolding, fond.
“Don’t overwater the rosemary, Link. It hates being fussed over.”
He doesn’t answer.
Just lets the wind rustle the leaves. Lets the garden carry the silence.
And when a white lily opens—out of season, out of place—he doesn’t wonder how.
With all the Kickstarter orders at last on their way, I’m happy to say that Dragons: Wild and Domestic is now available in my shop! If you missed out on the Kickstarter, now is your chance to welcome an irresponsible number of dragons into your hearth and home. The little pocket dragon enamel pin and a digital copy of the book are also available.
I think one of my favorite things about Dragon Age is what they really leaned into for dragon lore.
Like I will always be sad that after da2 we never saw drakes again and they were kinda displaced from lore. But that’s a whole separate thing.
It’s that if the dragon has wings it is always female. Has been since dao. That’s why in lore it was always argued that the old gods weren’t true dragons - and is even spoken by Tevinter and early Orlesian Chantry scholars that they were spirits that took the form of dragons. (I’mma go into this more later maybe in a separate post. Honestly the foreshadowing and building they had for the old gods in place since dao/da2 made me feral when playing datv. Especially considering they originally weren’t intended to be dragons)
I digress, something that I think is always forgotten by the fandom is: if it has wings it’s a female dragon. It cannot be a male dragon aka drakes. Drakes die at a century if not sooner because they’re killed by great bears, wyverns, other drakes, hunters, etc. lots of things out there to kill a drake tbh.
Male dragon life stages:
Egg -> dragonling -> drake
Where as female dragons don’t even reach adulthood till they’re a century old. So their brothers are already gone from the nest and dead by the time they’re ready to leave and find dens of their own. Often very far from where they were born.
In contrast to drakes, female dragon life stages:
Egg -> dragonling -> Adult dragon (100) -> High Dragon (100+) -> Great Dragon (no clue what age they hit this stage)
So by the time a female is ready to breed, she has likely no siblings to accidentally fall into. Their chance of inbreeding is extremely low (can’t say this about griffons rip). Which is such an excellent point of world-building for them.
The lore overall has been consistent on that fact. Which was for the longest time why I really thought that the old gods weren’t true dragons - or that Tevinter pulled a patriarchy and mislabeled them (which even if they had been spirits they would have absolutely been projecting perceived gender into spirits since they are sexless/gender neutral.)
I loved that da really stuck to the “females are large and more colourful and stronger than the males” for their dragons. That it was something that didn’t change throughout the whole series even when they did simplify their behavior/dynamics by removing drakes. I will continue to dream about how when dragons came back to Thedas, roaming packs of drakes became an issue for people.
That sure high dragons were the more flashy problem. But then you also had to worry about a smaller, stealthier version of them skuttling through your pasture and frying up your livestock to take back to the sleeping high dragon and her brood. That nobles were having to patrol lest the merchants were beset upon by the elemental breathing harem a high dragon had surveying her lands while she rested up.
Orlais and the Avvar probably had an advantage here on being prepared to deal with them because of wyverns. A leg up at most tbh.
There is a section in Eldest when Eragon and Saphira are approaching Du Weldenvarden, with Arya and the dwarven guards, and there’s this line from Saphira
“Aye. Here the legends of old still bestride the earth”
Now plenty of humans use “aye”. Dwarves too. It just means “yes”. But Eragon, Roran, Brom, and other carvahall villagers are the ones who use it most, seconded by Orik. I’ll keep an eye out for it but Elves don’t use it as far as I can remember, Arya might have at some point, my memory is foggy, but she’s lived among humans and dwarves for 70 years, so it makes sense if she does. But this is the only occurrence I can think of where a dragon uses it. And while we don’t meet many dragons, so it could be more widespread, it also makes perfect sense in the lore that Saphira would pick up speech patterns from Eragon. She’s a dragon. Proud and Regal. As she says she’s “ancient in her thoughts” but she’s still got a few words from Eragon and perhaps even occasionally slipping into a peasants accent, just like how Eragon gets drunk and somehow starts speaking with a dragons voice at the party following the battle of Farthen Dur. Don’t forget that Eragon was the one who taught Saphira most of her language. I just find the concept wholesome and slightly funny. We always think about how Eragon is influenced by Saphira, but we shouldn’t forget that Saphira is influenced by him too.
Today, on Trans Day of Visibility, the Department of Monster Affairs would like to celebrate by discussing some of the ways that monster species culturally view gender, sex, and human transness.
(image source)
Dragon culture has an interesting view of transness in that Dragons put no stock in the idea of gender, viewing it as a strange mortal concept. Male, female, and other all sex Dragons are treated equally based on their power and their power is - almost always - based on their age. Being highly vain creatures Dragons also tend to see themselves as perfect as they are and any perceived imperfections are self-addressed with their own magic.
Appearance wise, Dragons of all sexes look identical in their true Dragon and half-dragon forms - that is to say they have no secondary sex characteristics that are measurable by the humanoid eye. Dragon research does indicate that Dragons report slight color variations, horn length, and scent based on sex when they chose to be fertile. However, it is in their humanoid form that Dragons perhaps demonstrate their disregard for the gender and sex norms of mortals. Dragons can take on a humanoid form of any mortal sex with any combination of secondary sex characteristics. In fact, most Dragons often change what kind of humanoid presentation they take depending on their feelings that day.
As for human transness, Dragons are extremely accepting. Dragons view themselves as perfect but they understand that others are not; so, when trans-people assert their identity a Dragon interprets that as a demonstration of their inner power to know themselves. Dragons have been reported using their magic to change humans’ bodies to the opposite sex as a boon if requested.
Additionally, Dragons seem to have a great admiration for drag culture as the glittery, colorful, and exaggerated gender presentation of drag royalty is similar to how many Dragons’ humanoid forms appear. After all, if they are going to take on the form of a weak humanoid they might as well look fabulous.
Elves may appear on the side of appearance and presentation towards the feminine by human standards but they do have cultural gender norms and sex differences. Because elves are highly tied to nature their gender norms often reflect the nature around them. However, there are a few consistences that are observable. Elven men, like most males of various species, tend to be more flamboyant and colorful compared to elven women. In elven culture the men are the ones that must dress up in order to attract a partner. Elven women are often the ones that are providers and protectors, being most of the hunters and usually having the more powerful natural magic.
Now even with these general gender norm differences elven culture is, on the whole, very egalitarian compared to human cultures regarding gender. Trans-elves exist and are a welcome part of elven society, being viewed as just another facet of nature. Often when trans-elves come of age they will officially transition by taking on a new name and undergoing the correct coming of age ceremony in their adult role. When adult elves discover their trans-identity they will undergo a second coming of age ceremony.
When elves live in human societies they tend to take on more of the gender norms of the humans that they live with, viewing human gender performance as a game or type of theatre. However, they are very aware of how seriously humans can take their gender. This unfortunately can lead to elves cursing humans who upset them into forms not aligned with their gender identity. Alternatively, they can reward humans with the boon of a body that matches their gender identity - sometimes this can even be a surprise to the human themselves upon experiencing gender euphoria in their new body. Elves accept trans-humans as easily as they accept trans-elves as being a perfectly normal part of nature.
Naga culture recognizes three different genders: man (cis-gendered), woman (cis-gendered), and dhany or blessed (transgender, non-binary, and intersex). Naga culture is a patriarchal caste system. The strictest division of masculine and feminine gender norms are found in the higher castes, with lower castes being fairly equal between men and women.
The dhany are in a caste by themselves, regardless of their parentage, and considered on par with the clerical caste, one of the highest in rank. Dhany seems to be similar to the concept of hijra in the Hindu religion and are considered sacred among the Naga as they see the world from a perspective no one else can. Due to their sacred status dhany see many privileges in Naga society such as being able to have romantic and sexual relationships with Naga of any caste. Whereas, other Naga can only have romantic and sexual relations with those of their own caste or a caste below. However, most dhany will develop relationships with other dhany due to proximity and shared experiences.
Regarding Naga’s interpretation of human transness. They generally are surprised and confused about how trans-humans are not uplifted in society like the dhany are. Some Naga will even turn hostile towards humans that are disrespectful of trans-humans. However, Naga can have a harder time understanding the differences for humans between being binary transgender, non-binary, and intersex due to their cultural bias of considering all of those identities a singular category.
Thank you for learning about these monsters. Monster species are numerous, and we cannot address all of them in this celebratory post but you can see some other monsters addressed in last year's post. If you have questions about the monsters in your area, please contact the Department of Monster Affairs through our social media, and our representatives will respond as quickly as possible.
Comments and reblogs are appreciated. Asks are always open!
I have a tag list. Message me or leave a comment telling me if you want your blog to be tagged in: all posts (lore and stories) or just stories.
Find more stories in this setting in my Masterlist
We're all born with a dragon. They help us and guide us. But man do they sometimes get fed up with our nonsense, and not all of them get along. Ever wonder why someone gives you the ick? Their dragon probably makes your dragon uncomfortable. Ever hit it off super well? You dragons are prolly besties.
