❣ Young Love: Midnight Moon | Deep Affection: Morning Sun ❣
Chapter 2: What Cannot Be Changed
During Link and Zelda's engagement party, old worries slip through the cracks. Zelda returns to an unused mask.
Words: 2,097
Fic Summary
The Temple of Time's bells have welcomed countless new days since the old time fell away. Link is at last ready to bid those memories farewell and live the new life promised to him; but for some others, those wounds have become fresh again and again. Can Zelda begin again when her heart is imprisoned by the past?
Zelink week is finally here!! So excited for the flood of content for these two haha <3
All my zelink week writing will also be on ao3 Here (finally learned how to embed links hahs) and there's also soooo many amazing authors on the 'Zelink week 2022' collection!
Thanks @zelinkweekofficial for hosting <3
Really short oot snippet
One Last Look~
“Now go home, Link- regain your lost time.”
Link watched solemnly as Zelda’s hands closed around the blue ocarina, his body aching from his long fight and mind heavy with her words.
“Home,” she murmured, a sad smile crossing her features as their eyes met, “where you are supposed to be… the way you are supposed to be.”
Zelda took a deep breath before bringing the ocarina to her lips. She began to play a familiar and haunting melody, each note alive with power. It wasn’t long before Link could feel the energy building around him like a veil of blue smoke, growing with each note until the world around him began to fade from view.
The song drew to a close and Link felt himself grow light- the small breeze threatening to blow him away. He felt panic seize every muscle as he fought against the force. It couldn’t end like this- not after everything he’d done to fight for a moment of peace.
He struggled against the force holding him in place, reaching out a desperate hand for the woman he knew stood only a short distance away.
“Please, no,” he managed to choke out, his fingers reaching the cool metal of her pauldron, “please don’t send me away,” he begged.
The mist cleared and he was able to see her face once more; so elegant, even as a silver tear slipped down her cheek. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and brush it away, to collapse in her arms where he knew he would be safe.
“This is my home,” he whispered, voice weak, “Zelda, you are my home,”
She didn’t resist as his hand wrapped gently around her arm, nor when he drew her closer, arms pulling her into an embrace. Link silently vowed to never let go. He let himself relax in her arms, finally feeling a sense of peace after so many months.
“You have to go,” she whispered in his ear, warm breath tickling his neck, “you have to return to your proper time.”
“Why?” Link tightened his arms around her waist, refusing to believe her.
“Because, that is how it has to be, Link.”
Her words were so warm and full of love, yet Link felt as if his world had been shattered.
“I can’t,” he breathed, “I can’t leave you behind.”
Zelda pulled away at this, eyes intent as she gently cupped his face, “I will still be with you,” she murmured, gently caressing his cheek, “I will still be there, you need only find me.”
She smiled sincerely, her eyes wet but no tears fell. She was at peace with what had to happen. Link tried for her sake to come to terms with what he knew he had to do. These were his last few moments here with her, and he wouldn’t spend it any other way. He took one long last look, taking care to remember every detail of her face, the feeling of her warm skin against his, and even the pain that tore at his heart. He cherished every feeling, determined to remember every second they shared to his dying breath, no matter the agony it caused him.
“I will miss you dearly,” she leaned in and placed her soft lips against his forehead, fingers running one last time through his hair, “promise me you will never give up. You will always continue to live and fight for what you believe.”
Link couldn’t muster words so he simply nodded, leaning into her touch. He wanted it to last forever but her fingers left his face. She was still smiling, small and sad as she pushed him gently back towards the swirling blue light that would return him to his time.
“Go,” she whispered, her hands clasped around his.
“I’ll find you,” Link vowed, his throat threatening to close entirely as it became choked with emotion, “I promise.”
He stepped back slowly, hanging onto her for as long as he could. Once he returned to his rightful time would she even remember him? Would he be stuck, alone? He tried to shut away those thoughts. He had to hold onto hope. He would find Zelda again and he would help her to remember their time together. There had to be a way.
Zelda nodded slowly, “I know you will. I promise we’ll be together again one day,” she had to pause when she stumbled over her next words, only to shake her head sadly when the right ones never came.
Link wasn’t ready for her to let go of his hand, or for the energy to quickly enveloped him once more. He couldn’t stop the agonizing pain in his chest as he saw one last glimpse of her before his vision was filled with blue. It was that one last look that would stay engraved in his mind like a permanent etching done by a master in stone. It was that one last moment he saw those azure eyes that kindled his resolve to find her once more. To find his Zelda.
Link refuses to show her the last song in his book.
Why? she had demanded. What’s so wrong with it?
Link, face flushed the color of a health potion, had only shaken his head and replied, Please stop asking.
But the joke is on him, now. With Impa’s help, the Hero’s songbook is hers, and it sits open on Zelda’s desk in her bedroom.
“Ba ba ba, ba bababa ba,” she whispers to herself, sounding out the notes and readying her harp. What sort power could this brief tune even hold?
There’s not even a label to the song like the others. There’s the Song of Time, the Song of Healing, the Song of Storms, but this one? This one is left intentionally blank.
“Ba ba ba, ba bababa ba,” she sounds it out again, memorizing the notes and resting her fingertips on the strings. “All right.”
She plucks at her harp, the sound drifting out through her open window to the grounds below, and the song is fragmented in a way that’s almost silly. Why are there these abrupt pauses? Where’s the rhythm? Surely there has to be a-a reason for this sort of disharmony, but where Link has carefully written out the abilities that each song possesses, this one is also blank.
Zelda resolves to play it for a second time, readying her fingers, humming the notes aloud as she strums.
“Hm hm hm, hm hmhmhm-”
A hand slaps down onto her windowsill, and Zelda nearly drops her harp in alarm, yelping.
The Hero of Hyrule’s familiar blonde hair and blue eyes pops up, his eyes wild with panic as he scrambles through her open window and smacks her harp out of her hands.
“Link!” Zelda shouts, reaching for it, but he picks it up before she can touch it. “What the hell do you-”
He holds it out of her reach, snatching his songbook off her desk and flipping it shut.
“Never play this again,” he tells her, breathless, his green cap almost sliding off of his head. “It’s cursed.”
“Cursed?” Zelda’s mouth is still hanging open. “Cursed how?”
He turns back to the window and makes a run for it, vaulting over her windowsill and dropping to the ground below.
With her harp.
“Link!” Zelda staggers to her window, shouting to his retreating form, “Cursed how?”
Quick little drabble. I miss writing, and couldn’t get the concept of this out of my head.
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I often wonder if he goes to the woods and thinks of me.
I go to the woods, sometimes. When I can. I’m not supposed to leave the realm of the sages very often, but I am allowed few exceptions. The forest is my home; it is where I was born, where I grew up, and where I originally thought I’d spend the rest of my life…It is a glimpse into an age long past. A reflection of who I used to be.
Who we used to be.
The stump in the Sacred Forest Meadow sits like a time capsule that was never properly buried. It represents a time long past, but it has not been untouched. It has weathered and aged like the rest of us; fungi grow from its decaying bark, and vines entangle around it. There is still a comfortable spot for me to sit, though, so that is what I do whenever I come to the forest. I sit on the overgrown stump and raise the ocarina to my lips and play my song. Hoping that maybe he will hear it.
This forest, the Lost Woods, is filled with my music. People unfamiliar with the woods will become disoriented at every turn. But those who know how to listen to the forest—how to listen to my song— will be able to reach the sacred place in which I sit.
I hadn’t always known it was sacred. Or, I suppose I hadn’t always known why. I knew it was a place of great importance, but not until I was called to its aid did I understand the true significance of this place. The one that even those who have lived in the forest all their life might not have guessed.
I told him, long ago, that if he played my song while he was here he’d be able to talk to the spirits of forest. I wonder, if he came here and played my song…would he be able to talk to me?
But I cannot allow this idea to get caught in the webs of my mind. I am not a forest spirit. I am Saria. The Sage of the Forest Temple…I am not a Kokiri or a spirit or anything else that could exist wholly outside the Sacred Realm anymore. The only thing that can reach his realm is my music. So I will sit here, and I will play, and I will hope he hears my song and remembers me.
I am not a Kokiri. I am not a spirit.
I am a Sage. I am a memory.
He never used to speak much…but he would speak to me, sometimes. Even if it was not with words. I had a way of understanding him when others did not, and whenever he used his voice to talk, I wondered if I was the only person alive who ever heard it.
No…he did not speak very much, but we would use my song to communicate. So I just hope now, if by some chance he passes through this place, that he’ll hear my song and remember he can talk to me. Even if he does not know I am listening. I make sure the forest sings for him, and I would give anything to hear him return the melody.
I am Saria. I am his friend forever, but forever is a very long time.
✨️ "Pets" | Post Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask | Child Timeline
• • •
"Link."
Thunk. "Yeah?" Link emerged from the hollow log, though he had hit his head on the way out.
He turned back to the very Princess of Hyrule, who stared at him with a flat look that was typically used by adults against children their age.
"What are those?" Her eyes became just a little wider.
Back over his shoulder he peered, to the pairs of yellow eyes that built up in the log's shade. It was a miracle whatever those eyes belonged to could fit in there— all together, no less. He'd need to find a better place for them eventually.
"My pets. They're my puppies I told you about!"
"They're big!" Zelda neared a loss for words, yet she came to join him anyway. "Are you sure they're—"
Then, one of the "puppies" poked its muzzle out into the broad daylight. Its piercing eyes were housed in a much sharper build than any house pet or field dog Zelda had ever seen— it wasn't a dog at all!
Somewhere between shock and excitement, the princess gasped. Lowering her voice, she exclaimed. "They're wolves!"
"Uh-huh. Everyone in Hyrule calls them dogs, though, right? Wolfos that aren't hostile?"
The clueless look he gave her was more like a puppy's. He stroked the wild animals like it was nothing! Like they were old companions, even!
"Oh... Link, that's...." She hesitated. "...different."
"Oh. Huh." A pause. "Still wanna pet one?"
"...Yes, please."
• • •
Thank you for the request, Grapie! :) I thought it'd be funny to explore some other consequences of OoT Link being raised in the woods... and these kids being left unattended for more than five minutes.
