I finished the 3 previous temples in ToTK and FINALLY got to Zora’s Domain to see Sidon
I’m over playing majority of the game while my sister is commenting, and we saw the sludge covering the statue and assumed it was Mipha. Then we cleaned it and I thought it was Sidon and Mipha while my sister was confused on who the other person was
We had very different reactions to find out it was Sidon AND Link and not Mipha omfg
Lol the ship be fucking sailing but wtf happened to Mipha’s statue?
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Fandoms: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
@zelinkcommunity
Summary:
Post Totk. Zelda and Link finally arrive home ready to rest. But memories and feelings continue to plague her, making her wonder if she is still the same person as she used to be.
(Companion piece to Fading and Blooming)
Ao3 Link [x]
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The journey home had taken longer than either of them would have preferred. A few days spent walking or riding across the Hyrulean countryside had left the two of them exhausted. It was only the last dregs of adrenaline and sheer determination that pulled them through the gates of Hateno and back over the bridge to their little cottage.
The sight of it made Zelda want to cry.
She’d been doing that more recently? Crying? She could remember heavy grieving tears rolling over her cheeks, could remember the feeling of them as they fell and crashed into the ground below.
She’d been so high up.
They slowed to a stop by the front door, Link pulling gently on Epona’s reins. He had led the horse like that for days, one hand on leather straps, the other resting against the mare’s neck. He had kept the two of them going, murmuring soft words as their energy flagged, small encouragements. We’re almost there, we’re almost home. Zelda had been propped up by saddle bags, resting on the steed’s back.
Turning back to look at her, Link patted her gently on the knee, in a silent request. She complied, shifting her hips and legs so that she could slide off of Epona’s flank. Link was quick to catch her, holding her against his chest in a bridal carry. She rested her head against his shoulder, eyes fixed on the pulse jumping under his skin.
Alive.
He was alive.
A fresh wave of tears hit her like a kick to the chest, and she hid her face in the crook of his neck, shaking arms coming up to wrap around his shoulders. She felt him stiffen for a second, a faint gasp escaping his throat, before he crushed her tighter to him, his fingerprints leaving bruises on the back of her knee.
He started walking then, the world moving around her. She felt weightless, like she was flying again. The memory settled sourly in her stomach. She tried to block it out, to focus only on Link’s steady breathing, his long blond hair tickling her nose, his voice right next to her ear saying ”You’re safe. You’re home. We’re home.”
He carried her to the garden, the smell of safflina’s perfuming the air, and began to lower her down. He sat her by the old apple tree, her spine resting against rough bark. She had watched this tree be planted, it was older than her.
Link began to pull away, pressing a soft kiss to the crown of her head. “I’ll be right back,” he promised, tilting her head to look at him. “I just need to get something, okay?”
She nodded, watching unfocused as he made his way to the well, climbing down and disappearing behind the grey stone walls.
And then she was alone.
She sat, against the tree, next to the flowerbeds that they had built. It felt like millenia ago, but she knew it had to have only been a year since she sat with Link here. Dirt under her nails, plans for a pumpkin patch brewing between them. Yes. Yes, a year was right. Maybe a little longer? … how long had she been gone? What had she missed?
She shifted uncomfortably against the tree. Her body felt wrong. Two legs, two arms, blunt teeth. She was smaller now, too small. No. The right size. She had been too big before. Too long and unwieldy. Her teeth pointed and sharp in her mouth. She had felt wrong.
She had to have felt wrong.
She ran her tongue over her teeth then, and she began to shake. Her fangs were gone, but she could still taste that Man’s blood in her mouth. She had bitten him, torn at his flesh, and clawed the scales of his underbelly. If she checked under her nails would she find pieces of him there too? How much of that murderer had she carried with her back to her home? To Link’s home!
Her Link, he had held her, carried her to safety, and all the while their enemy was littered over her skin. She wanted to scream, to rip the flesh from her body and fly away. Retreat back into the sky and hide there. She didn’t want to be here, sat in too tight skin next to flowers she planted thousands of years ago. She wanted to go home.
Where was home?
Here. It was here, in Hateno with the school and her studies. In the house she shared with Link. In their bed, at their table. She had lived here for years. Her and Link, husband and wife. That was home. Not the cold and distant sky above her. Not the endless silent void, not the blue and black and red that reaches up and up far above her. Not the never ending horizon.
This was home.
Please let this still be home.
She wrapped her arms around herself, short nails biting into the meat of her biceps. Her claws should draw blood. The thought was absent and jarring and, as she pressed closer, unwavering.
The idea that something was wrong, that her shape does not match who she is, will not leave her alone. It had plagued her for days - since she first woke up in his arms, stripped of her armour. She had been trying to ignore it for his sake, for her own.
But it won’t leave her.
The doubt cuts her like a knife, sinking in like a rot. Tears began to fall, running down her cheeks and neck, her mouth hanging open in silent sobs.
Is she the same Zelda who planted these flowers?
That Zelda did not know the pain of transformation. That Zelda had not yet met and grown to love Sonia or Rauru, she had not yet lost them. That Zelda had not sacrificed herself. That Zelda was the one Link had loved.
How could he love her now?
She was so different from the woman she was before. Broken now, a dragon in Hylian skin. Fundamentally changed. Her bones were too big for her body, her teeth didn’t fit in her skull. She had been remade.
That’s how Link found her.
She didn’t notice him at first, lost as she was in her own tumbling mind. His crashing footsteps shaking the earth went unheard as he dropped to his knees next to her.
“Zelda,” he gasped, his hands pressing against hers, pulling them from her arms and the angry red welts that she had left there. “Zelda, breathe,” he pushed her hair from her face, wiping away the tears on her cheeks. “Please, breathe for me.”
She took a shaking gulp, letting herself be pulled into him. “I’m scared,” she sobbed, wrapping her arms around him, feeling him warm and alive under her palms. His skin was littered with new scars and old. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m so scared, Link.”
“You’re okay,” he was shaking too. “You’re going to be okay now. We’re home.” He pulled his head back, catching her eyes. He looked so determined, so sure, his bright blue eyes focused entirely on her, pinning her in place. “It’s over now,” he tucked her hair behind her ear, his thumb bumping against the zonai earring she wore. “We’re safe now.”
Relief hit her like a wave, her body going limp in his arms. The fight, the adrenaline, the never ending pressure that had kept her going for the past hundreds of thousands of years, finally leaving her.
It’s over.
It’s over.
It’s over.
They sat by the tree for hours, wrapped up in each other's arms, listening to the world around them. The birds singing, the wind rushing through the branches, the goats braying softly in the distance. Life. All around them, life.
And they talked. When the strength returned to them, they talked. Her about the past, her King and Queen, they love they had given her. Him about the present, the people of Hyrule banding together to help fight, the Champions standing by his side.
The sun had nearly set when Zelda perked up, head tilting in confusion as something occurred to her. “You said you were going to get something?”
Link looked back at her for a second, deciphering her words, before laughing quietly. Being careful not to let go of her, he leant to the side, his arm reaching out to grab something. When he returned she could see a shallow nursery tray in his hand, two tiny green shoots poking up out of the dirt.
“I figured you would find this interesting,” he said, passing the tray to her. She could see two markers, each written in his hand. Silent Princess, and Sundelion.
“You said that they were her favourite,” he whispered, voice low and soothing like a lullabye. “I think it’s time for us to finish our flower bed, don’t you?”
A little piece of her family, finally home, finally together.
Looking at him, she found she didn’t have the words to thank him.
“Yes,” She took a deep breath. “Yes, let’s show them to their new home.”
It was so exciting to do my first “on trend” cosplay with Purah!! And, getting a full cast of Zelda characters together at the meetup- we had some excellent shenanigans lol
