Dad December 2024 Day 1
Father In The Forest
Summary: Set before Twilight Princess. As a very young child, Link made the mistake of wandering into the forest.
Warnings: /
Rating: General
Words: 778
Prompt: Lost in the woods
Fandom: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Characters: Link, The Hero's Shade, Rusl, Uli
Pairing: Rusl/Uli
Author’s Notes: Hey! One of my rare Zelda fics! Probably the only Zelda fic I'll write for this month.
Enjoy!
-XOXOX-
He’s done something bad, hasn’t he? He’s done something really, really bad. Rusl told him not to go into the woods, not ever. It’s too dangerous for kids. There are wolves and boars out there, it’s so easy to get lost, there could even be bandits! And what does Link do? The exact opposite.
He just wanted to see what was out there, especially after Uncle Jaggle told him that north of the forest was the Kingdom of Hyrule. He has never seen it for himself before, has only heard his parents, aunts and uncles and perhaps the occasional traveler talk about it, and he wanted to see it with his own two eyes. Link thought it would just be a quick walk, no one would even notice he was gone! But now he’s here in the forest and he’s lost.
Turning and then turning again, he notices that the trees that surround him all look the same. He has wandered into a part of the forest he hasn't even been to with Rusl and he realizes that he doesn't know where to go.
'Just go back the way you came,' a tiny voice still trying to fight the growing fear tells him. That's easier said than done. After all the turning around he's been doing, he can no longer tell where exactly he came from. Did he come from between those two trees or between that one and the one with a cluster of mushrooms at the base?
His blue eyes wide and innocent, he looks at them and hopes to remember something. Doesn't Rusl always tell him to keep a careful eye out? To mark his way if he's not certain so he can always find his way back home? Well, neither did he mark his way nor watch his path. And as it grows darker, Link realizes he could very well be here all night.
"Hello? Rusl? Uli?" It doesn't feel natural for him to shout it out, he prefers to search for solutions by himself first, like Rusl taught him. But this feels like a special occasion.
"Are you lost?" A voice he doesn't recognize comes from a man he doesn't know. Link whirls around to see him standing there, leaning against a tree with an unreadable expression on his face.
He shakes his head, not willing to admit to it at first. Maybe a part of him is worried about getting into trouble.
The man leaves the tree to approach him, coming to a standstill at an arm's length of him before going to his knees.
"Are you sure? You're not supposed to be here yet. I can show you the way back," he promises him, his blue eyes, one much paler, boring into Link's. There is something familiar about his gaze and something comforting about his presence.
He is blue-eyed like him, blond like him, though his hair is a fair bit lighter. He wears the fur of a golden wolf upon his shoulders like a cape, it envelopes him. And even in the growing darkness of the night, it's almost like there's something of a glow to him. He's calming. Like him just being here means everything is going to be okay.
So Link nods, because he wants to go home now. Rising to his feet, the mysterious man offers him a hand that he takes. Together, they walk back to the village of Ordon.
-XOXOX-
It is on the very final minutes of the sun's descent that they're close enough to hear Link's name being called. He can hear Rusl and Uli, all his aunts and uncles, Mayor Bo, Ilia, and even Fado and his parents calling for him. He hasn't come home yet and, naturally, they've noticed.
When Rusl and Uli come into sight, Link let's go of the stranger's hand to run towards the parents who took him in. They catch sight of him almost immediately.
"Link, there you are!" Uli immediately drops to her knees to capture him in her arms. Rusl kneels next to them, laying a hand on Link's back. Bathing them in the light of torches, the rest of the village surrounds them to make sure the small boy is okay.
"We were worried about you, son. Where did you go?" Rusl asks, not as angry as Link feared. Even so, his words get stuck in his throat and he doesn't respond. The man doesn't need him to, he wraps his arms around both him as well as his wife.
When Link shoots a look over his shoulder to find the stranger who helped him find his way home, he realizes that he has disappeared.
