This blog is for anything related to my fanfic! Mainly my art and thoughts lol.
Quick Disclaimers:
- I originally posted The Young Traveler to AO3 and FF on 10/31/2020
- Then, in 2025, after what started as "updating" the first several chapters to fit my new writing style, I decided to rewrite the entire fic with new characterizations. I had my fun and wanted to take the original plot more seriously haha.
- The original fic was deleted 9/21/2025 (54 chapters, +495k words)
- The rewrite fic was posted 10/31/2025
- I finished Part 1 and you can find it here!: AO3 / FF.net
Main Idea
- Part 1 (The Young Traveler) picks up at the very end of Hyrule Warriors from the Hero of Time's point of view. He leaves this universe faster than he initially intended and finds himself in a lush new Hyrule—the Era of the Wild—and quickly makes an enemy with a guy wearing a strange mask and red body suit. Fresh from the war, killing him made sense. A girl and her two knights couldn't agree less... And why does he have the Triforce of Courage all of the sudden? Another secret to keep.
- From here, Young Link gets acquainted with this new Kingdom and their way of life. When the prophecy is revealed, he follows the Princess across Hyrule as she gathers each of the Champions. With time, he grows closer to this universe's Hero-to-be while hiding the truth of his own heroic past. He finds himself more and more entangled in not only the politics of this land, but their Goddess too.
- Part 2 (The Silver Star) [will update when posted]
Can I ask questions/DM you about your fanfic?
Yes!!
Now, I'm not going to spoil the ending upon request, but I'd love to discuss my fic whether its about the OG or the rewrite. I am always open to critiques and tagging suggestions, but also understand that what you maybe didn't like about the OG will likely change in the new version.
Can I make fanart?
Weeeeee!! Abos-freakin-lutely you can! Please @/me and tag the story!! Ofc I wanna see your art!!!
Can I write spin-offs, alternate scenes/POVs?
I have no issues with this either! Same as before, tag me and the story, and just have the mutual understanding that my liking/reblogging of your fanwork doesn't make it canon to my fic.
My Tags
#theyoungtraveler - general fanfic tag, feel free to use it too!
#myart - art tag
#ytart - art related to the fanfic, feel free to use it too!
#hwart - art related to the Hero of Time as a general in Hyrule Warriors
So like, I know I just posted about changing the tags and etc., but what if I also split up the story into 2 books?
The plan:
The first book would go from the beginning until Link and Young Link come back from their patrol and Link is voluntold—I mean—told he'll be pulling the Master Sword the next day.
Yes this is a terrible cliffhanger, BUT, at the same time, the 2nd book (name pending) will have gone live with the following chapter. Y'know to ease any mild suffering I may have caused.
With this said, the 2nd book would pick up where the first left of would continue until the end of the story. I really doubt there'd be a third book.
Why?:
It's not only a relatively clean split between the 1st and 2nd half of the story, but also just makes tagging easier. It's also not the first time I've thought of doing this either. Might as well do it now than have to shuffle things around later!
Plot wise, the 1st book would have more a focus on the BotW prophecy and the developing relationships between the main cast and side cast, and then the 2nd book would segway into the god-related stuff. I could do some interesting epilogues in the first book as bonus now too.
Anyways, that's the new plan. If I for some reason come up with anything else, I'll make a post about it! :)
After brainstorming and checking multiple trope sites for ideas—
I think
—I've captured most of my story in the tags without having +50 additional tags.
I'll make a note of this when I post the next chapter this week in case it's suddenly not anyone's cup of tea—and it's totally understandable if it's not.
For example, there are political themes regarding the Sheikah and the Kingdom because:
I find it interesting
It's an unique twist on what drives the Pre-Calamity plot
It's a driving factor for certain character motivations
Tbh would make sense in this setting
And part of my hope in writing about the prevalence of castle politics is to make the reader question if maybe the Calamity could be seen as a good thing; that maybe Hyrule is better off now that the old system was purged. Yes, it was purged by literal evil but...now they can make a new system that isn't plagued by centuries of questionable court decisions meant to consolidate power lmao.
I would never take is this far, but another concept that could stem from this could be that Zelda's lack of powers, or her lack of ability to obtain her powers, could be seen as treasonous. Gossips think she's trying to get the Kingdom destroyed. Wouldn't that be terrible? Terribly interesting?
Again, the thought of Sheikah monks locking the Princess at the high altar within the monastery as some kind of twisted measure to ensure she'll get her powers is...way too far for my story and too whumpy for me. But, y'know, it's an idea that can exist because we've brought (in this case) religious politics to the forefront.
Anyway, as someone told me: "Tags are not only an advertisement, but also a warning."
After asking for some tagging advice, as soon as I come up with all of them, I'll be retagging my story lol and changing the rating lol. I'm very grateful for constructive feedback!
Here I was being like, "Ayo I'm gonna try to be more active on here!"
...
Yeah university rn says the complete opposite 🥲
But! I'll still try my best to post a new chapter weekly on Friday/Saturday! Really, I've got y'all set up until at least the end of March but...the idea was that I'd continue to stay far ahead of y'all in my own document 😅
Eventually, Wild will ask Time what his version means. In BotW, their general salute is more like "giving your heart/pledging your heart to the Kingdom." In Hyrule Warriors, it's to symbolize drawing a sword from your heart/soul.
In fact, it's a part of the ceremony to becoming a general. You start as demonstrated in the picture and say to the Queen, "Queen Zelda, I, [name], take this blade from my heart—" then extend your forearm out, "—and solemnly vow to use it's strength for the cause."
There's more ofc, but I thought it would be cool since, in the context of a war, tbh you're just pledging your life to the Queen, pledging to possibly die on her command (she'd never, but you get the idea).
Idk y'all, this is just me casting out my thoughts about the original version of my fic. Just giving you a peek into my mind.
Why remove/take down the original?
To be so honest, I originally didn't intend to. At all.
But I knew I wanted to rewrite the first several chapters because, over the course of 3 years, I'd like to believe my writing improved. Well...then I started rewriting and I thought, "You know, I always wanted to make [x] trait more obvious," or "If I had the chance to do this over again I would do [x]."
This, alongside discovering my concerning use of filter words (it genuinely makes me die inside), made me hunker down and basically start over. I took the original fic down from AO3 and FF.net because it didn't make sense for me to update the chapters with new/changed content...and leave the rest following it. This would reasonably lead to confusion and make things hard to comprehend.
It also didn't feel right to simply delete every chapter I hadn't rewritten and use that original post on AO3 to house the new version of the story either.
I apologize to everyone who enjoyed the og and didn't have the chance to download the fic/chapters before I up and deleted the whole thing. Unfortunately, I don't have plans to repost it any time soon, but for those who did download it, I encourage you to share if you'd like.
Why don't you leave the original up while working on the new one?
Once I realized I wanted to rewrite it in the first place, I didn't see the point in finishing the original. Maybe I could've left footnotes as to how things would end but...why spoil that? Haha. It still ends the same.
Also, it's not as if I want you all to purge the original from your minds but...I don't want both versions available lol. I'd rather focus on the new one.
What to expect from new draft?
First of all, know that I genuinely love this story lmao. I'm not doing all this because I hate its guts and want to kill it with fire XD
However, I have other ideas and themes I want to better portray. I want this to feel like a more mature, nuanced take on the original. Take the plot and the characters more seriously the entire time.
I mean, for the record, I started planning the og like a third of the way through when I was writing it. Before that, I was flying by the seat of my pants and having fun. A lot of my original focus had to do with tying in cutscenes and stuff from Age of Calamity rather than what it ended up turning into. In fact, all of the god-plot came later when I took a mythology class. I didn't have all of it figured out.
I'm still ironing out certain ideas but, compared to before, at least I know what's going to happen XDD and technically y'all do too! (I'm serious, the main plot points don't really change.)
Think of it this way: I'm coming at the original with a more complete idea and a keen, editorial eye. (i.e.: Does [x] scene really give us anything or can we do something else/get rid of it entirely?)
Closing Thoughts:
I'm honestly so happy I decided to go through with the rewrite. I love immersing myself in this universe and I already have plans for other projects related to it when I'm done!
I think new readers and ogs alike will really enjoy this version. And hey, if you don't, that's perfectly fine. I don't judge. Just keep it respectful lol.
With all this said, I want to try to be more active and post more art here. However, I'm also still in uni and I work. It's rough out here XD
Please feel free to ask/submit questions! Also please tag me in any art you make too! I'd love to see it!!
I think I'll make this the new cover page for my fanfic
Speaking of which, I've actually been rewriting it! I reached the end in my own document and thought, "...well that was a decent rough draft!" Let's do it all again!
