Linked Through The Ages: A Linked Universe AU

Chapter 6: A New Awakening

"Zel...Zelda...?"  Link murmured as his eyes darted around the unfamiliar room, "I hurt you...," He felt tear drops dribbling down his cheeks as he stared at her in shock.  He swiped the back of his hand across his face before struggling with the blankets wrapped around his ankles.

"No! You're hurt! Here....," Zelda stumbled across the room, holding out her hand as she spoke with the other pressed tightly against her forehead, "Let me help you."

Link bit back tears as exhaustion and pain overwhelmed his fading adrenaline, leaving him dangling helplessly over the bed which pulled at the freshly sown back together skin, and it hurt so much, and he felt sick, and why does this have to happen now of all times!  Disregarding his pride, he grasped Zelda's hand as she hefted him back to his original position of laying down.

"I-I'm srry....," Link trailed off as he attempted to hide his tear-stained cheeks within the pillow his head rested on.

"What in Hylia's name are you talking about? Sorry about what?"  Despite Zelda's questioning, Link noticed how her fingers had subconsciously drifted back to messaging the lump on her forehead.  A lump that will most likely bruise for a couple of days...  At least in his experience...

"I... I hurt you!  I-I'm so-."

"You have better not finish that sentence."

"But-."

"No," Zelda interrupted once again, "You awoke from a nightmare, injured and after a battle, none the less.  I should have been more careful."  Zelda's eyes drilled into his as she sat in the chair pulled up next to his headboard, her words taken on the well-practiced power of royalty that left no room argument.  "You were always known for having a hard head," Zelda's voice softened, "It just so happened to be an unfortunate coincidence, I think, that I was on the receiving end of it."  She giggled shattering the severe, cold image of royalty and replacing it with a mirage of freckle tanned skin, laying in the midst of impossibly green pastures underneath the golden rays of late afternoon.

"Huh," was all Link could think to say.  Obviously, not quite the right response as Zelda's smile turned sideways, the same hint of worry flashing in her eyes.

"Can I...," Zelda raised her hand, hovering it for a second or two in Link's field of vision before fully committing to settling it gently across Link's forehead, "Your fever has risen," she huffed in disappointment.  "Let me find you some medicine..."

She arose and lightly stepping over to a small table that sat across the room next to another twin sized bed, wrinkled with recent use and some basic hygiene essentials, such as a hairbrush and some cleansing cloths.  Her fingers wrapped around the neck of a faintly glowing bottle, half hidden amongst a pile of fresh dressings and empty medicine bottles.

Link closed his eyes, fighting against the pounding headache and achiness that clawed at his very bones.  He heard the uncorking of a bottle followed by the sweetness of a fairy tonic on his lips, helping to calm the storm of pain inside of him, leaving the after taste of exhaustion.  After he drank the last of the tonic, Zelda lifted the lip of a glass to him.  It's something of an odd comfort that Zelda had thought of giving me water.  Of course, she would have realized that he wouldn't have even registered that he was beyond thirsty.

Silence fell across the two, Zelda wringing her hands anxiously and Link dozing, if not fighting to stay away from the edge of falling back asleep.

"Where...Where are we?"  Link rasped after a couple painfully long minutes.

"Oh!  Um...Karkariko Village," Zelda nervously chuckled.

Link pried his eyes open, "How...?"

"The...uh...the Sheikah Slate.  I never tried teleporting two different individuals at once...I-It worked, thankfully.  I ran to Impa's house and told her the current...situation.  She gathered together all she could to help us and brought us here.  Some of the villagers tended to the both of us," she swallowed, glancing nervously at him once again.