Falling Worlds; Zelink, Modern Magic AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

Train Ride (26)

9/22/16

Zelda played with the strap of her new satchel. It was uncomfortable, but it didn't hurt. Nothing did after all. She'd filled it with miscellaneous things when they'd gone shopping for Link's clothes and the weight was starting to get to her.

The train whistle blared, and she shifted from foot to foot. Every minute that passed she felt Link grow more restless.

"You okay?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I just want to get going already."

"I know, me too," she said as she watched the train come to a slow halt.

The door opened, and their tickets were checked. When cleared they finally got to go inside and sit in their designated booth. Zelda released her breath and began to relax a little.

Link remained on alert.

"All the things you explained to me... do you believe it?" she asked.

He looked surprised that she would bring it up there of all places. "Well, I guess I do. I don't have much reason to doubt it when I've seen your..." He looked around at the people filing by. "... hardiness... for myself."

She bit her lip and looked out the window. "So I'm not... I'm not..." she paused and leaned towards him, "...human?" she asked quietly.

He shook his head, "You are. Kae made that clear."

She frowned. "But I'm also a mythical prophetic rock at the same time?" she whispered.

"You're the embodiment of it. You are the Stone, but you're also human," he replied in kind. He paused, "I don't know how it works... I don't think even Kaebora figured it out."

"Well if he didn't, I don't see how we could."

"You might be able to. You're as smart as him."

"Only because he taught me." She frowned looking down at her hands. Memories of him... Her father, were still painful.

The train lurched in a gentle motion beneath their feet as it started to roll forwards.

"Finally," Link said.

Zelda lost the will for conversation as her mind filled with thoughts Kaebora. Everything he had done for her, how he treated her as nothing less than his daughter... The conversation between him and Link she had overheard popped into her mind.

The disembodied, hard to hear words changed instead to fully formed sentences.

"Do you seriously think it can change?" Link asked.

"I know she has," Kaebora replied.

"You're fooling yourself. Did you forget you're responsible for-"

"I haven't."

"You know as well as anyone that-"

"Haven't you seen? Don't you realize that she isn't like you thought she'd be?"

"I have my orders, you have yours."

"Give her a chance."

"We'll see."

She bit her lip and glanced over at Link. He acted like the soldier he is... No, the soldier he was. She had been in the dark about everything for so long... her whole life a lie, and she the naive little girl for believing in it.

No... she wouldn't be bitter. It was what it was, and she had had a great life with her father; no amount of unsettling truths could change that. She loved Kae, and he had loved her. Despite the odds, despite his position.

"Hey, Link?" she asked after awhile.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you questions about that story you're writing?"

"What?"

"You know, Hyrule."

He looked confused for another few seconds and then his face cleared and he smiled as he understood. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure."

"Your main character... you never told me how he came to be in the Guard."

"Oh... well it's not a long story or anything... I just... he was just sort of born into it. He didn't have any parents, and an orphan in Hyrule that shows any fighting prowess is raised and trained to be in the Guard. So a lot of us-" He sighed, "-a lot of them enter training pretty young."

"He didn't have parents..." she repeated softly. "How was the Guard for a kid like him?"

"Well, he was ambitious so he progressed quickly. The better that they do in their training, the better they can live. Better food, better beds, better equipment..."

"That's horrible," she muttered.

"That's the Guard. Not all the people in the ranks are bad people... a majority of them are just kids who didn't have any other choice but to fight. Raised from an early age that the only way to live well was to do well in training. The stronger they were, the better life they had."

"Do they have any free time to pursue anything other than fighting? Make friends?"

"Not really."

Zelda bit her lip, then moved onto the next question. "How do Hylian's learn to fly?"

"They... kinda just learn it as they go. Their wings usually manifest by the time they're thirteen. The... the main character got his when he was eight."

"Do they just jump off a cliff? How do they appear?"

"Usually in traumatic experiences... like falling off the islands, or even by having a nightmare and falling out of bed. Sometimes just by chance though, while training or fighting, and they just appear. The first time they appear it's like we're... they're on autopilot." He shrugged.

Zelda wanted to ask how his wings had appeared... but she didn't want to pry; at least not in so public of a place. "What's the king of the story like?"

Link's fingers clenched into a fist. "He's... notorious for not being friendly. There are rumors that he wasn't always that way, back in Kaebora's time, the king was like a good king should have been... Now he's a paranoid fanatic who kills anyone that looks at him the wrong way. He'll kill..." he hesitated, still getting used to the strange way they were talking. "... the main character the moment he gets a chance. And he's trying his best to capture and find a way to kill the other main character..." He looked up at her and then sighed. "He's got power, and not just from the influence he has over the entire kingdom."

"So what can these characters do to stop him then?"

"Hope. Hope that the powers that they need will manifest before the king's men find them."

"And that's all they can do?"

"For now."