Zelink [One Shots]

| The Silent Knight

He stands silent, his back turned to her, his hands resting atop his Sword with a fierce grip all the while watching for her safety.

Through the murmur of her prayers, Link can't help but ask the Godesses why They had to do this, why They would put the Princess in this situation, why They don't seem to listen to her incessant prayers. He's been witnessing every single time Zelda kneels by the freezing waters of each spring, and every single time he witnesses her failing.

This isn't fair. He thinks, the grip on his sword tightening as the frustration, despair and hopelessness take over him in a swift moment of weakness.

Seeing the Princess in this state of devastation has always made him vulnerable, somehow. Or maybe not vulnerable, but fragile. His usual stoic expression can't hold itself too long upon seeing the Princess like this.

The fact that he can't do anything is even worse.

"I've pleaded to the spirits tied to the ancient gods..." She continues, voice low yet filled with emotion. "And still the holy powers have proven deaf to my devotion. Please just tell me... What is it? What's wrong with me?!"

And suddenly Link feels like he can't breathe.

It's weird, in a way, how seeing Zelda so vulnerable creates an unfathomable feeling of protectiveness on his heart. The need to protect her from any harm, as well from herself. The need to tell her that she is enough, and that no matter what happens, it won't be her fault. However, he doesn't know what to do.

Link turns around, leaving every boundary between Princess and Knight, and if the situation wasn't this horrible, he would have believed that seeing Zelda like this, surrounded by moonlight and the soft glow coming from the Statue in front of her, he was indeed in the presence of a Godess.

But they're not in a perfect place, nor safe, and Zelda is suffering without end.

"Please... what is wrong..." Zelda lowers her gaze to her hands, which have balled into fists upon failing once again to fulfill her destiny, to be what everyone wants and needs her to be.

They're running out of time and she knows it too well. It doesn't help one bit.

Perhaps the problem is really her.

"Nothing is wrong with you."

The soft voice stuns her.

Zelda takes a deep breath before turning, because if there is one thing she learned about this selfless boy standing behind her, is that his words don't come too often, and she must embrace them when they do come because he has a voice she's never heard before. His voice is delicate like the birds on a summer morning, and relaxing like the sound of waves crashing on the shore of Laurelin Village.

And, surprisingly, he always knows what to say.

Her green eyes find his blue ones, his sword no longer on his hands, now strapped to his back.

"What?"

"Nothing is wrong with you." Link assures, his voice full with certainty. "You can't blame yourself for something you can't control."

"But I've tried everything, and this power is still silent within me." Zelda murmurs, her tired eyes stinging with unshed tears as she faces her knight. "I feel absolutely nothing!"

And that makes me a failure. She thinks to herself.

"Sometimes I wonder... maybe I shouldn't have been the one chosen to possess the power of the Goddess Hylia. I believe that if Mother was still here this would be much easier, but I'm not as strong as she was, Link. I'm not capable of handling something I can't even trigger... I'm not strong enough..."