contrition
n. sorrow or remorse for one's objectionable actions; repentance
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"I'm going to get you!"
Zelda squealed in delight as Papa chased her around the gardens. The pink and purple flowers danced with the skirts of her sundress as it passed by. The bees laughed as their petal peninsulas undulated beneath them. Bushy-tailed squirrels scurried in large circles, some deigning to join the chase and others just happy for a chance to stretch their legs in the summer sun.
"You can't catch meee!"
Large hands swept closer but snatched the air just behind the young princess, and she let out another exhilarated shriek. From the comfortable shade of the gazebo, Mama giggled behind a delicate hand, the other alighted on her belly. Beside her, peach tea and finger sandwiches patiently waited to be enjoyed by the princess when came time to refuel little legs.
Zelda didn't dare a glance behind her as she ran. For she'd learned, every time she did, she always got—
CAUGHT.
Giant hands latched on like frostbite. Darkness exploded as though the sun had been blown out like a candle. Mama, hand clutching her swollen stomach, collapsed on her knees, vomiting a pool of malice that eventually swallowed her in return. The bees and squirrels— Had they been there at all? Enormous fingers wrapped entirely around the little princess's arms and gripped so firmly she felt her bones creaking.
Over her shoulder, her father's eyes were hollow, and the lines on his face were set in firm dissatisfaction. "STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM YOUR DUTY." That's not Papa's voice—
"Papa, y-you're scaring me—" Her voice wasn't her own, either; it was too little.
"Do not call me that!"
The clock reversed, and King Rhoam's face became younger, though his eye sockets remained empty.
"I am not your Papa! No daughter of mine would have such flippant disregard for her responsibility to the kingdom!"
His wild, snow flurry beard receded till it was trim and squared around his jaw. Then the wintry color stained blond, like his daughter's hair, except it kept going. A hint of strawberry, then auburn, finally to rich, bloody red. His rounded features became hardened, weathered hands turning powerful and veiny. His skin turned a sickly sort of green and Zelda realized she didn't recognize her father at all anymore—
"Do you miss him?" the voice—not her Papa's—hissed into her ear. "Maybe you could have saved him if you weren't so pathetic."
His breath on her cheek curdled her stomach, and if she wasn't caught between his iron fingers her knees would've given out on her.
"What's the matter, little princess?" His voice was deep gravel and ancient terror. "Scared?"
Who the hell was this man—?
"The nerves are normal," he then said, voice mutating to something sickeningly familiar. "Especially for your first time."
The blood red hair was doused to ginger, and chartreuse skin paled around further youthful and sharpening features. The fingers, still long, turned knobbier with more pronounced knuckles. Her body grew hot like magma as his one hand left her arm and slid to the base of her ribs. With a pivot above her belly button, the longest finger aimed downward and slithered lower than it'd previously dared.
"You're a good dancer," he murmured against her neck. "That's another thing I like about you."
Her traitorous body rolled instinctively back against his, feeling its effect on him pushing against her backside. She was going to be sick—
"What else do you like about me?" The words came from her mouth. No, not hers— If it were her mouth, it'd be retching—
Whatever lascivious husk she was currently occupying writhed against the protuberance again. To her horror, one of them moaned.
"You're BEAUTIFUL."
The word, letter by wiggling letter, slipped from his mouth and into the air before her eyes.
SMART.
Colors like the walls of a kindergarten classroom, the words waltzed in bold, blocky print in front of her face.
QUEEN SOMEDAY.
Someday too soon—
I dream about being BESIDE YOU when that day comes...
The words danced in mocking as the long finger ventured lower, to the apex of her thighs. Until suddenly, the vivid primaries of each letter paled. The presence behind her stilled and hushed. Then, all at once, they disintegrated into puddles of water, pooling so heavily at her feet it quickly rose to her waist before stopping altogether.
Stunned by the absence of all, she froze.
The water caressing her hips was... warm. The air was a gentle kind of empty.
She didn't remember how she got here, but she didn't care to try. She was complacent with the sudden, inexplicable comfort. Peace was a vacuum. This place was good.
"I wish you could see the way your eyes light up when you talk about the things you've read, it's... amazing!"
That voice. The water rippled, heating pleasantly, like she was wading in a pool of autumn sunlight.
"I like that you humor even the most ridiculous hypotheticals I throw at you. I like how you sigh after taking a bite of something tasty. I like the way your eyebrow does that little twitchy thing when you're thinking really hard—"
Did it do that? She had no idea. Whom was she talking to that he knew her quirks better than she did? She rotated, but no one was there.
"When I'm with you, I sometimes forget that you're a princess and I'm a knight. When I'm around you, I feel happy."
"I... I feel happy around you, too." Though she conjured the words, she didn't recognize the voice. Is that what princesses sound like?
When the other voice—the knight—spoke again, it was right behind her. "And I know—I know I shouldn't be saying this..."
She swiveled once more. Behind her, a boy, built from caramel and cerulean—
Her heart rattled so hard her whole body shook from the inside out. The boy took the girl's hands and she interlaced her fingers between his. She loved the caramel and cerulean boy.
"You are incredible, Paya," the boy said, "I'm kinda obsessed with you."
The name clanked like a misfire. The water turned frigid, and she didn't understand its reflection. She was not a girl of crimson and ivory—
She was already shivering as the water began to rise, turning to ice around her feet. She tried to free her legs but she was shackled, like those menacing hands had snatched her ankles now. When she looked up again, the boy was gone. The freezing water was at her breast now. Her reflection was gone too.
A scarlet fish drew near, shaped like a word. Beautiful. Then, a royal blue fish. Pathetic. A pair of mustard yellow fish—Queen. Someday. More and more, the fish swarmed and swirled around her, rising with the water to her neck until they tried swimming down her throat—
She was going to drown beneath a wave of words that didn't belong to her—
Voice blocked, Princess Zelda awoke with only a fierce jolt on a hard patch of rock. She was beside a fire, but her whole body was trembling. Her sodden blanket was no longer around her shoulders, but beneath her like a cushion. Mount Lanayru rose above her, dusted in pine trees and snow illuminated by the moon. They were back near the base of the mountain.
"Thank Hylia, you're awake," Link said in a hurry. "Take your clothes off."
"Wha— What the hell, Link?" She scrambled backwards away from him and the fire with whatever energy she had, horrified to realize she'd already been stripped of her outermost layers. She'd think she was still dreaming if his command to undress hadn't slapped her with lucidity.
"No— Gods, sorry— That came out wrong." His tone was panicked and uncertain. This level of inarticulateness was unusual for Link. He kept his eyes off her by furiously snapping sticks to prep them for the fire. "I think you had hypothermia. Or—have—I dunno how it works, but, your clothes— If they're still wet—" He dared a glance at her over his shoulder before whipping back around. "It's dangerous to keep wet clothes on— I shoulda taken yours off but obviously I couldn't and I-I can't gather enough sticks to keep the fire big enough to warm you up fast enough—"
She hesitantly scooted back towards the heat. She was chilled, but if she really did pass out from hypothermia, then shivering was actually a step in the right direction.
"How long was I unconscious?" Zelda asked, voice weak and eyes wary.
"I dunno— It's felt like hours but it may have been minutes. You were shivering so hard in my arms and then you weren't shivering at all and I thought— I thought—" He stopped and inhaled a shaky breath. Zelda recognized the four-count, though neither of them measured out loud. His voice returned with more control. "You can change into the dry blanket, just please get out of your wet clothes. I'm not looking."
For having—apparently—been on the precipice of death, Zelda felt... okay. Maybe because reality was the warmest blanket she could wrap herself in after that nightmare. Sure, in reality she was exhausted and her clothes were damp and she was shivering, but it was all no worse than the usual autumn night chill now that they'd descended the mountain. Still, "I'm not going to change into a blanket, Link."
The snapping of sticks halted.
"I'll be fine by the fire," she stated. "It's warmed me out of the lethal stages of hypothermia, it seems. I feel okay."
"Ze—" The word stopped so quickly Zelda might've thought it was nothing more than a nervous tic. But it was unmistakably the beginning of her name, which he never said without its honorifics, and her heart skipped a beat.
You are incredible, Zelda.
Wait. Had Link actually said that to her? Or was the whole romantic soliloquy a part of her syncopal dream, too?
Another deep breath, less shaky, and Link turned to her, irises big and imploring like a Hylian Retriever who'd been told to stay. "Are you sure the fire'll be enough?"
Forcing a terse smile, she nodded.
He didn't smile back. He just rose to his feet and started the other way. "I'll get more firewood."
When he left, Zelda shuffled even closer to the flames. Her sodden blanket and missing articles of clothing—boots, belts, socks, and overshirt—were spread around flat to dry. She realized the blanket she'd woken on was the one from around Link's shoulders.
Part of her hated that he'd undressed her while she was unconscious. The other part of her understood why; his concern was innocent and endearing. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she wasn't sure what summoned them.
Zelda intended to wait for Link to return beside the warm fire, but exhaustion or starvation or both hit her like a helmasaurus and she was out again within minutes.
Thankfully, no dreams found her this time.
When she woke again, the sun had pushed the moon out of the way and taken center stage. The fire was still going; Link was sitting on the opposite side tending to it. When he saw her stir, the tension in his neck and shoulders released with an inaudible sigh. Still, he looked like he hadn't slept more than a few winks. "Morning," he said solemnly, returning his gaze to whatever occupied his hands.
Then the most wonderful aroma met the princess's nose and she rose on her elbows. Her head spun with hunger, but her muscles felt rested and reheated. "Am I dreaming right now or are you cooking something? It smells decadent."
Link let out the whisper of a laugh, though his brow stayed tightly knit. "Yeah, it's not much, but you were sleeping for awhile and I w—"
"Me too!" interjected a tiny voice. "I was sleeping for a reeeally long time!" It's jubilance was familiar and new at once, and when Zelda followed its sound she saw a Korok sitting on a large rock to her right. This one was much stouter than the three they'd seen before, sporting an emerald green leaf in the shape of a spade.
She blinked, registering. "A Korok?"
"I'm Makar!" Makar cheered.
"That's Makar," Link affirmed. "He was frozen in a block of ice."
"I was frozen in a block of ice!" he echoed with glee.
Amusement sprouted a weak smile on Zelda's face. "Nice to meet you, Makar. I'm Zelda."
"Huh. Mr. Hero said your name is The Princess."
Link ducked, exasperated. "I said she is the princess."
Makar scratched his little head. "That's what I just said!"
"What were you doing in a block of ice, Makar?" Zelda asked to save Link from getting sucked into a fruitless debate.
The Korok jumped, as if he'd been poked by something. "That's right! I was looking for help! My friend is in big, big trouble!"
Link and Zelda glanced at each other, then back to Makar. The other Korok had said the same thing.
"Who's your friend?" Link asked as he moved towards the princess, bearing a tantalizing fish entrée. He handed it to her while remaining attentive to Makar, so he missed the gratitude Zelda tried to convey with her eyes.
"The Great Deku Tree!" Makar exclaimed.
After trying her best to rack her brain, Zelda smiled apologetically. "I'm afraid I don't know who that is."
Link shook his head too.
"He's really big! And that's why he's in really big trouble!" he huffed, frustrated he had to spell it out for them. Then Makar gasped sharply. "That's it! Mr. Hero! You saved me, can you save the Great Deku Tree, too?"
Link looked to Zelda, passing the decision to her, though it was clear yes already sat on his tongue. And Link didn't even know what kind of aid he was signing himself up for.
"Of course we'll help your friend, Makar," Zelda answered for them both.
"Ya-ha-ha!" he exulted. Then—poof!—he was gone.
Pine tree tops bent slightly on a passing breeze. The fire popped as the duo gaped at the space the Korok occupied an instant before. "Well that makes things difficult..." Zelda mumbled.
Blue sliced towards green and then quickly snapped away. Zelda saw the dark circles under Link's eyes and frowned. "Did you get any sleep last night?" His mhm was hardly convincing, and her frown persisted. "Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"Mhm," he replied again.
Zelda blew a stray hair out of her face. Her knight was being weird again, and she didn't like it. And the more she contemplated, the more the haze dissipated from last night. That is, assuming her desperate heart wasn't fabricating reality from her dream.
"Link," she tried. He looked by her feet instead of her face. "At the spring last night, did s—?"
Poof!
"I'm serious!" Makar, having suddenly manifested before them, whined. "The Great Deku Tree is in big trouble! There's no time to lose, let's go!"
"Wait, Makar!" Link sputtered, hand outstretched before he could disappear again. "We can't teleport like you can— Where is the Great Deku Tree?"
"I'm not teleporting!" Makar huffed. "I'm just not wasting any time!"
"We're not..." Link trailed off, not quite knowing how to respond to that one.
"Hylians can't move like Koroks can, Makar," Zelda supplied, explaining like he was a child. "Our feet have to stay on the ground to go from one place to another. If you don't mind showing us the slow way, we can help your friend."
"Oh, fine!" he pouted. "But we have to leave now or it'll take forever!"
Zelda shoveled the fish into her mouth, unable to relish the magnificent flavor—it was even more savory than the last fish Link had prepared. He gathered and brought Zelda's dry clothing to her, again handing them over without eye contact. "I'm sorry..."
She couldn't respond around the fish in her mouth, but she shook her head, hoping don't worry, I understand was conveyed somehow.
The knight scratched behind his ears, which were tinted pink. "About what I said at the spring last night..."
The considerable bite in her mouth suddenly felt like a blockage in her windpipe. It felt like her mottled heart had leapt up and started choking her instead. She swallowed thickly to try and free up her voice. He really had said those things to her last night. Hylia above! He'd told her that he—
"Please forget I said anything at all."
The words pierced her like the Yiga's viscous sickle. Link rose and walked to the far side of the fire to put it out, leaving her with a half-consumed fish and a half-consumed heart.
They left the rocky terrain of mountains and returned to dirt and grass. Although the air was warmer here, chilly wind still bit through the missing half of her heart.
The whole trek was not unlike the way to the Spring of Wisdom.
Link barely talked to her. He barely even looked at her. And the gap between them left Zelda asking herself why?
Why did he take back what he said to her? Why say it at all, if he hadn't meant it?
What hurt most of all was how Link and Makar conversed effortlessly over all manner of things, like schoolmates out on a stroll. As if the distance between them was just her imagination.
"Just how many of you are there, Makar?"
"Just one Makar!"
"Not you, you..."
Link's concern was entirely pragmatic, she ended up deciding again, like during the downpour. He was her knight. Of course he'd try to snap her out of that dark headspace in any way he could.
"What forest does the Great Deku Tree live in?" Link asked next.
"The Forest Haven!" Makar answered as brightly as any question.
The remark derailed the princess from her current train of thought.
She'd had maps of Hyrule plastered all over her room since she was an infant. From cartographers' most current charts to archaic depictions of a Hyrule long gone, when the Dueling Peaks were still one mighty zenith. There was no Forest Haven mentioned in any of them, anywhere. She grew worried they weren't headed anywhere at all, but when she tried to garner more details, Makar was unclear. All she could really glean from the wooden cherub was that they were headed northwest.
After a couple hours, they passed Kakariko far to their south.
"Do you ever take that leaf mask off?" Link was asking as he took a satisfying bite out of a big, crisp apple. They'd gathered a couple for the road as the distant village came and went out of their sight.
Zelda felt horrible for leaving without saying goodbye to Lady Impa and company, but she felt more disgusted at the thought of bumping into Mido again so soon. What did he make of her sudden disappearance? Would he come looking for her in genuine concern? Possessive malevolence? Maybe he'd been so affronted by her ghosting he'd wish he'd never asked to court her at all. That felt like the best case scenario.
...If only Hylia hadn't braided their fates together.
The sun grew as tired as the princess, stretching its rays for an embrace from the treeline much earlier than usual these days, and Zelda could only make it so far in the dark before her body started protesting everything.
"I'm sorry, you both, I don't think I can walk any farther today."
Link turned. Everything about his demeanor was laced with concern, but in the way any knight who is devoted to his sovereign would have expressed. The distance was both familiar and foreign, but the hurt it brought was fresh, even as he immediately set to building them a campfire. He worked dutifully and swiftly in preparing a space for her comfort, but with no words passing between them, Zelda didn't find it very comforting at all.
Patches of clouds blotted out the moon and the stars by the time the trio settled for sleep. Despite having stopped per Zelda's request, Makar was the first one out cold. Zelda felt like she was swallowing mouthfuls of smoke as Link settled down on the opposite side of the fire, just as he'd done the past couple nights.
She'd listened to it all day, and yet she really, really missed his voice.
She remembered the words he'd said to her their very first night in the wilderness together. Your Highness, you've spent months at the training yards and yet you know nothing about me or the others. Maybe that would be different if you actually talked to us.
All their time together, she kept the onus on Link. At every uncomfortable silence, she'd stubbornly waited for him to reach out to her first. And even when he did offer pieces of himself, she was too obstinate to accept them graciously or too scared to request more. Now he wasn't offering her anything at all.
Maybe it was her turn to extend the olive branch.
She took a deep breath to find the right words—opening up was not something she was used to. But she had to start unpacking some of the weight on her chest, and the thing sitting heaviest was Mido.
Talking about that night meant admitting things about herself she'd never admitted to anyone before. Intimacy with one's beau is expected, is it not? It was humiliating to admit not only that she hadn't had sex before, but that she was scared. But if there was anyone she felt safe enough to attempt vulnerability around, it was the boy of caramel and cerulean.
"Link?" she called softly.
She held her breath and waited, but the only response was the crackling flames. He must've fallen aslee—
"Yeah," came his voice then, clear and sleepless.
She tried not to be hurt by the fact he'd almost chosen not to respond. "Can I talk to you about something?" Her voice wavered a bit, which was definitely not a good start.
"Of course," he then said very seriously. "Always. Anything."
"I think... I'd like to tell you about what happened with Mido." If she could talk to Link about that night, she could talk to him about anything, she figured. She waited awkwardly for him to respond. He waited awkwardly for her to continue. So she cleared her throat and patted the grass beside her. "Can you come closer? I don't like talking over the fire."
Without a word, he obeyed. Laying beside her, they stared at the constellations above. Zelda's chest grew suddenly tight with years of bottled up hurt—suppressing her thoughts and opinions from the people around her. Between a gap in the clouds, Navi gave the princess a wink of encouragement.
"I don't know how to talk about myself," she began with a sigh. "I don't like to talk about myself. I feel I'm not supposed to. But... I think I'm ready to try untangling some of the thoughts in my head."
"Do you want me just to listen?" Link asked, searching for other stars in the overcast sky. "I don't hafta comment on anything if you don't want."
"No. I'm sick of wasting my breath on those who don't answer."
Eyebrows shot up. "Damn," he murmured. "Or maybe 'amen'?"
It painted the faintest trace of a smile. She took a deep breath, to the count of four. Then out, just as slowly. Getting the weight off her chest meant she had to start somewhere. How best to justify her limited experience with intimacy?
"I'm... a princess," she tried. It was the basis for her naïveté. But even knowing what she was trying to broach, she was already battling for more words.
In the pause, Link commented, "Well shit, that's news to me."
She elbowed him lightly, both defeated and redeemed by his humor. "I'm serious," she giggled involuntarily, "I'm trying to tell you something. In earnest."
"Sorry," he smiled back, "I'm listening. In earnest."
She reset with another sigh and began again. "What I mean is, as the princess, my duty to the kingdom has been... oppressive. Between prayer and pilgrimages, I've only ever known devotion to Hylia. While trysts may be no special occasion for others my age— Er, younger even— they are for me. I never understood the fuss, really."
She was prevaricating. And a twitch of Link's brow indicated he was already struggling to follow. She just had to spit it out. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've never had the time to..."—she fought her sluggish tongue—"copulate."
There, she finally said it.
But Link only blinked, completely missing the fact that she just delivered the crux of her message. The blank face he wore confirmed as much.
When he realized this, he started. "I'm sorry, I think I was supposed to know what that word m—"
"I'm a virgin, Link."
The fire popped and Navi ducked shyly behind a cloud.
Well that was blunt. Even the pine trees rustled with quiet gossip.
Link's eyes slid to her like a pat of butter on a titled hotcake. "You... are?"
Teeth worrying her lower lip, she shook her head.
He mouthed a little oh and cautiously returned his gaze to the overcast sky. "But I thought you and Mido had...?" Silence presented the rest of the question.
"No, he— He wanted to— in Kakariko." Keeping her lungs steady made her vision grow blurry instead. "But I... wimped out."
A deep groove formed between caramel brows. "Please don't say you wimped out. You were following your gut. You should never do anything you're not comfortable with, especially sex. Hell if he's your beau."
Zelda nodded, still gnawing on her lip.
Link seemed to struggle on his next words, too. His face revealed something, but it was in a language she didn't understand. "Your Highness, I don't really understand your feelings about him"—she didn't comment in his brief pause—"and I'm not trying to sway those feelings one way or the other, but I think it's important you know that... he's, um, bragged about you."
She didn't understand. "Is that abnormal for a beau?"
Link winced. "I meant... There's a reason I was surprised to hear you're a virgin."
The princess's blood turned cold with dawning comprehension, and then incredulous horror. "Our first kiss was in front of everyone at the Knights' Tournament! When on earth would we have had—?"
"I dunno, he claimed he was at your tower almost every other night."
That same vile wave of nausea from Kakariko came over her, and Zelda shot upright to prevent bile from pooling in the back of her throat. Link shot upright too.
"What!?" she seethed, tears pricking her eyes. "How could he spread such a churlish narrative about me? That cajoling, odious, iniquitous—! Unctuous—! Sycophant!"
"What's going on?" Makar asked sleepily.
Zelda whipped the other way, towards Link, to hide her crumpling face from the innocent Korok.
Link leaned forward and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, we're just talking. You can go back to sleep, Makar." His next words were only for the princess, so he leaned in a little closer. "Do you want to keep talking about it somewhere else?"
"No," she bit, trying to hold back tears and vomit and hellfire. She threw herself back into the cold grass and curled tightly into a ball.
She could feel Link's eyes glued to her, but she stayed in her chrysalis of betrayal. Even after Makar had fallen back asleep, Zelda was still trembling with rage.
"I'm really sorry," Link eventually murmured, "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No. I'm glad you did," Zelda muttered, uncurling just a bit. "I deserve to know what's being said about me." She could hear Mido's smug voice now, fabricating raunchy details about her, worse than any other castle rumors she's survived thus far. "It's no wonder he tried to coerce me into it," Zelda hissed bitterly through teeth and tears. "He just wanted to actualize the details of his perverted delusions before anyone could realize he was a lying, conniving, manipulative—"
"Coerce?" Wide blue eyes met her forthrightly. "Mido tried to pressure you into...? I thought you were upset with yourself for backing out, I didn't realize that Mido was— Shit, Princess, that's seriously fucked up—"
"You think I don't see that now?" her voice broke on the last word and she clapped her hands over her mouth. In her bitter struggle to keep her anger contained so she didn't wake Makar again, she could see the cogs turning in Link's head. His face reeled through several emotions, guilty horror being the last of them.
"Oh, my Gods, you went through that and I— I took your clothes off—"
"No. Don't you dare try and disrate yourself to be on the same level as Mido," Zelda hissed, angling a finger at him. The harsh, accusatory tone didn't match the affinity of the words she spewed. "You are honest and respectful. You did it because you were concerned for my life, not because you wanted to put four quarters on the spit."
"W-what..."
"Thank you again for bringing this to my attention," she said suddenly evenly, regaining a queenly air in spite of her tear-stained cheeks. "I shall ruminate on how best to address Mido at our next encounter."
Deep concern etched itself around Link's mouth and brow. "Are... Are you alright? I mean, aside from the obviously not alright—"
"Never better," she dismissed, lying back down in the grass.
He peered down at her, cerulean narrowed in worry. "You're suddenly very calm about it. And you're talking weirder than normal. Which is... weird."
"I'm merely processing this new information. Let me do it."
Blue lingered, but Link's lips stayed sealed.
"Goodnight," Zelda said, turning to her other side.
"Goodnight..." he echoed uncertainly. It took a moment more before he finally laid back and mirrored her body in the grass.
The princess wasn't sure her breathing was any easier now than before telling Link, but at least she'd sorted out one thing—it wasn't worth trying to convince herself that Mido deserved her heart simply because Hylia had decreed he was worth something to Her.
Fuck Her prophecy.
She'd accept that they'd have to reunite at some point to stop Ganondorf, but for now, as far as she was concerned, Mido was a waste of oxygen.
"Princess?" Link, unable to stay silent, whispered between the crackling of the fire. "Thank you for opening up to me." She could almost hear the smile in his voice.
"Thank you for being someone I can open up to," she responded simply.
He peeked at her with a twist of his neck. "I'm sorry I gave you the cold shoulder all day. I couldn't bring myself to look in your direction without feeling guilty for suggesting we go to the Spring of Wisdom. It's my fault you went in that water and nearly died. I couldn't even use the fairy because it wouldn't have dried you off or gotten you out of the freezing cold, and I panicked..."
"I don't blame you for any of that, Link. I knew what was in store the moment my father ordered the pilgrimage. I'm sorry I ignored my own limits and caused you so much strife. But... please don't close off from me like that again. It's... distressing, not knowing what's going through your head."
"Only if you promise not to shut me out anymore, either," he replied softly. "Especially now that you know how scary it feels to be left in the dark."
As if to emphasize just how good it felt to be out of it, the clouds parted for Navi, Tatl, Ciela, and the entire empyrean flutter of fairies to cast their bright approval down on the young duo.
"You've got yourself a promise, Link Aleron."
And thus began the official friendship of Princess Zelda Arinya Bospheramus Hyrule and her chosen knight.
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Next chapter is going to be fun <3
[[[Speaking of the up-and-coming, I wanted to throw it out there, that if any fellow writers/Legend of Zelda fans are willing to brainstorm with me over a couple plot points that I only have a rough idea for, I think I'd really like having someone to collaborate with!]]]
Thank you for the overwhelming support, both here and Ao3! If I responded to your comment, let's chat! Otherwise I'm officially rescinding this offer so that I don't end up spilling all the beans hehe
As always, thank you for reading and happy almost-Friday!