#She and Link lived through the calamity and knew them as friends | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bahbahhh · 6 months

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PLS TALK TO ME ABOUT "BEGIN AGAIN" I WOULD DO SOOOO MANY ILLEGAL THINGS TO READ IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AGAIN </3333333

Oh man, begin again. Where do I, well, begin?

It started with the end — that is, the first I knew was I wanted to write a story that ended with Link giving Zelda Hateno house.

I became obsessed pretty early on in my play-through of totk with the changes between it and botw. And when I say obsessed, I mean annoyed. I love botw. I love the world and the landscape and the characters and the story. It just felt like too much was wiped away without explanation and I decided, damnit, I was going to fix that.

Here are so fun facts/ hidden gems/Easter eggs:

Chapter 1

She is not aware of a word that accurately describes the feeling of being forgotten by the person you tethered your heart to; to have it remain connected to that person and witness it drift behind them, becoming more of a dark cloud than guiding light.

This is a little nod to like someone would. I totally Link runs from his destiny a little bit before he faces CG. And writing from Zelda’s POV, I felt like I had to recognize the pain of witnessing that.

He jokingly calls it an ‘adventure pouch’.

Call back to SS!

Chapter 2

��Even the Divine Beasts?”

“Especially those,” he asserts.

Another nod to like someone would Link. I always feel like, similar to how SS Link would have hesitation being a child of the sky entering temples, especially underground, this Link would hate entering the divine beasts. It feels like a living tomb. I wanted this contrast between he and Zelda’s perspective where, earlier, she thinking about all the ways they could be repurposed to help Hyrule, Link only sees how it can fall again. And the pain they have already caused.

“It trapped his soul inside his body,” King Dorephan says.

I hc Link was very much dead in botw. The shrine of resurrection essentially tethered his soul to his body long enough for it to be prepared so his soul could be convinced to remain inside. I have a wip sitting around about Link’s time in this stasis and how all three of this trio (Zelda, Ganondorf, and Link have all spent some time in it) but who knows if I’ll write it.

To this group, so revitalized by new hope, united and rising from a hundred years of ruin, her proposal of clinging to their ashes might feel like poison.

Like malice.

I’m a little obsessed with thinking about and justifying how at any given point, Zelda and Link could become a calamity as well.

“You said you think the Shrines work like the Divine Beasts? So in theory, those stopped working because our friends—” Grief, unexpected and sudden, crackles in her voice. She clears her throat. Pivots. “You can’t use their gifts any longer, right?”

Link flexes his fingers slowly. Like he’s just missing something that keeps passing through his fingers. “I let them go.”

This was a very important change I wanted to spend time on: The champion’s gifts. It broke my heart to think when mummy ganon attacked Link, he stole their gifts (essentially their souls) away from Link. And I decided it lined up with Link’s characterization in this story, that he would let them go versus hold onto them longer than needed. He especially, down to his very core, knows what that is like.

> Rest? <

I wanted a plausible explanation for how the shrines disappeared from the map and I just thought this was so clever when I came up with it, hah. That souls fixed for so long, so dedicated and driven by purpose might need permission to let go (HINT HINT ZELDA) And also, Link had the answer all along because, essentially, it’s what he did for the Champions when they let the gifts go.

Chapter 3

A bit of a logistics chapter but I wanted to wrap it around moments of feeling. Grief and living with grief is a huge theme through the entire story. I just love the “I’m 18” scene and how she’s physically moving forward before she’s emotionally there.

With her soul is exposed and pulsing like a nerve, she can sense the entirety of the Sheikah Technology network - all the shrines, every guardian, the towers stretching up into the sky, the furnaces burning outside the Labs - all these things without a mouth suddenly have one, and they open wide and desperate, and begin to siphon energy from her.

In theory, since the Sheikah tech runs on soul energy, I felt like it would make sense it has a hard time recognizing what is fuel and what I not. So every time Link fast travels, it’s like he’s bargaining with the horned statue. I always felt like you should lose a half heart when you fast travel in botw.

I was a little nervous it would fit with the story, but I really love the letters. It was the perfect opportunity to show Link has a lot going on in his head behind his few spoken words.

It does feel fast, but at the end of it all, it's just another year. Important things take time.

This comes back in chapter 6 when Link tells Zelda how he feels about her.

You want to know where my favorite place in Hyrule is? There is a spring on top of a waterfall north of Lake Floria. It's where I first saw Farosh. Came right out of the water and climbed up into the sky above my head. Nearly scared me to death. I can’t really explain it well, but it's where I realized I wanted to actually be here. Ruins and wild and all. It's where I realized I wanted to be the one to save Hyrule. To save you.

Another like someone would reference. Also laying foundation of Link connecting with dragons…light dragon feels.

It’s just, sometimes it feels like this destiny asks too much, you know?

This is a big theme in the depths au. A lot of my stories are connected/have passages that inspired others.

Chapter 4

The shrine Link got sick from was Noya Neha shrine. It’s next to Hyrule castle and it’s a cave shrine. I wanted to subtly introduce gloom sickness in a way it would take several years to become a problem consistent enough for Hyrule to pay attention to. In the beginning, I see it as something just chalked up to a random virus/illness. While Link and Zelda have more of a resistance to it, I argue because of all the fast travel and not taking the best care of himself for weeks, he was in a weakened state and more susceptible to the gloom in the cave.

“What are you talking about? Who will–” Paya freezes as Impa pulls off her hat, revealing a thin coil of silver braid on the top of her head that partially uncoils and drops down by her ear.

It only felt right that Impa would drop a bomb on Paya and announce her retirement so casually.

The thin coil braid is a nod to SS Impa.

Calamity Ganon could easily be mistaken for a dragon. Can you imagine? Facing off against a wicked version of Dinraal or Farosh?

Foreshadowing the demon dragon.

You can clearly see she was Hylian by the ears, but the hero has none of Link’s features. He barely looks human. They chose the Champion blue from the color found in the threads that make up the ancient hero’s armor, but up close, she can see it’s a blending. They could have just as easily gone with green.

Nod the ancient hero’s aspect design. I’m so desperate to make this feel connected to botw because it doesn’t, haha.

‘It needed to heal,’ he signs. ‘I decided to let it.’

Again, an easy way to let Link’s characterization explain the detail of them having to retrieve the Master Sword before they descend under castle to investigate in the opening to totk and the Master Sword needing/being able to heal (Zelda’s decision to swallow the stone in totk).

Chapter 5

“Strong name.” The old man tugs off his hat and bows his head. “My name’s Toffa, by the way. My grandfather was head groom for the Royal family a century ago, Princess. His name was Talon.”

Nod to OoT.

Link drops down beside Zelda with two plates of food. He sets one in her lap, ignoring Tauro completely until Zelda picks it up. He’s unusually close. There is a strange edge to him; she feels it along the long line of his thigh against hers. Like she's thumbing the edge of a blade.

It was really fun to make Link a little jealous of Tauro and Zelda be completely oblivious to it.

I just love the entire Riju and Zelda scene. It felt really important for me to spend some time on Zelda facing her grief with Urbosa. I wrote a scene in the Killing Moon where Zelda uses Urbosa’s sword to cut her hair and I loved it so much I wanted to keep that theme with explaining her haircut. And of course, the most simple change between games (Zelda’s appearance) became a moment of a deeper significance.

Chapter 6

“It’s just, I remember reading that the Rito were once thought to be water dwelling.”

Nod to fandom lore Rito evolved from Zora.

“Our ears. They used to be longer.”

Another nod to fandom lore. Hylian ears once being longer to hear messages from goddesses. Sonia longer ears.

Purah’s change in appearance felt like an important change to spend some time on, not just because she’s suddenly older but also why Robbie and Impa didn’t de-age, too. It stands to reason, the same tech that ages her up could be used to alter Robbie and Impa’s age.

The air is damp and heavy. It smells – she thinks about Link and the cave shrine – funnier than it should. Musty and mineral and sickly sweet, like something is rotting behind the bedrock.

Another tiny foreshadowing of gloom.

“Just burn it.” She hears her father in the harshness of her tone. There is ink on her fingers.

Fun fact- this is happening in the exact spot you get the memory in botw where her father scolds her.

“The song you are humming,” She fails to keep the edge out of her tone. “What is it called?”

He’s humming the song of storms in this scene. It’s why storm clouds are approaching and Farosh flies overhead.

“Kondo. The court poet’s name was Kondo. He was a Sheikah.”

Nod to the music composer for many of the iconic LoZ themes- Koji Kondo!

‘I choose you. Do you choose me?’

I wanted to say I love you without saying I love you. And for these two, bonded by destiny, choosing each other feels so much stronger, more significant and romantic to me than a declaration of love alone.

Chapter 7

The entire scene of her walking through the village and being stopped multiple times is my explanation why she eventually wants/needs the secret well.

I wrote the first passage of the story- Zelda wanting a bed- and the last passage - Zelda getting a bed/house- at the same. I broke it up when I gave it to my beta reader and only edited it a little when it was time to put it into the final chapter.

#thanks for giving me a reason to revisit all my notes on begin again #I’m so proud of this story #and Zelmo is such an amazing beta #b!talks #begin again

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blueskittlesart · 2 years

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omg wait- please give us your thoughts botw women!

im skipping zelda because i talk about her all the time but this is mipha, urbosa (and riju), impa, and purah lol. it's LONG so prepare yourself

mipha. ive said before that i think she was done dirty by the writers in that all of her characterization revolves around men. and i stand by that. i generally dislike the archetype of a physically small, softspoken female supporting character whose only role in the story is as a protector or healer--someone for the male characters to bounce their feelings off of. and i think mipha very often falls into this trope. with that being said, i do still think there is room for a nuanced analysis of her character because there IS nuance there it just gets lost a lot of the time because of how she's written. When thinking about her it's important to remember how zora age in relationship to humans. after a lot of math i place her at around 60ish years old physically, with that being the zora equivalent of a 14-16 year old hylian. she is INCREDIBLY young by zora standards but physically, she has lived longer than almost every non-zora she will ever meet. because of this, there's this dissonance between the way her family and kingdom view her vs the way her friends and colleagues view her. We see it most obviously in the champion's ballad dlc--when zelda speaks to mipha about piloting a divine beast, she speaks as though she's talking to an adult. but mipha's father is convinced she is far too young and inexperienced for this role. Mipha, in turn, is caught between these two differing perceptions of herself, to the point where she doesn't really KNOW what she's supposed to be. she takes on a protective role for those younger than her (sidon and link, specifically) and does her best to support zelda where she can, knowing that zelda likely views her as a senior, but she also often vant disguise the fact that she's still a child herself. she plays with sidon in the waterfall. she has a very childish, innocent schoolgirl crush on link. she's caught in between these two perceptions of herself and because she is, for all intents and purposes, mentally fifteen years old, she doesn't quite know how to handle it. The fact that zora live on a totally different time scale compared to other hyrulian races isn't something that would normally pose much of a struggle for them, because zora's domain is deliberately isolated from those other races. zora could likely go a generation or two without ever needing to interact with non-zora at all, beyond the occasional stray traveler. (remember how when you're working your way towards zora's domain post-calamity, you meet a bunch of zora who are super excited to see a hylian at all? most of those zora look to be in early adulthood, meaning by my math they'd be about a hundred years old. post-calamity, zora's domain clearly returns to that same brand of isolation, so most of these zora have probably never interacted with a hylian at all.) but because mipha happened to be born into such a turbulent era, she finds herself having to interact with these other races more than basically any zora ruler might have had to for the past several thousand years. which is why she has so much trouble with link. from her perspective, he changes SO fast. she meets him one day a wide-eyed child and the next he comes back to her a silent, traumatized soldier. she's hardly aged a day but he has experienced a lifetime of things she can't begin to understand and she has NO IDEA how to talk to him anymore. When they interact, she switches awkwardly between treating him like the child she knew and attempting to fix the trauma he's been through without her, but it's always with the goal of getting things BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE. she is completely incapable of moving on from the past relationship with link that she remembers because as far as she's concerned, it's only been a miniscule amount of time since then. due to the nature of her race, mipha is basically doomed to be stuck in a past that link can never return to. god. i wish they explored her character more in-game im going to lose my mind

urbosa is SUCH a good character. agh. her narrative purpose is essentially to be an actual POSITIVE mentor to zelda, which. let's be honest. without her that poor girl would absolutely not have made it to seventeen. jesus christ. Anyways urbosa is everything zelda wants to be. A strong, independent, powerful ruling force that her people rely on and look to in times of need. she is completely self-assured and confident and she is quite honestly literally the only positive influence on zelda's life. Urbosa is a character well into adulthood, who we can assume has long since grown into herself and found her way. Which is why she is SUCH an important character for zelda, yes, but for ALL the young champions who are just. so desperate for a positive force in their lives. She's so GOOD at what she does, too. urbosa is a woman who was meant to be a mother in one way or another, i think, because the way she handles the kids she's working with is really thoughtful and well-done, ESPECIALLY when compared to the other dogshit adults in their lives. She allows zelda more compassion than anyone else has ever seen fit to give her, and when zelda DOES mess up, urbosa offers gentle but firm redirection. (in aoc specifically, she notices zelda comparing herself to link and immediately shuts it down, WITHOUT making zelda feel stupid or inferior.) she does the exact same thing, albeit less overtly, with link, who she obviously has a lot of compassion for despite being kind of at odds with him over zelda. I think she and link are actually incredibly similar characters--stubborn, a little bit showy, and generally unwilling to admit defeat in any situation. She's uniquely positioned to be able to relate to both him AND zelda, as a ruler AND a soldier. And i think she's completely aware of how similar she is to link, which is why when she pushes him, she does it in a calculated way so that he never takes it as a challenge or an attack. she never outright tells him "this is why zelda dislikes you, you need to work on your communication skills" she talks to him about zelda's childhood in plain terms because she knows that breaking down link's mental wall between himself and zelda by evoking empathy is the way to get the two of them to fucking COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER. i really think every game should have an overwhelmingly positive female mentor figure like urbosa. she is so good

in relation to urbosa, we then have riju, the youngest and only female of the new champions. she is fourteen years old and she has been thrust into a position of leadership and she works so hard to project that same confidence and maturity that was urbosa's staple. and to her credit she ALMOST gets there but she's fourteen and no fourteen year old is capable of performing adulthood perfectly. Riju's projected personality feels very much like she's regurgitating stories she was told about her ancestors. Urbosa was strong, urbosa was fearless, urbosa commanded lightning, urbosa stepped up to serve the knight and princess when asked. but, crucially, urbosa was not fourteen. riju's insecurities about filling urbosa's shoes are incredibly evident, but she seems to do her best work when she drops the pretense and acts as herself. there's a reason she had us fight naboris on sand seals--they're a source of comfort to her. something she KNOWS she can act confident about. there was no acting involved in her pursuit of naboris--she KNEW she was good with that seal. there's also something to be said about the successor to urbosa, the mentor, being an inexperienced little girl. riju clings to the stories of the champion chief who came before her because she desperately needs a mentor. I wish urbosa could meet her for real she deserves a mom

impa. i. well i wish 90% of her characterization didn't come from hyrule warriors bc i honestly dont like how she was written all that much. i think they had a really strong framework to build off of in botw but aoc just kind of. took it in a direction i wasn't a huge fan of. anyway. impa is sheikah, a race descended from the original protectors of the goddess hylia. Interestingly, in botw the sheikah have been almost completely integrated into hylian society, with kakariko village being mostly sheikah who live like regular hylians. it seems like very few of them actually follow the ways of their ancestors, in contrast to other games where sheikah were only ever warrior bodyguards of the goddess hylia's bloodline. Impa is, presumably, one of the few sheikah who continues to follow the teachings of her ancestors and serve the royal family. this... honestly causes a dillemma if you think about it for more than a few seconds, because, since most sheikah live as regular citizens now, in place of sheikah bodyguards the hylian royal family has an extensive royal guard, eliminating the need for sheikah warriors like impa almost entirely. i can only assume this is why she was relegated to basically 'haha funny quirky ninja sidekick' in hyrule warriors. but personally i think it would have been much more interesting to use this as a commentary on the state of hyrule and even to give her some more obvious internal conflict!! hyrule has until now been in a ten thousand year era of peace. it's no wonder most sheikah settled down and gave up on the whole bodyguard thing. they might have even believed there wasn't going to be another demise incarnation for them to take action against, especially after ten thousand years without any whisper of conflict. to most sheikah, pursuing their traditional martial arts and continuing to serve the royal family would likely begin to feel like a waste of time. for some reason, though, impa didn't feel this way. ten thousand years after the last conflict between demise and hylia's descendants, impa still chooses to train as a sheikah warrior and serve the royal family. why?? my personal headcanon is that she was drawn to the myth of ancient hyrule in the same way that purah was drawn to its technology. purah is the more obvious nerd of the sisters, but i think impa's choice to pursue sheikah martial arts HAD to have its basis in an interest in the creation myth. She is also one of the few characters in botw who explicitly KNOWS and can convey to you the myth in its entirety, or at least, as much of the myth as had survived by the time she began studying it. So here we have a young sheikah girl who is incredibly interested in her own culture as it relates to the myth of hyrule and she's basically singlehandedly attempting to revive a part of it that's been nearly completely lost, all amidst this incredibly tense political environment in which her peoples' past inventions are also being dug up and revived by the royal family with like... seemingly very little care to the context in which they were made or why they might have been buried in the first place. like, in this climate which shows a subtle but obvious disregard for her culture, impa is loudly, deliberately returning to her roots. that's SO INTERESTING!! if aoc had leaned into it more, we could have had moments where impa contemplates her place among the royal guardsmen and the champions--she's not quite one of them, but they have a mutual goal and, in the case of the champions, their lives are all deeply intertwined with the myth of hyrule; or even a bit of commentary on the political climate of hyrule pre-calamity and how fucking horrible it was. i REALLY wish they had explored this more it could have been so cool

PURAH. people think im insane when i tell them shes in my top five loz characters of all time but i am literally obsessed with her i dont care that shes a random new addition to botw only. i think she is a really interesting way to introduce and lead into the idea of ancient sheikah technology. considering how important ancient sheikah tech is to the worldbuilding of botw, giving the player a sheikah scientist guide to walk you through it all is a smart way to go about introducing it. beyond that, though, i think as a character she serves as a reminder of hyrule before the calamity--cheerful and carefree despite the obvious dark implications of her actions. when you first go to meet her you find out along the way that the kids in hateno are scared of her; they think she's a ghost or something along those lines. she is eccentric and strange and she just sort of... glosses over the entire series of events that led both her and link to their present situation, because by de-aging herself, accidentally or not, she has become stuck perpetually in the mindset of pre-calamity hyrule. She still views sheikah tech as something interesting to be studied and played with while most sane people in hyrule view it as nothing but an incredible danger. she's super intelligent, but can't quite break out of the scientist mentality enough to acknowledge the harm the tech she so obviously loves is capable of causing. the de-aging and the bubbly personality are likely a coping mechanism, i think, though maybe not a conscious one. she's remaining frozen in time forever, deliberately refusing to think about the damage she might have caused. I don't think she's ENTIRELY in denial though, if only because she helps link when he asks for it. she's been waiting for a hundred years, never quite sure if the shrine of resurrection worked or if she laid link to rest forever in that cave, so she does whatever she can to keep living, preparing for the worst. When link DOES reappear, it's a genuine shock, to the point that she cant quite let go of the denial she's been using to keep herself going for the past 100 years. but just because she expected the worst doesn't mean she can't work with a better outcome, it just means she isn't quite prepared to deal with it perfectly, which is why she seems frozen in time when you interact with her in botw.

#WOMENNNNN. AGH #loz has a bad track record with female characters but the botw girls are so genuinely good. i love it #zelda analysis #asks

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sunset-peril · 2 months

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To Heir is Champion - Urbosa

Gerudo Town. A gleaming, all-women city in the middle of the unforgiving Gerudo Desert. Once said to have been the origin tribe of Calamity Ganon, the Gerudo people were now the closest ally to Hyrule, proven by the fact that the tribe had raised the last princess of Hyrule almost to adulthood.

Lady Urbosa was chief of this proud tribe and also the adoptive mother of Princess Zelda. As the closest friend of Zelda's late mother, she was granted a maternal role for the future matriarch after her mother's sudden death. Urbosa cared very much for Zelda, enough to bend more than a few rules and traditions in order for Zelda to marry the love of her life, Champion Link of Hyrule.

Near the end of their engagement, Zelda had fallen quite ill. Worried for her daughter, Urbosa had taken her aside and examined her to find that the little princess of Hyrule was already expecting her first child. With such news in mind, she increased security among the Gerudo to ensure Link and Zelda's wedding would occur on time. She hoped this would be enough to secure their marriage with enough time to settle before she became obvious.

Urbosa had promised to deny any knowledge of Zelda's pregnancy for as long as she wished, and thankfully for the excited grandmother-to-be, Zelda was about to relieve her of such a task.

"Lady Urbosa," Esosu, a high-ranking and highly trusted palace guard, entered the throne room. "a letter from Princess Zelda has arrived."

Urbosa smiled softly, always happy to hear word from her vehvi. "Do bring it here." She held out a strong, yet gentle, hand for Esosu to place the letter into.

Gerudo Chief Urbosa. The letter began with a striking formality, but Urbosa knew that such formality was demanded of Zelda. You've no idea how thankful Link and I are for your continued support of us throughout the years since Ganon's return was foretold.

The smile on Urbosa's face grew larger and brighter. She was always willing to give both of them support. Zelda's life had been a struggle ever since her mother's assassination ten years before, and Link had his own demons to battle. For them to fully know Urbosa loved them was all her heart desired.

We both wish to thank you for your role in our marriage and our lives, which is why we've decided that you would be the first that we told.

Her mouth began to tremble with joy as she realized what the letter was for.

I, Princess Zelda, and my husband, Prince Link, are beyond proud to announce that I am expecting the next descendant of Hylia. We expect the child to arrive in about two seasons' time.

Urbosa began to cry. It was official now.

"Lady Urbosa? What is the matter?" Although armor covered her face, her eyes shone with concern. "Do I need to prepare the troops?"

"No…"

"Then what brings my chief such emotion?"

Urbosa looked down at the words on the page, making sure they truly existed, before replying. "The princess is with child."

"Oh! Our little missy is expecting her first! Truly happy news, Lady Urbosa!"

Link has some training business with the knights, so I will be coming down for a few days until his business is through. I look forward to being in Gerudo Town again.

Her Divine Highness, Princess Zelda Esmerelda Hyrule, Descendant of the Goddess Hylia and Heir to the Hyrulean Throne

Right below where Zelda signed her full title, the Hylian Emblem appeared, proving that the parchment originated from Hyrule Castle.

"Esosu. Princess Zelda is coming to Gerudo Town for a few days while Prince Link tends to business. We must prepare for her arrival."

Esosu nodded. "Yes, Chief."

"I leave you in charge of the guards. Do as you see fit."

"Thank you, Chief." Esosu then left the throne room to prepare.

Urbosa quickly read over Zelda's letter again, becoming giddy before heading up to her bedroom.

Zelda would surely be arriving soon. She needed a good place to rest and some cool clothing for the desert heat. Now that she was with child, her whole being was a little more fragile.

Looking around, she saw no suitable place for Zelda to stay, then remembered Zelda's old room was downstairs. She headed back down in order to see what needed to be cleaned up, mind wandering to other tasks.

Urbosa needed to break the news to the Canteen, so that no worker there would accidentally give Zelda a drink and hurt her growing baby.

A Noble Pursuit actually sounded amazing right now.

Urbosa headed down to the Noble Canteen, to fulfill both items on her list.

…

*Some time later… Gerudo Canyon*

"Link. I'm feeling quite alright. Don't worry so much." Zelda brushed her fingers along the braids on the top of her head, still appearing the same as she always did when traveling for non-training reasons. The two had ridden at a decent pace the whole trip, now approaching the Gerudo Canyon Stable. Although the whole trip had gone without incident, not even Zelda getting nauseated or a Bokoblin attacking them, Link rode very close to her, often placing one hand on her shoulder or rubbing her belly while they were in motion.

"I'm a knight and your husband. It's my job. Besides, I'm not going to see you for almost a week."

"I'll be fine! I'm in very good hands with Urbosa."

His hands tightened around Epona's reins. "Right now, I can't feel like any hands are as good as mine."

"I can tell that. Relax. The Gerudo have taken excellent care of me over the past ten years, the little one and I will be as well cared for as if you were doing so." She slowed Skyloft down a little and placed a hand over her stomach.

Link matched the pace change instantly. "Are you okay? Do we need to stop? What's wrong with the baby?"

Skyloft stopped, Zelda muttered in frustration. "Link. Nothing is wrong. Stop please."

The two horses whinnied in agreement.

"Ugh. Master's never been like this before. He's making me look bad." Epona muttered to Skyloft. "You'd think this foal was the end of the world."

"Tell me about it. I have to carry her around everywhere and you don't see me psyching out over this foal." Skyloft shook out his head. "Actually I'm kind of proud about it, I get to carry both remaining Goddess descendants on my back."

"Can we trade? I want the heavy salty one instead of this worrywart."

"She's not actually any heavier, even though this stomach of hers is already bigger." The white stallion turned his head to nuzzle Zelda's stomach.

"Aww, Skyloft! Look Link, Skyloft's bonding."

"Heh. Sure is."

"Of course she isn't. All she's done for the past month has been puke her guts up. I'm surprised that foal's even still alive… and that she's actually held her rice today."

"Maybe that's why they're growing, because there's a few scattered days where Mistress keeps a meal down."

"Maybe… oh, I hope Master's foal turns out alright. He'll never forgive himself if something happens." Epona also nuzzled Zelda's belly, in part to keep Link's hands off.

"Heh. Looks like someone's popular." Link smiled at the two horses. They had sensed Zelda's pregnancy when she was only about five weeks, surrounding her body until Link became scared enough that they realized the strange lifeform inside Zelda also belonged to him.

…

"Ugh. It's probably just stable fever but, does something seem off with Mistress?" Skyloft looked towards Zelda's slim figure with confusion as she walked in the stable.

"...Yeah. I feel it too." Epona tilted her ears towards Zelda.

As Zelda drew closer, the feeling intensified.

"Mornin' Epona!" Link greeted. "Look who's finally well enough to go riding with us."

"Mistress has been ill? Why haven't we heard anything, Epona?"

"I don't know… lemme get closer. " Epona focused her ears on Zelda's body, using her heightened senses to try and solve the mystery. "Her stomach doesn't sound right… what did she eat?"

As soon as Link removed the latch on Epona's stall, she raced out and approached Zelda.

"This sound, Skyloft, I've heard it before… but not since… Hateno… It almost sounds like… no… I haven't heard this sound since I was a filly, but it must be the same."

"What? Tell me, Epona!"

Epona nickered in realization and reared slightly. "It's a foal, Sky! Princess Zelda's carrying a foal!"

"Woah, Epona! Epona, down!"

"A foal?! Mistress is with foal?!"

"There's a heartbeat in her stomach, it could only be a foal!"

"Epona!" Link dropped everything and motioned for him and Zelda to back up before she hurt herself or either of them.

The stress made Zelda double over her stomach, trying not to retch.

Skyloft whinnied at Zelda, then unlatched himself and raced over to her. He surrounded her stomach, keeping his muzzle down over it.

"Skyloft? What are you doing? What's gotten into you and Epona?" Zelda wearily asked, unable to get a hand to her stomach.

"I'll protect your foal, Mistress." He turned his head to Epona. "I hear the beat too!"

Epona was able to dodge Link and also placed herself around Zelda, the two forming a wall.

"Zelda! Zelda!" Link's panic was rising, all the horses in the stable could sense his terror.

"Master thinks we're going to hurt her." Epona realized. "Skyloft, let my master through."

The horses separated just enough to let Link in, who proceeded to snap.

"Back! Get back, shoo!"

They took a few steps back. "I've never seen Master get so scared he started yelling… I wonder if he knows about the foal too."

Once they were a few steps from Zelda, Link cradled her body. "Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?"

"No, Link… they just spooked me a little… all they did was hold their noses on my stomach, I think they can sense the little one."

Link helped her to her feet, then held his hands on her belly, unable to relax.

"Master's heartbeat is racing. This is so strange for him… but why's he holding her like that?"

"Maybe he's worried about her foal. Maybe he's trying to protect it."

Epona snorted in confusion. "Hylians don't just get that way around each other… especially around another Hylian's foal."

"Link… I'm okay… we're both okay." Zelda leaned forward and kissed his lips.

Both horses stomped in realization. "Your master sired my mistress!" Skyloft whinnied.

"Master sired the Princess' foal!" Epona replied at the same time.

The two Hylians chuckled. "Didn't know we're a thing?" Link asked. "I thought you two knew that we just got married."

"I think they're still uptight about the baby. Herd animals, according to Castle research, can detect pregnancy among their members."

He smiled and nodded. Zelda had already learned so much about horses. "Maybe. C'mon, Epona! Let's all go for a ride." He slid the blanket and saddle over Epona's back, then scratched her neck. "I'm sorry I snapped earlier, girl."

...

"The horses have been interested in the little one ever since they freaked out in the stable that first time. They're probably curious."

"Yeah, Epona was little the last time she encountered a pregnant female… and that one happened to be a cow. Skyloft was bred at the Castle, correct? He's probably never encountered such a thing."

Zelda nodded, then pulled at her reins. "Okay, Skyloft, keep moving. It's getting hot." She exhaled loudly and fanned herself.

"Here, honey." Link pulled out a boomerang from his pocket. "Use this." He then instructed both horses to move faster, trying to get through the stuffy canyon gateway before Zelda got nauseous.

The horses had to stay at the stable, they all said goodbye before Link and Zelda stepped into the Desert Gateway and headed for Kara Kara.

"Ah, there you are!" Urbosa called when the couple came into view.

Zelda ran up to Urbosa and hugged her tightly. The two embraced in a long hug.

"Let me see that baby of yours!" Urbosa bent down and rubbed Zelda's stomach. "Ah, you've already got a bump… how cute." She chuckled. "Are you being nice to your momma? Or are you making her regret getting pregnant with you already?"

"Both. Most days I can't keep any food down, but today my stomach's been alright. I already love this little one so much… I didn't even know I could do that."

"Ah, a mother's love is a powerful thing." She chuckled. "You're getting so big already. Either you're just that tiny or you've got a big baby in there."

"I'm getting a little worried that she's already showing, we've barely gotten to settle from the wedding… haven't even started on how we're going to tell the King."

"Oh yes, he's not going to be very pleased… you stay alert, Link, even one strike could kill this miracle here."

"Urbosa. He's already panicking, I need him to be able to leave and not have a heart attack… please don't stress him out." Zelda then winced, pressing one hand on either side of her bump. "Ooohh." She shuffled over to Link's side, panic flashed in his eyes.

"Little bird!" Her and Link instantly tried to soothe her pain. "Link… can you help her over to the water?"

She took short, sharp breaths. "I'm okay, I'm okay…"

"Still. Let Link help you to the pond." With Urbosa's words, Link lifted his wife and carried her to the cool waters, letting them surround her hips.

Once Zelda had floated for a while, the pulsing pain subsided. "...Thank you, Urbosa."

"You're welcome, little bird… I think you may have gotten overheated. These early cramps can get ugly, and the heat never helps. We'll be a little more careful on the way to the town." She rubbed Zelda's shoulders and looked at Link. "You probably need to head on, don't you?"

"...Yeah." Link kissed Zelda's forehead. "Stay safe, okay? Don't go near the Canteen, I don't want it to tempt you."

"Alright, Link. You try and have fun, okay?"

He looked pained to reply. "Love you."

"I love you too."

He stood up, Zelda did too, and he hugged Urbosa before placing his hands on Zelda's bump and kissing her lips.

The two women watched him leave, Urbosa with an arm around Zelda's back. "C'mon, little bird, let's get to the town before it gets any hotter. I've already had someone make a cooler maternity outfit for you."

"You're too kind to me, Urbosa."

"Anything for you, little bird, I want you to be as comfortable as you can."

~~~~

Hyrule's Final Stand Masterlist

#happy 7th birthday botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda #fanfiction #booksivewritten #hyrule's final stand #zelink #loz epona #epona #botw epona #zelda's horse botw #urbosa #gerudo town #pregnancy #honestly some cute fluff #this time link's the butt end of a joke #this is my favorite one so it goes first #this one is actually pretty old

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terabyteturtle · 8 months

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Fighter #03 - Link

- Link spends a lot of time outside doing archery practice. He sets up targets in tons of different spots and spends an hour or two shooting them.

- Sephiroth is very intrigued as to how the Sheikah Slate works. He's threatened Link numerous times in an attempt to get it for himself. When this happens, Cloud usually steps in and sticks up for him, to which Sephiroth says, "There's no point in trying to ward me off, Cloud. You know better than anyone that I always come back," (bro's like William Afton for real). At this stage, Master Hand has to take care of it.

- Link and Cloud are really good friends. They both understand what it's like to be constantly pursued by their greatest enemies. Ganondorf and Sephiroth just won't leave them alone.

- He really likes pinwheels for some reason. Villager made him a couple for his birthday and he could not have been happier.

- He always keeps his Ancient Arrows under lock and key. Hylia knows what will happen if someone got their hands on those.

- Wii Fit Trainer is his go-to gal for anxiety relief. Link's usually a calm guy, but when he gets anxious, it gets really bad. He's discovered that, during times like these, yoga helps him tremendously.

- He and Cloud secretly love watching Thundercats! Cloud has all of the episodes on DVD, so on their nights off, the two will binge-watch it in Cloud's room. Whoever's going grocery shopping for the week always buys TONS of popcorn in advance because these two would go through the entire stash otherwise.

- He's very good at slight-of-hand and is better at it than Mario. Ness and Lucas think this is super cool and always ask him to do coin tricks.

- When Link first saw the item rack, he was flabbergasted. Like they use Cuccos here? Seriously?! How is everyone still alive?! If that wasn't weird enough, there was an odd drone resembling a beetle that looked strangely familiar to him. Link's sure he's never seen it before, but for some reason, he just can't shake the feeling that he's connected to it somehow.

- When he first joined Smash, Link didn't recognize Ganondorf. He actually tried to have a normal conversation with him, but got completely ignored. When he told Zelda about it, she revealed that the rude man was actually Ganon. As soon as she said this, Link suddenly went into hero mode and tried attacking the Gerudo menace. Marth, Roy, and Ike all had to restrain him.

- During his first few days in Smash, Link's anxiety levels were through the roof. Considering how many villains there were living in the same house, he had a very bad feeling about the whole thing. He kept waiting for something catastrophic to happen, but to his surprise, nothing did. After a few weeks, he began to calm down.

- He loves taking walks in the forest. He has to keep his guard up though, or else he'll get stampeded by the Kongs when they go on their forest runs.

- Along with Villager and the other Links, he'll give advice to the others on how to maximize pocket space (all of them carry so much stuff, it's insane).

- If anyone ever needs extra sword polish, he's got them covered! There's a big supply of it in the weapon repair room, but Link has high-quality stuff from Hyrule.

- His favorite color is green. He kinda wishes the Zelda from his world made his tunic green instead of blue.

- To say the least, Link was very confused when he first met Zelda and the other Links. Zelda sat him down and explained to him that she, Link, and Ganon were all part of an endless reincarnation cycle. She told him that she was a past incarnation of the Zelda he knew from his world, Young Link and Toon Link were past incarnations of himself, and the Ganon he tried killing the other day was a past incarnation of Calamity Ganon. It explained why the Gerudo King was so cold toward him, and also why he felt strange connections to certain items. It took Link a while to process all of this at first, but was eventually able to wrap his head around it.

- He keeps a close eye on Ganondorf, no matter what. If the King of Darkness decides to pull something evil, Link feels it's his responsibility to deal with him.

- Link and the Fire Emblem fighters help maintain order within the mansion. If a fight breaks out, they're the first ones to stop it.

- He loves going to the stables! Young Link often joins him to take care of the horses.

- He's such a gentleman, always opening doors for people or letting them borrow his hood if the weather's unpleasant.

- Link has a lot of strange dreams, most of which he'll only tell Cloud about

- Sometimes, he follows Zelda around out of habit. She constantly has to remind him that he's free to do whatever he wants and she's fine on her own.

- He's constantly gets recognized by Assist Trophies from his past lives, which always makes him confused. Seeing Ghirahim for the first time was an absolute nightmare, and the first question that Midna asked him was "Can I have a wolfback ride?". Needless to say, it was awkward as hell.

- He likes feeding birds with Robin sometimes. Out of all the birds he's seen, egrets are his favorite.

- Once in a blue moon, it seems like his shadow takes on a mind of its own. No one, not even Cloud, believes him and sometimes, he doesn't sleep because of it. There was one night where he looked in the mirror and he could've sworn he saw red eyes staring at him from behind.

- Link and Cloud play fetch with Pikachu all the time.

- Link's always doing heroic poses, so the villains frequently mock him.

- Dark Pit makes fun of the Master Sword a lot, calling it a giant glow-stick.

- He has the aim of a traditional Portuguese mother (meaning it's godly).

- Link has a really big heart. No, seriously, have you seen the size of his Heart Containers?

- Pit is taking archery classes from him. Dark Pit can ridicule Link all he wants, but the man is a really good teacher.

- Ganondorf makes at least one snide remark to him a day.

- He's a symbol of courage, and the younger fighters aspire to be as brave as him.

- His favorite song from the Smash soundtrack is the main theme from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It's a song that he knows completely, not something vaguely familiar from his past lives, and it fills him with courage and determination.

Note: It doesn't matter which Link you're talking about, they're all wonderful characters! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Next up, an intergalactic bounty hunter who's journeyed across numerous planets.

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skyloftian-nutcase · 1 year

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Link's Parents play Breath of the Wild! Pt 3

(@goosekee @artisticgamer)

Summary: Ten years after the Great Calamity, Link's parents have to save their son from death while also fighting to save the princess.

Part 1

<<Previous // Next>>

The Great Plateau - A Mysterious Friend

Abel quickly ascertained that the tower was both easy to climb and had multiple platforms for egress. One thing he noticed as he made his way to the bottom, though, was that the nearby shrine, one of four on the plateau, was glowing orange.

More activated technology? he wondered. Hope sparked in his chest, and he made his way immediately to the shrine in question. When he approached the pedestal, he saw that it was flat, with no depression in sight for the slate to be placed.

Furrowing his brow, Abel pressed the Sheikah slate against the stand, and nothing happened.

"There has to be some way to activate it," he thought aloud before pausing and realizing he should go to his wife first. The tower had shaken the entire plateau, and she was no doubt filled with anxiety on the matter.

Hurrying back to the house, Abel noted that the forbidden shrine (as he called it, he didn't know its actual name - all he knew was that it was surrounded by guardians, two of which were still partially intact) was also aglow. The tower must have activated all of them.

That had to be a good sign, right?

"Excuse me, sir."

Abel felt his electricity shoot through his body as he whirled, sword drawn. What he was met with was an elderly man in tattered clothes with his hood drawn, holding his hands out in appeasement.

"Easy there, friend!" the man called. Abel narrowed his eyes. That voice... "I don't mean you any harm."

"You have one chance to leave this plateau, assassin," Abel spat.

"A... assassin?" the man repeated, sounding bewildered. "Oh! Oh no, you mean the Yiga! No, I'm not a Yiga, I promise you. Besides, how could I possibly be able to fight you, I'm clearly not in any shape to do so."

"Then you can see yourself off," Abel continued, sword at the ready.

The old man sighed wearily. "Please, good knight, I... I just want a word. I noticed you activated the tower, after all."

"A word?" Abel repeated, circling the man. "I've been on this plateau for a decade and have never seen another soul, yet here you stand. How do you explain that?"

The man shrugged. "Well... the tower, really."

Abel paused, growing more confused. "How did the tower bring you here?"

"Oh, it has many capabilities!" the man answered eagerly. "That's why I'm here. I wanted to share what I know."

"Why?"

"Because I am old and wish to pass on my knowledge," the man answered, leaning heavily against fallen stones. "Please. Let me die with peace in my heart that I was able to tell someone of what I know."

None of this made any sense, nor did he like it. But one question would solidify for all whether this person was Yiga or not. "Do you like bananas?"

The old man stared at him. "Do I...? Well, no, not really."

Abel lowered his sword. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"My, you are stubborn, aren't you," the elder sighed. "I already said why I am here."

"You appeared out of nowhere because of an ancient Sheikah tower and suddenly want to pass on your knowledge to the first stranger you find?" Abel deadpanned.

"Not the first stranger I find," the old man corrected. "The one who activated the tower."

A new thought occurred to the knight. "Are... are you Sheikah?"

The man smiled.

Well, that was... unexpected. And still odd, because the man's accent was clearly that of Castle Town.

Still, it wasn't as if there hadn't been Sheikah living there.

Before everything burned.

"Well... if that is true," Abel said slowly, sheathing his sword. "Then you can stay here a while. I have to go check on something."

"My knowledge could be useful to whatever you seek," the old man said with some degree of urgency. "Please, sir knight. Hear my request."

Abel sighed heavily. As a knight it was his duty to help those in need, but ten years of seclusion and paranoia hadn't done him many favors. Still... he should at least try.

"Tell me what you know."

"Come. Let me show you something," was the cryptic reply.

I don't have time for this, Abel growled in his mind, but he bit his tongue. He could do this. He could try to be a knight again.

Just this once.

The old man walked towards the shrine, and Abel followed. The pair stopped short of the ponds that had begun to fill in the years that had passed.

"Do you see that structure there?" the old man said, pointing with his cane.

"Yes," Abel answered, though he withheld that it was a Sheikah shrine. If this man truly was what he said, he'd know that.

The elder chuckled. "I can still sense your distrust, good knight. I understand. As you know, that is a shrine of Sheikah making. It began glowing at the exact moment those towers rose from the ground.

"Legend states that only the Hero chosen by the goddesses can open them," the man continued, and then looked at Abel notably. "With the help of that Sheikah slate. The shrine will only open when both are present."

Abel's heart skipped a beat. Designed specifically for Link? What if it had something that could heal him, then?

"I see," he said quietly, looking away.

"Shrines like these are spread all over Hyrule," the old man explained. "They guided the Hero of Old nearly ten thousand years ago. Perhaps... if a new Hero arises... they can guide him too."

The air was filled with the deafening sound of crickets and water lapping. Abel could hear his heart pounding in his ears.

"That is all I have to say for now," the old man announced with finality, turning to leave. "Thank you, good knight. May the goddess watch over you."

Abel closed his eyes a moment, taking a steadying breath, and then opened them, turning to thank the man.

And saw that no one was there.

What--when had he--? Abel pivoted in place, eyes searching the nearby surroundings, but there was no sign of the man.

His skin crawled. He was sure that wasn't Yiga... right?

Well if it was, why would he say all that? The shrines aren't booby trapped or anything. I've seen the Shrine of Resurrection, after all. I've been here ten years and not run into any surprises.

...Except for that Hinox, of course.

Shaking his head, Abel rushed home, eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. When he finally reached the humble abode, the sun was kissing the horizon, no longer visible behind the mountains in the distance. Tilieth was standing in the doorway, and Abel felt his breath hitch.

"Is he--?" he stammered.

"He's still alive," she answered immediately. "But--Abel, the entire plateau shook, I was so worried--"

"It's okay," he interrupted hoarsely, pulling her inside. "It was.. it was the slate. I found a tower. I--the shrines--"

Abel shook his head, getting his wits about him. His eyes settled on Link, small and broken in the bed, and he looked back at his wife with determination.

"I found a way to help him."

#writing #link's parents play botw #dang I sure am cranking these out huh #I go back to work tomorrow so sadly this will slow down #but in the meantime :D #breath of the wild #botw #legend of zelda #blood of the hero

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lizzy-calaxio · 2 years

Note

Some little Lizzy-related questions - if I may?

What was it like for Lizzy growing up the Black Shroud as an Au Ra? Presumably most of the other children around her were Elezen or Hyur? Did she have any difficulties making friends or fitting in? If so, then how did this affect her? Or if she did find it easy to fit in then what helped her to do this?

To what extent is there a link between the death of her adoptive parents and her decision to embark upon the career of an adventurer? If so, then was it more about revenge on what she perhaps perceived as the evils of the world? Or perhaps a distraction from her emotions? Or was it more about newfound freedom and independence?

Did Lizzy feel drawn to Black Magic from an early age? If so, how did this fit with growing up in the Black Shroud, especially surrounded by Conjurors who would likely abhor the arts of Black Mages? Did she ever consider Conjury as an option? Did she meet many Thaumaturges in her early years and if so, what impression did they make upon her?

1 - So lizzy mostly grew up a little isolated, she was adopted around 4 or 5, and her parents lived fairly deep in the woods, so there was already a kind of enigmatic mystery to her, adding onto that her being an au ra led to her....not having any friends growing up. She didn't mind that much considering she didn't usually see people, so she mostly focused on just enjoying the forest!

2 - The death of her parents mostly forced her into a life of thievery, and it's only cause Mother Miounne caught her one day that she got pulled into the adventurer lifestyle, though her personality naturally led her to be a more kind and helpful person. She understood that her parents died more or less to a "natural disaster" until she learned more about the calamity during the Coils story.

3 - Lizzy actually tried to start her adventurer career as a healer! She joined the conjury guild and tried white mage, but she struggled a lot with it. All she knew was that she wanted to help people. After she started doing dives into dungeons that had loads of books she started learning more Scholarly arts, and found that she could funnel her nerd into healing. She met thaumaturges a lot in her travels, but she didn't really think anything of them. In the Coils storyline I wrote that the fight of the Unending Coil of Bahamut is how that whole final coil went down, and during that phoenix channeled its aether through Lizzy to revive her party, and it left an imprint in her, though she didn't know it. Then, during the heavensward situation she found herself putting down the books (cause she couldn't bring any with her) and so she fell back into her rogue nature, which is when yugiri noticed and started teaching her ninjutsu. It wasn't until stormblood when Lizzy met Suzaku that she learned about the phoenixes aether in her, and so Suzaku taught Lizzy how to channel that aether, and use it more effectively, which led to her finding a natural gift in the black magic arts (and subsequently led to her seeking out the thaumaturgy guild and learning more and more black magic)

#thank you so much for the ask!!#I feel like people never ask me about lizzy :3 #mimble-sparklepudding #askies

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awkwardspontaneity · 3 years

Text

Until The Battle Is Won

BOTW Link x GN!Sheikah!Reader

Final part of Memories of You!

AN: Hey everyone!! This is the final chapter of this story. I wanna thank everyone for sticking around with my lousy update schedule ':). Anyways, I've loved writing this story and I'm kind of sad to see it end but also I love this ending so much- even though it hurts. So grab some water, maybe a snack, some tissues, and strap in. This is long and pretty sad.

TW: gore, reader death, descriptive injuries

Summary: The final battle is here. Hyrule is in ruins as Ganon tears through every defense they had and now, the final champions must protect their Princess in the race to deliver them to their destinies.

It was dark.

Link was running through the forest, another hand in his as Y/n led the way. Their white hair was a beacon amongst the trees as he surged to keep up with their gazelle-like pace. He was focused on keeping up with the Sheikah warrior when he felt the hand slip from his. Link skidded to a stop, shouting for Y/n over the pouring rain. He knelt in front of Zelda, watching as she dug her fists into the mud beneath her. “How did it come to this? The Divine Beasts. The Guardians. They’ve all turned against us. It was... Calamity Ganon.”

Y/n had made their way back to the pair, carefully falling to their knees beside Link. He felt their hand curl around his, sensing the turmoil in him. It was all falling apart around them. They had worked so hard, faced so many trials, and made so many friends. And it was all for nothing. The fight was stacked against them, so much so that even Link was feeling the knot in his chest. They all felt helpless.

“Mipha, Urbosa, Revali, and Daruk…trapped inside those things...” the princess let out a heart-wrenching sob. “It’s all my fault!”

As Zelda cried into her hands, Y/n reached out to pull them back down, carefully pulling away the strands curled into her fists. When watery green eyes met red, the young Sheikah gave a pained smile. They linked hands with the princess and the knight, giving them both a firm squeeze. “I know it feels like we’ve already lost, like everything we’ve done has been for nothing. But we can’t think like that. We have the power of the master sword and the sealing light of the Goddess. As long as we hold our heads high and give this fight everything we have, Hyrule will survive this.”

“But I can’t use the sealing power!” Zelda pulled her hands away, fisting them in her dress to stop the shaking. Maybe if she weren’t such a failure, Hyrule wouldn’t be in danger. Her friends wouldn’t have to give their lives to face that monster. Why couldn't she do this one thing right! “I’ve tried everything and still I keep failing. Because of me they’ll die fighting the very beasts they were meant to pilot!”

“None of us can save them!” Y/n was looking down at the ground and, even through the rain, they could feel the tears sliding down their cheeks. “We can’t go back from where we are. We don’t have the time or the ability to save them from those beasts. So we must move forward. If we give up now… everything we went through…everything they are going through... it will be for nothing. And Hyrule will fall.”

Zelda surged forward, collapsing in her friend's arms. She clung to both as a sob tore from her throat. None of them could be strong. Not strong enough. Pressing his hand against Zelda’s back, Link reached out and placed a hand on Y/n’s arm. His voice was gruff, the stress and pain of what they were about to do- what they had already done, was too much for any person to bear. “All that we can do is keep fighting for their sake. We have to keep moving or we lose. We can win. We have to.”

He met Y/n’s eyes and they gave him a soft smile. They pressed their hand against his back and the princesses shoulder drawing both pairs of eyes to them. “No matter what happens, our friends will be by our side. Their wills become ours. And when you face down Ganon, you won’t be doing it alone. You’ll have the love and support of all your friends. All of Hyrule. So save your tears until the battle is won.”

Zelda sniffled, bringing a hand up to wipe at her cheek- not that it did much help with how muddy they had gotten from being on the ground. She wanted so badly to give into the crushing weight of everything that had happened. Just this morning she had held hope within her as she climbed mount Lanayru and now… she had lost everyone she loved. Her kingdom had fallen along with her father. All she had left sat here before her. Gazing at her with matching weight on their shoulders. They too felt the chains of destiny closing in around them. But they stood tall. These two bore the weight of the world without complaint and now, they placed their belief in her. The failure of a princess would not fail again. She refused to fail her friends. “Then we have no choice. We have to fight for them… and for each other.”

Y/n smiled at the princess, carefully pulling the trio together so their heads touched. “When this is over we can do as many crazy experiments as you want.”

Laughter bubbled up amongst the trio, smiles breaking through the tough exteriors they had adopted the closer Calamity had gotten. Each of them had suffered at the hands of destiny, and now they would face what could be their final battle.

Y/n choked back a sob as they thought of the sacrifices that had brought them to this point. The sacrifices they would need to make to save Hyrule. All they wanted was for their friends to be able to look over their homes with smiles. For the weights to finally be lifted from their shoulders and allow them to live their lives without the looming threats of their destinies. They knew the knight and the princess could never go forward after all that had happened since Calamity broke through but, if there was something they could do to protect those they had left, Y/n would do whatever it took.

Link watched his friends with a tightness in his chest. They were ready to face Calamity Ganon. He would protect them in the final battle and, when the time came, they would finally be free of the weight of Hyrule. He stood up, reaching a hand to the princess to pull her to her feet. Y/n placed their hand on his cheek, wiping with their thumb as he watched them. They gave a smile and he knew. They had confidence in him. He never viewed himself as a hero, no matter how many times his partner had called him one. But when Y/n looked at him it was like that pressure lifted. Like he really could defeat Ganon. And he would. No matter how long the fight lasted. To finally be able to spend his days doing what he wanted with the person he loved. To be free.

The trio took off again, heading towards the castle. Y/n stuck close this time so they could discuss battle plans with Link. They knew the most Guardians were in the fields near the castle so they would need to find a way past them. They couldn’t release the Guardians from the corruption so they would have to destroy them if they were spotted. The question was if they could destroy that many.

Y/n was starting to wish they had Robbie's anti-Guardian weaponry, even if they weren’t perfected.

------

The answer was no. They could not defeat the Guardians.

They had barely made it halfway through the fields before they were spotted. Once one Guardian had seen them, the rest followed. They were surrounded in seconds and, no matter how many Link and Y/n took down, it seemed like 5 more took their places. They were more than outnumbered. They were losing hope fast.

Y/n shot three bomb arrows into Guardians eyes, barely dodging blasts from two others. As the Guardians collapsed to the ground more followed. Mechanical limbs crushing their brethren to the ground with a deadly screech. They only cared to destroy the champions that stood below them. And it was starting to feel like they would.

Another blast echoed in Y/n’s ears and they felt the burn of the laser against their cheek. Too close! They knocked an arrow when the screech of metal sounded behind them. They barely managed to roll out of the way of a destroyed Guardian collapsing to the ground where they stood. They barely came up from the ground when they were knocked back down again.

“AHHH!”

Y/n could barely hear their scream over the shrieks of metal and the ringing in their ears. Flames crackled around them but the heat was nothing compared to the agony in their shoulder. They had been hit. Their skin still burned like thousands of needles pricking their way across their chest. They could feel nothing and everything at once. Like every nerve in their body was exposed and on fire. They couldn't focus, flames and metal blurring into one. It was over, wasn't it?

“-n… Y/n… Y/N!” Y/n felt the arms around them, a sob tearing through their throat as a hand brushed against the wound. Red eyes finally focused in on teary green orbs. It was only when their vision blurred did they realize tears were falling. The princess was crying too, shouting over the noise as the young Sheikah lay limp in her arms. Her hands slipped on the blood surrounding their shoulder and Y/n shot up with a silent gasp of agony.

“Y/N! You’re okay!”

Y/n stared at the princess in front of them. “Where’s Link?”

Zelda pointed to the center of the battle where the champion fought. Y/n shot to their feet, ignoring the pain that tore through them. They drew back their bowstring. “Whistle so he comes this way princess.”

She whistled as loud as she could and Link spun to the duo. His eyes widened as an arrow streaked past him and he took off. The champion slid behind the pile of fallen Guardians as the bomb arrow exploded. Dust and flames shot into the air creating a cloud over the battlefield.

Y/n ducked under the fallen Guardian with the others, heavy breaths escaping them all. It was only a moment. A single breath of time to plan their next move.

Link was the first to move, lunging forward to inspect his partner. He had seen them fall. Seen the princess holding them in her arms. And he had thought that was it. But here Y/n sat. Injured, but alive. And that was what mattered. That they were alive. He brushed hair away from their face with a shaky smile- honestly more of a grimace. He couldn’t find the words to explain his relief. How much he needed them and that he was happy they were okay, so he stuck with simple. “I love you.”

Y/n smiled back. They always knew what he meant, like they could read every thought in his head. They had felt it too. That moment of fear that they would never see each other again. But they were still here, giving him that goofy grin he loved so much. Despite their pain, Y/n was a rock- solid and unmovable. And they gave him hope. Y/n could smile at him and he could fight until his last breath. “I love you too.”

They sat in each other's arms, taking in the moment they had together. What could be their last moment with each other. Because Y/n had a plan.

“You have to go ahead without me.”

Y/n watched their friend’s faces morph to shock, then anger. Y/n knew they would fight the idea, but they had no choice. Even as their friends protested the idea, the Sheikah held up a hand. “If you and Zelda are to make it to the castle you need a clear path.”

“You can’t take on the Guardians alone!”

“It’s the only choice.”

“You said we fight together.” Y/n met Link’s eyes and they almost broke at the agony in them. They had never seen so much painted across his visage, the boy keeping a stoic face for the sake of his role. But here they were. There weren't enough words to describe the pain they both felt, physically and mentally. They were fighting on the losing side, and now they could lose each other? It was hard to see a point in the fight with so little left.

“Leaving you is my last choice… but I need you- both of you- to survive.”

“And what about you!?”

“I’M NOT THE CHOSEN ONE!” Y/n finally allowed the tears to fall. They didn’t matter. What mattered was guiding the chosen pair to Ganon. As long as Link and Zelda survived, they had completed their duty. Their life never mattered. It didn’t hold the same weight. Choking back their sobbing, Y/n tried to smile. They had their happy moments. Made friends. Fell in love. And now they had to fulfill their destiny. No matter how much it hurt. “Right now our destinies have to part ways… and I don’t know how long we’ll be apart. So I need you to keep fighting, even when I’m not beside you. Because together I know you can beat Ganon.”

“We shouldn’t have to leave you.” Tears were swimming in his cerulean eyes. The only thing that kept Link from crying was the promise he made. He wouldn’t cry until the battle was over. “I can’t lose you. You are my life… and I can’t live without you.”

“You can.” Y/n reached out, caressing his face in their hands. “You will… because I love you. I love you in this life, and the next, and every one that follows. I will stand by you until there isn’t a reason to fight and even then, I’ll stay with you. I. Love. You.”

Link surged forwards, pressing his lips against theirs. It was desperate. He needed to convey everything he felt in the few moments left. That they would stand together no matter what time they were in. They could be ripped apart or thrown through time, or even lose all their memories and they would still share this bond. As long as destiny brought them together, they would connect like perfect halves. They completed each other.

Link was the first to pull away, hands running through Y/n’s hair and over their face. It was like he was trying to memorize every detail about them. Like if he focused he could commit Y/n to memory. He needed to be able to find them again, even if it was only within his own thoughts.

“You need to go.” Y/n broke the trance, whispering the words neither of them wanted to hear.

They had to part ways.

Link pressed a final kiss to Y/n’s forehead before he stood up. Zelda lunged forward to hug the Sheikah, sobs escaping her. She squeezed so tightly Y/n had to bite their tongue to keep the whimper at bay as pain shot through their injuries. They would bare the pain for this moment with their friend. Pulling Zelda close to their form, Y/n whispered encouragement and thanks for their time together.

When Zelda pulled away, she wiped her tears before giving a grin. She may not hold the same belief in herself that the others did, but she would do what she could. She would hold onto the strength of her friends and use it as her weapon. Everyone had protected her for a reason. She would show them it was not in vain.

With their final goodbyes Link and Zelda took off, weaving through the corpses of Guardians. Y/n waited until they had reached the open fields before stepping out from their hiding spot and whistling. Mechanics whirred to life around them as Guardians rose to defense. Y/n drew back their arrows, white hot pain flaring as their shoulder stretched. This would be their final stand. They would give it their all, here and now, so their friends could go on.

The next few moments were a blur of exploding arrows, machines being crushed, and the blasts of lasers. Y/n couldn't keep track of how many times they had pulled back the string of their bow, loosing arrow after arrow in order to keep the masses of mechanical beasts focused on their being. They reached for their quiver once more, red eyes focused on the glowing eyes of the Guardians targeting them, only to come up empty. There were no arrows left.

There was no more hiding. All the Sheikah had left were the dual blades strapped to their side and the hope their speed would be fast enough to survive.

Y/n pulled out their blades, taking off towards the closest Guardian. They jumped up the front, thrusting their blade into its eye before flipping onto the next. The process of picking off Guardians continued as the Champion flipped and twisted their way through the masses of mechanical monsters.

Flipping off the top of a Guardian, the Sheikah noticed Guardians getting away from them. They had noticed the others! Y/n ran towards where their friends were and, in their panic, missed the giant arm heading their way.

CRUNCH

With a strangled cry, the Sheikah champion hit the ground. They tried to stand, curling in on themselves as they hit the ground again with a sob. There were too many. Y/n was exhausted. Everything hurt. So. Much.

Letting out a cough, Y/n felt a warm liquid trickle down their face. They could hear the Guardian closing in on them. The rest seemed to have lost interest when the champion fell, allowing this one to make sure it was for the last time. Propping themselves up, Y/n could see the red target on their chest. Mustering all the strength left in their body, they launched their sword at the Guardian. It struck the eye and, twitching in its failure, the beast fell. Unfortunately, this drew the rest of the Guardians back to the young Sheikah on the ground. Y/n fell back to the ground.

Thump.

Guardians picked their way over mounds of mechanical parts.

Thump.

Y/n closed their eyes.

Thump.

At least it didn’t hurt anymore.

BOOM!

Golden light erupted across the fields of Hyrule, extinguishing the flames and sucking the light from the Guardians deadly eyes.

It was warm.

Y/n smiled. Zelda had done it. She wasn’t a failure. She had unlocked her sealing powers and finally, Ganon would know defeat once more.

Y/n watched the clouds clear from the sky, stars beginning to light up the night. They supposed Ganon had pulled back from the golden aura. Maybe one day they could lay under the stars with Link. Swallowing the metallic taste of their blood the fallen warrior reached a hand up. They basked in the light of the stars twinkling above. It was like they were waving the champion up to their sides. As Y/n’s light faded, the stars grew brighter, blurring together into one light.

And with a soft breath, the Sheikah Champion allowed themselves to rest at last.

------

100 years later Link stood there watching over the fields of Hyrule. Calamity Ganon had finally been defeated. Zelda was safe as was Hyrule. The duo had made their way down from the wreckage of the castle, ready to begin their new adventure. They were free of their destiny, but the memories would follow with them forever. The Hylian Champion felt a tug and he spun back to face the castle. There above floated the spirits of his fellow Champions. Finally free from the corruption of Ganon and his malice beasts. But what stole the breath from his lungs was the spirit of the one he loved- Y/n- floating there with a grin on their face. Noticing him watching, they sent him a goofy wave, knocking their spectral arm against Revali. Link let out a snort. They never changed. Their lights began to dim as the Champions began to walk away leaving him to watch their final goodbyes. He smiled softly as he saw Y/n mouth ‘I love you’, a hand pressing against their heart, something he was quick to respond to. With one last wave, the Sheikah Champion faded away. And as Link watched the spirits of his friends- his love- fade into light, he let a tear fall quickly followed by more.

The battle was won.

#legend of zelda x reader #legend of zelda link x reader #loz x reader #loz link x reader #breath of the wild x reader #breath of the wild link x reader #botw link x reader #botw x reader #link x reader #reader has sheikah features like hair and eyes #awkwardspontaneity

162 notes · View notes

luimagines · 3 years

Note

RQ: He’s upset and needs comforting

Masterlist

Ya'll want angst? Because I have some angst.

Very hurt/comfort

Set platonically and within the group since there was no specification. Hope that’s ok! Sorry it took awhile, it got away from me again. I think this may be a trend.

Scenario under the cut! It’s super long so take caution!

Sky

It took a while for you to notice but eventually you do.

Sky has been acting weird all day.

It was only clipped responses at first, then it was was the lack of attention where Sky would have been the first to comment or act otherwise. What really tipped you off finally was how he seemed to be evading the whole group. Not necessarily stepping away and out of sight but he didn’t interact with anyone and when they approached him, he didn’t make eye contact, seemingly trying to cut the conversation short.

No one has said anything.

You mention it to Twilight about his out of character behavior but he says that it maybe a bad day, or he slept wrong, or some other reason that you stopped listening to because it didn’t make any sense.

Sky was always trying to be friendly no matter his mood and it took a lot to shake him up.

What was eating at the Chosen Hero?

Soon, the uncertainty begins to eat at you too and you wait for night fall, once everyone is asleep to strike.

Strike up a conversation that is.

Sky usually takes the last watch because he’s usually the first one out regardless of what activities for the day so you strive to wake up early.

It works for the most part, your internal clock doing what you want it to do when you blink your eyes open. Part of you begins to drift off again so you sit up and nearly fall asleep that way.

A hand comes up on your back and rubs a small circle. “Nightmare?”

It’s Sky and he’s looking at you with mild concern.

You smile and shake your head. “No. I’m alright but I think I’ll stay up with you if you don’t mind.”

“I wouldn’t mind the company.” He moves out of your space and back to where he sat.

You follow, still groggy from just waking from your slumber but succeed in not stepping on any of your friends or waking them up as well with the added noise. you sit next to the Hero of the Skies with little fan fare and let the moment settle on the both of you before looking skyward.

“Can I ask you something?” You don’t look at Sky and continue star gazing even if they’re a little harder to spot as the sun travels closer for it’s shift.

Sky hums in agreement and follows your gaze upwards.

“Are you ok? You seemed a little off lately.”

Sky doesn’t say anything for the first few seconds and you suspect that maybe he didn’t hear you. With him spacing out so much and the fact that you whispered for the sake of your still sleeping friends, you’re inclined to repeat yourself but Sky answers in time.

“Just thinking a lot, I suppose. Nothing serious.”

“Yeah?” You don’t look his way. This is casual. This is friendly. This is not a big deal. “Rupee for your thoughts?”

“It’s not that interesting.”

You shrug. “Hit me with it anyway. It’s got to be something if it’s throwing you off your rocker. Maybe a new perspective will help clear some of it up?”

Sky frowns at your attempts, once again retreating into his mind. You let the offer hang in the air and let it sink in.

You’re disinclined to bring it up anymore. Your brain is still tired and you’re wondering your effectiveness when half of your thoughts are still muddled with sleep and fatigue. You could have totally slept in some more. What on earth made you think this was a good idea?

“Time mentioned something earlier that I can’t seem to let go of.” Sky begins.

You hum back and let him keep talking.

“I never fought this Ganon guy they all so talk so much about. I fought the God Demise. Before I could land the final blow, he cast a curse on me, on us, that some cycle would continue. His hatred would last forever and my blood line and Zelda’s will be cursed to deal with constant darkness caused by him.” Sky admits, looking now at his intertwined hands. “I finished him soon after that but... I wonder... Am I the cause-... Is this all my fault? Am I the reason that we’re all here right now? That everyone has gone through so much? So many thing happened that should have never occurred. Time and Legend and Wild have all suffered so much.... more than I can possibly ever imagine and it seems like it’s never ending. Everyone starts they’re adventures so young... If I had killed him sooner... If I had just got it over with... If I had just shut him up-”

“Hey.” Your hand lands on his shoulder, cutting off his tirade. “None of this is anyone’s fault. The only people to blame are Ganon and now, this Demise guy. You did what you could. You still got the job done and no one here will ever blame you for what has happened to them or to Hyrule. You were young too... you’re still young. Give yourself a little kindness and understanding, just as you do with everyone here. You didn’t deserve it either. It’s not like you asked to fight a God.”

“Well...”

“Sky you know what I mean.”

“I should have been faster. If-”

“There’s no use in worrying about what if’s.” You shove him slightly. “This is our life. Even if you ask, no one is capable of giving you the answers. I get it. It’s hard to know if the path you took is the right one if it’s all you’ve ever known and you can’t see where the other would have lead... But... Even if horrible things happen, I’m still glad to have met you. I’m glad I met the others. I’m happy to be here with you and with them, and I’m glad that it’s not just me anymore.”

You let the words sink in before leaning down wards and trying to get him to look you in the eye. “I can’t answer your questions. But what happened, happened and the best thing we can do is learn how to play with the cards we’re dealt.”

He take a deep breath and finally looks in your direction. “I know you’re right.”

“Naturally.”

“But I can’t help but feel responsible for being-”

“But you’re not responsible for their pain or any of this Sky. If Ganon has anything to do with Demise then it’s all Demise’ fault. His and his only. Understand?” You stress. “I wish... I wish I could do something more to help.”

Sky places his hand over yours where you still have it on his shoulder and sends you a small smile. “I know. Me too.”

Wild

“Zelda, would you please drop it!” You hear the Champion yell, his voice carrying over the wind and somehow getting louder. “We’ve had this conversation before and it’s not the time to have it again. I have things to do excuse me.”

Wild storms into his house and shuts the door behind, blocking it with all his weight and waits for the indignant shrieking on the other side to go away. The voice ends with a frustrated huff and after a moment of silence, Wild relaxes and steps away from the door and further into the house.

You’re almost scared for the moment. You’ve not known Wild to yell, even less so for a Link to be on bad terms with Zelda no matter the universe. To make matters worse, you were the only that was actually within the house at the moment and you weren’t entirely sure how to proceed from here.

“Trouble in paradise?”

That probably wasn’t the way to go, if you were being honest with yourself.

Wild groans, loud and exaggerated and sits at the table in front of you with as much fan fair.

“Do not...call it that.” He sounds tired.

“Sorry.” You amend with an apologetic shrug. “That-” You reference to the scene outside. “-Didn’t sound ideal.”

“No. It’s not.” Wild sighs and places his face in his hands with his elbows on the table. Bad table manners, a small voice in your head pipes up. But it’s his house, so you bite your tongue.

“Can I ask what it was about?” You hesitatingly venture.

Wild takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. “I wanted to live a simple life.” He starts. “Everything was over now, right? That was the idea I had. Defeat the evil and get to finally live as a normal man. Maybe explore more of my home and show Zelda all the cool things I’ve seen and done. Everything I knew, everything I remembered is gone and has been gone for a while. No one alive misses it. No one alive even knows about it. This is the world they were born into and they wouldn’t have it any other way. I was prepared to accept that and join them.”

Your face twists in sympathy as you nod along. “I take it that’s the issue here.”

“When I defeated Calamity Ganon and reunited with Zelda, she seemed so full of hope and purpose.” Wild continues. “I saw it in her eyes. She wanted a different thing to what I wanted.”

“And what’s that?”

Wild gives you a pained look. “Zelda wants to try and rebuild the kingdom. Make it into what she remembers it to be. She wants to strengthen relationships with the other nations and reestablish the royal family and a whole lot of other things that I cannot begin to think of how long it would both take and last considering all the damage that already been done. She wants to be Queen. And over what? Hyrule Kingdom is no more. Can’t be a Queen without a kingdom to rule and there’s not a lot of Hylians left that would agree to being ruled over or even enough of them to count as a kingdom to begin with.”

“I suppose it’s not a bad goal to have but you do make a point.” You try and add to the conversation, feeling wildly out of your depth. “Does she know that you-”

“Yes. And she thinks I’m crazy for it. She thinks that I’ve given up on my friends and the past and the future and- uugghhh.” Wild leaned forward and slams his head on the table with enough force to make you jump.

“That look like it hurt.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“I believe you.” A small smile covers your face.

A beat passes before Wild continues to talk with his head still on top of the table. “I don’t think she realizes that I’ve changed after everything. Maybe if I had my memories to begin with, or maybe if I had managed to defeat Calamity Ganon sooner, I’d be more inclined to agree with her, but I’ve experienced so much and done so much that I don’t want to go back to how things were. I’m a different man now.” Wild looks up at you. “She’s different too but I don’t think she’s ready for that conversation.”

“So you’re stuck with this one?”

“Yes.”

“That sucks man.” You shift in your seat. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Not if you can change the past.” He pouts.

“Shame. I’m fresh out of past changing wishing powder.”

“That’s not a thing.” He pouts even more.

You chuckle at the display before sobering up ever so slightly. “Do you want me to talk to her?”

“What good will that do?”

“Maybe a third person party has to step in. It could be that it’s because you’re the one who saying that she isn’t listening.” You shrug. “I think you’re right but I’m willing to give her chance to tell her side of the story while you cool down in here. I can be a distraction so you can sneak out quietly and she won’t know you’re here anymore! It’s a win win! And maybe you guys can come to an agreement when you both see each other again with new perspectives.”

Wild gives you another tired look and leans into his hand. “I doubt it would work. Zelda is incredibly stubborn, one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met. But if you think it would help, I won’t stop you. I’ve run out of arguments and I’m done hearing hers.”

“Ok.” You say getting up and moving around the table. “I think it’s worth a shot. There’s a saying where I’m from that goes, ‘it’ll all be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.’”

You give Wild a hug around his shoulder and squeeze him tight. “I have faith that you’ll pull through and get to live peacefully, but until then, you’ve got us on your side ok?”

He leans in your direction and wraps his arms around your own. “I know. I figured as much.”

“Good man.”

“I’m definitely sneaking out of here though.”

“That’s fair. Go hide.”

“I will... And thanks for listening to me. I didn’t mean to go off like that.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

Four

"I'm sorry, what?" Four snaps his head up to stare at the Champion.

"What?" Wild tilts his head. "What? There's no stuff in the grass in my Hyrule. Just crickets and lizards...you know normal stuff. I don't know why there's tools and rupees in all of yours."

"You don't-" Four cut himself off with a click of his teeth, a piece in his mind clicking into place. He stands suddenly, clearly upset and tense as he processes the information.

"Four?" You call out to him but he doesn't respond to you, nor does he look back.

"Four!" Hyrule calls as well. "Where are you going?"

No reply.

"I'll go with him. Just in case." You stand up in a rush and nearly knock over the equipment at your feet in the process. "Don't wait up for us."

You follow him.

Four is fast and quiet and it takes very little time to lose him- or rather, for him to lose you.

Before you knew it, there's no trace of him and there's nothing within the forest that would give you a hint to his whereabouts.

"Great." You hiss and look around.

Nothing.

"Four!" If he won't show himself, you'll just have to make some noise. "Four! Four! Show me a sign so I know you're not dead!"

You wait.

"Don't make me get Wolfie!"

Nothing.

"Four!" You scream a little louder and begin to run. Now that you've said it out loud, despite being a joke in the beginning, the thought of Four being dead somewhere spikes your panic and anxiety and it fuels your quest.

It's only been a few minutes and Four can handle himself just fine but you don't think about that.

"FOUR!"

"Why are you screaming?" A voice come just beyond you.

You sprint toward it and find Four in a small clearing, crouched down and appearing to hold something in the palm of his hand.

"I was calling you." You don't know how you find it in you scold him. "A response would have been nice."

"Sorry." He shrugs. "I was having a conversation, it would be rude to drop it."

You get on your tip toes to look around him and find nothing. "With... With what?"

Four looks down into his hand and places it, ever so gently, on the ground, pausing and standing up to see you. "You can't see them?"

"See who?" You step over to him. "Four? Are you ok?"

His face twists in annoyance before sighing. "I'm fine."

"No offence, but I doubt that."

"It... a group of creatures that can only be seen by good children. They were important on my quests and have helped me greatly. Children usually stop seeing them around the time when they turn sixteen."

"Would it be easy for me to chalk it all up to magic?" You bit your lip.

"Probably. If it'll help you sleep at night." Four sighs and looks down to the ground, a small smile on his lips before it twists into a painfully and... he looks seconds from crying.

"I did so much to help them... and they helped me.... They leave gifts in the grass to help travelers and us heroes alike and yet... Wild says it doesn't happen anymore..." Four gulps and looks away from you and what ever is by his foot. "They wouldn't stop.... They're incredibly kind and hospitable and... There's no reason for them... Why are they gone?"

"Four." You reach out and place a hand on his shoulder.

"What happens to them?" His Adam's apple bobs a bit as he sucks in a breath. "It just means there was no one to help them."

"Oh Four." You pull him into a hug and nearly crush him with it.

"There's nothing I can do to help them, is there?" He sniffles into your chest.

"No, I... I don't think so Four. Not that far out into the future." You shake your head and begin to rub circles on his back.

You don't think he's crying but he might be fighting it because he does begin shaking.

He doesn't say anything else and you're loath to let him go when he's so emotionally charged. So you hold him. You hold him for as long as he needs and you wait for him to pull away first.

When he does, you keep your hands on his shoulders and he stays within your reach. Four begins to take deep calming breaths with his eyes closed and you instinctually run your hands through his bangs and push some of the loose hairs from his face.

Minutes continue to pass and the sounds of nature around you fill the void.

"I'm sorry." You say. "I wish I could help you but I don't know how."

Four nods and rubs his eyes. "I don't doubt that. Thank you. I'll be ok."

You don't think he's ready to go back to the group just yet, not after all that. "Tell me more about these friends of yours. How did they help you? How did you help them? What are they exactly?"

It earns you a small laugh and he grins up at you with a watery smile. "Sit down. And let me tell you about the Picori."

Twilight

“You almost died and for what?!” Twilight screams at Wild for the umpteenth time.

It startles you to hear his voice reach such volumes but you’re inclined to agree with him this time around. After Wild’s stunt with taking a hit to the head for Wind, you’d been on the look out for his more... self sacrificing behavior. You knew he wouldn’t think twice to do it and you tried to make it so there wouldn’t even be a chance for him to make such a decision.

This time though, in this last fight, you took your eyes off of him for only a moment and that’s when he broke his streak of uneventful fights.

Twilight, of course, is livid and has no regard for the poor creatures of the forest that have to endure his tirade as he unleashes his concern and worry in the form of rage and over exaggerated gestures.

When Hyrule finishes healing your more minor wounds, you slink away from the soon to be screaming match since Wild is very much still conscious, if a little roughed up. You don’t intended to stray as far as you go but you don’t find it in yourself to care for the time being.

Being around so many people for so long is taxing. You make the executive decision to remove yourself for the time being while tensions are high, to both cool off and to avoid getting hit in the crossfire.

There’s a small creek nearby, you find, and decide to make a small space for yourself there until dinner comes rolling around. The birds and the babbling waters calm your soul and snuffle out the last of the adrenaline. You don’t know how long you sit there, but you can faintly hear the screaming match in the distance that you dipped out of.

You don’t regret it.

More time passes and you find that you may or may not have taken a small nap in the meantime. If the position of the sun is anything to go by.

Despite the pain in your back from sleeping against a tree, the slight ache in your neck from the angle you slept in, you feel better. Clearer, even.

You hope your absence wasn’t entirely noticed but you can’t seem to regret leaving either.

Footsteps creep closer to you and you huddle into a small ball out of habit to avoid detection.

It’s Twilight.

He walks near the creek and takes a heavy seat next to it. He looks both pale or red faced at the same time but exhaustion is laced in his entire body from what you can tell.

He doesn’t notice you.

You uncurl and set your legs out in front of you. Leaning forward a little, as quietly as you can, you see that he’s upset. It doesn’t surprise you. But seeing as you don’t how to deal with an upset Twilight and you can’t really sneak away without crossing his line of sight or making any miniscule noise, you still yourself and wait.

And wait.

Twilight calls your name. Quietly and hollow- like he’s not all there. Or in the way one would talk to a memory.

It’s immediately unsettling. Both in how he sounds and how he knew you were there without you doing anything. But you suppose Twilight can just sense things like that from times to time. It’s certainly not the first time he’s done it.

“I’m here.” You reply.

“How long?”

“A few hours I think. Longer than you were here that’s for sure.” You shrug and slowly crawl out of your hidey hole. “I think I fell asleep....The sun wasn’t over there when I first got here.”

Twilights hums in what you think is agreement but it’s really only a sound. “It’s a nice spot.”

You smile. It’s tense and little fake, but he’s not looking at you so you don’t care for authenticity. “Good thing it’s big enough for the both of us huh?”

“Yeah.” He looked into the distance again, noting that the sun is beginning to set and takes a deep breath. “Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?”

“Can’t say that I have.” You move closer to him, aiming to sit by his side. “I’ve always enjoyed sun sets and I find them calming to watch but hearing someone finding them sad is a new one. Do you feel sad as dusk falls?”

He hums again. “They say it’s the only time their world interacts with ours.”

“Whos?”

“Lingering spirits I suppose...” Twilight tilts his head upwards before twisting it to look at you. “It’s nothing. I’m just reminiscing about my life before my adventure is all. My... father told me those words and I haven’t forgotten them since.”

You hum this time and lean back to mirror him. “Wanna tell me why?”

“That Champion reminds me so much of myself and yet... he’s ten times worse.” Twilight falls backwards with a soft thump. “I know why he does it but I...”

“You care about him and don’t want to see him hurt.” You shrug. “It’s not exactly a new concept.”

“Tell that to him.”

“Maybe I will. He gets just as upset as you do when this happens, you know.” You shift your weight to make it easier to stand up later.

“Does he? You’d think that he’d get the point to stop doing then.” He growls.

“Maybe he’s scared of losing more friends.” You blurt before you can stop yourself. That was something Wild told you in confidence and while he didn’t say you couldn’t tell anyone- that was kinda implied.

Twilight stills for a moment, the fight leaving him again in a single breath as he considers your words. They don’t seem to be new news to him.

Wild is pretty close to Twilight...Maybe he already knew.

“I still think I’m entitled to not like it.” He settles.

“It’s not he’s asking you to be ok with it. I know I’m not.”

“I guess that’s fair then.” Twilight sits up again and stands up in one fluid motion that you envy. With a turn on his heel, he holds his hand out to you to take.

You take it and feel him effortlessly lift you off of the ground with that one hand.

You don’t comment on it.

“Come on.” He says. “I’m going to need you for moral support.”

“Why?”

“If I yelled in front of him of the whole group, I should apologize to him in front of the whole group.” He admits and wraps his arm around your shoulders. “But I might need an excuse to get close to him again after all the things I’ve said.”

“I get your desert and you’ve got yourself a deal. I left to not get involved and here you are... involving me.” You tease. “I demand payment.”

“One desert? I can do that.”

Hyrule

“I can’t do this.” You snap your head to the sound of the voice and see Hyrule with his arms cross and shaking.

“What? What’s happening? Hyrule?” You step closer to him as you’re the only one within arms reach. “What do I need to do? How can I help?”

“There’s nothing. Nothing you can do, that can make this better.” Hyrule takes one ground step before throwing his arms down. “Don’t you see them? With all their tools and experience and then there’s- me. Just me. Some magic later and a old man with a sword and I found myself trying to save my princess and defeat some evil, but these guys...”

You look around, trying to see if Legend or Sky are close enough to give you back up, or better yet, take over. You suppose it’s better than a panic attack but it’s so left field that you’re stunned and floundering to catch this hot potato of a conversation.

He keep talking.

“For all that is good and holy, they are heroes. Do you see them? Some of them have training, and families and skills and I....was just a boy in a grave yard. How can I even compete with them? I don’t, that’s how. But how can they consider me an equal? When I was in town and listened to the elders and their stories, they would tell me of a legendary hero from the past who courageously defended our home until the very end and who was virtually undefeated in all his adventures. And then I meet Legend....and he’s so much cooler than all those stories combined.”

“Link.” You call out to him and back to the real world. “You need to slow down for me honey because you’re too fast for me to keep up. What do you mean how can they see you as an equal? You defeated Ganon just as they did. You stood up for your home just as they did. You did it all on your own just as they did. Why wouldn’t they consider you an equal? No one cares about where you’re from, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

“But they can do so many things even without the sword!” He exclaims. “They all have a place to go to, a person who cares about them, a title or a skill and a world that’s not on the brink of collapse-”

“Ok, whoa, hey.” You step into his space and take his face into your hands, bringing it up for him to look you in the eyes.

“I have no idea what brought this up but I won’t stand for anyone talking bad about you. And that includes you. We... can talk about your home with clearer heads later, ok? Maybe the others can help with that when we get there, yeah? And well....” You’re sinking. You don’t know what to do with all this information and you have even less of an idea about how to address it.

“Good golly, when it rains, it pours with you lot, doesn’t it?” You hiss under your breath and bite the bullet. With a strong grip, you wrap your arms around the Traveler and pull him close. You try to keep your grip strong without fear of hurting him, but it hits you then how thin he is. How light he actually is. You can feel the hint of armor under his tunic and it does little to quell your fears.

“Clearly there’s a lot on your mind. And... I’m probably not the person to help you through this. If you want to talk about not belonging though, I’m free to listen. I’m the only one here who’s not a Link, if you haven’t noticed.” You try to joke but it falls a little flat. “You though... You belong here with all of us... all of them... And if you need more convincing then I’m bringing this up with Legend who’s is over the moon proud of you and what you can do and he told me himself that he couldn’t be happier to have you as his successor-”

“Really?”

“Not in those exact words admittedly,-” You gulp as the word vomit continues to bubble out of you in waves of panic. “-but I know that’s what he meant because he doesn’t stop talking about how cool you are.”

“Hm.”

“And everyone has a different background, ok? Everyone has skills and people that the others don’t have. That’s ok. It’s not a competition. I get worried that one day you guys are going to create some game out of all your trauma. Like... who had it worse and just go around in a circle listing off all the things that happened to each of you... Whoever runs out of things to say or can’t think of something as bad or worse than the others is out. Last man standing wins.”

“Don’t give them ideas.” You feel him chuckle. It’s breathless and small and it doesn’t reach your ears despite your closeness but you feel it.

“Good thing it’s just you and me right now.” You sigh a little in relief and loosen the hug. “Look, just.....whatever you think you can’t do, just know that there is someone who is confidently doing it wrong right now. In the group or not, just keep your eyes and watch. They don’t plan on doing it better either and people are celebrating them for it. Please believe in your own excellence as much as they believe in their mediocrity.”

“Big words.”

“You’re awesome for trying. Others are not and don’t plan to. You’re already better than them.” You amend, stepping away to look him in the eye again. “The group can’t do magic like you can. That’s all you. They all have items sure but no one can do what you do... and you’re self taught, right? That’s incredible! You have just as much as a reason to be here as the others. I swear it.”

Hyrule sighs and gulps. He doesn’t believe you. It’s not enough.

You knew it wouldn’t be and it’s definitely doesn’t scratch the tip of the iceberg of the bomb he just dropped on you but... step by step. Little by little. you have a plan.

“Screw it. Let’s catch up with Wind and Warrior and get them to tell you how awesome you are, since you won’t listen to me. And if you’re still a nonbeliever then we move on to the next pair. We’ll go down the line if we have to.” You nod and grab his hand, beginning to drag him along.

He laughs after you, a little hysterical and in disbelief. “You’re crazy.”

“That is not new information.” You reply, hiding your grin. “I say it’s Hyrule loving hours and I’m gonna get everyone to join.”

“You’re not joking are you.” It’s a statement. He already knows the answer.

“Nope!”

Legend

It was your turn on watch for the night. In an hour or two you were supposed to wake the Veteran for his shift and finally catch some sleep.

The others snored and slept away without a care in the world. It was just you and cackling fire that was active but you’d kill for something to help your mind get passed the boredom.

Anything but monsters or an attack that is. You’d hate to jinx your good luck so far.

In the corner of your eye, while fighting to keep your head up, you see Legend shift. Not necessarily unusual. You’re inclined to ignore it.

But then he shifts again, whimpering like he’s been hurt and a white knuckled grip on the blanket.

You still and begin to wonder what’s your level of care here.

Part of you, in kindness, wants to go wake him. The lack of sleep seems more merciful than letting him suffer a prison of his own making.

But you also don’t know how he’ll react.

You know he’d hate to be seen as weak for whatever normal reason and he’s been inclined to wake up swinging in the right circumstance.

Twilight suffered a broken nose for the whole night because he was disinclined to wake up Hyrule or take a potion.

Not you’d make the same decision and suffer the whole night in the same manner but it certainly fails to sound appealing.

Just as your about to appeal to your better nature and force yourself to go wake him before it gets worse, he shoots up into a sitting position with a strangled scream. The job seems to have been done for you- but in the worse way.

He’s breathing hard with his hand gripping his chest. Legend begins to frantically look around and slowly begins to piece together where he is and what’s happened. He never looks behind him, where you are, before running a hand through his hair a little harder than you think reasonable and getting to his feet.

You cough slightly, leaning away from the fire and back into previous position. You hadn’t realized you leaned into his direction as you watched him, inches from putting your face into the flame.

He startles at the sound and whips around, one hand poised to reach the sword he’s not equipped with.

“It’s just me.” You wave. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

He calms somewhat and you can see his jaw flex. “Well, goodnight to you.”

His voice is croaked- from disuse or an overwhelming emotion, you’re not sure.

“For me maybe. But you? That was quite a scare you gave me as well.” You play it off. You can at least pretend that you weren’t watching him. That you would have saved him a little earlier and took your sweet time doing it. You offer a peace offering to your morals. “Want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to talk about?” He snaps, furiously rubbing his face. “It’s nothing new. We all deal with it one way or another.”

“True. But it’ll be easier to let it go, and let the experience float up into the air and never return. Otherwise it’ll fester and grow.” You shrug. “But I won’t force you. I know you’re not exactly fond of me.”

Legend glares into the fire as you talk and refuses to look at you. Once you finish though, he moves his head away, still not in your direction but visually drops more tension from his shoulders.

He doesn’t say anything.

“There’s a spot next to me with your name on it if you want it.” You offer. “A little company wouldn’t hurt.”

He takes more time to respond and you resolve to go back to staring at the fire.

A moment or two passes and you hear the faint sound of crunched foliage. It takes of your will power to not look up as he approaches and even more so when he decidedly sits next to you.

The fabric of his tunic brushes your leg for a minute and it strikes you odd that he sat that close despite the rest of the log at his disposal.

It must have been bad if he wants to be close to someone right after. The thought enters your mind. Once it’s there you don’t chase it away and instead casually lean back with your hand behind you.

If the angle causes you to lean closer to him in the process, you don’t say anything.

And if Legend notices, he doesn’t say anything either.

A moment of time passes in silence, the only sounds through the whole forest are crickets and a passing owl with the occasional whisper through the trees.

“How do you do it?” He asks.

“Do what?” You tilt your head in his direction.

He’s still not looking at you.

“Keep going.”

The answer shocks momentarily but you’re not surprised that it’s coming from him out of the whole group. “Legend-”

“I’m tired.” He says instead. “I hate this. I hate that sword. I hate that pig demon. I hate that I can’t be done.”

You hand comes up to his shoulder and you force him to look at you.

He lets you and he looks up to you with tears building up in his eyes and for a moment you’re struck by the odd balance of how old he sounds but how young he looks- is.

You stuck floundering for a response to answer him with but he asks one more thing. “Why can’t I be done?”

You pull him into a hug before you can stop yourself. “I don’t know. I don’t know Link.”

You find yourself wanting to cry as well once Legend collapses into the hug. He’s not hugging you back but he’s being held for the first time in... you don’t know how long. Your grip tightens.

“But I do know is that you’re not alone. Not anymore. And maybe....maybe this is the final fight. That’s why we’re all together right? A darkness so evil ahead that every hero is required and then....rest. For each and every one of you.”

You sniffle, carding your fingers through his hair without a moments hesitation. “If it’s not then I’ll fight everything for you from then on. I’ll take your place you hear me. I’ll take your job and title and you won’t have to do this anymore.”

“I’m the Hero of Legend. That’s not exactly an easy thing-”

“No. I am the hero now. I’ve decided it.” You hide the tears in his hair to the best of your ability.

Legend snorted, loud and wet but you elected to ignore it just as you were ignoring the ever growing wet spot on your shoulder. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“It does now. I said so.”

A beat.

“...Ok.” He sniffled and rubbed his head on your shirt. He took a deep breath and exhaled, letting the night take over the atmosphere again. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“Don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

He nods once, definitive and final. Your expecting him to let go now and return to his roll, already electing to take over his shift as well and just push through the next day.

Except he doesn’t.

Legend calls your name, testing the waters and lifts his head up ever so slightly. “...It’s not that I’m... not... fond of you-”

“Save it for a rainy day.” You grin. “I think you’ve had your fill of emotions for the night.”

He nods and eventually slips into sleep with his head on your chest, no doubt lulled by your heartbeat.

With tearful eyes, you stare back into the fire.

Time

Time marched from the stunned group the same way a parent does after making a scathing remark instead of a lecture.

You know the one.

“I’m not mad. Just disappointed.”

The poor boys suddenly didn’t know what to so with themselves or how to get back into Time’s good graces.

You felt for them and their awkward meandering through the camp. So, with your pride swallowed, you follow in the vague direction where Time went off to and decided to at least talk him down.

He is... decidedly harder to find than you previous imagined.

Just as your starting to think the Old Man doesn’t want to be found, you hear subtle swing. It’s to your left and it sounds heavy.

So naturally you follow it

Which leads you to a small clearing just beyond a bunch of bushes.

Time is there, full armor still on and swinging his giant sword forcefully, each swing stronger than the last. It’s as if it weighs only as much as Four. You’ve wondered in the past what it would like if he decided to actually throw the smallest ones of the group but out of fear, do not voice your ideas.

Just because Time won’t doesn’t mean that the others won’t try.

It’s hard being the responsible one when there are nine Links to take care of, each as much as a gremlin as the last. It must be hell on Time’s back to carry the group.

You see where he’s coming from and yet...

“You can stand to be a little more patient with them.”

The words are out of your mouth before you can actually stop them.

Time stops abruptly, in both the figurative and literal sense, before the man turns to you with that same face of neutral disappointment.

“They are heroes.”

“They are also children, Time. I think that it’s because they are heroes that they deserve to act their age every now and then.”

“Slacking won’t divert the evil away from our home.”

“Running face first into the problem won’t solve it either.” You sigh and walk up the man. He tenses as you approach and slowly lets his weapon down. The Hero of Time is an intimidating creature but you refuse to let that dissuade you.

“Look, I know why you’re upset. I get it. It’s hard to get a job done when you feel like you’re the only one it’s important to... But have a little faith in our group. Please.” You plead and stop right in front of him. You have to look up at him slightly due to the angle but he was forced to acknowledge you here.

His arms cross and he opens his mouth to respond but you cut him off.

“You’re right, they are heroes and there is a job to be done and an evil to be done away with. But they were even younger when they earned the title. They still vanquished the darkness even for their age. You have to trust that they will do the same here.” You reach up and put your hands on his shoulders, getting onto your tip toes to look him in the eye better. “And they will. Because they are heroes. Because they have the spirit of courage. Because they are Link... Just like you.”

He softens his stance ever so slightly but he still doesn’t look pleased.

“It’s not easy I know.” You get down again. “But they look up to you. I think all of them do. And I can’t stand to see how hurt they look when you get upset when they act their age. It’s not like they can help it.”

He takes a deep breath and uncrossed his arms. He takes a minute to respond. Time stared at you intensely before he drops all the tension in his body and finally lets his weapon go. A single hand comes up to pat your head.

“Let’s head back to camp.”

He says nothing else and continues to walk past you and back the way you came.

You don’t ignore the sense of accomplishment and refuse to dampen it when you catch the tiniest slivers of a smile before he turns away from you completely.

Wind

You’re lying peacefully on the dirt when you hear someone sit beside you with more power than would ever be needed.

You don’t open your eyes for the sake of the other person, not really thinking much of it and even forgetting that they were there until you heard the smallest of sniffles.

Now, you’re sitting straight up with wide and concerned eyes locking directly onto the crying form of your beloved pirate.

It’s hard not to feel for him and while you’re not sure what sprung this up, you don’t have it in you to turn him away, or to ignore that he was upset.

Neither of you say anything and you’re almost afraid it make the picture in front of you a little too real.

Instead, you move yourself closer to him and open up your arms.

Wind doesn’t hesitate to throw himself onto you and let his body sag with unwanted emotion.

As sobs silently rack his body, you begin to feel yourself rock back and forth for both his comfort and yours. Soon you start running your hands through his hair and rub small circles on his back.

He cries for a long time and never once gives you a clue why.

You don’t ask either.

Still, once the moment has passed, you continue to hold onto him. He doesn’t make any moves to let go of you any time soon and you’re happy to be there for as long as he’ll let you.

That doesn’t stifle your concern over the cause but you’re loath to bring it up.

Minutes pass with the boy in your arms and it’s only when you shift positions, does he look up at your face. His eyes aren’t as red anymore with the amount of time that’s passes since he’s stopped crying but his face is still a little puffy and his cheeks are both stained in tears and incredibly red.

A small smile creeps onto your face when you look back at him. “Feel better?”

“A little.” He admits and sniffles the last of the tears away, wiping his face with his sleeve. “Thanks.”

“For you? Anytime.”

Warrior

It struck you as odd that it was dinner time the group seemed to be missing someone.

Earlier that day the group had split up to take down some troublesome monsters on the border of some tiny town defenseless town and that was that.

It didn’t seem like big deal nor was it a particularly hard thing to do. The monsters weren’t infected and they didn’t have numbers on their side so your group took care of the pests in a matter of moments.

And yet, when everyone regrouped there was a visible tension.

Some thing had happened on the other side of the fight and no one wanted to fess up, even less so when Time mentioned it.

It worried you.

Now, as it stood the tension was still there but Warrior didn’t want to come out of the wood work. He had left earlier claiming to need to check up on his appearance and no one had questioned him. No one offered to go with him.

It was always dangerous to go alone.

“Hey, has anyone seen Warrior?” You glance around again, hoping it was just a miscount on your part. “It’s been awhile since he left.”

“He takes his sweet time.” Legend snapped. “And you know how narcissistic he is. He’s probably trying to get every single little hair in the right place and working out every little blemish in his stupid uniform-”

“I’m going to look to him.” You stand, placing your cooling food down by your foot. You don’t know what happened or what caused it but at least an idea begins to form. “It’s been too long regardless. Keep my food warm for me, yeah?”

You don’t wait for a response and walk away into the tree line where you think Warrior might be.

“It’s getting dark. Be careful.” Someone calls from behind you, mouth clearly full of food.

“Yes sir.” You reply.

You march on.

When you’re sure you’re far enough away, you begin to call out to Warrior.

It takes a minute to get any results but you’re starting to worry about your friend. The sun is lowering in the horizon as time goes by and you’re beginning to feel silly and frustrated and-

“I’m here.” A tired voice replies.

“Oh thank goodness.” You cross the distance between you two. “I was really starting to worry.”

Warrior puts on a brave face and a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes greets you when you stop in front of him. His look a little puffy and you think his eyes might be a little red but it easily be the lighting- or lack there of.

“Are you ok?”

“Obviously.”

You doubt him and it must have shown on your face because he immediately begins walking away. “Well look at the time. Crazy how fast the sun goes. Let’s get back to the group and eat. I’m starving-”

You grab his wrist as he pasts you and get a good look at him. “Are you ready to go back to the group? They can wait a little longer if you want them too.”

It irritated you that it’s come to this. How no one went to check on him. How no one offered to go with you. How no one seemed bothered by this. How long that he was alone dealing with something that’s been bothering him. How it took you so long to do something.

“No. It’s fine.” He says. Lying. It must have really bothered him, usually he’s better than this. “It’s about time to head back anyway.”

“They can wait.” Your grip tightens. “The sun can wait. We’re not obligated to be there. What’s wrong? ...If you want to talk about it that is...” You trail off uselessly. It only occurred to you that near the end that he may not even speak about with you. You weren’t the closest in terms of grouping but you can’t stand the thought of someone hurting alone.

“I’m fin-”

“You look like you were crying.” You cut him off. “If you don’t want to talk about it with me, that’s fine, just say it. But you might need more time before you head back anyway if you actually want them to believe you when you say you’re fine.”

He sighs and runs his hand through his hair.

“Warrior?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“If it bothers you then it’s not nothing.” You push. “But....fine. I won’t force you to talk to me. I just wanted to see if you were ok... You’re not but it’s better than seeing you bleeding I suppose.” You grit your teeth, annoyed by the lack of results. You did tell him that he didn’t have to talk to you and you don’t hurt him further but part of you wants to fix this. Even if you don’t know what it is, your heart calls for justice at his pain.

But he is unwilling.

“Camp is this way by the way.” You mention, looking at the ground. “You were actually farther away than I thought, so it’s a bit of a walk.”

“I just think it’s easier for people when I’m not around.”

You still and slowly turn to face him.

He’s looking at the ground as well, unable to say it and look you in the eye. It’s not what you were expecting and you’re not sure how to follow after that.

It’s a rare moment of vulnerability for him- even rarer that he’s showing it to you and you don’t want to squander the show of trust.

“Back home...there was a lot of... attention on me. A lot of blame... for starting the war. Or at least being the cause of it.” He admits, scuffing his shoe against the dirt. A little bit kicks up and sticks to the toe. He does nothing about it. “People listened to what I had to say because I was some destined hero. At first I didn’t think anything of it because I had thought it was one big mistake and sooner or later people were going to see that I was just some soldier not worth the time of day. It happened to be pure luck that Impa got it right when she gave me this uniform. Zelda made me a captain because of it and suddenly I had all of these men I had to give orders to. And if anything failed or if we lost, it would all have fallen on me. The blame, the guilt, the responsibility of the war...and then we found out why Cia was even opening these portals to begin with-”

You hug him.

“Please don’t cry.” You say into his chest. Your throat is tight and it a little hard to breath but you power through. “I’m not good at this. I never have been.”

“I’m not going to cry. It’s not worth crying.”

“I’ll cry for you then.” You admit and hug him tighter. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was no ones fault.” Warrior hugs you back and rests his head on top of yours. His voice seems a little tight too and you’re sorry for all the things that he must have gone through.

You hug him for as long as you deem appropriate before letting your arms go lack and stepping away.

Or... at least you try to.

Warrior suddenly has a grip on you and refuses to let you leave.

“Please... Just stay a little longer.”

You do.

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #linked universe x reader #I had no idea where exactly to go with this one #believe it or not I wrote Legends first.#I didn't know it would get as long as it did #are these a bit generic?#yes.#warrior's is also very long #sorry not sorry #should I have split this one?#probably.#did I?#no.#it took days ya'll #next time I'll split it again

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eerna · 3 years

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When I first played botw back in 2017, I was actually scared that once you reached the castle and beat ganon, Zelda would also be a ghost like the champions, this idea was so heartbreaking to me, and I also kept thinking what it would mean for Link being the only survivor, his only connection to his past and memories, the voice that first guided him to his journey, and his only hope at the end of his difficult adventure to have been gone all along...I always felt while playing that Link must have been so ecstatic and nervous at the idea of meeting the girl of his memories, having remember bits and pieces of her personality and their relationship all along his journey through Hyrule, like an Ariadne's thread and even if he doesn't remember everything, she's the only alive person that can understand his grief, about losing their friends, their families and their kingdom as they knew it, their whole roles and lives have been turned upside down, living out of their time. And she's probably the only one that can provide him some answers about his past.

But the sad truth too is the fact that the calamity causing the downfall of the kingdom and its pressure, and the loss of their "officials" positions as the Princess and as the Hero, is possibly one of the only ways they can actually be truly free and happy, I mean both Link and Zelda were suffering pre-calamity, Link stopping to express himself completely and Zelda taking out her frustration, buckling under all this pressure and expectations, I'm glad that in the end they could share their burdens together and support each other before the calamity hit, sorry I lost track a little bit but as you can see I have a lot of thoughts about these sweets children haha...

Anyway, considering all of this, this supposed ending would have been heartbreaking for Zelda, struggling so hard to reach her powers almost all her life, facing so much pressure, being forbidden to pursue her research on sheikah tech the only thing she enjoys and feel good at, and then losing everyone, betrayed by the very technology she studied, and it took almost losing Link for her powers to manifest, then right after, having to reach all alone the castle while crossing through the devastated Hyrule and Castle town, and then fighting and being stuck with a demon for an hundred years, she's honestly so strong ! Please this girl deserves an happy ending ! And just imagining Link who wrote inside his journal how much he wants to see her smile again and who listened to Kass' song, being so ecstatic to finally meet her in person after hearing so much about her, ending up all alone...

Of course he met friends throughout his journey and made connections, but he also had to remember everything that he has lost, he had to remember his friends, then going into the divines beasts with an once of hope only to find them already dead, and he also had to face everything that he doesn't remember and the fact that he must have felt grief without understanding where it came from at first and having a really big responsability uppon his shoulder as soon as he woke up...

And I think it's also part of the beauty of botw, this game make you truly enjoy the beauty of the wild, of liberty, and of life in general, a journey of rediscovering life and travelling the country, meeting and helping peoples as best as you can while also having fun shield surfing from time to time but it's also bittersweet, because this liberty is also the result of loss, and it's a constant throughout the game... The bright happiness and joyfullness is underlain with deep sadness and sorrow... And the music of the game is perfect for conveying these feelings, I just think it's truly beautiful ! Honestly if anyone tell me botw lack story, I will come for them, because the story is everywhere if you think and search enough, I don't know if it's just me but throughout the game I always imagined how Link would feel and react to everything, dialogues, memories and such, but anyway back to my first point, I was so scared to finish the game for this very reason, and I was holding my breath during the last cutscene, I'm very glad this didn't happen haha ! Zelda and Link deserve everything honestly, please Nintendo let them be happy during the sequel !

Anon, you said it all so well!!!! BotW is the epitome of contradiction. The beauty of the nature is the result of the apocalypse which caused the green to retake the carved stone. The freedom is caused by everyone who would care about titles or roles being dead. I too was terrified Zelda was going to be dead- heck, that shot in the end when she appears shrouded in light almost stopped my heart haha. They deserve to be happy and I love them and this game so much

#eernask #eernanon #eernask talk loz #such a good analysis

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jinmukangwrites · 3 years

Text

Whumptober 2021 - October 3 - "Who did this to you?"

Fandoms: Linked Universe

Ao3

Warnings: major injury, attempted murder, blood, near-death experiences

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Trouble comes with a smiling face; not that Wild knows that yet. All he sees is an eager young woman with kind eyes and a humble dress, offering to show him where he can get some wine to cook with tonight.

He and the rest of the heroes have been on the road for quite a while now, without a single town in sight. Nothing but various barns to cross their path. This is the first actual town they’ve seen in miles, even though it’s not a very big one. Yet, there is a small inn for weary travelers, and a marketplace near the front entrance of the town where farmers can sell their goods and towns-folk and gossip. The whole group of them are rather low on funds, but the market seemed like the perfect excuse to relax. Spend some money that they just barely have. Pretend to be normal people for just a few hours.

Just until sunset.

It was Wild, Twilight, Warriors, and Hyrule out in the market while the others were making deals with the innkeepers to get cheaper rooms and more beds. Wild wasn’t really sure what the others were wanting to find out in the market today, but Wild was on the hunt for quality ingredients for quality food that he couldn’t make while on the road. He planned on making a meal tonight fit enough for Zelda herself, and he needed wine to do it. Not to drink, of course not, but to soak into fine slices of meat to add extra flavoring. Nothing strong enough to get a man tipsy—and if he ends up with extra wine, he’ll put it in a flask and gift it to the Old Man. Hylia knows he deserves it.

But he couldn’t find anything even remotely related to wine in these small markets. Some stalls sell alcoholic jars of milk, but Wild honestly has never even heard of milk that could be alcoholic, let alone ever cooked with it. By the time the sun was starting to caress the horizon, frustration was bubbling in his belly because of this and all he could think about were those berries he saw on a tree a few days ago that looked perfect for making some of his own wine out of.

Twilight and Warriors were looking at a jewel-smith's stall, admiring the finely crafted trinkets and murmuring to themselves about the ones that would match her eyes, or impress that gentleman at the tavern, and Wild soon lost interest in both the stall and his love-sick companions. He had stood several feet off, leaning against a brick wall, eyeing the closest stalls to him and hoping for even a small sight of anything close to wine set up for sale.

And then he saw her. Trouble, despite him not knowing it. He didn’t even suspect it. Perhaps he’s gotten too used to the threats of other worlds, that he forgot the threats of his own.

She walked up to him, a swish to her brown dress that seemed to almost have a pink tint. Her hair was brown, done up in messy braids and a bun above her head. Wild assumed she was the daughter of a farmer who was selling crops from their farm, so he didn’t assess her too critically. Before he knew it, she was stopped a few feet from him, swaying her dress side to side between her thin fingers.

“Is there something you’re looking for, travelers?” she asked, her voice sweet like sugared honey. Beside him, Hyrule blushed a bit at the ears.

Wild wasn’t much in a good mood at the moment, but he decided that asking for help might be his only option at this point. “I’m looking for wine, or any kind of beverage like it made out of berries?”

The girl hummed, pressing her finger to her chin in thought. “The most popular beverage ‘round here is milk…” she said, and Wild’s shoulders slumped. But then she continued. “Though, I know a liquor shop further in town where they sell all kinds of drinks. I’ll show you the way, but it closes really soon.”

Hope surged in Wild’s chest. Perhaps he would be able to make a fancy meal tonight after all! Feeling in lighter spirits than he had all night, he told Hyrule to inform Twilight and Warriors that he would be going to the liquor shop. Wild barely noticed the slight hesitation on Hyrule’s face before he turned and did as he was asked. Wild should have noticed it. He should have thought more about how eager and smooth talking the girl was, should have been more in tune with his companion’s concerns, but he followed her out of the market anyway.

And now he’s here, laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood thanks to a hole in his stomach. The “liquor store” was nothing more than an abandoned shop several blocks away from the market, but he only found that out when he walked inside and saw the hastily put together lanterns to give the illusion of life, each one placed among dust and cobwebs. Before he could even turn back and question what was going on, the girl was sliding her arm around his side and heartlessly impaling him with a familiarly curved, sickle-like blade.

Her laugh was also familiar as his knees gave out and he crumpled to the floor, wheezing. Though not familiar in a way that he knew her name; he knew her kind.

“Wh-” he gasps, using one hand to clutch at the floor blanketed in bloody dust, and the other to press onto the wound in his stomach like he’s trying to keep everything in. “What-”

“You’re probably wondering why I’m here, hero,” the girl… Yiga chuckles, stepping over his crumpled body to squat by his head. “To tell the truth, I’m not sure either. I fell into a portal… and found myself in a whole new world. And I saw you, and your friends. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to take you down. This is for Master Kohga-” Wild’s too weak to fight her off as she reaches for his body, searching his pockets and taking the only healing potions that he had. “-and for Calamity Ganon. I don’t care what happens to me now, as long as you die painfully and slowly, right here.”

Then, she stands up, takes his potions, and leaves, shutting the door behind her as she laughs into the night.

Stupid. Wild is so stupid. How did he not guess something like this would happen? Did he truly let his guard down so badly that he forgot to always be on the lookout for Yiga soldiers? Has he become so comfortable traveling between worlds that didn’t have rogue Sheikah that it didn’t matter for him to worry about them as much?

He’s going to bleed out and die here, all because he wanted some wine to cook with in a town that only sold fucking milk and he couldn’t bother to make sure the person he was following was actually someone with good intentions. He can already feel his vision swirling, and his entire body feels pathetically weak and cold. The pain is unbearable, bringing tears to his eyes.

He coughs up blood, and does his best to prepare himself for a failure’s death, as he’s too weak to even call for help; let alone try and save himself.

Stupid…

His vision swirls white, and then fades black, and he knows nothing more.

-o-o-o-o-

“Something’s wrong,” Twilight says, several minutes after Hyrule told him and Warriors that Wild had gone off with some farmer girl to find a liquor store.

“Something is wrong,” Twilight repeats when they ask a local villager for directions to the nearest liquor store, and they reply the only alcohol this town sells is the milk in the market.

Hyrule is quick to point out the direction he remembers seeing Wild and the girl go off in, and then they thankfully split up to cover more ground. The second there’s no one to see, Twilight changes into his wolf form, sniffing the air desperately for his kid. Wild’s scent is one that he will always remember, it’s stored and locked within his brain, right next to Mipha, Zelda, and all the kids at Ordon.

He finds Wild’s trail after a nerve wracking few moments, and then he’s dashing through dimly lit streets like his life depends on it.

The feeling of something being horribly wrong only gets stronger when he finds Wild’s scent leading inside a run down looking building with dim, flickering lanterns in the windows. Then, the reek of blood hits his nostrils at full force. He shifts back into his human form and bursts into the front door without a single care on what’s on the other side.

The stench of blood is stronger here, even for his human nose. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that his eyes drop to the floor along with what feels like a stone in his stomach. Wild is at his feet, curled up like a child, red pooling around his terribly pale body.

“No-” Twilight drops down to his knees, already pulling out his spare red potion and gathering Wild into his arms. Wild makes a strangled groan through his throat, but his eyes are squeezed closed.

He’s alive though. The thought that he’s still alive is the only thing that gives Twilight enough strength to pull out the cork of his jar and shove the opening to Wild’s lips.

Wild chokes as the liquid enters his mouth, but Twilight doesn’t let up. It’s preferable to drink red potions, but when it comes to drastic situations like this, just getting it in the injured person's body is enough to save their lives. Wild coughs through the liquid and writhes in Twilight's arms, and it’s all Twilight can do to keep the bottle there and shakily whisper every comforting word that he knows. Eventually, color returns to Wild’s cheeks, and his eyes blink open blearily as his choking turns into instinctive swallows.

When the contents of the bottle is gone, Twilight lets the glass jar fall to the floor as he now uses his newly freed hand to check Wild’s wound.

It’s still nasty, and deep, but no longer life threatening. Another potion or some stitches and Wild will be as good as new. For the first time in what feels like years, Twilight allows himself to breath out a sigh of intense relief.

“Twi…?” Wild asks, voice incredibly small.

Twilight holds him just a little tighter, willing his heart to calm down. He’s almost… he’s come so close to almost losing-

“Who did this to you?” Twilight demands with a bite to his tone that he doesn’t mean to direct at Wild.

Wild doesn’t react to it though. He just closes his eyes and shakes his head. “It… doesn’t matter…” he replies in a whisper. Twilight feels anger swell in his stomach and he almost argues back, but Wild talks more despite how much it must still hurt. “Later,” he says. “’M hurt, wanna sleep. Deal with… it later.”

Twilight takes a deep breath, counts to five, then lets it out. He doesn’t feel any less upset. However, he keeps his voice level, deciding that arguing with Wild here will just upset the boy more than help him.

“Okay,” he agrees reluctantly. “I’m going to carry you, okay? I’m out of potions, but Wars or Hyrule should be nearby with some of their own. Then we can go get a well deserved sleep.”

Wild simply nods and relaxes into Twilight’s arms, breathing a sigh and closing his eyes. Twilight bites his lip, then resolves himself to hold one of his dearest friends close to his chest as he stands up. There’s blood everywhere, staining his hands, his tunic, his boots, his pants. But he got here in time. Wild will be okay.

That’s all that matters now. Once Wild has all his color back and his stomach no longer has a hole in it… then Twilight can make sure whoever did this regrets being born.

“I got you, kid,” he says, “I got you.”

#linked universe #wild linked universe #twilight linked universe #whumptober2021 #no.3 #who did this to you?#blood tw #injury tw #violence tw #fanfiction #jin writes

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claybrownie7566 · 2 years

Text

Moments from Zelda that stick with me

Alrighty so a few people asked for this, and honestly I can't wait to share. This video game series is so special, so I hope you enjoy some of my favorite little bits and pieces I picked out.

(Spoiler warning obviously)

- Every Master Sword draw, but specifically the ones from Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild. It's just that quiet moment of "This is real. He's the hero." and it's so cool every time. As a kid, and even now, when I see that pedestal I just get goosebumps like, "here it comes! Time to do the thing!" and I think its so awesome that I get that excited every time.

- In the A Link to the Past manga, when Link rescues Zelda from the dungeon, she is so relieved he came she doesn't even know what to do with herself. She had been calling out to anyone that could hear, and she didn't think anyone could. but Link did. He heard her, and he tells her, "I heard you. I knew you were in trouble, so i came." and then he takes her hands and smiles at her and says, "You're not alone." That's all it takes sometimes. He heard her. He came for her. And it's all going to be okay. I love it.

- In Twilight Princess there's this scene where Zelda tries to save Midna because she was almost killed after the encounter with Zant. And Zelda selflessly gives her own life force to save Midna. It's really beautiful and Midna begs her not to do it, but Zelda does anyway, and as her theme fades out, Link and Midna are both left standing there in awe. It gives them more of a reason to fight, and it pushes them forward. It also makes the howling stone in the Sacred Grove mean more to me. You howl Zelda's lullaby, but it doesn't feel like the other versions. This one sounds sadder, and more loving than the others. This isn't just the hymn of the royal family. This is you, pouring your heart out through your lungs for a dear friend, that gave all she had to give. She's the reason they fight, and singing her song in the forest feels like a ballad to her specifically because Link and Midna love her so much.

- Now, in the mangas, Midna and Zelda were childhood friends that spoke through one of the spots where Twilight and Light connect in Hyrule Castle. And they arranged a meeting one day to show eachother their treasures. But Zelda couldn't show up because her tutor found her and told her not to speak to the Twili, so she never saw Midna again until years later when the story begins. So in this scene where Midna is dying, Zelda reminds her of that day when they were little. And as her life force fades into Midna, she says: "That day....long ago......I was going to tell you.

That my treasure....

The most valuable thing....in my entire world....

.....was you."

And that is one of the most beautiful things this series has put in my heart. Anyways, I know that was long. I'll move on now, but I love that so much.

- There's a lot from Breath of the Wild, but I love the quieter moments. I love walking into Hateno, hearing the music and watching the fireflies. It's so alive and it's so beautiful. Just riding or walking through the open fields, watching the dragons float across the sky on the mountain peak, visiting the different realms and experiencing them is just so incredible.

- In Age of Calamity there's a cutscene where they're watching Ganon rise, and everything falls to ruin and Zelda just.....she just falls to her knees and you realize how devastating this is for her personally. It's really heartbreaking and somber and then just quietly, softly, gently, Terako starts playing Zelda's lullaby. I think about that so much its so beautiful, i'm impressed everytime I watch it. The same goes for all of Mipha's cutscenes, especially the one when Sidon saves her.

- Another bit from Age of Calamity that lives in my head 24/7 is Link's fight with Revali. Holy CRAP that's how you do it. Absolutely insane scene. And then Zelda just runs in and screams "NO STOP" because that's how close they were to killing eachother.

- The "Don't ever forget this place....or me" from the end of Link's Awakening. I always think it's going to turn out differently. That you can just save the island and live there forever, but you can't. And I think that little bit with Marin is a testament to that. We will never get to live on Koholint, but we will never, ever forget it. Or her. And I think that's really special.

- Skyward Sword has some great stuff in it that I think a bout a lot, but I love the scene where Link goes to see Zelda after losing her over and over and over again. And Groose, my beloved, doesn't even hesitate to tell Link to go on without him. He just goes "Tell Zelda I say, Hey." and that's it. He knows this story is bigger than him, and that Link needs to see Zelda more than he does. It's amazing, and I love him.

- Another Skyward Sword scene I think a lot about is the "You were late" lecture from Impa. I remember getting there and just feeling sick. There's nothing I could've done differently. I got here as fast as I could, and it still wasn't enough. Link, still wasn't enough. It's terrifying and I can't imagine how I'd feel if I was told that my best wasn't enough.

- Tetra letting Link sneak onto her ship to steal bombs in WIndwaker. I really really love Windwaker, in case you didn't know haha. But I really love Tetra because she always knows. She wants the people of Outset to be saved, and she knows Link can do it, so she sneakily lets him in on the info so he can get a head start and I just appreciate her a lot.

- Every minute we spend with the Heroes Shade in Twilight Princess. The howling, the fighting, the little nuggets of wisdom he drops. Like, this is our Link from Ocarina of Time. You know, saved the world, went back 7 years, song of healing scary moon apocalypse Link? And now he's passing on what he learned to the new generation. He's proud of it, and our Twilight Link is too. He's not alone. None of the heroes are, and that is so special to see two of them together.

- Hyrule Warriors is such a cool game, like it does not get enough credit. One of my favorite things about it, is that they let Link have flaws and consequences. He got cocky. He got cocky, and people got hurt, including himself. But what I love, is that he was able to grow from it, learn, and move on. Really cool.

There are so many more, but I think I should cut it off there for now :) Thank you all for your asks! I love this series so if you have more to talk about I'd love to hear your thoughts on these scenes or some of your favorites.

#Legend of Zelda #brownie Bites #loz #Zelda

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clodovia · 2 years

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What You Believe

Characters: Simeon x gn! reader (Platonic)

Word Count: 1856

a/n: There is a part where I sorta reference SinsAndChaos’s God-Fearing Faith. The way they wrote about what Simeon could've gone through after the war made my heart break and then this piece came to my mind.

AO3 Link

Network: @hanayanetwork

You are an angel within the Celestial Realm. Created after the Great Celestial War. You are one who watches over the human world, a Dominion. However, as time passes, you’ve become aware that something had occurred within the Celestial Realm before your creation. Something that clearly had scarred those who were a part of whatever calamity had occurred. You wanted to know what had happened. Especially when you found that one of your closest friends within the Celestial Realm, Simeon the Archangel, was there to witness it. Although, he refuses to tell you what happened. Even though you can see the way his eyes glass over when he says so. As if he goes back to the War… Goes back to a time when things weren’t as they were.

--------------------------------------------

You finally found it. The Forgotten Library.

Long sealed away from the prying eyes of those who grew curious, but you… you have found it. Within the Library was a hidden door amongst the numerous shelves packed full of Celestial History, but only the history that the Creator wants the realm to know. To ensure that His creations stay loyal and devoted to Him. As you traversed the Library you found something that just seemed a bit out of place. Along the wall of elaborate woodwork, there was an intricately carved peacock feather within the design. Curiosity getting the better of you, the tips of your fingers lightly trace over the curves of the wooden feather. Suddenly, the quiet hum of what sounded like machinery was heard behind the wall. You quickly withdrew your hand from the woodwork, hastily taking a few steps away as you gazed at the wall in fear and confusion. All of which quickly faded into more curiosity as the woodwork opened inward like a door. Taking cautious steps forward through the door, you find a smaller room full of bookshelves. Not all the shelves were full. Some were even completely bare, nothing but cobwebs and dust remained. As your eyes scanned the room, the sight of a large tome placed on a pedestal caught your attention. Your gut twisted… your intuition screaming at you to turn back. Nothing would be placed so in the open such as that large tome if it weren’t a trap…

But you gave in to temptation…

Finding yourself in front of the large tome, you delicately brushed the dust off the leather cover. Revealing the gold leaf lettering that read: The Great Celestial War. This… You’ve found it. You have found what you felt you had been missing. What you knew others had witnessed that you never did. Carefully opening the book you began to read the history that the Father wanted to keep hidden from you, as well as your brothers and sisters. Those of you who were created after this time… After the War. You learned of a revolution led by a seraph named Lucifer. Leading an army of angels. Including those whom he deemed his family: Mammon, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor, and Lilith. With them were others, but these angels were not named. The cause was that Father wanted to obliterate Lilith as she had fallen in love with a human and to protect their sister, the brothers rose up against Father. Those who rebelled were banished from the Celestial Realm and either died from their wounds or transformed into demons upon their fall to Devildom.

You stepped back from the book. Watery eyes open wide. Obliterated for falling in love with a human? That… That seemed too much… Why not just let Lilith be human and live her life with the human she fell in love with? Emotions of confusion and anger welled inside you. The brothers’ actions were just for wanting to protect their beloved sister. Stepping back up to the book, you read on where your eyes finally fell upon a name that was most familiar to you. Simeon. A hand clasped over your mouth to quiet your gasp as you found that he too was once a Seraph like Lucifer. He had chosen to stay out of the war. To not choose a side… but he still faced consequences because he didn’t choose to be loyal to Father. He was used as an example as to what happens to those who aren’t fully loyal and devoted. Given a trial where he was demoted from Seraph to Cherubim. From Cherubim to Throne. From Throne to Dominion. From Dominion to Virtue. From Virtue to Power. From Power to Principality. Then finally, from Principality to Archangel. You felt yourself become sick again. This time, your hand came up to cover your mouth as you felt bile rise to the back of your throat. What torture did Simeon become victim to? And just because he didn’t pick a side?

Those who defy me shall regret what they have done.

Your body froze as fear took hold of you. That voice was not within the room but from within your mind… and not of your own. Which meant it was only one possibility… “Father?” You quietly spoke, not daring to move to see if there was someone else in the room with you.

You dare defy me by finding this chamber? Giving in to the temptation of your own morbid curiosity?

What you did next was something you never thought you would do on your own accord. You weren’t sure what made you do this, but it was as if the emotions that were withheld within the book were absorbed into your being.

“You could have avoided that whole calamity if you had been the forgiving and merciful Father that you want us to believe you are!” You shouted, spinning around to find that you weren’t alone within the hidden library when you see a fuzzy, translucent figure standing opposite of you, “You could have let Lilith be a human and live her life with the one she fell in love with instead of punishing her to be obliterated!”

Do not speak the name of those who have gone against me.

“Why is that? Does it bring back the memories of casting out your children? The ones that you loved so dear, but quickly banished all because they were trying to protect their sister?” You yelled, taking steps toward the figure. You knew what you were doing was going to have consequences as you had broken the rules of the Celestial Realm, but at this moment you didn’t really care.

Enough.

“Or is it because it reminds you of how you used Simeon as an example!? Putting him through a torturous trial of demotion because Lucifer was no longer in your reach? Allowing yourself to put your anger towards someone whose neutrality should have received just a warning by the all-forgiving, merciful Father!” You screamed as you felt your anger rise, thinking of the pain your best friend was put through.

ENOUGH!

The room around you suddenly disappeared. As if everything around you has been swallowed by darkness. Your insides began to burn like Holy Fire itself was erupting from within you. Spreading through your limbs and into your wings, searing them off of you. Your screams of agony fill the empty void. Without realizing through your pain, you were falling. Not just falling, but going through an improper trail of demotion as you fell. Father was quick with his decision. Whether you lived through this, He didn’t care. Those of the Celestial Realm won’t even realize your absence, for He will make sure of it.

--------------------------------------------

From the grounds of Devildom, everyone stopped in their tracks as they gazed up into the sky. A ball of fire was flying through the air, hurtling towards the ground quickly. Lord Diavolo was quickly made aware of the situation, some wondering if there was an attack on their realm. Diavolo, Barbatos, and Lucifer followed the fireball as it fell from the sky. Although, they weren’t alone, for a worried Simeon rushed after them as he felt something wrong had occurred. He quickly put Luke under Soloman’s watch as he rushed away, following the trail. As the ball of fire got closer, Lucifer realized what was going on as he heard the faint sound of screaming from within the fire.

Father has punished another.

When the three finally get to the landing area of the fireball, they were surprised to find that the fire had not consumed anything around it only staying in its position. That is till it finally dies away to reveal your figure. Lucifer felt his stomach twist. Remembering back to the day he and his brothers fell. What have you done, an angel that he didn’t even recognize, to have been cast out from the Celestial Realm as a ball of fire to now being a demon of Devildom. Barbatos knelt beside you to check if you had survived, quickly reporting that you were still breathing, but that you needed to be stabilized quickly. Lucifer was the one to scoop you up off the ground, your body still warm from the Holy Fire that had engulfed you. As the three were on their way back to the castle, they ran into Simeon. When his eyes landed upon your unconscious form, the form that was no longer an angel’s, tears started to well in his eyes.

“Y/n!”

--------------------------------------------

When you awoke, your body felt as if it was barely holding together. Quietly groaning in pain as you tried to move, but you were quickly stopped by two hands. They were gentle with their touch as if not wanting to put you through more pain. You knew even in your delirious mind that this could not be how you would be treated in the Celestial Realm after what you have done. Slowly, you opened your eyes trying to let yourself adjust to the bright lights after having been consumed in darkness. Once your blurry vision finally cleared, you were met with familiar cerulean eyes that you knew belonged to none other than Simeon, who you knew was also not currently in the Celestial Realm but in Devildom to participate in some kind of program. That was how you knew what had occurred. You didn’t need to look at yourself to know you were no longer an angel of the Celestial Realm.

“I’m sorry,” was all you could muster as you looked at your friend.

“What did you do?” Simeon asked.

“My curiosity got the better of me,” you explained with a weak smile.

Simeon sighed at your words. If he would’ve just told you then this wouldn’t have happened. You wouldn’t have gone looking for answers and having to fall victim to breaking the rules. Seeing the look on Simeon’s face, you knew he was internally beating himself up.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself because you wouldn’t tell me,” You say as you squeeze his hand that has been holding yours since you’ve woken up, “Finding the answers on my own allowed me to make up my own mind… Allowed me to see that He is not the all-forgiving, merciful Father he wants us to believe he is.”

#obey me simeon #simeon x reader #simeon x gn! reader #obey me simeon x reader #obey me simeon x gn reader

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the-hero-of-jk-its-len · 3 years

Text

A Flower by Any other name. - Chapter Three: A goddess temporarily kills me.

A.N: And so, we are back!! this chapter is definitely mostly just angst and exposition but in cases like this, it just really is needed, specially with calamity looming in Aster's future.

Reminder: Aster uses he/him pronouns!! You can exchange his name if you want and i won’t mind, and also this isn’t beta’d at all because I have no friends in the LOZ fandom.

Disclaimer: I don’t own The legend of Zelda (gods I wish), the linked universe au or any of the franchises and works I may reference in this fic, this is a work for fans by fans and all credits go to the respective owners.

Summary: Hylia knows no boundaries, Link worries and Aster spits fountain water.

Word Count: 1409 (WOO NEW RECORD)

Warnings: temporary character death, mentions of an infants death, just death in general I guess.

The truth is that there are some experiences out there you can never quite get used to, dying is up there, as was being born or learning to swim for the first time and sinking.

Another thing was the presence of Hylia, as I’m sure all past Zeldas can confirm, the warmth, like an invitation to a comfortable hug, was all consuming, the peace, and sudden flood of hope, of faith, like going home.

But home was gone, and this was just the aura of the goddess I know now that had brought me here in the first place. It was unmistakable, Her presence around me glowed like a candle at midnight, but it also burned hot as the flame in it.

“You’ve come very far child”

Her voice is like bells and crystal, light as a feather and yet sad, like a mourning mother. “Very far indeed, but you know what is to come, as do I”

Then why, I almost wanted to ask, why send me here when the original Zelda had done it all before, why me.

“You ask hard questions y/n”

My eyes almost opened at the sound of the name, of my name, the one I had left behind when I had died, and further refused when I took Aster instead. But more than that, she could hear me, hear my thoughts as clearly as if they were spoken.

“I shall show you then, what would have happened, had I not intervened, child.”

Wait-

Drowning wasn’t a nice experience, fountain of wisdom or not, chains- no, hands pulled on my legs like bricks, dragging me to a depth I was certain couldn’t be possible, and then, the rush of water, the beat of my heart, it all stopped, looking up to where I knew I should be able to see the opening of the fountain was nothing, nothing but the endless void that surrounded me again.

It was then I finally noticed her by my side. I saw the hair first, blond and slightly wavy, it reminded me of the sun in a way, though it forgot it immediately when she opened her lips to speak.

“Are you quite done child?”

Her tone was reproachful, like a scolding that I took no time to answer “not all of us are used to dying in the regular I suppose”

“Yet, you’ve done it more than most already have you not?”

Ah, she got me there.

“Come then, as spoken before, there is much to show you yet” she said as she walked on the non-existing floor, i followed.

Behind me, or rather, behind her, appeared small monitor-like screens, all of different girls and women through the eras. I saw pirates turned queens and a small sheikah boy become a ruler, alongside them, a hero decked in green or blue.

“In all timelines -” she started speaking as i gave her my full attention “- there has always been a princess to aide the hero, and vice versa, through the help of the royal blood I’ve been reborn many times and all I’ve followed my destiny, and yet, the one I was meant for, passed away at birth”

She guided me to the last monitor, darker than the last few, a girl, a princess, a scientist, all things I remember from Zelda in my playthroughs, and yet I knew for a fact from the way the screen was crumbling into dust, this Zelda had never lived, Hylia had not reincarnated in her like she was meant to, this was nothing but an unfinished prophecy.

“I knew, without Zelda to hold back the calamity, this Hyrule, my beloved beautiful Hyrule, would fall into pieces, which is why -” she pointed to the only other screen in front of her, the picture of the prince I had grown to see in mirrors “- I brought you here in her stead.”

Looking at my hands I couldn’t help but wonder, “why me? Surely there are better candidates, people who have dedicated their entire lives to study the history of Hyrule. Why me?”

“I suppose, that is a fair question to ask, the truth is…”

My ears perked and then fell with her next words, of all responses, no one ever expects.

“That it was only chance”

Ah, so, that was that then, there hadn't been any grand fates, or mystical reasons.

“I see…”

“But, that doesn’t mean you weren’t foreseen”

Now that called to my attention, “foreseen?”

“Indeed, as you will have noticed, the life of every Zelda in the past lives in my memories, physical versions of it around me at all times, had I truly wanted to, I could have fought my way into the child’s body, but someone else had already appeared on my mind, and her body”

Things that had yet to happen flashed before my eyes, the guardians waking up and functioning, Purrah and Robbie working on them as I watched, Link being assigned as my personal knight, and even the champions receiving their tunics, and then, finally, the calamity.

“This, will all happen in two years time, though I believe you knew that already”

I nodded of course, the time I had spent was counted in my mind, making sure events happened as they should, knowing to use every last second I had had to be spent preciously before fate fell into this body.

“Then you must know this too, Aster -” she looked into my eyes “- you have no abilities to use my blessings,” I knew that, of course I did “yet you must, this is why I called to you here, soon, I shall offer you my strength, and you must train it as much as you can, call upon the wisdom that resides in that body of yours and protect Hyrule to the best of your ability”

“Until then, I will be waiting, I’ve kept you too long, but you shall hear from me soon, Goodbye Aster”

Coughing up water isn’t nice.

When I woke up I was no longer in the temple, instead it was a warm bedroll that welcomed me in the inside of a cave, a fire bright by my side, and Link fussing over me.

Oh wait, Link was here.

And he was talking too?

I couldn’t understand him yet, I think he knew that too, because after giving up and feeding me something on a spoon he just let me sleep again.

The next time I woke it was morning instead, the fire dead and Link outside the opening of the cave.

Walking closer to where he was and wrapping a blanket on top of me I asked “where are we?”

“Somewhere close to the temple”

I hummed in answer.

And he turned, his voice steady even as his eyes betrayed something between worry and anger, had I been anyone else I could have even missed the fleeing fear “your highness, no, Aster, what were you thinking?”. The question landed on me like a bag of concrete , how was I supposed to answer what had happened? Sorry Link the goddess kidnapped my soul for an impromptu pep talk because I’m actually the reincarnated soul of a nerd? Of course I wasn’t going to say that.

“Do you know how worried I was when I went to check on you, and found your body on the steps of the fountain, floating like you were dead? How did it feel to try and bring you back with no success? How much relief it was to see you cough water even as you fainted?”

The tone of his voice never changed, but I could tell even then everything he meant.

I wanted to say sorry, to explain I wished he had never seen that, what had truly happened, but I couldn’t, because instead of Zelda breaking down over not being able to feel Hylia what he had walked in on was the body of the prince of hyrule, no, more than that, it had been mine, who he had grown up seeing every day since he moved to central hyrule.

But I could do nothing but look at the ground instead, the thoughts of past and future plaguing my head like mosquitoes in summer.

We stayed quiet after that, and arrived at the castle by morning, where I wouldn’t see him for a day, then a week, and a month.

For the first time in years, I was well and truly alone.

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jessilynallendilla · 4 years

Text

To get through the quarantine here’s a super long list of Hobbit/LOTR/Silm fics

Let me know if links aren’t working and feel free to add more

(check the original post as I update the list)

Please read the tags before reading some have sensitive content/are unfinished

Kili/Tauriel Centric

Stolen Heir

Who is Kili's father? He doesn't know. Thorin doesn't know. Dis knows. She's not telling. What happens when he finds out that she left and didn't tell him she was carrying his son? Alternative Ending to BOFA. Family drama!

Paths in Starlight

Kili has never set foot in the magical land he was born in, but the search for a fallen star leads him beyond the Wall and into world of Arda. The star he finds is not what he'd thought she'd be, and Kili is pulled into an adventure that takes him over hill and through the air, joins a crew of Sky Pirates to help them aid their King, and finds out the truth about his family.

Take a Bow

Tauriel has been a prisoner in Erebor since returning a gravely-wounded Kili after the battle. Now finally she is permitted to stand before the Dwarven court and tell her truth; to save her life, to show why she wants to stay.

King Under the Mountain

Or the one where Kili survives the Battle of Fives armies but has to learn to live without his brother and uncle and to accept the throne.

All Those Who Wander

Kíli goes on a simple diplomatic trip to all the elf kingdoms. Of course, because Kíli’s involved, it quickly becomes anything but simple.

Dare You to Move

Each year since their victorious alliance, the respective Kings and Councilmen of Erebor, Dale, and The Woodland Realm gathered together in one of their great cities for the duration of five days. During this time they would spend the daylight hours debating and discussing the maintenance of their alliance, and then by night the people gathered together to celebrate. In the midst of the complex political negotiations, Prince Fili learns what it means to be a great King from the one person who just might be his Queen, while Kíli and Tauriel struggle to keep their illicit relationship hidden from those who would keep them apart.

Think of all the Places We Could Go

Kili woke, panting, to have his mother fuss over him and his brother sit and sharpen his swords on the chair adjacent to his bed. “Are we dead?” were the first words out of his mouth, prompting his brother to laugh and his mother to look at him strangely.

Silver Starlight, Burning Bright

Once upon a time, there was a hidden kingdom in the woods. There are not many stories of this hidden kingdom, as they were a secret and private people. There is one story, however, about a prisoner and jailer.

Erebor Restored

The Lonely Mountain is reclaimed. Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli recover from their wounds while Dáin makes himself at home.

Land of What Might Have Been

Five years after the Battle of the Five Armies, Fili sits on the throne as he struggles to help his family and his people. Kili is lost without his love, the elf maid Tauriel who was injured before the battle and disappeared. What becomes of a dwarf who has lost the love of his life?

Flowers Among the Fallen Leaves

Bilbo Baggins returned home in mourning after the Battle of the Five Armies. All of Middle-Earth knew that Thorin and his nephews had fallen in the battle. It seemed that all that was left to him was a quiet, lonely existence in his empty smial. Then fate in the form of a pregnant Silvan Elf came knocking at his door one night. Bilbo Baggins, it seemed, had never been meant for the quiet life.

A Frank Conversation (Is Easier Said)

He always loved making Tauriel laugh. For all the time Kili spent trying to understand the woman before him, he had come to cherish the moments of simplicity. There was nothing complicated about a laugh. Smiles were trickier, but laughter—that required no translation.

Waiting

Kili hasn't kissed her yet, and Tauriel doesn't know why.

Love is Never Wrong (Together We’ll Make it Right)

With a little help from a nosey wizard, things might just work out for a prince of Erebor and a Captain of the Mirkwood guard.

Beneath the Stars

After the Battle of Five Armies and the Slaying of Smaug, King Thranduil held a feast in honor—grudging honor, but honor nonetheless—for the King Under the Mountain. Tauriel had mixed feelings about this feast because it meant that Kili would be in attendance. There was a part of Tauriel that wondered if the connection they had formed was indeed some dream.

The Lesson of the Moth

The battle is over. Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain, is dead. His nephews still live, even if the life of one hangs in the balance. Tauriel too has survived, although what that means for her, she is not altogether sure. Choices are made, and promises are kept, though not without hardship. Sometimes the best course is to forge your own path, even if it takes you far from all you know.

Together Forever

Alternate ending to BOTFA. Kili and Tauriel are able to slay Bolg, but the battle leaves her badly injured. Further complication arise when King Thranduil blames the two for the death of his son and Kili is willing to lay down his own life to ensure her survival.

The Line of Durin

How do you build a new life when you're supposed to be dead? Three new royal tombs in Erebor, but two are empty. Kili, Fili, Bofur and Tauriel are on the move. Now what?

Starlight and Firemoon-Part 1

They walked in starlight, under a firemoon.

The Five Wives of Kili Durinson

The bride thought he understood. The groom thought he did too. Cultural misunderstandings abound. Now what?

So Comes Snow After Fire

In the weeks since the battle, Kili has kept his meetings with Tauriel secret. Yet when a fierce snowstorm looms, he would rather dare Thorin's displeasure than leave the exiled elf unsheltered on the mountainside. Once Tauriel enters Erebor, of course, it is only a matter of time before her feelings for the dwarven prince are discovered. And despite Kili's hope that there is a place in his life for all those he loves, he may soon have to decide whether his loyalties lie with his kindred or an elf.

Innikh Dê

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies, is there anyplace that will shelter an exhausted prince of Durin and an exiled Woodland Elf? Perhaps Lord Elrond's magical city of Imladris will offer Kili and Tauriel a haven as they prepare to have their first child. Or does the promise Kili made to his mother to return to her take precedence? In either case, Kili and Tauriel know the path won't be easy, but neither of them expected that so many Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Wargs, much less a wizard and a hobbit, would be on that path with them!

The Heir Apparent

Tauriel saves Kili's life during the Battle of the Five Armies and alters the course of history, forever.

Elf-Friends

After the Battle of Five Armies, Fíli is stuck running Erebor while his brother and uncle recover. However, things are somewhat mixed up with the arrival of Tauriel, banished from Mirkwood and carrying a secret. If Thorin can forgive Bilbo, though, surely he can be convinced to accept an elf?

In the Moonlight

Tauriel and Erebor

The Poison in Your Veins

She is guardian to a besieged and rotting dynasty, duty-bound and well served by her predator's instincts. He is one of Durin's Folk, hunters of renown until calamity destroyed much of the bloodline and cast the survivors from their home. Their descendents roam the land, carrying on the fight as best they can while hiding the secret that once made their kind so formidable.

A Promise Kept

He made a promise, and she returned it. But in trying to save Kíli's life, she caused his death. Or so Tauriel thinks until she returns to Erebor to throw herself on the mercy of her unborn child's only kin and discovers that sometimes love outlasts death. But can it remain unchanged by the harsh realities of life?

Spring After Winter and Sun on the Leaves

After their wedding, Tauriel and Kíli will share their most exciting adventure yet: raising a child. But blissfully happy as they are, becoming the parents of the world’s first dwelf isn’t easy. No one is certain a half-blood child is even possible, but prejudiced dwarves don’t want to let Kíli live to find out. As even darker forces take an interest in Kíli’s unusual heir, others are put danger, including Fíli and his bride, Sif. All Kíli and Tauriel want is to start a family, but they may end up having to save Erebor, too.

Marriage of Choice

Kili had always been the spare prince. Always been the Golden Heir's shadow and companion. He knew his purpose and place. After retaking Erebor, he's surprised and just how much his life changed because of it. Tauriel believed she would be captain of The Greenwood's guard for the rest of her life, expected to die in battle for her king. But she's been banished and everything has changed. Elves don't like change.

Bilbo/Thorin Centric

Finding Purchase

“What are you doing in here?” Thorin gestured around the audience-chamber as he approached, his half-smile obvious even at a distance. “I mean, my throne is yours if you want it, ghivashelê, you know that, but in the middle of the night?”

The Seven Gifts

Thorin had his crown off. This wasn’t an uncommon sight to Bilbo. Even though Fili had crafted his uncle a new crown, the weight of it still made him wary. Bilbo was not as used to seeing the dwarf’s hair gathered together in a braid that spilled over his shoulder. Or the spectacles perched on his regal nose. He would deny the ache of his heart in that moment.

Sansûkh

The battle was over, and Thorin Oakenshield awoke, naked and shivering, in the Halls of his Ancestors. The novelty of being dead fades quickly, and watching over his companions soon fills him with grief and guilt. Oddly, a faint flicker of hope arises in the form of his youngest kinsman, a Dwarf of Durin's line with bright red hair.

Battle of the Mind and the Heart

Thorin, Kili and Fili, and the others survived TBOTFA but Bilbo does not know this thinking Thorin died in his arms ...and now as the dwarves make the trek back to the shire to show their burglar that they are okay, the other hobbits of the shire have to deal with a rapidly mentally deteriorating Bilbo and the dwarves will not like what they bear witness to when they get there

Marriage of Necessity

In a desperate attempt to make sure someone he trusts rules over Erebor, Thorin marries Bilbo on what will probably be his deathbed, as well as that of his heirs. When all three Durins survive, Thorin's marriage to Bilbo comes under scrutiny. Not everyone is happy with it.

Reclaiming Erebor…Again

Bilbo is sailing to the Undying Lands but wary of letting go of the guilt that has been with him for many decade. His most sincerest wish is to go back and change what was done. Before reaching the lands of peace and healing, he dies aboard the ship and finds that his wish is being granted but not because he is the one to wish it. He finds that not only is he going to be sent back to his younger body, but so is the entire Company of Thorin Oakenshield. Time is a fickle thing and not all the members have their memories returned to them at the same time. The journey on becomes interesting as the dwarves slowly remember and fight for themselves and their kin, yet for some reason they are not the only ones to remember.

Hiding Myself

Bella Baggins is a perfectly normal, respectable Hobbit living alone in Hobbiton. That is, until Gandalf the Gray arrives at her house looking for someone to share in an adventure. When thirteen dwarves show up at her doorstep, she stupidly agrees to go with them to reclaim their homeland. Thorin Oakenshield, the moody and brooding Dwarven king, has managed to capture the unwanted affections of the Company's burglar. But one thing nobody knows is that their burglar is hiding a secret from them all that may destroy everything or change the way dwarves think for a very long time.

To Love a King

"“I never assumed that I could – that he could -,” Bilbo tried feebly. Dain leaned in close enough for Bilbo to feel his hot breath over his face. “He could never have cared for you. Was he not clear enough when he threatened to cast you to your death?” Bilbo pinched his face up in pain and clenched his hands into fists. Dain smiled triumphantly.

Buried Coals

After the Reclaiming of Erebor, life was supposed to settle down. Things were supposed to be simpler once there weren't people trying to kill them and things trying to eat them and so on and so forth. Things didn't get any simpler, but after the whole Tauriel incident, and after Dain got the snot beat out of him, things seemed to settle a bit. Billa should have known it wouldn't last.

At Last

Thorin Oakenshield has spent twenty long years alone with his broken heart, he has spent twenty long years learning to live with what he has done and what he caused, and he has spent twenty long years thinking that Bilbo hated him. But miscommunications can cause the worst heartaches of all, he finds, as Bilbo has spent twenty long years thinking that he’s dead.

Alive

Bilbo fled Erebor before his friends could be buried, before he had to see Thorin encased in stone. He returns to the Shire and settles into a life of unsociability and some amount of loneliness, but finds comfort in the figures of the children of Hobbiton. After twenty years, however, his luck is gone, and Bilbo has to flee the Shire with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, and with four very young Hobbits, there is only one place he can turn to.

This is a Love I Cannot Undo (Eyes Open, I Burn in Hell)

In which Kili, Fili, and Thorin survive the Battle of the Five Armies and have to deal with the fallout.

Fiercer Than Fire

The Quest of Erebor as it might have been. Billa Baggins is not your average burglar- or, perhaps, a burglar at all. That remains to be seen. Thorin resents this little female's habit of gaining a foothold wherever she lands. Even in his heart.

A Flower Among Gems

The Fell Winter destroyed Billanna (also known as Billa) Baggin's small hobbit family, as her parents were murdered and she kidnapped by orcs. However, she is saved by a familiar group of dwarves which, after deliberation (and Thorin's younger sister giving him grief) Billa joins the family of Durin. As the years pass, relationships are brought into light, and with quests thrown in, it seems a quiet life is a little hard to find for a hobbit among dwarves.

Think Before You Speak

The three fools of Durin's Line try to court their Ones. Things get crazy, hectic, emotional, and brains continuously shut off at the worst times.

Words Unanswered

The most terrible thing you can do to a writer, Bilbo is sure, is answer words with silence.

Together Once More

Thinking himself banished, Bilbo leaves Erebor before he and Thorin can reconcile. Meanwhile, the entire company thinks that Bilbo died in bofta. 20 years later, Bilbo, now the guardian of Frodo Baggins, is asked by Gandalf to travel to rivendell to discuss a growing evil that is encompassing Middle Earth. However, the two hobbits mysteriously vanish, and never make it to rivendell as they were supposed to. And somehow, to make matters even more confusing, Gandalf comes to the realization that Bilbo Baggin's has the One Ring.

Hurricanes in Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire

Bilbo was banished. That's it, the end. She wants nothing more to do with dwarves. Now all she needs to do is get back home, but there may be some complications along the way.

Eastern Homecomings

After an unprecedented Goblin attack on the Shire, Bilbo finds himself whisked back to Erebor with his son he never wanted Thorin to know about.

A Most Sensible Idea

Bilbo Baggins isn't sure about this. Not one bit. Frodo is definitely too young to enter into an arranged marriage with a dwarven king called Thorin Oakenshield. It's a good thing that Bilbo is there to chaperone him through their courtship. After all, there's no chance that a fussy hobbit bachelor would ever catch the eye of a king.

You Got Me

The Company shows their affection for Bilbo in accordance with dwarvish tradition. Bilbo... has no idea why everyone keeps giving him gifts.

The Most Precious of Treasures

Bilbo is thought to have died during the Battle of the Five Armies, but in reality she has returned home to Shire, believing that she is forever banished from her friends sides and that they are far better off believing that she is indeed dead. However, her plans to remain dead to them are complicated by the most precious treasure a certain Dwarf King left her with and by a few friends who simply refuse to believe that she had truly gone from Middle-Earth. Bilbo believed that her journey was done, she had gone there and had come back, her story was finished, she had no idea that she had just walk headlong into another.

A Second Chance

The Valar send Bilbo back in time, to the day where Gandalf asks him to join in an adventure. After living a lifetime of regret and suffering, he vows to change things for the better. For Thorin. For Frodo. But will he succeed?

Retelling the Hobbit

This is a comic adaptation/retelling of the Hobbit! It's framed as a bedtime story that Bilbo is telling a younger Frodo.

A Passion for Mushrooms

There are many trials for a hobbit attempting to make a life among dwarves. A hobbit wants a garden. A hobbit wants to eat regular meals. A hobbit wants friends, good books, and comfortable chairs. Bilbo does his best to carve out a little hobbit life for himself in the mountain. If only there were not one final obstacle. For a hobbit heart wants love, and among dwarves that is a sticky subject.

Something Blue

Thorin marries Bilbo after the Battle of Five Armies, a marriage of convenience, not love. Slowly, they must come to make the best of it, Bilbo resolves. After all, he's a Hobbit. They make the best of things.

Azhâr

Following the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies where Thorin must fight with his own guilt and mind over his choices and what they mean and meant, where he must decide whether or not to rule, and how to live with himself after dying. Focusing on many different characters and relationships, as well as building on the lore of Erebor and Middle Earth. A story about coming home.

An Expected Journey

For years Bilbo has written about his adventures and told stories about his dealings with dwarves and dragons. To most it seemed like fanciful nonsense but to Bilbo it was all very real. A weight followed him home from his travels, one called regret. Now in his final moments Bilbo has a choice to make – go quietly into death’s embrace or go back again and face all the fear and pain for the chance to make things right?

Lay Down Your Sweet and Weary Head

Thorin dies. Thorin wakes up. He is understandably confused by this, especially since he appears to be in the Erebor he knew as a young dwarf, about to be attacked by a dragon.

Call You Home

In which the Company are entirely too nosy about matters that are supposed to be a secret, and Bilbo learns that being concerned about propriety is overrated when you could be making friends instead.

Courting Habits of the Line of Durin

Hobbits didn’t have such things as courting rituals – they were uncomplicated folk. They announced their affections with flowers or a cooked meal, a shared pipe or simply a kiss – and then there were meetings with both families and a date set for the wedding. Dwarves, as he kept discovering, were a completely different kettle of fish.

The Road Delivered Us Home

In the years since Bilbo left Erebor, he has lost his respectability, gained a nephew, and gotten on with life at Bag End. He'd left aside adventure for the comforts and peace of his little Hobbit hole, and for the love of a child who needed him. Though perhaps, adventures can yet find him.

Intertwine

“To let someone else braid you is an intimacy. Brothers often do it for one another, or parents in our youth, or lovers when we are of age. I have none of these.” Thorin pulled a silver bead from the pouch and rolled it between his fingers, and his gaze on Bilbo held weight

Fix That Which Was Broken

When Mahal himself offers to send Thorin back to the start of the quest to save the line of Durin, he is determined to make amends for all of the mistakes he made the first time around. When Bilbo wakes up in Bag End eighty years in the past, all he knows is that he has somehow been given the chance to see his beloved dwarves again and he'll be damned if he doesn't take it.

Tears of the Sun

Based on a prompt where Frodo is Thorin and Bilbo's son and no one knows.

Reading in Autumn Sunlight

Summer was over. The lingering warmth from those long, languorous days were steadily replaced with opaline skies and bracing winds which brought with them the threat of the first frosts of winter to Erebor.

Portrait

Three years to the day following the beginning of the Quest for Erebor, Bilbo was asked to pose for an official portrait.

The World Spins Madly On

The end of the journey to retake Erebor is harrowing. As Bilbo Baggins surveys the wreckage of what was once a group of the best friends he ever had, he wonders if it was all worth it. And then he wakes up. And wakes up. And wakes up.

How Shall This Day End?

Thorin Oakenshield dies. And then returns to himself in Erebor, staring down at a gold-covered floor. He doesn't quite understand what is happening at first, but soon realizes he has been granted an incredible chance (and a terrible burden): to relive the battle again until he finally gets things right.

Though the Stars Walk Backward

Bilbo wakes, always in Erebor, with dark shadows to one side and the first light of a terrible dawn to the other.

Many Paths

Bilbo wakes up in Dale. With the memory of a battle won but lives lost, he finds an army of Men and Elves readying to attack Erebor. Bilbo tries to save his dwarves. Again and again.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Bilbo Baggins led a rather peaceful life, thank you very much, until an old acquaintance decided to turn it upside down, and he found himself agreeing to take a job that’s… let’s say not exactly up his alley, and might eventually cost him a little more than his treasured cozy lifestyle. Who would have thought tutoring a slightly menacing monarch’s more than slightly overbearing nephew could prove to be such an adventure?

Courtship Works Best When Both Parties Are Aware of It

The halls of Erebor flourished under the reign of Thorin Oakenshield. His coronation was a welcoming ceremony to celebrate the final wave of refugees returning to the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo, the hobbit under the mountain, is concerned with the amount of time the weary King under the Mountain is spending with a simple hobbit. Thorin is worried Bilbo is spurning his courtship. Suddenly all the dwarves are concerned for Bilbo's happiness in Erebor. These two idiots need to learn to communicate.

Run! Glorfindel Saw Us!

Bilbo Baggins was raised by elves in Rivendell. Thorin is not impressed. At all

The Rampart

When Thorin realized what Bilbo had done, realized that the hobbit had traded his Arkenstone, he saw fire. And Bilbo, being so incredibly small, was easy enough to throw from the Rampart. The company leaves Erebor, seemingly forever. 10 years after Thorin 'killed' Bilbo, he breaks from his dragon sickness, sick at what he's done. He runs to the Shire, hell-bent on paying his respects to his burglar, ashamed at killing him over a stone. But what will Thorin find in Hobbiton?

An Unexpected Addition

All of the dwarves survive the Battle of the Five Armies, but Bilbo must return to the Shire to sort out his old life and make way for a new one in Erebor. Over one year later, Bilbo comes back to the Lonely Mountain with a recently orphaned Frodo. King Thorin isn't quite sure what to make of this new, tiny addition to his Company.

Heartbeat of the Mountain

Bilbo adjusts to caring for a nephew and realizes that the Shire holds no future for him anymore. It is time to return to the mountain. With Frodo in tow, he sets off to find out if Thorin regrets his decisions and to discover if the mountain can handle not one, not two, but three troublemakers.

The Took’s Arrangement

Shortly after Bilbo Baggins comes of age, he is swept up into a life he never expected. Upon the promise made between his grandfather and the dwarrow of Ered Luin, he sets off to marry the crown prince of Erebor, Thorin. Arranged marriages are not ideal, but he is a Baggins, and Bagginses keep promises, while his adventurous Took blood sends him running down the road to Erebor.

Beware the Nice Ones

Five years after becoming Consort Under the Mountain, Bilbo is struggling to prove his worth to Thorin's most xenophobic subjects and foreign kinsmen. However, when visiting nobles mistake Bilbo and Frodo for common servants, Thorin is not pleased and Bilbo has had enough. Political intrigue, cultural misunderstandings, and a trial of honor ensue...

The Greatest Treasure in Erebor

It takes roughly two months of being taken on a different walking tour of The Splendors of Erebor every single day for Bilbo to work out that Thorin and Company are trying to convince him not to leave.

Our Lives to Make

Bilbo must venture the long road back to the Shire to see his newborn nephew, leaving Thorin to rule over Erebor. But when word reaches him mid-travel that Frodo has been orphaned, he knows he cannot go back to the Lonely Mountain alone. What will Thorin say when Bilbo returns with his nephew in tow, when he’s lost his own kin so recently?

An Unexpected Son

Bilbo left Erebor with a treasure more precious then gold or rings. What happens when the dwarves discover Frodo? Will Thorin bend enough to admit he was wrong to force Bilbo to leave?

lay down your sweet and weary head

Thorin dies. Thorin wakes up. He is understandably confused by this, especially since he appears to be in the Erebor he knew as a young dwarf, about to be attacked by a dragon. A time-travel fic with Thorin as the one living his life twice

The Shire's Sacrifice

When the Shire cannot honour its Treaty with Erebor, the dwarves enforce a contractual clause: one Hobbit must be sent to Erebor to marry the King as a sign of good faith. But with neither party at all willing and plans afoot to undermine the King, maybe an unwilling Bilbo Baggins is exactly what Erebor needs…

Gimli/Legolas Centric

Comes Around Again

Gimli closes his eyes, an old Dwarf on the brink of death in the home he had built with his husband in the Undying Lands, and opens them again as a young Dwarf in his childhood home in Ered Luin. He's returned to the tumultuous week before The Company set out to recruit their Burglar from his cosy hobbit hole. Gimli, once again a impetuous teen in the eyes of his family, must get into that Company--the lives of his loved ones, and the very fate of Middle Earth--depends on it.

Heart of the Mountain

For three hundred years they've been under attack. It's become background noise now but Gimli can't help but wonder why. Why in Mahal's name are the elves still attacking them after all this time? Surely they have something better to do?

Hearts Will As Hearts Must

The Dwarves are returning to Erebor reclaimed, and the elves uphold their promise to safeguard the caravans as they pass through Mirkwood. One particular Dwarf has wit and spark enough to match Legolas Greenleaf - perhaps even outmatch him. It's hate at first sight.

Cultural Differences: If Thou Kiss Not Me

Legolas and Gimli fall for each other, hard. But culture shock causes some problems when Gimli realizes that Dwarves and Elves don’t share certain customs.

Forged in Frame

A very contrived take on the Professor!Gimli and Influencer!Legolas AU, in which they’re still somewhat reluctantly trying to save the planet because Aragorn asked them to.

Secrets of the Lonely Mountain

Legolas is sent to Erebor after the War of the Ring, where he's given the chance to meet up with Gimli again.

we raise our cups

Legolas determined he would have to cut through the Woods of Oromë. If all went well, it should be a straight shot to what Celebrimbor had labelled as the Mansions of Aulë. Perhaps, were he a wiser elf, he would first seek the guidance of Mandos – because after all, he was still alive, and Gimli was still dead. But Legolas was, at the end of all things, not a very wise elf. He was simply an elf with a fiddle and a bow, who was deeply in love. And he had to hope that would be enough.

Terroir

"Terroir - the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to a wine by the environment in which it is produced." It's almost the tourist season in the wine country, and Greenwood Cellars is gearing up for its busiest time of year. The new Blue Mountain Public House threatens to disrupt decades of tradition - this is wine country, after all. Aragorn is running for County Sheriff on a platform of community policing - but he's running against his boss. Eowyn feels trapped in the family business, and thinks the handsome young motorcycle cop is her ticket out. And Gandalf is selling his fireworks, like he always has, even though there's no way they should be legal. The story of a town, and the people who want to make it better, and what happens in one tourist season.

Building

A city, a marriage, a world. Legolas and Gimli return to Minas Tirith with their people to help Aragorn rebuild his city, and learn how to be together in a new world of peace.

The Wild Hunt

Vampire Legolas vs. Slayer Gimli

What Song Can Fell the Mountain

Valinor has been their home for a century and a half when, scant days after his four-hundred-and-twelfth birthday, Gimli says, "I will soon die. What are we going to do about it?"

Lest We Burden Our Weary Hearts

If one must call them ‘missed chances’, then do so warmly, for even in the distance of space and years there is no shortage of affection here. Each other’s dearest companion, indeed.

Homespun

Modern Lasgalen bears some little resemblances to canon Mirkwood. Gimli encounters one of them in the bathtub one morning.

Going Viral

When a dangerous new virus spreads rapidly through Middle-earth, Gondor goes quickly into lockdown. Legolas and Gimli weather the pandemic together as best they can.

Rebuild Your Seawall (Brick by Brick)

For weeks and months, Legolas has felt a pull - and dares not name it, does not heed its stormy-sky warnings, does not track the ebb and flow on the shoreline of his life. Here’s the thing about the tide, though: it rises whether one wills it or not.

M&M and E&E2

A Gold Star in his Crown

The Silmarils have been stolen. So has Elrond, on the very same night, and the only trace left of those who took them is a note in Maglor's handwriting. Years later, after Elros has gone after his brother and never returned, Gil-Galad goes to reclaim his young kinsmen from their second captivity in Faerie.

The Ransom of the House of Fëanor

Maglor goes to war for a final time, the eternal darkness looms, and Elrond bargains with the Valar for the ransom of the House of Fëanor. In which fathers give up everything for their sons, and their sons offer everything in return; title, name, and fëa. Or, the one where Maglor believes he is destined for eternal darkness, and Elrond politely says otherwise.

To Safety

Elrond and Elros, after yet another horrible day of being hostages for their mother's Silmaril, awaken in an unfamiliar forest where the sunlight doesn't seem quite right, and somehow run right back into the arms of their captors. Maitimo and Makalaurë have no idea who these children are, but it seems like they're supposed to raise them. It's more difficult than it sounds, because somehow they don't speak Quenya. In other words, the twins time travel to Valinor in the Years of the Trees and proceed to be parented against their will.

Low Water

Elrond is gifted with foresight. Elrond has seen how this chapter ends.

New Strings

Maglor is rescued, now to fit him into life in Imladris.

And Love Repaid

It was never about owing.

Protector

It began with the Second Age. Or actually, it did not begin at all. It simply did not end. Against all odds, Maedhros and Maglor survive. For Elrond, that is a beginning of sorts.

Lessons Learned

It all begins with Maglor wanting to give the young Peredhels he and his brother captured a some sense of normalcy in their lives. He gave them over to Erestor so that they might learn simple things, how to read and write. He hardly expected to find his own relationship with the twins to develop, and Maedhros expected it even less...

Unwell

It's not that they're not happy that Maglor's been brought back to the Undying Lands. It's just that they're a little concerned about the fact that he's been taken into the house of someone he once kidnapped, and that no one's seen Maglor since.

Russandol

The attack on Sirion

After Sirion

After the Third Kinslaying, two pairs of brothers struggle to repair their broken families.

Songbird

Caught up in his grief over his twin brother’s death, Elrond hears rumours of his foster-father’s whereabouts. With only Erestor as his companion, the half-elf leaves Lindon to find Maglor. But at the end of their journey they must all face the question of what to do when the elf who was never meant to return to elven settlement is actually found.

Barriers

On the way back to Amon Ereb, Maedhros and Maglor carried not a jewel, but two small boys instead.

Always There

A young Elladan and Elrohir return from playing by the sea with a strange tale that sends their father on a mad chase.

Sons of Eärendil

Elros, King of Numenor, reminisces to his absent brother. Talking through memories of the terrors of their childhood and the things that drove them apart as adults.

As Little Might Be Thought

From the Sacking of Sirion to Amon Ereb; from princes to captives to sons. The story of the unlikely bond between Elrond and Elros and Maglor and Maedhros.

Pieces of Stars

When the Oath brings disaster to Sirion, Maglor attempts to fix what he can, but a temporary arrangement becomes much more permanent than anyone had foreseen. Elrond and Elros grow up, grow together, and grow apart at the end of a world slowly decaying into myth and legend.

The Lines on My Face, the Lines on My Hands

Nearly eighty years after Celebrían left Middle Earth to seek healing, the people of Imladris have yet to quite move on. But when a simple task of 'make sure the road is clear' ends in the Elladan and Elrohir bringing home a seriously injured and sorely missed elf, the entire household is forced to re-examine just what they are to each other, and to themselves.

The Starlit Sky

Elrond's account of his boyhood with the Fëanorians

Jailbird

There is singing from the southeast tower of the citadel. There is always singing from the southeast tower of the citadel. For over three thousand years someone has lived in that tower and sung, and today Faramir wants to know why.

I Beg a Deep and Dreamless Sleep

An alternate version of my fic "Give the Children Closure" Maedhros is unsurprised by Elrond coming to let him out of the Halls, though he knows he won't actually be leaving. This is a kinder hallucination than most. Again I will stress that everything is going to be okay, he just has to be sad first.

Lords of Amon Ereb

Maedhros and Maglor have stolen the Silmarils and disappeared. Beleriand is sinking. Finarfin, Gil-Galad, and all the people moving east pay a visit to Amon Ereb, assuming that the Sons of Fëanor returned there. Instead, they find Elrond and Elros.

With Eyes of Nightingales

Finarfin wants to know what happened to Elrond and Elros. Against their better judgement, Círdan and Gil-Galad go with him. What they find is a terrifying forest, a fortress that defies geometry, and a pair of twins with bright eyes.

Nightmare Sequence

A series of dreams and nightmares that everyone sincerely hopes are not prophetic, mostly taking place in the early days of Elrond and Elros's time as hostages. (aka things that were too messed up or too out of character that I really wanted to write)

plus ça change

Elrond has had many homes and many families, in the Ages of Middle-Earth. He has lost them all. Or, a character study, from toddler in Sirion to Lord of Rivendell.

Softly Sing the Children

Elrond and Elros are unsettling children. All the children in their family are.

Childhood Memories

Sometimes the waves of war wash strange things to the shore. Perhaps Maglor senses what it means for him when he finds Elwing's twin sons Elrond and Elros abandoned in the forest. He does not take them with him to Ossiriand as his prisoners of war, but rather takes on the role of a foster father for them. Little by little, the little Half-elves learn that he means them no harm, and gradually they begin to love him as their father.

And Family Means No One Gets Left Behind

Earendil returns home to find it burned to the ground and his sons missing, presumed captured by the Feanorians. He does the logical thing. He goes after them. He's not entirely expecting what he finds when he gets there.

MISC

Tears Like Rain

The first in the epic Mellon Chronicles. Mirkwood has suffered tragic losses in the Last Great Alliance, including her King. With the very survival of the kingdom at stake, Thranduil finds himself at deadly odds with his older brother Doriflen. When young Legolas becomes a pawn in his abusive uncle’s ruthless power games, the lies, deception and betrayal risk destroying more than just the young prince’s life.

Golden Light

They have loved each other for so long that when Finwë grieves, Ingwë grieves with him, but he also tries his best to comfort him.

No Other Choice

“Your word means nothing,” she spits at him, baring her teeth, nearly shaking with anger as sudden as a cataclysm. The sea roars behind her, cold droplets spraying up and flecking her bare legs. “I do not barter with murderers.” The Fëanorians descend upon the Havens of Sirion to retrieve the Silmaril. Elwing makes an impossible choice.

All Our Old Follies, Come 'Round Again

Celebrimbor sees Elrond again after a long separation. It isn't a good thing, at first. But then Celebrían meets Elrond for the first time under... unexpected circumstances.

The Siege of Khazad-dum

Rescued from Sauron by Celebrían, Celebrimbor and Elrond fled with her to the great dwarf-kingdom and stronghold where Durin is king. Celebrimbor, badly injured in body and spirit, is impatient. Galadriel and Durin oppose the might of Sauron to the utmost. And in Lindon, Gil-galad is unwilling to wait. This is a direct sequel to All Our Old Follies, Come 'Round Again

Songs of the Heart

It's not that Earendil isn't glad that the kinslayers are in custody. It's just that he's not entirely happy that the place they're currently in custody at is his ship.

Letters to a Daughter

After arriving in Valinor, Elrond writes down his thoughts and experiences in letters addressed to his now mortal daughter.

Songs of Shadows, Songs of Blood

There are shadows in the forests of Beleriand. Some of them have teeth.

More than the Stars Above

Elrond had lived without his parents for this long. He could certainly continue to do so if they proved to be indifferent. That didn't stop his hand from shaking when he reached out to knock on the door.

Watcher in the Woods

"The creature has been with us for many weeks, and Balan caved to its wish to learn. He has been teaching it our language, our politics, our culture. Our very way of life. Wherever we go, it is there. Watching. Always watching." Something does not bode well with this golden stranger in our camp, and yet, there is nothing to be done about it. I can only watch, and pray that what I fear does not come to pass. And it will.

Suitable Foster

"“Children?” Felagund sounded uncharacteristically distressed." Bëor strongly discourages his friend from adopting.

Beor and the Faerie King

The humans have their own story of how they met the Faërie King, what they gained and one they lost. The story of Finrod and Balan later named Bëor, as told by an old woman in a mountain cabin.

Little Boy Lost and Crying

I feel like the house of finwe just found a confused, crying, and lost little boy in the woods one day and decided to keep him and call him gil-galad and thats why his parentage is so confusing because everyone claimed he was theirs

Scion of Kings

Gil-galad struggles to write a letter to the man he thinks (hopes) might be his father. Or, in which we are all Gil-galad, failing to start an email.

Foundlings

The untold story of what happened to Dior's sons during and after the sack of Menegroth.

Twin Troubles

When Celegorm ends up in the Halls, he finds himself reluctantly playing guardian to a pair of lost twins.

Forget Me Not

It’s a marriage of convenience, a way to forever strengthen the bond between the Dwarves of Erebor and the people of Dale. Or so Sigrid tells herself.

Too Much Truth

Legolas accompanies Tilda to Erebor to visit her sister. It is his father’s wish that he does so. Legolas does not understand the new world he finds there.

Work for Idle Hands

King Bard carries so many worries, especially now his council want his eldest daughter Sigrid betrothed in a way to best benefit Dale. Sigrid carries her own worries and is determined to cut back her Da’s. There’s a trade agreement between Erebor and Dale; Sigrid and Fili begin using it.

My Lady Dis

On her way to Erebor following the deaths of her family, Princess Dís receives some unexpected news from King Thranduil, and an offer to make Mirkwood her home. King Thranduil can't abide Dwarves, but the more time he spends with Erebor's last princess, the more he begins questioning his long held convictions.

We Were Legends: Book I - Champion's Dawn

In the First Age of the world, House of Elmo supports the King and Queen of Doriath in ruling their Kingdom. Princes of Doriath hold on to it as well - they found themselves in different roles to support their Kingdom, but beside their duty, they still hold deep loyalty and love towards each other despite grudges from the past and poorly made decisions. Will their loyalty linger through all the Ages to come?

The Burned Prince

After the sacking of Doriath, the lands once girdled by Melian were abandoned. Faerbraichon, Lord of House Brethil, went east in search of a new land for his Sindar Elves, a land far removed from the grief caused by the Silmaril Thingol had coveted. With him came his family - those who were left - and those for whom he was Lord.

Extraordinary

The first time he saw her, when he climbed out of her toilet and into her father’s home, he barely even registered her presence – he was too preoccupied with his mission and his brother’s injury, so he wrote her off simply as a perfectly ordinary human girl. But then he started observing her – and Mahal, she was the most extraordinary creature he had ever laid eyes upon.

A Favorable Arrangement

Fili and Sigrid agree to an arranged marriage, and quickly learn that mountains and lakes ally more quickly than people.

Episodes from Middle Earth

Collection of one-shots

Fear and Family (Or, the One Where Kíli Is the Sensible One)

After the Battle of Five Armies, Bilbo isn't sure of his welcome in the mountain, and thus returns to the Shire as soon as he can. Somewhat to his surprise, Ori goes with him -- but it turns out Ori has his own reasons for leaving Erebor behind. Well, Bilbo's quite used to being the talk of the Shire.

Solace

The tale of Thranduil and his wife from the beginning of their journey to the downfall of their tragedy.

Seduction to Destruction

Before the awakening of the elves there was the rise of the Valaraukar. As the Valar attempt to keep and contain their Maiar from succumbing to Melkor’s might, they fail to realize that it only takes one to destroy their efforts from within. The fall of Almaren will be detailed with Mairon and his relationships with others as the central plot points. Eventual Angbang because that was why I started writing this thing in the first place.

Bury My Sins Down By the Sea

Wandering along the seashore singing an unceasing lament for what his people had become and what they had done was supposed to be the last line for Maglor, son of Fëanor. When he accidentally trespasses on Avarin territory, they take him briefly hostage in order to ensure that he will lead no war parties to them. Among their people, thrust headfirst into a culture completely alien to him, Maglor learns quickly exactly how different they are. Despite all their differences, he still finds kinship with Denethor of the Laiquendi, and the comfort of a connection helps him open his heart again at long last.

Adopted of the Khîtikweni

Maglor has been avoiding others since he flung the Silmaril into the sea. Some, he finds, are more stubborn than he is.

Mortal Cold

Elladan, Elrohir, Legolas, and Aragorn are in the mountains during a terrible cold autumn storm and the sons of Elrond reluctantly stay with some of the Avari after Legolas' insistence and the severity of the storm.

Secret Hope

Nerdanel is, she suspects, among the last to receive word - the ships are coming home. The Elves are returning at last. She knows she will likely be disappointed. But she can't help but hope.

Vegetarian

Whenever anyone asks Erestor how he ended up in Rivendell, he defers to Glorfindel.

My Father’s Eyes

They are terrible and cruel; warm and loving. I see my father trough his ever-changing eyes, and they tell me his truths if I read them wisely. But sometimes I fear i will never get to know everything there is to know about them. They are like the grey sky before it rains, like the universe itself or the forest when it rains. They speak to me if I listen closely. And I do listen.

The Prisoner of Dol Guldur

Thranduil makes a terrible discovery after the fall of Dol Guldur

The Web of Darkness

An experiment of the Witch-King backfires, big time, and the Elves of Mirkwood find an unexpected ally.

Hungry Eye, Ancient Soul

"In this Fifth Age of Middle Earth, there are many stories about the romantic past of the earlier ages. Ancient stories of love and adventure, and those who inhabited these lands alongside us mortals. The terrifying reality of these stories is often ignored, and I will bring them to light, remaining anonymous lest these beings find me for revealing the truth." It is the Fifth Age of Middle Earth, and the Elves have fallen into legend; legend twisted into tales of deceit, Fae magic, disappearances, and betrayal.

The Unseen Fate

Namo once said, "There long shall ye abide and yearn for your bodies, and find little pity..." so basically, he said that the House of Feanor will abide in the Halls of Mandos and remain dispossessed for ever. However, it would seem that Eru has another fate in mind. A story where the House of Miriel has found their place in the world. They meet new friends along the way and grievances are forgiven. Finally, a happy ending for the House of Miriel.

Consequences

"She is her father's daughter. He was never really a father at all." Elwing and Eärendil remember their children.

The Wanderer (Maglor's story)

The silmarillion as told from Maglor's perspective. Some implied Russingon and a whole bunch of vala/elf relationships.

A Meeting In Valinor

After the War of the Ring, Sauron returns as a prisoner to Valinor and, much to the incredulity of his self-appointed guard Eönwë, encounters a hobbit.

Casting Out The Serpent

Balan-who-will-be-Bëor comes to some conclusions about his new friend after said new friend demonstrates a terrifying knowledge of venomous snakes. In conclusion, Finarfin was a reptile hoarder and also elves might be poisonous.

The Fourth Hall

Where do the orcs go when they die?

green are the leaves (i leave in mirkwood)

"A choice sits upon his head, pressing down past his elven bones and into his very fae. He must choose either to turn back to the stifling safety of the King's Halls, or venture on into a world that will not offer favours nor protection to an Elf as young and inexperienced as he." OR: Legolas learns what it means to chase freedom, choose, sacrifice and find family even in the darkest of hours.

A Feast of Ashes

Now High King of the Noldor in Middle Earth, Fingolfin decides to host a feast to reunite the free people of Beleriand, the Noldor, and his own family. What he did not expect is to be reunited with dead relatives, spies from Angband, dark secrets from Cuivienen, and a fair share of angst

An Unexpected Exchange

Bilbo always knew there was something off about his nephew. He didn't fit in amongst the hobbits. And when a stranger shows up on his doorstep claiming that the boy is not his nephew at all, things get a bit... complicated.

Should A Star Fall, The Sky Won't Go Black

The stars are sacred to all of the eldar, but for some, they may have a little bit more meaning. Or: Elurín has a nightmare that leaves him lost and confused, and Maedhros helps guide him back onto his path with the help of the night sky.

Two Stars in Time

While undergoing a hunting test, Elurín and Eluréd have a strange setback and wake up under the Two Trees. Lost in a land of old, there is only one person whom they can think of to search for: Adar Maedhros.

In Elin Gelebrin

After the Second Kinslaying, Maedhros searches for two young children and succeeds in finding them. Here are some small moments of their time together.

An Untold Tale

Injured, afraid, and freezing in the forests of Doriath, Elurín manages to tap into an inheritance from Melian he never realised was there. In his desperation, he uses it, and he and his brother vanish from history. Three thousand years later, a patrol of Imladris finds two strange boys in the woods.

What if Elrond Had Pushed Isildur into the Fires of Mt. Doom? Theory

The One Ring and it’s survival by the hands of Isildur gave rise to Sauron and the War of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings, but what if Elrond had pushed Isildur into the fires of Mount Doom, bringing an end to the One Ring altogether?

#fic rec #the hobbit #lotr #bagginshield #gigolas #kiliel #the silmarillion #long post

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