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scripttorture · 3 years

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My question is basically: in the scenario I describe, do you think I should go with or without torture as a referenced thing that happened? The situation is this- my character’s father has been dead for seven years, but I thought that what if, instead of being killed by the monster he was faced with at the time, he was injured by it and then captured by a group of bad guys. This is set in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild universe and the bad guys in question are the Yiga Clan, (1/9)

who alternate between a comical and threatening presence in the game. They are presented as a tribe of assassins, but the reason why they decide to take my character’s father alive is that they saw him using a rare kind of magic and either want him to teach it to them or want to get him to use it for them. (It’s hereditary so he can’t teach it to anyone but his daughter, but they don’t know that and he will neglect to inform them that anyone else has the same abilities.) (2/9) Most likely they want him to do something with his magic when their idol (Ganon, The Big Bad) returns or possibly something that they think would help him return. Where the question of torture comes in is, I need him to still be alive and capable of going with an escape attempt after seven years. So, whether or not they get the notion to try torturing at any point, it obviously can’t be super regular or prolonged over this period. I thought maybe one or two incidents toward the beginning (3/9) of his captivity, which were ordered to stop when they realized they would have to keep him alive for an undetermined amount of time and that’s easier when you aren’t treating extra injuries, but I’m not sure that would really add anything other than acknowledging the fact that someone in there probably got the notion to go “hey if he won’t teach us that magic what if we punch him and ask again” and may not have been turned down. Or they may have, (4/9) or they may not have brought it up at all because the Leader didn’t ask them to. Alternately, I could lean into their comical side and say that, while they got the idea to try “torturing” they don’t actually know how to do that. They’re assassins, they usually just kill, they don’t really know what to do with prisoners, it’s been a long time since they split off from another group that may have known torture techniques in the service of the now-destroyed kingdom. In which case it would be (5/9) things like “ohoho what if we give him his food... WITHOUT ANY bananas? he’ll be MISERABLE” (they are obsessed with bananas) played for a weird kind of humor. On the other hand I don’t want to imply that if they’d tried “REAL” torture it might have worked. Possibly the punching and asking again was tried once toward the beginning, then the comical “no bananas” one was tried later and neither one accomplished anything? I don’t want to say he spent seven years underground (6/9) surrounded by a comical murderous weirdo cult and “nothing really happened” in that time until his rescue but I don’t want to shoe in something like Actual Torture Attempts when it isn’t necessary. I could fill his time with escape attempts and/or trying to get information. Final thing: his daughter is going to break him out with the help of the Hero and a friend who defected from the Yiga Clan. This friend’s mother is going to take leadership of the clan but is meant to reform somewhat. (7/9) My character (the one whose father is imprisoned) could funnel her anger at his imprisonment towards the previous leader but if she finds out he was tortured (or weird attempts were made at it) she could have more trouble coming to a grudging, still pretty angry acceptance that her friend’s mother exists and is the way she is and probably shouldn’t be magically lit on fire. Or she could compartmentalize and say the friend’s mother never ordered anything like that, or may have even (8/9) turned a blind eye to her father’s final escape. This was a lot of detail but again the main questions are: does that seem like torture attempts would add or detract, and would it be in poor taste to include something like the “no bananas” scene? (9/9)

While I’d never played a Zelda game when I got this ask I am now one of Those People who got a switch in response to not being able to go outside. (They had pokemon, I was weak). And I’ve put a lot of hours into Breath of the Wild since. It’s a beautifully realised setting and I can see the appeal of writing something set in that world.

Humour is a very subjective thing. Whatever we do there are always going to be people that the jokes don’t land for. I’ve (mostly) got positive responses to my humour but I have had incidents both here and on my AO3 page where people took exception to it. And that’s a lot more likely to happen when we’re dealing with serious topics.

That said, I do think that we need humour about the things that scare us. There’s nothing quite as potent and satisfying as making our fears ridiculous.

If you’re considering using humour in a torture/kidnap/POW situation (whatever you decide re torture the story definitely contains some of these elements) then the main thing to consider is this: what are we actually laughing at?

This kind of humour is mostly likely to backfire or be outright hurtful when it can be interpreted as laughing at the victims. Or at the existence of traumatic events. And it’s most likely to work consistently when it’s aimed at the abusers.

From the way you’ve described this it sounds like the joke is on the Yiga clan. As it is in the game itself. (I have enjoyed the assassination attempts by enraged ‘banana salesmen’.) If you wanted to continue the pattern the game set I think a lot of fellow fans would enjoy this humour.

But the main question here is about when we should use torture in a story. And how we judge whether it’s adding anything.

Personally I start by thinking about the tone and themes of the story. The kind of atmosphere I want to capture and kinds of character interactions I want to write.

Then I try to think through the impact torture would have on the narrative in terms of knock on effects. So, symptoms in victims/survivors, witnesses and torturers but also effects on culture, community and organisations.

It would probably be easiest for me to break this down with an example or two.

I’ve talked briefly about both of these stories before. One of them takes place about two decades after a military coup ousted an absolute monarchy. Ilāra, one of the major characters, was embedded in the old regime and tortured people. They were also tortured by the regime and helped make the coup successful.

And part of the impact torture has on the story is in Ilāra's symptoms. But it’s also in the way other characters relate to them. Normal people are afraid of them or disgusted/enraged at the sight of them. They’re ostracised by their own community and treated with contempt by their military superiors.

One of the major themes running through the story is the question of how we deal with people we love when they’ve done horrific things. And how countries, cultures, move on from atrocities.

Most of the major characters aren’t Ilāra's generation, they’re the kids who came afterwards. The people who just about remember the Revolt but grew up in a world without the monarchy. They’re navigating a legacy of blood and bitterness, things that aren’t their fault but nevertheless have shaped the world they live in.

Part of it is about how the children Ilāra helped raise respond to this personal (and national) history. How they try to square the fact that this person was good (and in some ways defining) for them, while being monstrous to others.

I felt that torture would add to this story because the point of it is those fault lines. In society at large and in personal relationships. It’s about exploring how we try to bridge or heal those fault lines and how, sometimes, we make them deeper.

Torture (and indeed the other atrocities that are part of the country’s legacy) serve to raise the stakes. They deepen that initial emotional trench between the characters. And they also… Pull the camera back I suppose? The story may be about a single family but it isn’t an individual story. It’s about how larger patterns of abuse effect everyone in a society. Torture serves to make it about the culture, the country, instead of just the individuals within it.

There are similar ideas in the other story I’m working on, societal divides and how we bridge them, but I think there’s a slightly different focus.

Both of these stories are fantasy stories, but while Ilāra's story is in a sort of circa 1900s past Kibwe’s is in the future. It’s extrapolating the political oppression and systems from the places I’m interested in (in this case India, the Philippines, Kenya and Nigeria.)

The story takes place across generations starting when Kibwe was a teenager but continuing to his daughter’s formative years and into his children becoming independent adults.

And there’s torture in this story because the entire family is involved in politics. Because I grew up knowing that the natural consequence of acting for major political reform/justice was arrest and torture.

The story is about trying to change unjust systems and generational violence. It’s also about the unhealthy ways people can engage in activism, putting the theoretical good of the community above their health and their families/friends.

I didn’t really have to think about including torture in any depth, it was a natural fit. In fact I’m not sure I could talk about politics in any meaningful way without talking about torture.

So some more specific questions that might help with your story. Is the structure of the Yiga clan important to the story? Is the effect they have on society at large important to the story? Is this primarily an individual/personal story or one with a wider focus?

There aren’t ‘wrong’ answers to those questions, it’s about what you want to write.

Do you want a more personal focus with the relationships between the major characters being more important then the world at large? I think of this as a character focused (as opposed to a character driven) story.

For instance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy while we care about every member of the fellowship the important thing throughout, the focus, is the destruction of the ring and the systems that are harming all of Middle Earth. By contrast in Howl’s Moving Castle we care about the war and the fate of the missing Prince, but the important thing is what happens to the girls from the hat shop.

Both of these approaches to a story can include torture in a meaningful way. It can add to both kinds of stories. But it’s generally adding different things.

In a character focused story (with the kind of plot you’re writing) torture is mostly adding a sudden change to all of the relationships a character has. There might be focus on symptoms, a recovery arc, character development etc but the first and most obvious thing it’s adding is a major change to how these characters interact.

In a story that’s more focused on the big picture of the world torture can add world building elements and it can be used to map out divisions and allegiances in the societies you write.

Part of the reason I’m making this distinction is that in this scenario you can very easily tell a character focused story with trauma-recovery and not have torture. Kidnap and seven years imprisonment is enough to be traumatising.

That doesn’t mean torture couldn’t/wouldn’t add anything to that story. But it might not be necessary for the story you want to tell and the focus you want it to have.

On the other hand if this is primarily a broader story about communities and cultures growing and changing, the decision of whether or not to include torture has much more potential to direct the plot. It could create opposition to reforming the Yiga clan, both inside the clan (wanting to stick with how things are) and outside it (with people wanting it utterly destroyed).

Different factions and cultures might band together on the basis of shared opposition to the Yiga clan. And the clan’s reformation could effect those allegiances.

There could also be knock on effects based on where the clan operates: cultures that have been targetted by them in the past might not want this new ‘reformed’ (and more obvious) Yiga clan on their lands. And that in turn could stir up trouble within the clan because hey they’ve been here for generations it’s their home too!

There are lots of ways torture could add to this plot and these characters. It could also feed in to broader themes.

For instance the main character and her father haven’t seen each other for seven years. The difference between how we remember or idolise someone and the way they actually are is a theme you could add to here. The Yiga clan is going to end up reformed: what does it take for people to accept that reformation and forgive? The main character is friends with a former Yiga assassin: how do we process the fact people we care about might have hurt others?

That isn’t an exhaustive list, I’m just throwing out ideas to see if anything interests you.

In terms of timing and character being physically able to escape I think you’re already hit on a pretty good idea.

Torturers don’t tend to stop when ordered to. Part of the reason a lot of organisations reject torturers is because they… tend to disobey orders. A lot.

So if you wanted to write a scenario where this character is initially tortured and then held for a much longer time without torture the realistic way to do that is to have the character transferred from the ‘care’ of one group of Yigas to another. Torturers tend to exist in groups as sub-cultures within larger organisations. Which means that their presence in an organisation does not necessarily indicate that everyone in the organisation supports/carries out torture.

You could even have the Yiga’s take a (perhaps half-hearted) anti-torture stance and have them punish the torturers.

Wrapping up, the decision of whether or not to include torture is up to you. I can see ways it could add to your story but the points and themes I’ve spoken about might not be things you’re interested in.

Just because an element could add to a story doesn’t necessarily mean it’s adding something you want. There’s nothing wrong with deciding that an element doesn’t interest you, takes the story in a direction you like less or causes more stress then you want as you write it.

Ultimately the question is whether you want to write torture. And there’s no wrong answer to that question.

I hope that helps. :)

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#lia-wild-english #writing advice #tw torture #tw kidnap #writing survivors #writing torturers #effects of torture #effects of torture on society #worldbuilding #fantasy ask #torture survivors and relationships

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ymiwritesstuff · 4 years

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How would it be if revali's s/o asked him to teach them to shoot or to fight in any way but he denies they request because he doesn't want them to get hurt under his supervision or something like that?(also I was thinking that he would do that because he actually/also want to feel like he's their guardian(as I said in a comment that's kinda my relationship fantasy))

Heyy, thanks for the request. Protective Vali is really cute and I hope you enjoy! Also sorry, it’s a bit short..

Protection

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Revali x Reader

Summary: The dangers and risks one would encounter while on a simple walk around Hyrule were very serious, causing you to develop the desire to defend yourself in any way possible.

Due to the possible yet somewhat likely return of the cursed Calamity Ganon, Hyrule had gotten a lot more dangerous. A normal citizen just living their life, wouldn’t have known about the attacks of the vicious Yiga Clan or the increase of the many monsters. But someone like you, who actively traveled across the land was fully aware of the threats and had gotten involved in them on multiple occasions. These attacks wouldn’t be a problem if you only knew how to protect yourself. The sword you carried was just meant to threaten any possible enemies but when it came to actual fighting, you were helpless as a rabbit. The experience in combat you possessed was practically nonexistent and you wished to change that as soon as possible.

“I refuse.”

Your previously hopeful face quickly fell under confusion and disappointment. The fact that Revali had denied your simple request was unexpected, as you were sure the Rito would’ve happily shared his knowledge in combat with you. But alas, the words of refusal left his beak immediately when you presented your question, causing you to look at him in disbelief. “What?? Why?” Revali looked at you with an expression that told you that the reason should be obvious. But it wasn’t.

“You don’t need any teaching. Frankly, you don’t need any experience in combat at all.” He shrugged at your even more confused face. Revali knew about the dangers roaming around Hyrule so why was he so persistent on refusing your request? “Are you joking? Revali, I need to know how to defend myself!”

Revali sighed in growing annoyance at your stubbornness. Of course he knew of the attacks as he had been a victim of many failed assassinations. However these threats were the exact reason why he didn’t want you getting involved. Even if you could defend yourself, he couldn’t take the risk. He could never forgive himself if something happened to you. He was your guardian. He was more than capable of protecting you both from the risks around the kingdom as well as the possible dangers during the training. Being a master at archery was no easy task and frankly, the conditions in the Flight Range were not suitable for a Hylian at all, the thought increasing the anxiety about your safety.

“It’s unnecessary. You have nothing to worry about.” Revali had his pride to worry about so he couldn’t let his protectiveness reach the surface of his being too much. You let out a groan of frustration. You knew Revali was stubborn and arrogant, but you were almost sure that he would help you. With a sigh you open your mouth to accept his refusal, thinking he did so only out of cockiness. “I suppose I can ask someone else-”

“Don’t. That’s dangerous.” The words slipped out of his beak almost unwillingly as he was slowly revealing his feelings of worry. Once again, you can only frown your brows in visible confusion at his words. “What do you mean that’s dange-” Then it all clicks. A moment of realization causes you to let out a small ‘oh’ and a playful grin is laid on your face. “Wow, Revali.. I didn’t take you for the protective type..” His green eyes widen and turn to you. He had said too much and you had caught up to his protective feelings.

“I’m merely making sure you won’t get hurt.”

“Oh really? Or are you perhaps implying that I should stay with you at all times so you won’t need to worry your pretty little head off?” You place your hands on his shoulders, expecting the Rito to be drowned in embarrassment but instead his eyes gain even more confidence, his beak turning upwards. “Perhaps. But I’m sure you wouldn’t mind my company. I am rather talented after all.” And there it was. The familiar words of praise intended for himself that made you roll your eyes. “Well, do you promise to keep your fragile beloved safe and make sure no harm comes to them?” You ask, sarcastic innocence coloring your voice. Revali lets out a small chuckle.

“As long as you don’t let my stunning appearance distract you and stay close to me, I promise my dear, nothing will hurt you.”

Despite it all sounding like a joke, Revali was serious. He would keep you safe from anything that ever tried to harm you. That was his duty, not only as a champion but also as a guardian. A guardian for his beloved (Name).

#loz #the legend of zelda #legend of zelda #legend of zelda x reader #breath of the wild #legend of Zelda breath of the wild #breath of the wild x reader #breath of the wild revali #revali #legend of zelda revali #botw revali #loz revali #revali x reader #loz revali x reader

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katedoesfics · 4 years

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Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 30

His friends were gathered in the front hall when Link made his way into the house. They stopped talking as soon as he entered and watched him carefully as he closed the door. He leaned against the door, his hands in his pockets and looking down at his feet. His brows furrowed as he tried to sort through his thoughts. His voice was soft when he finally spoke.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“What do you want to do?” Urbosa asked.

“I don’t know,” Link muttered. His expression hardened. “I don’t know if I can trust him.”

“Hold up,” Revali said quickly. He narrowed his eyes on Link. “Why not?”

Link met his gaze. “He could be working with the Yiga.”

“No, fuck off,” Revali hissed. “I know you’re a little messed up in the head right now and you have your issues, but I can tell you for a fact that he’s not.”

“You’re pretty confident about that,” Riju muttered.

“Yeah,” Revali started. “Fuck right I am. There’s no way in hell he would do that. Not to you.” His shoulders dropped as he looked around at his friends. “You may not realize it, but we do. Ten years ago, he would have destroyed Ganondorf himself if you hadn’t come back from the dead. And then he would have destroyed all of us for letting you die. That’s not something a Yiga bitch would have done.”

“Well,” Riju said, her head cocking slightly. “The Yiga Clan do want to destroy us all.”

“You know what I mean,” Revali muttered.

“He could have just been pissed off that the hero died before they could get their hands on him,” Kit chimed in.

“You’re not helping!” Revali snapped.

Daruk nodded. “Revali’s right. We trust him. No one blames you for not trusting him, but.” He shrugged. “I think you should.”

The others nodded wordlessly in agreement.

Link turned his gaze back to his feet, but before he could think to say anything, Aryll tried to open the door, muttering at him through the crack.

“Get outta the way, idiot.”

Link stepped to the side as Aryll entered, and she sneered at him.

“What’s your damn problem?” she hissed at him. “Why can’t you just let yourself be happy about anything? Do you know how many parents get to magically come back from the dead? None! For fuck’s sake, stop being so damn stubborn!”

Link opened his mouth to retort, then thought better of it. Instead, he stepped around Aryll and left the house, slamming the door behind him.

He didn’t know where he wanted to go; he just knew that he didn’t want to be there any longer. He wanted to disappear. He wanted to be away from all his problems. He just wanted everything to be over. He was angry, yet he wanted to be able to put it all behind them. He wanted to forgive. He was just so damn exhausted.

He opted to head for the barn. At the very least, he wanted to continue to give his father hell. He wanted to make him see all the shit he put them through. He wasn’t done being angry with him. He needed to yell. But his father was no longer in the barn.

Link stood in the doorway for a moment. After staring into the empty barn for a moment, he made his way out back toward the paddocks. His father was there, pacing aimlessly with a cigarette in his mouth. He looked up when Link approached, but said nothing. He blew out smoke in a long sigh and turned his gaze to the grazing horses.

“I’m done with secrets,” Link said. “I want the truth.”

Rusl glanced at his son. “Do you trust me?”

Link met his father’s gaze. “Yes.”

Rusl’s face remained still. He studied his son as he inhaled his cigarette. “Why?” he said after a moment.

“I don’t know,” Link admitted. “Everyone else does.”

Rusl smiled and turned his gaze to the ground. He watched the ash drop from his cigarette. “You don’t have to trust me,” he said. “Your judgment has gotten you this far. You’re right not to trust me.” He brought the cigarette to his lips once more. “But, I’d hope you’d give me a chance to earn that.” He blew out smoke again and turned his gaze to the pasture. “I can’t tell you everything right now. But the answers will come in time.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Link said.

Rusl nodded. “I know you will.” He flicked the cigarette to the ground and put it out with the toe of his boot. “I can leave if you want.”

Link grunted. “Right. Where you gonna go?”

Rusl shrugged with one shoulder. “I could travel. See the world or something.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Link muttered. “I’m not letting you leave again.”

“I’m sorry,” Rusl said. His brows furrowed as he spoke. “I know that doesn’t fix anything, but it’s all I can say. I’m sorry I put you and Ary through that. And I know I can’t make it up to you. I just hope you can understand that I did what I had to do, and I hope you won’t hate me forever.”

“I don’t hate you,” Link said. He hesitated. “I just hate that you weren’t there. Even if you were dead.”

“Me too.”

“I was barely ready to be a damn adult, never mind raise a damn teenager.”

Rusl smiled. “Seems like you did alright.”

“That’s debatable,” he muttered. “She’s kind of a pain in my ass.”

“Yeah, I know what that’s like.”

Link glanced at his father. He had forgotten all about being angry with him, it seemed. In fact, he didn’t feel angry at all anymore. He was happy his father was back, regardless of how or why it all happened. For once, life was starting to feel normal again, despite the looming threat of the Yiga Clan. For a moment, he didn’t think of them. He didn’t think about the dark power inside of him. The only thought that occurred to him was that Aryll would not be alone, now. And that brought him a sense of relief.

Link wrapped his arms around his father. For years, he felt like he was slowly losing control of his life. He was just barely hanging on with everything he had, for Aryll, to give her the life she deserved. But for the first time, as his father hugged him back, he felt that weight lift off of his shoulders. He didn’t have to do it alone anymore. Life was the way it should be.

*****

Link had been gone for nearly an hour, though no one dared to go after him. Still, Mipha and Urbosa couldn’t contain their curiosity, keeping their gazes out the window for any sign of him. Soon, Link and Rusl made their way into their view, and they quickly pressed in behind the protection of the blinds to watch.

Revali raised a brow, watching Mipha and Urbosa as they whispered to one another and peaked between the blinds. He stood behind them with crossed arms, Daruk at his side.

“The hell are you two doing?” he asked.

“Spying on Link and Rusl,” Urbosa said.

Mipha frowned. “What are they saying? Do they look happy? They don’t look happy.”

“Look,” Urbosa said excitedly. “Look! Link laughed!”

“Maybe he’s laughing at you idiots,” Revali said.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Mipha sighed. “I just want them to be okay.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Urbosa said with a nod.

“He doesn’t know,” Mipha sad softly. “Rusl doesn’t know about Link.”

“I’m sure he’ll tell him,” Urbosa said. “You know. Eventually. Probably.”

“What are they talking about?” Mipha hissed, pressing closer to the window.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Revali said. He turned to Daruk. “Let’s go. I don’t need to be a part of this juvenile high school shit.”

“Leave them be,” Daruk warned Revali, but Revali was already making his way outside.

“I’ll get answers,” he called over his shoulder. Daruk reached to grab his arm and stop him, but Revali darted out of his reach with a laugh, appearing outside in the drive. Daruk trotted down the front steps, muttering to himself, as Revail strutted toward Link and Rusl.

“And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,” Revali sang. “Little boy blue and the man in the moon. When ya comin’ home, Dad? I don’t know when, but -” He was cut short suddenly as Daruk attempted to punch him, but Revali was quick to dodge, appearing in a snap at Link’s side.

“How’s it going?” Revali said with a grin. He draped his arm around Link’s shoulders.

“You know just how to get me,” Rusl said dryly. “Right in the feels.”

“All your little issues settled, then?”

“Piss off,” Link muttered. He moved out from under Revali’s arm.

“Great,” Revali said, clapping his hands together. “Now that everything’s all settled, I can tell the girls to quit spying on you and we can get back to business.”

“What business?” Rusl asked. His gaze narrowed on Revali.

“The business of kicking Yiga ass, of course. We’ve got a Sheikah Slate to get our hands on.” He narrowed his gaze on Link. “And we’re gonna be smart about this and not run off on a suicide mission.”

Link rolled his eyes.

“Sheikah Slate?” Rusl repeated. He raised a brow.

Revali shrugged. “Apparently it works with this healing shrine, which sounds like a load of horse shit if you ask me. But the last thing we need is the Yiga using that with Ganondorf. And if all goes well, maybe we can use it to fix Hulk over here before he goes on another murderous rampage.”

Link crossed his arms and avoided his father’s gaze as Revali continued on. He was pulling out his phone as he spoke, dialing a number.

“Speaking of, we should let Zelda know you’re back in one piece.” He brought the phone to his ear and grinned when Zelda answered. “‘Sup, girl?” He frowned. “Oh, relax. You’re less fun as a queen… Yeah, yeah. Quit worrying, he’s back… Yeah, and you’ll never in a million guess who he brought with him… How’d you know?... Yeah, I’m serious… Do I sound like I’m joking, woman?... For fuck’s sake.” He pulled his phone away and fumbled with it. He held it in his outstretched arm, then wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Whatchu doin’ later?”

Zelda’s voice came over the speaker. “Shut up! ”

Revali rolled his eyes and switched the camera. “Say cheese, boys.”

“What in the fuck,” came Zelda’s voice.

Rusl bowed dramatically. “Your Highness.”

“This is so fucked up,” Zelda muttered. “Who knows about this?”

Revali switched the camera back. He eyed Rusl, and Rusl simply shrugged. “I guess just us.” He turned his attention back to Zelda. “We’re gonna get our hands on that slate, now.”

Zelda hushed him sharply. “Forget about it,” she hissed. “Dorian brought it back.”

Link’s gaze narrowed. “Dorian?” He moved to Revali’s side to address Zelda. “What do you mean Dorian brought it back?”

“He brought it back,” she said, her gaze hard. “Impa has it. I saw it myself.”

“Hold up,” Revali said. “I thought he was working with the Yiga?”

Zelda’s eyes moved around warily as she spoke. “I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely,” she said softly. “We don’t know who’s side he’s on, and that’s exactly what he wants. He’ll do what he has to do to make him seem loyal to us. He may have given us the slate, but I’m certain he has alternative motives.”

Link’s gaze moved to his father. “You’re awfully quiet,” he said.

“I don’t know anything,” his father said, his expression cold.

Link held his gaze on him until Revali spoke again.

“So, what do we do now?” he said.

“Paya and Purah are going to bring it to the shrine,” Zelda said. “Sit tight until we know more.”

“Sit tight?” Revali sneered. “You’re kidding.”

“If Purah determines the shrine will be of use to us, then we’ll head directly there. If not, we’ll need to resort to something else. There’s no sense wandering across the damn kingdom; that’s exactly with the Yiga will be expecting, and they will ambush us.”

“Crazy idea,” Revali started. “We could just take them out right now.”

“Don’t test me,” Zelda sneered. “If you so much as step a toe out of Paya’s ward, I will destroy you myself.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

The call ended and the screen darkened. Revali sighed and slipped his phone in his pocket. “You heard the lady,” he said.

Rusl’s gaze narrowed on Link. “What do you want in that shrine?”

“What do you know about the shrine?” Daruk asked carefully.

“The Shrine of Resurrection is a healing shrine,” Rusl said. “What use would it be to you?”

They hesitated. Revali and Daruk turned their gazes to Link, and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

“Well,” Revali started. “It’s nice to have around when the Yiga Clan destroy our sorry asses,” he muttered. He quickly changed the subject. “What’s there to fucking do around here, anyway? If we’re waiting around, I at least want to get drunk tonight. Where’s Kit? I’m sending him to the city to stock up on beer.”

Link watched as Revali made his way back toward the house, calling Kit and whistling as if searching for a dog. Daruk hesitated, his gaze lingering on Link’s, before he too, left them alone.

“Are you going to explain this Hulk shit to me?” Rusl muttered.

“No,” Link said simply. His brows furrowed.

“Keeping secrets, then?” Rusl said. “How ironic of you.”

Link sneered at his father. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Rusl frowned. “What do you want to know? I’ll explain whatever I can.”

“Everything,” Link snapped.

Rusl shrugged. “Fine.” He paused in thought, carefully planning what he wanted to tell Link. “I was in a special unit tasked with finding the Yiga Clan. There were several of these units over the years, but most of them were completely wiped out. Some of them we simply lost contact with all together and never knew what happened to them. I’m sure the Yiga Clan was behind every single attack. So, naturally, we were ambushed as well.” He lit another cigarette, pausing for a moment to bring it to his lips and he sighed. “Those of us who weren’t killed were brought in for, you know,” he shrugged, “the usual questioning.” He blew out smoke. “I don’t know what happened to any of them. I’m sure they all died. Figured that would come of me, too.” He flicked ash off the cigarette. “But they seemed to have other plans. They weren’t so willing to end my life so quickly. They wanted you, obviously, and I had that information they wanted. I think they planned to use me against you, against Roham and all of Hyrule. Apparently they thought I would be useful enough to keep around. I think I was there for nearly two years before I got out.”

Link’s brows furrowed. He pulled his gaze away. “How did you manage that?”

“I’m just fucking good like that,” Rusl said. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“Yes,” Link said simply.

Rusl didn’t go into any further details. “I got out. I got in contact with Roham. Told him what happened. He filled me in; told me that he told you I died in some attack in Termina. Said I couldn’t return to the city. Too risky. Obviously the Yiga Clan would be looking for me. I couldn’t bring them right to you. But, I had intel Roham needed, and a fairly good idea of where the Yiga Clan hideout was located. I bunkered down in a safe house for the next couple of years, per Roham’s orders. A few more units were sent to infiltrate them, but they had no more luck than anyone else.” He brought the cigarette to his lips once more. “And that’s about when I had enough. Told Roham to go fuck himself and decided I’d destroy the Yiga Clan myself. But I got word what happened to you and Aryll and Mipha, and when I heard you had managed to escape, I just knew you would be back for more. I worked too hard keeping your damn ass alive to let you go in and throw it all away.”

“I still don’t believe you got out on your own,” Link said after a moment. “Your story has a lot of holes in it.”

Rusl smiled. “Perhaps. And those details will come through in time. It doesn’t matter right now. You wanted the truth, there it is.”

Link’s brows furrowed as he processed this information. He still had so many questions that went much further back then his father’s fake death, most of them involving Dorian, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t get anything more out of his father.

“Kohga told me he killed you,” he said.

“Of course he did,” Rusl said, rolling his eyes. “That’s what bad guys do. They fuck with you.”

“Yeah, well.” Link hesitated. “He did a damn good job. He pumped me full of his dark magic shit.”

“Is that what happened?” Rusl studied his son for a moment, taking another moment to puff at his cigarette. “Is that what this Hulk thing is all about?”

“Aryll calls it Dark Link,” he said with a shrug.

“Is he like, the anti-hero?”

“Straight up villain,” Link muttered. “Kohga’s trying to turn me against Hyrule.”

Rusl frowned. “Doesn’t look like he completely succeeded there.”

Link pinched his lips together. He wasn’t ready to admit to his father that Kohga had, indeed, succeeded. It was only a matter of time before he would lose himself completely to the darkness. He wasn’t about to fret on that, now. He had accepted it as truth. All he wanted to do was fuck up Kohga’s plan as much as possible while he still could. And maybe get back some lost time with his father.

#loz #botw #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #soty #shadows of the yiga #soty30

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thelastpitchbender · 6 years

Text

Memory | Chapter 6

Summary: Link must relearn how to be a Champion before he defeats Calamity Ganon – but first, he needs to stop setting fires and backflipping off of cliffs. It’s too bad that his attempts to be a responsible hero keep getting interrupted by dumb things like owing people money, remembering hardly anything about who he is, and Yiga Clan assassins trying to kill him.

Rating: T for language, violence, dark stuff, and dumb, bad humor.

Read on: FanFiction | AO3

Chapter index here.

Chapter 6

More Bananas?

Someone was cooking something delicious near him. Or rather, many people were cooking many different dishes. Strangers coming together to share ingredients, a cooking pot, and a meal was a time-honored Hyrulean tradition, and it was comforting to know that it survived in most of the old kingdom.

Link cast his gaze around the main market of Gerudo Town with only the slightest bit of interest. It looked similar to how it had yesterday, but more,somehow. The warm, sharp smell of spices was stronger, the laughter and shouts were louder, and the women of the town were wearing copious amounts of elaborate jewelry that gleamed in the desert sun. Isha was standing next to her jewelry store, looking very pleased with herself and all the new business she had doubtlessly gotten today.

Today was a festival day, Link knew that. A holiday for all of the Gerudo. He forgot what the name of it was in Gerudic, but the Hylian name was the Day of Spirit. There were seven festival days to honor the Seven Heroines, and this was the third Link had been present for. It was always a pleasant surprise when he happened to visit during a celebration. On the Day of Skill, he had won the sword fighting tourney, narrowly lost first place in the archery tournament to a ridiculously talented soldier, and gotten last place in the sand-seal race after falling off his shield about six times. The Day of Endurance involved a long procession out into the desert that ended with a ceremony at the statues of the Heroines to honor the fallen Gerudo soldiers.

The Day of Spirit seemed less serious than the other two so far. The point of the festival was apparently to ingest as much food and alcohol as possible while also wearing as much jewelry as possible. This did not interest Link, not today. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall in the corner of the marketplace. He had tried to get his share of the communal meal earlier, but when he had seen young girls running around, screaming and laughing, he had totally lost his appetite. Staring up at the cloudless blue of the sky, he wondered if Aryll’s absence would always cast a cold shadow on him.

He liked it better when he couldn’t properly mourn his family. Earlier in the morning, Link had remembered who had taught him how to cook and sew. It had been his mother, Anith. Brief, faded images flashed through his memory of his catastrophically failed attempts at brewing elixirs and mixing poultices. His mother planted her hands on her hips and shouted at him to clean up the mess. By all the spirits, Link, I am determined to teach you something more practical than how to swing a sword around! Anith had been the village healer, once upon a time. That was how she and Rossin had met.

Link clenched and unclenched his fist, thinking miserably, I finally learned how to make elixirs, Mama.

The memories of his mother had come back as if they had never left at all, soft and worn at the edges and tucked in the corner of his mind. He’d caught other flashes of insight like this, like he was simply finding something he had lost some time ago. It felt almost like a betrayal, an old grief and pain made suddenly fresh and raw again. It killed him that no one knew, that even his own mind treated it like it was no big deal.

It wasn’t like remembering Aryll. That had been like a lynel’s hammer right in the gut. All of the memories from the pictures in the Sheikah Slate were the same way. Even his memory of his childhood in Zora’s Domain was so abrupt and all-consuming that Daruk had had to step in just so he wouldn’t be killed.

It was strange, Link thought. Those flashbacks had been so much more vivid and intense than any of the other old, vague memories he had recovered. Almost like something was pulling them out of his own mind –

“Little vai!” The voice startled him out of his musings. Link glanced to the side to see a visibly intoxicated Ardin stumbling toward him. He grimaced.

“I drew a contract,” Ardin slurred, shoving a paper in the general direction of his face.

“Drew up a contract,” Link automatically corrected. Ardin liked to learn new Hylian phrases from him.

Ardin frowned. “Uh, why would I draw up? That doesn’t make sense.” She scoffed, then leaned even closer to Link. “Reeeeeeead it.”

There was so much alcohol on her breath that Link half suspected he could get drunk from it too. He twisted to the side in an attempt to avoid her bad breath and her bright red hair. She had a lotof hair, and it was somehow getting in his face. It was probably because Ardin was leaning against the wall like she was about to be sick. Link snatched the contract out of her hand before she could throw up all over him.

It almost did look like it had been literally drawn, Link thought with some amusement. The thick parchment was covered in charcoal smears and irregular, lopsided Hylian lettering. It read:

CONTRAC

-The vai gives all heer stuff to me

-Spera is a dum loser

SINGED

Ardin

____________ (vai)

Link could feel a laugh bubbling up inside him, and tamped it down out of principle. He was supposed to be upset, dammit. “Look, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure this contract isn’t legally binding if you can’t even remember my name,” he told Ardin, who was now laying on the dusty ground.

“Spera suuuuuuucks,” groaned Ardin.

“Not to mention you spelled basically every other word wrong,” Link continued.

Ardin’s arm flopped over her face, shielding her eyes from the sun. “She took my drink away,” she whined.

Link eyed her. “Probably a good thing. It’s still morning and you’re already sloshed.”

Ardin glared at him. “I do not have a problem.”

Link arched an eyebrow in response. “Never said you did.”

Ardin mumbled, “Issa festival day,” just as Spera popped out of her booth and sauntered over to them, a bottle of clear liquor in her hand.

“Looking for this?” Spera teased. Link peered at the label and how much of the liquid was already gone, then raised his eyebrows. It was Hebra wildberry gin. The mountaineers made that stuff strong to ward off the cold. And it looked like Ardin had definitely had more than she should have.

Link gave Spera the contract and said, “She called you a ‘dum loser,’ so I assume so.”

Spera smirked as she gave the paper a glance. “You know, this is technically a violation of AGM bylaws.”

Link blinked. “The what now?”

“The Association of Gerudo Merchants,” Spera said innocently. “Why, I could convene a special session right now and still have a quorum, even with half of the town drunk.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

“If Ardin doesn’t take back this contract, we can take away her practicing merchant license and rent her stall to someone else.” Spera’s smile was positively devious. It frightened Link.

He must not have hidden his expression very well, because Spera rolled her eyes and told him, “It’s a joke. The AGM already has a written agreement about how imports from individual registered sellers are to be distributed among AGM members based on demand. Ardin can’t make her own contract violating those terms, but she clearly doesn’t know better right now.”

At Link’s blank look, she gave up trying to explain anything to him and kicked Ardin lightly in the side instead, drawling, “Hey, rehvaq, get up.” Link didn’t know what that word meant, but from Ardin’s grumble, he guessed it was an insult.

Then her words caught up to him, and he incredulously said, “Wait, you merchants cheating me out of all of my stuff has been organized the whole time?”

Spera shot him a glance. He couldn’t tell if it was actually condescending or if she just towered over him. “Well, when you first came here, you confused a blue rupee for a purple one, so we decided not to concern you with the finer details.” Definitely condescension, then.

Ah, yes. The good old days when Link had stumbled around Hyrule while perpetually confused. He had adapted fast when he had awakened in the Shrine of Resurrection. He had to in order to avoid getting murdered by the monsters. But for a long time, the finer points of commerce and social interaction had evaded him. They occasionally still did, he admitted to himself with some embarrassment.

How did anyone keep it all straight? How did you remember the proper Gerudo greeting for each time of the day, each denomination of rupee, the average market value of a lizalfos talon, or how to respond when someone complimented your hair? It was all a mystery to Link. He supposed that before, he’d had nineteen years under his belt to learn that stuff. Honestly, it was unfair to expect him to learn it all again in only one year.

“A purple rupee is fifty, I’m not stupid,” Link blurted out, crossing his arms. He almost cringed after the words left his mouth. Way to sound like an angry kid.

Spera ignored him, electing instead to push Ardin, who was still laying down but now grabbing her legs, away. “By the Heroines, Ardin, you are the most incompetent – “ Spera let out a sharp breath as Ardin groaned and reached her hand up for the bottle of wildberry gin Spera was still carrying. “I’ll strip you of your position of secretary!” she snarled.

Ardin loudly gasped and sat up, wobbling slightly. “You wouldn’t!”

“I would!” Spera shot back. “And so would Isha and Estan!”

The expression of complete and utter betrayal on Ardin’s face was so over-the-top that Link let out a snicker. Both merchants gave him twin irritated looks, and he threw his hands up in surrender. It did not take long for the two merchants to start bickering again, and Link decided to leave them be.

He strolled around the perimeter of the marketplace, mulling over the new information about the Association of Gerudo Merchants. To say his memory was spotty was an understatement, but he somehow knew that such an association didn’t exist a hundred years ago. He bet it had grown out of necessity with the collapse of Hyrule’s royal government. Yunobo had told him that Bludo, the boss of Goron City, was officially the head of the miners’ labor union, but when the Hyrulean ambassadors and administrators stopped coming to the city, Bludo had been given his authority as boss by the Gorons.

All of this would be valuable information for Princess Zelda, when he finally destroyed the Calamity. She would have to rebuild her kingdom, and as the one who had been wandering around it recently, Link would have to help her out in any way he could.

Of course, that was assuming the princess was even still alive. The thought that she might not be chilled him. Very few people still believed she wasn’t dead, but he knew. He had heard her voice call to him from the castle. He refused to believe that she was gone, that the power holding Calamity Ganon back was not just some faint echo from a century gone by. Both for her sake and for all of Hyrule’s sake.

He was so busy getting himself nervous about the Calamity again that he almost collided with a soldier. She shifted her stance and tightened her grip on her spear before she realized who it was. “Sav’otta, Zelda,” she greeted without enthusiasm. “May the blessings of the Heroines light – where is your jewelry?”

Link shrank a bit under the guard’s sudden scrutiny. “Uh, I wasn’t aware that was required.”

The soldier sniffed faintly, her armor clanking as she brought her spear back to her side. “Legend has it that soon after Gerudo Town was first established, a molduking threatened to destroy it. The Heroine of Spirit fought it for seven days and seven nights before she realized that she needed to be creative. Thus, the jewelry.” Her story had the flat, rehearsed feel of a script read off to ignorant tourists.

Link squinted into the crowd, which was now dancing to music from a quartet of Gerudo musicians. The reflections from all the metals and stones made him look away. “Huh? Did she blind it? How are you supposed to blind a giant subterranean sand worm?”

The soldier sighed. Her body language screamed what a stupid question. “No. Moldukings like shiny things. She convinced the Heroine of Skill to give her the stash of gold and jewels she had amassed so she could lay a trap for the molduking.”

“What was in the trap?” Link prodded.

“It depends on who tells you the story,” she told him with a sour look. When she didn’t elaborate, Link huffed and moved on. Hylia, he hadn’t expected her to tell a story like that bard Kass, but did she have to be so terse about it?

There was a large military presence in the town today, he noticed as he continued walking. Spears bristled from every entrance to the marketplace. Soldiers moved around the perimeter of the town like shadows. Had he ever seen guards posted on top of the walls before? They were facing the outside desert, while the guards on the ground cast watchful gazes on the festival-goers. This couldn’t just be security for the holiday, he realized. Festivals brought vulnerability. And where there was vulnerability, the Yiga Clan would be there to exploit it.

But would they really be so bold as to attack a major settlement? They had already attacked Woodland Stable, but the stable didn’t have an army.

Did Riju and Buliara know something he didn’t?

He was startled by the clearing of a throat behind him. He turned to see Captain Teake with an escort of two other soldiers. She was still favoring her injured leg, but she stood tall and proud in an especially ornate and bejeweled set of Gerudo armor. When she shifted, sunlight glinted off of her helmet and made Link squint.

She shifted again and the reflection lessened enough to where Link could see her expression. Her lips were pressed together into a thin line and the look in her eyes was steely. The restrained fury in the way she tightly gripped the pommel of her scimitar made foreboding creep into Link’s stomach.

Teake couldn’t be mad at him, could she? It was probably the Yiga Clan. They were a pain in everybody’s ass. Corralling a bunch of drunk people on a festival day couldn’t be fun either.

“The chief requests your presence immediately,” the captain said tersely. She didn’t stop to wait for Link before she turned and strode to the palace. The crowds parted around her like water, despite being in various states of intoxication. One woman even stumbled backwards into the water framing the central plaza, but Teake didn’t even cast a glance back.

By the time Link and the soldiers finished climbing the steps to the throne room, he was thoroughly nervous and discouraged. Away from all of the drunk and excited festival-goers, he could feel the tension in the air. The soldiers were never too far away from a battle-ready stance and their hands were never too far away from their weapons.

Riju was having a quiet argument with Buliara and a Gerudo covered with a long, sheer gold and purple veil by the throne when Link and Teake entered. They stopped talking as soon as they noticed the newcomers, and Link wanted to shrink under their attention.

“Chief Riju, I present Zelda,” Teake said, curt and almost grudging.

Riju’s gaze was guarded and her posture was stiff. Link felt a wave of guilt crash over him. It suddenly struck him that his reaction to remembering Aryll must have been mystifying for Riju. He’d just stormed out without a single word to the chief, hadn’t he?

Diplomatic. He had to be diplomatic about making amends. The thought of diplomacy made him tense up. Where was Mipha’s kind soul or Zelda’s sharp intelligence when he needed it? He was just a dorky screw-up of a knight, not royalty. Not even a knight anymore, not really. He was some random adventurer with a penchant for killing monsters and accidentally putting innocent people in danger. He was even less than he had been a hundred years ago.

Bolstered by that very comforting thought, he stammered, “Would it be possible to speak in private – “

Buliara interrupted him by slamming the tip of her claymore into the ground. He recognized the anger in her eyes as protectiveness, and his heart sank as he realized that Riju most likely would have told her about his actions the night before. “We do not have time for that!” she practically roared. Link shrank back. He got the message. He would keep his mouth shut. Nerves buzzed in his stomach as he waited for Riju to say something.

What would it be? Hurt? Confusion? Condemnation? Anger? He very nearly averted his eyes, then thought better of it. Goddess curse him, he may not have been the same stoic, capable knight he once was, but he was still better than quaking in front of a thirteen-year-old girl.

But Riju must have heard the pleading in his voice earlier, because she relaxed slightly and her voice was surprisingly gentle when she gestured to the woman in the veil by her side and said, “This is First Priestess Birida. When we are done with our business here, she and I will go down to the plaza and perform the blessings for the Day of Spirit.”

Link nodded hesitantly. He wasn’t sure what Riju was doing. Part of him wanted to think that she was trying to and be charitable after his strange behavior the night before and allow him to explain himself, but another, more irritating part of him thought that he shouldn’t expect anything like that. He was still kicking himself over failing to explain what had happened.

Then Riju placed her hands on the armrests of her throne and leaned forward, a peculiar glint in her eyes. “But first things first. We found your spy,” she said.

Link was surprised, despite himself. “I’m assuming this has something to do with how many soldiers are in town today.”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Riju replied. “We need you to confirm that this woman is in fact the Yiga spy you were talking about.”

Link nodded, and Riju gestured for him to follow her, Buliara and Teake to the barracks. A soldier standing guard in front of a plain wooden door saluted and stood aside for them to pass.

It took several seconds for Link’s eyes to adjust in the dimly lit room. It was barely more than a supply closet, but it had been cleared of all weapons and tools so that a chair could fit.

The Hylian woman who had been giving him funny looks at the Noble Canteen was tied to the chair. Her dark hair was hanging over her face and stuck to her forehead with sweat. She did not look up as they entered.

“Yeah, that’s her, alright,” Link confirmed.

“Excellent,” Riju said. “Now the interrogation can begin.” She sounded much more enthusiastic about that than she should have.

Link heard a low, raspy laugh, and it took him a second to realize it was coming from the Yiga spy. “There’s no need,” she said. She looked up, and Link was startled to find that, although a bruise had swollen one eye nearly shut, her fierce gaze was pinned squarely on him.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the spy declared. “The Yiga will attack your town while all your people are too drunk to defend themselves, and they will continue to do so until the Hylian Champion turns himself over to us.”

Link froze. Although she had been speaking to Riju, the spy’s gaze had not left him a single time since she had looked up. Cold fear settled into his limbs like lead. Was she bluffing? They couldn’t possibly be planning to attack such a large settlement…could they?

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Teake sizing him up. When he risked a quick glance at her, she was staring straight forward, jaw set and eyes full of repressed fury. She had connected the dots, he realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Great, now he was about to get permanently kicked out of Gerudo Town too.

He kept his lips pressed into a thin line as Riju and Buliara asked a few cursory questions about the Yiga Clan’s numbers and plans of attack, but the spy refused to answer any of them. Buliara eventually gave Riju a look, and the chief gestured for Link to leave with her, leaving the soldiers to their interrogation.

Once they reemerged into the bright sunlight, Link made a beeline for the north gate of the town. He couldn’t stay here. If worst came to worst, he could fight his way away from the Yiga – escape their hideout if necessary –

“Zelda!” Riju hissed.

Link reluctantly stopped just outside of the gates. The soldiers flanking them gave him an odd look, but upon seeing their chief, straightened up and turned their gazes forward.

Riju glared at him. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just leave! We need your help!”

“No, you don’t.” Link shook his head. He couldn’t quite look at her. “I’m putting you all in more danger by staying here.”

“Zelda, that’s not true! The Yiga Clan would have tried something like this at some point anyway!” Exasperation laced her words. Link had the sense that she was bluffing to make him feel better, but her irritation undermined the effect. “There’s something else going on, isn’t there? Is it something we can help with?”

“I don’t think you understand,” Link said, licking his lips. His throat was very dry.

“Then make me understand,” Riju retorted stiffly. “You can start with explaining why you acted so weird last night!” Her elaborate headdress was skewed, and she adjusted it.

Link spread his arms out, feeling helpless. “I…remembered my sister.”

Riju blinked. “Sister?”

He smiled humorlessly. “That was about my reaction too.”

Understanding dawned on Riju’s face, soon replaced by pity. He hated that look, but at least Riju was someone he could talk to.

It suddenly hit him, the enormity of it all. He had known that he had to have had parents, but he hadn’t remembered a single Goddess-cursed thing about them. And then he remembered them, he remembered how much they loved him and how much they taught him, but he realized that they’d been dead for literally a century and there was nothing he could do about it. But that wasn’t the only thing. He had a sister, and he had no idea. He forgot all about her. And she was dead.

The fury boiling in his blood startled Link. He forced himself to take in deep, ragged breaths. Riju was staring at him, stunned. “Li – Zelda, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. You were obviously upset about something, and Buliara said that you were still upset this morning, but I didn’t know…”

Link hesitated for a long moment. “I really appreciate your friendship, Riju,” he said honestly. “I’m going to Kara Kara Bazaar. Probably less drunk people to put in danger.”

“You will do no such thing,” Riju replied, the heat in her voice startling him. “Kara Kara is practically indefensible. Besides, all the voe go there to get drunk anyway.”

Link sighed. “Fair enough.” Besides, he had left all of his gear in the hotel that morning.

He followed the chief back into the town, and chaos immediately broke loose.

Link heard familiar cackling a second before he heard soldiers barking orders. A mere moment later, he saw the first Yiga footsoldiers appearing right in the middle of the marketplace.

The women in the crowd screamed and stumbled for the entrances to the town, only to find that footsoldiers had materialized there too, keeping them hemmed in.

“Behind me,” he ordered Riju. A footsoldier noticed him and stalked forward, demon carver held at the ready. Link reached back for the handle of his broadsword and met with only air.

Right. He was unarmed.

Fantastic.

Well, he always had the Sheikah Slate at his hip. He unhooked it from his belt and held it out in front of him with two hands like a very small shield.

The footsoldier crouched and tensed, ready to spring forward. Link panicked and did the only thing he could think to do in the heat of the moment. He stabbed his finger at the Stasis rune, pointed the Slate at the Yiga, and clicked the button.

The footsoldier was frozen mid-slash, held in place by glowing, golden chains. Link heard Riju gasp and exclaim behind him, and he couldn’t help the small grin that formed on his face. He hooked the Slate back on his belt, snatched up an empty box that had been sitting next to him, and threw it at the Yiga’s mask with both hands.

A second later, after the box had fallen to the ground, the footsoldier flew backward into a palm tree. The mask splintered and fell off, revealing the bewildered face of a young Hylian man.

“Aw, shit,” the footsoldier said, before scrambling up to his feet and running away. Actually, it was more like stumbling away, after the hit he’d taken to his head.

Link was frozen, just for a second. For all of his warrior instinct and knight training, he’d never been taught to defend the chief of the Gerudo from teleporting assassins. While unarmed.

Then his focus came back, all in a rush. It didn’t matter. He was plenty well-armed, compared to most people in the square. He unhooked the Sheikah Slate and held it at the ready.

Link risked a glance back at Riju. The young chief was clearly taken by surprise, but she’d gotten a scimitar from somewhere and was holding it before her, jaw set. She likely had some minimal self-defense training, knowing Buliara. But he would take no chances.

He took a quick inventory of the scene before him. Yiga footsoldiers were backing civilians into each corner of the town. Link didn’t know why, but he suspected they would be hostages before long. Soldiers were skillfully brandishing spears at them, but the Yiga were just teleporting out of range. The air was full of cackling, shouts, and the fluttering of paper. He noted that the archers on the walls were aiming, but letting loose very few arrows, with such a high chance of hitting their own people.

“To the palace,” he commanded Riju. She nodded and kept close to him as he started to skirt the walls of the town. He ducked into stalls, rather than go around and become a clearer target for the Yiga.

Link hastily scanned the area for things he could use in combat. Bombs were a terrible idea within the city walls, and while there was some water surrounding the raised central dais of the marketplace, Cryonis was rarely useful in combat.

Except – there was a footsoldier ready to lunge across the water, ready to strike at him and Riju. With a sure hand, he flicked to Cryonis and summoned a pillar of ice from the pool of water, just in time for the footsoldier’s demon carver to wedge in it uselessly.

Link took the opportunity to seize Riju’s hand and sprint for the palace. If the Yiga clansmen hadn’t realized he was within the city walls yet, they knew now, judging from the shouts and commotion behind him.

Metal scraped behind him, and he acted on instinct. Daruk’s red barrier formed around him and Riju, just in time for a demon carver to bounce off it, right where Riju’s back would have been.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?” Daruk’s voice boomed behind Link. He heard the Goron’s mighty grunt, a solid thwack of a stony fist against something, and a footsoldier’s shriek.

“Long story,” Link called back. “These guys really don’t like me!” He pivoted and froze a lunging footsoldier with Stasis.

“I’ll say!” Daruk laughed, watching the extremely confused footsoldier fall to the ground after a few seconds. “I don’t have much time left. Watch your back, little guy.”

Link nodded, already scanning the plaza for a suitable weapon. His gut twisted when he saw a Gerudo soldier sprawled out on the plaza, unmoving, but the glint of a spear caught his eye. He flicked to Magnesis and brought the spear to him with a twist of his wrists, snatching it out of the air in time to slice a blademaster in the arm.

Blood sprayed into the air, but the blademaster just cracked his neck, unfazed. Link set his jaw and shifted into a defensive stance, Sheikah Slate back on his hip. Daruk was gone now, but he hoped that he had granted Riju enough cover to get to the palace. Behind him, he heard Riju’s and Buliara’s shouts as they hopefully reunited, and that was enough reassurance for him to focus all of his attention on the battle.

Combat raged on all around them, but Link and the blademaster held their positions. They sized each other up. Stillness stretched taut like a bowstring between them.

Then, without warning, the blademaster lunged for him.

Link was ready to sidestep, but his foot caught in a groove between two slabs of stone and pain shot up his leg from his ankle. The wind released from the blade cut across his side, and he hissed. His hand came away from the wound crimson.

Link gritted his teeth against the pain. Dumb, rookie mistake. It wasn’t his fault that his vai clothes made absolutely terrible armor, but he kicked himself all the same. He straightened and hefted the spear again, ignoring the way the blademaster cockily rolled his shoulders.

The blademaster punched the ground. A blood-red rune burned in the air above him. Link felt wind fluttering his clothes and snapped out his paraglider. As he rose into the air, he tucked his legs up to his chest, just in time to avoid the pillar of stone that had erupted from the ground.

Link angled the paraglider forward and fell into an aerial strike. He thrust the spear home, and it pierced through the blademaster’s shoulder. Link fell to the ground gracelessly and stumbled backwards, suppressing his nausea born of pain and the knowledge that he’d just stabbed an actual person. The blademaster groaned and warped away in a burst of fluttering papers. The Gerudo spear he’d been stabbed with clattered to the ground.

Link chanced a glance behind him and saw that Buliara and some other guards had formed a protective circle around Riju. He exhaled. He tried to break into a run for the spear, but he nearly collapsed as his twisted ankle failed to support his weight. He ignored the throbbing pain lancing up his leg and managed to stumble to the spear, scooping it up.

He had to get to his weapons in Hotel Oasis. Most importantly, his shield. There was no way he would be able to defend himself without it in this condition.

It was only twenty feet to the hotel. Link had no idea how he managed to drag himself all the way there without being completely beset by footsoldiers. Arrows flew by him, but not a single one hit its target. Inside the relative safety of the hotel, he flopped down on his bed for the second it took to snatch up the rest of his gear.

Once he limped out of the hotel, he found out why he hadn’t already been killed on the way there.

A row of Yiga clansmen formed a rough semicircle around the entrance to Hotel Oasis. He was blocked in.

“Hylian Champion,” a blademaster in the center declared in a booming voice. “It gives us no pleasure to kill innocents.”

“But you certainly enjoy stealing from them!” came Spera’s angry shout from somewhere beyond the circle. Link paled. Was she alright? His vision was growing a bit fuzzy at the edges, and he couldn’t quite tell what was going on with the Gerudo. Had all of the soldiers already been subdued?

“What? No. No way. Shut up,” the blademaster blustered, irritated by her outburst. “That’s beside the point! The pointis, if you don’t come with us, we’ll be forced to resort to violence.”

Resort to violence.Link snorted. But he realized that the blademaster had a point. Link was in no shape to get out of this alive if he tried to continue the fight. The best thing he could do for the Gerudo would be to cooperate. For now.

“And I have your assurance that no one in the town will be harmed, not even the chief?” Link asked. He propped himself up with the spear in an effort to take some weight off his bad ankle.

“Ganon’s blood, we’re assassins, not savages!” the blademaster cried indignantly. “We don’t attack children!”

Link raised an eyebrow and stared at the blademaster until he amended, “Sure, fine, we won’t hurt anyone. Even that super annoying lady over there.”

He pointed, and Link craned his head to see Ardin sprawled out on the ground, grabbing onto a footsoldier’s ankles and sobbing. She was obviously still drunk. “Oh, no,” Link murmured. Spera was on the other side of the plaza, being restrained by another footsoldier. He hoped they would both be alright. They were his friends, even if they were also annoying, cutthroat merchants.

Link tried to take a deep breath and was stopped short by the cutting pain in his side. He felt the eyes of the Gerudo and Yiga on him. He was shaking, and the silk of his clothes was starting to stick to his body with blood and sweat. He was sure that some of the Gerudo had already figured out that the Hylian Champion was never a vai, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Fine,” he bit out. Anger simmered in his belly. “But don’t expect me to walk around in the desert after I twisted my ankle, for Hylia’s sake.”

The blademaster turned to the footsoldier on his right and murmured something. The footsoldier jogged off to the front gate of the town.

An assassin came at Link from the side, and he smacked the footsoldier’s hand away before he realized that she was trying to lend a hand. Link immediately swung his spear behind him and held his hands up before he could get murdered.

He limped behind the blademaster, casting guilty, sidelong glances at all the Gerudo. They mainly looked too exhausted to be angry with him. They were probably happy that he was leaving, given that he was the reason they were at risk. The Gerudo outnumbered the Yiga Clan, but too many of them were drunk civilians for them to be an effective force. Footsoldiers were holding blades against the Gerudo soldiers’ throats. It seemed that fighting within the walls of the town had been a weakness; the Yiga had been able to back the normally very competent soldiers into a literal corner.

And now Link himself was backed into a corner. He caught the gaze of Captain Teake, who was paler than normal. The wound on her leg had reopened, soaking the bandage through, and she was sagging against a wall. Link thought she was chewing something at first, but as he got closer, he realized she was mouthing something. He blinked a few times until he could parse it.

Rito Village, she said. Go to Rito Village.

Link gave her the barest hint of a nod, and her mouth stopped moving.

A harnessed sand-seal was waiting outside the gates for him. The footsoldier who had tried to help him earlier took the lead rope and tied it to his belt. “Sit on your shield,” she ordered him, and so he did, feeling relief as he finally took his weight off his twisted ankle.

“Sorry about all this,” she added, quieter.

“Why in Farosh’s name do you care?” Link snapped. “Why haven’t you killed me yet?”

The footsoldier glanced at the blademaster, before hesitantly answering, “The Lady said – “

“Hey, don’t tell him that!” another footsolder shouted, before the blademaster raised his hand in a call for silence.

“The Golden Lady can explain her intent for the Champion herself,” the blademaster said, with the air of someone who had already fielded this question a million times.

“Huh? Golden Lady?” Link demanded with the little breath he could comfortably take into his lungs. “I thought you guys were into the smoke thing with the pig head. Are you talking about Kohga’s replacement?”

The blademaster groaned. “Enough questions for now. Let’s just get to the hideout.” He waved his group forward, and about half of the footsoldiers who were there warped away.

They’re underestimating me, Link thought with a grim smile.

As the blademaster took hold of the sand-seal’s reins and started them forward at a walking pace, Link pushed his ankle slightly against the rim of the shield to test how well it would hold up. Not very well, the pulsing pain told him. He winced.

Instead, he waited until they were a safe distance away from the town. He summoned the familiar fury, much easier than usual in the wake of the attack on Gerudo Town. It dulled his aches and pains and he almost saw double.

He reached his arm out in front of him, and one of the Yiga gave him a quizzical glance. Before anyone could react, Link snapped his fingers.

Urbosa appeared in a flare of light. Although her golden outline was barely visible against the yellow dunes, Link could almost see her furious expression as she quickly took in the situation.

“Seven sands,” she snarled as the Yiga Clan members shouted in alarm and pulled out their weapons. Urbosa let out a stream of what Link assumed were foul insults in Gerudic, then raised her arm to the sky.

Lighting rained down on the Yiga, more intense and blinding than Link had ever seen it. “Go!” Urbosa roared at him over the crashing of thunder.

He did not need to be told twice. The blademaster fell to the ground in agony and dropped the sand-seal’s reins. Link snapped the rope tied to his belt, and the sand-seal surged forward into the desert.

Link almost fell flat on his face before he gripped onto the sides of his shield. Shield surfing was much less fun when he was sitting down. Sand sprayed into his face, and for once, he was glad of the veil covering his mouth.

With some careful maneuvering, he wedged his feet into the handles of the shield and pulled himself into a crouch. It was slow and difficult. His body was not cooperating the way he wanted it to.

The sand-seal swam over a dune. Link’s stomach dropped out from under him as the shield came off the sand for a brief moment. The shield swung wildly to one side, and Link pulled on the rope hard enough to pull himself to his feet.

His ankle almost gave out on him, and he dropped into an awkward crouch. The wind tore at his clothes. He wobbled. He couldn’t keep going like this. He would eventually fall off.

A Yiga rune flared in his peripheral vision, and he immediately snapped the rope. The sand-seal dove under the sand and rushed forward, almost yanking Link off his shield. Twin arrows whistled through the air a mere foot away from his head and speared the sand.

The Yiga had found him.

The sand-seal was traveling in a small valley between two dunes. Several more archers were appearing just up ahead. Link braced himself for the inevitable pain, and leaned hard to one side. He carved up a dune and the sand-seal swung in the opposite direction. This time, an arrow grazed his calf, and he bit back a curse.

Now he was headed straight for a cluster of ruins. His heart sank as he saw archers perched on the crumbling arches. He didn’t have time to make a sharp turn. It was the end of the road for him.

Link yanked hard on the rope, and the sand-seal came to a halt. He stumbled forward and fell off his shield. Thankfully, no one was shooting at him. Yet.

“Would you stop that?” one of the archers yelled.

“Stop what?” Link retorted to buy time. Goddess, he really, reallyhated what he was about to do.

“Escaping us!” said the archer. Link unhooked the Sheikah Slate from his belt and scrolled to the map. “Hey, stop messing with the Slate!” the archer continued, aiming her bow at his face.

Link ignored that comment. “Well, it’s too bad you don’t like that, because I’m about to do it again.” He hit the button cued up on the Slate.

As the world around him dissolved into streaks of incandescent blue, he allowed himself to savor the indignant shouting of the Yiga archers that he could still hear. It was the most enjoyment he’d get for a while, he predicted.

Rito Village, here I come.

#fanfic #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #botw #memory #link #riju #buliara #teake #spera #ardin #who is very drunk #yiga clan #and some sand seal shenanigans #it's gettin real now bois

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wolfie-rood · 6 years

Text

Worlds Apart 2 - Revali x Reader Oneshot

Hey Ya'll! This is part two of Worlds Apart! Just thought you'd like the heads up.

"Good, but faster next time."

You glanced at the arrow on the ground that nearly shot you before smirking towards the Rito Champion. "Oh, is that what you tell all the ladies?"

Revali scoffed. "Honestly, you Yiga members really do live under a rock somewhere." He adjusted his scarf before reloading another arrow into his bow. "That is what women tell me." He let his arrow fly toward you.

You laughed and jumped to the side gracefully; turning your arm just slightly to help maneuver through the air. This time faster than before; just as he demanded. "Big talk coming from a giant cuccoo." You teased while picking up his arrow and tossing it back at him. "Even though I've been here for quite some time, not a single girl has swooned over you. Strange, wouldn't you say?" You wondered with a smirk.

"Oh, please. You obviously haven't been paying attention." Not many would be able to see it, but you could tell just how bad Revali was stumbling over his words. Yeah, you thought with a smirk. Keep making excuses for yourself.

"Whatever. Now, are you gonna teach me how to disarm an archer, or what?" You questioned. This was certainly something you'd been dying to learn. Bows are a Yiga's weakness since an arrow can shoot them down before they can pull a disappearing act, so this information could be crucial.

The warrior waved you over to him. "When disarming a long-ranged weapon, staying out of aim is key. You cannot take my bow if I shoot you dead before you can even get over here." He pulled the string back as if he were preparing to shoot you. "You're going to want to aim the bow downward as quickly as possible. Then, you're going to grab the arm not holding the string and rip it from the bow. Once that's done, flip me onto the ground."

"... onto the ground." I repeated skeptically. Was this bird really gonna let me do that?

He sighed. "Most people who use long-ranged weapons tend to have less strength and smaller body mass." He paused before adding. "Just don't scratch my face."

"Yeah, whatever." Such an ego.

You ran to Revali at full speed; strafing back and forth to stay out of his aim. Once you got to him, you swiftly grabbed his left wrist and pulled the bow downward. Finally, you used all your strength to pick him up over your shoulder and slammed his back into the grass. By the end of it, you were holding onto his precious bow.

With a deep breath, you asked, "How was that?"

He groaned slightly in pain before smirking. "A bit slow on the uptake if you ask me. Could have thrown me a bit harder, too."

"Shut up!" You giggled and fell down beside him; your blue cloak bunching up around you.

"Almost. But, don't be afraid to hurt me when you flip me, okay?"

"(Name), we've been at this for hours! Can't we just take a break"

You got off the dirt ground and sighed. "No, Kona. We're going to cut off a caravan tomorrow morning! You need to get this right, or someone's gonna shoot your head off!" You walked over to your friend and put your hands on her shoulders. "I will not let you get shot between the eyes tomorrow. Now, let's go again."

"... Where did you even learn to do that anyway?" Kona asked.

Your throat became dry at the mention of your training. "I... I don't want to talk about it..." I mumbled quietly.

Kona groaned and put her arm around you. "Lemme guess; you learned this during your mysterious time at Hyrule Castle?" She then got serious as she squeezed your arm. "You never want to talk about it, but I can tell it's eating you up inside. Just know you can talk to me whenever." She assured you. "We might be trying to destroy Hyrule, but we're not assholes."

"I know, it's just..." You looked up a bit more determined. "It's nothing. C'mon, let's go again."

During the night, you and Kona headed out toward the Nima Plains in the Ridgeland Region. After waiting for daylight, the caravan holding unknown contents finally arrived in the morning. You gave Kona the signal, and you both jumped in front of the large wagons to make them stop. On queue, a few archers jumped out of the caravans and began shooting. The two of you took care of them as swiftly as possible. Once they were out of the way, you took care of everyone else. Soon, there was nobody left who was conscious.

Kona looked around the area before glancing at you. "Okay, is it just me or was that too easy?"

She was right; the knights were usually much stronger than this. It felt as though they walked right into a trap. The only question was what kind of trap? Before you could figure it out for yourself, another voice answered for you. "Is it just me, or is the Yiga Clan losing its touch?" You looked up on one of the wagons to see a certain Rito Champion sitting there comfortably. "You didn't even check your surroundings thoroughly." He scolded.

Awesome.

'Go.' You signed to Kona with your hands. 'I've got this covered.'

She sighed and jumped backward; getting ready to use her warping ability. 'He's gonna kill you.' She replied with her hands before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Telling your friend to leave? What a shame; I was looking forward to getting rid of both of you. Though, one will do, I suppose." Revali sighed while jumping onto the dirt path. Did his snark ever have an off switch?

Revali shot an arrow, and you dodged it much like how you did during your practice sessions. You're positive that your unique movements tipped him off, and you mentally cursed at yourself. If he finds out your identity, you're sure he'll kill you without a second thought.

You saw the fire in his emerald eyes and time stopped. He couldn't see your face, but he could tell you were staring. Such an arrogant and determined look in his eyes would make any girl melt. You didn't melt, but you were certainly mesmerized. You realized just how much you missed that look.

You quickly snapped back to reality as your feet landed in a patch of grass. Damn it all! If I don't get moving, he'll kill me for sure!

With a shaky breath, your swiftly ran towards Revali; strafing side to side so he wouldn't shoot you. He seemed shocked when you got close and grabbed him before flipping him over onto the soft grass.

Instead of getting up for round two, he stayed there and laughed; almost relieved. "I've been looking for you for quite some time, (Name). A bit rude that you'd make me search high and low like this, but I suppose it was worth the effort." He chuckled. You stayed silent as tears welled up in your eyes. Dammit, Revali. "You haven't the slightest clue, do you? How much I yearn to hate you. How much it pains me to simply think of you. And as much as I want to throw your corpse into death mountain after letting a horde of silver bokoblins eat you alive," Revali sat up and stared you down with that everlasting smirk of his. "I simply cannot."

You hesitated; wondering if you should just leave and regroup with Kona. But instead, you bent down and pulled your mask off. Hair was stuck to your face from sweat and tears, but you still managed a goofy smile. "Well, what's not to love?" You joked.

"Well, that ridiculous bun your hair is in, for starters." He replied.

You scoffed. "Oh, right. Because you can do better."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I--"

As fast as lightning, a knife was held up to Revali's throat. Behind him was a thin Yiga with her mask still on. "Kona!" You yelled angrily.

"(Name), what the hell are you doing?" She screamed. Strangely, Revali was calm, even a bit bored, during the whole ordeal.

You took a breath to calm yourself. You needed to stay level-headed if you wanted Kona to listen. "Kona," you started slowly. "Let him go."

Kona was breathing heavily with the adrenaline coursing through her veins. "Why? Why are you talking to this Champion like he's your friend? And why in Calamity should I let him live?"

You were slowly beginning to panic; Kona wasn't hearing a word you said, and Revali was going to die if you couldn't make her listen. Your lungs started to ache from all the heavy breaths you took in. But you saw them; those calm, green eyes. They shined with affection that made your heartbeat even out. He trusted you to fix this. Even after all the hell you put him through, Revali still trusted you. His calm demeanor helped you slow your breaths and relax.

Your newfound determination urged you to stand up and glower down at Kona; something the princess taught you. It was very effective for scolding, even though you never actually saw her do it. Your voice dripped with authoritative anger as you began lecturing Kona. "I am your superior, Kona. You will listen to me right this second: Let. Him. Go." Her grip loosened on the knife, but not because she was listening. She was simply shocked by the way you sounded. Thankfully, it was just enough for Revali to grab her arm and flip her. The impact on her head was enough to make her pass out, but she'd be okay otherwise.

"See?" Revali said while standing and dusting himself off. "It works on knife-wielders, too." He walked over to you, and you instantly remembered the height difference between you two. "So I can only assume you're going to refuse to come with me."

You sung your arms loosely while looking down. "You see how she is; Kona is dead without me." Your eyes wandered to stare at anything besides the Rito in front of you. "I can't go back... not after everything I've done."

"Would it be considered kidnap if you're technically the enemy?" He wondered.

You laughed. "Um, yes. I think it would still be kidnap."

"Fine... you do understand that I will make it my personal goal to meet you like this as many times as possible. At least until you agree to come with me." Revali said in a serious tone.

"I don't think I'll mind that too much."

"As long as you keep that one away from me." He said while pointing down at Kona.

You laughed. "What? No way; she's completely harmless... when she's asleep."

"Yes, well, I don't feel like repeating this little knife incident." He stared at you as silence fell between you.

So much raced through your mind at once. Why was he still here? Why was he so adamant on bringing you with him? Why did he care so much?

Why couldn't you just stop thinking about him?

Suddenly, Revali stepped toward you; wrapping his feathery arms around you. The wind had stopped, and you were able to feel his gentle breathing in your ear. The deafening silence allowed you to hear his rapid heartbeat. You could only assume he was able to hear yours, as well. "This is your fault." He whispered. "If you hadn't tried to kill the princess that night, I'm positive I wouldn't be completely infatuated right now..."

You could only let out a shaky sigh in response. You almost completely lost your composure when he started tracing circles on your arm with his thumb. Before he could allow things to escalate any further, he stepped away.

Finally, you found your voice. "I suppose I'll be seeing you around, then..."

"Well you certainly don't have a choice."

I smirked and rubbed my nose. "Well, I would say goodbye, but I'd actually have to care I was leaving first." I joked. Quickly, I threw Kona over my shoulder and took a few steps back. Before warping away, I smiled sadly. "Goodbye, Revali."

Later in the afternoon, Kona began to stir in her bed. She'd been unconscious, and you had been sitting at her bedside until now. Your friend groggily sat up and rubbed her head in pain. "Hey there, Kona. How's your head?" You questioned.

"Oh you mean besides it pounding to the point of exploding?" She asked sarcastically. "Just fantastic."

You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose. "I did tell you to leave. You were the one who came back and got your ass handed to you..."

"Yeah, I guess..." The room fell silent as you recounted the events of this morning. "That Champion; you knew him, didn't you?" Kona questioned quietly while staring down at her hands.

You nodded sadly. "Where do you think all that kickass combat training came from?" You paused for a moment. "He said he's... he's infatuated." You mumbled. That's when you realized the wetness in your eyes.

"With you?" You nodded again; more hesitantly. "Shit."

"No kidding..."

Kona was reluctant, but continued with her little interrogation. "What about you? What do you feel?" She wondered. Kona moved over a bit to let you sit on the bed with her. "It's okay."

With those words of consolation, the tears came pouring down your face. You wiped one away only for two more to take its place. Kona held you close to her as you cried your eyes out. She didn't understand everything you said, but you still made an effort to speak. "I-I-I... I don't know anymore. I Th-th-thought it would b-be easy to leave, but h-he makes it so h-h-hard!" You took a few minutes to let every emotion out until you were just a snotty mess. Once your stutter was lost, you clung to your friend; physically and emotionally exhausted. "... I love him. I love him, and I hate him for making me love him." You finally admitted to yourself. You'd been ignoring it for months, but you couldn't keep running; especially when Revali said himself that he'd chase after you. And now, you couldn't stop yourself from believing you were just as infatuated. You just wish you didn't say goodbye. Because saying goodbye meant you cared...

You didn't want the courage to say goodbye.

I. Am. An asshole.

I've been gone for the longest time with no explination. And honestly, I don't have one. I mean, I guess school, but that's just lame. I'm sorry for being a douche. I'll try to be more active.

#rito #revali x reader #loz botw #botw #breath of the wild #x reader #legend of zelda #zelda

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deebormzone · 7 years

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Deep Breath

It’s been about a month since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out, and I haven’t said anything about it yet.

I beat the Wii U version of the game. I’m staying away from the Switch for now since the console has a few technical issues and almost no games. If they clean up their act a bit, it’ll probably be worth it during the holidays alongside Mario Odyssey.

Here’s what I thought about the wildest Zelda game yet.

Is it the best Zelda game? The question comes up fairly often.

I think it has to be. It’s the biggest, but also the most detailed, a huge world built to be explored. The only way an older Zelda game can top it is if you’re ranking them based on their quality “for their time”, and I only care about whether a game is good right now.

It’s very different from the usual Zelda format, which was largely unchanged since Link to the Past. Some have said it’s not a Zelda game at all, but if the essence of Zelda is exploration, Breath of the Wild does a better job of capturing that essence than the rest.

When I started the game, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt. It seemed a little basic, and I wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic as the previewers leaping at the chance to climb stuff. On the contrary, climbing felt like a slow hassle. But things picked up once I made it off the plateau. I may have just been bored by the parts I had already seen.

Once the game had really started, everything was golden. I had loads of fun running around, fighting tough enemies, cooking various types of skewer, and engaging in my number one most favorite video game activity: gettin’ stuff. Some people hate the weapon durability, but not me. Low durability means weapons everywhere, which means more gettin’ stuff. It’s similar to one of my favorite games, Dead Rising, which is one of the reasons I was looking forward to Breath of the Wild so much.

As an extra treat, the world of Hyrule is more fleshed out than ever. All the characters have proper names and unique dialogue. The races (Zora, Goron, Korok, Rito, Gerudo) have beautiful settlements and full sets of equipment and weapons. The Gerudo in particular have gone from being reclusive bandits to having one of the nicest settlements in the game. There are plenty of little moments across the world that are great fun to experience, a couple of favorites being attacks by Yiga clan assassins, the sidequest to build a new town, and the appearance of the blood moon.

Despite all the good to be found in Breath of the Wild, some parts got on my nerves. Shrines, for example. Whenever I found a shrine, I was punished by having to solve a puzzle. I know it’s not kosher to complain about puzzle-solving in a Zelda game, but in this one they’re just roadblocks in the way of fun adventuring. Worst of all are the “apparatus” shrines, which force you to use motion controls to rotate the environment. I like playing with the Pro controller, and whenever an apparatus comes up, I have to go across the room to get the Wii U gamepad. Then the controls are floaty and awful. There’s no reason not to let me tilt the apparatus with a control stick, Monkey Ball style, but they just had to shoehorn in their shitty gimmick. They use it infrequently, but it’s always a letdown when it shows up.

Stasis challenges also bug me. These are physics-based puzzles requiring you to freeze a boulder or something, then hit it with your weapons to send it flying. The trouble here is twofold: it wastes weapon durability, and the boulder’s direction is based on your imprecise position and direction. My response is to avoid using Stasis whenever possible, and I have to give the game credit for allowing alternate solutions... sometimes.

The game feels weakest when forcing specific playstyles. The low point of the whole game, for me, was a stealth-escort mission in the Korok Woods. I usually don’t bother with stealth in any game because it’s slow. Breath of the Wild has a well-developed stealth system, and the best thing about it is that I can ignore it completely and fight with honor instead. The Korok escort, however, is very slow, and there is no escape.

I was a bit let down by the game’s ending, which was a standard “you saved princess. youve winner” ending. Maybe it’s foolish to expect anything more from this series, but it seemed abrupt after all the visions of the past fleshing out Zelda and Friends. Also disappointing: this game’s Ganon has given up on being a character and has decided to be a large spider instead. I guess we all feel that way from time to time, but Calamity Ganon is not very interesting. A shame, but there are so many other interesting folks in the game that it isn’t a huge loss.

Something unfortunate happened once I had finished the main plot: the game didn’t feel as fun. I didn’t get nearly as much pleasure from exploring because nothing held any value. Wearing a full suit of upgraded Soldier’s Armor kept enemies from being able to hurt me. The cooking system, a joy at first, became dull as soon as I realized the best recipe is always one radish plus anything. Maybe it’s just me?

Now, I’m especially interested in the game’s Hard Mode. It’s being added this summer as paid DLC, which is pretty scummy unless real effort goes into building it. My cynical side (I don’t actually have any other sides) is sure it’ll be a hack job with higher damage numbers, but if they’re charging for it there’s a small chance they’re preparing something special.

How special? Here’s a Hard Mode idea I’d pay for: Play as Zelda. Reverse the plot, sealing Link in Hyrule Castle while Zelda sleeps. She’s about the same size and build as Link, and they even wear the same clothes half the time. Making her playable shouldn’t be much of a stretch from a modeling perspective. Besides other Hard Mode changes, Zelda isn’t combat trained, so playing as her would naturally be harder. Give her the chance to forge her own path, just like she wishes in Link’s memories. Loads of people have been asking for it. There’s even a precedent: entering your name as Zelda activates Hard Mode in Zelda 1, and Breath of the Wild takes a lot of inspiration from that game.

Princess Difficulty is such a perfect fit that it almost feels inevitable, but it would screw up their obligatory princess-rescue plot and also ruin all their Hilarious Jokes™ in which Link dresses as a woman. So Hard Mode will probably just be bigger numbers for $20.

Breath of the Wild is most fun as an under-geared, wimpy hero fighting to survive against a dangerous world. My favorite part of the game was Eventide Isle, which takes all your equipment and makes you start from scratch. I was sad to learn it was the only challenge of its kind. How about a game made up of a hundred Eventide challenges? I’d be down for that.

Speaking of which, now that I’ve finished Breath of the Wild, I’m curious about where the Zelda series will go next. BotW feels like a new era, and director Aonuma has said future titles will use a similar open-world structure (which he calls “open-air” because Nintendo loves making shit up). So what’s the next step on this new, airier path?

It might be a mistake to wish for a revisit of the old during a time of new beginnings, but I will anyway: this would be a great time to revisit Majora’s Mask. Breath of the Wild’s detailed open world would pair well with Majora’s scheduled events, adding a fourth dimension to exploration. It could also let me indulge my love of starting over with nothing! Do regular people like that sort of thing too?

To recap... Breath of the Wild is a breath of fresh air for an old series, and I’m sure loads of game journalists have used that metaphor already. Its few flaws are eclipsed by hours of raw adventure. It’s a great game, sorely needed after some mediocre titles, and I’m excited to see what Nintendo does next.

#Zelda #Breath of the Wild #I will hate motion controls for all eternity

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katedoesfics · 4 years

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Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 27

Teba had his hands in his pockets as he walked toward Zelda and Paya standing beside their car. They met at the outskirts of the city in hopes of avoiding anyone overhearing them as Zelda explained to Teba what had happened at the ranch.

“I can’t stop them,” Teba said. “Your father has his men all over Hyrule looking for Link.”

“And Impa?”

“She’s not against us,” Teba said. “But she won’t stand by if you try to leave again.”

Zelda pinched her lips together.

“Your father has taken over completely,” Teba continued. “He’s been able to keep things quiet, but people are noticing.”

“You should remain in the city,” Paya said to Zelda. “At least for now. You will be safer here.”

“The Yiga Clan -”

“The Champions can handle the Yiga Clan,” Teba said. His brows furrowed. “I have to agree with everyone else. There’s no sense in you going with them and walking right into their hands.”

Zelda opened her mouth to argue, but Teba cut her off firmly.

“This is where I draw the line,” he said fiercely. “You know I’m on your side. But I can’t let you do this. You’ll be doing more harm than good.” His expression softened. “Please trust me. We need you in the city, at the very least, to keep your father in line.” He offered her a smile.

“Fine,” Zelda muttered. “But promise you won’t keep things from me. I want constant updates on them.”

“Of course.”

Zelda turned back to the car. “Don’t let them go to the Yiga Clan yet,” she said. “I need to know how much of a threat Dorian is, first. I’m going to confront Impa.”

Teba nodded. He said nothing further as they got into the car and he watched them drive out of sight. He leaned against his car and took out his phone, dialing Revali.

“How’s everything going?”

“Peachy,” Revali muttered. “Not tense at all. We’re having fucking tea.”

“I get it,” Teba growled. “Tone the sarcasm down.”

Revali sighed. “You don’t get it,” he said. “We don’t have time.”

“Zelda doesn’t want you going after the Yiga Clan. Not yet.”

Revali was quiet on the line for a moment. “Fine,” he muttered. “She has her reasons. But I’m not going to be the one to kill him if it comes down to that.”

*****

Zelda and Paya stood before Impa. She was seated at her desk, regarding them fiercely, waiting for them to speak, but Zelda was hesitant.

“Don’t take me for a fool, Your Highness,” Impa sneered. “Whatever you think you need to tell me, I already know.”

Zelda’s gaze narrowed on her. “I want the truth.”

Impa stood and placed her hands on her desk. “You first, Sheik.”

Zelda’s eyes widened, but her expression quickly turned to a sneer.

“You are a fool,” Impa spat. “You cannot walk right into their hands, Zelda. The moment they get you, it’s all over. You need to understand that. You need to sit this out.”

“I need to fix Link -”

“Link’s gone!” Impa snapped. “It’s too late for him.”

“It’s not! Purah said so herself.”

“Purah doesn’t know for a fact,” Impa said. “She can only make guesses based on her own research. Without the Sheikah Slate -”

“Then we get our hands on the Sheikah Slate,” Zelda said fiercely.

Impa held her gaze on Zelda. “Don’t you think I have my men on that?”

Zelda hesitated. “And who, exactly, have you sent out to retrieve it?”

“Dorian, of course.”

Zelda stiffened, but said nothing more. She had to force herself from turning to Paya to keep from letting her guard down. If Impa had sent Dorian to retrieve the slate, that would explain why they saw him. However, it did not explain why he strolled around their hidden base so openly, as if he belonged there with the Yiga. She couldn’t read Impa; she couldn’t tell if she knew this or not. Either she was being played, too, or Impa was just as involved. She chose instead not to confront her, but keep the knowledge to herself.

“Stay in the city,” Impa said calmly. “I know you’re in contact with them, and I know you won’t tell me where they are, but tell them to stay away from the Yiga Clan. Let Dorian do his job. Once we get the slate back, we can discuss things further.”

Without a word, Zelda and Paya left Impa alone. When she was sure they were out of earshot, she sat back at her desk and picked up the phone. When Dorian’s voice answered, she spoke.

“They know.”

*****

The Champions - minus their two fearless leaders - were gathered outside of the barn when Aryll and Talon returned. She trotted her horse to them and dismounted, talking excitedly to Talon as he carefully slipped off his own horse.

“That goat thought he could get away from me. Ha! What a joke! I bet I could herd ‘em faster than Link!”

Talon nodded over to the Champions as he took his horse by the reins. “Without question,” he said. “Just don’t tell Link I said that.”

Aryll grinned and patted her horse’s neck. She turned her gaze to Mipha. “Where is he?”

“Inside with Kit,” Mipha said softly.

Aryll frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Revali said quickly.

Talon hesitated, then turned to give the reins to Aryll. “Why don’tcha take care of ‘em for me?” He offered her a reassuring smile, then watched as she walked the two horses into the barn. He turned back to the group with a hand raised.

“I don’t wanna know what trouble you fugitives got yaselves inta,” he said. “The less I know, the better. I’m sure ya got a plan goin’ on, ‘n’ tha’s fine. Whatever ya need from me, jest lemme know.” He thrust a thumb over his shoulder. “I got beds ‘n’ couches, ‘n’ s’long as Aryll can keep helpin’ me out ‘round here, you can raid my fridge. But this ain’t no bed ‘n’ breakfast. I’m only doin’ it for Link ‘n’ Ary, so ya best keep ‘em safe, got it?”

Aryll listened closely as she quietly unsaddled the horses. It seemed like everyone would be sticking around, keeping a watchful eye on her and Link. Something had happened while she and Talon were out, but of course they never explained it to Talon, and she was sure they were going to keep her in the dark as well.

When she returned the horses to the paddock, everyone was gone. She didn’t know where they had gone off to, but she didn’t particularly care. She wanted to make sure Link was at least alright.

He was laying on the couch when Aryll made her way inside the farmhouse. He had his hands on his face. She watched him for a moment as she walked across the room.

“Talon says I heard goats better than you,” she said with a smile in an attempt to ease the tension in the room. But Link did not respond, and her smile disappeared. He didn’t even turn to regard her. He looked lifeless as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Her brows furrowed in concern. “Have you gotten any sleep?”

Still, he did not respond. Aryll made her way into kitchen, peering inside the fridge. She called to him over her shoulder. “Are you hungry? I'm hungry. I don't feel like doing any cooking, though.” She cocked her head to the side as she inspected the contents. “Want cold pizza?” She took the box out and set it on the table. She sat, helping herself to a cold slice. “You should eat something.”

To her relief, Link got up from the couch. He dragged his feet across the floor, sitting at the table across from her with a sigh. He took a slice for himself and with his cheek against his palm, took a disinterested bite. Aryll busied herself with her phone as she ate, scrolling mindlessly through her apps. There were a few unanswered texts from Cremia and Anju, and she decided to give them a brief reply, if only to reassure them that she were still alive. She at least owed them that after her sudden disappearance, even if she couldn’t tell them what had happened.

“You know,” she started. “I took this new history class last semester. Except they don't want to call it a history class.” She paused to take another bite. “It's about Hylia and all the trials Hyrule has gone through since the beginning of Demise's curse.”

“There's a class for that?” Link said, staring at his pizza.

Aryll nodded. “It almost didn't happen. Apparently it caused a big controversy with some of the parents. They didn't want legends to be taught in a history class. Can you believe that? After everything they've seen, they don't believe their own history. It's like they refuse to admit it.”

“Can you blame them?”

Aryll shook her head. “No one knows the truth anymore. People need to know the truth. If we keep forgetting about the curse, we'll be doomed. Society will be the reason we fall to Ganondorf. We cannot forget our own history. If we keep it alive, we can better prepare ourselves in the future.” She finished her pizza and met Link's gaze. “That's what I want to do. I want to educate people. I don't want them to forget.” She paused in thought. “Maybe I could be some kind of Historian. I bet Impa would let me be an honorary Sheikah. I could work for Zelda.”

Link shook his head. “You can't force people to believe anything,” Link said.

“How can you say that?” Aryll said. “After everything you've done for Hyrule. You'll just fade away like every other hero. Is that what you want?”

“Yes.”

Aryll stared at her brother. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she turned her gaze back to her phone. “Why?” she asked softly.

Link didn’t answer her. To his relief, Kit walked in at that moment, a case of beer in his arms.

“Stocking up?” Link asked with a raised brow.

Kit put the case on the table with a sigh. “I should have raided the bar,” Kit said. “Before someone else breaks in and takes my shit.” He opened the case and grabbed a can. “Who knows when I’ll see the place again.”

“No one’s making you stay here,” Link said.

“This is more fun,” Kit said. “Honorary Champion and all.”

“Keep dreaming,” Aryll muttered. She stood from the table and made her way out of the kitchen.

Kit opted to sit in her empty seat. He pushed the case of beer towards Link, but Link turned away from the offer.

“Revali said we’ve been put on hold,” Kit said as he drank. “Orders from her highness herself. What do you think that’s all about?”

Link’s brows furrowed. “I don’t like her being alone in the city.”

“She has Paya and Teba,” Kit reminded him. “I’m sure she has her reasons. Guess we’re camping out here for a while.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Link said.

Kit frowned. “I don’t make the rules,” he said. “Guess we just need to wait and see.”

But Link knew what would come of him if they wasted their time waiting. He wasn’t about to let himself turn and destroy all of Hyrule. He didn’t care what Zelda’s reasons were; the Yiga Clan needed to be stopped before it was too late. And he was going to be the one to end them.

*****

It seemed his friends were insistent on babysitting him. Though they never said it outright, he knew they were watching him closely. Not only that, but Mipha had kept her distance, though he had the feeling that wasn’t exactly by choice. She would never so willingly stay away from him. But then again, he had tried to kill her with his own hands. He couldn’t keep the images out of his head, and it caused his stomach to churn sickeningly. It seemed likely that she was avoiding him of her own accord. She was afraid of him. She couldn’t trust him like she used to, and that killed him the most.

It was late when everyone turned in for the night, though Daruk seemed too eager to stay up with Link. Clearly it was his turn to take up the duty of babysitting. He didn’t think it would be easy to shake off his best friend, but he was determined.

“I know what you guys are doing,” Link said. Except from the light of the tv, the room was dark.

Daruk didn’t turn to him, or offer any explanation, as he knew that Link did not need one. Link didn’t push it further, either. Even though it aggravated him, he understood. In fact, he didn’t want to really be left alone, anyway. If something happened again, he had to be stopped. Still, it would make his plans of sneaking out to go to the Yiga Clan by himself difficult.

But, whether it was due to the dark room or his lack of conversation, Daruk eventually drifted off to sleep, snoring softly. He didn’t wake when Link stood, and Link started to feel guilty for what he was about to do. Not only to Daruk, but to Aryll and Mipha as well. It certainly wouldn’t clear him of his guilt, or right his wrongs by any means, but he couldn’t just leave without a goodbye. So he made his way into the kitchen where he scribbled quickly on a piece of paper, leaving it folded on the table.

He tiptoed through the sleeping house, hesitating at the door with his hand on the knob. He pulled it open quietly, glancing one last time at Daruk sleeping soundly on the couch. His lips pinched together and he stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind him.

He hurried to his car, slipping in behind the wheel. Thanks to Paya and Zelda, he had the coordinates he needed to get him to the Yiga Clan hideout. He knew he would have to walk through most of the desert, so it seemed unlikely he would be able to bring all the c4 he had in his trunk, but he could at least bring enough to leave a pretty good mark. It wouldn’t wipe them out completely, but it would at least give him the edge he needed, considering he would be severely outnumbered - and out powered. Without wasting another second, he turned the key in the ignition and peeled out of the driveway towards the desert.

*****

Aryll hadn’t seen her brother at all the next morning, but she thought nothing of it due to the early hour. The house seemed to be empty, and she saw no sign of the other Champions. She eagerly made her way to the barn to help Talon with the animals. For the next couple of hours, she busied herself with feeding them their breakfasts, cleaning the stalls, and collecting eggs. It was near noon when she finally returned to the house, her stomach begging her for lunch.

But once in the kitchen, her attention was caught by a piece of folded paper on the table. She picked it up and her eyes traced the words on the page. The note dropped from her hands and she pulled her phone quickly out of her pocket, dialing her brother's number, but his phone went straight to voicemail. She stared at the unfolded note that lay on the table.

Don't look for me. I'm sorry.

#loz #botw #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #soty #shadows of the yiga #soty27

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katedoesfics · 4 years

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Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 47

It was early in the afternoon the next day when the Champions found themselves gathered together inside the palace. They kept inside the walls of the palace, away from the crowd and reporters, as Zelda held a press conference. Link, however, paid no mind to the coverage on the tv screen, and instead searched for his sister, somewhere within those same walls. It didn’t take long to find her, having a good hunch of where she would be.

He stood in the doorway of the small temple inside the palace, his hands shoved in his pockets. He watched as Aryll stood over their father. Though she spoke softly to him, her voice carried.

“Anyway,” she said. She paused to sniff and wipe at her tears. “I dunno. Maybe it’s dumb. But I just wanted a chance to say goodbye this time.” She shrugged. “No one gets a second chance like we did. Only you would manage to pull something like that off.” She smiled to herself, then after a moment, she sighed shakily. “Thank you for coming back,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t change that for the world. Link, either, I know. You guys...” She chuckled lightly. “You guys are both so damn stubborn. I guess there’s a lot of you there. So, that’s not so bad.” She forced a smile. “I know you’d be like, making a stupid joke right now or something.” She paused. “I know we’ll be okay. You made sure of that.” She allowed the tears to roll down her cheeks. “And don’t worry. I won’t burn anymore books.” She hesitated, holding back a sob. “I love you, Daddy.” After a moment, her ears twitched, and she turned her gaze to the ceiling and smiled.

She noticed her brother then, and turned toward him. She offered him a smile as he approached her. He stood at her side when he reached her, but his gaze was fixed on the casket in the front of the room.

“Do you resent me?” he asked quietly.

Aryll’s brows furrowed. “What? No. Why would you ask that?”

“Because everything's my fault.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I didn’t… I could have… prevented this.”

Aryll wrapped her arms around her brother. He stiffened in her hold.

“It’s not your fault,” she said softly. “I know it’s not.”

Link’s shoulders dropped and he wrapped his arms around his sister. “Okay,” he said simply.

Aryll pulled back and met his gaze. “Don’t you believe me?”

Link forced a smile. “Yeah.”

Aryll raised a brow. “Really?”

Link sighed tiredly. “Yes, Aryll.”

Aryll smiled. “Good.” She made her way out of the room, not bothering to check to see if her brother was following her. “I think we should get pizza again tonight. This time, I’m thinking a veggie lovers.”

Link turned his gaze back to the casket. He remained standing in the middle of the room, his hands back in his pockets. It felt strange to be back in the city, as if all that had happened over the last couple of months was just a distant dream. He didn’t particularly feel any better about being home and instead found himself wishing he were back at the ranch. Despite it all, at the ranch, everything felt right, even if for just brief moments. Aryll happily grooming the horses. His father smoking a cigarette against the fence as his daughter pressed for a ride. Staring at his father’s casket didn’t necessarily make his death feel any more real, but it made those small moments more concrete in his mind. And he smiled.

Aryll was right. They were given a second chance. And despite how they were torn apart once more, he wouldn’t have traded those moments for anything in the world. He tore his gaze away, turned around, and followed Aryll back into the hall where she waited just around the corner with the rest of their friends.

“Who knew she’d be so comfortable making speeches,” Daruk said.

“I knew,” Revali said with a nod. “This is Zelda, we’re talking about. All she ever does is lecture us and make speeches.”

“Are you guys leaving, now?” Aryll asked with a frown.

Revali draped an arm around her shoulders. “Not me, kiddo. I’ve still gotta recruit your brother to work for me.” He looked up, meeting Link’s gaze, and gave him a wink.

“I already moved in, and out, and in again,” Mipha said. “I don’t plan on going anywhere for a long time.”

“I was actually thinking about moving back for a while,” Urbosa said thoughtfully. “You know, in case Revali really does need a lawyer.”

“Oh, so I’m the asshole that’s not going to stay?” Daruk said.

“Pretty much,” Revali confirmed.

“You’re breaking us up, man!” Aryll scolded him.

Daruk sighed. “You guys have never been to Eldin,” he said. “It rocks over there.”

“I never thought I’d say this,” Revali started, “But I’m going to Kit’s bar. Guess it’s time to be a regular there.”

“Kit has a bar?” Urbosa asked with a grin. “Jeez, he never talked about it.”

They turned as footsteps rounded the corner and Zelda greeted them with a tired smile.

“We’re going drinking, apparently,” Daruk said. “You coming?”

“I don’t think so,” Zelda said with a frown.

“This is it,” Revali said. “This is where she leaves us to be a boring queen.”

Zelda offered an apologetic smile.

“Ah, we don’t need her,” he continued, waving her off. “Let’s go.”

“Have fun,” Urbosa said. “Zelda and I have our own plans.”

“Whatever,” Revali grumbled.

“I’ll meet you there,” Link said. There was still something else he had to do. Someone else he wanted to see. He parted from his friends, wandering the palace halls aimlessly until he rounded the corner to the temple once more. The doors were closed, now, and two guards stood on either side of it. A third person - and just the person he wanted to see - stood in front of the doors.

Dorian stared at the closed doors, his face torn in grief and regret. It took him a moment to notice Link’s presence, but when he did, he turned to him. His expression hardened once more, offering him no greeting, and he watched as Link approached him.

“What’s up?” he asked simply.

“I, uh just wanted to apologize. For not trusting you.”

Dorian seemed to study him carefully. He pulled his gaze away. “That’s not necessary,” he said. “I did nothing to earn your trust. You had no reason to trust me.”

“But Dad did,” Link said. “And that should have been enough for me.”

Dorian said nothing.

“And,” Link continued. “I wanted to say thanks. For everything you did for him, and for us.”

“Ah, don’t thank me,” he said, his shoulders dropping slightly. “I only did it because your father would have killed me otherwise.”

“Right,” Link said. The corner of his lip pulled into a crooked smile. “Like he could have killed a Sheikah.”

“You underestimate him,” Dorian said. “He was terrifying when he wanted to be.” He turned his gaze back to Link. “Is that all?”

Link raised a brow. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Well, no offense, but you’ve been my problem for the last twenty-six years.”

“Right.” Link’s lips pulled into a small smile. He put his hands in his pockets and turned away. “See you around, D.” He could practically feel Dorian’s furious gaze on him as he walked away and rounded the corner.

*****

To his surprise, Kit’s bar was lined with bodies. As expected, Daurk, Revali, Mipha, and Aryll were there, along with Teba and even Sera. They took up a majority of the bar seating while the rest of the room remained relatively empty, one other patron sitting alone at a booth in the corner. They all turned to see who had come through the door, and upon seeing Link, Sera jumped to her feet and ran to pull him into a hug.

“For fuck’s sake, Link,” she barked at him. She pushed away at arm’s length and looked him over. “Please tell me all of Kit’s wild ass stories aren’t true.”

“They probably are,” Link said. He stepped around her, ignoring her angry gaze, and joined his friends at the bar, sitting himself beside Mipha.

“You didn’t believe me,” Kit said. “Why else do you think I’ve been MIA? I’ve been helping his sorry ass!”

Sera returned to her seat at the bar, her head shaking. She glanced at Link. “For real?”

Link shrugged. “He was an annoying presence,” he said simply.

“If it weren’t for me -”

“If It weren’t for you,” Mipha sneered, “he wouldn’t have run off on some suicide mission.”

“But then he wouldn’t have found Dad,” Aryll pointed out.

“Oh, that guy would have found you one way or another,” Revali said.

“Wait,” Sera started. “You left out that part.” She sneered at Kit.

Kit cleaned an empty glass absentmindedly. “It’s a touchy subject right now.”

Sera frowned. She turned back to Link. “So, now what?”

“Do you think I can get my job back?” Link asked.

“You defeated the entire Yiga Clan, and you’re worried about getting your job back?” Sera stared at him in shock.

“Heroes gotta get paid,” Link reminded her.

“Oi.” She pressed a finger to her temple, then sighed. “The office has been pretty boring without you.” She opted to turn her attention to Aryll, and smiled. “Are you going to make it through your last year of high school? Or is Link going to have to bust you out of jail or something?”

Aryll shrugged. “We’ll see how I feel come September,” she said with a grin.

“Does that attitude run in the family?” Sera asked.

“Yes,” Link and Aryll both confirmed.

Sera smiled.

“Refill?” Kit pointed down the line of patrons seated at the bar. When he got to Link, he skipped over him, and pointed at Aryll. His gaze narrowed for a moment on her, then shrugged.

“Beer, or fruity drink?”

“Beer,” Aryll confirmed.

“Do you want to lose your license?” Sera sneered.

Kit straightened and spread his arm out before him, indicating the very empty bar, then laughed. “Like I have one of those.” He turned to fetch their drinks, speaking once more when he returned. “Besides. Girl could use a drink or two right now.” He handed Aryll a bottle and winked at her.

“You’re a good man,” Aryll said. “A gentleman and a scholar.”

“She’s drunk,” Revali said.

“Hey, fuck you.”

Link peered at his sister curiously. “How many have you had?”

Aryll held the bottle up proudly. “One.”

“And before I got here?”

“Three!”

“What a lightweight,” Revali said.

“You didn’t learn your lesson last time?”

Aryll slunk back in her seat.

“Oh, shit,” Kit said, remembering what had happened last time. “I can’t encourage that behavior.” He moved to take the bottle from her.

“I’ll be good!” Aryll said. “I’ll pass high school and everything! I deserve this drink!”

“That’s how it starts, you know,” Kit warned. “Your brother is an expert.”

Aryll frowned. She turned her gaze to the bottle in her hand. When her brother patted her head with his hand, she met his gaze.

“You are smarter than me, remember?”

“This is true,” she confirmed. She lifted the bottle as if in toast, and drank.

The man that sat alone stood at that moment and mosied over to the bar, pushing himself between Link and Aryll.

“Son of a bitch,” he said, looking Link over. He held a card between his fingers and handed it to Kit. “They’re drinks are on me.”

Kit eyed him carefully. “Sure,” he said with a one shouldered shrug. “You’ll regret that.”

The man leaned against the counter. “I don’t think so,” he said with a grin. “So, Rusl really did find himself a chick and a couple of kids.”

Link narrowed his gaze on him. “Excuse me?”

“I grew up with him,” he said. “At Telma’s. I’m Karsen.”

“Telma’s?” Aryll echoed. Karsen turned his attention to her. “Were you guys like, foster brothers or something?”

Karsen made a look of disgust and laughed. “I guess so. Shit, last time I talked to him was almost thirty years ago.”

“He never talked about you,” Aryll said frankly.

Karsen smiled. “I’m sure he didn’t talk about any of it,” he said.

Aryll considered this. “Yeah. That’s true.”

“Camilla’s been up my ass about finding you two,” he said.

“Camilla?” Aryll raised a brow.

“Telma’s daughter, that old hag.” He straightened and took his phone out of his pocket. “I dunno. She promised Telma she’d give you some shit Telma had been holding on to. Said Rusl wanted you to have it.” He showed his phone to Link, a number displayed on the screen. “Give her a call, I guess. I did my part.”

“Stalking us?” Aryll asked, narrowing her gaze.

“Well, it’s not that hard when the entire kingdom is hearing about some shit with this Yiga Clan.” He shrugged. “I always knew Rusl was living in the city. Figured it was likely you were still here. Once I started seeing all that shit on the news, I decided to come around and see if I could track you down.” He let Aryll take the phone from him, and he wiped his hands together. “I did my part. That’s all I came for.”

After taking down the number, Aryll handed the phone back to him. “Where are you going?”

Karsen smiled and pocketed his phone. “I dunno,” he said. “I usually just wander around and see where life takes me.”

Aryll raised a skeptical brow. “Right. You’re weird.”

“And you are totally Rusl’s daughter.” His grin widened and he turned away from them. “See ya later.”

Revali watched him leave, his gaze suspicious. “What the fuck was that about?”

“I’m gonna call,” Aryll said, jumping to her feet.

“No, you’re not,” Link sneered.

“Aw, come on,” she whined. “I wanna see what stuff Dad had laying around.” Her face brightened. “Maybe we have an inheritance!”

“Unlikely,” Link said.

“Never know unless we call,” she said, already dialing the number. She tapped her foot as she waited, then beamed when a voice answered. “Camilla? Karsen gave me this number.”

“Bless Hylia,” Camilla’s voice said. “If it isn’t little Aryll.”

#loz #botw #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #soty #shadows of the yiga #soty47

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katedoesfics · 4 years

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Shadows of the Future | Chapter 53

“Is that it?” Cottla frowned. “What a piece of junk.”

Koko’s brows furrowed. “It is a bit… disappointing.”

Rusl folded his arms over his chest. “I thought you Sheikah were better than this?”

Cado leaned forward to peer at the device. “This isn’t it,” he said. “The other Divine Beasts are far superior to this.”

“Maybe Vah Medoh got the short end of the stick,” Cottla said with a grin.

“I thought for sure it would be the biggest one,” Koko said. “You know, the way Impa explained the old Champions and all.”

“Big machine, tiny dick,” Cottla confirmed with a nod. “Just like those douche bags in their lifted trucks.”

They had spent months searching every inch of the Tabantha region, and all they had to show for their search for the final Divine Beast was a helmet-like object in the shape of a mechanical bird’s head. Cottla picked it up and placed it on her head, then turned to face Rusl.

“Whadda ya think?”

“I think you look ridiculous,” Rusl said.

“It must be close by,” Cado said, turning his gaze to the horizon. Another storm was brewing around the mountains and the wind was starting to pick up.

“I’m getting real sick of this frozen wasteland,” Koko muttered. “We’ll freeze to death before we find it.”

“I wish we had the relief of freezing to death,” Cottla said. She spread her arms out to open the cloak around her. “Death would be far sweeter than this damn mission Impa sent us on.”

“You mean you aren’t having fun working with me?” Rusl said with a grin.

“It’s just not like it used to be,” Cottla said. “You know, when Dad was always giving you shit.”

“Remind me why you’re here instead of him?” Koko asked, her gaze narrowing on Rusl.

“Wow,” Rusl muttered. “I feel the love.”

“The three of you have been awfully secretive,” Cottla agreed with her sister.

“I think it’s all in your head,” Rusl said.

“Dad being gone for this long is all in my head?” Cottla frowned. “We hardly hear from him.”

“You know his work is classified,” Cado said. “Even I don’t know what Impa has him doing.”

Koko held her hard gaze on Rusl a moment longer.

“Whatever,” Cottla said with a shrug. “Are we gonna keep going, or bunker down and wait out that storm?”

“The city is just ten miles back,” Koko said.

Cottla nodded. “I could use a drink.”

“Well,” Rusl started. “Bippity-boppity us back there.”

Cottla glared at Rusl. “That’s offensive. We’re not your fucking fairy godmother.”

Cado sighed. Their bickering only stopped after he transported them outside of the city. From atop the snowy hillside, the city below was cast aglow by the sea of lights, casting eerie hues of green against the night sky.

“Last one to the bar pays,” Cottla shouted. The air snapped twice, and the two women vanished.

Rusl groaned. Cado stepped forward, and he moved to catch up to him.

“Thanks for not ditching me,” he said.

“Oh, you’ll still be last,” Cado said with a grin.

Rusl pulled his cloak further over his head. “I hate being out here,” he muttered.

Cado mimicked him, pulling his hair out of sight as he did so. He kept his gaze forward as they walked, but offered him a solemn nod in response.

Rusl pulled his phone out of his pocket to peak at his messages. His inbox only had two contacts. He had an unanswered message from Link from earlier that morning, and he made a mental note to call his son. The other message was also unanswered, though that one was outbound to Dorian. It had been nearly three weeks since they last spoke.

“He’s fine.”

Rusl met Cado’s gaze and Cado offered him a reassuring smile.

“Yeah.” Rusl sighed through his nose.

“It’s funny,” he said conversationally. “To think the two of you hated each other.”

“I won him over with my charm,” Rusl said dryly.

“Hm.” He hesitated. “It was Dorian who asked Impa to send you out with them.”

Rusl glanced at Cado, and Cado frowned.

“We cannot keep up to Kohga’s growing strength.” He met Rusl’s gaze. “We do need your help. Your strength is remarkable. But Dorian didn’t want anyone else on this mission with them.”

Rusl pulled his gaze away. He wondered how much Cado knew of the situation.

“The Yiga are hunting you,” Cado continued. “But they wouldn’t have asked this of you if they didn’t think you could stand up against them.”

“Maybe,” Rusl muttered. He looked up as Cottla skipped to them. Koko leaned against the wall of the bar, her foot tapping impatiently.

“Come on, Cado,” Cottla said. “You can’t lose to the Hylian.”

Cado smiled. “This one’s on me tonight.”

Koko shrugged. “As long as it’s not me.”

They led the way inside, quickly taking four empty seats at the bar. They waited as Cado and Rusl scanned the crowd for a moment before taking a seat.

“Stop being so damn uptight,” Cottla muttered. “Do you really think they’re a threat?”

“You can never be off guard,” Cado said to her.

“That’s the thing with you older generation,” Koko said. “You assume the world is out to get you.”

“I’ve got the scars as proof,” Rusl muttered.

“Give people a chance,” Cottla said.

“No, thank you.” Rusl turned his attention to the bartender and ordered four drinks.

“You’re gonna freak people out like that,” Cottla hissed at them. She pulled her hood down and fluffed her hair over her shoulders.

“Not any more than you are,” Rusl said.

“At least I’m not being a creep in a hood. They know what they’re messing with.”

“And I’m not a Sheikah,” Rusl hissed. Still, he removed his hood. He didn’t look up when the bartender returned with their drinks.

“You used to not give a fuck,” Cottla said. “What happened?”

“I’m tired,” Rusl said. “I don’t like picking fights anymore. That was for twenty-year-old Rusl.”

“And yet here you are, defending Hyrule from the kinda darkness nightmares are made of! Picking fights with Yiga, kicking ass and taking names!” She held her glass up, and with a roll of his eyes, Rusl tapped his against hers.

“Well, this is an unusual sight.”

Rusl turned as a woman sat beside him. She put her chin in her palm and smiled at him.

“Three Sheikah and a Hylian walk into a bar in the middle of nowhere, Tabantha.”

“Sounds like a bad joke,” Rusl muttered.

“Got room for one more?” She pushed her hair behind an ear. She, too, was Hylian.

“Scram, lady,” Cottla said, leaning over Rusl. “We ain’t interested. Go make your money somewhere else.”

Rusl snorted in laughter and the woman frowned. “Are you implying that I’m a hooker?”

“Why else would you be hitting on him?”

“Hey,” Rusl started. “I’m cute.”

“Hookers don’t care what you look like,” Koko pointed out.

“I’m not a hooker,” she said with a look of annoyance.

“Look,” Cottla said. “We’re on business.”

She put a hand on Rusl’s. “So am I.” When her eyes met his, her gaze was hard. She held it for a heartbeat, then stood.

Rusl stiffened and a chill ran up his spine. Her fingers traced delicately along his palm, and he felt the distinct corners of a card being slipped into his hand before her arm dropped away from him. He watched as she left them alone at the bar, disappearing into the crowd.

“Damn,” Cottla said. “She thirsty!”

Rusl stood abruptly, scanning the crowd, but it was too dim to see.

Cotta glanced at him uneasily. “What’s wrong?”

“Let’s go,” he said simply.

Cottla didn’t argue with him. She shot a warning glance to Cado and Koko, and the four of them wrapped their cloaks around them and hurried out of the bar, out into the city streets. The snow was falling lightly, but in the distance, the mountain peak was lost to the snow storm. They walked briskly down the sidewalk, their feet crunching lightly in the snow. Rusl didn’t stop until the buildings thinned and they were lost in the shadows between two street lights. Then, he pulled the card out and squinted in the darkness. It had nothing but a phone number. He turned it over, but the backside was blank.

“Oh, come on,” Cottla said. “You’re not gonna call her, are you?”

Cado peered at the card over his shoulder and frowned. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Rusl said slowly. His stomach twisted. He didn’t know who the woman was or what she wanted, but he had a very bad feeling about it all. “We need to get out of here.”

Cado nodded. He turned to Cottla and Koko. “Go back to the city.”

Koko frowed. “What about the Divine Beasts?”

“Rusl and I will continue to search for them.”

They looked uneasily between Cado and Rusl, but did not argue.

“Alright,” Cottla said slowly. She met Rusl’s gaze. “Be careful.”

Rusl smiled and saluted her playfully. In a snap, they were gone. They stared at the empty space for a moment.

“Who is she?” Rusl asked, not moving his gaze. “And how did she find us?”

“I don’t know,” Cado started. He glanced at Rusl and his gaze narrowed. “She was looking for you. What do you know?”

Rusl met his gaze. “I don’t know anything,” he said. He hesitated as the color drained from his face. “What do you think she knows?”

Cado held his gaze. His lips pressed together. “I think she knows too much.”

#sotf #shadows of the future #loz #botw #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #sotf53

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katedoesfics · 4 years

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Shadows of the Future | Chapter 51

It was late in the morning when Rusl returned home, his mind full of worry. His missions would take him away from his children, likely for long periods of time. And though he was sure they would be safe, he knew he would be thrust into more danger than he had ever been in before. He didn’t worry for his own life, but he worried for his son’s, and what reckless move he would pull if he ever found out the truth. He couldn’t let that happen.

And he worried for Dorian. He had become so deeply involved with the Yiga Clan over the years that it seemed the only way for him to get out alive would be with Kohga’s defeat. But in doing so likely meant that Rusl’s life would be sacrificed. There was no doubt in his mind that he would do that for Dorian, just as he would for his children. But he knew Dorian would not make that easy on him.

Rusl had wandered upstairs into his bedroom, realizing only as he made his way up the stairs that his children were not in sight. He heard them talking, however, and when he turned the corner into his room, he saw them sitting on his bed. Aryll had his old guitar in her hands, and Link was trying to show her how to hold it properly.

Link looked up as Rusl stood in the doorway. His gaze narrowed on him suspiciously, but he didn’t press him for information. Rusl held his gaze on him for a moment before turning his attention to his daughter. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Link’s teaching me how to play!” Aryll said excitedly.

Rusl scoffed. “Link doesn’t even know how to play.”

“I know what a G cord is,” he argued.

Rusl crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Ladies love a guitar player, you know,” he said with a grin. “Why couldn’t you pick that up instead of hero work?”

“Jokes on you,” Link said. “Heroes get way more action.”

Rusl’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t see it.”

“Some girls took pictures with him and got his autograph,” Aryll said in a disinterested tone.

Link grinned proudly, but Rusl shook his head.

“What about Mipha?”

“Link and Mipha are gonna get married,” Aryll added helpfully.

Link elbowed her sharply and she yelped.

“Link!” she shouted at him. “You’re a dumbass!”

“Aryll,” Rusl and Link scolded her in unison.

Aryll crossed her arms and stood on the bed. “But it’s true!”

“That doesn’t mean you can say it,” Rusl said with a grin.

“Daddy,” Aryll whined.

“Link, you’re a dumbass.”

Aryll grinned and stuck her tongue out at her brother. Link sighed and rolled his eyes. He got to his feet.

“I saved the world,” he muttered. “Why do I still get treated this way?”

“Can’t let it get to your head,” Rusl said.

Link pushed passed him, ignoring his comment and stepped out into the hall.

“Daddy,” Aryll started, sitting back on the bed and holding the guitar in her lap. “Will you play my song?”

Rusl moved into the room and sat next to his daughter. “Alright,” he said. “But only if you sing.”

Link looked over his shoulder as his father began to play. Aryll watched curiously as his fingers moved over the strings. She looked up at him and grinned, then began to sing. Rusl met his gaze briefly, but Link was frowning deeply.

Rusl knew his son was suspicious of him. He knew that Link knew that he was up to something. And Link knew that pressing him for information would be a useless endeavor. Rusl was determined to keep him out of it all. Link, on the other hand, was determined to be a part of it. To do what only he could do to keep his family and friends safe. Rusl wanted to be proud of him for his virtues, and though he was, he also pitied his son. Such a burden that had been placed on his shoulders. A burden Rusl never wanted for him. And in the end, the success of his son, and his son’s life, relied on Rusl’s imminent death. Without the full power of the Triforce, Link would not be able to stand up against Kohga. Link was oblivious to this truth, and Rusl intended to keep it that way, positive that if he knew, he would do everything in his power to try to change Rusl’s fate. In doing so, it would only cost his son his life, and Hyrule, in turn, would fall. Everything they had done would have been for nothing. And Rusl was not about to let that happen.

Link’s forehead creased with worry as he watched his father. The pain and guilt flashed across his face for a brief moment before Rusl pulled his gaze away, turning his attention to Aryll and singing along with her. At the corner of his vision, he saw Link turn away from them, turning around the corner to make his way downstairs.

When the song finished, Rusl stopped strumming and moved his fingers through Aryll’s hair. She smiled up at him, then scooted closer to lean against him. She took the guitar from him and plucked at the strings.

“Will you teach me to play?” she asked. “You’re better than Link.”

Rusl smiled. “It’s pretty hard,” he said. “You’ll have to practice lots.”

Aryll met his gaze. “I will!”

“Alright,” he said. He positioned her hands on the instrument for her, then showed her how to strum. When the sound came out, she grinned excitedly.

“I’m going to practice a lot,” she said. “And when I get good, I’ll show you!”

“Promise?”

She nodded. “Promise!”

“Good.” Rusl stood. “You keep practicing that.” He watched Aryll busy herself with the guitar for a moment, then he slipped out of his room. He made his way downstairs in hopes of catching Link, and to his relief, his son was sprawled out on the couch, holding his phone over his face as he texted.

Rusl hesitated, standing in the doorway until Link spoke.

“Do you think putting Hero of Hyrule on my applications and resumes will be enough to get me out of here?”

“I’m hoping,” Rusl said. “You don’t have much else going for you.”

Link frowned. “Thanks for the support.”

“Since when do you care about anything?”

Link blew his hair out of his face. “I don’t.” He hesitated, then let his arms drop as he stared at the ceiling. “I dunno,” he said. “Everyone else is doing something. I look like a loser if I don’t.”

“You’ve always been a loser.”

Link sat up to glare at him. “Why are you an ass all the time?”

“Are you going to cry about it?”

Link groaned and dropped back against the couch. “Some people have normal parents,” he said. “Parents that support them and aren’t assholes.”

“Too bad you don’t know what that’s like.”

Link sighed loudly.

Rusl stepped into the living room and leaned against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. “So, what? Are you applying to college?”

“Eh.” Link blinked at the ceiling. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” He paused. “I’m not good at anything.”

“That’s not true,” Rusl started. “You’re good at being a pain in the ass.”

Link’s lips twisted to the side. “I’m good with a sword.”

“That’s debatable.”

Link frowned. “Maybe I could join the army like you did.”

“You could barely handle a sword. You think you could handle a gun?”

“A gun’s gotta be easier than a sword,” Link pointed out.

“And easier to accidentally shoot yourself with.”

Link rolled his eyes. He tilted his head back to meet Rusl’s gaze. “You did it. How hard can it be?”

“I made some stupid mistakes,” Rusl said.

“You never talk about it.”

Rusl hesitated. He pushed himself off the wall and turned away from his son. “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said as he made his way into the kitchen.

“Are you leaving?”

Rusl occupied himself in the fridge for a moment, taking out a beer and popping it open. He then turned back toward Link, meeting his gaze.

“I don’t know,” he said. “If they need me. Maybe.”

Link’s gaze narrowed on him. “What could they need?”

Rusl’s lips pressed together. “I dunno,” he said with a shrug. He pulled his gaze away. “Probably nothing.”

“Then I guess they don’t need you.”

“They won’t need you, either.”

Link held his gaze on Rusl for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the ceiling. He picked up his phone and began to text.

Rusl knew Link was skeptical of him, but his son didn’t push the matter further. Rusl would tell him in time, when there was something to tell, but for now, he didn’t want him to worry.

#sotf #shadows of the future #loz #botw #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #sotf51

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thelastpitchbender · 6 years

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Memory | Chapter 5

Rating: T for language, violence, dark stuff, and dumb, bad humor.

Read on: FanFiction | AO3

Chapter Index here.

Chapter 5

The Noble Pursuit of Something to Drink

It was hot in the Gerudo Desert.

Well, of course it was, Link reflected crankily. He wasn’t stupid. He always knew that the desert was hot. He always tried to steel himself. But somehow, he never quite remembered exactly how terrible the heat was.

Even with the protection of the sapphire circlet or the airy freedom he felt when he wore his Gerudo disguise, sand scoured every exposed inch of his skin. Sweat trickled down his forehead and into the collar of any armor he wore. The glaring sun burned his skin to an angry red crisp.

And then the lizalfos. Always with the Goddess-cursed lizalfos. All he’d wanted was to shoot a voltfruit off the top of a cactus, but suddenly one of the stupid electric ones had exploded out of the sand, disturbed by his arrow. What with the sand constantly shifting under his feet, harsh sunlight glaring off the yellow dunes and into his eyes, and the near-constant electric pulses from the lizalfos, combat was an exercise in frustration.

He trudged away from that fight with little but a lizalfos talon, a broken lizal boomerang, a bruised voltfruit, and a gash on his arm to show for it. He tore a strip from a spare cloth he carried and tied it around the wound as tightly as he could with one hand and his teeth. The adrenaline from combat was wearing off, and the wound was starting to throb in time with his pulse. Link gritted his teeth and looked ahead. He was almost to Gerudo Town. The walls were visible behind the shimmer of a heat wave. He could properly deal with the cut there. He only needed to avoid another fight.

As he made his way through the desert, a large rock caught his eye at the edge of the poorly defined road, if it could even be called a road. He glanced over his shoulder. There was no one within a half-mile of him. It was late afternoon, and most everyone who traveled in the desert did so before noon. Like he should have done instead of riding all night and sleeping at Gerudo Canyon Stable until two in the afternoon, he internally grumbled.

Yet another thing to add to the list of poor decisions Link had made in recent memory.

But at least the emptiness of the desert at this time of day made it easier for him to change into his disguise behind the rock. He stripped off his tunic and greaves and folded them neatly, placing them into his bag of supplies. Out came the Gerudo veil, top, and sirwal. They did feel better, he admitted. The thin silk garments didn’t chafe against his skin with sweat, and the bandage over his arm was less in danger of being pulled at and shifted around. He’d long since gotten past whatever embarrassment he may have initially felt at having to dress as a woman to get into Gerudo Town. These clothes were too comfortable for that.

Finally, finally, he was at the gates of the town. The two guards straightened as he approached. As if he didn’t need a reminder that pretty much every Gerudo was at least a foot taller than him.

“Vasaaq, Zelda,” one of the guards greeted him.

Oh, Goddess. He always forgot that that was the name he had given everyone in Gerudo Town. Someone had asked him on his first day there, he’d panicked and blurted out the first female name that had come to him, and then he’d had to stick with it. It was mortifying.

Still embarrassed, he tried in vain to search through his memory for the proper phrase. “Sav’orr…?” he tried.

“I think you’re looking for sav’saaba,” the other guard informed him in her accented Hylian. “Good evening, not good night.”

“Right,” he muttered, realizing too late that he had to try harder to make his voice higher pitched. He was fortunate that he was small enough to pass as a Hylian woman, but these Gerudo were scary and he didn’t want to get caught…

“Sarqso,” he said with more confidence. That one he remembered.

The Gerudo guards nodded, impassive as ever. What, no appreciation for his attempt to be polite? Typical.

He passed under the arch and into the town. It was like he’d warped to an entirely different place. No longer was he suffocated by the grit and heat in the desert air. He dimly remembered a shopkeeper explaining that Gerudo Town had been built on the site of an oasis, and that water circulating around the city walls kept the area cooler, if still comfortably warm.

The main market of the city had not died down yet; if anything, dinnertime made it busier. The air was filled with shouts, chatter, and laughter, as merchants hawked their wares and women from all over Hyrule came to admire them. Everywhere he looked were splashes of bright color: on tapestries that hung from stone walls, on the awnings over storefronts, in the geometric patterns of the Gerudo clothes everywhere. Somewhere, someone was roasting meat and vegetables with traditional Gerudo spices, and the warm, rich smell made Link’s stomach rumble.

He made a beeline for the communal cooking pots, right across from Spera’s stall. The merchant eyed him with poorly disguised enthusiasm. Oh, great, Link realized with a sinking stomach. He’d sold all of his monster parts to Beedle. He had nothing more than a couple of lizalfos talons left for the Gerudo merchants. They would tear him to shreds.

Link made a point of avoiding eye contact as he rummaged through his bag for something to cook. He pushed aside the bomb arrows, the Korok seeds, the chunk of ore he was saving for one of the fairies. Panic began to set in.

Where was his food? Had he already eaten it all?

Link grimaced, took a deep breath, and turned around. Spera had her chin propped up on her hand.

“Sav’saaba,” she chirped. “My, my, have you not eaten yet today?”

Link sighed, and at length said, “Uh, no.”

Spera’s grin gleamed like the blade of a scimitar. “I always do worry about you tiny vai from other places. Need something to cook with?”

“Stop it, Spera!” someone shouted from behind Link. “We agreed to split the monster parts!”

Link realized too late that his eyes had gone wide. How was he going to tell them? Were they going to convene some sort of war band and go beat up Beedle? Or worse, beat up Link?

He risked a glance over his shoulder to see Ardin, the mushroom seller, with her hands planted on her hips.

“Shut up, Ardin,” Spera snarled. “We all know you lie about where you get your mushrooms.”

“A deal’s a deal,” Ardin retorted. “You have to – wait, what do you mean I’m a liar? I am not!” She shoved past Link so that she could jab a finger in Spera’s face.

“Ladies, please,” Link muttered. As was typical, the Gerudo merchants paid no attention to him.

“I told you that I was going to start a line of skincare products with those parts,” Ardin was shouting. “Let me have this!”

“Oh, sure, you’re going to grind up some mushrooms and lizalfos talons and pray to the Heroines that it doesn’t give you a horrific rash!” Spera flicked her hand dismissively. “And what are you going to do when you run out of mushrooms like you always do, sell lizal powder featuring your rare, mysterious, invisiblemushrooms?”

“Seven sands, Spera, the invisible mushrooms are just a joke, no one actuallybelieves that I sell those – “

Their argument was interrupted by a commotion from the gates of the city. Link heard aggressive shouts and the metallic clanking of weapons and shields. He peered around the merchants, curious.

A group of Gerudo soldiers was pushing their way through the crowd that was quickly forming around them. “Out of the way!” Captain Teake bellowed from the front of the group, pushing unfortunate passersby aside with her shield.

The captain was limping, Link realized. As she passed by him, he could see bloodstained bandages binding her leg. And other soldiers weren’t so lucky. Behind Teake, several of them were being carried on makeshift stretchers.

The soldiers made it to the barracks, and the crowd went back to normal, although a nervous tension still buzzed in the air. He briefly wondered what had happened. The soldiers couldn’t have been fighting a molduga. Their wounds were definitely the result of blades, but lizalfos rarely gave Gerudo soldiers that much trouble. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he could guess exactly what had done so much damage to the soldiers.

Link cast a quizzical glance at Ardin and Spera. Spera muttered, “This has been happening for a while.”

“Those damn bandits,” Ardin added, spitting on the ground.

Of course. It always had to be the Yiga Clan, didn’t it? Because nothing could ever be easy for Link.

While Spera was too distracted by being angry at the Yiga to bug him about his monster parts, Link bought rice and some spices and whipped up a quick, simple meal. He scarfed it down and escaped to the Arrow Specialty Shop, eager to speak to the one merchant who wouldn’t demand he sell things to them.

The elderly Gerudo woman Danda reclined behind the counter of the arrow shop, eyeing him as he approached.

“Sav’saaba…” she grunted as she pushed herself up into a better position. “Your reputation precedes you. I assume you have monster parts to sell me.”

Blunt and to the point. Link couldn’t decide if he liked that or not. “Not so much,” he said, dragging the words out over several seconds. “Don’t tell the others, though.”

Danda raised an eyebrow. “I see,” she said flatly.

“Hey!” a woman shouted from behind him. Link turned to see Isha stalking toward the booth, tailed by a cohort of angry shop owners. Link felt his stomach drop to his feet. This couldn’t possibly end well. He had an informal agreement with the merchants of Gerudo Town: the merchants decided one person Link would sell to, and they would work out any issues about who wanted what amongst themselves. Link racked his brain for what they had agreed on the last time. With a sinking feeling, he realized that he hadn’tmade an agreement with anyone, and now they would all fight about it.

Isha jabbed him in the chest, and he almost wobbled. “I thought you were going to sell your stuff to me!”

“Whoa,” the fruit seller Lorn objected. “I thought we had a deal?”

Estan the butcher shoved her way to the front of the group. “Isha had a deal with me!” She cast a doubtful glance at Isha. “Didn’t we?”

Isha sighed. “Ladies, please.” She thought for a second, then smiled. “I know where we can work this out.” She pointed in the direction of – Oh. Link couldn’t see. Lorn was in the way.

Then Spera grabbed Link by the arm, forcibly dragging him away from Danda and her arrows. Link grumbled. Really? Was it too much to ask for him to buy her entire stock of bomb arrows? He hesitated to resist or even to speak too much, in case they got too handsy and realized that he wasn’t a vai.

“Looks like you lose again, Danda,” Isha teased with a flick of her hand.

Danda grunted, unimpressed. “Who really loses when Zelda will come by later and buy up my entire stock and no one else’s?”

Isha’s smile turned to a scowl for a second, then she was grabbing Link’s other arm and helping Spera pull him away. Link groaned. When had the Gerudo merchants gotten so competitive about his stuff? Weren’t there other adventurers with bones to sell them?

Link eventually realized that they were headed to the Noble Canteen, and his heart sank. There was no way this wouldn’t end badly. He needed to avoid any drinking if he was to get out of this with his dignity intact.

As soon as they entered, the bartender Furosa shouted out a greeting, and the group of Gerudo women surrounding him cheered.

“What do you think, little vai?” Estan asked as she peered down at him, then cracked a grin. “I’ll buy you a drink if you sell me your ore.”

Link did not know how to respond to that. The merchants were all staring at him expectantly, and he was made uncomfortably aware that although his swordsmanship was the stuff of legends, these Gerudo could still beat the living daylights out of him.

“Um,” he began, very ineloquently, “I have some bad news for all of you.”

He had ridden through a vicious sandstorm, withstood the heat of an active volcano, swam through freezing water, and soared thousands of feet above the ground to appease the massive Divine Beasts. He had faced vicious lynels and the deadly beams of the ancient, terrifying Guardians. He had destroyed the corrupted malice of Ganon itself, in the forms of the horrifying Blights. The expressions on the faces of the Gerudo merchants should not have scared him as much as they did.

“I only have, like, three lizalfos talons,” said Link.

Isha’s eyes narrowed. “Total?”

“Total,” Link confirmed, wishing he could sink into the floor.

Isha peered at him for a second, irritated, before she declared, “Well, this has been a waste of time.” Estan rolled her eyes and moved to the bar. The rest of the merchants followed.

Link sagged in relief. It was good to know that they were not as violent as he’d feared.

One of the bar’s patrons was watching him, Link abruptly realized. She was unfamiliar, but clearly a resident of Gerudo Town. “What?” he asked.

She shook her head. “You’re too young for them to be buying you drinks, aren’t you?”

An unexpected burst of indignation erupted in him. Screw not having a drink. This was a matter of principle. “I am one hundred and nineteen years old,” he said defiantly, straining to keep his voice high.

The woman leaned against the wall, nursing her drink. “Sure,” she said with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But he was! It didn’t matter if she thought he was lying. He had been nineteen before Calamity Ganon’s arrival, he knew that. And it was now one hundred years later. Actually, when was his birthday? It had been close to a year since he awoke in the Shrine of Resurrection. He might be twenty by now. Or one hundred and twenty.

After a few seconds of staring at the wall with a frown, he realized that the Gerudo merchants were now entirely leaving him alone, busy drinking their Noble Pursuits. The usual patrons of the bar were busy gossiping in the corner, and Furosa was pouring out more drinks for the merchants. They were all Gerudo, except for one woman at the very end of the bar. She was Hylian, dressed in dull, nondescript traveling clothes, with a sort of fidgety energy about her. Her eyes kept flicking around nervously. Link tilted his head as he watched her.

Then she turned and their eyes met. Link quickly looked away, but her eyes had already narrowed. That was…suspicious. If the Yiga Clan had the daring to attack Gerudo patrols, there was no telling what their spies could be doing.

Come on, Link. Not everyone is Yiga just because every monster in Hyrule wants to kill you.

Link plopped down in a chair. That was true. He needed to relax. But the Hylian woman did not stop acting shifty. She wasn’t drinking anything, either. Despite himself, he almost felt like the air around him was thicker with tension.

After several minutes, the woman got up to leave, but not before shooting a pointed look at him. Did she…want him to follow? Link shrugged. It was probably a bad idea, but he could defend himself.

He waited until she left, then crept out the door after her. None of the Gerudo merchants who had accosted him earlier noticed. The woman was headed for one of the sand seal rental stalls – a good way to leave the town with less scrutiny. There were many more guards at the main entrances than at the stalls.

He knew this lady was bad news. He felt it in his gut. He didn’t think it was heat exhaustion talking. She rounded the corner and walked into the stall, and Link took a step to follow her –

A hand clapped onto his shoulder. Link whirled around, half-formed excuses trying to tumble out of his mouth.

The Gerudo soldier who had stopped him raised her hands in a placating gesture. Link recognized her after a brief second as Captain Teake. “Seven sands, calm down. I’ve been sent by Buliara to find you and bring you to the chief.”

Link groaned. “I was kind of in the middle of something…”

Teake sighed, unconvinced. She only said, “Let’s go.”

After a few tense moments, Link ventured to ask, “It was the Yiga Clan that attacked you today, wasn’t it?”

Teake pursed her lips. The bandages on her leg had been changed recently, but she was still limping. She was paler than usual. At length, she tersely said, “Ask the chief when you speak to her.”

A sore point, then. Link awkwardly dropped the subject.

They reached the steps of the palace after a couple of minutes. The captain halted at the bottom of the steps and said, “You know, little vai, my offer still stands. Come join our forces after you finish that mission of yours.” Her tone was light, but the look in her eyes was strained and almost a little desperate.

Link hesitated for a second before mock saluting with an ironic smile behind his veil. “I’ll consider it, Captain.” Teake only nodded and set out back to the barracks.

Hylia, what was with all these Gerudo calling him little vai? He got that it was probably some endearing nickname, but… He wouldn’t be surprised if there had been people in his past who had teased him for being so short.

He reached the top of the stairs, and Buliara slammed the tip of her golden claymore into the ground, shouting, “Who wishes to speak with Chief Makeela Riju at this hour? Identify yourself!”

Now that Link knew how much Buliara cared for Riju, she was no longer nearly as intimidating. He grinned. “It’s, uh, Zelda.”

Riju shot him a knowing smirk from her place on the throne. “It’s about time,” she said, feigning anger and slamming a fist on the throne’s armrest. “How dare you keep me waiting this long?”

Link laughed, then realized that Riju had probably been in meetings all day due to the attack. The smile dropped off his face. “Look,” he said, “I’ve got some stuff to tell you about the Yiga Clan, and it’s pretty late, so I think we should get down to business first.” His desire to make a stupid seal pun that would make Riju laugh could wait.

Riju’s expression was more serious now as she nodded. “Buliara, I would like to speak with Zelda alone in my quarters.” Her tone of voice brooked no argument.

Buliara looked unhappy, but said nothing. Riju hopped off her throne in an undignified manner that perfectly fit her age. She pointed to her room, and Link followed.

Link cast his gaze around the chief’s room, trying to pretend like he hadn’t been in here before. It was roomy, but still managed to seem cozy and warm. It was probably because of all the stuffed sand seals everywhere.

Riju collapsed onto her bed, letting out a great sigh. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m tired, and I wanted to talk to someone.”

Link raised an eyebrow. “Is that the only reason you had Captain Teake drag me here?”

Riju shot a glance at him. “Of course not,” she replied primly. “I do have important matters to discuss with you. I just already spent the whole day talking about it to Buliara…and you know how she gets.”

Link chuckled. “Yeah.” No matter how much Riju looked up to Buliara, she had done enough complaining about her bodyguard to fill several books. “So what’s up?”

Riju gave him a long, evaluating look. Link stilled under her scrutiny, suddenly suspicious. “The Yiga Clan has been acting up again,” she said after a moment.

“I saw the soldiers earlier today,” Link said, even as his blood ran cold. She knew that they were after him. Did she blame him for the injuries her soldiers had gotten while fighting against the Yiga?

“I don’t blame you,” she said with a sigh, almost as if she read his mind. “I was just wondering if you knew why they’re more active now.”

Link sat down on her bed, then flopped on his back and stared at the ceiling. Something told him Riju wouldn’t mind. He debated how much to tell her for a moment, then realized that Riju was one of the few people in Hyrule he felt comfortable enough around to be honest with. It would be a shame to waste that. “It’s been almost a year since I woke up in the Shrine of Resurrection. I think it’s been about six months since I defeated Master Kohga and freed Vah Naboris. I’ve been taking too long.”

“With what?”

“Defeating Calamity Ganon. If I can just do that, then, you know – “ Link waved his hand in frustration. “They won’t have a reason to exist anymore.”

“Other than to kill you and make my life difficult,” Riju said dryly.

Link let out a faint laugh. “True. What exactly have the Yiga been getting up to, besides today?”

He heard the covers on the bed rustling as the young Gerudo shifted her position. “They’ve been ambushing patrols out in the desert, mostly near the northern ruins. But they haven’t gotten much closer to us than that. I don’t understand it,” she mused. “Buliara thinks they must have a spy in the town that relays troop movements. Why else would they be holding back from attacking the town itself?”

Link nodded, grim. “I think I may have found who it was. She escaped, though.”

Riju sighed. “At least she’s gone. I don’t know what else I could have done. I’m sure that if we had captured her she would have warped away anyway.”

“Maybe not,” Link said, sitting up as he recalled his encounter with the Yiga footsoldier the day before. “I think their masks are what let them disguise their voice and appearance. I broke this one guy’s mask and his voice went all weird. Also, he couldn’t warp away, I don’t think.”

Riju digested this new information, a thoughtful expression on her face. “That’s good to know. Not all of our soldiers made it back, you know. A few of them had to be left at Kara Kara thanks to their injuries.”

Guilt crashed over him like a wave as he flopped back down onto the bed. If only he’d managed to stop the Calamity the first time he’d tried. Or the second. If only… Those thoughts weren’t helpful. They would drag him deep into a mire of shame and sadness.

“The spy I was talking about earlier. She was a Hylian woman at the Noble Canteen,” Link said, trying to be helpful. “She was wearing dark clothes. Too heavy for the desert. She had short, dark hair, but otherwise looked unremarkable. She left the canteen before Teake found me, so I don’t know where she is now.”

He heard the scratching of a quill as Riju wrote his description down. Link turned his head to look at her and noted with some amusement that she was writing it down in her diary. It was a very chief-like thing to write down in a diary, he thought.

Misinterpreting Link’s glance, Riju explained sheepishly, “It’s my diary. It was the paper closest to me.”

Link nodded, hoping against all hope that she wouldn’t realize that he had already read her diary when he’d first snuck into her room. That would be incredibly embarrassing. And would probably get him kicked out of the town for good. He decided to stare at the ceiling again.

Riju sighed beside him. “I don’t know what to do,” she admitted. “I know that I have to keep sending troops out. I’ll look weak otherwise. But it hurts when they come back injured.”

There was a strong undercurrent of despair in her voice now, and Link turned to meet her gaze.

“I don’t have enough troops to challenge the Yiga in their own valley,” she explained. “And no Gerudo soldier gets trained in stealth, so I can’t order good reconnaissance. I’m stuck, and if this keeps going, my people will consider me unfit to be chief.”

“I’m sure they won’t,” Link hastily put in, alarmed at the direction the conversation was taking.

Riju stared down at the blankets. “I know they’ve already been muttering about how I let the Thunder Helm get stolen. Sometimes I feel like a colossal failure.”

“I can sympathize,” Link said honestly. His heart went out to the young chief, who at this moment looked every bit her thirteen years of age. At least you haven’t repeatedly failed to destroy the ancient evil that will destroy your entire world.

Riju clutched a stuffed sand seal to her chest, a small worried frown on her face. Something about it was so painfully familiar. It was right there in his mind, like an itch he couldn’t scratch.

Then he felt the full weight of memory bear down on him like a pile of boulders, dragging him once again into a vision of a century ago.

“Big brother! Big brother!” A young girl’s insistent cries startled Link awake from his nap. He lay still for a second, trying to reclaim the peace and solitude he’d felt just moments ago.

Then he cracked one eye open to see Aryll before him, clutching her small stuffed horse with a worried frown.

Link decided he did not care. “Go away,” he muttered. He closed his eyes again, basking in the warmth of the spring sunlight.

“Link, no!” Aryll cried. “Dad and his friends got attacked!”

Link bolted upright, all sense of comfort and calm gone. “Where?” he breathed.

Aryll started to run back toward their house, waving him forward. “Follow me!”

Link cast one last longing glance at his nap spot. It was at the corner of their family’s small estate, wedged between a rustic wood fence and a gnarled oak tree, and at this time of day a shaft of sunlight perfectly lit the spot where Link laid down.

But he had a bigger issue to worry about. He ran after Aryll and gasped, “Is he okay?”

Aryll stubbornly shook her head, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Link’s heart jumped in his throat and he surged past her, throwing the door to their house open.

His father was sitting in a chair by the hearth, along with other knights and soldiers of his company. His mother was standing in front of him with her back to Link, blocking the extent of the knight’s injuries from his view. But Link could see his breastplate leaned against the wall. It was caked in dirt and mud and dented all over. Worst of all, there was a jagged slash in the metal, cutting through where his father’s shoulder would have been. The work of a lizal blade, Link realized with a sinking stomach. Hadn’t they escaped the lizalfos when they’d left Zora’s Domain?

Link took a hesitant step forward. Fear gripped him. “Mama – “

His mother whirled around, desperate irritation sparking in her eyes even with the exhausted slump of her shoulders. “Go play with Aryll outside,” she told him tersely. Short and slight as she was, she could still be intimidating.

Link could not think of a single thing to say. He saw the extent of the injuries on the other men in the room, and his throat burned as he tried to hold back tears. He had to be strong. For his father, for Mama, for Aryll.

His mother’s expression softened. “He’ll be alright, Link,” she murmured. “But I have work to do.”

Link heard a weak chuckle from his father. “Ah, leave him alone, Anith,” he said, trying to push himself up. “If he wants to be a knight, he’ll have to get used to seeing this sort of thing.”

His mother scowled and pushed him back down. “Sit down, Rossin. No, I mean it. Sit down.” His father relented after a few seconds of struggle. She slumped into the chair opposite him.

“Link is only twelve,” she told him quietly. “Let him have his last year of freedom before he begins his training.” Then she realized Link was still there, and turned around to fix him with an annoyed glare.

“I get it, Mama,” Link said, backing towards the door. He smacked right into the doorframe, then slipped out and slammed the door before anyone could make fun of him.

Aryll was waiting for him on the other side. She stared up at him expectantly, still clutching that stupid stuffed horse like a lifeline.

“Mama says he’ll be fine,” Link informed her.

Her expression immediately brightened, and she started bouncing on the balls of her feet. “That’s good, big brother!” Then she rummaged around in the pocket of her light blue dress for something. As soon as she pulled out her telescope, Link groaned. That telescope was bad news. It always meant Link would get dragged into a ridiculous scheme where he would help Aryll spy on the villagers and then get into trouble for it.

“I wanna spy on the knights!” she exclaimed.

Link frowned. Knights? Then Aryll pointed behind him, on the other side of their house. He turned around and gaped at the sight.

It seemed like his father’s entire company of knights and soldiers had set up camp in the field next to the house. He hadn’t noticed when he had been napping or so worried about his father, but it was very noisy. The clangs of armor and swords rang out in the air, and there was already smoke rising from between the multicolored tents that had sprung up in a loose block. The smell of roasting meat drifted in the breeze to Link and Aryll. Suddenly, spying on the knights didn’t seem like such a terrible idea to him.

Link heard the sound of crunching dirt behind him, and he spun around. There was a dark-haired man standing behind them, with a sallow face, bags under his eyes, and a well-maintained small moustache. He wore a navy-blue knight’s tunic, but had no weapons on him. Link vaguely recognized him, but couldn’t say whether he was one of his father’s friends or not.

“You’re Sir Rossin’s kids, aren’t you?” he asked without preamble.

Link stared up at him impassively, and Aryll nodded.

“I’ve heard him mention his kids before. Didn’t he say one of them was almost of age to start knight training?” the man continued, nonchalant.

“That’s me,” Link blurted out, unable to resist puffing his chest a little.

The man gave him a critical onceover with one eyebrow raised incredulously. “You? No offense, kid, but you’re a little small.”

Link recoiled, about to give the man a piece of his mind, but someone else beat him to it, shouting, “Linebeck, leave those poor kids alone!”

Linebeck scowled. “Aw, come on, Rusl, I wasn’t being mean!”

Rusl jogged up, soldier’s armor clanking. He had his helmet tucked under his arm. The red royal insignia emblazoned on it marked him as a captain. Link stared at him with wide eyes. Was this the Captain Rusl? Commander of the soldiers of East Necluda Company and his father’s right hand man?

Rusl also had a moustache, but he looked much nicer than Linebeck. “I assume you’ve already checked in on your father. How is he doing?”

Link was too surprised to ask how the captain knew who he and Aryll were. From beside him, Linebeck scoffed, “There’s no way he’s not fine. That man’s a real stubborn bastard.”

“I’ll thank you not to speak of the Knight-Commander that way in front of his children,” Rusl said pointedly.

Linebeck waved him off. “I technically outrank you, old man,” he said, but there was no bite to his tone.

Rusl chuckled. “Don’t let Rossin catch you saying that, Sir Linebeck.”

Link gaped. Sir Linebeck? The man was a knight? Linebeck vaguely saluted Rusl with an eye roll, then jogged off to the camp.

“Dad is fine,” Link blurted out, unsure what else to do.

Rusl grinned. “Good. I’d love to stay and chat more, but duty calls. Take care of your father for me.” Then he left, leaving Link to stare after him. He’d heard so many stories about Rusl’s bravery, leadership, and prowess with the sword. When he was younger, Link had hoped that he would one day be Rusl’s squire, but then he had learned that Rusl had not a single drop of noble blood in him and therefore was ineligible for knighthood.

His thoughts were interrupted by a tug on his sleeve. “Big brother!” Aryll said, smacking her telescope against his arm repeatedly.

“Ow, Aryll, no!” Link slapped her hand away, but the telescope went flying into the dirt a few feet away, and Aryll let out a shriek like she’d been burned. Oh, man.

His sister practically flew to the telescope, scooping it up and inspecting it closely for damage or even the slightest smudge of dirt. “I’m gonna tell Mama!” she cried.

Link froze. “Don’t you dare.”

Aryll shouted, “I will!” and promptly ran off into the soldier’s camp.

Link’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. He didn’t even worry about the fact that she was running in the opposite direction of their house. That crafty girl was probably just trying to dodge him. What – what if she got trampled? Then it would all be his fault! Mama would kill him! Without another thought, he dove between the tents where she had disappeared.

He burst out of the tents into a cacophony of activity. Soldiers were sparring, cooking, and tending to their wounds, all while laughing raucously and telling jokes and stories.

Link paled at the sight of practice swords swinging around. What if they weren’t watching and Aryll got hit? Oh no. No, no, no.

He caught a glimpse of bright blonde hair running in front of a tent across the central clearing of the camp. He sprinted for it, dodging and weaving around soldiers who yelped in surprise.

When he rounded the corner, he almost collided with Aryll. She had come to an abrupt stop, mesmerized by something in front of her. Link was about to start yelling when he realized what she was so enthralled by.

Music. A delicate, simple melody was being plucked from a small harp. The player wasn’t a man but a boy, a Sheikah youth no older than Link himself. As he watched, an older Hylian man seated beside him began to sing.

"The kingdom of Hyrule is a vast and storied land, Oft grasped in the palm of a villainous hand.

A dark force of destruction, many times undone, Rises once again - Ganon, the calamitous one.

But hope survives in Hyrule, for all is not lost, Two brave souls protect it, no matter the cost.

A goddess-blood princess and a fearless knight, They appear in each age to fight the good fight…”

Link had the strangest feeling while listening to the song. He could not place it, but it was as if he were both not him and more him than he had ever been. It was as if he were living countless lives that were not his, all in the blink of an eye – a future him that could exist, a past him who had been snuffed out. Visions of darkness stretched before him. He itched at his hands, breath suddenly short. Was there something on his hands? Dirt? Blood?

When he looked down, his hands were clean. The strange feeling broke. Link shook his head, alarmed. He wasn’t going crazy, was he?

Aryll poked him in the side with her elbow. He realized that the bard had stopped singing, and that everyone was applauding. Link halfheartedly joined them. He had enjoyed the performance, but… He didn’t know how to describe it. He inexplicably felt the urge to whack at something with a sword.

He turned his attention back to the bard, who was grinning and bowing for his appreciative audience. “Thank you, thank you,” he said. Link noted that his right arm was in a sling, and that he was wearing finery that befit Hyrule Castle, not the outskirts of Hateno Village.

“My name is Cassar, and I am Hyrule’s court poet,” the bard continued. “This young gentleman on the harp is Pikango, my apprentice. I cannot thank your wonderful company enough for rescuing us from those terrible lizards!”

The bard continued to speak, but Link turned to Aryll and whispered, “Please don’t run away like that again.”

Aryll grinned mischievously. “Aw, big brother, were you actually worried about me?” Link spluttered a denial, but she shoved her stuffed horse at him and said, “Epona will protect me!”

Link raised an eyebrow. “Epona?”

“Mama told me that Epona is the guardian spirit of horses,” Aryll informed him.

Link grinned despite himself. “Maybe Epona will protect me when I become a knight.”

Aryll said, “I hope so. Otherwise I think you’d get yourself killed really fast.”

Link squawked indignantly and tried to grab the telescope out of his sister’s hands. He never did succeed at that.

Link blinked the memory away. Riju was staring at him, deep concern etched into the lines of her face. He could not care less that she was worried.

He had – a sister?

Aryll. Aryll.

In that moment, a helpless, overflowing rage rushed through his veins, and it was everything he could do not to scream.

Did no one think to tell him that he had a sister? Impa – had she known? Bazz or Kodah? Had Aryll been with him at Zora’s Domain? In all of those images on the Sheikah Slate – had Princess Zelda really been so selfish to leave all memories of her and none of his family?

He clenched his fists, twisting up the bed sheets, and Riju timidly asked, “Link, are you alright?”

Something tried to crawl its way up his throat, halfway between a sob and a scream. He couldn’t breathe. Did Riju seriously think he could even form words right now?

Aryll. She was as bright as the sunlight, inquisitive, likely as he was to get into trouble. She took after their mother – slight, pale blonde hair, sky blue eyes. Just the thought of that brightness getting snuffed out – getting trampled into the dust, buried in an unmarked grave, if even – gone, dead –

Link didn’t know what he was doing, but he was out of Riju’s room, out of the palace, into Hotel Oasis and slapping a red rupee onto the counter, collapsing on a bed. The tears would not come. Why couldn’t he cry for his sister? It was like an endless chasm had opened inside him, swallowing everything until nothing, not even the rage, was left.

He was so tired. He couldn’t sleep, not when blonde hair and a telescope flashed behind his eyelids when he blinked.

How… how had he failed her like this? That was what hurt the most. Until Link had remembered, no one else had. She had been truly gone.

She still is truly gone, an insidious voice whispered in his head. It sounded a lot like how he imagined the Calamity to sound, and it also sounded a lot like Link. He shut the voice out, and shut his eyes.

#fanfic #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #botw #memory #link #riju #buliara #all the gerudo merchants #who i adore btw #gerudo town

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