Chapter Text
Blood running down his scalp, the smell of his own burned skin, the sting of wind running head on toward him. He hurt, he was exhausted, his limbs were barely his. Link’s teeth ached as he clenched his jaw and nocked an arrow. His horse shook it’s head but didn’t resist as he turned and looked down the silver spine of the arrow set in a moon sickle bow up at his target.
The Beast. Each footstep an echo of an earthquake. Heaving, monstrous, immeasurable underneath the burning orange sky. Simmering with hatred - anger made flesh.
“Link— I can’t hold on much longer—!”
He felt Zelda beside him, around him, but he could not see her as he kicked his horse to go faster, head on toward the Beast. There was no choice, there was no one else to do this.
The Dark Beast. The destroyer, the Calamity— Ganon.
Link choked, eyes wide. The arrow loosened and flew toward its target, splitting the malice covering the Beast’s body.
A scream.
“Link! Link, wake up!”
Link opened his eyes. Above, there was a canopy of an old tree. He breathed in the smell of falling rain.
“Link?”
He turned his head and looked across as Zelda lying on a sleeping mat, a thin blanket wrapped only around her shoulders, the rain was falling behind her beyond the shelter of the tree. She was dressed in the stealth armour of the Sheikah - they both were. Zelda squinted at him with a strange look. Link titled his head at her.
“You were making sounds in your sleep like you were running from something,” she said. “You weren’t even moving, but your breathing sounded like you were fleeing something. I had almost thought we had been attacked.”
Link looked back up at the tree canopy, resting his hands over his stomach.
“You would tell me if your dream were troubling you, wouldn’t you?”
Peeking from the corner of his eye at the Princess, Link said nothing.
Zelda sighed.
He said nothing once again.
“Do you remember my seventeenth birthday?”
Of course he did.
“I hadn’t slept all night. We went to the Spring of Courage and we were exhausted from the journey, but still we couldn’t sleep. We couldn’t eat anything in the morning. All people were evacuated except for us. There was not much to do but wait. You were pacing in my room and Impa was standing at the doors. I just sat there and prayed, waiting for the Calamity to strike. You paced and paced without exhaustion with murder in your eyes.”
Link tried not to think of the nausea he felt all of that day.
“We didn’t sleep that night again. You just sat on my windowsill and watched over me. On the third day, still nothing. I sent you out because I was afraid that if you stayed longer you would start breaking things. When you came back your clothes were torn and you smelled of blood.”
Link looked down at the scabbard of the Master Sword lying beside him.
“I knew that day,” Zelda went on, “that you would have done your best to protect me from anything that would have come. To death.”
Only then Link looked at Zelda again. She smiled at him.
“I want you to know that whatever troubles you, however ridiculous you think it is, I’ll protect you in the same way. And I know I don’t have much strength—“
Link almost interrupted her. He didn’t know how many times he and Impa had drilled the contrary into Zelda’s head. But he allowed her to continue.
“When you can’t stand any longer, I’ll be there to protect you. Alright?”
He couldn’t help but smile. With his numb hands, he said, ‘Thank you.’
They avoided towns and outposts as they travelled from Kakariko and slept under trees and inside shallow caves. They pushed through the valley leading to the Gerudo desert and finally allowed themselves to rest at the stable just at the threshold of the dunes.
Sleeping in beds for the first time in weeks, they heard the clack of hammers working on stone and the creaking of the gangways high up in the canyon through the night. The excavation work never stopped.
They replenished their food and water before leaving the safety of the canyon and setting out on the path through the sand. Zelda remained dressed in her Sheikah clothing with white fabric bound around her head and face, leaving just a slit for her eyes. Link had stripped down to the lighter Gerudo clothes that barely took up any space in his pack. He pulled his hair up in a long ponytail, thankful to feel a breeze on his neck.
Zelda and Link barely spoke as they made it to Kara Kara bazaar, briefly stopping to drink before pushing onwards. It was evening when they finally made it to the walls of Gerudo Town.
The guards let them through with salutes which they returned. Even with the sun setting down the commotion of the town and the sprawling market square was not slowing.
They led each other through the crowds, somewhat ignored by the masses, before they finally finding themselves at the steps reaching into the palace. The main hall was never empty, either occupied by court hearings or general discussions that would continue for hours. It was open for all to enter and Link and Zelda could always expect to find someone inside who could point them to Urbosa or Ganon.
In spite of their expectations, they stumbled into an empty hall. Link looked at Zelda, puzzled, and she quirked an eyebrow at him through the mask of fabric. But then the clatter of metal and the crack of lightning urged them to walk to the balcony looking over the training grounds.
The powerful shockwave from the blast of green lightning almost sent them back into the throne room, stumbling, as they caught themselves on the stone wall of the staircase landing. Link peered over the edge down at the training plaza and saw Urbosa holding up her scimitar that sparked and crackled with the aftermath of the blast, her soldiers were beside her with their spears pointed toward the figure that had been sent helplessly rolling across the sandy ground.
Zelda laughed behind her mask as she watched Ganon push himself up onto his hands and knees before standing below the balcony of the staircase.
“Again?” Urbosa barked, holding her blade ready and pointed toward the Gerudo King.
“Do you think there is at least one place on me you haven’t left bruised?” Ganon grumbled as he stood straight, his own scimitars held limp.
While they spoke, Link watched Zelda silently reach for her bow and nock an arrow. She leaned out from the shelter of the landing balcony and pointed the arrowhead directly below. The arrow shot down, hitting the sand right between Ganon’s feet.
To Link’s disappointment he didn’t even stumble. Ganon wrenched his head up, meeting eyes with the two Hylians.
“I won’t hesitate to arrest, both of you!” Ganon shouted as his warriors laughed. Link just grinned.
Ganon kicked the impaled arrow in the ground, snapping it in two, and said to the warriors and Urbosa, “I give up, I won’t win against you today.” He bowed before adding, “Thank you for your training.”
Urbosa sheathed her scimitar as the warriors stood down. “You were so close, why didn’t you push yourself further? You aren’t tired.”
Ganon didn’t respond as he started to walk from the training plaza.
Urbosa dismissed the warriors before following her nephew. “You should be proud of your soldiers for standing for so long against you,” she said to him.
Ganon only nodded, unaware of the two Hylians running down the steps, saved only by Zelda yanking Link back at the last moment before they could collide.
Ganon squinted at the Hylians and pointed at them with a scimitar, forcing them to take several steps back up the staircase. “We should have them sent to the prison cells.”
“Ah our unexpected guests!” Urbosa appeared behind Ganon, smiling up at Zelda and Link who slapped away Ganon’s scimitar. “It’s been very long since we saw either of you.”
“Lady Urbosa.” Zelda bowed briefly behind Link. “Apologies for appearing so suddenly, we try to move through Hyrule with as little detection as possible and it’s difficult to determine when we arrive.”
“No need to apologise,” Urbosa said as she pushed past Ganon to walk back up to the staircase to the Hylians. “We are just glad to have you. Will you be setting out for the mountains right away? I’d like to invite you to eat with us first, at least.”
“Oh! Of course!” Zelda jogged to follow Urbosa into the palace, wringing her hands behind her back. Seeing her act so bashfully while dressed as a formidable Sheikah warrior made Link smirk.
A hand on Link’s back urged him to turn around and look back at Ganon several steps below him.
“Hello,” was all Ganon said before he leaned across to Link and kissed the corner of his mouth, startling him.
Link would always assume that Ganon would not so much as speak with him in public. Despite how they knew each other, Ganon was a respected leader of the Gerudo people and he held himself as such, so Link always expected to be met with Ganon’s colder side. What he was shown instead, even after having been away from Gerudo Town for weeks or months, were brief embraces or a kiss on hand, shoulder, or his mouth in full view of the public.
Link must have blushed deeply as he saw Ganon smile at him. It had never stopped surprising Link that Ganon was so… like this.
“Come,” Ganon urged him, pushing him up the stairs, “We have a long journey through the highlands ahead of us.”