Chapter Text
Link had never seen so much writing in one notepad.
And her writing was only getting more frantic as they delved deeper into the Lost Woods. Zelda seemed to be writing everything down, from the temperature of the air to the shade of green on the thick woodland trees surrounding them. Just as she wrote down the change in consistency of the ground below them, Link felt himself stifle a yawn. It had been two days since they had left Hyrule Castle to go on this research trip, with Zelda desperate to find out as many secrets of this scarcely-visited place as possible. Link was happy to come, of course, but hadn’t expected to be here for so long. Still, he was willing to be there to protect his princess. It was his duty, and it’s not as if he didn’t enjoy her company.
‘I must say, this is one of the most fascinating places in all of Hyrule.’ Zelda murmured, scribbling something else down. Link took note of the smile on her face, it was subtle yet warm and excited. Her passion was obvious to anyone with working eyeballs. It was one of his favourite things about her.
After another few hours, Zelda found herself yawning too. The sky had turned a beautiful orange above them, which suddenly reminded her of the existence of time. She could also see the eyebags forming on her knight’s pale face, and decided that now was as good a time as ever to begin making their way back home.
‘I suppose my father will begin to worry if we don’t return soon. Shall we?’ She said, putting her notepad away and gesturing towards the way they came in. Link gave a small nod, trying not to seem too enthusiastic and hurt Zelda’s feelings. He put his fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle, beckoning their two horses. After helping Zelda onto her horse, a stunning Chestnut brown mare, Link clambered up his own, and lead the way out of the woods.
The sky was now midnight blue, with white specks spattered across it. Link and Zelda had been riding in a comfortable, weary silence for the majority of their journey. Zelda could almost feel her eyes closing, the rhythmic sound of the horses’ hooves over the grass was enough to soothe anyone to sleep. Link, although feeling similarly, attempted to remain as vigilant as he could. Despite defeating Calamity Ganon a few years ago, monsters still lurked in every corner of Hyrule. They felt particularly comfortable at night, he had noticed, which only gave him extra reason to remain on guard. But he was so tired, and the air was so warm…
Zelda’s loud, piercing scream immediately jolted him out of his sleepy haze. Three red bokoblins had surrounded her, waving their clubs and jeering. One of them raised their club high, and Zelda attempted to shield her face with her hands. As she braced for impact, she heard the familiar sound of metal slicing flesh. The bokoblins screamed in agony, which Zelda was embarassed to admit she found wholly satisfying, and Link grunted with effort as he dragged his blade through them.
Silence.
Opening her eyes, all that stood before her now was a short, panting knight wearing a blue tunic. Zelda breathed a loud sigh of relief, but quickly found that relief to be short lived. It appeared that, in their mutual exhaustion, neither of them had realised just how close they were to a somewhat large bokoblin camp. Zelda stayed put, her horse refusing to move, and viewed intently as Link ran on foot towards a slightly larger group of them. She gripped tightly onto her horses’ mane, perhaps harder than she should have. She couldn’t help it; even though she knew he had done this a million times before, seeing Link run headfirst into danger always made her heart pound. Her nerves were settled as she kept watching- he hacked and slashed away at the bokoblins with ease, ducking at the right moments and striking the right spots. Eventually, it came down to the last one, and he stabbed it in the chest without hesitation. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Link walked back over to Zelda and his horse. There was sheepishness in his gait, and his face was red at the shame of almost allowing Zelda to be killed. His father would be so ashamed of him, the King would be ashamed too. Link took his duties as Zelda’s sworn protector extremely seriously, and Zelda could see it in his eyes as he got closer to her.
‘Thank you, Link. I don’t know what I would’ve done had you not been here.’ She said, trying to ease his guilt. It clearly didn’t work, but Link smiled politely at her anyway, trying to maintain an appearance of composure. They continued riding, but Zelda noticed that he would give a very long, strained blink every few minutes as a way of waking himself up.
By the time they had reached the stable they intended to sleep in for the night, Zelda estimated it to be around 2AM. The warm, yellowed lighting of the inn was a comfort to them both; it was refreshing after spending so long riding in the dark. Once they had put their horses to rest nearby, Zelda watched from a bed as Link booked them in for the night, nodding silently to the innkeeper’s questions and handing him a pile of rupees. Eventually, he sat down at the bed next to her, untying his hair and lying down. Zelda looked away, trying to think of a short conversation they could have before they slept. But her own tiredness was getting to her severely now, so all she could utter was ‘goodnight’ before she lay down and fell asleep almost instantly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bright sun of the morning woke Zelda before the innkeeper could. She turned over blearily to see Link polishing his sword with a rag, clearly having been awake for a while.
‘Good morning.’ She said, sitting up and stretching. Link turned, slightly startled, but smiled at her almost the instant they locked eyes.
‘Did you sleep well?’ Zelda asked, and Link nodded.
‘Me too, these beds are quite comfortable. Just allow me a moment to get ready, and we can set off.’
That moment came and went, and next thing they knew they were off again, riding into the horizon on their horses. Zelda, feeling refreshed, was in a much more talkative mood.
‘I really hope my research on the Lost Woods will be of use. It’s not quite as technology-based as my normal research, but Purah had been telling me that research into magical phenomena is just as important as our work on the Sheikah technology. And I suppose the Lost Woods is a magical phenomena itself.’ Zelda began, ready to spend hours gushing about her work with Purah. Link listened intently, looking at her and nodding occasionally. If he was honest, Link knew very little about any of what Zelda was talking about. Magic and ancient technology was hardly a topic discussed during his training as a knight, so everything Zelda told him was completely new information to him. He loved listening to her rambles, so tried to nod sagely every so often, hoping he’d seem knowledgeable and prevent Zelda from stopping to explain herself.
Just as Zelda was getting to what she considered ‘the good bit’, Link put his hand out in front of her, stopping both their horses.
‘What? What is it?’ Zelda asked tentatively, noticing Link staring off into the distance. She followed his eyeline and saw what he did: a huge, black mass ripping a tree down. It bit down into the bark, chewing it like it was nothing more than a riceball. Once it was done, it threw away the remnants with a low growl that evoked pure disgust within both Hylians. Link unsheathed his sword and hopped off his horse, both movements done as quietly as possible. He crept towards this creature, which was now tearing into a helpless deer. Zelda felt that familiar sickness in her stomach as Link approached, now only a metre away. It somehow still hadn’t detected his presence, so he used this as an opportunity to slice into the creature’s spine as hard as he could. The creature, which clearly wasn’t as strong as it looked, let out an earpiercing shriek as it convulsed and contorted. Link, his sword still in the creature’s back, dragged it down further. It dropped to the ground, but didn’t disappear. He knew what this meant, it wasn’t dead, so stood waiting for it to get back up.
So he waited.
And waited.
After what felt like forever, but was probably only around fifteen seconds, he realised the creature wasn’t going to get back up. Curious, he put his hand to it’s shoulder(?) and poked at it. Without warning, the creature suddenly let out a thick cloud of black spores.
This was a sensation Link had never experienced before, even when being brutally knocked out during fights or training. Just as blackness covered his physical body, he could feel a dark cloud take over his mind. It was suddenly getting harder to think, then harder to keep control of his body. First, his arms gave out, and the hands he had been using to cover his mouth dropped to his sides. Then, his stomach completely relaxed. Next, his legs caved in and he dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Finally, the fog completely took over his brain and he felt his eyes close. That was the last thing he felt before falling into total oblivion, and feeling nothing at all.
Zelda had been rapidly approaching to make sure Link was okay; she had been forced to run due to her horse being totally paralysed by fear. Before she had even managed to get near the mysterious cloud, she heard a loud thud. Looking down, the tip of the Master Sword was just barely poking out on the grass. Her heart rate sped up and her stomach churned as she went from running to full-on sprinting from panic. She almost threw herself into the spores to drag Link out, but suddenly remembered that whatever effect they had on him would almost certainly be replicated on her. She looked around, trying to be resourceful, and spotted a thick tree branch laying on the floor nearby. Zelda immediately lunged at it, adrenaline taking full control over her. Now weilding the branch, she leaned near the cloud and used the branch to pull Link out of it. Her worst fear was confirmed as soon as he was out; he was completely limp.