Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zelda cursed under her breath as she stomped through the bushes. She had decided to take a left instead of right on her usual stroll through the forest and gotten lost. Still, the forest shouldn’t have been that damn big. Honestly, she should have just been able to turn around and trace her way back home. But the woods had turned strange in a matter of minutes. Link had told her not to wander off too far, but had she listened to him? Of course not! He might have saved the world but he was still an idiot. She doubted that he could find his way out of a bag without her help or the sword. He was adorable that way.

Zelda let out a huff and made her way forwards. She brushed a big bush aside and froze. Somehow she was staring at her own face. It was crazy, there was no mirrors in the woods. And lakes sure weren’t vertical.

Zelda leaped back trying to get distance in between her and...well, herself. The brush snapped back, slapping the hylian in the face.
“Ow!” she yelled and brought a hand on her face. Zelda looked at the girl. Now that se looked again, she saw that while she did look like her, she wasn’t an exact copy. Her eyes were rounder than zeldas and green. Nose and mouth were a bit smaller and eyebrows thicker. The other girl also had golden hair, but maybe a shade darker and just long enough to brush her shoulders. She looked like she had spent a lot of time outside in the wilderness.

Zelda looked at the girl mouth slightly a jar.
“Who are you?” She asked. The girl tilted her head. She moved her hand carefully to her hip on top of a strange rectangle. She narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
“You tell me first.” she said. Her voice was soft, but Zelda could hear unyielding strength in it.
“I asked you first.” Zelda said. Every nerve in her body was tingling with...something. Something in this stranger made her feel uneasy. Not in a bad way necessarily, but still it made her cautious.

The other girl took a step back her mouth tight.
“If you want to know my name, you have to tell me yours first.” she said. Zelda looked at the girls hand hovering over the rectangle then back at her eyes. Something in them made Zelda want to trust her.

“I’m Zelda” Zelda said. The strangers eyes hardened and her mouth set in a tight line. Without a word she tapped the rectangle on her hip. Blue whisps of light materialized from it. They materialized in the girls hand as...bananas. What in the Hylias name had just happened? Zelda stared at the yellow fruits.

“Whats with the bananas?” Zelda asked confused. The girl looked at her as if estimating her. Then she tapped the square again and the bananas vanished in the same way they had appeared.

“You can’t be Zelda.” the girl said.
“And why is that?” Zelda shot back.
“Because” the girl said, “I am Zelda.” For a moment they looked at each other. Zelda didn’t know what would have happened next if another golden haired girl had not stumbled from behind another bush.

The girl was dressed in white short sleeved dress with blue stripes around the hem of the sleeves and the dress. On top of the the dress was a pink sleeveless, shorter dress with golden embroidery. On her brow was a golden circlet a red stone embedded in middle of it. It was partly hidden due to the bangs brushed aside to the each side of her face.

The girl straightened her self. Her posture was proud and belonged unmistakingly to person who held significant power.

“Who are you?” the girl asked, tone commanding, “And where am I?” In a flash bananas reappeared in the other girls hand.
“You tell me first.” the girl claiming to be Zelda said. The new girl lifted her chin.
“I’m queen Zelda of Hyrule.” she said proudly.
“Impossible!” the short haired girl exclaimed, “I am the Queen of Hyrule! well, what’s left of it anyway.”
“Hyrule?” Zelda asked confused. She had never heard that word before.
“Wait, left of it?” the Zelda with a circlet said ignoring her, “Don’t tell me...Did Link mess with the harp of ages?”
“How do you know Link?!” Zelda asked. But to her surprise the short haired girl asked the exact same question.
“He’s my friend.” the circlet Zelda answered.
“What is going on?” the short haired Zelda muttered. Zelda rubbed her temples. She was getting a head ache.
“Can we please start from the beginning?” She asked hoping to get some sense into the situation. But before either the circlet or the shorthair had time to answer, another girl-no a woman- stepped out from behind a three. Her hair, as golden as everybody else's, was braided neatly behind. She was dressed in a strange blue skin tight pants and soft boots. She had draped a short withe cape around her hiding her hands.

“I think I can help you to make sense of things.” She said walking towards them with soft, silent steps.
“Don’t tell me.” Zelda said, “You are Zelda, queen of Hyrule too.” The woman smiled.
“In fact I am.” she answered, “And I can most likely answer your questions.”
“You better!” Someone shouted. Zelda turned around only to see six more girls, all more or less resembling her. The girl who had spoken looked like her the least. She was the shortest of them and her skin was tan like she spent every waking moment under the sun. She wore white pants and light purple top and a blue sleeveless vest. From her red belt hung a sword.

After a lot of confusion and arguing all the Zeldas had sat down in a circle. All of them keeping a distance from one another expect for two who seemed to know each other.. The short haired one was still holding the bananas.
“So...What’s with all the Zeldas?” Zelda asked. The sword carrying one rose her hand.
“My name is Tetra.” she said, “I’m Zelda only technically.”
“Right, but still a Zelda.” said on with the darkest hair. She was beautiful, but had a strange, almost cold, calmness in her. She looked like she would skewer anyone without any hesitation.
“I’m quite certain that I can shed some light in the situation.” the oldest one, the one with silent steps, said.
“By all means.” Said Zelda in golden armor. She too had a sword on her hip, but it was a thin and elegant like needle and most likely extremely sharp and deadly. The silent steps began:
“How many of you are familiar with time travel?” Zelda laughed.
“More than I care.” she said. The armoured one smiled.
“I have experience on that field.” She said.
“Somewhat.” said the circlet Zelda.
“Wait,” said one of the two Zeldas with reddish hair, “Are you saying that…” The girl seemed like a proper lady with her light pink dress and gentle demeanor. The silent steps nodded.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. We are all Zeldas from different points of Hyrules history brought together. But for what purpose I don’t know.” The brunet one smiled ironically.
“Then we ought to figure it out as soon as possible.” she said.

The Zeldas couldn’t figure out were they were nor were the nearest civilization was so they decided to stay were they were. None of them really had any real camping supplies, but the short haired one somehow pulled food from the rectangle she called “the sheikah slate” as well as wood and some flint.

After eating they settled down around the fire.
“So what should we do?” asked Tetra, who was Zelda only on a technicality.
“About what?” Asked the one who had tied her hair up with a red ribbon.
“The names.” Tetra answered, “We can’t really keep calling each other Zeldas all the time.”
“Good point.” the short haired one said, “So...Nicknames?” Zelda looked at the short haired one. She was fidgeting with the slate, not meeting the eyes of others. She didn’t seem to be used to being around people.
“I’m sticking with tetra!”
“Artemis.” Said the one with armour surprisingly quickly, “My people called me that during the war.”
“What war?” Zelda asked. Newly dubbed Artemis waved her hand.
“War of ages.” she answered, “nothing important.”
“How is a war not important?” complained the one with a bow, “anyways, I think I’ll go by Dot.”
“Dot?” questioned the one in a pink dress.
“Old nickname.” Dot explained, “Link actually gave it to me when I was still shorter than him.” Dot grinned.
“It was amazing to finally be taller than him.” Zeldas laughed.
“Does anyone else have nickname ready to use?” Silent steps asked. The red haired one raised her hand a bit sheepishly.
“It’s not exactly a nickname but, well, there is a story that-well a story that fits and I’ve always liked it- but that was before-”
“Get to the point!” Tetra yelled from the another side of the fire. The red haired blushed.
“Aurora.” she said shortly, “I’ll go by Aurora.” Zelda raised her brows ever so slightly. Se had never heard the story Aurora was referring to, but she got the impression that the Aurora in the story didn’t exactly have life without misfortunes.

“I’ll be dawn.” announced Auroras friend. The brunette Zelda smiled.
“Really? I was just about to name my self Dusk.” she said.
“Times of day, really? Why not afternoon?” asked Tetra sarcastly, “Or midnight?” Dusk smiled at her.
“I actually had a friend whose name was pretty close to midnight. It was very suitable.” she said.
“Really?” Aurora asked, clearly curious, “What was she like?” Dusk laughed slightly.
“Oh she was really feisty, but a great friend. Though her dog smelled horrible.” she said.

“So who is next?” Tetra asked, “This is getting interesting.”
“I think I could be okay with Lullaby.” the silent steps hummed.
“You like music?” Dot asked. Lullaby smiled.
“You could say that.”
“What about you?” Aurora asked the circlet Zelda, “Didn’t you say your Link has tons of instruments?” Circlet Zelda rolled her eyes.
“My Link has literally every thing under the sun. Honestly I think his cellar has like seven levels full of garbage from all his adventures.”
“And I thought that my Link is a hoarder.” short haired one mumbled, “The slate is still full of crap.”
“Links always seem to end up with piles of weird stuff.” Zelda said, “Mine had piles upon piles bugs when the adventure was over.” Short haired snorted in a very unqueenly manner.
“Trust me I know the feeling. All the beatles, lizards and flowers...Wait, I know!”
“Know what?” Dot asked.
“The nickname!” Short haired exclaimed, “Flora! As in ‘flower’” Tetra tilted her head.
“You call flowers ‘Flora?’” she asked. Flora blushed.
“Well, not usually. But scientists...well anyone who actually studies flowers or anything really. Flora is scientific name for flowers.” She explained. Lullaby nodded and turned towards Zelda and the circlet.
“That leaves you two.” she said.
“You first.” Zelda said gesturing at the circlet.
“Fable.” Circlet answered after thinking for a moment.

Everybody turned to look at Zelda. Dozens of options ran through her mind. Hylia? no, that would seem too self-centered and she wasn’t ready to explain the whole her technically being a goddess thing. Impa? no, she had heard that at least Flora knew an Impa. Goddess? no that was worse than Hylia. Birdie? No that was just horrible. Her thoughts drifted. She thought back to the days before the adventure. To the time she hadn’t been the goddess reborn and Link had been just her sleepy boy. When they had flew on the backs of their loftwings above the clouds under the sun. Link had looked at her and with that dorky smile told her how beautiful her hair was in the sunlight, shining almost like the sun itself…
“Sun.” She said, “I’ll be Sun.”

Chapter Text

Artemis was used to fighting. Whether with her words, weapons or with her harp she was in her element in combat. She felt most clam whit her hand on the hilt of her rapier. Artemis had led armies, defeated countless enemies and won a war. She was at home in the battlefield.

But it soon became clear that wasn’t the case with other Zeldas. Not at all. Hylia some of them had never even laid a hand on a weapon before! Tetra and Dusk weren’t bad at all. Tetra was pirate to the bone and knew how to use her sword extremely well. Dusk was good with a rapier and a bow, but Artemis could tell she had only the bare minimum of real combat experience. Flora wasn’t bad either. She was feisty to the last strand of her hair and was decent with a bow. She was also very eager to learn. And ofcourse there was Lullaby. Artemis was sure that the older woman was at least partly a sheikah. She recognized her fighting techniques and her stealth was unrivalled. Artemis was sure that Lullabys Impa had thaught sheikah techniques to her, much like hers had.

The rest however...Well, Fable sure had a fighting spirit, but she had no skill with weapons. Dot was small, but ready to throw hands with monsters twice, or three times bigger than her. When Artemis had brought it up, Dot had answered something along the lines of; “not letting a freaky rat man with bad taste in clothes who hasn’t seen the sun ever in his life to abduct her for the third time.” Artemis was left with more questions than answers with that one. Dawn, while proud and wise, hadn’t probably held anything sharper than a dining knife in her whole life. And Aurora, sweet Aurora, was borderline pacifist. While she didn’t trust anyone easily and was extremely wary of people, she knew absolutely nothing about fighting.

Artemis adored all of her...relatives? Friends? Reincarnations? Whatever they were, she loved them, but for the love of Hylia most of them couldn’t defend themselves at all. At first Artemis didn’t mind it, but when she had to literally drag Dot and Fable away from a horde of momblins while they were shouting very creative and VERY unprincess-like insults, she decided it was time for all of them to learn at least to defend themselves. After talking to Lullaby, Artemis decided to hold a daily bootcamp for her fellow Zeldas. Only Lullaby would be excused, since she was already a formidable fighter. Tetra complained at first since she “already knew how to kick ass of some bitchy fuckers.” But Artemis was firm, since Tetra was used to fighting on ships but not on solid ground she had to participate.

So there they were, eight girls standing in line before her holding wooden sticks resembling swords. The sight reminded her of the fresh cadets back home. But these weren’t timid young men or overconfident pricks. These were young women who had faced tragedy and danger. They all had fighting a spirit.

“Let’s start from the beginning.” Artemis said, “The stance. Dusk, I trust you know this one? Good, you can help me then. So, the first step is your feet.” Artemis took the beginning stance. She moved her right foot forwards and stepping back with her left so that she stood in a wide stance and bent her knees slightly.

“You want to have a solid footing so that you don’t lose your balance.” Artemis explained. “With wider stance you center of gravity doesn’t tip over so easily.” Artemis twisted her hips slightly so that her right side faced forwards.
“Facing your side towards the enemy makes you a smaller target. But you don’t want to twist yourself too much, otherwise moving becomes harder. You want to line your hips and and shoulders with your feet.” Artemis raised her sword.
“Keep your shoulders loose. If you are too tense, your movents become rigid and sloppy. You still have to keep your posture, slouching takes strength from from your strikes and reduces your balance.” Artemis lowered her sword and stood normally again.
“Now you try.”

It soon became apparent that Artemis had been right to start from the basics of the basics. All of them were smart enough to know which way to hold sword (All the recruits she and Impa had trained had not been.) but their stances were varied to say the least. Tetra was fine expect for her knees being slightly more bent than necessary. It was probably the result of her own fighting style. Floras shoulders and back were too stiff, but otherwise her stance was excellent. Aurora and Fable were both slouching. Dot held her sword too high.

After fixing all of their stances, with some help from Dusk, Artemis moved on to footwork. It proved to be easier than she had expected. Many of them were great dancers sue to their royal upbringing and were very nimble on their feet. Only one with significant issues was Flora, whose steps were uncertain at best.

“Step with your right foot first.” Artemis instructed and took her fighting stance. She took a small step forwards with her right foot.
“Then move your left foot. Good. Right foot goes forwards, left foot follows. Left foot goes backwards, right foot follows. You don't want to move your left foot before the right or the right behind your left. It creates an opening for your enemy to strike since it weakens your balance.” Flora took a step forwards, but when she moved her left leg, it dragged on the ground and got stuck on the grass.
“Easy”, Artemis said as the younger one stumbeled slightly, “Think of it as waltzing of sorts. It helps.” Floras eartips flushed red.
“Maybe it would” she said, “If I ever learned how to waltz.” Artemis raised an eyebrow.
“Wasn’t it part of your royal upbringing?” she asked. Flora huffed and corrected her stance.
“It was until I was six.” she answered, “After that, I had to focus every waking hour I could spare to training. My father said I could learn how to dance after I had fulfilled my duty to the kingdom.” Artemis looked at the young girl with surprise.
“What was your duty then?” she asked. Flora laughed. Artemis thought she could determine a bitter undertone.
“To save the kingdom.” Flora answered. Artemis raised her eyebrows. Saving an entire kingdom was a heavy burden to bear at any age, but to have that burden to be thrusted on your shoulders when you were six? Artemis couldn’t imagine what Floras childhood had been like.
“You know what” she said, “We are going to teach how to dance. Mark my words by the end of this adventure you can outdance every queen of Hyrule who has ever lived.”

Zeldas were fast learners. It shouldn’t be surprising with triforce of wisdom and all, but Artemis foud herself marveling at the fast pace her friends were developing. After a week, everyone of them knew how to move with ease while holding a sword. Week after that they already could last at least full ten seconds against her, some of them even coming close to beating her. (And no, she did not include Tetras “creative methods” in this.)

They soon fell into a routine. Every other day before the dinner Artemis, sometimes with Lullabys or Dusks help, taught the rest something new. After that they would spar against each other for a good while before heading off to wash sweat and dirt off, while one remained behind to cook dinner. After the dinner they would practise archery but only to an extent, since their supply of arrows wasn’t unlimited. Sometimes they would practice other methods of fighting, such as using magic or simply brawling. Fable was surprisingly (and mayde alarmingly good at both). They had purchased swords for those who lacked one from a near by town. All in all everything was going well.

Almost a month after Artemis had began training her fellow Zeldas, they ran into trouble. The group had been walking through a meadow when a bunch of bokoblins had ambushed them. Artemis immediately drew her sword and moved her left foot backwards. She launched her self towards the monsters with no hesitation, swiping her sword in a large arc. It cut through two bokoblins, leaving narrow but deep and deathly wounds across their chests. Before her enemies had even fallen to the ground, Artemis swirled around her skirts spreading around her. She lunged first to the left, swiping her sword across a bokoblins face, then to the right piercing anothers heart. Then she heard a scream. Atremis turned around. She feared that her eyes would meet a gruesome sight of one of others being wounded by a bokoblin. And while the scene before her was indeed gruesome, it almost made her feel sorry for bokoblins.

Aurora and Dawn stood back to back blades drawn. Dawn slashed at a bokoblin, who took a step back avoiding the tip pf the blade narrowly. Aurora, while looking pale and a bit sick, had a determined look on her face while skewering her enemy on her sword.

While Fable had drawn her sword, she didn’t appear to use it. Instead she was blasting her enemies with what seemed to be multiple consecutive blasts of pure light. Artemis suspected that it had been one of the poor bokoblins caught on Fabels way that had screamed.

Sun, Dot and Dusk were forming a loose circle. Sun, who wasn’t very comfortable with a blade, was holding a bow while others covered for her. Dusk with elegance and precision that made it look like she was dancing instead of slaughtering her enemies and Dot with ferocity of thousand angry cats. The smallest ones were truly the most scary.

Flora had taken royal broad sword from her slate. At first it seemed a bit too heavy to Artemis, but then Flora swung it slicing a bokoblin in half.
“She’ll be fine.” Artemis decided as Flora threw a blue glowing bomb at the monsters before her.

Tetra was confirming Artemis’ observation about the smallest ones being the scariest. She was slashing and stabbing at her enemies with such speed and force that Artemis was left in awe. Tetra spun around, threw her sword in the air nad grabbed it again, this time in reverse hold. She slashed at one of the bokoblins and then flipped her sword so that the blade was pointing forwards again. All this while smiling and throwing an occasional insult at the monsters.

Lullaby wouldn’t have needed help even if her hands had been tied behind her back. She moved so gracefully and with such speed, that Artemis was convinced that she was seeing a sheikah in action. Lullabys steps always landed surely on the ground with such precision that one would think she was repeating a goregraphy she had practised a thousand times. With every move of her hand a new enemy fell.

Artemis was so in awe at what she was seeing that she almost missed the enemies coming at her from behind. Only when Sun pointed her bow towards her she noticed them. She spun around as Suns arrow shot past her, barely missing its target. Artemis lunged forwards, her feet leaving the ground for a second. She spun around in the air with skill and grace only both a dancer and a trained sword fighter could posses and slashed down diagonally, killing the monster.

At the campfire, everybody was talking about their battle.
“Did you see Fable taking down that one with a spear? Epic!”
“I’m just sad my sword broke.”
“Shut up! You were great! How did you even lift that thing?”
“Can you pass me the rag and water please? I think I’ve still got monster guts behind my ear.”
Artemis smiled as she watched her friends chatting merrily amongst themselves about killing the monsters, while wiping any remaining blood, guts or dirt away. She was proud of them.

Chapter Text

Flora took a deep breath of the fresh air. It was good to be home. She loved her kingdom fiercely, if for nothing else then for all the sacrifices that had been made for it to survive. Still, she wished they had not landed in the Hyrule field.

The first order she had given once she had officially returned was to clean out all the guardian husks. And while the task was nearly complete, she could still see signs of those mechanical monsters everywhere. Ancient spring here and another there and even an old husk. It made her skin crawl. Every time she saw a guardian, no matter how dead, her first instinct was to run. She had force herself keep going and lead the group all while trying to avoid all the sings of the machines.

But the guardians weren’t the only thing that made her wish they had landed somewhere else. While much of the kingdom was rebuilt, thousand times of work was still to be done. Settlements were still far and between. The closest one to them…

“How long is it until we reach the Castle town?” Dot asked. Flora bit the inside of her cheek.
“Couple of hours at most. We’ll be there at the noon latest.” Flora tried desperately to find somewhere to look. But aside from her feet, everything she laid her eyes on reminded her of her failures. Ruins here, another ones there. The worst was the Hyrule castle. She would have much rather taken other Zeldas to the Hateno village to Links (and hers) home. One couldn’t see the Hyrule castle from there. More importantly, it was the place Link had taken her after defeating Calamity ganon. The small home had felt so warm and so welcoming and she had been able to properly mourn all the death and destruction the calamity had brought upon the land. It was the place where Link had helped her through all those depressing days where she couldn’t even get up from the bed. It was home.

The castle however...It had always felt a bit too hostile. A place that had reminded her of her failures day and day again from the day her mother died. Only places that felt safe were her room and her study. Now even them reminded her of the calamity. Link had told her that a moblin had taken residence in her room during the one hundred years. At first the idea had made her uncomfortable, but in the end she had gotten over it. What little girl didn’t dream of being a princess at least once in their life? Why a moblin couldn’t? Who was to say a moblin couldn’t dream. So no- Zelda didn’t really have problem with a moblin playing a princess in her room. But it wasn’t her rooms and not even any other part of the castle but the sanctum- the place she had imprisoned herself and the calamity ganon for a century. She hadn’t step a foot inside the sanctum after the fall of calamity, but in her dreams she was still locked in there, fighting to the tooth and nail, hope dimming each day.

But alas, New Castle town was the closest to them. It would be too hard to explain everything to others and trying to lead them somewhere else would have been stupid, when the new castle town held everything they needed.

“-ra, Flora?” Lullabys voice woke her from her thoughts.
“Sorry, what did you say?” Flora asked.
“Are we going to take the left or the right path?”
“The left or-Oh!” The road before them forked, other one leading to North-East and the other one North-West.
“hold on a minute, I’ll check the slate.” Flora said and took out the object in question. She opened the map.

The Windvane meadow opened to their right and on tho their left was Mt. Daphne. The road to the right seemed to be the shorter route to the castle, but the name Flora saw almost immediately after the fork in the road made her skin crawl.

“We’re taking the left road.” Flora said.
“Isn’t the right one shorter?” Fable, who had been peaking over Floras shoulder, asked.
“No!” Flora snapped, “Sorry, I meant- no. There is a lot of reconstruction going on there so-so we are gonna get there faster if we take- if we take the left.” Fable raised her eyebrow.
“Well, if you say so.” she said.

Flora led the group down the left path. She breath out in relief, when they had left fork behind. What she had said about the reconstruction was partially right, but the real reason for her to avoid that road was the ruins. The would had ran to the Garrison ruins almost immediately if they had taken the right road. After that it would have been ruins after ruins and she couldn’t bear to see them, much less let the others see them. See what she had let happen to the kingdom they had protected and built through the ages. What would Sun say if she found out how badly Flora had messed up? If she heard what she had let happen to the kingdom Sun so eagerly talked about?

The sun(the firey ball on the sky, not the Zelda) had just reached its peak when the group arrived to the New castle town. Long before they had seen it, they had heard the banging of the hammers and yells of the construction workers. One group was currently working on the wall. Couple of guards were lazilly strolling about keeping an eye on the roads.

“HALT!” one of the guard yelled, “Who approaches?”
“Queen Zelda of Hyrule.” Flora answered, “I have returned form my travels, but I cannot stay for long.”
“Your majesty!” the guards yelled. They jogged forwards while the construction workers halted their work and looked at the travellers. Zelda was pretty sure she recognized Hudson from the Bolson construction company. A rito worker rose to his wings and flew inwards, towards the castle.

The guards came to a halt before her.
“Your Majesty!” one said and saluted, “We have been so worried for Your safety!”
“At ease.” Flora said, “I am back now. How has everything been? Are the constructions on time?” The guards looked at each other.
“Well-” the first on said, “Once You-umm-disappeared, the Hero searched the whole Hyrule for Your majesty. However, we needed someone to lead the constructions so when it was apparent that You were nowhere to be found he started to help every way he could.”
“But?” Flora asked.
“We are about a month behind our schedule. Things are a bit disorganised without Your majesty here leading us.”

Flora bit the inside of her cheek. A whole month behind schedule? That would mean the intended re-establishing of trade rotes to the Goron town, Gerudo town, Zora's domain and Rito village would be late as well. She had prepared three weeks leeway for any possible setbacks they might suffer but now...If the trading routes routes weren’t cleared of monsters and stables established along the roads to offer resting places for the weary travellers, the materials they would need to start on rebuilding such places as the garrisons and villages wouldn’t come on time. She had ordered both Kakariko and Hateno villages to expand their farming lands and had promised to provide necessary materials for the reaping and to build barns. That way they could help the new stables and expand the old ones and more importantly rebuild the economy and feed the Hylians and Shikeah over the winter. And they needed to build more housing too. There was already so few Hylians left and if the upcoming winter-

“Your majesty?” Flora was startled from her thoughts.
“I’m sorry.” she smiled trying to look relaxed, “I will deal whit these delays in time, but me and my travel companions are tired and would like to rest for a while. Could you show us to my headquarters?”

The guard led them through the archway where the gates would once be. The best Goron smiths and Gerudo crafters along with Hylians were building new ones. She had ordered two pairs, so that one would have to go through two pairs of them to get in or out. Another pair would be stationed closer to the castle.

“Walls that can be defended form threats that come both from inside and outside.” she thought. She wouldn’t let this castle town become a graveyard, not like the last one. All potentially dangerous experiments or research would be conducted far from civilization so that if anything would go wrong… Flora shook her head. She didn’t have time for this. She was a host and had a responsibility to make her friends short stay as pleasant as possible.

Her headquarters were just a simple two-story house. It was the first one that was finished and the people had insisted for her to stay there everytime she came to the town. It wasn’t anything special. Downstairs was a fireplace and simple table with three chairs and five stools pushed to the wall. Small staircase lead upstairs where Zeldas bed was. There were two more beds there. She would have to ask for more beds. They all couldn’t cram upstairs, but if they put few beds down stairs they would be comfortable enough.

“Make yourselves comfortable. There isn’t much here, but I hope you can manage.” Flora said, “I can go ask for some water if you want to have a bath. Heating it might take a while, but if you wait a while-”
“It’s fine Flora.” Dusk assured, “We’re just thankful to have real roof our heads.”
“This is very comfortable.” Dot agreed, “Kinda reminds me of Links forge.”

Flora opened her mouth to answer, but the door was thrown open and someone ran inside.
“ZELDA!” someone shouted and threw themselves at Flora.
“Link!” Zelda exclaimed surprised, but warped her hands around him.
“I was so worried!” Link said and took hold of Floras face, examining her, “When you disappeared, with the slate no less, even if it was my turn to use it, I thought you were-were gone! And-and I was so scared, Zelda-”
“Link, breath!” Zelda said and rested her hands on the heros shoulders, “I’m fine. I got lost and got swept away on an adventure.” Link tilted his head slightly, long ponytail falling over his shoulder.
“An adventure? What do you mean? and who are they?” he asked looking over Floras shoulder. When Link saw nine women looking at her at him in various degrees of curiosity, he blushed and pulled his hood over his head.
“Link, its okay.” Flora reassured him, “They are my-friends you could say. I’ve been traveling with them for the last month or so.” Link nodded, but didn’t lover his hood. Zelda drew a deep breath and stepped aside.
“Link, these are Zeldas of the past. When I went to the woods that morning I got lost in time and met them.” she explained, “Everyone, this is Link of this area, the hero of the wild.” Murmurs of greetings rang around the room. Dot waved.

“Mr. Link where are you?” someone shouted from outside. Link went pale.
“Oh no, they found me!”
“Who?” Lullaby asked sharply. Artemis was back on her feet, hand on the sword hilt.
“The leaders of construction.” Link whispered, “They have been pestering me all day! I don’t know anything! I have no idea what I’m doing!”

“There you are mr.-Oh your majesty!” three hylians, a goron, two gerudos and a zora bust in. When they saw Flora they bowed deep.
“We were so worried for you your majesty!” squaked one of the hylians. Flora straightened her back and took a pleasant smile on her face.
“I’m thankful for your consideration, but I’m fine. I just had unexpected engagements elsewhere.” she said, “What did you want to discuss with the hero?”
“Yes, well-” the hylian coughed, “We need to choose what type of stone we ought to use for paving the roads.”
“What are our options?” Flora asked.

The hylian started to list types of stones and the deals offered. Every once in a while the goron said something about the durability of the stone or how it would be mined and how it would affect its cost. Flora felt like her head was spinning. She had basic knowledge on the stone types of hyrule, but it did not go this deep.

“I’ll read about this tonight.” she thought.
“I’ll think about his. I’ll tell you my decision tomorrow. Anything else you need?” Flora said.
“Yes, while our crops are doing well, we don’t have enough meat for the people. We also need to solve the lightning problem and-” Flora nodded pensively along while the hylians, goron, rito and zora listed what the construction and the hylian people needed. There was so much that she could hardly remember even the half of them.

“Thank you.” Flora interrupted, when the hylian took a breath, “Please deliver me the paperwork. I’ll go through them as soon as I can. If you’d please, my companions and I are tired and need rest.”
“Yes Your majesty. Have a good rest.” The hylian bowed and the rest followed in suit. Then they turned around and hurried out of the small building leaving behind stacks upon stacks of papers.
“It’s going to be a long night.” Flora murmured.

Chapter Text

Dusk watched as Flora disappeared up the stairs carrying a huge pile of papers with her. Once she had disappeared above the floorboards, Dusk turned to the hero of the wild, or Wild as Flora called him.
“Spill it.” she said. The hero tugged his hood nervously, avoiding her gaze.
“I-I don’t...don’t know-I don’t know-” Link muttered.
Dusk sighed. She was so used to her Link that she had almost forgotten what he had been like right after his adventure. Quiet, skittish and nervous around strangers. The hero of courage might fight monsters without hesitation and pull of crazy stunts with a gleeful grin on his face, but run away from a social situation or hide when someone wanted to talk to him. And this Link had gone through so much, from what Flora had told them. And the scars on his face made it clear that this hero had suffered immensely. Dusk had no idea how anyone could survive wounds like that. Hylia, his ear looked like it had been blown off almost completely.
Dusk took a deep breath and forced her face to relax.
“I mean, what is going on? Flora has told us that Calamity ganon ravaged the lands one hundred years ago and that she managed to hold it back until you had healed enough to fight him. Why is she so anxious?”
“I’ve been wondering about that too.” Lullaby said, “On our way here she seemed...I don’t know, sad? guilty?” Wild bit his lover lip.
“How- how much do you know?” he asked in a voice that was only slightly above whisper. Artemis shrugged her shoulders.
“Only what Flora has told us.” she said, “Little over one hundred years ago there was a prophecy about calamity ganon returning and destroying the world. Only ones who could stop it were the hero of courage and the goddess blooded princess with her sealing power-you and Zelda. However zelda couldn’t unlock the power until the calamity had already returned. You were mortally wounded and put to a healing sleep for hundred years. During that time she held the calamity back. When you woke, you ran around for a while and defeated the calamity.” Wild shifted his weight from one feet to another.
“Did she tell you about the champions and the divine beasts?” he whispered, “or- or about the guardians?” The Zeldas looked at each other. Dusk felt a sense of dread setting over her.
“No.” she answered. She didn’t like this. What was Flora hiding?
Wild too a deep breath like he was about to dive into cold water.
“The prophecy didn’t tell only about the coming of calamity.” he began carefully, “It also told us that we should fight them like our ancestors did 10 000 years earlier. With machines called the divine beasts and guardians. The divine beasts are four gigantic mechanical beast, each one piloted by a champion. And the-the guardians...they are- were mechanical automatons that were meant to protect Hyrule.” Wild went silent, his eyes looking in the mid distance.
“They turned on you, didn’t they?” Artemis asked quietly. Wild nodded.
“It was a massacre.” he whispered, “No one could stop the guardians. I tried to protect Zelda- but-but…” Wilds breath was shaky when he drew it in.
“I didn’t get wounded.” he said quietly, “I died. Right after Zelda managed to awaken the sealing power-protecting me no less- I died in her arms.” Silence fell in the room. Aurora had covered her mouth with her hand, tears in her eyes. Dawns rested her had on Auroras shoulder. Tetra had crossed her arms and lowered her head. Lullaby was emotionless, but Dusk could tell there was a storm of emotions behind that mask. Artemis’ mouth was a tight line and her shoulders rigid.
Dusk was horrified. All that and Flora wasn’t even eighteen yet? She had blamed herself for surrendering to Zant, but she could only imagine what Flora felt like.
“What about the champions?” she asked whispering, “What happened to them?” Wild shook his head.
“They died.” he said. Dusk waited for a while for Wild to continue, but he didn’t.
The room was silent for a good while. The sun had moved in the sky and was now beginning it’s decent on the sky. Finally Lullaby spoke.
“Thank you Link. You have given us a lot to think about. Could you do us a one more favor?” Wild nodded.
“I’ll help you as much as I can.”
“Can you catch us up with the rebuilding efforts?”
-

Floras head and neck were hurting when she opened her eyes. Her head was laying on the desk in an awkward position. She blinked. Wasn’t the sun already past its highest point when they arrived? Then why is it now shining directly into her eyes from the eastren window?
Flora jumped up. Her chair fell on the ground with a loud noise. It was morning, she had slept through the night! Frantically, Flora looked at her desk. Her papers were all over it, and oddly enough her quill had been placed to its place and the ink bottle was screwed shut even though she was sure that she had left it open. On the paper she had been examining night before had a black ink line that had clearly come from a quill that had slipped from someones grasp.
“What-” Flora whispered. Then she froze when she saw that some of the documents were gone from her desk. Flora felt all the blood draining from her face. Among those documents were the ledgers of the kingdom and all the inventories including the foods and medicine.
Flora did a 180 and ran towards the stairs. On the way she tripped on something but managed to regain her balance. She hurried down the stairs.
“Has anyone seen- seen...What in the Hylias name is going on here?”
Tetra, Sun, Artemis and Wild sat around the small table staring at the huge black board that certainly had not been there before. Someone had dragged in a small table and a stool and Lullaby was sitting behind it, Floras missing papers in front of her. From the window Flora could see Fable and Dot outside drawing something on a big piece of paper. They were talking a lot and pointing at different points at the paper. Aurora and Dawn were nowhere to be seen.
Dusk stood in front of the blackboard with a chalk in her hand. On the blackboard read:
“How to (re)build a kingdom.”
“Oh, you are awake.” Dusk said, “Did you sleep well?” Flora ignored her.
“What is happening here?” she asked. Links face brightened.
“Zelda!” he exclaimed and jumped at her beaming, “Did you know that if we utilise the rivers we can transport our products and materials from the North-Westren and Westren Hyrule almost as twice as fast? We can bring the materials we need that way and catch up on the lost time! Even better! We can get ahead of our schedule! And if we can make a contract with the Zoras we can utilise the southern rivers too! It wouldn’t be as fast as downstream but a lot faster than if we used the roads!” Links rambling surprised Flora. Her hero was usually silent and jumpy. He was truly at ease only when in the wilderness and strangers were probably the scariest thing for him. And here he was, eyes shining, shoulders relaxed and hood down rambling about transport with five new...well not faces, but people in the room with him and three of those people especially intimating.
“Slow down.” Flora said raising setting her hands softly on his arms, “Can someone tell what is going on here?” Lullaby smiled.
“Turns out that you aren’t the only Zelda who needs to build a kingdom the ground up. Sun and Tetra need to start from the very beginning and Artemis’ realm is still recovering from the war.” She explained, “Dusk went through something similar after the Twilight crisis so she is kind of the expert.”
“And you?” Flora asked, “What are you doing with my papers?”
“You are tired and need rest. I’m used to dealing with these types of things so I thought I’d help you. By the way, I recommend starting to tax the stables. They are making the best profit currently so collecting taxes from them is the fastest way to start rebuilding the states fortune. I’d say that 20-25% from anything that goes over...a 700 rupees a month? They make around...2500 rupees a month?”
“3000 or more.” Flora corrected.
“So the income would be at least from 6 900 rupees to 8 625 rupees a month soo… 82 800 to 103 500 a year.” Lullaby finished. Link nodded excitedly.
“And that is only the stables!” he exclaimed, “If we extend the taxing to every enterprise that makes over 700 rupees a month we’ll get even more!” Flora looked at Dusk and raised her brows. Since when had Wild been exited about taxes? Dusk smiled softly.
“Wild has been very eager to learn.” she said, “After all, he is the one the people turn to when you are gone.” Flora nodded. She new that was only partly the truth. Much like herself, Wild felt guilty for the calamity and wanted to do everything in his power to repay the debt he felt like he owed.
“Okay, so Lullaby has been doing taxes and Dusk has been teaching Tetra, Sun and Artemis about rebuilding a kingdom.” Flora said, “What are Dot and Fable doing outside and where are Aurora and Dawn?”
“Dot and Fable are examining the maps.” Sun answered, “They are trying to make the street plan for the castle town and looking in to the terrain in other parts of Hyrule to see were future infrastructure and farmlands should be placed.”
“Aurora and Dawn are making evaluations around the castle town. They are going to hold the afternoons lessons.” Artemis explained.
“They are going to hold afternoons lessons?” Flora repeated dumfound.
“Yeah, they’ve been ton this rebuilding business longer than any of us. Well, that’s kind given when their home is basically a toxic wasteland filled with monsters.” Tetra told while balancing her cutlass on the tip of her finger. Dusk nodded as if the conversation was finished with that. Then she looked at Flora.
“Are you going to join us or what?”
-
In the evening Flora lied besides Dusk on the floor of the second floor. She had given the bed to Dot, Tetra and Aurora who as the shortest three, could all sleep in it with no problem. She was thinking about the day.
Dusk had taught them how to help people and return order to the land after a disaster or a crisis. She had told about her own experiences after the twilight crisis and what she had had to deal after ascending to the throne. Lullaby had been going through Floras paperwork (that she herself hand meant to do but didn’t have time) and every once in a while called either Wild or Flora over to ask something or to point something out. After few hours Aurora and Dawn had returned and taken over the teaching. They had told about their struggles to keep their kingdom standing when the world itself seemed to want to kill every living being that wasn’t a monster. Establishing trade in a dangerous environment, farming when land was barely fertile and securing safe havens for the people. Fable and Dot had come in around 4.p.m. with the finished maps and given them to Flora so that she could go over them later.
“No need to hurry.” they had said, “It’s a long term plan and only shows the best places to utilize.”
In the evening Wild had cooked them a feast. Now that he once again had access to the sheikah slate, that was filled with ingredients, his cooking was “simply divine” as Sun put it and coming from the reincarnation of Hylia, it made the statement a fact. They had laughed and eaten well past sunset before going to bed. All in all the day had eased so many of Floras worries and lightened her workload significantly. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel something eating away at her.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, she whispered.
“Dusk? Are you awake?” Flora held her breath, afraid that the older Zelda was a sleep or worse, she had waken her. But a small grunt told her, that Dusk was awake.
‘What is it?” Dusk whispered back.
“I-thank you.” Flora whispered,”and I’m sorry.” Dusk turned on her bedroll to look at Flora.
“What for? were you the one who ate my slice of the fruit cake?” she asked. Flora bit her lip.
“No-well yes I did, but that’s not what I’m apologizing for.” Dusk furrowed her brow.
“What are you saying sorry for then?” Flora took a bed breath.
“For letting the kingdom of Hyrule, the kingdom all of you worked so hard for, to fall.” She said, “It’s my fault, everything you, Sun, Tetra, Aurora and Dawn, Artemis...Everything you dreamed for and everything you worked for is gone because of me. I failed you all, Hyrule and all of its people.” Flora braced herself. All of the times when her father had scolded her, told her that she wasn’t doing enough that she was the heir to an empty throne were the only thing that kept her from crying right then and there. All those times in front of her father had thaught her how to keep the tears at bay. But now they were threatening to spill over. There was no excuse, no hope of the situation fixing itself later. No, she had already failed.
“Did you give up?” Dusk quiet voice asked.
“What do you mean?” Flora asked.
“Did you ever give up on unlocking you sealing powers?”
“No but-”
“Did you give up when the calamity struck?”
“Well, no but-”
“Then you did not fail Hyrule.” Flora stared at the older woman, who was now sitting straight and staring at her with serious expression.
“How can you say that?” Flora asked, her voice breaking, “When my failure- when I am the reason so many people died? My incompetence destroyed and killed so much?”
“Because you never gave up Flora. You fought, desperately yes and with out hope, but you fought. Failure to unlock the sealing power isn’t yours.”
“Then whose is it?”
“Nobodys. You couldn’t have done the impossible. You didn’t know how this power was awakened nor did you have anyone teaching you. Only chance you had in succeeding was to accidentally stumble upon the solution. Besides there was so much pressure placed on your shoulders for so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason for the powers staying dormant for so long. When caught in a net the more you struggle the more tangled in it you become.” Dusk smiled at flora.
“It was never you fault Flora. Sometimes we cannot fight our situation, but we sure as hell can keep fighting until the situation is different. You claim to have have let us down by not stopping the calamity, but we have all failed to protect our kingdoms from tragedy.” Dusk was a silent for a moment as if gathering herself.
“I surrendered to the twili. I gave up. I failed to protect my kingdom.”
“But you didn’t!” Flora whisper shouted, “You saved the lives of your people! Had you fought they would have been killed!”
“But still I carry the quilt for it till the day I die. I know it was the best decision at the time, but I still feel the quilt from it sometimes. Whether it was losing the triforce of wisdom, not managing to stop a war or simply not being able to do anything to help, all of us have felt like we have failed.” Dusk laid her hand on Floras shoulder. Her eyes softened and a smile formed on her lips.
“We are not disappointed in you Flora. We are very proud of you and everything you have done.” With that, Flora broke down. Tears of relief fell down her cheeks and quiet sobs came out of her throat. Flora was used to others criticizing her, telling her how useless she was and that she was a failure. But someone, and not just anyone but a strong and capable queen from the past, telling her that she was proud of her, was too much.
Dusk wrapped her hands around the sobbing girl and pulled her close. Flora cried for a long while. All that time Dusk cradled her in her arms until Floras sobs died down from sobbs first to hiccups and then to soft, deep breaths.
Dusk smiled at the sleeping girl and brushed a standard of hair from her face. She tucked a blanket over her like she had done the night before when she had fetched the papers for Lullaby and found Flora asleep on her desk.
“Sleep well flower bud and remember, we are all so very proud of you.” she whispered.