Chapter Text
Zelda had not been so eager to leave the Great Sky Island as Link would have been. Or, at least, that’s what she constantly told herself. She knew she could survive the fall if she landed in a pond or lake, any puddle would do, it seemed. But she still lingered among the golden leaves and ancient cliffs in the sky. Looking out at the trials that surely awaited her below, she knew there would be no reprieve. She was Princess Zelda, nearly Queen. The moment she dove over the cliffs and entered Hyrule proper, her responsibilities would consume her once more.
It may have been a sick, selfish act to remain here in the sky. When she could clearly see there was trouble awaiting her people below. A harsh shred of time and fate tore through the continent of Hyrule, ending any hopes she previously had about a happily ever after from Calamity Ganon. Instead, this monster from a bygone era had uprooted her home, the castle, and taken to the shadowy depths below. His armies of monsters and beasts would torment her people and ruin their previous semblance of prosperity, and yet she stayed in the sky islands.
Link would have dove headfirst, she mused to herself as she picked apples from the branches of trees and scored mushrooms from their roots. He would have made this leap of faith that she was avoiding, literally and figuratively, and then battled his way straight to take the demon down. No doubt, wherever he was, Link was doing something gungho and reckless.
Zelda kept an apple in her hand as she strolled around the hills and cliffs of the Great Sky Island. She always found that having something to fiddle with or bounce around from palm to palm kept her from feeling too guilty. As if tossing the apple and catching it repeatedly was enough activism for the day. When she eventually circled the island back around to the great temple, she paused by the entrance. The guards stationed here had been defeated a while ago, and the decrepit stairs were quietly standing before her. She wanted to enter, she really did. Anything to answer the countless questions she had gathered over these few weeks. But she could not bring her feet to step further. Zelda had this ridiculous notion in her mind that if she ever walked too close to the mysterious temple, she would learn something heartbreaking and never recover.
She took a bite of the apple and stared at the clouds all around. They made a beautiful scene, and maybe she could find a way to paint it someday. Perhaps she would crush the blue fungi in her pouch to create a blue dye close in hue to the bright sky, and find something white to depict the fluffy clouds. There was nothing she’d love more than to dip a brush in watercolors and try her hand, but there was also nothing she’d love more than to return to a time where she could freely express herself in art without care or worry.
“Cursed procrastinator,” Zelda whispered to herself, throwing the half-eaten apple to the side and then shaking her head as she stepped closer to the temple. The pale stone taunted her as she began to climb up, giving her some sort of warning about what she might find within. When she tried her hand at the door, it took significant effort.
But it opened.
And what she saw inside was a bit complicated. She took in her surroundings, at first expecting to encounter more of those teal-colored little guards all over. But she was alone, that much was clear by the echo of wind rushing past her skin. She took a few hesitant steps in, and then paused. The stone in her pocket throbbed, it glowed in a pulsing way that she could only equate to the odd Zonai civilization. The stone was from those last moments in the depths of Hyrule castle with Link before everything went wrong. If it was pulsing now, that meant something was calling her closer.
When Zelda realized what it was, a sense of foreboding greeted her. She eyed the pulsing glow of the teardrop-shaped relic in the center of the temple cautiously. This relic matched the stone she had in her hand, a teardrop shape with odd inscriptions. It timed in sync with the pulsing in the stone, and she paused a little bit away from it. She did understand that it was implied that she bring that cursed stone closer to the light, reflecting on her previous experience in the shrines. She tentatively reached out, holding the stone up towards the relic, and then her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.
A blinding white light flowed from the relic at first, and then it dimmed slightly to reveal a figure with a missing arm, Hylian ears, in an archaic outfit, eyes closed…
“Link,” Zelda murmured, full of awe as she stared at his levitating form. But it wasn’t entirely him. He was… translucent, not altogether there yet. It was only an illusion of the light, she realized. Everything around her seemed foggy, unclear. Not that she had much urge to look away from Link for more than a second. He was there, she thought over and over in her mind. Link is there. Link is here, with me.
Then, he reached out with his hand towards Zelda, and her heart kicked into high gear as she grasped his hand. Even though he didn’t seem real, she could still feel the calluses on his hand as she squeezed it tight. A sort of energy, power, magic–whatever you might call it, a warm something flowed from an odd necklace Link wore to Zelda through this contact. It made the hairs on her arm stand up, and a chill raced down her spine from the sensation. But after that exchange, Link faded entirely.
“No, wait–” Zelda said, reaching out with both hands and trying desperately to keep him here. Even if only as a trick of the light, she wanted to see him more. “Don’t go!”
He did not listen. Could not, Zelda assured herself. Because if Link could hear her pleas and cries for him to stay, he would fight tooth and nail to do so. He was her knight, and she was his princess. If Link had any grasp of control, he would be here with her right now. She was sure of it.
But his absence nearly broke her.
She stifled a cry when the light completely vanished. He was gone. “No…” Her disappointment was almost crushing, but she refused to let herself crumble back into that pathetic, helpless girl she had been before. She took a few (ashamedly) shaky breaths before she was steady again. She stood tall, trying to don the regal confidence of a previous life, and looked at the deactivated circular arch once more. It was done.
She looked down at the hand where he had held her. She noticed a new Zonai symbol had appeared on her hand, and cringed. It was a mark similar to the inscription on the odd stone she kept in her pocket all the time, a sort of tattoo wrapping around her wrist and spiraling up her fingers. Link wasn’t here to save her. He was giving her some sort of new ability to save herself.
Thinking that there was nothing left for her in the temple, she took a step back as if to leave. But the doors to the outside on the far wall slid open with some ancient power, and Zelda was nothing if not stupid enough to recognize something calling her onward. It was always doing so, she thought wistfully, always telling her to roll up her sleeves and deal with the dangers that lay ahead. Zelda was no warrior, but she knew not to disobey the messages from the divine.
One foot after the other, Zelda approached the door. She stepped outside without thinking too much. If she did, she might convince herself to run back the way she came like a coward. She continued forward, seeing the stone gazebo near the ledge further ahead. She took in a deep breath and practically held it as she continued forward. She hated being this close to the edge of the island, where nothing but the clouds surrounded her.
Zelda was agile enough to clamber up to the platform and through the gazebo, where she tried desperately to ignore the sheer drop that awaited on all sides around her. The view, she thought to herself, was nice. And that was all that it was good for.
Past the small gazebo was a table, empty and desolate. She ran a hand over the smooth surface, thoughtful. Whatever had called her this far out clearly had some intention for her. A divine plan, or at least a direction to head in.
“A direction,” she mumbled to herself, glancing back over her shoulder and noticing the way this path towards the gazebo had led in a straight line towards the edge. It dropped off into nothing, with only the clouds and Hyrule proper below to observe. Zelda looked over the edge cautiously, and sure enough, spotted a large pond.
She brought herself a step back, muttered some curses to the goddesses, and then grumbled some more about whatever Zonai weird-ness was going on. She didn’t want this, she hated heights, and she’d love for nothing more than to live out the rest of her days on this insufferable island. With one last gesture of profanity towards the great temple, Zelda walked back over to the edge.
“Fine. So be it.” Zelda hyped herself up for the fall, chanting over and over just-aim-for-the-water to convince herself to take the leap. With one last breath, Zelda stepped off the ledge.