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It was done.
Demon King Ganondorf, razed from Hyrule.
Link stands atop Zelda’s draconic head, watching smoke clear as night returns to day.
The zonai arm begins to glow, and his blue eyes roll back in his head. Link topples forward, into nothingness, then into a void of endless green fog, evenly lit.
The light dragon Zelda floats motionless beneath the hero. A pair of specters form from nothing, gentle green ghostflames bouncing playfully. Raru steps forward, into the hero. The king’s arm fits just as well as it always has, out of proportion for a hylian.
The ancient king of Hyrule’s ghostly form overlaid over the hero of time’s body, Raru raises his arm. Magic begins to pour from it, showering the curled dragon below. Sonia steps forwards to join her husband, holding out her hand to join Raru. Together, they push every ounce of magical energy they can muster into the hylian princess.
Slowly, the enormity of her draconic form wisps away, until there is only as much princess as there is dragon. Her body coils languidly in the dreamlike fog, close enough to hylian.
The hero’s gifted arm slowly melts into green magic, dripping down and down onto Zelda’s form. Her form shifts a mote more. Sonia and Raru gaze down at her wistfully, and together murmur one last goodbye.
Blood drips from the reopened wound the hero now sports.
The world of green mist shatters.
Gravity catches.
The first droplet lands on her cheek.
Both hero and princess fall.
Zelda wakes.
She wakes with a shuddering gasp that becomes a surprised trill. She did not think she would ever truly wake again.
She feels, too. Wind in her hair and dress. The openness of the Hyrulian sky. The blood on her face.
The blood.
Link.
Purple-teal-green eyes open wide, searching the sky above for- there! Her form splays out, the rushing wind slamming into her from underneath as Link tumbles towards her. Her fall slowing, Link gets closer. His stump of an arm is weeping blood into the sky as they fall.
Both her arms reach out for him, pulling the hero to her. Her scales, feathers and skin- she has skin again!- are quickly bloodied, but she can’t seem to care.
They fall.
Zelda twists to face the ground, a smile on her lips- she has lips again!- for the first time in a millennia. She clutches Link close to her chest, three arms holding him there and one with a death grip on his bleeding stump.
Gradually, their fall evens out as the princess gradually edges them horizontal, their speed still pushing them forwards and down towards the flowering planes below. Soon enough, they collide with the soil, kicking up a plume of dirt as the duo bounce and roll across the grassland.
Breathlessly, Zelda stares up at the sky. She can feel grass. She can smell earth and flowers. She can hear insects slowly begin chirping again as the commotion from the impact ebbs away.
She can feel blood dripping down her chest.
Link’s blood.
The world blurs back into clarity for her and with a concerned trill Zelda lies him on his back and straddles his waist. Two hands put pressure on his bleeding stump, another scrambles for the Purah Pad, swiping through and pulling out a fire chuchu jelly. She takes a breath, then slams it into Link’s wound. The magically charged slime clings to his skin, muscle and bone, glowing for a moment before it sears his wound closed. It also sears most of Zelda’s hand, though she barely feels it at the moment.
The flash of burning pain shocks her hero awake, his startled and pained gasp almost music to her ears.
He’s alive.
They’re alive.
The princess laughs almost disbelievingly, heart beating in her chest as the hero opens his eyes. “Link!” she chips, the first word to leave her mouth in a millennia. He laughs hysterically, holding her close with his arm as they roll through the prairie, both overcome with joy.
Abruptly, Link startles like something is wrong.
“Link?” Zelda begins to ask something, but is cut off by them straddling her waist and beginning to fuss over her. “Ah.” Link’s remaining hand is alternating between signing too fast for Zelda to interpret and checking her over for any cut, bump or scrape. “Link, please, I assure you I’m perfectly unhaRMED!”
Her complaint turns into a surprised squeak as Link bodily rolls her onto her belly to continue making sure she isn’t hurt. “Link, please- Oh for-”
She huffs gently. “Fine, you can check me over for injuries… But you’re getting medical attention first!”
He makes a strangled noise and Zelda warbles at him playfully. “You’re covered in blood, Link! And missing your arm!!”
They huff dramatically and Zelda can hear them try to cross their arms (and fail).
“Now, can you let me up? My dress doesn’t need to have any more dirt down its front than it already does.”
“...”
“Link, I assure you, I am unhurt. Can you let me up, for Hylia’s sake?”
The chosen hero huffs petulantly, but slides off her lower back and sits cross-legged next to her hip. She wraps her tail around him comfortingly as she rolls belly-up. “Link?”
They turn to face her and hum questioningly. “Don’t laugh, but I can’t remember how to sit up from laying down.”
Link snorts so hard they start coughing, tears prickling in their eyes as they reach over to pull her upright.
“...”
“Okay, you’re right, it’s a little funny,” agrees Zelda, a grin playing across her lips as she takes his hand. They pull her upright and she leans forward, gently pressing their foreheads together.
“It is good to feel your touch again, Link.”
“...”
“Climbing on my dragonic form doesn’t count, Link. It’s like if I said resting my hand on your chest counted as groping you even though you’re wearing a gambeson and chainmail under your tunic. I barely registered your presence at all.”
Link begins to sign a question, teasing smile on his face. ‘Even-’
“Yes Link, even when you shot my teeth.”
The hero smiles at the princess once again and pulls her into another one-armed hug, an infectious laugh bubbling up out of their throat. The princess tries to keep the indignant look on her face but it quickly breaks, quiet giggles slowly building up into joyous full body laughter. Zelda pulls her hero into her lap, manhandling them so she can press her front into their back and hook her head into the crook of their neck. Four arms wrap around Link’s front, keeping them close. Her glowing horns catch on their hair as she nuzzles into them. Link huffs in amusement, gently reaching up with their arm to pull his hair from her horns.
They speak softly, “Your horns changed.”
“Did they now?”
“Yeah. Simpler, now.”
“I can’t say I remember what they looked like, in all honesty. Or if I ever actually saw them. I don’t suppose you have a picture somewhere?”
“‘Course.”
The two of them lie in the grass for a while longer, simply just taking in the nature around them and the closeness between them. At some point Zelda yawns wide, wider than any hylian could, and involuntarily twitches her head. Link laughs loudly from the ground as Zelda blushes. Her horn will leave a bruise that Link will refuse any attempt to heal. ‘It’s funny,’ he says jokingly, then pulls Zelda into another one-armed hug and murmurs that ‘it reminds me you’re here again.’
Eventually the day begins to darken, the sun well on its way to the horizon. “We should go to Lookout Landing,” murmurs Zelda, stretched out at least twice as long as Link is tall.
They hum agreeingly, slowly standing and stretching languidly. The hero scans the nearby ground for the Purah Pad and kicks it up to their hand in a practiced motion. Zelda thinks that Purah would be a bit annoyed that Link is treating her tech like this, but honestly, what did she expect. Zelda also suspects that Purah would begrudgingly find it a bit cool.
“Purah would probably get annoyed at you for treating the pad like that,” starts Zelda, fixing link with a playful grin. “But I think she would at least appreciate that it was kinda cool.”
The hero snorts ungallantly as they clip the Purah Pad onto their belt and begins walking towards lookout landing, stepping over Zelda’s stretched out belly. They continue walking and don’t look back for a moment even as the princess continues to lie on the ground. After a moment they notice the lack of any movement from the princess and turn around to fix her with a look that says ‘I thought you wanted to do this.’
“I never said I wanted to get up, Link. Maybe I just want to lie here until the earth swallows me up!”
‘Did you-’ they make an irritated noise at themselves and fingerspell ‘f o r g e t h o w u p ?’
“No Link, I still remember how to sit up. I’m just trying to pester you.”
“...”
They hook their thumb into their belt and cock a hip out, exaggerating their skepticism.
“Just let me try this, okay? I don’t think I can yet walk well enough to reach Lookout Landing.”
“Mm.”
“Thank you for your riveting commentary, my hero,” murmurs Zelda, her horns glowing in the evening light.
The princess of Hyrule begins a deeply undignified maneuver that involves coiling herself like a spring and pushing into the air with her arms and legs. Link covers their mouth with their hand, as if that will stop their giggling at the lone heir to the royal line launching herself into the air like a particularly determined hot-footed-frog. The first attempt has her hovering in the air for a held breath’s time, then collapsing to the ground in an ungainly heap. The second try, however, results in princess Zelda gracefully coiling through the evening sky, glowing like teal fireflies.
She trills triumphantly, rolling through the air in celebration. She can feel her form become less hylian, her tail lengthening and horns branching off to become more wild. Her arms and legs becoming caked in scales and large teeth filling her mouth.
But she stops. The changes to her form slowly melt away one by one and Zelda can feel the weight of her form become less conceptual. Eventually, the princess finds her balancing point and, taking a deep breath, opens her eyes.
When did she close them?
“A-ah,” she mumbles, finding Link’s forehead pressed to hers and his piercing blue eyes staring into hers. “You, ah, startled me, Link.”
Her teeth are still too sharp in her mouth to be hylian. Have they always been like that?
She unwinds herself from around Link, trying to ignore the feeling of his clothes brushing against her scales.
“Shall we continue, my knight? I daresay Purah will doubtlessly want to… give us checkups.”
She sends a wry glance at the hylian, getting a smile from the once-stoic knight.
They begin on their journey, Link walking at an easy pace and Zelda twirling through the air around him. She reaches down to Link for some sort of physical connection. One of her left hands slaps gently against his right hip, finding no hand to hold. Link pauses, the princess cascading over herself above them. Then he snorts, a goofy, ugly sound. Zelda looks at him, taking in the smile on his face and the amusement in their eyes. She snorts without dignity at her forgetfulness, the sound coming out more birdlike than it has any right to be.
Still quietly chuckling to themselves, Link reaches out his hand and takes one of Zelda’s rights. In a smooth movement the hero twirls the floating princess around him like a dancer a ribbon, the two giggling to themselves. Eventually the duo remember that Purah is likely waiting and with every hour they dawdle their examinations will be dragged out even longer. They continue on, hands still intertwined.