Work Text:
Link…Link….wake up…Wake up, Link!
Wake up!
The boy opened his eyes to see an empty shrine.
Immediately a feeling of wrongness rushed to him. He needed to find them — where were they?! He needed to find them! They were in danger! Urbo…Urb…a name? Did he have a name? Did he have a face? Who were they…
“Link…take the Sheikah Slate in the pedestal.”
A rough shirt and pants in a chest. He needed those. He thinks. He’s not sure. What does he need? What do humans need? What is a human?
“Link…go forth…and save…Hyrule…go now!”
An old man. A stone monster. Friends? No, not friends. They didn’t like him. They would throw rocks and sticks at him when he got too close to their odd little makeshift camps.
The first time he ever truly remembered anything…was when he first saw the Guardian.
Link was trying to find the Ja Baji shrine, he thinks the old man called it that, right?
Hey…would it be so bad if I…stayed…I’m just a ghost out of her grave….
What was that?
He turned around, but saw no one. Feeling creeped out, he edged further into the ruins…
And that was when it happened.
The odd mechanical thing, moss-covered and ancient, rose up, its torso twisting until a rolling too-blue eye was looking directly at him.
A blinking red dot appeared on his chest.
Frozen. Something held him in place. What to do? Run? He couldn’t…Zelda! He needed to get Zelda! They were supposed to protect the princess…
It happened so suddenly.
He felt a presence beside him. Then pain.
Flaring pain, their heart being ripped out of their chest. Their throat sealing up. Darkness…
It is my pleasure…
A woman? A … Zora?
Then all they knew was that they were up and running, running, dodging blasts, their heart pounding in their chest, fear closing up their throat.
He didn’t stop running until he reached the forest.
. . . . .
He learned that the thing was called a Guardian. The old man was the king, just another person he’d failed, another person looking down upon them, telling them of their failures…
Zelda. He needed to find her…He needed to save her.
He never should have gone to the ruins.
He never should have found that lynel…
He should have run.
Should have.
Should have.
If he’d been faster, if he’d done something, Hyrule would be safe. If he’d waited for Mipha’s Grace to recharge. If he hadn’t been so stupid…
But it was due to his stupidity, his own heroism, that he lay here, bleeding out in the snow.
Lay here too weak to move.
Lay here with no one coming to save them.
As the darkness closed in, he sent a silent apology to the kingdom he’d failed.
To the kingdom he couldn’t even remember…
I’m…sorry…