Chapter Text
“Citizens of Lorule!” King Ganondorf bellowed, holding out his arms. The crowd roared in response. “We are here today to punish this Hylian for deserting his comrades!”
He walked over to the pale and weak Link and grabbed a scruff of his hair, lifting his head to face the audience. “And not only that,” he continued, “but he fraternized with the enemy—The Witch Zelda!”
The crowd booed, hissing and hollering in anger. Zelda shrunk into her armor and Navi shivered.
“We made a deal with her!” he boomed. “She can show herself and save her precious soldier, or he can die!” He let go of Link and paced across the stage. “She gloats of her goodness, her duty to protect, but she has not appeared. So what will we do?”
“Death!”
“Beheading!”
“Hanging!”
“Execute him!”
“Torture!”
Various monsters shouted out their demands, and Ganondorf laughed.
“We will kill him,” he determined. The crowd cheered. “But I am a benevolent king. I will allow him his final words—some dignity before he dies. What say you, deserter?”
Worriedly Zelda looked to Link, kneeling on the ground and slumped over. He glanced up and they locked eyes, tired blue.
“Help,” he croaked.
Ganondorf and his crowd of minions cackled and stomped. Rage boiled within Zelda, a new feeling for the witch, surrounded by enemies who wanted her and Link dead. She wouldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t. If she died, so would the forest, and if she died, Ganondorf would win.
If Link died, who would she spend her days in the garden with? Who would help her chop meat? Who would talk to her about the world beyond the woods? Link had given her something the forest nor Navi ever could.
She slammed the end of her staff into the cobblestone ground, cracking the earth and emitting a shockwave that cleared space around her. The monsters gasped and shrieked as she glowed bright yellow and the armor sprouted leaves. She took off her helmet and shed the rest of the once-stone armor, revealing herself to the audience.
“Do not touch him,” she ordered.
“Ah,” Ganondorf crooned, “so you did come.” He chuckled, low and menacing. “Do you trust this man? Truly? If he deserted us, do you think he wouldn’t desert you, too?”
“Do not drag innocent–”
“Innocent?” he interrupted. “This Hylian is far from. He deserted his allies in the midst of battle and fled to you, the enemy! Innocent?! Pah.” The monstrous crowd whooped in agreement. “His loyalties are fickle. He is using you, Witch, and you’re too blinded by infatuation to see it.”
Floating beside her, Navi vibrated with anger.
“Release him and I will let you have me,” Zelda said.
“Oh no.” Ganondorf shook his head. “I’ve promised the people a show. It wouldn’t be fair if I went back on my word now, would it?” He smirked. “But it seems we can add you to the entertainment, Witch!”
He lifted his palm to the sky, accumulating a ball of dark magic which he launched at Zelda. She dove to the side and narrowly avoided it. The explosion caused the sea of monsters around her to part, creating a clear space occupied only by her, Link, and the evil king. The audience watched from the sidelines.
The witch was at a loss, mind racing as she dodged and ran and rolled away from Ganondorf’s attacks, the crowd of monsters cheering at each shot that nicked her. Her magic was no good here, and both her and Navi knew it. Her magic creates; it does not destroy. So what could she do?
Maybe this was the end. When she tripped over a crooked brick, she was sure of it, watching the dark power manifest in Ganondorf’s clutches. Hand high above his head, she prepared herself to die, and the forest along with her.
“Gah!”
Link lunged in front of Ganondorf at the very moment he released his power, taking the hit square in the chest and sending him flying backwards towards the witch. The crowd roared.
“Link!” Zelda shrieked, quickly getting up and running over to him. His chest was black and bloody, but he was breathing. She said his name again, quieter, but he did not respond. When another shot hit the wall directly behind them, she laid him down and faced her enemy once more.
Suddenly Koume and Kotake swooped out from behind a tower atop their broom. In one hand they held a clay pot with a small sprout, and in the other, a wand. They threw the pot into the air and shot black magic at it. It landed on the cobbles between Zelda and Ganondorf perfectly upright, making no more than a little clack . Zelda watched it in confusion, eyes widening when the sprout began to move.
“Watch out!” Navi cried as the plant exploded into a flurry of leaves and vines. Shattering its clay pot, it rapidly blossomed into a giant flower from which sprouted four salivating mouths. It gnashed its teeth and licked its lips with its long, unnerving tongue. Zelda swallowed, but gripped her staff tighter.
Ganondorf laughed. “Your little soldier protected you,” he said, “because you couldn’t protect yourself! If you will hide behind others, then so will I. Now you must face my Manhandla!”
One of the heads swung at the witch and she rolled to the side, casting magic towards it that had no effect. At the same time, Navi was dodging rays of darkness from Ganondorf while trying to lure his aim away from Zelda. The flower swung and moved about wildly, knocking into walls and sending bricks tumbling down to the streets. The debris crushed a few spectators, but it was no worry; the monsters hollered anyway.
“Navi, think of something!” The witch shakily yelled, hiding behind debris from a crumbled tower as the Manhandla spat a flurry of seeds at her.
“I don’t know, Zelda! I don’t know!”
One of the mouths swung around the debris and extended its tongue towards Zelda, who stumbled backwards. In a panic, she pointed her staff at it and green magic swarmed the mouth. From its lips sprung small flowers.
Ah, that’s right. Her magic does not destroy; it only creates.
Aiming for the bulb from which all the mouths sprouted, Zelda flooded it with her magic. Hundreds of flowers and leaves and vines sprung forth, followed finally by one more mouth, bigger than all the rest, salivating much more than the rest.
And it was at her will.
She jerked her staff to the right and it followed, the entire beast shifting in that direction. Forward, and it lunged forward, left, it squirmed left. Though the other four mouths screamed in defiance, they could do nothing to stop the witch of the forest.
“What are you doing?!” Ganondorf boomed. Instead of firing a bolt of magic at her, he aimed for the Manhandla instead, but it brushed off the attack as though it were nothing. Moving her staff in Ganondorf’s direction, the Manhandla approached him forebodingly.
“Cease this right now! Attack her!” he commanded, but the hungry flower didn’t listen. The four mouths under his control desperately wriggled in Zelda’s direction, but the fifth mouth was now the plant’s driving force, focused solely on the King of Lorule.
Zelda watched, in both pleasure at her victory and horror at what she could do with her powers, as the beast towered over Ganondorf who had once been so intimidating, so powerful. The giant mouth reared its head and released a roar that silenced the surrounding crowd in shock.
It devoured Ganondorf, teeth clamping down on his torso.
In the silence of the plaza, all but one mouth disintegrated as Ganondorf’s magic faded from the world. The remaining mouth laid down, full and tired, and went to sleep, leaving behind a gruesome scene.
The crowd erupted in a frenzy, crying and screaming and hissing, and they ran off, disappearing into the dark alleyways of Lorule Castle Town.
Panting, Zelda looked to Navi.
“We did it,” Navi said just as breathlessly.
“Come now, Navi,” Zelda said, turning away from the carnage back to where Link lay unconscious on the cobblestones. “We need to take him home.”
She pointed her staff at the Manhandla one last time, growing from it two giant leaves. Scooping Link’s limp body into her arms, she set him down on one leaf gently, wrapping it around him so he would not fall. She climbed atop the other, Navi at her side, and using her magic, brought life from Lorule Castle Town through the fiery plains, through the endless prairies, through the forest, and back to her cottage.
The rising sun awoke him again, softly and gently, birdsong in his ears.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” said a voice equally as soothing. Slowly blinking the sleep from his eyes, he turned his head, but not before noticing the bandages that covered his chest and the floral aroma in the air.
Back to the window, the sun illuminated her in a halo of golden light, like she was an angel. Perhaps she was. Certainly she was no ordinary Hylian, this was a fact. But she was more than just a witch. She was his savior.
Link smiled weakly. “Zelda…” He sat up, groaning at the pain.
“I want you to see something,” she said. “Can you walk?” She helped him off the straw bed, handing him her staff to use as a walking stick. Navi buzzed around, ringing with excitement. She twinkled something to Zelda.
“Yes, what a relief,” the witch replied. Offering her hand, she led Link outside to the garden, bursting with the plants he’d helped cultivate and water and grow, almost like he had a magic of his own. But instead of giving him a patch of dirt to work on, she brought him over to the round window overlooking the garden.
Link remembered how Zelda had tried and tried to revive the plants on the windowsill, how she poured every ounce of her being in them…
“Look,” the witch of the forest breathed, squeezing his hand tighter.
…and they were bursting with life.