Hyrule Academy: A Zelink Story

Little Guy

Link's POV

Making my way outside, I take a deep breath. Malice is, like he always is, at the football pitch, training with his minions. I walk away without looking back. They consistently find ways to cause trouble. Even when I'm not in the mood to confront them and can easily ignore their existence, I end up stepping in whenever someone is targeted by them.

But... why approach Zelda? She's new and it wasn't like she was creating a scene in the library just now. I mean, I noticed a few students look over to her, but they started paying attention to me when I walked in. It seems word does spread around like wildfire. He must already know she's the head's daughter. It makes sense: I did see her get swarmed yesterday by those guys who said they would help her anytime. Ugh. I hope this doesn't affect me too much; I need to be fully focused on passing not just my sports subjects, but also my compulsory ones. The last thing I need is this new rich girl destroying my focus.

I stop at the orange and red curved building in front of me. An enormous sign stands next to it that reads 'Goron Gym'. I walk in and run up the stairs to the second floor. I don't need to take the lift when I can get a quick exercise from taking a few stairs up. The ground floor has a reception and a place to clean or store clothes or equipment you want to use here. The first floor has a lot of exercise machines such as different bikes, rowers and treadmills. The other side has a hall that can be used to exercise on mats with weights, trampolines and other smaller pieces of equipment. Yoga is also taught there. I'm heading to the top floor since that's where coach Daruk spends most of his time. It has a ring where you can practice boxing and rows of seats where people can watch. He loves to impress the audience whenever he gets the chance. It also stores a lot of giant weights and more exercise machines.

Stepping into the room, I try to find Daruk. He's not that hard to miss; He's a big man with a broad personality that can brighten anyone's day with his energy, encouragement and advice. Plus his white, crazy hair and short beard manage to show well in this room's dimmed lights-
"HEY LINK!" His voice booms from across the room, he emerges from behind the boxing ring. Did I forget to mention he's a bit loud? I jog to him, holding out the book he sent me to fetch from the library. He smiles and quickly takes it, stuffing it in his gym bag. His eyes dart around, making sure no one saw the book. He's too dramatic.

"Thanks for getting this for me, little guy." He whispers.
"You're acting like I've just given you drugs instead of a book." I smirk. He rubs the back of his head, embarrassed.
"You know I wanna keep my image strong with the guys here. They'll never take me seriously if they see me carrying a book about how to deal with fears of... animals." His voice is very quiet as he continues to search around for anyone who could be listening to our conversation.
"You mean dogs?" Daruk shushes me, nodding. I nod once back.
"Anyway, how's your day been so far? Has it been productive or..." I sigh and sit on a bench. Coach sits next to me.

"Malice and his gang are up to something, again."
"Oh no. What did those spineless cuccos do now?" Daruk groans. He knows all too well what trouble that group can cause. I explain everything to him that occurred in the library. I explain how Malice spoke to Zelda and my confusion about his intentions.
"He probably knows she's Rhoam's daughter and might be trying to get on her good side. You know, his older brother is connected to Rhoam business wise so, maybe it's a tactic to benefit in that field by befriending Zelda?" Daruk wonders.
"He didn't seem very friendly. He was flirting with her and she didn't look comfortable." I remember her eyes practically begging Mipha to come help her before she noticed me looking in her direction.

"Maybe he just likes her, then." Daruk shrugs and I scoff.
"Yeah, okay." I don't believe for a second that that's true. He may like her, but it won't be anything serious. It has to be either because she's pretty, or she's useful to improve his family's business, like Daruk said. Or even both. She's possibly used to this behaviour anyway and can take care of herself. Maybe she even likes the attention and plays hard to get on purpose. Wait. Why am I still thinking about this? I literally told myself before coming here that I wouldn't let anything, especially Zelda, ruin my focus. Yet, here I am, wondering why Malice is interested in her. I shouldn't care. I don't care.