Night Terrors

Aperture / A Dream

Aperture

"You're going to be just fine..."

She felt the heat of him struggle against the frigid air like some wounded thing.

"Link, We have to get you somewhere safe."

Zelda could sense a desperate struggle within; An uneasy shuddering that came in waves, which threatened to overtake. An ugly thing of malice made it's presence known to the east, they would only have minutes to spare.
And a dark fear was encroaching upon her.

Zelda recalled teachings of her mother from years ago. A lifeline, which was once just a vapid memory:

Steady breath.

A steady breath is the bridge to a steady heart.

A steady heart portends the calming of the storm.

She had to be strong.
For him for once.

She concentrated on his face, etching every detail to memory as if he were some interesting thing she found in her research. As if he were some incredible milestone she had been waiting to discover. As if this was our last moment in the world.
A dark thought, she denied it any confidence.

Steady breaths.

Steady breaths.

Steady -

Sheets of rain were spilling over in a relentless bid to wash them away. To dispense with them, she imagined, and their abundance of failure.
Her failure, she reminded.

Link was staring past her; His eyes hailing the sky.
Reflected in those eyes she found the light scatterings of stars: Traces of constellations splayed out like powdered glass. And, to her relief, she found no sign of anguish there either. Instead, there was calmness, and strength. And a hundred-thousand other things that eluded her, as always.

Zelda brushed the hair from his face, and she watched as the boy fluttered in and out of the world. They were running out of time.
The whirring of mechanical demons put an end to the moment.

Steady breaths.

"LINK, PLEASE GET UP..."

Desperation flooded in. A primal panic dragged it's fingers down her spine.
She choked back a sob, and locked it away in a box; Refusing to give it audience.
She had to be strong. She had to be strong. She had to be strong.
She had to -

"I can protect you now, Link" She croaked in a voice she could no longer recognize.

Steady -

"I can protect us. PLEASE Link, I need - "

And then the moment came with thundering agony, and she was alone.

Alone.
A thing she prayed for endlessly only a few short months ago.
A thing that had once been a dream, was now dissolving her of all resolve.

And now more than ever, she felt powerless.

Between ragged breaths, she found herself hurling insults to the sky. Terrible words of great consequence, slinging forth like a tide that could no longer be held back.
She had been a prisoner to her failure for so many years.
She had given everything to the Goddess, every waking moment of her life.
This power was to be her inheritance; her birthright. "Why now?", her voice piercing the rain.
Why was it she'd been granted the instrument of their salvation now, after everything had already been lost?
Charges of confusion wracked her brain as she fought to understand the will of Hylia. She was hopeless to make sense of it all, her mind dragged by panic and betrayal.