regression
n. movement backward to a previous and especially worse state or condition
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link was in the middle of building a log structure for the most optimal fire when he heard it—Zelda's terrified scream from the river. Immediately, it felt like his head had been plunged underwater.
Was the princess being attacked? Or was it merely a fish that brushed up against her leg and spooked her? She would be livid if he came barreling over for nothing.
But then he felt it, that pulse in the earth. It'd been happening more frequently, and he flinched so violently he knocked over the wood structure.
It told him then; deep in his gut he knew there was nothing more to debate, and he was already kicking up grass to get to her.
He hadn't realized just how cold the nights were beginning to get until he was leaping across the landscape with the wind rushing past—or perhaps he was just feeling the chill in his blood. Another shrill cry pierced the air, at the very least a confirmation he was headed the right way. Then, entering into the trees, he guarded his face with his arms from twigs and thorns as he plowed through the thicket.
He knew he was closing in because Zelda's hysterical sobbing grew louder and louder as he wove and ducked through the branches and thorns. There was another sound there, too, something unnervingly familiar and repetitive.
The sight Link burst upon was worse than anything he could've predicted. A black bokoblin—stronger than red or blue—had found Zelda, who appeared as though she'd only gotten as far as removing her boots before she was ambushed.
That familiar, repetitive sound was the rhythmic meeting of flesh and blade. But it was not Zelda who was under attack.
No, Zelda was doing the stabbing. Over and over and over, gasping between her sobs. If its defeat wasn't otherwise signified by a cloud of malice, Link would've thought the distorted monster shape beneath Zelda was long past dead.
Her next stab came down with such force, the windcleaver snapped, skewering the bokoblin to the ground, but with the way Zelda kept puncturing the monster with the broken shaft, one would think it hadn't broken at all.
"Princess!"
She was stuck in some sort of psychotic loop, for even after the bokoblin finally perished in a magenta haze, the princess kept stabbing and stabbing the earth where it had been.
"Princess Zelda!" Link tried again to no avail.
stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and sta
He had no other choice; he scrambled around behind her and when she raised the blade again, Link clasped her hands in both of his.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, pushing out tears in thick streaks as her wrists fought against his hold, hiccuping through each distraught sob that rose from her lungs.
"Let go of the blade, Your Highness," he commanded through clenched teeth. She didn't, so he wrestled with her grasp. As soon as he managed to wrench the broken blade from her fingers, Link heaved it into the river. Zelda caved in on herself, like her heart was made of lead and he'd stolen the brace that kept it propped up.
He counted out deep breaths, but Zelda wept with no attempt to follow his voice. This meltdown was beyond anything Link had ever dealt with, and he wasn't sure what to do. She was crumbling before his eyes and it felt like his own rib cage was collapsing in on him.
Yes, the princess was conceited and snarky, but she was also smart and funny and determined. Her newfound bravery was a fragile fledgling, and although she was more resilient than anyone he'd ever met, he was afraid there would be no recovering from this.
YOU ARE READING
Fortune Favors the Courageous
Fanfiction"Princess!" he yelled after her. "Where are you going?" "Back to the castle," she replied without stopping. "Not by yourself you're not!" "I'm sorry,"-she whipped around-"I didn't realize you were my father?" "Your father, the king, would execute me...
