Falling Worlds; Zelink, Modern Magic AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

An Explanation (24)

Zelda felt far from safe.

As much as she was willing herself to trust Link, (she needed someone to be able to trust or she would go mad,) she wasn't the most confident in herself that she could hold on. It wasn't that the pain scared her, just how uncomfortable it would be if she fell.

"Last time I flew with you, you were unconscious," Link said past the whipping of the wind.

Zelda bit her lip, having a flashback to right after her father died. When the house wall exploded. When they fell. When she woke up in the forest.

"Should you be chatting and flying?" she asked.

"Probably not," he said as his arms tightened around her. "But I'm not flying much longer," he warned.

She saw his wings dissolve and then they hit the canopy. She reached up and put her hands on the top of his head in an attempt to protect him from the fall.

"Sorry," he said after they had hit the forest floor, his voice pained.

"Didn't feel it," she said, "are you okay?"

"Fine..." he replied, "we might have lost them with that."

As unceremonious as it had been, it was an effective way to disguise where they'd landed.

"Your wings do glow rather bright at night," she commented. She didn't know what to say to him...

Zelda bit her lip and then tried to sit up from their crash landing. She didn't get more than three inches up when Link pulled her back down.

"Wait," he said. "I need to explain..."

She stayed silent for about an eternity. "If only you'd done that the first time we were in a forest," she said quietly.

"That... Zelda... I..." he fell silent. "Zelda when I met you I thought that you were the Bane of Hyrule. But now I know... I know that I was right... but so wrong."

Zelda pushed herself off of him and glared down in the faint light. "You tell me what I want to know. You explain right now," she demanded.

He looked unsure. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Zelda threw her hands into the air. "Of course I do!"

He flinched. "Alright... This may be a stupid place to do so but..." he shook his head. "And don't say I didn't warn you..." he finished with a sigh, and then took another breath. "I was a golden knight of Hyrule that was sent down to Starfall in an annual check to make sure that Kaebora was... doing his job."

When he paused for breath she asked, "His job?"

"Please don't interrupt me... this is already difficult."

She scowled. "Won't happen again."

"Sure..." he said. "Kaebora was a Hylian scientist, tasked with finding a way to destroy the Stone. He had seventeen years, and he failed." He sucked in a breath. "He fell in love with his subject instead, the show of adoption, of family, became reality."

A Hylian scientist... Her chest tightened in disbelief. "...Kae isn't my father?"

"No, Zelda," he said, lowering his voice to be more gentle. "He considered you to be his daughter but... technically you don't have any parents at all..." Link shifted to a sitting position.

"How is that... possible."

He shook his head. "I have no idea... You were found on the pedestal of the Stone... a little baby, destined to destroy Hyrule." He pressed his lips together. "That's what our prophecy says anyways. The Stone will be the beacon of Hyrule's destruction... but," he paused and looked up at her. "The Stone is also what keeps our land in the sky."

I'm what now? "That's why everyone wants me? To destroy me before I destroy them?"

"They want to stop Hyrule's end... and cause the islands to hit the surface. They believe they belong on Starfall, that the surface dwellers should be stepped on and our 'obvious' superiority emphasized." His voice was almost a growl.

Zelda folded her arms. "You're serious?"

"You asked me to tell you. That's what I know," he replied.

She frowned... she was a prophetic stone destined to destroy Hyrule? That made about as much sense to her as proper swordplay technique.... but at that point, it didn't matter whether she believed it or not. Not with Hyrule convinced of it. "I guess I have no reason to doubt it... but why can you tell me all this now when you couldn't tell me anything before?"

"Because I'm no longer a part of the Guard... and I was the last time you asked."

His loyalty to that cause was... commendable, albeit wrong. "So why did you leave?"

"You," he replied, calm.

"Say what?" she asked, eyes wide.

He leaned forward. "I left because of you," he said earnestly. "You didn't exactly seem like like the type who would destroy a whole country like they trained me to believe. Getting to know you seeded a doubt in the authority and... well... you saw the moment I became an official deserter," he finished.

Right... "Did you kill him, Link?" she asked.

He scowled. "Unfortunately no, he'll survive," he replied with a growl in his voice. "He isn't a knight I'd like running around looking for revenge. Although I doubt he'll be running for awhile."

She bit her lip again. "So now what," she asked.

"We keep running."

"How? Where?" She rocked back on her heels, wringing her hands.

"Anywhere. We just have to evade them for long enough."

"Long enough for what? What's waiting going to do?"

"Zelda, you may only be indestructible now, but you are going to become more powerful than you would ever dream of becoming. Legend says that a goddess herself became the Stone so that her people could live in the sky. The Stone grants us life, it sustains us, moves the islands, preserves their invisibility to Starfall... And that's just some of the powers we know about. They may not have awakened in you yet, but they will."

The thoughts were running through her head so fast she couldn't start to process them. She addressed the most important first. "And when and if they do?"

"Then... then we take on Hyrule."

Take on Hyrule? Sounds brilliant... wait... "We?"

Link stood up. "I'm with you."

Zelda pressed her lips together and took a steadying breath. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you... you have no idea how much it means to have someone I can count on. How impossible everything is when I'm alone..."

"No," Link said as he shook his head. He stepped forwards and grabbed her hand with a soft grip. "The thanks belongs to you. You taught me to think for myself. You cared about me as an individual when even I never questioned being just one knight in a thousand..." he looked down, then back up, his grip tightening.

They stood in silence for a minute, just looking at each other. Then Zelda looked away, up at the canopy.

Link seemed to snap out of a spell and he dropped her hand. "We should go. I'll fly through the trees just in case they're still looking for us in this area."

She nodded and took a step forwards, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder. It was like a hug. A hug with a purpose. "Ready," she said, muffled by his shirt.

"I'm not promising I won't hit a tree. Hold on tight," he advised, and then the glow of his wings hit her even with her eyes closed.