Hunter and Apprentice; Fantasy Zelink AU (The Legend of Zelda)

Chapter Ten

Link hesitated, as though resisting the urge to apologize again, then he nodded. "Are you the same race?" he asked.

"No."

When I didn't elaborate, he just came out and asked. "What are they?"

"They're just fae," I replied, a little relieved he hadn't asked about me. I didn't... want to talk about what I was. Which was ridiculous because it wasn't worse than what he was.

A minute of silence passed while I rummaged around in the kitchen.

"Do you not want me to know what you are?"

I had crouched down as I got something out of a lower cupboard. I swallowed. "I... I will tell you, I just..." I focused on my hands. "I feel like I... It just opens up things I don't want to talk about yet."

Link put his hand on top of mine on the counter. "Trust me, Zelda, I understand."

I took a breath and let it out slowly, then I smiled up at him. "Thank you," I said, standing up. "What do you like to eat?"

"I don't have a preference."

I still gave him options while I packed, and he did make decisions between one thing and another. When everything was in the bag, I put it in my movada to keep it safe and preserved. "Ready to go then?" I asked.

"I think so. Do you use any other clothes to swim, usually?"

"Depends how long I'm in the water, but you don't have to worry about wet clothes, I can dry them with light when we're finished swimming."

"Oh, that's handy," he said as we left the house. "So... did you get your magic from Miro?"

"I think so, it awakened a year after I bonded with him, and light magic definitely wasn't in my family line."

Fade sprang up from his bed and trotted over. I rested my forehead on his for a moment, then Link and I climbed up onto his back.

I took the long way to the waterfall so Fade could run farther. I hadn't run along with him in the past week, and I felt bad about it. But I had gone on a hunt, so that at least made up for it a little.

Plus, seeing the waterfall from afar was a fun sight. The waterfall was formed by a string of floating islands that dropped water from one to another, down a chain of islands, each one closer to the ground. Then there was a cliff to climb up from the side where there was a pool, and a final waterfall into another deep pool. Fade could climb up to the cliff, but we would stay down at the lower pool for now. We could go up there closer to fade.

There was a copse of trees surrounding the lower pool as well, but it still allowed sunlight in. It reflected off the water and dappled everything around.

I directed Fade to stop just outside the trees so that we could walk up to the pool and enjoy the scenery.

I helped Link down from the drake, and then... we just didn't let go of each other's hands. I'm not sure he was even aware of it as we walked into the trees.

I imagined he hadn't had a lot of opportunities to enjoy scenery in his old life.

I hadn't had a great deal of new scenery in mine. Plenty of the same... not that the view from the cliffs hadn't been beautiful. I had enjoyed them immensely. The moons had been my refuge, the star belt a comfort.

Link drew a hand across the trunk of a tree as we passed. "I've wanted to come here since I first saw it."

"Haven't had the time?"