𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋.

♡︎iii. Apple Tree

"let her save the world, she is just a girl"
* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Reader POV
Running my fingers under my eyes,
I take a few seconds to process what Link has just explained to me.
We arrived at Kakariko not too long ago as the sun was setting, it now being dark just as Link finished what he had to do at the village for now.
He spoke with the chief of Kakariko, Impa, and is standing before me, almost out of breath and eyes droopy after explaining what was to be done next.
I stare into his tired eyes as he walks closer to me, waiting for a response to his rant.
"so...Impa told you everything about what happened one hundred years ago? and said that, orders from the princess herself, you have to take back these...divine beasts? which are the giant mechanical beings that have been running rampant through multiple regions of Hyrule?" I ask, voice shaky and quiet.
Link clears his throat and nods his head.
"don't forget about having to travel to Hateno Village first. something about a tech lab where my runes need to be updated?" Link shrugs, looking off to the floor.
I sigh and stare up at the stars, finding that the best solution for tonight was to get some rest first, and leave early to our next destination.
It was definitely expected to be traveling quite a lot, and to far out places too, but the realness of the situation had just settled into me.
I do not plan to back out of this adventure with Link, no way...
but I need to remind both myself and Link that this trip will not be easy, and we have to keep ourselves prepared correctly.
I bring my head back down from the stars to look at Link, only to see he was already softy staring at me.
I blink a few times feeling my cheeks grow slightly warm under his stare, but doubting he would see the tint from how dark it came to be.
I clear my throat to speak up, ignoring the burn against my cheeks for now.
"I think what we should do is get some rest somewhere tonight, and wake up early to set for the next village. is that okay?" I question, snapping him out of his tired trance.
"yes, i'm very tired, so I think getting some rest is a good idea" Link agrees, and I nod my head.
"yeah, we had a long day. and getting proper rest is very important, especially if we're going to be doing this together for a while" I tease, the corners of my lips curling to form a gentle smile.
He smiles kindly back at me, making my heart flutter ever so slightly.
"As long as I have you by my side, I wouldn't mind this adventure to be for eternity" Link intently flirts, making my heart race, but a snort to be heard from me as I try to hold back excited laughter.
He lets out a soft chuckle before grabbing my hand.
"you're very flustered. would you like me to hold back on the flirting, y/n?" He teases with a gentle smirk.
I laugh again and playfully roll my eyes, while trying to turn my head to hide the intense blush taking over my cheeks.
"this is going to be a long adventure" I say, with a giggle.
Link stares into my eyes and nods his head.
"and i'm looking forward to it"
At this point, my blush cannot be hidden as I gently laugh once more, nodding my head in agreement.
"me too"

꧁♡︎꧂

After getting a good nights rest at Shuteye Inn in Kakariko Village, and Link successfully completing a new shrine we found just outside the village early this morning, we were finally hours into our way to the next destination.
We grabbed our horses from the stable we left them at, and picked up the pace on our next journey.
At the moment we are walking by Camphor Pond, according to the Sheikah Slate after Link had decided to activate a tower we were passing by, and it would only take us just a little while longer to get to the tech lab. Hateno Village finally wasn't that far, and this relieved Link and I, for we have been traveling all day.
On the way, Link had explained a lot to me about what he knows of his journey and the new technology he is using.
For example, the tower I mentioned.
He showed me on his Slate that some regions of the map are not yet complete, and the only way to gain those regions maps are to activate the large towers scattered throughout Hyrule.
He mentioned how he only has a few at the moment, he just activated Hateno Tower, and he has Central Tower, Great Plateau Tower, and Dueling Peaks Tower for now, but we will activate more as we continue to travel.
I wondered what him activating these were for, and I appreciate him explaining it all to me.
I found it interesting to learn more about this stuff, but it would also be very helpful for me to know about this on our journey as well.
"The village should be right up this dirt road. we aren't too far" Link nods, and I look over at him. Finally, walking for a few more minutes up the dirt road, we see a wooden arch leading into an active and welcoming village. Before entering the village, we hop off our horses and lead them as we walk, and when we make our way inside, the people are giving friendly waves and greetings as we pass by, clearly excited to see some new travelers come to their village.
"hello, there!" I hear a male voice to my left, and look over to see a handsome boy with light brown hair, standing by his newly grown crops, his green eyes shining with friendliness.
"hello! how are you today?" I glide over to him, leading my horse over with me.
"i'm wonderful! and you, beautiful?" He asks kindly, and his use of 'beautiful' makes my face heat up a bit.
"i'm doing great as well! me and my friend, Link, are heading to the Tech Lab in your village. do you, by chance, know the easiest way to get there?" I ask gently, and the boy nods happily with a small smile.
"I do! keep following this road up, and the lab is at the tippy top! you won't miss it!" He says, and I give a bright smile.
"great! thank you so much! i'll see you later!" I bid the boy farewell, and lead my horse beside Link up the path.
"that boy was sweet! I hope I see him on the way back down to thank him again" I say, smiling over at Link, who unfortunately had a pout, and was almost stomping like a child who was told 'no', as he walked.
"L-Link, are you alright?" I question nervously.
"yes, y/n, i'm fine" He responds quietly, a little bit of attitude lurking in his voice.
Why was he acting like this? I didn't do anything.
Did I?
He only started acting this way after I...
I talked to the boy.
I bite my bottom lip and let out a small giggle, tightening my grip on my horses reins.
"what's so funny?" Link asks, turning to me.
I tilt my head towards him and watch as his eye slightly twitches.
"are you jealous of the pre-pubescent farm boy I talked to?" I ask, prolonging the word 'jealous'.
Links expression then changes to a surprised one, and quickly to a look of denial.
"no, of course i'm not!" He yells, pulling his horse faster up the hill.
"fine, if you're gonna deny it and just ditch me like that, i'll go right back down there and help the poor boy with his gardening!" I yell up at Link, who is now already a bit farther up the hill than me.
"what?! no! okay, fine!" Link shouts, turning back down and walking towards me.
"so, you were jealous?" I tease, and he turns to face the apple tree we're standing next to.
He kicks the tree trunk with his foot and mumbles a small 'yes', but I decided to continue teasing him.
"what? sorry, I didn't hear what you said!" I say, cupping my ear and leaning forward.
He kicks the tree again, harder this time, and turns his head to face me.
"I said-! ouch!" His sentence was cut off as an apple fell from the tree he was kicking, hitting him right on the top of his head.
I pick it up off the ground and rub it onto my shirt, gently handing it back to Link.
"you alright, love?" I ask him, and his cheeks grow slightly pink.
"y-yes" He stutters, looking down and puffing out his cheeks.
I click my tongue and wrap my arms around him gently.
"don't be jealous, okay? just trust me" I say, and I let go of him as I continue up the hill, noticing a building only a short ways away.
"Link, we're almost there!" I say, and Link flashes a small smile before trotting next to me with his horse.
He reaches over and feeds his horse the apple that fell on his head, her clearly enjoying it.
Link chuckles when his horse lets out a small whinny after finishing the apple.
Finally, we reach the top of the hill and a fairly intricate building comes into view.
Guessing it was the tech lab, Link turns to me and hands me his reins.
"i'll go in there and take care of business. can you stay here and watch the horses?" Link asks me, and I flash him a small smile with a nod.
"thank you. I promise I won't be too long" Link says, before turning around and trotting towards the door of the mysterious building.
I sigh and back up into a tree, deciding to tie the horses reins gently to a branch and sit down for a bit. I tilt my head back and stare up at the sky, it starting to dim a bit as most of our day was taken up by traveling here.
Finally being able to relax was nice, so I close my eyes and breathe in the fresh air, smelling the scent of the cool air, as just below us was a body of water, shining as the sun gleamed down on it when clouds moved out of its way.
It was one of the most relaxing things i've ever felt in a long time, but much different than what I use to consider "relaxing".
What I use to consider relaxing would be organizing saddles back at home in the stable, but this...
this scent in the air was a different kind of relaxing.
Keeping my eyes closed as I lean against the tree, I feel myself drift slightly, as our horses lay down next to me, clearly enjoying this moment as much as I was.
I could sit like this forever, just to enjoy a nice breath of the wild...
At least, until I heard a familiar voice echoing in the back of my mind.
My eyes snap back open, and i'm facing Link as he stares down at me, waiting for me to respond to him.
"everything okay? what's up?" I ask, and he stands up straight.
"were you falling asleep?" He asks me, and I chuckle slightly.
"maybe a bit. it was nice to sit here and relax, it made me feel all comfortable" I explain, and he smiles gently.
"i'm sorry to bother you then. just wanted to let you know what i'm supposed to do next" He says, walking closer to me.
I nod my head and he fixes his hair slightly before explaining to me there was a furnace at the bottom of this hill that lit with a blue flame, and he had to bring it up here to light the furnace next to the tech lab.
"you better do that quick then, i'm not sure if the moist smell in the air is the body of water we're standing above, or because it's going to rain soon. and i'm sure transferring fire would be the most difficult thing to do in that situation" I say with a laugh, crossing my arms.
"you're right. i'll get this done as soon as possible and finish my business here. i'll be right back" He chirps, turning to go down the hill before he stops short and turns with a guilty face and says,"again", then continuing his stroll down the hill.
I sigh with a laugh, and sit against the tree again.
Leaning against the tree this time it seemed so much easier to drift off than before, so the moment my head collided with the trunk of the tree I had fallen asleep.
At least, that's what I believe after I heard my name being echoed for the second time today. I snap my eyes open as I pull myself off the side of my horse, who i'm also guessing I had ended up resting on top of.
I blink my tired eyes a few times as I then realize it was slightly drizzling, and I look up to see a bright blue flame burning behind Link in the furnace next to the lab, the color perfectly matching his pair of blue eyes that are now connected with mine. He smiles down at me before bringing his hand in front of me, offering to help me up. I rub my eyes once more before grabbing onto his hand, and him pulling me into his chest as the rain seems to fall harder.
The horses made a whinny noise, trying to tell us the rain was bothering them.
But as Link held me in this moment, I didn't really want to move...I just felt like I couldn't, really.
"you were right" Link whispers, staring into my eyes with a smirk.
I bite my lip.
"about what?" I chuckle, and he looks up into the sky as rain now drops onto his face, running down to his toned jawline.
"oh, the rain. I see" I realize, laughing before finally backing up out of Links grip.
"you fell asleep again. how nice was it to get some more rest while I did all the hard work?" Link teases as we walk over to our horses, finally removing their reins from the tree.
"oh shush. how much work did you do? didn't you only really talk to someone about how special you are?" I ask, pulling my horse next to me as Link did the same.
"I also rushed up here with blue fire on a torch! it wasn't easy trying to do it before it started to rain...but, yes, I also apparently talked to a child, but not really a child, Purah, who's actually around 124 years old but she created this experimental rune that is like anti-aging so that's why she looks like she's...like 8...and not almost 130? I don't know, some weird shit...but, but she was nice!" He explains, trying to cover up his slight rudeness at the end.
I laugh gently as we walk back down the hill, and nod my head.
"this girl sounds interesting. so, what did she do for you? where do we go next?" I ask Link, and he stops in his tracks for a minute.
"she upgraded my runes on my slate, like we talked about earlier. she put this new one on there called... a camera. you can take pictures with it" He explains, bringing his slate over to me and showing the picture he took of him and Purah.
She did look very young for someone who was apparently almost 130, but she looked like a fun person.
"that's really cool, actually. how does it work?" I ask, looking up at him quickly, and back down to the slate as he brings up the rune.
Suddenly, I can see myself and Link on the screen of the slate at a not very flattering angle for me, but I hear a snap before I can process what it even was.
"I just got a picture of us!" Link says, now bringing up what he just snapped on his slate to show me.
My eyes widen as I see my face in the new picture, and I scrunch up my nose.
"Link, no! I look gross, get rid of it!" I say as I try and grab the slate from his hand, only for him to extend his arm up as he holds it, having me fall against his chest.
"you're so mean" I say, and he smiles down at me.
"and you're so beautiful. i'm not deleting that picture" He says matter-of-factly, and I back up out of his chest with a small blush.
I puff out my cheeks and look down at the wet ground, rain still pouring above our heads.
"fine" I sigh, and look back up at him as he smiles.
"s-so, anyway, what do we do now?" I ask, and he puts his slate away before responding,
"well, we have to go back to speak with Impa, actually" Link says, and my eyes almost pop out of my head.
"we have to go all the way back there?!" I say, walking closer to Link as he puts his hands up almost in defeat.
"relax! I have a shortcut. it's very cool, actually, i'll explain" He says, calming me slightly.
"Purah told me that since I activated one of the shrines over by the village-"
"the one you forced me to let you activate before we left this morning?" I interrupt, with my arms crossed.
"yes, actually. you're lucky since now it basically benefits us, so you can't complain" Link teases, before then bringing out his slate to continue explaining.
I playfully chuckle as I look down at his slate. He selects the shrine we activated earlier and it gives us the choice to travel there.
"travel? as in...we'll teleport there?" I say, looking up at Link, who then nods his head.
"yes, pretty much. it makes things a lot easier and gives me more of a reason to activate any other towers or shrines we find" Link continues to explain.
Standing here for so long with the horses in the rain I start to feel bad, but the rain also started to lighten up slightly and they haven't complained again, so I look up at Link and nod.
"how does this traveling thing work?" I ask.
"well, we just select the travel button and I hold onto you as it brings us both back to the shrine I selected. it's that easy" He says, and I lower my head to think.
"oh, but also-" He starts, and I look up at him.
"we can't travel with the horses. so, we might have to keep them in the village for now. but, we can always travel back here quickly too, since i've activated the tech lab with the blue flame!" Link explains.
"well, it seems like teleporting is our best bet right now if we don't wanna waste anymore time" I say, starting to walk down the hill once more with my horse, and Link follows.
"is there a stable in the village?" I ask, and Link nods.
"it's not a big one, but i'm sure they take care of them nicely. or else, they'll have hell to pay to the hero himself" Link says, now walking with pride.
I playfully roll my eyes and giggle as we continue to walk down the hill, and finally arrive back to around the area I met the friendly farm boy.
"you're back!" I hear a familiar voice, and turn around to see the boy once again.
"yes, I am! nice to see you again" I say, and he smiles.
"lovely to see you. your travels going well?" He asks, and my heart flutters at his kindness, although, next to me I feel a negative aura and can only guess it's Link.
"they are, thank you! though, do you know where in the village we could leave our horses to be taken care of for a while? we have somewhere else to be, but we cannot bring our horses along" I explain, and the boy nods frantically.
"yes! my father is responsible for our village stable. i'll take you right over to him, if you'll follow me" He says, walking past me gently.
I face Link as he has another pout sitting across his face.
"I don't like him" He states, not a care in the world if the boy heard or not.
"I didn't ask" I say playfully, and he scoffs as I walk past him to follow the boy.
The boy leads us shortly down the dirt path to a small wooden den, holding one horse at the moment, leaving two more spaces open, which was convenient for us.
The boy walks up to the older man beside the den, who was currently stacking some hay.
"these lovely travelers have horses that need to be taken care of, father. and they're from outside of town! isnt that nice?" The boy explains to his father, and the older man chuckles.
"yes, that's wonderful!" the old man cheers as he walks over to us.
I look over at the young boy and thank him with a smile.
Gathering our horses to be put in their care, we say our goodbyes and ask how much it'll be for them to care for them.
"don't worry about it. you enjoy your travels and be safe. come back anytime when you're ready" The old man offers, and my eyes light up at his generosity.
"wow, that's very nice of you! we really appreciate it and owe you one" I say, and Link nods in agreement.
"well, we'll be off! thank you again, sir! and-! uh...? i'm sorry, I never got to ask you your name" I say to the boy, and he chuckles lightly.
"my name is Leo. i'm hoping to see you again soon...uh...-"
"y/n" I say, earning a smile from the attractive boy.
"-y/n. what a lovely name. i'll see you again soon" He says kindly, before his father calls him over for help with our horses.
I turn to Link and see more grouchy attitude and simply roll my eyes.
I walk over to him and push his arm.
"stop it, stop it, stop it!" I say, and he sticks his tongue out at me.
"rude" I teasingly say, and he sighs.
We stop just outside the entrance of the village as Link pulls out his slate, pulling up the shrine we're planning to travel to.
"ready?" He asks me, and I look up at him and nod.
He shuffles closer to me slightly, and wraps his arm around my waist. I look into his eyes as he does so, and my cheeks heat up a bit at the closeness.
He looks down at his slate once more, before finally taping on the blue 'travel' icon.
He shoves the slate back on his side as he pulls me closer to him, and suddenly I feel slightly lightheaded, and see a faint glow of blue before everything turns white.
Lasting only about a second, more of the bright blue starts to fade into vision, as well as the view of Kakariko village.
All dizziness aside, I step off the platform of the shrine in amazement, and stare down at the familiar village as it glows in the night. Link strolls over to me and chuckles happily.
"back in Kakariko"
Link and I whisper in unison.

* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"let him save them all, he is just a boy"