A/N:To my old readers: I still haven't finished the part where Link becomes a Hylian for the first time, and I'm still sorry about that. You may notice many changes to preexisting drabbles, some that won't appear or were entirely rewritten, some new ones and, hopefully, a better overall quality of writing. To my new readers: be glad you weren't here to see all that was here before.
This was my first ever fanfic, and despite being not far off four years old I still kinda love it. I've recently been back on a Zelda kick after years of other fandoms - you can thank ALBW and HW Let's Plays for this revamp. Also, please direct your attention to this story's shiny new cover - I think we can all agree that even if I haven't improved as an author, I have improved as an artist!
A Wolf's Life
{1] [mortality] [1}
Once, Zelda asked him if he'd ever been scared, on his trek over desert, plain and mountain. In those long and arduous months, often far from civilisation, had he wondered what he'd done to deserve this grand, unwanted destiny? Had he ever considered turning tail, leaving the weight of the world behind? Had he ever feared that he would die, terribly injured and terribly alone?
He'd mulled it over. Thought back to those days. Slowly replied that, really, when it boiled down to it, no. Death did not frighten him. Nothing lasts forever; not him, not Castle Town, not Hyrule. There's a beginning and an end to everything, he told her, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Why worry about the inevitable? More practical to reflect on the enemy sword's swing than on the consequences if that swing hit home. You do your best with what you have; take life as it comes and be grateful for every day it gives you. He had friends and family, home and health; many were not so lucky.
As an occasional member of the lupine race, he had a much simpler world-
view - not to say that he was simple, oh no, just...straightforward. But it was a perspective she could never quite reconcile with her own, so accustomed was she to peering into the future, trying to guess at what might happen next and planning accordingly. Royalty - or rather, effective royalty - could not afford to be so carefree.
Nonetheless, it was an admirable standpoint; Zelda only wished she could take it to heart.
{2] [belief] [2}
Despite everything, he'd never really understood such concepts as 'fate' and 'destiny'.
Midna had once tried to explain it to him. "Imagine a book. You're halfway through it. The pages you've read, that's the past - it's written down, set in stone, yes? It's the same with the pages you haven't read - the future. That's written down too - you can't change it. Just because you don't know it doesn't mean it's uncertain. Like, like how you and I were destined to meet and save both of our worlds from evil. That's destiny."
But, this only raised more questions - if history was a prewritten book, then who was the author?
"The Gods," she'd said, "Your Golden Goddesses. The ones who chose you."
Gods...and what were they, exactly? He remembered, back home in Ordon, the villagers often prayed to the Goddesses - Farore in particular. They'd tried to get him to do it too, but they'd never properly explained why he should, and he'd always viewed it as being a little silly, talking to the sky like that.
Midna had tried to put it in his own terms, as best she could. "The Gods... they're like alphas. Only even more high -ranking - higher than me, higher than your Princess, higher than the Light Spirits. The, uh, alphas of alphas. It's believed that they created the world."
This only confused him more – why only believed? How could they be unsure?
At this point, Midna appeared to have hit her explanation quota for the day, and told him
exasperatedly that no -one alive had ever seen them and anyway, if they were to reveal themselves to anyone, it would most likely be to him or Zelda and not some dimensionally displaced imp, so why not ask them himself instead of interrogating her?
Later, when Midna had fallen asleep, he'd tried to imitate the pose he'd so often seen assumed by his loved ones. He'd probably got it wrong - he'd never really paid much attention - but, well, he was sitting, wasn't he? And his hands were touching - surely that counted for something. Already feeling a little foolish, he closed his eyes and asked the only question he wanted an answer to - and, as such, never noticed the faint pulsing glow emitting from the triangles on his hand.
He fell asleep that night quite glad to not have been born a Hylian. Bowing down to ethereal figures that may or may not exist! How utterly bizarre was that?
{3] [interruption] [3}
"I do hope that this matter will be resolved swiftly, Your Majesty," blustered the rather... ah... portly Lord. The stuffy nobleman's poor wife stood meekly nearby, an apologetic look on her delicate face, wringing her exquisitely manicured hands.
"Indeed it will, Lord Grobbam," said the Queen carefully. One had to be circumspect when dealing with the trivial affairs of the nobility, for despite their pettiness, their fortunes were what kept the country running.
None of which meant that Zelda had to like dealing with the upper class.
Lord Grobbam gave her a manly nod and made a move towards the exit, then turned around to face his monarch again, one digit raised. "And another thi-" he started before being cut off by the sound of shattering glass, the cries of the guards and the thunder of their approaching footsteps.
A large, greenish-grey wolf with cream markings sashayed into the room as if it owned the whole castle, a big grin on its face. Zelda scowled at it. Lady Grobbam screamed once before collapsing in a dead faint, and though Lord Grobbam had a sword at his belt, rather than protecting himself, his wife, or his queen, he put on a surprising turn of speed and cowered behind one of the curtains.
An overenthusiastic newly-recruited guard yelled to his lagging comrades, "Oi, slowpokes, the window-breaker's over 'ere!"
The window-breaker in question sauntered nonchalantly over to the Queen's side and looked up at her with what was undeniably a smirk on its face.
Zelda glared and hissed, "I appreciate you rescuing me from Grobbam, but did you really have to go and break another window?" The Queen glanced up briefly, then whispered again, "Look, we can talk later. I'll be in the gardens at noon. Now shoo!" The canine seemed momentarily put out by the dismissal, but did as she asked and took off again. Not five seconds later, the rest of the guards made their appearance.
"Your Majesty! Did you see a wolf come by here?"
"No, sorry, Captain. Keep looking."
"Yes, ma'am!" The Captain and his soldiers hurried off in pursuit of the glass-shattering canine. Zelda shot the empty doorway an exasperated look, then went off to do more paperwork.
{4] [attraction] [4}
Ha, you're so clueless, people said. Completely oblivious. Wouldn't know a pickup line if it bit you on the nose. Like many things people assumed about him - that he was Hylian, that he was stupid, that he couldn't possibly fit that much cake in his mouth - it was entirely untrue.
It wasn't that he was blind to flirtation. He was fully aware of what it meant when someone batted their eyelashes at him, or invaded his personal space, or tried to ply him with alcoholic drinks. It was simply that he could not have cared less about their advances and so, as with all things he did not care for, he ignored them.
Humans just weren't an attractive species, and neither were any of the other bipedal races. Such strange hairless creatures, they were, balancing so precariously on their hind legs and so enamoured with their pointless languages that couldn't accurately depict scents at all.
Not that he could honestly say he was attracted to his own species, either. When Ashei had found out, tactless as she could be, that had been one of her first questions. So when there's a bitch in heat, yeah, do you…? She'd trailed off there, perhaps wondering if she'd crossed a line or perhaps too disturbed by the mental image to continue, but the message was pretty clear.
His immediate answer had been a resounding no, but in all truth he'd never before given the subject a thought. Later, he'd turned it over in his head and come to the conclusion that the knee-jerk answer had been entirely truthful.
He wasn't a Hylian. The first four months of his life he'd spent on four paws, chasing mice through the leaflitter and snapping at butterflies and wrestling with his siblings. He'd been told stories of snow and disbelieved them, taught to howl, and shown the best way to snap a rabbit's neck.
And then one day, he'd wandered away from home and never returned. He was adopted by a village of humans who taught him their language and their culture, how to read and write and count and solve problems more complex than 'I'm hungry'. They taught him how to ride, how to defend himself and others, taught him morality and future planning, and though he would never be a totally normal human, he could very easily pass as one. He wasn't a wolf.
Neither one thing nor the other, trapped somewhere in between...perhaps there was a reason he'd got on so well with the Twili.
{5] [fish] [5}
As he passed through Castle Town, nose to the ground following Ilia's scent, he picked up a fair amount of gossip from the oblivious city folk. Mostly he heard about how irritated everyone was with the lack of water – some were upset about having no tea to drink, others that bathing was impossible and yet more unhappy about being unable to send their prayers to the province's spirit spring. The Hero Chosen by the Gods wouldn't really have been too bothered by any of those – well, perhaps the first one. He quite liked tea.
However, the other hot topic of conversation seemed to be that of a 'Zora child', whatever that was. When he looked inquiringly at his rider, she just shrugged; apparently there weren't any of these Zora things in Midna's Realm. The wolf wondered what a Zora child was. Evidently a sentient creature if people were so worried about it collapsing and apparently a species or race only found up north. Absently, he speculated the appearance of these Zora things – perhaps they were avian creatures? Or maybe an underground race or even a thick-furred mountain-dweller? Hmm...
...Was it just him, or could he smell something fishy? There was certainly a rather piscine tang mingled with Ilia's scent, which was getting stronger with every step he took – he was getting close. Suddenly, the canine found his nose leading him into a side street, down a flight of steps and into, judging by the strong smell of alcohol, a bar.
Why Ilia would be at a bar with a fish, he had no idea. She didn't even like sea food.
Tentatively, he crept inside and concentrated on the floating balls of greenish-blue fire and was most surprised to see Ilia sitting next to some sort of unholy hybrid of man and fish, and if its ragged breathing was anything to go by it wasn't a particularly healthy one. But who knew how mutant fish-men breathed on land?
He was jerked from his ponderings by a word pronounced by the rather busty barlady he assumed was the Telma people kept talking about.
"... A child of the Zoras..." she said. "I wonder if this is at all related to the incident the soldiers were talking about in back..."
...So this strange dying fishy thing was the Zora he'd heard of. He had to admit that he was a little disappointed. He was expecting something much larger, with fur and claws or something. Not a half-dead fish-boy.
But he did quite like the smell.
{] [] [}
A/N: #5 was prompted by Lord Geovanni approximately 5 billion years ago.
