Ballad of the Sun Prince
Summary: Nico knows he should have died a hundred years ago, when Gaea rose and destroyed the kingdom. And yet, he's still alive and now tasked to carry the burden of a quest that should have been completed a century ago. But the problem is – Nico can't remember anything except his own name.
Apollo pointed out into the distance, where Nico could see the dark mass swirling around castle. "My son, Will, is fighting alone against Gaea," he said. When Nico turned back to look at him, he could see the regret and pain of a dead man written across his features, and Nico had to swallow something down at the mention of the prince's name: a gurgling of painful feelings that were unfamiliar to him. He looked at the ruined castle again, surrounded by cheerful green meadows, and suddenly, he felt very, very alone.
Notes: I'm actually really uncertain if I should post this here as a multichapter, but I've been posting solangelo stuff here since I started and it would be kind of sad, and this wouldn't fit well under my current "one shots" collection. Also I have no idea if this site is dying or if there are some people who still only exclusively use ffnet (which is reasonable bc mature/adult works are filtered much better here for minors, while I can't say the same for ao3).
But speaking of ao3, all my authorial notes are in the notes there, which I won't be transcribing here because it's super long. If you want to read it, find it under the same title by my ao3 username "PorcelainCas" pseudonym "Moons-and-Glassware". The link it on my bio. Otherwise, all you have to know is that this is a solangelo Legend of Zelda/Breath of the Wild fusion AU. Spoilers for the games will proceed. You don't need to have played any LoZ games or even BoTW to read and understand this but it does contain game spoilers. Updates bi-weekly (hopefully).
The Great Plateau
Shrine of Resurrection, Present Day
[o]
He thought he heard a voice.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, wincing when light flooded his vision. He closed his eyes again, allowing the glowing blue light to illuminate behind his eyelids persistently until he gave in and blinked his eyes open.
And that was when he realized that the strange glow was coming from the bed he was lying on. No, he thought, it wasn't a bed. It was water. He was slowly being lifted from watery bed by a solid platform underneath him, pushing him up to the surface. It was only when he sat up that he noticed the water had been ice cold, and he found himself shivering. Above him hung a luminous structure like the roots of a synthetic tree had broken through the ceiling, pulsing a cool blue glow in the darkness.
He looked around for something to help keep him warm and found an open chest to the left with a pair of neatly folded clothes inside along with a waist pouch strap with an empty sword sheath. He pulled the clothes on quickly, relieved to have something against his skin even if it was a little too small and tight with drab colours. Then he secured the strap for the pouch across his shoulder and around his torso so that the empty sheath sat reassuring on his back. It was strange that he felt that way, but he didn't think to question his eagerness right now. He scouted his surroundings, noticing the smooth dark walls that were etched with what looked like glowing constellations. There was a door in front of him, but it was closed off by cement. To the left of the door, there was a podium emitting a gentle light in the dimness. Cautious but curious, he approached the podium, eyes falling on a strange looking rectangular item with a symbol of an eye and a single teardrop pointing downwards. He reached forward and then paused, looking around in case there was someone waiting to intercept him. Though it seemed that he really was the only one in this room besides the glowing blue contraption that was his bed. He reached out again, grabbing the tablet and lifting it out of its slot.
To his surprise, the tablet let out a beeping noise, and the machine flared to life, the eye disappearing showing a screen full of…static.
There it was again – a sound like a voice in his head. But it was indecipherable – a tiny murmur that had tried to worm its way into his ear. He shook his head, and the gentle vibration disappeared.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something gleaming bright in the darkness. Turning around, he spotted a flat pedestal with the same symbol of the eye carved into the smooth rock. The pupil was the only part glowing, like it was watching him. He looked at the tablet he was holding and back at the pedestal, knowing that there was something to be had here. On whim, he held the tablet up to the eye, placing the screen downwards.
He knew he did something right because the pedestal lit up in a halo of blue, and a gentle rumble shook the floor beneath him. He tensed up and stepped back, eyes darting around the ceiling and hoping that the room wouldn't collapse on him.
And all at once, the stone wall in front of him began to move. It groaned, rumbling upwards to reveal a straight path out into the sunlight. He flinched, shielding his eyes with his hand against the sudden glare of the sunlight that greeted him.
He took a step down the hallway but then looked back into the cave – or room? – he had been sleeping in. He was confused, unsure of what awaited him outside, and he got a prickling sense down his neck at the thought of going outside unarmed. He frowned at his thought process, unable to understand why arming himself would be the first thing on his mind. The empty sword sheath he was wearing didn't reassure him.
He shook off the feeling and strode down the hallway. He stepped across the lifeless pools of rainwater on the ground, wincing when he felt the half-heard murmur in his ear start up and then disappear. He reached the end, climbing up a stone ledge that was just a couple inches shorter than him leading out of the cave-room into the sunlight.
Birds were singing cheerfully, fluttering about in their nests overhead, and he almost scoffed himself for wanting to walk out armed to the teeth. He walked forward past the semi circle of pine trees and tall grass that kept the cave carefully hidden. It appeared that his cave was on a ledge of a grassy cliff, and he stood at the far edge and looked outwards into the distance, soaking in the sunlight and warmth that felt tender on his skin after his swimming excursion in the cave.
Though when he looked below and beyond him, he immediately felt sick to his stomach.
It wasn't that there was something terribly wrong with everything. The grassy fields were lush and spread past the cliff into the forest below him and the meadows beyond, ending at the mountains that grew taller into shelters of snow to the left. In the far distance to his right, a mountain surrounded by jagged cliffs dared to touch the sky, rivulets of red – lava, he told himself – running down in streaks. But the volcano wasn't what disturbed him.
In the very centre of the lush green fields, there was a castle. Or what remained of a castle, he thought, because it was surrounded by swirling dark streams of clouds. And the darkness, he thought with a bit of queasiness. It moved.
But there was also something deeply wrong about the sight of it. There was a sickening feeling pooling in his stomach at the sight of the broken castle. It felt like he had failed in every single way, though he wasn't sure why.
He tore his eyes away from the sorry sight. He wasn't sure where the feeling had come from, but he needed to do some re-orienting first. He needed to find out where he was – and why he had just woken up from a sleep in a bed filled to the brim with icy water. Turning to his right, he followed the only narrow dirt path down the gentle slope of the cliff.
Even from here, he could see that a solitary figure had set up a small campsite, and he instantly felt relief. He had an irrational fear that he was a sole survivor to whatever events happened at the castle, and to see the presence of someone else – well, it was relieving to say the least. He could only hope that they were friendly.
When he got closer to the figure, he could see that it was a blond hair man with a hood over his head, roasting something over the campfire. The man looked up at him, but otherwise didn't say a single word. He could barely see the man's face with the hood.
He cleared his throat and tried to say hello, only to have it come out like a croak. He tried again. "Hello."
The man nodded. "Hey there," he greeted casually, not seeming surprised by his presence. "Nice clothes," he snickered.
He glanced down at his threadbare clothes and then back at the man, who looked like he was dressed quite comfortably in his clean, well fitting clothes that were the colour of the night sky. He decided not to take it to the heart, as his newfound pants didn't even reach down past his ankles.
"Who are you?" he found himself asking the man.
The man grinned a bit. "That's a question I should be asking of you. Is that a Sheikah Slate you have there?" He motioned to the tablet that he had strapped on his waist pouch. "I heard that only champions of the old had those. How did you get your hands on that kind of treasure?"
He frowned. Champions of the old? He had no idea what the man was talking about, and yet something about that line sounded so familiar…
The man waved his hand. "Anyway," he said, dismissing the topic. "I don't usually see many people around here these days. What's your name?"
He froze for a moment.
And then it came back to him, rising to the surface and insisting to stay there. "Nico," he said slowly, testing the name out on his lips. Yes, Nico, that was his name. He forgot it for a moment. How could he have forgotten his own name?
As a matter of fact, now that he was thinking about it, what did he remember?
Before he could start panicking, the man held out his hand. Nico stared blankly until he realized that he was holding a baked apple. "Have one," he urged. "You look like you've been starving. You're like sticks and bones all over."
He reached out for the apple hesitantly and nearly dropped it when the man let go too fast. The man grabbed another baked apple and bit into with a groan of satisfaction. "Simple but savoury," he complimented himself. "I usually prefer fancier meals myself, but an apple always satisfies a craving."
Nico watched him, unsure of what to say.
"Anyways," the man said after he was done chewing, "you should be on your way. Big quest and all?" When Nico continued to stare at him, the man pointed at the tablet at his waist. "Come on, you have a Sheikah Slate. Clearly you're on some sort of mission from Chiron maybe?" He shrugged.
Right on cue, the tablet – Sheikah Slate, Nico reminded himself – started to beep. He turned on the screen and it immediately went to a page labelled Map. There was no map however. Only a black abyss and a flashing yellow dot and blue dot. He assumed one was supposed to represent his location and the other to the location he was supposed to go to. He looked out across the vast landscape and wondered if he would run into more people who would make fun of his clothes and offer him apples.
"Well, that's your sign, isn't it?" the man said, biting into another apple. "Don't let me hold you back on your fancy quest!"
He stood there for a second and then muttered a curt, "Thanks." With an apple in his pouch and his Sheikah slate in his hand, he roughly located the direction he was supposed to walk in. It would probably take about twenty or so minutes to get there, he calculated. When he put the Sheikah Slate away, he noticed something glimmering in the sunlight on an unlit campfire further down the slope. Jogging down, he laid his eyes on a woodcutter's axe lying in the open for anyone's hands.
Well, Nico thought, his prayers for a weapon had been answered.
And better sooner than later too, because moments later, he discovered that there were more than just other people nearby.
End Notes: I may potentially delete this off this website because I honestly don't know how logistical it is to post my non-oneshots to this website anymore. However, if you don't use ao3 and don't plan to for whatever reasons and enjoy this, let me know if you want me to keep this up here.