Where Courage Falters

~LoZ~

A breathless hush had fallen over the landscape as a sunset of incomparable beauty warmed the sky, pinks and reds into oranges and yellows, soft blues and purples, and the deeper shades of twilight – a veritable rainbow across the heavens. To the man standing atop a lofty promontory watching it, it was beauty and hope and sadness, all at once.

His name was Link... or so he had been told. But he doesn't remember it for himself – if he ever will.

And yet, he has a duty, even though he doesn't know himself, or the land he'd found himself in. Hyrule. That's what it had been called, once upon a time. The Kingdom of Hyrule – a sovereignty that was lost to the past... just like he was.

But despite that, Link didn't shun what others had told him of himself, of what his duty had been, and still was. Sure, he could have turned his back on it all, gone his own way and disappeared into the wilderness that Hyrule had become, and never looked back. But that would have been foolish, for if he had, one day, the princess' power to hold back the evil that had destroyed their home would fade, and then all would perish, himself included. Or rather, himself especially, because the Calamity had a vast and unrelenting hatred for him, for who he had been down through all the ages that he had existed.

At least, according to the spirit of King Rhoam, and the Sheikah elder, Impa, that was.

He couldn't call them wrong; even without his memories, his soul remembered the swirling darkness that surrounded the ruins of Hyrule castle. He knew it, recognized it at the very deepest levels of his broken mind... and he knew the sweet voice that was the first thing he'd heard when he'd woken from his black sleep, as well. Before he'd met the spirit of Hyrule's last king and been told of his past and exactly who he was – the ancient Hero of Hyrule – before he'd ever been pointed on the path he needed to take to rescue the princess from her prison by Impa, he had heard her... and he'd had to forcefully stifle the desperate need he'd felt to storm the castle as soon as he'd realized that the owner of that gentle, sad voice was trapped within it.

No matter what he'd been in the past, in the present he was a man who had to be retrained, because after a hundred years, his body no longer remembered who he'd been, either. A warrior, a knight, a young man of incomparable combat ability that had spent almost all of his short years training, all for one purpose. That had been lost when he'd fallen, and now he had to recondition himself, school his body in the art of the warrior once more before he could face such an evil on even ground. He could only hope that he'd manage to do so before the princess' – Zelda's - power to hold Ganon back finally failed her.

But he had faith in her, and even though his blank memories could not tell him why that was, his soul nonetheless knew she could withstand even Ganon's swirling malice long enough.

She had before, after all.

Tomorrow, he would take the first steps on the path the princess had pointed him down in an attempt to regain his memories of his current life, as well as continue on with his training. He'd already completed sixteen of the shrines that had been created for him ten thousand years in the past, and he felt much stronger for it – though he was still a far cry from what he'd been once upon a time. He could only be grateful for the Sheikah slate he'd been left by Zelda, for without it, he doubted that he'd ever manage to not only remember himself, but become strong enough to face such a vast power as that of the Calamity with even a chance to take the victory.

As the kaleidoscope of colors across the sky began to fade into the darkness of night, Link stood upon the brink of discovery – discovery of who he'd been, of who he needed to be again - and the unconquerable spirit of the ancient Hero pulsed within, pushing him ever onward. Despite everything he'd been through, despite the losses and the blood and the tears of his lost past, his drive to complete his so-called duty was unbroken.

He would complete all the tasks that lay before him, he would remember himself, and he would save the princess without question. His courage to face all that he already had, and still had yet to was intact, unbroken and unbowed by circumstance. And it was that, he'd been told, his courage to face whatever came against him, and his will to conquer the greedy demon soul that was the true face of the Calamity, that would see him through this journey that he was on.

But they were wrong, the ones that had told him that. He knew they were wrong, because at the line where courage finally faltered and willpower faded away, only love remained. And it was that, plain and simple, that would continually goad him on and win the day... because the bottom line was that he loved Zelda... and that he had always loved her, across all of time, and in every life. He could face even the most terrible of fates to protect her, to keep her safe... to see her smile.

As the first stars came out to sparkle against a field of midnight black, Link chuckled a little hollowly. He may have lost his memories, but because of that, he'd found the most basic truth of all – that it wasn't courage, or willpower, or duty that made him the Hero of Hyrule... but love.

Determination firmed even further by what little memory remained to him, bound within his immortal soul and not his mind, he turned away from the now darkened skies and settled himself down to sleep next to his little campfire. And in his dreams, he was comforted by the ephemeral touch of his personal goddess and guiding light, his pain – physical and emotional and mental, from this life, and all his others - soothed and washed away by her eternally loving hands... and the warmth and beauty of her own just as immortal soul.

She was Zelda, and he was Link... forever her willing defender. In the end, that was all he really needed to know. If his past remained elusive and lost to his death one hundred years ago, he would simply make new memories by her side, and ever count himself blessed above all others for the chance to do so.