"You are the legendary hero we have been waiting for!"
The king finished his speech with a flourish, shifting from staring out over the blackened twisted land, the castle in the distance shadowed by Calamity Ganon, to return his gaze to the fabled hero.
He stopped.
Blinked.
Stared.
Link was half propped up on his sword, the metal badly twisted and pitted, trembling under his slight weight. One half of his face was smeared in soot, the other gently spattered with blood, eyes staring intently at the king. His lips were cracked and bleeding, shoulders heaving with exertion. The shield half slung across his back was almost cleaved in two, three lines from heavy claws scored into the thick wood. His clothes were soaked through, the man shivering every few seconds, thick doublet the only thing keeping from freezing as his breath fogged in the cold night air. One leg was bound in heavy bandages, every step upon it careful as if it would buckle underneath him at any moment. Burn marks radiated out from the centre of his chest, a mark the king hadn't seen for a hundred years. The mark of the metal guardians who turned on them and destroyed towns was now on the chest of the still standing man in front of him. His hands were bare, red and scraped, fine bits of dirt embedded into the flesh from hours of scrambling up mountains. Purple shadows were inked under his eyes, the lids drooping as he waited for the king to continue.
'I understand. The glider?'
Link's hands shook as he signed, cold and tired, bruised and battered; but looking into his eyes the king could see the hero that he knew staring back at him.
This had to work. It must work. For them all.
[[Shout out to this game for letting me immediately climb a tree then jump off a cliff to see if there was fall damage.]]