Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda.
Yeah, I bet you're thinking, "how the hell did she pull this off without making it a weird pairing?" Three words, people: Axis Powers Hetalia.
APH is an anime where all the countries are personified. The Hyrule Ganondorf loves is the human personification of the land, not the land itself. At least, I think it makes sense. I'm not saying he's after the physical land, but maybe the personification. Aaaand I'm not explaining it very well.
Hyrule is purposely described as "paradoxical". She's everything and nothing, because that's how my headcanon views Hetalia countries: they are paradoxes of nature. For instance, Alfred, or America, has a tossed salad population, coming from all over the place. With so many different viewpoints and backgrounds, he naturally contradicts himself, like Hyrule's nature does in this case.
Well, we'll see how this goes.
His Chosen Land
Little things gave her away.
Miniscule, almost unnoticeable things they were, because while her bright appearance might have gathered some attention, at best one could describe her as only pretty, and not beautiful. But to the fortunate few with gifted eyes, one might find in her a kind of beauty without name, if one looked hard and long enough.
She was a grand anomaly. The grace and pride of the Zora belonged to her, as did the spirit and untameable ferocity of the Gerudo thieves, the childlike sweetness of the Kokiri, the immoveable strength of the Gorons of the mountains, the quiet secrecy of the Sheikah, the simple sensibilities of the humans on the plains, and the aged somberness of the Hylians. All Hyrule's blood found a home in her and there mixed, content and peaceful.
Her smooth skin, neither tan nor pale, hinted almost imperceptibly at the shades of the fields and the deep racing rivers, yet shone like the desert sands. She wore a simple, elegant robe, green as the fields and patterned with flowers in a thousand shapes and colors. She wore the thinnest of blue stockings on her feet, though it would have suited her better to run barefoot in the fields. Pearls and sapphires hung about her neck, rings of flowers and pines around her wrists and ankles, a wreath of ferns and flowers crowning hair red as the Goron's Ruby. Black eyes captivated those who stared into them, welcoming with honesty, yet barring with layers of mystery; one moment reflecting the stillest night, the next holding the fiercest storm.
From his perch, half-obscured by rocks overlooking the Desert side of the Gerudo Canyon, a young Ganondorf of the Gerudo tribe saw all this and more as he caught sight of the woman, wandering along the opposite bank, skirting the extreme borders of what could be called his domain. He saw this paradoxical puzzle of a woman, and, upon several moments of intense reflection and insight, discovered her true nature. She walked, confident and carefree, along the jagged rocks overlooking the terrifying plummet into the raging waters far below, a distance downriver from the wooden bridge spanning the gap. When he first saw her, he almost cried out to her to watch her step- until he saw that every step she made seemed planned and spontaneous and natural, even on the crooked crags; as if her feet belonged there.
She smiled as she stared down into the canyon's depths, appreciating the nature of the place for everything it was and wasn't; and at the same time, she danced gaily on the fields Ganondorf knew lay beyond his domain, and laughed at a joke she heard in the town the young boy had only heard rumors of. To him, it seemed as if the land itself worshipped her; as if the force that kept him bound to the earth suddenly changed its direction, pulling him toward her. A stronger gravity. Every step she took mattered; and while flowers did not spring up at her every step, nor gentle creatures crowd around her with their most euphoric callings, Ganondorf felt as if the world teetered on the verge of doing so. She might not be a creature of magic, but certainly in every right she could be.
He knew, with the certainty of child's instinct, that just across the river from him stood the personification of the legacy of the Three Great Goddesses themselves; Din in body, Nayru in mind, Farore in spirit. He knew that this miraculous paradox could see Lake Hylia and hear the eruptions of Death Mountain and feel every rolling hill and tiny stone from there to Castle Town and back. She celebrated every life and mourned every death, and flourished and withered with the people... her people. He stared at the strolling wonder in amazement, in complete and total awe as his heart was taken by this pretty...no, beautiful woman. As she turned to retreat deeper into herself, he almost made a panicked cry, calling out for her to stay.
Almost. The words never came.
It did not matter much to him. He could easily imagine how the meeting would have played out.
"Wait!"
The woman paused before turning gracefully, examining the child before her with an inscrutable air as he tramped across the wooden bridge and stopped in front of her, completely awed.
"What... what's your name?"
And in a voice as enigmatic as her nature, she replied, "Hyrule."
Years passed and a war broke out and ended before Ganondorf glimpsed Hyrule again. He was a young man by then, King of his people and the bringer of peace to the war-torn land. Thanks to his ceaseless efforts, the fighting between the races ended, and with the races unified and order restored, the land prospered as it had before the war, if not more. Ganondorf reveled in the new order, glad and relieved beyond what he thought possible. Throughout the long, bitter struggle, the Gerudo King suffered fitful sleep and bouts of insomnia, plagued by nightmarish images of a paradoxical beauty, choking on water as the Zoras released the full fury of the river onto the plains, bursting into flame with unholy screams as the Gorons turned their mountain against the lowlands beneath them, tending in vain to wounds that split open from no visible cause, always gushing, gushing blood, tearing her apart from the inside and the outside, driving her to madness in despair. All with hysteric black eyes that held all the love and hate of her people, silently pleading, Help me.
Ganondorf stepped into the conflicts, conflicts neither he nor his people had anything to do with, solely to save her life.
The newly-crowned Hylian King gave Ganondorf a noble title in his court as a reward for all his peacekeeping efforts during the war, and granted with it a manor of considerable size, isolated on the fields, to go with it. This was a great comfort to him, as his trips between the capital city of Hyrule and his own home in the main Gerudo base took two days on horseback under the best conditions. The manor became a much-welcomed second home from its constant use, though Ganondorf never did much more than stay the night and make sure its stores stayed fresh and abundant.
One night, Ganondorf had a particularly hard ride on the way to the manor. A run-in with several Wolfos and the two Kargaroks attracted to the commotion left him battered and bruised in several places, bearing large gashes and scrapes, with magic stores much depleted and a sword considerably bloody. Exhausted, the man collapsed into bed and surrendered to sleep before his head hit the pillow.
He dreamed of cool, pale moonlight and the soft chirping of crickets, and of a vague figure, hovering over his fatigued form. Stirring, drifting between the worlds of sleep and wakefulness, he opened his heavy eyes and beheld the form of the mystic woman once again.
She was no duchess, Ganondorf knew. She was a common woman and everything but. Everywhere was hers, and she was everywhere. She ruled everywhere and had no ruling title to show for it. She wore the same gown he had seen her in all those years ago, with not a pine needle out of place, and yet this could not have suited her better. Timeless, just as she. In a haze, he stared into those eyes that were so perfectly readable yet unreadable, and saw that those eyes looked at him with a great gratitude.
She smiled the smallest of smiles and illuminated the world, and her lips parted softly, whispering two words in the silence of the bedroom.
They rang clear as crystal, and deep and murky as the bottom of Lake Hylia; alive like the fires of Death Mountain and serene like the endless green forests. They were free as a breeze and strong as stone, high as heaven and lower as the caverns beneath the ground. They faded on the breath of the wind and resonated in the room for hours after, much like her quickly-departing presence that seemed to linger in Ganondorf's room as the Gerudo King woke fully and reflected with awe upon his visitation. Those words confirmed the feeling stirring in his heart, those two words so tenderly and lovingly spoken, praising all he had done to save the Chosen Land.
"Thank you."
The third time Ganondorf crossed paths with Hyrule, he wanted to die right then and there.
The houses and fields burned at his command, his monsters murdering the people, and amid the chaos, he quested for the key that would grant him everything he wanted and more.
He never cared much for true Power before he encountered Hyrule.
Hyrule. Her name, her beautiful, beautiful name, so sweet, so proud, so dignified. So wonderful, amazing, godly! How he had thought of her all throughout his growth, dreamed of her, dedicated himself to her! How he yearned for her, bled for her, died for her! The stirring in his heart at the mention of her name, the serenity with which she filled his mind, the contentment! The fire! How Ganondorf wished to hold her and her grace and vitality and wisdom and beauty and innocence and strength and glory and her!
Ganondorf Dragmire, King of the Gerudo, loved Hyrule, the Holy Land of the Goddesses.
The euphoria of this revelation and the complete sense of being alive it brought were quickly overshadowed by an immense grief and despair. How could she, the representation of all bright and pure, love a lowly mortal man such as he? He was barely even originally hers, his people only recently inducted into her realm. Ganondorf wept many bitter tears over his hopelessness. Knowing perfect Hyrule in all her glory, he could never truly love one of his own people, or any other short-lived creature, ever again. Hyrule dimmed the mystique of all others in a time, Ganondorf grieved, mourning himself and his hopeless love.
And then he heard of the Triforce.
He remembered it well, walking through the market and stopping to hear the stories of the bards in the Market; the story of how Din carved the land, Nayru poured wisdom on it, and Farore blessed it with life; the story of the emblem they left behind, the three golden relics of Power, Wisdom, and Courage, which, when combined, would grant one the True Force To Govern All and one single wish.
And once again, Ganondorf had hope.
With the Triforce, surely he would be worth of Hyrule's love! If he bore the sacred triangles, he would be worthy of such a pure, fantastic love, he would deserve it! He could become immortal, and so be with his love forever: Hyrule and Ganondorf, Ganondorf and Hyrule.
But even so... even with the Triforce... would Hyrule consider him? Even if he were her only fellow immortal, what if she still did not love him? What if she grew tired of his presence? What if she still did not think highly of him? Ganondorf worried once again. Hyrule, so completely divine, deserved anything and everything he could bless her with. What good was an immortal lover if that lover was nobody important? Just an anomaly, standing next to a miracle? He could not bear to shame her so. Ganondorf vowed to become important, worthy of Hyrule's love and worthy to stand next to her. He would wish to become immortal, to become the King of Hyrule. Surely then he would be worthy of her love? And it would be so right! The King of Hyrule, with Hyrule at his side, together ruling with justice and equality! Hyrule would be Queen of Herself, ruling her lands as she should.
Lost in these fantasies, Ganondorf's eyes clouded over and became tainted. The Hylian King was only mortal, and not perfect, but he tried, honestly and fairly, to rule over his subjects with objectivity. But Ganondorf could no longer see the blessings he himself had helped to bring about. He saw instead a King observing his people from a distance, doing not what was good but what was convenient, dealing with the land's problems only to keep his position. The Hyrulean Royal Family cared not whether forests were cleared or rivers redirected so long as the people were happy and kept the peace. But did they care about Hyrule, the very land? No! Ganondorf's blood boiled as he watched the people progress, intolerance for the Royal Family slowly growing inside of him. Furiously, he plotted their removal, violent if necessary, and hunted down every facet of information to be found on the Triforce. If he could but find it, he could right the wrongs of the new regime and become the worthy king, eternally ruling over his people. He would remember this age when it was long over and have the wisdom to do the right thing from countless years of experience, and Hyrule, all-knowing Hyrule, would rule with him. He would never use her lands as a mere tool, never like the cursed Hylian King!
His coup had succeeded. His army razed whatever stood in its way, leaving no pockets of resistance remaining. Villagers scattered, screaming, and the Royal Family, save for the flighty Princess, lay dying in pools of their own blood. Zelda had fled, and her own ally had been unwittingly locked away in time.
And still, he failed.
Ganondorf stormed out of the Temple of Time in an inhuman rage, roaring with a bestial power, rubbing raw his vocal cords with it alone. Wordlessly screaming, he hurled a blast of potent magic at the first building he encountered in the frenzied town, sending the stones flying in all directions, burning everything flammable within. Only one triangle of three stood out on his clenched fist.
Power. Just Power. What was this sick divine joke? He had wisdom, he had courage! He had love! He had the insight and the right to wield the True Force, and fate thought to deny him? Screaming again, Ganondorf aimed another curse at several hard-pressed guards, slicing them into countless shreds with a spraying of blood.
He was so close... so infuriatingly close...and-!
His howls of fury were lost amid the screeches and cackling of his minions, the terrified cries of townspeople, the heavy, roaring hiss of pouring rain, the malicious crackling of man-made infernos, the deafening claps of thunder, and the rumble of destruction.
And then, through the hellish chaos, he saw her.
She was quite close. She stood not ten feet from him, crouched nearly double in the darkness of a battered alleyway, a dying soldier groaning behind her, and she coughed and moaned as his face drained of color and he stepped numbly toward her, hardly daring to believe, hardly daring to think or speak or breath...
He... he couldn't have... he couldn't have done this... He wouldn't have done this... this monstrous thing... never to her! He should have known, he ought to have remembered...
"What have you done?"
That voice made him freeze. That wonderful, paradoxical voice, once so beautiful, now saturated with suffering, barely a grated whisper. Forcing those words from her mouth, she lifted her face, half-shadowed in the flickering light of flames, midnight eyes wide and wild and hysteric.
He couldn't have done this... not to her...Yet she stood before him, panicked and betrayed, burning as her land burned, bleeding the blood of her people, screaming as they screamed, dying as they died...
Ganondorf's blood went cold. He took a shaky, unconscious step back as the once-miracle, now-phantasm faced him fully and inquired of him his doings, knowing exactly what. "Please," he pleaded breathlessly, "please... I did not... I didn't... I'd never... I'm sorry! So, so sorry! I-"
"What have you done?" she whispered again, barely louder, forcing herself to stand up straighter even as it pained her, facing him with terrified eyes and a blackened face, drenched with sweat and tears and blood with burned fiery hair clinging to her skin. Ganondorf wanted to run, wanted to scream in pain and fear and guilt, wanted to vomit, to throw himself to the ground and sob and pray for forgiveness from her and her Goddesses. But he could only stand there, eyes dilated with terror and disbelief, as she aimlessly interrogated him for answers not even he knew anymore, voice rising in pitch and volume and blind, panicked hysteria. "What have you done?"
For a single moment before the Seven Sages pulled him into the void of the Evil Realm, Ganondorf thought he saw a flash of red hair and the smell of flowers and pines.
His wish for immortality, granted by the Triforce of Power, cursed him with countless years in the countless purgatories of countless half-worlds. Time and time again, he rose to try and bring the Chosen Land under his rule, that he could apologize to beautiful Hyrule and make her his. Yet his soul was wracked with guilt and self-loathing, and he grew directionless and confused and desperate, hope withering to death. Every chance fate gave him, he always ended up trying to take Hyrule by force, and hauntings of her torture plagued him every waking moment of his various, short-lived reigns, also appearing often in his nightmares. With each death he died and each imprisonment that followed, he lost more and more hope that he could ever win the heart of Hyrule. With each failed triumph, he came to long for oblivion more and more, privately thanking Link and Zelda with increasing fervor each time the two forced the sacred blade of the Master Sword through his chest.
One time, he was not granted that more pleasing of ends.
He succeeded, once, only to find his new subjects on their knees, crying to the Goddesses to protect them from the onslaught of his so-called evil. The wind blew something fearsome, dark storm-clouds billowing from nowhere, and on the wind came a whispering, thrumming with omnipotence, that formed no words but carried meaning clearly.
Doom. End. Flee. Go.
Ganondorf's face drained of color as the people took their families and their most precious of belongings and their many legends and took to the hills, climbing higher and higher, as the sky seemed to open up and pour rain and rain and rain upon the blessed green fields once again charred by his own furious fires.
And, watching from the tallest tower in the conquered castle, Hyrule was crying.
Ganondorf escaped the flooding of Hyrule. He supposed the Goddesses expected that, denying him Hyrule only to spite him. He set up a lonely, forsaken fortress on a northwestern tower, dreaming of the green fields and the warm sun, and a beauty sweeter even than the salt-sprayed freedom of the endless ocean.
He loved the Great Sea, but it was not Hyrule.
He watched and waited, constantly dreaming of the land he knew to sleep underneath the waves. He watched obsessively. He had used his wish to gain immortality; and if he could but find the other two Bearers of the Triforce, he could revive Hyrule and rule his chosen land once again. His love for Hyrule was the only thing that kept him going.
As did his guilt. He almost bent double under the weight of his guilt, knowing that a sea and a whole other world lay on top of Hyrule, crushing it, crushing her, because of him, knowing that Hyrule slept forgotten and unloved because of his foolish actions. He resolved that this time would be different; it could be different, and it would be different, because this time Hyrule had no Royal Family to resist what was for the good of the land, and no blind army to fight him and provoke him to desecrate the fair plains. That was why, he reasoned. That was why he had to get the Triforce and wish her back to life. He had to make up everything he had done to her.
He had to do it for her forgiveness and her love.
It mattered not that collecting the two other Triforce bearers had proved quite the chore as usual. The Princess, bearer of Wisdom, was within his grasp, and the foolish bearer of Courage was once again headed straight for him. But this time would be different. He would take the initiative and attack before the boy could. He would spare them, and they could live in Hyrule as they wished, just as he wished. It was only a matter of time.
He stood on the broad, circular roof of the Tower that he had not manned since ancient times. He stared out at the land, preserved by a magical pocket of resistance, and dreamed of fields once again teeming with life, caressed once again by the warmth of the sun's rays. He imagined days upon endless days, wandering with Hyrule, laughing in perfect bliss.
Wind blew across the top of the tower. The Princess lay beside him, her ultimate purpose about to have its hour. And then he felt her.
It couldn't be...
"I have slept for many long years," Hyrule said, and Ganondorf turned slowly, disbelievingly, to face the woman who held his heart. "During that final battle, I retreated to the uppermost floor of that Castle," she gestured to the white citadel, still magnificent, in the distance, "and fell into a deep slumber. My land was not destroyed, and my people lived on. I survived, though in an eternal state of slumber, vaguely dreaming for the rest of time. It is how the Goddesses wanted it. It is still how they want it."
Ganondorf paused. "...Hyrule. It has been a long, long time."
"Centuries," Hyrule agreed gravely. Her voice still held all its mysteries from ages before, but to a lesser degree; as if she were less Hyrule and more herself. She was solemn, and spared Ganondorf no emotion, no pity, no love.
"You are still as beautiful as ever."
"This, coming from the man who destroyed me, time and time again." It was said flatly, without inflection, but still it stung. "Had that compliment come from any other man, I would have been flattered, Ganondorf," Hyrule said, beginning to walk across the rooftop, gown of green and red and blue billowing in the breeze, flower petals waving, fiery hair flowing. "But you... you are not any other man. You are the bane of my existence."
"Hyrule," Ganondorf pleaded desperately. "You must understand... I never meant to hurt you. I would never seek to hurt you. I only tried to become King because... because..."
He took a long, shaky breath, and, nervous as could be, confessed. "I love you."
The roar of the wind, muted around them, was the only sound that met the pronouncement. Hyrule stared impassively back.
"Ever since I was young," Ganondorf explained desperately. "Ever since I saw you walking along the Gerudo Canyon, so many countless ages ago, so long before our sad, sad story began. I saw you walking along the canyon and thought you a wonder of nature. You are a wonder of nature. You are beautiful, and wise, and kind, and so painfully perfect..."
"I couldn't bear to live a life without you. And so I dedicated myself to you, pledging myself to your land and your people, and I hoped that I could become immortal, become King, be worthy of you, so that the two of us might live together, love one another, forever-"
His voice choked, thousands of years of repressed emotions bubbling forth too eagerly.
And still Hyrule did not speak. After a long moment, she took a small, shaky breath of her own.
"I do not reciprocate your feelings.
"I am a Nation. The world did not have many Nations, Ganondorf, even before you caused the Goddesses to flood it. There was wild, proud Termina, and serene Labrynna... and spirited Holodrum, among the few. We do not feel as you mortals do. We feel so much more, and not at all. We live long lives, and know everyone and everything that makes us up, and love and hate and fear as they do. I could never love you the way a mortal loves another mortal. Your feelings of romantic love are alien to our nature. I could love you as a child, as one of my own people, yes, when the Gerudo became citizens of Hyrule, but never as a lover.
"Countless times, you have been the cause of all my pain. Countless times you have been the cause of my spilled blood, my scars, my festering wounds and angry burns. Countless times have you scorched me, broken me with earthquakes, frozen me with winters, weakened me with genocides, suffocated me with darkness and evil. You have done all that to me and my companions, so many times. And now, you wish to resurrect me, despite my unwillingness, to deprive my distant children of a life they love? Even if they are no longer mine..." here, Hyrule paused, eyes shining briefly with tears she could no longer shed, before her eyelids closed over them in grief. "I felt them as I dreamed. And I would not wish away their ocean to live again."
"They could live just as well here, in Hyrule, as they could upon the mountaintops! Why would you wish for them to live like meaningless scattered leaves on an endless sea? Why, Hyrule?" Ganondorf asked, voice rising to a roar.
Hyrule remained silent for a moment, eyes still shut, as if gathering her composure.
… "Why?" she asked, in a small voice. "Why? Because I love them, Ganondorf, and even if it hurts me, I must do what is good for them. Because my age has come to an end and it is time for me to join my companions in the company of the Goddesses, because I can survive no longer, because I choose not to survive any longer. Because I can never forgive you."
And with that, she departed.
Still he tried.
"My country lay within a vast desert," he said solemnly. To himself or the Hero he knew to be facing him, he did not know. "When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing... Death."
He did not hate his native home. There was something beautiful in the harsh desert, something wild and free, but there was something else on the fields of Hyrule. Something more.
"But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I... coveted that wind, I suppose."
Covet? Did he covet it? Did he have no right to even the winds of dear, sweet Hyrule, much less her bountiful fields, clear, sparkling waters, magnificent mountains, and snowy peaks?
"It can only be called fate."
Fate. For what other power besides the Goddesses Themselves could deny him time and time again of the one thing he had desired in his long, long life?
"...That here, I would again gather the three with the crests...that I should lay my hand on that which grants the wishes of the beholder... that when power, wisdom, and courage come together, the Goddesses would have no choice but to come down... The power of the gods... the Triforce! He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted! Already, the crest of wisdom is mine..."
Ganondorf's gaze turned to the boy in green, the last boy in green, with a hungry, desperate look. This is where it would finally end. This is where it would all begin! "All that remains..."
He turned, and lunged.
"Gods! Hear that which I desire! Expose this land to the rays of the sun once more! Let them burn forth!"
"GIVE HYRULE... TO ME!"
Triumphant, Ganondorf reached out, to claim that which was his-
"He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted... That is what you said, is it not, Ganondorf?"
No... no... not after all this time... not when he was finally so close...
"GODS OF THE TRIFORCE! HEAR THAT WHICH I DESIRE! HOPE! I DESIRE HOPE FOR THESE CHILDREN! GIVE THEM A FUTURE! WASH AWAY THIS ANCIENT LAND OF HYRULE! LET A RAY OF HOPE SHINE ON THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD!"
For one moment which lasted an eternity, all was still in the preserved world save for the swiftly-blowing wind. And then, with a terrible resonance, the Triforce began to glow.
"And let our destinies finally be fulfilled... Ganondorf! May you drown with Hyrule!"
The Gerudo King did not move a muscle as the wind blew around him furiously, as the ghost of the last Hylian King mocked him mortally, as the last vestige of his glowing power disappeared heavenwards. He did not move a muscle as the sky of sea above the sunken land opened up once again and poured oceans and oceans and oceans onto the already drowned land. Was that the sky splitting into thousands of pieces and gushing, gushing, or his own tortured, weathered, ancient heart?
He had failed. Completely and utterly failed. No longer would he be able to live with the hope that maybe, someday, somehow, Hyrule would return and look upon him favorably. No more could he dream—was all that he had accomplished just a fast-fading dream? No more could he carry on, knowing that Hyrule did not love him, would never forgive him. No longer could he live, knowing Hyrule would die. No longer.
In madness, in grief, he laughed. Laughed until tears of sadness poured out of his eyes.
If Hyrule was to meet her end here... if he was to meet his end here... he would not be alone.
"This is foolishness... A future...for you?
Ganondorf barely heard the mocking words coming from the last Princess' disgusting mouth. He could find no solace in the fact that she had no inheritance, either.
"Very well, then... Allow me to show you...your future..." Calmly, oh-so-calmly for a man with a breaking heart and a breaking mind, he drew his swords. "Yes... Allow me to show you... Just what hope you have..." Madly, he turned, to destroy the last two pure Hyruleans. Madly, he turned to show them all that he had yearned for and all that he had dreamed, all that he had aspired to and all that he had fallen from. "See how much your precious Triforce is worth!"
Even after the endless ages of fire and pain and terror, Hyrule could not bring herself to watch the final death of Ganondorf, the bane of her existence. Slowly, she shut her eyes and turned away as the Master Sword slid smoothly into his skull, finding its final resting place in his stone-encased form.
A fitting end.
Hyrule watched, invisible, as the battle raged on the tower. She watched, even as her knees buckled from the force of the water flooding her lands once again, at a much more rapid pace than before. And finally, still invisible, she stepped forward as the last Hyruleans stood on her land for the final time.
"My children..." her last King began. "Listen to me. I have lived regretting the past. And I have faced those regrets."
If only Hyrule could do the same. She had lived for thousands of years before Ganondorf, and would have continued to live thousands of years after him, but for him... her history was long, vivid, and legendary, and yet... it wasn't long enough. It was never long enough.
...She still didn't want to die...
"If only I could do things over again... Not a day of my life has gone by without my thoughts turning to my kingdom of old. I have lived bound to Hyrule."
As I have lived bound to you, and Princess Zelda, and you, Hero Link, and all my other children the Zora, the Goron, the Sheikah, the Gerudo, the Kokiri, the Human, the Hylian.
Hyrule turned and gazed mournfully at the King, sharing in his regret and wondering together, in their final moments, what if.
The King sighed. "In that sense, I was the same as Ganondorf."
"But you... I want you to live for the future. There may be nothing left for you... but despite that, you must look forward and walk a path of hope, trusting that it will sustain you when darkness comes."
"...Farewell... This is the only world that your ancestors were able to leave you. Please... forgive us."
Forgive me, for not being stronger, more wary, unconquerable...
The little girl Zelda spoke.
"W-wait! You could... you could come with us! Yes, of course... we have a ship... We can find it... we will find it! That land will be the next Hyrule!"
Hyrule turned away in mourning at her naïve, though well-intentioned, words. The Bearer of Wisdom, so hopeful, so innocent... it seemed that the magic truly had left the land and its relics... And Hyrule's final moments were near. But history never repeats itself in quite the same way... and not at all, when you learn from it...
The King smiled sadly. "Ah, but child... that land... will not be Hyrule..."
And Hyrule's heart beat painfully in her chest, protesting violently, futilely, against its impending demise. Hyrule closed her eyes, placed her hand over her chest, and allowed herself to shed one final, solitary, salty tear.
"IT WILL BE YOUR LAND!"
And the floods came down.
Hyrule watched as the spirit of Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule faded in the blue, the forms of the last Princess and last Hero floating up, up, up. In the sudden seawater currents, the crown of ferns and flowers about her head tore violently apart, ripped to shreds, red hair flying in all directions, tossed by whirlpools and eddies. The pines around her wrists flew apart eagerly, scattered and lost forever under the sea, her pearls and sapphires fighting with little resistance before falling from her neck, riding the currents, and drifting to settle on the top of Ganon's Tower.
Fighting the water of the Great Sea, Hyrule pushed her choking, dying, quickly-weakening self towards the stone statue that wore the sacred sword. Slowly, ever so slowly, Hyrule reached up to touch the stone cheek of Ganondorf, and gave it one small, sad smile, almost lovingly.
Finally, Hyrule could be free of her half-lived dreams, despairing about a world she no longer belonged in but was eternally tied to. No longer would she be forced to slumber forever beneath the waves, watching eternity from that painful limbo. It may have been too short in this life... but... she had enjoyed her time.
The calls of the Goddesses beckoned her to the Sacred Realm, where her Mothers and Nation-siblings waited.
"Ganondorf..." she whispered, voice once again possessing the rich, perfect, paradoxical tones her would-be lover had admired so many centuries before, "because of everything, despite everything, I have to... thank you."
The water took over the last pocket of resistance in her fallen land, and as her lungs filled with water and the last bubble of Hyrulean air reached the ocean surface, Hyrule spread out her arms and dissolved into the waiting arms of her kin.
"Rest in peace, my beloved child."
The End
You know... looking back... I'm kind of worried if Hyrule comes off as a Mary-Sue... because I hate them, and I totally don't want her to be one, but I just don't know how everyone else will view it...
Can you believe this entire thing was inspired by one line from Wind Waker, where the King of Red Lions reveals both his and Tetra's identities? "So long as Ganondorf was not revived, Hyrule would remain below, never waking from its slumber."
I hope you enjoyed this.
-LBN