Hi! Hope you all enjoy this story that I randomly decided to try. I own nothing but my own created characters.
Chapter One: Rest At Last
The clouded sky above his head cleared as the last of Malice disintegrated and vanished from the plains in front of him, the castle behind, and the whole world around him. He lowered his shield and the tip of the Master Sword touched the grassy earth beneath his boots as he looked up from the vanishing corpse of Calamity Ganon and turned around to look at the young woman garbed in a white dress and her golden hair down and gently blowing in the wind that blew away the blight upon the ruined kingdom of Hyrule. Beside him, another young woman, similarly armored and armed as he, her long black hair pulled back into a pony tail swung gently behind her as she turned to face him, black eyes watching, waiting.
"Do you…. remember me?" the blonde girl in white asked hesitantly.
The young man in armor, wielding the sword that was Evil's Bane, nodded and wearily dropped to a knee, the sword in front of him, point down, both hands upon the hilt, and lowered his head. "Princess Zelda." He acknowledged as the armored woman beside him followed suit.
"Please, stand." Zelda said, stepping forward and stumbling. Before she could right herself, a hand had reached out to steady her. Blue eyes streaked with green filled with exhaustion and sadness met black eyes filled with respect, exhaustion, and…. pain. The black-haired woman's sword, remained point down in the soil, her shield still slung on her arm. She nodded and stepped away, back to her blade which she pulled out of the dirt and, after shifting her shield on to her back, wiped it on her sleeve and sheathed. With a quick glance to the young man beside her, who'd stood to catch Zelda as well, nodded and moved off to make sure that her horse was okay after he was released during the fight.
"Link."
The Hylian armor creaked slightly as he turned away from the young woman who'd been there to help him through every fight since he awoke in the Shrine of Resurrection all those moons ago to look at the princess who stood before him. In two simple movements, the shield upon him arm was slung onto his back and the Master Sword was cleaned and sheathed.
"Is she…" she hesitated, she didn't know how to ask. The two fell protecting her before the walls of Fort Hateno, and she had ordered them put together in the Shrine of Resurrection so that they may survive to fight another day. Although she felt some jealousy over the feelings, the love that was shared between the two warriors, she did not desire to come between them, however she did not expect to see Link fight harder and…almost angrier after Shinobu was seriously wounded by a claw from the onslaught of Guardian Stalkers.
They both turned to the woman in question, their minds going back to that terrible, rainy day as they watched Shinobu check her stallion for any injuries and feed him apples.
The rain fell from dark thunder heads, Guardian Stalkers ran amok before the walls of Fort Hateno, in middle of the field, three people stood, two protecting the third, all filthy and injured in some way. Metal screeched against metal as blades clashed with claws from the automatons and sparks flew. A young man in a blue tunic trimmed with white embroidery grunted against the weight of a claw slammed down upon the blade in his hands, the Master Sword that glowed with a blue light. He shoved the offender away, making sure that his charge, a young woman in a once white gown, the princess of a falling kingdom was unharmed. Beside him, a little to his right, black hair swung with the motion of a swung blade, and simple Hylian armor was splattered with mud from the ground and blood, a mixture of the monsters that now swarmed the plains and those of their fallen comrades.
Shinobu grit her teeth as claw after claw slammed into her sword and shield, grunted with effort of simply standing her ground, and focused on making sure no attack slipped past her guard to harm her charge. She was beginning tire, she felt it, she knew that Link was too, but knew that they could not afford to slow down lest the princess come to harm. At that thought, she turned to look quickly at her comrade in arms, her friend, her lover and they quickly shared a glance and a nod before returning to their battle. However, that one look cost her as a claw tried to move past her and she hacked at it, only to grunt in pain when a second took advantage of her brief opening and slammed into her midriff; gripping tight, pinching hard, cutting armor and skin alike; trying to bring her to her knees, to make her move away from her place. Her blade came down up on the arm of the claw, forcing the Guardian to release her, cutting into her sides as it pulled away and was forced to abandon its target when another automaton stumbled into it, tangling them both up in clawed legs and arms and tumbled away from her. Shinobu fell to a knee, her sword's blade sinking into the muddy earth as she leaned against it, her armor turning a deep crimson with every ragged breath, her vision expanding and shrinking again as she tried to focus, to force herself to her feet again.
A quick glance, a shared thought as his cerulean eyes met her black ones before he turned away another attack then a single sound to his right caused his focus to fall away from the fight before him. A grunt filled with pain. There was no gasp, no scream, no cry, just a grunt then metal against metal, a loud crash, and a splash. Link turned to see Shinobu on one knee, her weight on the sword before her, her armor torn and bloody on her sides. Zelda, the princess they fought to protect, had rushed over to try to help her back up, but the lack of hope in the princess' voice was more than enough to tell Link what he already knew: Shinobu was unable to continue, would probably die in this fight, here on this field. His vision seemed to shrink, focus itself into a tunnel as a red flash of movement across the body of his kneeling, wounded friend and lover caught his gaze. He was moving before the thoughts in his mind could be processed, before he would allow them to be processed, and he attacked the automaton that dared aim for a fallen comrade.
Zelda turned from trying to see the extent of the wounds on Shinobu as a blue blur raced past, an angry growl escaping from a usually quiet and almost emotionless man as he attacked the Guardian Stalkers that were standing over them. Not one got past him to the two young women but eventually, his exhaustion began to overcome him and Link was slowly pushed back, the automatons bearing down on the three of them until he, too became injured and fell to his knees, his sword the only thing holding him up.
"No, please, save yourselves! Forget about me!" the princess pulled at the two wounded warriors as they pulled themselves to their feet to stand between her and the danger that was their doom, Link protectively stumbling to stand in front of Shinobu as a red laser fixed itself upon her soaked head.
"No!" Zelda flung herself in front of them both, her hand lifted to intercept the laser that was inevitable and the field was filled with golden light as her power awoke to her call to protect her guardians, her Knights, her friends. When the light cleared and all the Guardian Stalkers came to stand still, two thuds behind her made her spin on her heel and gasp.
Link had turned to catch Shinobu as she fell forward only to be over balanced as well and they both lay upon the ground, swords in hand, and his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. Zelda fell to her knees before them and pulled them over carefully. Link and Shinobu both looked up at her briefly, eyes slitted against the pain, lids heavy with weariness, before they closed and their bodies went limp.
Zelda sighed as she pulled herself away from the terrible memory and looked up at Link, who was still focused on Shinobu as she mounted her horse and gently lead him towards them, the reins of a brown mare that plodded along beside the stallion, in one hand. Link smiled and moved forward to pat that mare on the nose and feed her an apple as her reins were carefully placed around the pommel of her saddle. After a time, he walked around to her side and placed his foot in the stirrup and mounted, leaning forward to fondly pat the mare's neck. Shinobu bumped Kuro's sides with her heels to get him to walk forward and turned him sideways and pulled him to a stop in front of Zelda. She then leaned down and offered a hand. The princess of the fallen kingdom looked up from the offered hand into a gently smiling face of a friend whom she never expected to see again. As a tear slid down her cheek, Zelda smiled and grasped the hand and was pulled up to sit side sidle in front of Shinobu and when she was seated comfortably, the three reunited friends nodded to each other and kicked their steeds into a full gallop and turned towards the east, towards Kakariko Village and rest.