Author's Note: Hey, so here we are at chapter two! I'm going to aim to update every monday, so keep an eye out from here on! We get to see things from Link's persepective this time around, so enjoy! I did add a few details to canon scenes, obviously, because let's face it, Link was nowhere near emotional enough in that goodbye scene, dammit XD
Anyways, please leave a review if you enjoyed! They feed my muse and keep me writing!
Fate's Expectations
Chapter 2: Light and Sorrow
Link nudged Epona into a quick canter as soon as they passed the city gates and hit the road heading south towards Ordon. Once they reached the open fields, the man adjusted his posture and gave his steed her head, transitioning smoothly as she broke into a full gallop.
Castle Town rapidly disappeared behind them, swallowed up by hill and forest as Epona's ground eating stride put distance between Link and the Princess to whom he owed his fealty. He was still exhausted after their late arrival the previous evening, but sleep had eluded him, and nightmares had been waiting when he had finally managed to drift off in the early hours of the morning. On waking, Link had felt like he was suffocating, limbs tangled in the fine silk sheets of his too-soft bed, his nightshirt soaked with sweat.
Unable to think clearly, Link had all but torn the sheets from his person before his desperate need for airdrove him out into the cold, rain soaked night. What had been a drizzle a few hours before when he and the Princess had entered the city had become a deluge, and Link was soon soaked to the bone. The hero had absently pushed clinging strands of wet hair from his face and leaned his back against the railing of the balcony that came with his rooms, breathing deeply of the sharp, clean air. Still wracked with fine tremors in the wake of a forgotten nightmare, Link had turned his face skyward and allowed the rain to stream down across his cheeks and through his hair, seeking relief in the darkness of night. His heavily bandaged hands dangled loosely at his sides as he waited for inner peace that would not come.
He'd known, in that moment, that he had to leave. He couldn't be there in the castle that Midna had destroyed fighting to save him and Zelda. Upon their return, they had been quartered in one of the wings that had been left standing and structurally sound in the wake of the Twilight Princess' wrath, and it was simply too much to handle. Link needed time to retreat and lick his wounds before he could bear to be there, or even in the city again. He knew as sure as the sun would rise that Zelda would want to keep him there with her in some capacity or another, and the very thought made him feel ill.
So he left.
In the wee hours of the morning he gathered his things, saddled Epona, and ran without saying goodbye. Some little piece of him that was the Hero accused him of being a coward, but Link ignored it and focused his attention on the road that fled rapidly beneath his horse's hooves.
Around mid-day, they stopped by a secluded stream, and Link lowered himself, shaking with exhaustion from the hard ride and lack of sleep, to the ground. Habit was all that carried him through taking off Epona's bridle and tethering her near to the stream where she would have access to plenty of grass and water. He nearly dropped her saddle when he hauled it down off her back, carrying it a step or two before plopping it down unceremoniously on the ground. When he laid down, using the saddle as a pillow without bothering to take the blanket out of his bed roll, Epona gave a soft nicker of concern and lipped his hair and one long ear.
Tiredly, Link brushed off his mount's affections and dropped almost immediately into a deep sleep.
"No!"
Link felt the words as though they had been torn from his chest and forced out into the world past unwilling lips. He jolted back into waking, shaking again as he rolled onto his back and pressed his heavily bandaged hands to his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears that flowed freely down his bloodless cheeks.
Groaning, Link forced himself into a sitting position and planted his elbows on his knees, palms still pressed unforgivingly into his rebellious eyes. He took a deep, shuddering breath to clear the cobwebs of dreams left behind by sleep, and by the time he finally lowered his hands, he could barely remember what he'd been dreaming of. He remembered brilliant shards of light, and pain, and sorrow...
'See you later...'The words plagued him every day. It had been a week since she had spoken them in that broken voice that had struck fear into his heart, and he knew that they would never fade. He would never forget them should he live a hundred years, they would haunt him for as long as he walked the earth.
His dearest, most trusted friend was gone, and he would never see her again.
Shoving the oft repeated thought aside for the umpteenth time, Link looked down at his hands and noted that they were covered in dirt and bits of grass. The heavy bandages that kept him from donning his gauntlets were stained and loose, making him frown in annoyance. Looking around, he noticed that the grass and earth beside the saddle he had been using as a pillow was uprooted, as though he had been scrambling desperately for something in his sleep.
Sighing heavily, Link rummaged through his pack and came up with a roll of bandages and a cloth he used for washing, and headed towards the stream. Epona snorted and watched him go for a moment before returning to her grazing.
The sun was already low on the horizon, casting orange and gold fire across the surface of the water as it flowed serenely past. As Link gently unraveled the soiled bandages from his hands, he decided to simply camp there for the evening. He'd intended to get much closer to Ordon before settling down for the night, but here was as good a place as any, and it was hardly worth getting Epona geared up again just to get an hour's worth of riding done.
Link set his old bandages aside and crouched down beside a small pool that jutted off of the main expanse of the stream and glanced at his reflection. What he saw startled him for a moment, until he snorted with annoyance when he realized that his racoon-like appearance was due to his rubbing his eyes with earth coated hands. Peering closer, he grimaced. He looked awful, eyes red, face dirty, swaths of clean skin standing out starkly from where his tears had flowed in his sleep...what a mess.
Plunging his hands into the water, Link winced as the icy temperature met the still healing wounds on his hands, making them sting sharply before he pulled them out again, cupping water so he could wash his face. He repeated the motion several times before he was satisfied and wiped his face off on the cloth he'd brought along with him. Most obvious problem taken care of, Link turned his attention to the long, deep gashes on his palms, examining them closely to make sure they hadn't become infected since the last time he had changed the bandages.
They seemed to be healing well, though it would be awhile yet before they were healed enough to use a bow or wield a sword without cracking the slowly forming scabs again. He supposed he was lucky that he hadn't severed a tendon as he'd snatched at piece after shattered piece of rapidly dissolving Twilight Mirror...
Turning his attention towards cleaning bits of dirt out of the cuts that had re-opened in his sleep, Link grit his teeth and tried desperately not to think about the circumstances under which he'd garnered these particular wounds. Though his actions were rough with emotion and hurt his hands in an attempt to use pain to distract himself, Link was plagued by the memory of the worst day of his life.
The hot desert breeze plucked at his clothing and stirred Midna's long robes as she smiled at him, and stepped away. He wanted to ask her to stay, wanted to get down on his knees and beg her to take him with her, but Link's mouth had gone dry, his words scattered to the winds. He couldn't ask something like that of her, not now that he knew she was a princess with an obligation to her country, to her people...It was selfish of him to even consider it.
Oh goddesses did he want to be selfish, though.
He had sacrificed so much for Ordon, for Hyrule, for the world in his quest to free them all from Zant's oppressive reign and Ganondorf's wrath. Wasn't he allowed to be selfish? Just this once? How could it possibly be fair that he should have to go through so much strife for the sake of others, and then, when his quest was done, be unable to remain at the side of his dearest friend?
Still, at heart, Link was not a selfish man. He bit back his words and watched Midna activate the steps up to the portal between their worlds.
"As long as the mirror's around, we could meet again..." she said in that same lilting voice that had become so familiar to him. Unlike usual, though, her tone was somber, pensive, almost worried.
Link took those words to heart and chanted them like a mantra, like a promise to the universe. He would see her again, it wasn't impossible with the Mirror of Twilight still waiting for them in the Arbiter's Grounds. He was right to be letting her go, her people needed her, after all, and the people of Hyrule needed him. He did his very best to smother the insistent voice in his heart that said that all he needed was her.
I will see her again. I will see her again. I will see her again... "
"I..." Her voice was tight with emotion now, but still he could not tear his eyes from the spark, though a deep sense of foreboding settled into his heart.
"See you later..." Her voice nearly broke, and finally Link was able to pull his gaze from the tiny speck of light and look at her once more. Her expression was pained, and again, he wanted to move towards her, but the ominous crack that shattered the immense silence of the Arbiter's Grounds had him and Zelda both wheeling back around to look at the Mirror of Twilight.
What had she done? Goddesses, what had she done?!The mirror was a spider's web of hairline cracks that, even now, was distorting the light that it emitted towards the great, black monolith that served as the portal between realms. Movement at the corner of his eye dragged Link's attention back to Midna as she gracefully mounted the stairs and spun to look at him one last time. Behind her, the portal powered up, and she smiled at him, though her lip trembled and tears threatened to stream freely down her achingly familiar, yet strange, face. He was running towards her again before he realized it, reaching in vain for her, watching as her smile fell away and the magic reached a ringing crescendo all around them.
It was too late.
Before he could even make the first stair, Link was forced to watch as Midna dissolved into a stream of light and banished back to the Realm of Twilight.
The mirror shattered as Link cried out in denial of the truth, his voice breaking as he fell to his knees and grasped in vain at the shards of the Mirror of Twilight that fell like stars around him. As he clutched at each broken piece, it cut him deeply and then dissolved into stardust that drifted away on the hot desert wind. Piece after piece faded around him until there was nothing left, only the mirror's stand and the great monolith remained to remind them of what had once been.
Link cried out again, this time it was a long, broken cry of agony. It was wordless, and visceral, reminiscent of a wolf's howl as it rent the twilight that weighed heavily upon his heart, and Zelda's shoulders. He pounded the stones beneath him with bloody hands as a pain and sense of loss that he was unable to express in mere words bloomed in his heart and put down deep roots in his soul.
He wasn't sure how long the scream went on, but eventually, some time after he had spent himself and finally caught his breath, a hands were placed gently upon his shoulders.
"Link," Zelda's voice was hesitant and sad, and there was a question there that he wasn't sure he could answer. He looked around at her and saw that she had one hand placed on his left shoulder, an expression of worry in her deep blue eyes. Turning his head to the other side, where he swore he felt a second hand, Link saw nothing.
The Hero of Twilight closed his eyes for a moment, then finally pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. The princess was forced to grab his arm to steady him, and gently lead him away from the mirror chamber.
Link jolted when he realized that the water on his palms was rapidly being replaced by blood thanks to his overzealous cleaning of his barely healed wounds. Cursing, he dunked them back in the stream again, eyes shut tight against the pain before pulling them back out and drying them. Fumbling only slightly, the man re-bandaged his hands tightly, using extra strips as padding against his palms to absorb the worst of the blood. That done, he washed his old bandages and hung them from a nearby tree branch to dry. He'd learned the hard way, when he was first starting out, that you never threw out bandages so long as they were, more-or-less, still in one piece. Even then they at least made good kindling. Traveling all over the back end of creation and in the depths of long abandoned ancient temples meant there weren't exactly a lot of healers at hand, so he'd had to make due with what he had more than once.
He was lucky, really, that he wasn't still sporting bandages all over his person after the battle with Ganondorf. Though they had been triumphant, Link had paid for their victory in blood. If Zelda hadn't been there to heal him with her magic after the fact, he wasn't sure that his already too brief reunion with Midna would not have been further shortened by his demise. Link was quite certain that Ganon had managed one fatal blow before Link had slain him. Only adrenaline, and possibly the magic of the Triforce, had kept him going long enough to do that.
Hands bandaged, Link turned his attention to finding enough firewood to last him through the evening, though he remained lost in thought.
Objectively, Link knew that he should be happy in the wake of his victory. After all, he had saved the world from the most powerful evil sorcerer the world had ever seen. His friends were all safe, the Princess was back on the throne where she belonged, and Hyrule would thrive under her steady guidance.
Zelda had repeatedly, though gently, reminded him of all these things on their journey back to Castle Town from the Arbiter's Grounds, and yet...all he felt was sad, empty, and alone.
There was an imp-shaped hole in his life that he would never recover from.
Link missed Midna's teasing, her insults, her sharp wit, and that mischievous look she got right before she did something that would make him want to slap his forehead in exasperation and laugh at the same time. He missed the way he barely needed to say a word for her to know precisely what he was thinking, and her easy, companionable manner when they sat together by the fire at night and stargazed. The days dragged without her energetic presence at his side, and the world seemed far less interesting without her constantly pestering him with questions about one thing or another about the 'Realm of Light' as they traveled.
He missed the one person who had come to understand him best in all the world. The one that accepted him for the good and the bad, not just the idealized picture of a perfect Hero that he was supposed to be. He made mistakes, and though she teased him for it, she would help him pick up the pieces. He could be wrathful, and she would stay his sword before he did something that she knew he would regret later. When he was plagued by worry or self-doubt, she bolstered him and kept him moving forward. Midna had saved him in battle many times, and had helped him patch up his wounds even more often than that.
He loved her more than anything, and he would never see her again.
The realization of the depth of his affections made his already uneven breaths hitch in his throat, but brought no joy, only intensified the pain in his heart from a dull ache to a sharp, agonizing pulse that made it all the more difficult for him to go about his tasks.
In the end, Link made a small fire and skipped eating entirely, not feeling equal to the task of keeping food down with his stomach churning the way it was. He curled up on his bed roll next to the fire and prayed to the goddesses that they would grant him sweet dreams of what he had lost to ease the ache in his heart.
AN: Well there you have it! Hope you enjoyed! Remember to sacrifice a review for my hungry, hungry muse! From here on out is where the story will really get rolling, so stay tuned next monday for more! We'll get some story foundations laid next time around!