EX MEMORY #4: Zelda's Nightmare

This chapter takes place just after Recovered Memory #13 (Slumbering Power) as Link and Zelda make their way back to Hyrule Castle after Zelda attempted to unlock her sealing magic by praying at the Spring of Power.

As they travelled through the Shadow Pass on their steeds, Zelda couldn't help but be aware of Link's sympathetic and concerned eyes on her. She tried to ignore them by looking elsewhere, but everywhere Zelda looked seemed to remind her of the Spring of Power. The twigs that littered the ground of the forested area reminded Zelda of the twigs that had been floating on the Spring; the beautiful night sky filled with stars reminded Zelda of the reflection of the stars that she had seen on the surface of the clear water.

"You okay?" came a voice, and Zelda made the mistake of looking to its source: Link. She couldn't help but be reminded of how he had rushed towards her as she fell apart in the water, of how he held her in the water as the tears began to come out of her eyes, of how weak she felt in that moment.

Nothing… he had told her, cradling the back of her head. Nothing is wrong with you…

She forced a smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

But Link saw right through her words—he always has—and reached for the map tied to the side of Epona. He took a moment to locate their exact location on his map with his finger.

"If this map is anything to go by," he told her. "Then South Akkala Stable is located just over Kanalet Ridge there." He used his finger to point in the general direction of where he believed the stable to be. "Judging by the alignment of the moon, there's still several hours until dawn. I think it'd be best if we stayed there for a night. What do you say, Princess?"

It was only after he'd said that that Zelda realised that she was exhausted. They'd both been travelling since first light the day before. The trek from the castle to Akkala hadn't been a smooth one, what with the thunderous weather, and with everything that happened at the Spring of Power, Zelda couldn't help but agree.

"That'd be nice. It's not far, is it?"

Link shook his head. "Just a few minutes."

The two travelled the rest of the way in mostly comfortable silence. As they emerged from the ridge, they immediately caught sight of the Akkala Citadel, which towered over them, standing tall and proud. During the day, it was likely that one would see the soldiers of the Hyrulean Royal Guard working away to fortify the citadel for the inevitable battle with Calamity Ganon, though many believed that it wouldn't be necessary. (As they would soon learn, their naivety would lead to their undoing.)

The stable also came into view—the large wooden horse head, the smell of horse manure, the sounds of grazing animals; all immediately recognisable characteristics of a Hyrulean stable. Except there was one thing missing: the usual bustle of people to and fro. The silence was deafening.

Could something have happened here? she thought to herself. Has there been another monster attack?

Zelda's heart began to pump her blood hastily all over her body, with her breathing beginning to increase inhumanly. Link immediately noticed her discomfort and reached out to take her hand in his. She looked to him and he smiled a soft smile.

"It's gone midnight, Zelda," he told her softly. "No sane person would be up at this hour."

He's right, Zelda thought, and her nerves faded away when she caught sight of the stable owner fast asleep at his desk with his head in his hand. They both hopped off their steeds and approached the sleeping man.

"Excuse me," Link whispered as he tapped the man on the shoulder gently.

No reaction whatsoever. Link looked to Zelda, who was finding this oddly amusing, before shaking him slightly harder this time. Still nothing. Zelda rolled her eyes and grabbed the lantern from the desk and slammed it down on the hard wood, causing the stable owner to jerk awake.

Still quite sleepy, the man began to shout obviously rehearsed lines at them. "WELCOME TO MY STABLE. WE DEAL WITH ALL THINGS HORSE RELATED. WE ALSO DOUBLE AS AN—" The loudness of his own voice seemed to wake him up fully as he stopped himself when he realised who he'd been yelling at. "P…Princess!" He shook his head violently. "I mean Your Majesty!" He shook his head again. "I mean Your Grace! …I mean Your Highness! …I mean O Heavenly One! …I mean—"

"Princess will do," Zelda interrupted with her hand, attempting to hide her smile.

"P…Princess! Yes, of course! W…We have many facilities here. Th-they are good!" He took a second to breathe and compose himself. "You can spend a night in our luxury barn and keep your horses here in our lovely inn!" He stopped. "Wait…that's not right."

Before the preciously star-struck man could embarrass himself further, Zelda stepped toward the desk. "We just need a place to sleep and a place to keep our horses. Do you think you can arrange that?"

He started nodding endlessly. "Yes! Yes, I can arrange that, Princess! Absolutely! I can most certainly— Oh!" It was then that he finally took notice of Link—who had been quite amused by the man—and raised his eyebrow flirtatiously at the sight of the two together, his attitude almost completely changing. "Just the one bed, is it, Princess?"

Zelda and Link both gaped at each other and back to the man. "What?! No?!" they both said simultaneously, except the second 'no' came out as more of a question than an answer. Zelda cleared her throat. "No, two beds please…separate beds…"

The stable owner continued to hold their gaze with an unconvinced look for a few moments before finally speaking up. "If you say so, Princess."

The man began rooting beneath his desk for some papers, and Zelda became aware of how much her face was burning, and she was sure that Link could see that. Link also seemed to be blushing, and Zelda just needed to take a step away. "I'll go…put our horses over there."

Link nodded quickly, also trying to avoid eye contact. She took Link's steed and her own by their bridles and lead them towards the small sheltered barn. After settling them in, she fed each of them an apple from the satchel on Epona and said goodnight to the both of them.

Turning away, her gaze once again drifted to the tower atop the citadel. The perfect placement of the moon directly behind the tower was a gorgeous enough sight that Zelda couldn't believe it was real. It seemed like something she'd see on a painting in the castle.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" came Link's voice.

"That's one word for it," Zelda uttered breathlessly.

Looking to Link, she saw that the blush on his face had somewhat faded—Zelda hoped to the goddesses that hers had faded also—and something else had taken its place: innovation. He had an idea, that much Zelda was sure of. Before she could raise any questions, he held his hand out to her.

"Come on. I have an idea."

The shine in his eyes was enough reason for Zelda to take his hand, though she may have reconsidered if she'd known he'd take off running up the hill and the stairs towards the top of the citadel.

Zelda was truly exhausted by the time they reached the top of the stairs. They both agreed then and there that they were too tired to climb the tower as well, and chose instead to collapse against a wall that gave them a spectacular view of Akkala.

However, that spectacular view also gave Zelda the opportunity to see part of the statue of the goddess Hylia located in the Spring of Power, with the resurfacing of her memories of there somewhat dampening her enjoyment of such an amazing sight.

"You know there are old legends," Link began when he noticed the look on her face, nudging her lightly with his elbow to catch her attention. "That tell of a land above the clouds where our ancestors lived."

Zelda nodded and looked to the sky above them, smiling a little. "I know… My mother often told me stories about it. It was incredibly peaceful for them up there. I can't think of any reason why they would've wanted to leave such a place and come here."

"I can. One of the only things I remember about my mother was the stories that she would tell me about the island in the sky." Link's mention of his mother immediately heightened Zelda's interest. He hardly ever spoke of her. "More specifically, my mother once told me the story of a girl that lived on the island who had a greater destiny than she could at first fathom. When the girl's destiny finally caught up with her, she chose to face it head-on, but the girl would soon learn that nothing was as she had believed it to be. She was forced to face many trials and tribulations—there's even tales that she slept for centuries to hold back an ancient evil—but in the end, when she was given the choice, after everything she went through here in Hyrule, she still chose to stay here. Why? Because the girl didn't feel safe on an island in the clouds. She felt safe here on solid ground, where she could see the clouds above her, and feel the warm breeze of Hyrule on her skin. We should all be allowed to feel that safe."

For a man who hadn't spoken that much when they first met, Link certainly had a way with words that could affect Zelda right to her core. She had never heard of the girl in Link's story, but Zelda couldn't help but relate to her. If the girl in the story could find and face her destiny with that kind of strength, then so could Zelda.

Zelda found herself all but beaming at the man next to her, who was blushing slightly under her gaze. Zelda would never be able to describe the contentment she felt in that moment, and that content lead her head to fall softly to Link's firm shoulder. In her attempt to keep herself from falling asleep despite her exhaustion, she looked back up to the night sky, her eyes now filled with a hunger to find this "island in the sky".

She soon noticed that one of the stars in the sky began to glow brighter than the rest, causing the others to fade from Zelda's view. Confused, Zelda lifted her head to look around her, and was aghast to find nothing—Link, the citadel, the stable below; they were all gone. She was in place completely consumed with darkness. She looked back to the star, the glow of which had become almost blinding. The star had also begun to take a more humanoid shape. The shape appeared to be that of a woman's, with kind blue eyes that were gazing right at Zelda. The woman's golden hair still managed to whip around her in this windless void they both found themselves in. Zelda tried her best to hold the woman's stare, but the heavenly light that she seemed to be composed of was truly overwhelming.

Could she be a goddess? Zelda found herself thinking. A fairy?

Whichever the case, Zelda was sure that this woman was the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen. When the woman seemed to be sure she had Zelda's full attention, her lips began to move and, although Zelda found it hard to look at her, she could tell her lips were moving both quickly and urgently. Whatever this woman had to say was very important to her, but Zelda couldn't hear her. No matter how much her lips moved, no words reached Zelda's ears. Zelda tried to open her mouth and tell the woman that she couldn't hear her, but her body wasn't responding.

It was then that the woman's light began to fade, making it easier for Zelda to look at her. The woman seemed to realise from Zelda's facial expression that she wasn't able to understand what she was saying, and a look of sadness crossed her gorgeous features. The sadness soon turned to resignation, and she began to fade faster.

No… Zelda found herself thinking. She attempted to voice her thoughts, but to no avail. NO!

Zelda finally willed herself to extend her arm towards the fading light and speak. "Wait! Come back!"

"…Zelda…" a voice came. "…wake up…"

Zelda's confusion turned her attention away from the woman's almost-gone figure to the second voice in the dark void. "What...?"

"…please open your eyes…"

Zelda found her body being shaken by someone and before she knew it, she was lurching forward, her eyes snapping open and the world spinning back into its rightful place around her. She found herself panting rapidly and she reached up to wipe her brow, which was covered in sweat. Before she could even acknowledge Link's presence next to her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Oh, thank Hylia," Link whispered into her hair.

"Wh…what happened?" Zelda managed to ask, despite her disorientation.

"You were yelling in your sleep, screaming 'no' and telling someone to wait and come back to you. Do you not remember?"

Zelda shook her head and pulled out of the hug to look Link in the eyes. "No, I remember… I just…" She stopped. "It doesn't matter. It was probably just a strange dream."

Before Link could question her further, Zelda looked to the sky, which had been tinted orange with the coming of the morning sun. She must have been sleeping for longer than she realised.

"We should probably get going," she told Link, looking down to the stable where their horses stood grazing. She stood up and dusted herself off, offering her hand to help him up, which he accepted. "If we're not back soon, the guards will begin to get curious."

They began their descent down the steps that encircled the citadel, and Zelda couldn't help but be aware of Link's wary eyes on her. He always seemed to have a knack for reading her, and he could certainly tell something was off with how she was reacting to the vision of the woman.

Vision? Zelda thought to herself. No, it was just a dream... Just a dream…

Author's Notes: Thanks so much for reading the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry for the delay with this one. I was on holidays for a little while and didn't get a chance to update it while I was away. Hopefully you won't have to wait that long for the next chapter.

I really enjoyed putting the Skyward Sword reference in there. It really clicked with me as I was writing this chapter how similar BotW!Zelda and SS!Zelda are. I mean, they both journey to springs all over Hyrule to unlock their hidden powers; they both sleep for several years to hold back an evil entity; they both form a really close relationship with Link (I could go on, but I'll digress for now).

Also, just on the topic of stables, from what I gathered from the game, I think that the stables were around 100 years ago, but were destroyed in the Calamity, leading to the rebuilding of all of them during the 100 years Link is asleep.

Anyway, next chapter has my favourite chapter title out of all of the chapters I've done or have planned to do…