Chapter: 10
Theme: 20 Pushed
Game: Skyward Sword
Setting: After Zelda tells Link she used him
Rating: K

Whenever Link thought of Zelda one word came to mind 'pushed'. She always seemed to be pushing him in some form or fashion. She pushed him to excel in school even when his parents shipped him off to Skyloft ignoring him in favor of their apothecary business. She pushed him to stand up to Groose and his gang when they continually bullied him, pushed him to take things more seriously, pushed him to practice, pushed him off of Skyloft repeatedly, and on and on the list went.

While it could be annoying at times Link always felt he needed it, needed a good push. He was lazy and carefree most of the time, only willing to do the things he ought to when there was a lack of other more appealing things to do. Well except for maybe being pushed off of Skyloft, he wasn't sure what her fascination with that was, and if it weren't for his magnificent red loftwing she would've only been able to do it once.

But this time…this time Link couldn't help but feel she'd gone too far. He'd gladly gone on this mission to save her, or whatever it was that she needed of him, but to find this out was unthinkable. To find out this had all been planned, to know he was nothing more than a tool to be honed for a war he wanted no part in was unbearable. He had almost died so many times already, but each time he had pushed onward telling himself he would not fail again.

This time though it wasn't his body that was being decimated it was his very heart and soul, and this time he didn't know if he'd survive. Zelda…Hylia…whoever she was she had used him. Had admittedly used him for the greater good like a puppy on a leash. To her was merely a weapon of war, no different than the shield and sword he wielded. Did she even care for him? Had she ever cared? Or was everything just part of some divine plan that the Goddess set into motion long before he was even thought of?

Link didn't have the answer those questions, or any of the others that now raced through his mind faster than a loftwing diving. He wondered what would happen if he just walked away from it all? She had apologized to him, had acted like she was sorry, but could he trust that? He had trusted her explicably all his life, and there was every chance all of it was a lie. What would happen if he refused to be her hero, refused to take part in her war? He sat outside the temple upon some of the ruins that lay scattered about pondering all of this when he felt a slight push on his arm.

Looking up he realized it was Groose trying to get his attention, "Uh, um hey…guess it didn't…aaah…it didn't go so well huh? Did you not get to see Zels or sumthin' go wrong or ya know sumthin'?"

Link only shook his head unable to speak to the redhead, but it seemed Groose in some part figured that out and continued on. "Yeah uh guess it's none of my business huh, but doesn't matter s'much really." At that Link looked up at him in a vehement way that was lost since Groose was looking out over the land.

"Yeah I mean I don't really get what's goin' on an' all, but really it's more than just helpin' Zels now isn't it. It's helpin' everyone down here and up in Skyloft too now isn't it? We can't let that flabby bag of teeth win an' ruin all this pretty stuff here in Grooseland. I mean just look at all this, we gotta make sure it stays like this for a long time, right. Besides we can't lose it all 'fore ole Groose here has a chance to really see how wild this land is. I tell ya after suma the stories you come back with, it's hard to just sit here. Even mister perfect knight Pipit would probably squeal like a girl seein' all this. Really I mean just you, me, and Zels have gotten to see this, and me not so much. If it imploded my mind I can't imagine what the others will think, ya know. There's so much down here, I can't imagine how hard it would've been for the people to leave all this beauty, kinda like how I feel when I'm havin' a good hair day and I gotta go to class," Groose snickered at his lame joke but continued on. "This place is just surreal and we've only begun to see how magnificent it is. I know once it's safe I'm gonna be one of the first to look in every nook and cranny just to see it all."

At that Link finally looked up and around, seeing everything for what felt like the first time. The land was beautiful and vast, it would be perfect for people of Skyloft who had to live in such close quarters. Resources were scarce and dependent on a good season, here there was plenty of space for varying crops so they stood a better chance of having some food to store. People could expand and thrive here, not like on Skyloft where families were limited to mainly one child.

It was then as Link thought of all this he realized that even though things weren't as he had once thought, there was still a reason to push on. There were so many things worth fighting for, not only on Skyloft but here as well. Yes that was what he needed to focus on now, he could sort out his feelings for Zelda/Hylia later. For now he would fight for all those who needed him, for all those who couldn't fight for themselves. He would push on through it all, and worry about the future and his feelings later.

A/N: Okay so this started out in theme really well, but it seemed to diverge almost into another theme at the end, you won't see that theme until the end. Still it seemed appropriate and I don't know about you guys but I'm sure the day of the Wing Ceremony wasn't the first time Zelda had pushed Link off of Skyloft :). I wanted this theme to be longer, but anything more just didn't seem to fit so only a mere 1,001 words.

On another note I wanted to say sorry to any readers of my Three Weeks story and the false update this week. Some may know I added in an author's note chapter in hopes of getting votes to hopefully meet the goal of getting that story published. For that I'm not sorry as I'm like many here and hoping to get our stories out to a broader range of readers. The part I need to apologize for is when I deleted the extra chapter after the voting was done. I honestly had no idea that deleting it would be considered an update and put it up again. I figured it was like when you edited a chapter and reloaded it. The errors would be fixed but not show as a new update. Turns out I was wrong on that so it looks like I was really throwing that story out there. It wasn't intentional I was merely trying to get rid of that spare chapter. This likely won't be the last time sadly because as I said I'm working towards publishing that story. When I do I think I'll be deleting it off of here, though I'm not sure on that. Before that happens I'll add a A/N chapter letting anyone who's reading it know when it will be removed.

Until next week I hope everyone enjoyed this update and thank you for reading. Next week's theme is 'Lie awake in bed' and will be a bit different as it's the first one in this challenge that isn't from Link's perspective, though there will be others down the road. Later, everyone and thank you again for reading.