For the first time since he had left the Great Plateau, Link was alone.
He stared down the path that 'Mipha' had left on, his leg's refusing to move.
Why did you let her leave?
What else could he have done?
Anything at all, but you just stood there as she left.
She would have been placed in even more danger if he had.
So your solution was to just let her leave?
Could he have done anything else?
How should I know?! Aren't you supposed to be the heroic knight?
Yes, that's what he was supposed to be. At least, that's what he had been told.
Some hero then, just standing idly by when a defenseless girl is kidnapped. A princess, no less.
The voice in Link's head was winning the argument, but he was to tired to notice. The clock had long passed midnight, and there were several battles throughout the day. It was surprising he had even noticed they were arguing.
What exactly have you done to even earn that title? What makes some guy who woke up in a cave worthy?
That...
Link's gaze shifted downwards.
He wasn't sure of that himself.
He had been told since waking that he was this hero, but since then, not much had proved their words. At every turn, it seemed he was being beaten to his knees, only for someone else to save him. He likely wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Mipha's skill with a pike and her healing abilities.
So far, the only thing he seemed to have any notable skill with was picking up anything that isn't nailed down. He had amassed more supplies than a caravan would know what to do with. Among the weapons he had acquired, Link did not seem to have much skill wielding them. He was passable with anything, but was far from mastery. He remembered faking bravado when talking to Impa, and he became quickly infuriated at Hateno, far more so than a hero had any right being.
At this point, the only proof there was that he was a hero were the words of those who knew him 100 years ago, who said he was a knight back then, protecting the princess of Hyrule.
Yeah, and you were so good at it that you died before you could even attempt the very thing you were meant to do, and now that same Hylian princess is doing your job better than you could. But hey, on the bright side, at least you're consistently putting princesses in danger.
Shut up.
Whoops, sorry, I didn't mean to try and be reasonable. It's not like you could mess up any further. Mipha's long gone with some demon stuck inside her. At this point, she's probably as good as dea-
"SHUT UP!"
...
He didn't know why those words in particular drove him back to reality. He hardly knew anything about Mipha, about as much as he knew about himself, but raging emotion would always swell within him whenever she was in danger. Each time, it was like he was on the verge of remembering something. He would keep her face in his thoughts and focus on it trying to force any buried memories from the recesses of his mind. Each time he failed.
This time was no different.
Link sunk to the ground. He was exhausted, but above all, he was cold. The rain hadn't shown any sign of stopping in the entire time he had entered it. Sidon seemed to have told the truth about the rain being created by a divine beast. He was cold when he entered, and then the sun set. The cold had long since numbed his body to the point that he could barely feel just how cold he really was. Which begged the question as to why his shoulder felt like it was burning.
His shoulder inspection was rewarded with a beautiful sight of an arrow sticking out of it, one of the strange ones the Lizalfos were using. His hand felt like it was being poked at by thirty needles as he pulled at it. One final shock arced between his flesh and the point as he freed it, making him flinch in pain. To his surprise, he wasn't bleeding. If he had to guess, the wound cauterized itself from the heat.
Tired beyond belief, he fell back on the ground. It was hard and somehow colder than the air, but he was at least thankful he didn't need to stand.
He was left with time to contemplate all of what had just happened, and he was left with one question for himself.
"What have I done?"
What surprised him was that someone answered.
"Well, I should think that much is obvious. The question you should be asking is what are you going to do about it?"
He was even more surprised when he found who said it.
The response came from behind him, part anger, part scold, part encouragement, and when Link saw the speaker, he came to the single logical conclusion.
He was hallucinating from exhaustion.
Navi, still pinned to a tree via spearhead, was somehow speaking, and was doing so with more vigor than most men could produce during their lifetime.
For a while, Link simply stared in awe at what his mind had imagined. For a delusional conjuring, it was stunningly vivid. Blood still poured from the open wound square in his chest, though there was something in the way stopping the full force. The face began to look annoyed, and the corpse spoke a second time.
"I ask again, what are you going to do now? Perhaps a better question would be what are you going to do about it?" There was more force in his words now, nearly becoming a call to arms, but Link was no more roused than the first time.
"What does it matter?" he answered.
"It matters plenty, you need to tame the Divine Beasts." Navi rebuked.
"Someone else can do it."
"No one else can do it."
The ghost was becoming an annoyance
"Why not?" Link demanded as he stood in anger. "Why am I so important? Everyone I've met so far who has had anything to do with my past praise me as some kind of destined hero, never taking much time as to explain why I'm so important. I don't even know if these people we've met are telling the truth about me. I have no idea who I am, and all I know is that I woke up in a cave with a Zora."
He paused. The reminder of his failure made him return to the ground.
"...A Zora that I just lost."
Navi's face turned from annoyance to empathy. The boy seemed to have expected the argument, but he didn't make a counter point.
"Trust me, I wanted to help her too, but there was honestly nothing we could have done. That thing has enough power to control a Divine Beast without even using the controls, I have no idea how we could even begin to exorcise it."
The apparition paused to spit out some blood from his mouth. Rather, what Link hoped was blood and not assorted pieces of guts.
"I do know other things, though. For one, it's a four hour walk to reach Zora's domain, five if it's raining, and more if you don't have a map that's been updated any time in the past hundred years. Meanwhile, it's only three if you sprint the whole way, less if you do happen to have a map, raining or not. That thing has a head start, but you could make it to the domain before it gets to Vah Ruta, and you would have enough time to prepare before boarding the Beast and saving the girl."
It was a compelling point, but it didn't answer any of his questions. Link stayed on the ground, and stared at the illusion. The boy sighed in response as he fruitlessly tried to ajust his position of the spear.
"If you're waiting for an answer, I don't have one. People are made by what they have done, and you have the unique displeasure of having lost that. Your only hope would be to see for yourself. That slate has some memories, sure, but you would be more likely to learn from people who knew you personally, as opposed to some warrior destined to beat back Ganon."
Link could see where this was going. "Those people would be the champions?"
Navi had a small smile.
"And if that's not enough, I'll let you in on a secret. Only four other people even know Mipha has been revived. One of them is dead, one of them is over a hundred years old, one of them has the body of a seven-year-old, and one of them is pinned to a tree. What's more, you're one of the only two of those five that knows Mipha is in danger. And, again..."
He gestured to his chest.
"One of them is pinned to a tree. You're the only one who can help her, kid. Everyone who knew you said you were some great hero. Everyone except Mipha. I'm sure hearing all the stories of how you were skilled enough with a blade to defend the princess of Hyrule has planted all sorts of expectations on you from her."
That hit Link harder than it should have. Mipha was a princess herself, though she didn't know. If Link truly was as strong a knight as he had been told, than he had no place stepping away from royalty in trouble. He pulled himself to his feet and faced the ghost, who's smile grew wider at the sight.
"Now, I'm going to give you two choices. One: You can leave now, find some cave to curl up in, and let the guilt crush you as her expectations were made in vain."
Link winced at the idea. The hallucination had argued a spark of a fighting spirit into Link's head, and try as he might, it wasn't being extinguished.
"Or..."
Navi grabbed the subject of his impalement, and pulled. In one mighty grunt, he wrenched the weapon free from its bloody prison, and, after struggling to stand, presented the crimson-stained shaft to his witness. Link didn't know his eyes could open that wide.
"You can give Mipha her spear back."
Link wasn't sure whether to be impressed or nauseated. It was one of the most moving scenes he had witnessed in his short time being alive again, but the clear view of the tree behind Navi made his stomach threaten to vomit.
He decided to be impressed. The spark had a long ways to burn before he could match what lit it, but Link doubted anyone could stay still after seeing this.
He walked to Navi, not quite determined, but he realized something when he grabbed the spear. Something that made him want to rethink his choice to be impressed.
"This..." he stumbled back, "I'm not imagining this."
He was met with a small laugh. "I would hope not. I was quite proud of that speech"
"You...You're not a Hylian."
Navi laughed harder, causing more blood to pour out from his mouth.
"What gave it away, the shattered spine, the macerated heart, or the two punctured lungs?" Navi replied, offering to help the Hero up.
For a moment, Link forgot how to speak. He stared directly through the boy reaching his hand out. He wasn't bleeding anymore, likely because there was nothing making his blood move.
After staring for what felt like a minute and accepting the help up, Link had one last question.
"What are you then?"
This one was met with a sigh, and the answer was somber.
"I'll spare you my life's story. Half because it's quite boring, half because we don't have the time. In brief, I'm a warrior with some time to kill."
Link's dissatisfaction was evident.
"Tell you what. Stop the immediate threat of mass flooding and free the Divine Beast. I'll tell you the whole thing afterwards. Deal?" the boy asked, extending a hand.
"...Deal."
"Great," he groaned, sitting down. "Go on then, I'll catch up when I'm missing a few less pieces. Just be careful. As the old saying goes: it's dangerous to go alone."
Author's Note:
Not quite the massive chapter some would expect after so long, huh?
It's certainly been a hot minute, hasn't it? But, after graduation, diploma exams, cooling off after those diploma exams, job hunting, job working, volunteering, celebrating summer with my friends, and applying for college grants, I'm back in my writer's chair. Summer's been pretty hectic for my so far, but it seems to be evening out. I do hope you can forgive me for the accidental hiatus, I hate making you guys, gals, and others of various categories too numerous to name wait, but life gets kind of full sometimes. In the meantime, I'll work on this whenever I find some time to myself, but considering my track record, I don't really want to promise anything.
Take life as seriously as is required, it can be nice to stop and pet the pandas every now and again.
Sincerely, Sobakiin