Link looked up at his father. His hard expression creased his face in jagged lines as it always did when he was concentrating on something. It made him look strong. Brave. Scary, even. Link had memorized every feature in his father's face, especially when it looked like that, which seemed to be more and more lately. He didn't understand any of it at the time; why his father seemed to be at work more and getting home late. Why some days, his father wouldn't so much as utter a word to him, and other days, he seemed sad when he looked upon his son.
"Dad?"
His father's hard expression melted away for a moment as his eyes turned to his son. "Hm?"
"You're one of the good guys, right?"
His father smiled. "Yeah. Of course."
"Dad?"
His father let a breath out through his nose, but the smile remained. "Yes?"
"Are you ever afraid?"
His father picked him up and sat him on his lap. He pointed at the book that lay open on the table. It was the first image Link had ever seen of the Master Sword, yet it seemed oddly familiar.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid."
Link's brows furrowed together as he looked at the sword on the page. He always assumed his father was fearless. Soldiers had to be, didn't they?
His father continued. "The truth is, everyone is afraid of something, right?" He poked his son's shoulder playfully. "Even you."
Link crossed his arms. "Nuh-uh. I'm not afraid of anything."
His father raised a skeptical brow. "So, you're telling me that you're not afraid of anything? Not even, oh, I don't know, chickens?"
"I'm not afraid of chickens!" Link barked at his father. He retreated slightly into his father's arms. "They're just kind of big and loud and they have sharp beaks."
His father nodded. "Yeah, the bastards can really pack a punch when they want to," his father muttered.
"Bastards," Link whispered.
"Don't say that to your mother." His father picked him up and sat him on the desk. "Everyone has fears," he continued. "Some of them are logical, and some don't make a whole lot of sense to other people. But they're there in all of us."
"What do you do?" Link asked. "To not be afraid?"
"Well," his father started. "Sometimes, it can't be helped. Sometimes you want to run from them, and sometimes you can. But other times, you can't. You can't run and you can't hide. And sometimes, you don't want to run or hide from those fears, because if you do, the fears win, right?"
"You fight them!" Link said, thrusting a fist in the air.
"Yeah. You fight them. You turn around and show those fears what you're made of. You'll probably still be afraid, but you'll learn that those fears only make you want to fight harder, to protect yourself and the people you love. Someday, you'll find something that will rise above your fears. You'll find the will to fight your fears. No matter what the cost."
Link blinked at his father. "What if you lose?"
His father leaned back in his seat and turned his gaze to the image of the Master Sword. "Sometimes we lose," he said softly. "Sometimes, no matter how hard we fight, we just cannot win. But if we let the fear of losing stop us from facing our fears and fighting against them, we have already lost."
As he grew older, their relationship had changed once more, and his father seemed more eager to teach his son. He taught him to speak the different languages of Hyrule, even ancient Hylian. He taught him simple things, like changing the tire on a car, to cleaning weapons. He taught him to shoot, to fight, to defend. To be courageous. Fearless. Loyal. He taught him to face his fears, to fight them, to defeat them.
And when he died, Link forgot his father's most important lesson. He forgot how to face his fears, how to fight them, how to defeat them. His fears creeped in closer. Fears of death and loss. And when he joined the SFU, they were replaced with doubts and confusions. With feelings of betrayal and anger, and it only made him more fearful than ever. Fear of being mislead, distrusted, and fear of losing; losing a war, losing his friends, losing his way.
He realized at that moment, as he tried desperately to out run the collapsing ledges, that it wasn't dying that he was afraid of. It wasn't losing a fight, or even losing a war. He was afraid of not being able to keep the people he loved safe. He had failed his friends, his comrades, and if he didn't act quickly, he would fail Zelda. Zelda would be alone, and he would not be able to save her.
And he wasn't about to let that happen. He would turn and face his fears head on and fight them. He would let his fears drive him forward with everything he had. And he would not lose.
He pushed his body as fast as he could towards the far ledge and the cave in seemed to slow behind him. As soon as he was close enough, Link pulled out one of his knives and threw himself at the ledge, thrusting the knife into the ledge where it caught, allowing him to pull himself up. He searched for crevices with his feet and he pulled himself up, scaling the wall as quickly as he could manage. The explosions had ceased and in turn, the trembling died down. The weaker ledges had caved, but the ledges further out had some strength left to them. Before he knew it, the cave in had slowed until just small, loose rocks tumbled down onto the pile of debris below. The far wall that he scaled was all that remained.
But as he climbed, rocks loosened by earlier cracking gave way and threatened the integrity of the ledge. Though it still held strong, it was only a matter of time before it would give way to the stress of the cracks that crept through it, and if Link wasn't careful, his climb up the ledge would only speed up that process until his weight was too much. The ledge would give way just as the others had and bring Link down with it.
Without the threat of the collapsing ledges behind him, Link slowed his pacing, choosing his footing carefully. He tested each crack and ledge with the toe of his boot, and if it felt secure enough, he let his weight rest on it and continued upward.
It took him just over a half an hour to scale the entirety of the ledge and he was starting to feel the exhaustion in his muscles. His arms burned and started to shake as he pulled himself up. It took everything he had to pull himself over where he collapsed on the ground, heaving to catch his breath. The sun had just started to rise, pastel colors stretching across the dissolving night sky. Link closed his eyes for a moment as he waited for his breathing to slow, then pushed himself onto his feet. He was still in the valley, and it would take him most of the day to get over the mountain range and back to his car. But at least he wasn't racing against the Yiga Clan any more, or even collapsing ledges. All that was left was getting to Zora's Domain, getting the Master Sword, and then to the palace to stop Ganon.
It was early in the evening by the time Link reached the other side of the mountain range and made his way back to the car. He was exhausted, hungry, and sore, his muscles burning. He fell into the seat of the car, closing his eyes for a moment before working up the energy to shift through his bag for the last few remaining bags of chips that he had. It wasn't the most satisfying meal, to say the least, but it would have to do for the time being.
He inhaled the bag of chips, hardly taking the time to chew, and finished off one of the water bottles. It was warm from sitting in the car in the sun, but it still felt refreshing. When his stomach stopped growling angrily at him, he started the car and drove back to the road, following it the rest of the way out of the desert. He knew there was a cheap motel just outside of the desert along the interstate. It was one of the few that managed to stay open after Ganon's first initial attack, perhaps due to its location where the Guardians were fewer. By avoiding the main interstate, any stray travelers would have a much easier time avoiding the machines controlled by Ganon, allowing for communication and trades to move a little more freely, which kept motels in those areas open as a resting point between cities.
It was dark when Link pulled into the unsurprising empty parking lot. He trudged to the front counter, and the woman at the computer looked genuinely surprised to see him come in. She looked him up and down wordlessly, her eyes wide and questioning, but she turned to grab a key and passed it across the counter. "We have a first aid kit if you need it," were the only words she spoke to Link.
Link shook his head and made his way down the hallway, letting a yawn escape his throat. His heavy eyes searched for his room and he unlocked the door and slipped inside. He dropped his things on the floor and immediately turned into the bathroom where he stripped out of his clothes and started the water in the shower. It had been too long since he had a hot shower.
His eyes fell to his reflection in the mirror, realizing at that moment why the woman seemed so surprised by his appearance. His hair was straggly and his skin was darkened with dirt, blood, and sweat. His arms had the healing traces of his burns from the Fireblight on Vah Rudania, and bruises traced along the rest of his body, too many to recall where they had all come from. All in all, he was an absolute mess.
He stepped into the shower with a sigh and let the hot water run over his body. It took what felt like a very long time before he found the energy to actually clean himself, but he managed to scrub the dirt and dried blood off and shampoo the dust out of his hair. He was in the shower for close to an hour before he finally got out and toweled off. He trudged sleepily out of the bathroom and let his body fall onto the bed, and he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.