Everything was sweltering.

Around her, tendrils of oozing malice crept closer. Closer. She couldn't scream. Couldn't breathe. It wrapped around her, tenderly at first, before clenching so tightly she could scarcely tell where he ended and where she began. Enfolding her, encasing whatever was left until she became a pyre of terror and revulsion.

She opened her mouth to cry out- to shriek, to weep, anything. No avail. Her lungs were burning, and yet when she inhaled, she was only greeted with dripping malevolence in place of oxygen. She was choking, sputtering, fighting against her primal urge to breathe in order to keep it from invading her entire body.

Once again, she was powerless. Before she knew it, it enveloped her entire world. First, as the calamity itself, and now as this. A foul, wretched, primordial essence of evil incarnate. Behind her eyelids, seeping into every coherent thought. She couldn't block it out. Couldn't close her eyes. A dark, inky abyss of nothing but him. Everything she had been trying so hard to avoid, to protect her loved ones from.

After taking everything precious from her, it was finally her turn. The final ending to a grim, forlorn story. Once she fell, there would truly be nothing left of her kingdom. No hope. No hero.

Nothing.

It shrouded her, clinging like a second skin. She could feel it descend into her lungs, her pores, sinking into every orifice. She didn't want it to end this way. The moment she gave in, the rest of her people's fates would be sealed. She had to keep trying, even as she felt her mortal body sink deeper and deeper into that darkness. Thrashing, kicking, every muscle screamed at her to stop, but she continued. In futile hopes of keeping it at bay, if only for a moment.

Somehow, someway, she felt something within the depth of malice. With renewed vigor, Zelda grasped onto it, digging her nails in. A shape was beginning to take form, she could feel the heat radiating off of it. Trapping her. She proceeded to lift her other arm, hand swiping blindly with a vengeance. She could hear her heartbeat once more, the blood pounding within her veins.

Half-cognizant, it slowly dawned on her that she wasn't dying. Calamity Ganon was finished with. And yet, her shock and distress continued to weigh on her. Gasping for air, she could finally breathe again, and the quivering sobs that followed shook her entire body. The relentless flurry of her kicks and pummeling limbs began to wind down. Ears ringing, chest heaving, it took Zelda a few minutes to even become aware of Link's presence. Whatever words he may have uttered, it fell to deaf ears. She took in none of it. Everything had been lost in her dream, mirroring a reality that very easily could've happened, but he was here. Alive.

Ignoring her sweat slicked body, she quickly pressed herself to him. Clinging as if he would disappear from her grasp if she loosened it in the slightest. Lightheadedness and residue terror clouded her senses, and the most she could do was try to muffle her open-mouthed sobs as she trembled against him.

"L… Link—" She forced out the consonants of his name between convulsive gasps. The bed's comforter pooled at her ankles, entwined with her feet. The room gradually stopped spinning, and she realized dully that there was no sign of blight. No flickering shapes or glowing, amber eyes. He had already saved her. Those fears were no longer. Nothing was left of her time with Ganon, except for her own ghosts and Link's many scars. Disillusioned, Zelda's remnants of past memories began to fade away as her heart palpitations lessened.

Concentrating on the present, she maneuvered her body— modesty a faraway concern— and leaned her face into the crook of Link's neck. He didn't share the same acrid, pungent scent that now lurked within the hallways of Hyrule Castle.

She needed to feel safe. Needed to be safe. And she was, wasn't she? Link's home was a harbor. His company was her solace. They were safe.

Internally, she repeated the word, cradled it to her chest as if it were a precious thing.

Safe.

Thank you for reading! I hope the first few paragraphs with Zelda's dream weren't too confusing, the first chapter is mostly just her only barely-aware-of-her-surroundings pov.

If you liked it (or even if you didn't) please leave a review, critique, comments, questions, etc, anything you'd like!
Have a good day & stay safe