Hello everybody. This is a fanfiction that I started in 2019 and I wrote it in German. Because I come from Germany and therefore also write in German, understandably. Since I have recently translated some of my fanfictions into English and have actually received quite a good response (All of this happened on AO3) - my English seems to be readable, even without a beta reader - and since I intend to continue writing this work and also to finish it, I thought, why not translate this and see how it goes. But since I'm still a little unsure of my English, I like to warn my readers that they are reading something by a non-native speaker, just to be safe than sorry.
As every time with a new story, I like to tell how I got the idea. At that time the trailer for the sequel of Breath of the Wild came out and I was really hyped and still am. I mean, it looked so great. Then I started watching theory videos on Youtube...then I started reading fanfiction in the fandom, which I hadn't done before...and then I stumbled over this fanfiction with a Link that was a thief. It was here en and was called "Fighting Fate" by Allendra, so if you feel like reading something similar, then check it out, it's really good.
I found the approach quite interesting, so I decided to do something similar myself.
Except for the initial idea, this has nothing to do with it, it has a completely different story, even Link and Zelda are quite far apart in character, if not the complete opposite of that. Anyway, I'm someone who likes to take an initial idea from a book or a movie or a video game and then tell it all completely different.
I've already plotted the whole story so far, I know where it's going, and I know how it's going to end. I don't know how often I'll post. The German version now has 6 chapters, 5 of which I have already translated so far that I can slowly proofread them. I thought that I would put out the next chapter here when I post a new one in German, so that there are no longer delays and such.
Oh, by the way, I know the title sucks, but I couldn't think of anything better, it kind of fits, I think...I don't know, maybe I'll rename it if I can think of something better.
Oh, and I am crossposting it on AO3.
So, long story short, enjoy reading.
Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda game-series does not belong to me and never will. All rights are owned by Nintendo. I don't make any money with this work and I don't want to.
Chapter 1
"The Triforce shone in all its gilded glory. Its holy power filled the silence and all the bystanders felt like Hylia herself was speaking to them. The hero and the princess reached out and touched the holy relict. The Triforce heard their quit, pure wish and raised Lorule's Triforce from its ashes. Princess Hilda and Ravio returned to their own, now whole once again, world and peace returned to the Kingdom of Hyrule" Princess Zelda ended her tale and closed the book in her hands. Dust swirled up from the old, yellowed pages and settled down again like a silent rain.
She liked this story, this hope the happy ending harbored, this purity of the hero and the princess of this time, this selflessness. They could have wished for everything, wealth, power, eternal prosperity for their kingdom, but instead, they wished for the salvation of a foreign land, a kingdom that had attacked them. It gave her hope.
King Darius of Hyrule lay just as motionless as at the beginning of the story his daughter had filled the air with. His huge chest rose and fell monotonously under the heavy blanket, the curls of his white beard gently moving from his breath. The room was bathed in a semi-darkness, only the small, almost completely burned down candle on the bedside table, next to which Zelda was sitting on a chair, gave off sparse light.
The king's apartments were large, the four-poster bed the monarch rested in rose up almost to the ceiling with dark blue curtains embroidered with the golden crest of Hyrule, which were drawn on all sides except for the one the princess was sitting at. It was quiet in the room after Zelda had finished her tale, so quiet you could cut the silence with a knife. It was not a pleasant silence; it was overwhelming and heavy, and the girl had the feeling she would soon collapse under it.
Her fingers clenched around the book in her lap, so tight that her knuckles were white, and tears welled up in her sea-green eyes. It was a rare sight lately - the princess with tears in her eyes, no, the princess with emotions on her face. She wasn't cold, no, she just couldn't allow herself to show emotions, let her weaknesses and fears come to the surface for everyone to see. She suffocated them all with the responsibility that weighed on their thin shoulders like a curse worse than the evil Ganon.
Here was one of the few places where the girl allowed herself this weakness, where she let out all the despair that dwelt in her heart like a wild animal creeping along the walls of a cage hoping to break out. Here in this place where her father had been sleeping for four years and never woke up.
Zelda could still remember exactly that day, that fateful, terrible day when her father did not wake up in the morning as usual. In the past, Zelda had always had a morning ritual, she would get up, slip into one of her delicate pink dresses and knock on the door of her father's study. She would wait until he invited her in, then she would open the door and find him behind his desk, bursting with scrolls and books, as if he had never gone to bed that night. She would wish him good morning; he would return the greeting and ask her about her well-being. After a few minutes, she would leave and see him again for dinner.
But that morning she found her father's study empty. She still clearly remembered the sound her knuckles had made when she knocked gently on the wood of the door, waiting for his answer, which never came. It had seemed like a little eternity to her, while she stood in front of the door until she finally pushed down the copper handle and peered into the empty room behind it. A cold shiver ran down her spine, a strange premonition that something was very wrong. It had struck her as ridiculous at the time, after all, her father was only human, and it did happen that people overslept.
Maybe he wasn't feeling well that morning and had chosen to stay in bed? Maybe something important happened? Maybe he had something significant to attend to? Something urgent that needed his immediate attention. Yes, it had to be that way, decided the young princess, but her uneasy feeling did not disappear with this realization.
Her feet had carried her into her father's rooms all by themselves, after all, it didn't hurt to be sure. Zelda knocked on this door as well and received no answer once again. She turned a handle again and peered into the dark room beyond. The heavy curtains on the windows were drawn, the candle on the bedside table wasn't burning. The light from the hall threw a bright beam into the room and hit the bed the motionless figure of the king lay in. His eyes were closed in his sleep, his broad chest rose and fell with an unknown rhythm.
"Father?" Zelda called uncertainly into the room, but the king did not move. She took an indecisive step into the room. She had been here very rarely, the last time was when her mother, Queen Zelda, took her last breath in that very bed five years ago, carried away by a rare disease there was no cure for. There had been no reason for her to be here, after all, her father woke up much earlier than she did. The young princess stepped up to the bed and placed a small hand on King Darius' broad shoulder. She shook it gently, but that too did not force him to move.
"Father?" she called to him again with tears in her eyes, the worry in her heart now so great that it threatened to shatter. A few moments passed as Zelda, helpless as she was, shook his shoulder and called for him to wake. Then she stumbled back out into the hall and called for help.
A commotion broke out. Guards ran towards them with their spears drawn, some Sheikah on their heels with Impa at their head. Adviser Aiwin pulled her gently to the side so she wouldn't be in the way and she cried in his sleeve. The loss of her mother, all the pain that came with it, fought its way back to the surface along with the fear of losing her father as well. She wasn't ready to lose him, even less than she had been ready to lose her.
The king did not wake up. They had doctors come from all over the kingdom, they examined the king and everyone announced that nothing was wrong with him. Then they sent for faith healers and bought their elixirs, one of them even let out a fairy trapped in a jar above the king, but this time the efforts were unsuccessful as well.
As a last resort adviser Aiwin had called a fortune teller, a woman from Kakariko, who saw the future in her dreams and could read the fate of a person in their eyes. She had looked down at the king for a very long time, her eyes unfathomable, then she turned to Zelda, her look sad, and announced in a low, gentle voice:
"It is no ordinary sleep that has befallen your father, Princess. An evil buzzes in the air, an evil that has plagued the kingdom of Hyrule for eons. This evil has brought your father into this state and he will not awaken until it is conquered"
"What evil?" Zelda asked with a trembling, small voice "what can I do?"
"It's a very old evil, as old as Hylia herself" the woman continued "but there is still hope. The princess who carries the blood of the goddess and the warrior wielding the soul of a hero is able to stop this evil and I am sure that as soon as this happens, his majesty will also awaken again. You are the princess; I can see it in your eyes"
"And the hero?" Zelda breathed.
"I don't know, Princess, but I am sure he will come" with these words the fortune teller said her goodbyes and returned to her village.
"We have to find the hero" Zelda spoke to her closest confidantes Impa, the leader of the Sheikah, and Aiwin, the king's adviser.
"It won't be easy, Princess" Impa said with her arms crossed over her chest. She was a tall, broad woman with white hair tied in a tight bun at the back of her neck and deep red eyes. On her forehead was the Sheikah's crest, an eye with a tear. Zelda had known this woman for as long as she could remember.
The Sheikah were a folk of trained shadow warriors, always there, always in secret, always on the lookout for any dangers that might befall the royal family of Hyrule. She had always been a constant shadow of her father and she had to feel terrible for not managing to save the king from this curse. But outwardly the woman remained completely composed and Zelda envied her this calm.
"But what can we do?" adviser Aiwin asked, nervously patting his forehead with a handkerchief. Zelda had known him all her life, as well. He had always been there with a friendly smile on his face and wise advice on the tip of his tongue. She didn't know much about his time before court, but she knew that he was born somewhere around Kakariko. As far as she had heard, he had come to the king as a supplicant on behalf of his village. At that time there had been a traitor among the courtiers, Aiwin had exposed the betrayal, and King Darius had asked him to stay.
"Can we be sure that the fortune teller is not mistaken?" Impa asked doubtfully.
"Her reputation is flawless" Aiwin shrugged and crossed his fingers over his ample stomach "no prophecies of hers have ever been proven false" he broke off and both adults looked expectantly at Zelda. The girl swallowed hard. Now that her father was gone, she had to make the decisions and she didn't feel the slightest bit ready to do so. How could she? She was thirteen, still a child. Just a few days ago, her most serious decision had been which dress to wear in the morning. And now…
"We have to find the hero" the gild breathed softly.
"I will send the Sheikahs" Impa nodded curtly and left the room.
"Princess" Aiwin started and broke off, then took a deep breath and put a warm hand on her shoulder "we can't leave the kingdom without a ruler"
"My father is not dead" the girl shook her head, more to convince herself than her opposite "we will find the hero and he will defeat the evil"
"How long will it take?" the adviser continued "there must always be someone from the royal family on the throne of Hyrule"
"But…" she broke off with a sob "my father is not dead"
"You will still have to take the throne, Princess".
Zelda's resistance to this decision lasted only one week. The Sheikah returned with no results, no hero, and no solution. Zelda could still remember exactly that day, taking the throne at thirteen. How she climbed the three steps on trembling legs. How her heart beat wildly in her chest like a trapped, fluttering bird. How she had sunk down on the edge of the velvet seat, too afraid to sit on it entirely. She heard the voices as if from a barrel, her head was buzzing and the bile made a caustic way up her throat. Then the master of ceremonies lowered the fine, golden diadem on her head and handed her the scepter. At that moment she had felt so small, even smaller than she already was.
She had almost felt it physically, the responsibility that settled on her shoulders and she realized again and again how little she was prepared for this role. But she would, she decided, she would do everything in her power to avert the evil. And that's exactly what she did.
She studied every record there was of the hero and the evil. She swapped her pink dresses for the royal family's blue battle gear and practically forced Impa to teach her how to use the rapier. Even in the castle, she always carried the weapon with her in order to be prepared for any attack. She learned to use the power of the Triforce of Wisdom that slumbered deep within her. She sent the Sheikah and her knights to look for the hero, even if they returned home empty-handed time and time again.
She held tournaments in the hope the hero would show himself. She found the Master Sword deep in the lost woods and even if no one could pull it out of the stone pedestal, she had the rock around it smashed and brought the sacred weapon to Hyrule. Now it rested in a sanctuary under the castle, in time its presence had built a holy barrier around it and Zelda was the only one who could enter it. The young princess prayed in this sanctuary every evening, listening to the sword hoping it would give her a sign, a clue, something.
But it was all in vain, four years have passed since then and the hero had not yet shown himself. Hope faded with each passing day and the ministers urged her to take a husband so that the kingdom could have a king once again. Zelda herself slowly was losing hope, the strength to be strong and to wait and to hope. But it had to be, because if she wasn't strong, then how should the common people of Hyrule be? She was the princess regent and thus the rock everyone else could lean on.
Zelda sighed deeply and wiped the tears from her eyes. She put the book aside, got up, and leaned over the still form of her father. She gently brushed a white curl from his forehead, leaned down, and pressed her lips lovingly against his forehead.
"I will save you" she promised just like all the other, countless times before this "I can do it, I promise".
I hope you enjoyed reading.
I wanted to have a Zelda here who would work towards her goal as the princess, who is strong from the start and who is aware of her role. In BotW we had a Zelda that was insecure almost to the end. I mean, that's not bad, I liked this Zelda, I liked her development, and I liked the sacrifice she made to save everyone. I even think that this Zelda was incredibly strong even if she was still tender and innocent and no idea how to put it...girlish.
Here, however, I wanted a Zelda that is serious, that consciously decides to be strong and protect everyone. That's the interesting thing about LoZ, we have different characters every time and at the same time they are somehow still the same. I wanted a Zelda that was active that said the evil is coming, OK, we're preparing for it.
I also wanted a Zelda that fights and that doesn't need protection. It's kind of a mixture of the serious Zelda from TP and the one from Hyrule Warriors and yet completely different. In the next chapter it's Link's turn.
As always, any kind of criticism is welcome.