1.
The sinking of the sun over the horizon made Link pause for a moment. As he looked past the faded timber of the support beams towards the sweeping green fields, he suddenly felt something reach out and grip his heart.
He rose from the ground, letting the bundle of wood fall from his arms. As the cord split open and the logs splayed outwards, he grabbed the sword from his back and started running towards the nearby hill.
Link felt the ashes of the burning castle falling on his face, coating his cheeks and choking his lungs.
He heard the pounding of horses galloping behind him, ducking on instinct as he continued his mad sprint to the top of the hill.
He heard laughing and the cracking of stone when he neared the crest. Rage boiled and terror iced his veins, creating a cacophony of feelings he had never experienced. He reached the peak.
The castle was not burning.
Link gazed down and his eyes were drawn to his shadow.
"Am I so beautiful you've no words left?"
He spun around so fast that he nearly fell off the hill.
Standing slightly below him, green eyes full of concern and terror, was Zelda.
He heard a howl as he collapsed.
Link awoke to frantic mumbling. Something about restless crickets and moblin horns.
He keeps his eyes closed as he reaches out with his ears.
He could hear the slight squeak of her trousers when she moved around the cookpot. Her voice tinkling in his ears, like ice inside a glass or the smalls bells hung around a jester's neck.
Link listened further out.
The chirp of aforementioned crickets. The rustling of sleeping birds in the nearby grove of trees. The slight gurgle of the river just east of them.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
No giggling, no barking.
He sits up suddenly.
"Link!"
He looks over at her.
Blonde instead of orange.
Green instead of gold.
"Lie back down immediately! You may have head trauma! You need medicine!"
He obeys her, and lets his head fall back onto the rolled saddle blanket.
Zelda scoots over to him, cradling two bottles to her chest. She pulls the cork on one and sets the other down near her thigh. He reaches out to take it, but she pushes his arm down and frowns.
"Stop moving. I need to examine you more thoroughly."
Her voice trembles slightly, and the lilt normally present in her royal accent is fighting back worry.
Zelda raises the bottle to his lips. He feels a slight warmth in his chest and a bite in his throat. He grimaces.
"Don't make that face. It's very unbecoming."
She reaches down and grabs the other bottle. The light of a fairy shimmers against the walls of the bottle. She uncorks it over his chest and grabs the Sheikah slate hanging at her hip. Link feels the fairy swirling around his face, pulling at his bangs and brushing his lips with its wings. Zelda taps a few times on the screen of the slate and a light flickers on, shining so bright he winces.
Link wishes he had known about that before carrying so many torches with him.
She leans over him, and now instead of of fairy wings it was her hair brushing his lips.
Zelda rests her fingers on his eyelids and whispers not to blink. She holds the light up to his eye until it begins to water. He starts fidgeting but she ignores him. She does it again to the other eye. He reaches up to grab her arm but with the light in his eye he misjudges his placement and grabs her face instead.
She blushes slightly then swats his arm away again.
"No abnormalities, pupils dilating correctly, no blood..." she returns to a seated position to his left.
"Maybe heat exhaustion? No, we would have seen signs earlier. Not dehydration, patient is sweating normally. Maybe illness?"
Zelda absently puts her hand on his forehead.
"No fever. Maybe something chronic? No, that's stupid."
He stares at the creased lines on her forehead. He counts the the number of times she blinks. He watches her chest rise and fall faster and faster, before finally she halts her voice, and her eyes turn to the sword that leaned against his pack.
"It's not physical. It's mental."
She looks back towards him and worry turns to sadness and grief.
"You remembered something again, didn't you?"
He looks at her and thinks for a moment. He knows that telling her it's not her fault isn't going to work, just like the last time he tried to tell her. And he knows that what happened tonight wasn't the same as when he remembers his past.
He shakes his head.
When Link remembers his life from before, he sees his memories unfold as if he was there. He watches the scene play out, taking in the sights and sounds of his old life. His emotions, his thoughts, his feelings, all flood back as if a dam had broke, and then he returns to reality. This wasn't that.
Zelda looks slightly confused.
"But... why? Why did you look as though you were about to charge into the castle again? Did you see something? Was there a threat?"
He shakes his head again.
"Did something startle you? Did you need to get something from the ruins?"
He shakes his head a third time and Zelda's face changes from confusion to irritation.
"You CAN speak you know. We aren't back in court. I'm not going to judge your wordplay, especially considering the circumstances."
He smiles slightly and raises his eyebrow.
"Please, not now. I'm seriously concerned for you," Zelda says as her face pouts, tilting towards the sky.
He stops smiling.
"It wasn't my memory."
She looks back at him, worry slipping back over her features.
"What do you mean?"
Link looks back towards the hills. He doesn't really know how to explain it to her. Joking aside, he never was good with words. His actions spoke more for him than anything that came out of his mouth. He tries to think of a way to show, rather than tell. But he can't, and a ting of frustration worms it's way into his mind. He gazes back at Zelda, the blue of her tunic contrasting with the grass, the dirt, and sky, and then he has an idea.
"Do you remember what you asked me when we were going to check on Vah Rudania?"
Zelda thinks for a moment before perking up slightly.
"From before?"
Link nods.
She thinks for a moment then glances at the sword again.
"I asked if it spoke to you. The legends speak of a spirit residing in the blade. That it guides all of the heroes who wield it."
He nods again, but hesitates, frowning slightly as he tries to thread his words together hoping she can get them to click in place.
"I- well, I haven't heard it speak. But I do feel it's presence. It's almost like-at least it feels like-"
"Like you know it personally. As if you have known each other for eons."
He looks up at Zelda's face, and her eyes are blank. She's staring at the ground, motionless.
"I know that feeling all too well."
Link tries to lean over and comfort her. Suddenly her head jerks up and looks at him. Her eyes are jerking back and forth, as if she is reading from a scroll extremely fast. Desperately looking for an answer to the question on their minds.
"They aren't your memories. You know they aren't your memories, at least from what you said before. You brought up the sword, the feeling of recognition even though you had only possessed it for a few months..."
Link tries again to reach out to her, but she stands up and begins pacing. One hand running through her long golden hair, the other waving around frantically, as if sorting though an imaginary index.
"I know this feeling, it's what happens when I use my powers." Her face darkens for a split second. "I felt it when I faced Ganon..."
Link tries to stand but she reaches down and points at the saddle blanket. He drops back down.
"Is this what you felt on the hill?!"
He nods.
"I heard things."
She whips around.
"What did you hear?"
"I heard horses, a fire burning in the distance. Laughter, screaming, a woman's voice."
"Anything else? Did you feel anything physical? See anything?"
"No. But I felt emotions. Anger, fear, hatred, the desire to run towards something I needed to protect. To save."
Zelda looks away towards the hill.
"Are you sure it wasn't me you were trying to protect?"
His face flushes. Thankfully her back is turned and the only light is from the fire underneath the cookpot.
"I never felt rage when I went to protect you. Only... I guess..."
She peaks over her shoulder, and Link notices her blushing as well.
"Well, I knew what I had to do. Even if I didn't remember everything about you. I knew I needed to save you."
She turns back around and sighs.
"You missed your chance again, hero."
He clams up. Damn it. This is why he doesn't speak.
Zelda runs her hand through her hair. She seems to be doing that more and more these days, Link thought.
"What triggered this feeling though? Why did you suddenly run up a hill and almost slice my head off?"
He closes his eyes as Zelda racked her brain.
"Think. What were you doing? Where were you? Did you see anything? Hear anything distinctive?
Link scrunches his brow. He and Zelda were talking about what her favorite food was before the Calamity. She brought up how a ranch nearby the castle used to raise horses and cows, and how the milk from the cows made an amazing cream cheese frosting. They arrived at the site a few hours later. He figured they might as well camp there for the night since it was getting late.
He grabbed wood from a torn-down barn, and she mentioned its where the ranch would keep goats.
He tried to hurry and grab as much as he could since the sky was getting darker.
As he was tying the logs together, he glanced westward. The sun was grasping at the rim of the Tabantha region.
For some reason he stopped and thought it was beautiful.
Melancholic.
Familiar.
"Twilight."
And then the sword flashed.