Siege

To Link,

I would like to design a telescope to use from the Nest that would allow me to see what the hell you are doing. Then I could find out if you're actually eating and sleeping well like you promised me before you left again. I'll leave it up to you to have a bath now and then so you don't turn up smelling like a wild boar, it's not that essential, although it would be welcome.

I had to laugh at her ideas. I took a whiff of my fur vest. It didn't smell so bad, it was the skin of a dead animal, I had sweated, slept on the ground and was in the fight against the enemy. What the hell did she want me to smell like?

I've come a long way with the translation of the map. But I don't want to talk about it in a letter, just in case, if you want to know more, you're going to have to come and ask me in person. Can I intrigue you even a little bit?

I wanted to see her in person very soon, as soon as possible. The map was secondary.

I hope you are well and do not commit unnecessary and absurd recklessness, or rather, do not commit recklessness of any kind (I know you are stubborn in the latter and will do as you please, but since you refused to take your mother's ring off my finger, now you will have to put up with me repeating it hundreds, maybe thousands, of times).

Everything's fine around here, so am I, although I admit that when you're not here it's a bit boring. So come back soon or send me a letter. Take good care of yourself, okay?

-Zelda of the Eagle's Nest

(your wife)

Her letters were nice. They had a kind of strange magic, it had never happened to me before, but it gave me a kind of pleasant feeling to receive them and even more so to read them. That's why the other time, when I stopped receiving her letters, I was not only worried, but I also felt bad. Her way of writing and explaining things, it was all "very Zelda", so to speak. I held the letter to my nose, but it just smelled of paper and cold, there was nothing left of her in that sense.

I looked for a more or less dry place and a piece of paper.

We've been digging a ditch all night; it's taken us time. I'm fine, I've eaten and slept. I hope to be back soon.

-Link

"Got it!"

"Ardren! I order you to return that immediately."

"I just want to take a look," he mocked, moving back and forth with my letter in his hands.

"I'm your Captain," I threatened.

"What the hell is this?"

"Bring it back."

"Look, Fridd," I don't know how, he managed to give Fridd the letter.

"Bring it back to me now!"

They played at passing the piece of paper and teasing me, I was about to break one of their noses.

"Do you want this ruinous paper back?" Ardren mocked.

"Impa, give me a hand... " I begged her. She had closed her eyes for an instant, but she freaked out with our fuss.

"This is none of my business, I'm going for a walk. I'll be back when you grow up, that is, I may never."

She left us alone, Ardren wrapped in laughter.

"That woman is wonderful," he said, watching Impa walk away. I took advantage and retrieved my letter. It was a bit smudged and it made me very angry, it was difficult to get paper in the middle of a war.

"You've ruined it."

"We've done you a favour, believe me, your princess doesn't want to read that."

"My princess wants to read whatever I say, you bastard," I growled.

"Error. No one answers a lady's love letter announcing that he has dug a ditch. What do you think, Fridd?"

"Ardren's right."

"Alright, I know what you're trying to do: annoy me. You haven't done it in a long time," I sat down and they did too, "besides, it's not the answer to a love letter."

"Oh, isn't it? Your princess writes you a long letter that makes you laugh and float and stick your nose to the paper and is not a love letter..."

"No," I hated them, "It's communication."

"Communication... what does she tell you there?"

"It's none of your business."

"Does she tell you about strategies, send you a message from some captain of another patrol, ask you for help or supplies in the Nest?"

"No, but-

"Then it's a love letter," he said.

I reread Zelda's letter and it produced the same pleasant turn in my chest. When I looked up, I realised Ardren and Fridd were staring at me with a mocking smile.

"I'm not good at this, go to hell."

"We know you're not good at this," Ardren opened his canteen and shared a drink with Fridd and me ,"we saw you when you tried to woo Eve. Holy patience had the girl. And now with the Lady of the Nest you have much of the land conquered, because you have already married and consummated with your princess, but you still lack everything else."

I didn't want to admit it in front of him, but he was partly right. I felt very awkward when I wanted, well, to show my affection to Zelda. I was afraid to screw all up, and I know she told me she didn't care if I was affectionate, but I also knew that often all I managed to do was confusing her.

"This is very personal," I growled, "I'll send the letter now, or she'll worry."

"Alright, send your letter on ditches to your princess. But with that crap you won't be able to court her at all."

"And what the hell am I supposed to answer?"

"I'm glad you're finally asking for my help. Fridd will help us with this, too."

"No, no... I'm terrible with women, you know," poor Fridd said, "they always end up laughing at my courtship attempts."

"Let's see. On the day of the winter banquet, for example," Ardren enjoyed the situation and I hated him for it, "your princess was dazzling and dying to dance with you. However, you stuffed yourself with food and asked her to dance just because I pushed you."

"I took her out dancing because I wanted to. You had nothing to do with it,"

Ever since I saw Zelda that night, I've wanted to dance, kiss her, touch her and much more than my stupid friends could ever imagine. I knew she was beautiful and perfect, I had eyes on my face.

"This is going to be harder than I thought... Let's go back to the letter. Why don't you tell her something you two only know? Like a secret or something. Those things usually work. Don't talk to her about ditches, your wife has a bright smile, what do you tell her to make her laugh?"

"That's complicated," I admitted, "she laughs at a lot of things I say, but I don't always know why it is."

"Try telling her something personal, don't talk to her about ditches, it's not what she expects to read. And be brave, damn it. Courtship requires courage."

"Women like to talk about flowers and poems about the colour of their lips and how lush they are," Fridd intervened.

"What colour her lips are?" I arched an eyebrow. If I had to write something like that to Zelda, I'd rather die by a horde of bokoblins.

"Lush," Ardren rolled his eyes, "don't listen to him, Link, poems are not his thing."

"I warned you," Fridd grumbled, "but you know that my older sister married Oleg because he sent poems to her on her lips and just those absurd things."

"I'd write something for you, Captain, but I think the Lady of the Nest is too smart, she'd notice. My advice is what I have told you, be yourself and... tell her something personal."

Ardren patted my back and turned away from me at last with that last counsel. Fridd shrugged and walked away too.

Anyway. I pulled out a second piece of paper. I had to make the most of it because I didn't have much left. I had to improve my messages, of course I had to. If not, I was just going to keep confusing her and... and I was so relieved that she didn't agree to leave with her father, that she hadn't broken up our marriage... I was terrified, I felt real terror during those seconds when I didn't know if everything was going to be broken or not. I was still wondering why Zelda wouldn't want to leave to the eastern sea, live a life away from the hatred of barbarians and war. I don't think I felt only desire for her anymore. That's why I liked her letters, that's why I felt like flying on our journey back from Lord Tyto's home to the Eagle's Nest.

I took a breath. I had other skills, writing nice things wasn't one of them.

To Zelda,

I'm glad to receive your letters, they make me feel good. I don't care if you tell me to be careful again, as long as I know Mom's ring isn't going to fall off your finger. Everything is okay around here, we've been digging a ditch all night, but we're done. I'll be back soon.

-Link

(Your husband)

That was all I could scratch and it was the real truth, so I wasn't going to turn it around anymore. Besides, I had to tell her about the ditch because that's what we'd been doing, what the hell.

The days followed in the cold, the darkness and the mouldy bread that my men and I fed.

During the day we would go into Ikana, send spies, try to find out more. It was inexplicable. It was a dead territory, with no apparent command. We found collapsed fortresses, but it wasn't a recent wreck. It seemed as if nothing was left alive there, as if only dark creatures and monsters were camped around. But then... what did they intended to do? There had to be something to guide them, to encourage them to behave the way they did, but what?

Impa believed that there was a dark entity behind it all. According to her, it had taken possession of the evil beings and manipulated them into trying to reach Hyrule and steal the treasure of King Rhoam and his family. So who the hell had Kruu and Ufal bargained with? Impa had an answer for that, too. The dark being did not act alone, he had more allies whom he would surely have manipulated. I wasn't particularly interested in finding out about all that, not as passionately as she was, at least. My goal was to put an end to it, but it was getting harder and harder.

I was particularly exhausted that day. During the night we were attacked by a horde of fire-breathing lizalfos. They turned our camp into a quagmire. The snow melted and the ground turned out to be clay, so I remember fighting knee-deep in mud, sinking deeper and deeper. I ran out of arrows. We defended ourselves with stones and sticks, and I was thankful the bad weather weakened those monsters a lot, because more than one man was burnt to a crisp.

At dawn my arms and legs hurt so much that I'd have had them tastefully ripped off. At noon my men and I lay on bare rocks, which warmed up a little with the sad rays of winter sunshine. A soldier in Fort Hawk's uniform came to see me, brought an urgent message from Dad.

I gathered the group, increasingly diminished, and left Ardren in charge. Fridd came with me, and also Impa, who set out to accompany me, although she had the immense generosity to leave her Eyes on the battlefield. The sheikah were exceptional fighters, some of them were worth three of our own, so I was much calmer knowing that our position would be well defended and that we could continue to plug the border crossings.

When we got to the vicinity of Fort Hawk, I knew something wasn't right. A huge battle had developed in the surroundings, the terrain was trampled, there were remnants of fires, of camp. I galloped the horse and my suspicions only confirmed as I approached the wall, there were dead moblins and bokoblins everywhere. Unfortunately, there were hylians, too.

They opened the gates for us, and all three of us entered the fort at full speed. My Father welcomed us into his private room. His face was pale and had dark circles under his eyes, he'd be sleepless for hours.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

"Son, I'm so glad you're okay," he hugged me.

"Yes, I'm fine, it's okay."

" I thought these things would have passed you by, there were so many of them in the middle of the night that it was impossible to count them."

"We've fought a horde of lizalfos, but we haven't seen any armies of the dimension you're talking about."

Dad fell on his couch, exhausted with tiredness.

"They have attacked for a full day and night. They have besieged the walls of Fort Hawk, Link. At first I thought we would crush them without trouble, but soon the arrows became scarce, and they were many, they were like a tide."

"So we've been tricked, we've been stalled for this surprise attack," I surmised. I glanced sideways at Impa and she shook her head, affirming my theory.

"I had to get the troops out. Only then did we manage to get them out, but the cost has been high, very high," he lamented, shaking his head.

"We have to regroup, Dad. We can't keep fighting this without the help of every clan on the mountain. It's time for them to stand up and say whose fucking side they're on."

"You're right," he sighed.

"You should also ask for Hyrule's urgent help," Impa intervened, "you can't placate this evil alone. Their ultimate goal is to reach Hyrule, and we must both fight together to contain them."

"That will be if King Rhoam trusts us...," Dad growled, "I've received disconcerting messages from Hyrule, I know full well that Rhoam has his gerudo army stationed in the rito lands."

"I understand your mistrust, the King of Hyrule feels just like you… unconfident. But it's time to put all that behind us and fight an older evil together... there will be time for political disputes afterwards."

"Impa is right," I intervened, "at least we should try."

I hated the fact that I was worried that this sinister guy would continue so few miles from the Nest with his army of women. Luckily Zelda had continued sending letters on a regular basis and that meant she was safe at home.

"Alright, I'll write a message for the king of Hyrule," Dad relented, "and the mountain clans should be convinced. Grimla will be on our side, but the others..."

"Fridd will talk to them," I said, convinced.

"Captain Link, I don't know... I don't know if they'll give in." Fridd hesitated.

"Fridd, listen. I trust you, I'd leave my life in your hands and you know it. I know you're going to do everything you can to fix this."

"I will, I will talk to them and I will do everything I can, I promise."

"Thank you."

In Fridd's eyes I saw a special glow. Since that discussion we had about the matter with Zelda, he had worked very hard to win my trust again. He hadn't been as grumpy as before, and had made no comment against Hyrule or Zelda, not once. I think he felt good about having a chance to redeem himself at all and asked my permission to leave immediately for Hebra and the Steppe.

"There's something I need you to do for me, Link," Dad said then.

"Sure, whatever. I can regroup the troops here, chase the army that besieged you."

"I've already done all this with Fort Hawk and Nightfall patrols. No, what I need is for you to take Aldry and the children to the Eagle's Nest," he stood up, "the south is the safest place right now. In extreme case they would travel a few miles and be in Hyrule, away from the war."

"Sure. I'll take them and come back right away."

"No, Link," this time he grabbed my hand, "you have to stay protecting the southern border."

"You can't do this to me. You can't take me away from the war."

"You have to protect the family. You don't know the night of terror we've been through, the kids crying, locked in a room with the noise and screaming of monsters in the middle of the night. We need to protect them at all costs, and I can only trust you."

I reluctantly accepted, but I made sure I didn't promise anything to Dad. I couldn't be quiet in the Nest while my men were at the battle.

When I went looking for the kids, they both jumped on me and almost threw me to the ground. Jannie began to cry, shaking.

"Would you like to come with me to the Nest for a few days? We'll make a bonfire and snowmen in the yard."

"I want to go with you, Link," said Leri, he squeezed my hand tightly, as if he was afraid I would let go.

"Me too!" Jannie exclaimed.

"Then go get Doncar and have him prepare your luggage for you."

Only then did I get them off me, and they both ran to get help to get ready for the journey. I had never seen them so scared.

"Aldry, you too," I said. She had stood aside, "my father wants us to leave immediately."

"I'm not going with you, Link."

"But Dad wants us all to be together in the south, they're his orders."

She sighed and even came to me to grab my hands.

"I can't leave your father here alone, he'd go crazy. The kids are the future and they're the most important thing in my life. I trust you'll take good care of them."

"Of course."

Impa and I departed as soon as the twins were ready. I knew Aldry and my father had argued because only he came to say goodbye to us, but he had no choice but to accept that she stayed at Fort Hawk. On the one hand it comforted me a little, it wasn't good for him to stay there alone with the whole family away, in the south. The kids cried a little at the farewell, but they were looking forward to getting away from there, so it didn't take long to get them out of their home.

I let Impa lead us. She was very adept at that, the trips with her became hard and uncomfortable, yes, but she knew how to move without leaving any apparent trace, without grabbing attention. I was learning to know her and I was confident in her abilities.

We spent the whole day getting to the Nest, and, dammit, my legs alone know how grateful I was to see the top of the tower looming through the thicket of trees. My stomach was twisting with hunger too, I hadn't tasted anything hot in many days. I had made the journey to the Nest a thousand times before and under normal circumstances it was not tiring at all, but I had too much on my shoulders and the journey felt longer than ever.

I thought it was almost a dream when I heard Manroy's "who's going?" an utopia when my boots stuck in the melted snow in the inner yard.

I asked Impa to take the children to the tower with Zelda, I would join them later. First I met Manroy and Mabet and told them what happened. The safety of the Nest had to be redoubled. Mabet told me he could ride at dawn to Nightfall and ask some trusted men to come to the Nest. Of course, I told him it would be convenient for his parents to move in with us for a while, so he would have them around and not have to travel so often to Nightfall. We organised orders for supplies, for steel for weapons... Manroy and I decided to cut a lot more firewood, we would organise shifts for that. Mabet told me that a couple of horses needed shoeing and promised to see that the animals were rested and ready to make trips when needed.

Once all that was sorted out, I went to have a bath. I needed it, I was up to my eyebrows in mud, and besides, I didn't want Zelda to make fun of me again and tell me I smelled like a wild boar or worse.

When she saw me appear there were no effusive greetings or any kind, she pulled my shirt and cornered me in the small living room next to the kitchens to interrogate me with her green eyes burning in flames.

"What happened, Link? The kids are very scared, you haven't told me any of this in your messages!"

"Calm down... dammit, I'm starving..."

"Well, I swear to Hylia, you won't try a bite unless you tell me right now what's going on."

"I haven't told you before because I just found out, today," she continued to look at me between sulk and worry, "there was a siege at Fort Hawk."

"A siege?"

She frowned and I could see thoughts passing through her eyes at full speed.

" A huge horde of monsters. The lizalfos laid a trap for us, a distraction for Impa and me in the Ikana camp. Meanwhile, a much larger army besieged the fort during the night. My father asked me to bring the children here for safety, in case something like this happens again. I hope you don't mind."

"How the hell would I mind? It's just... I'm really worried, you know?"

"Well, don't worry anymore because we're safe at home and we're fine, look," I grabbed her hand and tried to take her to my face like she did, "eyes, nose and-

"The dinner's ready!" Jannie jumped up and dragged us there.

We all had dinner together in the kitchen, the children managed to get quite distracted thanks to Manroy's jokes, which made them laugh. I took advantage of small parentheses to tell Zelda more details, and that we were going to ask Hyrule for help. She set out to write a letter to her father, and... well, I didn't want her to do it and expose herself to the idea that the Nest wasn't a safe place for her, but she was so stubborn that she left me no choice but to give in.

After dinner, the twins refused to go to bed. "I don't want the bright-eyed monsters to come again," said Jannie, threatening to chain herself to the table leg, and Leri said directly that he would hide in a corner somewhere and stay up all night until the sun came up. The four of us were left alone in the little living room, Impa had gone off to accompany Manroy, Mabet and Frea to their cabin, and she also said she would retire for a little rest, for she said she'd "lost her usual freshness," though to me she seemed to be fresher than ever.

Zelda played it down and played with the kids to distract them: she had them draw monsters on the floor in front of the fireplace (drawing them turned them into a magic-defensive amulet and they lost all their evil powers, she said). She made puppets out of old socks, and we even all dressed up and played pretend we were living in Hyrule Castle. Zelda chose to be the queen, Leri and Jannie were the princes, and me... she dressed me up as a horse because "I already had the right size ears". I took note… she couldn't get away like this without a commensurate revenge from my side. The kids were very amused when she grabbed a pile of old rags from the kitchen and dressed me up as a tail and mane (thank goodness no one else was there to see me in that state). Then she picked out a book that had belonged to Mom and read them a story about fairies and magic fountains until they both fell asleep on her lap.

"And now what?" She whispered.

"I don't know, you are the one who has hypnotized them and now they belong to you."

"But we can't stay here all night."

"Come on, we'll take them to bed. You grab one and I get another."

"No!" Leri protested, half asleep, "I want to stay with Zelda."

"What if you come to my bed?" She whispered, "it's too big and all the three of us fit. The monsters could never climb up there, I assure you, it's impossible."

Leri clung to her like a padlock to a door, so the two of us took them up to the rooms at the top of the Nest. Once we put them to bed, it didn't take long for them to fall asleep again. I was exhausted too, and said goodbye, but Zelda walked me to the door. She shut the door to keep the noise out of the room, and we both stood in the hallway, next to a narrow window that used to be a lookout post.

"It's had to be horrible for them," she murmured, "I hope they can sleep all night without nightmares."

"Thank you for helping me with this. You know they're very important to me, I don't know if I could have just handled them so well," I admitted.

"They're just kids, they're like miniature adults who need someone to really listen to them once in a while," she shrugged, "and they love you, you'd have managed very well without me."

"Not at all…"

"I'm sure you'd have, just look at the way they laughed when you-

I covered her mouth with a kiss. Goddesses, I'd been dreaming about something like this for so many days that I couldn't hold it in for another second.

"Did it bother you?" I asked. She had been caught by surprise, of course.

"No... I… it hasn't bothered me."

"I wanted to do it."

She nodded, and though we were lit only by the faint flame of the torch in the hallway, I saw the blush in her cheeks. I pressed my forehead to hers for a few seconds and kissed her again. This time she kissed me back. I was reminded of that night in her quarters. We kissed again as we did then, hesitantly at first, but once I felt her tongue seek mine... goddesses, I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her tight against me. It was so nice, so dizzying, I don't know how I ended up cornering her against the stone wall of the hallway. I wanted her so much it was crazy. But it wasn't a good idea, I had to contain myself a bit.

"No, wait..., " she held me, closing her arms around my back.

"Zelda, give me a moment," I just had to step aside a little bit.

"No, stop hiding at once."

I felt very uncomfortable because I was sure she noticed, she noticed right at that moment. I sighed and rested my head on her shoulder.

"It's okay," she whispered in my ear, "it's normal, okay? It's normal for your body to react and I don't care, no, not at all."

"Are you sure?"

"It's happened more times, hasn't it? That night, in your quarters at Fort Hawk."

"Yes," I admitted. My biggest shame was that it happened to me sometimes just because she was too close.

She squeezed even more against me, and of course, that didn't improve the situation, rather the other way around.

"What I would be gravely concerned about is that this didn't happen to you. That would be a problem."

It made me laugh a little, and she laughed too. She kissed me again, gently.

"Don't hide from me again, Link. As you said, I'm your wife, you don't have to hide anything."

"I know, but... everything started wrong, you don't understand."

"We have to fix this, we should have talked about it and it would have become clear that it doesn't offend me or bother me, nor do I think anything weird about you. You can't go on like this, and neither can I. I guess… I guess there's something going on between us and that's all."

"Okay, you're right."

We hugged tightly and I was able to sink my nose into her hair and feel her with my whole body. I was overflowing, if we went on a second more like this I'd take her right there. A hallway can be a very worthy place for a second wedding night.

"Link.", she giggled on my shoulder.

"I know. The twins around. The monsters and the sieges." I gave her a small kiss on the neck.

"I… I guess I really like you, even if you're a barbarian with disproportionate ears and no talent for writing letters."

"And I really like you too, despite how stubborn, reckless, and know-it-all you enjoy weird conversations... I don't know if I need to tell this to you, you've already noticed my reactions."

I just wanted to carry her to my quarters and let's get it over with. But there was a growl in the room. She smiled and slid her fingers down my face and cheek, stroking the tiny hairs of my beard. I tried to kiss her and she dodged me.

"Good night, Link."

I loosened my arms, stopped harassing her against the wall and saw her slid in a gentle motion. She disappeared with a smile behind the door.