So...I'm back with the next installment in this trilogy. I have had this completely written for a while now but had a lot of stuff going on in life that prevented me from from getting around to posting this, like school, work, life, and to be honest forgetfulness. On the plus side though, I am finally able to start posting this. Heads up, this story's rating is upped to M, not for any actual or explicit sexual content, but instead for graphic injuries and a number of cuss words. I apologize if bad language bothers you but to be frank, expletives really can really convey opinions like nothing else.
Oh and yeah this story starts three years after the end of the previous story, The Calm Before the Storm.
The opening of this chapter is inspired from Spacebeyonce's story let's wear rings of the same color, so definitely check that out if you haven't. And if it wasn't obvious already, I don't own either the Zelda universe OR the Percy Jackson universe. Now without further ado...let's get into this.
Chapter One
Life Here at Home in Camp Half-Blood
The morning light slanted in through the blinds, dimly shining through my eyelids and pulling me unwillingly from my sleep. Not wanting to wake up yet I rolled over, burying my face into my pillow, and reaching my arm out, hoping to meet sleep warm skin…only to find nothing but the sheets. This pulled me even more from sleep, as I raised my head and looked fuzzily at the bed. I was alone, the space beside me empty. I sat up a little and rubbed my face with my hands, chasing away the fog of sleep from my mind.
"Zelda?" I called out softly, in a voice rough with sleep, for my wife of now three years.
"I'm down here at the kitchen table Link, oh and good morning!" Her sweet voice came back in response.
I got up from the bed and made my way down the stairs, when I reached the foot of the stairs and came around the corner, I saw her. Zelda was indeed sitting at the kitchen table, drinking what I at first assumed was her morning cup of tea. That is until I remembered that she had stopped having tea a couple weeks ago and wasn't planning on having any again for some time. But that was fine, it was fine, she was OK with that. She looked up at me with a smile as I came over to her, the hardwood floor cool against my bare feet, and pressed a slow kiss to her lips.
"Hmm, good morning to you as well." I said softly, as I made my way over to the cabinet where we kept the dishes and grabbed a bowl for my cereal.
As I got my breakfast together it occurred to me again just how strange it was in a way to be doing this. The last time I was, or rather we were around there was no such thing as cereal, or most of the things in this world actually to be honest. My world had evidently become this weird fusion of the world Zelda and I knew, the world that Hyrule used to inhabit, and this…other…world that was separated by so much time that not only had Hyrule been completely forgotten, but entirely new mythologies had been created.
"Have you eaten yet?" I asked Zelda, more awake now, but not fully there yet.
"Hmm? Oh no I haven't yet, though I was just about to." She said, not looking up from the paper.
I would have offered to make her some but she'd always been very sure of her own wants and such. If she said she wanted to make it herself, well, she absolutely meant it. Oh, she'd never be angry, just playfully pout until I relented to her puppy eyes. I suppose you could say she was my biggest weakness as well as my greatest strength, I would do anything for her, thus when she's pleading for something, I just can't say no to those big green eyes.
"Anything interesting in there?" I ask, sitting down across from her at our kitchen table, (although we had our own table at the pavilion, Chiron had told us a week after our marriage that we were under no pressure to use it and could choose to eat by ourselves at our own house).
"Just the usual. You know you should get in the habit of reading the paper too, you'd be better informed of what's happening in the world." She stated matter-of-factly.
"Why would I need to do that when you just tell me whatever little bit of news you see?" I instantly replied
Zelda flicked her eyes up to me, rolled them, and said, "So you wouldn't need to hear it from me."
I grinned at her and said, "I much prefer my way."
"That doesn't even make sense!" Zelda exclaimed, now looking up the paper completely and focusing fully on me. "You love to read! You read so many books! Why should the paper be any different?"
"I could ask you the same, you read tons of books too, what makes the paper interesting enough to read in addition to everything else?" I return her question, putting my now empty bowl off to the side.
"Because…it's good…to be informed…" she trailed off when she saw me holding in a laugh. "You're teasing me!"
I couldn't hold it anymore, and I burst out laughing at her expression of complete indignation. She couldn't help but giggle softly herself. She reached across the table and took my hands in hers, lifting them up and holding them between us and above the table. She gave me a soft smile, her eyes full of adoration and love. I smiled the same back at her, rubbing my thumbs a little across her knuckles. For a couple minutes, we just sat there like that, staring into each other's eyes, my indescribable blues meeting her deep emerald greens.
"Link you make me so happy, I'm so happy we get to live here, in this beautiful place with others like us, sort of." She told me, her voice filled with passion.
"You make me happy too Zelda." I replied, lifting her hands to my lips as I pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
"These last three years, they've been the best three years of my whole life." She said, her voice gentle.
"I feel exactly the same, love." I responded to her statement.
It was hard, sometimes, to believe that it had already been three years since our marriage. Well actually it was a little more than three years as of presently, we'd celebrated our third anniversary merely two weeks ago. It had been utterly magical, a wonderful evening with a nice dinner by candlelight (and some silent princess flowers) and just enjoying some time together just the two of us. No obligations, no responsibilities to interrupt our day to celebrate what was easily the happiest day in both of our lives.
The last three years had also not only been our happiest, but they had been astonishingly smooth for couples who got married as young as we did. While I wouldn't normally support teenage marriage (even though that was exactly what we did in our last life, but those were different times then now), Zelda and I weren't even close to being normal teenagers, not even by demigod standards. And plus, our souls were intertwined, call it what you will, but we always found comfort in that fact. We were bonded to each other for eternity, regardless how it might have been in ages past, with the previous heroes and their princesses, for the rest of time we would always find each other and be together indefinitely.
Also, the last three years had gone relatively uneventfully, at least so far as that goddess cursed prophecy anyway. Although, there was one strange thing that happened about a year prior to our third anniversary. Neither of us was really quite sure how to explain it, but here goes I guess. One morning I found something really unusual on our front porch in front of our door, with no indication of how it got there. It was a Wii U game, but that wasn't what sent my unease through the roof. What did that was the name of this particular game, I gasped when I saw it. My wife quickly hurried over upon my doing so, I turned around holding it in my hand and pointing at it with the other. The name on the box said The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
I stared at my wife and she stared back at me. I was creeped out right now, she suggested we give it a try. I thought that was a stupid idea but I could never say no to my lovely wife. She gently removed it from my hand, took it to our Wii U and popped in the disk. We saw a picture of the tapestry that once hung in Impa's house. I tilted my head slightly, strange. Then a new screen appeared, there were a few options: new game, continue, DLC, and settings. She turned her head back to look at me, puzzled.
Against my better judgement, she selected new game. The screen went black, I tilted my head the other way, then…a bright light. I went cold with fear, I remembered this. This was when I woke up in the shrine of resurrection. To my relief my wife now looked unsettled. We decided to stop and destroy this…game…completely and never think about it again.
I quickly pulled myself from my thoughts and panned my gaze around the house, the parts visible from here at least. Our house, when it had been built, had been made with three bedrooms. Apparently, those who built it decided they should anticipate children at some point, whenever that would be. We weren't exactly sure how to take the knowledge when we found out. In the end, we simply decided to use one ourselves and dedicate the other two as guest rooms, as we were definitely not ready to be parents when we got married.
This was not a perfect solution though, as guests only came occasionally, and more specifically the only "guests" we ever had here at our house had been my father. He'd visited us the last two thanksgivings, it was nice to still be able to have him visit us even though we lived in Camp Half-Blood. We would have gone to visit him, except for the fact that I didn't want to risk drawing attention to the area by having two young adult demigods creating a veritable neon sign of smell for any monster for miles around.
"You know, now that most of the campers have gone back to their homes it's so much quieter here." She said, looking out the window at the rest of the camp illuminated in the very early autumn sun.
"I really like the winters here to be honest." I told her.
"Hmm? Why's that?" She asked, smiling softly.
"Well for one thing because its quieter, and secondly, here we reliably get snow every year. Not a whole lot mind you, but always some." I responded before pausing for a moment and then resuming, "When I first moved to Oregon, it always snowed every year, but eventually…" I trailed off.
"Eventually the climate there changed and then there were years where it didn't happen at all." She finished for me, squeezing my hands a little.
"Yeah, it did. I know it sounds like a minor thing, and in a way, it is. I mean what does it matter in the long run if there's an occasional year where it doesn't happen? But all I can think about is how that's barely even the tip of the iceberg. The whole world's changing, climates are shifting and altering what were once consistent patterns." I confessed.
She nodded at me, sensing I had more to say and encouraging me to continue, to get it all out.
"In turn that just makes me think of the ways that things have already changed, the consequences that have already been suffered, the species that have been lost because they were unable to cope with what we have done to the Earth. I look at the world and I see it suffering, suffering and society as a whole isn't bothering to do much about it. I think about the hundreds of species that have gone extinct in just the last few centuries." I falter at this point, voice almost cracking in my distress as I again thought of just how badly the part of this world that I loved was suffering.
Zelda squeezed my hands again, reassuring me and prompting me to get all my concerns out. Truly, goddesses bless this amazing, beautiful, and wonderful woman.
"I think of the golden toad, not seen since 1989. I think of the Baiji river dolphin, gone since 2006, a victim of the pollution of its home river. The stellar sea cow, wiped out in the late 1700's from excessive hunting. The dodo bird, around the late 1600's, also as a result of excessive hunting. And many hundreds more, and I ask myself, Zelda, where does this end? What will it take to stop this ceaseless slaughter of endangered animals? At the very beginning of our cycle, I swore to protect this land with such conviction and resolve that Hylia herself shed her divinity to allow us to reincarnate repeatedly to ensure that that could be a reality. Well this land could also extend to the entire world. I feel like I've failed in my duty in that regard." I finally finish, my head hanging downward.
Zelda gets up and not letting go of my hands, comes around the table and kneels down in front of me. I turn my gaze to hers, she's smiling softly at me and her voice is gentle.
"I understand why you would feel that way, but you can't help what happens between our lifetimes, and not even you can control what happens across the entire world. You may be able to save a country or kingdom, but you're still just a man, not a god. And no man or person, no matter how great, can change the entire world. You are not to blame for the problems in this world, love." She says, her words quieting the distress in my soul.
"Thank you, Zelda, that really helped." I say, smiling.
"Now," she said, tone changing to one that was more business focused, for lack of a better description, "we need to get ready for the day. While we may not necessarily have classes to teach right now, it being almost autumn now and most of the campers are back at their homes, we can't just spend the entire day inside."
"I can think of other ways to spend an entire day than that." I said in a low voice, smirking slightly.
"Don't even think about it, Link." She said, voice full of pretend seriousness.
"But I already have, love!" I protest.
"I meant stop thinking it then, anyway go get yourself ready for the day." She insisted.
Spur of the moment I decided to take a page out of her scholarly nature and conduct a little experiment to see how far I could stretch her patience before she made it an order. So, despite what she asked, I remained in my spot, not moving in the slightest.
"Link, come on, up." She said, sounding just slightly annoyed underneath the puzzlement.
I continued to sit there, counting the time I had been sitting here now.
"Link, I said get up!" She exclaimed, hands going to her hips as she fixed me with a stern look.
I just looked back at her with an expression like I didn't understand what she was saying. Like I didn't remember how to stand up anymore.
"Link, this isn't the time for games, you need to get up and ready." She scolded me.
I repressed a smile, my plan was working. I kept up my blank expression, she rolled her eyes, threw her hands up in the air and exclaimed, "It's simple, just stand up and walk up the stairs!"
I put on an expression of sudden understanding like I'd just realized what she was talking about. I slowly stood and made my way to the foot of the stairs, feeling her eyes on me the whole time, I was finding it harder and harder to hold in my laughter. My face was beginning to twist as I was quickly losing the ability to keep myself from smiling. I was just at the bottom stair when I couldn't hold back any longer.
My hands went to my knees as I doubled over, sides heaving as I laughed so hard my eyes watered. My wife's eyes widened at the realization that I'd been doing this simply to tease her. Dear goddesses, she made it so easy sometimes. At her expression, I practically fell to the floor in my laughter, her face was one of complete and utter humiliation at herself.
"You…your face! You fell for my ruse!" I gleefully said through my tears of laughter, "Some bearer of wisdom you are! For shame!" I finished now laughing too hard to talk anymore.
I started to pull myself together when she didn't reply, I looked at her. Had I gone too far? Was she upset at me for this? These thoughts stopped when she broke her composure and started laughing as well, which only set me off again. For a couple minutes, we just stayed there, laughing ourselves out, goddesses this woman was truly the light of my life.
After we had stopped laughing once our sides started cramping, I finally relented and decided to get ready for the day. In hindsight, I probably should have just done as Zelda suggested before it got to this point as my sides were now killing me, but oh well.
Ever since Zelda and I married and began our life together here at Camp Half-Blood, I only sometimes wore my hero's garb. Today was no different, as I opted for just regular attire. I really only wore the garb when I was interacting with many other people or to put it another way, when I was on duty as "the hero", like that ever stopped. On days to ourselves I went with casual clothing. I also wore the garb when I taught my cadets, but it being early fall now, there wasn't really any of that.
Oh, sure there were the occasional sessions I held for the year round campers who either wanted to brush up on their skills, or wanted a little more practice with something or other, but for the most part in the non-summer seasons it was mostly just myself practicing my own skills. Once I finally had gotten dressed for the day, much to my wife's satisfaction, I asked her if there was anything specific she wanted to do.
"Hmm, I don't know." She said with a shrug.
"Really?" I said, raising an eyebrow, "You basically insist I get ready for the day even though you have no plans whatsoever?"
"Yep!" She smirked.
"You're insufferable, you know that?" I grumbled, not really meaning it of course.
"As are you. So, I guess that makes us equal then!" She cheekily replied, I had to admit she had a point with that one.
"At least tell me you have some suggestions." I asked Zelda.
"Tell me yours first!" She grinned.
I was just about to tell her no, that my suggestions could wait just a few minutes, when she added those puppy eyes to her words and I felt my will crumble to dust. Have I mentioned how I can never bring myself to tell her no when she gives me that look?
"For goddesses' sake Zelda, alright I'll do it, just turn off that look! I hate that look!" I exclaim.
"No, you don't." She immediately replied with a knowing smirk.
I swear sometimes I wonder if she can read my mind due to just how perceptive she seems to be.
"Anyway, suggestions. We could read our books on the back patio, do yard work if you really wanted to, take a walk along the beach, or go see if anything interesting is happening at the main part of camp." I supplied.
"I wouldn't mind the first choice." She told me sweetly.
"Why does that not surprise me?" I asked.
"Because you know me so well, like how I knew you'd just go along with it." She remarked with a faux imperious tone before continuing, "I can always predict every little thing you do."
'Hmm, is that so?' I thought before I suddenly said, "Come here you!" and pulled her into a kiss.
She made the cutest eep of surprise as I pulled her to me. After I let her go, I smirked at her and asked her if she had predicted that, knowing full well that she had not, judging by the sound she made at least. She reluctantly admitted defeat, this time anyway.
When we went out to our back patio with our respective books, Zelda sighed contentedly as she slightly tugged at the hem of her light sweater with one hand. She had made a point of reminding me that with the days getting colder I really should be wearing my sweatshirt as well. I in turn always reminded her of how the cold almost never bothered me. It was true, it was almost like I had an inner furnace. She eventually relented when I promised I would start wearing my sweater when the temperatures regularly reached forty five degrees outside.
We sat down in the chairs out on the patio, Zelda immediately started reading her book. I took a few minutes to look around the yard first. It was really a nice yard, about maybe a sixth of an acre in size, and well kept. I inspected the few trees, then the bushes, and finally my eyes reached the wooden frame and wire mesh enclosure nestled directly against the house.
I smiled, this enclosure was definitely worth the effort it took us to make it. Before our house had even been done being built, Zelda and I made this enclosure ourselves. That was another little thing about my wife, just like in our last life, she had no qualms about getting her hands dirty doing something. This enclosure was made so that Penelope would have a place to live with us. As she was my pet after all, I couldn't bear to not have her here once Zelda and I got married and began living here year round. My dad had brought her here when he came to visit for our wedding. It had been a bit of a rough transition for her, being transported across the continent and all, but she had long since adjusted and was now thriving in her new home.
She stayed in her enclosure 24/7 in the summer months and during the daytime in the early fall and late spring when it was warm enough outside. It had always hurt me a little that back at my old home in Oregon I was never able to give her a big enough space to live in, but that was now in the past. Now she had a suitably sized outdoor enclosure to be in, as well as a suitably sized place inside the house for when it got too cold outside for her. Her enclosure outside was quite pretty, it had several bushes to create shade and more often than not, serve as sustenance for my little eating machine. It was for this reason that the only plants in there were non-toxic ones like hostas and dandelions. My wife had also quickly taken Penelope into her heart upon first meeting her.
She was actually in the enclosure right now in fact, it only being just less than two weeks into September. Almost as if conjured by my thoughts, Penelope appeared from underneath one of the hosta bushes and ambled along the perimeter before reaching the little structure where there was a reptile safe lamp for her to be under to heat up in the cooler months. It again occurred to me how much she'd grown since I got her, she now measured just about her kind's full size of around eighteen inches.
She was also now about fourteen or fifteen years into a lifespan that averaged around forty to fifty years. It was intriguing to know I had a pet that would likely still be around even when my wife and I were in our fifties. Hell, I suppose it was even possible she could live even longer than that as the oldest redfoot tortoise on record was over seventy so who knows how long they could possibly live for?
Life here was absolutely amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything, I would fight to my last breath to protect this place, not just for everyone in it, but also for my lovely wife. That was how much she meant to me after all.