Another week another chapter, that's going to be my plan with this story. I am going to try to set myself to a consistent pattern so you guys can know when to expect another chapter. Doing weekly uploads is currently my plan, and PLEASE LEAVE YOUR REVIEWS! I really want to see feedback in the reviews.

I do NOT own the Legend of Zelda, or the universe created by Rick Riordan, merely copies of said universes.

This chapter does contain a small easter egg of sorts to another story on this website. That story is a Zelda fic, set after the events of Twilight Princess, titled Villainous and written by author Darcie11. I took some inspiration from a small part of it, and did not just change the wording but I also changed the scene in question so it is still my own creation, although I did intentionally leave an underlying similarity.

So, with that out of the way...

Chapter Two

Surprise!

Two weeks later, September was nearly over and the first true autumn chill was in the air, carrying it with it the signs of the coming winter. Flocks of geese were flying overhead on their annual southward migrations. The leaves on all the deciduous trees in the camp changed color, creating a lovely mix of reds, oranges, yellows, and golds. The fall colors were also reflected in our yard as well. This also meant that it would soon be time to bring Penelope inside full time for the winter. We were already bringing her in at night as well, it was just getting too cold out there for her, even with that heat lamp. Winters here got cold, like really cold. Life was just the quiet, day to day existence we anticipated when we decided to live here full time. Although…there were several occasions where I caught Zelda smiling at me mysteriously. Not just a couple times either, like eight separate cases.

The first time, I asked her if something was wrong, she immediately flushed a little and said everything was fine before hastily going about her own thing. I thought it was strange for sure, but I passed it off as a nothing. It was after the fourth time I began getting confused, surely something was behind this…change…in her behavior. But by the goddesses I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was, as Zelda was not forthcoming with answers. I resolved to just pretend like I didn't notice whenever I saw her doing it again.

That wasn't the only strange thing about her I'd noticed recently, she seemed…well happy is the word for it I suppose…but that didn't seem right. It was different than any happiness I'd ever seen, whenever I questioned her on this she just shrugged ambiguously, smiling widely. I swear she was practically glowing with happiness about…something…these days. 'Ah whatever, she'll tell me when she's ready.' I thought

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Three weeks had passed and I now knew the reason behind Zelda's mysterious behavior and now the both of us were basically glowing. I almost always had a smile on my face, and not just a little grin, I'm talking a smile so wide it made my cheeks ache. However, I wasn't smiling one cold morning just a day short of the three week mark into October where I was awoken when Zelda quickly got out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, falling to her knees in front of the toilet just in time as her stomach upheaved itself into the bowl. I winced at the sound as I slowly got of bed myself and made my way into the bathroom and over to my wife.

I got down on my knees behind her and rubbed soothing circles into her back with one hand while I held her hair back with the other as she gasped for breath for a moment or two before vomiting again into the bowl. I winced again at the sound, I had always hated seeing her like this and I knew I always would. I just continued rubbing her back as she gasped and panted between heaves. After another couple times of her puking into the toilet, she seemed to finally be done. This was a great relief to me…she looked so pitiable like this.

Letting go of her hair to fall back around her shoulders, I reached to grab a washcloth off the bathroom counter, I then leaned the other direction to put it under the bathtub faucet. I squeezed the excess water out of it, and then gently pried one of her hands away from the porcelain and placed the cloth in it.

"Thank you, Link." She said, voice weak.

I didn't respond verbally, just massaged her shoulders as she wiped the cloth around her mouth, cleaning away any residues. She put the cloth off to the side with a sigh, then gently grabbed my hands and lowered them to just above her waist, wrapping my arms around her in doing so. She leaned back into my chest a little as she sighed again.

"You know, it's at times like this that I feel helpless." I say sadly as I think of how this had been happening every morning for the last week now, rubbing my hands in slow circles over her midsection.

"You can't protect me from every bad thing, my love. You would never have been able to prevent me from feeling this, no matter what you did." She says, the truthfulness of if reaching me.

Indeed, when it had started a week ago, we'd been anticipating it for around six whole weeks.

"Sometimes, I have to remind myself that this is actually happening." Zelda continues, "That it's finally happened, it's really finally happened."

"And are you happy?" I ask, not for the first time, but still needing to hear the words from her own mouth.

"Yes, and you make me happy, Link." She says, giving my hands a soft squeeze.

"You make me happy too, Zelda." I softly whisper into her ear before adding, "As does the fact that within a year from now, it isn't going to be just us anymore."

"Hmm, I know. You're going to be a great father, Link." She says, voice soft and happy.

"Yes, and you're going to be a wonderful mother, Zelda." I say, my voice delicate with the strength of my passion for this beautiful, amazing, wonderful woman who was my wife.

"In just seven months and one week, we're finally going to be parents to a beautiful little boy or girl." Zelda says, still sounding extremely happy as she turns and wraps her arms around my chest.

"Which do you think it will be?" I ask, curious.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I have a feeling we're going to have a daughter." She responds with an impressive confidence.

I remember when just the previous week she had revealed to me that she was pregnant with our child. I was going to be a father! I had immediately started crying from the joy, a joy that I hadn't realized just how much I wanted until that moment. A family of my very own to love, cherish, and protect. I then noticed how she was suddenly looking concerned, thinking I was crying because of being upset. I quickly removed that thought from her mind by grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug as I told her in a voice thick with emotion that I was just so happy to hear her say that. That she had told me the best news she could ever say. She had burst into her own tears of happiness at that. We had both been overjoyed at this blessing we'd been given. The goddesses had blessed us with a child.

"When do you want to tell everyone else?" I ask her, coming back to the present.

"I'm fine with it being whenever you're ready for people to know." She replied. "When were you thinking of telling everyone?"

"Hmm, well you're just about seven weeks along, maybe we'll tell them around the end of your tenth week, at the earliest." I murmur.

We spent the next few minutes just crouching there, hugging and basking in the warmth of each other and the knowledge that we would soon be a family. The days passed and Zelda and I were very happy as could be expected. We continued going about our normal daily routines like nothing was different. Nobody suspected a thing…or so we thought. It was just around the end of Zelda's second month when the camp was paid a surprise visit by none other than our old friends Lexa and Austin. Huh, old friends, more like each of our half siblings, but whatever.

When the pair of them visited they made sure to come see us as well. The visit started normally enough I suppose with the usual conversation as we sat around our kitchen table. Eventually though after what exactly either Zelda or I did or said I don't know, Lexa suddenly fixed a scrutinizing gaze on us. I immediately froze, had I said something wrong? Zelda was feeling much the same as I was.

Lexa looked between the two of us one at a time. Then she opened her mouth and what she said nearly made my heart stop, "So, are you going to say it? Or am I going to have to do it?"

Zelda and I glanced at each other. How in the name of the goddesses did she find out? I certainly couldn't think of anything that might have given it away. Zelda clearly was in the same boat, her face flaming in a mortified blush.

Austin, thank Hylia for him, spoke in before either of us could say anything.

"Lexa what are you talking about?" He asked, sounding confused.

I swear Lexa gave him the most disappointed look I'd ever seen on anyone's face. Did Austin not know either…? That thought went out the window when he glanced at us out of the corner of his eye. He knew and was trying to save us from the embarrassment. 'Austin, you are the best friend I've ever had.' I thought. Lexa told Austin he should be ashamed of himself, that is until she noticed the little smirk gradually spreading across his face. She berated him for the next five minutes, wondering how someone like him, someone so…impossible…had captured her heart. Zelda and I just watched all this play out in front of us with amusement, glad for the attention to be off of us.

When they finished their little back and forth, Austin told her they should be heading off again now. We said our goodbyes and Austin stood up…but Lexa stayed where she was, that gaze on us again.

"You never answered my question." She said simply, smirking.

'Ah, fuck.' I thought, should have known she wouldn't give up that easily. I replied with a simple, "No, we didn't."

She seemed frustrated by my answer. "You have one last chance to admit it or I swear I will go tell everyone right now."

Shit, she wasn't going to let it go, was she? "OK, alright fine!" I said with exasperation, Zelda nodded reluctantly.

"Yes, Lexa. You guessed right." Zelda told her, conceding defeat.

"Close but not good enough." Lexa grinned.

"Oh, for the love of Hylia!" I exclaimed, "How do you want it stated?"

"Straight up and with no beating around the bush." She quipped.

'Lexa, sometimes you…' I thought before biting the bullet and coming clean with it, "Yes, Lexa." I huffed with irritation, "We're going to have a baby, but we really didn't want anyone to know yet, anyone." I repeated the last word with extra emphasis, leveling a sharp stare at Lexa, letting her know that anyone meant her too.

"Oh, I won't tell anyone now, I just wanted to know." She said cheekily.

I resisted the urge to grit my teeth in annoyance at this. "Anyway, it was very nice to see you two again." I finish, keeping that stare on Lexa.

She picked up on my not so-subtle-cue, and wished us well before she and Austin left. Zelda and I stared at the spot she was just in. I covered my face with my hands and cursed her perceptiveness, Zelda giggled.

It was about three weeks later, when Zelda was just past her eleventh week of pregnancy, that thanksgiving was almost upon us. We decided to invite my father like the last two years, but strangely the Iris message wouldn't go through at all. That was weird, but surely it wasn't anything too concerning, right? A week later, November was almost over, and we had finally decided it was time to tell everyone our news.

However, it was on the morning of that day, almost exactly at Zelda's third month that it happened. The first sign that the prophecy was truly starting, that what we had all feared and deep down known would unfold in our lives was finally coming to pass. It would have been easily overlooked by everyone else but us. It was a small, seemingly nothing article in the paper. I had finally taken Zelda's advice to start reading the paper, and just my luck, this is what I found.

"Zelda, look at this." I said, voice tight with tension.

She looked up, saw the look on my face, and instantly came over to see what was wrong. She leaned forward a little to read the article.

A Colorado man spotted a small group of strange animals from a great distance while birdwatching on a camping trip in the remote wilderness. The man described the creatures as having red skin, a humanoid shape and size, and upon utilizing his binoculars, saw they had large ears and short piglike snouts. He also said that all the creatures carried simple wooden clubs.

Zelda looked at me, concern in her eyes, "Link…" she trailed off.

"Look at the sketch made by the eyewitness." I said, still tense.

She looked at the sketch and her face paled, the drawing was a virtually perfect rendition of a bokoblin. Then something else caught my eye on the newspaper, another article which immediately set my nerves alight with worry.

Just a few days ago, in Missouri, was the tenth reported sighting in just the last two weeks of the alleged mothman. One strange thing of note is that there has recently been a significant uptick in reported sightings or encounters with this cryptid. This recent rash of reports started a couple months ago and now numbers about four hundred sightings around the country alone, with dozens more sightings in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The meaning of this sudden change is unknown, why would so many people suddenly be seeing something that doesn't exist?

"Zelda, you remember what I told you before about my encounters with that creature don't you?" I asked my wife.

She nodded silently, becoming afraid, before finally speaking, "It really is a harbinger, isn't it?"

"It would seem that is after all." I reply. I wait a few moments then add a question, voice worried "You know what this means don't you?".

"Yes, it's starting. It's really truly begun." She nodded.

"And just like it did before the Great Calamity as well." I say nervously.

It was true, this was almost exactly how it started then too. With isolated reports of monsters seen in the farthest reaches of the kingdom. Over time the reports became more common and stronger monsters began appearing as well. Bokoblins were the first that time as well. The red variant of the bokoblin was one of the least threatening of the monsters, easily dealt with most of the time. However, it was what they indicated now that was horrifying. Soon it wouldn't be just them, it would be stronger variants of them and other monsters. Like moblins, lizalfos, and goddesses forbid, lynels.

"We have to tell Chiron about this." I tell her, still tense with worry.

"Yes, you're right, we do have to tell him." She replied, eyes showing her anxiety.

I stood and placed my hands on her shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze, "It'll be alright Zelda, we're safe here remember? That knowledge is one of the things that keeps me strong even now. The fact that I know my family is safe." I tell her soothingly, seeing her slightly trembling with fear, which I hated seeing in her. Seeing her afraid always made me feel like I'd failed her, failed to be her shield from the dark side of the world.

"You're right, it's going to be OK." She reassured herself as she calmed down. "We're going to be OK." She added, resting a hand on her midsection. Sometimes we both just stared at her slight bump, feeling warm in the fact that there was a child in there, our child.

After we got dressed for the day and bundled up against the cold, which was currently thirty five degrees, we grabbed the sketch which we cut out of the paper, and then began making our way down to the pavilion where everyone else would be gathered. Sure enough, all of the relatively few campers who were here were all there. Chiron was just finishing saying something that we didn't make out when he noticed us and our concerned expressions. He broke off and stared at us, a look of confusion on his face. Everyone else turned around following his gaze to look at us too.

"Is something wrong you two?" Chiron asked.

"We saw something in this morning's paper that you need to know about." Zelda said tensely.

"What would that be?" He asked, still confused.

When we reached him, everyone's gaze following us, we handed him the cut out sketch. He stared at it for a minute, then looked up at us again. I could tell he was confused, but taking it seriously seeing how concerned we were. He knew we wouldn't be making this much of a deal about it if it were a nothing. Indeed, he knew this was important.

"Chiron, that monster, it's called a bokoblin." I told him.

His eyes widened at the implication of a monster from the time Zelda and I knew running around out there.

"It's begun, Chiron. The prophecy is finally unfolding." Zelda said, very worried.

Chiron looked at the other campers, who all looked very perplexed. He looked back at us, and I said we needed to inform all the head counselors of this and convene about it as soon as possible. We just so happened to not have a single one of our head counselors at the moment due to what time of the year it was. They were all back at their homes, but this was absolutely important.

He nodded, said he would send word to them all, saying that something had come up that urgently needed their presence. We told him about the failure of our Iris messages, which had failed every time we attempted it over the last week. The last time Iris messages had failed was in the second appearance of the giants, this was not a good sign. He said he would get word to them somehow, we thanked him and walked off back to our house.

When we got back home, Zelda decided to pray at the goddess statue in our front yard. I stood beside her as she knelt with her hands clasped together in front of her chest, silent but still being there for her. She stayed there for about a full twenty minutes, not budging an inch from her pose. I was glad that she was properly bundled up against the late autumn chill, after all she didn't need to get sick seeing as she was carrying our child. I was just thinking how similar this was to when she prayed at the springs, I mean with her prayer pose, not the fact that she was pregnant that is, when I heard hooves behind us. I turned my head and saw Chiron, he looked at my wife still in prayer and got the idea that maybe now wasn't a good time. He seemed just about to leave when Zelda finally stood and turned around. Chiron told us he'd just barely managed to get an Iris message to the head counselors, they all said they could be here within a week.

Then Chiron congratulated us and we froze, how…oh right he's over four thousand years old and immortal. He probably just knows somehow as gods always seem to be able to. We awkwardly confirm his assumption, although at the now three month point, it was starting to become visible I suppose. Chiron walked away, and we headed back inside. After the door was closed behind us, I asked my wife if the goddess told her anything helpful. She thought for a few moments, then replied that she got a rush of images, sounds, and other sensations, but nothing coherent. She said it was just a confusing and incomprehensible mess. I told her she would likely make sense of it in time, that we would eventually figure it all out in time.