The Legend of Zelda and all of its characters belong to Nintendo.


Loneliness can sometimes scar someone more deeply than even the sharpest of blades.


Alone

The sun hadn't even risen when I started packing up. Yet again, I hadn't been able to sleep. I took a deep breath when I stepped outside the stable, the air still had the freshness of the night and the locusts were singing in the wet grass.

And so I went on with my journey to Zora's Domain. Alone.

That's what I had been since I awoke on the plateau: alone. Nothing but the chants of the wilds around me and the whisper of the wind. The sounds of my footsteps, the cracking of branches, the singing of the birds, all those sounds that most people would find peaceful, for me they only reminded me that I was alone. Completely alone.

It was as if an immense weight was on my shoulders. That heavy and unbearable feeling that if something was to happen to me, should I ever die in a fight against some monsters or fall to my death while climbing a mountain, no one would mourn or cry for me. No one… Because I'm alone.

Well not exactly. At least not right now.

Someone's been following me since yesterday. A young woman. At first, I thought she was one of those disguised assassins that seemed hell-bent on ending my life since I left the plateau. But since she still hasn't made a move to attack me yet, I assume she's just a regular traveller.

"Are you headed to Zora's Domain too?"

I turn my head when I hear her voice. She is now walking next to me and looking at me with a friendly smile. I nod silently.

"Hey, me too!" she says happily, "I noticed you yesterday and I was wondering. Do you want to travel together? I mean, it's nicer when you're not alone, right?" She lets out a small giggle. "My name's Elara. what's yours?" she asks as she extends her hand toward me.

I look at her hand but don't do anything. My eyes go back to the road in front of me.

"Not much of a talker, heh? That's okay, you know. People say I talk too much, and even I myself must admit that sometimes I kind of… like, I start talking about something, and then I think of another thing so I talk about that too and so on and so on until someone tells me to shut up." She stops to look closely at Link. "Man you look strong. You look like you could easily go through a whole army of moblins. Maybe even a Lynel. Rumour is that there's one at the top of Ploymus Mountain. That's kinda scary considering that we're headed to Zora's Domain and it's like, right next to the mountain. What if it decides to come down to the Domain while we're there. We'd be screwed. But it's unlikely, I don't know for sure 'cause I'm not an expert, I've never even seen a real one, but I read somewhere that Lynels rarely wander too far from their territory. Now that I think of it, I also read…"

As she talks, I take a quick look at her: she has a heavy backpack, a short sword that look like it hasn't been sharpened in ages and wears simple clothing. She really is just a normal girl and doesn't even look like she's used to travelling. As my eyes go back to the road, I listen to her talking incesantly and I suddenly feel lighter.

Right now… just for now… I'm not alone.


Elara and I had been travelling together for a few days. I still hadn't said a word to her yet, but it didn't seem to bother her as she just kept talking, saying I'm a good listener.

I was scared to admit it, but I liked her presence. I liked hearing her talking about everything and nothing at the same time. She was always so expressive, her facial expressions always changing to match what she's saying: joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, frustration, disbelief… But whenever she was silent, she always had a happy smile on her face.

She was full of life… unlike me.

I have no memories, no past, no place to return to… I'm just an empty shell. The only thing I have is this voice in my head and this girl in the few memories I have, telling me to keep pushing forward no matter what, to save a land that I know nothing of…

"Are you okay?"

Her voice pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up and stared at Elara who was sitting next to me, close to the fire to warm herself. The night was cold as winter was fast approaching. I nodded silently.

"You seemed lost in troubling thoughts so… But if say you're okay, then it's alright." she said as the worry disappeared from her face and the smile returned. "I always wanted to go to Zora's Domain. People say that it's gorgeous; the waterfalls, the architecture and the luminous stones. My father used to tell me stories about this place when I was a little girl and I would dream about it every night, imagining the stones encased the rock shining like stars, the light reflecting and dancing in the water. The zoras also intrigued me a lot, I wondered how fish-people would look like…" she giggled a bit, then her face softened. "My father… It's always been only me and him. My mother died when I was really young so he taught me everything: how to read, count and fight with a sword, although I've never been good at it. I always dreamt about travelling and discovering Hyrule, but with how the kingdom's been since the Calamity, nobody did it anymore. My father, of course, was against it, said it was too dangerous. But one month ago, I decided to leave the village, leaving my father alone… I kind of miss him now." she whispered sadly, but quickly the smile returned to her face and she looked at me, slightly embarassed. "Sorry, that was kinda depressing. I don't why I'm telling you this, I don't even know your name. Anyway, I saw-"

"Link."

She looked at me, completely confused. "What?"

"My name. Link."

She blinked a few times. "Link, huh?" She seemed lost in deep thoughts, then: "Well, Link, why are you going to Zora's Domain?"

"I don't know… a quest, I think."

"What sort of quest?" she asked?

I stayed silent, staring at the dancing flames of the fire.

She huffed and then laid in the grass "It's kind of exciting, to be honest. It's like you're some kind of legendary hero on his way to save the kingdom."

I was about to say something when I heard a sound behind us. It sounded like the ruffling of paper. In a fraction of a second, I was on my feet sword drawn and ready to fight.

"Link? What's going on?" Elara asked, worried.

My eyes were quickly scanning the plain, every sense on alert. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a flash of red moving fast in the high grass towards us. A metal blade shined.

"Run."

"What?"

"RUN!"

Just as Elara got up, I lifted my sword to parry the sickle that swung towards me. Metal clanked together as two other yigas jumped out of the grass and circled me. The one who attacked me jumped back and it gave me the time to turn around and see that Elara had had the time to escape. I let out a relieved sigh.

Taking this as an opportunity, the assassin behind me jumped and swung his sickle. I stepped aside, dodging his attack and promptly brought my sword down on his neck, decapitating him. Before the headless corpse even touched the ground, another yiga attacked me from the side. I parried his blade and head butted him before cutting off his arm.

I turned around to see two more footsoldiers jumping out of the bushes as the other one charged at me. I dodged his swing and thrusted my sword towards him. He dodged and caught my blade with the curved one of his sickle and slid it towards my hands. I kicked him to stop him and slashed through his chest, blood spraying all over me.

"STOP!"

The remaining assassins jumped back and I turned to see a Blademaster holding a terrified Elara by the hair.

"Drop your weapon now, Hero. If you want her to live, that is." he said as he forced her to look at me. Tears were running down her cheeks.

I stared at her. My heart was running wild with fear and my jaw was clenched hard with anger as i dropped my sword. Immediately, a footsoldier punched me in the face and I was forced on my knees, my arms restricted by the two assassins.

"So you do know her, huh? I guess I was lucky to catch her as she tried to run away." said the Blademaster, pulling hard on her hair and as she sobbed desperately. He approached me, dragging her with him and kneeled in front of me. "Everywhere you go, Hero, we'll follow you. Everyone siding with you will die for we will find them and destroy every single of them. Everyone you love will die." His voice was low and menacing as he got even closer, his mask almost touching my face. "And it will be your fault, for dragging them into death with you."

I stared at him blankly, but inside I was terrified. Terrified of what they were going to do to Impa, to Paya, to Elara.

The Blademaster got back on his feet and looked at the horrified woman in his grasp. His hand left her hair to take her chin. "Although she is beautiful. I guess we can have a bit of fun with her before we kill you both." he said as his other hand started to slowly untie the string that held her shirt closed. Elara started to scream in fear as she tried to get away without success.

My eyes widened with anger as I jerked my arms hard to try and get free. I had to stop this motherfucker. I had to save her.

Suddenly, Elara bit hard on the hand holding her chin, making the Blademaster release her with a groan of pain. "You little bitch!"

He lifted his windcleaver and my heart stopped beating. He slashed deeply across her back and Elara fell on the ground, screaming in agony.

I watched as she crawled desperately towards me, tears running on her cheeks and rivers of blood gushing out of the wound. Her hand extended to touch my knee. "L- L- Link… he- help… m- me…" and she went limp, life leaving her eyes. She had died with pure and utter terror carved on her face.

I stared at her for what felt like years. I couldn't hear the laughs of the assassins. In my head, I remembered every word she had said, evrey face she had made. The life that had been burning so brightly within her… brutally ripped away…

Something snapped inside of me.

I freed my arm and took the sickle on the hip of one of the footsoldiers and decapitated them both before they even had the time to react.

"What the fu-" the blademaster didn't even have the time to lift his weapon that I slammed my fist on his face hard, his mask exploding to pieces. He fell to the ground and I got on top of him. I punched him and I punched him as hard as I could. I punched him until I couldn't feel my fists, until his blood splattered on my face. I couldn't see anything, the only thing I felt was pure unbridled rage.

Then I stopped.

I looked at what remained of his face and got up, panting.

Then I looked at the bloody corpse of Elara…

I fell on my knees and screamed to the heavens.


And so I went on with my journey to Zora's Domain, alone.

Leaving behind me the grave of a girl who would never fulfill her dream…

The grave of a woman I had failed to save…

The grave of a friend who had died by my fault…

The silence comes back, reminding me that I am destined to be alone, always.

Alone.


Thank you for reading this. I know really not a lot of people care about character study fanfics and the fact that YOU cared and took the time to read my story truly means a lot to me :)

This is a part of my In the Wild series on AO3 which studies Link as a character. You can go read it there, I have the same username: Lier90912.

A comment is always nice ;)

See ya in other stories!

Lier90912