notaname: JUST THE LITTLE PIECES, NOT WHOLE ROLLS! I am NOT a pyromaniac! It's not like I suggest fire as a solution regularly or anything... *shoes away friends with video evidence.* Honestly, I think I would still be willing to pay ten bucks to see that clip. I didn't even pay to go to Avengers: Endgame (Thank you, Dad), so that's saying something. The part where Batman died still has me with the feels, though. WATCH STUDIO C! It's GREAT! Spreading the word of Pewds. I sold... uh... I really haven't sold very much stuff, have I? Huh. And the stuff I have sold was cheap. I mean, 25 cents for a homemade cinnamon roll? I didn't choose the price, but come on! We might as well give them away! My math teachers give me a ridiculous amount of time during class to do homework. And apparently (even in the advanced math class) it takes me three hours less than everyone else in my classes. I guess they're just really talkative? (The rest of the reply was written with a two hour gap - sorry - I'm going to skip over some parts because it's time for me to go to bed and I have to get this chapter out today) I changed the summary because I felt like it was bad - and the story does have slight Zelink - it's pretty much cannon in BoTW. Sorry, Mipha. And Sidon... you have better luck with Paya. Maybe the Goron City theme is a traditional Goron song, and that's how the Goron knows it? I dunno. Sorry for the slightly cut review! Have a great week!
Guest: Aw, thanks! I'm glad I do more than annoy people XD
Chapter 17: Sorry, Not Sorry
When Zelda opened the door to her study that morning, she was surprised to find the absence of Sir Link. In his place was a stout older soldier, looking half asleep where he stood.
"Excuse me," Zelda said to the knight, jolting the man out of his standing slumber. "Where is Sir Link?"
"He has decided to take the day off," the knight said groggily. "Lady Impa said something about an emergency that required Sir Link's immediate attention."
"I see…" Zelda said slowly. Had she scared off the knight with her words? Was he all bark and no bite? Stoic exterior, with a cowardly interior?
But noooo, Sir Link was perfect. Sir Link could do no wrong! How dare she suggest otherwise?
Zelda decided this was a good time to go to Purah's lab. Zelda would hate the day that Purah moved to the Royal Ancient Tech Lab, which was under construction - it was hours away, and it would be far more difficult to visit due to its being outside the castle walls. All the more reason to visit while she could.
"Link, I demand that you tell me what is going on," Impa said firmly as she threw open the door to Link's small room in the barracks.
She was met with an interesting sight. Link sat on the small bed, dark bags underneath his eyes, a bundle of cloth in his arms. He looked up at her wearily.
"I apologize for calling off my duties for the day with little notice," he said, his eyes glancing down at the bundle. "Something came up."
Impa walked closer, and, realizing what she was getting at, Link shifted the cloth.
There, wrapped cozily, was a furry black face, golden eyes blinking at her. It was then that Impa noticed the rumbling sound that emitted from the cloth - a purr.
"A kitten," Impa deadpanned. "You dismissed your duties for a kitten."
"I found it when I was walking the alleys of the city," Link explained, scratching at the little beast's head. It closed its eyes and purred louder with contentment. "It was being attacked by a dog, and has various signs of abuse - I couldn't leave it there. It's young, injured, and starving."
Impa took a deep breath. "You mean to tell me," she said slowly, "that you took in a vicious beast of a creature in? And that you blew off your duty because of it?"
Link bowed his head. "My apologies, Lady Impa. I know you are not fond of felines."
Impa scoffed. "Not fond? I barely see how you can be fond of them!"
"Well…" Impa said slowly, turning to leave and holding in a sigh. "I had feared that you were ill or something of the sort. Next time, at the very least tell me the full extent of the... 'emergency.'"
Link nodded his head. "Yes, Dame Impa."
"Lady," Impa corrected.
"Yes, Lady Impa."
Impa wasn't happy with him, was she?
Link knew it was wrong - setting his duty aside to care for a small kitten, barely six or seven weeks old by the looks of it. But… Link couldn't resist. He knew that if any other saw the black kitten they would kill it in some morbid way, just because of the myths about them being bad luck or dark mages in disguise. Complete nonsense, he thought with a huff.
Link unwrapped the little kitten, gently brushing its back with the tips of his fingers, careful to avoid the areas where he had bound wounds with cloth. The bleeding had stopped a while ago, but to remove the bandage would risk removing the clots and start the bleeding up again.
He recalled the wounds. It was large on the small kitten, but it definitely hadn't come from that dog… after all, the wounds bore a resemblance to… well, they were clearly made by a blade. Someone had found it before him, and had decided to put a knife to the little feline's side.
He didn't know why they hadn't finished the job. Link hoped that it somehow escaped, but he had the sneaking suspicion that the dog wasn't chasing the cat for no reason. That dog was very obviously owned by someone… why they would torture a dog into become a killing machine was unknown to him.
The little kitten's rumbling came to a stop as it slipped into a peaceful sleep. Link sighed and looked up at the ceiling. The world was cruel. The people tortured whatever was weaker than they, and punished with ease, whether they had commanded their inferiors to do the right thing or not. They cared not for the life around them - rather, they relished the pain of "unintelligent creatures."
Link brushed the kitten's dark and matted fur with his fingers, gentle so as to not disturb the poor thing's slumber.
"You'll be alright," Link whispered, despite knowing the kitten could not respond. "Your life will no longer be one of strife. I will see to it."
"Master Link," chimed a voice, drawing Link's eyes to the sword that lay sheathed, leaning against the bedpost. "What is it that you see in this creature?"
Link sighed. "Not you, too."
"I apologize - I did not mean it in that way. Allow me to rephrase my previous statement."
There was a moment of quiet as Fi calculated the proper words to use. Link could tell - there was always a quiet hum in the back of his mind as she did so.
"Most would see this 'kitten,' as you have called it, nothing more than a pest and a vicious beast, as your mentor has demonstrated. But you see something else in the creature, do you not?"
Link looked back down at the kitten. I guess so.
"And what do you see?" Fi prompted.
Link hesitated. What did he see?
I see… someone I can help. Something that is within my control.
"And?"
Link hesitated. It… it reminds me of her.
"Of whom? A lover?"
Link stuck out his tongue. "Ew, no!"
"I doubted it. Using the most unlikely of answers is occasionally a tactic used to elicit the true response. In short, I would like you to specify, Master Link."
Though Fi's use of language amused him, that slight delight had been crushed by heart-breaking guilt and grief.
Link turned his eyes to the dull stone wall at his right. My mother.
"She cared deeply for all life forms, did she not?"
Link nodded silently.
"So you see this as a way to make her proud of you?"
It seems so selfish when you say it like that. Maybe he was being selfish? But he did care about the kitten. If it had died on his watch, that would be another thing added to his long list of guilt. But...
"You feel she isn't proud. You feel you have disappointed her, and this is one of your attempts to make it up to her."
Link gently set the kitten, still bundled up, to the side, and leaned his face on his hand. I failed her. So many times that I wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't smart enough, wasn't good-
"Is that so?" Fi asked, cutting his thoughts to a stop. Link could have been mistaken, but there was the slightest bit of a dry edge to the normally emotionless voice - similar to that of sarcasm, actually. "It's not as if you were-"
"Don't justify it," Link blurted out before he realized it. He quickly shifted back into thoughts. I will not allow anyone to argue otherwise. I will bear the guilt forever, as I deserve. I will not trick myself into a state of false innocence.
"My apologies, Master Link, but how exactly are you guilty? If your memories have indicated anything to me, you did all you could to prevent that… event."
I didn't. I could've worked harder. I could've fought harder. I could've-
"You mustn't be so harsh on yourself, Master," Fi interrupted. "What could have been does not matter. What matters now is the present."
Link sighed and turned to look at the kitten, which had poked its little head out of the cloth, its golden eyes trained on him.
"I'm sorry," Link whispered to seemingly no one in particular. No one would ever know how many he was really, truly speaking to. Those words seemed to be meant for hundreds of ears, yet they would never reach them.
When he spoke again, his voice was scarcely loud enough for his own ears to hear.
"I'm so sorry."
Zelda studied the drawings diligently, completely fascinated. "You say they found this in Tabantha at the... Ancient Columns?"
"Yep!" Purah chirped, pointing to a feature in front of the cone shaped building. "And see this?"
Zelda examined it. "A pedestal of some sort?" she guessed.
"We're pretty sure it's some sort of lock on the structure," Purah explained. "I've theorized that the Sheikah Slate is the key to open it." Purah let out a girlish squeal. "What kinds of secrets could lie within?"
"I recall reading something in a book about ancient Sheikah technology," Zelda mused aloud. "It described 'shrines' that were built by the ancient Sheikah monks of ten thousand years ago. If I remember right, they were built to test the hero."
"Interesting…" Purah looked thoughtful. "Speaking of the hero, where is Linky?"
Zelda resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that strange nickname. "Sir Link has taken the day off. An emergency of some sort has called his attention elsewhere."
"What could he be doing?" Purah asked, confused.
Zelda shrugged. "He could be visiting his ill relative?"
Purah shook her head and mumbled something under her breath.
Zelda raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Um… I said that he doesn't have any… uh… remlits!" Purah said quickly. "Remlits! Those things went extinct ages ago, after all. It's impossible!"
Confused, Zelda brushed it off. "Well, I suppose he could also be avoiding me. Perhaps my slight… outburst intimidated him."
Now it was Purah's turn to look confused. "What outburst?"
Zelda sighed. "The night after we arrived at Woodland Stable, I decided to try and get him off my back. I packed up and tried to sneak away… but he caught me. I was so angry that I… well…" Zelda made an exploding motion with her hands.
Purah gave her a strange look with an emotion she couldn't quite place. "You yelled at him?" she asked.
The fact that Purah was acting this way about it made Zelda feel a little guilty in a way that ranting at the normally emotionless Impa had not. Purah… she was usually quite the optimistic sort. Zelda had rarely seen her become serious about something besides Sheikah technology, and even then, she always carried her excitement with her, drenching anyone nearby in her excitement.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Zelda said in a tone of voice that said otherwise. "But that was days ago. If he really was trying to avoid me, he would've taken the day off immediately after we got back."
"Well," Purah huffed, back to her normal self, "if you yelled at him, it means he'll be less willing to help us sneak out to the shrine."
Zelda scrunched up her forehead. "Help us? Why can't we just go by ourselves?"
"It's simple, really," Purah said. "It's dangerous out there. I'm no Sheikah warrior, and you aren't so good with that sort of thing either. We could get attacked by bokoblins, moblins, lizalfos, lynels… even the Yiga." Purah shivered.
"Yiga?" Zelda echoed. She had never heard the term before.
"The Yiga were once Sheikah," Purah explained. "But when we were forced into isolation thousands of years ago, there was a schism. They felt that the Royal Family had abused our technology and abilities, only to discard us like garbage when they didn't need us anymore. The other Sheikah, the ones that were completely loyal to the Royal Family of Hyrule, remained that way. So the ones that felt betrayed simply split off and called themselves the 'Yiga Clan.' They worship the Calamity, and will stop at nothing to revive it."
"So what do they want with me?" Zelda asked sarcastically. "Kill me?"
Purah nodded. "Probably. And they will succeed if you don't have someone experienced protecting you. Link…" Purah paused, as if thinking of a way to phrase her next words. "...He has plenty of experience fighting Yiga. More than any other knight, anyway."
Zelda rolled her eyes, not believing Purah and instead thinking it some sort of excuse. "Sure. If you don't want to go to the shrine, I could always go by myself."
"Zelda," Purah began firmly, "if you go without anyone to protect you... you could very well die."
Zelda turned towards the door, her mind made up. "Whatever you say, Purah."
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I'M REALLY SORRY. Ironically, the chapter title just so happens to say the same thing. LOI (Laughing on the inside - I totally didn't just make it up. Did you know that before the internet, LOL meant "Love you loads"? Interesting, right?) Anywho, yeah. This chapter is being published 15 hours after my normal update time. Roughly. I'm not feeling the math today. So... oops. But I almost didn't publish it at all today, so, you're welcome!
My reasoning for the late update time was because I'm behind on my writing schedule and I was kind of/sort of/really freaking out about it. If you didn't know, I write a chapter ahead. As of now, I still have not finished chapter 18. I was all "Oh no, I need to finish that chapter first! I CAN'T UPDATE!" But then I realized that the whole point of me writing a chapter ahead is instances like this, so that I can upload on time.
Moving on... you may have noticed the new cover. It's fine if you didn't, of course! Anyway, this cover is temporary, but it made more sense to have a BoTW cover for a BoTW story rather than a drawing of TP Zelda. So... ignore the speedy coloring, messed up jaw, and the date on the picture. It's one of my various "Hey, look, I drew a copy of something I found on the internet!" drawings. I have a better BoTW Zelda that I could use, actually, but I thought that the finished product looked too much like the original, and it would look like I was copying w/out permission, and... I'm rambling. Woo!
So... yeah, I'm still clueless about the cover. I'm still open to ideas (the ones I've been told already have been experimented with, but I'm still not sure)! At least it makes sense now! Sort of...!
I'm talking/writing too much. This is what one of my old English teachers described as "Writing Diarrhea." Because it's like... well, diarrhea. It's a gross comparison, but it's the sort of thing that appeals to sixth graders. The English teacher understood her audience.
Secret review phrase is "Sorry, not sorry," because it's the chapter title and I feel like it. Thank you for your support - we've reached 100 reviews! Woah!
Speaking of reviews, I'm really, REALLY sorry if I missed any! I'm a bit disorganized, so I have literally no idea if I replied already or not.
THANK YOU! :D
Sincerely (Mmm... smoothie... wait, what am I being sincere about again?),
Ari~