The air was brisk despite the afternoon sun, buffeting my face as I stood on top of Hebra Peak, all of Hyrule spread out below me. The sight was breathtaking, both thanks to the view and the sheer height of the mountain.
"You know, when I said we should explore the parts of Hyrule we hadn't seen, I was thinking the beach, not climbing a mountain." I turned to see Zelda struggling the last few feet up the mountain, exhausted from the long climb. I couldn't blame her, even I was tired. My supernatural strength and endurance had faded steadily after returning the Master Sword to the Temple of Time nearly a year prior. Zelda's magic was still there, but she hadn't been able to summon anything truly incredible since pulling me back from death.
"We can go to the beach next," I said, walking back towards her to pull her the last few steps. "Come on, the view is incredible." I finally managed to pull her up to the very peak of the mountain, the two of us standing above the world.
The clear sky gave us a magnificent view of the massive sprawl of Hyrule. The snowy slopes of the mountain were beneath us, slowly shifting into hard dirt and finally into verdant grass. In the distance, Hyrule City and the Castle sat and past that was the smoking peak of Death Mountain. We could faintly see the rising slopes that formed the outside of the Gerudo Canyon to the south and the massive sprawl of the Hyrulean countryside that otherwise occupied the amazing vista.
"Alright, fine, this was pretty worth it," Zelda admitted.
"It was definitely worth it to see you in that outfit," I said cheekily, earning the smack to my arm that came a second later.
"I will push you off this mountain. Besides, I can't help that it's a gorgeous coat. I don't think the princess gives people anything short of crazy stupid fancy as presents." She was right, the coat was beautiful. White and fluffy, with gold ornamentation on the hems and accents, the whole thing probably cost more than a car. Still, seeing it on Zelda definitely made the hypothetical cost worth it. The whole thing was a present from Felia for Zelda's birthday, custom made to fit her once the princess heard they were planning a trip to the Hebra mountains.
"True enough," I said, glancing at my own similarly custom coat, deep green in color and much more practical in design. Still, it was ridiculously warm and fit me perfectly.
Returning my attention to the view, my gaze hit the end of the Tanagar Canyon. If I looked closely, I could see the broken roof of the Forgotten Temple poking out, though the worn stone melded easily with the surrounding rock.
"What are you looking at?" Zelda asked from beside me, making me jump a little. I swung my gaze over to her before returning to the breathtaking view.
"Nothing really," I said, under no delusion that Zelda couldn't read me like a book. She knew what I had been looking at, but didn't bring it up. Any time we did, we both agreed that we'd rather not. It was in the past, our fight was over. Maybe someday, in this life or another, we'd have to fight again, but for now we were content with looking to the future instead of lingering on the past.
Flicking my eyes to Zelda again, I decided there was no time like the present for what I was going to do. Taking a step back, I reached into one of my pockets for something I had searched for months to find. My hand closed, only to come up empty.
Trying to not draw attention to myself, I checked my other pockets, then the first one again, then everywhere. I couldn't find it. I knew I had put it in my coat, I had even double-checked it to make sure I wouldn't lose it, and yet I couldn't find it. I was just starting to consider scouring the mountain to find it when Zelda's voice, carried by the wind, reached me.
"Looking for this?" she asked, holding something in her gloved hand. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a small jewelry box, the exact same one I was looking for. She gave me a look like she couldn't believe what I had just tried to pull. To be fair, she probably couldn't'. "You really brought me to the top of the second tallest mountain in Hyrule just to propose to me? How was I supposed to put the ring on when I'm wearing gloves?"
"Not just…" I mumbled loud enough for her to hear. "Hey wait, second tallest?" Now she was looking at me like I was just stupid.
"Yeah, second tallest. Death Mountain is 40 feet higher. Though if you had made me climb that to propose, I definitely would have just thrown you in, so good job at least. Getting all your bones broken is probably better than being melted."
We stood there for a good handful of seconds, just looking at each other at the top of the world. After a bit of nervous fiddling, I finally said something.
"So is that a 'yes' then?" Zelda stared at me for a few more seconds before turning back to the view, tossing the ring box in my direction.
"That is definitely not a 'yes'," she said as I scrambled for the box, digging it out of the snow it had fallen in. "I'll let you try again though. On one condition." Finally finding the case again, I tucked it securely back inside my pocket.
"What's that?" I asked, just slightly miffed.
"Next time, don't make me struggle for three days straight before asking. Maybe try to be actually romantic about it."
"I think this is romantic," I grumbled, looking out over the whole of Hyrule again.
"The view, yes. My exhaustion, no," she said, firmly shutting me down. I grumbled a little more, but I had to admit she had a point. I was pretty tired too, but my excitement had helped me largely ignore it.
Still, I was hardly going to stop. We had a whole trip around Hyrule planned, from Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia, to the Faron and Necluda seas, and through Akkala. All the places we hadn't seen on our quest. Hebra was only the first stop. I could imagine asking her on the historic Bridge of Hylia over Lake Hylia, or surrounded by the eternally autumn colors of Akkala, or on the beach at sunset. There'd be plenty more chances. And next time she wouldn't be able to say no.
"Had enough of the view yet?" I asked Zelda, who shot me a quick, skeptical look.
"We climbed this mountain for three days and you only want to stay for fifteen minutes?" she asked as she sat down, to which I could only shrug.
"I mean, I brought a sled for the trip down and I really want to try it out. We can climb back up later if you want," I offered. Zelda laughed a little, then more and louder, until her clear laughter filled the crisp air. I dropped down into the snow next to her, wrapping my arm around her shaking shoulders as she slowly calmed down.
"I am absolutely not climbing back up here any time soon, so let's sit a while," she said once she stopped laughing. I just shrugged and held her a little closer, our warm bodies pressed together atop the cold mountain. We watched for hours as the clouds moved, rolling across the sky, sometime chatting quietly, other times letting the wind be the only sound surrounding us. The clear air became even colder as the sun dipped in the sky, easing towards the distant horizon until hints of sunset began tinging the sky.
"We should get going if we want to get back to our camp before dark," I said after a long period of silence, finally rousing us out of the still calm of the mountain peak. Zelda nodded and we shook ourselves off before beginning the climb back down.
"You were kidding about the sled, right?" Zelda asked. I gave her a sidelong glance but didn't say anything. "Right? Link, you were kidding, right? Link?!" Right as she started yelling, I began running as quickly as I could down the slope of the mountain. I let loose a mad laugh, hearing Zelda running after me, her shouts echoing back at me. "I am not sledding down this mountain, Link! I'm not! LINK!"
I stopped just in time to turn around and scoop Zelda up in my arms, pulling her close for a kiss. I felt her melt in my arms, her love washing over me as we kissed at the top of the world. I couldn't help but imagine every kiss I gave her in the future, each one filled with just as much love as the one before. I broke our kiss and smiled at her flushed face, red from both exertion and passion.
"Yeah you are," I said, kissing her again briefly before booking it down the mountain again. I could hear Zelda getting closer, but was still surprised when she tackled me, both of us falling into the powdery snow. She shoved snow in my face as I did the same, our foolish laughter echoing on the mountains and filling the approaching night. We kept play fighting on the mountain until we were both panting heavily, laying in the snow side by side.
We laid there, just looking at each other, before we both stood up and reached for each other, our lips gently meeting in a sweet kiss. She smiled and I felt myself do the same, both of us utterly happy. For the briefest moment, I remembered the Spirit of the Hero's parting words. And I swore to him, if he was listening, to not just enjoy my reward, but to make myself hers and to love her for the rest of my life and every single one after, forever dedicated to my Zelda.
The End.
Feels damn good, let me tell you.
I've been working on this story for the past three years, at least. I don't know when I started formulating this, and I certainly didn't expect what it became. 47 chapters, 277 pages, just shy of 163,000 words. Utterly stupid. And I'm so glad to be done, to have something I can finally call finished. This story is, by words, longer than both Return of the King and Two Towers, plus a whole bunch of others, including Eragon, which I am personally a big fan of. The numbers of it astound me.
But maybe even more impressive is the number of people who have been reading this story. At the time of writing this, over 42,000 views. You all are fantastic, and I want to thank you all for sticking with me. I am happy to finally produce a finished version of 'Revival of the Gods'. Not that I'd really say it's finished yet. There are definitely mistakes and errors sprinkled thru ought the story, which I will probably get to fixing at some point. But for now I'm going to relish in a job done.
To everyone who has ever reviewed this story, thank you. I read every single one, more than likely multiple times. I appreciate you all. And if you've never reviewed, do so now. This is the place. Give me your final thoughts, your final words. If you have an account on Fanfiction, I'll be sending you a PM in response in place of my usual response after the next chapter.
If you want more from me, check out the companion piece to this story 'Revival of the Goddess', which shows a few scenes from Zelda's perspective. For more Zelda stuff by me, check out the one-shots I've posted and if you want more of my longer stories, read 'Shared Wings'. It's more of the romance, character driven style than the action adventure that pervaded this story, but I can honestly say I like the former more. The most fun parts of this story to write was the Zelink stuff, and that's really all 'Shared Wings' is going to be. There's a few chapters up, with more to come eventually.
One last time, thank you all for reading, I sincerely hope you enjoyed. I am eternally grateful. Cheers to you all.
~Aroband