Notes:
This started as a tumblr post selenityshiroi tumblr com post/624565781753118720/i-just-had-a-thought-that-post-botw-link-and-zelda and I kept thinking about it until it evolved into this.
Also...I know the in game map is extensive. And detailed. And that making up villages and shrines seems unnecessary. But I also believe in story and gameplay segregation and that not every aspect of Hyrule is on the map or seen in game. I like to think there are a few more villages and homesteads and farms and other pockets of people scattered around. Afterall, there doesn't seem to be a single toilet in Kakariko Village, but they must exist. And Bolson and co don't seem to be Hateno natives, so they must have come from somewhere we haven't seen in game. So this is a fictional village. With mentions of fictional landscapes and shrines. Who knows, maybe the topology matches an in game location. I just want the freedom to craft this story as I want.
Also...NOTE THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR TAG (on AO3 which is where this was originally published)
Jehin normally hated visitors with a passion. Not the regular traders, who made a circle of the local villages and homesteads and knew exactly where to travel to avoid the monsters and did the essential work of bringing cotton and linen from the weavers three villages away and exchanging them with their wool and leather. Or bringing ore from the village to the south, the one near the rocky cliffs, and selling it to the smith. No, he hated the random visitors, the ones who arrived from nowhere and for no reason.
There were two types of these visitors to the village, and both types were usually heavily armed and brought nothing but trouble with them.
The first was the desperate travellers who had left home with the hopes of building a better life for themselves. And soon found out that there was a reason why everyone had been living within their familiar lands and people for the last 100 years.
They normally stumbled into Kelot's inn, bedraggled and injured, and begged for food and medicine and bandages and a roof over their head. They would describe the monsters they had fought or ran from and then, after a day or two, would slink back off home. Much more carefully than they had left.
His daughters normally fawned over the more attractive ones before they got bored of the stories, the same as always. A moblin here or a bokoblin there. One or two travellers would keep their interest with bolder tales of a brush with a hinox but he normally dragged them back home at that point.
They might be old enough to be looking for husbands, but they could do better than boys with tall tales about fighting things they clearly couldn't handle.
The second type of visitor were the bandits. The lowlifes who got by in life by terrorising those weaker than them. Who rode in and stole food and freshly forged tools from Meelo's smith and leather from the tanners and the thin sense of security the village gained from living behind flimsy walls.
He would take the ignorant do gooders who tried charming his girls, any day.
Actually, there was a third type of visitor. Occasionally one of the Gerudo would pass through town, in search of a vole or voe or whatever they called their husbands. He didn't mind them so much, because they were always respectful and he actually believed them when they said they had fought a pack of lizafos. The only issue caused by the Gerudo was when that lousy bastard who married Finnon's sister ran off with one of them. But, even then, she'd returned, horrified, when she'd discovered that there was a wife in the picture. She'd left the bastard behind in the woods, somewhere, making it clear he was a shameful creature who was not good enough for her, his wife or the 'beautiful village' he inhabited and had even paid Finnon's sister recompense by gifting her some beautiful gemstones. Which everyone had agreed was a darned site better for her than her lousy husband, who everyone assumed never returned for fear of Finnon and his father getting their hands on him. Although he'd also seen Finnon's sister throw fully grown sheep around, during shearing season, so she might not have needed anyone to fight her battles for her.
She'd been able to hire two farm hands from the rupees she got for the gems. Definitely much better than her husband.
He made an exception for the Gerudo. They could visit more often.
But then there was HIM. The boy in the blue tunic, a colour so vivid and distinctive Jehin had been surprised the boy hadn't been skewered by monsters before he'd gotten 20 horse lengths from home.
When he'd first rode in, a sword, bow and shield strapped to his back, Jehin had ushered his daughters inside, shoved a woodcutting axe into his wife's hands, slid one of his chisels from his belt and had expected the young man to demand rupees and wine and his best woodwork in exchange for not shoving the sword through his heart.
Instead, the boy had dismounted his horse, pulled a bunch of apples from his saddle bag, that the mare snatched immediately with the knowledge that she was fully spoiled, and then asked if he could borrow a cooking pan. And that he could pay for the usage, if necessary.
By the following morning the boy had decimated the bokoblin population in the southern copse of trees, sold a disturbing number of monster parts to Erim (the doctor's girl who insisted that they made the best elixirs), helped old nan Temi till and sow her garden plot and still had time to casually answer questions about how he'd made his way to their little village.
He'd believed that boy when he said he'd killed a hinox. And the talus that was rumoured to live in the hills beyond the woods. And the moblin camp that caused trouble for all the previous travellers.
Of course, everyone knew they would be back by the time the moon turned red again, but a few weeks of peace was definitely worth the price of a meal or two. And most of the village quickly found reason to feed him.
He'd only stayed a couple of days, and Markus and his boys claimed that they'd watched him mess about with the weird shrine near the hills. That the orange glow that had appeared a few months back was now a cool, pulsing blue. And then the boy had collected his horse and rode off to the west, promising old nan Temi to be back and help harvest her carrots in a few months.
He'd actually turned up again just after the red moon, and killed all the bokoblins in the southern copse again. And helped old nan Temi plant some pumpkins. And traded several sacks of Hylian Rice for Tabanatha Wheat, which his wife had been delighted by because she'd had a recipe for a cake that had been passed down by her great grandmother and she'd never been able to try it.
He'd left again the next day, a few bundles of arrows heavier and some rupees lighter. And also promising to check out details of that silly local legend the kids kept twittering on about.
He somehow hadn't been surprised when reports came that the statues to the east had disappeared and another shrine had taken their place, blue glow now lighting up the river that flowed next to it.
It wasn't until the third visit that he'd discovered the boy's name was Link. And he'd wondered if that was why he was so determined to ride around the countryside killing monsters and helping old widows with their gardens.
There were three Links in their village and the traders claimed there were at least two no matter where they went. After the Princess and the Hero died, 100 years ago, hopeful parents named their children Link or Zelda in the hopes that their child would be the hero or the goddess reborn. The Zelda's were a flight of fancy, because everyone knew she was born from the goddess bloodline alone (and he didn't believe Corin when she claimed her great great great great grandmother had a fling with one of the Hyrulian Kings and her bloodline was descended from Hylia, too...besides, wasn't the goddess passed down through the female line? The fight she got into with Lucina in the village square when she'd discovered they'd both named their newborn girls Zelda was definitely not the work of a benevolent goddess reborn).
But the stories about the hero claimed that he was reborn all over Hyrule. That he wasn't bound to a bloodline and instead was born into those whose hearts contained unbound courage. So it wasn't surprising that people prayed that their son would be hope reborn. That their Link would be the one to stop the Calamity.
This Link seemed to be doing a lot more with the name than the three Links in his village, one of which was an ancient alcoholic who spent more time in the inn than tending to his rice fields. To be fair, one of the other Links was the smith's apprentice and seemed to be doing good work...he'd done a lovely job on his most recent chisel. And the third Link was about 4 years old and did seem to enjoy running around wielding a tree branch. So he shouldn't judge so harshly, as not everyone was cut out for hero work. Even if they were just emulating the hero and not the actual Hero themselves.
When the red moons disappeared and the monsters started staying dead and reports from the traders suggested that the mass of churning malice had stopped circling the old castle, no one knew why.
Had the ancient evil given up? Had the Goddess been reborn? Had a Hero stepped up and destroyed the Calamity?
No one had the answers and nothing in their lives really changed, except that Finnon's sister could finally let her flock loose in the field closer to the southern copse without losing sheep to bokoblins. And the traders were risking bringing more expensive goods, now that they were less likely to get ambushed on the roads. And one of those awful visiting boys who had stayed and married the innkeeper's daughter had made the journey back to his home village to check on his parents and introduce them to their new daughter in law.
The other thing that changed was that this time the Link boy visited, he brought a lovely young lady with him.
Jehin hadn't been sure what to expect this next time he saw Link. A part of him almost wondered if he'd slayed the evil himself, since the boy seemed so active and fearless. But obviously the great Hero of Time wouldn't be wandering through villages and helping old women plant their gardens. Or find Neve's boy when he got lost that one time. Or, most ridiculously, go out and find a butterfly for Lephy's daughter when she'd been housebound with that broken leg from climbing trees. Climbing trees looking for butterflies.
But here the boy was, just in time to harvest old nan Temi's late vegetables, on a sturdy looking brown stallion-different from the beautiful white mare he'd rode before. Instead, atop the mare was a young woman with long flowing blonde hair and stunning green eyes and looking absolutely delighted at everything happening around her, as if she hadn't seen a village in forever.
Now, Jehin was inherently biased. As far as he was concerned his wife was the prettiest young woman he'd ever seen, although the term young didn't apply so much nowadays, as they could both attest to. And his daughters were the apple of his eye and obviously the most beautiful girls in the village. But this young lady with Link could absolutely give them a run for their money, and she certainly attracted more than one stare as she and Link dismounted.
Quite a few of the villagers had managed to greet Link, before Jehin made his way over to the pair, and Link was in the middle of greeting most of them as the young lady took off her riding cloak.
As soon as the vivid blue of her top and belt became visible he realised that some of the boy's eying her up were about to become very, very disappointed. And, indeed, he watched Markus' eldest and young Ulroch glance back and forth between the young lady and Link before deflating and slipping back out of the crowd. And Smithy-Link, who'd developed a bit of an idolisation of this visiting Link, definitely seemed to be less than pleased.
Of course, there was only one reason a lovely young lady like this would be riding alone with a young man. And wearing an outfit made from the same fabric and with the same design as his, probably purchased from the same tailor at the same time...or even embroidered by the same hand, perhaps the lady herself as a labour of love.
Now that the roads were safer, Link was obviously bringing his young wife out and about with him. As young as they were and in the prime of their lives, they probably could no longer bear to be apart.
Link didn't really introduce his wife to anyone, instead he'd greeted most of the crowd, quietly explained to his wife who various people were and what they did in the village and then gotten incredibly distracted and ran off as soon as he realised that old nan Temi was trying to pull up pumpkins bigger than her head on her own.
His wife looked fondly at him as he ran off, greeted the crowd with a charming smile, and then asked if there was anywhere they could settle the horses.
Jehin had always stabled Link's horse for him, his home only having the one donkey now but stalls for four animals, and he offered their use up instantly. Link's wife was grateful and they led the horses away from the crowd and towards his home.
She really did look like a delicate beauty, with pale skin and looking very slight, other than legs that looked well used to riding. She looked like his wife had looked when they'd almost lost her, after their youngest had been born. When she'd been bed bound for weeks and only really able to nurse the babe. But instead of looking wane and tired, this girl looked eager and curious. She also carried a knife on her belt and had a complicated bow hooked onto her back, although she carried no quiver. So she was probably capable of looking after herself.
Maybe she'd also been ill, and that was why Link travelled so much? Maybe he'd been trying to find a cure for her and finally succeeded? Or maybe she'd just been sick with worry that her young husband had been gallivanting around the countryside taking on monsters ten times his size.
Still, who was he to judge. The boy had survived and made it home. And she looked happy enough to be travelling with him now.
'Oh, are you a carpenter?'
The girl had obviously spotted the open doors of the workshop and was twisting her head around to eye up his lathe, curiosity painted on her features.
'That I am, my dear.' He tied the stallion's rein loosely to one of the stalls, knowing that Link's other horse, the one held by his wife, was well behaved and this one seemed just as wonderfully trained. The loose hold would probably keep him in place whilst he grabbed some spare feed and topped up the water trough. The girl tied her horse to the next stall in the same fashion and noticed his intention with the water and filled the bucket next to the water pump herself, carrying it less clumsily than he thought back to the trough, her arms looking a lot more spindly than they actually were.
'Oh, I used to love watching the woodworkers.' The girl chattered on as she filled the trough and then went over to the horses to start removing some of the heavier tack and pamper them a little. 'It was always so fascinating to watch them turn a shapeless lump of wood into something beautiful and practical.'
The girl seemed to genuinely mean it, and it was nice to see someone so appreciative of craftsmanship. But then he watched her sigh and close herself off a little.
'Of course, father always said I had better things to do with my time and that I should stop bothering the workers with my questions.'
Jehin didn't know her father, but he sounded like an ass.
'Well, my dear, I'm not that busy right now...so if you want to ask me questions about my work, I'd be happy to answer them.'
She lit up again, eyes widening in delight and curiosity, and her gaze flickered back to the workshop.
'Really? I'd love to see how your style of work differs from what I know and if much has changed over the years and if there are regional differences in styles…' He couldn't imagine much had changed in woodwork in this girl's lifetime...she couldn't be more than twenty, if she'd even reached that age. But he was happy to humour her.
'I'm not sure about style. Most of the things I make I have to make quickly and cheaply. The next skilled carpenter is two villages over and we're always busy.' As he led her into the workshop she fluttered between his bench and his lathe, testing the turn with the foot pedal and watching the way it sped up as she rocked her foot back and forth. Before she got distracted and started examining the chair he had finished earlier that day. And the table he'd been teaching the girls with, their slightly clumsy mortice and tenon joints stark against his seamless work.
'Oh, but style isn't everything.' The girl ran her hand over the work his girls had done, her fingers catching on the slight unevenness. 'There has been so much lost that creating something new, even a simple chair, is something special.'
It seemed like the sentiment should be trite or mocking. But something in her tone suggested that she was one hundred percent serious. And he stepped forward to explain the flaws in the table.
'I've been teaching my girls the trade,' At this Link's wife pulled her gaze from the table and towards him, a pleased smile gracing her features, 'And they are pretty good at shaping with the lathe and the finishing of pieces...but their chiselling work needs a lot more practice.'
'You teach your girls?'
Some of the village thought he should take on an apprentice and leave his girls to get married and have children and never touch a thing in his workshop. But his girls had watched him make things with fascination since they were old enough to toddle. And they'd asked to help as soon as they could hold a knife, although he'd swapped knives for pumices until they were older and let them grind away at coarse grains and sharp edges. And they could still get married and have children and maybe their husbands would also like to learn his trade. Or wife, if his youngest's fascination with the pretty girl who travelled with the traders and always gave her free apples was what he thought it was. But if his girls wanted to make furniture then he was going to teach them to make the best furniture they could.
'Well, my wife tells me I'm soft and can't tell them no. But, to be honest, the best student is someone who loves what they do. And my girls love it, so I'm gonna teach them.'
He was a little embarrassed to admit that to this girl he'd only just met, but she just smiled sadly at him and admitted that 'any girl would be lucky to have a father care so much about what she loves'.
Yeap, her father was definitely an ass. Maybe he hadn't approved of Link and they'd married behind his back or eloped or something.
'Well, any father who doesn't shouldn't be lucky enough to have daughters.' This didn't remove the sad smile from her face, and he wished there was a way to get that delighted and curious look back in her eyes again.
'Hmm...wanna try making a spindle on my lathe? I'll show you how.'
That worked.
She bounced around and rushed over to his lathe so quickly that he barely had time to select a piece of offcut, one that wasn't quite the right length for any of his current projects, and pull one of his sharp and thin chisels from the wall. And he also pulled one of his girl's head scarfs off of the bench before making his way over to her.
'You should probably tie your hair back, before we start.' He handed the scarf over, gesturing for her to pull all her long hair away from where it could fall forward into the turn of the lathe. She pulled it all up and wrapped the scarf around the mass of blonde until it was all covered in the light pink of the scarf. 'Good girl, my daughter's learned that the hard way.'
'Well, I was thinking about cutting it off anyway.' She admitted with a smile, mirth painting her features and patiently waiting for him to show her what to do.
'Still, I'm sure Link wouldn't be too pleased if I handed you back with missing pieces.'
She laughed, clear and sweet and it was certainly better than the sad look she'd had when thinking about her father.
'He most certainly would not!' Jehin wasn't surprised that he'd correctly guessed that Link was a protective husband. 'But, don't worry, he would know I tricked you into all this with my intellectual curiosity!'
'Well, my dear, perhaps we should get started before he tries to save me from your trickery.' He liked this girl, and he could see why she would be someone that Link was reluctant to leave behind.
'Zelda.'
'Hmm?' The name came out of nowhere, and he paused in fixing the piece of timber between the stocks, to glance over at her.
'That's my name, Zelda.' She looked nervous at admitting to it, like she was waiting to get into trouble for it or have this moment ripped from her.
Maybe her father was still looking for her and they were keeping her name on the downlow? Or maybe she was just embarrassed to admit it, since her husband was a Link. They must be the butt of jokes back home, both being named for the lost legends and now bound together.
'Don't tell that to Corin at the general store...she's convinced her daughter is the goddess reborn and gets angry that anyone else dares to call their daughter by that name.' He grinned at her, letting her know he was teasing her, and she relaxed at the joke.
'Well, when her daughter manifests her holy powers I'll give up my name and let her have it.'
Yeap, he liked this girl. Link could bring her again.
It was an hour or two later when Link knocked on the frame of the workshop door, pulling Jehin's attention away from Zelda's second spindle, this one looking much more even than her first, not completely disastrous, attempt.
Link had paused in the doorway and was watching his wife with such a fond and slightly humoured expression that he couldn't even roll his eyes at how soppy the boy was.
When Zelda also turned to see him the boy had managed to tame his features into being slightly less besotted, but Zelda lit up and ushered him over to tell him all about what she'd been doing.
Jehin left them to it whilst he grabbed a broom to clear up some of the wood shavings littering the floor and only occasionally glanced up to watch Link run his finger over the spindle she'd been working on, pride and affection in the movement. Or to see Zelda place her hand on his arm as she passionately told him about how the mechanism of the lathe worked, something she'd worked out for herself as she'd watched it move.
Despite how obviously in love they were, there was a quietness to their affections and they seemed a little shy with each other, still. Perhaps it was lingering from having to hide their feelings, maybe from her asshole father. Or maybe they hadn't gotten over the newlywed jitters, what with him having been travelling so recently.
Still, they definitely weren't as sickening as the soppy display young Lopin and Gertie had put on after they got married last spring. The entire village had avoided them for weeks until they calmed down and settled into married life, although they still occasionally put on lovey dovey displays that half made him roll his eyes and half made him nostalgic for his own young marriage. Not that he loved his wife any less than he had the moment he married her, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd called her beautiful or gave her flowers just because.
Perhaps he'd grab some later. And perhaps he'd tell Link where the patch of Silent Princess flowers were, too. They were rare and special and his wife had always loved them. Perhaps Link's lovely Zelda would like them, too.
He finished putting the woodshavings into his barrel of scrap, and turned his attention back to the young couple, now in a discussion about frogs having migrated to the river and affecting fish populations, which...wasn't what he'd been expecting them to be discussing.
'I'd need to see if there is some sort of issue with the pond that is causing the frogs to move away. Or maybe it's a seasonal change.' Zelda was talking away with the same sort of passion he'd seen when she was learning how to hold the chisel just right to get the nice smooth turns, and Link was listening to her with rapt attention and obviously taking note of her observations and suggestions. 'It could even be some sort of aspect of their breeding patterns, did any of the fishermen mention if this was new or if they'd seen it before?'
'No, they said it was completely new. The frogs normally only live in the pond and they know there are very few fish normally in the pond, so they don't bother setting up poles or nets there.'
Link had obviously been getting stories from the locals again, and was probably going to earn several very nice fish for solving yet another problem. At least his wife didn't seem to mind him helping out random strangers. In fact, she seemed to be just as eager to help.
'Do you think we have time to get to the pond before it gets dark? I'd like to make some observations?' Zelda was already picking up the bow that she'd put down and removing the scarf from her head, her mind obviously working on this new problem, and Link almost distractedly straightened a few pieces of hair that were out of place before snatching his hand back and turning toward Jehin.
'Do we owe you anything for the timber?' Or your time went unsaid, but Zelda seemed to realise, belatedly, that she'd kept a busy carpenter occupied for a few hours and looked a little bit guilty that she'd been keeping him from his work.
'Nah, it was only scrap.' Jehin picked up her second spindle and really was impressed at how steady her hand was and how quickly she'd been able to get a good angle to make some nice, clean turns. There wasn't quite a nice symmetry to the pattern she'd created, but it was certainly good work for a beginner. 'And, besides, there's been so much lost that teaching something new, even a simple spindle, is something special.'
Zelda smiled at him repeating her words back to her, and he meant it. A grateful student was always worth the time to teach them. And, besides, the entire village owed Link about five times over by now. And it looked like Zelda was going to build her own credit in favours.
They thanked him for his time, and they left the workshop in the direction of the pond beyond the river, leaving their horses behind in favour of making the walk on foot.
Zelda was still speaking about the frogs and asked if they could also observe the river and pond at night, in case they were also nocturnal.
'Of course, as you wish, Princess.'
Okay, he took it back. They were sickening. He wondered if the nickname came because she was called Zelda or if he was just so besotted with the girl that Link couldn't help but come up with such a cutesy pet name.
Still, he watched Link softly pull his wife out of the way of a rock on the ground whilst she was absorbed in that slate thing and she didn't even notice, just carried on walking, pressing fingers against the slate and dragging them around. But then he seemed to remember something and said something to his wife, getting a small nod, before he rushed back towards Jehin.
'Sorry, I forgot to ask if it was okay if we leave the horses here for a bit.' He gestured towards the mare and stallion, happily nibbling away at grass at the foot of the stalls, the reins having long worked loose but showing no signs of wandering away from where they'd been left. 'We might be here for a few days and I've already secured a room at the inn, but the stalls there are not ideal.'
He asked this every time and paid generously for the hay and water, much more than Jehin suggested. The stalls at the inn were poorly maintained and pretty exposed, better for short visits and not overnight guests.
'Of course, you don't even need to ask.'
'Thank you, both Zelda and I like to know the horses are safe when we're gone.'
Jehin took the opportunity of her being mentioned to latch onto the topic.
'She's a very lovely young lady, I'm glad she seems to be in a better place than she was.' He thought of the sad looks on her face when she thought of her father and how much brighter she was when around Link. It was very clear that she was happy now, maybe happier than she had ever been.
Link looked at him in confusion for a bit, mind obviously working and trying to work out what Zelda had told him about herself. Very little, but he could guess.
'It was difficult for her, and we had a lot of adjustment when we were reunited. But things are better for both of us now that we're together.' He looked a little embarrassed whilst admitting, 'We'd missed each other quite a bit.'
Jehin laughed, this couple was ridiculous. 'I'm sure you did!' Such soppy young lovers. 'Still, you do good by her. Make sure you keep every one of your vows.'
Link straightened up, a serious look on his face as he declared 'Until the day I die.'
And that was what Jehin liked to hear. A man who took his marriage vows seriously and cherished his wife like the treasure she was.
'Good lad.' He lightly slapped him on the back, and even as gentle as it was it set the boy off balance a bit. He really was a slight thing, even though he could apparently swing that large sword around without an issue. 'Now go on before she manages to fall in the river.'
They both looked towards Zelda and noticed that she was still absorbed in the slate thing except she was getting rather close to the bank. The boy rushed off, intent to reach her before she accidentally stepped over the edge, sending a small wave back in Jehin's direction before putting his full attention back on his wife.
Yeap, Jehin definitely wanted to go tell his wife she was beautiful. But first he had some flowers to pick.
Notes:
I know nothing about carpentry except for second hand encounters through fiction, documentaries and 25 year past secondary school woodworking lessons. But I know enough to fake it till I make it and I needed a focus for my made up villager and his interactions with Zelda.
Also, all the names are random sounds strung together. Hopefully none of them turn into anything stupid or horrible in other languages. I should have probably googled them all, just in case.
(And in case you didn't get it from the unreliable narrator tag, Link and Zelda are not (yet) married! Jehin is assuming based on observation. There is a bit of a double conversation going on between him and Link at the end.)