The first time it happened, Link was four. He woke with a start, clawing at an invisible enemy, a scream choking in his throat. It took several minutes for him to realize that the great black thing attacking him was only a dream.
Link sobbed quietly the rest of the night.
It only grew from there.
((RB))
Ganondorf knew his adopted...child was having nightmares. Figments of the imagination weren't something to be bothered by, and the boy would have to learn this one way or another. Irrational fears weren't even uncommon at this age, and though it was hilarious in a pathetic way that the bearer of Courage would be afraid of make believe-monsters, the Gerudo still thought little of it.
Until he woke to the sound of the screams belonging only to the dying or deranged and walked in on a toddler doing his damndest to claw his eyes out.
Restraining Link wasn't at all the best thing to do, but Ganondorf thought he had every right panic a little since there was a worrying amount streaming down Link's face. Link somehow screamed even louder, and thrashed as if in a seizure.
"Link."
The sudden stillness was even more terrifying than the thrashing – it was as if the child had turned to stone. The wild and feral fear in the boy's eyes set something off in Ganondorf. It was a terrible look of universal fear – fear of both oneself and the entire world. It was a look that set an irrational anger alight in his veins that mixed poorly with the odd sinking-sickly feeling.
Link was terrified of him.
"It was just a dream." Ganondorf said with more conviction than he'd felt in a long time, as if he could craft a spell then and there to assure that truth.
Link had flinched at the words –at his voice - before going pale and then green in such rapid succession that it was a small miracle that Ganondorf managed to get the child outside before he vomited all over the floor. Retching gave way to dry-heaving that tumbled into sobbings, and Ganondorf drug the child into his lap when his arms trembled a dangerous amount, only then realizing his hand had never stopped massaging circles on Link's back.
Sometime later he scooped up the hiccupping child and Link wrapped his arms greedily around a strong neck and hid from the world. Apologies and promises to "never ever, ever, be a bad kid" tumbled out and over themselves, and what little Ganondorf was able to piece together was…enlightening, in the same way a poison was discovered.
Link had dreamt of murdering. He had been dreaming of fighting an anonymous enemy for some time, but tonight was different. Different in a way he refused to say, but Ganondorf knew the moment the child shied away from him, ashamed.
And when the child asked why as he was set back in his bed, the former king sighed and let the bitterness in his heart rule.
"There is no reason for it." The Gerudo lied easily, for every moment of this life was false. But he was aged and bitter and willing to do whatever it took to spit in the faces of those that had cursed him, "The Goddess do such things out of petty jealousy."
"We have immense power, and they wish to control that." The Triforce of Power -his Triforce- rose to the surface of his skin easily, and the pulse followed his heartbeat loyally. Link's own rose to the call eagerly, and soon the resonance built between them, "One day I'll tell you a very, very, long story about the power you hold. But it's even more unpleasant than any dream the Goddess may send you out of spite, so until then, don't dream at all."
Link nodded, and leaned into the hand brushing away loose hair, "I'll try…"
Link fell asleep almost instantly; partially due to exhaustion in general, mostly due to sedatives Ganondorf gave him. Which was fine, because the child missed the contemplative look the Gerudo had when he noticed his own comforting gestures, done without thought. Such a thing was…worrying for a mountain of reasons. It was one thing to raise a child out of spite and to secure his own safety for yet another cycle, but for this…
Ganondorf didn't sleep that night.
Originally this included the specifics of the dream, but I took that out for various reasons.
