Hey everyone! This chapter is gonna be a little different. One of the shorter chapters this time around! Instead of focusing on the battles of Link against the Garo, I wanna touch on the sort of "mental state" Link is in during all this. Remember, while he's stoic hero, he's still a child! I'm also introducing a new character into the story, but I hope it won't seem too sudden. I did my best to build up this certain fellow for a few chapters, namely 11. Anyways, enjoy!
-Joost

The Fierce God Given Life
Chapter 16: Who I Choose to Be

It was a few days later, and Link reentered Clock Town, battered, bruised, and exhausted. The Gilded Sword had been returned to its former glory now, and it didn't show any sign of breakage. Hopefully it wouldn't for a while, as the Garo were getting stronger and stronger. Link was able to beat them for now, and he was determined to keep it that way.

Dusk had already passed. For the last few nights, Link had spent his time out taking care of the Garo. They were getting bolder and bolder every day, attacking travelers, slaughtering innocent creatures in the swamp and on the road to Snowhead, and even attempted to invade Great Bay. Link saw it as his responsibility to stop them, and so far, he had been successful.

What Link really dreaded, however, was when he got home.

Link carefully opened the door to the Stock Pot Inn. It was just midnight by the time he finally got back. He really hoped no one else was awake. His guilt for constantly disappearing and returning by dark was getting to him. He tiptoed his way into the kitchen for a small bit to eat, not even noticing Anju sitting on the counter by the cupboard.

"Where were you?" Anju asked sternly.

The innkeeper's arms were crossed, and a scowl had donned her face. She glared at the boy in green as he froze the moment she made her presence known. Link recognized all this. When he got home from training over a month ago, he had been met by a similar scene.

"I- I got caught up…" Link said feebly. He saw time repeating itself now.

"Again?! Link, that's the fifth time in a row! Not to mention you never even told us what happened to you when you got your shoulder injured!" Anju refrained from raising her voice too much, Kafei was asleep upstairs after all.

"Mom… Please… j-just go back to bed…" Link stuttered. He was exhausted from his fights against many spies. Anju's berating just added onto the stress that was being laid upon this child.

"Link! You need to tell me what is going on!" Anju's tone grew more and more frustrated at her surrogate son.

"Please, not now…" Link pleaded with Anju. He felt like he couldn't do this. "J-Just go back to sleep… please…"

"I can't sleep!" Anju finally snapped. "Link, I can barely sleep! You vanish in the middle of the day without explanation, you return home as if you've just been through a war, and then it happens the next day!"

Anju's outburst startled Link. He had no idea what to say. The only thing he could do was shut his mouth and lower his head, a common habit. Anju realized she made him retreat into his shell, and she tried to calm herself down. Before Link could leave the kitchen, she knelt and put her hand on his shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry… honey. I'm just… worried about you." Anju's tone was soothing at last. Neither she nor Link liked it when she was angry. She thought back to when she was a teenager. A very rebellious and stubborn teenager, who rarely expressed her emotions to anyone. She felt like the same could be happening with the boy before her, albeit for very different reasons.

"You don't need to shoulder everything that's handed to you… Bottling everything up can eat away at your soul." Anju brought Link in for a hug. Her voice grew shaky at what she said next. "I'm your mother, Link. I'm here for you…"

There was a long silence before Link started sniffling. He had been defeated, his stoic persona melted away, as it so often did when he was around Romani. Link's grip on the innkeeper tightened. Something very personal inside him had been put to rest, and he finally felt like he was able to have a real mother.

"I love you… mom…" Link said softly.

"I love you too, Link." Anju replied.

The hug between them lasted a long time, until Link grew the confidence to tell Anju everything. About the Garo, about his fear of them getting to his family, all of it.

"I'm just… afraid." Link whimpered as he was pulling in for another hug by Anju. The entire endeavor of telling her everything took a lot out of him.

This was the first time he ever told someone all about his life. Not just the Garo, but everything he could. He recalled explaining his adventures in Hyrule and Termina, but he didn't tell of the things he had lost along his journeys. The feelings of loss a child his age should never have gone through. Until now.

Link felt unbelievably broken. He and Anju just sat on the floor of the kitchen, him wrapped in her arms, cradling him. He told her about all the friends he had left behind, how they were stuck in the Sacred Realm. He told of his only paternal figure dying before him because of a curse laid upon him by the King of Evil. He told about how he never felt in control of his life up until the moon vanished from the sky, and how confused he was when it was all over. He told about his desire to make people happy, and how difficult it could be when he isn't happy.

He even told Anju about something he never told another living soul. His only actual memory of his birth mother. It wasn't much a memory, more so a feeling. Just sadness and pain. It was hardly much, but it mattered a lot to him. He has so frustrated at being unable to comprehend what was so fundamentally different about his life. He was reminded of his proposal to Romani and how he felt during that night, and it was just like now.

Link was a sobbing mess now. He let his body go slack and his gear clattered to the floor. Anju just tightened her embrace on her son, and they sat in silence for a long time, the only sound being the occasional sniffle from Link. He knew he was a hero, but whenever he was faced with the prospect of after the adventure, he felt like he was just adrift in space. All he knew was to just improvise, and that's what he'd been doing for the past few months during his time in Termina.

Anju knew by now that Link was a troubled child. Her instincts as a mother pleaded for her to convince him any way she could to put down the sword, but it was clear that he simply couldn't do that, at least not now. However, her instincts as a person who had been through her own hardships told her to pass on what she had learned from them.

"Link… I know how it is to feel… lost." Anju's voice was angelic to Link. His eyes gazed up into hers. "Your story may not have the greatest beginning, but you should never let that define who you are."

Anju removed Link's cap and caressed his hair. She smiled at the boy in her arms, how his face was so young, and yet conveyed years of experiences and feelings. "Needing to fight, defeat creatures, and experience unimaginable things… All of that doesn't make you who you are."

"It's who you choose to be, and how you continue."

Link thought back to everything before, but this time it wasn't the bad. It was everything that made his happy during his life. Befriending Saria, Zelda, making friends, saving Hyrule and Termina, meeting Romani, getting taken in by Anju and Kafei, helping restless spirits like Gomess, and even experiencing what he could only describe as love.

Finally, Link's tears stopped. He just took deep breaths as Anju held him. He felt at peace, for once. He accepted his circumstances and felt like everything was going to be ok. Thinking back to when the Deku Butler helped him with the Deku mask, and how calm he was, Link finally understood why the butler did that. It was so he could come to terms with his own loss, as the Butler had regarding his son. He would still need to battle the Garo in the future, but now, all he wanted to do was sit and be in the arms of his mother. And he fell asleep that way.

When Kafei finally awoke in the morning, he was surprised to be met with his wife and son sitting on the floor, asleep. The sun beamed down from the window onto the pair, and Kafei joined their embrace. For a long time, the little family held each other close.

"So, what did I miss?" Kafei smirked as he asked his question. Anju was finally starting to wake up, but Link was slow to rise. He had been through a lot, and he needed some good rest. After Anju explained to him the events of the night prior, and just how much Link had opened up, he made sure to comfort the boy as much as he could.

However, the talk about the Garo spooked Kafei. He remembered when he was a boy, and the war had just ended. He was born just a few years before it all wrapped up, and he recalled how his father would help the returning soldiers that were enlisted in the war efforts and the secret service. How badly they were wounded and how much trauma they endured convinced Kafei to go to a certain man who had experience in the war.

He walked to West Clock Town and had a talk with the sword teacher, and about Link's quest to stop the Garo. The swordsman had a brief flashback to when he served in the war, and how a Garo was the result of the scars that lay across his body. He may have been afraid of the moon when it was falling, but he wasn't afraid of the mysterious spies.

"I see… Thank you for bringing this to my attention, my friend." The swordsman shook Kafei's hand. He thought Link was a little reckless for a warrior, but he would be glad to assist in his endeavor to finally vanquish the Garo race. "Have Link visit today, I have something I'd would like to discuss with him."

Soon enough, Link stood before his teacher. He bowed and presented the Gilded Sword, and the swordsman was pleased to see it repaired and ready for battle once more.

"Link, your father told me about your… mission." The swordsman began. Link was a little surprised how he referred to Kafei as his father, but he took it with pride. "I have… quite a personal history with the Garo." The swordsman considered lifting up his hair to show one of the scars across his face but decided against it. He simply looked sternly into Link's eyes and examined the twinkle of determination that was within. It looked familiar.

"I would wish to assist you in this any way I could." He looked at the wall behind Link, his sword he used hanging on the wall. "I could even enlist the assistance of a few guards if your journey takes you all the way to the Garo Master…"

Now Link was shocked. The fact that the swordsman teacher was even aware of the Garo Master was astonishing. That was the last thing that quenched Link's worry. He knew he needed more help than just from the Bomber's Secret Society of Justice. If he was going to stop the Garo, he couldn't do this all alone.

Link only nodded in response, a smirk across his face. The sword master's reaction was just to beam with pride.

"Now… you must begin training! You will need to be in peak performance to face our enemies!" The swordsman bellowed. Link smiled and unsheathed his weapon, readying himself. The first set of logs ascended from the ground and Link started to slice them apart.

For the next hour, Link trained, and he passed with flying colors after each session.