Ahh the final chapter, I'm rather sad honestly. Coming to the conclusion of a work that's the product of many weeks or even months of effort is always a disappointment. I have truly enjoyed posting this on the site, even more than I did writing it. Please leave your reviews, and let me know your thoughts. More stories are on the way, and not even just Legend of Zelda stuff either. I am planning stories for other fandoms too, one thing I've learned from seeing what other authors do is to be varied. Being restricted to one fandom is of course not a rule in any sense, but I do want to be able to share ideas of mine on other fandoms with the internet so I can try my hand at others as well.
Chapter Twenty Six
Epilogue
The sun rose slowly over the horizon, casting its warm rays through the blinds onto my face. I slowly awaken, laying there for a few minutes before getting up. I eased myself out of bed, silently cursing the minor stiffness in my joints. It was a pain, but hardly unexpected. I stood up and then turned back to look at bed, smiling when I saw my wife was still sleeping, a peaceful expression on her face, her silvery hair glinting in the sunlight. Almost as though she sensed I was observing her, her eyes cracked open, their brilliant green shining out of her lined face.
"Couldn't sleep anymore?" She asked softly.
I merely shrugged, but smiling. She returned it then eased herself out of bed as well and slowly made her way over to me and gave me a kiss. I gave her one in return just before Impa barged into the room.
"Well finally the two of you are awake! One would think you slept all day for the love of Hylia!" She remarks.
"Impa, you know full well that not everyone is as lucky as you Sheikah in being slower to age." I say with a sigh.
"Hmm perhaps, but there's a council meeting today remember?" She adds.
"Oh, very well then, give us a half-hour." Zelda requests.
"OK fine, thirty minutes." Impa replies, turning around and walking out of the room again.
After a quick breakfast and getting into presentable attire, we head off to the council meeting. As usual it was just a bunch of complaints over nothing, I mean virtually nothing of interest was ever brought up in these meetings anymore, it was hard not to fall asleep in them to be honest. After leaving the meeting, we were on our way back to our suite to go out on our outdoor balcony and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. However, we soon heard a rush of footsteps behind us, turning we saw our thirty year old daughter Elizabeth rushing down the hallway toward us in pursuit of her six year old son Richard. She caught up to him before he could reach us, picking him up swiftly, ignoring his protests.
"Sorry dad, Richard just really wanted to go visit his grandma and grandpa. So badly, he ran off even after we told him to wait just another fifteen minutes. You know what I mean, kids right?" She asked, holding him firmly to her.
"Oh, dear, you don't need to apologize. I'm not that old!" I chuckle.
Elizabeth gives me a scrutinizing look, then relents, "Ok fine, just don't forget your daily supplements!" She calls back over her shoulder as she makes her way back down the hall, as I roll my eyes, 'doctors' I thought.
Richard complains and struggles but isn't going anywhere anytime soon now that his mother is firmly holding onto him. She reaches the end of the hallway and hands off our grandson to a handsome Sheikah man around the same age as our daughter. Richard's snow white hair is distinctly like his father's. Seeing the three of them, it really made me realize how long it had been since Zelda and I returned the sword to the Korok forest. Our three children were all grown up now and living their lives.
Ilia, now in her early forties was living in Castle Town with her husband and their two sons. Our youngest child, Elizabeth, and her husband and son lived in the castle itself as she was a member of the council. Our son, Michael, now in in his mid-thirties was living in the one of the cities in the southern part of the country with his family. He decided to live there because his wife, a Gerudo, wanted to stay in her native region.
Later that week, we were out on our balcony again, this time as a family. Me, Zelda, our three children and their families, all gathered together to witness a momentous occasion in history. At mine and my wife's current age of just over sixty, it was wonderful to have lived long enough to witness this. We stared out across New Hyrule field out at the distant horizon at the large structure there. A few moments later, there was a rumbling and a large craft begin to lift off, a new generation of space capable vehicle. This craft was going to establish the very first base on Mars, thanks to revolutionary new tech that allowed for shielding from dangerous cosmic radiation. Unlike the rockets of the past, there was no exhaust whatsoever. The craft accelerated faster and faster and soon it was out of sight, beginning its four week journey to the red planet.
In this regard, our civilization had developed farther than ever before. Now we would have colonies on other worlds. Although our population was still far smaller, it truly achieved the long sought golden age. In some regards, at least. Together, humans, Zora, Rito, and Gorons lived in harmony with each other. However, it wasn't all good though, as the changes that humans caused to the world were still present and would take many generations to fully reverse. While we weren't really producing any emissions anymore, the increase in temperatures had only stopped, and reached a new equilibrium. Point is the consequences of humankind's actions to the planet remained and would continue to be a problem for decades to come.
Speaking of the Zora and Rito, they had now been fit into the taxonomy of life, well partially. The Zora had been determined to be mammals, and specifically primates, that had evolved ichthyoid features after returning to an aquatic lifestyle sometime in the past. It wasn't totally clear as they had no fossil record known so this determination was based entirely off of their genome. A scientific name was made for them, Icthyo sapiens.
The Rito, however, were determined to be completely avian, not mammals that evolved birdlike features. Our tests of their genome instead suggested a different story, one that was surprisingly ancient, even in a geological sense. Our analysis of their DNA indicated that they were a descendant of the theropod dinosaurs, specifically the line that lead to birds. Even the Sheikah and Gerudo had been fully positioned in this regard as well. They'd been determined to be subspecies of Homo sapiens, with the Gerudo being H. sapiens gerudos, and the Sheikah being classified as H. sapiens sheikah.
It was with these monumental events in history that made me proud to have lived to have seen the beginning of this wonderful new future for the people of Earth. I was even content with not being able to know how it would go from here, I was just happy to have been able to start it. Maybe some of my descendants would be the first to discover other lifeforms out there. I didn't know what the future held, but that was fine with me. I really liked the image of a united peoples of Earth, with all the races living in harmony and striving for a common goal.