The Princess felt stupid for not realising it sooner.
His increased hunger, his snapping, the constant dazed look, the staring, the awkward interaction in the hot spring, his mood flipping so fast the night before beneath the domain when she'd asked about his suspicious behaviour.
She wondered how she hadn't seen it until now. It was a textbook case of rut.
But the more she thought about it, the more she realised that she knew close to nothing about what that actually meant or how that worked.
She only knew the telltale signs and that was it.
Why only once a year? Why not more often? Why not less? She was sure it didn't happen by magic or at random.
And so, it was on her way back to her room that she made the executive decision that, instead of continuing on her way, she turned around and went straight for the source of where she could find the knowledge she wished.
The royal library.
Through her entire walk down the many levels of the castle, she cursed her educators. Hand picked by her father when she'd turned 10, his ignorance of the subject led to her vastly insufficient knowledge regarding the hormonal events that affected almost close to a quarter of the Hylian population.
She was amazed she had gone almost 22 years without seeking out the knowledge herself, but then again, she knew her father tended to steer her away from anything sexual in nature despite her maturity.
She'd quickly reached her desired location, quickly seeking out the shelves that spoke of biology, searching specifically for those on Alpha and Omega physiology.
She assumed she didn't really need much knowledge about Betas at the moment. From what she'd heard and seen, nothing really changed from childhood to adulthood when they presented.
She brought her small personal lantern up to the book sleeves and perused the many tomes.
What frustrated her the most during the search, wasn't that it took a while to find the tomes she wanted; it was that the books were sorted alphabetically by author.
There were tens of thousands of books in the library, who in Hylia's name thought of this system?! She decided that, for the week, she may be rearranging the library into alphabetical order by title for future uses. That was sure to keep her busy.
Slowly, one by one, she found the books she would need, consisting of basic physiology study books, a how-to guide and even a notebook on elixirs commonly used.
Happy with the stack she held in her hands, she approached one of the isolated desks and pulled one of the physiology guides, Everything to know: Alpha, Beta, Omega, and set it on the table.
Please Hylia, don't let me see too many explicit drawings… She prayed silently as she flipped the cover open to the index.
She debated on if she should read from the introduction or skip straight to the physical aspects of biology.
It didn't take long to weigh the pros and cons, or to be more specific, if she wanted to see anatomy charts of penises immediately or be eased into it.
Flipping the page, she arrived at the title page for Chapter 1.
"Biologically unique to the Hylians, the Gerudo and few Zoras of Hyrule, secondary genders can be traced back to the Eras of Old to the times of the Goddess Hylia's existence. Pertaining to foreign peoples of Labrynna, Holodrum and others past Hyrule's borders, the people seem to lack this specific biological trait, suggesting it is originally introduced through the mating of Hylians and other races."
She looked up from the book, surprise in her eyes. She hadn't known that. That was interesting enough.
A distinctly hylian trait introduced through copulation. The Gerudo sharing said-biological trait made sense, the singular male born every 100 years would force Gerudo women to mate with Hylians if they themselves didn't originally have the genetic traits.
Moving on… she continued, flipping to the page.
When Zelda awoke, she was greeted by a bustling maid with her cup of morning tea and Impa who carried a stack of papers for her. Once the tray of tea and small cookies were set down, she quickly made her exit as Impa closed the door behind her.
The Sheikah woman quickly set down the papers and assisted the Princess with getting into her daily royal dress. "Captain Barnabus has been temporarily designated as your personal bodyguard for the next few days," Impa started, the bottom laces of Zelda's corset being laced through the tiny holes. "The King also wishes for you to go to the Spring of Courage once Sir Link recovers from his… predicament… as he called it," Zelda took a deep breath as she felt the corset be tightened snugly against her waist. "And Lady Urbosa is paying us a visit later this afternoon for official business."
"Urbosa is coming?" Zelda turned her head to look at Impa as her fingers pulled on the strings.
"Yes, Princess. It was something concerning recent activity in the desert." She mumbled. "Something about a possible malfunction."
Zelda rolled her eyes. "Anything about Vah Naboris?" She hoped the Gerudo chief would ask her about the beast specifically, it would give her an opportunity to go to the desert. Any opportunity to leave the castle was a welcome one when it didn't involve the cathedral or the Temple of Time.
"I'm not sure, Princess. You'd have to ask her." Impa pursed her lips and shrugged.
"Is there anything else for today?" She inquired as the final knots were tied on her dress.
Impa hummed. "There are your midday devotions at the cathedral." Zelda sighed before taking a deep breath, testing her range of motions in her dress and smoothing the wrinkles that might dig into her waist and ribs later. "Do you wish for me to accompany you today?"
"Please do."
Near midday, she was greeted by Captain Barnabus Reinhartd of the Royal Guard, one of Link's few superiors in the castle.
From what she knew, the Captain had always worked with her knight, dating back to the year prior to pulling the mythical sword from the Lost Forest. What kind of work, she had no clue, but she knew it was different from the Royal Guard duties they currently shared.
As usual, when Link would go into his yearly rut, there seemed to be only one person he didn't throw a fuss about when it came to protecting her, and it was him.
It would make sense, as they were commonly seen sparring together in the training yard in the early morning as the sun rose. She had taken notice early on when she'd first seen Link crash to the ground one morning, losing his little contest. She'd been flabbergasted when it happened three years ago, but quickly came to know that this was a daily occurrence when it was the Captain's turn to lose the following day.
Now here he was, escorting her out of the dreadful castle and into the village down below to yet another dreadful place; the cathedral.
Before leaving, he'd offered to bring an additional guard but he was quickly shut down by the Princess, a threat about running away and hiding among the general populace, shutting up the Captain successfully. She assumed he didn't want Link finding out that he'd lost the Princess somehow, considering what had happened the last time one of the guards had lost track of her three years ago when she had last run away from her escorts.
She still vividly remembered that week. Link had to visit the guard he'd thrown out of the sparring ring for three days straight because he'd been a bit rough with him on their next training session and the poor man had ended up in the medical wing.
The walk to the cathedral was too quiet, her escort not speaking unless spoken to first. She hadn't imagined there was someone more quiet than her Knight when it came to their job but she found the Captain to be painfully professional. Exactly three paces behind her, eyes scanning the area actively.
"You may relax if you wish, Captain." She muttered for the third time on the long winding hill down from the castle.
The Captain remained quiet for a short moment. Just as she wondered if the captain had even heard her, she heard a quiet, yet steady tone. "A kind offer, Your Highness, but I must refuse."
It was worth a try. She sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes as they quickly arrived at the entrance of the village. She straightened her shoulders and back, her head held high in an attempt to show her confidence.
Do you know how the gossip mongers refer to you? You are the heir to a throne of nothing. She refused to let her shoulders slump, despite her father's words repeating in her head and paining in her chest.
"Princess?" She turned her head, hearing the captain speak for the first time without her first addressing him.
"What is it?"
"Are you alright, Your Highness?" She raised a brow, wondering how he'd known what was going through her mind. As if catching himself, he quickly dropped to a knee, head hung low in shame at his marginally less-than-professional behaviour. "Forgive me, Princess. I have stepped out of line. Forget I said anything."
"Oh no, rise please." She urged him up to his feet before any citizens could look over. "It's quite fine." She quickly reassured him. Even if the question had been personal, it had been a welcome break from the suffocatingly professional behaviour. "May I know why you asked?"
He seemed unsure of how to answer, if he should even answer, she assumed. "I sensed a shift in the air."
A shift in the air? She wondered what that meant exactly. Had she slumped down a bit and he'd noticed? He was perceptive after all.
"Elaborate for me please, Captain?" She watched as he pointed to his nose. Like Link then… She knew of Link's special ability to sense the slightest shift in her mood, his words being that her scent changed almost too subtly to notice. "Thank you, Captain. And please, drop the Your Highness, I have no fondness for it."
"Understood, Princess." Zelda took notice of the approaching cathedral, the entire foundation of the building lifted onto its own little pedestal, dozens of stairs leading up to the far entrance. She could feel her mood falling again, knowing the priestesses were going to give her a hard time today.
"Princess, where does Sir Link typically stand during your devotions?" The Captain asked quietly as they approached the building.
She wished Link was there to try to bring her mood up. Perhaps she was too used to the unprofessional behaviours and friendliness that came with the many years of teamwork with him, not that she'd want to return to the strictly professional unwavering behaviour he had done during their first year travelling together.
"He stands guard outside the main doors. He is not permitted past the interior gates when I'm with the High Priestesses." She pointed to the large stone doors.
"If I may speak boldly, Your Highness." Zelda motioned it alright. "It seems odd that the pious sisters of the temple would not allow him further entry as he is Farore's Blessed and Hylia's chosen. Their standards seem-"
"-Entirely too high. You would be correct with that assumption, Captain." Zelda finished for him. She sighed as she began climbing the many stairs to the front.
The remainder of the walk was quiet until they passed the first doors of the large stone building. Upon seeing the second set of gates, the very ones that Link had so often guarded, Zelda instructed him to do as he pleased.
"Do not stand so rigidly. This may take either an hour or many hours. Do as you please, simply stay in the area."
"Understood, Princess." The captain assumed his position against the stone wall as Zelda sighed and entered the gate.
Zelda stood in her father's study later that afternoon after retunring from her devotions, her head hung low as her worries began plaguing her mind incessantly.
Would today be about the Guardians? The Divine Beasts? Her non-existent goddess powers? How the people see her as a disappointment? She had no way of knowing what words would come out of his mouth. She wrung her hands together nervously before wiping her sweaty hands inconspicuously on her dress.
Her father finally turned from his window and faced her, his usual cold expression of disappointment. "In light of recent events with your knight and his designation, one of the medics of the hospital wing has approached me recently."
Was her father really going to be talking to her about Link's rut of all things? Zelda felt mild disgust rise up in her throat. This was one of the subjects she wasn't interested in discussing with anyone, much less her father of all people. She barely wanted to talk to Link about it.
"Has something bad happened?" She asked hesitantly, wondering why the subject was being broached, though she had an inkling why.
Her father shook his head. "Everything is fine as far as I know, but it is you I'd like to discuss."
Zelda felt heat rush to her cheeks and ears. Was he really going to be asking about her designation right now? She didn't even know what it was, not even an inkling of what it could be.
Out of her parents, it was common knowledge that the monarchs had both been Betas, though she knew her grandfather had had a different designation. All three ran in her blood, that much she knew, but Zelda had yet to present as any in her 21 years of life.
An exceptionally rare occurrence, according to the doctors in the castle.
From a young age, she had known she wasn't of the Alpha designation, for when she turned 15, ,it hadn't presented. But by the age of 17, she had neither presented as Beta or Omega.
She was nothing.
"Have you felt any… changes as of late? Even anything you may think is unrelated?"
Zelda sighed before looking at the ground. "Nothing father." She could feel his next words coming, his comparisons of her abilities to her secondary gender.
"If we cannot unlock your sealing ability, we must at least find you a suitable husband, Zelda. You are to come directly to me if anything happens, do you understand?"
"Yes father." she turned her heel as he mumbled to himself, catching the words people say, Ganon, and disaster. The moment the door closed behind her and she was out of earshot from her father, she rushed back to her quarters despite the calls to slow down from the captain as she had promptly shut the door before he could catch up to her.
'There has to be a way to force it out…' She thought as she stood before her personal bookshelf, perusing her books on biology. Zelda knew she had roughly three or four days before she'd have to go to the Spring of Courage with Link, but she couldn't leave the castle grounds until he was back to himself completely.
'Three days.' She began pulling every book she owned on biology and elixirs and sprawled them across her bed.
She lit her bedside candles and opened the first tome: Secondary Genders and Designations: A Basic Guide to Biology.
"I hate this damn body." Was one of the things Link repeated to himself about 50 times every day since he started his rut yesterday. He hated the fact that his hand was on his dick every 10 minutes regardless of if he was feeling in the mood or not.
He didn't want to be jerking himself off constantly, but when an erection popped up five times per hour and got painful if he tried to ignore it, he was put in a bind. Pain or more pain? It eventually always came down to the type of pain.
He eventually relented to sitting in a basin of water, occasionally dumping cold water onto himself to force it away. It was becoming sensitive for all the wrong reasons.
"It'll be over soon…" He grumbled under the shivers that wracked his body as he picked up another bucket of cold water and brought it over his head. Slowly, he bit his tongue as the water rained down on his head, wracking him into another set of profanities and curses.
He threw the pale to the floor and plugged his nose before dipping his head under the water, forcing his hormones to calm down. None of this is enjoyable… fuck all of you. He cursed in his head as he thought back to the senior guards in the barracks.
From the ripe age of 15, he had first presented, and surprised the entirety of the Royal guard with his secondary gender. Being significantly smaller than the average Hylian in both height and overall size, everyone had assumed he would have been a Beta, along with a significant number of guards thinking he would present as Omega. To Link's astonishment roughly one week later, he had witnessed the Captain exchanging bets with the other senior ranking members of the military.
Following that day, many Alphas in his entourage had taken the liberties of boasting about their ruts, conquests, and even advised him to take an extra day to enjoy his privacy and skip duty following the three days.
After the first time, he had found himself entirely too restless to do such a thing and promptly was back to his regular duties. The idea of jerking himself so raw he bled didn't appeal to him much and many of his colleagues tended to agree with him on that point.
I should be with Zelda right now, His mind drifted as he resurfaced from the water with a desperate gasp for air. He began to wonder what was going on outside of his room. He hadn't heard any alarm bells telling him that the Princess had run from the castle, so they definitely weren't running all over the place. I wonder who's guarding her right now… knowing it was probably Captain Reinhartd, he unconsciously grit his teeth and clicked his tongue before leaving the basin. Should be me.
He grabbed a nearby towel and dried himself off before throwing on a pair of sleeping shorts and jumping back into bed and ignoring the erection that began popping up again. Might as well sleep this off. He wrapped himself in his blanket and closed his eyes, his mind drifting to thoughts of his charge, Princess Zelda.
