The Eternal Game

by Lincoln859

Everything can change in an instant. Sometimes all it takes is that next step, and you're in a new world, a new body. OC Insert into Link, Blended World starting in Skyward Sword. OC MC x Harem, this will be a very long story.

6. Chapter VI: Such a Precious Thing, Time

AN: Brief warning, fifth scene gets a little bit dark. In my defense, you got warned in chapter 1.

The Eternal Game

Chapter VI

Such a Precious thing, Time

It was a lovely day to be a bokoblin.

Govek was a good bokoblin, or at least it thought it was. It was definitely better than that moron Klotek, or that food-thief Mixic, so it was doing fairly good, it thought. It had lived for a few years now; several happy years of plenty. Sure, it knew and hated those filthy Hylians like every good bokoblin did, but it had never encountered them and likely never would!

It lived in Outpost Bokoblin the Third, alongside nearly 500 of its brethren. Fellow Bokoblins all, a number of blues and even some blacks! It was a genuine privilege to see Black Bokoblins; they were so much stronger than red ones like it was that it wasn't even close. To have over a dozen living in the same outpost as it…well, it knew it was safe. No filthy Hylians would dare to attack them with such a force here, it knew that for sure.

Yes, Govek was a good bokoblin. It had done its time in the foraging and hunting group, had spent its time in the sentries, and now it had the incredibly important role of standing in a watchtower and keeping an eye out for visitors in the daytime. It was seasoned enough now that it didn't have to stay in the darkness now, was respected enough that food was brought to it rather than having to go and hunt for itself.

Govek's eyes scanned over the horizon, spotting nothing as per usual, and returned to its thoughts. Yes, Govek was a good bokoblin, a great bokoblin one might even say. It had a good hinox buddy it had met a year ago, though don't let Vit get too close to you at meal times! The only thing that looked worse than a bitten-into bokoblin was a Hinox buddy crying over the fact that it had eaten a good friend; poor Vit had been devastated.

It wasn't like they could help it, either. Hinox were born starving, so big and strong they just couldn't stop themselves. And sometimes they really tried, too!

Vit the Hinox wasn't even the only buddy it had, either. No, Govek had Moblin buddies too! Easily a dozen of them, the best comrades a bokoblin could have. Always available and willing to beat down a tree so the fruit would be on a more reasonable level, they were. Sure, they ate the fruit too, but that just meant it worked for everyone.

Honestly, who created trees anyways? Stupid things so tall and prickly, always hiding the good stuff way up high. Still…they weren't all bad, it supposed, as the shade was great to nap in!

Goveks eyes checked the horizon once more, careful to not miss a thing. Carefree days of lounging in shade were gone now, something that made him sad. Still, just because one thing was over didn't mean that others couldn't begin.

Outpost Bokoblin the Third was a fairly recent development, only a few weeks old at this point. Outposts Bokoblin and Bokoblin the Ninth were nearby, each of them stocked up with even more of its brethren, and even they were fairly new too. Some Black Knuckle or something was planning to launch an assault on the worthless Hylians, but that didn't really bother Govek.

If anything, it was eager for it. Bokoblins quite like to fight, after all, even if they weren't as good at it as something like the Knuckle was. Bokoblins, good Bokoblins at least, followed orders from the stronger monsters, and Govek was nothing if not a good Bokoblin. So here it was, on sentry duty, one of the most important jobs a bokoblin could have.

It was up to it to make sure its brethren were not attacked without warning. Up to it and a handful of other bokoblins in the fine towers they had constructed to make sure that no filthy, treacherous Hylian got close, whether that be from the ground or from the sky.

Nothing would get near on Govek's watch, no sirree. It had hunted, it had foraged, it had faced off with animals and other bokoblins. It would not let its kind get hurt. No filthy Hylian would get near them!

Beady eyes swept the view once more, once more finding nothing, and Govek slumped a little. It was so hard to keep it's energy up like this! Sentry duty was boring, after all. It wasn't like the Hylians would attack here, after all.

No, they were much too far away, and on top of that the Hinox buddies had been sent on a distraction mission. Govek was still sad it couldn't go with them, Hinox got so lonely when alone. Still, this wasn't bad! Another scan of the horizon, just to be safe.

No, this wasn't bad at all. Govek was surrounded by friends, surrounded by the best examples of its kind. The reds, the stronger blues, the far stronger and smarter blacks…yes, Outpost Bokoblin the Third was a haven for bokoblins, as it should be. It might miss the Hinox and the Moblins, but it was definitely glad that the Wizzrobes and Lynels weren't coming near.

Even better, the weird Darknuts weren't showing up. Govek always felt like it was being judged when the Darknuts were around. Judged, and found wanting. Still, at least the Knuckle knew which race was the most valuable! It had said, when speaking to a squad of the Darknuts, that all the useless fodder had to stay in one place.

Govek didn't know what fodder was, but it sounded insulting, and no matter how weird the Darknuts were they didn't deserve that. After all, they served the creator just as it did. They too were at least somewhat useful for fulfilling the great plan, even if their level of effect was rather low compared to the Bokoblins. Still, they weren't around, and Govek didn't mind that.

It's eyes flicked upwards one more time, scanning the horizon, but this time there was a change. A single body: small, blue, and yellow standing out in the morning sun. Goveks eyes narrowed, hand dropping down the crude horn made of bone at his hip. Was this a Hylian? It had never actually seen one…

Blonde moved upwards, a face exposed, pink just barely visible. Hatred poured forth from deep within it, and Govek knew. How it knew, it didn't know, but it knew.

This was a Hylian.

Poisonous hatred like nothing Govek had ever known raged forth from within him, its entire existence made for this. Claws gripped the horn and raised the bone to its lips, and a moment later the sharp shriek of alarm was booming forth. Surprise and panic sounded out amongst the outpost, and a few moments later four other horns blared out as the other sentries spotted the Hylian.

Govek snarled, an ancestral urge to kill rising up within it like nothing it had ever felt. It understood it, however. This monster, this Hylian, was a member of the race that was its natural enemy. Hylians slaughtered Bokoblins every time they found them, after all. For untold millennia, the bokoblins had been forced to stay in the shadows, unable to enjoy the warm light of the sun.

Unable to fish, unable to forage, unable to enjoy life with the buddies they gained. Who cared if Govek hadn't seen a Hylian before now? It knew that countless Bokoblins everywhere had been slaughtered by the Hylians for little more than the crime of existing.

So many Hinox buddies, cut down just because they were born hungry. So many Moblin buddies brought low just because they were defending the Bokoblins.

No more.

Outpost Bokoblin the Third moved to a war footing, Govek's kind rushing around and preparing for an assault. One of the blues looked out at the single Hylian, slowly walking towards them, and chortled. A shriek of command, two dozen reds eagerly following at the blues heels to rip the monster to shreds.

Govek wanted to join them, and it wasn't the only one. Even as it watched the blacks, blues, and reds began to form up, waiting to see where the rest of the tricky Hylians would attack from. They never came alone, after all. They came in numbers, always followed by those horrible birds. Nasty creatures, though supposedly they tasted good. Govek wouldn't know, it had never had the privilege. Perhaps it could taste one today?

It's eyes returned to the Hylian after it swept the skies; nothing. Odd as it may seem, this Hylian was alone. No matter, the attack squad would put them down soon enough. Govek might not get the chance to cut the monster down itself, but that was fine. A Hylian slaughtered was a Hylian slaughtered, after all.

So it watched, eager to see blood, and found itself growing even angrier a few moments later. The Hylian didn't die as the blue leapt at it, flying through the air with a spear in hand. Instead the Hylian looked up, drawing a sword in the single fastest movement Govek had ever seen, and cut the blue in half.

It felt like the world froze in time as the Hylian moved, so fast Gotrek could barely follow it. Before the blue had even hit the ground another two reds were falling, slain as quickly and surely as a Hinox bite. Govek shrieked in anger as the Hylian walked, walked through an entire group of bokoblins like they weren't even there.

There was not a single drop of blood upon the Hylians body, not a single wound marring its frame. Just the calm, implacable walk of a being on a mission. A trail of corpses were left in the monster's wake, 25 bokoblins slain already. The fury in the outpost rose to a fevered pitch.

How dare this Hylian kill their buddies? How dare this Hylian think that they could just take an afternoon stroll and slaughter innocent bokoblins? Govek swore to the Demon Lord itself that this would not go unavenged!

The leader of the outpost, a Black that stood a full horn taller than the rest of them, agreed. Furious shrieks rent the air, Govek and the other horn holders obeying and blowing once more. Not the shrill tone of alarm, but a deeper pitch of demand. The footsoldiers would form up, the archers in the back, and they would take this seriously. No more bokoblin deaths today!

So they did; the bokoblins took up the highly disciplined shield wall, that most legendary of formations. Govek nearly felt the urge to cry tears of pride in its people as it looked down upon them. Entire ranks of clubs up front, spears behind them, swords behind them, and at the final line before the archers were the shields. Space between each member to ensure they could swing properly, with the reds up front eager to charge the foe once they got close enough.

Honestly, Govek thought that this might be a bit overkill, but it was not the one in command. It's role was to sound the alarm and to shoot arrows alongside the others, not to give or question orders. Sure, the Hylian could manage to kill 25 of them, but surely the forces of the rest of them could handle the brute? A shrieked order, Govek obeying alongside the dozens of archers.

Arrows came up, nocked to the string and drawn. Another shrieked command and the arrows flew, Govek watching in glee as the Hylian failed to so much as raise a shield. Then, between one blink and the next, the arrows passed through the air around the Hylian, not so much as a single shaft landing. Furious shrikes came from the Blacks in command, and Govek growled in anger. They were not this inaccurate!

Another order, another set of arrows drawn and loosed; another failure to hit. A third try, a fourth, a fifth and six and seventh; what was going on? Why could they not hit their target? It wasn't like it was difficult. The Hylian was just there, calmly and slowly walking forward, without even a single arrow managing to hit him.

Bokoblins were better than this; they may not be the impossibly perfect shots that Lynel were, but they were hardly beings to miss such simple shots! A shrieked command, Govek and the archers continued to fire. Magic, of course. It was the only thing that made sense. Pity that a Wizzrobe wasn't here to show the Hylian what a real magic user could do, but it wasn't like it would matter soon enough. Wasting magic just to block arrows would see the Hylian drained dry soon enough.

Several more volleys arced forth, several more volleys failing to hit the interloper. Soon enough, however, the Hylian was close enough for the shield wall to do its work. A command called out, nearly a hundred reds charging forth with clubs at the ready. Spears advanced behind them, swords ready to charge in should the worst occur. Over three hundred bokoblins charged forth, a force that boggled the mind and was nearly unstoppable.

For some odd reason, the Hylian seemed to feel no fear. It was close enough for Govek to make out more details now, for the knowledge that every bokoblin came into existence with to be used. This was a male, with hair of sunlight and eyes of the sky, a blue shirt with white clouds trailing across it. Govek felt disgust rising up within it; of course the Hylians would lay claim to the colors of the overworld for their own. Of course they would try to steal away the colors that good Bokoblins could enjoy and could trust.

Blue was meant to be a sign of safety, a sign of someone stronger here to protect you. Instead, this Hylian was trying to claim the safety net that bokoblins had always been able to trust for his own. It just went to show how worthless they were. Hylians were always stealing things from the proper creations of the Master, weren't they? The sun, the light, the beauty of the day, the wonders of the night…nothing existed for the Bokoblins and their allies, yet everything existed for the Hylians.

The Reds charged forth to correct that arrogance inherent to them. They charged with the hopes and dreams of the entirety of Outpost Bokoblin the Third. They charged with the combined history of countless millennia of war and violence, of excellent service to their Master. The Bokoblins charged forth with, perhaps more than anything else, certainty. This Hylian would die, the Bokoblins would return to their duties, and all would be well.

So why, then, did nothing go right?

Reds leapt up, reds charged forth, reds held back to await an opening, the edges of a black blade gleaming in the morning sun. Eyes of the sky and hair of the sun looked blankly at them all, unconcerned and unemotional. Not happy, not scared; not eager, not uncertain. Eyes of an apathetic sky and hair of a distant sun casually regard the oncoming horde, finding them of no more interest than a passing breeze.

No, Govek thinks. A breeze can actually be of interest, one way or another. The attackers were looked at as if they didn't even exist, and as the Hylian began to move…they were disposed of every bit as easily. The world changes, from one blink to the next. In the first moment there were Bokoblins in the air, shrieking loudly with weapons waving. In the next moment, there were naught but bodies, Govek unable to have even seen the Hylian's blade move.

One movement, two, three; his arm began to move properly, and each movement slew another. Limbs were severed, bodies bisected, and heads flew through the sky like arrows. Red bodies hit the ground, one after another, and the carnage only grew worse as time went on. The Bokoblins advanced, throwing themselves at a single soul. They should win, by sheer dint of numbers. Hylians grew tired, after all, no matter how strong or skilled.

The Hylian did not tire.

Seconds turned to minutes, the Hylian's unhurried pace never changing. Not stopping, not slowing, but nor did it speed up in the slightest. Step by step, sprays of blood coating the world around him and corpses littering the earth. Bokoblin after Bokoblin fell, never to rise again, and horror began to rise amongst the ranks.

This was no ordinary Hylian.

Every movement was perfect and served more than one purpose. The strike that knocked away the point of a spear was the same one that carved through the arm, torso, and other arm of a blue. A stab through the skull, heedless of just how strong bokoblin bones were, was a stab that was used to force another to leap back as the blade grew somehow. Govek watched in horror with its brethren as the Hylian advanced.

Neither a smile nor a frown marred his face. Not so much as a wince crossing his face when blade carved through bone, not even a grunt of exertion when the blade expanded to a ridiculous size and carved through over ten reds at once. Empty eyes of the sky regarded them all, and found them beneath him. Fear began to trail icy fingers across Govek's spine, a half-remembered story and a half implanted certainty running through the red sentry's mind.

The Hollow.

It wasn't possible, but the more the Hylian carved through them, the more Govek started to believe it. Stories had been passed down, from creature to creature. Stories of a Hylian who came once every now and again, one different from the rest. A weapon, crafted by the hand of the False Goddess, to slay them all. Her ultimate creation, a weapon capable of slaughtering everything, even the greatest of them. Even the Blights.

A creature who slaughtered everything without so much as feeling a thing. No happiness or joy, no grim determination or hatred for the interlopers trying to stand in the light of day. All that the weapon was, all that it ever had been or would be, was an empty and hollow shell. Hair of the sun and eyes of the sky, empty and cold, given purpose solely by the unceasing demands of the false Goddess. The greatest of all monsters under her command.

Govek had been the first to make the connection, but it was not the only one. Even as it tried to reject the reality that the Hollow was here, a call came up from some of the others, warning the Blacks that this was the Hollow. The leader heard them, head tilting and processing it for several seconds; seconds the Hollow Hylian used to calmly walk through even more of their kind. Then it reacted, calling out commands, and the shield wall shifted.

It was a fine formation, a testament to the skill and discipline of the Bokoblins, but it would do them no good here. The remnants of the charge returned, over half their number gone, and the Hylian just kept walking. Blue eyes, utterly apathetic to their very existence, gazed through them. He saw them, but saw no threat from them. Govek snarled; that would change!

Barked orders, the bokoblins changing. They began to spread out, flanking the Hollow, and even though they were panting when it was done, they surrounded him easily. Swords cycled to the front, clubs and spears behind, a writhing mass of red flesh when looked at from above. Then they advanced. The Hollow's apathy would be his downfall now. Even it could not withstand attacks from all sides!

Govek, tired of standing still, drew forth another arrow. The reds weren't quite willing to assault once more, even despite the change; far too many had already died, after all. So Govek aimed, carefully, watching as empty blue eyes looked up at it. Govek snarled and loosed the arrow. The Hylian dodged, of course, but the reds surrounding him took advantage of the distraction to attack.

From all sides, from all directions, they closed in. Swords, spears, clubs; every weapon at their command was eager to do as they were meant to and claim the life of a Hylian. In return, the Hylian remained detached, remained hollow, even as the weapons drew ever closer. The only change that occurred in him was that he began to move faster…yet Govek could see it.

Even as he moved faster than any bokoblin ever could, he exerted the same amount of effort. To the Hollow, swinging the blade this tiny bit faster was the same as swinging the blade in the first place; not worth the time. Unfortunately for the bokoblins, however, the same could not be said for them. Even as Govek watched in horror, bodies hit the ground once more, in pieces and whole alike. Red after Red, Blue after Blue; no Bokoblin could last more than a blink against the Hollow.

Govek and the other sentries threw caution to the wind, launching arrows at the Hylian once more. Some of them began to climb down from the sentry posts, thinking they could do more good on the ground, because the arrows once again proved themselves useless. They didn't stop trying, even as more and more died. Horror and fear carved homes in the hearts of those left alive, and some found the rules in their mind overwhelmed by that fear.

Bokoblins existed to fight against the Hylians, but what happened when there was no way to win? What happened when, no matter what weapon the bokoblin had, or what rank the bokoblin was, they stood no chance? Good Bokoblins didn't run away, and so Govek didn't…but not all of them were good bokoblins. So some began to flee, as the ranks of reds between them and the enemy thinned more every second. A pile of corpses, of their corpses, without a single enemy body within it was a most disheartening sight, after all.

Govek was not foolish enough to think that that was the only reason, however. Were it just that, the bokoblins would fight to the end. Cowardice like this wouldn't even enter their minds, were this a normal foe and not the Hollow. But the closer the Hylian got, the more he killed, the more the fear sank in. This was a weapon, his life was a war, and he existed for a singular purpose.

To kill them all.

Memories of stories ran through Govek's mind, even as the slaughter began to wind down. Tales of groups of Lynel falling to a Hollow. Tales of entire divisions of Talus shattered like the glass the Hylians so loved to use. Tales of armies falling before the Hollow. Of Blights, the single strongest servants of their Creator, being as nothing to the Hollow, whatever cursed Light Magic the False Goddess used to craft him being impossibly powerful.

Oh sure, the Hollows had fallen. Every Hollow had fallen, eventually. But the toll they reaped upon the ranks of Govek's kind could not be underestimated. The price they forced the servants of the Dark to pay just to work around them could not be underestimated, for the death count beggared belief. Even now, nearly 500 Bokoblins had been eradicated, and Govek knew that it was next.

Outpost Bokoblin the Third had been a fortress, and a truly sterling example of the power that Bokoblins could wield. Yet now, without their Hinox buddies, without their Moblin buddies, without even the highest form of Bokoblin, greater than even the Silver…they stood no chance against the Hollow. Govek cursed the False Goddess, spitting vitriol for several moments. Her creation was terrifying, it would give her that, but even it would fall.

Govek felt the fear try to burrow into its mind as the last Red fell. Out of the 500 Bokoblins in Outpost Bokoblin the Third, there were 8 left. Govek, three sentries, and four blacks, one of which had been the Outpost Commander. Four blacks, three reds, and a blue. Nowhere near what they had had scant minutes ago. Govek looked down at the Hollow as he advanced, implacably, upon the blacks, and cursed him.

Even as that black blade lashed out once more, Govek cursed him. It cursed him, his worthless Goddess, the absence of emotion from the monster that was ending their lives, and it cursed the blade the Hylian was using. Govek cursed his worthless eyes of the sky and stupid hair of the sun, cursed his unnaturally pale skin and diminutive height compared to where Hylians were supposed to be. Everything that Govek could think to curse, it cursed, even as the slaughter ended.

A gust of wind, kicking up fresh blood even as it raised the Hylian atop the towers. Govek cursed him further, his worthless magic that shielded him from arrows. His blue clothing that took away what bokoblins could trust in, that blue would have their back and protect them. Govek cursed him for using a black blade, for stealing that color too for his own selfish desires. Even were it to survive, those colors had been tainted now.

Govek looked down at the Hylian, cursing it still. The Hollow looked at it, blue eyes so completely apathetic, and waited for Govek to stop for breath. Then, faster than it could see, Govek's head was bouncing along the ground, and a moment later they all returned to the dark.

Govek had been a good Bokoblin. Perhaps, were one to be so bold, even a great one. Pity, then, that its story ended so easily.

~~The Eternal Game~~

He was running out of time.

Link slashed his blade through the air, watching idly as blood flew off of it. Funny; that slash had been harder than any he'd had to do this morning. A heavy sigh, looking around at the outpost.

Five hundred Bokoblins; honestly, barely even a diversion. It said something about the body that he was in, he supposed, that such a feat just…wasn't one. How many Hylians would this take, he wondered. Twenty Knights? Thirty? More even? He had no way to know, like so many things. Yet…this had been, according to Gaepora, an equivalent to a Monster Party. Well, almost; it being only Bokoblins meant it wasn't quite eligible for the title.

A heavy sigh, and he began to gather up the drops. Bokoblin parts were, apparently, the most common monster part, but they were still in demand, still needed. He was, once again, running missions from the Bounty Board. He'd debated just doing them, but had eventually decided he might as well just get paid for them. After all, this way he had a guide directly to the enemy, rather than wasting time looking for them.

Not that he thought it would take him long to find them; Sylph had incredibly good eyesight, and he'd already seen how good she was at finding things. Still, this way he could pick and choose where he thought he could do the most good, rather than just wandering around a stretch and slaughtering what was there. This was, after all, the fourth Bokoblin outpost, though it was definitely the largest, in a small area.

A Monster Party equivalent already; what in the world was going on, he wondered. Gaepora had said yesterday that five hundred monsters was uncommon, yet they were all over the blasted map. Did it create such a significant difference when there were multiple monster types in one group? True, the Bokoblins weren't exactly a threat to him, but…well, no, perhaps that made sense. Multiple monster types covered each other's weaknesses, after all.

Having some Lizalfos here would have meant that the Bokoblins couldn't just be obliterated at range so easily. Having a Wizzrobe here would have given them proper direction other than…whatever that halfhearted formation was. There didn't seem to have been much point to it, considering that they had broken it almost immediately. That wasn't even counting the magical support from the monster, either.

Supposedly the military had been considering a runthrough of the area, but now they wouldn't have to. Link was honestly unsure whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing, after last night's conversation. Taking on great threats was both a good thing, and a bad thing, and he had no idea where the limit was. Especially if the worst occurred and the monsters persisted past Demise. He hoped they wouldn't, truly he did…but they shouldn't be anywhere near this prolific with Demise sealed away, either.

Link sighed again, running a hand through his hair. Here he was, five days into the seven before the festival, with nothing to really show for it. He was, at best, a worse-off Link. He hadn't managed to blitz his way through magic, and he hadn't managed to figure out the limits of this body. Five days in, and he knew less than Link ever did. Sure, he was probably better off than the average player, but this wasn't a game. The lives of everybody in Skyloft depended on him, and he wasn't ready.

Inhale…

Exhale…

Several cycles of breathing in and out, focusing solely on that. No, he couldn't think like that, that way held madness. He knew what was coming, even if the details wouldn't be quite the same. He actually needed to sit down and see just how much he could remember…but that would have to wait a bit.

He was still chewing over a lot of last night in his head, after all. It had been a long conversation, and Gaepora had, unfortunately, been right. Capable or not, he shouldn't spend all his time fighting every battle for Skyloft. The question became, naturally…how much of it should he fight? At what point was he being of more harm than good? Gaepora hadn't told him to slow down or halt his actions so far, so he assumed he still had a way to go before he hit that limit, but how to know?

Then there was the house. He was actually going to own a house here in a bit, astoundingly enough. That was something that was, quite frankly, an impossibility in his original life. It would take him decades to manage it if he was lucky, and the way the economy had been going…well, suffice it to say, he didn't like his chances. He would be lucky to survive in an apartment alone, truth be told. Getting a house, even something like a single-wide trailer, would be well beyond his means.

Then yesterday it had been so easy to speak about getting a house, a manor in truth. One with three stories and a massive basement, one with land to spare and luxurious furniture. Gaepora had been remarkably accommodating with all of the requests that Link had made to try and sink more rupees into it, but even with all his effort it had still only gotten to 72,000 rupees. Which meant, naturally, that he'd had to burn through the rest a different way.

He had burned the rest of the reward exactly as intended, on Darknut shields and specialty arrows, along with a stockpile of various potions that would be placed in his new house. He didn't exactly have room for them now, after all, and Gaepora had been far too amused by the fact that he had been desperately attempting to do anything to have fewer rupees. He now had over 250,000, even before today would be taken into account and grant him another ludicrous amount by the time he was done. Unfortunately, he would just have to stockpile them until he could figure out what to even spend it all on.

Taking care of his new estate would hopefully burn some of it up, and before too long he'd likely have to buy another one. Link shook his head, forcing the thoughts away. He'd spent more than enough time thinking about money. He had enough to guarantee a happy life already, and that's what mattered. What would be the point of an Isekai if he was stressing about money for the wrong reasons? He was rich now, after all.

Of course, his mind immediately turned to the one part of the previous evening he didn't want to think about. His cowardice. If he had lacked proof that he wasn't Link even now, despite all the other evidence in his mind, there it was!

He'd been so very, very close to kissing Zelda last night. He knew she liked him, knew he liked her, knew that these incarnations were meant to be together. The way she looked at him, the way she held him, the way she treated him…he'd never experienced it before, but it matched up to every book he'd ever read as love. So why was he a coward?

The last moment, the very last moment, and he had changed from his intended kiss on the lips to pressing his lips against her cheek. A scant inch from happiness, from making dreams come true. Looking into her eyes had seen his nerve failing, for reasons he didn't know.

No, that wasn't quite true, was it? He knew. It was because he was a coward, plain and simple. He didn't have the strength to keep pushing for what he'd wanted, and so he hadn't. His thoughts had turned to Zelda rejecting him in that instant, as her eyes had widened in shock, and he'd just lost his nerve. It didn't matter that he was entirely certain Zelda would have been happy for it. It didn't matter that he definitely would have been happy for it.

Then there was the other part of it, the part that had sunk its teeth into him and refused to let go. The part of him that, regardless of how happily he had embraced this new life, he couldn't get rid of. Couldn't stop it from poisoning his thoughts, even when he should be happy.

He wasn't Link.

It was a simple fact. He didn't have the history with Zelda that she thought he did, meaning that each and every interaction with her rang…not hollow, definitely not, but less than he would want them to be. What did it matter that he was already falling in love with her, when he was not the boy she believed he was? How was he to justify taking advantage of his luck, taking advantage of her like this?

He knew her favorite food now, and knew her birthday. He knew that she liked running her fingers through her his hair, knew that directly behind her ears was a spot that would see her eyes rolling back and her knees turn to jelly. He knew that she was intelligent, that she was academically gifted, and that she was a genuinely wonderful and kind individual.

He didn't know what her hobbies were. He didn't know how she acted when she was angry, or even upset. He didn't know how to soothe her worries and fears, didn't know what kind of person she admired or wanted to become. He didn't know, had no way to know, of any friends she had outside of him. He didn't know her struggles, her past, and only barely knew her present.

How could he, as someone who was supposed to know all of these things, be so eager to push forward? He was a coward, and a failure, and he absolutely regretted not kissing her properly last night…but, at the same time? He wanted to do things properly. He wanted a solid foundation, a relationship that would and could last despite the fact that he wasn't the original Link.

He wanted to know everything about her that he could. Things she enjoyed, things she didn't; the things she wanted and the things she didn't want in life. Link wanted to be her Link, fully and completely, to know her well enough that he didn't need to rely on random muscle memory and instincts from the body he now inhabited.

It didn't change the regret, however.

Link stood there for several minutes in the morning sun, mind circling around that. His first regret here in this new life; it honestly took longer than he'd expected. It wasn't some hugely embarrassing thing, like making a fool of yourself at a family reunion, but it was there. So much for living a life without regrets. Wasn't there some kind of Isekai law that stated you had to take every chance if you were given a second chance in life or something?

It wasn't like he knew. All he could do was try to do better. Sure, he could go home to the Academy and, tonight, kiss Zelda, but…well, the moment was gone. Call him stupid, call him old fashioned, but he wanted to kiss Zelda for the first time at the right time. A moment of meaning, a moment that would be remembered even in the far-too-likely event that he was a terrible kisser. Who knows, maybe Link's body would be good for that too.

Link would do better. This regret would not become a second, not here and now. Not in this life. This would not turn into a pile of wishes and wants that he'd never been able to do and never would be able to do. This world deserved better than that. Even if it meant making mistakes, even if it meant causing problems, he wouldn't live with a pile of regrets here.

Link finished the cleanup, stashing away a truly ridiculous amount of metal, monster parts, and any half-way decent wood he could find. Skyloft needed the materials, after all. He wasn't entirely sure as to what state the Kingdom was in, but they were locked into a remarkably small amount of land even considering the size of the island. Even if the resources regenerated, and by the Goddesses if that wasn't some bullshit he didn't know what was, they were still incredibly limited.

He'd seen the map, he'd seen how little the territory controlled by Skyloft truly was. It was part of the reason why he was out here today, killing bokoblins rather than facing beings that were stronger and worth more. When there were tens of thousands of monsters on the borders of Skyloft, it was worth more to stop whatever the plans of these monsters were. Several of them were intelligent, after all, and who knew just what kinds of monsters there were?

Well, Skyloft knew, at least. He had the monster books waiting back at the Academy, after all. He needed to read those, rather than bits and pieces that seemed interesting. He couldn't remember all of the monsters you fought in Skyward Sword, and to make matters worse the monsters he had fought were from Breath of the Wild. Well, barring the ones near the clouds, he also needed to figure out what the deal was there.

There was a difference between clear, white clouds and the monstrous zone he'd seen before…he needed to know why. There was so much he needed to know; it was rather overwhelming, all things considered. He needed to write down everything he needed specific answers for, and then bother either Gaepora or Zelda with the questions. He only had today and two other days, after all.

A sigh, a hand carding through his hair once more. He had too much to think about, too many things spinning in his head, and what he'd been doing wasn't enough to clear his mind. The danger of his own actions to Skyloft, the future to come, failing to kiss Zelda, and then the odd thing even beyond that.

He hadn't thought about it earlier, but Gaepora had called him a 15-year-old yesterday, during his explanation of the monster party. It wasn't something he'd expected, or something he'd even considered, honestly. Who would, after all?

Link was sixteen. Or, rather, he was sixteen, and Link was apparently actually fifteen. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about it, really. Did it matter that he was a year younger? It felt like it should mean something, that he was 15 rather than 16…but it didn't, for some reason. It was an odd note, but that was about it. Yet, for some reason, he hadn't been able to put it out of his mind.

He shook his head, forcing the thought away. He didn't have time to focus on that. He had too much stuff to do, after all. He had too many things in his head, too many tasks on his plate. He called down Sylph; he didn't need to whistle, but he did it anyway. Something about the feeling of calling was a lovely thing. Even as he mounted Sylph, however, one thought remained in his mind.

Time was running out…

…

…

The snatch of force through miniscule resistance, a blade cutting through flesh and blood spraying the air. Blue eyes, cold and focused, taking in the opponent. Silver flesh, bands of blue making marks upon it, a snarl upon an ugly face. Muscles bulged, a screech of agony, an arm flying forth.

Link jumped back even as a broadsword slashed forth, faster than any opponent of this type he'd faced before. The silver bokoblin dashed forth, ignoring the fact that it was missing an arm. Steel clashed against steel, the bokoblin's arm quivering from the force as it struck harder than any of it's race ever could. Steel flashed in the sun as it struck, again and again, desperately trying to find an opening in Link's guard.

It didn't matter; Link's body moved, far faster than the silver, and a moment later the bokoblins head was bouncing across the ground, it's body slumping against the ground. A moment later it, and the bokoblins around it, burst into black smoke.

What was that? Why did monsters dissipate into smoke? It made sense for the game; they were saving on performance and the amount of things they had to render. It was why bodies disappeared across all games, not just Legend of Zelda. He'd heard nothing about a Blood Moon, either, though that didn't mean it didn't exist. It, also, had been a game mechanic. A way to let you slaughter monsters across the land of Hyrule and then have them come back.

Yet here…here it wasn't needed. The monsters existed in ridiculous quantities already, both minor ones like the Bokoblins and major ones like the Lynels. "Rare" didn't mean much when there were likely tens to hundreds of thousands of monsters wandering around Skyloft just on this island. It made him wonder just how many monsters existed on the other islands.

He had slain nearly a thousand monsters this morning, and he wasn't tired. How this was possible, he didn't know, but he'd done it. The Hero's body truly was ridiculous, but what was far more terrifying for him was what Skyloft was facing. He had slaughtered nearly a thousand bokoblins in a morning, and it didn't even dent them. How many Skylians would it take, to kill a thousand bokoblins? How long would it take them? How many could they kill, before they fell?

How many monsters sat in wait for the call of Demise, or Ghirahim? How many thousands, across how much land that should belong to the Skylians? That had belonged to the Skylians, back before they lost their sanctuary. Back before the Incursions started to take a toll.

Then there was what he had done. He had slain a thousand monsters in a morning. This went far beyond what Link had shown in most games, going into the territory of Hyrule Warriors. Well…in truth, any Link was probably capable of this, it was just that most Zelda games were as much adventure and puzzle as they were battle.

'I should feel something.' It was an idle thought, one that snuck up on him without warning. A thousand monsters died by his hand, yet he didn't even feel tired. The most he felt was bored.

A thousand beings, sapient even though they were monsters, and he felt nothing. His focus was solely upon what these numbers meant for the Kingdom of Skyloft, for the people he didn't want to die. Was it something from Link, the Hero created to slay monsters?

Or, and far more disturbingly…was it him? Shouldn't this much bloodshed inspire something within him? Or was he simply so jaded by the realities of his world that this much death didn't bother him?

It was hard to care about the deaths of strangers, at least in his world. Every day the news blared on about how somebody new had died in a hate crime, or a school shooting, or police brutality, or conflicts in other parts of the world. Death tolls that were little more than numbers on a screen.

Rather…rather similar to how his mind was processing the bokoblins, in all honesty. He didn't care about the effort spent, the lives cut short. His brain was, for whatever reason, focusing on the numbers and what they meant.

It wasn't helped by the fact that the bodies vanished, leaving parts like a game. Perhaps he was overthinking this? He was killing monsters, after all, he shouldn't be feeling guilt over that. They were an active and continuous threat, and they certainly weren't about to extend a hand of mercy.

Not caring about the slaughter he'd carried out this morning, in a rather ridiculous time frame, wasn't a bad thing. Couldn't be a bad thing. They weren't human…well, they weren't Skylian. While humans might have apparently once existed, they didn't now.

That…that begged a whole new set of questions, didn't it? Humans, Gorons, Zora, Rito…they and more all had already existed. It was one thing for his imagination to be so uncreative as to throw them in when he'd thought this to be a dream; it was a whole other concern now that the Goddess had apparently made them. Why had she done that?

Link blew out an irritated sigh. There was still so much he didn't know, so much he didn't have time to know. It just went to show, he supposed.

Time was running out…

The Eternal Game~~

Gaepora was beginning to feel like he had a problem.

It was not a problem he knew how to feel about, either, and definitely not a problem he expected to be able to receive straight answers should he ask after it. Link had changed. For the better, it must be said; he was so very happy, and even beyond that so very proud of his growth this past week. However…there was an urgency to his boy's actions, a sense of something coming.

Link was escalating, and Gaepora did not know why. It was one thing for him to wake up and decide to train. That was admirable, even if a bit pointless considering just how ridiculous his abilities were. There was likely nothing currently on the island that could prove a threat to him, in all truth. It was an entirely different thing for him to be clearing out job requests like this.

Gaepora looked down at the full report of things Link had done in the past week. No, not even a week; four days. Clearing out outposts, clearing caves, tracking down Lizalfos groups, Talus, Hinox, Darknuts…then today made it even worse. Five Bokoblin camps in a single day, the largest of them scouted to be nearing five hundred of the lowest beasts. Two additional Lizalfos groups, both put down with ridiculous speed.

It was a strike against the monsters that could not be easily replicated by Skylian forces. Sure, they could do it, but it would take weeks of preparation and leave their borders open as they shifted troops around to make it happen. 1,000 monsters, give or take a few dozen, slaughtered in the course of a morning. Gaepora was honestly curious as to which part of the events took longer; traveling to each place, or killing the monsters.

Gaepora could not even truly comprehend doing that. He knew it was possible; Link had, very clearly, done it. The idea of killing that many monsters in so short a time, however, was truly ridiculous to him. Which, when combined with the issues his boy had been having, begged the question.

What had Link so concerned?

The boy was having issues with managing his money, something that made sense considering that he had no expenses and no experience with it in the first place. He had never spent much of his money, choosing cheap and simple things for himself and only really spending on food and gifts for others. He was stressing out over it to a rather amusing extent, in all truth.

So for Link to keep pushing, to keep earning money despite the issues he was having…it concerned him. It was not training, it was not money…so what was it? What was causing him to push such a blistering pace on a week where he was supposed to be relaxing? It could not be boredom. Well…it could not be just boredom. Link tended to run errands when afflicted by boredom, and that was after he had spent a considerable amount of time drawing. Gaepora would be surprised if Link had spent even ten minutes on his art this week, considering how busy he was.

So what was it that was chasing Link. What was it that had Link, the newest Hero, so concerned that he was spending all of his time wiping out threats to Skyloft? What had he seen, or heard, that he for some reason was unwilling to tell even Zelda? Gaepora had told him several times, more times than he could count in truth, for Link to come to him if he had any issues or concerns.

What could cause Link to snap awake, to break a curse that had very likely been on every Hero except for maybe the first, and spend most of his free time slaughtering monsters? He had never shown that interest before, and for it to manifest so strongly now that the curse had been broken made the King rather worried. Gaepora hoped that it was merely hatred for the monsters, or an unwillingness to allow his fellow Skylians to die…but Gaepora did not rule a Kingdom based upon hope.

A heavy sigh, the aged Skylian slumping back into his chair. He had no way of knowing just what had triggered all this, not unless Link told him, but it would no doubt continue to circle his mind for a while. A thousand monsters in a morning. What was driving him to such heights? Sure, it was nothing compared to what the Heroes had unleashed in war; a thousand monsters was a warm-up to a Hero, and those were of the likes of Lizalfos rather than the far weaker bokoblins. Any soldier could kill a bokoblin, after all; in truth, they could kill dozens, assuming they had the range advantage.

Assuming that the Bokoblins had no other support, a Company of Skylians could slaughter many times their own number. A mere 192 soldiers could bring down nearly 4,000, if the position they were holding was defensible and no silvers arrived, in truth. They had records of that, great tales of heroism of Skylians holding out against near impossible odds. A Skylian archer was a truly wonderful thing, after all, and was the primary reason that they had survived the Incursions in as good a shape as they had.

What did it matter that a Lizalfos could kill any standard soldier in melee when they could not get into range? What did it matter that a Chuchu's acid could melt flesh, bone, and metal alike when they never got close enough to spill it? What did it matter that bokoblins outnumbered them a thousand to one when none of them got close enough to even use their terribly crafted bows, far less strike at them in melee?

It was a blessing from the Goddess, truly, that Bokoblins were the most common monster. If even the weakest of Lizalfos took its place, had the numbers that Bokoblins could bring to bear, Skyloft would have fallen long ago. Thankfully, that was not and never had been the case.

As best they could make out, from records and from experience, Bokoblins outnumbered the other monsters by a ridiculous amount. The whys and hows they did not know, but they did know it as a blessing. An incursion would have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of bokoblins, but far fewer Lizalfos, and fewer still of the truly strong monsters. There had been less than five hundred recorded Lynels in the last incursion, thankfully, but there had been one where there had been over a thousand.

Numbers were such an odd thing, really. Every Skylian soldier carried forty arrows, with supply caravans having far larger stockpiles. That meant that, theoretically, assuming perfect conditions, a Company could put down well over seven thousand enemies without resupplying. Of course, those conditions would never happen, but the thought of it was a pleasant dream.

Yet, they could still kill so many monsters with that supply. It was why Skyloft survived; at range they were by far the better against nearly any enemy, but in melee they began to lose out. They had many brave Skylians who could fight in melee, and every member of the army could kill a bokoblin, but in general? Melee combat was the worst place to be against almost any opponent. If you could kill your foe from range, do it every time; you were infinitely more likely to go home that way.

So yes, a thousand monsters was not truly a great feat, barring the fact that he had done it alone and in a time of relative peace, but the fact that he was feeling the need to push that hard was concerning on so many levels. Or…or perhaps this was his fault? He had asked Link for assistance yesterday. It was entirely likely that, despite his words, Link had decided to push himself regardless. Or perhaps because of them…

He needed to talk to him properly. One on one, in a setting where there were no distractions, yet also one where his son was at ease. He needed to make sure he had not pushed Link in a poor direction, just to be safe.

However…he did not think that was the case. He would still check; he would be failing his duty as a King, a Headmaster, and far more importantly a Father if he did not, after all. He truly did not think it was caused by his words, however. Made worse, perhaps, but not caused. No, Link had been hunting down monsters at a blistering pace for longer than just today, after all.

A heavy sigh, Gaepora shaking his head. He wanted to get this resolved immediately, but he just did not have the time. He had spent his morning making trips to the families of the fallen, offering his apologies and condolences. Many of them took it well, but it tore at his heart regardless. Every time he could not bring his people home, it dug the hole in his heart just a little bit deeper.

Another head shake, forcing the thoughts from his mind. He had far too much to do today. There were two days left, not counting today, before the second largest Festival of the year. There was far too much to be done; he would barely have time to breathe after he began preparing. A lot of it was done already, but there was still so very much to do.

Time was running out, but that was okay. Skyloft had stood for 30,000 years, it would stand a little longer. Even if Link truly was worried about an upcoming issue, if it was anything solid his boy would have told him. He trusted Link that much. It made him feel a bit guilty to leave Link for later, but he did not have an option. If Zelda were a little older, a full Knight rather than a Trainee, he would probably ask her to look into this for him.

Unfortunately for his workload, but fortunately for his peace of mind, she was not. His daughter was growing up quickly, but she was not there just yet. Zelda still had a few years yet before he would have to inflict upon her the duties of Princess of Skyloft. Well…more of the duties, at least. Zelda had been performing some of them her entire life, after all, and the number had increased by the year. There had been a relaxation of them this past year, and there would continue to be for the next few years as she went through the Academy, but all too soon she would be trapped within the mire of duty.

Gaepora could at least rest easy with the knowledge that the Kingdom would be in good hands when the time came. His daughter was already smarter than him, wiser than him in many ways. The only thing that she lacked was experience, and that would come with time. Spending time at the Academy was good for her, and fighting on the front lines as a Knight would be equally so…no matter how much the thought of it terrified him.

A huff of amusement, Gaepora smiling to himself. His daughter was incredibly gifted when it came to combat, but she was so outshone by Link that it was like her talents did not exist. Zelda was not at the level of a Knight, not yet, but she was so close to being there. A truly remarkable amount of skill for her age; given another month or two and she would likely reach that point. Gaepora himself had not been at that level at her age, even despite how hard he had been pushing himself, knowing of the soon to arrive Incursion.

He was proud of both of his children, really. He knew that they would be able to handle whatever came their way, no matter what happened and what approached. He would do everything in his power to be there for them, but who knew what the future held?

Cloth brushed against cloth as he stood, groaning as his stiff body protested the movement. Only the Goddess knew what was in store for them, and he was content to see what mysteries she would reveal in time. If that meant his death, then he hoped he would go in a way that would let his people remember him fondly.

Gaepora shook his head, chuckling at his own melancholy. Look at him. A few changes, a few concerns, and he was so quick to brood. If his wife were here…the ache in his chest still hurt even now, but if she were here his darling Sonia would be chastising him. He should not be so quick to brood; did he not know how lucky he was? A beautiful wife like her, a thriving kingdom despite all the problems, a kind and resilient people, and two beautiful children that they could sit back and watch orbit each other, taking joy in the steps they took on their path into each other's arms.

Goddess, he missed her. Every day that passed, every year that passed, he still mourned her. He could see so much of her in Zelda, despite his Sonia having only been able to hold her for a few minutes before she passed. It helped and hurt that the two were so similar, but Gaepora was always careful to not let his daughter see him brood. She was the greatest thing in his life, after all; he had no desire to make her think that he was sad because of her.

The King of Skyloft forced away the sorrow and the stress, choosing instead to focus upon a different source of stress. He had two and a half days until the festival, when he could relax and enjoy himself alongside all of his people. He would take his place at the borders, to ensure his men could rest as well on one day, but just like everybody else he would get two full days off. He could see his daughter happy, hopefully see his son happy, and truly relax for the first time in a while.

Time was ticking forward, and that was okay. The Festival was soon to happen, and Gaepora could barely wait.

Pity that there was so much work to do first.

~~The Eternal Game~~

Questioning My Demise

It was dramatic; Link would freely admit that. It felt fitting, however, considering what all he needed to do, and the things coming. First question, then, that obviously couldn't be answered just yet.

How powerful is Demise?

The nib of a fountain pen scratched soothingly against a journal, Link taking a moment to admire his handwriting. He'd noticed several times already just how pretty it was, no doubt a product of years of effort, and liked it a lot more than he should. He'd always wanted to have good handwriting, but never had the time or the energy to sink into practicing it. Much like so many other things in this world, from strength to health to Zelda, he'd been handed this without having to work for it. It was rather nice, honestly, no matter how much guilt it gave him.

So, facts, or what little he knew. Demise was the origin of monsters, and the Curse he would pass down allowed the various incarnations of it to command, control, and spawn Monsters. Which means that, even with the seal, he was doing something in Skyloft. How that was the case, Link didn't know, but the fact that the Incursions came out of seemingly nowhere and showing up every thousand years pointed to the fact that the Seal wasn't anywhere near as strong as it should be.

So, somehow, Demise was far stronger in this world than he should be. Which suddenly made Link incredibly glad that he was also stronger than the original Link; the Champions abilities would no doubt come in incredibly handy if Demise truly was stronger. He didn't exactly fancy tanking lightning bolts that couldn't be dodged or countered by Fi. Unfortunately, however, anything here was speculation, which meant it served no true purpose.

Use of the Meta

The pen tapped against the paper, Link considering things. How useful was his meta knowledge, really? 80% of Zelda games were gimmick and puzzle based, roughly, with the final 20% being straight combat. At least up until Breath of the Wild, but even that still had a focus on puzzles with the Shrines and Divine Beasts. Temples in the Zelda games, or dungeons, or anything for that matter, were usually based upon making your way to a specific item and then using that item to clear the puzzles of the temple.

Considering that this was real now, even if he still had moments where he couldn't quite believe it, Link found himself doubting that any puzzles or traps would be based solely upon items. Beyond even that, he already had a bow. Multiple bows, in fact, so any puzzles relying on the fact that he hadn't found the bow yet would be an automatic failure at their job.

The only things that would really be useful here would be his knowledge of the bosses, and even that was limited. After all, the bosses were gimmick bosses in a lot of ways. Ignoring Ghirahim and Demise for the moment, that meant there were five of them to fight.

First was…Scaldera, he was pretty sure. Something like that, but it was a giant fiery rock. It fought you on a slope, and you needed to use bombs when it tried to pull Link's entire body inside it, as well as attacking the eye with your sword. The primary attacks were fireballs and the spherical rock flinging itself down the slope at you, in addition to a suction attack to crush your body before spitting you out.

Funnily enough, Link didn't really expect any of these to be present in an actual fight with Scaldera as a boss, except for the fireballs. Maybe the rolling attack, but somehow he doubted that any monster would casually be standing still and waiting for you to run up a slope and attack it in the one weak spot it possessed. He honestly didn't know what it would look like in reality; an Igneo Talus, maybe? A rock giant with burning flames beneath it wasn't a bad opponent, especially if it was faster than the ones he'd faced already.

Second off was the giant scorpion with a multitude of eyes where they shouldn't be to serve as weak points. A scorpion that lived for, if he remembered right, roughly a thousand years, and it had more weak points than any other boss. An eye in its stinger, an eye in each claw, and an eye on the main body. He could probably just dismiss those entirely, because he highly doubted any monster would grow up to have that many weaknesses. Combine that with the fact that Hinox now had a protection in front of their only clear weakness, and he was reasonably sure this monster wouldn't be anywhere near as easy.

He didn't even want to imagine how potent the monster's venom would be. It wasn't an issue in the game, but considering that Chuchu's had acid inside them, Link imagined that the scorpion's venom would be terrifyingly dangerous. Top that off with claws likely strong enough to rend stone, without weaknesses, and this monster would make a truly dangerous boss.

Next up was the giant statue of the weird name, Koloktek? Koloktos? He honestly couldn't remember. That one was probably the closest to accurate of them all, but somehow he doubted that beating it would be as simple as ripping parts off of it with a whip.

Koloktek…tos…Kolok was a giant six-armed automaton with a variety of weapons all eager to kill you. Beating it required pulling the joints apart with the whip and attacking a core inside it for the first phase, and in the second you had to cut its legs out from under it with its own weapons. Honestly, probably Skyward Sword Link's greatest show of strength, all things considered, since those weapons were many times his size.

Kolok wasn't impressive as bosses went, being big and slow, but that was nothing new for Zelda enemies. Boss fights were more about cleverness and gimmicks than actually difficult fights. Even in Breath of the Wild, the only Zelda game that didn't have gimmick boss fights, had so many different ways to beat anything in the game that the boss fights were rather underwhelming. Especially the last one.

No matter. The next boss was Tentalus; he remembered that one because it was a ridiculous combination of the Kraken and Medusa. Huge, humanoid, octopus-like monster that had tentacle hairs and, as was the trend, one giant eye that served as the weak point. The fight was on a ship, with you cutting the monster's tentacle hair as it kept putting holes in the ship, then you had to shoot it and hit it a lot of times in the eye.

An actual monster based off of that would be a lot more terrifying. Its weak point would never be exposed, for starters, considering it could shatter ships with just the hair. It wasn't like things in reality were forced to rise above the waves to let you strike them, or to give action shots on a tv screen. So you'd have to fight it in its element, in the depths, and to make matters far worse…you'd be on a strict time limit. Not even the oxygen issue, but because at any given time the monster could slam you into miles of sand.

Because the unique thing about Tentalus, unlike the other bosses, was that it didn't exist in the current time. Its ocean had dried up over the years, after all, turning entirely to a desert. God, Zelda games got weird.

A sigh, Link rubbing his face and looking over at the notes he'd scribbled. Little more than some minor details he could reasonably expect to face against bosses that, in truth, stood a strong possibility of not showing up, all things considered. Lynels hadn't existed in Skyward Sword, nor had Gleeoks or Darknuts, and he'd fought two of them and seen mentions of the third. Rather concerning ones, at that, considering it supposedly took the Hero to bring the one slain one in history down. He still didn't know whether or not that was a Hero like him, or whether it wasn't.

Ask Gaepora about the Hero

He flipped to a new page briefly, writing that at the top. That was something he desperately needed to know, and for some reason he didn't expect Zelda to know. He would ask regardless, but the way she'd talked about him had been more story based than anything else. A tale from long ago, thousands and thousands of years, much like the story of King Daphnes. Pride and admiration, connection to her history, but nothing of personal connection to it. Her statement of the past riders of the Crimson Loftwings only ever taking down three Lynel's at once also hinted at a lack of knowledge, he felt.

Call it arrogance, call it ego, but Link was reasonably sure he could put down more than three Lynel's alone at the moment. Combine that with Sylph's strength and that number could easily double. Gaepora, on the other hand, likely had some kind of knowledge that Zelda didn't, if only through longer life experience. He'd also fought in the previous incursion; if a Hero had existed before him, he would have been present in the Incursion, of that much Link had no doubt.

Honestly, however, that was probably just him hoping a bit too much. Hoping that he wouldn't have to face Demise, that he wouldn't have to fight Ghirahim, and that was just another expression of his cowardice. Because no matter how strong he was, Ghirahim was supposed to be able to overwhelm Link entirely in the first fight, his life saved only by the Sword of the Sky. He sighed again, shaking his head. No matter, he'd deal with it as it came.

A flip back to the first page, the nib scratching away once more as he wrote down the final boss that wasn't either Ghirahim or Demise. Bilocyte; he had remembered the name of the parasite infecting the giant wind fish, Levias. Honestly, he should probably search for any mentions of him as well, just in case; who knew exactly how long Levias would have been infected with the parasite by now.

Anyways, Bilocyte was a parasite infecting Levias; honestly one of the more entertaining fights in Skyward Sword, simply because you finally had a boss where your loftwing was actually useful. You could use the Spiral Charge to hit giant eyes hanging off of tendrils, because Zelda had a major thing about poking eyes with sharp objects as he was coming to realize now that he wasn't in the middle of gaming, and the tendrils would disappear.

It was a rather refreshing change from the rest of the game, where the Loftwing was mainly just a source of transportation. Flying was cool, and infinitely more wonderful now that he had experienced it for himself, but that was pretty much all it was in game. For all that the Crimson Loftwing was supposed to be able to transition through the cloud barrier to the surface, in practice the game never let you do it. You jumped from the sky, and used a statue of the Goddess to catapult yourself into the air.

Anyways, after hitting all the eyes you dropped down onto Levias itself and proceeded to hack and slash at more eyes until Bilocyte bit the dust. To make an actually useful monster, all the obvious weak points would get removed and the parasite would, probably, be able to turn Levias against him. Beyond that…weaponized tendrils, maybe? He was kind of drawing a blank here.

The bigger issue was simple though; would he be able to actually save Levias? This wasn't a game; everything wasn't guaranteed to turn out happily at the end. It would be far too fitting for Levias to wind up dead due to the parasite, much like the Great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time. Though, unlike the Tree, Link assumed Levias didn't have a way to bud a new being from its corpse.

Saving the Great Spirit of the Skies?

The pen scratched at the parchment as he made a point to write that down. He didn't want the being to die if he could avoid it, and not even because it was useful. It was, supposedly, the Warden of the Skies. If it was free and able to do its job it might be able to help against the monsters. At worst, it could help with the cloud barrier. On that subject…

Investigate the Cloud Barrier

It had turned from white and, for lack of a better word, happy into dark and foreboding with terrible speed, monsters writhing in the clouds and small tornadoes forming. It had also caused a drain in his magic just to be able to see the truth of the world, which was concerning on a great many levels. It was very likely a sign that Levias was infected and had been infected for some time.

Link couldn't be the only one to have noticed it, however. They had an entire Mage's College, with an Archmage who had to be useful for something. This wasn't the game; Skylians weren't forced to be useless so that the main character could solve all of the problems. They might not know how to fix it, but they should know that something wasn't right and have some kind of hint to look into.

There were a lot of monsters there, and if Link wanted to be able to pass from the sky to the surface easily… something told him he would have to deal with them. Perhaps paranoia, perhaps a lack of willingness to trust, but there was a reason Zelda considered going too close to the clouds reckless. Sylph may render it a joke, a fun activity more than anything else, but it was still enough to worry her.

Find the Great Fairies

This one was purely selfish of him, in all truth. The Great Fairies weren't really required, not by any metric, but any power they chose to share was power he could put to use against the evils of the world. Even beyond that, they had supposedly given updates of a sort to the Royal Family; he could use those. Maybe they could point him at the source of whatever was making monsters up here.

A thousand beasts died to his hands earlier, just over five times the number of soldiers in the company he had put down earlier this week. More still existed all around the borders, all around the island, and no doubt more still infected the other two islands. He didn't hold much hope of them being able to truly help him, but any hints that could point him in the right direction would honestly be more valuable than any power they could give him.

Magic

This was a given, but he needed to remind himself. He needed to put effort into managing Reason Magic, no matter how difficult it was. On top of that, he needed to figure out just what Faith Magic was and what it did. Figuring all of that out likely wasn't something he could manage in the two days he had left, but he could work on it as things started happening. Presumably there would be some downtime. Failing everything else, after Zelda was sealed would provide some downtime, even if the thought of that ached on a variety of levels.

The thought of her being sealed away for thirty thousand years and an unknowable amount of change left a sour taste in his mouth and an ache in his chest. Even more than before, he didn't want that fate for her. He didn't have much of a choice, he knew that, but he didn't want that. He didn't like the idea of Zelda trapped away for so long, alone, even if she experienced not even a moment of it. Though he didn't recall if it was ever stated what she was experiencing in that time, the kindest thing would be a complete gap from the moment of the sealing to the moment of awakening.

Link stood, setting down the pen, and went to make himself a cup of tea. The smell of steeping safflina relaxed him more than he could have ever expected a few days ago, and soon enough the warm and earthen tea was engulfing him in warmth. A heavy sigh, exhaling away the stress, and breathing deep of the hint of fire that soothed him so easily. Why was this the tea he enjoyed most? He didn't mind, appreciated it even, it was just odd.

He returned to the desk, setting the cup to the side after another sip. There was still more to write down, more problems to consider. Though, funnily enough, his mind was busy circling the story of Skyward Sword more than anything else. Might as well run through it, see if there was anything of actual use in his memories and meta knowledge. He didn't expect there to be that much of value, however.

The problem with Zelda games was that they were, in the end, games. The worlds were small, miniscule even, especially in comparison to what he had seen so far. He'd seen more people in an hour than he had in any game of Zelda he'd ever played, and he'd already killed many more monsters than any game barring Hyrule Warriors and its sequel even had in them. Today alone he'd slaughtered more monsters than the entirety of Breath of the Wild had in it several times over, after all.

Beyond even that, everything was about game mechanics, puzzles, and gimmicks. It was meant to be entertaining and work the brain, not be a picture perfect adaptation of the world that the creators didn't even know was real. That probably would have been an absolute delight, but he didn't think there was a set of hardware in his entire old world that could run it. Far less one that could be mass-produced and sold cheaply enough for people to buy it.

Skyward Sword began with a nightmare. Nothing concrete, but a warning that something was breaking free, and a shot of the resting place of Demise, though you didn't know that yet. You got to see the Imprisoned, a portion of Demise's power without thought or anything even close to his true form chasing down Link, and then the dream ended. Link got a rather rude awakening from Zelda's Loftwing, who was never named, who delivered a letter to him.

In it, if he remembered right, she chastised him for oversleeping, told him to meet her by the Goddess Statue, and something else. What that was, he didn't know, but it served to establish that the Zelda and Link of this game were quite close. Moving on from there you were introduced to the Academy, which you could explore to a certain extent, and then you went along your way to meet Zelda.

Where it was promptly revealed that Link couldn't feel his Loftwing, and despite that Zelda pushed him off the edge of the island anyways. A joke, apparently, something that had to be common considering how much glee she seemed to take in doing it. In her defense, however, the moment Link called for his loftwing and received no answer she was leaping off and calling her own, rescuing him.

One thing to note; her loftwing had visibly struggled to carry two people. Whether it was because it had to grab Link in its claws, or just the weight in general, loftwings in the game were rather weak. It had been left panting, Zelda concerned for it, and the concept of Sylph or even Rin panting heavily over simply carrying two slight Skylians was hilarious to him. So chalk up yet another point to the glory of reality.

Honestly, there was a pretty noticeable size difference between the game Loftwings and the real Loftwings too, but that was only to be expected. A difference made even more noticeable in Sylph; her body was ridiculously big. She was easily a third again larger than Rin, if not more. It wasn't like he'd compared them directly, after all.

Regardless, so began the first quest; find your Loftwing. Things happened, and it was eventually revealed that Groose had stolen your bird and locked it away in a cave "filled" with monsters. Link honestly hadn't even looked for that cave here, the island was different enough he wouldn't even know where to look. In the game, you had to run around picking up hints, then get a sword from the Knight Trainer, then go through the caves.

They were about as full of monsters as Skyloft was of people, in all honesty. That is to say, there were very few of them. Link could remember Keese and he wanted to say some chuchu, but nothing exactly impressive or concerning. Which kind of set the trend for all of Skylofts monsters in the game, really. So you rescued your bird, flew out to the main Plaza of the Island, and proceeded to participate in the Wing Ceremony.

Link wasn't sure what all it was in the game, but he did know that it definitely wasn't the culmination of three days of an island wide festival. It honored the Loftwings, supposedly, but it was limited to a flying competition between the handful of students in the school where you tried to grab a small idol from a teacher. You couldn't lose the competition in game, but Groose and his two lackeys would sabotage you repeatedly despite that. He wanted to say they threw eggs at you, but he truly couldn't remember for sure.

Things progressed, Zelda giving unto Link the Sailcloth as a reward for winning. He was reasonably sure it had some kind of greater meaning in the game, but in practical use it served as little more than a parachute and proto-wind glider. It slowed your falls and let you drift a bit, and that was about it, primarily being of use up in the sky where you had to leap off from the loftwing in order to land anywhere.

Zelda also, notably, pushed Link off the Goddess Statue's hands in order to have him test the Sailcloth, looking rather mischievous as she did. He wasn't sure he could see Zelda doing that here, but he wouldn't put it past her either. He didn't know what kind of mischief she liked to get up to, after all. If you failed to land in a certain spot, you could try again, something about a test of courage? It had been a while since he played, so the details were fuzzy.

Time passed, and the pair went flying together, where the worst and inevitable fate of all Zelda's in the Legend of Zelda games occurred; she got kidnapped. More accurately, a freak tornado rose up and knocked her from her loftwing, causing her to plummet from the sky. Link had no idea how she survived it, in truth, but it made sense that the Goddess would save her. Or Impa, because she was a thing in that game.

Link tried and, naturally, failed to save her from her fate, the great winds of the tornado knocking him out as well. The Crimson Loftwing catches him, saves him, and takes him back to the Academy where Gaepora puts his unconscious body back in his room. You were woken up by Fi, the spirit of the Master Sword. Or, rather, the spirit of the Goddess Sword as it was there, because it wasn't the Master Sword yet.

Fi was rather pretty, in truth, with pleasant features in a game more known for its goofiness than aesthetically pleasing design. Her body was blue, and she lacked arms, but she wore an outfit of purple on her right and blue on her left. She was also, notably, quite emotionless to start, running like a computer program more than anything else. She led you to the Sword, other things happened, Gaepora was informed and he gives his permission for you to go after his daughter, and things continue on from there.

The great cloud barrier opened in one specific spot, supposedly right where Zelda fell…but in the time Link was unconscious, Zelda had already been exploring. Because somehow she was perfectly fine after falling out of the sky, he didn't know how or why. It was a bit much, he felt, but Link wasn't that far behind her no matter how much time he spent doing other things. Game plots had to do what game plots had to do, after all.

Link went to the surface, discovering a world of vibrance and life. A great forest, a temple with an ancient Sheikah within, though Link had no idea what the Sheikah even were in that life. Hints of Zelda, and exploring a forest.

Link also meets a Goron here, proving beyond any possible doubt that the narrative of no living things surviving the battle between Hylia and Demise to be wrong. Not that the animals and plants hadn't done that, but this slammed the point home.

The forest was next, as he'd already thought about, leading to a temple in aged ruins and some puzzles. This much at least he could reasonably expect to be accurate. In that there was probably a forest, and an old temple that Zelda would be trekking towards. What was no doubt less reliable were the puzzles within.

Admittedly, he couldn't even remember what puzzles and tricks were within, but considering they were designed to be beaten by children…well, even if the builders did go that route, it would be a lot harder. He hoped it would be a lot harder. Not even because he wanted a challenge, but because of how ridiculous it would be for tricks and traps that children could best to have held out against Ghirahim for any length of time.

The temple ended with a boss fight, as all Zelda temples and dungeons do. The difference here was that the boss fights was Ghirahim, a recurring boss and likely his biggest direct threat for some time.

Ghirahim was, upon introduction, a Demon Lord, claiming that he ruled the evil of the surface, or the surface filled with evil, or something to that effect. As had been circling in his head quite a bit for the past few days, according to Ghirahim's words the only reason he doesn't kill Link in their first encounter is because of the Goddess Sword. How accurate that was was, admittedly, impossible to know for sure. As such, it was a source of some concern.

Game-wise, however, Ghirahim was underwhelming at best here. Little more than a gimmick where he would disarm you if you swing your sword in the same direction he was holding his hand in, as a boss fight he was perhaps one of the weakest ones throughout Zelda. Though, in his defense, he couldn't exactly grow fifteen giant eyes to serve as weak points, so the developers did what they had to do.

You moved along, where it was revealed that you'd missed Zelda by a handful of minutes because you were fighting Ghirahim. This was also revealed by said Demon Lord, and is the reason he leaves you alone, being rather angry about that fact. The Temple is completed, Fi performs some strange dance as she translates things, and you move along.

Things happen, a tablet is found, you could do some more side quests, and you explore the Eldin region next. Also universally known as volcano in Zelda speak; any time there was Eld or some variant thereof, it was swelteringly hot at best and lava filled at worst. You gained a unique magic item here; the Digging Mitts. He couldn't remember offhand another Zelda game that had something like those, even if there no doubt was, but they served to let you dig underground and served as the gimmick for the Fire Temple.

The fire temple ensued, things happened, and you fought the flaming rock. Meanwhile, if he was remembering correctly, Impa showed up for the first time here. Well…young Impa showed up for the first time; the old person in the temple was also her, which was a terrifying thing because she didn't have the technology to support her through the…completely unstated length of time Skyloft was in the sky. No matter.

Impa was, in all truth, kind of callous here. If he remembered right, and he may or may not considering his bias against her, Impa showed up and insulted Link for his lack of speed in getting to Zelda. Apparently Ghirahim caught her, or a monster caught her, and she wound up chained or something past Scaldera? Impa saved her right before Link showed up, of course, but considering that would happen no matter how long you took to get there Link wasn't sure how useful it was.

More things happened, the trail continued with the desert temple. An interesting gimmick here in the form of Timeshift Stones; stones that allowed you to go back in time something like a thousand years previously. Sheikah emblems were all over the place, either starting or continuing the trend of them having advanced tech that they then lost. Link wasn't exactly sure which game that started in, he hadn't played them all after all.

His memories began to get a bit blurry here, unfortunately. The…he wanted to say mining something or other you passed through gave you the Gust Bellows, you fought the giant scorpion at the end, and you get to immediately turn Impa's cutting words about lateness against her by arriving just in time to save her and Zelda from getting caught and likely murdered by Ghirahim. The two of them left for the past, Ghirahim got rather upset and left in a rage, and then you were left with no idea what to do, because the thing Zelda used to retreat was broken.

Fear not, for hints were everywhere, though he couldn't remember what exactly the trigger was for the next quests. He was reasonably certain you traveled into the Thunderhead, however, using the Goddess Harp that Zelda…chucks at you, or something, while she's retreating? Link hadn't exactly played the game with the expectations of needing to remember it, something he kind of regretted now.

Things continued on; the three areas were visited again but were different now. The Forest was now flooded, resulting in you having to deal with the most annoying dragon. At the point you talk with it, you've already saved it at least once, if not twice, but it still demands you prove yourself again before it gives you the thing you need. Then you clear out the water temple, where you fought the giant automaton, and then moved on towards the desert once more. Because, for some reason, the volcano wasn't available.

The second time through the desert he remembered a lot more of; it had been pretty fun, all things considered. After some time wandering around and doing various things, some of which were more irritating than others, you wound up fixing a timeshift stone machine that let you gain a fully functioning ship that could sail across a desert, because the machine had a range that turned a remarkably large amount of space back into what it had been a long time ago; ocean.

You got to explore an island, board a pirate ship, face a pirate robot in a duel, and generally just have a remarkable amount of fun. The pirate duel was one of his favorite fights in the game, really, even if it didn't count as an actual boss, because the kraken-medusa hybrid was the actual boss of the area. She showed up after you took down the pirate ship, destroying said ship in the process of your battle with her.

Anyways, with this done you could head to the Eldin Region once more, gaining the final thing you were looking for. Song Fragments, he was reasonably sure? Something like that. Regardless, you got up there, freed Levias…no, no wait. You freed Levias before you did the second run around of the regions, he'd forgotten. Cause Levias was the one who told you to seek out the Dragons to get the fragments of the song you needed. Anyways, you go back to the sky, play the song, and then you're off to see Zelda. Also, at some point during all of this, you have to forge the Goddess Sword into the Master Sword and experience some rather creepy "training" in places called the Silent Realm.

Places that were mimics of the real world, where reality was malleable and spirits hunted you. You had to collect…beads? Seeds? Fragments of something, which supposedly made you stronger, though Link didn't know how. The Master Sword was forged by meeting with the three dragons and having them imbue it with their power…or by putting in sacred fires? Both, perhaps? His memory was really letting him down here. Anyways, back to Zelda.

You get like…ten minutes or so with her, really. It's revealed she is the direct reincarnation of Hylia, that she has all the memories of said individual, and that she has to seal herself away in a giant crystal for "thousands of years". So…yeah. Lovely thing. She also has a moment where she asks Link to be the one to wake her up, which probably would have meant a lot more if you'd been able to spend more time with her in the game.

He forced himself to ignore the nausea building up in his stomach at the thought of his Zelda asking that of him.

Then, so long as he was remembering correctly at least, it was back to the sky. He might be getting the exact order a bit mixed, but these were the basics. You had to clear one last temple, dropping the Goddess Statue all the way down to the surface at the end of it where it slotted neatly into place in the hole Demise had been sealed into, or right next to it one. There was at least one final fight with the giant, mindless form of Demise's power, he was pretty sure.

Then you freed Zelda, waking her up from her long slumber. Then Ghirahim ensured that the Fate of Zelda across all Zelda games remained the same, kidnapping her and using her to free Demise. This was the final fight with Ghirahim, where no matter how good you did Demise wound up free at the end of it. It was also, however, incredibly satisfying.

There was something like three fights with Ghirahim in the game, each of which he decided to talk down to you beforehand. For at least two of them, he was also talking down to you afterwards. In this one, however, you break him. As the fight progresses, Ghirahim becomes less and less defined, less and less human, even if he was never human to begin with, considering his claim to be a "Demon Lord." It is revealed at the end of the fight, after Demise is unleashed, that Ghirahim was only ever Demise's sword. A tool to use, just like Fi, the spirit of the Master sword.

Fi, however, was a valued companion. The thought of ripping her sentience from her and using her as just a tool hurt quite a bit, and he hadn't even met her yet. After all, Fi was a constant companion in Skyward Sword, and unlike the Zelda of every game bar Breath of the Wild, she actually had enough screen time and dialog to get attached to her. Even better, she had visible character growth throughout the journey.

Fi went from an emotionless robot to actually caring about things, expressing interest, and she was finally able to smile at the end of it all. Just once, but it was so very precious…and she would never be seen again, not truly. She was in Hyrule Warriors, but not a focus. She got a small hint in Breath of the Wild, Zelda able to hear her speak, but never again would they see her. Never again would she be a companion on your journey.

Link shook off the sudden melancholy; it was the nature of games, after all. Anyways, the fight with Demise was…interesting. He wielded lightning and a giant sword, was at least twice as tall as Link, and had hair that glowed red. A Ganondorf on steroids, essentially. He wasn't all that difficult to beat in game, truthfully, but he had the near-certainty that things wouldn't be as easy here.

There was always a difference, after all, between lore and gameplay. In lore Link seemed to struggle, to some extent, against his opponents. He even lost to Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time in one timeline, which never made sense to him. In terms of pure gameplay, he was reasonably sure he could beat Ganondorf and Ganon of that game with kid Link after running through the Zora Domain. He might be able to do it after the Deku Tree, in all truth, but he would want the couple extra hearts so he could make a mistake without instantly losing.

In lore, however, it was a vastly different story. Link fighting against the darkness always seemed to be a true test of his strength, and more often than not the day was carried through because of the magical items and blessings he had obtained over the course of his journey. A very important point to note about this, however, was the timing.

Link was always a child when darkness rose. The oldest he'd ever been was probably Breath of the Wild, where he was pretty sure the boy was seventeen. Even Skyward Sword…well, he could see him being about fifteen canonically, though he'd never bothered to look. It was equally possible he was seventeen or so, however. The point remained; Link was always, always not in his prime. He was always caught unprepared, alongside the entirety of Hyrule, when things went wrong because he was never born with the knowledge that things were going to go wrong.

He never had the time to grow, to truly reach the heights he should be able to until after everything was over. He had a journey that lasted something like a year or so, most likely less, and during that time he went through hell and grew to incredible heights…but he never had time to develop anything unique. Link was never able to learn magic except for whatever spells or artifacts were given to him. He was never able to hone his skills to truly incredible levels, never able to figure out his limits in a safe way.

Admittedly, there were a lot of arguments to be made about how the way Link was going about things was more efficient than that, and he could agree with some of it. But there was a part of him that always thought that an adult Link, in his prime and with a mindset to match, would be able to obliterate anything that came his way. A thought that was proven fairly accurate in Breath of the Wild.

That game started with Link waking up with no memories, after a defeat, but as the context of the defeat becomes clear you realize just how broken he was. The plan to face the evil there was to gang up on the final boss with an army of support and four giant machines designed specifically to severely damage it. That army turned against him, chasing Link and Zelda, who he was protecting, all across Hyrule for an unknown length of time. Even more interesting, however; there were exactly three people who had ever bested Guardians, the army, in that game.

The King of the Zora beat one. Zelda finished off a handful when she finally awoke her powers after Link's last stand. Link had visibly slaughtered a multitude in his final stand, and far more relevant, there were carcasses of Guardians in random places all over Hyrule. If you put the pieces together, you came up with something ridiculous. Link guided Zelda all over the land, desperately avoiding the army of Guardians, and every time he couldn't avoid them anymore he killed them. While protecting Zelda. While likely staying awake the entire time to guard her. While likely lacking food, considering he was established in verse as a glutton and he wouldn't have had time to cook anywhere near enough to satisfy him, or even fulfill his body's needs for that matter.

Link left a trail of destroyed machines all over Hyrule, and in his final stand he slaughtered even more. He did this without armor, without a bow, without a shield; just the Master Sword. By the point you travel all across Hyrule, by the point you've regained all of Link's memories, he at least had been left with one certainty. If the Guardian's hadn't been there, Link would have won that fight. If Zelda hadn't been, cold as it was to say it, dead weight, Link would have turned that war around single-handedly.

As it was, even Link couldn't handle guiding a defenseless princess across an army of laser-shooting enemies. Defending her all that time, living on adrenaline and unable to rest, Link was eventually overwhelmed.

He shook his head. He had gotten off topic, and furthermore this was going to get very confusing very fast. He was Link, but he was thinking about other Link's, and keeping it all straight in his head would get difficult rather quickly. Especially when he added in the fact that he was in the body of one Link, in the time of another, and with powers that none of them ever got access to in the form of magic.

Body Swapping

He forced himself back on track with that. He'd likely never get an answer, but it was a question nonetheless. Why was he in the time of Skyward Sword, in Skyloft, with the body of Breath of the Wild's Link? Why was Zelda a mixture of Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time? Why did he have the powers of the Champions? Why did he have the…

Link cut himself off, taking a sip of his tea once more and letting it soothe him. This was…unproductive, to say the least. His meta knowledge had more holes than a strainer, and wasn't of much use anyways due to the fact that it was primarily game mechanics that caused everything to work the way it did in verse. A verse he visibly wasn't in, because Skyloft was of vastly greater size. He flipped to a new page and began to write once more, focusing on questions that could actually be answered.

Simpler things, such as what was faith magic? Levias and the Hero, ancient legends of the Goddess's feats. The Champions, which deserved their own headache inducing list of queries he wasn't about to get into. He wasn't even sure how to answer those except to somehow get into contact with them, and he had no idea how to even manage that. The only real common denominator in their two appearances was him using their abilities, but he'd used their abilities a lot more than just twice.

Link put the pen down, sighing in frustration. If he was going to slam his head against a brick wall of unsolvable questions, he might as well turn back to Reason magic. That, at least, would be a productive migraine, after all. Nine equations ran through his head, nine equations that projected numbers above the palm of his hand.

16:32.15

.16

.17

Four thirty…he should probably get started on dinner. Zelda had been getting back about seven, give or take a few minutes, and he liked having dinner ready for her. Having food ready for her, when he had taken the place of her best friend and was reaping the rewards of that fact, was the least he could do. Besides…it felt nice. Seeing her happiness, the way she exhaled all the stress and duties of the day away and just smiled at him…

He couldn't describe it, but it was a truly wonderful feeling. To know that he was the reason for that. He was why she could relax, he was the haven she sought out. Part of it, large parts even, were due to the body he had wound up shoved into, but part of it was him. His personality wasn't causing friction, unlike in life. He wasn't driving her away just by talking to her, unlike what happened with most people he spoke with.

She didn't misinterpret his words, didn't find offense where none was intended. His presence was neither burden nor curse, but a pleasure. She spoke to him in a variety of ways, from playful to sad to loving, but never like he was a dog or some cretin to be hated. She didn't find him annoying, didn't find him irritating. She enjoyed his company.

So he was going to make her dinner tonight, and tomorrow night, and then the night after that he would make all of her favorites in one. He didn't have long before she would be gone from him for a very long time…he needed to make the most of every moment with her. Not even kissing, or sex, for all that the him of a week ago would be balking at the idea of having a beautiful woman this into him and not taking advantage of it.

No, he'd already gained one regret in this new life of his. He wasn't going to get another one by not spending as much time with Zelda as he could before things kicked off. Time was running out…and, perhaps, that was okay.

He would be ready. He would be ready. There was no other option. When the storm that was coming crashed upon them, he would rise to meet it. He was Link, he would be Link, no matter what it cost him. He would find the strength to be even half as unbreakable brave as Link was, and something told him he would find it in the girl he had so quickly become attached to.

Time was running out…and Link would rise to meet it.

~~The Eternal Game~~

The needle moved, left to right, right to left, words whispered under two tongues, a golden hue and a cloak all that could be seen.

The needle moved, left to right, right to left…

A wrist shook, fingers gleaming gold.

A body spasmed, unable to continue.

Princess Zelda of Skyloft shuddered, her entire body protesting with pain as a needle fell from suddenly numbed fingers. Her vision returned to normal, gleams of gold fading away to little more than a shine in the corners of her eyes. The presence that had engulfed her, ancient and kind, faded to the background without her even having to request it. By this point, the two of them worked remarkably well together.

Zelda still was not sure how to feel about that, not truly. One the one hand, it was Hylia. The Goddess herself, paying close attention and even affection to her. Princess of Skyloft or not, it was not something that Zelda had ever expected to occur. It was not even something she had thought about happening, in truth, but it was happening daily now. Every time she sat down to weave, the voice and presence of Hylia was there. The wisdom and kindness of the Goddess suffused her very being, adding knowledge and skill that Zelda did not possess to her every action.

It came at a cost, however. It was not just the lingering feeling of more in the back of her mind, or in the shaking of her hands. No, the cost was paid in the pain. Every aspect of her ached, from her bones to her flesh to her very soul, and ached for some time after the completion of the day's workings. It was not until she bathed that the pain and exhaustion would fade, though the latter would remain even if it was lessened.

It was odd, however. The High Priestess of the Hylian Temple, Tirei, had told her there was meant to be yet another price to pay for melding so deeply with a Goddess, one well recorded by those who had been given the honor of weaving before her. Visions, both wondrous and horrifying in equal measure, were said to afflict those who weaved with Hylia. That mixture of curse and blessing also came to those who experienced exceptionally powerful blessings from her, as well. Zelda had heard her father mention it before, after particularly challenging battles. Perhaps most amusingly, he had never complained of them more than when he sparred with Link.

Guilt…sorrow…

Blue eyes blinked, a haze of gold overtaking them momentarily. There it was again; Hylia's emotions filtering through whatever connection they had created. Usually they were nothing serious; the Goddess was remarkably careful to ensure that nothing too strong went through the length, resulting in impressions being the norm rather than full out emotions.

It was odd to look at a glass of water and feel like it was less than it should be. Stranger still to look at her father and feel favor and foolish child tinged with warm affection. As weird as those sensations may be, they were far better than the feeling of horror, the occasional flashes of war and death that came through. Even those, however, were better than this guilt.

Zelda thought of Link quite often, even while focused on her weaving. Because of her weaving, even, considering her entire goal was to make a cloak in the fashion of the Knight's legendary garb. Amusement and guilt flowed through her, tinged as always with sorrow. That was the worst of it, truly. Everything else the Goddess was able to keep suppressed remarkably well, but every time Zelda's mind turned to Link, the emotions of the Goddess came through.

There were other feelings as well; Hylia was hardly a one dimensional being, after all. Fondness, love, the steady beat of reliability between the two. Strangely enough, however…there was also Faith. A Faith in Link so powerful it took her breath away sometimes, right beneath the guilt. Self-loathing was the next strongest, and Zelda had a few guesses as to why.

After all…no matter how much she loved him, she was able to acknowledge that he was far from normal. No one else surpassed Champion level as a child, for example, and that was simply the smallest of things abnormal about him. If Hylia had indeed created him to be a weapon…Zelda did not know how to feel. She admired and respected her Goddess deeply, trusted her beyond almost anything, held greater faith in her than almost anything. She could believe that Hylia would have many reasons for crafting Link as a weapon, and could even be grateful for her doing so. After all, if she had not done so, she would not have her Link.

On the other side, however, crafting a weapon from one of them? Using them as a tool solely to beat back the monsters, or whatever it was out there that even Champions stood no chance at handling? Zelda hated it. She hated the fact that a threat out there was so strong it took a weapon to beat it, and she hated even more that Link was the one that would have to face it.

Zelda sighed, shaking her head, looking at her hands. The pain had faded, and her body no longer quivered from exertion, but she was still finished weaving for the day. She was ahead of schedule and even beyond that, pushing further at this point would only result in more pain. Fortunately, or perhaps rather unfortunately, there was always more to do.

Even though she wished for nothing more than to head to her room and cuddle with Link until the morning, along with other less innocent things, there was still more to do. She was not part of the direct preparations for the festival this year, thankfully, but that time had been replaced by preparations for her role. One of which was, of course, the weaving, but others had also taken their places. One, specifically, was practice.

Her eyes fell upon a golden harp, sitting innocently inside a wooden case, gleaming in the afternoon light. A musical instrument, older than time, and one of the most precious Artifacts in all of Skyloft. Power beyond compare, Wisdom to guide, and Courage just to use it; truly, the harp was far from being as simple as it appeared.

Even sitting there, untouched, the harp was beautiful. Lovingly handcrafted from an unknowable golden metal, spun strings of the same material gleaming in the light of day, not a single soul in Skyloft knew what this material truly was or how it could be crafted. They also had no idea how metal could be used as strings on an instrument, but the fact remained that it was. The strings shared the same flawlessly smooth and cool surface as the body of the harp, after all.

The Crest of the Goddess was emblazoned across the body, centered at the bottom and rising up along the pillars. A sign, the simplest sign, of the origin of such a magnificent working. The Goddess Harp was one of the three Great Artifacts of Skyloft that had ascended to the Sky alongside them, and was the only one that they had left. One Artifact for each Island; it had not even been intentional, in those days.

From what scant few records remained, the time of ascension had been chaotic and panicked, beyond anything the current Skylians could comprehend. Or, rather, it would be beyond what they could comprehend were it not for the Goddess Harp. Blue eyes looked at the instrument warily, Zelda's mind going over the careful warning of the High Priestess of Hylia earlier that day.

"Be careful, Princess. The Goddess Harp is an Artifact, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that. Of everyone, the Royal Family should know this the best, as it has always been your line that has been able to awaken the most power from it. Do not rely upon your natural gifts to control it though. An Artifact has power far beyond what you realize, and once you start a melody you cannot stop it."

High Priestess Tirei had also given her an incredibly long lecture about how to take proper care of the Harp while she had it, but that was only to be expected. It was, after all, one of the greatest treasures in all of Skyloft, if not the greatest, and its abilities could not be underestimated. Even the simplest had granted them understanding beyond measure, after all.

A sigh, Zelda considering her options. She did not have to practice on the Goddess Harp today; it was, in all truth, likely better to save it until tomorrow and the day after. She was well ahead in her weaving, meaning that the final two days would not be anywhere near as straining on her body as it had been today. She would also be in the company of at least one of the Priests, rather than alone like she was right now.

At the same time…perhaps it would be better to start it now? To take advantage of the fact that she could no longer weave safely to get ahead on her other practice. It was purely optional, High Priestess Tirei had made certain to stress that, yet part of her wanted to. The Artifact was dangerous, but not in terms of danger to her body or mind; merely in emotions, at least at her level.

The most basic power of the Goddess Harp was simple enough; she had seen it in action a dozen times that she could remember at this point in her life. Once a year, in fact, and always at the same time every year, though she knew that there had been years it was played more often in the past. Even as she thought about it, her hand touched cool metal and she jolted in shock.

Fingers latched onto the harp, pulling it into her arms; the metal settled against her body like it belonged there, fingers flashing gold for just a moment. One hand settled against the base, all five fingers touching the cool metal strings. Strings that, on anything else, would cut into the meat of her fingers, yet on this felt as soft and welcoming as silk. Or, as heat flared in her cheeks and guilt not her own rested in her chest…Link's hair.

Resonant notes drifted through the clearing as her fingers touched the strings; not a song, not yet, but just listening to the sound of the harp. Skyloft had many instruments; her people loved music, and she did as well, yet no instrument sounded quite like the Goddess Harp. Even other harps paled in comparison to it; their notes were not as sharp, or as gentle, or even as clear. The way it sounded depended on the notes played, yet regardless of how it was simply more in a way that defied explanation.

She should stop…

Artifacts were not something that should be used carelessly, and Zelda was already tired from a day of weaving. The magic within her was, while not empty, certainly diminished, and more importantly the backlash from the Goddess Harp was not a simple one anyways. And yet…

And yet she wanted to. She wanted to see what the Artifact could do in her hands, pushed on by thousands of years of history and heritage. Zelda wanted to see history, using the most minor and commonly used power of the Harp to see wonders of the ancient past. The ability to bring the past to life…

Her fingers danced across chords, a melody she knew by heart beginning. Simple, upbeat and cheerful. A song of simple times and simple pleasures; the words told the story of a small celebration. What it was, exactly, Zelda did not know, but there was dancing, drinking, and more all contained within the lyrics.

Between one breath and the next, a harp's chords sounding out…

Reality changed.

Buildings appeared in her view from nowhere; she had not blinked, yet there they were. They were old, weathered by time, almost transparent, with wooden walls and sloped roofs. People appeared from nowhere, music from a variety of instruments seeming to fill the air, except…not. The tips of her ears twitched, hearing and yet not hearing the notes of a flute, the beat of a drum, and the clapping of hands.

The space in front of her filled with bodies, each and every one not quite real, yet real enough that she recognized them as Skylians. A dance in the center, far more energetic than most she had seen. The music she could not quite hear picked up, yet she knew the rhythm, fingers following along as the music got faster. Zelda could just hear the chatter of a village; happiness, people speaking about this or that, never quite enough to know what they were saying.

The atmosphere changed, even as the song continued. Blue eyes watched in awe as the ancestors of her people were just…happy. They were not quite real, were not quite present…but they were real enough. This was the simplest power of the Harp; to bring music to life.

Everything was inspired by something, whether it was history or imagination. Great paintings of moments, of people, or of nature; large tapestries of events in history, or even statues of legends were much the same. Music was no different; so many songs were inspired by moments in history, great or small. Little snippets of time that passed by, never to be seen again except in that song.

Except, with the Goddess Harp, that changed. With a touch of magic, and the gift of the Goddess of Time, moments like this could be viewed once more. Could be lived once more, once someone with enough talent played the Harp. With Zelda playing it the images were translucent at best, transparent at worst; the moments in time could be viewed, could almost be heard.

She had had the pleasure of listening to High Priestess Tirei play it once before, and the differences between that woman's level and her own felt like the difference between Link's fighting skills and those of a Knight's. The High Priestess could play the harp with such skill that Zelda had not been able to tell the difference between past and present. If it had not been for the fact that the visions of the past could not be touched, nobody would have been able to.

Zelda's skill was nowhere near that level, though she did not expect it to be. It was enough to see this. To see the past, things that would have otherwise passed into history unremarked…it was wonderful.

The song ended, history fading away.

The Princess frowned, looking down at the harp. That had been over far too quickly; the entire song finished in an instant. She had lost track of it, lost in images that were not quite real. She had barely even had time to absorb it all!

A deep breath, her mind cast inwards, and a check on her reserves. Strangely enough, using the harp took a lot less magic than she had expected…which meant she could go again. Around three more times, if the cost stayed the same, in fact. So she could go again, and she did.

A moment later the sound of the harp echoed, and a moment after that the world changed once more. For the second time the village houses manifested into the world, a little more solid this time. A little more real. Zelda was happy to see it, happy to once again sink into the feeling of celebration that the music and scenery provided.

The entire world turned on it's head when the Goddess Harp was played. It felt as though the festival had come early, as though her people had something to celebrate. Not even some great event or victory…just life. An entire celebration in a village, the people just happy to live for another day. To put another year of good times and bad times behind them, and to look forward to the next one.

Hylia's Kindness

The name felt like it was whispered into her ears, her entire body shivering as words that were not spoken entered her mind. Murmured, yet without a voice.

Hylia's Kindness was not the name of that melody; it was known as Vystrol's Celebration. So why was that put into her ears? She did not have much time to consider it, however, with her focus returning to the music as the visions became just a bit more real.

It once again lasted far too short a time, however. No sooner than she sank into the music it was over, the buildings and the people fading, and Zelda was left frowning. It was an adjustment both ways, it seemed. First understanding what was coming to life around her, and then having to readjust to the suddenness of it all vanishing. It felt as though the moment she looked around at it all it was over.

A sigh, a shake of her head. She had two songs left to play, at least according to her magic reserves. The Artifact was an exceptionally hungry tool; it drained her magic at a ridiculous pace. Her reserves had hardly been full, but they had been a bit over half; to only be capable of playing eight songs at her best was ridiculous.

Honestly, she had been told she had significant reserves, back when she had been tested by Archmage Hinea. It had been proven a second time during the examination upon her entry to the Knight Academy, though she had at least not broken the tool used to check it. Link had not been so lucky, something she had laughed at him for.

Guilt sorrow my failure

A wince, shaking off the emotions of the Goddess. Two songs left; what to pick? She had everything she knew available to her, and Zelda happened to know quite a few. Learning to play the harp had been one of many lessons she had gone through growing up, after all, in case she ever needed to make use of the other powers that this Artifact possessed.

Her mind cast over what she knew, songs happy and sad and everything in between. She did not want something sad, and especially not something tragic. Seeing those would only hurt, after all. On the other hand…there were a lot of things she had always wanted to see, and it was unlikely for her to ever have access to this Artifact just to sate her curiosity.

So…why not take a look at history? There were quite a few things in the books that happened to have songs written about then, after all, and Zelda had always been curious. It would be nice if Link was here too; he likely would have enjoyed the magic even before this week, but after? Well, her Link might actually enjoy seeing history as it was rather than having to read about it.

Zelda ignored the flash of guilt and pain, focusing instead on the direction her thoughts had just taken. That was an idea. Not Link, but a Hero. There had, after all, been one before him, during the 7th incursion. He had been the only thing standing between Skyloft and complete annihilation, and there were many songs honoring his efforts.

There was one, however, that came to mind when she thought of that Hero. The Protector; Link's favorite of the lot, though that had been a pain to figure out. Even worse than figuring out what tea he liked most, for Hylia's sake, and that had been a nightmare. Not even because he was being unhelpful, but because he seemed to enjoy every type equally. It had taken a very stressful day and Link being the one to make the tea for them to realize it; he had just grabbed that one, not even thinking about it. It turned out that that one relaxed him more.

Honestly, everything about Link had been…problematic, to figure out, to say the least. Not because he was being difficult, but because he seemed to genuinely either have no preference on a lot of things, or not realize that he had a preference. The only things he had ever immediately known he liked had been food, flying, and pleasingly enough, her. At least before this week; a lot had changed this week, for the better at that.

A shake of the head, her arms bringing the Harp into position to play once more. The first notes were dark; far more somber than anything in the first song, and immediately Zelda's mind began to wonder if she had made a mistake. The world changed, shifting, the very sky itself darkening as the sun seemed to fade.

A great city rose up behind her, walls over four times her height surrounding it. She barely had time to look at it before malice drew her attention forward. Lungs began to burn, fingers playing without her conscious intent, as monsters blocked the horizon. Fury, unrestrained and tasting like ash upon her tongue. Darkness, spreading like a poison across the land from beasts she had only ever seen in books.

Untold thousands of Bokoblins, Lizalfos, and Moblins; hundreds of Lynels, of Wizzrobes, of Darknuts and Hinox. Tens of Iron Knuckles, dozens of Poes. A force beyond her imagination, beyond what she had even considered possible even with all the horrible history of the Incursions that she had read. Zelda tried to swallow, the roars and screeches of countless monsters just barely audible, and found her mouth and throat dry.

Terror bubbled up within her, icy fingers clawing through her veins even as the song continued. The monsters advanced, relentless and furious; the city would fall today. Everything would burn, every Skylian held within would be put to the sword. The soldiers would fall first, trying desperately to defend. The civilians next, taking up what arms they had in a desperate attempt to protect the children.

The elderly would fall next, Zelda knew, the music telling her so. Old and weary, yet steadfast despite that, they would fall as the last line of defense before the children. Then the eldest children, trying something, anything to keep themselves and those younger alive. The smoke of a burning city would poison those hiding, the endless horde of monsters would slaughter all that they could find.

In the end, all that would be left was babies. Infants, unable to fight, to run, to hide. Innocent, helpless infants; slaughtered, like they held no value. Not for a reason; simply because the monsters would never allow a single Skylian to live if they had a choice in the matter.

Zelda wanted to cry, the darkness of the song overwhelming her. She held strong; she was the Princess of Skyloft, and crying was not something she should even consider doing. Why had she chosen this? She did not want to see her people slaughtered! Discord rang from the harp, the poison of evil ringing supreme. There was nothing that could stop it, nothing that could allow for the light to shine. Darkness would reign, the Skylians would die, and that was fact. The music, the images before her, the history of the world demanded it so. And it would be.

The first note of defiance.

It was something simple, in the cascade of darker notes. A brief, singular chord; discord amongst the discordant harmony. A change that was not planned, yet could not be denied, and from atop the city walls Zelda could barely make out a commotion. A second note, in a brighter harmony with the first, once again breaking through the tide of darkness. A body came from atop the walls, leaping off without a moment of hesitation.

Green and tan hit the ground, rolling once, springing up on brown-booted feet like nothing had happened at all. Like the person had not just leapt from a height tall enough to cause pain, if not a broken bone. Zelda's eyes turned to the person, breath coming easier as something settled within her at the sight.

It was a male; almost as tall as her, in fact, with blonde hair and pointed ears. A green tunic overtop chainmail, tan trousers with a few pouches upon the hips. A longsword was strapped to his back, a shield covering most of the blade that had her eyes widening in shock. Silver metal, painted blue, with the Royal Crest emblazoned proudly upon it.

The Hylian Shield.

The single greatest shield that Skyloft was capable of creating, requiring four different metals and magic to be infused from the beginning of the forging process until the very end. Entirely indestructible, lighter than it should be, capable of negating any amount of force, the Hylian Shield was a relic from a time long since past. It was not an artifact, not truly, as Skyloft was still theoretically capable of forging them…but the metals required to make them had long since been lost. The loss of Din's Endurance and Nayru's Hope had crippled them in a great many ways, the least of which was resources.

Compared to the legendary Hylian Shield, of which the Royal Family had one that had not been lost in battle long ago, the blade that the Skylian wielded was almost unworthy of mention. Nearly four foot long, with what looked to be Loftwing Wings for the crossguard and a small golden diamond in the center, it was a one handed longsword that seemed hilt was blue, however, and combined with the Loftwing Wings Zelda was reasonably sure that it had been forged as a tribute to the Royal Family, or something equally ridiculous. No blade needed decorations like that.

The path forward stopped, the man halting in his tracks next to her. A head turned, blue eyes cold and emotionless, and focused on her.

A smile.

Zelda did not have a moment to understand or react to that, to the feeling of being seen through time; no, her mind was stuck on the fact that this was Link. Her Link, as he was a week ago, looked out at her from blue eyes that belonged in a face that was not his. Yet the way she was being looked at, the way she was being smiled at…that was all Link. A smile that existed because he thought he should, because he had been told to.

It had always been the case…well, until this week at least. To know what Link was thinking, you had to focus on his eyes. Eyes were the windows to the soul, supposedly, and with Link at least you could believe it. Between his eyes and certain ways he held his body, she could tell what he was thinking even now. It's nice to see you and Hello Zelda came from a Link she did not know, from an impossibility made manifest.

The presence of the Hero, and the growing swell of light in the song had already done much to dispel her fear. The ridiculousness of seeing the Hylian Shield had done more. Seeing Link, seeing her Link smiling at her from the distant past when nothing in the song involved that, rid Zelda of the rest of her fear and put her mind straight into curiosity. A feeling of amusement within her, the lingering emotions of Hylia finding enjoyment with her confusion.

A shift in the music, a brighter and triumphant tune.

The smile ended, the atmosphere changed. Even as the music turned brighter, the Hero turned darker. Blue eyes turned from warmth to icy pools of blue, and the moment of something more, something present, shifted, a story resuming the natural path. The Hero strode forth, right hand rising up to grab his blade and left hand taking off the shield. It was not her Link; she had known that already, but after the smile and the fact that she could read him so clearly the act of drawing his weapons drove it home. Her Link was left handed; the blade was always held with his dominant hand, though he was fully capable of fighting with his right.

Why were they so similar? They looked different enough; this Hero's face was more angular, sharper. More…she did not know how to put it. Every bit as handsome as her Link, yet lacking the softness present within his features. He was handsome, certainly, but…Zelda frowned, fingers still plucking at the strings without her input. The two looked different, with one sharper and the other softer, yet they could easily pass for brothers. Yet she could so easily see her Link growing into the features of this man. Losing the softness of his face and growing sharper, more alone.

The Hero walked, calmly and casually. As though this were little more than an afternoon stroll rather than a, for anyone else, suicidal approach towards countless monsters. The monsters roared defiance, reflected in a swell in the music. The Song of the Hero answered, notes rising up one after the other to meet the crashing storm. The sky, darkened even despite the lack of clouds, began to brighten.

The Hero walked closer, and closer, until finally the enemy was in range. Arrows blotted out the sun as every archer in the army let loose, but the Hero was unfazed. Step after step, calm and certain; he did not even raise his shield. The arrows did not strike him down, his steady pace did not falter; the Hero continued to move forward. Bokoblins charged to meet him, and the Hero neither hastened nor slowed. A calm, implacable pace…and then an explosion of motion as the Bokolbins reached him.

In between one step and the next, the Hero moved. His arm seemed to twitch, and there were bodies hitting the floor. No matter how many came, no matter how many tried, his pace did not falter, even as he stepped upon the corpses of monsters slain. Limbs, heads, torsos…parts hit the ground in numbers greater than Zelda had ever imagined. A few moments passed, the cruel cascade of darkness attempting to overwhelm the light of the Heroes music.

His left arm brought down the shield, a shockwave forcing the monsters back as it slammed against the ground. The blade was raised, the sun shining brighter than ever before, and it began to glow. The Song of the Hero reigned supreme now, longsword burning like the sun, and he brought it down as the first Lynel approached.

A beam of light cut through the air, the music of light and hope drowning out the dark as the Lynel was cut in half in that single assault. The blade of light did not falter there, however; no, it carried on, cutting deep into the approaching army, leaving Hylia only to know how many were dead. The Hero was only just beginning, however, as he finally began to move. The song became triumphant, a story of light winning over the dark in completion, and the crafted vision followed that.

The Hero fought the monsters without hesitation or fear, slaughtering them in numbers unseen. Even what her Link had been doing over the past few days had nothing on him, and in all truth…it should not be possible. The Hero should not be able to move so fast that she could not see him, each blink showing him in a different spot. Each moment that passed heralded the fall of more and more monsters, corpses disappearing as the song moved past them.

Zelda had grown up training alongside Link. Watching him practice, seeing the ridiculous feats that he could manage, and learning to fight while sparring with him. That simple fact had allowed her to become the second best fighter in the entirety of the Knight Academy, allowed her to follow fights well above her level, and granted her a great deal of experience with her instincts. She could not follow any of the Hero's movements. Not a single one.

The stiffness in her fingers and arms drew her mind away from that, the song rising to a crescendo, and far worse, heralding the return of the dark. The Hero paused in his slaughter, the much diminished horde pausing to make way for something else. Something worse; something that brought horror and fear to her once more.

A Blight.

The single greatest force of darkness, the scourge of Skyloft. To face a Blight on the battlefield was to face death; it was a simple reality of life. No matter what form they took, no matter what strengths they held, they slaughtered the people of Skyloft and commanded the Incursion. The war was not over until the Blight had died, for its survival meant that it would come back with a greater force. Even worse, the longer a Blight lived, the stronger the monsters became, with new ones flocking to join the war. There were even theories that, should a Blight live long enough, the older, more legendary monsters would join. Monsters like the Gleeoks, a possibility that terrified every Skylian to think about it.

Then there was the feeling. Just looking at the monster made her feel as though all hope was lost. As though even if her Father, Archmage Hinea, and General Ita all combined were nothing against it…and to make matters worse, history supported that. Supposedly the Blights had only ever died to the combined efforts of a minimum of ten Champion level fighters, and even then, casualties had been seven of them. A hopeless fight even for five Champions working together; a fight that could not be won by a standard Skylian.

This Blight was, as Blights go, was monstrously large. A three headed beast, seemingly made of living stone, with a giant shell covering most of its body. Gray, red, and blue were the heads, and even as she watched the two colored heads snapped forth, spitting out a terrible mass of fire and ice. The Hero did not flinch; instead he jumped, feet finding an impossible purchase upon the wave of ice and advancing. The gray head catapulted towards him, and the Hero leapt once more. The Hylian shield slammed down, a cataclysmic force slamming the Blights stony head into the ground, and the Hero was landing, running up the neck.

Fire blazed towards him, washing harmlessly over the stone-like skin, and the Hero sliced his blade through it. Ice lanced at him in great spikes from the maw of the monster, and the Hylian Shield denied it, cracking and destroying everything that came at him. Another movement, another leap, the blade raised towards the sky once more. The light of the sun shone down upon it and enhanced it, glowing with all the power of the light, and the Skylian swung downwards.

The red head of the beast was decapitated in a moment, a great gash scored in the shell. The Hero was not finished; gold that Zelda had not noticed embroidered into his boots glowed, small disks of light appearing beneath the feet, and he launched from them. The gray head began to rise, but he was already in motion. The blade in his hands swung towards the blue head, but the beast spewed enough ice to take the blow.

The giant monster moved, far faster than a beast of its size should be able to, and began to retreat. Ice made a wall, and then spikes, and then another wall, and the Hero landed on the ground, separated by three layers of defenses and a rapidly retreating blight. Unlike before, this time he did not raise his blade to the sky. No, he just advanced. One slash took him through the wall; glowing disks of light below his boots took him around each spike, easily weaving past them and making it to the third wall.

The beast had not made it three steps yet.

A strike and he was through the wall, and a few seconds more and he was atop the shell in a poetry of motion that Zelda could barely follow. A moment later ice was coating the shell, trying to kill the Hero, but the sudden weight and temperature change slowed the Blight down. Far more importantly…it opened the Blight up to lose the second head, in less than a minute.

The sword rose, glowing once more as the sun shined upon it, and it fell, and with it dropped the head of the beast. Then things changed, the music shifting once more. The song of the Hero became less dominant, the darker notes swelling in strength, as the shell cracked. The Hero was forced to jump away as the shell shattered, pieces of stony flesh catapulting in every direction. A moment later the gray head exploded into motion, significantly faster than before.

The Hero had not landed yet before a giant tail slammed into a hastily raised shield, and he was spent flying faster than Zelda's eyes could follow. Panic and fear rose up within her, despite knowing the outcome of this battle. It was hard to tell her heart what was true when someone who reminded her so much of Link got hit like that.

The beast revealed itself now as a giant snake, rather than whatever kind of creature it had been mimicking, and the shedding of the shell made it fast enough to keep up with the Hero. The Skylian had not yet hit the ground before the snake was rapidly moving towards it, and even when he did, rolling several times to rid himself of momentum, the snake was already almost upon him.

There was no fear on his face, however, something that Zelda could clearly see despite the distance between them. Instead he altered his stance, bracing himself, and angled his shield just so; a moment later sparks flew off his shield and he was pushed to the side by a charging body, but even with the immense mass of the Blight he was not launched away. Some kind of magic, perhaps?

It mattered not, for the fight continued. A roar of agony that shook the world was barely audible, even as the very island trembled around them. For the first time, she was grateful; her ears would likely be bleeding had she been able to hear it in full.

The Hero was as unbothered by this as everything else, simply pulling his blade from the side of the beast from where he had carved a massive line as the beast passed. No blood spilled from it, yet it was clear that it had been hurt. It coiled up, roaring in fury this time, and opened a maw that was as dry as the rock that seemed to make up its body. An orange light began to glow within its throat, a blue light gleaming upon rocky fangs, and the Hero raised his left hand.

Ice and Fire spewed forth in a horrendous cascade, even as a glowing blue diamond shimmered into existence around the Hero, yet with a hint of more to it than what she had witnessed before. Zelda's eyes widened as she recognized it; Nayru's Love, the strongest defensive spell the Skylians had. According to legend, it could defend against anything, though in practice she had seen it break countless times when Archmage Hinea or her Father utilized it against Link. How could it defend against this outpouring of elemental fury?

The diamond seemed to spin in place, and as if offended by her lack of faith, it was not the diamond that shattered but the attack. The Hero took one step, and then another, and the diamond spun faster, and the Blights attack seemed to break somehow. The diamond faded, the whisper of something more leaving as well, and the Hero charged forth.

Her fingers began to ache, the speed of the song picking up as the crescendo of the fight and the song happened as one. The tide of music shifted back and forth; the Song of the Hero dominant, the curse of the Blight dominant. Then, once more, the Song of the Hero rose to the front and stayed, even as the Hero's blade was lifted to the sky one last time after a massive strike that sent him flying. The last hints of darkness in the music faded, and the song peaked with light and with the fall of the Hero's blade.

The snake was cleaved in two, coiled up body and all. The world was silent, even the music fading out for a few moments as the Hero landed, falling to one knee from the height. Then, uninjured and seemingly with the exact same amount of energy he had started with, he rose, and resumed his implacable march towards the monsters. A swell of music, of the triumph of the light, and the Skylians in the city behind her began to move. The gates creaked open, and out poured the forces within the city. They charged forth, going to support the Hero, no longer willing to sit on the sidelines.

None of them looked at her, unlike the Hero, but she watched as the soldiers of Skyloft advanced. The song was ending, her body shivering from the strain, and something pricked at her senses. Her eyes rose once more to find that the Hero had stopped, body twisting just enough to look back at the army charging.

Blue eyes looked at her, warmth within them, and one closed in a wink, another strained smile upon his face.

The song was over, the world created fading back into oblivion and the real world reasserting itself, and Zelda's shaking hands nearly dropped the harp. It took more effort than it should to set the Artifact down gently, and she found herself slumping against the back of her chair. Her magic had drained away to the expected point, but she had not anticipated the strain that playing such a long song would bring. Her fingers ached, her body protesting, and Zelda found herself wishing for a bath to wash away the sweat that formed.

Playing an instrument could be stressful, certainly, but the cost of bringing forth memories of the past was clearly something paid in more than merely magic. It took her some time to recover, time spent going over what she had just seen.

Why did it seem that the Hero could see her? Amusement colored the guilt and self-loathing within her, sorrow abated for the moment in the face of Hylia's good humor. At least someone was enjoying that fact, though while the Goddess was being so present, perhaps she could explain why the Hero reminded her so strongly of Link?

Pain, sorrow, guilt, self-hatred

It was a torrent of emotions stronger than anything Zelda had ever felt from Hylia, overwhelming her mind as easily as the artifact had overwhelmed her body. Even as the storm raged through her, Zelda could feel golden warmth tamping down on it, the emotions fading as quickly they arrived. The Princess needed a minute to recover, feeling a sorrowful apology from the presence within her. It was…not fine, but alright. It was clearly something painful for the Goddess, and that was understandable.

The Hero was impressive, to say the least. The Blight was massive and powerful, yet for the most part the Hero had made it appear weak. Perhaps weak was the wrong word to use…incompetent? No…Zelda did not know how to put it. The Blight had put up a fight, an incredible one even. Yet, in the end, it had been rendered impotent by the Hero with what seemed to be his innate magic.

The amusement that came through from Hylia, far dimmer than before, told her she had something wrong there. If it was not an innate magic, though, what could it be? Surely it could not be the sword? More amusement had her sighing. So apparently there was a sword in Skylofts history, that she had never heard of, that could throw out beams of light and power capable of cleaving a Blight in two. Even if it was only that strong in the hands of the Hero, she should have heard about it.

After all, the Royal Family kept all of the greatest weapons of war in the vaults. They were handed out frequently enough as well, anyone capable of making use of them to their fullest potential were welcome to them, but it was simply for simplicity's sake. The Nobility had their own special family heirloom weapons, or some of them did at least, but other families had lost theirs during one battle or another.

She wondered what had happened to this one. Had it been destroyed in battle? If the Hero had been as hard on weapons as Link was, it would only be a matter of time. If it had survived, however…no matter. It was impossible to know where it was, unfortunately, and that was making the large assumption it had survived. No matter…

Another few minutes passed, and her body recovered, along with a bit of her magic. She had enough left in her for one final song, and after the terror of the beginning of the other song…well, she had an idea. There were many songs in Skyloft; countless, even, and she knew that she did not know them all. This one, however, she had always been fond of, because it told the story of one of her favorite animals.

Well, her favorite of the dead animals, as miserable a fact as that was. So many wonderful creatures had gone extinct due to the cataclysm all those years ago, and these were just one of them. They were, however, the most well-regarded one of the lot, with only a single other animal even coming close to the level of love and care that Hylians held for these little animals.

Her hands picked up the harp once more, fingers settling into position. She did a few tests, making sure she had regained her full range of motion, and nodded in satisfaction. There was sorrow in this song, a great tragedy…but Zelda believed that she could handle it. Surely it would be worth it, to see the tragedy in exchange for the wonders she was about to witness. After all, while the certainty of what would happen to the City had hurt, it had been far from breaking her. She could handle this.

"Be careful, Princess…"

The memory of High Priestess Tirei rang through her mind once more, causing her to pause. She considered it all, carefully. She had enough magic for this; the Song of the Hero was far longer than this one, even if this was a longer than normal song as well. Even that Song had only taken up half of her remaining magic, so this one should not require anymore than that. Her hands…she ran through a few motions, and then put the rest of her body through them as well. No, her body was fine too.

There was no reason to worry; she might be being a bit reckless in playing a third song today, yet she could handle it. The worst that would happen would be that she was a bit sad at the end; nothing to worry about. Being sad was hardly the end of the world, and besides that she would have the memories of the beginning to make up for it.

So Zelda began to play, the opening of a happier melody sounding out from the strings. Almost immediately her eyes widened, happiness causing the corners of her mouth to rise.

Sharp, short sounds filling a clearing, the laughter of children playing.

The world shifted, yet this time not much changed. Just a clearing, wide and full of grass with trees in the distance, and a group of children laughing happily. That alone would have been enough to delight her, yet what truly caught her eye were the animals.

Fairly large, the smallest standing at the waist of the children and the largest of them being taller than them, the animals were covered in fur and ambled about on four legs. A riot of colors amongst the fur; golden yellow, black and white, brown, and even streaks of green on a few of them. They had elongated mouths, muzzles from the books she had read, and most were parted to show long lolling tongues and sharp teeth.

Around and around they ran, four legs making them faster than any of the children. Some tackled the kids, licking their faces or flopping atop them to pin them down. Others chased sticks thrown by other kids, happily bringing them back with pride-filled trotting, only to immediately turn the child's attempts at getting the stick back into a game of tug-of-war. Others still lay beside or in the laps of other kids, happily being lavished with affectionate pets.

Dogs.

The single greatest companion of ancient Hylians, a species supposedly made by Hylia just to be the best friends and companions of Hylians. They had been famous and well loved in Hyrule, to the point that a great many records of the time showed talked about them. It had, in fact, been far harder to find documents explaining what they were; everything they had seemed to simply assume that everyone knew what dogs looked and acted like.

Perhaps, in Hyrule, it had been true. After all, things had not gone so horribly wrong in that era. Unfortunately…dogs had not survived to make the trip to the sky, and they knew why. These furry animals, so happily at play before her, were the fiercest and most loyal protectors of Hylians, bar none. There had been amused recollections of dogs terrified by storms, of them terrified of some magics, yet when it came to the tales of bravery? It said a lot that the most pained tales of heroism recorded were not of Hylians, but of Hounds.

Every single survivor who had been on the parts of the land cast into the sky had had a tale of loss and sorry. Family members, friends, loved ones…everyone had lost something or someone as the monsters broke through defense after defense. What had stood between them and the monsters, however, had been simple; these dogs. Varying sizes, varying bravery in facing some of the most ridiculous things to be afraid of, but when it mattered? When it truly counted? There had not been a single dog that had not stood between the monsters and their Hylian companions.

She looked at them, ambling playfully…and could not see it. There was one of them in the center, and she giggled even as her fingers continued to play, that was fat. Big, with black fur and a bulging belly, and it looked absolutely miserable stretched out in the sun. Despite that, despite the hounds face looking absolutely miserable from overeating, it was currently turning soulful brown eyes onto a child eating some kind of meat. A long tongue rolled out of a plump muzzle, and the beast begged shamelessly for a bite. The child laughed, just barely audible, and ripped off a piece of meat and set it down in front of the dog.

The hound stretched out, snapping up the meat, and seemed to regret it; slowly chewing and swallowing, adorable face wincing. Then, having learned nothing, it was begging again a moment later. Other dogs were spread about, laying upon their backs and squirming at the hands of various children attacking their bellies with pets. Still another child made the mistake of getting up while surrounded by half a dozen hounds and was promptly buried beneath the beasts insisting their cuddle buddy not leave them, high-pitched laughter and protests just able to be heard.

They…they did not seem like a threat. Even the largest of them, an old beast with gray fur and a long scar across the muzzle, did not seem like a fighter. It was currently laying down with its head upon the lap of an older girl, tongue lolling helplessly as it was lovingly pet behind the ears. The girl was reading a book, not even focusing on her actions…it reminded Zelda of herself and Link, in truth.

That comparison made her blink, and look a second time with sharper eyes. The beast had corded muscle beneath the fur, strong and powerful, and it had more scars than just the one upon the muzzle. An entire body of them, in fact; she counted over a dozen in a few seconds. Just what had it been through? What had been done to it to give it that many scars?

Perhaps some of them were fighters, then. Now that she thought of it, there had been an entire Knight Order that had fought beside the dogs, much as the Knights now fought alongside Loftwings. The Hounds of Hylia, they had been known as; the first Knights, the founders of the ideal of Knights. Hyrule had not had the concept before the founder created it, blessed by Hylia to do the work they had done. Perhaps…perhaps Zelda was judging them wrong. After all, even the greatest of Skylofts warriors did not look lethal when babysitting children.

A single dog wandered over to her, causing her to look at it. It was smaller than most of the others, but in her mind it only made it all the more adorable. It had multiple colors, with dark brown fur for its head and ears, a lighter golden brown around the eyes, and a mixture of white and brown making up the rest of the body. Light gray eyes looked up at her, a small bark leaving the hounds mouth. It was one of the cutest things she had ever seen, and she had made a point of waking Link up for years now.

The dog looked up at her, head cocking to the side in curiosity. Then it rose up onto its hindlegs, forelegs folding to its chest, and barked. Not aggressively, but pleadingly. Gray eyes seemed to beg, before it fell down onto all four once more. It ran around her, Zelda's eyes following it, and then gave off several more barks. Goddess…she wanted to pet it. To touch it, just like all the others were doing. Why was it over here, though?

"Alright, alright, you've got me. I'll play."

The first actual words that she had heard, and she gasped lightly as another person walked through her, seemingly having been standing behind her to watch the kids and dogs play. A woman, fully grown unlike all of the children, and she walked forth with a smile. The dog barked happily, once again rising onto hind legs and resting the other two on her leg. The woman cooed, far dimmer than the words had been, and proceeded to lavish the dog with affection.

A discordant note

The distant, barely audible sound of distant barks cut off in an instant, every hound stopping their play in a disturbing unison. Heads cocked to the side, ears that had been getting played with pricked to hear whatever it was disturbed them. Another note outside of the harmony, and then another; the dogs leapt to their feet, even the fat and miserably happy one in the center. Seconds passed as the dogs immediately started barking, chasing the kids towards the woman, then freezing once more as darker notes continued to grow more numerous.

The woman looked around, at first confused and then concerned, and gathered the children up around her. She started to tell them to move, but every direction she tried to go the hounds stopped her. Moments later it became clear why; Lizalfos left the trees, surrounding them on all sides. Hundreds of them, the mad cackling of the monsters filling the air. The dogs herded the Hylians into a circle, children crying and clinging to the woman and others to the hounds.

Deep, angry growls and rumbling fury began to build up within the throats of the dogs, others barking in far deeper and angrier tones than the ones Zelda had heard before. A chill crossed her spine, unrelated to the monsters for once as she looked at the dogs. Animals that had, mere moments ago, been the most playful and sweet animals she had ever seen, beyond even the most affectionate of Loftwings or Remlits.

Animals that were now scaring her.

The growls were deep and dangerous, the barks full of malice and fury. Loud and booming, as though trying to scare away the monsters; unfortunately, it did not work. And then Zelda realized her mistake. She realized what she was about to watch, recalling the ending of the song.

The Hounds Lament. A song that told the story of a massacre where the loyal companions of Hyrule failed to protect their charges and comrades because of the resurgence of monsters after decades of peace. One tragedy amongst thousands, if not millions in the time period, but it was one that had been enshrined in song.

It was one she was about to see.

That realization had Zelda tense, trying desperately to stop the music…but she did not have control over her hands. A song started upon the Goddess Harp could not be stopped, which meant she was about to watch children die. She should have listened to the High Priestess, should have stopped after the Song of the Hero! Now she would have to…

The almost there barks halted, and Zelda's eyes returned to the scene. The children gathered up together, the hounds surrounding them, and Zelda watched and played the harp as the massacre began.

Lizalfos charged forward in their unique and ridiculous way of moving, their entire bodies leaning forward. Dogs charged forth to meet them, others staying close to the children. Blades flashed in the light, yelps and whimpers ringing out alongside furious barks and malicious shrieks. Some of the hounds died immediately, sprays of blood flying through the air. Some were wounded, falling back with paws that did not quite work as they should.

Most, however? Most of them found their mark, jaws far stronger than she expected finding purchase on arms, on legs, or in throats. Sharp fangs and powerful muscles clenched, biting down harder than Zelda believed possible, necks tensing and ripping flesh free. Pained roars and yells, bodies hitting the ground, the hounds baring bloodied teeth and barking their defiance. The fat dog from before, giant and black, loped forward barking angrily. It leapt, crashing into one of the Lizalfos with remarkable force, and ripped out the monster's throat a moment later.

Then Zelda was horrified, as one of the other Lizalfos cut into it with fury. The hound turned, bleeding heavily, and crashed into it, killing it a moment later, but then a spear claimed the black dog's life.

Zelda wanted to cry, but the battle was only just beginning. The dogs put up an incredible fight; truly, they did. The old gray dog that had been happily accepting pets killed over a dozen Lizalfos before it was even injured, maw and muzzle coated in Lizalfos blood before the first boomerang dug into its flank. Unlike every other dog that had been injured, there was no noise of distress from it. Not a whine, not a yip, not a whimper. Instead it growled, deep and angry, and continued killing.

No matter how hard they fought, however, there were only so many dogs. Soon enough all but a few were dead or dying, and the children began to die next. Zelda watched as the world turned dark, the music in full lament of the tragedy that had occurred. She watched as the children were butchered before her eyes, the woman dying first in a desperate attempt to protect them a moment longer. She watched as the hounds died before her eyes. Watched as the old and gray dog caught a blade to the stomach, disemboweling it but not killing it. She watched as it crawled, with two functional legs, to the lifeless face of the girl it had been in the lap of earlier.

She watched as the mottled white and brown dog with gray eyes stood over the body of the woman, angrily barking and coated with blood, one eye and ear missing. She watched as it was stabbed, falling atop the woman's corpse, and watched the life leave gray eyes. Zelda watched as a black-furred hound stood above one of the last remaining children, taking stab after stab after stab, somehow staying alive a little longer, desperately trying to absorb the blows for the child that was slowly being bathed in its blood.

She would not cry; this was her history. She had read about things like this happening for most of her life. Entire villages wiped out, entire cities destroyed. Islands and every living being upon them lost to teeming hordes of monsters, just like this one. She was a Princess of Skyloft; she would not cry, she could not cry. She would bear witness to this history, would remember it, and she would break down later. She would not burden her people with her failure, every single Skylian had far too much to do.

Zelda forced herself to remain strong as a spear was pierced through the scarred hounds head when it was a mere two feet from the girl it was trying to get to. She forced herself to remain strong as the brave black dog finally fell, and the child was murdered an instant later. Even with the pain in her heart and the blurring of her vision, she forced herself to stay strong as the mottled white and brown animal proved to have some life left in it, gray eyes opening as it struggled towards the woman. A whimper, a whine, a lick of her face. Another whimper when there was no response, the Lizalfos turning to the sound of the last dog left alive.

A mournful howl, cut short by the brutal smashing of a lizard's heel into the hounds skull, and the song ended. The bloody massacre faded into nothingness, leaving Zelda staring at nothing.

She sat there for a while, simply staring at nothing. Her eyes watched the slaughter, again and again, unable to break away from it for a long time. The harp was held in clenched hands, knuckles white from the force, and Zelda continued to stare at the grass where gray eyes had been begging for playtime just a few minutes ago.

After some time, Zelda rises. She cleans up, returning the Harp to the case and ignoring the pain in her fingers from how long she had spent clenching it. She returns the loom to its resting place, returns the Artifact to the High Priestess and pretends to not notice the understanding gaze she is given. She goes to bathe, using the sacred and magically infused oils to wash away the remaining elements of Hylia's mournful presence, and then bathes a second time using proper soap.

Zelda redresses and leaves the Temple, returning home in the same daze that she had been in. She smiles at those who smile at her, greeting them with the same refined and polite manner she always had, even though her mind was millennia in the past and watching terrible events over and over and over again. She noticed, almost unconsciously, the fact that the skies had clouded over, and found herself wondering why that day in history had been a cloudless sky. Even though the music, and the world, had grown darker, it was not due to the clouds obscuring the sun from the horrors going on upon the earth. That had been a day that deserved a thunderstorm.

She entered the Academy, every bit the Princess she was meant to be. She returned well wishes, let down admirers, and allowed the conversations she was drawn into to flow. Link was not here to serve as a guard for her unintentionally, meaning far more people decided to approach her than normal. Still, Zelda preserved and continued on, and soon enough she had managed to make it to her door.

For the first time this week, she hoped that Link was not there already. She needed some time to recover before she saw him; he did not deserve to see her this upset because of her own choices. It did not matter how he would react; she knew already that it would be supportive, after all. He did not, however, deserve the stress of it.

She opened the doors regardless, closing and locking it behind her. The smell of bread and chicken greeted her nostrils, and Zelda almost broke simply from that. Link was already here then. She turned, pausing and jolting as blue eyes and blonde hair were just there. Concern, worry, and then finally anger flared to life in those eyes, looking up at her from so short a distance away. His face did not change through any of those emotions; his ears twitched, his eyes melted and then froze over, but there was no other display of his emotions. Despite that, she knew that he knew how upset she was.

How did he know? She had just walked in, had said nothing. She had not even greeted him yet. Despite that, even as he visibly and forcibly drove back the swell of anger, he looked her over with concern. He did not speak; Link simply opened his arms, concern within his eyes.

Zelda was the Princess of Skyloft. She had been trained in comportment and the proper way to act from a very early age; before she had even met Link, in fact. Her entire life had been a lesson on how to ensure that her people could look to her and see strength. She needed to act composed at all times in public, in any place where people could be influenced by her behavior to fall into despair. She was meant to be a woman who could lead her people through the worst fates in all of history, because she very well may have to be that. She was to be a Princess who was unassailable, unshakable in resolve and in bearing, for to be less than that was to invite despair into her people's hearts.

Zelda was the Princess of Skyloft. She was the woman who would become Queen. She was in training to become a Knight of the Sky, meaning she would no doubt see far worse things in her life than the mere slaughter of children and an extinct animal. She was strong, she had to be. She should not burden others with her weakness.

Zelda was the Princess of Skyloft…

And right then and there, being looked up at by warm and worried eyes, with an open invitation to an even warmer body…

The Princess of Skyloft shattered.

~~The Eternal Game~~

Link didn't move as Zelda crashed into him; she wasn't strong enough to do so, even if she'd had distance to run through rather than just a step. A moment later he was holding her up, her legs giving out as terrible, wretched sobs left her heaving form. He didn't mind; a moment later he was lifting her up and carrying her towards the sofa. Food could wait, drinks could wait; anything and everything could wait when Zelda was in this much pain. It was fortunate that he had already finished cooking and everything was simply on the lowest heat possible to keep it warm, but even if it wasn't he wouldn't care right now.

He was even luckier that he had been able to catch Zelda's distress immediately. He wasn't even sure why, if he was honest; he'd just known from the moment the door opened something was wrong. He'd been more ready for a fight than what greeted him, however; a plastic smile and cold eyes. Zelda had never looked at him like that, not a single time since he had gotten here.

The way she was looking at him reminded him of people in his original world; the only reason he was being spoken to was class reasons or the strict limits of politeness, by the worst of them. Plastic smiles and cold expressions had been the order of the day for some teachers, especially; the ones who hated their job and what they were required to do.

For a moment; for a brief, horrible moment, he had thought Zelda had finally dropped the mask. Had finally decided that she'd had enough pretending and wouldn't be bothered to act as though she liked him anymore. In that moment he had gotten angry; angry and hurt, far more intensely than he'd ever felt.

Truthfully, it had been her lack of response that clued him in to the fact that something else was wrong. Even as she looked down at him, his anger no doubt clear upon his face, she hadn't so much as flinched. Hadn't twitched, flinched, or even had the false smile upon her face diminish in the slightest. He'd forced back the anger, forced back the hurt, and looked deeper.

Link saw the way her body trembled slightly, muscles tensed and forcing themselves to move in ways that should be natural. He saw the way her hands shook a second later, then were forcibly stilled. He saw the pain in her eyes, buried as deeply as Zelda could, and understanding bloomed. Along with a great deal more fury, but that was smothered even as the flames were lit. Zelda was hurt; something had happened that had hurt her.

He hadn't had any idea what to do, and a sudden drain of magic was almost enough to throw his thoughts off course. It took him a second to realize what had happened, and another blink for the amusement that welled up to be discarded. He had activated his time-slowing ability through sheer panic; humorous, but actually helpful. After all…

What did you do to comfort someone?

Even now, holding her tightly and sitting with her mostly in his lap, the Princess of Skyloft sobbing brokenly into his shoulder, he had no idea what to do. He'd opened his arms after several moments of standing there, mind frozen and unable to think, and he still wasn't sure if it had helped or not. Was crying a good thing in this situation? What even was the situation, and how could he stop it from happening again? Who, or what, did he have to kill in order to avoid it?

Worse still, he could only think of a few things that would result in Zelda breaking down like this. Admittedly…he didn't know her anywhere near as well as he would have liked, but between Link's diary and his own observations he had a decent foundation, he felt. Which meant that the first thing that popped into his mind was Gaepora having just died somehow, because that would definitely have Zelda breaking down in his arms.

He'd have expected to hear something if that was the case, however…but it wasn't like he knew anything about Skyloft's funeral rites. If they even had any. The game had had a cemetery, a tiny one, but to his mind burying people on an island with severely limited land was foolish anyways. What did he know, however? Britain certainly buried their dead, and so did Ireland and Scotland, and he was reasonably sure that an even smaller nation like Switzerland did too. Perhaps Skyloft had massive cemeteries somewhere.

'No, stop, focus on what's important.' He chastised himself, returning his full focus to the brokenly sobbing woman in his arms. He risked squeezing her a little tighter, uncertain as to how hard he even could without hurting her. This wouldn't have been a problem in his old body…but, then, in his old body he wouldn't be in this situation at all. The question was, however…how did he help here?

Making jokes would be counterintuitive at best, incredibly hurtful and insensitive at worst, no matter what had caused this. Being angry and planning to murder anything and everything that had hurt her this badly was also less than helpful, more's the pity. Hugging her…might help? For the short term at least, holding her and letting Zelda cry herself out was the best he could do, but how did you comfort someone?

He'd never been in this type of situation before. His old body wasn't exactly something people would go to for comfort, and his personality ensured that anyone willing to look past his features would be repulsed in short order. At least if his interactions were to be believed, considering the fairly common negative trend. The problem couldn't be entirely with his personality, considering Zelda seemed to like it, but he didn't know what else it could be.

He'd regretted his life a lot while living it, and he was regretting it once more now; if things had been different, if he'd been different, he might be able to actually help her rather than just hold her as she cried. A woman who cared for him, who cared for him deeply, and all he knew to do for her was hold her. Some help he was; some Hero he was.

Her body shook with the force of her sobs, drawing his attention back to her from his self-loathing. She needed him more than he needed to berate himself, so he pulled himself together as best he could. One hand came up, fingers settling onto the back of her skull, and Link let them drift in small circles. Not a massage, not really, but as comforting a gesture as he could manage while still holding her tightly. It didn't seem to help, but then it didn't seem to hurt either, so he kept it up.

He looked down, looking at her legs across his lap and her body pressed to his. Funny; in most other circumstances, this would be delightful. Right now, though? He would be more than happy to exchange this closeness for a happier Zelda. His body registered the wetness of his tunic, and the tightness of her grip, but he ignored both things. Neither one mattered right now.

What mattered was the fact that, while he panicked and failed miserably at coming up with anything of use for a ridiculously long time, Zelda was beginning to slow her broken sobs. His eyes went to the clock, comparing the time with the last time he remembered checking it. He had been having a mental meltdown, and Zelda a very physical breakdown, for the past hour at least, which…he would much rather continue having that mental meltdown than have to continue seeing her so hurt.

Now, however, her cries were ending, and Link was left with as many ideas on how to help as he had before. Exactly zero. For the sake of whatever was holy, he couldn't even make her hot chocolate, which had been his primary comfort drink…

Oh. That was an idea. He couldn't make her hot chocolate, but he could make her lavender tea. According to the journal it had been something the chefs had made for Zelda after a nightmare; a responsibility that Link had, of course, taken up. He even knew where the lavender was!

A few final, pained sniffs came from his shoulder, Zelda finally quieting down. She didn't let him go, but she did stop crying, which was already more than he would be willing to ask for. He didn't ask if she was alright; that was a stupid question, and he would have been upset if anybody had asked him that if he'd been crying that hard. He hated it when people asked him that anyways, because it never felt sincere; he definitely wasn't going to ask that of her now.

"How is your head?" His voice was soft, fingers still gently massaging the base of her skull, and he felt more than saw her frown as it pressed into his shoulder. Her response was muffled, understandable only because of his remarkable hearing.

"What? My head is…" Confusion was in her voice to start, but a flinch of pain cut her off as what Link suspected to be a headache made itself known. It had been…God, it had been a decade or so since he'd cried properly, hadn't it? He could still remember the most miserable of those days though, when he'd cried hard enough that he'd had a headache after. Dehydration, perhaps, or simply from the exertion; it didn't matter. What did matter was that he was pretty sure he'd never cried half as hard as Zelda just had; she was probably both dehydrated and dealing with a killer headache, in addition to whatever the original problem was.

"Mm. I can let you go long enough to make you a drink, which I should do soon anyways, or I can keep holding you for a bit longer." He left it up to her; it wasn't like he had any idea what to do anyways. Zelda made the choice pretty easily, as well; she just squeezed him tighter, making it clear she wasn't going anywhere. He didn't mind it at all.

He held her close, massaging her head to try and help out with some of her pain at least, even if he had no idea how to approach the rest. It seemed to be enough, thank…thank Hylia, he supposed. He should probably get into the habit…

"Are…" Her voice was quiet, but it drew his attention back to her immediately. "Are you not going to ask…" Zelda didn't finish, but he didn't need her to. His answer to that was fairly simple.

"You can tell me when you're ready; I'm not about to push you when you've been crying, Zelda. Your head hurts, I'm sure your throat hurts, your body probably hurts from the way you're sitting…" The more he thought about it the more he realized was wrong. He should have sat with her differently; perhaps in an armchair, where he could actually settle her properly? He should have been able to figure something out to help her by now; she was shaking again. Probably about to cry again because he didn't know how to help her…wait. Was… was she laughing?

His head tilted down, careful not to bump hers, and found that she both was and wasn't. A pained hiccup, a few more helpless giggles, and a complete refusal to let him go. Why was she finding humor in that? What had he done wrong that she was laughing at him?

"You…" More helpless giggling, Zelda's head still buried in his shoulder. She shifted, trying to remove her legs, and he could once again feel the frown as she realized that she would have to let him go to move around properly. Link, however, had no such issues; a few seconds to shift his arms and he was lifting her, settling her beside him even as she gasped. Her lower half no longer being draped over him allowed her to move, shifting herself so that she was pressed up tightly against him.

He was…ridiculously strong. He'd been in a sitting position, with zero leverage, yet he could still lift Zelda like he was lifting a book or something equally light. A shake of his head, forcing that moronic thought from it. Of course he was strong, he'd casually fought Lynels and matched blades with Darknuts. Lifting Zelda was nothing compared to that.

He squeezed her, making sure to be gentle, and felt her frown once more. She finally pulled her head from his shoulder, eyes red and puffy with tear tracks running down her face. She looked worse than she had last night, yet still more beautiful than anyone he'd ever seen after crying. It felt a bit unfair, considering how harshly she had been crying, and felt a bit creepy in his own head to be judging how pretty she was after she broke down in his arms, but he couldn't stop his thoughts.

"Can…" Her voice was raw and pained, and she flinched even as the words finished leaving her lips. Link could guess, though.

"Ready for the drink now?" She nodded, looking guilty, and he poked her in the side. A jolt, a frown that he returned, and Zelda pouted, no longer looking guilty. Reluctantly, so very reluctantly, he let her go and began to get up. It took her a moment longer to let him go, Link stuck half standing and half sitting, but she did let him go. Stepping away from her hurt far more than he expected, red-rimmed blue eyes watching his every step away from her.

It took a minute; setting up tea to steep, getting a cup of water for the moment and wetting a rag, but he returned to her as quickly as he could, setting everything on the table. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad that the first thing she reached for was him rather than any of the drinks. It felt good to be of comfort…but considering how useless he was here, he wasn't sure if he really was.

At least he could offer her the comfort of a warm body; it was more than he'd ever really had, and it was all that he could offer. Maybe…maybe he could manage something? Some crumb of comfort? Zelda reached for the cup, her body leaving his for an instant, and then immediately cuddling tightly against him once more as soon as she grabbed it. A long drink, followed by another, and then another, the cup emptying quickly enough to leave Zelda disappointed. She sighed heavily, cuddling back against him and watching the tea pot.

"I made a mistake." The words were quiet; far calmer than Link expected. More composed, and far too similar to her usual way of speaking for a girl who had been breaking down recently. If it wasn't for the fact that her voice was still raw, and her body greedily plastered to his side, he would think it was just a normal conversation. He hummed curiously, not sure what to say or how to say it. It seemed to be enough.

"Are you familiar with the Goddess Harp?" The harp? What did that have to do with Zelda breaking down? It was only really used for…no, he needed to get his brain away from the game. Expecting anything to be exactly as the game had been was foolish. So, what did he know about it?

"Golden Harp with magical powers?" A giggle, both amused and incredulous, blue eyes looking at him fondly. He smiled at her, glad that he could amuse her. "It's an artifact of Skyloft passed down from the Goddess, it gets played every year, right?" It was more testing than truthful, but Zelda's weak smile was a sign that he was right to some extent at least.

"Yes, you are correct. The Goddess Harp is an Artifact of immense power." The way she said artifact was different from the way he had. Like it was something important, like it was something more than what he'd intended. What exactly was an Artifact, then? Was it simply because it was passed down from Hylia, or was it something more? The power, perhaps? Besides, if it had "immense power" then that should mean that it was capable of more than what he'd seen in the game.

"The smallest of the powers it possesses is to bring history to life through music." That was…ridiculous, but he doubted Zelda would lie to him about something so simple. Combining that with her saying she had made a mistake…

"Played the wrong song?" A nod, Zelda's eyes on the tea as they sat in silence for a few minutes. Something changed in his head, Link nodding to himself, and poured her a cup. Zelda looked at it, the liquid having a purple tint but not even close to as deep as he expected, and then looked back at him with an expression so warm and affectionate it made him feel like he was melting.

She kept looking at him like that even as she sipped at it, and soon enough the story came out as warm and gooey blue eyes put his heart into the exact same state.

"I have to practice for the Festival of Wings, since I am to play the Song of Festivals at the opening and the Hymn of the Goddess before the Wing Ceremony itself. I finished my weaving early today, so I had some time to practice." A sip, Zelda luxuriating in the warmth. She settled back against him, no longer looking him in the eye, but instead finding strength in his warmth. It felt like something was clogging his throat, emotions a mess as she continued.

"I started with something simple and innocent; Vystrol's Celebration, though I am unsure if you recognize it. A song about a village in celebration, and seeing it in action was wondrous, Link." Enthusiasm warmed her voice, sorrow held at bay for the moment.

"I could see people from so long ago as if they were real, enjoying themselves right in front of me. I wanted to join them, and felt like I could, even if they were not quite real. I played it twice, and that gave me the confidence to play something far more challenging." A sip of tea, a moment of silence.

"The Song of the Hero."

The name felt meaningful, even as Zelda shifted, shaking her head.

"No, that is not what I played, why did I call it that? I played The Protector." Distress filled her voice, and Link wrapped an arm around her once more.

"I'd imagine seeing the past leaves a mark; perhaps they got the name wrong." Zelda paused, considering it, before shaking her head once more.

"No, no I do not think so. The Song of the Hero feels as if it was a part of the song rather than the whole of it; it was the rise of the light, not the entirety of it. That song feels as though it should stand alone, not be added on to something else." That felt reasonable enough, really. He was pretty sure the Song of the Hero was a standalone song anyways, in the Zelda games, but why did it feel like so much more here?

"Anyway, I played the Protector. That one is your favorite of the songs involving the Hero of the 7th incursion, right? It started off terrifying, and was the worst thing I had ever seen. An army of monsters, exuding naught but malice and murderous intent. The Harp made it so that I could feel their desire to slaughter everyone in the city; it made it so that I could see the end result of what would happen when they succeeded." A deep exhale, Zelda draining what was left of her cup. He was quick to refill it from the pot, and Zelda drank once more. Surprisingly, it didn't take her long to settle down.

"Then I saw him; the Hero." A laugh, somewhere between amused and confused. "He reminds me of you, you know. Somehow the magic of the song made it so that he looked at me and smiled, as though he could actually see me. Knowing what I know now, after playing the third song, I suspect there was a Skylian trapped outside the walls of the city that he had leapt down to save and was reassuring." Link frowned, looking at her.

"In what way?" She smiled down at her cup, considering.

"In all the ways that matter, really. His eyes were warm, and promising safety. His strength was ridiculous on so many levels, and he slaughtered everything that came near him like it was easy. He did not seem to be accustomed to smiling, either." Blue eyes looking at him, warm and adoring. "Yet he tried. He tried to smile and reassure people, just like you did all those years ago when we met. You smiled like you had never smiled before in your life, yet even after hitting a monster hard enough to shatter stone you looked at me and tried, just like he did. A bit awkward, rather unpracticed, but the eyes were so very kind."

Link was unsure if he should feel jealous of the way she was gushing about the Hero, but…at the end of the day, if what he suspected was right, it was another Link. There was no surprise that a Link could affect a Zelda, not to him at least. Who cared if most Zelda's never paired up with the Link's, there was almost always chemistry of some sort there. Or at least felt like there should be.

"He was taller than you, his features were sharp and angular, but his hair and eyes remind me of you. Blonde and blue, almost the exact same shades even, and he was wearing green. He had a strange sword and a Hylian Shield, and the sword could send out blades of light after a moment of being raised towards the sun." Link's eyes narrowed; the Goddess Sword? That would put this as the First Hero, then…

"I really do not understand why it was designed the way it was, however. I adore our Loftwings as much as anyone does, more than some even, but I do not see the point of making a crossguard resemble the wings of a Loftwing. If you were going to do that, at least make it red, to resemble the greatest of them, rather than blue." Oh. The Master Sword? That…hmm. Some games had it able to send out sword blades, some didn't, but raising it to the sky had only been a feature in Skyward Sword, and that had been because it was designed for a motion control system rather than a standard controller.

"Well, maybe they were needed to control the blades." Zelda blinked, frowning, and seemed to shrug.

"Perhaps. Anyways, he fought the army and was entirely unchallenged by anything there. Even the Blight that came seemed to be rather underwhelming for him, if I am to be truthful, and it was one of the most terrifying things that I have ever seen. Massive, with three heads, two of which were elemental, with a shell covering the body until two of the heads were slain and the shell severely damaged. It…honestly, now that I think about it, it kind of looked like a turtle at first, though it looked to be made of stone." A three headed turtle made of stone? That didn't sound like any boss in any Zelda game he'd ever played, which…meant that his meta knowledge was even more useless than he'd thought. Great.

"The shell breaking revealed the monster's true form, however; it was a giant snake. Shedding the weight of the shell allowed it to fight the Hero on more even footing, yet…even then, it did not feel as if the Hero was truly in danger. Much like you against the Champions, really; it felt like the Hero was taking the fight more seriously, yet still not needing to go all out." Well, that made sense. A mere Blight against a Link with the Master Sword? Please. If that Blight had been anything like the Blights in Breath of the Wild, it would have been a threat to basically everybody but Link. Honestly, they hadn't been threatening to begin with, but after Age of Calamity came out and you got to see Link facing all four buffed versions of the Blights and holding his own…well.

"That feels about right. I'd imagine the Blights are dangerous, but they've been put down by Skylians before, right?" Zelda nodded, teeth worrying at her lower lip.

"They have, but always at great cost. The most recent one, that my Father helped to slay, required thirteen Champion level fighters and killed ten of them." Link's breath left him in a long, slow hiss as he considered that. Ten Champion level fighters dying? Even assuming the Incursion had forged all thirteen, that was a loss Skyloft couldn't afford. Little wonder Heroes were so important.

This begged a pretty serious question, however. Well, a lot of them. Clearly, and now apparently with proof, he wasn't the First Hero. And yet Gaepora existed just as he had in the game. Sylph existed, though far larger than she had in the game. Was Demise alive, or was he dead? Ghirahim? He didn't know, he had no way to know. Thoughts for later, however; what mattered was Zelda. He could ponder over everything uselessly later.

"Still…the Hero killed the Blight, the Skylians charged out, and Light triumphed. The song ended, and this was where I made my mistake." A laugh, bitter and regretful. "I think the Goddess tried to warn me, too. The memory of High Priestess Tirei played through my mind again, and looking back the remnants of her power felt concerned, but I was too busy thinking of what I could see if I just played the song I wanted to." The laugh this time was pained and short. The pitter-patter of rain caught his attention, the heavens themselves opening up in the face of the renewed grief of the Princess of Skyloft.

"Do you remember, a few years back, when we were taught about the animals of the old world? How so many of them went extinct as the war was fought?" Link didn't, but he nodded nonetheless. "Do you remember dogs?" Link nodded, feeling a stab in his heart even as thunder boomed.

Dogs didn't exist up here? In all of Skyloft, in all three islands, not a single dog had made it up there? It made sense in the game, he supposed, since the only animals in Skyloft were the Remlit and the Loftwing, but to not have dogs? That felt wrong on so very many levels.

"I wanted to see what they looked like, in person. Drawings help, but I have yet to see anyone portray a hound with your level of skill, so there has always been something missing from the work." Link wanted to feel touched, but he had yet to truly explore the artistic talent of this body. He could acknowledge that it was incredible, though; he needed to look back over those, honestly. He was running out of time…

No, wait, was he? If he wasn't the first, was he going to be out of time after the Wing Ceremony? No, he needed to focus. He could think later.

"So I played the Hound's Lament, believing I could handle the horrors at the latter half of the song after seeing the wonders of the front." Tears began to fall once more, and Zelda nearly spilled the tea as she pressed closer to him. Link's eyes dropped to her hands, shaking and white-knuckled, and he carefully pulled the cup from her grasp. His hands slipped into hers, letting her fingers squeeze him tightly rather than risk hurting herself with a shattering cup. It seemed to help.

"The dogs were wonderful…truly, Link, they were. I wish I could describe them properly, that I could do them justice. Fluffy, playful, and adorable, and oh so wonderful with children. Eager for attention and affection, loyal beyond compare, and energetic…Skyloft is truly less for the fact that they died. We as a community are so much less due to that failure. We should have protected them!" Her voice rose with the last exclamation, fury and self-loathing pouring from her words. Blue eyes met his, indignance and anger welling up within them…yet it dimmed as rapidly as it arrived. She continued, sniffling occasionally as she fought off another round of tears.

"There was one of them, chubby and a lovely black in color. It looked absolutely miserable, as if it had overeaten, yet it was still acting as if it was starving, begging for food. There was one, gray and scarred, that reminded me of you; calm and relaxed, happy for affection, until the moment came and danger was met with lethal reaction. Another one came up to me, it felt, white and brown and so beautiful and innocent. Gray eyes, begging for attention, for affection, for love." Tears began to flow, but Zelda didn't stop.

"There was one woman, standing separate from the dogs and children, watching the scene rather than participating. The white and brown one had come to stop that; there was not allowed to be any loneliness while it was present, and the woman gave in. Then…then things went wrong. Lizalfos came, surrounding them all." Zelda broke down completely, and the rest of the story came out in halting sobs.

The fat black one, miserable and overful, died trying to protect the children. Fiercely though the hounds battled, they were outnumbered and overwhelmed, slaughtered to a soul. The children followed, the woman dying right before them.

Zelda told him of how the gray one that had been so reminiscent of him with lazy affection and liquid lethality died, almost to the goal of making it to the dead girl it had dried to protect after taking enough injuries to put down a Loftwing. She told him of the brown and white one, who died letting out a cry of heartbreak and defeat. She told him of their desperate attempts to protect the children, how so many of them took horrible injuries and kept moving, and Link's own heart dropped.

Humanity had never deserved dogs; they were loyal, man's best friend it was said. Clearly…clearly, Hylians didn't deserve them either, because loyalty and love like that could not be bought or replaced. This…he really hadn't expected this.

He was left holding Zelda, trying his best to soothe the reemergence of tears, unsure as to how to deal with any of this. He didn't know; all he knew was to do his best to hold her as she cried herself out, mourning the loss of such wonderful beings.

Even after she was finished, and strong enough to part with him once more, he still didn't know what to do. He just held her, doing his best to comfort her, and it seemed to work alright. It left him aching to do more, but with no idea how. Instead he comforted her as best he could, soothed her as best he could, and held her tight.

He held her through dinner, a meal he had to insist upon eating because otherwise she would regret it after spending magic and all of the tears. He held her with one arm and cleaned her face with the other, doing his best to help with what little he could. Zelda seemed to appreciate it, favoring him with a weak smile, but it was less than he had gotten the other nights. Understandably so, but it still left him feeling guilty.

Zelda had been a safe haven for him since the moment he was realizing the world had changed, yet he could not provide her the same comfort she gave him. All he could do was hold her. She clung to him like a lifeline, unwilling to let him go, but he felt like he should be doing more.

"Link…" Her voice caught his attention, hoping he could do something to make her feel better. An odd expression was on her face, and a blush rose afterwards in the face of his attention.

"Can…I have a selfish request." He felt like he should laugh at that; Zelda hadn't had a genuinely selfish request since he'd arrived here. Even if she wanted something that would hurt, it was the least he could do.

"Can…Can we sleep together, like we used to?" Link's mind went blank, gazing at her in surprise and confusion. Her blush intensified, but blue eyes remained firm and resolved.

"Like when we were children, back before the servants insisted upon propriety and decorum. Back when I was having nightmares, and your presence could soothe them. I…" Link didn't know how to help with her grief. He didn't know how to help with her insecurities, or her future, or so many things that were going on right now. He couldn't do much for her…but if he could keep her from having nightmares over what she had seen, he would be delighted to. He would have been happy to sleep with her for far less noble reasons, after all; this was the least he could do.

His hand rose up, cupping her face, and he smiled at her. He tried to put everything he was feeling into it; his willingness to be here for her, his care for her, his sorrow that she had had such a bad day, and everything else he couldn't say.

"Of course we can." Her smile was a small, weak thing, as the storm outside battered at the Academy walls, but Link felt it rather resembled the rainbows to come. Fragile, brief, and beautiful, yet only visible because of the darkness and terrors of a rainstorm.

So Link rose, putting things away and leaving others in the sink; for the first time since arriving here, he would leave the dishes for tomorrow. He grabbed pillows from his room, pulled the blanket off his bed, and returned to the couch, stretching out alongside Zelda. She took the inside of the couch, he took the outside, just enough room for them to be on their sides, and tried to figure out which way to face.

Zelda didn't give him the time to adjust; no sooner had he laid down and gotten the blankets over them she was pulling him tight, chest pressing against his back and wrapping her body around him. She breathed deeply, inhaling and exhaling for several moments.

"I am sorry, Link. I should not be so selfish…" Her voice was quiet, and already sleepy. He patted one of her hands, the best he could do at the moment.

"Don't be. This is hardly selfish, Zelda. This is the least I can do." It really, really was, and he wished he could do so much more for her. Her sleepy voice responded once more, drifting off even as she spoke, words adorably slurred.

"It is more than…more than I can ask for, Link. You are too nice to me…thank you…" He wasn't given a chance to respond, her voice drifting off and becoming quieter, the final words almost too quiet to hear.

"'ove you…"

His heart melted once more, Link entirely unprepared for that. He didn't deserve it, not after failing to do anything of use…but he would take it. Happily, and eagerly, because it meant that maybe he hadn't failed to provide any true comfort for her. He settled in, trying to sleep as well despite the warm pressure of Zelda's body intertwined with his, and hoped that, since he could do nothing else successfully…

He would at least be able to keep her nightmares at bay.

~~The Eternal Game~~

Time, such a precious thing.

Funny, never before had it felt the pressure of time. Eternities and moments passed it by, the concept of time being utterly meaningless. Much of that was gone, now; it could no longer recall it. A few…minutes? Hours? Days? Years? Time had passed, as its memories faded away, before it had remembered what it was doing. Why it had to do the things it was doing.

Spears of light lanced from one side, talons of dark from the other. It vanished, quickly and completely, to another time and another space. Time was running out; all too soon, it would be as the discordant note was. Little more than an exceptional mortal with knowledge it should not have. That was for later, however; it still had time. Did it have time? It would have to learn to tell time. It had never considered that, before, though it had, once, hadn't it? Had it? Would it? Tenses were difficult.

Light and Dark deeds had been done, Good and Evil deeds had yet to be accomplished. A spark of power, separated by four, a little bit of its essence vanishing yet again. Less time now, or was it more? No matter, this task was done with a little bit of will to guide the power. Then on to the next; it's reward was waiting, after all, even if it was a long time until tomorrow to receive it. Or was it years? Days? It would learn.

It moved through time and space once more, hunted by light and dark, leaving it's work to be completed without harassment. It still had much to do, and it was running out of time.

~~The Eternal Game~~

Thunder boomed, rain poured from the sky, and lightning cracked

A figure, dancing in the rain atop a roof, a call forming from the movements. A call to the storm, a call to the lightning, and a call to the slumbering.

He awoke, frowning, something tugging at his mind. His eyes looked up, something needing his presence. He moved, slowly and barely in control of his actions, slipping from the clingy grasp of his bedmate and walking in a daze from the room. Up stairs, stairs he had ignored until now, to another door, opening up onto the roof of the Academy.

Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, wind and rain greeting him with a fury

Sleepy, half-present eyes focused on the dancing figure, its movements graceful and sharp. A muscled stomach, shifting from side to side with the dance, bared to the elements beneath a colored breastplate that swelled beneath a more than generous chest. A skirt drifted in the wind, falling in the rain and moving again as hips and thighs swayed in the dance.

A woman, long hair swaying in the wind like it wasn't wet, a face with sharp features turning to face him. She spun on the spot, hip cocking in a strange and familiar way, and Link stepped forward. The door slammed shut behind him in the wind, rain pelting his body, and yet he moved regardless. Step by step, each step in time with the steps the woman made as she danced towards him. One last spin, two hands rising as one, two hips cocking as one.

A snap, magic flaring, lighting crashing into the earth with power indescribable

A word left his lips, quiet and disbelieving, almost as if a prayer. A single word, a plea and an entreaty all at once, nearly lost amongst the storm. A word that had the woman smiling, even as she danced.

"Urbosa."

~~End~~

So, sup. A month later, as promised, work has been a bitch. Chapter read, feedback given, and even some corrections made by Slothful, based as he is. Not the others fault though, I finished this chapter day of post, which…yeah. Fun fact, that dark scene, scene 5? That scene has been kicking the shit out of me for like two fucking months now. Started off a lot darker, too, before I realized doing it the way I was doing it would fuck my plot over later.

Speaking of! Before anyone screeches about me…yes, I am indeed a bastard, but I warned you lot in chapter 1 there would be some dark shit in this story, and this is just scraping the service. This is your reminder that, per lore, Skyloft exists because the entirety of Hyrule was getting slaughtered, and the only domestic animal in Skyloft was a Remlit (also a monster linked to a monster in Skyloft) and the Loftwing. So…yeah, had to have a good reason for dogs to not be there. Don't worry though, things will get worse!

The scene does serve a genuine purpose for later, however, that much I can guarantee you. I'm not enough of a monster to murder dogs on screen for zero reason. Related side note; the Hounds of Hylia. Remember that name, or don't, because it will be rather important later. Well…important in some ways, not in others. Luck of the draw, really.

Link was really out of his depth in that last scene, kek. I enjoyed it more than I should have.

Anyways, at the latest chapter 7 will be out on the second Sunday of April. Work continues to kick the shit out of me, but that's nothing new at this point in life. Now, my brain is fried, as I've written 15k in two days, so I'm going to do something mindless for a few hours. Hope you enjoy!