This is meant to be my interpretation of a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom. There will be references to past games within the Era of the Wild, and beyond (by that I mean TotK, BotW, Age of Calamity, and previous, unrelated installments). As far as BotW/TotK Spoilers, be ye warned.
"With Ganondorf's defeat, the Twilight Threat is finally over. The Twilight Princess returned to her prime form, her curse lifted, and the Twili people returned to their land peacefully. The dark shroud over Hyrule lifted, and the mirror linking our two worlds was shattered, that no such incursion should ever come about again."
The students of the new Tarrey Town University watched as their dutiful professor concluded this retelling of a tale long forgotten. Some took notes. Some watched, excited to learn of their culture and history. Others were more skeptical.
"How much of this are we really meant to believe?" one of the students – a Hylian boy with a green tinted undercut, and large brown eyes asks, his tone bored and full of snark.
"I beg your pardon?" the professor responds politely, her patience never short of divine.
"I mean, werewolves is one thing, but alternate dimensions, parallel worlds? What proof is there? How can we know? It just seems… fanciful. Far-fetched." Where once was simple snark, now gave way to doubt rising in his voice.
The professor is confident in her response, unshaken by the line of questioning. "That is an excellent question, Sefaro. While it is true much of the ancient histories blend and often blur the line between historical record and legendary account," she begins calmly. "Many of these accounts tell of worlds beyond our own. We just learned, of course, of the Twilight. In our previous unit, we discussed the Sacred Realm and the Dark World, and there are even stories of a perfect mirror world to ours. Perhaps these are all the same place, distorted after several generations of retelling, and in different contexts. But for many years we believed the stories of the First Hero and of Skyloft were all fanciful – until islands began falling from the sky two years ago. How can we know there aren't parallel worlds?"
Silence filled the classroom. A fair enough answer, one could suppose.
"With our Era of Twilight now complete, your test is coming up. Do not forget it, be sure to study, don't be afraid to ask questions!"
All at once, the classroom was filled now with the sounds of students shuffling and speaking quietly. Some are setting up plans for the weekend. Some are getting a head start on studying for the upcoming test. A couple students are red in the face as their friends bumped them into each other, just to see their faces glow in the proximity, seemingly waiting for the day the romantic tension will snap and they'll gather the courage to ask the other out. But today is not that day, so it seems, as they awkwardly apologized, started counting floor tiles as they hurried along their separate ways.
One by one the students filed out of the classroom, offering goodbyes and see you next times until two individuals remained.
The professor sat at her desk, three books opened and an additional one for scribing notes in a bizarre combination of barely legible chicken scratch, beautiful calligraphic script, and all manner of shorthand and half completed thoughts that only the professor, herself, would be able to decipher and understand.
Leaning against the door was the captain of the guard - a young Hylian man dressed in the deep navy blues and reds of his station. The prestigious and proper uniform contrasted heavily with the long sandy hair, unkept as ever, and the mud that collected on his otherwise pristine white boots. On his back, a silver sword with a blue and purple hilt, and a cross-guard like wings of a bird.
The professor barely acknowledges his presence, her nose buried deep in whatever books she's studying now, before her concentration is interrupted by a gentle ahem.
"Yes?" the professor encourages the captain to continue.
"The council meeting is tomorrow. Are you to attend, or should Impa cover for us while we sneak away again? I know you haven't packed yet, and if we want to make it on time, we ought to leave tonight."
A deep sigh leaves the lips of the princess. "And here I thought you were standing in the corner and watching silently, for old time's sake." A soft laugh, from both our Hero and his Princess. "Thank you, Sir Link. You are right as ever." A sly, knowing smirk tugged at Zelda's lips. "As if you've ever packed for a journey a day in your life."
And so Hylia's Hero managed to pull her away from her studies. Side by side, they walked through Tarrey Town, out past the land bridge, turning south at the road. Zelda told Link of her students and their skepticism, not with contempt or frustration, but enthusiasm and excitement.
"If anything, it shows they are paying attention, and have questions! Do you know how hard it is to get engagement like that naturally?" she states, light and life in her eyes.
Link smiles softly as he watches her talk excitedly. He remembered her frustration in Hateno, trying to get traction at the school there and being met with wide, bug-eyed, blank stares. And requests for the potty, of course. It had taken a few months for those students to settle in and get comfortable. And when they did, Zelda was just as lit up as she is now. Even if she couldn't get past a lesson plan without answering no less than thirty-six "But why?"s, their curiosity gave her life.
"And what of your own students?" the princess asks, turning to her chosen knight, drawing a long groan from the Hero of Hyrule.
"They're impossible! I've taken them through the drills and exercises nearly every day these past two months, and we're still fumbling the fundamental basics. This batch of recruits are simply incapable of taking direction!" he complains, his hands waving, gesticulating passionately. "Their form is all over the place, timing is barely acceptable, it's like everything I say goes in one side and out the other. They just want to know when we can spar or when we can have live combat exercises or when lunch is or what the toughest monster I ever fought was."
Zelda giggles. "Remind you of anyone?"
"I've only taken one thing in my life seriously and that's my oath to the crown; sure, I goof sometimes, and didn't always obey your tantrums, but at that time, I had orders from the King, who outranks the Princess," he says, only-half teasing. Then a sigh. "But yes, I see your point…" Link pauses in a contemplative silence. "I was never meant to be a teacher; just a bulldog to point at a problem and hit it until it stops being a problem," he adds after a moment.
"Nonsense. You're also a remarkable chef," Zelda chides. "But truly, you know that to be untrue. You are more than that sword. How many times have you had to remind me of the same? That I was more than powers that eluded me through prayer and effort?" Her voice is softer now. "Take it from me, teaching is not an easy task. You have your work cut out for you; you always have. The task now is not teaching them to be just like you – you and I, we are remnants of the old Hyrule. That system fell a hundred years ago. We don't need a fighting force worthy of the Royal Guard. We just need them to take your place in a time of peace, rather than letting all of Hyrule lean on you for support. Besides, there is no crown to keep an oath to anymore."
"Dammit, Princess, why do you have to be right all the time?" he whines.
"According to the legends, it's because I'm blessed with the embodiment of divine wisdom," she says matter-of-factly, with just the barest hint of smug.
"Is that so? And what do the legends say of me?" Link asks, smirking subtly.
"Not wisdom," she states flatly.
"Is that what you call courage?" he asks with a laugh. He may not be quite as read up on the stories as she is, but he had his own sources.
Her laughter is as a soft twinkling of bells; a sound that never fails to bring a sense of ease and silent joy over him. "All I'm saying, what some call courage, others call brash."
Words wash over Link from a hundred years ago. Brave as you are, that does not make you immortal.
"If you insist, Zelda." He shakes his head as he opens the door to their house.
"You must be courageous, indeed, if you think you're going to walk into this house with those boots," she states, hand on her hip, pausing in front of the door as she takes off her own significantly less muddy shoes, leaving them at the threshold.
"I may be courageous, but even I am not that brash," he laughs, kicking off some of the mud outside the threshold and shedding his knee-high Guard Captain boots.
"And surely you don't think the captain of the guard walking around in such muck is acceptable?"
"Good thing for the next few days I'm just the Princess' attendant knight," Link smirks, hanging his hat and coat on the nearby coat hanger.
"You're incorrigible." Her head was shaking, but a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"I love it when you use big words to insult me, I can almost pretend I don't know I'm supposed to be offended."
Zelda rolls her eyes, unable to fight the grin spreading to her lips. "Start on dinner, I'll get us packed for the journey. You were probably planning on just packing a single change of clothes anyway."
"As you wish, Princess."
And so the princess went upstairs and began packing supplies for their journey, storing neatly away into Zelda and Link's respective Purah Pads, while her attendant knight began preparing dinner for the evening. A simple meal, yet flavorful and fit for a king. Or perhaps, a princess.
"How are we getting there? It's a bit late to take the horses," Zelda asks between bites of food. A stir fry, full of flavor and shrimp.
"Trains aren't running this late. We could just port there, but where's the fun in that? I was thinking to take the Steed," Link answers.
During these past two years, Purah has been busy, working to combine Shiekah and Zonai tech in as many ways as possible and then some, utilizing Link's various schematics. Or rather, taking inspiration from his schematics. Well, some of them.
Have you any thought for the safety of the driver, or anyone for that matter!? Purah had nearly shrieked as he showed her his favorite way of getting around – a steering stick slapped onto two mega industrial Zonai fans. He'd shrugged at the time – clearly the wrong response, given the clipboard to the head he took moments later. It's effective. And looks cool. He'd claimed.
In the months that followed, she started coming out with more survival-friendly versions of his haphazard designs – intricate, too. Whole chassis, seats, internal and external lighting, even user identification via Purah Pads. One could hardly consider them based on his own schematics. And with some additional modifications, one could be fitted with rockets, lasers, cannons, any manner of fun toys. Could being the operative word here, of course; Link and laser cannons were oft not the most responsible of things to mix, and he was thusly banned from their use.
Instead, the vehicle – a Purauto Steed, as Purah had branded it – he was gifted was much more basic. More intricate than the designs he'd stuck together he had a ghostly goat hand as a prosthetic limb, to be certain. A bit of a boxy frame with large, all-terrain wheels, with a roof and doors that were more often than not stored away in Link's Purah Pad. Bright headlights lit the way, while the interior of the vehicle was lined with the cyan blue that is indicative of Shiekah tech, providing decent interior lighting as well as being nice to look at. The only real modifications Link's been allowed to make were the small wooden figures he'd carved in his spare time – a number of Koroks, each with uniquely carved masks, sat on the dashboard just in front of the windshield.
Zelda climbs into the passenger side of this crate-like vehicle, while Link in the driver side drops his Purah Pad in the activation slot. With a dull thrum, the machine comes to life, green and blue lights alighting within and without the vehicle.
"Link, would you mind putting the doors in? I would hope to get some reading done on the road."
Nodding, her attendant knight taps a few times on the Purah Pad, and the doors materialized in place, the roof overhead as well.
The princess offers her thanks, as Link pulls onto the road, heading south on the road to Hyrule Castle. As they drove in silence, Zelda read until her eyes grew heavy. Her right hand keeping her place in the book, her left hand entangling with Link's, she finds herself soon beyond this world. A definitive alternate world – a parallel dimension of dreamscape; sometimes pleasant, sometimes hellish. Her final thoughts as her consciousness slipped were registering Link's soft humming, and the feeling of his thumb grazing over the back of her hand.
Closing statements, hope you stick around to see where this goes. I've got many plans and I'm very excited to see them put to paper. Also yes, Link does have a 2 door Jeep with little Koroks instead of ducks.