A/N: A quick note before the usual: THIS STORY will be continuing to update every 2 weeks as long as I have material ready. I am merely posting this one now so that it alternates update weeks with my Pokemon story, Truth and Lies (both will likely update on Tuesdays, alternating weeks).
There should be no other changes to the schedule for the time being.

I do not, in general, write kid stories. My adult ratings are for a reason. My stories feature: violence (often graphic), Sexuality (almost always graphic), and worse. The villains in my stories are typically very villainous. The heroes are not always heroic- even if most of the time they are. Readers should expect a blanket trigger warning on everything I write. Themes of dubious- or non-consenting sex, domination, violence, gore, and character death- including major characters- exist in many of them. I do not condone such activities in real life, but unfortunately they are real in our world, and I don't feel that I could write fiction fairly without including them.

Finally, if you like this story or any of my other stories, please consider supporting me on 'The Pat-r-on Site'. You can find it by going to Pat [r] 3on DOTcom/ KajaWilder (you must have NSFW filter turned off to find my page). I can only continue my current (or faster) pace of updates if I can pay my bills. I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely getting you think about how much enjoyment you get out of a movie- about two hours worth of fun- for $10-20- you are getting far greater value by supporting a writer like myself. This work of fiction is already very long (1000+ pages) and it's getting longer. How many hours will it take you to read it? If even one in twenty people that read this supported me on Pa tree on at any level, I would be able to easily continue focusing on writing more... and you could read more. I'm going to keep writing anyway. But the pace would be and will be a lot faster if you can spare a few dollars monthly. My lowest tier isn't even a small drink at a theater, any more. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to you? If so, then please support me.
Of course, you can ALSO find more of the same stories there. I post everything on this site at least a week after it's posted on 'The Pat-r-on Site', so if you want more and don't want to wait, well... there you go. That's enough out of me, though. Enjoy!


Ch. 7

Hunter-Gatherer

Zelda woke the next morning to birds chirping, and a huge, delicious omelet topped with acorns and butter the man had churned himself. She was in heaven, it was easily the best meal- again- she could recall.

"You are a treasure," the princess moaned around her last bite, "this is the best. I forgive you for withholding so much information!"

"Hah, hah," the old man chuckled, "if I had known that's all it would take, I'd have made you breakfast sooner! Now, come, Princess of Hyrule. You and I both have work to do. We can't waste the whole day, can we?"

"No, I suppose not," she muttered, "Um... what shall I do with the dishes?"

"Leave them," he waved a hand unconcernedly, "I wash every few days, and see no harm in letting it sit for that long. If nothing else, it gives the ants something to eat."

A short time later, Zelda wiped the renewed sweat from her brow as the largest tree she had yet cut down, despite her aching limbs from the day before, crashed to the forest floor.

This one, she thought, was a cypress tree, tall and thin with many leaves, though she had shaved off many before starting the cut, just as he had shown her, just to have access to the trunk itself.

"An excellent job, Princess," the old man said, nudging the thick barrel of wood with his foot. "And just where it should be! You can now safely cross the gorge, I'll wager."

It was his advice that sent her there.

The drop was precipitous, a hundred feet or more, and some twenty or thirty feet across. But the tree, if it was stable, would prove an adequate and sturdy makeshift bridge. The pair of them together wedged a few rocks beneath it in key places to hold this end of the stump in place, and then the old man stepped up onto it as well. "I don't know how much my weight will hold, but we shall see. Be careful, Princess, and 'ware the Bokoblins on the far side. They are a vicious lot."

She, like the old man, had already heard them crying out as they hunted some animal or another in the smaller grove across the gorge.

But she knew this was the way to the shrine, and so this way she must go.

No matter how much her entire body burned and strained.

Fortunately for her aching back and shoulders, the Bokoblins, fierce though they were, quickly fell to a few well-placed remote bombs, leaving her to simply pick up the pieces... As well as a small bundle of firewood she could gather, and some apples from the same tree that hadn't been turned to so much mulch.

The weapons were less useful, and Zelda picked up neither the spear or clubs they had.

The Fire arrows in an overhand behind a rockslide, those she took, with an offered prayer for the poor soldier whose skeleton remained there where it had died.

Unfortunately, despite the old man's words, the ledge on the far side of the gorge, which bordered the east and south of Mount Hylia according to her map, ran into a solid cliff face.

Backtracking for a half-mile, Zelda spotted a way up, and whimpered again.

"Well, I said I would have to get stronger... I suppose I will. If my muscles don't give out and make me fall to my death."

There were ledges, a half-dozen or so, on the way up the eastern face, but the Shrine was just so high up there!

From one edge to the next, her body protesting with every motion, Zelda climbed higher and higher. She was able to snag a few of the delicious purple mushrooms the old man had identified as Rushrooms- for they gave a mild effect that seemed to make the consumer move a bit faster- but Zelda could not stop to eat them yet. She took only the breaks she had to to let her body rest, determined to tackle this literal mountain in front of her all in one go, more or less.

Not for pride, but simply because it was faster.

Finally, her fingers scraped raw and bleeding along with her knees, one boot half worn-through, Zelda crested the cliff. With a finally sobbing heave, she pulled herself up and over, collapsing backward against the Owa Daim shrine.

She had made it!

Far, far below, she could see the old man waving at her in the distance. He shouted something, but Zelda could only tell by the hands raised to his mouth. She heard only the howl of wind.

It was cold up here, and she was uncomfortable, aching everywhere. So after too-short another break, she princess pushed herself to her feet, and straggled on staggering steps into the shrine itself.

The Stasis trial was unlike the others, far more open and wide, a single vast chamber even larger than the big one at the end of the Bomb trial.

Rolling boulders down narrow ramps, massive gears turning spinning platforms... it was horrible to look upon, and know she would have to cross it.

Yet the sage's words gave Zelda a clue, and reading the description of the rune from the slate made everything make a great deal more sense... and seem a lot more possible.

Somehow, the rune stopped time itself, if only for a specific object.

As a test, Zelda aimed it first at the massive gear driving the rotating platform.

Yes... it halted!

A timer beeped on the slate, and she watched it count down too-rapidly. Then, without warning or shudder, as if it had never stopped, the gear and platform spun once more, driven by whatever machinery was linked to them.

Ten seconds, by her count.

But she could do it, if only just. It would certainly be easier if her body wasn't in so much pain, though!

Zelda waited until the rune, which had a much larger charge time than the others she had, was available again. She aimed, hit the yellow button, and started to sort of shuffle-run forward. There were two small gaps on either side of the once-spinning platform that necessitated small hops, but even Zelda, out of shape and winded, sore beyond belief, managed them easily.

Beyond, the platform, with no guardrails of any kind, dropped in all sides into what looked like an endless abyss. Except, of course, for one walkway that passed the ramp she had spotted earlier. Down that ramp, long and wide, divided half-way down by another higher ledge, a huge boulder rolled, fell, and then vanished in the mist. A moment later, another appeared from a chute.

Perhaps the Sheikah were folding space again, making the boulder disappear from below and reappear at the top? It would certainly save stone and energy from having to make a new one every time one fell!

She counted carefully. Between one boulder falling off the ledge and the next, there was exactly ten seconds. The same duration as the rune itself. With its travel time, she should be able to make it- if she didn't miss. She would have to halt the stone at just the right moment, but it was certainly possible. And the sprint, uphill, would no doubt be torturous.

But she had done worse.

That climb, for example, after a day of chopping down trees.

Stupid old man!

Her timing was flawless, her sprint slow but enough. With a few seconds to spare, Zelda made it to the second ledge, spinning around the railing before another boulder dropped and started to roll. Of course, she growled internally, of course the chest is beyond the boulder. I'll have to stop it again, won't I? Damn it!

She was not accustomed to cursing, Zelda knew, but also suspected that would not be the last time, if these trials were what she had to look forward to.

Another use of the Stasis rune followed, giving her plenty of time to dash past the boulder's drop-chute, then skid to a halt in front of the chest, nearly tumbling past it and into the abyss below.

Inside was another shield, wood ringed with iron, sturdier than any bark could be, and lacquered with goat-horns.

It was simple, beautiful, and even though Zelda had been glad for them, the more worn shield she had gotten first was tossed casually into the nothing below to make room for it.

Three more like that, and the crumbling Bokoblin's shields could be replaced.

It was a weapon, the pitchfork she had just gained from the old man the day before, that Zelda discarded next. This time, in favor of a heavy iron hammer, suitable either for war or mining. Though it was even heavier than the axe, Zelda picked it up with a purpose. On the satchel, it weighed only a few pounds. And between her and the sage's altar, there was a narrow walkway on which a boulder sat.

But she already knew how to make the stone, which she probably couldn't so much as twitch on he rown, move.

The Stasis rune, of course, was the answer. Stored kinetic energy, the description of the spell had said.

Simple enough. Use the spell, hit the rock a few times, make it move.

In theory, anyway.

Zelda privately wondered to herself if she could hit it more than once, as heavy as the hammer was, in the ten-second time limit, but she had to try. Even if it only moved a little, she could use the spell over and over again if she had to, it just took time.

Hah... time... exactly what the rune stops.

She did indeed get off two swings, sore or not. Zelda thought she even could have managed a third, but two more than did the trick. The stone bounced not just off the ramp, but out of a small divot it had sat in to land near the altar itself. Her way clear, Zelda pressed on, glad it was over at last. This had been the quickest trial she'd yet faced inside the shrines, but it had seemed the most risky. Zelda did not feel that she was afraid of heights necessarily, only... duly cautious of the dangers. And that drop was so far down, at the very least, that she could see no bottom. Therefore, a little stress was in order to make sure she stayed safe.

Reasonably, wasn't it? Only logical... she wasn't suicidal, after all.

... Was she?

The princess shook her head as she approached the sage's corpse, like the other two she had seen at the ends of the other shrines. The words they said may vary a little, but the idea behind each sage's goal was clear. To congratulate her (or, if they could have, the hero, whoever that was) on succeeding in the trial, and pass on a Spirit Orb.

Each one left her feeling flush with vitality and energy, erased the fatigue she felt.

In this particular shrine, one based in large part on haste after the most strenuous, longest climb she thought she had ever made, including before losing her memories to that... what had the machine called it, loss of much of her hippocampus? Something like that, anyway... and most definitely harder than anything since she had woken up. Endurance, Zelda was quickly coming to learn, was not her strong suit.

Thus, the rush of strength, health, and vigor was much welcomed, for it erased all signs of ache and fatigue as well, as if she had not gotten just a night's rest, but a few days' worth to recover.

The princess was still boggling at the power of a simple rune that could stop a force so omnipresent and inexorable as time itself, if in limited ways and on limited objects, when she stepped out of the shrine a few minutes later. It was convenient in a way that she found a way to truly test it just outside. Resting on the opposite side of the shrine from where she had climbed up the tiresome cliff (and though her bones still ached at the memory, she was grateful the actual fatigue was gone now) sat a a large boulder... resting, somehow, atop a chest half-buried in the earth.

One of her eyes twitched. She could feel it, see her brow move down as it did, darkening a fraction of her vision. It was the worst sort of coincidence, she was sure. The kind that had to be contrived. But then again, how could it be? No one would go through that much work for so little a gain as to prevent a thief from accessing the contents of the box. And if they did, surely they would be careful enough to fully bury the chest, not leave it visible to anyone who happened to walk by?

... Not, Zelda realized, that there was probably a lot of traffic on this high, out-of-the-way cliff in a relatively hard-to-reach plateau in an old, defunct kingdom.

That line of thinking conjured another strange question. Had the old man done it, somehow?

Had he set up this trial just for her, as a way to test her new abilities?

He had strange powers, she now knew. That paraglider should not have been able to let a man his size glide down. And he'd beaten her to the tower's top when she had, apparently instantly, teleported there. His skill at enchanting things, too, was far above the basic level as far as she could tell.

Maybe in old Hyrule people could make pouches whose interiors were larger than the exterior as a matter of course, but Zelda herself did not know how.

No... there was far more to him than he had said, Zelda was sure of it.

She just couldn't figure out what.

But one more shrine to go, and after I have that paraglider, I'll wring his secrets out. Somehow.

First, though, she had a chest to get to, and she knew just how to do it.

Though perhaps that third swing would be necessary.

With Stasis cast upon the boulder, careful not to hit the chest itself, Zelda picked up the hammer with a grunt, and began to strike it as fast and hard as she could.

This time, a little more used to it, she almost managed four smashing blows, but the last ended up whiffing on empty air as the boulder suddenly leaped at breakneck speed out of the little hole the chest occupied, and then sailed out into the air.

For a moment, she thought she might have just killed someone, but thankfully, the boulder stopped to teeter just at the edge of the cliff. Exhaling in relief, Zelda put it from her mind as she stowed the hammer away and pulled out her slightly used first shortsword again, then crouched to tug open the chest. It contained no great treasure, but she was still glad to be rid of the splinter-riddled Boko bow she had been using and replace it with another standard traveler's hunting bow. She still had one left of the Bokoblins' weapons, but she was sure it wouldn't last long, and she would be 'forced', 'oh so reluctantly' to use the better ones, with a more comfortable grip (actually a grip, rather than a few strands of poor-quality fabric stolen from someone's socks, probably).

Anything but that, perish the thought, oh me, oh my.

Maybe I am actually a spoilt princess, Zelda thought to herself sarcastically after realizing how her internal monologue was behaving.

With no way off the ledge except another arduous climb down, or going up to the even colder reaches (where, she was sure, the old man's secret recipe or his warm jerkin would be most useful, given the snowpack she could see and smell from here), Zelda took the wisest option: she used the Travel Gate to go back to the Ja Baij shrine, ran past the bell-demon again, and retraced her steps to the old, bearded man's cabin.

"Good evening," she greeted, startling the man himself as he warmed his hands at the fire beneath his currently empty cookpot, "I've finished the third Shrine."

"Ah. Well, that is excellent news. You'll probably be wanting to take proper preparations to reach the last one, then. It is rather cold up there. I know you leafed through my diary- don't worry, I do not care, it is mostly the ramblings of an old, tired man. But if you do remember how to create that recipe, I am indeed more than happy to trade my doublet for it."

Zelda wanted, very badly, to tell him how much a fool she thought he was, but clapped her mouth closed at the last second. Instead, she forced a false smile onto her face and asked through clenched teeth, "And where would I go about finding the ingredients...? I have the peppers already."

"Mm, excellent. Well, I usually get mine from the Forest of Spirits, to the north of here. It's a bit west of the tower... north of where we met. There are boar that roam there in rather large numbers. Dangerous if angered, but a well-placed arrow can put one down before they get the chance to attack you in return."

"I see. Thank you."

"As for the other ingredient, I'm afraid I just don't remember what it is, so I can't help you. It is on the plateau of course, but..."

"That one I think I have figured out," she couldn't help but tease, "but I'll leave you in suspense for now. Perhaps it will serve you right for keeping your own secrets."

To her surprise, the man laughed loud and long, "And so it might, Princess, so it might. I see how it is with you. Keep those sharp wits of yours, you may well need them in times to come. I am actually heading to the Forest tomorrow for hunting of my own, so mayhap we will see each other then. Watch out for the Bokoblins, they are thick there, but a greater danger yet lurks beneath the earth. If you see a sinkhole filled with mushrooms, be especially wary. It is not for the weak to challenge."

Zelda frowned, a bit worried, "And what of the danger itself? What manner of beast is it?"

"I do not know," the old man confessed, "I have not faced it. I have only felt the earth rumble and shake, seeming to come alive. After fleeing for a time, it seems to settle again. I do not wish to know any more, except that you will be wary yourself."

"That I will," she promised earnestly, "So tomorrow or the day after, you can expect to give up that tunic, then."

"Perhaps," the man said with a knowing grin, "Shall you be taking me up on the bed a final night?"

Zelda glance at the sky. It was overcast, and getting late in the day, but she still felt as if she had only been awake for a few hours thanks to the spirit orb. "No... I think I will go now. I find myself quite awake. Thank you, though, for your kind offer."

The man bowed with his head, "Think nothing of it, Princess. I suppose I will either see you tomorrow, or not, then. Be safe."

"I will, thank you. And you as well."

This time, with Zelda feeling, for once, as if he were not keeping secrets, that he genuinely expected to see her with the results of a successful hunt and that he truly didn't know what the monster was, she started walking north, her eyes fixed on the spire of the Temple of Time.

She was nearly there, ten minutes out from the old man's cabin, when the smell of burning meat caught her nose. Too early for it to be his, and the wind was blowing from the west, entirely the wrong direction. Following the scent brought Zelda to look down a low ravine that moved between the western reaches of Mount Hylia where they came close to abutting the grand cathedral, and the southern ledges where she had been just recently. A quarter-mile down the ravine, in fact, it split in twain, the southern half soon dropping off into the great gorge she had tree-climbed over. The rest continued on, ending in a little cave that had been barricaded by Bokoblins.

And there were four of them outside, three around a campfire, and one on a watchtower half-way down the ravine.

Zelda debated a frontal approach once more. She could probably handle it... maybe.

But no. It just wasn't her style.

Instead, after taking a few minutes to take a look around from the cover of a pile of large stones, she spotted a higher ledge a little past the watchtower. From there, she imagined she would have a good vantage point to look down on the Bokoblin's entire camp, and the watch-monster most especially. If he were taken down, she would be able to get the drop on the others easily enough.

With an almost malicious grin, she took aim with her last shoddy Boko bow, pulled back as far as it would go without cracking (something even her relatively scrawny arms could do with only a little effort), and let her arrow fly.

Once again, her skill with the bow, or at least her comfort with it, bore fruit. A single shot was all it took, and the Bokoblin died soundlessly. That left her with options for the other three. A more careful look told her that they, too, had a cache of weapons nearby, but none were equal to the bowman she had just slain. And all three, as the storm moved closer to full-on with the sun beginning to set, were still drowsy or even asleep.

She could probably sneak into the camp and slay them one by one, as she had the last group with barricades, north of the tower.

Or she could do it all at once.

With almost malicious glee, she pulled one of her precious Bomb arrows from the satchel at her back. She tested its individual weight for a few moments to adjust her firing angle, then clicked its installed fuse. It began to spark at once. Thirty seconds, her mind somehow supplied, that's standard.

That in mind, she let it go for a few just to test... yes, about a quarter-inch in five seconds. That was at least close to thirty. Better to let it fly a bit earlier, since it had a contact trigger anyway, but you didn't want to let one blow up in your hands. That would probably be bad.

It was a little distracting, having the sparking mass of explosive right in her eyes as she sighted down the slightly longer, thicker arrow shaft, but Zelda persevered. She didn't have to be exceptionally accurate, just close.

... Maybe a little more accurate would have helped, she realized after loosing. She had compensated for the extra weight, but not enough. The blast was still enough to mangle the body of one Bokoblin, turning him to black smoke before the fire even vanished into smoke itself, but she heard the cries of the other two, one seeming injured and the other not scratched at all, as they lurched to their feet, shrieking in pain or surprise.

She was expecting them to grab their weapons. To fight.

Instead, both creatures ran.

Ran, from her!

Shrieking in terror, running or limping as rapidly as they could on a torn-up leg, the two red-skinned beasts split into different directions at once, hands raised high in panic as they bolted for whatever safety they could find.

Zelda left them to cower as she slinked down the hill, slipping and sliding in one section along the steep rocks. Smoothly, keeping one eye on where the nearest one had hid, she gathered up the remnants of the archer and his arrows, but left the bow behind, and drew her shortsword again as she crept into the camp.

Behind the cover of a stack of stolen crates, no doubt taken from some villager more recently as the wood was unrotten, the nearer Bokoblin hid. Even now, five minutes after the explosion that had woken it, the creature stared at the scorched earth and shattered remnants of the camp, no doubt trying to puzzle out what had happened.

Zelda let it ruminate a bit more as she took a few more steps, blade already drawn.

Right behind it, she hesitated.

This wasn't fighting.

It was murder. She wasn't going to defend herself against a creature who wanted to kill her (though she was sure it did). She was terrorizing it, killing it in cold blood, when she could have walked by.

But no.

She couldn't afford to think like that. This was a servant of the Calamity.

A monster. Partially sentient, yes. Maybe even self-aware in truth, for they did have a language and society of sorts, though it was a crude mockery of others'. Either way... it was her enemy.

Either it died, or it would kill her and others.

Zelda felt no guilt as the blade, worn and dulled through years of improper care, slid not entirely smoothly, probably very painfully, into the back of the Bokoblin's chest.

It whimpered, and she saw one bright orange eye as its head lolled, blood welling around her hands. "G-Graaa-aaahh...ahh..."

"I'm not sorry," she whispered, and found herself sincere.

If she was a Princess, then sometimes princesses needed to make hard decisions.

If her people were going to be free, then perhaps every single Bokoblin she came across needed to die.

Was that strength? She didn't know. It didn't make her feel powerful to surprise these creatures with a bomb. Vindictive, cruel, and yes, justified too, but not powerful. Sliding her blade through its heart, less so. Justified, certainly... but not powerful.

She wasn't even being a bully, Zelda was mostly sure. Just... practical.

One less living, breathing Bokoblin might be a family she saved.

She had to hope.

The next Bokoblin died just as easily. It had taken cover behind the barricades itself, but Zelda could still see it through te cracks. She simply stabbed it twice with the sword, and a third time to be sure, taking advantage of the same gaps she had spotted it through.

It wailed once, but there were no other enemies nearby, and Zelda felt confident as the weight vanished off her blade with the third swing that no help would be coming.

... Now she just had to remove the barricade.

Her solution in the end was simple. They were made of wood, and the Bokoblins had a campfire, where they were roasting another haunch of pig.

That, she took. It wasn't nearly as overcooked yet as the last one, and actually smelled mighty fine to Zelda right then. Their own weapons she left alone, nothing was better than what she had, but the throwing spear locked in a chest by magic... that she took. It was far sharper and even longer than her basic traveler's spear, the kind of heavy javelin one might use to spear a boar or deer from a distance. But for someone like Zelda herself, it was an excellently-weighted melee weapon with the reach to counter her relatively short height.

Even her now more-dented and slightly cracked shortsword, trusty though it had been, was enough to replace that one with. I really wish I had more weapon-straps though.

Now with two one-handed weapons, the last shortsword and the spiked club, three heavier weapons in the old man's axe, the simple traveler's claymore, and the sledgehammer she had gotten in the shrine, and two spears, Zelda decided to take a chance. She didn't like relying on shields anyway, especially not such flimsy things as the Bokoblins made. Yes, she had one a little better now, but the reach of the hunting spear would be better for her, she was sure.

The barriers themselves were hardly that once she lit them aflame, and even the surprising nest of bees behind them, appeased in part by the smoke and cooked by the fire itself, were no threat. A pocketful of green Stamella shrooms, another honeycomb from the Courser bees, and a hidden chest with another five Bomb arrows made Zelda feel much better about the one explosive shot she'd used to simplify the Bokoblin's destruction, even if it hadn't quite panned out as she had hoped.

Her theories about the spear being a weapon well-suited to her were proven true a couple of hours later. Near midnight, a pair of Stalkoblins arose from the earth around her, but Zelda was easily able to find them off and dispatch both without taking a scratch. But that little divergence lead her to a bit of a prize. On both sides of a crumbling archway over a long-forgotten, overgrown path that lead from the temple's gardens up into the snowy heights of the plateau, Zelda found two large stands of the same kind of peppers the old man had kept at his cabin. Even better, they were ripe.

With a grin, Zelda wiped one off with her mostly-clean red shirt, then popped it into her mouth, chewing noisly and probably most impolitely. She didn't care, though, the spiciness was delicious! She could definitely see this on a steak, or with eggs! Soon, she told herself.

She needed to save some for that tunic or doublet, though. She picked what she could for now after eating the one, straying only into the coldest upper reaches past the archway long enough to dash in, snag several of the peppers off the nearby stalks, then run back.

At first, Zelda had been shocked by how much colder it had been past the archway, which was at most two feet thick. The air felt frigid suddenly, and she had begun to shiver almost at once. Then, on her return trip with her already-numb fingers full of the delicious sunset-colored peppers, she spotted the line of runes carved into the bricks on both the inner and outer archway sections. They were not identical, she saw on closer examination, but seemed to be repeated. Similar in many ways to the writing she now associated with the ancient Sheikah, but quite different and distinct as well. Almost as if the two shared a common root language, but had diverged wildly at some point in the past.

She had no idea what any of it said, of course, though the words and letters themselves seemed... strangely familiar, somehow. Yet it felt as if the knowledge, just beyond the tip of her tongue, was second-hand. Someone else's.

It was a feeling she was coming to loathe already, because she suspected the knowledge was the... earlier Zelda's. The actual Princess of Hyrule. The one whose brain had been partially blown apart by whatever had killer her.

Not the same Zelda that now roamed the Great Plateau, doing her best to slaughter Bokoblins even though she still remained a threat to her even individually.

That Zelda, she was sure, had been educated. Brave, perhaps, wise, perhaps, comfortable in her family's power, perhaps. It would stand to reason that she would understand some ancient words that may or may not be magical. It certainly felt that way, as even sticking her arm through the arch revealed the two distinct barriers of temperature.

The Zelda she was now was...

A child, in comparison. She knew things, of course. How to read, talk, breathe, run, fight (sort of), carry, and even cook some basic things. But she didn't know how, didn't remember learning anything. Didn't really remember anything except the most vague, disjointed snippets of the life that had come before. All she knew was the last... what, three crazy days?

Amnesia, her brain supplied, but knew that was the wrong word, too. Similar.. but no. What was the right word? That wasn't coming. Perhaps a type of amnesia, related to damage to the brain's memory storage area?

Zelda found herself growling as she hided over the hills on the west end of the Temple of Time, heading further north still. It was just so- so frustrating! She was smart! She knew she was smart! Very, even! But even though some information was still in her brain, there wasn't enough to put- well, anything, really, together.

No way to build context, a framework for understanding the world beyond the most basic of basics. Directions, north, south, east, west. Left, right, up down. Literal child's play. Even complex mathematical formula! She could solve [g(z)=4z7āˆ’3zāˆ’7+9z] in her head, if she had to, and knew without questioning it that the equation she had come up with on the spot did have a real solution.

But she was basically an idiot who knew nothing about the world. At the very least, a stranger in a strange land. Speaking the language was one thing, as apparently the old man and she spoke just fine to each other.

But the culture, the customs, the societal taboos, the- anything.

It just wasn't there.

Who were her friends, back then? If a century had gone by, were any still alive?

How long did people even live? A century sounded like a long time. A hundred years, she knew that! Words were easy... mostly. Some of the time, anyway.

But how old was she? How old, when something had ruined the center of her brain? Did she count the century added to that, when she may as well have not existed? Did she remember any of that? Did she want to?

Zelda found herself growling louder.

Her frustration was...

Beyond compare. Immeasurable. She might even be able to describe herself as not frustrated, but furious.

It was so mind-bogglingly asinine that a machine as powerful as what had supposedly saved her life, possibly regrown part of her brain, could not save her memories!

Three Bokoblins, a short way off, looked up at the sound of an apex predator coming their way.

Something that had no care for any danger they might have possessed, for it was far beyond them. Something that blundered, and crashed, but not like an angry Blue Boss, or a warthog one of their kin had chased. Was it the big death rock?

No, too small. But it was mad!

The three Bokoblins looked at each other, grunting quietly in quick discussion. Take up arms and use teamwork to defend themselves, hoping for the best against this raging apex predator? Or cower, and hide, and hope it passed them by?

The Bokoblins were, in fact, still debating this among themselves when Zelda strode out of the bushes into their camp.

Not quite oblivious, she had heard them. She just didn't care.

The traveler's spear lashed out in a wide arc, the half-dulled leaf-tip slashing through the throat of the leftmost, then spinning around to crack him across the head as she took another step without slowing.

That one turned to smoke before it hit the ground.

The one on the right blinked, and a lunging thrust from the princess gutted it in a single push. Zelda got a splinter from the old wood in her right hand, and the minor stab of pain just made her more angry. Lifting with both hands, somehow the princess yanked the spear upward out of the Bokoblin's body, tearing a hole through rib and sternum along with vital organs until it left an increasingly shallow slice along neck and chin, finally halving its lower jaw. It, too vanished into smoke, though it hit the leaves first.

The third Bokoblin turned, and ran.

Zelda continued walking forward, three more steps, before she hefted the spear upward, changing her grip while it was in the air. The moment the shaft hit her hand again, she threw.

It was a little awkward. She was much more comfortable, a part of Zelda's powerful brain realized, with using the staff-like weapon in melee combat than throwing it. But it still worked. Straight and true, the spear flew. The Bokoblin, shrieking just once in sudden, overwhelming terror, had taken nine steps to Zelda's three. The spear overtook it before it made ten, and smashed through and into the Bokoblin's skull from behind, pinning it to a nearby tree.

It slumped, twitched twice, and then poof, was gone.

Zelda stopped stalking forward for a moment. Slowly, her eyes turned around the camp.

Food, a few mushrooms, some more of those red peppers, a roast haunch again. Barrels, maybe for water, two of them. One was open.

Three spears, none had even been picked up, but they were all so crude they were basically sharpened sticks. And a stolen pot lid, a bunch of wooden planks fitted around a simple bronze handle. Sturdy, but in poor condition.

Zelda didn't pick any of that up, only the food, which entered her pack almost without conscious thought. Only useful, useful, not useful, really went through. Finally, she scavenged the last little bits of the Bokoblin trio, unfeeling and uncaring for the danger she had just been in, and reached for her spear.

It trembled and shook as she pulled it free, prompting the irate princess to give it a serious looking over. Great. One of the bolts holding the leap-tip head on had snapped. It would hold for now, but not much longer.

She was still furious, at the sheer incongruous unfairness of the situation she found herself in.

A person of supposed wealth, power, education, knowledge, privilege.

Forced to scrabble for scraps, not that she thought herself above eating meager fare, or wearing cast-off clothing. It was certainly better than nothing, in either case.

A mind like hers... and nothing to do with it. Nothing it could do. She was cunning, to be sure, and sneaky, and stealthy, and could kill Bokoblins in their sleep easily enough. Even, as she had just proven, in a fit of rage if she caught them unawares.

For all she knew, they were easily felled by any half-competent warrior.

Maybe she was trained, maybe not. The spear felt at least familiar, if not comfortable, while the bows- even the Bokoblin's, though to a lesser extent- was even moreso. Her swords... well, the small blades, yes. The two-handed weapon, not so much, and the heavier ones, like the axe and hammer, very much less so.

And she, helpless, knowing nothing practical aside from the very basics of survival, with no history of this place, no knowledge of its people, was supposed to...

What?

Risk everything to save them?

Ridiculous.

She would. Probably. That wasn't in question, not really. Zelda did not like to think of herself as a person- before or after being awaked in the Shrine a mile or so west of her position- as the kind of person who would abandon an entire people or peoples to die. She would certainly not do so for the whole world, and she believed the old man when he said the Calamity would not stop at Hyrule if it won its way free.

Save the world, with no tools to do so, not even a normal person's lifetime of experience to draw on. That was what seemed so beyond the pale, so utterly, incomprehensibly unfair.

Yes, she was healthy. Whole. Alive, despite being mortally wounded, somehow. Her body even seemed used to walking around, though it didn't have quite the endurance it felt she should. A hundred years of inactivity might do that, she supposed.

Then again... if the implications of the old man's words were true, she had no choice anyway. Not really.

If she was the princess of this land, she had a duty to fulfill to save its people first, and the land itself second. But the first could not be done in this case without the second as well, because the Calamity would not stop at just the land's destruction.

If the hero who the old man had said was her knight, the one the Slate itself had called the Hero, a reincarnated soul that her own was 'as mighty as', then... she had to try and save him, just as he was trying to save her. He was fighting to save Hyrule.

Could so do any less? Zelda did not think she could.

More, she chose, actively chose, right now, at this moment, to work toward the Calamity's end.

Her mind continued to race through those thoughts, and others like them, for nearly an hour as she moved north, eventually passing almost the exact spot where she'd met the old man, then turning a bit east to follow the slope down without climbing.

There, the first slime-monster. Her first Bokoblin.

The grass had already seemingly healed from the acid, at least mostly. She could see a little discoloration, but nothing too bad. Of the Bokoblin, other than a pile of fetid bodily waste, there was no sign at all, as if it had never been.

Zelda didn't find it much of a loss.

East and north again, until she neared the parade grounds and broken, crumbling fountains. The Oman Au shrine, now, was about a half-mile north-northeast. It was there that Zelda finally shook her mind free of reinforcing her new resolve, and stood tall.

At least, as tall as she was able, the spear still passed her by a few feet, but... it was clearly sized for a man. Regardless, it felt good to hold it in her hands, poor condition or not. Five, maybe six hundred feet to her left and head, northwest if her sense of direction wasn't wrong (for it was nearing noon now), a Bokoblin lay sprawled out in the grass, snoring, while another perhaps twenty feet beyond it was...

Yes, adding its own little fetid pile to the world.

Zelda sighed, crouched down in the grass herself, glad she was at least downwind for now, and reached for her bow.

Once the last Boko bow she had was strung and ready, her aim took just a few moments. Without bothering to wipe its own noxious ass, the Bokoblin stood, waving a hand before its pig-like snout.

Like magic almost, her arrow moved through the gap between two long, gnarled red fingers and smashed into the left nostril.

It, of course, did not cry out.

Nor did the other cease or even pause in its snoring.

Without wasting another arrow, Zelda moved in slowly, carefully, glad she wasn't wearing the noisy dress anymore for the quiet as much as not being as scratchy on her sensitive calves. Unfortunately, this time either her luck or skill gave out, for the Bokoblin snorted and grunted, perhaps scenting her, as she crept closer. Somehow, too, it reacted faster than she had seen any of the other red ones do, moving almost as quickly as the single blue one she had faced.

Zelda threw herself to the right just as a club, thankfully a normal, basic one, flew through where her head would have been. She tucked into a roll, and heard the bow in her hand crack, but it did not quite break. She lifted it to shoot again, already reaching for-

No! It was too close, and this time she lurched backward, throwing herself as far back as she could. Somehow, mid-motion, her fingers closed around the tie for her spear, and it fell into her hand a moment before the breath left Zelda's lungs. Her impact with the ground was hard. She was briefly stunned, barely able to register the creature running straight at her, club high, and she could not make her body move, move, move, and the club was overhead, and-

Oh.

She didn't need to move. The spear was already in place, and the Bokoblin, idiot though it was, had... run right into it. Braced against her side and wrist, it wasn't much, but the angle had been nearly perfect. It had entered the Bokoblin's belly right in the center, where its belly button would be if it was mammalian, and the speed of its charge was apparently enough to drive it clear through, for Zelda could not see the long socket at all. She could see just a hint of the tip past the Bokoblin's head.

Then, just as her arm was about to give out, and her pass out along with it since she wasn't getting enough oxygen all of a sudden, the creature vanished.

The club landed on her leg. That hurt.

Not as much as hitting the ground like that. Zelda winced, but that was all she could do.

Some time later, she regained consciousness, her body aching, her head dizzy, her vision just a fuzzy circle far smaller than it should have been...

But she was alive.

Laboriously, Zelda pushed herself to sit up. Her back hurt... but she'd live. Feeling around the best she could, the young (very old?) princess could feel no bleeding, but a good bruise forming. Two, in fact. One behind her shoulderblades, the other just above her pelvis. That was going to hurt later. She must've wrenched it when she fell, or possibly in the second lunge.

But she was alive to feel pain. So... there was that.

Zelda sighed. Yes, sometimes you had to appreciate the little things, but was that really what her life was, now? Reduced to spots of occasional peace mingled with short but intense violence, ever-present caution and wariness, and being relieved she wasn't dead yet?

Because being dead shouldn't (and, in her experience, didn't) hurt this much?

"Miserable lot, that'd be," she snorted to herself quietly, before picking herself up the rest of the way and looking for her loot.

It was meager, not even any food, but the Bokoblin parts themselves were useful. She just had to figure out why again.

She had to have known before.

Before, she thought angrily again as she straightened from the should-have-been-gruesome task, is about as useful as being sentimental about Bokoblin lives.

And it was getting dark now. Of course.

Still, she was on the edge of what the map called the Forest of Spirits. There should be some shelter...


I am now opening COMISSIONS.
I will write anything LEGAL (as in, not violating age legalities) that is within a fandom I know anything about, if your idea sparks even a little interest for these amounts (via or Venmo).
I will not be comfortable writing abuse toward or from the central characters, or 'grooming'.
You can also get One-Shots (or a series of them) by becoming an $8 Patron. That's far cheaper overall, but the length of the work will be decided by me in that case (based on your idea and how many words it takes to get it 'done' to a publishable place).
And if you've ever been interested in creating an OC, or even an SI, and putting it into the FwB verse (or others) to have some fun with the characters, well... I also do that for the higher two tiers of Patrons. In case that's added incentive. ;)
All amounts should be in U.S. currency
(as that is where I am located and pay my taxes).
5000~ words (/- 500) = $15.00
6000-12000 words (/- 1000) = $25.00
13000-20000 words (/- 2500) = $35.00
22000-50000~ = $50.00
Longer on request, but expect $75.00-$100.00.

Contacting me via PM
is probably the fastest way without joining my(which also allows access to my semi-exclusive Discord).