It was during the Calamity that Link realized he was missing a piece of himself. And yes, while he knew that a large part of that was his own lost memories, this felt like losing a part of the heart that beat inside him, steady as a beating drum.
Blueskittlesart on Tumblr <3
It was during the Calamity that Link realized what he’d truly lost. Even if he didn’t recognize that voice calling out to him from inside the Castle, there had always been something familiar about it. About her, whoever she was. It was a driving force, a guiding light. Something he had always been focused on, something he would always focus on, because time couldn’t take away that longing.
Memory loss might have taken away the recognition, but it didn’t get rid of the muscle memory, it didn’t get rid of the habitual desire to follow her to the ends of the earth.
Whoever she was. Whoever she happened to be.
Link hadn’t been able to figure it out all this time. But as he found pieces of his own memories, so too did he find pieces of her, clinging to him as desperately as he did. The devotion that came with being her knight, the dedication and the time spent at her side, that could never truly be erased. Suppressed, of course, but the heart knew more than he did, and it always would. He knew he’d find her, such was his job, his sacred duty to her.
Hadn’t that been his duty since the beginning of time? For even if it weren’t this era of Hyrule, Link and Zelda had always been and would always be inseparable. That had been written in the stars, perhaps by Hylia herself.
Courage and Wisdom always go hand in hand, and so too, would her hero and her princess.
Link would follow at her side, his three paces away, quiet, patient, adoringly reverent. As much as he yearned to have Zelda see him as he saw her, he would wait, as long as it took. Because it had always been her, and he knew it always would be. Even when he finally fell in battle (or maybe, even though he already had), it would be Zelda to recover his body, to weep over his death. The hero’s death would never be in vain.
It was his loyalty to her that kept him going, that soldier’s determination to her, that unflinching and unwavering courage, it all tied back to his affection. And it would until the end of time.
So when he finally found her at the end of his journey, it was Link’s turn to weep. It was his turn to what exactly he’d been fighting for all along. Because, at the end of the day, his duty was to Princess Zelda. Hadn’t King Rhoam told him that, right at the very end?
“You are the knight to Princess Zelda.”
And that would always and forever be where his loyalties lied. He’d find his way back to her, no matter what it took.
~ ~ ~
Hi guys! :3 very late Valentines post for y’all! I’ve had a significantly lot of things on my plate as of the last month, but I had to write this one out because I have so MANY feelings about botw Zelink they bubble
over sometimes and now you get this <3
It’s a bit on the shorter side but I’m sick at home with the most killer headache I’ve ever had :disappointed: anyway I hope y’all enjoyed
Comments (1)
This was beautiful 🥰