Blood Moon: A Story Before the Calamity

Ten

Link's POV

     I blinked back into the reality, jerked sharply from my final memory.

     Hylia River rushed by beside me, birdsong and the soft rustle of leaves accompanying its tuneless melody.

     I looked down at my scarred arms. The Princess had burst into tears in them once. I had been her comfort, her source of strength. She had grown to trust me, to care for me.

     I found that strangely bitter. It was dangerous to trust, to love. I had learned that the hard way. And so had she.

     If she had known how our story would end, my dying, her being imprisoned within the castle, would she still have sought my warmth, my embrace?

     That was the most difficult thing about affection. Even if she had known, she would still have collapsed in my arms, and let me hold her for Hylia knew how long.

     I didn't know why this memory was so hard for me to take. The Princess was but another quest objective. And yet...

     I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes. Best call it a day for now. All I wanted was to escape into the sanctuary of sleep.

     I made camp and set up a campfire, gazing into its flickering depths, watching the flecks of flames rise into the sky and disappear.

     Why did I care anyway? 

     It wasn't like I remembered much about her. All I knew was that she loved ancient technology, used to hate me, and had trouble with her power.

     Uneasiness rested like a heavy stone in my stomach.

     When I woke up, the sun was high in the sky. I rubbed my tired eyes and decided to report to Impa about the completion.

     There was another. One final picture. Impa had told me that the Princess asked her to wait before showing me this one, and I knew, I just knew that this was probably the most important memory to be found.

     It didn't take me long to find this place. After all, it was right beside a stable. I had walked past this swamp probably a million times, but never before had I been so apprehensive about approaching this place.

     I felt that familiar tug in my mind, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the scene to float to the surface...

     I was teetering on the edge of life and death, hardly able to stand, leaning heavily on my sword.

     The Guardian. It caught up to us. I was going to die, but I wasn't scared. I pulled out my sword from the muddy earth, staggering back, my shoulders hunching.

     I hurt. Everything hurt. But I could not let her die.

     She tried to make me leave, to run, to save myself. I couldn't. 

     At the last moment, a scream ripped through her as she shoved me back and raised her hand.

     The flash of light. Her face, tearstained, swam before my blurry eyes, safe. I had failed, but she was safe. 

     She begged me not to die. 

     She sang me a song. Her song. And I could barely hear myself say the final words, words that fell away to meaningless as the world blacked out.

     But it didn't end there. After I had "died", my sword lit up. She spoke to the Princess, telling her that there was a way to revive me, to bring me back, for me to cheat death. She spoke with conviction to the Sheikah, showing no sign of the shattered person she had been just now, sobbing into my lifeless chest. 

     And so, the final memory ended.

     That was it.

     I fell to my knees, numbness that would soon give away to agony spreading over my skin. 

     I... I had never known.

     Had never known.

     So this was how I died.

      And then everything exploded. Words, words, words, voices assaulting my mind, screaming at top volume, as I curled into a ball, mouth open in a soundless scream.

CalamityChampionsdeadfailurePrincesshundredressurrectionwaitingdyingfaultfaultfault.

OldManmemoriesGuardiansneveryoudontdeservelovecowardcowardcowardcowardcoward.

FailuresoldierwarmaliceHyrulecouragepainlossgriefnotthesameIdontknowyouhauntedpainnonononono...

     A howl of my pain tore through my chest and clawed up my throat for the sky to hear, a non-stop note of pure suffering. As it died away, my body racked with sobs, shaking.

     So it was my fault. It was my fault that the Princess had to be stuck in the Castle for all this time. It was my fault that the Calamity had been allowed to rampage for 100 years. It was my fault that Hyrule was dying.

     So I really was just a failure.

     I ended up staying there for a long time, the sun slowly moving over my drained body and being replaced by the gentle shower of moonlight.

     I couldn't find the energy to move, even though I knew I should. Monsters might have sprung an ambush on me. But I didn't care anymore. Let them kill me. It might have been easier.

     I had been attacked by travelers that I had trusted. I had been turned away time and time again by people who mistrusted me. I had been almost killed by innumerable monsters of all forms. I had been sexually assaulted by the Great Fairies so many times I almost didn't mind anymore, in exchange for improved clothing. 

     But in the end, I was my own undoing, the voices in my head saying that I wasn't good enough, the memories that provided no peace, no satisfaction, but more and more expectations, more and more questions that I had no answers to, that had destroyed me. 

     The will to tear apart myself to become someone I wasn't. 

     The responsibility of the entire kingdom when the person who needed the most help was myself.

     The fact that nobody, aside from the Princess I supposed, would care if I had died right there on that field on a peaceful night.

     I hugged my knees, resting the side of my face on them, watching a blade of grass sway in the wind.

     And then a soft breeze stirred my hair, and as I whipped my head around, there she was. The same alien but familiar face that I had seen so many times in my memories.

     She was sitting there right beside me, insubstantial, but there. She was leaning her head on my shoulder, her eyes closed, a soft blossom of warmth where her body touched mine.

     I sighed and leaned back, to gaze at the stars winking down at Hyrule, the leaves rustling painted silver by their glow. 

     And so we fell asleep together.