Hero by Heart

Chapter 50

She was gone. Sometime in the night she had snuck out and left him behind.
     Link had never felt so betrayed, so hurt. He thought they would at least talk about this, but she gave him no chance.
The last thing he wanted was to feel that pressure again. To feel the responsibility of the kingdom on his shoulders. He didn't want to be the one who had to save everybody. For once, he didn't want to be the hero. Not again.
But she was forcing him into this role and had left him alone to deal with it.
At first he tried to go after her, tracking her down to catch up and tell her exactly how he felt, but he soon realized that her head start was too big. There was no use.
After his futile attempt he sat down near a fire to have breakfast, but soon enough he was getting plagued by people seeking his council.
First Bolson came to ask where he wanted the first defences, as if Link knew much about that.
When he finally managed to dodge the endless questions, the builder was soon followed by Bazz and Rivan, back to discuss strategy.
     Link was in no mood for small talk, so he tried to keep the conversation to a minimum, only discussing what was most necessary.
     He could tell that the two Zora noticed something was off, but they politely kept quiet about it, instead listing all the extra forces they could gather.
     When they eventually left to give the message to Prince Sidon, Link sighed in relief. He was finally alone again, able to think properly.
Depending on how hard Zelda was riding, she would probably arrive in Rito Village by this evening.
     He wondered how long she would stay there, and what she would tell their elder. Part of him worried that the Rito wouldn't listen to her as they might do with him, simply because she was a stranger.
From the time he had spent with the bird-like people, he always thought they were rather distant, comfortable in their remote corner of the world and not all too eager to mingle in the business of strangers.
But if there was anyone he knew would be able to get their help, it was Princess Zelda.
Of course she had a certain right by her title alone, but apart from that she was the kind of person you wanted to help. She was patient and gentle, friendly and helpful, and she always seemed to know exactly the right thing to say.
She would be fine, he told himself once again, trying to shake the thoughts from his head.
Instead he thought back of the night before, if there had been any sign that he missed that would indicate she was planning on sneaking out.
It still hurt him to think that she would just do such a thing, but he knew her well enough to know that she had felt like this was the best option. That didn't mean that he was okay with it, though.
He was pissed.
     He felt like he deserved better than to be left in this strange situation by the person he trusted most in this world. She should have told him, talked to him.
Link sighed, as he poked a stick in the flames. His mind kept going in circles and it annoyed him endlessly how he could not get himself to stop.
He almost started missing the conversations about the most insignificant details of defence walls that Bolson had kept nagging him about, or the amount of warriors the Zora could come up with.
Of course he knew it was important for all of that to be in order, but he felt like it would be fine without his opinion on every matter. He just wanted it all to be over so he could enjoy some much needed peace and quiet.
Link sighed again, as he stared off into the distance, where he could see some Gorons chopping away at big boulders.
Bolson had said something about that, but he couldn't remember what it was that they were doing.
Once they had finished the heavy work, the Gorons would also offer their services in battle. The thought of a large group of massive rock-like creatures wielding giant hammers was pretty reassuring. Nobody would voluntarily go up against that kind of enemy.
Together with the Gerudo army and a whole lot of Zora fighters Link reckoned they would be a terrifying force to stand against, but then again they had no idea what they were up against themselves.
They might prove to have need of all the manpower they could get.
Eventually Link sighed once more, threw the stick in the fire and got up. If he was just going to feel miserable and overthink everything, he might as well make himself useful.
He looked around the big emptiness that was Castle Town, with only the inn sticking out as a bright and welcoming place.
There were tents set up, and fireplaces built, but those didn't make up for the loss of an entire town.
The Castle itself was quiet and dark, its peaks rising high above him. From this distance Link could see a few holes in the silhouettes of the towers, but with some imagination the building looked impressive and beautiful.
They could really make something of it again, given that they would survive this upcoming battle.
At that thought Link took a deep breath, nodded to himself once, and set off, slowly sinking deep into thought and unwillingly fitting himself to his role.