When the fight left Link's body, when his throat became too sore to keep on screaming, when his abdomen felt tight and shone bright red on its side, when Link could feel each heavy breath he was taking and the pain of still being made him gasp for air. When Link could only think this had to be a punishment. A woman came into his room.
She was blonde and her eyes were pained, her mouth was pressed in a thin line and her steps were short. And she came to Link, "You just need to sleep, okay? You are going to be alright." Her hands moved with practiced ease. She touched Link's forehead, pressed his body with a deep frown on her face, and eyed Link's stomach wound with worry.
Link couldn't feel anything but the heat inside him, the discomfort accompanying every movement, every breath. He felt tears pooling in his eyes in frustration. His mind was fuzzy and his eyes unfocused.
The woman tried to give a reassuring smile, brought a glass up to Link's face, "Drink this and you'll feel better."
Link wondered whether more screams would help him get his point across, but as his mind was now filled with denial over this situation, he only eyed the glass the woman was offering.
"Please try to rest, you have to rest-" the woman tried.
But even blinking made Link want to whine like a child, so he moved his head away from the glass, away from the woman, "Please, just let me-" it was hard to voice it, such dreams. It felt wrong, it felt like betrayal, and his mouth was too dry to make it easier, "-just let me die."
"I'm sorry," the woman said, "but I won't let you." She touched his face, lifted his chin, "Drink this." But Link kept his mouth shut.
Link could feel the woman trembling, but his own pain blinded him, "Please," he begged, her hand was out of his face in an instant. Link would have argued his case if he could have, but the only thing that circled his mind was how much pain he was in and how unfair this whole situation was, so he persisted, "I'm tired."
But the woman looked at him with her jaw clenched, her eyes were red out of exhaustion, and the fear of watching a dying man clutched at her heart. "No," she let out.
And Link had no strength left to do anything else but groan and turn on his bed.
⁂⁂⁂
Link awoke with a sting that made him flinch. The woman next to him squeaked and drew back her hands.
The pain, again, rose slowly within Link, marching from his feet upwards. Link's face was taut and his jaw clenched, a scream nested in his throat but it was too dry to make a sound. The woman stood and filled a glass with water, when she came back her face was the first thing to appear. Blue eyes, pale skin, blond hair. Link frowned, trying to remember where he had seen her. There was something about her... about her face... about her stance...
And when she locked eyes with Link, Link's heart leapt once. Scared, terrified, there was a push on his heart that made him want to kneel and gasp for air. Realization hit him with a desperation he had thought lost to him. A breath, "Hylia."
And the woman opened her eyes with shock. Her lips thinned, her eyes wavered, "Here, your water."
But Link shook his head, "No."
⁂⁂⁂
When two nights after Link woke up with a coughing fit that made him groan and double over, when he didn't even need to call for Hylia's help for she had arrived the moment after and had soothed him with her hands on his back and shushed whispers, when Link hadn't even thanked her before she left, when he couldn't fall asleep right after. He realized. He had been too harsh, too brash.
