Second Hand of the Chosen Hero

Chapter Ten

They hadn't had too much left in the day before night was looming overhead. The sky seemed so different from this angle, though if someone was to ask her how, she would be hard-pressed to tell them. It just seemed so high. So far away.

She worried for the first little bit of their trip, that Link was going to send her back now that he had a surefire way of doing so. These statues, the old, old ones that had the ability to assist people in going to and from the sky, were scattered throughout the woods they were venturing through. They'd come across a few both broken and whole, and while Tya would have adored being able to look at them, she was... not doing the best?

An understatement.

Her shoulders ached and her legs were tired. Both things she could handle, but she hadn't slept the night before and she hadn't eaten either. She was dizzy, and her physical ailments were only half the problem. Her mind hadn't calmed in how persistent it was, presenting her with anything from guilt to paranoia to hatred and then, after having to deal with it, to the desire for death just to shut herself up.

She didn't even know how she could manage to be both numb and overwhelmed- it made no sense to feel nothing but everything, yet here she was. And the worst part of it was now that Link was going to have to deal with it.

He did not deserve to have to put up with her.

Running off would call his attention and make him follow, and continuing while she was having her internal breakdown risked him looking back and seeing her in such a sad state.

She needed to go home.

"Link," she called to the boy guiding her, earning a hum of acknowledgement back. "It is getting dark," she said. "We likely shouldn't stay in the night, should we? We-" she really, really didn't want to stay the night. Homesickness was causing her chest to ache. But there were valid, less self centered reasons in there somewhere, right? She swallowed, sniffling some and trying to force her thoughts on a track that wasn't her own selfishness.

It didn't work.

She was going to selfishly abandon her.

It was for the best, she didn't belong here. She wasn't cut out to be here to begin with when it came to the basics of battle. She knew enough on survival and exploration to possibly get by, but clearly there was something divine at work here too.

Something holy, something big, a destiny which did not include her. She was not supposed to be here.

Stop.

Stop Stop Stop Stop Stop.

She steeled, but it was far too late for that. In the smallest lapse of her focus, the careful mask of neutrality she'd constructed outwardly fell.

She hadn't heard the little whine that escaped her, nor had she realized just how awful she looked until Link turned back to see why she'd stopped speaking.

The way his expression shifted to concern filled her with a knowing dread, and she shook her head. She waved her hands in the only manner she could think to communicate; in a wordless plea to not notice her. Link either didn't listen or didn't understand, as he moved to her and gently swept her hands up in his own.

"You're right," she heard him say. Her eyes closed tight, the pressure forcing hot tears down her cheeks that she hadn't even noticed welling until they fell. He shouldn't have to deal with this.

In truth, Zelda shouldn't have had to either.

Goddess, she was such a fucking nuisance.

"Let's head back bef-before it- before it does get too late."