Forgive me | Legend of Zelda FF | ENG

14 ~ Unclarity

I spent the next few hours telling Link everything that had happened since the time he could still remember. However, I decided to tell him only the most necessary things that really had to do with the Calamity. I suspected that I would only upset him if I also told him that we had become quite close. While it hurt to think that he had forgotten all about it, telling him all over again when he didn't even know about it was probably much worse.

Therefore, I limited it to our travels together to the springs and villages, as well as the eruption of the Calamity and the moment when my Power awakened. Link just listened most of the time without saying much. It must have been quite painful and incomprehensible to him as well; if I were to lose all my memories, I would probably react the same way, if not drown in self-pity.
In addition, I told Link about the eruption of Malice from the Master Sword and explained to him how the overflow of it had occurred in the first place. I could see goosebumps forming on his skin as I told him these things.

"And that's how it all happened," I finished my narrative, as Link nodded, still walking beside me, completely lost in thought.
"I don't understand it all though," he continued as he smiled forcedly at me. "But I am so happy that you are taking your time to tell me all this, Your Highness."
Briefly he bowed to me, whereupon I placed both my hands on his shoulders.
"Of course I'll do it for you, Link," I explained to him as he eyed me in confusion. "And please drop the formalities. We're friends."

Now he looked at me even more confused as he took a step backwards, putting a distance between us.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness- I mean-" he stuttered as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly with his left hand.
"I'm sorry, Zelda," he now corrected himself. "But it's weird not addressing you like I'm used to."

I had to grin when he said that. Of course, it had to be hard; we had had just such a conversation before and he had responded with the exact same words. Maybe there was more of the old Link in him after all than I had originally thought.

Happy to have seen a piece of the old Link, I waved him over as we headed toward Rito Village. After all, I had a plan.

On my way to the castle, I had partly walked over dead bodies, because all the people who had been taken by the Malice were buried under it by now. Not only was it quite frightening and disgusting, but as soon as they came into contact with my Sacred Power, I could see them moving or breathing. So what if they weren't dead, but actually just trapped? Not corpses, but desperate Hylians waiting to be rescued?
This realization gave me an idea; even if we thought the Champions had died in the Malice, what if they were actually just trapped too, like the other Hylians? Who would know that?
And that's exactly why I wanted to go to the Ritos for the moment; to see if my hypothesis made sense, and if it did, to free the Champions.

I told all this also to Link, who listened attentively, when suddenly he made an important remark. "What if the Rito warrior had not come into contact with the Malice at all?"
And Link was definitely right about that. Revali could fly, and that could mean he had a chance to save himself somewhere.
"All the more reason why we should get there as soon as possible," I replied, at which point I waved him over, since he was still walking behind me.
A little surprised, he caught up with me as we continued our way to Rito Village.

🔹 🔹 🔹

"You want to just go there now?" Link asked, a little surprised, when we arrived at the Rito Stable, of which there was actually nothing left. I nodded to him.
The Malice had settled over the roof of the stable and the normally full green pines at the edge of the stable were only isolated sticks sticking up in the air. Among the slimy Malice I could make out a strange eye, which eyed Link and me insistently.
"What is that?", I spoke my thoughts aloud as I took a few steps back and stood behind Link. "Is there some weird monster created out of Malice?"
Link shook his head a little amused as I now hid completely behind him, whereupon I placed both hands on his shoulders and carefully looked past him.
"If you let go of me, then I can kill the monster for us," he replied with a slight smirk on his face as I immediately removed my hands from his shoulders.
"You don't even have a weapon," I interjected as Link put his hands on his hips.
"May I ask you to use your power on one of the trees?" he asked me kindly as I did as he asked without much thought.

I was amazed when the Malice moved away from the tree, leaving a healthy green fir tree. This meant that with my Sacred Power I had the ability to bring back life?
I couldn't think about it any longer as Link ran up to the tree and gathered a loose branch from the ground, returning it to me.

"You're going to fight with that?", I asked, puzzled, as he elegantly spun the stick, which still had a few pine needles hanging from it, once in his hand and then swung it through the air.
"Yup," was all he replied as he threw the stick at the eye already, hitting it right in the middle.
Confused, since everything happened so fast, I watched as the eye burst and melted into Malice. Startled, I now looked over at Link.
"What was that about?", I rebuked him, trembling. "I was totally scared."

Frightened by his impulsive action, I backed away from him a little. I didn't know what had happened to him, but he never would have done that in the past. He had always told me what he was doing and he had never scared me either. Now he stood there, shrugging his shoulders as he pointed towards Rito Village. "Let's go."

Cautiously, I cleared the way further as my gaze fell on Rito Village. The connecting bridges that formed the path to the village were completely covered in Malice, and I was a little afraid that the bridge would collapse if we just looked at it.
Link must have noticed that I was a little scared to set foot on the bridge, so he grabbed my left hand and stepped onto the bridge with me. His grip was firm, but not too firm either; I felt safe with him, even though I still couldn't understand his reaction from before; he hadn't even answered me.
But actually I would have expected an answer from him; the Link from before would have apologized as well. I don't know what had gotten into him, especially because he was now also so caring again.

Together we continued our way, step by step over the four connecting bridges, until we arrived at the village, which, who would have thought it, was also completely covered in Malice. The few remaining houses, which were attached around the village, were overflowed with Malice; the remaining houses had fallen into the depths and were thus lost forever.
I briefly looked to my left, whereupon Links and my gaze met for a moment, when I was suddenly startled. Not because of his beautiful eyes, which looked at me sweetly, but because of the red wreath, which lay around his iris.
"Link-," I put in as he blinked and the red immediately disappeared.
Now he gently put his arms around me and pulled me close.
"Forgive me, I didn't mean to scare you earlier," he whispered in my ear as he only tightened our embrace.

Somewhat alienated, I returned his embrace as he released it quite suddenly and unexpectedly.
"We should go," he said with a commanding undertone that made me wince.
Immediately he made his way up to Rito Village as I quickly followed him so that I could protect him from the Malice that besieged the entire village.

Perhaps we really knew far too little about the Shrine of Resurrection. After all, it was impossible not to notice that Link had changed somehow.
I sighed briefly; would I ever see the old Link again?