Gone With the Wild (Zelink)

Chapter 1

Late one evening, Link was awake with Princess Zelda in her study tower, looking over a few papers and maps. Sheikah slate discarded on its separate table, they were attempting to plot out a schedule for their next excursion out of the castle. They planned to be out for the next two weeks, so each day had to be planned carefully and meticulously.

Zelda seemed to be the most stressed about this excursion, seeing as it was the trip to the final spring, the Spring of Wisdom on Mount Lanayru. Link attempted to do most of the planning out of the two in an attempt to alleviate the stress from the Princess' shoulders, but it seemed to barely be working.

"It'll take us three days ride to get to Gerudo Town, so we can at Outskirt Stable if we need, and then the stables in the Gerudo Canyon and—" Link stopped talking when he felt Zelda's head fall onto his shoulder. "You okay?" He asked her, passing his fingers through her hair. "We can continue this tomorrow, there's no need to finish this now." He told her, hearing a small quiet yawn come from her.

"No, no, it's alright, I feel alright, let's finish this now." Zelda raised her head and looked at the notepad Link was writing on. He had every day planned out, blank spaces left for every day for any activities or stops either of them wanted to make.

Link pulled another blank sheet out from this pile of papers and wrote a shortened version. "Here, we'll do this," He pulled out a pencil and began writing simplified versions of the days such as Day 1-4, day 5-7, day 8-11, day 12-14 and showed her. "We'll put Gerudo desert here," He pointed to the first section "then we'll spend a day or two there, and move onto the Zora's Domain, I'll tell you more in detail tomorrow and then we go to Mount Lanayru after?" He looked over and saw the princess trying to process the information, eventually nodding after mentally, and using her fingers to calculate the days and the trips.

"It's bed time for you." Link stood up and lifted the princess into his arms, her tired protests lasting perhaps 10 seconds before giving up. "Aren't you happy your study is right next to your bedroom?" He chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and drifted off to sleep in his arms. He opened the door of the tower and shut it carefully behind him, taking care to not drop Zelda at the same time, before walking along the small stone bridge connecting the tower to the castle, or more specifically her bedroom. The guards patrolling above waved to Link who nodded back and told them good night before reaching the door to the bedroom and once again opening it in an awkward way.

He finally got into her bedroom and approached her bed, carefully shifting the princess in his arms in order to undo the sheets on the bed. After successfully, and almost swearing at the tightly made bed, he was finally able to put her down. "Down leave~ Stay." She mumbled after he placed her back in.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning." He told her before approaching the main bedroom door, the one that led into the castle.

"Noooo, stay Linky." She pouted in her sheet. He grimaced at the nickname she had given him weeks ago, but found it hard to refuse her when she took her sleepy tone. "At least give me a little kiss."

"Okay, that much you'll get, but I need my sleep too, you know." Zelda smiled when he came next to her and kissed her cheek good night. He quickly left afterwards, making his way to his own private chambers, a few doors away from the Princess'.

He walked lazily along the halls past the guards of the night shift and the remainder of the servants about to retire for the night. Once at his door, he entered and placed his shield on the wall mount and discarded his tunic and undershirt onto the table nearby and stretched his tired limbs. It had been a long day of running around the castle, following Purah, Impa and Robbie as they dragged Zelda around the guardians and their makeshift lab. He had found himself parrying two separate guardian beams that had misfired from the same machine, almost taking his head off in the process. He shook the memory away and approached his window, opening it and letting the soft breeze run through his hair and along his chest. He could see Castle Town from where he was, the lamplights lit up the streets and the last few people outside ran to their homes.