The Silence Between Them | ✔

22) Saved

 ⚔ In which Zelda speaks to the Great Deku Tree ⚔ 

Zelda

I leave the Plain. I leave Link with the Sheikah guards, hoping and praying to any of the ancient goddesses to get him to the Shrine of Resurrection before it is too late. I carry his sword tightly in one hand, sometimes clutching it closer to my chest. I fiddle with the ring in my other hand. I'm never taking it off.

I've been walking for a while, coming through the other side of the Dueling Peaks when the sword begins to glow again. A pulse, slow to come, slow to subside. I smile slightly. He's still here. I clutch the sword again as if sending a message nobody but the blade will hear.

When I get to the other side of the mountain, there is a group of wild horses. I duck, making myself as small and quiet as possible, just as I saw Link do on the way here. I'm successful after just a couple of failed attempts.

I find myself looking around for Link, smiling when I tame my mount. But he's not there to congratulate me or say something snarky. He's not there to smile and tell me what I should do next. He's not behind me looking over his shoulder, always looking for danger. I frown before kicking the horse into a gallop toward the Lost Woods.

As if sensing my newfound destress, the sword pulses again. Just once. I urge the horse to go faster.

I pass Daya Village again on the ride. All the people there are gone now, either lifeless on the streets or running while they had the chance. The once beautiful, busting settlement resorted to nothing but a deserted graveyard of bodies and memories. The rain still comes – softer now – and the fires are gone. But the initial blasts of the Guardians set homes ablaze. I think of the guards staying in the inn because the Outpost was overcrowded, how they smiled and laughed and made jokes just a few weeks ago. Link was with me. He'd smiled at the man who trained him. I never got the man's name. I wonder if he made it out, I wonder where he is now.

I wonder if he knows the Hero he trained to be so amazing almost died fighting the battle he prepared him for.

I'm still riding when the sun rises behind clouds of malice. The rain still falls, but I can see the sun through some breaks. The whole scene looks ghostly and ominous, like the first new day in a world of terrors.

On the ride, I noticed how every single Guardian was deactivated. Some still flicker, trying to return to life, but they can't. I wonder if the blow I dealt reached the Divine Beasts, shutting them off, too. It's not like that would save my friends. They are surely dead.

I push the thought from my mind. If I can have it my way, I will ensure their sacrifices are not in vain. Link would say the same thing, doing everything he could to ensure we still win. That's what they all would want. That's what he would want. So I keep riding.

The long trek through the kingdom gives me plenty of time to think. I end up thinking about the Shrine of Resurrection. There is one catch to the whole ordeal because everything comes with a price for some cruel reason. My wish is for Link to stay alive. The prince is his memories. The long rest – how long, we don't know for sure – will take the memories. All of them. It's scary. He won't remember his family, his parents that loved him, or the friends he made. He won't remember me, all the things he did for me just to make me smile, all the secret conversations, all the rules he broke just to be with me.

But I've decided to do everything I can to help him remember.

It's nearly dark again when I reach the edge of the Lost Woods. I slide off the horse, but he doesn't move. Perhaps he'll stay. I'll need him again when I return, but I don't bet on it. I'll find another way.