Neighboring Lands

You, Me, Two Pets And A Cottage; What Could Go Wrong

The next time and Hyrule that I appear in has a brunette Link, something that is new to me; I thought they were all blond or at least dirty blond. Hyrule is more wild, overgrown, and unruly; the Zelda here has broken the Triforce into eight pieces and has hidden them throughout the land in order to keep Ganon from obtaining it. I meet this Link when I slam onto the roof of a home he happened to be passing by, my body ragdolls down the roof and falls onto the hard ground, as he looks at me confused and unsure. He makes no move to help me, weary of my sudden appearance and curious as to if I might have died from that, and where I might have come from. When I am able to move and breathe once more I sit up slowly while wincing and introduce myself in a strained wheezy voice, still in pain, yet needing to get this show on the road. "Names (y/n), Here to help."

"Did you just fall from the sky?"

"...Yes...yes, I did. Not important, I'm here to aid you to save Hyrule," my voice raspy due to the pain.

"Are you the hero then?"

I pick myself up off the ground and brush the dirt off of my mended clothing, "Uh, no that's you....Well, I am in a way, but to a lesser extent."

Link sighs as he leans against the wall of the home I fell from, "I'm not much of a hero or adventure; I'm just a traveler."

Waving him off I smile at him, "Anyone can be a hero if they do enough good deeds. Do you know where we should go first?"

"No...I was just going to walk around and follow my intuition."

Taken aback I blink up at him, "I'm sorry...what?"

"Well, I had a dream where a woman told me I needed to find a hero who descends from the heavens and save Hyrule. I figured if I found someone more capable I would pass the message along. Now you're here, so it's up to you."

I laugh in disbelief, "Uh, no. That is not how this works, let's go; I need your help to do this. I'm pretty weak physically, so I need someone strong with me." 'At least Link kept his promise and made my appearance sound cooler than it actually is.'

With a heavy sigh, he leads the way, "I'm not cut out for this."

"No one ever is ready for it at first. You have to grow into it. I'll be here for you every step of the way," I give him a bright smile and bump him with my hip, "We're a team."

Link sighs once more, before moving away from that topic, "Why do your ears look like that? And why do you speak like that?"

Blushing I cover my ears, "Why does everyone always bring them up? Have you never seen another race before?"

"Not like you, no," he lowers one of my hands and brushes the hair away from my ear to study them. "I've seen many races and creatures during my travails and none of them spoke the way you do, nor did they have ears like yours; they're interesting."

Flustered, I avert my eyes from him, "In a bad way?" I look everywhere but at him. 'These Links and Zeldas are really killing my confidence when they mention my ears like that.' I raise my hands to cover them once more, only to have his warm calloused hands wrap around my leather-clad wrists, stopping me in my tracks.

"No, in a good way," a small smile decorates his face as he lowers my arms to my sides, and relieves me from his grasp.

A small shy whisper flutters from my lips as I move to walk around him, embarrassed from the compliment, "Thank you." With more confidence, I look up to him, and with a rosy-cheeked smile I introduce myself, "I'm (Y/N) by the way."

"Link," his smooth voice responds with a reserved grin of his own making its way onto his face and causing my stomach to flutter.

With that we start our travels, this Link is uneasy with me at first, yet lightens up shortly after I embarrassed myself in front of him causing him to laugh at me when I tripped and fell face-first into a tree. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made, and my face was one of those. As time passes in our adventure I learned quickly that this Link was very well equipped for defending Hyrule. If I felt useless helping The Hero of Time, man do I feel downright infantile with The Hero of Hyrule. Magic, he can do it. Sword fighting? I'm untrained and haven't the slightest idea, Him? He is amazing. So smart that when he points out anything to me, I feel like an imbecile for not noticing it sooner. Any obstacle we encounter one of his spells or items is able to take care of it. During our downtimes at night, as we get ready to rest, I beg him to teach me anything he can about weapons, plant life, and any puzzles we might encounter or have. He gladly does, and we quickly discover that I have no talent for sword fighting whatsoever. In fact, he had to stop my training as I quickly became more of a threat to ourselves than any enemy has ever been. Forced to use my magic, which he could match easily, we continued on; the feeling of inadequacy grows with each passing day, and so does my admiration for him. He is everything I wish I could be, and he makes it look so easy, as it comes so naturally to him.

Soon after we defeat Ganon we are drawn into another mission, to save Zelda I from the sleeping curse put on her. Confusion rises up within me since there are now two Zelda's, but I brush it aside and help Link. During our missions, we become closer, dare I even say, best friends? I dare because we are. Between our two adventures and the downtime between my jumps; I end up being in this time for two years.

We had a quaint little cottage on the outskirts of town, a dog and a cat who loved to steal our bread, and friends in the village who helped us get our garden started, and would watch our pets when we went on a quest. I was starting to become happy, sure that I would be stuck in this time and maybe even start a family. 'Does Link want any kids? Would he want kids with me? Out of everyone I have met here, no one compares to him...and no one compares to Damian. Maybe I could speak with him about this and see what he wants, or even who he wants. We could always just be friends who live together and have kids. That's a thing right?' I slap my red cheeks as my mind races, dirt from the garden I am tending to pillow away from my gloved hands and crimson cheeks. 'Control yourself,' my mind hisses at me as I go back to planting some potato seeds, our dog Fero happily chewing on a stick under a shady tree in front of me. Our cat Sel was most likely sleeping next to Link in his bed, curled up around his messy bedhead. The warm morning was calm and comforting, my mind settling down into silence as I focus back to the task at hand; food for the coming months and stocking up for winter. My body was abuzz with joy as I worked; the joy of finding a place to belong and prosper, the joy for the life I have built, and the joy of being able to stay here right alongside Link and our pets. Yet that was not the case; all too soon, as Link slumbered in his bed sleeping, and I tended to the garden, I was transported away. I am ripped away from the life I have created here, leaving behind my home, my best friend, my pets, the life I had grown to love, and a life I knew I had always wanted to have; I was ripped from the life that helped wase the sadness and guilt I had felt for abandoning everyone in my time. Ripped away from the Link who made me feel so useless and so useful all at the same time, the Link who I wanted to stay with if I were to never return to my own time; and the Link who I wished I could bring with me to my time so that he could have a new adventure unlike any he has ever had before.