Not A Damsel

Chapter 3: The Old Man

A/N: Like I said. I'm going for shorter chapters and more frequent updates. I just wrote this 1.5k word chapter in the last few hours, so enjoy the new reading material! :D Not much happens, but the next update should be fairly quick too!

~~~

Link startled awake in the late afternoon. At some point of resting beneath the sunlight, she must've fallen asleep. With a wide yawn and a tentative stretch—she still half-expected her scars to hurt, but they were only unpleasantly tight—she hauled herself to her feet and glanced about. That old man was still sitting by the fire pit. Was he... waiting for someone?

With a somewhat self conscious motion, she ran her fingers through her hair. It was longer than it'd been before—something she had every intention of rectifying the moment she found a knife—and quite hopelessly tangled. She eyed the frayed edges of her scavenged shirt and carefully broke off a strand, using the material to tie back her hair. It wasn't perfect, but it'd do for now.

Feeling still quite shabby but deciding it was enough considering the fact that she'd been asleep for a hundred years, she made her way down the dirt path towards the man and his fire. He didn't acknowledge her presence until she sat on the log across from him.

"Baked Apple?" He held it out towards her, finally lifting his gaze. Both of them froze when they saw the other. "It... cannot be... Zelda?"

"Father?" Her voice was hardly a whisper. Her mind whirred with thousands of questions. It'd been a century! How could her father possibly be alive?! And why was he dressed like...

The apple fell to the ground with a heavy thump. "Is it... truly you, my daughter?" His hands trembled as he reached out towards her, only to pull his hand away. She didn't want to admit how much that action hurt her.

"I... I'm sorry." She looked down, the shoddy tie finally coming undone causing her hair to fall around her like a curtain and hide her face from his sight. "I failed you. Our kingdom. Everything. It's... all my fault. Because I couldn't awaken my power..." Something wet hit her hand and it was only then that she realized she was crying. "I'm sorry."

"No. I am sorry." Rhoam let his hood fall. He looked just as she remembered him, but she hadn't seen him make such a heartbroken expression since her mother died. "I was afraid. I pushed you because I was scared. But I was wrong to do so. My daughter, I do not care about the kingdom. I care about you. But I was blinded by my fear, and because of that I not only ruined your childhood, but I stole your life. This is not your fault. It is mine."

She slowly raised her gaze, eyes widening as she ascertained the honesty in his words. "But..."

"You were always enough. And no matter what, I was so proud of you. You... are just like your mother." He gave a soft, nostalgic chuckle. "Always questioning things, researching ancient technology... why, I recall that the day we met she was covered in oil and grease. Took me months before I realized she was the princess..." He gave a heavy sigh. "But I digress... I have gotten off-task."

Zeld—Link, she was Link now—would admit that she was sorely disappointed that he cut himself off. He'd been very tight-lipped about her mother since her death. Most of the stories she'd heard of her mother had come from the maids and knights rather than her own father. He'd taken her death rather hard. But he was right, now was not the time for such topics.

"When we realized that reaching the castle was hopeless, Link and I... he tried to get me to Hateno. But there were far too many Guardians on the way. He was getting badly injured and I ordered him to return to the castle without me—to fight Calamity Ganon while I held the Guardians off." She ignored the sharp intake of breath from her father. "I died. I believe Impa and Purah brought me to the Shrine of Resurrection."