Help (not) Wanted-botw Link x oc

Chapter 3

LINK'S POV

I hate her. I hated her so much.

At first, when I met her outside the shrine of resurrection, she was just a nuisance I thought would leave soon. But she didn't.

All I wanted to do was protect her. The calamity...I don't remember much, but I remember loss. That awful feeling. Getting to know someone and feeling that sick wave of dread and guilt and sadness when you hear the perished.

I didn't want to get attached to her. I didn't want to...care...for her. I couldn't. Because if I fail again, she'll die. Or even if I screw up once with her at my side, it could be lethal to her. And if I die (again) I can't have her care for me. I can't have her feel the same loss I felt those years ago.

That just want happening.

But I couldn't seem to shake her off. She stuck around. A trait I wanted so desperately to hate, but also was secretly incredibly grateful for.

It reminded me of...me. Following my captain's orders. Following my king's orders. Except, apparently, she was following the goddess's.

Why? Why did they gave me an aid? Was I that bad at my job? Was I that weak? Or did I always need someone? Was that why I failed a hundred years ago? I didn't have someone that...cared?

Well, like it or not, and I choose not, I had one now. And she was more stubborn than anyone in Hyrule.

And, goddesses, she had a temper. I learned that out the hard way.

But maybe that would be useful. Because she was coming on my quest with me. No matter what. I can only hope that I can ditch her at some village. Maybe then she'll live a normal life and not feel the same loss I felt all those years ago...

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NAVI'S POV

Link was recovering. We'd been sitting on top of the tower in thick, furious silence for hours. Finally he could stand up and walk, but he hunched over slightly and his face was alarmingly pink on the side I slapped him.

When he could move from one end of the tower to the other without to much obvious pain, I decided it was time to go. The sun had dived down and brushed the tops of distant mountains.

I didn't even glance back as I hopped down the platform onto a ledge. "Let's go."

I could sense him behind me, and hear him hiss when shocks of pain ran up his body when his boots made contact with the ground. It brought me a slight tingle of satisfaction.

Finally, I reached the grass. I leaned on the tower as I waited for Link, who was a couple minutes behind me. As soon as he touched down next to me, I turned to him. "Where's the closest shrine?"

He glanced down at his slate and wordlessly lead the way to a patch of ruins in the distance. I strolled behind him at a leisurely pace and admired the sunset. The pinks, blues, yellows, and purples seemed painted by Hylia herself. Wispy clouds dotted the horizon, tinted peach and lavender.

When we made it to the ruins, I wandered through in fascination. I was lost in fantasies about it's past and the people that could've lived here before the calamity when I heard a mechanical swiveling sound. In a heartbeat, a red dot was focused on my chest and a rapid beeping was echoing through the ruins. I stood—frozen—as I watched the machine train a pink eye on me.

It was the same design as the shrines, like it was from the same era, and though completely frightening, I had a strange fascination drawing me toward it.

The beeping was getting faster and faster, and deep down I knew it was going to fire at me in seconds.

I stared it down in petrified fear, resigning myself to death, when a rough hand pulled the back of my traveling tunic and my body with it. I fell down and a jet of blue light pierced the air above my head. I was acutely aware of Link crouching behind me, of him swiftly lifting me off my feet, arms under my knees and neck, while the machine refocused its laser.