LoZ One Shots

A Wounded Heart

Link laid on the battlefield covered in wounds both superficial and deep. Is this how it ends? he thought bleakly.

He somehow managed to sit up despite the pain and look around. He was surrounded by countless dead allies. His brain hurt as he thought about all the friends he had lost in this fight.

The pain finally pulled him back to the ground. He was slowly bleeding out, and he wouldn't be dead quickly. He grimaced at the thought of a slow death. Just let him die now. It was inevitable at this point.

He heard the call of an officer nearby. Link managed a croak to his superior officer, but it seemed as if he didn't hear. As the officer headed in Link's direction, he noticed the fallen soldier.

"Princess! We have one survivor!"

His ears perked up. The princess was here? Why? This was no place for her. She deserved to be back in the palace with her silks and bodyguards. Where she was safe.

Zelda looked frantically in the area the officer had pointed her to. She noticed Link and ran to him. She slowly knelt to the side of him, putting a hand against a bleeding wound on his chest in a vain attempt to stop the blood from flowing.

"Link, what happened? Why is everyone dead?" she asked, worried.

Link coughed up a little blood before finding the strength to whisper a response.

"We were...outnumbered...surprised. Not prepared..." he trailed off.

"No, Link, you have to stay with me! Don't give up!" She shook him slightly, keeping his eyes from glazing over.

"I'm sorry, princess...but...I can't...not today."

He closed his eyes slowly and opened them back up again. Zelda could tell that he was on the verge of life.

"Link, come back. For me?"

Link gave a halfhearted smile. "If only it could work that way...I'm sorry."

With those last words, his eyes closed. Tears welled up in Zelda's eyes, spilling out onto her cheeks. She wept over the fallen hero.

She thought bitter things against the perpetrators. They had taken Link away from her, and they would pay.

She tried, whithout success, to swipe the tears away from her face. The futile attempt just smeared his blood on her face. Smiling sadly, she placed a soft kiss on the hero's cheek.

"Officer? Please bring this man back with us. We may still be able to save him."

The captain hesitated. "Milady, I don't think there's anything we can do for him."

"Please. Just bring him."

Her swollen eyes and sad countenance convinced him. He slung the fallen soldier across his shoulders

Upon reaching the castle, Link was taken to the medical ward. Zelda didn't leave his side until the tests confirmed that he was dead. Nothing could save him now.

She knelt next to the improvised beds for the sick. This war had cost a lot of lives. But why Link?

She cradled his head in her arms, letting her tears fall onto him. Her red eyes were so swollen that she could barely see out of them. But the tears flowed freely.

"I'm sorry we sent you to your death. I'm sorry," she managed between sobs.

After letting the princess mourn, the nurses urged her to get back to her duties as princess. She wiped the tears pooling in her eyes and straighten her back.