BOTW Link X Abused!Reader

A New Friend

I lean into Link as the guards' eyes bore into me. Link pulls me closer with a hand on my hip.

"She needs to leave." Dorian says. The other guard nods. I pull away from Link and run up a path to the shrine visible from Link's place at Impa's doorstep. My body hurts from the run, but I don't care. I sit with my back against the shrine's door and shut my eyes. It seems everyone hates me, no matter where I go. Link was right. Hyrule probably wasn't the greatest idea for me. I hear something hitting the ground and open my eyes. Majesty walks over to me and lightly nuzzles my cheek. I rub the stallion's cheek, rolling my head back against the door behind me. The stallion lays down next to me, laying his head in my lap. I brush out his mane with my fingers until Link appears a few minutes later. I have Majesty's mane almost completely tangle-free. I shut my eyes again, my hand resting on Majesty's forehead. Link sits down, and I turn to look at him. He's sitting on my right side, leaving my left side to the stallion.

"I'm sorry about them." Link says. "They're just scared because of Calamity Ganon."

"I know they are." I say. "Trust me, I know." Link has a slight smile on his face.

"On the bright side, Impa said that we could fix my Sheikah Slate. Apparently it's not complete."

"Oh, right. Hateno village, here we come." I say. He nods, and the stallion gets up. Link gets up next, pulling me up with him. Link pulls himself into the saddle and I pull myself up next. We trot out of the village, with the whole village seeming to give me sour looks, then canter back the way we came. Link suggests getting Nightwing from the stable while we're close to it.

"Sounds good to me." I say. "It's quicker that way, too, right?" He nods as we stop at the stable. He asks to take out Nightwing, and the guy nods. After a few minutes, the black stallion emerges.

"Told ya he was different from the game." Link says, patting the black pegasus stallion. He looks exactly like the stallion would if he came straight from the Guardian Herd book series. "He talks, too." I look at Link in shock. If he talks, he just might be from the book series, after all." He turns back to the stable guy and asks if Nightwing could be transferred from his group of horses to mine. The stable guy says he can do that, and shifts Nightwing's name from Link's stable to mine. I look at Link, who gives me a relaxed smile. He has something to gain from this, I'm sure.

"Why'd you do that?" I ask as we canter along the path. "You've gotta have something to gain."

"I don't, really." Link says. "Other than helping you out." I shake my head.

"No, when someone does something for you, they usually have something to gain from it." I say.

"That's what your folks taught you." Link says. "They're wrong, there. Some folks are like that, others aren't. You've just gotta understand that your parents told you lies to keep you under their control longer. I can help you adjust to not having daily beatings and figuring out what lies they told you. If  you want, of course. I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to."

"O-ok." I say. "Not sure what you can get from this."

"Only a new friend." Link says with a smile. I sigh, shaking my head. He's so weird.

"You're so weird." I say. Nightwing nickers and taps my foot with his nose as he canters.