Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a simple diplomatic mission. Go to the rivers to continue negotiations with the Zora, give their demands and wishes, listen to the king's demands and wishes, negotiate, and hopefully come closer to fully healing the relations between Zora and Hylians. This had been going on for the last year, and so far things had been going surprisingly well. Before the Zora were unwilling to listen due to the former queen being extremely loyal to Ganon, but after her death and the rise of her son to power the Zora were finally willing to attempt to heal relations and become allies as it is said they were so many centuries ago, possibly even during the time of the Hero of Legend. In fact, Link was hopeful that by the next awakening celebration the Zora and Hylians could finally have a fully civil relationship.
So he had been walking the path to the river the Zora royalty laid within alongside a few guards and the official negotiator, walking along the dull yellow grass and scattered trees with no more than a few leaves if they were lucky.
The dark gray sky and red sun were corrupted from years of evil alongside the rest of the world. The entirety of Hyrule was left in shambles from Ganon's reign. Almost all water sources had been poisoned, monsters had completely overrun the land before Link had taken out Ganon(though they were far from gone), famine and illness runs rampant, many children have been orphaned and/or don’t make it to adulthood due to the constant dangers surrounding the land for so long, most animals and plant species spoken of in myth have gone extinct if they ever existed at all, rain is rare, short, and one of the only unpoisoned water sources, the winters are harsh and unforgiving, the summers are even worse, fall and spring have always been the worse since their agreeable conditions allows monsters to run rampant and without the risks of the extreme weather. All that was left of Hylian settlements was a few towns here and there, as well as the small capital.
It had been 8 years since Link had initially defeated Ganon(2 since he awoke the cursed princess and the princesses had renamed themselves Dawn and Aurora to avoid confusion), and the land was on its way to slowly but surely being healed. The monster population had been run down significantly, the king and princesses had been working nonstop to try to heal the lands, provide healing, food and fresh water to the citizens, attempts to find Great Fairy Fountains and communicate with the Great Fairies to ask for help with healing the lands(though all attempts thus far had been unsuccessful), and the princesses were working together to use their goddess given powers to help slowly purge the darkness with the light of the heavens.
And Link? He wanted nothing more than to be a part of that healing process and help the royal family that had taken him in ever since he had saved Hyrule at the age of ten. And a crucial part of that healing process was fixing the destroyed relationships from Ganon’s reign.
Link kept his head up as he walked alongside the knights and the royal adviser, keeping a close eye out as monsters could appear at any moment, it was always a risk with the curse on his blood. But he could easily protect himself, and he even had backup!
Soon Link saw the clear and blue river(one of the few that was unpoisoned, the Royal Family had made it very clear that a part of their demands they refused to back down on was access to the clean water) and took a deep breath, he always felt nervous during these. He was laughably back with social interactions and was only here because one of the Zora king's demands was for the quote ‘slayer of the Demon King’ to bare witness for the royal family. Of course, with his curse, it was very suspicious. But after the demand was made the king refused any more negotiations until Link showed his face. And surprisingly he seemed to mean it, there had never been any attempts on Link since he had started joining negotiations, and it had extremely heightened the royal family's trust in the Zora king. Link was just relieved all he had to do was ‘sit still and look pretty’(as Aurora had put it).
Soon they reached the place where they were required to stand, a few feet away from the water, and waited for the Zora King to surface, and surface he did. A huge splash came from the river as King Danphas emerged from the water. He was a large green Zora(but not nearly as large as his mother had been) that towered over Link and the rest of the Hylians. As he laid his eyes on the group a large smile with those terrifying sharp teeth overcame his features and he looked down upon them with those predatory eyes. Link and the rest of the Hylians immediately did the Zora version of a bow, crossing both hands across their chests tightly before holding their hand out, palms facing the king, and then allowing their hands to fall to their sides. The King had been more than willing to teach the Hylians the proper way to welcome him before each negotiation.
“Ah, right on time as always Della.” He said with a smile, looking at the negotiator.
“Of course your majesty. We would never disrespect you by being late, shall we begin?” She asked with a smile, after over a year of weekly talks with the Zora Della had become quite adept with understanding the king. Able to relax as she took out the scroll with the royal family's official demands of this meeting.
The King nodded and she started reading from the scroll.
“As declared by The Great King of Hyrule, here are our asks and offers for you King Danphas of the Zora.
Firstly, we ask of you to once again allow us to collect the clean water of your river to aid us in providing the people of Hyrule fresh water to drink so they will continue to no longer have to go thirsty.
Secondly, we ask of you to please reconsider your demands of food from us. We currently do not even have enough food for ourselves, and giving the limited food we do have to your people would be allowing more of our people to starve.
Thirdly, we once again ask of you to please consider helping us with slaying the monsters around Hyrule, by helping us kill the servants of Ganon you will not only show us that you have chosen our side over theirs, but also will be helping in the restoration of Hyrule.
Fourthly, we are sorry to have to once again decline your offer to have the royal family in your palace for dinner. Between the nonstop work of the restoration of Hyrule, the preparations for the Festival of the defeat of Ganon in just a few weeks, the still uneasy relations between Hylians and Zora, and the protectiveness of the people of Hyrule over the royals(especially the princesses) we cannot accept the invitation.
Fifthly, we have decided to accept your request of allowing you to decide the punishment of a Hylian should they decide to break any of our agreements or settlements, especially attacking a Zora unprovoked as long as you allow the royal family to approve of the punishment first.
Sixthly, we wish to offer you and any Zora who wishes to go an invitation to the Festival of the defeat of Ganon as a show of goodwill and to show the Hylians that you mean no harm to them. This is also a way for you to have a one on one with The Great King of Hyrule himself after the celebration is over. We will provide any accommodations needed within reason for you and your people to comfortably enjoy the celebrations should you accept.”
As Della finished Link kept his head down as the invitation was spoken. He… honestly wasn’t sure how he felt about the invitation. This invitation was a show of massive trust as the entire kingdom of Hyrule came for the Festival of the defeat of Ganon, this was the royal family saying, ‘we trust you not to harm our people’ loud and clear… and that was terrifying for Link. He wanted to believe the Zora could be trusted but… it was a risk Link was terrified to take.
“You’re… inviting us to your celebration?” Link’s face shot up and he saw the look on the Zora king’s face, he seemed… shocked.
Della smiled brightly as she closed the scroll. “Yes King of the Zora, you have shown over this last year of negotiations that you are a reasonable person who can be trusted by the royal family. You do not need to accept, we will not be offended should you decline just as we hope you are not offended by us declining your invitations. But we hope that this shows that we truly want to welcome you as an ally to our healing kingdom.”
The King was silent before a large smile came onto his face. “I will have to think it over, now I would like to discuss the other parts of your paper, but first, I am more than willing to once again allow you to take the clear water from my river to help your people.”
And just like that, the discussions began.
The negotiations had been overall successful once again, and Link couldn't help being relieved. In fact, the Zora king had finally agreed to helping them clear the monsters off of the land!! Link wouldn’t lie, the second he had heard that he had lit up. He wasn’t sure if it was the invitation, the fact they were finally accepting one of King Danphas’s oldest demands, the months upon months of negotiations, or all of it combined but Link thanked Hylia that he had finally seen reason.
Of course, that’s when everything had to go wrong.
The King had just agreed when Link felt a sudden… push. It was weird, like something was… trying to drag him into the ground . He forced himself not to move, especially as the heavy feeling only seemed to affect him. But then, the push suddenly became much stronger and he couldn’t keep himself from collapsing onto the ground. Link could feel the eyes of everyone on him as he tried to get something out through the crushing feeling surrounding him.
He was able to force nearly two words out in a strained voice, “Something’s wro-” And then he was unable to do anything but watch as a dark portal opened beneath him and the last thing he heard before darkness consumed him was the panicked screams of the people he had been with.
The first thing he felt was being more comfortable than he had ever been in his entire life. He was lying on something that was so soft it was like lying on the soft petals of a flower, except ten times more warm and comfortable alongside the feeling of something heavy and comfortable across his body. Not to mention, he felt free . No longer constrained to his Hylian form or his Fae form. Allowed to simply be comfortable and safe like he only ever was allowed to be when alone with the royal family. He was probably resting in the room he had been gifted by the royal family after saving the kingdom… he could probably get a bit more sleep, unless Aurora was struggling with sleep again, or Dawn had another nightmare…
But… No bed in the castle was this soft, no blanket in the castle was this comfortable, and Link didn’t sleep in his true form .
Link shot up and as the blanket fell off of him the first thing he noticed was the green glow coming off of him, as well as the feeling of both his horns scraping the side of the bed and his wings fluttering slightly from the sudden movement.
Fuck.
Link immediately started looking around, trying to figure out where he was and what happened and why was he in his true form oh Hylia he was so dead if-
No. He could not fall down that line of thinking until he knew exactly where he was and what was happening.
He once again looked around without allowing his mind to falter and… he was in a house. The bed he was lying in was on the second floor of the house, with a wooden fence across the ending of the second floor up to the stairs, which were on the other side of the ‘room’ from him. Right next to the bed he was in was a window that was currently closed with light shining through, it had a dresser beneath it. As he looked down the bottom floor had a table with a carpet beneath it, and was covered by weapon stands that had said weapons sitting in all of their dangerous glory. Farthest away from Link was another dresser and… something that the half-fae has never seen before in all of his adventures throughout Hyrule.
That didn’t bode well for figuring out where he was.
A few feet away from both of those things was a door, said door was closed and Link was willing to bet money locked as well. Even with that thought, Link could not get over the wrongness he felt over this entire situation.
Especially now that the events before this were coming back to him.
This made absolutely no sense . Link had been literally consumed by a dark portal, and now he was somehow in a warm comfortable house!? Bullshit, but also his only real option since the portal forced him into his true form, nobody would help a obvious half-fae!! Not to mention, Link had never come across a house this large before, much less with this kind of structure! What else was there? that there was no way that if a bed this comfortable existed it wouldn’t be within the palace! Especially with how much Aurora struggled with sleep due to her fear! The fact that the sunlight was yellow was another red flag. How could yellow sunlight come from a red sun??? And the heavy blanket, sure it was comfortable, but it was also harder to move off of him quickly should the very likely need arise. And now that he thought of it, there was one bed. How could such a large house be for one person!? Forget that, how did a house this large even exist with how little resources exist in the kingdom!? Not to mention, how was it so warm??? It was the middle of fall, summer had already ended over a month ago!!
Overall this entire place was so wrong that Link was barely holding back a panic attack from that alone. What was-
The door opened.
Link’s eyes shot over to the door, and immediately made eye contact with a girl. She was older than Link, probably in her early twenties, and was wearing a long sleeveless sky blue dress. Her hair was in a crown braid(Dawn sometimes braided her own and Aurora’s into it), and though he couldn’t make out the color of her eyes from so far away her gaze almost immediately fell upon him, and when she saw Link a bright smile came onto her face that only served to make the Hero of Hyrule stiffen. Was she happy that she could finally demand answers from him? She probably needed healing and would make it clear what Link needed to, he wouldn’t be surprised if the woman recognized him and was going to threaten to tell the rest of the world about his disgusting-
“You’re awake!! She said with that huge smile as she immediately rushed up the stairs, Link could feel the dread only growing as she came up to the bed. “Are you alright? We saw you fall through a dark portal into the great plateau while collecting flowers. We couldn’t see any injuries on you, but I’ve never dealt with a half-fae before. That’s what you are right? There hasn’t been one recorded for centuries!”
Link couldn’t keep himself from stiffening upon the mention of his heritage. Before he had held onto the small hope that she wouldn’t be able to recognize it. Hadn’t realized the thing that was sitting in what was probably her house.
Shit.
Luckily she didn’t seem to notice as she continued to speak. “We brought you to my house in Hateno Village after we found you so you could recuperate. I hope you don’t mind. Me and Riju, she’s the Gerudo chieftain if you didn’t know, were on a date when the portal suddenly opened and-”
He opened his mouth and closed it multiple times, unable to get anything out as he suddenly took in her appearance now that she was much closer. Link was struck by how similar she looked to the princesses. Sure she was blond instead of having the amber hair Link was used to, but her facial structure was nearly identical, and her green eyes were identical to Dawn’s. In fact, change her hair color and make her younger and she could easily be mistaken for one of the princesses from a distance.
“What the hell is going on right now???” It slipped out before he could stop it, and he immediately slapped a hand onto his face as he felt horror dawn onto him. He had no right to say something like that to someone who had. for reasons Link couldn’t begin to understand, willingly brought a half-fae, something that was literally considered a curse and bad luck to have around, and brought it into her home!!! Sure he didn’t understand in the slightest, but he owed a huge debt to this girl and her girlfriend(though Link had no idea what a ‘Gerudo’ was). And how does he repay it? Interrupting and disrespecting her! Link could feel himself shrink, but instead of getting rightfully angry, she blinked and a moment of realization seemed to hit her.
“Oh, oh I’m so stupid! Of course you wouldn’t- Oh my gosh I never even introduced myself to you! The name is Zelda.”
“What…?” And suddenly everything just got ten times more confusing.