Blood Moon: A Story Before the Calamity

Two

     Link did not wake up today.

     He didn't wake up yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that.

     He did not wake up on any of the 365 days that I had spent in the Castle.

     I had cried myself rivers the first few days here, the light torn from me, leaving behind bleeding gashes on my soul, the sheer exhaustion of summoning my power of light when I was nothing but a void of darkness coupled with the ever-present suffocation haunting me in both my waking moments and dreams chipping away at my sanity. Every second spent had lasted an eternity, yearning for human touch, for someone to talk to.

     But now? Every day blends into the next. It's almost dreamlike, how easily the time flows by me, leaving behind nothing at all on me. 

     Ganon was encased in a cocoon, striving to make himself a new body and unleash his fury across my land. It was my job to hold him back, tear away his progress, and to hope. 

     My hands lit up the darkness, laying over the Castle. I walked down the empty halls again, running my fingers over the once-great walls, the velvet carpeting the floors, trying to imagine that they were not slowly decaying into nothing more than rubble.

     It was eerily quiet inside Hyrule Castle, like the eye of the whirlwind of destruction that reigned outside its confines, I suppose. I could hear myself breathing as my feet took me, traversing the very same place the I had tread all my life, that I remembered with detachment, like these memories were put into my body instead of my own.

     I found myself at the doorway of what had once been Link's room again. Somehow, I had always ended up here. Feeling absolutely nothing, I walked in.

     A weak ray of sunlight poured into the room from the broken windows that Link had loved so much. I breathed in deeply. I liked to think that a whiff of his scent lingered here, some tiny part of him had stayed with me.

     Once again I flipped open his notebook, sitting on the wrecked ruins of his bed. My fingers lit up slightly to provide light. 

     I could almost imagine the lines streaming from Link's pencil as he sat in this very spot, doodling these pictures and tapping the pencil on his chin as he scrutinized the drawings, then narrowing his eyes as he erased an unsatisfactory part.

     The first one was of a small girl, no more than nine years old. Her pigtails were swept in the breeze as she laughed, her eyes shining, smiling at a joke that had never been told. Link had labeled this drawing "dunce".

     I touched the faded lines, closing my eyes, feeling the love the Link had poured into this drawing. I wondered if he had ever drawn a picture of me, and what he would label me as. It wasn't in this notebook.

     The next was of two people, a man and woman, the man strikingly looking like Link. The man had one arm around the woman, a sword on his back, the woman with a large basket underneath her arm, smiling gently. Link had labeled this drawing "birth-givers". I had to appreciate his dark humor on such a topic. 

     The rest were just casual doodles, the lines loose and comfortable. There was one with every single reincarnation of himself, each one different, each one unique. There was one of himself as my Link, squinting at a Hylian shroom. There was even one of Hyrule Castle, made a hundred times more imposing and intimidating.

     Was that how he felt about this place? If only he had known what fate would befall it.

     I found it interesting that there was no sign of war, battles, or the traumas that had haunted him ever since he had picked up his first toy sword. I closed the book tenderly and hugged it to my chest for a long moment, imagining that it was not a little notebook that I was embracing, but Link himself. 

     How was he? Once more I longed to see him, to trace his features with my eyes, see his lips curl up in a smile. He was all that kept me going, that gave me strength, the will to keep fighting.

     I didn't remember the exact shade of his eyes anymore. It had scared me, the first time I realized that I had forgotten that feeling it gave me when he turned his beautiful gaze on me. What if the rest of him trickled away over time as well? 

     I miss Urbosa. All it would take was a gentle smile from her, and all my troubles would disappear like dew underneath the blazing sun. 

     I stood in front of the painting of my father, staring at his long, white beard, his eyes that twinkled with life even in painting. I had failed him. He must had been so disappointed in his failure of a daughter. If only I had tried harder, then maybe he would still be alive right now.

     I had dimly noticed that whenever I summoned, I only had one Triforce instead of all three. With my wisdom-honed mind, I had contemplated the question, and the answer was so uselessly cheesy I had almost laughed.

     In that moment, I had held not only my own Triforce, but Power and Courage as well. Power to stand up for what or who I love, instead of just sit by the sidelines. Courage to love freely, and to put myself between Link and certain death just to save him. 

     So it all led back to love. I snorted bitterly. Look how much love had helped me.

     Light danced in my fingers as I raced down the hall towards the heart of the Castle, the Sanctum. Suddenly the Castle was plunged into darkness as I headed closer, an almost tangible darkness swallowing me. Ganon had sensed my presence and was fighting back, as usual. I pushed aside the despair seeping into the edges of my mind and pushed on, my sandals slipping slightly as I ran. Light burst from my fingers, as easily as breathing. I swept out my hand, cutting myself a path through the crushing presence of evil. And so it went, the back and forth battle leading nowhere.

     Every day I pushed myself further, testing the borders of my power. Now that the Triforce of Wisdom had awakened inside me, I could access the memories of every Princess Zelda there had ever been in Hyrule, at least, until they passed it on to their daughter. I could see, just from sifting through the overwhelming amount of memories, that the magnitude of my power was unheard of. But then again, I had taken seventeen years to uncover it, and using the full Triforce as well. 

     I found that ironic.

     Mipha would never get to tell me what she was going to say at Lanayru East Gate now, but I could tell that it was somewhere in the lines of love, the way her gaze had slid to Link. If only I had known that sooner. She might have still been alive.

     I waited for the pain to hit me, but it never did. So I was getting better at this, controlling what I felt. A savage pleasure ran through me.

     As I returned to my room, somehow still intact throughout this devastation, aching and exhausted, my eyes fell on that old diary on what remained of my desk. An odd sense of loss shook me as I gazed at it, worn and dusty, containing the childish musings of myself, desperately trying to sound older. A faint smiled tugged at my lips.

     I flipped through my own writing, pausing to shake my head at one particular bit, my heart clenching whenever my entry involved Link. And a lot of it did. How I despised him back then. How jealous I was, grumping about how he was the star, outshining me at all times. I chuckled, running my fingers over my angry handwriting. I was so oblivious, so naïve.

     Another day passed within the Castle. 

     Link did not wake up today.