songerein | open 🌻 a not so welcome return

Entry tags:

open 🌻 a not so welcome return

Who: Zelda and OPEN
Which: Open log
Where: Around town
What: Zelda returns to Song after disappearing for a canon update two weeks ago.
Warnings: Major Tears of the Kingdom spoilers in the first prompt. (opt out of TOTK spoilers here.) Also minor descriptions of choking and vomiting.

1. choking hazard

This isn't how it was supposed to happen.

They had it all planned out, Zelda and Mineru. They knew everything that needed to be prepared in advance, every task to plan or delegate so that all the necessary tools would be available to Link in the distant future. It was just a matter of getting it all in order before the end. They had only this once chance to get everything right. There would be no going back, no correcting mistakes, once Zelda swallowed her secret stone.

They had tried to plan for contingencies as well. What if Ganondorf broke free too early? What if the Temple of Time were damaged? What if Mineru's spirit faded before she could meet Link?

'What if the Princess is suddenly spirited away to a strange dream world before she could transform?'—was not among those contingencies.

Hidden away in a quiet alleyway not far from the Plaza, Zelda sits on the cobbled stone and tries to take stock of her situation. The Master Sword—more a stump than a sword at this point, its brilliant blade almost entirely corroded away—lays beside her on the ground. The princess's right hand rests protectively over its hilt, ready to grab the blade at a moment's notice, should anyone intrude on her.

'Songerein.' She knows that name. It stirs recognition somewhere deep, deep in the back of Zelda's mind. She had a dream like this once, during the long century she spent sealed away with Calamity Ganon. To think it was not (quite) a dream after all...

But that doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is getting back to Hyrule, protecting the Master Sword, and--

Zelda tries to swallow a lump in her throat.

--giving up her life for the sake of the future.

For the sake of Link.

Her brows furrow. She already tried (and failed) to use her power over time to return herself to the moment before she woke up here in Songerein. But she isn't willing to give up that easily. Zelda absently rubs the stone attached to her choker with her thumb. A mortal might be beholden to the rules of this realm, but what about a dragon? Mineru said that a dragon is unbound from the shackles of time, becoming ageless—deathless—an immortal shell of one's former self. Surely such a being could not be bound by the rules of dreams either. Perhaps the transformation will be enough to wake her and free her from this purgatory so that she can do her duty.

She'll do anything if it's for Link.

Clenching her jaw, Zelda yanks the stone from her choker and cups it in her palms. Such a little thing, and yet it's capable of such great—and terrible—things. It can draw out the greatest strength in anyone, allow them to build a kingdom of prosperity and paradise. But it can also draw out terrible evil, the cruelest of ambitions, the downfall of any goodness in the world. It is capable of allowing someone to live forever—at the cost of everything that they are.

She'll do anything if it's for Link.

Zelda clasps her hands over the stone and presses her forehead against them. "You must find me, Link. I may not know it's you... You may not know it's me... But you must come for me. You must protect everyone."

She raises her hands to her lips and swallows the stone whole.

The lump sticks in the back of her throat. Zelda swallows again and again, trying to push the stone down, but it holds fast. She tilts her chin up and strokes her throat, trying to coax it to relax. Come on, go down. Zelda tries to take a breath in order to swallow again, but only manages to suck in the tiniest hiss of air. The stone won't move.

The edges of her vision start getting dark. Growing frantic, she slaps at her throat with both hands. Please, just go down...

All of the sudden, Zelda lurches forward, falling onto her hands and knees. Against her will, she heaves. Up comes the stone, along with the contents of her stomach, splattering over the cobblestones.

It takes a minute for her to stop retching and catch her breath. When Zelda opens her eyes and spots the stone, her gut clenches up again and she lets out a wrenching sob.

"Why?! Why won't you let me go?"

What a horrible scene to come across, should anyone be so unlucky.

2. about town

It's the next day.

Zelda is still playing over the events of the previous day in her mind—she went to sleep in Hyrule, assured of her plans and ready to enact them. But when she woke, she was in this strange world, Songerein. A dream from long ago, a lifetime past, when the princess held back an ancient evil all by herself for one hundred years. Sometimes she was awake, watching over the land of Hyrule, watching over her knight as he slumbered. Other times, she slept, dreaming strange dreams about people from strange worlds and magic powered by the combination of dreams and emotions.

So it wasn't a dream after all.

Throughout the day, Zelda can be found wandering around town, looking lost and hesitant. She clutches the hilt of the corroded Master Sword with both hands, never once setting it down. She walks streets she used to know by heart, trying to stir memories that have been long dormant.

So lost in her thoughts, Zelda isn't entirely paying attention to where she's going, so it's very likely that she'll bump right into someone.

But even if she doesn't, she might stop you to ask for directions. Do you know the way to the library?—no, it was an archive. There's supposed to be a smithy around here, isn't there? Do you know of a place where they teach music?

Or maybe Zelda will make it to her destination—the smithy, the archives, dreambucks, the Plaza, or any such place. She'll linger outside, hesitant. Does she remember this place? Did she know someone here? Maybe she'll even step inside, milling around with the uncertainty of someone who knows they are looking for something but has forgotten what it is.

3. the wildcard option

Want a different prompt to meet or reunite with Zelda? Plot with me on plurk (

knighted), discord (triforce1960) or DM.

Also, feel free to reply in brackets instead of prose if you prefer.

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[Sheik isn't sure what brings him to the Plaza today.

It's not as though he misses being surrounded by people. If anything, he's been debating if he shouldn't have pulled away sooner, kept to the rules he'd had for himself in Hyrule and minimized how much he interacted with others. If he had run from the start, if he had never been brought to that masquerade, maybe that would have been better. At the very least, he wouldn't feel like this, wondering what he should have done instead while nursing a strange itch in the back of his mind that just will not cease.

Then he hears it, a horrid retching sound from an alleyway nearby. He turns the corner, some part of him hoping that the poor soul already has an escort to the clinic... and freezes. The singular word that follows is barely above a whisper; she might not even hear it in her distressed state.]

Princess...?

[It doesn't look like her - her hair is too short, her clothes are too strange, she's too hunched over for him to see her face - but he knows it's her, sobbing and apparently in pain, and suddenly everything else he had been thinking about doesn't matter anymore. An instant later, he's crouching at her side, reaching an arm around her shoulders and gently urging her to lift herself upright. His voice is soft in its urgency as he tries to calm her, and if it's an octave or so higher than she might recall in some distant memory, well. He's worried.]

Princess-- Princess, breathe. It's all right, just breathe, please.

[ Zelda isn't aware of Sheik's presence at all until he suddenly kneels down at her side, and even then, only distantly. She feels an arm around her shoulders, a familiar voice telling her to breathe, calling her—

—Princess?

Her frantic mind immediately latches onto the title she hasn't heard in months, not since before she was transported to ancient Hyrule.

Zelda jerks her head up and the first thing she sees is Sheik's mantle emblazoned with the Eye of Truth. An irrational thought leaps unbidden into her mind: did she somehow make it home after all?

One hand darts out and grabs a fistful of his mantle as she lifts her head high enough to see his face (partially obscured by a cowl, just like the ninjas of the Sheikah clan) and distinctive red eyes. There's a sense of recognition in the back of Zelda's mind, but no name surfaces. ]

Is this—? Am I—?

[ "—back in Hyrule?" Zelda's eyes flick away from Sheik's face and over their surroundings. It's the same alleyway from a minute ago.

She's still not home.

Tears well up in Zelda's eyes as her gaze returns to Sheik. ]

[Once upon a time, there was a Sheikah warrior who had not yet awakened as a Sage, who clutched her dear princess close as she sobbed, her cries echoing within the tiny cranny they had tucked themselves away in, far from prying eyes.

Sheik can't begin to guess what has distressed this princess so. His heart breaks as he watches her search his face for answers to the questions she cannot bring herself to voice, and though he wishes for nothing more than to speak them to her, to tell her how to solve all her problems and then some... Wisdom offers him nothing. It's just him, here with her, and a memory of the words spoken to a frightened child who just wanted to save the world all those years ago.

So, he passes them along. She looks to him with watery eyes, and he lifts a hand to lightly hold her chin, scarlet eyes steadily holding her gaze.]

... Right now, you are safe.

[This is important - the thing that must be recognized above all else - and so he allows that fact to hang silent in the air between them for a moment before the hand at her chin moves to the back of her head and pulls her in, burying her face in his cowl, tucking her under his chin and holding her tight. It likely isn't entirely comfortable (he can't remember the last time he's held someone like this, if he ever has), but that seems like such a minor concern in the grand scheme of things. Impa's words echo through him as he continues, his voice dropping back into its typical register.]

Everything else... will come with time. For right now, Princess, you are safe. You may cry, if you want. Scream, if it will help. But, please... do not become lost to despair.

[ Safe... As Sheik pulls Zelda in close, she begins to feel the message he is trying to convey. Fear, conditioned by the Imprisoning War, screams for her to grab the secret stone before anyone can see it, to take up the Master Sword and defend herself. But that feeling of familiarity is ringing louder and louder, punctuating her racing thoughts—the fear, frustration, and heartbreak of the recent days leading up to this tumultuous arrival.

Zelda squeezes her eyes closed and buries her face against him as Sheik envelopes the princess in his arms. Slender shoulders shake with quiet sobs as she listens to him. She grips his mantle with white knuckles, unaware of how hard she is pulling on it.

At offer to scream... Zelda actually does that. Muffling her mouth with the white cloth, the princess screams aloud into it. Everything they tried to do! Every plan they carefully constructed! Gone! Nothing has gone right, not a single thing, since the day Sonia died and Ganondorf became the Demon King. Isn't everything—everything—they sacrificed enough? And if not, why reject Zelda's sacrifice now? Why prevent her from giving up the only things she has left for the sake of the future of Hyrule, for the sake of Link?

Zelda keeps Sheik in this position for several long minutes, wailing into his mantle. Ever since Sonia's death, there's hardly been any time to grieve. Even her funeral was a hurried, quiet affair. After that it was war without end, skirmishes with the Demon King's army that Hyrule lost time and time again. The fleeting peace and happiness Zelda had known when she first arrived in the ancient era was gone. The prospect of returning home to her time was gone. The chance to see Link again was gone.

Somewhere in the midst of her tears, her memories of Sheik and the time they shared together in Songerein will return. Said memories slip into place like a book onto a shelf. But Zelda doesn't mention them. Even after her crying finally slows (which it eventually does), the princess remains silent in Sheik's arms. ]

[The seams of his mantle, worn and tattered as it is, strain and pop under the force of her desperate grip, and yet the sound is so small, so distant compared to the wailing of the girl in his arms. He's no closer to truly understanding what has brought her to this state, but... her grief paints a vivid picture in its familiarity. Loss, anguish, frustration-- he hears them all in her cries, feels them resonate with the child he locked away within himself so long ago, and he holds her all the tighter for it, as though he might be able to extend the shadows that protect him to blanket her as well, if only for a moment.

A song helped to comfort that child back then, so he hums it now as he holds her, the slow, sweet notes of that lullaby stuttering only once, when his eyes trail from the tiny, glowing stone nestled among the cobbles to the corroded, broken blade nearby.

That... is horrifying in its implication, but he cannot allow himself to falter now. Everything else will come with time, and if there's any virtue the past seven years have taught him, it's patience. Even when her sobs finally subside and he lifts the ragged edge of his tabard to dab at the edges of her face not buried in his cowl, he makes no mention about the state of the sword or what's made her so upset. Instead:]

... We should get you some water.

[Her throat can't be feeling good after all that.]

[ As it does for all who share its name, the hummed song helps lull Zelda into a state of calm. It stirs memories too—more gently than the way returning to Songerein stirred those ones—her mother's hands, always fiddling with some new machine; Urbosa's bedtime stories of ancient Gerudo heroines; her father's fuzzy beard, white even in her earliest memories. Even though all three of them are long gone, remembering them no longer brings anguish like it did when Zelda was a teenager. They live on in her heart, carried everywhere she journeys, and she plants their love with every new seed in the new Hyrule that she has the honor of helping to grow.

Zelda lets Sheik clean the ruddy edges of her face before sitting back on her heels. If he noticed the way she didn't seem to recognize him at first, he might now notice that that look has changed. Though her expression remains sombre, her face blotchy and tearstained, all the frantic confusion has faded.

Water. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Zelda nods, grabbing the hilt of the Master Sword like she's about to get up. But then— ]

Wait. [ Her voice comes out raspy.

Zelda reaches for the stone, its glassy surface somehow still bright and shining despite what it's been through. She touches two fingertips to it.

A small -thunk- sounds. The stone and the air around it fade to monochrome, and then it suddenly lifts itself up. The ticking sound of a clock's second hand can be heard as the stone floats up a few feet off the cobblestone, dithers around in the air for a few seconds (at one point brushing up against Zelda's neck), before settling back to its original place on her choker. Zelda makes a motion with her free hand and the enchantment vanishes, leaving the yellow stone secured upon her choker as if she had never torn it off. ]

[With how frantic she had been, it would have been difficult to read recognition or the lack thereof in her features, if he had cared enough to bother. A moment of foolishness on his part that he might look on with regret later as he contemplates what might have happened otherwise, but truthfully, whether or not she actually knew who he was was the furthest thing from his mind. She doesn't, after all, even now, so getting her back to a place of relative stability is far more important.

So he's thankful to see she seems to have calmed down as she pulls away from him, even if it's merely from tiring herself out. It's a start, regardless. He mirrors her, tucking his feet under him and beginning to pull himself up when she asks him, so quietly, to wait.

And he freezes.

As he watches the stone dance through the air, one could mistake his wide eyed stare for dumbstruck awe. The power to manipulate time is, after all, an ability few could claim to possess. But there's something almost fearful half-hidden around the edges of his expression, echoing more his reaction to her identity that night at the masquerade than simple surprise at witnessing something extraordinary.

... Don't panic. The last thing he can do is panic. Even if she now seems to possess the powers of the Seventh Sage, whose existence has remained secret all this time, that's nothing "Sheik" would find distressing. Breathe. She'll surely explain how she came into that power in time.

(Goddesses, has Wisdom branded her, too?)]

... You've learned a few things, since last we met.

[He responds with understatement, eventually, after shaking himself out of his shocked stupor and rising to his feet. He offers a hand to help her up in turn, and any glances he steals at the back of her own are brief and fleeting.]

That is to be expected, though, I suppose. You've grown, as well.

[The shifts in her features are subtle, to be sure, but the lack of time that has passed in Songerein throws them into stark relief against his memory. He can't possibly guess how long it's been from her perspective (especially since it was never explained just how long she was under that seal with the Calamity), but he would wager it's a time better measured in months or years than days or weeks.]

[ Fortunately for Sheik, the majority of Zelda's attention is focused on performing Recall, so she doesn't notice the fine cracks in his careful mask. (Something feels strange about Recall, something Zelda can't quite put her finger on, so it takes more concentration than normal to perform the feat.) The awe she does see in his face, she believes to be a reaction to her time magic (a conclusion that isn't entirely wrong).

"You've learned a few things, since last we met." That certainly is an understatement, one that manages to get a hint of a smile out of Zelda.

She extends her right hand to his, allowing him to help her up, while grabbing the Master Sword with her left. Sheik will be able to clearly see that there is no mark of the Triforce on the back of her hand. (It only ever appears when she uses her sealing powers.)

Zelda nods, keeping hold of Sheik's hand even when she's on her feet. Her body is weak from everything she's just put it through. ]

It has been a very long time.

[ Her eyes roam over Sheik, looking for any indication of how he's changed. Strangely, he looks just how she remembers him. Is it just because he always obscures his face, or has he actually not changed? ]

[Questions upon questions, churning in his mind like a maelstrom, yet he's resolved to bite them back all the more as her hand lingers in his, betraying her weariness. After all, how often can he say someone's sought him for support? Isn't that all he's ever wanted to offer her, anyway?

He tucks his arm around her own in turn as he leads them out of that miserable alleyway, allowing her to lean on him further if it should be required. Of course, he's aware of her eyes on him, as much as he's aware of anyone looking at him, but a glance spared in her direction tells him her scrutiny isn't one borne from a place of suspicion. It's too general for that.

A very long time, huh?]

It has certainly felt as such.

[Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it. Words that have seemed to haunt him as of late. His worry-laden hermitage in the woods must seem ridiculous from an objective viewpoint; after all, what does he possibly hope to accomplish by worrying over those from a future so distant he can scarcely imagine it? Yet, worry he did, and now--]

... But, in actuality, it has only been a few weeks since your disappearance from my perspective, your highness. [He says this as he leads her to a bench along the plaza's edge and urges her to sit. She doesn't need to be walking a long way anywhere until she's gotten water and preferably a bit of food down.] I would hear you tell of the time you've experienced from yours, but not before you've had something to drink. Will you be alright waiting here for a moment?

[local ninja about to make record time on coffee break gofer run--]

[ Zelda nods in answer to Sheik as he helps her sit down on a bench near the edge of the Plaza. Yes, she'll be fine waiting; he's given her plenty to think about while he's gone.

Only a few weeks... No wonder Sheik doesn't look any different from how Zelda remembers him. How is it possible for more than sixty years to pass in Hyrule, but mere weeks to pass in Songerein? It's a question she already knows the answer to, one she was readily accustomed to during her previous tenure here. Time in the dream world flows much slower than anywhere else, to the point of seeming to be at complete stand still. She dreamed that she was here for nearly two years—well, she was here for nearly two years. Then she "woke" to the seal as if no time had passed at all.

But knowing of this phenomenon and fully understanding it are two different things. It's hard to comprehend what this meeting must feel like for Sheik. For Zelda, it feels as though a lifetime has passed, maybe even two lifetimes. She feels like she's changed so much from the girl she used to be, the girl who struggled with her powers and shouldered calamity for one hundred years. How jarring that must be for Sheik...

And it's so strange seeing him again—seeing this entire world again—after so long. Just looking around at the Plaza stirs a deep sense of nostalgia, like one might feel when visiting one's childhood home. She used to love this place, didn't she? It was an escape from the hardship she endured—an adolescence of struggle and failure, of a looming threat, of shouldering everyone's hopes and then crumbling under the weight.

When Sheik returns from his gofer run, he'll find Zelda still seated on the bench where he left her, looking out over the Plaza while absorbed in her thoughts. The stump that is the Master Sword rests across her lap, her hands folded overtop of it. Once Sheik comes into her field of view, Zelda break from her musings and turn to him, greeting him with a gentle but tired smile. ]

[She's not left to wait for long. Sheik doesn't know what happened to her before he heard her coughing in that alleyway, but the threat of it happening again while he's not at her side nips at his heels and his patience in ways that are probably moderately concerning to the people working in the cafe he dips into.

He returns shortly with the promised water bottle in hand, as well as a small cup of something with a plastic utensil sticking out of it. His gaze lingers on the broken sword in her lap as he approaches - something he can only hope she doesn't fault him for, as it's a very difficult thing to tear his eyes away from - but he offers her both before he takes a seat himself.]

... They called it "gelato." [He explains, presumably about the cup of apparently frozen cream he also brought.] It is apparently very cold and sweet, so...

[He thought it would help. Is it obvious he's not accustomed to caring for people like this yet?]

[ Zelda accepts the offerings with a grateful nod. For someone who isn't accustomed to caring for other people, Sheik is certainly doing a good job. A cold sweet sounds appealing on this miserable, hot day.

She sets the cup of gelato in her lap before opening the bottle of water and taking a drink. The cool water immediately eases her aching throat. She's careful not to drink too fast, lest the sudden jolt of cold water upset her already unhappy stomach. ]

Thank you. [ She finally says. There's still a bit of a rasp to her voice, but she definitely sounds better.

Zelda looks out at the Plaza again. It still feels so strange looking at it, seeing it look exactly how she (now) remembers it. She's tempted to simply sit and enjoy the view for now, to let the nostalgia wash over her and grant her some measure of peace for a moment (something that has been sorely lacking in her life lately). But she also figures that Sheik must have questions (he's not the only one), but doesn't want to rush her.

So, Zelda ventures: ] From my perspective, over sixty years have passed.

S... sixty--?!

[The typically stoic Sheikah startles, unable to keep the surprise from his expression or his voice. Certainly, he expected their experience to differ in that regard, given her reactions to everything, but by such a magnitude...

... She hardly looks like a woman of over seventy years. Sheik reins himself in as that fact clicks into place, the puzzle that is the future revealing itself to him in greater clarity, as well as the depths of his ignorance. His reluctance to ask about her battle with the Calamity feels very foolish in retrospect, but what was the alternative? Hounding her for what, his own satisfaction? He could hardly do that either.

Hidden by his cowl, Zelda will be unable to see the way his lips purse as he considers this information, but a moment later, when he feels he's regained his usual countenance, he remarks:]

Little wonder then, that you seemed so disoriented. I can scarcely imagine how returning here after such a long time must feel; you must have thought this all behind you.

[Of course, this is not addressing the whole... choking thing, but one step at a time.]

[ Zelda takes another drink as he speaks. Now that she's more lucid, she notices his surprise. Right, sixty years is a long time. It's been so long since Zelda had to explain about her century in the seal that she'd forgotten how common this reaction used to be.

Zelda nods. ] I thought that all this was but a dream. [ Then she laughs softly, realizing what she said. ] —A dream that I had while I was sealed away with Calamity Ganon, an invention of my mind to distract me from my decades of confinement.

[ To think that it was real. ]

It has been four years since Link freed me. Not so long as sixty years, but... [ She rolls the water bottle between her palms. ] ...long enough that this place feels like a lifetime ago.

[... It stings, a little, to have been forgotten, to be thought of a dream. A petty and entirely unwarranted feeling, he knows; it's not like she had any control over that, and she had far more important things to be focused on, besides. Being sensitive to such things is pointless as well as cruel, regardless of where that sensitivity is coming from. He swallows it down instead of laughing with her.

(Will he forget, too? Will he return to Hyrule foolish and naive, thinking they've actually atoned for their mistakes when Ganondorf falls?)

Focus. The present needs him more than the past or future do right now.]

The Calamity is gone, then. That's good. [He allows himself to feel some relief with that - a far more preferable emotion.] Four years... not so long, perhaps, but you've been kept quite busy during that time, haven't you?

[Rebuilding Hyrule. He knows better than most what a monumental task that is.]

[ Again, Zelda nods. Even though Sheik doesn't say "busy with rebuilding Hyrule," she knows that's what he's alluding to. If only she knew just how well he understands the Herculean undertaking that is rebuilding Hyrule. ]

I have, yes. We all have. [ Despite the magnitude of the task, Zelda's expression remains soft, a hint of a smile on her lips. ]

When I first woke and saw Hyrule again with my own eyes, I was surprised. Not just because of the devastation left behind by the Calamity, but because of what had grown up in its place. I think I was expecting Hyrule to look just like it did the day Calamity Ganon awoke, but it didn't. I thought I would find fresh wounds, but all I saw were healed scars.

[ She pauses for a moment to drink the rest of her water. Talking is still bothering her throat a little. ]

Edited 2023-09-06 21:50 (UTC)

[It is rare that Sheik wishes this Princess from the future knew the truth about him. Far more often he is terrified of the thought, of seeing the gentle fondness she regards him with turn to disappointment and betrayal as his deception is revealed, but... just this once, it might be nice if she knew. If the two princesses could speak openly about the love they have for their country, of the pride they have in their people despite everything, and know that somewhere across the abyss of time that separates them, there is a girl that feels the same way.

But the Princess of Destiny fled her people, and Sheik is but a shadow that will disappear from history when the time comes, so all he can allow for is a wistful look to cross his expression, his eyes revealing the pride in his smile beneath his cowl.]

... A wound requires both time and protection to heal. You gave Hyrule both.

[In spades, apparently.]

I cannot imagine how excited the people must have been to finally meet the one who had protected them all that time.

[ His words bring a little smile to her lips, an air of embarrassed self-consciousness he has probably never seen from her. Even after four years, Zelda still feels the urge to insist that she didn't do anything to warrant such praise. If anything, people should be (rightfully) mad at her. She was the weak link in the defense against Calamity Ganon's revival, the reason the kingdom was destroyed. In fact, the first thing she did after recovering from her century in the seal was travel to Zora's Domain to personally apologize to King Dorephan for the death of his daughter, the Champion Mipha.

But not only was he not mad, he was beside himself with relief to see Princess Zelda alive again. As was Sidon, the little prince Zelda remembered always trailing after his big sister. All of the Zora were grateful to see Zelda again, as were the Sheikah, the Gorons, the Rito, the Gerudo, and Hylians all over the kingdom. Where once the people of Hyrule saw her as a failure, now they saw her as a hero. ]

Whatever you might imagine, the truth is much more strange. Excluding the Zora (and Purah, Robbie, and Impa, I suppose), no one knew who I was at first. No one really knew what to make of me. I think, perhaps, very few people knew what happened to me.

But when they found out, they were quite excited. [ Zelda self consciously tucks a strand of hair behind one ear. ] Every village Link and I travelled to insisted upon throwing a banquet or a dance or some other celebration in our honor. People were so kind... It was honestly a bit embarrassing, to tell you the truth. For a long time, I didn't fully feel like I deserved their admiration. I was to blame for the Calamity... or so I used to believe.

[ She pauses for a moment. ]

When you find your princess again, please do the same for her. Welcome her back with whatever you have. Wherever she is... no doubt, she has worked hard for Hyrule. She may even blame herself for what happened when she was a girl. I did. Mayhaps it is a family trait. [ Zelda chuckles. ] But the Calamity was not my fault. The fall of your Hyrule was not hers.

Edited 2023-09-30 21:53 (UTC)

[Sheik listens quietly but attentively as she recounts her experiences, content to allow the pictures her words paint play out in his mind's eye... at least until the moment she admits she felt some responsibility for the tragedy that had occurred a century prior. It brings to mind the girl he met at the masquerade all those months ago, and the tightness and restraint she bore herself with as he interrogated her about her identity. A puzzle piece that clicks neatly into place.

She pauses, thoughtful, and he... should say something, he knows. He understands that feeling intimately, that sense of guilt, and he wants her to know that, but... the words don't come, too entangled by the secrets he keeps to give any of them voice. He flounders there, next to her, until she continues.

And he goes very, very still.

... She's so kind, so sympathetic, and it sickens him, nausea churning in his belly, his heart pounding against his ribs. He can't bear to look at her-- can't bear to be looked at by her, and he turns away, the veil of his bangs obscuring what little of his expression she might have otherwise been able to see. Every fiber of his being screams at him to run, his fingers itching to reach for the pouch of deku nuts at his hip, but a foolish sense of duty no one else is aware of keeps him rooted in his seat. How pathetic.]

I will... ensure your compassion reaches her, if I can.

[The words come out stilted, awkward; he himself winces at the sound of them. So, he lets out a sigh, collects himself, and... deflects, as he usually does.]

Though it may be out of my hands, should this conversation be forgotten upon my waking. If all this simply seemed to be a long and strange dream to you when you returned to Hyrule, then it does not seem as though you were able to act upon any of the things you learned during your time here.

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open 🌻 a not so welcome return

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