seventh dream 🌻 beautiful and devastating

[multidisciplinary]

Who: TOTK Zelda and Alastor
Which: Closed interactive dream
Where: Zelda's dreamscape, backdated to early February, before Al's canon update
What: Zelda dreams about what Link showed her in a previous dream and tries to use her dreamotion
Warnings: Massive Tears of the Kingdom spoilers, also some themes of death, self-sacrifice, and probably a touch of suicidal ideation. (Zelda's opt-out can be found here.)



[ When Alastor enters the dreamscape, he will find himself in central Hyrule, a temperate climate of gently rolling hills, green and grassy fields, and little copses of deciduous trees dotting the landscape here and there. Hyrule is a vast kingdom and even this single region seems to stretch out endlessly towards the horizon in all directions.

And yet, the landscape is somehow dwarfed by the tremendous white and gold dragon that dives down from the sky towards Alastor. The creature looks noticeably similar to the blight-infected dragon that he fought last summer, the one that violently guarded a sleeping princess in a crystal. For a moment, it almost seems like the dragon is intentionally trying to crash into him, but it adjusts its trajectory so that it swoops over him instead. Gusting winds whip against him as the creature soars over his head and then heads back up into the sky. ]

No, not there! I called you here!

[ And there's Zelda, running through the grass in a futile attempt to catch the dragon as it flies away. Even though it's her own dream, somehow the princess can neither speed herself up nor slow the dragon down and she eventually comes to a panting halt not far from Alastor. ]

Goddess... take you... you miserable-- A-Alastor?

Comments

[multidisciplinary]

[ His words resonate with her, giving form to vague fears that have been steadily growing inside Zelda for months now. What will happen to 'Zelda' after she dies to become the Light Dragon? What comes next? Will some part of her live on inside the Light Dragon, as Link as suggested, or will she simply cease to exist, as Mineru said? Would all of her accomplishments in life ultimately be for nothing, rendered meaningless in the face of one last act of sacrifice?

The cold fingers of mortal fear climb up the back of her neck. A chill wind blows in from the north, making Zelda shiver. She wraps her arms around herself in a vain attempt at warmth. The few raindrops trickling from the cloud cover overhead freeze with the sudden temperature change, and come drifting down from the sky as snowflakes. From within the clouds, the Light Dragon wails and wails.

Although Alastor's words stir up the cold and fearful feelings Zelda has been trying to ignore, they themselves are not cold. Quite the opposite, in fact. They spark in the princess's mind, like a blade striking flint.

"She will always remember you..."

"Even if the details fade, the names and faces blur as her own experiences fill her mind... you will always be with her..."

"You can make peace with your fate even as it scares you."

Zelda turns her gaze skyward again. ]

I want to make peace with it-- with her. I just.... I do not know how.

[ She says this and yet, the Light Dragon's cries cease, leaving the air ringing in the sudden silence. A long shadow moves within the cloud cover. The atmosphere is heavy with the threat of a storm, hesitant and distrusting.

Then, at long last, dragon dives down again, breaking through the clouds and scattering them. Patchy sunlight shines down on the field where Zelda and Alastor stand, not from the sun itself, but from the Light Dragon herself. The sun itself seems to glow radiant in her scales and her mane.

At first, it seems to take a surprisingly long time for her very large form to descend from the sky, but as she gets closer, she seems to be .... shrinking. Scaling down from a monolithic fear that commands the skies and Zelda's psyche to something significantly less threatening. Closer and closer, smaller and smaller, until the dragon touches down on the field. She is still tremendous, standing as tall as a horse and exponentially longer, but nothing compared to what she was before. ]

[lonelysmiles]

I can't give specific instructions but I imagine it isn't much different than those last fleeting seconds before that hunter pulled the trigger.

[He smiles gently at the Light Dragon, walking a bit away so he could stand off to one side, to keep both versions of Zelda in his peripheral vision.]

Everything dies eventually, Miss Zelda. Nobody truly lives forever. And when you're face to face with your end, it feels like standing on a cliff overlooking the water, knowing that you have no choice left but to jump. The waters are dark, and you have no idea what waits for you below the surface. It could be far shallower than you think, killing you instantly on hidden sharp rocks, or it could be far, far deeper than you ever imagined filled with strange new creatures.

But you can accept what's happening. You don't have to like it -- we spend our entire lives running from death -- but you have the choice to face it head-on. When you do, that's when you close your eyes, take a breath, hold the memories of those you care for close...and jump.

[The illusion of Alastor in his living form vanishes but, for just a moment, Alastor looks like a blend of his demonic self and his human one: His irises are still red but his sclera are white. His hair and ears have turned brown where the red used to be. Even his claws seem a bit blunter, their color gone dark rather than the vicious red tips they'd been. His clothing had changed from various forms of red to a brown coat with ribbons of white symbols flowing along it and his shirt had turned white.]

Everything dies, but it's not an ending. It's just making room for new life to thrive.

🎀

[multidisciplinary]

[ "And when you're face to face with your end, it feels like standing on a cliff overlooking the water, knowing that you have no choice left but to jump."

As Zelda stares at the Light Dragon, who stares at the princess in return, the cold fingers on the back of her neck curl themselves around her throat. She feels a familiar pressure beneath them, one that has woken her up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night repeatedly. A lump that she cannot swallow no matter how hard she tries, lodged in her throat at exactly the same spot where her secret stone rests against her neck.

"The waters are dark, and you have no idea what waits for you below the surface."

She feels the urge to swallow over and over again, trying to force down that phantom lump. It's not there, she knows it's not there, because she can feel her chest rising with panicked breaths. But when she looks into those rainbow eyes, she feels it-- the last moments of Princess Zelda.

These aren't Zelda's memories. They're her's, the Light Dragon's. Despite being a creation of Zelda's dreamotion, she is based on Link's memories. And Link, somehow, impossibly, saw Zelda's memories through the tears shed by the Light Dragon all across Hyrule.

This is how it all ends. A noble sacrifice, the Master Sword clutched in her hands. Cold. Alone. Frightened.

"But you can accept what's happening."

Zelda takes one hesitant step forward, then another, and another, rushing across the field towards the Light Dragon. The dragon lowers its head to the princess, allowing Zelda to see clearly the Master Sword lodged at the center of her forehead, her golden mane curled around it like centuries of overgrown vines.

This time, the lump in her throat is no longer a phantom feeling-- it's emotions and tears welling up as she regards this beautiful, heartbreaking creature.

"That's when you close your eyes, take a breath, hold the memories of those you care for close...and jump."

She extends her right hand towards the dragon, unable to keep from trembling, until her palm connects with its head.

--Which she immediately draws back with a gasp.

She was expecting cold, hard scales, but the dragon's head is... soft. Downy, like feathers.

Nothing like she expected.

Zelda returns her hand, running her palm over the dragon's soft down. Then, slowly, she leans in and presses her forehead against it.

The Light Dragon is warm, radiant with the feeling of the sun on your skin, and there's something in its presence alone that feels so soothing. All of the princess's fears, all the coldness, the lump in her throat and the way she can't forget the feeling of choking on her secret stone-- it all washes away.

Zelda buries her face in the dragon's fur and weeps. The Light Dragon, in return, leans in ever so slightly.

This moment of peace will not last forever. The fear will return, the coldness, the loneliness, the feeling of the stone lodged in her throat. Even knowing that the waters on the other side are gentle and warm, the princess must still leap off the cliff someday. That act itself will be terrifying; the dragon has confirmed as much with her memories.

"Everything dies, but it's not an ending. It's just making room for new life to thrive."

Zelda pulls away from the dragon and straightens, finally turning to where Alastor now stands. He's... changed. Not quite his human self, but not his demon form either. Something in between, some kind of harmony between two distinctly separate beings.

That. That is what she wants. Not the power to control the Light Dragon, but the serenity to accept it as her eventuality. Not just Zelda's death, but the dragon's birth.

And in a way, Princess Zelda will never die. Not completely. Who she is, the sum of her memories and her undying love for her kingdom, will live on in the Light Dragon.

Zelda doesn't have any words for Alastor. Nothing she can think of feels sufficient. So she simply nods her gratitude, smiles from her place beside the dragon.

The sun sets on Hyrule and the dream ends. ]