Whumptober 2020: Day 30

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Link woke up with a groan, one that betrayed just how much pain he was in. He felt cool hands on him immediately and heard a gasp.

“Link, get up!”

He blinked his eyes open, watching her expression turn from concerned to horrified. He honestly wanted to just pass out. He wanted to hit the hard stone and wallow in self-pitying pain.

But Zelda wouldn’t let him.

“I’m not joking, Link. Get up!”

Begrudgingly, he pushed himself up so he was sitting, and he quickly saw what had her concerned.

“Oh, shit,” he hissed, looking at his torso.

Blackish green veins rose up his stomach, stopping just before his chest. And it burned.

“Zelda…”

Whumptober 2020: Day 29

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Link took a deep breath and held it, letting his eyes open tentatively.

It was dark, so dark. He almost wondered if something far worse had happened to him and he’d lost his sight.

“You’re awake!” Zelda breathed beside him.

He groaned, letting out a pained noise as he tried to turn over.

Zelda’s hands were on him, holding him down. “Don’t. You were shot by an arrow. I got it out, I made sure to clean the wound. You didn’t bleed out, and it’s been about an hour now.”

He went to sit up this time, and was met by a frustrated look by Zelda and let her push him back down.

“Sorry,” he muttered, wincing as he laid back down. It took him a moment to realize that he was using her lap as a pillow, and he was shirtless.

He tried to sit up again.

“Link! Gods, stop it!” Zelda pushed him down. Again.

“Okay, okay.” He took another deep breath, though this one was much more difficult. “Did it hit anything?”

“Well… you.”

He scoffed. “Anything internal.”

Whumptober 2020: Day 28

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Zelda hadn’t been able to stay awake all night. Link only knew this because of how often he’d had to wake her until it had become impossible, and he only knew she was alive from the sound of her breathing. And when waking her became futile, even despite shaking her aggressively, he relented to letting her sleep before he’d have to carry her out of the hole.

He’d taken to running his hands along her soft skin, pushing hair and grime away from her fine features. It hadn’t been lost on him that, though they’d been physically close many times before, this was the first time he felt that it wasn’t because they were freezing.

Sure, he was freezing, and Zelda was warming him, but he meant that their intent had been to be close to each other, not to be warm.

Every now and then, he tried whispering her name into her ear, praying to the goddesses (if they even listened to a man like him) that Zelda was okay. He should have found a way to keep her awake. He should have done more.

She took a deeper breath than usual. He knew that because he’d been paying distinct attention to the constant rise and fall of her chest, hoping and praying that it didn’t suddenly stop.

“Zelda?”

Whumptober 2020: Day 27

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The cold autumn winds hit them hard as they raged, shaking thick trees, making thin ones sway and creak. The rain beat down, harder with the wind, and unforgiving in its assault. There was nearly no visibility, which Link and Zelda found out the hard way as they kept coming face to face with tree bark before managing to redirect themselves.

There was no room to slow down, no way to take it slowly, no way to watch out for Zelda’s head, or her wounds.

Link wrapped his arm tighter around her when he felt her stumble, and he pulled her into a muddy hole that was as disgusting as it sounded. He leaned back into the slimy dirt, and it trickled down, coating his hair. But he held Zelda tightly against him, and she rested her bloody head on his chest.

“Don’t sleep,” he warned, knowing just how wretched a head wound could be to fight against. “We just want them to pass by us and then we can find a shelter.”

“I just want to close them for a minute.”

“No!” he hissed, shaking her. “Focus on the rain and the wind or something.”

The trees creaked louder, wood splitting from the strain of bending. She listened to that, trying to guess which direction was getting the worst of it. She wanted to move away from Link, away from his warmth. She didn’t want to be comfortable. She wanted the freezing cold to keep her alert.

Minutes passed in silence, only the sounds of the trees and the wind and the rain in their ears, but nothing from each other. She could feel Link shift so he could see her face to make sure she hadn’t drifted off.

“You feeling okay?” he asked finally, wiping some of the blood off her forehead, though it did little more than smear in the rain.

“Just dizzy. Head hurts.”

“Okay.”

“Did he use his magic on you? Are you okay?”

Link breathed out a laugh, focusing on her blown pupils. It was dark, but not enough for that kind of reaction. Selfishly, he wondered if it was from her injury, or from him. He’d never particularly noticed if he’d had an affect on her before. He’d simply let it be.

Whumptober 2020: Day 26

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Zelda liked to think that she was invincible.

Not literally, of course, but she had taken on the mindset that she could endure and survive anything. After all, she’d survived the death of her mother, her father, her people, her own imprisonment, torture, mind control, and escape; she’d been near death, nearly starved, nearly killed, and now captured again. She could survive this, if it was all they had to throw at her. She would not break so easily. Not this time. This time, she was stronger.

The blindfold had been replaced over her eyes hours ago, and she was now enjoying the jilt and rock of the horse she sat upon. It was peaceful, like being lulled to sleep by music. But Zelda didn’t want to sleep. Not again.

The chatter around her was minimal. Whenever they did speak, it was small talk: things they drank the night before at the tavern, something about finally getting a warm bed.

She never heard Link’s voice.

They all stopped for—what Zelda assumed to be—the night. She could feel the heat of the fire, but she was not unbound, nor was her blindfold untied. In fact, there was another rope around her that kept her pressed against a tree.

She could taste the dampness in the air, something she’d learned in the cave during rainy days. It was about to be a storm, and they were likely warming and resting up so they could ride through it. She simply wished she could see, especially so she could know what had happened to Link.

Zelda found out the next morning.

Whumptober 2020: Chapter Index

I just noticed that most people have a nice index for their Whumptober stuff, so I’ll do that too. This is one continuous fic so maybe it’s pointless, but for easy navigation, I’ll add this to each of the chapters as well, but there’s also just a “Next” button at the bottom of each! 

Summary: Link is corrupted by Ganondorf as a child, forced by deep-rooted magic to carry out his bidding, knowing that one day, Link will bear the Triforce of Courage. When Zelda is also captured, Ganondorf tries to control her as well so he can take control of all three pieces of the Triforce. 

My brain has been calling this fic “Into the Dark” even though it is officially called Whumptober 2020, so I’ll just leave that title here. 

Whumptober 2020: Day 25

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Link had spent many nights so far in the pitch darkness. That wasn’t exactly what bothered him when he was blindfolded. The tightness didn’t do anything to annoy him, nor did he feel any great pain. In fact, it reminded him of several attempted escapes he’d made from Ganondorf in his younger days. It also reminded him of one time he was set upon by several female pirates and thrown into their prison, but that wasn’t quite the same.

No, Link wasn’t bothered by the pain, or the way his body jostled around. Though it wasn’t pleasant, he didn’t even mind losing his sense of direction after being tossed from guard to guard.

What he minded, was hearing it happen to Zelda.

It was a strange feeling. For so many years, Link had been alone, summoned for Ganondorf’s whims, forced to dine and train with the man, though there was little contact with others. He could remember feeling Ganondorf reinforcing his magic hold on Link’s mind.

So perhaps it was simply a matter of being in someone else’s company that had endeared her to him so forcefully. Maybe he simply became addicted to those he spent the most time with. Maybe she had magic that had affected him as well.

Whumptober 2020: Day 24

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The longer Link and Zelda hid out in the cave, the more anxious they both became.

Once Zelda was able to get a fire, she was able to start making edible meals again, though she tried not to think too much about what made them edible. But regardless of the taste, or the mental disgust she felt, the food had helped Link regain his strength and break his fever.

For a time, he hobbled around, helping her with whatever he could do locally, while she went foraging. It turned out he was better at fishing than she was, and he caught them some fish to eat, but Zelda, she realized, had a knack for theft, and returned once or twice with a hot meal she’d taken from a home. One day, she’d return and offer them money for their unknown participation in keeping her and Link alive.

They’d taken to talking once Link was up and functioning again.

For days, they were the other’s only form of entertainment. Zelda had become the primary talker of the two. She told stories about her days at the castle, but she was most excited when telling him what she’d been doing while he was healing. His stories were few; most of them were gory and gruesome, the things he’d been sent out to do, or the places he’d seen were often marred by a task set for him by Ganondorf, so he’d opted to listen far more than he spoke.

Not that he minded. Zelda was a natural storyteller, with talking being her profession anyway, he was usually engaged in the tale itself, or simply in the storyteller.

Whumptober 2020: Day 23

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For a while, the days passed in a blur.

Zelda had begun to understand how her life at the castle had sheltered her, but she realized the true extent of it while realizing just how difficult it was to keep herself alive.

At first, she stayed awake constantly, knife in hand as she watched the entrance of the little cave, looking to see if anyone was heading in their direction after finding the hastily discarded body of the old man she’d put in the river. There was a constant vigilance that she couldn’t let go of, leaving her more exhausted than she had been when she’d been a prisoner herself. At least then, her exhaustion had been from a lack of functioning and food. This time, it was a lack of food and sleep.

She’d tried grabbing fish from the river, but that had yet to yield results. She’d submerged her own bag, hoping that she could catch a fish inside, rather than her slippery hands, but that too was a failure. The one time she’d ventured out to forage, she’d returned with berries and only barely managed to wake Link long enough to ask if they’d kill them both if they ate them.

He’d said yes and then promptly fallen back, too exhausted from the movement to stay awake.

Whumptober 2020: Day 22

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“Here,” Zelda said, kneeling beside Link as she set her things aside and threw another piece of wood into the fire.

It was dwindling dangerously low, and she wondered if Link had even managed to stoke it earlier.

She gently shook him, though it didn’t get a response from him. She tried brushing the hair from his eyes instead. That woke him.

He jerked back at the unfamiliar contact that she’d recently realized would wake him. “Zelda?”

“I brought someone to help.”

Link groaned, but for the first time, he stirred, turning over to get a better look. “Why?”

Zelda shrugged, her voice turning from concern into bland sarcasm. “I don’t know. Maybe so you’ll get better?”

“You shouldn’t have brought some stranger,” he mumbled, weakly trying to get a better look at Cole.

But the older man was already inspecting Link’s foot.

Whumptober 2020: Day 21

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When daylight broke, Zelda blinked slowly, adjusting to the fine lines of sunrise hitting her eyes as she awoke.

She’d stayed up late, keeping an eye out for Link. At some point, despite the fire, he’d begun to shiver and sweat all at once, and she gingerly placed a hand against his swollen foot, feeling it burn wildly. From her angle, she could see where she’d crudely stitched the large wound together. She still wondered if he’d stepped on a shard og glass at the bottom of the river, or a sharp rock. But it didn’t really change the fact that Link was not going to be standing on this foot while it was infected.

They had no bandages. They had nothing to keep it clean but the scratchy blanket Link had stolen. Zelda took it down to the freezing river that had seemed so glorious the day before, when she’d been so preoccupied with getting herself clean after all this time that she’d barely noticed the temperature. She dipped a small piece of the blanket into the river before returning to Link, wrapping it around his foot again.

He shivered at the cold against him, but he didn’t open his eyes.

At some point in the night, he’d fallen asleep, and he hadn’t had the energy to re-open his eyes since. Zelda was concerned, but she was less concerned when he’d grunted out a response to one of her earlier questions.

She rested against the tree, keeping the fire going as she twiddled the knife in her hands. At this point, she was the only thing standing between them and an attack from Ganondorf’s soldiers. They’d need to get out of the open soon.

And Zelda wasn’t sure how she was going to do that.

Whumptober 2020: Day 20

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Zelda sat beside Link, crouched behind a large boulder on the edge of the nearest town. He looked at her, taking in her wild appearance. At first, he’d considered sending her in to grab the fresh clothes, but in truth, she’d draw more attention at this point.

“I can try,” she offered again.

After sitting through most of the stormy, cold night in wet clothes, Link had woken in the morning feeling less than ideal.

He shot her a bland glance, though it had very little effectiveness when he couldn’t keep his eyes open enough to give her a dirty look. Instead, he tugged at his damp shirt and steeled himself for the quick run to the laundry line.

“No matter what, just stay here, okay?” he asked, managing a cautionary look in her direction.

“Fine,” she muttered, getting comfortable in a place where she was hard to see, but had a decent view of whatever he was planning to do.

Link dodged around the rock and ducked behind the outer wall of the nearest house, checking the dirt street before taking all the clothing Zelda had pointed out. He was not too proud to admit to her that he wasn’t entirely positive which items she’d need. He hadn’t lived with a woman since before his capture, and he attributed the rest of his obliviousness to pure negligence to pay attention to details.

He hurried back, arms full of fabric, and tore his shirt off, tossing it aside with a harsh shiver before reaching for his new one on.

Zelda stared at him, too confused or surprised to have taken in any details before he’d tugged the sleeves on, covering any part of him that she might have caught a glimpse of.

“I’m not changing with you here,” she said simply.

“Oh,” he said, halting his hasty change. “I’m sorry. I just… I wasn’t thinking. I wanted to change, I forgot it would offend your royal eyes.”

Whumptober 2020: Day 19

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When Zelda woke up, it was raining. Hard.

The shoddy building they’d taken refuge in was rotten and filled with holes, and the rain poured through the roof and straight onto the floor in a few areas.

Zelda looked around frantically, spotting Link resting in the corner of the room, his head relaxed against the wall. But when she finally blinked the sleep from her eyes, and adjusted to the dark, she scoffed at his appearance.

He was drenched in water.

“Link, come over here. It’s dry.”

He did as commanded, standing in front of her, hugging his arms to himself. “I do believe it’s best that we stay here until the worst of the storm passes.”

Zelda made a face. “Obviously.”

Link smirked and glanced at the closed door, like he was just waiting for something bad to happen.

“I’m sure there are few people travelling in this.”

The harsh winds shook the old home, and the occasional spray would hit them both, but for the most part, they were in the safest part of the room. And Link knew that Zelda was right. The visibility outside had to be close to nothing, and the winds would make it hard for anyone to move about. Even Ganon’s people were fallible.

“Sit,” Zelda commanded, though she found herself reaching for the knife, even as she offered him the space beside her.

Again, he did as he was told.

Whumptober 2020: Day 18

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Zelda couldn’t sleep. Perhaps she was going crazy.

Since the day of their escape, Link hadn’t done anything to make her feel threatened by him specifically. He hadn’t carted her off in the night, he’d saved her a few times, and he’d gotten her out of the woods. But they stayed inside an abandoned, rotted out home off a side road, and she kept her eyes on Link, her fingers gripped around the dagger.

She could do it.

Right?

Sure, he hadn’t done anything yet, but what would happen when they got closer to her home? Would he snap? Would the magic inside him take hold again and demand her capture? She took a breath. Nothing would happen.

Link stirred, and Zelda’s heart sped up. Throwing her head back, she longed for the peace of sleep, but nothing could help her shake the feeling that if she closed her eyes, something would happen.

She’d seen him fight before. The day her father had been killed, she’d seen Link sent to kill the surrounding guards. But she’d been trapped in a dungeon after that, and  her sense of awareness had withered into nothing. Now, she was alert once again, prepared and ready for any threats.

And Link was one of them.

Whumptober: Day 17

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Though the air itself wasn’t warm, Zelda basked in the unfamiliar feel of direct sunlight.

Since becoming Link and Ganondorf’s prisoner, she’d yet to feel it so aggressively. From the dungeons, to a private room, to the ever-foggy, dense words that surrounded Ganondorf’s home, she hadn’t felt the sun.

Until now.

She knew that they needed to keep going, but she couldn’t help herself. The light itself was blinding, the day perfect despite the autumn chill in the air. There were no clouds, like the sky itself were welcoming her escape from the forest. She just stared up at the blue, breathing in the fresh air with a small smile on her face.

Link, on the other hand, didn’t care about the sky. He watched Zelda.

He hated to admit it to himself, but he was positive he’d developed somewhat of a fondness for her. When she was his prisoner inside the castle, he’d taken to spending an unnecessary amount of time with her. When she’d been tortured, he’d look away from her. He’d never done that before. And now that he’d gotten her beyond the woods, more or less intact, he couldn’t stop starting at her.

Her hair was a mess. An actual mess. Twigs and leaves were knotted in with the strands. Her hair looked like a nest of random objects that a bird might throw together to create its home. Her face and clothes were dirty. Her lips were chapped and raw. But it was that small smile that was on her face, the peaceful rest of her muscles, the way she let herself enjoy the sun in an uninterrupted moment of peace, that had his attention.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t hear the approach of several armored footsteps.

Whumptober 2020: Day 16

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Zelda felt strong. Stronger than she’d felt since her capture, anyway. Though she certainly didn’t feel like she could take on the world, she at least felt she could take on the woods. 

When she’d woken beside the Fairy Fountain, the first thing she’d felt was disappointment. Perhaps it was residual from the magic, but there was something inherently disappointing about coming face-to-face with a legendary creature and then promptly missing the experience. She had no sense that she’d ever come to meet a Great Fairy, and the only proof she had was that she was no broken, burning, or dying. 

The first injury she’d realized had been fixed was that her wrist was not broken. Though that had been one of her least concerns, she’d noticed it first when she pushed herself to her feet and didn’t feel the reminder of pain shooting up the length of her arm. Her fingers tentatively wrapped around the bone, testing it.

No pain.

Frantically, she started feeling at the pieces of her she’d known to have been damaged. She checked her bleeding forehead. No blood. She felt her arms; no welts or burns. She coughed; it wasn’t raw.

Whumptober 2020: Day 14

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Link was used to doing many things.

For one, he was used to killing, not saving people. Two, he was used to inflicting pain, not saving people from it. And three, he was used to sleeping fairly peacefully these days, not sitting up at night worrying and being concerned with every one of the minute things that could go wrong.

Zelda’s appearance had thrown his entire life out of balance. He was no longer confident in who he was. Was he broken? He no longer knew his purpose in life. Had it changed?

He didn’t know anything anymore.

Watching Zelda sleep was a simultaneous comfort and a curse. The fact that she was somehow still alive breathed life into him, and the sight of her sleeping set him at peace. But he could also see how easy it would be… how easily he could just… take her back.

Something set off his senses and his head shot up, looking around frantically. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he brought himself to his knee, ready to move.