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kinkfestTitle:The Nature of Love
Author/Artist:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
queenoftheskies
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: violence, darkness
Word count: 2,050
Prompt: Legend of Zelda, Link/Zelda/Ganon: nature of the tri-force - their pieces had come to them because they were just as unbalanced as Ganon
Zelda ducked her head against the wild wind that tore at her hair and whipped her dress around her legs in a tangle. Her mind told her coming with Link had been a mistake, but her heart said different, and it had never led her astray.
With each passing day, Hyrule dissolved into greater turmoil: the grounds quaked until huge chasms spanned its length, waters boiled, caverns collapsed, the sky over head turned black with churning clouds. And they were the cause, Link and her.
She'd denied it at first, though Link, it seemed, had known from the beginning. He'd tried to warn her, but she, in her infinite wisdom, had refuted his warnings, pointing out to him that the tri-force was a talisman of good, and not of evil.
And, that it was, when it existed as the tri-force. It wasn't until the tri-force of Wisdom had begun whispering dark things to her at night that she'd realized, with Ganon and the tri-force of power gone, they'd all become unbalanced.
What troubled her now was the influence the tri-force of Courage had on Link. He'd thrown away his habitual common sense, plunging headlong, instead, into the path of danger. She'd been so afraid to let him out of her sight, though, that she'd come with him, hoping to temper his judgment. She feared for him not only as a friend, but as the bearer of a segment of the tri-force. If she lost him, the future of their world rested on her shoulders alone, and she wasn't certain that was a burden she could bear.
"We're almost there," he called over his shoulder, slowing when a powerful gust shoved her back with enough force to capture her breath.
She clutched at the trunk of an age-old tree, one that had guarded the entrance to the mystic forest since before her family had reigned over the land. Stripped naked, it provided little purchase; her fingers slipped and slid across the smooth surface.
Link caught her a second before the next blast lifted her off her feet. His fingers wrapped around her wrist; his sword plunged into the ground to anchor him. They weathered the breath of wind, then, slowly, he drew her toward him and wrapped a strong arm around her waist.
"Stay close," he whispered into her ear.
"Are you sure this will work?" She clung to him, desperate with the realization that, physically, she was nothing more than a weak reed in the violent wind.
She didn't miss the flash of doubt that crossed his face, but the grim determination that replaced it told her everything she needed to know. If it didn't work, he'd find another means to save their world. He was the Hero; she believed in him.
You have the wisdom, the voice whispered in its lyrical charm. You are the brains. He is nothing more than mindless brawn.
You're wrong. She knew not to answer it, knew that giving it the attention it desired made her powerless against it. He's...he's...
"Don't talk to it." He spoke without looking her way.
Zelda wasn't sure how he knew it had spoken to her, though she had the strange feeling they were connected somehow through the tri-force. "Can you...hear it?" Had he known it was speaking of him?
"They speak together, I think." A branch struck him across the forehead. He brushed it away, swiping a streak of blood into his hair. "But...Zelda..." He hesitated, his face a mask of doubt. "There's another...the force that is tearing our world apart."
"Ganon's piece." Somehow she'd known already. "The tri-force of Power."
He nodded, pulling her along as the forest closed in around them.
The silence, the stillness, stopped them in their tracks. It took her a moment to realize that she needed no longer to cling to Link and yet, she was reluctant to release him, his warmth so much more than reassurance. He seemed just as reluctant to release her when she peeled herself away, his eyes darting her direction before the snap of breaking twigs forced his eyes to the path before them.
Raising his sword, he plunged forward, tugging her along behind him. She wanted to protest that she didn't need protecting, that he was nothing more than a woman-hating barbarian, but she knew that was the tiny voice in her mind that continued to whisper insistently, even more now that they'd entered the calm of the forest.
"Resist it," he urged without looking back.
But, she didn't miss the blank look that crossed his face occasionally, or the stumble that crept into his steps as they neared the light that had appeared at the center of the wood.
"Link?" She squeezed his hand, wondering if they were marching to their deaths.
"We've got to hurry." The urgency in his voice sounded distant and unfocused.
"Resist it," she repeated his earlier words. "Please, Link, for me, for Hyrule."
He shook off a shudder that rippled through his body, up from his legs, through his wiry frame, and into his shoulders. "Thank you." His voice had dropped to a whisper. "He's here. He's waiting."
"But...how?" Her mind refused to accept the reality that her segment of the tri-force already knew. It had known from the beginning, she realized. And, as soon as they'd entered the outer fringe of the dark stillness, it had embraced both its brethren as they struggled to become one again. "We...destroyed him."
"But not the tri-force. The tri-force can't be destroyed."
She knew the stories. He spoke the truth. Created by the goddesses, the talisman was eternal. Did that make its bearer eternal as well?
The light grew stronger until it forced them to close their eyes when they reached the center of the clearing. She expected an attack from without while they stood blind from the glory. Instead, it came from within, the lure of faint music, the beautiful voice of reason. Slipping her hand from Link's, she strode forward, assured of herself and her future. She would be the one, the one chosen to ascend to godhood, the one chosen of the tri-force itself.
"Zelda!" He hurried after her, into the heart of the light.
The glow fell away as abruptly as the wind had, leaving them in the heart of a great hall built of polished marble in hues of blue and pink. Ganon stood in the center of the chamber, beneath an enormous skylight that spread the light of Hyrule's full moons across the patterns in the elegant floor. Energy danced across the runes, spread around them until the three of them stood at angles to one another, waves of power dancing around them.
Make the boy kill him, said the voice in her mind. The tri-force of Power will be yours.
But...I...it's wrong...I...I... "Quick, Link, destroy him!"
The young warrior lunged to action, stopped with the blade of his sword at Ganon's throat. He blinked up at the giant towering over him, dropped back a step, eyes wide.
"Can't resist it, can you boy?" Ganon growled. "Can't pretend any more." The thief king's eyes ravished Zelda. "It's taken control of your pretty queen. She's a danger. Kill her now and the destruction of Hyrule will cease."
Command him. The voice grew frantic. He's just a peasant boy. Command him and kill him and you will become a goddess to rule over all.
Hyrule needed her, needed her as a goddess, not just a queen. "Kill him!" Her eyes locked with Link's. "As your queen, I command you."
"Don't listen to her," Ganon protested, his hand darting out to tangle in the front of Link's tunic. "Listen to me, boy. If you let her live, we all die. Kill her!"
"Destroy him!" Anger burned inside her. How dare the warrior deny her, how dare he betray her?
Plunging his sword into the center of the moonlight spill, Link knelt beside it, head bowed as if in prayer. He looked up as she plunged her dagger into his back, reached for her hand when she tried to draw back in horror.
"I love you," he whispered.
"No!"
Another dagger protruded from his back: Ganon's, the jeweled hilt dripped blood. Through her tears, Zelda noted distantly that he held the dark one's hand as securely as he held hers, heard him mutter, "I forgive you," his voice unsteady, but strong.
The chamber vanished, replaced by an endless void filled with stars. She and Ganon faced the most beautiful women Zelda had ever seen, two of the golden goddesses of lore. Link lay, unmoving, between them and the goddesses; the tri-force of Courage cast a faint glow of green across him.
As it rose and swirled, the light wrapped around the talisman, growing and expanding into the form of a woman, so alike the other two that she could have been their triplet.
"Farore," the two whispered, extending their hands to the woman who had knelt beside Link.
"My child," the goddess of Courage whispered while she stroked back Link's hair.
The spirit rose so suddenly Zelda leapt back in alarm. Ganon, she noted, dropped to his knees in supplication, spewing praises that made Zelda ill. When he twisted with a scream and pitched sideways, she was sure they were bound to be punished for the evil they'd done. She deserved it. She would not resist, but welcome it with open arms.
Fire consumed him, but he didn't burn, writhing, instead, until the tri-force of Power was thrown free of his body. The goddess who stepped forward to claim it could have only been Din, the sculptor of Hyrule and giver of power.
"Be gone!" she commanded, flinging Ganon to the furthest reach of stars.
When Farore rose, the three goddesses turned to face Zelda, their expressions severe.
"With great wisdom," said the third, "comes great responsibility, Zelda, Princess of Hyrule."
There hardly seemed anything to say, but Zelda managed to croak out an, "I know," while her mind protested that she'd done everything she could to save her land and protect her people.
The goddess extended her slender hands and Zelda knew she was Nayru, goddess of Wisdom, as soon as the aura of energy touched her. Pain flashed through her limbs and up her trunk, congealed in her chest as her back arched and the tri-force of Wisdom exploded from her body.
She fell endlessly, pain dissolving into a numbness that washed away all thought and all fear.
"It was the courage in his heart that saved you," the goddesses whispered in unison. "For in his declaration of love for you, he denied his fear, denied his doubt. And, in his unwillingness to kill both you and the thief, Ganon, young Link proved to us, that the elements of our power--Courage, Wisdom, and Power--will live on in your world without our interference."
Their voices faded until they were so distant, Zelda wasn't sure she really heard the question they asked. "Tell us, Princess, what of this young warrior's fate?"
Zelda woke at the first rays of sunlight that spilled into her eyes. Though her body ached, the nightmare that had robbed her of sleep seemed somehow distant, leaving her with the strange sense that all was well.
Opening her eyes, she rolled to find Link in bed beside her, eyes closed. Breath caught in her throat when she reached out to touch him, hoping for the best, expecting...
Her touch roused him, brought a smile to his lips. "You saved me." His eyes opened and filled with the love he'd so openly declared the night before.
"He's not gone." She was sure. She could feel it.
Link cupped her cheek with one calloused hand. "He'll never be gone. Not completely." A flush crept into his cheeks as he gathered her into his arms. "But once the goddesses are finished with him, I don't think he'll bother us for a very..." He kissed her, his lips warm and gentle. "Long." Another kiss, this one more insistent. "Time."
"I take it we have time for this, then," she whispered as her hands sought him. Then, she kissed him, and when they joined body and power, she knew their line would keep Hyrule safe forever.
Author/Artist:
queenoftheskies Rating: PG-13
Warnings: violence, darkness
Word count: 2,050
Prompt: Legend of Zelda, Link/Zelda/Ganon: nature of the tri-force - their pieces had come to them because they were just as unbalanced as Ganon
Zelda ducked her head against the wild wind that tore at her hair and whipped her dress around her legs in a tangle. Her mind told her coming with Link had been a mistake, but her heart said different, and it had never led her astray.
With each passing day, Hyrule dissolved into greater turmoil: the grounds quaked until huge chasms spanned its length, waters boiled, caverns collapsed, the sky over head turned black with churning clouds. And they were the cause, Link and her.
She'd denied it at first, though Link, it seemed, had known from the beginning. He'd tried to warn her, but she, in her infinite wisdom, had refuted his warnings, pointing out to him that the tri-force was a talisman of good, and not of evil.
And, that it was, when it existed as the tri-force. It wasn't until the tri-force of Wisdom had begun whispering dark things to her at night that she'd realized, with Ganon and the tri-force of power gone, they'd all become unbalanced.
What troubled her now was the influence the tri-force of Courage had on Link. He'd thrown away his habitual common sense, plunging headlong, instead, into the path of danger. She'd been so afraid to let him out of her sight, though, that she'd come with him, hoping to temper his judgment. She feared for him not only as a friend, but as the bearer of a segment of the tri-force. If she lost him, the future of their world rested on her shoulders alone, and she wasn't certain that was a burden she could bear.
"We're almost there," he called over his shoulder, slowing when a powerful gust shoved her back with enough force to capture her breath.
She clutched at the trunk of an age-old tree, one that had guarded the entrance to the mystic forest since before her family had reigned over the land. Stripped naked, it provided little purchase; her fingers slipped and slid across the smooth surface.
Link caught her a second before the next blast lifted her off her feet. His fingers wrapped around her wrist; his sword plunged into the ground to anchor him. They weathered the breath of wind, then, slowly, he drew her toward him and wrapped a strong arm around her waist.
"Stay close," he whispered into her ear.
"Are you sure this will work?" She clung to him, desperate with the realization that, physically, she was nothing more than a weak reed in the violent wind.
She didn't miss the flash of doubt that crossed his face, but the grim determination that replaced it told her everything she needed to know. If it didn't work, he'd find another means to save their world. He was the Hero; she believed in him.
You have the wisdom, the voice whispered in its lyrical charm. You are the brains. He is nothing more than mindless brawn.
You're wrong. She knew not to answer it, knew that giving it the attention it desired made her powerless against it. He's...he's...
"Don't talk to it." He spoke without looking her way.
Zelda wasn't sure how he knew it had spoken to her, though she had the strange feeling they were connected somehow through the tri-force. "Can you...hear it?" Had he known it was speaking of him?
"They speak together, I think." A branch struck him across the forehead. He brushed it away, swiping a streak of blood into his hair. "But...Zelda..." He hesitated, his face a mask of doubt. "There's another...the force that is tearing our world apart."
"Ganon's piece." Somehow she'd known already. "The tri-force of Power."
He nodded, pulling her along as the forest closed in around them.
The silence, the stillness, stopped them in their tracks. It took her a moment to realize that she needed no longer to cling to Link and yet, she was reluctant to release him, his warmth so much more than reassurance. He seemed just as reluctant to release her when she peeled herself away, his eyes darting her direction before the snap of breaking twigs forced his eyes to the path before them.
Raising his sword, he plunged forward, tugging her along behind him. She wanted to protest that she didn't need protecting, that he was nothing more than a woman-hating barbarian, but she knew that was the tiny voice in her mind that continued to whisper insistently, even more now that they'd entered the calm of the forest.
"Resist it," he urged without looking back.
But, she didn't miss the blank look that crossed his face occasionally, or the stumble that crept into his steps as they neared the light that had appeared at the center of the wood.
"Link?" She squeezed his hand, wondering if they were marching to their deaths.
"We've got to hurry." The urgency in his voice sounded distant and unfocused.
"Resist it," she repeated his earlier words. "Please, Link, for me, for Hyrule."
He shook off a shudder that rippled through his body, up from his legs, through his wiry frame, and into his shoulders. "Thank you." His voice had dropped to a whisper. "He's here. He's waiting."
"But...how?" Her mind refused to accept the reality that her segment of the tri-force already knew. It had known from the beginning, she realized. And, as soon as they'd entered the outer fringe of the dark stillness, it had embraced both its brethren as they struggled to become one again. "We...destroyed him."
"But not the tri-force. The tri-force can't be destroyed."
She knew the stories. He spoke the truth. Created by the goddesses, the talisman was eternal. Did that make its bearer eternal as well?
The light grew stronger until it forced them to close their eyes when they reached the center of the clearing. She expected an attack from without while they stood blind from the glory. Instead, it came from within, the lure of faint music, the beautiful voice of reason. Slipping her hand from Link's, she strode forward, assured of herself and her future. She would be the one, the one chosen to ascend to godhood, the one chosen of the tri-force itself.
"Zelda!" He hurried after her, into the heart of the light.
The glow fell away as abruptly as the wind had, leaving them in the heart of a great hall built of polished marble in hues of blue and pink. Ganon stood in the center of the chamber, beneath an enormous skylight that spread the light of Hyrule's full moons across the patterns in the elegant floor. Energy danced across the runes, spread around them until the three of them stood at angles to one another, waves of power dancing around them.
Make the boy kill him, said the voice in her mind. The tri-force of Power will be yours.
But...I...it's wrong...I...I... "Quick, Link, destroy him!"
The young warrior lunged to action, stopped with the blade of his sword at Ganon's throat. He blinked up at the giant towering over him, dropped back a step, eyes wide.
"Can't resist it, can you boy?" Ganon growled. "Can't pretend any more." The thief king's eyes ravished Zelda. "It's taken control of your pretty queen. She's a danger. Kill her now and the destruction of Hyrule will cease."
Command him. The voice grew frantic. He's just a peasant boy. Command him and kill him and you will become a goddess to rule over all.
Hyrule needed her, needed her as a goddess, not just a queen. "Kill him!" Her eyes locked with Link's. "As your queen, I command you."
"Don't listen to her," Ganon protested, his hand darting out to tangle in the front of Link's tunic. "Listen to me, boy. If you let her live, we all die. Kill her!"
"Destroy him!" Anger burned inside her. How dare the warrior deny her, how dare he betray her?
Plunging his sword into the center of the moonlight spill, Link knelt beside it, head bowed as if in prayer. He looked up as she plunged her dagger into his back, reached for her hand when she tried to draw back in horror.
"I love you," he whispered.
"No!"
Another dagger protruded from his back: Ganon's, the jeweled hilt dripped blood. Through her tears, Zelda noted distantly that he held the dark one's hand as securely as he held hers, heard him mutter, "I forgive you," his voice unsteady, but strong.
The chamber vanished, replaced by an endless void filled with stars. She and Ganon faced the most beautiful women Zelda had ever seen, two of the golden goddesses of lore. Link lay, unmoving, between them and the goddesses; the tri-force of Courage cast a faint glow of green across him.
As it rose and swirled, the light wrapped around the talisman, growing and expanding into the form of a woman, so alike the other two that she could have been their triplet.
"Farore," the two whispered, extending their hands to the woman who had knelt beside Link.
"My child," the goddess of Courage whispered while she stroked back Link's hair.
The spirit rose so suddenly Zelda leapt back in alarm. Ganon, she noted, dropped to his knees in supplication, spewing praises that made Zelda ill. When he twisted with a scream and pitched sideways, she was sure they were bound to be punished for the evil they'd done. She deserved it. She would not resist, but welcome it with open arms.
Fire consumed him, but he didn't burn, writhing, instead, until the tri-force of Power was thrown free of his body. The goddess who stepped forward to claim it could have only been Din, the sculptor of Hyrule and giver of power.
"Be gone!" she commanded, flinging Ganon to the furthest reach of stars.
When Farore rose, the three goddesses turned to face Zelda, their expressions severe.
"With great wisdom," said the third, "comes great responsibility, Zelda, Princess of Hyrule."
There hardly seemed anything to say, but Zelda managed to croak out an, "I know," while her mind protested that she'd done everything she could to save her land and protect her people.
The goddess extended her slender hands and Zelda knew she was Nayru, goddess of Wisdom, as soon as the aura of energy touched her. Pain flashed through her limbs and up her trunk, congealed in her chest as her back arched and the tri-force of Wisdom exploded from her body.
She fell endlessly, pain dissolving into a numbness that washed away all thought and all fear.
"It was the courage in his heart that saved you," the goddesses whispered in unison. "For in his declaration of love for you, he denied his fear, denied his doubt. And, in his unwillingness to kill both you and the thief, Ganon, young Link proved to us, that the elements of our power--Courage, Wisdom, and Power--will live on in your world without our interference."
Their voices faded until they were so distant, Zelda wasn't sure she really heard the question they asked. "Tell us, Princess, what of this young warrior's fate?"
Zelda woke at the first rays of sunlight that spilled into her eyes. Though her body ached, the nightmare that had robbed her of sleep seemed somehow distant, leaving her with the strange sense that all was well.
Opening her eyes, she rolled to find Link in bed beside her, eyes closed. Breath caught in her throat when she reached out to touch him, hoping for the best, expecting...
Her touch roused him, brought a smile to his lips. "You saved me." His eyes opened and filled with the love he'd so openly declared the night before.
"He's not gone." She was sure. She could feel it.
Link cupped her cheek with one calloused hand. "He'll never be gone. Not completely." A flush crept into his cheeks as he gathered her into his arms. "But once the goddesses are finished with him, I don't think he'll bother us for a very..." He kissed her, his lips warm and gentle. "Long." Another kiss, this one more insistent. "Time."
"I take it we have time for this, then," she whispered as her hands sought him. Then, she kissed him, and when they joined body and power, she knew their line would keep Hyrule safe forever.
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Date: 2008-02-03 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-05 09:10 pm (UTC)And thanks for reading. I enjoyed writing this one.