Written in Third Person

!Zelda                    Death Mountain

This is HUGE.

I had assumed that all accounts of the heroes of legend's pasts were kept within the confines of the castle library.

How was Y/N able to procure this from Robbie? Or, more appropriately, how did it even come into Robbie's possession?

I remember finding it rather odd the day I caught Link sneaking around in the library. The way his eyes darted back and forth as he made sure he shut the door with not even so much as a click.

Of course, he did manage to not put the book back in the right slot.

So, as it stands right now, there are two accounts of the Hero of Time. An account of a salvaged timeline and a timeline that went untouched.

But only one of them is the truth.

And I can say with the utmost certainty that the recording we hold in the castle is at best subjective.

It should be noted. There are two sides when it comes to truth: the one who tells it and the one who doesn't.

But then there is a third.

The witness of the truth.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

"Open nice and wide for me." The deity's arms were engorged with fury, and each vein that poked through his skin seemed to crackle like the deadly lightning he could summon. The brute force behind those veins meant annihilation at any given moment. He wrestled against Vah Rudania's mouth, his hands clasping each of the formidable lizard's lips as he tried to pry them apart and enter the divine beast.

You sat securely perched atop the ledge, gawking above you at the deadly spectacle taking place on the tip of Death Mountain.

"If you won't open for me, I suppose the only other option is force." His blade spilled from its sheath, and lightning began to pirouette around the shaft.

You screeched. "Idiot! Don't attack it! It is one of our protectors! You wouldn't attack one of the four gods in your world!"

The deity looked down at you, a measly speck of dust from the height at which he was levitating. "But we are not in my world; we are in yours; therefore, I have no reason to care about it."

Your hands involuntarily cupped your mouth as you watched him prepare his blade for an attack. He wasn't going to listen to you. Not that you expected him to, but you thought the idea of the divine beasts mimicking those of the four gods in Termina would bridge some kind of gap in your relationship. It hadn't. It only made him more resentful of the foreign land he had been locked in for centuries.

As the lightning began to susurrate with deadly velocity, the sound was drowned out by thundering steps in the distance. You squinted; the multitude of flaming ashes raining down could not conceal the shape of the mighty Vah Naboris stomping in your direction.

While the deity's eyes lingered on the electric camel, your eyes focused on Vah
Rudania and the slow creaking of its lips opening up. A rumbling voice, frantic in its tone, came from inside Rudania's mouth. "What is yer problem? What is all this ruckus?"

"Rudania! Down!" The voice commanded, and the gargantuan lizard obeyed, trampling down the steep slope of Death Mountain.

"Naboris! Cease!" At the base of the giant camel's neck, you could see an opening that housed the shapely outline of the queen, and beside her, a more petite and muscled frame that you recognized as Riju's.

Your eyes lit up as the Queen called over to you. "Y/N? Y/N, are you alright?"

Beside you, a plump Goron, armored with a sculpted set of abs, appeared in your vision. He swept some of the fringe from his silver mohawk away from his eyes. "Hop in; I'll take ya over. Goro."

Before boarding Rudania, you glimpsed upward and saw the deity slowly floating toward the camel with his usual indecipherable expression. "Um, thank you. Are you Yunobo?"

"That's right. Current Goron champion and descendant of mighty Daruk!" The gleam in his eyes was filled with a passion that burned like the crimson ruby swinging around his neck. He pounded his fist against his chest with resounding pride. "Now, just step into Rudania's mouth; he won't bite ya. Goro."

The two divine beasts slowly met at Death Mountain's base. A crowd of Gorons gathered around, their plump mouths drooping open at the commotion.

"Yunobo!" The Queen called out, "Set Y/N down and join her. There are urgent matters to discuss."

The deity appeared in the middle of your group. "I hate to break it to you all, but urgent matters are coming this way." He nudged his head slightly toward a throng of guardians scurrying down Death Mountain.

"Goro Aw, come on!" Yunobo bellowed. "This is the third time in two days! Goro Goro." The goro seemed to reproduce at a starling rate the more stressed Yunobo became. You caught the crestfallen gaze of the Queen, who uttered, "So, Eldin has also been subjected. There is nowhere in Hyrule untouched from the onslaught of guardians and monsters."

"Not to mention," you took a moment to think about how to delicately word what you wanted to say. There was still a great deal of consideration when it came to speaking of Link before Zelda. "Link had said he encountered mutated monsters; they are multi-elemental wielders."

The queen nodded. "I have heard that reported as well. Did you encounter any when you went to Zora's Domain Y/N?"

"Link must have wiped them all out."

The deity snorted, prompting you to give him a death glare. "Basically, Sissy Boy cleared the path for his girlfriend."

Zelda flinched. You looked at your feet, the atmosphere turning dense with discomfort.

"Goro. Link has a girlfriend? Wait, but I thought—" Riju gently whisked Yunobo along. "Come on, friend, we have a duty right now, and that is to destroy some guardians."

"All right, but before I forget, Queen, this is for ya." Yunobo rolled toward Rudania, hopping back into the beast's mouth. After a few minutes, Yunobo appeared, holding your bag up in the air in the same manner as Link would have held a freshly caught porgy.

"Yunobo! Here!" He tossed it in your direction, and your hand was raised, ready to retrieve it, until another one caught it instead.

The deity swung your bag back and forth, as if he were dangling a carrot. "Well, I haven't had this much fun in so long. But I have somewhere to be. Stay stupid, little girl." The deity began to let out a dry cackle as his feet slowly hovered off the ground.

"HEY!"

Tears welled in your eyes, and you were grateful they were hidden behind the atrocity of the Flame Breaker helm protecting you. You were so close to solving things; you just needed that book to evoke some details between the fine print. You had originally wanted that book back because it was a link to the hero of time, but now it was something more. It was a link to your Link.

"Y/N, what is that?" The Queen stood beside you, observing your distress.

"We must stop him! That book is an account of Termina and the story of the Hero of Time."

"What? That's impossible; that book is still in the castle library, save for the pages on the deity I entrusted to Link."

"No! There are two accounts of the Hero of Time's story; the one in the castle differs from this book. That bag also has all my savings in it; it was -" You felt vulnerable as you were about to divulge how poor you were to the most affluent person in all of Hyrule. Zelda continued to survey you through unemotional eyes. "It was my rupees to buy a home. Link had given me rupees to replace when I was robbed, but I wouldn't take them. So, this bag holds a lot of monetary wealth as well as historical wealth."

"Yes, I recall."

"What?" You questioned. "He told you about the rupees?"

Zelda chuckled. "Not necessarily. But he asked for an advance on his paycheck. You do know he works as my knight; who do you think pays him?" She tilted her head, her eyes dancing with amusement. She put a finger to her chin in thought. "Well, now it all makes sense, doesn't it? But I can assure you, whatever book is in that bag, the official records are those within the castle."

Zelda's insistence that she was right was starting to infuriate you. "This book came from Kakariko; I received it from Robbie as a child."

She dropped her hand from her chin, and your proclamation jolted her eyes open with shock. "Kakariko? It came from the Shiekah?"

"I was raised in the care of the Shiekah. I grew up immersed in their legends and culture. I have never read the book in the castle library, I'll admit, but from what Link told me, this book greatly differs from the book the Shiekah possessed. " You pointed at the deity, who gravitated further up in the air, taking his time so as to be as taunting as possible.

"That book is written in the third person. The book in the library, from what I gather from the pages about the deity, is written from the hero of time's perspective. That means someone else believed in his story, someone else knew he was telling the truth, and someone else wrote a book hoping to bring him justice." You turned to Zelda with venom in your eyes.

"Why did you paint him to be mad? Why did you do that to Link?"

Zelda stamped her foot. "I didn't personally do that to him. I allowed him to speak his truth and write that book; how others interpreted it is beyond me."

"But you didn't defend him! In fact, you just sent him back in time, where he lost everyone he loved and was never acknowledged for anything he did!" Now, this fight had become personal. You could feel a voice whispering through you, and it was craving vengeance.

Your words shot out like an icicle. "You claim to love him, and if that's true, then by Hylia, you are the queen! You have the chance to speak to the masses and right the unjustness that he was served! Why don't you?"

"BECAUSE I'VE LOST HIM!" You watched in awe as Zelda's regality had finally been breached, each lifetime spewed from her tongue, a broken memory like a shard from a ruptured glass. Her dainty fingers grabbed your shoulders, and her nails broke through the fabric of your armor and into your flesh.

"I LOST HIM THEN, AND I'VE LOST HIM NOW. BUT Y/N, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HIM, YOU MUST ACCEPT THAT LINK AND I WILL ALWAYS BE BOUND BY HYLIAS DECREE. YOU MAY HAVE HAD HIM THEN, AND YOU MAY HAVE HIM NOW, BUT YOU WILL NOT ALWAYS HAVE HIM."

Then the unthinkable happened; the queen began to sob. She collapsed into your arms, and you held her, rubbing her back. Your flaring anger slowly subsided, and as you watched Zelda wail, you saw her then simply as a woman with a frail heart that had been broken. If Jerrin were here, she would be horrified by your behavior.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." You whispered into the top of her head.

She looked up at you, her green eyes usually laced with flecks of gold were obstructed by tears. In the background, you could hear the sound of the ancient machines slamming into the dry earth as they battled the corrupted guardians.

Zelda began to laugh. She grabbed the collar of your armor and, through her tears, sniffled, "And who do you think wrote that book?"

Your heart stopped. "What?"

But she couldn't answer; the sound of her laughter rendered her unable to speak.

Edited: 3/5/24