Courageous Heart

“Several times I think.” He joked softly, as the Hylian never had been one much for conversation. 

He didn’t quite understand how he’d managed to walk away from that with his life still in his possession but he had. A silent prayer to the gods had left him as he struggled to pull himself from the temple steps and soon found his broken frame in a collapsed heap on the ground. Pain escaped in the sound of hissing as teeth clenched together and his jaw locked tight as the sensation overwhelmed him. That creature - that phantom - it had been so real and so utterly frightening. Yet it was just a figment of the man that had thrown in his lands into turmoil while his body was trapped in a seven year long state of rest. That ghostly demon was only a taste of what was to come if he was to bring light back into the lands that the goddess’s had so lovingly crafted. He couldn’t allow it to be plunged even further into darkness. He’d promised her...promised Zelda that he would help her battle the evil that was to come - and yet - he’d never seen this coming. He’d been tricked, used, discarded as a pawn. That man in black; that man with eyes that glistened with vile intentions had played him for the fool and used them from the start. This was his fault. A naive child, set off on a naive quest to save a world that hadn’t truly needed to be saved. He caused this mess, and he cast this cloud of darkness onto Hyrule’s territory with his own two hands. He was blinded to the truth of the matter by his hopeful ignorance that he might be able to make some kind of difference in the world. Foolish Forest child. What did you know of the world you sought to protect? You were hardly a man when you lifted a sword and thus your ambitions got you caught in a state that stripped your childhood from you...because you thought you could play the part of the h e r o. So now, here he lay - green fabric in tatters and locks of blond sticking to paled skin as the heavens rained down upon him. His sword was discarded to his side for the moment, as the bark of the stump his body was slumped against rubbed roughly against the wounds that littered his form. This was more than he was expecting. This was worst than he’d assumed. This was harder than what he’d prepared for... it was so much worse from when he was a child. “Link!” The sound of a small voice, but familiar voice drew his gaze, if only for a moment before he let out yet another of round howled pain. “Link, your bottles. Your potions!” The small ball of light sounded, as if to draw her friend’s attention away from his very obvious dismal state of mind. He’d forgotten about them, and slowly his hand moved to his satchel to retrieve a bottle - filled to the brim with red liquid. Fingers shaking, he forced the cork free and pressed the rim to his lips. The healing sensation did his body good, and his mind wonders. It was at least enough to settle his nerves and allow himself to refocus on what was truly important. He’d created this mess with his own hands, allowing Ganondorf to play him for a   f o o l - but that just meant he would have to be the one to bring that man crashing to the ground. No one else was going to have the  c o u r a g e  to face him, and the young Hylian wasn’t about to let him simply get his way. So he would - he would be the one to fight. But for now, Link would simply wait for the potion to work it’s magic.

// thank you friend