Enjoyer Of Tri Force Heroes and Twilight Princess

The past five years I've participated in the whumptober challenge! I did half of 2021's for lu, and in 2022 and 2023 I did all 31 days for lu! You can find the list for 2021 here, the ones for 2022 here, the 2023 ones here, the ones for 2024 here and the ones for 2025 here (or find them all on my ao3 (see above), as well as some ao3-only bonus scenes!).

Kitty Wind, which is exactly what it sounds like. Wind touches Twilight's crystal, and finds himself as... a cat. A tiny, fluffy, adorable little cat. Needless to say, he isn't thrilled. You can find it under #kitty wind or read the fic on ao3!

LU Star Wars AU is also exactly what it sounds like, it's just a star wars au with the lu boys (and other zelda characters yaaaay). Not a lot yet, but three chapters are out so far (on tumblr and ao3).

A Royal Castletown Wedding is basically just me borrowing the my little pony wedding episode and turning into a goofy lu fic. Nearly finished!

Accidental Domestication, silly stories about the chain and wolves and them being Disney princesses, basically.

Scales and Gills, a collection of Mermaid Legend fics.

The Twilight Turns (true form au), which is a fic in which Midna returns to her true form much sooner than in canon. She and Link's relationship changes a good bit because of this. On ao3.

Pup is only two fics for now, but I have more planned for this idea! Dark Link goes back in time, and after the chain when they're too small to defend themselves. Unfortunately for Dink, he doesn't bet on them having protectors in the form of their predecessors.

Many Courses of Love which is a series of loz fics exploring the different Links and how they're loved (mainly zelink, but a few other ships, as well as familial love too :)

Up in Arms, a hyrule warriors fic in which Link loses an arm in the fight against the Dark Links.

Botw Dark Link AU, an AU I don't talk about much, but post-botw the Yiga decide to make a Dark Link in order to defeat Link himself once and for all. They, of course, screw it up.

Downfall IAU is just the incredibles AU only angstier. Much, much angstier. Here's the big ol' masterlist.

He turns and puts it out of his mind, deciding it’s a worry for later as he follows the thick roots of gloom. They lead him down into a wide cavern, one that reminds him of where he fought the Calamity under the castle, and his gaze is drawn to where the roots converge and weave into a strange swirling pedestal, one that stands high above him.

And at the top is Ganondorf, sitting in a meditative pose, looking not unlike the countless Sheikah monks Link has seen before.

Link gets on the defensive immediately, a hand hovering by his sword. Yet Ganondorf doesn’t react at his arrival, remaining in place, skeletal form unmoving. Is he... asleep?

“How disappointing...” Ganondorf says finally, voice rasping through the cavern. It scrapes out of his throat and into Link’s ears like sand, like the crackles of dry leaves in winter. Like bone scraping bone. “This world should be shrouded in darkness, not bathed in insufferable light.”

Link stares up at him, the ancient king sitting on the pedestal like it’s a throne, like he’s already won, and a hot, burning feeling begins to trickle through his veins. He’s dirtied and tired and been feeling the weight of the gloom more by the minute as he’s gotten deeper down here. He’s run through most of his supplies, and what he has left hangs heavy on his person, his strength faded after everything he’s done just to get here.

But at the sight of his foe, all of that fades.

“All these weak, peace-loving cowards running rampant...” Ganondorf continues in a sneer, his mouth the only part of him that’s moving. His pupils suddenly appear, and fix on Link, a fiery orange. “It would have been more... satisfying, to overcome a worthy foe.”

The stone on his forehead lights up, and his eyes glow with it, the hair on Link’s neck standing up. Gloom focuses around Ganondorf, curls around his hand and twines around his arm, gathers around him like a storm forming. He then slams a palm into the ground and the gloom explodes around him, whirling in a cyclone of crimson and black.

Link watches as the gloom swirls, his breath getting faster as the feeling in his veins gets hotter and hotter. And when Ganondorf emerges, his flesh restored, body muscled and powerful, appearing exactly as he had in Zelda’s memories... he sees red.

Ganondorf drops down and starts saying something about how he’ll crush Link, crush Hyrule, about destroying and twisting it into ruin under his kingship, but Link’s barely listening, rage sweeping through him.

This man is what pushed Zelda to act with such desperation. This is what doomed her, and Hyrule. This is the cause of nearly every suffering Link and Zelda and everyone in the kingdom have gone through, since... since before he was born.

The Master Sword shines with light as Link draws it, Zelda’s light, and he grips it tightly. It’s a pinprick of blue in a sea of red, a tiny dinghy against an ocean, but he finds himself energized with its glow, the red mist receding from his vision, a surprising calm settling on his shoulders.

Link points his blade at Ganondorf, and holds it with a strength that surprises even himself.

All Ganondorf does is chuckle, and then he draws his own weapon.

The fight starts slow, the two of them circling each other without making any immediate move. Ganondorf is the one who swings first, and Link parries, then lunges back to strike at him in turn.

The struggle that follows... isn’t as bad as Link was fearing it would be. He’s kept on his toes certainly, and he knows without a doubt that Ganondorf would kill him if he got the chance, but he’s a little surprised at how easy his attacks are to deflect back at him. Ganondorf’s skill is comparable to a lynel’s— difficult, but manageable.

Link leaps away from a swing, then rushes forward and bashes his shield against another strike. It almost feels like... Ganondorf is testing him. Trying to feel out Link’s fighting style, all while still attacking him too.

Or... perhaps it’s more like a predator playing with its food before killing it.

That thought makes him shiver, but Link ignores it, focusing intently on the fight. He should strike while the iron is hot. If Ganondorf is underestimating him, then that’s all the better for Link.

So he ups his game, moving faster, striking harder, bashing his shield against all manner of attack. He jumps and stabs and uses the Master Sword with perfect technique, and Ganondorf can’t quite keep up.

Link manages to slash at his shoulder, deeper than any strikes he’s managed before, and Ganondorf grunts and steps back, a small chuckle escaping him.

“What a feeling...” he laughs, almost grinning at Link. He clenches a fist. “I had almost forgotten the thrill of battle after so long. That feeling as blood surges in my veins...”

His face suddenly loses its mirth, and he spears Link with an expression that makes him feel like a blupee on the other end of an arrow.

“And I am not even nearing the limits of my power.”

Again his stone shines, a sickly red of gloom, and it rushes around Ganondorf in a rapid swirl, leaving him changed again as the gloom ripples away.

What stands before Link now is monstrous. Horns jut from Ganondorf’s forehead, fangs from his lips. He towers over Link even more now, his skin pulses with gloom, he’s clothed in it, made of it, his hair glows and writhes with it as the gloom just keeps growing and strengthening him more and more—

Link takes a step back, panicking at the near effortless display of power, and the Demon King smiles.

“Enjoy these final moments. I will be taking far more than your arm this time,” he says as he forms a blade of gloom, and Link clenches his sword.

“You already did,” he spits, and their blades meet with another flash of dark and light.

Ganondorf shoves his blade aside, swinging a fist at Link that he barely dodges. He’s not sure where to even start with this, some deep part of his soul screaming in familiarity at flaming hair and burning robes, and he doesn’t even get a chance to formulate a strategy before things get bad.

A flicker of red is all the warning he gets before gloom wafts up from the ground, and takes the form of Ganondorf, multiple of him. Phantoms like the ones he’s fought so many times after gloom hands, except bigger, stronger, and they all converge, trying to overwhelm Link with sheer numbers.

Ganondorf continues to swing at him, all while his clones do the same. A blade catches his arm, another his leg. Ganondorf himself kicks Link square in the chest, and he barely manages to recover from it in time to avoid a strike at his head.

Link is pressed closer and closer to the wall, desperately blocking attacks as he bleeds from countless small hits, and Ganondorf grins.

No!

Right as Link begins to panic, familiar voices shout his name, and the sages once again fly to his rescue, breaking into the room and fighting off the clones. Link sends them all a weary smile as they buy him time to chug a potion, and then he faces Ganondorf himself again, able to largely ignore the clones with the assistance.

What did I ever do to deserve such loyal friends?

“Pitiful,” Ganondorf scoffs, and again they engage.

It’s curious— Link doesn’t remember dueling anyone from before he lost his memories. Zelda has told him he used to do it all the time, mostly at festivals and tournaments and things like that, but he doesn’t have any recollection of it, and he doesn’t do anything more than the occasional spar now. He rarely fights anything human at all, anything that needs extra technique and finesse. Lynels come close, and the occasional Yiga that actually knows how to handle a blade, but those are both rarities.

This, though, takes skill.

Ganondorf is no longer holding back in any way. He moves like a wave in the ocean, slowly building with careful movements, then crashing into hard strikes that leave Link reeling, over and over. He’s wickedly fast, his sword slashing with a speed that matches Link’s, and it’s a struggle to keep up.

He uses his entire body, swinging with his fists when he misses with his sword, kicking out at Link when he dodges a strike. Link shields and thrusts and throws a dazzlefruit in his face once in return, but he’s struggling.

It’s a hard fight. It’s a long fight.

Every time he thinks he’s finally getting somewhere, Ganondorf leers and strikes back twice as hard and twice as fast, and Link is pressed just to keep all his limbs attached.

But he doesn’t falter. The Master Sword flashes as it strikes against Ganondorf’s blade, the two of them whipping around each other so fast they’re mere blurs to anyone else. Link manages strikes here and there, a slash to his side, a cut on his upper arm. The Master Sword does its job, almost singing whenever its steel hits gloom-seared flesh, and Ganondorf grows angry.

He throws out a burst of power and gloom, blasting the sages back, but somehow Link stands firm, and keeps fighting.

Ganondorf lands a hit, and Link strikes back with one of his own. Link dodges a series of swipes, and then Ganondorf does the same. Gloom gets launched at Link in more ways than he can count, exploding out of the ground, shot at him in bursts, coming at him in waves, and his legs shake as he dodges it all as well as he can.

The moment comes when Ganondorf raises his blade to attack, but Link takes his chance, reacting at split-second speed and avoiding the strike.

He moves in to strike back with a flurry rush, but somehow Ganondorf blocks it, and then does one back at Link.

He’s thrown back, blood splattering, and he downs a healing item as soon as he can breathe past his scream. Ganondorf grins, and Link stumbles to his feet in shock, wiping blood from shaking hands.

He’s never met anyone else that can do that. Ever.

“You know, that insufferable Rauru mentioned you,” Ganondorf breathes, obviously a bit winded from the fight himself. “What a fool. So much hope placed in one insignificant boy... by a king who let an expecting mother fight for him,” he says slowly, a smirk pulling at his lips. “I wonder... how do you feel, knowing so many threw their lives away for nothing?”

Link yells and lunges for him.

His swings get sloppy, imprecise, red approaching the edges of his vision. The walls crack, the grief rears up, and all he can see in his mind is Zelda, their baby, tears as she swallows and screams his name, gone, gone, gone gone gone GONE—

A sword cleaves through the mist in his vision and Ganondorf nearly takes off Link’s head when he overcommits to a swing. He skitters back with a gasp, the sting startling him as he wipes away the thin line of blood across the back of his neck.

The Master Sword flickers in his grip, glow brightening as something chimes in his ear, and he dives out of the way of another blast of gloom.

He needs to calm down.

Link breathes in and out through a tight chest, even as Ganondorf throws more gloom at his face. The Master Sword warms somehow, in a way that reminds him of Zelda, and Link steadies himself as he sets a hand over the pocket with the shard of her horn, and the scale from Sundelion.

Protect them all.

He can’t do that if he’s drowning in rage.

Link dodges another blast of gloom, and briefly runs away to buy himself just a few seconds to get ahold of himself. Ganondorf stalks after him, but Link forces himself to calm, to ease the knot of grief crippling him.

He wrestles with the anger that clouds his judgment. The grief that drags his limbs and weighs his heart. Instead he pulls on the strength the Master Sword is giving him, the light that Zelda left for him. He can’t be sloppy. He can’t let Ganondorf get under his skin.

Okay.

...Okay.

Link heaves in a breath, wipes tears from his eyes, and turns back to Ganondorf.

The Demon King lunges and their swords lock, gloom screaming, Master Sword singing. Another flurry rush gets parried, but Link is expecting it, and dodges the blade that swings for his arm. He manages to flurry that attack, and actually manages a hit, Ganondorf lunging back with a snarl.

They’re both bleeding and breathing fast, sweat slicking hair and skin. The air is stifling, clouded with gloom, and it sucks at Link with an intensity only the gloom straight from Ganondorf has, slowly siphoning energy away like it did when he lost his arm.

But Link keeps going.

Ganondorf’s confident demeanor never falters, but he grows more angry as the fight continues, gloom brightening along his skin, hair writhing around him. The sight only makes Link more determined, and the scale in his pocket almost seems to warm, giving him some extra strength.

This man— this demon— is the reason his family is lost, the reason Zelda gave herself up. The reason his daughter has never known a day as a Hylian, the reason for so much pain, across all of Hyrule.

Link is the only one who can stop him. He’s not going to lose this fight.

He can’t.

His heart pounds in time with the pulse of the Master Sword, striking with it like it’s an extension of his arm. He fights for his kingdom, his friends, for the sages still lying on the ground— but most of all, for his family, his daughter and Zelda, who gave up everything so he could win this fight.

And finally, he strikes Ganondorf straight across the chest, blood and gloom spraying into the air.

The Demon King falls to a knee with a choked noise, looking furious. Then he bends backwards with an enraged howl, Link gasping for breath and wiping blood off his chin.

The Demon King glares at him with fire in his eyes, also heaving for breath, and bares sharp teeth.

“I will yet... rule this land... you will not stop me!” he snarls, practically foaming at the mouth. “A mere mortal... will not stand in my way!”

His hand claws at his forehead, and he tears off the stone that’s imbedded there in a spray of light and blood.

“My mind... my body... everything,” he spits as blood runs down his face, clutching the stone in a trembling hand. “I’ll sacrifice it all... to destroy you... and plunge this world into eternal night!”

Ice pours into Link’s stomach, but before he can do anything, Ganondorf lifts the stone high, and shoves it all the way down his throat.

Then he laughs.

He laughs and laughs and keeps laughing even as he hunches over and his pupils contract, and then turn a sickly green.

Darkness bursts from his form, an explosion of power so fierce Link is pushed backwards. The shear of gloom and light from the blast is blinding, overwhelming in its intensity, and Link can’t see anything for several moments, the switch from dark gloom to pure white stealing his sight.

His eyesight returns in time to see a vaguely serpentine form burst from the gloom, eyes glowing through a cloud of shadows, and a primal fear seizes and roots him in place as he takes it in.

Calamity, his mind screams, and then the massive head covered in shadow and gloom lunges for him.

It slams into Link like a boulder, and the few awake sages cry his name as he’s snatched off his feet. It’s so fast he can’t struggle, and suddenly they’re flying towards the ceiling and there’s a deafening sound and violent movement and pain—

“Hey. Who was it?” he greeted as he walked forward, and Artemis hesitated. “...Arty? What’s wrong?”

Her fingers tightened around her hair. “It was my mother,” she muttered, hunching over a bit more. “I... hung up on her.”

Warriors blinked in surprise, and slowly sat down beside her, giving her a worried look. Artemis almost never spoke of her parents. In fact, Warriors hadn’t even known her mother was even living. She certainly hadn’t been at their wedding.

“What did she want?” Warriors asked.

“She wanted to see me again. I guess she changed her mind when she told me to get out of her life and never show my face to her again,” she said with a bitter laugh. “Probably because I’ve made a life for myself, and she wants in on it.”

“Artemis, I didn’t know your mother was alive,” Warriors said as he sat beside her, and Artemis grimaced.

“She is. Alive and kicking.”

“That’s a bad thing, huh?”

Artemis looked like she wrestled with herself a moment. “...It makes my life more difficult.”

“In what way?” Warriors asked, and Artemis rubbed her forehead.

“That’s... going to take some explaining.”

She stood and they moved into the living room, Artemis sitting heavily on the couch. She seemed uncomfortable in a way that was unusual for her, and as Warriors sat beside her, she set her head on his shoulder, her expression rather difficult to read.

Warriors put his arm around her, and Artemis let out a long sigh.

“My parents... didn’t love each other,” she said with some difficulty. “You know my father was a businessman, a rather successful one. He wanted a family to carry it on, and found my mother, who pretty much just married him because he was rich. They had me, but father wanted a boy, and despite how they tried, they never had any more children. Father got over it, but my mother never let me forget.”

“Was it bad?” Warriors asked as he set his hand over hers, and she nodded.

“I can’t remember a day they didn’t argue. I’m certain my mother only stayed with him as long as she did for the money— she divorced him when I was seven. They shared custody a while, but when I was eleven, my mother said she wanted nothing to do with me and quite literally threw me out of her house. And my father... he tried his best to care for me after that, but he was too busy to give me the attention I needed. He found Impa, and she became my caretaker. She’s more my mother than my real mother ever was.”

Artemis exhaled, and tiredly rubbed her eyes before she continued.

“I think I’ve told you before that my father passed away the same year we started dating. He had his protégé he left the company to, but I inherited a lot of his money. I either gave it away or dropped it into savings though— I suppose I was afraid if people knew then I’d end up like my poor father," she admitted softly. "Anyway, I would guess my mother’s been trying to track me down ever since he passed to try and get a piece of it.”

She closed her eyes, and Warriors gently rubbed her arm.

“I’m sorry, Zelda. That’s a lot,” Warriors said softly. “And I thought my family was complicated.”

Artemis gave him a smile, but she didn’t laugh, still looking unsettled.

Warriors lightly kissed her hair. “Hey. Don’t worry. We can handle one greedy woman with an agenda. If you don’t want her near us, just say the word, and I’ll make it so you don’t even have to see her face if she shows up. And I’ll get Sky and everyone in on it too. We’ll keep her away if we need to.”

“I know. I just worry about what she might try,” Artemis murmured. “She’s a horrible woman, Link. I assumed she’d never want anything more to do with me, but... somehow she got our number, she might know where we live. I didn’t tell her she has a grandson, but what if she finds out?”

Warriors tightened his arm around her. “We won’t let her do anything, Arty. It’ll be all right.”

Artemis sighed heavily, and her breath brushed Warriors’ damp hair. “I know. It just makes me angry, I thought she was done making my life miserable. It took everything I had not to give her a piece of my mind over the phone.”

“Well if she calls again, I’ll gladly tell her a thing or two,” Warriors said cheerfully, and his tone of voice pulled a small laugh out of Artemis.

“I think I’d like to see that. Goodness, she’d hate you if you met.”

“From what you’ve said about her, I think the feeling would be mutual,” Warriors said, and squeezed her hand. “I vote we pull out that extra cake in the fridge.”

“Weren’t we saving that for tomorrow?” Artemis asked as she nestled up against him, and Warriors shrugged.

“It’ll taste just as good today, if not better. Upsetting phone calls call for extra dessert. Malon says that’s the rule, and who am I to argue with her?” he said with a wise nod, and Artemis smiled as she gave him a kiss.

“All right. Malon wisdom is inarguable,” she said as they finished the kiss, and both stood to go get the cake.