fatefulfaerie

[fatefulfaerie]

Tears

“Link!” Penn exclaimed, wings outstretched in excitement. “What a great sense for news you have! Here I am chasing a new lead on the Princess and my partner appears before my eyes!”

Link hadn’t seen Penn since they finished chasing all the leads they had on the Princess’ whereabouts. It was at least a month since they went from stable to stable, Link almost believing the Yiga’s tricks and getting barely a wink of sleep until all twelve were dead ends. He was left just as lost as when he started until he found Impa and sunk himself into the mysterious geoglyphs that dotted the land. Link hadn’t yet found the courage to admit to anyone the truth about Zelda, so he pretended the best he could to be the eager, young reporter Penn knew him as.

“I’ve heard that Zelda has a homestead here in Hateno,” he continued. “Villagers tell me it’s across this bridge, but I’m afraid I’m at a standstill. You see, investigating her home for clues seems to go against my morals as a journalist. This may have to be a story we leave be.”

It was public knowledge that Princess Zelda lived in Hateno. That was no news story.

“What’s the lead?” Link asked. “Was she seen here recently? S-since her disappearance I mean.”

“It may be hearsay but rumors have been circulating that the Princess is married,” Penn said. “The villagers here have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’m thinking it’s no more than gossip. Traysi wanted me to check it out nonetheless. I’m thinking we at least find the may–”

Link averted his tear-filled gaze.

“Link, are you all right?”

“I…I’m fine,” he stammered. “Just…allergies.”

“Where,” he began weakly, but forced his voice to be stronger. “Where does the lead come from?”

“An old Zora at the Domain,” Penn answered. “He’s losing his memory but tends to spout some random things about his long life in an effort to keep a grasp on it. His niece heard him talking about marrying the Princess to someone, but he didn’t specify who. She was so excited about the prospect that she sent word to Traysi.”

Link looked notably nervous as he hugged his arms close.

“Don’t…don’t run the story,” he said in a hushed voice, no longer meeting Penn’s gaze at all. 

Penn looked confused.

“Link…what do you mean? Do you know something?”

“It just…it paints her in a bad light.”

“Link, I know you care about the princess’ public reputation. Your work at the paper honors that gleamingly. Your search for the absolute truth is inspiring to the whole team. You service our kingdom and our princess well.”

Link steadied his nerves with a deep breath and a slow blink of his eyes.

“It was me,” he admitted, quietly at first.

Penn blinked, shocked. He assumed he heard wrong.

“What?”

“It was me!” Link finally burst out pointing at himself. “All of it, everything. The mysterious hero who came out of nowhere and saved Hyrule from the calamity, me. I brought Zelda here and we built a life, and it was a good life. I married her because I loved her. We didn’t tell anyone because goddesses the Yiga were trailing her everywhere and everyone was looking at her to rebuild but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore because she’s gone, okay? She’s gone! That’s it, that’s your story. She’s a magic, floating dragon in the skies because I failed her again. She sacrificed herself for this kingdom and no one will ever know because there’s no proof! Nothing! No one else sees the dragons but me, so that’s what I have for you, absolutely nothing! I have nothing!”

Link panted and Penn stared. He blinked his eyes once, twice. Link expected him to call him crazy. Instead, he pointed his white-feathered wing at the house across the bridge.

“That’s your house?”

Link’s disbelief was shown in his face.

“Yes.”

Penn looked at the house for a moment, letting the breeze sift through his feathers.

“Link I think in a time like this Hyrule would quite like to hear a story like this about their Princess,” Penn said. “I don’t think your story paints her in a bad light in the slightest. In fact, it may be the heartwarming tale people need right now.”

Link’s gaze angled down and pondered the suggestion.

“And no, they won’t believe that she’s turned into a dragon,” Penn continued. “But they will believe as I do how much you loved her, and how she must have loved you.”

Link nodded.

“If you don’t mind I’d like to interview you,” Penn admitted. “In the house you built together. You’ll get final approval of the story I send to Traysi.”

Link looked up and over at the house. It felt like he hadn't been there in ages, like it was a lifetime ago that he went in scouring for clues, hoping she'd just be around the next corner. Waiting for her was like waiting for a sunrise that would never come.

“No, I don’t mind.”

#zelink #totk #tears of the kingdom #link #penn

[fatefulfaerie]

a huge congratulations on the 1K followers, how amazing! 🥳🥳

for the prompt, (botw!) Zelda discovers something unexpected about Link, and celebrates it in the best way she can. Any rating is cool. Have fun and write something that makes you happy. 🤗

A YEAR AND A HALF LATER

I apologize for being SO LAZY about getting around to this I honestly have no excuse. Was super fun when I finally got around to it! And yes, as promised, it is exactly 1,000 words.

Attraction

Princess Zelda had become no more than a tourist attraction. If Hyruleans were lucky, they were at the cathedral on a day where the princess was actively praying to the second-largest goddess statue in Hyrule. If you sit and wait, maybe she'll awaken her power right in front of you.

Guests weren't allowed to talk, but she could always hear their whispers. This was a cathedral far more grand than even the Temple of Time, and thus far more proficient at producing echoes. If they weren't whispering about the grandiose architecture, they were whispering about her. 

Sometimes they would comment at her elegance, the way she knelt without moving, whether it was really her or just another statue. Most of the time it was the disappointed "let's move on" from tourists who had opted to sit and see if the sealing power would indeed awaken for their waiting eyes.

However, Zelda could tell that days spent praying in the cathedral weren't grueling for only her.

Link had to deal with all of this whilst standing.

"Are your feet okay?" She asked once, on their way back to the castle. "From all the standing?"

Link shrugged, his standard response.

Zelda didn't know how to help him even if he had complained. It was like they were performing roles on a stage. How else will Hyrule know that the princess is seeking out her birthright sealing power and her knight attendant has the Master Sword in hand and at the ready?

But surely he must have been bothered. There was one time when Zelda saw him coming out of her father's study uncharacteristically miffed. Did he complain to the King? What came of it? He still had his job, though. Not that you could dismiss the knight who pulled the sword that seals the darkness.

"Can I ask..." Zelda prompted. "What did you talk to my father about?"

Link didn't answer at first, continuing to walk at his same stride. It was as if he didn't hear her, but she knew he did.

"Was it about the cathedral?" She continued. "Did you ask for a chair? That's not unreasonable."

"I asked for us to stop going to the cathedral."

It was sudden, and Zelda found herself surprised at how forward that was of him. Going to the cathedral was not only seen as progress towards activating the sealing power, but also a large part of their public presence.

"I...I'm sorry, what?"

Link stopped and turned.

"I'm tired, Zelda."

Zelda's heart sank.

"Is it your feet? Your back? This is why I asked."

"No, not tired like that I..."

Link looked around a tad before stepping closer.

"Don't you hear them?" He whispered. "The way they talk about you? It's not right."

Zelda needed to stop for a second, to parse the sincerity in his face and make sure she was understanding. She scanned his eyes, his brow, the way it creased in rising anger. She opened her mouth to respond and nothing came out.

"Your father doesn't like it either," Link continued in her silence. "But there wasn't much he could do. Well, he could do a lot but-"

"You went to my father because you're tired of the gossip-mongers?"

Link nodded.

If it wouldn't add more fuel to the fire, she would have kissed him. A month ago she was asking for another knight attendant and now she'd come to realize she likely had the very best one.

Zelda hugged him, and it was like Link had never been hugged before the way he stumbled back with his arms out. Eventually, he reciprocated. Holding her to him.

Link had barely gotten used to it before Zelda enthusiastically ripped herself from the hug and took his hand.

“Come on,” she said, with a malicious smirk Link didn’t trust. “I have an idea.”

Link was tugged along, forced to start at an awkward pace that was partly walking and partly jogging as Zelda went into the heart of Castle Town.

“Zelda this is not a good idea,” Link said at half a whisper as they passed the fountain, citizens starting to spot and recognize them. 

He could only imagine the fire that would run rampant tomorrow, the flame-like gossip that Zelda and Link were shirking their goddess-given duties. Two teenagers acting their age had the potential to throw the entire kingdom into disarray.

Zelda led Link to turn around a corner regardless. She knocked without hesitation on a homely wooden door and Link inhaled to forewarn her that it was very late in the night and that she couldn’t just–

“Your Highness!” The woman who had opened the door looked honored, yet no stars struck her face. She was used to the presence of the princess. “Come in! Come in!”

Link barely got a glimpse of the forty-something brunette before she had flocked to a kettle, readying tea for the princess and her guest.

“I was hoping you could do some work on Link here,” Zelda said, not needing to project her voice very far across the small hovel. 

“Work?” Link asked nervously. “What do you mean work? I need work?”

“I’m assuming this is the knight attendant you’ve told me all about,” the woman said, coming over with a tray that boasted a particularly ornate teapot and three teacups.

“I’m talked about?”

“Yes, he is,” Zelda said, pointedly letting Link flounder in confusion. “I can pay his way if needed.”

She shook her head

“It’s my honor to massage the knight with the sword that seals the darkness.”

“Massage?” Link parsed. “A massage?”

“Tavra comes up to the castle bimonthly to massage me as well as the King,” Zelda explained. “She also massages walk-ins here at her home. I figured it might help. Surely you have a lot of tension.” 

The idea of Zelda describing his muscles in any way made him blush, and Link agreed to get massaged so that he’d have a chance to hide it from the princess.

#zelink #botw

[fatefulfaerie]

Withdraw from me this halo lit

By godly, holy calls

Divinity does not quite fit

A hero's many falls

To devils snares I knelt instead

Though they forgive again

I plea to end, to put to bed

The error in my sin

Its so crazy to me how this game has 4 years worth of fanart and it’s not even out yet

#writing improv

[fatefulfaerie]

This has been a long time coming and I think it’s high time I say it for real.

My presence on Tumblr has been very different from how it was say two years ago. After I was harassed on Twitch and Discord by males sometimes double my age and stalked in-person, (in a way that gives me still-present PTSD) I deleted my original discord server and took time away to heal. This was in 2022, but since then I never was able to get back into the Tumblr community the way I was. I could have tried harder, but between grad school and keeping up with my mental health, it was no longer a priority. It makes me sad, but I don’t think I can ever get back to the momentum I had here. It sounds like I’m feeling sorry for myself but honestly, I no longer am dependent on numbers and likes and followers for my self-worth. I haven’t been for a while. That’s a big thing for me.

I still write. In fact, I graduate with an MFA in Creative writing in May 2024. I’m happily engaged to someone I love very much and am making plans to move to Canada so we can start our life together. I am happy and healthy the way things are.

I love the Zelda series. I love writing. I have ideas for fanfics, trust me, I have ideas. I’m not saying I won’t write and post fanfiction here anymore. It will just be more sporadic, thus I encourage you to not expect much from me, and you can unfollow me with no hard feelings.

I am very proud of where this community has gone and my small part in its growth. You are all such wonderful people and I know you will all do great things. I’m sure you are doing great things. I don’t even remember the last work I read that wasn’t mine. Wow have I stepped out of touch.

For the requests that were made over a year ago now - I am genuinely sorry. I’ll do them someday, and that’s a promise.

Thanks for the memories! I now officially promote myself to distant tumblr aunt with messy hair. Be careful out there, kids!

[fatefulfaerie]

[fatefulfaerie]

Some of this got a tad spooky I’m ngl. Thanks for the tag! Anyone who wants to join in can!

come do the "would you sit next to me" picrews i found on twitter (and tumblr) with me!!

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/1873485

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/230275

(no pressure) tagging: @kazemiya @ainescribe @thalaglia @dustofthedailylife @venusflwers @kaeffeinee @soleillunne @manager-of-the-pudding-bank @catcze @euniveve @snobwaffles @haliyamori @jingyuansbird @faesther @oveloof @heiayen @akiayama @https-furina @achy-boo @zhongrin @twanette @vennnnn-diagram @mhiieee @realkavehgf @yinyinggie ++ everyone else who wants to do it!! if you see this you're automatically tagged. no pressure though hehe

[fatefulfaerie]

27

[fatefulfaerie]

For it is I who frequents your dreams

Lives on the edge of your memory

Your heart yearns, yet your mind has forgotten

non ti scordar di mé

For it is you who frequents my dreams

Softly urges me to continue on

That in the end, all will be right

Psyche revived by cupid’s kiss

#zelink #writing improv

[fatefulfaerie]

34!

[fatefulfaerie]

Diary Entry #23

I once read of a being, a being of light and hope that transcended the laws created by the goddesses. She transcended Dins' earth, skirting skies and disturbing clouds. She transcended Farore's gift of life, living far past her mortal constraints, eras passing in a great eye's blink. She transcended Nayru's sense of predestination, making a decision that scared even the goddesses themselves.

I can't stop thinking about this legend. It was weeks ago that Mineru first told me of draconification, how forbidden it is, how inhumane, how cruel to oneself. Yet, it still presses upon me that it may be simultaneously the way back home to Link, and the way to heal the decay of the Master Sword. This may even be the reason I was sent here in the first place.

It frightens me, invigorates me, and makes me feel honored all at once. As far as the sacrifice, what this means for me and for Link, I will have to restrain my tears.

What I wouldn't give for just one last breakfast in Hateno.

Breath of the Wild Princess Zelda | Based off cosplay by im.renna on instagram!

#writing improv #zelink #totk

[fatefulfaerie]

Down to 56! Feel free to send more numbers!

Ask Game

Okay

I have a total of 62 drafts in my drafts. Send me a number from 1 to 62 and I'll finish and post that draft (most of them are fan arts I want to write a poem about but some of them are one shots I never finished!)

[fatefulfaerie]

-

You were always the light

That Hyrule looked upon

Perhaps if I had let you shine

We might've had another dawn

-

Enshrouded in eternal night

It's just the kingdom's ruined husk

And you there in the distant shrine

Forgetting our last dusk

-

To bide my time, I bathe in blight

Surrendered to that sweet old tune

The heroic tale was never mine

So I shall wait another moon

-

Princess Flower made a few years ago.

Breath of the wild fanart.

#writing improv #botw #zelink

[fatefulfaerie]

20 Questions For FIc Writers

Thanks @linksthoughtbrambles for tagging me!

I honestly don't interact with the Tumblr fic community anymore because time is such a fleeting thing so whenever I post I feel like everyone is like who dis?? I do wish I had more time for this stuff and miss the good old days <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

523,592

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Legend of Zelda mostly buy RWBY, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Star Wars when I'm feeling those.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ten Thousand Years Ago: 135

Hindsight: 137

Written In The Stars: 184

Honesty: 229

In Calamity's Grasp: 345 (but that's because my co-authors @pastelsandpining and @aurathian were/are awesome)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to but sometimes I forget!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

uhh to many to chose from but *sighs* yeah that's probably ttya

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Have I written any uh...yeah probably AMB

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did once and I deleted the fic because of it. They were upset because I pulled the "it was all a dream" bit and like sure but it's fan fiction about an alternate timeline that I made up based on a fictional web series. I mostly write it as a thought experiment and like idk. People got really mad and for what? Like I wrote a thing, I did words, nothing in it was problematic and hey I'm just a human? Like I'm not saying it was perfect but I think the amount of hate I received was a bit much. Sometimes people just want to be mad and RWBY "fans" like REALLY want to be mad. I have no idea.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind.

Not really. It's not even because I'm squeamish anymore it's just not my wheelhouse. I respect people who do though!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't think I have?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but I think fan fiction.net had a translation option and I remember playing with that to see what my words looked like in other languages.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Pastels and Bella and I wrote ICG together! It's still one of my favorites!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The nonexistent bridge fic between botw and botw 2 but idk. That's the only situation where I feel exhausted fixing Nintendo's problem for them. They should just hire me so that these things don't happen in the first place.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue

also humor I've been told but I can't control that power yet

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

descriptions

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've played with French for some poetry but that was using Google Translate. I think I'd need to actually know another language in order to do that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably Once Upon A Time when I was 14

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Am I allowed to say In Calamity's Grasp?

Tagging @pastelsandpining @aurathian @linktheacehero @dyventus

Idk if you guys are still around or what you've been up to but I consider you the OG lackeys although I know I'm forgetting people I'm just not sure of usernames anymore

[fatefulfaerie]

Burdened with Glorious Purpose

[fatefulfaerie]

55!

[fatefulfaerie]

Diary Entry #4

In Zonai culture, I’ve discovered that each and every stroke painted upon their bodies is significant. I still have much more research to do on the subject, but the most pertinent thing I learned was that no one ever paints themselves.

Upon arrival, I was outfitted in the royal garb of a kingdom all at once foreign and familiar. I was seen by a shaman who entered the room without a word, studied me in my entirety for an indeterminate amount of time, before painting two small white tears below each of my eyes and leaving in silence. 

At the time, I didn’t try initiate conversation, thinking perhaps he was like Link when we had first met, and preferred not to talk. 

Later, when I asked Sonia what had happened, she explained that the shaman was a servant of the Goddess Hylia. With her guidance, he knew how to express the inside onto the outside, and that it is from him that the marks of everyone in the tribe come from.

Since getting here, I wonder what the marks mean about me. Perhaps he saw the sadness in my eyes, the displacement I held upon my shoulders, the way my cheek yearned for the touch of my lover, the way my ears reached for answers, for solutions, for reasons.

I should be grateful for the opportunity to research so closely such an unknown part of the history of Hyrule, but I must admit, I can’t stop wanting to go home.

something something tears

#writing improv #zelda #totk

[fatefulfaerie]

The Fourth Dragon

Zelda pulled the blanket that draped over her shoulders closer into herself, trying to derive some comfort from the warmth. The fire crackled, yet it still wasn’t enough. She shuddered, her teeth chattering. Whether it was from the cold waters she was just drawn from or from her father’s silent presence, she didn’t know.

He was upset, she knew that much. Only twelve years old and she had snuck out from where they stayed in Kakariko Village to ascend Lanayru Mountain. The goddess springs were places of penitence and respect. One could not visit the spring of wisdom without being at least seventeen years of age, an adult in the eyes of the kingdom.

“Zelda, I...” 

The silence finally broke. The resplendent King disappointed his public image in private, hunching over in a wooden chair, hands clasped and throat tripping over itself. It wasn’t just that she snuck out, she had admitted to him that she hadn’t felt an ounce of the sealing power that was her birthright. For the past six years she had responded to his queries with the lie “I feel it more every day”.

“I think I’ve failed you.”

Zelda felt the whiplash in her heart. That was not what she expected.

“You’re only a child,” he said. “There are no signs that the prophesied Calamity is truly returning and you already have this tremendous pressure to prepare your sealing power.”

Zelda turned herself around to look at her father, preparing for his words with a respect she was taught to embody. However, he hesitated, and Zelda blinked her green eyes. She’d never seen her father so unprepared with his words.

"Your mother...” he finally continued. “She had a way with you that I never got a handle on. It’s not just because she was a woman it was...well...she had more of a capacity for tenderness and empathy than anyone I knew. I let her take care of you and when she passed on, I let the attendants raise you.”

Rhoam inhaled with gesture, as if to continue, but his brow twitched in confusion.

“Where was I going with that?”

Zelda stammered, shaking her head.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“My point is that I don’t know how to be a good father,” he said. “But I want you to know that you can come to me if you need to. I don’t want you to hurt yourself feeling like you’re alone in all of this.”

Zelda expected him to continue, yet he didn’t.

“So...you’re not upset?” Zelda asked, confused. This was the worst thing she had ever done and her father was pleasant? Understanding? 

“You wouldn’t have gone up there if not for the pressure, the burden on your shoulders,” he explained. “It means a great deal to me and to Hyrule that you care so much, and I have no doubt it means you are growing up to be a strong, young woman. But...when they brought you back here pale and stiff, passed out from the coldest waters in the kingdom, I just saw my little girl, the baby Hylia blessed me with all those years ago. And to think you could’ve...”

The King stopped himself, and with a twinkle in his eye that teased a tear Zelda had never seen, he took a deep breath. As if his eye was always dry, he continued.

“Your sealing power will come in time,” he said, far less broken. Even to his daughter, image was important. He straightened his back, realigned his shoulders and his head to balance the weight of the crown, and stood up. “No need to rush it.”

Zelda followed her father with her eyes as he left her be, in the dust of the most emotion she’d seen from him in a long time. She sat stunned and, honestly, disheartened that it came and went so quickly.

Whenever they made the trip to Kakariko, they always stayed in someone else’s house. Impa felt it incredibly rude to ask them to stay at the inn, and a house was already vacated, cleaned, and filled with the finest of Kakariko’s goods before the King could breathe a word of objection.

Zelda could hear the aftermath of the commotion she had caused from inside. The King was assuring everyone that the princess had indeed woken up from her chilly slumber and that all was well. Something gnawed at her heart that she woke up the entire village for this, and it wasn’t like she didn’t do her research! She learned from the Royal Chef that meals with spicy peppers are often cooked to help soldiers in the Gerudo Highlands with their searches for the Yiga Clan base. Helping them withstand the bitter cold was “the least he could do” he said, before giving a recipe to the eager princess for fun. Little did she know that the waters atop that mountain had an iciness that couldn’t be warded away by even the hottest pepper.

Zelda’s father came back in with a sigh, closing the door behind him.

“Feeling better?” he asked. “Warmer?”

Zelda was predisposed to answer the formal-toned inquiries with the all-too-familiar, “yes, Father”, but she didn’t. It wouldn’t have been a lie, she did feel warmer, but she wasn’t ready to go back to the way they were. This was her chance to ask, now.

“How did grandmother unlock her power?” Zelda nearly blurted out. The King would have asked were her manners were if he wasn’t pulled in by the subject matter. “You’ve...never mentioned it.”

The King didn’t answer at first. He stood, almost frozen by the question, by his daughter’s piercing eyes.

“I don’t know, Zelda,” he breathed out. “I wish I did. My mother’s account of it was fraught with the inanity the accompanied her illness. I didn’t believe it at the time and I have no reason to believe it now.”

His daughter looked up at him with nothing but the burning curiosity for him to continue. The King sighed.

“She was...well she was at the peak of Lanayru Mountain,” he said, eyes glazed over into the past. “So she must have been at least seventeen. She claimed a great dragon appeared to her, like the ones in the legends, but not quite.”

“What do you mean?” Zelda asked.

With a closed mouth he exhaled from his nose a small, gentle sigh. It seemed to be a struggle the way he wrestled with how to proceed. This was the longest he had ever humored legends. 

“It’s just a story,” he said, interrupting Zelda’s wonder-filled gaze. “Nothing to concern yourself with.”

“But...”

“That’s enough, Zelda,” he insisted, standing up. “No sense filling your head with nonsense. That’s where you got the idea to freeze to death in the first place.”

His words were sharp, and ended the conversation authoritatively. That didn’t, however, stop the young princess from imagining the legends he referred to. 

She laid in her small Kakariko bed, curled in blankets and picturing the old dragons, each composite of an element of nature. Farore, that of storms, lightning, chaos, intrinsically forthright and unapologetic. Naydra, that of calms, ripples, fractals, complications only wisdom and patience can solve. And Dinraal, that of quakes, unabashed power, fires and destruction when in the wrong hands. The three dragons were said to protect Hyrule in anonymity, unseen.

She fell asleep before she could even start to brainstorm what a fourth might look like if there was one. Yet, her dream that night featured a girl, somewhere between adolescence and adulthood, reaching her hand out to touch the very tip of a dragon’s nose. The dragon was big and long, with glowing golden hair and scales the color of Silent Princesses. As the dragon closed their purple eyes, the girl began to glow bright with the very sealing power Zelda sought.

The last sight Zelda saw before waking up was that same dragon heading upwards into the clouds, away from Hyrule. Zelda had a sense that the dragon had a purpose beyond the land that had been visited, but hope to see the dragon when she turned seventeen.

#zelda #botw #totk