Originally I was going to post a hopefully sweet little Zellink story (nevertheless with a great deal of violence) this month, for Valentine's Day and everything. Then I changed my mind and started writing this one, intending it to be a rather lighthearted story about what would happen if Link decided to live with bokoblins indefinitely with the bokoblin mask. No romance or violence whatsoever. And as I was writing that story, it evolved into this one. Definitely Zellink, definitely violent (which is why it's rated T), and nothing really about bokoblins at all.

But it does feature a certain dragon...

-==]I[==-

Anything for You

-==]I[==-

"Link! Look up there! That's the very core of Ganon's being! Do what you must, Link!"

Element shifted restlessly beneath him. Link swallowed tightly, eyes narrowed as he stared up at the beam of light shooting from a massive eye of Malice embedded in Ganon's brow. "I'm on it," he muttered, digging his heels into Element's fiery chestnut sides. With a low snort the powerful mare lunged forwards, hooves tearing mercilessly at the damp grass. Sheets of rain poured from the sky, but they could not conceal Ganon's shining core from Link's eyes. Gripping his horse's sides with his knees, he pulled the bowstring back as an arrow of light magically formed, already nocked and ready.

He aimed carefully and fired, just as Element plunged down a shallow dip in the ground; the arrow flew too wide and they cantered past Ganon's forelegs. Gritting his teeth, Link pulled Element to a halt and gently wheeled her around, spurring her once more into a raging gallop. The instant they came out in front of Ganon's legs… he would fire again, and he would not miss.

It happened in an instant that felt like forever. Element bolted past Ganon's left foreleg just as the monstrous beast took a step forward with that same leg, hoof crashing down a mere few paces from the horse and the hero. A tremor shook the ground; Element lost her footing and stumbled, her body rolling sideways. Link leapt from her back, keeping his legs from getting crushed beneath her chest.

Sudden flaming agony shattered his chest. His lips parted in a soundless scream.

Hot blood streamed down his chest. He felt as if he'd been split open, as if a bolt of lightning had taken residence right in the middle of his torso. His vision waverd. Blearily he realized that he was slumped forward against a jagged, ancient fence post slick with blood - his blood.

His vision wavered. His heart pounded. Again an irrepressible scream bubbled from deep in his soul, but there was no sound.

Tears mixed with the rain on his cheeks. He couldn't move; he couldn't speak and could barely think. His breaths came quickly, in jagged, uneven bursts as his eyes slipped closed for the briefest moment.

He didn't know how long he remained there where he'd landed, pressed against the splintered fencepost that had nearly impaled him. It was the voice that drew him halfway out of the raw pain throbbing up and down his chest… Zelda's voice. Calling his name. Afraid. Desperate.

Anything… for you, Princess…

With a groan that carried none of his voice with it, he pushed himself away from the fencepost and flopped onto his back, facing the dark clouds above. Rain pelted down on him, shards of glass burning the gaping wound up his torso. He cried out from the pain, this time dimly realizing that something was horribly wrong as no sound escaped his throat yet again.

But that could wait.

Ganon was still there.

Bow… of Light… Link thought groggily, pushing himself to his side and forcing himself to sit up. The divine weapon lay in the grass a few feet away; clenching his teeth tightly against the pain he leaned forward and crawled through the mud towards it. His senses flickered in and out, warning of the abyss to come; all at once he found his hands curled tightly around the Bow. Shuddering as waves of pain and fatigue shuddered over his body, he pulled the bowstring back to his cheek with another silent cry, the action stretching the ragged edges of the wound. His eyes watered; he aimed carefully and fired.

This time the Light arrow flew true.

And Link succumbed to the darkness and agony that consumed him.

-==]I[==-

Link jerked awake, shuddering, perspiration soaking his undershirt and trousers, sticking them to his skin. A shout lingered in his throat - a shout that was little more than a whoosh of air.

He grimaced, struggling to swallow from the dryness in his throat.

Merciful Din… his throat.

His fingers travelled up to his bandaged neck. There, still not quite healed from the last battle with the Calamity, was the massive gash stretching from the bottom of the left side of his rib cage all the way up to the bottom of the right side of his chin. Weeks had passed… weeks he'd spent, for the most part, unconscious. After coming to at last, he'd been told that one of his ribs had been torn out and his vocal cords had been irrevocably damaged by the fencepost he'd been all but impaled upon. An inch deeper, so the healers said, and he would have died in a matter of moments.

Now, in the aftermath of the dream that had forced him to relive that night, the wound seemed to pulse and throb beneath the bandages. Link gulped again, curling up on his side and closing his eyes tightly. Despite the calm ambience of Kakariko Village, the sound of chirping frogs wafting in through the inn's open window, It would be difficult to find any more sleep that night.

The sound of light footsteps jerked his eyes open once again. A floorboard creaked just outside of his door, and the footsteps went silent. Link held his breath, one hand snaking to the dagger beneath his pillow as he tried to remember just where he'd put the Master Sword.

The soft footsteps continued, fading away from his doorway. Link relaxed, relieved for a moment, until the memory of the Princess and the Yiga Clan shot through his mind. Just because they're not after me doesn't mean they aren't after her, he realized with cold dread, slipping silently out of bed and snatching the Master Sword from its resting place resting messily against his travelling supplies.

Carefully he eased the door open and peered out into the hall. Kakariko's inn wasn't particularly large; there were perhaps four or five rooms in addition to the one Link had rented.

Zelda's was one of those. And her door was slightly ajar.

Heart hammering wildly with unease, he stole silently through the shadows and peered cautiously inside.

She wasn't there.

Sudden cold seized his heart; the sweat still damp on his body chilled him to the bone. His mouth dry, he turned back the way he'd come, slipping quickly past the front desk and out into the night.

"Zelda," he tried to call out, once again reminded of what had been stolen from him. Wincing, he padded barefoot over the loose soil forming the main road through the village. With growing panic he looked around, praying that he wasn't too late, that she wasn't gone -

There.

His shoulders sagged in relief. Zelda stood in her nightgown before the village Goddess statue, her head bowed. Wearing the white, flowing dress, Link thought with a blush that she looked like a goddess herself, the very embodiment of goodness and purity.

Slowly, hesitantly, he approached her. Unable to announce his presence, he kicked a small stone and sent it skittering across the little wooden bridge to the statue. Zelda turned, her green eyes emanating worry even through the shadows of the night.

"Link," she greeted him with a soft smile, though it didn't quite reach her gaze. "You couldn't sleep?"

Link shrugged, opening his mouth to explain before remembering he couldn't.

She glanced over his body before returning her focus to his face. "Do you have any nightclothes? They're certain to be far more comfortable, which may perhaps help you sleep better…"

Link blushed. There was a reasonable explanation, of course - should an attack occur in the dead of night, as they often were, it would be far simpler to throw on a suit of chainmail over an undershirt specifically designed to keep his skin from chafing than a thin sleeping shirt. And it was certainly easier to belt his quiver to his waist when he was already wearing trousers with belt loops.

Comfort wasn't something he looked for in life.

He shrugged again, despising the fact that it was the only answer he could give. What about you? he yearned to ask. Why are you out here all alone?

Thinking quickly, he gestured to the statue of Hylia and looked at her expectantly, hoping that his actions could convey the message well enough.

She chuckled softly, turning her gaze away from him and towards the heavens. "Certainly it must seem odd for me to be up and about at this hour. I haven't felt like I could truly get enough sleep since Ganon was defeated. I suppose not sleeping for a century would do that to me…"

Link fought to keep the guilt from rising in his soul. The thought of what she had been doing all that time, while he…

He'd practically died. The injuries he'd sustained were moments from taking his life when he'd been placed into a state of stasis, wounds so grievous, in fact, that it had taken a hundred years for them to heal enough for the Shrine to decide it time to wake him back up.

But all the facts about what had happened to him couldn't change his mind. He'd been sleeping while Zelda fought for a hundred years. It was a wrong that he longed to right with every fiber of his being. Anything for you, Princess.

Zelda's sigh drew him out of his thoughts. "Nevertheless, the fact remains that I… I don't think I will be able to find any more rest tonight." She sucked in a deep breath and held it, something Link did when preparing himself for something painful. "I… I had a dream. Similar to one that I had before the Calamity struck, but… clearer, somehow. Not as vague. Perhaps because I've awakened my powers…"

Icy fingers of dread curled around Link's heart and he waited in suspense for her to continue. But Ganon's gone! What more could possibly…

The Yiga Clan?

All at once she whirled around to meet his gaze, her face a grimace of fear and fatigue. "This isn't finished," she explained, wringing her hands anxiously. "I was shown that traces of Malice remain in Hyrule, and if the Yiga managed to harvest enough of it, I fear that they could resurrect Ganon."

Link felt winded at the thought. Worse than the Yiga Clan. Ganon had been difficult enough to vanquish the first time - so difficult that it had taken not one, but two near-fatal attempts to finally defeat him.

The idea that he could return was blood-curdling.

"What do we..." Link grimaced, reaching unconsciously up to his chest, still bandaged beneath his undershirt. He was beginning to realize, when he automatically tried to respond vocally and found that he couldn't, that he spoke a good deal more than he thought he had.

Zelda bit her lip, looking at him with sorrow. "I'm so sorry, Link. One more time… slower?"

He nodded carefully, swallowing with difficulty. "What do we do?" he mouthed slowly, pausing between each word.

Zelda scrunched her nose, thinking deeply. "I… I suppose I'm asking you to track down all silver-class monsters and kill them," she explained after few more seconds of hesitation. "Each of them carries a fragment of Ganon's power preserved in the very essence of their beings. If they survive, then he survives as well. We cannot let that happen - not after everything we've sacrificed to defeat him."

Link nodded. Anything for you, Princess. He wanted to ask her when she wanted him to begin; was she certain she'd be safe in Kakariko Village if anything should happen? What about the Yiga Clan?

But the words died in his throat and he grimaced again, pulling his hand away from his still-bandaged neck. "I'll go now," he mouthed, pointing to his horse grazing in front of the Kakariko Shrine.

The problem was… Zelda wasn't looking at him. Sighing, he reached out and tapped her shoulder lightly, shyly, and repeated his message when she turned around.

Again, as always, it took her a moment to understand. Her brow creased. "You won't wait until you're healed?"

"The Yiga Clan won't wait," he tried to explain, only to met with her blank stare. He tried again, slower, exaggerating each movement of his lips and trying to quell the rising sadness in his soul.

Not everyone possessed Zelda's patience. How many would turn him away? How many would he unwillingly isolate himself from?

He'd never been entirely comfortable around large groups of people, but the thought of complete isolation brought a lump to his throat.

"I'm sorry; I couldn't get that one," Zelda sighed, breaking away from his gaze. "Link, can you… can you write?"

He tilted his head. "A little," he mouthed, raising two fingers pinched together to help her understand. Growing up on a farm, trying to develop his combat skills as well as doing a good deal of the work with the livestock, education hadn't exactly been his mother's main priority for him. His father, knighted for his skill and not his heritage, was literate but hadn't spent much time at home. After Link had been accepted into the Royal Guard at the age of eleven, his father taught him the basics of the written Hylian language.

At least… he thought it was his father. All he had was the assumption that the shadowy glimpse of a man sitting beside him with parchment and a quill was the same man in armor walking up the rugged path to his childhood home.

Zelda's eyes brightened. "Come with me," she said excitedly, beckoning as she hurried back towards the inn. Link followed, his cheeks growing warm as she ushered her into her room. He hovered as close to the door as he could manage as with a shy smile she took the Sheikah Slate from the nightstand and tapped the screen several times before holding it out to him. "Just trace your finger over the screen to write," she instructed, although her voice was soft and hesitant, betraying her uncertainty about the best way to communicate with him.

The Yeeguh Clan won't wait, he wrote, blushing a little as he looked over his spelling of 'Yiga.' Surely that was incorrect, but he truthfully didn't know how to spell it.

Zelda read his words quickly. "Another reason for you to stay," she said, her excitement quickly fading as the severity of the situation returned. "You killed Ganon - that makes you as much a target as I am, if not more so."

Link managed a lopsided grin. I know how to deal with them, he reminded her, raising an eyebrow.

She frowned heavily, brows knit, avoiding his gaze. "I… Link… oh, very well. If anyone can take care of themselves, it's you. But don't do anything… reckless. Especially while that wound is still healing."

He nodded his thanks and offered the Sheikah Slate back to her, but she shook her head.

"Keep it," she said. "It'll help you find all of the silver-class monsters, and if you need to communicate with anyone, you can use it for that, too…"

Link smiled at her, turning to leave. "Thank you," he mouthed, grateful when she understood immediately.

Zelda took a sudden half-step forward, bringing herself closer to him. Her cheeks flushed pink. "Just… be careful, alright?" she urged with concern. "Ganon might be gone, but I… er, the kingdom… still needs its hero." With a quick intake of breath she closed the distance between them and pulled him into a gentle hug, pressing her face into the uninjured side of his neck. "Come back quickly," she whispered.

Link stood there for several moments after her door closed, trying to get his rocketing pulse under control. Woah.

-==]I[==-

Killing all of the silver monsters in Hyrule was certainly easier said than done. The Sheikah Sensor certainly helped, but truly the only way for Link to ensure that every last one of them was destroyed was to travel everywhere in the kingdom.

Everywhere.

On horseback.

And many of the monsters he encountered weren't even silver, so to save time he rode past them as fast as he could, rewarding his mare, Element, with apples packed with his gear for that very purpose.

Because of that, and because several monsters drove him off course, he stopped briefly in Akkala to purchase Kilton's monster masks.

It five months to the day of Ganon's defeat that Link began the journey back to Zelda waiting in Kakariko, having exterminated the last silver lizalfos in Gerudo Desert. He was exhausted, battered with small cuts and bruises, and dirty from so long on the road. Element was just as tired, though he'd done his best to keep her clean and uninjured.

At that point, his task complete, he finally decided to stop at the Gerudo Canyon stable to rest in an actual bed for once. Entirely drained of energy, he barely had the strength to drag his feet up to the counter.

"Er… welcome!" the stable master chortled uncertainly, regarding him with a critical eye. "How can we help you today?"

Link sighed heavily, glancing down at himself. He could understand the man's hesitance; his tunic had transformed from a deep maroon to a dusty gray, ripped and torn here and there. Old bandages stained with little splotches of dried blood curled around his body, mostly on his arms and legs, where his chainmail didn't reach. The leather armor over his chest was scratched and scuffed, and the soles of his boots had nearly worn through from all of his traveling. I must look like a nightmare.

"I -" Link stopped, wincing, once again reminded of his inability to speak. Fumbling slightly, he pulled out the Sheikah Slate and wrote, Can I board my horse and get a place to sleep for the night?

The man read the message, and his gaze fell to the thick line of the dark pink scar travelling down Link's neck and beneath his tunic. "O-of course," he said with a rather forced smile. "Twenty rupees for our regular bed and forty for the soft bed."

Any bed'll feel soft at this point, Link thought, digging in his pouch for a red rupee and placing it in the stable master's hand. He began to trudge inside, but the stable master stopped him with a raised hand. "Wait!" With another glance at the dirty hero and a slight wince, he added, "Please, sir, I must insist that you clean yourself up a bit before entering. This may be a stable, but we pride ourselves on cleanliness."

Link closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath. He nodded glumly, heading to the little well near a cooking fire. Face flushed crimson with embarrassment, he patted off as much dust as he could before stripping to his underwear and filling a pail with water, scrubbing the dirt from his chest and arms, and cleaning his clothes to the best of his ability.

When he was finished, the water in the pail more closely resembled mud.

He slept until noon the following day and left without a word, eager to return to Zelda's side. As he travelled quickly over the Digdogg suspension bridge and felt high mountain walls close in around him once more, he felt an ache growing in his chest, entirely unrelated to the scar across his torso.

It had certainly not been a pleasant journey. A merciless slaughter of living, breathing creatures. It was true that they were evil creatures, evil creatures infected with the essence of possibly the most dangerous fiend in Hyrule's history. He could tell himself that he was putting them out of their misery, freeing their souls from Ganon, letting them find peace in death, if such a thing existed for monsters.

And yet… the sound of so many agonized groans, high-pitched squeals, rasping dying coughs, angry roars filled with regret and pain…

They would haunt his ears until the end of time.

Some hero, he thought bitterly. I've caused so much pain…

He wondered what he would do when he returned to Kakariko. With the silver monsters gone, only the Yiga Clan remained a threat. Surely she won't have me kill them, too…

For the sound of so many human voices raised in dying agony at his hand… it would destroy him.

But… if it was what she wanted…

Anything for you, Princess.

-==]I[==-

"They're gone?" Zelda gaped in disbelief. "All of them?"

Link nodded. I wouldn't have returned if they weren't, he assured her.

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you," she said, clasping his forearm gently. She ran her eyes over his body again, head tilted curiously to the side. "And… I'm certainly relieved to see you in one piece as well." Her lips parted, as if to say something else, but her brow tightened and her gaze shifted to something just behind him. "Er… what exactly did you bring back?"

He turned to see her ogling the monster masks hanging from Element's saddle. With a small grin he hurriedly wrote on the Sheikah Slate. There's a man named Kilton who studies monsters. He made these. They make the monsters think I'm one of them.

Zelda blinked, eyes wide as she read his words. "Well… that certainly seems useful. If he mass-produced them, it would certainly decrease monster attacks on travellers…"

Link chuckled silently, ignoring the twinge of pain in his throat at the failed attempt to laugh. And we'd have a kingdom full of bokoblin-people, he reminded her, grinning as he imagined it.

Zelda's eyes lit up, and she smiled. "Now that would be interesting. Still, I must remember to investigate this man. Monsters have plagued Hyrule for millenia, but it seems that he has come astoundingly close to developing a solution. Further research might perhaps…" Her brow creased as her voice trailed off. "Sweet Nayru - I'm sorry. I know you're not exactly interested in such fields of research…"

Link shook his head urgently. It's nice to have someone talking to me, he assured her, caught off guard by the sudden sadness stealing over her gaze.

Slowly she reached out, gently brushing her fingers over the thick scar tissue, like the thin limb of a massive spider, poking out from the neck of his tunic. "I… there might be a way," she said tentatively. "It would be difficult, since your vocal cords are so severely damaged… but I could try to find a way…"

Link shook his head again. He didn't like to admit it, for in most things he preferred to be optimistic, but it truly was a hopeless cause. I'd rather just try to let myself heal as much as possible and move on.

He was stunned to see tears in his eyes. "I tried so hard to hear you speak before," she remembered. "I… I was delighted when you finally opened up to me. Earning your friendship in that way… it meant the world to me. And… and now…" She wiped her eyes and smiled grimly, moving on before he had the chance to write comforting words for her. "My goodness - I've gotten off-topic. I actually had something else I'd like you to do, if you're willing."

He blinked rapidly. I'd do anything for you.

"I can sense that there is still Malice in the kingdom," she explained. "I know it must sound mad, but - but I can feel it, like the air is tainted. There's not much left, and it's all stemming from the same direction, so I believe that this is the last of it."

Where do I go? Link scribbled hastily.

She read his words and met his gaze. "Mount Lanayru," she answered.