Chapter 1
Back in her previous life, Link would only play the ocarina when she absolutely had to.
Now? Well. Now she plays largely for enjoyment. Saria’s Song is one of her favourites. It reminds Link of a brief period when she was actually happy.
With feet dangling carelessly on the edge of a rock precipice, Link opens blue orbs to gaze across endless sand dunes. Gerudo Valley seems the last place one would go to just be idle. It blinds a person, carries a wind that cuts to the very bone and sinks into one’s very soul, but she finds the isolation comforting.
Epona’s whinny of alarm alerts her to the distant sound of a man’s footsteps. She feels him behind her – a man who forces people to their knees by his mere presence alone. He’d have a powerful booming voice if he cared to open his mouth.
Link wants quiet and time to herself now, and it’s oddly her greatest nemesis who gives it to her. It strikes her suddenly that Zelda would never think too do that for that for Hyrule’s saviour. Would instead thoughtlessly interrupt and drag her away on some foolish quest or another. Link had to admit that, despite her feelings for the princess, Zelda's focus on destiny and how to beat back the evil encroaching on the world had galvanised into an obsession over the eons.
Link is a mere conduit to that end. An important one, yes, but there’s little time to actually get to know Link or to take her feelings into account.
Link closes her eyes to slits and continues to play even when Ganon sits beside her. There’s no hostility from him that she can feel. Just a sort of… quiet focus. He tilts his head in her peripheral vision, seemingly intent on nothing but her song, and listens to the slow melody of the ocarina as Link lifts her head on a crescendo and says everything through the instrument that she can’t voice out loud.
They don’t say a word to each other even when he leaves, and she’s fine with that.