#these take place after the events of sksw

[baileys-writing-desk]

arson.

It’s Eldin’s turn to do something dumb. This may or may not involve setting trees on fire.

[Misfits of the 3 Dragons]

AO3

“Do you ever get the urge to just…set something on fire?”

Faron chuckles at Eldin’s comment. “All the time.”

“Good,” the Fire Dragon replies, scanning the forest for signs of Lanayru, and finding none. “Well, he’s not back yet, so what do you say?”

“Hm? I’m afraid I don’t follow…” Faron’s eyes go wide as she stares at Eldin’s fiery body. “Oh- you wanna burn Lanayru’s forest?? I don’t think that’s a good idea—“

“Oh no, not the whole thing. Just one tree! Don’t worry, I’m not that mean.”

The Water Dragon pauses in thought. “Well…I suppose we could get back at him for something, huh?”

“Yeah, maybe the way he goes into ‘overprotective dad’ mode around us? I know it’s because he cares, but sometimes it’s a bit much…”

“Well…that too. But I was thinkin’ of that time he was in my hall and got really mad at me. He used his lightning powers on that whole section of lake and all the fish died.”

Eldin gasps. “Woah, Lanayru!” He glances up at the sky instinctively to make sure the Thunder Dragon isn’t there. “I didn’t know he had that in him! Holy Hylia!”

“Yep. Every single fish. Gone.” Faron chuckles. “I suppose I had it coming, though. I made a few comments that pushed him over the edge. But like…that still wasn’t necessary.”

“So, uh…should my little arson crime be our revenge against his little fish mass-murder scheme?”

“Sure! We just gotta be quick about it. You light the tree on fire, watch it burn, I’ll put the fire out, and we’ll leave before Lanayru gets back. Then we can blame a robot.” Faron points to an LD-301 near them, who turns around and skitters away. It must have been listening in on their conversation.

“Faron, he won’t think a robot did it. He’ll know it was me. Just don’t tell him you were in on this.”

“Okay,” she replies, “I won’t.”

“Now stay back. Stuff’s about to get lit up!”

Taking a deep breath, Eldin closes his eyes and summons the fire power Hylia had blessed him with. Heat rages throughout his body as the magic flames float up to his mouth, ready to be released.

Farewell, little tree.

As he opens his eyes, he brings his focus down to the tree closest to him. In one swift motion he exhales, and the red-hot flames shoot out through the air and collide with the green leaves on scrawny branches. A safe distance away, Faron watches with a look of amazement.

“Wow…well done, fire boy!”

Soon the flames engulf more branches, spreading across the entire surface of the tree. The satisfying crackle fills Eldin’s ears like a beautiful song, and he breathes in the smell of fire and smoke that fills the air. He hasn’t been able to do a stunt like this in quite some time, and it feels wonderful.

“Ah, what can I say, Faron?” he speaks eventually. “Guess I’m a master at my craft.”

The Water Dragon flies in slightly closer, and the two watch the tree burn with cheeky smiles on their faces. Almost all the branches have been completely incinerated, and the fire has begun to spread down to the trunk. Eldin figures they should stop once neighboring trees start catching flames; he isn’t quite in the mood to burn down the whole forest, after all.

“You don’t have any trees in your area, don’t you?” Faron asks.

“Pretty much no.”

“What a shame. The only dragon out of the three of us without their own woods.”

Eldin smirks. “Well, not like mine would last that long anyway.” He sighs with content as he keeps his eyes on the scaldering sight he created. “Fire dragons and trees? You can see how that ends up!”

“Yeah, makes sense. Probably why Hylia didn’t want a—“ Faron cuts off suddenly as the two dragons hear a deep singing voice from the sky. She gasps as her eyes go wide. “Oh shit! Lanayru’s here!!”

“Uh-oh.” Eldin doesn’t bother to look up, for he too knows exactly who that voice belongs to. “Quick! Put out the fire!”

Unfortunately it also takes Faron a good few seconds to activate her own power, and Eldin fidgets with his rings nervously. He can still hear Lanayru zipping around through the air…it won’t be long before he notices.

“Okay, I’m ready!” the Water Dragon exclaims, shooting her claws out with a grunt. Large streams of water gush from each palm, completely soaking the tree and sizzling out every inch of flame. Now Eldin can see the charred remains of what used to be a lovely tree, several branches having snapped and fallen from his power burning through.

The fire may be out, but he knows they won’t be able to leave without a trace. The Thunder Dragon is coming now…he seems to have noticed as he flies down directly toward them.

“Just what do you think you're doing????” he bellows, glaring harshly at Eldin. “Did you just—set a tree on fire??”

Eldin gulps. “Um…yeah.”

“ELDIN!! I’ve told you this! You can’t just commit arson anywhere!! I mean—you almost started a forest fire!!”

“…But I didn’t,” he points out. “Faron came to stop it.”

“Yeah, I saw her do that. Thank Hylia.” Lanayru sighs, rubbing his forehead with one claw. “…Just…ugh, Eldin. Why?? Why did you do that??”

“Because it’s fun!” The Fire Dragon smirks, which only makes his older companion frown. “Or perhaps I am simply angry at you.”

“Huh? Wh-what did I do?”

“Ah, don’t act all innocent, Lanayru. I know what you did. You killed all of Faron’s fish with your lightning! Little fish murderer!!”

Lanayru’s brow furrows as he pauses in thought. “…What? I don’t—oh, that?” He briefly throws his head back in laughter. “Why are we still bringing that up? It was like…ten years ago!”

Wait…what??

Faron snickers, putting a hand to her mouth to hide her own giggles. You—meanie!

“Uh…Miss Faron, I think that would’ve been a good detail to add BEFORE I committed arson.”

“Ah, fire boy, it doesn’t matter,” she assures him. “You were gonna do it anyway!”

Pausing in thought, he shrugs his shoulders. “…Yeah, I was.”

A deep groan fills the air. Eldin glances at Lanayru, whose head is now buried in both claws. The old dragon seems completely spent, so tired at putting up with the two youngsters, and for a second Eldin twinges with regret. Perhaps he should have lit up Faron’s woods instead…

“Ugh,” Lanayru mumbles. “You two are just—aaahh! I love both of you to bits, but…” Slowly he lifts his head to glare at them. “You’re driving me insane!!”

“Sorry, Lanayru. It was a lot of fun, though.”

“Well, I’m glad that destruction of my property was fun to you, Eldin.” The sarcasm is evident in the Thunder Dragon’s voice. “Now I have a burnt tree in my woods. Oh joy. Exactly what I wanted, huh? A burnt tree.”

“Then just dig it up and plant a new one!”

“Wait- plant a new one?? Do you know who you’re talking to here? I can’t plant a tree to save my life! Why don’t you plant it instead, since you burned it?!”

Eldin smirks. “You think I can plant trees?? Think about where I live for a second, won’t ya?”

Lanayru sighs with frustration, and slowly the two dragons turn their gazes to Faron. The only one who knows how to plant a healthy tree.

“Fine,” the Water Dragon replies. “I’ll do it. But I think this is a good skill for you two to learn.”

“Sure,” says Lanayru. “You just have to teach us!”

“…Well, shit.”

Eldin bursts into laughter at Faron’s response. Clearly the last thing she wants to do is teach the others how to plant a tree.

“You know what?” she continues. “If it will help you buffoons learn something, maybe I will one day. Or I’ll have Link teach you instead.” Glancing at the charred spot of grass below them, she grins slightly. “Don’t worry, Lanayru, I’ll have this taken care of.”

“Hrrmph,” Lanayru mutters. “I think I need to go lie down. Eldin, you’re temporarily banned from this area without my supervision.”

“Ah, shucks.” Well…should’ve seen that coming. “…I guess I’ll just commit arson somewhere else, then!”

“Don’t you dare. I’ll be watching you.”

…Fine.

Eldin watches as Lanayru glides over the treetops toward his own clearing, much larger than this one. If he can’t set anything on fire now…well, he figures he’ll just have to get creative. With a sigh, he turns his focus to Faron, as she digs up the burnt tree with her claws and discards it onto the grass.

At least it was fun while it lasted.

[illegiblehandwriting1]

I feel the need to mention this, cuz I was thinking about it and I found it absolutely hilarious. (Skyward Sword spoilers but, c'mon, it's like 12 years old now.)

Time travel breaks a lot of things in the Zelda universe. The Hero of the Skies, miraculously, managed to keep an immense amount of continuity going. SkSw Link managed to not break time, but I can't help but notice that he broke something else.

He just so happened to break the fucking law of conservation of mass.

(putting a read more cuz this gets LONG)

How, you ask? It's pretty simple.

This fucking thing.

You can go back from the beginning of the game and see Zelda's crystal, Impa's bracelet, etc. That's perfect! I love it! It's amazing! Genius attention to detail from the devs. But this fucking pedestal does not exist until the end cutscene. It just shows up in the modern-day Sealed Temple - along with the Master Sword, which should be there as well - like "ayup, homies, how ya doing".

And Link doesn't bat an EYE.

Okay, fine. I'm fine with his reaction. That's his friend, and he's a bit busy. Besides, you cannot convince me that he actually paid attention in any science class ever.

But still. THAT'S NOT HOW PHYSICS WORKS.

However, fear not! I am not solely here to complain. I may have a solution.

You could say that there's not allowed to be two copies of the sacred sword in a time at the same time, but that's boring, right? That's just not any fun. I don't like that. So here's my solution.

The pedestal is movable. HEAR ME OUT, IT GETS BETTER.

So. here's my timeline of events.

After Demise is defeated/Link finally puts Fi to rest/Zelda tries to bring Impa with them/etc. the Gate of Time is broken, right? And it was probably young Impa that did that, right? She's already proven she can break a Gate in Lanayru, so she just waits for Link, Zelda, and Groose to go through and then she blows it up. Great. Awesome. Glad we can all agree on that.

So. Young Impa breaks the Gate of Time. She's probably already seen the Sealed Temple in modern times, right? She was there in that time anyway, might as well see how decrepit her house becomes. It can be a road trip.

Anyway.

So, she probably knows that the pedestal isn't there in modern times. So after she breaks the Gate, Impa just picks up the sword and the stone (you probably couldn't take them apart, after Link slammed Fi in there) and shoves it into her one (1) non-canonical broom cupboard. I'm sure the Sealed Temple has at LEAST one of those, right? And then it sits there. For thousands of years or however long it takes.

Anyway, when Zelda's taken by Ghirahim (In the present day, after Sky Keep) and Link and Groose run through the Gate to save her and stop Ghirahim and all that jazz (no, that's not really important, I'm sure they'll do fine and all. Kinda boring, though, in comparison to what IMPA's doing), the old lady, being her wonderful old lady self, just calmly walks over to the non-canonical closet and carefully puts the Master Sword and the rock pedestal back in its place like it's made of styrofoam. She's IMPA, after all, we stan buff old ladies here. She probably has, like, lines she drew on the floor, too, with a nice little outline where it should go. I feel like that's something she would do. Y'know, for continuity.

I firmly believe that was her last act as the Keeper of Time or whatever she was (I can't remember lmao, too lazy to go find it rn). She made sure all was right in the world of physics. And I love her for it.

Long story short, Link's lovable but oblivious, and Impa was the real unsung hero of the story. Thank her for all of your questions when you first noticed that the pedestal just spontaneously appeared.

Damn, she was so humble that she didn't even mention it when she died lmao. Just doing her job.

Consensus? Rip Impa. But I bet Hylia adores her for keeping the law of conservation of mass intact.

Oh wait, so THAT'S why she keeps coming back. She proved herself as smart. Hylia needs her to guide these dumbasses, and given that she used her entire life to serve, Impa was happy to oblige.

OHHHHHH. See, that makes a lot more sense.

Now, here's the real question. The original Beedle gave Link a sidequest and dropped him out of an airship.

So why does HE keep reappearing?

Anyway, thanks for reading my essay about a pointless subject lol.

[ladyhoneydee]

I know With Your Hand in My Hand was based on a zelinkweek 2023 prompt, but how did you decide what your one-shot would be about?

Thank you so much for the ask!! This fic is one of my babies and had a little more of a process than some of my others, so I'm glad you picked it :D

With Your Hand in My Hand came about due to a song, actually (to no one's surprise, based on my current daily challenge, lol). Even though I am in my early/mid 20s, I love swinging on swingsets, and I always listen to music when I go down and swing at my local park. One of the songs that often came up was "Go", by Cody Fry.

"Go" is a fun, high energy folk-pop sort of song where the singer is talking about their desire to go on adventures with their partner, while holding hands. As early as March of this year, I had the idea of a fic where multiple zelinks would be live out pieces of the lyrics together. Some plot points came to me easily (like that TP would be the opening lines "drive all night with you right next to me / feel the pounding of your heartbeat"; SkSw would be "Fly like the wind in high places"; telink would be "Rushin' like water on my face"; BotW would be "Make pictures look like postcards"; and there would be a portion at the end that just had lightning-fast short lines to add a sort of 'rushing' feeling), but I never actually acted on the fic, because by the time I had laptop access, I was away from my swing and I'd lost the inspiration!

However, when zelink week 2023 came around, the prompt "Hand in Hand" really inspired me to just get this idea that had been running around in my head out on paper. I decided that OoT would be Sheik/Link, and would cover the lyrics "I wanna dance into the mornin' / Kiss ya like ya never been kissed before me" (which is a prominent part of the chorus and had to fit in somewhere even though I hadn't had an idea for it yet); and after a fierce internal debate, I decided to make the lines "Take the train and watch you sleep right in my arms" go for ST zelink rather than a modern incarnation.

A lot of decisions were made on the fly, though! I knew SkSw zelink would be flying on their loftwings for their piece, but I didn't know they would be racing or that it would be prior to the events of the game until I actually began that section. I didn't know that WW/PH Link would be homesick and Tetra would be comforting him, either--for the longest time when planning the fic from my swing, I'd actually thought she'd be teasing him while he was doing swabbie chores! I'm really happy with how that turned out, though, and how it showed a less typical area of their relationship and personalities. And while I knew I wanted a modern AU portion, the exact shape that ended up taking was a surprise to me too.

At the end of it all, I think I really succeeded in bringing that original vibes-based, music-fueled series of images in my head to life, and I'm so proud of it :') So thank you for asking!