Chapter Text
Link was just a rancher, he knew his way around a sword, sure, he had to in order to protect his homestead from roaming monsters and during his travels to deliver shipments. He had a good chunk of land, respectable herds of various beasts, a good-sized pen of fowl, even a ranch-hand. All in all he was considered a successful and respected rancher. The only thing he was lacking, according to the villagers, was a wife and children. He really had no great interest in either, it’s not that he was opposed to the idea, necessarily, just that he wasn’t proactive about it.
He didn’t expect it to turn up on his doorstep.
He was up before the sun, as he usually was, but something was off that morning. Namely the cries coming from his door. Wondering if he was imagining it in his half-awake state, he approached, his ears perking as the cries grew louder. No, no, he wasn’t imagining it, that was definitely he sound of a wailing child.
With a start he rushed to the door, quickly opening it and rapidly scanned the area.
And there they were, swaddled up on his mat, a crying baby. Link didn’t know what to do but he knew he wasn’t going to leave the child on the ground, so first thing was first. He scooped up the baby, pressing it to his chest to try to warm it against the chill of the early morning. He hushed the child, scanning the area, trying to locate anyone that might have left them.
The thought crossed him that if anyone had left them, they probably wouldn’t be willing to take them back, and he wouldn’t want them in possession of a baby anyway. So he turned back inside, suppressing bubbling rage in his chest that someone had effectively- no, had thrown away a child as if it was garbage.
“Hey, hey, it’s all right,” he hushed the child. “It’ll be okay…”
Once he had the child in the light, his ears perked, scanning the cloth they were wrapped in. He’d never been to the desert, but had met and traded with his share of Gerudo that would travel through their towns. He even owned some of their goods, so he recognized the patterns on the blanket. The child was even red-haired and brown-skinned- oh. A Gerudo baby. He didn’t know any Gerudo that lived in town permanently, it must’ve been some desperate vai on her way through…
“Shh,” he hushed them again. “It’s alright, sweetie…let’s get you warmed up.”
The child looked a bit dirty, too. He sighed, well, he’d have to get the little girl cleaned up first, then dried and warmed.
So he went about the task and very, very shortly discovered he had made a significant mistake.
The child was not a girl.
The baby in his care was a boy.
A Gerudo boy.
Now, most people didn’t give much credence to the tales these days, but everyone knew the legends. The great calamity, the king of evil, had been a Gerudo male. The Gerudo held tight to that belief more than anyone else in Hyrule. Suddenly it made sense why he’d been abandoned, his mother had likely seen him as a bad omen. Or worse yet, a curse in itself.
“It’s all right,” he repeated softly, stroking the child’s mess of red hair back.
The child’s cries fell into a soft whimper.
Link wasn’t sure what to do next.
The next day he had made an attempt to find someone that’d be willing to take the child in. His ranch-hand, Fado, was caring for the babe in the mid-time. Link remembered going from home to home, asking if anyone knew anything about an abandoned baby, asking if anyone would be willing to take him in. In these times, hard as they were, it was difficult to find someone that had the means to. Of the ones that were willing, though, he felt he had to be direct.
“He’s a Gerudo.”
They all had the same reaction.
“He is a Gerudo?”
The conversation ended there, much to Link’s frustrations.
Apparently the old legends had more impact than he thought. Still, what could he do? He wasn’t just going to throw the child away.
So that was how Link was thrust into fatherhood.
His son, Den.
Fate wasn’t quite done with him.
He’d been traveling on the road, Epona pulling along the cart of goods. He was only a few days off from home, Fado was watching out for Den. The boy was old enough to help around the ranch these days, and his strength already was on par with a Hylian man. Link smirked a little at the thought, his boy was growing up so fast. It seemed like only yesterday-
That’s when she showed up.
The rustling in the trees had immediately drawn his attention and he found himself reaching for his sword- when not a monster, but a Hylian girl darted out. In his confusion he didn’t find time to react before the girl darted behind him and clung to the back of his tunic, trembling violently.
“Wh-?” he turned his head over his shoulder to look at her.
She was young, she couldn’t have been more than six or seven. What was she doing out here all alone? They had to be at least a day from the nearest village.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Hey!”
He redirected his attention to the way she had come, three irritated looking men emerging from the sylvan.
“You little-! Oh…”
They were armed, but that wasn’t unusual, what was unusual was everything else about this situation. The men didn’t look too friendly, and there didn’t appear to be any women or other children with them.
The girl clung tighter, he heard a muffled sob.
He had a hunch.
“Hey, buddy, thanks for finding her,” one man said. “Fork her over.”
“Fork her over?” Link rose a brow, his voice cold. “Odd choice of words…are you her father?”
“None of your business, is it, buddy?” another snapped.
Link turned and picked the girl up, placing the now crying child onto Epona’s back. The wide blue eyes stared at him, pleading, and her hair, the same shade, was frayed, knotted, full of twigs. The more he gleaned from this situation the more he didn’t like it.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re-?!”
“Oooh…you want her?” the lead man grinned. “You should’ve just said so, bud…we’ll even offer you a good price for her.”
He turned back to them, glowering.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, of course! I mean, she’s a pretty thing, yeah? I mean we’ve played with her a bit but she’s in good condition, you can even be the one to break her in!”
“Get out of my sight.”
The group seemed thrown off by his abrupt threat.
“Eh?”
“Hey you can’t just take her and not pay-“
“I said,” he took a step forward, pulling his sword. “Get. Out. Of. My. Sight.”
The group scowled.
“If you’re not going to pay we’re taking her back-!”
Link glanced back at the girl.
“Close your eyes.”
The girl slammed her hands over her face, shaking.
“HEY! Don’t ignore us!”
The leader charged, Link thrust his sword through the man’s chest and raised a foot onto the man’s core, kicking him clean off the blade. The man collapsed onto the ground like the piece of trash he was. Cold blue eyes darted to the other two, blade at the ready.
They decided they had better things to do, and Link thought to himself they should consider themselves lucky he didn’t pursue.
“Keep your eyes closed,” Link gently direct the girl’s hands to Epona’s reigns. “Hold on, okay? We’ll go slow, I’ll let you know when you can open your eyes.”
She shouldn’t have to see a corpse, she had apparently seen too much as it was.
The girl whimpered but nodded and did as she was instructed.
“Can you tell me your name?” he asked gently as they went.
“..Ru..Rudayru,” she said with some difficulty.
“Okay, Rudy,” he said gently. “Can you tell me where your parents are?”
The girl mumbled something, her shoulders beginning to shake. Link frowned; had they killed them?
“They sold me,” she half-sobbed.
Another pang of rage shot through him but he forced himself to calm.
“I see.”
They shared a moment of silence.
“Do you want to come with me?”
The girl nodded fervently, her eyes still shut tight.
His daughter, his baby girl.
Father of two now, surely things would calm down.
They didn’t.
He found them in the cuccoo’s coop, shoving raw eggs into their mouth. Baffled, he stared at the child, he wasn’t sure how old they were but they looked barely older than a toddler. A green tunic, bright green hair in loose tails on either side of their head. The child flinched and looked up at him, piercing emerald eyes locked on his blue ones.
“…Hello,” Link said, confused.
“I had to!” the child blurted, dropping a bunch of eggs. “I can’t find food in the forest anymore there’s monsters living there and the Koroks had to leave too and-“
The child was certainly a fast talker- wait, Koroks? Forest spirits? Wait- the kid had been living in the forest?
“Where’s your family? Who’s been taking care of you?” he asked, baffled.
“The Koroks,” the child said, as if that was obvious.
“…Koroks were taking care of a Hylian kid.”
“No,” the child blinked.
“You just said-“
“I’m not a Hylian,” the child said matter-of-factly. “I’m a Kokiri.”
That was even more confusing. From what he knew of the legends…
“Aren’t Koroks…Kokiri? Or they used to be, right?”
“Yeah?” the kid tilted their head, confused.
“…So there’s no Kokiri anymore.”
“Yeah there is, I’m a Kokiri.”
“Are there any other Kokiri?”
“I dunno.”
This conversation wasn’t very productive.
“So can I have your eggs?”
“They’re better if you actually cook them, in fact eating them raw will make you sick,” he frowned. “You shouldn’t be doing that.”
The child pouted.
“But I’m hungry and if I go to try and find food in the forest the monsters will get me.”
This child was clearly not in their right mind. He’d have to ask around for their parents, in the meantime…
“Come on, let’s get you fed,” he sighed.
“Hooray!” the child bounced up and down.
“All right, young lady, calm down-“
“No.” the child blinked. “Not a lady.”
Oh?
“…Young man-“
“No.”
Link frowned, confused.
“So…not lady or man?”
“Yup.”
“…What are you then?”
“I’m Faera,” the child said with that same ‘matter of fact’ tone.
“…Is that your name?”
“Yeah.”
“So are you a boy or girl?”
“I’m Faera.”
Well okay then.
He really shouldn’t have been surprised though, when he went around the village asking about their parents, that no one had even heard of the child, and that no one had passed through as of late. When Link questioned Faera more about where they had come from, and their parents, he was treated to the same story as before. The child was insistent they were a Kokiri, that they had been raised by Koroks, and had lived in the forest their whole life. The child was clearly delusional, and no one was willing to take in a delusional child.
Except…of course…for him.
Energetic little Faera, the youngest of his children.
That was how he became a father of three.
Den, Rudayru, and Faera, his life had certainly become a lot more interesting, a lot more lively…
“Den?”
“Yeah, Dad?”
“Can you get the oven going?”
“Of course!”
The Gerudo boy crouched down, opening the metal door to access the wood and charcoal beneath. He held out his hand and a spark of flame came from his palm, catching the wood ablaze.
All of his children had a knack for magic, he wasn’t quite sure why, the first time Den had set something on fire he’d almost had a heart-attack. Luckily these days, he never used it accidentally. The boy was about fifteen now, and almost as tall as Link was. Of course, it’s not that he was particularly tall- in fact he was rather short for a Hylian man, but still the dwindling height difference was a bit startling. What did he expect though? Gerudo were a large people, and those were just the vais, he shuddered to imagine how big the voe was gonna get, he already ate enough for three Hylians his age…
“Rudy?”
“Yes, Dad?”
The girl looked up from her book, seated at the table. She was the only one that actively studied magic, it was difficult to find books that’d interest her- and not cheap- when he traveled around on business. Still, she was always delighted to have them, and that made it worth the effort. Her healing magic had been more than worth it around the ranch, that was for sure. Between sick animals or injuries from work, it had been quite the godsend. She’d be a teenager soon, and by Hylia he was not prepared for that. Puberty for Den had been difficult enough, and all the women in town had been giving him unprompted advice for how to deal with a girl…he didn’t know if he was ready for it.
“Do you know where Faera is?”
“They said they were going to play with the cuccoos,” the girl said, her eyes half lidded in annoyance.
Link groaned.
“Not again-“
A cacophony of crows came from outside.
“Any minute now,” Rudy said, going back to her book.
The door slammed open and the child quickly slammed it closed again behind them, feathers stuck in their green hair as they panted.
“Faera,” Link sighed. “You know better.”
“I didn’t hurt them!” Faera flailed their arms around.
“Were you making them fly again?”
Faera slumped, pouting.
The child had a knack for wind magic, and greatly enjoyed grabbing cuccoos over their head and then using a strong gust to throw them both through the air. The cuccoos didn’t seem to like it, but Faera did.
Yes, his life had gotten more complicated, more chaotic.
He didn’t mind, though, he’d do it all over again if he needed to.
“C’mon Faera,” Den rolled his eyes. “One of these days they’re going to hurt you.”
“And I won’t heal you,” Rudy huffed. “You need to learn your lesson.”
“Ruuuuuddddyyyyy,” Faera whined. “You’re my big sister! You have to take care of me!”
“You’re almost like, ten,” Rudy scowled. “You should be learning to take care of yourself!”
“Just because you’re the baby doesn’t mean you can get away with everything!” Den sulked.
“I don’t let them get away with everything,” Link huffed.
His elder children rose an eyebrow in skepticism while Faera giggled. All right so maybe he babied them just a little bit. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t take on the world for them.
He didn’t really know that was going to be literal, at the time.