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Part 1: Link

Chapter 1: The Ambush

A New World

Dark settled over the land of Hyrule. The warm, summer air became cooler in a matter of minutes. In the woods, it was already almost completely dark, the canopy of trees overhead blocking most of the sunlight. In one region of the expansive Lost Woods, silence reigned supreme. An eerie fog descended on the ground. The only thing breaking this mysterious silence was the crunching sounds a pair of horse's hooves made when landing on the pinestraw. On top of this horse, holding the reigns tightly, was a boy, no older than eleven. He wore a green tunic, and a green pointed hat.

He came from Hyrule. He had served his people, fighting and risking his life day in, and day out. But in the end no one knew him. Only his run-away companion truly understood him. He found there was no place in the world for him anymore. He was a changed person. He was a warrior.

His eyes were leery, always on the lookout. No more did he look upon his old forest home with delight. Anyone could be out there, waiting to ambush. His eyes were once shining, young and blue, but now they took on a darker complexion. He looked as if he had seen far too much. His young look was now gone, replaced by something far more darker.

He looked over his shoulder, feeling his sword's hilt brush up against his cheek. It was a good thing that it was there. He never went anywhere without his sword anymore. He no longer felt safe walking through a dark hall without his trusty blade.

But maybe he had more of a reason to be cautious that night. Something didn't feel right. After all of his adventures, he had developed a knack for recognising dangerous situations. These woods felt dangerous. He felt like he was being watched. Things never got this quiet. There were always crickets, birds, little animals moving about, even forgs croaking. Now, there was nothing; just silence.

He pulled on his horse's reigns, getting her to stop," Woah girl..."

He took a moment to look around. Surely she wouldn't have entered these woods... maybe I took a wrong turn at some point... I don't like this at all. he thought. He still continued to scan the horizon for her.

Then he heard something. He looked around. He heard it again. It was like a little tinkling sound. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he was sure that's what it was.

He heard it again.

He grabbed his sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice," Hello?"

He looked over his shoulder, and the next thing he knew, his horse was rearing back. He cried out and tried to stay on, but was taken off guard. He flew off the back and hit his head hard on a rock. He went into a deep blackness, out cold.

"Tee hee hahaha!" he heard a tiny voice laugh. There was a little toot! following it.

"Aw, but I wanna play it sis!" he heard another small voice plead.

"No! Let Skullkid play with it some, Teal! You haven't given him a single minute!" an older female voice said. It still had a younger sound to it, though.

"Can you two be quiet?" another voice said, obviously the one that had been laughing.

Link opened his eyes and started to sit up. He rubbed the back of his head, groaning a little. He was sure he had experienced far worse pain, but he wasn't sure when. His vision was a mess, so he couldn't see anything clearly.

"Um, Skullkid?" he heard the female voice say.

"What is it?" he snapped.

"Um, we've got a little problem, here." it responded.

Link's vision finally fixed itself, and he found himself staring at a skullkid. The strange, scarecrow-like figures from the Lost Woods. His skin resembled rotten wood. His clothes were red and rotting, and his hat might have been pointed at some point, but it was now torn. He wore leaves under his clothes.

He slowly turned his head, and gasped, seeing Link. Link gasped in return, seeing his face. It was large and heart shaped, with many tribal and strange markings. They eyes were massive and pulsating and glowing. There were spikes sticking up at the top and on the sides. Link looked closer, and saw it was only a mask, though.

And in this imp's hands, was his prized possetion - the blue Ocarina of Time! Link spotted it, and stood up. The kid quickly hid it behind his back. Link frowned.

"Hey, I saw that!" he snapped. The kid shot into the air, and landed on the horse. Epona reared back, and started running. Link jumped up and dove, grabbing onto the skullkid's leg. He pulled hard, nearly knocking him off. But this skullkid was persistant, like Link, still holding on. Link was being drug up against the ground. His legs scraped up against rocks and sticks, creating cuts on his legs and tears on his boots. He groaned and grunted, straining every muscle just to keep on.

The fairies kept flying in front. All three muggers seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going. Skullkid got the horse to round a sharp corner. Link was knocked off balance, and the kid kicked his off. Link screamed and hit the ground and rolled back several feet.

He would have moaned, but he was knocked out of breath. He struggled to regain air, and stood up again. He looked in front of him and saw there was a tunnel leading intil the side of a large hill.

Link slowly stood up, and started running. It hurt to run, because of his legs, but he pushed himself past that. He had to get Epona, his horse back, and the ocarina.

He bravely charged into the tunnel, fists clenched and ready. He couldn't see the fists in front of him, but he continued to run anyways. They couldn't have gone too far. The floor here was stone, and Epona didn't like running on stone surfaces. He kept running, when at last he saw light not too far away. He closed his eyes and ran faster, giving it all he had. When he opened them, he realized it was too late.

He had come to a point with two torches. He tried to stop, but to no avail. He fell off into an endless black abyss. He let out a frightful cry at the top of his lungs. Wind was rushing by him at high speeds. He knew that soon he would be dead. There was no hope.

Colors started to appear, and as he looked closer, he saw clocks and moons and Gorons and Deku Scurbs, and even Zoras. And then, one second he was falling at hundreds of miles an hour, and the next he was standing on a deku flower, the thing Deku Scrub's used as homes. There was a tiny hole in the center and pedals sprouting out around it. They were colored a light green and pink, colors he had never seen them take on before.

He was in a tiny cavern, with torches burning brightly along the walls. Little shrubs were located in small patches around the room. The was a puddle of cold cave water in front of him. And further in front, were the two fairies, and the skullkid, all floating in mid-air.

The skullkid was tossing the ocarina up in the air and catching it lazily.

"What'd you do with my horse, creep?!" Link exclaimed.

"Woah, seriously, calm down!" the skullkid said in a playful voice," You need to lighten up! That stupid horse wasn't listening to me, so I did you a favor and got rid of it!"

Link's jaw dropped. This monster! He was torn. Epona had been his companion... and now...

The kid laughed," Aw, you look so sad, why the long face? Surely you didn't actually want to keep that stupid thing!" he mocked.

"I will..." Link looked for words," destroy you!"

"Nope!" skullkid said, laughing. Then his mask started to shake. It emitted very strange magic, which traveled over to Link and surrounded him. The shaking got lounder and louder. It got to the point where it was slamming into his ear drums, like it was driving him insane. A strange, uneasy feeling came over him. It amplified in mere seconds, becoming purely awful. Link curled up, shaking, covering his ears. It only got worse.

Link finally let loose and screamed. He blinked and found himself in an empty black void, where the shaking sound was beyond deafening. Then, he saw a swarm of Deku Scrubs closing in on him, the violent type. They had stubby green bodies, and feet like planks. Their little snouts stuck out a few inches, and their leafy heads were shaking. Their eyes were narrow. They stared him down threateningly.

They got so close they were squishing him. Link squirmed and tried to push free, but they were strong, getting closer by the second. Then they started to morph into him, becoming one with him. Link let out one final scream before coming back to reality.

His field of vision was somewhat lower than before. The skullkid choked, and then burst out laughing, the fairies joining in after a moment of shock. Link tried to groan, but a wierd sound came from him. He tried to stand up, figuring he was just crawling, but he was already standing. He turned and looked in the puddle.

There, in front of him, was a tiny deku scrub, with a long, pointed green hat and hard wooden, golden hair. The eyes were slanted back, and looked very sad, indeed. The snout was smaller than usual. He looked down at his body and hands, and sure enough, he saw a Deku's body. Link tried to say 'No!' but a squeaking sound came loudly in return. Link collapsed, at the point of tears almost at that moment.

"That looks good on you!" the skullkid mocked," And you can just stay like that, forever! Or until you lighten up!" he broke into a fit of giggles, and a rock wall opened behind him, like a door. He floated backwards, the small, purple and red glwoing fairy following him, along with the fairy who glowed yellow.

Link started to wobble over to them, attempting to make pursuit. The bright fairy frowned and swooped down, running into him and knocking him over. Link bouncwed back on his little butt and squeaked. He tried to stand again, but she just knocked him back down.

"Where do you think you're going?" she snapped," You're staying in here!" she ordered in a bullying manner.

Link saw behind her the skullkid enter a hallway. Tatl realized what he was looking at and turned. The door slammed shut. She let out a high pitch wail and charged at the door, slamming into it.

She tried to push it open, then pull. She tried and tried again, ramming into it andpushing and pulling. She finally punched it.

"No! Skullkid, come back, you forgot me! You little punk! Teal! Get him to open the door! You know you can't last without me! Open the door!" she yelled.

Link watched her in amusment. She's getting what she deserves.

"Hey, what's-your-face," she snapped, addressing him," open this door for me!"

Link just stared at her, wanting to make her miserable, like he was.

"Hey! What, are you waiting for me to grow large enough to open this?" she barked.

Link just shrugged.

"Oh c'mon! A poor, tiny girl is asking you! It's not like I actually transformed you into that!" she pleaded.

Link just squeaked in defiance and turned his back to her. She flew in front of him, with a helpless look on her face.

"Oh c'mon!"

Link shook his head.

"Look, I'll help you get your stuff back if you help me! Skull kid probably just teleported your horse somewhere! Just help, okay? I can do something in return, surely!" she begged.

Link shook his head.

"Aw, please, kid, please! I. am. Begging! Please, I'm sorry, okay? I can even get your flute thingy and money back! Just, please, reunite me with my friends, and I'll pay you back in someway or another!" she urged.

Link finally sighed and stood up. I don't have anything better to do. he thought to himself and staggered over to the door. He pushed up hard on it, and it slid automatically into the wall. He made his way to the end of the tunnel and out onto a platform with another Deku Flower. Below him was a black abyss, much like he had fallen into earlier.

A few feet in front of him, too far to jump, was another platform with a flower. These platforms continued on, forming a chain of platform, all the way to the other side of the room, where a door was. Link looked down at the flower. Tatl flew over to him.

"What're ya' waiting for? Shoot yourself over to the next... flower...area..." she said, unsure of how to word it.

Link gave her a confused look.

"Just squeeze yourself in there and shoot yourself back out!" she instructed, expecting him to know how to use his new body.

Link glared at her. He pointed at the flower, and then shrugged. She cross her arms and raised a brow, so he repeated the act.

"Oh, you don't know how? Well, I don't know either. But surely there's someway you can fit in there, I mean, other Deku Scrubs do it all the time!" she responded apathetically.

Link squeaked out in frustration. He sat down on it and tried to squeeze through, but couldn't. He reached his hand, looking for some sort of switch or lever. He pulled it out and jumped on the flower. He sqealed as he was sucked into it. It tightened around him, and he looked around frantically for a release lever, or something of the sort, that would allow him to be shot out.

"I'm sorry," Tatl blurted out, laughing," but that is pathetic! C'mon, you have to find a way out now!"

Link found two long stems to grab on, and he kicked with his feet. The next thing he knew, he was flying several feet into the air. He squealed in delight this time, still holding the stems. The tops of the stems, which looked like flower buds, exploded into spining flower pedals, colored like the Deku Plant. They stopped him in mid-air, and worked like propellers, slowly driving him to the next platform. Link let go when he was over the next flower, and landed with a thud!

Tatl clapped," That was pretty good! Now keep doing that until you reach the door! I'll meet you over there!" she told him.

Link repeated the same action again, flying into the air and drifting over to the next platform. He repeated this process until his was at the end, in front of the door. He spotted a small tree, mangled and twisted, with was looked like a carved Deku's face. Tatl smirked at it, and beconded him to the door.

Link turned the knob and pushed it open, and came out into a hallway.

As he walked, it began to strangely twist around. He grew dizy and frightened, scared. He was now standing on the wall. He took a few more steps, and he was standing on the ceiling. Moments later he was on the other wall, and then on the ground again.

A/N: Okay, so I re-did this entire chapter. I didn't like the original version, y'know? I figured maybe why I have so few and rare reviews, is because I started a bit more than a year ago, and my writing was worse then. People can barely read past the first few chapters, so they don't review and they don't read on to see if they like it or not.

But I will be redoing some of the chapters, or just sprucing them up a bit, before I add anymore. And for those curious, I will be redoing the first dungeon, and maybe some editing on the second. Because, lets admit, the first dungeon sucked. I tried to stick to close to the game's script in the earlier chapters, and it made it seem too... well, game-like. It seemed a bit too scripted, and not so emotional. But don't worry, the change will be positive.

So, reviews?

-Sam