Wherever Link had been chained up in, it was cold. And damp. And slathered in filth.
Link shook himself, trying to dislodge the bits of water, dirt and leaf mold out of his dripping fur. His new form was overwhelming... he kept hearing things, everywhere. Some of the sounds he'd never heard before, like the heartbeats of the oversized rats and other vermin skulking in the walls. Others, he was familiar with, such as the dripping of water onto stone – but they were amplified twenty times over so that they were nearly deafening.
And the smells – the smells – they were even worse. Conflicting scents blasted up his nostrils and branded themselves into his mind, the intermixing smells so strong that they were practically visible before his eyes. The torrent of new stimuli made his head spin.
Mentally cursing those strange, oversized bug-things that had locked him in that godforsaken pit, Link leaned over and started pawing at the iron chain that they'd wrapped around his right front leg. The metal chafed and rubbed painfully against his skin, leaving a bald and inflamed ring of flesh right above his paw. Growling in frustration, the boy (wolf?) started digging at the restraints with his teeth. He didn't know exactly what he was doing – just that he needed to get the blasted thing off. Blood oozed from beneath the manacle and dripped onto the floor beneath him, staining the tiles red.
A new, unfamiliar scent caught Link's attention, causing him to pause in his attempts to free himself and raise his shaggy head.
Something was hovering on the other side of the bars. It was a tiny, humanlike thing, with skin that alternated white and dark gray and a wicked grin on its face. The creature's limbs and pointed ears were accented with a bright greenish-blue. It was also wearing some type of stone helmet, too big for its head, but with spires sticking out of the top. It wasn't standing – it was floating, as if gravity meant nothing to it. Its reddish eyes were striking, peering at him with an unnerving, frighteningly intelligent gaze. A single sharp tooth stuck out from under its grinning lips.
Link shrank back, flattening his ears threateningly. "Stay back!" he snarled. Or at least, that's what he tried to snarl. What actually came out of his mouth was more along the lines of "Grr-ag!"
Canine lips were a pain.
Far from being frightened, however, the... thing... only grinned all the wider. Something orange-colored rose up from between the spires of its helmet and waved at him. Link snarled. But its smile only grew.
It wasn't... ugly, per se. It wasn't exactly pretty, either, but after seeing the monsters that had kidnapped him, "ugly" seemed like too harsh of a word for this... whatever it was. But it was frightening. Despite its diminutive size, the thing had a sense of immense power emanating from it that sent Link on edge. And its smell was foul, reeking of mold and tree rot and all sorts of dead things.
Link flattened himself to the floor and growled at it.
But the little imp merely let out a high-pitched giggle, its reddish eyes watching Link greedily.
And then it spoke.