A Champion's Call
By Escae
Hello, welcome to my newest story. I know, I know, I've been slacking off on updates to HA. But I promise to keep up with both fics as well as I can. This story is a novelization of my complete adventure playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. The author's notes will be fewer and smaller because of the more solemn mood of this story. Anyways, enjoy, and review as always!
Darkness.
An unending void occupying my every thought and emotion, drowning out everything with its limitless expanse.
Then, a light. And a voice.
They pierced the darkness with a flash, and the golden glow came pouring out from in front of me.
"Link."
That was… me. My name. Link. I couldn't take my eyes off the light and the voice. They chased the darkness away, bringing hope and life into the cold void.
"Open your eyes."
I did. The light faded, and darkness returned, but not the unending black that had been before. It was a… cooler darkness, accompanied by dim blue lights. A dizzying sensation suddenly came over me, and the lights unfocused once again. On instinct, I sat up, to find myself wearing only undergarments in a glowing pool. Slowly regaining control of my limbs, I clambered out of the pool and took a look around, still dripping water on the floor. The air was pleasantly cool, I thought, as I inspected a smooth pedestal in the corner of the room.
The voice spoke again, clearer and more pronounced. "That is a Sheikah Slate. It will guide you to where you need to go."
I paused, waiting for more, but the voice was silent once again. I tentatively lifted it off the pedestal, causing a blue eye symbol to appear accompanied by a soft activation chime. On the small flat screen was a vast expanse of a black grid, with a yellow arrow in the center. Looking at the arrow for a second yielded the helpful tip, "Current Location." Ah. So this Sheikah Slate was a navigational tool.
I jerked my head up involuntarily after a loud clank and rumble shook me out of my musings. The wall in front of me, opposite the pool, was separating down the middle to reveal another room beyond, and the faint shine of sunlight at the far end. Two stone chests sat amidst several wooden crates and barrels. I opened them to find a worn pair of pants and equally old shirt. They seemed to fit, so I donned them, despite being ridden with mothballs and stray threads.
A short distance in front of me was a short stone rock face, just slightly taller than myself. I jumped a short distance up, and used small handholds to climb the rest of the way. Rolling onto the upper level, I saw more clearly what was outside. Energized with the thought of fresh air, I walked briskly toward the exit, then broke into a run. Smiling, elated, I burst out into the world and ran up to the edge of a small cliff, the world spread out before me.
Magnificent pines. Rolling grass. Flourishing plant and animal life. On the surface, this new land I had emerged in seemed like a paradise, until I looked closer. A ruined temple stood crumbling to the northeast. Similar stone monuments to some ancient civilization rotted across the land, only semblances of their former glory. I had not stumbled into some natural paradise, but an overgrown, post-apocalyptic ruin of a time long past.
Continuing my sweeping gaze across the scene, my eyes caught on a crackling campfire several paces away. Seated by it, his face obscured my the hood, sat an old man. His slightly regal stature gave no indication of age, but his tumbling white beard and wooden cane said otherwise. Sensing no hostility from the other, I began walking toward him, breathing in the scents and sounds of this new-but-old country as I went.
As I approached down the inclined hill, the old man stood and acknowledged my approach, silently looking me over and calculating my appearance. Some sliver of modesty within me was glad that… place had contained some clothes. Maybe the voice had put them there, or whoever brought me to the room in the first place. Judging by the sealed door and aging state of the clothes, I must have been inside for a long while. Who knows? Maybe I was a part of the ancient civilization whose memories are so prominent in this landscape. Hopefully the voice and this man would have some answers.
I hope you enjoyed this preview or prologue of sorts. I plan for this to be quite a long story, so HA has update priority over this. Check out said story if you're into that, and please follow and review, even though there's not much to comment on yet. Stick around, though, I'm sure you'll like it once I add more to it!