Revert to Last Save
Chapter One: Of Koroks and Kierkegaard
Link crested over the hill on a black clydesdale, on his way to Northern Akkala. He saw the thin peninsula of Tarrey Town and wondered for the hundredth time what the hell he had been thinking helping all the -sons develop a village at a place so obviously dangerous. What if one of the kids chased a ball off the edge! What if the single rock bridge connecting the tiny town to the mainland collapsed! Most of all, given the sick loop this whole stupid country was stuck in, why did he even care?
Holding the bridge of his nose in a lame attempt to stave off a slowly brewing headache, he, or rather his horse Midnight, trotted lazily towards the town. He had set out this afternoon, after a long nap, with the intent to check out the strange rock formations north of the Akkala Wilds, in the hope that one of the few dozen koroks he had yet to track down would pop up there. Honestly, though, he wasn't that interested, and given that they had started this far south, it might be a better idea at this point to see how the -sons and company were holding up. Besides, these days he mostly let Midnight do the choosing, and the horse had been rooting its way down the slopes of Kaepora Pass, closer and closer to Tarrey Town, stopping to graze on tasty looking bits of grass here and there for the last half hour.
"Come on now, you beautiful fat bastard, you've been eating all afternoon" Link said. His eyes softened and the lines on his brow loosened as he nudged the horse towards the rock bridge, patting it on the neck and cooing simultaneously sweet & profane nothings into its ear. He loved this horse.
In a flash, he saw her blond hair at the edge of his vision, heard the bell-tinkle of her giggles. Zelda. Link shook his head, then glanced around at his peripherals, neck bent and eyes wary. No. Just a memory. It was just a memory.
"Link! What the hell are you doing?" Hudson's voice broke Link from his nervous reverie. Glancing around at the mouth of the stone overpass, Link couldn't see the middle-aged man, and worried that he had really finally lost it. Zelda's hauntings were not too uncommon, and were fairly explicable: he had loved her, lost her, slept a century, and slain a demon to get her back, and then lost her again. He had done all that like, what, six times now? But if he was beginning to hallucinate about the friendly carpenter...well maybe all those potions made from beetles and bokoblins really weren't the healthiest idea.
After a few more moments, Link raised his head again, and finally noticed the peak of Hudson's truly offensive bowlcut over Midnight's head. The horse had stopped and was nosing the man's bag rudely, searching for snacks. Link began to scold him, but Hudson just laughed and pulled out a few apples. When Link raised an eyebrow, Hudson laughed even harder.
"Beedle was here yesterday and said you were in the area, I made sure to take a trip out to the trees in the enchanted copse down south a ways and pick up a few."
Link knew the copse, and knew why the villagers thought it was enchanted. He shivered a little, at the near-violent intimacy of those giant magical weirdos, and noticed Hudson was staring at him again beneath the world's bushiest eyebrows. How a man could have such a positively pubic forest above his eyes and on his upper lip, and yet have the straightest, most conical bowlcut Link had ever seen, was always a mystery for our Hero. Link started to laugh, and continued to laugh, at the bemused and slightly worried look on Hudson's face, until he was nearly crying. Link wished he could explain to the older man how his totally outlandish and yet utterly mundane appearance, along with his invaluable kindness, were exactly what he needed to keep heroing on for another day.
"Come on Hudson, let's grab a drink. And for Hylia's sake, will you build a damn fence along this bridge?" Link whipped Midnight into a gallop, leaving Hudson to walk slowly behind, shaking his head. A warm smile played across his features as he watched the brave young man holler and whoop his way into the town he had crossed the country to populate.
Several hours later, Link was solidly buzzed outside the Slippery Falcon, and doing his best to prevent the more visibly inebriated Granté from trying to literally paint the town red. Actually, Link was doing his best not to fall over laughing as Fyson anxiously waved his wings, running interference on Granté as the young Akkalan engineer-armorer strode confidently towards the shelf where the normally headstrong Rito sold a few buckets of the garish hues the rest of the town was dressed in.
Link had burst into town around three in the afternoon and headed right over to Granté's house with Hudson, and the three began making their way through several tall mugs of mead and even taller tales. Hudson and Granté did most of the talking, and Link drank, listened, and laughed. Fyson had joined the fun after closing up shop for the day, Hudson had left for dinner with his wife, and the three had made their way over to the shop at some point. The tables outside made for a glorious place to drink and be merry.
"Hey Hero!" Fyson yelled sarcastically. "Some help here?" Link raised his hands, palms forward, playing innocent.
Granté spun around to face Link, suddenly distracted. "Ahh, the mayor himself." Link rolled his eyes. Granté put his hands up, fingers curled into his palms, as if he was ready to box. Link looked at him more seriously, was the guy really that drunk? Ever the unpredictable, Granté extended his arms out into a T-pose, and then began wiggling his whole body, arms included. Suddenly, he took another sip of his mead, puffed out his cheeks mischeviously, and spouted it towards the hero.
Link neatly sidestepped the stream of warm booze, and Granté ran away cackling.
"Sonofuh-" Fyson began, then took a deep inhale and a sip of his own mead, and went looking for a mop or a rag. Link went sprinting after the gleeful trickster, and quickly caught up to him. They played a short game of ring-around-the-rosy around the fountain, and then Link managed to get a hand on him. Granté, giggling and slightly out of breath, surrendered.
"Please Sir Hero!" He pled mockingly in a high-pitched voice, "Twas but a training exercise, designed to prepare you for the dangers of the fearsome oc-to-rok!" He put extra emphasis on each syllable of octorok.
I'll show you an octorok, Link thought, and forced Granté into a chokehold. He then shoved the drunk man's head into the water for half a second, and brought him up again. This should sober him up, he thought. However, Granté had taken advantage of this situation to reload, and this time the wannabe-octorok's projectile hit Link square in the face.
Stunned, Link let go of his friend and they both collapsed to the ground. Granté, apparently an effervescent ball of unending energy, began immediately making dirt angels. Link, for about the tenth time that day, burst out laughing.
Approaching midnight, Granté safely tucked in, and Fyson off to roost on the second floor of his shop, Link was alone at the fountain of the goddess, buzz wearing off slowly. The town truly was a wonderful little place, his home away from home, and this fountain was his favorite spot in it. Flickering reflections of moon- and torchlight shone off of its rippling waters. The breeze was surprisingly light given their considerable altitude and proximity to the cliff face, and quite warm this time of year. It smelled of something sweet, probably coming from Hagie and Ruli's home. Link smiled, thinking of the ridiculous cake he had made for Hunnie. It had lit her up, her face bright and eyes beaming like Zelda when they had finally defeated Ganon, and could look out towards a future together. Link turned his head abruptly, as if to look away from something painful. He began to remember.
Half a dozen times now, he had seen that sight. Zelda's sad smile, her downturned eyes. Half a dozen times he had made his way into Ganon's domain, the castle that had held generations of Hyrule's royalty and now housed a sealed demon, a great old one kept from ravaging the outside world only by a century of stubbornness from the only woman he had ever loved. He had slunk, or swam, or climbed, or charged his way into the castle, all the way up to the top. Six times he had slain that demon with her help, and held her hand as they looked towards their new horizon.
Each time, he awoke at the last place he slept, his future with her just the stuff that dreams are made on. The first time was the hardest, he had barely had enough experience, he had rushed right to her after barely defeating the four champions, and plunged himself into the madness of that castle and that giant red-eyed demon. He snuck through the grounds of the castle, and spent the better part of several days hanging on castle walls to avoid flying guardians or hiding in dark corners covered in moblin blood to trick their sensitive snouts. Somehow, he had made it to the throne room, and by some divine favor even beyond that, he and Zelda had come out on top in the monstrous fight that ensued.
Then, it was all stolen away from him.
He remembered waking up, in the Woodland Stable just south of the Korok forest. Initially he had assumed he had collapsed from exhaustion, and he spent the better part of a morning wondering around, looking for her. He kept asking the confused employees of the stable where Zelda was, where the princess who had vanished one hundred years ago was, as if she had been right next to him the evening before. First they worried for this strange traveler, then eventually they worried about what he might do to them, deranged and confused as he clearly was. He left the next day, and spent a week riding around Central Hyrule with Midnight. Eventually, he had to conclude that he had dreamt the whole thing.
Doubting his own sanity, once more unto the breach he went. It was when he made it into the castle again that he knew it had been no dream. Perhaps a vision, but no dream. All the monsters were the same, the castle's layout was the same, even the way the great tusked beast curled around her sealing sun in its last vain attempts at domination and corruption. How could he have even remembered a dream with such clarity? How could he have dreamt of her heartbreaking question, and his inability to answer, at the end of it all?
"Do you really remember me?" She had said, green eyes dewy, ceremonial garb muddied from the prior battle. He remembered some, but not all.
The third time he awoke at those stables, he knew it had to be a curse, some dark time magic set upon the two of them, and the whole of Hyrule in fact. He thought perhaps he could break it, if he could answer her question. Or maybe he just couldn't bear to see her sad smile once more.
So he set about the country looking for places, people, paintings, anything and everything that could trigger his subconscious to dig up those precious memories from so many years ago. It took him the better part of a year. A year of frustrated wandering, cold nights, and lonely days, never knowing if what he was doing would actually help anything at all. Eventually, he thought he had pieced it all back together again; the most important parts of them, at least.
Link swam right to the top that time, using the series of moats and waterfalls which he had calculated as the most efficient route given his previous experiences. He had become much stronger during his wanderings, and had even come across the master sword deep in the Korok forest. The fight was challenging, but Link felt in control. After their victory, Link even heard more out of Zelda! When she continued to speak, when they walked together along that grassy ridge beyond the castle, speaking of their past and future, he thought he had triumphed. He thought he had beaten this curse, whatever it was, and they could finally walk together into the future as one.
It was not to be. Yet, he did not give up, he threw himself back at that dark fortress and the primal beast within. He was angry now. Again and again he scaled the walls and tiptoed through the hallways of the corrupted keep.
He started his journey from different places, the Wetland Stable, the ruins of Mabe Village, hell one time he even slept on top of the giant arcane pillars surrounding the castle like the points of a pentagram, and flew in with his glider from their.
Link slew the demon Ganon, and Zelda sealed it away, over and over. By the last few times, he was walking right through the front gates, destroying guardians with a single arrow, dancing around the brutal blades of the silver Lynels with practiced ease. But no matter what he did, no matter how thoroughly he searched the land or slayed the enemies of man, he woke up after defeating Ganon, and the beast was never defeated at all. The princess remained locked in her own dying seal.
The korok finally put him over the edge. Throughout his journey, the mischievous little bastards had been hiding in the most random places throughout the country, encouraging him to solve their little puzzles, complete their silly challenges, or just find their ridiculous hiding spots. It was slightly annoying, but they were good-natured creatures, and on some days it was a nice break from slaying another wave of monsters or fetching some meaningless trinkets or materials for a villager. He had been asked to find them all, and he put effort in at the margins to do so.
Sometimes they were in particularly strange or remote places, and he began to wonder whether they had some mystical ability to survive without nutrients. As Link's journey wore on, and soured as the futility of his primary quest became more and more apparent, he began to wonder if the koroks were even sentient. They always said the same things, and he thought he sensed something vaguely mechanistic behind their leaf masks. Of course, it was possible, even likely, that he was just going insane. Either way, he began to feel as if they were just some cruel trick put their by the powers that be to remind him of just one more thing he would never be able to complete.
Finally, on his seventh trip to the castle, a full eighteen months after he had saved Hyrule the first time, Link broke. He had climbed his way up to the throne room, but on a whim, decided to continue climbing. Maybe there was some key up here to breaking this horrible curse. He made his way up to the parapets above, and even climbed to the tip of the tallest tower. What did he find up there?
A fucking Korok. How? Why? All it did was giggle woodenly and float a few feet above the highest point of the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule, not even two hundred feet from Ganon himself. And so, in this moment of utter absurdity, our hero accepted his fate. He realized that this whole situation, his whole quest, and maybe even his entire life was part of some sick joke, some meaningless game of the gods.
Zelda would ever slip through his hands like sand in a sieve, and the land would remain forever blighted. She was the lily in the field and the bird in the air, and every time he got close he felt farther away. Maybe, he sometimes wondered idly, she didn't even exist. So he floated, purposeless, around the lands of Hyrule.
Link was startled out of his dark thoughts by the howling of the wind. Tattered red clouds closed in on the eerily lit sky far too quickly, like long red incisors ready to pierce the moon. Then the moon itself began to bleed. Link heaved a deep sigh. He didn't give a damn about Ganon anymore, and he wasn't even sure that he believed in Zelda or his own memory anymore. But he was a hollow man most days, and the places and people who made him feel a little less empty were absolutely invaluable. One of those places and several of those people were right here. So, he drew his sword, and whistled for Midnight. Besides, with her memory fresh in his mind, it wasn't like he was going to get any sleep that night.
From deep within her time-numbed slumber, a young blonde woman with emerald eyes and pointed ears watched her appointed knight dance in the red of the moon. At first, she had worried for him most on nights like these, when he dashed himself against waves of enemies for no reason except to save a few townspeople here, a few travelers there. Now, as she watched him weave between axes, deflect moblin clubs twice his size, and drop metal blocks onto unsuspecting lizalfos from thirty feet above, she no longer worried for his body. She worried for his mind. And her own.
Since he had first awoken a little more than three years earlier, she had been regaining more and more of her own consciousness. At first she had felt little more than an echo of her former self, an echo which she projected out into Hyrule, searching for him. By the time they took down Ganon the first time, she was nearly herself again. Her memories of their conversations after that time were faint and smudged, but bright. Then, blankness, again.
It was as if someone was resetting her consciousness each time they won. Whatever cruel fates in charge of the world, the three goddesses, or something more malign hiding behind that mask, seemed to have abandoned Hyrule, and its two champions. She deduced that Link, in turn, had not been able to deal with the pain of losing her at what should've been their greatest moment of happiness and victory, time after time.
She felt all this more than she knew it, and she watched over him day and night, waiting for him to drop small hints about what had happened. Whatever was going on, he remembered it a lot more clearly than she did. Locked in a stasis of her own making, she had naught but time to think, and she waited for him to serve up more clues, so she could think a way out of this cold, cursed labyrinth they wandered in.
As the last beast vanished in the few square miles surrounding Tarrey Town in a puff of black and purple smoke, Zelda whispered in his ear.
"Link. I will figure this out. For us. For Hyrule."
She saw his head jerk sideways, and for a second his haunted cerulean eyes met her warm emeralds, and his mouth fell open into a perfect O.
He closed his mouth, and there was a slight quiver at one edge of his mouth. Then he spoke, voice hoarse, hands shaking.
"You were always stronger than me, my love."