Hey there, all. Welcome to Days of Dreams. This is a parallel story to Fly Away. In other words, this story is going on at the same time as Fly Away. If you haven't read Fly Away, then this might be hard to follow at first, and for that, I'm sorry. It isn't really necessary to read it, as most of this story has little to do with Fly Away proper, but it is highly recommended that if you want to read this story, but not Fly Away, that you're going to have to get over a very confusing first chapter. I must be going crazy or something; three stories at once now... BUT HEY, I wanted to do this and it wasn't about to fit in Tales soooo...
The cast of this story is my interpretation of a Hylian Blind the Thief (you know, the boss from A Link to the Past who was actually a resident of Kakariko Village at one point in time), the pirate crew of Wind Waker, and the various characters from Link's Awakening. This is essentially a different version of LA, but it is not a copy. Blind is no Link and the pirates certainly aren't Link either. There are no pairings in this story, by the by.
This first chapter is short. Blind displays a rather irritating ability to be quite blunt, but future chapters should be longer. Take note that this first chapter does get a little graphic at one point in time. Blind is not a nice man, after all.
In a dark, musty room, an old crone stirred a cauldron full of a dubious looking solution. She continued her stirring, letting out a small cackle every now and again, simply watching as her potion filled the room with thick, noxious looking fog. Even when she could hear the sounds of fighting and panicked voices off in the distance from her shady shack, she kept up with her work.
"Well, well, isn't it lively today…" She cackled to herself. "Seems like an excellent day to look for mushrooms later…"
The ruckus outside continued, but the wrinkly hag paid no heed to it. Even when her door creaked open and her unexpected visitor was feet away from her cauldron with a pleasant smile betrayed by an icy gaze, she did not react. Not immediately, anyways. This young man facing her was a moody one, she could tell. It wouldn't do to keep a fellow like him waiting, no it wouldn't.
"The potion won't be ready for another hour, boy," she said with her old, cracking voice.
"I'm not here for any sketchy things a witch sells." The young man said icily.
The old witch cackled for a moment, "Hmm, didn't think so, but never hurts to advertise. What can a decrepit witch do you for you, lad?"
"There are demons on the sea."
That made the woman pause in her stirring and finally give the boy a look. Despite his chilling tone, his expression was perfectly pleasant. And he had a nice face, a very handsome boy he was. A nicked right ear, his nose had been broken once or twice, and a scar coming up from the left side of his jaw showed he was the troublesome type too. That shaggy, tawny hair that framed his face almost made him look like a lion too. Oh the village girls would get their panties twisted for a pretty rogue like this one if his fellows weren't probably ransacking said village. But she went back to her stirring as she said, "Demons, you say? Don't see what those really have to do with me now."
"The way I see it, a witch would know more about demons then any of those quack psychics that claim to know things." The young fellow said carelessly.
The witch shrugged, "Not all witches cavort with demons. At least this one doesn't." Given how the temperature in the room seemed to drop, she'd come to the conclusion it was the wrong thing to say. The woman, for the first time since the stranger entered her hut, felt on edge. Even more so when the young man took a step forward. The witch realized then that his slow step was the beginning of a count down. She had until he was right in front of her to say something useful or he'd do something horrible. Some part of her was fascinated by this action; because she was sure he couldn't know that her specialty didn't extend beyond potions. For all he knew she could chuck fireballs right at him, but here he was, stepping forward slowly, patiently but chillingly.
Nope, this was bad, she had to tell him something. Luckily, she did know something. She just liked to push the buttons on these young people. "No need to get so worked up; I may not associate with those foul creatures, but I do hear things from wayward spirits."
The young man paused, his expression no longer pleasant but stoic. "Best start talking then."
Her old, cracked lips twisted into a somewhat amused smile, "I've been hearing interesting things from the eastern seas. Strange weather, curses and ships getting lost, things of that sort. Some of the spirits claim demons are up to it, though I doubt anyone knows the root cause. It may not even be anything to worry about."
He stared at her skeptically as he processed the information she'd given him. "Strange weather how?" He asked coldly.
"Storms coming out of nowhere; whirlpools in the ocean; even compasses don't work, they tell me." The crone clarified.
The man before her remained still for a moment, again processing the information he'd just received. "To the east?" He asked, his tone having shifted to curiosity rather than the icy he'd used before.
The witch paused her stirring again, forking a crinkled brow, "Yes… but you young folk these days, you'll get yourselves lost. Possibly even die." She said coolly.
But the man smirked, "There are worse things than dying."
And apparently feeling no more need to linger, he just walked out of the cottage… though, she did take note that he didn't even have the courtesy to close the door behind him. Rude. "Hmph, they say the good die young. I guess that eastern seas won't be killing that one, then." She said with wistful disappointment.
"Uh, Boss? I mean, Captain… there's not a cloud in the sky." Gonzo gingerly put out to Blind, who was carelessly leaning against the edge of the rails, just staring at the horizon. Their Captain had been staring out at the water since they had returned to the ship, only giving them a vague heading and telling them they should be prepared to begin the process to heave to; all the while his faithful Wolfos lay down by his feet and gave unpleasant looks to anyone who neared them. Eventually, after a rather unfortunate series of games of rock-paper-shears, Gonzo had been "volunteered" to approach Blind and see if any information could be weeded from him.
But the captain of the ship didn't even look at Gonzo. "So?"
Gonzo hated when the boss was monosyllabic… Then again, the boss talking was usually pretty chilling to begin with, even though he had been more sociable since the death of the gang. Just a little bit. "So um… Well, we don't really know why we need to be ready to heave to, yeah? The sky's clear; no storm clouds anywhere." He didn't even begin to mention that half the crew had no idea what "heave to" meant either.
"How long did you live on the Pride, Gonzo?" Again, Blind was not looking as his crewman. Despite that, his voice sounded flat, as if he was about to point out something incredibly obvious.
The big pirate suddenly felt very uncomfortable, mostly because every member of the crew now knew about the nature of their captain's "fondness" for the Pride. Still, he hesitantly answered, "I, uh, lived there till I was sixteen."
"So you lived a decent chunk of your life outside of the Misty Sea; that means you should know how fast the weather can change on the open sea." Boss was annoyed. "How fast is that?"
Gonzo shifted in place uncomfortably as he answered quietly, "Pretty fast…" And after a moment, he found some sliver of courage to point out, "But it's like you know there's gonna be a storm, yeah? No one can predict that."
Blind finally looked over his shoulder, giving the crewman an irritated yet level look. Yet the expression dropped quickly in favor of resignation.
"What is it, Boss? I mean, Captain?"
"Get Nikki untangled from the rattails." He ordered flatly.
"Huh?" Gonzo turned around and saw the youngest member of the crew hanging upside-down from the rattails by his ankle. It seemed the rest of the crew was conveniently unaware of Niko's plight, and the little pirate himself was being rather quiet about it as he tried to untangle himself.
Gonzo wasted no time audibly scolding Niko as he began to make his way over to the ropes to get the boy free. Blind simply turned back to face the horizon, wondering when an "out of nowhere" storm would come – if it would come. If that witch was lying to him –
His train of thought was disturbed when he heard a screech from Niko in the background, yelling and running around from the rest of the crew. He let out an irritated sigh, and held the bridge of his nose in an attempt to calm himself from lashing out at the crew to get themselves in order. His faithful Wolfos whined sympathetically at him, licking his free hand. After giving the creature a small, but genuine smile, he glanced upwards to the sky and his smile dropped. "Goddesses…" he began, "You made men from dirt. Why'd you have to make mine from shit?"
Of course, there was no answer from the goddesses.
Or rather, the goddesses may have had an answer, but chose to answer instead with raging black hellclouds incoming on the horizon at speeds that seemed far too fast to be natural. The thief turned pirate barked his orders out and the crew haphazardly followed. Gonzo realized then why the captain was telling them to prepare to heave to now. Of course the boss would know that the crew would be all over the place!
Things only got worse as the wind tossed the waves. It became difficult for Blind to relay his orders as the rain pounded down on the deck, obscuring vision and hearing. Not that vision needed to be obscured anymore – there were so many dark clouds it might as well have been night; the only illumination that came was from the lightning that was threatening to strike the ship. And the only reason that wasn't happening was because the waves threw the boat around like a bath toy in a tub.
He heard his Wolfos howl from somewhere on the ship; there was shouting from the crew. Lightning struck, cracking the main mast and brightening the ship enough for Blind to see Niko tangled in the rattails again. Blind stumbled towards the rattails, but slipped on the saturated deck, sliding whichever way the waves hurled the boat to. The shouting was louder; he heard a scream that was silenced by thunder, rain and wind. Lightning flashed.
The last thing he saw before blackness overtook him was a wall of water crashing upon the ship.
"Kas! Kas, we have to go, wake up!"
He was being shaken by his father. He sounded so upset. "Dad? What's wrong?" He couldn't see anything; his eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark yet. But he felt his father grab his arm, drag him off the bed and thrust a rucksack in his arms.
"There's no time to explain, Kas, come on we have to go!"
He'd never heard his father so worked up before. It was kind of scary; it woke him up quickly enough.
And then they were running down the dark, empty halls of the Pride. Or at least he thought they were empty. He started hearing voices behind them, calling out his dad's name. His father urged him to run faster. He heard arrows whizzing past. People were shooting at them!
They spent so much time beneath the decks, always running and avoiding traveling above deck. The guards would shoot arrows at them. Sometimes, a mage-guard would come along too. Those were harder to run from. His father's arm was burned enough to render it useless. Some friendly fairies did their best, but it just hung at his side.
"I'm doing this for you, Kas." He would say proudly. "I want you to have the same rights as the prince and princess; I want you and all the other children behind the Outer Wall to have those rights. No more rations; no more taking a job as soon as you are able. You can play and live as children ought to."
"Like the kids in the books Mom would read me?"
"Yes, Kas, just like those kids." And then he would scruff up his pumpkin colored hair and tell him one of those stories.
And then one day, they came in the middle of the night. He could see them in the light of the Fairy Crystal. They held him down. He could see his father shouting at them, getting angry. But they came up behind him, and then his dad's neck went snap and he stopped moving.
And then he went to Bleak. His aunt tried to be nice and supportive. She would hug him and encourage him and his cousin Falbi to play together. But he didn't care. He wanted to hurt people. So he did. He hurt them; he stole from them. He'd run away and throw sand in their eyes. He liked to hear them scream with pain and how with rage when they couldn't find him. He would keep doing that. He would do it so much, people began to get scared of him. He liked it.
People got so scared, they followed him.
Some said he got worse over time. Perhaps he did. He didn't throw sand in people's eyes. He plucked them out. He liked that better, feeling the resistance as he pulled on eye, how it squished and bloodied, and how they screamed, begged him to stop or cursed him out, swearing revenge. And they would try. One of them got him on the face, the other took a bit of his ear, another a little part of his eyebrow. But they never got back up when he was done.
He became more frightening. They gave him a new name. He liked it, because Kas was a dead as his father.
He would get them back. He knew how to get them back. Every single one of them; none were innocent.
So close. He was so close. Then someone got ambitious. Someone found everything out. He would have to kill them. Kill the Scrub. Kill the Scrub. Can't get to the scrub.
He was desperate.
"Dress in drag and get him from behind!" Falbi joked. But it was a good idea.
He did it. He followed her to the Cat.
Her.
Such an innocent idiot. He wanted to break her. Break the innocent little beacon of that floating monstrosity. But when a sword was pointed at his back, she would embrace him, defend him – of all people she would defend! He, who had punched her in the gut, who had threatened to kill her friends, who had threatened to break her arms and her legs. She defended him. She apologized to him.
She apologized.
Nothing made sense. What would he do? Were people all horrible? Yes… and no. He didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore. He needed to start over.
But then he saw a demon.
She had been talking about a horrible little man. A horrible little demon.
There were demons on the sea.
He wanted to find out.
And now he was in the water.
He was dead. He was dead.
He could feel the water filling his lungs, burning his chest as he flailed in the waves for the sweet ecstasy of air. But he was going to die. And what he saw was his life flashing before his eyes.
But he wasn't dead.
He was dry.
He felt the warmth of the sun on his face. Heard the whine of his Wolfos. A voice. A familiar voice. Several familiar voices. A new voice. He wanted to react. But his body felt like a stone.
And then he sat up quickly with a gasp. Panting heavily, he patted his palms over his body. He was in one piece; bandaged and bruised.
Blind, former crime lord of Bleak, was alive and apparently well.
Yet he had no idea where he was. He brushed the tawny hair out of his eyes, seeing he was in an unfamiliar bedroom in an unfamiliar place. Even the structure of the place didn't look like anything he'd ever seen before. It was much more nicely built than anything on Bleak, using soft yellow woods. The window with the sunlight streaming in only provided him with a view of another house with a particularly foul looking dog chained to it.
… His Wolfos. He had heard his Wolfos. Blind looked around the bedroom. She wasn't there. He'd heard voices. His crew. Where were they?
He threw the covers off of himself and got off of the bed. Noting his boots were by the bedside, he slipped them on and stood. He stumbled for a moment, his balance thrown off. How long had he been out, he wondered? But he regained his composure, and exited the room into the main part of the house.
He could hear humming. Feminine. So where was his crew? He frowned, looking for the source of the humming and finding it by a table. A red haired girl was sitting down, sewing something by the looks of it. Seeing as this was probably her house, she probably knew where his crew was. He approached her. She heard his boot steps and turned around.
He paused.
"Princess Zelda."
This story has been buzzing in my head for a long time now. As I've mentioned before, Blind will reappear in Fly Away, though how I planned to make him reappear didn't quite match the way we last saw him. Now since that's very far into Fly Away, it isn't really necessary to get into the why that is; all you'll know is that he and the crew went through something. But I really liked the idea of Blind and Co. in Koholint Island and experiencing it themselves. Link's Awakening has a really great concept, and I thought it would be fun for these characters to be in it and to try my hand in retelling a game with different characters and seeing how the story would change because of that. Random chronology note, if you keep up with Fly Away (and if you do, I luv ya) - this first chapter does not take place at the same time as the current chapter of Fly Away (27). It probably takes place a little further in. When I have an exact number, I'll give it to you. XD
Also, remember how I said there will be no pairings here? That's still true, but if you squint, you might just see a tiny bit of BlindZelda if you squint. Because that's my personal bias - ohoho.