It's been awhile. I deleted the original version of this, probably because I'm an idiot. But I just had to come back to it, so I edited the first chapter. Will this continue? I hope to edit and finally write out the end to be able to continue this on like the series it was supposed to be. Who knows, outlook not fantastic fyi.
Please enjoy.
A world of hollow beings had always filled the fictional worlds of my books. They smiled, they wept, yet in the end they didn't exist, and they weren't meant to. I believed in different universes, but I often used it to imagine the endless possibilities of a conversation and not the endless troubles it could put me in with just one snap of its all knowing fingers.
The air was sweet with the taste of a new beginning bringing with it wafts of summer aroma. This back deck had been my place of peace, and reading. My eyes darted upward to the clear sky, then down, into the vibrant green of the forest licking my backyard like waves into a shoreline. I placed my book on the cushion of the chair where I had rested my feet and pushed up onto my toes from the fake wicker couch. Out there, between trunks of bark, was a flicker of blue distracting the elegant bending of branches.
It had been appearing on and off all the while I was out there that short day. Every few pages turns it would steal my gaze, calling for me, before fading without my response. Another crack split through the forest cover, striking with a fast glimmer. This time, however, I saw where it began from.
With a kick in my step I plopped back onto my heels, swept my book off the couch, turned back, and wrestled my screen door open. Not one eeking emotion dared speak about my neglect of the sandals left on the wooden panels, and not one of them shook their heads about my sudden approach for the door. Except for one.
My pinky toe jammed into the small step up onto the frame of the door. I hadn't even aimed for it to be there. With a solemn groan, I lifted my foot to check for blood and when there wasn't any, I slid back up straight. Right at my face stared back myself, transparent in the reflection of a glass sliding door. Above my shoulder it crackled again, but this time with more luster.
Unkempt hair had swung around with the spin of my body and head, tangled from having not been brushed that morning. Had I regretted anything, it wasn't that, it wasn't even the athletic shorts that had cursed me with burns, nor was it not wearing shoes as I gently walked down the steps of the deck and headed for the woods. It was the fact I had left my glasses on.
The light had remained shifting and turning, only blinking at me, as I made my way across the yard. With every step, tension began to build up in my muscles. I had still been persuading myself to believe the statement that rung in my head, that I wouldn't cross the edge of the forest. Deep down I knew, I wouldn't stop, there was something in there and it was pulling me forward.
A leaf crunched, I wiped pine needles off my heel, twigs dared me to press further so they could taste my blood, I moved slowly but I didn't stop. Once the trunks had enveloped me, the blue light had decided to subside. It hid behind the endless trees, flickering, sometimes completely shrouded, other times split between branches. For a split second I wondered, under this canopy of leaves and surrounded by underbrush, I wondered if anyone would be able to hear me scream.
The light grew wider, and dimmer, until I saw it, blocked down the middle by a tree trunk. It was close enough that it could no longer hide behind the underbrush anymore. My running halted, only briefly as I caught my breath, stepped aside the trunk, and jogged up to it. It was an oval, as tall as a mirror, smooth like a disk, a swirling blue, like an encased, flowing liquid. It glowed.
My hand reached out gently for its surface, but when my feet didn't move to bring it all the way, I froze. It took the sound of crunching leaves for me to recoil, to turn around, to go, but the moment I shifted my weight onto my front foot, something unseen collided into me. I landed on a branch, a snap throwing itself up into the crisp air, my book flying from my hand. For awhile I just stared there, at the trees, at the peaks of blue sky. It was a painting, a painting I wouldn't see again for quite some time after I got up again, and faced the blue light once more.
In my chest, I was quivering, even as I was able to will myself to reach out my hand once more. Everything shook violently, refusing to do as I knew I was being told. As my last step brought my hand to the smooth surface, an intense chill jolted down my arm and into my whole being. I didn't see anything that followed, my vision had snapped to a blur, but something grabbed my arm. In the last blurred rays of light filtering into my eyes I only felt a hand wrench me forward before I was swallowed by blue, then nothing but black.
There was a taste of death on my lips until all slipped and was gone.
A blinding light filtered onto my pupils. What followed was a sharp pain that struck my chest before it began to race through my veins. My stomach lurched and the following fit of coughing didn't do much to help it. Lapping over my legs and hands was water, shallow, soothing. When my coughing didn't stop I fell into it.
The movement of blood in my body was tangible as everything overlapped and curled into each other, my limbs tingling like they'd just woken up after a deep sleep. A war was going on between my senses. Yet, coughing diminishing, I finally found the sharper edges of the painting drawn before me. I was in a shallow spring, water of a crystal blue hue, sand almost white. The light drew out a deeper headache from my skull.
In the midst of panic, I sent all my strength to my legs, but even that was no use, I stumbled back into the water. There I would stay.
No matter how long I waited, the numb sensation in my legs didn't go away, and no matter the number of attempts, I couldn't stand. Another attempt brought more pins and needles that jabbed themselves into my feet all the way up to my thighs. I found myself back in the water, my own two legs had given out from underneath me.
It was only then that my breath started to shiver and topple in and out of my lungs. Faster every second. Around me I saw nothing but the spring as I was blocked in by a round of small cliffs that yanked out any hope I felt from my body. Over, far enough away, I saw the opening and I heard something. Above the white noise of cascading water, like the footsteps of two people, running in close sync.
I sat up, eyes fallen into the trees just beyond the only gateway. If someone was coming, they'd come by there, I knew. In my heart was a spike of adrenaline, and from my chest arose a scream, a plea of, "Help!"
I heard the pounding grow louder and I repeated myself, trying to match its crescendo. Though, each shout died off, quieter than the last. My crying had arisen from a quiet place and it remained diminutive. It was not as hard as shouting but it didn't cease to end like every word that had punctuated the air.
Out here was warm, just like the Summer's day I had left, but it was thick and it was raucous and it wasn't anywhere I'd been before. Nowhere I'd seen before. That's what I perceived.
Past the opening of the clearing rushed past a figure. That was the loudest the footsteps had gotten before they disappeared completely behind the veil of a horse's grunt. The wind suspended itself, dropping all noise with it. Nothing but a softened, fuzzy impression of reality remained in my brain, sharpened by nothing. I wanted to sleep.
From the corner of a gate emerged a young man. His posture was nearly regal, he walked as if he carried a cape in tow, and watched me as if I was a beggar. He weighed coins in his hands as I wiped off tears. The decision made itself rather quickly, and he tossed me gold, "Were you the one calling for help?"
I searched for my voice after his, entranced by the tamber, that of a breeze flowing through a forest. It's ring caught me in a familiarity, the more I looked around, the more the man before me formed something I'd seen before. I found no words to say at all as tears punched at my eyes once again.
From the shore, the young man called out once more, "Hey, are you okay?"
"I-" my lips shut themselves when he took a step forward, a brown boot disturbing the water. In his widened gaze I found a pair of blue eyes, two crystals that glimmered in the sunlight. From long, pointed ears dangled earrings, small loops the same color as the sky. In these features alone I could find a world, a world I knew very well, "I can't feel my legs," my head grew light and I nearly fainted into sobs.
"Do you want me to help you up?" he asked, concern washing over his face.
I took a deep breath, croaking, "Yes."
The young man who I was only a stranger to stepped towards me and reached down for my arms. Even through his best efforts to hold me upright, I found no good enough hold in the sand to keep myself on my feet. Before I could tumble back into the water below, he'd caught me in a suffocating embrace.
"Can you walk at all?"
I restrained myself from wiping my nose on his green tunic before moving my face sideways so I could see the spring, "No…"
He sighed and I felt his breath cold against the top of my head, "I could carry you." he paused, "If you're comfortable with that."
His chest rose up and down. I tried to make mine go to the same rhythm, but my lungs quivered far too much. And I got no break as my heart resounded in my ears, calling out every familiar thing in view until I could come to terms with it all. Until I could believe it. I had seen it all before, but I didn't dare say from where. Not until I asked a question and heard its reply loud and clear. "Who are you?"
"Link," he replied softly.
The world tripped over itself and slammed me down into the ground. I could hear the names of people and places laughing at me as if they were a part of the childish game they came from once again. They sat vivid on my tongue, lucid in the trees. Hyrule had consumed my feet in its waters and filled my lungs with its humid air.
Memories of sitting on the couch in a bored delusion of nostalgia had surged back to me and briefly I watched myself play Legend of Zelda, when I thought nothing about if the place my hands guided the character of Link through was real, somewhere. Each game flicked by, and my absent eyes mingled finally on an image of Twilight before I was prodded away.
"Are you okay?" Link tried to drag my body up further to see my face, but I didn't cooperate and slid back down, "I don't have a lot of time, we need to get going. I'm sorry."
I found the air still once more, daring me to shake it, and I did. For once, the air bent to my will, and it talked for me. "Okay…" In a single moment I had my hands clasped at the back of his neck, and I felt weightless in his arms.
He walked out of the spring and onto a dirt road that lead through a forest. I could make out a clearing just up ahead, past a tall horse only a few paces away. She was a rusty red with a white mane. I bit my lip at the sight, preventing further shock from coursing through my brain.
As we passed her, Link whistled sharply and nodded his head forward. She began following.
As if all of this was an orchestrated normality, he began talking to me, casually, but never looking down. "Where are you from?"
I scowled at his hair now, marveling at how dirty blonde and high definition it was while trying to decide whether to tell the truth or not. "Massachusetts…"
He raised an eyebrow, "Where's that…?"
I took a deep breath of the forest air, finding myself content with its smell and the newfound coolness its canopy of leaves gave in its shadow, "I think it's far away."
"From Hyrule?"
The light of the clearing I'd seen from far away met my eyes and my calm demeanor dropped at the sight of Link's house. "Yeah..." I fell silent. My body meditated there, peaceful for just enough time before I felt like crying again.
"What's your name?" he inquired, softly looking down at me like I was a doll. All I could do to see him was squint.
"Maizy."
He narrowed his eyes as he stopped walking, "Maizy, huh...that's pretty."
"I guess…" I murmured.
"But uh-" he looked back up, widening his eyes, and getting back to his business. I was left leaning against the massive tree trunk that was his inherent house while he settled his horse into place and went to go grab something from inside. Ahead of the clearing was a small rise in land, haphazardly shoveled to level ground to create a pathway into what I could tell was a small grouping of houses.
Halfway through sitting there and contemplating, my legs regained feeling. I was picking at the grass, wondering about my family and where they thought I was, where I actually might be, when they returned. It had felt like blood had cascaded down them, smacking rocks as they fell. It was painful and they remained sore afterward, but I could move them. Rather than just stand, I remained glued to my place, deciding whether to lie or not once Link would come out.
"You alright?" he'd said as he shut the door.
"Yeah."
Link dropped down from the ladder that lead up to his doorway and kneeled down beside me. "You sure?"
I nodded.
"Okay. Well, there's a mayor in Ordon who can help you out if you just need a place to rest or anything.." He looked at me oddly for a moment, "But...if you need my help, I could figure something else out."
"Yeah...yeah, I'll think about it. Sounds uh...G." I muttered just loud enough. Although it probably confused him to no end, he smirked as he lifted me off my able feet and headed toward town.
As he strolled on I tore my eyes away from his face and watched as something entirely old became something new. In Ordon there were only a few colorful houses, all of odd shapes and containing odd people. With the sun it was impossibly warm and homely. I could smell the pumpkins that grew across the area in small patches. Although no person graced my sight while I watched, I could find the love of the people as it laced the atmosphere and suffocated me.
Past a small stream sat a house with a waterwheel. I felt its familiar hand grasp me, but it's skin had gained more color since the last time. Behind the house itself was acres of crops, mostly pumpkin patches, yet it was the largest part of the town.
"Do you live here?"
"Yeah." We crossed the stream as he headed toward this large house surrounded by fencing. Beyond it led towards another set of risen cliffs. There was an opened pathway that came up like a ramp with an arch that bore a sign. Though I could not read Hylian, I knew that was the way to the ranch.
"It's nice."
Where there would have been a gate was nothing, and Link entered the yard of the large house. He stepped up onto the porch, as if visiting an old friend, and attempted his best knock on the door with his hand that was underneath my knees.
After a moment a portly man answered the door, saving me the grace of having to sit in silence with Link. The man looked happy, briefly, before concern took over and he plagued us with an onslaught of questions. Particularly asking of Link, and not me.
"Calm down, Bo, I'll explain everything, I just need a favor first." He gave a reassuring smile. Between all the awkward circumstances, I was surprised at how convincing it was.
"I'm sorry, the town has been in a panic." Bo waved us inside, sniffling slightly and moving the horns jutting out of his cheeks up and down. "What do you need?"
The foyer was cozy with a couple chairs and bookcases near a fireplace. Ahead was a closed pair of doors, to the right was a stairwell, and to the left was an open bedroom.
"I found this girl at the spring. She says she's far away from home and can't feel her legs. All she needs is a place to stay until she gets better." Link glanced at something, "I know you have a room."
The mayor nodded solemnly, gesturing toward the open door, "She can stay for now."
"It won't be long, I'm sure." Link twisted his lips, "But um, I just need to talk in private for a moment, then I'll be right out." there was a pause, "Nothing to worry about."
Bo nodded and went to go sit in one of the chairs. Meanwhile, Link carried me into the abandoned room. Inside was simply a bed, a dresser, and a mirror. A window on the wall was covered in elegant green curtains that matched the sheets on the bed. An awfully feminine sense of design somehow shrouded the room in gloom. Link seemed uncomfortable looking at it.
He let me go onto my feet and, pretending I had no balance, I plopped into the bed, heels firmly pressed against the wood. I was still partially soaked in water and I shivered, but there was nothing that could warm me.
"I need to know what happened." Link stood over me, intimidatingly.
I found it hard to form words all of a sudden. "I don't know, I was walking through the forest, I saw a blue light, and I touched it." I shrugged, "Next thing I know I wake up and my legs-"
"Was the light black and blue?"
"No, just blue." I cracked my thumbs, tapping each of my fingers against my knees. After staring at my hands I lifted my eyes back up.
"You've never been here?" Link stared me straight in the eyes. It was surreal, like we were grasping a hold on each other's existence. I didn't tear away from it.
I chose my words carefully, "I've...seen...this 'place' before."
"In what way? Books? Have you read about us, have you visited Ordon?" His eyebrows were drawn together.
I shook my head, "I-I know about this place. I've been...to Hyrule."
A deep breath filled him. In a second he broke our eye contact and was looking at the door. "We can discuss more later." He watched me as I pulled a leg up to the bed and hugged it, "Your legs feeling better?"
My face instantly lost color boring holes into the flow with my gaze, "Uh...Uh, yeah."
"Um...good." He turned away quickly, but I dropped my foot like the dead weight it used to be and called out to him.
"Link, wait!" I could tell he found me crazy, and maybe it was best if I lost him so I wouldn't have to endure the dangers of his world. But I knew, whatever had brought me here didn't bring me here to lounge around. My way home was on a different path, and whether it intertwined with Link's, I wouldn't know unless I tried.
His foot stuck itself in a spot where water had dripped off from my hair, his gaze fluttered back to me for one more second.
I hesitated there, but I found my mouth somehow, and I made it speak, "Do you...do you know what Twilight is?"
I could see the recognition flash in his eyes and I held onto it, "The time of day when two worlds become one."
There was a bounce in his step as he left the room, equipment clinking together on his back. I watched his shield disappear behind the door.
In the moments that followed I recollected the past hour. With each memory triggered a new influx of tears. I cried for my family, for food, for warmth. My glasses became smudged and soon enough I took them off. When I placed them down, my eye caught on the mirror. It was angled so I only saw my legs, but as I stood up, my body filled its full view.
My hair was a mess, not only wet, but knotted all over from having not been brushed. I checked around the room for a brush and on the dresser sat a dusty one, painted a glassy green. It was stuck with wooden pick that looked dangerous to put through my hair. Nonetheless I began the process of painfully smoothing out all the knots until I was satisfied with myself. However, nothing kept my eyes away from my shorts and t-shirt. They lingered, wondering what I could possibly do to change them so I wouldn't stand out. But in the end I couldn't bring myself to think of getting rid of them.
They reminded me of home already.
I instead began to fascinate myself with my acne that wove itself between a sea of freckles. Around my green eyes was a deep flushed red from my crying. The familiar puffy look only brought me further into gloom. After that I just threw myself onto the bed, shut my eyes, and nearly fell asleep as I waited there for Link.
Soon enough the thoughts that he wouldn't come back for me came rushing in, but then I heard his voice followed by laughter. It took a lot out of my tired head, but I managed to sit up and listened carefully as their voices grew louder, then passed by my door. I heard thank you's, then I heard a goodbye before the room outside my door fell silent. The front door creaked open, then slowly, it shut.
My breath left me, my legs carried me onto my feet, and I nearly sprinted towards the bedroom door before it swung open. Link hovered in the doorway, staring at me. Neither of us spoke.
With tension in his movements, he shut the door. It was like he was thawing, moving slowly, staring at the floor, then finally, he exhaled, and looked at me, "You brushed your hair."
I brought my arms up to my chest, wrapping my hands together, "Uh, yeah I did."
"You can stand now?"
"Ever since you put me on the ground in front of your house." I clenched my teeth, "I was afraid to tell you. For some reason." The soreness in my legs weighed on me in that moment, but I didn't quiver. "I'm sorry."
Link sighed, "It's okay..."
"About earlier…" I took a deep breath, "In Massachusetts, your world is a work of fiction. And I've uh...read it all before. I know this story."
Link scowled at me, "And what is this story?"
I took a step back, "The story of twilight, the story of a wolf and an imp named Midna," my words resounded like poetry in my ears. He began tapping his toes into the floor. There were no words to say, they'd all been taken from him. "I came here like how I explained earlier and I don't know how to get home. Me knowing your future must be of help, so in exchange of me-"
"It's fine, you can tag along." His eyes were dull and exhausted as he glared at me.
"Wha-but...Don't you find me the least bit suspicious?!" My voice raised itself with my eyebrow, but he didn't reconsider his decision, seemingly in spite of my confusion.
He shrugged, "I probably should, you're right." The sun cast streaks on his boots as they stepped away towards the door. "For some reason I trust you, though." In the wake of these words, we left.
On the way back through town he explained that we were headed to Death Mountain and that I was to stay as out of the way as possible at all times until I could fend for myself. The sense that I was in over my head submerged me, but nonetheless I kept walking. Something in my chest lead me forward.
Like someone's voice was speaking to me inside my own head.