There was color. He could remember it clearly. Vibrant blues and duller greens. There was red, too - brighter than them all but he could no longer tell what it had belonged to. He felt the urge to reach out, feeling as if he had to reach for it somehow, to get rid of it. That hand very quickly became a fist but then a gentle warmth seemed to seep through his skin. What once was a bright light melted away into a field of darkness. It was only then he became aware he could no longer feel his limbs. An uncomfortable tingling sensation overcame him and he had to wonder what had come first - the void or the static?
He didn't have time to register anything else as both took him away.
Then there was sound. He remembered it vaguely. The numbness that clouded his mind had temporarily brushed away at the noise and his mind waited in anticipation for similar sounds. Anything was better than the nothing it had started to sink into.
The noises failed to return, and once again he succumbed to the static.
There was silence. He remembered it too well. The darkness shrouded whatever vision he no longer seemed to possess and the lack of thought drew it in. It stayed there; content in its new home as its host seemed equally as content to let it be. He wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. The prickling suggested he shouldn't pay mind to it.
He no longer did.
Once again there was color. He was confused by it. Images swirled in the darkness; blurry and indistinct. Some, he felt familiarity towards - a pair he felt grief for. Words for what they were passed over his mind in an instant before dissipating into dust. The thought was lost soon after, but the feelings remained. It took a lot longer for the void and the static to wipe those away into mist.
There was one last color - blue draped in gold. He was vaguely aware of them, their radiance. The colors were gone as quickly as they came and the calm from their presence eased him back into the depths of the abyss.
He lacked awareness for so long he forgot he existed. Then the world fell out from under him. The warmth and the black - his state of being started to fade, and with it so did the prickling of the static. There was feeling - it was familiar.
There was color. There was noise. He didn't remember either. Nothing swayed him as his core seemed to drain away from him. It was only when his mind started to process thoughts and his ears processed a word that he realized he was aware. The tingling had left his fingertips - they twitched. The sensation struck him as odd but necessary. Another word echoed in his skull and his eyes twitched. The very feeling was so close to his actual being that it struck a few more cords in his mind, gears turning as words flung to and fro in some bizarre display of awakening.
He didn't tell his eyes to open, but they had been open for quite sometime. He blinked.
"Link..." All he could see was blue, his mind processing the call to be a name around the same time it also realized he was cold. Such a strange feeling... Almost as familiar as the numbness…
"...your eyes..." More unfamiliar sensations. His mind seemed to process that the noise seemed to be referring to him, somehow. He wasn't sure how he knew that.
He was vaguely aware that the voice - it was a voice - had stopped. His body was moving before he was even fully aware he could move - a new sound dripped from his hair, his skin. Water - he realized he'd been laying in water.
Standing up was easier than he would have thought it to be. Slowly, he made his way over to the pedestal in the room. He'd forgotten the voice had told him to do so until he'd thought about it. It was another thing he'd have to get used to - this ability to think.
Something he learned was a 'Sheikah Slate' was presented to him. The door to the chamber opened. Tattered but usable clothing was on the other side and as the chill managed to find its way to his bones he hastily put them on. The last remaining door opened soon after he was instructed to use the slate again, and light poured into the room. His mind was already starting to feel drawn back to his slumber, but all of what he had done within these few moments felt… right. He couldn't explain it, but he felt like he was meant to be moving around, to be able to think, to realize he was breathing… It felt akin to something he had known but no longer knew. This intrigued him.
He climbed out and was awash with light, with colors, and with warmth. It was so overwhelming he had to shield his eyes from the harshness of the rays. He barely registered that the voice had spoken at all after that as he made his way forward. One step - the grass swayed and crunched under his feet. The blades danced over his skin and he had to marvel at how it felt compared to the cold dirt and metal of the chamber he'd left before he took another step. The stalks greeted his ankle and shin; the same dance performing in tandem and it wasn't too long before even that feeling became mundane and he was by the cliff at the edge of tomorrow.
Mountains were all around the border of what he could perceive with a darkness he felt drawn to off in the distance. There was a forest, fanning out into the horizon - a volcano erupting at the edge… An abandoned structure, awash in moss, was standing tall far off to the side…
He was awake now, or at least he thought he was. He had been sleeping, this much he understood. His other senses were coming back to him as he looked out into the horizon - the dry taste in his mouth, the empty pit of his stomach. All he knew was that his name was Link. Despite this, it didn't seem to bug him - this lack of information. He slowly spun around, taking in the rest of what he could see.
He caught something out of the corner of his eye and his gaze skittered down the hill at the movement. There was a pathway that lead away from the cave, but that's not what had drawn his attention away from the landscape. Not too far down was a small overhang with a fire crackling just underneath - he wasn't quite sure how he hadn't seen the smoke before. A hooded figure - a man, he realized by the burly physique - was standing in front of the path. He felt as if the man was staring at him before they turned around and started walking towards the campsite.
For a brief moment his mind questioned all of what he'd seen since leaving the strange pool. None of this was like what he knew - shouldn't he be concerned about this? Was it alright to leave the comfort of the void?
The static was no longer there to tell him otherwise. He took his first few steps down the hill. Somehow this felt better than the void, although he couldn't tell why.
That day, there was color. Crisp and clean - he could see the dull greens of the trees and the vibrant blue of the sky. There was a bright red that stood out above them all - an apple hanging delicately from the end of a branch...
He could no longer remember that they had once held another meaning at all.
A/N: Before I forget, here's a list of all the funny conversations between me and my editor friend we had while editing this:
"Don't use 'landscaping' - unless if there's giant machines in the background landscaping it doesn't make sense."
"Can you imagine if the Guardians took up gardening?"
"What?"
"Like they got bored because most sane people won't go near them or Hyrule Castle and so they just started planting flowers and carving out mountains and hills and shit to make them look nicer. Just imagine a Guardian carving a hill out with it's eye laser and the part just sliding down and it's just like 'there! now it looks more pretty' meanwhile all the animals are running for their lives away from half a friggen mountain/hill/whatever the Guardian decided to carve out."
"Don't say 'he spun on his heel' say he spun around or something. When you say that, it makes it seem like he just immediately took off in another direction and started walking instead of staying in one place. Also it sounds like he didn't actually take it in, more like he quickly spun around in a circle."
"Well that's BASICALLY what people do in the game anyway, they look out over the cliff cause the games like 'look how majestic we are yes enjoy the scenary' meanwhile people are jumping off the cliff or running back into the cave for comedic effect or their sane and go down the pathway... and then push a boulder down to hit Old Man Jenkins."
Yes I call him Old Man Jenkins sue me.
But back into an ACTUAL authors note I'm hoping this didn't end up turning into too much of "complete restatement of the beginning of the game ew" because I wanted to concentrate more on how he felt during and after Link woke up from a hundred year sleep cycle. I'm pretty sure it's apparent but idk people are picky man not like I can blame em cause so am I.
Hope you liked it vwv