So, this is my 2nd foray into the Legend of Zelda fandom. And again, this isn't technically a fanfic. And, again- the situation is slightly complicated... (It's more of a love-hate-I'm slowly becoming a fan-fic to be perfectly honest) I started writing this Last July/August, but well... Life got in the way and I lost my muse until a week ago.
Anyways- this is a Twilight Princess fanfic, which was inspired by a comment that a Lets Player named Olizandri made in his LP of Twilight Princess. I cannot remember what he exactly said, but it inspired me to write this fanfic.
So, Let's get going!
Warnings: Ridiculously inaccurate and obviously non canon (I've never played Twilight Princess- I've just watched a couple of episodes of one LP- so my knowledge about this world is dire.) I just liked the idea, and wanted to play around with it for a little bit. Kinda sad, some moments of OOC? Also Timeskips- some of which are not made clear...
Edit: Guess who made a little typo? I did... Well, does using the wrong word count as a typo? (I said Mirror instead of Water, which I corrected.) If anyone spots anymore typos, let me know and I'll correct them.
Also- to my guest reviewer. Thank you. :) I really enjoyed reading that review, and your kind words made me very happy. :)
Link slowly opened his eyes, seeing nothing but brown earth in front of him. He assumed that he was lying down on the ground, but why? He shut his eyes again, and memories of defeating Ganondorf and saving the Twilight Realm flooded his mind.
And then he had left the Twilight Realm with Princess Zelda... So, he should be somewhere in Hyrule... But where?
Link opened his eyes again, before he decided that he would try and stand up. However, he found that he couldn't quite find his balance. It seemed as if he had too many feet and not enough hands. He looked down, and instead of seeing hands he saw dark grey paws...
Link tried to speak, to ask what was going on, but instead a series of growls escaped from his mouth. Why had he lost the ability to speak? He couldn't be... He couldn't be stuck in his Wolf form, could he? How?
He was faced with a sudden realisation. If he was in his Wolf form, then he wasn't in Hyrule after all.. But how? How had he gotten stuck in the Twilight Realm? And would he be able to go back to Hyrule? Would he be able to regain his Hylian body in the process?He needed to talk to Midna. He needed to see if there was a way back. If there was a way of restoring his humanoid form.
Eventually, Link decided to get up. Despite the fact that his sense of balance wasn't that great on all fours, he began to run (well, stumble) to the castle. After all, the quicker he got to Midna's castle, the quicker she could find a way of getting him back to Hyrule.
Link slowly crept up on a small Twili town, hoping that there would be something to eat. Having gone an entire day without food, Link was desperately hungry.
Suddenly, he saw something. A small creature resembling a bunny rabbit was hopping around, completely oblivious to the fact that a Wolf...no, Link, was staring right at him.
Link's stomach growled. He needed to eat... He nearly turned around, and he nearly decided to hunt down that bunny rabbit-like creature...But he couldn't. He didn't want to kill an innocent creature. He just couldn't.
So he decided to go into the town, hoping that a kind Twili would see him and hopefully recognise Link's plight and give him something to eat.
Instead he was greeted by terrified screams and pitchforks.
Of course, it was no small suprise. All of the Twili villagers probably thought that he was out to get them, to eat them and destroy the village. Link was not welcome here. Link would be offered no food here.
Link ran away from a small Twili town, still looking for something to eat.
Link stared at his reflection in a small pond. It was nighttime, and Link was trying to get to sleep on the cold hard ground. His stomach growled again. He still couldn't...
Suddenly, Link saw something by the water. A carcass of some creature native to the Twilight Realm. From where Link was lying down, it smelt good. Link could feel his mouth water at the smell. He needed to eat that carcass, and quickly.
Link quickly got up, and hurried to the carcass as fast as his four paws could carry him. After all, he didn't want to give another creature the opportunity to eat this carcass. His dinner.
Insects had started to gather around the carcass. Whilst Link was slightly hesitant to eat the carcass at first, due to fears of the meat being rotten, his hunger won out.
Link wagged his tail happily as he wolfed down the carcass as fast as he could, allowing little to go to waste. When he finally finished the carcass, he slowly walked back to where he had been previously, feeling satisfied.
Needless to say, Link slept very well that night.
Two days later, Link finally approached a wooden sign in the middle of a large open field. The sign was written in the Twili language. Whilst Link didn't claim to be fluent in the Twili language, he had been taught some of the language by Midna on their travels. Mainly on how to interpret signs such as this one.
What Link saw made him howl with joy. Twilight Castle was a three day walk away from here! Finally, he would be able to go back home, to Hyrule (if that were possible). If not, he could try and at least get his Hylian body back (hopefully. Link dreaded the possibility that he'd be stuck in Wolf form for the rest of his life).
Link immediatly headed northwards towards the castle, with renewed hope and a spring in his step.
Finally, he would be able to find a solution to his problem. Finally, he would no longer be stuck in his wolf body, and feared by the Twili in the Twilight Realm.
He had made it.
Whilst the three day walk had been exhausting, he was finally at the Castle. Midna's Castle. He'd be able to fina a solution here, a way for him to get back home, or at least get his Hylian body back.
Link walked briskly to the front gates, hoping that he'd be able to get inside. Hoping that he'd be able to see Midna.
Suddenly, Link saw the guards gesture at him. Had they spotted him? Link saw one of the guards talk to the other guard, before the two guards unschethed their blades and began to walk towards him.
Link was not welcome here either.
Link quickly turned, and ran away from the castle. He didn't want to give the guards the chance of killing him and hanging his fur on the mantelpiece. Link also didn't want to kill any of the Twili people. Including those guards that wanted to kill him.
It had been a week since Link failed to get into the Twilight Castle. He was currently combing the forests, looking for any more carcasses to eat. He hadn't eaten since yesterday, and he was feeling...
Snap.
Link stood on high alert. What was that sound? Was that an innocent creature? Or was that a creature that wanted to eat him? Link's eyes scanned the area quickly, trying to find some answers.
He saw the behemoth sized beast a moment later. And it was charging towards him.
Link charged towards the creature, aiming to kill it before it killed him. The creature swiped Link across the face with its left arm, scarring Link's face as well as causing Link's left earring to fall to the ground.
However, Link ignored the latter, being too engrossed in the fight to even care about a missing earring. Link dodged the creature's second attack, before he ran in circles around the creature. Hopefully, this would make the creature feel dizzy, and give Link the opportunity to kill it.
A minute or so so later, the creature tried to stagger towards him, before collapsing to the ground. Link finally had his chance. Link jumped onto the creature's back, before sinking his teeth into the creature's throat.
When Link was certain that the creature was dead, he began to feast on its remains. He savoured the taste of the creature's flesh, enjoying every single bite.
Finally, when Link was full, he slowly began to drag the creature's remains back to his territory. After all, this would mean that Link wouldn't have to go out hunting again for at least a week, maybe a week and a half if he was lucky.
But until then, Link wouldn't have to kill anything else.
Weeks passed. Link had long since lost count of the days, as the days had started to blur into one long, never ending day.
Link was walking back to his territory, the corpse of a freshly killed bunny-like creature dangling in his mouth. Link was especially proud of this kill. He had managed to sneak up on it without it realising he was there. Well, it did realise that he was there, but by then it was too late.
When he arrived back at his territory, Link tore into the creature's body, enjoying every last scrap of meat. Link didn't know why he had been so hesitant to kill at first. After all, the meat tasted good, and other animals did it too so why couldn't he?
Yes, Link was resigned to the fact that he'd be stuck in his wolf body for the rest of his life. However, he was slowly starting to enjoy the freedom that this body had given him. Instead, Link was hoping that Midna would stumble across him in the woods, and take him back to the castle in order to look after him, though he did realise that that was unlikely to happen.
However, that didn't matter at the moment. Midna didn't matter. What did matter was that Link had food to eat and territory to sleep in.
Time had again passed, and Link was curled up beside a tree, staring at the night sky. He had gotten the hang of this now. Hunt. Kill. Eat. Sleep. Defend territory. It was easy. To easy in fact. The creatures of this realm stood little chance against Link in his wolf form.
But why did he feel so lonely? Had he forgotten something? Something about a...
Link didn't know, and to be honest Link didn't really mind. That information probably wouldn't have helped him survive in the wild, or hunt down prey to eat. If so, it didn't matter. If not, the information did matter, but Link probably would never recall that piece of information...
Especially when he had been distracted by the smell of prey. Dinner.
Link quickly got up, and darted into the forest, in the hope that he could catch some more food to eat.
The wolf stared at the small body of water in front of him. He had long since forgotten his name. Rink? Like? Fink? However, to the wolf, it didn't matter.
Did he even need a name anyway?
The wolf looked at his reflection, and the small collection of scars that he had acquired. But, more importantly he was looking at a blue thing in his ear. What was that thing? Why did he need it? What if it got caught on something? The wolf quickly clawed at the blue object, until it fell out into the water. Feeling satisfied, the wolf began to curl up, ready to fall...
Snap.
The wolf looked up. Prey? Danger? What was that sound?
Another wolf approached the small body of water. A female one.
The wolf approached the female wolf slowly, feeling uncertain. Was she a friend or not? The female wolf tensed up in response, before she slowly started to approach him. The two stared at each other for a long time, before the wolf decided that the female wolf would make a valuable ally.
Hopefully, she would feel the same way.
The wolf and his mate walked through an open stretch of land.
In the middle of this open field, there was a huge wooden thing of some sort, with random squiggles written all over it.
The wolf wasn't sure what it was, but he decided to use it in order to mark his territory so that other animals would know not to settle down here.
After that, the wolf and his mate walked back into the forest, in order to hunt for tonight's meal.
The wolf watched as the last of his Cubs was born.
The wolf had a pack now.
He was an Alpha wolf now.
The Alpha Wolf left his den in order to catch dinner for his mate.
The Alpha wolf looked down at the water. Another wolf stared back at him.
The Alpha wolf growled. The other wolf growled back.
That other wolf was trying to attack his pack.
The Alpha wolf jumped into the water, attacking the other wolf.
There was no other wolf.
The Alpha Wolf was confused for a moment. But he saw his pack.
He quickly forgot about the non-existent other wolf in the water.
The Alpha wolf saw a two legs standing in his pack's forest. In his pack's territory.
He looked at the two legs angrily. The two legs needed to go.
The two legs said something. The Alpha Wolf did not understand.
Snap.
Prey.
The Alpha wolf and his pack darted back into the forest.
Midna slowly walked through the forests surrounding Twilight Castle. Today was the 15th anniversary. 15 years had passed since Ganondorf had been defeated, and 15 years since Link and Zelda had returned to Hyrule.
Suddenly, a howl interrupted her thoughts. She turned around, and saw a pack of wolves glowering at her. And one wolf, despite having greyer fur than she remembered and several scars across his body, looked disturbingly familiar... Midna was hit with a sudden realisation.
"Link", she muttered sadly. So, he had never returned to Hyrule after all.
She paused. Maybe... Maybe there was a chance that Link recognised her?
"Link!" She called out again, hoping, praying, that Link hadn't forgotten her.
However, the sound of breaking twigs in the background caused the pack of wolves to dart back into the forest. Midna stared back at them, before mourning for her lost friend.
So, yeah. I wrote a Wolf!Link slowly loses his humanity story. I dunno why, but I've always had a morbid fascination with the idea of humans shapeshifting into animals. Especially in films, TVs or Video Games. Maybe it's because I remember watching Pinnochio when I was a kid, and the animation of the kid turning into a Donkey was easily the most memorable bit about the entire movie IMO.
Some extra notes)
1) This is probably one of the very few fics that I've written where I've actually done some planning and stuck to the same ending that I originally planned. At the beginning of the fic, Link's POV is written in long, more complicated English. As the fic goes on, and Link starts to lose his humanity, the sentences get shorter and simpler, and there are little to no paragraphs. As well as this, there is no dialogue until the very end. This is because Link can't obviously talk in his wolf form, and no one is speaking to him. Finally, there are certain scenarios earlier on in the story that are revisited as Link begins to lose his humanity.
2) I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TWILIGHT PRINCESS, EXCEPT THAT LINK TURNS INTO A WOLF AND GANONDORF IS INVOLVED SOMEHOW. I've never been allowed to own a Home Console growing up, which means that I've never been able to play this game. Plus I've had an...interesting history with the LoZ series, and as a result I've never really watched an LP of Twilight Princess either. I will try and rectify this in the future, but for now I know little. If that means that this story is ridiculously inaccurate, I apologise. I did try to do some research about the Twilight Realm, but I didn't find much, so I improvised. Yeah, plus I thought exploring the idea was more important.
3) Before anyone asks- yes, I did put other wolves in the Twilight Realm. Before anyone asks how they got there- I don't know exactly? Maybe they fell into the Twilight Realm at the start of Twilight Princess and couldn't get out?
4) Despite the fact that I planned this and stuck to my plan, one small plot detail changed. Instead of Midna celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Ganondorf's demise, she would have been celebrating the 12th Anniversary. Minor plot change, but still needs mentioning.
5) I said the fic was kinda sad at the beginning. However, you could view it both ways. Yes, Link lost his humanity, so that's sad. However, does the fact that he gained a pack and some freedom outweigh the fact that he lost his humanity? I'm not answering that one. That's for you, the reader to decide.
6) Finally- Whilst writing this, I did have another random idea about 'What if Midna had found Wolf Link earlier, and as a result Link became a domesticated household pet instead of a fearsome predator?' There's a part of me that is sorely tempted to write it, but I dunno. Maybe one day? EDIT- Ok, the idea of a chubby Wolf!Link is weirdly amusing for some reason. I need to write this.