I do not own the Legend of Zelda.
Bizarre Bazaar
Link strode into the Bazaar, and plunked his wallet down on the counter of the gear supplier. He looked horrible, a scrape across this cheek and burns lining his hands.
"I need another wooden shield," he rasped, his ragged breath tearing across the frightened atmosphere of the bazaar, a normally dull place filled with bored shopkeepers now alive with the silent weight of fear.
"Oh yes, that will be 50 rupees, please," the cashier faltered.
Link silently counted out the stones and plunked them on the counter heavily, then dragging up the shield and slinging it over his shield with a wooden thump. He grimaced as it jarred some unknown bruise. He set his teeth in determination and turned away, eyes cold against the fire of injury, darkly shadowed with exhaustion. There was an unnerving trail of dried blood down the side of his head, and dark stains discoloring his green uniform, accented by a black singe mark carved across his chest by a cobalt laser from the past. His figure drooped, weary and pained, his breathing heavy across the whole bazaar. He turned to go.
"Are—are you sure you're all right dear?" called out Luv, the potion lady, her voice shrill. Link turned towards her. So beaten and weathered, bearing evidence of many injuries, his usually calm appearance became frightening, striking fear and worry into the potion makers.
Link eyed her for a time, trying to focus through the fog of fatigue. His thoughts failed him, and he slowly realized that it wasn't safe to continue on like this. He needed potion. The Knight stepprf forward and pulled out an empty bottle, filling it with the crimson concoction and digging in his wallet for the required rupees.
"Oh, darling, you don't need to pay for that—"
But she was cut off by the clink of gems against the counter. Forty rupees, for a potion that cost twenty.
"Sweetie, you only—"
But the Hero paid her no heed, chugging the bottle he'd just filled and then dunking it again, packing more life insurance for the road.
And before them, the burn vanished from his face, and with a roll of his neck and shoulders a new strength revived his form and the boy corked the bottle and stretched, joints cracking audibly above the music. With a toss of a blonde clad head he turned heel and jogged out of the bazaar with a half-hearted wave, the shopkeepers peering after him as he jumped headfirst off a sky dock and plummeted to the depth below, a whistle and a shriek of loftwing bearing him up and away in a flash of scarlet.
The bazaar buzzed with the hub of bubbling brews and silly music coating the air. All of the shopkeepers, potion makers, item check attendants, fortune tellers and soup brewers, nervously looked at each other, gazes alit with concern.
Where had the boy been, and what had torn him up like that? The surface must have truly been a wasteland, filled with monsters and ill omens. They couldn't grasp at what their only regular must have been facing. His very life rested on their wares.
A friend recently let me borrow Skyward Sword, and I've been playing it like a crazy person ever since. While in the Lanayru Mining Facility, I tried blocking a beamos' laser with my shield and it shattered. I was really close to the end so I figured, "Oh, I'll just go grab another one after I get the boss key, then grab another before the boss battle." It turns out that the way to the boss key contains several sentrobes, and you kind of need a shield for those...long story short I ended up in Skyloft with no shield on two hearts. And thus, the idea for this oneshot was born!
Thanks for reading! Ninja out.