"You came back!"
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Sheik's tales of the horrors he would encounter both beneath the well and within the Shadow Temple had put him on edge. What sort of monsters did the Hylians and the Sheikah make of their dead? What kind of afterlife did they curse their deceased to continue on in?
His thoughts had spun to a grinding halt when his boots had finally hit the bottom of the well, and the corpses at the end of the small hall he stood within began to rise.
No black threads lifted from their rotting limbs to vanish into the shadows above. They were composed of a single corpse, not bits and pieces, but in the places decay had taken too much to hold a particular limb on, someone had messily sewn the flesh back together. The overwhelming scent of festering bodies perfumed the air around them, billowing up like mist as they began to twitch, to move.
His muscles relaxed, a smile tugging the corner of his lips upwards. They were crude puppets compared to the marionettes he knew, but they were similar enough so that although there were no green leaves canopying atop his head, he began to feel at home.
Finding the Eye of Truth within the well was by far the most enjoyable activity his title of Hero had thrust upon him.
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Gruesome was the only word he could think of to describe the sight before him.
The snapping of bone and rattling of wood, the squelching of buried flesh and the laughter of a small child swirled into the most macabre symphony he had ever heard. The smell of the forest, loam and bark, earthy and deep, could not hide the sweet smell of death or the stench of graves, all of it so strong he could taste the rot on his tongue. Most ghastly of all was the sight-that was undeniable-of the corpses.
They were created from various bodies that should have been burned or buried long ago. One had a woman's head hanging lopsidedly from a man's chest, the head spinning much like an owl's as glassy eyes and a horrible smile stared at him. The corpses wore what plant matter had gotten caught in their protruding bones or flesh, but were naked save that. A large leaf he assumed was meant to be a cloak covered their back, but did not hide the places where animals had gotten into the body. Maggots writhed and squirmed from the bites, plopping onto the forest's floor when the competition grew too much. Black material, thick and ropy, held the limbs together and kept the jigsaw bodies from collapsing. From each limb a single thread of black rose up and vanished into the air high above.
The child had circles of black thread tied around its fingers.
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"Why do you have to leave? The others won't play with me." The dejection in his friend's voice upset Link greatly, and the small green-clad child pushed himself off of the tree stump he was perched on and walked over to the taller stump his friend was slumped upon. He used a nearby rock to push himself up on top of it. He slid an arm around his friend, pulling the smaller child into a hug.
"I'll come back. And each night I'll play Saria's song so that we can talk if you're with her." He said comfortingly, tugging on the wide brim of his companion's straw hat. A skeletal hand reached up and straightened the hat as his friend looked up, a scowl etched onto their face.
"She doesn't like me."
Link studied his companion for a long moment. Flesh and blood had long ago been replaced with wood, but golden cat-like eyes glittered up at him as his friend frowned. Wooden bones made up his friend's fingers and arms, but the rest of his body had been changed into wood. His face was a perfect circle of wood, two ragged waiflike ears poking out from holes in the hat's sides. The hat itself was long and pointed, died in a variety of colors. A band circled its bottom just above the brim, dried leaves and twigs stuck sporadically throughout it.
"Skull Kid, just tell her I said to. She should listen to me." In response, Skull Kid crossed his arms and huffed, turning his head away. His anxiety peaked, and he felt tears stinging at the back of his eyelids. He leaned against his companion, shoulder to shoulder blade.
"I promise you I'll come back, alright? And then we can play as long as you like."
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His fingers, numb with shock, clumsily brushed against his bag as he grasped for the Master Sword's handle. The child frowned, a peculiarly innocent expression on its wooden face, and raised a hand. The dead around him began to lift their limbs, moving closer.
"What's wrong? You did remember your promise, right?" The child's worried tone cut him like Ashei's blades.
He had been through the Sacred Grove before as a wolf. Wooden puppets had attacked him then on the child's command, and the child had led him on a wild-goose chase throughout the forest. But now? Now, he was in his usual form, free of Zant's curse, and now, those wooden puppets were dead people. Now, the Sacred Grove was terrifying rather than confusing and irritating.
"What are you talking about?" Even to his own ears, his voice held no power.
Then again. He was Courage, not Power.
"Your promise! You said you'd come back but you never did, and I waited and waited and waited even when the other kids went into the Green and the Great Deku Tree died and the Green Lady told me to stay here and guard the Grove!"
He wished so badly that Wisdom was there he could feel Midna flinch within his shadow.
As if sensing his thoughts, the Twili slipped into existence beside him, eyes narrowed upon the child's.
"Link needs to find the Temple of Time, kid. We already played with you once-"
"But then you were a wolf and you can't play with me when you're a wolf!" The child cried, stomping a foot on the tree stump it stood upon.
"…..wait…" Link spun around, the tiny voice shocking him beyond words. He knew that voice-why was it so small?
The large armored skeleton he knew to be a golden wolf walked towards them, body convulsing as he did so. The skeleton shrank as it approached, armor falling away and yellow bones becoming white and seamless, muscles and blood and skin covering them.
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Ganondorf was defeated with a roar and a crash. Fully consumed by the Triforce of Power, the Gerudo King collapsed amid the rubble of his own fortress, as the Sages finally did as they were supposed to-they used their power to drag him into the Sacred Realm and turn it into a prison.
He barely noticed any of it, holding his bleeding stomach with his hand, the Master Sword glowing a brilliant white as he choked on his own blood. He was terrified. Terrified he'd never uphold the promise he made all those years ago, terrified that Ganondorf truly wasn't defeated, terrified of death.
He may have appeared as an adult, but he was still a child.
"Link." The voice was not Navi's-the fairy had died in the initial blast of Ganondorf's power-but it sounded so familiar, so comforting…
"A Hero should always uphold his promises…"
He reached for the Master Sword's hilt.
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He was staring at himself, save younger, smaller. Dressed in a green tunic, blonde hair wild and dirty, he appeared no older than ten. A wooden instrument was clutched in the boy's hands.
"…i told you i would come back…I'm sorry it's taken so long, Skull Kid." The boy's voice grew stronger as he spoke, although he retained a spectral air.
"Link!" The child's eyes were large, confused, but pleased with this turn of events.
He felt Midna step back against him, and glanced away from the boy, hoping to comfort Midna despite his own confusion and fear.
"…I'm coming…" The boy murmured. Link suddenly felt a jolting sensation in his stomach, and looked down, shocked. Blood was soaking his tunic, a blood-covered hand pushing out of his flesh.
An arm pushed out, then a shoulder, and he finally screamed.
Midna cried out, but an agony more intense, more powerful, than anything he'd ever felt before drowned her out. Even Zant had not caused him such pain, even being forced into another body had not been so terrible.
He heard a tearing sound, another burst of agony, and then-
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Midna's hand shook as she pushed Link's blood-soaked hair off of his pale face. Behind her, the boy had already run off with the child.
They'd killed him.
She could barely wrap her mind around that fact. Link, her Hero, the only one who could ever have saved her people and his own….gone. Her savior, dead.
She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the image of his unseeing eyes, the sound of his screaming as the entity that had taught him so much killed him. The Hero of Time, her champion's teacher….betrayed both of them. Not only that—he'd betrayed all of Hyrule's inhabitants. All of those in the Twilight Realm.
Betrayal was not the only reason tears streamed so steadily down her cheeks.
Her gaze went to the Master Sword, lying beneath Link. Who would wield it now? Gently, she lifted Link up and pulled the Master Sword out from beneath him, her grief blinding her to the fact it allowed her to touch it.
A buzzing sensation flooded her, spreading to every inch of her body. A tremor ran down her spine, and she squeezed her eyes shut, raising a hand to her forehead.
When she felt hair, she froze.
Her eyes opened and she stared at herself in the Master Sword's blade, shocked to find Zant's curse shattered. Again, her eyes went to Link, and she allowed herself to drop the blade and weep over his body. If this was the price to regain her true form, she would rather remain an imp for the rest of her life.
Anything but….this.
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He followed Skull Kid into the depths of the Sacred Grove, laughing freely for the first time in…ages. She'd been right—she'd let him keep his promise!
They'd play as they had during his childhood, forgetting all but their games.
The Silver Reincarnation, the shade that had chosen to take his place as Hero after he'd forsaken his role, should not have chosen to forget. But it was a good thing the Silver One had, otherwise he'd never have the chance to fulfill his promise.
He was no longer a Hero.
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Midna kissed Link's forehead once, grasped the hilt of his blade, and stood.
Hyrule and the Twilight Realm were still in need of a Hero.
Perhaps a Heroine would suffice.
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So. Yeah. Wrote this a while back for a friend of mine, found it and edited it a bit. Changed the title, a little bit of the content. I suppose you could see Skull Kid x OoT Link, if you wanted, but this isn't intended to ship anyone. LOL Hope you enjoy it, in any case.