Millions and millions of stars. I dreamed about them that night. I was bodiless, floating in the universe, part of it. A sense of belonging gripped me through that dream. That I could dream at all...
Did a person every dream inside of a dream? I didn't have an answer. Couldn't remember one. But in case, I woke in that same world I'd fallen asleep in.
The comfortable bed in the loft, smelling like home.
Now, was I really going to just follow some storyline? What's the point of my being here? I've observed the story already, countless times. I want to be something, someone. Yesterday, I couldn't explain the reality of my predicament, but I could still change things. I'm a part of this world now. I don't plan to live through this world sitting down.
I hopped up out of bed and confidently made my way down the ladder. I had no idea how I'd gotten to this world and no idea if I wanted to get out. The fact that I hadn't the slightest clue how to return to my world made my second wondering irrelevent.
I changed clothes, wearing what was probably one of Link's only other sets, and washed my face in this basin with fresh water gathered from the outside stream, running near enough to the house. I filled the basin to wash in tomorrow as well – if I was still going to be here tomorrow.
So far, things had gone as they had in the game. I had no reason to believe they would go otherwise in the future. The only differences I could notice were more detail, more realism, more depth.
I felt my face carefully with my hands as I washed it. There wasn't the slightest trace of stubble or unevenness. Would I grow a beard? Perhaps Link never grew facial hair. He certainly didn't all through the game – but game-Link didn't have to use the restroom either.
It was still early enough in the morning. I always woke early – my own tendency, not Link's, despite how these things had overlapped.
I had no desire to have a run-in with the village children.
Taking care of morning business – well, still embarrassing and awkward, a little bit, but better. I would be used to it, soon enough, though I doubted I'd ever stand. Would not think of it. Ah, whatever, soon that would not even be noteworthy.
As I walked towards the village with determination in my step, I thought about myself. I'm a very introspective person.
This sudden gender disparity wasn't effecting me as much as maybe it should be. Maybe I hadn't experienced enough of it to feel strange. I'm a feminine enough girl – I braid my hair, wear a little gloss on my lips, love the breeze-y, light feeling of skirts. Most of my friends are female. I have no aversion to pink, though it isn't my favourite.
Yet, aside from the situation of the pipes, there wasn't anything odd to me about this. It felt so normal to be so male. That I didn't feel anything wrong, that was a wrong feeling. Like guilt over not feeling guilt.
"Morning, Fado!" I called to him, seeing him exiting his home.
"My, you're up early, aren't you, Link!" He called back.
"Yep! Going to get some work done today. I'll be leaving for that journey soon enough, you know." I said.
Fado nodded and waved, "Come by later, then, and help me put the goats away before dark!"
Fado left on his own way, presumably to release the goats from their barn to graze throughout the day.
"Good morning, Uli," I said, going out of my way to speak with her, "You look worried, what's wrong?"
"Ah, Link," She said, looking to me from whatever far off vision she was having, "You have not seen a cradle come floating by here, have you? It is a baby's cradle made of finely woven tree bark... I made that cradle when my first child was born, and I have cherished it all these years..."
"And it floated off somewhere down the river?" I asked.
"Oh, yes." She said. She seemed a little surprised, but it wasn't too far a jump for me to reach that conclusion.
She explained how she had lost it. I told her, straightforwardly, that I would find it and bring it back and wouldn't hear of her not troubling me.
Off to the main part of the 'river', then. A creek, really. It widened into a proper river later on.
The early sun sparkled on the water, gently flowing downstream. There was a wide river basic seen in the distance.
I wondered...
There was magic in this world, wasn't there? Was hawk grass working as it did in game a possibility? There was no shame in trying it.
I wander a little farther down the river, til I found some growing on a rock. Now, it wasn't shaped exactly like the hawk grass I'd been expecting. Certainly didn't have a clear bird shape growing in it – would be a bit silly if it did, wouldn't it? But, somehow, I knew exactly how to fold it to make it whistle when I pressed it to my lips. It was a loud, clear, melodic sound. Instinct aided me again.
I stuck out my arm, a little awardly. Was this the way to do it?
I saw a bird, which was flying high overhead in its hunt, swoop over and down towards me. Incredible. It was huge, with wide, majestic wings and small, piercing eyes.
"H-hello." I said to it.
I didn't expect any response, but still received one. The hawk nodded, or bowed its head to me. It seemed to have some dark intelligence. It was a wild creature, sure, but a noble one, and it knew me. Or knew Link.
"Help me out, a little bit?" I went on, "A hand-woven cradle has disappeared down this river. Could you fetch it?"
The hawk nodded, very clearly this time and looked ahead. I angeled my arm, instinctively, for its take-off, and the beautiful creature flew down river.
Now, could everyone do that? Or was Link special?
He had the heart of a beast, right?
Did I too, then?
Soon, the hawk reappeared in my vision. It was carrying that cradle! Amazing!
"Ah!" I cried out, lifting my hands to catch it as the hawk dropped it mid-flight.
"Thank you!" I shouted after it, before turning quickly and running back to the village.
I delivered the cradle to Uli, who presented me with the fishing rob Colin had made.
"Thank you," I said, "And please, pass my thanks on to your son."
Time to talk to Sera, though, it wasn't strictly necessary.
"...Oh, my... It's young Link...Welcome, m'dear. You... You didn't happen to see my little cat out there, did you? He ate the fish we were going to have for supper last night, and I gave him a good scolding... but then he went out and hasn't returned... I'm so fraught with worry for him... I've exhausted myself..."
"I see," I said, "Don't worry, then, Sera, I'll find him. Perhaps he is trying to catch his own fish?"
"Hm?" She asked, "Why would you think that? Though, maybe..."
No time to waste! I am getting things done here so I can move on!
Fishing. Well, I know the concept of it pretty well. I've read enough novels with fishing in them, haven't I?
Ah, bait. Bait, bait, bait, where would I get some bait.
Bee larva! I spotted Hanch observing the hive where he intended to acquire that present to give to Sera to make her happy again.
"Hey, Hanch!" I called out behind him.
"Huh? Oh! Sorry! Sorry! Didn't realize it was you, Link. I was thinking maybe I could knock it down that hive by throwing rocks at it... But, of course, it's so high up... It makes that pretty hard to do..."
"Go for it," I said, "You don't know until you try."
Was it bad of me to say that? I knew what was about to happen, even stepped away from the man.
He lobbed his rock and it hit the hive dead center, splintering it apart and driving larges parts of the hive to the ground far beneath the tree. As expected, for me anyway, bees flew from the remains on the tree and from the ruins on the ground to give chase.
Hanch flew for the water and I made my way immediately to the hive bits of the ground.
Jackpot. I've got larva.
Oh, god, it's so gross.
I put it in my empty rupee pouch, stashing the rupees in a pocket, so I didn't have to touch the squirming half-formed bees. Got stung once. I had no allergies that I knew of, so it wasn't such a great fright, but it hurt and was sure to irritate my arm.
I picked out a large-looking larvae. White, squirming, slimy, and stabbed the end of the hook through it. I'm squemish, true, but not too squemish to avoid doing what I feel needs to be done. I've never killed anything more than spiders and roaches before, but I'm a meat-eater, so I don't object to it. I'd rather have someone else do the dirty work, but if I need to, I'm sure I have the ability to do what I need to. A single bee larva? That wasn't about to intimidate me.
Sera's cat had found me. It was watching. I love cats, even if they are cute little thieves.
"Puss, puss, puss," I called, clicking my tongue at it, "I'm going to catch a fish for you, if you will be nice and go home. Sera worries so much about you, don't you know? Puss, puss, puss!"
Like playing with a toy on a string, I swung the line back, then forward into the water. The bobber landed with a gentle splash, sending ripples through the calm section of the creek I'd chosen to fish at.
A buzzing insect flew about my face and irritated me for a time, but after that, the act of fishing was relaxing.
For the first three larvae and the first two spots, I caught nothing. Three spot's the charm!
The bobber dipped below the surface, indicating to me that the time was right. I could not see the fish that had caught the thin metal hook to drag the bobber beneath the surface, so the piece of floating wood was my only indication. I pulled back in a smooth, even motion – no reel on this fishing pole, so I half-walked backwards, pulling up – then, near the edge of the water still, I yanked.
A fish! A beautiful, gorgeous fish!
Flopping around, injured and bloody by the hook, dying of lack of air outside of the water. The creature was suffering – I did not intend to let it continue in that way. Poor creature, well, it would be eaten soon enough
"Wait," I told the cat, who dashed forward when I'd caught the fish, "Let me take the hook out and..."
I had no knife on hand to end its suffering that way – the cat scooped up the fish, clear of the hook, and took it away, heading back towards Sera's. I followed it, as it struggled with the heavy fish in its small jaws.
"What, no thank you?" I called out to it.
I swear, I saw it twitch its tail like it was haughty.
Those animals. It made me smile. Gotta love them, don't you?
I strode inside Sera's, looking, well, maybe a little bit smug. The shop-woman looked up at me, but before she could say a word, she was distracted.
Almost instantly after me, the cat high-tailed it through its little cat door.
"Aw!" She cried out, almost cute.
I gave her a moment to be reunited with her cat, then smiled at her and moved forward.
"He's a good boy, isn't he?" I said, "Just hungry for fish again."
"Ah, yes, he is. Oh, Link, you are too, young lad! Thank you! You did this, didn't you? You found him!"
"Ah, well," Honestly, I was only pretending at modesty. I felt pretty happy with myself, catching my first fish so fast.
"Well, I know what you're in here for," She said, smiling slyly, "Another bottle of preserved milk, isn't that right?"
Preserved?
"Yep!" I said, "You know me, love the stuff!"
She laughed and told me it was on the house today.
"Fantastic," I said, "Thank you. Say, I heard you were selling a slingshot..."
"Those boys told you all about that, didn't they?"
Well, they sort of did. Not in this world, in person.
"I'd like to purchase it," I said.
She reprimanded me lightly, being too old for toys, but let me buy the slingshot with some of – Link's? My? - rupees.
That done... what now? Ah, help Fado. He'd said so this morning. Slightly different from the game, wasn't that... I must have changed things!
Great day, fabulous day. I sprinted to my home for Epona. To run like this – this definitely isn't my body. It feels so good, I feel so free. My breath still came heavily, but my muscles did not burn. My body, this body, was used to exertion. In fact, though I was out of breath, my body almost yearned for more exercise. To sit idle, playing games all day... I felt like Link's body would not like that as much as mine did.
I climbed astride Epona and had her hurry through the village with me. No time to talk or observe the beauty! No sniffing roses! I wanted to get things done.
Of course, I had some thinking to do as well. Clearly, I couldn't tell anyone who I really was or where I'd come from. I'd really, really tried. If I couldn't tell them that, they probably wouldn't believe me if I told them about what would happen in the future. Honestly, I might not even be able to.
So I'd have to find a trickier way to keep the children and Ilia from being kidnapped, keep myself from being wolf-ified. I could do better than save this world. I could prevent harm and unhappiness to the people in it. I was more than Link, I was Link with future knowledge. I loved this game, almost most Zelda games. I could do this!
Would I go home if I 'beat the game'? Well, maybe I didn't care.
I finished my work, putting the goats away, and Fado sent me off with gleeful thanks.
Well, now, I was finally free for a little while. No game 'duties'. I had the equipment I was supposed to at this point and I had the chores the villagers might want me to take care of taken care of. Well, I could head into the woods a ways, maybe try and get that lantern. After all, though in the game I was blocked by gates, in this world, I could climb over them. No piece of landscape could stop me anymore.
Once, I used the boomerang glitch to get on top of the rooftop at Snowpeak so I could look around at the blank backs of the buildings. I'd thought that pretty impressive at the time. Boomerang glitch to a place I wasn't 'supposed' to be. But I didn't really need that anymore, did I? I could climb now, really climb. Walls weren't flat anymore, they had texture, there were places where I could grip.
I wondered if I could, in this world, do the early master sword glitch. Not exactly a glitch in this world, huh? But could I just make my way through the thick parts of the wood and find it? Or find other things? I could take things I might find useful, in the deserted Eldin houses, everywhere no one else needed them. Maybe even talk to people about my true quest, get them to help me. In this world, where there weren't necessary but arbitrary rules in place, my possibilities were endless.
I deposited Epona at home to rest and feed and walked past, into the forest, past Ordon Spring, through the woods to that locked gate. Past that point wasn't Ordon territory anymore, was it? It was Faron. Not Twilight yet, however, which was fortunate.
The endless pit you exited by wasn't so endless here. It was a sort of ravine through the land, my path somewhat cut into the rock. I could see the bottom of this, rocky, a little bit of water pooled. Not too far off. Yet somehow, that was more nerve-wracking than the bottomless pit might have been. It reminded me that it was real.
I knew that I could be hurt here. I'd pinched myself earlier. If I fell down that ravine, it would certainly hurt quite a lot. And the bridge looked terribly rickety.
I actually thought about going back.
It was a stupid, half a second thought.
A bridge? A bridge scared me? I would face far more frightening things on this adventure than an old bridge. If I didn't get over fear now, when would I?
I stepped forward, confidently and quickly. It didn't collapse under my feet. It was probably decades old or older. It had stood the test of time, of many feet over it. It wasn't going to give way now.
I scurried across it none-the-less and took a deep breath on the other side.
Right, into the woods. I was after a lantern.
It was quite a journey and took me quite some time. The path was still well-marked, thank goodness, but the woods were wide and unfamiliar. There were many more trees than I might have expected. Sounds silly, to not expect the woods to have so many trees. The game Faron didn't. It had more the hint of trees, the idea of them. The outside walls of the place were painted on. False trees, to make you believe you were in a much larger place than you were. This place didn't have those kinds of space limits. True, real trees, stretched on as far as the eye could see.
I found Coro eventually, near where I could spot Faron Spring. The fresh water from that place was probably important for him to live here.
"Afternoon!" I called as I pushed through the brush to spot him.
He seemed a little startled and jumped a bit when I spoke.
"Whoa! An Ordonian! Hey, guy!" He said.
"Hey... guy." I replied.
He gave me a look up and down. Clearly, he was searching me for something. I didn't have much on me, it was true. I'd left the fishing rod and slingshot back at home. That was just about all the equipment I had at the point.
"Listen, I'm not sure you should be wandering around the woods without a
lantern." He told me, "Just because it's daylight doesn't mean it's safe. There are a ton of caves and dank spots around here that get pretty dark even in the middle of the day."
"Oh, really?" I said, "Sorry I don't spend a lot of time around here. I can't afford a lantern. I'll be fine, don't you think?"
He shook his head, "Here! Go on, guy. Take this!"
'This', of course, was the lantern.
"See, I sell lantern oil here... I'm trying to drum up sales by giving away free lanterns! It's a business tactic, guy!
"See, as long as you've got oil to fuel your lantern, you can light your way and
set fire to stuff. They're the best!"
"Wow, thank you!" I said, as if truly surprised, "I appreciate that."
He didn't ask me to light a fire beneath his logs, though they were not burning. I suppose the real world does not need basic item use tutorials.
Would I run into the Hero Shade at all?
Who knows. For now, I needed to get back. The forest was much large than I expected it to be, and unlike the game world, time didn't only pass with progression. I didn't want to be walking around the forest after dark, wasting lantern fuel and risking a run-in with mobs.
The children weren't present once I arrived, as I'd been hoping. No one was running off after monkeys and getting themselves kidnapped by monsters tonight.
…though, I also had to remember that things might still happen even if I wasn't there to watch them. For now, I was probably safe, but it was something else to keep in mind.
Rusl had dropped off the wooden sword, minus stylish large chest, while I'd been away. I wondered...
I took the blade in my hand and gave it a few pratice swings in the air. Hmm. Aside from my being stronger, I didn't notice any real difference than what my... what, real body would have done? Jeez, deciding which world was real was a little confusing. There was the game world, this world, the 'real' world... but this world could be called the game world in relation to the 'real' world and it could be called the 'real' world in relative to the game world.
Ugh, it was making my head hurt. I needed better descriptions, but for the moment, couldn't think of any.
I swung again a few more times. It felt kind of stupid. I didn't know what I was doing. Could I really kill monsters with this?
I closed my eyes and tried to picture it. I wasn't really getting anything, except...
There was some whisper, like a memory, at the edge of my mind. I tried to reach for it, but it escaped my grasp, until I was frustrated and put down the wooden blade.
Whatever.
I climbed up to the loft to sleep.
And I had a dream that night. There it was, the memory that escaped me.
I felt differently. I was thinking differently, sort of. I was still me, but I was someone else too. Link, I realized. That was the most logical conclusion. Link's memories, trapped in my mind?
Was Link in here somewhere?
I saw myself riding Epona away into the woods. It was silent, aside from her hoofsteps. Eerie. I wore my Ordon clothes. There were supplies in Epona's saddle. I simply knew that, somehow.
I went to a cave – I knew this cave, both of us did. This was in Faron wood somewhere. Epona was left here. I took a bow.
This wasn't the heroes bow. It was just a bow, looked handmade, as if my one of the villagers. I knew, again not knowing how, that Rusl and I had made it together.
I wandered away, deeper, deeper still into the woods.
That cave must have been – yes, it was – my home away from home. My part way residence, like a hunting cabin. I was a hunter, I was sure of it now.
Silently, I moved.
I found it. My prey.
I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't look away, couldn't close my eyes, couldn't move, because this wasn't really happening, it was a memory and a dream.
Gently, silently, a knocked an arrow to the bow. I took aim before drawing the string. The deer, far from me, stood still as stone. It sensed my presence, yet did not know enough to move. It's ears twitched.
I pulled back in a single swift move and loosed the arrow. It flew straight and true to its target.
I wished that was the end. But one arrow did not fell this deer. It was frightened, weakened, bleeding, and confused. It took off, attempting an escape, but in its confusion, banged through the brush. Instantly, I was moving, up, off my feet, moving forward, but my hands still held the bow, readied another arrow, took another shot. I missed, but prepared again, shot again, and hit it again.
It fell. Still alive, but struggling in its injuries. Trying to stand.
I didn't shoot again. Why didn't I shoot again? I knew. I was going to it, drawing a knife from my belt.
Properly, I killed it.
And at that, the dream dissolved. I woke in the early morning, wet with sweat. It had been a memory of another person. I hadn't done that. Yet, I felt as if I did. City girl. I'd never killed a thing beyond cockroaches in my life.
Hadn't I told myself I could do it? That I wouldn't mind? It was for food, wasn't it? A necessary job, for sustenance, for money, for my village.
I felt sick anyway. After a long time, I felt asleep again.
