Who else is infinitely glad it's Friday? Welcome back! (I'm going to see Dr. Strange tonight, so no spoilers!)

And a side note: This chapter is a little more graphic than the ones beforehand, so you may want to read with caution if you're squeamish. Just a heads-up :)

Read on!

Link had been to swamps before. It wasn't his first rodeo with rotting wood, mossy water and that goddesses-awful stench of eau de moldering dead scaly creatures. But this swamp had to be the worst of all of them.

First came the bones.

The skull was massive, as long as Link's forearm, perched on a bent tree stump like a menacing sign. Empty eye sockets bored into Link, the remains of some long-dead beast watching travelers with eerie caution. Kindel was careful to sidestep the tree – as best he could, seeing as he was practically wading in the swamp stink given his height.

"Kind of ominous, don't you think?" Kindel nodded to the bleached-white skull, shuddering slightly. "Wonder what did that thing in."

Link shuddered as well, remembering for a moment the massive Forest Golem from the last time he had visited a swamp. There weren't many pleasant memories.

The going had been pretty normal by Hero-of-the-goddess standards before Link's foot punched through a Hylian ribcage. The slime on the surface of the water cleared to reveal a grinning skull staring up at Link, hands clenched together in the image of prayer. Yelping with surprise, Link stumbled backwards, taking half of the skeleton with him as he fell, and bones flew through the air as he fell into the water. Kindel narrowly dodged a metacarpal bone, ducking behind a bush as the white fragments splashed into the water.

"Who was that?" Link gasped, shaking his foot to free it from the crushed ribcage.

"I don't think I want to know." Kindel groaned from his hiding place, sounding ill. Link didn't blame him – if he ended up overthrowing Gangstadorf like the whole world seemed so keen on his doing, his first movement would be to annihilate every swamp in Hyrule.

"Do you think it's possible to annihilate every swamp in Hyrule?" He asked Kindel.

"I wish I could," Kindel grumbled, brushing muddy mulch from his shoulders.

The further they progressed into the swamp the darker and darker it became. Parts of the ground were raised, allowing fairly easy passage between the thickly clustered trees, while others required Link and Kindel to wade through feet of rancid water the consistency of pudding. Really it was Link wading; Kindel was getting his fair share of swimming in and didn't seem too happy about it. It didn't take Link long to realize that Moruge swamp was no ordinary swamp, though.

The bones appeared more and more frequently, until Link became used to seeing them. Half-formed skeletons of odd creatures protruded from the ground, peeking with eyeless sockets at the two as they passed. Fingers and toes sowed the ground like seeds, poking at Link's boots when he walked, and once Kindel was blocked by a giant femur the size of a house. The bone had been hollowed and gnawed at until it barely resembled its original shape, and a scurrying echoed from the inside of the cubbyholes and tunnels that freckled its surface.

"Kindel?" Link ventured, stepping carefully over a fallen log.

"Yeah?"

"All of these bones here... Something in the swamp must have killed them, right?"

"Look at you, quite the optimist." Kindel growled, sounding as though he was steeling himself. "Why can't the silent realms be somewhere nice and sunny? Maybe a tropical island? Warm sand under your feet, the sun beating down, with a significant lack of dead people and rotting things and ghosts."

Link froze, mid-way over the collapsed bones of what appeared to be an ancient Lizalfos. "Wait a second. Ghosts?"

Kindel paled, turning to Link. "You mean you don't see them?"

"Very funny. Yeah, that's rich." Link rolled his eyes, stepping over the Lizalfos. A gleaming bronze shield shone from the muddy ground, left over from its dead master. Waiting until Kindel wasn't looking, Link reached down and wrenched the shield from the ground. It was Korok sized, and he placed it in Zelda's pouch for later.

"Link, I'm serious." Kindel called, a few paces behind.

"And I'm Gangstadorf. Look, Kindel, if you wanted to be –"

"Look! Dead ahead!" The Korok raised a trembling hand, pointing at a space over Link's shoulder. "Look, between those trees! No. It's magic, it's a mirage. It can't be."

Ducking under a low-hanging branch, Link peered through a fork in the trees, squinting to make out the forms of any supernatural being. "I dunno, I don't see anything. Are you sure it wasn't your imagination? You haven't been drinking, have you?"

"Ugh, shut up."

"Because if you've been hitting the hard stuff –"

"Shut up, Link!" It was a barking command, and Link whirled at the sound of Kindel's seething voice. The Korok seemed absolutely furious, balled fists trembling with rage. Raising his hands, Link backed away a step.

"Okay, point made. I'll shut up."

Kindel didn't respond, merely stormed past Link and foraged deeper into the swamp. Still puzzling over Kindel's sudden change of mood, Link followed.

The swamp only seemed to grow stranger as Link wandered on. Phantom lights popped up beyond the twisted boughs of the trees, glowing a vibrant red in the darkening hues of the oncoming night. Sunbursts of crimson and orange beckoned to Link as he walked, but he forced himself to stay on a straight course to the center of the swamp, trailing after Kindel as he hiked. The roots of the trees splayed out further, greedily gripping at chunks of the earth with wrinkled hands. If Link's eyes weren't deceiving him the roots appeared to move, writhing subtly and slithering in and out of sight as he passed. One root even snaked around his ankles, and he beat it back with the hilt of the Master Sword. The silence was deafening, punctuated by eerie hisses and wails from deep within the swamp.

A flicker of white flashed at the edge of Link's vision and he saw what appeared to be a curl of smoke darting through the trees. It wove closer and closer to him, with fluid motions all too natural to be mere mist, and his heart leaped to his throat when he saw what – or rather, who – it was.

Zelda stood before him, one hand pressed against the bark of a leaning tree. Her hair was disheveled, the short strands flying about her head in a sort of halo, and her dress was torn and fraying at the hems. Streaks of dirt peppered her hair and skin, but to Link she had never looked more beautiful.

He was frozen where he stood, absolutely unprepared for what he was seeing. Zelda, standing before him, unharmed. All at once the air was too thin and he was stumbling forward, leaping over trees and streams to reach her...

His hand rested on the leaning tree where Zelda had paused moments before, but her figure now stood mere yards away. With a rustle of her torn dress she turned, casting him the barest of smiles over her shoulder, and darted away through the trees. Link was about to chase after her when Kindel kicked him sharply in the shins.

"Hey! Did you see her? She was just..." The euphoria in Link's chest deflated when reality set in. "Shit. Now I'm the idiot."

"It wasn't too hard to guess who you were chasing after, lover boy." Kindel replied grimly. "Come on, we can't be much farther."

Link was torn as Kindel directed him back to the path, glancing over his shoulder to see if any wisp of the phantom still remained. It had been so real, perfectly matching each of Zelda's features. For a moment it had seemed like it truly was her...

Shaking his head, he cleared the thoughts of Zelda out of his mind. Zelda was gone, and he was wasting time wandering off. Time that she spent in the clutches of Gangstadorf, no less. Cursing himself, Link hurried back onto the path and after Kindel, keeping his eyes on his boots and not on the flickering lights that teased at his vision, brilliant blooms of red like candlelight.

The next Lizalfos Link stumbled across seemed much fresher than the first one. Tattered bits of skin and flaking muscle clung to the bones, and the foul stench that emanated from the corpse nearly made Link gag. A horde of maggots crept over the Lizafos' flesh, burrowing under the peeling skin. The one body wasn't all, though. Link peered into the darkness to see more corpses propped against trees, half-submerged in the water. The smell made Link's eyes water and he forced himself to breathe through his mouth and control his stomach.

"Well, this is pleasant." Kindel swore, hopping over the shredded leg of what Link guessed to be a Hylian. "This is just great. I get to ferry the Hero around and hang out with mausoleum rejects, who are decaying over my best outfit. Wonderful. Absolutely peachy."

Link started to wade through a small recess in the ground, leaping back when his boot made contact with a form underwater. The shape surfaced to reveal a moldering skull, the back of which had been bashed in by some blunt object. Link quickly stepped out of the water, controlling the urge to be violently sick over the nearby shrubbery.

"What is this place?" Kindel asked, voice thick with disgust and loathing.

"Your guess is as good as mine, pal." Link replied weakly, fixing his eyes on the trees, which were thankfully body-free.

There was a faint shift in the air, a sharp breeze that cut through Link's clothes and chilled him to the core. One by one the phantom lights that had been tailing Link and Kindel winked out, plunging the swamp into near darkness. Only Link's sloshing footsteps sounded above the distant wail of the wind, setting Link's hair on end. He stepped forward cautiously, holding the Master Sword before him.

"I don't like this, Kindel. I think there's something going on here." He muttered, edging forward inch by inch

"You think I'm having the time of my life?" Kindel replied, the edge in his voice returning. The Korok slowly sidled closer to Link, though, illuminated in the faint glow of the Master Sword's blade. "Look, the trees spread out more up ahead. I bet that's where the silent realm is."

The denseness of the woods certainly lessened as Link stepped forward, the ground sloping beneath his feet in a bowl shape until he was submerged up to his thighs in the foul water. Kindel picked his way across the surface of the scum by leaping from tree to tree with liberal use of magic. They were making fair progress across the lake when the green light came.

At first Link thought it was a sign he had reached the silent realm, and he released a long sigh of relief. An emerald sunburst bloomed from beneath the water, illuminating the thick roots and mystery chunks floating in the water – and the strange figures rising from the deep.

Link was still rattled from his run-in with phantom Zelda. A thousand emotions collided within him like jewels in a kaleidoscope, and he was still confused when the first bony hand gripped his ankle.

For an undead creature the thing was incredibly strong, and Link downed about a gallon of swamp sewage when he was pulled below the surface of the water. Emerald light pulsed behind his eyelids as legions of the strange shapes rose from the murky bottom of the lake, shadows in the dim underwater light. With a mighty kick Link freed himself from the grip of his captor and searched for the source of the attack. The dragon's scale glowed faintly beneath his shirt, providing the smallest flash of light in the misty darkness.

The bottom of the lake was filled with some sort of amphibious weed that plunged from the mud, forming a veritable forest of kelp-like plants. Drawing the Master Sword, Link pushed aside a handful of the stuff and stepped forward into the darkness. The plants glowed green with the alien light as he progressed forward, searching for the shapes that had disappeared as quickly as they had come.

He didn't have to search long – when he turned around one of the wraiths stood directly behind him. Link jumped and yelped with surprise, jabbing the Master Sword forward, and the blade slid neatly between the creature's skeletal ribs. Its bulbous head tilted to the side as if confused, stringy hair floating about its head. Jaundiced, pupilless eyes stared at Link as it bared its teeth in a grimacing smile, revealing stubby teeth and sharp canine fangs sharpened to points. The creature raised its hands and clutched Link's skull tightly, its nails digging into his scalp, and the emerald world dissolved in a gust of smoke.

It was like the Forest Golem all over again, as the creature burrowed its way into his mind, dug into his consciousness with sharp-tipped claws. Link tried to struggle, to somehow free himself from the thing's grip, but with every second his ties to reality were growing thinner and thinner... The thick, reeking scent of the swamp was replaced with the acrid smell of something far sharper, and the cool recesses of the lake became licked with flame.

To Link the world was cold, a wash of horror spreading over him that froze him in his tracks and scrubbed his mind blank with pure terror.

No. Anything but that night.

The more he struggled the sharper the pain in his mind became until it felt as if the creature was smiting his forehead with a battleax. The burrowing heat grew deeper and deeper until it pulsed at the core of his heart, burned and singed and devoured hungrily. Edges of black crept at Link's fading vision, flecked with red and orange and the greedy tongues of flame. The muddy ground of the lake faded to cool cobblestones and Link once more tried to pull himself away, but the creature held him fast.

And the world changed altogether.

It was Castle Town, but a form of Castle Town he had long since forgotten. The building seemed more imposing, taller, with their apexes scraping the sky like great mountains. The midnight air was pitch-black, and a sharp wind in the air bit through Link's thin garments. Garments that had been meticulously patched and sewn, Link noted as he looked down. His feet were bare on the stones of the streets, dirty from the filth that seemed to lurk in every nook and cranny of that old neighborhood. His home.

A firestorm erupted from the building to his right, an explosion that knocked him from his feet and into the side of a nearby car. The wailing alarm mixed with the chorus of screams that started to rise, mingled with the heavy stench of smoke that thickened in Link's lungs and sneaked through the narrow streets like a snake. Already the blaze was racing up the siding of the apartments, a web of searing heat that pressed down on Link at all angles. Against all reason he darted back into the house, scrambling through the rooms in search of something, anything that could rescue them. The suffocating heat nearly choked him as he pressed on, charging through doors and crying out their names.

"Link! It's not safe here!" A voice called from the far room, and a powerful figure burst through the doors, grabbing his arm and dragging him back to the door. "Go back to the street! I'll come with your mother!"

Link fell limp in the man's arms with shock and terror, tilting his head up to get a look at the man's face, but it was obscured by smoke and blurred tears. "Go!" The man – his father – barked, and Link twisted on his heels, running back to the doorway. He placed a hand on the wood and looked back at the apartment, the only home he had ever known, slowly filling with blackened smoke and the smothering heat of the fire. He didn't know what made him pause there, staring after his father as his figure mingled with the smoke, fading out of sight.

A hand was on his back, shoving him back to the street as a plume of fire burst from a window, scattering molten-hot glass onto the sidewalk. The screams mingled in deafening harmony as the now-homeless fled from the burning building, clutching their wounds and crying the names of their parents, spouses, and children. The symphony of despair shattered in Link's eardrums as he was tugged away from the door, shoved back to safety as the column of smoke spiraled higher and higher into the sky. Higher than any of the skyscrapers, right up to the goddesses in the heavens Link had heard so much about.

Where were the goddesses now? The childish question rang true in his mind as he watched the embers leap and blaze. Where were his parents?

The support beams of the apartments started to groan and buckle, too damaged by the fire to bear their load. Link knew what happened next, but he kept his eyes trained on the apartments as the swaths of flame stretched across the rooftops, searing into the wood from top to bottom. Nothing was spared, every girder and pillar and window giving way under the monumental heat. The temperature of the street had reached a broiling intensity and the tires of cars started to burst with the swelling heat.

The telltale crack echoed in Link's mind as it did so often in his memories. The shift of the roof as it caved, the building seeming to warble on its foundation as it shifted left, then right, deep cracks splitting the beams as it began to crumble and fall. Link was screaming their names now, but all sound was deaf to him save a ringing that reverberated in his skull on and on and on...

In a moment it was over. The walls folded, the upper floors collapsing onto the lower ones, magnificent destruction. Perhaps the screams rang even louder, or perhaps they stopped. Link didn't know. He only knew the pounding of his feet against the cobblestones, the arms of strangers yanking him back as he launched himself towards the rubble. They didn't understand – his father and mother were in there, they were in there when the building fell. Somehow they were still alive, somehow he would save them. Trauma, shock and a slew of chemicals boiled in his brain as he watched, falling limp as the plume of smoke erupted from the debris.

With a clap of thunder it began to rain, explosion upon explosion, thundering in his brain matter. The flames weren't dissuaded by the downpour, seeming to rise ever higher as they licked at the sky, as is begging the goddesses for more victims.

Link did the only thing he could ever do – he tore himself away from the strangers and he ran. Dodging into an alley, swiping the tears away from his eyes with child-sized fists, gulping back the tears of lost innocence. And as he pulled himself up, straightening ever so slightly, he looked up to see a sight that had been buried in his memories before, lost in the mass of sorrow and fear and searing anger.

A dark figure stood, clothes snapping in the wind and dripping with the sudden rain. He stood powerfully built against the sky, a solid frame silhouetted against the angry red of the flames, the flickering heat of the dying fire. A hood hunched over his face, but Link was able to make out the barest trace of features under the shadows. Eyes as sharp as the blade of a knife, a wide-stretched smile Link had grown to know so well.

The figure looked down at Link almost sympathetically, spared him the barest of smiles. After admiring his handiwork for a moment longer, he turned on his heel sharply and stalked away, disappearing into the night.

Rage like never before filled Link and he screamed like a wounded animal, his vocal cords straining as he lunged after the figure with every intent to murder. The vision jolted back into reality as a golden light seared Link's eyes, too bright for him to look at directly. The golden power from the Triforce repelled the creature latched onto his skull, and Link allowed the power to take over, guiding his movements as he lunged forward with the Master Sword held at ready.

It was fighting as Link had never experienced before, with the Master Sword less of a weapon and more an extension of his body. It responded to every whim, and he felt as it he could command it with a mere thought. He forced his way through the body of wraiths, cutting them down easily, and not a single beast could raise a sword to defend themselves against his wrath. Blood tainted the water crimson – whether it was his or the wraiths', he didn't care. His eyes were only on the next opponent, the next charge. Bones broke under his blows, blood poured like fountains as he tore through the masses. Link kept slashing and stabbing until everything under his feet was dead and then some, brutally mutilated by the Master Sword's blade.

Adrenaline pounded at his head, his heart, filling his chest with the tempo of battle, but this battle was done. Slowly he pulled himself up from the lake, dragging his limbs out of the water and onto the bank of the swamp, where he thrust the Master Sword into the mud and waited. The chirp of crickets croaked somewhere in the distance, mingled with the trembling leaves of the trees. Peace after the storm, Link supposed.

As Link leaned his head back to the sky, he made a solemn swear upon every star that burned there.

"I'm going to kill him. I'm going to make him bleed."

so we FINALLY FIND OUT SOME BACKSTORY

Reviews, favorites and follows go to: What do you think about Link's promise? What could possibly happen next? I'm all ears.

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time!