AYY CHAPTER FIFTY! *releases confetti*

This is seriously huge for me (and for you too!) because you've stuck with Remnants for FIFTY CHAPTERS!

Ignore me totally freaking out over here... Read on!

A scream split the calm of the night, sharp and brittle, breaking with fragments of pure fear. Terror and rage washed over the lake, rippling the water and rustling the souls that clung to the blood on Link's boots. He was on his feet in less than an instant, sword drawn. Again the power of the Triforce pumped through his veins, every sense sharpened. The world was thrown into harsh, detailed relief, every sight and sound laid bare before Link's eyes. It was easy for him to identify the source of the sound – Kindel.

As soon as he saw the Korok the adrenaline rushed out of Link's body. Kindel stood perched on the log like he had been before Link submerged, but his body was contorted with terror, limbs twisting away from the hands that reached forward from the water. It took Link a moment to realize that the wraiths reaching for Kindel were dead, drifting aimlessly in the water, but their power was still poisoning the Korok's mind. Leaping into the water, Link crossed the distance between him and the Korok, plunging the Master Sword between the wraiths' ribs for good measure, and kicked his way closer to the log. The water had already begun to reek of their foul, curdling blood.

"Kindel! Kindel, it's me!" He found a foothold on a root under the water and started to push himself up, but Kindel stumbled backwards. He released another strangled cry, utter panic cracking his voice. In the emerald light the pitted scars on Kindel's face stood in sharp relief. Link saw that Kindel recoiled as if in pain from the visions brought on by the wraiths.

"No!" Kindel cried, tears streaming down his face. Raw emotion tore at his voice, his motions, as he pulled himself further away from Link. His tiny frame was trembling uncontrollably, mingled with rage and fear. "Alder, no!"

Link paused, a stabbing feeling punching at his stomach. Of course the worst memory the wraiths scrounged up for Kindel was something he had caused. Anger seared at Link's heart and he pushed himself up, snatching Kindel's arm and pulling him back towards the water.

"Kindel, come on, it's just a vision. We need to go!" He barked, and Kindel fell limp on the log, shaking so hard that Link was hardly able to hold onto him. Guilt replaced his anger and he released Kindel, remembering the trauma of reliving that night from so long ago. He could only imagine what Kindel was going through. Even so, they had to move.

"Kindel!" He roared, splashing a handful of water in the Korok's face. Kindel gasped sharply, standing rigid on his perch, then sagged with exhaustion as the magic of the wraiths faded. His eyes met Link's now clearly focused, and they filled with black flames of hate.

"You!" Kindel screamed, lunging for Link's face, hands outstretched. "You killed him! You killed them all!"

Link was barely able to draw up his hands in time before Kindel clawed madly for his eyeballs, struggling against Link with every scrap of his might. A lancing pain jerked up Link's arm and warm blood tricked down his arm. Kindel just stabbed me! Clutched in the Korok's tiny fist was a shiv-like flint of rock, dappled red with blood. More annoyed than harmed, Link shoved Kindel back into the log and splashed him with water again, to no effect.

"I'm going to kill you!" Kindel boomed, and a percussive blast threw Link backwards to the bank of the lake, slamming him forcefully into the firm, sloping ground. As he recovered his breath Kindel summoned a gust of wind to propel himself across the lake and lobbed a green-tinted ball of flame at Link, which fell wide and exploded above Link's head. The sound was deafening and Link stumbled away, drawing his shield to deflect Kindel's next attack. He could tell the power of the wraiths was waning, though, as Kindel slowly lowered himself to the ground, and his attacks ceased altogether.

Link peeked out from behind the protection of his shield to see Kindel's small form crumpled on the ground, shaking. Still cautious, he edged forward a step, and Kindel responded by slamming his fist into the ground. Massive roots clawed their way out of the ground, churning the earth in a circle around Kindel, and Link hastily backtracked to avoid being swallowed by the twisting vines.

He understood that Kindel was still recovering from the wraith attack, but this was not the time for an existential crisis. Sheathing the Master Sword, he set his shield on the ground and held his hands up in surrender. Kindel's gaze was firmly fixed on the ground, but Link hoped he could appreciate the gesture.

"Kindel, I know you're upset."

A derisive snort sounded from the huddled form, pure malice. "Goddesses, I hate you sometimes. What a very Hero thing to say."

Indigence sparked inside of Link, but he forced his voice to remain calm. "I know that you've lost your friends, your family. I understand."

"Do you?" Kindel's head snapped upright, eyes burning into Link's. They were dark like black holes, the eyes of someone already lost. "Because of your blunders my entire race was annihilated. Do you know what it's like to have hot coals searing into your flesh? While the friends you've known and joked with for so long, the ones you told your secrets and fears, crumple to piles of ashes beside you? How you lose everything in one night? Because of some kid who thinks he can change things... It's a wonder I haven't killed you already." Kindel's eyes sharpened with malice, and Link's hands jumped up in an effort to keep Kindel's attacks at bay.

"No, stop. This isn't you, Kindel!"

"Is it?" He sneered. "You and this whole mission. Some age-old treasure hunt, two guys against an army. Don't even try to tell me the Resistance will back you up, we both know they were probably crushed by Gangstadorf."

"But the sleeper cells, the allies in Skyloft..."

"Bullshit!" Kindel screamed, vocal cords straining as the words burned into Link's ears. "Do you realize how utterly stupid you are? You think we can win this thing? You think you can go in with your little leaf parachute and your Hookshot and actually nick Gangstadorf? People much more powerful have tried, believe me. What makes you any better?"

Bullets lodged in Link's throat, his chest, his heart. Surely Kindel didn't mean what he was saying – but the words struck true. Was their mission really all in vain? Slowly he lowered himself to the ground, perched on his heels, and he met Kindel's gaze levelly.

"Kindel. You're upset and scared, and I get that. I can't pretend to understand your personal woes, and I can't just tell you to get over them. If our quest is truly as lost as you say it is, you can walk out now."

The words caused the desired effect in the Korok – his head leaped up with surprise. "Leave? Right now?"

"Yes." Link's eyes drilled into Kindel's, watching the hate slowly drain from them. "If it is in your best interest to leave me to my own way, I understand."

A motley of emotions swam over Kindel's expression: confusion, anger, vivid pain, and finally acceptance. He lowered his head and vanished the roots with a wave of his hand. "I will go with you on one condition."

Link certainly hadn't been expecting that. He was hoping Kindel would apologize profusely and take point again for the silent realm, nice and easy. "What's that?"

This time Kindel met Link's gaze evenly. "You need to tell me what you saw."

Immediately Link recoiled, pulling away from Kindel. The wounds were too fresh, reopened too vigorously by the wraiths. "No. Kindel, I won't."

"Some wise old guy once said our strength is in our weaknesses. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's only fair that I know what burdens you. Besides, you know as well as I do - you need me to help you along." It was easily the most curious conversation Link had ever conducted with the Korok, notably free of sarcasm. The sensation was strangely liberating, and Link let out a slow breath.

Why didn't he want Kindel to know about that night?

Maybe he didn't want the Korok to see him bleed.

"I was just a kid at the time. No one knows how the fire started, it was all a big mystery. Gas main, someone left the oven on, who knows?" Link laughed sharply, an acidic taste on his tongue. "We never had a lot of money – any money, actually – so our apartment was pretty cheap. It went up in minutes. Dad sent me outside, said he was going to get my mom. By the time I was safe the supports had burned through."

He paused, feeling the swell of emotions hot and raw in his throat. "We found their bodies a few days later. They made me identify my mother. I had to use her wedding ring." Bile burned at his stomach, but he forced it down and continued. He would not let Kindel see his weakness. He would never let anyone see. "Her hand was clutched in dad's. When the cops thought I wasn't looking one of them took the ring and put it in his pocket. I'm sure he sold it for a few rupees in the black market. You don't know how long I looked for that ring."

For a moment Link wondered if he was going to be sick – revealing the truth to Kindel tore away the layers of protection he had spent so long erecting, and the pain was too fresh. "With them gone I had to live on my own. When I was old enough to fight I earned some money in the arena, scraping by on winner's bonuses. You learn to fend for yourself after a while. Are you happy, Kindel? Is that what you wanted to know?"

The familiar anger was back, twisted with the agony stabbing at his heart. "Would you like me to go into vivid detail about their bodies when I found them? Or tell you the specific amount of terror and fear in the screams I heard? How I spend every day of my life wishing I had dragged my father out with me? And that's not even the worst part."

To Kindel's credit, he remained silent as Link continued. "I ran. I was just a kid, I didn't have anywhere to go. And there he stood in all his might, watching the fire and smiling."

It was a single tear, but it burned like lava, the stinging failure pressing at his chest. "Link, I –" Kindel began, stepping forward.

"No, Kindel, you don't get it. When you live on the streets you can't show weakness. Lie belly-up for one minute and they're on you with daggers drawn. Don't you see that?" He snapped, rounding on Kindel. "I've spent so long burying that night because I had to. Don't you get that?"

The Korok stepped forward, walking over the upturned earth until he stood before Link's knee. A slow burn spread across Link's arm and he watched the skin knit back together, the blood wiped away. "No, I don't get it. This is can heal." He pointed to Link's arm. "But that is up to you." His finger pointed to Link's heart.

"I guess we're both idiots, huh?" Link rocked back onto his heels, laughing shortly.

"Yeah, I guess we are." Kindel agreed. They both sat back and observed the calm of the lake for a moment. The bodies of the wraiths had fallen below the surface, giving the impression of a calm, harmless scene. The emerald light still warbled under the water, casting a green glow across the darkening sky.

Rising to his feet, Link brushed off his knees and surveyed the lake with renewed interest. "How much do you want to bet the silent realm's in that hellhole?"

"Weren't you the one complaining about money a while ago? A Rupoor, you miser." Kindel griped. Is was comforting to hear the Korok's usual sarcasm, but Link could detect that something had changed. An understanding, maybe.

He was still rattled after the wraith encounter and Kindel's outburst, and was certainly not in the mood to embark upon some daring and dangerous Guardian-filled quest. The green light seemed to beckon to him, though, and soon his boots were shuffling unwillingly down the bank.

"Link!" Kindel called after him, and Link glanced over his shoulder to see the Korok looking rather woeful. "For Hyrule, right?"

Of course, this whole this was much bigger than him. Hyrule didn't hinge on that one night, Hyrule didn't care how many of his fears were laid bare. Hyrule, and Zelda, for that matter, needed rescuing. And he was the only one to do it.

So why did he feel so reluctant?

The filthy water lapped up to his knees, his waist, then against the dragon scale hidden beneath his clothing. The scale illuminated with a faint blue glow, barely visible under the lake's scummy, blood-clouded surface, and Link took in a breath before he dove under.

The water smelled as repulsive as it looked, the metallic scent of wraith blood and about a thousand species of decaying animals to boot. Wrinkling his nose, Link released his breath and kicked his way deeper under the water, shoving aside tree-like fronds of slimy underwater plants. He nearly gave himself a heart attack when one of the fronds slid aside to reveal the paralyzed form of a dead wraith, stringy hair floating about its head like a halo and arms still poised to strike. Link watched the body out of the corner of his eye until it faded from sight, half expecting it to strike.

The emerald light turned out to be a brilliant beam that wove itself through the silty floor of the lake, forming intricate patterns with beads of glowing green. Link was able to bring himself to the bottom of the lake, feet swirling a coat of dead leaves and rotten wood around his ankles as he landed. In the light of the silent realm's beacon the underwater scene seemed eerily alien, everything sharply defined and shadowed, with an undulating landscape that never ceased to move. Of course, the silent realm couldn't be much better.

Drawing the Master Sword, Link held the blade before him. Its silvery glow reflected the jaded color beneath the water, each pinprick of light mirrored perfectly in its gleaming blade. Link rubbed a smear of wraith blood from the tip, a feeling of dread curdling in his stomach, and he raised the blade above his head, ready to strike.

With a sure motion the Master Sword sunk deep into the soft dirt beneath the lake, nearly up to the hilt, and a cold, rushing sensation filled Link as his spirit was drawn from his body and shifted to the silent realm.

The familiar blues of the landscape flashed behind Link's eyes as he shook his head with disorientation. Once he regained his bearings he opened his eyes in anticipation of what shape the silent realm would take this time – and stumbled backwards the next second, disgust and terror boiling within him.

He knew this place, the scene that burned in his mind with fresh, white-hot embers. Soaring tree trunks, blackened and burned until unrecognizable. Deep pitfalls where shells had dug into the earth, cloaking the forest in an inferno. The twisting, crude remains of bridges and banners, hanging limply from frayed strings.

And the bodies, preserved in their entirety in the silent realm. The fallen figures of Koroks, already degrading to the elements. He saw minuscule feet poking out beneath a heap of rubble, and the wailing face of a Korok screaming silently mere yards away. The world was frozen in a snapshot of fear and terror and death that shoved its way down Link's throat and choked him. Tears sprang to his eyes and he crouched over, emptying his stomach in the middle of the protective circle.

Link noticed the Guardians next, their straight-backed forms glowering down at him with a vengeance. Pairs of dulled red eyes shone from nooks in the tree branches, hidden behind piles of smoking wood and fallen trees. A Watcher hovered over a crater, perfectly illuminating the half-sphere of destruction carved into the earth.

The first tear was located mere yards away from the protective circle. It hovered where the main route between the trees began, stretching into darkness out of Link's view. Two Guardians flanked the entrance to the Forest Village, and Link tried to judge their distance from his location. A familiar seed of worry bloomed within his gut as he observed. The Guardians would reach the tear before he would, even if he was sprinting. He would have to evade them somehow.

The low groaning of trees penetrated the quiet and Link looked up to see a mass of fallen wood and flaming lanterns suspended by thick, and quickly fraying, ropes. What used to be a bridge suspended the debris directly above the heads of the Guardians, almost waiting to collapse on their unsuspecting victims.

Link glanced around his feet for a few moments before locating a heavy plank of wood. Hefting it to his shoulder, he raised his eyes to the creaking bridge and prepared to strike. He would only have chance to execute the attack once before the Guardians struck him and voided the three seconds he had stood in the silent realm. There wasn't terribly much to lose, but Link proceeded to the edge of the protective circle with caution.

Instead of focusing on the fallen Koroks that lay preserved around him, he turned his attention to the tasks of the silent realm ahead. He would not – could not – dwell on the past here. Weakness would only diminish his chances of survival.

Link hesitated on the edge of the circle, pondering this thought? Was that what the goddesses wanted? A tactical killing machine, never bending under the slightest ounce of pressure? Who turned a blind eye on the Koroks forever burning at his feet? So disconnected from the world that he knew only his next mission?

No, Link would not allow himself to fall that low. But right now the silent realm needed to be finished, and Link could wrangle with his demons later.

Launching himself forward, Link cocked his arm back and swung, releasing the wooden plank as it spiraled to the sagging bridge. The sharp impact dislodged the debris just as the Guardians snapped their heads upright, eyes blazing like infernos as they bore down at Link. The first Guardian had barely dropped its sword before the crushing load of wood and building material collapsed on it, crushing its spindly limbs easily.

A percussive blast thundered from the Guardians as their bodies snapped, a tidal wave of energy coursing from the broken bodies that threw Link off his feet and backwards. A shrill ringing pulsed in his ears as he stood, palms bloodied from breaking his fall but otherwise unhurt. Where the Guardians had stood remained a seared section of bare earth and smoking bits of wood. The tear remained unchanged from the attack.

Treading carefully, Link collected the tear and the angry hues of the silent realm tricked back to a muted blue. He had never destroyed a Guardian before at this close a range, and the effect was particularly – well, explosive.

He took a second to catch his breath, then started scanning the wide stretch for any sign of a tear. It was almost impossible to keep his eyes trained on the doorways of houses instead of the flickering flames and the screaming faces of Koroks that collapsed below his knees. As he jogged Link noticed the impressive architectural feats the Koroks had performed in the making of the Forest Village. Houses stacked atop each other in neat, orderly rows, carved directly into the trunks of ancient trees. Banners streamed from every window, and ash-flecked rows of flags flickered at the corners of his vision. Some of the houses even had bridges sprouting from their doorways fastened tightly with an intricate knob of knots sealed within the wood.

A sharp crack thundered from above Link's head and he looked up to see a massive bridge twist and flex on its bindings, tearing loose from the ropes that shackled it to the trunks of trees. Slabs of wood snapped and fell down towards him, followed by a snap that echoed in Link's ears as the bridge tumbled directly towards him.

He dove into the nearest house, covering his head with his hands as the bridge shattered on the floor of the forest, filling the air with splinters and wood shavings at it fractured. When the rumbling finally ceased Link looked up to see the mass of wood completely blocking his exit – but more startling was the pulsing blue light that illuminated the Korok dwelling he had taken shelter in.

Twisting around, Link saw the luminescent tear of light beckoning to him from the corner. Inching forward, he extended a hand and the tear dissolved into teardrops of light that snaked around his arm and out of sight. Two down, eight to go.

Now he had to face the problem with the broken bridge. The familiar strain of time pressed at his mind as he tore into the massive slabs of wood, filling his hands with splinters as he threw the wood out of his way and carved a hole large enough to fit through and escape. It had taken far longer than he wished; Link would have to find a tear, and fast, if he wanted to avoid the wrath of the Guardians and Watchers.

The dim glow of a far-off Watcher's lantern shone down at Link as he ran down the stretch of the way, eyes scanning the skies above him for any more threats. The Forest Village had suddenly turned far more formidable in Link's eyes, with leaning structures, twisted trees, and the flickering shadows cast by patches of flame. Even worse were the ashes that trickled down on his shoulders, and for a sickening moment Link wondered if they were from the forest or the fallen form of a Korok.

He found the next tear soon after, its glow cast at the lip of a deep crater. Still wary of threats from above, Link kept his eyes up as he slid down the slope of the crater and into the center. As soon as he glanced as his surroundings he stumbled backwards, one hand held over his mouth with shock and disgust.

The crater contained the prone forms of Koroks, some horribly maimed and twisted from the blast. A few fragments of metal left over from the bomb protruded from the dirt like switchblades, one slicing through the fabric of Link's pant leg easily. Blank eyes stared up at him as Link scrambled away, feet scrabbling for grip as he stumbled away from the atrocious scene that lay before him.

A crunch sounded from the sole of Link's boot and he looked down slowly, realizing that he had just punched a hole through the body of a dead Korok. Slumping to the ground, he fought back his nausea as he carefully extracted his boot from the Korok's chest, now horribly flattened and revealing the grisly damage within.

Panic and shock boiled in Link's mind as he clambered to his feet, trying to force his legs to move and collect the next tear, but he was frozen in his place. The mind-numbing grief slashed through his heart, and he could only watch the bodies of the Koroks that lay before him with overwhelming shame.

He didn't realize that he had run out of time until agonizing pain stabbed through his body, the sword of a Guardian finding its mark, and the silent realm dissolved into nothingness.

Reviews, favorites, and follows go to you, in all seriousness. Be sure to add your story in if you review so I can read it - it's the least I can do to thank you! :)

Without spoiling too much, let me just say get ready for a crazy ride coming up... *wink wink*

Until next time!

(FIFTY CHAPTERS!)