Chapter 18: The one where you can watch the world go dark
You fell. You weren't sure for how long, but when you stopped falling, it hurt.
There are an average of 206 bones in the adult human body and you felt like you had just broken about three quarters of them. Your vision was swimming and belated you noticed that the ground beneath was getting wet and warm scarily quick.
As your vision started to dim and your eyes to flutter close, you wondered about the person that had touched your shoulder before the sudden falling started. Would they be alright? Were they still alive?
Would your family ever know where you were? Did they get your letter? You hoped.
You were so tired.
And so you watched how you and your brother played with wooden swords and your first videogames, how Zelda and you played pretend and dressed, your dad saying how proud he was of his little kiddo, your mom singing soft lullabies, your dog licking your face, your first remembered meeting with Gannon through you throwing the nuts you had collected on your way to school at schoolyard bullies that had decided to harass the new kid…
Hugs, smiles, memories of happiness and contentedness.
A nap surely couldn't hurt, right?
…right…
…
…
"…up…!"
…
"…get up!"
…what…?
"Stay awake! Get up, idiot! Get your idiot ass in gear, you're not dying on me while I'm dream skyping!"
Tired, as if lead was pulling your eyelids closed, you only managed by pure stubbornness to crack one eye halfway open. In the weakly illuminated dark stood your best friend in her pink unicorn pajamas about which you had made fun of so many times.
"Good, I see your eye, keep it open" she said and since when did she have two twin sisters?
"Can you open the other one?" Weakly you did as asked. You were so tired.
And the wet pooling beneath you was so warm and nice and you felt so cold and you just wanted sleep…
"Uhuh, you're not doing that. Eyes to me" Zelda ordered. Weakly you let your dimming gaze drift to her once more. She looked like a ghost, glowing and see-through. How had she come here?
"…tired…" you breathe out. "I know" she said, shaking. The world is dimming again, when she adds: "But you cannot sleep, not now."
"…hurts…" you mutter. "I know" she said, wincing. The pain is slowly fading as is every other sensation, when she adds: "But you have to pull through, please."
She's desperate and begging and Zelda never begged. She was too proud for that. This was the moment when you knew that you were in really, really deep sh*t.
Is this what dying feels like?
"Stay awake!" Zelda repeated, desperate. "This might be a dream for me, but it seems real for you, so you're not dying with me on watch!"
Her sleep tussled up wild mane whips around her head while she frantically searches for a way out for you, a way other than death. And her eyes find the solution in the form of the unlucky person that fell with you down to wherever here is.
Wow, they fell even unluckier than you fell which means if their bloody heap is still breathing it would be a miracle.
You were still tired, but the pain had finally stopped. Was this the famous last rebellion of mind and body before death claimed them?
"Their pockets! Get your ass into gear and search their pockets" Zelda urged. You don't dare to look down at where your legs were supposed to be when you drag yourself one-armed to the other person's blood puddle, because you can't move the other one..
"…ain't right" you complain, as you start searching their tunic's pockets. "You dying is worse" snapped Zelda, uncaring for your moral philosophies at this moment. "Also you had no problem pickpocketing Ga(she choked at the second n)non for his lighters."
"…was for…his health…" "Well, this is for yours."
Your hands grasp around a bottle and you pull it out, just as the world starts to dim for a final time. You uncork the bottle, pray and take a big gulp.
The world goes dark with the frantic cries of a woman's voice ringing in your ears until those go quiet, too, and you know no more.
…
…
…
You blink your eyes open in the weak light that illuminated wherever you were. Everything hurts, but you are still breathing. Which is a miracle. Weakly you turn to your back and sit up and your head starts spinning.
Next to you lies a bottle that is mostly empty but still has some weirdly colored potion in it.
You look down on yourself and realize that your stupid, eye-catching, blinding yellow tunic is actually the light source and the only reason you can see anything at all currently. Which is unexpected, but neat.
Next to you lies the one person you wouldn't have expected to follow you after everything that had happened between you two. You stare at deathly pale face and bloodied blonde and pink hair and wonder how after such a fall and unlucky landing he's still breathing. Maybe because he has, metaphorically speaking, more hearts than you? Possible.
When you force his mouth open and get the little rest of potion down his throat, you refuse to look anywhere else lest you see how near death he truly is and start shaking so much that you waste one more of the few precious drops left. One of them could decide about life and death, you realize.
You can only wonder if Zelda really was there, or if it was simply an illusion made of your mind ensuring your survival. You wonder if it was, why your mind didn't show you your brother then. He had been the one who had always tried to keep you safe while Zelda was the one to get you in trouble.
Maybe because you're in a fanfictional world of Legend of Zelda and she's named Zelda. Maybe.
And cause you're here from apparently down the timeline. Who knows how that actually worked.
When you force yourself to your feet, you nearly fall over again. Your head is spinning, your legs shaking, and everything just hurts.
But it doesn't seem like you're bleeding anymore. And your bones do not feel broken anymore, which was good, but you also knew you needed to get out of here, because you were still definitely concussed. You had to find the others. You had to get out.
Staring at the fallen Link you wondered how you, without magical protection had managed to survive. It was almost like it had followed your survival list…
…
Oh no, your survival list.
HOW TO SURVIVE – 1. Always stay with at least on Link at a time.
You followed it, didn't you? Had a Link with you when you fell. And you survived.
It was proof and showed that the stupid notebook definitely was stupidly powerful magic. And apparently it works no matter how you formulate what you write, your formulations only influence when it happens.
Which is neat to know, but still sucks cause it now twisted your notes into the bad luck of having two barely breathing bloody heaps instead of one not-breathing, which was a good thing.
…
Okay, one moment, please, think.
Hyrule tripped, bad luck. Legend got hugged, good thing.
A fly flies into Warriors' eyes, bad luck. Warriors blinks, good thing.
The postman got a lot of stress with the portals and has to learn every language, bad luck. The postman understood you and you could thus send a letter home to communicate, good thing.
You fell and got hurt together with Legend, bad luck. You both survived, good thing.
Okay, you could definitely see a trend there.
It was a good thing you survived. And though it is a little bit mean to admit, good that it had been Legend instead of any of the other Links. You could bet that the hoarder was the only one that left a potion hidden within his clothes when he left his bag behind to get you.
You also regretted not having your bag with you, either. Your notebook, as twisting as it is, would be damn useful and this was definitely a real emergency, which qualified it for getting used.
Well, can't change that now. Guess you'll have to do with what had been given to you and follow your survival list.
Now you only had to get you both out of here together without getting separated and it basically guarantees your survival. That's promising.
You totally can do this.