Next chapter Sunday 14th.
[Words: 1456]
Chapter 9:
Lynel
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Wolfie stood at the edge of the pond and Lynk had the sudden realisation that he couldn't follow her up.
She flashed him a smile, "I'll be back in a few."
A rumble, a deadpan look and Lynk pouted, "No faith!"
A roll of the eyes.
"I'll be fine." Probably, she silently added.
Lynk swam up the waterfall, feeling exhilaration and had no doubt this would never get old for her, thank you, Mipha, I'll make sure this gift isn't wasted.
She quickly followed it up with the second, then the third one. Reaching the top, Lynk looked out over Zora's Domain and, even with this never-ending rainfall, looked stunning. The rain made the reflective surfaces even more so and it looked like it shimmered in the night.
Lynk would try and compare it to a Sneaky Snail glowing green at night (which why would they evolves to do that? What was the point if they're trying to avoid being seen?) but realised that would be a horrible comparison. Still.
As she took a photo of the two shock arrows lodged in the tree for the Compendium, she startled suddenly when there was a burst of geometric shapes that came out of nowhere. She pulled her sword only to see Wolfie emerge when it disappeared.
Lynk dropped her sword, eyes wide in her shock. Wolfie froze, staring up at her with mirroring wide eyes.
For a very long beat, neither moved and Lynk said nothing.
Then absently she nodded to herself, deciding she had no desire whatsoever to poke at what just happened with a ten-foot pole, and picked her dropped sword to sheathed it. She selected the Sheikah set and allowed the Slate to change her outfit—that was useful and Lynk was not going to question the how or why or just anything to do with Sheikah tech because she got lost trying to listen to Purah explain how she got the photos back.
[I will be keeping a distance and collecting any arrows that are out the outskirts. Will also try and note where any arrows are that are in the open,] she signed and Wolfie nodded.
So with the helpful cover of night, Lynk sneaked up. She paused trying to find where exactly this Lynel was when she saw it—holy shit, was her first thought. Her second was, I wanna fight it.
Lynk also, logically, knew that would be a bad idea at the moment. Not only was she ill-prepared but she had no idea what exactly a Lynel was capable.
It bore the lower half of a horse and upper body of a man. It's head, however, held a thick red mane and two large horns that curled upwards. It had defined muscles and clearly powerful. Not a monster to mess around with, like she had deducted earlier. As the beast turned and walked away, Lynk spotted a sword, shield and bow.
With a little butt wiggle as she pouted behind her face mask, Lynk started to sneak around the outcrops of rock. Freezing when she heard the beast grow close to her location. She held still until risking a glance to see if the monster had walked away. It had; she continued.
She was doing great—even got a picture of it with her Slate!—until she made just a bit too much sound trying to pull an arrow out of a tree.
Lynk froze as it roared at her; she ran as it charged.
Wolfie howled to draw its attention away from her and Lynk drove behind cover, mentally chanting fuck over and over.
Lynk listened to Wolfie running and the stomping of the Lynel and knew she needed to do something. She took a breath, drew both shield and sword and darted into the open. She whistled.
The Lynel having stumbled to a stop to avoid running into an outcrop that Wolfie had ducked behind, turned to her, roaring again.
Lynk roared in return, bashing her sword against her shield in retaliation, "Come on!"
The Lynel charged at Lynk, who raised her shield—
—The feeling of running—the weight of a sword in her hand—shield at the ready…
…The force behind the blow, parried perfectly, stunned the Lynel…
…The feeling of mane in her fingers, the force in her arm to stab her sword into its spine—
—The Lynel roared, arms desperately reaching back at her but Lynk, with surprisingly automatic reflexes, backflipped from the Monster.
Lynk backed away and planted her feet, shield in front of her, stock-still as the giant beast barrelled towards her once again, its chest high and shoulders back. It lifted the sword above its head, carrying the entire momentum of the charging beast, and swinging down towards at the still unmoving Lynk who was staring, undeterred, up at it.
At the very last and perfect second, Lynk found herself stepping forward with her right leg, core tensing, toes perfectly balancing her weight like she'd done so thousands of times before. She swung the shield up and out, catching the edge of the Lynel's weapon with a sharp clank that echoed across the mountain top. The parry once again broke its stride, bring the large creature to a sudden stop.
Lynk was on its back before she realised, her sword once again slicing deep, this time with the coherent knowledge to—go for the spine—and she did.
The Lynel gave one final choked out a roar of anger before it began to erupt into smoke. Lynk hit the ground at the sudden removal of the Lynel which she had been sitting on.
She lay in the dirt for a long moment, adrenaline trembling her limbs, her heart pounding.
Wolfie darted into her line of sight, sniffling hurriedly at her, clearly looking for injury.
"M'good," she chokes out.
A whine and he dragged a paw through the wet dirt, then a growl, butting his nose into her stomach as if so say: that was stupid! Reckless! You idiot!
Lynk gave hysterical giggles.
Another growl.
"Can't believe…did that," she started up at the moon, hardly bothered by the rain pouring onto her face, and her mind wandered back to the vision she'd seen—to the memory that had hit her as she had faced the Lynel head-on.
"I 'emebered," she continued in a whispered tone of awe and met Wolfie's gaze with wide excited eyes, "Did it before," a disbelieving laugh, "Muscle memory."
Fighting a Lynel might have been a new instance for her but not for the old her. Did the old her fight a lot of Lynels? Because that felt amazing—exhilarating—the best damn thing she might have done since waking.
Admittedly, Lynk knew that probably shouldn't be the case—she should be scared of what had just happened but by the Goddesses was that a great experience.
Lynk was going to have to do that again; she said so to Wolfie's annoyance of course.
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I don't quite know what to make of the sudden two flashes of actual memory since arriving in Zora's Domain, but I'm grateful.
They are hazy, lacking much detail, but there. A feat I thought would never happen. It gives me a new hope that maybe one day I can regain enough to remember those who I used to know and held close.
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She came stumbling back into Zora's Domain, where Sidon took one glance at her and hurried her along to the inn, paying for a waterbed for Lynk. She tried protesting but as soon as her head hit the pillow—she was out.
Twelve hours later, she actives and completes Ne'ez Yohma Shrine that sat in Zora's Doman.
Lynk also managed to get some Zora greaves from Laflat by showing her the picture of the Lynel she'd taken. Score!
She buys the entire stock of ice arrows and normal arrows at the store. She even buys a shield, spear and sword from the Zora since Lynk would like to know she had good quality weaponry then just what she had found as she travelled.
Then Sidon met her at Mipha's status.
"Feeling better?" He asked, light amusement present on his face.
Lynk grinned toothily, "Ended up fighting the Lynel! It was awesome!"
Wolfie groaned and Sidon laughed heartily, "I had a feeling that might have been the case, you once told me stories of all sorts of battles you would get into. Lynels eventually became barely a blip on your radar when you came prepared."
Lynk's wide grin might have appeared a bit more manic than she meant. Whoops.
Sidon grew serious and so, Lynk did too.
"Are we ready?"
"We are."
This is much short but it felt a nice length for this battle. It would be as easy next time, Lynk's gonna learn he hard way.