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After moving through the air for about ten minutes, we touched down just outside the tree line.
The grass plains stretched out to the horizon, leaving complete visibility in all directions beside the forest, which seemed to loom over us like a great, shadow-covered wall.
After living within those trees for so many days, I felt exposed, standing in the center of nothing.
What seemed to be a dirt road stretched across the plain, parallel to the forest, traveling from east to west. It was lucky we had found a trail to civilization so soon.
But after only a few seconds, I was broken from my thoughts.
"I thought... You said you couldn't use magic."
Aly's voice was shaky- he was still unsteady on his feet after the sudden flight, and he was looking at me with wide eyes. He looked pale, which made sense, after all, we had just gone through a harrowing experience. A young kid like him should have felt terrified.
But it seemed like he wasn't just terrified of what we had just gone through.
Aly was looking directly at me, with fear in his eyes.
"L-Link, please answer me, who are you?"
"..."
"Please? Can you tell me? How are you so strong?"
"..."
Those were hard questions to answer. More specifically, I didn't have an answer to those questions.
I had no idea who I was anymore.
I had no idea why I was so changed.
The only thing I could say for certain was a simple fact.
Aly needed somebody to help him.
This kid in front of me, who had almost been killed for no reason at all, needed help. Beyond that, the people of this kingdom also needed help. And I believed that I could help them.
It might have been a thought born out of pure arrogance, emerging from the high of living within this new and powerful body. But I truly believed that with the new power I had somehow gained, I could make a difference.
Selfish, idealistic, naive. Definitely.
Those thoughts might have even been artificial- created just because I had entered this body and its previous mentality had begun to change me in deep ways.
Either way, every one of those feelings were heartfelt.
I could not change the way I saw the world, and I could not help what had happened to me. The only thing I could do was act on my feelings, and do what I believed was right.
I gave Aly the best answer I could.
"...I am nobody."
Speaking clearly, I tried to keep my voice from wavering. Although the speech was weak from underuse, I wanted to get the message across as clearly as possible.
But an answer like that clearly wasn't enough for the emotionally and mentally drained boy.
"That's not an answer! How can you say that? You're so strong! You can chop ogres in half with a single slash, you can heal people with a touch, you can even use powerful magic! Who are you, Link?!"
I raised my hand to cut off his rant, and tried to speak again.
"...Past... is gone. I am nobody- now. Used to be someone... bad. Now, I am... new."
His eyes wavered as he tried to make sense of my disjointed and slanted speech.
Before waking up in this forest and meeting this kid in front of me, I was someone nobody would be proud of.
I was ashamed of myself and lived all alone, in a bubble of comfort that was reinforced and never breached. I was weak, prideful of effort put into games and jealous of anything above me.
An experience like this was nothing short of a blessing.
It was a miraculous second chance.
I could be someone important and powerful, but more than that, I could affect the lives of others in positive ways. Something I had never done before.
Eventually, Aly nodded.
"...Okay."
He seemed to have reached a conclusion for himself, and looked determined, as if he had decided on a future course of action.
"I believe you. I know you're a good person and I trust you. But can you please not lie to me? Can you tell me about what you can do? Because I know you said you didn't use magic, but what you did just then was definitely magic… Although, I couldn't recognize the spell…."
I almost smiled at the trust he had in me, but my face was blank as I thought about his question.
Shaking my head, I tried to respond.
"...Not magic... Like healing. Talent."
As Aly registered my words, his eyes widened.
"Wait, no, that's stupid, that can't be right..."
I tilted my head in silent question.
"You, you do know that people can't have more than one talent, right? It just doesn't happen. Having two talents is just a bad joke, you know?"
His tone was disbelieving and faint, as if he wasn't clearly focused on the words he was speaking.
At the response, my face twisted into a slight scowl. I wasn't lying! It was pretty insulting that he would say so.
Aly saw my face and quickly backpedalled, slightly panicking.
"N-No! I'm not calling you a liar or anything, Link, I just... can't believe it. I'm not sure if it's different where you're from, but nobody has ever had more than one talent..."
I thought about the game that this had all started from.
The champion abilities were things unique to the four champions in Hyrule, and then those abilities were passed down to Link. Therefore, nobody besides Link ever had more than one distinct talent in the game. Link was probably an outlier in Hyrule as well as this new Kingdom.
If that was the case, didn't that mean Link had some unique talent that let him inherit other people's talents? That sounded strange, but it was the only explanation I could think of at a short notice.
I had no idea what the limit for talents was, but maybe something like that was possible.
"Link, if you have a talent that can let you heal people, and a talent that controls the wind, do you have anything else? -I mean, two talents are already crazy, but..."
I held up four fingers.
Aly's mouth hung open.
There was silence for a few seconds.
And then I started walking down the road.
The sun was hot, and even though we were out of the forest, following the road, the conditions were probably worse.
Both me and Aly were used to traveling through the trees; the dark and tough terrain had become normal to us, and since I could deal with any monsters that attacked we were never under much stress.
However, when walking along the crumbling dirt road, the elements beat down on us without any reservation.
That said, it wasn't too unpleasant. This body had become used to all sorts of natural conditions, and even without wearing any items to help deal with the elements I was easily able to ignore the small amount of discomfort.
I did give Aly a Hylian Hood to deal with the sun, though. The pattered blue cloth over his head seemed to help with the heat tremendously.
Strangely, it seemed like the Hood fit Aly perfectly, even though it also fit me perfectly.
I didn't question it too much, though. All of my clothing was filled to the absolute brim with magic, thanks to everything being enchanted over and over again by the Great Fairies. Changing sizes was probably the least weird thing my clothes could do!
...I shook my head slightly. The endless walking was probably getting on my nerves.
But overall, the experience of camping under the night sky more than made up for any of the bad conditions.
The starry sky was something I had never before seen.
I had always lived in the city, so light pollution was everywhere and the last time I actually got a good look at the night sky must have been years ago.
But that sky was still nothing in comparison to this one.
The night above us sat without a single trace of pollution to mar the view. I could see the enormous swirls and patterns of glinting stars, a cold rainbow of colors painted over the darkened world.
I couldn't move my eyes from that sight, and I stared upwards into the stars even as I fell asleep.
...
Eventually, though, we came across the first part of civilization I had seen since coming to this place.
It was nothing more than a small village- a collection of a few buildings surrounded by what seemed to be the beginnings of a wooden wall. I could make out many figures around the base of the wall prepping up wooden planks and pillars. They were all hard at work.
Seeing something like that was nice, and I smiled.
After all, watching people get together and work for a common goal was always admirable. Back in Hyrule, I had seen countless innocents get complacent with their situations and fall prey to…
I shook my head, grimacing.
Those didn't sound like my thoughts- I didn't have any memories of living in Hyrule, why was I thinking like I had lived there for a while?
It was unsettling.
More and more often, I would catch myself thinking like that. Thinking of ideas and notions that shouldn't have come from me.
I sighed.
No matter the case, I was glad we had finally arrived at a town- a place to stay the night.
However, it seemed like Aly wasn't as excited.
He was trembling.
It wasn't something a normal person would have noticed, but with my supernatural perception and the familiarity of living with him for days now, I could tell quite clearly.
He stared at the village we were looking towards, with his teeth grit and his fists clenched by his sides.
The boy was scared, but he didn't want to admit it.
I stopped walking, and he stumbled slightly before halting his steps.
He turned his head to me in question.
"What's, um, what's wrong?"
He was distracted, and even while asking me, his eyes were still locked onto the distant forms of people working.
But my next word broke him out of the reverie.
"...Scared."
Aly looked at me, his eyes wide, and visibly swallowed.
"Um, yeah. I am."
I looked at him silently, waiting for him to continue.
"...You know, it's just... Well, I don't exactly have good memories of the last time I interacted with people."
Although at first it seemed difficult for him to get the words out, by the end of the sentence he was speaking frankly. His gaze was blank as he watched me digest his words.
"..."
I nodded to myself.
"-You... wait here?"
"What, you want to look around that town while I stay outside?"
I nodded, but he shook his head violently, his face scrunched up.
"No! I just… I don't want to stay here, I'll come with you, it's just… I need some time. I'll be fine."
There was a slight pause in his voice, before he carried on.
"Let's go."
I nodded, quietly pleased.
But just as we began to move-
My eyes widened, and I drew my sword with a metallic ring.
While pulling Aly behind me, I slashed outwards in a circular motion, using a weak but quicker version of a spin-attack to cut away all the surrounding grass within a close radius.
Four figures, all within twenty feet and surrounding us, suddenly gasped and stood up, revealing themselves above the tall grass they were hiding in.
Goblins, as usual.
But these goblins were different from all the others I had encountered so far.
The first difference was in their level.
Lvl 8, Lvl 12, Lvl 10, lvl 10
Even the weakest of the surrounding goblins were double the level of any goblins I had fought within the forest of Tob, and their stronger members were at the same level as ogres.
I was still able to easily deal with ogres, but it was definitely noteworthy that these goblins had the same strength as them.
The other difference was their appearances.
Goblins from the forest had greyish-green skin with a tinge of brown. They were weak and frail, dressed in rags and usually armed with old daggers or rocks. They were stupid and didn't use tactics while fighting, merely throwing themselves at the enemy. To me, it seemed like they were smaller and weaker versions of bokoblins.
But these goblins had pure green skin, layers of well-built muscle bulging from underneath, and each was armed with proper gear, equipment and armor. Their eyes shone with a bright intelligence, and each stood in a trained stance.
The difference between these goblins and the others was like night and day.
...But it didn't matter.
They were goblins, and they had been sneaking up on us, clearly with the intent of attacking. If I hadn't been speaking so seriously with Aly, I would've detected them much sooner, but that wasn't something I could complain about.
It was no worry though, since even the strongest goblin here was still as weak as an Ogre.
However, there was one other aspect of this that was very worrying.
We were attacked extremely close to this village. Right in view of it, yet these goblins were confident enough to attack travelers here.
Had they taken over the village? That couldn't be right… if goblins had taken the village, why were there humans working on jobs?
I couldn't worry about that right now.
I prepared to charge a spin attack.
"-Oi, oi! Wait, don't attack just yet! We want to talk, alright?"
My eyes widened, and I momentarily lost my grip on the blade before reapplying myself. That said, I stood back and took a less offensive stance.
...Since when could goblins talk?!
"Alright, we've got archers aiming right on you, so please drop your weapons. We don't wanna fight, 'kay?"
My brows furrowed as they attempted to make us surrender.
Although Aly seemed nervous, he clearly wasn't as surprised as I was. I realized that talking goblins must have been common knowledge.
Could the goblins we killed in the forest also talk? Were they just as intelligent and sentient as the ones here?
If that was true, didn't that mean killing them was the same as killing Zora or Gorons?
I felt a faint sickness in my stomach and forced it down.
"Listen, we're just gonna keep you here 'till Big Sis comes, it won't be long. Just no sudden moves and we won't attack."
The level 12 goblin continued speaking in a calm tone, as if trying not to disturb a wild animal.
Who was this 'Big Sis?'
She was clearly their master, or boss, but was it another goblin? It had to be at least somewhat poweful, since it was the leader of these relatively strong monsters, but I doubted it would be on the level of a legendary creature like the Wise King of the Forest.
Whatever it was, I had to be on guard. It would just be foolish otherwise.
So I stood still, warily watching the surrounding goblins. Although I could defeat them at any time, I had to start things off right. If this boss could be conversed with, I had to use the opportunity and discern their weaknesses.
It could be anything, and I wasn't about to let this mysterious creature kill either of us.
Even if they were stronger than me, and even if I had to run, I would stay firm.
At least, that's what I was thinking to myself at the time.
...But when a young teenage girl walked up, and the goblins welcomed her with smiling faces and calls of 'Big Sis,' I nearly facepalmed.
I was expecting something a bit more scary.
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*Author's Note*
A new chapter out, and we've finally reached civilization, and some characters that we know! And a somewhat-solidified place in the timeline!
For this current chapter, I wanted to try focusing on the interactions between Aly and Link, as well as go over his current mindset. If you think that right now SILink's way of thinking is really naive and cliche, good! That's what I'm trying to convey. He's a random dude who was placed into this new powerful body, and now has these urges to be a do-gooder hero. He's never been in a bad or dangerous situation before so he'll be relying on what people do in video-games, and he'll be very naive. Even if he looks competent because of his instincts, he's still technically a complete amateur.
But if you have any thoughts on it, please let me know! I really enjoy reading all the reviews.
Also, I finally figured out how to put in a line-break. I'm pretty proud of that, even though all I did was find a button in the menu.