A Hyrule Historian
Chapter VII
A Test of Courage
The next morning was spent solving a frustrating amount of time solving Korok puzzles within the Forest of Spirits on the Great Plateau. It was sometime around midday that we finally sat down and ate our packed lunch.
"You know. I hate to say it, but it kinda feels like we're getting nowhere, right now," I complain between bites of sandwich, "Like. Don't get me wrong. Those Koroks are cute as hell, but like…I wish we had more of an idea of what we should be looking for."
That was the problem in the end, wasn't it? Without the Sheikah Shrines or any kind of quest markers to guide us, we were stuck just wandering aimlessly until we stumbled upon whatever these Trials were supposed to be.
Link simply nodded solemnly but focused his gaze on the woods surrounding us. Part of me wondered if he was keeping an eye out for trouble, but his expression seemed too calm, too at ease in these surroundings. In a way, he did seem to fit within this setting, even without the Iconic green outfit. He sat upon a large protruding root a little lower than me. From my vantage point it was easy to see that he wasn't gearing up for a surprise attack, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was because in the several hours we had been up here we hadn't run into a single monster; or was it because this Link doesn't have any memories yet to warn him of potential dangers in the darkened woods around us.
In contrast to Link's calm demeanor, I felt anxious to my core. I'm mean, I'm always anxious. That's just kind of who I am. But, this was different. Ever since we entered the forest this morning I've had this unshakable sense of wrongness settle over my body.
I looked back to Link, his feet lightly swaying back and forth as he munched on his own sandwich. I took a deep breath and tried to will myself to calm down. We hadn't had any kind of trouble yet so there was no need to worry about it right now. It didn't work and I still felt the crawling need to rip off my own skin to stop the nervous twitching of my skin. I settled for rubbing my fingers over the cable knit pattern on my cardigan.
"According to the Sheikah Slate, we've only covered a small area of this forest, which is an even smaller part of the Great Plateau. So I don't think we're getting nowhere. We just have a lot of exploring to do." Link smiled warmly at me.
"I guess your right." I signed. He did make a good point. I was so used to the fast pace of video games that I guess I forgot to consider that in order to explore and adventure here you needed to spend much more than a couple hours in front of the TV. "Alrighty then, adventure awaits!" I hop off the tree roots dramatically striking a pose.
Link beams at me and imitates my pose. The two of us pause for a beat before giggling and dropping the pose. A few seconds passed as we collected ourselves, but soon enough we were heading off, deeper into the forest.
The woods only grew denser as we continued on. The bright beams of daylight became more and more sparse as the trees grew taller and closer to one another. There was still more than ample amount of light for us to see our surroundings, but that wasn't what was concerning me. The forest had grown unnaturally still. I could still hear the faint breeze and could even see the leaves far above our heads rustle from its touch, but it never reaches my skin. The dense covering of moss and leaves on the ground was complete undisturbed by anything but our own footsteps.
I'm not certain how long we had been walking; no sight of the sun or even Korok puzzles for the last couple of hours at least. Link and I stayed close to each other, the unspoken fear that any break of our visual of each other could cause us to get separated. It wasn't long before we found what we were looking for.
Ahead of us was a clearing almost luminous with how much sunlight shone down in comparison to the surrounding forest. On the other side of the clearing from us was the husk of an ancient tree laying on its side. Obviously long dead, its roots hung curling out and around and towards a small marble pedestal.
The pedestal was no higher than a foot off the ground, I might not have even noticed it had the dry roots on this unbelievably large tree not been pointing straight at it. But as we approached all possible doubt of what this could be was thoroughly blown away. In the center of the pedestal was a neat, embedded, golden Triforce.
"Is this normal?" Link whispers to me as we continue to stare.
"Um, well, yeah. I mean. I've never seen this exact configuration but like this is pretty on brand." I whisper back, never once taking my eyes off of the obvious entrance to a dungeon.
"What does that mean?"
"Yes. It means yes. With how things go in Hyrule, this is probably gonna be the least intimidating or weird entrance we are gonna see." I finally manage to break my gaze away from the tree to give Link a reassuring smile and pat on the back before stepping closer to the pedestal. Inside the messy cage of roots was a straight shot to the base of the tree, and nothing else. No door. No inscription. Nothing. Just the bottom of a twenty-foot wide tree.
"Cool. Cool. So figuring out how to get inside is the first puzzle I take it." I mutter while trying to take stock of anything useful to us. I look back down to the pedestal just in front of my feet, "Hey Link, why don't you hop on up here? See if your proximity might set something off?"
He steps onto the Triforce emblem and looks around expectantly. After a brief moment of nothing, he begins to bounce on his toes. When that fails to produce any noticeable result he looks back to me and shrugs. "Maybe you should play that song again? Maybe the lady will tell us what to do?" He offers.
"Maybe…I'm not sure that's how this works though…" I hesitantly respond, mulling over the options in my head, "Hylia is only really known to speak when you're at a place of worship for her. The Triforce itself doesn't necessarily connect to her as much as it is about the Golden Goddesses and The Royal Fam-" I cut my rambling short.
It couldn't be that easy. Could it?
Link turns his head to look at me in concern for why I suddenly stopped talking. With the tilt of his head and furrow of his eyebrows I was struck again by how open and honest his expressions were.
"There's another song. One that was used in one of the stories for opening pathways and junk that were marked with the Triforce. Uh- Hang on let me up." I prattle as I hurriedly grab the Ocarina of Time out of my bag. Link steps down off the pedestal towards the tree as I quickly hop up onto it.
I shift around only slightly nervous before I begin to play Zelda's Lullaby. I have to fight myself to play it slowly not a quick spamming of the notes in my excitement. The melody hung heavy in the too still air around us and I found my self unable to hold the last note for too long before I needed to gasp a breath to fill my panicked lungs.
There was no magical "You Completed the Puzzle" tone that I loved so much from the game. However, there was the crack of a large amount of wood breaking. Before the two of us the solid base of the tree separated, and a doorway into the intense darkness within appeared.
Link beamed at me before excitedly jogging over to the entryway. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I bolted to join him.
The cracked doorway lead into an impossibly dark tunnel in the shade of the roots we could only see a couple feet into the room beyond. Now, I've never been afraid of the dark before, but in this moment knowing that there was a large chance that there were going to be actual monsters hiding in that darkness; I was terrified.
Link and I shared a look as he drew the sword and shield from his back. I hesitantly followed suit and tightly gripped my sword with both hands. With a deep breath the two of us cautiously stepped into our first dungeon. A few steps before a loud crack of wood and we were suddenly plunged into total darkness.
I suppressed a scream but not the flinch and sent my sword clanging to the ground. "Shit!" I cursed trying to feel around the floor with my boot for the incredibly sharp weapon I had stupidly dropped.
"Lazarie?" Link's distressed call in front of me only furthered my embarrassment.
"Sorry! I'm fine! I dropped my sword and I can't see it! It's fine. I'm just stupid and bad at everything." I try to reassure him that I'm fine in everything but dignity.
"Wait." Link mutters before I can hear him rustling around in front of me. For a heart pounding second I think he is warning me of some unseen monster and I freeze all movements. But, quickly enough I hear him let out a small victorious huff and the dim blue light of the Sheikah Slate illuminates our surroundings.
Link shined the light down towards our feet so I could see the sword and carefully pick it back up. I mutter a quiet thanks before shifting and holding my sword at the ready before apologizing, unable to look at his face in case he was laughing at me.
"It's okay, you know. You said you've never used a sword right? So you don't have the muscle memory to not drop it when something scares you. That's normal. I did the same thing when I first got a sword and Deku Baba jumped at me." He reassured me gently.
I smiled gratefully before what he said caught up with my brain, "Wait. Link did you just- I mean- Do you remember when you first held a sword?" I sputter excitedly.
He startles at my words before his monolid eyes widened in comprehension, "I- I do! I mean. I kind of do? I remember being really little and getting a sword and having to go see… My dad? I think. But I remember a Deku Baba springing up and snapping at me. I was flung my sword at it in reflex. I- You reminded me of that." He breathed joyfully. "It's been- I've been awake for days and this is the first time I've remembered anything about my past."
"Link that's ama-" I begin to congratulate him before I can physical feel my stomach flip in dread. It seems as if Link and I had been too caught up in talking that we didn't think to keep and eye or ear out for any signs of trouble in the dark. Far too late we both hear the scurry scritch of something far too large with far too many legs come from above us.
In horror our heads snap up only to be met with the falling body of the largest fucking spider in the history of anything. I didn't even have enough time to scream before the thing was on top of me. Though I shouldn't have worried about that. The scream that tried to build up in my throat was viciously ripped out of me as I could feel something sharp clamp down on my upper left arm.
My hearing quickly gave out to the ringing inside of my head as I struggled to get this thing to let go off my arm but I couldn't get any kind of leverage on it as I was pinned under its gross bulbous body and sharp stamping legs.
Suddenly the weight on top of me was violently pushed off as I could barely make out the shape of Link, body braced behind his shield, throwing himself at the spider only to catch himself before falling with it. Giving the Skulltula, because that was undoubtedly what it was, no time to right itself; Link dashed forward with his sword outstretched and pierced it through the squishy vulnerable belly.
The shriek it let loose as it curled up and died was the first sound to pierce the ringing in my ears. The second was Link frantic calls of my name as he crashed to his knees in front of me.
"I'm okay. It's not that bad." I wince out as I try to pull the treads of my cardigan away from the open and bloody wound on my arm, "At least I think it will be. Skulltulas aren't poisonous- venomous- whatever- are they? Like in the stories they aren't but like, how reliable is that information, I mean you can fall off cliffs in some of them and be perfectly fine. Am I gonna die? I haven't even made it through the first trial and I'm gonna die." I ramble only serving to make myself more and more panicked.
Link wraps his hand around mine to pull it away from the wound. I look up and him and in the pale blue light I see him smile at me before quietly assuring me it was going to be okay. I spend a minute or so breathing and through both the panic and the pain. I pick up my twice-dropped sword and ready myself to head further down the nightmare tunnel.
We are both silent as Link leads us down the seemingly endless tunnel. I try to keep my breathing steady as I try to listen for any more tells of monsters hiding in large wooden tunnel. Our footsteps creak the smooth wood below us triggering a part of my brain into remembering trying to sneak out across old warped wood floors without letting my parents know. If I could have only know how low those stakes would be comparatively.
Link halts suddenly and I jump in an effort to not accidentally whack him with my sword. Looking ahead I quickly spot the reason for our halted progress, in the dim light of the Sheikah Slate I could just barely make out the shine of threads of spider silk coating the walls and floor.
"I know this is a stupid question but you wouldn't happen to have like a torch or anything to start a fire would you?" I tried to not get overwhelmed with the dawning sense of dread.
Link sadly shakes his head no.
I can hear my heartbeat in my ears at this point.
Link cautiously taps his foot against the thread, "It's not sticky, and looks pretty durable so we shouldn't fall through." He offers up in way that says he's trying to ease my worry.
It does not.
I am suddenly keenly aware of my still bleeding arm. I was never a big fan of spiders before, so I never went out of my way to look up facts about them, but I was reasonably sure they weren't known for their sense of smell or a lust for blood. Unfortunately, I was very aware that they track prey caught in their webs by the vibrations it creates.
Link began to make his way onto the web and I was left with no choice but to do the same. At first it was similar to walking over a thin blanket on the ground; you could almost forget about it if you tried hard enough. But, as we continued further down the tunnel, the webbing started to constrict and soon we were at least a foot or so off the ground. It felt almost like walking on a trampoline, one made of danger and nightmares.
Just as I was starting to worry that it was going to constrict down to the point we'd have to crawl, the webbing suddenly widened and disbursed along the walls of a deep cavernous room. The wooden floor of the tunnel came to a sudden stop and all that was left were a few rope like strands of spider silk suspended over what looked like a never ending drop below. Several hundred feet in front of us was not only the only platform in the room, but also the only bit of light we had seen as a part of this tunnel since entering.
The light was very dim considering it was blanketed in a thick layer of webbing. It did however illuminate the fact that on the platform there was a large person shaped object covered in webbing and glowing. At least, I really hoped it was an object and not like… a Sheikah monk or something. I really hoped there wasn't anyone alive and waiting there.
Though I was concerned about whether it was a person or statue, I found I couldn't pay too much attention to it as I was too distracted by the writhing dark mass of what I could only assume to be spiders that covered the ceiling. In the combination of the two lights I could just barely make out the forms shifting around and I couldn't help the immediate flashback to being a child and having to fight Queen Gohma for the first time.
It is heart-stoppingly clear that in order to progress we were going to have to walk across the webs to the platform, which would almost definitely agro every spider in the room. As if that wasn't a terrifying enough thought, I was also confronted with the fact that walking across the ropes wasn't going to be easy regardless. Now don't get me wrong; I'm sporty. But, I'm not acrobatic in any kind of way. I'm much more of a strength and endurance kind of person. I've never tight rope or slack rope walked in my life and the sight of the drop beneath us made me unenthusiastic to try.
At this point I wasn't sure if my lightheaded-ness was due to the spiders, the potential fall, or blood loss from the open wound on my arm. Also, maybe poison. I still haven't ruled out poison.
Link turns to me and nods his head before making a motion that conveys a 'Let's Do This' kind of thought. Too which I just turn my wide eyed gaze to the thin web in front of us, then the unknown amount of spiders on the ceiling, back to him and just rapidly shake my head no.
I don't want to do this, please.
Maybe I should just go back to the entrance and wait for death. But do I really want to wait for the spiders to come find me? No. No a fast death by spider or falling is better than a slow death of waiting for spiders. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
When I open my eyes again Link is still looking at me concerned. I solemnly nod and prepare to follow him out into the abyss.
I can only hope he survives. If I died here it would suck but like if Link dies then the whole world is fucked. So like, I know what is more important.
Link begins his careful walk across the larges of the spider vines towards the platform in the middle of the room; shakily I follow. The path was sturdier than I expected, wider as well. Link and I cautiously made our way towards the center. All I could do was focus on my steps and my balance and pray to Hylia and any other Goddesses that would listen to please let me make it out of this.
A cacophony of screams from above us metaphorically shook me to my core just before several horrible nightmare spiders dropped from the ceiling and literally shook me off my feet and into a weird monkey-esque cling to the web. My arms and legs locked in a tight embrace around the web-rope and sword thankfully still grasped tightly in my right hand, though useless pointed off to the side where it cant protect me unless I comprise my deadlock on the only thing keeping me from a deadly drop, I am afforded a stomach turning look at what we were going up against. I could make out the shapes of two massive misshapen bulbous spiders. In the dark I could only just make out the reflective glint of what felt like hundreds of eyes staring at me; it genuinely seemed like ever inch of these creatures were covered in eyes. A glancing thought flitted through my head of Rom from Bloodborne which oddly enough made me a little less terrified and more than a little grateful because at least this was the Zelda Universe and not Bloodborne so like things could be much worse.
I whipped my head back so I could look to make sure Link hadn't fallen to his death. With no small amount of relief however, I saw Link already hoisting himself to stand up on the rope again, sword and shield still firmly in possession. With an amount of grace that I envied greatly, Link made his way back to me and moved to help me up.
"No! No- Just- Spiders! Get the spiders first! I'm just gonna shimmy over to solid ground. Don't worry about me." I frantically try to convince him while also not letting go of my lifeline. He nods seriously before moving over me to cut of the spider's path.
I slowly start to move my arms and legs around the rope to make my way towards the platform in the middle.
Please. Please let the statue be a statue and not an enemy. Hylia. Din. Farore. Nayru. I don't know. The Windfish? Any of the multitudes of Gods in the Zelda universe. Please throw me a bone and not kill me as soon as I get to solid land again. I'm begging you.
My progress is slow, and only made slower by my constant need to look back at Link and make sure he's still there. I can only really identify him by the light off the Sheikah Slate, but every time I hear a scream of feel the rope bounce under a large shift in weight, I can still see him standing up there.
Eventually I manage to reach the platform and, although by this point my wounded arm is screaming in pain, I manage to hoist myself up onto sweet, satisfying, solid ground. The edge around the statue is not very wide, only a couple feet at most, but it is enough for me to stand comfortably without falling.
I only get a second of reprieve before another massive and surprisingly oily spider drops down directly on to of the 10 foot statue. Thankfully, this time instead of dropping my rather beaten up broadsword, I manage to grip it tightly and awkwardly thrust it up into the nightmare fuel of a creature's face.
It lets out a horrible cacophony screech and to my utter dismay, explodes into hundreds of tiny spiders that rain down upon me. I grasp onto the webbing covered statue and shake unable to move or fight the feeling of hundreds of tiny spider feet crawling over me, my clothes, my hair, everything.
This was it.
This is how I die.
There's nothing that can possibly save me.
I was finally startled out of my paralysis when I feel very warm, very human hands start to rapidly brush along my hair, shoulders, and back. This spurs me into raising my sword free hand, although it is attached to my injured arm, and try to frantically brush any tiny spiders from my face that I could.
Eventually, though twitching and crying, we manage to get at least most of the spiders off of me. Opening my eyes I come face to face with Link, face clearly worried but clearly ready to jump in to help as soon as I need it.
You know, I've played every Zelda game in the main series, and I think it's very easy to overlook just how incredibly kind Link is. For a second I'm honestly star struck. Like here was a teenage boy who had nearly no memories to speak of and an incredibly big destiny ahead of him, and yet every iteration, every boy with the Spirit of the Hero, just dives head first into any problem anyone is facing, no matter how mundane. In this moment, with Link wholeheartedly concerned not just for my safety, but for emotional wellbeing as well, I can see just why the Goddess would constantly put her faith in him.
What's that Captain America quote? Not a perfect solider, but a good man.
Yeah.
I offer a strained smile, too panicked still to be casual, and hope he understands my gratitude.
We turn as one towards the statue we are still holding onto. Link uses his sword to start cutting away at the web carefully so he won't accidently unbalance himself and fall into the abyss behind us. I awkwardly sheath my own sword and gently start to brush away what webs I can.
Through our careful work we eventually uncover a statue of a woman. She is clearly not another effigy of Hylia, seeing as she is missing all of Hylia's normal symbols, but by the featureless face and Triforce brooch on her dress it wouldn't be unthinkable to believe she was probably one of the Golden Goddesses.
Though the most obvious piece of evidence was the lightly glowing perfect replica of the Kokiri Emerald held in her cupped hands. It was much smaller than it's counterpart in Ocarina of Time, though as far as real life jewelry went I would say it was large enough to be considered gaudy. As Link carefully picked it up we could clearly heart the gentle metallic chime of the chain as it unraveled below it. Then, to my complete amazement, a gentle ethereal tune rang out around us. As the room filled with the familiar tune of completing a major trial in a Zelda game, torched were suddenly lit all across the room.
I had to shut my eyes closed at the sudden brightness, but I did manage to catch a glimpse at the suddenly burning spider webs across the room. When I finally chanced opening my eyes I could finally take in the room surrounding us.
"Oh are you kidding me?" I whine as I look around the previously terrifying room.
The room was made entirely of a dull pitch-black stone, similar in a way to the darker un-climbable Sheikah Shrine walls. The roof was incredibly high which did help the cavernous appearance, but the previously looking bottomless pit was actually only about 15 feet down. I've literally fallen out of trees from higher up than we were now.
I look at the pendant in Link's hand and then back to the statue behind us, "So I guess it's pretty safe to say this was the Trail of Courage then." I grumble under my breath, frustration at being tricked grating upon my nearly nonexistent pride.
"What's that?" Link pipes up as he leans to look around the statue. I lean to the other side and catch the sight of a glowing portal on the ground in front of us. It's hard to describe something so entirely magical in words. The only thing I could think to compare it to is the Aurora Borealis. Bands of swirling tangible light radiating from a perfect circle of the floor.
"That's our ticket out of here, my dude." I breathe in wonder.
God. Magic is so fucking cool.
It was nearly sundown and Link and I were relaxing at the Old Castle Town entrance turned lake. We hadn't talked much since getting out of the Trial mostly just worried about foraging for hearty radishes, which apparently you can turn into what is basically a red potion but instead of drinking it you just apply it to the wound in question. Now with my definitely not poison wound cleaned, medicated and then wrapped; we finally had some time to just take a breath and think about everything that happened.
Despite have taken a deep swim in the lake just to make sure any straggling spider babies were thoroughly drowned and in hell where they belong, I still couldn't shake the feeling of them scurrying across my skin. In my heart I just new that my anxiety disorder wasn't going to ever let me forget that nightmare.
"I think I've fought something like that before." Even though he only just whispers it, Link's voice breaks the stillness thoroughly.
I turn to lay on my stomach to face him, chin pillowed atop my hands as I look to where he is sitting against a scrap of an ancient stone wall. I smiled openly, trying to push the part of my brain that wants to hyper focus on a potential trauma to the back of my mind. "I wouldn't be surprised if you did. If I remember correctly, every Zelda game has a large spider enemy. Like, it's a pretty solid staple of the series: That and giant eyeball weakness enemies." I prattle off and wait for him to offer up any more information.
He's quiet for a while. It eventually gets to the point where I start to think that maybe that was all he was going to say before he softly starts up again. "I feel like… Like the knowledge of who I was is on the tip of my tongue. When I woke there was nothing. I couldn't even begin to question the things I forgot because it was like they had never been there at all. But earlier, when we were talking about dropping your sword, it was like that knowledge had been there the whole time. It wasn't like a sudden revelation or flashback. It was just there. I just hadn't been able to see it before." He spoke softly like he was carefully choosing every word as he went in a desperate attempt to convey his thoughts.
"I think I get it. I'm no brain or memory doctor. I don't know much about how all of this kind of stuff works, but I do know that people's brain have associations and pathways and stuff that link memories to different senses and thoughts. So like something about me dropping my sword was a strong enough association for your brain to have the context for that thought. If that makes sense?" I offer in hopes of helping. Despite media using amnesia constantly as a trope, I've never known anyone who had something like that. I certainly never had enough experience with people to really know what to do in the face of a tragedy like this.
Because that's what this was. A tragedy. Too have every bit of yourself scrubbed from your head; it must be torture.
Link's smile held a bittersweet note to it, "Maybe you're right. Maybe if I see more and do more, I'll start to remember more things." He mused hopefully.
"Well, I'm not sure if it will help, but there is only one story in the Zelda series where the Hero has to deal with being revived without memories: Breath of the Wild, the most recent one. One of the parts of that story is going around Hyrule and certain places would cause him to have a sudden visual flashback. Though, those were more like visions of the past than memories… Also they were usually from the Princess's point of view… And sometimes the Hero wasn't even there… You know now that I'm saying this I'm not entirely sure they were memories." I finish lamely.
Link's face was trying very hard to not be disappointed.
"But! Whatever! That doesn't matter because this isn't that story!" I quickly put on a dramatic amount of bravado, "I'm now sure of it! This is clearly a Legend of Zelda game that I've never seen before! Maybe it came out sometime after I came here! But Whatever! That doesn't matter! What does matter is that you've already remembered something about yourself. So that means you are able to access your own memories. So you may not remember who you are, and I may not have known ever, but I promise you this," I dramatically push myself to my feet so I can point down at him.
"I'm gonna help you figure it out. Even if it means I have to fight a thousand more horrible spider monsters. They wont stand a chance! You may the Hero and are definitely going to be the person every single inhabitant of Hyrule is going to rely on to help them with every task they can think of, but I'm gonna be the person you can rely on. Your quest is to save Hyrule. Mine is to help you remember your life… And figure out what timeline and era we are in. That is still probably going to be helpful. I think" I realize how ridiculous I must seem about halfway through my pledge. I find myself unable to look at Link's face and pull my short navy blue curls in front of my face to hide from they inevitable kind but weirded out reaction that was coming.
The shuffle and scrape of Link standing is the first thing I hear but it is quickly followed by the soft taps of his worn leather boots approaching me. He stops just in front of me, close enough to touch but far enough away that I don't feel the panic of someone entering my bubble, and just waits.
Eventually I force myself to face the music and drop my hands, my hair bouncing back in place, and drag my eye up to his face. Link stands before me, steel blue eyes glinting in the dying light of dusk, absolutely beaming. The warmth and gratefulness that radiates from his person is so encompassing that, despite me standing what must be something like 5 inches taller than him, it feels like he is a large home shaped blanket waiting eclipse me completely and never leave.
"Then I guess we should track down the other two pendants."
Notes:
Oh my god! I'm so sorry that I took half a year to update this again. I had been doing so well at posting once a week too! Ugh, life gets in the way again. But, I'm very happy to announce that I am back on the hopefully weekly updates again.
I wanna say thanks for the absolutely wonderful reviews!
YingWhiteyWolf:
Oh my god! This review was so sweet! You're questions are all really good and are definitely going to be answered eventually in the story, so unfortunately for now you'll have to wait.
Aster's Descendants:
Man you really hit it out of the park with two of those. The only one I wouldn't say is super apt is that you shouldn't fangirl about your favorite characters. Like I don't think it's gonna be super easy for any of the Players to not fangirl about one thing or another, hell you've already seen Lazarie lose her mind over the Temple of Time, so I don't necessarily think that fangirling is the root of the problem. The root for her is much more the entitlement she felt over Link and her obvious internalized misogyny.
And you're Tell the Truth moral? (Imagine me doing a chef's kiss right now) Perfection. I've been around the fanfiction circle for a couple decades now and I have seen many trends in OC fiction come and go but one of the ones that I has really stuck around is people making up lies about who they are and where they come from, and like don't get me wrong sometimes people do it excellently and it's actually a great plot point, but too frequently I see people who do it needlessly especially in like fantasy settings. Like my dudes, Hyrule has magic and dimension travelling and monsters. I guarantee you are only mildly stranger than anything most Hylians see daily.
Sorry I rambled a bit. I hope everyone likes the chapter! I'd love to hear what your thoughts.
Thanks.
