Chapter 2: She's Gone
'She's gone.' This had been the consistent phrase pounding in his head ever since he found out his little sister was gone. It was a rhythm he had no desire to repeat and yet, it persisted to mock him. 'She's gone. She's gone. There's nothing you can do. She's gone.' Those were the same words that Tetra, now his best friend but at one point an inconsiderate pirate in his eyes, had shouted at him as she and her first mate prevented him from falling off of a cliff when the monstrous bird had originally snatched his precious little sister away. Back then, those words, while they had hit hard and quieted him enough to allow the two pirates to pull him up to safety, had held no truth. His sister had not been gone forever as implied. He had embarked on an elaborate journey to save her, thus proving that there was actually quite a lot he could do to reclaim his sister from the clutches of the evil that had stolen her from him. Not only had he rescued her, but he had also been the long awaited savior of the other girls who were unfortunate enough to be kidnapped as well.
Now the meaning of that phrase had changed. Unlike before it was true. There was nothing he could do. Any action he took wouldn't be enough. He couldn't leap between worlds, if he could then there wouldn't be a problem, but he couldn't and so his sister and his friends were lost. He'd been bracing himself for finding the library vacant of the bright-eyed Rito girl and energetic Korok ever since he and Tetra had made it their personal mission to seek out their friends.
When they had first been led to a room in Hyrule Castle, the two of them had stayed there in stunned silence for a few minutes. Then Kid, recovered slightly from the shock of it all, had vividly recalled the demon lord's wish and became worried for Medli and Makar, who were both mentioned within it. Despite being instructed to remain in the room until someone came to fetch them, both he and Tetra had stole through the halls, checking every place they could think of for any sign of their friends. Finally, they'd arrived at the library to discover what they had hoped was not true.
However, Kid never imagined for a fraction of a second that he'd find Aryll to be absent as well with her treasured red telescope abandoned on the floor, buried beneath fallen papers that had been tossed from their places on the table presumably when whatever portal had opened up and swallowed all three of them whole. Knowing that they had all been returned to the Great Sea, at least according to Ghirahim's wish, did little to alleviate Kid's anxiety. Just because they were home didn't mean they were safe. Ghirahim now inhabited their world which automatically made it dangerous for everyone there. The worst part of it all was that Kid found himself hopelessly stuck in Hyrule.
A familiar pain in his abdomen momentarily pulled him out of his troubled thoughts, and Kid curled up further on the floor in an attempt to relieve it. No matter how much he told himself that he didn't care about eating or drinking, his body refused to allow him to forget that he'd skipped meals today that he should not have. Truthfully, he was just as hungry as he was sore and tired from the day's events. However, while there was plenty of food and drink available for him to consume, he simply had no interest in it no matter how much his stomach harried him for it.
Kid had no idea what type of situation his friends and little sister were entangled in right now. The Great Sea was so vast. Water was more bountiful than land there, so the chances of landing on an island were slim, an inhabited island, even slimmer. What if they were lost at sea, or worse, already drowned? Or what if they were on a piece of rock that the denizens of the Great Sea had, for some unfathomable reason, dubbed an island, with no vital resources to be found? What if they were starving? Thirsty? Hurt? He didn't know if they were any of these things, but Kid felt that he didn't deserve the luxury of food if his friends and kid sister did not have them.
Earlier, he had lamented this fact in full, beginning to cry without fully registering it in the library when Link and the princess had found him and Tetra sitting there, speechless at the sight before them. Normally he wouldn't cry when things didn't go his way. When he'd first started out on his adventure he had obviously shed more than a few tears in private, but ever since then, he'd realized that crying didn't solve anything. Despite knowing that, Kid had found that he couldn't stop once he started, and so he had cried, not for himself, but for his no doubt terrified friends and little sister, he'd cried for the home he had no hope of seeing again, he'd cried for the tragic end of a world that should never have existed filled with people that should never have been born, he'd cried for the suffering of every hero, those remembered and those forgotten, and most of all, he had cried for his inability to save everyone.
Cradling his little sister's meticulously painted telescope, Kid wished to view the situation as he had once before when Aryll had been kidnapped. Last time this had happened he had vowed to save her with reckless determination. The kind of determination that experience will knock right out of you and slap you around just a little more to get the right idea engraved in your mind. Experience proved that determination meant nothing if you had no means to accomplish your goal. Writing with ink was impossible if you had no writing utensil with which to write with. No matter how determined you were, no words would appear on that parchment, much less the ones you wanted to be there. That was why Kid couldn't act as he did last time. He was trapped in one world while his goal was in another. No rescue mission could be conducted or even contemplated as long as he remained prisoner to a world he had no business in existing in.
As he reflected on it in the eerie silence of night, tucked away in some corner he was sure no one would discover him in, their situation had not improved during their entire stay here. Their reasons for returning home were even more urgent than they originally had been and, if anything, they were further from reaching the Great Sea than when they had first started. Kid wished that he could assemble the Triforce again just to wish it all away, to turn back time to the point before he agreed with Tetra that an expedition for treasure could be fun during his little sister's visit. Unfortunately, their innocent attempt at "fun" had quickly transformed into a living nightmare, or rather, had progressed his previous one.
Honestly, he'd been ensnared in it for over a year, laughing and smiling in hopes to scare the bad away, but the bad refused to disappear. It lurked on the sidelines, patiently waiting for the moment it could imprison him once more. The bad was selfish and seemed to have a strange penchant for targeting him in particular. It was constantly forcing him out of the comforts of his home, or some semblance of one, and throwing him into scenarios he had no desire to take part in. It was like the Gods were playing with him, and he didn't enjoy their games. They were brutal, taxing, and harmful to both his mind and body. Yet, they did not stop, and Kid knew deep down that they never would.
"Aha! Found you!" Midna announced as if they had been playing a game the entire time, and she had just emerged victorious without him realizing it. Startled by her sudden appearance, Kid jerked himself upright into a sitting position so fast that his head spun. He quickly recovered and peered at the Twili hovering a short distance away. The room was completely dark, aside from Midna's luminous red and yellow eyes which, at the moment, reminded him of a cat's with the way that they seemed to glow as they reflected the lack of light. How she had managed to find him nestled in between two bookcases in what he was sure was one of the darkest corners of the library, Kid could only guess.
"Why were you looking for me?" Kid asked despite already knowing the answer.
Midna humored him anyway. "Because Link's worried, Zelda and Tetra are worried…I'm worried."
"Well, you can stop being worried," Kid stated as the Twilight Princess sat crossed-legged in the air.
"So you're finally done with your whole I-don't-want-anything-to-do-with-anyone-or-anything phase?" Midna predicted.
"No," Kid replied, wincing inwardly when the word had a nasty bite on the end of it that he didn't intend to let out.
Midna seemed just as startled by his tone as he was and remained silent. Kid bit his lip, an apology already on the tip of his tongue. Before he could voice it, Midna slipped into the shadows, and he was alone once again. Her leaving left him feeling empty, but he didn't understand why. Hadn't he wanted to be alone? That was why he had come here in the first place.
When it was first discovered that Aryll was missing and shouldn't have been, Link, Princess Zelda, and Tetra had split up to search the castle under the impression that she had run off in a panic when the sages were taken. Kid had been the only one to stay where he was because unlike them, he knew she was gone. He knew because she would never leave her telescope unattended unless she had no say in the matter.
Once it was concluded that Aryll must have been taken along with Medli and Makar, his friends had immediately attempted to console him with everything from logic to promises they had no way of keeping. By the time dinner had rolled around, he flatly refused to swallow anything, which had prompted everyone to pester him about eating and, in turn, caused him to insist he wasn't hungry. They had then made it their mission, for whatever reason, to get him to eat, but no matter what enticing sweets they brought him or hot drinks they offered, he wouldn't accept the smallest drop or a meager bite of any of it. Every time they attempted to reason with him he would tune out, letting their words fall on deaf ears. Finally he'd managed to elude them and found a place he was sure no one would disturb him.
However, it was imminent that someone would eventually discover where he was and when they did, he had never intended the words he said to them, and tone in which he spoke those words, to be harsh. Midna probably hated him now. She was just trying to be nice to him, and he had rudely pushed her away. At the moment, his frustration at being trapped in this world for possibly forever was weighing more heavily on him than the guilt of being anything less than nice to his friend, so Kid stayed where he was, his back pressed against the wall and legs pulled up to his chest with Aryll's telescope balanced carefully on his knees.
"You can't stay there forever," Link's voice cut through the blackness of the room, and Kid raised his bowed head to look at his counterpart. Link was leaning against the bookcase across from him with arms crossed as he watched Kid carefully, his lantern emitting a soft orange glow from where it was attached to his hip.
"Why not?" Kid wondered, his tone razor sharp without him wanting it to be. Link was evidently taken aback by the way he spoke, and Midna reappeared. So she hadn't abandoned him after all. She had gone to retrieve Link. Kid couldn't tell if that was supposed to be an act of friendliness or payback.
"I told you to be careful what you said to him," Midna admonished Link, eyeing him mischievously, "He's snappy like a Deku Baba. Watch out or he might just bite your head off." Offended by Midna's description of his undesirable attitude, Kid nearly retorted to her comment but bit the inside of his cheek to refrain from doing so. If he did say something, he'd just be proving her point further. However, he did glare at her, for which she maturely ignored him.
Link sighed but tried again. "Look, I know accepting it isn't easy and no matter what I say you'll find some way to deny it, but if you really want to get your friends and sister back, you can't keep being pessimistic. Starving yourself won't bring them back either, it'll just make you sick."
'Eating won't bring them back either,' Kid wanted to say but didn't for fear of how it would come out.
Link continued when Kid didn't say anything. "There is a way to get to your world, and we'll find it. We'll do it on our own without any riddles to mislead us, so don't worry. It'll be okay."
Kid shook his head vehemently in response. "No, it won't be okay!" Kid snapped, his voice bitter. This time, he meant it. Never had his counterpart lied to him before but here he was doing just that. Was Link really so desperate that he was resorting to the use of lies as a form of reassurance? "If there was a way back then we would have found it by now! We've been practically all over Hyrule, and we still don't know how to get home! The light spirits don't know, the Great Deku Tree doesn't know, no one knows! The only way I see us getting there is putting together the Triforce and wishing ourselves there, but that's not going to happen because no matter how many Triforces of Courage and Wisdom we have we'll always be missing power, and without it we can't assemble the Triforce! Face it, we're stuck here."
"There has to be another way to do it," Link insisted.
"There's not!" Kid cried, his voice a bit muffled since he had buried his face in his arms.
"You guys didn't get here with the Triforce, so it shouldn't be your only hope of getting back," Link pointed out, "There is another way to reach your world. I bet it's so simple that none of us have thought of it yet."
"Link, that doesn't even make any sense," Kid complained, beginning to remember one of the reasons why he hadn't bothered to listen to this spiel earlier.
"Yes, it does. Sometimes I don't see things that are right in front of my face. Take Tetra for instance. I never for a second suspected her of being a princess," Link said.
"But that's different," Kid argued.
"Not really," Link disagreed. "Come on, you're tired. If you feel the same way in the morning then we can argue about it as much as you want, but right now you need to rest."
"I don't want to," Kid stubbornly refused. In truth, he wanted nothing more than to lay down and have dreams sweep him away to a place where he'd forget everything, but he knew that there was no point. All of his worries would just come rushing back like a tidal wave in the morning.
"You can sleep in here if you want," Link offered.
"No, I don't want to do that," Kid replied, the edge in his tone becoming a bit duller as his weariness began to return.
"Then what do you want?" Link wondered. What Kid really wanted was to go home, but that wasn't an option. He wanted to know if Medli, Makar, and Aryll were okay. He wanted to stop feeling helpless. He wanted people to stop telling him what he needed and let him figure it out for himself. He wanted to stop not caring if he hurt his friends' feelings because, deep down, he really did care, but being nice, for once, seemed to take more energy than being mean.
Maybe that was why he couldn't help but spit out the words, "I want you to leave!" And immediately wanted to slap himself for it. He didn't though. He stayed right where he was.
"You don't mean that," Link said. It wasn't a question. It wasn't even a statement. It was a plea. A plea for Kid to tell him that he had misunderstood. That Kid wasn't actually yelling at him to leave when he was just trying to help.
"I don't know about that, Link. He did go to all this trouble just to hide from us. Maybe he's serious," Midna commented quietly when Kid failed to respond.
"Are you serious, Kid? Do you want us to leave you here?" Link asked. By the way he said it, Kid knew that Link was expecting an answer in the realm of no. However, Kid wasn't even sure what would make him happy now, or if not happy, at least satisfy him temporarily.
"Great. He's giving us the silent treatment again," Midna observed, but she had it wrong. He wasn't giving them the silent treatment. Not by choice. He didn't know what to say or if he should even say anything. Deciding took more effort than Kid felt he could muster. Instead he leaned his head against his knees and closed his eyes. When his cheeks grew wet, Kid couldn't believe it. 'Why am I crying?!' Kid thought, exasperated, 'Just because I can't decide what to do? Since when do I cry over stupid things?'
Not understanding his tears only made them fall faster. Kid didn't know exactly when he learned to cry without producing any sound, but he was thankful that he had made it a habit since neither Link nor Midna noticed. Then again, it was also dark so that probably had something to do with it too. Either way, he heard his counterpart sigh in what he interpreted as defeat and the quiet tap of his footsteps on the floor as he walked away.
Without knowing why, Kid raised his head to watch Link's retreating back, a pang of hurt striking his heart as he witnessed his counterpart leave. Had he really given up trying to console him? 'Turn around,' Kid requested silently, concentrating on the back of Link's head, hoping that the older boy could feel his eyes on him. If he did, he didn't show it.
Paying no mind to the ache in his muscles, Kid grabbed his sister's telescope and got to his feet, bolting out of the corner he had squeezed himself into. He ran to catch up with Link despite the way his cramped legs protested against the action, so it was no wonder that he stumbled. Kid would have fallen but his momentum had carried him farther than he realized. Because of this, Link was able to grab his arm to keep him upright.
"I take that as a no," Link noted as Kid straightened, rubbing away the evidence of his tears with his sleeve.
"You did that on purpose," Kid accused him, unable to hide his scowl, but the lighting was so poor that he couldn't be sure Link even saw it.
"Hey, I didn't know that you'd follow. I thought you were mad at me," Link replied, releasing his hold on Kid's arm.
"I'm not," Kid informed him, weariness creeping into his voice. He could only assume that Link nodded in response, for the next thing he knew, his counterpart was guiding him out of the library and down the hall, up at least three flights of steps, and into a different room than the one they had shared before. It was noticeably larger with a fireplace, already lit, and intricately crafted golden sconces leaping with light placed at regular intervals throughout the room to provide further illumination. In reality, they only made the shadows larger. The floor was covered in a soft blue and violet carpet sporting a cross-stitch pattern while the walls were painted a rich purple. The two beds were the largest pieces of furniture in the room. Each one could easily accommodate two people if need be.
Kid was ready to leap into the nearest one and fall asleep, and he would have, if Link hadn't reminded him that he still had his sword and shield strapped to his back. He hastily attempted to remove his gear which turned out to be a bad idea because as soon as he moved his left arm the wrong way pain blossomed in his shoulder. Until now he had completely forgotten about the wound. It was mostly healed thanks to the fairy that had sacrificed herself for him, but the fairy's magic could only mend so much.
"Need help?" Link asked. Kid nodded numbly, and Link began to undo the straps that secured the weapons to Kid's back. He carefully removed Kid's sword and shield and set them aside against the wall. Once that was done Kid kicked off his boots, set Aryll's telescope carefully on the bedside table, and crawled into the closest bed, closing his eyes and expecting sleep to come and take him away. When it didn't do so immediately he changed positions, curling up on his right side so as not to irritate his sensitive left shoulder.
After thirty minutes of squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to enter the realm of dreams, Kid sat up in exasperation. For whatever reason, sleep eluded him. Glancing over at the other bed, he could tell that Link was asleep and leaned his head heavily on his hand, jealous that his counterpart was blessed with sleep while he was cursed to remain awake.
Kid endeavored to try again and flopped back down, pulling the covers over himself and letting his eyes slide closed. Though his body was still, his mind raced, unable to settle itself down enough for a peaceful slumber. Eventually Kid became fed up with it and resigned to his fate, opening his eyes. However, what he saw before him wasn't what he expected to see.
Water. It surrounded him on all sides. It took another moment for him to realize that he was actually underwater. In fact, he was nestled deep within in its blue depths, as he could barely see the sunshine filtering in through the ripples on the surface. Upon coming to that conclusion his chest began to burn, his lungs begging him for that which he just remembered he needed to survive, air. Firmly holding his breath and determined to reach the surface above, Kid righted himself in the water and pushed off from a nearby rock, kicking his legs and using his arms to propel himself upward. Swimming at this depth was challenging. It weighed his already heavy limbs down and the pressure of the water fought him the whole way to the top. Yet, somehow, he made it, and once he broke the surface his face was instantly pelted with needles of ice cold rain.
Shivering now, for the once lukewarm water had suddenly turned frigid, Kid tried to keep his head above water as the swells in the ocean became more vicious. Dark, foreboding storm clouds swirled in the sky, the only light coming from the occasional lightning bolt that struck some unfortunate thing in the distance.
A scream sounded over the crashing of the storm tossed waves as they slapped against each other and the loud claps of thunder that nearly split the sky in half. Kid knew that scream. It was Aryll's. Frantically treading water and turning every which way in an attempt to find his little sister, Kid shook his wet hair impatiently out of his face. After what felt like an eternity, he spotted her not too far away and fought against the current to reach her.
"Big Brother!" she cried, her tears of terror mixing with the rain falling from the sky. He grabbed her and held her close to him, instructing her to wrap her arms around his neck, so she wouldn't get pulled away by the waves which seemed to be working even harder to tear them apart.
"I'm scared," Aryll whimpered, tightening her grip on him as another flash of lightning lit up the steely sky.
"It's okay. We'll be fine," he assured her, despite not entirely believing it.
'There has to be a ship we can flag down, or an island that's close by, or something!' Kid thought to himself, his eyes desperately searching for their salvation as he struggled to tread water. Suddenly Aryll was wrenched out of his grip by the hungry ocean, and he lunged for her hand before she was dragged under the thrashing waves. For a second he made contact. For a second he held her hand tightly in his. For a second he was hopeful. Then his wet hand slipped out of hers, and she was gone.
"Aryll!" he screamed, knowing that she wouldn't hear him. She couldn't. He felt something latch onto his ankle and before he knew what was happening he was submerged once again. Only this time he wasn't working towards the surface. This time he was being pulled down by force. He hadn't even had time to take a breath. Kid couldn't find the strength to fight his assailant for the salt water stung his eyes, entered his nose and filled his mouth until he began to choke, his pleas for help nothing more than a flurry of bubbles.
Never once did his attacker slow or falter. Kid found himself being pulled faster and faster towards the inky blackness of the bottom of the ocean from which nothing and no one ever returned.
Soon the black consumed his vision, his ears popped from the water pressure, his chest constricted, and it felt as if the entire weight of the world was concentrated there. He wanted it to leave, to drown already, so he didn't have to feel it anymore.
And suddenly, he didn't. Instead a childish giggle rang out above him, and Kid cracked open his eyes to see his little sister peering down at him, her face beaming. Bright white light framed her small form.
"Hee hee! You're always so sleepy Big Brother! C'mon, let's play!" Aryll invited him, skipping out of view, so the sun's blinding rays struck his eyes. Squinting into the light, Kid instinctively brought up his hand to shade his face. Confused, he sat up and looked around, multi-colored dots speckling his vision every time he blinked. Kid quickly came to the conclusion that he was on the beach of Outset. The surf lapping at the shore was a pure, glistening white, the water a clear blue. The azure sky was sparsely dusted with white clouds. No signs of a storm, or that one had even come through. 'Was it a dream?' Kid wondered.
"Big Brother!" Aryll called, reminding him that she was waiting for him. 'Of course it was a dream.' Kid told himself, turning around to look at his little sister. She smiled at him, hopping impatiently from foot to foot. 'Aryll's right here. She's fine. And I'm obviously alive.' Kid allowed himself to smile back as he stood and made his way towards her.
"What do you wanna play?" Kid asked his sister.
"Uhhmm….how about…" Aryll scrunched up her face in thought, "How about good guys verses bad guys?"
"Okay, but we'll need more people to play. It's no fun with just two," Kid replied.
Aryll shook her head, pouting, "We can too play with only two of us!"
"But then we can't both be good guys," Kid pointed out.
"I know. That's why you'll be the bad guy," Aryll announced, pointing at him with her telescope as if officially bestowing him the title.
"But I don't want to be the bad guy," Kid said, thinking that his sister was being uncharacteristically unfair. "Let's just get Joel and Zill to play with us."
"But they can't!" Aryll insisted.
"Yes, they can. Let's go find them," Kid said, setting out towards the bridge that connected the two sections of the island. Aryll trailed reluctantly behind him, dragging her feet in the sand. It was only then that Kid noticed how empty the island felt. Sure, not many people inhabited it, but there was always someone else outside to strike up a friendly conversation with. Never was the island so quiet, so sad, so…lifeless.
When they reached the bridge, there was no sign of the two little boys that usually played there. He turned to his sister who was humming quietly to herself.
"Aryll, where is everyone?" Kid questioned her. For some reason, he felt that she knew.
"Gone. That's why we can't play with anyone else," Aryll answered, looking up at him with a small smile, "I like it best when it's just us playing together anyway."
"What do you mean by gone?" Kid pressed. Something wasn't right. He could feel it.
"Dead," Aryll replied simply, almost as if she didn't understand what that meant.
Kid was horrified. "D-dead? How…how did that happen?"
"You really don't remember?" Aryll wondered, tilting her head to the side with a concerned expression coming over her little face.
"No. I don't. What happened?" Kid demanded, his terror transforming into impatience.
She giggled, and Kid had to refrain from shouting at her. What was she laughing about? Was she playing a trick on him? Had he just fallen for it? Probably. Kid decided to go along with it and waited for her to answer him. "You killed them," Aryll announced finally, her tone of voice almost playful. He refused to go alone with that. Aryll wouldn't make such an evil thing a part of an innocent prank.
"I…" Kid trailed off, unable to finish the sentence as he looked down at the water beneath the wood of the bridge. The liquid below was a dark crimson that lacked the distinct transparency normal water showcased. Mortified, Kid looked to his little sister who continued to smile at him. It was a warm smile filled fit to burst with childish innocence. Behind her he could see wet, crimson footprints in the sand.
Looking down at her feet he was surprised to find no trace of red. However, when he redirected his gaze to his own feet, scarlet caked the bottom of his boots like mud. Unable to take anymore, Kid shut his eyes and sank down to his knees. 'This isn't real. I'm dreaming. Wake up! Wake up!' he ordered himself. Daring to open his eyes again he was dismayed to see that nothing had changed. The scene before him was the same. Without knowing what else to do, Kid ran. He ran away from his little sister, or what should have been his little sister. It wasn't her though. He knew it wasn't. It couldn't be. Aryll would be so scared right now. Just like he was.
The fake Aryll yelled for him to wait, but that only gave him more incentive to run faster. He cleared the bridge and kicked up sand as he ran across the small stretch of beach. Where to go? Where to go? Where could he go? He pinched himself hard as he ran, hoping to wake himself up for he now knew that he must be dreaming. He had to be. This couldn't possibly be real. Could it?
"Big Brother, please! Wait for me!" Aryll cried. Her voice echoed in his head. It seemed to echo all around the empty island, across the never ending wine red sea, relentlessly pursuing him. Kid unsheathed his sword, intending to cut down the trees blocking his path. However, just as he moved to do so, his eye caught the liquid smeared on the metal, and he instantly dropped the blade, stumbling back in an attempt to distance himself from it.
Closing his eyes once again, he attempted to slow his breathing. 'Maybe if I really concentrate I can get out of here,' Kid thought. However, his concentration faltered and his heart skipped a beat when Aryll wrapped her arms around him from behind in a tight embrace.
"Don't leave me alone!" she pleaded. Kid didn't have the heart to pull away from her. What if she really was Aryll? 'She's not!' Kid reminded himself, squeezing his eyes shut tight as if the action would help him realize the truth, 'She's just in my head, on my mind. That's it. She's nothing but an illusion, a figment of my imagination. Just like this place. I'm not really on Outset. I'm not home. I'm very far away from home, from my sister, from everyone.'
Kid's eyes snapped open in the darkness. It took him a second to realize where he was, but once he did, he noted how tangled his blankets had gotten around his midsection. Not his little sister's arms. Just blankets. He took in a shaky breath and let it out. Disentangling himself from the many thin sheets he had on top of him, Kid threw his legs over the side of the bed and quietly padded over to the washroom which was conveniently connected directly to their room via a wooden door.
Thankfully, a couple candles were already lit, so Kid had enough light to see by as he splashed cool water on his face in an attempt to calm down. His heart was still beating faster than normal, his breaths short and uneven. Kid was determined not to disturb Link though. He'd already been enough of a jerk to him earlier, so the least he could do was let him sleep even if Kid himself was having trouble doing just that.
Kid raised his head, gazing wearily into the mirror before him. Even by the light of the candles it was enough for him to witness exactly how tired and disheveled he looked. A flash of red momentarily lit up in his reflection's eyes, and Kid shook his head. 'Great. Now I'm seeing things,' he thought. Returning his gaze back to the mirror to confirm that it had just been a remnant of his bad dream, Kid was startled when he saw red, glowing orbs peering back into his own. He leaned closer to the mirror, squinting his eyes. Surely he was going crazy.
Hands shot out and wrapped around his throat. Nope. Definitely not crazy. Kid instinctively grabbed the hands by the wrists, trying to pry them off of his windpipe. Breathing became increasingly difficult, so Kid couldn't do much more than stumble back on his feet, pulling another version of himself out of the mirror. A version with fervent crimson eyes and a black tunic.
"O-off!" Kid barely managed to squeak out the command. However, his assailant paid no mind to it and continued to choke him. Colors swam before his eyes and black rimmed his vision. Still, his enemy would not release him. Instead, he was slammed hard into the wall. Kid blinked. That was it. He blinked, and suddenly he was grabbing at nothing, lying flat on his back in bed.
Kid cautiously sat up and took in his surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place. The fire crackled low, providing less light than it had earlier. All of the sconces were now devoid of light but he guessed that was because they had burned out. Despite that, he wasn't going back to bed. What if he closed his eyes and some new horror awaited him? He knew he couldn't handle it. Not alone. 'Maybe I should wake Link,' Kid pondered, 'He won't be that mad, right?'
Deciding to take the risk, Kid hopped out of bed and nearly tripped getting over to where his counterpart slept, partly because he was in a terrified rush, partly because it was dark, and he couldn't see that well.
"Link," Kid whispered. When his friend didn't stir, he dared to raise his voice a little louder.
This time he was met with success as Link groaned and rolled over to face him. "What is it?" Link mumbled, still half asleep.
Kid bit his lip. 'I had a nightmare,' sounded childish in his mind, and he was sure it would sound even dumber were he to actually utter the words aloud. He could tell that Link was going to drop off back to sleep if he didn't say something soon so Kid improvised. "I can't sleep," he claimed.
"You were sleeping earlier, weren't you?" Link muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he propped himself up on an elbow.
"Sort of," Kid replied.
"Kid, now's not the time for games," Link sighed, his voice tired.
"I..." Kid trailed off. He knew this was a bad idea. Seriously, it wasn't like he'd never had nightmares before, so why was he letting it get to him now? "Never mind. Sorry." Kid took a couple steps back and watched as Link laid down again. He then turned around to go back to his own bed but bumped into someone. Startled, Kid jumped back and looked up. There stood Ghirahim, his black saber pointed dangerously close to Kid's neck.
"Sweet dreams," Ghirahim purred before lowering the sword so it was poised just over Kid's chest and then thrusting the blade forward.
Kid let out a short, involuntary scream, confused when he found himself falling. At this point, he was prepared for an endless pit of doom, so he was surprised when the floor caught him with a dull thud. Stunned and disoriented by his new position, Kid didn't dare to move. 'Am I still dreaming?' he wondered. He waited for the floor to suddenly cease to be. After all, his mind was still playing with him. Wasn't it?
By now, the line between reality and dreams was worn thin, frayed and unraveling to the point where Kid could no longer distinguish between the two. Was this real? Was the hard floor beneath him tangible or was it simply a place his tired mind willed into existence?
It was then that he realized someone was speaking and their words were directed at him. The thudding in his chest was so loud that he was sure the other person in the room could hear it too, as it practically shook his body with the force of it. Kid attempted to quiet his breathing as well, which was quick and ragged to his ears, but he quickly found that he didn't possess the knowledge on how to even it. Somehow, he'd forgotten what it felt like to breathe normally. Despite this, his ears managed to hear the voice just enough so Kid could identify the speaker as Link.
But was it really Link? That thought caused him to voluntarily tune out to everything but his own isolated mind. 'What if he's not really Link like Aryll wasn't really Aryll? What if he's half dead on his feet? What if he's going to turn into a monster and kill me? What if…?' Kid thought, unable to decide if he should run or find something to defend himself with. If he remembered correctly, his sword and shield were on the other side of the bed. If he could just reach them…
No. It was better to stay still. Stay quiet. If he was still dreaming, then something bad was guaranteed to occur as soon as he took any form of action, whether it be a verbal reply or a physical stand. It was like an unspoken rule of the universe that constantly worked against him, but was it working against him in the real world or an imaginary one in his head? As far as Kid was concerned, silence was safety, and it was for that very reason he clung to it like a lifeline.
However, Link, if it truly was him, persisted in his mission to get Kid to respond in some way, and Kid was finding it increasingly difficult to resist the temptation to reply as the seconds slowly withered away. It would be so easy to make a small sound or pick himself up from the floor, but he knew that in doing so, he would be surrendering his safety.
He was okay right now. Nothing threatened to hurt him, and although he was scared, as long as he didn't do anything to alert the fates that he was there, nothing would happen. That is, he was pretty sure nothing would happen. His mind controlled the dream, right? So as long as he believed that he would be okay, laying there silent on the floor, then he would be.
Without any prior warning, or perhaps there was one, he wouldn't know otherwise because he hadn't been listening, a hand descended onto his shoulder. Kid automatically flinched, bracing himself for the feeling of claws digging into his flesh and inflicting new-found pain into his already sore body. To his bewilderment, the touch was light, uncertain, as it rested there on his shoulder.
Now Kid chose to listen to the voice that spoke. He didn't know why he felt inclined to do so, but, for some inexplicable reason, he wanted to listen. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong time to do so, for Link was no longer speaking.
Feeling ridiculous for asking but not being able to bear not knowing, Kid prepared himself for the continuance of his chain of nightmares and whispered, "Is this a dream?"
"No. You're awake," Link answered, his voice a calm sort of quiet. Was that really true or was Link just saying that because that's what his dream self wanted to hear? He didn't have any time to think about it further for Link went on to explain, "You were having a nightmare. I was about to wake you, but you fell off the bed before I could."
That certainly explained his current position, but part of him still doubted his counterpart's words no matter how soft spoken they were. At this point, he couldn't trust that Link's concern was real. There was a possibility that it was all a trick, and once Kid fell for it, the endless nightmares would resume.
The room was also darker than it had been in his precious dreams. That had to mean something. There wasn't a single light to provide the room with illumination. Kid had never been a fan of the dark. It was so open, and yet so claustrophobic at the same time. Finding what lurked within the blackness before it found you was oftentimes a losing battle that Kid always opted to shut his eyes on. He did this now, fully aware of the fact that it was still dark. He didn't know why the darkness behind his closed eyelids was more tolerable than the endless black of the room. It was the same shade of black, but somehow it seemed less threatening, if only because he could control it to some degree. Nothing could jump out at him from the darkness his closed eyelids created. Absolutely nothing except the images his memory couldn't help but recall.
A flash of red was enough of a reminder to startle Kid into opening his eyes and sitting up. However, the red wasn't consumed by the darkness like he wanted. It persisted in a lighter shade, and Kid scrambled to his feet.
"Wait a second! Relax, Kid. It's just my lantern." Link exclaimed, grabbing Kid's arm before he could bolt. It took a second for Link's words to register, but once they did, Kid's wild gaze settled on the only light source in the room. The tiny red and orange flame burned furiously behind protective glass, illuminating half of Link's face and throwing shadows across the rest of it. "It's just my lantern, see?" Link repeated, lifting up the object by its handle and setting it down on the bedside table as if to prove that it was real. Kid's gaze lingered on the single flame, as if he didn't quite trust that it wouldn't grow into a blazing inferno in the next few seconds.
"Calm down. You're awake now," Link assured him, directing Kid to sit on the edge of the bed.
"P-prove it," Kid ordered, failing to hold his voice steady as he sat down. Part of him felt that he was awake, but his conscience warned him to be cautious.
"Prove..." Link trailed off, his tone disbelieving. "Kid, I promise you, you're not dreaming."
"How do I know that?" Kid wanted to know.
"You know, because I just told you three times," Link answered honestly, "Why do you think that you're not awake?"
"Because I had a nightmare and then I woke up, but I didn't really because I was still in it, and then I woke up again, and thought I was awake for real, but I wasn't. And now I woke up again, and you're telling me I'm awake but…" Kid rambled as Link attempted to follow.
"But you're not sure because the other times it was fake," Link finished for him, sitting beside Kid on the bed with a thoughtful look on his face. Kid nodded, beginning to doubt that he was still dreaming since Link seemed to be acting genuine.
"So does something usually happen by now?" Link wondered, after a minute of silence.
"Yeah," Kid admitted, looking around the dark room. The lantern's light didn't reach very far so distinguishing would be threats was nearly impossible.
Link took a quick look around too and then announced, "I don't see anything, and we're still here. I believe that you're awake. Do you?"
Kid considered it. Usually something did happen by now, and nothing had. That didn't necessarily mean he wasn't dreaming, it just meant that he wasn't having a nightmare. Then again, none of his normal dreams were ever this tense, and no one ever tried to calm him down in his dreams before. They never had to because he either didn't need to be comforted or didn't expect to be. Kid's tense posture gradually relaxed as he came to the conclusion that he must be awake.
"Yes," Kid responded.
"Good. Now, breathe," Link instructed him, "Deep breaths, not short ones."
Until now, Kid hadn't noticed that he was practically hyperventilating. He immediately tried to slow his breathing, but now that he was conscious of it, he couldn't seem to control it. He also became increasingly aware of the fact that he was trembling as well, but he couldn't stop that either.
"In through your nose, out through your mouth," Link supplied, slipping an arm around Kid's shoulders and pulling him closer as if that would help keep him still. Kid closed his mouth and inhaled through his nose, attempting to hold it since it wouldn't be a deep breath otherwise. He found that he had to take a breath and therefore quickly let the air out of his mouth and tried again. Each repetition brought him closer to breathing normally, and after five minutes he regained control of himself.
"Are you ready to go back to sleep now?" Link asked him.
Kid didn't think he'd ever be ready to go back to sleep. Sleep meant dreaming and dreaming meant nightmares. His feelings must have shown on his face, for Link changed his question.
"Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?" Link offered.
"No," Kid muttered, knowing that Link would hear him no matter how softly he spoke. Kid didn't want to think about his nightmares so talking about them was also out of the question. Unfortunately for him, he found himself unable to think about anything else.
"Are you sure? You're just going to keep thinking about it until you do," Link pointed out.
"How do you know I'm thinking about it right now?" Kid challenged.
"Because you're talking about it," Link said, a smile forming on his face.
"No, I'm not. You are," Kid argued, pulling away from his counterpart.
"Hey, I'm not trying to fight you," Link informed him, his smile fading into a frown.
"Then what are trying to do?" Kid wondered. Now that he was awake and alert, Kid's embarrassment was swiftly escalating. Nightmares were far from a new experience for him and, while he'd had terrifying ones before, none had affected him to such an extreme degree as this. The fact that he hadn't been able to control himself upon waking and had needed to be calmed down by Link made it worse. He didn't want anyone to see him like that. Especially Link. He and Tetra were trying so hard to prove that they weren't children that needed to be looked after and cared for twenty four seven as Link and the princess believed they were. If there had been any doubt earlier about him blowing their chances of getting their counterparts to view them differently, then there was no doubt surrounding that fact now. He had blown it.
"I'm just trying to get your mind off of your nightmare," Link explained. As nice a gesture as it was, Kid knew that it was futile. If, by some divine intervention, Link managed the feat of getting him to forget the nightmares that had awoken him tonight, it still wouldn't solve the problem of his waking nightmare. His sister and friends were gone, and while he'd like to think that he was done lamenting that fact, he wasn't. Not even close.
"I'm fine, Link. Thanks," Kid announced, plastering a fake smile on his face and hoping that it would be persuasive enough to get his friend to leave him be. Judging by Link's expression, it wasn't, but his counterpart got to his feet nonetheless.
"Have it your way," Link sighed, picking up his lantern and extinguishing it. The pair of them were instantly plunged into darkness. Link parted for his own bed, this action communicated solely by the tell-tale creak of the floorboards expertly concealed beneath the carpet. Kid knew what his counterpart was doing and it wouldn't work. Just because it was dark meant nothing. He had holed himself up the pitch black library earlier. He'd been fine then, and he was fine now.
To prove it, he laid back down, making to pull the blankets over himself and realizing a second later that they had fallen off the bed with him earlier. "Doesn't matter. I'm not sleeping anyway," he told himself as he rolled over onto his back. Kid then laid there, wide awake, and began his staring contest with the dark as he waited for morning to arrive.
When the sun finally rose, it did so reluctantly, in Kid's opinion anyway. Its ascension seemed belated but that probably had something to do with the fact that he was tired and waiting for the sun to rise was akin to watching paint dry. Nevertheless, morning arrived with plenty of birdsong to accompany it. Not the cawing of seagulls, he was sure to note.
His empty stomach immediately reminded him of his negligence to it, but he did his best to ignore it. It had been doing that periodically throughout the night and had only gotten worse each time. However, memories of his nightmares refused to vanish, rendering any sort of appetite he otherwise would have had nonexistent. What if one of his nightmares was a premonition? Tetra got them sometimes, and he knew that she didn't feel well afterwards. However, he had no idea what her symptoms usually were and asking her seemed inconsiderate. 'I'm probably just being paranoid,' Kid told himself.
Sitting up and glancing at Link, he saw that his counterpart was still sleeping. Kid couldn't bear the thought of waiting to get up any longer though, so he quietly slid out of bed. His eyes instantly fell on Aryll's telescope which must have rolled off of the bedside table during the night without him realizing it. He refused to let it rest on the floor any longer and picked it up, carefully replacing it on the bedside table. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he regarded the telescope. To him, the object seemed duller, the black eyes of the skillfully painted twin seagulls on the side more lifeless, the red and yellow paint less vibrant than usual. It was almost as if the telescope itself was just as sad as he was about Aryll's absence.
His thoughts were interrupted by a shout. Kid jumped and turned to face the sound just in time to see Midna come flying out of the shadows by their door.
"Wake up, heroes! There's trouble!" she exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Kid asked, his despair temporarily forgotten as he watched Midna streak past him towards where Link was just awakening.
"Yeah, why are you waking us up? It's, like, dawn," Link complained, his voice still drugged with sleep.
"Try twilight," Midna corrected him.
"Huh?" Kid wondered, puzzled, but getting to his feet anyway.
"Midna, it's too early for riddles. Just tell us what you mean," Link requested, holding back a yawn.
"No time for that. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Come on, to Zelda's room!" Midna declared, disappearing into Link's shadow as if ending the conversation.
"I guess we're going to Zelda's room then," Link announced, getting out of bed. Kid tugged on his boots and followed Link to the door in silence, not even trying to mask the fact that he'd been awake for quite a while. The two of them exited the room and hurried to the Princess of Hyrule's bedchambers with a cautious urgency. At first Kid expected it to be some kind of joke, waking them up early, not that he'd been sleeping, and encouraging them to make haste to the princess' room. In the end it would all just turn out to be some scheme cooked up by the girls to brighten his mood. If so, the joke was on them because his mood adamantly refused to improve.
When they reached the double doors leading to Princess Zelda's room they weren't very surprised to find two guards stationed there. Kid briefly contemplated an apology but then thought better of it. These men had no way of knowing that it was he who had knocked them unconscious a week ago with a boomerang in order to spring a surprise visit on the princess. Besides, they might not have even been the same guards as last time. In Kid's opinion, all of the soldiers looked alike but that was probably the point of the uniforms.
"Halt," both guards ordered, locking their spears in an X formation in front of the door.
"The princess is expecting us," Link informed them.
"The princess is expecting you?" the one on the right repeated in a tone that implied he wasn't convinced Link was telling the truth.
"Yes," Link confirmed, and Kid nodded his agreement. The two sentries shared a glance. They both removed their weapons from the barrier they'd created, and the one on the left rapped twice on the door closest to him before cracking it open and asking if the princess was indeed expecting someone.
"Yes, let them in," came the princess' reply which provoked the guard to wave them inside.
"So where's the fire?" Link wondered as soon as they were both inside and the door had slammed shut behind them.
"Out on the balcony. Look to the right," Princess Zelda said, ignoring Link's levity and motioning them both to follow her. Even though it was early in the morning, Kid was still a bit taken aback to see the princess in a nightgown, albeit a rather fancy one. Her light brown hair was slightly mussed as it fell around her shoulders and down her back. Seeing the princess looking so informal was a new experience but he quickly got over it and trailed behind Link as they made their way to the back of the room.
The morning air was chilly as they stepped out onto the balcony, but Kid's tunic kept him warm enough. He immediately noted that his best friend, Tetra, was already there. Like the princess, she too was garbed in a nightgown. It was a soft cream color with lace decorating the hem and collar, and looked to be just a little too big. Kid could only assume that Princess Zelda had allowed her to borrow it, especially since he knew that Tetra wouldn't wear such a thing by choice. However, it was much more basic than her other dress, so Tetra probably viewed it as an improvement. She didn't spare him so much as a glance as he leaned on the railing beside her and peered down at the land below. From here, there was a perfect view of the town and its center, already coming alive with the early risers. Rather than watch the town slowly wake up, Kid searched the sky for any indications of a bad omen. Straight ahead and to the left the sky was a light baby blue and peachy pink as the sun crept steadily higher in the sky. Looking to the right, there was a major contrast. The pastel colors gave way to a deep gold and dark plum purple, bordering black.
"Oh…I get it now. Twilight," Link said matter-of-factly as Midna reappeared at his side.
"Yeah, and by the looks of it, it's already covering the entirety of the Eldin Province," Midna added.
"How long has it been there?" Link wondered.
"We really have no way of knowing," Princess Zelda admitted, "It could have just appeared there a few minutes ago, or it could have been there for hours."
"It wasn't there last night?" Link checked.
"I didn't see it," Princess Zelda replied.
"Look, what really matters is dispelling it as soon as possible, not figuring out how long it's been there," Midna interjected.
"Okay, let me grab my stuff, and then we'll go," Link sighed, getting what Midna was hinting at.
"Wait a moment, Link," Zelda ordered, "Even if you two do manage to get the Eldin Province back to normal, who's to say that Zant won't just go back and shroud it in twilight again?"
"As usual, Zelda's right," Midna reluctantly agreed, "We need to take care of Zant once and for all if we don't want this to keep happening." She gestured at the gloomy skyline to the west for emphasis.
"What do you suggest then?" Link asked the princess, "I doubt Zant's just going to show up saying, 'Here I am! Come and kill me!'"
"Well, since the Eldin Province has already fallen into the grasp of twilight, then Zant is most likely advancing towards the closest spirit spring to cover the next province in twilight, which means, if he has any sense, he'll be targeting Lanayru," the Princess of Hyrule explained.
"But aren't we in the Lanayru Province right now?" Tetra inquired, her voice effectively betraying her worry at being trapped in the unnatural twilight, though Kid didn't know what she was so worried for. He was the one that would turn into a wolf if the province was consumed by twilight.
"Yes, which is why I'm suggesting that Link and Midna head to Lanayru's Spring as soon as possible. Zant is probably making his way there as we speak, if he hasn't reached it already," Princess Zelda said.
"Got it. We'll head to Lanayru then," Link announced, "Hopefully we can catch Zant before he can do any more damage."
"For goddesses' sakes be careful," Princess Zelda warned.
"Relax. Zant's not as powerful as Ganondorf or Ghirahim," Midna disregarded the princess's concern with a roll of her eyes, "He just thinks he is. Don't worry, we'll actually kill him this time." After last night, discussions of killing, even of people who somewhat deserved it, wasn't a topic Kid wished to be participating in or listening to. The way Midna said it especially unnerved him. It was like she had no remorse for planning to kill Zant, but considering everything he had done to her, Kid couldn't really blame her. His mind briefly flashed to the memory of his sister informing him ever so sweetly that he had murdered everyone on the island, perhaps even everyone on the Great Sea. It took more than nine people to produce that much-
"You okay there?" Link wondered, effectively pulling Kid out of his thoughts. Glancing up at his counterpart, Kid realized that his uneasiness must have shown on his face, and he nodded mutely, leaning back into the railing until it poked him almost painfully in his spine. Link and Midna turned to leave, and Kid almost asked to accompany them. However, he knew that without proper food and rest, he was no good to them. Besides, they had experience with Zant that he did not, and he wasn't in a fighting mood to begin with. So Kid stayed where he was, flanked by two princesses, and watched his companions go, feeling more like the child everyone saw him as rather than the hero he was supposed to be.
