A distant boom, so impossibly far away that she felt it in her chest more than she heard it, paused Malon's hand in midair. For a second, she wondered if it had been her imagination, then the whole house trembled. Just once, so gently she might have missed it if not for the clink as various ceramics on the shelves shifted. The flame on the taper she held halfway to a lantern shivered. She frowned at it.

'Now what?' she muttered. The day had turned strange in the time it had taken her to enter the house, the bright afternoon fading from the windows as if a storm had whipped up out of nowhere. Now just as she had automatically gone to light a lamp to deal with the gloom, there was… whatever that had been. Gently, she placed her hand on the wall, as if to check for further tremors… and the taper burned low enough to singe her fingers and cause a hissed outburst that would have surprised her gentle father.

One lit lamp later, Malon stuck her burned fingers in her mouth and stared around the room. Dark and gloomy as it had suddenly become, it felt… oppressive somehow, like the air had been stilled to never move again…

She was jerked out of this thought by the sudden cacophony from outside. Stunned for a moment by something she had never heard before, she slammed the lamp down on the table and ran to the door in response to every animal on the ranch making as much noise as they could, all at once.

The world outside was the same, thick and still, the same syrupy air that lingered just before a storm and picked out the world in hyper clarity. She didn't notice the gloom as she sprinted to the barn and practically skidded to a halt at the big open door. The cows were thrashing around in their stalls, lowing and bellowing at the top of their voices, the huge bodies splintering the wood as they panicked. Horses reared and whinnied, kicking and tossing their heads wildly. Malon stared, with no idea where to start calming things down, and for the first time in her life feeling afraid of an animal, when as if to an agreed signal, the entire place fell silent.

Malon shook her head in confusion, opened her mouth to say something calming... And shut it again. Every hair in the building, the horse's manes, cow tails, even some feathers on the few cuccos that had run inside, was standing on end. She glanced down and stepped back automatically, even the hair on her arms was standing straight, she shook her head and some of her own waist length hair was floating out into the air, which she only just noticed was as thick as mud.

She looked up.

'What on earth-'

The whole sky was a bruise, a rolling, roiling ocean of furious clouds, stretching almost to the horizon, where a perverse strip of calm blue licked at the edges, but the core of the storm was what held her attention as a flickering golden light wavered through the blackness. The golden aura around it changed constantly as it came through the clouds, but from her perspective it barely moved, floating gently above her like the pupil of a gigantic eye staring right through her soul.

She blinked and stumbled as another boom rattled the ranch, this one far less imaginary. Dust trembled from the rafters of the barn, and the animals started to panic again. She glanced away and back, and realised the golden… thing wasn't completely still, it had drifted very slightly away from the center. It had also become very, very slightly bigger.

That realisation snapped her out of the fog that filled her head. Wonder and confusion made way for a cold, fear filled logic. The details could wait. Something was falling out of the sky, practically right on top of her. It would not be in her best interest to stay put.

Under a minute later, with a flurry of kicks and latches and several firmer than necessary smacks to various rumps, the barn was nearly empty as the animals ran free. She couldn't corral them or lead them anywhere in good order, but they couldn't stay under that… thing. Her heart wrenched as her friends scattered and made for Hyrule Field, but she grimly told herself it was the best option as she grabbed a thick blanket from the wall.

Errin, her favourite horse, stared solemnly at her through his deep chestnut eyes as she threw the blanket over his back and quickly belted it on. No time for a saddle, but she had ridden him countless times with and without, and another rumble shook the building to tell her that speed was the best option here. Nevertheless, she took a second to place her palm on his shoulder and steady her breathing. Errin was huge, one of the biggest horses they had ever bred, and he had shown no panic since she had come deeper into the barn. The solid presence helped calm her breathing, and she patted him gently.

'We have to go, ok?' She whispered. She hoisted her skirt up around her thighs and with a quick step off the side of his stall, leapt up and swung her legs over his broad back. Lack of reins didn't bother her, she had been riding horses since before she could remember, and her hands twined into his mane. 'We have to go damn quickly.' She muttered to herself as Errin set off with almost no urging from her. He didn't want to stick around either, and she didn't blame him, she thought as they cleared the barn, glancing up at the pulsing, blinding golden flame above them.

—

'Hey! Out of the way!' Link yelled at the top of his voice, but it was the frantic hammering of hooves on stone that jolted the people in front to stop staring at the sky and look around, before jumping hastily aside.

Epona's hooves flew through the market, striking sparks from the iron banding of the castle drawbridge as she raced across, the call of the gate guard lost instantly in the wind as he fell away behind them.

Link didn't even glance back. Not important. They must have set a record time from the castle to the field, Malon would have been thrilled to see it, but Malon wasn't here. She was in the buildings that huddled on top of the hills ahead that were suddenly achingly far away, further than he had ever had to go in his life, and even though he had barely caught his breath since leaping into the saddle, the awful golden streak had come so far, seeming to speed up as it neared the ground, flickering through the clouds as it drifted gently to the side. Epona, knowing they were in the open field with no pedestrians around, somehow accelerated in kind, great clods of turf flinging skyward in her wake.

Link flattened himself to her back as much as he could, not so much riding as grimly hanging on for dear life as his insides were jolted into numbness.

Use the mask…

He grimaced and stared at the descending fireball. Was it really him? Had he found a way to break free?

Something else has… aided him…

The rest of what Zelda had managed to say was starting to form in his head now that he had a moment to think, and none of it was anything he wanted to consider. What could even attempt to break into the Sacred Realm, and overpower the Sages? The goddesses, for some reason? If they even still existed? But why?

He gritted his teeth as they raced on, signposts and trees passing in a blur. He only knew of one thing that could come close to that kind of power, and he wasn't even sure it had been real…

He felt the glaring eyes on him, somehow. That's not true at all though, is it? He lied to himself until he forgot, but if the thing under the floorboards was real, then its equally awful counterpart…

His eyes snapped open and he glared ahead to distract himself, as the ranch loomed closer, the buildings picked out of the gloom by flickery golden light that set his teeth on edge to look at, and now he was close enough to hear it, a grumbling, all encompassing roar as it scorched the air around it, twisting and spiralling through the sky. He squinted ahead into the gloom, it did look as if it might miss the ranch-

—

Malon's arms ached as she heaved Errin's huge head around. The roar of the fireball had robbed them both of any sense of calm, and he had responded by just galloping madly forwards. She made vague attempts to steer but might as well have tried to push down the castle walls, so just dug her fingers in and held on, hoping to avoid any rabbit holes or other obstacles that would break a horse's leg and doom them both, but at least their headlong flight was taking them away from the-

She glanced up and her eyes widened, the reflected gold overpowering the blue. It was still directly above her, the fire now filling the sky. She couldn't look away. Was Errin running wildly into the exact wrong place, or was the thing somehow… following her? Aiming at her no matter where she went? Her stomach tightened into a knot so small it vanished and was replaced with cold terror as they raced on, curving to the west of the ranch and into the field towards the desert…

—

'There!'

Epona bucked her head as he shouted, her chest heaving as she tried to run even faster. The huge horse, corn fed and cared for deeply, was showing her worth in a thundering gallop that ate up the field like it was nothing, but even she couldn't outrun the lightning.

They had both spotted it at the same time, as cows and horses raced past them, the fireball had illuminated the field ahead and there had been a figure on horseback in the distance, the gold gleaming off a mass of shiny red hair as the figure disappeared into the gloom, galloping away into the field.

At least she got clear of the ranch, he thought, but where the hell was she going? He glanced up at the fireball that filled the sky, and his grip tightened on the reins as it looked almost as if it was following her. And impossible as it was to tell with the distances and angles involved, but was it… slowing down?

—

Malon screwed her eyes shut as she briefly considered jumping from the out of control horse as it flew on. Maybe it would be safer, broken bones would be better than being under that thing, but her hands wouldn't let go and she screamed in frustration.

The roar filled the whole world now, echoing through her body and shaking her numb, the golden light came through her eyelids and her eyes snapped open to stare up at the sky, tears streaming out behind her from the glare. The thing was so close now, the jagged point zig-zagging through the air like an arrow fired through a hurricane, close enough that the wild descent was no longer hidden by distance, the field in front of her was picked out practically in black and white as the roar built to a fever pitch and suddenly, with frightening speed, the golden fire was no longer above her but in front of her-

'-!'

The world went black.