Author's Notes:
While I stick very closely to the HTTYD movie/TV show lore, I take liberties with the LoZ elements. Please read with an open mind, as if this were a new game.
New chapters on Wednesdays. The whole thing, 30 chapters plus Prologue, is written and will be posted!
Hiccup coughed himself awake. His groggy eyes observed the clearing they had sheltered in that evening. The fireflies had disappeared, and only the three-quarters-full moon lit the sleeping forest. Still dreaming, he thought glumly as he rubbed his eyes, barely taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. He ran his fingers through his hair, and they came back white. Ash? He glanced up. A red glow cowered at the edge of the clearing. His eyes widened. Fire.
Just then, a ball of flame hurtled from the tree line into the clearing. Hiccup rolled out of the way just in time as the flames scorched the woven blanket where he had been lying.
"Fire!" he shouted, jumping to his feet. "Everyone, wake up!" He ran towards the Deku Tree. Saria was just coming out. "Where's Link?" he asked. As if on cue, the Hero sprinted from the other direction, hood down, ponytail flying, Master Sword in hand.
"What do we do?" Hiccup asked as the three grouped.
Saria stared wide eyed at the growing red glow. "Normally the magic of the Deku Tree would keep the fire out, but…"
"But now we need a new plan," Hiccup finished.
Link peered into the blaze. "This isn't a natural fire," he said, taking a few steps forward. He gripped the amethyst hilt in his left hand and put his right back protectively. Saria grabbed his free hand. He didn't turn, but he could feel her trembling. He squeezed back.
Hiccup trained his eyes on the edge of the clearing. Something was moving in the smoke and shadows, between the hollow trees. A roar bellowed from the glow. Then, a blast of fire rocketed from the tree line.
"Run!" Link yelled.
Hiccup dashed but saw Saria in his periphery still standing there. He ran back, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to the cover of a large rock. A fiery branch crashed behind them.
Hiccup peeked over the boulder at Link who charged forward toward the flames, skidding to a halt as a hulking creature bounded out of the fire. Twice as tall as Link, its thick skin was barely visible through the flames emitting from its body. Four legs like tree trunks crouched, ready to charge. A thick tail with a bulby-end the size of an apple cart swished behind. Twisted horns framed the black eyes squinting through the flames that jetted from its wide nostrils.
Stoker class, Hiccup thought, reverting to dragon categorization. He automatically began running through possible weaknesses but got distracted when Link gripped the Master Sword. A golden triangle appeared on the back of his hand and glowed as bright as the sun. Those are some cool gloves, Hiccup marveled. I wonder what they do.
The creature roared, and Link raised a hand to block his face. The air around him rippled with heat. A few dry leaves on the ground burst into flames.
Something tickled Hiccup's knee. He was about to brush off the leaf when he noticed the two round eyes. It was a korok, and it was clinging to his leg. He looked at Saria whose face was nearly as pale as the ash on her clothes.
"We need to get them out of here," she said, her voice shaking.
Hiccup scooped up the trembling korok and held it against his chest. "What about Link?"
The two watched the hero battle the creature. The flames and breath of the creature prevented him from getting within striking distance. For every step he took forward, the beast forced him three steps back, leaving a trail of sizzling hoof prints.
The beast snarled and charged. Link tumbled backwards into the stream. Saria screamed.
The beast leapt to bite at him, but as soon as its feet touched the water, it howled loud enough to shake the Great Deku Tree itself. It stumbled back and lifted one blackened foot out, the flames extinguished.
"Of course," Hiccup said, hitting his head with the heel of his hand. "Water." He grabbed Saria's arm before she could rush out. "Where does this stream come from?!"
Saria's puzzlement lasted only a moment before her eyes widened in understanding.
\\
Link scrambled out of the water and stumbled to his feet. The beast paced on the far side of the bank, its form wavering like a mirage in the desert. It snorted small jets of fire that scorched the ground. Link slashed at it with his sword, but it leapt out of the way and bellowed. He barely had time to shield his face in the crook of his elbow. Even from several feet away, the blast from its mouth was like a giant furnace. The unprotected tips of his ears immediately began to blister.
"Link!"
He looked up to where Hiccup and Saria had taken refuge and smiled in surprise. There she was, his little sister, standing tall with her hands cupped to her mouth. He couldn't help but feel a little proud. She didn't do well under pressure; at least, she hadn't as a girl. Apparently, she had grown up in more ways than he realized while he was gone.
"Lead it to the waterfall!" she shouted.
Good thinking, Saria! He nodded, and Saria and Hiccup ran to the Great Deku Tree—no doubt, to get the koroks to safety.
The beast's beady eyes locked onto the retreating figures, and it turned to follow.
"Hey!" Link shouted.
The beast snarled at him.
Link tugged his hair into a tighter ponytail and held the silver blade before him. "You want me? Come and get me!" He jumped back over the stream and sprinted toward the edge of the clearing. The ground rumbled as the beast pursued.
\\
Hiccup cradled an armful of whimpering koroks as Saria murmured under her breath, her eyes darting around at the rest of the koroks surrounding her. Hiccup couldn't tell if her tears were just from the smoke or from the situation, too. After her initial freeze, she had been able to keep her wits, and together they had gotten the koroks assembled safely on the hill overlooking the wooded basin that had been the heart of the Lost Woods. The roar of the waterfall could be heard not far away.
Wiping sweat from her brow, and accidentally smearing char across her face in the process, she said, "Keep everyone here."
Hiccup pulled back in surprise. "Where are you going?"
"Makar is missing."
Hiccup looked in disbelief at the hundreds of koroks on the hill. Of course, each was unique, but he was baffled that she could tell who was there and who was absent. He looked back to where she had stood too late. All that was left was a trail of dust leading back into the fiery forest.
\\
Link sprinted in a haphazard zig-zag pattern as bursts of fire exploded around him. He skidded across a pile of dry leaves, wobbled, nearly tumbled, kept running, an arc of flames licking his heels. He tugged at a pouch on his belt—trying to retrieve a handful of helpful berries—but felt heat catching up to him. Not enough time. He swung the Master Sword behind him, deflecting a fireball, but the force of it knocked him forward. He channeled the momentum into a dive, sprang forward and bounced back to his feet. He was about to jump to the right to scramble up some boulders when a blast of fire cut him off, trapping him in a corner.
He grabbed the claw shot from his belt and aimed up into the smoke. The claw launched from the gauntlet, the chain clanking loudly as it unwound, and latched around an unseen branch. Link clicked the button to retract it, but as it whisked him to safety, a glob of fire hit the chain. This attack wasn't like the fireballs; it was thick as lava. The coated chain glowed yellow, then white, and then snapped.
Link fell to the ground and felt something crunch in his ankle. He tossed the broken claw shot aside, spun around and held the Master Sword with both hands as the beast stopped mere feet from him. Trapped again with no retreat this time.
Though he'd never fought this kind of beast specifically—with the horns and bulby tail—the eyes were the same as so many he'd vanquished in preparation for Ganon, the inky orbs reflecting red and orange from its own flames. And then there was the tell-tale sign of the evil incarnate: a red mist that trailed off its body like the breath of a phantom.
The beast snorted and stepped forward. Link winced as he shuffled backwards, the injured ankle making itself known, and sliced the air with the Master Sword. The beast hesitated only for a moment before continuing its advance. It had its prey cornered, and it knew it.
It took a step forward, then stopped. The snout tipped upwards. Jets of flame blew from its nostrils as it sniffed. Link wiped his slick face on his sleeve, ignoring his throbbing ankle, and fumbled in his pouch for a handful of icy berries. Though they only gave a few minutes of protection from the heat, that could be the difference between victory and… He didn't want to think of the alternative.
The beast continued to sniff. What has its attention?
Link was about to swallow the berries whole when he heard it. Through the crackle of flame and snapping of branches, a distant voice cried.
"HELP! LINK!"
His blood froze.
It was Saria.
\\
Hiccup's finger tapped incessantly against his leg. She's been gone too long. Getting to his feet, he puffed out his chest. "Everyone…" he said, trying to project his voice over the koroks' babble. Immediately, they hushed, and all eyes fell on him. "… umm… stay here." With that, he unceremoniously slid down the dirt hill into the blaze.
The woods were unrecognizable from the peaceful scene he had enjoyed last night, and as Hiccup tumbled into the inferno, the world shifted to shades of orange and red. Black trees silhouetted against the ominous background towered above, stretching high into the sky so as not to be consumed by bright flames greedily climbing up their trunks. The branches whipped about like dancers performing a delirious jig.
"Saria!" Hiccup hunched low and covered his mouth and nose, but the smoke stung so badly he could hardly see through his tears. Progress was slow. He banged his shins into rocks and stumbled across fallen branches. One was on fire. He quickly patted out the embers that brushed his tunic.
"Saria!" he coughed.
"Hiccup!"
His head whipped toward the voice, and he staggered forward, brushing the smoke away with his free hand. His foot caught again, and he tripped into a large fallen tree. The splintering bark burned his hands.
"Hiccup!"
Her voice was crisp and close. He looked down. Between the branches of the fallen tree, he could just make out a mess of bright green hair and a pair of terrified eyes. "Get me the Wind Waker!" Saria's shaking fingers pointed toward a glint of silver on the ground. He grabbed the wand and passed it through the branches to her.
"I can keep the smoke back," she explained, "but we're trapped in here."
Hiccup looked at the size of the fallen tree. It was at least as tall as a sailing mast and twice as thick. His dad would have been able to carry that without a thought. But he wasn't his dad.
"Can you go out the back?" he asked.
"No, there's too much fire that way!"
He noticed flames creeping down the branches towards them. Even with Saria blasting the fire with wind, it devoured the dry wood at an alarming rate.
Hiccup frantically looked around him. "Maybe I could use something as a lever—"
A branch snapped, and Saria screamed. The entire tree was about to collapse on them.
Without thinking, he grabbed the trunk and heaved with all his might. It felt surprisingly easy, for the first moment. Then, the full weight of the tree began to weigh on him, and, to his dismay, he realized he'd barely lifted it to knee-level.
"Come on, Saria!" he groaned. She squirmed through the tiny opening, scraping her face and arms on the twisted branches. Hiccup felt his grip slipping. Hurry.
She was only halfway through when a shower of sparks scattered across Hiccup's head and shoulders. He shook his head and looked up just in time to see a great, fiery branch crack and fall towards them.
\\
Link heard the distant, shrill cry; the snapping, grinding collapse of wood; and saw the eruption of fire.
"SARIA!"
He leapt to strike the beast still blocking his way. The beast swung its tail at him, hitting him solidly in the chest and knocking him to the ground. The berries flew from his hand.
Link wheezed and tried to regain his breath as the beast continued to sniff the air. Then, it flared its nostrils and ran towards the voice.
Link leapt forward and grabbed the bulby end of the tail—the only part of the creature that wasn't on fire. He gripped with all his might as it dragged him along the ground. Pulling his feet in front, he managed to dig his heels into the grass—gritting his teeth as the throbbing ankle buckled—and pulled them to a stop.
The beast turned to snarl at him. In a flash, Link grabbed his canteen, popped it open, and threw the contents in its face. The beast howled.
Glaring through the sputtering flames, it gave Link its full attention.
"That's right," Link said. "I'm the one you want."
The beast bellowed. Link leapt behind a fallen branch to get cover from the burning air, crouching behind for a moment of relief before it was blown away.
The beast charged forward. Link backflipped just in time and scrambled up the boulders toward the stream's head, not daring to look back. He felt the heat at his back and smelled the acrid scent of burning hair. Almost there. Almost there.
He clambered up the hill, higher and higher, and ran to the edge where it suddenly dropped thirty feet. He was trapped again.
As the beast squared up to him, he turned. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" he goaded.
The beast charged straight ahead. At the last moment, Link leapt up, turned a flip, and tiptoed on the back of the beast as it went flying over the edge. The Hero landed safely back on the cliff and immediately covered his ears as the beast splashed into the pond below. The howl rattled his skull but eventually died out.
Link picked his way down the cliff, sliding down the dirt, until he was face to face with the beast. The waterfall, blocked from view from where the beast had fallen from, pooled in this small pond before running down the hill into the Lost Woods.
Link covered his ears as the beast, standing in the shallow water, bellowed harmlessly at him. "Not so hot now." The beast snorted and braced its powerful legs. Without the flames, it looked naked and even uglier than he had imagined.
Link grabbed the Master Sword with both hands. "For the Deku Tree." A tear slipped down his cheek. "For Saria."
He was about to jump, his signature finishing move, when—
"Wait!" Hiccup grabbed Link's shoulder.
He shrugged off Hiccup's hand. "What are you doing?! I can kill it!"
"You may not have to."
Link stared as Hiccup took one step and then another towards the wild creature.
He felt another hand on his shoulder. The soot mottling her face exaggerated the green of her hair and eyes and brightness of her smile. Link nearly collapsed from relief.
Grabbing her shoulders, he said, "Are you hurt?"
"I'm a little cooked, but I'm okay," Saria assured. "Hiccup found us. We were trapped under the Two Beam Tree. He got us out."
The massive Two Beam Tree? Link gaped and looked back at the skinny boy, registering how smoked he also was.
"What is he doing?" Saria said. "Hiccup, get out of there!"
\\
Hiccup heard Link and Saria's warning to retreat but continued anyways, one step at a time, palm extended like he had done so many times. Ever since he realized it might be a Stoker class—maybe a distant relative to their own Archipelago dragons—he knew he had to try to make a connection. If he could end the cycle of violence at home, maybe he could do it here too.
The beast stamped the water, snorted, backed up as far as it could into the rocky wall. Hiccup stopped about a foot away.
"It's okay," he said softly. He looked into its eyes. They were completely black, not like the koroks which sparkled. These seemed hollow, like looking down a deep, dry well. It bared its teeth at him and scraped its front foot against the watery ground. Was it his imagination or was red mist trailing off his body? A shiver inexplicably came over him.
Hiccup sensed something about to happen, and then everything happened at once. The beast charged. Saria yanked him to the side. Link leapt up and brought the sword down on the beast's head, deftly back-flipping off before the carcass even hit the water. And then, most surprising of all, the beast's body disappeared in a poof of black and red smoke.
"What… What was that?" Hiccup choked.
Link caught his breath and sheathed the beautiful sword. "That… was a shadow beast." Turning on Hiccup, he said, "What was that stunt?" The sudden sting of Link's tone hurt nearly as much as the shock from the yellow jelly.
"I'm sorry. I thought—"
"What, that you could talk to it? Like the bulblins? You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"You tried to talk to bulblins?" Saria asked. Hiccup shrugged and looked away.
Link glowered. "Remember: either you're with Ganon or you're not."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't let it happen again." Link spun on his heel and walked away.
Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. Saria was still at his side from where she had pulled him to safety. "Thank you," he mumbled.
Saria got to her feet and crossed her arms. "That was stupid. Noble, but stupid."
Hiccup looked up to see a twinkle in her eye. "I've been called worse," he said with a half-hearted smile. "I guess we're even."
She winked then turned to see Link on his knees, blankly staring at the billows of black smoke. The only trace of the Great Deku Tree was the orange glow that consumed its wide branches.
Saria knelt next to him. His voice was barely audible over the crashing water and the pops and crackle from the Woods. "I did this."
"No," she said sternly. "They did this. And now—" She pulled him to his feet. "—you have work to do."
"I can't leave you now."
"We'll be fine. Besides, you're the Hero of Legend. If anyone can do it, it's you."
Link held back the tears welling in his eyes. He pulled her in for a tight hug. He couldn't help but wonder—after everything that went wrong, everything that continued to go wrong—if this would be the last time he would see her.
As Hiccup approached, Saria pulled back and looked her brother dead in the eye. "Get to the Sage. Find the princess."
"What? We're leaving?" Hiccup asked. "But you need help."
"You have a more important mission." She looked down towards the remains of the Woods. "The Forest Path isn't safe. You'll need to go through the mountain." She didn't notice Link stiffen.
The kokiri girl took them by the hand and smiled up at both with an earnestness that conveyed more concern than joy. "Take care of each other," she said. Hiccup nodded. Link squeezed her hand.
The koroks had all congregated around the big people and seemed to catch what was happening. Most were holding each other with drooped heads. Makar, singed on the edges, fluttered up and landed on Saria's shoulder.
"Go save the world!" he shouted jubilantly.
Link pulled up his hood. Without another look back, he tugged on Hiccup's shoulder and began trudging up the mountain.
The koroks' waved goodbye to the two travelers as the fire raged into the night.
Author's Notes:
Did you find my Star Wars Ep 4 (two of them!) and HTTYD 1 references?
Thanks to Ari Lewis and Luke for beta reading!
