Chapter 2: The Sheep Rustlers

It was another normal day for Linkle. Today, she was taking care of her Cuccos, and questioning if was time to visit Kakoriko to get more seeds to feed her birds.

In the distance, she could see storm clouds in the distance, but if they were coming their way, it wouldn't be until a bit later in the day.

She sighed. Didn't seem like anything exciting was going to happen today.

She knelt down to let some of her birds eat from her hands. But as they approached...

Suddenly, they jumped away, backing away to the corner of her pen.

Linkle cocked her head. What scared them? They were very used to her, so...

Linkle looked around. No one was around, so then what...?

Suddenly, the Hylian girl felt a strange presence. She looked up, and...

There was something on the cliffs behind her house. It seemed to be some kind of animal... but it was hidden by the cliffside, and it was tough to make it out.

"What is...?" Linkle sounded.

"Linkle!" Someone called out. Turning around, Linkle found Lana running across the bridge to her home.

"Oh, hey, Lana! Good to see you, but, uh, do you see-" Linkle started, but she turned back around, and found that the strange creature was gone. "...Huh."

"Um, are you okay?" Lana asked as she approached.

"S-sorry, I just- It's nothing," Linkle replied, sounding defeated.

Lana looked at her friend a bit worried, but she seemed fine for the most part, so she decided to push it aside.

"So, uh, good morning, Linkle, ...I know this is sudden," Lana told her friend, "but Koyin asked to see you."

"Koyin?" Linkle asked. "We just saw Dantz yesterday. Why didn't she ask then?"

Koyin worked at the Hateno Pasture alongside Dantz. She could be easily worked up, but was kind.

"Maybe she didn't have the time?" Lana asked. "Or it didn't come up until now?"

"Well, I guess I've got nothing better to do at the moment," Linkle admitted, and started to make her way past her friend and across the bridge into town, and Lana quickly followed along.

But for a moment, Linkle stopped and looked back at the cliffs. Still, nothing was up there.

"Linkle, are you okay?" Lana asked.

"Yeah... it's nothing," Linkle replied, and continued on.

"Hey, you!" a voice called out as the girls approached the Hateno Pasture.

It was Koyin, waiting by the house by the entrance of the pasture. She looked like she was simmering, and was holding a stick angrily.

"Koyin," Linkle called out. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. You helped Dantz, right?" Koyin asked.

"I did. What, did the deer come back with a vengeance?"

"No, the deer are fine, it's the monsters I'm concerned about."

Lana blinked, before exclaiming, "Wait, monsters. I know those beasts have roamed close to the village before, but we've never been threatened by them!"

"Yeah, well, have you heard from the travelers recently. They've become more active recently. But that's not the point!" Koyin replied.

She then walked past them, and pointed her stick towards the southern path. "I would've talked to you yesterday, but you were busy helping Dantz, and I was busy scouting."

"Scouting?" Linkle asked. "You mean the monsters?"

"Yeah, they come up from Hateno Beach to steal my sheep. If someone doesn't do something soon, I won't have any left!"

"And by 'someone', you mean me?"

"Well... I was hoping to ask for your help," Koyin said.

"I can see how this is a problem," Lana chimed in, "we all need the wool and meat the sheep give us, and having monsters so close is very dangerous. But... I'm not sure. Did you encounter them personally?"

"Yeah, I did. There were those stupid ones who attack anything that moves. Last time they showed up, I gave them a taste of my pitchfork. But I had second thoughts about following them all the way back to their camp on the beach. I was mad enough to spit but maybe not mad enough to take on seven monsters at once."

"Seven!?" Lana exclaimed.

"That's how many I saw from a distance," Koyin replied.

"...Yeah, that sounds... way more dangerous than deer overpopulation. Do you think we could wait to see if some travelers-"

"I'm going to do it," Linkle interjected.

"Excuse me!" Lana stepped in front of her green-hooded friend. "Linkle, there are seven monsters! Not just one or two measly Bokoblins, but seven... savage... beasts! Plus, it's going to rain soon-"

"Koyin asked me to help," Linkle told her friend. "And we don't know when they'll come back, or when someone else will be around to help. I've got to do this. Let me grab my crossbows, and I'll head to the beach."

And off Linkle went to prepare.

Lana watched, and, well... she couldn't just let her do this. At least not alone.

Linkle and Lana began to make their way down toward Hateno Beach, making sure to walk slowly, so they could be careful as to not be caught off guard by the monsters.

Linkle was now armed with her twin crossbows, while Lana had managed to borrow a Traveler's Spear.

The storm clouds now lay above them, darkening the sky, and no doubt, the rain would soon pour.

"So, why did you come with?" Linkle asked. "I thought you were against this."

"To make sure you don't get hurt," Lana said. "Which is... probably inevitable, so more likely, I'm going to have to drag you back."

"You think I don't know what I am doing."

Under the overcast sky, the girls eventually found the light of a campfire nearby. And it wasn't likely that it would be a travelers' camp.

They began to slow down, and then sneak up a nearby hill, going up around the camp.

Indeed it was a monster den. A crude platform structure was built around a large tree that was sitting in the water, just offshore. A simple guard tower off to the side, unoccupied. And a few campfires, one set up to grill some meat.

And of course, the monsters.

"I count five, no, six bokoblins," Lana relayed, pointing out the humanoid pig-faced monsters. "Two reds, two blues... sweet Hylia, and two blacks... and there is a MOBLIN, TOO!"

"Sh!" Linkle sounded, though this was going to be tough. A moblin, another variant of the humanoid, pig-faced monster, but compared to the tiny bokoblins, they were giants, tall and lanky with longer snouts, and a large horn on top of their heads. And this one was a black variant.

The colors of a monster indicated how tough they were. Red is the weakest, with blue being the next level of toughness, followed by black. Linkle has even heard from travelers that there were silver monsters following black, and then above that, gold monsters, so powerful that they could heal their wounds in mere moments.

Thankfully, they weren't dealing with anything that powerful. But a black moblin... Moblins were powerful beasts, even when of the red variety, along with several bokoblins a varying toughest all the way up to black.

"Whelp, this is going to be tough," Linkle said, as she pulled out her crossbows.

"Um, maybe she should reconsi-" Lana started, before feeling a raindrop fall on her head. "I swear, it's been raining a lot recently."

"Good, they won't hear us coming then." And Linkle took aim.

Both crossbows were raised, and then one shot, second shot.

Crossbow bolts hit the heads of the Red Bokoblins, killing them instantly as they fell to the ground (one off the platform), and burst into a dark purple and red smog, which Lana had told Linkle before was a substance called Malice.

The rest of the monsters looked over to their dead companions, wondering what just happened.

Linkle was proud. She's only fought a few monsters in her life, as the area around her home was relatively safe, and she could usually speed through the journey to Kakoriko with a horse and cart, before monsters would become a threat.

Still, it was clear she was getting better at dealing with them, and she was excited, and loudly exclaimed, "all right, take that!"

Big mistake.

At Linkle's outburst, every monster turned towards her. They didn't care about their fallen comrades, but they were programmed for one thing: Kill.

"Oops," Linkle sounded.

"Yeah, 'oops'," Lana replied, annoyed and a little terrified.

Linkle began to fire at the bokoblins as they ran up to the girls, but now she was panicking, and while she still skills, she was only hitting the monsters in their main body, and while they got staggered, they quickly recovered. Linkle had set up a system to quickly reload the dual crossbows, but it wasn't fast enough.

Eventually, the bokoblins made it to the girls. One of the blue ones tried to strike at Linkle while was busy reloading, and she barely noticed the monster coming down on her...

...When Lana took her spear, and jammed it into its side. She wasn't incredibly strong, but she using her weight, she managed to spin it around her, and toss it to the side. It died as it tumbled away.

But this left Lana open, as the second blue bokoblins began to rush her. Thankfully, the sentiment of protection was returned, as the monster got hit in the stomach by a bolt, followed by one in the head, causing the monster to crumble to the ground.

"...You just had to leave the toughest of the monsters left to deal with," Lan complained.

"Hey, we had to deal with them eventually," Linkle countered.

"Right, I'm sorry."

The girls turned to find the remaining bokoblins, the black ones. But just as they were turning, something smacked into Linkle, launching her back towards the cliffs behind them.

They had forgotten about the moblin.

"Linkle!" Lana cried, trying to run to her friend. But the black bokoblins had flanked her, forcing her to keep them at bay with her spear.

She attempted to stab one, and succeeded, but when she pulled her weapon back, the tip of the spear snapped off.

"Oh no..." Lana sounded, as the bokoblin she stabbed painfully pulled the spear tip out of its body, but seemed to be mostly okay, while the other made faint swings to threaten her.

Meanwhile, as Linkle tried to get up, the massive moblin approached her. Linkle had dropped her crossbows when she get knocked back, and the moblin had just past them. No easy way around it, as the beast raised its hands, ready to crush her into the ground.

This was it, wasn't it? Linkle had become overzealous, and now the monsters had overtaken her. It took just one battle, and that was it.

Then she saw something... strange. On the cliffs further away from her, Linkle saw an animal. Was it the same one from before? Its form was a silhouette against the dark skies, but a flash of lightning struck, and the light illuminated the beast. Then, Linkle recognized it as a wolf.

Then things became stranger. Linkle swore she saw the shadowed wolf glow a faint... bluish-green color, as it made a movement, and... tossed something into the air.

The throw was impressive, even for an animal. The object flew over the moblin, and struck the ground by Linkle. She turned to look, and found... a sword, sticking out of the ground.

And its blade... glowed the same faint bluish-green she saw before.

And for some strange reason, Linkle felt... drawn to the blade. She began to reach for the handle, and grasped her hand around it...

The moment she took hold of the grip, her mind was filled with visions, a barrage of scenes that near instantly switched from one to the next. Scenes of monsters being fought, against someone with incredible skill with the blade, even holding a strange, yet somehow familiar sword. It wasn't the same blade she took hold of, but one thing she could tell...

She was the swordmaster. At least, seeing through their eyes...

And then, she returned to reality...

...And she was not in the same position she was in before. Before, she was barely getting off the ground, grabbing a sword. Now... she was standing upright, facing the moblin, holding the sword out, in a way that it was almost as if she just...

The moblin stared at her with a shocked expression, before he fell to the ground, his torso splitting into two from a clean, diagonal cut.

Did she... did Linkle actually...

Suddenly Linkle's attention snapped to Lana, who was trying to defend herself with the broken shaft of her spear from the black bokoblins.

Without a second thought, Linkle charged the monsters. They were a fair distance away, but Linkle quickly closed the distance. One of the bokoblins raised its weapon to strike Lana, but before it could, Linkle arrived and made an uppercut slash to the monster's side, knocking it away. Then Linkle turned around, and smacked the other bokoblin in the face with the butt of her sword, causing the monster to fall to the ground.

Linkle got in front of her friend, yelling, "get back! I've got them!" This was different. Linkle was always confident, but in this moment, she seemed so steadfast and unfaltering.

In fact, she felt... stronger, somehow. More nimble. And her senses seemed sharper, more focused.

The monsters got back up, hopped up and down in anger, and then charged back at Linkle. But the new swordswoman started to make quick work of them. Sure, the black bokoblins were fairly tough monsters, and their savage attacks hit hard, but Linkle expertly evaded their attacks, and seemingly effortlessly counterattacked.

Finally, the fight ended when Linkle parried an attack from one bokoblin, and followed with a downward slash, felling the beast. And then she spun around, and stabbed the last monster through the heart.

This last bokoblin melted into Malice, as Linkle just stood there, completely still, trying to process what exactly she just did, as the rain continued to pour down.

Lana similarly, was staring in awe. She knew that Linkle was a capable fighter, but that only counted for her excellent skill and aim with her favored crossbows. As far as Lana knew, Linkle never even held a sword before. There was no way she had the skills of a swordswoman.

And yet, here she stood. Having just slain the toughest of the beasts in this den... with the skill of a master of the blade. Beyond that, even. It was unbelievable. And yet, it happened.

Lana couldn't help but notice the odd bluish-green glow of the blade, which began to fade away, though there still seemed to be the same ghostly color in the shine of the polished blade. Where had it even come from, anyways?

As Linkle came to, she turned to look up at the cliff, where the wolf was. But once again... it had disappeared.

Linkle lowered her sword, yet her grip was tight on the handle...

The girls had gathered up the still-living sheep, and brought them back up to Koyin. Not an easy task, but Linkle had experience in handling animals, so she was able to manage it.

Still, the trek back up to the Hateno Pasture, and back to their homes was done in near silence.

Lana had done Linkle the favor of picking up and carrying her crossbows, even though Linkle had the means of holstering them. Simply put, Linkle was still in shock, and seemed unwilling to let go of the strange sword.

Everything that happened at the end of that battle... None of it made sense to Linkle. And this sword... she felt some kind of connection to it.

As they made their way to Linkle's home, Lana finally spoke up. "Linkle... are we... going to talk about what happened back there."

"We... almost died... And then we got lucky," Linkle responded. She wasn't wrong, but it left the most important detail.

"Right, but Linkle... before now, have you used a sword?" Lana asked insistently.

"No."

"Well, then how did you become such a prodigy-?"

"I don't know!" Linkle snapped. "I just... when I grabbed the sword, I saw a bunch of visions, of someone fighting monsters. And then suddenly, I snap back to reality and the moblin I was fighting was cut in half."

"Okay, and-"

"Lana, you're my best friend, but right now, I need to figure this out myself." Linkle looked up to the sky, as the raindrops fell on her. "I don't understand what happened, but right now, I feel overwhelmed."

"I... understand. And I'm sorry." Lana turned to head back. "We've been in the rain for a long time now. We'll probably get sick if we stay out here."

"Yeah," Linkle agreed, and walked into her house.

Lana sighed. Today was confusing, and as much as she wanted to know about what exactly happened, pushing the matter wouldn't solve anything.

Hopefully, the answers would reveal themselves soon.

A few days later, evening at the Hateno Tech Lab...

Purah was getting frustrated. She had only wanted to reverse the aging process to return youth to make retired warriors young again, to strengthen the Hyrulean army in the face of the Calamity's return.

Now... she was stuck as a six-year kid! Her Sheikah-white hair was still held in a big double-bun on her head, with a couple of chopsticks sticking out, and a set of bronze, butterfly-like goggles. She wore a pair of red-rimmed glasses designed like the Sheikah Eye, with red makeup on her eyes. She wore a beige overcoat-dress with a big, poofy, frilly blue skirt, along with blue arm bracers, stockings, and small, black shoes. She has taken wearing a carrying back on her back to carry important supplies, with a Sheikah flute hanging on the side.

The entire situation was stressful. Sure, she was adorable, and she loved the costume outfit she made for herself. But she was trying, and failing, to find a way to reverse this. She was getting concerned that she might just have to just... grow up again. But she had things to do! Her services would be invaluable to defeating the Calamity, once and for all! Especially since...

Purah got lost in thought, and then shook it off. There was nothing she could do about that now. The Calamity received a great victory that day, so she had to do everything in her power to get justice.

Right now, figure out the issue of reversing her age-regression. Of course, that was hard, now that the blue flame of the lab's furnace had gone out. Without that lit, the Guidance Stone wouldn't work, and she couldn't do anything to fix the issue.

She tried sending her assistant, Symin, to bring a new blue flame from the ancient furnace down in the village, but he was too clumsy and it was raining and nothing went to plan. She then had to go down there to help, but a girl in the village saw her. What a mess that made...

Many of the village boys spent each day trying to find the "little Sheikah girl" rumored to be in the lab. And well, obviously they weren't wrong, but it was embarrassing that her little issue was almost found out.

She had to find a way to relight the furnace, but she didn't trust Symin to do it again, and she couldn't go outside without her secret being revealed. Perhaps she could go out at night, but sneaking around wouldn't be easy when you have to carry a torch alit with strange blue flames up the main path. Someone was likely to wake up, and see her.

Perhaps she could ask her intern, Lana. She was a bright, young girl, and showed much potential, even for a Hylian girl. Shame she was still a bit too young for her to be hired on as an official assistant. But she could be trusted, Purah believed so.

However, there was the concern of Lana's friend, Linkle. Linkle might've caught interest in what her friend would be doing, start chatting, follow along, and could end up seeing Purah in her current state, or possibly hear about it. And Linkle COULDN'T keep a secret.

Linkle... she was an interesting girl to Purah. Purah knew of Linkle's ancestry, and was involved with her family for the few generations since the Calamity. She was even indirectly responsible for her name. Sort of. When Linkle was born, Purah had been talking to her great grandmother, and brought up her ancestor. Then the great-grandmother said that she should be given a similar name, that she felt it was "time", whatever that meant.

Unfortunately, Purah had not been as involved with Linkle as she grew up. Really, she was only barely involved with her whole family. She was just too busy with research. She felt terrible when she heard of Linkle's family members dying, one by one, but she didn't have the time to be concerned about it.

Nowadays, according to Lana, Linkle thought of Purah the same as the rest of the villagers: that she was the eccentric old Sheikah lady, who lived in the strange house at the top of the hill behind the village, and caused many explosions with her "research". And they weren't wrong, but it was still rude.

Still, perhaps Purah should consider getting to know Linkle... she was the one of last legacies of heroes' past. Of course, that would have to wait until after she reversed her age regression.

Now that it was late evening, the kids had gone home, so she could make her way up to her room at the top. So frustrating. Couldn't they just respect someone's privacy? Now she had to plan her sleep schedule around those two boys.

Symin had already gone to bed early, so Purah was now left alone to these thoughts. And as she ascended the outdoor stairs to her room...

She found her face to face with a wolf.

This gave the girl quite the scare, especially since she had little chance to survive such a beast in her tiny form. And yet, the animal returned this reaction with a look of curiosity, unfazed by the presence of the Sheikah.

Getting a closer look, he was a gorgeous beast. Blackish fur mixed with lighter greys, and blue eyes. He also had strange white markings on his forehead.

Those eyes... however, Purha swore they looked familiar.

Well, he wasn't hostile. Perhaps he was a tamed beast, or just gentle, having lost his way.

"You're a good boy, aren't you?" Purah said softly, trying not to spook the beast into aggression. "You are a boy, right?"

The wolf nodded in agreement. Strange, in this one interaction, he seemed highly receptive to spoken language, more so than any other creature of his race. How unusual.

"Uh, my name is Purah," the young Sheikah continued.

Then the wolf looked at her in shock and confusion. In turn, this confused Purah. He had no business knowing of her situation, given that he was an animal, not to mention he was probably far from home.

But she decided to humor the beast. "This... is the result of a failed experiment. It's a long story..."

The wolf seemed to accept this explanation.

This was such a curious case. Perhaps he could tell she used to be an older woman. It wasn't an impossible theory, she had been a little girl a few weeks now, but wolves have a strong sense of smell, so perhaps he could still detect the faint scent of an old lady on her. This would mean that she could tell the average age of a human through their scent. But then this would mean this wolf must've spent a lot of time hanging around humans.

But then there was the curious case of his reactions to what she said. It seemed almost... human-like. And that was quite fascinating!

Then things got weird.

The wolf opened its jaw, and a strange black shadow began to form in its mouth. This did freak Purah out, as her first immediate thought was that the wolf was somehow about to shoot some dark, corrosive substance at her. But then the shadows took a solid form in the wolf's mouth, that of a round, glass bottle, corked and filled with some liquid.

Purah calmed herself, and asked the important question: "What did you just do?"

Was this some kind of magic? Magic was rare in the current age, and she never heard of animals using magic.

Then the wolf stepped forward, and pointed the bottle at Purah.

"Do... you want me to drink this?" she asked.

The wolf nodded.

Purah carefully pulled the bottle from the wolf's mouth, and examined it. Inside seemed to be an elixir, specifically, a spicy elixir. Its properties would allow your body to temporarily generate heat, enough to keep you from getting cold in the harsh snows of the mountainous regions of Hyrule.

She couldn't be sure of its quality. The better the elixir's quality, the more effective it is and the longer it lasts. Well, there was only one way to find out?

Purah popped the cork, and downed the elixir. Immediately, she could feel its effects, and her trained mind could tell that it was a very strong elixir, lasting quite a while...

Unfortunately, she only had a split second to put this together, as she overlooked one thing... While she had tested many elixirs in her research, and was used to drinking them, as hadn't accounted for the fact that her age regression also reverted her taste buds to a more sensitive taste. And a spicy elixir was, well, spicy. Especially a spicy elixir this strong!

The heat was unbearable. Purah started crying from the pain on her tongue, and it took all of her willpower not to start wailing. She could barely control herself, how embarrassing!

She had turned away from the wolf on the steps above her, so she could sit down, so she didn't notice the wolf roll its eyes, and then approached her from behind.

Then he grabbed the back of Purah's dress, and lifted her into the air, letting go and letting her fall onto his back. Before the girl could react, the wolf then began to run down the steps, forcing her to grip onto his fur so as not to fall off and take a tumble. That could hurt.

Then, as he got off the stairs, and started running down the path, he began to turn into shadow... along with Purah!

Moments later, they reappeared and reformed on a snowy path, ascending up along a cliffside. Then the wolf slowed down as they reached the top of the path.

As the wolf stopped, and let Purah off, she ran to a big pile of snow. Her mouth was still on fire, and needed something to cool her mouth off, and was the best she could get in this situation. Too bad she didn't have any milk.

This was humiliating. This wolf has single-handedly burnt her tongue, causing her to cry like the child she had become, then dragged her off to who knows where, while she had to start eating snow...

Wait, WHERE was she? The presence of snow made little sense, as Hateno was a fairly warm region...

She turned back to the path they climbed up, and the village wasn't there. In fact, they were quite high up...

Looking down the actual mountain they were on, she could see a familiar shape in the distance. It was hard to make out this far away, but she realized that it was the Hateno Tech Lab, atop its hill.

While Hateno was a warm place, Purah knew that the Lanayru Range was just north of them, and that it was a sky-piercing, snowy region of mountains.

Now the spicy elixir made sense. The cold in the region could be deadly, but the effects of a strong enough spicy elixir could prevent you from freezing to death. The spicy heat on her tongue was painful and uncomfortable, but at least it wouldn't kill her, and was preferable to dying in the cold.

But now, she had to wonder how they got up here so quickly. Was it when they turned into shadows? Was that a form of teleportation? And which mountain were they on, anyway?

She then turned around, and found a spring near the peak of the mountain, with a stone statue of a winged woman standing in the middle of the pool.

A statue of the goddess Hylia...

This is when Purah realized that she was standing on Mount Lanayru, the largest mountain of the range, and the home of the Spring of Wisdom.

Now this was concerning. While the legend had faded into obscurity since the Calamity, Purah remembered that you could only travel up to the Spring of Wisdom when you were seventeen, old enough to receive such wisdom. This wouldn't be a problem for Purah normally, except now she had regressed to an age almost a dozen years below seventeen. So did this count-

Purah's thoughts were interrupted as she heard the splashing of water. She noticed that the wolf had begun to step into the spring.

Then, if the whole situation wasn't weird enough, the wolf began to glow a bluish-green color...

And then he began to change form.

Soon, standing in the water was a ghostly image of something humanoid. And then his form stabilized, still transparent and surrounded by the bluish-green aura, the form of a Hylian.

He then turned around, and Purah was shocked by what she saw.

The ghostly Hylian had neck-length blond hair, tied into a ponytail in the back, with the same blue eyes he had as a wolf. He was a blue shirt, the shirt of a Champion of Hyrule, before they all perished.

He smiled, and said, "it's been a long time, miss Purah."

The little kid replied quietly, "Link?"

Author's Note: Man, that last section with Purah took longer than I thought it would. It made up almost half of the chapter.

So, yes, if you didn't already guess, the spirit that merged with the wolf was Link! And now Link, Hero of the Wild, is Wolf Link. So, you're probably wondering why?

As I've seen, most BotW fanfic writers love to add Wolf Link, usually setting it up as if he actually is the Hero of Twilight from Twilight Princess, somehow having traveled into the far future, tasked with aiding the hero of the era, while stuck in wolf form (likely because he was in his normal human / Hylian form, it could cause a lot of confusion). So, was it as simple as me wanting to try something different?

Well, kind of. Really, it was because, while preparing to start writing this story, I began to question if I wanted to do something else with Link, other than have him die. I even asked my sister about it. But then, I was playing, of all games, Genshin Impact. My sisters wanted me to try it, but I haven't played much. Only recently have I gotten to Liyue Harbor. But that's irrelevant.

Well, I was playing Razor's first quest, and this got me thinking about wolves and wolf-related stuff. It's then I recalled Wolf Link, and his role in BotW. That's when it clicked: Have the deceased Link become Wolf Link, and guide Linkle.

This idea is also based a bit on another Twilight Princess character, the Hero's Shade, who is believed to be the fabled Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, having turned into an undead Stalfos, and filled with regret. Now, this Wolf Link is not planned to have as a minimal role as the Hero's Shade, but it'll make more sense in the next chapter.

We'll come back to Wolf Link in a bit, so let's talk about Purah. Yeah, I had to write her as overthinking things, regarding her age-regression issue. Because it really feels like it. Heck, when you meet Purah again, she seems okay with the idea of being a cute girl. She just doesn't want anyone else to see it. But this wasn't the situation to showcase this.

And yes, the spicy elixir was too spicy for her. I'd figure that since she's become a kid again, then her taste buds are no longer prepared to handle spicy foods. I mean, I'm pretty sure kids have difficulty handling spicy foods. Heck, even adults don't like spicy stuff. I mean, I don't like spicy stuff. Always kind of annoying, when my whole immediate family is together, and they go get snacks, they'll get spicy chips for "everyone", forgetting that I HATE spicy stuff. Thanks for leaving me out, just because I'm the only sibling who doesn't like spiciness.

But I digress, I just thought this could be a funny Purah moment.

Now, let's spin back to the beginning. So, since Linkle is starting her journey in Hateno Village, instead of the abandoned Great Plateau, I needed a good call-to-action moment (or at least, one of them), and the side quest "The Sheep Rustlers" seemed like a good one. This is the only side quest that involves a direct threat to the village, or at least part of it.

Kind of strange, too. I know Hateno was safe from the Calamity, but monsters still roam close to the village. Heck, there is a whole Talos near the entrance of the village, but they either haven't noticed, or aren't concerned about that.

Lastly, it's time to talk about that sword, and this is where we come back to Wolf Link. So, if you haven't noticed, it's the same sword from last chapter, the one that nearly killed the wolf, and then after Link merged with him, took with him. But what did he do to it to change Linkle so much?

Well, you know how the spirits of the Champions give you their abilities? Well, that's what Link did here, but with two differences. One, instead directly gifting her his power, he passed it along through the sword. To be clear, the gift is hers now, she doesn't technically need the sword anymore, but she clearly isn't going to give it up. It still has its uses, perhaps more than just as a good blade...

Two, instead of a specific ability, Link granted her his experiences, specifically all of the skill he had in life as a warrior. He basically taught Linkle the art of the sword in an... irregular way. Sure, Linkle could be a prodigy with the sword, but she would still have to practice a bit, ...and perhaps Link doesn't feel that they have the time to do that.

And something you should consider about this. I know it is a topic of debate on whether Age of Calamity is canon or not, but one thing I don't think you can deny is that it's still a prequel, despite not following the story's original direction. Especially considering the characters.

In this case, I'm talking about Link. Age of Calamity clearly shows that Link is an exceptionally skilled warrior (supported in BotW by that one memory I mentioned last time, where Link and Zelda are in the aftermath of a fierce battle against a large hoard of monsters). However, after awakening at the beginning of BotW, it seems Link's memory loss also affected his combat skills. He's still pretty good, but he's lost his touch.

But consider that the Link that passed on his knowledge to Linkle, is one who hasn't lost his memory... If you were wondering if Linkle would have her abilities from Hyrule Warriors, well technically she shares abilities with someone from a different Hyrule Warriors. Otherwise, Linkle just has excellent aim with her crossbows.

Also, something I've heard suggested is that Link does have a Champion Ability. In one of the Champion's journals, it's mentioned that when Link focuses, it feels like time slows down. This refers to nocking an arrow in the air, or getting a perfect dodge and Flurry Rush, when time slows down. And this is what could be Link's Champion Ability, and I don't disagree with the idea. It sounds like Time Break in Sonic and the Secret Rings, where you slow down time, including yourself, just so you can time things better.

And sure, in Age of Calamity, everyone can use the Flurry Rush, not just Link, and Link is still the only character who slows time while nocking arrows in the air. Not even Revali, the Ace Archer, can do this, which is kind of hilarious. Revali hates Link, but it has nothing to do with their archery skills, when a power like this should put Link almost on par with Revali's archery skills.

Point is, Link might actually have more than just experience and skill to give Linkle. Her crossbow skills actually could improve.

Anyways, that's all I got for now. See you later with a new chapter!