BlueShoals Author Notes:
Okay, here's the next chapter.
After being captured by the prison in this new world, Link falls asleep in his cell for the night.
Ever since leaving Hyrule, he's had dreams about his past, from the times growing up in Kokiri Forest, and continuing on from there, in seemingly sequential order.
In this chapter, his dreams start up again, a few years after being sent back in time by Zelda.
Note that this chapter is a dream. Duh.
Enjoy.
Chapter 1
Link dreamt, his restless sleep offering him little in the way of recovery. Recovery he was in dire need of after over two days of exploration, and a few adrenaline-soaked hours down in the sewers of a world he still knew nothing of.
As he tossed and turned, he felt his bed vanish beneath him, and plummeted into darkness.
He snapped awake, bolting upright beneath silken sheets, and found himself on a bed soft and comfortable enough for royalty. The bed of a member of the Royal Family of Hyrule. He wearily glanced to the window on one side of his large room, and the slightest trace of a frown brushed his face, seeing the blurred and smoky moon through overly extravagant drapery. He tried to move his feet over to the side of the bed, and his frown deepened as he remembered how massive the bed was. He had to crawl to the edge, and hop off, wincing at the icy marble floor on his bare feet.
He looked at the slippers under the nightstand, scoffed, and felt a frown tugging at him again.
He hated this place.
On a whim, he decided to leave this place for good. He took a warm bath, the last one, he knew, for a long time. As he sat in the tub, he contemplated how he would escape, where he would go, and what he should take with him.
Lastly, who should he say goodbye to? He'd become distant with Zelda, and in reality, they had very little interest in each other. They'd both realized that more often than not, they annoyed one another with their largely contrasting personalities. Besides, Zelda was busy with classic obligations, and Link was either wandering, or being put to work against threats to the land of Hyrule.
The same could be said for everyone he'd met. Malon found him to be too much like royalty, said he'd become pampered, and stuck up. Saria was too mature for his tastes, and didn't seem to want to adventure like him.
Of all of them, he missed Ruto the most. They had grown to be best friends, and she had such a desire for exploration that Link found himself struggling to keep up with her. In more ways than one.
He finished his bath, and decided.
What should I take? Everything. How should I escape? Out the front Gate. Who should I say goodbye to?
Link paused, his heart fluttered… Ruto.
He reached into his nightstand, extracting a key to which he had the only copy, and plodded over to his closet, a rather large walk-in that he had actually found a use for.
Inside was every piece of equipment he had collected from the time he'd started off as a child, to the artifacts he wasn't supposed to recover until the future. Clearing the closet of its treasure, he suited up in his tunic, strapped his shield and sword on, and, filling his hidden pouches with equipment, headed out the door.
He winced, remembering how the massive door squealed like a demon every time he opened it. Sure enough, it made the most unholy noises, and Link heard the rasping sounds of the royal guard's armor.
Shit…
Link ran out into the dark hallway, getting his hookshot ready, and pausing behind a pillar. Of all his equipment, he trusted his hookshot almost as much as his sword and shield, and had become an expert at using it in almost any situation.
He shut his eyes, drew a quiet, deep breath, and held it for a few moments. He could hear the guard's deliberate stomping as he headed down the hallway.
He wants to make sure I know he's there… Good job…
"Link…" the guard said. It was someone he recognized. Link almost gasped. It was Patrick, the captain of the guard.
The boy waited no longer, and, hurling himself through the air, across the hallway, planted himself firmly onto the wall. The momentum he had gained kept him pressed against it, as he saw Patrick, armed with nothing but a staff.
Within moments, he had summoned his Hover Boots, and was skimming along the wall gracefully, heading toward the exit as fast as he could. Just as he was about to reach it, however, Patrick's staff flew into his legs, tangling them up, and sending falling, long and hard, face first into the floor.
Link twisted around, his boots allowing him to slide backward slowly. He had a beastly look in his eyes, and seeing that Patrick hadn't moved from his spot, and was now behind him, he smirked. He continued through the door, to the castle courtyard, where a gate separated the castle from the town. He decided he'd go through the front gate, and that was what he was going to do.
His hubris was shot down in a mere moment, he felt a breeze, and if he had turned around fast enough, he would have seen Patrick there right next to him, arm pulled back, prepared to strike.
Link didn't have the time, and the massive backhanded blow smashed against the side of Link's face, sending him flying head over heels in the grass of the courtyard.
Link lay there, panting heavily, hearing only the pulse of his heart in his ears. The familiar suggestion of blood touched his lips. The swelling in his cheek that had flared up was already receding, and the scrapes on his knees and elbows were already sealing. After the ringing and pulsing subsided, he could hear Patrick talking, and sat up slowly, his body throbbing in pain, to look up at the man.
"… Everyone knows you want to get out of here… I can see it in your eyes… You're like a caged beast. But running away isn't going to solve anything. Go before the King. Ask that he give you permission to leave."
Link coughed, before half-moaning a sentence that took a lot of pain to speak, "He… doesn't want me to leave… I protect him…"
Patrick sighed heavily, shaking his head.
"He won't let me leave. Because he knows I won't just…" Link rose to his feet, "… I won't just leave the castle."
Patrick looked up at him, surprised.
"I want to leave Hyrule as well." Link let his lust for adventure fill his eyes, smiling like a hungry animal.
"Link, you can't—"
Before he could finish, Link was practically under his nose, dealing a spinning kick into his stomach that sent him flying several feet backward. Following up, Link leapt above the man even as he was sprawled across the floor, aimed his bow, cocked with an arrow of frigid ice magic, and released. As the man froze into a chunk of ice, Link's hookshot was embedded within the block in the blink of an eye. Using the strength of his gauntlets, he hurled the ice, and the man within it, into the locked gates of the courtyard, smashing them to pieces. Fortunately, the frozen soldier was okay, and Link beat a hasty retreat, before Patrick could thaw.
As he ran away from the castle, winding through the alleys of the town, spinning out of the way of the guards attacks, and knocking them unconscious with flurries of kicks and punches, he left the guards with increasingly more and more serious wounds. He feared that if he could not get away from this place, he might kill someone.
When he had finally escaped to the woods, he collapsed against a tree. Catching his breath, he gazed up into the moonlit branches.
Maroon-fire Pine… My favorite tree…
He heard a swirling sound that filled his head with chaos, and filled his head with freedom at the same time. He placed his palm against his head, wincing, hoping to calm the noise. It didn't work.
The noise was a cross between the flowing winds, the rushing waters, and the twisting thunder. This noise seemed to subside, but instead... it twisted into a speaking voice.
It was the voice of chaos, riot, and anarchy. The voice of life, freedom, and adaptability. The voice of the heroism, valor, and the underdog. The voice of a woman.
Oh, you have good taste, my son, the voice giggled, It's one of my favorites as well…
Link bolted to his feet, twisting wildly, to find the source of the voice. He grunted uneasily, but did not feel threatened.
Who… are you?
Think of me as… a friend. Yes. I'm naught but a friend to you. You don't have to listen to me, but…
Listen to you?
Well, yes… You don't have to… I'm your friend, however… I'm just looking out for you.
Sure…
I'm not too happy about what you did back there… those are my friends too…
Link felt a great pang of guilt that buckled his knees.
"Wh… what is this?" Link gasped. He realized it wasn't just guilt, it was pain. Pain flooding every part of his body. He felt as if he'd been kicked in the stomach hundreds of times.
The woman laughed, and the laugh seemed to tear Link's mind apart, and toss it about like confetti that settled back to where it was supposed to be.
I'll bet you feel like you've been kicked in the stomach a few hundred times. That's how those men feel. Those guards. Those… FRIENDS of mine.
At once, the images of hundreds of guards nursing their wounds, coughing up blood, holding their heads in pain, all of them flashed through Link's eyes.
Link's lungs struggled for air as he fell forward into the grass, clutching his stomach. Everything was going dark and the pain kept piling on like great, falling, steel bricks. Each brick that fell pushed him deeper and deeper into darkness.
Until all was still, and black.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for reviewing.
Hope you enjoyed a look into my version of Link's past.
In the next chapter, Link awakens, and gets down to business. This is where you'll see more of the kind of person I imagine Link to be.
The strong, silent, and a little bit mean type.