Okay so found out I got a 5 on my AP test so I'm ! very happy cause that's guaranteed college credit unless I want to go somewhere super fancy. But you're here to read Worlds, not listen to me brag.

I guess I should also start responding to reviews since I do that on Quotev. For now I'm just gonna say up here to my guest reviewer who loves Vox, it might be best to leave spoilers out? Like ones that apply to something that is from later in the story. But I love your comments!

Enjoy!


Destrian stood only two feet away, wielding a long sword and wearing a smirk. I took a wary step back, but I knew there was nowhere to go and I couldn't leave Link behind. Instead I stood my ground, ignoring every shaking muscle in my body.

"Pretty girl, where's your hero now?" Destrian winded back his blade, running forward.

My arm shot out, a quivering sheen of red bursting from my fingertips. With every second it hovered in the air, my limb throbbed more. The pain nearly choked me as his sword collided with my shield and I let it go.

"Why does it hurt?!" I cried.

Running back, I avoided another swing from Destrian and bolted to the stairs. Vox's voice prodded from inside my head.

Trying to detect if Celincia was a Vinderendetta took out more than I anticipated. I'm sorry but you shouldn't be using your magic anyway because-

"Because Link, I know, shut up!"

My first foot hit the steps, skipping as many as it could along the way. I threw a peak over my shoulder, nearly tripping as I saw him so close in toe. One last jump and I tore down the hall, yanking open a door and shutting it behind me with a slam.

I closed my lips around a breath, taking in a the mock serenity until a banging erupted from the other side of the room, cancelling out the pounding footsteps echoing through the wall. On the bed Link was wrestling with Monich, a knife slowly being pressed towards his chest. The door shook in its frame as Monich tumbled to the floorboards with a grunt.

Link's eyes met mine in a frenzy, "Maizy, thank the goddesses."

"Now is not the time!" I squealed, feeling the back of the door hit my spine. The floor creaked under my fall and when I looked back up, Destrian was standing over me. Creota's fur rubbed against my arm.

"Get away from her!" Link's voice sounded closer.

Sitting up, I tried to scoot away, but Destrian wasn't hesitant and my reflexes threw up a shudder of red as he swung downward. Link's gasp filled my ears like a bullet in my chest, freezing the room with the ice cold taste of death.

Destrian started to laugh, "I see…desperation really does lead to rash decisions."

I scrambled to my feet, suddenly wary of the capacity of the room and where everyone was. Link had slid off the bed, arm across his stomach, sword shaking in his left hand. Next to him was Monich, dancing on a thread in his peripheral, Destrian right by the door, right in front of me. Creota weaved herself in and out of my legs, blissfully unaware of the severity of the situation.

Son of a...this isn't looking good.

"Link, I-" I tried to speak, but there was no room to breathe.

"You know, when I realized you were waltzing around with the hero I thought I might be able to inflict some really nice collateral. But here I see you deny me any loss of life at all." Monich remarked, stepping up the room and prompting a shift in Link's stance, "I thought you were like my wife, but unlike her, you chose to scream despite my hands clutching your neck."

The air that went into my lungs felt null, brain fuzzy in the midst of a million flying worries. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of mentioning Ilia, I couldn't anyway, my voice would be incomprehensible against the quivers and lack of breath. Resigned into silence, I let my eyes lock on Destrian and didn't move.

"Weak," he muttered.

My limbs felt fragile, a doll's ready to be bent in half by little fingers.

Don't you dare give up on me, I can tell you're shutting down. Look up, Maizy, look up!

"Bastard!"

That familiar accented voice pierced my eardrums, a punctuated yet pleasant note, although, only pleasant because I knew it meant no harm to me. A gigantic orange fist sailed across the room, pinning Destrian into the wall.

"Who do you work for?!" Midna trembled.

A sneer arose on Destrian's face, ear to ear, "Wouldn't you like to know."

At his back, the wood began to give way. Link came up behind me, darting for the door. When I looked back over my shoulder, Monich had his dagger out, charging. Rather than let my poor instinct to stick my ground rule my every action, I ran the other way. Before Link tore through the threshold, Midna retracted her arm and fled after him, slipping under his shadow as he turned out of sight.

Monich was riding right at my heels, gaining ground with each labored stride I made. The grand staircase opened up beneath my toes, but the moment I turned to step down, a hand caught my left arm and I nearly tripped sideways. With a tug I gained enough ground to plop one step down, but although I tugged again, I couldn't get myself farther.

He tried to close the gap between us and I kicked out with my foot, hitting him in the stomach. A glimmer in his purple irises haunted each wavering second I was stuck in his grasp until Destrian came running up beside him. Link's figure came into my peripheral, but with the swing of a sword, he halted at the pain erupting in his scar. My red shield caught Destrian's blade, but shattered at my guilt. Limbs on fire, I tried to pull away again, but he wound up another slice directed at my arm.

"Stop!" I shrieked.

Another flash of red caught the sword and staggered Link, then another.

Maizy, come on!

By the next attack my mind was filled with fuzz, coordination out of my reach. My other hand flung out, tears streaking from tired my eyes. "STOP!" A blindness followed, light engulfing the room with a roar of deafening thunder. Something entered the flesh at my bicep, matching the pain striking through my chest, then came through the other end. A million nerve endings were severed, hot and stinging. I stumbled back, slipping on the edge of a stair.

My ears rung, vision blurred and blotched with black. All I felt were harsh bumps and dizziness until arms wrapped around my torso and legs. A small soft ball plopped onto my stomach, but before I could steady my vision to see what it was, the walls and floors raced by in shifting colors. The only constant was green against raucous shouts and flying figures. One word prodded through the cloudy veil around me, one harsh spike at my eardrums.

"Fire."

Warms lights shifted to cold darkness and rain. My head went heavy, lulling my eyes shut, plunging everything into darkness.

When I came to, my vision was clearer and the details of the house fronts we had walked through just this afternoon whizzed by in uncontrolled bursts. The clanking of armour followed distinctly far behind racing footsteps and coarse swears. Destrian and Monich's curses became coherently theirs the longer I was conscious.

I turned my head back, watching the horrific chase unfold behind. Just as I looked over, Destrian's arms were caught by a guardsman and he was pulled back. Monich broke ahead, but was quickly struck in the back by a spear and tripped into the cobblestone. Still, just as they were brought to their knees, they as swiftly disposed of their captors and raged on the war path once more, farther off.

As Link carried me on, I felt something prod the stump attached to my shoulder. The huge fluff of a small kitten stared back at me, then headbutted the same place again, halfway down my bicep where from there, my arm was completely gone. Her fur came back up the color of a rose.

"Link," I mumbled, but it didn't carry.

M-mai-

My chest cried as if it was being torn in two. Vox's small voice croaked back, but with each noise a pain strangled my heart. I pulled my hand up from where it dangled and wrapped it around Link's neck, burying my face in his tunic. Rain pattered, drowning out my sobs between shuddered breaths.

Link wrenched open the grand doors to Castle Town, the same ones I found myself stuck behind two days ago. The guards on the other side bared their weapons, but he dodged aside them and ran across the bridge. His fingers met his mouth, a whistle echoing into the field. Just as we came to the edge of the bridge, Epona trotted up from somewhere close by.

She shivered in the rain, letting out huffs of air as we came along. Link jumped up onto her saddle, wincing under my weight in his arms, yet getting his leg over nonetheless. I shifted slowly, my movement murky between pain and shock.

Out of the doors burst two figures, sprinting at us. With the flick of reins, their images left my view, nothing but their voices cutting through the pouring rain.

"This isn't over, you hear me?! Remember our names!" Destrian said, fading out of sight and out of mind.

Rain beat down from the heavens, soaking me thoroughly except for where Link held me close by the waist. I found Creota at the edge of the saddle, clinging on by her needle claws. Blood stained her forehead, bright crimson.

We could barely see by the time Epona stopped, but by the vague image of an ornate stone archway, I dug through my sore memories to recall the bridge just passed it...the one over Lake Hylia I concluded as Link's grip left me and I almost fell forward into Epona's mane. I barely caught myself in time, still as he slid off then put a palm on my back.

"Maizy," he whispered, soothing.

Slowly, again, I grabbed Creota into my hand and brought my leg over, tumbling off into his arms.

"You're still bleeding," he said. Concern lingered in his warm breath that tangled through my hair as he lowered me to the ground.

When he walked off, I crumpled into the grass. The rain was a blissful comfort, a rhythm countering the hoof beats as Epona took off across the bridge. Link came back and started wrapping bandages around my stump of an arm, tying them tightly on the remaining muscle. As he finished, I started to doze off again.

"Maizy," he pleaded, "Say something."

My eyes caught on the golden stain on his pants, the only part of him I saw from the ground. Everything went black for a moment, coming back in a flicker. I sluggishly remembered his question and meekly responded with a grunt.

Yet it seemed to be enough because he lifted me up and started off towards the bridge. "We're gonna have to jump down. The other way down was too obvious, they would've known exactly where we were going."

Creota meowed lightly.

"But Maizy, I need to ask you a question."

I craned my neck as we went under the archway, looking at his face in front of stone then dark sky. "Y-yeah?" I croaked.

"Do you know what happened to Ilia?"

Tears prodded their way through my ducts, pouring out over my cheeks. "I'm sorry, Link she-" Words choked my throat, twisted around so many little pains, so many bad memories. "She ran but she didn't make it. She, she...died."

My feet hit the stone cold brick. I held onto his gaze, willing him to stay with me through the storm that raged on around us. He wouldn't respond.

"Link."

His eyes shut for a moment, "She…" his head shook.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry." I wiped away the tears freckling my cheeks, but they were quickly replaced.

Link watched me, wrapping his arms around my waist. With a roll of thunder and lightning, the ornate grey brick of the Bridge of Hylia and the blood splattered on his tunic flickered in and out of sight. He held me close, climbing up onto the wall and setting me straight beside him. I could barely get up, still woozy on panic and blood loss, all my weight hinging on him. The tears didn't help and neither did the excruciating pain all up my bicep and shoulder.

Together we stood up and stared down at Lake Hylia below, water the color of tar. Small dark islands scattered the edges, far off beach sands leading to grass and then to desert. I held up Creota to Link, whispering to put her in his pouch which he did skeptically. With my one hand free, I felt the stump at my shoulder and held back another influx of tears.

Link had me tightly in his embrace now and although I wanted to feel comfort, the wrinkles on his face made my heart drop and my lungs falter. It was all my fault. "Where did my arm go?" I sobbed.

His gentle sobriety felt as though it stroked my hair, soft and soundless. "All I saw was a lightning strike, I think Destrian got you."

"What am I gonna do?" I drowned in his damp scent, "I can't do anything, how am I supposed to fight like this? How am I supposed to get back home? I can't-I didn't-"

"I'll get you home, I'll help you, you don't have to cry."

I bit back the tears, "I'm not crying."

"Maizy, don't do this."

I didn't want to be wet anymore, I wanted to be home and warm and dry. Oddly enough, that wasn't possible then. It just wasn't. And so I cried. "If I had never tagged along...Ilia would still be here, you wouldn't be hurt, Destrian wouldn't have been a problem, you could've just gone straight to the water temple."

Link let go of me, wiping away water that I thought was rain from his face, "Don't you remember the first day I met you? I would be dead if you weren't here." A strained smile curled his lips, "I trust you, don't you trust me?"

Sniffling, I hugged him tighter, "Of course I do."

"It'll be okay," he held me again, threading fingers through my wet hair and squeezing me. For a moment, I found the same words on my lips to say back at him, but my nerves were too fried to find the momentum to utter them, and instead we stood there in sweet silence in each other's arms. Suddenly, we were tipping. My feet were slipping, trying to find his but they were already off the bridge.

"Link, what the heck!"

Air rushed by, throwing my hair up behind me. Link didn't respond, merely reached for my face and pinched my nose. Before I could wiggle free, the water rushed over us and turned the world black.

I held my breath, clamping my eyes shut until we broke the surface and he swam us over to a close ledge. The ledge was made of blue stone, nearly black in the night. Ahead a cave opening allowed a peak into a large spring. Link helped me out of the water and lead me inside, walking passed what was visible from the entrance to a lowered piece of earth near enough to the water's edge that you could sit there and get your ankles wet.

He searched through his pouch and pulled out a blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders, "Go to sleep, you'll feel better by morning."

"But what about you? Aren't you tired?"

Link shook his head, pulling Creota out, "I need to think." The blanket fell off my left shoulder, swinging back and slipping off the other into the grass. I leaned down to pick it up, but he stopped me, "Before you sleep, let me look at your arm again in the light."

Lantern light filled the gap between us. His fingers weren't as gentle as I would've hoped, winces between "Stay still," warnings made the replacing of bandages more tedious than necessary. The blood on his fingers was shiny, an orange tinge visible even despite the lantern. After washing his hands and Creota's head in the spring water, he sat back down next to me, leaning into the rocky wall. We stared up into the bit of sky shown at the top of the cave, gazing at lightning strikes a jumping with the crash of thunder.

I leaned into him, at first only to be there for a moment, but when his arm wrapped around my waist, my eyes began to open and close against my will. His heartbeat and breathing became a wonderful lullaby that drawled me to sleep. Creota curled up at my feet, her wet little forehead snuggled between my achilles and opposing ankle. The last thing I remember was the blanket being draped over me before his heart faded behind the roar of dreams.


Morning came with a wash of sunlight, apologizing for the raging storm last night. The earth smelled damp under my nose as I stirred awake. Creota's cookie dough fur blocked my view but from what I could see, Link wasn't there save for his boots at the waterside. Sitting up, I reached for my stump, unraveling the bloodied bandages from where they clung. My skin was patched over and smooth.

Hey.

I rubbed my eye, yawning, "Good morning, Vox."

How are you doing?

"I want to die."

Oh, well don't do that, he paused, Listen, I'm really sorry I couldn't help you.

Shaking my head, I slid the blanket from my shoulders and scooped up Creota from the ground. "It's fine," I whispered, "You did what you could." Outside, the sunshine greeted me with bright kisses to the cheeks. Warmth filled my sore conscious and dried my hair.

It's really difficult to get the bond right, but I think I might almost be done something new. Once your magic was replenished enough I worked on it when you were asleep.

I simply nodded, falling against the cave entrance as I gazed out onto Lake Hylia which shimmered with small glints of the sun's image. To the right a wooden bridge lead to a raised island, feet off the water. At the edge of it I spotted Link, shirtless and leaned over something in his lap. Tracing my way over to him, I stopped over his shoulder and quickly marveled.

"You're sewing?"

He pulled the needle up, stopping somberly to look at me, "What else am I supposed to do?" His tunic was nearly done being stitched, neat and clean as it was, not a blood stain in sight.

"Nothing, I just...where did the blood stains go?" I sat down beside him, plopping Creota into my lap. Link gave the kitten a sideways glance before returning his attention to the green thread.

"Spring water dissolves blood. It's also known to have healing properties."

The scar on his side was bold and dark against the rest of his skin. Although his face had somewhat tanned, his body remained pale from wearing only his tunic. I pat Creota tenderly, breathing slowly as she started to purr loudly. "So um…where did you learn to sew?"

Link crossed his legs, shifting the fabric in his fingers, "Well when my mom was sent away, there was no one else at home. I was so used to rough housing and rolling around all the time that when I walked into the town one day with holes all over my clothes, my aunt sort of, taught me how to sew among other things."

"How old were you?"

"Eleven," he shrugged, "I didn't mind living alone it's just. I always hoped my dad would show up again to take care of me, but now I'm practically a man and he's still nowhere to be seen." His fingers paused on a stitch, hovering as if they had found more to do but didn't know how to do it. As he continued I looked away.

Creota perked up, sliding off of my thighs and strolling over to Link. She pawed at his legs until he wrapped a hand around her belly and lifted her to his shoulder. For a moment, his muscles tensed at her tiny claws until she settled down and fell asleep in the nook of his neck. I allowed a serene smile to creep up my cheeks before slipping back to neutrality. "You had a deadbeat dad?"

Judging by the confusion in his eyes, I didn't press him when he answered wrong, "I don't know, he's probably still alive somewhere." The last stitch looped through and he tied it off.

I swung my feet back and forth, thinking through the day I stumbled into Hyrule, "I hope my family thinks the same for me. Hell knows my mom would be devastated if her baby girl never came home. My brothers are probably going nazi on any of the boys I've ever interracted with." Sighing, I shook my head, "As if they'd be doing anything but planning my funeral...I miss my cats..."

Hey, don't mean to interrupt, but I need to be able to talk to you even when he's around, now's a good time to mention me.

"So," Link interjected, "Where'd this cat come from?"

Perfect, see?

I booped her nose and sighed, "It's a long story...but uh. On my way to Zora's Domain I found her and along with that I found uh…Vox."

Link narrowed his eyes, "Who's 'her?'"

Huffing, I corrected him, "The cat is a girl, her name is Creota. Vox is the Vinderendetta who possessed me. He's been talking to me through my thoughts."

He nodded slowly, "Right, okay then. Do you want me to sew your shirt too?"

"Eh...Link, I'm not joking." I pleaded.

Leaning back on his palms, he pat Creota on her head, "I mean. Alright, I'm sorry, I'll believe you, but if he tries to mislead you from me, stop listening to him. Now," he grabbed the holes in the two layers of my clothes, "just hold still for a bit and we can get moving. Ralis should be at Telma's. If we can get him to Kakariko quickly enough Rutela will give us what we need to get the next Fused Shadow and we'll be on our way."

It was business as usual for him. He didn't talk much as he sewed and if he did it was logistics. Either way, I refrained from trying to force it in and let him think to himself. Midna eventually popped out, yawning and prodding at him. I could tell he was agitated, especially when he accidentally stuck me with his needle and drew a small drop of golden blood.

The volley of sorry's was enough and Midna left us to silence. When Link finished up, he threw his sewn clothes on, leaving Creota to me while he ran to get his boots. His immediate lack of vulnerability was like walking into an invisible wall in a video game, tricked that way by the promise of so much more.

Still, when he came back from the spring I couldn't help but see the little boy in his eyes. His resolve made sense, of course, I had let his childhood friend die, but it didn't lessen the blow of walking into that wall.

If anything it made it worse.