Link stared into the fire, occasionally glancing at the few sparks that would get spat out of it, watching them spiral down to the ground and sizzle themselves out. He shuffled across the ground, positioning himself closer to the fire, seeking refuge from the ever falling rain in the warmth of the flames. Having been soaked through, he had been surprised that the two of them had even started a fire, as the weather seemed intent on ending any sort of attempt of lighting any combustible item aflame. Link was more intent on having his fire, and with much trial and error, he finally managed to light one. And now here he was. Still being a little bit sick.
Navi flopped down on Link's shoulder, her glow dimmed slightly because of the rain. For a while they just sat there like that. They had already made themselves an impromptu dinner out of the provisions in the satchel; they also had taken the dead Bokoblins and had buried them under a few fallen branches that they had found. They couldn't travel safely in this downpour, as they wouldn't be able to see any approaching Bokoblins or thieves, and it was just plain miserable to travel in a downpour of this magnitude. Eventually, Navi spoke up.
"What's wrong?" she asked in a small voice, concerned.
Link turned his head slightly to glance at Navi before turning it back to look at the fire. "Nothing's wrong, don't worry." he responded, stirring up the fire with a stick.
Navi huffed, and Link felt her sit up a little straighter; if he had been looking at her, he might have seen through her dimmed glow that she had crossed her arms. "We both know that something's bothering you, denial or not." she said.
Link stopped poking the fire and laid the stick to the side. He kept looking directly at the fire, obviously avoiding Navi's statement. After around five minutes of silence, Navi was about to give up and forget about the conversation, but Link started speaking, telling her what was bothering him.
"I killed them." he blurted out, hugging his legs closer to him.
"What?" Navi asked, confused.
"The Bokoblins." Link continued. "I killed them without a second thought. Like they were a bug, with no feelings at all."
Navi stuttered, not sure how make her friend feel better. "B-but, you make things that kill all the time. You don't feel bad while you hammer a sword into shape."
"Making a weapon to kill and killing something yourself are very different." Link said, turning to the satchel beside him and rummaging around in it. "You don't feel like you've ended a life when you finish a sword." Pulling a hood out of the satchel, Link put it over his head and tightened the knot, shielding his head from the rain. Navi grabbed some of the fabric that fell down over Link's back and draped it over her own head, keeping her front side still visible. Her glow almost instantly brightened.
"Do we really even know if Bokoblins have anything other than instincts? That they have feelings such love or loss?" Navi asked slowly after a few moments of silence. Link tensed a bit and Navi thought that he was going to take offense at her suggestion. But he slowly softened again after a few minutes. Navi sat in the renewed silence, listening to the patter of the rain hitting the ground.
After about half a minute, Link sighed. "We don't know anything about instincts in Bokoblins and the sort." he said. "And I know it probably sounds stupid, but I can't help but feel bad about killing something that acts so much like Hylians." he finished. He listened to the crackle of the fire for a couple minutes before getting up and digging around in the satchel for a bedroll. Navi pulled the edge of his hood tighter around herself and watched as Link laid it out on the ground.
Braving the rain for the few seconds she would have to be in it, Navi hopped off Link's shoulder and allowed him to lie down on the bedroll and get himself comfortable. Once he'd stopped moving Navi dropped back down onto his arm, gathering some of the hood fabric she had covered herself with earlier and curling up in it again to keep watch. She didn't need to sleep. Fairies needed much less sleep then Hylians did, and she caught the occasional nap throughout the day.
And the least she could do to repay Link was to watch over him at night.
Darkness. Fear. Fear. Darkness.
No.
No, wait.
This had happened before, hadn't it?
Remember… Try to remember…
Ah! Yes, it was behind me last time, was it not?
Link whipped himself around in the endless black, once again to see the monstrosity that awoke him last time. It was just as big and ominous as last time as well.
"Welcome back to the land of the sleeping!" the monstrosity said, seemingly in good spirits at this time of night. "Did you have fun in that burning castle?"
After a few seconds of initial shock – which the mountain monster waited out quite patiently – Link finally got himself back together enough to respond: "Seriously? This again? Can't you just leave me alone, random dream monster that suddenly popped into my life?" he grumbled, glancing around quite pointlessly; there really was nothing else to see apart from the giant thing in front of him. "And to answer your question: no, I did not in fact have fun in that castle. I never even went in there to have fun." he finished.
"Oh, I knew that already." it dismissively. "It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else."
"So other than to be an object of your amusement, why am I here?" Link asked, more than a little ticked off.
"Nothing, truly." the beast said. It then burst into guffaw that made Link's ears ring. "Now, let's have some serious talk." it continued once it finished laughing. Drawing it's head closer to Link, it's expression changed from happy and cheery to something much more business-like. "In a couple minutes, a group of people are going to come through the area in which you've set up camp. If you value your sanity, you will follow them. Eventually, you will lose them. At that point in time, I'm sure you will find what you're supposed to do." After this, it brought it's head away from Link – to his great relief – and assumed his happy face. "Toodles!" it said, fading slowly into Link's subconscious.
"Wait, what?" Link yelled, throwing himself towards the mountain-beast; a profoundly stupid thing to do, had this not been a dream. However, the monster had already faded, and Link had gone on to different, happier dreams.
"H… l…ten… h…y wa… …p."
"Hey, wake up!" Navi whispered as loudly as she could. Link jerked awake. It was still dark out. The only light came from Navi, who seemed to be trying to shield her own glow from something. The fire had definitely gone out, and it was still raining. Link rubbed his eyes as Navi tugged at his hood, trying to conceal herself further. "Listen, we need to move." Navi said quickly. "Now."
"What? Why?" Link asked, still groggy and half-asleep.
"Someone's coming," Navi was attempting to stuff herself in the small crevice between the hood's fabric and the back of Link's neck. It wasn't working very well, but it was waking Link up at least. "They don't exactly look friendly."
Link fully woke up and looked in what he assumed to be a northern direction. Sure enough, several little flickers of torchlight were breaking through the darkness and rain. There was a large pink ambient glow above the group of torchlights, but he paid little attention to that, as he was already moving to grab his things and get out of the way.
Quickly rolling up the bedroll, Link snatched his satchel without closing it and slung it over his shoulder. His sheathed sword, which had been laying beside the satchel, levitated with a small outline of blue; Navi's work. Still crouched down, Link looked around for a suitable spot to hide. To his right was the cliff, but there was also a tree just in front of the cliff, definitely wide enough to hide himself behind. Quietly but quickly, he ran, crouched, along the ground towards the tree, levitating sword in tow.
Pulling himself behind the tree, Link set the satchel down and stuffed the bedroll into it, tying it shut. Grabbing the floating sword, he threw the straps over his shoulder and under his arm, and as quietly as he could, did up the buckle. He then poked his head around the edge of the tree, just far enough for him to watch the approaching troupe of beings.
As the group passed by them, Link examined them from his hidden position. They all wore cloaks to protect against the rain that had large hoods which came down far enough to obscure their faces, so he couldn't make out any actual identities. He squinted at some of the markings on the groups cloaks. He couldn't quite make out what the markings belonged to, but they reminded him of something. Something that he felt he should know, but just couldn't put his finger on.
"We need to follow them." Navi whispered suddenly, with an air of finality.
"Why?" Link whispered back, before just seeing Navi's tiny hand pointing towards a giant floating pink crystal, probably the source of the glow that he had seen but hadn't paid any attention to. There were a few of the cloaked group with different markings on their cloaks directly underneath the crystal, holding their arms upwards towards it, and there were tendrils of glowing energy shooting from their palms into the crystal, carrying it with them.
Squinting a little, Link could just make out a silhouette inside the crystal. It resembled a younger Hylian, probably in a dress. They were lying with their hands clasped over their breast; they probably weren't conscious. "Who's in that crystal?" Link muttered to Navi, hoping against hope that he wouldn't have to listen to the beast of his dreams.
Navi hesitated for a second before replying. "It's… It's Zelda, the princess."
Link sighed internally, knowing that he definitely should follow the crowd of cloaks, if there was even a slight chance of saving the princess from her captors. Throwing the strap of his satchel over his head to rest on his shoulder, he watched the passing crowd. He would have charged in with his sword drawn, as the cloaked beings didn't appear armed, but they could easily overwhelm him with shear numbers alone. And on second thought, those cloaks could easily hide a weapon.
After about a minute, the beings had passed. Navi advised waiting another minute before following, so as to keep enough distance between them and the crowd. So after another minute of tense waiting, Link got up and walked over to their campout site. Looking to the south, he could see the torches being carried by the crowd. He focused more on the crystal that was now their goal more than anything else in the world for as long they knew it's location.
Shifting his sword a bit, Link began following them.
Hello again everybody! This was not supposed to take as long as it did, and I apologize for the wait. But it's here now, right? This is also the first thing posted under this username!
I need to make my chapters longer…