Link, Hunter of Monsters II: A Whole Other Beast

Alright, here's the next, I'm not trying to keep them from you, the flame button is to the right and the Author's Notes are on the bottom, enjoy

Awakening

I knew my dreams would have me fall, I thought maybe from some building, then I'm falling in a forest, then I hit the autumn leaves and wake up, and yet, I don't wake up that way, I don't fall that way.

I now feel myself dragged away, darkness holding my wrist, my Triforce responding to the opposite emotion that corresponds with my third of the Triforce—responding to fear, and to the darkness that lifts me up, causing me to fall again on all fours and I just know I'm not getting out of here alive. But then, what do I know? I have my moments when I'm wrong; I just hope this is one of those times. There's a time for everything, birth, death, victory, defeat, what happens now I don't know, but let's face it with a big smile, get it—whatever that is—confused, give us a fighting chance, the upper hand, surprise it with our apparent attitude. Make it wonder if it's not a dream. I'd like to wake up now.

If ever I have dreams I forget them easily, but I'm awake now, dream me must have died, poor fellow, he keeps doing that, but honestly, he has more lives than a lion. Why do I say lion and not cat? Well, look at it this way, a lion is not only a cat, but a powerful cat, and usually associated with courage, though I have always kind of been fascinated with big cats anyways, maybe it's because it has big paws, I have big paws—I mean hands and feet, yeah, that's what I meant. Speaking of paws, though, I do feel peculiar, I look around and find myself curled up, the next thing that happens makes me feel as though I were a rubber band, but I get stretched and snapped in the same instant, instead of working to the breaking point, and I snap in a very uncourageous manner.

Sheikah have a bad habit of sneaking up on people, so don't laugh, "Link," Impa says, as though we agreed to her breaking into my room first thing in the morning, I mean, I just had one of those bottomless pit dreams—wait, this is a Gerudo room—and I'm on the floor, also, I have an itch right behind the ear—excuse me while I extend my hind leg to scratch my ear—wait, hind leg—I meant right hind leg—wait, hind leg at all? As in, I have more than one set of legs? That's not a particularly good thing, but it explains my craving for footwear, just something to gnaw on for a minute, wait, wait for just one minute, in silence, if you would. If I'm me, and that's Impa, then this is a dream—unless I've been transformed, but then, where's Navi? "She's talking with Nabooru." Impa answers, as though she can read minds—oh, yeah, she can, now I remember. Okay, this isn't a dream, it's a nightmare, and it only worsens, "You can read my mind?" I wish I could have said, but she answers my mental question, and not the series of barks that came from my snout—snout? Great, my day is getting better and better, but I won't complain, instead, someone will explain, "Sure," Impa says, responding to my last comment on cue, "in fact, I'll show you, come on." She pats her leg as though she was talking to a dog or something, and then I hear Nabooru—your friendly neighborhood Gerudo—tease me from the other room, she says, "Come here, come here, boy, come on!" everyone and the Gerudo are treating me as though I were a dog. Oh, wait, I am a dog. Good grief, I'm turning into a regular Snoopy, I think I'm a kid, but I'm not, the next thing I know, I'll wake up on the roof, after pretending to be a war hero—though waking on the roof was already highly probable, and I did fight Ganondorf and rescue the Triforce—and countless monsters.

This brings to mind that one time when they had to search the entire castle to find me, and ended up learning that I was on the balcony in my room, I saw the vines, followed them up, and fell asleep. They were somewhat out of sorts, but glad that I was there, on the lookout, as usual. But that has little to do with now, perhaps I should keep the random thoughts that occurred during these events to myself.

I follow Impa to the place where the Sages have gathered and I stand in the middle of the Triforce painted on the floor, then I feel a giant Goron patting my back, which by all necessity isn't a particularly bad thing, but my day could have ended all the same without it.

So, onto business, why have the greatest minds assembled themselves today? "Because," Impa reads my mind, "all but one of the weapons of the Hero of Time are present, Link, drink this, it's a bottle of Great Fairy Tears, it'll make you a human again for a limited time, but first, the mission-" Where did you find fairy tears? "In the Gerudo Desert, a mesa out a little ways, now quit interrupting-" Sorry, I really didn't mean to. "I'm sure you didn't, but try to tone down your voice, it echoes here. Thank you, now, the mission-" Does it involve getting Rululonia back? Ruto gives me a harsh look, meaning that I'm not showing due respect, and she does remind me—respect! Take this with respect, even her father told me to take a bottle with respect, and there was her message in the bottle, yet she lies about having left it behind—some example you set, Ruto. Of course, I didn't think of those words at this time—a good thing too, or Ruto would have very respectfully lost her respectful nerve, "Yes, Link, it does." Impa says, in a very good natured tone, "But first, you will need the Sister Scissors, together they will be a pair of scissors." Ah, yes, I really love those things, the way they slice up enemies is so elegant—I'm sorry, were you done speaking? Impa nods and pours the purple substance that is supposedly a bottle of tears Great Fairy Queen tears into a bowl. I just have to say, under normal circumstances the only time I drink from a bowl is after I finish my cereal, finish off some soup, or drink up melted ice cream, but I've yet to have a normal circumstance, let alone plural, and besides, it's not as though Great Fairy tears fall under any particular category.

Soon after I drink the tears—which sounds really weird—I find myself up on two feet, then I find my sea legs on a ship owned by the Gerudo—who aren't all thieves, not since Ganondorf was sealed away—and we're off sailing to the secluded side of the Great Desert which no one is familiar with at all, not even me. I mean, yeah, they took the Sister Scissors—I call them Jolene's Wrath, Linebeck's Bane, or Linebeck's Pain, but I don't call any particular weapon S and S because that could be Skyward Sword or Sister Scissors, I'm sure you can see how that would be confusing—but they didn't take me with them, instead they just told me to hand them up, I gladly obeyed, not knowing that I'd soon need them again—as in, I just handed them up several days ago.

Now they're taking me to the place we're hiding Jolene's Wrath, which is not deep in a heart full of turmoil, though that is what the name may or may not imply. Nabooru walks up to me and points at the large tower, seemingly causing her to tower above me, though I stand eye to eye with her—a great feet feat for a Hylian, considering the Gerudo are a tall race, "Okay, Link, this is a land that not many have heard of, it's called 'Termina', it is here Aveil guards a Gerudo stronghold, but she doesn't believe Ganondorf's gone, she is even now loyal to him, and with the recent events evaluated I suggest you break in, which is why you must use a secret power." She lets that seep through my thick Hylian skull and then continues, "You see, this used to be the place that the Triforce was hidden, also the place where the Phantom Sword use to be." My eyes must have lit up at the sound of a powerful blade because she crosses her arms and frowns, "But it was nothing more than a collection of power which the Master Sword lost a long time ago, now the Phantom Sword is gone and the Master Sword has absorbed it's powers, did you hear all of that? That power, all of the Phantom Sword, it all went back to the ancient blade as soon as it's purpose was complete, it's purpose was to destroy its bonds in this land, which was actually an evil monster which is now dead, thank goodness." And after giving me that bit of Terminian history she tells me about the secret, "But on to the power here, a long time ago the Triforce was in three parts, all of it was in this land, where no mortal could tread, they were in separate cells that no one here could reach through, linked to a land in the clouds so as to prevent successful intruders from combining all of them. Though it couldn't be invaded this land was easily reached by using a harp and that blade," she points at the blade on my back, "the hero at that time had to sneak pass phantoms and obtain tears of light, but since then this place has been all but changed. Three parts of this place exist, one called Termina, one called by a name which is lost to history, and another that is called Hylia's Realm. What matters now is that you tap into the part of Hylia's Realm that still runs through this place. You see, Hylia's Realm is visible in one of the thirds of this place, while invisible in the other two, imagine differently colored paper, one is gold, with green covering part of the surface and black covering the other, then you have Hylia's Realm's visible form, Termina, this is the green part, and the black part is where Ganondorf is, in the Dark World, which is the part of Hylia's Realm split off from the rest of this land, as you may know from the Sheikah texts each part is directly bordered by the others, like gravity, and all the lines are blured. Now, what you will do is use your powers as Hylia's Hero to find her land under this one, basically I ask you to drill through the green and find the gold. This way you will be able to find what is basically another dimension, you will then sneak into the hidden realm, retransform, and—having appeared somewhere the guards cannot find you in, perhaps behind a crate—sneak past the few guards remaining. See, Zelda had planned for when something similar to this happening." She gives me the apologetic face, which is when all the facial muscles relax, that way they aren't grimacing or glaring at you, I nod to let her know I would have done the same. And I would have; after all, I did seal Ganondorf away, back to the world the Triforce came from.

Nabooru now continues to tell me what to expect, "So we took a few extra measures in case the circumstances under which you relocate all the weapons included you wanting global domination or something, but don't worry, to bypass these measures in case the circumstances were faced with you on our side, we took other measures, a girl named Midna is here, she's the key keeper and an ally, also Ganondorf's pet's half-sister. Her mom died, Ganondorf's doing, you can bet, and her stepfather—her father was killed in a battle when she was too young to remember him—introduced his son. She was supposed to inherit the throne, but then is her stepbrother, so what to do?" I nod and she resumes, "Zant—because Ganondorf was there first and made Zant second in command—thinks he ought to acquire the throne, and if Ganondorf hadn't showed up just in time, Midna would have obtained the throne. Now after this happens those witches brought him here and now the seal's breaking again, so, what I need you to do is find Midna—good kid, bad temper—and have her open the gates to the room they're keeping the weapons, oh, and watch for Zant, he's already irritating her by talking of becoming a king, that does it, I think, just don't lose that bottle of Great Fairy tears and you should be alright." O—key, that's somewhat doable, but look, the hard part was how I would "Tap in" to Hylia's Realm, I mean, we were in it, yet on it, so we were parallel to it, I mean, is that not a conundrum in a contradiction wrapped up in an enigma? So what do I do to find it? Will there be a riddle? Nabooru decided to answer that one, though I would have a purple one she had just remembered something, "Oh, here, give me your Mirror Shield, see, this is actually a way into Hylia's Realm, but remember, it will lead to the corresponding location to the alternate dimension beneath our feet I don't care where you go, so be careful, would you? We only have one hero, so if you're using the shield be careful, for you'll be sent to a world where all monsters are stronger than you, the place where Ganondorf is stronger." I could have done without all the dramatic and climatic description but thanks.

Thus equipping my new half nightmare, half fantasy come true, I go to the alternate dimension, and wow are things different, and the water is red, which I found strange, thinking that this was a help for me I approach it, yet I have this feeling that something will jump out of it and start draining my energy, so I approach cautiously, when all of a sudden, "Link, Link, can you hear me?" "Zelda?!" that was a slap across the face, what is she doing here? "Link, that water is waking water, if you come into contact with it then the Phantoms will come to get you, then it'll send you back to the place where you first used the shield." I feel that I just slipped through the wall of reality several times, and falling through multiple portals doesn't appeal to me very much, so I avoid the water, but I still wonder how she was able to talk to me, but then, she's Princess Zelda, a shadow warrior and a wielder of light, which reminds me of Twinrova, fire and ice, light and dark, strange, in Hyrule I seem to have started out strong, all the stories say so, and as far as I know I started out strong in Moga, but this place—this feels like a beginning.

Now, the reason I put this at the bottom. Because kracka-boom! I hit you with the bill, ha, didn't see that coming, but I am a master of possibilities. And yes, we take credit (for everything except the characters, main settings, [the props—what props?—are mine] the worlds, the moon, the stage is anyone's guess, but the stunt doubles are mine. What stunts? Just use your collective individual imaginations—, oh, and (assumes an ominous stance,) the non-canon one is coming! Don't ask me when, I really don't know (props department unspecific).