10 Days Earlier...
Hyrule
A faint orange glow began to arise over the trees of Kokiri Woods. Rays of sunlight shone through the trees, casting fragmented shadows across the forest floor. There was a faint bit of morning fog, the aftermath of a particularly spirited storm that lingered for longer than expected. Everything was pleasant as could be, everything in its place.
Or it should have been.
If it were not for the young man struggling to get up, panting heavily. He wore a green tunic that was torn round the edges, and carried with him a large purple sword.
He was a outlier in a place that was at peace.
He was excitement when there need not be any.
He was Link, the Hero of Time. And he was very lost.
"Zelda?" Link shouted at the wind. No response.
He glanced around nervously, pivoting on his back foot. The woods were familiar, certainly – but the spell had not done its job. He looked at his arms and legs, adult sized as he had remembered them. Not at all what he had wanted – not what he had sought.
After everything... I wanted to be a child again... I wanted my life back.
"ZELDA!" Link screamed out again. His cry was more of a shriek, filled with anguish and rage.
And again, nothing but a faint wisp of wind.
Link felt his heart hurt. His vision grew clouded and his face felt hot, as he collapsed to his knees and sat down. He could only let the tears fall where they may.
"Please," he spoke without feeling, "please speak to me. What did I do wrong?"
The tears were pouring now, making it impossible to discern anything around him. All he felt was pain, all he saw were shadows.
"WHAT? DID? I? DO!?" he screamed, pounding his fist on the ground to punctuate each word.
With a final smash of his fist, Link threw his sword at the nearest tree. It slammed against the wood and fell to the ground with a clatter.
The earth shook.
Link was thrown back, but he eased back on his feet after a moment of shakiness. He wiped his face with his sleeve, trying to discern what that quake was. His vision caught a light at the end of the forest, at first small but slowly growing in intensity...
A burst of heat smashed against Link's chest, like an explosion straight to the heart. He could do nothing as the massive force sent him flying across the forest floor, rocking him with surges of heat. Then, abruptly, he felt a sudden pain as he smashed into something solid – but the heat blast continued to assault him. It was overwhelming his senses, and he could feel his skin flaking more and more with every surge. He screamed without wanting to, something incomprehensible but agonized, something about wanting the pain to stop.
With one final blast the heat intensified – and then ceased. It left behind the smell of charred meat.
Link was shaking on his side, grasping at the earth, working to get back on his feet. All around him, a swirling vortex of red and orange condensed, filling his vision with a haze not unlike an intense dream. But his body ached beyond belief, and as he stood once more, the sight ahead made him wish for death.
The forest in flames. Smoke instead of air. Were those cries in the distance?
A tree collapsed ahead of him, and he caught a large burst of sparks. Link lifted his left arm to his face as he fumbled his way through the inferno, not wanting to shed any more tears. The forest's death was not a sight he wanted.
What came next was beyond comprehension. He could recall reclaiming his sword with a twitching hand, raising it and his shield in unison, but not the walk through the fire. It was a blur, a sensory experience that smashed into his face and left him disoriented. He wanted nothing more than to reach safety – to reach the Field.
Link swore he glimpsed the faint outline of a bird flapping away from the flames. Hmm...
He charged forward up a hill, narrowly avoiding a long patch of grass engulfed in flames. Red and orange, red and orange... everything red and orange. He wanted nothing more to do with those colours, with the pain, with the feeling of being overwhelmed every second he remained standing.
And his head turned to glimpse Hyrule Castle. His mind turned to confusion.
He did not recall flames bursting from its towers, nor stonework bursting into rubble and dust. He could not conceive of a situation where fleeing citizens, collapsing, burning, was a sight he would expect. It was unreal, wrong, unbelievable, like the silver disk that hung above the castle.
The disk was massive, casting a shadow wider than the castle itself. Every so often, bursts of blue fire emerged from holes in the disk, rushing down towards the earth, and obliterating another part of the kingdom. Or a long ray of fire would drag across the plains, sweeping up anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in its path. It ruled the sky as a tyrant would, and it showed the requisite amount of mercy.
Then, as if because Link had noticed it, the disk ceased. The blue fire, the rays – they simply evaporated, and the holes from which they emerged closed. All was still.
All but one hole, on the disk's underbelly. Link watched as a rounded metal object emerged from the hole, and fell to the earth. He followed the object's fall until it fell behind one of the castle's remaining towers.
He felt the quake before he saw the flash, or hear the boom.
The world felt as though it were coming undone. Wind blew past at dangerous speeds, ripping grass and dirt from the ground like nothing. Link attempted to hold his stance, block the wind with his shield, but a sudden burst of heat smacked his shield and began to sear his arm.
"AHHHHHH!" he cried out, collapsing on his back as more heat waves surged over him. He dug his sword into earth, hoping to keep from moving.
As he looked up, Link tried to focus his vision on the castle. He thought it looked like it was collapsing, falling apart at the seams, practically turning to dust as he watched it with pained sight.
Before he fell unconscious, Link spied a shape forming above the castle and under the disk. A kind of cloud was emerging where the metal object had fallen, pluming upwards and hanging above like an omen.
The cloud shaped like a mushroom. That was burned into Link's vision, as darkness consumed him.