Link walked.
Even in a world he did not recognize, it was the one method of travel that remained universal.
They traveled alongside a blackened river in a world that seemed overcome by night. In the brief hours that had passed, their path had turned dark.
He could no longer see himself amidst the shadows.
The silhouettes of Zelda and Saria kept him straight in his course, but even then his steps were uncertain.
Saria.
He mouthed it to himself—a familiar name attributed to an unfamiliar person. The girl seemed infantile—unlike the girl he had known, even despite dark green hair of a similar hue to that of the girl he knew as Saria.
But it was of Zelda that he thought to question. He had noticed immediately that she did not bear the mark of Wisdom, though she claimed his friend's name, and he pondered the best away to approach such an inquiry.
Link brought up his left hand, revealing blank, shadowy flesh.
He did not bear the mark either.
They came to a stop at a river crossing, where a long stone bridge stretched across a dark river, leading further into shadow. Zelda exchanged words with the one called Saria, but Link paid them little attention. He looked to no place in particular, finding it difficult to focus. The only word he took from of the exchange was the twice used "Hero".
Zelda spoke it with contempt; Saria with some level of awe.
He noted the reverent tone she reserved for Zelda in everything she said.
Nothing living made home on the barren wasteland. Neither those races he was familiar with, nor those monsters created by Ganon. Link found his company wandering across a barren wasteland, walking across fields that seemed recently dead while looking to forests that seemed long rotted.
Two distant balls of light penetrated the darkness, bright enough to illuminate even Link's shadowy form.
"Castle City," said Zelda without any recognizable emotion before they'd even neared the lights. "Welcome to Ganon's head."
"But we didn't see any of his creatures," he said.
"Why would he bother? Castle City controls commerce. The people flock to him, even if he does nothing but sit on his throne."
Castle City eventually came into view, a massive wall of stone reinforced with metal plates. At such a distance, the light was such that its entire outline could be made out. Five towers arranged in a pentagon jutted a mile into the air from the center, each capped by a roaring flame.
Zelda stopped their advance some mile from the city and gestured to her right with a tilt of her head. "We can't go in the front door. Ganon's Legion would have no qualms about ending my life if Ganon decides not to do so himself."
"Then how do we get in?" said Link.
"The same way I left. There's an old escape dating back to the second Hero that leads inside. With any luck, the Legion will not have discovered it yet." She glanced at Link. "But supposing they did, you could use the exercise."
Link's expression did not change.
They moved some way right.
The girl, Saria, stayed at Zelda side as the elder woman searched the ground for something hidden beneath the obvious. She took short, careful steps across the ground, listening after each for the sound of a hollow entryway.
They moved in such a fashion for some time before Zelda lifted her arms and looked at her feet. "Here," she said before bending down to dig her fingers into the soil.
With a heft, a metal door previously unseen opened with a dull squeak, revealing a set of archaic stairs leading down into nothing.
"Do you have a light?" said Link as he peered down.
Zelda chuckled. "Light? No, Hero. Saria and I will lead you. All you have to do is hold a hand and keep up."
Zelda took three steps down the stairs before turning around and offering a hand to Saria.
Saria accepted the offer and allowed Link to take her own.
Together they stepped into the darkness, pulling the door shut behind them.
All light vanished.
Their travel was sluggish, but Link did not doubt that he was being accommodated for. With one hand linked to Saria's, he ran the other along the tunnel's wall. He recognized the outlines of stone blocks, along with a musty smell that reminded him of the maze-like temples he had been forced to explore, during his own life.
One of his steps took him through a deep puddle, soaking both boots through to the flesh.
He hesitated for a moment before taking his next step.
There was no flesh.
It was so easy to forget that his body was no longer his own—that the body he now inhabited belonged to a creature he himself had obliterated.
Link's red eyes blinked in the darkness.
He focused on the tiny, child-like hand clasped within his own, the pulse of which was strong enough that the girl's heart seemed to beat from within her hand.
…she did remind him of Saria in some small way.
Some short ways off, he heard the skittering of tiny feet across stonework floors. Water fell in drops from the ceiling.
And then light.
It came in bits and fragments, seeping through cracks to briefly illuminate the features of those three who passed beneath the earth.
"We're nearing the exit," he heard Zelda say, though the voice seemed oddly directionless.
The small hand entwined with Link's own slipped away—and for a moment, he was lost to darkness.
From above came the scraping of stone. Light streamed in, enough so that Link could make out Zelda's outline as she climbed the mold covered ladder connecting the tunnel floor to the ground above, pushing aside the stone slat that hid their exit.
Saria followed her out.
A moment later, only Link remained, wishing again for lungs so that he might breathe.
He climbed, finding himself in an alley of grey surrounded by light artificial.
Grey stone walls stretched up in three directions, leaving the only opening at his back. Above him was a sky that rained down darkness, diluted by the many lanterns fastened to the city's many walls. It was in many ways identical to the tunnel that they had exited a moment ago, differentiated only by the ever-present shuffle of a quiet crowd.
He turned and found himself staring down a long alley, many meters from a large crowd that moved quietly across the stone street. In that crowd, he recognized the kingdom he had left behind—Hylians. Whatever this Zelda called them, they were Hylians nonetheless.
It was then that he chose to lower his head, to stare at hands that were no longer of flesh and blood.
"You're fine," said Zelda, handing Saria two short, shaved sticks before tying a band around her hair till it stood in a short ponytail. "As far as they know, you're part of Ganon's Legion. Keep quiet and they won't know the difference."
Zelda stripped away the dirtied purple coat she had been wearing, revealing a black shirt with sleeves lined at the end with golden fabric.
Saria, meanwhile, busied herself with the stick Zelda had provided her, wrapping her hair in a bun so that it was fastened securely behind her head.
Link narrowed the reddened eyes of the shadow construct. "Aren't we trying to avoid—"
"We are, but we won't be recognized here. You have to be careful to make the right kind of impression in public so that you can walk safely in private. They'll be looking for a gallivanting anarchist." She strode forward, gesturing for the others to following and speaking quickly as she went. "Hero, the Grand Library is five blocks to your right, followed by two blocks to your left. Don't get lost."
With a wave, Zelda disappeared into the crowded city street.
Link stood motionless.
The girl with the green hair bowed to him. "Hero," she said, before herself leaving, swept away in a sea of people.
Link was last, hesitant. He watched as Hylians passed beneath artificial light; he watched as long, points ears reached up to the heavens.
They were not so different from what had once been he.
Link vanished into the crowd.