Chapter 2
Zelda ran through the woods, eyes stinging as tears ran down her face, Link's words echoing in her mind.
Sometimes I think I'd be a happier person if I had never met you!
She felt a new wave of tears spring forth as she sprinted through the woods, leaping over fallen trees.
How could he say that? She thought to herself. Why would he say that?
She recalled him saying something about how she had overshadowed him so much that he had no way to be heard by anyone else.
Zelda let out a choked sob before yelping in surprise as her foot caught onto an exposed root, causing to trip, falling face forward. Fortunately the ground was relatively soft and the grass cushioned her fall.
Out of breath, she attempted to pull herself back on to her feet to continue her desperate run but her legs refused to cooperate, pushed to their limit. So instead, she collapsed, in a very small clearing; shuddering at tears wracked her body. She played the argument over in over again in her mind.
Eventually, whether it was minutes or hour, she did not know, her tears finally subsided and she now quietly laid upon the earth, clutching the amulet that hung around her neck. This amulet was one of the few mementos she had left of her father, a brave man who had been a guardsman to the town of Kako. He had spent most of his life fending off the monsters that tended to wander into the town at night. Then, on one particular night, a horde of dark creatures assaulted the village. The attack was repelled, but it came with a heavy price. Half the village had been burnt down and the guard corp. had taken heavy casualties, her father included.
She remembered that day vividly, even though she had only been three. She remembered kneeling next to her father's corpse with her mother, bawling her eyes out as her mother looked on in disbelief.
But that day wasn't completely bad… it had been the day she had meet and befriended Link.
As she cried next to her father's body, Link had come up and stood next to her wearing a shocked, slightly confused expression at the aftermath of destruction that had taken place. Eventually his gaze had landed on Zelda and her mother and then flicked to her father's body and then said, "I'm sorry."
This hushed Zelda and caused her mother to look at Link with a confused expression. Unlike the rest of the townsfolk that were nearby, speaking in hollow voices, as if all hope had been lost; Link spoke in a clear, strong voice. Zelda had looked up to see his face on to find him staring intently at the burnt patch of forest for which the demons had burst forth. He then turned around and walked off.
Zelda later learned that both his parents had also been killed. Apparently, they had attempted to buy time for the town guard to fall back and reconsolidate but were quickly overwhelmed by the foe's superior numbers.
The day after, Zelda had sought Link out and upon spotting him she hurried over and introduced herself before indoctrinating him as her new best friend.
Zelda couldn't help but give a small, sad smile at this pleasant memory before sighing, wondering if that would be all she will have left of her friendship with the boy.
Pulling herself to a sitting position, she continued to peruse her memories, recalling the especially happy ones involving Link and her.
Lost in thought, she did not notice the slim figure approach from behind.
"My, my," Zelda started as the voice behind her drawled. "What do we have here?"
Zelda quickly stood up and spun around only to come face to face with none other than Ghirahim himself.
"You!" she exclaimed.
"Me." Ghirahim smiled smugly. "You seem to be having some emotional trouble."
"It's none of your business!"
Ghirahim's smirk grew. "That is exactly why it is so much more interesting."
"What do you want?" Zelda asked angrily.
Ghirahim stroked his chin. "Hm, what do I want, such interesting question, do you think? I want many things, dear girl. However, one desire currently dominates all others." He smiled wickedly. "After all, I did say you will come to regret insulting me, didn't I?"
Zelda squinted at Ghirahim for several before exclaiming, "You were the one that made Link like that!" A tiny glimmer of hope. Maybe it was Ghirahim's influence that caused Link's outburst.
Ghirahim raised an eyebrow and looked at her incredulously. "I made that boy at like that? Dear me, girl, I thought you'd be conceited but not this much so! You blame me for that?" He let out a dark chuckle. "Girl, that is your doing, not mine."
"Wha-?"
"I must agree with him, though, you are quite overbearing."
"How could I have made Link act like that?!" Zelda demanded angrily. "H-he was obviously being influence by… by something else!"
"Ah, denial." Ghirahim chuckled. "The boy has begun resenting you months ago, and you, his so-called best friend, could not even see it!" Ghirahim laughed. "How amusing!"
"This isn't amusing!" Zelda stamped her foot. "And why do you even care about this!"
Ghirahim smiled darkly. "It pleasures me to see in so much pain, girl. Your 'best friend' has abandoned you and you have no one to blame but yourself."
"Sh-shut up!" Zelda's voice had taken on a high pitched quality.
"However, I do not have all day to discuss your former friendship, I still need my revenge."
"Revenge?! For what? Insulting you?! What are you, a psychopath?"
Ghirahim snapped his fingers and a long black dagger appeared in his hand.
"Yes and no. You see, you have an ancestor that made my life difficult a few hundred years ago. Seeing as said ancestor is dead, I have to take it out in you, their desendant."
"So, you're going to kill me?"
Ghirahim let out a menacing laugh. "Kill you? And end your suffering? I think not. After all, where is the fun in that?" He said before disappearing.
Zelda looked around wildly until an arm grabbed her and the tip of a blade pressed against the small of her back.
"Imagine." Ghirahim breathed into her ear. "Imagine yourself without the qualities of your spiritual being that you hold dear." The blade moved lower until it brushed her hips. "Without your beauty…" The blade moved upwards and tapped her skull. "Without you intellect…" The tip moved downward until it pressed against her above her left breast. "Or without even a semblance of bravery."
Ghirahim chuckled into her ear. "You'd be nothing but a stupid, cowardly hag that no one would wish to do anything with!"
The knife returned to the small of her back.
"What do you think of that, hm?" He said in a menacingly soft voice.
"Screw you."
Ghirahim's face turned ugly look of fury. "Wrong answer." He said before smashing the hilt of the knife into her skull, letting her fall to ground unconscious.
"Wrong answer indeed."
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For what seemed like the thousandth time, Link looked out the window of his room, hoping to see the familiar golden hair that signified the arrival of his friend… at least he hoped they were still friends, before sitting back down.
He had been waiting for hours after his out burst and her running off for her to return to the village. As minutes stretched into hours, Link continued to beat himself up about how he yelled at his best friend, waiting for her to return from the woods. But now, the sun was steady declining in the sky, and Link knew that the forest became a very dangerous place at night.
Link fidgeted nervously. Maybe, just maybe, she had taken different route back into town. He stood up from his chair and decided that he would go to Zelda's house to see if she had return home and was with her mother.
She could be home, crying her eyes out he thought miserably as he left his room, pulling on a coat to ward off the cooling temperatures hat were now accompanying the setting of the sun.
He quickly made his way down the darkening streets in the direction of Zelda's house. Link passed several fellow townsfolk on his way, each scurrying quickly back to the relative safety of their homes.
A minute later, he arrived at the front door and knocked on the door.
Link waited a few seconds as a shadow on the other side moved around until the door opened to reveal Zelda's mother's face.
"Link? Can I help you?"
"Is Zelda home?"
Zelda's mother gave Link a confused look. "Zelda? I thought she was with you."
Link felt an increasing feeling of dread. "She's not here?"
"No, she's not. Why wouldn't she be?"
Link shifted uncomfortably. "Well… we might have had and fight and she, um, ran off into the woods crying…"
Her mother gave horrified look. "D-Do you mean to tell me that my daughter is currently inside the woods at sunset?!" She screeched before sliding down onto the ground.
"My only child… I lost my husband and now I will lose my daughter…" She said in a faint voice.
Link moved forward in a vain attempt to help her up, but was shooed away. "No, no boy, leave me be, leave me to mourn…"
Link took one last look at his best friend's mother before walking off, his thoughts in turmoil.
Crap, Crap, Crap. Zelda could be dead right now! Almost nobody who goes into the forest at night ever returns alive. And she's dead because of me…
Link dwelled on this thought for several seconds, imagining that tomorrow a search party would be sent into the woods and that they would come back with the mutilated body that was once the vibrant Zelda. He continued to play this over and over in his mind, growing more and more convinced that he had unintentionally killed Zelda.
Link stopped walking.
"She can't be dead." He muttered. "I know she isn't dead."
He didn't know how or why, but he suddenly had this gut feeling that Zelda was alive some where in the forest, alone and scared, but alive. And he was going to find her and bring her back.
He broke into a stride, headed back home. Before going into the forest, he would need a few things.
He quietly reentered his house. Aryll was probably in her room, while his grandfather was most likely asleep.
Link quietly crept through the house until he reached his room. He quickly threw off his current clothing in exchange for a sturdier set of clothing. After looking through the assorted articles of clothing strewn about his room, Link finally came up with a green tunic and a pair of tan pants. He put on this new garb before proceeding.
He slipped out of his room and quietly made his way to the opposite side of the house, stopping as he reach his grandfather's door.
Cautiously, he nudged the door open and in the blackness, Link spied his objective. Mounted of the wall of the room was a sword, below that was a chest were his grandfather stored his equipment from the days when he was a young adventurer.
Link edged into the room, quietly moving towards the wall. He couldn't let his grandfather know what he was going to do. After the major attack on the village all those years ago, his grandfather had become far more strict in going into dangerous situations, not wanting his son's children to be killed.
As Link drew closer to the chest, his heart began thumping in his chest, so loudly that Link began to fear that it would wake his grandfather. Ever few steps, he would stop to listen to the sound of his grandfather's snoring in order to reassure himself.
Finally, after what seemed like a hour, but in fact was probably only a minute or two, Link successfully arrived at his target.
After checking to making sure his grandfather continued to sleep, Link reached up and carefully detached his grandfather's sword from its place. After lowering the weapon to the ground, Link turned his attention to the chest's contents. Slowly opening the chest, Link cringed when it began to speak loudly. In a slight panic, Link threw up the top, revealing assorted goods within.
Link began to shift through, taking out a pair of fingerless leather gloves, the sword's sheath, a shield, and an equipment belt.
After quickly sliding the sword into the sheath, Link stood up, only to be jarred when his grandfather's soft voice calmly asked, "Link, what exactly do you plan on doing with those?"
Link slowly turned around to find his grandfather sitting up in bed, observing him quietly.
"Um…"
"I'm waiting for an answer, Link."
Link's mouth went dry and for a split second he thought about lying to his grandfather. However he quickly banished the thought because his grandfather would easily see through it and that he could not manufacture a lie that could explain this.
"Zelda is in forest…"
"In the forest you say?" His grandfather said concerned. "But how? She's smart enough to know not to go in at night. What could possess her to do such a thing?"
Link sighed. "It's a long story, grandpa, and I don't have the time to tell it because Zelda is somewhere out there, alone, in the forest. And I need your things so I can go, find her, and bring her back safe!"
His grandfather gave a sorrowful look. "And you plan to simply run head first into the woods?"
"What other option do I have? Every second we wait, Zelda's chances of survival are diminishing."
Link's grandfather sighed. "You are too much like your parents, my boy…" From the tine of his voice, link began to fear that his grandfather might try and keep him from going.
"…Go."
"What?" Link asked, taken aback.
"Go. Go and bring her home safely."
It a few seconds for the words to sink in before he quickly nodded and picked up the equipment. As he walked out of the room, his grandfather called him back. "Link."
"Yes?"
"I don't want to catch thieving my room again. Next time, I will not be as lenient."
Link nodded in understanding before dashing through the house, out the front door, and into the night.
Hang in there Zelda, I'm coming.
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Zelda slowly opened her eyes, her head throbbing.
She let out a groan of frustration before freezing. The groan that had been emitted from her mouth sounded nothing like how her voice should sound like, far too high pitched.
She then realized that she was covered in some sort of cloth. She frantically dug her way out before stopping.
How did the trees get so big!? She thought to herself before looking down at the cloth that she had been covered with and yelped.
Those are my clothes! And they've gotten bigger too!
Zelda reached out to grab her clothing only to freeze at the sight of her arm.
My arm! It's not human!
Her arms were now short and thin, covered in tan colored fur and ending in a four-fingered, hand-like, claw.
Fearfully, Zelda looked down at the rest of her body. Instead of a shapely hourglass figure that had been developing over the past few years, supplemented by your standard human legs, her body was shaped like a pear. Her chest area was narrow, but as her eyes moved downwards, the body grew in width to her thighs until dramatically constricting into a pair of stubby legs. She was covered in brown, bristly fur that paled at her belly.
Realizing that she no longer had any of her golden locks on her head, she reached up and instead felt a cluster of leaves. She then also realized that a bulb-shaped growth was on her back.
Zelda let out a high pitched screech. "What's happened to me?!" She cried in an equally high pitched voice.
Suddenly a nearby bush rustled, caused Zelda to shrink back in fear. After a few seconds, a creature, similar to her new form, wobbled out.
"Oh, hello!" It said in a slightly higher voice than her new one. "Do know who was yelling around here? It sounded like they were in trouble!"
"Uh, the was me…" Zelda squeaked quietly. "And who are you? What are you?"
"I'm Donaki! And, like you, I'm a Kikwi!"
"Um, okay. I'm Zelda, and I'm a human…"
The Kikwi stared at her for several seconds before bursting into a fit of shrill laughter.
"That is… very… funny!" Donaki said in between laughs. Zelda waited into he regained his composure.
"Say," The Kikwi had spotted Zelda's clothes. "Why are those human clothes piled right there?"
"They're mine." Zelda said.
"Why would you carry around human- oh!"
Finally! Zelda thought, thinking the Kikwi had just realized her true species.
"You carry those clothes around to make you 'I am a human' joke seem more real!"
"What? No-!" Zelda was cut off as an unearthly shriek filled the air and Zelda found herself instinctively running into the foliage with the other Kikwi.
"W-we should go. I'll take you to the rest of the tribe." Donaki murmured fearfully as Zelda nodded in agreement, the same intense fear flowing throughout her.
However, before she left, Zelda dug around her pile of clothing and pulled out her amulet and draped it around herself before trotting off to catch up with Donaki.
The small pair wobbled through the night forest quickly and eventually they reached a large clearing where several other Kikwis were gathered about, looking just as frightened as Zelda felt.
"Hello, my friends." Donaki said quietly. "This is Zelda, I found her in the forest and she'll be staying with us for a while."
The other Kikwis muttered hello just as another screech filled the air. The group clustered together and one Kikwi said, "Into the trees, into the trees, everybody, so we can hide!"
The group slowly and carefully edged their way to the trees that ringed the clearing, flinching at the slightest sound.
Finally, to Zelda's relief, they reach the trees and cowered and a particularly large oak.
"We should be safe… for now…"
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Link pushed aside a trees branch, eyes peeled for any sign of Zelda.
An hour into his search, the boy had already gotten lost three times, went in a circle five time, and have a few hundred assorted scratches on his arms and legs, but he continued to push forward in his search.
After a while, Link came across a snapped branch. Link was about to dismiss it as just any old snapped branch and continue on with his search when he noticed how green the inside was of said. Concluding that the branch had been snapped relatively recently, Link turned his attention to the surrounding area. After finding more snapped branches and flattened patches of grass, Link knew that someone had ran wildly through here.
His suspicions were confirmed when he spotted a golden stand of hair, caught in the lower branches of a tree. With his direction confirmed, Link broke into a jog, following the trail of broken branches and such.
Several minutes later, the trail suddenly stopped, leaving Link in a small clearing. Link looked around, hoping to find Zelda there when his eyes landed on a pile of discarded clothing.
Zelda's clothing.
Link rushed over, half expecting the clothes to be covered in blood and ripped to shreds only to find them in relatively good condition, just with a few grass stains here and there.
Why would Zelda take off her clothes? Link asked himself.
Of course, his teenage, hormone charged brain instantly presented him with a mental image of Zelda gallivanting through the forest in the nude, but he quickly dismissed in order to examine the clothes, hoping to find some clue on why they were here and not on her body.
Unfortunately, a pile of discarded clothing doesn't tend to tell much about what happened to the owner, through it did do a pretty good job plaguing ones mind with certain fantasies.
Deciding that the clothes weren't going to help his search, Link gathered them all up and stowed it away in his pouch, planning on returning the articles once to Zelda once he found her.
He had just fastened the pouch's clasp and had straightened up when he heard a light cough behind him.
Link spun around to see a familiar face.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the gallant hero." Ghirahim said in an urbane voice.
"Hey, you're the magician guy!"
Ghirahim frowned. "Yes… I am, as you so eloquently put it, 'that magician guy."
"Why are you here?"
"Oh, well, you see, the moon was so bright tonight, I felt like taking a stroll in this monster infested forest just for the amusement of it." Ghirahim drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Link simply glare at him.
"Oh? Not buying it, are you? I suppose I can tell…" Ghirahim said, a grin playing on his lips. "You see, there happens to a quite impolite young lady that I was enacting revenge upon."
Link hands tightened into fists. "Are talking about Zelda?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, her name was Zelda, wasn't it?"
"Where is she?" Link snarled.
"Why should I disclose that information to you, boy?"
"If you don't tell me…" Link's reached up and gripped the hilt of his sword.
Ghirahim smirked. "Now, when has violence solved anything?"
Link glared fury evident in his eyes.
"Not feeling very talkative, boy?"
No answer.
"Hm, it seems like your parents have not taught you any manners."
Link suddenly felt abnormal cold before at the mention of his deceased parents before a surge of white hot fury took over.
In one swift motion, Link drew his sword.
Ghirahim's smirk widened. "Goodness, I seemed to have touched a nerve… your parents, correct?"
Link leapt at him, his sword held high until he brought it down on his foe, only to find that Ghirahim had disappeared.
"So be it."
Link spun around, spotting Ghirahim only a few feet away. His smirk was gone now, replaced by a grim look and he now had a black blade in his hand.
"Are you going to just stand there? Or shall we begin?"
With a resounding battle cry, Link charged at Ghirahim.
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Zelda didn't understand it.
Her being was entirely possessed by a feeling of intense fear. Of course, she saw no problem with that. Any sane person would be just as scared as her now.
After all, she was in a dark forest in the middle of the night, had been turned into a furry forest creature, and huddling frightfully with a group of said forest creatures.
What was puzzling to her, when she wasn't panicking from the slightest noise, was her inability to master her fear. For ever rustle of a branch, every snapping twig, and every unnatural howl or screech that permeated the forest she felt like she was about to have a heart attack and pressed closer against her new-found comrades.
The group whimpered and squeaked at every sound. This went on for hours and Zelda was begin to think that she would be killed by every fright at a new heart-stopping noise entered the cacophony, a loud yell followed by a multitude of clanging noises.
Zelda listened and realized the sound she was hearing was at least two pieces of metal being banged into one another.
The sound was so foreign to the forest that the other Kikwi stopped shivering in fear in order to properly listen to it.
Zelda was so absorbed in the sound, wondering what it might be, that she failed to notice it getting louder and louder until a dark shape burst from the brush, flying in the air until it came crashing unto the ground.
Shortly after, another dark shape appeared, walking leisure to the former who was gasping for breath as it pulled itself to its feet.
"My, my, you are quite the swordsman, boy."
Zelda's veins ran cold at the sound of Ghirahim's voice. Who's life was he messing up now? She thought to herself.
The unknown figure snarled and charged at Ghirahim's form and the two reengaged in combat.
For several minutes, the pair continued the fight, each attempting to outmaneuver one another.
Unfortunately, Ghirahim once again smacked his adversary away, causing him to hit a tree.
Ghirahim triumphantly looked around, his eyes landed on and widen slightly.
"Oh, look who it is, boy! Your friend!"
The figure got back up and stepped into the moonlight, causing Zelda to freeze in shock.
Link…
"What are you talking about?" Link growled.
Ghirahim ignored the question, focusing on Zelda. "She seems to be fairing her curse quite well, and look! She has found members of her new kind!" He said gleefully.
Then, suddenly, Ghirahim looked up towards the moon. "Oh my, look at the time! I really must get going." Ghirahim turned to Link. "I enjoyed our little quarrel, but I have more important issues to attend to. Oh, and you may want to speak with your friend now, so she can inform you of her…," Ghirahim let out a maniacal giggle. "…predicament."
Before anyone could react, he snapped his fingers and disappeared, leaving a cloud of strange diamonds in his wake.
"Hey! Come back and fight, you coward!" Link angrily yelled into the night.
Breathing heavily, he then turned his attention to the spot Ghirahim was talking at, only to find a huddle of strange little creatures.
Zelda felt herself panic as she watched Link's eyes scan each Kikwi until then landed on her, and he then saw the amulet draped around her.
She watched as his eyes widened in recognition and mouth gaped as he made the connection.
"Zelda?!"
