Someone once told me that you couldn't remember how a dream started out with. No matter how hard you try to recall the beginning, the parts we remember in dreams are the middle.
"Hi, welcome! Call me Link."
Link shook my hand as if we were meeting for the first time, and it was. I remembered the first day I've met Link. Sunlight poured from the foliage that leads to the big house. I was actually trying to hide in the tree from everyone, but Link took the effort to climb the wood just to meet me.
"What brings you here?" I remembered asking.
"Well, why are you hiding? It's your first day, talk to everyone!"
I stared into the horizon where the city was. A tall white tower with three blades turned soundlessly. Just watching the blades slowly turn was quieting. We listened to the leaves for what seemed like forever.
Below us, Ness counted numbers while the others were running to find their hiding place. I was surprised to find Princess Zelda holding up her skirt, hurrying to find some corner for her to hide in. Eventually she realized transforming into Sheik was quicker and cleaner for her royal dress. I didn't notice I was smiling until I saw Link smiling back to me. "Are you surprised she's… uh, used to the common things?"
"Yeah. So are all human princesses like that?" I asked. It was an honest question so I felt embarrassed when Link started chuckling. He also corrected me that he and Zelda aren't just 'humans', but a race called Hylians, which really didn't make a difference to me, but it was important to him.
"Zelda avoided people just like you when we first came here. Eventually she came up to me and said she didn't know how to make friends with all of these people. I thought it was funny but she was serious about it; so I offered to take her around, introducing her to my friends and the others."
I smiled a little bit. "You should take me around too."
"Of course." He replied. But then his smile faded into a thoughtful frown. I noticed Link was staring at my wings very intently as if he was trying to count all of my feathers. He wasn't the first person to stare at my wings but I wasn't used to it yet. I cleared my throat and looked away.
Link shifted his position, so now he sat cross-legged on the branch, facing me. It was impressing how good his balance was, plus he didn't have wings, so if he fell, it would be more than just pain.
"You lived up in the sky, right? What was it like when you first came down here?" He asked.
I took my time to collect my words. The first time I set foot on the soil, a land of peace that doesn't know war, it was a feeling that I didn't know it existed. "Like finding a new world." I remembered saying.
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"I'm absolutely sure. Look at my arm!"
I opened my eyes and the smell of green and fresh air was replaced by dust and ash. Leaves still shimmered above me with an array of blue lights, but when I took in a breath, my lungs cracked and crumpled. Everywhere except my head was warm and light. It took me a while to realize I was in the lake, which was now steaming like a hot spring.
Something was wrong. Not wrong, as in something evil is lurking… There was nothing sinister about being in a hot spring. But something was out of the ordinary and I couldn't put my finger on it.
A curtain of blonde hair came into view, and from behind that, big blue eyes peered into mine. I blinked twice and a happy, childish voice greeted me. "Good morning!"
"Good morning…?" I mumbled. The smaller Link was in the hot spring with me, wearing nothing. Which was the correct way of taking a bath, but I jumped out of my skin when I found out I was naked too.
"Wh-Wh-What are you guys doing?"
"We're not doing anything weird! I promise! This hot spring heals wounds, isn't that great?" Roy quickly explained. But the situation wasn't less awkward because he was naked too, and for some reason he was rubbing my arms with the water.
Somehow, I was oddly convinced. Roy didn't have any burns on his body, and I was feeling better by the second. The blackened burns broke off and faded away like the ink. I stretched my wings and I didn't feel any pain at all. "But why?"
"I have no idea, Link here just happened to dip his hands in the water and it started healing. But let's appreciate it. How are you feeling now?" Roy grinned.
Seeing Roy and tiny Link like this (not naked, but as in without the ink…) brought a smile to my face. It's been a tough battle with both of them, but now they're safe. I stared at my arms as the burns rippled and lifted off. The fight with tiny Link's phantom seemed like aged ago.
Roy patted me. "And look at my shoulders. The bruises are gone!"
I recalled Roy telling me that the man grabbed his shoulders and accidentally gave him the curse. Now that the bruises are clean gone, he should be immune to the ink, or at least I think so, since Ike told me something like that earlier. Maybe the light I give to my friends is the white version of the ink. "You look better." I said.
"I do feel better. You gave me 'hope', right? You should give your power to others if this repels the black ink."
Tiny Link spoke up shyly. "Um, thank you, for saving me. I, uh, never really have anyone save me so it felt really weird."
"Weird? Weird?" I scoffed. Even though he's a kid, he really wasn't different from the Link I know: proud yet somehow annoyingly modest. "Well you better get used to saving and being saved. This is a different world than above."
The kid nodded. I didn't know if it was from the steam, but his big blue eyes seemed misty. Roy and I waited patiently as the kid carefully chose his words.
"The scary part is all fuzzy now. I just remember running away from something that um, looked like you." He glanced at me nervously.
"Like me? Uh, was it me?"
Without looking up, the kid hugged his knees and muttered a 'yes'. Roy and I both pursed our lips. I felt inhumane to push him on, but he actually remembers some of his experiences here in this godforsaken cave. No wonder a nasty phantom took advantage of him.
I patted his head. "Well, you don't have to tell us everything now. It'll be tough, but let me know when you're comfortable to share."
Some amount of relief spread over me to see him smile. I guessed it would take time for him to open up and share his experience. We may all be separated again, but now I shared some of my light with tiny Link. Right now, we were together and safe, and that's what he needed.
Captain Falcon came out of the tree house with my bag with a flushed expression on his face. He wiped his forehead before approaching us. "How are you feeling, leader?" He managed to chuckle. It felt weird being called leader, but I decided to go with it.
"I'm feeling great. …Uh, where's Ike?"
"You should come in and check." He gestured and quickly went back inside. Roy and kid Link both shrugged so the three of us dressed and followed our anxious friend.
If we were outside, the sunlight should be peering from the horizon. I sighed as I checked my old-fashioned clock. Staying in the dark has really messed up my sense of time. Fatigue still weighed us down, and a long warm bath only added to my drowsiness. Climbing a couple flights of stairs was tiresome but we finally reached the dreadful attic. At least the stingy smell and hellish atmosphere was replaced with dust and old furniture. The peaceful attic remembered nothing of its nightmare of a room. In there, Ike and Captain Falcon looked relieved to see us.
They were surrounding my holy bow that was on the ground. It glowed a mysterious shade of deep red, something foreign to me. Ike stepped back from the weapon. "I tried to pick it up, but this… barrier didn't let me."
"Hmm." I mused. I was more interested in the new red glow my bow gave off. When I touched the hilt, the golden rings sprung around my left arm as usual, but the red glow shrouded me violently like fireworks. Everyone stepped back in surprise and I heard panic in my friends' calls but the fire wasn't hot at all. "It-It's okay. I'm not hurt." I replied back quickly.
"It's kind of hot out here, though…" Roy muttered as he stepped back more. But that was the last sound I heard. In the pod of fire, all noise was terminated and a familiar voice rang in my head.
"Remember that I warned you, white phantom. Use your new power wisely."
The fire died in my bow as soon as the voice stopped. I fell back on my haunches but other than that, I was okay. Everyone surrounded me immediately. "Are you okay?" Kid Link knelt and peered worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I-um, I was just visited by a divine being again. No big deal."
I quickly explained who the voice was to my extent. He was helping me, and that the white light and black ink are contradictory to each other. Also about Priscilla and her peculiar father who sought the truth. Link nodded thoughtfully as if this was a review.
"And just now, he told you that this fire was a new power?" Roy supposed. I just shrugged. I didn't know if it was because I defeated Roy and Link's phantom… that possessed the element of fire, but I didn't want to argue something that helps me. If I did, that deity might just take it away from me.
Tiny Link pulled on my arm to go outside. "Let's test it out. Maybe you can use fire with that bow!"
We came down to the lake again, I was in the front holding my bow and my four other friends were in the back anticipating something big. Link came up next to me with his bow. His arrows sparked with licking flames at the head. "I have fire arrows but I bet your arrows will be a lot stronger than mine."
"Alright, let's compare then." I prepared my usual light arrow at the same time tiny Link pulled on the nock of his. A small flame snapped and licked at the head and I wondered how it wasn't hot to him when he pulled the tip to the handle. A usual blue light arrow sprouted from my bow, but as I waited, a strange momentum shuddered up the shaft to the arrowhead. A pinkish-white flash burst from my hands just as Link exclaimed and I accidentally let go in surprise.
The arrow now followed a light of red and exploded into the opposite side of the wall, approximately a hundred or so yards away, leaving remnants of flickering fire from the small crater it made in the black rock.
"Whoooooooa!" Link cried as he jumped up and down with sheer excitement. "That was awesome!"
"Oh my goodness." I muttered. My hands still shook from the impact. This was too much of a gift, but I deserved it after all I've been through with the phantoms. I tried separating the bow into daggers. That strange thrust of energy went down my arms and my swords manifested fire. The flames weren't hot to me, even if I touched the blade, but apparently it was hot to others since when Roy trained with me, his face cringed every time I came close to slicing him. "Okay, okay. I can't handle this heat."
"What, you fought against a lava-spitting phantom." I laughed.
"Y-Yeah I know. It's just the sizzling heat is unbearable after a while." He said as he rubbed his knuckles.
I quickly learned that shaking my bow turns off the fire. And I could still shoot my normal blue arrows if I shot them before I felt the momentum, but I probably will use the fire arrows more often. Roy grumbled about my newly updated bow and dipped his hands in the lake.
"Do you think this lake is a gift also?" Ike alleged.
I thought about that as Roy's pinkish skin returned back to his normal, healthy color. If it weren't for this healing water, I would still be breathing with the crackling lungs and be looking like a burnt zombie. I sighed, "I used to only have one divine figure… But I guess I have no choice but to appreciate this one also."
"Fine with me. So are we going on our way, or are we resting up?" He said as he yawned largely. There was only one answer in this situation.
"Rest."
Roy and kid Link hummed a tune as they pulled the beds together in the living room on the first floor. Since it was a normal house on the inside, there were many mattresses and bedrooms; but we all insisted sleeping in the same room for kid Link's sake.
"So since there're so many 'Links', I think we should call you separately from big Link and you." Captain Falcon suggested. The smaller Link came to the other side to pull the bed frames together in a giant pile of mattresses and sheets. The kid shrugged. "People called me Young Link. I don't like it but I guess that could do." And I could understand his logic. If there was an older version of me coexisting at the same time, I wouldn't like to be called "Young…" whatever my name was.
Ike yawned and removed his armor and boots. I remembered to return his headband that I used as bondage earlier but he didn't really seem to mind if he had it or not. Instead, he waved me away and sunk into the very right corner of the pile of mattresses and immediately fell asleep. "One down, four to go." Roy chuckled.
Young Link insisted that he was in the middle of Roy and I, so Captain Falcon complied as he hopped into the very left side of the bed. Roy took most of his fancy attire until he was just in his white pants and red shirt. I remembered the first day I met him we sat upright in case something or someone attacked us. When I reminded him of that, he laughed and said, "I'm pretty sure your 'deity' will look after us tonight." So I shrugged.
The five of us laid down in silence. Soon, I heard soft snoring and the tree rustling outside slowly lulled me. I pulled the sheets over me more and just as I stretched my legs, Young Link whispered, "Hey." His eyes were wide open. I wondered if he was waiting for everyone else to fall asleep.
"What's up." I replied.
He looked uncomfortable, but his eyes stared right into mine. "I want to share what I remember."
"Did you wait for everybody to crash first?" I asked just in case. Young Link nodded so I rested my head with an arm in my lying position so I faced him. The kid pulled a cushion to his chest and began.
"When we were living in the big house, people started to disappear. We were watching the news after dinner and this town was getting worried because the number of people missing grew more and more each day. Eventually, everyone disappeared."
"So it became a ghost town." I nodded.
"A couple other towns lost people too. I thought it was really scary because nobody knew how everyone disappeared and no one was ever found. Everybody else in the big house was saying like the people escaped to the city or left. But I remember Roy saying how, um, it's sad that a small town becomes a ghost town because everyone just forgot it existed."
"Umm, okay."
Young Link frowned; as much as I wanted to remember that news, I had no memory of it. "After a couple of towns disappeared, some of us started to disappear too."
"We knew about that, right?" I added. He pursed his lips and nodded.
"At first it was Roy. You were very worried and we looked for him everywhere, but we never found him. We tried the whole day until sunset and you offered to look for him after dark but we stopped you. And then that night, I was in my room thinking about Roy and the news and I started to get worried, like maybe this is the… the um, start of the end. And then when I noticed, I was with Roy inside the cave. My memories are fuzzy from there…"
I tried to let his words sink into me. They were all valuable information, but it misses key points: why, and how did this happen?
Young Link's eyelids became heavier as he let out a relieved sigh. It was a heavy burden for him. We both lied down again and listened to the leaves outside. The house tinted a teal shade from the tree and the lake. Through closed eyes, Young Link whispered, "Tell me we can make it through, leader."
"We will make it." I affirmed. But I think he knew there was that hint of worry in my tone.
Author's Note: Hopefully there are more characters in the next chapter. And a new Polis.