Oh jeez so it's been quite a while. I've been pretty preoccupied with other stuff lately and I haven't really been too motivated to carry this on, but for you few people who keep checking for the next chapter, I feel like it's cruel to not write any more. I've got two new chapters lined up for you at the moment and I'll try to carry it on.
So... enjoy!

In theory, 'doing something' shouldn't have been so complicated, right? In theory, Link could have just… rode up to Ganondorf's evil tower, demanded the princess back at threat of a stabbing, yes?
No and nope.
It soon became clear that formulating a plan wasn't as easy as it seemed on TV. Vio had quickly explained that they needed directions and a detailed step-by-step plan they could follow so nothing could go wrong.

Whilst Link was dearly grateful for Vio's input, he couldn't deny that he was starting to get a little… aggled. He should have guessed it if he was completely honest – Vio and projects mixed together made an immovable force. An annoying one too.

"Li-Link! Link!"

Fourth time he'd been dragged from his dreamland. Link had been staring out the window to his right, watching orange puffs of cloud bumble lazily across a violet sky, not a care in the world. What would it be like to be a cloud, Link wondered, to not worry about being the hero of legend or the madman that was terrorising the land below?
He hadn't arrived at an answer. Vio had deprived him of that much.

"Are you listening?!"
Heavy headed, Link scraped his fuzzy eyes off the glass and back to the book they'd been studying back to front for the last… well he was tempted to call it days, but he was sure it had been weeks.
"I dunno, Vi. Like… trees? Giant… trees? Look, you lost me at 'once upon a time'." He knew he'd done bad as soon as he spared a look at Vio's terrifying face. The red eyes just emphasised the demonic way they stretched and how his eyebrows seemed to travel so far up his forehead they had surely become detached.

"Yes…" Vio sighed, though his scarlet pupils still made Link want to throw himself out the window, "A tree. A-a-ugh-" As if the strings had been cut on a puppet, the boy collapsed in on himself, curling around the book clamped to his knees and moaning into the pages. "How am I supposed to help you if you can't be bothered to listen?!" Though muffled, the words were still sharp.

"I'm sorry!" Link aimed to stand up, but sank back into his pillows, eyes screwed up to stop the sickening spinning. "I can't concentrate, okay?! I-I'm glad you're helping but I can't even hear my own voice over this Din-damned ringing!" He smacked a palm to his left ear and ground it, trying to knock out the annoying little goblin that screamed into his ear canal. "I'm sorry!" He exclaimed again and stopped himself from saying any more once he felt a lump block his throat.

He had minor concussion, the doctor had said. What he hadn't said was that Link would be over-emotional, painfully tired and irritable. He wanted to rest. He wanted to fall asleep and be blissfully unaware of this whole situation until sunrise. Was that too much to ask?

"Okay."

Link relaxed. Vio didn't sound angry. He didn't want him to be upset or scared or whatever concoction of emotions he could possibly be using right now but… Link just couldn't think.

"I didn't realise you were still so bad."

Biting back a snarky remark was more difficult than it should have been. Of course he was still 'bad'! He'd smacked his head on the floor and woken up to the news of him having to save the world! But he couldn't be mad at Vio. He was trying his best.
So Link grunted back, burying further under the blankets and immersing himself in the clean smell. That helped a little bit.

"We'll come back to this in the morning."
"Mhm."
"Link?"
"Mhm?"
"We'll work this out. No one else is going to die, okay?"
Link sighed. Not because he was irate or because he was tired. It was out of relief. It was such a simple gesture to reassure Link with a single sentence but… that was what made it more believable. It was going to be fine.
"Mhm."

"Link!"
"I swear to the goddesses Vio, if you can't let me sleep for one second-"
"Link!"
….That wasn't Vio. Link opened his eyes. And this wasn't the hospital, either! This was… where was he?
It was as if he'd been locked away in a pitch black room or thrown into a void. Was this a trick of Ganondorf's? Had he brought magic into this now?!
"Link! Can you hear me?!"
But that wasn't Ganondorf's mad cackle, his unhinged grumble of words or drawling tone. This voice was pure, light and innocent, like a dove softly flapping its wings against a gentle breeze.
"Link, if you can hear this, it's Zelda!"
Z-Zelda?! But how?!
"Please believe that this is me, Link! This isn't just a dream! Ganondorf's told me how you can get to him. Whether this is a trap or just him being… incredibly stupid I don't know but it's valuable information!"
Link still searched for where the voice could be coming from but all he could see was darkness, darkness and darkness. What was this?
"Link. Deep in the forest where the roots entangle one, another in a house owned by the dead, the last in a cavern below the water… equip yourself and find them."
"Find what?!" Link blurted, now more confused than when this dream had started. It was a dream… right? But he got no answer.
"I'm sorry you were dragged into this. Whatever happens to you now is on my back completely. You've tried so hard already and lost so much… you're going to lose more. But if you win… against Ganondorf. If we win. No one else will die."
That was enough for him. The promise that no one else would meet the same fate his mum had… that would be a lot of weight off his shoulders for sure.
"But-

-ZELDA!"
"WOA! Link, Link what's the matter?!"
He was back in the hospital, sat upright on his bed, sweaty, dizzy and sick. "I-" He croaked out, wetting his lips and placing a shaking hand above his frantic heart, "I dunno-"
"What did you shout for?" Vio perched on the edge of Link's bed, fixing him with wide, stern eyes.
"I dunno."
"Something about Zelda?"
"Y-yes. Zelda." Quickly, Link ran through the fading information in his mind, "Forest, dead, water."
"Hm?"
"Forest- h-hey!" Link shrank into his pillows when Vio ran a hand through his hair, passing a thin palm over his forehead.
"Sweet Hylia, Link, you're burning!"
"T-that doesn't matter, Vio! Zelda… Zelda contacted me! She told me that I needed to go to the forest, a haunted house and some cavern under the water and collect whatever's there! Then I'd be able to find-"
"Link." Vio frowned now, moving his hand to press against Link's neck. Link was sure he felt the panicked flutter of his heartbeat. "Slow down. Zelda contacted you in a dream?"
"Yeah." Now that it was said aloud by someone else, he realised just how stupid he sounded. "Vio, I know it sounds like I just fooled myself but-but this wasn't just a dream!"
"I believe you."
What? Vio didn't normally-
"I didn't believe you about that dream you were having about Ganondorf… and look where that got us." Link felt his heart drop as Vio pulled his gaze away and rested it on the tangled bed covers. "If we're going to do this, we're going to have to trust each other. So I trust you, Link. We need to go to the forest. Okay."

Confused with Vio's behaviour, Link watched with a dropped jaw as his friend pushed himself to his feet, crouched down and started to rummage through his school bag.
"What're you doing?"
"You can't go anywhere like that right now, so we've got to be useful some other way." He finally pulled out his phone and plonked himself down on the bed again, "If we turn up to Kokiri without any clue of what we need to find, we're not going to get very far. But if I use the maps on my phone…" He paused for a second to find the app, "I can find any strange landmarks that might be it."

"Oh." Apart from that, Link didn't know what to say. It was a great idea. "I think Zelda told me something about the forest, something about roots."
"Okay…" Vio hummed. Link could just about see the screen over his shoulder, how it scrolled in a green blur as Vio skimmed a thumb across it. Then he looked at Vio himself, how the profile of his creased face seemed paper white from the glow of the phone, how his red eyes focussed with a determined frown and his front teeth pinned his bottom lip.
He really meant it, didn't he? He was really going to do anything for him. But… he studied Vio closer, staring at his eyes and trying to work out what they concealed more than anything. Link was normally great at guessing what Vio was thinking and vice versa but now… maybe it was the lack of light in the midnight room, maybe it was the change of colour in his friend's eyes, but now he was completely unreadable.

"Do any of these look like it to you?"
Link bent over and steadied the phone with his own hand. There were a few houses including his own, a little shop… nothing out of the ordinary. But wait. His house. It wasn't exactly brand new – in fact he remembered the stories his mother used to tell him about the tree. He'd also found old trinkets buried in the garden before with his dad, spotted an ancient etching in the base of the trunk of a little stick man and dinosaur, like old cave drawings. This couldn't be it, could it?
"My house?"
"Your house?"
"It's pretty old."
"I know. I was scared of the floorboards falling through when I came round."
"Exactly. I can't think of anywhere else… Should we get the others? Make like a search party or something."
"Only when you're well again."
"Tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow morning?! You're kidding."
"Nope. The longer we wait, the shorter time we have before someone else is found dead."