AN: GUESS WHO ISN'T DEAD!
sorry for updating like literally a year after I first published this! Its been so long that the date-mate I mentioned in chapter 1 broke up with me lmao (for reasons unrelated to this fanfic, but we are Actual Friends so it turned out fine). Honestly I wasn't gonna update bc I didn't think anyone was reading it but! I got a review! And I felt so bad that I was like "geez, I gotta finish the chapter I've had sitting in my drafts for a year because I love my readers!" So thanks for that!
More character personality in this chapter. Tfw Zelda swears more then anyone else.
Also; when I publish chapter 3 (when!) I'm gonna edit chapter 1 and probably this one a bit to fix some grammar issues, but no major plot changes. If I do change anything, I'll let y'all know in the next AN.
For the first time that day, Link managed to open his mouth and successfully say something. Well, it was more of a scream, but who are we to judge?
He had plenty of right to be screaming, too. After the door had slammed shut, the entire room had started to dissolve into a bright light. Pieces of the wall broke off, and the ceiling melted away. In less then a minute, what was once Princess Zelda's room had faded away into almost nothing, with only a small piece of the floor left behind.
Link and Ganondorf were no longer at the castle, they seemed to be far from it. Instead, they seemed to be in the middle of what some people would imagine a limbo would be like. They were both standing on the remaining floor, and they were surrounded by a pulsing bright glow.
"So...do you know where we are?" Link asked, still shocked from the sudden teleportation.
"This can't be right!" The guerdo next to him said. "Where is Zelda? She was supposed to be here!"
"Listen, I know you're probably bummed out because you missed your politics, but I think we have a little bit more of a problem on our hands."
Ganondorf rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, boy."
"Hey! I will have you know I am legally an adu-" Before Link could finish his sentence, however, the light stopped pulsing and dimmed to nearly nothing. A low humming started, and a patch of green in the distance that definitely hadn't been there before started to grow. The green patch grew and rapidly approached them-or were they approaching it?-and suddenly they were in the middle of a forest, falling down at the sudden jolt that accompanied their arrival.
The forest looked almost like it had been taken directly from a storybook or an old legend. The trees were a vibrant green, the leaves blowing in a way that seemed almost as if a paintbrush was swirling the colors around. The plants around them were curved and curled like ribbons, ranging from red to purple. Huge mushrooms sprouted as far as they could see, releasing a glowing dust that the wind blew through the air. Link's eyes widened in amazement, while Ganondorf's narrowed in anger.
"What? There wasn't anything in the prophecy about this!" Ganondorf said, standing up slowly with clenched fists at his side.
"Geez, trust you to ruin a beautiful moment..." Link muttered, picking himself up from the ground and dusting himself off. "Wait, prophecy? I thought you had a business meeting!"
"...It was a foretold business meeting."
"..."
"..."
"...okay, if you say so," Link rolled his eyes, coming to the official decision that he did not trust this man. "How about this forest, though? It feels kinda familiar, right?"
"No."
"Really? I could've sworn I've been here before."
"I can't speak for whatever weird déjà-vu you have. It isn't familiar to me."
Link shrugged and began to walk. He wasn't quite sure whether he heading deeper into the forest or out of it, he just really needed to clear his head. This entire thing was crazy, and he couldn't really think of an explanation. It was way too realistic to be a dream, but this forest was much different from the woods he had visited in his childhood. It was impossible for woods to change this drastically in such a short period of time, right?
"You're whispering under your breath and it makes me uncomfortable." A gruff voice said, startling Link. He looked at Ganondorf, who was now standing next to him.
"Decided to come?"
"It makes more sense. Under normal circumstances, splitting up would be the better option, but we don't know how vast this place is. I would have no problem leaving you behind, but I'm certain you feel likewise, and if you find an exit or something akin to it, I wouldn't want to be left here."
Link started at him blankly. "...you use such big words. Calm down."
"Did you understand what I meant?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Then it doesn't matter."
Link ground his teeth but remained silent. This was definitely not what he imagined doing after actually getting his dream job. Zelda's politician friends were weird.
"Oh Din! ZELDA!" Link screamed, screeching to a halt. Ganondorf, unused to people stopping in front of him (or generally people being in front of him, as his intimidation factor usually gave him a bit of walking room), collided with him.
"Ugh, you have no tact."
"ZELDA IS MISSING!"
Ganondorf stared blankly at him. "...wow, nothing gets by you, does it?"
"Dude! If we went into Zelda's room and ended up here, where in Din's name is she? The guards would have mentioned if she was somewhere else, right?"
"Hmph. Probably not for you, but as I am an important member of society and they have no right to be withholding valuable information from me, you may have a point."
"Of course I have a point! It's not like Zelda to just disappear without telling someone! Well," Link backtracked, thinking of all the times Zelda had sneaked out of the castle. "...it's not like Zelda to just disappear without telling me."
"She's probably fine. If her room led us here, it stands to reason that she's here as well."
Link grinned. "Y'know, that's a good point."
"Of course it's a good point," Ganondorf rolled his eyes. "I am filled with good points."
"Yeah, sure. But you know what that means!"
"..."
"If you don't know, you can ask."
"...what does it mean."
"Okay, you phrased that as more of a statement then a question, but I'll take it! What it means is that we have to save Zelda before we get out of here!"
Ganondorf stared at Link with something akin to disgust. No, scratch that, it was definitely disgust. He was not in the practice of saving people he was planning on kidnapping. That's practically a surefire way to ruin any evil plans! Besides, the kid didn't look like he had been in anything tougher then a street fight. For Din's sake, the kid looked like he would've lost that street fight!
"Um. No thank you?"
"Oh come on!" Link pestered, eyes practically glowing with the adventures he was envisioning. "Don't you want to rescue the princess?"
"Not really. We don't even know she needs rescuing, and we don't even know if we can handle ourselves here! I don't know if you've noticed, but we are in the middle of a strange forest!"
"...well, you don't have to shout," Link pouted.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, kid, but someone has to deliver the cold, hard facts."
"Yeah, whatever."
Geez. Though he was glad to be out of the forced conversation, the silent walking was almost worse. Link really took everything personally, didn't he? Ganondorf felt a little bad. Only a little bad, though, because villains with more emotions then they could handle always got swayed to the side of good, and he was not about that life.
Too bad that his kidnapping plan had to be put on hold. Every evil plan he had ever made had some giant flaw, it seemed. Like the one where he wanted to find the Triforce...which had sounded great in theory, until he had realized he had no idea who possessed the pieces. Or the one where he wanted to freeze the Zoran kingdom, only to be informed by Kotake that "they didn't have that kind of magic, and that's pretty extra, even for you." And now it seemed this plan was a bust as well.
"My life is an operatic crisis," he murmured. Zelda better be having fun wherever she was, because he sure wasn't.
Zelda was not having fun. First, she had been forcefully knocked out (by who?), then she had apparently been dragged into a dungeon (okay, she had been unconscious so she didn't know for sure, but either way her hair was in shambles), and now she was tied to a chair? What type of amateur villain bullshit was this? She really needed to hire better guards.
"Hey, tying me to a chair while I'm already locked in a cell? That's some serious overkill! Trying to compensate for something?" She shouted. Maybe if she provoked her kidnapper, she'd get some information. "Unless you have a bondage kink, in which case I understand the tying, but feel the need to inform you that I'm not into that. I'm into being respected, so it'd be pretty nice if you let me go."
Nothing. Oh come on, why did she have to get kidnapped by the silent types? "Fine, don't say anything, keep your plan to yourself, whatever! But I feel the need to inform you that as I am not currently the acting ruler of Hyrule, although my father will feel a personal loss at my absence, it won't affect the countries' politics that much! We're on relatively good terms with our neighbors, so at worst there are some minorly heated meetings!"
Still nothing. Time to save her breath and try to find a way out. Hmm, the room itself seemed secure, though she couldn't tell if the lock was. No windows, so no figuring out her whereabouts.
The knots holding her to the chair were pretty shitty, though. She could definitely get out of the chair. "Seriously?" she muttered. "Of all the things to cheap out on?"
Zelda untied herself with relative ease, but a closer inspection revealed that the door was locked and there weren't any dirt holes she could dig her way out of. Maybe she could fashion a lock pick with the wooden chair, but that was unlikely with her resources. Begrudgingly, she sat back on the chair, crossing her arms
"This sucks."