I do not own The Legend of Zelda or any of the games in the franchise. Those rights belong solely to Nintendo.
—-
Deep inside a long forgotten cave, Link was lying unconscious. He had been stripped of all of his clothes, with the exception of his undergarments. His long blonde hair splayed out under his head and neck, no longer tied into a ponytail as his hair band had also been taken. A bright green, luminous energy swirled around him and was continuously feeding into his right arm causing it to take on a bright, almost neon hue. The charred and damaged flesh from the attack beneath Hyrule Castle had been replaced. The area around his shoulder pulsing with the green light until all of the energy had been absorbed into his body. With one final flash of bright light, his whole arm pulses with a color similar to turquoise before it fades. Link's new arm was quite different from his original. Where pale skin used to reside on his arm, there now sat a very dark green that rode up his arm and ended in the middle of his bicep. From there, what appeared to be a large geometric tattoo of the same color navigated itself around Link's bicep, shoulder, chest, down his side, and above his ribs.
As the last of the energy faded from view, Link woke. He first opened his blue eyes slowly, as if waking from a long night's sleep. He glanced around lazily for a second before he registered his surroundings. He blinked once before his eyes widened. He was in fact not in his and Zelda's bed in Hateno. He was lying on a hard stone in the middle of a cave with no clothes on. With a sharp intake of breath, the knight quickly sat up.
"Zelda?" he called out, looking around him for any sign of his princess.
There was no response. Not from Zelda. Not from anyone.
It was then that Link glanced down at his hand, noticing his new appendage for the first time. He held up his hand as his mouth hung agape. He took in the dark green tone his skin had taken on, the brace that wrapped around the length of his arm, and his long green fingernails. Link formed a fist and squeezed, testing the foreign hand. It certainly felt a little different, almost numb. It was a similar feeling to the times when Zelda had accidentally fallen asleep on his arm in an uncomfortable position and caused a tingling sensation to race up his arm when he tried to move it. Additionally, he noticed that the segmented, metal brace had been fitted to the length of his arm. It ran from his wrist, up his arm, and ended just below the shoulder. Two additional components were fitted to the top of his hand, one of them having an indented circular pad that rested in the middle of his hand. The final thing-or things-he noticed about his new-look arm were the rings that rested on his fingers and his thumb. Each of these rings also held an indent that was apparently meant to house something.
Link tried to shift the brace in an effort to remove it, but he found that he couldn't. It wouldn't budge. He found a similar result when he tried removing the rings around his fingers and the pieces that rested on the top of his hand.
What surprised LInk further, was that his new hand began to glow with the same bright turquoise it had when it had been finished being infused with the swirling energy. He inspected the hand, the light only broken up by the dark contrast of the brace. A voice emanated throughout the room.
"Ah, Link. Finally you wake." The disembodied voice said. Link narrowed his eyes and looked around for the source of the voice, but he could not seem to find it.
"Who's there?" He called out, authoritatively. "Show yourself!"
The voice chose not to follow Link's demand.
"I've heard a great deal about you from Zelda." It responded.
That caused Link to stop his scan for the source of the voice and widen his eyes.
"Zelda? Where is she? So help me if you've done anything to her!" Link shouted.
"Link, calm down." The voice tried to reason with Link. "This is one of the things Zelda mentioned. You clearly are very protective of her…Link, I promise you that I have done nothing to harm Zelda, nor yourself. In fact, I saved your life."
Link looked down, still not trusting the mysterious voice. It was then that Link realized that it was not coming from anywhere beyond himself, but rather from his own right arm.
"You saved me? But…aren't you…you know…" Link began. "...an arm?"
The voice filled the room with laughter.
"And very matter-of-fact! Zelda was seemingly dead-on about you!" It said through its laughs. "Yes, the arm saved you."
The voice paused and grew serious.
"Your wounds were quite severe. I am relieved to see you escape death. Your arm, however, was beyond saving. I had to replace it, lest the injury endanger you further." Link could hear the voice in the arm take a breath. "We have much to discuss. I promise I'll tell you as much as I can. In the meantime, please make your way out of this cave."
"Wait! Where's Zelda?" the knight called out. "You said she talked to you! Where is she?"
He was met with silence and Link let out a frustrated sigh. He felt a rather familiar deja vu at the moment. It was only a few short years ago that found himself waking in a mysterious cave and an unknown, disembodied voice guididing him. He was also quite frustrated back then when the voice he was hearing could not speak more with him than they were seemingly able. Link sighed and began to survey the cave. He spun around once and determined that the only way he could go was forward.
As Link began taking his first steps since waking, he noticed something that made his heart drop into his stomach. The winged purple hilt of the Master Sword sat sticking out of a root. Though he could not see the rest of the legendary blade, he could see enough to know that it had indeed been destroyed. Images of the conflict underneath Hyrule Castle flashed through his mind. He recalled the gloom overtaking the Sword of Evil's Bane and the blade itself shattering as he tried to protect Zelda. He reached down and grasped the hilt and pulled it out of its resting place. As he inspected it, silvery flakes fell off the sword and fluttered to the ground like chipped paint. Only about a quarter of the blade had remained intact, but even the part that had not flown off in a thousand shards was horribly rusted and twisted at the end. It looked as though the sword had been forged by a child blacksmith…a particularly untalented child blacksmith that had horribly warped the sword.
Link tightly shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. He shook his head and took a deep breath. He had lost the sword before and it felt like he was missing part of himself until he found it again. At least then it was still whole. Link thought bitterly. Link took another deep breath and calmed himself. Becoming angry would only cloud his judgment. I just need to get out of here and find Zelda. She'll know what to do, He resolved. Carrying the decayed Master Sword in his green right hand, Link pushed through some vines that hung in his path and began to navigate through the tunnels of this cave.
I just need to find Zelda.
—-
As Link pressed forward, he passed by some stonework that reminded him of the Zonai ruins under the castle. Outside of the structures under Hyrule Castle and the room he currently stood in, Link had not seen any kind of structures made like this anywhere else in Hyrule. He did not stop to ponder it for long, however. He just needed to keep moving. He made it into another room that towered in height. Parts of the walls had crumbled and fallen to the floor in large chunks. A large gear had appeared to have detached from the wall and sat on the floor underneath two larger gears and a smaller one that was identical to itself. As Link continued his observation of the room, he found that a large circle of dark, powdery sand sat in front of him. As he stepped onto it, he found that he did not sink into it, like sand in the desert, but felt like he was walking on a rug. He also found that a white stone ring just beyond the sand had burst to life with a similar green light to the energy that he had seen under the castle. He kept his attention on the object in front of him and crept forward.
The outer stone ring, that was larger than Link, was carved in the shape of two dragons. Where each dragon ended, the other began. An ouroboros, Link recalled, certain that he heard Zelda mention the symbol before. In the center of the ring, the green energy had taken a shape. It was circular in nature with strange glyphs floating in symmetrical patterns on the outer thirds of the circle. The middle third of the circle held two symbols that were clearly being emphasized. The first symbol looked to be an eye of sorts, quite different to the Sheikah symbols that Link was used to. This symbol was much shorter, with a more intricate design depicting an iris and pupil and eyelashes along the bottom of the eye. The second symbol was a hand, a right hand to be precise. It was quite large and had very long appendages that stretched high above the palm and appeared to be fingers and a thumb. Link approached the ouroboros slowly, examining the structure for any sign of a trap. When he was satisfied, Link began to study the glowing ring a bit further. After a moment, he concluded that the symbol of a hand was meant to represent his right hand, or something similar to it at least. He switched the Master Sword from his right hand to his left and gently reached for the green light.
As Link made contact with the light, it burst. A ripple appeared to form in the center of the ring and work its way outwards, dispelling the light as it went. A set of glyphs that had been carved along the top of the ouroboros lit up green before they faded. Nothing happened for a second, but Link heard a very familiar sound behind him. He turned to see a blue travel gate come to life in the dark sand he had just been standing on. It certainly looked like the Sheikah travel gates and medallions he had become accustomed to using for instant transport, but that was impossible. There was no way that any of this had been built by the Sheikah. It didn't look like anything he had ever seen from them.
Seconds after the travel gate had come to life, Link heard a series of loud noises that he could not identify the source of. It appeared to be coming from within the walls and Link followed the sound as it traveled through the room to the set of large gears high on the wall to his right. They began rotating but appeared to be rotating in the opposite direction they were supposed to. Link had no way of examining the gears further, so he simply shrugged and took a step though the ouroboros and kept pushing forward. As he did so, the rotating gears appeared to have unlocked a door in front of him. It split into two halves and slid open, revealing his supposed path.
Link stepped through the door and rounded a bend. From here, the cave became much more decrepit. There was little surviving stonework along the floor and walls and what did remain stuck out of the ground at odd angles. He walked through the dirt and tried to avoid stubbing his toes on the stones that stuck out of the ground. He came up to a stone ledge that stuck out of the ground with a pool of water beneath it. After determining that the water was deep enough for him to jump into, Link dove off of the ledge. After his dive, he broke the surface of the water and swam forward. The water was cold, but he had swam in colder before. It was bearable. He pulled himself up onto the path and shook his hair out. Without his hair band, Link's mass of blonde locks, darkened by the water, stuck to the back of his neck and his face. He ran a hand through it to unstick it and slick it back as much as he could to remove it from his face.
Link continued through the cave and found two more ledges similar to the one he had jumped from. However, each ledge gave way to a larger drop with each ledge. As he surfaced from the third, and hopefully final, jump, Link shook out his hair once more. I'm starting to think those jumps were part of the original design of this cave. He thought. What a terrible design.
He swam forward to the ledge nearby and hauled himself up. He allowed himself to sit for a moment and take a breath. He was feeling more drained than he should have been after this level of physical activity and he thought he knew why. His encounter with the gloom against the man below Hyrule Castle had left him feeling particularly drained in that moment after doing relatively little in the battle. Two swings of his sword should not have had that kind of effect on him. Though he was no doctor, and only held the basic amount of knowledge on human anatomy that had been required by a knight of the kingdom, Link surmised that the excessive amount of gloom he came in contact with had infected him. Zelda or Purah would more likely be able to go in depth as to how the gloom was specifically affecting him, but for now his amateur theories would have to suffice.
With one last intake of breath, Link rose to his feet. He glanced around the room and spotted two items of interest: a bundle of cloth that rested on a ledge nearby and a door that a bright light filtered through. He first made his way over to the bundle on the ledge. To Link's relief, the bundle appeared to be a set of clothing. The first bit he pulled on was a light gray skirt. He stepped into the skirt and pulled it on. It wasn't really his style, but it beat only being in his undergarments. The next thing he noticed was a tunic. The tunic itself shared the same gray coloring as the skirt, but it also had a large amount of green that was draped across the left shoulder and reached down to about his hip level. The end of the green section of the tunic hung down in a series of segmented triangles that wrapped around his left side and stretched onto his back. The tunic left the right side of his chest and his right arm exposed, but it would have to do for now. He pulled the tunic on, fastened the leather belt that had been under the tunic around his waist and pulled on a similar leather strap that ran from across his right shoulder and connected to the belt at his left hip. Finally, Link stepped into the pair of sandals that had been underneath the whole set of clothes and tied the straps up around his calves, ensuring that they wouldn't slip off.
Link then slotted the Master Sword onto his back using the leather strap he had attached and turned to the doorway on his right. He walked over uneven stones that stuck out of the ground at odd angles, making his way carefully out into the warm glow of the early morning sun. What he found outside was definitely not what he expected, however. Instead of any trees, animals, mountains, or any land of any kind, Link only saw the great blue expanse of the sky. He gazed out in every direction except behind him and saw the same things: blue sky and white fluffy clouds. The knight then risked a glance over the side of the ledge he had walked onto. His eyes widened as he realized just how high he was. The nearest land he could see still seemed to be thousands of feet off in the sky. He took a step back from the ledge and looked down at his right hand.
"Ok…how the hell am I supposed to get down from here?" He questioned. "I don't even have a paraglider to use…"
"Jump." The arm lit up as the voice that emanated from it responded. "There should be water below and this arm should have enough magic in it to protect you as you break the surface."
Link stared at his hand dumbly for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to say something in response but closed it just as quickly it had opened. He shook his head and stepped up to the ledge and looked above him towards the heavens. He took a deep breath and looked down at the pond that was evidently below him…a few hundred feet below him.
"Shit," was all Link said before he leapt off the ledge as if diving into a pool. As he fell, Link was able to rotate himself so that he was falling on his stomach instead of headfirst. He tried sticking his arms out to try and slow his descent as much as possible, but he was not experienced at jumping off of objects that were as high as this was without a paraglider. He was uneven in the speed at which he extended his limbs, causing him to spin and flip around briefly. Link swore and tried extending each of his arms and legs as far out as they would go. This appeared to solve the issue as his spinning ceased and he fell slower than before. In his now steady descent, Link got a good view of the land he was falling unto. He spotted dozens of lands floating in the sky like islands. Each had golden grasses, white wood trees with golden leaves, and several lakes and ponds. Below him to the right, he spotted what appeared to be a semi-mountainous area that was covered in snow. In front of him, Link was able to make out a large, white stone structure at the opposite ends of the sky islands. The final thing he noticed appeared to be one of the dragon spirits he had seen in his travels throughout Hyrule with Zelda. Though he could not tell for certain while he was falling, Link thought that this dragon looked slightly different than the ones he was accustomed to seeing.
As Link fell through a set of clouds, he was drawing nearer to the pool of water he was aiming for. Link was unsure how his new arm was supposed to protect him from a fall from this height. As if answering his unspoken question, his green limb started to glow and shout to him above the winds whipping past his ears.
"Fall vertically!" The voice called out. "Stretch your arms out in front of your head as you fall and it will protect you!"
Seeing no reason not to trust this voice at this point as he potentially fell to his death, Link followed the arms command. He clumsily rotated himself in the air, spinning briefly, before he was falling head first with his arms outstretched above his head. He picked up a large amount of speed as he fell like this. Within seconds, he was hurtling down towards the water. Link closed his eyes as he fell, hoping that this voice was correct about his arm's ability to prevent him from jumping to his own demise.
Link seemingly had no reason to fear, though. As he first made contact with the water, his arm flashed. It happened within the blink of an eye, but the surface tension of the water had been disturbed enough by his right arm that Link fell into the pond without any harm coming to him. Link surfaced a few moments later and gasped for breath. He swam past a couple lily pads that were larger than any he had ever seen and towards a stone arch and the stairs that rested below it. He heaved himself onto the stone landing and flopped down onto his back. He took a few deep breaths before he broke into laughter. He held his sides and laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation he just put himself through. Zelda had once told him that there was a fine line between courage and recklessness...Even Link would consider what he just did on the side of recklessness.
When his laughter subsided, Link sat up. The stones he sat on reminded him greatly of the stonework they encountered under Hyrule Castle. Zelda had mentioned some people. An ancient civilization that the symbols and carvings were the signature of. The Zonai, Link thought. He observed the stonework around him, finding it identical in style to the ruins underneath the castle. Definitely the Zonai.
Link rose to his feet and began down the stone steps before him. He came across a circular stone landing surrounded by the white wood trees he had seen while falling. He walked up to one and studied it carefully. A yellow moss grew in patches on the sides of this particular tree and a strange, yellow and blue mushroom grew at the tree's base. It was all unlike Link had ever seen in his travels across Hyrule. He turned away from the tree and continued along the stone path. He climbed a short set of stairs before he spotted something he did recognize. Shiny red apples grew on one of the trees next to the path and it was upon seeing the fruit that Link heard his stomach grumble. The adrenaline of waking in this strange place was beginning to wear off and he realized that he was quite hungry. It felt like he had not eaten in days. Just how long was I asleep this time? He wondered wryly. It better not have been another hundred years.
Link reached up to a low hanging branch with his right arm and grabbed onto the apple. He found that he didn't seem to be lacking much grip strength. He could possibly even climb in his semi-weakened state. He pulled the apple down and rubbed it on the front of his tunic. He took a bite and the sweet juice of the apple filled his mouth. He gave an involuntary moan as he consumed his first meal in what seemed like ages. In no time at all, several apples had been plucked from the tree and practically devoured. After his snack, Link wiped the apple juice from his lips with his sleeve. He did feel at least marginally stronger having eaten something. After disposing of his apple cores in a bush nearby, he continued following the path, though he didn't make it very far without running into trouble.
He had taken less than ten steps when he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head in the direction of the movement and stood on edge. Link watched closely as a green creature, if it could even be called a creature, stared at him. It held a tree branch in its right hand and looked as if it was made of stone. A green and white mosaic pattern wrapped around its features. It had no legs, rather hoving off the ground instead of walking. Its arms were segmented rings that seemed to be held together by a green energy that pulsed and flowed within itself. Its top half was also separated from its bottom, but these were also connected by the stream of green energy that kept it together. Its face was a strange mask that held a large red eye with a small orange dot for a pupil. As it stared at Link, it cocked its head from side to side, the large, sharp looking, orange blade on the top of its head tilting along with it. After a moment, its eye lit up a bright red.
The creature quickly began advancing towards Link. The knight readied himself and prepared for the attack that he was sure was to come. As it drew near, it brought its arm back and swung the branch at Link, who stepped back to avoid the attack. The creature adjusted itself quickly, moving towards Link again and swinging its weapon a second time. Just as before, Link simply took a step back. Of course it was not the worst thing in the world to have been attacked with a tree branch rather than a sword or club, but he still didn't want to take any chances. Link drew the remains of the Master Sword from his back and held it out at his side. It's better than nothing, he thought as he avoided another attack. This time, the knight retaliated. He swung the decayed and twisted blade at his attacker. The sword made contact with the middle ring of the enemy's body, shifting it and temporarily disrupting the flow of energy. Its eye flickered for a moment, but the creature shook itself and righted the misplaced body part. Aside from doing little to no damage to his enemy, Link noticed that a rusted piece of the Master Sword broke off from the rest of the blade and fell to the ground. He quickly stowed the remains of his sword on his back, not wanting to risk further damage to his sword. He quickly surveyed his surroundings as he side-stepped another attack. He spotted a rather sturdy branch on the ground a few feet away. He dashed to it and lifted it in his right hand as he scooped it up off the ground. He waited for another swing from his adversary, dodged it, and moved in. With two quick and well placed swings to the enemy's midsection, Link successfully dislodged the middle ring of its body. The edges of the ring interrupted the flow of energy from the creature's base and its body shuddered and twitched as it dropped its stick on the ground. Link watched as its eye also began flickering before dimming and going out. The green energy within the creature stopped flowing from its base, and the various parts of its body dropped to the ground, lifeless.
Though it was not a particularly harrowing fight for Link, he was left feeling a little bit drained. A fight that required as little effort as this one shouldn't have even broken a sweat on him. Just how badly had he been infected by the gloom?
"What the hell was that thing?" He asked no one in particular.
"I apologize for the inconvenience, Link." Link jumped as the voice from his right arm spoke. "That was a Soldier Construct. They had been constructed long ago to protect these lands. They had been ordered to treat any foreign being on these islands as hostile to those that resided here."
"Wait, why would you want any foreigner to be treated as a threat?" Link asked, confused.
"I know it sounds bad, but I'll explain in time." The voice said. "Please, just make your way to the Temple of Time and everything will be explained to you."
The voice faded out and would not respond to any of Link's continued questioning. Choosing not to dwell on it too long, Link decided to keep moving forward, holding on to the stick he had used to defend himself. He briefly inspected the horn of the creature he had defeated. It was indeed very sharp and would have made a solid weapon, however, he had no way of attaching it to any of the sticks lying around. He chose to place it back with the remains of its owner and press forward.
As he followed the path, Link spotted several stone structures. Some were still standing and shaped similarly to gazebos, but others were completely dilapidated and falling to ruin. They littered the area around the path and Link thought about going to investigate them a little before he spotted another green construct. This one did not appear to be active as the last one had. It actually looked as if it had not been active for a very long time. It was covered in dirt and dust, looking like it might not even be functional at all. It also looked structurally different from the soldier construct that had attacked him earlier. This construct sat on three open rings, had one section as a midsection with a blank green circle in its center, and had a different head shape than the soldier. Its head was shorter with a steep angle in the middle of its face that looked almost like some kind of nose and four pinecone shaped horns on its crown. It also didn't have any eyes, just two empty holes around its "nose."
As Link approached the new construct his arm lit up briefly.
"Don't worry, this construct won't try to harm you." The voice said. "It is a steward construct…it's meant to assist us."
When Link stepped within a yard of the construct, a yellow symbol lit up in the green circle in its midsection, resembling a broom that rested in the middle of a yellow ring that rested within another ring of rotating green glyphs. The construct began to shudder and twist, dust and dirt falling from crevices as it seemed to be loosening its joints. Suddenly, the construct's head extended towards the sky. Its neck was made of rings, just as the soldier's arms were. The steward's own arms extended from underneath its midsection and rested just between it and the tallest ring. It held its hands out in front of itself, its palms facing the ground. As was the case with the soldier, everything was bound together by a pulsing green energy that flowed through every part of the construct.
Having extended its neck and arms out, the steward then leaned forward and lowered its head. It appeared to study a surprised Link, cocking its head from side to side as it did so. Link took a step back and waited for its inspection to be finished. It took only a moment, but the steward righted itself and raised its head back up. To Link's further shock, it spoke in a very mechanical sounding voice.
"Link. I have waited for you."
—-
A/N: Hello again! Thanks for reading chapter 2! I wanted to get this chapter out before I go on a short trip this weekend. I hope to post chapter 3 early next week after I get back! Again thanks for reading! As always, constructive criticism is always welcome and I'll see you in the next chapter!