Chapter 2: An Unforgettable Sight

"…open your eyes…"

As those words penetrated his mind, an immediate shift occurred as if a flip had been switched. His previously calm and unthinking brain became inundated with conscious thoughts, the first substantial ones in what felt like an eternity. They jolted him, prompting a subconscious reaction akin to being abruptly awakened from a peaceful slumber.

"Where am I... who am I?..." the questions continued as his mind grappled with what should be relatively easy questions yet, the elusive answers slipped through his mental fingers, obscured by his confusion. Despite this, a sense of tranquillity fell upon him demotivating him from finding the answers, rather he felt content with his current position and merely wanted to go back to sleep. The depths of the darkness were clawing at him desperately trying to get him to fall back into his slumber soliciting him with a poisonous tongue.

"Open your eyes..."

"That voice… it sounded so majestic, enchanting… so familiar?"

Those thoughts had taken prominence lingering in his mind, motivating him to find the answer as more questions began to dawn upon him but the focus was on the unknown voice he was hearing. He strained to catch the words, but it felt like he was in a warm bath, the water maybe muffling the sound. Still, he began to feel another emotion… impatience as if that voice was saying something he absolutely needed to hear, even if he couldn't quite explain why. It was the one thing keeping him from slipping back into sleep.

"Open your eyes"

"Open my eyes...?" The words that the voice had been persistently delivering, at last, he managed to catch and understand. With this understanding, his confusion initially stemmed from being unaware that his eyes were shut. The revelation struck him, the realization dawning like a light in the profound darkness that surrounded him... or maybe it was simply the darkness of not having his eyes opened.

Having only now re-discovered the miraculous gift of sight, he delivered instructions to his body but surprisingly he had found it more difficult to do so than he would initially think. It was as though his very being rebelled against his desires, resisting his urge to open his eyes.

After a hesitant pause, his body begrudgingly acknowledged the command, moving with an unfamiliar sluggishness to obey. His eyelids, as if burdened by the weight of ages, parted slowly. With a hesitant grace, his vision was suddenly flooded with light, a very unwelcome sensation as it quickly overwhelmed his senses and left him momentarily blinded. Who would've thought that the comforting shroud of darkness quickly became a dazzling assault of brightness, the pain forced him to quickly shut his eyes.

"Wake up, Link"

The voice almost sounded impatient this time, as if unpleased with the boy's struggles but hearing the voice once again more transparent than ever, gave the boy a sense of almost urgency the boy suddenly felt motivated to force his eyes open. Determined, he forced his eyes to remain open against the pain, and finally, his sight returned.

"Im… Link…?"

Escaping his lips the boy's voice, was rough and unpolished, but he was more concerned with the smooth and elegant voice he was clearly hearing. Was Link his name? He wasn't certain, in actuality, he wasn't certain of anything as he struggled to remember anything, even his own name, felt like grasping at elusive strings even if it was as important as his name.

Struggling against the stiffness in his neck, he turned his head, taking in his surroundings to find his body was almost submerged in a pool of a strange blue luminous liquid that was currently being drained the scene made Link feel as if he was in an oversized bathtub.

"Link… Link… Link…" The repetition of the word out aloud only further consolidated its importance to him as a strange sense of familiarity continued to resonate with him. Given his situation, the only rational conclusion was that the name belonged to him, after all, he had assumed the voice was speaking to him

With that thought in mind, Link pushed himself upright from the peculiar, nearly drained oversized bathtub where he had been lying. Still trying to gather his thoughts, he looked around anticipating finding the origin of the voice speaking to him to answer his ponding questions only to be met with disappointment with the presence, or lack of one of anyone.

Still feeling sluggish, Link had to rub his eyes to adjust his eyesight as he was still sluggish but as far he could tell he was in an empty room that was devoided of any presence excluding himself. Nevertheless, this room wasn't devoided of light as the strange radiant symbols of the bath he was in gave the room plenty of light to be visible.

Link looked down at his body clenching his hands & toes while flexing his body as if ticking an invisable checklist. Visually, everything seemed ordinary about his body minus the unusual surge of energy he was feeling. But despite this, Link couldn't help but have a disconcerting feeling that something was amiss about his body.

Well, he still couldn't remember anything so its not like he would know the difference. Shrugging off this uncertainty for the time being Link grabbed the side of the pool he was in and climbed out. Looking back at the device he was intrigued.

He didn't know the purpose of the device, but he noticed that although he was partially submerged in some kind of blue liquid a few seconds ago, he noticed his body was dry. Upon closer observation, the bathtub interior even had a human-shaped outline with a headrest.

The sight above the pool drew Link's attention—a sizable circular plate adorned with blue orbs interconnected by radiant blue piping that extended up to the ceiling. Link found it slightly harrowing to see from below, but he didn't appear to be injured so he wasn't overly concerned about its appearance he was more focused on how to get out and figure out what was going on.

Link's eyes darted around the room landing on a terminal in the corner of the room that was seemingly made of stone it was of course glowing the signature blue colour he had now seen multiple times. Link approached the terminal with the suspicion he would be seeing this colour more times than he cared for.

Upon his approach, the terminal's stony surface flared to life as if reacting to his presence, its mechanisms twisting and shifting like a collection of gears and mechanical cogs and, without warning a small tablet presented with a handle facing Link, ejected from the terminal's intricate workings. It almost seemed as if the device was extending an invitation, silently prompting Link to take hold of it.

"This is a Sheikah Slate. Take it…"

Startled by hearing the enchanting voice once again Linked quickly looked behind him only to be welcomed by the same barren room which offered no solace. Afterwards, the realisation struck him that he had instinctually placed his hand behind his head as if to grab something. For what reason he wasn't sure of but considering he was almost naked he sure looked silly.

"Hello… is anyone here..."

Lowering his hand Link quickly understood that he wasn't going to gain a response. There were many things happening that he didn't understand and although he didn't want to add more to his growing list of "things that don't make sense" he couldn't really deny the weirdness of hearing a voice seemingly right behind him.

'Perhaps I'm suffering from hallucinations…' he wondered briefly

Link faced his attention towards the glowing terminal and hesitantly reached out and grabbed this 'Sheikha Slate'. Link turned it around and was in the middle of inspecting it when his thoughts were interrupted.

"It will help guide you after your long slumber."

Link impressively managed to prevent his instinctive need to turn around, knowing nothing was there or at least hoping nothing was there although something immediately grabbed his attention.

"So I've been here for some time…" he thought depressingly

Deciding to remain focused on getting out, Link placed those thoughts on hold and adjusted his focus on the Sheikah Slate before him, it felt smooth and cold to the touch but it had coloured glass lying on the front of it displaying a blue symbol he didn't recognise while the back had a glowing eye with distinguishing patterns.

Link didn't recognise the patterns or symbol, but he felt that there was something familiar about it and it was around now Link really hoped he regained his memories soon feeling slightly irritated he wasn't recognising anything.

With the Sheikah Slate in hand, Link's focus was abruptly interrupted as the terminal retracted, unveiling a door that opened in a peculiar manner, pointing him toward another chamber. With no other clear path in sight, he stowed his Sheikah slate into the side of his underwear and continued forward.

Walking into the next similarly dressed room Link found himself in a hallway lightened by blue crystallised torches. The room also contained two chests on opposite sides containing some Well-Worn Trousers & an Old Shirt that was surprisingly comfortable and in his size.

Link naturally found this suspicious, but he was more or less happy he didn't need to walk around almost naked and attached his Sheikah Slate to a well-worn leather utility sash he found with the shirt.

There were some old large boxes as well almost the same height as Link, but they were still made of wood so Link quickly gave up on trying to break them open without any tools and moved on.

Continuing forward he found himself at another locked door with a terminal standing next to it comparable to the last one although this one had a flat face shining a more orange colour than blue. Standing before it he had expected and even waited to hear the enchanting voice once again for instructions but heard nothing.

'Fine I'll do this one myself' Link mused, grabbing his Shikah Slate believing the two were connected in some way and did the first thing that felt natural which was simply holding it in front of the Terminal. Upon doing so the terminal flashed a bright blue light removing the orange colouring away as if identifying its owner but what he hadn't anticipated was for it to speak.

"Authenticating…"

The unexpected voice, echoing once more in the chamber, startled Link for the third time within half an hour, prompting an instinctive, cautious step backward. The surprise was becoming a recurrent theme in his little adventure but that didn't mean he was warming up to it each time it occurred.

"Sheikah Slate confirmed."

Upon confirming his Sheikah Slate Link noticed that the previously derelict symbol on the wall had illuminated blue followed by the sounds of gears revolving and watched the once immovable door begin to unlock itself like a jigsaw puzzle. Link positioned himself at the front of the door and watched as it spent a small time readying itself before opening.

Link quickly covered his eyes as another blinding light covered his vision as the door opened presumably leading to the outside world. Link slowly opened his fingers as he stared at the light hoping to readjust quickly.

"Link… You are the light – our light – that must shine upon Hyrule once again… Now go… "

As the voice ceased Links eyes quickly adapted to the flooding light. Link had contemplated shouting to the voice again but opted not to reasoning that he likely wouldn't receive a reply.

Laying ahead Link could see a staircase exiting out of the chamber and to what he correctly guessed was the outside. With his gaze fixed on a distant tree, he was capable of leaving yet he stood still.

Comparing the latest message to the ones he previously heard Link could confidently say this message's voice had a more desperate and despairing tone and whatever the message, it seemed to have placed an expectation or hope upon himself.

Link really couldn't really say it was a comfortable feeling. Regardless, he had his questions all he needed to do was seek the answers and that was ultimately dependent on him. Link finally stepped forward proceeded up the staircase and strolled out of the manmade cave for the first time.

Link after stepping out the first thing he did was breathe in the fresh air as a gale of wind brushed past his unkept golden hair tickling his pointed ears. The air was refreshing incapable of being compared to the stuffy air of the cave he slept in for an unknown time.

Taking note of the direction of the cave Link steadily walked forward taking in the luscious landscape around him. The area didn't appear to be dangerous although the last thing he wanted was to get lost as the tall bushes almost reached his height. The wooden boxes combined with these bushes made Link wonder if he was unnaturally small but thankfully the area wasn't densely populated making it easy enough to look around unimpeded although the reason, he was confident in walking forward was that he saw the land didn't stretch on endlessly but stopped not far ahead.

Wondering if he was on some kind of hill or elevated landscape Link marched on but he didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes of walking the trees departed leading him to an open space leading off a cliff.

Link hurried his footsteps jogging to the edge and jumping on top of a rock sitting at the edge of the cliff to get a better look and was left speechless by what he saw.

Stretching beyond the forest at the base of the cliff Link was standing at there was a luscious green valley that seemingly stretched on for kilometres, Mountains peeking into the clouds and vast glistening lakes. It was truly a beautiful and breathtaking sight that could easily be at the top of any traveller's bucket list without contenders.

Among the striking features were a large towering seemingly active volcano which was the tallest mountain of the valley and a tremendous Castle within the centre of the land but Link wasn't in the right state of mind to notice the finer details.

Link stood stunned, rendered speechless at the breathtaking perspective before him. However, his fixation was anything but voluntary and not because of the secular sight rather It was as though an invisible force had ensnared his senses, trapping him in a trance-like state. His eyes twitched uncontrollably, his body experiencing involuntary spasms that continued for several minutes until the ill effects were subsidised with seemingly no consequences.

Exiting his scene and regaining control of his body, Link immediately collapsed to the ground, his breaths short and quick as he slowly lowered his head and inspected his body as if it were foreign to him. His expression slowly contorted into despair as dug his nails into the soft soil beneath him.

"You couldn't even get my name right."

Link quietly cursed the voice he heard in the cavern. It was with great strength did Link's gaze slowly lift back to the breathing view as memories, once buried, resurfaced with unwelcome clarity.

As he watched the fields, the skies, and the distant silhouette of Hyrule Castle, recognition dawned upon him. But this familiarity brought forth more than he was prepared to handle. A rush of memories and his identity surged forward, overwhelming him. Tears welled up in his eyes, as his lips parted

"…I'm not Link…" escaped his lips, his tone filled with sorrow and disbelief. With his jaws clenched and his nails dug deep he continued to stare out into the distance

"You resurrected the wrong goddamn person..."