CHAPTER 3: ARISEN (PART ONE)

Link opened his eyes. It was dark. He was falling. A scream pierced the darkness.

He blinked, and Zelda was falling, her eyes wide open as gravity tore the breath from her lungs. He stretched an arm out towards her, not caring that it looked to be rotting off his shoulder, the skin turning all shades of blackish grey and green.

Link blinked again, opening his eyes just in time to see Zelda be swallowed by something dark, something evil. He tried to scream for her, but his voice refused to work. His arm was ripped from his body as he continued to fall, the wind tearing away the gangrenous skin and muscle, until the blackened bones fell away. His ragged stump spewed blood, pus, and black ichor, and Link still couldn't scream.

He blinked once more, and the dark was replaced with green, swirling light.

Link awoke with a chill. "Zel-!" He didn't let himself finish, and he didn't know why.

He pulled himself into a sitting position and slowly took a breath. He wasn't dead. He tried to recall what had happened. The man who he and Zelda had found attacked them. Zelda had fallen down into the cave when the platform gave way. He'd jumped after her, and he... he failed.

Link shook his head, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep. That nightmare was the worst he'd had in years. He could still feel his arm being wrenched off, as well as the strange phantom tingling running up his shoulder as that green light filled his mind when he woke.

...Now that he thought about it, he could still feel the tingling. He glanced down and let out a gasp. Bringing his right hand up to his eye level, he saw that this was not his hand. Dark grey skin, thick coppery bands inlaid into the flesh up to the elbow, and long slender fingers that ended in clawed nails. Running up his bicep and shoulder onto his chest was an intricate series of thick geometric linework coloured the same as the skin of his hand.

His heart rate began to rise. This wasn't right. He clenched the hand into a fist. The skin on the palm was cool to his own touch. Then the skin began to flash with green light. That same green light as the swirling vortex from the cave and his nightmares. "Ah, Link. Finally, you wake."

Link snapped his head backwards as the voice spoke, but saw nobody speaking. It was male, but not like the man who'd attacked him. This voice had an educated smoothness to it, but it did nothing to ease Link's worries. As Link rose to his feet, he finally took time to scan where he'd woken up. The room – roughly hewn out of the rock with walls covered in thick roots – -wasn't exactly small, but it wasn't big enough in which to exist comfortably. The voice continued, "I've heard a great deal about you from Zelda."

This... man, he knew Zelda? Link allowed some tension to roll off his shoulders. "Your wounds were 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."

Looking slowly towards his new appendage, Link shuddered at the recollection of dark fingers creeping up and across his chest, and the feeling like he was rotting away while still alive. The tingling sensation he'd felt upon waking up was starting to fade, although the coolness remained. Link decided that he was grateful, all thing considered. Taking deep breaths, he slowly calmed himself, and the green light faded, returning to flat grey skin.

Link waited for the man's voice to continue, but it never did. 'I need to get out of here,' he thought. Looking around didn't fill him with hope; all he had with him were his undergarments. He'd even lost his hair tie, so his long blonde hair flowed freely. Link's mind shifted into survival mode: what could he use in this room to get out? Glancing around, his hopes sank as he found precious little to work with. He turned once more, and his stomach dropped as he found his escape tool.

He walked to one side of the room, and found his sword propped against a root. The Master Sword sat in front of Link in the worst state he'd ever seen it in. The section of the blade that remained intact was somehow melted, shattered, and corroded all at once. The purple guard wasn't as brilliant as it used to be, and its sacred lustre was all but gone. As Link picked it up gingerly, the metal of the blade flaked and crumbled. It hurt him to see his blade reduced to... this.

He had his tool, now he needed a way out. Examining the room, Link eventually came to find a cluster of roots that wasn't so dense as as the rest.. Carefully, Link used the remains of the sword to saw through the roots and vines. He could sense the blade protesting against its use, but he had to get out. Eventually, he cut a hole big enough to squeeze through.

Standing on the other side, Link was now inside a large chamber. The Master Sword whined in his hand, the blade's light merely flickering in his grasp. At his feet, Link found a cut vine that could be used like a length of rope. Fashioning it into a makeshift strap, he slung the sword over his shoulder, then took to exploring his new surroundings. This place was constructed from smooth grey brick, and stretched a fair bit upwards. A large, round mechanism stood idle in the wall to his left, its purpose unknown. At the opposite end of the room was a square doorway, and a closed door. It felt damp, it felt chilly, and above all else, it felt old. Somehow older than even the Divine Beasts.

Walking towards a circular shaped gateway in the middle of the room, Link was taken by surprise when the centre of it began to project green light and create an image. It was mostly a series of ancient characters and runes spelling words that Link would never understand, but his eyes laid on the centre of the display, where a sigil of a clawed hand sat.

Link stared at the projection for a moment. 'A clawed hand...' He lifted his right hand and looked it over. After some consideration, he slowly brought his new hand towards the image. As soon as he made contact, a jolt of warmth shot up his arm. Link recoiled slightly, and a series of glyphs lit up on the edge of the gateway as the projection dissipated into errant streams of light.

A *SWOOSH* sound filled the chamber. Link spun to see a large blue circle shine on the ground that he recognized, 'A... travel gate?'

A soft, ringing sound filled his ears, and he jumped a bit in his skin. It wasn't a bell, or at least, not any bell he'd ever heard. Glancing around, he found no source for the ringing in here. It continued to ring as as the circular mechanism slowly spun to life, churning endlessly in circles. And in front of Link, the door slid open, revealing a path forward. Not seeing any other option, Link strode forward through the door.

A few minutes later, Link sat at the edge of a small pond, soaked and slightly shivering. Not even a minute after walking through the door, he'd seen that the only way forward was by jumping from a collapsed walkway down into a pond of water. In most scenarios, Link easily could've climbed down, but he was wary of his new arm, concerned it may not have had the strength his old one did. So he sucked it up and dove forward. The water was surprisingly fresh, not stagnant. He surfaced, and quickly exited. The water being fresh meant that it was also cold, a fact that Link didn't enjoy. Then he did it twice more, the height of the dives increasing each time. The third and final one was nearly two-thirds the height of Zora's Domain.

Standing up and shaking himself as dry as he could, he kept walking. And then he stopped as he saw a bundle on the ground. Looking closer, he found a large cloth that resembled a toga stained grey with age, a simple belt to secure it, and a pair of heavily worn sandals. There was no trace of the clothing's former owner. Was this a gift from the man who'd spoken to him earlier? Pulling the clothing onto himself, Link immediately felt the chill disappear from his body, and was grateful nonetheless.

Link traveled a bit farther, and he saw light. A grin broke out on his face and he started running. He could feel the fresh breeze, he could see clouds and a bright blue sky, he could see... the path in front of him dropping off sharply ohgoddessesslowdown!

Link skidded to a stop just short of the edge of the path, catching himself just before he went sailing off into the unknown. He took a breath before peeking over the edge and seeing nothing. All that was below him was a layer of thick clouds, and far below that was a dark mass. Land? Link didn't know.

He stepped back and tried to control his heart rate. Link wasn't afraid of heights; he had easily climbed countless towers, hills, and mountains in his past adventures. But at those times, there would be land clearly visible beneath him, and he would always have his paraglider in the event he fell. Here, he had none of those things.

Link looked again over the edge and tried to look through the clouds. He thought he saw some dark blue, but there just wasn't a way to be certain. Link slowly walked back from the edge and pushed his hair out of his face. He stayed there for close to an hour, wracking his brain for any plan to get down safely. Then he felt a funny feeling, something pulling at the centre of his heart. He looked at the drop-off, pondering it for a moment.

He took a step forward. Then another step, quicker this time. Quicker and quicker until he was running. Running to the edge. Link leapt forward into open air... and immediately regretted it.

As Link fell, he screamed and cursed himself for giving into whatever instinct had told him to jump. Further he fell, until he broke through the layer of clouds and was silenced, his breath stolen by the view that awaited.

Before him, a vast expanse of islands, some large and some small, was sprawled out over a sea of opaque white clouds. The grass and trees that covered the land below were a golden yellow, reminding Link of Hyrule in autumn. A handful of lakes and ponds were scattered around, flowing into small waterfalls which fell away into nothing. To his right, a large snow-capped peak with the remains of a large, broken tree at the summit. And in front of him, a gargantuan stone temple built from massive flowing curves, standing out as a clear landmark visible from wherever one might be standing.

Off in the distance, a dragon soared through the sky, weaving between other smaller floating islands off in the distance. But... this wasn't like Farosh, Dinraal, or Naydra. From this distance, Link could vaguely make out its white body and golden mane... this was a new dragon. Or at the very least, a very obscure dragon. He struggled to think if he or Zelda had come across anything like it in their many days of poring over ancient tomes and texts.

Link looked away from the dragon for a second, and was met with a large pond fast approaching. In a moment of panic, he pitched his body forward into a dive, hoping that this would allow him to hit the water without splattering into a chunky paste. He braced for impact... and hit the water with a large splash.

A few seconds later, Link resurfaced with a sound that was either a gasp of air or a relieved scream. Quickly paddling to the nearest exit, Link quickly got out of the water, took two steps and fell over. Laying on the ground, he took multiple heaving breaths and asked himself multiple questions: Why did he just do that? How did he just do that? Where was he? What was that dragon? What's going on?

Getting up, Link started to take in the environment. It was utterly alien; the trees, the plants, the animals, even the grass was all unfamiliar. As far as Link knew, he wasn't even in Hyrule right now. There were a few versions of the Legend which described the Hero vanquishing evil in realms other than Hyrule: Labrynna, Holodrum, Termina, Koridai... the list went on. The possibility that he may be in another world was unfortunately plausible. If that was the case, Link needed to get back home. There was no telling what sort of danger Hyrule might be in.

And if there was danger, he needed a weapon. Not the remnants of the sword strapped to his back, but something solid that could take a few swings. Walking down a stone staircase towards the nearest tree, Link tugged on a few low hanging boughs until one broke off. Giving it a couple of swings, Link was satisfied that it would repel any small creatures, but he also grimaced at the unpleasant memory of doing the same thing eight years ago upon waking at the Great Plateau.

Link started walking, keeping an eye out for anything that might attack him. Following a half-buried path, he walked through what could barely be called a small forest and found himself standing in a small clearing. Straight ahead in the distance was that large temple, to his left was a structure that might've been used for observation, and to his right was a... small statue?

He took the path to the right and moved closer to examine it. It was short and dark green. From a distance, Link guessed that it was carefully built from small pebbles and stone blocks, but closer examination proved that it was actually a series of smooth metal plates carved to give the appearance of bricks. The section that made up its head was made of more of these plates, with a mouthful of large sharp teeth and a single eye in its forehead, similar to a theatre mask.

Suddenly, an emblem in its "mouth" flashed to life, and the plates started to dislodge. Link instinctively backed away and tightened his grip on his tree branch as the statue grew in size, telescoping up and out until it had arms and a long neck made of rings held together by strings of energy. Link was fascinated at the technology on display here, and at the same time terrified, because a tree branch wasn't going to protect him if this thing made a move towards him.

It didn't move, though. Instead, it sat passively in its spot and tilted its head at Link, examining him just like Link had been examining it. After a moment, a voice came out of it, metallic and somewhat harmonic. "Link, I have waited for you."

Link let his guard down a bit. It knew his name? It had waited for him? The thing continued, "I am a Steward Construct. Princess Zelda left something for you in my care."

Link's heart jumped at the mention of Zelda. She was okay. Or at least, she'd been through here relatively recently. The construct's chest opened like a drawer, sliding open to reveal the contents. Link peeked inside and saw a familiar device. "This is the Purah Pad. I am told it is an invaluable tool that will provide you with direction."

Link removed the Pad from the construct and looked it over. No signs of damage, even though it must've fallen a great distance with Zelda. Pressing the small circular button on the upper left of the device, the screen flashed to life with a Sheikah eye symbol. Relieved, Link affixed the Pad's holster to his belt and clipped the device in place. "I received it from Princess Zelda. I have now passed it on to you. My records indicate that Princess Zelda is waiting at the location marked on its map. My message has been delivered."

Link's head was spinning. There were so many questions he had to ask, too many questions... so he tried to limit himself to just one. "Where am I?"

The construct answered, "This is the Great Sky Island. We stand in the Garden of Time." Turning its body, it gazed upon the temple through the thin clouds blowing through the air. "The Temple of Time is visible from here. It was used in the distant past. Many rites and ceremonies of the kingdom were held there."

It turned back to Link, looking down as it towered above him. "But no more. Now it is a lonely place. No one visits. Apologies. I cannot help but reminisce. I advise you head to the indicated location. Take care as you do so." And with that, the construct nested back in itself, returning to a dormant state.

Link removed the Purah Pad from his belt and opened it to the map screen, showing a rendering of this Great Sky Island in surprising detail. If Zelda was the last person to have this, how long had she been here to have mapped out the entirety of the island? Pushing that thought aside, he focused on the pulsing yellow dot at the north of the island, noting that it was located inside of the Temple of Time. Link looked up from the map and gazed at the building, thinking of the Temple of Time he was familiar with, and just how unalike the two buildings were.

He holstered the Pad and noticed a bridge extending to a small island. Walking across, he noticed another Steward Construct tending the area. When Link drew close, it turned to face him. It glanced at the stick in Link's hand before addressing him. "Hello. You seem to be new here. Do you intend to use that as a weapon against the Soldier Constructs?"

A cold feeling started running down Link's back. "Soldier Constructs?"

The Steward Construct continued, "Soldier Constructs are those of us given strict orders to protect this land. The Zonai who created us directed them to eliminate trespassers. They will consider you a trespasser. You must consider them an extreme threat. Tread carefully around any Soldier Constructs you see."

Noted. Link nodded and left the Construct on its own, but found no path to get down to the Temple. After a bit more exploring, Link found a platform that led off the edge of this island and down into the rest of the Great Sky Island. He couldn't help but groan. Why all the sudden drops? Could the Zonai fly, or something? He remembered the depiction of Zonai floating down from the heavens in the cave mural, but there was no way they actually flew. Right?

With a sigh, Link readied himself and took another dive. After jumping from the highest island, this didn't faze Link that much anymore. Paddling out of the water, he shivered as the wind blew a cloud through the trees and lightly obscured the view directly ahead. Following the broken path, Link cautiously walked forward, not taking his eyes off the Temple visible through the trees. This meant that he didn't notice the Soldier Construct ahead until it started beeping violently. This Construct was nearly identical to the two Steward Constructs he'd met earlier, save for the blade-like horn protruding out the top of its head, and the shield-like plate making up its face, fixated on him with a single glowing red eye.

It floated across the ground in a straight line towards the intruder, readying a large branch similar to the one Link grasped in his hand. It was on him in seconds, and took a wide swing towards. Link raised his stick to block, the force of the collision nearly knocking him sideways. He recovered just in time for the Construct to begin circling him like a wolf around a wounded deer. Link followed its movement, never taking his eyes off of it. He made a few lunges of his own, but they were deflected harmlessly off the metal plates making up the Construct's body.

Link finally geared up for a heavy strike at the same time the Construct's eye brightened with a red flash. It swung, and he swung. Both branches collided perfectly, and exploded into splinters.

The Construct gazed at its now-empty hand, and turned to look at the winded Hero. It had lost its weapon, but it still wasn't defenceless. It flashed its eye once more, and charged towards Link, the edge of its horn glinting against the sunlight. Eyes widening, Link dove to the side, and the Construct charged unimpeded into a tree, lodging its horn into its thick white trunk.

Watching as it vainly tried to free itself. Link took stock of the situation: he was unarmed, he was in an unfamiliar place, and he was just tired. That heavy strike somehow drained him of his energy, but he knew that he was capable of more. He had to be. So why was he on the ground coughing and wheezing?

The Construct was still trying to pull itself out of the tree. If it managed to get out, then Link had no way to protect himself. He was in no shape to fight. The wind carried a denser cloud through the trees, and Link scrambled to his feet, escaping down the path into the mist.

Thanks again to Kawaiichan67 for proofreading. Check them out on AO3!

Reviews are appreciated!