Prologue
40 years ago, multiple things happened. However, the most world changing of these occurred deep in the Faron region, where five archaeologists were heading towards a ruined old temple that had recently been found in a small wagon led by two horses. On the front, the driver, a man who went by the name Ganondorf, was talking two the shotgun driver, a slightly younger woman by the name Nora Stargazer. Ganondorf was very tall for a Hylian, measured at nearly 7 feet tall, and had shoulder length fiery red hair. His skin was dark tan, and his eyes were yellowish-orange because of his slight Gerudo heritage. Nora, on the other hand, was only about 5'5'' with blond hair tipped with blue dye. Her eyes were a very dark shade of blue, and her skin was a slightly tanned white.
"What do you think we'll see? It's an ancient temple, so we might find an artifact that isn't even recorded in the history books... Sayyy, you wouldn't happen to like betting, would you?" Ganondorf asked Nova innocently.
Nova glared at him and snapped, "we are not going to bet on how dumbfounded Shad is when we get there. You know he'll probably be rooted to the spot, and we don't want to ruin it by passing rupees to each other."
Ganondorf sighed dramatically, "please? It would only be a little bet, and-"
"No! Great goddesses, how dense are you Gan?"
"Pretty dense, I guess."
"...Fine, only a little one, got it?! "
Gan laughed and shook his head. Then chaos broke out in the back of the wagon. Both of the front seat riders flinched at the sudden eruption of noise. Nora sighed and said,
"I'll check on the others. Wish me luck."
the 'others' were Shad, a man who had just turned 20 and wore a heavy, multipocketed shirt, combat boots and baggy pants, Ravio, a weird person that always wore a purple tunic/dress with a bunny hood attached, black dress boots, and a small bird named Sheerow flitting around his head. Lastly was Tabatha, and there's not much to be said about her besides the fact that she was a Rito. she constantly had on a large, earthy brown cloak. Gan sighed, they had been traveling for four days now, and still had two more hours before they arrived. He could only hope they went quickly.
When Nora finally came out, she sat down with a huff.
"What was that fiasco about?" Gan asked with grin.
" Well, apparently, they had all been talking about what they would do when they arrived, and at some point Shad said that finding ancient artifacts would be waay cooler than studying a bunch of plants. That of course set Tabatha off and she snapped back that examining plants would be more interesting than sitting in a musty corner wondering how a rock fit into history. They both got more and more aggressive, until Ravio finally tried to split them up, and that resulted in the chaos that we heard. " she shook her head.
"At least we'll be at the temple... Now actually." Gan stopped the wagon and hopped off of the driver's seat to get their stuff unloaded and to start getting tents set up, with the others help of course. Nora took the horses to a stable they had passed not even ten minutes ago. When she returned, the five finished setting up and decided to check out the temple until sunset. The ruins were a little ways into the forest, so Gan and Nora went ahead a bit.
"I know that Shad will be excited, and Tabatha likes the plants, but I wonder how Ravio will react?" mused Ganondorf.
"Unless it's some kind of animal god or something like that, he will be less than amused." Nora responded. They walked in silence the rest of the way, which was about thirty minutes. They tried to spot it early, but were beginning to get worried that they had been given a false lead, until they nearly ran into the massive doors. They didn't even examine it while they waited for the other researchers to arrive. It was for that reason that they didn't know that the temple wasn't what they expected, but the instant that Ravio stepped into the slight clearing, he stopped dead in his tracks. The look on his face made Ganondorf and Nora turn, and when they did they were met with a strange and unexpected sight.
"It-its a t-temple to a-a-" Nora was cut of by the usually quiet Ravio.
"Its the temple of a freaking animal god!" He declared excitedly. Sure enough, the engraving on the massive stone doors were that of three animals, an falcon, a wolf, and a salmon. It took all five of the archaeologists to open one of the doors just enough to squeeze through. By that time, however, it was too dark to see anything so they returned to the camp and were forced to listen to Ravio's elated chatter while they ate.
When they woke the next morning, they packed some food, water and lanterns for light. They walked back to the temple with Ravio basically skipping in the lead. They managed to open the doors a little further so that they could get anything they needed to in or out. Once the five entered, they split up. Ravio went to see if he could find any animals to talk to (his bunny hood allowed him to talk to just about any animal), Shad went to investigate the carvings, Tabatha tested the plants, and Nora pulled out her scanner to check the age of the ruins. Ganondorf, finding nothing better to do, went over to a nearby staircase that descended further into the dilapidated structure. Gan began to get a nagging feeling that there was something he was missing. It wasn't until the third floor that he realized what it was. The three animals depicted on the door were repeated over and over again, only in different forms. Every few engravings were the falcon, wolf, salmon trio, but in between those were other groups. At one point Gan was fairly certain that he saw a dragon, but it was alone. He wondered why for a while, during the period of time required to get to the next floor, but then realized that a dragon represented all three. It could breath underwater, fly and live on the ground. He exited in the last room, and froze, not because there was something new, but because there was nothing. Gan yelled up to the others to get down there and when they arrived, he told them what he had found.
"So... What's so special about this room?" Questioned Nora
" I'm telling you, there is something...odd about this room. Look at the stairs, they look like they keep going instead of stopping here. Just...follow me, please?" Gan pleaded. Finally the others consented and followed him into the room. About halfway into the room, however, the floor trembled and broke beneath them. They were expecting a long fall, but only dropped about ten feet.
"What was that?!" Yelped Shad. "The floor was there, and then it wasn't! I knew that the temple was old, but an entire freaking floor dropping? That's not normal."
Tabatha turned her hooded head to the side in contemplation, then said, "Nora, how old are these ruins?"
"The doors themselves are around twenty thousand years old."
" and how old is this floor? " Nora pulled out her scanner and checked.
"... Four thousand." Tabatha nodded.
"Someone placed a false floor here to keep people away from something, and I'll bet that something is behind that door." Everyone else turned to see what she meant and, sure enough, there was a door at the end of the hall. Ganondorf peered into the darkness and took one step forward. The instant he did so, however, the entire room blazed to life. Torches inside of dragon mouths were visible, and that made Ravio and Shad stay right where they were. Tabatha decided to remain, and so did Nora, leaving Ganondorf to examine a the doors, and what was beyond them, by himself. He first looked at the doors and saw the very same three animals he had seen so many times in just his descent down to the strange room, the falcon, the wolf, and the salmon. He then pushed open the surprisingly light doors, compared to the ones leading to the temple, and stepped into the circular room that was completely empty, save a single mirror in the very center. He examined it and found that it had the same design as the most reoccurring trio on the top, right, and bottom. There was a slight difference, though, and it took Gan a second or two to realize what it was. On the left side of the six foot tall glass was a dragon that stretched from the top to the bottom. He decided that this would be his artifact to return with and, seeing as the others already had theirs, they could return to Hateno early. He carefully lifted the mirror and carried it to the base of the stairs, having the other four help him get it to the wagon.
"Took you long enough." Muttered Nora, " we were beginning to think that you would never find something to return with. "
They got the looking glass loaded into the wagon and packed up whatever was left. Nora then jogged down to the stable to retrieve the horses. As soon as she returned, Ganondorf and Ravio attached the two dappled greys to the carriage and they were on their way home.
Three days later, Gan was in the back while the others were outside of the carriage and he was examining his artifact. The road was littered with potholes and Ganondorf had to constantly readjust himself to keep from falling. At one point, however, Can lost his balance and fell forward, but instead of shattering the mirror, he went inside of it. His eyes were squeezed close, and when he finally opened them, he noticed that he was floating. He looked down at his hands, and saw... were those dragon claws?!
"A red dragon. I haven't seen your spirit before." Gan was so startled by the sudden voice that he accidentally breathed fire. He whipped around and saw a man with the head of a wolf, wings like a falcon, and webbing between his fingers like a fish.
"Do you not know who I am? Ah... I have been asleep longer than I thought, your kind has forgotten me. I am already so devoid of power that if no one remembers me, I will fade away. You see, I am the god of animals, Odowalla, and while Farore created all of the flora, I created all of the fauna. How about this, I will allow you to transform into this form anytime you want, and in exchange you will worship me and tell others of me. Share my gift with an oath, the Shapeshifter's oath."