Chapter 1
Notes:
IMPORTANT!
Do not attempt to read the chapters of this fic in order: confusion may ensue. Instead, click on the hyperlinks at the end of each chapter to best reflect your choices and your reading experience.
Chapter Text
Your name is Link. Months ago, you walked through a portal and met eight others who share your name. All of you are Heroes, and currently, you’re returning into a town in-between eras after a successful monster clear-out.
As you return, the town is starting to return to the streets again, where they’re chatting nervously. A pair of young women are making the rounds to check on the people’s wounds. Damage to the town’s buildings and structures is everywhere. As of yet, there’s been no new portal, so you don’t know if the camp you cleared housed all the black-blooded monsters.
“Meet up at the town square before sunset?” someone suggests.
From here, you…
Chapter Text
A small group of other Heroes comes with you.
“We’re a fairy tale here,” you remind the others. “I doubt asking around will get us any further. We should try something new to learn what we need.”
Your group rounds a corner curtained by trees. Past the greenery, there is a pumpkin patch with a giant footprint in it sitting sadly beneath a building marked as the library. You…
Chapter Text
The towns master is discussing logistics at the town square, debating with the clerk what the town can or can’t afford to part with to aid the rebuilding efforts. Nearby, a group of frazzled women are gossiping about you and the other Links. To hear them tell it, you might as well be the monsters. Gathering near the market, a group is gathering up to travel with all the basics of life, as though to leave for anywhere else.
You…
...approach the towns master to negotiate.
Chapter Text
As you break from the group, you scan the town for where you can do the most good. You decide to…
...help the young women put an old man's leg in a splint.
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You try to catch the other Heroes’ eyes before they all scatter. “Actually….”
...you call out to the ones who most often plan for the group.
...you point out an abandoned vehicle you think everyone should see.
...you've just put together when you are relative to yourself and one other Link.
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Though none of you expect that you could all read the current Hylian, you’re confident enough that there’s a chance of finding some maps or a friendly librarian that could help you out that you enter the library anyway. Inside, the three of you spread out to cover more ground.
You head toward…
Chapter Text
You point out the footprint. “I bet there’s a trail. Let’s check it out!”
As you run closer, you spot a farmer bent beside a particularly large remaining pumpkins, pallid and clutching a suspicious-looking wound on his ankle. Further ahead, even a group of monsters is curious about the tracks, and you suspect they might know something.
You…
...disguise yourself as a monster to learn what the monsters ahead have found.
...ask your companions to get the farmer to a healer as you check the scene more thoroughly.
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You know you’ve never seen this before, but your sense of deja-vu is so strong that you might as well have been here. You have to figure this out. You…
Chapter Text
You walk fearlessly up to the towns master. “I’ve come with a group of us that can help.”
The towns master looks at you, doubtlessly judging your capabilities by your appearance. You raise your chin, confident in your claims. “You want to help?” he asks.
“We’re warriors, all of us,” you say, “and we have many skills besides.” To sell your message to the towns master, you…
...offer your services to a smith.
...rely on the intimidating figure you’ve become since your childhood adventures.
Chapter Text
Without a portal, you expect to be here a while, and you won’t let the town make it a miserable experience for you all if you can do something. You use your best smile and approach the loudest of the gossips. “Hello, Miss. ‘Monster’ reporting for town-saving duty!”
The gossips fall silent and turn their eyes toward you. Good. It’s working. You laugh and ask the gossips not to use those words to refer to you and your brothers. “And by the way, you seem like you’d know what’s left to be helped with around here. I’m looking for ways to help.”
When you try to turn on the charm, people rarely react poorly to you. These gossips follow the pattern of how people tend to react instead, and soon, you are surrounded with tales of the town’s bell going missing, the local militia panicking of what to do if monsters attack again, and the ferry to the fishing island on the river being out in time to strand some of the townsfolk. Proud of your work on the gossips themselves, the next thing you help with is…
Chapter Text
Your Hyrule is very empty compared to most of the other Links’, so towns make you nervous. You wouldn’t mind an excuse to get out for a while. Nervously, you approach the travelers.
“If you’re leaving town,” you say, “I have a lot of experience surviving in the wilderness. I could help you get started on your journey.”
“A small fry like you?” one of the men asks, but nonetheless, all the gathering company looks you over, doubtlessly noticing your broken-in boots and weathered shield. “Alright, let’s hear it. What’s ‘a lot of experience surviving in the wilderness?’”
“I’m a long way from home right now,” you say. “Where I’m from, there are very few people, and the wilds are filled with monsters. If you live where I do, you have to be good at surviving. And if you’re still wondering, I can help for just the first day, but I’m pretty good at…
Chapter Text
You go to help, and you spend most of the day using the basic field medicine techniques you’ve used as a captain to tend to various townsfolk. You’re busy until almost sunset, at which point you head to the town square to meet with the rest of the Chain.
When you arrive at the town square, Time is already there, but as you wait with him, no one else comes.
“Where are they?” you ask.
Time is busy glaring at the full moon.
“Hey,” you say, nudging him.
“Sorry,” he says. “That feels like something of a bad omen. I don’t suppose you heard from any of them that they expect to be late?”
You shake your head.
“Nor I.” Time gets to his feet. “I saw three of them heading to the edge of town. Sky and Four were wandering around the nearby streets a while. The sailor went to the docks. I’m not certain where Legend ended up. You haven’t seen him, Captain?”
Legend? Of everyone to disappear, he’s one of the least likely candidates. You’re fairly certain he wouldn’t go anywhere far without a map.
You shake your head. “Let’s start with those who we have a general idea of where to search for. Maybe one of them will have an idea about Legend.”
You volunteer to search…
Chapter Text
You step up to the children. “Hey, no worries! We got the monsters!”
Though they cling to each other still, the children look at you. “Who are you? Are you someone’s big brother?”
“That’s right!”
“You got them all?” a little girl snaps at you. “Really? That’s not possible! My lil’ sis’ saw a ghost haunting around the edge of town, and some strange warrior isn’t going to see it well enough to take it out!”
A ghost? You know how to deal with those. The children are still frightened.
For now, you…
Chapter Text
A few corners from the center of town, there is a large, metal structure that several muscular locals are gathered around. You think it could have once been a water tower, and you head toward it. The nearer you get, the more details you can see regarding its damage. The supports are bent. The tanks lies on the ground, and the locals seem stumped about how they’re going to move it back onto the supports. The top is missing entirely.
You don’t know if you could help with everything, but you believe you could…
Chapter Text
You get one of the other adults to join you as Hyrule and Wild scamper off toward the edge of town, Sky, Four, and Legend wander toward the market, and Wind pulls Twilight off toward a group of children. You wish the younger Heroes luck with whatever they’ve gone off to do, but currently, the nine of you have dwindling supplies to deal with in a town that you doubt can restock them without a high cost in their hour of need. You say, “Let’s talk about…
Chapter Text
“Yes?” Time asks, turning toward the vehicle. “What about it?”
“It looks like it was abandoned off a route,” you say. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more monsters along the way. I bet I could take us all there today if we can borrow that.”
“Is it even in good shape for that?” Legend asks.
Well, he can doubt it if he wants, but it’s not that far from you. You can see all its vital parts, and it looks fine to you. “It will get us there. I can…
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“….I know this place,” you say. “It looks different in my time, but between the monsters and that distinctive thing there, I know where we are. I think we’re close to my era.”
The other Links turn to you.
“Well?” Warriors asks. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”
You tell the others that you’re in…
Chapter Text
On the way to the circulation counter, you pass a large vase much like the ones in your era, and your hand habitually reaches for the Cane of Pacci to upend it for you. You eye the other Links in case they’ve noticed it as pottery that they could smash, but Legend is spreading additional maps over a table near the maps on the wall, and Hyrule is running a finger over book spines.
Could Hyrule read those? You didn’t think this era would be close enough to his for that.
You reach circulation. The librarian is out, but there is a Minish on the counter, reading through the circulation records. “Who has it?” the Minish mumbles.
“What happened here?” you ask.
At first, the Minish doesn’t respond. You slide a kinstone onto the records. “Do you want to fuse kinstones?”
Finally, the Minish looks up. “Oh, you can see me?”
“My name is Link,” you say, “but you can call me Four. My friends and I are looking into what happened to this town.”
The Minish perks up. “You’re in luck! We Minish saw what happened. There’s a disgruntled youth in this village who taught himself to read one of the old books from the far corner back there-” The Minish points to an untouched corner of the library, where a single bookcase stands apart from the others as it holds books with fancy covers and a bit of dust. “The Hylian in them is too old for most of the town. He learned some sort of dark magic out of it that he practiced here in the library – there’s this creepy thing he left behind the bookcase. He copied down notes for a ritual he performed late one night to summon a shadowy lizalfos through a creepy portal. I’m looking to see who has the book on light magic checked out in case it helps.”
From behind the circulation book, the Minish pulls out a leafy bag and digs through it for kinstones. “Ah! I have a match!”
When the kinstone is paired with yours, the pieces vanish in a calm show of luck magic that leaves you feeling warm inside. You grin at the Minish. “We’ll take care of it!”
You…
...investigate what dark magic was left behind the bookcase.
...enlist Hyrule’s help looking into the ritual.
...offer to track down whoever checked out the book on light magic.
Chapter Text
As you approach the maps, you notice that they’re written in your Hylian. It feeds the growing suspicion in your mind – this isn’t your era, but this Hyrule is similar to it. Judging by the maps, this would have to be after your time, as a few new settlements have popped across Hyrule. Like this place, for instance – a town called Rauru. The map even marks a “Hero’s Memorial” in the place where your house is back home.
Link? An old woman’s voice calls in your mind. Is that you? Oh, you’re on that time-traveling adventure with eight other Heroes, aren’t you? You were so young then.
“Zelda?”
Link, I’m in Kakariko Village. It’s sunken into the earth through the power of dark magic. The Shadow you chase is here, and we need a Hero who can dig around the magic-permeated patches of earth above our heads to rescue us.
Grumbling, you check the distance between Rauru and Kakariko Village. It’s not terrible – with your Pegasus Boots, you could probably make it to whatever patch of dark magic swallowed the village and back by sunset if you leave without taking the time for extra supplies. Digging may be a problem, but you’d have to take a look to tell how tough that one is going to be.
You…
Chapter Text
Displayed on the library walls are clumsy sketches of fairies, mice with feathers for tails, and other peaceful things. Beneath the sketches are shelves of what you presume to be children’s books, and in the reading nooks are plush toys – including dolls of yourself like you’d collected on your second adventure. Could they be the same ones? Could this be your world after all you do to rebuild it?
As you finally look at the books on the shelves, you recognize the characters. The Hylian has changed since your time, but it’s still readable to you. You run your fingers down the spines, enjoying something new to explore of what’s close enough to your own Hyrule.
One of your exploration buddies today, Four, calls from the circulation counter, “Traveler! Veteran! Be careful. There’s dark magic inside the library.”
Here?
The moment you search for it, you can feel it behind a solitary bookcase in the corner. You hurry to it and find a scarlet eyeball gluing the bookcase to the baseboard. It’s too deep inside to stab, and the gap is too narrow to power up a sword beam to send through.
You…
...use your power gloves to pry the bookcase from the wall.
...transform into a fairy to squeeze into the gap and fight.
Chapter Text
On your first look at it, the ankle reminds you of Twilight’s injury from the Shadow’s weapon. You’re not certain how the farmer is still conscious, but you’ve got to act fast.
“This is a life spell,” you say, holding out your hands. “It will heal you!”
The farmer’s skin knits back together, and he stares at you. “Are you a fairy?” he asks. “My son thought he saw the Dodongo chasing some to eat them. Here, take this, and be careful.”
From the farmer’s pocket, he takes out a carrot and hands it to you. You blink at it. “Thanks?”
The other Links in your group, Wild and Twilight, catch up to you.
“That’s a swift carrot!” Wild says. “If you cook it, it helps you run faster. Or you could always feed it to a horse.”
You pocket the carrot and study the Dodongo tracks, which lead away from town.
“A Dodongo?” Twilight asks, pulling his hair. “What’s it doing here?”
“I don’t know,” the farmer says. “It was acting very strangely. I think it’s sick or something. Look, do you see that patch of blood there? That’s the Dodongo’s. It’s obviously infected.”
As you look, you see a patch of black blood. Clearly, you hadn’t taken all the black bloods plaguing this era out.
You grin at Twilight and Wild. “If it’s just one, we can take it!”
As you run off after the tracks, you ignore Twilight’s calls of “Traveler!”
Chapter Text
“Wait here,” you say to your companions, Twilight and Hyrule. With a tap of the Sheikah Slate, Majora’s Mask materializes around your head, and you run to see what the monsters found.
The lizalfos spot you coming and scurry up, curious. They bring some squished fairies with them. Or at least, you assume they’re fairies – you’ve never seen the smaller ones without a blinding glow around them until now.
As you glance over your shoulder to check on Twilight and Hyrule, you spot dumbfounded looks on their faces. It looks like they started coming after you and stopped short when they realized how strangely Majora’s Mask makes the monsters act as you’re wearing it. Well, you did tell them what it did the night you all compared masks around the campfire, and if they still had questions, they’d have a chance to ask you long enough. As long as no one is in danger, you plan to keep checking out what it was the lizalfos found.
No one is in danger either – Twilight and Hyrule are still far enough back that the monsters haven’t noticed them yet, and somewhere behind them, a woman is helping the injured farmer leave the pumpkin patch. Unbothered by the monster presence, you snap a picture of the giant footprint they’d been gathered around when you first saw them. Naturally, it was the same as the one in the pumpkin patch.
It was also the same type of footprint you’d seen fossils of in Eldin. Whatever it was, it was still around in this era.
When you get a chance, you slip away and show Twilight and Hyrule the photo. “There was a dead fairy in it. It looks like it got stepped on.”
“Stepped on?” Twilight asks, voice tense. “How? That’s a Dodongo track. Those things are slow. There’s no way a fairy wouldn’t have the time to get to safety.”
Hyrule simply looks pale.
“I suppose we should stop the thing,” Twilight says. “Champion, you have that endless supply of bombs, don’t you?”
“Yes,” you say, curious. “Why?”
“I’ll explain on the way.” Twilight walks ahead, gesturing you and Hyrule to follow. “Come on.”
Chapter Text
A perk of being one of the older Links is that the others listen to you sometimes. Currently, you have Wild and Hyrule with you, and though Hyrule glances over at the farmer’s ankle, he must decide that it’s not worth his magic as the farmer uses the nearby pumpkin to help himself to his feet.
“I’ll get Captain,” Hyrule says, disappearing back to town.
As he does, the farmer, releasing the pumpkin, stumbles, and Wild runs to support him. “I’ll get him inside!” He turns the farmer around, leading him toward the library.
This leaves you alone with the tracks of a Dodongo that passed through here not too long ago. You reach for the crystal around your neck and sniff the tracks for the putrid scent – two scents? No, three or four at least. Ugh, so many. Too many people worked in this pumpkin patch.
You get a better scent as you follow the tracks. That was definitely two that came this way – the Dodongo and a passenger perhaps. They’d had a fairy with them, but her remains lay squished in one of the Dodongo tracks. You fight a group of lizalfos away from her.
Following the trail leads you to a rocky area where you’d more easily believe Dodongos live, and down inside a crater, you spot a teenage boy leaning against the Dodongo as he reads from a book with a dark, fang-decorated cover emblazened with a pig-like face.
You…
Chapter Text
Your journal serves as a records of your prophetic dreams, and the last time you had one, you sketched this exact scene. Written beneath it are some notes: new villain, dug up a dead child in green clothing…. Every bit of disgust that you felt when you had the dream returns to you now, and you…
Chapter Text
It looks strangely familiar because, as you look around, you notice signs of invisible platforms. What an odd thing to have in a town.
Using the Mask of Truth, you spot several invisible platforms – elevators in out-of-the-way places. You take one up and follow a path to a hidden telescope on the roof of the town’s bell tower. Now, what would anyone need to hide a telescope up here for?
When you look through, you see a patch of woods with a wilted Great Deku Tree watching over an excavated grave. This reeks of dark magic, and you’re not certain it was the Shadow’s doing either – this set-up seems to thoroughly prepared to have come from a monster that was just passing through this era.
Troubled, you…
...head to the grave.
...ask around about the telescope.
...seek out another Hero with more magical knowledge than yourself.
Chapter Text
“You’d better be.” The towns master directs you toward the water tower, which has toppled over, lid missing, and its supports bent.
Chapter Text
“We could have used your services sooner,” the towns master says. “There’s nothing left for you to do here. Just leave.” He walks away.
The town gives you more of a cold shoulder after that. You wonder if the other Heroes are faring any better.
You…
...check what the town still has and what the town needs independently of the towns master.
Chapter Text
You are able to lead the group of travelers away from an encounter with something large, and that is the only danger you sense during your time with them. Though you’re not entirely certain when you are, you love this Hyrule – it’s beautiful. You lose track of time exploring just off-road, loosely sticking with the traveling group.
Around sunset, you remember that you were supposed to get back to the others.
How are you supposed to get back in time? You…
...transform into a fairy to fly back.
...run for it and hope you can slip into the crowd unnoticed.
Chapter Text
You’re not worried about returning in time to meet up with the others – you plop your travel medallion down, and you know you can get back any time you like. The group sends you to a home to retrieve a wicker basket for your foraging, but otherwise, there’s no delay in leaving town.
As you travel with the group, you point out several common edibles in the wild – Hylian shrooms and Hyrule herbs – and you teach them how to identify those you gather for them. At one point, you see a large creature lumbering away, having just missed your traveling group, and you stop to take a photo.
The Hyrule Compendium informs you that it’s a Dodongo. You’ve never seen one before, but as it has a rider, you assume that it’s some sort of weird mount.
Before sunset, the travelers stop outside a wild apple orchard with a statue in its center that looks like Legend. You take a photo of that too, eager to tease him about it when you meet up with everyone.
“Hey!” one of the travelers calls, waving you over. “Is there anything you could cook ahead for us? The apples here are for anyone to pick, so we’re eating them tonight.”
Nodding, you get a fire started and start teaching the group how to make baked apples, mushrooms, and, in general, many other such dishes that can be made with just a campfire after some successful foraging. So long as they don’t run into monsters, they should be fine – their safety is one less worry now.
The sun has set now, and sure, you’re a little late, but you’re certain the other Links won’t be too mad if you stop to gather apples if you want some free supplies. After a few seconds of thought, you decide…
Chapter Text
You use the Master Sword to dowse for the bell, and Fi leads you outside town, where she points you underground and you use the Mogma Mitts to dig it up. As you turn to return to town, you see Legend standing there and eyeing your mitts.
“Did you need something?” you ask.
He approaches you. “How do these work? Do they let you dig straight down? Can you burrow with them? Do they have any blessings on them?”
“I can burrow with them,” you say. “You need something, don’t you?”
“I came to borrow the Master Sword, but these may be better.” Legend hums and stares at the hole you dug, looking deep in thought. “How far down can you dig with those mitts?”
You flex your fingers, spraying Legend with loose dirt from the mitts as you start to shake them cleaner. “I haven’t tested that. Collector, what do you need?”
“A horse?” you repeat. “No.”
Legend mutters something. “Let me borrow off you then. Your mitts, if you can, but if I have to, I could use the Master Sword instead.”
“You’re acting really weird,” you say, “but I’m sure you have a good reason. Alright, I’ll help.”
You…
...insist on coming with him to take care of whatever is going on.
Chapter Text
You busy yourself assisting the militia until it’s nearly sunset. When you arrive at the town square, Time is already there, but as you wait with him, no one else comes.
“Where are they?” you ask.
Time is busy glaring at the full moon.
“Hey,” you say, nudging him.
“Sorry,” he says. “That feels like something of a bad omen. I don’t suppose you heard from any of them that they expect to be late?”
You shake your head.
“Nor I.” Time gets to his feet. “I saw three of them heading to the edge of town. Sky and Four were wandering around the nearby streets a while. The sailor went to the docks. I’m not certain where Legend ended up. You haven’t seen him, Captain?”
Legend? Of everyone to disappear, he’s one of the least likely candidates. You’re fairly certain he wouldn’t go anywhere far without a map.
You shake your head. “Let’s start with those who we have a general idea of where to search for. Maybe one of them will have an idea about Legend.”
You volunteer to search…
Chapter Text
The river has nothing on navigating the dangers of the Great Sea, and you easily reach the fishing island with the ferry. When you arrive, you find three Hylians struggling against a large, rope-like goop-monster covered in scarlet eyeballs.
You draw your sword and aim…
Chapter Text
At the edge of town, your approach startles one of the town’s militia who has a fresh bandage wrapped around his fighting arm. “Oh!” he says, returning to ease once he sees your face. “It’s you. I was just checking on the tracks here. I heard that three youth started following them and haven’t come back.”
“Three youth?” you repeat. You describe Twilight, Hyrule, and Wild for the militia man. “Are those them?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“I’ll get them,” you say. “Do me a favor and let the rest of my traveling group know where I went? I was sent to look for those three. They’re part of our number, and they didn’t tell us where they’re going.”
When the man agrees, you give him directions to where to meet up with Time and how to identify him.
“Got it,” he says, eyeing you anyway. “Are you certain you’re alright alone? Even before the attack, there are lots of Undead who appear outside town at night.”
“I’ll be quick,” you assure him with a smile. “And anyways, if I take too long, that’s what telling the rest of the group is for.” You hurry off into the night, hoping to catch the other Heroes before they get into too much trouble.
Chapter Text
When you head for the docks, there is no immediate sign of him, but the waters are choppy, and a woman is watching fearfully from behind a beached boat.
You approach. “Miss? Is everything alright?”
She shook her head and pointed a trembling finger to a small river island that you can just see in the evening’s dim. “I told the militia a water monster stranded my husband on the fishing island, but the only one who listened to me was a little boy.”
A little boy? Wind? You can see him heading off to rescue someone stranded on the water, and even if it’s not him, there is a rescue needed regardless. “Was it a boy in a blue lobster shirt?”
The woman confirms it. Well, that was an update on one of the missing Links at least. Now to work on the rescue….
“What’s going on that there needs to be a rescue? Is the river normally that choppy?”
She shakes her head. “There are monsters in there.”
Chapter Text
“Chosen?” you call, wandering around town. “Smithy?”
“Down here!” comes Four’s voice in a muffled shout, and as you investigate, you find a hole in the ground that drops into pitch blackness.
You bend onto damp, muddy cobblestone. “Is that you?”
“We’re both down here!” Sky shouts. “We think it’s an old well or something that was paved over. The street was damaged in the attack, and it fell out from under us as we were helping with repairs!”
Had no one else noticed?
“Has the town helped at all?” you call.
“They’re making a new ladder!” Sky calls back. “They said it will be done tomorrow. Could you throw us down whatever Wild makes for dinner?”
That’s two Links accounted for. “Will do! Have either of you seen Legend at all?”
Silence meets you.
“Sky?” you call. “Four?”
Something stirs in the darkness, and red eyes stare at you. You draw your sword and stab downward.
It grabs your wrist and pulls.
“Captain!” Four shouts. “No! Leave him alone!”
You lie flat to make it harder to pull you in. With your free hand, you reach for the fire rod you borrowed from Legend. The fireball washes over the shadowy being that’s grabbed you, illuminating its form. It’s the Shadow, the dark lizalfos you’ve been chasing. Has it been hiding in towns between your battles?
The Shadow pulls you down. You plummet into cold water, and when you surface, Sky is sending a beam upward.
Four scoots over to give you room on a little lip that’s relatively dry. “I thought it left!”
“Yes,” you say, hauling yourself from the wettest part of the hole, “well, now we know to search towns more thoroughly.”
For the night, you’re stranded in the well with Sky and Four and can do nothing else to help your brothers. You’re cold. You’re stiff. You go hungry for the night, and by the time the new ladder is lowered to you, there’s nothing else to do to chase the Shadow but walk through the latest portal with all nine of you. However, with a new thing to try on this adventure, this is far from…
The End
Chapter Text
You’ve always been able to see ghosts in your wolf form, so you leave town and transform. Trying not to stray too close to town, you search the outskirts until you find a small, spectral child wearing an outfit much like the Hero’s clothing you were gifted on your adventure.
This isn’t another Hero, is it? Cautiously, you approach, wagging your tail and trying to appear friendly.
“Wolfos!” The child draws a spectral wooden blade on you.
You…
Chapter Text
“Stick with me!” you say. “If the ghost comes, I’ll beat it up! Wanna play while the adults are busy? I’m a pirate, and I have a shovel. We could go on a treasure hunt.”
The younger children seem curious enough to play along, and you let them take you…
...to see a weird old tree in the woods.
Chapter Text
You approach the repair crew and offer your services as a blacksmith in repairing the water tower’s supports.
“A blacksmith, are you?" a man asks. "Well there is a forge in town, but I don’t know if you should use it.”
Unsure if that’s a dig at your age, you glare at him and get directions to the forge anyway. It’s cold inside – there’s no fire lit yet, and a chill runs down your spine as you find, at an anvil, a Stalfos.
Chapter Text
As you offer your help, the men already working on the repairs peer down at you. “A short, thin guy like you thinks he can lift the tank back atop the supports?”
Nodding, you grab the Sheikah Slate and demonstrate what the Magnesis rune can do on the water tank. “Just let me know when and where you need metal objects moved.”
“That’s incredible! Perhaps we were a bit quick to judge you.” The men peer at your device. “Isn’t that a Sheikah Slate?”
You startle. In all your travels, very few could recognize what you carry at your hips. “You know it?”
“Why, of course! We don’t look it, but the three of us here all have Sheikah blood within us.” One of the men places a hand to his chest. “My name is Yuno. It was my ancestor who invented the Sheikah Slate! Alright, Mr. Legendary Hero, we believe you. We’ll get the water tower back up, and then we’ll take you for banana milk at the local milk bar. Our treat!”
You want to go to the milk bar with Yuno and his friends after this.
You do not want to go to the milk bar with Yuno and his friends after this.
Chapter Text
You’re not a smith like Four or anything, but finding missing pieces is something you’ve done before, like that time when part of the windmill fell beneath the clouds. As you dowse for the water tank’s top, Fi points you to a crack in the ground beside a boarded-up well.
Though this won’t be the easiest retrieval, it’s not that difficult with Mogma Mitts either. You dig down after the top and drop several feet into a dark pool, where spectral hands rise from the water. There’s a ladder nearby that leads up the well and a strange stone wall that blocks off a portion of the water into some sort of fountain.
You…
Chapter Text
“Alright, Old Man,” Warriors says to you, “what about supplies? I doubt that this town has much that they’d be willing to spare, given the circumstances.”
“Exactly,” you say. “We need to prioritize what we need most if we’re going to restock. I believe that defensive items would be prudent with the wounds our enemy deals.”
You remember all too well how weak Twilight looked lying on that bed, and how you didn’t think he was going to make it. And yet, that’s exactly why you have to keep going – if those are the sorts of wounds someone with the skills of a Hero obtain against the Shadow, how much more devastating would they be on the whole of Hyrule?
“You want better shields, armor, and magical defenses for the group, is that it?” Warriors asks.
You nod to confirm.
He steps away. “I’ll be asking around.”
You…
Chapter Text
“Ours, Captain?” Time asks. “Or the town’s?”
“Both,” you say. “That the town’s morale is still so low after the monsters were defeated is troublesome, and we’ve all been down since what happened to Twilight. We were sloppy today. It’s a wonder no one was injured.”
Humming, Time nods. “Our last battle was easy, like the monsters weren’t trying. They could have more forces elsewhere. Were they even trying to trying to defeat us today?” He tugs on his hair. “That makes little sense though. You’d think they’d at least have been motivated to preserve their own lives in fighting us. Let’s see what the boys turn up in town. In the meantime, what do propose we do?”
You suggest…
Chapter Text
As the others ask about the wagon and its route, you deal with finding Epona and preparing her for a little trip.
She’s spooked.
“Easy, girl,” you say, already reaching for the Twilight Crystal around your neck. “I’ll deal with whatever’s going on, alright? Just tell me.”
You shift into your wolf form, and Epona tells you that the birds have been warning the rest of the animals about monstrous bandits on the road, on their way to town. “We have to go now, Link.”
She gallops off on you, and you run after her. She leads you into a road where several purple bats fly from the trees and transform into people.
One steps toward Epona. “Good, horsey. You’re going to help us bring Hyrule to its knees!”
Whining, Epona rears and kicks. “Now, Link!”
You fight…
Chapter Text
You are allowed to borrow the boat, and you even get directions to another city upriver where it would have come from. Compared to the Great Sea, the river is easy sailing at first.
However, sometime after you lose sight of the town from which you started, the river parts suddenly, dropping the boat onto a dry riverbed. The water turns black as the blood of the monsters you’ve been hunting, and both sides of the river grow faces in the seconds before the water comes crashing back down.
“Get to the bank!” you shout, making a run for it. You can’t outrun the blackened water, and you get caught in a strong current that sweeps you and the other Links away.
“Wind!” you hear someone shout for you, but you can’t answer. You barely have time to gulp down air before you’re thrust under the surface.
You…
...focus on getting yourself enough air, letting yourself possibly be swept into more danger.
...focus on getting yourself to the safety of shore, even if the action risks you drowning.
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“It’s bigger than my era, so I’d guess it’s between my time and Hyrule’s,” you say. As you look around, you spot a statue in the square that looks like you, and you scoff, not wanting to find out if it names you as the Hero of Legend. You turn your eyes away from it and see Hyrule frowning.
“Kakariko Village?” Hyrule asks. “I heard that something bad happened to it before I was born, but I was never clear on the details.”
“Regardless,” Time says, meeting your eyes with his remaining one. “Is this near enough to your era that you could be a guide? Or has too much changed already?”
“I could be an imperfect guide,” you say.
You start by guiding the way to an inn in Kakariko Village once you all meet back up.
You start by leading the way toward Hyrule Castle to meet Fable or her successors.
Chapter Text
“It’s a ghost town by my era,” you say, “so we must be between my era and Legend’s.”
This is Kasuto as it was before the village had to flee and rebuild itself hidden in the woods, but you’re unsure when it was that monsters attacked it. By the time you first visited, they’d had enough time to rebuild in the woods that you wonder if it might have been in the between eras – sometime soon? It’s a possibility.
You search around for any signs of monsters, approaching from town, disguised as its denizens, or otherwise. As you do, your eyes linger in the direction of the giant cemetery you know to be nearby, and you reach for the cross around your neck. “We should probably keep an eye out for signs of the Undead. You might not be able to see them if they’re here, but they can still hurt you.”
“So when you say it’s a ghost town,” Four calls, “you mean that literally?”
A few Links snicker at the pun, but it’s too serious a matter for you. “Yes,” you say. “It’s no joking matter. I had to visit town once to learn a spell to beat a dungeon boss standing between me and the means to save one of my Zeldas. I couldn’t get through here until I acquired an item that lets me see invisible enemies.”
“Invisible enemies?” Time asks, pulling a mask from his pouch.
“In town?” Twilight asks nervously. “The only thing I could do to see them is fight as a wolf, and that’s not something I’d like to do in towns if I could help it.”
Most of the other Links look similarly nervous.
“Who all has a way to tell where invisible enemies are?” Warriors asks, looking over the group.
You raise your hand. So do Time, Twilight, and Legend.
“Only half of us can see what we’re doing?” Wild grumbles, looking through his Slate for something. “There’s got to be a way…. Hyrule, if we cover these invisible enemies of yours in flour, would the flour turn invisible too?”
You don’t know.
“We can try it,” Warriors says, “but we shouldn’t count on it. We won’t split up until we confirm that there are no such monsters here in town. For now, we’ll count on Hyrule, Time, and Legend to spot them. If you have an attack you can safely use blindly around people, like that sword beam of Sky’s, please prepare it. Fire on our spotters’ command.”
You see several fallen faces as the group realizes they won’t be able to cut loose around the bustling town after all, but it can’t be helped.
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You’ll make this as quick as you can, but if you’re going to investigate behind the bookcase without moving it and disturbing the Minish, you need to be Minish-sized. With the help of the jar, you shrink down and head for the spot where your new Minish friend indicated the dark magic to be.
There is enough space between the bookcase and the wall to slip behind.
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You interrupt your friend, who has pulled one of the books off the shelf and is comparing its illustrations to a child’s drawing of a Minish on the wall.
“Ah, the Minish?” you ask, causing Hyrule to jump slightly as he looks over. “They’re real, you know. I dealt with them all the time on my adventure.” You tap your feather earring with a smile. “They gifted me an item that lets me see them still. One of them just told me something very interesting.”
“Four,” Hyrule asks, “how are you so quiet?”
You grin. “It helps to be small. Anyway, the Minish told me that someone local used the books on that bookcase in the corner to learn a dark magic ritual. You’re our best spell-caster, and you’ve been acting like you can read the Hylian here. I need your help looking into it.”
With a nod, Hyrule follows you to the bookcase in question and studies the titles there. “This Hylian is a bit older than the rest of the library,” he says, echoing what the Minish told you about the ones here. “And wow, this is some really dark stuff. I’m not talking about the rancher’s brand of dark magic either. Did the Minish say what sort of ritual was done here?”
You squeeze against the wall and try to peek behind the bookcase, but your shadow blocks any light that could squeeze in and show you what’s back there.
“Is there something back there?” Hyrule asks, putting on a set of gloves you’ve never seen him wear before.
“Supposedly.”
Hyrule huffs as he grabs the bookcase and tries to pull it forward. He sweats and grunts, but the bookcase doesn’t budge.
“Maybe we should try something else to see what’s back there,” you say, intending to go and shrink down to Minish size.
Hyrule gives you a thumb’s up. “Don’t tell the others about this, okay?”
What is he talking about? You stare at him long enough for him to cast a spell and turn himself into a fairy.
“What?” You study him closely. In his new form, he still looks mostly like himself, though tiny, winged, glowing, sporting some antennae, and a quite a bit more androgynous.
He places a shrunken finger over his lips and flies behind the bookcase. The gap between it and the wall glows.
Chapter Text
A man named Rauru has the book on light magic, and you spend the rest of the day tracking him down. As you finally reach his house – a large thing with a second story and a garden – you notice the sun starting to set. Though you know the others will be expecting you, this is important.
You knock on the door. “Is there a Rauru who lives here?”
From the other side, there come numerous hisses and a muffled shout for help. That’s more than enough of an invitation for you to enter, and you barge in on a giant, four-headed snake made of shadow, and, struggling within its coils, a rotund man in orange robes.
You draw your sword and slash, looking for weak spots as the Four Sword does very little against the creature’s dark scales. One of the heads turns on you, and you hop back, swinging out. Though your sword destroys the head, black blood drips from its wound as it heals and the head quickly regrows.
“Run!” the orange-robed man shouts. “You’d need a magic sword to even exploit its weakne-”
The creature shifts and covers the man’s mouth. Briefly, you spot a strange golden scale on the monster’s belly, but it’s inaccessible to you as the positions are now.
You…
…split into four to take out all heads simultaneously.
...let yourself get swallowed whole to slay this thing from the inside.
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You are ready to save Zelda and Kakariko Village now, so you head out as quickly as you can. You’re not sure what you expected to see when Zelda told you that Kakariko Village sank beneath the earth, but probably not this.
The area is strangely dark, all things considered. Beyond a sign declaring the spot as the right place, there’s a flat field of a rancid dark gloop like the black blood of the monsters you fight, and very few patches of dirt are even visible for you to try to dig everyone out from.
As you scout out the best place to dig, you circle the perimeter. From the grass outside town bubbles up more of the strange substance around you. It forms into several giant hands, each with a single eye on their palm. They move at you with a speed that you’d need your Pegasus Boots to outrun, but you can’t leave now – Zelda needs you!
You retreat to a safe distance to try shooting the eyes regardless. Though you shoot one hand down before it reaches you, the others catch up with you and snatch you up.
Everywhere your skin touches the substance, it burns. You’re sickened. What are these things, and are they seriously made of the black blood – a poison, as you’d guess now? Your vitality is slipping away.
You struggle, and when you finally slip out, you run again. With the distance between you and the hands is built back up, you turn with your fire rod this time and notice that the hand you’d taken out is back.
Gritting your teeth, you loose some fireballs and retreat for a hit-and-run tactic.
The hands burn some. You do it again, but as you run this time, you trip over a rock and twist your ankle. As you push yourself toward your feet, you notice that you can’t put weight on your ankle as it is.
Click here if you left in time to still have daylight.
Click here if you borrowed the Master Sword and Twilight’s shadow crystal.
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You hate to admit it, but with the way Zelda described the situation, it sounds like Kakariko Village might need a rabbit to burrow down and save them. You lose daylight by doing so, but you track Twilight down to borrow his shadow crystal “for a prank” and the Master Sword from Sky to “prove a point” and, without any other Links to slow you down, double check all your preparations just as darkness falls.
That’s fine. You can see well enough in the dark. The question is whether you’re ready now anyway.
Chapter Text
Until sunset, you make good on your intention to gather information from the town. After alerting those already in your group, Four and Hyrule, about what’s going on, you leave the library and ask the locals of any rumors about Kakariko Village.
“Ha! As though anyone would buy into it, but they claim to have discovered a pit near their village that leads to a whole nother world deep underground!” a woman claims. “They get into it too, claiming that they can use it to make underground shortcuts across Hyrule, but I don’t know who they think they’re fooling.”
“I’ve heard of such shortcuts!” Hyrule says, eyes lighting up. He looks ready to practically pull you and Four outside of town to look for such. “I’ve used them before in my era. They’re real.”
He had? Then is your successor closer to a local guide for this sort of thing than you are? You crack a smile. “Have a map?”
“They don’t make them. We don’t want monsters finding out about the Depths!”
Or so Hyrule says. At sunset though, when all the Links meet back up, you take the chance to tell everyone what happened to Kakariko Village and recruit their help finding the nearest entrance to the Depths (as Hyrule called them), a tektite springs from beneath the boulder that covers the Depths entrance. You fight it off easily between the nine of you.
In the morning, the nine of you gather enough rope to climb up and down safely, and you find a vast expanse, a giant cavern, you think, whose ceiling is too far above you to be seen in the light of several bioluminescent flowers and roots that live down here.
Because you’re speedy, strong, and are the one whose Zelda called out to you, you are sent ahead toward Kakariko Village as a scout. Your Pegasus boots make it easy to cover the distance, and you are thoroughly alone by the time you encounter the Hinox.
You grab the Roc’s feather from your pack, and, as you avoid the monster’s first grabs, transfer it safely to the arm to which your shield is strapped. Though the Hinox’s blood comes away black on the Tempered Sword, the monster’s extra toughness merely lengthens the fight rather than change its nature. You come away weakened but victorious and snack on some hearty mushroom skewers the cook sent you with to regain your strength.
With the Hinox gone, the Depths are clear until you reach Kakariko Village. Black blood drips from overhead, but there’s nothing to fight, and you meet with a wizened, silver-haired Fable to organize an evacuation. You lead the way back toward the exit. Everyone survived this time – Zelda, the villagers, everyone, and it seems a great lead on your adventure, when you return to the surface, to look into how the villager itself met its
END
Chapter Text
Even with your gloves, it takes some doing to pry the bookcase from the wall. Doing so tilts the bookcase and pelts you with books, though you dive aside in time to avoid being buried.
Behind the wall is a dark, glowing eye and lots of gloop sticking to the walls. It bubbles and shapes itself into a dark version of Sky, who spin attacks with his sword, knocking you to the ground more reliably than the bookcase.
Seriously? Your fight with your own shadow nearly killed you, and now you have to fight a dark version of the best swordsman in the Chain? “Smith! Vet!” you call.
A boomerang flies toward Dark Sky. You don’t see who threw it, but it stuns the dark long enough for you to get to your feet.
Legend dashes into the Dark with his sword, who recovers and grabs you.
“No third parties in this fight!” Dark Sky hisses.
While you're in his grasp, the world goes dark and changes around you. The enclosed library has been replaced with a slightly chilly expanse that’s flat and open in every direction. Water seeps into your boots from beneath, and overhead, sections of the night sky are filled with storm clouds. What is this?
Dark Sky chuckles. “Did anyone ever tell you? You and he are both the first, in a way.”
You pull back, escaping Dark Sky’s hold. “Where are we? Put us back!”
“This place?” he asks as the clouds rumble overhead. “It’s a memory of your past… and his.”
Memory? What memory? You remember nothing like this? Does he mean this place is from one of Sky’s memories?
As you watch his movements from a step past striking distance, you cast Shield on yourself to prepare to fight Sky’s dark counterpart. Sky’s. Sky’s of all people! “That doesn’t tell me anything!”
Dark Sky’s face twists into a gleeful grin, and you shudder. A look like that does not belong on your brother’s face – Sky is far too kind for such a twisted version of pleasure.
“For every light, there is a shadow,” Dark Sky says. “You could say that he and I are… brothers. We balance out the world. But you, Hero of Hyrule, you’re among those who’ve slain your inner darkness-”
You cast Fire on your blade and send some napalms at him. He side-hops just as Sky would, laughing. “I killed my inner darkness – I can kill you too!”
His grin widens. “Only the Hero of the Sky can do that, but perhaps you can beat me at a little game?”
A game? Is all this a game to the Darks? Grinding your teeth, you leap for a down thrust, and Dark Sky side hops that as well.
The magic sword splashes the standing water. Though it ripples from the contact with your blade and boots, you catch a glimpse of your reflection in the water – but it’s Sky there. You spin toward Dark Link. “No more tricks!”
He rushes you. You raise your shield and block him. “Why me? I’m not any more him than the others are.”
“Because just like him, you are the start of the legends.” Dark Sky feints, and it fools you. As he spin attacks, you don’t have time to stop yourself to plop into the inches of water sitting on the ground. “This place is where he fought him – the Demon King. He never fought me, but in slaying him, this is where the balance between light and dark was first disturbed.”
Somehow, you doubt that. You know Sky wouldn’t have gone after the Demon King if he hadn’t been causing problems. Before his fight, there must have been too much darkness in his world.
You pick yourself up. Immediately, Dark Sky knocks you flat with another spin attack. He leaps on you, sword pointed at the soft spot in your skull. “You have a choice, Hero of Hyrule. You will volunteer your body so that I may restore the balance, or I will take it from you.”
Why even give you a supposed choice? There has to be something he’s not saying.
Your power gloves give you the strength to raise your shield between his sword and your head. You use your shield to knock him off you. “If you’re so sure of yourself, why not just take what you want? You don’t have the power to take me, do you?”
As you get to your feet, so does he. He raises his sword as the clouds break and the first lightning strikes his blade, illuminating him, but, as far as you can tell, leaving him undamaged. So he wouldn’t be weak to the Thunder spell, huh? And now the rain puts a damper on Fire.
He throws the lightning at you. It catches you around your shield, and it burns. For a moment, you know nothing, and then you’re back, muscles twitching, and everything aching.
“You are the start of the legends of this era,” Dark Sky says, stepping closer. “The story who inspired Hyrule to look into its history. Imagine how it would look if their hero understood the darkness. You need us. If we’re not around, Hyrule has a choice between light and light. Hardly meaningful, don’t you agree? Master summoned me to restore choices, and that’s why you were offered one.”
“With a sword to my throat?” You circle around, looking for a weakness you could exploit when your muscles stop twitching. “I thought you were summoned to restore choices!”
“You’ve been blinded by light-”
“You’re blinded by darkness!” You charge and swipe.
He backflips easily and returns your strike. His sword smacks your shield hard enough to send fresh shocks down your injured body.
You narrow your eyes. “I made my choice when I defeated my shadow. Sky made his when he defeated the Demon King. Who summoned you?”
“Who do you think?”
The Shadow. Was it here? That is to say, was it in the library anyway? Is it still nearby? You repeat as much.
“Yes,” Dark Sky’s grin grows. “He has plans for all of you.”
You catch him readying his sword and fake slipping as you back away from it.
Sky may be the better swordsman, but this isn’t him. And besides, you have some tricks.
As Dark Sky leaps in the air, you spring into action, using your upthrust to take him mid-air. You turn and stab as he’s still off-balance.
Your sword enters his chest, and his eyes widen. He laughs. “You think this is over? Watch for my brethren. Darkness will win.”
If you have anything to say about it, darkness will never win. It’s lost already. The world around you fades, returning you to the library as a portal opens and Dark Sky succumbs to his
END
Chapter Text
The fire is super effective at burning the bookcase and the dark magic behind it. It is also super effective at burning the library.
You swear Four is sending you the stink eye as you and the other Links flee the burning building, and, as you glimpse Legend, you’re not certain what to make of the look on your predecessor’s face. Naturally, the flames and smoke draw attention from the town, and they recognize that it was one of the three of you who’d started the blaze.
Just like the dark magic, your time in town has met its
END
Chapter Text
You’ve never been an amazing fighter as a fairy, but against a monster small enough to fit between the bookcase and the wall, you’re willing to give it a shot. Glancing at Four, you put a finger over your lips. “I have a spell for this….”
You cast it. As you shrink, Four gasps and steps closer. “You can shrink too?” he whispers. “You’re a fairy!”
Too? Like all the other Links, you’re naturally curious, but you’ll have to unpack the ‘too’ later – it’s tough to speak loudly enough for a Hylian to hear you like this, and besides, you have magic to fight.
Chapter Text
As you follow the Dodongo tracks, you find a herd of wild horses grazing around a collapsed grotto entrance.
Chapter Text
You change back and approach the violet-haired, scarlet-eyed teenager. “What do you think you’re doing?”
The boy’s eyes widen and he shoves the book away. “Who are you?”
“Just a rancher who doesn’t like to see people get hurt.” You glance at the Dodongo, which, for the moment, is peacefully munching on rocks. “You understand that those can be dangerous, right?”
The boy frowns. “How good are you at light magic? I’d do anything to learn.”
If he wants to learn light magic, then why is he reading books on dark magic?
You walk closer and hold out your non-sword hand. “Can’t say I know much about that – just enough to know that the book isn’t going to teach you what you claim to want.”
The boy pulls the book back out and flips it open.
You…
Chapter Text
As you head back toward town, you find Wild and Hyrule, who raise their brows at you.
“I thought we were supposed to be the ones who get in trouble for sneaking off to explore,” Wild says.
Hyrule puts a hand over Wild’s mouth and whispers words you only hear by being in wolf form: “There’s something following him.”
You turn. There’s a ghost there – you’ve always been able to see them in your wolf form. It’s a small, spectral child wearing an outfit much like the Hero’s clothing you were gifted on your adventure.
This isn’t another Hero, is it? Cautiously, you approach, wagging your tail and trying to appear friendly.
“Wolfos!” The child draws a spectral wooden blade on you.
You…
Chapter Text
“Everything alright, Chosen?” Twilight, one of the two Links with you, nudges you. The other, Wind, looks over your shoulder.
Wind points at your drawing. “When’d you make this?”
You close the journal. “When you weren’t looking. Let’s just keep an eye out for anything suspicious, yes?”
“Right,” Twilight drawls, heading slowly toward the print. “Like the tracks.”
You nod. “Exactly!”
A giant monster could be involved with a new villain and a dead child, right? Maybe this is the thing that killed the child. Why else would it be this scene in your journal? Though you go to investigate the tracks, they lead you only to the field where the Chain battled monsters when you first arrived.
One of Champion’s remote bombs remains on the ground where the monster would have been. Does he realize it’s still out here?
As you examine it, the bomb disappears without exploding.
“Twilight!?” Wind calls.
You look over your shoulder, and Twilight is gone.
Wind grabs you. “Twilight just vanished! I think we should get out of here until we understand what’s going on.”
As you approach town, Wind runs off on you in the name of covering more ground to gather the others. Though you search, you find the villain from your vision before any of the others.
You get into a fight. It’s easy. The villain goes down, and a new portal forms.
It’s time to move on, but Twilight, Warriors, and Wild never return, as though whatever happened spelled their
End
Chapter Text
The other two Links with you, Wind and Twilight, go up ahead to look at the giant print in the pumpkin patch.
“It’s fine!” Twilight calls back. “I just found a horn left behind from whatever it was. It’s already dead.”
You nod distractedly. “Someone here must be a good fighter. I want to ask around about something.”
Wind and Twilight exchange glances. Grinning, Wind bounds up to you. “Is this related to your adventure, Sky? I wanna hear it!”
Should you tell him? You’ve never really mentioned your prophetic dreams to other people before.
If you’re asking around, of course he and Twilight will have questions.
Chapter Text
The town’s repairs are already underway, but in terms of the food supply, it’s possible that the town will need an import. How are the roads, independent of the monsters?
When you go to the edge of town to check, you find your descendant in wolf form being attacked by a ghost that looks like a younger you.
Chapter Text
As you walk around the edge of town, you find your descendant in wolf form being attacked by a ghost that looks like a younger you.
Chapter Text
You’re old enough that a break just sitting in the town square is appreciated. There’s a fountain there, and from your spotted seated on its edge, you can watch Wild, Twilight, and Hyrule heading to the edge of town, Wind going to the docks, and Sky and Four wandering around the nearby streets.
You appreciate the break up until the moon comes out a little before sunset, big and full and easy to imagine a face on. You glare at it a while before darkness falls and Warriors nudges you.
“Hey.” He looks mildly concerned, and you notice, that despite the arrangements made with the full Chain, only you and he are in the town square.
“Sorry,” you say, looking back up at the moon. You narrow your eye at it. “That feels like something of a bad omen. I don’t suppose you heard from any of them that they expect to be late?”
He hasn’t heard.
“Nor I.” You get to your feet and fill Warriors in on where you last saw various members of the Chain. “Though I’m not certain where Legend ended up. You haven’t seen him, Captain?”
He shakes his head. “Let’s start with those who we have a general idea of where to search for. Maybe one of them will have an idea about Legend.”
You volunteer to search…
Chapter Text
It’s late when you get back, and none of the Links are at the meeting point. Did they send a search party for you already?
Sighing, you head toward a fountain to wait in hopes that someone will come back for you. As you wait, the townsfolk mill about, despite the hour.
They move like puppets, and, as you look closer, you notice that all of them have red eyes.
Chapter Text
At sunset, you’re only at a sign that you hadn’t passed as you initially entered town. Kasuto.
Though you’re already going to be late, you’re sure you’re not going to get into more trouble if you glance toward where you left the travelers. Are those the ones who founded the Hidden Village of Kasuto? Funny, if that were the case, you’d have thought this one would already be a ghost town.
Now that you know where you are, you think you’d better tell the others. You hurry back to them before they can send out a search party for you.
They're annoyed, but they're willing to listen as you say, "I know where we are...."
Chapter Text
The firelight shows that some of the apples are gold in color. You’ve never seen the variety before, and when you ask, you’re told that, according to rumor, they can enhance the effects of cooking a food.
You cook one with some truffles.
Chapter Text
Legend is still acting strangely by the time he leaves with your Mogma Mitts, but you trust him. You don’t think much about the incident until he doesn’t come back.
You and the other Links travel through the night to find him, and when you do, he’s lying, unresponsive, in a ditch filled with a strange liquid that comes to life in the form of giant, eyeballed hands, and attack the group.
Besides Legend, you are the first to meet your
End
Chapter Text
Legend is still acting strangely by the time he leaves with your sword, but you trust him. You don’t think much about the incident until he doesn’t come back.
His leaving with your sword leaves the group in a dilemma: regardless of your other equipment, you have a reputation as the best swordsman in the group, and they’re not comfortable chancing a fight without your having a sword. Ordinarily, if you needed to borrow one, you’d borrow one from Legend, but this has got to be the only circumstance that plan doesn’t work.
“We’ll wait until morning,” Time said, rubbing his face. “At least we won’t have to deal with Stalfos and other nighttime monsters before we get him back.”
You do have to deal with Stalfos and other nighttime monsters before you get Legend back: there’s an attack on the village, and some of the monsters are even black-blooded. You’re paired with Wild for archery support for the others when you hear Fi in your mind, asking you to take your bomb bag and open some rocks outside of town.
“Cover them for me,” you say to Wild, and you take off.
Fi and Legend are indeed beneath some rocks outside town, and they seem to have brought an entire village with them. Legend is holding off a giant frog monster with the Master Sword, but he switches to the Tempered Sword as you join him, which allows you to be reunited with Fi.
You charge a Skyward strike.
Chapter Text
Legend grumbles about how much slower he has to travel with you along, but he allows you to come with him. You start to have regrets about not telling the others where the two of you were going around sunset.
“This is important, right?” you ask him. “If you could wait for me, you couldn’t have waited for the others?”
“Not everyone has a sailcloth, Chosen.” He pokes at some charred, fire-dried apples that the two of you are eating for dinner. “And besides, some people would have taken too long to track down, or we’d have brought the cook with us.”
The next day, you arrive at a place he tells you should have been Kakariko Village. There are no buildings there, but there is a strange, evil-looking liquid covering the ground.
“We’re in between eras right now,” Legend says, “but we’re not too long after mine. Fable’s an old lady. I got a message from her asking for help. They’re underground, and they need someone to get them out.”
You put on your Mogma Mitts. “I’ll start digging.”
You burrow. You’re several feet down when Legend starts shouting for back-up. When you return to the surface, you find him being squeezed by giant hands made of the strange liquid that’s still pooled on the ground.
“Hyah!” You jump strike the nearest one and follow up with a spin attack.
The hands release Legend, who rolls for his sword. “Don’t let them touch you!”
You roll away from an incoming hand, and Legend stabs it in an eye that’s in the center of its palm before dashing away.
You follow suit, stabbing and back-flipping.
It’s a rough fight, but the hands go down. When they’re down, the liquid reforms into a giant pig with a three-tonged weapon.
“Ganon!” Legend hisses.
This is the great evil that all your reincarnations have to fight? You push down feelings of guilt in favor of pommeling the pig.
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You shoot and hit some of its many eyes, but although the eyes are obvious for their numbers, they don’t seem to be the monster’s weak point. Very quickly, you get grappled too, struggling to free yourself alongside the other Hylians until you meet your
End
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You shoot and free the Hylians, who bolt toward a boat lying upside down on the island, and the monster turns its rope-like appendages on you instead. You shoot at them again, trying to buy yourself time to switch to your sword.
You’re grabbed and pulled under the water.
One of the fleeing Hylians, who must have had more time than you have to observe this thing, hits its head with an oar. The monster loosens its grip on you, and you squirm.
When the monster gets a hold of itself, it tightens its grip. Its tentacles burn your skin until another oar to the head has it releasing you.
You scramble aboard the rowboat and bring your sword down on the monster’s head. Black blood squirts from it.
It wraps its tentacles around the boat, but you’re prepared now, and you have a small team of Hylians fighting alongside you. You spot a tentacle reaching toward someone’s unturned back and throw yourself in front of the tentacle with you shield.
Your shield is torn away, but you’re able to slice off the tentacle altogether with the Phantom Sword and retrieve it. As you do, the other Hylians keep whacking the monster with their oars, and when you return for a stab to the head, the monster bleeds away.
Passion burns inside your veins, and you want to keep fighting. You feel a strong urge to fight anything or anyone within reach. Even the Hylians you just rescued.
You turn your sword on them and force yourself to stop. “What was that?”
“Kid, you’re bleeding!”
You hadn’t noticed, but the tentacle burns around your arms are open and bleeding. Your blood has turned back. Whatever that thing was, it infected you!
You yell. You dive into the water before you can end up attacking anyone.
Your Hylian mind is fading rapidly, and unless the Chain can cure you, your days as a Hero may just be at their
End
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“Oi!” you shout, and you dive into the water.
Beneath, you see golden light pouring from the beneath monster’s fins in the shape of an X – an obvious weak point, provided you can reach it. You swim for it, and the monster retreats onto the fishing island.
As you climb from the water, the Hylians gape at the monster. “It’s a Light Spirit!” they call at you.
You’re not certain what that’s supposed to mean, but the Light Spirit, a truly humongous cuttlefish covered in eyes. It squeezed its captives so hard they passed out.
You run for the weak spot and hack away. It releases the Hylians and reaches for you with its tentacles.
Rolling beneath, you reposition and slash deep into the glowing spot. The cuttlefish bleeds and darkness blasts out, leaving only a dying little critter at your feet.
You scoop it up, but its spirit leaves its body before you can return it to the water. Its light blasts into your chest. The creature’s spirit lingers.
“I’m sorry,” it says. “That shadow thing corrupted me. You are the Light Spirit now. Hylia said there would be nine new light spirits to replace those of us who fall to this.”
“I don’t know what that means,” you say, but the creature’s spirit is gone.
Behind you, one of the former captives groans, and you go to check on them. They’re all alive, and you’re able to shuttle them into your boat before you accidentally change into a giant cuttlefish for the first time.
No, no, no! You’re Hylian.
You merely think it, and you’re Hylian again, though your reflection in the river shows you white, beard-like tentacle markings on your chin. When you rub at them, they don’t come off.
“Hey,” you ask the Hylians who are stirring. “What’s a Light Spirit?”
They’re still too out of it to answer, so you bring them back to town for medical attention. As you arrive, all eight other Links are waiting at the docks for you, looking irritated.
Warriors’s hand moves to his chin. “Sailor, what happened?”
“Does anyone know what a Light Spirit is?” you ask.
Twilight pushes to the front. “Light Spirit? Where? Is it in a good way?” Twilight looks over his shoulder at the Chain. “Light Spirits are supposed to protect the land, so why did we have to fight so many black bloods when we arrived? There should have been fewer.”
Confident that Twilight can tell you what’s going on, you tell him what happened.
He looks at you in awe. “Wind, are you a Light Spirit now? Show me.”
You think back over what the scuttlefish’s spirit told you. “It was infected with black blood and was hurting people. I had to kill it. It said that it’s one of nine that was infected, and that Hylia told it she’s sending nine replacements.” Glancing at the river, you add, “I’m it’s replacement.”
You jump in and transform for your friends, who all crowd around you.
“That’s awesome!” Twilight pats your head and congratulates you.
“That’s going to happen to all of us?” Four asks, pinching his nose. “This quest is going to change us? Don’t get me wrong – I’d do anything to protect Hyrule, but I’d rather not this be our humanity’s
End.”
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“One of them ran out of magic trying to heal me on their way out of town,” the man calls after you. “If he’s in trouble….”
As it turns out, the three Links are in trouble – or two of them, at least. You don’t know how poor Hyrule could still be considered in trouble once he’s already met his
End
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“You know, I’ve seen them,” he calls after you. “I got back to the family farm in time to warn them about the Dodongo whose print they were interested in, and I suspect they went off chasing it anyway. Be careful out there!”
You nod, already thinking about how to keep your guard up as you track down the missing Links. Ultimately, you arrive in time to see Hyrule, Twilight, and Wild fighting a Dodongo. Wild threw a bomb at it, and Hyrule swung fire at it from his sword, which lit up his bright red, spell-strengthened tunic.
Now with four Heroes, it’s not long until you can drag them back for an earful with the other Links for failing to show up at sunset, the Dodongo having met its
End
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When you ask if there’s not someone who could help you navigate the river, the woman points you to a man who participated in your training, and he’s happy to listen when you describe Wind for him.
“You know, we’d heard there was someone still out there, but it was an unmarried woman who claimed her husband is out there. You’re certain the person you’re looking for exists? We’ve had a lot of people who get close to the river just suddenly remember someone who isn’t real being out there and in need of help, like there’s some monster trying to draw people in.”
“Fairly certain,” you say. “The only reason I came to the docks was because he’s missing to begin with. I wasn’t close to the river until after he went missing.”
“Alright, we owe you. If you knew him before getting close to the river, I’ll get the boys and take the risk of taking you out there.” He walks to a nearby signal and brings in back-up.
Soon, you’re on the river, hoping that Wind isn’t already dead, when you find him on an island, trying to fight a giant cuttlefish that grabs him in its tentacles and drags him under the water.
You call out the name of one of your drills for your group of volunteers and dive in after him, sword ready.
Wind is fighting valiantly – he’s not your Sailor for nothing – but the monster is just too large for him alone. It is only with your help and your trainees at both of your backs that you’re able to get Wind away from the monster before he drowns.
Wind barely takes a moment to catch his breath before he steps onto the side of the boat.
“Kid, stop!” One of the volunteers tries to grab Wind, who ducks away.
“I found its weak point!” Wind dives in.
“Keep backing us up.” You dive in after him and strike a tentacle away from him as he is finishing the monster up.
You’re both laughing as you’re pulled back on board.
“Seriously though, you can’t just do things like this,” you say to Wind. “There’s the rest of the team to help you, and this could very well have been your
End.”
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When you ask if there’s not someone who could help you navigate the river, the woman points you to a man you patched up, and he’s happy to listen as you describe Wind.
“You know, we’d heard there was someone still out there, but it was from an unmarried woman who claims her husband is out there. You’re certain the person you’re looking for exists? We’ve had a lot of people who get close to the river just suddenly remember someone who isn’t real being out there and in need of help, like there’s some monster trying to draw people in.”
“Fairly certain,” you say. “The only reason I came to the docks was because he’s missing to begin with. I wasn’t close to the river until after he went missing.”
“Alright, I owe you. If you knew him before getting close to the river, I’ll take the risk of taking you out there.”
Very soon, you’re on the river, hoping that Wind isn’t already dead, when you find him on an island, trying to fight a giant cuttlefish that grabs him in its tentacles and drags him under the water.
“Get to safety!” you say to the fisherman. “I’ve got him.”
You dive into the water. There, Wind is fighting valiantly – he’s not your Sailor for nothing – but the monster is just too large for him alone.
You swim over to help, only to be caught in the monster’s tentacles too. For Wind and for you, it’s
The End
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The ghostly child slowly lowers his sword. “I thought you were a Wolfos.”
You get back onto all fours and trot over to him, making certain to wag your tail.
The ghost pets you. His hand is cold and fluid.
“You can see me, and people can see you,” the ghost says. “If I show you something, can you show someone else?”
Coming from a ghost, that definitely sounded important. You nod, and the ghost leads you toward a hole in the ground. “There were some Sheikah monks checking this place out and saying something about building a shrine, but I haven’t seen them in a while, and anyway, I fell in. It’s a very long way down, doggie, and someone else could fall too.”
As the ghost speaks, a three-headed dragon covered in a dark substance flies up from the hole and screeches, turning its attention on you.
“Run, doggie! Run!” The ghostly child stabs the dragon, which barely glances at him, if it can see him at all.
The blood on the ghost’s sword comes away black. Though you’ve taken on a dragon before, the last one didn’t have black blood. The fire is already heading toward you, and you don’t think you can outrun this even as a wolf.
You change back and take out your hook shots, hoping you can use the same strategy to take this dragon down that you used on the last one. “I’ll get the hole patched. Promise!”
You stun one of the heads, but the other heads burn you with wounds a quick swig of potion does not heal. Ugh. This again? Well, unlike last time, you’re actually still in fighting form. You think. You hope.
You use hook shots in both hands to stun the other two, taking care to keep a careful eye on all three heads from that point on.
It’s a long, slow fight, and you’re on the verge of fainting as you finally slay the beast. Regardless, you turn back into a wolf after to check on the ghostly child.
He’s cleaning black blood from his blade. “I helped,” he said. “I’m not very good, but the monster can’t kill me. There are lots of monsters down the hole.”
You growl at the hole and, limping, gesture for the child to follow your wolf form. You return to town faster that way, and you don’t change back until you approach.
As the transformation pulls on your wounds, you wince. “Keep following me, okay? I’m going to tell a lot of someones about that hole, and I’m hoping some of them might know how to set you at peace.”
By the time you reach the town square, the sun is low in the sky, and the other Links gasp as they see the state you're in.
“Rancher, what happened?” Warriors opens a much-depleted first aid kit.
“A ghostly kid showed me a deep hole with a dragon in it that he’s concerned other people are going to fall into.” Your wounds flare, and you wince. “The dragon had black blood. Kid says there’s more monsters down there.”
“A hole?” Time asks. “Like a grotto? Yes, there could be monsters living down there.”
“Kid also says it’s really deep. He fell in.”
“We’ll need rope,” Sky says. “Does anyone have some?”
Wind proudly presents his grappling hook. “This should get us down.”
You’re given a potion, and to your delight, whatever magic or poison stopped the healing earlier has worn off. You’re not great, but the group trusts you to lead the way to the hole … and then stay surface-side to ensure the grappling hook stays in place rather than go and fight with everyone else.. You fight a few escaping Poes in your wolf form anyway, and the kid watches you wide-eyed the whole time, making a few clumsy attempts of his own to stab the Poes.
While you’re still fighting, the Sheikah arrive with building materials, including the same type of stone you recognize from the pictures Wild has shown you of his shrines. You’re in the lead-up to Wild’s era then? No wonder no one recognized this Hyrule!
You tear the soul away from the last Poe, and an arrow whizzes past your ear.
Right. The Sheikah. They think you’re a wolf or a Wolfos. You trot into some nearby bushes to hide, watching as the Sheikah discover the grappling hook.
The ghostly child runs over and watches as the Sheikah descend, and he returns to you moments later. “They found me. They’re going to get me out and send me back to my village in a nailed-shut box. Your friends are almost done fighting the monsters too.”
You nod, and soon after, when the fighting is done, you mention the ghost again to the Old Man who pulls out his ocarina and sends him peacefully to his
End.
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You met up with the other Links around sunset, and though you sleep danger-free in the inn that night, you can’t shake the feeling that you missed out on learning something important. Whatever it is, you don’t have time to seek the ghost out again as another wave of black-blooded monsters strikes in the morning. These ones fly and are led by a type of dragon that Hyrule calls a Gleeok.
The wounds the monsters inflict are strange – a lot like the one that you’d endured after that Darknut, but this time, it’s Wild and Four who are suffering.
It takes them weeks to recover, and though in that time, you go searching for the ghost, you can’t find him again. Even after you tell the others, all that you learn is that Wind is very certain the ghost isn’t still around.
In those weeks come additional waves of black-bloods. It’s months later, after Wild and Four recover that a portal opens up, bringing your time in this era to its
End
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You change back. “I’m not a Wolfo-”
An invisible blade slices through your stomach with all the force of a spin attack.
“I’m not an enemy!” you grunt, doubling over, though you’re not sure of how clearly your words come out.
The sword keeps coming, and you transform back to be able to see it.
No longer is the ghost a little boy – it’s now a teenager of at least Four’s age, still dressed in green and now with a Triforce mark visible on his hand. It’s very little comfort to know, as the ghost slices deep into you, that it was another Hero who’d mistaken you for a Wolfos and brought you to your
End.
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On the way into the woods, some of the trees spring to life and come after you and the children. You…
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“We found a piece of metal sticking out of the ground!” A little girl leads the way, bouncing. “It had a pretty gemstone in it!”
What? They’d already found some treasure? You’re so there!
On the side of town with large, open plains, you are indeed lead to such a treasure. To you, it looks like part of a fancy sword hilt, like maybe something a king would have used once, but what is it doing out here?
Eagerly, you dig it up. It takes long enough that the children wander off, but you find a royal-looking claymore attached to a chain, and you find the hilts of a few more weapons as well. You’re unable to get any up before sunset, but you know of no plans to leave for a while, and you’re certain you could get the other Links interested in treasure weapons. That is, if you wouldn’t rather keep them for yourself.
You…
Chapter Text
One of the children hops onto the well’s wielded lid and hops up and down. “What should we play?”
An argument breaks out about whether you should play tag or knights, but beneath the argument, you can hear faint noises coming from the sealed well.
“What’s down there?” you ask, pointing.
“Water,” says one of the girls, “but it’s poisoned. It made everyone sick.”
“Nuh-uh!” says one of her friends. “I heard there used to be a Sheikah hiding down there!”
“Yeah? The poisoned water killed the Sheikah, so nothing’s down there any more but a well we can’t use! Anyway, let’s play!”
The children turn their eyes on you to make the decision, and you…
…play tag and wait for the area to clear before you investigate the well.
...ask them for ghost stories instead as you put your ear to the well.
Chapter Text
The one-eyed Stalfos wears Time’s armor and a helmet you've never seen before. He waves you to him. “Four! It’s been a while for me. Don’t worry – you’ll see my younger self again after this. I’m here because I need to show you something.”
You’ve always been among the smarter Links, and your mind catches up with the Stalfos’s words quickly. There’s time travel involved here, and this Stalfos knows you from your current adventure because he’s one of your companions. This is the Old Man’s future self.
“I’m fairly certain Undeath is the result of dark magic,” you say. “What happened?”
He laughs bitterly. “Not in every case. Look closer – I’m not a true Stalfos. My ghostly form reflects the state of my mortal remains, which were left unburied.”
“We’re close to your time, aren’t we?” you ask, beginning to examine ghost Time more closely. You can see the deep slash in his armor and various dents and missing decals.
“We are,” he agrees. “You’re between my lifetime and Twilight’s. I am waiting for him to be born so I can train him. In the meantime, there’s the matter of what killed me running around. It has black blood and a strange sword I’m hoping you’d know more about than I do.”
Chapter Text
The Stalfos draws two blades on you. Whatever. You’ve got this.
Chapter Text
It’s fairly obvious that Yuno and his friends are Yiga, but who better to deal with them than you? And besides, you’re curious about the banana milk.
The sun is low in the sky when the group of you finish up the repairs to the water tower, but you think you have time to visit the milk bar before you’re due to meet up with the Chain.
“You have Sheikah blood too, don’t you?” Yuno asks you quietly.
You shrug, and with a tap of the Slate, change into your stealth armor. The Yiga seem delighted.
Yuno slaps you on the back. “You look enough like the Heroes from the era of Myth and Legend that we can use you to discredit the royal family!”
“Oh?” You blink at the Yiga. What are they up to?
“Yeah! The other Hero is far too old to come after you! If he’s still alive. He might have died of old age by now, come to think of it….”
Other Hero? Are you not in an in-between era, or are they speaking of someone who wouldn’t be in the Chain?
“How long do Zonai live again?” one of the Yiga ask.
Yuno scoffs. “He’s only half-Zonai, and it’s been centuries anyway. It’s about time we get him back for him and the royal family shoving us aside like that after we saved his tail from the Calamity!”
Oh, they're talking about that Hero! The one before you.
You grin. If you just play along, it seems that you can get the Yigas’ full plan out of them. “I’m up for it! Give me the details!”
“We knew you’d be on board!” Yuno pulls you into a tavern and around to the back, where there’s a small bar. “A round of banana milk, on me!”
The banana milk is sweet and mild, and you’re able to listen quietly as Yuno describes a plan being developed by the Yiga to set black-blooded monsters loose on the village where the Hero of this time lives in hopes that he’d get killed – and then, to establish the Yiga’s legitimacy over the royal family’s, to reveal a “Hero” of their own to slay the monsters afterward.
You can’t think of any Yiga you know of that would stand a chance against the black-blooded monsters, but you agree. If it came down to it, you could just rush in early.
Thanks to your meeting with the Yiga, you’re late to meet the Chain. Seven and a half pairs of eyes give displeased looks at you as you stagger toward them under the full moon.
You grin anyway. “Get this: there’s more black-blooded monsters here. The Yiga are trying to sic them on the retired Hero before me, and I know exactly where to intercept them…."
With the information you gathered, it’s not difficult to slay the remaining black-blooded monsters, bringing your time in this era and the Yiga plot both to their
End
Chapter Text
As you finish the repairs to the town’s water tower, you keep half an eye on Yuno and his friends. More than once, you catch them whispering to each other and exchanging papers with runes, but you never quite catch what they say to each other.
When the water tower is finished, they surround you and the water tower in a circle. Yuno holds up a stack of glowing rune papers and meets your eyes. Somehow, you get the feeling that he knows that you’re going to try to dodge, though not which way you’ll go, so you side-hop…
...to the left.
...to the right.
Chapter Text
You don’t have the space to fight from here, but maybe from above, you could rain arrows at the monster. Though you scramble up the ladder, a dark energy is faster as it shoots above your head through the now-removed well cover.
Something hits you in the back too, and suddenly you’re a passenger in your own body. You think you’re possessed.
As you climb from the well, you walk around collecting anything in town that could pass as a weapon, and so are the townsfolk. You spot red eyes everywhere, as though, not just for yourself, but for everyone around, your autonomy has come to its
End
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The fairy blows you a kiss, and your tunic turns red. Though you’re not certain how you’ll explain this to the knights back home, the boost should help with your current adventure. You give the fairy your thanks and well-wishes and return to the Chain before this stop in your journey
Ends
Chapter Text
The fairy blows you a kiss, and your tunic turns blue. Though you’re not certain how you’ll explain this to the knights back home, the boost should help with your current adventure. You give the fairy your thanks and well-wishes and return to the Chain before this stop in your journey
Ends
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It only takes a moment to climb onto the wall, and though you don’t have much space to maneuver at the bottom of a well, you can still slash and stab whenever the many hands come too near you. You’re still able to hold your shield in front of you when things get more dire than that.
Once or twice, you’re even able to charge up a Skyward Strike, and that’s all the ranged attack you need to take out the monster’s main body. Black blood drips everywhere, and eventually, you get it stunned enough to leap over and perform a Final Blow on its prone form.
Dark liquid spreads everywhere in the glow of your sword, but within moments, a bright flash clears it away and leaves this place as a fountain with a holy feeling instead. From the fountain, a woman – no, a giant fairy, rises in glittering clothing.
“Boy!” she says, clasping her hands together. “You’ve freed me! Allow me to do you a good deed in turn! As for my power, I can enhance that tunic of yours to increase your attack or your defense.”
You choose…
Chapter Text
You smash solidly into the monster’s side, and although it’s stunned a moment, so are you. It recovers first, grabs you, and holds you under the water. More effectively than any blade, the lack of air brings you to your
End
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After parting ways with Warriors, you take a stroll around the town square. At the moment, you can see the other seven Links, many of them huddling up, as though deciding on something to do together with the hours before sunset.
Legend stands by himself, looking surprised about something, but he notices you looking at him.
“I’m fine, Old Man,” he says. “Just realized this might be closer to my era than I thought is all. Anyway, it's fine. Why don’t you take a break?”
Chapter Text
As Warriors goes to ask around about supplies, you’re able to find the town’s inn just fine on your own. At first, it seems that no one is there, but as you approach the counter to ring the bell, something attacks you from your blind side, cutting deep through your armor.
You draw your blade and turn, and the blood you draw comes away black.
Click here if you visited a fairy to get your armor enchanted today.
Click here if you did not.
Chapter Text
You’re not able to find much in terms of defensive items, but you do hear rumors of a fairy at the edge of town who can grant a boost, however temporary, to armor that can supply a healing-over-time effect in exchange for rupees.
Naturally, you and Warriors follow up, getting her rates and purchasing an enchantment for your armor.
You tell her that you have friends who may want the same service and will visit her again, but in the meantime, you…
Chapter Text
You go around asking. Apparently, the monsters have been digging holes – there’s been a main hole out toward the swamp, and smaller ones here and there.
You start by looking into the main hole.
You start by looking into the nearest hole.
Chapter Text
When you find Twilight, he’s curled up outside town with a cut of raw meat, which he’s eating just hands and teeth. There’s something in his eyes that seems… off, and you barely suppress a shudder.
“You know,” you say, “if you don’t want us to think of you as a wolf, you shouldn’t let the others catch you eating like that.”
“Why do you think I’m eating it outside town?” he grumbles. “Anyway, is there a problem?”
Time moves to Twilight’s side and reaches for the former wounds sight. “Let me check on the scarring.”
When Twilight pulls his tunic up, you see a scar that has turned black since the last you saw it.
“I’ve been feelin’ strange all day,” Twilight says. “I want to be alone for now.”
You’ll see him at sunset.
You’ll excuse him at sunset.
Chapter Text
You run, shift, and perform a spin attack that knocks two of Epona’s attackers down. They dissolve into monster-smoke rather than rise again.
“What do we have here?” one of the remaining bandits asks, studying your face closely. “You’re not an Ache.”
You lunge at the bandit who spoke, and with your first strike, he goes down. “An Ache? Is that what you’re called? That’s a good name for you, ‘cause you certainly won’t be much of a pain to take down.”
The rest of the bandits turn back into their bat-like forms and fly off. You throw your Gale boomerang at them, but they’re fast – one or two of them get away.
Epona snorts after them.
“I don’t think they’re going to be a problem for a bit. Let’s go find the others, okay?” You lead Epona back to where the others have the wagon waiting and have a laugh with them about the Aches.
Your Old Man, the Champion, Smith, the grumpy Collector, the Chosen, and the Sailor seem amused.
Warriors mutters, “Sounds like a tactical retreat.”
Hyrule looks around, reaching for his sword. “Aches? There are Aches in this in-between era? You’re telling me that anyone we meet could be a monster in disguise?”
The laughter died.
“Do you know them?” you ask.
“Aches are also known as the Eyes of Ganon,” Hyrule said, peering at a group of passing children. “They’re not strong, but they’re fast and make for good spies. Whenever we are, I think there’s more to this place than simply being between our times.”
Time nodded. “I’ll keep my eye out. I suggest the rest of you keep your guard up as well.”
As you hook Epona up to the wagon, the group is quiet as everyone joins Hyrule in looking at even the town’s small children with suspicion.
They remain tense as you set onto the road.
Chapter Text
You growl, causing more than a few bandits to back away from Epona for the time being.
“That’s not a Wolfos,” one of the bandits says. “It’s not on our side. Who’s fighting it?”
You’re not a Wolfos, but like many Wolfos, you circle around until you find an opening and lunge in, felling any of the bandits you reach on your first bound. They dissolve into monster smoke, and the rest shift back into their bat-like forms and fly away.
Epona snorts after them. “Cowards.”
You change back into a Hylian to take her lead and stroke her nose fondly. “I don’t think they’re going to be a problem for a bit. Let’s go find the others, okay?”
You lead her back to where the others have the wagon waiting and have a laugh with them about the monsters, whatever they’re called. You only know to describe them as this era’s strange Keese.
As you hook Epona up to the wagon, the group is in high spirits and joking around.
You set onto the road.
Chapter Text
You lose track of the other Links as the frigid water sweeps you away. Eventually, you’re swept through a portal.
When you’re brought through, you’re deposited in very familiar surroundings – Outset Island! In front of your house! – but now that you’re here, everything is unusually hot and smells like smoke, and there’s the distinct snap of a fire ahead.
You look up. Your house is on fire, and the Shadow is blocking the door as it’s watching it burn.
“Grandma!” Aryll cries from behind you.
Grandma? Is Grandma still in there? You get to your feet and attack the Shadow from behind. It hisses, and your blade comes away covered in black blood.
The Shadow sends you a hate-filled look and scurries off like the coward it is. For now, you let it go and run inside to find Grandma. She’s coughing on the ground next to a burning table.
You grab her and pull her safely to Aryll.
“Grandma!”
You reach into your pouch for any potions or fairies you have left, but you don’t have any.
“I’ll be okay,” Grandma says, her voice hoarse. She coughed again.
“Grandma!” Aryll gets out an empty bottle. “I’ll get you some water.”
Grandma pats your shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, Link. I’m glad to have you home.”
You can do nothing for her. As Aryll gets back with some water, you leave Grandma in her charge and run to help put out the flames.
As you work with your neighbors, you do your best to save what is left of your home, but it’s little but a scorched foundation by the time the flames are out. You see the other Links coming through the portal at the end of the fire-fighting efforts, and to your relief, you see the medics of your group immediately head to Grandma.
“Sailor?” Twilight approaches you, looking worried.
“I’m fine,” you say. “The Shadow did this. I got here and got a hit on it. Please, can we stay in my village a bit and help my family get another house? The next time I see the Shadow, I will kill it. I’m absolutely certain that the next time it sees me, it’s going to stop squishing me to go after the rest of you instead. Those days have reached their
End.”
Chapter Text
Even an experienced swimmer can make mistakes, and you’ve made a big one in underestimating the currents. As you try to swim ashore, the currents overpower you and drag you under to a painful
End.
Chapter Text
The tavern portion of Kakariko Inn is somewhat more packed than usual and the patrons complain loudly about the recent monsters that you’ve cleaned up. You’re able to book rooms and take everyone to rest up.
From here, you…
...drop by the tavern while it’s still packed.
...visit Sahasrahla in the morning.
...plan a fishing trip to obtain fish for the street merchant in hopes of replenishing your rupees.
Chapter Text
Though you encounter several more (non-black-blooded) monsters on the way, travel between Kakariko Village and Hyrule Castle isn’t terrible. The soldiers still don’t like you and keep you out as they go to tell the royals that you’ve brought a large group of armed men to Hyrule Castle.
As you’d expected, Fable must have cleared it up as you were waiting because when the soldier returns, he takes you all to see Fable in the throne room.
“I have a good guess of what you’re here for,” she says. “It’s the black-blooded monsters and the portals that sometimes steal our people away, isn’t it?”
You stare at her. “Am I not the only one who’s gone through those portals?”
“Obviously not,” Four says beside you. “The rest of us are here, aren’t we?”
“I mean from this era!”
“This era?” Fable leans forward on her throne.
Briefly, you bring her up to speed about the portals taking you through time, where you’ve been traveling with eight other Heroes.
Fable’s eyes shine. “You’re in luck. I know of two places you may get more information about your quest.”
Two? That’s helpful. You nod, giving Fable one of your rare smiles.
“One won’t be for several days, but this problem is wide-spread across our world,” Fable says. She taps her throne. “We have foreign dignitaries on their way from Holodrum, Labrynna, Subrosia, and Hytopia to meet here for our kingdoms to share what information we all have with each other. I can understand if you don’t have the time to wait around though, in which case Sahasrahla also has been examining the portals in our land. He’s up north, still studying the latest one that we know of, andFab you’d be able to catch up with him if you left the castle tomorrow morning.”
You turn to the other Links. “I’m on good terms with people from the lands she mentioned – I’ve been out adventuring there – and Sahasrahla is pretty much a sage.”
“Other kingdoms?” Hyrule asks quietly, looking overwhelmed.
Wild looks excited at the prospect. Or at least about something. He asks, “What do you mean by sage?”
Fable clears her throat. “Link.”
The Chain quiets down, and you turn toward her. She’s wearing a mischievous grin on her face. “Am I to understand that these eight who you’ve brought with you are the Heroes you mentioned?”
You get a very bad feeling about where this is going. “Yes.”
“I’m almost certain there must be knights among their number.” She looks over the group.
Four, Sky, and Wild step forward, all admitting to the title.
Warriors wears an unbearable smirk on his face as he bows. “In my own era, I’m Captain of the Knights.”
Fable laughs. “The four of you consider Link a friend, yes?”
Four nods.
“Of course!” Warriors says.
Sky glances at you. “He reminds me of my best friend from home.”
“We're friends most of the time,” Wild gives you an unrepentant look.
You huff at Wild. You cross your arms and look away. “We’re not friends. I respect them as other Heroes, but you’ve got there a vain pretty boy, an insane cook, and no one that we could stay in contact with after this is over anyway.”
Warriors and Wild look insulted. Good.
“So you do consider them friends, Link.” Fable rises from her throne.
Is it that obvious? What does she want now?
She walks to you. “It’s not that your uncle was the only knight you could ever stand, but it’s that knights are not so bad, isn’t it? You were born to the last family of the royal knights, and I’ve been waiting for you to pick up the privileges that come with it. Truthfully, I have something for you that may aid you on your quest, but the nobles will rebel if you are not knighted before I give it to you. With things as they are now, would you be willing to consider accepting your birthright title officially?”
“What?” Wild asks, shoving through the other Links. “Really? You were born to a family of knights too? You’ve got to tell me what it’s like! Maybe you could help me remember my childhood.”
Oh, he just had to stumble across a way to make you feel guilty, didn’t he? You glower at the floor’s stonework. “Maybe a few things. The happier, parts, you know? Let’s see if we can’t break that pattern where every time you retrieve another memory, it’s something tragic about your backstory.”
He claps you on the back. “Thanks!”
There are some snickers throughout the Chain, and you think you hear the word ‘softie’ thrown out there.
“Naturally,” Fable says, “all the other promises I’ve made you concerning your knighthood still stand. You will still have the space you need to recover from your childhood, and I will always be here for you.”
You…
...decline your knighthood and meet with Sahasrahla instead.
...decline your knighthood and meet with the foreign dignitaries instead.
...accept your knighthood and whatever else Fable wanted to give you before doing anything else.
Chapter Text
Together, the lot of you go searching for moas. You find none, but you can’t shake the feeling that something is lying in wait for you.
You can’t prove anything, so when the search turns up empty, the Links are once again turned loose on the town, albeit later and with less chance to relax. Once again, the plan is to meet at the town square in a bit.
You get caught up exploring Kasuto as it was and what it is that could cause the coming disaster.
Chapter Text
Behind the bookcase is a corner full of reddish-purple slime. Near the baseboard, a glowing yellow eye opens and stares at you.
Click here if you are Four peering behind the bookcase at full size.
Click here if you are Four shrunken down and behind the bookcase.
Click here if you are Hyrule.
Chapter Text
You lift your sword, and there are four of you.
Red you is concerned about the man who’d called for help and stands between him and the nearest head to him. Blue you is angry and barely restrains from attacking without coordination. Violet you eyes the scaly necks, looking for a weak point – Perhaps another golden scale? No, nothing. – and takes a head. Green you takes the final head and coordinates an attack.
“Now!”
You swing in unison. The heads come off, and the monster drops to the floor, dying.
“Are you okay?” Red you calls.
The man in orange picks himself up and reaches, trembling, for a gilded book with symbols of light on its cover. “Thank you, young man. Is- That’s the Picori Blade, isn’t it?”
You recombine and show your sword cautiously to the man. “Are you Rauru? The Minish sent me to look for you. They noticed dark magic around and thought you could help with the book you checked out.”
“I noticed the same, so I checked this out. I finally mastered dispelling dark magic today, so naturally, that’s when a dark creature tracks me down in my home….” Rauru complains for a while.
You take him to the library, where the spell from his borrowed book dispels the dark magic behind the bookcase. If that was the last monster and this town has someone who can otherwise deal with the dark magic, you believe that the danger here is at its
End.
Chapter Text
You charge up a spin attack and brace as the monster swallows you whole. Within its stomach, you unleash the attack. You slice through the stomach lining, and you see light from outside.
Stomach acid eats at you.
You spin attack again, tearing the monster open a little wider. You can see the golden scale now, and with a carefully-aimed stab, you break through, tumbling out and killing the monster from within.
The floor meets you hard, and the man you rescued lands atop you. He gets up and offers you a hand up.
“Are you injured? That nearly ended very poorly for both of us.”
All things considered, you’re not hurt that badly. “I’ll be alright,” you say. “Are you Rauru? The Minish sent me to look for you. They noticed dark magic around and thought you could help with the book you checked out.”
“I noticed the same, so I checked out a book to help. I finally mastered dispelling dark magic today, so naturally, that’s when a dark creature tracks me down in my home….” Rauru complains as he retrieves a gilded book from beneath his furniture.
You take him to the library, where the spell from his borrowed book dispels the dark magic behind the bookcase. If that was the last monster and this town has someone who can otherwise deal with the dark magic, you believe that the danger here is at its
End.
Chapter Text
Because you left as soon as you could, the day is still bright enough that, as the hands drain you of your life, you can see a merchant by the sign for Kakariko Village. He watches as your life reaches its
End
Chapter Text
The only place you can go to avoid the hands is into the ground. You grasp Twilight’s shadow crystal and burrow to safety. It’s a while until you’re safe to surface and grasp the Master Sword, but when you emerge, the hands are nowhere to be found.
It’s late, but you have a job to do. Keeping an eye out for more hand monsters, you dig a way for those trapped inside Kakariko Village to escape. You’re certain you succeed in doing so, but you also dig your way straight into a portal end up on an unknown dock’s
End
Chapter Text
Doubtless, the grotto entrance would have had something interesting, but you have no bombs, and Wild seems more interested in the animals. Twilight is keeping an annoyingly close eye on you too, as though you would have been side-tracked in the grotto for long anyway with the Dodongo tracks leading past the grotto.
Wild elbows you. “Do you know how to ride a horse?”
You shake your head.
Wild points a spotted one out to you anyway. “Back home, I learned a trick to tell apart the horses with gentle temperaments from the ones with wild ones. That mare there should be beginner-friendly to ride if you want to save some time heading the rest of the way there. You even have a carrot you could feed her!”
Which is better: to ride a horse and maybe save some time if you can easily learn to ride, or to save the time it takes to learn to ride for when you don’t have a monster to chase down?
You want to ride a horse to follow the Dodongo.
You do not want to ride a horse to follow the Dodongo.
Chapter Text
The Dodongo tracks lead into the grotto, so you first use your bomb runes to open the entrance. Already, you can hear something thumping around at the bottom of the sloping pathway in.
“That’s it,” Twilight says. “That’s a Dodongo.”
Hyrule is getting out a candle.
You roll your round bombs down the slope to fight the Dodongo.
You go further in, relying on Hyrule’s candlelight to fight the Dodongo.
Chapter Text
You leap aside in time to avoid a sudden lightning bolt shot from the teen’s hands, and the Dodongo misses you with its fiery breath as well.
“Show me your light magic!” the teen says.
“Even if I knew any, don’t you think there’s better ways to convince someone to teach you than trying to kill them?”
“I can learn by observation and the right kinds of experimentation. I, Vaati, was reborn to finish what I started!” The teen sends another spell your way, which you catch on your shield.
“TWILIGHT!”
Four, Hyrule, and Legend have arrived behind you – and thank the Light Spirits for that! Just about now, someone more familiar with magic than you are would be nice.
“A little help?” you ask.
As the teen raises his hand again, Four dives at your knee and is hit by the spell in your place. You topple, and a shrunken Four lands atop you.
“I’m fine!” Four squeaks, pointing at a cracked rock nearby. “This is similar to the shrinking spell I have – I have a way to reverse it right there.”
You scoop him up carefully and shield you both as you scoot toward the rock with him. In the meantime, Legend charges the teen with his Pegasus boots, and Hyrule sends a fireball at the dark magic book, eyes colder than you’ve ever seen his.
The teen takes a hit from Legend and retaliates with a spell that Legend barely dodges.
“Legend,” Hyrule says, “get out of the way.”
Several flashes of spells later, there’s some variant of slime enemy that you’ve never seen before in the spots where the Dodongo and the magic-wielding teen both were, and Hyrule and Legend are both missing. You set Four at the cracked rock’s base as the monster that was a teen leaps at you. On reflex, you finish the slime with your sword.
“Traveler?” you call. “Hoarder?”
If your senses had never been heightened by your wolf form, you’d never have heard the tiny squeaks for help in the grass sort of like mice, but you hear them. You can’t see them, but you know where not to run through to get to the Dodongo-slime.
Ah, forget it. You’re not risking their lives on your ability to go around anyway. You finish the Dodongo with your boomerang.
“Smithy,” you call. “I think they got hit with the shrinking spell too. Get ready to help them back to normal.”
“I’ll wait here!” Four calls. “Over here! Traveler! Hoarder!”
“Where are you?”
Unlike Four, it seems that Legend and Hyrule aren’t used to navigating the world at such a diminutive size. Maybe you’d better go find them – carefully.
“Stay where you are! Wolfie will give you a lift.” You shift and sniff, gathering up Hyrule and Legend and delivering them to the cracked rock with Four.
Honestly, the area smells foul, like black blood, and as Four is helping the others back to normal, you go and sniff out the source – it was the Dodongo, but whatever threat it posed has reached, thanks to the efforts of the four of you, its
End.
Chapter Text
You raise your shield in time to avoid a sudden lightning bolt shot from the teen’s hands, but the Dodongo sets your shield aflame moments later. Sadly, you have to toss it aside.
“Show me your light magic!” the teen says.
“Even if I knew any, don’t you think there’s better ways to convince someone to teach you than trying to kill them?”
“I can learn by observation and the right kinds of experimentation. I, Vaati, was reborn to finish what I started!” The teen sends another spell your way, and as you try to dodge, it hits your arm anyway. Your arm tingles. The sensation spreads over your body, and around you, everything grows bigger.
“TWILIGHT!”
Three pairs of legs have arrived behind you – all Links, you think. You definitely recognized Four’s voice among them. Part of you is just glad someone saw you so you don’t get stepped on.
“I can reverse it!” Four shouts. “You two get Vaati, and be careful!”
So he says, but within moments, it’s raining bombs – likely for the Dodongo, but it’s horrible timing for the bombs! A bit of nearby shrapnel almost hits you, but you’re well on alert for danger now and leap aside.
“Twilight!” Four offers you a giant hand, and you climb on. “Legend, stop with the bombs before…!”
Hyrule and Legend shout at each other, but their words are lost in the heat of battle.
With whatever they say, Four tenses, and his hand trembles beneath you. “Rancher, I’m sorry, but Legend just blew up the means to get you back to normal size.”
You’re down a shield, and it’s a while before anyone can get you back to normal. In the meantime, at least no one else was seriously harmed while dealing with Vaati and bringing the black-blooded Dodongo to its
End.
Chapter Text
The teen hits you with a sudden lightning bolt that causes you to drop your things, and the volts running through your body, as they leave their burns, hold you in place for the teen’s next spell. You shrink, and the teen scoops you into a bottle.
“Relax,” he says as he corks the top. “The bottle was meant for fairies. It’s designed to allow you to breathe.”
You collapse against the glass, unable to do anything as the teen warps somewhere with you. Never do you find out what he’s after, but you’re used as some sort of specimen. Doubtless, the other Heroes are looking for you during the last days of your life, but this guy has you to pursue his own
Ends.
Chapter Text
Hyrule snickers. “Rancher, what are you doing?”
You glance at the ghost, who is slowly lowering the sword. He looks confused.
Stepping past you, Wild waves his hand through the ghost as though he could hit him. “There’s no one there.”
The ghost ducks away, swatting Wild’s hand as he goes.
Wild rubs his arm where the ghost hit him. “There’s nothing there, is there?”
You spare him long enough to meet his eyes and nod before looking back to the ghost.
“Oh,” the ghost says slowly. “I get it. You’re a sheep dog. My friend, Malon, mentioned those things once.”
At the mention of sheep dogs, your ear twitches. Sheep dog? Ha. You wish. That would be a much more pleasant form for your home village than a wolf, wouldn’t it?
… Malon, huh? Odd to meet someone with the same name as her. You vaguely wonder if she’s another soul who reincarnates through time like you and the princess.
You wag your tail and keep your eyes on the ghost.
Behind you, Hyrule swears under his breath. “He’s seeing something invisible – a ghost who was just a little kid. He looks like he could have been one of us.”
“Can you see me?” The ghost hops over you to get to Hyrule, but it’s fine – he seems harmless enough now.
As you turn, Hyrule is removing something from his pocket. He unwraps his hand from around it, showing a small cross in his palm. “With this, yes, I can see you.”
The ghostly child pokes the cross. “Will you help me?”
You head-butt the ghost’s leg. Behind you, Wild is messing around with his Slate, as though it could somehow help him see the ghost.
“Help?” Hyrule asks. “With what?”
The ghost points into the nearby woods. “There’s something really important I can’t move on until I do, but there’s this weirdly-strong Poe who keeps almost stealing my soul every time I try to get past it!”
A weirdly-strong monster. Now doesn’t that seem familiar?
Hyrule must recognize it too, because his lips tighten. “There is?”
“There’s what?” Wild asks.
You shift back into a Hylian. “Traveler and I will handle this. You won’t have a way to see what we’re fighting, cub.”
Wild takes a picture with one of his runes. On his Slate, the ghost shows up alongside you and Hyrule, and Wild startles. “Isn’t that…?”
You bump his shoulder. “Go show that to the others. If this kid is one of us, maybe they’ll have heard something. Really, the thing this kid’s taking us to fight is invisible. You’d need a special item like Hyrule’s, or special senses like a wolf’s to see it well enough to fight. There’s a fine line between courage and recklessness.”
Though Wild doesn’t look happy with you, he returns to town. Oh well. He’ll get over it. Certainly, it’s better than Champion getting himself killed.
In the meantime, you return to your wolf form and go with Hyrule and the ghost to go take out the Poe. It’s a tough fight – it’s a black-blooded variant guarding a collapsed temple, but the ghostly child slips inside once you’ve finished, and you and Hyrule are both able to limp back to town afterward.
When you meet back up with the others, it’s sunset, and Time looks pale in the fading light.
In the morning, the group of you will go after a necromancer who matches the description of the teenager you saw, but in the meantime, Time has questions for you. You don’t know who the ghost is to him, but he asks you all sorts of things you’d never had a chance to ask about how the ghost met his
End.
Chapter Text
You don’t want to hurt the kid over being mistaken for a monster – again – so really, it is your best option to run away.
“Twilight?” Wild asks as you duck behind him and Hyrule.
Hyrule grabs the both of you suddenly. “There’s something there. Stay close.”
You catch an ozone-like smell in the moments before he raises his fingers, and you get a bad feeling. What happened to not letting the ghostly child get hurt?
Hyrule snaps, and lightning flies everywhere around you. A flash momentarily blinds you, and as you blink the brightness away, a faint golden light fades from around Hyrule and the two of you that he is holding.
The ghostly child has vanished – gone before you had a chance to save him.
As Hyrule scans the area, you return to your Hylian form. “Look, if you didn’t finish him off, don’t do that again! He thought I was a Wolfos is all.”
“You hid behind us. What was I supposed to think?” Unbelievably, Hyrule turns back toward town, as though he, of all people, has had enough exploring. “Besides, even if he thought you were a Wolfos, he was wandering Undead. They’re not friendly.”
Well, you suppose you don’t see a grave around the field, or any other indication that this was an area that the ghost, if friendly, was supposed to have been in, but you can’t shake the feeling that you and Hyrule have just done something wrong.
When you meet up with the other Links at the town square just before sunset, there are two Links who show up instead of Legend. One is a beefy pink-haired man in his twenties, and the other is a fancy-dressed, tri-colored teenager shorter than Wild.
Time glances at your group approaching. “That’s everyone. Inn’s this way.”
“Where is he?” Wild points, and he repeats himself several times, each time with a little more volume that attracts attention from the town.
Pointedly, you brush against him as you step toward time. “Are we missing something? What happened to the Hoarder?”
“Who?” asks the tri-colored teen. “The Hoarder? Are you talking about Ravio? Why would my roommate be with us?”
“Where’s Legend?” Hyrule asks.
The pink-haired man blinks. “I’m here, kid. Everything alright?”
“You’re not him!” Wild raises the Sheikah Slate.
You grab it before he can rashly do anything here on the streets. “No, really, what did we miss?”
The pink-haired man unclips a wooden rabbit charm from his belt. “Well, I found a vendor that sells these fun little things, but I didn’t think it would be that big a deal. It’s not magical or anything. Unless you think I’m overlooking something? You’re welcome to take a look. See if this is why you’re struggling to recognize me all of a sudden?”
A rabbit charm? No, you don’t see how that would have much to do with anything, set aside the fact that it was a rabbit.
Hyrule makes a funny noise and examines the charm. “No, no, it’s not magic….” He grabs the man anyway and looks him over, starting with the blue cap on his head, and traveling down the red tunic he wears without pants. “What happened to you? You’re old!”
“I know Lorule calls him Old Man, but really, he’s just turned 22,” Warriors says, staring at the group of you. “He’s not old. Is this some sort of weird birthday prank?”
“That is not Legend!” Wild wrests his Slate away from you.
“Don’t do anything rash.” You scan the fake Legend and the new teen warily anyway. “Just because they’ve charmed the rest of them….”
Wild pull up a photo of the nine members of the Chain, Legend included, and shoves it in Warriors’s face. “You forgot him!”
Oh, that was actually clever. Thank Ordona – or the Sheikah, better yet – for that nifty gadget of his!
Warriors is staring at the image on the Slate, and for a moment, you think he’s going to remember Legend.
“It is you, isn’t it?” Hyrule asks quietly, still hanging around the pink-haired man. “I hate to ask, but please can you prove it?”
You glance at the two of them, confused, and find the pink-haired man’s admittedly already-soft eyes softening specially for Hyrule in just the way that Legend’s used to.
“If you’re careful,” the man says, “you can look through my ring collection again. See that they’re the same rings I’ve always had.”
As Hyrule nods, over with Wild, Warriors reaches for the Sheikah Slate. “Mind if I pass this around? I think everyone needs to see this.”
Though Wild hands it over easily enough, you can still see the nerves on his face. Even like this, you can almost smell them coming off him!
You elbow him. “We’ll figure this out. Look – Hyrule’s making good progress!”
As you nod over, Hyrule is sorting a few last rings. “Yes, these are all your rings. I can’t help but notice though that the ugly bracelet that smells like wet dog is missing.”
You smell it somewhere.
“You mean Lorule’s bracelet?” The man collects his rings back from Hyrule. “No, that’s not missing either. You know he never takes it off! Lorule, can he see your bracelet?”
The tri-colored teen pokes Hyrule in the shoulder and shows the bracelet, which is on his wrist. “You’re acting weird, Roolie.”
From what you can smell, that does seem to be the same bracelet somehow. You glance at Hyrule’s face as he grabs the tri-colored teen’s wrist and inspects the bracelet carefully.
“You’re not going to call me Lolo?” the teen asks nervously.
As your hair raises, you get the feeling that Wild is looking to you for answers already, but you don’t know any more than he does. “Are we supposed to know who you are?”
The teen sends you a hurt look.
The pink-haired man claps his shoulder. “Clearly, something happened to them. I think something changed their memories.”
“Whatever magic did it, it goes beyond just their memories.” Four hands the Slate to the pink-haired man. “Take a look at this!”
When the pink-haired man raises it to his face, his eyes widen. “Lorule and I aren’t there, but this-” He taps the Slate. “This does look a little like I did when I was younger, if I had all of Lolo’s equipment on top of my own.”
Wild clenches his fists. “See? We can prove it – something happened to you!”
As you glance at Hyrule, you find him pale-faced, tense, and making himself even smaller than he actually is. “Hey, Traveler, what did you figure out?”
For a moment, every bit of Hyrule’s body locks up as all eyes turn to him. He bites his lip and steps away from the main group. “I don’t know if you and Wild are going to believe me, but it really is him – the both of them are the real him!”
“What?” Wild points at them. “That can’t be right!”
Both of them? Both of them are Legend? How? You cross your arms. “I think you’d better explain.”
If it’s possible, Hyrule shrinks even more. “I don’t know what went wrong, but did either of you catch a golden light back there? That’s not supposed to happen.”
Sky frowns at the three of you. “What did happen to you today? I thought Legend said his era was safe!”
The pink-haired man, Legend, it seems, glances at Sky. “I said this looks like it’s almost my era, and that we might be safe. I guaranteed nothing. By the way, I got today’s full date from the paper. This year is the year I will be born. There were a few things happening right now, but they should have been minor things.”
Legend hands the Slate off to the tri-colored teen, Lorule, you think it was, and Wind joins Lorule in looking at it, his own photo album in hand. “That’s definitely us, except for him! I have the same picture, but look, you and Legend are still in it. Mine didn’t change.”
With this, the Chain quiets down and looks to the three of you. Wild joins Lorule and Wind at comparing the pictures – very noisily in Wild’s case – and Hyrule basically shuts down, so it’s up to you to tell the others about the ghost and Hyrule’s strange lightning spell.
All the time, you wonder if it was your fault, leading Hyrule to believe that the little ghost kid was a threat. When you finish, Hyrule looks like he’s about to faint, and even Wild has quieted down, though Wild still looks spooked.
“I think I know what happened,” Legend says quietly. “Hyrule, nothing went wrong with your magic, but I need to speak to you a moment about how much you’re okay with telling the rest of them-”
“Is this something dangerous?” Warriors shares a look with Time.
Time crosses his arms. “If this secret is going to get someone killed, it’s time for it to be over.”
As Legend shakes his head ‘no’ to the Time and Warriors, Hyrule backs into you. Even in your Hylian form, you can smell the fear coming off with him so close, and you’re fairly certain that he’d bolt through the streets if he’s pushed any further.
You rest an arm on his shoulder and meet Legend’s eyes. “Maybe it should be someone who was there who should talk to him – ‘cause he’s right: this is my fault. Not his. He was protectin’ me.”
Hyrule looks up at you, wide-eyed. “No. I want to hear how much he knows of my secrets. I don’t remember telling him anything!”
“Would it help if it’s Bunny you talk to?” Legend blinks at Hyrule. “Rancher, you’re still alright lending me your Twilight Crystal?”
“Bunny?” Wild asks.
You laugh nervously as it hits you just how big the gap is between what you know of these new versions of Legend and what you’re expected to know about them. “Is that out in the open? Wild and Hyrule don’t know about that. It was just me and Sky….”
“I knew.” Hyrule takes a shaky step toward Legend. “It’s a well-known story about you in my era.”
“Bunny?” Wild asks, louder this time.
Though you reach for the cord that holds your crystal around your neck, you send him a concerned glance. “Best not to startle him with this sort of thing.”
Nodding, Legend shoots a glance at Wild. “I turn into a talking pink bunny rabbit.”
“You know, the way I turn into Wolfie.” You hand your crystal over and keep an eye on him.
To Wild’s credit, he merely startles when Legend transforms and asks Hyrule to pick him up so he could whisper in his ear. You go to his side as Legend and Hyrule have whatever private conversation Legend wanted to have with Hyrule’s secrets.
“Look,” you say, “if this is some sort of hoax, whoever’s behind it knows more about us than most of us know about each other. I knew about that secret of Legend’s, and it looks like Hyrule can verify the rest of the way. You doin’ alright with the new Heroes?”
It takes Wild a moment, but he nods.
Shortly after, Legend readjusts himself in Hyrule’s arms to face the Chain as a whole. “What happened was an accident, but Lorule owes Roolie, Twi, and Champ his existence, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without it either.”
Wind cupped his mouth. “Tell us what happened already!”
“I, uh, I forced a restless Undead Hero to reincarnate?” Hyrule pulled Legend to himself and looked around at the rest of you.
“For that, you’d need god-like power. I don’t think even your magic would cut it.” Four stepped forward and circled around Hyrule.
Hyrule shut his eyes.
“May I…?” Legend pawed Hyrule’s chin.
“I have the Triforce! All of it. There was no other safe place for it in my era, so I just have it. I didn’t mean to use it to send the ghost to his next life!”
“What?” Four reached for Hyrule’s hand, which was covered as usual by the stitched end of his sleeve.
“Really?”
“What’s the Triforce?”
“Apparently,” Legend called, “I was born more than a century before the version of me he knows, and my being around somehow caused that dirty wizard, Agahnim, to set his plans into motion early. I went on my four adventures, and then someone else was needed to save Lorule and Hytopia once I was too old to travel abroad. Lolo, I think we just found out why you were needed for that even though you’re not one of Sky’s reincarnations.”
Though you still wonder if you could have prevented it, you’re relieved to see Legend still being … well, Legend, the softer side of him he’d been just starting to trust you with anyway. No real damage done.
You’re able to sleep well enough until muted sobbing wakes you up.
It’s Hyrule. On the floor, almost hidden beneath the other bed, he’s curled up and hiding his face behind his pillow.
Does he still feel guilty?
Yawning, you get up and pull him out from under the bed. “They’re all fine. We didn’t hurt anyone after all.”
“What about our Legend?”
“Still here,” you nod toward the bed, where Legend is sleeping. “Just grown up now’s all.”
For all your good intentions, your words don’t comfort Hyrule. To comfort him, you wake Legend and Lorule both and fall asleep in a cuddle pile with him in the
End.
Chapter Text
You change back. “I’m not a Wolfo-”
An invisible blade slices through your stomach with all the force of a spin attack.
“I’m not an enemy!” you grunt, doubling over, though you’re not sure of how clearly your words come out.
The sword keeps coming, and somehow, even as a Hylian, you’re now able to see it.
No longer is the ghost a little boy – it’s now a teenager of at least Four’s age, still dressed in green and now with a Triforce mark visible on his hand. The boy readies another slice, but his blade meets Hyrule’s.
“I’ve got it! You get his wounds.”
Though you try to sit up, Wild pushes you back down and presses that Gerudo lady’s outfit from his bag to your wound. “Hold still. I need to stop the bleeding.”
Within moments, Hyrule too is thrown back. You sit up and put your shield over yourself and Wild, despite his protests.
From over your shield, you get a more careful look at the ghost. You’ve seen that sword before, and you’d know that big nose anywhere too – somehow, this is the Hero of Time.
You can figure out how this is him later, but for now, how do you get him to stop? Clearly, he doesn’t know you, so you’d have to appeal to something he would know.
“Zelda sent us!”
Though he levels his sword at you, he pauses his onslaught. “Explain.”
As quickly as you can, you fill him in on the portals and the Shadow.
He lowers his sword and laughs bitterly. “I thought I recognized you, Hero of Twilight.”
“Why did you attack him?” Hyrule raises his sword at the ghost. “Who are you to want him dead?”
Humming, the ghost sheathed his sword and returned to his child form. “I recognize you too-” He glanced at Wild. “Well, not all of you, but you, but no matter. Perhaps that means he’s different than the two of you.”
"Do you at least recognize the kid with the dark magic book?" Upright, speaking causes an ache in your lungs, and you wince.
"A Nightmare."
Wild lowers you to the ground and bends toward your ear. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Time,” Twilight says, “uh, Time the Hero. The Old Man. But he’s a kid, somehow. And a ghost. We’re finding out what he wants.”
The ghost blinks at you. “I dreamed that I lived long enough to save the world from Ganondorf, and even inspired some future generation of Hero as he sailed to save his sister on the high seas. I also dreamed that I lived long enough to grow up and have a family, and even had a descendant who became a Hero like me. That was a while ago.”
Hyrule steps closer to the ghost. “That doesn’t answer my question! I know you’re not the Hero of Time.”
Looking up, Wild scans the field for something. “I don’t see anything. Look, has it calmed down enough that I can brew you a potion?”
“Looks like.” You watch the ghost, still uncertain how it’s Time and what it wants.
Time crosses his arms and pouts. “I was the Hero of Time once, but I guess they have another title for me since I died. Call me by it if it’s easier, but don’t rub it in, okay?”
Twilight almost didn’t want to know what the other title was. “What happened? Is that reversible? Can we get you back to normal, Old Man? Why did you attack me?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I thought you were a monster. A Wolfos, or maybe that was just the form a Nightmare would take.” He turned his pouty face on you and floats overhead, passing through Wild.
Wild shivers and places a rusty old shield in easy reach in the grass before he hacks away at the greenery for a makeshift fire pit. He clearly can’t see Time, and though Hyrule still has his sword trained on him, you don’t know how quickly he could act if ghost-Time decides you are a monster after all.
Raising your hand, you show him the Triforce mark on the back of it. “See? No mistaking me.”
Time pokes a freezing finger into your forehead and pulls it out. “You’re not a Nightmare.”
“Who are you?” Hyrule holds the tip of his sword above your head, still pointed at Time.
As Time floats above you, he pulls his legs to his chest and looks away. “They call me the Fallen Hero. I’m here to watch over my successor, the Hero of Legend. I can’t rest in peace until the demon he’s fighting is finally defeated anyway – I was the one who was supposed to stop it.”
Legend, as another successor to Time? Your head aches at the thought of more timeline shenanigans that the other Heroes will doubtless want to unravel.
“You’re the Fallen Hero?” Hyrule lower his sword. Its tip rests, probably unintentionally, on your chest.
You brush it aside. “Watch where you’re pointing that thing.”
“Sorry. I guess I never realized that the Fallen Hero was the Hero of Time. Does his story add up to you two? I’m… not as familiar as his history, but I know of the Sages who surrounded him – many of the towns in my era are named after them. To either of you, do the names Rauru, Mido, Saria, Nabooru, Ruto, Darunia, and Kasuto mean anything?”
“I’ve heard of Nabooru,” Wild mutters, lighting a fire. “Legend of the Gerudo, right?”
“Nabooru was the Gerudo Sage of Spirit,” Time says, peeking back at Hyrule. “You know it because my successor does. But do you believe me now?”
Hyrule sheathed the Magical Sword entirely. “What were you talking about earlier, Nightmares? Is that a local monster?” He peers at Time. “Do you know something about our mission already?”>[?
Time chuckled, and like the brat he currently was, said in a sing-sing, “You’re not going to like it!”
You lie back, staring up at the perfectly blue summer sky. “Just tell us. We can take it!”
“My successor traveled to a dream world once, which Ganon was trying to use to revive himself in the real world. He created monsters called Nightmares there – beings that could take many forms, and the most powerful of the lot being a shadowy being that could change forms to familiar foes at will. Encounter anything like that yet?”
The Shadow.
You trade looks with Hyrule, and from the corner of your eye, you catch Wild watching the both of you from across his cooking pot. You shoot him a wry smile. “We’ll tell you later.”
He nods and pulls out a lizard from somewhere.
You look away quickly, not thrilled with the thought of drinking it. You can handle it though – it’s got to be better than some things you’ve consumed already.
“You’ve met a Nightmare, haven’t you?” Time floats up and pokes Hyrule in the forehead. “Neither of you are.”
Hyrule rubs his head where Time poked him. “How do we beat it?”
Time shrugs. “If you asked my successor about it, he thought he beat the Nightmares with swords and stuff. All he did was transfer the Nightmares and what’s left of Ganon into his own dreams. Which is where we are now-”
“What?” You sit up, ignoring Wild’s protests.
Hyrule tilts his head. “So what are you saying? Did those first portals bring us inside Legend’s dream world, and we’ve been here this whole time?”
The ghost shook his head. “Maybe your potion-brewing friend there could have gotten into the dream – I really do not recognize him – but the rest of you are just part of it!” He points at Hyrule. “You’re that random Hylian that one of my successor’s magic rings turns him into-”
“Legend has a magic ring that turns him into me?” Hyrule raises a brow at the ghost.
Whatever the ghost may have said to that, he ignores it and points to you instead. “-and you! This isn’t the first time I’ve entered Link’s dreams to try to relieve his nightmares. I’ve brought my dreams in with me a couple of times, and you’re one of those ones. I don’t know if you’re here because I’m here right now, or if Link is familiar enough with you by now that he’s dreaming you up himself.”
Wild grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you back onto the grass. “Stay down. We don’t need a repeat of that wound so bad a fairy couldn’t touch it.”
Growling, you sit back up. “If he’s right, that don’t matter. That’s a bold claim though. Can you prove what you’re saying?”
Time gives you a look that you think is pity. “Sure. For one, in the real world, there are no wounds that fairies can’t touch. Two, I’m not exactly showing myself to the living right now. You shouldn’t be able to see me-”
Your traitorous mind points out that you shouldn’t be able to see Time in your Hylian form. Your frustration comes out in a growl.
“-and three: how many of you are named Link? Really? You’re certain this isn’t a dream? I entered it from the waking world.”
As you growl, Hyrule takes a cross from his pocket. “I have this. It lets me see you anyway. I imagine Twilight has something similar. Trust me, I wish this were just a dream, but I was there for his wound! Even my magic couldn’t touch it until he’d won an internal battle.”
You wish you had his excuse not to buy Time’s story. As it is, you badly want to disprove it, and there is one way you think you can test his claims: if this is a dream, then being aware that it’s just a dream should grant you some level of control over it, shouldn’t it? You should just be able to dream that your wounds are healed-
Your wounds heal instantly.
Hyrule sets his cross in the grass. “I’m going to trust you not to attack me while I can’t see you. Go on, have a look.” As he steps away, he scans the field and settles his eyes on you. “He’s still here, right?”
Time bends down and looks at the cross. “When did Link dream this up?”
“He’s still here, Traveler. You can’t see him?”
Hyrule blinks at you. “I’m sure you have a good idea how my cross works. You have something like that yourself, don’t you?”
You breathe deeply and take a moment to ponder what it means that you and your world are nothing but a dream. More easily than you expect, you get it – mostly. Slowly, you get to your feet. “Twilight-”
“I’m fine.” You turn and show Wild your former wound. “See? I can walk over to our ghostly friend here and be fine.”
To demonstrate, you do so. You make eye contact with Time too. “If we’re a dream, what does it mean for Legend?”
He looks upset. “He’s very sick. Ganon’s doing his best to kill him from inside his dreams, 'cause if he succeeds, he gets to revive.”
“A dream?” Wild asks. “What about a dream? Did you have a dream that healed you, somehow?”
Hyrule picks up his cross. “You can’t believe what he has to say about all this?”
As of now, you know perfectly well that you are a dream – a part of Legend’s subconscious with some role to fill here. Likely, a protector against the Nightmares. Or at least, you hope so.
You look at the ground anyway and notice blurry, dream-like bits where Wolfie’s paw prints should have been, now that you’re looking. “’Fraid so. I am anyway. You heard him though – maybe it could be different for some of us. Look, Time, are you part of the dream too? Or could ya maybe go find out how to get rid of Ganon and come back to tell us? We’ll look after him in the meantime. I promise.”
Time peers at you. “I think you’re his version of you and not mine, but I’m not taking that risk. If we can convince someone of his of the truth, then fine. I’ll see if I can find anything at all.”
Hyrule crosses his arms. “This isn’t a dream.”
“What about a dream?”
You wave Time toward town. “Go on ahead. If there’s a chance this is a real person, I’ll see if he came here with any knowledge that could save him.”
Time nods. “Try not to mention this in front of him. After the Wind Fish, this sort of thing really upsets him.”
When you arrive in town, the residents are spooked and complaining about a ghost. The Old Man version of Time meets your eyes and nods as though he understands.
“Twilight,” Four says, “did you send a ghost after me to convince me that this is all just a dream? I played along, but it was a jerk move.”
Legend looks away, sulking. Already, someone mentioned the dream in front of him.
“We’ll be fine,” you say quickly. “If we’re part of Legend’s dream, we’re part of Legend. We will still be with him, even once this dream reaches its
End.”
Chapter Text
You explain your prophetic dreams and everything as briefly as you can.
Click here if you were asking around about the child.
Click here if you were asking around about the grave-robbers.
Chapter Text
“It’s fine,” you say. “Don’t worry about it.”
Twilight and Wind keep sending you strange looks until you can slip off.
Click here if you were asking around about the child.
Click here if you were asking around about the grave-robbers.
Chapter Text
You run in for a lunge.
The ghost meets your eye and gasps.
With a spin attack, you cut the ghost down. It rises and flies into your body.
Within your body, the ghost feels natural. The ghost feels like home. The ghost feels like you. Is the ghost really possessing you if the ghost is you? If the ghost is a version of you whose first adventure you now remember being cut short by Ganondorf’s victory over you?
When you are still the only one inside your body to be in control of you? You’ve merged with the other version of yourself.
You sheathe your Biggoron Sword. “You alright?”
You’d hate for Twilight to have been hurt by your own hand.
“I’m fine.” He gets to his feet. “Just wasn’t expecting to have to defend myself against a kid is all.”
That kid is you of course – the Fallen Hero, they call you here. You don’t know about the rest of the Chain, but you were brought here for a reason other than the black-blooded foes.
Click here if you checked on the town’s supply situation.
Click here if you did not.
Chapter Text
You raise your ocarina to your lips and play.
The ghost stops attacking Twilight immediately and stares at you instead. Flying to your ear, he says, “Ganon is still out there.”
“Rest,” you say, “by the hand of a future Hero, Ganon will meet his
End.”
Chapter Text
When you arrive at the docks, you find them empty: though they’re intact, there are no ships.
Click here if you joined Warriors to ask about supplies.
Click here if you did not.
Chapter Text
Of all places, you find them at the bottom of a well. You hate wells.
You pinch your nose. “Can you two get back up here?”
“We can, if you give us a grip for a clawshot!” Sky gets to his feet and puts some hook-shot-like contraptions onto his hands.
Click here if you visited a Great Fairy today.
Click here if you did not.
Chapter Text
Silently, you wonder if the town is possessed by the moas, or if they are cursed. Either way, you suspect that you’re not leaving this era until whatever black bloods are here are dealt with.
Filing in from the side alleys, you finally see the other Links. There’s a group of three, and Sky is by himself for some reason.
Click here if the first thing you did was tell the others the name of the town.
Click here if you haven’t seen the others since you first split up.
Click here if you told the others about this place after returning after sunset.
Chapter Text
You’ve never seen anything like it. Your attempts to speak to the townsfolk gets you stabbed with a farmer’s pitchfork, so you run. Something about all this seems off.
You climb to the rooftops and stick higher up as you look around town. Though you don’t find what’s causing the townsfolk to act strangely, you eventually find the other Heroes, minus Sky. They’re huddled up. Are they talking about what’s going on?
When you get down to join them, Four spots you and charges you with flapping winged boots like Legend’s. He slashes you through the stomach.
In his red eyes, you see that whatever is going on with the townsfolk is going on with him too.
Legend turns, spots you too, and charges his boots.
Maybe it’s a foolish plan, but you can plan quickly with what you have at your disposal. You…
...know you have to retreat to your teleport medallion because you don’t have the food to deal with this at the moment.
...have some hasty simmered fruit to compete with the other Links’ magic boots. You can lead them through town until you find what you need to do.
...have a hearty fruit and mushroom skewer to heal. You can flurry rush the other Links until they drop their weapons and you can steal them away for now.
...have some mighty simmered fruit. You can boost your fighting strength as you try to beat some sense back into your fellow Heroes.
Chapter Text
Your holy beam hits the monster in the eye. It’s stunned for a moment, and Legend lands a dash attack against it.
When the monster recovers, it uses overwhelming force to put you and Legend at its mercy and bring you to your
End
Chapter Text
Wild shoots it in the big, glowing eye. “What is this thing? It’s like a frog and a Hinox!”
“Bomb it!” Four shouts.
Your bomb bag has been empty for a while, but as Hyrule lights a candle, you spot some bomb flowers growing under a weird-looking tree. You roll for them.
Strangely, the bomb flower doesn’t immediately activate when you pluck it, nor does another bomb flower grow in its place.
Wild’s remote bombs go off. Legend clears everyone back to set off a shower of bombs, only to be sucked into the monster’s mouth. It makes chewing noises that make you sick, knowing what it’s eating.
“Hey, ugly!” You throw your bomb flower at the monster’s eye. It explodes, and the monster lets Legend out of its mouth. He rolls into bits of black-blood-covered rock thrown from the monster’s back by his explosives.
“Split up! Wild, take cover and keep shooting its eye. Half of the rest of us run around this way, and half that way! We don’t need anyone else getting eaten.” Warriors grabs Legend and starts running.
You run. The monster turns toward your group, but Wind stuns it by throwing his boomerang in its eye.
The other group climbs up the monster’s back. You spot Time and Twilight taking out large chunks of the ore on its back with their tremendous strength.
Only one ore deposit remains. You charge up a skyward strike and destroy it.
The monster melts away. A portal appears in its place as it meets its
End
Chapter Text
You get out your bombs and start throwing them. As they land in the grass, the trees make their way around them and come after you in particular.
You’re whomped from one side. You’re whomped from the other side.
When an apple tree hits you, its blow lands against your remaining bombs and sets off an explosion that bring you and the trees to your
Ends.
Chapter Text
Dodging and weaving, you chop the trees down slowly. Some of the children come away with bruises, but everyone lives.
Wiping sweat from your brow, you ask, “Was that what you wanted to show me?”
“There’s a great big giant tree in the middle of the forest that drips black sap! It looks funny.”
That sounds like a black-blooded tree monster, and you’re certain the rest of the Links will want to hear about it. You’d rather not but the children in danger to go see it anyway.
After returning to town, you collect the other Links and search for the tree. When you find it, Hyrule uses his Fire spell on it, and everyone hacks the tree to its
End
Chapter Text
You shoot. The trees catch fire. You’re able to burn them away before anyone is hurt, and the children lead you forward.
Keeping your eyes peeled for any more trouble, you follow them to a weird old tree with a treasure chest in its mouth. The chest sits untouched within a mouth-shaped part of the trunk with no signs of weathering, despite being in the forest. On its top, there is a hand print shape and your name on it, written in your Hylian even!
Curious, you open the chest. Inside, you find bundles of glowing and silver arrows.
Hero of Wind, you quest draws near its close. You Heroes will need these to send the Shadow to its
End
Chapter Text
For a while longer, you keep the children occupied by finding sticks to substitute for the still-buried treasure.
When you bring the other Links to dig the treasure up, any of you with shovels, gloves specialized for digging, or even just the magic to pull the weapons straight from the ground get to work. You uncover with the weapons a large regiment of Stalfos.
“Mini-bosses?” Sky asks. “This close to a town? Really?”
You enter a tug-of-war with a Stalfos over a fancy harpoon. With a solid kick to its knee-cap that has it bleeding black, you get it away. “Hey, Four! I’m stealing your knee-taking technique.”
Four gazes at the bleeding kneecap and nearly gets hit, but you tackle him out of reach of a sword. When the two of you land in the mud, he’s still frowning at it. “How can a Stalfos be black-blooded? I wasn’t aware they had blood.”
A Stalfos swings a rod toward the two of you, and you freeze. As you try to break free, Hyrule steps between you and it. It swings again-
“Reflect!” Hyrule rebounds the elemental magic back onto the Stalfos.
Wild leaps in and smashes the sword Four crafted for him on its frozen skull. When it falls, it drops its ice rod, which Wild promptly swipes. “It’s no more problem!”
Legend dashes past him, knocking down a line of Stalfos, and Warrior combos after him.
When you free yourself from the ice, you run to the last Stalfos that are still prone.
Time joins you. “They’re also attacking from your six. Keep those ones off me.”
As Time places himself at your back, you finish a Stalfos and grin through the opening left at Twilight, who is pulling his sword out from a Final Blow.
Given that you’re fighting empowered Stalfos, the fight lasts a while. When it’s done, you and Four have frostbite, Sky has a twisted ankle, and Hyrule and Legend are panting from magic exhaustion. You see the others treating minor injuries as well, but the mud patch has gone quiet again. Eight of the nine of you proudly hold fancy new weapons that vary from your harpoon to Sky’s new boomerang, and the odd man out is Wild, who has already broken his ice rod.
As Time tucks away his new dagger, he says, “It seems the local children have a knack for finding things. Wind, is that everything they showed you?”
You nod. “The hilts sticking out of the ground caught their eye. I think the skirmish here was finally the
end.”
Chapter Text
You bend down to unbury and take the first weapon that catches your attention. The moment it’s in your grasp, your flesh vanishes, leaving nothing but your bones, and yet, your soul is still animating your body. Nearby, the children scream.
When you turn, you realize that they’re screaming about you. You reach after them. “No, wait! It’s still me. I’m not going to hurt you!”
The ground ripples beneath you, and something rattles behind you. From the hole you just dug, a skeletal hand emerges, and then the rest of a Stalfos.
You swing at it.
It dodges. “Return my weapon so I can slaughter those pathetic weaklings after dusk!”
You hit it, and, somehow it bleeds. Not only does it bleed, but it bleeds black.
It grabs a rock from the ground and throws it at you. The rock flies straight through your stomach, and you feel nothing.
“No way!” You attack again.
Though it’s black-blooded and a Stalfos, it’s also alone and disarmed – at least, as long as whatever friends it has stay buried with the other weapons. It doesn’t last long against you.
You roll around behind it and knock it prone. For a moment, you notice your clear view of the town and the field beyond, but you have an enemy to deal with. Before the Stalfos rises, you finish it.
As though prompted by its death, a portal spawns over across the field, but you have a moment to breathe.
You look yourself over, and your flesh doesn’t return. You feel your skull with your bony fingers and confirm that even your hair is gone. Somehow, you’re now a Stalfos.
The children mistook you for a threat. If the other Heroes see you like this – and you have no doubt they’ll come looking if you don’t meet up with them at sunset – will they think you a threat too? But where else are you going to go? This isn’t your era. You still have a mission to investigate the strange portals that threatened your home.
Well, you doubt you’re the only Link who’d notice a portal. You get going in hopes of meeting up with someone long enough to explain what happened to you, and without causing a panic in town either. You can only hope you have a chance before they bring you to your
End.
Chapter Text
“Let’s play tag. I’m it!” You chase the nearby children and touch a little girl on her wrist.
She shrieks and chases a boy toward the well. He jumps up and over, and the girl gives it a wide berth.
“No fair!” she says. “You know that thing is creepy!”
For a while, you play with the children, keeping them out of the adults’ hair as the biggest parts of the clean-up goes on around you. Once things are calmer, you allow yourself to be tagged and use your ‘it’ status to tag the most tired-looking child and suggest a game of hide-and-seek instead. You’ll seek.
Loudly, you count to twenty while hiding your eyes against the side of the well. On twenty, you look around to see if the way is clear.
You open the well and jump in.
Chapter Text
You press your ear to the well and hear something groaning inside.
Nearby, one of the children does a happy dance. “One time, the Hero of Time went down a well somewhere, and there was a ghost! It had no hands, but a whole bunch of hands stuck out of the ground. It was really scary, but he beat it!”
The other children shudder. “There’s a ghost like that in this well! It’s creepy. There is black blood everywhere!”
Oh, another black-blooded monster. It sounds like one that Time might know how to beat, but in any case, you’ll have to tell the other Links at sunset.
For now, you keep an eye on the well as you turn it into a big ghost-story telling contest by telling them about a ghost ship you encountered during your second adventure.
When you tell Time that night, he still looks spooked by the ghost he calls Dead Hand. He looks wide-eyed at all of you. “Dead Hand is an absolute horror of a ghost. If there’s one advantage we have, it’s numbers, but that may be negated by limited space at the bottom of a well. We should check the space. If there’s room for enough of us, we can cut its hands down quickly and force it to face us head-on. Otherwise, we need someone strong and nimble to get down there and either go after the hands before they reappear or let themselves get grabbed to bait Dead Hand into showing itself-”
“I’ll do it!” You blurt out. You’re strong and nimble, and you’re sick of the others treating you like a baby too.
Warriors straightens. “Wind-”
“Maybe someone else can do it?” Legend asks, drawing the Tempered Sword.
“It’s a well!” You wave toward it. “If there’s water down there, you need someone with water experience. Who better than a sailor?”
“Wind should do fine,” Time says. “In any case, we should look first to see how many of us there’s room for.”
The crowd of you heads toward the well and open it up. At its bottom is some water, and enough space for one close-quarters combat with maybe two of you down there if you can manage it.
You…
...go down alone and focus on keeping the hands cut down.
...go down alone and use yourself as bait.
...ask Four to come with you.
Chapter Text
Nothing ever does come out of the well, but as you’re heading off through the portal the next day, you can’t feel as though your missing something, as though your time in this era isn’t at its final
End.
Chapter Text
You shrink down for some extra stealth and follow Time into the woods to take a look at whatever killed him. Away from town, you find a man who looks like he could be Vaati’s dark world counterpart, and he carries a blade that could be the counterpart of yours. No wonder Old Man’s ghost wanted you to take a look.
Pressing your finger to your shrunken lips, you beckon the ghost closer to the branch on which you stand. “It took four of me to kill one of him. This looks like a job for the full group. On the plus side, we may finally have a lead on where all the black-blooded monsters have been coming from.”
“It only cost me my life to find out.”
You wince. “I’ll keep a watch over your younger self, okay? I’ll see if I can’t prevent your fate.”
“I’ll watch your retreat.”
Chapter Text
You gather the Chain, and the living Time is among them. Can you really tell them? “I got a tip on a nasty black-blooded monster outside town. Come on! I’ll tell you on the way.”
Click here if you went straight to gather up the Chain.
Click here if you let Time’s ghost show you a sword first.
Chapter Text
Time’s fell way out in the woods, and there his body remains. A thick, insect-filled trek awaits you to reach what’s left of him. On your way…
...you’re aware that you could run into the same monster that killed him.
...you’re at least assured that you and the Chain have already avenged him.
Chapter Text
You turn back to your work. “I’ll let you show me when I’m free. First, this town needs to be prepared to withstand another attack. You can stick around if you want.”
“I think you’re making a mistake,” Time says, but his ghost settles down to watch you work.
Over the next few hours, you finish several repairs. The townsfolk come in and out with new projects and to haul repaired materials elsewhere. Every time the door chimes open, Time’s ghost ducks out of sight.
Over the day, you become so used to the door opening that you don’t even look up until Time calls a warning about a monster.
It’s Vaati. Or something that resembles him like Shadow Link resembles you. He has the Dark World’s twin of the Four Sword.
Growling, you draw it. Vaati draws his.
You duel four-on-four.
Vaati slays one of your selves, and ghostly Time retaliates by attempting slaying his – though his sword goes harmlessly through. You avenge yourself against one of Vaati’s clones instead, then another. Your swords clang, and you roll around to manuever within the hot, close quarters of the forge. By the the time the duel is winding down, Vaati has killed three of you, and you are facing him one-on-one.
It’s loud, and the noise must have attracted the other Links because Time, Sky, and Legend come in just as you are slaying Vaati’s final self, and your selves and his are lying dead on the floor.
Sky gasps at the scene. “What happened?”
For a moment, you expect Time to say something to you, but he and his ghostly self are staring at each other.
Legend stares pale-faced at the blade in your hands.
Whoops. Your secret is out, but you have bigger problems with three of your colors dead. With one of you still alive, can you save them?
You gather up your corpses and touch the blades together. You fuse back together and collapse.
“Smithy!” Sky rushes toward you, and you’re aware that he’s trying to patch you up as you slip off.
They must have saved your life, as you wake later at your Grandpa’s forge, where Grandpa shows you eight keepsakes from the other Heroes and informs you that, though you didn’t get the chance to say goodbye, you saw your quest through to the
End.
Chapter Text
Stalfos are nothing crazy, and you’re pretty sure they don’t even have blood. It’s thus unlikely that this one is black-blooded.
You take advantage of your size to go for the legs.
You roll around to the Stalfos’ back.
You focus on blocking its blades until and opening. After all, it doesn’t have a sword.
Chapter Text
You draw your sword, and in a flash, there are four of you. You stand side-by-side with yourself.
You surround it from four directions.
You form pairs, each focusing on one side.
You have one of your selves shield the group from those blades, one draw attention as the main aggressor, one stand nearby to land the easy strikes, and one secure the forge.
a_dead_person on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Oct 2024 03:18AM UTC
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theAlmostPorcupine on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Oct 2024 03:59AM UTC
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0BlueOwl0 on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Dec 2024 01:26AM UTC
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theAlmostPorcupine on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Dec 2024 03:03PM UTC
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TheDeadlyMaelstrom on Chapter 23 Thu 08 Aug 2024 12:04AM UTC
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theAlmostPorcupine on Chapter 23 Thu 08 Aug 2024 02:36PM UTC
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Seatrisa16 on Chapter 46 Mon 19 Aug 2024 03:14AM UTC
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Seatrisa16 on Chapter 49 Sun 25 Aug 2024 09:01PM UTC
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theAlmostPorcupine on Chapter 49 Thu 29 Aug 2024 02:57AM UTC
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kenKazaki on Chapter 52 Sun 17 Nov 2024 02:27AM UTC
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theAlmostPorcupine on Chapter 52 Tue 19 Nov 2024 01:20AM UTC
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TheDeadlyMaelstrom on Chapter 58 Fri 04 Oct 2024 05:10PM UTC
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0BlueOwl0 on Chapter 64 Tue 10 Dec 2024 01:23AM UTC
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Revon522 on Chapter 83 Sat 22 Feb 2025 03:16AM UTC
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Revon522 on Chapter 84 Sat 22 Feb 2025 03:11AM UTC
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