Five
As a very young child, Link had once fallen quite ill. The other Kokiri had been frightened - they did not get sick as he could, but the Deku Tree simply had lifted him into its branches, held him close. He had felt safe and protected, healed by the tree's own power. He had never felt the same, oddly enough, until the day Hyrule Castle had fallen, and he had woken up in hiding - and for the first time - in Zelda's arms.
He felt safe now, in the moments of drifting, between long periods of darkness. Link opened his eyes to see the light filtered through layers of the greenest foliage, a branch dropping, water from the morning dew collected, sliding down an obliging leaf to soothe his parched throat. The pain in his body was a vague, unimportant thing, a series of branches supporting him weightlessly above the ground, until Link was half certain he was still that sick child, and there had only been a strange fever dream of princesses and villains and the vast world outside of the forest.
He was still very sick, could feel the heat of his skin as a leaf pressed against it, as if to check his temperature or try to cool him. Of course he was hallucinating, none of this could be real. The Deku Tree was long dead, not because he had failed, but perhaps... if he had only...
//Still hurts... even when it's not my fault.//
Two sages dead already, and suddenly Saria was cradled in his arms, guiding him to a treasure he could not reach, information she had given her life for. Ganon laughing, always laughing, and in his feverish nightmares he was certain Zelda had died too, in that underground room, fighting to the last but without hope. He hadn't been good enough to save her, hadn't seen the danger. Hadn't been the hero he should have been, even if he had done all he could.
//I don't... I don't know what to do.//
The vines swayed, gently rocking him like a child, until he forgot why he had been upset in the first place. Link fell asleep to the sound of the upper branches swaying in the wind.
He was not awake to feel the sudden sway of a wind that was not wind, the leaves on the young Deku shuddering and shivering beneath an entirely new sort of strain. He was not awake when the Glass broke, and left its mark on him along with the rest of Hyrule.
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The only reason Moblins weren't as stupid as they were ugly was because that was /way/ too much ugly for any creature to have to lug around. Nabooru pondered a few other nasty thoughts with a slow, dedicated joy, scowling through the bars at her pair of captors.
"Oi, guard!" The Gerudo rattled her thick chains hard, though she'd been doing it for long enough that neither Moblin even looked toward her.
"Come on! I swear I didn't mean to steal that gold... thing. I figured it had fallen off the back of a cart, and I could return it - I was trying to do you guys a favor!"
Getting caught was just no fun, especially as the thief couldn't quite remember if she was confessing to the right crime. It had been a long night at the tavern, with a lot of drinking and a lot of fighting and a whole lot of temptation, shiny things just asking for a new home in her pockets. The Moblins hadn't dared to frisk her - the only intelligent decision they'd probably ever made - and she was still weighed down with all sorts of nice baubles and treasures.
None of which would work for a decent lock pick.
Still, Nabooru was certain she had at least a little time to figure things out. Ganon was - her spies had reported - far in the north now, as always up to no good and still chasing the Hero of Time like a fox through the woods. Lucky for all of them, the pointy-eared fox was quicker than any other. The longer Link kept Ganon distracted, the better chance she had of uniting the Gerudo women with the Hyrule people, and forming some real compact of peace between them.
//... can't believe he expects /me/ to do this. Me. I'm supposed to /steal/ from the diplomats, not be one!//
It was all Link's fault, those pretty, earnest blue eyes that had made most damn near all the girls fall head over heels for him. He'd looked at her, as if he could see right down to her soul, and smiled at a part of her she thought had been lost long ago, abandoned for the sake of survival. Link said he'd trusted her, said that she could be the one to make peace between their people, and that when they did come together Ganon would already be defeated, long before a final battle was fought.
//Stupid kid... if he hadn't said that, and made me believe it, I could be stretched out on a beach somewhere right now.//
Nabooru grinned, rattling the chains again as her stomach growled. Time to get out of here, really, she was starved.
"Hey, ugly!" Provoking a fight usually led to fast opportunity. The Moblins ignored her, but they should have known better than to think it would work for long.
"Hey, your mother-"
She cut herself off, at a sudden, strange trembling, as the entire world shivered. It felt as if the earth had heaved beneath her, the swell of a wave shaking both ground and air, but there hadn't been any creaking wood or shifting rock. The Moblins had gone still too, though, glancing at each other and back to her nervously. Nabooru let out a slightly shaky breath, staring toward the window even though she couldn't see out of it. Something wasn't...
The shockwave hit in an instant, a blinding roar that shuddered through everything, and she watched the table disappear, the stone floor shatter into fragments stirred by the light. The last thought she had - //what had Ganon done now!?// - and everything went white.
It was shocking, when she slowly reached up a hand to rub at her eyes and found she still had the fingers to do it with. Nabooru blinked, staring at the room, everything exactly as it had been - but she had /seen/ the floors crumble away, hadn't she?!
The Moblin guards were gone, two heaps of armor in the places they had been standing. She leaned forward for a closer view, astonished to see a small garter snake slither out from beneath the plate mail, heading quickly for the door. It was nearly stepped on by the other suit of armor as it struggled to stand. Just the armor, in the shape of a Moblin, nothing inside, staggering very awkwardly out the door.
//What in Hyrule!?// The Gerudo scratched her head... and stopped, and brought her hands both down, looking at them carefully, and then looking back up to the empty manacles on the wall.
//How the...// She was good, but not quite /that/ good.
Nabooru stood up, staring for a long moment at the cell door. An easy enough lock to pick, especially with both hands free, but...
The Gerudo reached for the bars, touched them carefully, and then pushed her hand against them hard. Nabooru watched in awe as her fingers melted into a golden swirling sand that passed easily through the gaps in the bars, reforming whole on the other side. She wiggled her fingers with her hands half melted. A bit of pressure, she could /feel/ the iron in her hands but no pain where there probably ought to have been some. Nabooru shrugged, and closed her eyes, stepping through the cell completely, giving herself a thorough once-over when she was whole and free on the other side.
"Well, isn't /this/ interesting."
Whatever Ganon had tried to do, Nabooru thought she probably came out with an equally good deal. Humming happily to herself, she quickly stripped the room of everything valuable that wasn't nailed down, and walked out the door, interested to see just what had become of the rest of the country.
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Zelda had been climbing a tree, to check their position, and now she was flat on her back on the ground. She didn't move, breathing in and out, flexing fingers and toes. It hadn't been a long fall, and except for a few places that promised to ache worse once she got to her feet, everything seemed to be in a proper order, nothing suggesting it had been broken or sprained.
Her body still felt strange, though. Probably because she hadn't expected to fall at all - what had happened? Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary, all the other Sheikah spread out and traveling with her, Impa a few steps to her side - and then a flash of light, a growling, roaring sound like the incoming tide, and it had washed over her, tumbled them all like pebbles in the wash.
"Princess?" Impa's voice, and Zelda started to rise, giving all those places on her body something to really complain about. It was difficult enough just to sit up and wait for the world to stop spinning, rubbing an especially sore spot on her back.
"Impa? Impa, do you know what happened? Are the other Sheikah all right?"
Her voice sounded strange in her own ears, and Zelda wondered if she hadn't hit her head after all. At least the Sheikah woman seemed unhurt, looking down on her with her usual imperious gaze.
"They are fine. I sent them out to scout a bit further, they should be back soon. I believe... I am not sure, but it appears that Ganon has done... something. Do you know anything about the power of the artifact you sought?"
"The Chaos Glass?" Zelda shook her head. "No, no there were only rumors, a few myths of dubious origin. Nothing substantial."
"I believe Ganon may have attempted to use its power."
Zelda nodded. "Well, it doesn't seem that he's succeeded, if we're still all right."
She reached into a hidden pocket, pulling out a small mirror. It worked well for sending distant signals, and more importantly, it was one of the only things she'd managed to keep safe when Ganon had taken the castle. The only memento now, of the life she'd had before. She flipped it open, pulling the scarf down from around her face, to check for any bruises or injuries and not - as Link had always teased - to make sure her hair wasn't too mussed.
Not that the mirror didn't fulfill that duty as well, no reason to look like a matted peahat if she could help it - Zelda looked into the mirror, and felt her breath catch as her eyes failed to find her own face.
"Princess," Impa's voice was soft, as compassionate as she ever was, "I believe it might not be as simple as that."
Zelda watched the hand - her hand - trace the features she was staring at in stunned fascination. Slightly broader nose, a little less curve in the chin, all rather slight changes that added up to one very obvious difference.
//No wonder my voice sounded different. I'm a boy.//
A boy. Prince Zelda.
//Oh dear.//
"Impa, help me up?" Zelda wasn't sure she could manage standing on her own at the moment, and even more importantly, wanted the warrior woman's steady presence at her back. Impa only smiled sadly, extending a hand.
"I don't believe I can, highness."
Confused, she reached up for the Sheikah, gasping as her fingers passed right through the older woman's hand. Zelda looked up at her guardian, terrified.
"No, you're not - you... you can't be dead!"
Impa shook her head slightly. "I do not believe so. Whatever has transformed you seems to have done much the same to me, and to much of the land, as well."
"The other Sheikah? Where are-"
A soft rustle came from the brush, and girl or boy she was still a warrior, forcing unsteady legs not to shake as she rose to her feet and a pack of... something appeared from the woods. Cats, each one man-sized, strangely long and lean but all pointed ears and twitching tails and gray, feline grace. Zelda kept her weapons up but did not move as, one by one, they rose onto their hind legs to approach her. Only then did she really notice what remained of their clothing.
"The Sheikah?"
The one in the lead sniffed at her, turning a questioning eye toward Impa.
"Yes, it's still the princess."
The feline Sheikah turned back to her with a slight bow of its head, none of them seeming much disturbed by the sudden change, certainly not like she was.
//Calm down, Zelda. Calm down.//
"We should try to find a town, I think. Make some contacts, see just how far this has gone."
The deeper tone made it sound even more like a command, and much less than her normal voice, but Zelda ignored it. Still a human body, still strong and capable, and for the moment it would have to do
"Follow me."
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A nudge at his shoulder, rustling of green. Link grinned, slowly dragging himself from sleep.
"Five more minutes?"
A shaking of leaves, scolding him, and another nudge from the branch against his shoulder. He groaned. "All right, all right. I'm up."
Link sat up slowly, shaking off a moment of dizziness, and then looked around in wonder at the leaves and branches that surrounded him. He'd been half-certain it had all been a dream.
"You're alive?" He grinned, patting the branch that pushed itself under his hand - the tree couldn't talk, not yet. Or perhaps Ganon's hold over the land was still too strong.
He felt better, much stronger, with all his wounds mostly healed. His sword hand flexed freely, he shook it to get rid of the last of the ache. The magic of the Deku Tree, he might not be true Kokiri but still, he had lived beneath its branches long enough for it to help him now. Link stretched, looking around, finally realizing they were resting inside the shell of the old tree - how long had it been like this, with no one knowing?
Whatever had happened, someone would notice eventually. It looked as if something had cracked the old Deku Tree straight down the center. Perhaps the growth of the new?
Link rolled out of the bed of vines, realized even before he was out that it probably wasn't the best idea, doubting his legs would hold him at first. Branches and vines immediately descended around him, lowering him carefully all the way to the ground and allowing him to slowly find his feet.
"Thank you." He smiled, patting one of the branches as it retreated, still dizzy in breathless wonder that the tree had come back to life. His ears were ringing, and his voice seemed strange, high and breathless. Even his hands seemed smaller, thinner - Zelda would scold him for not eating enough, if this kept up.
Brushing his hair out of his eyes, Link stepped outside. It took his tired mind a long moment to realize that things... were not right. At all.
The grass, for example, was blue. It was also singing.
Link stepped down, only to quickly lift his foot back up at a sudden cry of protest from the blades beneath his feet. Frowning, he leapt onto the path of rocks instead. The grass continued its soft melody, and thankfully the rocks didn't protest as he quickly stepped across them to clear dirt.
//How long was I out?//
The last time he'd done this sort of thing, he'd woken up seven years later, and /that/ little adventure had turned out so very well, defeating Ganon in the future just to go back to the past and have the chance to really grow up, before Ganon unleashed his next evil scheme. One that had started by killing Darunia and Rauru, insuring that the dark lord would never be sealed again in their lifetime.
It was now a matter of killing Ganon, or living in his shadow for longer than anyone cared to contemplate. He'd never bothered to ask Nabooru just how long the average Gerudo lifespan was, mostly because he was sure he'd hate the answer.
A rustling and creaking from above, and Link turned and reached up as the Master Sword and his shield were carefully handed to him.
"Thank you, again."
He wanted to stay with the tree, nostalgia and unexpected happiness filling him like the best of all possible healing draughts. He had too much work to do, though - especially with how strange the world had become.
A clearer stream had replaced the few inches of stagnant water he remembered passing through before, only this time the water was floating a few inches above the ground, and appeared to be flowing backward.
Link looked up, sword half drawn at a loud rustling from overhead, but it was only a flock of women's undergarments, flying high in the sky, in perfect v-formation.
He stared, dumbfounded, as a few bushes changed position to better take in the sun, and the grass continued to sing. Just /how/, exactly, was he supposed to solve this problem?
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Link was still thirsty, even if the entire world had gone into the fun house and forgotten to give him a ticket. Luckily for him, floating water still drank the same. He dipped his hands down into it, taking a long drink, only to choke as he watched the ripples fade, and saw his reflection.
//Maybe I got my ticket after all.//
The girl staring back up at him from the water reached up to touch her cheek, and ear, and a long tendril of hair that swept down along her face. Link leaned forward, tapping at his reflection - Ganon had done this once already, and he was bracing himself for the sneer, as the girl turned dark and grabbed his hand, dragging him into the water. It didn't happen, there were only a few more ripples, this /was/ his reflection.
He dropped back hard, a few glib comments banging about into useless syllables as he tried to breathe. No thinking, just breathing.
//So... I'm a girl.// He had to repeat that one in his head a few times, let it sink in before making any leaps forward. //So. It's okay. I still carry the sword. The Triforce is still here.// He looked down at the emblem on his hand, but flinched slightly at the smaller, tapered fingertips accompanying it. //I'm who I was before... just not entirely.//
Zelda still needed saving, even if he didn't want to think about what she would say, didn't want to see the look on her face when she realized what had become of her champion.
A soft whicker broke him from his thoughts, and Epona trotted across the clearing, blessedly familiar in this strange new world. Thankfully, she still recognized him, immediately coming forward to bump him in the chest with her nose. Behind him, Link could hear the grass screeching in terror at the sight of the large grazing animal.
"Where did you hide, hm, to get away from all this?" He leaned his head against hers, stroking her mane. "Well, at least you're all right."
Epona blinked, staring at him calmly before answering. "I'm just glad I'm still a horse."
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"What happened?"
At least his voice worked, and he repeated himself, just to get used to the sound of his voice in his ears. Strange, he didn't know what he'd been expecting - strange, because he still wasn't sure it was right. But how could his own voice be wrong?
It took him another moment, just to study his hands, tracing the faint golden triangle he hadn't been expecting to see on the back of one. What did it mean? A clan mark, or a connection to someone, somewhere? His clothes, though seemingly noble or at least wealthy, offered no further hints to his identity, and looking around at the clearing him was of little help. It didn't seem familiar, and there was no one else around.
"Hello?"
No answer, no suggestion that anyone was going to find him, although this didn't seem to be a spot anyone would plan to come to. Maybe he'd hit his head and lost his memory? Slowly, he rose to his feet, checking his head for any signs of a bump but finding nothing. Drawing his red cloak around him, the stranger decided the best thing he could do was move, and maybe finding someone along the way might be able to tell him what had happened, and who he was.