Six
"Out of the way, girl!"
Link stepped to the side almost too late, glaring at the armored cart as it passed, still a little rattled by what the driver had shouted. Ganon had all sorts of mercenaries in his army, men as well as monsters, though perhaps the man /had/ been a Moblin once, or a patch of wildflowers. Difficult to say what anything had been before the world had turned everything to nonsense.
He tried not to grimace as the driver leered at him for a moment more, before slowly turning away. Link reminded himself to thoroughly beat the next person who looked at Zelda like that.
He'd taken his hat off, and had to untuck the top of his tunic to make room for his new and unexpected... curves. Still, Link thought, it wasn't much in the way of a disguise. He was getting more attention now than he ever had, though, and not even the Moblin guards seemed to think he was nothing more than another Hylian girl. The Master Sword was still on his back, covered by a few knotted rags, resembling nothing more dangerous than a bundle of firewood or a pack of junk. He'd been ready to draw it, the moment he was recognized, and was amazed as he continued through town and the moment never came.
//I wonder if I could get into the palace this way.// The next time there was any formal function, one of Ganon's festivals to his own might and power - and Link made a face, realizing it would probably require him to wear a dress.
//I could pretend my sword was a parasol.// He couldn't help but smirk, imagining Ganon's surprise, attacked from an entirely unexpected angle. Unless the Chaos Glass had done them all a favor and turned him into a rock, or a very ugly bullfrog.
It had to have been the Glass, though he'd never imagined it could have such a power as this. Link knew he'd held onto the map before he'd passed out, and it was gone, which meant that someone must have found him, and went looking for it.
//Or it was Ganon... or Zelda.// Still alive, she had to be. He would have known it if anything had happened to her, the Triforce would have known it.
He was thinking hard enough that he didn't notice the person in front of him until he'd run into his back.
"Oh, excuse..."
The man turned, quite human except for the oversize mackerel head where his own face should have been. The gills lifted and fell, one fishy eye staring at him unblinkingly, though he seemed to be in no distress.
"You got a staring problem, lady?"
"Uh, no. Sorry." Link awkwardly averted his eyes, glaring at Epona as the horse whickered, sounding more like a laugh than usual. He thought the man might have glared - though it was hard to tell.
"I told you we'd blend in, Link. If anything we're downright normal." The horse leaned forward, nuzzling the side of his face with her soft nose. "Don't worry so much, it's going to be all right." Epona's head left his shoulder, craning to the side as a familiar sight caught her attention. "Now, be a good hero and buy your faithful steed a carrot or two?"
A talking horse still had a horse's interests. Link sighed grudgingly, but his stomach grumbled in agreement, reminding him that while the Deku Tree had been keeping him alive, allowing him to heal, it had still been quite a few days since he'd seen anything like a decent meal.
//Didn't dare go into a town, not like this, not with Ganon's soldiers everywhere.//
Now Ganon's soldiers were in the same state as the rest of the world, and although some had managed to keep ranks - those least affected by the changes - there was a distinct lack of cohesion among most, without the usual dedicated effort toward evil or at least menacing the townsfolk. Link was almost disappointed, he had yet to see just how this new body could perform in combat.
//Should have found something to fight in the woods.// A lone Moblin caught his eye, standing at the top of a staircase, simple armor but nothing the Master Sword couldn't-
He was brought out of his reverie as Epona took advantage of his now much longer hair, grabbing a great deal of it between her teeth and yanking hard.
"OW!" He yanked his hair away, glaring at the horse.
"No, you should yelp, not growl. A few tears might help too, though I don't remember Zelda crying when she got hurt."
Somehow, the horse managed to give him the same stare Impa had whenever he and Zelda had gone off into danger. Stern and reproachful, admonishing him for every stupid thing he'd done, and all that he was going to do.
"We should do what we can, while Ganon's usual order has been disrupted. Wherever he is, or /whatever/ he is, he's certainly not stupid enough to think these changes won't have affected everything, including you. Sooner or later, he'll realize who you are."
"I'm still hoping he's been transformed into pond scum."
The horse had a point, and Link ignored the guard, making his way into the market. Always a point of some chaos in any town, the merchants were going steadily about their business, had adapted to whatever changes they needed to continue drawing in the rupees.
A man with one swan's wing in place of an arm was extolling the virtues of his chickens, though a few seemed to have more scales than feathers, and there was quite a bit of smoke rising in the air, along with an occasional flicker of flame, squawks of panic and the smell of singed feathers. A few booths down, a man wrapped in cloths and scarves - even more than a Sheikah would wear - was showing a young lady the special properties of a simple glass necklace - though this one chimed, each bead a different tone when he flicked it with his fingers.
The market had turned into a gallery of wonders and horrors, all the possible effects of the Chaos Glass dropped into one place - though just trying to reach the farmer's stall became a daunting task, the stone path shifting positions every time they turned a corner. Just when Link was considering the benefits of shooting an arrow with a rope attached into the corner of the vegetable stands and making his way hand-over-hand, the path straightened out again and they were standing in front of a large pile of relatively normal-looking fruit.
"Hallo." The farmer seemed none the worse for wear, slumped against his stand and watching the passers-by with no particular interest, the walking bear, the girl made of water, the man with his head tucked securely in the crook of his arm. "Special sale, three melons for twenty rupees."
"Anything wrong with them?"
"They explode."
Link nodded. "Anything wrong with the carrots?"
"Not yet. Maybe." He lifted a hand toward a newly-painted sign swinging above the stand - 'All Sales Final. Eat at Your Own Risk.' Link glanced at Epona, but her desire for fresh carrots far outweighed her worry, and his stomach seemed to concur.
"I'll take some carrots, and a bushel of apples, please." Not the best breakfast ever, but certainly better than nothing, and perhaps if they continued to keep such a low profile, he could gather some other provisions before leaving town.
//You don't even know where you're going.//
The Chaos Glass had been hidden in the lake to the north, and so the first thing to do was go north, stopping in the towns along the way, gathering what information he could, hoping that either what he learned, or the clues that remained at the lake would lead him to Zelda... or Ganon.
//I just hope he hasn't turned into something /worse/ than he was.//
The thought hit him, that perhaps the change had come the same to both of them.
//Ganon in a pink pinafore, little bows in his hair.//
Link let out a very unladylike noise, stifling the sharp bark of laughter and trying not to choke on his own tongue.
"Fifteen rupees, girl. You're pretty enough for the discount, in case they turn you blue or furry or something."
Link wondered which fruit had caused those little problems, and almost felt better about sticking with the unknown. He still didn't know how a girl would react to such a comment, and reached for his money pouch without a word.
"Put it on the table, and you'll have to take the fruit yourself." Link looked up, questioningly, and the man responded by reaching up with one hand, pressing a fingertip to the edge of a half-bent nail. Within moments, it gleamed golden and brilliant, and he leaned back down without a word, pointedly keeping his hands from the surface of his stand.
"Be careful of the berries. They bite."
-----------------------
The Sheikah were loathe to spend much time in cities, any, if it were at all possible, and Zelda and Link had come to share the preference. In part, it was simple safety, easier to hide and move in the forests, undetected because no one was watching. Much of it, though, was how difficult it had been to see what had become of places and people they had known so well. Zelda had not gone near Hyrule Castle for years, even when she knew the evil tyrant was traveling across the continent. It had just been too difficult.
Ganondorf's evil powers seemed to leech the life from the land itself, leaving once prosperous glades no more than acres of dust and the bare stems of plants, cracked and dead. Zelda often wondered if that was what had afflicted the Gerudo lands to the south, the result of too many dark kings. If Ganon was destroyed, a change might be wrought to make both places fertile again.
//Unless it already is, or is underwater, or floating in the sky. I do not believe we have begun to see the limits of this Glass's power.//
If Ganon had been attempting to use it as a weapon, it seemed an utter failure. A few unexpected dangers lurked here and there, like the mailbox that lunged out at her unexpectedly, spitting letters, as they entered the small town they were now exploring. For the most part, the changes were as haphazard and strange as one could expect, several bricks had hopped up out of the path and were dancing back and forth across the street, while a small winged dog hovered above, and the fountain whistled a merry jig.
//Turning me into a boy did not change much. If anything it made me stronger.// Zelda clenched her fist, grateful the Glass had not somehow deprived her of the Triforce, though she glanced at her hand much more often now, afraid the mark would suddenly fade. It was easy enough to balance in this new body, she had moved through all her attacks while in the forest, testing herself and finding nothing lacking. It was still... difficult, to see the line of muscle on her arm, where no definition had been before. A perfectly flat chest.
To say nothing of below the belt.
Zelda closed her eyes, pushing the thought to the side much as she had the last twenty times she'd thought of it. Improper thoughts for a princess... prince, whatever. Still, she could feel the difference... so odd, and if Link saw her like this? Every moment that this did not turn into a dream made the reality that much more unavoidable.
//So what? What do you fear? Do you think, wherever he is, he is so unchanged?//
Unlikely, and whatever had happened to him it would not change what she felt. If so many years of living beneath such a dark shadow had not dulled the nobility of his spirit, whatever happened this time would be no mortal blow. She could endure, because Link was there, and if he faltered she would help him endure as well.
"Princess," Impa said quietly, moving along with the rest of them, showing no real change other than that the grass did not move when she shifted her feet. Her bodyguard gestured toward the horizon, the sun just starting to sink toward the hills. "It might be good to stay here for the night. Until we know more about what has happened, four walls may be at least some protection."
Zelda glanced from her bodyguard to the other Sheikah, if anything even more impassive than before, their feline expressions completely unreadable. It was always a matter of guessing, to decide when her protectors had conspired to keep her safe without giving her many details, to keep from worrying her. Stopping in the town, instead of just passing through after receiving information - it was enough of a deviation from their usual ways to keep Zelda's attention warily on every shadowed corner they passed. She wondered just what had caught Impa's eye.
The inn was set far enough away from the rest of the town that the Sheikah were contented to stay close, disappearing in the shadows of the trees surrounding it, as Zelda walked through the front door. Impa remained on the stair, quietly wishing her charge a pleasant night's sleep.
Tomorrow, with luck, they could gather some information from the villagers, though even as they'd made their way here, Zelda knew where they would have to end up. The northern lake, it was really the only place to start. If the goddesses were feeling particularly merciful, there would be some sign of Link, a hint or clue as to his whereabouts...
It was, perhaps, too hopeful, but at the moment Zelda had very little else to rely on.
"Hello, young man. Looking for a room?" It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her. Zelda had the sudden, stupid hope there were no full-length mirrors in this place.
"Yes, please." She wondered if it was right, for boys to say please, couldn't remember what Link had done - or the last time they'd actually gotten a room like this, not just sleeping out in the middle of nowhere, or hiding away in someplace they weren't supposed to be to begin with. Fidgeting was certainly not girly, and Zelda clenched her hands at her sides, though she was certain they'd already betrayed her.
The man seemed not to notice any of her worries, quietly ducking behind the counter and jingling through a ring of keys tacked just above a set of shelves. Zelda stepped forward quietly as he worked, glancing around the room, and then at a small box sitting on the counter.
Strangely, the floor was marked with scattered toys, quilts and baubles and a half-finished embroidery sitting in a hoop near the fire. All items suggesting a wife and family, but she could hear no sounds of movement in the rest of the house. No hint that anyone else was here, even in the rooms beyond the cluttered front foyer. The box on the counter was filled with a variety of odd, unconnected items - a feather, a spool of twine, a small stone the sky blue of a robin's egg, a glass marble with a thread of blue running through it - that she wondered if perhaps the man wasn't a bit off.
//Nothing wrong with it, I'd take a well-meaning eccentric over many others... but why does such a cheerful room hold no people? Why is it so silent?//
"You're one of the few brave enough to venture out, after everything that's happened. Rumor is Ganon sent this out, to plague the people who wouldn't submit to his evil ways." The sneer suggested the man wasn't quite sure if he was talking to one of Ganon's spies, and didn't care either way. "Only, I reckon, it got out of his control, started changing things he didn't want it to. Only hope it turned back on him at the end, too."
He finally handed her the key, though now it seemed almost a burden to accept it. Would the outcome have been so much different, if she had been the one to find the Chaos Glass?
"Will I be too much trouble? You seem to have a rather large family already..."
It was the wrong thing to say, and Zelda cringed at the look on his face. Utter despair, as one hand reached out, lightly shaking the box on the desk.
"This is my family now. They don't take up much space."
For a moment, Zelda thought the man must have been truly mad - and then she remembered she was a girl in a boy's body, attended by a phalanx of warrior cats, led by a phantom.
"Your family?" Despite the need to keep in character, Zelda felt her eyes filling with tears.
//If we hadn't gone searching for the Chaos Glass, would Ganon have even...?//
"I'm sorry. I'm so terribly sorry."
The man blinked, surprised out of his sadness by the sight of such a strange lad trying very hard not to cry for him.
"Aye, it's not your fault. Ganon's the one behind all of this. He's the one to blame. You look like you need a rest. Take a candle and go, first room on your left, there will be a hot breakfast waiting on you in the morning."
Zelda was rather grateful no other surprises lay between her and a normal-looking room, with a normal looking bed. The man had said those things without knowing her, or her part in this. Certainly Ganon held the lion's share of that responsibility, but they had been looking for the Chaos Glass too, and perhaps if she hadn't... if they had only...
It wasn't the first time Zelda had driven herself crazy with possibilities and regrets, and she quickly snuffed the candle and ducked into bed, removing none of her weapons and only pushing the scarf on her neck a bit lower. For all her worries and cares, she fell asleep almost immediately.
--------------------------
Outside the inn, Impa had not moved, her eyes focused on the tree line, trying to ignore the strange feel of the wind blowing through her - no real sensation of cold, just a strange stir, a push-and-pull where flesh and bone ought to have been. No real problem, Impa had faced many trials as guardian to the royal family, this was simply a new one - and not, she feared, the worst of what was to come.
"Anything?" she murmured, the barest angle of a shadow marking the Sheikah's return, a hint of moonlight splashing the soft fur to silver.
"We can sense it - but it has noticed us as well. It will be difficult to track in the dark."
"... and will disappear by dawn, I have no doubt." Impa's eyes narrowed, she did not appreciate such a fight, any warrior who preferred to skulk in the dark rather than face his opponent with honor. "Take your rest, but be watchful. I will tend to the princess."
The Sheikah would still take turns on watch, with a very real threat so close. Impa wondered if it were possible to sleep like this, if such a shadow of her normal self would even get tired - it didn't seem so, but she would have to be on alert -
A shift of darkness against the black of the sky, it could have been nothing more than a gust of wind through the leaves, but Impa knew better. It would take her full attention to outmaneuver this enemy, especially in her current form, and cowardly as it was to skulk from a distance, she doubted it was the sort of creature who would stay distant for long.
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In the shadows, a slight glimmer of ivory struck out briefly against the darkness. It was not a friendly grin, studying the shapes that stayed close to the inn, knowing the treasure they protected so carefully.
Knowing a great deal about the sweet princess Zelda.
The grin widened for a moment, and then vanished along with its bearer, back into the deep midnight.
-------------------
Ganon, king of the Gerudo and now master of all Hyrule, woke up flat on his back, blinking stars out of his eyes. He took a moment to ponder the unique position, one of the few times anything or anyone had managed to get the better of him. Surprise was really too strong a word, he had seen it coming, had known what would happen when the glass smashed, at least a more than those heroic nitwits had.
The two girls were gone, or possibly destroyed. His most powerful spells had done little to protect him and he doubted - highly - that they had fared any better.
The cave around him seemed mostly unchanged, if slightly damaged from all the shaking. Ganon sat up, looking down at his own body, and it seemed he had not changed either. A little dusty, but that was easily wiped clean, and he brushed off his cloak with one hand. So this had been the very center of the storm? Or had he overestimated the power of the Chaos Glass, let himself be taken in by some silly child's story?
It took him only a moment to realize that indeed, something had been changed - or more precisely, taken away, as he stared at the unmarked skin on the back of his hand, the place where the Triforce should have been.
"No." He touched the spot, tracing his knuckles for a moment in astonished disbelief, but there was no sign the golden triangle had ever been there.
//How!? Not even the Sages could... HOW?!//
Ganon roared, smashing his now bare hand through a nearby plinth, shattering the stone to powder.
//No. No. It is /mine/. It is mine and I will have it back.//
It had not been under any power but his own that he had taken Hyrule Castle, killed the king and sent his daughter into exile. Triforce or no, he had proven himself stronger than the pair of Hylian brats and their handful of allies, no matter how many attempts had been made against him. He had fought countless enemies, even within his own ranks, and had always been victorious.
No mercy meant no opposition, no one daring to face his wrath - and his blood now thrummed battle cries beneath his thick skin. It had been a long time, since he had faced a real challenge, anything like a true hunt - and Ganon smiled.