3rd chapter



Only slowly did the confused and formless thoughts take shape in his consciousness, awakening dormant memories in the dark mist. Images swirled around in his young mind, returning with his senses filled with new life. They came to life, were given face and color, called the last hours, the long battle that had finally come to an end, into his memory. He remembered the short time with Zelda ...

His head ached, throbbing unbearably, as if the rolling Goron Hot Rodder from Goronia had personally rolled over him. The increasing intensity also cleared his perception and made Link wake up more and more from his powerlessness.

He felt the feeling of warmth on his skin, could hear it crackling through the air. Blinking, he raised his eyelids, which revealed a blurred world to him, whereupon he squeezed them together again with a soft moan, cursing the pain, which he noticed even more violently, with murmuring noises.

The young man ran one hand through the strands of his blond hair, and at the same moment noticed his own bare skin, which was supposed to be under protective leather. For the first moment his vision was unchanged and trapped under dark veils when he opened his eyes again in amazement.
Carefully he turned his head to one side, examined his other hand, the unveiledness of which gradually revealed itself before his eyes together with the place in which he was.

Someone had taken off his brown leather gloves.

The hero blinked several times, trying to remember the last few minutes he had experienced before he awoke from the blackness around him. But the more Link tried to penetrate into the last experience and to banish the remaining, smoky clouds of mist from his head, the stronger the agonizing hammering that knocked relentlessly on his forehead became.

'Well ... that doesn't work. But where ... where am I here? ', the experienced fighter asked himself the question, while a creeping confusion entered him little by little. He straightened up a bit, only then noticed the damp, cool cloth on his forehead, which slipped from his head and landed on the thin and gray, partly dirty and frayed blankets on which he was lying.

The young man looked around in amazement, explored with curious eyes the place where he had been left to rest. For a brief moment he stared into hungry flames, which eagerly feasted on the almost burned pieces of wood in the old and shabby fireplace in front of him, watched the hot sparks that danced in the air in front of his face.

A little further away to the right, Link discovered individual, partly broken pieces of wood and the meager remnants of a destroyed staircase. A small, wallless section stretched over it, which represented the area to which the collapsed steps must have once led. Dust floats in the dim light of scattered sunbeams falling through small holes in the ceiling.It was a sobering, sad sight that begged the hero of Hyrule, made him feel a feeling of terror and suffering almost on his own skin. It shook the young man and when he tried to get up from the soft material under his body, he noticed a forgotten pain next to the unpleasant shiver that had caught him.

A mean throbbing instantly dominated his chest, triggered by a too hasty movement, chasing painful, but rapidly ebbing stitches through the right side of his upper body.

"Oh, damn it ...", Link sighed, had placed his left hand on the faded, white fabric of the shirt over the wound, which he usually wore together with the delicate chain gwand under his green tunic. Usually, because now he finally noticed the lack of this additional clothing, his equipment, on his body. Instead, he felt the thick bandages of a bandage under the fabric.

His gaze wandered through the devastated, small room, on the dirty floor of which there were broken pottery shards scattered in places. He turned his head to one side and came across a wooden chair with a broken backrest on his left, on which he discovered his clothes and his combat gear, neatly stacked on top of each other.

Where on earth was he here and who had taken care of him? Apparently well-groomed?

Link took a few steps in the direction in which his things were lying on the chair, with every movement he could still feel the tiredness in every part of his body, which was an old magic similarly deep in his bones. His hand reached for the cap between the grappling hook and brown leather.
He cast a curious look into the dark inner workings of the green fabric between his fingers. But out of misguided hope, a desperate sigh escaped the young man's lips.

Under a raging headache, in the midst of many images in his memories that were still shrouded in darkness, he could see a fabulously sweet face that cheekily stuck out its tongue and a shining, brightly shining ball of light then sought quick protection under the green hat he had just finished held in his hands.
But there was no glittering glow there, no wondrous creature from a world that was forgotten in the minds of many. She wasn't here. Had she even left him alone?

What had happened? The last thing he remembered was the beautiful face and blue, crystal clear eyes of his princess.

Exactly at that moment he heard a pleasantly soft, lovely and familiar voice, heard her talking softly, whispering lovingly so that it resembled the whisper of a breath of wind. She called for him ...

"Zelda?" He asked uncertainly, while he closed the lids of his eyes and kept listening to the lovely sound of this voice.
And suddenly his stomach contracted as a frightening thought seized him that made his heart beat into a painfully restless rhythm.What if something had happened to the Princess of Hyrule or she was in danger. He had to go to her! No matter where she or where he was. He would find her because he knew where to look for her first.

Without hesitation, without the possible waste of further, so inexpressibly precious time, the boy in the wrong body reached for his sword with his left hand, held it tightly with his fingers, while he forced all his strength to awaken his fighting spirit and with a brisk movement of the other hand opened the door to the outside.

However, after he stormed out of the little house and immediately came to a standstill on his weak feet, which suddenly wanted to refuse him any service, he got an unexpected, terrible and foul smelling stench, the smell of death and decay . He felt as if he had been hit by a blow, didn't want to believe his eyes and would like to accuse them of showing an untruth, while he himself just stood there and was not able to move even a little further forward.

How was that possible? He had destroyed the dark lord of demons, with him every curse, every evil life in this world.
So why could such a gruesome moment as this arise before his eyes?

He saw two small children playing in front of him, heard their fun laughs and giggles as they happily chased each other - past rotten flower beds whose withered plants jostled over dark earth. They paid no attention to their surroundings, were not bothered by the still burning ruins around them and an inexpressible danger which they were getting closer and closer to.

And he screamed, called for them. But they didn't listen to him, didn't notice the young hero.

They came closer, continued to run towards Link, not perceiving the nameless doom right between them. The young man asked to be heard, hoping they might take notice of him after all and stop ignoring him. Because he didn't know why, but he couldn't move, was frozen, and even his voice seemed to be losing strength, sound.

He tried to escape the horror, defenseless as he was he tried to turn away, but in the same breath felt an unbearable pressure on him. Cold, claw-like hands tore at him and it happened at the same instant that a terribly repulsive creature, whose leathery, brown skin was in tatters in some places, wanted to grab one of the two children, a boy.
Link screamed, feeling a numbing pain shoot through his sword arm as the claws dug into his skin and flesh. But the clinging grip of the monster slipped in one fluid movement through the blond boy, who suddenly lost existence and dissolved into golden, shimmering, sparkling balls that floated in the air like innumerable soap bubbles.

The young man screamed again, called this boy's name.A name he knew only too well. But it was too late…
A dull sound came from his pointy ears as heavy material collided with the paved floor below. His numb fingers had lost their grip on the hilt of his sword and he felt a warm, wet liquid flowing down his injured arm in thin rivulets.

The undead screeched in a deafening sound, which caused cold showers to run down the exhausted fighter's back, which only made him suspect the impending calamity of his unbearable situation even more violently.

The young girl in front of him turned and laughed happily. It smiled.
It smiled directly into the pale face of Left and reminiscent of the purity of a noble crystal, blue eyes looked into his, before the blonde girl closed her eyes and tilted her head to one side, always keeping the gentle smile on her lips.

And he screamed again, but this time not just out of physical agony. A lonely tear crept its way down his cheek and he saw a golden shimmer wrap around the girl's skin as the monster tried to jump on her with everything it had in itself and cling to her innocent body.
A rending pain constricted the heroes of Hyrule's lungs, robbed him of all air to breathe, as bare, sharp teeth sank into his skin and he felt a creepy tearing.

The claws pushed through the fake body and the sudden, bright glow that emanated from him forced Link to close his eyes. But after he managed to open it again, he could still see the sincere smile until it disappeared in the midst of glittering shimmer and the small spheres were carried through the air