Zelda: Duck and Cover

[Mellow Walrus]

Well, I haven't been around here in I don't know how long, sorry 'bout that. I kinda feel selfish for going straight to this board to post my fics, it makes me feel like I'm just plugging things in. But meh, I'll be sure to embrace any thoughts and criticisms you have, so I'll technically be discussing rather than just advertising my writing. Of course, I have a feeling you good folks here will just be glad to see me back~! I'll warn you here though, you might not ever eat a fairy again after you read what I have so far in the prologue. I'll also assure you that the first scene is, in fact, a dream. And no, this isn't any ruttin' cliché plot twist that's all "It was only a dream," then Link wakes up and goes along his merry way. I assure you that this dream will be different, but enough before I spoil anything. Here you go:

((A/N: Fado was the name originally given to the blonde haired Kokiri girl from Ocarina of Time, although her name was never mentioned in game itself, this was merely given by the developers. Then in Wind Waker, the name Fado was reused on the Wind Sage. I will use the Japanese name for him to separate the two, which was "Fodo." Then yet again the name Fado was used for a minor NPC in Twilight Princess from Ordon Village, but he will certainly not be appearing in this story.))

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Prologue

Follow Your Nightmares

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Clusters of luminous fairies encircled Link into a tight vortex while the boy garbed in the Kokiri Tunic found himself knee deep in chilly water. His eyelids spread themselves wide open in awe as he tilted his head to survey his eyes through every direction that his neck would be willing to allow. He was in a shrine like cavern, with marble pillars towering above him and keeping the ceiling standing. Thin threads of aqua dripped from openings in the ceiling that supplied the fountain he currently waded in. It came down like a miniature waterfall from the sky, rather than plummeting in scattered clumps as rain does.

“Wow…†is all Link could whisper to himself, he couldn’t help but grin ear to ear after seeing how impressive this Fairy Fountain was. As the countless fairies flew around him like a swarm of insects, sparkling grains were left by their paths of flight, falling to the pool below and floating along the gently current.

One lone fairy broke away from the flock and slowly approached the boy, slipping out some feminine giggles. “So… you’re my new partner, huh?â€

Link at first raised an eyebrow in disbelief, until the realization finally set in a second later. “W-wait, you’re my…†he stuttered out while pointing a finger at the magical being, with a look on his face as if he’d seen a ghost. A friendly ghost, that is. He reached his hands out to touch the apparent companion, but once they made contact the fairy burst into a gust of powder.

He jumped back in fright and nearly tripped on his own feet. His sweet smile drastically plummeted into a deep frown, which led to his eyes turning moist. He stared in horror at the pile of dust that blanketed his palms. Then, he heard a buzzing noise, then many more buzzing noises similar to the first. Looking up, he was greeted by the flocks of fairies, but they were definitely not the same. Their glow shaded into dark crimson, and they weren’t flying in circles anymore. They were just floating in midair, obviously sending piercing glares to the human standing in the middle of their domain. They suddenly went and zoomed straight forward at him like a frantic swarm of bees, and they sounded like it too.

Before he could do so much as exhale a cringe, all of the glowing ones pelted straight at him with their own bodies and knocked him down on his back with their combined force. Opening his mouth to let out a shrilling scream, his throat was immediately flooded with a legion of fairies that stuffed their way inside of him. His gagged out an attempted scream for help but the sound was drowned out by the intruders.

If nothing was done to clear out his breathing passage, his lungs will drown soon enough as well. He attempted to induce vomiting in hopes of clearing out his throat, but this course of action was interrupted by more of the glowing imps burrowing under his tunic and stampeding across his vulnerable skin. At first this merely tickled as they glided across him, and while that would be aggravating enough in its own right, it was nothing compared to their next course of action: biting. Thousands of needle-like stings pierced into the boy’s body, and he rolled around in the water from side to side in hopes to get them off, but they continued to latch on. They sucked on his blood like he was some kind of fruit.

He made futile attempts to push himself back up to his feet, but the swarms weighed him down too much to let him bulge. He dragged his elbows across the concrete ground that was submerged under the water, and crawled his way forward. Being swarmed to the point of having his vision covered up, he blindly felt around the ground in order to decide where to wander. His fingers bumped against dry stone, so he felt his hands around more of this new surface. He wrapped his grip around what felt to be someone’s ankle.

Soon after, he heard a choir of laughter in front of him. He frantically swatted all of the creatures around his face so that he’d be able to look at his surroundings with his own eyes. Traveling his eyes upward while clinging for dear life, he saw the figure as a freckle-faced redhead. It was Mido, and he had a smug grin on his face. “No fairy! No fairy!†he began to chant, then several other Kokiri boys standing by his side joined in without hesitation. Others among the crowd simply burst into hysterics and pointed fingers at the struggling kid. Juggling both pain and humiliation at the moment, he started to drag himself in the opposite direction and try getting away from at least one problem. Turned away, he felt a stone slam into his backside. Jerking his head over his shoulder, he glared back toward the perpetrators.

While it wasn’t certain which one of the Kokiri children were responsible for the act, Link saw something that immediately caught his eye. Mido’s arms were wrapped two girls with blonde and green hair, respectively. They were Fado and Saria.

If his throat were clear, he would have growled deeply at the older Kokiri, there’d probably also be a fit of yelling. That was simply impossible at the moment though, so he fumbled himself up to his feet while struggling against the fairies, which were pulling him back like the strings on a puppet. After much struggling he was up, and staggered toward the crowd with his fists balled up. His first steps were a great start, until the fairies began to focus their strength onto his legs, tripping him and causing him to plummet to his knees.

Everyone snickered louder; he even saw a few chuckles slip out of Saria’s lips. He continued to inch himself towards Mido despite being reeled backwards, with the intent of throwing a good punch or two. Sure violence was not in his nature, not in the slightest, but it’s completely understandable that something snapped in the boy. Besides some snapped bones by the hands of the meddling fairies, this was something psychological that snapped.

Then Fodo, the blonde haired Kokiri garbed in a kilt, took a few steps into the shallow side of the pool and readied his leaf-like violin on his shoulder for his position. “Well now, how about I play a sad song for you, hmm?†he asked while looking down on him with a sly smile on his lips. He skimmed his bow across the strings and produced a soothing tune, which prompted arching eyebrows of disbelief from Link. The pace of the song gradually increased in speed bit by bit, and then Link noticed something about the water. There was a small current brushing against him, and it was only noticeable when the song started getting faster.

Fodo’s smile grew wider and he stared at Link with sinister eyes. He suddenly sawed on the fiddle, playing it hot at an incomprehensible speed. With every scrape across with the bow it made an evil hiss, at the velocity the playing was going there were enough hisses to critically pierce Link’s ears with the pileup of shrill screeches. He dove his head under the water and barricaded the ears with his palms, drowning wasn’t an issue because his throat was clogged as it was.

Even submerged underwater, the devilish fiddle playing still penetrated his hearing. The currents blew harder as the playing continued to escalate beyond the impossible. He dug his claws into the cement base of the pull and tried to hand on for dear life. Then he was thrown off balance when more stones pelted against his ribs. He was immediately swept away by the flow once he let off his guard for a split second, and noticed a trail of red oozing out of his lower chest that was being left behind him during his uncontrollable soaring under the water. Before he could react he passed through murky blood that blended into the water; the current was going in circles and he already made one full cycle. He simply rested his flailing and let himself get caught in the whirlpool, while his small body scraped itself across the stone bottom due to the shallowness of the pond.

Within moments he was swallowed into the heart of the whirlpool, being pulled into an underwater jet stream that pulled him in with all of its might. He was drifting along the tides for what seemed like eternity; throughout all the pain he didn’t even realize that he needed a source of air. He eased his eyes shut and began to shut down his body. Then something hooked him by his tunic’s collar.

Then he was suddenly hoisted up to the surface, under a blue sky with a terrain surrounded by rugged crags. As suddenly as he had been plucked out of the nearby river, he was jerkily flung onto the dusty ground. He rolled over onto his back to find out who’s going to kick him down this time, and he saw a large man with dark skin and red hair, having some type of gem embedded into his forehead.

Realizing that all of the fairies were expelled out of his body during the underwater adventure, he suddenly panted for air several seconds at a time, and gathered his strength for speech. He gulped. “…You going to beat me up?†he asked, trying to look the mighty figure in the face, but the sun was in an unfortunate position; it was right around the man’s shoulders. Instead he looked down to his feet.

The Gerudo man smirked at the boy’s words and laughed. “Why, you don’t even have a fairy as a partner! I’m not going to beat a pathetic kid like you, you’re frail and weak!†Chuckling some more, he began to walk away from the boy with his back turned.

Link winced at his harsh words. Even though he went through hell with the fairies back in the fountain, he still needs a partner. None of the Kokiri foresters take him seriously due to the fact that he’s yet to have gotten one. He got up and pattered his feet after the man to catch up. “W-wait! I want one though; everyone picks on me because I don’t have one!â€

The man stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulders, seeming to expect this plea for help. “Go to the Lost Woods, wander around that forest until your partner finds you there.†He began to continue his walk, hiding a nefarious grin with his back turned. Then he recalled another bit of information to tell him, so he turned his head again to look at the boy. “And don’t return to your home until you’ve done so. You’ll just look like the biggest fool of time.â€

Link woke up in his sweat stained bed, panting for breath.

[Mellow Walrus]

Ick, my computer was on the fritz for a couple weeks straight. I've been trying to work on this fanfic as much as I can, but after I didn't have access to what I've done so far it put me into a bit of a slump. I kind of rushed this one down to catch up, but I think I managed to get the message across that I planned on doing. After this I'll be about two thirds of the way through the chapter, or halfway through depending on exactly how long I want to stretch it out.

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Dawn of Yesterday

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Saria hiked out from her home and into the dimly lit atmosphere of Kokiri Forest, illuminated only by the faint purple that drenched the eastern side of the sky, signifying that the sun will soon poke its way above the treetops. Still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she staggered across the dirt path that led to Link’s treehouse, dragging a basket behind her using only one hand’s grip.

Her orange-shaded fairy hovered right over her shoulder as always, with an attitude more bubbly than her barely conscious partner. Blood fused with magic tends to inject heaps of energy in a person, after all. “Umm, wait Sarry!†the pixie said, after the two had trekked for a few moments. The green haired Kokiri looked over to focus on the sudden outburst, with a quiet but wary look on her face. “…Sorry Saria, sorry, I just remembered! I shouldn’t have woken you up; I forgot there won’t be others washing stuff at the brook today…â€

The Kokiri blinked and pondered for a moment, then sighed and gave an assuring smile. “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the sunrise anyway!†she said cheerfully, then reached her hand out to gently pat the floating one, being careful not to crush her partner due to the extreme difference of sizes. This prompted Milly, her fairy, to shine a little brighter. “Are all the other girls pitching in to clean up the shop, after those Tektites smashed the place up last night?

The fairy bobbed up and down in midair, as a way to pull off a nod. “Yeah, it got put down real quick, but it still wrecked the place up.â€

Saria made a grimace and shuddered. “Maybe we should lend a hand later… I’ve been putting off laundry for about a week already though; I really need to get that out of the way.†She said, marching on and nearing closer to Link’s house. After thinking on how she worded it, she gave herself an inward scowling, but assured herself that she’d help later on, at least.

Milly noticed her suddenly glum look, and picked up on it immediately. “Hey, the sun hasn’t even risen yet! Don’t you worry, we’ve still got plenty of time to help out later!†she chimed, which broke Saria into slipping out a grin.

Satisfied, the fairy whizzed her way past Saria and towards Link’s house, being used to the schedule and not needing her partner to request a thing. She soared up several yards into the air in order to reach the boy’s doorstep, taking the fact that she can bypass the ladders for granted. She dug her way through the curtains that stood in the entrance as a makeshift doorway, and peeked inside. She had heard footsteps from within, and once her eyes were inside it was confirmed that Link was indeed up and about. She nearly jumped upon realizing he was currently active; she normally has to bounce on top of his forehead before he even opened an eyelid. She catapulted herself into the center of the room and buzzed around Link, preparing herself to demand some answers. “Hey, Link! What are ya doing up this early, huh?†she barked out, clearly overreacting to what was likely just a break from habit.

While Link did jump back at the loud one barging into his hope, he suddenly gained his ground and continued along his business, which was currently the act of gathering loose items around his house and stuffing them into his knapsack. The fairy continued to hover in the air statically, and Link soon realized she was getting impatient. “…Oh, sorry. My head’s kinda out of there right now. Now what were you wanting?â€

Milly growled under her breath, but gulped down to suppress her frustration over him being unfazed by his entrance. “…Yes, like I said, what in Farore are you doing? Ya moving out or something?â€

While pondering on the answer, he reached out for the bowl of trail mix that lay still on top of the room’s most prominent table made from an average sized tree trunk. “Yeah, something like that…†he began, drifting to the other side of the room and reaching out for the dressers. Pulling one of the drawers open, he rummaged through it until he found the lid he was looking for. He looked over his shoulder to the glowering fairy, knowing she was expecting the rest of this story. “…Well, I’m going to go out to the Lost Woods for a bit… maybe for a day or two…â€

“Huh? What? The Lost Woods, why? Do you just feel like wandering around all of the sudden?â€

Lowering his head down, he flatly shrugged. He stuck the lid on top of the bowl, screwing it in thoroughly to make sure it’s airtight. He turned back to look at Milly, and decided to bring up another topic. “So, are the clothes dried up now?â€

“I, uh..†she fumbled for her words, then dashed out of his room to return to the forest air. Once at the balcony of Link’s tree house, she spotted her Kokiri partner picking the garments out of clotheslines right at the base of the house. “Hey, Sarry! Are they dry yet?†she shouted down in order to penetrate Saria’s distant ears.

She tilted her head up from her work and gave her fairy a nod. “Yeah, I’ll send it right up for Link in a second!†With that, she rushed to pile up the remainder of the apparel into her basket, while Link heard her and knew what he had to do. He stepped out into the balcony and made his way near the wooden railings to reach out for the pulley mechanism installed near the ladder. It was crudely made from not much more than a rope hooked on a post, but it was still rather durable. The girl down below sprung forward when she saw him in position, and tied the basket onto the simple machine. “Ready!†she shouted up to him.

He began to pull on the mechanism immediately once the word was given. Being used to this labor, he tugged at the rope which in turn gradually began to hoist up the other burdens on the other end. While he didn’t break any sweat, it remained an uncomfortable act, knowing that if he slipped the basket would crash down. Still holding on, he stopped the reeling progress for a second to take a breath, then returned back to the business and finished the job. He tucked his leg under one side of the belt of twine, using it to keep the thing in place while he retrieved the basket. After reaching out over the railings, he slung his arms over it and latched onto the basket, untying it while making sure he keeps a firm grasp on the basket’s handles. Soon enough he was successful in disabling the knot, and heeled the laundry. Once it finally made its way within the boundaries of the balcony, he immediately slung it onto the wooden floor. By this point the sweat managed to break loose from Link’s forehead, prompting him to wipe the moistness with his sleeve, slouch down, and take plenty of refreshing pants for air.

Watching the boy as he succumbed to a burst of exhaustion, Milly couldn’t help but snicker under her breath. Knowing she better let him relax for a second, she looked down from the balcony. “Hey, can you take the laundry in the house for him? He looks all pooped out!â€

“Oh, alright!†Saria called back, making way up the ladder. Once up on the deck, she made her way inside until she caught someone in the corner of her eyes. It was Link, succumbed to exhaustion and laying down, leaning his head against the railings. She looked down to him and giggled. “Not gonna procrastinate on the laundry anymore, are ya?†He tried to glare at her over that comment, but it came off as more of a blush than anything else. She gave a soft smile and patted his head. “I won’t make you pull that much anymore, ‘k?†After seeing him nod in a form of thanks, she was satisfied and returned back inside.

She roamed around the room and herded loose scraps of apparel that lay scattered all over the floors. Muttering under her breath about disapproval over his cleaning ability, she pushed through the chore and gathered all of the clothes she could find, conjugating together in the basket like vats of all the ghastly smells that don’t cross the line of knocking the one to smell it unconscious. Doing the thing any sane person would do, she scuttled outside and reached toward the rope.

Link was back up on his feet and looked to be good as new, resting his arm over the wooden bars. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this…†he said, as he stepped forward to get in front of Saria.

She resisted the advance however, and blocked his way to the pulley device. “No, no. You’ve already strained yourself, it’s alright.â€

The blonde haired one snorted. “Says the one who doesn’t have to pull.†He teased, sticking out his tongue to her. “I mean, think of it as a slope. Pulling it up is like walking up a slope. Letting it slide down is like walking down a slope.â€

Saria rolled her eyes. “Hey, this means you don’t have to pull it next time, so you better sit on the side and relax.†The boy chuckled and nodded. After nearly effortlessly letting the basket gradually slide down the rope, she looked back to the east, still not seeing the sun yet. “Hey, wanna go up your place and see the sunrise?†she said, almost pleading.

“..Yeah, sure.†Is all he said, hesitating because the sound of the idea seemed uncomfortable to him. Nevertheless, Saria didn’t notice and just made a cheeky grin. She began the climb upward first, pulling herself up the various branches that protruded from the sides of Link’s tree home. After seeing her get a head start, he tailed along and made his way upward as well. Once they reached a suitable sized branch that would support the two of them, they settled there and made sure to turn their attention to the upcoming sunrise. A blanket of orange fizzed across the horizon, shrouding the violet blue that formerly swept the skies just minutes ago. The faint outlines of jagged mountaintops etched miles away, looking like little more than the silhouettes of prickly spikes. Most of the Kokiri have never seen mountains with their own eyes, being quarantined in the forests for the entirety of their lives. Without knowledge of the outside world, they could only imagine these shadows in the sunrise as being distant trees of unusual shapes.

Once Milly caught up to the scene, the trio did no more than just stare at the beacon that rose above the faraway treetops and mountain chains. Saria was nearly hypnotized by this, staring as if under a trance. While Link did enjoy watching this event, he still saw it as a normal occurrence in everyday life, and treated it as no more than that. Milly was too focused on what Link had told her earlier, and couldn’t for the life of her scratch it out of her head. Once the sun was halfway up, she broke the silence. “Hey… Link? Can you uh… tell me exactly on what you were planning to do in the lost woods?â€

Link cringed.