(ZGen)(Act) The Legend of Zelda: Kilrok's Waters (T)

Note: I will try to do a chapter a day.

WELL THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN! HAH!



Introduction

"I'm sure you have heard the tale of the goddesses. Of course you have. Well sit, child. There is another story that needs to be told. An untold yarn of woe and triumph. Please, sit, sit. Close your eyes."

"Look into this dark void of chaos and destruction. Evil and good are combined in the mighty pot of space -- swirling and swooping through the void of Kilrok. Kilrok, the mighty realm containing the evils and goods of everything - Air, land, and water. Air is the goodness of the soul, land is the calm distinction of the mind, and water was the pure evil of force and strife."

"In this mighty chaos, beings from a separate and foreign world -- a world of ultimate power -- find Kilrok in chaos. Combining the goods of the Kilrok, they used their mighty forces to create the living, stable, breathing world of Hyrule -- a land of happiness and well being. Chaos is no more, only order remains.""

"But what became of Kilrok's waters, child? Where did the mighty goddess store the evil of Kilrok? Do you know? Because good cannot exist without evil."

Chapter 1

Whistles of gleeful birds flowed through the open windows. Air traveled inside the cot, flowing and swirling towards a young man asleep on a small oaken bed. His blond hair fluttered in the breeze. A small anticipation could be felt in the wind as it carried a message.

Slowly, his eyes fluttered open revealing bright blue eyes full of innocence. The light wind woke him with its silver ambience. Pushing the white sheets off, he laid his legs over the edge of the bed and yawned, pushing his arms above his head.

With a sudden burst of energy, he lifted himself off the bed, onto his feet, almost hitting the tall ceiling. The morning air felt good on his skin. He slowly moved himself towards his dresser and pulled out his clothing. The tan cotton cloth of the garment slipped onto his upper body, which he brushed down with his hands in order to take the animal hair off. He also slipped on his dark brown trousers.

“Link! Hey, Link!” A voice echoed from outside the window. “The shop is ready to open. I hope you finished that sword for Alto. He’s been expecting it for the past three days and you promised to have it done by today!”

Link sighed and went to the corner of his cot and picked up a small, green notebook. Walking slowly outside with uncertain anticipation of his brother’s rants of his laziness, he flipped through the text filled pages of names, numbers, and items. “Link, you might be better at metal crafting then me but I am still your big brother. I expect you to have things done on time.” Link continued walking, ignoring his brother.

The orange morning sun blinded Link as he walked through the center of town past the recently built Nayru Fountain. The town was not very large, mostly composed of small brick buildings and wooden cots. The brick buildings were reserved mostly for shops and stores, except the lucky few with money, while the cots were strictly homes for the citizens of Hyrule City.

As Link kept walking, tracking dust in his path, he saw his Metal Crafting Shop approaching. It was a nice, small brown brick building with a blue tarp hanging over the front entryway. His brother had been talking the whole time but Link really only started to pay attention to him again at that moment. “Link, don’t forget about Juma’s order too. He ordered a shield six days ago. I hope you have finished. He did want it by tomorrow but it’s always a good idea to finish early.”

Ignoring his brother’s berate of commands, he stepped inside the shop onto a hard, stone floor. He looked across the room at the window on the other side which nicely framed an enormous, white and blue castle being built. Link had only heard details about this but from what he has heard, the goddesses bestowed Kinghood upon a citizen of Hyrule. Link did not hear how this happened but he’s content with his well off metal shop. Kings and godly things do not affect him much, to his opinion, so he often didn’t care about such things. He never wished to become involved in anything of that enormity. He was happy here with his brother, his town folk, and his shop.

I like how you have Link doing metalurgy. That's a craft well-suited to someone strong (and this sounds like a TP Link followup, who is physically stronger than the other ones, it seems).

Decided not to include fire in your original universal makeup, I see? Ah well...promethius would not be happy :0P'' But, as you said in the chat, you weren't basing this off of the Greeks' logic.

Chapter 2


The slapping of sandals on the hard floor signaled the presence of a customer in Link’s shop. He looked up in mid-swing of a hammer on a boiling hot rough sword. The customer tracked a small amount of dust into the building, causing the room to become a bit of a haze giving everything a light brown hue as the sunlight rushed through it. Link recognized him as the man his brother mentioned earlier: Juma.

“Hey Link,” Juma said. Link smiled and nodded towards Juma and got straight back to work. “Do you have my shield for me?”

Link’s shoulders sagged a bit. “Oh, I see…” Juma said, “How much longer do you need? A few hours, another day?” Link just shook his head. “Alright, another day it is. I’m not in much of a hurry, I just need the shield for a new recruit into the Hylian Army the new Royal Family is forming. I’m not sure why they feel a need for an army. Up until now it seemed that all we needed swords and shields for were hunting and hobby. Now it seems the Royal Family has been warned of something we are not aware of. Why did the gods have to pick a royal family? I really think we were quite happy as we were, not as we are.”

Link was really only half listening mostly because he had heard this speech from his uncle every day, more then he’d like to hear. The dust was starting to settle again causing a grey-brown matte finish on every object in the room including Link’s new sword.

“Hey, that’s nifty Link. Do that on purpose?” Link had no idea what he was talking about but then Link looked down at the sword and saw that the dust had melted on the sword, giving it a look of dripped glaze on brown pottery. The dust had melted into a bright red color, giving it a look of blood.

“Well, I’ll be back tomorrow for my shield. I expect it to look as interesting as that sword, okay?” Link again nodded and got back to work on the sword. Juma left with the slap of his sandals tracking dust back out with him, pushing the dust back into the air.


Sparks flew from the sword as Link slammed his hammer onto the bright red metal. The girl saw the sparks jumping out onto the street giving the side of the brick building a tiny amount of light as if fireflies were mating on the doorstep. The sun had already set on the small city and tiny candles gave the townsfolk light for the evening as they read poetry and stories to their small children.

The girl walked into Link’s shop, causing a dark shadow to splay itself across the floor with each spark of Link’s Hammer. She made no sound on the hard floor – no slap of feet nor sandal. Her features were silhouetted by the outdoor light caused by the numerous candles. Link didn’t notice her presence until she was a little more then two feet away from him. He looked up suddenly, startled by the unexpected presence of the girl.

Link was about to talk as the girl put her finger up to his lips. “Shhh… follow me.” Her voice was liquid mercury on marble – spreading itself through the air unmentionably smoothly. “Oh wait… bring that sword with you… and that shield.” Link didn’t know what was going on but when she touched his arm, he felt a searing pain in his palm as he saw a bright gold glow seep into the air, giving a better glimpse of the girl’s face.

Very well writen. I like it. Keep em coming Lem. *kudo*

Chapter 3


Pure. Pure skin, pure eyes, pure mouth, pure radiant hair. Link had never seen a face as pure as this girl's. The beauty was indescribable, yet not overwhelming. It was a face one could immediately fall in love with in a single glance. Through the searing pain of his palm, he felt another glow in his heart which overwhelmed the pain.

"Come, Link. You must be quick." Her voice of mercury poured over him. Link nodded and followed the girl through the midnight haze.

Shadows were surrounding the couple in peaceful silence, cast by the glowing fires of the newly installed street lamps. Link was not sure why but the girl stayed in the shadows, despite the lurking iniquity within the darkness. Why is it safety is found within shadows?

They weaved themselves through buildings, alleyways, small underground corridors, until they found themselves near the ever looming castle. Link looked up at the fortress walls as the girl glided to a small door imbedded in the stone.

"Link, through here... quickly, they're watching." The last few words caught Link. Who's watching? Why are they hiding? Why are they by the castle? So many unanswered questions ran through his head for less then a split second before he ran up to door the girl was holding open.

They walked inside the dark room, the room smelled old, not new. It was slightly musty and stuffy and a small amount of dust could be felt floating around in the air. Link could hardly see in it at all with the dim moonlight sifting through the open door, let alone when the girl closed the door. As his eyes adjusted he could see a thin glow from the other side of the room in a square shape which he recognized as another door.

"Link..." she said, calling him from the other door. "I know this is sudden and I know I am going to be asking a lot but I need you to do this for me. No, not just me, for Hyrule. You, unknowingly, have been chosen. I am not sure why but the gods chose you to be courage. The glow on your hand is part of a sacred object called the Triforce. You have courage, I was blessed with wisdom, and power has yet to be revealed to me but I constantly feel its presence.

"In dreams you were revealed to me as the possessor of courage. I was told in the dream to seek you and together we must meet the King. I am not sure what this concerns but I know it is best to follow the messages of dreams. I was also told that everyone in the castle, including the King and Queen, have been consumed by a dark power. I am again, not aware of what these powers are but, alas, if you or I are seen together in the castle we will be killed immediately and our Triforce extracted. But we must not disobey the orders of dreams. We must meet the King.

"You must enter this hallway outside this door and make your way to the King. He is in the throne room on the first floor of the castle. If you are seen, you must kill the soldier, or anyone, before they alert anyone else. And yes, I mean anyone. All the people in the castle have been possessed -- women, children, soldiers -- and if you are seen they will immediately alert the guards and we will not be able to escape.

"I know I am pushing you into something of which you are not aware but I have no choice. This could be a matter of life or death and not just for us but for all of our world. I will follow you but do not worry about me, I can keep myself safe." She pushed the sword and the shield towards Link's chest. "Use these as best you can. I know you are but a metalsmith but do not think I am unaware of your secret practice with the sword and shield. You are more capable then you think, use it to your advantage."

Link did not understand. Triforce? Dreams? Hero? He had heard of the Triforce, of course, but it had always been sort of a myth -- A bedtime story for children concerning the creation of Hyrule. But he actually possessed a piece of it? And what is this of dreams? How could this girl, without ever meeting him, have dreams about him? How could she know that he is a "hero?" He did not know what to do.

But as he stood wondering, the girls eyes could be felt piercing his soul. He knew, even with all these questions, that she was right. He felt it within him the soft glow of a golden power -- The soft glow of courage. He felt it grow warmer as he slowly pushed the door open feeling the slight heat of firelight stroke his forearm.

Chapter 4


Creeping out father and farther, he didn’t see any guards roaming this hallway. But Link was not naïve, he knew that they had to be somewhere. With the constant recruiting that has been going on lately, there had to be plenty of them. But as he kept walking past door after door, window after window, hallway after hallway, he never even once ran into a guard.

That’s when he noticed it, a huge courtyard outside one of the windows. In the courtyard, still seemingly being nurtured into a full fledged castle garden, Link saw the oddest sight. Hundreds of soldiers, perhaps a thousand were lined up in front of a golden cauldron radiating a strange glow of black. A large, muscled man seemed to be scooping the purple and red liquid from the pot and pouring it on top of the soldiers. But strangely, the liquid did not make the soldiers wet but seemed to soak into their skin and armor like acetone spilled on paper.

Link suddenly realized he was staring out the window in plain view of all the soldiers and quickly jumped onto his stomach and crawled to the floor. Hopefully no one had seen him, he thought. He knew he was close to the throne room, it was in the back of the enormous castle and when he looked out the window he saw he was nicely near the rear of the castle.

He decided to stay on his stomach for now, deciding that he is not quite experienced enough yet to take on hundreds of soldiers at one time. It felt weird though, sneaking around what he would expect is a friendly castle. But the girl told him otherwise. He knew he must follower her advice: kill anyone he is spotted by. So far he was in the clear, though.

Thankfully, he got to a door at the end of the hallway hopefully leading into the throne room. Doors are a strange thing, though. Only Nayru knows what is on the other side and he could very well push the door open right into a soldier, which it did swing outward unfortunately. But he knew he wasn’t going back as a coward just because he was afraid to open a door. Once again, he slowly opened a door.

This time, there was no fire light greeting him but a seemingly soft red glow throughout the whole room. The walls were aphotic despite the bloom of light coming from an unknown source. He shut the door behind him only to see it disappear into the black walls. Suddenly, he noticed that his skin seemed to have an incandescence to it that slowly got brighter. He walked forward a bit more and heard a small click and noticed he had stepped onto some sort of switch on the floor.

He wasn’t sure what had happened at first but slowly saw the red light grow brighter and brighter, almost blinding. Like a collapsing star, all the light abruptly condensed into one single spot floating in midair. Link wasn’t sure if he was imaging it but it seemed that from the spot of light, a small droplet seemed to be growing from it. After a couple of seconds, he was sure of it as a droplet of purple and red fell from the light onto the floor making a small puddle of swirling black, red, and purple.

As quickly as the droplet fell, the puddle seemed to start shifting its shape, growing larger and larger taking on a vague humanoid shape but it was definitely anything but human. It seemed to smile at him, a disgusting smile of not teeth but purple gel covering the inside of his mouth. Swirls of the gel fell out of the mouth and molded with his skin making a design of elaborate twists of violet.

Link was in shock and still slightly blinded from the bright light. All of this had happened in little more than 5 seconds and gave him little time to respond as the creature launched himself at Link. He tried to dodge the monstrosity but the thing landed on top of his right shoulder and started gnawing on Link’s neck.

As quickly as he could, Link removed his sword from its sheath on his back while shaking the thing off his shoulder—he could feel a numb pain from his neckline but ignored it. He quickly whipped his sword around but the creature tried to dodge the blow and come at Link’s neck once again. Swiftly, Link countercut the monster and watched as its torso tumbled off the bottom half, gel poured from both halves onto the floor casting itself into the floor. Rapidly, the body deflated and finally disappeared.

The gel had covered the whole room from ceilings to walls to floors. Finally Link came back to his senses from a ostensibly ultra-focused state. He put the sword back in its sheath noticing that it was glowingly slightly and not even a drop of purple coagulate was on it. He took a step forward and saw the purple crack under his feet and spread to the whole room which caused the whole of the purple to fall of in sheets like a broken mirror revealing the stone walls and a small alcove in the wall that the pitch black was hiding as well as a door.

Inside the alcove was a large chest with ornate decorations but it looked like it needed a key to get open so Link passed on it for now and went to the door. Finally, he felt the heat of fire again as he pushed it open. Finally, he could tell, it was the throne room – grand and bright.

He could see, as he pushed the door open more, the throne about 30 feet away with a regal old man dressed in purple and red robes with a large aurulent crown placed on his equally gold hair. His face was down in his hands but his ears seemed to move slightly when Link closed the door.

“Who’s there?” The king said, “Who is it? What do you want? I’ve told you to stay away from me!” He lifted his head. Link saw the man’s face completely in distress. Green eyes shone in dismay and grey was littering his golden beard. “Who are you?”

Link didn’t speak. He didn’t want to alarm the man too much.

“I know you. I’ve seen you before. You are the goldsmith correct? No, no. The goldsmith’s son. Right, you are the town’s metalsmith?”

Link nodded.

“What are you doing here? How did you get past the tocsins?” That’s when he noticed the sword and shield on Link’s back. “You… fought your way in? A lowly metalsmith battled his way through the tocsins? Your name is Link, correct?”

Link walked closer to the throne as the King continued to talk.

“You are not one to be underestimated, Link. So, what brings you here?”

Link shrugged in completely honestly.

“Actually, Link, I do know why you're here," A look of enlightenment covered the King's face, "I’ve been praying to Farore for days wishing for a man of courage to come to my aid and I think you are him! Well, Link, I need to ask you something. Something of great importance to Hyrule. You see, I am being held here against my will. My family has been hidden from me and I fear the worst.

“I must tell you something, Link. Have you ever wondered what is past the high mountains to the east and the great desert to the west – what is on the other side of the great Kingdom of Hyrule? Well, Link, the whole of that side is a huge ocean of water but it's not just ordinary water but Kilrok’s waters.

“The waters of Kilrok are the complete collection of evil within this world and it has found intelligence – sentience – and it is starting to act on its own and it has already taken this castle and will also take me but is unable because of this.”

The King pulled up his sleeve and Link could see an imprint of a Triforce on the King’s wrist and the top Triforce was gleaming gold.

”I have the Triforce of Power and Kilrok’s Waters are powerless against me while I have it. You, Link, are much the same and have the Triforce of Courage. Please, Link, you must find my family. I am almost sure they have taken my family to the shores of Kilrok’s Waters that the Dark Tribe inhabits. Please Link.”

Just then, Link saw the angelic girl from earlier appear from the door Link had entered from.

“Zelda!” the King exclaimed.

Chapter 5


The look on Zelda’s face was anything but expected. The King obviously knew who she was but she obviously was completely surprised that he knew her.

“How do you know my name?” She asked, stopped dead in her tracks with the door still hanging open behind her.

“I—“ the King tried to explain.

“Nevermind! There’s no time! Link!” Link jumped at his name being barked out, “The guards, they’re coming here. They’re maybe a few seconds away we have to get out of here, Now!”

Zelda had a mixture of fear and excitement plastered on her face. Link quickly ran to Zelda, he knew it must be serious. Zelda and Link quickly walked through the door but not before the King put in his last words:

“Take care of her,” Link heard him say. It was a calm voice, almost unnatural.

~ ~ ~


“Link! Link!” He heard Zelda yelling his name. They were running down the hallway Link had crawled along earlier. Link was lagging a bit behind Zelda. He was thinking, trying to reason everything that was going on.

The King’s family was taken away from him to the shores of Kilrok’s Waters. Kilrok’s Waters seems to be the source of all this going on. He seemed to know Zelda from somewhere and also apparently cared for her in some way. The King also has the Triforce of Power, Zelda has Wisdom, and Link has Courage. Now that he thought of it, Zelda had seemed a bit familiar to him when he first saw her, but in a weird “seen her in dreams” sort of way. And didn’t the King say something about a Dark Tribe?

They were again walking by the windows that looked out into the courtyard. It was strangely empty now and the huge cauldron was missing. It was a beautiful sight, really. The sky seemed clear with a bit of purple hue rising over the edge of the castle as the sun rose higher, always a symbol of hope. But, unfortunately, not at the moment as Zelda and Link both discovered where the soldiers had disappeared to: right in front of them.

“Link, stand back.” Why would she want him to stand back? They’re both going to die if she does this alone! What the hell is wrong with her? He tried to ignore her and push himself into the sprawling mass of soldiers but he felt Zelda grab onto his shirt and shove him behind her. “Get out of the way, Link!”

Watching, Link saw as Zelda created a huge almost liquid sphere of light in on of her hands and discharge it at the center of the mass. Bone and flesh flew everywhere as soldiers were launched from the magical blast. “Follow behind me, I’ll clear the way. Whatever you do, don’t get in my way.”

Maybe he was just crazy but he just saw a delicate woman shoot a giant ball of liquid death from the palm of her hand. Why hadn’t she gone to talk to the King herself? Link was sure she could’ve handled herself fine.

He followed after her through the huge crowd of soldiers, periodically killing any soldiers who happened to try and jump from the side. But he was nothing compared to her. She was slaughtering 30 or more soldiers at the same time with her liquid death ball while all he could do was kill the stray one or two ever couple minutes.

Even if she was fantastic, she was ruthless. She seemed so gentle before but Link didn’t know if that was true anymore. Finally, they got to the room they had entered the castle from before. Zelda blasted the few soldiers in the way directly through the door letting light pour into the once midnight-black cavity. Now Link knew why it was so musty in the room, it was filled with dead people – a lot of dead people. Hanging from walls, mostly, and they seemed fresh mostly due to the fact that the room only smelled of age, not death. Zelda didn’t give him much time react, though. She grabbed his arm and tugged on him, jarring his neck a bit, and pulled him out the door, soldiers following.

They kept running, for a long, long time. They passed the town, the forest, the brook that runs past the forest splitting it from Hyrule Plains; they ran completely across the Plains to a small lake on the other side where cattlemen usually let their cows have a drink. Link was entirely exhausted. Zelda was visibly sweating but it hardly looked like she was even breathing heavily. She was quite the women.

Link gave her a look of admiration. “Stop looking at me like that,” with “that” she jumped into the lake, fully clothed, “C’mon, I know you are tired.”

Unlike her, Link wanted dry clothing so he took off his clothes, sword, and shield and jumped in nude.

“You’re probably wondering what happened back there, aren’t you?”

Link nodded profusely. Of course he’s wondering. Actually, wondering is an understatement at this moment.

“Well, after you left I decided to follow you to make sure you’d be okay. I didn’t want you dying or anything. So, about five minutes after you left I followed you. I could see you in the distance as you walked inside the far door.

“I assumed that they would’ve set up some sort of security against people sneaking in to see the King. So I quickly ran to catch up with you but when I tried to open up the door, it was locked. So, I tried to find an alternate way in. I walked around looking for another door to no purpose. I never found a door. So, I walked back to the first door you walked in to and as I was walking there I looked to my left out the window and noticed a crowd of guards out side performing some ritual. Unfortunately, one saw me as soon as I saw it. Not sure what else to do, I quickly ran to the door and blasted it open and ran to the opposite door.

“That’s when I noticed a chest and a key on the ground. I’m not sure if you might have missed it but I picked it up and quickly opened the chest to find this.”

She reached down into her wet clothing and pulled out some sort of mask. It was heart shaped and made of wood. It had spikes coming out the top with complex etchings in the front giving a vague look of a human with large, insect-like eyes.

“I’ve seen something like this before. Have you heard of the Dark Tribe, Link?”

Lick nodded uncertainly.

“I imagine the King had mentioned them to you vaguely. Well, they create masks much like this but usually with bright colors painted on them. This one looks incomplete but it’s one of the most menacing I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure why they were keeping it in the castle but it must’ve been of great importance to hide it there. I’ll hold on to it for now

“In any case, I grabbed the mask and that’s when I came into the Throne Room and grabbed you.”

Link wanted to ask the obvious question but she answered it before he could.

“Link, I do need to explain something. Dreams are an amazing thing in this world. They can tell the past, the future, the present. They can venture into a realm otherwise unknown. They can either tell us useful things or hone our skills of survival by drilling our reaction skills. They’re an important thing in this world.

“Much like how I had a dream and knew your name, I much imagine the same is with the King. But I’m not sure why. As far as I am aware, Hylians with triforces are the only beings who can see into the future.”

Link gave Zelda a look. She knew what it meant.

“No, he can’t be! He has the Triforce of Power?”

Link nodded again.

“That explains it. Why he knew me, why he is still alive, why he’s not corrupted. What did he tell you in there?”

Link explained the situation with the King’s family and how the King prayed for Link to come.

“Well, that settles that. We have to go see the dark tribe. Actually, I think you might be able to handle that alone. I have… business I need to attend to,” she handed him an amulet from a pocket in her clothing, “If you have any troubles just blow on this amulet and I’ll come as fast as I can. I promise you, Link, we’ll discover what is going on. Something here spews the gases of evil and we’ll both find it.”

With that, she lifted herself out of the dark pond, soaking wet from hair to toe. With finesse, she took her hands and put them in front of her body and miraculously seemed to pull the liquid from her body.

“I’ll see you soon, Link.”

He watched as she sprinted back to the Town, hair flowing. He could see the sun had raised more and it peaked as a sliver from the forest top. The light glimmered off the pool and from her hair as it flipped in the air.

Any comments would be nice.

This is a Majora's Mask prequel, isn't it?

If the mask itself wasn't enough of a hint, the story takes place in ancient times–very ancient, seeing as how the Royal Family has just begun–which fits in with what the Happy Mask Salesman said about the time period in which Majora's Mask was used.

Now, Zelda appears to be very strong and active, compared to the games where she is typically weak and lets/has to let Link do everything, so at first I thought that this was set in Termina (this Zelda being the Terminian one), but you mentioned that the King has the Triforce of Power, so I'm not sure about that.

Anyway, your word choice and grammar is very good, though the events of chapters two and three seemed awfully rushed (Link quickly being kidnapped and then believing absolutely everything his mysterious kidnapper has to say). I also get the feeling that the sentient Waters of Kilrok will end up possessing Majora's Mask in the end, but the story is rather entertaining to read.

All in all, this is a very good story so far, though the ending does seem obvious.

Chapter Six


Link sat looking out over the shimmering water. He wasn't particularly tired anymore, although he was still mostly confused. Something strange was happening here; something more than his two eyes could possibly see.

But he was left here, with no direction. He was not told what to do and he just sat, contemplating his next move. The King had said that “Kilrok's Waters” surrounded Hyrule, maybe that's where he ought to go. Obviously that would be an enormously long trek in any direction. Any way Link looked, there was Hyrule – expansive, beautiful. Hyrule reminded Link of Zelda's mercury eyes.

Not knowing what else to do, he just stood up and looked north at the distant mountains. He looked south at the long, swift rolling plains. Hyrule seemed as though it was waiting for him. And so he started walking South.

As gorgeous as Hyryle was, the land did seem new and relatively untouched. The roads were sparse, the foliage was many. In particular, there were very little people outside the castle and the village. Link himself had never been outside the village himself until now.

The Relative beauty definitely distracted him from the weight of his sword and shield. Up ahead he noticed a small road leading into a sparse oak forest. The trees were large and old, they had a look that they could uproot and walk away if they wanted. Slowly, he wandered inside. Animals sprinted off the road as leaves crunched under Link's feat. Many of the animals he had never seen before.

He noticed a small, bulbous plant with four leaves on its head seemingly stand up, spinning its four leaves, and take flight into the forest. The forest slowly got darker as he walked.

“Stop!” Link jumped. Started. He turned around and there was the bulbous plant. It was turned towards him with small, beady eyes and a long funnel mouth.

“Who are you?” he commanded. Link just stared. “What are you doing in our forest?” Again, Link stood in shock at the talking plant.

The thing walked towards him and motioned his head east. “Come.”

Link, not knowing what else to do, followed as the plant flew off into the forest. As he followed, the trees got bigger, thicker, and stranger. He saw rocks with large eyes. Spiders the size of dogs sprint off into the black forest. The trees themselves looked as if they had gaping mouths. Link backed away from the trees. The plant started moving faster and Link struggled to keep up. More than a few times he tripped over roots that weren't there at second glance. He would step on tiny rocks that would squeek and screech and shuffle away. Link was not sure if he was getting farther into the forest or if the day was quickly darkening into night. He ventured to look up and all he saw were dark branches and heavy leaves.

As quickly as it had gotten dark, the forest opened into a clearing. A bright, unimaginably bright light shined down on a small tree sprout.

“Move.” The plant pushed Link towards the sprout. “Bow and pay your respects.” Link bowed and the tree laughed.

“Rise, child!” the tree spoke in a surprisingly booming voice. “Deku, this child is new here. Leave us and prepare him an abode.” The plant, Deku, shallowly bowed and flew off into the forest.

“So, child, what brings you here?” Link blinked. “Speak, child!” Link spoke quickly, explaining he was on a journey to the edge of Hyrule.

“Sounds most courageous, boy. You are aware of what's at the edge of this world?” Link nodded. “Very well. I shall help you.” The tree vibrated and a small, green acorn dropped from its small foliage. “ Take that and walk into the cavern behind me. Inside you will find a door. The door will have a small indention, place that inside the indention and the door will open. Something to help you will be at the end.”

Link picked up the acorn and bowed. The tree again laughed. “I love the Deku, but bowing is not necessary. Be careful, child. The corruption at the end of the planet spreads even here, beneath our feet. Its streams flow farther than what is imaginable.”

The words make Link shiver. “But fear not, the beast with a million veins is strong only against the weak-minded. You are strong, child, I can tell.” Link thanked the tree and walked into the dark cave carved into a small hill.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Drawings were scrawled on the sides of the cave, they were not particularly impressive, mostly scribbles done in white chalk or paint. They showed large animals, with what looked like children mounted on them with bows in their hands.

Link saw the door in front of him. It was round and looked like it was made out of a sliver of an tremendous tree trunk. In the center was a small indention. Link positioned the acorn in the slot and pushed it in. The door rolled to the right. Link gasped at what it revealed, an enormous cavern with bright shining sprites floating in the air, illuminating the enclosed valley. It was deep, and mighty. At the end, with a lantern hanging from the front, was a large tree trunk. Link stepped forward into the cavern.

Wow... That was amazing; I just wanted to say that before I got into the whole commenting thing... Which I hope won't sound too silly...
Anyway there was only one weird thing that I could pick in this that didn't make much sense; it was a paragraph in chapter 4.

Only Nayru knows what is on the other side and he could very well push the door open right into a soldier, which it did swing outward unfortunately. But he knew he wasn’t going back as a coward just because he was afraid to open a door. Once again, he slowly opened a door.

I don’t get what was happening with the “which it did swing outward unfortunately” part and the “Once again, he slowly opened a door” bit, I don’t understand that last one because, as far as I can see, you haven’t talked about opening the door beforehand, so to me it doesn’t make sense to have the once again part in there.
And with the first I don’t really have a clue.
But other than that I thought that the story was great, the idea of wind being good and water bad (I’m not sure if that’s from something else or not, but its friggen awesome), having Kilroks Waters at the end of Hyrule, as well as tying in all that Majoras mask stuff as well.
Other than that all I can say is PLEASE KEEP WRITING!!!

Originally Posted by smelliness

Wow... That was amazing; I just wanted to say that before I got into the whole commenting thing... Which I hope won't sound too silly...
Anyway there was only one weird thing that I could pick in this that didn't make much sense; it was a paragraph in chapter 4.

I don’t get what was happening with the “which it did swing outward unfortunately” part and the “Once again, he slowly opened a door” bit, I don’t understand that last one because, as far as I can see, you haven’t talked about opening the door beforehand, so to me it doesn’t make sense to have the once again part in there.
And with the first I don’t really have a clue.
But other than that I thought that the story was great, the idea of wind being good and water bad (I’m not sure if that’s from something else or not, but its friggen awesome), having Kilroks Waters at the end of Hyrule, as well as tying in all that Majoras mask stuff as well.
Other than that all I can say is PLEASE KEEP WRITING!!!

Haha, thanks.

Yeah, rereading that it is a bit confusing. I might rewrite it to make it less convoluted. I wrote the first 5 chapters a whole year ago so I'm sure I could tighten up the writing.

What's supposed to be happening there is that he's opening the door to the hallway and he wants it to swing inwards so that the door doesn't swing outward, into the hallway, and hit a guard or something like that. In other words, he's afraid to open the door because it swings into the hallway, but he does it anyway because he doesn't want to seem like he's a coward. If that makes any sense.

But yeah, I'll keep writing. I'm happy you like it. ^_^

Chapter Seven

Link's steps were slow and meaningful. The floor was covered in a soft moss that seemed to be alive and moving in the soft breeze meandering from the front of the cavern. There did not seem to be much in the way of obstacles between him and the tree.

As much as the cavern seemed alive, there was not a single animal. It was owned by plants.

“Away! Stay away!” A small drop of black water dropped from the ceiling in front of his feet. It swirled for a few seconds, consuming the moss on the ground. I rapidly grew bigger, engorging itself on the green moss. Quicker then imaginable, the small swirling drop had spread itself into a large, flowing black river between Link and the trunk. The water rushed from left to right, directly into a solid wall.

Link weighed his options. He could attempt to swim across but something about the rush of the water seemed to make that impossible. He looked up and saw vines hanging from the lofty ceiling. That seemed his best option at the moment. The vines might not hold his weight but anything was worth a try.

He grabbed a large vine to his left and tugged on it, softly praying to the goddesses. The delicate glow grew from his wrist and spread up the vine, covering it in a yellow glow. Link closed his eyes, lifted his feet, and shifted his weight forward.

The thick vine elastically swung forward. Link heard the rushing water below him. The rushing sound distinctly hid a voice that he slightly heard. As he swung he could hear it whispering You will fail to him. A split second afterwards he felt his feet land with a soft crunch. He sighed with relief.

Opening his eyes he turned around. The water was no longer there. He looked forward and there, again, was the rushing black, ominous river. He leaned forward on his knees in shock, sweat dripping off his nose. Had he not made it across? No, he definitely had. The trunk with the lantern was much closer then before. So what was he going to do? There wasn't a vine nearby. There was a tree that seemed to overhang the river.

As soon as he had that thought, he watched as the water rushed up the tree, consuming it into the water. He could hear a low, heavy laughing.

Needless to say, Link was upset. This time he was not going to be subtle. He stood straight up, took out his sword, and lifted it over the water. The water seemed to have some sort of life, maybe there was a way to destroy it. His wrist glowed a subtle golden glow again. The glow spread up the blade, the red glaze shined, filling the cavern in a bright gold-crimson glow.

Link slowly placed the blade in the water. The closer the tip got to the water, the more the water evaporated into black sparks. A soft screaming grew louder as the sword was placed closer to the water. Finally, the sword touched the swirling water followed by a fantastically loud, blood-curdling scream which filled the air. The water immediately vanished as if it wasn't there.

Sheathing his sword, Link walked forward towards the tree trunk. The soft glow of the lantern felt warm, almost comforting. He reached forward and lifted the lantern. The light slightly flickered, and the trunk disappeared revealing a small hole in the ground into a dark cavern. Link lowered the lantern into the hole and saw a ladder going down into a large, organically shifting room. At the far end of the room was a small chest.

He lowered himself down the hole into the dark room. The lantern was just bright enough to allow him to see the majority of the room. He took a few steps down the ladder and jumped to the floor. This floor did not crunch, it sunk under his weight. Methodically, he lifted his feet out of the much and started walking towards the trunk. With much effort, he made his way to the trunk and started to open it.

“NO!” An enormous, booming voice emerged from the whole room. Link saw a spider quickly crawl up the side of the trunk. The spider stood on top of the trunk as another small droplet of dark, red-black water fell from nothingness onto it. An enormous force flung Link to the back of the room, dropping the lantern.

“YOU CANNOT HAVE IT! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!” Blinking, Link saw a fantastically terrifying sight. In front of him was a gigantic, eight-legged blob of black and purple water. Drops of swirling menace fell from it's single, soul-gazing eye. Inside the eye, he saw the lantern, the only thing illuminating the room. It distinctly reminded him of the monster before the throne room, but amazingly more horrifying.

The thing launched itself at Link. He attempted to move out of the way, but the wall and floor was slowly sucking him in and he could not move. He tried pushing up, but the floor just absorbed his weight. He pulled out his shield and put it on the floor, attempting to use it as leverage. During his struggle, the liquid spider was quickly flowing its way to Link.

He pushed up on the shield, and lifted himself up out of the much. As quickly as he could, he sidled to the right. The monster made itself to the other side of the room and landed with a splat on the wall.

“COME TO ME SO I MAY CONSUME YOU!” The spider spoke, its mouth dripping with orange teeth.

Unsheathing his sword, he rolled to as far as the other side of the room in order to distance himself from the beast. The spider walked up the side of the wall and across the ceiling. Suddenly, the room got dark as the monster closed its eyes. Link looked around franticly. He grabbed his sword and felt the soft glow again. The sword once again lit up with a crimson glow, lighting at least some of the room.

He could hear the gushing sound of the spider moving but it sounded as if from every corner the spider was coming closer.

The room got lighter. The spider was right there, in front of him.

“CONSUME” The spider opened its mouth.

Without thought, link lifted his sword and shoved the sword into the monster's eye. Steam sizzled from the eye. Link pulled out the sword, and shoved his hand into the eye pulling out the lantern.

“WHAT IS THIS? WHAT IS THIS POWER?” The beast screamed, as it evaporated into the air leaving the small spider on the ground. It dug itself into the muck, and disappeared.

Link lifted himself up with his shield once more and walked towards the chest. He put his fingers on the indention under the lock and lifted it up.

Inside was lit with a soft gossamer-green glow. He put his hand in and lifted out a small sphere of green. The sphere was translucent and seemed to contain a crystal leaf inside it. Link held it with both hands and slowly closed them around it, feeling its warmth. He shut his eyes for a second and when he opened them, he was no longer inside the organic room.

Updated the Intro and changed the story image.

This is an awsome story I like the way you described Zelda someone much more useful and smart !

So when are you going to update this thread?
It's been quite a while since the last time you have updated the thread.

I have the story outlined. I just have two things to write in the works, one this and one an original story and this has gone a bit on the backburner. But, I'll certainly post a chapter or two soon if I can.

I really like the level of detail in your story. I also enjoy how you've approached this like a Zelda game in written form (in a way). As I was reading through this, I noticed some of your earlier chapters seemed on the short side of things. While you have a great story here, you might also want to consider finding a way to make separations between scenes more visible; the transition from the conversation with Juma to Link meeting Zelda in Chapter 2 comes to mind.

All in all, awesome work, Lem. Keep it up!

Originally Posted by Veyrael

I really like the level of detail in your story. I also enjoy how you've approached this like a Zelda game in written form (in a way). As I was reading through this, I noticed some of your earlier chapters seemed on the short side of things. While you have a great story here, you might also want to consider finding a way to make separations between scenes more visible; the transition from the conversation with Juma to Link meeting Zelda in Chapter 2 comes to mind.

All in all, awesome work, Lem. Keep it up!

Great post! It's very nice and userful. Thank you so much for your post.