Chapter Text
Someone was calling him. He was floating in darkness. There was nothing before this moment and he was no one before now.
“...Open your eyes...”
Did he have eyes? He couldn’t tell. Nothing felt right, even then, he could not feel anything.
“...Open your eyes...”
He knew that voice, his entire being wanted to listen, but he wasn’t present enough to do whatever it asked.
“Wake up, Link.”
He awoke. The weight of the world crashed down on him and he could feel everything all at once. The gentle laps of liquid slowly drained around him, but it felt like waves crashing against the shore in the middle of a storm. The low humming noise was screeching and his hands twitched to try and cover his ears, but they wouldn’t listen to him. His lungs spasmed as he tried to remember how to breathe.
His eyes slid open and he immediately shut them with a whine. A blinding, golden light shone through his eyelids before fading. He laid there, trembling, for a while, before trying to move his body. It moved as though he was deep underwater, with a heavy pressure all around him. He opened his eyes once more and a blue glow surrounded him. His heart stuttered as a shiver ran up his spine. He jerked back against the ground, raising trembling arms to cover his face. His ears strained to hear something that wasn’t there. A moment passed, then two, and when nothing happened, he slowly lowered his arms to his chest. His hands brushed against his uneven skin, sending jolts throughout his body at each touch.
He dropped his arms down to his sides and slowly started to try to sit up. The room spun around him, blinking in and out of his sight. It gradually settled into solidity. There was no exit to the room, except for a wall that looked different to the rest, but there was no handle or hinges that he could see from his place. Pillars lined the walls, half embedded in them, and what looked to be images of constellations were dotted in between them.
He had been laying on a stone slab surrounded by low walls. Above him was what seemed to be a cover with glowing blue roots stretching into the ceiling. It pulsed and he shivered. He wanted out, but his limbs felt like lead. He willed his arms to move and they did, though he had forgotten that they were holding his body up and he slipped, barely managing to catch himself on the lip of the tub. He overshot and toppled out onto the ground. Every part of him that hit the floor sent shockwaves lurching through him. He laid there, gasping and shivering, as fluid dripped down his body, puddling onto the floor. Around him, the blue glow slowly faded into a more muted orange. His body untensed some, though he could not understand why.
In the corner was half of a pillar jutting out from the floor. The top was slanted in his direction and had glowing blue lines circling it. He wobbled to his feet and, for an alarming moment, forgot how to walk, before stumbling his way forward. Now that he was closer, the half pillar was more of a pedestal. It held something rectangular in the middle and he reached a shaky hand forward.
“That is a Sheikah Slate.”
He snatched his hand back, whipping around to look for the origin of the voice. No one was there.
“Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber.”
He stretched out his hand once more and lightly touched the top of the pedestal. It whirred and the center twisted and stuck up. The rectangular item spinning before raising vertically. He picked it up, the pedestal turning back to its original form, sans the now named Sheikah Slate. It had a symbol of an eye on one side and the other was black with no embellishments. There were buttons on the side, but he put it out of mind for now.
The room shook slightly as the one wall in front of him rumbled and raised itself, revealing an opening. He shuffled through, ready to leave the only room he’d ever known, and found himself in a similar one. This one was longer and had boxes, barrels, and chests in it. The barrels practically disintegrated under his touch and the wooden boxes were too heavy to be moved, so he looked at the chests. He found a shirt, pants, boots, and some leather straps.
The touch of the clothes against his skin made him hiss, dropping them and shaking out his hands violently. He left them and tried the boots, but they were too big for him. He used one of the straps as a belt and hung the slate on his hip. He used another to cross his chest and back, though he did not know why. Only that it felt right to.
There was another pedestal at the end of the room. It was next to a familiar looking wall. It lit up orange as he approached.
“Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way.”
Eager to listen to the voice, he did so and the pedestal glowed blue. The black side of the slate lit up, words forming on it.
Authenticating... Sheikah Slate confirmed.
The door opened and sunlight streamed onto his face. It was bright, not like the golden light from before, but just as overwhelming. As he stood there, eyes adjusting, he could feel warmth on his skin, unaware how chilled he had been.
“Link... You are the light—our light—that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now, go... I’m sorry, Link...”
The voice was saying things he did not understand, but it—she?—told him to go, so he would. He walked forward to the steps, leaning heavily against the wall as he figured out how to move his legs into the right position. Stopping at the top to catch his breath, he stumbled into some water. He was thirsty, but he was still covered in the viscous fluid from before and it had mixed in. Plopping down, he splashed the water all over him until he felt a little better.
In front of him was a sheer rock wall where stairs must have been once. He ran a hand across it and instinctively reached up, grabbing onto an unseen ledge that barely jutted out. Pulling himself up by his fingers, he flung his other hand higher to do the same, as his feet found purchase as well. Before he knew it, he was at the top, facing another staircase. He took a moment to shake out his limbs, they were burning with a familiarity he could not place, and walked up the stairs, only needing to trail a hand on the wall to steady himself. He stumbled out of the cave he had found himself in and his toes curled in the grass and dirt. Birds were flapping around him and there was a faint buzzing of insects nearby. A light breeze rustled the grass and he breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with the fresh air.
He was on the edge of a cliff and he found himself moving to stand as close as he could without falling. He gazed out and drank it all in. The world was open beneath him and expanded farther than he could see. His body twitched with restlessness and the need to go. He needed to see it all, feel it all, be all of it at once. There was a mountain spitting smoke, seas of forests, snowy peaks, and a mountain struck in half. To his right, much closer than anything else, was a grand building. He wasn’t sure what it was, but just beneath it was a small fire. Looking closer, he saw an old man with a staff staring back at him. He shivered and turned away.
On the ground were tree branches and he picked one up, testing its weight and swinging it in a wide arc, then jabbed it forward. He liked it and fixed it to his back where the strap lay. His slate buzzed against his hip and he pulled it up. The black side lit up as he lifted it and showed the ground in front of him. Another tree branch laid at his feet and, pointing the slate towards it, lit up blue. A button on the side glowed blue and he pressed it, watching as the tree branch disappeared. He pressed the same button and it reappeared back on the ground. More fiddling with the slate showed that he could store things in it, and soon he was navigating the different screens like he had done it a hundred times. He came across a screen that indicated a map, but it was blank. His stomach growled and he decided to figure the rest of the slate out later.
Around him were more branches and some mushrooms. He stored as many as he could fit in the slate and ate some of the mushrooms. It wasn’t bad, but he felt like he could do better than plain mushrooms. The camp fire down the hill came to mind and he started off, determined to get a good meal. Along the way he snuck up on a bug and, upon putting it in the slate, realised the slate gave a description of what the item was. A Bladed Rhino Beetle. It also mentioned it was an elixir ingredient. As with everything he didn’t understand, he would figure it out later.
There were a couple more diversions, before he reached the fire and the old man across from it. He eyed the old man suspiciously as his foot bumped into something hot. Looking down, he found an apple, but it had turned a brown color and was steaming slightly. He knelt and picked it up.
“I beg your pardon!” The old man, who had been very quiet up to this point, bellowed out. “I do believe that is my baked apple! You can’t just go about taking whatever you please!”
He startled hard and nearly flung the apple at the old man’s head, had he not ducked in time. His chest felt like it was collapsing in on himself, his breath coming in short. The old man huffed a chuckle and picked up the baked apple, handing it over to him.
“Oho ho! Forgive me—I could not resist pulling your leg. Please, help yourself. An apple and an open flame make for a succulent treat.”
He did not take the apple. The old man put it down between them and rolled it over. He could hear his heart. The apple settled by his foot from where he was still crouched down. The old man watched him for a moment before turning away slightly. A hand slowly wrapped around the apple and held it to his chest, the heat was comforting.
“It is a bit strange to see another soul in these parts.” The old man continued, looking at him expectantly.
He wet his lips and tried to remember how to speak. His throat spasmed and a croak came out. He settled back onto his heels and placed the apple on his lap. His right hand came up to his chin in a loose fist, pointer finger out, with his thumb resting against his chin. He wiggled his pointer finger and pulled his hand out towards the old man, ending in a point. He looked down at his hand in surprise.
“Who are you?” He had said.
The old man chuckled. “Me? I’ll spare you my life story. I’m just an old fool who has lived here, alone, for quite some time now. I hope you permit me a question... if I may be so bold... are you not chilly?”
He looked down at his body where he only wore the underwear he woke up in and the leather straps around his waist and torso he found. He shrugged at the old man.
“Where are we?” He signed, letting his instincts take over his hands.
“Answering a question with a question. That is fair enough. As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a simple coincidence... I shall tell you. This,” He gestured a hand over the area around them. “is the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule.”
The old man then turned to the grand building in the distance and pointed to it. “That temple there... Long ago, it was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Ever since the decline of the kingdom one hundred years ago, it has sat abandoned, in a state of decay. Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self...”
He still had the warm baked apple in his lap. It was starting to burn his legs. He picked it up slowly, and when the old man, who had sat back down, made no objection, brought it to his mouth. It was gone in a few bites and he was left licking the juice off his fingers. He looked sadly down at his empty hands for a moment before pulling up his slate. Several Hylian Shrooms appeared and he placed them around the edge of the fire, turning them every now and then. They toasted quite nicely in his opinion and he offered one to the old man, brushing off the dirt and soot first. The old man declined so he ate them all himself. Finally, he felt satisfied, but he was still dreadfully thirsty and so got up to go look for some water. Before he fully stepped away from the campsite, he saw a torch leaning against the rock wall behind the old man. He reached for it and stepped back quickly.
“Well then,” the old man turned to him, “just help yourself to that torch there. And how, may I ask, are you planning to use it?”
He shoved the torch into the slate and lifted both hands to his chest, palms facing him with fingers spread. He moved his hands up to his face, wiggling his fingers back and forth. His face split into a grin, all teeth.
“Fire?” The old man raised an eyebrow, somewhat alarmed. “That is rather... unnerving. Please be cautious with that around any dry grass that might catch fire.”
The old man continued to say something, but he was too distracted to listen. He had heard an odd grunting somewhere further down the sloped path and he turned to face a red creature. It wore the same amount of clothes as himself, but had claws and a horn. Its snout was almost the size of his own face and its ears twice that. It pointed at him and screeched, running full speed towards him. He reached behind him and pulled the tree branch off his back. For a moment he floundered, expecting it to be something else, but he shook it off and went to meet the creature in battle. A bokoblin, his mind supplies him, a red pelt means that it was the weakest type. Not that any of that mattered to him now.
The tree branch cracked as he took a flying leap and smashed it onto the bokoblin’s head, once, twice. It cried and tried to scrounge up a stone to throw at him, but he sidestepped and swung the branch in a wide arc, throwing the bokoblin back. The branch broke in half so he dropped the remains and grabbed another from his slate, smacking it again. Before it even had time to get up, he stabbed the branch through its eye, impaling it to the ground underneath it. It let out a cry and started to melt into the ground, its skin boiling and popping as it went until nothing was left besides its horn and one of its fangs.
He put those into the slate for further study later and turned back to the old man, who was staring down at him. The old man had a strange expression on his face, and when he tilted his head at the old man, he stepped back rather jerkily. He shrugged and continued on his way, picking up an axe nearby and plopping it into his slate. He wandered off path and back on to it, picking up more mushrooms here and there with the occasional bug, frog, or lizard. He drank from a pond, grunting at the taste. There were ruined structures all around so he set off to explore, climbing and running through them.
There was a metal object stuck in one of the walls. It was large with spider-like arms spread out, like it could have walked once. His hair stood on edge and he rubbed his arms furiously as he rounded to the front. A dark eye stared back at him and he choked on his own breath. His legs trembled as he scrambled back and behind another wall. More stood out around the area and he crumbled down, curling his arms around his head.
He waited. For what, he wasn’t sure, but his body was anticipating something, and when nothing happened, he cautiously lifted his head. The machines, for that was what they were, hadn’t moved. They stood silently, menacingly, some facing him, others turned away. He stood slowly, his legs shaking beneath him. His heart raced in his throat and ears as he made his way out of the ruins.
A chest caught his attention and curiosity momentarily distracted him. There was an old pair of pants and boots in it, closer to his size than the ones in the cave. He hesitantly brushed his hand over it, then picked it up. The feel of the fabric felt much better against his skin, both his unmarred and his scarred parts. He pulled them on, pleasantly surprised to see them fit. The boots were still a bit too big, but his soles were starting to get cut up against the ground so he put them on anyway, tying them securely around his ankles. He hopped around a bit, adjusting to the changes, before continuing on his way out of the ruins. A small camp of a couple bokoblins sat in a low dip beneath the ruins. He was all ready to beat them up when he noticed a large boulder on the edge of a wall above them. A grin formed on his face, stretching his scars, and he snuck around until he was next to the boulder. He looked down on the bokoblins, realizing they weren’t in squishing distance, and whistled at them before ducking down.
They jumped up with a squeal, grabbed their weapons, and warily moved over to him. He waited until they were under him and pushed the boulder with all his strength. A death cry and an enraged screech followed the large smack of the stone hitting the ground. One of them had moved out of range so he jumped down and whacked at it with a tree branch before it too, died. His tree branch broke and he ran around gathering the items left behind. Some arrows, a bow, a shoddily made shield, a wooden club, and some meat that was roasting on a spit. He wasn’t terribly hungry so into the slate it went with the rest. Turning to leave, he nearly tripped on something hidden in the grass.
Lifting it up revealed it to be a sword, not a very good one, but it was metal and sharp. He brandished it around a few times then ran through some footwork while thrusting or swinging the sword. He stopped abruptly, losing his muscle memory, as his brain caught up to the rest of him. He shook his head and placed the sword onto his back in the scabbard that lay nearby. His slate buzzed and he pulled it up. A glowing orange dot appeared on the map screen, the rest still blank. In the middle of the screen was a yellow arrow and when he turned, it turned with him. He turned until he was pointed to the point marked and looked up. There was a large mound of rocks with a spire sticking out the top.
With nothing else to do, he made his way over, fighting some more bokoblins along the way. Ducking under some of the stone, he made his way onto a platform similar to the cave he woke up in. Another pedestal lit up orange as he came closer. His slate buzzed once more.
Place the Sheikah Slate in the pedestal.
He did as he was told and it spun the slate around until it was flush with the rest of the top.
Sheikah Tower activated.
The ground started to rumble.
Please watch for falling rocks.
The pedestal lit up glowing blue and the floor started to lift, rising high up into the sky and knocking him down.