Chapter Text
Link is normally a reserved person, only letting his emotions get to him when he is truly pissed. The most recent example of this is himself yelling every curse word he knew at Ganondorf during their battle, his calm demeanor wiped and replaced by being a raging teen again. It’s rare for him to express himself through words rather than through action.
But currently? he is pretty fucking unnerved right now. Koroks saying something took their friend, and that a spirit warned them that something is coming out from a hole. The koroks didn’t give up much information about the ghost, only saying that he was friendly and didn’t smile or laugh enough. Another thing was that the spirit is a full blown amnesiac, something Link could empathize with. It was a little creepy in that he could have been watched without knowing about it, but that isn’t what made him nervous.
No, What’s the most worrisome part about this whole situation, is that link has no idea where the fuck it is. Navigating through the lost woods is hard, and the Koroks were too scared to guide Link to the breach, which is understandable in Link's eyes. One of them did get pulled into a pit of hell.
These woods always raised a chill through links back, but this part of the woods felt like something was watching him. Link felt a deep set shudder through his body, he may be a hero, but he is still just a dude with fears. He was glad the Koroks gave him this lantern though, it was nearly pitch black and the mist surrounding him seemed all consuming in the dark. The other benefit of the lantern was the mystic quality to actually push back the mist that dragged him back to the Koroks home, even if it’s not much and he could still see the swirling patterns.
Link marched through the woods, making a silent prayer to Hylia for strength for exploring them. Passing a particularly thick passage of foliage, the hylian finds himself in an impasse, and neither of which gives a hint to which way to go. He unhooked the Purah pad, Zelda had insisted that Link brought it with him… and by insisting, Link meant she gave him the death glare and pushed the tablet into his hands. He was glad though, The Purah pad had a good map, but sadly, thanks to the thick canopy, the map is useless to navigate through this part of the lost woods. Link sighs as he puts the pad onto his belt, running a hand over his face in annoyance and the hairs on the back of his head rose.
Besides having no map, this is a new part of the woods he has never been in. Compared to the dead trees with faces on them, these ones were tall and alive. They didn’t have faces, but they made that up with how foggy it is here, along with how dark it is. The lantern serves decently in this dark place, keeping away the mist and that giggling voice that takes him back to the path for his own safety. Apparently the Koroks made this when the spirit told them where it was, a small dirty puddle in the middle of the woods.
He felt bad for the Koroks, the gloom haze from a few months ago and now this colorful sap coming from a puddle? It seems fate isn’t giving them a break from this world's struggles, which makes Link irritated. He was supposed to be Mr hero, but he feels like he failed them yet again because he didn’t know about this gunk. Ahh, There he goes again, feeling like he isn’t truly a hero… being 22, he should have gotten over these feelings of… link didn’t know how to describe it. He decided to ignore his own mental questioning, instead focusing on the split path in front of him. The split paths were connected to the small clearing in front of Link; he could see some of the native flora that grew in the Korok forest, along with new plants that he’d definitely need to take pictures of.
Neither path had his answer on which way to go, though the right path had a different smell than the left, subtle but enough for a difference in scent. “There must be a lot of it if I could smell it from here”, link cringed at the thought of how strong the smell could be. Gloom was bad, and nothing beats malice with its horrible concoction of death, rot, and the smell of when he first woke up and made some of the most HORRIBLE concoctions of food.
Link cringes at the memories of himself. He sighs and smiles softly, sometimes he finds himself missing those days. Wait, I have a job to do, stop distracting yourself! Link shook his head and took a few steps towards the split paths for a better look, or a confirmation of the smell of bad was true.
Then Link froze, suddenly feeling those eyes that had been watching him be a lot closer than he is comfortable with. The cold air seemed to be colder, like a spirit was nearby, and the original misty air seemed to be more humid than before. Link felt his throat close and his heart starting to beat rapidly, he felt he had hit a panic attack. He held his breath, forcing his body to calm down as his mind raced, his eyes darted around the woods around him in a way much less hylian than Zelda would like.
He turned to behind him and saw nothing, maybe it’s just his mind playing with again? Goddesses he hoped so, as much as it is annoying to feel as if ghosts haunt his very step, it’s better than whatever this feeling is.
Link turned to looking at the road, rubbing his eyes and letting his lantern light up the path in front of him, but he stopped. It took him a second to process what he was looking at, but he felt a chill run up his spine as much too familiar colored eyes stared at him.
Gold eyes… gold eyes like Sidon’s.
Link felt all color fade from his face, that isn’t right. He saw Sidon recently, he and Zelda visited Zora’s domain not too long ago before a Korok told him what’s going on, actually he was visiting Sidon when the Korok popped up and told him, HE WAS RIGHT THERE TOO! Link felt equally parts of fear an intrigue to… what ever the fuck is in front of him.
Most of its? Form was covered in the mist, it seems to be coming off of it actually thanks to it being red, mixing into the surrounding fog around them. The parts that Link can see through were eerily similar to Sidon’s, though the scar Sidon got from fighting that gigantic Octorok isn’t there (link won’t admit it, but learning that made his heart jump a little). If anything, it looked like Sidon's sage of water came from the ring, which didn’t help at all in this situation.
The air was quite, still even, as if Link managed to hit a perfect dodge and he was about to do a flurry rush. The lantern flickered and dimmed ever so slightly, making Link blink back from whatever trance he was in… okay… Where the fuck did the Sidon look alike go?
To say Link wants to turn around and leave is a no-brainer, but he can’t bring himself to do that, especially to the koroks. He let out a shaky sigh as he started trucking through the woods again, taking the right path. “just get to the puddle, see what it is, leave a medallion and go see Zelda and the sages to have help with whatever it is,” ignore the ghost links mind repeated as that feeling of being watched continues to persist.
Link knows biting his nails is a bad habit, but the current situation has gone from creepy to anxiety inducing thanks to the currently unknown whereabouts of the almost identical Sidon clone in these woods. His ear twitched at the slightest sound, whether it was a rare blow of wind or the sound of a twig snapping quietly under his boot.
Link forces himself to breathe, slow and steady as he keeps himself alert to see the doppelgänger of Sidon. His ears twitch as he listens, paranoia seeping into his actions as he quietly moves forward on the path.
A small cracking noise makes Link jump slightly, his head snapping towards the sound to find nothing. “Okay… breath and everything will be alright once you go and do the thing,” he thought, his hands started to shake, a rare thing nowadays.
He stopped to stare at his hands, the memory of when he was about to confront the calamity after procrastinating for so long. The memory of his Hands shaking as he saw the four champions finally got to blow that beast sky high, and the most potent memory of his near death… link forced himself to walk.
Breaking through a particularly thick section of trees, tripping through and onto his knees with an mph. Link lifted his head and looked around, finding the clearing was covered in what seems to be bright spots of color mixed in with pure black slime. darker than the gloom black and the colors were so vivid it made Link’s head hurt to look at, it was pulsating like flesh and seemed to rot the forest around it.
He could physically see the damage this stuff was doing around him, as the tall trees that surrounded here were peeling bark and massive chunks of the canopy were on the ground around him. The grass itself was dead, no tig as he picked a blade of it out; the flowers were wilting and falling over themselves. It was a truly horrible sight to see, this stuff sucking the life out of everything it touched.
Link makes a face, it smelt like booze and something akin to death and gloom, but oddly sweet too, which was surprising. Link tries to stand up, cringing as he accidentally pushes his hand into this stuff. Sticky and viscous, pulling his hands out with the most horrible noise link has ever heard. Gagging as he stands, the liquid drips from his hand with stingy connections. The stuff feels like it was trying to do what the gloom did, but nothing happened to link.
He steps over the colorful mess in front of him, the horrible but sweet smell pungent around this small body of water. Link peaks his head over to see into the muddy pond, seeing that black colorful sludge almost seeping from the hole in the center… great. Seemed like he found the epicenter of this gunk, the one that the spirit warned about and where Hiwa the korok was taken.
“Okay, set the medallion and get the fuck out and get Zelda,” link thought as he open the purdah pad. Link sees what this stuff shows in the map, and it was glitchy and static as worry started to bubble inside the hero.
“It’s fine, it’s just a glitch… I hope,” Link reasoned with himself. He looked around, it was covering the whole clearing. It pulses and almost withers as he steps into the gunk, seeming to try and keep Link’s foot inside the sludge. Link suppresses a gag as a wet squishy noise came from his steps, definitely not eating anytime soon link thought as a particularly queasy sound made Link feel ill.
He checked the perimeter, it was everywhere he could see. In the trees, strings of black colorful slime connecting them and whatever wildlife that used to be here is long since dead. The normally vibrant bluish green of the grass is dead, and the flowers look odd too. The water was oddly tinted, most likely of the hole being the center of this whole mess…
Gods, he hopes this isn’t Ganondorf reviving himself for the third time; dealing with him twice was already more than enough for the link in this lifetime. He sighs and tries to put down a medallion teleportation on the area, but was confused as to why he couldn’t.
“Weird” link mumbles out loud, finding himself starting to pace as he tries different spots around the forest clearing. The lamp he carries in his other hand as he walks starts to dim slightly, a reminder of the time limit he has to be here. A groan escapes him as he taps his foot on the ground, it seems a medallion can’t be placed for whatever reason and by goddesses he didn’t want to be near longer than he needs to be.
Link needs a new plan as the current one just fell apart, but he also doesn't trust Zelda to follow into an unknown section of the lost woods… and this sludge stuff seems to be similar to malice and gloom too, though definitely more complex and colorful than the other two as well. Link sighs, we can worry about the specifics tomorrow, I should head back and report what I found, link thought as he looks around the place. He sighs and walks back to where he fell through.
That is when Link hears something rumble loud enough to vibrate his entire body. Links felt his body go fringed as something akin to horror starts to form as he sees the black sludge start to move. A memory of the gloom hands easily came rushing from his mind; horrified as he turned to what could only be described as a boss version of those very same hands.
It reaches far above Link’s head, and most likely his other friends as well if they were here. He gulped as it opened its eye, but instead of the black and gold eye, instead he was met with yellow tinted sclera and a green iris. Its pupil narrowed onto Link, and the world seemed to go ever so slightly fuzzy as he was hit with every memory he had ever remembered.
It didn’t scream like the gloom hands, nor changed the sky to look like a blood moon was rising. it was, however, much faster than them, quickly trying to grab Link as he dodged out of the way. He pulled out his sword, it wasn’t the master sword but one he found in pristine conditions down in the depths. Dodge and hit, that was Link's only plan for attack against this thing but finds his momentum slowed thanks to the black but colorful tar covering everything moving towards the hand.
It was harder to dodge as well, the sludge was similar to the stuff mucktorock made, which isn’t good. Link was managing to dodge the massive hand attempts to grab him, but barely. His hands shook slightly as he dipped below a swipe from the hand, getting that all too familiar adrenaline rush from it as the world around him slowed to a crawl.
Seven hits and the world was back, but not with this thing killed. It became apparent that Link can’t keep dodging this hand forever, especially with the goopy mess of colors under his feet, but Link doesn’t stop. His legs started to hurt, and before he could even process what was happening.
He was grabbed, and dragged into the water.
He didn’t mean to inhale the water, but panic made him breath as the hand pulled him deeper into hell. He struggled against it, but was bound to its tight hold, his vision starts to blur from lack of oxygen. struggling seemed hopeless as he kicked into the sludge of the hand but nothing work, his eyes burning as he struggled to keep them open. He could only manage to get his left arm free, not risking the getting electrocuted by his prosthetic arm.
Link's consciousness was starting to fade, is… is this how he is going to actually die? From drowning thanks to a hand possibly from Ganon, to being taken by him and slaughtered like the first time? Only with water than with lasers? Link could barely see, his mind starting to blank and his body felt tired.
There was a sound of water moving above him, he forced himself to see who it was before he met the champions in the afterlife. It was hard to see anything but those golden eyes, recognizable even in his fading mind.
He reaches for the zora as he finally slips into unconsciousness.