He’s here.

| let me dust off the cobwebs here

“Uh. .” Link focuses for a quick second, stirring the pan. “No.” He says, with a gentle flip of the ingredients within. “I’ve been traveling a lot —- since I left my village. I’ve learned —- or I’ve had to learn. Or else I’d starve.”

| replies / activity tonight here 🙂‍↕️

“I am.” He says, after the canteen is given —- Link takes a step back. Of course he does, caution on his side. “You are further south of it. Closer to the Souther Plains —- dry land that has no end. How did you. .how did you end up here?”

“No, heh.” Link had been traveling awhile —- maybe too long on his own, and had come accustomed to foraging and learning to cook. Now? He would simply make a meal for the two.

Link hummed to agreement. Setting off the horse in a gallop. They’d head southeast, The Mawg was far. But they’d know when they’d get there. Grass would become less green —- the sky less bright, the shade too cold. A certain heavy feeling would come to you, as if everything suddenly meant nothing.

Whuh

He didn’t know those words —- but for some reason they felt hearty. As if they meant something more, something he couldn’t quite place but felt all to familiar. “Are you. .are you alright?”

To say surprise is to put it lightly —- Link lets out a minor “Wha —-“ As he’s plucked by the other. He holds himself tightly, awaiting as the unnamed stranger awaits. He scrambles some, removing from the lining of his belt a long chain like device —- with a metallic claw for its head.

Link riding Hallow Knight as they scale the wall

He saw her eyes, like birds flying across the sky —- circling something that you could not see below. Before realizing now the relic played within his hands, and quickly he jolted it behind his back. So lost in thought, and perhaps her beauty —- that he felt almost elsewhere.

Link gave off a ‘Hyup!’ As he climbed upon the horse. Offering the other a gentle hand. “Of course not.” He said, with a smile of what could only be kindling friendship between two travelers.

So nimble is the shadow that travels between them —- as if it is clouded for both their sakes. The furnace that is his heart ignites, a quick strike forward would solve this riddle. But alas, that is the thought of a child. And not the man he wants to be.

Link whistles —- maybe too harshly, but from over a ridge comes the galloping black horse of his. With strands of hair so white they seem like clouds moving across a shadow —- if it weren’t for the sun, one would even miss the horse. “No.” He says gentle.

Link does as he’s told —- not one to question many orders, unless well, they simply don’t make sense. But these did, and although he can’t hear the song, he sees the reactions of the outside world. Magic, maybe. Or something he didn’t quite understand yet.

The Eldervale rune plays in his fingers, rolling between his pointer and thumb. The rune, a small rock with the symbols of the oak tree in its middle —- a sign of adulthood amongst the men of Eldervale. Given to them when they decide to leave the village —- possibly never to return.

** Want to write out Zelda’s lore mhm

“Hm.” Link thought for a moment, there was a certain hesitation to him —- greediness. The adventurer, wanderer within him. . .wanting to see The Shadow creature first. Maybe even a fight. But this was foolish thinking, that of a boy. He wasn’t that anymore. “A good plan as any.”

He hadn’t quite seen a weapon like that before. Impressed, really. Once again the traveler was surprised by the helpfulness of strangers —- perhaps Eldervale was wrong. And the outside world was with saving. “If you’d join me, I wouldn’t say no.”

See? They weren’t meant to be? A shiver ran down his spine —- not of fear or hesitation, curiosity more than likely. “Link.” He says, louder than he spoke before —- more confident.

This is how it feels to be 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙠. . . .for now.

“No time. Come morning —- it will be gone. It travels when the light hits.” Link tightens the leather strap across his chest, pulling the shield closer to his back.

Practicing again —- his father’s sword feels like an extension of him now. Like it thought along with him, a swish and a flick, the blade echoes into the air of iron and steel.

“There!” Link said, in maybe for the first time a non-monotone voice. Nothing got him more excited than food —- even if he didn’t admit it. He pointed down to a bakery that seemed not as busy as the rest of the shops.

A new found ally —- not as strange at it may seem. But when two are put with their backs to the wall, the grow together. Link made a small jog over, beginning to climb onto the unknowns back.

“There is. .an abandoned church —-“ Link points with a finger. “At the edge of town.” On the northern edge, where the towns boarder came to a close, the folks who lived here took it upon themselves to cut deep into the root, and sever the church on its own hill.

Not a beast, no —- but a young man. Dust, yes, he has traveled long and lonesome. Creating a certain folk lore to his stature, ‘The Hero in Green’ is what some call him. ‘Emerald Bandit’ as well. He prefers Link. But half oaths —- maybe so. His dying father, the sword in his hand.

The Mawg can only be described as a cursed swamp crawling with dark creatures.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙈𝘼𝙒𝙂. —- The Cursed Lands.

“You would. .join me?” Link says, standing then. He look at the other not in contempt or anger —- but a mixture of admiration and courage. Since leaving Eldervale, Link had come across many in the open lands of Hyrule —- but he had not met someone so eager to help. Other than himself.

“No. I must go to The Mawg. .there is a creature there that slumbers and eats upon the innocent.” Which was half the truth, the other half was the story behind it. That the creature was once a man, who loved a woman. Who had lost that woman in an untimely manner.

Somewhat. Is what he wanted to say —- but realistically he’d call himself more of a traveler. Adventure, danger —- those sort of things found him, more so than Link found it. “Yes.” It was too much to think on. “It is a hidden forest village. .outside of Castle Town.”

He felt. .weightless? No. That might not be the word —- maybe like his feet weren’t understanding that he wanted to walk forward anymore. A dream, a dream so long ago, after his father’s death. Of a voice and a song, and a golden triangle he couldn’t understand.

Link didn’t say a word, nor did he expect for someone to come join his side. He picked at his bread slowly, before sliding into the bench further. Giving them a gentle nod that read as ‘sure’.

Link thought for a moment —- speaking was not his forte. Since his father. .he’s been a very quiet young man. But maybe that needed to change. “It takes form of people you know —- confuses you, makes you forget. . .it should be nothing but a shadow now. It has to. .kill its victims to become it.”

** Had a vet day unfortunately for my pup, but he’s feeling better now, plan to be real active this weekend, thank you guys for writing with me! ^_^

Link shrugs —- realistically all he has to go one is stories and sightings. Men in terrified states and cattle gone missing. “Shadow.” He all Link says, for what it was describe as could be nothing more than the walking dark.

Cutting grass. It’s soothing. Don’t worry about it.

He’d let out a small hmm. Strange lands —- that’s all anything was these days. Stranger and stranger, it made normality feel like uncommon. “. .Everdale.” He says, a sort of ‘this is where I’m from.’

HEYUT! HEYAH! AH! He’s practicing with his sword.

Another dream —- another faint light. Who is the voice in his head? She sounds so sweet and tender, so confident and brave. As if she knew the way he didn’t.

** Unfortunately Mr. Lucas I an co-opting this song as Link and Zelda’s theme in this AU open.spotify.com/track/3rUMH7...

He’d nod in agreement. Such an odd thing, brought together in a maze of stone, rust, and the dwelling shadow —- that he now found himself companioned in his trek.

He shakes his head, as if to say ‘not me.’ “Something else has wandered here. .” Link says softly, a slightly shift in his shoulders. That something came from a one of the folks who lived here —- a man who played with the isles of dark magic.