Linked Through The Ages: A Linked Universe AU

Chapter 6: A New Awakening

He would open his eyes to that nightmarishly blank plane where the entity lived, or at least that's what he called it. The entity never stayed the same, morphing into a repertoire of different forms.  Sometimes it would be the man with the sail cloth as a cloak.  Other times, it would take the image of an older man with armor and glowing red markings across his face.  Some other forms included a younger boy with fierce fighting skills, another who appeared not to be much older than Link himself with brightly dyed red hair, a knight with a burgundy scarf slung around his neck, a boy his age with freckles and fluffy hair, even an incredibly short version of the creature that would split into four different people with four different fighting styles.  Although those versions of the shadow were challenging, the hardest opponent the entity would appear as would be a taller man with a wolf pelt draped across his shoulders.  He was the strongest physically out of all of them and would easily pin Link to the ground or throw him across the flat level of darkness, that served as a floor, if he wasn't careful.

Yet, even when Link could defeat him, the entity's last defense always seemed to rock Link to his core. Before his eyes, the man would turn into an inky version of Wolfie.  The happy, intelligent, expression Wolfie would grace him with almost every time he greeted him, unless Link knew he had done something completely unhinged, was gone and burned to ash, replaced with lips curling into an ugly snarl.  Link would never stop his best friend's attacks.  He would never hurt Wolfie like that, especially if this was only a curse or a sickness or something.  He would gladly allow his friend to attack him again and again, regardless of what deranged state he currently resided in.  

It was only when the big, black dog would come to Link's rescue that Wolfie would relent on his mission to tear Link apart. Both dog and wolf would bare their teeth to one another, nipping and biting at the other, desperate for a singular slip up from their rival that would allow them a hold on a vital piece of flesh.  The dog would always be the victor, much to Link's distress, as she would rip out his beloved friends throat, leaving Wolfie panting and gasping for air as he flailed and twitched on the ground beside Link.  He had tried to pull apart the two animals before, only to be met with another attack from Wolfie.

Link would scream awake when the dog would jump on top of him, shielding him from the sensory overload that came with the cacophony of whimpers and pleas and malice flying towards him.  The dreams would drain him, not even how nightmares would normally drain his mind.  These would drain the life force out of him, leaving him weak, weepy, and trembling for far longer than it would normally leave him with.  Why did his dreams show him his once loyal friend, crazed and attempting to murder him?  Why did this dog come to his rescue every time he was bested by his opponent?  Who was this dog that showed up in his dreams?  Link almost hated the animal, yet he couldn't deny that he appreciated the dog's help.

Zelda tried to comfort him, doing her best to have him open up to her about what he was seeing, or at least, as much as she could.  Still, he felt guilty.  Even when she didn't speak, he could see the pain, the worry, the sorrow that took hold of her when she looked at him after an episode, or when she looked at him in general.  Even when she tried to give him space on some of the more difficult subjects to speak about, opting to chat about the village or something new that she had discovered with the Sheikah Slate from tinkering around with some tools some of the villagers had leant her, he could still see the clouds of worry drifting across her sunny expression.  Worries that could be turned towards helping the people of the land recover, instead of fretting over a mind that couldn't figure out how to catch up to the present like everyone else had.

Their conversations remained awkward and uncomfortable, not at all something that he expected after this amount of time together again.  How was he supposed to talk to her?  She, a princess, and he, a simple knight, if he could even call himself that anymore.  More like the shell of a teenage boy that stumbled into someone else's unfinished role.  He had fallen in battle and allowed the kingdom of Hyrule to be demolished, subjecting her to one hundred years of Ganon's imprisonment.  He had failed, and how could a princess like herself see someone like himself as anything other than a... No, they had been acquaintances at best.  He was lucky to even recover in the same room as her and not in some remote part of Hyrule where they would never cross paths again.  Even if she did feel something that he absolutely didn't feel, what about Mipha?  Did he even feel the same about her?  Did he even deserve anything remotely close to what she was pining for after allowing her to fall to Waterblight?  He figured, sitting atop that cliff above her home a month after he had avenged her spirit, watching over the land that should have been her home for far longer than the reality, that it was best for everyone if he never returned once his injuries were fully healed.

.......

Link: OMG ZELDA!!! YOU'RE SAFE!!!  I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Zelda:  OMG LINK!!! YOU'RE SAFE!!!  I MISSED YOU SO MUCH TOO!!!!

Also Link and Zelda: ...................ok, now what? :/

Me writing this: Ok!  It's gonna be happy and crying and all the feels because his adventure is gonna be over and it's gonna be so, so much comfort and it's gonna be so freaking cute!!!!

My brain for no reason:  What if Link headbutts her and then it's incredibly awkward.

Me:  No! That's stupid!  Why would we even write that, especially after I finished this whole chapter?

My brain: Idk fam... So, we writing it or not?

Me: ............FINE, I'LL REWRITE IT!!!!

Hello!!! Sorry for the insanely long break but honestly, I'm so happy I waited for TOTK to come out first! I think (with what I'm seeing so far) that it'll work with what I have planned for this story, maybe even better than BOTW would have alone!!! Alright... Where the heck have I been the last several months?? Well, I was planning on taking a couple days to a week MAX after I got home and then work on this story. As you can see, that didn't happen... What I'm saying is I crashed, and I crashed HARD.  I felt bone tired for probably 3 weeks straight, even though I slept for like 9-12 hours a night. I legitimately thought that I had chronic fatigue for a hot second, but no, my body was just LITERALLY RECOVERING FROM THE SHEER AMOUNT STRESS I HAD PUT MYSELF THROUGH THE ENTIRE LAST SEMESTER! When I tell you that I wasn't stopping until it made me physically ill, and then that "break" my body forced me to have was used as catch-up on homework and/or stuff I could do remotely for my job, I wasn't kidding... Finally, about mid-January, I felt well enough to start writing again, look for a new job, think about what I wanted to do (aka, I was finally able to sleep normally again without waking up feeling like I hadn't closed my eyes all night and didn't feel absolutely exhausted during the day, even when I did nothing), that's when things got real.  I live in a house full of different disabilities, health problems, and cognitive disabilities and one of my family members, who has all of the above, fell and hit his head. From there, it was an exhausting 2 and a half months of ER visits, hospital bills, therapy, nursing homes, and doctor appointments.  I'm the secondary caretaker of the house, and since my mom had to work, all of that fell on my shoulders. Technically, we're still not out of the woods yet (every condition they have will be fatal, but all of the conditions are incredibly slow, and there's nothing we can do for them except wait.) but things have settled down quite a bit, and I'm back to doing the things I love (like reading, writing, playing on my switch, swimming, hanging with friends, getting outside as MUCH as I can, you get the picture).  I am also spending time with my best boy ever (aka, the beast of a dog, that's legit scared of worms😂).  I'm also keeping up with his training, whenever I can, and it's the most rewarding thing ever for me to see him overcome those obstacles, react well around others/ overcoming triggers he's had in the past, and overall getting to be a normal dog! (He was abused the 1st year of his life, before we got him. He had copious amounts of behavioral issues stemming from that, so seeing him even taking baby steps towards what all our dogs, who grew up in a safe environment, would normally do/behave like is something that makes me so proud and happy!!!🥹) It is a lot though and takes time and patience, so I work with him a lot!  Anyways, thank y'all so, so much for sticking through this with me! Thank you so much for reading!!!  Have a wonderful day and God bless you!!!