The Legend of Zelda: Restoration Age

Overworld Chapter 4 - The Restoration

 ...immediately feeling his body being taken somewhere else. It was an odd sensation as the light coursed over him, like he was broken down into a million little threads of light but those threads still managed to weave together to form Link's own self. And his consciousness just floated along for the ride as the light was carried off somewhere else.

When the flare finally faded around him, Link blinked a few times to adjust his eyes. He could see the sunrise in the distance just peaking up over the trees. As his eyes drifted down though, he found his world far more populated. Reporters were forced back behind yellow tape, and then a circles of police officers guarding the civilians from the recently transformed building.

Link didn't even have to turn to see the remodeling that had occurred to the temple's exterior. Vines still clung to it, but the stone could have been set yesterday. As long as he stood on those steps, Link was in his own little world, a pocket in time that likely would have given him a way around the law if he needed it.

But Link wasn't above the law, and he wasn't about to sit around in the Restoration's grasp for any longer than he had to.

The line between where the Restoration had touched was almost visible. The grass was greener here, though Link almost scoffed at the idea of that being proverbially true as he stepped over that line. He expected some kind of barrier to stop him, some kind of magic film to hold him back, but one step he was inside the Restoration and the next he was free of their grasp. There was the odd twitch as his side, though Link didn't bother to look at what it was.

He was almost immediately tugged into the grasp of the police, but not before the whole of the city's news crew managed to turn their cameras on a sleep deprived, dirty, half soaked young adult with a sword and shield over his back and an enchanted satchel on his side. Link almost laughed at the idea it, but his body was finally starting to give out from under him as an officer began pulling him along.

Blurring between consciousness, Link kept his head down as he was pulled through the crowd. He couldn't tell if he was under arrest or being taken to an ambulance, but he stopped trying to focus before he found out. The last thing he truly heard was a reporter asking him what happened in the temple. Shaking his head, Link mumbled, "Bad larping incident," and then he was asleep on his feet.

Wherever he was being taken, they let him sleep. Link welcomed the darkness of his subconscious, preferring its imageless void over what his dreams might imagine. But as the restful peace washed over him, the darkness started to twitch, glitch, break, like coding failing, like when the Restoration had created the temple in front of him. Link pulled back, but in his unconscious state found his body unresponsive. He was a passive and trapped observer in this place. He wasn't free of the Restoration. They followed him out, they'd follow him anywhere.

Frantic, Link ripped himself awake. He jerked up to a sitting position, his heart pounding. He heard the rapid beeping of a monitor beside him before it slowed down to a steadier beat. Link forced himself to breath, taking in the hospital room around him to remind himself where he was. He had gotten out. They couldn't follow him here. They weren't strong enough for that.

He was alone in here, a feeling he had spent the last night in. Was it last night? Link searched for a clock. It was an afternoon after that evening, that's all he could tell. He tapped the heart rate monitor taped to his chest under a hospital gown. Where was his stuff? He wondered if they would give it back to him when he left the hospital or if it was all confiscated by the authorities. He imagined the sword would be taken, no doubt. Probably the bow too.

Stretching his arm as far as he could reach it without tugging off the heart monitor, Link grabbed the remote. The TV flickered on after a moment, allowing Link to flip through the channels, pausing for a moment on news stations to try and piece together what had happened.