Chapter Text
Chapter One: To Fall
Clouds drifted overhead, scattered and stretched as they danced across an ever-darkening sky.
Catching the gold of dying light within their ever-changing grasp to mix with the pink and purples of dusk. Between them the brightest of stars peaked through, peering with awe at the land far, far below. Granting sparse light to chase back the black of ever creeping twilight.
Most had retired from their toils of the day, bringing home their hard-earned spoils of triumph. Families clustered together, settling around dinner tables or crowding about hearths to reaccount their tales of the day. Most sealed their doors; a habit gained from the ill-fated years under the reign of a mad man’s power. Most cast work far from their minds, resting in the peace that had befallen Hyrule for many years now.
Link was not amongst them.
Rather, he stood vigil over a fresh batch of calves, fillies and foals, as they trotted along after their mothers. He hadn’t the need to do much, not when they little ones followed without question, but every now and then one would grow curious.
Link only had to whistle and wave his hands to set them back on track. They were good about listening to him; a trait he had learned he possessed many years ago when he was but a young lad fresh out of an unruly forest. He had never quite learned if they listened due to lingering fairy magic, or for another reason entirely.
Whatever it was, he was grateful for it.
Link herded the last of the gentle hearted creatures into a freshly painted barn, a smile upon his face, and turned towards the heart of his pride and joy. Lon Lon Ranch stretched out before him, pristine and calm as it was always meant to be and at the heart of its great fields stood his beloved.
Her auburn hair fell like well-aged wine down her back as the ever-growing twilight kissed her with its shadows, at odds with the white of her clothes. She stood amidst their horses, the few that remained out to graze as he gathered the little ones, swaying now and then.
Without the trotting of hooves and huffing of weary mares, he could hear a delicate melody upon the breeze. Faint as a fairies laugh as it danced through the grass. The music, whimsical and calming, brought with it a sense of urging, a calling that the horses could not ignore. They grazed about her, drifting closer with each note.
One lifted her head now and then; ears pricked forward to watch an old friend. She was larger than the others, by a few hands, and held none of the ever-shifting wariness they seemed to carry. Her coat nearly matched the hue of his wife’s hair in the fading light, but her mane and tail glimmered like fallen moonlight against the rapid approach of dusk. Aged battle scars speckled her flank, her legs and neck, but she stood proud and tall regardless.
Link smiled as he moved towards them, the shifting clank of his armor drowning out the music. His beloved would likely fuss over his attire again, claiming he ought not wear such things while he was home. But he had only just returned from his visit with their queen.
The summons had been surprising to say the least, one that had kept him away for a few days now. He had been called upon to act as a royal guard, to stand beside his queen as she delegated a peace treaty with a neighboring kingdom.
Link had been bored but hadn’t regretted agreeing to go. After all, he might have been retired as the Hero of Hyrule, but that didn’t mean he had retired from aiding those in need. The kingdom they brokered peace with had been one he never heard of, and due to that, he had gone well prepared.
He took only his best equipment. His favored traveling gear, his Mirror Shield, his armor and lastly, his Biggoron sword. The meeting had gone well, without a single cause of concern of danger and ended with the plans for a new trade route. Though that had left little time for Link to change once he returned home. Afterall, peaceful as it was, prowling things tended to snatch unattended animals from their pens after dark.
The mare beside his wife, Epona, snorted. Her ears flicking back as she pawed at the ground, dark eyes wide. Link’s lips ticked downward ever so slightly, hastening his steps. Epona was never one to startle.
The thrice blessed horse stood proud regardless of the battles that had awaited them in their youth. She had charged fearlessly into every skirmish, rarely shying away from the claws and teeth of the beasts that stood in their way. She had carried him farther than any other horse might have dared to go.
The mare simply didn’t get frightened, so when she pinned her ears back and stomped at the ground in warning, Link placed a hand over the hilt of his sword. The light had all but vanished, casting silhouettes over the few remaining horses who shifted and whinnied. The peace of the evening faded, falling through shadow coated fingers as the horse’s unease gradually rose to panic.
His wife backed away, her steps slow and steady as she made her way towards him. Her gaze, sharp as fine blade, was pinned on something beyond his one-eyed sight. He met her half-way, a careful hand brushing against the small of her back to let her know he was there. The tension coiled in her shoulders eased a fraction at his touch. The small, wooden ocarina she had been playing was cradled to her chest, as though she feared she might lose it.
Her gaze danced between him and whatever foul thing stalked the night, face pale as finest moonlight. Link gently nudged her behind him with a silent gesture to the house. Stubborn as she was, he half expected her to deny his quiet plea and remain at his side. Yet something in the air was different. Something he couldn’t quiet place. Beneath the layered stillness around them, there was an ever-rising chill of danger.
The kind that delicately brushed spider-like trails down the spine. The kind that came from one too many eyes peering upon the vulnerable. The kind that set ever hair rising on edge. The kind that came from a foe too far gone to care what danger it might happen upon, if only it meant it got a quick meal. The kind that made the fiercest of hunters feel hunted. Twas a ravenous sort of danger, tinged with slightly maddened desire.
Link knew well in his heart, in his aching bones and weary soul that he wasn’t not the only one to feel it. His beloved backed away, not once turning her attention from the shadow kissed field before them. Soon, she would reach their newly built porch and lock herself safely indoors. Then he could risk and advance without fear of her being caught in the crossfire of whatever awaited him.
The horses bolted at a snapping huff from beyond, their cries of fear high and shrill as their thundering hooves passed him by. Whether they went for the barn or made a dash for the gate beyond, Link wasn’t sure. Nor did he spare the time to check.
The only one to remain at his side was Epona, as she always had, and always would. Never one to leave him, regardless of what lay ahead. Waiting for them in the beckoning shadows of twilight.
Link drew his sword, large and unwieldy to any but him. The duel-handed blade had become his favorite as time passed him by. He hadn’t had much of a need to use it since defeating Ganondorf and purging the land of the occasional gathering of monsters, but he supposed all peace came to an end at one point or another.
Epona snorted, stomping the ground in irritation. Her ears were flat against her skull as she tossed her head, ready to defend what was hers.
With his wife safe, Link took a step forward. “Show yourself, beasts of twilight.”
His demand was met with low thrumming. One that had his brows pinching together and the hair on the back of his neck rising. Gooseflesh pebbled his skin as the very air about him shifted and lurched.
Not right.
He hadn’t felt the pull of magic in an age, not since Termina and certainly not this strong. His hand twitched and he halted his steady march forward.
The thrumming in the air rose to a rumble and shadows seemed to pool together, creating a space of darkness too deep for natural light to penetrate. For a moment, he thought his sight sought to make a fool of him. Playing tricks upon his mind. For the darkness began to take unruly shape, moving like sand caught in a river current. Impossible to see… if it weren’t for a faint, sickly glow that sparked through it.
What it was, he wasn’t sure. He only knew that it didn’t belong to anything of his world and it certainly didn’t belong in his back yard.
With courage he wasn’t so sure he felt, Link repeated his demand. “Step into the light and show me your face.”
His request was met with a low, moaning snarl that rose to a mournful wailing. Quiet, but enhanced by the wind. The cries were of many. Distorted screams of men and women alike, young and old all at once. He hadn’t heard a sound so demented, so unsettling, since his battle with the Dead Hand.
The wailing grew, turning from sorrow to starved wrath. Epona’s snort was all but drowned out as a deafening pocket of silence enveloped him all at once, hollowing out his ears. The pulsing dark halted, then shot towards him like shards of ever shifting glass.
Link threw his arm up and ducked his head, stumbling back a step only to collide with his horse. Epona reared and he scrambled away to avoid her treacherous hooves as they thundered to the ground. The darkness settled like disrupted dust upon the ground, encasing the field he stood in beneath its touch.
For a moment, Link thought that was it. Until things began to rise from the unnatural depths around him. Creatures he could barely see stretched and grew, clawing their way out of the darkness until they stood above him.
He raised his blade, driving it into the nearest one only to be met with a paralyzing scream that shook him to his core. He sucked in a sharp breath, heart pounding in his ears as the shadows raced for him.
He couldn’t see much, but he heard the grating sound of claws against stone and dirt. He heard the inhuman huffs and grunts of the beasts as they rushed at him, the slight hitch of an ever-present scream rose and fell with each inch of ground gained.
The nearest to him lunged, only to be plowed over by Epona. Horse and shadow tumbled, snorting and biting and stomping at one another.
Link’s heart lurched, fear wrapping cruel fingers around his throat as he made to help his horse, only to be stopped by three of the other beasts. He brought up his blade to catch the swiping claws of one of them, arms nearly buckling beneath its strength. One of them screamed, so near to him that his ears rang.
That was the only warning he got before he was struck. The force of the blow throwing him across the ground a few feet. His sword skidded across the dirt, invisible against the darkness. He grappled for it, praying for a stroke of luck. But as it had been since the beginning of his cursed journey, his prayers were not to be heard.
Cold, bony fingers curled around his waist. Clamping down tight enough to send a spike of pain along his spine and down his legs. Panic was close behind and for the first time in a long time, Link reached for one of the hidden masks he secretly carried. He grit his teeth as the pressure increased, breath leaving him in a rush.
He barely registered the flare of a distant, golden light. One that reflected off of a scrapped, metal mask larger than most of his body. His reflection, brief and darkened, gleamed back at him. Then the beast screamed and reared back, dropping him in favor of shielding itself. From what, Link couldn’t tell.
He only knew that he heard the distant shout of his name, the thunder of hooves and the clash of claws before he fell backwards. No, not fell. Before he was pulled backwards by a force he could not fight. He thrashed against it, but there was nothing to grapple with.
Where bone and frost had once held him, warmth and feathers now seemed to haul him backwards. The whisper of safety was drowned out by the fear for his beloved, still locked inside the house, defenseless against the shadow beasts that tore across their ranch.
Light bloomed behind him, golden if not a bit muted by the darkness thickening around him. He saw the beasts then, a quick glance of what he had faced. Large and gangly, with armored heads and wisping, shadowed hair. Hands larger than they had a right to have ended in dagger-like claws were raised to block out the light and their screams…
Their screams were born of an agonized plea and years of wrath all at once. The light built into pulsing pressure behind him, an echo of protection ringing out a moment before it devoured him whole, yanking him back and away from the one he loved most.
He reached towards the sky, dappled stars above fading to nothing, and with a shout and a curse all went dark.