Chapter Text
Everything was going wrong.
The castle was being assaulted by Guardians in droves - They crashed through the front gate, flew past the guards, and wreaked havoc. Guards were falling left and right as the invaders took control of the castle.
He was taking a stand in the courtyard, his sword and shield at the ready to try and defend against what were supposed to be his allies. As the rest of the guards perished at the hand of the machines, more and more of the Guardians had come to face him. Patiently, ceaselessly, he reflected beams back at the Guardians, destroying one after another in an endless barrage as a woman stood behind him, shouting when a new Guardian appeared.
Suddenly, the firing stopped. A man, standing on a walkway far above, put his hand to his mouth, giving an order into a device. The ominous synchronized charging of the Guardian’s weapons rang in his ears, a low, rumbling sound he could feel in his chest as he put his shield up in a last - ditch effort to protect his charge.
Then they fired.
Six Guardians fired at him, their white - hot beams all converging into one. It slammed into his shield, and it blew apart. Searing pain, worse than he’d ever felt before, emanated from his midsection and his hand as burning-hot shards of metal flew everywhere. The vision in his left eye was extinguished as he was blown backwards with the force of the blast. There was a scream of pain and terror from behind him.
The beams had found their way through his shield, through him, and had arrived at their real target. She was barely recognizable as her face twisted with pain. Her torso was blown to pieces, a ragged mess of bone and muscle. She collapsed to her knees, color draining from her face as more of her blood spilled out onto the grass. Her mouth was moving, but no sound came out. She fell forward, convulsed, then laid still.
She was dead.
The Guardians scattered, off to find the few guards still alive. His shield fell to the ground, a massive smoking hole punched through it. He screamed from the pain, clutching his face with a shaking hand. Blood flowed down his face, soaked into his clothes, stained the grass underfoot.
There was so much pain. He writhed on the ground, overwhelmed as the shrapnel took its toll on him. Slowly, he managed to sit, then kneel, then stand. He nearly fell again, the world tilting dangerously under his feet as his head whirled from pain and blood loss. If he was honest, he knew nothing could fix this. Nonetheless, he refused to give in. Stumbling through the courtyard, he’d nearly made it to the other side before his body began to shut down. He’d lost too much blood, and his innards were exposed to the world, shredded and failing. He leaned against the wall, slumping as his vision faded...
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Sidon’s life was pretty simple. Every day, he’d wake up, go foraging, fish, then explore before he returned to his small cabin on the water. When he got home, he’d start a fire and cook his food for the day. And he’d stare into the fire or watch the stars, depending on the night.
He hated it. Nothing was worse than a life devoid of others, devoid of change. Devoid of those he loved.
The sun had just touched the sky when Sidon shot bolt upright in bed. Another damned nightmare. He had to do something to clear his mind, these nightmares were haunting him more and more often. He needed a change.
As he walked out of his cramped cabin, relishing the morning air, he spotted a destination he hadn’t dared to enter in his many years in the wild. None had dared, for fear of a rogue Guardian still lurking in its depths. Today, though, Sidon felt up to the task. He was going to explore the ruins of Hyrule Castle.
After gathering up his sword and some food, he dove into the lake, allowing the current to help carry him to a massive hole in the wall of the castle. The castle was collapsed in several places, spires that had once stood proudly in the sky fallen and forgotten. Sidon chose not to risk another cave-in, instead opting for a short search around the outer areas for anything interesting. It was less risky that way.
The stone walls along the outside were littered with scorch marks and the occasional hole, and Sidon stopped to run his hand along a deep gash in the wall. It felt oddly smooth, and it was almost a perfect semicircle. Looking farther ahead, he still saw no sign of life. No monsters, no Guardians, nothing except some plants.
A noise came from behind him, and he spun around to look for the source. It was a wolf, very different from the others he’d seen wandering the fields and forests. It seemed larger, and a pattern adorned its head. That’s odd, he thought. It stared right at him and then turned and ran into an overgrown forest that must’ve been a grassy courtyard at one point, disappearing into thick brush.
On a whim, Sidon followed it. The brush was thick and scratchy, but his sword was able to cut through fairly easily. He could still see the wolf ahead waiting patiently just a little farther in the thicket. He’d gone about 50 feet in before he realized his sword was slowing: it was getting thicker yet. And still, the wolf weaved through it easily, barely visible and spurring Sidon onward. Several yards more, and he could see the wolf, now sitting. He was almost there!
A few more swipes of his sword would- thunk. His sword hit something solid. He swung again. Thunk. He tried a few more times, then sighed with frustration. He sheathed his sword and pushed his way through. It pulled at his scales, dropping dust and dirt on him as he pushed through the last few feet of scratchy brush. All of a sudden, he’d made it. He stumbled into the clearing, nearly falling over. He doubled over, catching his breath.
Wait. Where’s the wolf? His exhaustion forgotten, he looked around to see that it was nowhere to be found. He must’ve arrived at the other end of the courtyard, a stone wall standing in front of him and a tree growing along it with various wildflowers scattered around the clearing. It was cast in an oddly bright hue, the light filtering through the treetops.
He kept looking for a path the wolf could’ve taken, circling the weedy edges of the clearing. There was no path back out except for the way he came in, and the wolf was nowhere to be seen. “Well, that was worth it, wasn’t it?” he muttered to himself sarcastically. Sidon was just about to leave when a patch of light blue on the tree caught his attention.
He jumped backwards with shock when he realized what he was looking at. A body, mostly enveloped in vines and other plants, was attached to the tree. A pale face was the only thing visible. It looked remarkably well preserved, eyes closed. It was odd, they looked as though they were just sleeping…
He stepped forward, fascinated. The blue he’d seen was from a tunic, poking out here and there from behind the vines enveloping them.
He reached out to touch the tunic, curiosity overcoming common sense. The vines pulled back to reveal more of the tunic with a rustle of leaves. Sidon jerked his hand back too, and the vines covered it once more. Slowly, cautiously, he put his hand out again. This time, he slowly ran his hands upwards, the vines slithering out of the way and revealing more of the Hylian hidden inside.
And they definitely were a Hylian, dark blonde hair framing their face. Their blue tunic looked familiar as well, but he wasn’t too focused on that.He lowered his hands down towards their feet, the vines moving out of the way as he went. They seemed short, even for a Hylian.
He’d reached down to their ragged boots when the stranger groaned, falling forward. Sidon deftly caught them, their body surprisingly light. He looked down at their face. Still asleep. Obviously they needed some help recovering from whatever magic had enveloped them in that tree.
“How do I get out of here?” he wondered aloud. As if on cue, the plants at the edge parted to make a perfect trail out, right to where he’d started. “You couldn’t have done that earlier?” he grumbled, cautiously eyeing the path. Retracing his steps, he emerged outside the castle once more. The next problem was getting the Hylian across the water. Eventually, he managed to get them on his back, and he slowly kicked and paddled across, careful to keep his mysterious cargo above the water.
Finally, he had made it across. They were still fast asleep in his arms, chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. The sun was low in the sky, a brilliant shade of red and orange, but his house wasn’t far now. Carrying them the last of the distance, they arrived at Sidon’s house. It wasn’t really much to look at, logs cobbled together tall and wide enough to keep him warm at night. Hopefully he’d have enough space to keep this stranger safe as well.
It was only as he laid him on the floor of the house that he noticed the stranger’s left hand was… different. His left forearm was “naturalized”: Instead of a normal flesh-and bone hand like his right, it was a tangle of vine and branch that weaved the different plants together to form a forearm and a hand, green-tinted fingers laid out and bent as a normal hand would. They twitched as the stranger shifted in their sleep.
“Impossible.” Sidon’s surprise grew as he noticed a piece of the tunic was missing, replaced with grass woven in as though someone had sewn it. He lifted it slowly, and there was nothing underneath but… plant. A massive chunk of his midsection was gone, replaced by a similar mix of green growth and gray tree branches. There were even a few blossoms on the vines. The vines and branches had merged with the rest of their chest through a magic that he couldn’t comprehend. The skin grew pale green before it blended into the ‘natural replacement’.
“I’m literally crazy. There is no way this is happening.” But no matter how many times he walked outside for a fresh breath of air, the stranger was still there, plant arm and all. And they were still ‘sleeping’. Or whatever it is they were doing. Slowly backing up to his bed, he extinguished the light, keeping an eye on them the whole time.
It took him a long time to get to sleep that night, questions floating around his mind and a suspicious eye keeping watch over the stranger. It was well past dark before he finally slipped into sleep, gratefully.
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He was back at the Domain.
He walked around the town, the pillars towering over him as they had when he was a fry. In the middle of the plaza stood a statue of his father, somehow looking just as small as him. Up above, someone kept watch over the city.
It was Mipha. She stood above him, her eyes blazing with fury. “Find him! Find the traitor!” Suddenly, a mob appeared around him, cheering her on. He clapped his hands to his ears, but they were yelling and screaming so loud that it made no difference.
He tried to run, but there was nowhere to go. Dodging frantically between the Zora, he was spotted. A shout went out among the crowd as strong hands held him immobile. They picked him up by his tail, as he stopped resisting - the pain would only be worse.
He was thrown at her feet. He knelt in front of her, his hands wrung. “Mipha, this isn’t you! Please! Don’t. Don’t do this.”
She looked down on him haughtily, her eyes a raging sea of purple-black. “You’re right. It isn’t me. It’s MORE than me!” She spun him around, and he was on the edge of the terrace, the crowd below him gone, replaced with a pool of the same seething liquid filling Mipha’s eyes. She bent down next to him, whispering into his ear. “Not even he can save you,” she scoffed. He looked up to see the stranger trying frantically to stay afloat in the pool, a desperate hand reaching out as he sank below the surface.
And then he was falling, the pool rushing up to greet him…
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Sidon shot bolt upright in bed, shouting and breathing heavily. “LINK! NO!”
His shouts rang through the small cabin, and the stranger abruptly sat up. They turned to look at him, one piercing blue eye staring directly at him and sending chills through his body.
“Who are you?”