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Link found himself wandering a hall of beige walls, all with skulls on them. He couldn’t read the inscriptions, but everytime he approached one, it spoke to him what he assumed were the words they said.
“Shadow Temple… Here is gathered Hyrule’s bloody history of greed and hatred.”
“What is hidden in darkness… Tricks full of ill will… You can’t see the way forward…”
Link knew to walk through the wall if it said the second of the two, though he had attempted walking through other walls before. They ended up being solid.
He approached one of the walls, though this one had a skull with glowing green eyes. Walking through it he was met with a door. He walked towards it and it opened. Swallowing his nerves, Link took a step into the room, only to have the door slam shut and bars cover it.
It was one of those rooms, huh.
He looked around, he was in a room with walls of dirt- immediately leading to the assumption it was some sort of hole. A grave perhaps. In the center of the room were five- no six- hands. He was having trouble seeing them all, the room dark with only the light from under the door and Navi to help him see.
“Link! We should try and use the lens of truth!” Navi chirped, moving from the side of his head to out in front of him. “Maybe we can see what we’re supposed to do!”
Link gave a small sigh as he blindly dug into his satchel, pulling out the lens. He put it to his eye and squinted as he tried to look around the room, Navi rushing around to try and cover all of the ground of the room as quickly as she could.
“There-!” Link yelped, pointing to a spot just to the right of him. It was a dark shadow, yet even with the lens he didn’t see anything making the shadow.
Navi rushed over and hovered over the spot he pointed, “I don’t see anything- maybe we have to bomb it-!”
Link took a glance at the hands at the center of the room. What if the bomb provoked those things?
“Hey! Link! Listen!”
With a grumble, he tucked the lens away to pull out a bomb. He kept an eye on the arms as he placed it over the spot with the shadow. He stepped back and watched as the bomb expanded before blowing up.
Immediately a large white creature emerged from the ground, and Link let out a horrified scream.
“Navi what is that!?”
“I-I don’t know-!”
It slid its way over towards Link, its neck extended high into the air. Its arms- or what was left of them- flailed as it approached them. Upon closer look, he could now see the pink bits of flesh and bruising all over it. What *is* this-?
Link just stared in shock as Navi grabbed at his hat. “Link-! Link we really should move-!”
The monster lowered its neck to reveal its face once close to Link. A large set of straightened teeth, a long crooked nose, and empty eye sockets. Link only had a moment to stare before it launched forward, opening its jaw so wide Link could probably fit in its mouth.
Link screamed once more and drew his sword, panicking as he swung it down before stumbling backwards.
“Navi- Navi we need to get out of here- it’s gonna eat me- Navi I don’t know what that is- I don’t know what to do-!”
“Hey- Watch Out!”
Link was tugged back by his hat, before his head was grabbed and he was forced to bend back. He screamed as he started to struggle, lifting his hand to try and remove whatever was grabbing him.
“N-Navi- Navi-!”
“Link it’s the hands- hurry- hurry the thing is coming back-!”
Link struggled harder but a second hand moved and grabbed at his face, a finger forcing its way towards his eye.
“No- No-! Navi, get it off!”
“I- I can’t!”
Link heard the monster- it had to be in front of him. His breathing started to quicken as he fought to get the hands off of his face and head.
The monster leaned towards him with what seemed to be a grin- it made his stomach churn.
“Tricks full of ill will…”
Link felt a finger prod it’s way towards his eye and he screamed, moving both hands to try and tug it off. One of the other hands took Link’s arm and tugged.
“Greed and Hatred…”
“Link-!”
Link let out a blood curdling scream as the finger dug into his eye. He tugged as hard as he could to get away still, fighting harder than before. Another finger joined the other.
It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
“NAVI M-MAKE IT STOP-!”
Warm liquid pooled down his face- was it blood or tears? He couldn’t tell. It hurt too much to tell.
“Hidden in darkness…”
The pain suddenly disappeared and grew worse all at once- he couldn’t see from that eye anymore. He couldn’t see.
The arms dropped him and he laid on the ground. In a panic- or a rage- he stood and drew his sword once more. He swung at the monster, at the hands, whatever he could. Whenever it tried to burrow into the ground Link would grab it and pull it up.
It had stopped moving. He didn’t care. He was afraid. He was hurt.
He kept stabbing, screaming as he did so. When his voice went raw he kept stabbing, kept tearing into the monster until he couldn’t.
Link dropped to his knees and dropped his sword. His vision was spotty- or it had gotten darker. He wasn’t sure. Navi floated in front of her and he could barely make out a gasp.
“Link.. Your eye..”
Link blinked hard and moved a hand to his eye. He felt at it- where was it.
Immediately Link began to look around him, “N-Navi- Navi my- it’s- where-”
Link stopped, staring at one of the bloodied hands. Grasped in it’s dead clutch, he could barely make out a blue iris staring back at him.
He turned away and threw up, Navi yelping as she jumped out of the way.
A treasure chest began to shimmer in the back of the room but Link couldn’t care. He sat, shaking, ignoring the smell of vomit as he dug out the ocarina from his satchel.
“Link- we should get the chest then go- you don’t want to see these things again and it’s a big one.. It’s important..”
Link felt his good eye twitch a little as he shakily stood. He immediately doubled over and threw up again. Navi moved to pat his ear, grimacing.
He felt sick. He couldn’t see. It hurt. It still hurts so bad.
He drugged himself over the corpse and shakily opened the chest. Anger building in his chest as he stared down at the contents.
Boots. Boots with Wings.
“They’re hover boots-!” Navi floated over to them. “I think they should be able to help us a lot!”
Link glared at them for another moment before shoving them in his bag. He fell back to his knees and with the last bit of his strength, he played the Prelude of Light.
-
Sheik stood at the door of the temple of time, shocked when a familiar mist of light made its way to the center of the room. He was ready to leave before he realized the Hero was on the floor. Covered in blood.
He sprinted over and gently took Link’s head into his lap, checking over his chest before looking at the damage of his face. A gasp left his lips and it took all of him not to vomit. One of Link’s eyes was shut, and the other was gouged out, an empty socket staring back at him.
“Navi… What happened.”
“Something in the shadow temple! According to Sheikah legend, it was a monster called Dead Hands,” Navi huffed. “Wish I had known that inside..”
Sheik moved a hand to cover Link’s left eye and swallowed back vile. “We’re gonna head to Kakariko.”
“Okay!”