Neriak-At-Night

The hot spring had finally gotten too shallow to continue any semblance of swimming so Red, with great reluctance, forced herself to slip out of its warm embrace. She shivered, goosebumps racing over her skin as she scooped up her towel. The air seemed chillier, the mists wafting off the waters thicker. She checked the sky, the beautiful red sunset darkening now into the bruised hues of twilight. How long had she been distracted in the spring?

As if sensing her thoughts, Vio cut in with a question.

So, they asked slyly, were you fantasizing about Twilight?

Red fumbled the towel, almost dropping it as heat flushed through her body.

I knew it! they snickered.

“Vio!” she hissed, mortified.

Smugness practically emanated from Vio’s corner of their mind. Don’t worry, I’m not going to judge. There’s nothing wrong with falling for your own soul. Besides, they continued after a pause, a hint of sorrow coloring their words, I can feel the shadow magic in his aura. It’s… comforting, in a way.

Red closed her eyes, embarrassment forgotten with the pang of sorrow that swept through her. Shadow was the other shard of their fragmented soul, born from dark magic by Ganon’s hand during their last adventure. She and the others had never gotten the chance to truly know Shadow the way Vio had, but they had all intimately experienced Vio’s rage and loss and heartbreak after they’d all been crammed back inside one body. And even without all those intense feelings, Shadow deserved to be mourned for the way he had sacrificed himself to save them all.

“I’m sorry, Vio,” she murmured.

There was a faint flicker of purple from the back of their mind, an acknowledgment, the only response she was likely to get. Vio had closed themself off again, the pain still raw despite all the years that had passed.

Red sighed, her good mood dampened now that she’d managed to upset two of her siblings. She quickly finished drying herself off, wrapped the towel snugly around herself, and grabbed the rest of her bathing accoutrements before carefully picking a path through the rocks and mist that would take her back to the log.

A snuffling noise caught her attention as she neared the log and, peering through the mist, she made out what looked to be a large gray wolf nosing at her pile of dirty clothes. Twilight always gave her plenty of privacy when he guarded her baths, never reappearing until she was fully dressed again. She suddenly wished she’d brought her sword with her.

“Wolfie…?” she called out, hesitantly.

The wolf’s head snapped up to look at her, Twilight’s facial tattoo emblazoned in white fur on its forehead.

“Oh good,” Red relaxed, “it’s you. What are you doing here?”

Wolfie lifted his muzzle, sniffing, his tongue flicking in and out like he was trying to taste the air. In a strange way, he reminded her of a nobleman at a court banquet, lifting a glass to his nose to sample the bouquet of a fine wine.

She frowned at him. “Wolfie?”

The wolf should have cocked his head to the side, or panted with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, or done something to indicate he’d heard her, but he didn’t. Instead, he trotted straight at her, his bright blue eyes locked on to her with piercing intent.

Red… came Green’s voice, concerned.

Her eyes flicked down to the wolf’s front legs. There it was, the shackle just above his left paw, the one Twilight had refused their aid in removing—a memento, he’d said with a dark expression, from his adventure. This was Wolfie, no doubt about it, but—

Red’s eyes widened and she twisted to the side, partially shielding herself as Wolfie all but barrelled into her, tail lashing, nearly knocking her off her feet. She reeled, off balance, and he shoved his muzzle into her face, making quiet whining sounds and licking at her mouth despite her attempts to fend him off.

“Wolfie!” she cried, Green’s alarm mixing with her confusion. Twilight never acted like this.

He crowded into her, whining and whuffling at her neck, her breasts, her crotch. His nose was damp and cold against her skin, his breath hot, and Red abruptly realized her towel was gone, ripped away by their collision.

This concept was directly inspired by a fic I stumbled across a few months ago when I did a blanket search for Explicit fics in the Legend of Zelda fandom. It was my first introduction to the oviposition kink and it  a w a k e n e d  something in me. Here’s the link, if anybody would like to check it out:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35658208

I haven’t gotten past the “jotting down notes” stage yet, but the rough idea is that Link, who is AFAB, has no memory of the… unusual… threat posed by lizalfos and he has an… unfortunate… encounter with the two lizalfos swimming in the river separating the two sides of Dueling Peaks.

I’m running with a slightly different take on the lizalfos here than in the inspiring fic, giving them a neurotoxin in their saliva that paralyzes their prey if enough gets absorbed by their skin. (That tongue flicking attack? Yeah. That’s what’s going on there.) Lizalfos usually just hunt small mammals for food, but female lizalfos that are egg-heavy will occasionally target larger female mammals (like Hylians) for breeding purposes, depositing their eggs inside while the victim is paralyzed and fully aware.

The purpose of this is genetic diversity. The eggs are laid inside of what is essentially a mobile incubator, which is affected by hormones secreted by the eggs (or something), kind of like the sex pollen trope, but, internal?? Anyway, the lizalfos releases the egg-filled victim, who wanders off in a mental haze, not really knowing what they’re doing, reduced to primal urges, until they stumble across a male lizalfos, which will breed them again to fertilize the eggs.

Victims are protected during their dazed wanderings by pheromones the female lizalfos sprays on them to deter other predators. Basically, they’ll smell like meat that’s gone bad. This scent will also help attract male lizalfos to them.

I haven’t really decided what happens yet after the lizalfos eggs are fertilized. Options range from the male lizalfos abandoning the victim (who expels the eggs somewhere, regains their senses, and returns to their life) all the way to… well… CW: Gore, MCD… a messy end where the eggs hatch inside the victim and the hatchlings eat their way out. It might not even matter, I could just leave it open ended.