#ic. link.

the forests are nothing like the memory of kokiri forest an age ago. the young hero of time has completed his destiny, his deed done, his land saved. epona’s hooves clop beside him softly (he sometimes likes to give her a break from carrying him), and he keeps his gaze shifting around, around. always alert, the way a hero has to be, eyes squinting and watching every movement. leaves rustled, and sharply pointed ears--

he whirls swiftly, drawing sword and shield in one moment upon hearing the frantic TINKTINKTINK of navi, a bell calling him to action. “ht?” it’s more of a sound of questioning as he can see the figure he can sort of hear. adjust. clink, clank, clunk, as the shield is returned to his back, the sword of legend emanating its bright and holy glow, singing until it sheaths into its scabbard and falls silent of its ethereal hum.

there’s a tink tink tink that meets sharply with pointed ears. the hero of time whirls swiftly. the pathway here is unsafe, and he takes in the stranger, steel blue eyes kinder than they would indicate in color. tink tink tink navi tinkles again, wings flapping, like the sound of a little bell. and those white wings shimmer in the glistening gold of the lost woods-- it is haunting here, link knows, for others. ribbons of disjointed gold flutter through the forest air and disappear. there is a sense of death and life at once, a beautiful sorrowful echo. even the flute that seems to call from deep within hollowed logs that shape into yawning doorways. this feels like the kind of place waiting to swallow one whole. a tune echoes across every entryway, but choose the wrong one and--

a leather gauntlet gestures-- the man looks like no zora he has ever seen, nor any hylian he has ever known. though his skin is blue, link doesn’t know anyway but zora with blue skin. navi keeps fluttering, floating nearby the-- blue not-zora.