Big Trouble, Little Necluda

!Zelda The Lost Woods

Let's discuss deja vu, shall we?

It occurred when Impa, my dear advisor and long-time friend, alerted me to sightings of guardian hordes charging east from Scott's Hill.

I alerted Riju and Teba to request the assistance of Vah Naboris and Vah Medoh. Despite my best efforts to remain equable, visions of a not-too-distant past torment me.

Majora plays an intelligent game. Distract the divine beasts so that the moon continues to lie vulnerable to his ploy.

My sincerest hope was that our fierce deity guardian would have attacked him and ended this charade.

But it appears Y/N has stolen the attention of yet another version of Link.

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The sound of heavy boots stomping among moist soil made you surveillance the ground around you.

Well, what little you could see of it.

"There's footprints here. We already came this way."

The deity grunted as he swung you around on his other shoulder. Your wrists and ankles tickled from the synthetic fibers of the rope he had hog-tied you with. You let out a helpless sigh.

"This would be so much easier if you just untied me."

"Show me trust, and I'll show you freedom."

"Look," you began, "it's clear that I obviously can't run away from you being as you're a freak of nature and can teleport."

You could attest to your statement. You tried three times to escape the deity, who seemed to take nothing but great pleasure in deriding you. It was the third time that had awarded you with the displeasure of being tied upside down like a pig in a shop window that had just been smoked.

The deity snorted, his usual signal that he was listening to your whining. You continued to rebuke him. "So, if I clearly cannot escape, why go through such lengths and tie me up?"

When there was no response, you started on him again. "I don't even know why you brought me here. I've never even been to the Lost Woods. We've been traveling for miles, and all I see are the same wide boot prints in the mud. This fog doesn't help. And then there's the fact-" Your stomach gurgled into his ear, finishing your sentence for you.

"What was that abhorrent sound?"

"Well, excuse me, deity, but as a human, I require food; otherwise, my body will rebel."

He snarled, "Do you ever shut the hell up?"

He walked over to a splintered log and plopped you down on the smoothest indent of it. "What about the apples I fed you?"

Your stomach protested against the idea of digesting another apple with a surly roar. "I need protein! Protein is what keeps us full, not some fruit that's mostly water!"

He sat down beside you, lifting you up and seating you on his knee. "What are you-"

He whirled his hand in a circle, and a succulent Cucco leg glistening with fat appeared in front of you. "Eat." He demanded.

"You can't at least untie my hands to eat? How absurd! What could I possibly do with my-" He shoved the Cucco leg against your lips, silencing you. "Bite." He ordered with the same callous voice.

You obeyed; timidity crept over you as you gave the leg a ginger nibble. Soon, you took another bite, and then another. Before you knew it, you were sucking the final remnants of meat off the bone. The human need to eat and nourish yourself made you oddly ashamed. What did a being who didn't require those things think?

"Deity..." He responded with a gruff grunt when he heard you utter his name once again.

"I'm thirsty too."

With the same whisk of his hand, a bottle of milk appeared. You tried to sip from the bottle's rim, stopping yourself when you realized how awkward the whole thing was. "Um, can I have a straw?"

"You are so damn needy." He laced his fingers between your hair, yanking it so that it would snap your head backward. He placed the rim of the bottle against your lips. "Drink."

He kept your hair tightly within his grasp as he poured the milk down your throat. You felt some of the cold milk spill down your chin. It made you think of when Link gave you the apple at Lurelin Village and how he had wiped the spilled juice away. Tears pricked at your eyes.

Until you felt the sensation of a thumb wipe away the spilled milk from your skin. You met the blank abyss of the deity's eyes, but something was different about them. His brows seemed to fall downward in thought.

He was thinking.

No. He was remembering.

"Link!" You began to scream. "Link, are you in there?"

The assembly between determined brows fluttered upward, and the intimacy had been ruptured by the shock of hearing of you scream. The Fierce Deity hissed, "Just when I think you can't do anything more ridiculous, you manage to prove me wrong."

He grabbed your face in between his thumb and fingers, his hand so massive it was almost suffocating. "I will not repeat myself. This being known as 'Link' is not present. I am in control, and his body is now my vehicle. All consciousness has been erased in order to sustain me. Do you understand?"

You nodded, hyperaware of the pressure his fingers were applying to your cheeks.

"How can I get you evicted?"

He let out a boisterous laugh that pissed you off. "Are you trying to make me a deal?"

"If I get you to Termina, will you leave Link?" As soon as the question left your lips, you felt the immense weight of stress beginning to make you crack. Your bottom lip shook, and your eyes seared, defending the threat against the tears that wanted to spill. It all circled back to what Purah had said. How could you find such a place if there was no real record that it existed?

And the one record you did have was presently being infested by a conceited god.

Or was he?

If the deity had a hold of your Link and his consciousness, was it enough to efface the consciousness of the hero you needed to speak with most?

The Hero of Time?

Your mind began to flick through all of the information you could remember as if it were flipping pages in a catalog. You knew that the Hero of Time had called Termina an almost perfect parallel to Hyrule. Would mentioning this somehow convince the deity that you could help him?

"If you knew how to get to Termina, then why did you waste my time?" You could hear the cynicism in his question.

You had to play your cards right. You tried to think of what the Hero of Time had said about the parallels.

As if by fate, submerged beneath the dense crux of fog, you heard the slight spin of a pinwheel. You could make out small flashes of color as it twirled in the distance.

The deity followed your eyes, observing it in the stippled distance. "What is that? A Deku?"

BINGO. You heard it then. The Hero of Time's euphonious voice was strong and resounding. "I must take into account that there has been much evolution since I existed."

"Those are Korok; they are the predecessors of the Deku."

"Predecessors?"

"Yes. In Hyrule, you'll find similarities with those of Termina. We have Zora and Goron; why, we even have the four giants."

"The four giants?" The deity's hollow eye sockets ignited with excitement upon hearing the mention of the giants. You knew you were on the right path.

The code was close to being cracked.

"They are the key. The giants will stop the moon from crashing into this world, as they did in Termina. They are also the key to defeating Majora and relinquishing your friend, unscathed."

"Kilton? So, we can save Kilton?"

The deity sat with you, still curled onto his lap. The silence he usually gave was not one of ignorance but of possibility.

Of action.

"I've already asked for the assistance of three of them."

"What of the fourth?"

"He is in Eldin, where the Goron now live."

With a snap of the deity's fingers, the ropes that bound you slowly fell to the ground.

"Take me to this place known as 'Eldin.' I want to see the giants of your world. My friends."

And with a twist of words, your mission, as it was with Link, was to commence once more.

Until the impenetrable murk of the Lost Woods was aglow with the familiar magenta markings of guardians.

Army, after army, of guardians.

Edited:2/4/24