Chapter 2: The Old Man

NOTE: This story can also be found on Archive Of Our Own. Click here to read it there.

Zelda stared at the vast expanse of what Naboris had called Hyrule. She had arrived at one conclusion about the kingdom.

It was beautiful.

Link sighed into the soft breeze, and Zelda stole a glance at him. Link was interesting. He could hear the voices too, and he seemed fairly uninterested in the Sheikah Slate, which was startling. It was so remarkable! And he seemed to have an air of chivalry about him. And his face was quite handsome…

“As much as I think we’d both like to admire the scenery, I think we need to get going. Naboris sounded like she wanted us to, y’know, get stuff done.” Her companion’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, embarrassing Zelda.

“Oh! Yes, you’re right. We should begin ‘saving our kingdom’,” Zelda said, heat crawling up her cheeks. “Do you, er, know how we should do that?” Zelda asked while they began to walk down the hill.

“Oh, um…” Link faltered. “Hey, look! Tree branches! We could use those for weapons!” Zelda giggled at Link’s change of topic, but she knelt down and grabbed a few branches. “Maybe one of the voices will help us?”

Zelda shrugged as they continued down the slope, before she pointed at a few fungi. “Link! Mushrooms!” She ran over and began picking them.

Link walked over and knelt down next to her as Zelda examined them carefully. “You seem pretty excited about some fungi.” He smirked as Zelda huffed at him in annoyance.

“Well, Link, I don’t think that the road will provide us with many opportunities to buy a meal. We’ll need to be self-sufficient, make our own food. As for the examination, I need to make sure these aren’t poisonous.” Zelda lowered the mushroom and put it into a small traveling pouch that had come with her old trousers. “But if you want to be poisoned, I’ll happily oblige.”

Damn, Zelda! Rudania’s voice burst through their minds clearly. That’s fierce! Zelda giggled as Link blushed, and the two stood.

“Rudania, wait!” Link yelled. “Um, how can we store all of our stuff? I mean, we’re going to accumulate a lot, right?”

Medoh’s arrogant voice spoke up. Put it in the Sheikah Slate. Zelda pulled it out and held a mushroom above it, gasping as the mushroom vanished into soupy blue light, before it appeared on the screen of the Slate.

“Interesting,” Zelda muttered as Link put the tree branches into the Sheikah Slate, leaving two out for him and his partner.

Follow the point on the Sheikah Slate to get to your destination. Ruta’s voice was so quiet, it was nearly impossible to hear her over the wind. Though you may not yetknow your path, us four will help you through the wilds of Hyrule.

Link leaned over Zelda’s shoulder, who had pulled the Slate out once again. Zelda noticed that on the area that could be considered a map had both the cave they had come from and a golden glowing dot on it. An arrow that pointed towards the dot seemed to be her and her companion.

Zelda put it away and the two began to walk down the path. Zelda sniffed the air and tilted her head towards Link. “Do you smell that? I believe it’s a campfire.”

“Hmm.” Link peered ahead. “Maybe that’ll help us remember something.”

Link and Zelda walked a bit faster, and they soon reached the campfire. Link noticed an apple tree and began to climb up, while Zelda sat down and searched her mind for a fragment of a memory. A sweet smell wafted through the air, and Zelda noticed an apple that seemed to be toasted. She leaned over and grabbed it off the ground, before setting it into the Sheikah Slate.

“I BEG YOUR PARDON!” The voice boomed from down the path, and Zelda heard a yelp as Link fell from the tree. “I do believe that is my baked apple! You can’t just go around taking whatever you please!”

Zelda’s eyes widened as an old man walked into view. He had a bushy gray beard, and was wearing an outfit made of rags and tatters. Something about him seemed familiar, but Zelda couldn’t put her mind on how she knew the man. “Oh, sir, I’m terribly sorry-”

“Oho ho! Forgive me, my dear-I could not resist pulling your leg. Everything is quite alright. Please help yourself. An apple and an open flame make for a succulent treat.”

Zelda let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, sir.” She turned to Link. “Would you mind roasting the apples you gathered?” Without bothering to wait for a reply, Zelda turned back towards the old man. “If I may ask, why couldn’t you, as you put, resist pulling my leg?”

“A fair question,” the old man said. “It is…a bit strange to see another soul in these parts.” Link dropped down the tree and set a few apples in front of the campfire.

“Who are you?” Link asked, grabbing the Sheikah Slate from Zelda’s belt and extracting a few mushrooms and putting them in front of the fire as well.

The old man smiled. “I’ll spare you my life story. I’m just an old fool who has lived here, alone, for quite some time now. If you’ll permit me a question, who might you two be? This place is too dreary for two fresh-faced youths such as you.”

Zelda froze, asking herself the question over and over again. Who am I? She wondered. “Um, where are we?” Zelda blurted out, panicked.

Link shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye as he grabbed the baked apples and toasted mushrooms and put them in the Sheikah Slate, before he warily gave it back to her.

“Answering a question with a question. That is fair enough. As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a simple coincidence, I shall tell you.” The old man’s head turned to Link. “You should listen too, young man.”

He then continued. “This is the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the 

birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule.”

The old man stood and pointed towards an abandoned cathedral. It had probably been grand in its prime, but half the walls had crumbled, and ivy snaked up the remaining supports. “That temple there…Long ago, it was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Ever since the decline of the kingdom 100 years ago, it has sat abandoned, in a state of decay. Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self…”

The old man sat back down. Zelda was tempted to ask about 100 years ago, but the pained look in his eyes convinced her to not. “Um, sir? Could we take that torch and the axe?” Link asked, gesturing towards a torch leaning on the stone wall in the alcove they sat in, and then to a sturdy axe in a tree stump in front of Zelda.

The old man nodded. “Certainly. It is a dangerous world now, and I have no use for them.”

Zelda and Link stood up and left, with Zelda grabbing the torch. Link yanked the axe out of the stump and set it into the Sheikah Slate. “Hey, Zelda!” Link called, walking up a slope. “I’m gonna scope out that temp-AAAHHHH!” 

“Link!” Zelda yelled, running to the edge of the terrain. Link had fallen off of the slope he was standing on and into a ring of water lilies. “Are you okay?”

“Ya-ha-ha! You found me!” A small being popped out of thin air. He had to be only a foot tall, and he had a long leaf for a face. He floated in midair, using a leaf as a sort of propeller. “Huh? You’re not Hestu?”

“Yes, I’m not Hestu!” Link spat out water and swam over towards the ledge Zelda knelt by, and she heaved him onto dry land.

“But you can…see me? I didn’t know your kind could see the children of the forest! Well, if you run into Hestu, please return this to him.”

The small creature flew over and dropped a small seed into Zelda’s palm. “What is this?” The young maiden asked.

“It’s a Korok seed! I’m a Korok! We’re children of the forest!” The young Korok smiled, his small mouth containing an immeasurable amount of happiness. “Oh, also, my friends are hiding around too! Don’t be shy about poking your nose into suspicious places! Buh-bye!”

The Korok vanished into a poof of leaves and pink glitter. “That was…odd.” Link stood up and yawned. “Well, we should get going. Trust the Sheikah Slate.”

Link and Zelda continued down the hill towards the point on the Sheikah Slate, but it wasn’t long before the tranquility of the plateau was interrupted. A red monster jumped out at Zelda, causing her to shriek.

In an instant, Link had pulled out a tree branch and had started to advance on the monster. He began to hit the monster quickly, and soon the monster fell back and faded into a purple dust, leaving behind only a horn and a tooth.

Zelda ran over and picked the two items up and gently set them in the Sheikah Slate.

Bokoblin Horn

“Bokoblin…” Zelda muttered, standing up. “I wonder…” She trailed off, noticing

a small structure buried under boulders. She checked the Slate and looked up at Link. “I think that’s the point on the Sheikah Slate!”

Link shrugged as Zelda excitedly ran towards the building, ducking under a piece of rubble, before noticing a Sheikah terminal.

Place the Sheikah Slate in the pedestal.

The voice that came out of the slate was robotic. Link came up behind her and gestured towards the pedestal. “You should do it.”

Zelda nodded and slid the Slate into the slot.

Excellent.

Sheikah Tower activated.

“What does that mean?” Link wondered aloud as the Sheikah Slate rambled.

Please watch for falling rocks.

“What does that-” Link was cut off by the low rumble coming from the ‘tower’.

And then the world began to shake.

Story Notes

Heya! I hope you enjoyed this addition to the story. I want to say a couple things about how the story will work now so it’s not a surprise when they come up later.

First of all, most of the dialogue is taken directly from the game, but I will edit some of it because I want to both make it so the dialogue addresses two characters, and also just so it flows better.

Second, ‘Medoh’, ‘Rudania’, ‘Ruta’, and ‘Naboris’ will have a very active presence, unlike Zelda in the game. They’ll guide the characters and stuff throughout the whole journey. Later on, King Rhoam, Zelda’s mother, and Link’s parents will also appear. The spirit world and Hyrule are much closer than in the canon.

Third, I will be making a lot of my own memories. This isn’t coming into play yet, but it’ll happen. I feel like 18 (23 if you count Champion’s Ballad) is not enough, especially since some don’t have Zelda or vice versa. Also, I will include scenes from other games – kind of a spirits of ages past sorta thing. I haven’t actually played any other games to completion…so Google will have to do.

That’s all for now! I will hopefully have Chapter 3 up in a week.

-bakergamerwriter