Heroes challenge and alter fate by merely existing. Link is no exception. As such, the fact that him being yanked to another dimension had some unintended consequences to those whose fate had been entangled with his should be no surprise.
Heroes, those who are touched by Fate and Destiny itself, can’t help but leave a mark in the life of others. Unknowingly entwining their destinies together due to their sheer presence, forever altering the destiny of those they interact with. Leaving behind marks that can persist long after they are gone. And Link was no exception to this rule.
Something that all those who ever met Link could easily attest, especially when they find themselves accidentaly turned into new beings and in a whole new dimension due to that.
This will be a series of non-Canon omakes and short-stories to my story The Power of Freedom, depicting various other characters of the Zelda franchise appearing in the universe of the story, their many adventures and misadventures, and all the chaos and shenanigans that shall ensue due to that.
Reading the main story is not necessary to read and enjoy this, but it would make things flow more smoothly in my opinion. If you haven’t read it, just know that the setting is that the Main Characters of the Zelda franchise, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, were turned into ponies and transported to the ancient days of the Pony Tribes, before the first Hearts Warming Eve.
Beta Reader: The amazing Emtu! Featured! 11/27/2020
“What did that idiot do this time?” Midna groused, continuing to stare at her reflection in the small pond she had found shortly after waking up, with a mixture of annoyance and resignation.
Moving her head sideways, the reflection of the strange black and grey quadruped in the pond immediately followed the movement. Proving that, yes, the small, fluffy, bat-winged quadruped with the stupidly adorable fuzzy ears atop its head was indeed herself.
This wasn’t the first time her beautiful self had been transformed into another form against her will. But, taking in her small and ridiculously adorable new appearance, she almost wished she had been turned back into an imp. At least that form could pull an intimidating façade when push came to shove!
Taking a deep breath, she attempted to rein in her fraying temper as her long, fiery, light-orange mane rippled with power. The fact that she couldn’t feel even the faintest trace of the Twilight Realm, showing that she wasn’t anywhere even near Hyrule, also really wasn’t helping her mood.
Fluffy ears flat against her skull, Midna tried to make sense of her current situation. She had no idea how she had ended up in a new dimension, or why she had been transformed into an annoyingly cute miniature bat pony. But what she did know was that whatever this was, it was, without a shadow of a doubt, all Link’s fault!
“Oh, we are going to have words when I find you, mister, mark my words!” she snarled, the fact that the action looked more adorable than anything with her new features only served to worsen her mood.
“Stupid, idiotic, useless things!” Midna loudly cursed from the thick bushes into which she had crash-landed moments ago.
As she got back unto her hooves and fought her way out of the grasp of the annoyingly thick bush, she glared at the dark bat wings at her side. She had thought that flying would be a no brainer, what with all her practice floating and levitating. That it would be a piece of cake, something that she would be able to just manage right away in order to speed up her search for the green idiot considerably. After all, her new wings were a part of her body now, so how hard could it actually be?
She had been wrong.
“Confound it all! This can’t be that hard!” she complained as she shook her mane in order to get out the myriad twigs and leaves that had found their way in there. “Link barely even stumbled when he was first turned into a wolf! So why can’t I get these stupid things to work?!”
As she spoke, she harshly stomped in anger, which caused her wings to flare at her sides in an instinctual response without her even trying to move them. “And stop moving without my say so!”
Midna had been trying and failing to use her wings to take off for several minutes now. But, even after several crashes into the shrubbery, all she could boast about was that she could, sort of, glide in the right direction. Most of the time. Until her wings twitched wrong or otherwise moved without her conscious input, and she was tumbling back into the greenery.
She was quite thankful for the fact that the trees that dotted the landscape here and there were spaced quite a bit. She really didn’t want to think how things would’ve gone if she had woken up in the dense forest she could see at the northern horizon, instead of the more open plains she currently was resting in. Crash-landing into a tree trunk was not something she wanted to experience!
After a few more choice curses, the princess of the Twili decided to use her hooves for a little longer until she could trust her stupid wings to not drop her for no apparent reason. A few minutes later, as she approached a large lake, she got the first sign of some kind of intelligent life in this new realm as she heard a beautiful song in the wind.
The song’s melody was both sad and hopeful at the same time. It spoke of cherished memories and happier times. Of how things could be lost to the sands of time, but their memories would remain. It was quite beautiful, but far more importantly it was a song that Midna recognized.
Fuzzy ears swiveling from one side to another in an attempt to pinpoint the origin of the song, a new and quite strange sensation if she was being honest with herself, she climbed a rocky outcropping in order to get a better view of the surroundings. Now quite sure that it was one of the songs Link liked to play from time to time. The Ballad of Wing Whale or something like that, she wasn’t really certain about the name, but she was certain it was one of Link’s songs.
Narrowing her eyes against the annoyingly bright sunlight refracting against the lake, Midna finally pinpointed the origin of the song. On the far side of the lake, there was someone singing.
It was too far out to make out the details well, but the creature was also a winged quadruped of some kind, with a cream-colored coat, and a strawberry blond mane. Only, their wings seemed feathered instead of bat-like. And, while she might be wrong, the dark-coated bat pony could swear they had a beak of some kind on their muzzle.
Shoving her musings of what odd species she had just stumbled upon, she instead started to look around to try and find the best way to get towards this unknown singer. She was quite intent on finding out exactly how they knew that particular song, or more specifically if they had learned it from a certain green-obsessed Hero.
After confirming from her perch that the lake was far longer to both sides than it was wide, Midna took a long look towards the figure in the distant shore right on front of her, before she turned a very doubtful gaze towards her wings.
Going around the lake on hoof could easily take over an hour. And there was nothing guaranteeing that the singer would still be there by that point, which meant that if she wanted to get there in a timely manner there was but one option.
“C’mon girl, it’s just a straight line, you can do it!” She psyched herself up as she took several steps back until she was at the farthest border from the lake of the rock outcropping.
She measured the distance once more while experimentally flapping her wings. She was a badass wizard and the ruler of the Twili. She had faced monsters and demons alike! She could do this!
Eyes narrowed in concentration, she started to gallop as fast as she could towards the edge and then jumped over the pristine waters of the lake down below. Her wings beat down with all her might as she took wing, eyes locked upon the figure of the mysterious singer at the faraway shore.
Singing the final stanzas of the Ballad of the Wind Fish, as always, Marin felt her spirits being lifted by the beautiful song.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she simply allowed the cool breeze blowing over the serene lake she had found shortly after waking up to caress her now fur-covered body. Opening her eyes, she lazily took in her new form looking back at her from the lake’s placid waters.
Her hair had remained largely the same long expanse of strawberry blond locks it had always been as she lived back on Koholint Island. But that was basically all that had stayed the same. She was now some kind of quadruped creature with a cream-coat and fluffy feathered wings.
Her hands had been replaced by claws of some kind that were but a shade lighter in coloration than her coat, while her feet had been replaced by hooves of the same color. And that was not mentioning the very soft and expressive beak that she now sported or the long tail of the same color as her hair she now had.
Tilting her head slightly to the side, Marin concluded that, all in all, her new form was actually quite cute and endearing. And at least this time she still had something that could work like hands! Her claws seemed to be every bit as dexterous as her hands used to be. It was definitely a step up from being turned into a seagull!
Not that she blamed Link for that. Far from it! It had definitely been infinitely better than simply disappearing as so much mist upon the morning sun as the Wind Fish woke up. But some prior warning would have been nice.
Chuckling lightly at the last thought, Marin wondered what Link could’ve done this time to cause this new transformation. And if he had even realized that he had caused it in the first place. Link was a true hero and an awesome friend, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware he hardly ever considered the consequences of his actions as deeply as he should.
A panicked shout followed by a loud splashing sound, from something plummeting into the lake quite a few meters away from her, cut her musings short as she jumped backwards in startled surprise.
“What in the name of the Wind Fish?” the strawberry blond questioned as the formerly placid waters of the lake were disturbed by whatever it was that had fallen into it.
The very next moment her question was answered as a dark-colored muzzle appeared briefly above the water level, before being hidden by the waves being caused by the creature that had fallen in thrashing motions as it tried to stay afloat with limited success.
When the creature started to curse aloud, Marin realized it was not some creature, but actually a person that had fallen into the lake!
Not wasting a single moment longer, she took flight. Shortly after she was circling above where this new being was mostly succeeding on keeping themselves above the water level. Thinking how best to help, Marin’s eyes drifted towards her dexterous new claws.
Nodding once at this new idea, she used her old experience as a seagull to gauge the distance. Took aim. And then dove right in. Claws extended and ready to play their part.
The very next moment she was fishing a very disgruntled looking and soaked bat-winged pony out of the lake.
“Thanks for the help,” Midna grudgingly said to her rescuer. Sure, she currently wasn’t exactly a happy camper. She was soaking wet after her stupid wings decided to dump her in the lake when a gust of wind had hit her wrong. And being yanked out of the lake as if she was a fish being grabbed by a bird of prey had hardly been the most dignified form of being rescued. Even then, she had more than enough self-control to not take her aggravation out on someone who was just trying to help.
“You’re welcome!” the hippogriff, or at least Midna thought she was a hippogriff based on her appearance, cheerfully said with a beaming smile. “I’m Marin, what’s your name?”
“Midna,” was the bat pony’s succinct reply.
“Nice to meet you! Now let’s get a fire going so you can dry up a little!” Marin happily chirped before flying towards the nearby forest with an ease that made the bat pony glare at her own stupid wings.
“Here, now we just have to get the fire going!” the hippogriff happily stated as she moved to grab two sticks to try and start the fire. By this point of things, Midna was starting to think that happy and chipper was her default way of being.
“No need,” Midna said, actually feeling tired just from Marin’s enthusiasm, as she concentrated upon her magic and caused a spark to ignite the dry wood.
“You know magic?” the cream-coated mare exclaimed in surprise as her eyes moved from the merrily burning fire towards the slightly smug-looking bat pony to her side.
“Eh, it’s no big deal. It comes from being a Twili,” Midna simply said with a small smirk as she sat by the fire.
“Twili?” Marin curiously asked as she sat right next to the other mare, excitement clear in her features.
“It is my race, or well, was my race. It’s complicated. Suffice to say this isn’t my birth form,” Midna said with a small shrug of her shoulders, and a larger involuntary shrug with her wings. “In a nutshell, the Twili are a race of spiritual beings that dwell on the Twilight Realm.”
“I get it, being transformed into another form is always weird at first! I still remember how odd it was when I turned into a seagull!” Marin easily stated with a solemn nod and a happy smile. Though the contents of what she said made Midna blink in slight confusion. That was not helped as she continued. “And you were a spirit? That’s really interesting! I used to be a spirit myself! Well, kinda. I was more a fragment of the Great Wind Fish’s dream! But since I didn’t really have a physical body before Link helped me become a seagull that makes me sort of a spirit, right?”
Midna, for her part, simply stood there, staring at the other mare as she processed what had just been said. Because, really? The girl used to be a dream? And then was turned into a seagull of all things? Just what? Before with a small head shake, she shoved it all to the side and focused on a single fact.
“Wait, you know Link? Kinda dense, massive wanderlust, no concept of what danger is, can’t leave things well enough alone, obsessed with the color green? That Link?”
“You know Link too?” Marin excitedly asked as she got up and trotted right towards Midna until their muzzles were almost touching with each other, her eyes shining with excitement. “That’s great! Do you know where he is? I think he is the reason why we are wherever this is and why our bodies changed, but I’m not sure. So it would be nice to have some confirmation that’s the c-“
As Marin kept talking a mile a minute, Midna thought about interjecting for a moment, before deciding it was probably best to let the very excitable girl get it out of her system. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere until her stupidly fuzzy coat was dry anyway.
As she made vague noises of agreement to Marin’s many questions and exclamations, Midna couldn’t help but wonder what crazy situation had that little idiotic Hero pulled her into this time.
A young-looking woman wearing a regal dress with purple accents stood right next to an equally young-looking man wearing what looked like purple robes. Purple robes that, for some reason, seemed to incorporate a hoodie with long purple bunny ears. Both of them were standing at the edge of the woods with a highway that led to a city in the distance.
They stood there in perfect silence for a long moment. Their keen eyes took in the sight before them with a respectable amount of surprise, amazement, and confusion. Then, the purple-haired woman finally broke the silence by addressing her companion.
“Ravio, this is not Lorule,” the woman commented faux-casually towards her companion, her long dark-purple hair swaying upon the evening wind as she slowly took in their new surroundings. Her voice was calm and collected as if nothing could possibly be wrong. Though the very faint twitch upon her brow betrayed her true feelings.
“Yes, your highness,” the young man wearing the light purple robes immediately replied with a small grimace. His head moved from side to side as his eyes frantically analyzed this strange new place, trying to understand what could’ve possibly happened. The bunny ears atop his hoodie wriggled from side to side with each movement of his head.
“Nor is this Hyrule, or any of the known realms, for that matter,” Princess Hilda continued in the faux-calm tone of voice that Ravio knew from personal experience heralded nothing good in both the short and long term for his continued well being. The slow tightening of the princess’ hands into fists only reinforced that notion.
“I have noticed, your highness,” the young man replied, feeling the shadows of the cowardice that Link had helped him conquer trying to rise up once again. Taking a deep breath, he mustered his resolve and beat such feelings down once again. It had been several years since Link and Zelda had saved Lorule by reviving their Triforce. And during those years he had stalwartly stood by Princess Hilda’s side, helping her to rebuild their country. Sure, he had felt like running away dozens of times during that time period. But he hadn’t! And that was what counted! “The horseless metal chariots made that very clear.”
“Quite,” Hilda blithely replied as they both watched one of said horseless metal chariots pass by with impressive speed, using a strangely smooth stone road to leave the forested area they were currently in as it went towards a truly massive city in the distance. A very odd massive city. With an abundance of very tall, strangely square buildings that seemed to be made of brick and glass more than anything else. The fact that not even a single stone or wood building was in sight only added to the overall oddness of everything. “So, my dear friend, would you care to tell me what exactly you have done to get us here?”
“I didn’t do anything, your highness!” Ravio rushed to affirm, the fact that the princess’ eye twitch had become even more pronounced as she asked the question showing that he had to defuse things fast, lest the growing storm be unleashed on him of all people! “I swear, I had no part in whatever it was that brought us here! Why would you even think that?”
“Why indeed?” Hilda asked in a far too sweet tone of voice for the cowardly hero’s peace of mind as she turned to look at him fully. The smile upon her features did not reach her eyes in the slightest. “I mean, it’s not like you have the habit of collecting weird and powerful magical artifacts, some of which you barely understand their function, or origin.
“Nor do you have the hobby of poking and probing at any dimensional tear you happen to stumble upon to see what’s on the other side. Why, perish the thought!” she continued in the same far too sweet tone of voice as she started to walk towards him. The fact that she was unarmed while Ravio was carrying a veritable arsenal of magical artifacts on his person did very little to boost the bunny-eared man’s confidence. “It’s not like you have caused us to go to at least two other realms in the years we have known each other due to said prodding, and that’s excluding Hyrule, after all! Why would I even think that you could have somehow caused this current mishap, I wonder?”
Grimacing slightly, Ravio had to admit that, when put that way, Princess Hilda’s suspicions did indeed have some merit. But, still! It was not like anything bad had come out of him doing those things! Sure, Termina had been odd, but not a bad kind of odd! And the princess of the Twili had been extremely understanding of them dropping in the middle of her throne room! Even if she did threaten them with bloody murder at the start of the whole fiasco until they managed to convince her they weren’t the tip of an invasion force or something of the like. Everything had turned out alright in the end! No need to keep bringing it up!
And he hadn’t lost control of any of his magical artifacts or experiments in quite some time! Easily more than five months! So that was also another thing that there was no need for the princess to get all hung up with! But considering her, far too wide, smile as she kept approaching him, Ravio decided that bringing that up probably wasn’t the wisest of ideas right now.
“Okay, normally you would have a point, your highness, I concede that!” Ravio said with a small brittle smile while slowly starting to walk backwards, both hands raised in front of him in a placating manner as he tried to calm his liege down a little so she could understand his innocence in this particular scenario. “But I assure you, this time I had nothing to do with it! There is simply no way that my current experiments could have caused an accidental dimensional breach and transported us here!”
“They couldn’t have caused an ‘accidental’ dimensional breach?” Hilda put a very definite emphasis on the word ‘accidental’ as she asked her question, making Ravio gulp as a shiver went down his spine.
“Poor word choice, your highness, that’s all!” he hurriedly reassured the princess of Lorule. And he was speaking nothing but the truth, too! He had no idea how they had ended up in this new dimension, but his current experiment most certainly couldn’t have caused said displacement! At least, he thought so… probably… best not to add that bit to his explanation though. “It simply couldn’t have caused a dimensional breach! Period!”
As Princess Hilda stopped her advance in order to close her eyes and take a long deep breath, Ravio felt himself relaxing slightly. If she at least gave him a chance to explain himself, then he surely could prove his innocence!
“Very well, if that is the case, then what exactly had you been playing with this time, Ravio?” Hilda asked after a few more deep breaths as the twitch upon her eyebrow noticeably lessened.
Relaxing even more, Ravio thanked the Triforce for his good luck. Lowering his hands he gave his long-time friend a smile and started to explain about the exciting new discovery he had been researching before this unexpected development had yanked them out of Lorule.
“Well, Rosso may have had an amazing new idea pertaining to a new type of high yield combustible mixture that could be used as a mining implement, and-“
“You were experimenting with explosives in the castle?! After what happened last time?!” his now very distressed sounding liege shouted, cutting him off. All the calm she had regained was apparently tossed to the wind as she gave him an admonishing glare.
“Oh, c’mon! It was only once, and it was an honest mistake! It could’ve happened to anybody! And I took all the necessary precautions this time!” he quickly justified his actions, even as he once again started to backpedal as Hilda once again started to purposefully approach him. The very worrying twitch was back with full force upon her brow.
“You collapsed the entire northern tower last time!” she shouted as his back hit a tree, blocking his avenue of retreat. “Need I remind you of that?! Why would you think that’s a good idea I-”
And as his long-time friend and lady liege ranted at him about his, somewhat questionable, research practices, he couldn’t help but let out a near-silent sigh. While the sun in this new land slowly started to set and Hilda’s rant showed no sign of slowing down, Ravio decided it was going to be a long night.
Leaning against a balcony of one of the many buildings that made up Canterlot City, three youthful-looking girls stared with very interested eyes towards the faraway woods that surrounded the bustling city. But, despite the fact that outwardly they looked no older than teenagers, the very intent light shining upon each of their gazes’ betrayed their real age, as they focused solely upon what they had felt but moments ago.
“Did you feel that, sisters?” the golden-haired leader of the group asked her two companions, one hand idly playing with the red gem hanging around her neck as she kept gazing at the faraway woods.
“But of course, Adagio! That was a lot of magic!” Sonata happily pointed out. The blue-haired siren was all but jumping in place as she leaned dangerously close to the edge of the balcony, as if doing so would get her closer to whatever it was that had caused the magical surge. “And I do mean a LOT of magic!”
“Yes, but it was not Equestrian magic,” Aria pointed out with narrowed eyes. All the while the purple-haired siren absently grabbed the back of her excitable sister and dragged her away from the balcony’s edge. “Whatever this is, it’s something else entirely, something… new.”
“Yes, you are quite right. But, regardless of its origin, it’s magic nonetheless,” the golden-haired siren all but purred, a very hungry look entering her eyes as a fanged smile surfaced upon her features. “Pure magic, and plenty of it at that. Far more than anything this pathetic planet has ever managed to produce through all these long years of our banishment.”
The blonde-haired siren stared at the woods for several more moments; her mind awhirl with possibilities, before a predatory smile slowly surfaced upon her features, a smile that was soon mirrored by her two sisters at her side.
Adagio didn’t need to voice what she was thinking, for she knew Sonata and Aria were thinking the exact same thing.
Whatever it was that had just unceremoniously entered this sorry excuse of a planet, this magical-dead-zone they had been entrapped within by that doddering old fool of a unicorn, could very well be the key for their escape.
For centuries they had been forced to be extremely frugal with the use of their powers. Husbanding every little drop of magic they managed to get their hands upon due to its sheer scarcity in this realm. The negative energies they could extract from the magicless human beings were barely enough to sate their hunger and sustain them during these long miserable years. Any expenditure of magic had to be carefully considered, lest they use more than they could recover and find themselves weaker in the end.
But this, this new development, this changed everything!
This unknown was emanating enough magic to sustain them for centuries! More than enough to not only raise them back to the heights of power they had experienced back on Equestria. Back before that cursed meddling old fool had banished them! Power to far surpass their past glory! To raise them to new undreamed heights!
If they could acquire this source of magic they could conquer this pathetic dustball of a planet and crush it under their heels! They could shatter the pathetic barrier keeping them here and return to Equestria so that they could unleash their vengeance upon the foolish ponies that had dared to banish them! They could do all that and more!
“Well, sisters, I hope you didn’t have any pressing plans for tonight,” Adagio all but purred. Her toothy smile was something that would have made her original predatory form proud. Sheer hunger was clear in her gaze as her eyes never strayed from the faraway woods where her prey now dwelled. “Because it’s time to go hunting.”
Saria knew her way around dense forests better than most; after all, she was a Kokiri. The forest was her birthright. She had grown surrounded by tall trees and entangling vines, thick underbrush, and carpets of wildflowers. What most would consider an outright claustrophobic mass of deep vegetation, was simply home for her.
As such, she could confidently say that her ability to traverse and navigate the dangers and pitfalls that could be found in any forest, even one she had never laid eyes upon before, was second to none. Her skill was not changed by how she now had to do said traversing upon four hooves instead of two legs, something that the now cream-coated deer, sporting a short green mane, was deeply thankful for.
As Saria dashed through the underbrush at breakneck speed, weaving around tree trunks as fast as she could, her hooves hitting the muddy ground in a constant staccato as her heart hammered against her chest, a small part of her mind couldn’t help but thank Farore, the Great Deku Tree, and whoever deity or spirit who could happen to be listening, about her long time hobby of exploring the depths and most unknown and dangerous parts of the lost woods. Because, as the young doe ducked behind a tree just in the nick of time and heard something large collide against the large fern with a loud angry growl, she knew that if not for that she would’ve been caught already. And that would most definitely not be good.
Meanwhile, the remaining, and far larger, part of her mind was focusing upon keeping her hooves moving without tripping and traversing the tricky terrain, the fact that she still felt a little unsteady upon her new hooves since waking up as a doe this morning was something that the lithe small deer was deeply aware of.
A very angry roar accompanied by the sound of something large ripping its way through the thick underbrush made her run even faster. Even though mere hours ago her legs had wobbled like a newborn fawn with every step she took, now her hooves hit the ground with perfect coordination and surety as she sped through the underbrush, as once more necessity proved itself to be an excellent, if very unforgiving, teacher.
As she jumped over a small creek in a display of agility that she would’ve been unable to replicate in her original body, Saria risked a glance backwards as she soared through the air, her short green mane flapping all around her face as she laid eyes upon her pursuer.
“Not good!” Saria exclaimed, putting forth another burst of speed the moment her hooves touched the ground, rushing into the thick underbrush where the creature’s far larger size would make traversing the terrain harder and help hinder it a little.
The feline creature roaring its anger, while ripping its way through the forest chasing her, clearly was not happy about the fact that she was insisting on denying it its next meal. Saria intended to keep things that way. No matter how much she loved and admired nature, she personally had no desire to become part of the natural cycle in the near future. The beast was unlike anything she had ever seen, over five times her size and easily ten times her mass it was clearly some kind of feline monster. It sported the face and general body type of a lion, and yet the large bat-like wings upon its back, and the long and very deadly looking scorpion tail wildly lashing behind it put to rest the idea it could be a mere lion. And, as its gleaming eyes and slobbering mouth could easily attest, it had clearly decided that she was its next meal.
Point in fact, it kind of reminded her of some of the monsters that Ganondorf would cook up when he was feeling creative, bored, or, Farore forbid, both. The thought made her try an to eke just a little bit more speed out of her hooves.
Saria had no idea how she had managed to find herself in such a situation, especially since it was really rare for the actions of Link and his fellow Triforce Wielders to create enough of a splash to hit Kokiri Forest. But right now she didn’t particularly care about that. Knowing what craziness her long-time friend was involved with this time would not help deal with the hungry feline intent upon turning her into its next meal.
Ducking low under a thick tree branch that was wider than her body, she darted to the side. The sound of wood exploding as the beast barreled through the obstacle with only a small loss of speed for it affirmed her decision of not wanting to fight the creature directly.
Sure, she knew how to fight. She may not be as good as Link at it, but then again who was? Saria could hold her own in a pinch. But that was while armed and in her own body. Both of which were privileges she currently most definitely did not have.
And so she ran, dodging and weaving around the verdant maze while trying to either lose her pursuer or find some kind of shelter that could hope to withstand its sheer strength. Only, as she burst out of the thick underbrush and into a clearing, as her hooves dug into the earth in an attempt to arrest her momentum, it seemed that her current case of bad luck hadn’t been exhausted by meeting the hungry feline. Not in the slightest.
Even as she dug deep trenches with her hooves upon the muddy ground, it was barely enough to stop her before hitting the large rock formation that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere, cutting the clearing in half.
Her two front hooves hit the massive golden-brown rock with a loud clopping noise, finally bringing her mad charge to a halt right in front of it. The natural formation was composed of some kind of light-brown rock, with a few darker patches spread all around it. It was easily over sixty feet high, and so wide that both ends disappeared past the end of the clearing and into the forest itself, making it look like someone had simply picked up and dropped a small mountain amidst the verdant trees.
But Saria barely paid any attention to those things, the details of the random rock formation being of very little importance to her at the moment, her mind focusing on the far more important fact that the large pile of light-brown stone had just cut her path and put her in a corner.
“Definitely not good!” she hissed, swiftly turning around and lowering herself into the closest she could get to a fighting stance with her new body as a triumphant roar echoed upon the clearing as her pursuer burst out of the underbrush.
She was trapped, and the creature most definitely knew it as well, the large feline abandoning its earlier haste in favor of slowly approaching her with measured steps of its large paws, savoring the moment and how its prey was now at its mercy.
Knowing that the feline would be able to pounce and get her before she could dart out of the clearing, Saria pressed her back against the rock wall and readied herself to make the creature pay dearly for this particular meal, a small prayer to Farore under her breath as she tracked the slowly approaching beast’s every step.
The beast roared once more, extending its bat-like wings wide and lashing with its scorpion-like tail behind it, proclaiming its victory as it prepared to pounce, only for an even louder roar to echo throughout the forest, drowning out all other noises.
Even as her ears folded against her head and her eyes darted about in search of the source for the far louder roar, an action that was being mimicked by her pursuer, Saria wondered if the stress of it all was finally getting to her, since she could swear that the roar had sounded surprisingly like a yawn of all things.
A deep silence filled the clearing, until a loud cracking sound, as if large boulders rubbing against each other, broke it. Saria felt the rock wall behind her start to tremble as if it was suffering a localized earthquake.
With a yelp of surprise, Saria jumped forward, as the rock formation she had been leaning against moved of all things!
Wide-eyed, Saria watched as what she had assumed to be a small light-brown mountain started to flex and stretch as though limbering its arms and legs after a prolonged sleep. As the ‘mountain’ continued to uncurl itself from the ball-like shape it had taken while sleeping, it stretched its long reptilian neck, equally long and spike-filled tail, and unfurled its large leathery wings. Saria realized that she hadn’t run headfirst into a mountain. She had run headfirst into a sleeping dragon!
“So not good,” she whimpered as the gargantuan light-brown dragon released another deafening yawning roar as it opened its maw that looked big enough to gobble up her feline pursuer whole, not to mention her much smaller self.
Upon seeing the cavernous opening lined with many, many, huge sword-like teeth, her feline pursuer apparently decided that this simply wasn’t worth the meal and promptly fled with a panicked meowling cry. But unfortunately for the green-maned doe, before Saria could follow upon its example the dragon opened its large eyes and looked straight down at her.
Being stared at by a piercing blue eye larger than her whole body froze Saria in place. A shiver ran down her spine as the largest dragon she had ever seen or heard about turned around in order to look at her fully, casually uprooting century-old trees without even noticing as it did so.
The gargantuan titan looked down at the terrified kokiri, who had already made peace with the fact she would become one with the spirits of the woods soon, and slowly smiled with its huge fanged mouth. And then it spoke with a thunderous voice that blew the leaves upon the trees away and seemed to make the earth itself tremble with its power.
“Hello tiny one!” the massive dragon shouted in an extremely cheerful, and highly incongruous with his terrifying appearance, tone of voice. “I’m Biggoron, nice to meet you! What brings you to these parts?”
As the echoes of his thunderous voice died down and the meaning of his words penetrated Saria’s highly perplexed mind, the cream-coated doe found herself being able to formulate only a single response.
