Who: Zelda and Link When: Monday, Dec 9, Overnight Where: Termina (Shared Dream Adventure) What: The Moon is Falling, PART the FIRST Rating/Warning: PG, For some mildly scary stuff Status: Complete
Zelda stirred. It was cold, so she reached down to pull the blankets up and around her. But there were none. And the bed wasn’t nearly as soft as it’d been when she’d fallen asleep. Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up just a little, still drowsy, still half-asleep. This definitely wasn’t her room. Definitely wasn’t her house. Wakefulness came to her rather quickly as she looked around, and then down at herself. No bed, no normal clothes, she was wearing a dress… not unlike what she’d worn in the Dreams.
Could this be another Dream?? How could it, if she knew she was Dreaming?
There was a loud creaking sound in the room, which itself echoed like a hollow chamber, wooden and dull. Link felt the vibrations in his spine. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The space, which was certainly not his bedroom either, was pitch black. No, wait… As his eyes adjusted, could make out blue lines in the darkness, and it took him a moment to realize he was staring at slats between the wood.
There were noises coming from below. Human noises. A girl. Zelda! Link figured he was located on some kind of platform and that Zelda was on the next floor down. He also assumed he was dreaming, because he had come to the conclusion all things strange were related to the deams. He stood, took a step forward, and…
Promptly tumbled down a short, wooden staircase. Thud, thud, thud…
The sound of something heavy and soft tumbling down stairs made her jump and give a little shriek. She spun around in her spot, still with her backside to the floor, and stared toward where she’d heard the sound. It was a little terrifying. She wanted to call out, but no words came to her when she opened her mouth.
There was more light down here, coming from a doorway. Still, it was nighttime and the sky was dark. Link rubbed his shoulder, which already felt bruised. “Ugh… Zelda?”
Zelda sat up and looked around. Relief flooded over her when she saw Link. “Link!” She said, then bounded in his direction. She wasn’t used to wearing such a crazy get-up, only perhaps, when she was filming something? The skirts billowed behind her. She ran toward him, then wrapped her arms tightly around him in an epic greeting hug.
As Link stretched out his arms, he could see that he was cloaked in green: green tunic, green effects, and yes! a green cap atop his head, as well. Everything was as it usually was in his dreams, although Zelda herself wasn’t usually there, only his goal of rescuing her. “Are we asleep right now?”
Thank God for hugs. Zelda had been feeling lost and confused, and might have started crying. Though, here, in this strange dress, in this strange world, she was starting to feel stronger. More like her Dream Self. More sure of her footing. She pulled back away from Link and glanced around. “I think so? Weird that we know we’re sleeping.”
“Something’s different,” Link said. Different other than the fact he had no idea where they were. Reaching for the door beside them, but it was chained shut. The iron lock on the other side rattled. He looked back to the staircase. “Maybe there’s another door...”
Zelda stepped over the door and gave it a little push herself. Not that she didn’t trust him, but she had to be sure. She frowned slightly and turned to look around. “...Maybe. Hopefully? What’s upstairs?”
Link was already working his way up, his heavy leather boots pounding on the wooden stairs as he took them two at a time. There was something vaguely familiar about all of this, but since things felt so strange, he couldn’t put his finger on it.
But there was an open door at the top. Link pushed against it and stepped onto a wide balcony. It was night and they were high above some kind of piazza, which was full of people. The sound of ticking pulsed through him. He looked up to see an enormous clock overhead.
...And a gigantic moon with a menacing face hanging in the sky. Yikes!
Link knew where he was, now. He looked over his shoulder to see that Zelda had followed. “We’re in Termina. I’ve dreamed about this place before. But… I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.”
Zelda followed Link up the stairs. She had to reach down and gather up her massive skirts as she moved. The fabric was heavy, and the bottom reached the floor, so she was worried about collecting dust. She looked up instead of down, and gave a little gasp at the sight of the moon.
“Oh, my--” she said, then lowered one hand to take hold of his. “I’m here. Why am I here? Is this your dream?”
There was music coming from the piazza and the crowds were dancing, but Link remained silent as he stared upward. Yes, this world was from his dream, but he felt wide awake. He could tell because his head was spinning, when usually everything in the dream-world made sense while he was there.
The face in the moon was like an enormous snarl, with teeth bared like an animal’s. And yet, when one of the eyes suddenly blinked, a piece of crystal fell from them. It looked like a drop of water, but it shattered like glass as it hit the platform.
Zelda may have seemed like she was keeping her cool, but in reality she was freaking out. Her insides were on fire with nerves, tensed and ready to spring. She gave a gasp and jump when the piece of the crystal fell and shattered. “Link!” she yelped.
Link turned to her, taking her by the shoulders and finally returning to his senses. “Okay, that moon...it’s about to crash into ground. We need to get out of here! Now!” Well, not so much coming to his senses as he was freaking out in his own way. In his dreams, he had three days to send the moon back up into the sky. At the moment, it looked like there were minutes to spare. He had no idea what to do.
The people celebrating seemed clueless. Maybe they were all drunk. Fireworks shot into the sky.
Then he began to hear snickering coming from the corner of the platform.
“How?” Zelda turned around to look back the way they’d came. “The door was locked. Do we…” She turned to look over the edge of the platform, wondering if they should jump… then she heard snickering. She turned again to look and see, still holding tightly to Link’s hand.
An object flew upwards: humanoid, but small; placing himself before the moon as he hovered in the sky. With a straw hat atop his head, he looked like a scarecrow. Link had seen him many times before. He was known as the Skull Kid--a lost soul, doomed to wander, fated to be alone. His mind, too, it seemed had left him long ago. On his face, the terrifying Majora's Mask created a grotesque visage with blood red eyes.
He folded his arms and cackled. "...You're too late..."
Zelda inhaled sharply. The mask was terrifying, the creature’s cackle sent chills down her spine. She took a half step behind Link, but felt a little ashamed of doing so. She shouldn’t be scared, but she felt incredibly off-balance in this place.
“Too late?” She asked, probably only loud enough for Link to hear.
As if it had been eavesdropping, it was the moon that responded. “I will… consume everything…” it bellowed in a hoarse voice. The ground began to shake. The Skull Kid spun around in a airbourne dance.
It was then that something flew out of the imp’s pocket. A round, blue thing When it hit the platform, it did not shatter, and Link recognized it right away as an ocarina, no doubt one of the magical ones he came across throughout his travels. He dove for it. The Song of Time! It was the only chance they had!
Zelda gave a little squeal and turned to grab onto something--anything--to regain her balance when the earth started to quake. She certainly didn't feel like the Zelda from her dreams. She was completely lost and had no idea what to do. Then she saw the little... Blue thing. And Link diving for it. She closed her eyes and willed with all her might that he catch it in time!
Link didn’t feel like his dream-self, either. He was used to being stronger when he slept, his reflexes finely tuned, like a true warrior. Right now… he felt more like a farmer in a funny costume.
He snatched up the Ocarina. Song of Time… Song of Time… How the heck did that go again?? But after a few poorly bleated notes, the tune returned to him. The magic worked quickly as the world started to spin. Link looked back to Zelda and reached for her hand.
Zelda reached forward and took hold of Link’s hand, holding on tightly. It felt like the world was spinning out of control for a moment, like her feet were leaving the ground, like her body was twisting…
And then she opened her eyes. She was on a comfortable bed in what looked like a hotel room. Or, an Inn’s room. Old-fashioned, nothing like she’d see back in the real world. This was definitely a world like she’d dreamed of--closer to her dreams than to the real world, anyway. She sat up and looked around. “If I never wake up in a strange room again it’ll be too soon.”
Link, too, was suddenly overwhelmed by the abrupt change in smells as the world stopped spinning. Cedar, Pine, and the scent of breakfast cooking somewhere nearby. There were blankets pulled up to his neck.
He sat up, realizing he’d been here before. The… Something Something Inn. “We’re still in Termina,” he said, reaching for Zelda to make sure she was intact and unharmed. And to comfort himself. “But we’ve gone back in time… Just a few days, I think…”
Zelda was intact and unharmed. She turned and reached over to take hold of his outstretched hand. “...okay.” She said, giving a determined nod. “We’ve gone back in time to stop it, right? The falling… moon?”
Link nodded, quickly embracing her before pulling off the covers. He hopped out of the bed and scanned the room. The light through the window was sunny, the moon was nowhere to be seen.
“I have to collect masks…” he murmured, noting there were two doors in the room. His eyes went back and forth between them. “Or…” Crap, what order did his tasks go in again? The dreams about Termina were confusing and repetitive. He didn’t remember what he’d done first. “We need to ask for help.”
Zelda returned the embrace. It was over too quickly. She felt like she needed to be held, like she needed a good cry. Then Link was up and looking around. "Ask for help. I think we can do that.”
But… was that a hand? In the toilet? Zelda pulled herself up to her feet, straightened out her skirts, and then took a step forward, cautiously and curiously.
“...Um…excuse me…” There came a voice from somewhere beneath the toilet. “...I’m in dire need of...some paper…”
Honestly, it was pretty gross, even if Link did remember coming across the hand before. He still wrinkled his nose as he looked back to Zelda.
Zelda shook her head a bit, looking from Zelda to the… whateveritwas… with wide eyes. Her expression clearly said ‘Toilet paper? That’s your job, Link.’
There was a roll on the wall, just out of the hand’s reach. Link took a few quick steps over to it, paused to consider what he was doing, and then returned to hand over the paper. “Here you go…” he said quietly. Then he backed the hell out of there and closed the door.
“Let’s try the other one…”
---A bit of a time jump---
One thing Link could recall was that he’d started these dreams as a Deku shrub, and he’d visited the swamp to get that fixed, so that must have meant he’d gone there first. According to the signs, the swamp was to the South, and that was the direction they were heading in now.
Still, he wasn’t convinced that everything was meant to proceed in the same order. Among his belongings, he already seemed to have many weapons and masks, items he should not have just yet. It was confusing.
They passed a floating figure cloaked in green, high in the sky thanks to his bright red balloon. Link motioned for Zelda to ignore the tiny man with a mustache, who was raining fistfuls of glitter down on their heads.. “We really should leave Tingle be…”
Zelda felt the glitter before she saw it, blinking as it landed on her eyelashes. Her eye caught Link’s, and she nodded. Understood. Leave the little guy alone, and he’ll go away. She could do that.
After what felt like hours of walking, the two of them came to the strong, wooden gate of a sprawling ranch. Cows sounded loudly in the fields. At last, a setting Link could relate to in both worlds, being a dairy farmer himself. He recognized the sign: Romani Ranch. “The people who work here might be able to give us some help.” Hopefully, they could point them in the right direction.
Zelda’s skirt was all the way down to the ground, and that made things a bit troublesome. Of course, she’d worn things like this in the Dreams before, so she was used to moving around in them… but for some reason this Dream felt different. The skirt kept snagging on things, and soaking up mud and liquid from the ground. It was frustrating. Things like this never happened in the Dreams or the movies.
She was tired and sore by the time they reached a ranch. The smell hit her before the sight of the place did. She crinkled her nose as she looked around, realizing almost at the same time that Link would feel right at home in this sort of place. “All right. Sounds good.” Zelda said. Before they headed up to the building, though, she slipped her hand into his.
He’d been taking the lead for so long now that Zelda’s hand in his literally brought him back down to earth with a little shock. Maybe it had something to do with how tangible everything felt, much more so than the Dreams. The difference was obvious to him, too.
Moving around the ranch was another familiar site: a tall, red-headed woman, tending to the animals. Link had encountered her before, and even though she always had the same face, her name changed from setting to setting.
Zelda lifted her skirt with her free hand, clinging to Link’s warm, weathered hand with her free, dainty one. She didn’t want to trip. They’d come so far, and she hadn’t fallen down once! Shouldn’t have been that surprising… her Dream self was very graceful. Her Real-World self wasn’t quite as graceful, though she was getting better.
They came up to a woman that Zelda didn’t recognize. Or, at least, if she’d seen the other before, it’d been forgotten. She squeezed Link’s hand, and cleared her throat. “Hello?”
The woman turned, red hair flowing. She was beautiful in a classic, girl-next-door kind of way. Link, like any boy, could not fail to recognize this, but in every dream he’d had, no romance had ever sprung from their meeting. At the moment, the look on the redhead's face was one of distress, almost grief. “Hello…” she greeted in turn, though it was clear her mind was elsewhere. “Can I help you?”
Zelda glanced at Link, then back to the girl in front of them. "Well, I hope so." She said, though the distressed look on the redhead's face wasn't lost on Zelda. "Only, it almost looks like you might need some help, too."
“We’re trying to get to the Southern Swamp,” Link said, because he didn’t want to get immediately caught up in some kind of side-quest, as he usually did, before taking care of what he really needed; especially now that Zelda was relying on him.
The redhead fidgeted. “Oh, um… you aren’t too far. You just need to keep going south… I’m sorry. It’s just that night is falling, and at midnight… THEY come. Every year, THEY come this night, and… they steal all my cows.”
Zelda really didn’t like the sound of THEM, whatever THEY were. She swallowed once. “Cows?” Then she glanced to Link. Isn’t there something they could do to help? She was going to have all of her cows stolen.
Cows in peril did strike a chord with him, more so that he could recall when he’d encountered this situation in his dreams before. And he was certain he had. Link turned to Zelda, taking her hand and leading her away for a moment. “In these dreams…” he began in a whisper, “Different things happen at different times. But they all work together to put us in the right direction.” He was thinking it might be wise to stay and help.
Zelda moved with him a little ways away from the red-headed woman, and stepped in closer to him so they could speak somewhat privately. She nodded, having some idea of understanding. “So… you think that in helping her, it’ll bring us closer to saving the world from the falling moon?”
“I sort of remember this happening in the Dreams,” he said, but all his Dream memories felt pretty fuzzy at the moment. “And doing these… side-quests... sometimes they pay off.” Besides, they always had the Ocarina and the Song of Time to bail them out if they ran out of time again.
It was then than Link felt pressure on his free arm. It was the redhead, whatever her name was here, tugging him quite desperately. “Will you stay and help me? Please say you will. I can’t fight THEM all on my own!”
Zelda nodded. She turned to look at the redheaded woman. “Of course we’ll stay and help.” And then she realized she didn’t have a weapon to use in the fight. She glanced at Link again, hoping that he had ideas as to how they could stay and help. “We can’t leave you here on your own to lose your cows again.”
Although it was Zelda who had announced that they would stay and help, it was Link who received a firm kiss on the cheek from the farmgirl. It made him turn as red as her hair. The woman then turned to hug Zelda, still looking innocent and grateful.
The kiss and then startling hug made Zelda want to tell this redheaded woman that she could save her own damn cows, and keep her grubby lips off of Link, thankyouverymuch. But she returned the hug, one armed, and forced a smile. "Where do we start?"
“Well, THEY show up at midnight, so I can give you a place to stay until then. And food if you want it.” The woman started to all but run back toward the farmhouse. Then, she stopped and turned back, going so far as to take Link’s hand in slightly less than innocent fashion, if you ignored the tizzy she was in. “I’m Cremia, by the way.”
Link was so hungry that he hardly noticed anything was amiss.
Zelda could feel her stomach grumbling. She moved to follow the woman up toward the farmhouse, turning to look up at the sky. Her thoughts traveled to the moon, and she wondered how much time they had before dark. How much time before midnight. When she turned her eyes back to Link and the other woman, she noticed they were holding hands. If she’d been an Anime character, there would be a snarl of scribbles over her head. Her face went pink and she fumed silently as she followed the two of them.
Suddenly, Zelda didn’t feel hungry anymore.
Link looked back to Zelda, all but seeing the imaginary scribbles himself. She looked mad, but he was confused, because she had just agreed they should stay. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough experience with women to figure it out for himself--at least, not quickly. He raised an eyebrow.
Zelda shook her head a little, now almost as irritated with him as with her. She wished there was something she could do to put her mark on him, so no other woman would even consider grabbing his hand or kissing his cheek. There was no way to communicate that now, though, so she simply followed Link and Cremia inside, silently fuming.