~The Embrace Beyond the Veil of Time~
Linked Universe by @linkeduniverse
You launch up from bed, throwing your blanket off and running to your bathroom. Slamming your knees against the hard ground you throw up in the toilet.
You cough until your lungs hurt, tears streaming down your face. Knuckles white from holding on to the bathtub and cabinet nearby. Your throat burns as you cough, slowly the coughing fit fades. Flushing the mess, you grab a prepared water bottle to your right. Drinking down the whole thing.
You knew this would happen, these nightmares have been getting more consistent. More detailed.
You sigh and lean back on the wall, your bathroom is pitch black and the floor cold to the touch. You feel as if your skin is infested with something crawling inside. You're uncomfortable beyond measure, waking up from a nightmare. Throwing up your guts, surrounded by pure darkness which reminds you of…
The nightmares have been a nuisance. It has been going on for a long while now, as least a couple of months.
Though this one was different from the rest, you actually saw the person the haunting voice belongs to.
In previous dreams you always heard him saying the same thing over and over. That small sly smirk on his face as if he won, as if he knew something you didn't. Knew that you were nothing compared to him, that you were wrong.
Once when you were on a red ship. Traveling to crashing waves with a small figure, you still remember his large smile.
Flying on a bright red bird throughout the clouds. Clinging onto the back of someone, his light brown hair blowing in the breeze.
At a little ranch the sun kissing your skin. A muscular man in the distance laughing as you were playing with kids.
A lush flower field. Surrounded by glowing floating dots, as the person beside you made light within his hands.
On a lonely island. Where you sat side by side a still figure on the sandy beach, him staring at the clouds.
Inside a smith’s workshop. Listening to the clanging of metal, watching someone hard at work.
A wasted battlefield of war. Zipping through the fighting of soldiers, looking at someone with a navy blue scarf.
Lastly, a hill in a lonely field with a singular tree. Sitting next to a young man playing a lovely tune with his instrument.
Each dream was blurry but as more and more dreams occurred the clearer it would become, but the haunting voice would stay the same repeating each word in every dream. Taunting you, belittling you, every single time.
Each time he would begin to speak is when the mysterious figure in your dreams would ask if you would always stay by their side, and your reply the same every time.
The events that followed never changed once: that awful grey being with the bloody red eyes, the dark place that consumes the land and that monster lurking in the water.
It always ends the same… that beast opening its mouth, you falling in… and…
You swallow, best not to think about for now.
Getting up from the cold floor you make it back to your bedroom looking at your phone. It's time to get ready anyways, your first class starts soon. Glancing outside your window, the clouds are starting to turn grey. WIth a quick flash of light it starts to pour down, just great. A storm, what a joke.
Finishing getting ready and picking up your backpack you look at your desktop where your Nintendo Switch is lying, you recently beat Breath of the Wild. Collecting all those korok seeds has been nothing but a pain, though exploring places you haven't been before in your first run has been fun…but
Your face scrunches up, now thinking about it. The trail you were taking in your dream was very similar to the path going to Hateno Village.
If you really thought about it. Each area in your nightmares including that person and that abyss, all of it seemed too familiar.
You sigh and swing your backpack over your shoulder, maybe you're just playing too many video games.
Students run as fast as they could to make it in the campus and avoid the down pour, you one of those students. Making it inside the campus and shaking off a bit of the water, you check to make sure the damage to your backpack isn't too severe. Satisfied with it’s state, you start to head to your first class of the day, history.
The class is dimmed down a bit as the lights in the back have yet to be replaced, just were you're sitting. Taking your seat and getting everything ready for today’s lecture you wait for it to begin, pen in hand.
“Right class, glad most didn't decide they were suddenly sick today and call out because of this weather!”
That got a few tired laughs from a few students in the front, a small smile making it to your face. Maybe you should have actually called sick, having gone through that mess this morning. Well, you're here now anyways.
“Right, so for today we will be going over World War I, the involvement of the United Sates, and The League of Nations. Now! To begin-”
Your head is starting to fall, harshly placing it in your opposite hand, the other desperately trying to write down the lecture. You feel exhaustion creeping up behind you like awaiting a jump scare in a horror movie.
Shit, you're falling asleep!
Involuntarily, you feel your eyelids start to droop. You try to will them to stay open, but you feel yourself losing.Your eyelids shut. The professor's voice in the background, nothing but a few murmurs.
You're in a battleground, dead bodies and blood cover the grass. Swords and shields scattered about in the mess of corpses. You step forward just to stop when hear a crunch, looking down you see you stepped on the mangled finger of a soldier.
You look up from the dead, standing right in front of you is a blonde in armor. His back turned to you, dressed in green garps and wielding a lightly glowing sword, covered in blood.
“....How many that I trained beside…”
His head facing upwards to the now clearing sky. God rays begin to peek through, revealing the countless bodies scattered. The ocean of blood which covers the lush green field.
His shoulders begin to shake, from fear, from grief, you dont know.
You noticed his navy blue scarf blowing in the wind, the bottom dripping blood.
“HOW MANY MORE WILL BETRAY ME IN THIS WAR!!”
Your eyes burst open, you're starting to sweat. A fever creeping from your neck spreading through your body. An intense weight is placed on your chest, you feel like your lungs will collapse.
“... -When American soldiers-...”
Your eyes shut once again.
You hear the sound a pacing feet, opening your eyes you see a man in green walking back and forth. Tugging at his light brown hair which looked rather painful. His white short cape with blue design following behind him.
You're in a closed off area with a few trees, stone underneath your feet. The wind is blowing harshly as if you're high in the sky. There's something large just a few feets way.
“They rely on me as a knight.”
You don't like that large figure, it feels looming, powerful, ancient. You cant see the details, just the slight color of cold grey stone and the outline of pressed together hands in front of it’s chest. You trail your eyes analyzing it as you get closer to its face, just to freeze and your breath halting.
Your body jolts forward, fuck you can’t see well. You try to make a sound but your throat feels like someone is choking you. Trying to get someone’s attention you try to reach out, but your body is too heavy.
“...-The League of Nations organization-...”
Your cheek is pressed against a cold floor, fighting against gravity you lift your head to see you're in a cave. A small fire is burning in front of you. A person in a bright blue shirt with a navy cloak and the hood on is sitting on a log in front of you.
“A whole group of people…”
His knee is bouncing with his hands gripping the fabric of his thighs. You can see just a bit of his lower face to see him biting his lip. A shaky chuckle passing through his lips.
“All of them with a life goal to kill me…”
You gasp and fall back as he rushes up from his seat. Kicking the log out of the cave, the hood falling off his head.
Blonde hair in a half ponytail is revealed to you, only for him to pull off the ponytail and tug at his hair from the back, again, it looks like it really hurts.
“IM NOT EVEN THE SAME PERSON AS BEFORE!!”
The fire begins to burn bright in front of you, your breathing is coming out as short and wheezy. Your head falls as you try to regain your breath. You hear footsteps making their way towards you. Lifting your head with as much force as you can, you see the three of them. Though their faces are blurry, you see them stop just in front of you.
You squint and try to remember. You've seen them before. You know them.
Why can't you see his face?
You feel it though, deep inside your soul and gut. A feeling of familiarity with the feeling of Deja vu, like you've seen them before in a dream or they’re hidden away in a distant memory. Someone that you spent so much time with, shared so much memories with, that even after so many years pass and you don't communicate. Once you rekindle that connection, it's like you've never left each other. That relationship that can surpass any time and distance
Your wheezing has gotten worse. At this point, you're not even sure if you're breathing air in. You hear their steps as they get closer, right in front of your quivering body. The world is closing in, getting darker, but a hand reaches under your chin to move it up.
Suddenly it’s warm, its calm.
Your fever has gone down and you take a deep breath in, gasping as you finally get air in your lungs.
Someone is stroking your cheek, a hand pushing the hair behind your ear, and another rubbing your back.
Looking up you see them three are crouched down, smiling and comforting you.
The blonde with the navy scarf is wiping your tears, his voice a low rumble. His gloves are rough, but you dont mind the feeling of the texture.
He slams your face in the ground, it’s turned to water. The other two are gone. You gasp and fight back, you feel the water entering your lungs. The burning pain of water going through your nose. Your head is pulled back by your hair.
The hideous grey skin differing from the dark abyss you now find yourself in. His dark clothes splattered with the only hints of color bearing red, blood. Though that can't even compare to his eyes.
His unblinking bright scarlet eyes stare into your very soul. The brightest red that you have ever seen the glow lighting the dark abyss and murky water. His face this motionless mask, not even a twitch of a muscle. He brings up his hand with his rough large palm covering your nose and mouth.
The water is rising. Drowning you and him in the dark, as the water consumes his very being, his hand still covering your nose and mouth. You try to fight him, to go back to the surface and breathe. But he's stronger.
You see a scaled body swimming behind him in the murky water. It's swimming around. Just out of your view, only allowing its black body to appear for a mere second. It's waiting.
The scarlet eyed man finally smiles.
Someone is desperately shaking your shoulders yelling for someone else to go and get help. You see your professor standing above you. Slowly, the worry on his face begins to fade away, you're on the floor.
“Breathe, breathe. You passed out.”
Your body is shaking as you're frantically taking in each and every breath as if the next will suddenly be cut off, drowning you again in that dark abyss where that monster is waiting for you. The class bells rings.
You make it home and set your backpack on the couch.
After visiting the class nurse, she had come to the conclusion that you had passed out due to the lack of oxygen. The most concerning thing, however, is when the nurse left, you suddenly had a coughing fit. Running to the bathroom, you kept coughing.
Until murky water started dripping from your mouth.
The same water that you were drowning in.
You have decided to skip the rest of the day and go home after that. Leaning against your kitchen counter, you decide to drink slowly a clean glass of water to help with the aching pain in your throat. The storm outside had only gotten worse after your… episode and you're currently dripping on your kitchen floor.
After finishing the glass slowly, you put it in your kitchen sink. You'll deal with it tomorrow. Going to the bathroom, you grab some towels. Preparing to take a shower. The moment you turn it on, watching the water drip.
You feel the water in your lungs.
You rushed over and turned it off. Falling backwards and back slamming against the wall. You look at the towels and decide to just dry off. No shower today.
Putting on the most comfortable pj's you own, you go to bed and bundle up. Smiling softly at the smell of freshly clean sheets and warm extra blankets. A great comfort after today's events.
Though a irritated sigh does escape your lips. First it was the nightmares, now it was this weird episode you had during class. Seeing those three figures that you know for a fact you either met or seen before.
Turning to the side. You see your desk, your Nintendo Switch laying just on top. You know those three outfits, you've seen those outfits. And that grey man with the dark clothes and scarlet red eyes, you know for a fact who he is. But it doesn't make any sense. He's from a game.
Nothing about this makes any sense. Why are suddenly video game characters from your favorite childhood game attacking you in dreams? In nightmares? Even still, he's not even in the latest game that you're playing.
The most that you have is a skin of him, Dark Link.
Nothing about this makes any sense, you thought they were just nightmares. Your subconscious playing tricks on you, twisting your favorite game into something horrendous.
After the drowning. Feeling your lungs collapsing, water being forced through your nose and mouth as you hiccup. Feeling it entered through your throat, the burning in your nose. And coughing up that water later.
You've never had very vivid dreams before, nothing that's ever felt real. But this passes beyond just feeling that it was real.
You coughed up evidence that it happened.
You feel your eyes begin to sting and hiccups force out of your throat. A few tears dripped down your eyes. All the stress and worry of these nightmares that now don't seem to be just nightmares. The exhaustion getting to you.
It's peaceful, it's warm.
Laughter wakes you up, slowly opening your eyes, you're in a bright green field. Soft laughter makes you turn to the right, there's a kid. With bright messy blonde hair and a bright blue shirt a white design on it.
You stare at him, you… can't see him well. His face is blurry. But his smile shines through the blurs. You smile back at him as he takes your hand to stand up.
“We got to start heading out.”
He caresses your hand. You feel his calluses on his palm. You shouldn't feel that in a dream should you?
He says nothing, just smiles and takes your hand starting to walk on a trail made of gold. You look only at him, trying to make sense of him. Trying to remember his face, why can't you see his face?
Music starts to play at the very end of the path, it's cheerful melody making you want to dance. You hear people laughing, you hear children yelling in joy. He smiles and starts to rush.
He begins to run as you hold on tight to his hand. The music and laughter gets louder and more inviting, but he's only getting faster. Your hand is starting to be slipping through. You look down at your hands in worry, but you spot something on his hand.
Was that…is that the Triforce…
Your hand finally slips through.
You hurry after the running figure. The wind blowing through your hair. You hear his laugh, you always loved his laugh.
“Come on! It's this way!”
He's running faster, his laughter is echoing through the trees. Since when were you in a forest?
He's going faster, you can barely see him, the light that follows him is dimming. It's getting dark. You lose sight of the gold path.
It's getting cold, the trees make no noise. The wind has stopped blowing.
You hear what's moving in the water.
You freeze, it's pitch black. You hear nothing but your panic breathing. You remember his name, why now?
You look around and see nothing,
The rippling in the water is getting louder, it's getting closer, it's right behind you.
You look behind to see the back of the scaly creature barely protruding out of water. It's not moving, it's just waiting, taunting.
You don't dare to move, don't dare to make a sound. Wondering if your silent breathing is enough to alert the monster.
"... ️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝.... Ḩ̶̳̣̮̻̪̜͍̹̭͓͍̳̼̈́̅́̄̍̀͐́̊̽͌̊̂͂͠͝͝.... I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍.... M̴̨̦͓̰̌͆̉̃̄͆͜ͅ.....?"
Although you can't see him you can clearly hear his soft voice, though it sounds…different. As if he's the same person but a different version. He's calling for you, but not by your name. Although the name that he's calling you seems so familiar, so comforting. You know that name.
The beast under the waves begins to move. The slight whisper alerting it. It now knows it's not just the two of you alone, it knows you can hear him.
It begins to circle you, taunting. As it goes in and out of the water slowly getting closer.
“️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝ȟ̸̨̯̲̝̳͓͎̭͖͊̄̔̽̓̂̋̇̋̀̕̚͜..... I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍.m̶̥͇͈̣̏͑̿͑̃̈͛̕͠...... M̴̨̦͓̰̌͆̉̃̄͆͜ͅ... Ě̵̢̧̛̦̼̜̲͕͕͍̤̙͉͓́̅͒̽̍̐͋͜͝.. ŕ̶̛̰̱̈́̀́̑̿̾͛͂̈́͗̓̈́̒͘͝️....?"
His voice is getting clearer. It's getting closer and you look behind to see a slight faint golden light.
You pause and look at the patrolling beast under the water. It's waiting, wondering, daring you.
You have nowhere to go only to that warm golden light and to him. You now accepted the fact that this, this isn't a dream anymore. What can you do to run away from this monster? What choice do you have besides calling out to him?
The monster under the waves charges up, grabs you with its jaws making sure not to puncture your delicate body and swallows you whole.
The shadow with piercing red eyes stares at the scene before him. A small chuckle leaving his lips as he slowly turns to the left of him, to a silent observer.
“They're still waiting. You failed, hero.”
Legend gasps awake launching from his bedroll; the others waking up around him. He runs to the nearby lake and proceeds to throw up the Champion's latest meal. The dark forest is silent as he coughs and shakes, the moon shining above witnessing the hero in his weakened state.
His throat burns as he coughs and cries. A comforting hand rubs his back and another helps to hold back his now faded pink hair. He finally stops and thanks Warrior for handing him over some water. He stands back up and takes a deep breath. Turning to the group of his fellow heroes.
Each of them stare in worry, Hyrule already with a healing potion in hand. The wind blows softly cooling down his heated cheeks.
Even after being forced to give up his latest meal by the group's designated chef, his eyes hold no discomfort nor does his body.
In fact, he appears more confident than ever. His eyes burned with determination.
“I know where they are now.”
Finally, after all these years, they finally have a clue on where to find you.
Tags: @pinkittwice @luimagines @twilightpoison @cafecourage @phlying-squirrel @smartiepants217 @eyeless-kun @stardropz-oo @athanasia-day @silver-the-pendejo @krys0210 @justanotherweeb666 @lunadepan120699 @specter-solaire @honest0215 @internet-stuff @lunarobyn22
Fun fact! While reviewing this I had to write an essay for my history class about the League of Nations, which inspired the classroom scene. I hope you all enjoyed the first official chapter!! o(〃＾▽＾〃)o
