chapter one of Lynel boi: the mask
Warning it's not very well-written but I did my best
Link grinned as he saw the entrance gate of Terreytown, the Korok up there waved down at him. He loved Terreytown; it was where he lived he had helped build the place. Technically, he also lived in Hateno Village, but he liked this place most.
Link stretched, arms back behind his head, and yawned. It had been a long day. He’d spent most of the morning and evening helping Zelda and Purah expand Lookout Landing and New Castle Town. They’d almost finished three separate buildings; they just had to work on that new plumbing thing and finish the walls. Everyone was ecstatic at the new town being added and the recovery of the castle, which had taken a lot of Purah-made elevators like in the old sheikah shrines.
The houses were in a ring around a fountain and this town's statue of Hylia; the homes were strange and blocky, but well-built. The bright colors clashed slightly with their neighbors.Link rubbed the gateway as he entered, feeling the rough grain run under his calloused fingers.
“Link!” Hudson called. The true founder of Terreytown and his impressive haircut made their way toward Link. “Kilton has been looking for you!” Hudson was a stocky man with a strong physique, beady eyes, and the best bowl cut Link had ever seen.
“Really?” Kilton was one of the people who knew Link best besides the Sages, Zelda, and Purah. He should know better than to try to find Link; his habit of wandering was… a little crazy. Link could teleport, making him difficult to track. “Is he out looking now?” Link scanned the area for Kilton, but couldn’t find his strange friend.
“Yes,” Hudson said, gesturing towards Eldin. “He’s always back at nightfall, though, says he has a new mask to show you. Another Lynel one, I think.”
THAT piqued Link’s interest. He adored Kilton's silly masks, with their mismatched buttons; they convinced monsters he was one of them, as long as he wore the correct mask. The Lynel didn’t work for very long; they were too smart. But it was useful when he was just jogging through their territory. Maybe this new one worked better? “I’ll wait here for him then,” Link said.
There were some things he needed to buy and unfuse. Link spent the next few hours haggling with Fyson, paying Pelison - he didn’t try haggling with the young goron; experience told him it’d just end up twice the price - to unfuse a few of his shields and weaponry, and talking with Rhondson about her daughter Mattison.
Link loved talking to the locals here, but talking to people sometimes got tiring, so Link spent most of the time waiting for Kilton to climb the large tower Link had made out of monster statues, which earned him several weird looks from the locals; Hunnie even pointed and said: “Look, mom! The crazy guy is back!” she waved excitedly, Link waved back.
Finally, when the half moon became visible on the horizon, Kilton wandered into town, looking more deflated than a pierced balloon; his face lit up as he saw Link and started jogging over.
Kilton was a funny little man with purplish skin that Link couldn’t decide was make-up or not, an egg-shaped head, a wide mouth, and a small body. He also had a funny little white mustache. He was one of the few people who adored monsters as much as Link did; they had once spent an entire afternoon together interacting with bokoblins and sharing food with them, studying their habits and lifestyle. Link had been wearing Majora’s mask, and Kilton was wearing his own bokoblin mask. That had been a fun week.
“Link! I’m so happy to see you!” Kilton said, panting slightly from the exercise, “You’ll never guess what I have for you!”
“Another Lynel mask!?” Link relished the shocked look that quickly took over the monster fan’s face. Hilarious.
“...how the f**k did you know that?” Kilton slowed his jog until he stopped in front of Link, barely reaching up to Link's chest.
“Hudson told me,” Link said, hands on his hips and grin spread across his face. He bounced up and down on his heels. “I literally cannot express how excited I am.”
“That man,” Kilton shook his head, smiling, “I told him not to tell you! Ah well, he must have forgotten.” Link flinched just a little at the word ‘forgotten’; Kilton didn’t seem to notice.
“How much for it?” Link asked, pulling out the slate and checking his rupees: three million four hundred eight thousand six hundred fifty-two. …dang. That was a lot of rupees; it made sense, he supposed; he HAD been working himself to the bone mining and doing his new job as a construction worker, both of which paid quite well.
“It’s free,” Kilton said, grinning back at Link.
“It was given to me as a gift, kind of,” Kilton said, which was odd; there was no one else Link knew who made monster masks, “so I decided to give it away as a gift! Link, you’ve done so much for me, I’m even writing a book about the monsters you’ve shown me! You deserve it, just tell me how it goes.”
Kilton drew out an intricately carved wooden mask, made to look like the face and mane of a golden Lynel - all of the golden Lynels Link knew of had disappeared after the great calamity ended - with blue eyes, white indented swirling patterns stretched from the corners of the eyes down to the cheekbones, and small flecks of shiny silver in the wooden ring of mane surrounding the face. The eyes seemed to shine in the dark; it had an eerie feel about it, as if they were the glowing eyes of a Lynel at night, staring at its prey.
“It’s beautiful,” Link said in awe, reaching out to touch the pink nose. Boop. “Who gave this to you?”
“A strange smiling man with brown hair and a pack as large as Beedle’s,” Kilton said, scratching at his neck, “I was talking to him about monsters, and he started talking about all the masks he had. He wanted some monster extract to use for paint for a new mask in exchange for that mask there, one heck of a bargain.”
“...yeah.” Something felt off about the description, but Link couldn’t tell what. Everyone in Hyrule was weird in some way, and Link was no exception; in fact, he was the weirdest.
Link watched the red-manned Lynel roam in circles around its territory. It was the next day, and he was in Hyrule Field; the tall grass obscured him from the Lynel’s sight. It was somehow soft and stiff at the same time. He was gonna use the mask on this one; if it didn’t work, it would be an easy enough fight.
He pulled the strangely beautiful mask out of his Sheikah Slate. He studied it for a minute, keeping one eye on the Lynel ahead of him. Something told him this was a bad idea, but most of his ideas were bad anyway. The mask didn’t have straps of any sort to hold it to his face; Link held it up and put his face in the back of the mask. He felt it engulf him, a weight suddenly pressed down on him from all sides, and he felt like someone was pulling his limbs.
How many limbs did he have again? He flailed about, thrashing on the ground. Feeling like he had too much space and yet too little all at once. His head hurt too. He was getting dizzy and almost passed out. Where was he? He was running through the woods on his hooves, crushing the foliage in his path and pouncing on the deer he’d been hunting. He was clashing with another Lynel over territory, sword and spear clanging. No, no, no. he was lying on his back in Hyrule Field staring at the sky, the pain slowly receding. Were his arms longer than normal? He lifted one hand - the one that wasn’t Rauru’s - to his face and inspected it. He froze. That… was the hand of a golden Lynel; it carried his scars, though. He got up - with surprising ease for only having been in this body for a few seconds - and looked down, yep, Lynel body. Though he’d kept Rauru’s arm, it had changed shape to better match his current form.He didn’t have the white slash-like markings the normal Lynels had, instead, he had an array of beautiful swirls, and black vine-like patterns reached up to his forearm from his black hooves. He was also powerfully built, and he knew this would be an impressive display for other Lynels; they marked their power by their warpaint and scars, and he had more than enough of both.
Link felt at his face; it felt like a Lynel's face, very fluffy - boy, was he fluffy - and cat-like. His teeth were sharp. He reached upward and felt at his new horns. They were segmented and pointed upward and back at an angle. They curved out, then in, then out again a little at the tips.
The Hero grinned in his new body; this was going to be fun.
Link could just take the mask off afterwards, right?Link scooped the Sheikah slate off the ground; everything else on him had disappeared. But he now wore the classic Lynel gear; it was surprisingly comfortable. Link sifted through the slate and found all his gear there. Nice. He hung the slate from a hook on this body’s belt.Link turned to face his fellow Lynel; it was staring at him. Well, of course it had spotted him; he was huge!Link pranced back and forth proudly, showing off his new form to his only audience. The other Lynel seemed uneasy; it was staring at Link with wide eyes, it ducked its head, purred softly, but hesitantly pranced back. Link wondered what in the world that would mean.
Welp, the mask worked alright. Link turned his back on the beast and walked off, satisfied with how that had gone; he would show Kilton later. The Lynel followed; it hadn’t drawn any weapons and was actually still purring softly, so it wasn’t hostile, but the behavior still weirded Link out. He went faster. So did the Lynel. Oh dear.Link broke into a run, and this time his new friend didn’t follow. He headed toward Lookout Landing; he could rest there. Once Link was out of sight, he tried to pull off the mask; best not to startle the locals.His thumbs found the spot where the bottom of the mask would be. Except. Nothing was there. Link tried to pull it off but just ended up scratching his face until he bled. No change to his form. He was… stuck. As a Lynel. He still had his slate. But that might make people angry, thinking this strange Lynel had killed their hero and taken his stuff. So, no resting at Lookout Landing for him.
Link needed to wash the blood off his face before it soaked his mane. He headed off towards the nearest lake.
