[Night Mare]

Jun 11, 2010 12:21

Characters: Link [tapferkeit]; OPEN
Location: The Illusion Room in the Water Temple; Link's Dream.
Time: Night of June 10th
Brief Summary: Fourth dream of the Night Mare. Link faces dislocation, lives in desolation, and loses a part of himself.
Rating: PG-15; there's some disturbing content to this dream, including self-harm, auto-cannibalism and cruelty to animals.



The first year was possibly the worst of all.

It had been warm when he pulled the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. In a blink, it was cold. Not freezing, to be certain, but damp, with a cloying chill that crept into his bones and grew there. He shivered, rubbing his arms, wondering what to do. The landscape was all but bare. A lone tree grew on a tiny island within a vast-stretch of ankle-deep water. Its bark was black, its arms were bare, and it twisted at the grey sky like a grasping claw.

The water crept into his boots as he splashed to the island, and the sand around the tree turned to mud as he put his hand against it. A quick thought of the Deku Tree flashed through his head, but it was driven aside as he suddenly noticed that Navi was missing.

He sat down on the sand to wait for her, looking for the ocarina that he could not find.

He sat for a day. He sat for two. Three. A week. He lost count in the end. The chill had grown into his body by the time a door appeared, and he looked up, ready to stand but too weak from hunger.

They fed him, changed his clothes, and left. He didn't even get to see their faces before the door vanished again.

---

The next few years wasn't quite so bad as the first. The landscape never changed, but sometimes he would open his eyes to see a tetike, or a keese, or a rat. He broke off a branch of the tree to kill them and let their bodies rot at first. But weeks without food sharpened his hunger, and he found that the meat was far from as vile as he had once thought. Later than that, he found that the rats often stopped struggling after the second bite.

His nails grew and broke and cut when he scratched himself. He didn't notice the mist or the tepid stench of stale water anymore. He ripped out chunks of his hair when he absently rolled his fingers through it, and he couldn't help but notice that it had turned greyish-white. He was sure it had been yellow before, but it doesn't really matter. Colours were rare here. He vaguely remembered greens and reds and yellows and blues and a whole variety, but they seemed centuries ago.

---

Sometimes things that he couldn't eat were thrown into the room with him. One time something that held a long stick with a sharp metal point (a spear? Maybe. He couldn't remember or care) was sent in. It tried to fight. He killed it and ate it raw, and the one they sent after that.

Sometimes the people would come in to look. The women had red hair and dressed in red or white, and the big man dressed all in black. He laughed, sometimes, when he watched him rip into his food, but he never cared. He'd long ago assessed that he was too big for him to take down, at least now.

They brought another boy in, one time. He wore blue and white, and a red eye blazed on his chest. His hair was yellow, and he held something in his hands. He ran his fingers over it and it made noise. Music. His voice changed while he played. Singing.

He went to sleep and woke up dressed in new clothes.

The green of the old tunic had nearly faded by now.

---

He didn't recognize the face as he looked into the water at first. It took a while to remember that it was himself. His skin was grey now, his hair was white, and his eyes shone red.

Funny. He wasn't sure they were before.

His fingers changed colour as well. They hurt as the room got colder, and his breath made mist in the air. Icicles hung from his clothes and hair, and he suddenly wasn't sure he could feel his hands or ears or feet anymore. Things were so cold, and the rats and keese and tetikes stopped coming.

He bit on his tongue by accident, and the blood was so warm and his belly was so empty that his kept chewing and chewing and swallowed. It was so good. The cloying, iron tang was delicious, but it became harder to breathe as it seeped down his throat.

The red-haired man came in then, cursing. He took a red light from a bottle and crushed it over him.

(Fairy, he thought, like Navi.)

The dark man hit him across the face with his gauntleted hand after. Told him not to be so stupid. Dropped something thick and heavy on him and gave him something blue and glowing. Left him again.

It was warm, and he called it Navi, but it didn't talk to him or nip his ears.

---

He was bigger now, and vaguely aware that he wasn't quite altogether. There were bits he wasn't so sure of, but he were quite certain that there was definitely... something.

He realized he hadn't spoken in a long time. Three years? Four? He didn't remember. Sun and moon and sky didn't exist in the misty world. He'd went walking once, and almost lost sight of the tree. He came back to it, running his fingers down the bark and trying to speak to it. His voice was cracked and broken, and he were sure it was deeper than before.

The tree never replied. He just went to sleep under the dead branches and ate the still squealing vermin that made their way in.

---

Once, when he slept and woke and slept again, he opened his eyes to find a sword sticking into the sand of the island.

There were many more fights then. The sword was more effective than a branch of the tree or his own fist. He didn't quite know how to wield it - far from properly at any rate, but he could use it.

'Have to' was the best teacher.

---

Now the door was there again, and opening. He hid behind the tree, making himself as still and invisible as he could. It was difficult to do so; he wanted to lunge at whoever came through, cut them open with his sword and spill their guts onto the floor.

Saliva filled his mouth and his nostrils flared. His lips twisted up his face into a smile that was almost a grimace.

He waited to greet them.

legend of zelda: zelda, !event: night mare, code geass: suzaku kururugi, legend of zelda: link

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