[Dream] Time itself lays shattered amid ash and fire and ruin
[He doesn't dream very often, but once in a while, he does. Tonight just happens to be one of those nights. And like his dreams tend to be, it's nothing pleasant. It's another memory distorted by time and by some dark part of his mind.]
[It begins with an eerie stillness, as if the very world is holding its breath. He can't see at first, can't hear; it's as if nothing exists. But then the earth shakes violently and hurls him forward, and the instant his first staggering step strikes stone, the world comes into view.
[It's Clock Town. And the moon is falling.
[He starts running, trying to get to the Clock Tower and the open door; he has to call the Giants -- he has to stop this! But the farther he runs, the farther away the Tower seems to get. The ground quakes and shakes and pitches, and even the air seems to be trying to shove him back. And the moon just keeps falling, keeps getting closer and closer and no; no! He can't make it!
[He has to do something, but he can't. He can't get to the Tower; he can't stop the moon; he can't even get his ocarina out.
[There's --
-- no --
-- time.
[There's a loud crack above and ahead of him as the Clock Tower shatters; it sounds more like bone cracking than stone. There's another loud crack and the sound of something tearing, followed by a faraway scream that still resonates in his very bones. There's a loud, booming cackle, almost like thunder, and rain pours from the sky. But it isn't water. It's blood.
[He can't even scream; he's frozen in place, staring up at the massive, sky-eating face of the twisted moon as it comes closer and closer and closer. The screaming continues; the blood-rain keeps pouring down; and above all else is the sound of fire and the smell of burning flesh. The earth shakes even harder, hard enough to crack, hurling dust and ash and more up into the air. It smells like a tomb. Rot and decay and mold and burning, so much burning.
[He can't breathe. He's choking on shattered stone and broken wood and dirt and dust and ash and he doesn't know what else. The air is getting hotter, but still he can't move. He's locked in place, locked in a fiery inferno.
[Then finally, mercifully, the moon strikes the ground.
[Time shatters like glass, a thousand iridescent fragments of what could have and should have been raining down into the nothingness of infinity, the void of destruction. The shards tear at his skin and clothes -- somehow he still has form. He gasps, then, sucking in cold, half-stale air, and falls forward onto wood.
[It's the clock. He's atop the Clock Tower. But the massive clock is silent, dead. Link staggers to his feet and looks around. Clock Town lies in ruins, what's left of buildings and walls jutting up towards a burning sky like skeletal fingers. The air is thick with the twin scents of charcoal and rot, and a hollow wind carries ash and dust around. Here and there he sees figures laying amid the rubble, all battered and burned beyond any recognition. He doesn't need to know who they are to know that everyone he knew is dead.
[The rest of Termina is in even worse shape. Beyond the broken walls lies nothing but giant, jagged shards of glass, as if everything in the four directions has just shattered.
[He falls to his knees, staring out at the devastation. He should've been sent back. He should be back inside the basement of the Tower... but he isn't. He's here in a world of death, a world of nothing, a world of the day that was never meant to come.]
No... No! Take me back! Send me back! Send me back!
[But there's nothing left to hear him.
[Nothing left at all.]
[ooc: This is MM Link's dream, though it's really a nightmare. D:]
[It begins with an eerie stillness, as if the very world is holding its breath. He can't see at first, can't hear; it's as if nothing exists. But then the earth shakes violently and hurls him forward, and the instant his first staggering step strikes stone, the world comes into view.
[It's Clock Town. And the moon is falling.
[He starts running, trying to get to the Clock Tower and the open door; he has to call the Giants -- he has to stop this! But the farther he runs, the farther away the Tower seems to get. The ground quakes and shakes and pitches, and even the air seems to be trying to shove him back. And the moon just keeps falling, keeps getting closer and closer and no; no! He can't make it!
[He has to do something, but he can't. He can't get to the Tower; he can't stop the moon; he can't even get his ocarina out.
[There's --
-- no --
-- time.
[There's a loud crack above and ahead of him as the Clock Tower shatters; it sounds more like bone cracking than stone. There's another loud crack and the sound of something tearing, followed by a faraway scream that still resonates in his very bones. There's a loud, booming cackle, almost like thunder, and rain pours from the sky. But it isn't water. It's blood.
[He can't even scream; he's frozen in place, staring up at the massive, sky-eating face of the twisted moon as it comes closer and closer and closer. The screaming continues; the blood-rain keeps pouring down; and above all else is the sound of fire and the smell of burning flesh. The earth shakes even harder, hard enough to crack, hurling dust and ash and more up into the air. It smells like a tomb. Rot and decay and mold and burning, so much burning.
[He can't breathe. He's choking on shattered stone and broken wood and dirt and dust and ash and he doesn't know what else. The air is getting hotter, but still he can't move. He's locked in place, locked in a fiery inferno.
[Then finally, mercifully, the moon strikes the ground.
[Time shatters like glass, a thousand iridescent fragments of what could have and should have been raining down into the nothingness of infinity, the void of destruction. The shards tear at his skin and clothes -- somehow he still has form. He gasps, then, sucking in cold, half-stale air, and falls forward onto wood.
[It's the clock. He's atop the Clock Tower. But the massive clock is silent, dead. Link staggers to his feet and looks around. Clock Town lies in ruins, what's left of buildings and walls jutting up towards a burning sky like skeletal fingers. The air is thick with the twin scents of charcoal and rot, and a hollow wind carries ash and dust around. Here and there he sees figures laying amid the rubble, all battered and burned beyond any recognition. He doesn't need to know who they are to know that everyone he knew is dead.
[The rest of Termina is in even worse shape. Beyond the broken walls lies nothing but giant, jagged shards of glass, as if everything in the four directions has just shattered.
[He falls to his knees, staring out at the devastation. He should've been sent back. He should be back inside the basement of the Tower... but he isn't. He's here in a world of death, a world of nothing, a world of the day that was never meant to come.]
No... No! Take me back! Send me back! Send me back!
[But there's nothing left to hear him.
[Nothing left at all.]
[ooc: This is MM Link's dream, though it's really a nightmare. D:]