Legend of Zelda: A New Age

Chapter 2: The Stranger

Faster. Faster he ran. He stumbled blindly through the dark forest, trying to put as much distance between him and the monsters as possible.

He had been awoken abruptly by a nearby bokoblin camp, their scouts having spotted him while he was asleep. They blew their loud horns and Link woke with a start. He made a mad dash towards the woods, trying desperately to lose them.

He kept running until he couldn't hear or see them anymore. He slowed down and leaned against a mostly rotted tree to catch his breath. The second he put most of his weight on it his arm broke right through the trunk and he struggled to regain his balance.

Great, he thought, now I'm stuck, in the middle of the night, with the potential of there being monsters nearby.

Suddenly, he heard something approaching him from the bushes, leaves and dry twigs snapping and crunching as it walked, closer, closer still. A dark figure appeared out of the brush and walked towards Link.

As moonlight hit the human-like figure he could see that it was another hylian. It was a girl, she looked maybe 16 or 17, she had chocolate brown hair with some bright purple streaks in the front, her figure was small and petite but not exactly fragile. She had a scar on the left corner of her lip and towards her collarbone. She had a few piercings, one of the more noticeable ones being one on the bridge of her nose. She had beautiful emerald colored eyes that had a curious look to them. Although she wore a cloak, Link could tell that the dress she wore underneath was made of silk, which means she must come from noble heritage.

"Hello," he said to the mysterious woman.
"Hi," she answered timidly, with what sounded like a hint of amusement in her voice.

Link tilted his head to the side and studied her for a moment. She seemed to have no ill intentions and he highly doubted he'd be able to get his arm out of the tree by himself. There were pieces of wood and splinters digging into his arm, causing a sharp pain anytime he moved it. He would probably need to hack at it with his knife and pull the wood away from his arm at the same time.

"Hey, sooo, I know this might be considered rude to ask of a stranger but do you think you could possibly lend me a hand?" He gestures towards the tree and his arm.

She stares at him with a blank look and eventually giggles a bit, although he was pretty sure it was from nerves. She nods her head and takes the knife he held out to her, looking at him expectantly as to what to do next.

"Uhh, all you gotta do is just take the knife and cut out around here," he traces it with his finger and shows her where to saw off pieces of the woods with the knife.

She saws away at the wood, leaving a small circular shape still left embedded in his arm. He holds onto the wood while instructing her what pieces to cut off so they can pull it off. On the count of three, they grab onto it and quickly yank it off. Link howls in pain for a moment and quickly tears off a piece of his shirt to wrap it. The girl helps him to pull out any splinters and small pieces of wood that may still be embedded in his skin.

Link keeps his eyes glued to the ground, slightly embarrassed that he had to ask the girl for help, although, speaking of which he still had no idea what her name is.

"Hey, thanks for helping me out, I appreciate it. I apologize for troubling you."

"It was no trouble at all, although I do wonder how you got stuck in that tree in the first place?" She tilts her head a bit, a confused look on her face.

"A-Ah yes! About that..." he struggles to get the words out, absolutely humiliated about his stupidity, "I kind of, well, leaned on it, didn't notice that it had rotted, and my arm went face straight through." He smiled sheepishly at her, awaiting her response.

She giggles a bit at first, then she starts to laugh. She  laughs until she's in tears and has to try and calm herself down. Was it really that funny?

"How- *wheeze*  how do you not notice that it's rotted??" She's practically fallen over at this point wheezing, he wonders if he should do something about it.

"In my defense, it was dark and the moon wasn't out yet, I couldn't see that it was rotted." Link then crosses his arms with a frown on his face.

Zelda rolls her eyes at the boy, "Yeah yeah, whatever-" But before she can finish, there comes a loud holler from the woods.

"Uh oh." They both say in unison, and make a mad dash away from the woods, sprinting as fast as they can to try and get away from whatever was chasing them.
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Aaahhh I'm finally done with this chapter! I know it's been a while since I last uploaded, tbh had a bit of writer's block there for a moment and honestly just had no idea what I wanted to do with this chapter but I think it turned out alright :)
Feedback is always much appreciated, thank you for reading! Hope y'all have a good day/night! <3