New Home - BotW Link x Reader (Undergoing Revisions)

Chapter 23 - Magnetic

For a supposed hot spot for treasure, the ruins we now found ourselves in were rather unassuming. Where old archways might have been, there was only rubble. Where at one point long ago there might have been a sound staircase, there was a crumpled mass of rock and mortar.

The air was dusty here, and even the wind felt it unwise to pass through here, to interfere with the history, suspended in time - which was odd, considering how meddlesome the wind proved to be on more than one occasion.

These old structures were overrun with nature. Humanity's unnatural arches, angles, and edges were softened by nature's curls and coils, and the juxtaposition was jarring, but not in a bad way. Link and I traveled through the ruins like ghosts. In a way, we were ghosts among ghosts - Hyrule's history was unfortunately a bloody one, so it was entirely possible that these ruins shared in that history, and that folks here had died.

There were homes here, after all. This looked like it used to be a small farming settlement, with old fields that may have once been flush with crops but were now full of weeds, the fences overrun and crooked and the rows blurred. Old equipment was left everywhere, and there were plenty of personal effects left; none packed away, none put away nicely, none taken anywhere else when the people left. All at once, their story was clear. They had fallen victim to the Calamity.

Something about the grave state of things here had me slowing in my step, only for a moment. I tried to hide it right away - I fell right back into step beside him, but I should have known by now that it was futile to try to hide something from him. He was too perceptive, too quick - and too caring, it seemed.

Just as I could not hide that I had faltered even for a single moment, or less than that actually, Link was unable to hide that he had clued into it and his concern was displayed clearly across his face, etched into his features.

It was in his voice, too. "(Y/n)," he called softly, "what's wrong?"

"The air feels strange here," I told him honestly. "I think it's pretty obvious what happened here."

There were large scorch marks permanently burned into the sides of these homes, and deep gouges like claws pawed into the dirt. Whatever had passed through here, they were large - incredibly so. Based on what I could see, I could certainly hazard a guess.

"Guardians," Link voiced before I could, looking around. "But they're long gone, now."

"How can you tell?"

"We'd know already if there were any here."

They were grim words, but truthful all the same. I nodded rather solemnly, and said nothing more. In the silence, Link took it upon himself to speak.

"There are no bodies here, at least," Link noted. "Take solace in that, for now."

It was strange to hear him speak in such a way. But he was right. Whoever had been here must have escaped. They must have - because they were not here. Not anymore.

"The Guardians aren't as widespread as they once were," Link told me. "They used to crawl all over Hyrule in large numbers, but not anymore. They rarely venture beyond Hyrule field, though on occasion I have seen rogue ones far, far beyond it."

"They're machines," I began, "but not mindless, right? They hunt."

"As best they can, yes," Link told me. "They go after anything that moves."

"You've faced one," I said, and though I didn't know for sure, my words were less of a question and more of a statement, a prompt, for him to talk about it. It was obvious he had, in how he so surely spoke about them. And being so well-traveled, I didn't put it past him to have stumbled across far more than his fair share of the brutes.