Linked AU One-Shots

7. The First Strike

Prompt: Lightning (preferably involving Wild)

Duration: 1 hour

For once, I didn't rush an ending! I really liked how this turned out. For reference, this takes place at the beginning of BOTW. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The first time that it happened, Link had jumped up his feet, grabbing his club and getting into a defensive stance without even thinking. He may not know much about this world, but his body, for some reason, seemed to. Alarm circulated through his veins as he pondered what it was. Could it have been a large monster? Maybe a large person? (Did those exist?) Was the cave he was seeking shelter in collapsing in on itself?

He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure of a lot of things, actually.

In any case, he decided to slowly move to the entrance, his free hand tracing the wall ensuring he knew the path in the dancing shadows. When he got to the mouth, he was met with the same darkness that stretched on when he had retreated a few hours earlier. The sound of rain poured in his ears even louder than it had before, and he could make out the streaks coming down. The soil had become muddy as a small river had formed, rolling down the hill and out of sight.

Linked blinked, straining his eyes to see further than a few mere feet. Nothing seemed amiss, but... then what he had just heard? What had he felt to his very core? He licked his lips before opening his mouth. He had thought perhaps calling out may alert the person of his presence. Even if it turned out to be a monster, he'd prefer to deal with it now, so he could rest during the night without worry.

He swallowed instead. Unlike the old man, he wasn't sure if he even knew how to speak, how to communicate. He wasn't sure why. He had so many questions about this world and about himself.

Warily, he took a step out of the cave. Rain quickly dropped onto his exposed skin since he had abandoned his soaked clothes, with exception to his boxers, by the fire earlier. Had he just been imagining things somehow?

But just as he thought that somehow, that could be the case, it happened: a flash of blinding light lit up the sky in all directions, coming out of a single, twisted vertical line. It only existed for a single moment; if he had blinked, he would have missed it. He stumbled back, letting a surprised yelp as he nearly fell over. But that wasn't all. A moment later, a rumble rippled throughout the land, shaking the earth once more. Link nearly felt it within his very bones. And that too, almost as soon as it had started, faded into nonexistence, as though it had never happened in the first place.

He hadn't imagined it, had he? He moved even closer to the wall of the rock, unsure of what to make of the situation. Was the beam of light involved in the boom? Had it caused the boom? Or was it some odd happenchance? Was he going to die? Was he in danger? Or... was this as normal as the flowers and the bugs and the sky changing from blue with a bright circle to a speckled black? From the adrenaline pumping through his veins came another feeling: curiosity. From the moment he had first looked out from the crest of the hill before him to see the vast and seemingly endless world, he wanted to learn every single thing about it. This was no different.

He lingered for another minute before it happened again: a flash of vertical light, this time more to his right than the last. The roar followed, this time faster than the previous time. This only caused the curiosity to swirl even more in his chest. Before he had realized it, he had dropped his club onto the ground and took another tentative step forward. He hardly realized or cared about the rain as he waited for the strange phenomenon to happen again. Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait for long. It had hardly been a minute before it happened again, this one's light appearing to his left instead and the sound occurring more delayed than the second time but still faster than the first.

The two had to be connected somehow. He found himself making a strange sound that only lasted a few seconds as his lip turned upwards. The rush of nerves was replaced with a shiver of excitement.

Was it alive? Was it a friend? Was it a foe? How did it move so fast? Was there multiple of them, or just one? Was it related to the sky? Was it the sky expressing its emotions, like the rain meant it was sad, and it was blue when it was happy, and black when it was reflective, and dotted white when it wasn't sure what it was feeling, and–? Or, perhaps it was a creature that was dancing between the land and the sky? Or perhaps, he supposed, the two were having some sort of conversation. Or perhaps–

As countless theories budded in his mind, there was one thing that was becoming more clear with every passing second: he just had to know. With one last glance back at his make-shift shelter, the warmth of the fire nearly begging him to stay, he stashed away his club for safekeeping. He ran out into the rain and began down the hill in an attempt to chase the sky beams and their echoing earth calls, a wide grin etched on his face and unfamiliar happy sounds coming out of him.