Interlude - Zora's Cavern

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-Somewhere, Link-

Link did not know how long he laid there. He remembered opening his eyes briefly, how bright everything was, and that he was racked in pain with the simple knowledge that the pain meant something was very wrong. He knew what bruises felt like. This wasn't it.

'So weak...' he thought. It took effort just to think, and he thought no more as his eyes closed.

The next time his eyes opened was in response to voices but it came to him as garbled and scattered sounds and at times akin to melody; and he remembered feeling comfortably warm and with the sensation of hovering. It was dim.

'Ah...' he thought weakly. 'I died. So this is the heavens... it's not bad... I'm sorry... Zelda... Ganon...'

His eyes closed again.

Link's eyes snapped open. Colours flickered in the darkness all around him, hovering and shifting innumerably. It was like Fae but something about their movement confused him. No... it wasn't Fae. It was reflected lights on cavern walls from water he was laying in.

This was followed by two thoughts, 'Wait... what am I doing in a cave?' And then, 'Shit! I can't swim!'

Link thrashed around, reaching for leverage. Water fell over him and pulled him under. His mouth and lungs quickly filled with water. He felt the surface at the edge of his fingers, but he couldn't quite hold it. Tiny hands grasped at him, trying to pull him in. He fought against them but there were many. They sat on him, grabbed his chest shirt and his arms and pulled at him. Something moved under him akin to a snake. It roped itself around him and squeezed him tight.

The giant snake pulled him out of the water and slammed him down on a rock surface. The snake loosened its grip, but many small creatures crawled onto him. He fought against them while drowning in himself. His torso felt like it was on fire and his body was weak and numb. He could not resist them and was forced onto his side. Water spilled from his lips and lungs.

Link gasped for air and collapsed.

"Breath!" A little voice said behind him. "Just breath!"

Link panted and looked back at the voice. It was a monster straight from his dreams. Some kind of slithering abomination with the bottom of a snake, the top torso of a woman with four spidery arms, three long, fat fingers on each hand, some kind of scaly cloth over her chest, and a massive head with two sets of eyes along either side of her face and an unnaturally wide jaw with teeth.

"HOLY NARYU, DIN, 'N' FARORE!" Link exclaimed. He backed up, crawled, and generally scrambled away from her as fast as he could. He had no weapons, and while he could hold his own in a fist-fight with his peers, something told him this animal had special tools at her disposal to eat him.

Link fell backwards into water. The snake-woman dove into the water, grabbed him, and pulled him back up. "No! No!" Link fought back, but the woman grabbed his arms tight and held him down to the rock surface. "Don't eat me! I'm gangly! I'm thin!"

"Quiet! Stop moving!" The woman exclaimed.

Link shut his mouth, and quivered in fear, waiting for the inevitable bite to his neck. Something told him he was still very wounded and moving so much had not helped, because normally he would have been able to move easier to put up a bigger fight. He actually felt quite woozy. The world was spinning and his side burned.

In front of him where he held onto the rocks a bunch of little creatures, like hunch-back turtles, looked back at him curiously.

The woman did not bite him. She pulled herself onto the rock surface herself and took a deep breath. Gills all down her neck opened and closed. She had no nose. She looked at him in a very human-like expression of exasperation. "We aren't going to eat you, foolish Huma! You are a patient."

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