Hallucinations

Whittling

     The race had ended when the rain started. The storm that had been brewing for hours finally broke, just as they rode into Fort Hateno. Link and (y/n) had tried to keep going, planning on making it to the Cliffs of Quince if not the tower itself by nightfall, but the weather would not permit. Even though lightning hadn't struck yet and the hylians crosses their fingers that it wouldn't, they could barely see 6 feet ahead of them– much less any monsters who could be camping nearby.

     So, the pair of Hylians set up their own camp under a large tree and ate a cold meal (there was no dry wood, and the wind and rain would have put out any sparks anyways) of apples and water, and then silently watched the sheets of rain hammer onto the ground.

     "This rain is pretty bad, huh?" (y/n) said, trying to distract herself as much as Link.

     "Yeah," he said, and then looked down. Disappointed that the conversation had died so fast and slightly awkwardly, (y/n) frowned and looked at the thing Link was holding.

     It was a chunk of wood that he was whittling away at, and it looked a bit like a horse, if (y/n) looked closely.

     When Link realized what the other hylian was staring at, he asked, "You like it? It's not great, but it's supposed to be Epona." Epona was his horse, and it did look a great deal like the brown mare.

     "It's great," (y/n) said. "Is it fun? Whittling, I mean?" She questioned. Link nodded, and then handed you a stick and quickly ran over the basics of whittling. He then got up to check on Epona, who was whinnying loudly.

     (Y/n) put the sword she had been carrying in its sheath and took out a small pairing knife. Holding the stick in one hand, (y/n) scraped the bark off of the wood carefully with her knife, finding the motion easy. She felt like she had done it before– which was very possible.

     While Link had remembered a lot about his life and former profession, (y/n) had only remembered a few. However, she had felt this sensation before when regaining her memory.

     (Y/n) looked down at her stick which was starting to look a lot like the bird she had seen flitting around in the grass earlier. Suddenly, she remembered.

     Two hylian kids who couldn't have been more than 10 were sitting on a small hill overlooking a city that looked a lot like the ruins of Castle Town, but not ruined yet.

      A breeze ruffled the boy's auburn hair, and he blew it out of his brown eyes. Both children held small hunks of wood that they were scraping away at. Both had clearly been doing the project for a while, because they had red marks pressed into their hands by the flat edges of the blades.

     "See? It's not that hard," a boy's voice said.

     "I don't know, Adrin, this is kinda taking forever," (y/n) replied, trying to replicate his immaculate impression of  a bird.

     Adrin laughed and said, "It's gonna take longer than a day if you want to get it as great as mine," he waggled the stick in her face, smirking, and she tried to feel offended as she pushed it away. Adrin's work really was good– her bird barely came close to the perfection that was his wooden cat.

    "You are such a show-off!" (Y/n) accused eventually after admitting defeat and stowing away her knife when she saw him carefully carve clever eyes into the feline.

     "Can't help it, (n/n)!" He had put away his knife too now and stood, avoiding (y/n)'s swipe at him.

     "Hey come back so I can whack you!" (Y/n) cried only half jokingly as he ran towards the town, down the hill.

     "Not in a million years!" Adrin called as he sped away, (y/n) chasing after him, right after picking up the wooden feline he had left behind.

     (Y/n)'s hand flew to her mouth as she realized where the muscle memory had come from. Who was Adrin? And the nickname– were they friends?? Had she lived in Castle Town?

    Suddenly, a flash of orange in her peripheral vision caught(y/n)'s attention and she turned rapidly to see a Yiga member sneaking up on Link from behind with a sickle.

"Link!" (Y/n) cried, and yanked out her claymore charging Link's opponent. He whipped around and reached for his sword– discovering he had left it at the campsite. He cursed under his breath and tried to duck the slash made at him.

(Y/n) threw herself in front of him, just barely managing to block the near-fatal attempt at Link's life with her sword.

"Get your sword, now! I'll take care of this guy," (y/n) told Link over her shoulder, "and try not to forget your weapon next time, okay?!" She parried the sickle away as Link turned back to the campsite to grab his sword, and (y/n) stabbed at the Yiga's mask, which shattered.

The clan member howled and poofed away, dropping a couple of rupees in his haste. (Y/n) looked down at her claymore, which was deflecting water as hundreds of raindrops hit it, and the hylian sighed as she realized that it was near broken.

"Yiga," she spat. Ever since the two hylians had defeated Master Kohga, Yiga clan members had been attacking them at random. As the days wore on, it was more and more likely to see Yiga come in groups to ambush the pair. Link and (y/n) really had a nasty habit of not dying when they were supposed to.

Keeping her weapon handy, (y/n) made her way back to the campsite keeping an eye out for more trouble. The rain made it near impossible though, so she missed the mask hiding in the tree, waiting to strike.

Aaaah! So yeah, you and Link are in trouble. Best of luck in the next chapter!