In His Shadow XIV - Premonitions by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow XIV - Premonitions
Wide, pale green eyes stared back at him, unblinking. At least, he assumed they were looking at him. It was impossible to tell since the great fish had no pupils.
Link tilted to the side, but Jabu-Jabu eyes didn’t follow the movement. “Is he dead?” he whispered to Navi, lest he offend the fish deity.
Navi’s wings shivered. “No. Try giving him the fish.”
Link pulled out a bottle, a small blue fish swimming inside it. When he’d been unsuccessful in getting Jabu-Jabu to open his mouth or even react in any way, Link had asked the zora guard Sidas for help.
The zora had chuckled and advised him to catc
In His Shadow VII - Time Cannot Erase by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow VII - Time Cannot Erase
Something was different. The ground was becoming smoother, flatter. The heavy boughs of the trees were thinning out, allowing more light through.
When the soil beneath his running feet was free of roots, stones and undergrowth, he stopped, observing his new surroundings for the first time. They were like unlike anything he’d laid eyes on before.
Lush, green hills rippled out from the edge of the forest, rising and falling again and again. Sunlight bathed the land, transforming the plains into a beautiful collage of green and gold. Cradling the sun was a vibrant, gem-blue sky, polished by fluffy white clouds.
Link gaped at the surreal
In His Shadow VIII - Princess of Destiny by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow VIII - Princess of Destiny
The wide, welcoming halls of Hyrule Castle had never been much to Ganondorf's taste. They were too bright, too open. He was accustomed to the starkly lit stone passages of the Gerudos' fortress. They were warm, protected and enclosing.
Ganondorf's tawny eyes roamed the vaulted ceilings and the stately walls, decorated tastefully with art depicting Hyrule's history. This castle wasn't very pleasing to him aesthetically, but its sheer size and grandeur suited his personal ambitions much more than the cramped, semi-underground lodgings of his people.
Ambition was exactly what had brought him here. As the first man born to the Gerudo tribe in a
In His Shadow IX -Keys to the Sacred Realm by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow IX -Keys to the Sacred Realm
So wide was the ceiling of leaves of the Great Deku Tree, the Kokiris' ancient guardian spirit, that it blocked out the sky.
For years, Link had first thought that the sky was green, not blue.
The branches that sprouted from its trunk were large enough to be mature trees themselves, twisting and twining upwards to create a crown of foliage. The guardian of the forest had been a living, breathing figure. A father to all the children he watched over.
Now he was still and fragile as the deadwood littering his forest floor.
Link's dream played in reverse.
First the Great Deku Tree was there, but gone. Then he spoke in a heavy, tired voice of
In His Shadow X - Village of the Sheikah by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow X - Village of the Sheikah
Hyrule was much bigger than he'd thought.
It was wide and open; not like the forest, Link decided, watching the bundles of fluffy whiteness float across a blue canvas. The sky alone would take him eons to explore.
Link settled his arms behind his head in the grass. Everything Zelda had told him about the lands that made up Hyrule had fascinated him, too. It would take several lifetimes to see all the places she'd described to him.
He rolled onto his belly, flipping his gaze from the clouds to the tree whose shade he was borrowing. It was a hot day, made all the more strenuous b
In His Shadow XI - Heart of Fire by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow XI - Heart of Fire
The guard looked over the top of the letter at him again, his brows creasing in bewilderment.
Link scowled. The guard must have read Zelda’s letter a dozen times already and still wouldn’t let him pass. If Link didn’t climb Death Mountain he couldn’t find the second stone!
“Er…look, kid,” the metal man finally said. “I’m not saying this isn’t Princess Zelda’s signature…and I don’t know what sort of game you two are playing.”
“I need to go up the mountain,” Link insisted again. “It’s important.”
“The mountain’s a da
In His Shadow XII - The Third Stone by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow XII - The Third Stone
A column of fire punched through the air, leaving a scorching trail in its wake. As the flame died out, the huge dodongo let out a roar. Its enormous feet stomped the heat-hardened earth and it began to pace.
Link, having leapt out of the way and onto a large boulder sitting in the lava pit in the nick of time, peered from behind his Hylian shield. The shield was a good defense against the heat and fire, but Link’s Kokiri sword was no match for the beast’s thick hide.
While Navi flitted around the dodongo’s head, no more than a pest to him, Link searched for another option.
Raising his hand to wipe the sweat from his fore
In His Shadow XIII - A Sinking Feeling by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow XIII - A Sinking Feeling
It was the early hours when a lone horse and rider galloped through the fortress gate, nearly throwing its guards off their feet in a whirlwind of dust.
The rider dismounted, tearing the veil from her face as she turned and shouted at a nearby guard to rouse the king.
Minutes later, Ganondorf was striding into his reception chamber, still in his bedclothes. It was a circular room, lit by torches and bare save for the king’s chair. Not so much a throne but a high-backed wooden chair.
The rider bowed low, holding her closed fist to her heart in a sign of respect.
“My lord.”
“Report,” he grumbled, dropping into
In His Shadow VI - The Outcast by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow VI - The Outcast
Dead.
He stared, mouth open in stunned silence. He couldn’t even remember how to move. Should he even be moving? Thinking? Shouldn’t he say something?
He closed his mouth. His throat was dry and scratchy. If only there was water.
Browning leaves fell like snow around Link’s guardian, forming an imperfect ring around the base of the tree. Another long moment passed.
Today had started out as the happiest day of his young life. That very morning, a fairy guardian had finally come to him. Their first meeting hadn’t been what he’d expected—she’d rudely woken him from bed and berated him until he’
In His Shadow V - The Orphanage by Emmaj26, literature
Literature
In His Shadow V - The Orphanage
Castle Town had been Hyrule’s quaint, bustling capital for generations. It had long ago surpassed the size of a town and become a fully-fledged city. In terms of size and population, it had grown slowly but steadily like a mighty oak tree. It was crowded, but sturdy and sustaining.
Ever since the Unification War, however, the sudden influx of refugees and newly parentless children had caused a problem. Accommodation had been the biggest concern, rapidly fixed with the addition of the West Quarter. The orphanages, however, had simply stretched their resources to the limit to house the increase in children whose parents had perished in t