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silvrash-797 · 4 months ago

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Febuwhump 2025 - As the Games Go 'Round

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Chapter 1: Don't Stop Believin'

A buzzer sounded. “Zzz-Wrong! Try again!”

Legend wanted to scream, or pull his hair out, or throw something. Maybe all three.

Phew…breathe…He had to remember why he was doing this.

He pulled out the package he’d found outside his door at the local inn, after waking up entirely alone. Atop the package sat a letter, written on fancy, brightly patterned paper in an atrociously flamboyant script:

Where the wind fish plays and the oracle sways

In the home of the once mighty and fallen,

From the light world high to the dark world low

You’ll find the four heroes calling.

Holodrum, Labrynna, Hytopia too

Tzikizi the Great is waiting for you!

Link, Hero of Legends, is cordially invited to my home by the sea.

Please bring your wit, your grit, and a hundred rupees or three,

For the games we shall play will be legendary!

Eurgh. He shivered, utterly creeped out that this random stranger knew so much about his life and adventures.

Under the letter, wrapped in harsh linen, were Wind's pirate charm, Time's ocarina, Twilight’s shadow crystal, and Hyrule's flute, all concerningly spattered with rust-red drops of blood. Presumably, these were the “four heroes calling" mentioned in the invitation.

From there, it had taken just a few questions in town to direct him to the manor on the shores of the Kohol Sea. The warnings from the townspeople about the character of this “Tzikizi the Great" left a sick feeling in his gut.

He put away the package and letter as the board reset, then made another choice.

“Zzz-Wrong! Try again!”

He groaned, thoroughly fed up with the puzzles and chance games in this goddess-forsaken funhouse. Every moment he spent on “Guess the Chest" or “Spin the Wheel" was one more moment his brothers were in danger.

The game reset, Legend kept a close eye on the pieces. He made his choice. Nayru, please let this be the one.

Bells above his head rang, and the lights around the board flashed. “Winner! Winner! Winner!!” a tinny voice sang, and Legend heaved a sigh of relief. One step closer.

A screen slid across the game board, a gentle light flickering within. Usually, these screens gave him his next clue in a stupid little verse, but this time a pictograph was projected instead.

In it, Legend saw his missing brothers, still in their sleep clothes, kneeling with their arms bound behind their backs and dark blindfolds covering their eyes.

Wind leaned on Time, while Twilight supported Hyrule. All four had bruises and cuts along every visible surface. It hurt to see, but at the same time a fierce pride welled inside – whatever had happened to them, they hadn’t let themselves be caught without a fight.

The image faded away, replaced instead with his next clue, in the same awful script as the invitation.

Time drifts ever on,

From twilight,

to night,

and then to dawn.

The wind o'er Hyrule blows foul and fair,

Says to the Hero of Legend, "Better beware!"

Follow the wind and the light where they go,

And at last you shall see those dear ones you know.

The verse flickered nauseatingly on the screen, but Legend read it twice more, trying to commit it to memory. Time, Twilight, Wind, Hyrule…Wishing me safety…Follow the lights and the wind? That must be the next clue.

The last line gave him hope – one more test, one more trial, and he’d find his brothers.

He was on his third read through when he noticed an oddity in the flickering light. In the lower corner of the screen, numbers were counting down steadily.

2:59

2:58

2:57

2:56

2:55

Simultaneously, a deep fog began to fill the room, punctured only by a series of torches, leading out the door and back down the hallway he'd just come from. A draft picked up somewhere within the room, also guiding him to the torches.

Guess that covers following the lights and the wind.

Wait. Time drifts ever on! That was a part of the clue, too!

2:33

2:32

2:31

2:30

The fog settled on his skin, cold and clammy, but the chill that shot through him was unrelated to the fog. Legend had two and a half minutes to find his brothers, in a manor the size of a castle. He took a few steps toward the nearest torch then stopped in shock.

Voices, in the wind, faint, near imperceptible, even to his bunny-like ears. But present nonetheless.

Worse, they were his brothers' voices.

Hurry Legend, please! Wind whispered.

Be careful! Hyrule pleaded.

We’re counting on you! Time and Twilight's voices overlapped.

Now centered on the screen, the countdown continued.

2:12

2:11

2:10

2:09

Legend ran. Torch to torch, following the breeze, driven on by his brothers' increasingly desperate pleas. His heart pounded in his chest as he mentally kept track of the time he had left.

0:18

0:17

0:16

0:15

He skidded around a corner and saw – in the distance or nearby, the fog was wavering too much to tell – a more steady, warm glow he knew instinctively to be the end of the path, directly ahead.

0:08

0:07

0:06

Legend poured magic into his Pegasus boots and sprinted, praying he’d make it before the timer in his head reached zero, watching the light draw ever closer.

0:03

0:02

0:01

He slid to a stop inside a dim room, with one bright spotlight illuminating a giant screen. On it, the numbers 0:00 flashed accusingly.

On the ground to one side of the door knelt his brothers, looking just as bad as they had in the pictograph. At the sound of his boots on the tile, they sat up a little straighter, ears twitching to locate his presence.

“Vet, ‘s that you?”

“You shouldn’t be here, this guy is crazy!”

“Wind is right, Legend, you need to leave, this man has it out for you.”

“Shush, all of you!” Legend snapped. He was grateful for their concern, but they didn't have time! He knelt behind Hyrule and started to cut his bonds. “I’ve already played this guy's games; it’s time to get you out of here.”

“You think you’ve played all my games, Hero of Legend?” a crackling, callous voice echoed around the room.

All five heroes shuddered, the four on the floor huddling closer together while Legend sprang to his feet, hand on his sword hilt, hunting for the person behind the voice. “Show yourself!” he shouted.

Chattering laughter bounced around the room, making the hair on Legend's arms and the back of his neck stand up straight. The voice ignored him. “How late was he, dear Hero of Time?”

Time gulped, but responded. “Half a second,” he whispered.

The voice tutted, affecting utter disappointment. “Oh dear, I expected better of you.” Then, like a switch being flipped, the tone turned glassy, fluting and almost bird-like. “No matter! Now that you are here, my collection is complete!”

“What collection?” Legend growled. “What are you talking about?”

“Why, I’ve collected the Hero of Time and his descendants, fallen or otherwise!” Two claps sounded from across the space, and strips of lights like Wild's Sheikah tech illuminated the rest of the room.

At the head of a rounded, double staircase, a man stood. He was thin and twitchy, with sharp, hooded eyes and a beak-like nose. Around his shoulders hung a scintillating cloak of blue and purple scales. It sported a tall, wide collar that framed his head like wings, patterned in orange, black and blue scales that caught the light and flashed brightly.

The man smiled, all menacing teeth and cold, calculated intent. He described a deep, mocking bow. “Thank you for honoring the request of Tzikizi the Great, darling Hero of Legend.”

For all the showiness, Legend wasn’t impressed. “Yeah, no,” he scoffed. “Nobody’s staying here as part of a ‘collection.’ I’m only here to get them back.”

Behind him, Wind whimpered. Tzikizi's expression froze in a false smile. “What did you say?” he said, bright and venomous. He began to stalk down the stairs.

Legend gulped, but held his ground. “I’ll play whatever game you want,” he said, “but we’re not staying here.”

“Legend NO!” Hyrule burst out. “You can’t trust him! He’s a snake, he’s-"

Tzikizi snapped, and gags appeared around the mouths of the four bound heroes, muffling any further complaints. “None of that now,” he hissed. He eyed Legend, and Legend's bunny heart quailed at the predatory gleam he saw there.

A slow, cruel smile oozed across Tzikizi’s face. “I know just the one,” he breathed. With a flourish of his cape, he produced two dice and held them out to Legend, nearly vibrating with excitement.

Cautiously, Legend took the pair of dice and examined them. One had six sides, on which he saw the faces of his brothers, as well as his own face and Tzikizi’s.

The other die had a confusing array of image pairs: bubbling water, fire, a broken bone, forked lightning, a knife, a spear, a person holding their throat, and several sets of broken chains. Every symbol, aside from the chains, had an arrow pointing either up or down next to it.

Tzikizi clapped in delight as Legend examined the dice. As if it were a signal, a handful of Armos-like beings filed into the room and the blindfolds around his brothers' eyes vanished. “And of course my automata will ensure swift and fair delivery of any…prizes…to be won,” he chirped giddily. “So? What do you say?”

Legend continued inspecting the dice, trying to see how they would constitute a game, but came up empty. He looked up at Tzikizi. “I don’t understand,” he said plainly.

Tzikizi recoiled as if offended at the very thought. “Why, I thought it would be obvious. We will gamble for their freedom.” His eyes narrowed, and all bravado and false affectation vanished, leaving a stone-cold certainty in its place. “I want you to hurt,” he enunciated clearly. “That larger die has a series of horrible things I’m willing to do to make that so.

“The smaller die has the victim. The larger, what will be done to the victim. Landing on the chains will grant that person their freedom. You and I will take turns rolling the dice. My automata will follow through. Self-sacrificing hero that you are, you can choose to take their punishment yourself.

“No single consequence will kill you, I can promise that. But too many…well.” His eyes glinted madly, and the collar of his cloak flashed blinding-bright. “If death is your wish…for their freedom…I won’t stop you.”

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