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inky-cap13 · 10 months

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Something Wicked This Way Comes: A Legend of Zelda Fanfic

The fic is here! and it fought me tooth and nail. a good chunk of this was written months ago and I don't like how it's written now, so I'm gonna call this the first draft and rewrite it based on memory. This specific fic takes place in the Minish cap/ four swords time and includes an original villain character I created. Enjoy my insanity under the readmore!

Zelda once heard a story.

She’d been young, and curious about the world. One night she’d asked her mother for a story, about those creepy tunnels between the walls. Her mother had sighed, sat on the edge of Zelda’s bed, and told her.

It went like this:

Long ago, there was a beast that terrorized the lands of Hyrule. It was known as the Puppeteer, and it controlled an army of horrible and demonic creatures as its puppets. The creature only stopped its reign of terror when the Goddess-blooded princess figured out that it would only stop if it was sealed away from the light entirely. She chased it beneath the ancient castle, sealing it away in the deepest reaches of the catacombs, never to see its way out to the land again.

It sleeps. It seethes in its sleep, knowing it will get out one day, when the magic keeping it captive runs weak. It seeks revenge, revenge against the one who sealed it there to rot. It will break the seal. It wants out.

After all, you know what they say.

“Something wicked this way comes.”

Zelda watches yet another bird fly by the window. She can’t tell if Link keeps dropping by to entertain her or if the birds just like going that way around the castle towers. She’s so bored, only ever looking at her teacher in order to fool him into thinking she’s paying attention to the repetition of a lesson she learned and mastered when she was twelve.

She was just about to turn back to the window when there was a knock at the door. A page walked in, nervous and unsure of what to do in the presence of a princess bored out of her skull. He passed a piece of paper to the teacher and scurried out of the room.

The teacher opened the paper.

“You’ve been summoned by the King. It seems urgent.”

Zelda was more than happy to leave, easily sliding out of her chair and out the door.

It was a nice summer’s day, a few weeks before Din’s Festival began and pleasant enough that the windows of the palace were open. She felt the summer breeze drift in through the open window, along with the sounds of daily life in Castle Town.

She arrived at her father’s study, where the King himself was knee- deep in paperwork for the kingdom. She waited patiently for him to finish reading the latest piece of paper, enjoying the summer breeze coming in from a nearby window.

Father sighed as he set the paper down, looking far older than he normally does. He turned to her.

“Zelda, as you know, Din’s Festival is coming up, upon the summer solstice. The festival has an address and a role for you to play in the festivities, but I believe that you aren’t quite ready to fill that role.”

Zelda couldn’t believe it. After everything that has happened to her since she had been only eleven, and she wasn’t ready? Bull. Shit.

“The role of the Goddess Hylia is normally played by the princess once she reaches a suitable age, but you aren’t at that age.”

For Hylia’s sake she’s seventeen.

“Maybe next year you’ll be able to play the part of the Goddess. I’m sorry.”

With that, he dismissed her and turned back to his work.

Zelda was irate. Not of suitable age, her ass. She’s seen more bullshit in her entire stay at the tower of the wind than he’s seen in over a decade. Hell, she saw more of the world while she was a stone statue than any king has seen in the last two hundred years. Why should she prove herself only to get pushed aside-

A squeak ricocheted down the long hall.

She paused in her tirade, listening.

Another, closer.

She looked down, careful to watch where her feet were in case she stepped on it, mouse or otherwise.

A squeak came from her left, and she looked down to see a small, mouselike shape on the ground. She crouched carefully, bowing her head to try and see it better. Small, colorful streaks in a feathery tail, a distinctive cap…

“Link?”

He squeaked an affirmative. She cupped her hands and carefully let him climb onto them. He hooked tiny claws into her sleeves and began to climb up her arm to her shoulder, careful not to fall as she stood up. He grabbed onto a lock of her hair to anchor himself.

“You heard him, correct?”

A squeak.

“He has been more like this, even though I have been ready to do things like this since I was fifteen.”

Another squeak. This was getting old.

“We should get to a place you can change back. I need words, not squeaks.”

A rapid series of squeaks followed, and Zelda felt Link stamping his foot on her shoulder.

“I can let you walk, you know.”

The squeaks stopped, but she knew he was still a bit upset, and his eyes were that dark blue color he liked so much.

She arrived at the main gates, and strode through accompanied by a bit of illusion magic that made it look like she was a servant instead of the princess. She loved that spell.

She hurried through the market, softly giggling along to the muffled squeaks she heard. Finally, she arrived at the city gates, and beyond was the patch of trees that she liked to sneak out to. She slipped into the bushes, and came out into the clearing in the center, just far enough in the woods that they were out of earshot from the main road. Link hopped down from her shoulder and scurried to the hollow log that helped him transform. He stood before her in no time, though the curse of the minish made him stay permanently the height of a child.

“Your dad’s an old coot.” He said instantly, and his eyes were bright red.

She smothered giggles. That was another thing about Link, he blurted things without warning sometimes. Of course, she did know about his colors, and the fact that they showed in his hair didn’t help his case sometimes. He was an odd case, and had a reputation for going silent one moment and yelling the next.

Of course, most people also inadvertently insulted him by commenting about his appearance, so she hardly put the blame on him.

“I’m serious! He’s never let you do anything unless it’s for your emergency duties or working with the sages! He’s gotta let you do something other than sit in that stuffy castle all day!”

Yeah. He didn’t really like her father’s parenting methods. Obviously he respected the King, it was practically required, but the ways Link ranted about how she needed more freedom made his point all the more evident.

She hated staying in that castle too, and rarely got to slip away from the endless busy work she was assigned. There was a reason she liked the illusion spells she’d learned.

“I know,” She sighed, “And he is probably not going to let me do anything even if I am old enough to do my duties. I just- I wish he would see that I am perfectly capable of taking over my rightful duties as princess.”

Link knew as much, and he knew she hated being forced so high above the citizens of Hyrule she was supposed to rule when the king stepped down or died. She’d been the focus of two separate adventures, where she’d been turned to stone or kidnapped by the wind mage Vaati and the dark spirit Ganon. Zelda had been helpless to do anything but watch from her tower or her spot in the castle courtyard, turned to stone. She had wanted to be down there with him, warning and helping to fight off the evil beings sent to stop him from completing his quest.

She had been taught to wield weapons in the back yard of the blacksmith’s shop, and was decent with a shortsword and bow. She could fight if she needed, and she rarely did. That didn’t stop the itching in her hands when she was upset or when she just needed somewhere to go and blow off some steam. The blacksmith’s yard was one of her favorite places to be when she snuck out, and she was getting better with the various stock weapons that were to be melted and re-forged if they weren’t sold in time for new ones to be made.

Smith’s yard was littered with such weapons when the two got there, and she picked her way towards the back door where she knew there were training clothes waiting for her. She’d trained there enough to know where everything was, and considered Smith a grandfather to her.

Zelda could hear him in the front, speaking with a customer about something. She made sure to be quiet as she went up the stairs and down the hall to the ‘guest’ room she’d claimed as hers long ago. Her training clothes were neatly folded on the bed, they’d done the laundry while she’d been gone. She got dressed quickly, donning the green tunic and trousers that matched Link’s old tunic. She picked her bow and quiver from the corner and did her hair up in a messy bun. The spell on the old pin made her face unrecognizable as the princess, and only a simple pretty smith’s daughter otherwise. At least, that was the cover story if anyone asked. Just a smith’s daughter, who lived with her mother in castle town sometimes.

She stepped out of her room to see Link impatient by the stairs. She followed him down to the yard, where the targets and training dummies were already set up. She got to work, hitting target after target with arrows trained for the bull’s eye. She was sure in her movements, having trained since she was twelve and rebellious against her father enough to agree to it.

When the targets were filled with arrows, she turned to training with the throwing knives she’d gotten for her sixteenth birthday from Link. She was less proficient with them, and she wanted the same level as the bow. She still hit the targets painted on the slats of wood, but they weren’t very well thrown or hit the bull’s eye. She trained until the sun was nearly set, and hurried to re-dress herself and get back to the castle before dark. She knew she’d be in trouble if she disappeared for too long without an explanation, and she didn’t want to be trailed by a castle guard again.

Link was bad enough without the presence of another guard.

She snuck back in as the sun set, and was back in the castle’s halls before she knew it. She was approached by a page, the same as the one who had come into her study earlier. He escorted her back to her chambers, where she bathed early for the night, and dressed in an evening gown for dinner. She sat at her mirror and brushed her hair, contemplating her hairstyle for the evening.

A soft knock came from her door, and she called for them to come in. Her father entered, shutting the door behind him. He stood by her bed as she set her brush down.

“Zelda,” He began, “ I am sorry for my dismissal earlier. I know I was short with you, and I was not thinking correctly while addressing you as my daughter.”

She nearly said something, but forgot it when he spoke again.

“I still believe that you are not of age to take over your duties as princess-”

Enough.

She stood abruptly, and snapped, “I know! I know you do not want me to become the princess of Hyrule yet! Damn it all, I am ready to take over! You have done this since I was fifteen and ready to take my duties as overseer to the sages! I have been taught the same things over and over since I was eleven, and you have not truly thought of me in ten. YEARS. I wish I could have seen what made you hold me in place for so long I cannot write a word without it being reported to you by a guard! I have had ENOUGH of your stupid rules that became obsolete years ago! Let me use all this useless knowledge for something other than a test that never means anything other than wasted paper and time!”

Her father tried to speak as she stopped to take ragged breaths.

“Zelda, I-”

“No! No, you will not protest, because you know I am right.”

“Zelda-”

“Get out!”

“ZELDA!”

He roared with all his might as king. She didn’t shrink as he seemed to grow beyond his skin, blocking half the room.

“Zelda Donna Bell Hyrule the Fifth, you will not disobey me. You are not ready to take on your duties yet, and I will see to it that you stop that sneaking out habit you have grown over the years. No more!”

With that, he stormed out.

She had enough. Zelda started packing her things as soon as he was out of her quarters, ensuring that she had supplies to last her a few days of travel if need be. She pulled her spare maid’s tunic-dress and trousers out from the loose floorboard beneath her bed and got re-dressed in it. The less magic used, the better. Good thing she brought the pin that made her the smith’s daughter instead of the princess.

The halls were quiet as she left, using as much of her knowledge as she could to avoid the castle guards and the servants that wandered the halls. She left by the side gate of the castle, and exited Castle Town through the east gate, going around to the cove of trees she was earlier. She knew the way to the smith’s by heart, and easily slipped in the back door. She could hear dinner being made in the kitchen, and set her bag down by the door.

All sound from the kitchen stopped as Link’s head popped around the corner. His eyes were forest-green.

“Zelda?”

The uproar in castle town was heard for miles in every direction. The Princess, missing! How awful, she must’ve been kidnapped! There’s nowhere she could have gone alone, right?

Dot smiled when she heard of it, and faked sympathy to the princess, yes, she must be in such distress, I hope she gets home safe.

She’d been staying at Smith's for a few weeks now, training the days away and helping in the shop. If asked, she’d say her mother had taken a job elsewhere and she had wanted to stay with him instead. It helped, to have no one owe her for her very presence in the room. It was nice in a way she hadn’t had since she could remember.

Link was such a big help in getting her settled for a while. He knew better than to ask when she’d be going back, but he was alway asking why. Why she’d left in the first place, and why she’d left so close to Din’s Festival, when she’d be needed day- of?

She declined to answer, knowing she’d spill soon enough. She always did.

And spill she did, one summer evening the day before Din’s Festival was set to start. She sat on the thatched roof, Link sprawled out beside her. The stars were out, and a half-moon stared at them from behind wispy clouds. All was quiet save for the sounds of nighttime, cicadas and crickets and frogs making a cacophony of noise. Dot sighed, bringing her knees to her chest.

“Dot?”

“Yeah?”

“Why?” Why did you leave?

“We fought. Father and I. He still thinks I am the little kid I was before Mother died. He tried to apologise, and messed it up with formalities like always. I- I snapped at him, and told him what I had been thinking. He tried to forbid me from leaving the castle. I left before he realized I would leave and, and not come back.”

There was that summer silence again, now heavy on their shoulders.

No one spoke when they went in for the night.

Din’s Festival was grand as usual, red and gold banners strung up along every available space and lanterns hung from windows and doors. Everyone was dressed in their festival clothes, and the streets were a sea of reds and golds of every shade. Stalls sold midsummer fruits and hawkers strode back and forth with the latest goods high in their voices. Music was playing somewhere, drums and the distant sound of a flute.

Dot and Link weaved their way through the crowd, ducking under elbows and around baskets. Dot pulled Link to the side, grabbing two Hydromelon slices from a street vendor and paying with ten rupees she’d grabbed from her pouch.

They made their way to the large stage in the town square, where there was a play in place of the ceremony taking place in Castle Town. It wouldn’t be done until noon on the fifth day of the Festival but it was where many of the best food and goods stalls were located, and where the most people were. The two found their way onto the roof of a nearby townhouse and ate their food while looking out at the crowd below.

There were kids running on and off the stage, playing in the wings and daring each other to climb the curtains as the stagehands tried to stop them. The parents of some of the children were nearby, some watching and talking with others.

Link finished his hydromelon and threw the rind behind the house, landing it on a windowsill in a stroke of luck. He laughed as she tried to do the same, but failed the throw and threw it onto the roof instead. She grabbed the rind and threw it at him instead, making him fall over exaggeratedly and act like he’d been stabbed in an overdramatic fashion. She nearly fell off the roof from laughter, but caught herself at the last second after grabbing onto the roof. They stayed up on the roof as noon approached, talking and watching people come and go. Eventually, one of the heralds walked up on the stage to announce the first day’s proceedings. He bellowed for attention from the crowds and began to speak.

“Hear Ye, Hear Ye! His Majesty The King Has Decreed The Festival Of Din Officially Open For The Twenty- Fifth Year Of His Lady Hylia’s Blessing Upon His Reign! May He Live Long To Rule!”

A cheer rose up from the crowd beneath the stage, and preparations began for the night’s festivities. Link stood from his place on the roof and began to climb down, leaping from ledge to ledge and finally landing in a heap of clothes from a line he’d gotten tangled in on the way down. Dot laughed and climbed down after him, landing next to him with far more grace than he had. Link untangled himself from the various articles of clothing and stumbled out of the alley after her.

They made their way down to the stalls again, going slower to watch the festivities happening in the different parts of the town. Mock battles went down in the east part of town, false dragons and monsters of different callings went up against heroes wearing rusted scrap metal and wielding wooden swords. Dancers from all different parts of Hyrule were in the west, accompanied by drums that permeated the whole of the festival proper. In the north, performers from traveling circuses did flips and tricks for dazzled onlookers as hawkers shouted performance times and dates. The south of the town held traveling merchants selling exotic goods from the farthest reaches of Hyrule and beyond.

They stayed out till nearly midnight, taking part in the festivities until they sleepily stumbled into the side door leading to the living area and collapsed into a heap of sleepy teenager on the couch. They fell asleep like that, too tired to go upstairs and sleep in their beds.

The Castle Town clock tower struck midnight.

Up above, there was still revelry and drink for the citizens of Hyrule. Dancing feet shook the earth and loud drunken songs rang hard and loud into the warm summer night.

Down below, it was silent and dark.

Deep, deep in the catacombs, the seal began to crack.

Dot woke up on the floor.

She blearily blinked up at the ceiling. She had woken up from something. Something fearful, she could feel her heart racing even as she couldn’t remember what it was. Maybe a nightmare, though those had become rare lately.

She sat up to see Link halfway off the couch, dragging a blanket down with him. Drool soaked into his hair and trickled down his face. There was a small puddle on the floor. Ew.

There were small noises coming from the kitchen, likely Smith making breakfast and getting ready for the day. She laid back down, listening to the sounds of a post- festival town waking. The hawkers’ voices were muted in the distance, few and far between with the sounds of voices still quiet and not ready to leave home yet. There were distant sounds of cuccos coming from a neighbor’s house, and one crowed even though it was far too late in the morning.

She finally got up when Link fully fell off the couch, landing with a thunk and a sleepy grunt.

The day went by much as it did the day before. Sitting on the roof, this time a shop’s roof, and the banter of seeing who could spit hydromelon seeds the farthest off the roof or who could spot the funniest outfit down below.

The herald got onto the stage again, only to announce the beginning of the sword-fighting tournaments and the sign-ups for the rest of the day’s events. She scrambled off the roof, Link following behind her. The tournaments were in the east side of the town, farther out in the open fields normally used for cattle and sheep. There were tents pitched to the sides of the field, where there were crowds of people scattered around the entrances to see who got what place and who went next. One of the tents was for sign- ups, where Dot made a beeline to.

Inside the tent was a myriad of different booklets for sign ups, anything from jousting to log- throwing. She went straight to the archery book, where there was barely room for her to write her name. She shoved her way back to the outskirts of the crowd, ready to jump into a tree and watch from there. She found a certain multicolored boy sitting in the highest branches of the tree she chose, watching the preparations for the first rounds of fighters.

She won her round, hitting the targets dead center every time. Her competitor, a tall man with a rather unwieldy bow, was extremely unsportsmanlike at being beaten by a teenage girl.

She honestly didn’t enjoy that round. It was too easy.

The next rounds were harder, but she still easily beat her competitors. All of them were more sportsmanlike than the man before, and she began to enjoy herself more.

The targets moved this time, two people pulling ropes to move them as she aimed. She took a breath, aim for where it’ll be, and-

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

She hit the target.

Her competitor did not.

She walked in a daze to the sidelines. Her mind whirled, what was that resonating in between where did the arrows go and why didn’t I bring a waterskin.

She hadn’t realized that Link was beside her until he put a hand on her shoulder. He said something, and she couldn’t hear it over her own thoughts and the noise made by the crowd around her. She was dizzy, the world lazily spinning around her but staying still at the same time.

Dehydration. Great.

She took the waterskin offered, gulping it down until she was satisfied. She handed it back to Link, who put it back in that weird pouch of his, and stood up to get some shade and rest before her next round.

She laid down beneath a tree and dozed off.

Something was laughing. It was a dark, knowing laugh, like the ones villains did in storybooks. She couldn’t see anyone, just darkness all around. She was in a stone structure somewhere, leaning against a wall.

Someone was speaking.

“Little princess, how foolish you are. You, who sealed me away, shall pay with the destruction of your precious Hyrule, and your little hero will be gone forever should he fail at his task. The dark shall rise again, and banish all who dare to rise against it!”

Someone screamed.

Dot awoke with a shout, sitting bolt upright.

She was still under the tree, with her straw hat on the ground beside her. The crowd was still there, and the competition was on.

Still, it was strangely muted compared to earlier.

Maybe it was that strange nightmare. It lingered at the edges of her mind, poking her with its inherent urgency. There was a warning in it somewhere. Something about destruction, and gone forever. She couldn’t really remember anything else.

“Dot! DOT!”

She jumped nearly out of her skin at the shout from next to her ear. Link stood next to her, grumpy gray-violet-blue staring at her.

“You’re on soon! C’mon, get up!”

But first, the competition. She couldn’t let just anyone win, now could she?

Day three came and went with only the competition winners being announced at noon. Dot won first in the Archery competition, and got 200 rupees and a little intricately carved statue of a bow as a trophy.

The statue sat on the windowsill in her room, framed by the curtains and the more crudely carved statue of a bird Link had given her when they were younger.

Day four served as a small rest day for the two of them, sleeping in and helping clean the shop while Smith re-forged the old swords.

Dot sharpened her weapons and some of the other, newly- forged weapons that needed to be put on display.

There was a sense of foreboding in the air that night. It messed with her dreams, making them nonsensical and just odd. She tossed and turned, only getting tangled in her blankets.

Crack. Crack.

Crunch.

The play started soon, and there were more people in the square than Dot had ever seen before. People were crowded in windows, doorsteps, and on roofs.

She and Link had barely managed to get onto a roof before the crowds had begun to climb, and watched from above as the curtains moved with the breeze of people running to and fro backstage. The crowd’s chatter began to dim as the herald stepped onstage.

“Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Fifth Day Of The Festival Of Din Has Begun! His Majesty The King Has Given His Address For This Day, The Midsummer’s Zenith Of His Majesty's Lady Hylia’s Blessing Of A Pleasant Growing Season! Long May He Rule!”

The crowd repeated his last words as the herald stepped off the stage to make way for the play.

The performance was the same as one would expect from a small- town theatre group, but she felt that something was… off.

One of the actors moved oddly, like something was pulling him along instead of him doing his own actions. As she watched, the other actors began to move the same way, words clumsily tumbling out of their mouths and feet not quite hitting the ground right.

Something is wrong.

She saw Link out of the corner of her eye, looking just as confused and unsettled as she did. She caught his eye.

“You see it too?” She hissed.

“Yeah. What the hell is happening?”

“Something bad. I think.”

Just as the words left her mouth, the first actor went down. The crowd gasped, more actors collapsing to the ground, looking like puppets with their strings cut.

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Dot leapt to the ground below, barely registering Link doing the same as the last actor collapsed. It was chaos, people yelling and crowding forward to get a better look. Dot barely made it to the wings, dodging around the people there as she swiftly climbed the stage. There were more people on the stage, kneeling beside the actors and calling for doctors and medics.

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Dot felt so dizzy suddenly, and she found herself on the ground before she could blink.

What…

Then there were shouts. Closer, like whoever it was was near. A familiar blonde head appeared in her vision.

“Dot! Get up, you can’t be on the ground, you’ll be trampled!”

Trampled?

Link yanked her up, and she got to see the source of the shouting. One of the actors was up, but she was moving strangely like before, and lunging at the person nearest to her. Time seemed to move slower as another and another actor got up and began attacking.

FOUND YOU.

Time sped up again, and Dot leapt to the side as an actor lunged at her. The knife she kept in her boot glinted in her hand as another actor leapt at her. Link ducked and dodged in the corner of her vision, leading the actors on his tail to the back of the stage, away from the crowd below. She began to do the same, and led the two on her tail to the back, where Link awaited with a rope.

Two down, twelve to go.

Screams erupted from the front. Dot tore open the curtains to see more chaos, people chased by more possessed puppet- people than when she left.

Someone grabbed her arm, dragging her off the stage and into the crowd below. She couldn’t find anyone she recognised, every face blurred and indistinct in the panic. She fought her way through the crowd, trying to find a way out. She only succeeded in making herself more lost in the crowd, pulled and pushed around by numerous panicked bodies that slowly scattered into different areas of the town. Dot managed to get free for a moment, looking around her for some semblance of an idea on where she was.

An alleyway stretched in front of her, stone walls on either side. She turned, expecting to see the square behind her, but there was nothing. Only a wall to her back. Silence reigned over the scene, eerie and jarring compared to the pandemonium just before.

What?

Something clattered farther ahead, echoing down the alley. She tensed, looking for danger. Only silence met her ears.

“Now what on earth is happening…”

She continued down the long alley, keeping to the wall as more clatters came from just ahead, the source never in sight.

Something is leading me, but to where?

As she continued, the alley became darker, covered at some point. Dot conjured a minor light spell, revealing more empty alleyway. It seemed to stretch on forever, echoing with her footsteps and the strange noises leading her… somewhere.

At last, she came to a fork in the path. The clatters echoed around her, but she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

“Choose…”

She jolted, looking around for the source of the voice.

“Hello? Who said that?”

Silence once again.

She hesitated, looking around the room one last time before choosing the left fork. The path sloped down, leading her deeper into whatever labyrinth she had stumbled into. The air was cold, and she shivered as she walked further. Another turn in the path, and more hallway.

How long have I been here?

Long enough.

Her question was answered with a hissing whisper loud enough to carry down the winding hall. She wanted to freeze, wanted to turn back, but her body moved without her permission. She took sumbling steps towards whatever awaited her down there, fighting against whatever had decided to possess her like it had those people above. It felt like forever when she got to the end of the corridor.

A door faced her, made of cracked stone and carved with words she couldn’t understand. Something moved behind the cracks, sliding past the light. Scales glittered in the light from her spell, green- black and distinctly not good. Something about it told her draconic, though she’d never seen anything of the sort up close.

Princess, It purred, How lovely of you to visit me at such a time. Oh, but I have waited so long for this, to see you at my mercy instead of whatever dream drifts my way.

It laughed, a cold hissing sound that grated at her ears.

Well, I suppose it has been far too long since my last meal. What better dish to have than the same princess that sealed me here to wither away, hm? Now, about this blasted door.

It moved, slamming into the door holding it. Dot flinched away from the rubble, ducking her head. It continued to struggle against the door, sending more rocks flying across the corridor.

Wait- She could move again!

She bolted away from the door as the thing gave a screech and the hall blazed with light. She kept running, not stopping until she got to the fork again. She collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. The rumbling was distant, but she still needed to get out of the labyrinth. There was no getting out the way she came in, so she went down the right fork. The ground here stayed level, reaching out straight on from her feet. The rumbling got softer the longer she walked, but she had a creeping feeling that wasn’t a good thing.

She kept moving, not knowing where she was going except for away. Her feet ached, and the scrapes she had stung. She wanted rest, and to figure out where she was. She finally sank down against a wall, tired and worn from all that had happened within the span of… an hour? Two? Time seemed to disappear down here, sliding by her fingers as soon as she tried to grasp it.

She got up after a bit, continuing down the passage. It had become winding, turning back on itself and looping unpredictably. Forks faced her at random, forcing her to pick whether she wanted to go up, down, or sideways. She wandered and walked, tired and thirsty. There was seemingly no end to the tunnels, and no way out that she could find. Was she doomed to wander down here for eternity? Was this a punishment? For what?

She looked back down the long passage to see… light? Blue light emanated from somewhere down the curve of the wall, lighting her way without the need of the slowly fading light spell. She crept forward, wary of whatever was down there. She peeked around to see a swirling portal, blue and bright against the damp stone around it. It made a low, quiet hum just barely audible in the quiet dead end. She crept closer, feeling wind pull gently at her hair and clothes.

Strange…

Before she could investigate further, something moved in the tunnel behind her. She jerked, stumbling just in front of the portal as it reflected something looking back at her from behind. It was huge, some demented draconic form made from human and cloth, surrounded with drooping scales that reflected the blue light shining from the portal, now the sole light source. A human face stared out from the end, covered over with translucent scales and staring with sightless, lidless eyes. A gaping mouth showed hundreds of rotted teeth, blunt and broken from disuse and neglect. A hollow scraping sound emanated from the dark corridor beyond, and it wasn’t hard to imagine more of its body beyond, slithering to join its head.

She was frozen in fear, watching it come closer and closer. It opened its mouth wider and wider, showing more rows of teeth behind the first few, all the way down its throat. It reeked of rot and mildew, choking her with the stench. She hadn’t known she was leaning forward, away from the monster coming closer, until her nose almost touched the swirling surface of the portal. She backed up, stumbling over a stone and coming face to face with the creature itself. It was worse up close, every detail staring her in the face. She shrieked, rolling away from it as it struck at the place she had been moments before. It shook its head as it reared up for another strike, hissing angrily.

She stumbled toward the only exit she could find- the portal. The beast’s reflection was large and close behind hers, only interrupted by the swirls that made up its surface. She dove through the portal just as the thing struck, tumbling into the darkness that consumed her.

She felt the familiar touch of grass and brush as she drifted away to the strong reaches of sleep. Then nothing more.

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