[center][h2][color=blue]Hyrule[/color] [color=darkgreen]Warriors[/color][/h2][/center]

[center][color=blue][b] Level 1[/b][/color] - (0/10) + 3[/center]
[center][color=darkgreen][b] Level 7[/b][/color] - (53/70) + 3[/center]

[center][b]Location:[/b] The Land of Adventure ~ Spiral Mountain
[b]Word Count: 1,885 [/b]

[/center]
[@Lugubrious][@Dawnrider][@DracoLunaris]
[hr]

Everything hurt. A boundless darkness stretched out before him in all directions, beckoning him to tumble into it and just sleep. Somewhere far in the distance he could hear the faint reverberation of sounds. Boots scuffing on wood, the sharp cutting noises of lasers lancing through the air, grunts of pain. He tried to move, but it was useless. Cold flowed down his back and into his muscles, mingling with an exhaustion that made his limbs about as useful as a un-strung puppet. He thought back, back to the last things he could remember. The cliff, the hands, standing side by side with all those warriors, light. Light more terrible and radiant than anything he’d ever seen bearing mercilessly down in him. 

Was that it? Was he dying? Again? Were these sounds he was hearing the last gasps of that terrible battle?

In a short time, though, even the sounds died away. Everything got quiet. Or maybe, like last time, he had simply fallen too far away to hear anything. Then, cutting through the dark...

[sub][i]...his is lin...?[/i][/sub]

A voice. The barest outline of a sentence. Was someone calling his name?

It was only a moment later that he felt something flooding into his body that chased the pair and weariness from his body leaving only, strangely enough, the cold wetness on his back.

[sub][i]...mate...om the party...uy version of Link...?[/i][/sub]

He was sure this time, someone was definitely talking to him.

[sub][i]...open your eyes...[/i][/sub]

With a sinking feeling he realized that this was all dreadfully familiar.

[i]"Wake up!"[/i]

[hr]

Light flooded Link’s eyes as they opened with a start. He felt strangely refreshed, as though he'd just awoken from a long and dreamless rest. It was a feeling he'd only had once before, when Princess Zelda's voice had reached out to him and guided him up from the well of sleep. It had been calming, gentle, like the cooing of a bird on your windowsill greeting the morning. 
This girl's technique was more brute force, but nonetheless effective. She had just pinched both his cheeks and pulled until you could get a good look at his gums. 

She pulled back when she noticed his eyes were open, letting his face snap back into its proper shape. “Welcome back.” She said as he sat up off the...he looked over his shoulder and saw that he’d been leaned up against a small wall of ice. That explained the cold, and why his back was wet. At least he wasn’t naked this time. He turned back to face the girl, who was now sitting on her legs just watching him curiously. She was Hylian for sure, he could tell by the ears poking out from a mop between the cascades of her hair. More than that, if he looked past the strange mismatched outfit and the ears placed neatly on her head, there was a certain familiarity about her face that reminded him of the one he saw whenever he looked down into the clear still water of a lake. It was the same kind of vibe he had gotten from a few of the boys present at the cliff. If you didn’t know any better you could mistake them for relatives of his.

“It’s like looking in a mirror.” She said, leaning closer in fascination. He wouldn't go quite that far, no matter how good he looked in Gerudo garb. “I’m Linkle. I bet you have a lot of questions, but I’m not sure we have all that much time right now. Do you think you could help us kill a monster?”

He blinked at her a few times, then grabbed a hold of the top of the iced over ropes of the bridge to pull himself up and get a look around. The landscape was unfamiliar with its giant tower, the bigger stone head that had been ruined, and the even bigger blob of disquieting darkness that loomed over the canyon. The people hanging around were unfamiliar, at least most of them, with many being creatures he had never seen before. He had no clue how he’d gotten up on this rickety bridge, how he’d gotten so injured, nor the circumstances of his revival and now he was being asked to throw himself into danger in a world he didn’t know.  

“Sure.” He said, smiling nostalgically.

“Awesome!” Linkle shouted, bouncing up. “Follow me.” She said, having spotted where the heroes were gathering in the tower and heading toward it. That bounce never left Linkle's step as he followed along behind at a more casual pace along the bridge. Occasionally she’d throw glances backwards at him, and whenever she did she would speed up a little from the excitement. Like a little kid, excited to show you something but unsure if you’ll still really be there when you check. It occurred to Link at that moment that he had no idea whether or not he had been an only child.

“Hey.” He called forward, causing her to stop on the spot and spin round. “Am I your great uncle?”

She considered that for a moment, then her face lit up like the sun. “Maybe.” She replied eagerly, before turning and proceeding at double speed. 

Link just scratched his head before shrugging it off. He’d learned a while ago that if you just went with it eventually things stopped being confusing.

[hr]

There was never enough time, Linkle thought. She’d met two whole other Heroes, seen a quartet more, but there was never a moment where she could really talk to any of them. Adventure always called, there was always something she had to do. She looked back again, just to make sure he hadn’t fallen over the side or been eaten by a giant bird or something. Nope, good, still there. She was planning to keep it that way. 

She waved back at Tora as she passed him, happy to see he wasn’t all that damp from his dip in the moat, and chuckled at the confusion on his face as Link also waved at him. She shut up though as the Princess started to hold court, only to look as surprised as Tora had when The Princess greeted Link as though she knew him. It took Link a moment before recognition filled his eyes, and he bowed his head respectfully at her address before he started looking around the room, taking careful stock of all the participants in this monster slaying endeavor. 

Peach then brought out the Spirits. Tora started to suggest...something, but Poppi almost immediately intervened violently to veto the idea and drag him off. Linkle didn’t know what that was all about. It was perfectly reasonable to think about what happened to a guy if he took a lady spirit. He was wrong about becoming giant making him less cute, though. How could he be less cute if there was more of him?

As she pondered this question and imagined a Tora the size of King Dodongo rampaging around Hyrule Field she missed first pick on the spirits. Donnovan picked one out and left without a word whereas Kamek greedily took on two, a process that Link watched with great interest. Linkle stepped forward, hoping someone hadn’t gotten the one she’d taken an interest in. Thankfully, the lady with the giant crossbow was still there. 

“Hello.” She said, holding the mote of light up to her face as Link looked over her shoulder.

“There’s a person in there.” He said, curiously.

“Yeah, one of the people we just fought. The hand brainwashed them and made them try to kill us, so we didn’t really have any choice.” she answered.

He nodded at this, as though the idea of The Hand wasn’t at all strange to him. It made Linkle wonder what he had seen in his adventures all the more. “What do you do now?”

“Oh right, this is really important!” She said loudly enough for anybody nearby to hear. “I either put her in my head to take her skills, put her in my heart and take her powers, make friends with her so I can summon her, or crush her to make her into an item.”

He nodded again, before turning to look at where Tora was nursing his sword wound and frowning. He returned his contemplative gaze to the spirit. “Could you do one that lets you summon her?”

“Sure! I was going to do that anyway, it’s the only one I haven't tried yet.” She replied, turning back to the spirit. “I’m Linkle. I see you’re a fan of crossbows. I like crossbows too.” She lifted up her own crossbow, turning it to different angels to show it off to the spirit. “But mine only work from really close up, so I can’t really handle anything if it’s far away. I mean…,” Linkle lowered her voice to an embarrassed whisper and leaned in, “...you saw how it was back there. You must have. I couldn't do anything to you guys. Please, help me out?”

The spirit was still for a moment, then with what seemed like a cosmic sigh the image of the one eyed sniper flowed out of the rainbow mote and stepped confidently into Linkle. She wiggled her fingers where the spirit had once sat, rolled her shoulders, swiveled her hips a little. After the two previous times it felt strange how nothing felt strange. She didn’t even feel more full, which surprised her considering there was now a whole other person in there with her.

Linkle wasted no time. “Okay, now come back out!” She ordered, and in what seemed like a spectral cloud of smoke the sniper they had just finished fighting appeared before the group again, right in front of Linkle. She appraised the would-be hero in front of her, and signed.

“You shouldn't waste my energy like this, love. We’re still deep in enemy territory.” She said, a gentle admonishment that chilled the girls enthusiasm slightly.

“Oh yeah, you guys need to recharge.” Linkle said, donking herself on the head. “Sorry. I just wanted to ask you your name.”

The sniper’s single eye widened momentarily in surprise, before a slight smile graced her lips. “Imani.” She replied, before fading away. 


[center][hider=Linkle Acquired]

[center][b]Imani [/b][/center]

A seasoned warrior from the world of Gigantic. As a striker she offers a useful variety of assists to her host, his appearances fleeting but effective. In order of effort required and length of cooldown needed, can release a volley of normal shots, charge a sniper shot, release a volley of burning shots, lob a smoke bomb that stealths allies and weakens enemies, and queue up three fully-charged sniper shots
[/hider][/center]


“Nice to meet you, Imani.” Linkle said, before turning to Link. “Cool, right?” Link, however, wasn’t there. She turned in a little circle to see him approaching Fox, Bowser, and Peach. “He didn’t even hang around to meet her.” She said, disappointed. Oh well, like she was thinking earlier, she had things to do anyway. She’d left the girls to back up Euden in case he needed it when she’d booked it up here, so she had to make sure everyone was okay.

[hr]

Link, from what he had gathered through looking around and listening to Peach, thought he had a pretty good idea of why he’d been so roughed up. Before that, though, there was a question burning in his mind that had been called up by the familiar faces in this group. 

“Fox, Your Majesties.” He said, relief naked in his voice. “It’s good to see you all made it out in one piece. Do you know anything about the others? That monster got me first, I didn’t see what happened to anybody else.”