Shades of Blue

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This...is wrong...something...is...wrong...

Have to...keep...awake...have to...

Didn't...we promise...to find each other...

So...tired...I'm...sorry...I'm sorry...

Trying...I'm trying to...remember...

I'll...find you...I promise...I'll...

Link awoke with a shout to the sight of the sun coming up from the horizon, Hyrule lit aflame in an orange glow. Epona jolted at his sudden movement, looking back at him with a nervous whinny. He had no idea how he had fallen asleep—or where he was—or what was happening. But the thoughts were still swirling around his mind, tumbling over each other in nervous jumblings, all surrounding the mess of remembrances from years ago.

He had to find him, he had to go now, had to—

Without even realizing it, he had turned Epona on the path, back toward Rito Village, miles and miles the other way. He jolted as he noticed, pulling her to a jerking halt and staring at his hands as if they had betrayed him.

No—Impa. He had to get to Impa. That was it. Not...not Revali. Impa first. Then...

Hands shaking, thoughts dissipating with every gust of wind, mind a million miles away, he took a weak hold of Epona's reins once again and nudged her forward from where she had stopped, back toward Kakariko. He wiped at his eyes blearily, trying not to think about anything and only watching the path as it curved deeper into the mountains. Every piece of him that remained was begging to turn around, to stop for just a moment, to sink to the ground and fall into nothingness once more, to rest for once, just once—but he couldn't. He couldn't stop. He couldn't return to the world he had left behind.

He had to keep going. There was no other choice. There had never really been any other choice.

The sounds of the nearby village began to fade in, and Link tried to stay awake, tried to center himself on something, anything that was happening now. As he passed under the arch of the village, dropped from the saddle and left Epona to search for apples, he tried to ignore the emptiness in his mind, the distance he felt from his own eyes, the obscene effort it took just to walk into the village. People passed him by, but he barely noticed them, barely recognized they were there until they were jostling past him in the hurry of their own lives.

Just make it to Impa. He only had to make it to Impa. Then...he could...sleep...and...

******

Kakariko Village sat nestled amongst a set of very strange, misshapen mountains, covered in thick grass and moss. At one end of the village, there was a massive set of waterfalls stemming from the river at the peak of the village's domain. From there, the village sprawled outward in a lackadaisical pattern of dark wooden buildings and small farms. The village center held a thriving marketplace, a disused inn, and a statue of the Goddess resting amongst several torches that were kept lit constantly. Villagers wandered the well worn paths through the village, talking quietly to each other with a familiarity few could still experience in the desolate lands that sat elsewhere in Hyrule. The sun rose on the village as it had every day for the past hundred years, dragging adults and children into their daily routines.

None of them paid much mind to the strange traveler weaving his way dazedly through the village. Travelers were expected in Kakariko. Being one of the only surviving villages, the Sheikah homestead had quickly grown accustomed to its role as a wayward point for the lost. So initially, they didn't mind this strange young man's presence. In fact, the majority of them did not notice him at all.