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Published:
2025-09-30
Updated:
2025-10-17
Words:
3,770
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18/33
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Kudos:
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Wandering

Summary:

After the end of everything, Link isn't the same person who left Ordon village to find his friends.

[Or, Link's journal in the months after the end of Twilight Princess.]

[For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition.]

Notes:

Dating System notes:
The important event for year 0 of the calendar Link uses is the ending of Hyrule's Unification War (That One Awful Civil War before Ocarina of Time). From what I can tell, this should have been about 110ish years before Twilight Princess.

Dates will be listed as Day-Month-Year.

Example— Date: 19-10-27

This would read as 19th Day of the 10th Month in the 27th year of a Unified Hyrule.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Gone

Summary:

Link remembers a conversation and makes a choice.

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, pre-prompts chapter.

Notes:

This has been a experimental project that I have had fun with and learned a lot from. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Text

"Do all of your scholars write like him?"

The distinct cadence of Midna's voice twinkled from where the setting sun pressed Link’s shadow against Epona's flank.

"Huh?" He offered elegantly in return, tilting his head towards her.

"The guy with the glasses. Shab? Shal?"

"Shad."

"Yeah, him. He's considered a scholar of some sort, right?"

"I think so? He's educated, that I know for sure." Link offered with a shrug.

"…well, do all of your Light World scholars write like him?"

"I honestly don't know Midna, Ordon isn't exactly known for offering high-end education. Why do you ask, anyway?"

There was a pause, one long enough that Link wondered if the imp had decided to fully slink back into his shadow.

"I really don't like the way he writes. It's dry, too blunt, and incredibly boring."

"…alright, but isn't that how that sort of stuff is meant to be written?"

He could almost feel Midna’s eyeroll for how dramatic she was."Oh of course not, scholars can be informative and artistic. I know because I've seen it firsthand."

"Oh, is that a fact?"

"Absolutely! Take, for example, my favorite Twili writer, Scholar Nacht. She'd start every entry with a poem, a tiny little thing, about whatever subject she was discussing before actually going into her findings or opinions about it. She even went so far as to write her journals like that later in life. I loved reading her work."

"Poems? Not to rain on something you like but, what's special about that?

The scoff from Midna almost sounded actually offended. Almost.

"It was the formatting she used that I found so impressive. Three lines, seventeen syllables in total, five in the first and last, seven in the middle."

"Doesn't that just make it harder to say what you want to say?"

"Not for Scholar Nacht, she knew how to make use of every single syllable available to her."

"Huh, sounds like an incredible lady."

"She really wa—”

Link awoke with a start as his head dropped from where it was propped up by his hand, the sharp jerk shaking the table. He blinked several times, hard, trying to clear the fog from his mind, the tendrils of a memory made dream clinging to him like vines. His home was still dark, the beginnings of daybreak not yet even coloring the horizon outside his small windows when he leaned to check.

This was the third time in as many nights that he'd dreamed about what he once thought was a throwaway conversation with the Princess of Twilight. Now, a month After everything was said and done, Link found his mind clinging to memories he hadn't thought important before. There were a lot of things from his time away from Ordon that he found sowed into him in unexpected ways, if he was honest with himself. 

He noticed it in habits he was certain weren’t part of him before the Shadow invasion.

Like how his eyes now instinctively found every exit upon entering any given room. Or how even a small spike of adrenaline sent his dominant hand reaching for a sword that was no longer strapped to his back.

Like how some smells, sounds, and even tastes sent waves of fear through his body deep enough to make him nauseous. Or how he found it nearly impossible to tear his attention away from the sky during the time between sunset and total nightfall each day.

Like how he made the people he loved noticeably nervous when around him. Or how it felt like pulling teeth getting himself out of his home to socialize, even when it came to Illia. Just yesterday, he’d snapped at his long time friend, when all she had done was ask if he was doing alright. 

It put him off-center, not knowing what to expect out of himself from moment to moment. What felt even worse was knowing people he cared for could be on the wrong end of his shifting moods for simply doing things as they would have done before the Invasion. It wasn't their fault Link came back home like this, yet they would be the ones who would have to shoulder the burden of him and his new, confusing quirks. How fair was that to them?

He sighed loudly, the noise sounding miserable even to his own ears, as he ran his hands through his hair, ruffling it up. He leaned back in his kitchen table’s single chair, doing his best to peer through the windows near the front door. From what he could see, the sky was still a deep dark, not yet touched by the colors of early morning light. Sighing again, less miserably this time, Link crossed his arms and turned his eyes to the ceiling, his right leg bouncing with an uncomfortable energy he couldn't shake.

If he had been honest with Illia, he would have told her that no, he wasn't alright. He wasn’t alright at all.

But what would he even say? How would he explain what wasn't alright about him? He wasn't sure he even had the proper words to describe the cold, distant ache that had planted itself behind his ribcage ever since the Mirror of Twilight shattered. The first hours After everything came to an end, he thought it was some sort of shock, a physical phenomenon over the suddenness of everything just. 

Just ending. 

When the feeling remained days, weeks, even a full month later, Link found himself further unsure of what to make of the sensation. How was he supposed to describe something he didn’t even fully understand the shape of? Was this normal or more Chosen by the Goddesses nonsense? What was he even meant to do with himself now?

His leg continued to bounce without his say so, uncomfortable energy still coursing through him like a painful itch under his skin.

Slapping his hands against the kitchen table as a sudden, bone deep irritation grabbed him, Link pushed himself up from the chair, having come to a decision. He needed to leave Ordon. He needed to leave Ordon now.

With speed he had garnered from months of fighting, Link quickly pulled together what he thought he might need from his basement. A travel pack, his still mostly filled wallet, a sleep roll, dry provisions, a lantern, two changes of clothes and the small travel journal set he’d won for being Malomart’s 100th customer.

Once he was satisfied that he hadn't missed anything he would need, Link made the climb back up the ladder to the main room of his home. Looking over the dark room one last time, he frowned and silently bemoaned the fact that someone would probably go through the trouble of cleaning up the pile of laundry he had let accumulate along the floor. At least they wouldn't have to worry about his food stores, he hadn't filled them much since his return.

Carefully, as to not damage the small journal, Link tore a page from it, quick to write a note before leaving his home in Ordon once more. What he wrote was short, simple, and read:

10-10-111

I can't stay here in Ordon. I don't have the right words to explain anything, but I need to leave. 

I'll be back as soon as I can.

I'm sorry.

-Link

By the time anyone would read the note or even so much as wonder where he was, Link would be long gone from his home.

Chapter 2: why

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 1 "Despair".

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of hawk grass on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper right corner, sketch is beneath the haiku, the journal entry fills the remainder of page.

Haiku reads:

Goodbyes leave their mark

'See you later'? Agony.

Why did you do that?

Journal entry reads:

Date: 11-10-111

I left Ordon last night.

I made sure to put a note on my kitchen table for whoever stops by to check on me when I'm late for morning chores. It felt wrong, being there. I've tried my best to slide back into the space I left when I went away but I just…I just don't fit anymore.

I have edges that catch on things, scratch people, rub them wrong, make them scared.

No one has said as much but I can still tell.

I can see how some of the villagers get nervous around me now. I can see they're looking for someone who just isn't there anymore and I can't bear it.

So, I left.

I hope no one hates me for it too much.]

Chapter 3: silence

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 2 "Secret"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of wild thistle on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper right corner, sketch is to left hand side, journal entry fills remainder of page.

Haiku reads:

The things I witnessed

Stay locked within me, like a

cipher, without key.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 14-10-111

I've found it hard to speak since…

Well, probably since the Mirror of Twilight was shattered. I managed alright in Ordon these past weeks, but honestly that's because folks at home were more patient with me than maybe they should be.

Someone tried to ask me for directions while on the road, but I couldn't answer him. I wanted to, the words just…didn't happen. When did something as simple as answering a friendly stranger's question become all but impossible for me? 

When did I become so truly broken?]

Chapter 4: scarred

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 3 "Ganon/Ganondorf"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of wild carrot/Queen Zelda's Lace blooms on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper left corner, sketch along the right edge, journal entry fills remainder of page.

Haiku reads:

A spot on a field,

Charred, scarred, battle-worn and torn,

I hope it will heal.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 15-10-111

The area where Princess Zelda and I fought against Ganondorf is still clear as day to me, even from a distance. It's not as damaged as it was just after the clash though, that brings me some relief.

The grass is no longer completely crushed from hooves and footfall. The spots that caught fire are beginning to grow anew.

It's there though, like a wound that still needs healing.]

Chapter 5: sense

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 4 "Haunted"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of Poe Fire on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper left corner, sketch in bottom right corner, journal entry fills remainder of page.

Haiku reads:

Lonely ball of light,

Dancing through the dark distance,

Your soul needs its rest.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 16-10-111

There are a few things that I haven't lost from being a divinely blessed beast. One of them is being able to sense the dead.

It's not nearly as clear as it was in that other shape, kind of like trying to make out all the details of a fish while it’s in the water. From what I can sense there are just…these little balls of fire?

I can only ever make that much detail out of the corner of my eye, so I might not be seeing it right.

I don't know why it comes as a surprise to me that Hyrule has its restless dead, even if it isn't being invaded by something otherworldly anymore.]

Chapter 6: greenery

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 5 "Trees".

Chapter Text

[A sketch of Hyrule field on parchment, view is leading away from the Faron region and towards Castle Town.

The style is somewhat messy, but captures a path that cuts through trees and winds behind rock formations.]

Chapter 7: birds

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 6 "Oocca".

Chapter Text

[Three sketches of different avians on parchment.

In the upper left corner is a bird labeled 'Faron Songbird'.

In the upper right corner is a bird labeled 'Hylian Finch'.

Remainder of page is filled with Ooccoo Jr., a being consisting of a child's head with feathered wings instead of ears.]

Chapter 8: linger

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 7 "Undead"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A journal entry and haiku on parchment, seemingly written in haste. 

The words have been furiously scratched out, but can still be read. Two dark circles have been drawn in both the upper left and bottom right corners of the parchment. The page as a whole has been scribbled over, as if the writer did not want to look at what was there anymore.

Journal entry reads:

cant think cant think cant

think cant think cant think cant think

cant think cant think cant c

I hate nightmares.

Maybe that's a dumb thing to write because who enjoys a nightmare?]

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of a ruined feather on parchment paper.

Ink from the previous entry bleeds through faintly, leaving slight shadows in the bottom left and upper right corners of the page.

The haiku is in upper left corner, sketch along the bottom of the page, journal entry fills the remainder of the space available.

The date has been noted wrong at first, crossed out, and then written correctly underneath.

Haiku reads:

I can still hear it,

Scream so piercing it roots you

And does not let go.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 27

Date: 29-10-111

I had to clear my head for a bit after that dream.

I don't know how many people can say they've heard what a Redead scream sounds like and lived to tell the tale. It's like ice stabbing into you through your ears, ice that melts just enough to flow into your veins and completely freeze you. The sound alone lingers for a long, long time afterwards.

Forget everything else. Forget the way the things move like stuttering puppets that reek of musty rot.

If I never have to fight an undead thing again, it will be too soon.]

Chapter 9: crawling

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 8 "Bugs".

Chapter Text

[Image description: A undated journal entry on parchment paper, the first two lines crossed out, but legible.

Agitated looking scribbles frame the journal entry, eventually forming a pattern reminiscent of crawling bugs.

Journal entry reads:

How do I

I hate this I hate this I hate this I can't stand this

It feels like I have bugs crawling under my skin, sometimes.

I wake up with this…this energy that makes me feel like I can't stop moving until it's spent. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Makes my heart race.

Makes it hard to think.

Makes me feel awful.

Why is this even happening?

What in the ever Goddess-loving world is wrong with me?]

Chapter 10: sealed

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 9 "Malice"

Chapter Text

[Image description: Two haikus, a dated journal entry, and a sketch of the Death Sword on parchment paper. A crossed out haiku is in the upper right corner, sketch is beneath and continues down the right hand side of the page, cut through by the journal entry's words. A untampered haiku is written towards the middle left of the page, the journal entry follows beneath it.

Crossed-out haiku reads:

it only wanted

to kill me that was the goal

it wanted me dead

Untampered haiku reads:

Demon blade, tethered

No, sealed. Anchored. Made inert.

Rage rolled from its edge.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 02-11-111

As odd as it may sound, Ganondorf wasn't the thing that scared me the most in my travels. He was terrifying, don't get me wrong. But he was ultimately just like myself; mortal, alive, knowable.

The sword sealed in Arbiter’s Ground…whatever possessed that thing wasn't of this world. It didn't even feel of the Twilight Realm, having been there and seen some of its most cursed magical artifacts at work.

I have no idea where such a thing could have been birthed from. I honestly have no desire to ever learn.]

Chapter 11: rage

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 10 "Depths".

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku and a dated journal entry on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper left corner, the journal entry fills the remainder of page.

There are small smudges of what appears to be blood throughout the entry.

Haiku reads:

Painful, sickening,

A festering boil, ready

To completely rot

Journal entry reads:

05-11-111

I hurt my hands today, enough that I had to bandage my knuckles up. I just.

I got so angry out of nowhere. I don't understand why, one moment I was calm, enjoying nature...the next I feel like I have lava clawing up my spine into my head, demanding to be let out. I ended up taking it out on a tree but…

I had no idea something like that was even lurking in the depths of me.

It makes me wonder if a bit of something hasn't gone rotten, somewhere in my soul.

I feel like it must have, for me to be so angry out of nowhere.]

Chapter 12: bristle

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 11 "Sharp Teeth"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of a seeding dandelion and its underground roots on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper left corner, the sketch is along the bottom portion of page, the journal entry fills the remainder of the available space.

Haiku reads:

Indiscriminate

Where seeds of fear will be sowed

They bloom within me.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 05-11-111

…I don't know what to make of what happened earlier tonight.

I had to pass through Kakariko and someone bumped into me. They were clumsy with drink by the smell of it; my point is it was an honest mistake and I knew it.

But I growled at them. Instinctively, like some sort of bristling animal. It was…it was really embarrassing because I don't know how to explain why I have an instinct like that to someone.

'Oh, sorry about that, I spent about nine months changing my form to that of a wolf, you understand how it is.'

Even writing it down sounds impossible, and I lived it.]

Chapter 13: dried

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 12 "Carnivorous Plant".

Chapter Text



[A undated journaled entry and a sketch of a dead Deku Baba plant on parchment.

The Deku Baba's leaves curl upwards towards the stem, its head hangs low, it's tongue falling from a limp mouth. This is a plant without any life left in it.

Journal entry reads:

Found a dried up Deku Baba.

I've never seen one like this before, it's just like the herbs Uli hangs every year in the rafters.

I didn't know these could die like a normal plant.]

Chapter 14: foundations

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 13 "Bones"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of a rib grass plant on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper right corner, the sketch is along the right side of the page, the journal entry fills the remainder of the available space.

Haiku reads:

How many bones lay

Under the well trodden roads

Of places I love

Journal entry reads:

Date: 08-11-111

I never used to wonder about things like genocide. I do now, at night, often. It’s one of the many things that keeps me up. If it’s not dreams waking me up, it’s thoughts keeping me up. What a mess.

I have to wonder though, how many times over Hyrule's incredibly long history has it seen a people wiped from its face?

Like Midna and h

Like the Twili.

Like the people Ganondorf came from.

Those are just the ones I know of. I have to hope those are the only ones, but wouldn't that just make me naive? This country is so old. Old and with a bloody history.

There's bound to be things forgotten by time, even if they shouldn’t have been.]

Chapter 15: lens

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 14 "Bottom of the Well".

Chapter Text

[Image description: A dated journal entry and a sketch of a treasure hunting job posting on parchment paper. The sketch is along the bottom portion of page and the journal entry fills the remainder of the available space.

Journal entry reads:

Date: 10-11-111

I saw the strangest job bulletin posted by the Bridge of Eldin today. Someone calling themselves The Happy Mask Salesman is trying to find "a treasure in every sense of the word: a lens that reveals the truth when peered through it". I sketched what the job posting looked like, it was too different not to.

Whoever they are, I hope they find what they're looking for.]

Chapter 16: instinct

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 15 "Sunken".

Chapter Text

[Image description: A undated journal entry on parchment paper. Water of some sort has made smudges on the page and distorted some of the words.

Journal entry reads:

I don't understand. I don't understand why I…

Why I got so scared. I was just taking a quick rinse, refilling my water skin, washing my face off…

I got a little water up my nose and it terrified me. Just a tiny bit where it shouldn't be and I nearly lost it. I hadn't felt that sort of fear with water since nearly drowning in the Lakebed temple.

But…who gets afraid of water going up their nose? What normal person remembers nearly drowning from just cleaning their face?

I feel stupid. So incredibly stupid.]

Chapter 17: regret

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 16 "Dead Hand"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of a howling stone on parchment paper. The hole of the howling stone has what appears to be the shadow of a wolf sitting within it.

Haiku is in upper left corner, the sketch is along the right side of the page, the journal entry fills the remainder of the available space.

Haiku reads:

Ancestral Shadow

Regrets that would not stay dead,

Is that my fate, too?

Journal entry reads:

Date: 13-11-111

Who was the Shade, really?

It…he was a skilled fighter, that was always very clear to me. But he also spoke as if there was some familiar path I was taking, footsteps I was following that he recognized. It felt so weird.

He called me "my child", at the very end.

Did I simply remind him of a long-dead son? Was it something more? I have no way of ever knowing, now.]

Chapter 18: cycles

Summary:

For Linktober 2025 Shadow Edition, Day 17 "Sinister"

Chapter Text

[Image description: A haiku, dated journal entry, and sketch of a dandelion plant on parchment paper. Haiku is in upper right corner, the sketch is along the left side of the page, the journal entry fills the remainder of the available space.

Haiku reads:

A Hero called for

In a time long before me.

But why? Why the need?

Journal entry reads:

Date: 15-11-111

A new thought has kept me up the last few nights.

I rose as a Hero to meet the forces of the Shadow Invasion. The Shade said he had accepted the life of a Hero too.

I have to wonder…is some poor kid a hundred years from now going to have something just as bad thrust upon them? A new Invasion to defeat? A different evil incarnate to smite? More darkness to quell? Another mess to clean up?

Is that just the way of things, to hone a weapon out of someone who doesn't know any better? Who doesn't even know to ask why?

Maybe the lack of sleep is getting to me, that last line was rather bitter. Maybe I just don't want someone else to go through what I did.

I don't really know anymore.]

Notes:

If you'd like to scream at me come see me on tumblr @ spoiledspine
This fic would not be nearly as polished if not for gerudo__desert being the BETA reader, please go give her all the love in the world!!!!