Link took a step outside the village gates. He made himself take deep, controlled breaths.

Today wasn't his day. He was at his wit's end and couldn't take it anymore. If he had to spend another minute inside the village he was going to break down.

He took another step. Soon he was walking, brisk-paced and purposeful.

Stars, it wasn't just today. It wasn't his year. Everything, since the day of the Wing Ceremony, had been pitted against Link. Or ripped away from him. And leaving the sky, leaving everything he'd grown up around...

Nobody knew. Nobody had a clue how much everything had impacted him.

Link ran into the woods, not sure where he was going but not stopping to worry.

He had much worse things to worry about. Like his new job.

He recognised these parts. This was the part of the Faron Woods where Skyloft had landed. The forest was too dense here to build something safe, not when nobody knew the land or what really lived in these parts. That's why they'd migrated to more a open area.

Link walked up to the statue of Hylia that had watched over Skyloft during his childhood. She was gazing down at her chosen hero with a warm smile, like she was happy he was visiting. She clearly didn't realise why he was there, he thought, slightly bitter.

He didn't want to resent Zelda - who shared the memories with the Divine woman depicted before him - but he didn't think it was fair that she was thrusting him into this situation. When had he ever shown a thirst for power, a desire to lead?

Why couldn't Groose be the co-chief? At least he'd be comfortable with the position.

Of course, he wasn't going to say that to Zelda. She knew best, ask anyone and they'd tell you. If she had a plan - and they always worked out - then he'd follow it, he'd do what she asked of him.

Today may not be his day, but it could be the day he started to take the initiative.

Link pulled a dagger out of the little scabbard attached to his belt. He turned the knife over in his hands, letting the end poke into his fingertip as he rotated the handle with his other hand.

He'd recited simple blessings every day for most of his life; ritual and worship had been a large part of the culture on Skyloft, but this would be the first spell he'd ever tried.

Instructor Owlan had proposed teaching him magical theory, but Link had never felt the need for it when caught up amidst the village's - spontaneous - move to the Surface. He knew the lands down here better than anyone - even Zelda, since she'd still been regaining her memories, so it'd been his job to scout out the place they were going to settle. Probably the whole reason he was in this mess now. The system that had worked perfectly well when everyone was squashed onto a floating island didn't function quite the same down here, and so a hierarchy had been born.

"Of course," Link said, voice pitched higher to (poorly) mimic Zelda's voice, "I can't do this without you, Link."

He huffed, and looked away from the dagger, down at his feet. He needed help if he was going to co-lead the village with Zelda. Fi and Impa (and, less directly, Hylia) were no longer there to hold his hand through everything, and he didn't realise until after the Master Sword was sealed away just how much he'd been leaning on magical assistance to get him through everything. Sure, he'd been the one to drive a sword into Demise's chest but, well...

At least he'd managed to find this spell.

It had been found in a hurry - the library wasn't quite organised yet (and even so, the books didn't cover a very wide range) and Link had rummaged, half-panicking, in order to find something that would at least point him towards magical assistance. The page he'd landed on had literally been entitled: "Summoning Support", and the description matched up to his criteria as best as anything he'd found so far, so he'd ran with it.

It seemed to match, anyway. He hadn't read it very thoroughly. He didn't have much time.

But this spell seemed simple enough (not that he'd know), and he didn't know what else he could do. He couldn't bring himself to talk to Zelda about this, for some reason. He didn't want to admit to a tiny, niggling part of himself that it had anything to do with her new status as a Very Important Person, because this was Zelda, his Zelda, and that hadn't changed last year.

Link frowned as that annoying part of him piped up to argue, hand clenching around his dagger's handle. With his other hand he picked up a stick, crouching to draw a pattern into the earth at his feet, following the instructions from the book. This wouldn't take long, and then the spell would be cast, and he could head back and continue with his life.

He stood over the markings crudely etched into the ground, examining them before looking back at his dagger. This spell required blood; he'd chant the incantation, donate some physical material, and then a body would be manifested from it. It'd be a hollow vessel designed for a spirit, summoned by the incantation, to inhabit, and wham - he'd have a little helper to keep him on track.

Simple as that, he told himself, and curled his hand around the blade as he started the incantation, trying to distract himself from the sting by imagining a little sprite popping up out of the ground to greet him, maybe a small forest spirit - or even a fairy! Just a little companion to reassure him he's going the right way, like a familiar.

Scarlet dripped from his hand and stained the ground at his feet, not enough to splatter but enough to form a tiny pool in one of the ruts in the soil, which was now glowing. The blood started running along the lines Link had carved, completely by itself, making the Hylian blink in surprise, until the pattern in the earth was completely red and glowing like magma.

Link stumbled back as the ground under the carving shifted, and twisted, and swelled until there was a pillar as tall as him growing there. It grew a head taller before solidifying in place, and chunks of dirt started to fall away until the pillar more closely resembled a statue of a man.

Link blinked, and waited, but everything had gone still and quiet. He couldn't hear any more birdsong from the forest, and even the breeze had stopped, like the whole world was holding its breath.

The statue shifted. And started to crumble.

It was a shell. There was someone underneath.

The earth shell started to crack off in a way that reminded Link of when the Sky Temple had been revealed and bits of rock had just started falling away, dropping off into the sky. The dirt fell off neatly to reveal clean skin, ashen in tone, and pristine, snow-white hair. Link blanched.

He'd wanted a familiar, but not something this familiar.

The man before him smirked, shaking his hair out in more of a theatrical way than to really get it out of his face, happy to let his fringe settle partly over one dark eye. He looked at Link almost smugly, and sighed like he was taking in a beautiful view.

"Sky child," Ghirahim purred, and Link almost had to repress the shiver of horror that threatened to crawl up his spine, "how nice of you to call."

.

So, fun fact, I watched Tim Burton's Corpse Bride the other day and it inspired this! Happy Halloween!

Emphasis on inspired- this fic's not really gonna be anything like that movie lmao