Hey guys! This is my first fanfiction, so please review it. I'm going to be writing this story alongside my second playthrough of Hollow Knight to be as accurate as possible. My idea for this story was that Link is trailing The Knight during the game and the way the story progresses differently from it.

I do not own The Legend of Zelda or Hollow Knight.

Where Am I?

Link stood in front of the door to the clock tower. Around him, the townsfolk bustled about. He took a last look around clock town, taking it in. The people, busily going about their lives, paid him no mind. He'd spent almost a month in Termina, from his perspective, but, just like last time, no one knew. Eager to leave this mess behind him and go home, he turned around and put his hand on the door.

"Do you really have to go?" Tatl asked him. The little yellow ball of light was standing on his left shoulder, talking into his ear.

"We've been over this, Tatl. Yes, I do," Link replied, sighing, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, okay," The fairy said, sulking, "Just...don't go while I'm looking."

"Okay, that's fair, now go see your brother. Make sure Skull Kid doesn't get in any more trouble," Link said.

Tatl gave a halfhearted chuckle. "Yeah, will do," she decided, before flying south, towards the entrance to the swamp, Skull Kid's favorite spot to play.

Link watched her disappear over clock town's wall, then pushed the clock tower door open and walked inside. He looked at the empty room, it had a wood floor, and a ramp descended to the bottom floor started in the back left- hand corner. Near the ramp was a large rotating pole. "It doesn't feel right without him here," he decided, observing the very mask salesman-less room, "Oh well." He walked to the ramp and descended into a room with a large door on the opposite wall, "would you look at that, now it's open," he said.

Beyond the doorway was a long hallway ending in darkness. Just like last time, when Link walked through, it rotated a full 360 ° while transforming into something else, leaving link a little disoriented. Not like last time, he didn't enter a forest, he entered…

"A cave?" Link asked, confused. Indeed, he had come out of the tunnel in a similar tunnel, but much less man-made. "Oh, Goddesses, I hope I'm in Hyrule," he said, before continuing forward. He came into a rather large chamber full of tiny light-emitting creatures. He looked at one for a moment. "That's strange, I've never seen something like this before, it looks like a fairy," he said, then he heard the creature's wings buzzing as it flew, "is it an insect?"

Link continued through the cave without incident. The rest of the tunnel was straight and dark, and would have been scary had he not bottled one of those bugs from earlier. He walked for a long while before he saw a (very) dim light at the end of the tunnel. Not the light from the bugs, a gray, natural light like a very cloudy day would bring.

"The surface!" he eagerly exclaimed, as he began sprinting toward it as fast as he could. He reached the light and came out of the tunnel in a vast, gray desert covered in the corpses of what appeared to be giant bugs, the wind howling for miles, blowing sand into his eyes. "This doesn't look like Hyrule," he said, disappointed. He then looked up and saw the black sky completely devoid of a sun or stars. "This definitely isn't Hyrule," he decided, letting out a long groan, "another alternate world!? I just wanted to go home!" he finished, speaking into the wasteland, he then took several deep breaths, "okay, Link, deeeeep breaths, deeeeep breaths. Calm down. 1st step of Y the Survivalist's guide to adventuring: Find out where you are." he said.

He looked about the windswept wasteland around him.

"Not doing that one anytime soon."

"Alright, step two is to start walking," he said looking around. Seeing nothing of note, he walked in a random direction.

Or so he thought.

Hornet, perched on her cliffside ledge above the blowing sand, watched the wasteland. She was the protector of Hallownest's ruins, her purpose was to protect the dead kingdom from outside intruders. There were many types of bugs she'd seen crawling out of the dust to the sacred land. She'd seen it all. She was prepared for anything.

Or so she thought until this bright green creature wandered out of the wind.

Hornet had seen green bugs before, she'd been to that overgrown road many times over, that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that this creature wasn't a bug.

Now, this wasn't an inherent problem either. The vessel that passed through earlier and the ooma in the canyon weren't bugs, but this creature, there was something wrong with this creature.

Link had been walking for three hours when he came across a towering cliffside of black rock. He looked it over. Nothing of note, really, just a perfectly normal black cliff in a gray desert. He heaved a huge sigh and turned around to walk back, but something held him there where he was, some inner feeling that he could achieve all his heart's desires at the top of those cliffs. He turned back around just in time to see a person in red appear on the top of a small ledge some thirty feet up. It had a strange horned mask on its face and held a long sword.

The person spoke up, "what manner of creature are you that would intrude on the sacred kingdom of Hallownest!? Whatever you may be, leave now or I will destroy you!" the woman, it now being apparent that it was female, yelled.

"Oh, a person!" Link said to himself, then waved and called out, "Hey! I think I'm a bit lost, could you point me in the direction of the nearest town?"

The woman jumped down from her ledge to a lower one, then said to the hero, "no one finds their way to Hallownest by accident. Now tell me, strange creature, why are you here?"

Link let out a little groan. "I don't know why I'm here. I came out of Termina in a cave a few miles back and I started walking this direction. I'm quite sure I don't know what this 'Hallownest' place is," he said, "I'm just trying to find the nearest civilization."

The strange woman looked at him hard for a time. "You lie," she decided, "There is only one civilization in the world, and it died many years ago. Prepare to be cut down!" She then leapt off her perch toward the young hero. Link gave a tired sigh and got out his sword and shield as she landed some ten feet in front of him.

"Always fighting," he murmured to himself as she charged.