By Daddy Ryan
Back in 2023, this was one of several books I poured myself into — a family adventure set in the world of The Legend of Zelda. Ariel, Alice, Yaya, Poppy, and yes… Mr. Fluffernutter, step right into Hyrule itself.
It isn’t just another game quest — it’s faith, family, and courage tested in a land filled with relics, riddles, and shadows. I began writing it chapter by chapter… but due to my memory issues, I misplaced the manuscript and moved on to another novel — which I would also later misplace and forget.
Now that I’ve rediscovered this story, I’m ready to share a little taste.
Below, you’ll find sample chapters straight from the draft. If you enjoy them, I’d love to hear your thoughts:
- Should I keep going and finish the whole book?
- Would you want to read the complete adventure when it’s done?
Your comments will help decide whether this story stays tucked away… or finally makes its way into your hands.
📖 Sample Chapters
Chapter 1 — Emerald Wake
Sound came first — the slow drip of water somewhere unseen, the faint clink of glassy wings brushing against leaves, the deep-bellied groan of a tree shifting in its roots.
Ariel’s eyes opened to a ceiling of branches that seemed to breathe. The trunks rose so high they faded into shadow before meeting the canopy, silver-laced bark catching stray motes of emerald light. Each leaf overhead shivered with an inner glow, as though lit from within by threads of captured starlight.
She pushed herself upright and felt moss give way like a thick velvet cushion beneath her palms. The air was cool enough to bite but rich with scent — sharp green sap, wet stone, and something faintly metallic, like the air after lightning.
A few steps away, Alice was curled on her side, arms locked protectively around Mr. Fluffernutter. The bunny’s worn fur peeked from the folds of a dish-towel cloak, a button glinting at its throat. Even in sleep, Alice’s curls sprawled in a halo of restless motion.
Yaya reclined with her hands folded over her chest, her breathing so steady she might have been part of the forest itself. Beside her, Poppy lay on his back with one knee bent, glasses askew, snoring softly through a crooked smile that made Ariel think of late-night story sessions by the fire.
A flicker of movement caught her eye — points of light weaving through the air in erratic, playful arcs. They weren’t lanterns, not fireflies; their glow was too steady, and their wings — yes, wings — whispered with the dry rustle of silk. The lights moved with intention, circling the group as if measuring the shape of their arrival.
Ariel’s heart kicked. She forced herself to her feet.
Alice stirred, blinked twice, and sat up slowly. Her gaze locked instantly on the drifting lights. “Fairies,” she breathed, the word so soft it almost broke on her lips. She raised Mr. Fluffernutter as if presenting him. “They’ve come to guide us.”
“They’ve come to watch us,” Ariel said, though she didn’t entirely believe her own skepticism. “And we don’t know what they want.”
Before Alice could drift toward them, a voice — young, but firm — slid between the trees. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Shapes emerged from the undergrowth — children, but not human. Their skin held a faint green undertone, as if sunlight through leaves had painted them permanently. Their tunics were sewn from real foliage that still seemed to grow. The boy at their front stood with his chin lifted, eyes sharp with caution that didn’t quite hide his curiosity.
“This is Kokiri Forest,” he said. “Outsiders aren’t meant to enter.”
Yaya stirred, her voice carrying a kind of gravity that slowed the air. “And yet, we are here. That means the forest has allowed it.”
The boy’s brow furrowed. “Allowed… or tested.” He glanced back at the others, then to Ariel’s group again. “The Great Deku Tree will decide.”
Poppy rolled onto one elbow and muttered, “If the Great Deku Tree has coffee, I’ll take mine black.” His voice was dry, but Ariel caught the way his hand brushed the ground as if searching for steadiness.
They followed the boy without protest, though the path ahead seemed to shift underfoot. Moss swelled in some places, retreating in others, as though the forest itself were adjusting its course. Mushrooms with translucent caps brightened as they passed, casting soft blue shadows. Flowers along the edge of the path rotated to face them, their petals opening wider when Alice leaned close.
The air grew heavier — not oppressive, but expectant — as the trees thinned into a wide, domed clearing. At its center stood the Great Deku Tree.
It wasn’t simply large — it was ancient, with bark so deeply furrowed it formed valleys. Patterns of glowing runes curled through those ridges like veins of molten gold, and a faint pulse seemed to run beneath them. Ariel had the sudden, absurd thought that the tree was breathing.
Then its eyes opened.
They were not merely looking at her; they were looking through her — as though turning the pages of her thoughts.
“Travelers,” the voice said, deep enough to rattle the air in her chest. “A melody older than this land has called you. Hyrule weakens. Three relics sleep — born of strength, of clarity, of trust. Only hearts bound in harmony may wake them.”
The gaze held on Ariel longer than on the others. She felt her muscles tighten under a weight that was not physical.
“Why us?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Because you already carry the seeds of what the relics will become,” the Tree answered. “Or you will — if you walk as one.”
Its eyes closed again. The runes dimmed to a slow, steady glow.
Yaya’s hand touched Ariel’s elbow — light, but grounding. “Questions can walk with us,” she said. “Answers are easier to find in motion.”
Chapter 2 — First Steps
The Kokiri village revealed itself in pieces, like a story told in low voices. The path unwound into a circular clearing dotted with colossal tree trunks, each hollowed into homes whose doors glowed faintly with carved runes. Bridges of woven rope and living vines swayed between high branches overhead, their arcs catching glints from bioluminescent fungi clinging to the bark.
The air was warm here — the kind of warmth that didn’t just touch the skin but seemed to sink into the bones — and carried a faint sweetness, like the scent of overripe fruit left in sunlight.
Ariel took it all in with quick, scanning eyes. Every doorway had a watcher: Kokiri children peering out with half-hidden faces, eyes bright with curiosity and distrust.
At the center of the clearing, a green-haired girl stepped forward, carrying a small box of polished wood. She set it down on a stump as if placing an offering before an altar. “You will need these,” she said, her voice a soft chime in the stillness.
Inside the box lay:
- A compass — its needle drifting lazily before locking with a faint click, the metal warm to the touch.
- Three glass vials — filled with liquid that glimmered as though it contained tiny motes of starlight.
- A charm — no larger than a coin, carved from bone and strung on braided fiber.
Alice’s hand hovered over the charm before she looked at the girl for permission.
“It glows when danger is near,” the Kokiri explained. Her tone carried no drama — just fact. “It will answer to the one who carries it.”
Alice slipped it over her neck, the cord settling into the hollow of her collarbone. The charm’s faint thrum felt like a hidden heartbeat.
A second figure approached — an older Kokiri wearing a circlet of ivy. He paused before Yaya, tilting his head. “The forest remembers you,” he said, voice low. “Your steps echo another’s — someone who once walked these paths with purpose.”
Yaya’s expression didn’t change, but Ariel caught the way her grandmother’s fingers tightened briefly around the strap of her satchel. “Memories are heavy things,” Yaya said lightly, though her eyes didn’t quite meet his.
The older Kokiri looked as though he might say more, but instead, he stepped back into the circle of light around the clearing and gestured toward the shadowed paths beyond. “Your road will test you quickly. Leave before the night grows deep.”
Into the Deepening Forest
They departed as the first hints of dusk filtered through the canopy, turning the world above into a shifting patchwork of pale silver and ink-black shadow. The path underfoot pulsed faintly in places — not with light, but with a rhythm Ariel could feel through her boots, like the slow beat of something vast beneath the earth.
She kept the compass in her palm, watching the needle drift, settle, drift again. It didn’t point north. It pointed somewhere else entirely, and its direction shifted if she let her thoughts wander.
“What’s it doing?” Poppy asked, falling into step beside her.
“It reacts to… focus,” Ariel murmured, not looking up. “If I think about the Great Deku Tree’s relics, it steadies. If I think about going home, it spins.”
Poppy scratched his chin. “So it’s a moral compass that actually works. I’ll try not to touch it.”
Behind them, Alice hummed a tuneless melody as she skipped in and out of patches of shadow, Fluffernutter clutched in one arm. The charm around her neck gave off a faint warmth that pulsed in time with her steps.
Camp at the Edge
By the time they stopped to make camp, the air had cooled sharply, and the sounds of the forest had changed. Day-creatures had gone silent, replaced by a chorus of distant clicks, low thrums, and something like the rattle of dry seeds shaking together.
Poppy coaxed a reluctant fire from damp wood, his hands steady even when sparks refused to catch. Yaya unpacked a small cloth bundle and handed Ariel one of the glowing vials. “For emergencies,” she said, then added quietly, “Not every danger is made of teeth and claws.”
Ariel frowned. “What’s that supposed to—”
The sound cut her off — a low, rolling growl that came from several directions at once.
The hair on Alice’s arms stood up. Her charm glowed faintly, throwing a thin ring of light onto the forest floor. “Fluffy says something’s watching,” she whispered.
Shapes moved just beyond the fire’s reach — not large, but quick. Red glints blinked in and out like the embers of dying coals.
“Scrubs,” Poppy muttered, standing with a branch held like a bat. “But too many for comfort.”
The First Clash
Deku Scrubs burst from the undergrowth in a staccato rush, spitting sharp, bark-colored darts. One thudded into a supply pack at Ariel’s feet. She reacted instinctively, dragging Alice behind her and scanning for their firing rhythm. Two volleys, pause, two volleys.
She pulled a decoy pouch from her belt — rope and spare cloth bundled to mimic a satchel — and flung it into the shadows opposite them. Darts followed instantly, giving Poppy the moment he needed to slam a loop of vine around two of the creatures and yank them off their feet.
More Scrubs closed in, chattering in a sound that wasn’t quite language. Ariel felt the circle tightening.
Yaya stepped forward into the edge of the firelight, her voice cutting through the chaos. She began to hum — not the soft lullaby from home, but a sharper, almost discordant line. The nearest Scrubs faltered mid-step, tilting their heads as though trying to remember something.
Alice slipped away from Ariel’s grip and crouched beside the smallest Scrub, its weapon trembling in its hands. “We’re scared too,” she whispered. The creature blinked, lowered its dart, and pointed a twig-like finger toward a narrow gap between two root walls.
A Choice in the Dark
“Guide or trap?” Ariel asked under her breath.
“Only one way to learn,” Yaya replied, her tone calm but her eyes alert.
They moved in a tight knot through the indicated gap, ducking low as roots scraped their backs. The sounds of pursuit faded, but not entirely.
Poppy caught his foot on a root and went down hard. The firelight from behind painted him in jagged shadows, and Ariel saw his wince as he tried to get up.
“Go,” he gritted. “Don’t wait—”
“Not happening,” Ariel said sharply. She knelt, looped twine under his arm, and heaved while Yaya steadied his other side. Alice walked backward ahead of them, charm held out like a lantern. The faint glow kept the shadows from pressing in too close.
Only when they emerged into a wider corridor of moss-covered ground did they stop. The forest was quiet again, but it was a listening kind of quiet.
Chapter 3 — Trials of the Forest
Morning Veiled in Green
Mist clung low to the ground, curling around Ariel’s boots as she crouched to repack their supplies. The moss under her fingers was damp and cold, its scent mixing with the earthy tang of wet bark. Overhead, the canopy shifted in slow, deliberate motions, as though the trees were stretching after a long sleep.
Alice was already awake, crouched beside a cluster of fungi that glowed in cool blues and purples. “Look,” she said, touching one gently so that its light flared. A beetle, its carapace flecked with gold, hovered nearby. Each flap of its wings left a brief trail of sparks in the misty air.
“That’s nice, Alice,” Ariel murmured without looking up, tightening the cord on their food pouch. Her mind was still on the Great Deku Tree’s charge — three relics, scattered in a world she didn’t know.
Yaya’s shadow fell across her. She was standing at the base of a tree, one hand resting on the bark. A faint, triangular symbol with three interlocking pieces pulsed faintly where her fingers touched.
Ariel rose, the hairs on her arms prickling. “Is that—?”
“The Triforce,” Yaya said quietly. “A ward. This forest still protects what matters… and warns those who might harm it.” She looked at Ariel with a knowing tilt of her head. “We’re still on the right path.”
Poppy yawned as he emerged from under his makeshift blanket. “Good, because the wrong path here looks like a great way to end up in a monster’s digestive tract.”
The Air Turns Heavy
As they pushed deeper into the forest, the change was almost imperceptible at first — the air growing thicker, colors dimming as if someone had lowered an invisible curtain. Birdsong faded to a muffled hush. The ground grew uneven, roots knotting together like clenched fists.
A rustle came from their right — the kind that makes instincts flare before the mind can label it. Ariel froze.
“Did you—” she began.
The answer came as a sharp hiss through the undergrowth, followed by a volley of small, hard projectiles that thudded into the soil around them. Bark-like darts, their tips slick with sap.
“Down!” Ariel shouted, pulling Alice toward her.
From the shadows, shapes emerged — squat, plant-like creatures with round heads and twig limbs, eyes glowing with a hostile gleam. Deku Scrubs.
The First Battle
The Scrubs moved fast for their size, skittering to find new angles of attack. Poppy grabbed a fallen branch, swinging it in broad arcs to keep them back. “I liked them better when they were decorations in storybooks!” he barked.
“They’re territorial,” Yaya said, her voice steady even as she ducked a dart. “We need to disrupt their focus.”
Ariel scanned the terrain. A tangle of vines hung low on one side of the path, partially masking a shallow pit. “Poppy — snare!” she called.
“On it.” Poppy looped the vines quickly, anchoring them with a twist around a root. Then he whistled sharply, drawing two of the Scrubs toward him. They lunged — and fell straight into the tangle, thrashing.
Still, more pressed forward. Ariel scooped up a cluster of dry leaves and dirt, flinging it high to create a burst of movement that drew fire away from Alice.
Alice, meanwhile, had crouched beside a smaller Scrub that had paused mid-charge. Her Kokiri charm glowed faintly as she spoke to it in a low voice. “You don’t have to fight us. We’re not here to hurt your home.”
The little creature hesitated, then chirped once — a quick, sharp sound — before backing away. The others faltered, their advance slowing, until the entire group melted back into the shadows.
The small one lingered only long enough to point a twig-like arm toward the trees ahead.
The Whispering Glen
The path opened into a clearing unlike any they had seen yet. The air here felt… alive, pressing close against their skin. Shafts of dim, cold light slid between the branches in narrow beams. Tiny motes floated in the air, moving as if on invisible currents.
And then came the whispers.
They weren’t carried on wind — they bloomed directly inside each mind.
Ariel… you’ll lose them. Like before.
She tightened her grip on the map, forcing her breathing steady. “Ignore it,” she muttered to herself.
Alice… they’d be safer without you slowing them down.
Alice’s steps faltered, her hand slipping from Ariel’s.
Poppy stopped in place, his jaw tightening. You’re too old for this. They’ll pay for your weakness.
Even Yaya’s expression had shifted — a distant, haunted look.
The whispers thickened, crowding out reason.
“Ariel,” Yaya said suddenly, her voice cutting like a blade through the murmur. “The Glen feeds on division. Don’t give it what it wants.”
The Guardian’s Arrival
A shadow peeled itself from the treeline and took form — a massive Wolfos, its fur streaked with dark tendrils that writhed like smoke. Its eyes glowed not with animal hunger, but with something intelligent and wrong.
It lunged without warning. Ariel shoved Alice aside and brought up her arm to block — too late. The force knocked her sideways, claws raking her sleeve and leaving a shallow, burning line.
“Pattern!” she called, forcing herself upright. “It hesitates right before it—”
The Wolfos lunged again, but this time Poppy was there, interposing his branch like a shield. The impact drove him back a step, but he held.
Alice’s charm flared bright in her hand, casting light into the Wolfos’s face. It snarled, flinching. Yaya began to hum — not the soft, reassuring tunes from home, but something low and deliberate, each note vibrating through the air like a pulse.
The Wolfos faltered, its movements slowing. Ariel saw the opening and shouted, “Now!”
Poppy feinted to the side; Alice’s light kept the Wolfos off balance; Yaya’s melody never wavered. Ariel stepped in, driving the creature back into the Glen’s edge.
With a final, pained howl, it turned and vanished into the deeper shadows.
The Plains Beyond
The oppressive weight of the forest eased as they pressed on, and soon the trees thinned enough to reveal open sky. Rolling grasslands stretched out before them, rippling in the wind. In the far distance, the jagged silhouette of a mountain loomed — Death Mountain.
Ariel flexed her injured arm, the shallow cut already clotting. “We made it out,” she said, her voice even.
“For now,” Yaya replied, her eyes on the distant peak.
Poppy adjusted his grip on the walking stick he’d claimed from the forest. “And here I was thinking a stroll in the woods would be the easy part.”
Alice tucked Mr. Fluffernutter under her arm and smiled faintly. “The forest liked us enough to let us go.”
Yaya didn’t respond right away. When she finally spoke, it was quiet enough that only Ariel heard. “Or it let us leave because it knows what waits ahead.”
Chapter 4 — Fires of the Mountain
The Climb Begins
Wind barreled down from the mountain’s slopes in sharp, heated bursts, carrying the bitter tang of ash. Even from the foothills, Death Mountain dominated the horizon — its slopes a jagged spine of stone leading to a crown of drifting smoke.
Every step upward was work. The ground shifted from grassy earth to fractured basalt, the kind that scraped skin even through boots. The air thinned quickly, leaving Ariel with a faint burn in her lungs. She glanced at Alice, whose cheeks were flushed, but the girl’s small legs pumped onward with quiet determination, Mr. Fluffernutter tucked under her arm like a talisman.
Poppy wiped sweat from his brow. “Remind me again why this is where the first relic is hiding? Couldn’t it be in a nice meadow somewhere?”
Yaya’s gaze didn’t waver from the mountain’s peak. “Strength is rarely forged in comfort.”
The Village at the Edge
Halfway up, the path opened onto a wide stone terrace where a cluster of rounded buildings huddled together. Smoke curled from central chimneys, carrying the scent of charred meat and metal. This was Goron City — if “city” could be used for a place carved entirely into the mountainside.
Gorons — massive, rock-skinned beings with shoulders like boulders — rolled and stomped between the buildings. Some paused to regard the newcomers with mild curiosity, others with arms folded in open suspicion.
One stepped forward, his size dwarfing even Poppy. “Travelers don’t come this way without purpose,” he rumbled. “State yours.”
Yaya inclined her head. “The Great Deku Tree sent us. We seek a relic… and we think it lies within the Dodongo Cavern.”
The Goron’s brows knit. “That place is sealed for a reason. Dodongos have been restless, and something else — something worse — has taken the deeper chambers.”
Ariel stepped forward. “If the relic is there, we’re going in. We just need to know the safest path.”
The Goron gave a low, gravelly chuckle. “There is no safe path. Only a path.” He pointed toward a narrow ledge climbing higher along the mountain’s face.
The Cavern’s Mouth
The cavern’s entrance was a jagged tear in the rock, wide enough for two Gorons side-by-side. Hot air spilled out, heavy with the metallic bite of magma. The interior pulsed with an orange glow that flickered like a heartbeat.
Alice hesitated at the threshold, staring into the dark. “It smells angry,” she murmured.
Ariel squeezed her hand. “That’s because it is. Stay behind me.”
The moment they crossed inside, the temperature rose sharply. Their boots crunched on volcanic gravel. Steam hissed from narrow fissures, each exhale sounding almost… deliberate.
The First Attack
They didn’t see the first Dodongo until it moved. One moment it was a pile of rock; the next, it was a lumbering reptilian mass with scales like molten glass, jaws glowing with internal fire.
It charged.
Poppy swung his walking stick like a spear, jabbing at the beast’s snout. The Dodongo bellowed, a deep, resonant sound that rattled Ariel’s ribs. She darted to one side, looking for weak points — the underside of the jaw, the unarmored joints near its legs.
“Eyes!” Yaya called sharply. “They shield the rest, but the eyes stay soft.”
Ariel grabbed a fist-sized stone, waited until the beast’s head swung toward her, then hurled it with everything she had. The rock struck the left eye; the Dodongo shrieked, stumbling back before retreating into a side tunnel.
The ground beneath them rumbled in answer.
“That wasn’t the only one,” Poppy said grimly.
The Gauntlet
The deeper they pressed, the more the cavern fought them. Magma pools forced detours onto narrow ledges where one wrong step meant a fall into boiling rock. The air shimmered with heat, making distance hard to judge.
Twice they were ambushed — once by a pair of smaller Dodongos that attacked in tandem, and again by something stranger: a hulking lizard-like form whose scales were cracked and leaking rivulets of molten light. Each fight cost them — a scrape here, a burn there, the gradual drain of strength from moving in the sweltering dark.
Ariel’s water skin was nearly empty when they finally reached the cavern’s heart.
The Relic’s Chamber
The chamber opened like a volcanic cathedral — towering columns of obsidian framing a central platform suspended over a vast magma lake. Atop the platform rested the first relic: a heavy stone gauntlet carved with the same triangular symbol they’d seen in the forest.
But between them and it lay the largest Dodongo yet. Its bulk dwarfed the platform, its head alone the size of a wagon. Its molten eyes tracked their every move.
“This one won’t just scare off,” Ariel said, her voice low.
Yaya stepped forward. “Then we fight smart. Dodongos breathe before they burn. Use that.”
The Final Battle
The beast exhaled — a deep inhalation that sucked heat and air toward its jaws. Ariel broke into a sprint, angling toward its flank. The Dodongo swung its head, blasting a cone of fire where she’d been seconds earlier.
Poppy hurled rocks to draw its attention, each impact pinging harmlessly off its armor but forcing it to pivot. Alice, clutching Fluffernutter in one arm, darted toward a column and began clambering up, her Kokiri charm pulsing brightly.
“Now, Alice!” Ariel called.
From her perch, Alice swung the charm outward. A burst of emerald light cascaded over the Dodongo’s head, making it thrash and blink against the glare. That moment was all Ariel needed — she dashed in, driving her blade into the soft seam just beneath its jaw.
The Dodongo roared, its body convulsing before it collapsed sideways into the magma. The impact sent a wave of molten rock lapping dangerously close to the platform.
Claiming the Gauntlet
Ariel staggered onto the platform, her skin flushed from the heat. She laid her hands on the gauntlet — and felt a rush of energy, like the pressure of a stormfront moving through her bones. Strength pulsed through her arms, enough that she had to fight not to clench her fists.
When she looked back, Yaya was watching with an expression Ariel couldn’t quite read — pride, yes, but also something heavier.
“One down,” Poppy said, leaning on his stick. “Two to go. And I’m already out of clean shirts.”
Yaya’s gaze drifted toward the cavern’s far wall, where a narrow, dark tunnel sloped downward. “We won this fight. But I think the mountain just opened the next.”
Your Turn
If you want to see the rest of this adventure brought to life, let me know in the comments or send me a message.
The journey to Hyrule has begun — the question is, should we keep walking?
With grit and grace,
Daddy Ryan
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