Link woke up to a strange sensation of being watched. He groggily looked around, his thought circuits struggling to catch up. Link had this nagging feeling, that he should've remembered something VERY important, but couldn't for the life of him remember!

After taking a moment to have his eyes adjust to the darkness around him, he was met face to face with an angry beast.

Wait. Worst than a beast....

'Oh shi-'
"OH SHIT A LYNEL!" Someone from the camp howled out, causing a bigger uproar amongst the other Monsters and Wildlings.
The angry mother grabbed him by the scruff of his mane and pulled him up to her eye level, glaring angrily.

'Oh Ganon....please just end me...'

"So I guess you really did go and run off to a bunch of Hylians, huh? Thought I had raised you better than this..."
Oh Ganon, it wasn't anger.

It was disappointment.

And that's worse!

"Awww fuuuuck....."

A flimsy, stray arrow ricocheted off of her tough exterior, falling to the ground like a toothpick.
The lynel slowly turned towards the assailant, glaring at the Wildling's trembling form.
Standing there, shaking but still managing to hold her ground was Namira, her dirtied hair matted beyond its usual form. She was holding a flimsy bow and arrow, aiming it at the lynel.
"Le-Leave....Leave Link alone...." she stuttered, her hands shaking so intensely that she couldn't properly keep a steady aim on the lynel.
"If...If you w-want Link, you-you'll have to get through me...."

The lynel dropped Link, striding over to the trembling girl, looking down upon her. Despite this obvious display of dominance, Namira still held her ground- even if she was openly terrified.
The lynel leaned closer to her face, as if she was carefully inspecting it.
"Not a hylian, but another cub?" She shook her head, mane flying everywhere.
"Tch, if I must." She comments to herself.
Namira looked confused before being grabbed by said lynel and hoisted onto her back.
"What-" Oh.
Oh no.
His mother looked around at the other wildlings gathered at the camp and huffed.
"There are more of them? Who is so irresponsible enough that they leave their cubs alone like this?!" She grabbed the other wildlings in spite of their efforts to run away.
Oh he knew exactly what was about to happen.
"There are even infant cubs here without a guardian to nurse them!" She scooped the little ones into her arm who didn't give much of a fight and simply accepted the situation as is.
He could practically kiss his newfound friendships goodbye.
She looked back at Link before motioning him to follow.
"Come, my cub. We must bring the new cubs back to the den."
Maybe it would've been better if he had ran off with those hylians he saw the other day, maybe then he would be saved from this slow, agonizing, death.
"I'm coming...." He muttered dejectedly, following his mother at a snail pace.
Scala, forced to ride his mother's back, looked back and forth between Link and his mother, as if she was trying to confirm something.
Link just inwardly groaned and gave her an exasperated look before nodding.
Scala's only response was silent resignation throughout the whole ride back to the den.

(So when I said I was never going to abandon this story and that I was going on a short break - well life just happened I guess, but I'm now older so my writing style will be a bit different than it was - probably not too different. I started this story when I was like 17, I am now 20 turning 21. I was always afraid to come back to this story because I was always very insecure of my writing, and I still am, but I've come to terms that this story was never serious and I might as well have fun experimenting. Thank you for sticking with this story - despite how long everything has taken. I have a twitter I use (Orangelover18) so you can always contact me there or something. Again, thank you for reading and I apologize for the short chapter after such a long wait. Stay orange, y'all.)