Title; For Naught

Series; The Legend of Zelda (Video Game series)

Type; Drabble, One-Shot

Timeline; Late Majora's Mask, Stone Tower Temple-

N/A; Inspired by the Stone Tower BGM. Old piece that I'm now posting! Who would've thought? I actually kinda like it I think.

If you can and would, a review would mean more than you think.

Dedicated to Mary.

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The sun shone thought the many cracks in the floor. The sky below was almost completely cloudless, except from a few stray threads of white that were placed as if to keep the sun in place.

The sky was that of the early afternoon; still blue albeit it would only stay that way for another few hours. While it was a peaceful to observe, it made the looming shadow of the ground above seem even more threatening by comparison. As darkness would fall by the end of the day, that enormous dark entity would seem to move closer, as if to crush this place into nothing.

The soft tunes of a melody sounded between the many fallen and broken walls within the temple. He sat high atop the rubble that was a fallen pillar, while he played his instrument of choice, the light blue ocarina of the hyrulean royal family. It was an intriguing yet somewhat unpleasant tune, just like the temple itself. It was a song that Tatl didn't recognise.

The light that Tatl emitted looked cold when compared to the sun. She could be cold, and she could be eccentric, but that was because she had to be the things he was not. But even so, she knew, he acted older than he was. It felt like he was older than he was too, and he knew what he wouldn't tell her. The feeling was not either of their imagination.

But the fact that he still was a child, no matter how you looked at it, would not change. How many years old precisely, he didn't even know himself. The Kokiri-children had never celebrated birthdays. For they never aged. And even if he was not a Kokiri himself, he had been raised as one. Neither had known that he was not. But somehow, they had been able tell. For he had never quite been treated as one of them.

The Kokiri remained children their entire life. Children are innocent, but because they are, they can also be cruel.

He had been through a lot. And that is perhaps why he seemed so old. He knew that it is when one irreplaceable person fails to recognise you, that is when it hurts the most. When it feels as if you have been left alone with nothing, that is when it hurts the most.

She had given him this ocarina, and he had treasured immeasurably. It had been returned, but soon given to him to hold on to again. And so he could remember that at least, he had this ocarina. At least he had himself, at least he had the fields he had travelled upon, and at least he had his future. He had his reasons to be here.

And so he could remember that nothing had been for naught.

The melody ended. Silence was cut short as he played soon again.

This melody, Tatl unmistakably recognised. He never spoke much, but she had come to realize that this one must be his favourite.

The melody that was the song of time sounded only for the dead beasts of Stone Tower Temple to hear.

It was the song that she had taught him twice.

The second time, she had taught it to him in fear of him forgetting her, as she had said. Ironically, at that time, he had already seen recognition fade in her eyes once.

The soothing sound could impossibly reach the inhabitants of the distressed region of Termina above them.

And in the faraway kingdom of Hyrule, the Princess spent her days waiting.

Unlike the prayers of most, hers would be answered.

He would not forget her.