The blond-haired and elf-eared boy gave a battle cry as he swung his sword down onto the head of another enemy, rushing through the temple with his shield held in front of him, deflecting Bombchu left and right. He ran with a purpose, as fast as his legs could carry him, short and young though they were. His mission here was simple and by the same token one of the most difficult quests of his life—he must save the land of Termina. It was not his first time saving a land. He had once been hailed as the Hero of Time, who saved the land of Hyrule from the evils of the tyrant Ganondorf. But that was a distant memory now, trapped within another world seemingly parallel to the former.
As he arrived in Termina, knocked off his horse Epona and robbed of his trusted ocarina by a kid wearing an unsettling mask, the moon grew a face and began to draw toward the earth. In three days' time, at 5AM on the third day, the moon would fall, killing all that Termina held. Through the Song of Time, he was entrusted with saving this world from the lowering moon. He must free the four temples of Termina's four sections; one of forest, one of snow, one of water, and one of stone. Today he would fulfill that mission.
Though he had lost his faerie Navi between the worlds of Hyrule and Termina, he was accompanied by a new one who bore little differences to the antagonistic guide, named Tatl. Tatl traveled with him only to save her brother, Tael, from the child who doomed the world, the same one who robbed the Hylian boy of his prized ocarina. The child wore the horrendous Majora's Mask, and with it, wielded an unstoppable power. He was the one who caused the moon to fall. He was the evil which Link, Hero of Time, Hylian orphan, fought.
"Link! It's eleven o'clock! We only have seven more hours!" Tatl cried, distressed. The young boy scoffed.
"Practically all the time in the world! I'll bring down this boss and have the fourth spirit freed by midnight!" he declared arrogantly. Tatl made a noise of frustration. She'd never understand this boy. He called himself a hero, but she quite doubted that. She flinched in the air above his head as he deflected another Bombchu, exploding part of the temple corridor's wall.
The pair ventured on through the temple, slaying monsters, solving puzzles, winding their way through the maze to the secrets held so deep within and literally flipping the temple's insides this way and that as they went. The Stone Tower Temple, set above the idyllic Ikana Valley which had just a day ago been a land surrendered to the dead, was the most complicated and extensive of all the temples, but Link could handle it. After Hyrule's Water Temple in Hylia Lake, anything was easy.
Finally he arrived at the door with the silver chains and lock as big as his head. He sheathed his sword and withdrew from the folds of his tunic a large, ornate key. Carefully, he inserted the key into the lock and with all the might he could, turned. The mechanism inside clicked. The chains withdrew from all four corners of the door, and slowly, the heavy and immobile wooden door slid to the side. He stepped in to the dark void which existed past the opening.
Tatl hesitated after him outside. A sense of dread spread through her, a great paranoia of what lie beyond those doors. Regardless of what she had witnessed, of the feats she knew her companion very much possible of; having defeated Odolwa of Woodfall and Goht of Snowhead and Gyorg of Great Bay… she couldn't quell the dire fear that held her heart so tightly. Reluctantly and with a strange but certain knowledge that she would never see Tael again for some reason or another, she followed Link into the boss's chambers.
There, beyond those doors, the pair found a desert of which no end was visible. Link, as he always did in the chambers of a temple's guard, took a few tentative steps into the infinite sand. The ground shook, a gentle tremble at first, growing tumultuous and chaotic. Up from the sand rose a great beast—or rather, a pair of them. Two snake-like monsters with insect-like bodies and heads and pincers, they seemed to fly through the air, appearing to menace the hero and sinking back into the sand head-first.
"It's Twinmold, the great masked insect twins!" Tatl cried, fear shaking her small voice. "You'll never defeat them in this form! Put on the Giant's Mask!"
Link complied, knowing Tatl's knowledge of this world was much better than his, though that didn't really say much. "Now aim for the head or the tail with your sword! Doesn't matter which one you go for, just kill them!" she shouted. Link drew his sword, which had grown with him to be larger than the tall pillars which extended up from the desert, and the battle began.
It raged on for what felt like days, but as no moon fell, Link knew it was not. Tatl disappeared into his tunic and when the action stilled for a second long enough, he could hear her sobbing quietly in his clothes. He didn't understand what for, but it was best not to question the mad little faerie. It just made her hit him.
Finally, one of the two halves of Twinmold fell, slain, to the sandy ground. It slowly sunk into the sand and disappeared from view, gone forever. The other half began to move with double the speed, flying to where Link was in a desperate attempt to slaughter the hero with its pincers, but he escaped by a hair's breadth every time, slashing his sword as he dodged in an attempt to hit the beast. He got a few slices in here and there, but the monster was just as efficient in dodging as he, especially without its brother there to worry about synchronizing with.
Link was not aware of the sands of Termina's hourglass, nor of how they now waned; only of the sands of the desert and the demon that rose from it. But Tatl was very aware, dangerously aware, tucked away in his clothing with her mind on time and nothing else. She begged him to hurry, but he heard none of her pleas.
Three o'clock; three hours left.
The battle raged on and on with no end seeming to be in sight. Tatl cried more with every moment that passed. She cried for the loss of Tael that she now knew to be inevitable; she cried for the deaths of Terminians which she also knew to be inevitable; she cried for the moon and its unwavering grin from hell.
Four o'clock; two hours left.
Link sliced once more at the tail of Twinmold's remaining half, but once again missed by a wide margin. The creature was stealthy. Too stealthy for him to lay his blade upon. Too stealthy for him to kill. He growled, a feral noise in the back of his throat.
Five o'clock; an hour left.
He finally struck the head of the half with his sword, still in Giant form. He felt his energy draining with every breath he took, everything he did labored suddenly.
Tatl cried harder and harder, screaming at this point rather than sobbing quietly. Link was beginning to be able to hear her. He cried with her, but didn't know why she cried. He just couldn't handle this anymore. Still, he pushed on. For Termina.
At last, one final hit to the tail lay the beast to rest. It fell as had its brother to the hot sand and sunk into the desert's depths, never to fly again. A blue circle of light appeared in the center of the circle of the pillars, though none of those pillars stood any longer, having fallen to the sand just as the Twinmold brothers in the duel, part of the great wreckage such a fight always caused. Tatl emerged from his clothing as he sank down to normal size, the Giant's Mask pulled from his face and stored back in his bag. The faerie was frantic.
"Five fifty-seven, Link! The top of the temple is beginning to crumble, the moon's that far down already! Time's almost run out!"
Once again, he scoffed. "The fourth spirit is indebted to me. We'll make it to the Clock Tower on time. Everything will be perfect. Termina will be spared the smiling moon's wraith." From his pack he pulled the ocarina he had long retrieved from the masked child that tried to kill the world. He brought the memory-filled instrument to his lips and played the notes he knew well: the Song of Soaring, to take him where he pleased throughout all the land of Termina.
He finished the song at five fifty-eight. Taking his lips off of the ocarina, he waited expectantly. Nothing happened.
Tatl cried. "Your… your notes echo far… but… but nothing happens," she whimpered. "It won't work inside the temple. It's over. Time's up." She allowed herself to fall to the ground, the little ball of light smothered in the sand with her wings droopy and flat. "Tael," she whispered into the sand.
Link stared at her with disbelief and horror mingling as one on his face. "N… no," he whispered. "No… no!" He grew forceful, throwing his ocarina. "NO!" He fell to the sand beside the faerie and pounded on the sand under which his enemies slept forever, crying over and over, "No! No! No! No no no no no no!"
Six o'clock; time up.
The moon descended from the sky, smiling its sick smile at the world it crushed beneath its weight.