The world around Link faded as darkness closed in around him, the screams of his fairy companions were muffled and he trembled violently as a chill spread through his body. Somebody else was speaking, but Link's eyes felt too heavy to open. He barely noticed strong arms lifting him, the wounds he had suffered from the wolfos seemed dulled as the darkness rushed in to claim him.
Link found himself walking through the hall of an ancient temple. The first thing he noticed aside from the mysterious hall was that he no longer felt any pain. He looked down to examine the wounds the wolfos had inflicted, except there were no longer any wounds. Link could neither see nor feel any trace of them. Puzzled he looked up to take in his surroundings, none of which looked familiar.
The cold stone walls of the ancient monolith dwarfed him rising up to the ceiling which Link could barely make out in the dim light. Candelabra beside the long stone pillars stood on either side of the temple's centre aisle providing the only source of light. The pillars cast a shadow across the walls and Link could barely make out carvings along the wall revealing a mural. Examining the mural Link recognized the Triforce in the centre held up by three women in long robes. A crowd of people stood on either side looking in reverence upon the Triforce and the three figures holding it. The mural on the wall to Link's right was similar, except that instead of the three goddesses beneath the Triforce there were seven figures beneath the sacred relic. The fourth a woman was wearing a crown, bearing a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. For a moment, Link wondered if this place was part of the Sacred Realm the Great Deku Tree had mentioned. He looked out the windows, which revealed a world bathed in the sombre glow of twilight. Another look around the room revealed no clues as to where he was.
This could not be the Sacred Realm, he thought. The Great Deku Tree had mentioned he needed four items to gain access to it, only one of which Link possessed.
"Hello?" Link called, only the stones answered as his voice echoed through the room. "Navi?"
There was no answer and Link realized he was alone.
A large hexagonal dais stood in the middle of the marble floor with the symbol of the Triforce in its centre.
Link jumped as he heard whispers coming from around him but could not make out the words, spinning around he looked for the source of the voices but could see no one.
Where am I?
The hairs on his neck stood on end. Link did not like not knowing where he was, so he turned around intent on walking out the door of the temple to get some bearing of his surroundings. He approached the large wooden doors leading to outside and went to push them open. His hand pressed against the cool painted wood when the voice of a woman came from behind him.
"If you step beyond those doors, you will never return to Hyrule." Link spun around, his hand reaching for a sword he did not have. Standing on the dais in the centre of the hall was a woman. She shrouded from head to toe in a forest green robe, most of her face covered by a hood. The only features Link could see was a small tuft of dark hair poking out of the hood, her green eyes and a circlet with an emerald encrusted in its centre adorning her forehead. Link stood staring for a moment, unsettled by her sudden appearance.
"Who are you?" He asked after a few moments, taking a step back only to bump into the door.
The woman raised her hands lowering the veil across her mouth, which revealed a faint serene smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"I go by many names. In Hyrule they call me Farore."
"Wait, as in the goddess Farore?" Link asked.
Farore nodded, leaving Link more puzzled than he had been a moment ago.
"I don't understand. One moment I was in Hyrule Field, the last thing I remember was somebody picking me up off the grass. The next thing I know I find myself here." He cast his eyes around the temple again. "What is this place?"
"You stand at the gateway between the realm you call Hyrule and the realm of the dead, where the souls of the departed sleep until called again to be reborn. This is where all come at the twilight of their life, just as the rising sun will set, and twilight leads to night, so one's life will fade. This realm takes on a different appearance for everyone who comes here, representing the most significant places in one's life, both from past lives and present."
"Gateway to the realm of…" Link faltered as he repeated this, looking up at Farore his eyes widened as he realized what she was saying."Am I dead? is that why I don't feel any pain anymore?"
An icy fear gripped Link's chest as he realized the significance of what he had just said.
Will I ever see the forest again? He thought of his promise to Saria, I said I would come back.
Farore replied before Link was able to contemplate further.
"Dead? No, though your physical body was gravely wounded you may return to it still. If you touch the blade in the room beyond this one your spirit will return," Farore gestured to the large archway at the end of the hall behind them before looking back at Link. "If you walk through the door behind you then your body will perish. Then there will be no one to save Hyrule and it will be buried under an ocean until the cycle begins anew. The cycle repeats once every millennium with the turning of time's wheel. Until that time your soul will slumber and you will not be able to return. Even if you did you would have no memory of your past lives."
"Can't you just destroy Ganondorf yourself?" Link asked. "Why ask me to do it. I am just a Kokiri, and I have not even reached my eleventh name day yet. I got lucky fighting the desert man's creatures until now. I can't even kill a few wolfos without getting -"
His voice cracked and his tongue caught in his throat which suddenly felt dry. He had been about to say mauled but the memory of the wolfos savagely tearing at his arms as he desperately fought them off with his sword before its jaw clamped around his neck as a second one tore his leg open with its teeth were still raw. Vaguely he could recollect an arrow piercing the wolfos side as he had screamed. It had fallen on top of him, the second one quickly meeting the same fate as its companion.
Farore meanwhile had chuckled quietly at Link's last statement, seemingly amused by the boy's growing doubt, Link did not feel the same way. "We have had this conversation before, three times as I recall though you have no knowledge of your previous incarnations. My sisters and I are powerful, that is true, but we a far from omnipotent. If we were, we would have returned to do battle with the demon possessing Ganondorf ourselves. The connection between Hyrule and my realm was destroyed by a demon long ago in a war that nearly demolished Hyrule and the realm it resides in. It was during that war we created the twilight realm to banish those who had opposed us and end the war. The demon rallied an army and sought to use the Triforce to destroy my sisters and myself. The attempt failed but not before the demon discovered how we were able to get to and from Hyrule to our own realm. When the gateway to our realm was cursed, we left safeguards in Hyrule to protect it and the Triforce, only then departing back to our own realm before the gateway was demolished. Because of that, we cannot return to Hyrule, not physically, and can only appear to you when you stand upon the precipice between life and death."
"Can the connection to your realm be restored?" Link asked her.
"As much as I find your ceaseless questions amusing child, we don't have long but I will answer nonetheless. If someone with a pure heart and a balance of wisdom, power and courage touches the Triforce, they could potentially break the cycle and restore our connection to Hyrule. Once I could have made that person myself but the curse placed on the gateway prevented my sisters and I from doing just that. Our search to find someone who could use the Triforce was cut short by the need to leave because the gateway was crumbling. I can speak of this no longer. You do not have long Link. Your body cannot sustain itself for long if you stay here. You must decide."
"How am I going to fight Ganondorf alone? The Great Deku Tree was the most powerful being I have known yet Ganondorf killed him."
"You will not be alone in your fight Link, that I can promise you. There will always be those who will aid you. I will grant you my blessings as I have always done. Have courage, and believe in your strengths."
Farore stood to the side of the dais and Link gazed at the archway at the opposite side of the room. His thoughts turned to Navi, he could still see the horror on her face as she had gazed upon his broken body. He thought of Saria, the Kokiri and The Great Deku Tree. Link had promised to find Princess Zelda and had promised himself that he would avenge the forest guardian's death.
How many more will die if I don't return? It would not just be The Great Deku Tree, if what Farore had said is true then the lives of the Kokiri, the Hylians and all the other inhabitants of Hyrule and the kingdoms around it are in danger. Link thought, pondering for a moment."You told me we have had this conversation before. Did I ever refuse to go back?" Link asked the woman curiously, as he approached the dais.
"No. Nor will I divulge any more information on your past incarnations, few know the cycle exists, and it does not do you well to dwell on the past lest you lose sight of the path in front of you. What matters is your choice now. Will you abandon those you love, or will you return? It is cruel that one so young should be burdened with this but time is short. Lingering too long in this realm is dangerous. If you return after your body has perished, you will be reduced to shade, wondering amongst the shadows forever. Nor can your body survive for long on its own once the soul within it has departed."
Link shuddered at the thought, remembering the darker tales the Great Deku Tree had told of the spirits who had refused to go on bound by regrets of a life that the living had since forgotten or a refusal to acknowledge they were dead.
Link was silent for a moment. A part of him was hoping this was a dream and that he would just wake up in a moment. He looked out at the windows to see the cool glow of twilight, which was quickly fading to black.
"Decide Link. Will you claim the mantle of the heroes who came before you and banish the evil that now threatens your world, or will you abandon it?" Farore told him, sensing his reservations.
I made a promise to The Great Deku Tree, he thought. I will not break it. Link thought resolutely.
He regarded the woman standing by the dais for a moment and then walked past Farore, noticing her smile grow slightly wider as he walked by and headed towards the archway. Link passed stone plinths most of them empty except three at the far end of the room, two stood to either side of the archway and a third stood by the right wall, which bore a statue. The statues were carved in the likeness of a Hylian, each bearing identical swords, clasped in both hands in front of them. The swords had a yellow gem within its crossguard while the crossguard itself was designed in the shape of the wings of a bird, the gem in between resembled the beak of a bird. Beneath the hilt, etched into the blade was the Triforce symbol. Link walked passed them, and through an archway at the end of the room, his footsteps echoing in the empty room. Walking passed the archway. Link came across another far larger stone dais in front of him than the one he had seen before, surrounded by a series of steps. In the centre of the dais was a sword, identical in shape to the ones the statues held in the previous room, with an indigo coloured hilt and a yellow gem in its centre, the Triforce symbol etched into the steel beneath the hilt, the steel itself emanated a faint blue lustre. It had been inserted into a pedestal in the centre of the dais. Link took a tentative step towards it, the gem in the hilt began to glow as he approached it, similar to the kokiri emerald, only white this time. There were disembodied whispers calling into the air around him. They grew louder as he reached out to draw the sword. Some called his name. The gem grew brighter and then a white mist began to cloud his vision as he reached out to touch the sword with the tip of his fingers. Just as he touched with the tip of his fingers everything was enveloped in a white light. The blade's hilt was cool beneath his fingers, Link only noticed this for a moment and then everything went dark.
"Today is not the day you die Link," whispered the voice of a woman faint in the darkness. Link barely noticed it as his senses dulled before he knew no more.