Actually, the world would last as long as he liked. A few notes on the ocarina, and he was back at the beginning, three days ago. Seventy-two hours, if you liked to be precise. 6 a.m. if you just plain wanted to be anal about it. He'd repeated these same 3 days over and over again, but mostly the first and the second. Most often, he went back in time before the third day.
This entire ordeal made him quite sad on the days he stopped and slept. It was always like this. A bout of deep sleep, a nightmare of what was to come next… This dreaded sensation that he would continue to be reincarnated as a hero for the remainder of the existence of this planet.
Link hated it. He missed Saria and the Kokiri Forest, despite his not being welcome there back when he had lived there so long ago, before all the adventures. It was better than these aimless journeys where he turned corners half afraid his death would be lurking behind them.
Much like other nights, tonight he woke up sweaty, trembling and afraid. Tatl was still fast asleep, Link noted, as he gazed over at her sleeping form. Or rather, she was pretending to be. But as far as he knew, she was asleep.
It was sort of a routine by now, though Link knew nothing of it. He merely partook in his part, oblivious to the fact that Tatl might ever be watching him. Meanwhile, she feigned ignorance when the whole ordeal of this quest got to be too much for him, when his restless nightmares awoke her, she would just pretend to be asleep.
By now, the tears were streaming in a steady flow down Link's cheeks. The hero… always the hero. He wanted his parents back, the ones Ganondorf killed. He wanted friends, the whole deal; a normal life.
But instead, he was stuck playing the hero to thousands of people when he was only eleven years old. 'Why couldn't someone else do this job for a change?' he thought bitterly.
When the tears were done, he would attempt to sleep on a pilot half soaked through with tears. Most times, he would just go back to tossing and turning while he was still sobbing, never managing to fall asleep. When dawn came, he would await for Tatl to wake up so he could pretend he had just woken up. On the rare occasion, he would just fall back to sleep. This was one of them.
When she was sure Link was asleep again, Tatl would open her eyes. Even though fairy tears were invisible, her sobs weren't. She couldn't help but cry for the boy who was doomed to spend his life saving lives for the rest of eternity. She knew his story; she knew this would continue to happen for as long as the Earth existed. And when he cried, she wished for his sake someone else could save everyone, instead of him.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Link awoke to the sound of a rooster's crowing at 6 a.m. Only 48 hours 'till the end of the world now. He withdrew his sword, gazing at it, he couldn't help but remember his old one, and the adventures he had with Navi. He missed her and Zelda.But there were no more tears. He had to be strong now for the good of the people. Bitterly, he wondered if he had a hero complex. The thought soon passed, and he faked a smile for his own sake. He couldn't stay miserable forever.
Tatl awoke an hour or so later, gazing down at Link. He smiled back up at her. She knew it was a poor imitation of a smile. She could tell these things about him, she knew when he meant a smile.
And later on, when a street vendor offered Link some free candies, she could tell his smile was truly real.
"Candy! I love candy!" He said, grin stretching from ear to ear. Link thanked the man, eating pretty much all of the candies in just under a minute.
Because of those candies, Link was in a good mood for the rest of the day, as he searched for more clues to take down the Skull Kid, putting an end to his evil deeds, and right the land once again for all that was good and holy.
But all he found was a bunch of Skull Kid's graffiti on walls – and a dead end.
Tatl couldn't help but smile as he was cheerful despite the previous night. She really loved Link, despite it was more or less the way a parent loved their child. She couldn't help but admire his hero complex. 'It's what keeps him going,' she decided.
There would always be those moments like last night. But then there would be the happy times, stretching on endlessly for days.
But Link was just like everyone else, or at least those who didn't sit and mope and stay sad about life all day long. Most visible in those moments was the fact that he felt defeated. And that was why she loved him, because those moments made him seem wholly and completely human, and not like a superhuman hero.
And to her, he would always be that ordinary boy, here to save the world. Always.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: I hope you liked it. I've never done a LoZ fic so I'm not so sure on how IC this was. I hope it's not too OOC. I wrote it on some paper at the pool when I got inspired, and then self-edited while I typed it up.