I've had this idea on my mind for a long time, but for some strange reason it unfolded perfectly last night. You know that poem in the front of the Majora's Mask booklet? Well, I THINK I figured it out. And sorry if anyone else had this idea before me and was going to post it. It's a snow day, and I am bored out of my mind.

This is also very confusing and short. You may not think it has much to do with the poem, but it does. Trust me.

This takes place right after OoT.

Echoes of a Legend

By PikaCheeka

Looking back at the castle for another split second, for one last time, I kicked Epona into a flat out run. There was too much hurt in Hyrule, too much loneliness and pain. You can feel it in the air. At least...I can. I had lost too many friends in the fight with Ganondorf. Now physically, but mentally. Saria? She had always been my only real friend.

She's a sage. She's doomed to guard Ganon forever. Besides, only a few people can remember all the war and hardship that took place. All the sages obviously, Zelda, and I. But seeing as all the Sages are gone now, everyone has to forget them entirely to have the world make sense. They can't just forget the war and not forget their friends, who by now no longer exist.

No one ever speaks of Saria anymore. She's gone forever.

Navi is gone forever now too. She stayed only to help me through those hard eight years. Then she abandoned me. I'm back to having no fairy. But nothing is the same. The reason Mido hated me was because he liked Saria and I was her friend. Now she's gone, so he has no reason to hate me.

And Zelda? She's back to being the Princess. I'm back to being a Kokiri boy. Who's going to let me go and see her now? Besides, what would I even say to her? Nothing, I couldn't say anything to her.

I had nowhere to go, no one to go to. These past seven or eight years never happened, no one even knows me anymore outside of the forest. I can't even go to Malon anymore. She doesn't know me. She probably doesn't even know Epona anymore. And I couldn't even begin to explain.

I remember so long ago someone told me that a few odd creatures can remember all the hardship. But who? Maybe the Deku Tree, maybe...but I can't go into that forest again. I can't stand to see all those kids never knowing Saria. I can't watch all those kids with their fairies. I have no fairy anymore.

So I am leaving. I am leaving this land of Hyrule. I have been investigating the Lost Woods for some time now. I was even considering staying there forever. I would turn into a Skullkid. Skullkids are carefree. They have nothing to care about in the whole world. They cheat and steal and pull pranks and yet they are harmless. They have nothing to fear, they can never die unless killed by another living creature. Though I pity them in that way.

There is nothing for me left in Hyrule. I can't go back to living an ordinary life like Zelda said. Too many people were lost. Perhaps it would have been better if I had asked to forget it all like I had been offered. But I couldn't then. I thought everything would be the same again. I was wrong. Nothing was the same. No Saria, no Navi, no Zelda...

No Link. I am the last link between the two times. The last person who remembers other than the Princess. One day I would like to tell everyone the story. But who would listen? No one would, especially because I am the Hero. The Hero of Time.

I don't want to be anymore.

It was good while it lasted. It was good to fight evil and live on the edge. It was good watching Ganon die.

But through it all I thought it would be different. I didn't think Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Rauru, or Impa would ever have to lock themselves away with Ganondorf, keeping him in place for all eternity. I thought they would stay with me in Hyrule. I thought the castle would be rebuilt somewhere new. I thought I would stay seventeen, not return to ten. I thought Navi would stay with me.

I was wrong entirely. Nothing was the same.

It would have been better if it was. But it couldn't stay that way.

It turned out that Ganondorf had corrupted far too much of the land and time had to turn back onto the years before he reigned. It also turned out I had missed seven years of my life locked away in the Realm. Years that Zelda insisted I reclaim.

So I did. But I wanted to remember it all. I never should have. Or maybe I should have died bringing Ganondorf down with me. He would be satisfied. He wouldn't want to return to Hyrule and take revenge, which I know he will do. But most of all, the sages wouldn't have to watch him. They could live a normal life again, just without me. Not that that mattered really.

But now I have discovered something, a great flaw in Zelda's plan. Everyone is happy with her plan except me. I was the Hero, and I ended up with the least. I am now friendless entirely. I am just a lonely Kokiri boy with an Ocarina and a sword and a horse that isn't even mine.

She shouldn't be mine. She time warped with me, and now she is a little filly. I wish I could return her to Malon, she loved Malon. But I can't tell if she remembers her anymore. Probably not. I am probably the only master she ever knows.

But I am not her master. I was her master for the time that I was a hero. I still am a Hero, so Zelda says. But I am not. I know I am not. I am forgotten.

I have no more battles to fight. I believe that was my soul purpose in life. I believe I was born to be the Hero of Time as Saria said. And now that I am the hero and no one knows it, my life is basically over. There is nothing more to do.

I wish I had never been the hero sometimes. I never would have lost myself.

I used to think I was just an ordinary kid, someone who could do whatever with his life. Now I know I am not ordinary, and I can not do whatever I like. I am a Hero, one who's prime is already over at age ten.

What happens to heroes after they are finished with battling?

I am not sure exactly. All I know is that I am leaving Hyrule. Maybe forever. I can not stand it anymore. I can not bear to look up at that castle anymore without my heart tearing. I can no longer look across Hyrule field without remembering the first time I ever saw it, right after Saria had burst into tears and given me her ocarina. I can not enter the Kokiri forest without remembering Navi, my dearest companion.

I have been traveling throughout the Lost Woods for some time now, searching for a door to a new land. It seems at times I will never find one. Maybe there are none. Maybe I am doomed to stay here in Hyrule forever.

With a horse that isn't mine, an ocarina that isn't mine, a sword that isn't mine, and a past that is mine. One I want to leave. That past, that heroic destiny of mine, has killed Link. Has killed me. I am no more any longer. Just...

Empty.

Link, Hero of Time. I don't fit that title any longer. I hate it, it killed me. The land of Hyrule used me up and abandoned me. It makes me wonder...

I pulled out my Ocarina of Time.

Was Zelda even my friend? Did she know...what would happen to me after I defeated Ganondorf? And did she even care? She was Royal, royal people make sacrifices to save their land. Perhaps it was me. maybe she did know, but did not care. Maybe she simply used me, as Hyrule did.

I turned Epona sharply, hating my ugly thoughts. I was no hero, a hero wouldn't think that way. Even so, I held the Ocarina as tightly as possible. Could I, could I go back? Could I go back into the temple of time? Could I steal the three Spiritual Stones? Could I open the door and take the Sword? Could I bring the world forward into time again? Could I bring the real Link back?

The real Link had been lost...as had...

Then it struck me. The real Link...the real Link was Ganondorf.

A/n- Sorry people, I seriously did not know it would turn out that way. I started thinking too much...