Twilight Epilogue
Author's Note: A one-shot of Link's PoV. AKA: First Person.
Warning: Contains suggestion of Suicide
Disclaimer: The characters, places and things of the Legend of Zelda universe do not belong to me. Song verse/poem at the end belongs to Nightwish. I claim no owning of anything, just the time it took to write it all down.
~.~.~.~.~.~
I watched, as if in slow motion, as the mirror burst into dust, scattering across the chamber's floor, and in a flash, the twilight rock dulled and everything was silent.
I fell to my knees before the great stone, reaching a hand out and laying it against the cool surface. Letting out the breath I had been holding, I let my head drop into the crook of my arm, tears falling from my eyes for the first time since this journey began. I did not cry for myself I realized, but for the past, and the future, and most of all for what I had lost.
In the short time I had known her, something had changed in me. For the better, I do not know, but I felt something deep inside that had not been there before.
"Link?" Zelda's voice sounded behind me, but it met deaf ears as I stood and pushed past the princess, walking toward my fallen sword.
I knew her eyes were on me as I picked up the sacred sword and sheathed it on my back. I had no idea what I was planning to do, but nothing would be as it was. She walked toward me and placed a hand on my arm, staying my movements if for a moment.
"This isn't the end you know." Her melodic voice seems dead to my ears, as though killed by the coldness I knew my eyes held.
"What is it then princess?" My voice was like ice, and she recoiled as though hit. "Every story has to have an end." The words left my mouth violently, and I shoved her away stalking toward the entrance to the mirror chamber.
"Oh Link…" I knew she was hurt by what I said, but I no longer cared what she thought, what any of them thought.
My journey through the silent prison was a blur, rooms that had once been filled with death echoed with my footsteps, all trace of shadow gone with the now-dead master. Tied at the front steps, my faithful Epona whickered upon seeing me approach, she seemed to sense my anger, and pawed nervously at the dirt. Without a word, I climbed upon her back and spurred at her sides, beginning the journey out of this god forsaken desert.
For days I road, never resting, never stopping, I had no idea where I was leading the horse, or if I was even doing the leading.
A week passed, perhaps more perhaps less, and I found myself in the middle of Hyrule field. It was twilight, and off in the distance I spotted a shimmer of light. Rubbing at my eyes, I cautiously lead Epona forward. Perhaps it was lack of sleep leading my vision, but there before me I saw her standing against the setting sun.
I let out a whoop of joy and flung myself from my horse, running forward. My voice rang out in the rushing wind, screaming for her, I tried to run faster, but she only seemed to get further away. A puddle in the ground threw me off balance and sent me flying forward. I landed on my knees, palms scraping against the rock strewn ground. I looked up, where she was standing, to see only darkness, the sun set beneath the horizon.
I'm not sure how long I was in that puddle, beating my fists into the ground in frustration. Tears of anger and loss fell from my eyes, and I wished for a release from this pain, I wished for her. Pulling it from my back, the great sword seemed dull now my quest had finished. I looked at my face in the blade, appalled at what I saw there. My hair was matted, limp and greasy, and my eyes, once a bright blue, now only looked dead and lifeless. I felt as thought I had aged a hundred years.
"Link…I…see you later…"
Her words echoed in my mind, but the more I thought about them, the more I saw that empty stone, and the broken mirror. I tried to remember my childhood, the time before she found me in the wood, but all I could see was the trials we faced side by side, to save our doomed worlds. She changed my life so much in such a little time.
Slowly I returned to Epona, she had waited patiently for me as she always did. "Good girl." I petted her flank, then shook my head and smiled. "Go back home girl, go to Illia, and keep her happy."
Epona snorts, but she turns away and gallops toward the forest not looking back. About her neck I had strung the trinket Illia had given to me, I hope she forgives me.
I've never really thought about death much, though in the last few months I've come quite close to it on several occasions. Clutching the sword tightly, I cast my glance to the night sky. I could feel hot tears rolling down my face as I looked into the stars above, but my mind was blissfully blank for the first time in days.
I wonder if I'll feel anything.
"I live no more to shame, nor me, nor you. And you…I wish I didn't feel for you anymore."