His first friend is a ghost. It only seems right, because he feels like one himself. Like a pale shade of a boy, already too tired and worn thin from a tiny piece of a giant world.

When King Rhoam fades and Link is left alone, it feels a little like heartbreak, but he can't say he remembers what that feels like. He suspects that isn't the right word, anyway. He contemplates the bitter taste in the back of his mouth and the burning tension in his chest, like a hand gripping his heart.

Betrayal. That's the word that comes to mind. It seems so obvious now.

The Great Plateau is below him. Beyond, Hyrule sprawls as far as he can see, misty mountains and mellow plains and one roiling, toxic castle. The maw of Calamity Ganon flexes, bites the air in a cloud of furling tendrils. Ready for him.

Link isn't ready. Not for any of it, he thinks dimly. The inside of his head feels bleak and foggy, as if waking up from a hundred years of sleep has left him still groggy. But his body defies the thought; his muscles remember what he is supposed to be; they've carried him over every inch of the Great Plateau, clothed and unclothed. His hands have wrested weapons from his enemies in desperation, and have brought death with calm assurance.

He is a swordsman. Of this, Link is absolutely certain.

When he takes his hurt and tucks it away, it feels like a familiar thing to do. He must have experienced loss, but the memory of it has been taken from him. To him, this is the first.

Link climbs down from the tower, down the walls of the Temple of Time, rough hands scaling the worn stone with practiced strength. The sky is dimming and the air is growing cold, so he walks up the hill to the ridge where he first saw the face of another, where a campfire's smothered embers lay in a dark streak.

In the remaining light of the day, he cuts wood in even logs and builds a fire to last through the night. For much of it, he lays awake, curled up with his gear as a makeshift pillow. When he drifts off to sleep, he dreams of a field full of clear light and frogs.

When he wakes, he finds a baked apple beside him, still warm.