Seven years ago I had a dream. I foresaw myself against a man I felt was made of purest evil. A dream promised to be fulfilled. Leading me on a journey that culminated in the greatest battle of my life.
And seven years had gone slowly by since that fateful day, when I fought and defeated Ganondorf. When seven sages embodying the powers of light, nature, fire, water, shadow, spirit, and time came together and sealed him away.
At least, that's what it felt like to me. That day was today, in fact. Another time, a different world. Seven years after seven years, yet still on the same day.
After I stopped the fell bandit of the desert who proclaimed himself king of evil, the sage of time and princess of Hyrule, Zelda, returned me to the past carrying the brand of the Triforce of Courage behind my left hand.
She did it in the pretext of returning to me a life I'd lost. Seven years spent in slumber, confined to the Sacred Realm. A holy ground where the fabled Triforce the gods left behind awaited an owner with a balanced heart, but found only schism in the hands of a power hungry dictator.
Her real reason I knew, but did not say. It was the right thing to do. Zelda sent me back to defeat Ganondorf again in the past, to preclude everything that happened thereafter. His war of conquest fueled by the power of the gods. The people suffering under his tyranny. I accepted that, and did as I knew she wanted.
I was sent back in time to a paltry few days before Ganondorf, then merely the king of thieves, attacked Hyrule castle at the head of a Gerudo army. The mark on my hand warranted the king's belief of my claims, and a successful defense was mounted. The Gerudo bandits were driven back into the desert and their king's plot was foiled.
What became of Ganondorf since then, I don't know. Perhaps he still rules in the desert, hoping for another chance to claim the Triforce. Maybe someday he will try again. Or maybe he died from his injuries in the battle, if he can be slain through any mortal means. The Triforce is something that I believe exists outside of time, or at least how we interpret it. It's more complicated than that. If the Triforce of Courage from the future can mark me in the past, perhaps Ganondorf's piece can do the same for him. Could the Ganon of the future protect his past self somehow?
Whatever the truth was; if he returned, I would be waiting for him.
Or perhaps I'm being nostalgic on a day I've lived once before. A different day where Hyrule was ravaged by darkness. The people scared or hateful. Given to the darker passions of their nature by the malefic aura of the King of Evil. This Hyrule was bright and filled with hope.
But to be honest, I don't feel like I belong here. The world that's mine is the one I left behind on this day. I was allowed to live the childhood I'd lost, but my childhood ended the day I lifted the blade of evil's bane from its pedestal. Even the owl said I'd grown up, looking into my childhood eyes.
After it was all over, I set out, searching for Navi, my friend. Why she left, I couldn't tell you. But I found a new land, and a new adventure. That was a harrowing trial all its own, but a story for another time.
Now here I stand, outside the gates to Hyrule Castle town. The place where I faced Ganondorf for the first time as a youth, in that dream come to pass. A nightmare I conquered this day, seven years from today. Now, now I'm free to face the future.
And whatever it may bring.