-1A lot of things happened to me on my seventeenth birthday.

First off, I turned seventeen. There was a big party at the castle, almost every living thing in Hyrule attended, the usual. I got a slew of presents, most of which seem interesting. There was this one dress made entirely of Zora scales. The Queen Zora said that it would help me breath underwater. She also made some comment about testing the scales out on tunics first, but this was directed to my dad so I wasn't paying full attention. Oh! And there was this one plant-thing that I got from the leader of the Gorons. He said it was a Bomb Flower, so I think it'll prove to be fun. Dad didn't look too excited, though.

Maybe I should take a minute to introduce myself. I'm Elissa Hyrule, the princess of our lovely country. My mom's Zelda Hyrule, Queen and former Princess of Destiny, and my dad's Link, the legendary Hero of Time. I live in the castle of Hyrule, as expected. I take trips around Hyrule often, making sure I know the people that I might one day rule over. I'm not one of those stuck-up snobby princesses that everyone imagines. I've been raised better. I'm a great diplomat, or so my mom says. I can speak dozens of languages and because of that I can mediate between most people.

Hyrule is a large country, housing many races of people. To the northeast are the Gorons. They live in Death Mountain under the rulership of their Big Brother, Link. To the west is the Zora's Domain, where Queen Ruto Zora resides. To the south of there is the Gerudo Desert, where relations are strained. It's been eleven years since the great war between Ganondorf and my father, yet neither side seems willing to let go of their grudges. Oh well. What can you do, right?

Something else that happened to me on my seventeenth birthday was that I started hearing voices. Well, only one voice, but it was still creepy. There's this old building, see, that Dad calls the Temple of Time. He says it used to be a shrine to the Goddesses, but after an incident he and the seven Sages sealed it off for good. Well, as I walked by that building, I heard this whisper. I stopped and listened. I could hear it, but just barely. Whatever it was kept whispering my name over and over again. After a minute or so, it started to tell me to come into the Temple. At this point I was scared enough to run away, so that's what I did.

-----

"What's wrong?" my mom asked as I dashed into the castle.

My father glanced up from the table. "You look like you saw a Poe."

I sighed, collapsing onto one of the chairs at the table. "Close. I heard someone calling my name."

"Well, you are the princess, dear. It's to be expected." My mother sighed. "I remember back when I was the princess. I used to love sneaking out and roaming the streets, seeing how long it would take Impa to find me."

"I don't mean it was an ordinary person, just a voice. It said my name a lot, then tried to get me to go into the Temple."

Dad bolted forward, almost falling back in his chair. "You mean the Temple of Time?" I nodded. "I assume you know never to go into there, yes?" I nodded again. "Good. I suggest you stay away from there for a while. It may have been some assassin trying to get at you." He smiled, reassuring me. "You did the right thing."

I sighed, relieved, and that would have been the end of the matter if it hadn't been for the momentary glance between my mom and dad. They looked worried, maybe even scared. I acted like I didn't see it, though, and stood up.

"All this running about and stuff has worn me out. I think I'm going to go crawl into that nice, comfy bed of mine."

"Good night," my mom called.

"Sweet dreams, 'Lissa," my father seconded.

I chuckled a bit and wound my way up the large staircase. Walking down an illustrious hallway, I reached an elaborate set of doors, which I opened and entered.

My room was my mom's old room. It had a huge bed, tons of dressers, three mirrors, and a magical wardrobe. I concentrated on a nice nightgown and opened the wardrobe. With a small rush of wind, I was presented with a set of clothes. The contents of the wardrobe changed depending on what I wanted, so it was very useful.

I took a light blue nightgown from the wardrobe and slid out of my dress. A sudden burst of cold night air startled me and I hurriedly pulled the nightgown over my head. Slipping my hands through the sleeves, I smoothed it out, closed the balcony doors, and crawled into my nice, comfy bed.

-

"Elissa…"

"You must come…"

"The Temple of Time is open…"

"It opens for you…"

-

I woke with a start, realizing that the voice I heard in my dream was the one I had heard earlier. I looked outside and saw the sun peeking its orange head over the southern forest. I got out of bed, made the bed up, and went downstairs.

Mom and Dad were sitting around the smaller table, eating a 'light breakfast' as they called it. I slid into the seat next to my mom and she placed a plate of food in front of me.

"Good morning," Dad said, yawning. "Up bright and early, hmm?"

I yawned as well. "A little too early, maybe."

He laughed. "I know that feeling," he replied with a meaningful glance at my mom. "Zelda here used to actually think it would be a good idea to wake me at nine in the morning. Sure, I got used to it, but there's days that I miss sleeping until noon."

"I give you you're chances."

"Yeah, but now you've got me wired to Cucco crow." Dad stopped suddenly and stared at me for a second. "What's wrong?"

Point to Dad for being super-observant. "A bad dream. I kept dreaming that I heard that voice from the Temple."

There was that worried look between my parents again. My dad stood and walked over to me. "It was probably just a harrowing event, that's all. Don't worry about it; it'll pass."

It didn't pass.

For an entire week, I had the same dream over and over again. Those four sentences, those fourteen words, kept echoing in my head day and night. After the second time I stopped mentioning it, trying to ignore it. The sixth time, I realized that I had to do something.

The seventh time, I listened.

-

After dreaming those identical words seven times, I decided to check it out. I got a nice, warm coat from the wardrobe and snuck out of the castle in the dead of the night. Creeping around the town, I pulled open the doors to the Temple.

I walked into the dark Temple, and suddenly lights lit up everywhere. Some sort of music floated down over me, and the glow of three stones caught my eye. I walked past the Spiritual Stones and to the Door of Time.

"Elissa…" the voice whispered. "You have come…"

"Who are you?" I asked. I put my hand on the Door and suddenly, it glowed and opened a hair. I pushed it the rest of the way open and entered the small room beyond.

In the center of this small room was a sword piercing the floor below it. Something in my mind said Master Sword, though I hadn't heard anything about the Master Sword besides that my dad used it ten years ago to banish Ganondorf Dragmire.

There was a rustle of fabric behind me and I spun around, only to come face to face with myself! I backed up in shock, and glanced around for the mirror.

There was no mirror. She was identical to me, even down to the fleece coat and deep green nightgown. She didn't seem surprised, though, and casually tossed her coat aside.

"Who are you?" I asked again.

"Me? I'm you," she replied.

"What do you mean, me?"

She sighed. "Ever heard of the Dark World?"

I knew it was dangerous and had almost destroyed Hyrule ten years ago, but I didn't know much else about it. Suddenly, from the recesses of my brain I felt a strong sense of foreboding.

"I know of it."

"Well, that's where I'm from. I'm the Dark World version of you."

"Okay," I replied, figuring that any version of me couldn't be too dangerous. "So, what did you want?"

"Just to see you. I heard about the Light World from my Link."

"So there's a Dark version of Dad, too?"

"Who? Link?"

"Yeah, Dad."

The copy of me seemed annoyed. "I hate to break it to you, but Link's not your dad. In fact, he's not even related to you at all."