It was dark and getting darker as he moved forward, his fingers were raw and bleeding from the sharp rocks in the mud.

It wasn't a darkness you could see, but the kind of darkness one felt as everything in their soul succumbed to hopelessness.

Blood dripped into the mud as he fought his failing body. Broken and beaten he fought the screaming pain that was coming from his shattered body. The taste of blood filled his mouth with every breath. He knew in his heart the suffering wouldn't last longer.

Soon the pain would be over and so would his life. Looking up one last time he saw the rocky outcrop he was looking for and crawled in pulling his self out of the rain and dropped to the cold muddy earth.

He laid there and felt the chill of the mud seep through the front of his tunic. Placing a hand into the mud he tried to sit up and felt his arm shake with weakness. Giving up he closed his eyes.

How could it have gone this bad? He thought.

Tears fell from his eyes as he yelled with pain and anger. He shoved his hand into the muddy earth and pushed hard to rolled over on to his back. He shook as his body became cold and let his eyes close for a brief second, his life flashed before his eyes.

"Link!" A soft voice cried out with joy.

Link looked up at Zelda as he climbed the wall to her balcony and smiled at the mild irritation that blessed her beautiful face.

Shaking her head with a playful grin she continued to scold him, "What are you doing Link? You have permission to come and go through the gates now!"

Link grinned "Where's the fun in that?"

Zelda was a woman in her 20's and she was beautiful. She had a slender body that was always perfect now matter how much older she became. Her eyes were a blue that could only be matched by the brightest sapphire gems. Her blond hair seemed to shimmer with the radiance of the sun and her face was that of a goddess.

Link hoisted his self up over the edge and placed his hand on her back pulling her in to him. Leaning his head forward as close to hers as possible before their lips touched he spoke with sweetness in his voice. "How's the love of my life doing?"

Blushing she answered him with a soft kiss on his lips. He felt her lean into his arms as he wrapped them around her and felt her hands explore his body as they dug into his back feeling his strength. Lost in the moment he felt her warm breath on his face as she let out a quiet gasp while still kissing him. He nearly felt like his body was going to explode as goosebumps exploded across his skin with the way her fingertips dug into his back trying to pull him in as close as possible.

She couldn't say anything as he kissed her with deeper more passionate desires. It was like partaking of a fruit that he knew was forbidden and dangerous.

"Enough!" A stern voice yelled.

Link jerked away from Zelda and held his hands up in the air as Impa stormed in through the door with an angry look on her face. "Your only going to live a life of heartache if you continue with this course of actions. You know I don't oppose of you two being together, but your father has made it very clear about his thoughts on link." Impa took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she stared at the back of Zelda.

Link took a step back as he put his hands down. The stern look of Impa was offset by the look of sadness in her eyes.

Zelda took a deep breath as she hung her head. She let out her held breath then turned to face her body-guard. "I'm sorry mam. we were just kissing though, honest."

Impa crossed her arms as she gave her a motherly look of knowing better. Had she of checked on Zelda a few moments later the princess probably wouldn't be a virgin any longer.

Without warning the castle was shook by a sudden blast. The wall hangings and chunks of the ceiling fell to the ground around Impa and Zelda. Zelda stumbled on some of the debris and Link quickly grabbed her as the sound of the blast appeared to echo around them for what felt like forever until if faded off into the distance.

"What was that!" Zelda gasped as she clung to Link looking around at the pieces of rock on her floor.

Letting go of Zelda he quickly turned to the balcony to look down. He shook his head as a plume of smoke drifted through the sky from behind the hills where the village was. He saw Zelda stand next to him on one side and Impa stood on the other. Link looked at Impa and saw worry etched across her face. She shook her head before looking at link. "Something is horribly wrong. I can feel it," looking at Zelda she continued to speak in a low voice, "I think we should get you to a safe place Princess."

Link nodded his head in agreement. "Keep her safe old woman, I'm going to check out the village to see what's going on." He pulled out a small-sword and held it tight as he took a few steps back then jumped off the balcony falling into a moat of water below.

He made his way down the winding road and ran as fast as he could through the village. Looking around he could see everyone had just dropped everything and hid. The village was empty and was strangely quiet. Link nearly dropped his sword when he rounded the corner and saw the source of all the destruction. The smoldering ruin was beyond comprehension as link stood rooted with wide-eyed puzzlement at what was left of the temple of time .

Link stepped closer and wordlessly looked at the destruction. He had to climb up a crumbling wall and jumped down to a room that had been hidden at one time. Standing up he looked at the center of the now open room and saw the hero's sword was still in the pedestal where he had left it years ago. Looking around he saw it was all that was left. Taking a few steps in to investigate he held his sword up quickly when saw some of the rubble started moving.

Link heard a faint breathing as the rubble moved a bit more. "Help." Came a week voice and link dropped his sword and ran to the moving mess.

When link cleared away a chunk of the wall he was shocked to see Raru with a board sticking out of his body coughing up large amounts of blood.

Kneeling to next to him Link shook his head and started to pull on the piece of wood. He felt Raru's hand grab his arm and looked up at the old mans ashen face. "Link," he coughed and blood trickled down his chin, "Gannon's loose, get sword, destroy.." Raru's eyes opened wide and link watched as the pupils of his eyes flutter before he let out his last breath and quit moving as his head fell limp to the ground.