Prologue: A Dream, a Prophecy
Dark clouds crossed the sky.
I found myself in a world of darkness. I couldn't see anything around me, although I could sense that the air was thick with the moisture of a brewing storm. A great rumbling reached my ears from far off in the distance, and lightning strikes flashed, highlighting the world in a dark shadow. The cold night stretched on and on, illuminated only by slightly lighter blocks of shapes far off in the distance that could be seen after each blinding flash. The earth around me was unsteady and unpredictable, seeming to disintegrate below my feet as I stood. Stepping forward, I blindly attempted to locate stable ground in the pitch black. The soft touch of bending grass beneath my feet confirmed that I was standing in a field of some sort. Around me was nothing but empty air, heavy with the burden of gloomy shadows. It played about my face, cackling in soft echoes throughout my ears, and brushing against my skin in icy wafts.
Squinting, I turned my gaze towards the horizon, where a pale moon was inching up over the distant hills. It gave off a waxy glow, drowning the world in a shadow of dim grey. The faint light that it produced fell upon the shapes in the distance, making them decipherable amongst the darkness. They seemed to be crumbling buildings of an old civilization: faint, murky, and lifeless. I stared at them for a long time, wondering what exactly they had been in the golden age of this forgotten world. In a strange sense, I felt as if I recognized them.
It was only then that I realized that this dying place was the land of Hyrule.
Hyrule. Glorious, powerful, free Hyrule. My homeland. My world. My life. Was this all that it had succumbed to? Instinctively, my head curved towards the heavens in grief, and I silently prayed to the Gods for the sake of this barren land. A growing storm distracted my gaze. In the clouds was a world of hatred, pain and suffering. It seemed to be laughing at my pitiful state, and the fate of this weak land. It tormented me as I stood so slightbelow it. I could hear its taunts, laced upon the breath of the wind that danced about my face. A crystal tear escaped my eyelid, and was stolen away by a gust of the storm. The taunting, then, grew even louder, and the sound began to take the shape of the deep voice of a man. A profound, intense hatred suddenly built up from deep inside the pit of my stomach, threatening to burst from my lips in a scream. I hated that man. I hated what he was doing to my beautiful kingdom. I hated the fact that I, Princess Zelda, had done nothing to stop him. What was wrong with me?
It was then that I swallowed back my tears, and rose my chin up higher in determination. I realized that all was now over. Hyrule was lost, and the last parts of it were left for only me to overlook. I took a step forward, unwavering now as the confidence in my actions grew. I could hear the world being swallowed up behind me as I took step after step towards the gloomy horizon. I was the source of light in this doomed place. I was all that was left, and every step I took drew me closer to the end of it all. An end with no future, only a cruel, evil death. Hyrule, my home, was shattering before me, and nothing that I could do would have the power to stop it. I shut my eyes, and continued marching towards the last of anything. I waited for the moment when my next step would strike upon no ground, and I would fall into a great gaping chasm, to my death. But first, I decided, I would be strong in my final moments. I would honor my country, my father: The King of Hyrule, and this magnificent, beautiful world that I had lived in. I would leave this life in nobility, in respect of everything that I believed in. This was how it would all end.
With each step the laughter grew louder. The darkness had begun to overwhelm me, licking my face and forcing me down like the violent spray of an ocean wave. Every step I took was harder and slower, the clothes upon my back beginning to feel like a burden. When, finally, the fatigue was too much, I threw my eyes up again and saw the source of the laughter. A man on horseback stood before me, his face thrown back in malice. His hand was outstretched, and a dark tunnel of twilight descended from it. Abruptly, his laughter eased, and he slowly lowered his head to stare at me with broad, pooling eyes and a powerful grin. As soon as I saw his face, I realized that I recognized him. He was one who had come to my father not too long ago as a soldier of the desert countries, seeking refuge from the brutality of the world, far to the east. The blood red hair, darkened complexion, and unmistakable eyes; my mind raced as I thought back to a time long past, when my father had met with the man. I remembered seeing him, but could not recall his name.
Suddenly, I gasped in shock, my knees buckling below me and my expression wide with fear. I collapsed to the ground, panting. Pressure from the darkness above had plowed into my back, throwing me to the ground in mercy. I screamed in sorrow, and in pain. Fighting against the pressure, I managed to force my head up to view the man again. I panted as my eyes narrowed in hatred, and my golden hair whipped about my pointed ears. The man smiled manically, and trotted with his horse towards me slowly, savoring my moment of weakness. The eyes of his black horse were a glittering red as they pierced into my skin. When the man reached me, he dismounted and lifted my chin upwards to stare into his face with rough hands. I snarled at him in disgust. He smiled, then removed his hand quickly, letting my head plunge to the ground and throb painfully in the dust. I glued my eyes shut and grimaced in sorrow. In the next few moments, I remembered the greatest days of my life, bade farewell to my family, and waited for the end to come. The man above me threw his hands to the black sky in triumph, knowing that his beastly plans had succeeded. The notion caused a strip of lightning to crackle out of the sky, and bear a source of murky light towards the ruined world. It was all over now. He had won, and I had lost. With one last effort, the darkness leaped from the crevice in his hand in a powerful surge. I closed my eyes tighter and waited for the force to slowly kill me. I took my last breath, waiting for the next moment, when my soul would be purged with evil.
It was then that the clouds parted.
A beacon of light, like a holy sword, slashed through the twilight. The man cried in agony as the tunnel receded into his hand. In a split second, he leaped upon his midnight horse and fled with great haste towards the depths of the earth. In wonder my eyes snapped open and I lifted my head from the dirt. The pressure that had forced me down was gone, replaced with the warm air of a summer's day, and the blue heavens of clear skies. The light had saved me. But where was it coming from?
With a sudden burst of energy, I stumbled to my feet and swerved my head north towards the base of the light. My golden locks tumbled about my shoulders, and my gown blew in the wind as I stared intently past the escaping shadows and towards the parting trees, to an entrance in a distant forest. With a sudden explosion of green light, the twilight fully receded, and the fields of Hyrule returned, once again, to their full flourish. I saw then, under a canopy of branches to the north Kokiri forests, something unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
A young boy, clothed in clad green, bearing the source of the light.
An emerald of the forest.