The spirit of Ganondorf Dragmire returns to awareness in a dark cave in an unknown part of Hyrule.
The return isn't like waking, exactly – it bears some resemblance to waking from a deep slumber, but it's... faster. A sudden snap from knowing nothing to knowing everything.
Ganondorf knows.
He knows of everything he's done since Twinrova performed their ritual and bound Demise's soul to his. He knows of the Fierce War, of the bloodlust and rage, the whispers at the back of his mind becoming angry shouts, drowning out all rational thought. He knows what came after, the shouts receding but the anger remaining, driving him to get in close with the King of Hyrule, whispering to kill him and take the kingdom, the Triforce, by his power alone. He knows of being caught and sentenced to death, of the execution...
He can't quite remember the execution itself through the haze of anger in his mind. There's something important there, but...
He doesn't have time to dwell on it before a voice speaks.
"Oh... a lost spirit. Are you one of those who challenged my gauntlet?"
The speaker is a woman with long, blue-tinted hair and large gossamer wings on her back – a Great Fairy.
"No," the Great Fairy says, standing from her place in her fountain and approaching him, curious but cautious. "No, you are something else."
As she draws closer, her magic catches on something within him, and she stops, frowns slightly, confusion marring her delicate features.
"I know you."
Now it is Ganondorf's turn to be confused. He's never met a Great Fairy before – never even met a regular fairy.
The Great Fairy nods to herself. "Yes, I do know you. And yet... something about you is different, desert man."
She cocks her head slightly, then shakes it. "I cannot help you, lost soul. But I can send you to someone who can."
She raises a hand and gestures to him.
And suddenly, he is elsewhere.
He feels the presence of light magic, great and overwhelming. In front of him is a spring; from the spring comes a serpent, a spirit of light and embodiment of the power within the shrine.
"What," says the spirit, as it becomes aware of Ganondorf's presence, "has Navi sent me now?"
Ganondorf cannot speak – not out of any sense of fright or awe, but because his spirit, for reasons unknown, lacks a form and therefore a mouth.
The spirit regards him for a while – then a feeling passes over Ganondorf that if the spirit had physical eyes, it would be rolling them.
"I suppose this is necessary, this spirit being who he is," the light spirit mutters, apparently unaware that Ganondorf can in fact hear it. "But did Navi really have to send him to me?"
Now Ganondorf would be rolling his own eyes.
"Very well. I will return you to a body," the spirit announces. "Focus on the form, and I will do the grunt work. As always..."
This last is muttered again. Ganondorf feels himself becoming rather irritated with this spirit's attitude.
The spirit gathers its energy, the light in the spring converging on a central point – the ball in the light spirit's mouth.
A second later, the power leaps to Ganondorf's spirit.
The world rewrites itself, and Ganondorf feels his spirit spread to fill his new body – which looks a great deal like the one he inhabited during the Fierce War, but with more hair (he'd had to cut it short to avoid it being used as a weapon against him). He gasps in a breath, then another, moving his arms and legs... and he falls flat on his face as his legs fail to support him.
With a scowl, he picks himself up off the ground, glaring at the amused light spirit, who wipes the amusement from its essence hastily.
"Don't glare at me. I wasn't the one who fell flat on my face," the spirit taunts, but the edge in its voice goes unacknowledged by Ganondorf.
"Whatever," the man grumbles, turning to leave. "I don't have to stand here and take this."
"Go and find Courage," the spirit calls before he leaves. "Maybe he can teach you how to walk!"
Ganondorf ignores this and glares out over the sun-bright Lake Hylia for a moment before making for the castle. He's not sure how long he and – that – were in the Twilight Realm, but he has a feeling there's still a Princess Zelda. Maybe he can warn her of the plot against her. Or something.
He manages to reach the gate of Castle Town before the sky turns Twilight orange, and a sudden pain wracks his body, throwing him to his hands and knees.
With a high scream of pain the likes of which Ganondorf would never have considered his throat capable, he passes out.
He wakes up in the form of a massive boar, chained by one foreleg to the wall in a dungeon he recognizes as that of Hyrule Castle.
Oh, bugger.