As I see the smoke-filled sky fade to black I hear someone scream from far behind me. It isn't a scream of horror. It is one of utter despair. Mortifying despair. I can't move. I can't speak. All I can do is listen to the screaming soul fade as I succumb to the darkness.


"Link!"

...

...

...

"Open your eyes."

I hear a voice gently calling to me. A voice. It's familiar but...different. I begin to feel my body regaining energy as I do as the voice says to. I open my eyes but immediately close them again as my eyes sting from the harsh blue light that is above me.

"Open your eyes."

As I hear the voice call to me again I feel my sense of touch returning to me. I'm lying down on my back, surrounded by what I assume to be is water. It feels as though it is helping me to wake up. I open my eyes again. This time the light above me is easier on my eyes.

My body may be awakening from sleeping but my mind has not. I need more time to sleep.

"Wake up, Link."

As I hear the voice a third time, I feel the water around me begin to sink lower and lower until it all flows out of the area I'm lying down on. I blink a few times before I slowly sit up. My breath catches in my throat as I realize that I had forgotten my name. The voice was correct. I'm Link. However, before the voice said this...I had forgotten my name.

How could I forget my name?

I climb out of stone circle I was lying in and look around at the huge room. Its ceiling and walls tinted blue by the illuminating symbols that decorate them. They look like constellations.

I look towards the far end of the room and see a stone pillar that glows with blue etchings on it. I walk over to examine it. Once I stand in front of it, the pillar activates with a low hum. It's blue etchings begin to move with the carved stones until it raises a separate stone slate from it.

What is this?

The voice must have heard my question to myself and decides to enlighten me.

"That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it." I take the tablet from the stone podium. "It will help guide you after your long slumber."

Long slumber? How long was I asleep?

The voice inconveniently doesn't answer those questions. Hello? Silence. I hope that's not the last I hear of the voice.

As I gaze at the Sheikah Slate curiously, the podium readjusts its stone structures, allowing for the door to rise open. I waste no time in walking out of the room...only to walk into another. The floor is cluttered in numerous crates and a few chests. Maybe I'll be able to find some clothes. Can't go running around in just my shorts. After several unsuccessful searches in some crates, I open the chest to see a old shirt and a well-worn pair of pants. I put both of them on and head up the stairs towards another stone podium. Common sense kicks in as I rest the slate in the center of the podium. The podium activates and opens the door behind it. As the door opens, light pierces through the room. This light isn't the blue I woke up to. It's bright and white as snow. I squint my eyes as I failingly attempt to see outside.

"Link...You are the light-"

What...

"-our light-"

...our light?

"-that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now go..."

Again? What do you mean "again"? And what do you mean by I am "the light"?

Silence answers me.

All I want is for you, whoever you are, to answer my questions.

Silence. I begin to get angry at the ethereal voice in my mind. Long slumber? How long was I asleep in that strange room, huh?! What do you mean I'm THE light?!" Nothing but deafening silence as a response towards me.

"ANSWER ME!" Some part of me knows that the owner of the voice must be outside...somewhere. My anger fuels my strength as my legs soon carry me outside. Then...I freeze.

Hyrule lays before my eyes.

From where I stand, I can see Hyrule for miles around. Vast forests jot the grassy plains. Clear, blue streams with white rapids flow through the deep crevasses and valleys that the waters had surely eroded around them. Mountains, higher than the one I stand on, are covered with snow-laden tops as they stretch from the land and break the horizon. The sky above is like the waters below. White clouds traveling in a sea of blue.

Blue... A memory returns. The sky was grey. Dark grey. It wasn't as comforting as the sky is now. I smile for only myself and the sky to see. It feels like for the first time, in a long time, I have done so. I enjoy this color of the sky much more. As I gaze back down on the green land below me, I contemplate over what little I remember. I...can't remember much. All I know for certain, before the time I woke up, is that my name is Link and that the sky was dark grey, if not black. The voice said I was in a long slumber. It must have been some time. I don't even remember much of who I am. If only there was someone who I could talk to face-to-face.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a new set of colors. Red and orange light flickers under a rocky indent that is down the hill a few hundred yards. Where there's a fire, there's a person. I head down the path and soon reach the place of the small fire. On the opposite side sits an old man who wears both a blackhood over his head and a lengthy white beard upon his face. He stares at me and I back at him. I pray that he has some answers for my questions.

"It is a bit of a surprise to see a fellow traveler these days."

"Excuse me, sir but who are you? What is your name?" I ask politely

"My name is not important. I need not be a concern of yours. I can tell by looking at you that you have greater concerns on your mind. What brings you out here, young one?"

Young one? Forget it. Like the old man said, I have greater concerns right now. "This may sound a bit strange, sir but I'm not entirely sure where here is. Where exactly in Hyrule are we?"

The old man chuckles. "Answering a question with a question. That's fair enough. As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a simple coincidence...I shall tell you. We are currently on the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule."

Great Plateau? There's no Great Plateau in Hyrule.

The old man stands and looks far to his right. In the distance I see a tall building with a towering steeple. "That temple there...Long ago, that was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Since the decline of the kingdom, it now sits abandoned, in a state of decay." The old man turns to me. "Yet a forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self..."

I feel my chest tighten as my heart beats rapidly. Another memory had surfaced. The decrepit building in the distance was the Temple of Time. It's stained glass windows were shattered out, leaving behind empty spaces in its deteriorated state. No. No, this can't be right. The Temple of Time was beautiful. A work of art that was in Castle Town. It was still standing when the-

My mind unlocks another memory. A terrifying memory. This one more vivid than the others. The beautiful green forests and plains before me rot away into a barren wasteland that lies underneath of a dark grey sky. A smoke-filled sky. I then feel a sword being yanked out of my body. I try to look at the enemy that held the blade but all of my strength had left me. All I could do was stare at the bleak sky above as it began to fade into darkness.

I quickly as the memory came, it vanished, bringing me back to...to...

"Did-" I immediately think the worst as I try to steady my voice. "Did Hyrule...lose the war?"

The old man's eyes widen. "The war? Young one, the war ended...over a hundred years ago."

I look from the old man to the land that is...was Hyrule. The old man's answer changed my whole perspective. My thoughts. That's why I don't remember anything! It's been a hundred years since the war. That's what the voice meant by long slumber. That's why the Temple of Time is crumbling to the ground. My heart skips a beat as a new realization occurs to me.

We...lost. That's why the Temple is collapsing to rubble. Nobody is taking care of it. I look back at the old man, who had remained silent while I figured out the truth. I already knew, in my heart, the answer to my question. But I had to hear it from another. "Hyrule Kingdom is gone, isn't it?"

"It died...when its Hero died."

I turn away from him and lower my head. Hyrule... I can't hold back my emotions anymore. I let the tears flow from my eyes and blur the land before me. Hyrule..my Hyrule is gone. My comrades. My friends. My life...gone. I lower myself to the ground and bury my face in my hands. I couldn't look at this Hyrule anymore.

It's not my Hyrule.

I'm all alone. In a Hyrule that isn't my Hyrule.

"I wish I had never opened my eyes."