Chapter 2: One Year Later

The Gerudo warrior Natalia ducked down a side street, her long red ponytail streaming behind her; the bare flesh of her foot skidded painfully across the cobblestones as she turned the corner at nearly full speed. She momentarily regretted having kicked off her sandals, but in the long run they would have only slowed her down. The two Hyrulian guards chasing her were already falling behind. Even without their cumbersome armor, Natalia doubted they had the strength or endurance to keep up with her for long. She was more concerned with the possibility of being cut off by more guards lurking in the evening shadows ahead.

Even as the thought crossed her mind, a third and fourth knight lunged into her path. Almost by reflex, Natalia leaped into the air and braced her arms atop the closer man's shoulders, flipping over his head with a soft grunt and landing a bit too heavily on her right leg. She quavered for a moment, but soon took off again, careening down another alleyway.

It was a bad move. The alleyway led directly to an open space, and a hail of arrows flew at her from the other end. She barely ducked one; another grazed her face; she jumped as two more sailed past her feet. Spinning around, she pulled three kunai from her belt and released them in one smooth motion. Two of them glanced harmlessly off an archer's breastplate; a cry rang out as the third pierced someone's hand. Natalia had finally reached relative cover when an arrow stuck through her shoulder. Muffling her own pained gasp, she rounded another corner…

… And ran straight into a pair of guards, their swords leveled at her throat. Desperately she lurched backwards, only to fall into the waiting arms of another knight who had appeared behind her. She reached for the long knife at her side, but, fatigued as she was, the soldiers were faster. Her forearm flew off with a quick spray of blood, and Natalia sank to her knees. The guard who had struck brought his blade around for another blow, but there was no need; her injuries had finally caught up to her, and she slumped forwards onto her remaining hand, panting.

"Why do you hesitate?" A strong voice rang out from the darkness. The three soldiers snapped to attention. Tyrell, First Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, strode into the light. "We have an enemy spy in our midst. Finish her."

"Sir!" replied the man with the bloodied sword. "I thought, sir, that we should take her alive, if possible. An interrogation–"

"An interrogation would get us nowhere. Isn't that right, my dear?" He reached down and lifted the Gerudo's chin, staring contemptuously into her amber eyes.

The cold metal gauntlet stung Natalia's face as she mustered the last of her strength. "I will give you nothing," she spat.

"Well then, that settles that." Tyrell smirked. "Kill her."

"Sir, I…"

The imposing First Lieutenant turned his fierce gaze on the quivering soldier. The other two were averting their faces sheepishly, hoping not to be drawn in. "You what?" Tyrell's voice took on a calm, surprisingly gentle tone. "Surely you don't sympathize with her? She's the enemy. It was her kind that nearly wiped out our people eight years ago. And now, just as we have begun to rebuild our nation, they send spies to infiltrate us. And the only scum lower than them…" he paused; his voice at last turned cold. "…are the weaklings who don't have the guts to keep Hyrule safe. Don't you agree?" he finished sweetly.

The soldier gulped and stepped forward. He raised his sword.

In her final moments of terror, Natalia remained fiercely impassive. The soldiers flinched.

"The Gerudo are clearly preparing for war," Tyrell concluded, addressing the Princess Zelda in her temporary throne room the next morning.

"We can't know that for sure," Link replied from his position behind Zelda's right shoulder. "If you had taken the intruder alive…"

"The spy's death could not be avoided. She was dangerous."

"Even if that's true, the actions of a single individual cannot be assumed to represent her entire people!"

"Perhaps not. But in our weakened state, we must prepare for the worst. Wouldn't you agree, Princess?"

"You do have a point, Lieutenant," she replied pensively. "However, the actions you suggest would undoubtedly provoke a conflict if your interpretation of these events is mistaken. A conflict which Hyrule can scarce afford."

"The Gerudo are our worst enemy! Can Hyrule afford to be caught unprepared when they do strike? Stationing a permanent garrison at the edge of the desert is the least action that could be considered prudent. We should be sending spies of our own. Their king is dead at our hands; those vermin would be only too happy to see you join him."

Link opened his mouth to speak, but Zelda restrained him. "Ganondorf is not dead," she corrected calmly. "He may have been evil, but do you truly believe his goals were wholly unjustified? The Gerudo tribe has fought for survival in the desert for centuries while we largely ignored them, taking the comforts of our own land for granted. It took the desperate act of a madman for us to take any real notice of them at all. If anything, we must work to repair the relationship between our two nations. We must show that we do not hold them responsible for one man's sins."

"One man? Ganondorf was the Gerudo! They worshipped him like a god!"

"Not all of them," Link interjected. "And we must consider the influence of those witches, Koume and Kotake. If they could make a slave out of Nabooru, Ganondorf's staunchest opponent, there's no telling how they could have affected the general population."

Tyrell closed his eyes and sighed. "I can see that you will not be convinced. But news of the spy is already spreading across Hyrule. The people are afraid. They will demand action. I only hope you will listen to them before it is too late." He bowed slightly, then turned and walked out.

Zelda leaned against the arm of her throne, allowing her head to rest on her hand. "He is right about one thing. The people will be afraid. In the wake of Ganondorf's attack, it's miraculous that we haven't seen the eruption of anti-Gerudo paranoia already." She sighed wearily. "It may not be possible to assuage them. Combating fear with reason is a formidable task."

"Surely, they must understand," Link said. "The Gerudo are no different from us. Were we in their circumstances…"

"But they can't understand. They can never understand. They are so used to seeing the Gerudo as a threat… To the citizens of Hyrule, the Gerudo are not people. They are monsters. Things. My subjects will never be able to comprehend the feelings of the Gerudo, because they will never recognize the Gerudo as having feelings other than pure, baseless hatred."

Link placed his hand on her shoulder and turned his head, staring off into space. "We have to try."

The worst came to pass far sooner than either of them anticipated. That very night, a mob gathered in the field outside Hyrule Castle Town. Blood was on its collective mind. Someone had sparked the idea that the people of Hyrule had to take their safety into their own hands, and it had spread like wildfire.

Torchlight gleamed off the polished steel breastplate which had become a regular part of Link's attire as he stood facing the inconsistently armed villagers. The few members of the royal guard he had been able to find watched nervously from the sidelines, uncertain what to do. Tyrell was conspicuously absent.

Link solemnly drew the Master Sword from its sheath, and a great cheer arose from the mob. But rather than leading them gloriously into battle, the people watched in shocked silence as their hero plunged its point into the earth beside him.

"People of Hyrule!" he bellowed. "Think about what you are doing! You stand here contemplating the genocide of an entire race. The murder of countless innocents! Of Children! Are you really prepared to destroy them? To become no better than Ganondorf himself? That is not who we are!"

The crowd was silent. For a moment, they questioned their intentions. For a moment, they might have been convinced.

"He's one of them!" a single voice cried out, and the spell was broken. Murmurings flared up. Link was a sympathizer. Hadn't he always spoken in defense of the Gerudo? But he also defeated Ganondorf. A trick, perhaps? A lie to gain their trust?

"We can't listen to him! This fool would defend those desert rats even as they swallowed us whole!" someone shouted, scooping up a pebble and flinging it at the lone figure before them.

The pebble rebounded off Link's breastplate with a metallic ring. The guards shifted uncertainly. One gripped the hilt of his sword. But Link closed his eyes and spread his arms silently as a second stone sailed at him, followed by another, and another. Cuts opened up on his face, his arms, his legs. Dents and gouges appeared in his light armor as a barrage of rubble rained down on him. A large rock hit him in the center of his chest and he staggered back, but still he held his ground. Blood trickled from the gashes which now covered the exposed portions of his body, stinging his eyes, soaking his tunic, staining the earth beneath him.

Link felt his right humerus shatter.

The assault lasted only a few minutes, but it may as well have been an eternity. Finally, the mob had their fill of violence and began to disperse, their anger spent. Finally, Link sank to his knees. He swayed. He collapsed, his arm draped at an unnatural angle.

Zelda burst into the healer's chambers, out of breath. Link's eyes slowly opened, but only a sliver. His breathing was labored and raspy.

"Zel… da…" he gasped. "The mob… Tyrell…"

"Yes," she replied. "I believe you're right."

"Stop… him… the… ocarina…"

Zelda shook her head. "The Ocarina of Time can only return you to the moment at which you first drew the Master Sword eight years ago. Returning the sword to its pedestal would produce the same effect. There's too much potential for disaster. Over a span of eight years, even the slightest change in events could cause catastrophic shifts in our timeline. They could make things better… but they could also make them much worse." She sighed. "And what's worse, we would only have one shot. The events which are most likely to bring about the change we want don't occur until near the end of our time window, one year ago. Once you've lived out your lost time, it will no longer be possible for you to return to the past. If we mess up… there's no going back to the way things are now."

"Then what… can… we do?"

"Our options are very limited. Both Tyrell's hatred for the Gerudo and his influence with the people of Hyrule are now clear. Even your fame couldn't stand up to the paranoia he's induced. I doubt we could defeat him in a direct contest of public opinion. Not right now, anyway. Our only hope…"

Link's eyes had closed, and the princess could tell that her words were no longer getting through to him. "Rest, Hero," she said, a single tear escaping the corner of her eye. "Goddesses know you deserve it."

The Master Sword remained planted in the earth at the outskirts of town where Link had left it, unmovable by any other hand. A garrison was stationed at the border of Gerudo Desert, blockading traffic in either direction. Tyrell had insisted that Zelda present it to the people as her own idea, and it was very well received.

As the years went on, and unpleasant memories grew dim, it passed into legend that the Hero of Time, having slain the evil Lord Ganondorf, had vanished from the present world and returned to the era of his youth.