We came to a glen in the woods. I dismounted and helped Zelda do so, and then let Epona graze for a bit. I felt as though I could sleep for a year, but I knew I would have to do something to keep us warm. Gathering twigs and branches for kindling I soon had a fire lit. I collapsed by the fire and was ready to sleep when Zelda approached me.
"Let me help you. Your wounds need to be bound, or something..."
I was too tired to object. Zelda began to tear her sleeves and hems of her dress into bandages and wrapped my hands. By this time the bleeding had subsided, but the wounds still were excruciating. The arrows in my side and my arm were a dull ache. After binding my other wounds she seemed to hesitate.
"Go ahead, I'll bite a stick," I told her, grabbing a length of wood and putting it in my mouth.
"I...I don't think...I'll try," she said, hesitantly. She grabbed the arrow in my arm and tugged, causing me amazing pain. I clamped down on the stick in my mouth but said nothing. Finally she had removed the arrow, dried blood everywhere on the shaft and head. Quickly she tied a tourniquet around the spot as blood began to flow from the hole. After a similar treatment she had removed the second arrow and tied a bandage around my waist.
"Zelda, you're amazing!" I knew that Zelda was educated in the arts of healing but her skill surpassed everything I ever thought possible.
"I learned a lot as Sheik..." she replied.
I had been thinking a lot about that. I wondered how she felt, and how I felt, about the experiences we had shared together. How would we live with the past and the future as one?
"What was it like while I was asleep?" I inquired.
"It was hard. I was a wanted woman. I couldn't stay in one place too long. I grew up so fast..." She sounded so sad I couldn't help but feel sorry.
"I never knew...you went through so much," I answered, trying to express what I was feeling. "You made such a sacrifice..."
"No," she said, looking into my eyes. "My suffering is nothing beside yours. Don't worry about it." She seemed to be cheering up.
I lay with her in silence for a while, looking at her. I felt great sorrow for her. She had now twice been put to flight, been exiled from her rightful place. I admired her courage and her determination, and how much she had gone through. I think that she was thinking the same things about me then, too. I felt something else for her then, but I think I couldn't really understand it at that time.
"Why did you come with me?" I asked, still not really sure.
"I have to. I couldn't stay there."
"But why? If you're worried about me you could always stay and defend me later, when I'm on trial or something..."
"No. I couldn't help you that way. They would never listen to me. You and I are the only ones who know what we are doing, and we have to stay together. If I didn't come with you, you'd have died for me, and I couldn't live with that."
"For you," I answered, "and for all the world."
She laughed, and I felt a great weight lifted from my heart. "You have the strangest memory, Link!"
"What do you think we should do?"
"Well," she mused, "we could go back and try to explain..."
"No, that would never work. We can't go back," I said grimly. There was no chance to explain now. We had done the deed, and there was no turning back.
I was too tired to keep talking. Murmuring a goodnight I lay on my good side and was soon sound asleep.
I awoke with the sun, as I am wont to do. My whole body, especially my arm and my side, ached from my exertion the previous day.
"You're up?" said Zelda, who was cooking something on the fire.
"I should say the same to you! Why didn't you tell me you were making breakfast?"
"You were asleep, silly!"
I sidled over and saw she was grilling some strips of meat on a stick. I saw a flayed rabbit beside her.
"You caught that? Before I woke up?" I asked, astounded.
"Sure! We have to eat, don't we?"
"Zelda, you never cease to amaze me. I didn't know you were so good at roughing it."
"Oh, these are just things you have to learn...I did when I was on the run."
"Well, I'll be...you're definitely not the spoiled, pampered princess type are you?"
She laughed. "Oh no. I like it out here. It's nice to be pampered, but it's more rewarding to do it yourself."
It was interesting talking with her, because she was, like me, wise beyond her years. She was a young girl just ten years old, but she had lived through seventeen and had retained that knowledge. It was an interesting experience being a seventeen-year-old in a child's body. Anyone who could have heard us would have been amazed by the intellect of these children.
"I've lived that way my whole life, and I've never gotten tired of it. Here, let me help," I offered. Even though my wounds were a dull throb, I felt free and happy. Perhaps everything will be all right...
"Okay, you can cook this one." She gave me another strip of meat and I began to roast it, enjoying the hearty smell.
"Well, I was going to ask you last night," she said, "but what shall we do now? We're fugitives."
"I don't know...perhaps..." I was thinking hard but I couldn't figure out a plan. If I returned with her, she and I would suffer. "You should have stayed, Zelda. Now all of Hyrule will be looking for us."
Zelda paused, concerned. "You're right, Link...but...Link, I can't let you go through this alone. I wouldn't have left you for anything in the world."
Comforted, I sat down to eat. "Well, there is one thing we can do."
"What is that," she asked me.
"Escape to the future."
"What? What do you mean?"
"No matter where we go in Hyrule now, we will be found, eventually. We can't escape them for long. I think that if we go back to the Temple of Time the Door will still be open. We can sleep, and when we awake perhaps the world will have forgotten, or I could return with you and explain."
"Do you really think...that we should? What if they find us?"
"They won't. We will be frozen in the Sacred Realm. You know...you're the expert on this, remember?" I tried to lighten the mood.
"Yeah...well, then its settled. I think that it's our only hope."
We finished our meal in silence. Navi, who had kept uncharacteristically quiet the whole time, now chimed in. "What's this Temple you're talking about? What do you mean, sleep to the future?"
Zelda did the honors. "Its a long story."
"We had better go," I told her. We saddled Epona again and rode off cautiously.
We took a winding route hugging the forest, to avoid being spotted. I knew the way in, and we managed to sneak into the town without detection. I suppose that the guard expected us to be somewhere else, but the town still buzzed with the news. We reached the Temple safely.
"Okay, let's go in," I said to her. We entered the temple and I recognized the Triforce motifs and designs everywhere. I looked at the Door of Time and saw that the three Spiritual Stones still remained there.
"Why are the stones still in place?" I asked.
"This temple is like an anchor in time. The temple will not change...so the stones are still here. We're in luck."
"See, you do know about this stuff!"
We ascended the steps and neared the Pedestal of Time. I took Zelda by the hand and stepped up to the Master Sword embedded there.
"Ready?" I asked her.
"Ready," she answered.
I gripped the sword, gave a tug, and sealed my destiny.
Light flared around me. Zelda stood calm, her robes and long hair blown about in the vortex of energy. I looked to the ceiling and all went quiet.
Outside us the world sped by. The search for the fugitive and his hostage dragged on and on, until the captor and the Princess were deemed irretrievable. A funeral for her was held. The King continued his reign heirless, despondent, and grim. And outside of his tiny world, out in the flux of the lands of Hyrule, new and dangerous things began to arise. The golden age faded. The Gerudos were enraged at the death of their ambassador but did not direct hostilities at the Hyrulians immediately. Instead, they waited, and watched, for seven long years, slowly building their strength under a mysterious new leader, and by the time we emerged they were ready. They held enough in their grasp to finally take their revenge on the people of the world...
I awoke slowly, calmly. Around me was the bluish light and energy of the Sacred Realm. I turned and saw Zelda slowly coming to as well. I carefully touched her face and she fluttered to life. Looking around she saw where she was and gasped.
"Did it...work?" she whispered, and then stopped, noticing the change in her voice.
"Yes, it did. Have you been in the Sacred Realm before?" I answered, checking my adult body.
"NOW WAIT A MINUTE!" yelled Navi, who was understandably freaking out. "The hell just happened? I came with you to a big white temple, and now we're in a big blue place! And you...you're older! Both of you! What is going on here?"
"It's a long story," said a voice.
I turned and saw before me a man clad in large red robes. He had a long white beard and white hair, and exuded an aura of wisdom and experience. I recognized him with some difficulty.
"Rauru? That you?"
"Yes, child. I have once again watched over you. You have done the right thing by stopping the Gerudo lord from his conquest."
For a moment it didn't register, but I realized that he seemed to know as much as I did about Ganondorf.
"How do you know that?" I asked him. He smiled.
"Think not that you and the Princess are the only ones who have retained the memory of the future. You two do not share that burden by yourselves. I too know the dire fate that would have beset Hyrule if you had not acted as you did."
"So...you can help us?" asked Zelda.
"With all my power. You have defeated a great demon, but he has splintered into a thousand smaller evils that shall, with time, reassemble to the whole."
"What do you mean?" said Zelda; stepping out of the platform she had awoken on.
"Gannondorf's followers have not forgotten his death. Even now they plot revenge. Soon they will accomplish what he sought to in life."
"Who is their leader now?" I inquired.
"Alas, it seems that fate has conspired to repeat the events that were meant to come to pass. Their leader was not native-born, of course. That would have taken another 100 years. But a man came out of the west. He was young, about your age, I think, when the Gerudo found him. He grew to become their leader. His charisma and determination seem to be illimitable. He showed boundless grief for the loss of Ganondorf. And now, as the only male in the tribe, I think that the Gerudo use him as a proxy for their beloved leader. He is Ganon's spiritual avatar. Even in death he could not be stopped, I fear..."
I took in slowly all that the sage had said. It dawned on me that perhaps I would never escape the cycle: the past and the future constantly changing, being recycled forever. So it might be forever...
"Who is this new leader?" Zelda asked tentatively.
"He seems to be of the ancient Hylian bloodline, as you and Link are," responded Rauru, stroking his beard. "But he does not hail from these lands. He is from somewhere beyond the known lands of Hyrule, somewhere in the trackless wastes of the Gerudo desert. He is like you, Link, most, I think, but somehow twisted into an evil and dark form. He is called Verletz of Leiden, Archon of Din. He is their most exalted leader."
"Archon of Din? That's...that's the highest rank of the clergy of Din! How did he become such a powerful leader of both the church and the Gerudo nation?" I gasped.
"No one knows what it is about him, but he seems to exude power and grace as none have seen before. In seven short years he had rose from abandoned child to one of the most influential people in Hyrulian politics in the history of this land."
"What are we to do?" asked Zelda.
"Your objective now becomes twofold. You must first and foremost stop the Gerudo threat, for if you do not, I fear that Gannondorf's evil will live and retake the world."
"Yes, of course," answered Zelda.
"Secondly," Rauru continued, "if you wish to save yourselves...you must prove that the killing of Ganondorf was justified. How you will do this is beyond my knowledge. If you can prove Gannondorf's evil intent, then you can redeem yourselves. And because his evil lives on in the heart of Verletz, to defeat his spirit, you must defeat the Archon as well..." Rauru's head seemed to sink. "A task...I fear may be impossible."
"Nothing," I responded, "is impossible. We shall fight the forces of evil with every ounce of life we posses, and we shall save this land...no matter the cost."
Zelda nodded silently, but in her eyes I could see a determination that matched my own. She never was very talkative to anyone-except me, actually- but she, without words, showed infinite courage and willingness.
I glanced down at my arm, and saw a round scar there-the first wound that I had suffered for the good of the world. I wondered, when it was over, how many there would be...
Rauru smiled. "You words fill me with hope, children. I will send you to a safe haven where you can decide what you will do. May the Goddesses bless your flight!" He gestured, and a portal of light emerged before us. Zelda and I exchanged looks, entered, and were transported across the land.
Time twisted to accommodate our passage, like a sinuous serpent writhing from a blow. Endless eons and illimitable space flashed around us. A frightening blur of sights and sounds began to swirl ahead. In that blur, scenes flashed before me- scenes I knew. It showed a view from my own eyes of a strange landscape. It gradually dawned on me that it was the inside of Jabu-Jabu of the Zora, where I had been to save the Princess Ruto seven...no, now it must be fourteen years ago...scenes spanned and whirled in and out of being so fast it was hard to keep track of them, but I managed to. They were showing my journey through the giant whale in segments. First my meeting with the Zora princess inside, then battles with the monsters that lived there. Then it showed the terrifying creature that guarded the Spiritual Stone of Water, the bio-electric anemone that I had later learned was called Barinade, that jellylike monstrosity that I took such pains to overcome. At one point it lashed me with a tentacle across the chest, knocking me flat...thankfully, this montage of scenes was fairly short, and my vision returned to a phantasmagoric panorama of blurry colors and shapes...
Slowly the frightful mass coalesced into a single blurred, if recognizable, image. It was a ceiling---an unfamiliar one, but at least something recognizable. It looked brownish-black and made of stone. I tried moving. It worked.
Beside me was a small wooden nightstand with a candle burning on it. The room I was in was furnished simply- a small rug on the floor, a dresser, some designs on the wall. From the designs and the look of the rug I guessed we were in a Goron home of some kind, but couldn't imagine why Rauru thought this would be a good place to go to.
Turning over I saw the rest of the largish bed I seemed to be in, with a mysterious lump in it...
I prodded the lump, which groaned and flipped over, right onto me. The weight caused a dull pain in my chest that didn't seem normal. I peeled off a few layers of blankets.
"Unnhh...wha...where..."
Zelda, looking rather disoriented, stuck her head out from the mass of blankets. I'd never even seen her looking so unkempt...or from so close up. Before she'd been a great friend, but we were just kids, nothing romantic. Though I always wondered...
"Hmm Zel, fancy seeing you here," I joked, shoving her off of me. I soon regretted doing this, because it made the pain in my chest reappear. I'd been transported several times before the first time I'd been on a quest, and it hadn't made me feel like that, or given me those strange visions of past experiences...
"Oh...Link? Oh my goodness...that was wild..." She sank back onto the bed. "I feel all funny...I'm covered in sweat, and my legs feel sore...is that normal? I've never been...teleported like that before."
"It's not...something must have gone wrong..." I mused. I rolled over, painfully, to look at her. She looked terribly flustered. She brushed back some hair from her face.
"What...what are we doing here? In bed?" she asked, quite justified.
"I was going to ask YOU..." I returned, just as confused as she was.
"And I was gonna ask you BOTH!" said someone. I noticed a section of blanket beginning to shine. I threw it off the bed and lo and behold, Navi had been invited along for the ride. "I'm really not following this, but I'm guessing it's a long story..."
I was about to answer when suddenly I felt very strange. I hit the bed and saw Zelda's face over me, looking worried. She said something, but the words were indistinct...
Suddenly I was on my back, but no longer looking at the ceiling of the cavern room...I was looking at the sky, black with angry storm clouds and pouring rain. I struggled to my feet and looked about, and something about the scene looked oddly familiar. I recognized it- it was the outside walls of Hyrule Town, and beside me was a drawbridge. I knew this scene well...it was burned with magic fire into my brain...the magic fire of the evil warlock Ganondorf. Sure enough, I turned around, and saw his black horse retreating into the darkness of the night. I turned and knew exactly what to do---get the Ocarina. I didn't know why I was here or what it meant, but getting that treasured artifact seemed just as important this time as the last. I dived into the moat and opened my eyes to search for the Ocarina on the bottom, when...
My eyes opened, and there was Zelda's face again, looking more worried than before. I blinked...now, my hair seemed damp. This was rapidly getting weird...
"Link? Are you...what...what happened? You just blanked out for about 15 seconds there..." Zelda seemed as confused as me.
"I don't know. I think...I had some kind of vision...or out-of-body experience...I felt like I was back...back right after I saw you fleeing on horseback from the castle. Right after Ganondorf...shot me..." I felt my body. I felt just as I did in the vision---sore all over from the magic he had used on me. Especially sore was my chest, still---suddenly I realized something. Being inside Jabu-Jabu came, sequentially, just before I had seen Zelda and Impa fleeing the castle. I felt my chest again, and slowly removed my shirt.
"Whoa there," said Navi, being obnoxious. "Nothing...inappropriate now!"
"Shaddap you," I smiled, swatting at the glowing orb of light near my head.
"Not that you'd be averse to that, would you?" Zelda giggled.
Yikes.
Light, witty...kinda friendly, fun flirty comment...or was it?
"Oh come on guys! I'm checking something..." I flushed red a little...I've never been really confidant around girls, growing up in the forest I didn't have a very typical childhood. I was so naïve...but that all changed quickly.
I examined my chest, and sure enough, there was a large ugly bruise right where I had thought I saw Barinade strike me with its huge, rough tentacle. It felt sick...
"Oh Goddesses Link! What is THAT?" gasped Zelda, understandably alarmed.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out...Zelda, when we were being transported here, what did you see around you?" I asked.
"It was very strange...I saw scenes from my life just before I had to flee the castle. I saw you as a boy meeting me in the courtyard...then right after that I saw Impa waking me up out of bed that night in the rain, taking me with her to the stables and onto a horse...and then, you again, standing by the side of the road to the castle gates. I saw myself throwing the Ocarina of Time into the moat...then...it went to a strange blur that didn't register as anything.
"This is too weird..."
"Wait...I remember in the visions, my legs were getting sore from riding the horse...at least that's what I remember it feeling like. And I was dripping wet from the rain, and sweat. And now, here I am...and I'm still damp." A look of realization flashed onto her face.
"And I got this big bruise from a monster striking me in my vision that I had while teleporting...somehow, what happens in the visions seem to affect us here..."
"That's scary..." Zelda seemed frightened for a moment, and then shrugged it off. "Hopefully that's the last of it..." She stood, with some effort, and got out of bed. I followed, looking around. The door to the room was to the left of the bed and was closed. I noticed Zelda was wearing different clothes. She was dressed in a brown-and-green tunic with nondescript leggings and a dull cloak- quite a change from the royal robes she was in just moments ago. I looked down at myself, and I was clad similarly, although my possessions were still there. I found the Master Sword still attached to my back, and all my valuables and money still in place. We hadn't been robbed...so what were we doing here?