The Legend of Zelda:

The Right of Passage

CHAPTER TWO: The Return

Many believed I had never returned to Hyrule after I ventured out into the Lost Woods without a fairy. And that is how the story of me was told.

Hyrule knew nothing of my events in Termina, so to them I simply vanished. But even after then, I did return to Hyrule. I remained there for several years, in fact. Over a decade did I reside in my native land. The people spoke so little of this because I lived a rather quiet life for those twelve years, a very simple one. Too simple for my liking.

I must admit, even I believed I was going to die after I left Termina. Hyrule wasn't my outright destination, but a part of me was trying to find my way back, as I had become lost and afraid in those woods. My last fairy companion—a little pixie named Tatyl—had left me by then. I almost considered living in Termina, to grow old there, to finish the rest of my simple life.

But I instead led myself out of the vicinity, to the Lost Woods once more, and the rumors I had heard seem to come true before my eyes, as I did become lost. Desperately lost. For two days did I travel wearily, my body burning in fever, dirt from the forest rattling my hair. The dryness in my throat was worse than the emptiness that overpowered my belly, and when my horse, the still young Epona, seemed to know of our misguidance, even she understood that it was time to give up.

It would have been a great tragedy for my life to end this way, to have died as a child in the woods, done so by stupidity, because I did know better. I was so young, so painfully fresh-faced. And it was all because of that fairy that I was in that predicament, trapped in my own despair.

I was so young, and so lost. Lost in confusion and bafflement as I was experiencing feelings of a young man, rather than those of a child. When my princess had sent me back, she returned a boy who already knew his own adult body, as well as the massive swarm of emotions he experienced in that state.

Two obsessions did I suffer from. The prominent being the search for my friend, the little fairy who abandoned me. It was a quest that plagued me my whole life, affected the decisions I made, many a time taking over all my logic and reasoning. But it stemmed from sadness and lonliness, this obsession. And a profound love.

Yet the other...the other was my infatuation. With the girl from another time. The princess who sent me back and was living her life now, without me in existence. Even as a child, I dreamed of her. Not the princess of my current time, for she was nothing like the princess who sent me back.

This infatuation for her poisoned my blood. It took over my soul and inhabited my mind with no mercy. She was a fierce figment in my brain. Not existing, but yet so real to me. So real, because I could still remember her. And I wanted her. Oh, even as a child I wanted her. The desire was so strong it haunted my dreams for many nights, for many years. Never merciful.

Even in this predicament did I think of her, resting against a tree, my body limp on the bark. Though my eyes were closed, my senses still filled with images of her. As I believed myself to be dying, I could not let the dream of her disappear with me, remembering everything I could about her, though it was not much, and was never enough to keep me satisfied.

My breath was light as I thought about my princess. And I could hear Epona whimper beside me, my body falling onto the grasses, lying there, no movement, not even a contraction of a single muscle. Motionless was my body, yet my breathing continued, growing more and more faint, so scarce as I felt myself fall into a subconscious state of mind where all I saw was the beautiful Princess Zelda, surrounded by fairies—no, it was light that surrounded her, and the light gleamed a ferocious blue, emitting from a single fairy. My lost friend.

I felt lucky almost, to escape this reality, witnessing my young life perish slowly. My skin turned pale, the blue of my eyes dulling, the blondness of my hair almost brown from all the dirt that had gathered. Weak was my small body, from hunger, thirst, and hopelessness.

For how long I remained there, I was not certain. It might have been minutes, hours. Time stood still for me, though I could feel, smell, hear my surroundings. But my sight was blocked off from the environment, my eyes creating their own pictures, my brain a clean canvas while my eyes painted the portrait of Zelda and the fairy, paying attention to every detail of my princess's face. How I remembered the luminosity of her eyes, so blue, striking me with their sadness, and her golden hair. Many of my dreams, oh in many of my dreams did I yearn to touch her hair, feel the yellow silk smooth my coarse fingertips, or even just to smell the aroma that was Zelda and only Zelda. This I dreamed over and over, and even while I was dying, she was there in my mind.

It wasn't healthy, this I knew, to think of my princess in such a way. This girl was no longer with me, or rather, I was no longer with her. There existed another Zelda here. And that Zelda knew nothing of the circumstances I had overcome in another time.

And it saddened me. All of it did. I felt all alone again. My fairy was gone, the one who remembered everything that I remembered. She was the only one who I could receive comfort from, whenever my other dreams haunted me—not those of Zelda, but of Ganondorf.

He would appear in my dreams, a smug smirk crafted upon his bloodied lips. He would taunt me, bestow fear in me that he was not dead. And I knew, oh how I knew that he was not dead. He was still alive and fighting to escape the prison the holy sages had encaged him in.

Those nightmares followed me, would often defile my passionate ideas of Zelda, as he would tear through my dreams and claim them for his own. He would always be dirty, beaten to a bloody mess, his crimson hair wild and burned, similar to his appearance of our last fight, before he turned himself into a pig hellion.

And even at his wearied state, he would still frighten me, because of his eyes. They were so black, deep like an endless hole, one of which I was gravely afraid to fall into. The pits on his face seemed never-ending, just blackness—complete, utter, plaguing blackness. He would be standing in the darkness, the only light to make his presence visible emitting from his right hand. The Triforce of Power glowed magnificently there, the golden light so fierce and captivating. It was dreadfully beautiful, and it always astounded me how so much beauty could come from a man so vile and sinister, so absolutely evil that even I could not understand how not even an ounce of good could reside in this fiend.

And the dreams of him would end there. He would never speak, never say a word to me. All he would do was grin, his teeth encrusted with thick, dried blood, his eyes two dark sanctuaries burning with his undying pride, and there he would show me his fist, the Triforce glowing like a jewel on his knuckles. And that was all he needed to do to keep me forever reminded that he was still alive..

And his vow, his desperate promise he had made before the sages seized him...proclaiming his revenge, his voice would echo in my dreams. Never letting me forget.

But as I was dying, my thoughts were not of him. They were pleasantly hopeless ones, encircling my princess, the fairy, the friends I knew in Hyrule and its surrounding area. My mind sculpted them as I allowed myself to succumb to death.

And there I collapsed, in the grasses, continuing to hear Epona whimper for me, for she believed I had died, and it seemed I had.

But I was still alive.

~oOo~

"Lilly, where are we? I knew we shouldn't have traveled this far! We are going to get lost and turn into skull kids!"

"You're being ridiculous, Dixie! That only happens to children without fairies. We, of course, do have fairies. And I know where we are."

At the sound of tiny female voices, I stirred on the ground, and even as I attempted to force open my eyes, I could not even master that feat, too weak too move, too hungry to try the motion again. I was surprised that I was still alive, or maybe I pondered that I was in fact dead, and I was in another place now, created by the goddesses.

Yet, as my fingers grasped the grasses beneath me, I very well knew where I was, and carefully an audible groan fled my throat.

"Did...did you hear that?" the first female voice spoke, the girl named Dixie, spoke.

"It sounded like...a boy."

I could hear them rustling, feel their presence as they came closer to me, and at last their high-pitched little gasps when they saw my body laying there, the horse still mourning my apparent corpse.

"Din, Nayru, Farore! It is a boy!"

"And he's a Kokiri too!"

As I felt their hands begin to inspect my body, slowly did my eye lids raise, bluriness taking my vision for a moment until the blackness disappeared, and I saw myself gazing at two concerned feminine expressions.

"He's—he's still alive!"

They were pretty, the both of them. One had brown hair, the color of sand, the other was just as blonde as me. Both possessed large green eyes, wearing similar green dresses, as well as identical in height. Over their heads hovered two different fairies, one shimmering pink, the other emitting a yellow haze from her aura.

I groaned again, blinking a few times now, rubbing at my eyes while I carefully lifted my body up to sit against the trunk of the tree, an instant dizziness overcoming my head.

At my movement, Epona seemed to laugh. And yes, I was aware that horses cannot make such a sound, but laughing was the closest thing I could use to describe her happiness at my living state.

Now the two Kokiri girls looked at me oddly, continuing to poke and probe at different places of my body, even though by now it was obvious that I was alive. Oddly, I sneezed at some point, sending them slightly away from me, but continuing to gander peculiarly.

"Are you okay?" The brunette asked.

I blinked. "I'm...I'm lost." My voice was boyish, yet raspy from the thirst in my throat. They frowned when they heard me speak, the blonde girl leaning her hand against my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry. My name is Dixie. Are you a Kokiri?"

Before I could answer, the brunette, apparently the girl named Lilly, crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head at me with bewilderment. "What I would like to know is why in the world is a Kokiri boy like yourself wandering around out here without a fairy? Do you have a death wish or something?"

For some reason, I blushed, a bit angered at her words, yet at the same time embarrassed. "I'm not a Kokiri," I corrected her.

Dixie laughed, however, her hand over her mouth. "Well, you are dressed just like one!"

"I'm a Hylian."

Lilly hummed. "Okay, still doesn't explain why you're here without a fairy."

"I was looking for her."

The both of them stared at me for a moment, then briefly glanced at one another, as if they could read the others' mind. I watched with minimal amusement while they continued this behavior, suddenly feeling that perhaps death was going to befall unto me after all, as they weren't exactly rescuing me.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do," spoke Lilly, on behalf of both of them. "We're going to lead you and the horse out of the woods. Only because you seem too nice to die here."

"And because you're pretty cute," added Dixie with a giggle.

No matter what their reasons and intentions were, I was very much grateful. Yet, I feared for Epona, as she had grown just as weak as I had, and I wasn't sure if she could continue the journey with us. But the girl named Dixie had tended to her almost immediately, reaching into the pocket of her dress and pulling out several twigs and deku nuts, petting Epona as she fed her the scraps while the horse devoured the contents in her palm energetically.

"What is your name?" asked Lilly as she maneuvered my body so that my arm wrapped around her shoulders, lifting me up from the ground and helping me balance. It took me quite a moment to answer her, while I became accustomed to standing up again. Attached to her waist was a small container of water, and when she handed it to me I noticed it was half empty, but more than enough to satisfy.

The bottle felt remarkable on my lips, and though the water was warm, if felt like ice as it hit the muscles of my throat. Smiling gently, I returned her gift back to her.

"My name is Link."

Even Dixie had heard me, and both little ladies exchanged an odd glance.

"Saria's friend?" asked Lilly.

I blinked, scratching the front of my head where my bangs resided. "Yes, you know her?"

"Everybody knows Saria," remarked Dixie, taking hold of the Epona's reigns and carefully leading her forward. "But I always assumed the best friend she always spoke of was a Kokiri too. Though, I still think you are one."

"Well, I'm not."

"Okay then. Only time will tell."

"Not for long," Lilly added to our conversation, a solemn tone capturing her voice. "Now that the Deku tree has died, I'm not sure how long any of us will survive."

A sadness overcame both girls, and even me, as the reality of that situation had sunk in. The Great Deku Tree was dead, due to the curse Ganondorf had put on him. And even I couldn't save him. My heart spasmed at the thought of the Kokiri perishing from Hyrule's culture, and how all these young children would fade from existence, just as I faded from my princess in hers.

I remained attached to Lilly as we began to walk, leaning against the girl for support as her friend led Epona away from the place in which I thought I had died.

But I didn't die, this was only the beginning. My adventures did not end in Termina, but they did not immediately begin when I returned to Hyrule. I was rescued by the two Kokiri of whom befriended Saria, and the notion that she was still alive and well and available to see me spent a spark down my spine just a little bit, returning some hope to the hopeless young boy that I was.

I had failed in my mission to find my fairy. All this time of my disappearance, I was gone in search of her. Risked my life to find her. Because, even if I did rekindle my friendship with Saria, she was just as oblivious to the events of the other time as the Zelda here was.

It pained me how little they knew, though not their fault, but so much I had experienced. The quest had changed me, allowed me to grow up too quickly, put me between a boy and a man, and still I was not sure who I was.

The fairy was the only one who understood. And even she was now a memory in my life.

I'm not quite sure when I made my next decision. Perhaps it was during the walk back to the Kokiri forest, or after I nestled myself back into a regular life in Hyrule. Whenever it was, it happened before my eleventh year, where I vowed to start a new life and create new memories, to rid myself of the fantasies that plagued my young mind.

They were only fantasies, it seemed. It was impossible to ever see my princess again. And finding the fairy would probably never happen either. It was all just a dream for me, one that I realize if I continued to run after, I would only find myself even more hopeless and alone.

It was so hard to live with such a tremendous knowledge of another time, and it felt like I was keeping a secret from the rest of the world. Isn't it desperately hard keeping big secrets? Many times I wanted to explode, to blurt to the world who I was, what had occurred, and how I stopped it.

But I didn't. I couldn't. I started a new life after I left the Lost Woods. And for a while, I let go of the dream of finding the fairy and ever seeing my princess again.