Link in the Valley: Chapter 3
The Next Morning, Part One
Link awoke in a bad mood. He was tired, more so then he'd been since those Endless Three Days. 'Nayru, what happened last night? I remember waking up, and this horrible dream, but...' That was when it hit him; every last detail, vivid and clear, right upside the head. Predictably, this startled him. "Goddesses!! Did I really...?" "Link? Are you all right?" Zelda, however, recalled the night's events perfectly, and what stuck most were the screams: No! Oh, you bastard, let me GOOO!! Aaaaaaaghh!!!! She was so afraid he wouldn't get up, that she was the one in a bad dream. But then he woke up, and they hit their heads, and it wasn't a dream... Well, it was, but... 'Oh, stop it! You're not thinking clearly, so just stop!' "Link. Come on, the rest of us have been up for a while now."
Link got out of bed, slipped his shirt on, and walked to the table where the others were already seated. Then, Jack spoke: "Okay. Like I said last night, most of us figured out you two were running from something, but we figured we'd take you in as long as we could. However, if I'm right about what I heard, that may not be as long as I thought. But, like my grandfather used to say, you shouldn't ever go off with half the story. So, out with it." Link and Zelda looked at each other for a moment, then Zelda began speaking.
"I am Princess Zelda, of the Realm of Hyrule." 'So, that explains the fancy dress!' "This is my husband, Link, the Hero of Time. About two months ago, an old shadow we had thought banished long ago resurfaced, stronger than ever and more determined to achieve his goals then before. The name of this shadow was Ganondorf, one-time leader of the neighboring Gerudo nation.
"You see, Hyrule existed as a sort of two-sided wood carving: one side was our fair land, and the other was the Golden Realm, a beautiful place in which was kept a relic of incredible power, power from the Goddesses themselves: the Triforce." Zelda paused here, as if remembering something: 'That thing was the cause of all our trouble; without it, Ganondorf would never had gotten all his power.' Zelda did not voice her thought, however, and kept going with her story: "The Triforce is made up of three triangles, each representing the three sources of strength: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Taken one at a time, each triangle is a source of great strength to the bearer. But together, the Triforce will grant you one wish, and the strength of the result depends on the intensity of the wish. If a pure-hearted person with a good wish touches it, all Hyrule will be led into a Golden Age. But if an evil-hearted person with a selfish, dark wish touches it, he will only get the power of whichever source of strength he believes most in.The other two go to others chosen by fate in case one with an evil heart should make their way to the Golden Realm and touch the Triforce.
"Ganondorf was an evil man with an evil wish; to conquer and rule all Hyrule. Long ago he tried to obtain the three keys to the Golden Realm, which are kept by three Guardians. But the Guardians were stubborn, so Ganondorf placed a curse on each of them, or their races. Link could tell you more about that, as he had to go and break those curses."
"Okay. The first curse was placed on the Great Deku Tree, guardian of the Forest. I was ten years old, and I had to break the curse as proof of my courage. I went into the tree," 'Whoa, that must have been some tree! Was it alive or something?' "and fought my way through hordes of insect-like monsters to the heart of the Tree, where a hideous spider-thing called Gohma was poisoning the Great Deku Tree. I fought it, and I conquered.
"However, I was too late to save the Great Deku Tree. In his last moments, he acknowledged my courage and gave me the first of the keys: the Spiritual Stone of Forest." "Wait a second," said Jack. "Why would they give a child such a thing, when a grown man, who could easily overpower you, was looking for them?" "Ganondorf did not know of Link, yet." said Zelda. "Nor did Link know of Ganondorf. That came later, when he went to Castle Hyrule to meet with me. I was in my garden, watching as Ganondorf swore his false allegiance to my father, the King. Link came in just as they were finishing, and as he was standing before my father, Link went to the window and caught his first glimpse of our mortal enemy, though we did not know he was such as yet. That came much later. Then, we saw him through child's eyes; an evil-looking man with dark intentions."
"Anyway, after that I went to Death Mountain, home of the Gorons, where the second key, and the second Guardian, awaited. This time, the curse was on the food source of the Gorons: Dodongo's Cavern, where, supposedly, the best rock sirloins and briskets could be found." 'These Gorons ate rocks? What, were they rocks themselves?' "So, once again I was off to break curses for people I had never met before." And you were only ten?" "Yes, I was only ten. The curse this time was a Dodongo infestation; Dodongos are huge, fire-breathing lizards that like to eat the hard flesh of Gorons. So I fought my way to the center of the cavern, where a pit of lava and the biggest Dodongo ever was waiting. Once again I fought, and once again I conquered.
"Unlike last time, I wasn't too late to save the cursed ones. So the Guardian, Darunia, Big Brother to the Gorons, gave me the second key: the Spiritual Stone of Fire. And so, I was off to break the last curse, and get the last stone.
"The last stone was kept by the Zoras, a water-dwelling race of people. Their Princess, Ruto, had been lost a while ago, and even though they didn't ask me to, I ended up looking for her. It turns out she had been swallowed by their deity, a huge whale-fish called Jabu-Jabu. I went in, and I found a bunch of bio-electric critters. I fought my way through to Jabu-Jabu's stomach, I think it was," 'The stomach of a fish?!? I think I might be sick again...' But Karen wasn't sick, so we continue. "and there I found the biggest critter of them all. That was the last fight at that time, and I got the last key; the Spiritual Stone of Water.
"All three keys were in my possession. So I was bound for the Castle to give them to Zelda, when the gates crashed down and a horse bearing Zelda and her personal guard, Impa, galloped past me. Zelda turned for a second and threw me the final piece required to open the Door; the Ocarina of Time." "Hold on. You said there were only three keys." "I did. But you have to turn them, don't you? Anyway, the Ocarina fell into the moat, and I was about to dive after it, when Ganondorf rode by. But he saw me and stopped, asking me if I had seen a horse bearing a woman and a girl go by. I shook my head and drew my sword, ready for a fight. He just laughed, and blasted me backwards. It wasn't a powerful blast; just a warning. Then he rode on.
"When he was out of sight, I retrieved the Ocarina and went to where the Door was; the Temple of Time. I placed the three keys in these three slots on an altar, and I played the Song of Time. The wall behind the altar, which had previously seemed solid, slid apart, and I walked into the room beyond to find, not a portal, but a sword in a stone. That sword was the Sword of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword, and it was waiting for someone to pull it out and unseal the portal.
"So, I pulled it out. But in one of life's cruel freak turns, the Sword judged me inadequate, and I was put to an enchanted sleep until I was strong enough. That's not all; Ganondorf had followed me, and with the Door open and the Sword no longer keeping the portal sealed, he walked on into the Golden Realm, while I struggled against the waves of sleep that were trying to engulf me. He laughed at me, and walked on, disappearing into the light. I, thinking I had failed, succumbed to the enchanted sleep that was waiting for me, and slept for seven years.
"Seven years in which Ganondorf was not idle. He gathered the power of the Golden Realm and marched out through the Temples of Hyrule, overrunning it in just two years. However, he did not have the full might of the Triforce to back up his wishes of conquest, only the Triforce of Power. The other two went to chosen ones, somewhere in Hyrule. Zelda was one of them: she got the Triforce of Wisdom. But since Ganondorf was looking for her anyway, she had to go into hiding and become a fugitive. The magic of her piece of the Triforce helped, I would imagine." "Yes, it did. But... I'd rather not talk about those years, okay?" The others nodded, seeing the look of pain, suffering, and too much wisdom gained in too short a time in Zelda's eyes.
"I was the other, the one with Courage. I was also the only one who could go forth without immediately catching Ganondorf's attention. So I did, cleansing each of the five temples that had been fouled by his minions, in the process awakening the five Sages whose power would lock Ganondorf away in the Golden Realm, which had turned into a sort of Dark World under Ganondorf's influence.
"The Sages were awakened and I was read to go home, but then Ganondorf found Zelda. She had been disguised as a Sheikah warrior, and had been helping me on my quest." A small smile played on Zelda's lips as Link explained her role in the whole thing. 'I was by his side the whole time, and he never knew. Oh, Link, I wanted so badly to reveal myself to you. But I knew it would have been foolish. But in the end I just had to show myself, and my foolishness almost ruined everything. For he knew you would come after me, and then the Triforce would be one. But that is past, and now we are here.' "Ganondorf had taken her to his tower, and I had to break the barriers to the upper levels. I rushed upward, to where Ganondorf was playing a strange song on an organ, and Zelda was caught in a crystal in the air. He stopped playing, and the Triforce resonated.
"Ganondorf, in his pride and arrogance, challenged me. He sent Zelda above the roof of the castle, and our battle began. Both of us were near death, and one more blow would have been it for either of us. But luck, or fate, was on my side, and that final blow was struck by me. In his last breath, Ganondorf made the tower start to collapse. But Zelda came down, freed from her prison, and we ran to the bottom of it.
"We were just in time. The tower came down in a huge rush of stone and dust. We were so relieved; we would be sending a dead body to the Dark World, not a living tyrant. We were wrong. We had forgotten the Triforce
"A grating noise came from the rubble of the tower. I went to investigate, and Ganondorf's body flew up. He was breathing hard, and it seemed to take all his strength to raise his arm and summon the power of the Triforce. There was a flash of light, and when it faded Ganondorf was turned into a monster! That monster was... Ganon." A shudder ran through Link's body as he remembered that final, desperate battle. "I barely had time to drink a potion before Ganon came at me, surprisingly fast for something so big. We fought for hours; the thing was tireless! I was running out of stamina, and starting to stumble. Ganon seemed to smile, and rushed forward for the final blow. But we had once again forgotten the Triforce.
"It glowed on my hand, and Ganon stopped. I felt a rush of energy, and I looked down to find my wounds healed and my strength returning. Courage pulsed anew through my body. I ran at Ganon, jumped up his arm, landed on his neck and plunged the Master Sword, the Sword of Evil's Bane, through the back of his neck. An inhuman scream tore from his throat as I jumped down. The sages had appeared when Courage had resonated, and they were preparing their spell. Ganon was helpless to stop them, but just to make sure I fired a light arrow into his face.
"Somehow the Master Sword flew away just as the Sages cast the spell. There was a huge flash of light, and when it faded, we were in the Golden Realm. Ganondorf's screams of pain and declarations of vengeance echoing faintly in our ears. It was then that Zelda decided to send me back to my old time, now that Ganondorf was no more, both then and now."
End of Chapter 3
The Next Morning, Part One
Link awoke in a bad mood. He was tired, more so then he'd been since those Endless Three Days. 'Nayru, what happened last night? I remember waking up, and this horrible dream, but...' That was when it hit him; every last detail, vivid and clear, right upside the head. Predictably, this startled him. "Goddesses!! Did I really...?" "Link? Are you all right?" Zelda, however, recalled the night's events perfectly, and what stuck most were the screams: No! Oh, you bastard, let me GOOO!! Aaaaaaaghh!!!! She was so afraid he wouldn't get up, that she was the one in a bad dream. But then he woke up, and they hit their heads, and it wasn't a dream... Well, it was, but... 'Oh, stop it! You're not thinking clearly, so just stop!' "Link. Come on, the rest of us have been up for a while now."
Link got out of bed, slipped his shirt on, and walked to the table where the others were already seated. Then, Jack spoke: "Okay. Like I said last night, most of us figured out you two were running from something, but we figured we'd take you in as long as we could. However, if I'm right about what I heard, that may not be as long as I thought. But, like my grandfather used to say, you shouldn't ever go off with half the story. So, out with it." Link and Zelda looked at each other for a moment, then Zelda began speaking.
"I am Princess Zelda, of the Realm of Hyrule." 'So, that explains the fancy dress!' "This is my husband, Link, the Hero of Time. About two months ago, an old shadow we had thought banished long ago resurfaced, stronger than ever and more determined to achieve his goals then before. The name of this shadow was Ganondorf, one-time leader of the neighboring Gerudo nation.
"You see, Hyrule existed as a sort of two-sided wood carving: one side was our fair land, and the other was the Golden Realm, a beautiful place in which was kept a relic of incredible power, power from the Goddesses themselves: the Triforce." Zelda paused here, as if remembering something: 'That thing was the cause of all our trouble; without it, Ganondorf would never had gotten all his power.' Zelda did not voice her thought, however, and kept going with her story: "The Triforce is made up of three triangles, each representing the three sources of strength: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Taken one at a time, each triangle is a source of great strength to the bearer. But together, the Triforce will grant you one wish, and the strength of the result depends on the intensity of the wish. If a pure-hearted person with a good wish touches it, all Hyrule will be led into a Golden Age. But if an evil-hearted person with a selfish, dark wish touches it, he will only get the power of whichever source of strength he believes most in.The other two go to others chosen by fate in case one with an evil heart should make their way to the Golden Realm and touch the Triforce.
"Ganondorf was an evil man with an evil wish; to conquer and rule all Hyrule. Long ago he tried to obtain the three keys to the Golden Realm, which are kept by three Guardians. But the Guardians were stubborn, so Ganondorf placed a curse on each of them, or their races. Link could tell you more about that, as he had to go and break those curses."
"Okay. The first curse was placed on the Great Deku Tree, guardian of the Forest. I was ten years old, and I had to break the curse as proof of my courage. I went into the tree," 'Whoa, that must have been some tree! Was it alive or something?' "and fought my way through hordes of insect-like monsters to the heart of the Tree, where a hideous spider-thing called Gohma was poisoning the Great Deku Tree. I fought it, and I conquered.
"However, I was too late to save the Great Deku Tree. In his last moments, he acknowledged my courage and gave me the first of the keys: the Spiritual Stone of Forest." "Wait a second," said Jack. "Why would they give a child such a thing, when a grown man, who could easily overpower you, was looking for them?" "Ganondorf did not know of Link, yet." said Zelda. "Nor did Link know of Ganondorf. That came later, when he went to Castle Hyrule to meet with me. I was in my garden, watching as Ganondorf swore his false allegiance to my father, the King. Link came in just as they were finishing, and as he was standing before my father, Link went to the window and caught his first glimpse of our mortal enemy, though we did not know he was such as yet. That came much later. Then, we saw him through child's eyes; an evil-looking man with dark intentions."
"Anyway, after that I went to Death Mountain, home of the Gorons, where the second key, and the second Guardian, awaited. This time, the curse was on the food source of the Gorons: Dodongo's Cavern, where, supposedly, the best rock sirloins and briskets could be found." 'These Gorons ate rocks? What, were they rocks themselves?' "So, once again I was off to break curses for people I had never met before." And you were only ten?" "Yes, I was only ten. The curse this time was a Dodongo infestation; Dodongos are huge, fire-breathing lizards that like to eat the hard flesh of Gorons. So I fought my way to the center of the cavern, where a pit of lava and the biggest Dodongo ever was waiting. Once again I fought, and once again I conquered.
"Unlike last time, I wasn't too late to save the cursed ones. So the Guardian, Darunia, Big Brother to the Gorons, gave me the second key: the Spiritual Stone of Fire. And so, I was off to break the last curse, and get the last stone.
"The last stone was kept by the Zoras, a water-dwelling race of people. Their Princess, Ruto, had been lost a while ago, and even though they didn't ask me to, I ended up looking for her. It turns out she had been swallowed by their deity, a huge whale-fish called Jabu-Jabu. I went in, and I found a bunch of bio-electric critters. I fought my way through to Jabu-Jabu's stomach, I think it was," 'The stomach of a fish?!? I think I might be sick again...' But Karen wasn't sick, so we continue. "and there I found the biggest critter of them all. That was the last fight at that time, and I got the last key; the Spiritual Stone of Water.
"All three keys were in my possession. So I was bound for the Castle to give them to Zelda, when the gates crashed down and a horse bearing Zelda and her personal guard, Impa, galloped past me. Zelda turned for a second and threw me the final piece required to open the Door; the Ocarina of Time." "Hold on. You said there were only three keys." "I did. But you have to turn them, don't you? Anyway, the Ocarina fell into the moat, and I was about to dive after it, when Ganondorf rode by. But he saw me and stopped, asking me if I had seen a horse bearing a woman and a girl go by. I shook my head and drew my sword, ready for a fight. He just laughed, and blasted me backwards. It wasn't a powerful blast; just a warning. Then he rode on.
"When he was out of sight, I retrieved the Ocarina and went to where the Door was; the Temple of Time. I placed the three keys in these three slots on an altar, and I played the Song of Time. The wall behind the altar, which had previously seemed solid, slid apart, and I walked into the room beyond to find, not a portal, but a sword in a stone. That sword was the Sword of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword, and it was waiting for someone to pull it out and unseal the portal.
"So, I pulled it out. But in one of life's cruel freak turns, the Sword judged me inadequate, and I was put to an enchanted sleep until I was strong enough. That's not all; Ganondorf had followed me, and with the Door open and the Sword no longer keeping the portal sealed, he walked on into the Golden Realm, while I struggled against the waves of sleep that were trying to engulf me. He laughed at me, and walked on, disappearing into the light. I, thinking I had failed, succumbed to the enchanted sleep that was waiting for me, and slept for seven years.
"Seven years in which Ganondorf was not idle. He gathered the power of the Golden Realm and marched out through the Temples of Hyrule, overrunning it in just two years. However, he did not have the full might of the Triforce to back up his wishes of conquest, only the Triforce of Power. The other two went to chosen ones, somewhere in Hyrule. Zelda was one of them: she got the Triforce of Wisdom. But since Ganondorf was looking for her anyway, she had to go into hiding and become a fugitive. The magic of her piece of the Triforce helped, I would imagine." "Yes, it did. But... I'd rather not talk about those years, okay?" The others nodded, seeing the look of pain, suffering, and too much wisdom gained in too short a time in Zelda's eyes.
"I was the other, the one with Courage. I was also the only one who could go forth without immediately catching Ganondorf's attention. So I did, cleansing each of the five temples that had been fouled by his minions, in the process awakening the five Sages whose power would lock Ganondorf away in the Golden Realm, which had turned into a sort of Dark World under Ganondorf's influence.
"The Sages were awakened and I was read to go home, but then Ganondorf found Zelda. She had been disguised as a Sheikah warrior, and had been helping me on my quest." A small smile played on Zelda's lips as Link explained her role in the whole thing. 'I was by his side the whole time, and he never knew. Oh, Link, I wanted so badly to reveal myself to you. But I knew it would have been foolish. But in the end I just had to show myself, and my foolishness almost ruined everything. For he knew you would come after me, and then the Triforce would be one. But that is past, and now we are here.' "Ganondorf had taken her to his tower, and I had to break the barriers to the upper levels. I rushed upward, to where Ganondorf was playing a strange song on an organ, and Zelda was caught in a crystal in the air. He stopped playing, and the Triforce resonated.
"Ganondorf, in his pride and arrogance, challenged me. He sent Zelda above the roof of the castle, and our battle began. Both of us were near death, and one more blow would have been it for either of us. But luck, or fate, was on my side, and that final blow was struck by me. In his last breath, Ganondorf made the tower start to collapse. But Zelda came down, freed from her prison, and we ran to the bottom of it.
"We were just in time. The tower came down in a huge rush of stone and dust. We were so relieved; we would be sending a dead body to the Dark World, not a living tyrant. We were wrong. We had forgotten the Triforce
"A grating noise came from the rubble of the tower. I went to investigate, and Ganondorf's body flew up. He was breathing hard, and it seemed to take all his strength to raise his arm and summon the power of the Triforce. There was a flash of light, and when it faded Ganondorf was turned into a monster! That monster was... Ganon." A shudder ran through Link's body as he remembered that final, desperate battle. "I barely had time to drink a potion before Ganon came at me, surprisingly fast for something so big. We fought for hours; the thing was tireless! I was running out of stamina, and starting to stumble. Ganon seemed to smile, and rushed forward for the final blow. But we had once again forgotten the Triforce.
"It glowed on my hand, and Ganon stopped. I felt a rush of energy, and I looked down to find my wounds healed and my strength returning. Courage pulsed anew through my body. I ran at Ganon, jumped up his arm, landed on his neck and plunged the Master Sword, the Sword of Evil's Bane, through the back of his neck. An inhuman scream tore from his throat as I jumped down. The sages had appeared when Courage had resonated, and they were preparing their spell. Ganon was helpless to stop them, but just to make sure I fired a light arrow into his face.
"Somehow the Master Sword flew away just as the Sages cast the spell. There was a huge flash of light, and when it faded, we were in the Golden Realm. Ganondorf's screams of pain and declarations of vengeance echoing faintly in our ears. It was then that Zelda decided to send me back to my old time, now that Ganondorf was no more, both then and now."
End of Chapter 3