Start time: February 9, 2007; 10:06 PM
Thanks again for the reviews so far, and thanks for wishing me good health soon. My fever is actually going down, so that's always a good thing.

One reviewer who shall remain anonymous (no, really, because it was an anonymous reviewer) said that this story sounds like another story out there called Only in Hyrule. I don't know if that's true or not, nor can I disprove this claim, because I've never read that story, nor have I even seen it on this website. Should the author of that story come over by chance and read this, any similarity between this and Only in Hyrule wasn't intentional; how could I rip off a story I haven't even read, much less heard of until I started writing this chapter? If this story is based on anything, it's partly autobiographical, but you know all about that.

Link's point of view. Here's chapter four.

THE HIT FACTORY- RECORDING STUDIO 4: FRBRUARY 4, 2005; 9:03 PM

For the past five months or so, everyone has been hard at work.

Zelda has been working nonstop ever since the tip of her pen left the last page of that contract five months ago. She was given a four-week break before we all headed into the studio in late September. In those twenty-eight days, she must have written at least fifty different songs, and she thought that out of those fifty, probably less than eight she deemed worthy as possible records.

Rauru started advertising Zelda's debut album sometime mid-January last month, and he's projected an early to mid-Spring release, probably around April or May. The main problem with that is we have so much to do in the short one-and-a-half months to do it: we have only finished five songs, and there are twelve to go on the final copy. The album has to be pressed and finalized in March. Zelda still has to do a photo shoot for the album, and most of all, we need to get the band ready to kick off her promotional tour in early April.

Zelda has told everyone that she wants her debut single to be "The Only One", and it was unanimous decision between everyone involved anyway, because we all felt that it was one of the best records on the iPod she recorded. It was the first song we professionally recorded in the studio, and the final product doesn't stray too far from the rough copy she did in terms of musical and vocal arrangement: it's basically the same thing, only it's a little more "polished" and everything is more fluid and smooth. The whistling notes near the end were pushed more into the foreground rather than keeping it subtle because the advertising Rauru is running on Zelda is emphasizing her voice more than anything else.

It's now a little after nine at night, and we're at The Hit Factory, which is a pretty well known recording studio and is used by many of music big shot artists and producers. I'm at the mixing table along with the group of producers getting everything ready for Zelda to get back into the recording booth, who is in the sitting area behind her friends, playing and messing around.

"Zelda!" I call, turning around in my swivel chair so that I'm facing her and her friends. Her and her friends fall silent and they all turn to me.

"Yeah?" She asks, and I point behind me with my thumb to get into the booth.

"Get in there, we're ready," I tell her. She nods and picks up her water bottle at the foot of the sofa and takes a quick drink. She takes it with her and opens the glass door leading to the booth and closes it gently behind her. Through the glass wall, I see her walk over to a microphone and she puts on her headphones and takes a seat at a light blue director's chair with "ZELDA" in bold white letters on the back.

"Are you ready?" I ask her.

"Whenever you are," she says into the microphone, and it echoes throughout the room.

I give her a thumbs up and I turn back to the girls. "We'll gonna need absolute silence," I say, and they smile and nod. I give them a quick smile and I flip a switch in front of me that turns a red light in the hallway on to signal that a recording session is going on and we're not to be disturbed. I press a few buttons and the lights flicker on, the reels start moving, and a slow piano intro plays, and Zelda softly ad libs over it. Then, there's a rise in tempo and a bass line, a guitar, and drums join in.

Finally I
Realized the dream
After months of desolation
I can rest assured now I'm relieved
Of all the pain
And now my reprieve
From the subjection to frailty
Has delivered itself onto me

I've found my gateway to freedom
Leaving my ache and my suffering behind

Zelda raises the pitch to a new key, about three signatures above the initial key she started in.

Thankfully I
Held onto the hope
That someday someone would come find me
And help me get though the struggling that I had to cope
With for so long
But now my reprieve
That liberated me from absolute scarcity
Has finally laid itself onto me

I've found my gateway to freedom
Leaving my ache and my suffering behind
That very same gateway to freedom
The one that led to the ultimate find

I've finally found my way
And it unlocked the gates
And guided me to my place
In happiness
I'm indebted to my saving grace
For selflessly bestowing
Itself onto me

Both the music and Zelda's voice raise another half octave.

Finally I
Realized the dream

She switches into the whistle register on "Realized the dream" and holds the note for five seconds, and trills up and down the scale before going back to head voice.

Thankfully I
Held onto the hope
Freedom from subjection to frailty
Has delivered itself onto me

I've found my gateway to freedom
Leaving my ache and my suffering behind
That very same gateway to freedom
The one that… Led to… The ultimate… Find

Zelda adds ad libs and melisma onto "Find", and as she does that, her pitch and the music fall back down to the original key signature, and she finishes off the song with one last whistling note, and holds it as I slowly pull down one of the sliders, making the music fade. I press "Stop" and all of the lights turn off and the reels stop spinning.

"Good job, Zelda," I compliment with a wide grin on my face as I look at her. "It gave me chills."

Her friends all clap and cheer, and Zelda laughs as she waves at them, taking a few drinks from her water bottle.

"Thank you," she bows slightly.

I flip a few switches and slide a couple of the sliders up and down. "Okay, Zelda. We're going to add a few background vocals."

"Okay," she says. "Can you get the lyric sheet?"

"Where is it?" I ask, and she points to the coffee table. "It's in my songbook. It's somewhere in the back of the book. It's one of the pages hanging out of it."

I push against the table so that my chair slides backwards, and Malon picks up the book and hands it to me.

"Thank you," I smile, and she tells me, "No problem."

I slide back to the mixing board as I open the songbook to the back of the book and look for the page.

"It's titled "Gateway to Freedom" at the top," she says. I finally find the paper and I pull it out of the book and place the songbook on the ground next to me.

"Are they the words in parentheses?" I ask, and she nods, taking one more sip of water.

"Okay," I turn to one of the men next to me. "Take the song to the first chorus."

We turn the machines back on and we fast forward to the first chorus, and Zelda adds a few ad libs in the background, a few "do wops" into the second verse to give it a throwback to the fifties feel in a contemporary way, the same ad libs during the second chorus, and harmonizes with her own voice on the bridge and sings through the verse she hit the first whistling note in, and harmonizes with her voice throughout the rest of the song, and during the last whistle note as the song fades, she sings in a soft falsetto to add harmony.

For the next few hours, Zelda joins the other producers and I in mixing everything and producing everything together so that's its one fluid package.

…

It's about two in the morning, and we finished two more songs. All we need is to record, produce, mix and master four more songs, and we can send the CD to be pressed. Next comes the photo shoot, which should take a day at most, and Zelda is scheduled to appear on many different morning, daytime and late night talk shows, promoting the album and performing songs. We've already arranged a mini-concert on "Wake up, Hyrule" in the middle of Hylia Square, which is not too far from Hyrule Castle. She's set to go on a promo tour across the country, with stops all over the city, Kakariko Village, Lon Lon Village, Hylia Village, and Gerudo Valley, and if we can, one or two stops in Clock Town in Termina. Rauru dropped in probably an hour ago to see how we were progressing, and he was particularly impressed with "Gateway to Freedom"; he said it was his favorite track so far.

"I think "Gateway to Freedom" should be your debut single," I say to Zelda. Both of us are on a loveseat perpendicular to the sofa that Malon, Saria, Nabooru and Ruto are passed out on. The production crew left a while ago, leaving the six of us in the studio. Zelda has her songbook and a pencil in hand, and she's back at work, writing lyrics and tweaking a few lines around on the songs she finished.

"Why is that?" She turns to me.

"Well," I start, "it's sounds like a song about how you believed that this would happen to you, and it's finally happening. It's pretty fitting that it becomes your first single."

"I don't know," she shrugs. "I was planning for it to be the second single, but I'll see where things go."

"Fair enough," I nod.

"…Where do you get the inspiration for your songs?" I ask.

She sets down her pencil and sighs through her nostrils. "…I don't know. The ideas just come naturally to me. Ever since I was little, I'd write about what I was feeling at the moment. Anytime there was something troubling me, I'd write poems. Every time something exciting happened, I'd write a song about it, I'd write melodies to go with it."

"Wow…" I raise both my eyebrows.

"All the stuff I write is in someway applicable to my life," she adds.

"Is that so?" I smirk. "Does that mean "The Only One" is about you too?"

She giggles and smiles coyly. "Don't worry about it."

"Come on, Zelda," I press on. "Who's 'the only one' in your life?"

She laughs and pushes me away softly. "Music. Music is 'the only one' in my life. Music is my boyfriend."

I laugh as well and I sigh softly. "…Is there an 'only one' in your life, Link?" She asks me with the same playful interrogating tone as the one I used on her.

A goofy, lopsided smile appears on my lips. "Yeah…"

"Oooh," she giggles at that. "What's her name?"

"Her name?" I raise an eyebrow. "Her name is Epona."

Epona is what I named my black Lexus LS430.

"Epona?" She asks. "Sounds exotic."

"I guess," I shake my head. "I like to ride her a lot."

She blushes at that, as if it sounded racy or something. "Do you?"

"Yep," I recline in my seat, and I press my luck to see how uncomfortable I can make her feel. "Best ride in town."

"I… I see," she turns away.

"She's a black beauty," I laugh. "I need to get her a lube job one of these days. Maybe sometime you, Epona and I can all go on a ride. You can bring your friends, too. The more in a ride, the merrier."

"Link, I've heard enough!" She screams, swatting my upper arm.

"What!?" I raise an eyebrow, chuckling at her obvious discomfort. "She's my car!"

She turns to me slowly. "…Your car?"

"Yeah! …What did you think I meant?" I ask slyly, and her cheeks turn a crimson red that's darker than Malon's hair.

"Nothing!"

"Yeah, right," I roll my eyes. "You're dirty, Zelda."

She makes a face at me and then there's a short silence.

All of a sudden, Zelda bursts into laughter. "Wait a minute. You named your car? How guyish."

"Whatever," I roll my eyes. "As if girls don't do the same thing. Spill it, what have you named?"

"The only inanimate object I've ever named was a stuffed animal," she states firmly, but she smiles a bit. "…His name was Sam."

She continues to write when I notice a quiet jingling. I turn to her and on her right wrist is a charm bracelet.

"Nice bracelet," I say quietly. She turns away from her notebook and lifts up her wrist with the bracelet. "Oh… Thanks."

"Where'd you get it?" I ask.

"My mom and dad got it for me as a high school graduation present. It isn't much… But I personally think it's more heartfelt than something like an expensive car." She explains. She holds her wrist in front of my eyes so I can get a better look and I examine it. I see that it's almost devoid of any trinkets or pendants.

"There's only two charms on it," I state.

"Yeah," she nods. "The only time I add charms is when something monumentally important happens to me. This charm bracelet is a representation of my boring, uneventful life."

"Nice," I chuckle. "What do the charms that are on it mean?"

"Well," she holds up a graduation hat charm. "This one represents graduation day." She holds up three charms in the shape of the letters 'H', 'M' and 'E' that are connected to one small link hanging onto the bracelet. "These three stand for 'Hylia Music Entertainment'. See? It represents the day that I signed with Hylia Music."

"That's cool," I nod. "I like that idea."

"You think so?" She smiles. "It's sort of my way of chronicling my life."

I chuckle softly as I recline deeper into my seat and she goes back to her writing.

KEE STUDIOS: MARCH 14, 2005; 1:59 PM

We finally managed to get the album finished in time for it's pressing and mastering—barely.

All we need is Zelda's photo shoot for the album covers and for promotional posters and we're done as far as creating the album is concerned.

A few days before we completed the album, Zelda typed up all the liner notes in the album's packaged booklet, such as the lyrics to all the songs. "If whoever buys the album wants to sing along but doesn't know the lyrics, then the lyrics are in the booklet right there for easy access," she said. "That way, they don't have to go on the Internet to search for lyrics from a third party, because lyrics from those kinds of websites are always inaccurate." She also put in a thank you letter to show gratitude for everyone involved in the project. Needless to say, I'm in there—I think. I didn't get a chance to look it over.

She also gave the album a title, Eponymous. "It's just a joke, really," she said when everyone at Hylia Music asked her why she named it that. "Lots of artists name their debut album after themselves, and I just wanted to break the mold without actually breaking the mold. I know you guys just told me to name it 'Zelda Harkinian', but technically, it's still a self-titled debut album if you think about it." I personally think it's a really clever name. Zelda seems to think out of the box a lot, and that's what I like about her.

Lastly, Zelda went along with my idea and she told Rauru and the executives that she wants the debut single to be "Gateway to Heaven". None of them were complaining, and they automatically made changes to everything.

The final date for Eponymous' release is April 25, 2005, but that's only for Hyrule. For Termina, it's being released two days before that on the twenty-third, and that's never easy for anybody involved in the project, because we all have to fly into Clock Town at least a week before the release date to promote the album there, Zelda has to perform at a few TV shows, and the night before the Hylian release date, we have to fly back to Castle Town and do the same thing over again, only on a tighter and more restricting schedule because everything is literally back to back and there is virtually no time to take breaks in between.

Zelda's taken the liberty of hiring all of her management and entourage, of course with the help of Rauru and I. The girls are included obviously, but there are more of those superfluous folk such as her security, her manager, her publicist, her group of stylists, and she hired four well known female back-up singers whom she has made best friends with rather quickly, and she calls them "The Fabulous Four."

I'm sitting at a vanity table in a swivel chair, with Malon and Ruto sitting in swivel chairs to my right, and Nabooru and Saria in swivel chairs to my left. The four of them are watching Zelda take her pictures in front of a white and silver backdrop, and I'm spinning around slowly so that I don't get dizzy or anything.

I feel something stop my chair so abruptly that I almost fall out, and I turn to Malon, who is holding my chair in place. "Stop," she says through giggles. "You're making me dizzy."

I chuckle and I spin back so that I'm facing Zelda. "Sorry."

Zelda's wearing a white minidress held onto her body by thread-thin spaghetti straps, matching white high heeled sandalettes and white drop diamond earrings. Her hair is styled so that it curls at the tips and most of the left side of her face is covered with hair because the photographer said that her right side is "her most photogenic". She's positioned so that her right cheek is facing the camera. She's sitting on a modern styled stool, her toned legs are crossed with her left leg over her right, she's looking up with her eyes closed and a girlish smile on her face, and she's leaning back in her seat with her right arm propping herself up and her left index finger is twirled around a few strands of her blonde hair. The photographer is snapping his camera rapidly, getting pictures of her in the same pose from different angles.

"She's pretty, ain't she?" Nabooru leans over to me.

I blush slightly at that. "Yeah…"

Ruto gets up from her seat and starts poking me in my stomach playfully. "Does Link have a crush on Zelda!?"

"Cut it out," I tell her through laughter, pushing her hands away. "She's just pretty and talented. Besides, I don't know that much about her."

"But do you want to get with her?" Saria asks with a smile in her voice.

I pause for a second. Before I can say anything, my cell phone goes off.

Saved by the bell.

"Ooh, that's for me," I say, my face automatically lighting up. "I'll just be a second." I pull my Motorola RAZR out of my pocket and I get up from my chair to get away from all the commotion. I check the caller ID and I see that it's Rauru. I flip it open and I speak into the mouthpiece.

"Hello? …What about her? …What!? Can they do that!?… Zelda's not… Okay… Bye."

I flip the screen down and I stuff my phone back into my pocket. I pace the ground nervously, running my hand through my hair, something that I tend to do when I'm stressed out.

"Link?"

I look up and see Zelda approaching me. I put on a smile and I try to pretend everything is fine. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong?" She asks, tilting her head to the side, causing some of her hair to fall in front of her eyes, but she tucks them behind her ear.

"…Nothing," I reply, but she doesn't seem to believe me.

"Something is wrong," is all she says. I just sigh deeply at that. I might as well just tell her.

"The people at Sheikah International apparently have seen your advertisements," I start. "You know, they're the company that Marin is signed under."

"Yeah?" She shrugs. "And?"

"Her album was originally scheduled for a mid-summer release, but once they heard about the hype circulating around you, they moved up the release date in direct competition with Eponymous."

"To what day?" She raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

"The same day as yours."

Her eyes go wide at that. "What!? Can they do that!?"

"My words exactly," I chuckle. "If we want to beat Marin and Sheikah International, we're gonna have to kick our promo schedule into high gear."

"…I understand," she finally says.

RINKU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT- TERMINAL ONE: APRIL 25, 2005; 1:07 AM

The main gateway for international travelers is Rinku International Airport, the second being Sheikah International Airport in Kakariko Village. Rinku Airport is named after the legendary Hero of Time, who saved Hyrule from the King of Evil in Hylian folklore. Rinku Airport is the second busiest airport in the world, second only to Hyrule International Airport, which is in southern Castle Town, despite the fact that all of Hyrule Airport's flights are within Hyrule's borders alone. Hyrule Airport was the main gateway for international travelers before Rinku Airport was built and took over.

We just got back from our promotional tour in Termina.

Zelda said that she was very nervous about performing in front of a crowd, because she has never done anything like that before according to her.

"While many artists make a living of performing in front of small audiences before they actually land a deal, I never had that experience," she said. "I was literally pulled out of the studio and into a recording deal with no real familiarity with performing in front of an audience, and that's pretty much where my sense of stage fright came from."

Despite that, I personally think she did a really good job with performing. She could use practice, but it's her first time getting in front of people, so she should be given credit for at least trying, especially since her stage fright.

"Oh Goddesses, 'Wake Up, Hyrule' is so early…" Zelda moans as she pulls her rolling luggage behind her as we leave baggage claim after everyone got their luggage and belongings, but one of her security guards takes it for her and she thanks him.

"We may or may not make the show so early," she laughs.

Zelda's right. The flight back here was a lot later than anticipated. We left Four Giants International Airport in Clock Town around eleven at night, and it's now a little after one. The plane was supposed to leave at nine, which would have given us at least a few more hours to prep everything, but we had damn engine trouble and we weren't able to get it fixed until then.

"Wake Up, Hyrule" starts at nine, and the stage is getting built right now, and it should be done by then. We have seven hours to get everything in order: Zelda has to sleep for three hours to rest her voice so she sounds her best at the show, and she has two hours for sound check and to rehearse the set list. She's performing three songs at the concert: she's going to start it off with "Gateway to Freedom", "Through My Eyes", which is another song that's was on the iPod and made its way onto the album's track list, and she's finishing it off with "The Only One." The next day, she has an album signing at a Best Buy downtown. It would be today on the release date like most artists do, but she has so much going on today that we couldn't cram in the signing.

"I mean I really want to do this show… But it's early…"

…

It's around one-thirty, and we're in a van on our way to the Three Goddess Hotel near Hylia Square. One of the car rental drivers from the airport is taking us there.

Anju, Zelda's publicist, is sitting in the front passenger seat to the driver conversing with him, Zelda and I are in the second row, and the girls are in the third row, all passed out.

"I'm so tired…" I hear Zelda whisper as she yawns quietly.

I turn to her and I smile softly. "Go ahead and sleep," I tell her. "You need your rest, and I'll wake you up when we get to the hotel."

She just nods and she almost instantaneously falls asleep. I chuckle softly at her. I reach for my jacket on the floor next to the door and I place it on her torso as a blanket and I wrap my arm around her and hold her close to me, and I feel her head rest on my shoulder.

We're at the Hylia Square intersection, and it's just as busy as ever. The skyscrapers around us are all lit up with neon signs and lights, and you can hear the traffic noise clearly, even when all the doors and windows are closed. On one thoroughfare of the intersection, it is completely closed off to traffic and there are workers diligently constructing Zelda's stage. On a building, I see a giant poster that automatically brings a smile onto my face. It's the picture of Zelda sitting on the stool smiling with her eyes closed, which is serving as the front cover for the album. At the bottom, there are tag lines in bold Century Gothic and Bauhaus Lt Bt fonts:

ZELDA HARKINIAN
EPONYMOUS

THE DEBUT ALBUM BY ZELDA HARKINIAN FEATURING
"GATEWAY TO FREEDOM" & "THE ONLY ONE"

IN STORES APRIL 25, 2005

That poster is the last thing I see before I myself slowly fall asleep.

HYLIA MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT- SUITE 1027: APRIL 25, 2005: 11:11 AM

The concert went along very, very smoothly.

Everything was absolutely perfect. The stage was complete, the band was all ready, there was a giant audience that came to watch, and most of all, Zelda was pitch perfect, just as always.

She sang "Gateway to Freedom" beautifully to say the least. All the notes were solid and the transitions from register to register were seamless. She spoke with the audience for a little bit, thanking them for coming out to see her and that it meant a great deal to her. She then sand "Through My Eyes", which is a much more down-tempo and serious song than others on the album. The vocals were more restrained, as in it didn't utilize her upper register, but that style helped others think that she isn't all about the bells and whistles—literally. She finally finished off with "The Only One", and she got the audience to sing the hook, "you're the only one, the only one for me" with her. She did this "competition" to see which part of the audience could sing the loudest. It's like she's slowly overcoming her stage fright, and she's finally gaining a sense of stage presence, which is always a plus when performing live, and it will help her when she performs in front of an arena or stadium audience.

It's only the first day, so no statistics of Zelda's sales have come in. I'm pretty anxious to see how well she did; it would be a major disappointment if our projected sales didn't match what really came out. Zelda said she did want to hear about our predictions because she didn't want to end up disappointed should the actual statistics be lower than what we speculated, and I'll just say we speculated a whole lot from this project. We predicted half a million copies sold in the first week and "The Only One" to debut in the top twenty on the Blazing 100 at least.

There's a knocking sound on my door, and I tell whomever it is to enter. A man comes in with a stack of magazines.

"Mr. Avalon, your magazine subscriptions have arrived," he says.

"Oh, perfect," I smile. I get up from my seat and I walk over to him and take the magazines. "Thank you." I reach in my pocket for ten Rupees and I hand it to him.

"No, thank you!" He exclaims with a grin. He runs down the halls happily, and I shake my head, chuckling.

I close the door and I flip through the magazines, when I find Hylian Blazing Magazine, the magazine that publishes music charts such as the Blazing 100 for singles and the Hylian 200 for albums. It says on the front cover that it's an extra-extra special edition.

I take Hylian Blazing Magazine out of the stack and I place the rest next to my desk. I take my seat at my chair and I open it up to look at the Hylian Blazing 100 chart. What I see astounds me.

15. Marin Tarin
"In the Zone"; DEBUT
Peak on chart: 15; Last week: N/A

Fifteen only? Marin's single was promoted way more than Zelda's was. I look up to the top of the page and I read the header and the number one spot, and I'm literally blown out of my mind.

DEBUT ARTIST ZELDA HARKINIAN FIRST ARTIST IN HISTORY TO DEBUT AT NUMBER ONE ON BOTH BLAZING 100 AND HYLIAN 200 SIMULTANEOUSLY

1. Zelda Harkinian
"Gateway to Freedom"; HOT SHOT DEBUT
Peak on chart: 1; Last Week: N/A

Is this article serious? I turn the page over to the Hylian 200, and sure enough, it said as the article title claimed.

1. Zelda Harkinian
Eponymous; HOT SHOT DEBUT
Peak on chart: 1; Last Week: N/A

2. Marin Tarin
Shining; DEBUT
Peak on chart: 2; Last Week: N/A

This chapter is loaded with inside jokes.

KEE STUDIOS: MARCH 14, 2004; 1:59 PM: "Kee" is my middle name. "March 14" is "3.14", which is Pi, my favorite number as I said before. The time "1:59" are three of the first six numbers of Pi, so March 14, 1:59 is "3.14159". March 14 is also Pi Day, my favorite holiday.

RINKU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT- TERMINAL ONE: APRIL 25, 2005; 1:07 AM: "Rinku" is "Link" with the Japanese accent. I explained this in Sensei, but I might as well put it here too. I thought it would be weird if the airport was named "Link International Airport", so I used "Rinku". "April 25", the release date of both Marin and Zelda's albums, is my birthday of course, and "1:07 AM" is the time I was born according to my parents.

FOUR GIANTS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: An homage to the Four Giants of Termina, as seen in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Century Gothic and Bauhaus Lt BT fonts: These two are my signature fonts. Century Gothic is the font that I always used for types assignments, and the font that I always use when typing up chapters for my stories. Bauhaus Lt BT is what I use for other typed projects that aren't essays.

SUITE 1027: "1027" is the time of day that I typed that line, 10:27 PM.

11:11 AM: "11:11" is the time of day that people make wishes, because it's the only time of day that all four numbers repeat itself. Zelda wished that she'd become a famous singer, that she wanted her singles and albums to go to number one, and what better time for that to happen in this story than "11:11"?

Review, please.

February 10, 2007; 11:18 PM