Chapter 3: Similarities
How...
How do you explain something that you're not capable of understanding yourself? The first thin, that came to Link's mind was to start where it all began for him – with his 12th birthday. The day everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
Carefully, he tried to explain who he was, what he had seen and done up till now, and what he learned about himself and Tetra and the ancient kingdom of Hyrule.
"Yesterday evening, I had such a feeling that I needed to meet you. Just once. I didn't really think that song would actually bring you here, I was just… kind of experimenting!"
"And… you're my successor?" asked the other Link in a very confused manner.
"Well… I don't know. Maybe "successor" is a bit too much, but, yeah, you are a hero who slew Ganondorf and I'm a hero who slew Ganondorf. One can't deny that there's some similarity there."
"So, Ganondorf's dead and the Triforce destroyed?"
"At least, that's what we think… and hope." answered Link, shrugging.
The other Link turned around and gazed out of the window. "I can't believe it… 1000 years… and Hyrule was flooded. Just because I wasn't around to do something about it. Way to go…."
"Hey, don't be hard on yourself!" Link said quickly "It wasn't your fault! And, besides… I don't even think you ever made it back to Hyrule…."
"…How do you mean that? I'm… I'm here now!" was the second Link's answer.
"Yeah, but, of all places, in my house and my room, don't you think that's strange? Also… I conducted some kind of royal, ancient song on the Wind Waker yesterday. My grandmother said that it 'revives the memories and spirits of the ancient time,' so…."
"… Spirits? … Hey! I'm not dead!" the other one shouted suddenly.
Link tried to calm him down. "Look, I happen to know a few ghosts and…well… being dead may not be as unpleasant as you may thi- OUCH!"
Link #2 hit him with the palm of his hand. "Could a ghost, or spirit, or whatever do this to you?!"
"Well…"
"OK, you are nuts, I'm certain, and I'm outta here!"
The second Link grabbed his sword and ran out of the room and subsequently, the house.
Link jumped up and followed him. "Hey! Where are you going?!"
"Home! Or at least searching for someone who can bring me home!"
"But everybody will think you're me!"
"We're not THAT similar!"
The other Link was just about to cross the bridge, when he suddenly, for no apparent reason, fell down.
"Did he trip?" Link ran closer to check on the other boy. He found him lying there, the color had left his face… if Link didn't know better, he would have said that the other boy looked almost… transparent, like he was… dissolving.
But as Link came closer, he gradually seemed to get better again. "Hey!"
Link bowed down to the boy. "Are you all right? What happened?"
The other one slowly raised his upper body. He seemed dizzy. "I… don't know… I suddenly just felt so weak and… HUH?!"
Just when he wanted to shield his eyes from the sun with his hand, he noticed that the sun was shining right through it. "W-What's going on?!"
"I told you that something's the matter with you!"
Link grabbed the boy's hand—it returned to normal immediately. "I… I'm fine! How did you do this?"
"I didn't!" said Link quickly, "I just touched your hand, that's it, seriously!"
"Hmm… Maybe…" The other Link got an idea. "Maybe it happened because I moved away from you! You're probably serving as my energy source… or something…"
A strange smile passed Link's face as he heard this. "And that would be, because…?"
"I am not DEAD!" shouted the other Link, "It's gotta be some kind of… spell or curse, but I'm certainly and completely NOT dead!"
Link gave the other boy an unimpressed, not to say slightly insulting, look. "A curse? Seriously?"
"I've seen preeeetty weird curses on myself yet, believe me! Ever been trapped in a Deku-scrub's body?"
"Who should curse you to stay near me or dissolve into thin air otherwise?"
"How do I know, I've got plenty of enemies!"
Link sighed. That guy just didn't want to realize it… Then again, why was he so sure that his theory was right anyway? Maybe he decided this a bit too fast. After all, he didn't know anything about this guy, except that he claimed to be the Hero of Time. And all Link knew about the Hero of Time was a legend, which told that he supposedly disappeared from the face of the earth after saving it. Goddesses know, what really caused his disappearance. It couldn't have just been dead; it could also have been… time travel, for example. He was called the 'Hero of Time' after all.
"OK… let's say you didn't die…"
"Thank you!"
"What are we gonna do now? We're setting sail again soon and I'm pretty sure that Tetra wouldn't approve another passenger on her ship. She was already pretty mad when I begged her to tag along back then!"
"Then we'll just have to find a solution before you set out!" was the other Link's opinion. "It can't be that hard, can it? I've seen worse than this!"
"But Tetra wants to set out today after lunch! And on our ship, her word is law!"
The other Link smiled mischievously. "You let a girl tell yourself what to do or not?"
Immediately, Link tried to talk his way out of this one. "OH, you don't know Tetra! Whenever she gets angry, all you can do is pray for your survival!"
"Or… you're just a weenie."
"WHAT?"
"I mean, how should I know, that you really told me the truth? I mean, some pipsqueak like you claims to be my succes- WHOA!"
Link had quickly drawn his sword and slashed it right beside the other one, just barely missing him. "So, you say I'm a weenie?"
"Well, we could fight to see if you're one or not!" The other Link grinned and jumped up and drew his sword as well. "But I won't go easy on you, my boy!" (OH NO NOT THE CD-I LINE D:)
"Stop talking like you're older than me!"
Link slashed his sword towards his opponent, who dodged the hit without problems. "Technically, I am older!"
The next strike came quickly. Link couldn't escape fast enough, but his shield took the hit. "Uh!"
"And you're slo~w! Oh, man! If you want to persuade me of your hero-tales, you'll have to show me a bit more than this!"
"Oh yeah?"
Link quickly slashed his sword up vertically, jumped and tried to hit the opponent from above, but even that was easily deflected by the other boy.
"You're trying to tell me that you finished off good ol' Ganondorf with something like that?! Come on, not even he would sink that deep! … Or, maybe, he was out of training at the time, no wonder when I wasn't around for so long. A whole LOT out of training!"
"Ha, shut up, I'm just getting started!"
Link slashed his sword to the left and then quickly rolled behind the other Link. Once again, he slashed vertically.
"HA!"
"WHOA!"
This time it ended up being surprising to the second Link, due to it coming from behind. He couldn't dodge it anymore. After taking the hit, he quickly got up again, looking rather amazed. "Wow… OK, that was actually pretty good…"
"Ha ha…"
Link proudly crossed his arms, when he heard that… letting his guard down and himself wide open for a few seconds. Enough for the other Link to get behind him quickly and strike with the very same maneuver.
"TAKE THAT!"
"OUCH!"
Link quickly got up again. "Copy cat!"
"You're the one to talk, Mister "My green tunics, and my green hat, and my fighting style!" To make it even more obvious what he was referring to, the boy pointed it out with his finger.
Link was not amused. "HEY! I'm not cop—I mean-- That's just…. I'm just… Ummmm… HIAAA!"
Lacking any arguments against this one (Well, his clothes are based on that of the hero after all), Link just got on with the fight – and his strike was, once again, countered quickly.
Immediately, both of them tried to strike with a regular slash, but they just ended up hitting each other's blade and being thrown back by the tiny resulting impact.
Trying to finally end it, he prepared for a spinning-slash, but his opponent, knowing the move exactly, realized this and did the same. Once again, they both only hit each other's weapon.
However, this time the impact was quite stronger and both of them were thrown to the ground before they could realize what happened.
They tried to jump up again, but… sunk into their knees again immediately and fell into the grass.
And they stayed like this, for a few moments. They took a few breaths…
"You… are… not bad! …Actually, you're really good!" admitted the other boy. "But… with the Master Sword, I would have bet you!"
"It would have been easier for me with it as well," laughed Link. He turned towards the other boy and reached his hand out to him. "Draw?"
The other Link took his hand. He smiled. "Okay. Draw!"
Still on the ground, they shock each other's hands.
"Say… how did you get the idea for the spinning slash in the first place?" asked the second Link, interested.
Link just shrugged. "I don't know. It just… came to me, once I started to get a bit more skilled."
"So...weird… Is that a coincidence?"
"Hm…"
Linked grinned. "Maybe some divine revelation?"
"Well, that would be pretty cool!"
The boys laughed.
A new voice reached them. "Oi! Link!"
"Huh?"
As Link heard the familiar sound, he turned around and saw Aryll skipping down the field…
"AH! My sister!"
"Your sister?"
"Quickly! If she sees you, she'll-"
Too late. Aryll was already there.
She had stopped skipping rather abruptly, when she realized that her brother wasn't alone…
And now she was looking at the two, very similar looking boys with big, confused eyes.
"Big Brother? Who… is this?" She seemed completely confused.
And somehow, Link knew that it wouldn't be easy to explain his little kid sister what had happened.