Note: This turned out to be another marathon-chapter. Be prepared to sit and read a while. Hopefully, it's exciting enough.
NATIONAL ANTHEM
Chapter 7
I'm dreaming.
I am standing in a courtyard full of pale gray (almost white) cobblestones surrounded by darkness. A sea of stars shines in a deep purple sky and I cannot see anything beyond the courtyard. Even whatever castle this place belongs to I can see only in faint outlines and subtle shadows.
I know that I am asleep – that my body is in a soft bed, covered by a woolen blanket and that I am probably drooling a lovely little river over my pillow. I am, nonetheless, here. I like dreams like this – ones where I am aware that I'm dreaming. My tendency in them is to completely warp the place, letting my mind play with the inherent lack of logic of the dreaming-state. I don't often have these dreams. Most often, the dream is a memory of fighting Ganondorf and I get to make his head explode by willing it. Heh, heh, that's fun. I've, at times, summoned a giant bird, the likes of which are known only in Hyrulean legend as an extinct kind of creature, and took to the sky.
This dream doesn't feel like one where I am going to be doing either of those things, though, but since I know I'm asleep and am inside my own head, I expend my will only to find that it's not working. No matter how much I try, I can't seem to make Naked Samus happen for me.
Brain, I am disappointed in you.
So, I'm in a lucid dream, but can't do anything cool with it. What do I do? Just walk around in this empty courtyard until I wake up?
I startle as a figure walks up to me out of the darkness. He is translucent, almost like he is made of stained-glass, a classic ghost. I recognize him – that psychotic-looking face… I step back. "Link 'd Ordon?" I say?
He smiles and it's not a slasher-smile, instead, it is quite gentle, but those eyes of his still have a peculiar glare.
"I-" I begin, "I am so sorry."
"What do you have to be sorry about on account of me?" he asks.
"You lost your life…"
"You didn't kill me."
"I… I thought very ill of you," I say. "I spent a lot of time hoping for the end of your life."
"I understand," he says calmly. "If you hated me, it means that I was convincing. If I convinced my predecessor that I had lost my hero's heart, it means that I likely fooled everyone, including our shared villain."
"Your eyes still look fierce," I say. "Your face always looked dangerous… even before the Brawl began."
"I've always had the beast-eyes," my successor replies. "People I knew in life would comment about them. And being made to kill in order to save people was not unknown to me before my time on the Stage. I had to set sword and fang to monsters that had once been people and to monsters that could speak. You knew that kind of living, if anything I've ever heard about past the past Heroes of Hyrule is true."
I nod, remembering how I'd easily dispatch Mad Scrubs, only to find that some of the hostile members of the Deku Tribe had really only wanted to sell me something. My spirit was further confounded when I'd spent some time as a Deku scrub due to a curse. There were many other monsters like this - creatures that I did not know were "true evil" or "beyond redemption" for sure when I'd made quick decisions to destroy them.
"Besides, if I look too fierce," Link 'd Ordon continues, "it may just be the reflection of my heart. I've always been a little bit rough around the edges. After all, instead of becoming a spirit when I entered the Twilight, or even some gentle creature, what my heart reflected turned me into a large, predatory animal. A wolf is a loyal and brave creature, but also a fearsome carnivore."
"I am still sorry," I say, "Your plan did not go as it was supposed to."
The spirit of the young man's victim and killer fell down from the sky, landing deftly on his feet. Both of his wings are intact, white and shining.
He is not wearing his crown.
"The fight is on!" Pit proclaims, "And we know you can do it!"
Link 'd Ordon is smiling a sad smile at me. "Plans change. It's up to you to fulfill what was to be my destiny now."
I hear a small squeaking sound. A Pichu runs up to me and leaps into my arms. Though translucent, I recognize her. This is Pichu! My ally in my Brawl!
"The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry…" a voice says. I tense when I see the person it's coming from. He's wearing a doctor's coat.
"Easy, young one," he says. "I'm a' dead. I cannot hurt you anymore.
"We're all here," Link 'd Ordon says, gesturing to the courtyard.
The yard is filled with the faces and figures of the dead – everyone who had ever been killed in one of Ganondorf's "Brawls of Honor." I see a small man in a strange suit and a helmet, surrounded by tiny, colorful creatures. I see the pokemon trainer that had been Midna's friend and morality pet during her Brawl. A Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charizard surround him. Mewtwo hovers behind him. Bowser looms in the back of this panorama. There's a large main in a suit fit for vehicle-racing and a helmet. There's a stout, fat man on a motorcycle. A small green raptor-type dinosaur hops about in running shoes. A fluffy pale pink pokemon rides on his back. There's an anthropomorphic frog standing next to Fox McCloud. Sheik is there, the Kongs, Meta Knight, a pair of gallant swordsmen, one long dead and one recently deceased. There are the two Sages from Tiny's world that I failed, the Gerudo warrior that I failed, others that I failed…
I see people who didn't die in Brawls, but in my attempted revolution. My Zelda – she is radiant… Darunia, who has Saria on his shoulders… Oh, Impa, you should have lived longer, I so needed your counsel… Ruto, I don't even what to think about what happened to you…
So many people… so many souls…
The souls part ways to let one through. He walks tall and smiles warmly. Before I can back away or fall to my knees or do anything at all, he has me by the shoulders.
"Big Brother…"
"I'm glad you kept my wish."
"Wha- what wish?" I choke out.
"You survived."
"Yeah…but… I didn't do anything noble with my life!" I protest. "I did nothing but drink… and fail… fail my fighters." I dip my head and look at my feet. "I lived in resignation for so long."
My elder brings me to attention. "The time for resignation is over. It's your time, 'Young Link.' We are all with you. Try to remember that when you wake up, okay? We are all behind you."
I awaken with a start, planting my nose right into the river I'd created on my pillow. I lay awake and quiet, listening to Tiny breathe in the bed on the other side of the room. I do not register how long I simply watch him, thinking about what I had just experienced in my mindscape.
I've always been a bit of a "sensitive" when it comes to dreams. My original quest back home in Hyrule started with a week of nightmares that had turned out to be prophetic. I'd dreamed of Ganondorf long before I ever met him. Most of my dreams are the standard weird stuff without any clear meaning, rhyme or reason. I had one about having conversations with telepathic meat, once. Then there was the one I had not long ago in which I had to barbeque a case of tube socks or dinosaurs would eat me. The one I just had, however, feels like the "sensitive" kind. I do not know if I was actually visited by spirits or if my guilty brain was just cycling through memories of people I'd briefly met and watched die from afar, but I choose to take the dream as meaningful.
Besides, even if it was just my brain trying to cope with what I know to be ahead of me, it is quite nice to think of an Army of the Fallen as lending me their power, at least in spirit.
The waking part of my morning brings me coffee and Midna. I sit across from her on an uncomfortable metal chair in the open cargo-area of the ship, a small table between us. Tiny is there, wearing Pit's crown. He also has a mug of coffee, claiming that he's physically old enough – being "of age" to wear the Hero's Clothes and that he is mature enough, because of what he's been through. No one makes any objections to his caffeine-intake. He is going to need the energy.
I venture to ask Midna a question. "L-Link…" I begin, "Link 'd Ordon… Your plan for him didn't come together until after he was chosen and you were picking him up to bring into Smash City, right?"
"That is correct," the Twilight Princess says, sipping from her mug.
"Then… why did he look the way he did when I saw him from the viewing screen? He… his face was pretty gruff and fierce."
"He always looked like that," Midna explains. "Well, when I first met him, he had more of a stupid farmboy look, but we went through things together – in our story – that gave him that 'veteran'-look. His eyes were pretty fierce from the beginning, even as a farmboy. If you ask me, he looked like a stupid farmboy to the end… my poor dumb hero."
"Beast-eyes?" I ask.
"Yep. He always had the eyes of a wolf. It was just who he was. Perhaps he looked cruel to you? I know better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving."
I see Tiny shiver as he sips his coffee.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"No one looks fierce in death," he replies.
"I had… this dream last night…this morning…" I begin. "He was there with his beast-eyes, and so was everyone else who is gone." I spare a little smile for Little Link. "Pit was in my dream, too… and he had both of his wings."
"Sounds like a nice dream," the kid says. "I had one where I was eating pie ala mode and it was filled with blood."
I rub his back to try to make him feel a bit better. "We're gonna make things right, kiddo," I say.
Samus strides up to us in full armor, holding Pikachu on the arm that isn't outfitted with the cannon. "It's almost Zero Hour, boys," she says. "Do you remember your orders?"
"Yes," I say. "We're going to be let off in New Hyrule… are we almost there?"
"We're coming up on the drop-point. Are you two ready to go?"
"Yep!" Tiny pipes up. "I've got my sword and my shield right here!" He put them on. For my part, I gird up, as well.
"Do you remember what Snake taught you?"
"Yeah," I say, "But I don't think boxes are going to do much good…"
"I don't know," Little Link counters, "If Ganondorf's got his usual minions guarding the labyrinths, they should be easy to get past. I know that moblins can be fooled by barrels."
"What about the rest of you?" I ask.
"Snake and I are the 'demolition crew," Samus explains. "The heavy artillery, along with the ship, of course. Midna and Zelda are in secondary-position. If you and the kid take too long or things get really hairy topside, we're sending the princesses in after you from one of the other entry-points, if possible."
"Until then, Lady Zelda's going to be working with me," Mario says, coming up beside us. "Midna's going to be with other darkness-magic users, Pikachu will be commanding the pokemon that are with us, the Clocktown Guard is ready – unfortunately the only true army we could get at this time…"
"Aren't the forces of Marth's world ready to go? And what about Falco's buddies? And doesn't Mr. Snake have lots of people with lots of explody-things backing him?"
"The greater forces are standing by in case the plan fails. We are poised for an all-out war should today's assault end in failure, but we think such a war will be futile if we cannot access the Triforce.
"So it is really pretty much up to us."
"I am afraid so, but you two are experts at dungeon-crawling. We have our faith in you. We distract, you work the underground. We are sure you'll be successful."
Tiny and I find ourselves wandering through a train tunnel carved deep into the base of a mountain, careful not to be seen. Eyes of Ganon are everywhere. The rails dip down underground. It's one of the freight-lines in the Forest Region of the mainland of New Hyrule. We watch for trains, as it is an active line, though less active than most. We follow the map we've been given and find ourselves in a long and narrow side-tunnel. We lay a grouping of bombs at the place that is marked as the probable weak point. We run, duck and cover. The two of us climb up the rubble into what looks like a narrow hall built of stone and brickwork.
Ah, this takes me back.
"It looks like a temple," Tiny says, voicing my thoughts.
"Yeah…" I say.
Temples in Hyrule were less places of public worship and more places built to guard sacred objects and sources of power. The deeper portions of them always held traps and puzzles for sake of safekeeping the things they were meant to guard. Apparently, this was the way of New Hyrule as well as my lost land. The inner portions of temples were inherently dangerous places, especially once they'd been overtaken and warped by Evil as it sought to control those temples' powers. If this was a part of Ganondorf's palace, the underground of his tower, it was under the influence of Evil to begin with.
"This looks like an old-fashioned dungeon-crawl, kiddo, standard procedure," I say.
"Like something I would have done in my story-mode if I got to live it," Little Link says. "I suppose it is something that comes naturally to Hylian Heroes."
We walk down winding halls, lit in harsh gray light. It's dark, but my eyes adjust. Tiny, with his big, wide eyes, seems to have no trouble. I set my sword to a couple of keese. I've never been sure if keese were truly monsters or if they were just wildlife. They're annoying all the same. One flies right for my ear and I take it out. Screw keese!
There are some moblins roaming around – New Hyrulean moblins. The two of us duck and hide. To our surprise, there are some objects to hide under – huge vases that are too large for us to shatter. I learned that Tiny has the same weird little obsession as I have with the sound of shattering pottery. We do not want to outright kill the beasts as we don't want to raise noise or to do anything to alert their dark lord to our position. The two of us have always suspected that Ganondorf keeps a magical connection to the creatures that he spawns, particularly the ones made in the image of the boar, his totem-animal.
When we are free to ditch the pots that we have been so comically waddling around with, Little Link and I strike up a conversation about what we think might be our totem-animals or "animal-sides." Clearly, Link 'd Ordon had the essence of a wolf. I feel somewhat wolflike, myself, although I've always felt a certain connection to deer. I used to see them in the Kokiri Woods sometimes, but could never approach them because I had a solid body and a Hylian smell that they were afraid of, unlike the Kokiri, who could freely walk right up to them. It was just one of many ways in which I was "different."
"A seagull," the boy says to my surprise.
"Why that?"
"They're a small, common bird. They fly openly over the sea, free to follow the winds. They're scrappy birds that take opportunity where they can get it and will eat anything… I'm kinda like that…" he smiles broadly, "Also, they're my little sister's favorite things in the world."
"This whole operation is risky, you know… if we don't succeed…"
"Yeah… I'm worried about her, and my Grandma, and my whole island…"
We turn a corner and that's when I see…them…
"Toki, what's wrong?"
I just stand and stare. I thought I heard the descent and ascent of sharp steel blades. There is an entire hall of them, spaced at intervals, much like in the Shadow Temple that I remember in my Hyrule. Impa had once said something to me about the Shadow Temple being a temple made to appease the unquiet dead and that the dead very often liked to have reminders of their deaths erected for any living visitors to the temple to see and feel sober over. Many of Hyrule's ghosts were of people that had been executed…
They didn't really bother me back then… the magical guillotines that descended from chains suspended in the ceiling by some magical force. I'd gotten a close shave to my tunic and the skin of my back dodging them, but that's all they were back then… things to dodge. This hall of blades chiming like the music of butchery and false mercy fills me with a sudden, absolute horror. I can't stop staring at them… black blades with patterns of rust, large enough to behead horses with, the edges polished and gleaming… Grinning rat-statues poised upon the scaffolds…
The one closest to us comes down in decisive judgment and all I can see is a sunny courtyard, a pair lizalfos shackling a struggling Saria into place, Ganondorf pulling the switch that released the suspended chain…
In my memory, he holds up her head by the hair. She looks straight at me… her eyes are still moving.
"OH DIN, FARORE, NAYRU, HYLIIIIIAAAAA!" I scream, curling into a ball, sidling into the wall of the labyrinth. "No… not Hylia," I remind myself, rocking back and forth on my heels. Hylia's spirit became mortal, living within the bloodlines of the royal family… Ganondorf held up Zelda's pretty head for me to see, too… blood-streaked blond hair… crown left on in mockery…
"Toki! Toki!" Tiny is beside me, his hand on my shoulder. "Toki," he whispers. "It's okay. They'll be easy to dodge! I've already figured out the timing! Follow me… Come on, get up and follow me…"
I shake my head. "I can't do this," I choke out. "I-I-I… My memories… I keep seeing them…"
"Murdered people, right Toki?" Little Link asks softly, understanding.
I nod. I try to pick myself up. Cowardice is unbecoming of me, but I suddenly feel so sick. I wish I had a drink. They had some Chateau Romani on the Halberd – not the knockoff, but the real stuff. I was only allowed a little, a celebration of my charge's victory, such as it was and our joining of the grand plan. I want a bottle of that stuff right now so badly. The whole bottle… I'll chug it.
"If you want to avenge them, you have to dodge the blades with me, Toki."
I am proud to call this kid my successor. He carries a pure spirit of bravery. He's even helping me right now. So much for being older and wiser.
"Ready?" He asks.
"Ready," I say, steeling myself.
We run, we jump, we hit a rise in the path and leap right over the dull end of a blade. We dash and roll past others. I'm just about breathless by the time we reach the end of the hall.
Tiny has lost Pit's crown. It's resting on the floor just beyond the final blade. He's going back for it, just as the blade descends.
"Link!" I cry.
He dodges, rolls, grabs the crown and emerges unscathed as the blade is cranked upward. He holds the laurel-crown triumphantly in his left hand. "Got it!" he laughs.
I can feel my heart pounding furiously. "You almost got yourself killed!" I scold.
He places the crown back upon his head. "I'm not leaving it behind," he says. "It reminds me that I'm fighting for those who are not able to fight."
We head down another corridor and take out some lizalfos and stalfos. I've always felt a little weird killing lizalfos. They always struck me as having some kind of rudimentary culture, like the moblins. They were creatures spawned of evil-magic, yet I wondered if some of them might be capable of being normal folk. Stalfos, however, I've never had a problem dispatching. They're dead and need to go back to being that way.
I regard the map we were given – it doesn't have any definitives, but there are several probable locations of Ganondorf's treasure room marked, gleaned from years of intelligence gathering. I see a light shining from a doorway… one of the probable locations…
That's when a loud "Boom!" happens and a portion of the ceiling collapses right in front of me, completely obliterating our path.
I wrinkle my nose. I'm pretty sure I know who is responsible for this. "SNAKE!" I shout.
Some serious shit must be going on topside. Tiny and I run, taking another route, trying to avoid more thunder shaking the ceiling above us. We wend down another corridor, further up and further in. Hordes of guardian creatures come our way – awakened, no doubt, by what is going on above, sent to seek us out.
I realize a horrifying truth. Ganondorf knows we are here. The above-ground assault has distracted him for only so long. He knows we are down here now and is sending his entire underground guard to destroy us.
Tiny takes out several turtle-like creatures wielding hammers. I snake around a Darknut and stab him in the back, only to find three more upon me. One of their swords slices a neat wound in my chest, it hurts, but only shears skin. A great two-headed hound with mane aflame falls to our twin attack, but leaves Tiny with singed hair at the edges of his bangs. Humanoid alligators come our way – I'm pretty sure they're something out of the Kongs' world since they don't resemble Hyrulean lizalfos. There are alien creatures that wield energy-weapons… are they from Samus' universe or someone else's? Just about every kind of mook and minion and dangerous wild creature that exists in any of the worlds of Ninten is trying to overwhelm and stop us.
I never knew there were so many colors of blood.
Aw, Dindammit! Ganondorf's got a gleeok. I thought those were extinct! Tiny and I make short work of cutting off the dragon's multiple heads, only to have them fly around and try to bite us with their sharp teeth. The only way to kill these things is to defeat all of the heads, or so the tales go. This one's a four-header. Tiny's shoulder takes a hit. I feel one of the damn things ripping into my right leg.
Red mingles with the rainbow of colors on the ground. Thankfully, most of the mooks disappear in puffs of smoke, a sign that they are pure magic-spawn. Others litter the halls.
I sever the final gleeok-head form its body. "Come on! If we stick around, more of these things will come and will keep us from the Triforce!"
Little Link coughs and tries to hold himself up. He's a great fighter, but exhausts quickly. I'm feeling a "dropping" feeling, a bad sign. I look to my feet and see that I'm losing quite a bit of blood. Tiny is pretty bloody, too, but I don't think we have time to stop and bind our wounds. We have to keep moving on.
"Stop!" I hear. I tense up and raise my sword, only to see a familiar – and friendly face pop out from one of the caverns.
"Zelda?"
"The both of you, come here."
"If you're here, then…"
"Up top has gotten pretty bad. We've already lost…"
"Don't tell me the casualties. We're going to keep moving… and it won't matter anymore."
The princess touches me where I am wounded. She gets a look of concentration on her face as she mutters an ancient spell in forgotten words. I feel better… not completely mended, but mended enough that I'm not bleeding buckets all over the place. Zelda turns immediately to Little Link and does the same for him."
"Doesn't that deplete your life force or somethin'?" I ask.
"Yes, for a bit, but you need the life more than I do right now."
"My sword is yours, Princess," I say, holding up the Master Sword in a protective pose.
"Let's move," Tiny shouts. "Come on!"
Such a loud little voice on him when he says "Come on!"
I see Midna in another tunnel, fending off small fiends with her Twilight-magic. Yes, it's serious if they've sent the girls down after us, since they were deemed as being needed topside. I cannot help but wonder if Zelda was about to tell me that Mario had been lost… she had been fighting directly with him, at least according to the plan as it was relayed to us. I am grateful for Zelda's medic-work, however, so I can't say I'm sad that they're here.
Another roar of thunder and the ceiling shakes. Zelda swiftly puts up a transparent blue barrier of magic around herself, Tiny and me. "I'll hold things up!" she says, spreading the barrier down one of the halls. "You two go!"
Little Link and I run. We're almost at one of the points indicated on our map. I look back. Zelda seems to be having trouble holding up the barrier. It's weakening. It crashes, along with the ceiling – right on top of her. Her lower half is trapped beneath so many broken bricks. Midna runs up to her and kneels beside her. I start running back, but Midna holds up a hand and gives me a shock of orange Twilight-magic that pushes me back. Zelda looks up and holds her un-trapped hand toward the ceiling, using the last of her strength to maintain the barrier where we are.
"Go!" Midna commands." Blood is trickling from Zelda's mouth. She's dying! She's dying and as soon as she loses the last of her strength, the ceiling's going to cave down in on us. I push Tiny forward. We have no choice but to run.
I take comfort in the fact that the ceiling above the two princesses has already fallen, so Midna will not be crushed, she'll just be trapped on the other side. She may find a roundabout way to meet up with us again. For now, she's bent on comforting Zelda…
Tiny and I enter an enormous cavern-room….
"It's here!" I shout.
He does a little dance. It's a really cute little dance.
The Triforce is suspended upon an altar in the center of the room. Energy swirls around it – not its own, but from various artifacts. There are the statues that Samus was talking about, I think – statues depicting strange, alien bird-people. There are stars… are they from Kirby's world? Yeah, there are these earthbound stars…so strange… There is a half-circle array of magic wands… I think Mario once told me that he'd once saved his universe from Bowser's children when they'd gotten a hold of a series of wands and turned various rulers into animals… There are a few arrays that look like they are born of technology… I cannot place them…
As the two of us marvel at the stabilization-field, a shadow looms behind us.
"One of you putting a grenade under my throne…. Very clever…. Heh, heh, heh. Not clever enough…"
Tiny and I turn as one. Ganondorf stands, not in armor, but in sorcerer's robes. He holds two long swords in his massive hands. He smells of smoke, of deep night, a hint of fine swine-reek and blood. He smells strongly of blood.
"So, you've found my little secret. I always knew that you'd cause trouble for me in the end, Toki. Still, I didn't quite expect your end to be so… dramatic. How many years have you languished? You're a faded Hero! Nothing more than a child. And, of course, you had to drag a child into this. Oh, little one, you could have just gone home after the last Brawl… to your sister. I'm afraid that misfortune will befall her now, and it will be all your fault!"
"Shut up!" Tiny screams, holding out his sword. "You're not gonna win! Toki and I are going to destroy you!"
"Is that so?" Ganondorf laughs. He stows one of his swords and lifts his hand. With it, the Triforce starts lifting, still within the stabilizing-field. "I've already won, boys. All you have left to do is die!"
"I'll hold him off!" Tiny shouts.
I dodge a sphere of magic that Ganondorf sends my way. I quickly deflect it with the Master Sword. The magic hits its master, who stands paralyzed for just a moment. So predictable, Ganondorf… You really never change…
Little Link takes this opportunity to jump up and give his nose a smiting. I bolt toward the Triforce. Ganondorf recovers and backhands Little Link. I keep pressing toward my goal. I watch Tiny recover.
Oh, he's quick! He's jumping around all over the place, dodging Ganondorf's blades. The sorcerer's swords clash against Tiny's version of the Master Sword. He's keeping up!
Ganondorf sweeps his right-hand sword for the boy… Little Link falls and the blade is stained in his blood. I cry out, but Tiny reaches out to me, commanding me to keep running.
Our "president," doesn't bother to finish off Tiny. Instead, he comes after me. As he runs, as heavy as a colossus, dark smoke curls about his feet and envelops him. The room is long and I keep running, finding myself pursued by an enormous boar with wolflike paws and hair like blood and flame.
He catches up to me and uses a great paw to bat me across the hall like a cat playing with a toy. It hurts. I can feel the meat partially-separate from my ribs. Breathe! Can't breathe!
I try to get up, crawling. I'm pawed across the room again. I cringe under the wet-hot stink of boar's breath. I can see a tusk bearing down on me… I'm about to be gored…
The Triforce! It's right in front of me! If I can just get up… I can reach it!
I hear a shrill cry.
"Hiiiiyaa!"
It's Tiny! His front is stained crimson, but he is leaping up in the air… I cannot believe what I am seeing! He drives the Master Sword right into the jewel in the center of boar-Ganon's forehead!
Ganon shakes and is pawing at him, trying to dislodge the sword and the boy, who hangs on for dear life. It seems like the sword did not imbed itself fully into the skull of its victim.
Little Link shouts down to me. "I told you that I was gonna do this!"
He is pale. I don't think he can hang on much longer.
I drag myself up in agony. The Triforce… I reach out… and… and…
My left hand meets gold and it burns like fire. I can feel the energy of multiple universes flow through my spirit. I close my eyes, for they cannot take the light. I vaguely hear Ganon roaring in the background. I hear Tiny falling to the floor. The sounds grow fainter and I feel very far away. The world melts beneath my feet.
Multiple voices call to me, speaking through Time.
"What is thy wish?"
…
