Chapter VIII


Although the field Link had returned to was mostly the same, somehow the air seemed clearer. It felt like visibility was better, and that familiar echo was no longer there. Instead, the sound seemed to just fall flat. This was also eerie, considering that it made the mysterious silence that blanketed the land more noticeable.

Now what? Link didn't want to revisit anywhere in northern Hyrule, lest the "cloning" occur again... he didn't want to end up like Jabu-Jabu...With that greatly disturbing notion in mind, he headed far across the field. As he walked he could barely hear the sound of his own footsteps and movement. Even if the air was more clear and normal now, whatever was binding this place was still holding fast; still unnatural clouds buried the sky and the intense darkness and feeling of still remained. Eventually, Link found himself to be headed toward Lake Hylia. Wistfully recalling the smooth, sparkling waters of that place, Link climbed the fence around the entrance and proceeded, knowing he probably wouldn't end up anywhere remotely so pleasant.

Sure enough, he found himself instantly baked by intense, oppressive heat. A pang of remorse that he didn't have a Goron tunic crossed his mind. They protected one from intense heat, and he had used one as an adult to traverse magma-filled, hellish caverns, but they only fit adults and no one would sell him one when he had tried to buy one as a child. Now he was just that again.

As he stared at a huge stone door trying to summon the strength to get out of this place before his blood would boil, he heard a deep, booming shout of surprise from behind him. Startled himself, he jumped to face whatever terrifying beast had made that noise. He found himself looking up at an imposing figure with his fists out in a fighting pose.

"…Link?" inquired the hulk in disbelief.

As it turned out, this was Darunia, leader of the rock-like, mountain-dwelling tribe of Gorons. He was actually a strong ally, and self-proclaimed sworn brother of Link. This was, Link realized, the moment in time in which Darunia had taken it upon himself to defeat the wicked dragon, Volvagia, that was terrorizing and imprisoning the Goron people. Only problem was that Link was supposed to be years older for this reunion. Needless to say, Darunia realized there was something wrong.

"Could this be? You look to be the same tiny lad as last time I saw you seven years ago! But now's not the time to be concerned about appearances. Ganondorf is causing trouble on Death Mountain again! He has revived the evil, ancient dragon Volvagia! On top of that…"

Link would have loved to have stayed and heard the rest of Darunia's impressive, authoritative voice continue its dramatic monologue, but frankly Link was going to burn to a crisp if he didn't get out of there pronto. Thus he abruptly shoved open the door to the dragon Volvagia's lair and dove inside. Horrified, Darunia briefly shouted after him.

"No, Link, WAIT! Leave this to –"

As Darunia's voice disappeared in an instant, Link couldn't help but feel bad for the befuddled behemoth. But the instant relief from the soul-crushing heat far outweighed any pity he felt for his huge friend. Unfortunately, as quickly as his relief from over-heatedness had come it was replaced by a sapping feeling of cold...

He looked around to see that he was in Ice Cavern, that network of frozen caverns he had traversed as an adult to find iron boots, which let him access the Water Temple. Apparently it was "out of the frying pan and into the freezer". He was in the mysterious room at the end of the cavern where he had met Sheik and had found the iron boots. The dark walls appeared to be multi-layered and had strange lights shining through them. Link hadn't been able to access the not-yet-frozen cavern as a child and thus had only been here as an adult. Being a child, everything looked slightly bigger than he remembered.

But apparently this was no time-period Link had ever known, for although the air was frigid and Link's vision was clouded by fog every time he exhaled, this was not exactly the same as the Ice Cavern he had visited. Instead of the treasure chest that had contained the iron boots, there was a strange platform made of red ice. It had small crystalline projections coming out of what looked like a round pedestal of red ice.

Link approached this mysterious structure. As the cold winds howled throughout the cavern, Link once again felt that mysterious awe that he had felt upon seeing the mysterious ocarina pedestal. Although this time, time didn't seem to be slowed, and there were no fused fish from different realities. He compulsively stepped up onto the slightly slippery structure, and once again, the world seemed to melt together around him.

As the smeared world melted away, he discovered himself to be in Hyrule Field. But this wasn't the dark field or the utopian field. This appeared to be a perfectly normal Hyrule Field, just as he was used to before all this disruption occurred. It was morning twilight and the moon in the light-purplish sky was just beginning to sink behind the hills as the light gradually strengthened. As Link watched this beautiful scene, he saw his adult self ride by the hill on Epona with the setting moon in the horizon.

Link remembered these meaningful mornings alone with his horse. It was at a time when the life he knew had vanished in the blink of an eye, and he had awakened seven years in the future, in a Hyrule ruled by Ganondorf. At this time there were soul-searching mornings where Link would wander in the still of the dawn and ponder what had happened to his life and what it all meant.

Despite the sorrowful life into which he had been plunged at that time, Link looked upon these soulful days with the intense tug of bitter-sweet nostalgia. There was something special about those days spent in the future world, finding solace in the simple things that still remained uncorrupted by Ganon's accursed influence.

As Epona finished drinking from the nearby stream, she and the adult Link trotted off into the new day. Link followed at a distance, still savoring these memories. As he passed through the narrow ravine near Gerudo Valley, Link suddenly recalled that Epona had gotten spooked at that time on that very morning. As Link cautiously darted his eyes around the area to see what danger might have alarmed her, Epona unexpectedly looked back. Epona's eyes met with Link's as he stood in the narrow area with nowhere to hide. Spooked, by this strange apparition, Epona neighed and reared up on her hind legs, then set off at a canter into the field with a confused adult Link on saddle. Now he knew what had spooked her that day...

Deciding to avoid any further disturbances, Link headed back down the ravine in the opposite direction. Really, he was figuring, he had nothing to worry about, because he recalled the rest of his morning ride to have been uneventful, which means he didn't have to worry about being seen again now. As he wandered through the short grass, struggling to make sense of what he had just so confidently deduced, he was oblivious to a man-sized hole in the ground and unknowingly stepped right into it, and fell, screaming, to a more-uncertain-than-ever fate...

He suddenly stopped falling and found himself elbows-and-knees on a stone floor with cold water rushing past him. As he instinctively tried to stand up he found that there was a ceiling against his back and couldn't. Now panicking at having gone from free-falling to this claustrophobic situation, he crawled forward and found himself falling into a moving stream of water. As he easily overcame the light current and climbed onto the stone floor beside it, he realized where he was. He viewed his surroundings, and sure enough, there was a side-view of the majestic castle of the royal family of Hyrule. Complete, he noted, with sleeping, middle-aged ranch-owner Talon. He looked a bit younger and more stressed than when Link had last seen him. In fact, Link noted, if awakened he'd be, unlike his party-smitten future self, quite alarmed, and would be tearing off to return to his adorable, but potentially fearsome daughter.

Link decided to let sleeping bumpkins lie this time, and thus headed off toward the castle's gate. Unfortunately, he realized the castle guards doubtlessly wouldn't be too happy to see some kid wandering around the castle. Actually, before this whole shattering of time had occurred, the guards had actually reluctantly allowed him passage, because he was a good friend to Zelda.

Indeed, he and Zelda had grown to be increasingly closer friends after his return from Termina with the Ocarina of Time in hand, his epic, yet painful account of his experiences therein, his failure to locate his lost fairy-friend, Navi. Zelda had believed every word he had uttered, despite the fact that all the amazing and magical masks he had acquired had mysteriously reverted to nothing more than average wooden face-wear . She had been a great comfort after that strange and frightening ordeal.

But getting back to the here and now, Link knew that this was the very day he had first visited the castle, and had evaded all the guards in the process. In any case, he had nowhere else to go, and from a few blunders he had made at that time, he knew that the guards would simply throw him out. With that knowledge he casually approached the guards.

"Hey, you! Stop! You, kid, over there!" the guards shouted as they grabbed him.

They swiftly carried him with ease to the outer gate on the path to the castle. Unfortunately, Link's prediction of casual impunity was horribly, horribly wrong, as the guards hurled Link...into an all-consuming void of nothingness.

Upon awakening on that same spot in Hyrule Field, a headache ravaged Link's skull once again. He pounded his head against the ground in agony, which only increased the pain. Was it just him, or was the pain getting worse with each plummet into nothingness? Come to think of it, shouldn't he be sprawled amongst copies of himself every time he appeared in the field, like when he re-entered Kakariko?

Looking around at the eerie and suspenseful environment, it was easy to conclude that this was the ominous field in which he usually ended up. As his eyes passed over Lon Lon Ranch, he realized that he hadn't actually tried to visit it yet from this version of Hyrule Field. It had been the utopian field that had led him to the celebratory Lon Lon Ranch. Thus he decided to risk venturing there, after fondly recalling the sleeping man he had just seen, and his red-headed daughter. But who was he kidding, he knew full well that he more-likely-than-not would end up in some totally different area. As he read the sign pointing to the ranch, he noted that it was a comfort to see these familiar words still existent in this lifeless version of Hyrule. He then departed from his single-sentenced friend for the darkened ghost of a ranch that lay before him. As he passed through the entrance, he steeled himself for the worst.