Part the Tenth

Nadine scowled as she hurried through the rooms of the temple, glancing from side to side as she passed. "You, page!" She shouted, making the young girl stop dead in her tracks. "Tell me, where is our King?" Her voice was tinted with desperation. The page, standing across the octagonal room blinked slowly, confused.

"I believe that the King has gone for a morning run. I saw... Kira saddled his horse for him earlier this morning. Perhaps you might find him out on the dunes?"

Nadine grimaced, her dark eyes flashing in annoyance. In instants, she was out the door, leaving a perplexed page in her wake. She cursed under her breath as she ran back to her horse. "Why?" She muttered, indignant. "He sends me out to find him information, and when I have it he decides to vanish from the world all together! If he has used his power for something I'll never find him. Run, Neptune! Run! Find our Lord. Bring me to him." Leaning forwards, she urged her steed on, searching the dunes desperately.

--

I don't know what possessed me to play with the odd boy. Maybe... I don't know! There was something about him; it felt as though it were my job to do as he asked, no matter the cost. Even then, though... The Goddesses alone could have known where the brat had hidden. I rounded another corner, hoping to catch a glimpse of the illusive child. And instantly, I jumped back, praying that I had not been seen. When no alarm sounded, I cautiously peeked around the stone wall, again. Nabooru stood not three paces away, and another Gerudo could be seen further down, in the opposite hall. The Spirit Sage looked different, somehow, from how I remembered her. After a moment I realized. She was younger. Confused as I was at her appearance, it took me a while to realize something of greater importance. The kid was standing next to her, peering up with a grin.

I fled. I could feel the bitter agony of betrayal burning through my chest. After all, why else would the kid be talking to a Gerudo, especially the deputy to Ganondorf? He had turned me in. Rage slowly arose from the betrayal, and the familiar tapping of my feet against the stone brought war-drums to mind. He'll know the penalty of turncoats when I'm through with him, I thought. I'd pay them back for what they did to me! I couldn't see, couldn't hear anything around me. The staccato footfalls echoed in the nothingness. And then, suddenly, a soul-wrenching noise arose, like the beginning of Gibdo moans. Startled by the broken silence, I drew my sword; and the rasping of metal on its sheath joined the other sound in a sickening symphony. I spun around, hacking at... nothing. The room was empty. I sheathed the blade, letting the oft-heard sound sooth my jittery nerves.

I didn't dismiss the noise entirely, but I knew, that with the Gerudos aware of my presence, I couldn't linger for long. The path I was running down branched, left and right. One led up, and one led down. Hurriedly, I chose left, praying I had not just committed a fool's error. As I followed the hall down stone steps and out of the fortress, I sighed, knowing I'd been wrong. I couldn't chance turning back, though, with them after me. Carefully, I sidled across the grounds, staying as close to the fortress as possible, as though trying to soak up the shadows. Darting across the sand at the fortress's end, I hid behind the large rock there. My eyes strayed to the side, to a different boulder in a different world. For a moment, I saw him, the Keaton-mask child, and he said, as clear as day, "I was turned into this by a strange imp wearing a mask. You have a mask, too. Tell me: is your mask's dark power stronger than Majora's? In Termina, it was all a trick of the masked one who had upset things. Whose trick is it, here?"

I blinked, and he was gone. Shaking the memories away, I turned, and, taking note of the open gate, walked into the desert. Wishing with all my heart to find peace in the dunes beyond the trials, I fished through my pack for the hookshot.

--

Nabooru had been talking easily with the wise youth when he disappeared. Blinking, she remembered what she had been told, and shrugged, believing the child gone. Moments later, however, she was surprised when the boy reappeared, and grabbed her wrist. "The juror is about to meet the thief! We have to hurry!" And with a flash similar to that of deku nuts, the two vanished out of the fortress. Had anyone remained in the room, they might have seen a shadow of a feather float down to the ground, and fade away into the dust...

"Nabooru?" Aveil called as she approached. "All of a sudden, I couldn't hear you talking..." As she came fully into the small prison room, she paled. Turning, she ran for her horse.

--

'He doesn't realize, does he? Hah. What a fool boy. He has a steady will, and strength of heart, but he was just as oblivious as Majora's servant was. He doesn't remember what I di- what he did, when we returned to this world. He has heard some, from old acquaintances, but he is still oblivious to the truth, that it started well before that. Before even Termina, and Majora, and his dear friend Tatl. He doesn't see that it was all wishes and hopes, where the sky shines gold. He doesn't realize that all his dreams have come true. Soon, though, his final dream will become a reality, and I will emerge from the ashes, to make his nightmares truth, as well...'