Chapter Eleven: Through the Door of Time

"Oh yeah," the princess giggled. "He'll be the next King Zora. Didn't he tell you?"

"He may have forgotten to mention it. So, uh..."

"Ruto."

"Okay, Ruto, so what's with the whole princess thing if Nathan's taking the throne?"

"A female can take the throne if all the males in the family die or are unfit to become King. So I'm hoping Nathan will disgrace our family somehow, then I can be the first Zora queen."

"So if he embarrasses old Kingie then he can't be king?"

Ruto grimaced. "Not exactly. There's some huge rule book that each king adds to that gives reasons to terminate a princeship. It's a pretty fascinating read. I've been studying it to see if I can catch him with something obscure. Wow, he's amazing!"

I watched as Link delivered a final blow to the monster he'd been fighting for a few hours. It twitched away and boils sprouted all over its body before it exploded. Link coolly scooped up the heart container left behind and stepped toward us. Ruto blushed and began to complain. "What took you so long? ...I was just lonely, that's all." She changed her tune a bit. "You looked cool out there... cooler than I thought you would."

Link winked at me. He reached out to grab my arm and pull me out of the prison of blue light, but the moment he touched it we all seemed to quite suddenly be pulled out. When I next took in our surroundings, we were standing on a long log in Zora's Fountain. Link moved back and fell into the water when he saw how close Ruto was standing to him. She leapt in the water right after him.

I watched the exchange with amusement. Link was pretty much being entangled in the princess's trap. I couldn't hear the whole thing from where I was, but from what I heard, Link was trapped.

When Ruto finally handed over the Zora's Sapphire and left Link alone, I dropped down into the lake. "So, what happened there?"

Link was very pale. "I'm engaged at the age of 12 and I'm not supposed to tell her father. But that doesn't matter now. I have to go see Princess Zelda."

"You really have a thing for princesses, don't you?"

"Shut up. What about prince Nathan?"

"How did you find out?!"

"I can fight for my life and hear at the same time," he said with a mischievous smile.

"Fine, I won't mention your fiancee if you don't mention my prince. Can I come with you to see Zelda? I'd love to meet this girl who's got you running all over Hyrule, stealing riches."

"Okay. I don't expect to be around much longer anyway. I should be able to say a proper goodbye before I enter the Sacred Realm."

Link refused to even stop to rest before heading off. He insisted that we get to the castle as soon as possible. We ran through Zora's Domain, jumped out at the waterfall, and swam down the long river. When we passed the magic bean sales spot, I saw my father, looking unhappy but still munching on beans. I don't know if he saw me.

We were wet when we left the water, but by the time we reached the castle the sun had dried us off. We looked up at the wall surrounding the market. The drawbridge was up, even though it was the middle of the day. I vaguely recalled it had been late afternoon when we'd first entered Zora's Domain all together, and it was certainly earlier now. How long had we been there?

As I was lost in my thoughts, the sky clouded over and it started to rain. At the same time, the drawbridge creaked open. A wild-looking white horse galloped through, straining to go faster. Riding the horse was a muscular woman with white hair, and a girl in her early teens wearing a long dress and a headress. When she noticed us, she threw a blue object into the moat. The horse just kept running.

The next thing through the gates was a black horse I recognized as a purebred Gerudo stallion. Riding this horse was the creepiest man I'd ever seen. He had bushy, wild red hair and a beard to match, a big nose, a disturbing grin, and a large gold ornament on his forehead. I could appreciate that he was Gerudo, but there is a difference between Gerudo men and women that you will never understand until you experience it.

The man tried to get it out of us where the white horse had gone, but Link refused to tell him and I followed his lead. After a while the Gerudo man grew visibly angry. He couldn't get us to tell him the location of the horse, so he shot a blast of magic at us, laughed for a while and rode away. I blacked out after that.

Darkness. Pain. Yes, a lot of that. A weird, tingly feeling in my fingers... "Em..?" a small voice said uncertainly. I opened my eyes slowly. Link was staring down at me worriedly. "Em, are you okay?"

"My name is Emmeline."

"I guess I should fill you in on what happened. You passed out for quite a long time, you must not be used to magical attacks."

"You think?" I snapped.

Link continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I tried to wake you up, but you just kept rolling over. I figured I should get what Zelda threw into the water. It was an ocarina," he explained, holding up a pretty blue instrument, "and when I picked it up, I got a psychic message. Zelda was teaching me a song." He raised the ocarina to his mouth and played a strange tune that sent shivers down my spine.

"Okay, so what do we have to do?"

"Come with me," he insisted, as if I hadn't been to Castle Town a hundred times and didn't know where everything was. But like the child he was, he grabbed my arm and dragged me all over town until we came to the steps of a proud-looking old building.

"The Temple of Time..." I breathed. "Wait, what are you and the princess up to? I've heard enough stories. Legends, I suppose. You're entering the Temple of Time with a strange instrument with a mysterious song, and uniting the spiritual stones! You're trying to get the Triforce!"

"No, just trying to protect it." He ascended the stairs with a determined fierceness in his eyes. I followed him, very curious at this point. Before we reached the end of the room, where a pedestal and the Door of Time where, Link turned to me. "I don't think I'm going to be coming out of this temple."

"Don't worry, Link, I'm sure–"

"No, Emmeline, I'm serious. I'm not coming out."

In spite of myself, I started to cry. I impatiently swiped the tears off my face. Who was I to be this selfish? This could save Hyrule, even if I didn't know how. "B-but Link, I–" I stopped short. I couldn't find the words. I didn't even know what I wanted to say. I barely knew him, what could I say?"

He took my hands and searched my face. "Don't worry. I know." We walked side by side to the Door of Time where the three spiritual stones flew through the air and took their respective places on the pedestal. Link looked nervous, but he steadily played the tune he'd learned telepathically. Before our very eyes, the Door of Time was swallowed up in a wave of blue light and vanished, leaving behind an empty room.

An almost empty room. In the centre was a few steps leading up to a sword set in stone. A stream of light focussed on it from a window somewhere. "Well, this is it," Link announced, stepping up to the sword.

"Yes," I agreed in a very tiny voice.

He put his left hand on the sword's handle. He tried to lift it unsuccessfully. He tugged and pulled, leaning on it with all his weight.

I began to feel relatively calm. "Good effort, though. Well, since you've survived, maybe..."

Link was slowly budging the sword this way and that, and it was slowly coming loose. Within minutes only the tip was left.

My heart jumped. "Link, stop, I–" Too late. Link gave one final tug on the sword and it came free. Before I could finish my sentence, he was swept up in a blaze of blue light, disappearing just like the Door of Time. "–love you." But there was nobody to hear those words except for me.