Chapter Fourteen
The Songs Of Time And Nightmares
On and on, the clouds swirled and shifted, pregnant with moonlight and bonelight. The worlds were endless and they were Link's to roam. His only desire hidden from him, he wandered on in aimless fashion. Clouds dissipated. Black sky, punctured with weak sun, prevailed.
Link crossed again the oceans of water and time, and the gods of lightning and flame flanked his movements. Back on the island of Dream Koholint, he wandered through the empty village of Mabe. The fountain's waters were bright blue in the town square. Droplets spiraled as they fell.
He perused the library, as he always did whenever he stopped in the village. The titles were all unfamiliar: When Shall We Three Meet Again; In Dreams Mudora Speaks; Songs For That Which We Have Loved. The last, Link pulled off the shelf. He opened it to a random page. It was blank, except for one sentence: No requiems yet for you.
Link flipped through the other pages of the book. All were blank. Startled, he shut the book and returned it to the shelf, his fingers leaving prints in the dust.
No requiems yet for you. No songs of grief- yet. Even if, in the real world, his body was perhaps mortally injured, and he could not wake... but he could still strive for his goal...
Link set off again- this time for the beach. All sense of time was leaving him- the sun and moon did not move in the sky. The moon's phases didn't make sense. And yet Link was becoming sensitized to something else: he was hearing songs. They were guides for him, through the great mystery.
Except one. One was the song of a Nightmare. It was a mournful, screeching sound, painful even from a great distance.
Link stopped at Marin's house. His sword hadn't been with him all this time- perhaps it was there. He wandered the utterly dark hallways of the empty house. They twisted this way and that, a maze that mocked the house of the Other Realm. Finally, he found his room. In the profound shadows, Link could make out his sword, lying across the bed the way a knight might hold one in effigy. He retrieved the sword and headed out.
Outside, the song of the Nightmare pierced through the windless air like war horns.
The monsters ignored Link, humming songs of sand and rock and tide. His heart went out to them. They were different from the Nightmares, whose songs made an art out of inflicting fear. No wonder the WindFish was haunted. Why were they disturbing him so? Had they always been here?
Link arrived at a part of the beach where the cliffs rose high into the air. At some points, the water reached right up to the rocks that formed the cliff's base. Link climbed these with some difficulty. They were slippery with saltwater and seaweed. Finally, he came to a cave out of which echoed the Nightmare's song. Link climbed to its mouth and entered.
The walls and floor of the cave glittered with thousands of tiny crystals, their facets catching light from an unknown source. The crunch of crystals underneath Link's footsteps gave away his presence with loud echoes- but no monsters appeared, just yet.
As Link rounded a corner, a rock caught his boot and he fell, landing on his hands and knees. They bled from scuffing against the crystals' too-sharp edges. That's when he realized: these were not crystals at all.
They were fish hooks.
Fish hooks, of all types and sizes, protruded from the cave's surfaces. Many looked old, but none were rusted. Each had an unnatural shine, especially at the tip. Link checked the bottom of his boots- they were scuffed up bad. He took a deep breath and continued.
He rounded one more corner- finally, monsters waited- slimy, fishlike creatures with black eyes that thirsted for blood. Link dispatched them easily, but did so with more sorrow and compassion than he expected. All those mournful monsters roaming Mabe and the beach had an effect on Link.
Beyond these monsters, Link finally found the Nightmare's chamber. Its song hung in the air like an acrid stench. There was a pool at the end of the cavern, surrounded by four torches that gave off a blue light. Link approached slowly. When nothing came out of the shadows to greet him, he came to the edge of the perfectly still pool and touched the tip of his sword to its surface.
With a terrifying roar, the Nightmare rose out of the pool and swung its head wildly around. It was a giant, maimed, snake-like sea-creature, with a tail that ended in several spikes. It lashed out with its barbed tail, which snapped back and forth with unbelievable speed. Link was struck in the thigh even as he dodged.
The Sea Nightmare rounded itself up for another attack. Link looked down and saw blood soaking the hem of his tunic. It was darker than Other Realm blood. It flowed more slowly, too.
That was when he realized: time was still a plaything- not a rule. He could tap into it as he did to cross the oceans and wander Dream Hyrule. He took a breath. The Sea-Nightmare was rushing at him again. He leaped up and in that moment, listened for the Song of Time, and the net that it cast across everything. He could hear it, and when he did, that net became solid and caught him in mid-air. He walked across it as he did to cross the oceans. The Sea-Nightmare's tail was lashing out under him, but the movement was slow, the way a flower's movement is slow to open to the sun.
Link adjusted his grip on his sword and brought it down upon the tail, hacking its razor-blade end clean off.
The Nightmare's screech filled the air, and broke Link's grasp on time. He fell to the floor. The Sea-Nightmare lunged at him, snapping with huge jaws. Link was not ready. He barely managed to jump out of the way. The Nightmare struck again. This time, Link managed to swing his sword as he dodged, jabbing the creature in the eye.
It reeled back its head and screeched once more. Link took advantage- he closed his eyes- he could hear the song of time again. He stepped up its nets like stairs until he was over the Nightmare's snake-like head. He let himself drop with a downward thrust.
The sword crashed through its head, and the creature dropped to the ground in a heap. Link caught Time's net again and leaped away in a graceful flip, landing on his feet. With one long moan, the Sea Nightmare's song ended.
Link retrieved his sword from the Nightmare's skull. Its body began to fade as a dream might. Link took one of the torches from its pedestal and walked around to the far end of the pool, searching the cave wall for a hidden door. He found it- it swayed open easily for him. In it lay the Surf Harp.
The moon was near full when Link stepped out again onto the rocky shore. The hero made his tired way back to Marin's house. He slept for an unknown period of time, ignoring his new instrument, whose vulnerable strings seemed to beg to be plucked. Instead, he headed for the hot springs not far down a hidden path. There he bathed, washing his wounds, and stared, still exhausted, at the dusting of red stars across the perpetually black sky. A luminous shape circled lazily some ways up, catching thermals and then ducking back down and around. It filled Link with a peaceful feeling as he watched it idly, before he realized what it was: a bird. His bird.