Chapter 24:
Shadows and the Sun
„Damn it!"
Furiously, Midna kicked the wall as hard as she could:
"We were almost fried, drowned, struck by lightning and frozen, but nowhere even the slightest bit of a hint of how to solve this whole darn mess!! Meanwhile, we got messages of 10 more mysteriously appearing storms out of nowhere, avalanches in the mountains and, oh, people claiming they saw boats floating in the sky! If this continues, we're all done for!"
It was obvious that at very least, Midna's nerves were already "done for".
"Please, try to stay calm!", Zelda, who wanted to keep a cool head in this difficult situation, told her.
"What?! You suggest that I just lie down and take a nap, like HIM?!"
Her finger shot out, into the direction of, the yet still motionless, Link.
"Midna!", Zelda shouted out, not trusting her own ears at what she was hearing.
"I.. I am… sorry…"
The Twilight Princess calmed down again a little:
"I am… just worried… OK. Make that very worried."
"And you are working too hard.", Zelda told her "Ever since you arrived here, you didn't retread into the shadows even once… I know that part of my essence still dwells within you, but that doesn't change the fact that you are of the Twilight People and actually need the twilight of your own world to survive. It must be incredibly exhausting to you to walk unprotected in our sun all this time… Are you sure, you don't want to rest for a few hours?"
"No. I am fine, really.", Midna quickly replied. She sighed and paused a moment: "…OK, we got to keep on trying to figure something out! Any news yet?"
"Well, I sent Ilia to ask the townspeople for rumors about any strange events in the recent past, which could prove to be of informative value. Also…"
Zelda unfolded a little piece of paper on the table next to her:
"We just received a message of yet another, seemingly oceanic storm… In Gerudo desert."
"Can you make any sense out of that?"
Zelda shook her head.
„It is strange. Though Hyrule does have island colonies out on the open sea, it does not actually have any direct access to the ocean. I cannot understand how this kind of storm can develop in this land. It should be impossible…"
"Hmm… could it be that the sea level was higher in the past?"
"I honestly doubt this. Nothing in Hyrule would point towards this possibility."
"Ohh…"
Midna sit down, put her hand to her forehead and sighed loudly:
"We are moving in circles! Time's running out, yet we don't know any more than we did in the beginning!"
"We mustn't give up our hope!", Zelda quickly told her "If we keep and keep on searching for the truth about all that is happening right now, we are certainly bound to discover something eventually! I am sure!"
"Hm.."
Midna looked up, directly into Zelda's eyes.
"What is it?", Zelda asked.
"Nothing special… I just had to think about how… he would have said just the same thing. Yeah, he pretty much would have…"
Simultaneously, Zelda and Midna let their heads sink. And Hyrule's Princess sighed:
"Oh, Link…"
"…Zelda…"
"Oh?"
The two women looked up. This voice…
"…L-Link?"
Zelda quickly turned to the side, towards the bed…
Was it… was it possible? Link… His face was moving!
Midna and Zelda jumped up, out of their seats and ran over to the bed, watching the sleeping, young man.
"Link!!", Midna shouted "Link, can you hear us?!"
Zelda got loud as well:
"Wake up, we beg you!!"
And…
Just a tiny gap wide, Link's eyes opened. Just a tiny little bit…
And they were empty. Absolutely and utterly devoid of… anything.
A short shriek escaped Zelda, as she saw this. Then she noticed that on his left hand, barely noticeable, yet there… the Triforce had reappeared. For no apparent reason.
And Link's voice repeated weakly:
"…Princess… Zelda…"
"Link!", both of the women repeated.
"…Zelda… I'll… come back one day…. Zelda… I promised… we'll meet again… one…day…"
"But I am here Link! I am right here!!Link!"
Zelda's voice sounded incredibly despaired.
"And you are here too!... Please be here!!"
"And…thank you… for your Ocarina… you were right…The goddess of time… protected me…all of them… Without the Ocarina… everyone would have perished…"
"Ocarina?!" Midna seemed, like she was about to panic. "I don't get it! What are you talking about?! Link! LINK!!"
Zelda could only shake her head in a begging way:
"Link… please…"
She took his hand and pressed it:
"…wake up…"
"Zelda… I want you to be free as well…"
"W-What?!"
"…Uh…"
After those words, Link's empty eyes closed again and the weak light of the Triforce mark faded, leaving behind not even the slightest hint of the sacred symbol on the young man's hand. He became just as motionless as he was before.
In shock, Midna gasped:
"No!!"
She took him by his shoulders and shook him:
"Wake up!! ARGH! I told you to…WAKE UP! WAKE UP, YOU GIANT IDIOT!"
"Midna…"
"We need you! Don't you get it?! WE NEED YOU RIGHT NOW!! COME BACK!!....
…Come… back…"
"Midna… He can't hear you…"
Finally, Midna let go of Link's shoulders… and fell into her knees:
"You… You…Idiot…", she whispered once again, facing the floor.
"Why is he worried for me…?", Zelda quietly asked. "Why did he say this? Why, when he is the one, who… And yet, he…"
…
-Wait!"
A realization hit Zelda out of nowhere. She stayed silent for a moment, as the thought slowly became an idea. She then stepped back from the bed and said in a confident voice:
"To the royal library!"
Hearing this, Midna jumped up again:
"What?! How can you possibly take this to be the right time to do some reading?!"
But a fire of enthusiasm and security, was burning in Zelda's eyes, like Midna never saw it before.
"Link mentioned an Ocarina! An Ocarina powerful enough to save people's lives! In all the myths and legends of our realm, there is only a single Ocarina mentioned, that would be capable of such a feat… given that it is not a mere fable… this Ocarina could be the key to awaken him again!"
Midna realized that Zelda was right:
"…In that case, we got to find this thing and fast!!"
And Princess Zelda nodded:
"Yes. We have to. I just pray to the gods, that we are right. That it will really cause Link to…
…wake up."
"Uhh… I am awake…", he told himself. At least, he hoped so.
Great. Voices in his head… then again, he was really pretty tired right now. But also, his throat was dry like fresh ashes. He just needed some water, or he would not, under no circumstances, be able to sleep again.
Link(Kaze) tiredly descended the staircase, hoping that going this small distance in their little house wouldn't kill… somebody.
Also, he had to distract himself from thinking about everything that happened recently.
Uhh… this darn headache…
Why wouldn't this stupid headache stop? And he still felt like hearing voices.
He really needed some water. Water and some more sleep…
"Hm?"
There was… light in the living room.
Grandma was still awake? In curiosity, Link entered the room and found his Grandma sitting there in the light of a candle, humming an old song, while sitting in her chair and sewing. Stitch for stitch, she carefully, and yet quickly attached the pieces of blue cloth in her hand to each other.
Their blue tunics…
Link smiled.
Grandma had stayed awake for so long, just in order to help really was the best. The best Grandma in the whole world, that's what she was.
"Hm-hm-hm… Huh? Oh, Link! You woke up! "
When the young boy saw his Grandmother's relieved and joyful look, he just smiled and nodded in embarrassment.
"Ah, this good… So you are fine. We were already worried, you'd… you really got us all startled, dear!"
"Sorry…", Link stated ashamed "How is Aryll?"
Grandma smiled:
"Perfectly fine, don't worry. Because you got her out of the water so quickly, she suffered no injuries. She was merely a little tired, when she told me about everything. But only because you acted so fast."
Link sighed:
"Yeah, but, like you said, I just acted. I wasn't really aware of what I was doing. We both would have drowned if Toki… the other boy… hadn't helped me to get out of the water again."
Grandma sewed a few more stitches, before she continued:
"Oh yes… that other boy. How you collapsed seemed to quite hit him…"
"What? Oh, you mean, he collapsed as we—"
„No, No. I didn't mean physically.", Grandma quickly corrected "I was talking about his behavior for the rest of the day. He wouldn't stop insisting, that it was his fault, because he played too wildly with Aryll… Complete nonsense, of course. Aryll has always been quite energetic. There's nobody to blame for her acting the way that she does. That's just how she is. Ah, Aryll…"
"And he really blamed himself for what happened?", Link asked, feeling a little unsettled by this thought. "But it's not like he did do anything to cause Aryll to slip!"
"He said that jumping on the rocks near the cliff had been his idea.", Grandma answered with a shrug "I think, Aryll would have gotten the very same idea all by herself anyway. I know her. Still, your friend kept insisting that he should have thought this idea through, before suggesting it to her.
He sat beside your bed the whole evening and talked about how irresponsible he was. How he, unlike you, would be completely lost without someone to act as the voice of reason."
"That's not true. It's not like I'd do perfectly well without somebody to give me advice now and then. I…" he blushed "…tend to do pretty dumb things when nobody holds me back as well…"
"Still, he seemed pretty convinced that you had a better sense of responsibility than him and was rather ashamed for suggesting something as dangerous as this to Aryll."
"Ah…"
Link looked up to the ceiling, where their shadows moved in the light of the candle:
"Me and responsible… As if. I guess he just doesn't know me enough yet, after all."
Without searching anything, Link let his eyes wander along the wooden logs of the ceiling and had to think of Tetra. And the king of Hyrule.
Without the two of them, he would have achieved nothing and only searched the seas without any plan or system, until he died of starvation—
No, not even that. If the King of Red Lions hadn't saved him, he would have drowned, because he was stupid enough to just barge into the room with the kidnapped girls without any care or preparation.
And, even worse, if Tetra hadn't been there in the very beginning, he would have fallen from, what was pretty much the highest cliff on their island. Even if the fall hadn't killed him (which it certainly would have), he would have- again- drowned.
Wow, now that he thought about it, he was actually really prone to drowning out of stupidity.
So much for "The more responsible one".
Just what gave Toki this idea? …Maybe his constant worrying about his friends. But this had nothing to do with "responsibility". It's true; he would never have suggested Aryll to play this nearby the cliff. But only because the possible scenario of Aryll falling down there alone was enough to turn him off, not because he gave it any actual thought. Whenever Tetra suggested something was a stupid idea, she had thought it trough and taken all possible outcomes into account beforehand. He never did this. He just… acted. Yes.
And on top of that, Toki's swordskills clearly exceeded his. And he would have never been able to just accept a fate like Toki's for himself. He would not have been to stay this cool…
Actually, he was bit weaker in quite a lot of aspects… wasn't he?
"Done!"
Once again, Link was ripped out of his thoughts and turned to the side. His Grandma was holding a small, blue Tunic in her hands, a second one was lying on her legs.
"Wow, already finished?", Linki asked in surprise.
Grandma just smiled:
"Of course! A skilled seamstress is fast… I might have made one or two mistakes here or there through… Link, would you be so kind to try it on?"
She handed him the blue clothes over. Link nodded and accepted them.
"OK, I'm going to get changed!", he told her. "Wait a minute, Grandma!"
The tunic under his arm, he went over to the bathroom. He closed the door, lit the candle, got out of his green clothes. He neatly folded them and put them aside, before he changed into the blue tunic in their place.
A look into the mirror…
How weird. He felt just like back on his 12 birthday. Back, when he first changed into the Hero's clothes…
„Grandma… do I really have to?"
„Don't make this face, Link! It's just for a single day."
"But it's July! I will feel like frying, once I change into this stuff…"
"Link, it's a tradition! Also, I believe you'll look very handsome in those clothes."
"With that hat? Yeah, right. I always thought my birthday was about what I wanted…"
"You will come to like them eventually! Believe me!"
"…"
Link smiled. Back then, he didn't know how right his Grandma had been. The weird looks he got from time to time didn't really bother him anymore. His tunic was part of who he was now.
He turned all around and looked at the blue clothes. Despite the limited resources, Grandma apparently still let her creativity flow into her work:
The tunic looked a lot like his usual one on the first glance, but there were a lot details which differed a little bit, like very short sleeves and a differently shaped cut for the neck. Also, she placed the stitches differently, probably to make it more robust, despite having had to use a lot less tissue.
The light blue undershirt, she had probably added herself from Link's old clothes…
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Link suddenly remembered how much blue he used to wear. Maybe it was even his favorite color back then… he never gave this too much thought. Now he wondered what became of his favorite shirt, the one with the shrimp on it… Did Grandma throw it out? He hoped she didn't. He always liked that shirt.
Then, he wondered if the second blue tunic would look exactly the same as this one. If it did, he and Toki would end up looking even more than each other…
And taking the fact in account, that the water was most likely going to cause their hair to get equally messed up…
Link grinned.
…it could get a little difficult to actually tell them apart.
KRCKS.
Startled, Link turned towards the door.
The… sound of wood cracking?
What did ha—
"EEEEEK!"
A scream.
And the voice was…
"GRANDMA!!"
In shock, Link unlocked the door and rushed out, back to the living room:
"Grandma, what—"
The remaining question became pointless, when Link saw what happened…
Someone smashed a hole into the wall. And his Grandma was cowering in the corner of the room in fear, surrounded by monsters, who looked like a mass of black pudding…
"Oh no!!—Ha-"
Link wanted to draw his sword… but he didn't have it on him.
He remembered… He left it upstairs, in his room.
"Arghh…"
Unarmed, Link ran towards the creatures. He grabbed a log of wood and started smacking them out of the way, finally reaching his grandma and taking her hand:
"Grandma!"
"Link! Oh my goodness…"
She quickly got up and picked up the second blue tunic, while Link started fighting of the monsters again:
"AHH! GO AWAY!!", he shouted, while smacking the beasts with his improvised weapon.
But those were too many… and he was still not completely fit again. He needed help… and a proper weapon. Also, he had to get Grandma and Aryll somewhere save…
Aryll was upstairs. Just like his sword.
"Grandma, quick, this way!"
"Oh- All…right…"
With his Grandma by his right hand, he ran upstairs. He had to wake up Toki—
Except, there was no need to do that anymore. The monsters had already taken care of this.
"Aryll, get behind me!"
"Y-yeah…"
The Hero of Time raised his sword, while little Aryll clenched to his tunic, cowering behind him, and he was ready to fight of the dark masses of… something, which were slowly approaching him.
"What are those…", he asked puzzled.
"Pure magical force!"
Eyne popped up from under his cap, (where she had hidden, of course), exclaiming this last sentence loudly.
"Magical force?"
"But the dark kind! The really, really, really bad kind!", the fairy stated "You must not, I repeat, not touch this, or it will react to your essence, and-"
Too late. Link was already standing in one of the moving puddles with one foot.
"Uh Oh!"
He quickly backed off with Aryll, as the indefinable mass of something started to vibrate suspiciously.
"Eeek!", Eyne shrieked: "Bad, Bad, BAD!"
"What?! What is gonna happen now?!", Link asked her nervously.
But Aryll was faster:
"Ah! L-Look!!"
Link quickly turned his head to around again and realized, that the „magical force", as Eyne had called it, was starting to pile up more and more, steadily forming and staking on a distinct shape.
A shape very familiar to Link.
-His shape.
"D-Dark Link?!", he exclaimed in surprise, as Aryll backed off scared.
Talk about Dejá vú.
Link's eyes widened, as he had to remember his fight against this creature… in the heart of the water temple. A foe with all of his skills, imitating every single of his moves. One of his hardest battles…
"But… how…"
"That's what I wanted to warn you off!!", Eyne quickly shouted "Because you touched it, it reacted to your essence and took on your form! A 1:1 copy!"
"Reacted to my essence… now I get it… Argh…"
Toki brought himself into position, then charged towards his dark lookalike:
"But I got rid of you once and I'll do it again!!!"
He tried to slash Dark Link, but his strike got countered by the enemy, and with a lot of force at that. Link was thrown backwards by the impact and almost fell into the remaining dark mass, but managed to find his balance again in the last moment and jumped away from it:
"Wheew! Close one! The last thing we need now is an army of those!"
"Agreed, Agreed, Agreed!", Eyne stated quickly: "Listen to me! Dark Magic's power increases with the number of negative emotions it can feast on! Therefore, you have to stay calm! The angrier you get, the stronger this guy will become!"
"Calm?! How am I supposed to stay calm, when there's a little girl endangered in here?!", Toki argued, when a said little girl suddenly screamed:
"AH! Turn around!!"
Hearing Aryll's suggestion just in time, Link did so and just in time to dodge an attack by his opponent. He jumped, tried to strike back, but only hit his opponents blade once again… And the impact had really gotten harder.
He backed off:
"Argh… OK, Link… calm down… think of something… peaceful…"
Just why was everything that came to his mind right now just way, way off this intention?
"Toki!!"
It was Link(Kaze), who came rushed up the stairs, his Grandma by his hand:
"Down in the living room are—AH?!"
In shock, Kaze opened his eyes wide, when he saw Toki and the Dark Link fighting.
"What… What is going on here?!... HM!"
Leaving Grandma at the staircase, Kaze ran towards his friend, in order to help him.
Aryll noticed him:
"…O~i!!" Big brother!!"
„Huh?!"
It was just then, that Toki, too, noticed the other boy approaching:
"Kaze! Don't come any closer!!!", he tried to warn, but it was already too late. Kaze was already standing right in the dark mass… and jumped in shock, when he noticed this:
"Wha---?- AH!"
He backed off, as the moving puddle piled up before him, creating an exact copy of him.
An exact copy with black clothes, grey skin, red eyes and white hair.
And it gave the original a self-confident smirk.
"W-What…."
"That's Dark Link!!", Toki shouted „This guy will imitate every single of your moves, so don't just attack him thoughtlessly, OK?!"
Kaze backed off a little.
"I…"
He took a deep breath and stopped stuttering:
"I can't fight him at all, if I don't have a weapon!!"
"Big Brother!!"
Aryll waved at Link from across the room. She threw him his sword in its scabbard:
"Catch!!"
The weapon fly across the room. Link jumped and grabbed it, drawing it as soon as he got hold o fit:
"Thank you!"
Kaze proceeded to raise his weapon and try to slash his opponent… the next thing he felt was being hit on his right shoulder, followed by a sharp pain, which caused him to back of quickly:
"ARGH!"
He took a look at his shoulder. Luckily, he reacted fast enough. There wasn't too much blood, it was merely a little bit worse than a scratch… And not his left arm, that's what counted. Also, the tunic stayed undamaged. The undershirt however… he would have to replace this afterwards.
"I told you, he would mimic you!!", Toki shouted.
"But how else am I supposed to fight him?!"
He watched Toki, who managed to get the upper hand in the struggle against his own doppelganger, by setting the slashes so precisely, that they still hit, even though the enemy was mimicking them. Also, Toki still managed to dodge, while doing so… It was just amazing, how great his swordskills actually were, when it came down to it.
There was no way, Kaze could do that… he had to find a different way to damage the enemy…
"Use a different weapon!!", Toki suggested, when he saw how clueless Kaze was "He shouldn't be able to copy anything except the sword!"
"Different weapon, different weapon…"
So he could use the Skull Hammer, Ciela's Hammer, the Hookshot, his boomerang—
"Uh Oh…"
When Kaze tried to reach for his stuff, realized a grave problem with this.
He didn't have it on him.
Nothing of it.
His whole equipment was down in the bathroom, along with his green tunic.
"D-Darn it!"
In sweat, Kaze continued to back off. He couldn't attack. Every single of his sword moves would be copied.
„AGH!"
…Toki's voice. Apparently his strategy wasn't working forever either.
And Kaze continued to merely back off, without letting the enemy, who persistently followed him, out of sight. Finally, he felt, how his back touched that of someone else. Apparently, Toki had used the same "tactic" as him, when his last attack failed. Suddenly, the two of them ended up standing back to back.
Which leaded to them being pretty much circled by the two Dark Links. Great, just Great.
A quick glance to Aryll, another one to Grandma…
At least the creatures seemed to ignore them.
"I'm running out of ideas…", Toki gulped: "And you?"
"Haha. You need to have those, in order to run out of them."
His short laughter of self-irony wasn't exactly raising their mood either. He glanced over his shoulder:
"Don't you have any other weapons yourself?"
Toki shook his head:
"When I woke up, my bag had been torn open. Somebody took all of my weapons, save this sword, while I was sleeping."
Kaze gulped:
"Probably somebody, who knew that those would attack."
"Yeah, probably…"
"What shall we do…"
Nervously, Kaze whipped the sweat out of his face:
"All our moves are being copied… everything we do it pretty much reflected back at us. If somebody else could deal the damage, this would be a whole lot ea—"
"That's it!", Toki suddenly exclaimed.
For a split second, Kaze didn't get what he meant… Then suddenly, his eyes shone in realization:
"You mean… Are you thinking, what I'm thinking?"
Even though he couldn't see his face, Kaze was pretty sure, that Toki was grinning, when he replied:
"I guess so!"
Yeah… they knew exactly, what they were going to do now.
Kaze smiled:
"This…This could work!"
"This will work!", Toki stated "OK, get ready! 3…2…1…JUMP!"
Suddenly, the two boys jumped and quickly switched places.
They were now facing each other's shadow.
"Up-Slash and Counter!"
"OK! I'll attack with a diagonal slash down, from left!"
"Got it!"
The two did, what they said and, at the same time, got ready to block exactly the move the other one announced.
It worked: The Dark Links, unable to do anything but imitate the moves of their respective originals, did precisely that and ended up being hit completely off-guard by the Link's attacks. They became utterly predictable. Suddenly, the battle got incredibly easy…
First, Toki's clone melted and disappeared into nothingness before Kaze. Kaze's double did just the same not to long after.
It got quiet for a few seconds…
"Wheew…"
"Link!"
His Grandmother finally left her place next to the staircase and came run up to her grandson:
"Oh my goodness, children, you are not hurt, are you?"
Kaze quickly covered the scratch on his shoulder with the short sleeves of the tunic:
"Don't worry, Grandma, we're fine."
"Yeah, everything OK.", Toki nodded.
"And you, Aryll?"
"I'm well, Grandma…", she answered, still a little startled, as she stood up from the ground.
Their Grandmother took a deep breath and sighed:
"This was sure a shock…"
Toki looked around carefully:
"Well… wherever those things came from, at least now, they're-"
He was cut short by a scream from outside.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
"That was Sue-Belle!!", Aryll exclaimed in shock.
" 5am…" Kaze gasped, as he jumped a little: "She's always getting up before sunrise and passing by our house to fetch water for Sturgeon!"
The two boys looked at each other, nodded and rushed down the staircase and out of the house.
Just before the veranda, they found the young woman sitting on the floor in shock, unable to move, the pot she fetched water with in shards. All around here were the very same creatures which caused the boys trouble just minutes ago.
"Ahh…Somebody, help me!!"
"We're here!"
The boys rushed down and placed themselves between Sue-Belle and the monsters… when the noticed that said monsters were getting more and more numerous every second.
"Oh no!"
Kaze gulped:
„We… we can't fight that many!"
"The…"
This one "the" came from Eyne, but she hesitated to finish the sentence for some reason.
"I mean… uhm…"
"Eyne!"
Toki called out to her:
„Eyne, if you know how to get rid of those, please tell us!"
"I… I don't…"
"Eyne!", Kaze shouted. „Please!"
„…"
Eyne still hesitated. She took a look around… finally, she took a short breath and said:
"Think logical! Those are shadows! How to erase a shadow?"
"With light!", Toki realized.
"But the sun is only raising in half an hour!", Kaze said "We're finished till that hap-!"
He stopped mid sentence…
And both boy's eyes widened, as they simultaneously said something:
"...Sun's song…" "…Song of Passing…"
They looked at each other in an asking manner.
"…A; F; D?", Kaze asked.
Toki nodded:
"…A;F;D."
„Play it then!!"
With an approving look, the boy quickly got out his Ocarina.
And played A F D as quickly as he could. Just he did, the sun started to rise, all of the sudden and much too early. Just like time had decided to pass faster. And as soon as the first bright sunrays hit the shore of the island, the shadow-like creature on the ground started to fade and finally disappear completely, without any trace.
Carefully, the boys looked around… but the monsters were really all gone.
Toki sighed: "Finally that's over… So we both knew that song, huh?"
Kaze didn't answer… He just starred at the spot, where a second before the monsters had still been…
They had faded…
„Lady, are you alright?"
Toki helped Sue-Belle up, as she nodded:
„Yeah…Ahh… my pot…"
Sue-Belle took a look at the remains of her trademark… then sighed:
"Well... better, than my neck, I guess… Boys, thank you!"
She looked at Toki:
"You saved my life…"
"We're just glad, that nothing worse happened.", Toki stated with a smile. "I just hope you'll be able to find a replacement for that pot!"
"I got a few more at home.", she stated. "And I'll go and fetch one now. The water is not going to come into our house all by itself. Thank you again, kids… I wish I had something, I could give to you!"
"It's not necessary really!"
"Still…", she smiled: "I wish you all the best for your remaining quest!—Oh! That rhymed! Ah… Excuse me now!"
Sue Belle waved, as she ran back to her house and Toki waved back at her.
"Ah… at least that girl's alright. Right, Kaze?"
"…"
"…Kaze?"
Toki turned towards him, as Kaze, who was still starring at this particular spot, whispered:
"…I don't get it…"
"Huh?"
Toki approached him:
"Get what?"
Kaze raised his head:
"How you can… be like this… When… When this is your fate."
He turned towards Toki:
"You are going to be just the same as those monsters… You are going to fade away and die! There's nothing we can do about it! Yet you keep going!"
"…"
As Toki just looked at him in a calm manner, Kaze continued:
" When I was in the world of the Ocean King, I felt completely lost at first, but thinking of Tetra kept me going. Thinking of meeting her again and seeing her smile again! But… But you have nothing left! No future, none of the people you knew, not even the world you used to protect… Everything has changed and you don't even have anything to look forward to! How can you still smile?"
Toki answered, by doing exactly this. Smile.
He turned to the side and looked up the sky:
"…Sure a cool coincidence, that we both knew this song, huh?"
"H-Hey! Don't just change the topic!"
"What do you think of the sun?"
"Huh?"
Kaze stepped up and looked to the sky. And finally, he answered:
"It… It's…"
He closed his eyes:
"…Warm and Pleasing… I think…"
"Hehe…"
Kaze turned towards Toki again, when he heard him laughing. And Toki also turned towards Kaze. He kept smiling and closed his eyes:
"You know… The sun didn't change."
Kyou no ureshikatta kao, Kyou no kanashikatta kao,
Kinou yowakatta jibun to, Ashita kitto tsuyoi jibun to,
Anata nara dare ni misete'ru? Watashi nara dare ni misereba ii?
(Today's happy face, today's sad face.
Yesterday's weak self, tomorrow's strong self.
If this is you, who are you showing it to? If this is me, who should I show it to?)
-Trauma (Ayumi Hamasaki)
---Note
*singing*
"jikan nante mono wa hmhm… lalala…--- Oh! Sorry!
*stops*
Ayumi Hamasaki's songs are just too awesome. XD
If you plan on listening the song mentioned above, do it so that the last cue of the intro plays just as you read the "The sun didn't change", line. That's how I intended it to be.
The reason the song is there, that the fanfic is supposed to have kind of an anime format… One Opening song an arc, two ending songs an arc. This is the first ending song of the first arc (placed at the end of the first half of the first half, because it's an "ending" song, duh)
A fun-fact: "Trauma" is the song Ayumi Hamasaki is most prone to forgetting the lyrics of, when performing on a concert. She usually reacts humorously to this, by just singing "Lala, I so totally forgot the lyrics again, lala! And can't remember at all, lala!"
Anyway, aside the song… Another song-related thing! XD
Sun's Song and the Song of Passing are really the same, but I guess you already noticed this. And yes, the notes are actually A F D. I looked them up.
Midna goes berserk. Maybe she just feels neglected, because Link didn't mention her in his sleep-talking. Don't know. XD
Don't worry, I didn't dispose of Ilia, she's still gonna have lots and lots and lots of scenes in this story, she merely didn't fit in here.
Fun fact: When I wrote Zelda's "To the library" link, I actually replaced it with "TO THE BATMOBILE!" for a second and got a good laugh out of it, before I changed it back again. It was just too perfect.
I know, Link's Granny is, like, the fastest seamstress in the world, but I NEEDED her to finish those tunics that fast. -.-; Also, this is the same woman who cooks invincibility-soup. I guess she could easily be capable of high-speed-sewing as well.
So, and now for the fangirl service: Not one, but TWO Dark Links!
And now, everybody together: SQUEEEEE!!
Everybody else thinking that Dark Toon Link is just the most awesome abomination, the dark forces ever created?
Not the last appearance of Dark Link(s)…
However: NO, this was NOT the shadow mentioned in the last chapter! XD
Anyone else laughing about poor SUE-Belle's name?
However, her German name is "Varsha". Don't know if that's better or even worse… Still, in the world of fanfiction, the name "Sue" is the worst curse you can have.
I am proud of the ending of this chapter. Especially because it was so incredibly flat in the German version. Once again, I expanded heavily here.
The next chapter starts the water temple. Which, by the way, will cover FIVE WHOLE CHAPTERS.
Yeah, the water temple. How we all loathe it. Still, stay tuned. Awesome stuff's gonna happen inside.
Read ya soon! ^°^