As in Woodfall, the blue portal took us out via the dream-realm of the Guardians so the newly freed Guardian could reach out one lanky finger to the Ocarina of Time to protect it, then we descended at the entrance to the still snowy valley where Snowhead's Temple was situated. On the way down it was clearly obvious that we'd had a considerable effect, as much of the snow was gone and further down toward the Mountain Village it was almost gone entirely.

I could see Biggoron now, already making his way up a pillar. He definitely looked fine, so I left him to it and rolled back up, this time turning right and heading into the Great Fairy's cavern instead, reuniting her shattered body.

"And not a moment too soon," she remarked after she'd shown up, aside from the colour of her hair no different to her sister in Clock Town. "I would have something for you, but as a master of the mind you have no need of it. So instead I offer this advice. You are aware you can play each note of the Song of Time twice to travel swiftly forward in time?"

"Yeah, I got told that before I left Hyrule," I said. "What about it?"

"Think, Silver. You can invert the song to slow time's passage. What then would the Goddess of Time bestow upon you were you to both invert and double the Song of Time?"

"Do it much more slowly?" Tael suggested.

"What'd be the point of that?" I replied. "No, I think... it'd let us travel back in time. In a way more controlled than the Song of Time by itself, right?"

"Precisely," the Great Fairy agreed. "There is however a caveat, one that you are no doubt already aware of."

"Meeting my past or future selves, right?"

"Past only, Silver, and that is why you must take care. Wherever you play the song is where you will be after you cancel the effect, and you must take care not to be noticed by your past self. You will not notice a future self because at that point, you will not have created one."

"Thus causing a paradox if I meet myself," I finished. "I'll just be more likely to have it happen since it's all in one three-day period. What about-"

"After playing the standard Song of Time? Then you will be safe until you use this inverted-double song, because you will not have created such a past self to meet," she completed for me. "Now, one last word of advice for you. It was a good idea for you to start at the beginning of the three days, because otherwise you wouldn't have had time for this. I suggest you take your sword now to the smithy in the village below and let them work on it, then while they are busy go to the Goron races. Should you win, they will award you the coveted finest Goron Gold Dust, and then if you return tomorrow to collect your sword only to give that to them, they will reforge it a second time."

"Why not just do it the once?" Tael asked.

"If you were to play the Song of Time, your sword would revert, even after the touch of the Ocarina of Time. If instead you have it reforged with the Gold Dust, not only will it be protected, but it will act as a boost to Silver's mind as well. Now go on – before you run out of daytime."

It wasn't quite as simple as she made out though, and she'd left out a few details. For one thing, she neglected to mention to me that it'd cost me a whole hundred rupees at the smithy, or that during the winter a massive boulder had blocked the way to the Goron Racetrack that neither my mind nor my bombs could shift. The Goron Elder's son rolled up at that point and suggested that I go get a powder keg from Medigoron instead.

Medigoron, no apparent relation to his Hylian namesake, was holed up in a cave just outside the Goron colony and refused outright to sell a powder keg to anyone but a Goron on the grounds that only a Goron could lift the massive kegs, and even then he insisted every Goron had to pass a certification test first. As Darmani had not apparently done this, I was obliged to do it for him.

The test, conveniently enough, was to take a Powder Keg up to the boulder blocking off the Goron Races then return immediately to him.

I'll admit I cheated a bit. I couldn't roll up holding this and I needed both hands for it, but I could still use my mind. Medigoron seemed quite surprised that I had done it so quickly, but I'd done it nevertheless so he agreed to certify me, allowing me to carry all of one powder keg at a time.

Then I went off and took part in the Goron races, which I did not cheat in, much to Tael's disappointment. Having the experience I'd gained in and around Snowhead helped, and using my assumed weight as Darmani to get in a practice run before the actual races only helped. Not only did I get a bottle of finest Gold Dust, but I also got told I could keep the bottle.

I still had some time before the end of the day, but without anything to do I consulted the Notebook and found there was one person I could help. I'd seen her very briefly as I'd passed through Romani Ranch, a little girl who'd seemed rather amnesiac.

I'd actually missed the chance to help her, but with the new advice of the Inverted-Double song, I figured I could handle this. To make sure I wouldn't be meeting my past self I used Farore's Wind to warp back in various hops back to Termina Field, then across it in one quick jump to the entrance of Milk Road, ignoring the boulder easily and descending into the ranch.

The girl wasn't as amnesiac as seen before, she was instead practising archery with what appeared to be a modified shortbow and, much like Jim back in Clock Town, some balloons. I didn't disturb her by changing form there and then, instead ducking behind the nearby stable to become Hylian again.

She watched me come into view around another corner, and I took care to keep out the way as she shot for a balloon and missed. "Drat!" she exclaimed.

"I don't imagine there's much call for archery on a farm, you know," I remarked.

"Ranch," she corrected absently. "Farms grow crops, we raise animals. Green... you're not related to that lunatic Tingle are you?"

"Believe me, you couldn't even make me lie about that. I'm just a visiting Hylian called Silver, and this is my friendly fairy Tael."

"Huh...so, fairy boy... can you keep a secret?"

"Better than you think," Tael remarked. "This little kid is hiding all kinds of things."

"What kind of secret do you want me to keep?"

"You want to know why Romani is practising archery, right? Well... every year at the carnival, it's the same... they appear."

"They?"

"No one knows what they are. They come down late at night in a ball of light and try to abduct our cows, and if they do... we can't get our speciality, Château Romani. My big sis Cremia doesn't believe me, so I prepare for it. But... I'm not a very good shot yet."

"I've got a bow," I said. "Maybe I could help you. It's a crossbow, but it still shoots something."

Romani looked at me curiously, then said, "Maybe if you show me how good you are. Romani will set up the balloons, and you shoot them down as quick as you can."

"I wonder why she talks about herself like that?" Tael wondered as she did just that.

"Who knows? The Notebook has her in it, so she must need some help. Maybe helping her with her 'They' we'll do just that. And if not, well, it'll burn some time, and we've got plenty of that."

I set up my crossbow with the reloading mechanism but without the fire gem, feeling confident enough to only need three bolts. After having done the swamp shooting gallery I felt it was well warranted.

Romani was suitably impressed with my crossbow, particularly after we found the bolts quite a ways away, then told me to come back at the second hour past midnight because that was when 'They' would show up.

I left her to continue her own practice then ducked out of sight again, using the Double Song of Time to skip ahead just enough. I found that if I focused on a specific time when I played the song, the time-slip effect would cancel out itself as it got close to that time, which would be invaluable.

Romani, who had experienced time in the natural order during this period, seemed amazed that I was still wide awake at this time of night and told me that since she trusted in my skills more than hers, she'd defend the cows in the barn and let me handle 'Them' outside.

As soon as she was out of sight I decided to cheat a bit again, hovering up above the ranch so I'd have a perfect view of whoever was closest to the barns. Not long after, just as Romani had said a large ball of blazing light came down and hovered over the ranch, shooting out the occasional bright light that caused a strange creature to appear. They had no mind that I could sense, and neither did the ball whatever 'They' were, they weren't anything I'd come across.

'They' were also rather fragile, as a single bolt caused them to vanish. They were replaced not long after by a fresh one from the strange ball of light, and shooting that had no effect, so I just kept on shooting them.

I tried experimentally to reach out with my mind at one of them, having to guess as they had no presence to sense, but no matter what I tried I just couldn't get hold of them. It was as if they were only real for fully physical things. Even a flare from Din's Fire just passed right through them, but, strangely enough, a fire bolt had the same effect as a normal one.

I kept up my watch, shooting them down as they reappeared to keep Romani and the cows safe, rapidly going through my stock of bolts. Fortunately, and by suspicious coincidence, there was a pot that had somehow been left on the roof of one of the ranch buildings that replenished it's stock inside as long as it wasn't broken that contained, yes, bolts.

When the first light of dawn broke the horizon the last of 'Them' vanished back into the ball of light which then shot off toward the opposing horizon, marking the end of this. I quickly settled back down to earth to meet Romani, who though tired had stayed up, gave me a bottle of milk in thanks – like many, letting me keep the bottle – then asked if I could see her sister Cremia that evening when she made her run to Clock Town.

She didn't say anything beyond that, but I got the impression she was concerned for her sister's safety, and with the reputation the Gormon Brothers nearby had for being thieves – among other things – I could understand that.

I meanwhile found a tree to take a nap in – they're very useful for that you know – until later on, where I would have picked up my sword had I not shown them the gold dust and another hundred rupees to further improve my sword, which they now called the Razor Sword. It was certainly longer and better suited for slashing with, at least.

It meant another day without a sword, but that was alright by me. I could catch up on some sleep again, and the Notebook helpfully told me when I had to be around for Cremia.