Sorry it took me so long to update! But you know, I do have a life besides writing. Anyway, here's the next chapter, and I hope you like it.
Chapter 37: Link's Nightmare
Link lay on the mat next to Dark Link, half awake. The work he did for the Goron hadn't been hard, but it had been long and just watching Malgorg made his head hurt. He had been so relieved when he got to finally lie down on the mat and rest. He sank deeper and deeper into a restful state until he finally faded into sleep. He had a dream, the same one he remembered from many nights ago. It was the dream with the tree. What a strange dream that was, with so many natural symbols representing the pieces of Link's mind. Here he was, dreaming it again, seeing the icicle melt and the tree grow and the worms weave their way through the dirt.
He watched the scene play out again, but this time he delved below the soil. He saw the roots spread wide, wider than the branches, under the dark soil and the worms grow larger and more threatening. Though Link was disembodied in the dream, he somehow still felt the moist, icy cold of the strange underground world. He went deeper and deeper until he saw the roots stop branching apart and start melding back together. The worms here on the other side were strangely iridescent and white. They were small, slow moving, and didn't seem to have any pattern to their movement. Link emerged on the surface. The water here was murky and dank. The rocks were jagged and the sky was a dark red. The sun beat down and made the whole place as hot as a desert, but the most significant part was the tree.
This tree was so much vaster than Link's. Its branches stretched miles upon miles, and the breadth of the trunk was immesurable. However, it was old and rotted and was obviously decaying. It had no leaves.
Link looked down and discovered he had a body. He could not see his face, and the water was too dark to see his own reflection, but his skin was naked, stark white, and featureless. He turned his hand over. He could not see a single blemish. He was standing in the water, but when he got out and stood upon a rock he was none of the unclean murk had stuck to his body.
There was a vast crack out of the tree, out of which came another being. This one was a semisolid black mass with many reaching arms, all of which stretched toward Link. There was a single red eye in the center of this mass. It started to sing a strange and dark tune:
Black stains the walls.
Blood seeps and crawls.
There is no escape from misery.
There is no life here.
There is only cold fear.
There is no escape from misery.
The creature continued in a similar manner. Link didn't know what to do. Should he let this thing touch him, or should he resist? However, he found that even when it reached out, it couldn't touch him. Who are you? Link asked.
You know perfectly well who I am, it said. It had finished with its song.
Are you my friend or my enemy? Link tried.
The creature answered Link with another question. Is there really a difference? You tell me. What is the difference between friendship and enmity?
Friendship is love. Enmity is hate.
Then what is the difference between love and hate?
Love builds up. Hate tears down.
Anything that uplifts must tear down another to do so. Anything that tears down builds something new, no matter how ugly that might be. I tell you now a universal truth. There is no good or evil. There is no love or hate. The only absolute in the universe is life or death. You are alive. Your tree is blossoming and growing, fed by the sunlight of your consciousness. My tree is dead and only my body lives on in the outside world. I continue to function, but I have been hidden in the shadows so long that I cannot find meaning any longer. The greatest kindness one would do for me would be to kill me. My spirit is dead already. The last and only step in completing my death is to kill my physical body.
You are not dead and I will not kill you. To do so would be to commit suicide. Nor will I ask another to kill you.
Than you wish me to suffer.
No. Anything that moves and breaths is alive. You have hope. You can regain your soul. I can show you your soul, for we share a soul.
Before you act so quickly, take a look at yourself. Are you really fully alive? Is your soul brighter than mine, purer than mine? Nothing can live long in this world without being corrupted, no matter how pure it may be. Look and see for yourself what has happened to you.
The creature ran its hand through the water, absorbing some of the murk into its half-existent body. The water cleared for a bit, and Link got a glimpse of his own face. It was covered by a mask, which was nailed on. There were nails all around his face and jawline, but the largest one was a huge black nail driven into his forehead, making a visible crack in his skull. The mask was a horrid and twisted face, with bloodshot eyes that stared back at Link as though it were afraid to see itself, afraid of the truth. The mouth was downturned in an expression that seemed frozen mid-scream.
The nails that held the mask on his face drew blood, red streaks that dribbled down his pure white body and stained it. He looked down at his hands again. This time, they had many more nails in them. Blood streamed from all the nails, which were now covering his body. The thick red liquid ran all over his white skin.
You see, when your very first incarnation was born, the goddesses knew that their chosen hero could not be impure. So they made me. They made me to bear the burden of the natural evil of the soul. But they could not protect you from corruption. Despite what they did, you still fell to evil if only a tiny bit. You still have evil within you, regardless of the state in which you were born. So what is my purpose now? Is my existence all for naught? I am nothing. I have no place in this world.
Link screamed as loud as he could, and the sun in the world opposite his began to fall. It fell through the sky and crashed into the ground, obliterating the tree, the rocks, the water, Link, the creature, everything. Everything was destroyed by that dim, fading sun.
Link awoke with a start and found Malgorg sitting by him. "You were thrashing and sweating. Were you having a bad dream?"
Link found his throat to be awfully dry. "Water," he croaked.
"I can get that for you," the Goron said with a nod. He fetched a jug of water from the counter and brought it to Link. Link drank it gratefully.
"Yeah, bad dream, I guess." Link put the jug down and found Dark Link sleeping on his stomach, yet a single red eye was open and pointed toward Link. Malgorg couldn't see this because of Dark Link's convenient, or possibly strategic, position.
"You must have bumped your head on something when you were moving about. That's a pretty nasty wound you've got there. I've got some potion left over, if you want me to pour some on your forehead for you."
"What wound?" Link asked. He didn't feel any pain. He reached instinctively toward his temple. He felt something wet when he touched it. When he brought his hand down, there was blood on his fingers.