"I would wish for you to face me when speaking to me." a voice replied. It was a firm, but kind sounding voice, almost motherly. The voice itself seemed to echo across the entire forest, but the Shade knew that only he could hear the speaker. After a few more moments of silence, he turned to face the radiant speaker.

From a distance, one could have easily mistaken the Goddess Hylia for an older Princess Zelda. Upon closer inspection however, one could easily see that they were, for the most part, separate individuals. The Goddess wore a simple white gown, while opal-like nets covered two large locks of golden hair that flowed down past her shoulders. The only object she had on herself was a circular harp. She smiled at the Shade.

"That's better. Now, what seems to be the problem?" she inquired. The Shade knew that Hylia could easily see inside him to see what the issue was, but it seemed like she wanted him to try and express it in his own terms.

"I… I thought that by passing my skills on to the next hero of legend, I would be able to find peace…" the Shade said. "And yet…"

"And yet here you are, haunting Faron Woods." the Goddess finished for him. "Do you know why you envy the Hero of Twilight?"

"I don't… I see myself in him." the Shade answered.

"That is to be expected. He is supposed to be your descendant, after all." Hylia said. "There is more to it than that."

The Shade thought to himself for a moment, before saying "He has friends, people that are practically family..." "And you didn't?" Hylia quickly replied. She didn't sound angry, but she was a bit more firm in her tone.

In a way, it was a foolish thing to say. The spirits of the forest became Kokiri in order to provide Link company as he grew up. He had also met many interesting individuals in his adventures. No, the Hero's Shade was not simply angry at the Hero of Twilight, he was angry at himself. He had known those he could call friends, mentors, brothers… maybe even lovers.

"I didn't truly appreciate them at the time." the Shade simply stared at the ground. He had been so focused on being the Hero of Time, that he had neglected the bonds he had created with so many people. He was a good listener, but he never seemed to speak when it was necessary, despite being a man of action. He had watched Navi fly away, so shocked that he barely called out her name before she left. He never got to ask her why she left. He had thought that she had returned to her sisters in the forest, but that search would turn out to be fruitless.

"I was such a fool…" the Shade said as he walked past Hylia to look onto the lake once more. Even when the journey had taken him to the land of Termina, and had reminded him of what it meant to be a hero when he saved those people from Majora's Mask, he still continued to search for his dear companion. He only returned to Hyrule out of concern for his horse. After that, he served the kingdom as a knight for the next few decades, until a new king was crowned. Then the Gerudo started being persecuted. Had the King's court known him as the Hero of Time, they may have listened to his protests. He had abandoned his knighthood soon after.

He had returned to the Kokiri Forest in hopes of finally saying goodbye to Navi. Instead, he simply lost himself to the woods. His spirit dwelled there for a few years before Hylia herself had found him. She gave him the golden form of the wolf in order to traverse between worlds, and allowed him the chance of teaching the next hero the means to defeat the King of Evil. While the Shade's regret of not having a descendant to teach was absolved, it seemed that all the other regrets he had from his old life had returned by tenfold.

The Shade was kneeling on the shore of the lake when Hylia came by his side. "You miss them, don't you?" she said as she placed a hand on the Shade's shoulder. "I would be lying if I said I didn't." he replied.

"You are completely allowed to pass on, but you refuse to do so." the Goddess looked down on the Shade. "Why?"

"They wouldn't recognize me. They wouldn't see me as more than a little boy from the forest. A boy that abandoned them." the Shade replied softly. He then stood up. "I wouldn't be at peace if I passed on, so what would be the point?"

The Goddess continued to stare at the lake as she asked "If you could go back, to a moment in time where you could start over, would you?"

"Depends on which time you speak off, Goddess." the Shade said. "If we are talking about the world I was sent back to, where Ganondorf was executed, then no, I would not." he looked to the direction of Ordon Village. "I have faith in the generation of this world."

"However,"the Shade continued. "If we are talking about the time when I first became a young man, just after I opened the Sacred Realm…"

"Yes, as selfish as it sounds, I would return to that time." the Shade said as he looked at Hylia. The Goddess once again simply smiled. "It is not selfish of you to think these thoughts. It's only natural." She then began to walk on the lake's surface, until she was a couple of feet away from the shore. She then turned to face the Shade.

"Very well. For going above and beyond your duty as a hero of Hyrule, I will reward you with a chance to once again prove yourself." Hylia then began to play her harp, the vibrations of the strings sending ripples across the lake's surface. "But know this: I will be sending your soul, along with your memories, into your old self. If I were to attempt to bring you back, the results could be disastrous. I trust you understand?" The Shade nodded before joining Hylia on the lake's surface.

"And you are sure that you will not simply make the same mistakes as you did before?" Hylia asked.

"I will not be forgotten again." the Shade confidently said. "Thank you, oh Goddess."

"I wish you luck in your endeavor. Now be still, and listen." the vibrations began to intensify.

The Shade recognized the melody. It was the same song he himself had used to save both the land of Hyrule and Termina so many years ago: the Song of Time. He then felt the lake's surface give way to his weight, and he began falling. Instead of water, he was surrounded by various symbols of time, some of which he didn't recognize.

As the Shade continued to fall, bits and pieces of his ancient armor began breaking and falling away. While he was still spectral in form, he was eventually rid of the physical reminder of his knighthood. The spirit of the hero then looked down to his destination. He saw two familiar forms.

A small boy from the forest, floating in the Sacred Realm across from a gloating King of Thieves.