Link jogged down the marble steps of the castle, past the guards posted at the grand front doors. The night air was cool on his face, and the lightest breeze whispered through the huge courtyard. He yanked up the hood of his cloak, and strode in the direction of Castle Town. The patrolling guards ignored him as he ignored them, lost in his thoughts.
Earlier, he had left Thoria at her door, standing outside a moment as she bade him goodnight. He wondered if he was supposed to stay with her at night as well. He hoped not. He had his own things to do, and he couldn't do them with anyone else there.
Leaving Thoria behind, he had been on his way along the corridor when he had been collared by Impa and taken to see Zelda in her opulent chambers. He had kept an agonising count of the minutes in his head until she had finally dismissed him, and then he finally had made for his own room. As he went, he had pondered the prophecy, the words circling in his mind like a flock of keese.
Reaching his room, Navi was already there, sulking in her little house.
"Hello, Navi," he said.
She grunted in reply.
"Have you had a good day?"
"Fine."
Link paused.
"Is something wrong?"
"No."
Link waited, silent and still. Eventually, Navi sighed.
"You've spent the whole day with that woman," she said. "You didn't wait for me."
"Zelda asked me to guard her," Link said. "You know that."
"But you should have let me come with you," Navi said. "I went and told Zelda she was awake, like you asked, then when I came back, you were gone."
Link winced. He'd completely forgotten.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I was…"
"Busy," Navi finished for him. "I understand."
She had her back to him.
"Come with us tomorrow," Link said. "We'll probably be in the library all day, Thoria likes it there."
"She does, does she?" Navi said. "Well, count me out. I can't do anything in there, the books are all too big. I'll spend the day with Zelda again."
"Okay," Link said, puzzled. "If that's what you want to do."
"It is."
"Alright," Link opened his wardrobe and pulled out his cloak. "I'll be back in a few hours."
Navi turned round, and fluttered into the air. "Where are you going?"
"Out," Link said. "I have to… see to Epona."
"I'll come," Navi said.
"No, it's late," Link said. "You should rest. I won't be long."
"I want to come," Navi stated, flying to his shoulder. She settled, grasping his earring. Link clenched his jaw and scooped her up.
"Navi, I won't be long. Just stay here, okay?"
Navi glared at him. "I want. To come."
Link drew a deep breath. "Navi. I need an hour by myself."
The fairy pouted. "You never said that before the woman got here."
Link made a face. "What on earth is that supposed to mean?"
The fairy folded her arms and looked away, nose in the air. Link shook his head, and walked to the little house. He put Navi back on her bed, whilst she studiously ignored him.
"See you later," he said, glancing uneasily out of the window. It was almost midnight, and he had to hurry. He was almost to the door when Navi spoke.
"What if something happens to me while you're gone? I'm much safer with you. If you don't want me coming with you, you should stay. I might get hurt otherwise."
Link turned around, incredulous.
"Navi, you're in Hyrule Castle," he said. "What could possibly happen to you here?"
Navi sniffed. "On your head be it," she said.
Link opened his mouth to argue, and decided against it. He left, closing the door more forcefully than usual. He strode down the corridor, swirling his cloak about his shoulders.
He reached Castle Town, anger still bubbling within him at the memory. Navi had rarely acted so poorly. She was in a foul mood, and Link just couldn't figure out why. She didn't have to be with him every second of every day. He grimaced. She would probably follow him to shit if he allowed it.
He took a steadying breath. He was alone now. Alone was good.
Still the prophecy ran through his mind. The allusions to the triforce, the threat of the darkness to come. "They will have power beyond reckoning, and the wisest minds will fall prey to dangers of their own making." Link shivered as a cool breeze hushed along the street. Whoever the dark stranger was, they would be dangerous, and powerful. As powerful as Ganondorf, or even more so? Link shuddered at the thought of a being more powerful than the self-proclaimed King of Evil.
And the thought that Zelda could be in danger… that was nothing new. As the princess and future queen, her life was always at stake. But the prophecy threatened that the danger would be of her own doing… it didn't make sense. Zelda was far too wise to put herself in danger.
Another line jumped out to him. "Courage will kneel before a broken heart." He did not know what that meant. The only people he knelt to was Zelda and Rhoam. And no being in Hyrule would ever get close enough to his heart to break it.
The streets were empty, save the odd figure stumbling along, no doubt turfed from some tavern or another. Link could faintly hear raucous laughter in the distance, emanating from one of the seedier alehouses, tucked away down a side-street, out of sight of the main town.
He had a sudden longing for a good, strong ale, and boisterous company. To drink and to forget.
The desire vanished as quickly as it came. The alehouses in Castle Town would not be a good idea. Everyone knew him. The men would want to fight him, to prove their strength, and the women would want to bed him, a hero to conquer in their own way. Such was the way of things.
Link loped along the dark streets, the sliver of moonlight ahead barely enough to see by. But he knew the way.
Down a street, turn at another, and down the alley. At the end, knock three times quickly, five times slowly on a boarded-up door. Link pulled his cloak tighter about himself as a hidden panel in the wood slid back, and a red eye peered out. It looked him up and down.
"Password?" said a scratchy voice.
"Feasgar" Link replied.
The panel slid shut, and the boarded-up door opened. Link slipped inside, into a dimply lit, cramped stone room.
Bottles were everywhere. Balanced on shelves, piled on old barrels, hung from the ceiling. Each was filled with a liquid of some kind, in acid greens, ruby reds and thunderous blue. Except for those above. Those bottles held the swirling, glowing souls of poes. Link supressed a shudder as he went, feeling their empty eyes turn to him as he passed beneath them. The walls were dank, cold stone, and something dripped steadily in the corner.
The owner of the shop slid a deadbolt into place, and scuttered around to the back of the room, where an old table and some boxes served as a counter. He was dressed in a purple, hooded cloak and ratty, pale clothes. His limbs were stick thin and pale. His head was covered and shrouded in shadow, save for his glowing red eye, staring out from the depths of the hood.
"Whaddaya want?" the merchant said.
"The usual," Link said. "Sleeping draught. A month's worth."
The merchant tutted and began to shuffle things behind the counter.
"Hard to come by, this is," he said. "The ingredients. Harder to make. Might get costly if ya keep buying so much."
"It'll cost more if I don't," Link said.
"Of course, of course," the merchant replied. "Can't save Hyrule on no sleep, now, can we?"
Link said nothing. The merchant paused a moment, before shrugging and continuing his rummaging. Eventually, he straightened, a tightly wrapped parcel in his spiderlike hands. Link stepped closer, and the poes in their bottles began to chatter, their voices muffled. Their pulsing, glowing spirits sent odd washes of colour across the walls, where shadows coiled and distorted. On every wall, Link could see his own shadow, bizarrely bent, growing and shrinking and skating around the room. The red eye of the merchant was reflected in the glass surfaces of the bottles, doubled by the twice-tough glass. Link's chest tightened, and he held out his hand for the package.
"Four hundred rupees," the merchant said. Link raised his eyebrows.
"It was a three and forty last time," he said.
"And it's four now," the merchant replied. "I tol' you, it's darn tricky to make. I'm already giving ya a bulk discount."
Link curled his lip and dug into his wallet. He cursed.
"I only have three and sixty," he said.
The merchant shrugged, and opened the parcel. He pulled out ten of the little bottles.
"You get these when you get the rest of the money," he said.
"That's hardly fair," Link said.
"Up to you. You take twenny or you take none."
Link glared, and dumped the money on the counter. "Fine," he said. He held out his hand for the parcel, which the merchant sealed and flipped over to him, spinning it in a lazy arc. Link snatched it from the air and held it close to his chest.
"You ent buying anything else, so out you go," the merchant said, his eye glowing. "Bring more money next time."
With a grimace, Link turned on his heel and undid the deadbolt, shouldering his way back outside. The poes chittered as he went, their soft, evil voices haunting on the still air.
Link pocketed the packet in the darkness of the street, listening to the deadbolt slide home behind him. Furiously, he yanked his hood up and strode down the alley, heading for the centre of town. At least he could have most of a month's worth of rest, he thought as he went. But if the price kept going up, he would have to find another way to keep the nightmares at bay. He increased his pace, eager to get back, and to sleep.
Link turned onto the main road, and paused. He twitched an ear. The road was strangely quiet. A prickle ran down the back of his neck.
Something was watching him.
Cautiously, he lifted his hand to the hilt of his sword, strapped to his back. He cast his gaze about the town square, over the ornate fountain, the dark shop fronts, the trees decoratively placed and pruned. He sucked in his breath.
By the gate leading to Hyrule fields was a golden wolf. It watched him silently, sitting proud and regal on the cobblestone. The guards to either side of the gate didn't seem to notice the shining animal. Link took a cautious step forward, and then another, hardly daring to believe his own eyes. It had been nine years since he had last seen the spirit, and he half-believed it was an illusion, brought on by his lack of sleep and nightmares.
The wolf rose, and padded away through the closed gate.
Link cursed and leapt forward in a dead sprint, dashing to the gate. Deciding he didn't want to stop for the guards, Link turned quickly, using the shadows and stalls as cover. He took a running jump at a pile of crates, pulling himself up and over them quickly and silently. He leapt at the rough stone wall, fingers digging into the protruding stones. He levered himself up, up and over the lip of the wall, glancing left and right for signs that he had been spotted.
There was none. He jumped to the other side of the wall, clearing the ten-foot space with ease, his cloak fluttering behind him. He stared out over the dark fields. There was no golden wolf to be seen. He swore quietly. He fumbled inside his tunic for his necklace, the charm that Midna had left him. He could turn into a wolf now. He could use his senses to find the golden wolf in the darkness.
He hesitated. If he changed, would he change the way he had with Midna? Would he be a complete wolf, his clothes and items stored in some magical way? Or would he have to hide them to collect later? Would he even be able to change back into a Hylian? It would be just like Midna to play one last joke on him. He tucked the charm back inside his tunic, resigning himself to the loss of the golden wolf.
But as he crouched atop the wall, a strange sound whispered through the night. The soft, but unmistakeable sound of an ocarina, somewhere in the darkness.
Link didn't hesitate. He swung over the wall, scaling down it as easily as a lizard. His feet hit the ground, and he took off, heading towards the piping music. It didn't grow any louder, but it did not grow fainter, either.
Panting, Link headed towards a copse of trees, as the music, at last, began to grow. It was a melody he knew well, and one he hadn't heard for what felt like several hundred years.
Saria's song.
Link slowed as he entered the trees, staring around him. It was almost pitch black, save for a soft, golden glow head of him. Stumbling over the hidden roots and fallen branches, Link made his way towards the light.
He came upon a small clearing lit with gold. The light seemed to emanate from a figure seated in the middle of the grass. A figure dressed in a green tunic and hat, a brighter shade than his own, with gold-spun hair and long ears. He was playing a blue ocarina, eyes closed as he swayed with the music. Link swallowed, and approached.
The figure stopped playing and looked up. He smiled. His face was a face Link saw in every reflective surface he passed. Though his hair was lighter and styled differently, and his eyes were less feral and more woodland fae, it was clear who he was.
It was his ancestor, the Hero of Time.
Link stopped a few feet away, as the light pulsed once, blindingly bright. He threw up his hands to shield his eyes, and when he lowered them, the Hero's Shade stood before him. Taller than he and clad in rotting, shattered armour, skeletal limbs only half-visible in the golden light. One eye glowed an ethereal red, the other a hollow, black socket. From it, the distant memory of agony echoed, an echo of blackness, of an unearthly scream of pain as the arrow stole half his sight from him.
"I cannot stay," the Shade said, without waiting. "I have come to warn you."
"About what?" Link asked, coming closer. It was warm in the light, and there were no shadows.
"Dark times are coming," the Shade said. "And they do not come from whence you might think."
"Thoria?" Link asked. "Will she cause it? Is she destined to bring darkness to Hyrule?"
"I cannot say," the Shade said. "I do not know. But she will play an integral part in the shape of your life to come. Make your choices wisely, Hero of Twilight. Much depends on this."
"I don't understand," Link said, desperately. "What do I need to do?"
"Listen to your heart," the Shade said. "Save Hyrule."
"How can I?" Link said, and the memory of the alter flashed into his mind. He winced, and his voice hitched. "I… I'm not the man I was."
"You are the man you were meant to be," the Shade said, and the light began to dwindle.
"Wait!" Link said, rushing forward. He took the Shade's hand. "It's been years. Please stay. I need your help. Guide me like you did before!"
"I have no more to teach you," the Shade said, and his voice was full of regret.
"I don't know what to do," Link said, dismayed at the desperation in his voice. "How can I defend Hyrule from a danger I know nothing about?"
"Trust yourself," the Shade said. "You have my spirit, my courage, my skills. You have my faith that you will do what is right."
He gripped Link's hand tightly, even as he began to fade. Link clung on, willing his ancestor to stay, praying frantically to the goddesses for just one more minute, one more moment with the Shade. He tightened his grip, feeling bones beneath the torn glove slowly become nothing, and he was left grasping empty air in a black tangle of trees.