He'd gathered a rough layout of the town the previous evening when he'd eventually located the inn, nestled in the center of it across the river. His first destination was one of the first buildings he now came to at the foot of the hill, the East Wind General Store. In addition to some perishable goods he didn't need, they sold both standard and elemental arrows so he stocked up on the lot. He passed by the clothing and dye shops and a few houses on his way to the smaller stone footbridge over the river to the other side of town where the inn rested.
Hateno across the river was characterized by interesting metal-and-glass pedestals placed in some sort of pattern throughout the town and surrounding landscape. He thought they resembled lanterns and wondered if they were meant to hold the flame from the Ancient Furnace that supposedly needed lighting. To his left they didn't follow the river but twisted up a grassy knoll and out of his sight; he followed the path and the line of maybe-lanterns heading to the right, through town and up the steep hill there.
It started to rain as he crossed the river again to the more residential side, the sky having clouded over in the time since he'd left his new house behind. The path climbed in switchbacks up to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, which looked out over the town below. Along the way, he passed a few villagers— enough to keep Navi hidden— who watched him silently, either warily or with dawning recognition as they took shelter under conveniently-located trees. There were more intersections than he'd anticipated, but helpful signposts pointed the way, aiming him away from both a pasture and a beach and on toward the Lab. As he walked farther, the signs took on a more personal flare, warning in no uncertain terms that there would be No soliciting tolerated, to Mind the lanterns!— which answered his question about the metal structures— and to Enter at his own risk!
The final sign was posted right outside the door to the building that, up close, had a huge telescope mounted atop it and stood next to what appeared to be a furnace gone cold and dark, orange flame spluttering weakly in its glass enclosure. The sign warned him If the flame is blue, the furnace is hot! DO NOT TOUCH!
He frowned as he turned to walk toward the door, noticing a large, ornamental disc on the ground in front of the door as he went. The door itself was marked with a large Sheikah Eye, and a frog statue holding a parasol and wearing round red spectacles was perched on the roof above the door.
A Sheikah woman who only came up to the Shadow's navel answered his knock, spectacles a perfect match for those on the frog statue above and a metal headpiece resembling owl eyes resting atop her white hair. "Oh!" Her eyes widened in surprise, then she seemed to catch herself. "Good morning. This is the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. Do you have some business with the director?"
"Um. Sure," the Shadow said, not at all sure.
The woman eyed him for a moment, head tilted in silent contemplation before she nodded slightly, as if to herself, and moved aside to allow him entry. "A traveler, eh? Judging by your equipment and that gleam in your eye, I'd say you must be in the midst of an epic journey." The Shadow fought to not roll his eyes as she continued, "The director is in the back. A terribly busy person, that one. Please try to keep it brief."
A large, bespectacled Sheikah man stood in the back of the room, surrounded by walls of floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked full of neatly-stacked books. "Oh!" he said when he noticed the Shadow, but quickly recovered, plastering a fake smile on his face. "Good morning. I imagine you've never seen so many books in one place. Pretty incredible, isn't it? We've gathered much of Hyrule's known literature on ancient civilizations here. What's not at the castle, of course," he amended reluctantly, not without a note of bitterness.
The Shadow looked around at the shelves of tomes behind the man and he was, indeed, impressed by the collection amassed.
The director continued, "As for the actual number of books, well… Hmm?" The man's attention was suddenly riveted on the Shadow's midsection. "Is that… That thing on your waist? Is that—?" His expression settled, sure now of something. "There's no mistaking it. That's a real Sheikah Slate." His mouth dropped open and he blinked in awe, murmuring, "I've never actually seen one in person!"
"Uh, yeah. Yes, it is," the Shadow replied.
"Ah! Where are my manners? I nearly forgot to introduce myself. My name is Symin, I'm the resident artist here," the director said, and the Shadow assumed he meant in addition to whatever the director of an Ancient Tech Lab did. "And— you're him, aren't you? The one we heard about. Didn't expect you to look like the Shadow, though."
"Uh—" the Shadow started, thinking there might be a misunderstanding brewing.
"We had not been told that you carried a Sheikah Slate, though! How exciting! May I see the runes on it?"
"Oh, uh, sure," he held out the tablet and watched as the director cradled it gently, losing himself to an apparent momentary academic haze.
"Ah, perfect. Yes, good. Oh, how delightful! Yes, I see that you have most of the functionality. Could use an upgrade, that's for sure. Of course, I'll have to direct you to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab for that."
The Shadow, who had already planned on doing that very thing, nodded. "Director, I was told to see you about lighting an Ancient furnace in order to use the Sheikah Towers for traveling quickly across Hyrule."
The director's focus snapped back and his face grew oddly sheepish. "Oh, dear. I should tell you that I am not actually the director." He nodded at the woman who'd answered the door as she stood on a chair to lean over a table, pretending to pore over documents spread there and not blatantly listen in.
The Shadow frowned as he looked between the two. "Excuse me?"
The woman turned to face them, looking innocent. "Heeey!" she waved in greeting. "Are you surprised? The director of this laboratory is not Symin. It's me! Purah!" The look on her face morphed into expectancy.
"Okay?" He said, confused. She'd said her name as if he was supposed to know who that was.
Her expression immediately fell into disgruntlement. "My sister is Impa; my information says you should've met her by now…"
"I did meet two Impas, yes."
She laughed. "Yes, our family is quite interesting. Especially for the last few years— you see, my appearance is the result of a failed experiment. Well, I say 'failed', but in some ways, it was a success. You'd think that my grand-niece is actually my sister, wouldn't you?"
He cocked his head at her. "Wait, you're the eldest Impa's sister?"
"Yep!" she chirped.
"Huh." He definitely would not have guessed that.
"And I am the director here. I'm assuming you've run afoul of some potion or something, too, right? You are Link, right? You want us to get you back to normal?"
"What? No, I'm fine," he protested.
"But you're all gray—"
"I'm aware. And my eyes are red. And I don't just look like the Shadow— I am the Shadow."
Symin scoffed outright while Purah blinked several times. The Shadow looked around at the books and lab equipment occupying every surface. "This is a research lab, right? You like history and facts and all that? The perpetual cycle Hyrule is locked in?" Both researchers nodded. "Okay, then, look at me— really look. I'm Shadow Link. The other Link is dead. I killed him, as I was made to do. And then, yeah, something weird did happen to me—" he said, focusing on Purah, "the Goddesses appeared and—" he heard something thud heavily on the floor and turned his head to see that Symin had dropped the book he'd been engrossed in, reaching, instead, for ink and paper, "told me I had to take his place."
Purah's eyes were huge behind the lenses of her spectacles. "The Shadow has become the Hero," she whispered in awe.
He sighed.
She huffed in response. "I can see the Mark on your hand; it's why I thought you were Link, of course."
"I don't have to like it."
"No, I don't suppose you do," she agreed. "Anyway, I'm glad you're here. Someone came a few days ago and extinguished both of the Ancient furnaces and every lantern, too!"
He frowned again. "Yeah, the sign says something about the flame being blue, but I thought blue fire was just a thing that happened in dreams."
She shook her head. "Blue Fire was lit by the breath of the Goddess Din herself and will never burn out if left alone. We've just got regular old fire in there right now, just to keep the lights on, but when the Ancient furnace is lit with Blue Flame, the Guidance Stone is active," she pointed to a corner of the room behind him where an odd-looking pedestal structure with a dark, flat surface sat, "and so are the Sheikah Towers. But someone's put us totally in the dark! We keep a small flame in a jar in a safe place so we can relight them without having to go all the way to Akkala first, but whoever it is just keeps putting them out and it's really messing with our research here. Frankly, I'm over it," she crossed her arms over her chest and sat abruptly, legs swinging to bang her feet together in agitation. Her mannerisms were jarringly different from both of the other Impas; the 'failed experiment' had doubtlessly not altered just her appearance. "We're working on a spell to protect the furnaces, and we're so close! But we're not quite there yet, and unfortunately, we need the furnaces lit to work on it. Or anything else."
"I came here for the ability to use the Sheikah Towers to travel."
Purah shrugged, gesturing out the window near her. "We need the furnaces lit and protected and that guy gone first."
The Shadow closed his eyes, sighed. Fucking Hero bullshit. "Do you know who it is?"
She pulled down the owl-shaped headpiece and fit it over her glasses, owl eyes glowing bright blue for a moment. "Some skinny gray-and-purple jerk wearing a red cape. Never seen him before. Looks like a big creep, if you ask me," she snarked, pushing the owl visor back up onto the top of her head.
The Shadow's brows drew together. "Were you looking at him just now? How? Is he here?"
She shook her head, pointing to the owl. "Symin and I designed these to work with the telescope, and I snapped a picture of him this morning when he blew out the furnace in town again. There's no sign of him right now; I checked."
He sighed again, resigned.
She clapped her hands. "Great! Let me go get the Blue Flame, hang on," she said, disappearing behind a door, reappearing a few moments later with a small jar, lit cheerily from within by a single flame that waved as if to greet them. "Now, since it's raining, you'll have to keep it contained until you can transfer the flame to the furnaces." She grabbed an empty jar from a shelf and set both on the table. She took one of the sticks from her hair and stuck it into the jar holding the Blue Flame. The Flame shied away from the end of the stick at first, then leaned forward and caressed it curiously before enveloping it, half of the Flame pulling away from the portion that seemed happy to remain in the jar.
The Shadow watched as Purah dipped the lit end of the stick into the empty jar and the Blue Fire slid off the end to dance happily in its own space, in perfect sync with its twin in the other jar. Purah capped both and handed one to him, returning the undamaged stick to her hair. "Now, the second furnace is at the bottom of the hill to the northwest, you'll see it surrounded by some rocks at the end of the line of lanterns. I'll know as soon as both furnaces are lit. It won't take long for the spell to be finished, then I'll come out and put it into effect."
He looked at the jar in his hand, then at her and Symin, both staring back expectantly, then he turned and walked out the door.
Closing the door behind him, he exhaled forcefully, frustrated. "Fuck."
He took a few deep breaths under the canopy over the door, listening to the rain patter steadily. Okay, light the furnaces. Can't be that hard.
He opened his eyes to look at the furnace, at the orange flame flickering weakly there, then at the Blue Flame in his hand. Reaching back, he grabbed a standard arrow from his quiver, uncapped the jar, and stuck the tip of the arrow into the jar.
The Flame jerked unhappily away from the metal tip, but then wrapped carefully around the wooden shaft right next to it, separating itself from the rest of the Flame which stayed safely in the jar. The Shadow recapped the jar and stored it safely in his pack.
Opening the enclosure, he put the Blue Flame inside, watching as it reached out to smooth itself lovingly over the top of the orange, like a blanket, then encircle and overcome it, the orange winking out with a final gasp.
The Shadow sealed the Blue Flame in its glass enclosure to protect it as much as possible and watched the furnace come to life. The blue suffused the cold furnace with bright light, the electric blue pouring through the spiraling carvings all over the surface, then the light pulsed steadily, the heartbeat of the Lab beating strong once more. He heard a loud, gratifying "Whoop!" from one of the very dignified scientists inside the building. The rain extinguished the lit tip of the arrow in his hand, so he stored it back in the quiver.
Taking out the Sheikah Slate, he used the camera's zoom feature to look around for the other furnace. It was where Purah'd said it'd be— at the bottom of the hill, some distance behind one of the larger houses in the village.
He also saw the man Purah had described earlier standing right next to it, grinning widely.
"You son of a bitch," the Shadow said, then put the bow away and grabbed out his glider. It would be close, he thought, but he should be able to glide over both Lake Sumac and Zelkoa Pond— which flowed down to become the river flowing through Hateno— and land right by the furnace, so he took a few steps back and took off, reaching a full sprint by the time he jumped off the edge.
The rain ceased while he flew swiftly down the hillside, the cows lowing at him as he passed overhead to land right on the bank of the pond, a stone's throw from the furnace.
Leaning against the rocks encasing the furnace was the man he'd seen. Tall and lean, the guy was overly… ornate-looking, covered in diamond shapes as he was; he seemed rather pointy on the whole. Despite the deep red cape and gold accents, he gave off the overwhelming impression of silver. His hair was a sharp fall over his face and his lips were both the same bright, near-white shade as his outfit, his skin disconcertingly close to the Shadow's own gray. His eyes were dark, pupils blending seamlessly with the irises, bottoms red-rimmed and showing white from corner to corner. He wore an unpleasant smirk on his angular face as his eyes raked the Shadow from head to toe. "Well, well, well," he said, licking his lips obscenely. "Such stunning features. What a dish you are, darling."
The Shadow frowned. "I'm here to relight the furnace."
"Tsk," the man tutted, a look of fake concern on his face. "Well, the problem with that, sweet pea, is that my boss doesn't want it lit, so I'm here to keep it that way. This furnace is now mine."
"Then you and your boss can both fuck off."
"Oh-ho-ho, feisty!" the guy laughed, then paused to squint at the Shadow. "Oh, it's you. How… unexpected. He will be intrigued that you're still around, I'm sure. I would not say such things if I were you, Shadow Link."
The Shadow tilted his head questioningly. "Who, Ganondorf?" At the quick, answering nod, he added, "Who are you?" Something about the guy looked familiar, somehow, though the Shadow was sure he'd never seen him before.
The man straightened from his lean at last. "Oh, of course, I'm being positively uncivil. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Demon Lord who presides over this land. You may call me Ghirahim, though in truth, I much prefer to be indulged with my full title: Lord Ghirahim. But I'm not fussy."
The Shadow snorted in disbelief. "You just said you had a boss; I'm not calling you Lord anything, asshole. Certainly not if it's that fucker Ganondorf."
"Insolent boy!" Ghirahim's demeanor changed from an indolent lounge to attack mode between heartbeats. "You dare to interfere in the works of Lord Ghirahim and Master Ganondorf? I must punish you most… deliciously."
"Calm down, Gerard," the Shadow needled, enjoying the overreaction of the flamboyant silver man.
"Ghirahim. Lord. Ghirahim," he snarled, as sharp around the edges as his diamond motif.
"Lard Gherkin," the Shadow taunted, satisfied when Ghirahim snapped obviously, letting out a wordless yell and whipping his head back, throwing his arms out to the sides dramatically. The Shadow watched, fascinated, as the cape disappeared in an array of diamond shapes. No weapon or shield— or anything, for that matter— appeared.
"You need a lesson in manners, boy," Ghirahim said, leveling his gaze at the Shadow, but not doing anything else. "Very well, I shall spend some quality time teaching you."
"You need a lesson in shutting the fuck up."
"How dare you?! Your chances against someone as powerful as myself are so slim that you might as well say it's impossible, so don't fool yourself."
"Try me, George," the Shadow challenged, having had enough of Lord Dickbag and his theatrics. He pulled his sword, the dark glow strengthening his resolve and shoving steel into his backbone.
"You dare to pull your sword on me? I mean, I can't blame you for trying, but I can punish you. This turn of events has left me with a strong appetite for bloodshed. Still… it hardly seems fair, for someone of my greatly-elevated position," he jabbered on, putting a hand to his chest, "to take it all out on you. See, I've had all this anger bottled up and smoldering inside me for so long. Which is why I promise up front not to murder you," he assured. "No, I'll just beat you to within an inch of your life!" he giggled menacingly as he flitted between calm and outraged, a storm of a man.
"Do you ever fucking shut up?"
"I had really hoped we'd get a chance to meet in battle. So I promise this won't be dull!" Ghirahim grinned maniacally, raising one hand and holding it in front of him, a red aura beginning to glow around it as he extended two fingers from his fist.
"Are you going to talk the whole time?" the Shadow griped, just before he lunged.
It was the wrong move. Ghirahim caught the sword mid-strike— easily, as if the Shadow were an untested green knight. "My, my— I don't think I'll even need to get serious," Ghirahim goaded, and then, somehow, the Shadow's sword was in Ghirahim's hand and pointing at the Shadow's chest.
What the fuck?! The Shadow quickly pulled his shield in front of him, anticipating the strike that came fast and hard, lighting up the bruises on his arm under the shield and sending his sword bouncing away, still gleaming.
The Shadow dove to grab it, rolling up to a three-point stance as Ghirahim stalked closer, glowing hand raised again, commanding, "Stand down. Anyone who gets in my way must be dealt with. You cannot possibly win."
"It's like you want to talk me to death," the Shadow returned, just before his overly-loquacious opponent disappeared in a haze of silver, gold, and red diamond shapes.
A second later, he reappeared just behind the Shadow, both long, thin hands resting on the Shadow's shoulders, invading his personal space unnervingly. "Shall I show you what a demon lord can do?" Ghirahim asked, then leaned over the Shadow's shoulder and stuck his incredibly long, red tongue out, waggling it next to the Shadow's ear.
The Shadow ducked and spun out of the disturbing grip, trying not to twitch out of his skin as it crawled. "Ugh! You creepy fucker!" He reached out and struck at Ghirahim repeatedly, but each of his blows were deflected by the glowing, upraised hand with a ding, clang, crash, as if meeting a metal shield instead of a fist.
It went on that way for a while, the odd dance of a one-on-one fight. After the third time his sword was stolen, the Shadow tried telegraphing a strike from one direction and actually swinging from another, finally landing a blow to Ghirahim's midsection that… clanged off loudly, taking a large chunk of silver with it to dissipate into black-and-silver diamonds.
"Oh-ho! A lucky strike! Well done, boy!" Ghirahim declared, disappearing in another spray of diamonds to reappear directly in front of the Shadow, aiming at the Shadow's own midsection but being easily blocked, sword ending up on the floor again.
As the Shadow retrieved it, the shower of diamonds indicated another disappearance, so he readied himself for Ghirahim to appear somewhere close. When it happened, he was able to immediately strike, landing another blow that reverberated like a gong off a silver thigh, a sliver breaking off to evaporate into more tiny, black diamonds.
The dark eyes narrowed at him. "You have my undivided attention." He raised his silver arm and a long, thin, dark blade with a small red gem in the shape of a diamond in the hilt just… separated from it, dropping into his palm to point at the Shadow.
"You really like the sound of your own voice, don't you?"
"I'll like the sound of yours when you scream for mercy!" Ghirahim came in close and struck hard twice, once from each side. The Shadow blocked the first with his shield and the second with his blade.
What caught him off guard was the dagger suddenly thrust into his vulnerable, open side.
"Fuck!" he said, pulling it out to watch it drip red on the ground. His blood. "You son of a bitch. Ow!" Irritated, he palmed the dagger, intending to chuck it back but instead, he had to dive out of the way of a vertical line of five daggers, glowing magically red and speeding at him.
"Oh, and I've injured you already. How dull. I was expecting more of a challenge."
"Good goddess, Greg. Are you still talking?" the Shadow provoked, wincing slightly as he felt his side becoming wet with the blood seeping out. Not good.
And suddenly, Ghirahim was right in front of him, eyes focused on the Shadow's bleeding side. "Mm, a mischievous boy like you needs to be dealt with firmly."
In a blink, the Shadow had thrust the dagger into Ghirahim's gut, succeeding in slicing off a chunk of gray. At the same time, he raised his sword, red gem gleaming merrily at him as he brought the blade down, aiming at the long, silver thigh and chipping off more dark diamonds.
"Impudent child!" Ghirahim disappeared in a diamond sparkle.
The Shadow drew in a painful, shaky breath and spun to meet the strike as Ghirahim reappeared, but he surprised the Shadow by appearing farther away. Smug as ever, Ghirahim drew back his sword with both hands and then held that position for a few moments.
Just when the Shadow was about to launch his own attack, Ghirahim came at him with superhuman speed that the Shadow was too slow to react to, distracted by the pain in his side.
The blow opened a severe gash across his chest, gushing blood and dropping him to his knees. "Fuck!" he moaned, panting.
Pointed laughter filled his ears as his head swam momentarily. He bent his head, trying to concentrate through the blood pounding like a drum in his ears. "Little infant thought he could play with the big boys," came the barbed voice, taunting him. Then there was a face right there next to his, hot breath shivering across his ear and the Shadow just… reacted.
His left arm came up and he made a quick, pointed fist, arming the hookshot and aiming it at the underside of the foreign chin tucked too-intimately next to his. He pressed the button as soon as he felt it under his finger, feeling the satisfying jerk and hearing the high-pitched grating as his favorite device hit home and dug in.
Eyes wide, Ghirahim choked, "Impossible!"
"You keep using that word; I don't think it means what you think it means, Graham," the Shadow mocked, panting shallowly and fighting not to groan. He retracted the hookshot, vision blacking out at the edges as the blood continued to pour out of his chest, unabated. Ghirahim disappeared into diamonds, reappearing some distance away to look contemplatively at the Shadow.
"Well. You put up more of a fight than I would have thought possible. Though, I suppose, all indications are that you did best Hyrule's Chosen Hero," he said appraisingly. "But don't clap for yourself quite yet. That sword of yours and a few tricks are the only reasons you still live. I fear I spent far too long teasing and toying with you. I will not make that mistake again." He fingered the underside of his chin, where the hookshot had left a small but definite dent.
What is this guy? The Shadow asked himself.
"I must go and make my report. Ooh, he will not be happy with youuuu, Hero," Ghirahim sneered. "Good-bye, Shadow child. You may have survived this time," he tilted his head, eyeing the Shadow's injuries, "but get in my way again, and there will be no question." He drew his thumb across his throat from ear to ear, a clear threat, then he disappeared in a final spray of diamonds.
"Fuck." Mustering his coordination, he staggered over to the furnace, leaning heavily on the glass enclosure he had yet to light. He pawed through his pack for the Blue Flame, bringing it out and uncapping the jar slowly, fingers failing him by degrees.
"Navi."
"I'm here."
"C'n ya grabarrow?"
"Can I… grab an arrow?" He could just about manage a nod and then a wooden arrow was floating in front of his face.
It took him four tries, but he got the tip of the arrow in the jar and then Navi guided his arm, holding it by the sleeve as he touched the Flame to the furnace and watched it light up for just a moment.
The Shadow sat heavily on his rear, legs splaying haphazardly as he slumped, losing himself to pain.
Navi's voice was worried next to his ear. "You must get up, Shadow Link!"
"Mm-mm. Jus' five more min's, 'kay?" he slurred, watching as the nearest lantern suddenly sparked to life, then the next one, then the next, and so on, winding a pretty blue path up the hillside.
"No! Come on!" he heard, just before a tiny force lifted him to his liquid knees, which collapsed instantly, spilling him back onto the soft, pillowy grass. "Use your Fairy!"
"Yes… yer ver' useful, Navi," he trailed off, realizing something was wrong with his voice, but unable to pinpoint what. His hand twitched, intending to pat her on the head, but he couldn't seem to move it more than that. He assumed she would understand the gesture and nodded loosely to himself.
"No, don't go to sleep!"
But he couldn't bring himself to answer. His chin slumped against his chest, freely pouring his blood onto the ground beneath him with each beat of his heart. He swore he heard a faint beeping in a distinctive, warning tone from somewhere, and his last conscious thought was, Shut that goddess-damned beeping off.
Author's note: Don't at me. Friendly reminder that this is a video game and the Shadow is our (reluctant) Hero. Fear not. :)
Posting note - this was posted at the same time as Ch 11 - (Shadow) Link's House. Some plotty things happen there, so you'll want to catch that if you missed it.
Oh, wow, this one gave me fits. Every time I thought I had it, it threw me for another loop. The problem with having an outline is trying to make the damn thing work when you actually go to write it out. I'm extremely happy with how it turned out, of course, or I wouldn't post it, but, holy shit. Then it got really long, and now there's a natural (sorta) cliffhanger so I decided to split it. Twice, which means I've already started the next chapter - yay, me!
A note on 'gray' vs. 'grey': yeah, I don't know. I was reading back over some of this, and I appear to have used both. I always used to use 'gray', but my boss's last name is spelled the other way and it's a small thing that I'm (probably) not going to go back and fix, but now that I've noticed it, I'm going to consciously try to keep to 'gray', and I apologize if anyone likes 'grey' better. :)
Some of the NPCs' dialogue has been lifted directly from in-game, in case you recognize some of it (thank you, Zelda wiki!). Some of it, of course, is all me. I found Purah annoying, so I toned her down a bit. Ghirahim is mostly unchanged; he's a creepy bastard in-game, too.
Ooh, Hateno offered up some good chances for Easter eggs - did you catch them? One of them's pretty easy, but another is an old SNL joke hidden in the Hateno lab that might be hard. Here's a hint: Symin is an artist. ;)
For anyone not really in the fandom, it's sort of a running joke that Link doesn't speak in the games. It's not true, of course, he interacts with NPCs and must have dialogue— he even has a voice actor!— but we never really hear him speak outside of some "Hyah!s" here and there because the creators wanted the player to imagine themselves as the hero, no matter who the player is. He's a "link" between the player and the game, hence his name.
Today's Google gem: the iconic main theme to the original Legend of Zelda was written in one night. Originally, the developers had planned to use Ravel's "Bolero" because it matched the opening crawl, but the copyright on it would not run out for another month after the release date of the game, so (fucking legend) Koji Kondo pulled an all-nighter to compose the opening song - but it's just an arrangement of music used in the game. Read the story here: news/2016/11/an_intriguing_tale_of_how_the_legend_of_zeldas_iconic_opening_song_almost_never_happened
As always, I love to hear from you, so let me know what you thought about these two chapters!