This is the story that won the voting on my dA account.
A pretty dark story by that way. I thought this was fitting for Halloween.
I hope it's not too dark (I was holding myseld back already. This is still harmless...)
To be honest? This story was a veeeeery spontaneous idea which I wrote down within a day.
And I like how his came out.
This story is a mix between Majora's Mask, Ocarina of time and the Mangas.
I hope there aren't too many errors in here, since this was a pain in the butt to translate, trust me.
And again feedback is very much appreciated by me.
Nightmares
The day couldn't have been more beautiful.
He had managed to break the curse that lay over the Woodfall Temple, had saved the Deku-Princess and he had given peace to the swamps. And his relationship to Tatl had also become a lot better, what the day had clearly shown to him when the two had taken one day off from their journey, which was fortunately possible, since Link had the ocarina of time with him and thus he was always able to travel through time and back to the first day.
It had been a lot of fun to explore Clock Town together with Tatl, to try out the many games this town had to offer, win many prizes and simply enjoy a nice, calm day. He had even been able to get a room in the stock pot inn, since Anju had made sure that a "poor boy" like him needed a bed to sleep and thus she had made sure that one of the storage rooms had been cleared so he could spend the night in there.
On this day, he forgot all that had happened to him, forgot his destiny as a hero, forgot his adventures in Hyrule, forgot how he had fought against Ganondorf and how he had become a Legend, forgot how he had saved Zelda and then went onto a new journey and he even forgot all of the terrible events that had happened since he had landed in Termina.
At least until he went to bed in the evening, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Only then did his past come back to him...
The nightmare, that haunted him in this night, was worse than anything he had ever experienced before and it tormented him to the deepest depths of his young soul.
He squirmed back and forth restlessly in his bed, muttering soft words to himself as his body tensed and trembled.
Tatl hovered over the boy and watched him silently.
She had tried to wake him up, when Link had started to whimper in his dream, but she had not succeeded and so she could only hover helplessly over him and watching him squirming around and suffering from his nightmare.
Only the gods alone knew what this boy had been through and what terrible things tormented him even in his dreams...
Link found himself standing in infinite darkness and a cold reached for his body, as he had never felt it before. A cold, that was so different from anything he knew, for that coldness seemed to impale his heart and it felt like his soul was freezing.
Then a dark roar rose in the darkness, which made him wince and out of pure reflex he reached for the Kokiri sword and the Deku shield, which was attached to his back.
The roar was followed by an eerie laughter and a Lizalfos came out of the darkness and ran over to him and even before Link had the chance to defend himself, or even raise his sword, the blade and shield were torn out of his hands and a claw-proof paw hit at him, cutting deep wounds into his right arm and the pain, which then chased through his entire body made him scream, before the monster slammed him to the ground and held him there. But the boy fought against the strong paw on his back, which had been laid on his back and pressed him onto the ground, until he felt how the air was pressed out of his lungs.
"Let me go!" he shouted in despair, but the monster only laughed at him mockingly and cut his claws through his green tunic and into his flesh, causing Link to scream again.
As the boy turned his head, he saw how more and more monsters came out of the darkness and came towards him. There he saw a Redead, who slowly began to walk into his direction, groaning horribly while doing that and Link felt how a shiver ran down his spine. Next to the Redead, a few poes came out of the darkness, which began to fly around his head and laughing mockingly at him. Stalfos warriors stood around him and seemed to impale him with their red glowing eyes. Stalchilds joined the other monsters and agreed to the mocking laughter of the poes, when Link once again screamed in pain, as the claws of the Lizalfos once again cut through his flesh. The courage left him and he stopped to defend himself, put his head onto the cold floor and only on the edge of his awareness did he see more and more of his old enemies walking over to him, scoffing at him, laughing at him and hitting at him or hit their weapons onto the ground. He heard the howling of Wolfos, heard the excited squeals of Deku Scrubs and the hissing of Deku Babas. The noise around him grew so loud that he would have liked to cover his ears with his hands, but as soon as he tried to raise his hands, the claws of the Lizalfos scratched again over his skin until his blood dropped to the ground.
Then again a deep roar rose from the darkness and as Link raised his head, he saw the dragon Volvagia and how he rose above all the other monsters and looked at him from those bright green eyes of his. He bared his fangs when he saw Link, lowered his head to the boy and growled threateningly.
"Look what you've done to me!" he growled at him and at that moment it seemed as if his head would fall off, causing Link to start screaming again. The memory came back to him, swept over him like an all-consuming tidal wave as he remembered how he had killed this dragon, which he had once called his friend, in the fire temple.
"It's all your fault! You could have saved me, but instead you cut my head off!" said the dragon with his dark voice and blood ran out of his nostrils and eyes and a long gaping wound spread around his neck. Link turned his face away from him, but the Lizalfos grabbed his hair with the free paw and forced his head up, so Link had to look at the dragon and watch as he turned into a bloody skeleton before his eyes.
"No...stop it...please..." the boy whimpered, but no soul could hear his pleading, since the roars and the malicious laughter of his enemies swallowed it up.
Volvagia disappeared before his eyes, but the next horror came to him only a few seconds later and it had the form of the adult Princess Zelda, but her eyes were red and she gave him a dark grin as she knelt down in front of him and brushed his hair out of his eyes so that he could look at her.
"Look around you Link. You took all this for me. For a girl, whom you didn't know and for whom you would have done everything. For a girl, for whom you would even have gone to death, but you know what? I didn't care for any of this. I just took advantage of you and you didn't even notice that, you fool."
These words hit him in the middle of his heart and he was unable to form words as his throat suddenly felt constricted. He forgot the monsters around him, could only see Zelda and how she laughed at him. There was something behind her. A hand broke out of the darkness, lay down onto her shoulder and then Ganondorf stood behind her, kneeled beside her and he stroked his fingers almost tenderly over her cheek.
"She has been working for me all the time and we have enjoyed seeing you suffer," he said to Link and tears formed in the boy's eyes upon hearing such dark words.
"You have never meant anything to me. You have always been a means to an end for me and nothing more..." Zelda said and Link turned his face away from her and sobbed, causing the mass of monsters around him to burst out into laughter.
"Just look how he cries!" he heard the scornful voice of a poe and the laughter around him grew louder.
"Like a little baby!" another, much deeper voice answered.
Even Zelda and Ganondorf joined in the malicious laughter and Link's heart almost broke into a thousand small pieces at that.
The claws of the Lizalfos suddenly clawed into his tunic and raised him up into the air, so that everyone could see him.
"Look at him! This is supposed to be the great hero of time of whom all of us were afraid of? Pah! This is just a helpless, little child," said the lizard-monster, hurling Link back to the ground and hitting his claws at him, but Link managed to avoid them by rolling to the side, but the next enemy was waiting for him already. A white Wolfo, who bared his fangs and growled at him when he came too close to him and next to the Wolfo stood a huge Moblin, who tried to injure him with the spear, he held in his hands, but Link managed to roll away from him just in time.
The boy's heart beat so hard against his ribs that he thought the bones would burst under that burden. Tears ran down his cheeks, his body ached and he couldn't even get up; so weak he was.
"Weakling!" he heard the monsters roar and he winced at the word and more tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"I say we'll kill him right away!" he heard another voice saying and cheering cries and loud roars were the answer to it.
Link just curled up into a ball, crying and he closed his eyes, since he didn't want to see how they would kill him now.
He had no weapons with which he could defend himself and even if he had them, there were too many enemies at once against whom he could never have fought.
"THAT'S ENOUGH! GET AWAY FROM HIM!", a dark voice intersected the roars and laughter of the monsters and within a few seconds it was silent around him, but Link didn't dare to lift his head up and see who or what had stopped the monsters from killing him and tearing him into small pieces. He could hear footsteps that approached him slowly and only seconds later they came to a halt in front of him.
He winced hard as a hand was put onto his back and almost gently stroked over it and he even dared to lift his head up...and faced the next monster, which filled his heart with fear, because this monster was so different from those around him. This monster was an image of his adult self, was wrapped in complete darkness and stared at him from red sparkling eyes. His lips graced a mocking grin and the hand, which had just been lying on his back, moved on and cold fingers grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at him.
"And so we meet again, little hero..." his shadow spoke with this dark voice and Link felt how another shiver ran down his spine. The fingers closed more tightly around his chin and only then did he realize that his dark counterpart had claws instead of fingernails, which slowly scraped over his skin, but Link remained brave, biting his teeth, trying to hide the pain from his enemy.
"Look at you Link. Where is the hero, who had once fought me in the water temple; full of courage in his heart? I don't see this hero anymore. Instead, I see a small child that can't stop crying and I feel great fear in your heart. Without the master sword you are nothing and you know that, don't you?"
Link didn't answer, tried to free himself from his grip and even managed to get his face out of the monster's claws. He fell backwards, which again brought him malicious laughter, but before he could hit his shadow with his fist, the Lizalfos was back behind him and reached for his arms and held them fast.
"Now look at that. It seems as if a spark of courage still lives in your heart, huh? But I'm sure that will change soon..."
"Go away and leave me alone!" Link snarled at him, which made his shadow laugh and he knelt down in front of him again, grabbed his chin and forced him to look into his red glowing eyes.
"You can fight against the darkness in you, you can try to withstand it, but in the end you will be dominated by it like any other human being. Look at me Link. This will be you at the end of your journey. At the end of your journey you will be so broken that you will even welcome the darkness in your heart and then you will become one of us...and we will sincerely welcome you into the shadow realm when the time has come..."
The boy spat into his face as an answer, but Dark Link didn't move a muscle at that.
However, the scornful grin dwindled from his face and his eyes sparkled more than before.
"I will never be like you!" Link snapped at him.
Dark Link looked at the Lizalfos and nodded and the lizard-monster slapped Link with his tail, which made the boy moan with pain.
"One day you will be like me. No matter how much you resist. You have no more friends who would catch you if you would fall into darkness and one day you will be all alone and die in the certainty that no one will remember you or your deeds as a hero. Princess Zelda has abandoned you and even your fairy has left you behind..."
"That's a lie!"
"Oh really? Is it? Why then did she leave you in the temple of time?"
Link opened his mouth, but he immediately closed it again, when no answer to this question came to his mind.
Dark Link grinned at him knowingly and laughed softly as he grabbed Link's chin again and forced him to look at him.
"How about if she tells you herself?" he whispered to him and Link's eyes widened as he looked behind the shoulder of the shadow and as he saw a small blue fairy that approached him.
"Navi..." he whispered softly, but the joy in his heart didn't last long, as he saw how Navi changed her color from blue to red and sat down on Dark Link's shoulder.
"Stop looking at me like that! It's bad enough that I have to endure your face again after such a long time!"
Every single word hit him worse than any sword blade could have done it and he felt how his heart crumbled more and more.
"W-what? What are you talking about Navi?" the boy whimpered and he felt hot tears in his eyes again.
The fairy rose from Dark Link's shoulder and floated right in front of Link's face now.
"You don't really believe that we were ever friends? I was always only a burden for you! An annoying appendage and you know what? You were the same in my eyes! I hated the Deku Tree when he assigned you to me! I had a great life in the lost woods, but no, then he had to send me to you!"
"Why do you say such a terrible thing to me?" the boy sobbed and more and more tears ran down his cheeks.
The fairy was silent and sat back on Dark Link's shoulder and then she broke Link's heart completely with her last words, which she addressed to him:
"Because you have never meant anything to me..."
And then she flew away and disappeared into the darkness and the only thing Link could hear was Dark Link's malicious laughter and the roars of the monsters around him, before he fell into endless seeming darkness...
In reality Tatl slowly began to worry about Link, for he had begun to cry in his sleep and breathed heavily. Words were coming over his lips and his voice sounded so broken, even in his sleep that Tatl felt how her own heart ached at that, though she didn't know this boy for too long.
What had he done, that the gods now punished him with such cruel nightmares?
As more and more tears wetted his face and as he whimpered louder and louder, the fairy decided to intervene and wake him up now, but that was not as easy as she had imagined, because no matter what she did, Link didn't want to wake up. She flew hard against his cheek, but that didn't bother him. She pulled painfully on his ears or his hair, but even that didn't want to wake him up, so she flew to his ear and shouted "LINK! WAKE UP!" and the boy finally awoke from his nightmare.
He screamed, as he reared up, looking around with panic in his eyes, pressing a hand onto his heart, as if he was afraid it might jump out of his chest.
"Shhh. Calm down Link. You only dreamed. Everything is all right."
It surprised her that she talked so softly to him and her gentle words seemed to be working, too, because Link calmed down a bit, dropped back into the pillows and ran his arm over his forehead to wipe the sweat from his skin, before he turned his eyes to her.
The light glow of the fairy was the only source of light in the room and Link was grateful for it, because he could cling to this light, which gave him a little hold in this difficult time.
This nightmare was the most terrible thing he'd ever seen and Navi's dark words still echoed in his ears, as if she'd really said that to him when she'd left him in the temple of time.
He winced as Tatl sat down on his chest and looked at him questioningly.
He looked back at her, but didn't say a single word and he didn't need to, because Tatl could see how bad he was feeling, could see the fear in his eyes and it was at this moment when she believed him every word, which he had told her after their first meeting.
Yes, in this moment, she believed him his words that he was the hero who had saved a whole kingdom, because only the eyes of a hero reflected as much suffering and pain as his eyes did.
And this sight hurt her as much as the nightmare Link had just been through.
The boy turned slowly to the side, curled up and tears ran down his cheeks as he began to sob softly into his pillow. Tatl watched him silently for a while, and at the same time her heart almost broke when those heartbreaking sounds left the boy's lips. When she looked at him, he reminded her a bit of the skull kid. When she and her brother Tael had found the skull kid back then, it was just as abandoned as Link was, cried as Link just did, but Tatl could look into the heart of the young hero and she didn't see any darkness in his heart, not even now, but goodness and still a spark of hope and it was this moment when something was changing between the two. Without saying a word to him, Tatl flew to him, lay down under his arm and pressed her small body against his chest and shared her warmth with him.
"It'll all be okay Link," she whispered softly, but Link didn't answer her.
He hid his face in his pillow instead and tried to dampen his sobbing and hide his tears from her.
"Don't be ashamed of your tears. There is no reason for that. If you want to cry, then cry. I will not laugh about it and I will not mock you for that. Cry and let the pain inside your heart go..."
A few seconds passed without anything happening, but then Link moved, if only a little bit.
Tatl felt how he pressed her closer to his chest and gently he put both arms around her, holding her tightly to him as if he was afraid she could leave him and never come back.
Tatl let it happen and while she listened to Link's soft sobbing, she was caught in her own thoughts.
When Link was feeling better again, they had to talk, because she couldn't stand another night, where he was plagued by terrible nightmares, because this was not the first time that had happened.
And besides, she wanted to know who this Navi was, about which he spoke almost every night in his sleep...
The end