The Legend of Zelda
Ti'ana's Story
__________by Ti'ana MYST
Chapter Fifteen
Nuli, who had been hidden from view since Ti'ana entered the Spirit Temple, was now hovering over Taabu's body. She watched Ti'ana, who's face was buried in Taabu's shoulder as she hugged him close to her, weep something terrible and Nuli herself felt like she was going to cry. She turned to Malon, who was frozen in place, her eyes wide with terror, fear and grief.
The tiny fairy landed on Ti'ana's shoulder. "These things happen," she whispered. Ti'ana said nothing, which was what Nuli expected. "We can't fight fate."
"Why?" Ti'ana cried. "There must be something.. anything!"
Nuli didn't reply. She flitted away from Ti'ana. Give her some time, she thought.
It had been a while since Nuli saw sunlight, and this was the perfect time of day. The sun was about to set, so the light was intense. She looked around Desert Colossus and sighed. She was about to reenter the Temple when her eyes landed on a small puddle of water. "That's odd," she said aloud. "I don't remember that from last time I was here. Things certainly do change in a matter of years."
Nuli hadn't seen the outside of the Spirit Temple in seven years, when Ti'ana was first kidnapped and brought to the Gerudo Valley. They initiated her as Gerudo in Desert Colossus and held a brief ceremony in the temple.
Ti'ana had thrown the worst temper ever. She bit, scratched, shrieked and spit until finally she fell unconscious when a Gerudo woman placed a vile of a strong-smelling substance under her nose.
That thought almost made Nuli smile, the way Ti'ana had been screaming her lungs out one second, then the next she was out cold. Nuli was hiding the entire time. The Gerudo rarely saw her.
Nuli's mind traced back to the pond. As she flew closer, she noticed several other flying beings.
"Fairies!" She gasped. She sped over to them as fast as sound, and stopped in front of one of the pink, flying individuals.
"Excuse me?" She asked politely. "I need your help."
The fairy stopped flying and hovered before Nuli. "Sure, fellow fairy. What do you need?"
***
Malon sat next to Ti'ana, who was still crying over Taabu. Neither of them realized Nuli's absence, nor her presence when she appeared with the other fairy.
The healing fairy quietly worked on Taabu. She flew over and around him. Still, neither of the girls noticed her. The fairy disappeared in a mist of pink light.
Ti'ana continued to cry. "Why, Taabu?" She held herself closer to him and whispered, "I love you."
Taabu's motionless hand started to move. Ti'ana didn't see, but it almost made Malon gasp. His arm reached up and hugged Ti'ana to his chest. "I love you, too."
At the sound of his voice, Ti'ana's heart started to pound. She pulled herself back quickly. "T.. Taabu?"
He sat up and looked down at himself. "Hmm.. Yep, Taabu."
"Taabu," she whispered, and threw herself into his arms. "You're alive! My gods, you're alive!"
Taabu hugged her close. "As alive as I've ever been."
Ti'ana let go and hit Taabu's shoulder. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" She wiped a tear away from her eye.
Taabu winced and rubbed his shoulder. "Ah.. I'll remember that next time I die." He smiled gently.
The two embraced quickly and Malon hugged Taabu as well. "Hug" would be an understatement; she practically squeezed whatever life was left in him out. He was about to pass out again when Malon let go. She, too, hit him on the shoulder, but harder than Ti'ana. "NEVER again!"
Taabu choked out, "I got the point." He rubbed his neck and again his shoulder.
Malon stood up and smiled gently. "I'll be outside if you need me." She climbed down the stairs with great difficulty, limping slightly on her right leg and practically pulling herself out the open entrance with her last bit of strength.
As soon as she left, Ti'ana kissed Taabu gently on the cheek. He returned it with one on her forehead. "I've missed you so much," he sighed. "Did you ever try to escape."
Ti'ana nodded. "Trust me, when you're betrothed to the 'great king' Ganondorf who is worshipped and reverenced like a god among the Gerudo, you're watched like a hawk does a mouse. I got into a lot of trouble. I hated it there, but I learned to live with it." Ti'ana told him everything; her initiation as a Gerudo, the legal betrothal ceremony when she was fifteen years old (it had been decided when she first entered the Gerudo Valley, for the women sensed she had a special "power" about her that could be helpful if joined with the evil forces of Ganondorf), her meeting Link when she was forced to imprison him, up to that morning when she was reunited with Taabu.
She paused for a moment. "That's my story for now. The end has not yet been written so I can't tell you what happens after now." She frowned. "And I have no clue what will happen once Ganondorf is destroyed."
Taabu arched a brow and smiled. "I'd like to have a clue."
"I think the future isn't for us to know. Che sarà, sarà, I guess. Right?"
Taabu shook his head. "That's not what I mean."
"What do you mean, then?" Ti'ana's question could have as well not have been asked, for she had a hint anyway. Taabu was never very well at keeping someone in suspense, for his eyes gave away whatever he felt.
As he took her hand, a beam of light came from the ceiling of the temple. It was immensely bright, yet comforting at the same time. The temple seemed to shrink away from them until light was all they saw.
Malon, who had been standing outside of the temple, was also with Ti'ana and Taabu in the realm of crystalline light. "Where are we?" She muttered the questioned to herself, and it would not have been heard by the other two, yet her voice echoed off of the invisible walls of light.
"You are in the Sacred Realm," a voice spoke out from no where, though it seemed to be coming from everywhere. It sounded as though more than a single person were speaking at the same time, but the voices mixed together so well none could distinguish one from the next.
Ti'ana stood up, standing on nothing but the light. Nuli flitted out from her usual hiding spot and flew around Ti'ana's head a few times, then went into the direction she thought the voices were coming from. "Who are you?"
Three figures stepped forward out of the light; it parted and fell back in place, almost like a cascade. Ti'ana wasn't sure if the light was solid or not. Malon and Taabu seemed just as confused.
The three forms shone brightly. One would assume that light as bright as this, almost as the sun, would hurt the eye, but the three teenagers found it calming and gentle, almost a pleasure to gaze upon.
"We are the Golden Goddesses, Din, Farore and Nayru," they said at once. Still, the voices came from everywhere and nowhere. Their bodies shimmered like white gold, and it was difficult to distinguish one from the next, besides the color of the aura that surrounded each of them.
Red light engulfed the figure of Din, green that of Farore and blue was Nayru. "Our true forms," they explained, "are these. You are of the few to look upon them." As they spoke, their gold bodies began to change until they appeared to look like Hylians.
Din wore a long red gown of cashmere. Her hair was short and crimson, and even her skin was a reddish hue. Around her neck was a short pendant of ruby, which, when turned a certain way into the light, showed the image of the Triforce. Farore had on a long, green cloak of soft velvet. It shimmered in the light, whether she moved or not. Her heavy-looking earrings were emeralds, and they, like Din's ruby, showed the Triforce. Nayru was the most beautiful to Ti'ana, even though she thought the other two to be almost equally beauteous. She had a blue scarf tied around her neck, pinned together by a sapphire brooch. Like the similar jewelry on Din and Farore, it too had an image of the Golden Relic. Her long hair was an Aztec blue, and it fell freely on her bare shoulders. Nayru's clothing was similar to a Gerudo's otherwise, adorned with blue-tinted gold. Even as regular Hylians, one who saw these three together would be able to sense their superiority just by glancing upon their dress.
Din stepped up first. "We are here to return you three back seven years, the time before the wrath of the Evil King fell on Hyrule. We apologize for allowing him to find the Triforce, for it was difficult to hide the Golden Relic within the Sacred Realm. The Temple of Light cannot be altered to keep one from finding the Triforce." She paused and sighed, then continued, "Even from one as evil as Ganon."
Farore picked up from where Din ended, and the speech was kept in a continuous flow. "If a person with a pure heart places a hand upon the Triforce, Hyrule will go into a period of prosperity. But if the person has a blackness which inhabits his spirit, Hyrule will become the land of monsters it is now. The Hero of Time has destroyed Ganon as of now, and he is locked in the Evil Realm, not to be released until his heart is pure enough. That will be determined by the Triforce. He cannot escape; the Great Goddess, whom we were sent by to create Hyrule, has made it so."
"Which brings us to you," Nayru held her hand out to Ti'ana, who remained motionless as she listened to the goddesses, entwining her fingers with Taabu's. "The Gerudo were correct when they said you contained a certain power. You are the incarnation of our creator, the Great Goddess Zahabu, the golden one. You lived in the Sacred Realm until about three decades ago, when you, Zahabu, sensed the future of Hyrule was in danger after the birth of a son in the Gerudo Valley. Waiting a few years, you put yourself down on Earth into the womb of a woman about to give birth."
Nayru stopped to allow Ti'ana a few moments to understand was she was hearing. The Great Goddess? She head never heard of Zahabu, but then again she had never had a conversation with the three creators of Hyrule either. Finally, she nodded, and was about to speak before Nayru started again.
"You understand your past now, I presume. I'm sure it is a great shock to you, yet there is more to come. You've been through the worst so far. Now, about your Earth mother. It was in the time of war in Hyrule, and your spirit entered her unborn child seconds before she gave birth... To a boy and you, the girl after she stumbled upon the Kokiri Forest. Your mother was gravely injured, and your only hope for survival was to be entrusted to the Great Deku Tree."
Now Nayru had lost her. Did that mean that Ti'ana was a Hylian after all? So she was more like Link than she thought.
"That's not all," Din continued. "As you and your brother were given to the Deku Tree, your fairy, Nuli, who was a newborn as well, became attached to you, which is why you've always had a fairy."
"What about my brother?" Ti'ana questioned. "He didn't die too, did he?" She could never imagine having any siblings, let alone a mother.
Farore smiled gently and cradled Ti'ana's face in her hand, tipping up her chin. "Your brother just saved Hyrule from its awful fate."
Taabu turned to Ti'ana, who's eyes went wide. "Link?"
All three goddesses nodded, and spoke in unison again. "As Zahabu's incarnation, you are our leader. You hold all the power of the Triforce deep within you."
"And now that you understand your destiny," Farore continued, "you will stay with us in the Sacred Realm as our leader, once again the Great Goddess and our Queen, Zahabu."
"Your friends will return to Hyrule as it was seven years ago. It will be impossible to erase the memories of what happened here, so they will simply have to forget them on their own. It's harsh, I know, but it's the only way."
Ti'ana's eyes began to tear up. "If I stay, then I'll never see my friends again." She held tightly to Taabu's hand. "I can't do that."
"But we have you back, we can't lose you again!" Nayru cried. "Hyrule is safe, you have no need to remain on Earth. Your home is here, the Sacred Realm. You will help us at rest in the heart of the Temple of Light."
Din stepped forward. "Princess Zelda has sent Link back to his time already, and now it's your turn, Malon, Taabu." She began to sing the tune of the Royal Family. Farore took out a gold percussion instrument and Nayru a golden ocarina and played along to Din's singing.
"No!" Malon cried. She reached for Ti'ana, but a brighter light engulfed her and soon she was gone.
Taabu started to dissipate as well. He dropped Ti'ana's hand. "I'll never forget you. You'll be in my heart... forever..." His voice trailed off as he, too, vanished.
"Taabu," Ti'ana whispered, her voice breaking. "TAABU!!!!!" She dropped to her knees and began to sob. Nayru walked over to her and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Come, Ti'ana. It is time to return to your rightful position as the Great Goddess."