Chapter
7
"A
Moment Within"
He
floated alone, completely free and weightless, through the darkness where no
light could penetrate. The pain was gone, but his strength was still weak from
the dark poison working it way did within him. His mind was cloudy, unfocused
due to the sickness, and he could not comprehend what was happening to him. He
could faintly hear the desperate cries of Princess Zelda, and though he tried to
respond, his body refused to do what his mind was ordering it to
do.
He
was truly... alone.
A
bright light!! Suddenly it appeared as if out of nothing in the darkness,
causing Link to look away from its bright glow. His eyes adjusted, and slowly he
turned his face towards the light, to see what it could be.
He
saw himself, lying on the ground as cold as death as Zelda vainly cried his name
over and over again. Ganondorf was a little of in the distance, with his large
bulky arms crossed looking thoroughly amused with the scene playing before him.
Tears streamed down Zelda's face as she cradled Link's body in her arms and
tried desperately to wake him from his cold sleep, but it was of no
use.
"Zelda!!"
Link cried, trying to reach her and somehow comfort her; but it was as if he
wasn't there and hadn't spoken a word, for she had not heard him.
Link
cursed to himself silently, clenching his fist into tight balls. He was
powerless to do anything as his body died!!
As
suddenly as it had appeared, the light, with Zelda and his unconscious body,
vanished from his sight, once again leaving him in the darkness utterly
alone. The vision was gone, and
Link's only connection to the outside world was severed completely, and he
wonder whether he would ever awake again.
As
the poison invaded more and more of his body, Link's mind began to slowly break
down. He found himself having to concentrate harder and harder to keep
breathing, and the simplest task became an impossible quest to Link as he slowly
died, inside to out. His heart beat sluggishly again, slowing his blood flow
through his body, causing everything to go into slow
motion...
He
hung there, in the darkness, limp from the powerful poison that had entered his
body uninvited by a black arrow. His eyes were half-closed, completely unfocused
on whatever they were staring at --
--which
was nothing at all, since there is nothing to see within the mind of a dying
person.
Slowly,
slowly, he drifted further and further away from the reality in which life
resides. He was too weak to grab onto the thread of his life, which was woven
among millions upon billions of other individuals, forming a pattern that was
the large timeline of life itself. Link dully watched as the thread representing
his life began to fade into nothingness at a steady rate. The end was nigh, but
only one fact comforted him:
That
he wasn't being killed by the Cold.
That
is where you're wrong.
A familiar voice said from within the darkness.
Link
somewhat revived, and sluggishly turned his head to where he had heard the voice
speak, to find nothing at all. The quiet resumed, and it was as if the voice had
not spoken at all, but it broke the silence again.
The
Cold is what is killing you, the
voice said. for it was a creature of the Cold which fired the arrow into your
flesh, causing you your wound.
"But
why?" Link asked into the darkness, surprised that he still had the will to
speak.
To
crush your spirit, for you're very dangerous when you have your mind set upon a
goal. The
voice answered.
"Crush
my spirit?"
You're
not dying, as you believe you are, though you are poisoned enough to keep you in
a coma for months on end. But It cannot have you dead, yet. Neither can it have
the other two dead.
"The
other two?" Link stated slowly, realizing why all three of them might have been
brought here.
"The
Triforce," he said. "we all of a piece of the Triforce."
Yes,
the voice answered back. a piece of the sacred triangle is within each of
you.
Link's
mind began to revive, coming back to its original self. The poison was
forgotten, and defeated -- for a time.
"But
why?"
The
Cold is a living being, and as it takes over a land, it must take the strongest
powers within the land. Once it invaded Hyrule in this time, it found the
Triforce,
and brought Zelda and Ganondorf here.
"But
it needed the third piece, so it brought me to this time, causing me to age
seven years," Link finished. "but why was I the only one
injured?"
One
cannot take someone through time unwillingly, so it created the creature you
were attacked by to weaken your spirit so it could easily bring you here.
But...
The voice trailed off.
"What?"
As
it pulled you here, a hole was created between the two times, future and past.
It traveled back into time to get you, and found Hyrule in another time, without
a Triforce to worry about. A part of it stayed there, and already has begun to
destroy it. Soon, there will be no Hyrule, past or
future.
Link's
mind raced. It had attacked his home?! No one was there to protect Princess
Zelda or prevent the Cold from spreading. The world would become what his dream
was -- a bleak, isolated land filled with nothing but the
Cold.
"Who
are you?" he demanded to the darkess surrounding him. "Why are you helping
me?"
You
know me very well,
the voice explained. very well, in fact.
"Show
yourself!"
A
silence took over for a painfully long moment, but suddenly a bright light
appeared far off at Link's right. It took the shape of a tunnel, and by
straining his eyes Link could see a figure walked slowly through to tunnel
towards him.
She
walked gracefully, her shimmering light blue hair lightly having upon her
shoulders, draping over her back and part of her front. She wore a white dress,
and seemed to be made of a beautiful smooth silk as it sparkled in the light.
Her eyes matching her hair in color, and sent a feeling of recognition through
Link. He had met her before... hadn't he?
Her
last feature answered all of his questions -- for they were the identical to a
friend's he had been with so long ago, it seemed. They stretched out from her
back, giving her an angelic look with their grace. They were transparent, and
shimmered beautifully. That voice, the fairy wings, this could only be one
person...
Navi.
Link
could hardly believe it, it was as if a ghost was coming slowly towards him. He
tried to say something, but a lump in his throat prevented him from doing
anything but stare. She reached him and stood in front of him, her head reaching
his broad shoulders.
A
moment passed between them, and both said nothing. Navi, or the person Link
believed was Navi, though she wasn't the tiny fairy he had known before, wore a
small smile as she stared up at Link gently. Link gazed back, abashed and a
little shocked from the change he saw in her friend from then to now. Finally,
the silence was broke with a single word...
"Navi?"
"Yes."
Link
hugged her, and found her very real to his embrace. Navi hugged back, thinking
to herself that she could not do this in her other form. They stayed that way
for a few minutes, not wanted to let go. They finally parted, and Link had many
questions to have answered.
"How-"
he was cut off by Navi's finger covering his mouth.
"I
never left, I was always there to guide you, for the Deku Tree bided me to do
so." she said simply.
Link
smiled and embraced her once more, happy to see his friend that had helped him
so much in his adventure as the Hero of Time again. They parted once again, and
Navi's expression turned more serious.
"Link-kun,"
she said. "they need you."
Link
nodded, understanding completely.
"Thank
you, Navi," he said to her. "you saved my life."
Navi
smiled sadly. "Perhaps," she answered.
Silently
she took his hand in hers closing her blue eyes as she did so. She concentrated,
and emitted a bright white light, beating back the darkness, banishing it from
Link's mind. Link cried out as he felt his soul go back into his body, rejoining
them as they should have been in the first place. He could hear Zelda sobbing,
barely at first but the sound became stronger and stronger as he regained
consciousness.
His
eyes slowly opened, and a crying Zelda came into view, draped over his body, her
tears soaking his tunic. Though the pain from the poison still remained, Link
pulled one arm up and rested it gently on Zelda's back.
Her
sobbing stopped abruptly, she turned her face to find Link alive, and smiling
weakly.
"Link-kun!!"
She
hugged him tightly, and weakly Link returned the gesture. The life slowly came
back into his body again, his strength revived as the poison was slowly beaten
away by Link's powerful spirit.
Silently,
he thanked Navi, his eternal friend.
~End
of Chapter 7