Hello, hello, loyal readers. Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. Actually, you should probably get used to it. From herein until the summer I'm going to be very busy with schoolwork and stuff so I might not get to post a lot. That's not to say that I'm going to stop writing, but I will have to cut back on my free time. If you live in New York State then you surely know the horror of the abominable Regents tests; if you don't live in New York, I envy you deeply. The only time I don't love my state is right around the end of the school year. Stupid tests. -.-;;
I recently had an inquiry about the originality of this story, so I'll do a disclaimer- this story and all stories written by me are entirely original except in the fact that some are fanfics. To be honest I don't get to read your stories (my readers' stories) very much because my time is constantly in high demand and I think everyone wants chapters, so I devote more time to writing than reading. In fact, I haven't been looking at the Zelda stories on ff.net for a while. They're a little tiring, I think. Not many original ideas (I should talk, I know this story has been done a bunch of times). But is anyone besides me getting sick of seeing the multitude of "Ask So-and-So" fics in the Zelda section? Seriously, I'd like to know. Tell me in a review or write an e-mail to xlilyofharmonyx@aol.com.
Well anyway, that's all for now. No Hime Note Continued this time, but possibly some reader comments next time! It's a short chapter today, but very profound. Enjoy.
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Chapter 15
Dream
"Heel down first, then arch, then toes. Take it very slowly if you have to at first. The idea is to do it in one fluid movement, like this. Are you watching?"
"Yes."
"Are you listening?"
"Yes."
"Are you listening closely?"
"Very closely, Rauru!"
"Good. Watch." Rauru lifted the hem of his red robes so that I could see his old, gnarled feet and took a slow, careful step. Heel down first, then arch, then toes. I listened as closely as possible, but could hear no sound.
"Forget whatever you learned about this tippy-toeing around," Rauru said, letting the hem of his robes fall once more, concealing his feet. "When you walk on your toes, or as you normally might, you're simply smacking the ground with the soles of your feet instead of easing into the footstep, like I showed you. Your feet are rounded, so think of it as rolling a ball. A ball isn't hitting the ground at any point, so it's not making a sound."
"But it's not leaving the ground, either," I pointed out.
"Well, that's the challenge. You try, now. Lift up your skirt so that I can see your feet."
Obediently I knotted my skirt in a fist and took a slow, experimental step, placing my heel carefully down first, then following with the rest of the foot.
"Wrong," Rauru declared before I'd even finished taking a step. "Look-" He grabbed my ankle, and I in turn had to grab his shoulder to keep from falling over. "See how the end of your heel is rounded? Don't just stomp your heel down. Start from the very edge of your sole-" He tapped the spot, "-then roll the rest of the foot down, understand?"
"I think so."
"Good." Rauru placed my foot down. "Try once more."
Rauru had me walk back and forth, the width of the temple, about ten times before he was satisfied. Each step I took was agonizingly slow- if I went any faster, Rauru would stop me, saying that he would undoubtedly hear me from a mile away. Privately I thought that was overstating it a bit, but was wise enough by this point not to share my opinion.
"That's good for today," Rauru told me when I was halfway through another trek across the temple's width. "I can still hear you -I have very good hearing- but you'll improve with practice."
"I couldn't hear me," I said obstinately.
"Hah! You think this is easy, huh?" Rauru jabbed a finger at the floor. "We're on a nice, smooth, polished floor here, princess. Wait until I teach you to walk silently on grass."
"I can hardly contain my excitement."
I had to admit, however, that Rauru's lessons were paying off. He was the most brutal teacher I'd ever had -none of the others had ever starved me if I'd done something wrong- but I was learning at such a fast rate that I surprised even myself. I could stand outside in the rain an entire night and not move or complain. A week or so ago Rauru had made me do just that, and my muscles hadn't even seized when morning came.
Time was passing faster than I could have ever imagined it might. My twelfth birthday was to come in just four months. I had been in the temple for a year and a half now, though I could hardly believe it. Sometimes I had the feeling of being detached, as though the world within the temple was different from the world without, as though time was passing differently in the two places, but of course that was impossible.
Ganondorf was keeping mightily quiet, for someone who wanted to destroy Hyrule. There was no word of my father or Impa. And Link needed a haircut. In the strangest of all possible worlds, things like that still needed taking care of. It made my life seem almost normal.
Then I dreamed, the night after Rauru had begun teaching me to walk silently, and nothing was normal again.
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The wind that lifted my hair from my neck and whipped through my skirts was brittle and cold. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Link in the midst of Hyrule Castle's ruins, surrounded by piles of scattered human bones. Ghosts wandered aimlessly about- dull, lifeless figures with blank eyes, searching morosely in the ruin. For what, I didn't know.
Link turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders, turning me so that I faced him squarely. He was not the Link sleeping in the temple, but the image of the man Link would become- fairly tall, broad-shouldered, but still light-footed, with hair like spun gold and eyes bluer than the sky.
He said, "If you join them, you will never save Hyrule." His voice still possessed a boyish note.
"Join who?" I asked, in a voice like that of a grown woman.
The air rippled around me, and the scene changed. Now I stood in the Temple of Time, before the pedestal where the Master Sword had once rested, and I was bitterly cold. Before me stood a naked woman surrounded by a blue halo, hair white as snow, skin pallid with a blue tinge, black eyes like starry voids stretching on forever- as though the night sky had gathered in her eyes. She was so painfully beautiful that I could not keep my eyes on her.
She said, "If you join them, you will never save Hyrule."
"Join who?"
She said, "They can do nothing. Only you can save them."
Her voice was strong, fierce, and I did not dare doubt her.
"Only you can save them," she repeated.
I nodded emphatically. "Yes."
"Only you." The woman faded, and so did the temple around us, melting into shadow.
Then I heard another voice, a different voice, one that almost seemed to whisper from within me.
"What is your name?"
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I woke then in the temple, gasping, shivering from a cold sweat, and could not for the life of me remember my own name.
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Continued in Chapter 15.