Chapter 2: Destiny of the Hero
Link awoke in the Chamber of Sages. He looked around, seeing the six medallion platforms around the large platform. The medallion platforms were the same color as the corresponding medallion. The large platform had water constantly flowing out of the Triforce symbol Link was standing on. The Triforce symbol was yellow in color with the spot where the Triforce was empty a slightly raised white platform. The water would reach the edge, and fall into the abyss below. Link looked towards the platform where that showed the Medallion of Light on it, and watched as a yellow light appeared, and like Saria, flashed brilliantly before dieing out. Rauru stood in the light's place.
"Welcome Hero of Time," Rauru said.
"Let me guess, seven years have passed sense I pulled the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time," Link said.
"I see all the knowledge of the other timeline has not left you," Rauru said.
"Almost, but I still…" Link paused, "wait, you remember it?" Link asked.
"Here in the Chamber of Sages I can see many things, including your adventure to stop the Evil King Ganon," Rauru explained.
"Well, that is interesting, but what has happened in this timeline? In the other time, when I returned to Hyrule, Ganondrof was in control," Link said.
"Things are different in this timeline, but still are bad. Ganon is not in control of Hyrule in this time, but he does work with the evil that was in the Kokiri Forest," Rauru said.
"What do you mean was?" Link asked.
"The evil has spread throughout Hyrule. This Sacred Realm is the last remaining stronghold of good," Rauru replied.
"No," Link muttered.
"That is not the worst of it. Soon after Saria returned to the forest, I lost all contact with her, and when the other sages and I went you against the evil, all but I was captured. The evil then blocked off the Kokiri Forest from all entry. Not even I alone can break the seal," Rauru said.
"Then how?" Link questioned the Sage.
"With the powers of the Sages combined, we stand a chance of destroying the seal," Rauru said.
"Well, I'll have to find them. Won't I?" Link said.
"Yes. I am sorry this falls to you, but it is your destiny," Rauru said, "I will help you as much as possible."
Rauru floated into the air. Rauru moved his hands in front of his chest, leaving space between them. A yellow light gathered in the space between his hands. The light eventually brightened, and a moment later, a beam of yellow light shot from the orb in Rauru's hands, and into Link's chest. Link was surrounded with a yellow light that grew brighter and brighter till Link himself could not see.
When the light died, Link looked over his body. His once green tunic was now yellow, and emitted a soft yellow light. Also, he happened to notice his Gilded Sword was now strapped to his belt. Otherwise, his outfit was the same as the last time he went forward in time.
"Behold the Tunic of Light. May it protect you from the evils to come," Rauru said. Link saw in the old sage's face that using that much power had exhausted him. Rauru lowered to the ground. "Now, I will send you back to the Temple of Time. Find the princess first," Rauru said.
Rauru held up his hands, and after a moment, the three Triforce pieces Link was standing on began to glow with a yellow light. The glow brightened, than each piece shot a beam of yellow light into the darkness above. Link found himself floating upwards, than sped into the blackness.
When the darkness cleared, Link was floating in front of the Pedestal of Time inches above the floor. Link slowly floated down to the floor. Link looked around. He walked slowly into the first room. Link looked around. The temple seemed, dimmer, like the light has being pulled from it. Link also noticed that his tunic's glow had brightened.
Link walked out of the Temple of Time to find the yard in front of the temple, which was once green and full of color, a sickly brown; all the grass dead. It looked much like when he warped through time before, but there was something different. This time, the very air seemed to be filled with despair.
Link saw his tunic's glow brighten more, as if in response to the evil around him.
"Oh great, why don't I hold up a sign that says 'I'm a warrior of good. Please, come kill me'," Link muttered.
As he walked into the now ruined Hyrule Market Town, he stood astonished. Everything was destroyed. The buildings were in complete ruin, the ones that still stood burnt and blacked. The ground was charred and dead, and the feeling of dread only increased as he went further from the Temple of Time. Link happened to cross a homeless man when he has walking out of the dead town.
Link knelt down. "Hello?" Link whispered.
The man groaned, and looked up it see a man standing there wearing glowing clothes. He looked as if he was a servant of the gods themselves.
"I was wandering if you'd be interested in selling your cloak," Link said.
"How much?" the man asked in a weary voice.
"Will this do?" Link asked, pulled out three Gold Rupees.
The man's eyes gleamed at the sight of so much money. He quickly removed the cloak. The cloak was the only clothing he had that wasn't torn and ripped, but with six hundred rupees he could buy much better cloths. The man handed the cloak to Link, and Link gave the man his rupees.
Link pulled on the cloak, and dusted it off a little. It was worn, and uncomfortable, but it hid the glow of his tunic. Link then removed his cap, and stuffed it into his pocket.
Link nodded to the man, and walked into the middle of the market, looking around.
"He must be a agent of the gods," the man said, hurrying out of the Market.
Link looked towards Hyrule Castle, but as soon as he did, he regretted it. Even at this distance, he could tell it was in ruins. "Just like everything else here," Link said to himself.
Link began walking to the Castle. He soon reached the Castle Grounds Gate. Instead of the tall, blond haired guard in bright armor, there were two tall, dark ugly men in black armor standing at the gate.
"Who are you?" the guard standing on the left side of the gate asked.
"I am just a simple wanderer from a distant land. I came to speak with the Royal Family," Link said.
"The Royal Family?" the guard said, than laughed, "The Royal Family is in Ganondrof's dungeon."
"But if you'd like to see them, we can toss you in as well," the other guard said.
"I understand. Well, good day, gentlemen," Link said, turning away. A moment later though, he spun back around, and planted a fist into the right guard's face, knocking him to the ground. Link then spun in the opposite direction, and slammed his foot into the left guard's back. The guard was knocked unconscious, and link slammed the first guard's head into the stone wall on the sides of the gate, knocking the guard out.
"Time to open these gates," Link muttered, as he pulled out his Gilded Sword. Link noticed the sword has now more like a long dagger to him.
Link stepped in front of the Gate's lock, and after bringing his sword above his head, slammed the blade against the rusted lock. The lock broke off, and fell to the ground.
Link quickly pushed open the gates, and ran through. Link slowly crept forward. Constantly scanning the dead land for any guards. Ganondrof apparently was not worried someone would attack him, for there were no guards in sight. As Link neared the stairs that lead to a opening between the large rock face at the stairs left, and once had a gate, which had been replaced with a stone wall, on their right, Link spotted two more guards.
Link noticed that though these guards wore the same armor, that they were not human. They appeared to be smaller versions of the Moblins he saw in the maze before the Sacred Forest Meadow on his first quest to save Hyrule. Link found it odd that they were smaller this time, but quickly shrugged it off. He tried not to figure out Ganondrof's motives. It gave Link a headache.
Link pulled out his bow, finding it too small for him to fire now.
"Oh, well that it just fine," Link muttered, dropping the bow.
He gripped his sword, making up his mind to charge to Moblins rather then sneak around them. Link sprang to his feet, and ran straight at the pig-like creatures.
The first Moblin barely had time to react before Link stabbed his sword into its chest. The second Moblin pulled out his sword, and after raising it above his head, swung it down at Link. Link moved out of the way, than pulled his sword out of the dead Moblin. Link swung his blade at the second Moblin who swung his sword to block the strike. After three more times of their blades hitting, Link saw an opening, and cut his blade into the Moblin's shoulder. The creature dropped his sword, and after pulling out his sword, Link spun around, and cut off the Moblin's head. The decapitated Moblin fell down next to the first, and they both were covered in a purple flame, which burnt them into nothingness.
Link walked up the broken stairs, and after scanning the area for other enemies, crossed the old wooden bridge that once could have been raised to block entry into the castle. Over the years of Ganondrof's rule over the castle though, the gears that raised the bridge corroded and became useless. Link noticed upon reaching the other side that large black doors had replaced the large white doors that stood in the doorway into the castle when he was a child. There were two large gold handles, one on each door.
Link reached out, and gripped both handles. The moment he did though, the handles glowed brightly, and pain shot through his hands. His hands felt like they were on fire. Link let go of the handles and stumbled backward, falling to the ground. Link examined his palms. They were covered with burns and scorch marks.
"Should have expected that," Link muttered.
Link looked around for something to cover his hands. He saw a tattered piece of cloth near the end of the bridge. Link quickly walked over and picked it up. It hurt his hands to grip anything, but he had more important thing to worry about.
Link ripped the cloth into two pieces, and wrapped the pieces around his hands, and walked up to the doors again. He slowly placed his right hand on the door on the right's handle. The handle did not react. Link then placed his left hand on the left handle, and after the handles still not reacting, Link gripped the handles, and pulled.
The doors slowly groaned open. Link opened them just enough for him to slip inside.
Link found the inside of the castle in worse condition then the outside. The hall he was in was in shambles. Pieces of the walls had broken of and were lying on the floor. The rug that was once a bright red and ran across the hall was now a reddish-brown from the dirt that had seeped into it, and was torn a broken in many places. The room seemed much dimmer then before too.
Link walked slowly through the room, constantly scanning everything around him to see if anyone had seen him, but the room was completely empty except for him. When Link reached the end of the hall, he came to a door. This one was much smaller then the ones leading into the castle. It was just slightly taller then Link was. Link slowly cracked the door open, and looked through the small opening between the door and the doorway. Link did not see anyone in the next room either.
Link slowly opened the door enough to slip through. He looked around the new room. It was in ruins like the one before it, but luckily, the castle still had the same layout as when he was a child. Link slowly crept towards the doorway on the right side of the room. He had gone to the castle dungeons once when Zelda was showing him around the castle, and he was pretty sure it was through that hall. Link quickly snuck down the hall, stopping in front of the fourth door on the left. He opened the old wooden door slowly, looking into the next room to see if anyone was in that room either. Again, he saw no one.
This is a little too easy, Link thought as he walked into the short hallway. This room was in the same condition as the others. There was a doorway on at the end of the hall. Link quickly ran across the room, but just before he reached the doorway, a wall of fire shot up from ground, and blocked his entrance to the room beyond.
"I knew it was too easy," Link muttered. Link held his hands in front of his chest, forming a triangle with his hands. He focused, and a blue orb formed just in front of the space between his hands. "Nauru's Love!" Link called out just before thrusting his hands upward. The orb traveled with his hands, as Link's dropped into a crouching position, orb did not follow. A moment later though, the orb fell onto Link's back, and burst in a bright flash of blue light. As the light dimmed, Link stood up, but now was standing within a translucent blue crystal that rotated slowly clockwise around him. Link, now protected by the crystal encasement, ran full force at the wall of flames.
The moment the crystal made contact with the wall though, Link felt as if something was pulling energy directly from him. The wall must have been made to drain magic from spell casters also, Link thought. He did not stop though. Link made through the wall of fire, and collapsed, Nauru's Love already flickering into nothingness.
Link felt completely drained because of the fire, and was forced to rest bend a large piece of the ceiling that had fallen to the ground. After five minutes, Link felt somewhat better, and he got up. He looked around the small room he was now in. There were two doorways in this room: one lead back into the previous hallway, the other lead to a flight of stairs that went into the castle's dungeon. Link causally walked toward the doorway that led to the dungeon. He was glade when no fire sprang up to meet him. He still felt too exhausted to cast Nauru's Love again.
Link began to descend the stairs, avoiding broken chunks of wall and ceiling. Once he reached the bottom, he saw two doorways. One was barred by a wooden door wit a large metal keyhole in the center of the door. Four chains extended from the corners of the metal lock, and went into the corners of the stone doorway. The other doorway opened into a small room with a singe desk and chair. Link remembered that this was the guardroom, and was surprised to find no one in it. Surly Ganondrof was not smug enough to leave the Royal Family unguarded. He shrugged. He entered the room, and looked around it for a key to the other door. He unfortunately found nothing.
Just before he left the room to simply try and break down the door, he heard voices at the top of the stairs. He listened carefully, and as the voices got closer, found that they were speaking in a rough vile sounding language. Link slowly unsheathed his Gilded Sword, making as little noise as possible. Just as the first of the talking creatures entered, Link stabbed the Glided Sword into it. Link saw it was a Moblin just before a purple flame enveloped it, and it burned away into ashes. This unfortunately blocked Link from attacking the second Molbin who had drawn his blade when he heard his colleague scream, it the wounded Moblin turned to ash.
The moment he did, Link sprang at the second Moblin, who put up more of a fight. Swords clashed a few times before Link got an opening, and cut his blade into the Moblin's throat. The Moblin fell to the ground even as the now familiar flames enveloped him. Once the fires died, Link saw an object gleam among the ashes.
Link picked up the object, and found it to be a silver key. In any other place, Link may have shouted of his good fortune, but seeing as he was in the stronghold of one of his greatest enemies, he barely let a smile cross his face. Link quickly inserted the key into the metal lock on the door, and turned it. Link watched as the chains slid into the doorframe, and the lock fell to the floor.
Link opened the door, and walked through. He was in the castle's dungeon. Link looked at the rows of cells. They were the classic bared kind. Link noticed a few people in one cell. He quickly picked up the metal lock from the previous door, and took out the key. Link ran over to the cell to find Impa, Zelda's father, now getting near eighty, and a beautiful 17-year-old Zelda. Even locked in a prison with dirt covering her face, she is still beautiful, Link thought.
"Link?" Zelda said weakly.
"I'm here. Sorry it took me so long, but I was kind of trapped in the Sacred Realm for seven years," Link said. He was about to unlock the cell door when Zelda got a shocked look on her face.
"Link! Behind you!" Zelda called out.
Link spun around to see Ganondrof floating a few inches over the ground. "Did you really think I would not notice someone sneaking into my castle?" Ganondrof asked. He gripped the handle of a sword that was sheathed on his back, and pulled it out. The blade has slightly longer then the Master Sword's, and was a dark gray.
Link gripped the Gilded Sword, and prepared to use the Master Sword if need be.