Thank you to DefaultBeep on Ao3, as well as RezzytheFirst on Twitter for beta'ing for me.

I don't own The Legend of Zelda. Obviously.

Just a warning, but there's a lot of self-loathing/self-blaming in the narration of this.


Link spat out the saltwater filling his mouth as he opened his eyes. From what he could tell, his boat was destroyed, and his belongings lost in the wreck that had landed him in Koholint. Above his head, the Wind Fish sang as it flew away somewhere. Link felt no inclination to follow it. The stupid whale didn't even have the decency to fix his boat, after all the trouble he had to go through to wake it up.

He found a piece of driftwood to cling to as he scanned the sky for any sign of gulls; if he could find some, they could lead him back to shore. Spotting a few, he kicked his legs after them, hoping he wouldn't have to swim too long like this. Once he hit shore, he promised himself, he would never set foot in water ever again. After that storm, he couldn't blame Moosh for disliking it.

Reaching shore took little time, thankfully, but when he got there Link realized he had absolutely no idea where he was. And he was absolutely starving, to boot.

There seemed to be a forest beyond the rocky cliffs before him, which gave Link some hope. At minimum, he could hopefully find a plant he recognized, or at least something to make a makeshift weapon to hunt with. The only thing that might make him unwilling to eat was if all the edible wildlife in the woods were rabbits, because the Dark World had turned him off eating them. It got to the point he couldn't stomach his Uncle's rabbit stew recipe, which had been a favorite of his younger self. It was too close to cannibalism for comfort.

Looking around the woods as he scavenged for food, Link did his best to make note of whatever landmarks he could, while avoiding the monsters to the best of his ability. He did pick up a stick to fight with, and found a shield abandoned in a tree; but, he preferred not to engage in combat unless absolutely necessary with such a bare minimum of arms. He knocked out all of the octoroks that spotted him, simply because there were too many to completely avoid.

He did question why there were so many monsters in these woods as he pulled an apple off a tree. He'd already dealt with Ganon and his attempted resurrection by the Twinrova. While they wouldn't disappear completely, the monsters should have started thinning with their masters gone. They had been when he'd left Labrynna, at any rate. The amount in these woods was even greater than it had been when Ganon was starting to escape his seal in the Dark World a few years ago. It was unnatural.

Once he finished two apples–and packed several more in a bag he'd found for the road–he supposed the next thing he'd have to do was find some civilization to figure out where in the world he was. He'd explored pretty much all of Hyrule, Holodrum, and Labrynna, so he was fairly confident he was in none of those places. Picking a random direction, he set off.

He'd been on the road attempting to get his bearings for an hour when he heard a woman's scream. Even though all he had for combat at the moment was a stick and a shield, he rushed in the direction of the voice. He couldn't just leave someone to get mauled by monsters. And if he saved her, she could tell him where this was.

Finding the old woman who had shouted didn't take very long, thankfully. And the monsters who had attacked her were very weak, just a few octoroks. After they had been safely dispatched, Link helped her up, smiling gently to reassure her she was safe now.

"That must have been frightening," he said. "But you can return the favor for me pretty easily. I'm really lost; where are we?"

The old woman just stared at him. Link cursed his stupidity. He wasn't in Hyrule, so random locals probably weren't going to understand Hyrulean. What he knew of Holodese and Labrynnian probably wouldn't help either.

The woman eventually opened her mouth, and said, very slowly and carefully, "Why… speak… old lang… this?"

That was a weird question. She bungled pronunciation so badly in places that he couldn't understand all of what she actually said. But at least she seemed to understand him a little. "I don't understand. This is normal Hyrulean. There's nothing old about it. But if you understand me, could you please tell me where we are? And preferably the location of the nearest town."

"...In… Hyrule. Town… north of… mountain."

…Huh? "That can't be right, Miss. I've seen everything in Hyrule, and this place isn't familiar."

The woman just looked at him sympathetically, clearly not sure what else to say. An old man popped out of a nearby cave, sauntering over to the woman. She turned to him, talking quickly in a language Link couldn't understand. He caught something about "Hyrulean," but that's all. Were they talking about his language skills? The old man returned to his cave eventually, though not without a sad-looking glance at Link.

She had described the way he spoke as "old." He'd initially assumed she'd made a non-native speaker mistake, but… if she hadn't, then the logical conclusion was the Wind Fish had somehow kept him asleep for an extremely long time. Enough time that the Hyrulean language of his time was mostly forgotten, and the landscape totally changed. As if he needed more reason to be bitter at that stupid whale– he just wanted to go home.

He fought hard to keep back the tears. There would be time for that later.

"Um." The old woman turned to him and addressed him again. "…Been… long time. …World… change. Society… spoil? Demon King… rule."

Well, he supposed that explanation, if broken, explained the monsters. He supposed it was now his job to deal with it. Again. Was that why the Wind Fish had kept him in the dream for so long? So he could be thrown at Ganon again?

"I'll help with that. It wouldn't be the first time I've dealt with a demon king."

The woman looked surprised. He supposed it was to be expected; agreeing to deal with the powerful monster that had been reigning for who knows how long so casually probably seemed absurd.

"By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves. I was so preoccupied with getting my bearings that I forgot. You may call me Link."

"Impa." The woman said, pointing at herself. She pointed at the cave. "Follow him… weapon. For hero. Weapon for hero," she said.

These people must have been desperate if they were willing to accept the word of a random thirteen year old speaking an apparently ancient language. Even if he had saved Impa's life from those octoroks.

"Why do you trust me? We just met." He paused. "I should seem suspicious, to you."

"You…look… book."

So they have books about him? Once he dealt with Ganon again, he should look into those. If he could even read them. They were probably written in that newer Hyrulean that Impa and the old man had spoken to each other. He wondered who had originally written them. Princess Zelda (well, he supposed she would have become Queen, eventually), maybe? Sahasrahla? His uncle?

"The Triforce of Wisdom…" That was the clearest thing she'd said since they had started talking. "Eight. Find, please… defeat Demon King. Demon King took princess."

…Eight Triforces of Wisdom? How was that even possible? There was only one of each piece. Perhaps Link should reevaluate this woman's sanity.

His confusion was apparently evident on his face, because she added: "...broke. Everywhere."

Link had no idea how one might go about breaking the Triforce, but he supposed it made more sense than there being multiple.

"Well, if that's what I need to find, so be it," he sighed. "I'll be taking the weapon and going then, unless there's something else I should know?"

"...No."

And so, with a satisfied nod, he headed into the cave to meet the resident. He ignored the incoherent modern tongue the old man spoke (something about "anger" and "lone"?), and took the sword from his hands. Link rushed out as quickly as he'd entered, walking some ways north of the clearing he'd met the two in.

Once he was certain he was out of earshot, Link slumped against the nearest tree. He'd held himself together in front of the natives, but now that he was by himself, he could let himself process what he had learned.

He was never going to see anyone he knew ever again. He was stranded, hundreds, maybe thousands of years in the future. His Uncle, Princess Zelda, Sahasrahla, Ralph, Din, Nayru, Maple, Moosh, Ricky, Dimitri, Rosa, everyone… all of his friends were gone. They had been gone for hundreds of years. He had lost the Harp of Ages in the wreck, so he couldn't even play the Tune of Ages to get back. At best he could maybe hope to find Nayru's successor as Oracle of Ages and ask for a ride, but he found it doubtful she would agree. If such a successor even existed; it was possible that Ganon or his minions had taken it upon themselves to eliminate the Oracles before they became an issue.

Impa had said the nearest town was north of the mountain. If this was Hyrule, that meant all the towns he knew in the Hyrule from his time were gone. The nearest towns would be in what used to be Hytopia.

Hyrule had turned into a wasteland, while he had just slept. Slept and floundered in that stupid whale's dreamland. If this is what was waiting for him when he awoke, maybe he should have just stayed there forever. The island wasn't that bad, mostly peaceful aside from the occasional monster attack. He'd selfishly destroyed it to get home, only to be permanently and irrevocably separated from the home he fought so hard to get back to. That, he supposed, was his punishment for the one selfish thing he'd ever done.

Or maybe it was his punishment for not being fast enough. Maybe if he'd woken the Wind Fish sooner, then he could have prevented this. Link didn't really know. What he did know was that it was his fault either way.

Link let the tears fall down his face, now. No one was around to watch him cry. No one was around to watch him mourn. It was how he wanted it, really. Crying his eyes out was unbecoming of a hero. And despite how upset he was at losing everything he knew, he knew that this land, this Hyrule, needed him to be the hero. If it wasn't him, then who would?


Very few things surprised Impa, but this was probably one of them. She stared at the impossible person as the impossible words he'd just spoken echoed in her head. She could only understand a little bit of what he'd said, but the language he spoke was unmistakable to her–someone who was so familiar with studying the ancient stories of Hyrule, from the tales of the Hero of Time who had fallen to Ganon to the tales of the sleeping Zelda I.

And not even just the fact he spoke such an old form of Hyrulean. The boy was a perfect replica of a hero from the legends; specifically the one who had, supposedly, sailed off when he finished saving the world, then gotten caught in a storm and drowned. Or at least, that was how the story went. It was a rather depressing ending, in Impa's opinion.

It was incredibly faded, but she glimpsed the mark on his left hand. It was all the proof she needed.

Impa could only conclude that she had witnessed the revival of an ancient hero, brought forth in their hour of need by something. She wasn't sure what yet, and her grasp of Old Hyrulean wasn't nearly good enough to ask.

But she supposed she should at least ask, to make sure this wasn't some bizarre prank of the gods.

"Why are you speaking such an old language as this?" She tried to say. She probably broke at least half the grammar, but hopefully the message got through.

He seemed more confused than anything in regards to her inquiry, though he also seemed slightly relieved that she could understand him a little. She could pick up pieces of what he replied with, "I… understand. …normal Hyrulean. Nothing old… you… understand… …tell me where…? And… town."

She probably missed at least some important context in that. He seemed to be asking about their whereabouts and where the nearest town was, if she were to guess. By the goddess, the poor boy probably thought he was merely in a foreign country, not the future centuries after his supposed drowning.

"We're in Hyrule. The nearest town is north of the mountain."

"...Right, Miss. I… in Hyrule, and… familiar." She gave him a sympathetic look. He must be so confused by her probably mangled speaking.

Old Methuselah popped out of his cave nearby, having apparently finally been bothered enough by the ruckus to come out. He must have wanted a nap soon and came out to politely ask them to be quiet.

"Impa, who is this?" He asked.

"I think he's one of the heroes from the old stories," she said. "Specifically the one who supposedly drowned. He looks the part, bears the mark, and he's speaking an ancient form of Hyrulean. He also just successfully fought off some octoroks with a stick."

"How is that even possible?"

"The Harp of Ages, perhaps? The stories say he used it to save what was Labrynna at the time."

"The artifact was lost with him, so I suppose it's possible… so you believe he's the hero of our day too, then?"

"He's our best bet now."

"Understood. I'll go prepare the sword, since fighting with a stick is unwieldy…"

The boy seemed to realize what the reality of his situation was then. He masked it carefully and swiftly, but there was no mistaking the devastation that flashed across his face.

She supposed she should fill him in on Hyrule's current situation to the best of her ability. "It's been a long time. The world changed. Society collapsed due to the Demon King's rule."

"I'll help… I've… a demon king. …introduced… I… bearings… I forgot. …Call me Link."

"Impa," she said, indicating herself. She then indicated the cave Methuselah had returned to. "Follow him… he has a weapon for the hero. A weapon for the hero," she said, repeating herself in an attempt to fix the pronunciation mangling she was confident happened the first time. She wasn't very successful.

"Why… trust me? …" He paused. "I… suspicious..."

"You very strongly look like a hero in the books." She paused to let him process that. "The Triforce of Wisdom, it split it into eight. Find them, please, they'll help you defeat the Demon King. The Demon King took the princess."

His face indicated that he had not understood her in the slightest, so she said "It broke. It's scattered everywhere now."

"...what…find…" he sighed. "I… weapon and go then… something else…?"

"...No."

Link, as she supposed his name was, gave a curt nod and headed for Methuselah's cave. He seemed in quite a rush to leave the scene after he came out with Methuselah's sword.

Impa considered following him. The poor boy had no understanding of modern Hyrulean, so any advice he would get on the location of the Triforce of Wisdom would be impossible for him to decipher. And he had seemed so upset, as he had rushed out of the cave. She supposed that ruled out the Harp of Ages as an explanation for his presence. If he wasn't here on his own will, he had every reason to be upset. She wanted to comfort him.

Unfortunately, though, she doubted she could be of help with the language barrier, and he was probably too far for her old legs to ever hope of catching up to him by this point. She decided that the next time they met, she would help escort him to the Water Town of Saria, in order to help him start learning the modern language. In the meantime, she would have to start learning more of the ancient tongue herself. Perhaps the nearest Great Fairy could help her with that.

With her course of action decided, she headed in the direction of the nearest fountain.


Link was almost glad as he made his way through the cave in Spectacle Rock. None of the humans he met (other than Impa) spoke any old Hyrulean; the only truly fluent conversation partners he'd had since he woke the Wind Fish were fairies, who were reclusive and rarely remembered specific people. He had made some progress at trying to understand the modern language, though only in the realm of listening. Speaking was still well beyond his capability.

Ganon, he figured, would at least understand him as he taunted him. "Remember me?" Link would say, "I killed you twice, and I'll do it again. I'll do it until you stay dead." Just the thought of the terror on Ganon's stupid pig face when he saw him again after thousands of years made Link giddy. He had no luck finding the Master Sword despite spending a lot of effort looking for it, but there were some Silver Arrows secreted in Ganon's lair that'd do just fine.

At first he was surprised Ganon would lower himself to taking up residence in a cave on the side of the mountain, one blocked by boulders at that. Ganon's greatest wish was to conquer the world after all, and a cave wasn't the most threatening of abodes. He reevaluated his opinion a bit when he actually entered the cave. It was gigantic, crowded with monsters, and extremely confusing in layout. He was confused why there were some humans inside, but they didn't seem inclined to tell him why they lived in Ganon's lair, and he couldn't exactly ask.

The Triforce of Wisdom lit up as he entered a dark room somewhere deep in the cave, revealing Ganon as a resident of the room.

Ganon did not speak when he appeared. He just vanished again and started shooting fireballs.

Link tried his taunt as he approached the area of the room the fireballs appeared from.

No answer.

He stabbed, causing Ganon to return to visibility, if only for a moment. "Not in the mood to chat, huh?" he said. "I remember all the things you did who knows how long ago. I remember how you tricked the king, how you captured those maidens. It seems you haven't learned your lesson from when you were punished for that."

Still, Ganon did not answer.

Link wondered if Ganon was any different from the second fight he'd had with Ganon. The one that had been nothing but a mindless, rampaging beast as a result of a botched ritual.

He'd captured the princess, but hadn't had any success at finding the Triforce of Wisdom. After all, Link had managed to find every piece despite them all being in caves full of monsters. Surely Ganon would have found at least one on his own if he had any intelligence.

Ganon still being deprived of his intellect meant Link could not get any satisfaction out of taunting him.

What was even the point of a non-understood taunt?

Link stabbed Ganon a fourth time, resulting in his body emitting a glow Link remembered all too well. Link pulled out the silver arrow he'd found while lost in Ganon's cave, nocked it, then fired it, causing Ganon to collapse into a pile of ash.

That, he supposed, was the end of that.

Link put his weaponry away and picked up the Triforce of Power, seemingly dropped by Ganon upon his defeat. It clinked together with the Triforce of Wisdom in his bag, resonating with its sister now that they were together again.

He wondered what had become of the Triforce of Courage. None of the people he'd met had mentioned anything to do with it. Perhaps it had been destroyed, broken into far more pieces than the Triforce of Wisdom had been, such that no one could possess it ever again. Maybe that would be for the best; even as someone who had used the Golden Power in all its splendor, part of him wondered if it was better off gone, in order to keep Ganon or those like him from it. He'd seen the Dark World that resulted from Ganon's twisted desires for himself, after all. He had seen all the people transformed into monsters in reflection of their own evils.

Sighing, Link headed into the next room, hoping the princess wasn't far from where Ganon had been. Luckily, it seemed she was in said room, although surrounded by a wall of flame. Link gave the flames an appraising look, before turning to retrieve Ganon's cape from the previous room. He figured it was the closest fire dousing tool that was unlikely to cause harm to the princess.

Once the flames were put out and the princess secured, he handed the Triforce of Wisdom over to her, in an attempt to show her that yes, he was the person who gathered it up to beat Ganon. She said something he couldn't understand, taking the Triforce of Wisdom as she did so.

She seemed to be asking something of him now, based on the look on her face. He tried tapping his ears and shaking his head in an attempt to indicate he couldn't understand her. She blinked, then nodded. She walked to the exit before turning back to him and… signing something.

…Did she think he was deaf? His attempt to signal he didn't understand her must have been misinterpreted. She probably wouldn't understand anything he said, but speaking should be enough to indicate he wasn't deaf. "I'm not deaf. I just can't speak your language, so what you said before and what you're signing now are gibberish to me." It probably sounded like gibberish to her, but it was an attempt.

The look of shock on the princess's face was quite the sight. But it seemed to get the message across. With a sigh, she simply indicated the door.

Hopefully he remembered the way out. This place was fantastically confusing even when he was alone; he was not looking forward to having to escort the princess out.


Once Link and the princess–who had told him on the way that her name was Zelda (he was surprised that tradition was still enduring somehow; he figured it would have been lost like all the other things he remembered of his home)–left the cave in Spectacle Rock, Impa rushed out to greet them from a nearby carriage. He wondered where she had procured that, but decided it would be best to not think too hard about it.

She said something to Princess Zelda in the modern tongue before she turned to Link. "Link! You made it out safely!" she said, although her speech was still slow. Link blinked. He hadn't expected such an improvement in her ancient Hyrulean when she spoke.

"When did you…"

"I practiced. Someone's going to have to teach you the modern tongue."

"The fairies have helped me a bit," Link said. "I can't really speak though. Just understand the bare minimum."

"They were the ones who helped me learn your language better." She smiled. "Sorry for messing up the pronunciation so much before; you probably understood less than half of what I tried to say… Now that Ganon is gone, I'm going to escort you and the princess to Saria now. There's an old castle there for you to stay in. It was the seat of the Hytopian royal family, in your time, but they were annexed by Hyrule a long time ago now."

"Saria? Like the Forest Sage who aided in sealing away Ganon after the Hero of Time's defeat?"

"Yes, the town was renamed for her after it stopped being the Hytopian capital. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of time for history lessons when we get there. Part of why I knew portions of your language to start with was my studies of it."

Princess Zelda said something then as she climbed into the carriage, probably wanting to join the conversation since Ganon wasn't much of a conversationalist. It must have been lonely being captured. Impa translated what had been said between her and Link for the princess as they boarded themselves. Princess Zelda replied with something Link could not understand.

"Her Majesty says that she'd be willing to practice the ancient language if it'd help you with your studies of the modern one. She will be quite busy most of the time, but she says she at least owes you that much for defeating Ganon and getting her out of that cave."

"Ah, um, thank you, Your Majesty," Link replied. "Could you tell her that for me, Impa?"

Princess Zelda smiled and nodded as Impa did so. Link realized it was actually the same as something Princess Zelda had said when they had first met. He supposed that made sense.

"By the way, Her Majesty has another question for you. She wants to know more about how you ended up in this time to start with. Truth be told, I've wondered that too. My initial assumption was the Harp of Ages, but you got so upset after our first meeting that I started to doubt that."

"How I got here… well, it's a weird story. I was in a shipwreck. When I woke up, a few centuries had apparently passed. I don't really get it either."

He left out a lot in that version of the story. It wasn't a lie; he had technically been asleep, but the exact nature of his actions in the dream weren't something he was exactly proud of. He'd killed the residents of Koholint Island with his own hands; he didn't deserve to speak their names. How could he claim to have loved them, if he murdered them for a home he couldn't return to anymore?

Curse that owl. All it had said was waking the Wind Fish and ending the dream would let him leave. It had never mentioned the detail of the leaving happening so long after he entered. If he'd just known that, Link would have chosen to stay in the illusion forever.

"'That seems… incredibly strange,' her Majesty says."

"It definitely is. I guess some divine force realized I was needed in your time and sent me here." He frowned. "I would have appreciated it if it was less violent about it. I lost all my stuff from before the wreck, aside from the clothes on my back..."

"'We'll have to get you some new clothes, then,' Her Majesty says."

Link got the distinct impression the princess inferred more than he would have liked from what he said. Was it the tone of his voice that gave away that he was hiding something?

"'Could you tell us about your own time? I'm sure you miss it. I'm sorry we don't have the means to get you back…' …Her Majesty says."

That was a bit more comfortable than the topic of Koholint Island.

"Well, there were less ruins, I can say that much." He surveyed the mountain path as the carriage traveled. In his own time, this would have been close to the Hytopian-Hyrulean border. He noticed what used to be a gate, decrepit and abandoned on the road ahead. He had never personally visited Hyrule's northern border, but he could only imagine how much business must have picked up there once people stopped vanishing in the mountains. "I'd never been to this specific area, I'll admit. It probably wasn't busy until after I fell asleep. During my time, public opinion was that Death Mountain was cursed. People vanished here, one after another, trying to find the Triforce."

"Well, it is called Death Mountain, after all." Impa noted, after translating for the Princess. "Considering Ganon was in possession of it all at the time, searching out the Triforce would have been little more than a fool's errand."

"Most people were unaware of that, actually. Ganon used an alter ego to deliberately spread rumors about the Triforce to draw people into the Sacred Realm, which had been warped into his domain at the time. Most of them turned into monsters after that due to the Triforce's powers."

"There are stories about that. About how all those who sought the Gold of the Gods out of greed were transformed, but the only one who sought it for the sake of others was safe." Impa paused after repeating her words to Link, having said what she wanted in the modern tongue first, as Princess Zelda said something in response. "Ah, Her Majesty says: 'it's usually used as a tale to teach people that those who are selfish never prosper these days.'"

"Well, the fact I was safe had nothing to do with that, I just had a magical gem. I transformed the first time I strayed there." Link thought it was strange that they got that wrong. The Princess Zelda from his time and Sahasrahla had known the whole story, surely they wouldn't have missed such an important detail in their record keeping. It then occurred to him that he should probably clarify something. "...Of course, I didn't become a monster. I turned into a rabbit."

"'...Really? But a magical gem is so much less…poetic.' …Her Majesty says." Impa then said something Link couldn't understand to the princess.

Link's first thought was that comment sounded ridiculous. The universe doesn't just make things poetic. His life wasn't a storybook…

Link's second thought was the realization that his life was a storybook to the princess and Impa. Everything that his Zelda and Sahasrahla remembered would have gotten twisted over time and retranslations. If any of it was oral tradition rather than written record, that would confound it more. The fact that he had simply sailed off only to die one day from the perspective of his contemporaries probably didn't help either.

Just how much of his life had been warped? How much of it was glamourized? He wasn't sure if he wanted the history lessons anymore.

The idea of people completely misunderstanding everything about him and his life as they idolized him was making him ill.

"...Link? Link, snap out of it."

"Eh?" Link blinked. How long had he been spacing out? "I, uh, sorry. Can we stop discussing this for a while?"

"We're almost to Saria anyway. Once we're there, we can start giving you a tour. That'll get your mind off whatever just spooked you so badly." The princess said something, interrupting Impa. "Her Majesty apologizes if her words hurt you, by the way."

"It's not her fault, she couldn't have predicted that I would react like that." Even Link himself didn't realize he could be so easily shaken.

"Once we reach Saria, we can begin with teaching you the modern language in earnest. The quickest way would be to have you interact with it constantly. That's what the fairies did to help me improve my skills with yours, and it seems to have worked wonders."

"I learned the Holodese and Labrynnian of my time like that. Some of it, anyway." Total immersion works wonders on one's fluency, he found. When the Triforce had first sent him to Holodrum, he had been more than a little confused, though thankfully some there did know some Hyrulean. The Impa from his time in particular, being Hyrulean herself, was a huge help early on. But he'd started to pick things up remarkably quickly after some time spent there. "...What happened to Holodrum and Labrynna, anyway? Do they still exist?"

"No, most countries in general just… don't exist anymore. Communities are generally pretty insular, and the royal families of old just couldn't maintain control with so many monsters about. A long time ago, before either of us were born, Hyrule did have something of a golden age. It took control of huge swaths of land, including where Holodrum and Labrynna were in your time… but, that's all in the past now."

So Holodrum and Labrynna were gone, then. Even if they were still around, they would inevitably be completely different, but the knowledge still stung.

The carriage driver said something (something about "here," Link couldn't catch the rest and Impa didn't bother to translate), and Link noticed the carriage pulling to a stop. Looking out the window, he saw a town by a riverbank, surrounded by ruins. "This must be Saria, then," Link thought. "I guess I'll be living here for a while, so I should get used to the scenery."


Saria was… interesting.

Despite the lack of governing power, the Royal Family of Hyrule still had some traces of its old opulence. The former Hytopian Palace was still under their ownership, though portions were rented out so as to not waste the space when the Royal Family wasn't present. As thanks for saving her, Princess Zelda let Link stay there, explore town, study the records that were kept there, and work as a guard there for extra cash while she and Impa went farther north to reassure the King of the princess's safety. Supposedly, that trip would take them a week, more or less, and they would be coming back after.

Predictably, a lot of the records Link found in the castle were seemingly about Hytopia, and written in Hytopian of various eras. Link couldn't read any of it, but thankfully there were illustrations in many of them. Illustrations that were far too preoccupied with clothing, but illustrations nonetheless.

Link took particular interest in one story. A girl seemed to fall victim to a curse of some sort (it appeared to involve her clothing, but Link doubted that was all it was), then was saved by a boy who, in the book's illustrations, looked remarkably similar to himself. It went beyond superficial things like the color of their hair and straight to the uncanny: they had the same face shape, the same nose, even the same frame.

The doppelgänger and the girl he had freed from the curse then lived happily ever after, he supposed, since some other books (as well as some portraits in the castle) depicted the two married.

Link had never met the girl in the book in his life, and he certainly hadn't married anyone, given his age when he washed up on Koholint (how old was he now? Should he still claim to be thirteen? Or a thousand thirteen?). So why was this boy she married so similar looking to him? Did his uncle eventually have children of his own at some point, a cousin Link never had the chance to know? Link would have taken any child of his uncle's as a new brother or sister immediately.

If this boy was his uncle's descendant of some sort, it left Link to wonder what his cousin was like. Did his uncle tell them anything about him, the cousin who would have acted as an older brother had he not supposedly drowned? What did they do in their life? Did they just stay on the apple farm until they died, like Link had intended to do before that day the princess called out to his dreams?

It was too late to know now, though. It was unlikely any real records of his uncle's life remained. At best, he could probably ask for translations of the records about his doppelgänger who appeared in the books and portraits so frequently, but he doubted the family history of the duplicate was known well enough to confirm their relation.

The town itself was another matter.

Link would accompany castle staff running errands into town, to listen to them talking with the storekeepers. He had done some shopping while on his journey to defeat Ganon after he first woke up, which he managed since written numbers thankfully hadn't changed the way spoken language had. A small part of him did wonder why there was anything resembling an economy in the area south of Death Mountain, considering hardly anyone seemed to live there (and those who did were old and stayed huddled in their caves). It was convenient though, so he tried to suppress the confusion.

The townsfolk seemed to think he was strange, though he supposed that was to be expected. From their point of view, he was a weird foreigner that the Hyrulean Royal Family had given a room in the castle, who according to the other lodgers would stay up far too long before waking up with sudden screams. He had, at least, managed to learn enough modern language to tell the shopkeepers that he would rather read and write than speak and listen. Their written language was thankfully closer to the Hyrulean of his time than the Hytopian, so it was fairly easy for him to pick up. He supposed it was a product of Hyrule's takeover of the area that Impa had mentioned in the carriage.

The food in Saria wasn't anything like what Link was used to. The bread, for example, was dry, compared to food from his time; it crumbled in his hands as a result of its thin texture. He didn't like it very much, truth be told. He wanted the thick dough from the bakery back in Kakariko. He hadn't had it in years, due to all the traveling in Holodrum and Labrynna. He missed their bread too, honestly. While it wasn't as rich as Hyrulean bread, it at least didn't feel like he was eating paper, like this Sarian bread did.

While Link was shopping with the castle staff, he generally didn't ask for much. He did have some rupees still saved from the whole ordeal with Ganon, along with the cash from the guard work, but aside from essentials he didn't have much to buy. He did want a new instrument, but he hadn't seen any in any stores in the times he'd spent looking around Saria. He only knew how to play an ocarina and a lyre properly, as the Instruments of the Sirens had just played themselves atop the mountain. Maybe he could ask the princess if she had either of those instruments somewhere when he next saw her.

In the end, he was going to have to forcibly adjust himself to being a civilian in this world that was so completely alien to him. He needed to move on. He was never getting what he had back, no matter what it was.


Princess Zelda's return to Saria the next week was met with much celebration from its citizens. Link had seen it briefly when he'd first been dropped off, but since she'd left so quickly it hadn't lasted. The princess, safe and sound and shining and golden, was as much of a symbol of hope for these people as the Zelda of his day had been. He remembered how the people of Labrynna had despaired when they saw the beloved Princess captured. He guessed that it had been a rather sorrowful day for everyone when Ganon had taken this Zelda.

Princess Zelda didn't dawdle in the celebration long, however, retiring to the castle at the earliest opportunity. She and Impa quickly sought out the room Link had been assigned, apparently ready to inquire about his week to ensure he hadn't been too uncomfortable.

"...some records, yes?" The Princess asked. "I know you… history."

"'You've looked over some records, yes? I know you were curious about history.' …Her Majesty says."

"I understood her... A little. I'll ask if I need clarification. Just tell her to talk slowly if she can. Or she could write things down. The written language hasn't changed nearly as drastically." Link was proud of his improvement over the past week. A simple question like that, he could understand, considering he'd overheard staff discussing him looking at the records all week. Link paused to give Impa room to translate. "Anyway, as for looking at the records… a lot of the ones here were in Hytopian, so I couldn't read them. There were pictures that caught my eye, though."

Link crouched next to the nightstand to pick up the book about the doppelgänger, handing it over to the princess. "About the guy in this book who looks like me…" he started, but she cut him off.

"Happened… 150… time. Heroes… know of, 50 years… and this boy."

"'This happened around 150 years after your time. There were two heroes who fought Ganon, other than you, between now and when you were born that we know of. One of them was about 50 years after your time, and the other was this boy.' …Her Majesty says."

"So this… isn't the first time Ganon came back after that Twinrova incident? And I slept straight through it?"

Now Link really felt ill. Even with all his hard work, he had failed two separate eras, by being asleep in some fake dimension. Why hadn't the Wind Fish woken up then? Had he just been too slow? It had been, from his perspective, about a month that he'd wandered around Koholint, not all of which was focused on waking the Wind Fish. If he had truly focused, he probably could have woken the Wind Fish in a week; if he had, would he have been able to spare one of those boys all the pain he endured?

It would have been one thing if he was dead, but those two boys shouldn't have been subjected to what they were while he slept.

"Link, are you feeling alright?" Impa's worried voice cut through his self-resenting thoughts.

"I, um. I'm fine." His voice was quiet, which he knew was likely a giveaway he was lying. He hadn't actually paid any attention to how Impa and the princess had answered his question.

"You aren't." The princess's voice was firm, and he winced. "Enough… today. We… talk… you enjoy."

"'That's enough of that for today. We should talk about something you enjoy.' …Her Majesty says."

"There isn't much else to talk about. I went to the market a few times, with the castle staff, to try and find an ocarina or lyre to buy for myself, but couldn't find any."

"There's… in… palace. Next time I… I… for you…"

"'There's a lyre that's a longtime royal heirloom in the north palace. Next time I go there, I'll bring it for you. No one is using it at the moment, anyway.' …Says Her Majesty."

"You don't have to go that far. Just tell me where I could go to buy one…"

"No, I..."

"Her Majesty insists, Link."

"...Thank you, Your Majesty."

The Princess smiled at him. "Is…need?"

"Her Majesty would like to know if there's anything else you need."

"No, apart from that, I'm pretty content here. Guarding the town from monsters is acceptable work, and the lodgings are comfortable." He decided not to bring up how he missed the bread from his own time. Bread recipes from his era probably didn't exist anymore, so it would be pointless to ask for them. Not to mention there seemed to be difficulties growing certain types of crops. Asking for a particular kind of food would seem very selfish in light of that.

"In that case, we should start with helping you study the modern language. Grammar changes, and such." Impa said.

Link smiled and nodded. "Thank you. That'd be very helpful."


It had been three months when the Princess finally got around to bringing him the royal family's lyre.

"It's supposedly an inheritance from the goddess herself," she said.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to hold on to it? That makes it sound really valuable," he replied. He was still apprehensive about accepting an old treasure.

"I did say supposedly. It's just an old fairy tale, as far as I know. It'd be hard to get a lyre anywhere else, materials to make instruments are scarce these days. They're usually put into more practical things, so instruments are very expensive."

"Meanwhile, I found a recorder in a cave somewhere. Not that I'm very good at playing it." He'd tried to teach himself, using the knowledge he already had from playing the ocarina, but he hadn't produced any satisfactory results. No one in Saria seemed to know how to play either.

"Well, this is something you do know how to play, right? Could you play something for me?"

"Well, I can't refuse you, can I?" He hummed, trying to think of which song he should play. He'd practiced a lot in Labrynna, even beyond the three songs that he needed for his quest there. Of course, if he were to play the Tune of Ages now, nothing would happen. This wasn't the Harp of Ages; it was just an ordinary lyre. It wasn't a ticket home.

And even if it was a ticket home, some part of Link had doubts on if he should take it to begin with. Time travel was dangerous, he knew that. This was the present–returning to the past with knowledge of it could cause untold amounts of harm, intentional or otherwise.

The Tune of Echoes came back to him very easily, as he idly stummed the instrument. He'd played it so many times back in Labrynna. It was somewhat nostalgic to play it again.

"That's a nice song." The princess commented after he finished, applauding politely.

"It's for time travel. Not that it'd work with this lyre, regardless. Or even if I had the Harp of Ages still, that song only works in certain locations anyway," He sighed. "It'd be nice if it did work, though. I could go home."

"You really miss your home time, huh?"

"Of course," he scoffed. "I had so many friends back then, and because of that stupid fish I–" He clamped his mouth shut. He hadn't meant to say that.

"Fish?"

"Please forget I said anything."

Princess Zelda stared at him for a moment, before appearing to accept that he wanted this to be secret.

He was grateful for her tact.

"Your friends, could you tell me about them?"

"Well…" He thought for a moment. "Is there anyone in particular I should start with? These people are characters in your fairy tales after all. I'd love to share the truth."

"The princess from your time would be a nice place to start…"

The Princess Zelda from his time… she was someone Link really missed. The Princess Zelda who sat next to him was sweet, and he did care about her; but, he'd had a minor precocious crush on his princess since he first heard her voice back on that rainy day when he was ten. In hindsight, that was probably why Marin had looked so much like Zelda that he mistook her for Zelda when he first awoke on Koholint. The dream world just latched onto his crush on the princess and created a version of her that wasn't six years older than him, and actually liked him back.

"You're blushing," the Princess Zelda next to him observed.

"A-am not," he denied, though it was a very transparent lie. "The princess from my time… well, I probably would have died without her, if I'm being honest. She was able to speak to me telepathically, although only when she was distressed... That's why I first left my uncle's apple farm, actually. She called out in my dreams for help. After that, she was able to use these stones in some dungeons to help give me hints to get through them, even while she was stuck in a crystal in Turtle Rock."

"Link, I meant what she was like as a person."

"Well, she was pretty much Hyrule's shining jewel of hope, really, and she was Holodrum's and Labrynna's too. She cared about everyone. She was gentle and patient. Admittedly, we didn't get much chance to talk about anything other than whatever crisis was happening at a given moment." That fact had always saddened him. He'd wanted to get to know her properly, really, but with all the heroics the gods demanded of him, there just hadn't been enough time to.

The Princess that was here with him in the present seemed to be pitying him slightly. It stung.

"Your Majesty, if it's alright, I'd like to stop this conversation now."

"Link…" Princess Zelda straightened herself. "I promise we'll work on finding a way to help you get back to your time. We could probably use the Triforce, maybe… but I don't think the ones we have will be enough…"

"Don't worry yourself, Your Majesty. It's my problem. Returning to my own time is dangerous, anyway. Those who meddle with time are known to regret it."

The princess gave him a lengthy look, before sighing. "...Play another song?"

"...Sure, Your Majesty."


Zelda wished she could do more to help the person in front of her. She could see it in his face, that there was something that was really bothering him. She could see the shadows under his eyes, the weariness that should come with age plainly displayed in the face of this boy who was only a few years older than her. Well, she supposed that wasn't entirely true. Strictly speaking, he had almost an entire millennia on her; he just had been asleep for most of it. In the end though, he looked like a thirteen-year-old, and he'd properly experienced thirteen years; so for all intents and purposes, he was a thirteen-year-old.

But every time she seemed to make any progress on helping him open up, he'd catch himself and retreat back to his shell like a spooked turtle. She knew she had to handle this patiently and delicately, but it stung regardless.

This fish, whatever it was, was going to pay for this if she ever ran into it. What it had done to Link was unacceptable, even if she didn't know the specifics.

But even beyond whatever hell this fish had inflicted, Link seemed to eventually clam up about just about anything related to his original era. The discussion of the princess of his time, for example, went nowhere. She could tell he had something of a crush on her–the sheer admiration in his voice and the red tinge on his cheeks was enough to tip her off of that–but he'd clammed up after admitting they'd barely had time to discuss things that weren't nation-threatening.

Zelda sat quietly as she listened to the boy play the royal family's lyre, something she'd swiped for him behind her father's back. Not that Link knew that. It was unlikely her father would notice it gone, regardless. He was far too occupied with holding what remained of the country together to care much about old trinkets, but he still wouldn't approve of her giving it to anyone.

…Wait, she'd heard this song before.

"Where did you learn that?" she asked before she could stop herself. The Princess Zelda from his time had probably taught him.

"The Princess from my time liked this song a lot. She'd sing it whenever we saw each other."

"Just play that, should you ever need to prove association with the royal family." That'd at least prove he hadn't stolen the instrument if he was questioned on the matter. She cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Is it still used for that? I'd have figured the secret would be out by now."

"There's a law designed to help keep it secret. Truthfully, I don't know the specifics on how it's enforced, but it has worked."

"I see… I'll avoid playing it in public, then."

She smiled at him. "Feel free to keep playing it here, though. The Hytopian royal family was quite thorough in soundproofing the walls. Stories tell that it was necessary to keep noise from magical music balls in the room they were in."

The laughter and nod she got back was probably the most genuine she'd ever heard from him as he resumed playing.


It was a week after he had been given the lyre that he was finally able to fully understand the story of the Hero of Style. Impa had consulted with other historians to retrieve a translation of the records about him into the modern language, which at this point Link could read quite fluently.

Or at least the person Hytopia apparently called the Hero of Style. Impa said he'd probably had a different title in Hyrule, but most Hyrulean records about him were lost with the castle that had stood proudly back in Link's time. If he hadn't been a Hytopian hero, and later their Prince Consort, everything about him would have likely been lost to history and muddled by oral tradition, like the other hero between the time Link fell asleep and the present.

Learning about this boy, there were two things Link felt in response.

The first was the frustration that he had slept through all the problems the Hero of Style had to deal with, forcing the Hero of Style to endure the nightmares and trauma in what Link viewed as his own place. He'd been feeling that since Impa had first given him the basic story those months ago. The full story just reinforced it. If he had just woken the Wind Fish a little faster, Link could have spared this person, or maybe his predecessor whose details were lost. He felt guilty about it.

The other thing, ironically, was envy.

It was stupid, really. The boy had, apparently, had a rough few years between when he saved Hyrule from a painting sorcerer of some sort who had fused with Ganon, and when he initially arrived in Hytopia. Hyrule had reputedly not treated him the most kindly after the ordeal, or at least that's what he'd told the scholars who'd asked him why he came to Hytopia. There had supposedly been only a small handful of Hyruleans at his wedding, and of them, one allegedly had been a squid. Part of Link doubted that anecdote, but it did illustrate that this boy had lacked Hyrulean friends.

But the records made it clear that leaving Hyrule was his own decision, and that at the end of the day, he had found that Hytopia had resonated with him. He'd found a new place to consider home. The Hero of Style ultimately had been happy, despite what had happened to him, as far as Link could tell.

Link, currently, was not happy. Between feeling stranded somewhere he didn't belong, the way the villagers treated him as some odd foreigner, the nightmares, the guilt…

He supposed that envy is what drove him to visit the Hytopian Royal Graveyard–or what remained of it anyway.

"How did you do it?" he asked the stone aloud. He spoke in his language, the one from his time. It was a good way to keep what he said secret from the gravekeeper. "How did you manage to do it? How… how did you move on?"

Link paused, taking a shuddering breath.

"No, before that, I should apologize to you, shouldn't I? I slept while you suffered. Slept on that stupid island."

Link sighed. The name written on the stone didn't answer.

"It's so stupid of me. I can't decide if I want to save you or be you. Even though those are both impossible… What a fool I am."

"Kid, it's almost closing time. There's a lot of ghosts around at night, so you should head back to town." The gravekeeper's voice broke Link out of his self-deprecating monologue.

"Coming, sir."

(Somewhere in the afterlife, the ghost of the hero he spoke to startled. No one had actually visited his grave beyond upkeep for years, and gravekeepers usually didn't talk to random graves.

"Are you alright?" His companion asked.

"I'm fine. I think the Hero of Legend went to visit my grave... He's pouring his heart out and he doesn't know I can hear him. I wish I could tell him that our situations really aren't that comparable, and he's definitely not at fault for anything that happened to me…"

"Assuming he hasn't worked it out on his own by the time he dies, we'll have all the time in the world to tell him once he gets here. Do you want to go watch him visit you in the meantime?"

"...Sure.")


Link had been in Saria for a year when he first saw a passerby turn into a monster.

Link had grown comfortable enough with the modern tongue that he said hello to everyone, even those he didn't know well. This turned out to be a mistake when one shouted that he was going to revive Ganon, and transformed into some bat creature Link had never seen before. Keese did not turn into people, they were too low intelligence, so it couldn't be one of those...

Link panicked and pulled his sword on the monster. The bat creature was quickly dispatched. And the whole square was staring at him now.

"Why did it try to attack him to revive Ganon?" He heard some woman try to whisper to her friend nearby. She was a bit too loud to be considered successful.

He didn't know. He wanted to know. He had no sacred powers or anything, as he wasn't a sage descendant to his knowledge.

Link retreated from the now chittering crowd back to the old castle as quickly as he could. When he arrived back in his room, he picked up the royal family's lyre from the display stand he'd set up for it. The door had slammed shut behind him, but that was fine. He wanted to be alone right now.

He didn't know why his hands decided to strum the Ballad of the Wind Fish, initially. Maybe he was trying to convince himself the attempted murder was a dream, and if he just played the song, he'd wake up and it never would have happened.

He decided he couldn't stay in Saria anymore. If the monsters were after him in specific, for whatever reason, he was endangering the civilians here by doing so.

Link packed his things and wrote a note to Princess Zelda and Impa so they'd know that he was going traveling.

He was halfway to the door when he stopped himself.

The lyre. He'd been holding it the whole time he'd been packing, not intending to leave it behind; but, he couldn't just disappear with a treasure of the royal family to who knows where.

At the same time, he couldn't exactly leave it unattended for a long period of time.

…Staying here until Impa and Zelda's next visit was his only option, then.

He'll just have to redouble his efforts on guard duty, he supposed. Keeping monsters from infiltrating town in the first place was the next best thing to luring them away.


The next month, Link finally told Impa and Princess Zelda of his intent to travel.

"I wanted to return this," he said. "Ganon's minions are hunting me, so I have to leave for the town's safety. It would be best if I didn't have a priceless treasure belonging to the Royal Family while I'm in the middle of nowhere."

"I figured this would happen eventually," Princess Zelda replied, sighing. "Keep the instrument, please. As a promise you won't die out there."

"I'll be sure to check in with you regularly. You stay in the North Palace, usually, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll be back there every three months." He forced himself to smile. "And I'm… I'm glad we're friends, your highness. The amount of kindness you've shown me surpassed anything I expected when I first washed up in the future."

"I'm glad we're friends too." She smiled. "Would you please grace me with a song before you go? Your playing really is quite beautiful, you know."

"Of course, Your Highness."

The song Nayru used to play for the animals in the forest was one he'd been practicing recently, so he quickly decided to play that.

"That was a lovely song," Princess Zelda complimented once he finished. "Where did you learn it? Or did you write it yourself?"

"The Oracle of Ages back in my time used to sing it for the wildlife in the forest she called home. She was known far and wide as a very talented songstress."

"She was the one who first taught you how to play a lyre, correct?"

"...You could say that, yes." The actual truth was a bit strange. Nayru had essentially left a recording of herself to teach him, as she was possessed by Veran when Link first obtained the Harp of Ages. That detail wasn't the most important though, so he didn't feel like correcting the Princess.

"She was a good teacher, then," Princess Zelda decided. "I will see you in three months, then?"

"That's everything I needed to take care of before leaving Saria," Link sighed. "I'll see you in three months, Your Highness."


Traveling alone for two years was… enlightening, in a way.

Link would do a combination of minor mercenary work to deal with monsters and performing for money when he could. He met so many people on his travels; it demonstrated the ways the world could change as much as his adventure in Labrynna had.

As the years slipped by, he felt… almost at home, traveling like this. He could pretend it was just another adventure in a foreign land, and he was just doing what he did best. He'd long since accepted that he'd never have anything from his own era back. He hadn't forgiven the Wind Fish, but they were gone. That was that.

Or at least, that's what he told himself.

Then, on what would have been his sixteenth birthday–if he removed the slumber with the Wind Fish thing–his hand started to glow.

He'd had the mark of the Triforce on his hand since he first laid his hands on it all those years ago. In Holodrum and Labrynna, everyone assumed it was a birthmark that labeled him as the Hero, and he never bothered to correct them. It was kinda close to the truth, after all.

But the only times it had ever glowed were when he was close to the Triforce itself. Which he was fairly confident he wasn't. The Triforce of Wisdom and the Triforce of Power were still with the Princess–now Queen–in the North Castle. The Triforce of Courage was seemingly destroyed at some point, because no one seemed to know anything about it.

So he went back to the North Palace a month ahead of schedule, with his next visit having been planned during Queen Zelda's coronation two months ago. Impa seemed to expect his early arrival, much to his surprise.

She gave a look of resignation when he showed her the way his hand glowed. "As expected, it's finally time," she said.

"You seem unsurprised."

"Because I am. I knew this would happen eventually… Come on now, follow me." She led him through the old building, down hallways he'd never been through in the last three years. "Here we are. Press your hand on this wall."

Link was confused, but he did what he was told. It was a rather ordinary-looking wall, but as soon as he laid his hand on it, it slid open with ease. Link peered into the secret room that had been revealed, and his breath caught in his throat.

The room was mostly empty. As far as he could tell, the only thing of note was a girl, sleeping on an altar in the center of it.

"Impa. There'd better be a good explanation for this."

"It won't be one you'll like," she sighed. "This is the several-times great aunt of the Queen Zelda you've been friends with for the past few years. She's been asleep in this room for centuries, under the effect of a curse that, as far as the prophecies go, can only be broken by the full might of the Triforce itself."

This girl had been asleep for centuries.

Just… just as he had been, until he washed up in this era three years ago.

Link wanted to scream.

"According to the old tales, before the curse was laid, her father had sealed the Triforce of Courage away, to await a true worthy successor. She was the only one to know the details of where he put it, due to the unworthiness of her elder brother."

"And you expect me to go and find it now, do you?" He didn't mean to sound so bitter. The only thing on his mind was how this girl, as soon as she woke up, was going to be in for the same shocks he had been. Everything she cared about was just as gone as everything he cared about. And there was no way to tell how she would take that. There was no guarantee she'd be better off awake instead of asleep. She could end up freaking out worse than he had. And comforting her would be difficult, due to language barriers.

"It is what the prophecy claims," Impa said.

Link was beginning to hate prophecies. The first was fine; all the suffering had ultimately been undone. The second was fine; there was some lasting damage, but the ending was ultimately a happy one. This? This was awful. This girl would suffer whether she did wake up or did not at this point. She would either sleep forever, or be forced to endure losing everything she cared for at once.

He supposed waking her at least had a chance of a happy ending, if she managed to move on. It just also had a chance of a worse ending. If nothing else, she'd have someone who truly understood what she was going through, when he didn't. That raised her chances of recovering from the shock.

It was worth the gamble, he supposed.

"I'll do it," Link said. "But I want to try something first." A spell so strong it needed the Triforce to be broken sounded a bit implausible. Unless the Triforce was used to cast it, but Impa's story contradicted that idea. The Triforce of Courage was sealed away before this girl was cursed, so it couldn't have been used to inflict this.

He didn't have the Instruments of the Sirens anymore, if they ever existed in the first place. But the Royal Family's lyre hummed with divine magic of its own; he'd noticed that over the past few years. It was absolutely ancient, far older than even Link himself, but it was there. It was possible playing the Ballad of the Wind Fish on it could wake the girl without needing the Triforce.

He wasn't looking forward to the questions singing it would raise from Impa. Especially if it actually worked. But it was worth a try. Link had long been of the opinion that the Triforce was too much for most mortals to start with, so leaving the Triforce of Courage forgotten would be a good way to keep its full splendor from the wrong hands.

Impa watched with interest as he pulled the lyre out and cleared his throat. He supposed she wasn't going to question his plan until she saw it.

Link stood quietly for a moment. He wasn't the most confident in his singing abilities. Gathering whatever confidence he could muster, he started strumming.

The lyrics tumbled out in the language of his own time. Impa was one of the only people in the world currently who could understand even parts of what he sang.

A song about how all dreams had to end. A song begging for the singer to not be forgotten. A song to herald the end of a world.

It was a fairly good description of Koholint Island, in hindsight. He wondered how he hadn't realized the truth of the place sooner, when he first heard Marin sing the song. Or how he didn't question how an isolated isle did not have its own language, and instead just spoke perfect Hyrulean.

When he finished singing, nothing happened. The ancient girl continued to be dead to the world, unroused by the magical song.

"That song is related to how you got to this era, isn't it, Link?" Of course Impa put the truth together quickly.

He only nodded in response.

"I've heard stories…" she breathed. "Of deities who created dreaming lands, where time flows abnormally. I had my suspicions you'd been caught in one ever since the Queen told me you seemed bitter at something you called a fish."

He turned to her, with a warning glare in his eyes. He wasn't sure if the fact he was currently crying dulled it, though. Come to think of it, the crying was probably what tipped her off about how significant this song was to start with. Maybe he hadn't accepted what happened as well as he'd thought he had. The guilt he'd come to associate with this song was still eating him up.

Impa backed off on questioning him after that. She quickly changed the subject, giving him an old scroll and a box of crystals.

He assumed this scroll was written in the Hyrulean of this sleeping girl's era. Magic, it seemed, let him read it perfectly.

Six Palaces throughout the kingdom housed statues to which he was to return the crystals in the box. Once they were there, the seal on the Palace where the Triforce of Courage was would break, and he could then retrieve it to bring it back here.

What a simple quest. No villain, no world ending stakes. Just a girl in a cursed slumber.

It would have been a refreshing change of pace if it hadn't hit so close to home.


The Great Palace was quite the maze, but Link was fairly confident that he was finally at the end of it. The thing that he assumed was the Thunderbird the scroll talked about was dead now. He wasn't entirely sure that was what it was, because it didn't look like a bird and it was weak to Thunder magic, but it seemed to adhere to the rest of the description.

"Time to finally retrieve what I came here for…" he mumbled. The key the probably-Thunderbird dropped led to a dead end at first glance. But no, there was a little old man standing on a high up altar.

Had that man been sitting in this Palace for centuries? It was the only conclusion Link could come to. The entrance had been sealed before he arrived, just getting here was insanely dangerous, and the maybe-Thunderbird was blocking off this room in specific if those two things had somehow failed.

"You've done well to make it this far, hero."

"This isn't my first time through these motions, I assure you." Link sighed. "Far from it."

"Regardless, I do have one final challenge for you before I can give you this."

Link glared at him, because he'd really had quite enough of this entire test at this point. "I've used the full Triforce before. Honestly, this whole thing is quite unnecessary."

"So you say." Link froze. That voice had come from behind him, and it didn't sound like it was the old man. No, it definitely wasn't the old man. Because that sentence was in his Hyrulean. The language from an age long gone by. "Yet back then, you hadn't murdered a whole island, right, hero?"

"How did… how did you know about that?" Link whirled around to face whoever had spoken, and froze again.

It was a copy of Link himself. Just inky black and seemingly demonic.

"Well, because I'm you." It lunged at him. He blocked it with his shield. "Wanting to get home isn't an excuse for mass murder, you know."

"They didn't exist to start with!" He shouted back.

The creature hummed, and jumped at him again. "I don't think that's an excuse either."

Link grit his teeth as he counterattacked. It was obvious what this thing was doing. It was goading him.

"And you know, heroes don't abandon all their friends in favor of adventure. You could have gone back to Hyrule with the princess, but instead you got on that boat!"

"Ignore it. Ignore it. Cut it down like any other monster." Link thought as he attacked it again.

"And you did a rather shoddy job of saving the world, too! Not even two years after you supposedly killed Ganon, he comes back to life! So you kill him again! And he comes back again! And again, and again! And those times, you just slept through it all!"

"It's taunting you. Ignore it. Stab it. Don't let it get to you."

"You make the Queen worry far too much too!" It said as Link slashed at its abdomen. "Always clamming up whenever she tries to get you to open up. Is that really how you should take her kindness?"

"Don't. Let. It. Get. To. You."

"You know, you can't live forever. Once you die, the monsters will waste no time collecting your corpse. Then Ganon will be back again! And the world will go right back into chaos."

"Don't listen. Don't listen."

"In the end, Ganon is forever. It doesn't matter what you do. Ganon will burn this world until the end of time!"

"Focus on its attacks, not its words."

"You know, the world got lucky when the Hero of Style was born. Someday, Ganon will attack and no one will stop him! Maybe right after you die! Best case scenario, the gods interfere and utilize whatever extreme method suits their whims! Worst case, everyone dies!"

"Don't let it get a rise out of you."

"So to summarize, you're a cowardly murderer who keeps trying to delay the inevitable!"

"It's not inevitable!" The shadow dissipated when Link struck it once more.

Link turned, soaked in sweat and shaking far more than he should be, back to the old man. "Happy now?" He snapped, before wincing at his own tone. He was not in a very good mood after that fight.

The man smirked. "Very. The Triforce of Courage is yours. Use it wisely."

Link felt the back of his hand burn. It was a familiar feeling, despite how long it had been since he'd first touched the gold of the gods.

The Princess would wake soon. He could only hope it would go better for her than it had for him.


Link took a deep breath as he approached the altar where Princess Zelda slept.

Was he doing the right thing? There was only one way to find out.

He called out the pieces of the Triforce, letting them join together in front of him. He raised his left hand, and brought it down onto the relic once again.

"Hear that which I desire, Essence of the Triforce. Bring an end to this Era of Darkness Hyrule has suffered the past several centuries, for as long as this girl has slept. Let her awakening be a symbol of hope for the future."

A flash of light lit up the room. The Triforce vanished back into his person, and the princess's eyes fluttered open.

She muttered something in some language Link couldn't understand. He supposed it sounded closer to his own time's Hyrulean than the modern one.

"Good morning, Princess," he said in his era's Hyrulean as he stepped away from the altar. It was more likely she could understand that than the modern tongue. His Hyrulean would predate hers, after all.

She mouthed back what he said with a confused look on her face, taking in her surroundings. She seemed to ask him something. But he had no idea what she said.

"I can't understand you. I'm sorry…"

Gods, this was a terrible idea, wasn't it?

She shakily got off the altar and walked over to him. She looked over his face appraisingly, as if trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle.

Once she'd gotten her fill of staring at him, she turned to the door. He followed her out, making sure to stay very far behind her to try and not intimidate her.

She navigated through the North Palace like she knew it like the back of her hand. He supposed the Royal Family lived here back in her era too. At least something was familiar to her.

"Link, you really should have waited for me to accompany you," Impa's voice came from behind him. Running into Impa was a blessing. He felt so helpless just tailing after the Princess, unable to explain or comfort her at all. "I'll explain what happened to her as best as I can. I can understand a little of her language, just as I could with yours. You should still stay here, though. It'll help that you went through something similar."

Link nodded. He stepped back and folded his hands behind him, letting Impa approach the confused and scared girl he had been tailing.

Impa and Princess Zelda struck up a shaky conversation as he watched. She seemed so relieved that someone actually understood her to a degree, since none of the servants they'd passed up to this point had.

Her face still fell when Impa explained what exactly had happened to her, though. She stormed off when Impa indicated where they'd set up quarters for her in anticipation of her awakening.

"She requested some space," Impa reported. "You can return to your room, if you'd like."


The first time Princess Zelda approached him was one month after she woke up. With the monsters having been banished by Link's use of the Triforce, there was no need for him to stay on the road. So in the interest of keeping an eye on the Princess's recovery, he stayed in the castle. Link supposed she wanted to be able to grasp the modern tongue somewhat before she tried to speak to anyone except Impa.

"You… play well," she said, clearly struggling to remember the right words.

Link smiled at her. "Thank you. I've been practicing since I was twelve." This wasn't the first time she'd heard him play, as he would on occasion join some of the staff to play during mealtimes and the like. She was usually quiet during those, presumably on account of not knowing what anyone in the room was saying.

"Who… teach? Um."

"Who taught me to play?" Link asked, in an attempt to help her find the right words. She nodded. "Well, I'm mostly self taught." He paused, to give her time to parse what he said. "I had a few teachers back when I first started, but they didn't teach me too much, only a few songs." Another pause. "They're all long dead now, so I can't introduce you."

"Impa… tell me." She looked at him. "You… sleep too."

"...Yeah. It was quite a shock to wake up to the Hyrule I once knew in complete ruin."

"You… not take well, Impa tell."

"Yeah, I didn't take it well," he replied. "I had friends back in my time I missed terribly. And a demon I had worked very hard to get rid of in my own time was back and had laid waste to everything."

"But you… fine now?"

"Well, I've been here three years." He paused. "I'm not sure if I'm fine." That battle with the shadow was still fresh in his mind. "But I have friends here now too. It helps."

"The Queen?"

"Yeah, she's one of them. Impa too."

"The Queen… kind," she said. "For allowing stay."

"You are her aunt," he said. "She'd be a terrible niece if she threw you aside as soon as you woke." He sighed, returning to his playing. Since he'd gotten back, Impa had advised that he start training his voice as well. She apparently thought he sounded nice when he sang the Ballad of the Wind Fish, but with the Princess here, he wasn't exactly confident in practicing that too when he was ultimately a total beginner.

She just sat there, remaining quiet as she listened to his playing. Eventually, she seemed to decide something, standing up and leaving the room.

"Farewell, Princess." He called after her. It would be rude to let her go without saying goodbye.


"That was a Goron song from your time?" Queen Zelda asked. It was the evening after Princess Zelda had visited him while he practiced. He'd worked to teach some of the musicians some simple songs from his time when he wasn't practicing alone. This was the first one they'd become confident enough in to play at dinner. It was a simple dancing tune, meant for beginners to traditional Labrynnian Goron dances and designed to be easy to follow.

"A Labrynnian one, yes," Link confirmed. "Gorons didn't live in Hyrule when I was born, after all. If you'd like, I could teach you the dance that's meant to go with it. I was so good at it, the Gorons in Labrynna treated me as one of their own."

"I'm not much of a dancer," The Queen admitted. "But I won't say no to watching you when you have time."

"I'll keep that in mind then," Link replied.

Princess Zelda was watching the musicians silently. Link turned to her, deciding that she should be included in the conversation too. "Would you like me to teach you the dance, Princess?" he asked.

"I, um." She clearly didn't expect Link to ask her. "No. Thank you."

Link nodded, accepting the answer.

"Link, I assume this isn't the only song you've been teaching the rest of the musicians." Queen Zelda said. "I'm looking forward to hearing the other songs you're teaching them."

"...Me too." Queen Zelda seemed a little startled by her aunt's words. It was the first time she'd spoken up without being asked first at dinner. "...old music is nice."

"I'll do my best to not disappoint you, then. You will hear as much of my time's music as I can remember. It can be the greatest cultural revival in centuries." Link smiled. If the Queen and the Princess liked the music, then he could consider his efforts truly a job well done.


"Link?" Link was startled by the Princess's voice at his door. It had been three months since she'd awoken, and she was gaining confidence with speaking the modern tongue.

Link stepped over to the door and unlocked it. "Yes, Your Highness?"

The Princess held up a violin, which he assumed she'd gotten from the treasury somewhere. "I, um, wanted to try practicing with you."

Link took a second to process her offer. He didn't mind, but he would need to know how good she was at reproducing by ear. After all, he didn't know anything about playing a violin, so she'd need to have a lot of baseline knowledge of it to reproduce anything he played on the lyre. Teaching the other castle musicians his time's songs involved a lot of him playing and them imitating.

"I don't know anything about the violin, but if you think you can manage to imitate me by hearing my playing… I suppose it's fine."

"I… wanted to do it the other way. You copy me."

"Oh, sure, I can do that." It was how he learned most of the songs he knew, so he was pretty good at learning songs by ear.

"Thank you." She started to play.

It took a while, but by the end of the day he was eventually able to reproduce part of her song. "This song's from your time, isn't it?" He asked.

"My brother… liked it."

Her brother? The one whose foolishness had gotten her cursed to begin with?

She evidently thought the look on Link's face was sour at the mention of her brother, so she said: "Impa told me… that he was sad after. And I remember playing with him when we were young."

Link supposed it made sense that she'd be attached to him despite everything that had happened. "Well, I'm sure he'd be happy that you're keeping the memory of his favorite songs alive."

She smiled before leaving the room to prepare herself for dinner.


"Do you have siblings, Link?" The question came after they'd been practicing the Princess's brother's song for a month.

"None. My parents died when I was too little to remember them. I was raised by my uncle."

"Any cousins, then?"

He remembered what he'd learned back in Saria. His uncle, some time after Link went to sleep, probably had children. "All of my uncle's children were born after I fell under that sleeping spell. If my hunches about the topic are correct, anyway."

"So you never got to know them, then. Do you wish you could have known them?"

"A little," he confessed. He was surprised how easy it was to discuss this with her. Maybe it was because these people were just a likely hypothetical, rather than someone he actually knew. "When I first learned of the hero who kicked off the Golden Age, I noticed he looked basically identical to me. I figured he was probably a descendant of my uncle. So my brain dreamed up some hypothetical cousins I could have known if I hadn't been asleep."

"Your ideal little brother or sister, in other words."

"Well, I suppose that's one way to put it."

She laughed. "Before you went to sleep, did you want your uncle to have other kids?"

"Yes, I did."

When he was a child, Link asked his uncle when he was getting married constantly until Link was seven. The answer was always "whenever I find someone." He eventually started to notice the question made his uncle kind of sad, which was the only reason he stopped.

"Well, if you're right that the Hero of Worlds was his descendant, that means that he did eventually, even if you didn't get to witness it."

"Hero of… Oh, you mean the Hero of Style." Link had almost forgotten that he'd had a different title in the Hyrulean records that had since been lost to history. "Sorry. The only records that still exist about him are Hytopian. The castle where the Hyrulean records were kept burned down a long time ago."

She looked sad at that. He supposed it made sense. It was her brother's inadequacy that led to Hyrule's fall from grace, and as a consequence, the loss of such records.

He should turn her attention back to what she liked about her brother. Hearing about the ways his greed caused problems was not doing any good. "You said you remember playing with your brother. Tell me about that."

She looked startled, before nodding. She told him about a childhood memory where they'd gone hunting for frogs in the palace gardens. It wasn't the sort of thing he ever expected royal children to enjoy. For some reason, he always assumed they would be more… proper than that.

It reminded him of his own childhood on an apple farm close to Lake Hylia. He loved to sneak off and catch bugs, especially bees. His uncle always scolded him, saying that the bees were needed to pollinate their apples, and that they might sting him if he wasn't careful.

"I guess kids wanting to catch small creatures is universal, then," he said when the princess finished.

"Yes, I suppose." She still seemed to be musing about the memory.

"Let's try the song one last time before dinner," he said. "I'm sure the Queen would love that story too, by the way."


"There you are!" Link startled from where he'd been sitting in front of the Hero of Style's grave. They were visiting Saria, to make sure Ganon's minions were no longer disguising themselves as townsfolk.

"Princess, why'd you follow me all the way out here?" Link asked. She looked a bit out of breath, as if she'd run all the way from town to the graveyard.

"Because I was worried about you," she replied. She paused. "Was this someone you knew?"

"Oh, um, no." He probably sounded very sheepish. "I never knew this person."

She looked a bit confused, reading the name on the gravestone. "He shares your name."

"Well, yes, I suppose he does." That wasn't the reason he was here, of course. He had come back to apologize again.

The Princess seemed to realize something, then. "This was the Hero you thought was a descendant of your Uncle, isn't it?"

"...Yes, it is."

"So in that sense, you imagine him as the little brother you never had."

"I guess you could say that."

The Princess gave him a lengthy look. "Link, why don't you tell me about what you imagine him being like?"

Link was quiet for a moment, before saying: "Sure, Princess."

(Somewhere in the afterlife, the Hero whose grave they talked in front of smiled. As silly as the Hero of Legend's ideas were, they were preferable to the apologies that he had been giving before the Princess arrived.)


The Princess was so open about what her time was like.

Now that she could speak the modern tongue confidently, she would tell him so many stories about the twilight of the Golden Era. She told stories about her brother, stories about when she would sneak out into town and interact with people, stories she'd heard second hand from bards visiting the palace.

He could tell that she missed it all.

He could tell that talking about it helped her.

So why… Why did he always clam up when asked to talk about things that actually happened? Talking about hypothetical cousins was something he could manage. Teaching old music was something he could manage. But talking about actual events was hard.

"How are you able to talk about this so easily?" He asked.

"Because you're my friend. You listen and you remember what you hear. You've never judged me. And you can understand in a way no one else really can, since you slept even longer than I did. It's comforting."

It was such a simple response. Was he scared of one of those things? The judgment, maybe? He definitely judged himself for what happened in Koholint. But that only explained his reluctance to talk about Koholint. It didn't explain why he clammed up at everything.

Or… maybe it did. The shadow's taunting rang in his mind. It had brought up Koholint, but it also taunted Link about just about everything he had ever done.

It was so painfully obvious in hindsight. That shadow was himself. That shadow's taunts were his own thoughts. It was his own self loathing given physical form. That fight was meant to make him reject his own negativity. That was why it was the last one.

And he'd ignored it, rather than rejected it.

"...I think I get it," he said, slowly. "Thank you, Princess. That makes sense."

"Is something bothering you?"

"...A lot of things bother me."

"...I've noticed." She sighed. "Link, if you ever feel comfortable enough to talk, I'm willing to listen. You listen to me, so it's the least I could do." She paused. "I'm sure the Queen and Impa would be willing as well."

"I get that, it's just… The words are in my head, and I know it would be good for me to say them. It's just a lot harder than it sounds. But I think I'm starting to understand why I struggled."

The Princess just looked at him silently.

Link took a deep breath, and continued. "I judged myself, so I assumed anyone else would judge me just as harshly. At least, I think that's what worried me. That's why teaching music and talking about hypotheticals didn't bother me. I didn't judge myself for those."

"And you want to stop judging yourself."

"Right." He paused. "...Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin. There's an awful lot I was judging myself about."

"How about the beginning?"

"...The beginning… I guess that would be when I got the telepathic message from the Princess Zelda from my time…"


"...And that's how I ended up here. My act of selfishness backfired."

"I don't think it was selfish. You saved a very real deity from being tortured for eternity."

"At the cost of the lives of the people said deity dreamed up," Link sighed. "I knew they would disappear, but I wanted to go home so badly that I went through with it anyway. And I didn't even get to go home as promised. Waking up to a ruined Hyrule of the distant future felt like I was being punished for my decision. It felt like it was a test, and I failed."

"...Could you translate the song? The one that woke the Wind Fish."

Link blinked. "I don't see why not, I suppose. I've already told you pretty much everything else." The song wouldn't work in the modern tongue, so he simply recited the best translation he could come up with rather than attempt to sing it.

"I think you may have misunderstood the test, Link. The lyrics make it pretty clear that you made the decision you were supposed to."

"Then why was I…" His voice trailed off as he looked away.

She shrugged. "It might have just been an odd quirk of the Wind Fish's magic. It might have been an additional test from the gods on top of the one you'd just passed. But it definitely wasn't intended as a punishment. After all, you were able to make a new life here, weren't you? Your life was able to go on, even in a new time period."

She smiled, and continued: "I was really shocked when I first woke up, and I do still miss the people back in my time. But I don't think I'd want to go back there permanently… It'd mean leaving you, the Queen, Impa, and everyone here. I care about the people here just as much. And since my time was the past, they evidently managed to persevere enough without me… so I want to focus on the present that hasn't managed it yet. Does that make sense?"

"...I suppose that's another way to look at it. Thank you, Princess." Link nodded. She was right that the idea of going back to his own time permanently hurt just as much as the idea of never going there again. "I can see why your father trusted you so strongly. Talking to you helped; my head feels a bit lighter now that I've said everything." It was a start. He wouldn't run away from his negativity anymore.

"I'm glad." She glanced at the clock. "It's almost dinnertime. We should get ready." She got up to leave. "By the way, when we're alone, you can just call me Zelda… I don't mind. I'll see you at dinner, Link."

"See you at dinner, Pri–er, Zelda," he called after her.


This fic was inspired by a random conversation on Discord a while ago. It was about Miyamoto supposedly claiming OoT/MM Link, ALttP/LA Link, and LoZ/AoL Link were all the same person in an interview or something a long time ago. No real source was provided at the time, so I'm not sure if it's true or not, but regardless...

This idea obviously doesn't make sense in canon for a lot of reasons. But we realized that the lack of backstory for the Link in LoZ/AoL meant you could, in theory, make him also be another Link. This would done by using the "King in the Mountain" trope, the idea that the famous hero is just asleep until needed once more. ALttP/LA Link conveniently had a prepackaged way to make this work, in the form of the Wind Fish and Koholint Island. Then we realized that if this happened, Link and the sleeping Zelda would relate to each other pretty strongly. After all, they were in basically the exact same, extremely uncommon, supremely uncomfortable situation of waking up to everything they love being gone since forever ago.

If you're wondering why there's an extra Link between the Oracles and ALBW, this was more or less me trying to resolve contradictions between the end of the Oracles and ALBW's backstory. The Triforce starts split in ALBW, with one piece with Ganon, one with the Royal Family, and one sealed away in Link. Which is something that is never seen happening in the Oracles and doesn't really seem possible to work into them due to Ganon's still being technically dead. So I threw in an extra Ganon event between them to explain this discrepancy away.

I really have no idea how this turned out as long as it did. When I started, I intended to write 5k-ish words. I ended up with three times that amount, which caused this fic to take way longer to write than I had originally anticipated.

-Glace