Chapter 7: Get Your Priorities Straight
Whatever the Hero of Time Festival was, Phil was sure he needed to show up there. The Owl might have had need of him there. And that Koopa Troopa. . . Phil was trying to think of plausible reasons for that. He couldn't think of any, and he shoved it into the back of his mind as of no importance.
Castle Hyrule was a busy place, and there wasn't one person on the street who was idle. Apparently the Hero of Time Festival was of great importance to everyone.
Then Phil remembered. Link was the Hero of Time! Where was Link now? Was he going to have a parade? Phil suddenly wanted to see his fictional hero in real life.
On a podium not too far away, an announcer stood up and proclaimed in a very loud voice, "Hear ye! Hear ye! The king has announced that the Hero of Time, Link will not be able to attend this morning's festivities due to a fever he contracted the night before."
There were some severe boos from the crowd.
"However, being the kind spirit that is he, Link said that he will definitely be here this afternoon and all night if necessary."
There was some applause from the audience. Link was in town? What time period was this? Link was already famous. . . His voyage was finished, and there was no apparent threat from anywhere. . . this must be after Adventures of Link. Phil walked toward Hyrule Castle.
The gaurds were scarce, almost as if the King was sure of no surprise attacks. Phil used this opportunity to sneak inside the castle. He didn't even worry when one of the guards posted caught a glimpse of him, and Phil didn't know why he didn't give chase.
Once inside, Phil looked for the bedrooms, hoping to find Link's. But how would he know when he found the right one?
There was one door that he came to that said in big gold lettering on the front: LINK: HERO OF TIME. That was easy. Phil thought. He walked into the door.
Link was lying on a big feather bed, and immediately took notice of Phil. "Another groupie?" Link asked, "I thought I told the guards that I didn't want to sign another hundred autographs."
"No, just me." Phil said. "What's happened to you? You used to be so adventurous."
"That was ten years ago to this day, I rescued Princess Zelda once and for all from Ganon's minions."
"But aren't you afraid they'll come back again."
"Why?" Link asked, sitting up, "They haven't for ten years now, Gannon's dead, and whatever's left of his army is cowering away somewhere."
"How can you be sure?" Phil asked him.
"You seem inquisitive." Link said back. "But since the King has been given a magic talisman, there's been nothing but peace."
"The kingdom really can't benefit from peace." Phil said.
"We've prospered." Link said, "And there's no war. What more is there?"
"You don't sound like the Link that there used to be." Phil said. "Where's your spirit of adventure?"
"How old are you?" Link asked.
"16. Why?"
"I'm 28. You grow out of those things."
"You're only 28?!?!?" Phil almost yelled. "There's still a good long while 'till you too old to do anything!"
"Let's say you're right. What do I do now?"
Phil paused. "I was in a dungeon not too long ago. . ."
"And does this have any significance with rescuing anything?"
"No. . . but that's beside the point."
"You see, uh. . ."
"Phil."
"Phil, there's just some things that are to be done when they need to be done. You can't expect everything to go your way." Link said. "By the look of your sword and shield, it seems like a while before you'll grow out of it."
"But. . . nevermind." Phil turned abruptly around and walked out of the room.
Before he left, he turned sharply around, giving Link a cold stare. "Hero."
Now that that was out of the way, Phil decided to check into the festivities. He was hungry, too. But he had no money on himself anymore.
Link had hardly put up a good argument. Phil watched the Zelda Cartoons, but he never considered them a part of the plotline. Unless something evil was befalling. . . no. . . that couldn't be true. But why not? There was something. . . something telling link that nothing was wrong.
And that meant he had to get out of there as quickly as he could.
No time to think, Phil said as he raced across the landscape, I just need to get out of there to think through. . .
Phil made a mile out of town before he caught his second wind. He made his way up a low point between some mountains.
He was shocked at the other side.
There was absolutely nothing growing. A wasteland. But Phil could feel his thoughts returning to his own.
Something evil must have done this. And caused Link to lose his adventuring spirit. And make him believe nothing would be wrong. But what powerful entity was it? What?
Searching for the answer would not be easy. On the far side of the wasteland, Phil thought he saw some green. It was probably an oasis of some sort. Phil thought that was as good a place to start as any.
Although the wasteland was completely devoid of life, the sun wasn't scorching hot. Just hot. Phil continued to the oasis in the distance, which was looking less and less like an oasis and more and more like a forest. And it still seemed pretty far away.
But, without any life around, why would it be an oasis? Phil thought, It must be a forest. What is it doing over there? Phil trudged onward.
The mountains were getting scarce behind Phil, but he kept going to the forest that kept getting larger and larger in the distance. How long it would take him to get there, he didn't know.
Seven hours and six minutes later, he did arrive at the forest border. It seemed to cut off right at the wasteland. But Phil didn't care about that. He was way too hungry.
Phil saw a tree just up ahead that had fruit on it's branches. And the tree was tall and the branches were up high. Phil tried to climb the tree trunk, but it was just a little too thick around to hold onto. He tried to throw his sword at some fruit on the tree, but he couldn't get his sword up that high. It was made for swinging, not throwing.
Then Phil got an idea. He cut some vines that were around the place down with his sword, then fashioned a rope out of them to go around the tree trunk, then he scooted it upwards to allow himself to climb the tree.
Once he got up, he plucked one of the fruit down immediately and took a bite.
It was sour.
Not wanting to go hungry, Phil ate anyway. There was plenty of fruit up here, so he didn't have to worry.
He started worrying when he realized there was no way down. The rope vine he had only gone seven feet, and the ground was nearly three times that far away, and there weren't any other vines that he could tie to it.
Crap! The yelled in his mind, and made his way down as far as the rope would go.
He inched down bit by bit until he was sure that the drop would not be near-lethal. Then the rope broke with a snap. Phil plummeted for the ground.
When Phil came to, only a minute or so had past, but he was sure his arm was broken, and probably a few ribs, too. Despite his immense pain, he stood up and continued walking toward his destination of nowhere in particular.
It was another ten hours before he arrived at a city, relying on easier fruit to find. This was a city, unlike the towns in Hyrule. Where am I? Hyrule doesn't have skyscrapers or paved roads. The people here looked plenty human, too, and Phil made an attempt to hide his pointed ears under his headband.
Finding a hospital was easy enough. It has a red cross on it. Phil started for the inside, but he froze. He had no money on him. But he did have one green rupee, but he was sure it wasn't used for currency here.
As amazing luck would have it, a pawn shop and jeweler was right across the street. Hold it, Phil thought, Shouldn't I go to a money changer? Maybe not. I have a suspicion that there is no way that these people have been to Hyrule.
The pawn shop's door opened with a ding-a-ling. "Hello there." The old man from behind the desk said. Then the man looked up at him. "What's wrong with your arm?"
Phil looked down at his arm. It was bleeding quite steadily now, and was starting to drip from his sleeve. "I fell from a tree." Phil said, "I just need some money for the hospital bill."
"I can loan you some. . ."
"No, I wanted to pawn this in. . ." Phil took the green ruppee out of his pocket with his good hand and walked near the counter. "How much is this worth?"
The man took a closer look at it. "It's an emerald!" He said in surprise, "Where did you get it?"
"I found it." was Phil's reply.
"It seems to be a very fine cut one too. . . let me take this into the back room." He picked up the gem and headed for the door on the far side of the store. Phil could here some mufflings from the old man and a word being repeated over and over by someone else in that room, and it didn't sound like yes or no or any useful phrase.
The old man stepped back out. "It's genuine." He said, "And it's huge. How's a hundred thousand?"
Phil was about to gape in awe, but then remembered that this was a different land, and the inflation values were probably very different. But the emerald certainly was massive, and Phil wasn't sure if the owner was trying to fool him or not. . . after all, the owner did have ten thousand dollars in store.
"A hundred twenty thousand and it's a deal." Phil said.
"Sold." The old man said. He handed him the money, which was foreign currency, that Phil hadn't seen before. The old man looked down at Phil's belt. "Where'd you get that sword?" He asked. But Phil didn't have time to respond. He was feeling very lightheaded all of the sudden.
"What's wrong?" The man asked. But all Phil did was sink to his knees, clutching his right arm. The he fell to the floor, right before going unconscious.
"NO!"
Exactly one mile away, Jenna woke up screaming.
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