Hoshi-Boorei:
Hello! This is my first chapter of "Unleashed Memories", a Zelda story. It takes place right after Ocarina of Time...different than Majora's Mask or Wind Waker. My story, so by any road then! I hope you enjoy it!
It is a story I started a year or two ago, so it can be a bit elementary at places...I became quite enamored with the Zelda game series at a young age, but Ocarina of Time took my breath away! Can't wait for the next GameCube Zelda Game...looks AWESOME!
The name I gave it, 'Unleashed Memories' is inspired by one of my favorite bands, Lacuna Coil. I used to call the story 'The Love of a Hero' but it sounds too...cheesy-romance-story-ish. So! 'Unleashed Memories' it was!
Thanks SO much for reading!
. Hoshi-Boorei .
Chapter One : Forsaken . . .
Link awakened from a deep sleep that had lasted three days. He sat up in his bed, and rubbed his eyes, recalling what had happened last. Ganondorf...four days ago he had defeated the King Of Evil, and now Link had restored the peace and prosperity that now reigned over Hyrule once more. Link had cured Hyrule of the worst things that could plague it. After sitting upon his bed awhile, he slowly walked over to his mirror and glanced at his reflection. He was young again. Navi had departed; Epona had been set free to the world and to roam on Talon's ranch once again, but the part of it that stung most of all was the fact that the friends he made were now all gone. With time's reversal, the people were also brainwashed to their existence in the future they had lived, though they helped him the most in banishing the evil and saving the world. Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa, Nabooru, and her...Zelda.
Link's mind rushed back to the memories of Zelda and him together. Their meetings had been few and hasty, but Link cherished each one. He sensed Zelda felt the same way. He had fallen in love with her, and now she had to go, to protect the world from evil. Link was left alone in the world, yet he was not. The people he had known forever since that day seven years ago were still around him, but he felt empty still because the people he cherished most were now gone. He remembered the last conversations he had with Zelda three days ago. At that time he was still at his age of seventeen, and so was she. He remembered everything she said there, in the sky above Hyrule after the final battle with the King of Evil, it was as if she was saying it to him again now, and was once again here with him.
"Thank you, Link...thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world...for a time." Said Zelda. Her and Link stood close to each other in the clouds above Hyrule.
"All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing..." said Zelda breaking off and looking below to the land below her.
"I was so young...I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes...you must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door Of Time...however, by doing this, the road between times will be closed."
She raised her vivid blue eyes to meet Link's.
"Link, give the ocarina to me...as a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it." murmured Zelda holding out her hand to Link. Link looked at Zelda, and then to the ocarina in his hand. He hesitantly handed it to her, and she put her hand on his for a moment before holding taking it fully into her grasp.
"When peace returns to Hyrule...it will be time for us to say good- bye..." she murmured. Link let go of the ocarina and Zelda's hand, and Zelda now held it close to her, her eyes full of sadness.
"Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time. Home...where you are supposed to be...the way you are supposed to be..."
She now held the mythical ocarina to her lips. She began to play Zelda's Lullaby and she closed her eyes. Link thought at that moment, she was the most beautiful sight he had ever laid eyes on, those moments in the clouds...meaningful and bittersweet, but Link cherished them with all his heart. She opened her eyes to see him one last time as he was engulfed by a magic crystal and transported through time and to his the Temple Of Time to perform his last task for Hyrule. As Link's consciousness drifted through the magic void, he heard her voice say a bittersweet goodbye.
"Thank you, Link...Good-bye..."
Link came back to reality only to find wetness on his cheeks that seemed as though it would not stop. Reality was cold, he knew he needed to come to that conclusion, but he just didn't know how. Maybe he just needed time until he decided. Link stepped outside into the warm night of the Kokiri forest. The fireflies glittered above as they always had and always will. Link lingered there a minute...at one time this was all he knew, all he had lived. It had seemed a paradise to him. Now he desired more, since he had felt more, and the pain of this small town was like a knife in his chest, twisting ever so slowly towards his heart. Here he would never change, never learn, never live. True, here you never die, but in a whisper of truth through a twisting lie, to be immortal here was to be nothing.
Link wiped his tears away with his small hand, and climbed down the ladder onto the soft earth below. He ran with a fury towards the vines that grew behind Mido's house up above the village towards the Lost Woods. He needed to go somewhere wide open and free. The Lost Woods should do, for it is all he could have now. He was again sealed in this comfort of a prison where it was your death to leave. Not at the hands of the Kokiri, but at the hands of his own being. Link was again a Kokiri and was not to leave without the permission of destiny. Link stood in a still glade upon a stump, and pulled his fairy ocarina from his tunic. He held it to his lips and began to play The Song of Time. It was a small reminder to Link of the days of old when that song meant a great deal to play, and when he meant a great deal, but now served as a comforting memory. Yes, the people of Hyrule remembered that Link had saved them, but it seemed faded and indistinct, for now that time had been changed back, no one remembers all Link had done. Time had been reversed back for a final time, and Link's accomplishments had been forgotten by all, save for Link's and the Sage's memory.
"Hello Link! What brings you to our glade?" asked a curious voice from behind him on the stump above. It was one of the forest's Skull Kids who had appeared there.
"Huh!? How long have you been standing there!?" Link demanded.
"Oh please! Do not be so hostile Link! Now, I applaud you on you performance! Enlighten me! What was that enticing melody you just played, pray tell?" inquired the Skull Kid flipping down off his stump perch to where Link was nestled, to examine his ocarina.
"It...it's nothing. Just a song I know."
"Now Link...is there something any of us Skull Kids did to make you act as such? You seem cross." questioned the Skull Kid skeptically.
"I'm just not in the mood for talking to anyone right now...it is not you. Please don't feel offended. I just, well...need to be alone now. Good- bye Skull Kid."
"Good-bye then Link. Have fun." said the Skull Kid mockingly as he flipped backwards twice and disappeared into the magic void of the forest. Link rose from his stump, setting out for home.
Thanks for reading my first chapter! It is appreciated! Please leave me your advice and check out my next chapter! Arigato!