* * *
I hadn't wanted to die. Not really.
I just... wanted an escape, I guess.
Because it was all too much for me at first. I mean, this was something that I knew was improbable, impossible, and.... Dammit, why did it happen to me!?
But then I thought back and noted that this was something I had wanted. This was something I had always wanted, deep down, right? I think that was the point when the last straw snapped. The fact that I had wanted that, or at least something like it. Something more than a boring life of the same routine, every day, for the rest of eternity? Yeah, that sounded good.
But then I took a look at the adventure I got. Something incredible, invaluable, and a miracle really if I knew how to look at it. I didn't. At the point when I realized what I had, I also came to the conclusion that I didn't want it. And if I ever had... Not anymore.
I wasn't worthy of it.
Sarcastic, semi-sane, smotheringly annoying girl, a child. And now this? This... what is this anyway?
She told me it wasn't a game. The older version of "myself." Destiny... is definitely not a game. If I had ever thought it was, the last years have most certainly changed my mind.
The other one, the wise goddess whose name I won't mention, had said something to the effect of 'I was capable.'
Capable?
Able to complete the task set before me for heaven knows what reason? Probably. Willing? After what had happened by that point in time... after the attempt, sure. I mean, why not? I'm only controlling the fate of a world, here. I hope one can sense my sarcasm.
At first. That first time... when I realized everything was happening to me at once. Not then, I hadn't been willing then. I would have thrown it away. With steel and a flick of my wrist, I easily could have. I would have thrown the fate of this world that has become my own into the garbage disposal, laughing and joking about it the whole way! At the same time, praying to wake up. Wake up from the nightmare, the dream that was and still is real. Something that shouldn't exist, but does.
Three years ago, I would have... could have destroyed myself and probably everything related to this world that isn't evil.
When diving towards your heart, a dagger really isn't so forgiving.
I was lucky that a certain redheaded ranch girl was. Because I hadn't wanted to admit defeat, to lose... to die. Not really.
Sheik put the book down, thinking that this idea really hadn't been so clever. He'd seen things that no one had been meant to see, and now he almost regretted it.
When he had woken up during the night, in Vaiya's house because he had taken to sometimes staying there during the night to annoy the heck out of Zelda when she woke up, he had found Zelda missing. Which was odd, because the girl usually slept like a rock. She wasn't anywhere to be found in the house, and he did not think that the girl would be outside on a night as snowy and cold as this one.
When he climbed the stairs after checking the windows, anyway, he came across Zelda's room. He walked by it again, noting the door was open just a bit, as it had been when he'd first noticed she was missing from her bed. For some reason, the princess always slept with the door open, as if she was afraid of something taking her in the night. Maybe she really was, he didn't know how the crazy girl's mind worked. But, when he did happen to be awake at odd hours of the night, it was peaceful to pass by her door and see her just sleeping. Eyes closed and body relaxed, instead of alert, defensive and screaming like she usually was.
But she hadn't been there that night. And it had been all too tempting when he'd seen the book lying on her bed. Not the Book, of course, that was stored safely downstairs to be used for her training purposes. A blank book that Vaiya had given her for her last birthday, Zelda seemed to enjoy scribbling things in it every chance she got. Without really realizing he had done it, he walked into her room and opened the book.
He saw poetic things he hadn't even thought the girl capable of thinking, let alone writing. He didn't really pay attention to the words until he reached a page with the heading 'savior.' He recalled her saying, babbling late-night nonsense in years past, that a girl called Malon had been her savior, once. (Though now, he assumed, the Hero of Time was her savior, the only think keeping her sane. It was obvious to most who knew her that she harbored a love for him that even she wasn't fully aware of.) He'd been curious about the ranch girl, and read the page without thinking.
Finding this about Zelda, he thought it might be difficult to look at her in the same way again. He had been aware that her quest to save Hyrule had bothered her from the beginning, but he didn't think that the princess had taken it to such an extreme. And even though many of the things in those short paragraphs didn't make much sense to him, he was sure that they were the writings of her very soul.
And he found that he was now as grateful for this anonymous redhead as Zelda had been those years ago.
His reason, beside the obvious of saving the girl who would eventually save Hyrule, was obscure even to him. Though he and the princess were at each other's throats most of the time, annoying and teasing, he felt a certain attachment to the girl that he couldn't quite place. It made sense in a way because the two were basically mirrors of each other in spirit, but otherwise... The feeling wasn't familiar to him.
Now, though, after having read those words, he decided that he was going to wait until she came back from... wherever it was she had gone. He went down to the kitchen, sat at the table, and waited.
* * *
"I can't believe it took you so long to come and see me," Malon deadpanned after the two girls had finished crying and hugging.
April blinked, almost surprised by the statement. "You are aware that I'm supposed to help save the world, right?"
Malon smiled. "Yeah, but you shoulda found time to come visit."
Both girls knew that the other was teasing, of course. April had told Malon of the things she had done during the time they hadn't seen each other, though she wasn't able to say everything about the mirror dimension, and Malon had filled April in on some of the details of the happenings at the ranch. Apparently, Ingo had taken it over already, having sworn loyalty to Ganondorf. Her dad had been kicked out of the ranch, and had gone to Kakariko just over a month ago. Ingo had kept Malon at the ranch, however, because he insisted that she was the only "useful one." April had felt sick when Malon had told her this.
However, she knew that Malon was a strong person. She was capable of surviving hard times, probably more so than the 'princess' herself was. She had, though, offered to remove Ingo still-beating heart if he'd done anything to harm her. Malon insisted that she just worked a bit harder than she used to, and that she had to stay at the ranch anyway to protect the horses in any way she could.
"You got tall, though!" April noticed, having nothing much else to say.
"Three years will do that to ya."
There was a semi-comfortable silence as April prepared to ask the question she had been dreading.
"So how's Hyrule doing?"
Malon immediately bit her bottom lip and looked at the ground, which was now covered in a light layer of snow.
"Do you wanna hear the good or the bad?"
"Um, bad first. That's always best..." April said hesitantly.
"Well, monsters have been invading Hyrule Field, as I'm sure you've noticed. A lot of people are going nuts and swearing loyalty to Ganondorf. The Gerudo stormed the castle, but that was a few years ago, and I think you were still here when the raid was going on. Oh, and the market is slowly yet steadily turning into a ghost town. Redeads are popping up in the most depressing and abandoned places."
"Anything else?" April said, almost marginally surprised by the large amount of negative things Malon had to say.
"Hm... Not really. Oh, it's been raining a lot... Ever since Link left things have been real desolate..." Malon shrugged slightly as if to signify that she had nothing further to add.
"So, what's the good news?" April asked hopefully.
Malon wavered, looking up at the sky. "Actually, there is none."
April blinked. 'And so it begins...' a voice in the back of her mind muttered.
* * *
Meanwhile, in a secluded forest apart from the places most people were aware of, a small globe of light flitted across a meadow and toward a hollow log. She had a dire message for a certain blonde Princess, whom she had just sensed enter the realm of Hyrule...
* * *
*** Eh? My plot is moving along!? ...... Yeah, it actually is. There's going to be a six or seven chapter little mini series type thingie *coughthatinvolvessixcertainindividualsyouarefamiliarwithcough* then we will get to see the end of the seven years in about one chapter after that! So, since summer is almost here, you can expect this story to be done by the end of July, beginning of August. Okay? ^_^ Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!
PS: Hey, is there anyone out there who has a livejournal? Is there anyone kind enough who could give me one of those activation code things? I'd really appreciate that!
So, please review! You know you wanna!!!
~SailorZelda