23. After the End

"It wasn't a dream," Zelda said firmly, some time later. We were sitting on the steps in her garden, and Zel was explaining how she remembered everything. "No matter how vivid my dreams have gotten, they've never lasted for seven years, or involved stuff like going to sleep, dreaming about other stuff, and waking up in the morning with a hangover."

"When did you have a hangover?" I exclaimed.

"That's not important," Zelda brushed me aside. "What is important is that I remember everything, but no one else seems to."

"What do you mean?"

"When I tried to ask Impa what had happened, and explained to her what I remembered, she thought I was feverish and wanted to send me back to bed! And she was a sage and everything!"

"Hey," I said, latching on to something positive, "you think this means Ruto's forgotten me too?"

"Focus Link!" Zel snapped. "So far, you and I are the only ones who remember what happened, and I'm the only one who remembers most of it, so we've got to make sure that something like this never happens again!"

"Zel."

Instantly she melted. It's always nice to know you have that kind of effect on a girl.

"Calm down, okay? No one's going to get at the Triforce while it's in our hands, and even if they got our parts, Ganondorf's not going anywhere."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She leaned over and snuggled up next to me. "You know, I used to dream of being able to do this."

I stifled a laugh. I had mentally compared Zelda's dreams to my own, and realized that only hers would be coming true for the next few years.

"Hey Link?"

"Hmm?" I looked down at her.

"I want to do something, while I'm still feeling like a woman."

"Huh?"

Zel grabbed my face with both hands, pulled my head down and kissed me on the mouth.

Zelda, as I believe I've said before, is a very good kisser, and this kiss was even better than the first, because I didn't have to feel all conflicted about it. Since we were both only ten years old the kiss was rather chaste, but it held the promise of what could be, once we were old enough for it.

When she released me she was blushing a little, and I'm sure I was too, but we looked at each other and laughed and the awkwardness faded.

I began to look forward to the rest of my life.

zzz

For the next two months, things were all right. I went back to the Kokiri forest and pretended nothing had changed. Saria acted a bit oddly around me at first, perhaps residual memories from her time as a sage, but that faded and my life got back to normal. With one big difference.

I didn't stick around. I visited Zelda often, as often as I could, and I wandered around the rest of Hyrule on a regular basis. I made friends with Malon and Epona again. I got a job with the Happy Mask Salesman. I became proficient at Bombchu bowling, and even took Zelda a few times. Once I managed to sneak her out of the castle for the weekend, and I introduced her to all my friends.

That, in retrospect, may have been the beginning of the end. When Zelda got back from that little excursion she got in an enormous amount of trouble and was confined to the castle for a week. And even after her punishment was over her lessons were doubled and she had almost no free time, and certainly no time for me.

So I spent more and more of my time wandering aimlessly around the country. When Epona got big enough I started wandering with her. And even though I didn't have anything in particular to do, I neglected my friends. One in particular, I hadn't seen once since I came back. A skull kid, the one I given a skull mask to.

Then, almost two months after I returned to my proper age, I went into the Lost Woods and was informed he had gone missing some time ago. The other skull kids were worried, or at least as worried as they ever get, so I went out searching.

I found something, but not what I'd been looking for. I found a hole in Hyrule, that led to another place entirely.

zzz

It was called Termina, and I spent a grand total of three days there. Those three days got very repetitive after I'd lived them for the fifth time, and after the twelfth time I just wanted to give up and let the moon crash into the place. But I didn't. Goddamn heroic instinct.

I won't give you the details (maybe someday I'll write an account of what happened, but not today) but after I got swallowed by the moon and beat the crap out of that possessed mask, I managed to get out of there.

But not back to Hyrule. The hole I'd found this time led to a world called Holodrum, and I spent three weeks trying to find a hole there. That hole led me to Labrynna. The next one, to an empty island that didn't seem to have a name. I spent eight years dimension-hopping, trying to get home, but it never seemed to work.

Some of the worlds I visited were what I liked to call mirror-worlds, where every person in them was the double of someone in another world. Termina was a mirror of Hyrule, but some of the others were mirrors of other places.

When I was eleven I started to get depressed.

When I was twelve I tried to force myself to stop hoping, but failed miserably.

When I was thirteen I met my first Zelda-double. As soon as I got out of there, I bought pants.

When I was fourteen I spent some time in a world full of mechanical contraptions, where the sky was full of greasy clouds and the water had to be boiled before you could drink it. I put the blame on the fact that that world didn't have a Deku Tree, or a Maku Tree, or even fairies. And the people all had small round ears. It took a long time to find a hole there. I think the closer a world is to science, the farther away it is from other worlds.

When I was fifteen I got my ears pierced. No real reason for it, but it was the latest fad in the world I happened to be in. Plus, Zelda had told me she thought it had looked tough. And I still couldn't stop hoping.

When I was sixteen I ran into a tribe not unlike the Gerudos. They wanted to keep me, but this time I actually was saving myself for someone, so I got out of there as fast as I could.

When I was seventeen, I came to your world. I did some research, then passed myself off as an exchange student from Ukraine. Luckily I had picked up a few words in other languages during my travels, so when people asked me to cuss in Ukrainian, I could fake it.

This was several years ago, and the game The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time had just been released. The young son of the family I was staying with was a big video game fan, so of course he had it. He tried to teach me to play, but having lived through the experiences sort of messed with my perceptions, and resulted in my dying. Often.

I was stuck in your world for about six months. Like I said before, science-worlds are hard to get out of. I learned a lot there, but the biggest thing I learned was that no game-figure could ever measure up to the real Zelda, so I doubled my efforts to get out.

When I was eighteen, I finally made it back to Hyrule, and to Zel.

She was never going to forgive me for this.