Chapter 12

The light faded, melting back into the familiar curves and angled lines of reality. The gust of a cool breeze took over, and the Shadow Lord found himself kneeling in a clump of flattened grass, the earthy scent of soil hanging in the air. His head spun, the disorientation of portal travel almost making his stomach heave. He could feel Navi darting about above their heads, could see the patterns her illuminated form cast onto the ground. In a dim corner of his mind not throbbing with pain, Link was aware that it was night time, and that starlight shone from above. Nearby, he heard Zelda's laboured breathing, and knew she was suffering from the same affliction he was. He pushed his hands into the earth, taking comfort in the crumbly mass under his fingers, then took in a deep breath. He never realised that this would hurt so much.

The Princess gasped. "Darknut!"

Link snapped his eyes up. "What did you call me?"

"No." Zelda stumbled onto her feet, tumbling backwards as she did so, and pointed with a trembling finger. "A Darknut! I'd heard about them from stories, but I'd never believed…" Her voice trailed off as shock tightened her throat.

Pulling himself upright, the Shadow Lord peered ahead for a closer look. A massive, hulking creature approached them, its wide frame covered in oversized armour, the horned helmet on its head plunging its face into darkness. It moved with a clunky, plodding pace, and each step it took, each deep thud as its foot crushed grass, made the ground tremble ever so slightly. It carried a colossal sword in one hand, so large that it seemed impossible that anyone could even lift it.

With a metallic creak of its neck, it turned to face Link. The Shadow Lord felt his mouth go dry.

"Run, Link," Zelda pleaded through clenched teeth. "We have to get out of here."

Link would have been very much inclined to agree. Except at that very moment there came the sound of a metal plate sliding open. Something rumbled from deep inside the Darknut's enormous form, the very air itself shaking with the momentum. A lick of flame burst from the creature's face, engulfing the Shadow Lord's head momentarily with a bright orange glow. Zelda screamed.

When the fiery display dissolved into darkness, Link found to his relief that he was very much alive and unhurt. His reflexes were still quick; he'd managed to duck at the very last moment. And yet, he could feel that he was missing something. Something terribly important. A cold sensation slid over his stomach. Slowly, so very slowly, the Shadow Lord raised his head – and there, where his magnificent, beautiful, dashing Green Hat had once proudly sat, there was now nothing but a speck of shrivelled black ash.

Link's eyes and mouth both stretched open. He gasped. He wanted to protest. Wanted to say something. Anything. But all that came from his mouth was a long, low squeak.

"Link!" Zelda called. "Let's go!"

What was wrong with her? Couldn't she see the calamity that had just befallen him? He could hear the Darknut edging noisily closer, but he just didn't care.

"Hey! Link!" Navi added her voice to Zelda's. "We have to run!"

The Shadow Lord flicked a look at the Princess, then at the fairy, then back to Zelda. The Princess, concern flooding her features, asked, "What's the matter?"

Link opened his mouth. "………haaaaaaaaaaaat….."

Zelda's warm expression turned to hot anger instantly. "Forget the hat, Link."

"…..haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat….."

"Link!" She was seething now. "Forget. The. Hat."

The Shadow Lord, hands curling to fists as he crouched into an attack position, turned to the Darknut. "RRRrrrrr!"

"No!" Zelda grabbed onto his arm. "You don't have any weapons." He looked at her, saw the various emotions dancing across her face. "Look…listen." Her eyes were darting to and fro, as though she were desperately trying to grasp at some far off idea. "The hat. The hat wouldn't want you to sacrifice yourself like this." She looked distinctly embarrassed for some reason, but the Shadow Lord found her words compelling. "Escape, Link. Live to fight another day." Her eyes grew wide and filled with tears, a pleading tone coming into her voice. "Please. Do it for the hat."

The Shadow Lord snapped back into his normal demeanour. "You're right, love." He nodded. "Let's move." Twirling around, he raised a fist. For a heartbeat, he was framed in the faint starlight and cut a dashing figure. "And you, Darknut. For the suffering you've caused this day, for the horrific act that you're perpetrated, I swear you'll pay. Oh yes, mate, are you going to pay…"

Zelda tugged him as she began to run. "Come on."

The trio sprinted over the hill and down into a valley. The landscape was surprisingly bare - no dwellings, no buildings, and only a few trees. The Shadow Lord slipped once, his shoulder banging into the sharp edge of a rocky outcropping. It tore through his tunic and bit into his skin. Link hissed, felt the soft warm splash of blood on his arm, then pulled himself up and carried on.

Soon they found themselves at the foot of another hill and, realising that they'd lost their pursuer, they stopped to rest. Link, after clearing away the moss and lichen with a brush of his hand, sat himself down on a boulder. Zelda lay flat on the floor, her eyes closed as she tried to regain her breath. Navi hovered slowly above, glancing nervously behind once or twice.

The Shadow Lord stretched his legs and let his head roll back as he waited for his thudding heart to still. "A Darknut," he murmured. "I could have beaten it."

Zelda kept her eyes shut. "How so?" she said from the corner of her mouth.

"See, that's another thing about Hyrule, love," he went on. "The monsters here are a bit…how do I say it?…weedy." He held up his palms, as though he were a Hylian scholar about to embark on a lecture. "Take Dodongo, for example. All I had to do was rough him about for a bit, and then hit his tail for a sum total of three times." He shook his head. "Three times! Then he explodes! I'm wondering - how in the world did he live in Death Mountain for all that time without hitting himself three times? Can you imagine his predicament when nature called? It's a miracle he survived for that long, I tell you." Silence hung for but a moment. "Do you know what I think, love?"

Zelda's brow twitched. "What?"

"Sensitive skin. That's what his problem was. He'd been holed away from the light of the sun for so long that all it took is three thwacks with a sword and – poof! – one dead Dodongo." His voice started to fade, as though he were reminiscing to himself. "Couldn't just drop down dead, either. Had to explode, too. And you have to wonder at the Gorons – if its so easy to kill, why'd they send a young boy down there to do the dirty deed? Bleedin lazy, that's what I think."

The Princess sat up straight, her eyes flying open. "This isn't Hyrule," she said. "And this isn't the castle." She turned to fix him with a pointed look. "You said the portal would take us to another part of the castle."

The Shadow Lord shrugged helplessly. "That's what was written, love. In the books, you know." He looked up at the clear night sky. "It certainly doesn't seem like any place familiar."

"So where are we?"

Link continued to gaze up. "So long as we don't see a moon with a particularly evil grin on its face, we should be safe."

Zelda frowned. "What?"

The Shadow Lord lowered his eyes to meet hers. "I don't know where we are, love. It's possible we've been transported to some other place entirely. Some other land entirely. It was sort-of mentioned in some of the scrolls, like an afterthought. A negative consequence, if you will. There'd been reports that people had tried the portals in the past and had ended up in all sorts of strange places. Places where apes ruled, or giant, metal, shape-shifting men battled each other." He shrugged again. "One poor soul ended up in some sort of bizarre fungus kingdom. But, anyway, most people were transported to another place in the castle. In fact, nine out of every ten. Just our luck to be the odd ones out."

There was a moment's silence before the Princess said, "So, you were wrong?"

An equally long pause followed, then, "Yes, I was, love." A smile played on his lips. "Unlike some people, I do know when to admit when I'm wrong." He cocked his head. "Well, most of the time, I do."

The Princess stared. "Are you trying to imply that I don't know when to admit my mistakes?"

Link held up his hands in a gesture of mock-surrender. "Did I say that, love?" he said, forcing feigned innocence into his voice. "Of course, if the shoe fits…"

Zelda's eyes flashed, and she moved to let fly with a retort. Then, all of a sudden, she stopped, and her face softened. Her eyes fell to his wound. "Here," she said, leaning over towards him. "Let me see that."

He slapped her hand away. "Leave it out, love," he growled. "Feeling a little down, are you? Thought you might give yourself a boost by being helpful?"

She looked at him, her eyes wide. "No," she said softly. "Just let me see it."

The Shadow Lord hesitated a moment longer. Then, seeing the tenderness in her expression, he relented with a nod. She smiled, then busied herself with the wound. Link gazed at her, and found his heart thudding. She was a little too close to him here. He could see the long strands of her hair, could smell the flowery scent of her perfume. Her face was creased with concentration, her touch gentle.

"Navi," Zelda called, without looking up. "A little light, please." The fairy duly complied, slowly descending to hover above Link's arms. The little woman looked at the Shadow Lord, then started furiously gesturing with her head. Link got the message.

"So," he said. "Married, eh?" The word felt strange on his tongue and, though his heart responded with a thrill, he just found the whole thing too bizarre. "How'd that happen?"

Still not bothering to look up, Zelda tore a strip from her dress, then began to wind it around his wound. "I was just a little girl. You'd just come back from that other timeline. I was smitten, stupid. As a Princess, I thought I could do anything. So I decreed that we'd be married." She sighed. "My father thought it was a splendid idea, even had a ring made. Said that as soon as we both came of age, it would be official."

"I don't remember any of this."

A shadow of sadness fell across the Princess' face. "Some crazy wizard thought he could take over Hyrule by hitting my father and myself with memory charms."

Link digested the information. "Not a very smart plan. Everyone else would have remembered who you were."

Zelda glanced up at him and smiled. "I said he was crazy, didn't I?" Her smile became a grin. For a moment, Link was lost. Everything he knew about her – her kindness, her gentle manner, her very being – all of it seemed to be poured into that smile, and moreover, seemed to dance in her eyes, burning with an almost dazzling light. Despite the long scar down her face, the Shadow Lord could almost imagine that she was beautiful once again. Almost.

"So," he went on, blinking, "what happened next?"

"There," Zelda said, tightening the bandage. "Finished." She leaned back. "You stopped him. He tried to hit us with the charm, and you threw yourself into its path." Her expression grew distant. "When you awoke it seemed you'd lost all your memories. Well, not all – you'd forgotten everything you'd experienced from the very point you returned to this time. We decided, my father and myself, that since I'd sent you back here so you could relive your childhood that it wouldn't be fair of us to remind you of…ah…us." She tilted her head slightly. "Well, me. Since you'd probably try to play the hero all over again." She paused for a heartbeat. "So, I left you. And tried not to contact you in any way. I did watch you, though. For a long time, I watched you. I was pleased for you. I saw how you were gaining prominence in the court, saw how you were becoming so astute in politics." Her eyes met his, and he held her gaze. "Saw how you were becoming a completely different person."

The Shadow Lord lowered his eyes, his mind and heart crowded with conflicting thoughts and feelings. He tried desperately to make some sort of sense of what she'd just said, but found that he couldn't. For the second time this day, he was forced to admit that he might have been wrong about a lot of things – matters related to Zelda and himself, that is. As her words tumbled in his mind, a sudden shock of realisation made him glance up again. "Wait," he said. "You said…this marriage thing…happened…after you sent me back?"

Zelda gave him a quizzical look. "Yes, after. When you returned as a boy."

"So…you…wanted this to happen…after I came back…"

Her frown deepened. "That's what I said." She blinked. "I don't understand, what's the problem?"

Link shook his head. "Nothing." He gave a small laugh. For some reason he felt as though a knot had been untied in his heart, an overwhelming sense of well-being flooding his soul like the breaking of a dam. "I guess I misjudged you, love. I'm sorry."

Now it was Zelda's turn to look as though she'd just had a tremendous burden lifted from her. "Don't fret over it."

The Shadow Lord was distracted by a soft sound, like the bubbling of a spring. He glanced in its direction. "Navi," he said. "Stop sniffling."

"Hey," she replied, wiping away a tear. "Sorry!"

"So," Link said, swinging back around to face the Princess. "All we have to do now is," he looked up, "is…" The Shadow Lord's mouth fell open, his whole body radiating with shock.

"What is it?" Zelda said, moving to glance over her shoulder.

"No!" Link cried. When he spoke again, it was from the corner of his mouth. "Don't move. Don't…make…any…sudden…movements." His chest felt tight, as though it were being crushed by a giant fist, and cold sweat sprang up on his skin. The wind blew against it, made it tingle.

"What's happening?" the Princess breathed. "Is it the Darknut?"

Slowly the Shadow Lord shook his head. His teeth began to chatter as he surveyed the horror moving towards them. "Something worse," he gasped. "Something far worse. Oh, by all that is holy, I'd rather face a horde of Ganons than this."

They were coming closer now, tightly packed like a well-oiled army. They marched onwards, their eyes narrowed, gleaming with murderous intent.

"Zelda, Navi," the Shadow Lord whispered. "When I say 'run', you all make a dash for safety, and just pray – pray – that we come out of this alive."

The Princess' broken face wore a mask of sheer terror. "But what is it?"

Trembling, Link began to ready himself to move, the muscles in his legs tensing. They were a shadow moving across the land now – and they'd all honed in on the three friends. This was far, far worse than losing his hat.

"What is it?" he whispered as he curled his hand around Zelda's wrist. "Cuccos!" He yanked her to her feet, turned, then began to sprint, Navi screaming through the air ahead of them. "Run! Run for your lives!"