Chapter Fourteen—Water

As soon as I was outside Gerudo Valley, I changed my clothes, eyes, ears, nose, skin and hair by magic into those of Sheik. Then I dropped to my knees. I felt as though I hadn't slept for days, and I just couldn't hold myself up any longer. Crossing the Haunted Wasteland twice in one day didn't leave me much energy for trekking across Hyrule Field. I decided to just rest my eyes. Just a short rest, I promised, curling into a ball on the sport, then I'd be on my way.

—Link was drowning—

The vision cut across my mind and disappeared in a split second, but it was enough to make my eyes shoot open and my heart start racing. I was gasping for air as if I couldn't get enough of it, as if I was trying to breathe for myself and Link both.

I tried to think straight. Link couldn't be drowning, not when he was wearing his Zora tunic…but was he wearing it? Surely he wouldn't have been stupid enough to take it off.

At the edge of my mind, the vision waited. My will power was holding it off. But I needed to watch it. Trying to calm myself, I closed my eyes let it return.

Everything was confusion; it took several moments for me to make out what was happening amid the frantic splashing, the random shapes and colours.

Be rational, I told myself. I took a deep breath and looked carefully.

Link was underwater, struggling to surface. His left hand held the Master Sword, and his right held the hookshot I had seen him use before. He was thrashing wildly, entangled in the limbs of blue and yellow spider-like creatures with staring, red eyes. I had seen their kind hopping over the surface of Lake Hylia and along Death Mountain Trail—Tektites. Here, they swarmed madly over Link, preventing him from breaking through to get air…

Abruptly, one of the arachnidan Tektites let out a squeal and leapt back in pain; the others stopped moving entirely. Link had caught the soft underside of the first with his sword, and in the pause, he managed to break through the water and gasp for breath. I, too, felt as if I could now take air into my body freely.

But the Tektites weren't through. They recovered from their apparent shock and fear, only to move against Link with more violent anger. But this time, he was ready.

He took a deep breath and dove, swerving deftly beneath the water, using his hookshot in quick shots to paralyse the enemies that struggled to attack him. When he had immobilized all of them, he swam to a nearby edge and pulled himself up out of the water.

Now I got a good look at him: he was soaked from head to foot, of course, wearing his green tunic without the hat, which I supposed he had lost in the struggle, and his shield was missing from his back. He was injured, I noticed, but I the rest of the room distracted me from this. Navi was zooming about on the far side of the space, circling a monster I had never seen the likes of before that was located on a level higher up than the one on which Link stood. It looked something like a slug standing upright, with a great, leeching mouth that was leaning out towards Link, though he was far from its reach. Link glared at it, wiping his sopping hair from his eyes, and muttered, "Nice try."

To cross the room, Link performed a series of hookshot manoeuvres involving shooting himself across to statues of dragon's heads, and raising and lowering the water level by hitting coloured crystal switches. He finally drew level with the horrible slug thing by standing on one of the dragon's heads as it raised up, then using his hookshot to pull himself up and over a row of large, deadly spikes.

He was still just out of reach of the monster, so it lifted its mouth and slithered towards him, waving like grotesque seaweed. He calmly put away his hookshot and used his sword on it instead, slashing with all his strength, making it lunge away in spasms of pain. After a few strokes, it shrivelled, shrunk in on itself, and dissolved away. In its wake were left Link's Zora tunic and Hylian shield. He put down his sword to snatch up his clothes, which were dry, and slipped off his green tunic over his head to replace it with his blue one; he was wearing his white shirt and tights underneath, but I still don't think he would have done it if he'd known I could see him. He slung his shield onto his back and tucked away his wet clothes, which squelched unpleasantly, then sank to the ground.

"Link, are you hurt?" asked Navi, who was fluttering anxiously near his face.

"Nah… Tired, that's all."

He looked much more than tired. He was shaking slightly and a black eye was blossoming gruesomely on his face. Evidently he had been fighting hard before he lost his Zora tunic, because there were some rips in his clothes through which blood was seeping. He examined one such cut on his left upper arm and commented, "Damn Tektites took a piece of out me."

Navi made a small worried noise.

"I'm fine," he told her bluntly before she could speak. "Let's—Aw, man."

He had reached up to wipe back his hair, and noticed that his hat was gone. Grumbling in irritation, he turned back and squeezed between the spikes so that he could see the Tektites again; they had thrown off their paralysis and were jumping frantically towards him again, though he was easily out of their reach. A series of swift arrows from the quiver on his back dealt with each one of them quickly, and when they were all dead, he jumped down into the water and grabbed a small, dark shape that was drifting under the water. His hat. He shoved it back onto his head when he had climbed back out of the water.

"That's much better," he told Navi, putting on a smile to reassure her. "Let's go."

At that point, the vision faded, and I was left seeing nothing but the darkness of my closed eyes. I remained concerned, however, and stood up slowly to begin my walk to Lake Hylia. There were faster ways to get there, but I kept my guard up and I didn't want to try anything right now. I had a feeling that whatever Link was doing wasn't over.

I began to regain some strength as I walked, which I hoped was a sign that Link was as well, and soon I became confident that another vision wasn't coming. At any rate, there wasn't any indication that he was dying, and I was certain the goddesses would have told me somehow if he was.

Just when I was sure the danger was past, of course, a vision came so quickly and violently that I cried out. I had let my guard down, so it had struck; my body went rigid and pain pierced my skull. I pressed my hands against my closed eyes, gritting my teeth, and tried to adjust my mind so that I could actually see what the goddesses were sending to my mind.

It was by far the most disturbing vision They had yet given me.

In a space with no boundaries that I could see, with a skeletal dead tree in the middle and a locked door framed by nothing set at a distance on either side of it, standing in an inch of water that reflected the infinity all around, Link was viciously locked in combat with a dark figure. They were fighting so closely that I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began; it was as if each was trying to consume the other. Then the dark figure stepped back, out of the violent embrace, and I saw it clearly.

It was Link. But it wasn't; it was only a shadow of him, semi-transparent and black as smoke, with staring red eyes like dying stars. His sword and shield were identical to those of the real Link, but translucent black instead of glinting metal. No fairy fluttered around Dark Link protectively. He wasn't alive.

Yet the two Links seemed to be of one mind. They moved in such unison that I couldn't tell who had initiated the action and who was just responding. Their blades rang against each other in strokes of identical skill and power. Occasionally, one slipped through the other's defences. It disturbed me that whether good or evil struck a blow, it looked and sounded the same.

I couldn't see how either one of them would win in such a perfectly equal match; then I noticed something seemed to be changing.

Each time Link managed to deal an attack to Dark Link, the latter became blacker and more solid. He also became slightly more independent, first making small moves that the real Link didn't, gradually starting to take entire steps and jumps of his own accord. Soon it would be easy for Dark Link to win, able to read Link's mind but not bound to follow it.

Even worse than this, if such a thing were possible, was the look on Link's face. He was gritting his teeth almost as if he were in pain, and I could see him flinch every time he landed a blow. It was easy to understand why he was having a hard time with this. He was trying to kill himself. Here was another place where Dark Link had the advantage. He didn't have a heart and soul; the real Link did. And this was straining both of them to the limits.

My stomach dropped. No one could possibly drive a sword through their own body in hand to hand combat like this.

However, the Hero of Time wasn't called that for nothing, and he wasn't stupid. Apparently he foresaw the same problems I did, because he changed his strategy. To my confusion and surprise, he sheathed his sword and slung his shield over his back. I panicked, wondering what he thought he was doing as he stepped away from his counterpart and… Was he dancing? He was taking a step backwards, swinging his arms over his head… No, he was throwing something at the ground, in what I thought was an overly elaborate way, though I didn't see him holding anything as he brought his hand down. I did notice, however, that Dark Link didn't seem to know what to do when his opponent used something other than a sword and shield; he was just standing there.

From nowhere, a dome of fire expanded around the real Link as he stood with one hand near the ground. It flew out and hit Dark Link, but didn't kill him, since he wasn't flesh and couldn't catch fire. He did, however, double over and let out a grunt of pain in Link's voice.

Several times, Link performed the manoeuvre. Lunging back, swinging his arms in a circle, throwing what looked like nothing but was obviously a source of fire, and sending up a deadly dome that struck his Dark self. I was impressed at Link's innovation in using the spell, which, working from a way off, kept him safe from his enemies attacks. At the same time, it served to distance him physically from the combat so that he could distance himself emotionally. It was the fire doing the killing, not him.

It did take quite a few hits, more than I would have thought, but Dark Link finally succumbed. With a last cry of agony, he fell through the reflective floor with the substance of a shadow.

The real Link didn't relax, anticipating a trap, but his fears weren't realized. As if to show that the evil had been purged from it, the room dropped its illusionary qualities. Walls and a ceiling appeared as the mirage of endless space melted away, and the water became transparent instead of reflective. Link stood now in a room that was perfectly ordinary, albeit a little wet, next to a dead tree. He was looking around suspiciously, but the mysterious atmosphere was gone, and the doors at either end of the room—which, it was now obvious, were not sitting in the middle of emptiness but were set in walls—unlocked. Link cast around from one end of the room to the other carefully, only then becoming convinced that the battle was over.

Chuckling, he looked at what he was holding in his left hand, then threw it playfully in the air and caught it. It glinted, and I saw it was a crystal radiating from within a red light. That crystal… a magic spell. Din's Fire!

"Didn't see that coming, did you, mister… Evil Link or whatever you were," he said to the empty room.

"Dark Link," corrected Navi, who knew the names of all Ganondorf's creatures.

"Yeah, that," Link acknowledged. "He put up a good fight, just not good enough. If he's the worst thing Ganondorf's planning to throw at me, I'm not worried."

Unexpectedly, or perhaps not, Navi asked with concern, "Are you okay, Link?"

A shadow of some dark emotion crossed his face. He stopped tossing the crystal, and tucked it away, not looking at Navi as he muttered, "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

Yet he was very clearly not as "fine" as he claimed. What he had just done would weigh heavily on his mind for the rest of his life. I doubted he would ever forget the sight of his own pained and dying face. I knew I wouldn't.

That was Dark Link's purpose, I realized. He was not intended to be an enemy that was physically challenging to beat, though he certainly was that as well. He served to scar Link psychologically, to make him hate himself and what he had to do. To thus attempt to drive the Hero of Time away from his destiny.

As soon as this occurred to me, the vision cut out, as though its intention had been to lead me to that conclusion. I stood in the middle of Hyrule Field with my hands over my face.

It took a moment before the meaning of the vision struck me. Dark Link must have been the final boss of the Water Temple, meaning that Link was about to move onto the Spirit Temple! But first I had to get to Lake Hylia to meet him—

No, wait. That didn't make sense. Whenever I received a vision of Link at the end of a Temple, it was fragmented, and afterwards, Link was transported to the Chamber of Sages, not just allowed through a locked door. That meant that Dark Link was nothing more than a particularly difficult enemy in the middle of the Temple, some sort of prelude or warning of what was yet to come, perhaps.

Please let him be okay. I can't help him.

Needless to say, I was pacing nervously when I arrived at Lake Hylia. I walked in circles around the small island in the middle of the lake, which was in fact that roof of the Temple. I wanted news of Link's condition. I wanted to know what was happening. I glanced continually at the small platform in the middle of the island, the warp point where I knew Link would eventually appear.

Finally, I felt a vision verging slowly. I set down, reclining against the single, large tree on the island, and closed my eyes to watch.

It was blurry and vague, appropriately enough as though I was seeing it through water. Link was standing on the edge of a room whose walls were each lined with a row of large and deadly spikes pointing into the middle. Most of the room was filled with water of an unnaturally bright shade of blue, and there were four platforms at intervals in the pool. I took in all of this in a brief second; then the battle began.

Everything swam in and out of focus. I saw a huge tentacle of water reaching up out of the pool… Link was armed with his hookshot, though it was purple now for some reason… there was a red, electric-looking bulge in the water, like a nucleus… Link was shooting for it… the tentacle lunged towards Link, but he dodged it… he grabbed the nucleus with his hookshot, pulled it towards him and slashed at it… I thought he looked as though he had some minor injuries, cuts and bruises… another tentacle was emerging… it grabbed him…

The tentacle was flailing Link about wildly, and although he was shouting, he sounded more annoyed and inconvenienced than scared or in pain... Then I saw the Master Sword fly from his grip, clattering on the edge of the pool, balancing near the water's edge, almost falling in…

I saw the scene in perfect detail, so clearly it was almost in slow motion, as the water flung Link towards the merciless metal spikes. He cried out as he soared across the room, and struck the wall hard. His back was protected from the spikes by his shield… but his head whipped backwards and slammed against the stone with an audible crack.

For a moment, time stopped. He was flat against the wall, his eyes wide with shock, his mouth slightly open in a gasp. Then he slid down to the floor, taking an age to fall sideways and hit the hard, wet stone without even making an effort to stop himself. There he lay without moving; his eyes were blank and staring, and a trickle of blood was seeping from the back of his head. His neck was bent at a grotesque angle. His chest wasn't rising and falling with breath. His bruised and beaten body, crafted by the goddesses to be perfect, was still.

So was my heart in my chest and my breath in my lungs. I simply could not understand what I was seeing.

No…

"No—NO! LINK! LINK!"

I realized I was screaming, screaming his name over and over. It tore at my throat, but I didn't care and I didn't stop. I felt sick. My head was spinning. I didn't know what was happening. My thoughts were incoherent.

He's not, he can't be, that would mean Ganondorf won, it's not fair, I never said goodbye, he never saw me, he never knew, he'll never know, it's over, it's all over…

Something more was happening. A small pink sparkle was floating over Link's body. A fairy. Oh, Navi, didn't she know? Couldn't she tell?

No, it couldn't be. Navi was a guardian fairy, and she was blue. This fairy was pink. Pink fairies were—my heart leapt painfully—healing fairies!

Already, magic was spreading over Link's body, healing his wounds. The blood staining his hair remained, but the flow stopped. His skin smoothed over, his bruises faded, and his whole body returned to perfect health. He took a deep, shuddering breath, blue eyes slowly opening. Life returned to them like fire. The fairy was gone, leaving Link as strong and healthy as if he'd never sustained an injury, though the state of his clothes and the blood stain on the wet stone attested otherwise.

"He's alive…" I whispered, tears sliding down my face.

He jumped to his feet and spotted his sword, teetering on the edge of the water. Springing halfway across the room, he grabbed it before it could fall and resumed his fighting stance; he grinned up aggressively at the aquatic tentacle that waved threateningly in the air before him. I was so relieved that my entire body went limp and I felt slightly dizzy.

"Oh, he's really alive!"

My mind was so clouded by emotion after that point that I could barely see the vision and I certainly didn't care much about it. Link was alive. That was what mattered. So it seemed to me unexpectedly soon that Link dealt the deathblow to the pulsating, red blob that was the heart and mind of the electric blue water. The image of Link, alive and well, faded faster than I wanted it to.

Opening my eyes, I found that my heart was thumping hard. I sighed and lifted a trembling hand to my forehead. Link would be here soon, after he finished talking to Ruto, and I would have to compose myself before then. I giggled nervously to myself; he wouldn't want to prolong that conversation, though she might. Trying to calm myself, to look wise and emotionally aloof, a stood up and began to pace again.

Two things happened simultaneously: a beam of blue light over the warp point announced Link's impending arrival, and Lake Hylia began to refill slowly but surely with a deep, luxurious roar of water.

Link blinked in surprise when he touched down from the light. "Sheik!" he called out to me. "I didn't expect to see—"

He cut himself off, and his welcoming smile disappeared to be replaced by a concerned frown.

"You look like…you've been crying."

Startled, I lowered my head and turned away, towards the water, but Link circled around to look at me. He reached out, apparently to lift my face up to his, and I stepped swiftly out of his reach.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, dropping his arm to his side and looking confused.

"Oh. Nothing. No. I—I…" Casting around for a change of subject and putting on a gruff exterior, I asked, "Did Ruto want to thank me?"

"Yeah, she did," Link replied, still frowning. "Are you sure—?"

"Look," I interrupted, indicating the lake in the hope that the scenery would distract him. He looked casually over his shoulder, but when he saw it, he turned fully around and stared incredulously. I, too, standing next to him, took in the view.

"It's amazing," he said softly.

It was beautiful; the sun was shimmering across the gentle ripples of the water as it rose, lapping towards the emerald grass. The light also caught wisps of his blond hair and made them glow like a halo around his face. It was one of the few times when Link wasn't laughing to downplay the seriousness of a situation; for once I could see the part of him that was a child in Kokiri Forest, that liked to ride across Hyrule Field just to feel the wind, that was in love with Malon, that missed having a family, and that was a heart and soul instead of just a hero.

This moment could make him forget Dark Link. All this was worth fighting for.

As I watched him gaze out over everything, I wanted to touch him just to make sure he was real. I couldn't forget the image in my mind of his lifeless body, lying broken and bleeding on the wet stone, and wonder how he could be standing before me.

"Life is amazing," I told him, the words so quiet I wasn't sure if he could hear me.

I reached out a hand towards his arm, but stopped myself. Silently, stifling the pain it caused me to do so, I stepped backwards, out of his range of vision.

"Sheik," he said quietly, "how do you do it? How do you always know where to be and how to help and…"

He turned around and saw that I was gone; I had jumped out of sight into the high branches of the tree. Link looked around for me, but didn't think to look up.

"Navi, did you see him go?"

"No…"

"I'll see you again," I whispered.

I dove from the tree into the lake, found where I had tucked away the Farore's Wind crystal, and allowed myself to disappear back to the Desert Colossus.