a/n: Hey, guys, I don't own Zelda! Any characters you haven't seen in a zelda game belong to me. Namely, Reona.
Chapter X: Reconciliation
Once I recovered from my temporary blindness, I was overcome with the desire to complete one and only one missionto find Reona.
I had no doubt in my mind that this High Elder guy was serious about hearing Reona's thoughts. He found his way into my dreams, so he could probably do anything. I went back to the area where we'd separated, looking for a trail to follow. But even looking back, my footsteps were the only ones visible. I had no choice but to just head in the same direction we were once going and hope I'd find her eventually.
I found a burned out campfire in one spot, so I assumed I was going the right direction. I was stopped, though, by a tiny piece of paper I found on the ground. I picked it up, finding some sort of musical notation. I frowned, pulling out my ocarina. Reading music wasn't my forteI was much better at playing by ear, but I could read it when the situation called. It was a very haunting tunevaguely familiar from somewhere. I looked at the notes.
It was a backward version of the Song of Time.
"Who on earth left this, and why?" I asked myself, playing it again. Suddenly, I could see a faint purple light in front of me. I followed it, dashing, tripping over anythingI had to get to the light, I just had to.
It was closer than it appeared, and I'd knocked over the source of it and landed on top of it before I even noticed I'd stopped running. I looked at the source of the light, which had now faded. Reona's grey eyes stared up into my blue ones.
"Link, I can't breathe!" she coughed from under me, and I jumped up, feeling nervous. What an awkward reunion. This hadn't been part of my plans. "What is your problem!"
"Did you drop this?" I held out the piece of paper.
"How the heck did you find that!" she yelled, snatching it from me. The indifferent Reona from yesterday or the day before or whenever it had happened was gone. "This is MINE!"
"Whoa, calm down! I found it on the ground, that's all!"
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, smoothing out the paper and putting it in a hidden pocket in her shirtsleeve. "This is a song that was composed by my mother. It was the last and only thing she left to me. It has...sentimental value."
"It makes you glow purple," I said, the simplistic nature of a sentence that should have been more complex making me feel rather unintelligent.
"Mother was a strong mage," Reona shrugged. "I never questioned her power in anything."
"You will surpass her powers," I stated suddenly, knowing it would be true.
"You think?" she asked with a small smile, staring at the sky.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"I'm sorry for...my inappropriate attitude and"
"no, it's fine," I smiled. "We're good now, okay?"
"Okay," she nodded. "Shall we continue onto Symmetry Village?"
"Yeah. Are we close?"
"Very," she nodded. "Once we leave this forest, it's just a short distance up a trail and we'll be there."
I was kind of surprised.
"We've covered a lot of distance, then?"
"This area was a large expanse," she answered. "I've been walking nonstop, except for a two-hour break. You must have run fast."
Judging by how out of breath I was when I'd arrived, I guessed she was correct. We walked in silence for awhile as I debated whether to mention my dream about the High Elder or not. We finally made it out of the forest into a clear expansealmost. A mountain loomed in front of us, the forest behind us, but empty meadow to the right and left. Reona looked to the right and stopped. I looked as well, watching the sun set.
"It's...beautiful," I said, watching pink and reds mix with hazy purples as the sun said its final goodbye. "The colors...so splendid."
"I wish I could see them," she smiled wistfully. I looked at her, confused. "I'm fully colorblind," she explained. "I see nothing but black and white."
"That's weird. Very few people have that, and most of those are males," I said. "Well, it's like that where I come from."
"It's the same in Labrynna," she shrugged. "I used to have the ability, but it was taken away from me."
"The High Elder?" I frowned.
"Yes," she nodded. "I was thankful that his punishment was not more severe. He could have taken my sight in general, so I'm glad he didn't."
Instead he took away her perception of beauty. I was growing to hate this man more and more as time passed. I heard a strange noise, and looked over at Reona. She had pulled out a harmonica and was playing the song that I'd found of hers.
"Let me teach you a song," I said, pulling out my ocarina. I played Zelda's Lullaby. "This is a song that is only known by an elite few in my world. It's helped me out in many occasions."
She played along with me, and we played together for awhile, just enjoying the song. Once she got a feel for it, she started harmonizing with my melody ocarina, and I was content just to enjoy the music. Once the last of the light from the sun had disappeared, Reona quickly magicked up a fire.
"So, tell me about yourself," she asked after a bit of silence. I looked over to her. She was sprawled out on the grass, staring up at the sky. I was sitting on a stump close to the fire, enjoying it's warm glow.
"I saved the world from a destruction that it doesn't even know was going to happen," I said quietly.
"How'd that happen?" she looked confused.
"I traveled through time. Seven years ahead. Defeated Ganon. He's like your Shadow. When we won, I went back in time. It was like nothing ever happened. I'm...the only one that really knows. I told the Princess, but she...I don't know how much she knows. Nobody else really knows, though. Nobody," I said. These were the thoughts I never told anyone. Not Saria, not Malon, not Navi, not Zelda...nobody.
"That must be a horrible, horrible feeling," she said quietly.
"Everybody's afraid of me. They look at me like I'm insane. Zelda tried explaining that I was a hero, but nobody understood. Now they just think I'm an evil, insane, raging lunatic!" I slammed my fist into the ground, making her jump a little in surprise. "Everyone does!"
She stood up, stretched, and walked behind me, massaging my shoulder muscles. Nobody had ever done this before, and it's really hard to effectively do it yourself. I was shocked at the relief my tensed up muscles suddenly felt.
"I don't, Link," she said simply.
"It never crossed your mind?"
"Nope," she smiled.
"It would have if you would have lived there," I sighed. "It's just your separation from the incident that makes you so confident in me."
"No...I read a story much like yours, once," she said. "A young boy drew a Sword of Light, the Master Sword it was called, from a pedestal after using the secrets of the world to unlock it. Evil also got in, so the boy always felt the guilt of giving evil access to the all-powerful Triforce. The boy got strong and acquired the help of his elders, who helped him cross over to the evil. He defeated the evil and it was like the world knew nothing had even happened. All thought he were insane. But the boy was always my favorite character! One of my friends thought that he would have been insane after all of that, but I always sympathized with him. He was brave, and he did what most people wouldn't even think of. In addition to that, he continued to live after such a terrifying ideal instead of giving up to the false hope of suicide. That took a lot."
I turned around and looked at her.
"Reona, where did you hear that story?"
"It was one that my mother published. She often published many stories. Mother was, without a doubt, created by Farore. The Oracle of Secrets was always telling her many mysteries."
"Ree..." I stared into her eyes, hardly able to believe that she could know all this without me ever telling her. "That's...that's my story."
She looked a little surprised.
"I can only imagine the pain you must feel, every day," she said quietly, gently brushing the hair off of my forehead with one of her hands and then laying her palm against my skin. Her hands were cold, I noted. She said a few words very quietly, and then her hand was surrounded by blue light. She abruptly walked away from me, laying down in the grass and closing her eyes.
"Reona? What was that all about?"
"Your nightmares are gone," she yawned. "Let me sleep, Link."
And so I did.
a/n: o.O
xifa
