Ganondorf smiled brightly, his unnaturally white teeth glowing like bone in the moonlight. He let go of the reigns and held out his arms in a friendly gesture of welcome. His horse, the famed and fabled Grimghest, ambled away. This was not his business.
"It's been a long time coming, child, and I cannot say how happy I am the moment is here." He took a step forward and Link's hands flew to his daggers. Ganondorf stopped, and frowned, arms drooping like the tired branches of a dead tree.
"I come to you in peace," he growled, and Link grew surer than ever that the man masked fear. "You'd do well to respond in kind."
"You've earned no trust from me, magician. Speak your riddle or die where you stand."
"So cold!" cried the tall man, arms outstretched again and looking around as if to call for reason and reassurance from any onlookers. The horse snorted and wandered into the abandoned stables, perhaps chasing after the scents of horses long-departed. Link noted that he heard not a step - the animal moved like wind and shadow.
"So cruel, and yet, you yourself have never known me. Must we start off with such baggage?"
"It is ours to carry." Link's voice sounded hard to his own ears, the voice of a man long used to mis-adventure and tired of it. He was not the boy he was when he began this journey - he would never be that boy again. It struck him now that this man, his lifelong antagonist whom he had never set eyes on, who set wave after wave of evil on him, who had been two steps ahead or one step behind in the foot-race to the last lands - Ganondorf was the only thing he had left from the life that once was.
"Do you truly say peace?"
Ganondorf smiled expansively. "I do. I pledge it against all I have hated and slain. Here and now, we do not compete to gain access to the Tower of the Triforce. You have my word as a villain."
Link didn't know what Ganondorf could have said to put him at ease, but these words rang true, even from one as duplicitous as the Thief King. No blades - words. He had yet to know which would prove the more deadly weapon.
His hands relaxed, and he came off the porch into the bright, early-afternoon sun, and then under the shadow of his adversary. Standing before him, Link suspected that Ganondorf could crush him with his arms alone, and feigned ease while inside he fought fear.
"What would you speak of, Thief King? Of worlds lost and friends dead? Of all the steps we've taken in tandem, parallel or alone?"
Ganondorf clapped one wide palm on his shoulder - Link did not flinch, and was proud. "Of these things and more, perchance. I must tend to my horse. Make us a fire to cook on." With that, Ganondorf turned towards the stables and did not look behind him.
Link tried to push his grumbling thoughts away as he gathered broken boards and dry grass together in a bundle. He didn't even turn around. You could have killed him where he stood. Do you think he'd offer you the same grace if you turned your back. He suspected not, but he also knew that to him, his word was his life. His word was what carried him here - the first promise he'd ever made, the last he would ever break: Only the Triforce matters. Only that, and nothing more. Not this creature who would compete for a place beside it. Link knew he would ultimately win, as all heroes do. This was merely a break from the running.
Ganondorf soon returned with his own pack, and Link already had the fire smoldering. Soon it crackled and sparked, the bright flames dulled by the sun overheard, turned into a spirit of it's night-time self. His adversary pulled dried meats from his sack, which he offered to Link, and wet ones, which he bit into with gusto and greed. Link looked away as the blood dribbled down his chin.
They made a stew, and sat in eager silence as it was brought to a boil.
Finally, as Ganondorf set the lid back on the pot, he spoke.
"I could have killed you, you know. More than a thousand chances I had to slay you in your sleep. Do you know why I didn't?"
Link shrugged. "I doubt it was honour. Honour didn't stay your hand when commanding your legions of monsters to kill me."
Ganondorf waved his hand impatiently. "One has nothing to do with the other. You have a goal - I have a different one. Did it ever occur to you that I had as little choice in my part as you do in yours?"
Link shook his head firmly. "No."
Ganondorf sighed. "No matter. The road behind in not the road ahead, and soon we will come to Road's End, where all questions are answered, or at least rendered useless."
They quietly sipped their stew, each daring the other speak again.
It was Ganondorf that yielded - Link later understood that he always would.
"No," the Thief King began, "It was not honour. It was fascination."
Link cocked an eyebrow but did not respond. It was not his place to speak. He had nothing to say.
"I knew of you the day you were born. I knew who you would become. I knew you were the only real threat to come across my path in all the ages, all the worlds I've rent and ruined. I knew this because my Dark Heart spoke it, and it always speaks the truth to me.
"You will remember, I'm sure, the murder of your parents - yes, that act a triumph even in my storied history." He paused to gauge Link's reaction, but found no satisfaction in the stony look returned. He went on. "For my Dark Heart told me that I could kill them, and I could kill your siblings, and I could kill your King and Queen and their beloved Princess - I could fill the world with bodies, and yet, somehow, I could not kill you."
"Then why try?" was Link's only question.
"Such is the bane of evil, I suppose. I could make it hard for you. I hope I didn't disappoint."
Link fought his rage. It was the hardest battle of this long and bloodied road. Everyone is dead because of me. Because of me. He didn't know when he'd convinced himself otherwise, but it hurt like hell to now know it truly, coming from the mouth of his life's greatest enemy.
Link said, "You did not." It was all the concession he could give, and he was surprised to find it leavened the burden a little.
"I didn't think so." Ganondorf grinned a grin so self-satisfied that it was all Link could do not to cleave it from his face.
"But we are here, now, just as I feared, with not but a few days left to go until you reach the Field of Glory. I will no longer dog your steps, my friend and mortal foe. I call you here in peace, and ask you leave alone."