A/N: Link's back! Yay! Mudora has great plans for the adulthood, working in a pretty decent inner story. He is excited about the whole thing. He's got it all mapped out in his head almost completely up to the Shadow Temple! After that it's a bit vague with some definite moments.
So, Mudora's finally worked out a time-travel befitting the Hero of Time that he thinks works VERY well, and is pretty stinkin' awesome! Enough small talk (before Mudora starts giving everything away!)… Let's get started!
A Hero's PathChapter 23: A Gift from Beyond the Grave
Rain beat down upon Link's head as he stared down into Kakariko Valley. Three or four feet of standing water covered the floor of the valley. It appeared as though rain had been falling ever since he had disappeared from Hyrule. He occasionally saw people rush from one building to another, bearing worn umbrellas and forlorn expressions. The low cloud that covered the valley cast a shadow of gloom upon it, and the ring of fire around Death Mountain cast a red glow on everything through the clouds.
He could see some houses toward the bottom of the valley standing in states of disrepair as the pool washed the lower portions of their structures. They had obviously been abandoned long ago due to the flooding. Those who lived in them must have been miserable giving up the place they had lived for most of their lives. Link saw that one of these was Miss Ruth's house and a subtle anger rose within him. This had to be caused by Ganondorf.
He trudged through the pool to get up one side of the valley. Every step made a muffled squishing or crackling sound from beneath the murky water. One of his trudging steps caused something to rise from the water as he stepped on it. It looked like a muddy stick with something hanging from it.
"Link, that's a bone!" Navi said. Upon a quick, closer examination, Link realized she was right. It was a brittle femur with tattered, wet cloth clinging to it. Link jumped and ran to the north side of the pool.
"The water's reached the graveyard and washed up some graves, it looks like," Navi said. "Don't worry, you big cucco. It's harmless."
"It's still freaky." Link heard some laughing nearby, something he didn't expect at all in a village such as this. He looked in the direction of the noise and saw two men sitting under a shop's awning, laughing at Link's reaction to the pool.
"Look at this guy," one said to the other while laughing. He then directed his speech at Link. "Where've you been, pal? Everybody knows about the pool! You don't walk through it unless you absolutely have to!"
When Link got close, he recognized the men. They were the ones who laughed at him in Hyrule Castle Town!
"I thought you all lived in the castle town!" Link said.
"Yeah, so?" The one who hadn't spoken yet said.
"So shouldn't you be there? I thought all the residents were dead!"
The two men started laughing hysterically once more.
"What are you talking about?" The first one said. "Only those who fought King Ganondorf Dragmire got all zombified!"
"Yeah, man. All the smart people fled here!"
"Don't laugh at me!" Link said. "I wasn't there!"
"Why not? You've got a sword! You know those are illegal under King Dragmire, right?"
"No, man. Remember, he wasn't there when the law was made!" They started laughing again.
"Stop laughing!" Link said. He obviously wanted to be taken seriously.
"Why? In a world so dark and gloomy, can you deny us a good chuckle?"
Link was taken aback by the profound statement made by one of these jokers.
"Yeah, we even laugh at ourselves. Take this guy, for example. Ever since he escaped Hyrule Castle Town, he's become even more timid. I tell you, those two days in the stocks really messed you up man."
"I tell you, I saw him! I saw the ghostly figure of Dampe the grave keeper sinking into his grave! It looked like he was holding some kind of treasure!"
"See, kid? This guy is nuts! I mean really! Even if ghosts were real, could they carry treasure? Could they carry it into the earth?"
"Well actually, he pushed aside his grave and sank into a hole!" The man said.
There was a short silence, and then they both started laughing like lunatics once more. Link decided to leave them behind.
"Those guys haven't changed," Link said.
"What do you mean?" Navi said.
"Remember them laughing at me when I ran into a tree in Hyrule Castle Town?"
"Oh yeah. Those were the guys weren't they?"
Link looked around, and noticed that there were a lot more houses now, and very little farmland. What there was, the vegetation had withered from drowning long ago.
"This place is a lot different."
"Yeah. Ganondorf's caused a lot of trouble."
"But we'll stop him, right Navi?"
"Yeah!"
"Remember Miss Ruthie, who used to live here?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, that really nice lady who let us stay the night!"
"I wonder what happened to her."
"You could always ask somebody."
Someone started rushing from a house to the store where the laughing men were. Link stopped him on his way. "Excuse me, do you know where a lady named 'Ruth' lives?"
"You must be joking!" the man said. "She runs the inn right over there." The man pointed to a building that was little more than a small house. On it was a sign that read: "Ruthie's Inn".
"Thank you." The man continued on his way as Link hurried over to the inn and opened the door.
"Oh, I'm sorry, we're out of beds," Ruth said without looking. "But if you don't mind sleeping in hay, you can stay for free. Dinner's almost ready."
"Miss Ruth?" Link said. She turned to see Link standing in the doorway.
"You don't have an umbrella!" She said. "You're all soaked!" She walked over and reached to the top of his head to take his hat and ring it out. He started doing the same with the tails of his tunic. Ruth noticed the fairy floating near him.
"Link?" She suddenly recognized him.
"Yeah," he replied.
"If you weren't so wet I would hug you," she said. "In any case, feel free to stay the night again. The storm gets worse at night."
"I can't. I've gotta keep going."
"Are you still going on big adventures and treasure hunts? I have to be honest, when I saw a young lad like you climbing Death Mountain, and then heard it erupt soon after, I thought… Well it doesn't matter," she laughed. "Where've you been the last…?"
"Seven years?" he assisted. "I left Hyrule, met a man who killed a god, and slept for years."
"You know, I never believed any of your stories."
Link decided he liked it better that way. It was better to keep such a wonderfully hospitable woman free of the things he had to do.
Link took a look around the one-room house. There was a stove in one corner, three beds and some hay bales. Not exactly the kind of place Link would choose to make into an inn, but he admired Ruth's unending kindness toward travelers. He noticed one man sleeping on one of the beds, wearing overalls. He had dark hair that was receding and a dark moustache. Talon!
"What's he doing here?" Link asked.
"Oh, that man? He's been here for a while now. He's almost a permanent resident he's been here so long. Spends most of his time sleeping, actually. I would too, if I had his life."
"Why, what happened?"
"All people have hardships in their past that they'd rather no one found out about, Link, especially here in Hyrule. That's all you need to know."
"I'm a friend of his daughter's. Or I was seven years ago."
"She probably wouldn't appreciate you leaving her during such hard times. She could certainly use a friend now!"
"Why, what's going on at the ranch right now?"
"It's not right now, it's been going on for years now, Link. Dinner'll be ready soon, then you can stay here."
"I already said I've gotta go."
"Where are you off to this time?" she asked.
"Do you want the truth?" he asked with a smile.
"Would you even give it to me if I wanted it?" she smiled back.
"One of the last Sheikah told me I have to find something here to enter one of the Sage's temples and expel the evil," he said as though he were kidding.
"A Sheikah? No giant cuccos or talking trees?"
"Well, I've gotten a bit older," he joked.
"You aren't talking about Miss Impa, are you? She's not said a word in years. She just sat on that well beam, meditating."
"Impa?"
"Yeah, but then some strange fella in Sheikah clothes came through. Nobody knows who he is, but he went and talked to Impa for a while. Nobody knows what they said to each other, but then they up and walked to the graveyard. Now Impa's back at the well, but she keeps her eyes open most the time."
"What do you think, Navi?" Link said.
"Sounds like Sheik," she replied.
"I'm betting if anyone knows, it'll be Impa."
"Your fairy's so cute," Ruth said.
"Cute?" Navi said, confused.
"Thanks for your hospitality, Miss Ruth," Link said. "You're the best thing I've seen in Hyrule in seven years! But I've gotta go," he said one last time. He put his hat back on his head and walked back out in the rain.
The well was on the east side of the village, on a hill by the windmill. The hill had an inch or two of standing water on it. Impa sat upon the beam over the well, where one might lower a bucket.
As Link walked toward her, a man on the roof of a building pointed north, shouting, "Something is happening on Death Mountain!"
The ring of fire, whose light pierced the cloud over Kakariko, flared out and flashed brightly. A distant roar was heard from afar, and something long and thin circled the mountain before slithering into the crater.
"So it has begun," Impa said.
"What?" Link said.
"Link?" she said. "I did not realize it was you!" She hopped down from the well beam. "We thought you had died. How have you grown so?"
"We? You mean you and Zelda?"
"No, Sheik and I. Sheik was once my apprentice. Though you never saw him, I trained him seven years ago."
"Where's Princess Zelda?"
"As far as Ganondorf's concerned, she's gone forever."
"But in reality…"
"I cannot say. Where have you been?"
"Sleeping, for seven years, in the Sacred Realm."
"You have come from the Sacred Realm?" Impa said, somewhat startled. "Then you are…" She couldn't even finish her own sentence, so Link did it for her.
"The Hero of Time? I don't know what the big deal is. I defeated the Great Deku Tree's curse, I fought Stalchildren for a whole night, and I gathered the three Stones, going through several trials by fire. I got the Ocarina; I opened the Door of Time... I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me."
"But you were a mere Kokiri child!"
"And I don't know what I am now. Rauru said something that makes me think the goddesses did this to me," he said, waving his long arms and shifting his long legs.
"Rauru? You spoke with Rauru the Sage?" Impa was clearly amazed by his whole story. "Oh, where is my head? You are the Hero of Time! The goddesses have prepared something for you, to assist you in your journeys. Follow me."
Impa led him to the graveyard, into a shack she described as being the home of the grave keeper. There, on the nightstand of this long-abandoned room, was a book. Link started reading aloud.
"When I dug a hole, I found a… tree-sure?"
"Let me see," Navi said. "Treasure. Is this the grave keeper's journal?"
Impa nodded.
"…I found a treasure," Link continued, "that stretches—BOING! And shrinks—BOING!"
"Would you stop that?" Navi said.
"What? It's in here!"
Impa nodded again.
Link continued. "It's so fun, I'll never give it to anybody!" Link turned the page to the next entry. "Whoever reads this, please enter my grave."
"What's that?" Impa said in surprise.
"The next page," Link said.
"It wasn't there before!" Impa said.
"Are you sure you didn't overlook it?" Navi said.
Link kept reading. "Chosen of the goddesses, I will let you have my stretching, shrinking keepsake."
"Dampe could not have known you would read this in life, Link!" Impa said. "And he said just before that he wouldn't give it to anybody!"
As she spoke, more words appeared on the page, as though they were being written, but without a pen or hand. The words were bright red, as opposed to the black ink of the rest of the journal. It read, "I'm waiting for you. –Dampe".
Link shut the book fast and thrust it from him. It fell into the water filling the bottom portion of the hut.
"What is it, Link?" Navi said.
"Something is still writing in there!" he said.
Impa picked up the book and struggled with the wet pages. She opened to the last entry and pulled the page apart from the next.
"Link, there's nothing there," Impa said, holding up the last entry. The smeared words, "dug", "hole", "treasure", and "BOING", were still readable. "I mean, perhaps the ink washed off, but…"
"It was there!" Link persisted. "Where's Dampe's grave?"
"Follow me," Impa said.
She led Link and Navi to a grave marked, "In loving memory, Dampe the Grave Keeper". Link remembered what those men outside the store had said. He grabbed hold of the tombstone.
"What are you doing?" Impa asked.
"He said he was waiting for me." Then he pushed it aside with ease. The gravestone was wide, and it concealed a meter-wide, square hole.
"That looked easy," Impa said. "I must now go back to my watch." She leapt high into the sky and onto a high ledge, from which she ran back to town.
"Show-off," Link said. Then he hopped in the hole.
"Link!" Navi said, rushing in after him.
Link landed hard on stone ground far below. It was very dark. The only light other than Navi's was that produced by the hole high above--a dim, clouded light. There was a cold breeze in the air. Suddenly, the air stilled and a figure appeared before them.
It was an older man, mostly bald and missing several teeth. His jaw was incredibly offset and his back was hunched. He also floated on the air and the wall behind him could be seen. He carried a bright, blue lantern.
"Heh heh heh," he laughed. "Young man! You are the one I've been waiting for! Who knew all those years ago that the treasure I found would seal my destiny with the goddesses? Follow me!" Link followed him as he went down pitch-black, winding corridors. All the while, he told Link his life's story. Link only halfway paid attention until he got toward the end.
"That's when Ganondorf came, with all his she-fighters," he said. "And all the people of the village ran out to fight them. None of them liked what he'd done to Hyrule Castle Town. Now, I knew for years that the goddesses were fond of me. They had treated me as firstborn of their children, and I knew I was destined for greatness. So when I saw a clear shot at Ganondorf, I took it. I stood right in his way and readied my shovel, saying, 'Now your kingdom will fall and I will slay you, evil king!' That's what I said. That's when he did this number," he said, popping his jaw and neck. "Smacked me 'cross the lip, he did. It wasn't till then that I found that the goddesses had plans for me after death. They sent me back from the afterlife, saying I had to give my treasure to their chosen one. Obviously, that'd be you, lad."
They came into a wide, dark room. Dampe rushed around, lighting braziers all around the room with is lantern. "Here I am!" he said. "Go 'head and take it!"
In the center of the room was a closed sarcophagus. Link walked up to it and lifted the lid. A terrible stench leaked out as the body of the grave keeper was revealed. Rigor mortis had clamped his hands onto a strange metal object. Link wrestled it free, all the while Dampe's ghost was saying, "Careful, now, that's the only body I got!"
Link pulled the object out and slammed the coffin lid down.
"That's my treasure," Dampe said. "It's called the hookshot! Its spring-loaded chain will pull you to any spot where its hook sticks. Doesn't that sound cool? I'm sure it will help you! I live here now, and it gets pretty lonely, so come back again sometime. Us sons of the goddesses can hang out and tell stories of our destinies! I'll give you something cool! One more thing! Be careful on your way back! Heheheh…"
Then he faded away. And with him went the door they had come through. In the back of the room was a strange wall with a familiar symbol on it.
"Isn't that the same design that's on the Door of Time?" Navi asked.
"I think so." Link pulled out the Ocarina of Time and played the slow, sad Song of Time. With a warm blue glow, the door disappeared, and Link and Navi hurried along the dark corridor that appeared beyond.
As he went, Link noticed the walls appear to grow higher as he walked. He wasn't sure if it was a trick of the darkness or the build of the tunnel. Finally, they reached another wall of the same type. Link played the song again, and the same light made the wall disappear, and, Link noticed, the other one reappeared.
They came out in a hole high in the wall inside a building where a pole was attached to a portion of the floor that was spinning around in the middle of the room. It was a very strange machination. Link jumped down and went out the door. He was staring down upon the well as soon as he stepped into the rain, under the shadow of the windmill he found he had just exited. Impa saw him from where she stood in front of the well. She had an inquisitive look on her face.
He held the hookshot high above his head and smiled.