The forest was dark. Not because it was night; it wasn't, but because the trees were so close together that the sun could not see what was going on in there despite its best efforts. It decided to shine down with full force on the fields a few miles away instead.
The purple leather sofa with a Harrods price tag did not look out of place to the local inhabitants even though it had only been there for several seconds and didn't look to have been anywhere else before. The reason for this was that there were no local inhabitants in that part of the forest. Even the slime that accumulates in most forest soil had packed its bags and moved to brighter parts. The only things in the forest other than the irrational piece of furniture were the trees, but they are taken for granted, and the irrational intergalactic bounty hunter sitting on the Harrods sofa, which shouldn't have been there.
Samus stood up and then decided to sit down again. There were however two major problems with this decision: one, the sofa she had previously been sitting on was no longer there; two, the sofa she had previously been sitting on was no longer there. Although that is only one major problem, it was perhaps such a big problem that it deserves to be mentioned twice.
There was however a convenient tree root in roughly the same position as the sofa and Samus sat on that for a few seconds before realising that it wasn't the sofa.
Quite why she had sat on the sofa 1000 years in the future was as unknown to her as why there was a sofa for her to sit on 1000 years in the future.
Samus' helmet was reading her brainwaves at that moment and, noticing that she was talking about the future in the past tense, tried to correct her grammar before she deactivated that feature she didn't even know she had.
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is also no problem about changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.
The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations whilst you are actually travelling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own father or mother.
A.N. Sorry, it kind of fitted and I couldn't resist myself.
The Other was perched on a pillar watching the Old Man, who was pacing up and down on the circular platform suspended to the side of the huge building codenamed 'The Palace'. The Old Man had been pacing for over half an hour now, maybe longer as the Other had only been awake that long.
Suddenly there was a beeping sound coming from near the Old Man and he pulled out of his pocket what looked like a mid 21st century mobile phone. It had two aerials protruding from each end between which there were hovering small blue balls.
The Old Man answered it and then said nothing for about five minutes other that short acknowledgements and affirmatives.
"Has she now?" enquired the Old Man, "She will not cause much of a problem as long as she doesn't make contact with the kid." There was silence for a short while. "Yes Your Highness," he said in a less authoritative voice, "my partner will take care of that. He already has experience of her weaknesses; he should be able to do that with no problems…"
With that, he put the phone away and the Other flew down to meet him.
"What does His Highness require of me?"
About an hour later, while walking through the forest, Samus came to a clearing. For a second she thought she heard something on the opposite side and so hid behind a tree root to listen. Now she could hear clearly what she thought she heard was what she dreaded it was. Her scanners confirmed that the whispers she could hear were in Zebestian, the main language of the homeworld of the Space Pirates.
She stuck her head up and saw the silhouettes of five Pirates and the glowing red eyes of their leader, the infamous Ridley. Samus didn't have time to wonder why they were here as she realised that they were silent. One was looking in her direction.
She quickly scanned them and hid behind the root again. Her scans revealed that they were all Pirate Commandos and were armed with phazon cannons, energy swords, force shields and a pack of sandwiches.
Ridley soared into the sky and shouted the Zebestian for 'attack' before flying south-west.
The Pirates, who had been charging up their cannons, joined barrels and fired a ball of phazonic plasma of diameter 2m at the tree that had once been Samus' protection, vaporising it in an instant. Expecting Samus to be there still, they ran to where there once was a tree and swiped with their energy swords, hitting nothing.
Samus stepped out from behind a tree at the other end of the clearing and charged up a Super Missile.
The Pirates deactivated their shields, thinking they must have vaporised their target with her hiding place.
She pressed the button to switch to Seeker Missiles, thankful that the GF technicians had modified it to allow it to fire multiple Super Missiles as well as just regular ones. She waited until the Pirates had turned and seen her before firing, killing them all.
"Is it done?" the Old Man asked the Other as he landed next to him.
"I lost communications with the minions on the way back." replied the Zebestian Dragon known as Ridley, "I can only assume the worst."
"Oh well," started the Old Man, Ridley giving him a confused look, "History says I kill her, and after my experience, I don't like arguing with history."
Link awoke. For a second he didn't know where he was, but after a while he recognised the features of Death Mountain where he had been training for the past year. That strange looking bird flew across the summit again and he felt the same chill that he did last time he saw it.
Judging by the position of the sun, he had only been asleep an hour. He was a very heavy sleeper and usually slept for about six hours. There were few things that would wake him so soon and he was trying to work out what it was this time.
He was getting fragments of his dream and within a minute he could envisage the whole thing:
He was on top of the old Hyrule Castle, looking down on the kingdom. Farore, the goddess of courage, appeared next to him and for a moment said nothing.
Beautiful, wasn't it.
Link didn't respond, he simply stared down at it. He nodded and the deity continued.
I come to give you a message, to guide you in your upcoming quest to restore Hyrule to what you see before you.
Once again, Link didn't respond.
From forth the forest will come a woman clad in armour stronger than even the metal of your blade. She is here to help you to defeat the enemy whose domain has recently become. Her weapons are stronger than those you wield and she has experience of the enemy. She cannot enter The Palace alone, however. You have to help her to enter. Orca will not be needed, he has been sent home to serve another destiny.
This time Link was about to respond.
Speak not, for I know your thoughts. You wish to know what I refer to as The Palace.
Link nodded.
You have seen it. It stands tall at the location where we now stand.
Realisation dawned on Link and he decided to ask of the deity one question.
"Is it the work of Ganon?" he asked calmly.
It is not my place to reveal that knowledge. The higher powers will not allow it. Reading his thoughts and referring to the higher powers she added, I cannot tell you.
That had been when Link awoke.
Link ran through it in his mind several times and looked around. Sure enough, he noticed that Orca was no longer there and had left no sign of leaving.
He slept again for about five minutes, receiving a vision that told him that this was no time to sleep. He gave up on that and headed down the mountain. He planned on re-supplying himself potions and ammo, maybe fairies-in-a-bottle if Kakariko Bazaar had any in stock.
He didn't realise just how much of an important decision this would be.