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To Find The Future, Find The past

Chapter Three:

Ancient Look-Alikes

DREAM

'Link had reached her not quite three days later. She didn't want to admit it, but she had thought him dead.

"These toys are too much for you." Gannondorf spat out vehemently, "I demand you hand them over to me!"

"Never!" Link spat out in what could only be described in desperate defiance, "I'd rather die!"

Gannondorf immediately threw his cloak back and began to hover in the air. The air around the young warrior and the Evil King began to shimmer, until it took the form of a battle ground.

"Then die you shall..."

A great battle ensued. Link was using his Master Sword to deflect the magical bolts that Gannondorf sent flying at him back to their creator. It was like a game of tennis, with a lot of pain, and almost inevitable defeat for Link if he missed even one.

Gannondorf, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself and was getting a little too overconfident. Once, he was laughing so hard, that he didn't even see the magical ball flying at him. That is, until it hit him in the stomach. Using this distraction, Link fired a Light Arrow into Gannondorf's face, weakening him. He then used his Longshot to vault himself over to where the Evil King was moaning in pain, on his knees.

Link showed no mercy. He repeatedly slashed Gannondorf with his sword, until, somehow, Gannondorf recovered. This process happened a few times, until Gannondorf decided that he'd had enough.

He charged a large, black energy ball. Link opened his eyes wide in fear. Gannondorf launched the black orb at Link. He got ready to dodge it, but then it exploded into six or seven of the smaller, yellow ones, coming at him from all sides. There was no missing them. Not that he didn't try. Link was just too exhausted. He was hit by all of the yellow orbs, and collapsed.

"No... Link! No! You can't give up!" Zelda cried out, although she knew he couldn't hear her. But, as if he had, he slowly but painfully stood, and stood in his battle stance, with fire in his eyes.

The tennis games began once again. Link, weakened from his previous blow, missed a few, but refused to die. He shot a final Light Arrow at Gannondorf.

"You will die!" Gannondorf threatened, as he went down, "I will kill you!"

"I will never give up, so long as I still draw breath!" Link cried, as he dealt the final blow to Gannondorf.

Gannondorf dramatically fell to the ground as the walls crumbled with him. The crystal in which Zelda was imprisoned slowly descended towards the ground, and disappeared.

Zelda turned her head to look at Gannondorf.

"Gannondorf... Pitiful man..." She spat at his lifeless body, "Without a pure heart, he could not control the power of the Gods, and look where it got him..."

She gasped. She had heard a loud rumble from somewhere inside the castle below. It was going to implode!

"Link," she said in fear, "we must go, now! With his last breath, Gannondorf used all of his power to demolish the castle, in an attempt to crush us in it's remains. I need you to follow me closely. Watch out for falling debris!"

She led him down a side ramp, until they came to a set of iron bars. She lifted her hands to channel her power and opened the doorway.

They went through five of these doors. In the third tower room they passed, a ring of fire surrounded Zelda. Two Stalfoses appeared out of nowhere and began to attack.

"Link, watch out!" She cried.

Link defeated the first one, no problem. As he turned around, the second one had crept up behind him. Link barely saw the sword before it was swung violently at his head.

Zelda shrieked and covered her eyes. Whether she expected Link's scream of pain or not, she was unsure. But she was sure that it never came.

She opened her eyes to find Link's Mirror Shield held high above his head, blocking the sword. He and the monster seemed to be statues, frozen in time. All of a sudden, the adversaries leapt back into life. Link only dealt one blow to the walking skeleton, before it died. As it went down, the ring of fire around Zelda died down to nothing.

Link followed Zelda through more of those iron doors. Once they made it to the main part of the castle, they ran into a Redead. Zelda was immune to it, but it seemed that Link was not.

"Haven't you dealt with a reasonable amount of Redeads?" Zelda screeched, as the thing latched on to him.

"No..." Link managed to choke out, "they're one... monster I make... a... habit of... avoiding."

"Struggle against it!" She screamed. He was slowly weakening...'

REALITY

"STRUGGLE!" Zelda yelled incomprehensibly, as she fell off the lounge.

She sat up and groaned. She'd had all of these dreams before. They never continued after that point. She desperately wanted to find out what happened, but she was afraid too.

"Honey, are you OK?" Her mother called from the bedroom.

"Yes. I'm fine!" Zelda shouted, a little too loudly. In truth, she wasn't. She'd desperately tried to remain asleep, but it cost her more energy than she'd saved.

"When you're ready," her father came out of the bedroom, yawning, "we'll finish the painting."

"After breakfast." Zelda said groggily, getting herself some bread for the toaster, pondering last night's latest installment to her dream saga.

LATER

Half an hour later, Zelda was once again dressed in her painting clothes. She and her father pried the lids off the paint tins and mixed the paint again. Her father got out two rollers, and gave one to Zelda.

"You do the walls, and I'll do the ceiling." He instructed her. She just meekly nodded, and complied. The dreams were still nagging at her.

'What could it mean?' Her mind raced, 'Why would I be dreaming of these things, if they weren't important? What happened to Link! I must find out!'

"Zelda, honey," her father cut into her troubled thoughts, "you're about to get pink paint on the skirting boards."

Quickly, she moved the roller, and used her shirt to wipe the excess paint off the wall. Again, she tried to push the dreams to the back of her mind, and tried to concentrate on her current task.

EVEN LATER

Four hours flied past alarmingly quickly. In that short space of time, they had given Zelda's room two extra coats of paint, and were currently waiting for it to dry.

Lunch was a pretty silent affair. Zelda's parents sat out on the front verandah, but Zelda herself sat out the backyard, under the rather large Eucalyptus Tree. She breathed in it's scent. It smelt vaguely of antiseptic. She'd found that oddly comforting, considering she hated hospitals, and they reeked of the stuff.

"Zelda!" Her father called her from the doorway, "I have to go to the site, they've found something amazing, and they want me to bring you with me."

"Why?" Zelda was swamped. What would anyone want her there for?

"I don't know," he conceded, "but have a shower and get dressed in some good, sturdy clothes and shoes. It will be a bit of a hike."

Mystified, Zelda complied with her father's orders. She showered and donned an long-sleeved, old T-shirt, a jacket, a pair of old jeans, and a sturdy pair of boots. She also took with her an old backpack.

As Zelda and her father were travelling to the parking lot for the site, Zelda got a huge sense of homecoming. She didn't understand. She'd never been to this place before, in her life. As they got closer and closer, the feeling got stronger and stronger.

When Zelda's father proclaimed that they had arrived, Zelda looked around in awe. They were in the heart of a forest. It was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

"Stay close," her father warned, "it's incredibly easy to get lost in here. We've lost more than one good man in these woods."

Zelda stayed so close to him, she may as well have been holding his hand. When they emerged, they were in a field. It had rolling green meadows, a lake to the south-west, a desert to the west and a volcano to the north-east. There seemed to be some sort of barn a little further up the track, and a large, stone structure after that. It was supposedly thousands of years old, yet it seemed so new.

"This is a strange place." Her father said to her in hushed tones, "you can't see it when you fly over it, and it isn't marked out on any map."

"This is the old place..." Zelda mumbled, partly to herself, "This place should not be disturbed by one other than the rightful heir... It will anger the Great Goddesses..."

"What?" Her father looked at her strangely. She didn't realise that she had used to old tongue.

"What?" She was so confused. She didn't even remember that she had spoken.

"What did you say? That was clearly not English." She wasn't sure she heard him right. She was about to suggest that he get his ears checked, when a tall, skinny man ran up to them.

"Mr. Hilyan! Mr. Hilyan!" He gasped, as he skidded to a halt in front of them, "We've made a most amazing discovery in the castle! You must come! Bring your daughter!"

Zelda followed the men into the stone structure, which happened to be a fortification wall for the what appeared to be a town plaza. What struck her, though, was the statues that were in pieces all over the place.

They were not corroded. It seemed someone and turned the residents of the town to stone, then smashed them all. When Zelda looked at the expressions of fear on the face of the children, and the helpless-acceptance on the faces of the adults, she was overwhelmed with such a sense of sadness, it was almost impossible to describe.

She followed the men still further up the path, into what looked like a fairy-tale castle. She felt a sense of belonging, like this, this, was her home, where she was meant to be.

Inside, the feelings tried to draw her up a particular corridor, but she obeyed her father, and stayed close to him. She followed the two men up to the tallest tower in the castle, and stopped behind them as they opened a door.

"Here it is." The skinny man announced.

Zelda stared. There was a portrait of a slim, petite, blue-eyed blonde. She was wearing a slimming, pink dress, with gold trimmings and the crest of her family on a blue piece of material on the front. Except for the pointed ears, she looked exactly like...

Her.

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