Chapter 6: The Next Hyrule

For three days Link and the Fairies toiled, hoisting and lowering the sails day and night, navigating through the vast and empty sea to reach their destiny. Navi told Link that her home, a large landmass, was not very far away from the island. She told him that if he was looking for the next Hyrule, there was no other place but this. And so Link fought the raging seas, overcoming their merciless wrath, the storms that pounded into the deck, the waves that threatened to overturn the ship. But when those three days ended, the skies opened up, sending beams of light down to warm the ocean. The light paved a way into the sea, forming a golden path for the ship to sail through, leading it to salvation. And so, after years of tireless efforts and dogged persistence, Link had achieved what the King of Red Lions had sent him to do: he had found home.

As the ship crept closer to the landmass in the horizon, features began to distinguish themselves. On the western side of the continent was a desert, devoid of almost everything but sand. To the east was a swamp, murky and dark. Still east of that was a lake, where the excess water poured to the adjoining swamp. Far north was a mountain, jutting out to the skies. And lastly, beside the mountain, slightly to the west, a patch of green and brown served as a forest. Link could see as they docked the ship beside the swamp that this continent was larger than any island where he came from. Even the island of Windfall was dwarfed combined to this titanic giant.

Carrying Tetra's body through the murky swamp was a daunting task. Many times the slimy waters would attempt to overtake Link's body and swallow him where he would be forgotten, but Link proved too strong for the swamp. The Fairies, flying safely above, managed to aid Link, providing him his location, and what lay ahead. Navi was the most beneficial of all, refusing to leave Link's side, doing everything she could to make each one of his steps a less strenuous task.

After many days, Link walked free from the swamp, his face covered in mud, his clothes dirty and tattered, with an army of light, the Fairies, behind him. Immediately he saw that there were people here, living in a small village. Walking through the streets, he could see that it was underdeveloped. Though they garnished the houses with colorful drapes, he could see the jaded decay. Though they cleaned the streets and made them shine, he could see grime that could not easily be scraped free. The people had haunted looks on their faces. They walked as if in a trance, as if they had just found out they were going to die.

But one look at Link lightened their faces. They saw the boy clad in green, a sword strapped behind his back, a Fairy behind him, and they could not help but sigh in awaited bliss. As Link walked through the streets, a mob trailed him, supporting his cause despite their ignorance of its motive.

As Link walked up the steps to a cottage, a place Link was told was the hospital, he looked over his shoulder and into the crowd one last time. At first he merely noticed their cries of happiness, their unending support, but then he saw more. Their ears -they were different, curved. He had seen them before. It was Tetra! When they had journeyed to the old Hyrule below the sea, Tetra's roots took hold of her, transforming her into Princess Zelda. Her skin had lightened, her hair had braided together, and her ears had curved. These people shared this resemblance with Tetra, though traces of this were gone from her now. Confused by this information, Link opened the door and walked inside. Immediately a tall woman, bearing a friendly face and short brown hair, stood before him.

"Hello," she said. Link was silent. "The villagers…they beckon for you." He nodded. She saw Link carrying Tetra, her body limp in his arms. "Oh, let me help you!" She took Tetra from him and put her body on one of the beds in the room. Immediately she wet a rag and began to wipe free the dirt from her body. "My name is Elsa. But traveler," she said, "Who-who are you?"

"I am Link," the boy said listlessly.

Her mouth hung open. "Link…the Hero of Time." She shook her head. "Oh, but that was a thousand years ago…"

"How do you know of the Hero of Time?" Link asked. "I thought that legend was only home to where I come from."

"No," she said, still wiping the dirt from Tetra's body. "That is our legend, passed down from generation to generation from those who were there."

"That isn't possible," Link objected. "My home is far away. How could both of our people have the same legend?"

"I don't know, Link, but I have to say, I'm awfully curious about you. We all seem to be. Just where do you come from? And why are you here? You are the first outsider to arrive here in…many years."

"I came from far away, above the old Hyrule. I have come because I have achieved what I have sought to do, and now I am to find the next Hyrule, bring forth a new home for myself and Tetra."

"I see," she said, wiping Tetra's forehead. "I suppose this is she. Tetra has been harmed, Link. An evil presence consumes her. I can see it. It is possible to cure her, but it will take time." Link nodded. "I hope you know I don't do this for everyone. It's just you showing up here, dressed as the Hero of old, you have left me flabbergasted. It's as if all of the pieces have fallen into place. Everything makes sense now."

"What do you mean?" the boy asked.

"Link," she said. "I don't know if you have seen, but a dark presence haunts our lands. It has been here for very long, and we have yet to develop fully as a result. This evil does not covet our people; it does not wish for our hatred, nor our fear. It wants to claim our land from its own. It comes from a place no one thought it existed. And it is growing, Link. Oh how it is growing." She looked up from Tetra's body, her eyes conveying grave sorrow.

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You, Link, have been prophesized to wipe us clean, to shun the evil from our land. It is said that a boy clothed in the Hero's clothes would come from a faraway land, carrying with him a wounded maiden. We would tend to her wounds, and in return, he would take away the darkness; he would destroy the ghouls, bring our land to prosperity, and slay the Phantom."