Chapter 4: Gathering Songs of Power
Link slowly walked over to the woman, pausing a safe distance away. As he remembered, her short white hair was drawn into a ponytail, short enough in the front that her bangs never came near those bright red eyes. She wore a close-fitting blue neckless shirt, with its short, tight sleeves, high silver boots, and blue short-pants, and a silver cuirass hidden by her folded arms. He hadn't noticed the tattoos, like rays of the sun, that made her eyes seem to bleed black ink. He thought of the Sheikah eye, and cocked his head. The guardians of the Royal Family, according to that old man, right?
"Hello, Link Sylvanus," the woman said, in a deep, smooth voice. "I am Impa of the Sheikahs. I have been responsible for protecting and looking after the princess from childhood. Everything is happening as the princess foresaw.
"My role in her dream was to teach a special melody to the one who came from the forest. It is an old melody passed down by the Royal Family. There is some mysterious power in these notes. I have played it for Zelda as a lullaby ever since she was a baby…. Now, listen carefully. I hope you have some means of replicating this song, but if you don't, you can always whistle or hum it."
Link willed Saria's ocarina into his hands, and set it to his lips. Impa gave an approving nod. "Excellent! This is the song—memorise it!"
She lifted two fingers to her lips, and began to whistle. The notes were surprisingly loud and pure. The melody was soft and soothing, as a lullaby should be, but strangely moving, as well. He wondered if there were words. And hadn't he heard this song, somewhere, before?
As she entered the third verse (or repeated the song for the third time?) he began to play the faerie ocarina along with her. He closed his eyes, as his fingers found the notes, as if by memory. He didn't miss a single note, as they played the same song together, each in his different way.
"I call that song 'Zelda's Lullaby', but the right name of the song has been lost to time. It is strongly connected to the Royal Family's line.
"Well, if the castle soldiers find you, there will be trouble. Let me lead you from the castle."
For the next several minutes, he followed the woman through almost invisible corridors that he would never have known existed if not for the Sheikah woman. They traveled in complete silence through narrow, deserted corridors, emerging out of a door in the back alley of the town, after traveling through a tunnel for what felt hours. Link, despite how much attention he had paid, was uncertain if he could find his way back. He'd have to try, when he returned to check on Zelda.
"I don't suppose there's a special secret to that route?" he asked, in a would-be casual voice.
"I heard that you wished to return to ensure Zelda's safety. I might remind you that I am her guardian."
Her voice was nonjudgemental, and flat, but Link knew that he had been caught, and thought that he ought to explain himself.
"Since you seem to put stock in such things, I'll tell you. For the past few months, I've been having a recurring dream, similar to Zelda's. In that dream, though I had never been aware of this castle, or seen either of you before, I stood before the drawbridge leading into this town. It was dark, and darker still with all the clouds blocking out the moon. Thunder and lightning filled the air.
"As I stood there, alone and defenceless, before the drawbridge, I watched it lower. A white horse with two riders galloped past me. A girl in pink and white, Zelda, clung to a white-haired woman in blue armour—you, I now realise. They were here and gone, so fast. And then I whirled around, and there stood Ganondorf…and the rest I'd rather not think about…."
Impa gave him a considering look, as if evaluating his honesty. Well, let her. Everything he had said was true. He looked up at her, and then looked down again. "I want to make sure that if he attacks, you have the chance to flee. I want to ensure that, if worse comes to worst, you can escape. And, I would be greatly reassured by your continued safety. It's not that I don't trust you, only….
"You fled. That suggests that Ganondorf would have overpowered you—or that there was a chance that he would have hurt the princess. At the very least, I will never be able to give my quest the attention it deserves unless I know that she is safe. We have no means of communicating from a distance. I'm not saying that I'd use this tunnel every day, and neglect my responsibility. But, I need to remember why I'm fighting…and I need to know that she's safe. Surely, you can understand that," he pressed, looking at his shoes.
The Sheikah woman laid a hand on his shoulder. "Very well. You may see if you remember the path we took. And, I will always be waiting to help you elude the guards on your return journey. Zelda trusts you; so shall I. But now, come with me."
She led him through market, and he followed, turning over recent events in his head. All the new surprises were beginning to settle in his mind, the turbulent waters of his mind no longer churning as fiercely. He still needed to discuss all of the new information with Navi.
Navi was still staring straight ahead, seeming lost in thought, but he suspected that she had been listening.
Impa led them back over the drawbridge, climbing through hidden passages in the back alley. At last, they stood before the drawbridge, and she raised an arm to indicate a mountain looming off to the left.
"You brave boy, we must protect this beautiful land of Hyrule. And, that is where to start! That mountain ringed by smoke is Death Mountain, the home of the gorons. They hold the Spiritual Stone of Fire. Up a flight or two of steps on the other side of Zora's River, at the base of Death Mountain, is Kakariko Village, where I was born and raised. You should talk to some of the residents there before you go up the mountain.
"Do you remember the song I taught you, that it has a connection with the Royal Family? Remember that. Ordinarily, only members of the Royal Family are allowed to learn that melody. It will help to prove your connection with them.
"The Princess is counting on you to collect those Spiritual Stones, but you are welcome back at her courtyard as you wish. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask. Alright! Get going! We're counting on you!"
And she took a step backwards, threw something at the ground, and vanished in a flash of light, leaving Link alone before the too-familiar castle.
He stood there for a few seconds in shock, but then shook his head rapidly, heading in the direction of the tall rock enclosure he saw before him. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he wanted to have some shelter, as sunset approached. He hoped that those stalchildren couldn't appear there.
As he walked, he noticed a sign, pointing to the high, rocky fence. "This way to Lon Lon Ranch", the sign read, and he smiled. He needed to go there anyway.
"Can we talk about what happened, now?" asked Navi, and he sighed, shoulders slumping, as his gaze fell to the ground. Of course, Navi would bring it up, just when he had a moment's reprieve. But, it was pretty cowardly, to hide from the inevitable, wasn't it?
"Of course, Navi," he said, forcing his voice to stay both level and polite. He just wanted to stop, somewhere, and do nothing for several hours, that he need not consider any new information. It was all too much.
"That girl, she was the girl from your dream. But, she said her name was 'Zelda Atempor'. I trust that she isn't Tetra?"
Link shook his head, firmly, gazed still fixed on the ground. Tetra had been very different. She'd been gruff, and harsh, and demanding, nothing resembling this polite, friendly child, who had even apologised to a complete stranger for her own exuberance.
"And, that man…in the corridor. That was the man you called 'Ganon', from your dream… only his name is 'Ganondorf Dragmire'."
Link was beginning to wonder if there was a point to Navi's questions, but nodded again. He hazarded a glance at her, but her gaze was fixed straight ahead, and he had the feeling that she wasn't really looking at anything. "And then, Zelda Atempor gave you the surname 'Sylvanus', which is your family name in your own world…. I wonder if this is a case of sympathetic shift—the idea that as a person travels between dimensions similar to his own, his presence effects changes in his surroundings, making them more closely match what he is familiar with."
Just how long had Ganondorf been active in this world, anyway? Was it his fault? But, no…Ganondorf was older than either Zelda or Link himself. Such a man would have had to come into existence, fully grown, and time and reality to bend to make room for his sudden existence. Navi seemed to be speaking of far smaller changes. Nevertheless, he confirmed this with her before putting too much stock in the idea.
"I don't know whence Ganondorf comes. Even sympathetic shift couldn't create him, or even turn an existing person into such a thing. I think…I have the sense that I'm missing something that would make sense of this all…but I don't know what. I don't really think it's sympathetic shift…but I've no better idea. Let's just act as if that's what it is, and do our best to stop Ganondorf. Maybe, it'll give you skills or ideas for defeating Ganon!"
Link gave her a weak smile to show how much he appreciated her effort.
"Then, in the end…we just don't know."
Navi sighed, huffed, folded her arms. He winced. "I didn't mean it that way, Navi," he hastened to assure her. "It's only…I don't know how to handle all these surprises. What's next, the King of Red Lions appearing?"
Navi gave a feeble laugh. "I don't know, but you do get yourself into strange situations, don't you, Link?"
He nodded. This was an undeniable truth.
They arrived at Lonlon Ranch after the sun had already set, and the monsters were already coming out. By now, Link had had a chance to thoroughly examine events back in the castle courtyard, and to rethink his hasty departure. There was still so much that he didn't know! So many questions seemed obvious to him now. He knew why he hadn't thought to ask them, but still mentally kicked himself for the oversight. Some of those questions Navi might have been able to answer, true, but there were enough that she had no way of knowing the answer to that Link knew he'd have to return.
Still, now that he was at Lonlon Ranch, he thought that he ought to go and speak to Malone about her cucco…in the morning, naturally. In the meantime, he'd try to silence his vocal stomach with the meat he'd caught, and the plants he'd cut, on his way. He'd built his fire at around noon, and taken the time to be sure that he cooked all of it, and then set it aside, in his inventory. To his surprise, it was still hot when he dragged it out.
Navi flew over to it, and took a small piece, and if he could tell through the slight blue haze that still surrounded her, she was blushing.
"Faeries have to eat sometimes, too," she said defensively. "But, why are we on the ranch, Link?"
He wasn't sure when either of them had realised they had made it to Lonlon Ranch. The signs made it fairly clear, but there had still been a chance of this being an unlabeled settlement along the same path—since Lonlon Ranch was mysteriously off the road. Maybe she'd understood when they'd entered the stables, and been confronted by the overwhelming presence of the penned cows and horses standing there.
When Link had gone back outside, he'd waited several minutes, but relaxed when he realised that the stalchildren were not about to appear. He'd filled a bucket inside the stable with water from a trough, and then set to building up his fire. Only, it had turned out that he didn't need it. It was early spring, but the weather was rather warm, and there was no need of the added warmth of a fire.
He sat down to eat, and discovered the food from earlier was still warm. Now, he sat, glancing askance at Navi, as he considered what exactly to say.
"Malone gave me a cucco," he said, holding his makeshift plate of a giant leaf away from him, as if already preparing for a prolonged explanation. "I came here to find out how to care for them."
"Is that all?" Navi asked, looking up at him, turning away from her hands, holding onto the small piece of meat that she had been working on. "Link, even I know that they're the descendants of monsters. They'll eat just about anything."
"Really, Navi?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I know I'm young, compared to you, but I'm not that gullible."
"I'm not making it up!" she said, climbing to her feet and turning to face him, hands on her hips. "I mean it. They're basically domesticated monsters. Some idiot human took it into his mind that they'd make good pets, so he captured and penned a whole bunch of them, back when some were still roaming the fields. He trained them to take the food he gave them, and he even managed to successfully take their eggs. He passed the cuccos on to his children, and other people, noting his success, emulated him. Then, he made the mistake of handling them a bit too roughly…and they tore him to pieces."
She stated all of this very calmly, as if what she had just said was hardly worth thinking about, though think about it Link could not help but do.
"O-oh. That's—that's nice," Link stuttered. He tried to imagine being killed by the small white bird that had hatched from Malone's egg. It didn't seem threatening enough.
"Nowadays, they're much calmer—but if you provoke them enough, they'll still swarm you. They're virtually indestructible, a relic of their monstrous heritage. They attack by summoning others of their kind to their sides, which appear instantaneously even over long distances. If you ever find yourself being chased by them, you'd better run for shelter, and hope they forget you."
Link frowned at the grim tone Navi used. Surely, the birds couldn't be that dangerous. Should he really be keeping one as a pet? Would it go on a rampage when he recalled it from his inventory?
"That's cuccos for you. Nowadays, plenty of people keep them as pets," Navi scoffed, before sitting back down and pulling back out her meal. "Just mind you don't try to kill it for its meat. You probably wouldn't survive. Maybe if you were a bit stronger…."
There was justified silence after that. Until Link awoke just in time to avoid waking the entire ranch with his screams. At least the pain of Ganondorf's attack was no worse for his knowing the name of its originator. He'd thought the experience in the courtyard might have made the dream more vivid.
After a quick breakfast, he left the stables, where he'd slept, to glance up at the predawn sky. He crossed the short gap between the stable door and the door to the main building. Within, he first noticed that the floor was crowded with cuccos. Then he noticed the three cuccos sitting around someone on the floor. A familiar man in blue overalls lounged on the floor, opening half-closed eyes to watch Link.
"Huh-what? I'm awake; I'm awake!" Tarlon cried as he approached. He made to stand, and then changed his mind as he stared at Link, blinking rapidly.
"Ah! If it ain't the forest boy from the other day! Well, I'll be! Good to see Molly's new friend here at the ranch. I gotta thank you for what you did for me the other day…wakin' me up and all…it took some doing, but I finally managed to get Malone back in a good mood. Whooey! Well, what are you up to, then? Do you have some spare time and money? I've got a real fun game for you. If you win, I'll give you an amazing reward. How about it, Link?
"Well…alright," Link said, hesitant. He wanted, still, to speak with Malone about the cucco. But, was Malone even awake, yet?
"Alright, then. Pay me ten rupees, and you can play the game. All you need to do it to find these here three super-cuccos just standing here, pecking away, as if they know what I want for them to do.
Link slowly handed over a yellow rupee, and stepped back.
"Alrighty, then! I'll throw these here three super-cuccos into that there gaggle of regular cuccos. Find them in fewer than thirty seconds, and you win. Now, start looking!"
He shoved upwards, thrusting the cuccos perched around his head into the crowd. Link could see no more than the most superficial difference amongst each bird. He'd have to find another way to do this.
Thirty seconds later, he slumped before a crowing Tarlon, who offered to let him try again, for a discount price ("on account of all the help you've given us").
And Link tried again, and again, and then, on his third try, he managed to find the last of them, by sheer process of elimination.
"Oh, very well done indeed. Alright, Link…come on over here. I've got a gift for you."
Link walked over to speak with the man, as he rummaged around in the desk that he had been leaning against.
"Aha!" he said, bent over the desk. "That's quite a gift you have there; being able to pick those special birds out in the set time. Well, how'd you like to marry Malone?" he asked Link, who blushed fiercely, staring down at the floor.
"Uh…I—" he said, trying to figure out a way to let the man down easy. But, Tarlon chuckled. "Just kidding, son! I think you're a bit young to be thinkin' of that. But I got a mighty fine gift for you."
He held out a corked glass bottle, filled almost to the brim with Lonlon Milk. He tossed it a bit carelessly in Link's direction, and Link caught it. "That'll do you for energy on your little quest…. And when you run out, just bring the bottle to us, and we'll sell you Lonlon milk for only twenty rupees! Bravo!"
And Link left the room with yet another question: did time pass in the inventory? If so, when would his milk spoil? He headed past the buildings built just beyond the entrance to the ranch, walking further in. After the brief narrow passage formed by the two buildings of stable and house, there was a huge circular field, with a tall iron fence stretching high to the sky, as the wooden one that encircled the ranch did. There was a dirt path running in a circle along the iron fence, and a shed in the wall to the right.
Almost right before him was the gate of the fence, currently wide open. Horses—stallions and mares and colts, bay and piebald and white (but most of them red)—roamed the ranch freely, but never tried to escape through the open gate that must usually block the corridor he'd just ventured through. He passed an indifferent dappled mare on his way to the entrance gate to the horse enclosure, wondering where Malone was. He could hear her singing, faintly; she must be nearby.
It was a soothing tune, that she sang, in her unusually clear voice. He had plenty of time to listen to it, as he made a circle around the pen, and then at last decided she must be within the ring, and walked through the archway.
He found Malone in the centre, eyes closed, hands clasped before her, as she sang. Next her stood a horse, about the same height, a red filly with a white blaze on her forehead, and a white mane, with deep blue eyes. He'd never seen such a horse before, but then, his knowledge of horses was almost limited exclusively to the ones he'd seen, today, on this very ranch.
Malone's first warning of his presence was when the blue-eyed horse shied away from him, setting off at a swift canter in the exact direction as that in which Link was heading. The heavy pound of horse hooves seemed to wake Malone, who looked up, opened her eyes, and stared at Link.
"Oh, faerie boy! How good to see you again! I see you found my dad. I wanted to thank you for that. He's a lot of trouble for an adult, isn't he?"
Well, Tarlon at least did some work, unlike Solvo, who had just sat under a tree all day, whilst his daughter, Mila, worked two jobs to support the both of them. He'd misjudged the spirit of that one. But, silent, Link merely tilted his head, as if considering.
"I wanted to introduce you to my best friend. All of my friends should be friends with one another. But, something about you spooked her…she'll come back, though….
"Oh! Here she comes. This is Epona, Link. Epona, this is my friend, Link. I really hope you get—"
Even before she could finish her sentence, the red yearling, who had been edging up towards them, saw Link, and ran off again.
"Now, that won't do!" Malone cried. "Something about you sure spooks her, faerie boy. Hmmm…."
She clasped her hands before her, and began to sing again, as if Link weren't even there.
"Hey, Malone," he said, slowly, not wanting to disturb her. "Can I ask you a question?"
"What? Oh! I'm sorry…singing this song helps me to think. My mother composed this song. It's in a fakebook of songs she and her sisters wrote themselves. She left it with Dad before she went away…. Oh, she's not dead, faerie boy! Don't look that way!"
Link realised that his face had sunk into a sympathetic expression, and gave her a sheepish smile. She probably didn't even realise he'd said that he wanted to ask her a question. He'd noticed plenty of people miss the substance of sentences, if you spoke to them while they were deep in thought.
"Mama went away to attend to important matters, and Dad was real upset for a long time…he had to raise me all by himself. But, he says she'll come back for me, someday; she wants to be some part of my life. A child isn't just a burden for her. That's what Dad says, but she hasn't appeared, yet….
"Oh! Epona loves that song. Maybe if I taught it to you, she'd be less scared of you. She's different from the other horses, see…I think she's magical…."
Now, Malone seemed to be rambling, but Link was starting to recognise his cues. He closed his eyes, and focused, and the faerie ocarina appeared in his hands. Maybe, if he humoured Malone, she wouldn't be distracted anymore, and he could at last have a sensible conversation with her…although, it made sense that she was excitable. She was a child, and probably expected instant gratification. That's how Zill was.
"Oh, cute ocarina! Are you going to play Epona's Song with that ocarina? That sounds great! This is her song! Listen up!"
It was strange, how she didn't seem to think it strange that his ocarina had appeared suddenly, as if by magic. Then, he realised that she herself had pulled the cucco egg out of nowhere. And, Zelda had done the same with the paper and pen she had used to write her letter. Magic had been rare on the Great Sea, but it apparently was commonplace, here….
He wondered if, somehow, sealing away Ganon, and splitting up the Triforce, had also sealed away magic. Hadn't Ganon said something to that effect, on the Forsaken Fortress? If that were true, then, as the waters slowly receded under the Great Deku Tree's efforts, would magic also slowly return? Hmmm….
Malone began to hum the tune she'd been singing all this time, this time from the very beginning. It was a very long song, so that Link even doubted that he'd remember it all. He'd thought he'd found the end of the song once, and then he was proven wrong when it took an unexpected turn.
He listened to her run through three verses of the song, before he thought that he could follow along. She nodded along, as she sang to the accompaniment of the ocarina. The melody was more difficult to follow, more difficult to remember, than Zelda's Lullaby, but he managed to make it through without any mistakes.
They were entering the fourth verse when he felt a dry, leathery nose nudge against him. He opened his eyes to see Epona nuzzling him. She was about as tall as he, but she bent her head to rub it against his chest. Navi giggled. Epona lipped at his tunic, and then, almost shyly, retreated back to Malone's side.
"Aww! See! Epona decided that she likes you, faerie boy! That's great! When Epona hears this song (and she has really good hearing), she comes running. Be careful. She's almost run me over a few times!" Malone said, giggling.
"Say, Malone, can I ask you a question?" asked Link, with a level voice. He doubted Malone realised he'd asked that once.
"Sure! What is it, faerie boy?"
He wished that she would stop calling him that. "Er—that egg you gave me? Do you want it back? I don't know how to take care of cuccos…."
She laughed again. "Keep it, faerie boy. You're wandering all over Hyrule, aren't you? Cuccos start laying eggs when they're about a week old. Just feed it just about anything, and provide it shelter from the elements, and it should be fine. You might want to gather some straw or twigs for a nest, but they do just fine without them, too. Just…be careful…cuccos can be a bit dangerous…if you handle them too roughly. Don't hit them, or throw them at walls, though, and you should be fine.
"But really, the expert on cuccos is a woman who lives in Kakariko Village…I think her name is Juna. She's a grown-up, with redder hair than mine. You'll know her, because she talks about her cuccos a lot…I don't know why she keeps them, if she's allergic…."
"Uh…thanks, Malone. You've been really helpful," he said, doing his best to smile at her. As before, Malone was a bit…over-exuberant. "I—I've got to go to Kakariko Village…I'll see you around, Malone!"
He didn't know how to deal with girls, did he? His primary thought right now was that Malone was a bit too overbearing for a boy who'd spent the past few days mostly alone.
His second thought was that he might as well go to Kakariko Village, which was near the castle, and see what he could learn there, before returning to Hyrule Castle.
He left the ranch with haste, accompanied to Navi's giggling. She seemed to find the entire situation hilarious. He just wanted to forget the whole thing.
Kakariko was close to the castle, thankfully. Nevertheless, it took him most of the day to make it there. He had to find the bridge across a river that flowed through a grate into Hyrule Castle Town. It must be their second source of water, and the origin of the water that fell down from the courtyard to flood the moat.
He found the bridge, crossed the river, and climbed the first set of stairs. By this time, the sun was starting to set. At the top of another set of steps, at a right angle to the first, was a guard standing before an open gate. As Link approached, the guard called out to him.
"Hey, son, what are you doing here at sundown? You should be at home, safe in bed…oh, I know. You're like that other boy who likes the idea of scaring himself silly! Well, at least you don't hang around in the graveyard all day…. Oh! What am I doing, talking to a kid! I have work to do! Work!
"Ahem! Ding dong, ding dong! The current time is thirty minutes past nineteen hours (or, well, it was when I was supposed to say this)!"
He turned back to see Link with his head cocked in an enquiring manner. The guard gave a little cough.
"I'm a clock soldier of Kakariko…here to keep time and order! My shift ends at twenty-one hours…. Ah, but I was saying something to you….
"Ah, yes, the graveyard. Head east, and you'll find the graveyard. Although the Great Impa opened this village up for all people to live in and to visit, it was until recently a Sheikah village…and it shows. The Royal Family themselves are buried here… as well as all of their most trusted servants. It's said that you can ease the regrets of the dead with an old song passed down in the Royal Family…I've no idea what that means, however.
"If you head to the north, you'll find the trail leading up Death Mountain…of course, you'll need the king's permission, if you actually want to go up the mountain. Well, son, I hope I've helped you out, some. Just be careful…you never know what you might find lurking in an old Sheikah graveyard!"
He gave Link a conspiratorial wink. It was a bit unnerving, to be treated as if he were six years old by a guard not much older than Link's real age.
Thinking of the Ghost Ship, he wandered past a tree with a pale-skinned kid with an odd, spiky hairstyle sitting under it, up a flight of steps, and past a well that was labeled with a sign he didn't bother to read. He didn't even know which direction he was heading in, until he asked Navi. He passed a pen filled with cuccos, giving it a wide berth, despite himself, and passed under an arch providing a way through a brick wall built to connect a hill with the natural stone wall that had provided a natural border to the southern side of the city.
He turned a corner in the narrow pass that lay beyond, and found himself standing near a huge wooden sign, beneath which stood a huge memorial stele. The sign read: "Kakariko Village Graveyard". The stele had a great deal more writing.
"May you rest in peace, brave souls who died defending this kingdom of Hyrule. The sheikahs will watch over your slumber in the next world."
This was definitely the graveyard. There was absolutely no chance that it was anything else. Wedge-shaped slabs of rocks covered the tombs of those interred within, and a broken flagstone path led around it. On the far side of the graveyard, before a tall rock wall, he could see another huge memorial stone. But, immediately catching his attention was a man with a strangely twisted face, a shovel on his back as he took long strides around the perimeter of the graveyard. This must be the caretaker…?
"Link," said Navi, as if scolding a child. "Why are you in the graveyard…at night…? If your nightmares weren't bad before, they will be after this!"
"Relax, Navi," he said, exasperated, if touched, by her concern. "I'll be fine. I just have to play the melody of the Royal Family somewhere…it's not even dangerous. Even if it were, as long as I don't encounter any of those walking corpses, I'll be fine!"
Navi hovered, uncertain, before settling on his shoulder. Link climbed the hill, pausing to speak to the old man, hoping he knew more about the legend.
"I ain't never heard about such nonsense, son. Just don't disturb the tombs. I'm Dampé, the gravekeeper. I'm in the middle of my 'heart-pounding gravedigging tour'. I walk around this path, and you can stop me when you find an area on the path you want me to dig…it's just ten rupees for one hole, but parents don't usually let their kids go to graveyards at night. Well, I won't tell your folks. Do you want to play?"
"Uh—not really," said Link. "Thanks all the same."
Was there even a good response to that question?
He avoided the man, climbing the hill, approaching the great monument he had seen before. From near to, he could see it was flanked by two wedge-shaped tombstones. He paused to read the one on the left, and a ghostly figure appeared before him, one wearing brown robes with bright red trim. Its eyes glowed an unearthly green. Link could only guess that it was the tomb's inhabitant, one Royal Composer Brother, Sharp.
Wait…Royal Composer Brother Sharp? Was his brother named "Flat" or something? What an unusually appropriate name….
He turned to Navi. "What is this thing, Navi?"
Why was she still sitting on his shoulder? "Oh, honestly! You told me you'd encountered poes before! Listen up! If I fly close to that thing, or if you stare at it too long, it will disappear—but it won't be gone; it'll just be invisible. So, look away from it, and attack it when it appears in your peripheral vision!"
"The poes I fought before were tall, bluish things with white masks, and black gloves. This one reminds me more of those goddess statues I had to 'place the pearl I held here'. Only, this one is carrying a lantern, as with Jalhalla…and is that a conductor's baton?"
He thought that he ought to recognise such things after all his experience. He followed Navi's advice closely, keeping on his toes, as he watched for the approach of the ghost out of the corner of his eye. As it drew near, he turned to face it, and lashed out with a flurry of slices of the Kokiri Sword.
Finally, the body dissolved, and the lantern fell onto the cobblestones, breaking. As Dampé passed by, the lantern coalesced into green flames with an odd face lurking in its depths, twisted into a ghastly smile.
"You killed me! Unbelievable! Well, minion, you'll just have to tell your master that—eh? You're just a kid! Guess I was wrong…I apologise. I thought you were one of that evil Ganondorf's minions.
"I suppose you aren't the enemy at all, are you? Let me introduce myself. I am one of the Royal Composer Brothers. My name is Sharp Mudika. My brother, Flat, and I were in charge of analysing the mystical gifts prevalent in the Royal Family's lineage, and the powers of the Triforce. We were unsuccessful. We weren't even making progress, when Ganondorf killed us, trying to steal the fruits of our labours! But, we died rather than hand them over to such an evil man!
"As a side project, in our idle hours we used an ocarina to try to discern what abilities the Ocarina of Time might possess. Most people don't know it, but there are certain songs of power hidden throughout this world. Some of them require a certain instrument to activate…others will work with any instrument…or none at all. Since the role of the Ocarina of Time is somehow connected to the flow of time, we decided to work on songs to control the flow of time using ocarinas.
"Each of us worked on a different song. I worked on the song that was designed to summon the sun; my brother Flat worked on the song to summon the moon. We found that when we put these songs together, they formed a coherent whole, a hidden song of power. There are other abilities hidden in this song, too.
"But, you'll learn nothing more unless you are connected to the Royal Family. If you have some sort of connection, prove it by demonstrating the mark of the Royal Family's messengers on the sign of the Triforce before that tomb marker. At the far side of the tomb, we have engraved our secret melody—and an explanation. If you are truly associated with the Royal Family, you will find it. If you aren't, then I haven't betrayed my cause by telling the secret to one unworthy."
With that, the ghost flame disappeared with an eerie cackle, and Link walked to stand between the two wedge-stones, staring down at the grassy triple triangles before him. Show the mark? The Triforce?
But, Impa had said that the melody of the Royal Family would prove his association with them, hadn't she? He stepped onto the Triforce mark—onto it, feeling strangely sure that it was important to step onto the mark—and took out the faerie ocarina again, quietly playing Zelda's Lullaby.
As he stood there, playing the ocarina, rain began to fall from the heavens, lightly at first, but then progressively heavier. Thunder joined the rain, and lightning. An energy barrier condensed into a ball before him. Suddenly, it burst outward in yellow light, knocking him back into a low fence that was standing behind him, the points of the iron digging into his flesh.
Why did he always seem to be knocked around by masonry? First flying headfirst into the wall of the Forsaken Fortress, and then hitting the rising Tower of the Gods, and now this. Only now did he realise that he'd stopped slamming into things, somewhere during his previous quest. He wished that that luck, or whatever it was, had held. It felt rather as if a sadistic god were toying with him.
A moment later, the tombstone exploded, and his still smarting body was pelted with shards of rock. He heard a door slam, somewhere fairly nearby, as thunder, lightning, and rain permeated the air. Navi squealed, fluttering over from the air before the tombstone, crying, "Link! Are you alright?"
He managed to drag himself to his hands and knees, bent over, rather than bent backwards. He could feel the blood seeping through the more durable kokiri tunic, running in rivulets down his back. Damn.
"I'm fine. Let's go ease the regrets of those buried in the Royal Family's Tomb."
"Link! Link, wait!" Navi cried, as he jumped into the hole. A familiar yellow light set him down onto a platform. A steep slope led down into the tomb. There was a door at the top of a flight of steps, on the far side of the room. He could hear the displacement of air caused by flapping wings, and he thought he saw red eyes gleaming in the dark. Navi arrived scant seconds later, immediately latching onto his shirt.
"Don't do that again!" she said, clutching his shoulder. Link sighed, shaking his head, but walked slowly down the slope.
Navi took off, suddenly, turning yellow, as she approached something he couldn't quite see.
"These are keese! They'll bite you if they get the chance. But, I can make sure you hit them even from a good distance—as long as you're close enough to hear my voice. Attack them from afar!"
Keese, eh? He wondered if they, too, looked radically different from the monsters he had encountered on the Great Sea. Link sent away the ocarina, and took out the slingshot, and bullet bag, aiming for Navi. Sure enough, he hit the keese in a single shot, and it shrieked, bursting into blue flames, and leaving behind slingshot bullets. Link needed to practise on his own, one of these days…hadn't he seen a shooting gallery in town? He thought that there had been a big bull's-eye sign behind Malone, when he'd been talking to her. Maybe they'd have some version that he could use for practice.
In the meantime, he slowly descended the slope, as Navi flew ahead, providing a surprising amount of light, considering that he could still see her, under all that light. Navi glowed yellow, again, as she hovered near the right-hand wall, and Link stood at the end of the passage, turning to aim around the corner. With Navi's help, it was easy to hit the second keese. Next, Navi fluttered over to the steps, where Link could see, even from here, that two keese fluttered. In Navi's glow, at least, they looked very like what he remembered.
He aimed for the one Navi didn't hover near first, just to see if he could hit the keese. As he expected, it took several tries. He needed the practice, independently of whether he ever returned home, or even if Navi was at his side for the rest of his life. He needed to be able to do things without her.
Navi made no comments, waiting for him to target her again. The distance between the two keese was great enough that she must have realised what he was doing, and not redirected his shots, for which he was inclined to be grateful.
As he walked further into the room, slowly, and Navi flew around the left-hand wall, glowing yellow as she found another keese, he noticed the bars across the door ahead. Suddenly, he had a feeling that he understood why this tomb inexplicably had living creatures in it, despite being barricaded off from the outside world.
He turned to the last keese, and with Navi's help, easily hit it. Sure enough, the bars rose.
Navi fluttered towards what he now saw was a human skeleton, resting against the wall to the right of the entrance. As she did, her glow turned green. If she approached a monster, he knew, her halo turned yellow. If a person, it stayed blue (or maybe changed to a slightly truer hue?) but now, it was green.
He walked over to the other wall, curious despite himself as to what she had found.
A deep voice seemed to emanate from the skeleton, uttering dire warnings: "Those who break into the Royal Family's Tomb will find their way obstructed by what lurks in the dark."
That did not sound good. He stood there for a moment, frowning, as Navi, once again surrounded by a blue halo, flew back to his shoulder. Was he the only one disquieted by the thought of things lurking in the dark? He saw Navi shiver, gave her a reassuring smile, and retraced his steps, back to the only door of the room.
He climbed up the too-tall steps by reaching and pulling himself up each one, thankful that there were only three. He stood before the blue door set into a blue monumental staircase set into the naturally blue-hued cavern, and wondered if blue were the signature colour of the Royal Family, or something.
"Open," he told the door, as Navi settled onto his shoulders, and he walked through, finding himself at the top of another narrow passage leading down. Before him, bubbling pools of green liquid lay scattered about the room, sending up the occasional pillar of green into the air.
Not that he spent long thinking about the liquid, for it was then, standing in the doorway, that he heard a familiar low, eerie moaning, and, for his part, all thought, and movement, ceased.
They must know that he was here. He had to move. He couldn't afford to be incapacitated by the mere thought of the things. But, of all the commonalities his two worlds might have possessed, why this one?
Navi fluttered down around the corner to the left, and he wanted to scream at her to stop, turn back, and didn't she know that those things fed off life energy? But, even his mind refused to move.
Navi came back, cocking her head as she glanced at him before seeming to understand the severity of the situation, and returning to land on his shoulder.
"I'm turning back, Navi," he said, blinking repeatedly at how calm he sounded. It seemed that he was too shocked to even react.
"Link, you can't…you've come this far! Sure, the passage is full of redead…but, I'm sure we'll be safe when we get to the other side! Just stay behind them to keep them from seeing you, and do not engage them! We'll make it through."
"I've fought these things before. I had a bow then. Fire arrows. A number of weapons at my disposal. Maybe I'll come back, when I find something that can work on them from afar. I don't think the slingshot would cut it."
"Link, you haven't even gone into the chamber. How do you know that you've encountered redead before?"
"'Redead'? Is that what they're called? Well, they make a distinctive noise, don't you think?"
In other circumstances, he might have been alarmed when Navi hesitated. "Well…there's gibdos…but other than that…. Link, we came all this way, and we tore apart that monument, and surely, someone will notice, and cover it up again. We might not have another chance at this."
"I don't care." Now, he was shaking. "A song can't be worth facing…facing those things."
He turned to the door, but Navi tugged at his hair.
"Link, wait! What if we need this song, to complete our quest? What about the unquiet dead the guard mentioned? Are you the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, or aren't you?"
If he was, the Triforce of Courage had forsaken him, and small wonder. He was no longer where or who he was supposed to be, and he'd never been that impressive to begin with.
The protest of his mind that I can't do this waged war against Navi's sensible What if we need it, and this is your only chance?, and they might have persisted in doing this for hours, but the moaning was coming closer.
Link closed his eyes, and thought of the Ghost Ship, and Mrs. Marie's private cabana, and set those thoughts aside. He hadn't even seen these creatures. Maybe they were different, and just made similar noises. Would he just retreat, without ever learning the truth?
"Link," said Navi, voice unusually grim, and an octave lower than normal. "If you're encountering them here, then, I hate to say it, but we'll run into them later on in our quest, too. You need to know that you can face them, now. If this place were impassable, then that guard wouldn't have sent us here. Nor that Composer Brother."
He swallowed, hard, but drew the Kokiri Sword from his side, and the deku shield from his back, and ran down the slope into the room proper. The floor was, at least, even brickwork, and bone dry. He ran around the first pool of green liquid, and then behind a shriveled brown humanoid figure, which turned…so… slowly…to face him. Hollow eye sockets met his gaze, and a gaping hole for a mouth. A familiar, skeletal body, an almost wooden brown, with spindly arms and legs, and a visible ribcage. It turned towards him, and shrieked.
And, it wasn't alone. There were more of them, all around the room, all moving in his direction, all making those horrible moaning noises. Navi was saying something, but he couldn't hear her voice over his own panic. Not these, not these, not these!
Move! he ordered himself, forcibly reminded of the Ghost Ship. But, his legs refused to obey him. He was lucky he hadn't dropped sword and shield. He redoubled his mental efforts, and managed to move one leg, and then the other, and at last he was running from those gaping, empty eyes. He shuddered, running perilously close to the unknown green liquid, and not caring.
He ran to the passage cut into the far side of the room, trembling, as Navi shuddered. He tried not to think about those things, or the low moans he could still hear even as he fled through that narrow cut in the rock.
He stood in a small chamber, with a stele on the back wall, with writing on it.
As he came closer, he noticed the sign of the Triforce painted yellow, above, and below it, writing chiseled into the monolith, and below that, a musical staff, with notes scratched in. It took a tremendous force of will to try to calm down enough to make sense of the words before him, but he saw that it was a sort of memorial, with an epitaph followed by a poem.
"This poem is dedicated to the dearly departed members of the Royal Family interred within this tomb. May their afterlives bring them only peace and joy, and never hardship or pain. We serve them in death as we did in life.
"The rising sun will eventually set;
A newborn's life will fade.
From sun to moon, and moon to sun…
Give peaceful rest to the living dead."
Next the notes scratched into the monument was a couplet.
"Restless souls wander where they don't belong.
Bring them calm, with the Sun's Song."
"Restless souls…bring them calm…"? Did that mean what he thought it did? At last, his concentration returned to him. He didn't hear the moaning in the next room, but had no faith that that good fortune would last. He took out the ocarina, and stared at the music.
"I sure hope that you can read music," Navi said.
He shrugged, nodding. Sturgeon had taught him, back on Outset. He didn't know if the other-Link had ever learnt, however.
"Keep the 'Sun's Song' in your heart," said a caption beneath the melody. Then, it turned day to night, night to day, and somehow did something to those horrors in the previous chamber?
Maybe he was glad that Navi had pressed him into continuing, after all. He stared at the inscribed notes on the stele, and followed along with the ocarina, committing the song to memory. He knew this song. It was that song the man in the cemetery in Windfall Island had taught him…he'd called it the "Song of Passing". Could he have used that baton melody against the undead monsters? He'd never used it at all….
He stared at the stele for a good few seconds longer, committing every note to memory. He did not want to ever come back here.
Then, he cautiously crept back through the narrow tunnel back to the room with the bubbling green liquid and (what had Navi called them?) redead. He entered to see that all of them stood, as if frozen into statues of white marble. The moaning had stopped. They still looked eerie, but they were no longer threats.
For now. Who knew if the effect to the "Sun's Song" would last? All the same, he sent a prayer skyward for the happiness and prosperity of the Composer Brothers in the next life. They'd saved him.
He still gave the redead a wide berth, averting his eyes, as he ran back to the door whence he had entered, returning to the room where he'd fought the keese. Of all the things to encounter, why had it had to be those eerie, horrid monsters? But, Navi was right, too. He'd see them again. It was inevitable.
He arrived at the back alley exit for Impa's tunnel in the evening of the next day. He'd exited the tomb to find that it was dawn. He had asked himself whether the Sun's Song had somehow summoned the sun, or whether he had just spent that long, down below. He doubted he truly wanted the answer, however.
He stopped, emboldened somehow after the events of the previous night, to gather the cuccos of the woman Malone had told him about, who was indeed named Juna. Compared to walking, moaning nightmares, the erstwhile monster birds were inconsequential. And, Juna had rewarded him with one of her glass bottles. That was when he learnt that glass bottles here were very, very, rare. They were much more common on the Great Sea, but here, Tarlon of Lonlon Ranch was more-or-less the only person who seemed able to acquire them—and the where or their origins remained as unknown as the who, what, and how.
Common opinion was that there was a glassblower somewhere in Hyrule who had figured out how to make these, and that he was an old friend of Tarlon's and set up a very comfortable arrangement for the man, where glass bottles entered the Hyrulean market only through Tarlon. It was all very silly and strange, and the entire event—from hunting down the first cucco, to hearing the speculative gossip, put Link in a much better mood, despite the fact that he had received no sleep on the previous night.
He'd climbed the northbound steps, and met with the guard stationed at the Death Mountain Trail gate. The man had laughed at him when he asked to be let through, patronised him by suggesting that he was too young to read, because he hadn't noticed a sign standing next the gate, and refused him passage.
When Link had pulled out Zelda's letter, the man had (still laughing uproariously) proceeded to read the letter out loud in a falsetto, laughed off Zelda's justified fears as a silly, childish adventuring game (thus earning Link's ire, and his less-than-intimidating glare), but reluctantly opened the gate, slamming his spear onto the ground, which must have been some sort of magic spell, because the gate slid aside on its own.
He'd redeemed himself, somewhat, by warning Link that he'd need a better shield (Death Mountain was, after all, an active volcano, kid), and telling Link to go back to market. The man who worked at the Bazaar, which sold various miscellany, owed him a favour, and the Kakariko Guard (apparently named Cuton) was calling it in…on Link's behalf.
"Just tell him I sent you, and he'll give you a discount. Those shields aren't cheap, you know! Remember, they're called 'hylian shields'. They aren't on display, but if you ask for one, he'll know what you mean."
"Well, Mr. Hero, you're free to go up the trail equipped as you are. Give me a shout, say 'Alufinion gerdsmad!', and I'll let you back through this gate. I'll send word to my fellow guards, so they know the sign. Keep the letter, so that you can show other guards the message if you need to. Oh, honestly. What games the Princess thinks up," he snickered.
And then, he'd proceeded to ask a favour of Link, that Link go to the "Happy Mask Shop" that just opened in Hyrule Castle Town, and get the mask "of some popular character or other that my boy is always going on about. I want to get him the mask, myself, but my job won't let me leave my post for long enough. My poor son…".
It would have been easier to pity the man, if he hadn't kept up his mockery the whole time.
Despite the unpleasant guard, he'd made the return voyage to the castle with something like a bounce on his step, almost grinning to himself. He knew how useful glass bottles were. That outweighed the unpleasantness. While he was in town, he might as well buy the shield, and the mask. He wondered if Impa or Zelda had a way to increase the number of rupees he could carry. He had the feeling that, if the hylian shield were that expensive, he'd be spending a lot on equipment for this quest. And, what of the shooting gallery he might have seen?
He had no trouble finding the right back alley (even the bustle of the main square couldn't get to him at the moment, and yes, there was a shooting gallery), but he had a harder time of finding the specific entrance camouflaged with the bricks of the street. On the way to the correct alley, an old man stopped him to kindly inform him that a Great Faerie lived somewhere around the castle, although he didn't know where.
Eventually, he found the secret entrance, and wasted no time in dropping down below.
He wandered the subterranean passages, trying to remember Impa's route, while Navi looked around, on constant alert, lest they encounter hidden dangers here. To his surprise, although he made several wrong turnings, often walking in loops, he seemed to have a sort of sense as to what passages he had visited. It reminded him a bit of his internal compass on the Great Sea. That nagging familiarity, and a want of a better option, was the only reason he trusted that sense.
And at length, he emerged into the courtyard where he had met Zelda. The sun had long since set, and Zelda had doubtless gone to bed. There were no guards here, now. Perhaps, Impa lurked nearby, unseen, but as far as Link could tell, he and Navi were alone in the courtyard. Well, at least he had learnt that stalchildren didn't appear underground (despite seeming to come from there) or on the castle courtyard grounds.
Despite this, he found himself looking for an out-of-the-way place in which to rest for the night. Remembering the bridge, he crawled into the tight space under it. He'd have to sleep sitting up, but he'd done that a lot of late, anyway. It wasn't as if he'd sleep well regardless of circumstance, and here in the courtyard, it was possible that no one but Navi would hear him if he screamed.
With something like contentment, he lay back against the wall, and fell asleep.