Zelda and I were both sitting in my room again. By the time Headmaster Rauru had finished his explanation, lunch was practically over. Zelda and I had both agreed to meet later to figure out what the hell was going on.
"Funny how much 24 hours can change, huh?" I quipped from where I was sitting on my desk, since Zelda had commandeered my bed. She just nodded in response.
"So what do we do? Rauru had the helpful advice to 'train,' but what does that even mean? How do you train to fight an eternal demon? Or to be a goddess?"
"I don't know," Zelda said, looking aimlessly at the ceiling. "Normally, I'd do research like with your Triforce mark, but how do you research something that has almost no consistent factors? The number of stories involving a Hero in Hyrulian tradition is in the dozens, with no telling how accurate those are. And who knows if those are even true or if they're just variations on a different story. So many of the old stories are so similar it's hard to see the differences." She moved her head to look me in the eye. "How in the names of the Goddesses are we going to do this?"
"No idea," I sighed. Suddenly a thought came to me. "Wait, I just had a thought." Zelda perked up. "Since you're apparently a goddess, can you swear to yourself?" Zelda slumped back down, rolling her eyes but with a definite smirk on her face instead of the same frown she had been wearing.
"That would be where you would go with that, isn't it?" I shrugged, unabashed.
"Man, this is dreary. Seriously guys, lighten up. You look like someone gave you a really hard riddle to solve or something." Zelda and I started slightly and looked over to see Sheik leaning against the doorframe, playing with a small knife. Seriously, he takes his ninja vibe way too far. Zelda looked confused by the sudden interruption that is Sheik.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You know, a riddle. Like one that has you puzzled for ages. For example, 'I have cities, but no houses, mountains, but no rocks, rivers, but no water. What am I?' Stuff like that."
"That's just a map." Sheik's eyebrows quirked in confusion.
"It's a map," Zelda explained. "Cities, mountains, and rivers are all marked, but they're made of ink and paper, not houses, rocks, and water. Its simple." Sheik just shook his head.
"Okay, maybe not the best example with Miss Genius over here, but my point stands." Sheik exhaled heavily. "I guess this is what I get for trying to shake you two out of your funk. Whatever, as you were." With that, he kicked himself away from the doorframe and bounced down the stairs.
Zelda looked at me with bewilderment. "What was that about?" I shrugged again.
"I've learned its best to just move on and not ask too many questions when it comes to Sheik and his antics. The man could make a scientist doubt gravity." Zelda laughed, finally breaking the air of melancholy in the room.
"So, what are we really going to do about this apparent threat to the world? The headmaster made it pretty clear we're the only ones who can do this. And to top it all off, he won't even give us a heads up about what we're supposed to do, even though he has who knows how many records of what I've done before." I was rather put out that Rauru wouldn't really help us.
"Come on, Link, he explained why he can't help," Zelda said with a lecturing tone. "Any time the Hero was given a bunch of help, things ended up going incredibly wrong. So really, its better if you figure it out. Besides, you'll have me to help you, no matter what Rauru says." With this, she flashed me a sly but sincere smile that had me instantly feeling better. If I was going to go on a quest that could possibly kill me and the entire world, I'd rather have a friend with me. The fact that she was a reincarnated goddess couldn't hurt either.
"I suppose you're right," I relinquished. "Still, it bugs me that I suddenly have this massive destiny or something to fulfil but can't do anything about it. I just have to sit and wait." Ugh, just talking about staying still made me want to move, run, fight, do something.
"I know what you mean, but we should take this opportunity to train," Zelda said, as she watched me pace the room from the bed. "We don't know how long we have, but from what Rauru said, it's probably not long. We've already noticed the omens, so I'd guess as they get worse, the closer the big bad is to breaking free. Really, there's no better time to start than now."
Finally, something to do. "Let's get to it then."
Zelda and I trained every day after that. She cautioned restraint, so we didn't wear ourselves out too much, but there was no way I was going to take it easy with the world at stake. I ran every day, usually home from school. I decided to do some rock climbing too, since I always enjoyed it and it's a great work out. I also found myself practicing with an old sword I found in my closet. Shade and I had inherited the blade from our father and it had apparently been in our family for ages. After messing around with it, I found I had a natural aptitude for it. I took it to a blacksmith one weekend to have it fixed up, as over the years it had taken a few knocks and lost most of its shine. With the restored sword in hand, I found myself moving effortlessly through various forms. It was natural in the same way I knew I'd need to find a shield for my right arm. It was only after Rauru told me a sword and shield were the typical weaponry the Heroes of old outfitted themselves with that my natural inclination made sense. The way I figured, after who knows how many lifetimes of killing shit, it must be ingrained on my soul how to use a sword.
Zelda also did her own brand of training. She joined me for my runs, but mostly did research on any indication on the threat we'd be facing, looking through everything she could find for any clues. She found a few things, but I could tell she was frustrated by how little she found. She also tried to draw out any of the magic she thought she might possess but met with similar luck. I could tell she was irritated by how easily I was apparently fitting into my role as Hero while she was having so much trouble. Of course, my burning muscles begged to differ, but I wasn't sure how to comfort her.
We went on this way for almost four weeks. Of course, people noticed my change. Sheik and Shade would find me working out or practicing constantly, and while Sheik mostly left me alone, I knew Shade was getting tired of me hiding something. Keeping secrets from your twin is not easy. Cremia also noticed my shift. And while she was appreciative of the new definition of my muscles, something she seemed to never stop pointing out, I was beginning to suspect she was getting tired of me dodging her attempts to hang out. I didn't shut her out completely, but we saw a lot less of each other than we used to.
Finally, shit, as the saying goes, went down. I was practicing my sword techniques in my backyard while Zelda was skimming through old history books on the back deck. It was a nice day, so I had stripped down to a tank top to try to stay cool. I was in the middle of parrying an imagined blow from something twice my size when I heard something come flying at me from the house. Without thinking, I dropped and swung my sword to intercept the object. It fell to the ground, and I saw it was one of Sheik's kunai. Rising from the ground, I saw Shade, Sheik, and Cremia all standing on my porch looking at me with various degrees of surprise and awe.
"Huh," Sheik half grunted. "Looks like I shouldn't have worried about hitting you after all. That was pretty cool." A nefarious look sprung into his eyes as he produced more knives from…somewhere. "Want to see how good you are in actual combat?"
"Sheik, stop it. The last thing we need is someone getting hurt because you decided throwing knives at people was a good idea," Zelda said from her seat, eyes not leaving the book she was reading. The impressed trio seemed to start at her voice, probably not realizing she was there. I guess I was just that awesome.
"Oh, Zelda, you're here too," Cremia said, turning to the other girl. "Good, I wanted to talk to you about this too. You and Link have both been acting really weird lately." Sheik and Shade both nodded in assent. "Link's always off exercising now or, apparently, playing with swords." I saw Sheik snickering at Cremia's wording before Shade elbowed him. Some things never change, even when Cremia literally described what I was doing.
"And you always seem to be reading something," Cremia continued, unphased by her fellows' antics. "I know you like to read, but this is excessive even for you. Neither of you seem to have time to spare, but you're always hanging out together." I could hear a growing tremble in Cremia's voice as she spoke. "A-are you…cheating on me, Link? Is t-that why you wouldn't…" To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement.
"No! Of course not! This has nothing to do with that! I just…" I trailed off, knowing that any sort of explanation I could give would either be a flat-out lie and incredibly unconvincing or the truth. I couldn't decide which one was going to be more detrimental to my relationship. Pleadingly, I looked to Zelda for help. To her credit, she tried.
"Cremia, he's- "
"No," she said quickly and with surprising venom. "I want to hear it from him." Shit, back to square one. With Cremia standing at the top of the deck steps and me at the bottom, she looked like she was going to smite me. Which, to her credit, was probably incredibly likely.
"I'm…training for a tournament. I saw something about one and I'm training to participate." Not entirely untrue, but still a lie. And Cremia could tell. Tears immediately welled in her eyes.
"Fine," she spat through what sounded suspiciously like a sob. She was gripping the necklace I had given her like a lifeline. "Don't tell me. But I don't want to see you until you tell me what you're up to." With that, she quickly turned and walked through the back door, smashing her shoulder into Hunter, who was coming to see what all the fuss was about. I heard the distinctive noise of metal snapping and saw the necklace's chain hanging from Cremia's hand, snapped in two. With a renewed sob, she ran through the house until I heard the front door slam.
Hunter probably got a pretty good idea from my crestfallen face and the triplet looks of surprise from Zelda, Shade, and Sheik. "Figure it out, Link," he said as he turned around. "The longer you leave that, the worse it'll be." I didn't have time to ponder his words before a fist slammed into my solar plexus and I was left on the ground gasping up at Shade.
"Don't make me do that again." Apparently he thought he got the message across, because he turned and walked back into the house, closely followed by Sheik. To be fair, it was a pretty good way to make a point.
Once my lungs remembered how to function, I hauled myself off the ground and stumbled into a chair next to Zelda. She gave me a quick glance before returning to her book. "Looked like that hurt." I rolled my eyes as best I could.
"Yeah, you could say that." I let the statement rest for a moment. "Was there any better way I could have done that? Because I'm really not seeing one."
"Honestly, probably not. In fact, if you weren't such a bad liar, that would have worked pretty well. But really, no matter what you said, they probably would have thought you were lying."
I couldn't help but respond with heavy sarcasm. "Really? I don't know. 'I'm the reincarnation of a fairy tale and have to go kill some demon thing before it destroys the world' sounds pretty reasonable. I'm sure they would have been accepting of that." I sighed, lost in the horrible feeling of guilt burning in my chest. I turned to look at Zelda. "Seriously, any advice you have to help me end up not dead at the hands of an emotional girlfriend would be appreciated." Zelda finally closed her book and moved to face me.
"Ultimately, it comes down to whether you want her to know or not. But really, we don't know so much as what we're facing, much less what its capable of. Anyone we tell is potentially in danger, and I'd really like to keep the number of people who know what's going on as low as possible." Seeing I was about to protest, she raised her hand to stop me. "Before we tell anyone, I think we should at least have a plan of action. Once we figure out what we're doing, then we can maybe tell a few people. But if we tell them before we start, they'll try to talk us out of it and make it really difficult for us. So, I think we should wait. Of course, Cremia is your girlfriend, so if you need to tell her, that's your choice." We sat there for a while, letting the only sound be the rustling of leaves.
"Right," I said, breaking our companionable silence. "At this point, I have to try with Cremia. I owe it to her to be honest, even if she doesn't believe me. But I think you're right that we should wait to tell anyone else. Something tells me we won't have to wait long though. I've felt…on edge the last couple days. Whatever's coming its coming soon."
Zelda left not long after, and with nothing to distract me, I quickly noticed everyone was avoiding me. Even Wolf was glaring at me from the couch. I took a quick shower to clean up and decided to do some homework. Apparently Rauru thought math took precedence over saving the world. I was halfway through my assignment when Sheik and Shade appeared in my doorway.
"Come to chew me out more, guys? Trust me I don't need it," I said, not looking up from my notes.
"Link." Shade's voice wore a tone I rarely heard, one that demanded absolute attention. I quickly turned to see them both wearing serious faces. I knew they were pissed about Cremia, but this was a bit much.
"How much of what you were talking to Zelda about was true?" Sheik asked quietly. Ah. Shit. Not good. Bad. My mind went gloriously blank.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb," Shade scoffed. "Though it's probably not hard. Sheik overheard you talking to Zelda about saving the world or something."
"It was, and I quote, 'I'm the reincarnation of a fairy tale and have to go kill some demon thing before it destroys the world,'" Sheik quipped. Bastard had a near perfect memory when it came to conversations. Both the boys looked at me with raised eyebrows. Well, Sheik did. Shade couldn't raise his brows individually, something I made fun of him endlessly for.
I was trapped. My words weren't exactly something I could brush off as a joke. So, I really had no choice. Pushing away from my desk, I rubbed my face in my hands, not ready for the shitstorm this was going to cause. "You guys know about all those old fairy tales about heroes and magic and stuff?" I said, hoping they wouldn't hear me through my hands. I saw them both nod, so apparently it didn't work.
"Turns out some of those old stories are true. Every time evil rises up in Hyrule, a hero and a mortal goddess are reincarnated to stop it. They go on some epic quest and kick evil's shit in. Well, I'm the hero reborn and Zelda is the goddess. Headmaster Rauru from school told us we have to protect the world from some ancient evil that is due to pop up any time now. That's why I'm training, that's why Zelda and I are so close, and that's what I couldn't tell you earlier because you'd think I'm crazy." With this, I looked up at them, waiting for them to conclude that I should probably be medicated.
To my surprise, they both fixed me with somber, criticizing stares, probably trying to figure out when I went over the deep end. To my surprise, Shade calmly asked, "And Zelda believes this too?" to which I nodded, confused as to why they hadn't put me in a straightjacket yet.
"Well, if Zelda's in agreement and as much as I hate to say it, I don't think we really have a choice but to believe you." Clearly, I was hallucinating. No way in the Dark Realm are they just accepting this. My story was less believable than a magic whale dreaming an island into existence. Which may or may not have actually happened, so what the fuck am I supposed to think now?
"You guys believe me? Seriously? No fuss, no arguments, no talking me down from the brink of insanity? Just, okay?" I said, incredulous. Sheik was the first to answer.
"I mean, as a Sheikah, I know things I'm not allowed to talk about, and compared to that stuff, this lines right up. Not too much of a stretch. Besides…" Sheik suddenly poofed away in a cloud of smoke, only to walk out of my bathroom two seconds later with the biggest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen. "I already know magic is real."
Shade recovered first, pointing his had at our apparently magical cousin. "That's neat." Turning his attention away from Sheik far too quickly for the other boy's liking, he looked me in the eye. "You can't lie to me, you should know that. And you're not lying now, so I really don't have a choice but to believe you. 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'" Shade shrugged, his mind made up. "Besides," he again pointed to Sheik, "that goes a good way towards proving you're not insane."
I couldn't help but laugh with relief. I had been terrified the two wouldn't believe me. But they did. Sheik even knew something about this seemingly other reality I found myself inhabiting. It gave me hope that Zelda and I not only wouldn't have to do this alone, but that we might have help along the way. I could only hope Cremia would see it the same way.
To put it shortly, she didn't.
I had gone over to her house first thing the next morning to try to explain why my life had turned upside down, hoping and praying to any gods that would listen that she would understand.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the same kind of proof for Cremia that Sheik and Shade had. Sheik had forbidden me to reveal the existence of the Sheikah to anyone and I unfortunately didn't have any spare magic to pull out and prove I wasn't crazy. Which, to Cremia's credit, wasn't what she thought of me. She seemed to believe me right up to the point where I was the only one who could save the world.
"Why can't you let someone else do it? You said Zelda and Headmaster Rauru are in on this too? Let them do it! I don't want you to go out there and get hurt! Forget about whatever story they told you about destiny or whatever!" I understood where she was coming from, but the idea didn't sit well with me.
"I'm not scared of being hurt, Cremia. And this isn't about what I'm supposed to do because I'm a reincarnated hero." I floundered for a second, trying to find how to express how I felt, even though I could feel the two of us breaking. "How could I sit back and let this happen, knowing I could stop it? Even if I fail, at least I did something to try. I can't stay put when everything I care about is in danger. That's not who I am, and that's not who I want to be. You've always said you admired my bravery." I looked up at the girl in front of me, tears trailing down her face. "This is what that bravery really looks like. Not to say I'm not scared. I could fail, and the world could end. But I'll be damned if I don't fight for who and what I love. I've only lost when I've given up, and I will never give up, not to my dying breath. I have to keep my courage. I have to fight this. Please, help me fight." I stopped, knowing Cremia's next words would either cement our relationship or make it crumble. I waited for what felt like an hour for the sentence that would be the ultimatum of our relationship.
"I can't."
My breath caught. "Why?"
"Knowing you're out there willingly, ready to die if it comes to it, I can't bear that. I can't let you go out there knowing you won't fight to come back to me." I tried to interject that I would, that this was bigger than us, but she stopped me. "You can't change my mind. I can see now that our relationship isn't the most important thing to you anymore. I'm n-not blaming you, I understand, but that's not what I wa-want. I need someone who will give t-their everything for me, s-so that I can do the same for them. You're not fighting for me, you're fighting for the world. And I just ca-can't sh-shoulder that burden with you."
She was crying in earnest now, stuttering through her sentences. "I'm sorry, Cremia." Poor condolences for what was happening to the deep friendship we shared.
"I'm sorry too, Li-link. I-I just can't." She paused to inhale deeply, tugging at my necklace to her. "I h-hope you can for-give me. I'll pray t-to the Goddesses that you succeed. And I hope you f-find so…someone else to be with. But that person can't b-be me. We're done." There was a definite finality to her statement, and I could feel it in my heart that it was true. With a final sniffle, Cremia turned to walk back into her house. Just before I turned to leave, I heard her necklace give way again and saw it fall to the ground, only to crack against a half-buried stone. My now former girlfriend knelt to pick up the cracked stone before her shoulders crumpled and she fell into sobs. I wanted to comfort her with everything in me, but I knew it would only hurt more. So instead I did one of the hardest things I'd ever done. I turned and walked back down the driveway.
Oh, hey guys. How ya doin'? What's that? The chapter? What about it? Oh, that. Yeah, had to be done. I mean, you all knew Sheik was going to play a part in the story. Oh, wait, not that? What then? There's not anything else that you could possibly be up in arms about...is there?
All joking aside, I hope I made the breakup at least somewhat believable. It's easy to have Link or Cremia make out with someone else, no name calling, for there to be a big fight, and they break up. But neither one of them is that kind of person. Ultimately, it comes down to what they put first in their priorities: themselves or others. It should be obvious which one is which. Also, I slipped a neat little placeholder for Link and Cremia's relationship into this chapter. Let me know if you noticed what it was.
Now, on to reviews. Ultimate, I hope your fears are alleviated. As for Ganondorf...last time I said anything, scary guys in black suits came and demanded I change it, so I think you'll just have to wait to find out. Maya, great to see a new name around, hope you're enjoying. I'm glad you like the line, I try to write in as much humor as I can. X, bravo to you, you have indeed found the chapter.
So guys, that review section took little to no effort to write out. I blame you for this. Sure, a quick "hey liked the chapter" is great and all, but come on, I know you guys are better than that. Tell me what you liked, what you don't, are you excited to see Link and Zelda...oh, shit, those are the guys in the black suits in that helicopter. I've got to go. Where'd I put that duffel bag? Ah, found it. Review if you found the placeholder thing. And if you didn't, review saying you couldn't find it. Oh, and I suppose you could tell me how terrible I am for tearing Link and Cremia apart, but whatever. Cheers all.
-Aro