Link's Awakening
Chapter Seventeen: The Legend of Agahnim
My mind must have been just as fatigued as my body at the moment, because I just stood there like an idiot for a long time, before realizing that I had finally found my best friend. It was definitely him, the blue skinned wizard that I left Hyrule with only a couple weeks before, but it was hard not to see the differences as well. He was more muscular, in better shape physically, carrying himself with more confidence, and that beard… there was no way around it, Agahnim looked older, or at least more mature… but how could that happen in just the few days that had passed since we were shipwrecked?
Both of them slowly walked around the burning font, deciding without words to meet on the left side, and as the wizard got closer, Link started to see even more differences in his missing friend. For one thing Agahnim's clothes were completely different than they had been before, not that the young man could really say anything about this, since he had stolen Prince Richard's outfit, but… although the wizard's clothes were certainly of high quality, the robes he was wearing were faded and starting to wear out, as if he was using them for a long time.
Another difference was that his friend was wearing a sword on his belt; a shiny blade with a gold hilt that looked like there was the engraving of a seashell on the front. Agahnim had never carried a sword before, preferring to use a combination of his magic and hand to hand combat just like his father did, but how did that change so quickly, and where had the wizard gotten such a beautiful sword? Damn this island, every time Link started to figure something out, it just raised more questions.
"I thought my spell protected you, and you were safe in Hyrule." Agahnim said, looking him over with just as much skepticism. "Clearly it didn't work, but… where have you been this whole time, Junior?"
"Looking for you." The young man replied. "When I saw the wreck on the beach, I thought you drowned, and… where have you been this whole time?"
Smirking again, the wizard began his tale with the last thing he remembered before their separation, which was casting a protection spell on Link just before the lightning strike. Then there was darkness and some music, which the young man identified as the same one he had been hearing when his friend hummed it. Next thing Agahnim knew, he was underwater, feeling like he was burning up, but it turned out that this was because he had somehow landed inside of a small hot spring.
"Remember how I poked fun at how hard my sister fell for your brother?" The wizard asked, motioning for Link to move closer to the font so he could dry off. "Well, that was how I felt when I was dragged out of the water, and I opened my eyes to see the most beautiful woman in the world leaning over me… Tracy."
The young man was confused by how Agahnim described getting closer with the owner of the health spa, and how quickly their relationship developed, since… want Crazy Tracy a married woman who had two children? From there, his friend described how he had begun his own search, exploring the local villages and landscapes for any sign of Link, but discovering nothing, leading him to eventually believe that his friend hadn't washed up on the island at all. So the wizard turned his attention to learning as much about the place as possible, and that was when he met the owl.
Like something out of a children's bedtime story, the animal told Agahnim that he was the one chosen to gather the Instruments of the Sirens and wake the sleeping Wind Fish, and since he had left Hyrule seeking adventure, the wizard agreed. Apparently magic wasn't as common on Koholint Island as it was in Hyrule, and the wizard's powers made him more than a match for even the deadliest creatures as he explored such places as the Tail Cave and the Key Cavern. Link wasn't familiar with the Key Cavern, but if Agahnim had gone into the Tail Cave before him, it explained how all of those spiked turtle/beetle things had been dead when he arrived.
"The owl only appeared every so often, so I had a lot of time in between." The wizard explained. "I spent a lot of time with Tracy, helping her develop her healing potions, but as word of my magic spread, people started coming to me for help, and as a result I made a lot of friends."
One day a very large Moblin came to the health spa, and asked for Agahnim's help in ending a civil war that was raging throughout the swamps and forest between his and another tribe. A few fireballs and lightning bolts later the civil war was over, and the Moblin he had helped became Captain of both tribes, pledging to help the wizard if he ever needed it, but that wasn't the only friend he made. In fact, the ruler of the island himself, Prince Richard, came for help one day when his servants began a mutiny.
The Prince had been disheveled, forced to take shelter in an old, unused gardener's hut while his servants took over Kanalet Castle, and as the son of a Lord himself, Agahnim just could not let that stand. This time there was no need for killing, like what had to be done to demonstrate his power to the Moblins, and the rebellious servants surrendered after being intimidated by a few simple spells. Sure, Richard had the rebels executed for treason as soon as he was back on the throne, but the wizard just shrugged about this, saying that the same thing would happen after a failed mutiny in Hyrule.
"Between both actions, the owl came back and led me to more awful places." Agahnim continued. "The last place I went into was called the Angler's Tunnel, actually, that's where I got that bell you're wearing around your neck… but then I found this temple, and everything changed. Come here and look at this."
Motioning over to the temple's largest wall, Link followed his friend over to the largest and most elaborately carved of all the reliefs, where the young man saw two pictures. The first was a rough, but highly detailed image of the owl that had been guiding him, while the other was the image of a gigantic, and very colorful fish that appeared to be flying above the clouds. It was the words, however, that were the important part, so Agahnim blew the dust away so that the chiseled letters could be seen clearly.
TO THE FINDER… THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY, A SCENE ON THE LID OF THE SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKEN THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE… LEAVE THE DREAMER, AND THIS WILL FOREVER BE YOUR HOME…CASTAWAY, YOU DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH… ALL IS IN YOUR HANDS.
"What, this place will… that's ridiculous." Link said after he had finished reading. "You're saying this whole island is nothing but some kind of… dream of the Wind Fish? That doesn't make any sense at all."
"Oh yes it does, Junior, if you pay attention." The wizard replied. "The Wind Fish is trapped in its own dream, and that no good owl wants to destroy everything here just to wake the stupid thing up. True or not, the owl believes it, and I've seen enough prof over the years to convince me, which is why I gave some of the instruments to my friends for safe keeping, and put the others right back where I found them."
No longer content to blindly follow the owl's instructions, Agahnim abandoned the quest completely, warning Prince Richard and the Moblin Captain about the animal's treachery, and then taking them with him on a yearlong quest to find the legendary Sword of Koholint. Upon finding the blade after receiving a special seashell that served as the key to its hiding place, after helping a ghost come to terms with its death… damn annoying ghost… the wizard sword to protect the island against anyone else who might try to wake the Wind Fish, eventually gaining a reputation as the Great Hero of Koholint.
After everything calmed down again, Agahnim told about how he accepted the island as his home, marrying Tracy and starting a family with her, but so much of the wizard's story didn't make any sense. For one thing, how was it possible for the wizard to have done all of these things in the few days that had passed since they were shipwrecked, and when asked about it, Agahnim stopped everything to ask Link how long he had been on the island. The only answer the young man could give was the truth, saying that he had been unconscious at Marin's house in Mabe Village for a couple days after the wreck, so… about a week.
"A week?!" The wizard exclaimed, so shocked by the answer that he took a step backwards. "You're telling me that you've only been on Koholint Island for a week?! Junior, I've been here for twelve years!"
Now it was the young man's turn to be shocked, but if this seemingly outrageous claim was true, it explained why his friend looked so different after such a short time. It would also explain why some of the wood from the shipwreck Link had found was so much older than the rest, along with why all of the dead creatures he had found in the Tail Cave and the grotto were all skeletal and rotten. Could what Agahnim was saying be true? Did he really already go through everything with the owl, and have enough time to have a family with Tracy… gosh, twelve years, but… but how?
"It doesn't seem possible, but… maybe my spell did protect you." The wizard commented. "Remember a long time ago when we were on the boat, and I cast the barrier so you could fix the sails? I thought it stopped you from coming here, but maybe it just… I don't know, slowed you down getting here. Time does move differently here than it does in the real world, I know that much, so maybe."
"Real world?" Link asked. "Okay, I'll admit that some pretty strange things are happening around here, but come on, Agahnim, how can you seriously believe that this place is not real?"
Agahnim folded his arms and bit his lip for a second as if trying to think up a reply, but then he snapped his fingers as if a brilliant idea had just shot into his mind. Explaining that he had taken years for him to find all the evidence and form his own judgement, the wizard declared that now that he knew where everything was on this whole island, his friend didn't need to wait so long to accept the truth. Agahnim then grabbed Link's arm, and suddenly everything around them became a distorted, unrecognizable blur, but only before a second when it all came back into focus and… they were on a completely different part of the island… where the rain was still coming down hard.
"You want proof, Junior?" The wizard asked, illuminating the area around them by producing flame in his hand. "Fine… follow me, and I'll give you all the proof you ever wanted."