Hello people! This has taken awfully long hasn't it? Sorry for that! ^_^'' Please think it as a simulation for the time gap that was between the adult and child eras. Fear not! I'm not going to abandon this fic, even if updating might sometimes take some time.

Thanks again for those who favorited/reviewed/followed! You all make me very happy.

Contradictions 6

Dust.

As soon as he cracked his eyes open, Link sneezed loudly. The sudden movement sent clouds of dust soaring around the chapel. It was beautiful, Link thought. The tiny grains spiralled around, sometimes glittering, when hit by a light ray, until slowly settling again.

It was really odd. Had he fallen asleep? He didn't remember the place being quite so dusty. It was night. The lightning was very dim and he couldn't see very well. How long had he been sleeping?!

What was the last thing he remembered? Link had come to the temple of time with Navi, he had played the song, which got him inside of the hidden chapel.

He had taken that sword from the pedestal. Yes, that was it. After taking the sword he had no further memories of this place. Link looked at the sword in his hand.

Now that was really strange: Link could swear the sword had been bigger just a minute ago. Maybe it altered its size depending on its wielder? Link tried to get up in order to walk a little. He felt really locked down. That's what one gets from sleeping on a cold stone floor.

Turns out he was even more solid than he had thought. As soon as he rose a little, staggering pain shot through his every muscle, perhaps through his bones too. He would have wailed, if his throat wasn't as dry leaves in autumn. This really wasn't a great day for Link. What's more Link noticed his ears were ringing and his head ached line never before.

What furthermore puzzled him was that he woke up by himself. No blue ball had pestered him to wake up beforehand. The absence of that sometimes-somewhat-annoying voice really made Link uneasy.

Even though Link knew he was risking breaking his neck, he turned his head to look for Navi. Gladly he didn't need to look for long. He only needed to turn a little to find a small, hovering ball from the edge of his sight. Navi was very much awake, yet she wasn't saying anything. Instead she only seemed to stare straight at Link, absolutely quiet. That quietness made Link worry. Seeing Navi like this was just abnormal.

The dust, the shrinking sword, the hammering pain, the dry throat, the ringing ears and headache; none of those had set his alarm off, but finally, after opening his mouth and upon hearing his own, low voice saying: "Navi, what's wrong?" Link understood at last that there was something horribly, dreadfully wrong with him.

And he still had no idea how horrid his day was going to get.

Seven years of bitterness had made Ganondorf Dragmire numb to feelings of almost any kind. In a way that was a great relief. Bitterness about the betrayal of his own kin had turned to hatred against all of creation, which in turn caused Ganondorf so much despair he began to question everything about his past.

Why was it that he became to hate the Hylian race so much? As a boy he remembered adoring their graceful ears. He had been proud of his own ears that were a bit pointy themselves. Somewhere in his heart the king of one knew that the reason must've been a grave one, yet he was always too tired to think about it. The endless questioning had taught him at the very least that thinking increases the pain. Thus he had stopped thinking all together.

The only thing keeping him somewhat sane was that he was determined to live to see the world stop existing. By clinging onto that wish he was able to keep going for all these years and in exchange he had given up all of his hope that anything would ever turn for better.

Even this hadn't caused his mothers, two of the few people still loyal to him, to give up on him. After the rebellion they had stayed back in their home-fortress, but every now and then they would come to visit him in the ruined capital and explain their plans to make the Gerudo return their loyalty once more. Ganondorf knew better than anyone how futile the plan was. No magic could ever make the people truly respect him again. Quite the opposite. He would never be able to call himself a king if he used such means to control his people.

He hoped that the two women would just stop coming. He had been serious about giving up on this world and the world also included the two who had raised him. Once he had loved them both dearly. Now he believed he was incapable of such feeling.

The only thing about waiting for the destiny to do their part that Ganondorf truly hated was the eternal silence. He was always alone in his isolated castle and there was no sounds, noises, voices, nothing! The silence almost drove him mad several times and he sometimes had to break a vase, a sculpture anything to make that nothingness disappear.

His torment ended one day, when he discovered an unusually large room within the castle. It had remained unmaintained for several years, possibly even longer than the seven years of his reign. The place was therefore covered in dirt. Yet Ganondorf wouldn't even notice.

What astonished him was the large instrument in the middle of the room. Constructed of large metal pipes and hundreds of tiny switches was nothing like the instruments back in the desert. Carefully the king tried playing it and its hollow sound filled the room. He wasn't sure if the sound was exactly pleasant, but that wasn't important.

He had a way to banish the silence!

Over the years he had learned how to play the unknown instrument. He couldn't say he played well, but that had never been his goal in the first place. Anyway, playing this strange instrument we often call "a pipe organ" was Ganondorf's only source of joy, if he even could feel joy, for many years, until on one particularly dark day the doors of a temple, sealed for seven whole years, opened. He had never thought, he would utter that word again:

"Interesting."

Under a lone tree, not far from what used to be a haven for the Zora tribe, there sat a golden-haired man in deep thought. Looks are deceiving though, because what looked like a young man was still a very much a boy. A child trying to process all of the information and responsibility shoved to his shoulders not an hour before.

If not anything else, at least the situation was much clearer than before.

Even if all the pain was not gone yet, Link had somewhat accustomed to the idea that he wasn't a child anymore. It all had seemed so weird at first, but then Link had begun to realise the cool sides of being so much bigger than before. Fighting would be easier! He could reach to places he couldn't before. He was able to run faster! Even Navi's attitude about him had changed. For some reason she wasn't as rude anymore. No, being an adult wasn't the issue here.

The young hero was puzzled. That exactly was the issue! They called him "a young hero", and Link wasn't nearly so sure he could fulfil what was expected of him.

When searching through his belongings Link had come across a strange, golden piece of metal. Upon touching it he had heard a voice inside his head. The voice, who introduced himself as the sage of light, Rauru, had explained him everything from "What has happened to Hyrule?" to "Why was Link an adult now?" and "What he needed to do next?" Link had listened to the voice politely, but in all honesty he had wanted to fall asleep the whole time. It was weird. Boredom had never attacked him when listening to The Great Deku Tree's stories.

But it didn't end there. Just when he was about to leave the temple another individual emerged from the shadows! It was a young man, not much older than himself, this time. For Link's frustration he also saw that it was best to start lecturing the nearly awakened hero. Link felt his head was about to explode! He really couldn't concentrate to anything what was being said, until he heard a very familiar description: "You must save the sage of forest, a girl you know very well."

And just like that his quest, saving the realm, became very personal.

That is how Link ended up sitting under that tree. No matter how much he wanted to save Saria, he wasn't able to do so until he acquired some kind of treasure from the Kakariko village. Getting his hands on that treasure meant he had to be in top notch and that condition was not met right now. Navi had advised him to rest and think things through before continuing the journey. And our hero slept. Even those seven years of slumber had not taken away his ability to sleep anywhere and anytime, no matter how inappropriate the time or place.

This wasn't necessarily a good thing. In few hours he would understand that finding a safe spot to sleep was a matter of great importance in his current situation.

"Sleeping in plain sight? That's very careless of you, hero."

Link's eyes shot open upon hearing an unfamiliar voice whispering next to his head. What he saw, was a really tall, a huge man standing right next to him. He was very different-looking person from what Link was used to seeing. His skin was as dark as night. His hair was like fire in that night and his eyes were golden. That was quite not right though. Gold was a warm and shining colour, but this man's eyes were cold. Colder than any night in the forest.

"You interest us, child. You suddenly emerge from the building sealed for seven years. No one has gone in or come out during that whole time yet here you are. We think We might even recognize you. We saw you all those years ago, but you were just a boy then. You are the one who opened the doors! You are the one who gave us this power! You are truly a marvellous one, We give you that!"

To Link it didn't matter in the slightest what the man was muttering about. All of Link's mind was busy remembering, understanding. He knew this man. It was the man he had seen back in Zelda's castle. It was the man that had made Link understand fear for the first time! It was the criminal behind The Great Deku Tree's Death and the corruption of Hyrule! Ganondorf, the king of evil.

Link saw red. His own anger surprised himself. Never in his life had he hated something, or someone, like this. Normally these thoughts would never occur to him, but now all he wanted was to cut that man's throat open.

And that's exactly what he did. Or at least he tried.

What happened was that when he tried to swing his sword to bring the man to his demise, the hit never landed. Instead the man grabbed his sword with his bare hands and threw it somewhere Link couldn't reach. From his movements Link could tell that Ganondorf was now angry and Link was unarmed. All of the feelings of anger gone Link now only feared his end had arrived.

The furious king raised Link to the air from his collar and slammed him against the tree. Next he would surely deliver the final blow!

But he didn't.

Instead he just held the smaller man in that place and began to…

…Lecture him?

"Now you listen, you brat and you listen to us carefully! There are two main reasons you are never able to kill us, no matter how hard you try. Is that clear?!" Ganondorf shouted so hard Link's ears hurt. Plus he was so surprised of this turn of events he could only nod weakly as a reply.

"First reason: For a chosen hero you are pathetically weak! With strikes like those you wouldn't be able to hurt a squirrel, let alone us. That sword is merely a toy in your hands. If We were you We would never try that stunt again." He was starting to calm down. Now speaking in much more quiet voice.

"Second reason: We have been blessed with what is called: a Triforce of power. We trust you have heard of that. We have a natural affinity to it. This means We are practically immortal, so you are simply wasting your time."

All colour drained from Link's face. If the man was immortal, how was he ever supposed to kill him? Link started shaking from fear. However anyone looked it, his situation was hopeless!

Ganondorf noticed this. His next remark was only a whisper, all hostility gone: "Calm down child. We are not going to kill you. We simply want to discuss today."

Link did calm down. For some reason he felt silly for fearing the man so much. He was no brute but spoke in a rather civilized manner, regal even.

I changed Ganondorf's way of speaking and he uses the form "We" of himself. He has a royal upbringing behind him after all. ^_^