A few quick notes:
1. This story is rated T due to some very violent content.
2. The story is actually completed, and I intend to post a new chapter weekly.
3. I don't own any Legend of Zelda character or setting. I'm just borrowing them and I hope Nintendo won't mind too much.
4. Thank you so much for reading (and for reviewing)!
5. I have created a forum for this story (yes, I'm desperate for feedback). You can find it under the "My Forums" link on my profile page.
6. About the title: Sorry about the weird title for this chapter in the chapter list. The whole title, as it appears below, is longer than what allows for the official chapter titles.
Chapter 10: The Pendants of Courage and Wisdom
It took them almost two more days to reach the Eastern Forest. They had subsisted on berries found in the fields for two days, along with a lone cuckoo they had managed to catch and which had become Link's first living target. Link had been so hungry that he had barely even hesitated before decapitating the bird.
It started raining on the morning of the second day and they were pretty miserable until mid-afternoon, when they reached the edge of the forest: the trees blocked out most of the rain. By nightfall, the rain had stopped and they were deep within the woods. Link kept looking around, amused by the way things did not look any different if he looked away for a second and then looked again. They settled for the night in a small clearing, lighting a fire to dry and warm themselves.
"How are you feeling?" Zelda asked. "With the sword, I mean."
"Not too bad." Link admitted. "But I'm glad you thought of wrapping it in our undershirts. It was scratching my leg pretty bad before."
Zelda nodded sympathetically. "It scratched mine when I carried it under my skirt." She said.
"So, which way is that Palace?" Link asked.
"I don't know." Zelda said. "I'm hoping you can find out."
"You don't know where it is? At all?" Link cried out. "What if I can't find it? Why didn't we go back to the library so you could find out where it is?"
"Why wouldn't you be able to find out? And do you really think we would have gotten anywhere near a library again? After we were almost caught in one, they are probably heavily guarded!"
"But what if…?" Link started again angrily.
Zelda interrupted him.
"If you can't find out where it is, we'll look for it, or for a town with a library!" She growled. "But how about you at least TRY before worrying about that?"
"Fine!" Link growled back.
He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on going to an Eastern Palace to get a pendant. When he opened them, he was standing in a desert, a few paces behind a Hylian boy dressed in green, presumably his past self.
"Hey!" He called out.
His past self whirled around, sword out. He lowered his sword and shield upon seeing what had addressed him.
"A ghost?" He asked. "You look a bit like me... what are you? What do you want?"
"I'm your future self." Link said, wondering if he'd ever get used to introducing himself like that. "I need help to find the three pendants so I can get the Master Sword."
"Uh?" His past self answered. "Future self? Why would I believe that? You could be one of Aghanim's tricks."
Link blinked at him, speechless. He had no idea who Aghanim was, and could only assume it was an enemy of his past self.
"Err..." He said, trying to think of something. "I... don't know. But I really need your help! Zelda doesn't know where the East Palace is! If you don't help me, we're going to have to go to a library and the guards are after us, and..."
"'Zelda'? Don't you mean PRINCESS Zelda? You're not going to convince me by being rude to the point of talking about her like she's just some girl. And it's called the EastERN palace."
"She's not a princess in the future." Link explained. "Look, everyone knows those three buildings right now, don't they? I mean, they're still there, so they're still the Three Wonders, right? If I was working for that guy Aga-whatever, I wouldn't need to ask you where they are, right? I would know and he would know!"
His past self hesitated.
"Did you say the guards are after you? They're after me, too… You already know the pendants are in those three palaces, do you? But you don't know where they are? Well... I suppose I can show you that much. But how do you know about the pendants?"
"Zelda read it on the stone the Master Sword is in." Link said. "And she said they should be in the Three Wonders. Hey, how come this is a desert? Aren't you going to the Eastern Palace? Is it past the forest?"
"There's no forest around here." His past self said. "All right. You can look at my map. It won't hurt if you're with Aghanim, so I might as well help you just in case you're telling the truth."
The past Link sheathed his sword and pulled a map out of his pocket. He kneeled and unrolled it on the ground in front of himself, then gestured Link over.
Link bent down to look at it, but as he would have guessed, it didn't help a whole lot. He spotted Death Mountain and Lake Hylia, but the Lost Woods were not quite in the right spot.
"See here..." His past self said, pointing at a mark towards the East of the map, "...is the Eastern Palace. It's on top of a high hill, north of here. Not far from the end of this desert and so, from the mountains between it and Zora's fountain."
Link nodded.
"You might want to note this down." His past self suggested.
"I'll remember." Link said. "North of a desert, close to the mountains between that desert and Zora's fountain, whatever that is. Maybe Zelda knows about it."
"I don't know exactly where the other two are yet, because Sahasrahla wouldn't tell me until I had proven myself by getting the pendant of courage." The past Link said. "I think he just wants to make sure I visit again."
"But he knows where they are?" Link asked.
"Yeah, but..."
"I just have to come back when you go see him again, then." Link said. "See you!"
Link willed himself back to his present, leaving his past self staring at the bit of ground Link had been standing on, insofar as ghosts stand anywhere. He finally just shrugged, picked up his map and turned back towards his destination.
Link opened his eyes, but before Zelda could even ask him if he had found out where the pendants were, he had closed them again.
This time, Link found himself next to his past self, who was talking to a very, very old man. Link took a step back, first thinking the man had to be a corpse, but he didn't seem to be rotting at all, and his eyes twinkled when they spotted him.
"Is that who you were talking about, my boy?" The elder asked of the past Link. He had such a strange accent that Link could barely understand him.
"Yep." That Link said, nodding. "He says he is my future self and he wants to know where the three palaces are. He already knew that's where the pendants are."
"Well, well. There is no harm in telling Aghanim where those palaces are, he already knows." The elder said. "And if our ghostly friend really is who he says he is, helping him would be wise."
"That's what I thought too."
"Well then, let me mark this and we can show it to him. Can you carry things to the future, young man?"
"I don't think so." Link answered. "I can't touch anything, so..."
"We'll try something." Sahasrahla said. "Let me see..."
Much to Link's amazement, who kept expecting the poor man to die at any moment, Sahasrahla walked to the back of the room effortlessly, opened the chest that was there and pulled out a rolled up parchment. He closed the chest and opened the parchment on it. Even from a few pace, Link could easily see it was another map, apparently identical to the one his past self had. Said past self was looking bored and seemed to be wondering whether he should leave yet.
"Don't leave yet, Link." Sahasrahla said as he marked the new map on three spots. "I have a present for you, which I believe you will find useful. And after that palace, I really don't think being inactive for a few minutes will hurt you."
Link's past self nodded and sat down on the floor, resigned to wait.
Sahasrahla had rolled the map back up and walked up to Link, holding the roll of parchment out as if expecting Link to take it. Link frowned quizzically, suddenly thinking the old man's mind might not have held up as well as his body.
"I can't touch..." he started.
"I know." Sahasrahla interrupted. "You just told me and besides, you're obviously immaterial."
"I'm what?" Link asked. "So why are you giving me that map?" He continued, not waiting for an answer.
"I want you to put your hand around it, as if you were holding it." Sahasrahla said. "Then, I want you to concentrate on bringing it along as you go back to your own time. With any luck, the map will follow. If it doesn't, come back and you'll have to memorize it."
Link sighed, but he knew from experience he was not very good at judging which ideas were crazy and which were good. He did as told.
He put his fingers around the scroll, just shy of through it, closed his eyes and concentrated on bringing the scroll to the future with him.
"Bring the map, bring the map, bring the map..."
He willed himself back to his own time, still chanting.
"How did you do that?" Came a very surprised voice. "You say it's a map? But how..."
Link opened his eyes and although he could feel the map in his hands and hear Zelda asking about it, he had to look down and see the scroll to believe it.
"Yes!" He cried out. "It worked! I CAN bring stuff back! I have to go back, tell the old guy it worked..."
Before Zelda could say anything, his body collapsed as his mind left again. He jumped up again a few seconds later.
"He already knew it had worked." He said, grinning from ear to ear. "But I had to say thanks anyway. Can you believe it? We went through all that to get those medallions, but I could have just borrowed them! Hey, I could go get food in the past… or the Master Sword! Wait, no. That's not a good idea. It feels wrong, even more than with the Sages."
Zelda was just smiling at him.
"I'm just going on and on, ain't I? It's just... it's really nice for a change that something is easy!"
He handed her the map, still grinning. "There you go. You figure it out."
Zelda examined the map carefully, frowning. The geography was just similar enough for the differences to really stand out and give the old map a very alien feel.
"There are some badlands at the foot of those mountains..." She said, more to herself than for Link's benefit. "But nothing as big as this. It's just a few hills, between this forest and Zora River Country. Meanwhile, this forest is not on this map at all. I would have thought it would have always been there, seeing the Lost Woods used to be around here..."
Link shrugged, unnoticed by Zelda.
"He said, my past self, that the palace was north. It's supposed to be in a desert close to those mountains."
"North we go, then. We'll look for the badlands."
They left the following morning, and arrived at the badlands the morning after that.
"I'm pretty sure the Eastern Palace would be in ruins by now, so we should look for ruins." Zelda said.
"What would that look like?" Link asked.
It didn't surprise Zelda. It wasn't like Link would have seen history books, and there were no old ruins to be seen anywhere near their town.
"Low walls, barely sticking out of the ground if at all, and probably just bits and pieces of them." She said. "According to pictures, anyway. I've never actually seen any."
"Let's hope we're in the right place, at least." Link said, looking worriedly at the ground around them. "This could take forever."
"Try to follow your instincts. It worked for the Master Sword, it might work for the pendants. Just keep your eyes opened for ruins while you're at it."
Link forced himself to relax and, keeping his eyes to the ground, just let his feet go where they wanted to. After a while, Zelda called out she had found ruins, just a few steps to his left. Link didn't feel he needed to go that way, so he didn't. He soon found the remains of a wall to his right, and assumed that they were standing right where the palace used to be. It seemed Zelda's instincts – she was the one who had stopped in this particular area of the badlands – weren't half bad either. He kept walking for another minute, than stopped. He felt like checking out the spot he was on would be a good idea.
He crouched on the ground and started digging. His finger quickly found something hard, only a few inches below the surface. He dug around it and in a few minutes, had a small chest in his hands.
"Zelda!" He called out happily. "You know, when this is over, maybe I should be a treasure hunter!"
Zelda rushed to his side, beaming.
"Open it!" She urged.
Link did. Inside the chest was a gleaming green pendant attached to a small gold chain.
Link was starting to feel quite heroic: he had a sword on his side, and it barely bothered him at all anymore, mostly thanks to it being wrapped, and he now had a pendant of courage hanging from his neck. Even more so than heroic though, he felt hungry.
The Eastern Forest, unlike the Lost Woods, did not have many fruit trees, and they had hardly eaten anything since they had reached it. While he was focused on finding the pendant, Link had been able to just about ignore how miserable he felt, but now that his thoughts were focusing instead on another long trek, to the desert no less, he didn't think he could last much longer without a half decent meal.
"I think you should try to bring food from the past." Zelda said, obviously sharing his concerns. "I'd rather avoid going near people in this time if we can."
Link nodded.
"I'm sure one of my past selves will help me find some." He said.
He sat and chose to concentrate on a happy time, with Ganon long since defeated, and whatever past self he ended up with about to eat a big meal that he could share.
When he opened his eyes, an old man, thought not nearly as old as Sahasrahla, was eyeing him curiously from across a table laden with food.
"Hullo..." the man said. "What have we here?"
Link could not respond right away. His mind had instantly and completely focused on the incredible quantity of food that was on the table. There was a whole pig, several cuckoos, mounds of something white, piles of vegetables and fruits, baskets full of breads, dishes he could not even identify... he shook his head and willed himself to look at the old man.
"Err... are you Link?" He asked. He had a strong feeling that the man was indeed his past self, long after his own battles were over, but it was difficult to think of someone looking so much older than he was as himself in the past.
"Why yes, I am." The man said. "And what are you? You're lucky my guests aren't here yet... If they were, I'd have to be much fiercer to some ghost who appeared out of nowhere... expectations, you know. I used to be a warrior of sorts... well, maybe more like an adventurer. Either way, I used to fight a lot of things, including ghosts. But, they're not here yet. So I'll play nice and ask you what you are first."
"I... I'm Link too." Link started.
"Really? I was under the impression that nobody else had that name. You'd think some children would have been named after me after I saved Hyrule, but nobody else than my closest friends know I did, so I guess no little babies will be named after me any time soon, right?" The old man winked, indicating he was not being serious. "Well, Link, as nice of a name as that is, it doesn't quite answer my question: what are you? And I have another one: what do you want?"
"You talk as much as Kariko." Link smiled. "I'm your future self. I'm not a ghost, it's just that my body is still in the future."
"Oh? Really? Well, you do seem familiar, and expectations aside, I would normally have attacked you and trapped you in a bottle without a second thought except that I was just so certain you weren't a threat... except maybe to my food. Future self, eh? Let's say I'll believe that. Hylian blood seems to be running a bit thin in your time, doesn't it? Your ears are minuscule, they almost look human."
Link didn't know what to answer to that, so he changed the subject to matters more pressing to him.
"Zelda and I need food, and the guards are looking for us…" He started.
"Ah, so you DO want food." The old Link said. "The Princess is wanted by the guards as well? What did you two do? Elope?"
"Zelda is not a princess. We don't have kings anymore." Link said, trying to give as little away as possible: he was pretty sure that describing Hyrule in details to any of his past selves would just depress them. "And... yeah. I'm looking for food. Sorry."
Link had no idea what 'elope' meant, so he ignored that question.
The old man laughed.
"There is no need to apologize." He said cordially. "I was never wanted, so I just bought food in the nearest town or village when I needed some. Money was never exactly a problem: Ganon was paying his monsters in rupees and they don't use banks." He winked.
"Oh. Err... hey, yeah." Link said, completely embarrassed. His old self looked so content and happy, and was so friendly, that Link felt bad for still being miserable.
"But I wonder..." His past self said, not seeming to mind his gloomy companion at all, "...how will you take it back with you? You can't touch things, can you? Seeing you're standing in a chair?"
Link looked down and although he was just a spirit, he still felt his cheeks flaring up in embarrassment. He hurriedly took a step back from the chair he had indeed been standing through.
"I can bring stuff back." He said. "I didn't think I could, but someone showed me how."
"Alright then, let's see what you need. You can have some of this, hold on I'll get you a bowl or something..." He got up, went into the next room and came back with a big bowl.
"Here, let's put some potatoes at the bottom..." He scooped up the white stuff Link had spotted, then a bunch of different vegetables. "... and some vegetables, you DO eat them, right? Of course you do, you're almost an adult...now, a cuckoo, I'm sure at least one would have ended up as leftovers anyway..." He plucked a roasted cuckoo and deposited it on top of the pureed potatoes and of the vegetables. "... and I'll put in a few fruits, too. Apples and pears okay?" He dumped two red apples and two perfect pears next to the chicken and put the bowl in front of Link, who was staring at it with his mouth opened. He would have been drooling if not for the fact he had no saliva.
"We... don't need THAT much." He said.
"Don't be silly." The old man said, waving the objection aside. "There are two of you and I bet you're both almost starved. Now that I've got a good look at you, I don't think you're half of a runaway couple. You look terrified. There's something much worse than guards after the two of you, isn't there? And you've been on the run for a while already, judging by how skinny you are."
Link looked down at himself. He didn't think he was skinnier than usual.
"Anyway," The old Link continued, "if you do get too full, keep the fruits for tomorrow, they'll keep, even though the rest won't. Which reminds me, stay here a bit longer."
Link was so busy staring at the food that he was rooted to the spot anyway, so he waited. His past self was back into the kitchen, and he came back out a few moments later with a bag that he put on top of the bowl.
"What's that?" Link asked.
"Travel food." The old man replied. "Dried meat, nuts, dried fruits, dried cookies, and I threw in a pouch of water, although I do hope you already have at least one of those. There should be enough food in there for about a week. Oh, and before I forget..."
He was off again before Link could say anything, this time to the upper floor. He came back a few moments later, with a solid looking sheath. He walked right up to Link and held it next to his wrapped sword: it was a bit longer than necessary. The old Link shrugged and put the sheath on top of the bag anyway.
"It's better than that rag you're using now. I hope your sword is alright, I don't have a spare one to give you. I don't have a shield anymore, either. Sorry."
Link was alternatively staring at the pile of presents and at his past self, completely in shock.
"I... err... thank you!" Link was looking for a stronger expression, but couldn't find one. "Thank you so much! I... you don't have to give me all that, I just wanted one meal!"
"You're welcome, and trust me, you'll be looking for more supplies before you're done with... are you fighting Ganon again? I only managed to seal him. I'm really sorry if that's who you're fighting, I tried to get rid of him, but..."
The old Link trailed off, looking at the pile he already had gathered. He had lost his smile and looked very guilty.
"Anything else you could use?" He asked.
Link shook his head vigorously.
"No. Thank you." Link first thought of lying about Ganon, but didn't think the old Link would fall for it. "And it's not your fault for Ganon." He said instead. "Nobody can get rid of him for good."
"Well... I hope this helps you get rid of him for a while." The old man said, smiling again. "You better be off, you'll scare my guests and they'll be here any minute."
Link nodded, said thank you again, and wrapped his arms around the pile in front of him. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and almost immediately fell the bowl, bag and sheath materialize in his arms. He opened his eyes and grinned: Zelda was staring at all the stuff open mouthed and couldn't seem to say anything.
It was only after they had polished off all the fresh food except for the apples, which they decided to save for later, that Zelda, looking at all the stuff Link had brought back, suddenly thought that they would save a lot of time simply by getting the pendants in the past as well, as soon as a past Hero had used them to secure the sword and before they went back to the palaces, assuming that didn't happen in the same instant.
"Link, would you mind doing another trip?" She asked.
Link yawned, stretched, and shook his head pleasantly.
"I was just thinking..." She started. She then explained her idea.
Link smacked his forehead.
"I can't believe I didn't think of that! I even said I could have got the medallions like that, remember? And I thought of the Master Sword, too!" He groaned in irritation at himself. "I'll be right back!"
He was already lying down after his meal, so Link didn't fall, but his body went limp for a few seconds, before he stiffened up and sat up, looking at his hands with a smile that quickly vanished: they were empty.
"That's weird..." He said, frowning slightly. "... He had the sword, so he let me take them… Why didn't it work? Hold on, I'll try again. Maybe I wasn't thinking hard enough of bringing them back"
He flopped back, his spirit having left its time and body again. He sat back up a second later, his hands still empty.
"Farore!" He cried out. "Din-blasted things! Why isn't it working? I KNOW I did it right! They should be here! Urgh!"
He got up and started pacing angrily around, shooting Zelda looks that meant she was supposed to figure this out. She tutted at him, but the explanation came to her almost immediately, irritatingly making Link right to expect her to figure it out. She sighed.
"It's because they are already here." She said.
"I didn't try to bring the Courage one back! Just the other two! THEY're not here!"
"It doesn't matter that we don't have them yet." Zelda explained. "They're still already in this time. I didn't mean 'here' as a place, I meant 'here' as a time."
"Oh. But…" Link said, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"But it's a pain." Zelda said bitterly.
"Yeah." Link sighed. He slumped back down. "So, where do we go now?"
"We need to head south west." Zelda said. "Unless you want to go to Death Mountain first?"
Link goggled at her.
"No." He said, sounding like it should have been obvious.
"Well then." She said, forcing herself to get up although her full stomach made her long for a nap, "let's get going, alright? We'll digest better walking."
Link got back up and tried to stuff the wrapped sword in the sheath, without success: the fabric made the sword much too wide. He eyed it wearily, knowing he had to unwrap it and remembering quite well that getting his hands cut off had hurt a lot. He swallowed.
Zelda hesitated a second, debating whether to unwrap the sword for him and save time or to let him do it himself to help him get over his fear. She was about to just take the sword and do it herself when Link started unwrapping it, very slowly and carefully. She felt her chest swell in pride and smiled in spite of herself. Link didn't notice and although it took him a while, he eventually had the blade naked again, for a split second before he stuffed it hurriedly into the sheath. The sheath had a belt attached to it, which Link tied around his waist. The belt was so long that it actually went twice around him and there was still a lot of it hanging out. The only reason Link didn't run out of holes was that the belt was made of woven leather strips and therefore, had holes down its whole length.
"You're amazing, sometimes." Zelda said.
Link blinked at her. He thought he was pretty pathetic to take so long to unwrap a sword, himself. Not to mention he had almost given in to the temptation of getting her to do it.
"What, for taking forever to unwrap a sword?" He asked.
"I was sure I'd have to do it for you." Zelda explained.
Link shrugged and smiled at the same time, managing to look proud, thankful and embarrassed all at once. Zelda got up and they set off south-west, towards the desert.
Ten days later, their provisions were gone and they were back to subsisting on field berries and the occasional critter. Neither of them was particularly keen on Link going to beg for food to one of his past selves again, so they had agreed to put it off as long as they could.
The nightly screams were still down to about one occurrence a night, and still distant, but they had started to grow steadily nearer. Zelda had asked Link whether he had noticed, hoping he would tell her she was imagining things, but he had noticed too.
They stopped for the night within sight of the rocky hill that, according to their ancestral map, marked the border of the desert. They settled in a little glade of trees and Link took first turn staying awake. He still had nightmares almost every night, and the longer they were on the road without making concrete progress, the worse they were getting, so he was in no hurry to go to sleep. He sat down to at least rest his legs and next to him, Zelda lied down.
He was killing time by looking at Zelda's sleeping form when he heard the footsteps. He froze, thinking he ought to get up and check it out, and at first, completely unable to do so. He eventually managed to get up and, hiding behind a tree, took a look towards where the footsteps where coming from. In the darkness, he could just make out a huge, vaguely human form, walking and looking around, as if searching for something.
Many thoughts jumbled into his head as he recognized Ganon's form. He should wake Zelda up so they could flee. He should not wake her up so she didn't gasp in surprise and betray them. He should wake her up so she didn't start making noise in her sleep. He should run. He should stay. Ganon was walking away from them, but was he turning around? It was hard to say in the darkness. Ganon's form stopped. Link thought he heard some sniffing and crouched to hide behind the tree better, hoping the trunk would help stop his smell. Ganon's head turned in his direction and Link saw his eyes shine.
Then, everything went black.
The scream, high pitched and very, very close, woke him up. He jumped to his feet and looked around frantically for Zelda. She was sitting, wide eyed, listening, and thankfully, alive and well.
He tiptoed to her and kneeled down.
"Nayru!" He breathed. "I thought that was you for a second!"
"What?" Zelda mouthed. "Couldn't you see...? You didn't fall asleep, did you?" Even though her voice was less than a whisper, it still sounded angry.
Link looked down, deeply ashamed.
"I saw Ganon." He breathed. "Over there." He added, pointing in the appropriate direction. "He looked this way and I... I..."
"He was here?" Zelda whispered. Even in the darkness, Link could see the blood had suddenly drained from her face. "How could you fall asleep with him close enough to..." She stopped, finally figuring out Link had not exactly fallen asleep.
"You fainted." She sighed.
Link nodded miserably.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered, choking up on the words. "I can't believe I did that... if he had seen me..."
"We would both be dead." Zelda whispered. "But he didn't. It's no good dwelling on it. Try to sleep, it's my turn to stay awake. Besides, I want to think."
Link nodded and lied down, miserable and feeling he didn't deserve to be alive, and certainly not to sleep. Nevertheless, he drifted off in seconds. Zelda promptly gagged him so he wouldn't make noise when he started dreaming.
She shook him awake when the sun rose, after undoing his gag. She was glad she had put it on, Link having mumbled and moaned through it most of the night.
"I think we are safe for now." She said. "Ganon is never out during the day."
"I'm really, really sorry." Link replied.
Zelda sighed.
"You're really terrified of him, aren't you?" She said. "More than of anything else?"
Link nodded. He saw no point denying it. In fact he would have thought it was obvious.
"You know, I'm afraid of closed spaces." Zelda said. She wanted to make Link feel less inadequate by letting him know he was not the only one with irrational fears. "I hated the shop. I noticed you were looking at the windows a lot that day I kept staring at you. I do that too."
"I don't mind that I'm afraid of him." Link said. "It's just... I passed out! He could have killed both of us! Just because I couldn't deal with..."
"…Sheer terror." Zelda cut him off. "You're not afraid of him, Link. You're terrified. Have you noticed that your voice trembles whenever you talk about him, or when someone else does? You're shaking right now, just at the memory of last night."
Link did not reply. He was still sitting, hugging his own knees, his face buried between his arms, shaking like a leaf. Zelda kneeled in front of him and put her hand on one of his arms.
"Link." She said gently. "It's alright. After what happened last time you met him..."
"You don't know what happened." Link interrupted her bitterly.
"Tell me." Zelda asked, after taking a deep breath. She didn't want to know and making the request had taken all her willpower. "It might help you deal with it."
Link snorted derisively.
"Link, you need to get past what happened if you're going to face Ganon again. As you are now, you'll just be paralyzed in front of him." Zelda said, still straining against her true wishes to get the words out. "Tell me. Please."
Link peered up at her, frowning.
"Ganon had fun." He said. "He made me pay for all the times before, and he was laughing his head off the whole time."
Zelda thought of reminding him that he wasn't actually talking about something that happened to him, just to his past life, but thought better of it: she didn't want to change subject or get into an argument, and if Link felt it had happened to him, it didn't really matter that it technically had not.
"I had four fairies and two blue potions." Link continued. "The blue potions were some kind of magic juice that made you better if you were hurt or tired."
Zelda nodded. She had heard of such elixirs.
"And fairies bring you back to life, good as new." Link said bitterly.
Zelda's eyes widened.
"You mean they're for real? Fairies really exist and they really revive people?" She said.
"They did back then." Link growled. "Din-blasted little demons! I had four!"
"But then, didn't they revive..." Zelda's eyes opened wider, this time in horror. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
"Of course they did." Link sneered. "Four times. They don't care if there's any point to it or not. If they're around, they do it."
"I... I'm sorry. And Ganon, I bet he just got angrier each time, didn't he?"
Link barked a laugh that did not sound merry at all. He then related the whole battle to her, in every detail he could remember. He started out practically shouting, but by the time he got to the part about the Master Sword bouncing off Ganon's skin, his voice was barely a whisper. Zelda was white as snow, looking completely horrified. He felt much the same way, but he couldn't stop.
"That's when he told me the Master Sword couldn't hurt him." He continued. "That's when I realized I couldn't win. I tried stabbing him a couple more times, but after that, I just... gave up. I didn't even try to run away, I just let him kill me."
Link was now speaking so softly that Zelda barely heard the last part.
"Do you think it will be the same this time?" Zelda asked softly. For her own part, she refused to believe that it might, but if that was how Link felt, she wanted to know.
"Goddess! No." Link said, his voice coming back to normal. "I won't have any fairies, and you're going to figure out how to make the Master Sword work."
"So, he'll never be able to hurt you that much again." Zelda said.
Link took a while to answer.
"No." He finally said. "But if I lose, everybody else..." He trailed off. If he lost, Hyrule would stay in Ganon's grasp, and he couldn't be sure he would be reborn right away. Ever since he had realized who he was, he had been entertaining the thought that if he got himself killed, he'd at least be likely to be reborn as someone more hero-like: after all, he could hardly be even worse suited to fight Ganon than he was now. The thought had been somewhat reassuring, but now that he had met some of his past selves and spent a bit more time actively worrying about fighting Ganon, he had found himself wondering why he had not been reborn sooner after his defeat, and more importantly, wondering whether it might take that long again if he lost a second time. "What if I lose and I'm not reborn right away? What if it takes hundreds of years again? Ganon would have all that time to kill people!"
"Don't lose, then." Zelda said. "I told you historians thought there were at least 20 heroes, right? Well, the score stands at 1 to at least 19 in your favour. I'd say you have a pretty good chance if we don't mess up."
Link sniggered.
"I guess so." He said, smiling. "And I can ask my past selves for advice, too! Hey..." He punched the palm of his hand, having just thought of something. "I can ask them how to get the Master Sword to work!"
"Let's concentrate on GETTING the Master Sword first." Zelda said. "We should try not to get too sidetracked." In truth, she was afraid Link's past self would reveal he needed some kind of magical artefact that would turn out to be difficult to find and she didn't want to know about any future difficulties until they were over the current ones. Now that Link was feeling better, her mind went right back to worrying about said current difficulties.
Link nodded.
"Want to get going? Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, noticing Zelda was suddenly looking sombre.
"I wasn't sure until last night, but now I am. Ganon has been getting progressively closer. He's chasing us, and now he's caught up."
"You think he's still going to be here tomorrow night?" Link asked, his voice trembling.
"Yes." Zelda confirmed. "We could try to fool him and head to Death Mountain first." She suggested.
"But we're almost to the desert!" Link protested. "You keep saying we wasted time going to the Eastern Palace first, that we should have come here first after all! We can't go all the way to Death Mountain and then all the way back here! That would take almost a whole month!"
Zelda nodded grimly. She didn't much like the idea of the detour either, even if she had felt the need to share it with Link.
"Did you say he looked towards us last night?" She asked. She was grasping at straws and she knew it, but she really needed reassurance right now, and if straw was all she had, she'd take it.
"Yes." Link said. "I thought for sure he was going to see me. That's when I..." He blushed, looked down and didn't finish.
"Even if he didn't see you, he must have seen these trees." Zelda mused. "And he obviously didn't bother to make sure we weren't hiding there."
Link raised his eyebrows.
"That's... weird." He said. "Why not? What's the point of following us and not look for us?"
"He might be trying to cover a lot of ground." Zelda said, thinking out loud. "But what good is it if he's going to be that sloppy? It's almost as if he's not trying very hard. As if he wants to find us, but he doesn't want to bother to really search for us. Oh, Nayru!" She suddenly gasped.
"What?"
"He doesn't NEED to search for us!" Zelda blurted out, grabbing Link's shoulders. "If he knows we are around here, it's because he knows we're after the pendant! He can just set a trap for us at the Desert Palace! He wasn't looking for us last night, he was just... hunting! He was just looking for someone to kill, anyone!"
Link's eyes widened.
"A t…trap? We… we can't go there! Ganon wants us dead! It's too dangerous!"
Zelda forced herself to frown. She didn't want to walk into a trap any more than Link did.
"We need the pendant." She made herself say. "We'll have to be careful, that's all we can do."
"I know we need it!" Link moaned. "But..." He trailed off, unable to think of any counter argument.
"Exactly." Zelda said. "Let's get going."
Without waiting for an answer, she picked up her bag and set off towards the desert. Link sighed, picked up the two water pouches (he was carrying Zelda's as well as in own), put on his sheath and sword and followed.
They entered the desert towards the end of the day and started to walk along the mountain wall surrounding it, looking for a cavern to hide in, with a narrow opening Ganon would not be able to squeeze in. They found one as the sun was setting and crawled in, both extremely uncomfortable as they went through the narrow opening. Thankfully, the cavern got much wider a few paces in, the ceiling climbing to more than twice their height and the walls receding far enough away for the chamber to be about the size of Zelda's old living room. They could see all this because the cavern was home to countless fireflies, buzzing near the ceiling.
"You're not afraid of insects, are you?" Zelda asked Link.
"Nope." Link replied with a smile. "I'm glad those guys are here: it would be way too dark if they weren't."
"We probably wouldn't even have been able to tell how big this chamber was." Zelda agreed. "I'd probably be convinced that the walls were caving in on us within an hour."
Link shuddered and said nothing. He guessed he would have lasted all of 30 seconds before screaming in panic if the cave hadn't turned out to be large and reasonably lit.
The following day was dedicated to searching the desert for the palace. They found it around midday, or rather, they found what was left of it: the remains of a huge statue with a half caved in opening for a mouth.
"These 'wonders' sure didn't hold up that well." Link remarked, eyeing what was left of the opening warily. He knew he had to go in to find the pendant, and although he had managed to spend the night in a cave, he absolutely did not want to crawl into a collapsed door to a collapsing building. Therefore, he was trying to kill some time. "Did you hear any screams last night?"
"No." Zelda answered. "We weren't likely to hear anything from inside a cave with such a small opening."
"Yeah, I guess not." Link said, fishing for something else to say. "I should get some food!" He said suddenly, his hunger reminding him of the perfect excuse to delay going into the Desert Palace.
Zelda rolled her eyes, but didn't protest. Link chose to interpret that as a blessing and sat down. He closed his eyes and concentrated on one of his past self buying some food. He was too embarrassed to go back to the overly generous old Link.
Link sagged and a few seconds later, bags of food and two covered trays materialized in his hands. He got up with a disgusted expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" Zelda asked.
"Nothing." He sighed. "It's just… he already had the Master Sword, and he was trying to spend money because his wallet was too full! And WE have to beg for food! He had this backpack full of stuff and a leather raincoat on, and we have NOTHING! Not even something to keep us dry when it rains! We'd have to beg for that, too! And he can just walk around in any town he wants, too! HE's not wanted!"
After getting that off his chest, Link stopped for breath and continued in a calmer tone.
"So anyway, he thought I was some kind of crazy ghost and that I needed food to move on, so he bought all that stuff for me. Nice guy, actually."
Zelda smiled indulgently, feeling a bit jealous herself. She would have loved to be able to meet all those past heroes and to see the past, like Link.
Once they had eaten, Link was out of excuses and grudgingly, he started digging out the collapsed entrance, with Zelda's help. They had only barely started when they felt the ground shaking and were thrown aside. Link heard Zelda cry out somewhere to his left, but the sound did not quite register with his consciousness, which was completely overcome by the sight of what had caused the ground to shake and swell, and was now coming straight at him.
It was a worm, shining as if its whole body was made of polished metal, and about the same size as a very big tree. Link was still sitting where he had landed, and started pushing himself back with his hands and feet. The worm lunged at him and Link, although he had not been aware he had unsheathed his sword, swung it at the beast desperately. It bounced off the monster's hard skin, causing it no harm whatsoever, but thankfully pushing it back a little.
Link was not afraid of bugs, but a worm that big was not a bug: it was a monster. Link fought the temptation to curl up in a ball and cry. Instead, he got to his feet and swung the blade again just in time to avoid the worm swallowing him whole. He caught the inside of the monster's mouth with his sword.
The creature reeled back, squirming as if in pain although no sound came out of it. Blood was dripping out of its mouth, and for a glorious second, Link thought it may be enough to make the worm flee.
It wasn't, and the worm attacked again, plunging towards Link head first. Link waited until the mouth of the monster was opened wide right in front of him and swung his sword upward.
The blade went through the roof of the creature's mouth before Link quickly pulled it back. The worm jumped away, swinging its head madly.
It attacked again, the same way as before. Link thanked the Goddesses for the monster's dumbness and swung his sword towards the bottom of the creature's mouth, with as much success as before: the blade sank through the bottom jaw of the monster and the beast squirmed wildly. Link just managed to get his sword back from the trashing worm and he had to back away quickly to avoid being hit by the tail. After a few moments, the beast slowed and stopped. To Link's amazement, it crumbled into sand, rejoining the desert.
Link collapsed on his knees, his teeth shattering and the rest of his body shaking badly. Monsters were bad enough, he could have done without it turning into sand. He felt like he was going to pass out again, he even wanted to. It seemed like everything would be all better if his mind just took a little break. When he came to, he might even be able to believe the worm had been a nightmare. He was staring at the sand, wondering if he hadn't imagined killing the monster after being eaten by it: it seemed more likely than his having defeated a giant worm with invincible skin.
Zelda's voice brought him back to reality. She was lying next to him, her hand on his thigh.
"It's okay." She was saying. "It's gone. You got it. You were stronger than it was."
Link shook his head, his eyes unfocused. Zelda patted his leg a bit.
"No." He said in a far-off voice, as though his thoughts were still not quite re-ordered yet. "I wasn't stronger, it was just dumb. It kept coming at me with its mouth wide opened... so it IS gone? I actually beat it?" He asked, his eyes finally refocusing and his voice sounding more normal, if a bit awestruck.
"Yes." She said, smiling. "I saw your sword go through the roof of its mouth. He must have been right on top of you." She had been about to point out that if his sword could poke out of its skin, that skin couldn't be as strong on the head as on the rest of the body and just aiming at the head would have worked as well as the more dangerous strategy of aiming for the inside of the mouth, but she decided not to.
Link nodded slowly.
"Are you okay?" He asked, suddenly vaguely remembering she had screamed after they had been projected into the air by the emerging worm.
"Not quite." Zelda sighed. "I hurt my ankle and I can't walk. I crawled here from where I fell." She said, pointing behind her.
"You can't walk?" Link said, his eyes wide. "Oh no..." He moaned. "It's going to take forever to get to Death Mountain If I'm carrying you!"
"Go get the pendant." Zelda said. "We'll think about what to do next after."
Link sighed, got up and went back to the crumbled entrance.
"You think that was the trap? The worm?" He asked before he started digging again.
"It had to be a trap." Zelda answered. "There's no way this thing was natural. I just hope it's the ONLY one."
Link sagged a bit.
"There's nothing for it." Zelda reminded him. "Just dig. We still need to find a hiding place before the night."
Link sighed and started digging. He started talking at the same time to keep his mind off the possibility of another monster jumping out of the sand at him.
"I don't understand." he said. "If Ganon was here, why didn't he just take the pendant? That way, I'd never get it and I'd never get the Master Sword."
"I don't know." Zelda answered truthfully. "He might have, yet."
The possibility had been bothering her since the previous morning, when they had determined that Ganon was around and probably headed for the Desert Palace.
"All right!" Link said, pulling a chest right from behind the door, smiling broadly.
He opened it and, grinning, pulled the pendant out and turned to show it to Zelda.
"He didn't take it! And that worm WAS the only trap!" He said. "Maybe he's just stupid. What do you think?"
"No." Zelda said. "He isn't. Don't think that for a second."
"What am I supposed to think? He knows I need that pendant, and he comes all the way here, and he doesn't take it!"
"Well first, like you said, he somehow knows we're after the pendants. How could he have guessed I'd be able to read that altar? Nobody speaks Hylian anymore, except for a few people like me who study it so they can read older texts. I think he put a spell on the pendants when he had them way back when, just so he'd know the next time a Hero started collecting them. That's not the kind of things an idiot does."
"So, he's going to know we just got this pendant." Link said.
"Yes." Zelda replied. "It could even be the only reason he didn't take it. He might have wanted to know for sure that's the one we got next. Now, he knows where we are and where we are going."
Link didn't reply. He was looking deathly pale.
"But to be honest, I don't think that's why he didn't take it." Zelda continued.
"Me neither. I don't like that he knows where we are, but it's still better than if he took the pendant." His voice was almost normal, which Zelda found encouraging.
"I'm sure there IS a reason, though." She said. "Maybe the pendants, after he used them to kill the last Hero quicker by letting him bypass the usual requirements to get the Master Sword, developed a magical protection against him and he can't take them anymore. Or maybe nobody can unless they intend to bring them to the altar where the Master Sword is. Maybe they just automatically come back to the temples as soon as they're gone, unless the person who has them intends to use them to get the Master Sword."
"Maybe." Link agreed. "But then, are you sure he knows where we are and where we're going to go next?"
"Probably." Zelda answered regretfully. "We'll need to make a detour to lose him."
Link sighed.
"How's your ankle?" He asked. "If we make a detour, it's going to take even longer to get to Death Mountain."
Zelda gingerly sat up and lifted her skirt a little to look at her ankle. She winced: it looked even worse than it felt. She looked up at Link, who was staring at her ankle with a sort of resigned look on his face.
"There is no way you can carry me around all over the place and up Death Mountain." Zelda said.
Link blinked.
"It's not like we have a choice. I can't leave you here."
"Well, no. Not RIGHT here, anyway." She said. "But you need to leave me somewhere, and the closer the better so that you can get on your way."
Link spent the next several minutes telling her there was no way he was going to just leave her alone somewhere when she couldn't even walk, and that besides, he needed her help to get the last pendant. Zelda patiently waited until he was done ranting on the subject.
"I'd slow you down way too much. Don't you think even one victim a night is too much? Don't you want to get rid of Ganon as soon as possible?"
"Well..." Link stammered. "Yes, but... I can't leave you, it's too dangerous! And I need your help!" He repeated for the tenth time.
"You don't need my help to get the pendant. You could have gotten these two just as easily without me." Zelda said. "We'll look at the map together, but once we figure out which way you should go, I'll only be dead weight."
"How am I going to get all the way there without someone watching out when I'm sleeping?" Link asked angrily, once again repeating part of his earlier rant. "Who's going to tell me what's going on if something weird happens? Who's going to figure out how to even GET on Death Mountain, and to that Tower? And what you going to eat?"
Zelda had closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears. She didn't want to separate either. They did not, however, have a choice.
"We are all the way back West now, so the Lost Woods are probably only a day or two away." She said, her voice cracking a bit. "Let's go there and see how my ankle is by that time."
"Fine." Link said, still sounding angry. He picked her up, surprisingly gently, and started walking back towards the entrance to the desert.