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.
Chapter 12: Ganon makes his move
Zelda woke up that morning with such a strong feeling of dread that she thought at first she might still be asleep and having a nightmare. She could not explain her feeling, but it was the strongest she had ever felt about anything, and what she felt was that something was terribly wrong.
"Great Deku Tree?" She called out. "Do you feel... anything wrong? Is Ganon in the forest?"
"No." The tree answered. "Do you?"
"Yes." Zelda said, her voice shaking with the strength of her undefined worry. "I don't know why, but..."
She shivered. The Great Deku Tree lowered the branch she was on until she was at ground level. She got up, testing her ankle, and found it perfect. She looked up at the tree questioningly.
"The sap I gave you yesterday can heal minor injuries." The tree said. "Look at my base, I've filled a few large nutshells with it. You should take them with you."
Zelda nodded.
"Will it heal him if he has anything serious?" She asked.
"The sap should keep the Hero alive long enough for you to find something more effective, if need be."
Zelda nodded again before frowning in confusion.
"Wait." She said. "How do we know..."
"The Princess and the Hero always share one destiny." The Deku Tree said. "Princesses in the past have been able to summon young boys who knew nothing of who they were to their aid when needed, even when those same princesses also knew nothing of the boy's identity. It is possible what you are feeling has nothing to do with the Hero, but I would guess that it does. I believe he is calling you for help."
Zelda swallowed and nodded again. She started walking in the direction opposite the rising sun's light, because she remembered the Tree telling Link the door to Death Mountain was west.
She used the technique she had made Link follow several times already: she went wherever it felt right to go, paying no attention to her surroundings. She found the door quickly, and without a second thought for the fact she was facing a doorway in the middle of a clearing, without a wall to be a doorway through, she stepped in and found herself in a very dimly lit cavern. She walked carefully until the cavern opened into a bigger, slightly better lit one. She was standing on a walkway carved into the side of the mountain, with no rail to prevent its users from falling off the side of it. She stuck close to the wall and made her way to the opening, from which the light was coming.
She found herself on a mountain, although she was rather disappointed by how harmless it looked. The most dangerous looking things around were a few tektites, which did not bother to chase her as she ran more than she walked down the pathway, keeping an eye out for a turn towards the top of the mountain. It soon presented itself and she took the new path, still running. The nuts were nudged in her bag, between her other possessions, and she could only hope they would not leak too much, although she could always tip her bag itself into Link's mouth if all the liquid ended up in it.
She had to slow down before she reached the top of the mountain, out of breath and a cramp in her side. She refused to stop and simply walked until her breathing became a bit more normal and the cramp subsided, than she started running again.
She had to slow down several times, but still reached the summit before midday. She immediately spotted Link, between herself and the Tower, and her heart stopped.
She sank to her knees, thinking she was too late. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at him, covered in his own blood, pale as death and with unnatural angles to one of his feet and one of his arms.
"Link..." She croaked. "No...! This… this can't be happening...!"
Link's still form seemed to be mocking her, as if Link was just trying to be difficult again, like before he remembered who he was. Before she had managed to convince him to go on this quest, back when he was relatively safe...
"NO!" She screamed. "LINK!"
She got back to her feet and ran to him, taking a sap-filled nut out of her bag as she went. Thankfully, the nuts had barely dripped at all.
She rolled him over hurriedly, intent on forcing the sap down his throat in the hope it would bring him back to life.
He moaned when she rolled him, and his features twisted in a grimace of pain. Zelda could have cried out in joy, and felt like a huge weight had just been pulled off her chest. He was alive!
She made him open his mouth and poured the content of the nut into it. He wasn't swallowing, so she closed his mouth for him before the sap all dribbled out and rubbed his throat like she would an animal to make it swallow its medication. Link swallowed.
Almost instantly, he groaned and opened his eyes a bit before closing them again against the brightness of the day.
"Link, are you okay?" She asked before rolling her eyes at herself. It was obvious that he wasn't. "What happened?" She continued, just for something less idiotic to say.
"Got the pendant." Link croaked weakly. His lip twitched, as if he had tried to smile.
"That's good." Zelda said. "We need to get you back to the Lost Woods, now." She added, giving up on the small talk. Link was more in need of medical attention than of moral support right now.
"Can't walk." Link sighed. "Tired..."
"Stay awake!" She ordered him urgently. "We'll start by bandaging that wound you have. Where is it?"
Link groaned something unintelligible. Zelda inspected him herself and found not one, but two gaping wounds, in addition to a few nasty looking bruises on his head and a bad burn on his chest. She tore up her skirt in strips and used them to bandage them as well as she could, hoping it would be enough. Link had already lost an alarming amount of blood. She briefly considered making him go into the past and find some of that blue potion his last life had used, but quickly decided against it: she was pretty sure that his dying body would not be able to hang on to life for even a moment without his soul.
"Alright." She said. "I'm going to crouch in front of you and you're going to climb on my back."
There was no answer. She shook his shoulder roughly, the one not connected to the broken arm, and noticed another bad burn lower down the limb. She winced, remembering how Link was already afraid of fire.
"WAKE UP!" She yelled. He moaned. "Climb on my back and stay awake!"
She crouched in front of him and Link flopped his hands on her shoulder. She held back a sigh of irritation, knowing he was doing his best even if that happened to be pretty pathetic right now, and lifted him on her back herself. He leaned his head right against hers and Zelda guessed he was falling asleep again. She was too afraid he wouldn't wake up to let him do that, so she started talking loudly while walking as fast as she could towards the bottom of the mountain.
"That Goron City is pretty dark, isn't it?" She said idly. "You're really good, having gone through that! Are you awake? LINK!"
"Torch..." He whispered. Zelda barely heard him.
"It's okay. I could still see. We don't need a torch." She replied.
"Morning?" he asked weakly.
Zelda stopped and had she had a free hand, she would have slapped herself.
"You're right!" She moaned. "I only had light because the sun was shining straight into the opening, and it will be in the afternoon by the time we get there!"
She turned back and walked back towards where she had found Link. She remembered a torch lying not far from where he had been. It was still there, and still lit: the ground was bare rock and there was no wind, which Zelda silently thanked the Goddesses for.
"Can you hold it?" She asked. "LINK!"
"Ngg..."
"WAKE UP! Can you hold it?"
"'kay..."
She crouched in front of the torch, sideways to it so it would be within arms reach for Link. He let his unbroken arm flop down and grabbed it. Zelda wondered for a second if he'd have the strength to lift it and keep it in a tight grip, but she shrugged it off: if he dropped it, he dropped it. Hopefully it wouldn't fall off the cliff at the side of the path and they could just pick it back up.
"Now, STAY AWAKE." She ordered. "I know you're tired, but if you fall asleep, you might not wake up. You might die." She said, hoping to scare him awake.
He grunted.
Zelda talked to him loudly all the way to the cavern, then before going in, she crouched and let him down. She took another nut out of her bag and told him to drink it.
Link was much too tired to argue, especially with what he suspected was a figment of his imagination, so he drank the content of the nut. He immediately felt a tiny bit less miserable.
"I need you to hold the torch a bit forward while we're in there, so I can see where we're going." She said, still talking unnecessary loudly. She kicked a tektite that was getting near and continued. "Now, let's get you back on my back."
It was a bit easier this time, Link helping a little more. Both his hands were over her shoulders, and he held the torch at an angle so that the tip was as far from the two of them as it could be, which wasn't really saying much. He was too tired to complain about the discomfort, so he didn't. He leaned his head against the back of hers.
"LINK!" She yelled. "STAY AWAKE! Tell me what happened up there!"
"Re-deads." He moaned, whishing she'd just let him sleep. The effect of the nut had been short lived and he felt like sleeping forever would be very nice indeed.
Zelda gulped and stopped walking for a second before catching herself.
"How did you escape?" She asked, more to keep him talking than because she wanted to know any details.
Link mumbled something unintelligible.
"What?" Zelda asked loudly. "I can't hear you. Speak louder!"
They were in the cavern now, and if not for the torch, they would not have been able to see anything. Zelda had to walk carefully, the light of the torch just barely allowing her to make out the edge of the pathway and the wall on the other side of it.
"One room." Link groaned. "Got in, got out."
"So they didn't get you?" She asked, knowing they had but once again only concerned with keeping Link talking and awake.
"Yes." Link growled testily. His tone clearly implied he didn't feel like talking.
"But you still escaped? How?" She asked.
"They let go." Link sighed. "Sleepy..."
Zelda finally found a corridor off the platform and since she didn't remember any other ones between the one leading to the Lost Door and the exit, she took it.
"LINK!" She yelled. "STAY AWAKE!"
Link did not answer.
"LINK! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALL BY MYSELF!" She yelled again. "I'm afraid of closed spaces, remember? Talk to me! Don't be mean!"
She had said it to encourage him to stay awake, but she had triggered the very fear she had mentioned. Suddenly, the walls seemed to be closing in and the cavern was looking like a tomb. She stopped walking, breathing hard. How did she know this was the right corridor? How did she know the door would still be there? The corridor could have collapsed, or the door might move from time to time: it was a magical door, who knew what it could and couldn't do?
Her teeth started shattering. The light of the torch was shaking, and she realized with a start that it was because she was shaking.
"Link..." She cried. "There's no way out... the door is gone... I'm sorry!"
She collapsed on her knees, hitting Link's bad ankle on the floor. Link woke up screaming.
"I'm sorry..." Zelda was crying. "I couldn't do it... I don't know where the door is..."
She was difficult to understand between her sobs and hard breathing, and her voice was much higher pitched than normal, almost a hiss. Link groaned as he looked around. They were underground, probably in the Goron City. They were in a large corridor.
"You turn off the ledge?" He asked weakly.
Zelda nodded, crying with her hands buried in her face, shaking like a leaf and letting out panicky whimpers. Link knew the feeling: he felt like doing that kind of thing several times a day.
"End of corridor." He said, already out of breath. "Go."
Zelda whimpered helplessly, hugging herself while he held on as well as he could to her shoulders.
"Go. Can't be worse..." Link started, but talking was too hard for him at the moment. He didn't finish and leaned his head on Zelda's back to rest a bit. Zelda whimpered loudly. He tried saying something reassuring, but he didn't even have the strength to think of something to say. He dowsed off.
Zelda's eyes widened in horror in her hands. Link was dead, she thought. He's dead because of me...
"No!" She screamed. She turned around, and Link's weak grip on her shoulders let off, causing him to flop forward on her lap. She turned him around and made him drink the content of the last Deku Nut.
He spit some of it back out in a fit of coughing, but at least, he was still alive. Zelda sighed in relief before her mind focused right back on the walls, which definitely seemed closer than before. She started breathing hard again and her hand, which was lying on Link's broken arm, tightened. He screamed weakly and gave her a pained, reproachful look.
"Come on!" He groaned. "Go to the..." He paused, out of breath. He continued after a few deep breaths. "...door! Then we can get out!"
Zelda hugged and rocked herself and for a few scary moments, Link thought she wouldn't be able to get over her panic and that they would both die here, a few paces away from the door to the Lost Woods. He wished he was strong enough to shake her, or maybe even slap her. He tried lifting his arms or even just his head, but he couldn't do it at all. He didn't know how he'd even get back on her back.
Finally, Zelda shakily got to her feet, crouched in front of him, helped him on and pushed towards the door. Her grip on Link's leg was painfully tight, but Link was too tired and relieved that she was moving again to bother complaining. He was barely managing to keep hold of the torch, which was pointing downward because he didn't have the strength to hold it higher.
They found the door at the end of the corridor, and through it, they could see the Lost Woods. As soon as the door came within sight, Zelda's grip loosened a bit and even half conscious as he was, Link could literally feel her relaxing. She went through the door as fast as she could carry him and once on the other side, sighed in relief and actually let out a short laugh. Link moaned just to remind her he still needed help.
"Can you guide me back to the Great Deku Tree?" She asked him. "You still have the leaf?"
Link looked around, or at least, he looked around as much as he could without moving his head. It was easier than trying to dig into his pockets to find out if the leaf was still there. He closed his eyes and looked around again. Nothing had changed. He nodded into Zelda's shoulder.
"Should I go straight ahead?" She asked. "Just nod if yes, do nothing if no."
Link nodded. Zelda started.
"When you want me to turn, move your head in the right direction." She instructed.
Link did, and like that, they made their way back to the Great Deku Tree. Zelda saw a small, pink glow flying around it. Link saw it too and recognized it at once. He stiffened on Zelda's back.
"Run!" He whimpered. "Get us out of here! That's a fairy!"
"A fairy!" Zelda exclaimed. "We're not going anywhere! That's perfect!"
Zelda grinned at the glow and at the tree. Link's wounds were too serious for any first aid she could administer to help him much, he had lost a lot of blood, and those re-deads seemed to have literally taken the life out of him: she couldn't think of any way to get him better other than magic, and she had been trying to figure out how to find some magic potion ever since she had first realized Link was still alive. As far as she was concerned, the fairy was a life saver, and an unexpected one at that: they had not been seen for centuries, and were believed to be extinct.
"No!" Link begged, feebly trying to get off her back. "I don't want to be a re-dead!"
"You're not going to turn into a re-dead, don't be silly." Zelda said. "You're not even dead… yet. And besides, I bet all the Heroes were revived or at least healed by fairies at least once."
"I don't need it!" Link moaned miserably. His struggling was becoming even weaker, but he still wasn't giving up. "NO!" He added urgently: Zelda had started walking again. "Don't!" He begged. She felt him stop trying to get off her and grasp her shoulders instead.
Zelda stopped with a sigh.
"Listen to me." She said sternly. "You're not going to get better by resting. You're dying. That wound in your back probably goes through some organs, and even if it didn't, you're losing too much blood, on top of having lost a lot of energy to those re-deads. Your ankle looks more crushed than broken, so the bones may very well be causing internal bleeding there, too. You. Are. Dying." She repeated.
Link started shivering and said nothing.
"The fairy, or death for you and Ganon for Hyrule." Zelda said, sterner than ever. She had no intention of abiding by his decision if he chose death, but felt it important that he chose the fairy. If they were still around, they could be very useful for the rest of their quest, too, and she did not want Link to keep on refusing them.
Link did not have to think too long about those options: as much as he was in pain right now, and more tired than he had ever thought it was possible to be, he was still terribly afraid of death, and on top of that, he absolutely did not want to let Ganon win again.
"Well?" Zelda asked.
"Fairy." Link sighed.
Zelda smiled and brought him to the foot of the tree. She did not even have time to set him down before the fairy squealed in delight and started circling around him. Zelda put him down while the fairy was working.
The glow of the fairy surrounded Link, who was looking at the light hatefully. Before Zelda's eyes, Link suddenly looked refreshed and no longer exhausted, his arm lost its unnatural angle, the burn on his other arm disappeared, his ankle returned to normal and the blood on his bandages vanished.
The fairy finally disappeared, and Link sighed in relief: whether it was from being healed or from the fairy being gone, Zelda could not quite tell.
"Thanks." He grumbled, blushing and not quite looking at her. "Some hero I am, huh?"
"You have the three medallions." Zelda said, smiling. "That officially makes you The Hero."
"No." Link corrected her with a snicker. "It's the Master Sword that makes it official. Where did you find a fairy, anyway?" He asked her.
"I didn't." Zelda said. "It was just there with the Great Deku Tree."
She turned towards the tree.
"You brought it here because you knew Link would need it, didn't you?" She asked it. "Thank you."
Link looked at the tree with renewed respect. It was the second time the Great Deku Tree had saved his life.
"Thanks." He said, smiling at the wooden face.
"You're welcomed." The tree answered. It sounded very relieved.
"Speaking of where to get fairies…" Zelda mused. "I have to ask. Didn't it occur to you to go get some potion or medicine in the past after you got hurt?"
Link's eyes widened and he turned red. Zelda sighed.
"You try having good ideas after getting almost killed by re-deads." He muttered. "I TOLD you I'd need you. You would have made me get them after my past self said I'd need some."
"One of your past self suggested it and you still didn't get any? Why?"
"That was before I got hurt. I… I didn't want to."
Zelda sighed again. It figured. Link had refused the magic potion just like he had tried to refuse to fairy, simply because it was magical. He probably would have accepted to get some potion once he was desperate enough, just like he had eventually accepted the fairy, but by then, he was too hurt for the thought to even occur to him.
"Well, it doesn't matter." Zelda said. "You're all right, now, that's the main thing. Come on, let's get your sword."
She got up, smiling bravely at him and holding out her hand. He smiled back and let her help him up.
Ganon spent most of the day pacing the President's office, furious and, for the first time in centuries, scared.
He had spent so many years and so much energy, 1500 years ago, to make sure the Hero would never bother him again. In the very off chance that he ever escaped his prison and was reborn, Ganon had tried to destroy the pendants, which had turned out to be impossible. He had then tried to take them and hide them in other places than the Three Wonders, so that they could never again be found: the pendants had thwarted him again by constantly vanishing from his grasp as soon as he left their respective buildings, presumably because the magic in them was designed to prevent him from hiding them somewhere else or keeping them for himself. He had then put a spell on them so that at least, he would be warned when they were collected.
All that time ago, he had even put beasts around the pendants to guard them. The ones in the Eastern Palace and Desert Temple had been destroyed when both building had finally collapsed completely, safe for one giant worm at the entrance of the Desert Temple, which Ganon had confirmed was still alive a mere few hours before the pendant was collected.
And after all that effort, he had allowed himself to be distracted by a fruitless, if fun, hunt while he should have been actively looking for the Hero and Princess. He had chased them from the Eastern Palace to the Desert Temple, but he had been sloppy, more interested in finding easy kills than in combing the fields for his real quarry.
As a result, although they had been near the Desert Temple at the very same time as one another, Ganon had completely missed the Hero. To think that both the Princess and He were probably asleep mere steps from where Ganon had been prowling was simply maddening.
And now, while he was still days away from Death Mountain, the spell on the pendant of power had activated, meaning the Hero had somehow made his way there already. If Ganon had thought there was any chance at all that the Hero would get to the Tower before he did, he would have teleported there despite the discomfort long range teleportation caused him.
Ganon could only hope that the monsters he had long ago placed in the Tower - including, he suddenly remembered, a few Stalfos, Moblins and Wolfos he could recuperate and send after the Hero - had at least managed to severely hurt him.
Even if they had, the fact that Link had managed to beat him to Death Mountain meant he had to have access to some kind of magic or be getting help from someone who did. Who was to say he didn't have light arrows already? How could Ganon be certain the boy was not already a threat?
The answer was simple, though unpleasant: he could not. Chasing the boy now would be foolish: he'd only be allowing him to fight on his own territory, and if the boy could travel instantly to any part of Hyrule, Ganon was unlikely to find him until the Hero wanted to be found and the fight would end up being not only where, but also when the boy wanted it.
Ganon snarled furiously: he had lost his chance to dispatch the Hero before he became a threat, and his only option was to stack all the odds in his favour, as best as he could.
"It's not going to jump into your hand, you know. You need to pull it out." Zelda said.
Link had put down the three pendants on the pedestal several minutes ago, and since, he had been staring at the sword, his hand just shy of closing on the handle.
"I know that!" He grumbled.
He knew Zelda had every right to be getting impatient, and as incredible as it seemed, he couldn't wait to have the sword in his hand himself. The only thing holding his hand back was that he was terrified that he still would not be able to pull the sword out of the altar.
The Sword was, after all, meant for the Hero of Hyrule. Whoever Link might have been in a past life, he felt he was certainly not a Hero in this one, and certainly not 'The' Hero.
"You're afraid it still won't budge, aren't you?" Zelda asked.
Link nodded and blushed, suddenly feeling like he was being ridiculous. He closed his hand on the handle and pulled.
The Master Sword easily slid out of the pedestal and its owner could do nothing else for a while than stare at it with a mixture of relief and admiration as he held it in front of him. The pendants vanished from the altar after a few seconds.
"So," Link asked over dinner (unidentifiable dried meat found in their travel food), "what do we do now? We need to find out what else I need."
Zelda hmm-mmed in approbation as she chewed on a piece of the meat.
"I think your best source of information might be your past selves." She said after swallowing. "If you visit one after he defeated Ganon, he can tell you how he did it."
Link frowned thoughtfully.
"I should go see the Hero of Time again." he said without enthusiasm. "I don't want to tell anybody else that Ganon is back, and some of the other ones don't really trust me. I don't think they're going to give me any weapon."
The Great Deku Tree, at the foot of whom they were eating, intervened.
"The Hero of Time was a very trusting boy, and will help whichever way he can."
Link sighed resignedly. The Hero of Time was only going to make fun of him again, but it was the best option, no matter which way he looked at it.
He concentrated on finding the Hero of Time at a peaceful time, after the Hero had met him already as a full adult.
Zelda watched him flop. A few seconds later, a bow and a quiver full of arrows appeared in his hands and he woke up. He looked down at his hands and nodded grimly when he saw the quiver and the bow.
"Light arrows." He said, holding out the quiver for Zelda to see. "Magic."
He sighed.
"And he took me to see those huge fairies, too, so I'd learn some spells." He shuddered. "Those things were bigger than me, and they were only wearing little bits of fur! And I couldn't even help learning the spells! The fairies just kind of opened their arms and there was a ball of light between their arms, and bang! I knew the spells." He complained.
"Don't you think it will help?" Zelda asked.
Link shrugged.
"I suppose. But I didn't want to use magic. I... I don't like it." He said.
"But your time traveling is magic, too! And how do you THINK you turned your clothes green?" Zelda said, rolling her eyes.
"I didn't do that." Link said. "It just happened."
"You probably did it without knowing. Maybe you wanted to be more like your past selves or something."
"Well, I did, but… I didn't change my clothes! I just didn't, okay?"
Zelda raised her eyebrows. Link really looked like he was desperate not to have done magic without knowing it. It made sense, in a way: he was afraid of magic, so it wasn't surprising that he would at least want to be very much in control of his own.
"It was just a guess." She conceded. "It could be the Lost Woods, or just Hyrule itself, or the Goddesses." She worried for a moment that the Great Deku Tree would pipe up to say it wasn't the Lost Woods, but the tree mercifully stayed silent.
Link still looked bothered. Zelda fished around for a change of subject and settled on the Great Fairies.
"So, those fairies… does it really bother you that much to see a half naked women?" She teased.
"Half-naked GIANT FAIRY." Link corrected her. He threw some dried fruits in his mouth and started chewing angrily.
"It didn't look like a woman?" Zelda asked, smiling.
Link glared at her, but was suddenly struck by the thought of what a normal woman would look like with the clothes worn by the Great Fairy and quickly looked away.
"Why are you blushing?" Zelda asked, now grinning. Link was obviously not thinking about clothes turning green anymore.
Link, who was having a hard time not picturing Zelda wearing nothing but tiny bits of fur, chose to change the subject.
"Are you ready to go?" He asked.
"Go?" She asked, becoming serious again. "Where? We don't know where Ganon is at all. And it will be night in just a little while!"
"He's probably still heading for Death Mountain." Link said.
"Why would he?" Zelda asked. "I'm sure he knows you have the last pendant now."
"Yes, but he doesn't know I used a magic door. He's going to think I have to walk back to the Lost Woods, so he's going to hope to run into me on the way." Link said. "Or maybe he's just going to head straight for the Sword. Maybe we can go back there."
"Ganon cannot penetrate these woods anymore." The Great Deku Tree reminded him.
"Then maybe he's waiting just outside." Link said.
"Or maybe he's just going about his business, knowing you'll find him and he doesn't need to bother finding you." Zelda said. "Like I asked you before, where would we go? He could be anywhere."
Link sat back down moodily.
"But we need to find him!" He whined. "I can defeat him now!"
"Speaking of which, how do these work, anyway?" Zelda asked, a bit dubious about the arrows. "And how do you use this thing?" She asked again, pointing at the bow.
"Light arrows will weaken his magic, because his power lies in darkness." Link recited. "So other weapons are going to work on him." He continued, no longer reciting. "And the Hero said the Master Sword will really hurt him a lot. And it can bounce his magic back at him, and that hurts him a bit too."
Zelda nodded.
"And can you use the bow?" She asked. Archery was a forbidden sport, and she couldn't imagine where Link would have learned it.
"The Hero showed me." Link replied, trying to sound confident. "I'm going to practice on the way."
Zelda cast her eyes down, unsure of what to say. She could understand Link's desire to do something, after all the delays they had already had, and like him, she just wanted Ganon to be dispatched as soon as possible. Unlike Link, however, she was thinking with her head instead of letting her emotions get the better of her.
"Practice now." She suggested. "We'll go after Ganon as soon as you're half decent."
Link rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"We should go after Ganon now!" He said. "He's going to kill people tonight! And tomorrow night, and the night after that, and the night after that, until we stop him! We need to find him as fast as we can!"
Zelda sighed. Back before she had got to know him better, she had been convinced Link was a coward and had deeply wished he'd be courageous. He had demonstrated that he was the very fist time they had talked, and had kept proving it over and over since: afraid as he was, he always got over it and did what he needed to. It had taken him a while to get over the terror Ganon inspired him, he had even run and hid for days, but in the end, he had pulled through. Even then, Zelda had constantly wished he'd show his courage more often, wished he'd get over his fears quicker, wished he'd actually act like the Hero he was destined to be instead of acting like a child who's only doing his work because he's afraid of what will happen if he doesn't. It was only after facing one of her own fears and completely falling apart that she had truly appreciated what Link was capable of. But even then, she wouldn't have said that he behaved himself bravely. He acted courageously, yes; but in an obviously reluctant manner.
Ever since he had pulled the Master Sword out this afternoon, though, he was a different person: he didn't even seem to remember he had almost died that very morning, and he was so confident that he'd defeat Ganon that it was alarming. Zelda did not want to put him back into a state of panic, but she had to inspire him some caution, and she didn't know how to do that without scaring him at least a bit.
"I want Ganon to be defeated soon too." She said. "But I don't want him to win. If you barge in his lair feeling like you do now, that you just have to wave your sword and bow around for him to fall dead at your feet, he WILL kill you."
"I don't feel like that!" Link protested, but a shadow fell over his face, as if he was suddenly remembering that his foe was dangerous. He sighed and took the Master Sword out of his sheath, which fitted it perfectly. He looked at it and moved it around a bit, catching the fading daylight seeping through the leaves.
"I can remember using it." He said. "I remember doing this..." He slashed at the air in a horizontal motion, "... and cutting a wolfos in two. I remember doing this..." He slashed downward, "...and stabbing a giant spider. And I remember doing this..." He slashed the air in front of him in a wide, diagonal gesture, "... and sending a spell back at Ganon. I remember thinking that this was it, that I could win! Hyrule could be safe again, and the Princess would..."
He stopped himself and looked down, blushing.
"Anyway." He said, sheathing the sword again. "It feels like it's going to be easy to beat him again. But you're right… If I'm not ready, I'm going to lose, just like last time…"
Saying the words seemed to have a magical effect on him, if not a particularly nice one: he suddenly shivered violently and sat down, shaking.
"What is WRONG with me?" He cried out. "I can't do this! I know I have to, I'm going to try, so don't yell at me, but... I can't! Fight Ganon? WIN? I can't...!"
Zelda interrupted him by putting a hand on his mouth.
"You can." She said softly. "I know it's difficult to believe after what he did to you, that's probably part of the reason he went so far: to terrorize you right into your next life."
Link looked at her sadly.
"That's just what you WANT to believe." He said. "When he attacked your house, you figured you just had to find the Hero and he'd take care of Ganon. I can hear you now:"
Link took on a high-pitched voice in a poor imitation of Zelda's.
"Oh, no! Ganon! I wish the Hero was here! I know, I just have to find him! Then he can kill Ganon for me and everything is going to be great! Yeah! I don't need to think of anything else, because that's going to work, because I want it to!"
"You're wrong." Zelda protested with a slight frown. "I know I've rushed into a few plans since I found out who we were, but I didn't that time. I was not thinking of anything but staying hidden while he was in my room because I had no idea why he seemed so familiar. After he left, I couldn't go back to sleep so I just sat there thinking, wondering why a huge pig monster would look familiar to me, beyond having seen it in a book. That's when I remembered him attacking me many times before, and you saving me each and every time."
"So you figured I could do it again." Link said. "That's what I said."
"No." Zelda said, her frown deepening slightly. "I spent a long time trying to convince myself that you were not the Hero, and when that didn't work, that Ganon could be defeated without you. Relying on you was the last thing I wanted to do and I tried my very best to avoid it. In the end, I just couldn't. I don't know why we're even HAVING this conversation: you know just as well as I do that you ARE Hyrule's only hope against Ganon. It doesn't matter whether I jumped on that conclusion or tried to avoid it, it's still true!"
Link closed his eyes.
"I was Hyrule's only hope last time, too." He said. "And that sword, making me feel like I can't lose… All I could think of was all the times I beat him."
Zelda lost her frown as her irritation at Link evaporated. She was kneeling in front of him, she pushed herself forward and hugged him. She had done it impulsively and was grateful Link didn't push her away in shock.
"Don't worry." She said. "I won't let you do anything stupid."
To her surprise, Link hugged her back.
"Thanks." He said.
The day ended with Link cursing a blue streak at the bow and the arrows. Archery was proving to be much more difficult than the work at the shop. He had only finally managed to actually shoot the arrows mere moments before the sun had completely set, and the two arrows he had shot had gone completely off course, not to mention they had only travelled a few paces before landing on the ground.
"Farore! The Hero made it look EASY! He was shooting and riding his horse at the same time!"
"You'll be better tomorrow." Zelda encouraged him, handing him a water pouch and some dried fruits: his dinner. She mentally pictured the Hero of Time riding a horse into the sunset and blushed. Link did not notice.
"And I HATE dried food!" He snarled, grabbing it anyway.
Zelda could understand his frustration and did not remark on his manners. He grumbled through his dinner and she kept quiet, lending a sympathetic ear to his ramblings about arrows, magic and past selves showing off.
"So." He said when he had swallowed the last of his dinner. "You're going to make me practice tomorrow, aren't you? Instead of getting on the move?"
Zelda nodded firmly.
"At least for a day. I'm sure it will make a big difference."
Link nodded reluctantly.
The screams started as soon as the darkness had settled. Both Link and Zelda automatically turned to each other in alarm: the screams were different. It was not, as usual, one or two people briefly screaming as they were killed: it sounded more like dozens of people crying in anguish and horror. The screams also sounded very close. Link pressed his hands to his ears, trying to shut them out and to keep his sanity intact. His hands barely muffled the sound at all and after only a few seconds, he couldn't take it anymore. He got up and started running towards the direction of the cries, unsheathing his sword as he ran.
He felt Zelda's arms closing around his waist and she dragged him nearly to a stop. He used his free hand to try and disengage himself, and for good measure, yelled at Zelda.
"LET ME GO! Can't you hear them?"
"You can't beat him yet!" She pleaded, tightening her grip.
"He's attacking a whole bunch of people!" He hissed. "I can't let him kill them! LET ME GO!"
"That's what he wants! He'll kill you as soon as you come out of the Woods!"
"I can't let him kill all those people!"
"If we rush in, Ganon will win again and be free to keep on killing a lot more people. Link, didn't you tell me you heard someone being attacked not far from your dorm, the night before the Presidential visit? You let HIM die, didn't you? Because you knew there was nothing you could do. It's the same thing now."
Link froze for a moment before he started struggling to get free again. Zelda didn't know how much longer she'd be able to hold on.
"No! I'm not going to let him kill anymore!"
"You have to!" Zelda protested. "You don't know how to shoot those arrows yet! Please, Link. One day. I know you'll be better with the bow tomorrow. Tonight will be the last."
Link's head hung, he sighed deeply and he stopped struggling to get free. He knew she was right, and seeing as he was still terrified of Ganon, it was a relief to know it was not wrong not to rush in. Zelda let go of his waist and as if on cue, the screaming suddenly got a louder and more frantic.
Link forgot all of Zelda's arguments and took off running again. She called out to him, but he didn't even seem to hear her. She ran after him, cursing as she went. It was difficult enough constantly re-making the heart-breaking decision of letting others die so that Link may stay safe long enough to stand a chance against Ganon, she really could have done without having to convince Link over and over again.
She could not catch up to him until he was out of the Lost Woods, and only caught up then because he had stopped running and had sunk to his knees. The terrain dipped down ahead of him and she could not see yet what may have made him react this way, but the screams had changed into terrified moans and cries. She gasped in horror and her vision almost instantly blurred with tears when she did catch up to him and could see what was below them.
There was a pile of corpses, at least two dozens: she recognized some of the faces, understandably so since they were right outside their town and the victims were probably all from there. Around the corpses were more people, surrounded by a sick green light that they could not seem to escape. Behind the pile, towering over it and still holding the broken body of a very young girl, was Ganon, who had stopped what he was doing when Link had arrived and was now looking at him with a sneer.
Ganon smiled when he saw the Hero run out of the Woods, and crushed the girl's throat. He didn't let go: the Hero had just sank to his knees and looked horrified at the sight of the child's corpse.
Ganon had spent the day planning and thinking, replaying things in his head over and over again until the sun had started to set, looking for holes in his logic, determined not to make any mistake. At sunset, he had cast a spell designed to find whoever was closest to the boy's heart. The spell had found his two closest friends, and Ganon had taken them along with all their workmates next to the Lost Woods, and had started killing to draw the Hero out.
Now that it had worked, all that was left to do was to give the Hero his instructions and make sure he followed them.
Link was looking at Ganon with mute horror. He recognized some of the people the monster had just killed, and recognized several of the ones that were still alive, among which Kariko and Dekussay. Ganon was looking at him with a cruel smile, and Link could not so much as move: between the terror Ganon inspired him and the fear that the beast would kill his friends if he charged him, he was completely paralyzed, the Master Sword laying uselessly on the ground next to his hand. He did not hear Zelda gasp next to him.
"I thought you two might come out if I made enough noise." Ganon said conversationally when he noticed Zelda. He had obviously been waiting for her, though he was addressing Link. "I am a bit surprised it took you so long, however. The Heroes of the past would not have let me kill so many before coming."
Link gulped. He wanted to get up and attack Ganon. He wanted to scream at him and hurt him for what he had just done. He could not move a muscle.
Ganon tutted at him.
"Pathetic." He snarled. "I had a spell ready for you, to keep you immobilized long enough for me to do what I intend to do here tonight. The same one that is keeping THEM" He pointed vaguely at the group of people surrounded by the green light "from running away. Maybe a bit more stimulation would make you more interesting company." Ganon said. He gestured at someone in the group, a teenage boy, who was automatically lifted from the ground. The boy started screaming and kicking, with no results whatsoever. When he was close enough, Ganon grabbed him by the neck, never ceasing to look at Link.
"I happen to know this is a friend of yours, Link." Ganon said.
Link's eyes had widened a bit more and he whimpered helplessly. Dekussay was kicking at Ganon, but the pressure on his throat didn't let anything else than muffled groans come out. He was looking at Link pleadingly.
"Never seen him before!" Link lied uselessly. Ganon laughed.
"Magic does not lie." Ganon said. "He is close to your heart, my spell clearly revealed that."
"Let him down!" Link cried, giving up on the lie. "You want ME! Leave them alone!"
"Ah. You've moved." Ganon said, sounding encouraged. "Look, your fists are clenched. I will give you one chance to save him, boy. It's a demonstration, to show you my word is good. Get up, now, and he lives."
Link got up at once, but forgot to pick up the Master Sword.
"Let him go!" He demanded.
Ganon let Dekussay fall at his feet, hacking and grasping his throat, then shoved him back into the green light with his foot.
"There." Ganon said pleasantly. "See, I can be reasonable."
Link snarled at him and reached for his sword, but did not find it at his side, so he took out his bow and an arrow instead. He nocked the arrow and aimed it at Ganon with shaking hands, but his enemy did not notice his tremor.
Ganon hissed and backed away a step at the sight of the arrows. His eyes narrowed. The Din-blasted boy did have the light arrows, just like he had feared he might. He pointed at Link, who immediately found himself surrounded by a green glow and incapable of any movement.
Ganon summoned the Princess to him.
Zelda was lifted in the air and before she could do anything but gasp in surprise, she was in Ganon's arms, his snout inches away from her face. He waved his hand in front of her eyes and she fell asleep.
"ZELDA!" Link screamed. He tried to run towards Ganon, but his legs did not move at all.
"I've shown you my word is good." Ganon said. "I will wait for you, without killing her, for three days. Join me where we last fought: you obviously know the way, seeing you just collected the pendant of power there."
He disappeared, along with the paralyzing spells he had cast, and Link collapsed on his knees again, disbelieving. Ganon had Zelda. She was as good as dead unless Link found the room where Ganon had killed him in his past life, somewhere within the very Tower that had almost killed him in this one, within three days.
"Zelda..." He whispered.
This couldn't be happening. He was alone again, he had to go up Death Mountain again, enter the Tower and this time, go deep inside of it. If he survived that, he'd face Ganon, who had Zelda and almost certainly intended to kill her as soon as he arrived.
His vision blurred and he felt four arms circling him.
"Link." A voice said. "Forget it. You can't beat him. She's dead."
"Yeah." A second voice rasped.
Link recognized them as Kariko and Dekussay and shook his head. He wiped his tears away from his eyes and got up.
"What happened?" He asked. "How did he get all these people?"
"They all work at my farm and at his bomb shop." Kariko said, pointing Dekussay. "When we got out, he was there and he put that light-thing around us and we couldn't move. After us, he went to the bomb shop: they were still just getting out too. You know that supervisor that hates me? She was the fourth one he killed. That last girl, her name was Milon and she was just 7. Dekussay said that cook that was making supervisor lunches for himself was the second one Ganon…"
She started crying and buried her face in Dekussay's shoulder.
Link's vision blurred again. Dekussay was hiding his face in Kariko's hair, but his shoulders were shaking and Link could tell he was crying too. They were not the only ones, either: Link could hear wails and sobs from all around him, along with a few curses directed at Ganon and a few directed at himself.
"I'm sorry." He said honestly. He wanted to explain that he couldn't fight Ganon yet, and that Zelda had held him back when he had first tried to run here, and that she had been right to do so. He wanted to explain that he didn't like Ganon killing people, but that he had to wait until he stood a chance to defeat him before he faced him. He wanted to explain that if he lost to Ganon again, Ganon would be free to keep killing people for who knew how long, and that was why he couldn't take any chance.
He wanted to explain all that, but he didn't because now that he was in the middle of so many victims, the arguments for his waiting to be ready before he faced Ganon didn't seem to be very good anymore. What's more, it didn't matter anymore: after all that waiting, after all those people Ganon and his monsters had killed since Zelda had stopped the President from killing him during his visit at the shop, Link was going to have to just run into Ganon's trap before he was ready anyway.
"I'm sorry." He repeated. "I better go."
"NO!" Kariko cried out, tearing herself away from Dekussay and throwing herself at his legs. "You can't! You know you can't! You're NOT a hero! Please, don't die too...!"
She started crying again. Link bit his lips before he bent down to unwrap her arms from his legs. He tried to unsheathe his sword, intent on using it to make her understand that he really did have to go after Ganon because he really was the Hero, such a Hero as he was, but it wasn't there. He looked around frantically and located it lying on the ground a few paces behind him. He abandoned Kariko for a moment to fetch it and walked back to his friends without bothering to sheath it. Around them, some people were starting to walk away, while others were digging into the pile of bodies, trying to find loved ones. Those were yelling at anybody else doing the same thing, afraid that someone would casually toss the one they were looking for aside. It was clear that the diggers would soon start fighting each other.
"I know it's hard to believe." Link said, forcing himself to ignore everyone but his two friends. Kariko shut her eye tightly, trying to block her tears and failing. Dekussay looked at him disbelievingly.
"He's going to kill you." He said.
"Well, he's going to try." Link corrected him. He lifted the Master Sword in front of them, showing off the beautiful, perfect, gleaming blade. "But you know what this is? It's the Master Sword. That means I'm the Hero, and THAT means I'm the one who's got to beat Ganon. And if I don't, he's going to kill a lot more people."
Kariko started crying louder and Dekussay shook his head sadly. Link wanted to cry too: seeing Ganon again had shaken him badly, he was terrified, and the only thing that kept him going was that he was more afraid for Zelda and his friends than he was for himself. He sheathed the sword and kneeled in front of Kariko. He wrapped her in his arms and held her close. He really wished she'd stop crying: it felt like he was holding a different person than the Kariko he knew.
"Listen. He knows you're my friends. If I don't go, he's going to come after you after he kills Zelda. I can't..." He trailed off. "Farore! She's going to die..." He muttered.
"Don't go! You can't save her!" Kariko sobbed into his shoulder.
"I bet he's already torturing her..." Link said, his voice taking on a panicky edge.
"Link, SHE dragged you into this! This is all HER fault!" Kariko yelled, lifting her head to look him in the eyes. "Who cares what Ganon does to her? She deserves it! Look what she's done to you! She's even making you wear GREEN!" She added as if this was the final straw, unaware that Zelda had nothing to do with the colour of Link's clothes.
Kariko stopped to take a breath, but intended to continue in the same vein: Link was looking very angry at Zelda, and that anger might keep him alive, so she intended to feed it.
"She even..." She started.
Link pushed her away and got up, looking angrier than ever.
"WHAT?"
Link forced his voice back to a normal tone upon seeing Kariko shrinking away from him, looking completely shocked that he was angry with her. He guessed she thought she was making him angry with Zelda.
"How can you say that?" He asked her. "He's going to TORTURE her! He's going to hurt her as much as he can! She does NOT deserve that! Nobody deserves that! And it's not like it's only me she got into trouble: we're in this together! And SHE was a supervisor, with her own house and three supervisor meals a day! She gave it all up to help me stop that Nayru-forsaken pig!"
It was the first time Link had even thought of these things, and he didn't like to think of how he'd repaid Zelda for her sacrifices up to date: he had made a point of being unpleasant more than once and it seemed like he had spent most of the last few weeks complaining.
"And now, Ganon's got her, and he's going to hurt her, and she's going to die as soon as I find her." Link finished, his voice breaking towards the end.
He sank to his knees and hit the ground with his fists. He felt drops of water falling on his arms and for a moment before he realized they were tears, he thought it was raining. He thought he heard Kariko and Dekussay still talking to him, but their voices seemed very distant and he couldn't hear what they were saying. They couldn't help him, anyway. He wished someone could, he wished someone knew what he was going through and could tell him how to fix things.
He wasn't conscious of trying to travel to the past, but when he looked up, he found himself looking at his old past self and at a very beautiful Hylian woman. He could see a table laden with the remains of a big meal out of the corner of his eyes. He thought he should leave, felt he was intruding and felt that the old Link had already helped him more than necessary, but just as he was about to do just that, his past self knelt in front of him, looking at him with a worried and gentle expression. Link was reminded of his father comforting him after he had a bad fall while playing.
"What happened?" His past self asked.
"Zelda..." Link said. He had to take a deep breath to be able to say more. It had been easy spelling it out for Kariko, who hated Zelda and could not understand why Link had to try and save her, but Link knew his past self would understand everything and somehow, it made it a lot more difficult to talk about it. Talking to someone who would take Zelda's fate seriously made the situation a lot more real.
"Ganon has her?" The old Link helped.
Link nodded miserably.
"He said he wasn't going to kill her yet because he was going to wait for me for three days." He said. "I think he's going to kill her as soon as I get there. And I'm sure he's going to torture her, and..."
"And you're going to save her." The old Link said. "Princess?" He turned to the woman. "Could you go into the garden and get me two fairies? There are some bottles in the kitchen."
The woman nodded and left for the kitchen. Link heard a door open and close and guessed she had gone out through a door in the kitchen itself. A few moments later, he heard the door open and close again and the Hylian woman came back out of the kitchen with two bottled fairies. Link clenched his teeth at the sight of them, but even he had to admit a fairy was Zelda's only chance.
"When fairies bring people back…" he asked, thinking he was being silly to think his past self would give him fairies if they did things like that but wanting to make sure anyway, "they don't become undead, do they?"
"Oh no." His past self replied. "Fairies just go back to their own realm after healing someone. Doing that is the only purpose for their being here. Undead fairies… where did you even dig up such an idea?"
"I meant the people they heal." Link said in a low voice, deeply embarrassed because he knew he was being stupid but he couldn't help it.
"Oh! Of course not!" His past self said, looking completely stunned that Link would even ask that. "And I thought the idea of undead fairies was strange! Haven't you ever been revived by one?"
"Just last time." Link said, thinking of his previous life but refusing to get into details. "But I wasn't sure…"
Link had been alive for such a short time after being revived by fairies in his last life that he could hardly be sure he wouldn't have turned into a re-dead the following full moon or something like that. It was a bit far-fetched, but reviving people was such an unnatural thing, could anything related to it really be far-fetched? Link didn't think so.
"Well, don't worry." His past self said. "The undead are the product of evil, fairies are good in nature. There is no relation between the two. Your Zelda will be just as she was before once the fairy is done with her, except without any of her recent injuries. Now, I'm giving you two of them because in my experience, fairies go for me anyway half the time I want them to go for someone else. If the first one you free goes for you, just free the other one right away, before the first one is done. That second one won't start healing the same person as the first one when there's someone else around, and will definitely go for your Zelda. Got that?"
Link nodded and smiled, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He could save Zelda!
The old Link returned his smile, but it disappeared when he looked at him up and down.
"Just how much combat experience do you have?" He asked. "Not a lot, by the looks of it."
"Well..." Link stammered. "I killed that giant worm, and I was attacked by re-deads, and by a keese on fire, and by a Stalfos... he almost killed me." He admitted, looking down. It was rather embarrassing.
His past self looked worried.
"You could barely handle a Stalfos and now you're going after Ganon?" He asked.
Link nodded miserably. If even his past self agreed with Kariko that he didn't have a chance, they were probably both right.
"How long can you stay? I can try to give you some pointers." The old Link said.
"I should go." The Hylian woman said before Link could answer. The old Link turned to her, bowed, thanked her for her company and walked her to the door. After she'd left, he turned back to Link.
"I can stay as long as I want." Link said, answering his past self's earlier question. "When I go back to my time, it's going to be right after I left anyway."
"Good!" The old Link said with a smile. He ran upstairs and came back with a bow, quiver and a sword in a sheath. Link noticed the sheath was much older and much more worn than the one his past self had given him.
"First, let me demonstrate why you want to wear your sword on your back." He said.
-- End of Chapter 12