Chapter 13: Fate
The Happy Mask Salesman's question seemed clear, though Link wondered if it was truly meant for him.
Another low rumble sweept through the foreign land as the encroaching moon loomed large overhead, and it seemed the tremors grew more violent each day. Not a single person could ignore the shudder beneath their feet, the air thick with fear and silent tension as many began steeling themselves for the worst. One did not have to look far, even on the bleak Terminian shore, to find despair clawing at the isolated hearts of those who would reside here.
No matter where Link turned his gaze, he saw a doomed land moaning weakly in the final throes of death...
And like so many others, the boy's hope, too, had begun to wane.
Sitting in the pale and grainy sand, dulled azure eyes stared out at the misty horizon, unable to find the line separating sea and sky. He could hear his heart beating slowly, counting the precious seconds as they ticked away, and cast a glance to his effects before him as they sat strewn around his legs. A melancholy sigh left Link's lips as he reached to pluck the Ocarina from the sand, but pausing to let his hand hover with uncertainty, found himself withdrawing instead.
True, he could reset the clock, alter fate's design and little by little mend the chaos wrought upon this world. It was a hard and puzzling task, overwhelming to his senses of place and time, and though it took its toll heavily the boy would give his all to see it done. But Link was beginning to realise, painfully, that there were some things even he could not prevent or change.
Inclining his head to the side, peering mourfully through blonde bangs, he allowed his attention to linger upon the fresh grave of Mikau. This was the second time he had watched the guitarist of the Indi-Go-Go fame die, and the second time he had laid him to rest upon this lonesome beach to be marked by a makeshift grave. The first time he had come across the dying Zora, he had seen him pass with some semblance of peace, and for such kindness another mask would manifest. Seeing his work done and paying his respects, Link had the set about fulfilling Mikau's final requests.
The boy had worked quickly, dilligent, and reunited Lulu with her stolen eggs. He had even passed on Mikau's farewells to his bandmates, in one way or another. Every loose end the Zora's untimely death had left behind was steadily fastened by Link's caring hand, each of the three days available spent wisely and coming to—what seemed like—a satisfying closure.
But out of time, and with pressing purpose, the dawn of the third day had come upon him as it always did. Melody played, the Gods had seen fit to whisk the young Hero back in time once again to continue on his quest, and in doing so, reset the the world he stepped out into. Ever faithful, the boy had set out with every intention to cleave for the next Giant's call, though when his boots met the sands once more, Link could journey no further.
Mikau's grave absent, Link's care undone, Lulu's eggs stolen once more; greeted by the caw of seagulls and the awful sight of the Zora's dying form, just as before, the gravity of this awful loop hit him. No matter what pains were taken, the Hero's efforts seemed for naught, erased as he ventured backward to buy time.
Time, Link knew, that could only be wasted within this hellish limbo, were he to repeat such kindness... and yet, he had found himself pausing to bury the Zora once more, unable to ignore him now that such connection had been made.
Three masks had been laid out before him to surround his Ocarina as Link ruminated on such thoughts, remorseful and morose. He was beginning to recognise now how cruel fate seemed to be; for every three days he spent slowly advancing to save them all, he had to sacrifice each of them many times. He simply couldn't do it all in such a short period, forced to favor some over others. How many broken people, struggling and scared, would he have to ignore when the final three days came in order to save this dying land?
Their problems would still unfold as they always did. Link could fill the last cycle with only so many before facing the moon itself, but once that elusive fourth day finally broke, there would be no going back for the rest. Some would remain simply too late to help...
Darmani and Mikau's masks reminded him of that.
The chime-like tone of Tatl's wings, as she fluttered about in the fading hue of sunset, had grown restless now. So much time had been wasted to Link's inner turmoil, silent as the boy had become. She knew that sorrow plagued him, but the clock would not relent—barely six hours remained for the young Hero to take them back again, or risk meeting their own untimely deaths as the catastrophe came to pass.
Urgently, though with a rare softening of her words, she would attempt to coax him once more.
"Link... I know things look bad, but we have to get going now. You've had a good two days rest, but we're running out of time. Get up."
A few moments went by with only silence returned to her, and the fairy heaved an impatient, though defeated, sigh. She could barely stand to look at him when such a mood claimed him, and as the sea breeze swept softly across the sand, only when she had drifted away from him some did his voice reach her; small.
"...You've met a terrible fate, haven't you...?" it was a broken whisper, soft and mournful, that left him as he reached for the third mask in his set.
Tatl found pause, taken aback by such an odd statement as she whipped around to face him, confused and alarmed. "...What?"
But as she watched her small companion lift the Deku mask into his lap, she realised he wasn't talking to her. Link ran his fingers slowly across the wooden surface, rough and uneven as it was, as if mottled by scars. Azure eyes lingered upon the sorrowful gaze the mask returned to him, and the boy found his vision blurred by tears as a soft sob hitched in his throat. To the concerned fairy he turned suddenly, and for the first time Tatl saw the child he resembled shining in his gaze, lost and alone.
"...That's what he told me when I first came here, remember?" Link's voice wavered slightly upon the tears he held back, his childish features twisted into a pained frown as his head hung to stare at the mask again. "All this time, I thought he said it to me... He seems to remember me, like maybe he knew what I'd had to give up, somehow... before I came here... not just the fact that I was cursed."
Another cringe of sadness came of him, and it was obvious the boy had held back far more of himself and his pains than Tatl would ever know. A slight tremor took the mask as his small hand began to shake, and even more quietly now, he shook his head with a sigh. "But he was talking to the spirit of the Deku shrub, the dead one we passed in the forest. He was the butler's son... it was him who met a terrible fate, because... he had to die for me to find this place. He was killed so that his spirit could be used to curse me, and prevent me from coming here, like Skullkid knew once I saw what he was going to do, I'd fight to stop it... but I can never bring the butler's son back. Just like I can't save Mikau."
He seemed to get a better hold of himself then, recoiling away from his companion some as if embarrassed for his show of weakness. He sniffed some to wipe his nose on the back of his hand, and against the skin he muttered with a cynical, somewhat angry, tone.
"I'm just so sick of seeing it. A sacrifice for the greater good... Like something precious always has to be lost before anything can be saved. It isn't fair, I was happy to be a hero... I don't need to lose anything or anyone to do the right thing. Nobody should have to; if I'm needed, I'll be there! I don't want to be 'persuaded' or 'lured'... I don't want to be 'blackmailed' into it anymore... I don't even want to think about what they're going to take away from me this time."
The fairy took this in silently, the beat of her wings slowed by a feeling of guilt she couldn't shift as she reflected on her own treatment of the boy. She found she understood his ruefulness, somewhat, and was internally sorry to have added to them as she had. Fluttering down to hover carefully over his shoulder, she gave consolation to the twitch of his pointed ear.
"Link... I don't know where you come from, or what happened to you before all this, but..." she paused, searching for the words. "...you know I'm sorry for trying to manipulate and use you like I did when we met. I know it's no excuse, but you just seemed so... used to be treated that way that I... I'm just sorry, okay?"
"You were just worried about your brother... I get it." A weak roll of his shoulders offered a shrug as the boy closed his eyes to the twilight around them.
"Truth is, it never really bothered me how you were, because... you reminded me of an old friend. I was so desperate to have her back, I guess I didn't care if you treated me badly or were rude, because everytime I saw you beside me, it made everything feel normal again. Like no matter where I was, or how bad it seemed, I'd be okay... That's why I was in those woods in the first place. I was looking for her. I just wanted to know why she left me behind... whether it was all a lie and she was only doing her duty; maybe she was just using me, too. I don't want to believe that, but I just don't know anymore. She was my best friend... but, she never even said goodbye."
The gentle breeze drifted over them with a salty tang, the red and purple haze on their horizon fading into a lonely black, and Tatl found herself fed up with the boy's depression. She sympathised, yes, but there was only so much of him kicking himself the fairy could patiently take. Stubbornly, her wings would ring like a sobering bell, and with a final huff she would have no more.
"Well, if you were anything like this with her, I don't blame her for running off on you! Snap out of it, Link, this is pathetic." the fairy saw the boy flinch, pained by her comment, though he hid the extent of it under his bangs. An irritated sigh came from her, and her tone sounded all the world like a mother standng with hands on hips to chastise.
"Sure, that Salesman said the shrub met 'a terrible fate', whatever, some people have them and there's nothing you can do about it... but there's so much you can do to make up for the few you miss. You know what else he said? Have faith, and he said that to you. Have faith in people. Have faith in yourself. Wherever she ran off to, if she was really your best friend, she would've had a good reason to and you know that deep down. Have faith in her! Maybe she left you because she knew your search for her would lead you here, did you ever consider that? Ugh, You're just like Skullkid!"
Upon the sand, the boy shifted defensively, hugging his knees close to his chest as her words settled in. Slowly, almost unsure of himself, Link's head lifted to let glassy blue eyes settle upon the fairy with a silent question in them, desperate to hear the answer as she continued on her rant.
"You're a lonely kid, so you think it's okay to berate yourself about it. I know you feel like your friends deserted you, or that you were left behind, and you want to know why... but you'll be no better than Skullkid, if you keep on like this and give in to it. You'll be one mask away from causing a catastrophe, because you're too busy chasing your old friends instead of being happy with your new ones!"
Unable to bite back on her temper, she let it all go, hoping that her terse way of caring would jostle him enough to see sense. "Stop focussing on what you can't have, and look at what you've achieved despite that! You're going to save this world, and everyone in it. No matter what their problems are, they'll get through them because they're alive, and it'll all be thanks to you. You don't need to solve all their problems for them, Link, the fact that you're giving them a tomorrow in which to do it themselves is enough!"
The child shining in Link's eyes seemed grow brighter with every word she said, each blink leaving them drier than before and filling him with the reassurance he was so often denied. He missed Navi dearly, but he knew Tatl was right—she would never have left his side, if the choice was merely his... But perhaps, as he thought on it, this was exactly why she did. He had never been a Kokiri, and though he was at peace with that, he knew he still feared growing into a man. Men could not rely on fairies to guide them and fill them with confidence when they faltered. It was a child's hand that needed to be held so, and he could not remain a child forever. He was destined to grow up, and running from it was simply not possible.
He had to face his adulthood—his fears, and his future—with the courage he was famed for. Navi had left him not because she wanted to, but because he needed to recognise it wasn't her help that made him a Hero. She had played her part, and it was time for him to stand on his own two feet.
It was, and had always been, Link's spirit that saw him through the odds, and he needed to have more faith in it.
This second guessing himself was exactly what Navi had sought to avoid upon parting with him, he realised, and for that he was slightly ashamed. But gazing up at the new fairy to grace his side, he was truly grateful to Tatl for finishing off what Navi never could. Where Navi would simply placate the child, knowing she could do nothing more, Tatl was ready to slap sense into a young man instead.
When Link left this land, he knew he would still miss Navi, and now Tatl as well... but instead of clinging desperately to them like a crutch in times of weakness to come, he would cherish their memories and hold to the lessons they imparted to sustain him.
Just as Navi had intended him to.
As the wheels turned in the boy's head, finally clicking into place, Tatl softened when she saw the change, knowing she had gotten through. "Mikau, the Butler's son, Darmani, even your friend... sometimes you can't avoid losing something, but you can make surethat it isn't lost in vain." the tiniest hint of pride shimmered lightly as she finished, then. "...So, suck it up. We've got a moon to catch."
After what seemed like a small eternity, his childish features bereft of any hope in that time, a small twitch to his cheeks broke the spell of sadness. It only grew from there; small at first, the curve of a smile claimed his face to brighten it into one that Tatl recognised. A final sniff to clear his nose saw the boy take back to the other masks, gathering them into his arms with a newfound sense of purpose, and finally his Ocarina would be plucked up from the sands as he stood.
"...Thanks, Tatl. You're a good friend." he offered privately, a whisper between them in the night as he gave his best lopsided smile to her, and raised the ocarina to his lips. "Well, then... I guess we better get going."
Though the fairy had no smile to return him with, a slightly brighter glow than usual lit up her wings with the chime of a bell, though she hid it well with her usual impatience.
"...It's about time."