The Hyrulian Valhalla Saga: Side Stories
By Queenie Z

Trial of Dark Waters

"I don't like this," declared Mini as he stepped over a stray branch in his path. "I don't like this one bit."

"Neither do I," replied Time, keeping his gaze straight ahead as they traveled through the forest foliage. His brow was furrowed and his expression was intense, possibly more so than it had been in centuries. He continued. "But what else are we supposed to do? This kind of thing is exactly what we're supposed to check out."

"But it sounds so - so - " the smaller Hero searched for the right word, " - unbelievable. Nothing bad's happened in this place since, well, ever!" He looked back at Time. "And now, after thousands and thousands of years, we're supposed to believe something suspicious is hiding in the realm? I'm telling you guys, something seems fishy about this whole thing!"

"Mini," said Sky, who was leading the group of three, as he looked over his shoulder, "are you calling Farore's emissary a liar?"

Mini shook his head furiously. "No! No, of course not! I'm just…" He sighed. "I just have this feeling that there's something we don't know."

"If there is, we'll find out when we reach the anomaly." Sky turned back to the path ahead, brushing away twigs and leaves as he walked. "I know it sounds too far-fetched to be true - this place has been protected from evil since I first got here. It's hard to believe that anything could get in that shouldn't."

"But barriers can always be broken," said Time, "and there's always a chance. That's why we had a contingency plan set up in the first place."

Mini stood up straight and nodded. He knew the other two were right. Eons ago, the eldest three Heroes had formed a pact - should something evil ever manage to enter their world, their blessed afterlife, they would be the ones to deal with the threat. They felt it their duty, as the most senior and experienced, to take on the burden of battle in place of their younger brothers; after all, had they not suffered enough already during their lives, fighting battles they didn't necessarily choose to fight? And while the chances of such an event were quite slim, it wasn't impossible, and that was a reality they were forced to face that day, when an emissary of the goddess Farore told Sky of a "well of dark magic" that had appeared in the woods.

Suddenly, Sky stopped, motioning for the others to do the same. "There," he said, pointing to an ominous, steaming pool of black water where there had once been a crisp, cool spring. "That has to be it."

Mini cringed at the sight. "What isthat!" he asked.

"Dark magic, I'm guessing. Look," he brushed some foliage away to reveal more of the black pool, "it's covered the entire spring!"

The Hero of Time stared at the spring, his eyes narrowed in deep thought. "This isn't good," he muttered, "I've seen this kind of magic before, somewhere…"

"Really?" asked Mini, "Where?"

Sky took the opportunity to approach the shore of the spring and crouch down. Then, he reached out his hand, brushing the dark waters with his fingertips. At this, Time's eyes widened.

"Sky, be careful! That's — "

He was interrupted by a black mass rising out of the water, which formed itself into a hand and grabbed Sky's arm. He cried out, stumbling to his bottom and trying to yank his arm away from the phantom's tight grip. When another mass appeared, this time in the shape of a familiar human head, the other two Heroes drew their blades.

"Let him go!" cried Mini, pointing his sword at the shadow.

The shadow, however, merely turned its head and grinned, its face a dark and twisted replica of Sky's. Then, with a single tug, he pulled the eldest Hero under the black water.

"Sky!"

The other two rushed to the shore, but by then it was too late - no sign of Sky or his dark doppelganger remained. Time growled, then stepped into the water, fully intending to cut the thing in two for taking his friend. When nothing happened, however, he sulked, turning to Mini.

"I don't see them," he said.

With a roar, Mini tossed his blade to the ground. "Goddesses dammit all!" He looked at Time with a snarl. "We need to find him, Time!"

"Mini, he's not here!" Time sheathed his sword and returned to the shore. "And I don't think he's going to be anywhere in the forest, either. We just… we'll just have to trust that he can defeat his shadow self."

"But, Time — "

"Trust me, Mini! I've fought this kind of thing before!" He put his hands on the smaller Link's shoulders. "It fights one-on-one, and it only exists to battle its true self. If that really is Sky's shadow self, then Sky has to be the one to defeat him. Understand?"

Mini looked down, disheartened. "So we just have to trust him, huh?"

"That's right."

The two took another glance at the spring, the water's ripples distorting their reflections in its pitch-black surface.

As the light from the world above grew dimmer, the darkness from beneath enveloped Sky, choking him as he tried to swim away. But the mass of black magic won out, throwing the Hero like a rag doll to the ground.

But - to the ground of where, exactly? He lifted his head and looked around; it was the woods where he had just been, only devoid of the light and color he was accustomed to. That fiend had taken him to a mirror world! With a grunt, he stood and reached for his sword, only to find it and his shield missing. His pouch was also gone, leaving him with only the clothes on his back and his own courage.

He curled his hands into fists. How cowardly of it to steal its opponent's weapons before a battle! But then a thought hit him - what if the phantom Link wasn't looking for a fight at all? All the stories he had heard about these shadows implied that they relished a fight where the odds were equal, so to leave their opponent disarmed was a sign that they had something else planned. He called out to the black spring in front of him.

"It's not a fight you want, is it?" he asked. "Answer me!"

Out of the water crawled the shadow Link, who chuckled darkly as he made his presence known. He lifted his head and opened his eyes, revealing two bright red orbs which glimmered menacingly. As Sky thought, he too was unarmed, and as soon as he reached the shore, his expression changed into something surprisingly - and eerily - friendly looking.

"Of course not," said the shadow, "why would I want to fight a man who's already dead? There's no glory in that."

"Then what do you want?" Sky stood undaunted. "What's your business here? How did you get into our realm in the first place!"

"Easy, Chosen One, calm down." The dark Link placed a hand on his hip. "My business isn't with your world or the other Heroes. My business is with you and you alone."

Sky sighed in relief - if he was telling the truth, then the others were safe. Then, he narrowed his eyes. "So what business do you have with me, phantom?"

"Believe it or not," he replied, "I'm here as a friend." He walked over and, to Sky's shock and chagrin, put an arm around his shoulders. "I'm here to offer you a way out."

"A way out of what?"

"Everything."

The Hero snarled at his shadow. "Quit being cryptic. What do mean, 'everything'?"

"Exactly that. Everything." He shook Sky in a mockingly playful way. "Your existence. Your destiny. This cycle of death and rebirth that you started so many years ago."

"What?" Sky raised his eyebrow. "End the cycle? That's ridiculous. Hyrule needs Heroes, that's why — "

"Oh, cut the act, Link!" said the phantom, rolling his eyes in irritation and shoving Sky closer to the water. "You know why it needs to end. See for yourself!"

Suddenly, the reflection in the water's black surface morphed into a series of images; images that the eldest Hero knew quite well from his many millennia of existence.

A child staring into the cold, dead eyes of the statue that was once his best friend.

A lad of barely sixteen running desperately from the beasts who want his blood.

A knight howling in pain as blood oozes from the hole in his head that used to be his eye.

An innocent youth looking down at the horrors of a history gone mad and the suffering of a kingdom.

A man who can't look into the sunset without yearning for someone he had long since lost.

A young boy trying to hold his innards in as his spirit companion shrieks in horror.

An old man gazing out into the ocean, wondering if he should disappear like the world he helped to destroy.

A warrior, whole yet fractured, trying desperately to forget the companions who only exist in his memories.

A seafarer weeping over the family he had to leave behind for the call of destiny.

And finally, himself, staring back at him with a horror and sadness that had spent centuries festering within him.

He lowered his head and clenched his eyes shut. "Is this what you brought me here for?" he asked, his voice shaky, "To show me things I've already spent eons feeling guilt about!"

"To show you why you need to end this here." The dark Link grabbed the back of his head and shoved it closer to the water. "Look at it!" he cried angrily, "That's the face of the Legendary Hero, the piece of you who has had to live this misery over and over and over again!" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Can't you hear him crying out to you?"

The reflection in the water began to move its mouth. "No more," it whimpered weakly, "please, no more… I never asked for this… I never asked to be the Hero!" It began to scream, bringing its shaking hands to its face, weeping tears of dark red blood. "I don't want to feel this pain anymore!"

Sky shut his eyes again and turned his head, gritting his teeth. "Stop it!" he cried, "Stop it!"

"Face it," said the phantom, "you want this to end. You don't want to put any more young men through this. You don't want to put yourself through this." He smiled. "The gods don't have control over your soul - you do. You could easily end this. It really is just a matter of having the guts to do so."

For a moment - a split second - he considered the dark Link's words. He knew he could stop the pain and misery he and his fellow Heroes had to go through. But then —

He glanced back at the water to see a face he had never seen before. The face of another young man garbed in green. This time, however, the face was smiling, his eyes radiating with the courage of those who had come before him. It's all right, the boy's face seemed to say, I'll be fine.

And that was when the first Hero knew that the future - Hyrule's future - was worth the sacrifice.

He looked over his shoulder at the phantom. "You may know the Hero's pain," he said, grabbing the hand that held his head and prying it away, "but do you know about his happiness as well?"

The dark Link was taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor. Once his hand was thrown off, he stood, backing away from the confident Hero who now stood tall.

"The reason we do what we do," he said, holding out his right hand to the side, "is to bring about a happiness greater than you can even imagine. Not just for us, but for everyone." A light glowed in his hand, then grew, forming the shape of the blade of evil's bane, the Master Sword. "We fight, we suffer, we die - but that only makes that happiness so much sweeter. And if we don't fight for it," he looked over the blade of light, "who will?"

He calmly walked over to the fearful shadow, backing him into a tree. Then, with skill and grace worthy of his title, he plunged his blade through his dark doppelganger, causing it to cry out in pain and vanish. Once the sword, too, had vanished, Sky looked at his empty hand and laughed a little to himself.

"Funny," he muttered, "Time had made these things seem so hard."

A shimmering noise from behind caused Sky to turn. A beacon of light now replaced the darkness; a beacon which signaled to him that he could return home. With a renewed sense of pride - a renewed sense of purpose - he waded into the water, allowing the light to envelop and whisk him away.

Mini and Time were startled by a splash and a loud gasp coming from the spring. When they saw Sky's head emerge from the water, they quickly rushed over to pull him out.

"Sky!" cried Mini, dragging his left arm, "Sky, are you okay!"

The elder Hero nodded, coughing when he tried to speak.

"Easy," said Time, who had his right arm, "you can tell us once you've caught your breath."

They sat Sky down on the shore. Then, once he finished coughing, he looked out to the spring, which was now crystal clear once again. He grinned.

"What? What are you smiling about?" Mini frowned. "You almost died! Again!"

"The gods just keep thinking of new ways to test us, don't they?"

"What are you talking about!"

"You don't mean," said Time with an incredulous look on his face, "that this wasn't a real threat at all?"

Sky shook his head. "It was a trial. For me." He smiled at his companions. "A reminder of why we do what we do. I wouldn't be surprised if Farore Herself had sent this."

Mini snorted. "That's an awful lot of trouble She went through just to give you a pep talk!"

"Either way," said Time, stretching his arms, "it looks like we're done here; everything seems to be back to normal." He offered Sky a hand. "Let's go - I need to tell Twilight that training isn't cancelled today after all!"

Laughing, Sky took the offered hand and used it to stand up. "He's not going to like that, Time!"

As the three walked home, a mischievous little fairy - the emissary of Farore - chuckled to herself, then flew away to tell her mistress that Hylia's champion was, indeed, still unbreakable in spirit.