Chapter 8 – Shrouded Intentions
"Wait…what?" Nate asked slowly.
Nate peered over at Link with, not so much shock, but more suspicion, and maybe even distrust. It was as if he had always expected that Link held some sort of secret, but was not ready to accept such a fact. His eyes, normally so warm and welcoming, were narrowed and cold, and wanted answers. Nate glanced over at Ralis for good measure, as if to gain some sort of clue, before glaring his attention back at Link.
Link, his secret exposed, could not find a suitable answer for the one he had once called his friend. He had completely taken advantage of Nate, he knew that. But was it worth it? The past week or so of being a normal person had been one of the best weeks in the young hero's life since the rise of Ganondorf. Not since before his adventures did Link feel more accepted than he did in his few weeks with Nate. As hard as this awkward situation was to swallow, he had to admit that it was a small price to pay for what he was able to gain; a fact which caused him to seriously doubt his own selfless nature.
Ralis looked utterly lost as he diverted his attention between the two at sporadic intervals. It took a few moments of thought before he remembered the warning that Link had given him a few days earlier. Ralis sighed quietly and held his head low in shame like a dog caught in the act. Link's greatest secret was now revealed to the one person that Link tried to hide it from.
Link was at a complete loss for words for an extended amount of time. The truth was out now, there was no going back. Of course, Link had decided from the start that he would have to tell Nate at some point in time. It would just be unfair to Nate to hide a secret as important as that away from a true friend for even one second. But he never meant for the word to get out like this. Sometimes how things are said is much more important than what is actually said.
"Ralis," He said finally with a small, insignificant voice. "We'll see you in the morning. I need to discuss some things with Nate."
"Oh, err…" Ralis stuttered embarrassedly. "Alright, then, good-night." Inwardly, he was relieved to get away from the awkward situation.
Nate, without the slightest glance at Link or Ralis, got up once Link had said that. Without bothering to push his chair in or bearing any manners in mind, he walked quietly and deliberately toward his and Link's room. Link, after sheepishly returning the good-night to Ralis, followed Nate's tail.
As expected, Nate was inside, sitting on his bed, waiting for Link's arrival. For the slightest fraction of a second, the two locked eyes, before Link couldn't bear to look into his hurt eyes any longer and had to look away. When he stared into Nate's eyes, it felt to Link as if he were staring into the soul of the man he had just betrayed. It was much easier to hurt Ganondorf than it was to hurt a friend like Nate.
Once Link turned away, Nate said harshly, "Well? Care telling me that was about?" His voice was piercing and his tongue was as sharp as the finest blade Hyrule had to offer.
Link grimaced and could not answer that right away. "Nate, it is not what you think." Link replied calmly after a few seconds of miserable thought, taking a seat on his own bed.
"No?" Nate replied sarcastically. "I think it is pretty damn obvious that you were hiding something from me. But hey, I don't judge unjustly. Let me hear your pathetic excuse; then I'll judge."
"I'm sorry, Nate." Link said quietly. "I…well, we all have our secrets…"
"Oh, yeah." Nate said with a voice heavy with sarcasm. "Hey, Link, I forgot to tell you, I'm the long-lost, estranged brother of Princess Zelda, heir to the Hyrule throne."
"It's true, alright!" Link nearly hollered. Rage felt like the only way for Link to release his pent-up sorrow. "What do you want me to tell you? That I am the man that you wanted me to be? Well, if I said that, I would be a liar. It's true; I am Link, savior of Hyrule. I was the liberator of the captives in the twilight. I awoke the four Light Spirits from their slumber in the Twilight Realm. I wield the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane. I defeated Zant and Ganondorf, thus ending their reins of tyranny. I am the damn Hero of Twilight!"
"Yeah, I got that far!" Nate retorted. "Perhaps you can tell me why it was that you held off from telling me?"
"Why?" Link answered quietly. "Because I don't want to be the Hero. I don't want to go down in history for courageous acts of any kind. I just want to be a regular person. I want to be like you. People envy me for my power; well, I envy them more than they envy me. "
After a minute passed and still Link heard no answer, he chanced a look over at Nate. His fiery demeanor had passed away somewhat. It was replaced instead by a look of remorse and perhaps even pity. He was still sitting at the edge of his bed with his eyes now directed out the lone window that their room had to offer. He was deep in thought, but Link did not have the slightest idea as to what he was thinking about.
Link continued. "Nate, you have no idea what it is like to be a hero. If you knew, you wouldn't be mad. Take a guess at what happened after Ganondorf had been slain. Go on, take a stab at it."
"Um… I really don't…"
"Think back to when we first got to the Zora's Domain, Nate. Remember the guards?"
This remark, at first, drew a blank stare for Nate, but after a moment, realization washed over him as he remember the whole ordeal Link had to go through with the guards.
"What…?"
"The people pushed me out into the streets. They ran me dry and, and with no further use of me, threw me away. You were the first person to talk to me in months, other than a few loyal friends. Any hope I had of rejoining society vanished many months ago. In saving society, I destroyed my place in it."
"But…but why would they do that?"
"I don't know." Link replied somberly. "Fear, I suspect. They thought that I would be like a new Ganondorf, except even more powerful."
"But…that's crazy! Who would ever think you would do that?"
"Nate," Link said, smiling sympathetically. "Not every Hylian knows me as you do. All they do know is that I am more powerful than Ganondorf ever was, and that, if I tried to take over, I could do it even more easily than Ganondorf did."
Nate's eyes began to water over. "Link, I'm sorry. I…I'm sorry, I just overreacted to something not important."
"No, it was very important." Link replied remorsefully. "I'm sorry; I should have told you sooner."
Nate looked up and smiled lightly. "It's alright."
Link smiled. That could have gone much, much worse. He had come very close to losing one of the only friends he had.
"You know, I was starting to think that you were the Hero." Nate said quietly when Link remained silent. "I definitely knew there was something different about you. I can't say that I'm not surprised to hear the truth, but…well, I was beginning to have my suspicions."
Link smiled again but still did not say anything. In truth, he could not think of anything to say. He just admitted to Nate that he had lied from the start but Nate had forgiven him after only mere minutes of explanation, a fact which baffled him. Nate was a true friend in every sense of the word.
"Just one thing, though." Nate asked doubtfully.
"And what is that?" Link asked in reply.
"Do you think you could, you know, tell me about it?" He looked at Link expectantly.
Link smiled. "What do you want to know?"
Link proceeded to give Nate a lengthy discussion about the various adventures he had, which included subjects that had previously been unrevealed to the general public. Nate had finally been given the gist of what had occurred during the hero's life. This insight of the superhuman trials that Link, and Link alone, went through to save Hyrule, coupled with what he already knew of the Twilight Hero, gave him a respect in Link of which no other man could possibly possess.
He had learned of the brain-tantalizing temples that Link had conquered, of the near impossible bosses which lurked in said temples he had brought down to size, and, above all, the vast length to which he, the Hero of Twilight, had went to save his fellow Hylians.
It wasn't over yet, though. "What of this Prince of Darkness? What can you tell me of Ganondorf?"
Link paused for a moment. "Not much, other than that he is a power hungry fool, capable of nothing but chaos, destruction and evil. He was the mastermind behind everything, but in the end, his reign of twilight receded and became a brand new day for Hyrule"
"I could have told you that much." Nate grinned. "But what of the battle you had with him? Was he powerful with a sword?"
"To have taken over an entire kingdom, you have to be a powerful swordsman."
"No, I know that, but I mean-" His voice trailed off into the ever-silencing air.
"How did he fare against me?"
"Yeah." Nate replied.
"He was by far the most powerful opponent I have ever faced." Link said in reply. "What he was lacking in finesse, he made up for in raw strength. It was staggering, how easily he could wield that huge blade of his. He was a powerful adversary, and it did take quite a lot to take him down. Never once did I think of him as a pushover."
"What was the battle like? Can you tell me about it?"
Link, after pausing for a brief moment to collect his thoughts, replied, "Well, you're about to hear the story that few can honestly claim that they know. It all happened like this…"
Later that night, Link sat awake at the foot of his bed. It was very late by now, but after all that had happened, he didn't feel the least bit tired. Nate's light snores filled the room as he slept deeply in the other bed, but that was the only noise to be heard on an otherwise peaceful night.
Link sighed deeply. Well, that could have gone worse. Again, Link couldn't help but feel a bit disturbed by Nate's behavior though. He didn't seem that surprised at all by this sudden bit of information, almost to the point that he had been expecting to hear it. Could he have known already?
Perhaps he just put pieces together. The sword itself was a good giveaway; it's not often that you see a sword of that quality. And who the hell else has the name "Link" in the entire kingom, Link thought with a slight smirk.
Slowly and quietly, so as to not wake Nate, Link stood up and crept his way towards the door out of the bedroom. The door creaked lightly as he opened it and Link took care to make as little noise as possible as he closed to door behind him. Once out into the hallway, Link followed the path set before him back into the dining hall and back out the huge door to the outside.
He felt a sudden chill as his bare feet touched the cold stone behind the Zora Throne. It was a silent night other than the sound of water coming from the waterfall. Link folded his arms across his chest for warmth as he walked past the waterfall's basin and toward the edge off the cliff where the water tumbled many feet below.
There weren't many guards out at this time of night, but from the few that he did pass, Link got many eyes of suspicion. He could feel their eyes on him as he passed, even though most of them were in dark corners with their faces hidden in the shadows.
Link did his best to ignore them as he made his way over to the cliff's edge. Soon, he found himself teetering over the waterfall with nothing stopping him from falling to the water far below but a flimsy metal fence.
Link sighed with relief as he bent over and rested his elbows on the fence and locked his hands together over the edge. This place was always beautiful in the best of times, but to Link, it was even more beautiful at night as opposed to day. On a clear night such as tonight, the moon would reflect brightly in the water and, at certain times, its light would get directed into the waterfall and scatter in all directions.
"Can't sleep?" Called out a familiar voice to break Link from his momentary session of thought. He felt a gentle hand pat him on the back before the man took a spot leaning on the fence next to him.
"Hey Ralis." Link replied to his counterpart with a frail smile. "Yeah, I just need a moment to settle down before I can shut my eyes."
"I hear ya." Ralis said with a sigh. "And what better place to do that than here, eh?"
Link simply smiled and continued to gaze out over the landscape. After a moment's delay, Ralis continued, "How is Nate?"
"He'll be fine, I think." Link replied shortly. "Shocked, I suppose, but he should come around."
"Ok, that's good." Ralis replied. "I'm sorry, by the way, I truly am. I never meant to do that to you."
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Link said quickly. "He would have found out sooner or later. No harm done."
"Ok, well, there is something about him that I want to talk to you about." Ralis continued slowly, uncertainly. "A word of caution, perhaps."
Link frowned a bit and glanced curiously over at Ralis. "Caution? About what?"
"Link…" Ralis said quietly as he stuttered to find the right words to say. "Link, it's just…I'm not so sure that you can trust this man."
"Trust? Ralis, I've been traveling with this guy for weeks, I think I have a pretty good idea of who he is." Link replied, perhaps a bit more angrily than he had intended.
"All the same, Link," Ralis replied calmly. "I deal with politicians all the time, and these men are experts at pretending to be who they are not. And Nate bears a strange resemblance to the politicians that I have the displeasure of being around constantly. I cannot help but think that there is something very deceitful about his supposed 'coincidental' appearance."
Ralis paused for a reply but none came from Link. Instead, Ralis continued. "Look, Link, Nate seems like a great person. And he probably is. But, perhaps just due to my nature, I don't think I can trust him yet, and I don't want you to make the mistake of revealing your darkest secrets to a backstabber."
"All due respect, Ralis, but you don't know Nate Like I do." Link said with a sigh.
"Fair enough." Ralis replied with a hint of discontent. "I'm just trying to look out for you."
"And I appreciate it, but I am the Twilight Hero. I can look after myself."
"Alright fine." Ralis sighed. "But let me say one more thing. After the fall and rise again of Hyrule, you lost your spot in the hearts of all of Hyrule. And you lost many of those friends that you held dear. And I know that must have been very tough on you, tougher than I could ever imagine. But don't let your desperation to find a friend lead you to make friends out of an enemy."
Link didn't reply and let his words sink in. A few awkward moments later, Ralis stepped away from the guardrail and said quietly, "Don't stay up too late."
Again, Link didn't reply. He waited until Ralis' footsteps died away before he too stepped away from the fence and made his way back to the warm bed inside waiting for him.
"Now is the time, My Master. We will arrive in approximately three days time."