Chapter 12: The Legend of Peace Children~
Not more than an hour later they were all gathered in a circle in the center of the Dojo Tendo, with Link seated in a large arm-chair ,that looked like a throne, in front of them, ready now to tell his story.
Ranma thought that he looked like he belonged there. He also was amazed to find out how truly old Happosai and Cologne really were. He had known they were ancient, but they had made it sound like they were only a few hundred years old, maybe more.
Now it was looking like they were older than 1400 for certain. Link and Zelda were older than 1400 technically, though they had died as 17 year olds, and would forever remain 17.
Link bowed over his knees, lightning blue eyes filled with oceans of deep memory. Sorrow. Ranma could feel it emanating from him like a subtle life force attack.
Then he pulled forth a large robin's egg blue clay flute, that seemed to glow with some ethereal light, and raised it to his lips.
" Ji No Uta..." Zelda whispered to Ranma, and he understood.
Song of Time.
As they listened to the song, it seemed that an otherworldly wind began to blow. That there was a sound of oceans rising out of floods of Nayru's tears. That there was a sound of wars, ablaze with Din's fire.
That all of the ages were torn in two, by Farore's wind...
"This tale is true, and mine." Link whispered, into the music, the voice seeming to come from his mind, as on and on, he continued to play, the heart wrenching theme of the Song of Time.
" It tells, how they surrendered me to the waves of Nayru's tears...how they took me down to the Wolf's bones, how it was that I became a man, and was rendered a man no more in the same hour.
I am the male Peace Child. This is my story:
In the days before the history of man is recorded, in the days when the mountains of China raised their necks a little higher, and Japan was a jewel in the crown of deeper seas, my people lived in a kingdom of the Sky. It was called Hylia, because it was set on the high heavens, enshrouded by clouds, and upon that firmament sat a new heaven and a new earth. There were the mountains of the 3 sisters, the 3 queens of the heavens, and dominion over the realm of the Sky Kingdom was given to them by the High God ,Who made all things.
The name of the eldest was Nayru, and she was wisest, and had the purest of hearts. Her love was given to star light, and she shepherded the tides of the heavens.
The name of the next was Din, and fury and judgment were given to her, and mastery over fire. She dwelt in that mountain called Death, where once the Phoenix dancers dwelt, in the days before Man was born, before Adam first breathed.
And the name of the youngest was Farore, whose heart was unattainable, and her will was like the bitter northern winds.
So it was that my father, Ganon, was king in Hylia in the days of long ago, and Impa the Princess of the Sheikah was his Queen, and I was his only son, and he had two daughters, my twin sister Zelda, and Shanpu the younger born. And she was born too late, for Ganon's heart had strayed from his queen and from his kingdom in those days...
For it is as I said; Farore was as harsh and untamed, cruel and temperamental as the bitter wind. And she looked down from her place in the clouds, and saw the kingdom of Hylia, and purposed in her heart that it would be her possession; though by every right it was my inheritance; I was the only heir.
And knowing this, she purposed in her heart that she would take it from me by one way or by the other.
So it was, that she came down from the highest places, on a day when my father was hunting the great Wild Boar of the Golden Mountains Three. And she cast herself upon the tusks of the great beast, knowing that my father the king was mighty enough to save her.
When he ran to the snout of the Great Boar to see what an evil thing was done to this damsel, he found her alive and enchantingly beautiful. She pledged her very soul to him for saving her, that day, and so put a spell of seduction upon him.
So it was that my mother was carrying the warrior princess Shanpu in those days...And great joy was stirring in the kingdom that another child would soon be born to the Royal Family.
Nayru prepared her star to bless the life of Ganon's offspring, and my sister Zelda and I were pledged to her house to be her students, and so let her wisdom pass to our kingdom.
But on the long-awaited day of the birth of the youngest princess, the king was not to be found. And so great was my mother's distress, that she lay dying in labor.
So it was that my mother's handmaiden, the Kokiri sage by the name of Saria, went into the Lost Woods, in search of my father, wondering what evil should have befallen him on his hunt.
Only to find that the spell of that lost and evil place, and of the Witch's own seduction, had lead him astray, straight to the bedchamber of Farore.
Saria was so distressed by the things that she saw done in that place, that she cried out.
When Farore realized that her deception was known, she was filled with great rage, and cursed my father so that he became the Great Boar, and he went running wild upon the plain, forever her whore and puppet after that.
And yet my mother lived, and Shanpu was born, but there was no song, nor laughter that day, neither did any joyful voice echo into that place, for it was known that Ganon the King of Hylia, bearer of the Crown of Power, had broken the everlasting covenant between the High God and the Queens, and the Kingdom of Hylia, not to let his light be darkened, nor to ever deal with a twisted eye.
And so it was that the Boar ran free on the plain, and an open war began to rise up, such as has never entered the history of men, and never shall again enter ours. For all the Kingdom raged against its king, who under the Witch's curse, destroyed their homes, and brought darkness where he swore to uphold light.
As for Farore, she chased after the Boar and provoked him with a bitter wind, for their was only one way my father could atone for his sin, and so break his curse, and bring the Peace.
He must sacrifice his only heir. His oldest child. And because his oldest children were twins, born on the same day, he must sacrifice not one child, but two, a boy and a girl, and so balance both sides of the scales of the Bleeding Eyes.
Because we loved our father, even for what he had done, and because we wanted Peace, for we feared for our little sister, still a newborn baby, and for our mother, who was weary with war and taking care of a newborn child, Zelda and I gave ourselves up to be sacrificed...
But on the evening before I should be sacrificed, to fulfill her wish to have my birthright, Farore drowned a wolf in the accursed spring that was to be my tomb. Now when I drowned, rather than die, I would take on the body of this wolf shape, and so be her slave, created for the purpose of killing my father Ganon.
The day that we were sacrificed went as it was meant to. We both struggled greatly against poisoned waters, and great foam of gasping breath, and bleeding tears went up. The wrath of the broken covenant was appeased. The war of Sheikan legend was ended.
Zelda remained sleeping in her tomb for almost 1400 years after that day, until Saotome Ranma fell into it, and took on her form. But I awoke from my eternal slumber that night, in the body of a wolf, on a suicide mission to slay the Great pig, who had cast himself into the Pool of Drowning Pig_"
(By this time, Ryoga had blanched...)
"_To cast off that accursed form. Though my father Ganon no longer wore the skin of the Boar, he still bore its scent. The wolf was bred by the Witch in his life to be a swine hunter, and if there is swine, he must slay..
(Now Ranma was giving Ryoga concerned looks...)
" I hunted my father in madness, and he, now accursed, and cast down from his throne, wandered the world, ever setting up traps, and ruses, and plans to stop me from ending his life, while at the same time seeking to reclaim the throne he unworthily cast aside. I would have destroyed him, or he would have destroyed me, had not Nayru taken pity on my undeath, and sent me a phantom of Zelda as a child, bearing the magic flute of Nayru, the Flute of Time.
Enchanted by the image of my sister ,who had by this time long been in her watery grave, I took many quests to save her, or to do her wish, all the while and unbeknownst to me, fulfilling Nayru's plans to bind myself and my father into the fabric of time. So doing we could not escape (except from aid of outside hand) our own curse; neither could we bring our destruction, or Farore's bitter wind into the world of the living, because it was woven into the very shadows of time, and never enters anywhere other than dreams, and never crosses blades nor moons with your living history.
By and by , and by the phantom of my sister, I was lead to the sword of benevolence that Nayru forged for me. Once I drew it from the pedestal, all of her will was released into the world, and so it was predestined that the curse could be broken from the actual current of time, when the world was made ready for it.
All was made ready then, the Great Flood was prepared in heaven to be released to wash away all evils the war had brought. Nayru placed her star upon the baby Tendo Kasumi, who had not yet been born, but whose birth would signal the Dawn of Redemption for our race.
But Nayru's very best laid plans could not account for Farore entering the Temple of Time, where the Sword of Nayru was kept, in the form of Ganondorf, a half-form creature fused of her soul, and the soul of my father.
Farore my cruel mistress then put her curse upon the sword, making it her own, making it the rod of my command. Knowing what she had done, and that all was lost in time, for she now had access to all that Nayru had done to achieve this redemption, I sliced my hand open upon her accursed blade, making my blood bound to the curse, and the curse to me.
And so I sent myself, using the Magic flute, back into the past, and present, and future, reliving the Farore alternates of the history I already knew, drawing her curse into my alternate self, into my shadow. And so she would be the Master of the Sword, but I would be the Sword's Master, for it was made for me, and only I can truly wield it, curse or no curse.
And so I became the White Demon, the terrible blessing and accursed thing that you beheld today. And only I can break the curse of Farore and Ganon, for I have made myself the curse, you see.
I shall lead you to war against her, draw out the very dregs of her ill will against your people for harboring Nayru's blessing and sign ,in the life of Tendo Kasumi. I will draw the curse into myself, in many great battles,... with your help I will do this. And then..." he swallowed, "Either I will gain the mastery over the curse once and for all...and use it against my mistress, or ,if I find reason, I will use the curse to destroy myself and itself, for it is me and I am it; I have made myself the curse..."
There was resounding silence just then.
Slowly Saotome Ranma stood.
"Whatever this takes, however this ends...count me in!"
And one by one the others followed suit.
Akane noticed Happosai leaving the room, then. Or not Happosai...Ganon. The disgraced king disguised as the pervert sensei ...Ashamed of the terrible ending that he had already written into history for his only heir.
It would be sad, maybe, if she wasn't so angry for all the trouble he'd caused everyone. Him, and Genma too.
By the way, where was Genma?