Chapter 19
We spent the next several days in Little Lorule, working with Peggle to make sure the town would be a safe haven for Diana. The town was fortified, many weapons and arrows were forged, its scrappers organized into a Resistance against the Plague Witches' rule...and Link spent many hours training Simon to fight. The boy is a born natural...by the end of those few days Simon could outperform most adults in a sparring contest, and watching him spar with Link felt like watching a game of chess; poor Linky had to work hard to disarm him. After the last such sparring contest Link richly commended Simon for his progress.
"Thanks, Link...but I just hope we can live in peace before too long. I never wanted to be a fighter...destiny dragged me into that job I guess. I cannot refuse now..." I felt awful...
This boy...barely a teen...is willing to accept his "destiny"...am I being childish trying to resist mine? Would Hyrule have been better off if I had just gone with Anastasia and reinforced Ganon's slumber? Link assured Simon that peace WOULD come, at which point he could be whatever he wanted...for now he just had to make sure to keep the people he cared about safe.
"You're doing a really good job, Simon!" Diana called out from the sidelines. He turned to her and blushed a bit...
"Tttthanks..."
"Link, do you need any help with dinner? Mom taught me to cook before she left us..."
"I'll help too. Don't want to make you two do all the work..."
"You sure, Simon?"
"Yeah...when dad was still human he taught me never to throw all the work on the woman. I still believe that." Diana – and I myself – smiled.
"Aw...thanks, Simon..." The two of them followed Link to the cooking pot. I think when they grow up they'll be cute together...anyways, the three of them made roasted cucco drumsticks and hylian herbs for me, Horace, and themselves, after which we all tucked into our tents to sleep.
The next morning...Link was quick to wake me up.
"Five more minutes, Link..." He told me to get up NOW. I hurried out of bed, got dressed, and left my tent to discover – to my astonishment – HUNDREDS of gerudo soldiers gathered on the south side of town.
"What the hell?!" I yelled out as I drew my weapons, ready for a brawl. Link was likewise ready for a fight, but before we decided to attack one of their captains approached – unarmed – to talk.
"Greetings! You two must be Link and Zelda Barclaya! I am Lady Urbosa, commander of the Gerudo...we have come here to pledge our support in Link's attack on the Temple of Darkness." I was bollocks.
"But...but...last time I came to Gerudo Town, your guards tried to skewer me!" She looked visibly embarrassed.
"Argh...sorry, little vai. Our previous chieftain had a strict 'no hylian' policy...she insisted, 'Kill hylians on sight!' The other day, though...we learned that she was working with those wretched Plague Witches. We drove her out, and our new king ordered us to come here and join forces with you two." By now Horace, Diana, and Simon were out and awestruck by this turn of events.
"King"?! They couldn't possibly mean Ganondorf Namib, could they?! Link proceeded to ask where this new king is.
"He told me he was going to the Great Plateau...had some unsettled business there, he said."
And he's trying to take the trial...crud. I'm going to have to run into his ugly mug again...Link thanked Urbosa and told her we also have unfinished business on the Plateau...
"Oh? That's fine...we'll just keep waiting here until Namib returns...take your time." With that we quickly packed up and hurried towards the Digdogg Suspension "Bridge". Simon and Diana wanted to follow.
"It is WAY too dangerous to follow us, you guys...please, stay here. You'll be safer here..."
"But I don't want to lose you, Auntie!"
"I'm not ready, Link!" Link told them that we would be fine and that Simon has all the training he needs to protect Diana and Little Lorule...he asked him to stay behind and guard the princess with his life. Simon agreed, and the two reluctantly watched us disappear into the distance before returning to town...
After crossing the bridge we walked east until we reached the Outpost Town, then veered straight south. We were directly flanking the eastern side of the sheer rocky cliffs of the Great Plateau, where Hyrule was born...eventually Link stopped at a seemingly unremarkable portion of the cliff face.
"What's up, Linky?" I asked him. He pulled out his ocarina and asked me to play the royal lullaby...
"Ummm...okay..." Play it I did, Zelda's Lullaby, a soothing, haunting melody that has for generations been used to soothe young birds of the royal family (myself included) into slumber. I continued for several minutes and thought nothing would happen...however, suddenly the ground violently shook beneath us, and I tripped and fell to the ground. When I got my bearings...a HUGE staircase had been pushed out of the cliff side. Bingo...without a word we hurried up the stairs to the supposedly desolate plateau...
When we arrived, however, the plateau was most certainly NOT desolate. Dozens of tents greeted us on our arrival, occupied by hundreds of...bokoblins. They poured out of their tents en masse after we reached the plateau...of course. We quickly prepared for battle, only for the bokoblins to scream and scatter at seeing our weapons...not normal bokoblin behaviour. Only then did I notice the Sword was not glowing in the presence of these bokoblins...
Wait...are these damn bokoblins not evil?! I silently nudged Link to put his weapon away and waited several long, exasperating minutes. Eventually a very old black bokoblin, walking with the aid of a cane, approached.
"The Hero and Heroine are you?" I was bollocks.
"You speak?!" I cried out in shock, spooking the remaining bokoblins.
"I do, yes. Waited a millenium for you we have. Follow us...please..." Not feeling like we had much other choice, we followed this bokoblin northwest towards some woodlands, followed by several dozen very curious bokoblins, most of them red with the occasional blue bokoblin...unlike bokoblins elsewhere in Hyrule, these were all fully clothed. Eventually I decided to talk to this apparently sentient bokoblin who was leading us.
"What is your name, sir?"
"My name Ashkenaz is. The Leader of The Plateau Bokoblins I am."
"Why are you so bloody different than the bokoblins at ground level?"
"Worshiped Ganon our ancestors. He would give them prosperity they deludedly believed. More recent ancestors...that lie they saw through. Convince other monsters they tried to...immediately outcast. Many perished...up here remainder fled. Farm, fish, hunt we do...hylians we hate no more. Peace we want...no advanced weapons."
"Where are you taking us?"
"A grave. The lesson given listen carefully to." We eventually reached a clearing in the woods with two graves...one was not occupied yet; the other was littered with silent princesses and was being tended to by an extremely old man in ragged clothing.
"Link...arrived Princess and Hero have." The old man turned to speak to us...only then did I notice he only had one arm...
"LINK?!" Link and I exclaimed in unison.
"That's right, youngins! I am the Hero of Slumber...the greatest FOOL to have ever served the Sword...HACK!"
"But that-!"
"Means I am over a millennium old, Princess? Indeed...the Triforce can work miracles...WHEEZE!" With that he showed us his hand...the Triforces of Wisdom and Courage, the only things keeping him alive, lurked within.
"How did you get both?!"
"Listen carefully to my tale of woe, Barclaya! A thousand years ago...Ganon broke the seal imposed on him by the previous Hero and Princess (HACK!) and attempted to steal the Triforce, leaving him with the element's power. Meanwhile, I got its courage, and my dear childhood friend Zelda Cecilia got its wisdom...we knew what we needed to do. I plucked the Sword That Seals The Darkness from the Lost Woods, Cecilia gathered the Bow of Light from the royal treasury (COUGH!), and together with Hyrule's finest we forged a united front to stop Ganon's rampage. I had this grandiose idea to stop Ganon for good...'Put him to sleep, my beloved! Put that swine to sleep for ten thousand years!' And she agreed with my scheme..."
Wait...HE started The Ritual?!
"The day finally came. We fought Ganon like so many heroes and princesses before us, Clang Bang Pow! And we won! Cecilia put him into what was supposed to be a ten millennium long (HACK!) slumber...we locked him away in that Temple of Darkness in northeasternmost Akkala...Hyrule finally got its big break, right? WRONG! Such stupid youthful optimism...within four years that terrible Voice began billowing out of his sick, twisted mind...when we went to investigate it, Ganon's malice devoured my arm and Cecilia lost her magic forcing him to stay asleep. From that time on (WHEEZE!) I was an outcast from the royal family...they denied my union to my beloved Cecilia...drove me out of the Castle Town...I fled to the Plateau to lead a lonely existence as Hyrule's failure of a hero. Every year Cecilia (HACK!) would secretly visit me...but suddenly, while visiting at age 37, she fell gravely ill and nothing I did could save her. Before she breathed her last...she gave me her Bow of Light and Triforce and ordered me to guard them until the next Hero and Princess came along who could seal Ganon away again. She died in my bed...the bed of her failure of a hero..." The Hero of Slumber broke into tears and was absolutely inconsolable for the next hour.
When he eventually calmed down enough to speak further, the old hero continued; "See my point, Barclaya? You are obsessed with defying your destiny...but your doing so has already harmed Hyrule greatly, just as my like attempts at doing so did (WHEEZE!). Please...just work with Link to seal Ganon away in the Dark World...there is no better solution! Hyrule will just be stuck fighting Ganon forever! A much better price than its complete destruction!" I wanted to squabble with him about it, but I did not have an answer to his assertion...with that the old man left the grave, still agitated and in tears, and we and the disturbed group of bokoblins that had followed us returned to the bokoblin village for the night. Guess who was waiting for us at dinnertime?
Namib. Ganondorf Namib...as if my afternoon could not get any worse...I could not bring myself to say a single word to him for twenty minutes...
"What is your problem, bloke?! You said 'I love you!' and never even told me who you bloody were!"
"Didn't ya do precisely the same to your cobber Link?"
"There's a difference! I'm not evil!"
"And who says I am 'evil' anymore?! Just give me five minutes and I can explain everything I should have told ya earlier!"
"You had your five minutes with me, Demon King! Why should I give you an iota of patience now?!" I stormed away from the bokoblin's dinner area, furious...Link, however, was more considerate than I and allowed Namib to explain himself. I could just make out what they were saying by the fire...
"I...am Ganondorf Namib. The Demon King reborn...for even Ganon cannot live forever; with time his dark magic twists and bends his mind to the point that he can no longer rule Hyrule, to the point that he ceases to be the King of Evil and instead becomes a mindless force of destruction. When that happens, the Plague Witches use their magic to bring about his rebirth as a mortal gerudo...a gerudo whose sole 'purpose' is to murder the previous Ganon and take his place in tyrannizing Hyrule."
"Twenty seven years ago...my mother gave birth to me in Gerudo Town. Instinctively she named me Ganondorf...the Plague Witches knew what that meant; that I was Ganon reborn, destined to overthrow my predecessor and take his dreadful place as Hyrule's menace. They offered to make her chieftain of Gerudo Town if they could take me in as a Plague Witch...she agreed. They murdered the previous chieftain and maneuvered my mother into her place...and I began to train as a Plague Witch under their leader, Death Witch Calamitous Dreemer."
"For years I was Dreemer's best pupil, his assassin, the heir apparent to rule the Plague Witches. I was being groomed to manipulate the Hero and Princess into striking down Ganon and then replacing him as the Demon King...I was a cruel, psychotic monster ruled by the aberrant hatred that had dominated me since birth, the hatred that still haunts my dreams...it looked like I was going to become everything the Plague Witches wanted me to be; the new Ganon. Then, one day..." Ganondorf Namib paused before continuing...now I was interested in what he was going to say next.
"At age seventeen...I managed to get lost in a sandstorm in the Gerudo Desert. I wandered far to the west of Gerudo Town, into the deathly hot sea of sand beyond it...and passed out. When I came to...here was this young Royal Guard tending to me in Gerudo Town, keeping me shaded and giving me hydromelons to eat to rebuild my strength. I was dumbfounded...here I had spent my whole life terrorizing others, and yet here was this young bruce named Devyn protecting me when I was weak, when a fellow plague witch would have offed me to take my position for themself. We became fast friends...Devyn began to teach me how to control that mongrel hatred...and, at his advice, I abandoned the Plague Witches on my eighteenth birthday to pursue my own path."
"I payed a heavy price for that 'betrayal'. Dreemer murdered my rellies...my rellies!...each and every one of them!...and put yet another drongo gerudo aristocrat on the throne...I seethed with hatred for the witches, for the Voice, for Ganon. I still do...when I stole Dreemer's necklace that I now wear, it took everything I had not to take his life; I let him live...only because I knew if I made a cactus of him in his sleep I would become exactly like he is; rotten to the bloody bones."
"Link...I...I am sorry for hiding my true nature from ya both for so long. I...rightly, apparently...feared what would happen if Barclaya ever discovered I am the Demon King given flesh, your mortal enemy, even if I no longer want that wretched destiny for myself. I honestly am not sure I care whether Hyrule lives or dies...I just want to prove to my people - to Hyrule at large - that I am no longer Dreemer's puppet, no longer the monster my mother signed me up to be, no longer destined to become the Demon King...I've already gone to Gerudo Town, overthrown Dreemer's puppet chieftain, and convinced my people to support ya in besieging the Temple of Darkness. But that's not enough for me...I'll only feel satisfied if I pass that damn trial, and thus far the priestess has not allowed me in the Temple of Time. Maybe...with your help, she will grant me entrance...and I'll finally prove my worth. Finally prove that becoming the Demon King is not my destiny anymore..."
Link seemed really sympathetic to the repentant Plague Witch's plight...but I felt really conflicted. Ganondorf had hid his true nature from me for weeks...the reason made sense, but I was completely torn as to whether to trust him again. With that dominating my mind at the expense of my concerns about the next day's trial, I retreated into a guest tent offered by the bokoblins and tucked in for the night.
Chapter 20
Am I...am I irrepairably destined to fulfill my "destiny"? Am I bloody incapable of doing anything else, just a puppet in this vile game of Hyrule's self preservation? The damn old man insisted I was trapped in this naff cycle of keeping Ganon asleep...is he right? Should I have just gone with Anastasia and reinforced Ganon's slumber? Would she still be alive if I had? Am I an awful person for refusing to "fulfill my sacred duty"? Those thoughts ruined my sleep through the night...I could not get so much as a kip in; those thoughts just kept me awake throughout my normal dozing hours. Eventually, not long after the sun came up, Ashkenaz came in with some bacon (wait...what?) and some roasted endura carrots...I was absolutely knackered.
"For you light breakfast. Bogged down for the trial you cannot be, Princess."
"Thanks, old bloke." I quickly ate the carrots and bacon before joining Link and Ganondorf Namib on the walk west to the Temple of Time, a massive cathedral surrounded by several smaller buildings in ill repair; we were followed by Ashkenaz and eleven other elderly black bokoblins, all tribal heads of the Great Plateau's bokoblins. As we walked Ganondorf sought my forgiveness.
"Barclaya...I...I'm sorry about...about not telling ya who I really was. I...I was just scared...how ya would react..." I did not feel as angry with Namib as I did a few days ago, but I had a lot on my mind and could not bring myself to accept his apology. He looked very hurt.
"Can...can we talk about this more...after the trial?" It took everything I had just to nod in agreement...
"Thank ya." We soon approached the Temple of Time proper and were met by the priestess, a rito (huge sentient birds) who resembled a grey owl and was adorned with a simple brown cloak. She immediately took issue with Namib.
"HOOT! You try to enter these sacred grounds again, Daemon King?! How many times will I have to deny ye entry here?!" Only then did she notice Link and I accompanying him...
"Hoot! Have the Hero and Princess arrived to take the trial?!"
"Yes," I coldly answered her. She was too excited by my presence to notice my lack of enthusiasm.
"Excellent! I am Medoh, priestess of the Temple of Time and the Hero of Slumber's apprentice! I have been waiting decades to put you two through your trial! But before I do...I must insist; LEAVE THE DAEMON KING OUTSIDE!" Link tried to protest, insisting that he is our friend and does not want to be evil anymore, but Medoh refused to listen.
"HOOT! That's rich! The Daemon King lives off of manipulating others until he gets what he wants! He was born in this temple...I am not about to perpetuate that dreadful cycle by letting him in yet again!" Namib looked absolutely distraught.
"It's all right, big guy...you'll prove your worth somehow." Namib seemed shocked to hear those words from my mouth...Medoh simply looked irritated.
"Tttthank ya, Barclaya..." With that Link, the bokoblins sans pacifist Ashkenaz, and myself entered the Temple, Medoh slamming and locking the huge wooden doors behind us. The bowels of the temple had numerous wooden benches situated to the left and right of the red carpet walkway we were traversing; at the opposite end from the door was a podium with a huge statue of the Goddess Hylia, ancestress to the royal family and Hyrule's patron deity. Medoh had the two of us sit down on one of the front benches before ascending the podium and beginning to speak (the bokoblins seated themselves directly behind us).
"Listen carefully, Link...Barclaya...tens of thousands of years ago the Daemon King was born in this temple. He entered the Golden Realm through this sacred edifice, stole the Power of the Gods, and tyrannized Hyrule seven bitter years...at the end of those seven years a hero appeared, one able to manipulate time itself, to challenge him. But – alas! - he was not in the slightest worthy! The Daemon King struck him down and acquired the Courage and Wisdom of the Gods from him and the Princess of his era...only the swift intervention of the seven sages saved Hyrule from eternal darkness. Many centuries later...while trying to escape the Dark World those sages had imprisoned him in, the Daemon King was met by another young hero, this one unable to manipulate time and devoid of the Courage of the Gods. And yet? He prevailed...that Hero of Light and Dark saved our land from certain doom, purely because he had the skill to contend with Ganon. That is the point...what ultimately matters is not your tools or how powerful you are, but your skill! HOOT!"
"So, to prove your worthiness to partake of the Golden Power, the Hero of Slumber and I have prepared a brutal combat trial for each of you. Ever since the Daemon King arose, the regrets and misery he has caused have accumulated within the walls of the Temple of Time...included among those regrets are the spirits of former heroes and princesses who failed to defeat the Daemon King. You will each in turn be pitted against one such spirit in another realm...win and the Triforce is yours; fail, and your spirit will join the heaps of regrets lurking within the Temple walls. Are you sure you are ready, hoot hoot?"
"Ready..." I coldly answered; Link was more enthusiastic. Medoh looked proud.
"Very well...we shall start with you, Hero. Please step up onto the podium." Link did so, and Medoh began praying to the Goddess Statue, creating a portal to another realm...Link walked into it before it closed. We waited ten anxious minutes for Link's return...it felt like hours, terrifying hours, the fear Link would not come back alive weighing heavily on my chest. Eventually, though, the portal reopened and an absolutely knackered Link exited through it, bruised but alive and victorious. Medoh, the bokoblins, and I all applauded.
"Well done, hoot hoot!" Medoh exclaimed as she quickly approached Link. She took his hand and inscribed an ornate marking on it with a strange golden ink.
"This proves henceforth that Link is worthy of partaking of the Courage of the Gods! Hoot hoot! Now...your turn, Barclaya." With that she led me up to the podium and prayed a second time to the Goddess statue, creating a portal that I proceeded to enter like a daft fool...
I soon found myself on a circular, dark blue arena surrounded by a pure, terrifying blackness that felt like it was going to consume me any second. I felt like I could hear the agony of countless people...even father...it felt like tens of millions – and maybe many more - agonized souls were clamoring in the darkness, all desiring to tear at Ganon. As I was pondering this disturbing sensation a cloud of darkness drifted onto the arena; to my alarm, it quickly materialized into what looked like a jet black, fluid Princess of Hyrule with glowing white eyes...and it spoke in a terrifying, echoing voice.
"ZELDA BARCLAYA OF HYRULE...MANY MILLENIA AGO I WAS SKEWERED ON GANON'S TRIDENT, LEAVING MY HERO TO VANQUISH HIM ALONE. I WILL NOT ALLOW ANOTHER WEAK PRINCESS TO DISAPPOINT HYRULE!"
"Oh, I'll show you who's weak..." I halfheartedly barked right back. The phantom princess drew a sword and we fiercely dueled back and forth for several minutes...that wasn't really accomplishing anything, so I began to use my bow. I scored a head shot to the phantom princess and rushed to deliver a lethal blow, but she deflected me with a shield, throwing me to the ground; I only barely caught her sword with my shield before she ran me through with it. This went on several more minutes until...
Why the hell am I not using my magic?!
I quickly shifted gears and began using my magic to throttle the phantom princess, slamming her against the arena every time she got close to me. She eventually started using her magic in turn, but my magic was so strong that she was not able to throw me...eventually I managed to disarm her and, before she could recover her sword, I landed a head shot with my bow, stunning her long enough for me to drive my sword through her chest. Defeated at last, the phantom princess melted back into the sorrow and regret that surrounded the arena...I was quick to exit the arena through the resulting portal before I was attacked again. When I got out, though, I got no warm reception; Medoh was...busy.
"GET OUT OF HERE, DAEMON KING! HOOT!"
"Why can't ya just let me take the trial?!" On closer inspection Namib had blown the doors off the temple so he could get in...everyone else was too busy observing this debacle to notice my triumphant return.
"Your very presence is blasphemous, that's why! You deserve death, daemon king! HOOT!"
"How about ya just let me take the trial, then?! If I'm as much of a mongrel as ya say it will kill me!"
OH NO...
Medoh had finally had enough and roughly took Ganondorf by the hand before leading him to the podium, where she angrily prayed for Ganondorf to partake of the trial. However...when the portal opened, Ganondorf was immediately set upon by all the regrets within the temple. He screamed in agony as they began to fill his body like a liquid, eventually collapsing to the ground and taking on a black liquid form like the spirits Link and I had fought...I was bloody horrified.
"HOOT! HOOT! I TOLD YOU THE DAEMON KING WAS UP TO NO GOOD!"
"Shut it, lady! SHUT IT!" I screamed right back. Ganondorf laid there lifeless several minutes...I tried to rouse him, but I was burned by the regrets and had to pull back. Suddenly, however, six glowing white eyes appeared on his face and he climbed to his feet before uttering a shrill scream, causing six tendrils to abruptly sprout from his back and shaking the whole temple...Medoh nearly fainted, and the bokoblins screamed and ran towards the entrance, where they hid behind the benches. It was only then that Link noticed me, and he motioned for me to cautiously approach Namib...
"WHHHHAT ARE YOU DOING, PRINCESS?! YE ARE RRRRISKING YOUR LIFE APPROACHING THE DAEMON KING! HOOOOOOT!" I ignored the obnoxious priestess and cautiously approached the being that was Ganondorf Namib...he looked like he was continuously melting, yet his black liquid body remained intact.
"Ganondorf...are you all right?" With that Ganondorf shut his three new pairs of eyes and reverted to his gerudo self, collapsing roughly to the ground. Link and I were quick to rush to his side.
"Crikey! What the hell was that?!" he blurted out as we helped him to his feet. Medoh was looking terrified.
"No...hoot...this...this cannot be possible...the regrets...the sorrows...those countless innocent lives...have all taken residence in the Daemon King...that...that must mean..."
"Well spit it out, old lady! What the hell does all this mean for Ganondorf?!" She glared at me for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and answering me.
"The Daemon King...has become The Avenger. The Being destined to devour Ganon...the Being who has unified Ganon's victims for the singular purpose of consuming the Great King of Evil. This...this shouldn't be possible...Ganon devouring Ganon..." Suddenly the Hero of Slumber rushed in, with Ashkenaz not far behind...he was absolutely winded.
"Medoh (HACK!) what madness just happened?! WHEEZE!"
"The Daemon King...he...he's the Avenger, my master! The regrets...the sorrows...he's absorbed them all! And...and they didn't kill him..." The Hero of Slumber looked absolutely dumbfounded.
"Are you telling me (COUGH!) Ganon is going to devour himself?!"
"And who says I'm Ganon anymore?! I may be the Demon King reborn, but that doesn't mean I have to play the monster! My destiny is mine to choose!" The Hero of Slumber and Medoh were both awestruck...I felt really good.
If...if Ganondorf - the damn Demon King reborn - can defy his destiny, his birth curse, his purpose...why can't I?
"Incredible...even the Daemon King reborn can embrace the light...hoot...I underestimated you, Ganondorf Namib..." With that Medoh approached Ganondorf and inscribed on his hand the same golden marking she had already inscribed on Link.
"Ye have passed your trial...never again shall I underestimate ye, Avenger...you cannot imagine what you can now do for Hyrule..."
"Am I chopped liver, Medoh?!" Medoh looked very embarrassed and hurried to apply the same marking to my hand.
"I am sorry, Princess...you are now ready to wield the Golden Power...Master, it's time." The old hero, having now caught his breath, approached Link and I slowly.
"Hero...Princess...you (HACK!) have defied all expectations. I really thought you would simply perpetuate The Ritual...I really thought that you (WHEEZE!) could do no better than Cecilia and I did. But...you've awakened the Avenger. You've redeemed the next incarnation of the Demon King...he's (COUGH!) a monster no more. Together...the three of you...(WHEEZE!)...might be able to end Ganon completely...if the three of you can defeat Ganon and allow this benevolent Ganondorf to devour the Great King of Evil...(COUGH!)...never again will a malevolent Ganondorf arise to haunt Hyrule. The Avenger...will change the course of Ganon...Hyrule's birth curse...WILL FINALLY BE BROKEN! HACK HACK HACK!" The three of us - and Medoh - were absolutely dumbfounded by the old hero's appraisal.
"Now...(HACK!)...take my Triforces, Link, Barclaya...you will absolutely need their power to face the trials ahead. My life may be ending now...but it ends knowing that my failures will finally be expunged from Hyrule!" With that, the Hero of Slumber removed the Triforces of Courage and Wisdom from his right hand and gave them to Link and I...it felt like my power and wisdom soared.
"CECILIA! I'VE FOUND REDEMPTION AT LAST!" With that the old hero collapsed to his knees...fell to the ground...and expired, a black mist (his regrets?) departing his body the moment he died and entering Ganondorf. Medoh and the bokoblins burst into tears...so did Link, the sight of another hero dying in front of him being a bloody painful reminder of his own mortality. The three of us took the old hero's body and buried him next to Cecilia's grave. Moments after the last clod of dirt had been placed atop the grave...numerous silent princesses sprouted. The lovers were apart no more...
The three of us, the bokoblins, and Medoh retreated back to the bokoblin's village to eat an early dinner - roasted fish with some hyrule herbs - and then retreated to our tents for an early bed time. Before I could go to bed, though...there was something I urgently needed to do. I walked up to Ganondorf's guest tent and called for him to come out. He looked EXTREMELY stressed...
"Barclaya...I...I'm sorry for being such a mongrel...and...and not telling ya who I really was!"
"...I'm sorry for losing the plot over that..."
"But...but I should be apologizing to ya...not the other way around!"
"Let's leg it from all that. You're something special, Ganondorf...once in history special. I...I should have given it more thought before going off on you. Can we...can we be lovers again?" He looked absolutely dumbfounded...the look was worth a million rupees!
"...alright. Let's...let's try this again..." he said after he eventually calmed down. I took his hand, and gently smiled at him...
"Dorf...thank you. With the weight of the world on our shoulders...your forgiveness means everything to me." He laboriously smiled right back...
"That...means just as much to me. Ever since taking in all those regrets all that inner darkness I struggle with feels immeasurably stronger...feral...ANGRY...my mind flows with the nightmares of Hyrule's dead, the horrible images of how those countless innocents met their demise at Ganon's hands. It's a terrible, restless dark power just waiting to be unleashed...and I'm struggling to hold it back."
"Just hold it in a few more days, Dorf...then you will be able to unleash every last gram of those regrets on Ganon. Never again will a single person in Hyrule suffer at the hands of that beast!"
"I...when I revolted against the Plague Witches...I never thought that one day...I could change Hyrule's history forever..."
"Neither of us has to fulfill our destiny now...we can do so much better now...end that swine Ganon for good and avenge all those innocent people who have suffered under him..."
"How do ya think Link feels about all of this? If...if we destroy Ganon, do ya think Hyrule will need heroes like him anymore?"
"Oh, I'm sure the Hero will be able to help Hyrule in other ways...I'll have to talk to him about it tomorrow; he's real knackered from the trial today. I'm not feeling much better...so, I'm going to tuck in for the night. Love you, Dorf..." I embraced him for a few seconds before retreating to my tent to sleep...as I tried to sleep, I could sense how severely Ganondorf was struggling to keep his godlike powers contained. It...it almost felt like my dreams, my dreams of me futilely trying to keep Ganon sleeping...
Oh I wish there was some way I could help him...I cannot begin to imagine the anguish all that darkness and regret is imposing on his mind...