Terra's sweat soaked into her headgear as she held a difficult position in a tall tree. She was Hylian, which meant her natural, even untrained, strength surpassed even the strongest of humans. Actually, she wasn't sure about the legendary WWII hero Captain America, a figure she'd idolized for most of her life. She brought her concentration back to the moment, if she fell she could still break her neck and there was something worse waiting for her if she survived.

Down below her a dark scout patrolled the forest she was traveling through. It appeared as a black-hooded and cloaked figure, but under the hood lay a blank face with a terrifying enchantment. These scouts were everywhere, it seemed, and Terra had been tracked by them since… since she learned the truth about herself. Another image flashed through her mind, her human father and mother clinging to each other as as dark figure advanced, not on them, but her. She banished the memory quickly.

I'm alive, she told herself, I'm alive and so are they… I hope.

But Ganondorf wasn't the type to leave someone alone just because they no longer had a connection to his target. Best case he'd just set sentries to watch in case she tried to go home but it was unlikely. Even in that best case scenario, Terra didn't have a home anymore, and she doubted she could until Ganondorf was dead.

The scout moved on and Terra eased herself into a more comfortable, if now visible, position in the tree. Her Hylian physique gave her the strength of ten human men, but it had still taken training to make herself as flexible as in one life when she'd been on the run from Ganondorf for seven years as Shiek. She didn't have any deku nuts, or modern flashbangs, to use either, but her memories of that life had so far proved by far the most useful.

She slid her map out from its place and tried to learn something new from it. It showed the area directly around her to a surprisingly detailed degree, allowing her to easily use landmarks to determine her direction. And off on one edge was a picture of a sword with a familiar wing-patterned wing guard stuck into the ground. It did not tell her the distance to the sword.

She had, however, been keeping track of her general direction and Terra thought she might've worked out a general understanding of where she was being led. The Master Sword would be stuck in a pedestal, and she'd originally assumed that pedestal would be found inside the Temple of Time, but that wasn't the only place it had been known to sleep. The great forest of Hyrule, though it had gone by many names throughout the years, had also been a recurring resting place for the Sword of Evil's Bane.

There was also a major legend involving a sword that couldn't be drawn except by one hand. The Arthurian Legends spoke of two swords only he could properly wield. Caliburn, the famous sword in the stone he drew to prove his right to the throne of Camelot, and Excalibur, the sword granted to him by the Lady of the Lake. How those legends came to be was a source of mystery to even the most well versed historians, but Terra now wondered if they somehow sprang from a real sword so well hidden it was almost impossible to find.

Some random human finds a sword in a dark wood stuck in stone, couldn't pull it out, and tells his friends. The story passes down, mixes with with some other stories about a perfect King that might have even been partially real… it was a plausible theory. Another option, far less likely but entertaining to think about, was that Link had been 'King Arthur'. He and his knights had fought enough monsters to warrant a possibility that one or all had been the work of Ganondorf.

Still, Terra was long way off from even Europe yet, let alone the British Isles. She had time to be proven wrong, but it kept her mind busy. She peered around cautiously, looking for signs the dark scout had decided to hide for some reason. Then, finding nothing, carefully came down from the tree. Her life on the run wasn't over just because she had a goal now. She'd be hunted until Ganondorf was dead, and so would Link. Unfortunately, Zelda was far less capable of defending herself in a normal fight, and her magic was geared towards support and gimmicks, not combat (though she had worked out a useful trick of rewinding a particular object's time which could save her in a pinch).

Terra carefully continued her journey, putting away her map and keeping her eyes and ears sharp for any further warnings of pursuit. Something odd kept floating back to her mind, though. She'd passed through a small city and learned of man called Tony Stark who'd invented a weapon so powerful he'd single-handedly ended all ongoing wars and shut down every known terrorist organization.

The Iron Man seemed dangerous to her. It was too similar to the Guardian tech Calamity Ganon had so easily stolen and gained control of so long ago. And even if he couldn't take over pure technology as easily, who was there to make certain this 'Stark' aimed his Iron Man at the right place and time? She had an awful feeling Link might have to fight it one day, and her awful feelings had a way of coming true, she'd learned.

She walked on for hours, her mind swirling around with different thoughts and predictions, until she reached the edge of the forest she'd been in for the last two days. Ahead was a great deal of nothing. A field of tall grass, but not so tall as to cover her as she walked, she'd have no protection from prying eyes. It worried her, but there wasn't any getting out of it. She walked forwards.

4

It was a month after the encounter in the woods that Terra felt it. She was still far from the Master Sword's resting place, but was still in the heart of Europe. She still had a long way to go before she found it, even assuming it wasn't in the Americas somewhere.

It was not the Master Sword she felt that night, huddled under her cloak under the closest thing to shelter she'd been able to find. It was a huge spike in power, far far away someone was doing something very very big with an almost impossible amount of magic. So powerful it woke her from restless sleep and made her turn her head west. She stared uselessly in that direction, expecting a great beacon to be visible, some sign that Ganondorf has already won, perhaps, but there was nothing. Then it ended, just as abruptly as it had begun.

Terra sat back and contemplated the event. That power hadn't felt evil, really, her expectation of some sign of Ganon had been raw fear. Unfortunately it hadn't felt inherently good either, it felt neutral. Had humanity finally unlocked some long hidden magic? She supposed it was possible, they experimented with the laws of nature, seemingly without end, and explored ancient ruins and tested old artifacts religiously.

It was just so huge… it wouldn't take much more time for something that strong to crack the planet like an egg. She shouldn't worry, it was too far away for her to be able to do anything about it. If something was happening, even if it could or would affect her she had no power to influence it in the slightest. Maybe Link could. Maybe he was there, maybe it was even him. That possibility comforted her, and she lay to sleep the rest of the night away.

4

The next night, as Terra still sought a place to hide away in to sleep, she felt it again. It was shorter, almost instantaneously short, but it was the exact same energy and output. Someone experimenting with control? The amount of power involved was still ludicrous, what would anyone be trying to accomplish with that? Was someone wiping out entire cities?

That thought sent a shock through her. Had someone made a weapon with that much strength? Was it that Stark guy? Or someone trying to kill him? And just because the Magic didn't feel evil didn't necessarily mean it wasn't Ganondorf either…

Her thoughts spinning, but trying hard to refocus on the fact that she couldn't worry about it because she couldn't effect it, she continued searching for a place to sleep. Just over an hour later, there was another burst, just as brief as the last one. What in the world was someone doing? Trying to punch a hole in space? Shaken, she tried to sleep, but sleep did not come.

4

The next day, as she continued her journey towards the Master Sword, it happened yet again. A tiny bit longer than the two bursts from last night but not nearly as long as the first time. Her mind muddled from lack of sleep, Zelda almost panicked again. With difficulty, she managed to regain composure, but the worries and thoughts of what cataclysm or even apocalypse was happening continued to spin in her sleep deprived mind. She tried to push them down, but it was useless.

There was a second burst only an hour or so later, again in the same place as all the others, or so close as to be indistinguishable. This one was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Zelda dropped into a ball where she was and screamed. She yelled out her fear and frustration in a wordless howl of mental distress until her lungs ran out of air and she was forced to gasp for oxygen as she began to weep. Weep and pray to the gods.

There was a third blast a little over an hour later, but oddly her breakdown before had helped and after this one she stood up, pulled out her map to double check her direction, and walked on. She wasn't sure what had changed. Maybe letting all that fear out, maybe the prayer. Probably both. But either way, she moved on, strengthened and determined to properly handle any further bursts of unknown impossibly dangerous magic.

They never came. She spent the next week expecting to be woken up by a magical cascade tearing the Earth apart. She asked in every place she visited in the following month if there was news from around those days when she'd felt it, and nobody could tell her of anything odd. The Iron Man had apparently battled a huge army of drone-like machines the government had made to copy his suit, but he'd won, apparently without difficulty. But that story came from a distinctly different time range, not to mention completely lacking in anything magic.

Eventually, it stopped haunting her nightmares.

4

Finally, two months after those blasts of magic had first erupted in a place still far to the west of her, Terra stood on the edge of the English Channel. It seemed like the Master Sword really was in the British Isles, maybe her earlier guess had been right? She didn't like the idea of swimming, but in these parts it was a lot harder to make some small change by selling her healing powers without attracting attention she really really couldn't have. The last few days had been particularly hard on her, and her stomach still grumbled despite the bread a complete stranger had tossed her.

She easily possessed the strength to make this swim, though, and she had to do it one way or another. The cold would be bad on the other side though. She'd been forced to steal a waterproof container for her precious map. The action sat in her stomach like a lump of lead, but what was she to do? She didn't have money or any way to make some in a short amount of time.

But it was wrong. Even if she was doing the right thing in searching for the Master Sword, a weapon that would certainly be needed to defeat Ganondorf and save the world, she was compromising it by stealing to achieve that end. She'd have to make it up. It was the only option. She'd take what she needed now and pay for it later, somehow.

She took a deep breath, and began wading into the water. It was a twenty-one mile swim, and if she remembered correctly, the record time a human had managed the swim was under twelve hours. Terra wouldn't struggle in this endeavor, but she dimly wondered if she'd be breaking that record today. As the bottom of the sea dropped below where she could maintain walking, she began to pump her arms like her old swimming coach had taught her as a child.

A few hours later, a boat came into view, travelling in the opposite direction as her. It wasn't a large vessel, but there were quite a few people abord, and someone apparently spotted her and lifelines were cast to her as people shouted for her to grab on. She ignored the offer and swam on, she barely even felt a strain yet. As the sun began to dip below the horizon, Terra finally reached her goal.

Land rose up to meet her body and she found she had a hard time standing back up. She'd been thinking about the strain on her muscles when she'd assumed this would be an easy leg of her journey. She hadn't considered the cold. She was freezing. She'd started swimming faster when she'd realized it could actually kill her, trying to help her body generate more heat to sustain herself. It had worked, but somehow, coming out of the water felt even worse.

She couldn't think, and things were starting to get very dark. Was that just the sun setting or? The ground rushed back up to meet her and her mind went blank.

4

When she woke, fog floated around her thick enough to obscure her surroundings entirely. Something felt wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what. It was like the ground she lay on was wrong, but how could that be? The ground was the ground. It was there so it couldn't be wrong… could it?

She sat up, for some reason she felt she should be tired but… well she'd just woken up. Why should she be tired? She looked around, trying to see anything in the white fog. The exercise yielded nothing, so she stood up and slowly started to walk forwards, she didn't want to walk right into anything, after all. Her face felt hot, and when she reached up she realized she was wearing coverings. What were those for?

She unwrapped them and stuffed them into the pack she was carrying. She liked that, carrying a pack, it felt like she was prepared. Prepared for what? Who knew. She took a few more tentative steps and finally some kind of tall black thing started to take shape. She walked towards it excitedly and then suddenly the ground sloped down underneath her. She toppled head over heals, bouncing and crashing till she reached the bottom of the hill.

She stood up, ruffled but not hurt, and brushed herself off. Her trousers were torn. Oh well, it was hot anyway. Maybe that was what was wrong with the ground, it liked to move up and down when you couldn't see anything. Well, she'd just have to watch the ground too.

The black thing was a lot closer, and now she could see it was a tree. There were more trees around too. Was this a forest? She walked among the trees to find out. She walked for a while, stumbling on rocks and roots and indentions in the ground she couldn't see, and eventually decided that, yes, it was a forest. Once she knew that she felt she'd like to leave.

But which way had she come from? She'd turned and changed direction many times to check the trees, so she wasn't sure which way was out anymore. Too bad she didn't have a map. She thought she heard a faint laugh somewhere, but it didn't come again, so she decided she must've made it up.

Eventually, she reasoned that the forest must have an end in every direction eventually, so she just walked forwards. It seemed as good a direction as any. More roots tripped her up, and the trees got thicker. Did that mean she was going the wrong way? Didn't really matter. She wasn't sure where she was going anyway.

She kept walking, and started to wonder… was she a she? She'd been using 'she' the whole time, but what did 'she' mean? Well she had to call herself something. 'She' would do for now. She heard laughing again, and wondered who it was. She couldn't tell where it was coming from so she decided it didn't matter. Eventually, She started to wonder if She was the only one. She supposed if She was then other shes should be as well. But She had never seen others. It was just She and the Laugher. The Laugher didn't seem to have a body so it couldn't be a she, that was why it was a Laugher. Where there more laughers? Who knew? Not She.

There was something new in the white fog. A place a little bit away from She where the white fog was brighter. She decided to call it a Brighter. The Brighter moved a little bit but was staying in mostly the same place.

The Laughter laughed again. It did that. She decided to try moving to the Brighter.

The trees were getting bigger this way, but the Brighter kept moving around in place just over there so She kept moving towards it. The trees started brushing against She, trying to grab She, but why would they try and stop She from getting to the Brighter? She shoved through but some of the trees managed to keep small pieces of She. She left the pieces of She with the trees, for some reason She felt that She didn't need those pieces of She.

Finally, She made it to the Brighter and looked at it curiously. The Brighter moved a lot when She was this close to it, flicking this way and that while still being right where it was. She tried to touch it but She passed right through the Brighter, the only odd thing was that She felt the part of She that touched it grow hot. Well, it wasn't a Laugher, and it wasn't a she. Were there more Brighters?

She looked around saw another Brighter. It was a bit away from this Brighter. Maybe they didn't like each other? That seemed silly to She. She decided to try and move to the new Brighter. This one had become boring.

She walked towards the Brighter and a tree tripped She. When She got up She glared at the tree. That was a new thing for She to do. She tried again but it didn't feel right… why had she glared? She couldn't remember. She noticed a Brighter a little way away from She, and decided to go there. The Laugher laughed again. It did that.

As She followed the trail of Brighters, it seemed odd to She that none of the Brighters seemed to like each other. They flickered and danced (ooh that was a new idea, She liked it) but they always seemed to be just far enough away from each other so that they could be seen through the white fog. They seemed to like She though, because they all warmed She when She came close, which felt nice even if She didn't need it.

Finally, something truly new came up in front of She. The white fog ended. She couldn't see beyond the wall, but it seemed to She that the white fog didn't like to go any further than here. She wasn't sure if She should go any further if the white fog didn't want to. The white fog was... well it was . It was supposed to be everywhere. If there was a where where it wasn't, She wasn't sure She wanted to be in that where.

The Laugher laughed again. It did that. She decided to try leaving where the white fog was.

4

When Zelda stepped out of the fog, she looked back with confusion. The wall of fog hung there, swirling and undulating, blocking off all sight. Had... she come from there? She remembered blacking out after her swim and then... walking out of the fog. What had happened to her? Her mind refused to tell her. But... she'd walked here, that was obvious from the way her feet hurt

She looked down and gasped aloud. Had something attacked her on the way here? Her clothes were ripped and torn and could never be called decent if anyone saw this. Her feet were bare and scraped and bruised. She quickly pulled her pack off her shoulders, thank goodness she still had that, and changed so she'd be covered again. She also found she had stowed her face wrappings in the pack, why in the world had she taken those off?

However, as she started to wrap them over herself again, a great voice interrupted her: "You need not cover your face, lost one. There is no one here who can mean you harm."

Zelda snapped her head up, looking for the speaker, but didn't see anyone.

A deep voice emanated from a particularly massive tree a short distance away from her, "Worry not, child of Hyrule. Indeed, far from meaning you harm, I am so very glad to meet a Hylian again. After all this time, I'd begun to wonder if there were any left."

"Who… who are you?" Zelda asked, somewhere between curious about a tree talking to her and afraid despite its claims.

"Ah… have I fallen out of your songs and memories then? I suppose it is only natural, but it saddens my heart. I am the Great Deku Tree, ancient beyond all others, now. Once, I was a friend and even helper to your people. But this wall of fog has… ended that relationship at last."

"I'm sorry… I don't know that name. And, more than that, I'm afraid I have bad news for you. Hyrule is no more. My people are gone, forever most likely. I only know of two, including myself, who live now."

"Only two…? This is a sad thing you say but, oddly, I seem to be remembering something… I do believe the last Hylians I talked to said something about this eventually happening. If only I could remember…"

The Great Deku Tree seemed to lose himself in searching for his lost memory, and Zelda found her self walking towards him. She saw now that his trunk was far larger than she'd realized, easily larger than many houses she'd stayed in, and it took up most of the circle enclosed by the wall of fog.

"Ah! I have it now! My apologies, but if it's true that only two Hylians remain in this world, may I assume you are named Zelda?" the Great Deku Tree suddenly asked her.

"I… yes it is, I assume one of my previous selves told you something?" she responded.

"Then times are graver outside than I imagined. Zelda, this world, this human world, now sits pinned between two sharp blades. You stand in the crux of history's most turbulent time. You face not only Darkness but also Infinity, and you must not allow either to succeed."

"I… I think I understand the part about darkness… but infinity? How is infinity threatening us? How is that even possible? And what could we do if it is infinite?"

"I do not have those answers for you, daughter of kings. This was simply what I was instructed to tell you by your past self. However, I do not offer tidings of woe without any words of comfort. Child, you must bring me the other, for I hold his sword in wait for him. With it, there will be hope, but you must bring him to me, and you must act on that hope. Remember that, young one, remember to act on hope."

Zelda understood, or at least she thought she did. The Master Sword was here. That much was certain to her now, which meant doing what the Great Deku Tree said was exactly what she'd planned to do. But… if Ganondorf wasn't the only great evil… what could she do?

Get Link to the Master Sword. Right now, that was her job. Find Link, bring him here. He would fight. That was how it worked. He fought, she picked up the pieces after. Things would be ok if she got him here. She could do that.

"Ah, I see you have made up your mind. Now then, unfortunately, this fog is not of my making. I cannot protect you from its effects. You will need to protect yourself from this spell. It was placed to keep me safe during this time of tribulation. If the King of Evil found me, I do not believe I could prevent him from keeping the sword from its true wielder."

Zelda frowned, "Am I going to forget everything once I pass through that wall?"

"Not everything. You will not remember the journey through the Lost Woods. And you will likely not remember much of what has transpired in this place. But, some things will remain. The fog is not touching you now, you see, it will try to remove all, but if you manage to leave the Lost Woods again, some will remain. You must hold on to that most crucial to your success."

Zelda turned and walked back to the fog, and her fear and anger worry rose again. For lack of anything else, she tried psyching herself up to pass that ominous barrier, "I… I see. I suppose that makes sense. There are some stories about a forest that removes memory. I guess that means some people made it back out and remembered at least a little."

"Child. You cannot hide the doubt and weariness in your voice. You fear failure. I do not believe time is so short that you cannot rest here. There are some excellent fruit-bearing trees here. Stay and sleep and eat for a while. We can talk. Tell me of your worries. I have lived long, and raised many living things. I will be able to help."

Zelda turned back to the Great Tree. She hesitated, Link needed his sword, but… she was tired. She yawned, her stomach growled. She had slept in far worse places than this beautiful green wood.