You decide that you'd like to celebrate your birthday at the beach this year. Vampires won't be an issue, the saltwater will ward off most spirits and certain types of magic, and it'll just be fun. Your decision is well-received by your peers, and your parents seem to like it as well - there's no charge to go to the beach, they won't have thirty or more kids running around the house, and if they make it a potluck barbeque event, they won't need to pay for all the food. Little things, but they add up.

A few days before the party, you reach a decision, and sit down in your room with Briar.

"I owe you an explanation, and an apology," you begin.

"Okay," she replies slowly. "What about?"

"I didn't tell you the entire truth the day we met. I am the reincarnation of someone from Hyrule, but I wasn't some random villager or solider."

"I kind of guessed that part already, kiddo," Briar says. "No goatherder or royal guardsman would have known anywhere near as much about magic as you've picked up from your dreams. My guess was that you were a Sage, or a sorcerer - judging by your gloom-and-doom routine, I'm guessing it's the latter?"

"Sort of," you admit. "I... he... did know a lot about magic. But he... I... wasn't a nice person in that life, Briar. I wasn't even a good person. I was flat-out evil."

"So?"

"...what do you mean, 'so?'"

"I mean, what does it matter who and what you were? The past is over, done, and gone; it's who you are and what you've done in this life that are important now. And yeah, maybe you don't act like some knight in shining armor, but you're not a monster, either - you're seven years old, for Goddesses' sake! You've still got years, decades of living and learning before you figure out who you're going to be for the rest of your life. If you screw up a time or two along the way, that's just life, not because you're forever destined and doomed to be one of the bad guys."

You need a moment to find your voice. When you do speak, it's rather quiet. "Thanks, Briar."

"Meh, no problem." Then she grins. "So who were you? Somebody I heard of? I bet it must have been, or you wouldn't have been so worried about how I'd react, right?"

"You could say that," you admit. "I was Ganondorf."

There is a long silence. Then Briar giggles feebly and digs at her ear.

"Sorry, I must have had something INSANE in my ear just now. Could you repeat that? Because it sounded like you just said that you were Ganondorf. As in, the King of Evil. As in, holy shit what the fuck Alex?!"

"What happened to who I was not mattering in this life?" you point out weakly.

"It's different when your past life happens to be a DEMON LORD! Oh, Goddesses, now it makes PERFECT sense why you ended up on the Hellmouth. This place is like some kind of dumping ground for potential triggers of the apocalypse. Ew, and I ate your aura! Ick! Yuck!"

"Really feeling the love, here, Briar," you grumble.

"Shut up! Oh, I think I'm going to be sick..."

She flutters off and disappears for the rest of the day. You're disappointed by Briar's reaction, but not really surprised - that comes the following morning, when you wake up to find the fairy hovering over your face.

"So, I've been thinking," she says without preamble.

Oh, not again. Din, it's too early for this.

"I freaked out yesterday," she continues. "I'm not apologizing for that. Ganondorf is... well, you know what he is - what he was. The ultimate boogeyman for anybody who had anything to do with Hyrule. I think that freaking out when I find out that the kid I've been living with and looking after for the last few years is his reincarnation is a perfectly understandable response."

"Okay..."

"My second response was to get the heck out of town and find a portal back to Faerie, before you grew up and went all power-hungry and conquest-happy. Also a very sensible reaction." She pauses. "Except that it occurred to me that if I just left you here like that, after... um... well, after everything... you'd be hurt, and angry, and a lot more likely to try to turn into Old Pig-Face, or as close to it as you could manage without the Triforce." Briar stops again, and gives you a very nervous look. "You don't have the Triforce, do you, Alex?"

"As far as I can tell, no, I don't," you admit. "In one of the earliest dreams I can remember, Ganondorf lost it the last time he died. I don't know how or why. It's kind of hard to get at the details, considering all the times he died or was sealed before that. I'd have to dig deeper to get at the truth, and I've been nervous about doing that since I realized that the more I draw on the dreams, the more I start to look like him."

"That would be bad, wouldn't it?" Briar agrees with a faltering chuckle. She sighs, buries her head in her hands for a moment, and then looks up. "Which is another reason I thought I should come back. I've been doing a fairy's job, being your guide to the world, like we used to do for the Kokiri way back when. If I left, you'd have to start relying on your dreams more, and that'd be another fast route to Doomsville."

You wait for a moment. "Were those your only reasons for staying, Briar?"

She scowls. "You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

"Say what?"

"That you're my friend, dummy! And friends don't walk out on friends."

"Even when their friends used to be Demon Lords?"

"E-even then. 'specially then." She gives you a hopeful smile. "Forgive me?"