Chapter 3: Old Nuances

   “The Ocarina of Time?” Link was stunned. He had heard of this mystical item before in old village folk lore, but had always assumed, that like the tale of the scary monster that hid in children’s closets, it was a fairy tale.

   “Yes,” the Hero of Time responded, “it has very mysterious powers on the flow of time. In fact, when I first entered this temple and used the Ocarina to open this door, I did not, at the time, know that it created the portal that allowed you to enter my time period. The portal that you used to gain entrance into the Temple of Time when Midna and you searched for a shard of the Mirror of Twilight.”

   Link was shocked. The Ocarina did in fact have magical properties that no one, even the royal family of Hyrule knew about. It always accomplished the task set in the player’s heart, but sometimes created oddities in the time space flow without the user knowing.

   “If we can gain the Ocarina, I may be able to get you into the Twilight Realm that you so seek. The bad part is, I have no earthly idea as to where it is.”

   Link began to shiver from excitement! He was going to find a way to search for his long lost love! His mind already began racing with thoughts of seeing her again, now aged a few years. He also thought of her reaction to his much more mature body after these few short years. While Link had kept to himself over the years, he hadn’t lacked in physical activity. Link practiced outside, deep in the forest, at night.

   Link had kept up with his sword training, becoming ever more proficient for, he told himself, the day when he would finally embark on this quest. He knew it would happen and he knew he had to train for it; and now it was finally happening. Link was all but ready to storm the gates of Hell itself to achieve this goal and he wanted to do it now.

   “How do I find it?” Link asked without hesitation, anxious to get underway.

   “Well, the first place I would think is Hyrule Castle. After all, it was a possession of the Royal Family. Queen Zelda may know its location.” The Hero of Time lowered his head as he said this, a sign of his deep respect and fealty to the Royal Family of Hyrule.

   In the years since the Twilight had nearly overtaken Hyrule, the widower King of Hyrule had become sick and died, leaving Zelda as heir and Queen. The people of Hyrule rejoiced over their new Queen, who had brought peace upon the country.

   “Ok, then I’ll head there!” Link turned and began walking in the direction he had come.

   “Easy there, Link. I’ve got to at least show you the way out. Before you leave, take it.” The Hero of Time motioned his head in the direction of the cathedral room housing the Master Sword. Link turned his head and, noticing the sword, slowly walked over to it. It had been years since he had held it. The pedestal holding it had grown even more ancient with age in the few short years since his last presence here. The sword, however, was as pristine as the day it was made.

   Link put his hands around the sword and tugged. There was a bright flash of light and Link was dazed slightly. As his senses came to, he looked down and realized that he was once again wearing the tunic of the Hero. The Hero of Time now sported Link’s typical Ordonian farm hand garb.

   “Follow me Link, we have need to visit the spirit of light in Faron woods before we begin this quest.”

   “What’s there?” Asked Link, eager to just leave the spot he was standing in.

   “My body.”

 

*        *        *

 

   The child was a toddler now. Having taken his first steps and voicing his first words, Jashir had steadily grown. Midna looked lovingly at her step son from the throne. He was playing with the toy soldiers that she had given him on his last birthday. She had named him Jashir after an ancient Twili legend. Jashir was a hero said to have saved the world when an unknown evil had come. She felt that naming him Link would have torn her apart, so she decided on something a little more distant, yet something that would remind her of Link constantly.

   Over the years, she had become a successful Queen. Many smaller countries had turned over leadership to her, becoming the first feudal states in Twili history. She had been such a good Queen that war between Twili and her neighboring countries (which was an oft occurrence) hadn’t happened once. Midna had, however, angered more than one country’s King when denying their request of marriage.

   Midna still thought of Link most of her day. When she would find herself with an idle moment, she would reminisce of the times she was only four feet tall, wearing an overly large helmet making fun of a funny looking wolf. Her memories would turn to when Link dashed across the entire country of Hyrule, using all of his energy, climbing a castle, just to save her life. Or the look in Link’s eyes and the sound of his scream as he realized that he’d never see her again.

   Thoughts of suicide had entered her mind more than once. She had even picked out a successor should she ever be in that deep of depression. However, she had Jashir to counter the depression. He had grown strong in his few short years of life. He had been on his first hunting with the castle huntsman just that past month. The huntsman, named Tobold, had even crafted a small wooden bow for Jashir.

   Midna felt particularly depressed this morning. She had awakened from a dark dream in which the memory of Link being skewered by Ganondorf had turned out vastly different. Ganondorf had succeeded in beheading the only man she would ever love. Upon awaking, she could only imagine would horrible atrocities had befalling Link since their parting.

   Her refuge from these “what if’s” was Jashir. Midna knew, just by looking at Jashir and his likeness to Link, that as long as Jashir existed, Link would as well. She felt somehow close to Link when around Jashir. Today, as he was playing below her throne, she felt a pang of sadness in her chest. Jashir would be the closest she would ever get to Link.

   Midna looked down at Jashir. Something made her feel squeamish. It was those eyes. Those blood red moons. She had never seen anything like them, even in Twili country. Her eyes had aspects that were red, but those aggressive colors were softened by the yellow surrounding it. Jashir had no yellow. His entire eye was red. She couldn’t even tell where he was looking. It was the only unsettling thing about him, yet his eyes sometimes made her feel uneasy. Most days it wasn’t like that, but when she’d have a particularly powerful dream about Link, Jashir’s eyes would, inevitably, seem cold.

   His eyes today surveyed his mother. (To his knowledge she was the only mother he’d ever had. Midna had elected to wait until he was more mature to fill him in on the truth.)

   “Mudda, is sum ting wong?” He asked in his broken toddler speech.

   Midna merely smiled and glanced lovingly toward him. That feeling was back. It was a feeling she had felt back in Hyrule before Hyrule Castle had been taken over by Ganondorf. She had also felt it slightly before Zant took over the Twili Realm. She seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to bad things happening. It was these feelings that depressed her so. She knew something was happening to Link, even if her sixth sense could not reach across worlds.

   “Nothing, dear. It’s almost time for your music lessons.”

   “But Mudda, I don wana go. I wana stay and pway wif you.”

   Despite the good nature in his voice, Jashir’s eyes stared unblinking at his mother and she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, where he was looking. She also knew that his eyes held a definite malice… directed at her.

 

*        *        *

 

   Link and the Hero of Time had traveled through the forest already. Link was too confused at the Hero’s response to his question. What body? He’s been dead for hundreds of years. Even in this form, he’s a skeleton. Link had been surprised when they had exited the ruins of the Temple of Time. The Hero’s ghostly body had reverted to it’s skeletal shape. The Hero explained that he could only maintain that image were there were strong memories of his presence in the past. For their trek through the woods, he would enter his wolf form.

   Faron Woods had become a much safer place since Link had dispatched Ganondorf and his minions. There was still the occasional thief or nomad, but nothing threatened the two Hero’s as the made their way through the foliage.

   As they approached the glistening pond in Faron Woods, the Hero, now in wolf form, transformed into his skeletal being. He was much taller than Link in this form and much more menacing. But when his face broke into a skeletal grin, Link could see the kind nature behind it.

   The odd looking pair marched slowly down the embankment toward the cool refreshing water. As they entered, Link happened to look down and see the reflection of the Hero in the pond. Standing next to him was a skeleton, but grinning up at him from the Hero’s reflection was that taller imitation of himself that looked so uncannily like him he could almost be called his twin. Link chuckled quietly to himself and the duo made their way deeper into the pond water.

   As they neared the center of the pond, a familiar shape arose from the water. The Guardian of Light in the Faron Woods, the large odd shaped monkey, had appeared neatly before them.

   In it’s typical slow speech, it greeted the two.

   “Greeting’s heroes. It is truly odd to find two such beings as yourselves in my presence at once. It has been a long time, Hero of Time. When you last saw me, I was but a sapling. As you can see, I’ve changed greatly these past few centuries.”

   The Hero laughed loudly and friendly. “Aye, but I look far worse in that time than you. I’m but a shadow of my former self and that’s what I hope to repair. At least for a time.”

   The spirit seemed to ponder this. “There is enough of a spiritual memory in this place for me to grant you a temporary return to your body. But that’s all that it would be. After all, it’s been a long time since I grew in front of the Great Deku Tree.”

   Link, who had been standing quietly, suddenly gasped with exasperation. Yet another legendary tale he had once thought myth had suddenly come alive. Upon questioning this, the spirit explained the history of its pond.

   The location of its pond had once been held within a grove of a particular forest called Kokiri Woods. The woods had actually been located fairly close to castle Hyrule. The Death Mountain of that time had grown cold and frigid since it’s time, becoming Snowpeak mountain. The original Zora’s domain, which had frozen over, had serviced this change as it was located quite close to Death Mountain. Since then, the melting caps of Snowpeak and the thawing Zora’s domain created what was now Lake Hylia.

   After the Great Deku Tree died, Kokiri Woods, no longer under the dominion of the evil spirits which had haunted the Tree, once again sprang to life and began to grow outward. As it seemed to the spirit of Faron Woods, the entirety of Hyrule had simply made a shift north and out. The Gorons had found a new mountain to call home. The people of Hyrule had found a new stronghold to live under. And the people had forgotten most of the tales of old.

   The spirit had eventually changed its form to accommodate the change in the woods, the coming of the monkeys. As the son of the Deku Tree, it held all the same wisdom, knowledge, and power the Great Deku Tree had possessed. This grove was one in which the Hero of Time had first set out on his journey. The memories of his entire quest rested on these grounds.

   “I can’t promise you much time in that body, Hero. By the way, what is it you go by now?”

   The Hero of Time remembered his name in life. He had been called it by his wife, the Princess Zelda of old. His name was Link. He had married her and lived with the then Queen of Hyrule, Zelda. The two ran a wonderful kingdom for many years, before she had grown old and sickly. He had been called Link. However, the Hero of Time knew that he could not go by this, as his descendant had happened to be named the same. He thought it better left unsaid.

   “Darunia.” It was the name of his Goron brother, whom he had grown quite fond of in life. Darunia was the patriarch of the Gorons at the time Link was King of Hyrule. The two had shared much time together, as Darunia was the also the ambassador of the Gorons to Hyrule Castle.

   “Hmm. Ok, Darunia. Your secret is safe with me.” Link knew, of course, that the spirit knew his true name and had agreed with him the wisdom of not sharing it. “I will restore you.”

   Link stared at the Hero. What he saw amazed him.

   The Hero’s skeletal shape instantly began shrinking slowly to the roughly the same build and height of Link. The tufts of dead and loose skin fell easily from the dusty bones. The armor, sword, and shield being worn by the Hero seemed to be blown to bits by a high wind. What was standing in front of Link was a plain, white, skeleton. Then, the truly amazing occurred.

   Reddish pieces of meats began to seemingly grow from the opaque bone. As the reddish bits began colliding and connecting with the other reddish bits, muscles were formed. Clearer pieces of material, yet thicker and more rubbery, were forming over the muscles; fat. While the muscles and fat were still finding their proper places over the bones, what looked like thing lines of rope where circulating all over his body, beginning from his spine; veins. Organs grew from out of thin air in their places and Link could see the heart begin pumping.

   Tan pieces of material now began forming over the reddish muscle and colliding with itself. Skin was forming, and hair on the scalp. It was blond, just like his own. The facial features began to become more defined, and Link began to recognize that this was the face that had stared up at him from the water of the pond, and across the Master Sword at the Temple of Time.

   Cloth began forming. Ordon Village farm hand attire. When the transformation was complete, Link was standing looking at the Hero, Darunia, a mirror copy of himself. The two exchanged looks, as Darunia was looking at his hands and moving his ligaments, testing for pain.

   “I’ll change you slightly, for the people to tell you two apart,” said the spirit, chuckling. Instantly Darunia’s blond mop of hair had changed to a deep brown, nearing black.

   It was a little bit before either Link or Darunia could say anything. After a few moments, the spirit spoke up.

   “Now. You can only remain in this form for a short amount of time. I’d say you have around a month. My power is not nearly as infinite as the goddesses that created Hyrule. After all, they created me too; and hardly for the reason of reviving a long dead hero.”

   Darunia chuckled and glanced at Link.

   “See, now I can physically help you on the journey too!” Darunia looked from Link to the spirit. “One more question for you, if you please. Where can I find the Ocarina of Time?”

 

*        *        *

 

   At the moment that the Hero of Time was reborn, Midna felt a deep pang in her chest and an even deeper fear of the child she was now holding hands with, walking to music lessons.