1 Searching For Link

Zelda played away on her ocarina. She was taught to play from it at a very young age. Playing it, helped relieve the stress she was feeling. What felt like days ago, she sent out a boy named Link to get the stones Ganon would be after. A simple princess, all she could do was wait for him. Until then, she eased her stress with her ocarina.

Hyrule had some of the strongest songs that could make certain things happen, but the royal songs seemed to hold the most weight. There were, however, many songs that were played simply for fun. Zelda often enjoyed playing a combination of them. Forwards and backwards, and different speeds with different tempos. Some were sweet and relaxing, some were quick and upbeat, and some were simply jarring. She was relaxing in the castle’s royal garden again, Impa not very far. She always tended to be near her.

First, she relaxed with a simple, common song of Hyrule and a few made up tempos between before playing some of the royal songs. Mixed with the other songs, it shouldn’t cause anything unforeseen to happen around them. But as she played, that quickly changed.

Everything happened so fast. Zelda was unprepared for it. Impa was unprepared for it. No one in the vicinity was prepared for what they experienced. However, Impa quickly grabbed her and moved out of the garden. Zelda held her harmless pink ocarina as Impa immediately tried to get a horse.

However, her father was right behind her. Zelda saw him, with his large white beard and questioning eyes popping out from beneath. How she wanted to answer him, but there was no time to comprehend anything. Especially as Ganondorf came running out right beside him. Supposedly trying to be an ally to Hyrule, his eyes were focused on her like she was a piece of meat he couldn’t wait to get his hands on.

Impa moved her to the horse and hit it, staying behind to deal with the difficulty. Knowing that if she left, things would only become more difficult. Still a young child, but having taken horse riding lessons for a couple of years now, she held on tightly to the horse.

None of the townspeople in the market seemed to know or care what was going on as Zelda rode out from the drawbridge. She held tight to her ocarina, still half in disbelief of what she had done.

She had created a new royal song, and it had shown not only her, but anyone near her, what would happen in the future. Since her father didn’t react as strongly as Ganon, and others didn’t understand either, it might have been selective on what it showed.

She saw a great deal, but Zelda had been taught by Impa how to control some of her power. Her father rarely had anything, But Ganondorf? Whatever he saw . . .

Impa knew to grab Zelda but stay because she knew Ganon would risk anything to catch Zelda. She would hold him off long enough for Zelda to run off and away from his vision. She kept holding onto the horse as she moved toward Impa’s small village, Kakariko.

As she came in, she got off the horse, and sent it away. As helpful as it had been, Ganon and his men would simply track it. Still not risking an utterance of a word, she patted it’s nuzzle gently and watched it leave. She ignored any comments from anyone in the town, trying to ask why the princess was there.

She simply ran, running toward the only safe place she knew would be hard to check. A place only the royal family could go into: The graveyard.

As she encountered the gravestone with the triforce on it, she brought out her little ocarina. The only noise she would dare to make. She began to play her lullabye, but noticed the hole was already open. Someone had already retrieved it. Please let it have been Link.

She moved toward the next secret grave she needed and it was opened. He is a clever fairy boy.  Zelda could still retrieve the royal song, it was written down, but she would face strong challenges. She had no money on her, and she did not want to take time for more to discover her yet. Instead, she would seek assistance from someone who would hopefully help.

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That. Power. That. Vision. It was new. Ganondorf had experienced many things, but nothing like that song. With it? He already knew how the current path would end for him, what happened to Princess Zelda, and what happened to the little boy he had already heard conquered his stone of courage from his grasp. The distance was not far, and something as frilly as a royal outfit on a horse couldn’t hide forever.

He knew why she didn’t run with Impa, and why that woman distracted him with the King of Hyrule for a small amount of time before disappearing. Everyone? Everyone was changing the path that they each had saw. As he had heard a tune, a random tune that he wished he could remember . . . everyone in that vicinity seemed to see it. Even the King of Hyrule was so confused with what he had seen, but his powers weren’t nearly as strong. It was doubtful everyone got the same vision.

But of what he saw, he wanted more. One girl. If I get that girl and I get what that tune had been. He could change his future. He could play that tune every time something changed, and stop those who tried to oppose him. He needed to get it before it was restricted by the Sheika, Impa. He could see the turns before anyone began them. His boots stomped along the ground of the small Kakariko village. This was where the woman had taken her last time. He had seen that. This is where she would have gone.

If only he could know more! As he came, no one opposed him. Everyone added what they could, even saying they thought they saw her run to the graveyard. Silly girl. The graveyard could do nothing. Already, he was thinking about the song, like it was his. It practically had been. Find one little girl. Song of Future? No. It sounded less important than the legendary royal Song of Time, and it was certainly not that. Song of Foretelling? Song of Fortune? No, no. It wasn’t fortunate to everyone. That song was changing everything. With every tune, it would show a future that could then be changed, which would not have been without it. A complicated, wonderful tune. Then, as the cuckoo owner trembled in front of him and pointed to the barrel, he knew what he would call his new song.

He stepped over the little fence, looked into a barrel, and pulled at the pink inside of it. “Give me the Song of Paradox!” However, all he had when he pulled it up, was an even smaller kid, barely wearing the oversized dress.

Ganondorf’s yell made the earth below Kakariko tremble.

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Zelda had believed her part had been fulfilled. She had met the boy with the fairy while spying on Ganon, the man she had dreamed of before too. She had warned him about her dreams, only slightly fearing ridicule. While the boy didn’t talk back much, he did make it known that he believed her. He was even willing to find the spiritual stones. She could sense the bravery in his heart as he had stood there.

While just a child like her, the boy with the green tunic felt strangely like he could do almost anything. Besides being able to sense Ganon’s wickedness, Zelda herself didn’t feel any different than any other child. She steeled herself, trying to remember that she was royalty, and she had to do this. Losing her royal pink dress and running with her full blue slip was only the beginning of the hard times she knew she had ahead.

She had to pull herself through and move before the things of the night came out after her. Last time, she had to run as fast as she could to evade them, but she didn’t have half as much of the same energy. Even with the shield that helped protect her from the falling rocks couldn’t stop her legs from doing more sporadic sprints to get up death mountain. Running in her dress’ slip didn’t make the journey any easier.

Reaching the entrance, Zelda met a goron near it. It didn’t seem to mind that she had been there. She moved past it, not wanting to startle it more than she needed to. Gorons were actually a gentle race. Except they were big, and if they weren’t careful, they could hurt her if they tried to grab her. They were after all as strong as rocks themselves.

Peering in, she looked around. There was certainly a sense of panic in the place. Finding courage in herself, she carefully approached, trying to find out what was happening and where the boy Link had gone. It was possible that he could be after the next stone, but hopefully he was there, and not far away.

After getting enough detail, Zelda found the Goron leader and found out Link had gone into the dodongo caverns. Oooh . . .

“Dodongo caverns.” She pursed her lips, trying not to suck on her hand. He was there in the caverns. Climbing death mountain had been hard enough, but now she had to go down into . . . a dungeon? “W-where’s the entrance?”

“Hang on there,” the leader said, clearly not wanting to answer. “You’re a girl? No, the princess? You sent the boy as a messenger for . . .” he scratched his head. “Actually, I don’t know. I know he must have been a messenger to make it up the mountain, but the dodongos were my first concern. Still? It’s too dangerous for the likes of you.”

Too dangerous for him. Too dangerous for her. Yet, he had entrusted Link to go in and get it done. Just a boy, not even a teen. “I know.” She had done the same thing. His young age, it didn’t hide the look of courage in his eyes. He looked like he could take on anything, no matter his age. “I have to get to Link. I have left the castle, gone through this treacherous mountain path, and I have to keep going. Please keep my arrival a secret?”

He didn’t seem convinced, but he admitted where the path had been. Zelda took off into the cavern and . . . was less than pleased. She was in a huge cavern with lava, and rocks moving up and down. “I need to jump on that rock, and then jump onto that flat area.” If she missed though, she would hit the lava below. She wanted to shout for Link, hoping he might be in the nearby area. However, she couldn’t. There were supposed to be huge dodongos in there. “I have to do this.”

Taking a running jump, she leaped onto the rock. As it moved upward, she clung onto it. It sank up and down twice more before she had the courage to try and start to stand up. Standing to run and jump on a moving rock was anything but soothing. She did it though, and jumped to the flat area. In front of her was a huge skeleton at least a hundred times her size. It’s mouth was open. “Welcoming door.” She tried to ignore what she was moving into as she walked into the mouth.

Oh Link, be here somewhere. As she walked in she saw huge pits of fire and heard terrible sounds. Sounds of creatures Zelda was sure she never wanted to meet! She moved down the steps, remembering why she had been there. She was close, and she could not give up.

From behind her though, a terrible pterodactyl like scream came. The sound scared her, making her move out of the way just in time before a sword had hit her arm! It was a huge, lizard like creature decked out in armor. It raised it’s sword again and Zelda tried to run away as fast as she could. Her heart raced as it chased after her, and she saw another one in front of her.

She screamed. It was involuntary. Her mind forgot all about dodongos as it tried to figure out how to survive against the reptilian army creatures. They were so fast, and before she could run again, a sword was coming straight down at her chest.

“Hyah!”

Zelda’s heart was beating so wildly. She had been so close to death, she could barely comprehend what happened. Link. She had not found him, he had found her.

No more dirty now then he was when they met. He looked exactly the same. He still had his brave eyes. He still hadn’t spoken a word. When they met, he was almost completely silent. His voice was soft and brief.

“Link.” She came over toward him. “Don’t continue this quest I gave you.” He of course didn’t understand. “It’s hard to explain. I don’t really understand myself.” She brought out her ocarina and played a song that relaxed her. She used it to soothe herself, and pray she could explain well enough for him.