09-17-2013, 06:43 AM
Link's arm whipped to the hilt of his weapon and the Master Sword slipped cleanly from its sheath. The Hylian Shield wrapped about his right forearm. Without the Triforce of Courage, Link felt the full force of adrenaline pumping through his veins. He noticed a cold sweat seep over his face, and his drumming heart beat echoed within his ears. Link commanded himself to calm, never removing his eyes from the red blot in the stranger's skull.
It wasn't a skeleton on second glance, the Hylian observed, at least not fully. Grey skin clung to the bones. The face had a barest layer, making the teeth and nose cavity visible. The missing eye was a black hole, and the other socket shone with a crimson light. If it was a Stalfos, it was none like he had ever seen. It wore tarnished bronze armour, pockmarked by scratches and rust. A growth of mossy vegetation hung from its right shoulder. Its once three horned helm, one horn snapped in half, covered whatever hair the creature may have had. There were chalky, peach coloured emblems on his chestplate and shield but they were not familiar. Despite the disrepair of his weapons, its sword's edge glinted in the frozen sunlight.
The skeletal figure stood still, watching, making only the sparsest movements.
"What is this?" Link gathered the wits to say. His voice wavered. "How did you get here? How did you freeze time like this?"
<A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage, Hero of Time.> The sound originated from inside Link's head.
Having his bravery questioned inspired Link. He swiveled the Master Sword's hilt in his hand, rotating the blade in a three hundred and sixty degree arc. "I am the possessor of the Triforce of Courage! I do not know fear."
<You do know fear. I can sense it in you. I can't sense the Triforce, though. What have you done with it?> came the reverberating reply.
Link leveled the sword at the skeleton's chest. "I won't say another word until you tell me what you are and how you found me!"
The ghastly apparition lowered its weapon. <Link. I found you through the song of the royal family.>
Link frowned. "You heard my ocarina?"
<The Ocarina of Time, for such a song to resonate between worlds could only be created by it.>
"Then why did you only show up now?"
<Zelda's Lullaby is known to only a few souls, and those souls belong to Hyrule.> The red eye of the skeletal warrior shrunk, then expanded to its normal size. <When I first noticed it, I took it for a faded memory, an indulgence for my sanity. I did not think I truly heard it. For who could stumble unknowingly on the exact melody, and with a mystical artifact?>
Link took out the ocarina, glistening pale purple-blue. If this being was to be believed, he truly was no longer in Hyrule. "Princess Zelda used it to send me back to my original time."
<Yes, I know,> the skeleton nodded. <I remember it clearly.>
Link was about to interrupt before it continued. <Then I heard the Song of Time, and I knew it was not my mind playing tricks. I focused upon those enchanted notes, drawn by its wondrous power, and found you here.>
"And time is frozen around us because ..."
<I cannot enter the material plane. Your song, however, gave me the opportunity I needed to step into this world. A pause in the flow of time does not exist, and thus I can.>
"I never paused time with the ocarina before. How did I do it this time?"
<You didn't,> came the answer. <I seized upon the magic of the Song of Time and birthed the pause myself.>
This was getting uncomfortable. An unknown creature travelled between worlds at the behest of the Ocarina of Time? What was this thing? Could other fiends detect his enchanted music as well?
"Are you the only one eyed skeleton I can expect to visit me when I play this?" Link said, putting the instrument away.
<Yes.>
"Then start telling me who you are and why you came between dimensions to freeze me in time!" Link lifted the Master Sword again.
The skeleton's skull tilted to the left, then centre. <This may be difficult to fathom, Link ->
"More difficult than a skeleton freezing time?"
The apparition ignored the interjection. <- but to fully comprehend this, you must know the truth. Link ... I am the Hero's Shade.>
Link narrowed his eyes. "You say that like it has meaning."
<Throughout Hyrule's history, there have been Heroes who have stepped forward into the roles the goddesses predestined for them. The Hero of Legend, the first of his kind. The Hero of Men, who triumphed in the War of the Bound Chest. There are other Heroes, further into the future, that surface when the cry is loudest. And between them all, linking them together, is the Hero of Time.>
"So ... you're a ghost of a past hero? Or future?" Link said. "Of who? The Hero of Legend or Hero of Men?"
<I am the ghost of the Hero of Time.>
Link's eyes widened. He almost let slip his Master Sword. "What? That makes no sense. I'm not ... dead. Am I?" Was that why the Triforce of Courage was missing?
<You are not dead, Link. But you are not where you are supposed to be. You represent a conundrum.>
"If I'm talking to my own dead spirit, then something's gone wrong somewhere." Link couldn't believe this. Was this even possible?
<I will explain our co-existence as best as I can fathom it.> The Hero's Shade looked away momentarily, as if distracted by something on the horizon, and then faced Link again. <As you know, you were headed back to your childhood after defeating Ganon. During your transition, you were plucked from the time stream and brought here. However, you have not gone missing from your - our - original time.>
"This is ludicrous. How can I be there if I'm here?" Link said.
<I do not know. You may be a glitch in the universe - a copy accidentally created during your travel back through time. The force that brought you here may have done so hastily and without fully understanding the ramifications of its actions.>
A copy? Then there was no home for him. The real Link already lived and died in Hyrule, and the skeleton standing before him was his legacy.
<This is a theory. It may also be that you eventually find a way home, and your existence here is merely a stop on your travel.>
That explanation wrested the clench from his stomach. "If you're me, you must remember this place. A mysterious figure called Omni?"
<No,> the shade said. <I have no recollection. Yet, this may be an impermanent existence, or your - our - memory may have been wiped once the route back to your childhood is traversed. I cannot say for certain, and I cannot peer into the stream where you - we - last travelled back in time. There is an anomaly through which I cannot perceive.>
Link lowered the tip of his sword again. "So I could be a copy of the true Link, I could be in between time, or it could be something else entirely." This Hero's Shade was generating more questions than answers.
<Yes,> his future ghost said. <Your existence is a mystery. In any case, there is something unique to you - not me - that drew me here.>
"What?"
<The anomaly may block my view, but its effects cling to you clear as this sky.>
"Effects? What are you talking about?"
<Your departure from the time stream - however it happened - left scars upon your soul. You see, you - we - are descended, at least in spirit, from the first great champion of the goddesses, the Hero of Legend. He was the first to defeat and banish Demise, the precursor to who you - we - know as Ganondorf.>
"Ganondorf?" Link was stunned. "He's existed for thousands of years?"
<In the same way that you and I have,> the Hero's Shade said. <Their essence has flowed into new eras, bringing about times of great conflict and times of great peace. You - we - were a continuation of this phenomenon, and it has continued off into the future. Before you were brought here, your soul somehow recognised this spiritual connection between the Heroes of all ages and permanently marked each of them into you - not me.>
<I do not appreciate the implications this has for you, but even now I see the faint lines of history flowing in and out of you. There is a link between times that is a part of you that never was a part of me. This may be to your benefit or your detriment. It is too early to tell.>
Link stood motionless for a moment. The thudding beat of his heart had slowed. A chilly fog clung inside his lungs. This was all too much to take in. Instead he turned the question back on his dead self. "So what does this mean for you? What do I mean to you?"
The Hero's Shade paused. <I have considered this, but my answer is unsatisfactory. I wish to assist you in any way I can. I will study this unique effect from the currents of time and contact you again when I have something further to discuss. I take it that this conversation has been overwhelming.>
Link resheathed his sword. "It is a lot of information to digest."
His ghost nodded and took a step back. <I understand. I shall leave you for now, but I will return.>
The Hero's Shade rose his sword into the sky. Light shone from its silvery finish until it blazed like the sun and Link had to close his eyes.
When he opened them, the skeletal warrior was gone. The blue bird snapped up the unlucky bee and coasted away on the breeze. The blades of grass swayed rhythmically by his boots. Time had resumed again.
Link's mind ached with the same fatigue his sword arm once did during his early days of training. So much information was compressed in such a small amount of time, and still mysteries and vague events hung over the Hylian knight. Hopefully, this Hero's Shade - his dead future self, if it was to be believed - would discover something soon.
The sound of feet pattering on the stone path broke Link's introspection. A strange, pale skinned man was running over to him. A blood red cape flapped behind him, as did his long lavender hair. He had the pointed ears of a Hylian, but his complexion and burning red eyes were not common among Link's people. The unknown man stopped abruptly and questioningly ran his eyes up and down the green garbed teenager. Link felt a stab of fear in his chest. Had this man seen him playing the Ocarina of Time? Did he notice the magical aspect to it? This world was similar to Link's own. Perhaps this man was a mage, and saw the power written in the songs?
"Is something wrong?" Link asked.
It wasn't a skeleton on second glance, the Hylian observed, at least not fully. Grey skin clung to the bones. The face had a barest layer, making the teeth and nose cavity visible. The missing eye was a black hole, and the other socket shone with a crimson light. If it was a Stalfos, it was none like he had ever seen. It wore tarnished bronze armour, pockmarked by scratches and rust. A growth of mossy vegetation hung from its right shoulder. Its once three horned helm, one horn snapped in half, covered whatever hair the creature may have had. There were chalky, peach coloured emblems on his chestplate and shield but they were not familiar. Despite the disrepair of his weapons, its sword's edge glinted in the frozen sunlight.
The skeletal figure stood still, watching, making only the sparsest movements.
"What is this?" Link gathered the wits to say. His voice wavered. "How did you get here? How did you freeze time like this?"
<A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage, Hero of Time.> The sound originated from inside Link's head.
Having his bravery questioned inspired Link. He swiveled the Master Sword's hilt in his hand, rotating the blade in a three hundred and sixty degree arc. "I am the possessor of the Triforce of Courage! I do not know fear."
<You do know fear. I can sense it in you. I can't sense the Triforce, though. What have you done with it?> came the reverberating reply.
Link leveled the sword at the skeleton's chest. "I won't say another word until you tell me what you are and how you found me!"
The ghastly apparition lowered its weapon. <Link. I found you through the song of the royal family.>
Link frowned. "You heard my ocarina?"
<The Ocarina of Time, for such a song to resonate between worlds could only be created by it.>
"Then why did you only show up now?"
<Zelda's Lullaby is known to only a few souls, and those souls belong to Hyrule.> The red eye of the skeletal warrior shrunk, then expanded to its normal size. <When I first noticed it, I took it for a faded memory, an indulgence for my sanity. I did not think I truly heard it. For who could stumble unknowingly on the exact melody, and with a mystical artifact?>
Link took out the ocarina, glistening pale purple-blue. If this being was to be believed, he truly was no longer in Hyrule. "Princess Zelda used it to send me back to my original time."
<Yes, I know,> the skeleton nodded. <I remember it clearly.>
Link was about to interrupt before it continued. <Then I heard the Song of Time, and I knew it was not my mind playing tricks. I focused upon those enchanted notes, drawn by its wondrous power, and found you here.>
"And time is frozen around us because ..."
<I cannot enter the material plane. Your song, however, gave me the opportunity I needed to step into this world. A pause in the flow of time does not exist, and thus I can.>
"I never paused time with the ocarina before. How did I do it this time?"
<You didn't,> came the answer. <I seized upon the magic of the Song of Time and birthed the pause myself.>
This was getting uncomfortable. An unknown creature travelled between worlds at the behest of the Ocarina of Time? What was this thing? Could other fiends detect his enchanted music as well?
"Are you the only one eyed skeleton I can expect to visit me when I play this?" Link said, putting the instrument away.
<Yes.>
"Then start telling me who you are and why you came between dimensions to freeze me in time!" Link lifted the Master Sword again.
The skeleton's skull tilted to the left, then centre. <This may be difficult to fathom, Link ->
"More difficult than a skeleton freezing time?"
The apparition ignored the interjection. <- but to fully comprehend this, you must know the truth. Link ... I am the Hero's Shade.>
Link narrowed his eyes. "You say that like it has meaning."
<Throughout Hyrule's history, there have been Heroes who have stepped forward into the roles the goddesses predestined for them. The Hero of Legend, the first of his kind. The Hero of Men, who triumphed in the War of the Bound Chest. There are other Heroes, further into the future, that surface when the cry is loudest. And between them all, linking them together, is the Hero of Time.>
"So ... you're a ghost of a past hero? Or future?" Link said. "Of who? The Hero of Legend or Hero of Men?"
<I am the ghost of the Hero of Time.>
Link's eyes widened. He almost let slip his Master Sword. "What? That makes no sense. I'm not ... dead. Am I?" Was that why the Triforce of Courage was missing?
<You are not dead, Link. But you are not where you are supposed to be. You represent a conundrum.>
"If I'm talking to my own dead spirit, then something's gone wrong somewhere." Link couldn't believe this. Was this even possible?
<I will explain our co-existence as best as I can fathom it.> The Hero's Shade looked away momentarily, as if distracted by something on the horizon, and then faced Link again. <As you know, you were headed back to your childhood after defeating Ganon. During your transition, you were plucked from the time stream and brought here. However, you have not gone missing from your - our - original time.>
"This is ludicrous. How can I be there if I'm here?" Link said.
<I do not know. You may be a glitch in the universe - a copy accidentally created during your travel back through time. The force that brought you here may have done so hastily and without fully understanding the ramifications of its actions.>
A copy? Then there was no home for him. The real Link already lived and died in Hyrule, and the skeleton standing before him was his legacy.
<This is a theory. It may also be that you eventually find a way home, and your existence here is merely a stop on your travel.>
That explanation wrested the clench from his stomach. "If you're me, you must remember this place. A mysterious figure called Omni?"
<No,> the shade said. <I have no recollection. Yet, this may be an impermanent existence, or your - our - memory may have been wiped once the route back to your childhood is traversed. I cannot say for certain, and I cannot peer into the stream where you - we - last travelled back in time. There is an anomaly through which I cannot perceive.>
Link lowered the tip of his sword again. "So I could be a copy of the true Link, I could be in between time, or it could be something else entirely." This Hero's Shade was generating more questions than answers.
<Yes,> his future ghost said. <Your existence is a mystery. In any case, there is something unique to you - not me - that drew me here.>
"What?"
<The anomaly may block my view, but its effects cling to you clear as this sky.>
"Effects? What are you talking about?"
<Your departure from the time stream - however it happened - left scars upon your soul. You see, you - we - are descended, at least in spirit, from the first great champion of the goddesses, the Hero of Legend. He was the first to defeat and banish Demise, the precursor to who you - we - know as Ganondorf.>
"Ganondorf?" Link was stunned. "He's existed for thousands of years?"
<In the same way that you and I have,> the Hero's Shade said. <Their essence has flowed into new eras, bringing about times of great conflict and times of great peace. You - we - were a continuation of this phenomenon, and it has continued off into the future. Before you were brought here, your soul somehow recognised this spiritual connection between the Heroes of all ages and permanently marked each of them into you - not me.>
<I do not appreciate the implications this has for you, but even now I see the faint lines of history flowing in and out of you. There is a link between times that is a part of you that never was a part of me. This may be to your benefit or your detriment. It is too early to tell.>
Link stood motionless for a moment. The thudding beat of his heart had slowed. A chilly fog clung inside his lungs. This was all too much to take in. Instead he turned the question back on his dead self. "So what does this mean for you? What do I mean to you?"
The Hero's Shade paused. <I have considered this, but my answer is unsatisfactory. I wish to assist you in any way I can. I will study this unique effect from the currents of time and contact you again when I have something further to discuss. I take it that this conversation has been overwhelming.>
Link resheathed his sword. "It is a lot of information to digest."
His ghost nodded and took a step back. <I understand. I shall leave you for now, but I will return.>
The Hero's Shade rose his sword into the sky. Light shone from its silvery finish until it blazed like the sun and Link had to close his eyes.
When he opened them, the skeletal warrior was gone. The blue bird snapped up the unlucky bee and coasted away on the breeze. The blades of grass swayed rhythmically by his boots. Time had resumed again.
Link's mind ached with the same fatigue his sword arm once did during his early days of training. So much information was compressed in such a small amount of time, and still mysteries and vague events hung over the Hylian knight. Hopefully, this Hero's Shade - his dead future self, if it was to be believed - would discover something soon.
The sound of feet pattering on the stone path broke Link's introspection. A strange, pale skinned man was running over to him. A blood red cape flapped behind him, as did his long lavender hair. He had the pointed ears of a Hylian, but his complexion and burning red eyes were not common among Link's people. The unknown man stopped abruptly and questioningly ran his eyes up and down the green garbed teenager. Link felt a stab of fear in his chest. Had this man seen him playing the Ocarina of Time? Did he notice the magical aspect to it? This world was similar to Link's own. Perhaps this man was a mage, and saw the power written in the songs?
"Is something wrong?" Link asked.
![[Image: illidansig2.jpg]](http://www.cytokineindustries.com/chevereto/images/2017/07/07/illidansig2.jpg)