Chapter 7 - Brave Hearts
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Two years later...
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A young couple walked down the sandy shoreline hand-in-hand. Every so often,
he would reach up to play with her long hair, or she would run her fingers
over the sharp form of his ear. Together, they wandered, engrossed in each
other's company.
Eventually, they paused. He walked away, and laid a wreath at a guitar-shaped
memorial. He closed his eyes for a second, lost in memory, before returning
to where she waited.
"Thanks, 'Lena."
"It's okay, Link. I know that meant a lot to you. "
"More than you can imagine." Mikau... I will remember you... Rega... I'm sorry for what I tried to do...
They headed back towards the field, and back to Clock Town. Lazy footprints traced a path across the sands, as the sun slowly set and left the black and moonless sky above them.
Suddenly, a strange noise disturbed them. Link whipped round. Something was
coming out of the water. A monster! After so long?... A heaving mass
of tentacles and fins sloshed its way onto the shoreline. A head on a long
slimy neck looked round. It focused on the pair on the sands.
Link saw the hunger in its eyes. No! "Alena - get away! I can handle
this thing!" She sprinted to safety.
He drew the double-bladed sword from his back, and faced up to the sea-serpent.
All that time of quiet Termina life fell away...
...What is this thing? No matter - it's no challenge... it's so soft and vulnerable...
...Ha! Fish out of water...
He vaulted around the creature's long neck, and struck at its body. It writhed in pain, and contorted round trying to see its attacker...
...That'll show it...
Two tentacles lashed out from the fish-monster. He leapt backwards to escape, before charging in for another blow. The sea-monster slumped to the ground, and disappeared under the sands.
Link paused for a second, catching his breath - mentally more than physically - before sheathing the sword and looking round for Alena's figure crouched behind a wall. He walked over. "'Lena - you okay?"
"Sure, I'm fine! It was a bit of a shock, seeing that thing coming like that, but that's all..." She looked up in surprise. "Link! Your eyes... they're... different..." She picked a mirror out of her pocket and passed it over. "Look..."
He stared at his reflection in amazement. How...
White fire burned where blue pools should have been...
In his frenzy, the Fierce Deity had crept back...
He closed his eyes and tried to focus inwardly. Calm... easy... He opened them again to see their familiar blue tones. Still surprised, he passed Alena's mirror back.
"What just happened? I've never seen you look so..." She looked for the right
word.
"Fierce?"
"That's it exactly."
He sighed. The secret would have to come out eventually. Here in Termina, there was no-one he trusted more... no, he would have to tell Alena now. "I... haven't been quite honest with you about my past."
"Of course you have... hero. You told me everything when we first met! What is it you're so worried about telling me, then?"
"Sit down. You're not going to like what I have to say. It all began here, on the clock tower twelve years ago..."
Night crept on, but neither Link nor Alena noticed the encroaching darkness. She listened, amazed. Could what he was saying really be true? That this brave and loyal friend could be... have been... someone like the Fierce Deity? A cold-hearted warmonger? She was reminded of a story she had once read in her father's archives. It was coming back to her now...
"Oh, Link..."
"I know. I understand if you hate me now. "
"No. I don't hate you..." Her tones were filled with pity - not fear or disgust.
"It doesn't matter to me what you did in the past. For all the time I've
known you, you've been as far from what you've just described as... as...
as night is from day. Perhaps I should be scared, perhaps I should walk away,
now I know the truth, but I only know you as the good guy. It doesn't worry
me." She put her hand across the faint triangle mark on his. "Just don't
keep any more secrets like that from me. Okay?" She looked deep into his
eyes and smiled.
He smiled back. "Okay."
They walked back, lost in thought.
-
She flicked through the yellowing pages of the history book by candlelight,
looking up references. Alena shared her father's fascination with the past,
and often helped him with his research. She couldn't help but feel that he
took it more seriously than the world around him, sometimes. But tonight,
she was not looking anything up for him, but for herself...
Even though she'd expected to find something, Alena still stifled a yelp
as she saw the picture drawn in careful lines and read the inscription
underneath. The text was faint, but she could just make out what it said.
"... Two worlds will meet, and one will come who knows both darkness and
light... The eyes of the stars will fall as he shows his true colours, yet
a pure heart will conquer all... The hero will see himself face to face,
and finally defeat his fears..." The rest of the page was torn and tattered,
the text unreadable. She wiped her eyes. There was no mistaking who it was
in the picture, especially after what she'd seen and learnt on the seashore
earlier that day.
She marked the page, and carried the heavy volume into the guest bedroom.
"Psst! Wake up!"
"Alena? Wha's'it? Why'd'you wake me up?" Link mumbled.
She opened the book, and looked Link in the eyes. "That's you... isn't it?"
He nodded, slowly. "That's right. Or at least, it was. Don't know how they
could have known..." He peered a little closer at the woodcut in the book.
"They didn't get the details quite right - I never wore my hair like that!
- but for the most part, yes, that was me. The armour's even locked in the
chest over there. I... just... don't ever want to go back to what
happened..."
"I understand."
Alena, you don't...No-one can. "Thanks."
-
...An infinite dark plain stretched forever in front of him. Nothing to
see, for as far as eternity... but something to hear... A voice, faint but
distinct, striking as the lightning strikes an ancient tree... "Come back,
come back to where this all began... The truth awaits you there..."
He awoke, and remembered nothing. Only the darkness.
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The early springtime sunshine beat down over Clock Town, as Link walked through
the square to the east. He looked, as one of the carpenters stepped away
from hanging a poster on the wall. "The carnival's back?"
"That's what it says, isn't it? Looks like it's going to be the biggest one
for, oh, I don't know how long! I've heard that the Indigo-gos are even going
to be performing. Huh. Say what you will, I still think they lost it after
Mikau left. That last performance of his was the best."
Link swallowed, unsure whether or not to take it as a compliment. Only he
and Lulu knew the truth - the rest of the band had been left in the dark.
Another secret, never to surface...
A thought struck him. The Carnival of Time... if he remembered rightly, it
wasn't just an excuse to party on down...
Link span round, and headed on towards the inn.
He had to talk with Kafei.
Perhaps he could advise the 'green hat boy' who had helped him once in the
ways of the heart...
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Midnight over the tower. The stars shone brightly overhead in many colours,
and the ethereal ring that had once been the grinning moon seemed to shimmer
with a strange energy. Fireworks burst and sparkled, crimson and turquoise
flares against the deepest blackness, and shining brightly in all the hues
of the rainbow.
Link and Alena emerged onto the clock-face platform at the top of the tower.
She looked around in amazement. "It's... it's beautiful... I never came up
here carnival night before..."
He looked her straight in the eyes, and laughed softly. "Just like you, really."
He produced a parcel and presented it to Alena. "Go on..."
She tore open the plain wrapping. Her fingers touched a smooth metallic surface.
A box? Ruby and sapphire patterns covered the outer lid. It must have cost
- how much? 300R? She flipped it open. Immediately, a melody began. Simple,
three notes rising and falling, but entrancing. "For you."
Her eyes opened wide. "Oh, Link! It's... it's lovely! Thank you!" She locked
her arms tight around him, in a fierce embrace.
A low, threatening noise interrupted the special moment. Laughter?
"The song of time? So you want to turn back the clock?"
"Link? What did you just say?"
"I didn't say anything..." Together, they looked around to see where the
sound had come from. There was nothing to see...
Until a bolt of energy flared out of the darkness. Alena let out a faint
scream as the blaze smashed into her chest and flung her across the patterned
floor. Link snapped round.
"Alena! No... Who are you? Who did that? She didn't do a thing to you, so
why did you..."
"She made me sick. As for who I am..." Now he realised whose voice that was...
it was his own...
A figure stepped forward, seemingly out of nowhere.
Burning white eyes locked with Link's, cool and blue.
That's...
"Call me Oni."