Link puffed loudly and wiped away a drop of his sweat on his brow while stopping to walk, if only to give his body a rest after running for what seemed like forever. Night had fallen over the field, and the summer night was keeping the temperature warm, making it hard work travelling over the field. But Link was close to the castle, just another hill and it would be visible on the horizon, glowing with the light from the market.

‘Hyrule Castle…’ Link sighed, walking over the knoll, ‘Is burning?’

The sight on the horizon horrified Link beyond all belief, freezing him on the spot and instantly making him sweat. His mind started racing, explanations for this blaze shooting across his mind, until Zelda’s face finally appeared in his mind, which was instantly linked with Ganondorf. Even more possibilities raced through his mind, until his mind stopped on how much danger Zelda was in.

Instantly, he moved, as if suddenly cured of paralysis, and he moved he quickly. The market was normal and untouched, except for the hordes of people flooding through the streets, their terrified screams filling the night air. But Link’s gaze was fixed on the things chasing the people. Masses of skeletons garbed in archaic armour were mowing through the populace, all with a horrifying grin on their undead faces that sent chills down Link’s spine.

But even scarier than their evil grins was the ease with which they were cutting through the knights of Hyrule. Armed with burning stakes as well as swords, they were quickly forcing the people further away from the castle and into the alleys where they were free to slaughter the real competition, before hunting the rest of the people. All this time Link stood there, watching as countless soldiers fell and burned, and masses of people brush past him. Ganondorf has revolted… Link though calmly. Then his eyes were drawn to the castle and the enormous billows of smoke and flame spiralling into the night sky. So, with thoughts of Zelda still fixed in his mind, he continued to the castle, dodging the combat.

Where the castle foregrounds were heavily guarded only days earlier, they were now black and deserted, making his path to Zelda clear. The interior of the castle was no different, except for the plain evidence of confrontation. The decorations were left in tatters; both from fire and contact with something, and the bodies of the Castle Guard littered the floor. Echoes of more combat drifted to Link’s ears, but it was not the clash of steel on steel.

‘Zelda!’ Link screamed.

Up the marble stairs he went, listening for the only people left in the castle and following the faint echoes through the expansive castle. The trail brought him outside, in the direction of the balcony of the throne room, although where he emerged was one tower away from where Zelda was. Three figures were arrayed on the balcony, two cornered against the edge, and one heavily masculine figure advancing from the archway.

‘Curse you, Ganondorf…’ Impa said, blind hatred coming through in her voice, while she held Zelda closer to her. But Ganondorf’s smile only broadened.

‘The King is now resting peacefully… forever…’ he said with a mad cackle.

‘Zelda!’ Link yelled from across the balcony, gaining a hasty glance from her position in Impa’s arms. The stairs down to the ground were his only option.

‘I will obtain the power of the Tri-Force and become the King of Hyrule! No, I believe I’ll be the Emperor of the World!’ Ganondorf laughed madly.

‘No you won’t!’ Zelda said, interrupting his laughter. ‘The Hero of Time will appear to save Hyrule, and he will come to kill you!’

Ganondorf regarded the princess, ceasing his laughter for the time being, but keeping his arrogant smile.

‘What a laugh,’ he said, before his face contorted with rage, ‘Little girl!’

With incomprehensible speed Ganondorf lunged with his outstretched fist into Impa and her princess. But with even greater agility and speed, Impa leaped sideways with and sped back through the archway, leaving Ganondorf to crunch into the railing of the balcony, smashing the stone like glass. And in his position on the ground he glared through the opening after his prey, nursing his fist and wincing. But with his immense self-discipline he brushed the pain aside and called his skeleton warriors to him, who leapt with astounding height up to Ganondorf’s balcony.

‘Retrieve the Ocarina of Time!’ he told them, now standing up.

The skeletons were blurs as they pursued Impa, their swords outstretched, only to be met by Impa’s razor-sharp dagger slicing them up in nonchalant strokes while she sprinted off.

‘The Hero of Time…’ Ganondorf said to himself, mulling it over for a second. ‘An old wives tale,’ He scoffed.

Meanwhile, Link descended the stairs quickly, listening out for Zelda’s shouts as his guide. So it was with mild surprise that one of Ganondorf’s skeleton warriors blocked his path, its bulky form taking the width of the steps easily.

‘Out of my way!’ Link screamed at it, drawing his sword and shield with a ring of steel.

‘If you think you can pass, then try it, shrimp!’ it said back to him.

Link was getting angry and frustrated, and Zelda was getting further and further away from him and, along with her, Hyrule’s hope. Venting all his anger, he slashed at the skeleton’s torso, creating an explosion of bones all around him. But, countering Link’s effort, they regathered and formed the skeleton warrior once again.

‘Didn’t even scratch me,’ it said with a laugh akin to Ganondorf’s.

Link’s anger elevated a notch, causing him to advance again, but to be met this time with a swinging sword, which connected with Link’s shield with amazing force, shattering it and severely jarring his arm.

‘My shield!’ Link said between cries of pain.

Calming himself a bit, he looked at the edge of the staircase. It was a long way down on the left, and the ground was burning fiercely. So, Link dived between the skeleton’s legs and came up under it, throwing it off balance and tipping it off the edge, into the awaiting blaze and allowing Link to go on.

Impa had taken a detour to the castle stables to collect their horse, which would permit them a quicker escape. Link was not aware of this, however, so he was still headed in the direction of the market gates, which he figured was the only way out for Impa. The masses of people still cluttered about in confusion and terror, impeding Link’s path. And from the corner of his eye he spotted a white horse, with two figures on it, thundering through the skeleton ranks and demolishing them. Impa was getting away.

Link picked up his pace, but was easily beaten to the gates by the powerful horse.

‘Zelda!’ Link shouted as loud as he could.

‘Link!’ she said, looking around from the front of the horse. ‘Impa, we have to stop!’ she said to her nanny.

‘I can’t! We’ll be killed if I do!’

A last look of pleading wasn’t enough to change Impa’s mind, which was fixed on getting her to safety. But the fate of all of Hyrule depended on what Zelda had in her dress. She reached in and withdrew a purple, oval-shaped object, and flung it in the horse’s wake, in the direction of Link.

Link had stopped running, finally conceding that a horse is too quick for him to keep up with, instead watching Zelda disappear in the purple cloud that had enveloped the field. After they had gone he stood there, silently cursing Ganondorf. And then he saw the object Zelda had threw at him. It was exactly the same as what Saria had given him, which meant he held the fate of all of Hyrule in his quivering hand.

Over his heavy breathing he could hear another horse, coming from behind him. Quickly, he pocketed the ocarina and snapped his head back, seeing an immensely big war-horse, Ganondorf seated atop, charging from the market and stopping on the drawbridge where Link stood.

‘Boy,’ he said slowly, as if testing the word out. ‘Give me that item you just picked up.’

Link was frozen in fear for a second, intimidated by how much bigger Ganondorf was. But soon his sword was out of its scabbard, feeling strange in his hand without a shield in his right. He closed the distance between them with a hop and leapt into a jump attack, landing his small sword on Ganondorf’s defensive left forearm. And while Link remained in the air, his right fist came around and connected with Link’s chest, shooting him backwards and landing him on the dirt beyond the drawbridge.

‘You have a lot of courage to resist me…’ Ganondorf said, before his expression changed to recognition. ‘You’re the boy I saw at the castle with Zelda. A Kokiri… No, there’s something different about.’

Link was on his hands and knees still catching his breath after having the air pushed out of lungs. He glared at Ganondorf and picked up his sword again.

‘I am of the Kokiri Tribe! I am a child raised by the Great Deku Tree! Link!’

The little boy leapt into one last jump attack, focusing all his anger for Ganondorf into one powerful attack. Ganondorf extended his right palm to the incoming Link, a swirl of purple magic gathering in front of it. Before Link could get close, he was blasted by an enormous wave of pure magic, sending him backwards yet again. And when he landed this time, Saria’s ocarina popped out of its place on his belt and settled out of reach for Link.

In a second Ganondorf was off his horse and bending down to get the ocarina, a look of triumph on his evil face. That’s Saria’s, Link though with horror. Ganondorf held it in his enormous hand and regarded it closely.

‘Thank you for co-operating,’ he said to Link, getting on his horse and riding in the direction of where Impa had gone.

Link remained on his knees, looking up at the sky with a pained look of frustration.

‘I can’t do it Great Deku Tree!’ he shouted. ‘With such a small body, there’s no way I can beat him! What can I do?’

From her spot in Link’s hat, Navi flew out.

‘Zelda threw you the Ocarina of Time,’ she said, trying to cheer Link up. ‘You did find all three Spiritual Stones. She had to have thrown it to you for a reason.’

Link looked at the ground, trying to think.

‘She did say something about a temple. She said “the key to opening it is…”’

Link was looking at the ocarina in his hand, the spark of realization lighting him up.

‘The Ocarina of Time!’ he declared. ‘The entrance to the Sacrad Realm is in the “Temple of Time”!’

Link leapt to his feet and bolted back through the market, where things were starting to die down due to the lack of people for the skeletons to kill. Link avoided the market square, taking the alleyways behind the houses and heading for the north-east area of the market. The further he got to the temple, the less the effects of Ganondorf became. A block away from the temple it was as if nothing had happened, although the purple cloud was ever present over his head.

The Temple of Time was a gothic structure, as tall as the castle itself, but much simpler. High, arched windows covered the front of the temple, and on the space immediately above the door was the symbol Link had seen on the back of his left hand for years, believing it to be a birth-mark, but unsure due to the perfect shapes of the triangles. He had pondered on their meaning more than a few times in the forest during his wanderings, and it seemed an extreme coincidence for there to be the exact same symbol on a temple.

He was frozen on the steps to temple, not wanting to tear his eyes off the three triangles, liking the feeling that there was a chance that he had been important for his whole life. Liking the fact that now he could push the memory of his childhood teasing aside and label it as nothing, and that his life meant much more than what he had thought only a few days earlier.

‘What are you doing?’ Navi hissed, coming back through the temple’s door, having rushed in ahead.

‘That mark,’ Link said, holding up his left hand again.

‘The Tri-Force...?’

Link had the feeling that that was what it was; and in knowing it, it only gave him a greater confidence in what he was doing, and that it was right.

Silently he nodded to his fairy and resumed walking in to the temple. The grandeur and size of its interior didn’t mesmerize him as much as it would have on any other day. The white marble floor, the polished stone bricks of the walls, the exquisite red rug leading to an equally beautiful marble altar didn’t catch him. The plain, in comparison, stone door at the end of the room, did. It was a separate stone wall, more than a door, but Link wouldn’t mistake it for anything else.

Grasping the Ocarina of Time firmly in his hand, he tried to read the inscription of the altar.

‘Navi,’ he said, the fairy inspecting the door. ‘I can’t read this inscription, it’s in another language.’

The luminescent fairy floated over to the altar and regarded it closely.

‘It’s in Ancient Hylian,’ she informed him. ‘It says: “The one who collects the three stones is to stand here, and play the Song of Time. If done…”

Link held up the ocarina while she spoke, inspecting the holes of its surface. Song of Time? He thought as the fairy said it. And suddenly, without warning, something took hold of his mind, driving away all thoughts and replacing them with an image of Zelda, standing amongst nothing but white. In her calm hands she held the Ocarina of Time.

‘You will need to know this,’ she said, a sad look dominating her features.

She brought the ocarina to her mouth and blew a slow, drawn out tune. She played it a few times through, and Link found himself standing in front of the altar again. Breathing heavily, he looked at the ocarina, still safely in his hands, and not listening to Navi, who was still translating. Hurriedly, he looked at the altar again, noticing three wholes, resembling the three stones he held in his pouch. In a second Link had them sitting in their respective holes, and the ocarina at his lips with a breath of air in his mouth.

He played the tune flawlessly, not missing a note and sounding every bit like Zelda had played it; the slow beat, the long, drawn out notes. It was as if something else was moving his fingers, playing the foreign tune for him. And upon blowing the last note, the door moved. The three Spiritual Stones glowed violently and lifted slightly in the air, while the impossibly heavy stone slab split seamlessly down the middle and moved aside, showing the final chamber of the magnificent temple.

This chamber was more eye-catching than anything Link had seen before. Not so much for beauty, but for the feeling the room generated in his soul. On a raised stone dais, flooded with a ray of light from some high window, was a small stone pedestal. Contained in this pedestal was a sword: a sword with so much legend behind it that it inspired pride in Link’s heart just for the privilege of looking at it.

Link, that’s…’ Navi said dreamily, floating over to the dais, ‘the legendary… Master Sword!’

Link stepped slowly over to the dais, his footsteps echoing loudly in the chamber, making him impossibly nervous. His hands sweated and his legs started shaking, until he stood right next to it. Looking up and down the blade, he savoured the beauty of craftsmanship put into the sword, serving as pure eye candy for a boy.

‘If I have this sword,’ he said, half to himself, ‘can I beat him?’

His breathing started becoming laboured as he moved his hands closer to the hilt of the sword. His hands started dripping with sweat. He stopped inches from the purple grip, taking care. With one last leap of faith, he grabbed the handle hard and pulled upwards, sliding the blade as smooth as can be from its age old resting place.

Getting over the shock, he held the heavy sword in both hands, watching with fear as the rim of the dais exploded with blue energy, spiralling toward the roof and sapping Link of his consciousness. What’s happening to me? He thought, his vision getting blurred. What is wrong? The last thing Link remembered was the brief image of Ganondorf’s face, cackling with laughter and holding his fist up, as if in triumph.

*

‘Link…’ a soothing voice said, comforting him. ‘Awaken, Link, the chosen hero!’

Hero? Who do they mean? Questions started floating around his head, causing him a severe headache. Then he realised he had consciousness, shooting his eyes open open, seeing a sight he didn’t believe at first glance. The dais he had left only minutes ago floated in an impossibly huge space of blue nothingness, surrounded by a few lone platforms also floating. And while the pedestal was gone, he was sure it was the dais. The Tri-Force he stood on in the centre was definitely on the dais, and the circles at each point of the hexagonal platform, while he payed almost no notice of them in the temple, he was certain that they had been there.

While his eyes absorbed the space around him, his body felt severely different than it had only minutes earlier. His hands felt confined in gloves, and he had more clothes on than before. Glancing down at his hands gave him a shock. They were not only encased in leather gloves, but they were hands of an adult. What happened to me? The rest of his body was the same: in adult form, but not feeling much different.

‘What the-?’ he said.

‘Link, you’ve grown up! You’re an adult!’ Navi squealed, buzzing around his head.

‘Calmly look around you, Link,’ a new voice said.

Standing on one of the circles was an old man, looking somewhere in his fifties, and dressed in a yellow, archaic robe that made him look very much like a priest.

‘My name is Rauru,’ the old man said. ‘One of the sages who made the Temple of Time, the path to the Sacred Realm, ages ago. My body has long since vanished, but while in the “Space of the Sages”; I am able to communicate with you.’

‘What happened to me?’ Link asked, realising the obvious answer. ‘I mean, when I laid my hands on that sword, I suddenly felt very far away.’

Rauru nodded in understanding. ‘The Master Sword is a blade that cannot be wielded by those with an evil heart. In addition, only the one qualified to be the “Hero of Time” can budge it from its pedestal.’

Link had taken out the Master Sword and was once again gazing at its smooth blade while Rauru talked. He was amazed at how light it felt with his adult muscles.

‘However, you were still far too young to be the Hero of Time. And so, for 7 years, your spirit has been sleeping here.’

‘For 7 years?’ Link reiterated in amazement.

‘Yes. During those 7 years Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm from the gate you opened and seized the Tri-Force of Power. Now, his evil continues to pillage all of Hyrule’s lands.’

Link’s heart sank at Rauru’s words. I let him get the Tri-Force? I opened the gate for him?

‘But there is a way to beat him!’ Rauru continued. ‘Break the spells on the five remaining temples and awaken the five other sages. If the Hero and the sages combine their powers, then the evil can be confined.’

‘I’m the Hero of Time?’ Link asked, looking at his left palm.

‘That’s not all,’ Rauru said. ‘Take off your left glove and look at the back of your hand.’

Link did as he requested, expecting to see the same mark he’d had all his life, but seeing something different. Before, the three triangles had been a colour just darker than his skin, almost a grey. Now, however, the bottom left triangle glowed with a golden radiance.


‘The Tri-Force’s natural defence is to split its three parts up and disperse among the people it has chosen. You, as the Hero of Time, have received the Tri-Force of courage. Ganondorf, as I have said, claimed power; and wisdom went to Zelda.’

‘Zelda?’ Link asked. ‘Is she alright?’

‘I don’t know, but she hasn’t been seen since you entered the temple.’

Link prayed with all his heart that she was alright, and was curious as to how she looked now that she was an adult.

‘What about all these clothes?’ Link asked. ‘This tunic is much bigger than my other one, and these gloves, this new shield and everything else.’

‘They’re a gift, from me,’ Rauru answered.

‘Wow, Link,’ Navi said, ‘I bet the Great Deku Tree would be surprised if he heard that you were the Hero of Time!’

‘No,’ Link answered simply. ‘He already knew; he left hints about it.’

‘Which brings me to ask,’ Rauru said, ‘that you know you are not of the Kokiri?’

‘I kind of guessed it,’ Link replied.

‘You have Hylian blood, the same as Princess Zelda. Before the kingdom of Hyrule was united, when it was still at war, you were born into the guardian house of the current kingdom of Hyrule. Your father died in battle, and your mother, while sustaining serious injuries, frantically fled the burning mansion your family occupied, holding the infant you. She fled into the Forbidden Forest and breathed her last, leaving her baby in the care of the Deku Tree. He sensed the fate of Hyrule’s future and decided that someday you’d leave the forest to become the Hero.’

‘I’m a Hylian,’ Link said to himself, not sad as such, but in acceptance.

‘From now on, hardships will be a given for you. That is your fate, and you can’t have any complaints.’

Link closed his eyes before answering: ‘I haven’t any. By becoming an adult I’ve gained a lot of power. I can fight Ganondorf on his own terms. If this sword chose me, and if I am suited to be the Hero, I will beat Ganondorf! And this time, I will protect Zelda!’