The wind blew gently as Link walked down the sun beaten path. Weathered and old, the path puffed up small clouds of dust as he walked, it had been yet another dry season, but the locals were faring well. Link looked around him, marveling again at the astounding beauty of his homeland. Green, grassy hills stretched for miles as sparkling blue water bubbled down plentiful streams and brooks. Small flowers, light pink, blue and cream bloomed here and there as fluffy white clouds dotted the azure sky.
Yes, he thought to himself, today was another great day to be alive. Link wasn't really alive though. He only came back as a twightlight, a reincarnation of a living person that can only come back on the day its' candle of life was snuffed. The upside was that you stayed alive on the day. only for 24 hours, then you die again, but it was worth it. Link smiled to himself. He was going back to the old Forest to see how everyone was doing. It had been almost forty years sense he had been really home.

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"Hello?" Links' body pushed though the overgrown thicket and he cringed. It was the first time he had experienced physical pain in a long time. Brambles tore at his unprotected legs and thorns ripped his tunic in some places. Bursting through, Link stumbled but quickly regained his balance. From the time he looked up, Link wished had failed on his face, just to block the images for a few seconds longer. The cute, stump-houses were almost gone. The stream, or what had been a stream, wasn't filled with water, but with dry, dead leaves. a chill wind blew through them, and though Links' heart. His childhood home was merely a memory. Now it was just a dead place. Link suddenly heard a noise and turned. an bent old woman came hobbling out of one of the old wooden tree trunks. She came up to Link and held his hands in hers. "Bless Din, Farore and Nyrou, it's you....," the old woman stroked his cheek. Link, not knowing what was going on, or liking being fondled by a stranger, spoke. "What do you mean?" The woman drew back her hand and felt his. "I feel the mark of the chosen one. Are you?" She had a voice like crackling sticks. The lack of use had made it so. "My name is Link...I was the Hero of Time, but that was a long time ago-" "I know," She interrupted. "I know, Almost thirty years ago. They spoke about you quite a bit. They say you were the one without a fairy." Link choked back the sudden wave of tears. Even in the the afterlife, he had still not found Navi. "I left...with a fairy. Have you seen her?" The old woman gazed up at him. Her eyes were milky white and obviously blind. "I lost my gift of sight 7 years after he left. It doesn't bother me though. I became blind so early in my life that I had to adapt. Sometimes thought, when I'd miss just being able to see my loved ones, just one last time, I'd think of ending it all..." She lifted up her wrists. There were slashes all over them, from past suicide attempts. "But that is of no importance." She smiled weakly and put her hands down. "Link, what is of importance is the friends you left behind. They are all gone. To distant lands or have been delivered to the goddesses up above. Even your best friend, Saria, she's dead Link." The woman paused, letting the news sink in. "She was waiting for you. All of us were. We hid behind the flimsy belief that you would come back. We clung to you. You gave us hope, But you did not return and we wept Link. We wept because in our hearts, we knew you weren't coming home." Link dropped to his knees as tortured sobs racked his body. Inside, he knew it was coming. Everything and everyone had to come to an end, but not like this, he thought. Never like this. "Do you want to know how she died Link? She killed herself. The day she heard you married princess Zelda. She knew you were gone for good. and then, She died. Slashed her wrists and jumped off of your balcony, Off the house that she had come to worship like a shrine to you." Link buried his face in his hand and cried. Link had never cried before. Even when his body was put to the test, day after day, monster after monster, he never cried. Now, his childhood mother and first real friend was dead. Link felt like he had killed her with his own hands. Staggering up, he started to run. Where his legs carried him, he did not know, but he knew he wanted to get as far away from the that place as possible. There was a splash and Link felt the cool feel of water wash over him, then he blacked out, the pain was just too much and his body was numb with disbelief.