EXT. KAKARIKO VILLAGE – SUNRISE.

People are FRANTICALLY FLEEING about town as a VULGAR, BRIGHT SUNRISE silhouettes their forms. There are shouts and SCREAMS.

The BEARDED MAN (from pg. ________) fires an ARROW from his bow; the arrow goes sailing into the sunlight (consequently BLINDING the audience and washing out any colors or shapes). Immediately before impact the camera’s ZOOM IN avoids this blinding sunlight and reveals a HIDEOUS, SKELETAL CREATURE milling over the ground. It has a cumbersome, JAGGED SWORD for a right arm in lieu of a wrist or hand. This is a STALFOS MUTANT: Stalfos #1.

The Bearded Man’s arrow HITS the creature’s forehead; despite the thing’s skeletal appearance this wound GUSHES FLUID (chartreuse blood) and the Stalfos FALLS onto the earth with a STRANGLED CRY. It STANDS AGAIN, very unsteadily, as ANOTHER TOWNSPERSON comes in with a sword and pierces the creature’s SHOULDERBLADES.

As many residents FLEE in the background the Boy and Girl from earlier SKULK behind a row of supplies from Lon-Lon Ranch, laid out alongside the road. The children creep through the mess of boxes and past the rotted House of Skulltula. They barely make it to the next house unseen as a Stalfos passes. They go through the empty domicile, carefully avoiding the windows, until they reach the front door and exit, attempting to reach the safety of the OLD CONVERTED INN across the road.

They cautiously step out onto the porch, STARING at each other wordlessly; the Boy finally goes first, but a Stalfos suddenly DROPS DOWN from the porch overhang and SNARLS before him. This is Stalfos #2. The Girl LEAPS IN FRONT of the Boy and holds him back; she quickly PUSHES the Boy backwards.

The Stalfos LUNGES AT the retreating children and STABS the Girl through her LEFT SIDE, prompting a SCREAM OF PAIN from her.

The Boy SCREAMS also.

The Girl FALLS to the ground with the Boy KNEELING at her side as the Stalfos PREPARES TO STRIKE again. It brings the blade down but it is KNOCKED ASIDE by the Boy, who uses a DISHEVELED FRYING PAN to deflect the blade; it lands beside his leg, KNICKING the flesh of HIS CALF and prompting another SCREAM from the Boy.

The creature again RAISES ITS BLADE and brings it down; this time it is BLOCKED by a CRESCENT-MOON-SHAPED BLADED WEAPON in the hands of Sheik; who is now standing between the children and the Stalfos.

Sheik brings a SECOND BLADED WEAPON up to KNOCK the Stalfos’ arm aside; as the creature REELS BACKWARDS Sheik’s EYES SPARKLE and a BRIGHT FLASH fills the screen.

Inexplicably, both the children and Sheik are now on the WIDOW’S WALK above the House of Skulltula.

The Girl is lying on the boy’s legs, pale and GASPING IN PAIN. Sheik looks down at the opposite house and watches as the Stalfos moves outside in pursuit of them.

Sheik KNEELS beside the Girl and LIFTS UP her shirt to reveal the wound: it is HEMORRHAGING a large quantity of blood. Sheik REMOVES THE GLOVE on his right hand and presses his hand against that wound while CRADLING DOWN over the girl. FAINT RED LIGHT gums up the gaps between their bodies; this light slowly turns BRIGHTER, and then GREENER. When the LIGHT FADES and Sheik REMOVES HIS HAND the Girl’s wound appears SCARRED OVER and LESS PRONOUNCED, although a large amount of BLOOD still mars her torso and clothing.

The Girl’s head falls back into the Boy’s lap; she loses consciousness, BREATHING DEEPLY and REGULARLY.

Sheik STANDS UP and LOOKS DOWN at Stalfos #2 as it approaches the house below them (Sheik’s eyes are now almost completely VIOLET instead of bright red); he takes ONE STEP towards the edge of the widow’s walk but then FALTERS TO ONE KNEE. Sheik BURPS, pained, and quickly EXPOSES HIS LOWER FACE where a small TRICKLE OF BLACK SLUDGE has escaped the corner of his mouth; he SPITS OUT a mess of sludge and STANDS up again, looking down at the Stalfos with NARROWED EYES (NOTE: the patchwork scarves that cover his face remain DANGLING in the breeze, still largely eclipsing his face).

Sheik quickly SOMERSAULTS over the railing and lands on the ground in front of the house; the Stalfos LUNGES at him and Sheik PARRIES a thrust of its sword, knocking the creature BACKWARDS. As Stalfos #2 falls Sheik quickly KNEELS and VOMITS BLACK TAR; ANOTHER STALFOS (Stalfos #3) joins the fight. Sheik PARRIES this newcomer’s attack but is STRUCK in his shoulder; he SCREAMS and uses his SECOND BLADED WEAPON to slash at the Stalfo’s belly, cutting it open and sending STEAMING HOT GOO cascading out. Sheik’s blade goes SAILING OFF, wild, into the grass in front of the house. Stalfos #3 FALLS BACK to where the first one landed and then both creatures regroup and come after Sheik.

Sheik STEPS BACKWARD, FALTERING to one knee before standing again, and then he DISAPPEARS into the House of Skulltula. Both Stalfos quickly PURSUE HIM.

INT. HOUSE OF SKULLTULA – SUNRISE.

A decrepit ruin of a home, as if long ago gutted by fire. There are no windows and nothing inside but unspeakably ROTTED and DECAYED debris.

The two Stalfos, making OMINOUS, SINISTER GRUNTING NOISES, slowly move through the debris of the home, warily LOOKING for Sheik. Steam still rises over Stalfos #3’s face from the gaping disembowelment wound along its belly. Both Stalfos follow a TRAIL OF BLOOD on the floorboards that leads to a mess of FALLEN ROOFBEAMS; part of Sheik’s PATCHWORK WEB OF SCARVES ruffles from the darkness of this nook.

Stalfos #2 SCREAMS and STABS AT this dark area, LUNGING FORWARD; Sheik suddenly DROPS DOWN from the ceiling and SPLITS OPEN the head of Stalfos #3 with his bladed weapon (consequently LODGING the blade in its head). Sheik is now clad only in his gray FORM-FITTING BATTLE DRESS. Stalfos #2 turns and PREPARES TO STRIKE at Sheik, only to be ATTACKED by a HIDEOUS-LOOKING SPIDER CREATURE with a partially HUMAN FACE on its thorax (this is the CURSED MAN). The Cursed Man SNARES Stalfos #2 with webbing before being THROWN OFF and sent into one of the far walls of the house; Sheik HITS Stalfos #2 with a WOODEN BEAM, sending the creature STUMBLING BACK OUT the front door.

As Sheik moves to FOLLOW the monster Stalfos #3 (moving blindly and madly, like a chicken with its head cut off) manages to SWIPE AT Sheik’s exposed back, SLICING INTO his flesh and prompting a SCREAM from Sheik. Sheik ATTACKS the creature with hand-to-hand techniques, causing the monster to land on the floor, and then he REMOVES his bladed weapon from the creature’s head; he leaves Stalfos #3 lying on the floor, unmoving, to pursue Stalfos #2 outside.

EXT. KAKARIKO VILLAGE – SUNRISE.

Sheik RUNS OUT the front door and GRUNTS, THROWING his bladed weapon through the air. It HITS Stalfos #2 in the chest, sending the monster down onto the grass. Sheik still RACES towards the supine monster and PICKS UP his first blade from the grass (where it had previously been cast); he LEAPS THROUGH THE AIR and comes to rest atop Stalfos #2. Sheik VICIOUSLY SLASHES at the monster’s chest, neck and head, causing copious GREEN BLOOD and STEAMING GOO to erupt from the creature, bathing Sheik in the slime; Sheik stops only after the Stalfos has STOPPED MOVING for several seconds.

CLOSE-UP on Sheik’s face; the man PANTS openly and CRINGES IN PAIN. After about fifteen seconds Sheik suddenly GRUNTS and TURNS.

Stalfos #3 has emerged from the house and attacks from behind; Sheik blocks this with one arm, which is SLASHED. Sheik FALLS BACKWARD onto the corpse of Stalfos #2 as Stalfos #3 COMES DOWN with its jagged sword; Sheik BLOCKS it with his bladed weapon and the weapons LOCK WITH EACH OTHER. Stalfos #3’s sword comes down closer and closer to Sheik, who is obviously too fatigued to resist. The blade sinks down near Sheik’s eyes, then his lips and finally against his neck, all while the man PERSPIRES and GRUNTS, pushing against the weapon with his own weapon.

Eventually, as the blade comes snug against Sheik’s throat, a DISQUIETING SMILE graces Sheik’s lips. He LAUGHS, very faintly, and closes his eyes.

The sound of HORSES HOOVES echoes, growing very loud very quickly.

LINK rides past this scene on Epona; he SWIPES at these interlocked weapons with Dhise Slaighre as he passes, knocking both weapons out of their respective owners’ hands and inadvertently CUTTING part of his own arm on the Stalfos blade.

Stalfos #3 FALLS BACKWARD in the aftermath of this pass.

Sheik retrieves his other bladed weapon from the chest of Stalfos #2 and LUNGES AFTER Stalfos #3; he strikes at the monster SAVAGELY, causing several DEVASTATING WOUNDS as he pushes the monster against the House of Skulltula.

Link (on foot) joins Sheik and, as Sheik KNOCKS the Stalfos’ sword to one side Link suddenly THRUSTS DHISE SLAIGHRE into the Stalfos’ head through its nose with such force as to PIN the monster’s head to the side of the house.

Stalfos #3 FAILS insanely against the house; one of its arms comes flailing up past Dhise Slaighre, moving so ferociously that it is AMPUTATED as it brushes against the sword. The creature’s movements lessen, and then ultimately cease.

Link TOYS with a very small RED EARRING in his RIGHT EAR. He GRUNTS noncommittally.

Link slowly REMOVES his sword from the creature’s head; the Stalfos falls lifelessly to the ground as the GREEN BLOOD ON THE BLADE magically hardens into a permanent STAIN.

Link LOOKS OVER at Sheik, who stands with most of his back to the man. It is clear from the noises and happenings in the background that the rest of the town is mostly UNDER CONTROL.

Sheik begins WALKING OFF.

LINK
“Now don’t you go thanking me too much...”

Sheik CONTINUES WALKING; Link FOLLOWS behind.

LINK
“Or would you have rather that I not ‘interfered’? You kinda looked like you were enjoying the prospect of having an air-hole added to your neck! Hey! Listen to me, damnit!”

Sheik IGNORES Link, and as he walks he suddenly CRUMPLES TO THE GROUND, limp; he holds his hands OVER HIS BODY in a protective, FETAL POSITION, but then he SHUDDERS. SPURTS OF BLOOD comes seeping out all the wounds he endured in his fight with the two Stalfos. Sheik SHUDDERS several more times; each time MORE SPURTS OF BLOOD explode from his wounds.

Link KNEELS BESIDE the man, grabbing his shoulder.

LINK

(whispering)
“Oh, the Goddesses’ names!”

Sheik RECOILS from Link’s touch.

SHEIK
“Don’t you touch me! Don’t... don’t... d—don’t...”

Sheik CRAWLS AWAY a short distance, and then he begins VOMITING steadily, this time it is normal GREEN VOMIT instead of pitch-black sludge.

Both the Boy and the Girl STARE DOWN at the men from their perch on the widow’s walk above the House of Skulltula.

EXT. KAKARIKO VILLAGE UPPER TERRACES, PATH TO THE FORTUNE TELLER’S HUT – LATE EVENING.

This is one of the higher parts of Kakariko Village, situated on the upper slope of Death Mountain (the terrain is about eye-level with the top of the old windmill in the background).

Link sits on a crate down the path from the Fortune Teller’s SMALL CIRCULAR HUT, where LIGHT streams out from the windows. He LOOKS BACK at the hut while CRADLING his injured arm.

The Boy comes wordlessly up the path with Shikashi, carrying a basket and LIMPING on account of his calf injury. As the Boy passes Link he hands him an AMPOULE containing a shining green fluid.

Shikashi quickly SNATCHES IT AWAY from Link.

SHIKASHI

(to the Boy)

“No: child, no!”

Shikashi pulls a SECOND AMPOULE out of the Boy’s basket, this one contains a shining red fluid. He hand this red ampoule to Link, who takes it. Shikashi holds up the GREEN AMPOULE and wags it.

SHIKASHI

“You’re not a creature of magic, Pale Rider; Sheik is. He forfeited so much of his animal self so long ago to its embrace: it makes one so strong in some ways, but so much weaker, too, in others.”

Shikashi and the Boy walk off for the Fortune Teller’s Hut.

LINK
“Will he survive?”

Shikashi STOPS walking and sighs.

SHIKASHI

“Will he survive? Of course not. Young fools: they never do, not for long.”

The old man FACES Link.

LINK
“I mean—”

SHIKASHI
“I know what you mean, Pale Rider. If the old woman can keep him in this world until sunrise, I think, then he’ll be able to linger with us a time longer. I can’t say how much longer. He could say, I suppose. In the end, though, I think it’s merely a question of how devoted his heart is to the prospect of staying with us. Tch! When a body gives itself over to magic so, that’s always the deciding factor for their survival. Shadows can stay in the sunlight indefinitely, after all, until the day becomes cloudy enough for them. So, then, if Sheik’s heart is, indeed, devoted enough, he’ll likely linger on...”

The Boy and Shikashi move towards the Fortune Teller’s hut and HAND-OFF their supplies to the Fortune Teller at the door.

Link WATCHES this exchange and eventually RISES; he moves away from the Fortune Teller’s hut, facing the rising MOON on the horizon.

LINK
“A matter of ‘devoted hearts’.”

Link slowly removes the OCARINA OF TIME from under his cloak.

NAVI emerges from Link’s cowl and comes to rest on his SHOULDER.

Link looks at the fairy.

LINK

“That isn’t a deciding factor for me, Navi. But, then, you already know that...”

NAVI shrugs.

LINK
“Still: it’d be so much easier to find her, wouldn’t it? If she were alive it’d put my mind at ease...”

NAVI looks up at Link.

LINK
“...to know that the Royal Family lineage is intact. What did you think I meant? I was serious when I told Sheik I have no loyalties to her! After we kill Ganondorf Hyrule will be in need of a ruler— that’s only practical— and say what you will about her, but Zelda is a dedicated person. She was when she had her baby teeth, at least.”

Link TURNS the ocarina over in his hands. Navi stares at him INCREDULOUSLY.

LINK
“You still don’t believe me, huh? We have a job to do, Navi: we’re going to slit Ganondorf’s throat, and that’s all that matters...”

The fairy CROSSES HER ARMS and SHAKES HER HEAD; she flies back up into Link’s cowl.

LINK
“...my feelings— one way or the other— are irrelevant. The road we’re moving down is a deserted one, and we’re not little kids, anymore. We don’t get to be ‘lonely together’ with anyone, we just get to be lonely...”

Link HOLDS UP the Ocarina of Time.

LINK

(whispering)

“‘This ocarina has the power to unite the most devoted of hearts’.”

Link puts the ocarina to his lips and CLOSES HIS EYES; he slowly plays through the LAST NINE NOTES of Epona’s Song.

SLOW PAN across the moonlit range; a FAINT NEIGH rises from somewhere far off in the distance.

Link SMILES.

LINK
“Wherever they roam...”

He very slowly sets the MOUTHPIECE of the ocarina to his lips again, pausing, before launching into an AWKWARD RENDITION OF ZELDA’S LULLABY. After a moment’s reflection Link remembers the notes and plays an ACCURATE RENDITION of the song.

SLOW PAN across the moonlight range as Link plays through the entirety of the song.

Begin a CLOSE-UP as Link comes to the end of the song; he launches into a REPEAT, and only a few notes into the song the MOUTHPIECE on the Ocarina of Time SPARKLES near its base (not visible to Link).

As Link CONTINUES PLAYING there is a SUCCESSION OF FLASHES across the screen: Young Link, in the Temple of Time, with the GREEN BALL OF FIRE swirling over his chest, a flash of the doorway opening, a flash of Link and Zelda in the castle courtyard (the shot with them separated by a sprig of white rosebushes in the foreground), and a very brief flash of YOUNG ZELDA’S EYES in profile.

(NOTE: for the duration of this next scene there is a faint sound, as of a GLASS RIM BEING ‘PLAYED’ with a wandering finger. The noise is beautiful, but oscillates unsteadily)

(NOTE: from this point forward in the narrative there are multiple moments of continuous, fluid transitions between Adult and Young Link; these are literally indicated in this text using the phrase ‘scene-cut’.)

A MASSIVE WHITE FLASH (blinding in comparison to all the moonlit hues and colors of this scene) encompasses the screen; after it fades we see YOUNG LINK sitting in the royal apple orchard with the Ocarina of Time to his lips (same as pg. _______) also playing ZELDA’S LULLABY. The boy LOOKS UP, startled; in his EYES is a reflection of ADULT LINK sitting in the moonlit field.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: he LOOKS UP, equally startled; in his EYES is a reflection of YOUNG LINK sitting before the sunset in the apple orchard.

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy jumps up in alarm and slams his head into a tree branch, falling down into a heap.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: the man GASPS in surprise and TOPPLES BACKWARDS into the tall grass. The OCARINA OF TIME falls into the grass beside him.  

(NOTE: ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise stops here)

Adult Link rolls to his side, PANTING; Navi emerges from his cowl and lands on his CHEST, looking the man up and down.

LINK

“T— tell me you saw that! Tell me you felt any of that?”

Navi BLINKS IN CONFUSION; she shakes her head.

Link SITS UP, running a hand through his hair, before slowly RETRIEVING the OCARINA OF TIME from the grass. The ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise again sounds, faintly, and again there is a reflection in Adult Link’s EYES of Young Link reaching down (towards the camera).

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is reaching into the shallow water, where he has just plucked the Ocarina of Time out from the reeds. He is looking into the water deeply; Adult Link is reflected in the boy’s EYES.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: he quickly shoves the Ocarina of Time into a compartment inside his cloak; the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise stops suddenly, replaced by chirping CRICKETS and Link’s HEAVY PANTING.

LINK

(with one hand over his cloak)
“This Ocarina... has the power...”

FORTUNE TELLER

“...whenever they roam.”

Link BOLTS to his feet and WHIPS AROUND; the Fortune Teller is standing behind him, about ten feet into a knoll of scrub.

The old woman SMILES at Link with a very UNSETTLING GRIN.

INT. FORTUNE TELLER’S HUT – PRE-DAWN.

A cramped series of bamboo rooms inside the circular dwelling. A trickle of water from a natural spring behind the hut cuts through the dwelling, providing water to a small MYSTIC-LOOKING DIVINING POND near the hut’s center (it cuts across the sandy floor in a small carved trench up to this point)

Link sits with his back to a wall beside a very small window near the rear of the hut. The Fortune Teller ROOTS AROUND in a cabinet on the other side of this room (across from the small trickle of water meandering across the hut).

The OCARINA OF TIME sits on a much-used table near the old woman.

FORTUNE TELLER

“Oh... bother and knobs! Hmph! Had myself some prime blanchroot here just the other day. Made such a fine smoking powder, too!”

The woman STOPS rummaging momentarily.

FORTUNE TELLER

“Although I suppose you wouldn’t be inclined to partake.”

LINK
“I suppose I wouldn’t.”

The old woman moves to a small BENCH beside the cabinet and removes a STEAMING PITCHER from a drawer.

FORTUNE TELLER

“Well: there’s mash ale, flavors culled from the finest buds of Deacon’s Fie lilies, don’t you know...”

LINK
“I wouldn’t be inclined to partake.”

The old woman sits cross-legged on the ground across from the man, holding the OCARINA OF TIME between her hands. She motions to the small STREAM running before them.

FORTUNE TELLER

“Spring water from the base of Death Mountain, right behind us: very cold and very fresh. Quenches the thirst quite nicely...”

The old woman STARES at Link for a time.

LINK
“Although, you suppose...”

FORTUNE TELLER

(nodding)
“You wouldn’t be inclined to partake.”

The Fortune Teller puts her CHIN ON ONE KNUCKLE, amused.

FORTUNE TELLER
“I think you might hate me, don’t you, Pale Rider? Or at the very least there’s strong animosity, there.”

LINK
“Incredible. And you didn’t even read my palm lines...”

FORTUNE TELLER
“Well, no: you don’t really hate me. It’s what I... how should I put it: what I ‘represent’?”

LINK
“I’ve seen enough ‘magic’ and ‘mysticism’ in my time, old woman. I know what kind of path those dark arts lead to.”

FORTUNE TELLER

“Ah, yes: you’ve seen how some use them...”

There is a PAINED WHIMPER from across the hut; Link notices movement in one of the other rooms. He can just barely see one of the FORTUNE TELLER’S ASSISTANTS tending to Sheik, who lies prone on a table (barely any of this scene is visible, save for parts of Sheik’s calves and the distinct impression that Sheik is bare, at least from the waist-down).

FORTUNE TELLER
“But you’ve also seen how others use them, haven’t you? Sheik, for example: sh—”

The old woman PAUSES briefly.

FORTUNE TELLER
“He uses his abilities for quite a different purpose.”

LINK

(sulky)
“The jury’s still out on him...”

FORTUNE TELLER
“It’s very easy for you to hate me, Pale Rider, and magic, too, since you are not a creature of magic, isn’t it? Shikashi was right back there: regardless of any... ‘relationships’ you may have...”

Link LOOKS UP at the Fortune Teller; both he and the old woman SLOWLY MOVE THEIR EYES towards the top of Link’s cowl (where Navi resides). Link self-consciously TIGHTENS the cowl down over his head.

FORTUNE TELLER
“...you surely didn’t come into them through enchanted blood: you’re as mortal as any man, and as ordinary as a blade of grass, magically speaking.”

The old woman REACHES for the Ocarina of Time and hold it in one hand.

FORTUNE TELLER

“This instrument, however, is quite a different story.”

LINK
“So I wasn’t hallucinating? I wasn’t imagining.”

FORTUNE TELLER

“Imagining? No. Definitely not. But hallucinating? Well, that depends on your definition of the word. What did you see?”

LINK
“A— an orchard at sunset, and a small boy...”

FORTUNE TELLER

“A boy you know?”

Link appears DAZED. He shakes his head.

LINK
“No: I never really knew him, I don’t think...”

FORTUNE TELLER

“But you’ve seen him before?”

The woman LEANS FORWARD, SMILING KNOWINGLY.

LINK
“Seen him before? Sure: in ponds and mirrors. But not for 12 years.”

FORTUNE TELLER

“You, then?”

The woman HOLDS UP the Ocarina of Time appreciatively, CHUCKLING.

FORTUNE TELLER

“Who gave you this ocarina, Pale Rider?”

LINK
“It was constructed by Darunia.”

FORTUNE TELLER
“The last Goron King. Hmmm. Made for you?”

LINK
“No. It changed hands at least a few times.”

The Fortune Teller SMILES and produces a SMALL, SLENDER STICK from her vestments.

FORTUNE TELLER

“The Goroni look at things so differently from the rest of us. The salt of the earth they are: minerals, almost, entirely, and just like a chunk of hardened rock— lying unchanged from age to age to age— their view of things we ‘understand’ (NOTE: sarcastic inflection) so well— things like ‘time’— is so very skewed from ours. Flesh, after all, is such a transient thing. We’re mere flashes of lightning in the darkness, but they are stately candles, burning long and lean through the cold night. Their mindset— and, thus, their crafts— represent a more... ‘intransient’ view of time, if you will.”

LINK
“Is it afterimages, then? That ocarina has the power to... to what? Recall distant memories for someone?”

FORTUNE TELLER
“No. There is only one device known that has the power to recall distant memories. ‘Memories’ are not the domain of magic or enchanted instruments: they are yours, entirely, Pale Rider.”

LINK
“Then... what I saw... You’re not saying this thing can take someone back in time? To the past?”

FORTUNE TELLER

“No.”

LINK
“But—”

The Fortune Teller DIRECTS Link’s eyes to the small stream of water running through the dirt floor between them. She moves her SMALL STICK down the stream line in the water, along with the trickling current.

FORTUNE TELLER
“Time is a river, Pale Rider. Its current is straight and absolute. There are eddies, perhaps, but no counter-current, and there is not a paddle made with the strength to fight that unrelenting rush, outright.”

LINK
“But what about the ocarina? Now you say it was a trick of my mind?”

FORTUNE TELLER
“I say that it was a certain trick of time: a trick this ocarina seems to have the ability to make use of...”

The Fortune Teller moves her stick about an inch beside the stream in the dirt and DRAWS A LINE parallel to the water’s path. She makes a small BREAK between the lines upstream to allow water into this second line.

FORTUNE TELLER
“Time is a river, and any large river has its tributaries. Any large river has its branches...”

LINK
“How many?”

FORTUNE TELLER
“How many hairs on your head, Pale Rider? How many hairs on the heads of every creature to ever walk beneath the Golden Goddesses’ sun, from now until the earliest days when the sun shone bright and young over Old Hylia? Time’s tributaries are innumerable, and immeasurable. And the distance between each of them? Usually insurmountable.”

The Fortune Teller hands Link the Ocarina of Time. As Link takes the instrument the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise begins very faintly rising; he quickly moves the instrument to his right hand (which is gloved) and replaces the instrument in his cloak.

FORTUNE TELLER
“This ocarina has the power to breech the smallest sliver of these walls, like cutting into the distance between two hairs held snug in a ponytail...”

LINK
“Then... then the boy I saw... it wasn’t me...”

The Fortune Teller wags her head.

FORTUNE TELLER
“It is you. A different you. Same boy, different circumstance: a different Hyrule.”

Link STANDS and prepares to leave.

LINK
“Then it’s an inconsequential one. If I could truly go back in time then I could fix everything—”

FORTUNE TELLER
“Oh, could you, now?”

LINK
(growling)

“Yes.”

The Fortune Teller also stands.

FORTUNE TELLER
“Well, if you believe that, then I am sorry: you can never begin again, Pale Rider, but, all the same, you can always try to fix your mistakes...”

The woman turns to leave the room, moving for the room containing Sheik, but Link stops her.

LINK
“No fortune today, then?”

The woman again FACES Link, scowling. She slowly approaches the man and rests one finger on his CHIN.

The Fortune Teller quickly THRUSTS her hand away from Link’s chin, causing a small BLOOD SPATTER to streak across the dirt floor; neither Link’s chin nor the woman’s hand are bleeding, however.

FORTUNE TELLER
“Mostly a man’s ‘fortune’ is told by what he brings with him. You’re fortune is unchanged from before, because the thing you bring with you is the same as before.”

The Fortune Teller stalks off to tend to Sheik.

Link looks after her, ANGRY, and then he SPITS onto the dirt floor of the hut. He begins ADJUSTING HIS CLOAK, preparing to leave, but then he looks into the LINES on the dirt floor; the second line drawn by the Fortune Teller is red with a few stray BLOOD DROPS in it, and Link’s spit has landed directly between the lines. As he watches the reddish water in the second line begins crossing over into the main line, traveling along the disturbance between the lines produced by Link’s spit.

NAVI emerges from his cowl and rests on his shoulder.

LINK
“‘Devoted hearts’, Navi...”

Link rests a hand on his cloak, around the spot where the ocarina rests inside. He suddenly begins to LAUGH.

LINK
“‘Devoted hearts’. I think we got the right interpretation, but the wrong participants. He’s devoted, and so am I... so what if we’re devoted to different things?”

Link OPENS his gloved hand: the small, interlocking triangle MEDALLION (shoddy and worn down over time) rests in his hand. Link then looks at the BLOOD SPATTER on the dirt floor.

LINK
“Very different things. A stupid child’s affections notwithstanding, I think we can use this to our advantage...”

INT. LINK’S ROOM IN LON-LON RANCH – TWILIGHT (CONTINUOUS).

Young Link sits cross-legged on his bed staring at the FLOOR, where the OCARINA OF TIME rests in the center of the room. The boy looks at the instrument warily.

Eventually Link looks up, noticing a FULL-LENGTH MIRROR on the opposite side of the room near the window. The boy rises and moves to this mirror, STARING DEEPLY into it. Link blinks, confused, and then he retrieves an EMPTY PILLOWCASE from a drawer beside the mirror; he drapes it over his head, bunching it tight (like a cowl). The boy EXAMINES HIMSELF in this way, finally he puts a hand over his lower face and forehead, LEANING FORWARD to survey his eyes alone.

NAVI lilts over to the boy and perches on his SHOULDER. Link looks at the fairy and GRUNTS noncommittally.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP on the OCARINA OF TIME on the floor, Link blurry in the background. The boy very slowly crosses the room and stands before the instrument; he finally brings one hand down to pick it up, and as he does so the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise sounds again.

Link HESISTATES, but then he TOUCHES the instrument.

The boy GASPS.

Two sequential BRIGHT FLASHES reveal Adult Link’s reflection in YOUNG LINK’S EYES and then Young Link’s reflection in ADULT LINK’S EYES.

EXT. HYRULE FIELD – TWILIGHT (CONTINUOUS).

Adult Link is sitting cross-legged in the field, Epona behind him and the Ocarina of Time between his hands. He looks up with a GLARE OF CONCENTRATION.

Another BRIGHT FLASH reveals the STONEHEART from Adult Link’s time, blocked by rubble and vines; a FLASH after this reveals the Stoneheart from Link’s youth (with the titular rock formation freely dangling from its vines) reflected in YOUNG LINK’S EYES.

Adult Link looks up, GRINNING WIDELY.

LINK
“Yeah: it’s worth a shot, anyway...”

INT. LINK’S ROOM IN LON-LON RANCH – TWILIGHT (CONTINUOUS).

Young Link DROPS the Ocarina of Time on the floor and STEPS BACK, hesitant. NAVI hovers near the boy’s head. The pair LOOK AT EACH OTHER for some time, after which Link LOOKS at the ocarina again and then slowly retrieves it, using the empty pillowcase from before to hold it and attach it to his leather shoulder sash. Link retrieves his SLINGSHOT and OYSTER KNIFE from his nightstand and then creeps out of the room, closing the door very softly behind him.

EXT. THE STONEHEART – MIDMORNING.

Adult Link again stands before the pile of rubble and vines that suspend the Stoneheart far off the ground. He begins WALKING FORWARD, slowly.

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy’s skinny, bare LEGS walk over the same ground as his older counterpart. ZOOM OUT reveals the boy’s contemplative face as he stands before the Stoneheart; in this time period the giant stone rock is freely suspended about twenty feet off the ground by vines, drifting lazily before the entrance to the Great Forest.

As Link watches the COLOR TONE of the scene shifts to a more SEPIA-HUED one: we see both Young Link and Saria laughing and engaged in horseplay atop the Stoneheart itself. Their GIGGLES and LAUGHS echo hauntingly.

Young Link REMOVES the Ocarina of Time from his shoulder sash and holds it in his hands (cue ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise)

YOUNG LINK’S EYES reflect the state of the future Stoneheart: covered in rubble and vines.

The boy walks the length of this wall of rubble (which is not physically present for him, but only discernable using the ocarina’s power).

The boy inspects the limestone grounding directly beneath the Stoneheart: this natural rock formation effectively separates Hyrule Field from the Great Forest. The boy kneels down and looks through the many POROUS CRACKS in the stone, beneath which a subterranean AQUIFER gushes dark water.

The child LOOKS UP again and the Stoneheart (dangling directly above him) then back at the limestone floor.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK; he is standing still before the Stoneheart with his eyes closed, holding the Ocarina of Time. The man SMILES deeply and nods.

LINK
“You clever little boy, you...”

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is walking away from the Stoneheart. He turns to face the structure, slowly withdrawing his SLINGSHOT. The boy LOOKS UP, resolute.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: NAVI hovers near his head.

LINK
“No: I don’t know if this is going to work. And for that matter I don’t even know if he’s going to actually do it or not.”

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is still staring at the Stoneheart. The phantom, echoing sounds of CHILDREN GIGGLING AND LAUGHING lingers. Young Link’s face scrunches, first in annoyance, and then ANGER.

The boy suddenly, unexpectedly produces a TWISTED CHUNK OF METAL from the ‘ammo’ pouch on his sash and loads it into his slingshot, firing immediately; the projectile SLICES INTO a part of the vine structure holding the Stoneheart aloft. Link repeats this process NUMEROUS TIME in rapid succession, each time hitting almost exactly the same spot. After several rounds (during which a few angry TEARS trickle down the boy’s cheeks) there is a LOUD GROANING noise.

After a pause the remaining vines holding the Stoneheart SNAP AWAY, causing the massive rock to freefall into the limestone floor; as the rock impacts it BREAKS into several pieces and, consequently, destroys the limestone foundation. The subsequent demolition process leaves an IRREGULAR TRENCH that exposes the aquifer below. The remnants of the Stoneheart SINK into the middle of this pool.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: The man is sitting on the grass, no longer holding the Ocarina of Time. NAVI is on his knee.

LINK
“Did it mean that much to him, you think? I was never that sentimental, was I?”

The fairy CROSSES HER ARMS.

Link LOOKS AWAY.

LINK

“Maybe a little...”

The sound of THUNDER interrupts this conversation: a small WIND SHOCKWAVE ruffles through the grass, originating at the Stoneheart. As Link watches there are several ‘jumbled’, ‘hallucinatory’ events ultimately leading to the ‘erasure’ of the Stoneheart, the wall of rock and the vines within it (very much a ‘bad-LSD-trip’ kind of spectacle).

Eventually Link hesitantly approaches the former location of the wall: there is a very DEEP TRENCH (the remains of the aquifer) surrounded by vines that appear to have been dead for many years. Below, in the darkness, and in the middle of the former aquifer basin are the remains of the Stoneheart, wedged into a small CHASM. A BARELY NOTICABLE TRICKLE OF WATER emanates from this plug, but not nearly enough to keep the aquifer filled.  

Navi hovers near Link’s head, bearing a similar look of WONDER and INCREDULITY.

Link looks over at the fairy.

LINK
“How... cool... is... that!?”

Epona LEAPS over the chasm, driven on by Link in the saddle. When she lands on the other side Link STARES DOWN the dark, green path of the Great Forest with NARROW EYES. He begins moving Epona forward, but then stops: he turns in the saddle and looks behind him.

Young Link, standing on the opposite side of the hole in the ground is reflected in ADULT LINK’S EYES. The boy is not moving forward.

LINK
“He isn’t going to go any further. I don’t blame him...”

Link again looks down the path into the forest.

LINK
“We haven’t heard anything about the iron knight coming out of the forest, so it’s a safe bet he’s still in there. And if he is... well... whatever ends up happening isn’t something for a little kid’s eyes, is it?”

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: Adult Link is reflected in YOUNG LINK’S EYES, riding off into the forest (ie: ‘away’ from the camera).

The boy stands there for a moment, staring into the forest, before slowly turning around and tromping off towards the Hyrule Field.

EXT. GREAT FOREST ROAD – MIDMORNING.

A winding dirt path through the thick, lush greenery of the Great Forest.

CLOSE-UP on the dirt trail ahead of Epona; there is STRANGE MOVEMENT beneath the fallen leaves.

As Epona approaches this spot a SPINDLY APPENDAGE suddenly bursts through the leaves and grabs the horse’s front hooves. Epona REARS, neighing, and in the struggle Link is dumped forward out of the saddle; he careens into a hidden hole in the ground where a large, snarling creature like a cross between a warthog and a ficus (ie: as much plant as animal) lurks: this is the OVERGROWN DEKU SCRUB.

The creature savagely attacks Link, who is supine and on the defensive; he manages to remove Dhise Slaighre from his scabbard but several blows to the creature’s THICK, LEATHERY SKIN do not produce penetration.

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is walking away from the forest (towards the camera) when he stops just shy of the lens. The boy’s eyes widen.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: NAVI comes into the space between Link and the Scrub, hands to either side of her body, and gives off a succession of BRIGHT, EXPLOSIVE FLASHES that disorient the creature. Link, meanwhile, attempts to scramble out of the hole in the ground, but the Scrub suddenly and accurately swats Navi out of the air and lunges upon Link.

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is racing over the Great Forest Road, coming upon the same spot that Adult Link is mired in. The boy scrambles over the forest floor, quickly brushing away leaves. He finds a patch of SOFT EARTH underneath and begins DIGGING FRANTICALLY.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: Link wrestles with the Scrub, managing to get on top of the creature, and he bashes at its head and upper body with the weighty HILT of Dhise Slaighre, but without causing any obvious damage. The creature THROWS Link off it and then PINS him against a wall. Link gets tossed to the ground; the Scrub then SNARLS and prepares a charge.

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy still DIGS in the dirt; finally the ground beneath him drops away, sending the boy sprawling into a much smaller hole, landing on his rear with legs spread. Between the boy’s legs a small (perhaps 10” tall) plant-like creature sits rooted in the ground; this is the IMMATURE DEKU SCRUB.

The boy scurries backward just before the small creature can attack his groin. Link produces his oyster knife and comes after the small creature, which NIPS at Link’s bare legs, drawing a SUPERFICIAL WOUND on one knee; Link CRIES OUT (more with annoyance than pain) and LUNGES at the creature. The oyster knife glances off the Scrub’s side, tearing away part of the creature’s GREEN, THIN SKIN, but then the creature thrashes its limbs and sends the boy sprawling into the far side of the trench.

Scene-cut to ADULT LINK: the same ‘bad-LSD-trip’ spectacle again takes place, complete with a small wind SHOCKWAVE. The Scrub’s flesh now bears a very old, discolored WOUND on its side.

The Scrub LUNGES at Link as Link raises Dhise Slaighre. The pair collide and Link falls backwards with the Scrub firmly on top of him. There is a PROLONGED SCREAM.

After a moment of silence Link pushes the Scrub’s body off him: Dhise Slaighre is stuck smack in the middle of the creature’s old, scarred-over wound, nearly to the hilt. Link stands for a time, CATCHING HIS BREATH, and eventually pulls the sword from the creature. The Scrub bleeds yellow, and the yellow fluid magically STAINS itself upon the blade.

Link scrambles out of the hole in the ground and sits on the earth; Epona comes up beside him and NAVI flies to his side.

LINK
“Well, that was something for a little kid’s eyes, wasn’t it?”

Link runs one hand through his hair.

LINK
“...what a clever little boy, you!”

Scene-cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy emerges from the small hole in the earth with the wounded Deku Scrub SCREAMING UP AT HIM ANGRILY. The boy looks back into the hole and regards the creature with a HAUGHTY GLANCE, and then he stares deeper into the Great Forest.

CLOSE-UP on LINK’S BOOTS; there is a pause, and then the boy’s feet turn around. The boy tromps away down the Great Forest Road, again heading for the remnants of the Stoneheart and the forest exit.

EXT. SACRED FOREST MEADOW – LATE AFTERNOON.

A flat, grassy meadow bathed in indirect light from the dense forest canopy above. Vast patches of YELLOW ROSES bloom on the fringes of the meadow. To one side of this meadow is an extremely DARK PATCH of forest, complete with very ancient looking trees and WEIRD KNOLLS disappearing into a thick mist. This is the entrance to the LOST WOODS. Ahead, at the northern terminus of the meadow is a VINE-COVERED temple with an ORNATE TOWER at its center (identical to the one from pg. _______). This is the FOREST TEMPLE.

Link rides Epona onto the meadow fringe from the Great Forest Road, but he stops before the grassland and DISMOUNTS. He UNSHEATHES Dhise Slaighre. He crosses the field on foot, slowly at first, looking around WARILY.

There is a SMALL TREE STUMP sitting about 100 meters outside the Forest Temple grounds; it is covered in CHILDISH DRAWINGS and scribbling (crude pictures of hearts, monsters, stick figures and other childhood staples).

Link KNEELS beside this stump and RUNS HIS LEFT HAND over the images. (NOTE: the general slant in almost all the images indicated a right-handed artist; Link moves his hand over a picture of a BIPEDAL DINOSAUR that has an OPPOSITE SLANT, indicating a left-handed artist).

Link looks down at the CRUSHED GRASS near the stump and sees HORSE TRACKS in the ground leading to the Forest Temple; as he moves toward the place, however, he notices ANOTHER SET OF TRACKS moving away.

Link RESHEATHES Dhise Slaighre. He CONSIDERS this development, but then Link again looks at the TREE STUMP.

The GHOSTLY ECHO OF LAUGHING CHILDREN is heard.

Link decides to enter the Forest Temple, and he crosses the meadow, moving beneath the temple’s ancient arches. He pauses as NAVI peeks out his cowl.

LINK
“Mido never let us go in here. Not ever. He didn’t even want us out here in the Sacred Forest Meadow...”

Link LOOKS BACK at the stump in the distance.

LINK
“She loved it here, though. More than the Stoneheart, even. That... that was a playground. We all loved it. But this? She always thought it was such a very special place. I never really understood that about her, even though it was nice to have the place to ourselves like we did; of course, she’d never actually come in here, either...”

Link LOOKS UP at the looming FOREST TEMPLE.

LINK
“...not into the temple: she stayed in the meadow. But it wasn’t because she was scared. She wasn’t afraid, I don’t think...”

NAVI NODS at Link in agreement.

LINK
“If any Kokiri were to nest-down in the Forest Temple, though, you can be sure that she’d be with them. She’d lead them, even. Who else can the forest children count on, huh? Mido? Please...”

Link WALKS into the darkness of the Forest Temple. His voice ECHOES.

LINK
“No: I’m not still bitter about that rock to the back of the head. That wound healed up alright, didn’t it? No permanent damage to me, right?”

There is a SHORT PAUSE.

LINK
“That’s not very nice, Navi...”

INT. FOREST TEMPLE – LATE AFTERNOON.

A dimly-lit, disheveled, labyrinthine maze of dingy corridors, all adorned with FILTHY, ANCIENT FRESCOES depicting various things.

NAVI emerges from Link’s cowl, providing light.

Link hesitantly steps through the temple’s corridors, eventually following a SET OF GIGANTIC FOOTPRINTS IN THE DIRTY FLOOR that he finds. These footprints lead him to an ORNATE, SEALED DOOR. Link notices a PLAQUE set into one of the panels.

NAVI hovers near the wall and moves with Link’s hand as he struggles to read the text written on the door plaque.

LINK:
“This... this isn’t Kokiri; this isn’t any kind of forest speak. It’s... it’s ancient Hylian, Navi:

The sand to bury

And the water cover,

The leaf to screen

And the shadow conceal

‘Till their judgment be revealed,

 When their judgment proves its yield.

‘Till their judgment proves its yield

Let their judgment be concealed.”

Link DROPS his hand and LOOKS at Navi.

LINK

“Judgment?”

NAVI shrugs.

LINK

“Sand, water, leaf, and... shadow. I’ve heard all this before, haven’t I? I know I have. Where, though?”

Link SHAKES HIS HEAD.

LINK
“Even so: what the hell is ancient Hylian text doing in a temple sitting in the middle of the Great Forest? The Hylians never came within a thousand leagues of this place, did they?”

NAVI again SHRUGS.

Link BOWS HIS HEAD in annoyance, noticing for the first time ANOTHER set of massive footprints; these are leaving the doorway, heading off in another direction down the hall. The footprints are very BLOODY.

Link LOOKS UP, slowly, and UNSHEATHES Dhise Slaighre.

LINK
“You ready?”

Navi flies up beside Link’s head.

LINK
“Then let’s go...”

Link VIOLENTLY KICKS at the door; two kicks are enough to send both hinged doors CRACKING backwards, exposing the corridor beyond.

SLOW ZOOM on Link’s eyes. There is no sound except for stray gusts of wind echoing down the corridors.

LINK

(whispering)
“...Goddesses... wept!”

Link moves into the corridor: the place is filled with many sundry survival items, all semi-organized around the place constituting a makeshift campsite (cooking utensils, tent draping, etc...) This chamber shows obvious signs that it was a living area for quite some time (ie: years).

The BODIES of about a dozen Kokiri forest children are strewn randomly throughout this place (an approximately equal proportion of boys and girls, all appearing about 8-years-old, give or take a year). FAIRY ASHES, too, are strewn about the place near or on many of the bodies. All the children were slaughtered using a bladed weapon.

Link moves through this grisly scene slowly; he KNEELS beside a few of these bodies, but quickly continues on after each stop.

NAVI flies along the side of the room, passing by several children’s bodies; she lingers near the FAIRY ASHES on one body’s chest, MOURNFUL.

A GIRL’S BODY blocks the way to a raised platform surrounded by railings further on in the room. The girl has short-cropped GREEN HAIR, but lies facedown. Link gently ROLLS the body over, exposing her pale face.

NAVI flies up near Link’s head.

LINK
“She... she’s not here, Navi. She’s not with them...”

NAVI notices the RAISED PLATFORM further inside the room; bright light streams down upon this area from a hole in the Forest Temple’s central tower.

Link STANDS and follows Navi’s gaze; he slowly moves for the platform, crossing over one of the railings that gird it.

Navi hovers over a spot near the center of this area: a LONG, GOLDEN KNIFE (identical to one of the Iron Knuckle’s knives from pg. _____) is stuck in the floor of the platform, nearly dead-center, jutting out of the rock. It is covered in BLOOD and there is a LARGE POOL OF BLOOD all around it. Scattered even further around the knife, in a regular ‘burst’ pattern, are tiny SHINING SPECKS of light (perhaps a thousand of them) barely visible, like decayed firefly light, radiated out all around the knife in the floor.

FAR OVERHEAD SHOT as Link slowly approaches the knife: there is a VAGUE PATTER of the floor he walks on (visible only from above): a LARGE LEAF image takes up the majority of this flooring.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP on the golden knife: there is a piece of fabric that is run-through and stuck to the blade: a CHILD-SIZED DARK-GREEN HEADBAND.

Link kneels and PULLS the knife from the ground; he examines this headband closely.

SLOW CAMERA PAN around this scene: as it begins we see a large PICTURE OF GANONDORF resting against the far railing behind Link (the color-scheme, etc... make this picture very conspicuous). Ganondorf is standing before a lightning-filled sky, posing GRANDLY. As the camera pans Link’s head eclipses the portrait in the frame; when we again see the portrait it has the same background, but this time Ganondorf is leaning forward and LEERING SINISTERLY (NOTE: both of these are STILL IMAGES: there is no visible movement in the portrait itself).

Link gently PLUCKS the headband from the golden knife. He holds it up in front of his face, eventually SMELLING it, briefly. He leans his head against the golden knife’s hand-guard and SIGHS, with his eyes closed.

When Link opens ONE EYE he sees a reflection in the knife’s blade: a DARK FIGURE behind him, running toward him bearing a cruel lance.

Link CRIES OUT and ROLLS TO ONE SIDE, using the golden knife to deflect his assailant’s lance; the resulting contact sends the GOLDEN KNIFE sailing out of Link’s hand where it lands very close to the portrait of Ganondorf, which by now only contains an image of the lightning-covered background: Ganondorf’s image is no longer there at all.

Link lands hard on the stone floor, cradling a FLESH WOUND on his left arm. His assailant stands near the center of the chamber, directly on top of the blood pool. His CRUEL BLACK RIDING BOOTS ‘paw’ at the floor, disturbing the dried blood on the floor. From behind, this figure bears a startling resemblance to GANONDORF.

Link SNARLS.

When the figure turns, however, we see a ‘cheap imitation’ of a face: something vaguely made in Ganondorf’s image, but hideously deformed, as well.

This is PHANTOM GANONDORF.

Link RECOILS at the face’s hideousness, but then quickly recovers and UNSHEATHES Dhise Slaighre.

The pair engage each other near the center of the chamber. Link uses the nimbleness of his sword against Phantom Ganondorf’s slow, awkward lance to eventually force the creature off-balance: when Phantom Ganondorf performs an ungraceful 180-degree spin Link quickly plows the tip of Dhise Slaighre between the creature’s shoulder blades. Phantom Ganondorf SCREAMS INHUMANLY, but as he falls to his knees a SHOCKWAVE of energy sends Link sprawling across the chamber beside the now-empty PORTRAIT OF GANONDORF; DHISE SLAIGHRE lands very far away, on the opposite side.

Phantom Ganondorf begins to LAUGH inhumanly and gets to its feet, unaffected by the recent impaling.

Link, sprawled beside the portrait, eyes the creature in disbelief.

Phantom Ganondorf CLOSES HIS FIST in front of his mouth, with his knuckles facing Link; there is a noise like an ENERGY WEAPON POWERING UP, and then the creature quickly THRUSTS his fist down in Link’s direction. A BRIGHT WHITE BALL OF ENERGY goes sailing through the air, heading for Link.

Link SCRAMBLES and manages to avoid the ball-lightning; the energy instead hits the PORTRAIT behind Link.

Phantom Ganondorf briefly STUMBLES and CRIES OUT in pain; it recovers after a moment, picking its lance up off the floor. It CHARGES at Link, lance extended.

CLOSE-UP on Link’s eyes; his brow rises quickly.

NAVI darts in front of the empty PORTRAIT. The light of her body forces a ‘hidden image’ to be partially revealed: the original stately pose of Ganondorf (very faint, almost like a watermark).

Link barely DODGES Phantom Ganondorf’s attack and grabs the GOLDEN KNIFE from the floor; he blindly SLASHES at the portrait, tearing a three-inch wide hole in its left side.

Phantom Ganondorf SCREAMS in pain: its right arm is suddenly RENT violently, almost to the point that it is severed apart. BLACK MIST escapes the wound instead of blood.

Link stabs near the portrait’s middle and draws the blade down its length.

Phantom Ganondorf GRUNTS in a sick, ‘wet’ way: it collapses to its knees, its hands reflexively clutching tight over its chest and stomach (NOTE: because of the creature’s intricate clothing— the cape, the vest, the chain-mail undershirt, etc... this vivisection is NOT entirely visible).

The creature LOOKS DOWN with a pained, sickly glare, but then its countenance changes; it looks up at Link with a MOCKING SNEER, using one hand to pick up the DARK GREEN HEADBAND from the floor. It holds this article of clothing up near its head and then uses its other hand to make a crude ‘slashing’ motion over its own throat, GRINNING DEEPLY all the while.

Link uses the golden knife to SLASH at the portrait, cutting it at ‘throat-level’.

Phantom Ganondorf’s neck explodes in a cloud of black mist. The creature’s look goes blank and its jaw slackens; it CRUMPLES in a heap on the floor, exploding into a black mist that quickly dissipates into the room, fading into nothingness.

Link DROPS the golden knife on the ground and SIGHS. He TOYS with a very small RED EARRING in his RIGHT EAR and then he GRUNTS noncommittally.

Link scooches across the floor (still sore from being violently thrown) and again retrieves the GREEN HEADBAND.

(NOTE: during this scene, in the background, the portrait of Ganondorf is again changed: Ganondorf is SLUMPED, as if dead, and bleeding profusely from all the rent portions of the canvas, one hand on his chest and another covering his throat)

NAVI hovers near Link’s head.

LINK
“She’s gone. She’s not with them, but still: she’s gone, Navi. She’s... she’s gone.”

EXT. SACRED FOREST MEADOW – EARLY EVENING.

Link emerges from the dark arches of the Forest Temple. He wanders through the meadow unsteadily, eventually coming to the SMALL STUMP at its center. Link STARES DOWN at the hand-carved images on the stump. He CLOSES HIS EYES.

SHEIK
“The flow of time is always cruel...”

Link turns, STARTLED, with Dhise Slaighre in hand.

Sheik is standing between Link and the Forest Temple.

SHEIK

LINK
(more composed)

“Her name was Saria.”

Sheik appears STARTLED by Link’s outburst, but then his expression turns more SORROWFUL. At this point SHEIK’S EYES also appear a slightly different color: VIOLENT instead of BRIGHT RED.

SHEIK
“You... you knew her, didn’t you?”

Sheik delicately approaches Link from behind; he puts ONE GLOVED HAND on Link’s shoulder. By this time his eyes are one again bright RED.

SHEIK
“I’m sorry.”

Link RECOILS at Sheik’s touch, startled. He SHRUGS away and moves off several steps.

LINK
“Don’t you touch me, damn it!”

Sheik quickly PULLS HIS HAND back over his chest; he LOOKS DOWN, awkward and dejected. He eventually looks back up.

LINK

“It... doesn’t matter: I’m not a Kokiri, like I said. I left the forest, and I survived. I grew-up, even: I was never one of them. Not ever...”

SHEIK
“This place: she was drawn here, wasn’t she? She loved it, for whatever reason, and you never knew why, did you?”

Link looks back at Sheik, over his shoulder.

LINK
“She never knew why, either. She just always said she felt that this place would someday be very important— for both of us. Someday...”

Link again looks at the SMALL TREE STUMP.

LINK
“But it was important enough for me, then...”

SHEIK
“I’m... sure it was for her, too. Do you know why the Royal Family chose the current location of the Temple of Time to place the sacred ground they uprooted from Old Hylia?”

LINK

(bitterly sarcastic)
“It’s a lovely view of Castlebridge, for one.”

SHEIK
“It is a vertex: a geographical point of convergence between four ancient structures set into the land that is now called the New Kingdom and its surrounding territories.”

LINK
“Four points on the map? ‘Sand, leaf, water and shadow’, right?”

Sheik looks SURPRISED.

LINK
“I’ve heard this spiel before, and it was from another Sheikah, come to think of it, although she was a bit more obtuse than you are. Also, unlike most people in the New Kingdom, I can read Ancient Hylian just fine, and I saw that plaque in there. Just what exactly did it mean by ‘judgment’?”

SHEIK
“And just what did it mean by repeating that word four times over, do you think?”

Link CONSIDERS the ORNATE SPIRE of the Forest Temple in the background.

LINK
“I’ve seen a spire like this, once before... but it was underwater...”

SHEIK
“At the Zora’s Font, perhaps?”

LINK
“Hard to say for sure. I was a little tied-up with other things when I last saw it. So: ‘Water’...”

SHEIK
“The Water Temple. The Zora kept it in their heyday, and maintained its power in an unbroken line of honor-bound servants. They called them ‘sages’.”

LINK
“Sages?”

SHEIK
“The last one of record, before their race died out so many generations ago, was a young princess among her people—”

Link NODS.

LINK
“Yeah, I know: I think we’ve met.”

Sheik again appears SURPRISED.

SHEIK
“You do get around, Traveler...”

LINK
“That Zora girl is dead, too, obviously, seeing’s how the Zora went extinct long before the Royal Family even founded the New Kingdom. What about your ‘sand’ and ‘shadow’? There’s a ‘Sand Temple’, I suppose...”

SHEIK
“The Gerudo hold it, and the Gerudo keep it. At the Colossus Oasis Plain.”

LINK
“Ganondorf’s people. Well: no help there. What about ‘shadow’ then? That would imply the ‘Sheikah’, wouldn’t it? You?”

SHEIK
“The Sheikah were almost totally wiped clean from this realm in the years follow Ganondorf’s ascendancy to the throne, during the time of the Culling. There were... there were very large camps, you see, and anyone prone to resist— from the frailest of elders to the smallest of children—”

LINK
“Yeah: I know that part. So, are you the only one left, then?”

Sheik LOOKS TO ONE SIDE, hesitant; he doesn’t answer.

LINK
“Forget it: it doesn’t matter. If a little Kokiri Forest Child and a fossilized Zora princess were really supposed to be the ‘sages’ in some kind of convoluted ancient Hylian prophecy then your system’s seriously flawed: they’re both dead, and they’re not coming back—”

SHEIK
“But... there must be some kind of difference between death and—”

Sheik PAUSES.

SHEIK
“There must be a reason. This is the will of the Goddesses— it must be— and who could truly know the will of a deity? But you must seek out the ‘shadow’, Traveler: it is important.”

LINK
“I’ve got a better idea: why don’t you?”

SHEIK
“For one, the Shadow Temple is far less accessible now than it was in the past. And for another, well, I have my own reasons...”

Link SCOFFS and begins stalking off for Epona.

SHEIK
“The prophecy is quite clear, Traveler: with the sages’ judgment the Goddesses’ will shall be laid bare. Nothing has come of these words for so long— long enough for one to think them merely the stuff of fanciful legend— but now, with your arrival, these temples are becoming battlefields; Ganondorf’s actions prove the legend’s truth—”

LINK
“It only ‘proves’ that Ganondorf likes to torture and slaughter innocent people; we didn’t need to prove that about him. Besides, I don’t want him ‘judged’: I want the man dead.”

SHEIK
“You owe it to more than yourself to see this prophecy through, Traveler—”

LINK
“I don’t owe you one damned thing—”

SHEIK
“The Stalfos mutants...”

Link STOPS walking.

SHEIK
“They were not a freak occurrence—”

LINK

(whispering)
“They were ‘freak’ enough for me...”

SHEIK

 “They were a controlled, calculated plague: a punishment leveled against you—”

LINK
“Then the man’s aim is off, isn’t it?”

SHEIK
“—but directed against the people of Kakariko.”

Link LOOKS DOWN AND TO THE SIDE, GROWLING.

Sheik STEPS CLOSER to Link.

SHEIK

 “You must understand: the activation of the four Temples is the key to opening the road for the Hero of Time! It is the Hero of Time’s... ‘action’... that unlocks the sages’ powers.”

LINK
“The ‘Hero of Time’? Where the hell are you getting any of this, anyway?”

SHEIK
“It’s a hidden prophecy, kept safe by the Royal Family of Hyrule—”

Link FACES Sheik.

LINK
“And how the hell do you know about it?”

SHEIK
“Like you, I also get around...”

LINK
“And you think this ‘Hero of Time’ person is me?”

Sheik LOOKS AT THE GROUND, pausing considerably before answering.

SHEIK
“No... it isn’t, I’m sure of that. But you still have a great part to play.”

LINK
“Then who exactly is the ‘Hero of Time’, huh?”

SHIEK
“I believe... I believe that it can be me, Traveler.”

Link CROSSES HIS ARMS, SMILING ironically.

LINK
“Don’t we have a high opinion of ourselves?”

SHEIK
“Seek out the ‘shadow’!”

Link again TURNS AWAY from Sheik, GROWLING.

SHEIK
“The flow of time is always cruel, but a thing that doesn’t change with time is a memory of younger days. It’s in those moments— when we cry for our loneliness— that our departed ones are closest to our hearts, though it’s so hard to feel, sometimes. Those memories will always be your own; they’ll always be at your side when you need them most, and the people that you’ve known will always be a part of you...”

Link CLOSES HIS EYES.

SHEIK
“Saria will always be... your friend.”

When Link OPENS his eyes he BLINKS uncomfortably.

SHEIK produced a SHINING BLACK MARBLE.

SHEIK
“Traveler: we’ll meet again...”

Link TURNS and SNARLS.

LINK
“Now you wait a minute!”

Sheik THROWS the marble, sending a plume of smoke training over the grass; Link LUNGES after the man, but finds himself alone in the meadow after the smoke clears.

Link stands by himself for some time before quietly walking off, away from the Forest Temple and towards Epona. He reaches the mare, who is standing in the shadows of the forest meadow, near the misty fringe of the Lost Woods. Link quietly adjusts the horse’s saddle and satchels before RAISING HIS HEAD; Link turns suddenly, confronting a small figure standing on the fringes of the Lost Woods: this is Mido, however his appearance has changed. His face bears patchwork ‘mismatching’ and his body is similarly ungainly (as he continues to fully transform into a Skull Kid).

Mido steps forward a few paces, coming closer to the light of the forest glen.

MIDO

“M— mister?”

Link GAPES at the boy; he does not answer.

MIDO
“Y— you came from in there, didn’t you, mister?”

Link LOOKS BACK at the Forest Temple; he nods.

MIDO
“Sa— she— this girl I know— and the others with her— they haven’t come out from in there; not yet. They didn’t want to be like us, I don’t think— since the troubles came to our village— but I know she— I know they’ll return to us, someday...”

Link LOOKS TO ONE SIDE.

MIDO
“...won’t they?”

Link looks at the ground, and then he looks back up at the boy.

There is a LONG PAUSE.

MIDO
“Oh... I see. She— she won’t come out again, will she?”

Link SHAKES HIS HEAD.

MIDO
“I... trust you on that...”

Mido STARES AT THE GROUND sorrowfully. He looks back up, STARING at Link intently (SQUINTING, even).

MIDO
“You... aren’t... no: of course not; you couldn’t be him...”

Link looks AWAY from the boy.

MIDO

Malon MOTIONS to the paper.

MALON
“I found what you were looking for, by the way...”

Link reaches a hand out and TOUCHES the paper, but again he ignores Malon.

Malon SIGHS and turns to leave the barn; Link, however, moves his hand into hers, GRIPPING it and tugging her, gently.

Malon looks back, STARTLED.

Link DROPS his hand. He does not look up at Malon.

LINK
“I’m... sorry. Please: do what you need to do. I’ll be gone before daybreak...”

CLOSE-UP on Link lying in the cot for about thirty seconds; eventually the cot’s WEIGHT SHIFTS and SPRINGS SQUEAK. Malon has crawled into the cot beside Link, ‘spooning’ him from the rear.

Link tolerates this, still appearing to ignore the girl.

MALON runs one hand over the BANDAGING on Link’s left arm.

MALON
“Tell me: where does it hurt, huh? Where do you feel the pain, Pale Rider?”

Link doesn’t answer for a time.

LINK
“Nowhere important, I don’t think.”

MALON
“Before— when I said that you don’t give a damn about the people of Hyrule—”

LINK
“You were right—”

MALON
“I don’t think I was. I... don’t think that someone like you could ever feel that kind of coldness.”

Malon FINGERS Link’s wounded arm delicately. She SNUGGLES down closer to him.

MALON
“You are warm, at least...”

LINK
“Would you say I have a ‘gentle heart’?”

Malon does not answer for some time.

MALON
“No.”

Link SMILES FONDLY, closing his eyes. Malon’s head is up near Link’s bangs; she SMELLS his hair.

LINK
“What? I thought you spent enough time around wild beasts...”

MALON
“You smell... so nice.”

LINK
“Doubt that—”

MALON
“Safe. You smell safe: ‘earthy’ like... like a wet autumn wind bringing rain to the harvest. Or... or a memory— I don’t know— but you smell ‘safe’, anyway.”

Link opens his eyes; he looks down at the bed covers.

LINK
“I’m not ‘safe’, for you or for anyone. Ever since I came ba—”

Link PAUSES. He SCRATCHES at his chin, contemplatively.

LINK
“Ever since I got to Hyrule I’ve brought only one thing with me: it’s death. It follows me everywhere I go. I— I really can’t complain: that’s what I came here for, after all. That’s my part to play in all this, and so it surrounds me. That’s all...”

MALON
“Seems to me that you can choose what part you want to play, isn’t that right? It doesn’t have to be death, does it?”

LINK
“What else is there, huh?”

Link ADJUSTS his body in the bed, consequently knocking Malon’s hand off his bandaged arm.

LINK

 “I’m not safe, Malon, not for you especially. It’s bad for you, every minute I’m around here. Once I leave this place you can forget you ever knew me.”

MALON
“That’s what you think I should do?”

LINK
“That’s what I think would be best. I’m going to leave Hyrule when I finish my job— one way or another— and in the long run I really think you should erase my very existence from your memory.”

There is a LONG PAUSE.

MALON
“You’re hurt very badly— on the inside— and I know that. But still, you don’t have to be so damned cold...”

Malon RESTS HER HEAD on the pillow, her face very near the back of Link’s head.

MALON

“When— when you leave Hyrule, Pale Rider, you could always take me along with you. I wouldn’t really mind that, too much...”

Link OPENS HIS EYES again.

MALON

“Is that childish dreaming, you think? It is, I know. Ingo would never let me go: he’d be serving horsemeat to Kakariko for a solid month after I left. What would happen to the horses without me to protect them? It’s just— I... I like to dream sometimes, Pale Rider. I know I’ll never leave this ranch. I know I couldn’t...”

LINK
“You mean you have a responsibility?”

MALON NODS lightly in assent; this JOSTLE against the bed is noticed by Link.

LINK
“Well, so do I. And dreaming doesn’t change any of that.”

MALON
“I know that. But sometimes it’s the thoughts that keep you moving on. Everyone needs a little fantasy, now and then...”

The girl YAWNS. Malon CLOSES HER EYES and SNUGGLES deeper against the pillow.

MALON
“...and everyone... everyone needs a knight... sometimes...”

Link CLOSES HIS EYES; he smiles very faintly.

LINK
“What if we left here together, Malon?”

MALON
“Don’t joke, Pale Rider...”

LINK

 “Just ‘what if’: daydream for me. What if we put this place behind us? Where should I take you? Where would you like to go? Would you like to see the swamplands in the Great Fen? And the phantom bog lights, too: the way they dance around in circles around the trunks of tar-root trees, weaving strange colors in the air, as if they were ghosts on the water?”

Malon GRUNTS quietly in approval.

LINK
“There’s the Eastern Palace on the other side of the marsh, on the banks of the Lake of Leagues just before it goes off the map. Its gardens— acres of them— decaying, untended and all alone, overgrown and rotting in the sun while the dead halls of that crumbling palace loom in the distance; it has these giant pillars, glistening in the light like standing slabs of liquid iron. Would you like to see that?”

Malon GRUNTS.

Link CLOSES HIS EYES again. There is a pause.

MALON

(very sleepy)

“What else would you show me?”

LINK

“The caves of the Unnamed Mountain Range: Spectacle Rock, and the dwelling place of the ancient Hylian Berserkers, doomed to fight their civil war for all eternity. Their shouts echo in those caverns; you can hear them. With these crimson pools of molten rock deep inside— glowing like branding irons— you can almost see their spirits scurrying through the gloom...”

Malon GRUNTS.

LINK
“There’s beauty, too: The Highlands— near the wooded glen beside the Old Northern Castle— and their strange rock formations. There are peaks there that jut out sideways from the land like a finger— like a bridge into the sky—

 hovering over those green woods. And when you stand up there, with dawn creeping in over the land and the stars fading away, giving rise to the forest below, you can even see the blazing white sand of the Parapa Desert out in the distance. You turn around and there’s the black-green silt of the Midoro lowlands; beyond that there are beaded drops of dew collected on tombstones— thousands of them, in thousands of rows down in the Great Seaside Cemetery— where the first kings of Hyrule were buried— and they shine so! They shine like a hundred-thousand sparking rupees. And when you’re up there— when you’re seeing all these wonders come to life— it doesn’t feel ‘dead’, or ‘old’. They call it ‘Old Hylia’, but there’s nothing old about it. It feels so... so young: watching the light rising, it feels like the world’s just beginning— all over again— and just for you...”

Malon SNORES.

Link SMILES; he very gently slides off the cot and sits on the edge. He places the BLANKET over Malon’s body, then sits hunched down on the side of the cot, leaning forward.

Link’s DUN-COLORED CLOAK is draped over a chair set against the wall of the barn. NAVI slowly emerges from the garment and lilts over to Link, coming to rest on his KNEE.

LINK
“But... no matter how much I was drawn to it— and no matter how far I traveled through it— I never really felt anything other than... coldness. It was an artificial experience; something I couldn’t say was real. I was never meant to go exploring along the Old Shores. Something always pulled me back, nipping at my heels...”

Link LOOKS OVER beside the nightstand; DHISE SLAIGHRE rests in its scabbard up against the furniture.

LINK
“...tugging at my belt. A weight, or a hook, even...”

Link turns his attention to the ROLLED PAPER on the nightstand; he unfolds it and SMOOTHS it out as he speaks.

LINK
“...that artificiality— and that coldness: being back here— in this place— it’s the only place I ever really felt alive...”

The paper is revealed to be a map of THE NEW KINGDOM OF HYRULE (so written in calligraphy). Link TRACES A FINGER over the crumpled, ancient document along its far western boundary, where uncertain writing (as if the region is not well-explored) indicate areas called GERUDO VALLEY, FORTRESS OF FLAMES, THE HAUNTED WASTELAND and, further West still, an almost entirely-unmapped region called COLOSSUS OASIS PLAIN. Link puts one finger there, TILTING HIS HEAD in curiosity.

LINK
“The ‘sand’...”

Link then goes to the far eastern edge of the map, locating the GREAT FOREST and its boundary with the (all but unmapped) LOST WOODS. Link locates the meadow boundary between the two: the (unnamed on the map) SACRED FOREST MEADOW (which, in its arrangement, is not dissimilar to a vaginal cleft in appearance), and TAPS THE SPOT gently.

LINK
“The ‘leaf’...”

Link moves his finger UPWARD almost entirely northward, coming to the ZORA’S FONT and the small, deep lake he encountered in his boyhood. He TAPS this spot as well.

LINK
“The ‘water’...”

Link picks up a DISHEVELED QUILL sitting on the nightstand, and finding no ink he sticks the instrument under his bloody bandaging; when he removes it the tip is coated in blood.

Link DRAWS A LINE from the Colossus Oasis Plain to the CASTLEBRIDGE area of Castle Town, around the location of the Temple of Time. He does the same for the Great Forest area and the Zora’s Font: three lines, all intersecting at Castlebridge.

LINK
“‘It is a vertex’, he said. ‘Seek out the shadow’, he said...”

He SHAKES HIS HEAD; NAVI lands on the map, strolling along the bloody lines.

LINK
“This doesn’t damn-well help: the ‘shadow’ could be anywhere, and it could intersect Castlebridge from any part of Hyrule...”

NAVI nods contemplatively. The fairy WALKS THE LONGEST LINE of the map— that of the Colossus Oasis Plain-to-Castlebridge line, which is easily ten-times longer than the other two lines— and stops at the far-western part of that line, at the Colossus Oasis Plain.

Link bows his head in annoyance, but then looks intently at Navi: the fairy’s BRIGHT BODY is illuminating the page as a point-light source, radiating out from the GERUDO DESERT area. Link TILTS HIS HEAD curiously.

NAVI looks up at Link and notices him staring at her; she puts her HANDS ON HER HIPS and GESTURES UNCOMFORTABLY, questioning.

LINK
“But... shadows don’t hide from the light, Navi: they’re made by the light.”

Link puts his finger down right beside Navi and DRAWS HIS HAND along the page, back towards the Castlebridge part of the map.

LINK
“The sun shines...”

Link’s finger STOPS at Castlebridge where the line he’s following stops. The Great Forest line and the Zora’s Font line deviate out from this point in EXACTLY IDENTICAL FASHION at IDENTICAL ANGLES, towards their respective locations. Link puts TWO FINGERS on Castlebridge and PARTS THEM, moving further east.

LINK
“...and it parts around a body...”

Link takes up the BLOODY QUILL and dabs it in his bandaging again; he draws a FOURTH LINE on the map, this one a STRAIGHT EXTENSION of the Colossus Oasis Plain line further eastward, beyond Castlebridge. He stops at the first point of interest that the line comes to: it moves straight through the dead-center of KAKARIKO VILLAGE.

LINK
“...because the shadow is always under the sun.”

Link looks over at Navi and SMILES.

LINK
“Thank you, Navi: you’re an incomparable genius.”

Navi looks up at Link VERY CONFUSEDLY, and then back down at the map beneath her; she gives a very UNSURE ‘THUMBS-UP’ to Link.

Link LOOKS OVER at his CLOAK; the OCARINA OF TIME is peeking out of a fold in the garment.

Link APPROACHES the cloak, moving his hand closer to the instrument.

LINK
“Think he’ll still be on board? He’s a handy little guy to have around, in a pinch...”

Link’s HAND moves even closer to the Ocarina; the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ noise is audible, RISING STEADILY.

LINK
“I wonder if he’s still game...”

FARTHER SHOT of Link beside the cot, drawing his hand towards the Ocarina of Time; a ‘mish-mesh’ effect covers part of the scene, revealing part of the barn as it appears 12-years-ago; YOUNG LINK is pacing near one of the barn’s windows, although he quickly stops and LOOKS ACROSS the rest of the barn UNCERTAINLY, HIS EARS TWITCHING in discomfort (as if he does not exactly SEE, but rather ‘SENSES’ the scene in front of him). His OCARINA OF TIME is prominently draped in the front pocket of his shoulder sash.

ADULT LINK moves his hand away from his Ocarina of Time; this ‘mish-mesh’ scene quickly disappears. The man SMILES.

LINK
“Oh: it looks like it. And he knows where to go, now...”

NAVI flies in front of the man’s face, bearing a look a CONCERN.

LINK
“No: not everything else. It’s... ‘selective’, the way the information flows: I can control it, to a point, at least. It’s not easy to explain, but I can keep things from him. The less he knows about all the gritty details, the better, anyway.”

Navi CROSSES HER ARMS.

LINK
“I know because I can feel him doing the same thing: withholding information from me that he’d rather not divulge, even if it’s me he’s divulging it to. The stuff about himself he doesn’t even want to admit to himself, I suppose...”

Navi COCKS HER HEAD.

LINK
“You know damn well the things I mean.”

Link shakes his head.

LINK
“It’s for the best, anyway: he knows who I am, after all, and that’s reason enough for him to help me, even if he doesn’t know the details. If he did... well...”

Link shakes his head again.

LINK
“...it wouldn’t be... ‘productive’, not for us at least. And we need to hurry, anyway. Even without him pulling Dhise Slaighre from the ground, Ganondorf’s got to be set to make his move against the Royal Family in that timeline: he probably doesn’t even have 24 hours left before the deed is done. By then the kid’ll be a little too ‘distracted’ to be of any more use to us, most likely.”

Navi again COCKS HER HEAD.

LINK
“I would be, anyway...”

EXT. KAKARIKO VILLAGE – AFTERNOON.

Link approaches the OLD WINDMILL at the village center; it CREAKS AND GROANS forlornly.

NAVI peeks out from under his cowl.

LINK
“No: I’m not going about this at random, as a matter of fact. Impa herself said that Kakariko used to be a Sheikah camp, however many hundreds of years ago that might have been...”

Link WALKS TOWARDS the windmill.

LINK
“And Impa’s people were obsessed with ‘shadows’, right? Well: there isn’t any other structure in the whole village that throws a bigger ‘shadow’ than this.”

Link GESTURES to the windmill; NAVI peeks out at the man, SKEPTICAL.

LINK
“Alright, consider that this thing is old, too: much older than any other structure in Kakariko.”

NAVI TILTS HER HEAD, still skeptical.

Link CIRCLES around the windmill until he comes to a spot near its rear; he looks up near the top of the structure, where patchwork BOARDS, cobwebs and debris dot the archaic windmill. Underneath all these, however, is an obvious stone structure barely peeking out though the scaffolding: it is the same style of ORNATE TOWER seen in the other two temples.

LINK
“Lastly, consider the architecture...”

NAVI BLINKS, startled.

LINK
“Don’t worry, Navi: you’re still a genius, even if you don’t really know why...”

Link OPENS HIS CLOAK, revealing the OCARINA OF TIME; the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ NOISE sounds as he CARESSES the instrument; DISSOLVE-CUT reveals YOUNG LINK standing in the exact same spot as Adult Link.

ADULT LINK again SMILES and ENTERS the windmill through a ROTTED WOODEN DOOR.

Scene-Cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy begins entering in the same fashion, but a pair of STONG HANDS grabs the boy from behind, PULLING HIM BACKWARD as he SCREAMS.

INT. OLD WINDMILL AT KAKARIKO VILLAGE – AFTERNOON.

A dingy, cylindrical structure laden with metal and wooden gears. Ratty sheets dangle from unsteady scaffolding and sunlight struggles through a patchwork mesh canopy far, far above in the ceiling. The sound of GEARS CHURNING is very loud. FLOUR DUST cakes the air.

Adult Link walks with a gangly, pale-skinned man sporting a goatee; this is the WINDMILL OPERATOR.

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“Before it were a windmill? Heh! Don’t rightly know what it coulda been before it were a windmill. I doubt Death Mountain were loomin’ over the land long before this were a windmill...”

The Windmill Operator goes to work adjusting some gears and drop cloths near one wall; as he works he WHISTLES a lilting ‘sailing-style tune’. This is the SONG OF STORMS.

LINK
“It’s been here from time immemorial, then?”

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“A’fore time were memorial enough to be immemorial, at least!”

The Windmill Operator goes back to WHISTLING the Song of Storms.

LINK
“I’m surprised you aren’t deaf by now with all this noise, let alone whistling a happy tune. There aren’t enough of those to go around these days, are there?”

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“Never for awhile now, I suppose. Ah, when I was younger there were, at that. A dozen rosy tunes each for e’ry man, woman and child in Hyrule...”

The Windmill Operator STOPS working briefly and RESTS HIS HEAD on the gear rigging, SMILING FONDLY.

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“I never sang, then. Never whistled a tune, neither. Didn’t feel I needed to, then. What’s another li’l voice added to that kind of happy chorus? But, now, with the High King’s rule an’ all, well, one day I figger’d a happy tune might be just what the world needed, at the moment. Know what I mean?”

NAVI peeks out of Link’s cowl, staring up at Link QUIZZICALLY.

Link begins NODDING at the man, slowly, but then he SHAKES HIS HEAD.

LINK
“No: no, I don’t think that’s really what the world needs at the moment...”

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Well, say what you will: this li’l tune of mine’s been bobbing on my brain for a whole lifetime, unsung. For whatever reason I felt that these dark times could finally use it, use it for somethin’ at least.”

LINK
“Not saying it hurts, just that it doesn’t help, either...”

The Windmill Operator GRUNTS appreciatively, then begins ATTENDING TO HIS WORK again.

LINK
“What else can you tell me about this place? Its history, I mean?”

The Windmill Operator SHRUGS.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Wouldn’t know much about tha’. All’s the ‘history’ I know’s fairly recent, what. It’d begin with the aquifer rupturin’ on us.”

The Windmill Operator POINTS down to a section of the windmill below ground level; Link looks over the edge of the cylindrical bottom, where a MESS OF STONE RUBBLE is inundated with black water.

LINK
“That place: there was a path down there?”

The Windmill Operator shakes his head.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Not as such. A cavern, more like. Leadin’ to nowhere, of course. Just a place for foolhardy village children to dare each other to enter. Back in my day, hell, I had me a ‘fetching stick’ against that wall, what for all the soot-covered crybabies I’d have to go and pull out from the place! At least once a month, by my count...”

Link is still staring into the black water. He SMILES.

LINK
“And the aquifer: it ‘ruptured’ when, exactly?”

The Windmill Operator GROWLS and SCRATCHES HIS HEAD.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Eh... uh... musta been eight years ago, by reckonin’.”

He MOTIONS WITH HIS HEAD toward a far corner of the windmill room: a BLOODY DROP CLOTH is wrapped up against a wall.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“I remember it enough ‘cause that’s around the time I had to go an’ change all the drop cloths on the upper landings, anyway...”

LINK
“There was... some kind of small battle, here?”

The Windmill Operator shakes his head.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“There was a small bleeder, here. Eight years ago is when Sheik came to us, give or take.”

LINK
“Sheik?”

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“Mmm. See: Kakariko Village used to be a far more... ‘savage’ place t’ be. Sheik comes along— a mere rumor at first— some mysterious phantom loppin’ off Stalfos heads, gettin’ in good with the cursed Skulltula family here in town, bein’ a general thorn in the High King’s side an’ all that— but a mystery’s a mystery, right? So’s it’s not long after the hullabaloo starts that I’m workin’ a late shift in the upper gear house, waaaay up near the top landing...”

The Windmill Operator POINTS far overhead at the top of the windmill’s landings.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“I hear a noise, like a cooing. ‘Maybe an owl’, I thought, but no: gave way to another sound soon enough. Sobbin’, I swear, and the whimperin’ of a child, no less. I make my way upwards, leery as a leever, mind you, and that’s when I see it: over in the shadows of the topmost landing, silhouetted in the moonlight. Sheik’s lying back to the wall, gently peeling that battle dress o’ his from his body ever so slowly an’ crying like all-get-out. There’s so much blood there, blood everywhere, an’ in the mornin’ it’s still there too, so’s I didn’t imagine it, mind you. There’s blood enough for three grown men to’ve bleed out up there, and yet the boy was still out there slicing-up Stalfoses the very next night. That’s when I got it in my head: Sheik is a Skull-Kid!”

Link is STARING AT THE FLOOR of the windmill: there is a coating of FLOUR DUST all along the uneven stone floor. Some ODD FOOTPRINTS mar the ground, as if left by LARGE, HEAVY IRON BOOTS sometime fairly recently. They vaguely cut a path down to the black water at the room’s base.

LINK
“Sheik was hiding? And in the windmill? This was before Sheik settled in at the Death Mountain Crater, I guess. And eight years ago... he— I mean Sheik: Sheik would’ve been 12, more or less?”

Link LOOKS UP.

LINK
“And for the Goddesses’ sakes: Sheik is not a Skull-Kid. Skull-Kids don’t grow up, you know...”

The Windmill Operator GRUNTS.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Well: they’s got all manner of tricks, those Skull-Kids. Can take any form, you know, from somethin’ most pleasin’ to the eye to somethin’ most horridly awful. Read your mind, too: that’s how they try an’ steal your soul right out from under you!”

LINK
“Really: does Sheik seem at all interested in stealing anyone’s soul, do you think?”

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“Well: not as such. But then you can’t trust what you don’t know. Everyone knows about Skull-Kids, but no-one rightly takes the tales seriously. Mind-readin’, soul-stealin’ freaks, they are!”

The Windmill Operator WALKS OFF to attend to some work on the other end of the windmill.

LINK
(whispering)

“Superstitious crackpot: the things a person will believe...”

NAVI peeks out from Link’s cowl with ONE BROW ARCHED. Link LOOKS DOWN at her, SCOWLING.

LINK
“...Yes: ignoring the fact that my fairy companion and I are about to get help from a little boy in another dimension so that we can enter a sacred temple that’s been disguised as a run-down windmill. That’s actually happening, here...”

Link STARES OVER at the rolled-up, BLOODY DROP CLOTH in the corner of the windmill room for several seconds. He snaps out of this daze soon enough.

LINK
“Speaking of which: I do think it’s about that ‘time’...”

Link retrieves the OCARINA OF TIME from his cloak; the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ NOISE sounds fiercely.

EXT. KAKARIKO VILLAGE – (CONTINUOUS).

YOUNG LINK is struggling fiercely against a set of arms in front of him, trying to move forward with ardent determination.

A MORE DISTANT SHOT reveals that the Windmill Operator (12-years-younger than the previous scene) is actively blocking the child’s path. He PUSHES Link back a distance, and the boy GROWLS and SCOWLS at the man.

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“No good you pouting at me, li’l master! I’ll not have you creepin’ around in there. Much too dangerous for a boy, it is— one misstep spells disaster— and I’ll certainly not have my entire afternoon wasted away scrapin’ your li’l entrails out of my gears!”

The Windmill Operator TURNS to re-enter the windmill and Link STEPS FORWARD to follow him; the man instantly turns and faces the boy.

WINDMILL OPERATOR
“Now I mean it, li’l master! One more step and I swears by all tha’s sacred I’ll leave you gift-wrapped ‘n bridled on your parents’ doorstep like a tethered colt!”

Link STOPS MOVING FORWARD; his scowl DEEPENS.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“Tha’s more like it, then...”

Link’s EYES BULGE slightly; ADULT LINK, standing in the shadows of the windmill interior, is reflected in YOUNG LINK’S EYES.

As the Windmill Operator approaches the windmill door Link retrieves the OCARINA OF TIME from his sash; he puts the instrument to his lips and launches into a spot-on rendition of the SONG OF STORMS.

The Windmill Operator’s HAND goes limp on the doorknob; it begins TREMBLING after a moment. The man TURNS, very slowly, and looks at Link with HORROR; Link, meanwhile, continues playing the song.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“H— how... could you... know...”

CLOSE-UP on Link playing through the SONG OF STORMS, adding his own artistic flourishes to the piece.

The Windmill Operator POINTS at the boy with a shaking hand.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“G— guh— gah! Geeeah! Skull-Kid! A Skull-Kid! Ah!”

The man goes RUNNING OFF wildly.

WINDMILL OPERATOR

“The Goddesses save me: he’s in my head! He’s in my head! Geeeah!”

NAVI emerges from the boy’s green nightcap.

NAVI
“You’re evil; do you know that?”

Link LOOKS at the fairy out of the corner of his eyes; he WINKS at her mischievously.

INT. OLD WINDMILL AT KAKARIKO VILLAGE – (CONTINUOUS).

Young Link creeps into the mill, which is in much the same state as its 12-year-older counterpart, except that more light comes into the cylindrical room, and the standing water at the windmill’s base is gone, leaving a SOFT SILT FLOOR underneath which disappears into a barely navigable cavern leading underneath and behind the mill.

NAVI illuminates the room as Link descends the uneven floor, drawing his OYSTER KNIFE as he goes.

The boy LANDS in the silt dirt, leaving obvious FOOTPRINTS as he explores the moon-like ground. He locates the SMALL CAVERN on one side of the ground, and on the other he finds the large stone blocks comprising the windmill’s outer wall. Link CROUCHES beside one of them, with his cheek up to the crack between blocks, FEELING along its edge with one hand.

Link LOOKS UP to the floor of the windmill above him and heads back upstairs, searching through stray gear parts and pieces of cloth until he finds a LARGE PRY BAR amongst the debris; he takes this down into the silt and JAMS it between the massive stone blocks, GRUNTING as he tries to wedge-open the stonework. He soon gives up, SWEATY and PANTING.

NAVI flies beside his head.

NAVI

“Force... multiplier.”

Link looks at the fairy, who begins flying UPWARD slowly until, several stories up in the mill, she illuminates a LARGE LOOSE GEAR sitting on a scaffolding ledge.

Link looks first at the gear, then at his pry bar. He GRINS.

The boy JAMS the prybar between the base of two stones at an odd angle, then he begins making his way up the windmill structure, carefully navigating the treacherous path.

NAVI flies in front of the boy as he crosses a scaffold on all fours. The boy SLIPS briefly, sending small pieces of debris careening down the windmill shaft until they land in the silt far below with a thud.

NAVI
“Careful now: I don’t know what he’s looking to find down there, exactly, but I assume he’d rather not have your skeleton be one of the exhibits on display when he gets down there...”

Link continues moving on all fours.

NAVI
“Hey: you ever wonder what he is after? I know I do. Just what are we doing for him, exactly? I mean, there we were, all ready to fetch Dhise Slaighre for Her Royal Nutjob, and then he comes along, just like that, and what does he say? ‘Don’t take the sword: do what I want, instead’. How can we trust him, exactly?”

Link LOOKS UP at Navi, ROLLING HIS EYES.

NAVI
“Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant. I can’t trust you to clean your teeth when you should— not to mention wash your clothes. My point is that just because he might be who he seems to be— and he certainly looks like he is, granted— it doesn’t mean squat. He still might not have your best interests at heart.”

Link reaches the edge of the scaffold and STANDS on the plank beside the giant loose gear. He GLARES at Navi.

NAVI
“Why? Because you don’t even have your best interests at heart! That’s why! Because you’re playing with your life as if this were some silly game! Because you can be a very foolish little boy: that’s why!”

Link LOOKS AWAY from the fairy, FUMING.

Navi eventually flies closer to the boy’s face, hesitant.

NAVI
“I’m sorry about that. It’s just... it’s just that you think your job is to do all this stuff— for her, and for him, and for whoever— and you don’t think it’s that important what happens to you. Well, it is. You’re important to other people ‘cause they would be left in a lurch if you went and died on them...”

Link LOOKS AWAY again; NAVI flies into his field of vision.

NAVI
“...but you’re important to me because you’re alive, no matter what you do. It’s true, I guess, that you might not be a Kokiri, and we might not be... well, we might not be what the other Forest Children and their fairies are to each other, but you’re important to me... because I don’t want you to die.”

Link STARES at Navi for a moment; the boy finally HOLDS HIS FIST up near his face. NAVI slowly perches on his bare knuckles.

NAVI
“Just... try to remember I’m the only one around here that’s really got your back, and that doesn’t account for much, honestly...”

Link looks at Navi with GRATEFUL EYES; there is a pause, and then the boy very unexpectedly PUCKERS HIS LIPS and ‘kisses’ the fairy (basically bombarding her whole body with his lips). The fairy flies back as Link SMILES. The boy WALKS OFF, moving closer to the gear on the scaffold.

NAVI flies behind him, reeling and twitching uncomfortably from traces of the boy’s spit all along her body.

NAVI
“That... that was incredibly sweet, and exceptionally disgusting...”

Link LOOKS BACK at the fairy mischievously, with a cocked brow.

NAVI

“Yeah, I know: you in a nutshell...”

Link approaches the loose gear and carefully looks over the edge of the scaffolding; the silt floor is far below them, and directly beneath is the pry bar, jutting out of the stonework.

Link puts his hands against the back of the gear, PUSHING IT FORWARD with all his might and GRUNTING; after a moment he gets traction, and then the gear lists and goes tumbling off the scaffold. It careens through the darkness, ultimately slamming into the pry bar, causing it to break, but not before forcing the two stones between the bar’s grip to PART slightly, enough to allow a faint sliver of DAYLIGHT into the dreary silt area.

Scene-Cut to ADULT LINK; he is standing before the black water as a THUNDEROUS SHOCKWAVE blast strikes from the waterline, followed by a ‘bad-LSD-trip’ shimmering of the black water. After all this passes, the water is revealed to have VANISHED, exposing the silt floor below.

A SLIT OF DAYLIGHT lines the dry floor, courtesy of a 12-year-old fracture in the stonework at the windmill’s base.

Link DESCENDS onto the silt floor; the LARGE BOOTPRINTS from earlier are now very well-defined in the silt. Link FOLLOWS THEM with his eyes as they disappear near the small CAVERN ENTRANCE.

Link DRAWS Dhise Slaighre.

LINK
“It’s... it’s him. He went right through the water: right under the water? The Stalfos attack was just a diversion: it was orchestrated just for him... He is here...”

Scene-Cut to YOUNG LINK: the boy is in the silt floor of the windmill once again, admiring his handiwork. The RAY OF LIGHT he created partially illuminates the tiny cavern at the back of the mill; Link approaches it hesitantly. He SQUIRMS through several tight spaces, ultimately coming to a dead-end. The SLIVER OF LIGHT, however, still illuminates his path, and NAVI notices a SMALL PLAQUE set into the stone above Link’s head. She flies up to it and MOVES ACROSS IT.

NAVI
“The sand to bury

And the water cover,

The leaf to screen

And the shadow conceal

‘Till their judgment be revealed,

 When their judgment proves its yield.

‘Till their judgment proves its yield

Let their judgment be concealed.”

Navi flies down beside Link’s head. The boy gives off a VERY QUIZZICAL GRUNT.

The SLIT OF DAYLIGHT on the cavern’s dead end SPARKLES MYSTERIOUSLY against the rocks. After a moment there is an ETHEREAL HUM, and then the rock VANISHES, as if melting under the sunlight, leaving a surgically-cut, gaping hole in its place.

Link LOOKS AT NAVI, then back at the hole. The boy once again produces his OYSTER KNIFE and descends into the darkness.

Scene-Cut to ADULT LINK: the man treads over the same ground as his younger counterpart, however the previously narrow way has been VIOLENTLY CHISELED AWAY, leaving debris and a much more accommodating pathway. At the location of the plaque there is a DEEP HOLE in the wall, uneven and savagely-carved, as if it were wrought by extreme force (the rock debris here is pure white limestone, as if the demolition happened recently enough that the stones had yet to be weather-stained like the other rocks around them).

Link holds DHISE SLAIGHRE up to his face and descends into the darkness.

INT. SHADOW TEMPLE CORRIDORS – LATE AFTERNOON.

Adult Link moves through a decayed, ancient hallway saturated with grime, filth and mold. It is clear that this place is artificially carved into the rock, as the occasional GROTESQUE FRESCOES on the walls indicate, but the place is exceedingly dingy and depressing.

NAVI’s bright body is the only source of light within this place.

Link TREADS SOFTLY over the uneven rock floor. VARIOUS STRANGE, ‘UNWELCOMING’ NOISES sound throughout the cavern, making Link JUMP at the ready at various points (and in various directions).

Link comes to a narrow cavern adorned with strange pillars; it is labyrinthine, and the UNWELCOMING NOISES from before are louder, here. Just as these noises CREST, however, they quickly SUBSIDE.

Link moves around a certain pillar and immediately JUMPS BACKWARD, bringing Dhise Slaighre up into a blocking stance; the sword is instantly STRUCK by a heavy, black blade.

The IRON KNUCKLE emerges from behind a pillar and VIOLENTLY SHOVES Link into a nearby pillar; the man goes careening off several pillars and tumbles beside a pit. Before Link can stand the Iron Knuckle is at him, KICKING AT HIM with his black iron boots. Link BLOCKS several of these kicks with his sword, but he is forced to ROLL further into the darkness when he suddenly TUMBLES into the nearby pit, SCREAMING as he falls.

FADE TO BLACK.

INT. SHADOW TEMPLE SANCTUM – LATE AFTERNOON.

A black pit with only one dingy, partially-lit pathway extending uncertainly through the blackness.

Light slowly rises from above; Link, draped in his cloak, is lying facedown in the black sand of the pit bottom. Navi lilts down onscreen, bearing copious light as she does so; eventually she settles on Link’s thigh.

Link GROANS and sits up slowly, cradling his left arm and rubbing his right knee. He TOYS with a very small RED EARRING in his RIGHT EAR. He GRUNTS noncommittally.

LINK
“Not as graceful an entrance as I predicted. Hopefully our little friend has an easier time of it...”

Link TOUCHES the OCARINA OF TIME underneath his cloak; the ‘FINGER-ON-A-GLASS-RIM’ NOISE SOUNDS, causing a ‘mish-mesh’ of the scene; a shimmering set of stone stairs are revealed along one side of the black cavern, which Young Link is slowly descending.

Adult Link REMOVES his hand from the ocarina and this scene fades.

LINK
“Yeah: figures...”

Link examines his surroundings, also staring up at the hole he tumbled through.

LINK

“Well, we’re not getting back up the way we came, that’s for sure...”

NAVI flies up near Link’s head. Link looks at her with an IRONIC SMILE.

LINK
“...hopefully the kid’ll think of something, I suppose.”

Link looks beyond Navi, towards the small pathway in the rock and the FAINT, EERIE LIGHT emanating from within. Link moves close to this area, but stops short.

NAVI flies up near his head.

LINK
“Yeah: I’m ready... Let’s go.”

Link moves through the path and emerges in a massive, bleak cavern. There are LARGE TORCHES set at regular intervals around this area, all of them putting out PALE PURPLE FLAMES. These flames INCREASE in size as Link passes by each of them.

NAVI WOBBLES in the air, and then she comes to rest on Link’s SHOULDER, one hand to her head.

LINK
“Sick? Disoriented?”

NAVI nods.

LINK
“This ‘Shadow Temple’ must be into ‘borrowing horsepower’ to use for its little tricks. That’s fine and all, but it’d be nice if it had asked...”

Link TUGS AT THE BACK of his cowl, creating a space for Navi to duck into.

LINK
“...settle in and rest up here before you fall on the floor, Navi; I’d hate to accidentally step on you if you lost your balance.”

The fairy GLARES at Link before unsteadily lilting into his cowl.

LINK
(whispering)

“We’ll be out of here before long, somehow.”

Link continues moving through the cavern; the TORCHES before him all readily EXPLODE with purple fire, while the ones further away from him barely glow with dull ‘pilot light’ flames.

The sound of ‘IRREGULAR, LABORED BREATHING’ rises as Link walks, as if some creature were putting forth a strenuous effort at something.

FAR-UP OVERHEAD SHOT reveals that Link is walking on a massive, square floor with identical brick layout to the Forest Temple’s raised platform (from pg. _______). Instead of an image of a leaf, however, there is only the nebulous shape of a black cloud set into the platform.

Link eventually notices a SHAPE in the distance, silhouetted by the wan purple flames of the cavern; as he approaches it (and as all the flames around him roar to life as he passes) it becomes more distinct: finally revealing a BODY splayed supine, lying on a coarse wooden table at the center of the cavern.

As the torches near this table reveal the figure Link’s EYES WIDEN. He rushes over to the table, where Impa lies on her back with a LONG, GOLDEN KNIFE (identical to one of the Iron Knuckle’s knives from pg. _____) stuck clean through her midsection, its hilt SHINING in the torchlight.

Impa’s HEAD is to one side, eyes closed. She is PANTING raggedly.

Link delicately gets up onto the table beside the woman’s body; he HOLDS HER HEAD with one hand while examining the abdominal wound.

CLOSE-UP on Link pulling away bloodied clothing and other objects from the knife wound; he is frantically trying to stop the bleeding whilst simultaneously considering whether to take the blade out or not.

Suddenly he STOPS working, his eyes WIDENING, and he looks up: Impa is looking straight up at him, SMILING faintly (this is not a pleasant sight in the horrible torchlight of the temple).

LINK
“I... I’m trying to help you, just please—”

IMPA
“You cannot help me anymore...”

LINK
“The blade— I just need to stem the bleeding—”

IMPA
“And you needn’t help me, anymore. I cede my life willingly for the protection of Hyrule: the route I now trod is the road of the dead... and it’s...”

LINK
“Just... just be still! I can— I can bandage the—”

IMPA
“...it’s misty: so very misty. And it’s a road you cannot follow me down, little one.”

Link AGAIN STOPS working; he looks up at Impa.

IMPA
“Not yet, at least.”

LINK
“You... know?”

Impa NODS slowly, again SMILING.

Link SINKS DOWN onto the table beside Impa, sitting unsurely. He again looks at Impa, gently tousling one of her white hair locks.

LINK
“12 years? Not even 12 days, not for you, at least...”

IMPA
“What’s 12 years, though, working to enforce a goddess’ will?”

Link’s look grows very COLD; he moves his hand away from Impa’s head.

IMPA
“The blink of an eye; the length of a breath...”

LINK
“You’re no different than you were back then.”

IMPA
(smiling ironically)

“I was a much less ‘open’ person, then...”

Impa moves an UNSTEADY HAND over her midsection, WINCING.

LINK
“You’re a traitor, aren’t you? You’re working for Din, right?”

IMPA’s eyes flutter; she looks CONFUSED.

IMPA
“Din? I... I do not worship Din...”

LINK
“You opened the way for Ganondorf’s rule! It was you all along, wasn’t it?”

IMPA
“Din... gives me my sensibilities... my strength; and Farore my sense... my wisdom...”

LINK
“Removing Dhise Slaighre, Impa? That was not a wise thing to do!”

IMPA
“...I respect them— the two of them— for their contribution. I bow to them, even... but... I do not worship them...”

Link slaps Impa’s cheek, bringing her mind back into focus.

LINK
“You knew about the sword, didn’t you? You planned all of this from the start!”

IMPA looks up at Link, SURPRISE on her face. She NODS.

IMPA
“It was... always planned... for me...”

LINK
“By Ganondorf?”

IMPA
(shaking her head)
“By fate. To confront evil, one must first expose it. And to destroy it...”

Impa REACHES UP with an unsteady hand and grasps Link’s CLOAK at his chest; she TRACES A TRIANGLE pattern around Link’s sternum, exactly where his birthmark rests.

IMPA
“...one must have the proper... heart...”

Link removes the woman’s hand from his chest. He SHAKES HIS HEAD and again relaxes on the table, staring into nothingness for a moment.

LINK
“You... aren’t working for Ganondorf. Of course you’re not...”

Link FACES Impa again.

LINK
“‘Proper heart’? But it’s ‘guts’ that’s never been my problem, remember? I don’t have a heart...”

IMPA
“You say no, so no...”

LINK
“Impa, am I the Hero of Time? Can I kill Ganondorf?”

IMPA
“Kill Ganondorf? No...”

Link BOWS HIS HEAD.

LINK
“Tell me: am I not a ‘master’?”

IMPA
“You seek his death?”

LINK
“Yes.”

IMPA

“Then no, you are not. But... you can... confront...”

LINK
“What about your convoluted prophecy, huh? Your Forest Temple Sage is dead, Impa! So’s the one at the Water Temple. The Goddesses only know what happened to the Sage over at the Sand Temple...”

IMPA
“The Sand Temple Sage... he is dead as well. He died over 12 years ago, back when a fledgling Gerudo prince prepared to make his move on the Kingdom of Hyrule...”

LINK
“What is this to you, then? You want to protect this place, and its people, and everything else about Hyrule, but you can’t, can you? What good has all this death been, huh? What’s the point to all this killing? And now you’re dead, and you won’t be coming back! This... this whole damned mess is senseless!”

IMPA
“Because... it makes no sense to you?”

Impa extends a hand and grips Link’s shoulder; she PULLS HERSELF UP closer to the man.

IMPA

(whispering)

“‘Dead’... and ‘death’... ‘killing’... you keep using these words, but I don’t think you really understand what they mean. So few do, I guess. Ganondorf didn’t. He doesn’t... and now he has made a very serious mistake...”

Impa FINGERS the blade in her gut.

IMPA
“Your return has motivated that mistake. My... ‘action’ here helps cement that mistake... in stone... and in blood...”

The woman LAYS BACK DOWN, with help from Link.

IMPA
“I... cede my life willingly for the protection of Hyrule. I cede my life willingly for the will of N— Naru...”

LINK
(whispering incredulously)
“Nayru?”

IMPA

The route I now trod is the road of the dead... and it’s... it’s...”

LINK
“Misty...”

Impa shakes her head.

IMPA

(tearful)
“Clear! So very clear!”

She LOOKS AT LINK intently.

IMPA
“My charge... she still lives...”

Link NODS.

LINK
“Yeah: I know she does.”

IMPA
“Having to leave her behind... to do what must be done...”

Impa SHAKES HER HEAD.

IMPA

“All this time you’ve lived to punish Ganondorf. And all this time— for him to be so out of reach— and for no punishment to be possible...”

LINK
(nodding)
“Yeah: Zelda’s found someone else to punish...”

IMPA
“I am not vital for the survival of Hyrule...”

LINK

“And I sure as hell am not, either.”

Impa COCKS HER HEAD, perplexed, and sighs.

IMPA
“Or... you have even more... ‘qualifications’... than I first thought. You... you must be the Hero of Time!”

LINK
“I am? Really?”

IMPA
“Don’t... misunderstand! I don’t know that. There’s no way for me to know that. I don’t know if you are or if you’re not. But... but you must be, when the time comes! You must see to that!”

Link looks PERPLEXED.

IMPA
“When the time comes, and when your heartbeat sings in your head, you’ll understand. You will be the Hero of Time. You... must be...”

LINK
“The heartless have no heartbeats, Impa.”

IMPA
“And wishes do not make truth, little one.”

Impa raises one hand up to her RIGHT EYE; she puts her index finger ON her eyeball, PRESSING DOWN with unsettling force. There is a NOISE LIKE A FAINT SERPENT ‘HISS’, and when Impa removes her hand she pulls a sticky, long RED FILAMENT up with her finger. It comes to rest on her fingertip as a nebulous red blob MOVING faintly in serpentine fashion. This is one of Impa’s Mind’s Eye worms.

A small BLOODY TEAR trains down Impa’s cheek in the wake of this action.

IMPA
“Usually... one must train their Mind’s Eye most strenuously... to actually see the truth...”

Impa puts her hand into Link’s; TWITCHING her index finger and allowing the Mind’s Eye worm to fall into Link’s palm.

She is SHIVERING faintly, at this point.

IMPA
“...if you’re not a master, you can at the very least stand on the shoulders of others, to reach the height you seek...”

Link HOLDS UP HIS HAND.

LINK
“What is this?”

IMPA
“A common thief uses their cunning to avoid being seen, but the King of Thieves uses his power to deflect the truth itself from the eyes of his victims, as he wishes it. But wishes do not make truth...”

Impa LOOKS DOWN at Link’s hand and the red blob on his palm.

IMPA

“... it reveals nothing... but the absolute truth.”

Link HOLDS THE WORM up to his face, watching it WRITHE on his finger, bearing an UNCERTAIN LOOK.

IMPA
“‘Truth’ is evil’s enemy, if not its outright bane; you must... use... it...”

Link hesitantly moves the Mind’s Eye worm closer to his face, up near his own LEFT EYE; EXTREME CLOSE-UP as Link slowly moves his finger forward, bringing the worm closer and closer to the eye. Link’s finger PAUSES about a millimeter from his eye, as if he were having second thoughts.

Suddenly the MIND’S EYE WORM takes ‘shape’ (ie: appears as more a very small serpent than an indistinct blob) and ‘lunges’ across the gap between Link’s finger and his eye; it ‘dives’ into Link’s IRIS, causing a small ‘eddy’ of ruddy colors to explode across Link’s LEFT EYE.

Link puts his HANDS OVER HIS FACE and SCREAMS, more in surprise than pain. When he removes his hands he BLINKS unsteadily; his left eye is now blood red, but as he blinks and WAGS HIS HEAD his left eye’s flamboyant color DIMINISHES until, after a few seconds, it is exactly the same color of blue as his unaltered right eye.

Impa rests her head to one side, closing her eyes and EXHALING DEEPLY.

IMPA

(gradually getting slower and less clear)
“I... would not leave my charge’s side, if it were up to me. She... she is pre... precious... precious... precious flowers, in the garden? I... I’ll pick them... with you... say— said... didn’t enjoy it... didn’t I? Didn’t I say ‘no’... but I... there wasn’t ever... a thing I enjoyed... a thing... I enjoyed m—more...”

Impa SIGHS long and hard; finally she STOPS BREATHING. Link gets off the table, numbly contemplating her body.

Suddenly a WHITE SHAFT OF LIGHT explodes from the center of the room (ie: up through Impa’s body) extending far up into the cavern ceiling, which is revealed to be covered in THICK STONE STALACTITES.

The FLASH OF LIGHT eventually subsides; Impa’s body has disappeared (minus copious blood-staining on the table, as well as the long golden knife, which remain) and in its place are thousands of SHINING SPECKS of light tumbling away from the table in all directions like rolling marbles (these are identical to the lights from pg_______).

All this bright white light highlights various hidden parts of the cavern; we see through LINK’S LEFT EYE that his vision has been altered. With almost ‘night-vision’ clarity Link is able to see around the cavern with a new perspective, using his now-amplified left eye.

Link notices a HIDEOUS, EXTREMELY LONG SPINAL COLUMN jutting from the floor near the edge of the cavern; there are also the remains of two MASSIVELY OVERSIZED HANDS and, twisted about the spine, a bony ‘head-protrusion’ consisting solely of one massive, long eye socket. The rotted remains of an ARROW are lodged in this eye socket (this is not entirely obvious). The creature appears to have been dead for a number of years.

This is BONGO BONGO.

Link’s eyes WIDEN as he contemplates the skeleton; he looks down at the OCARINA OF TIME (barely peeking out of his cloak), then back at the skeletal remains.

LINK
“Oh, no...”

INT. SHADOW TEMPLE SANCTUM – (CONTINUOUS).

Young Link walks through the same cavernous chamber as his older counterpart; there is far more light in the chamber in this time-period, however, and the sound of RUSHING WATER dominates. GREEN VINES gird the cavern sides and its top, totally eclipsing the stone ceiling. All along the outskirts of the cavern are shallow WATER POOLS.

The LARGE ROWS OF TORCHES are here, as well, but none of them react to Link’s presence; all remain completely dormant.

GREAT GEYSERS of high-pressure water occasionally erupt from certain parts of the cavern at certain times; some of these plumes rise as high as the ceiling, where they bombard the green vines.

Link TREADS CAUTIOUSLY across this place, wary of the water geysers. At one point Navi darts out of his nightcap, quickly VEERING LEFT; Link quickly follows her, after which a geyser immediately erupts in the spot he was previously standing.

Link looks first at NAVI, and then back at the water plume. He looks back at Navi with an EAGER, CHILDISH SMILE.

NAVI
“No, it doesn’t look like fun to me. It looks like an easy way to break a few bones, or more, even...”

Link COCKS HIS HEAD

NAVI
“Yeah, so what if Fado used to do the same thing with the water plumes near the village lake? Two things: one, she’d been doing that way before you were even born and two, if every Kokiri Forest Child jumped off a cliff, would you?”

Link POUTS.

NAVI

“Of course not. After all: you’re a steadfast iconoclast, aren’t you?”

NAVI continues flying forward, while Link remains stationary, his pout DEEPENING.

NAVI
“No: that actually wasn’t an insult. Sheesh! We really do need to get those flashcards, don’t we?”

Navi FLITS back and forth throughout the cavern.

NAVI
“Honestly, I don’t know what else he expects from us, down here. This little rat-hole cavern is the aquifer basin: we can’t get much father down than this...”

ZOOMING CLOSE-UP on LINK’S EYES as Navi speaks these previous words: a faint ORANGE PINPOINT illuminates the corners of Link’s irises. Link is DISTRACTED, at first, and then he turns to examine the source of this light, his PUPILS DILATED excessively (as if ‘drugged’). The boy walks over to a far wall of the cavern, where the pinpoint of light shines; there is a PLEASANT HUM in the air, and Link’s face appears NUMBLY SERENE, as if the boy is hypnotized.

(NOTE: Bongo-Bongo, despite having neither a visible mouth nor vocal cords, makes a constant, hypnotic ‘THROAT-SINGING’ TYPE NOISE throughout its appearance. At this time the noise is quiet and serene, however it changes in pitch, frequency and overall ‘pleasantness’, or lack thereof, depending on circumstances)

NAVI has not noticed any of this.

NAVI
“Still: that text up there was ancient Hylian. I thought the original Hylians kept to themselves, way out in the old lands of Utter East. What in the world is their writing doing on an old plaque stuck down a well shaft in the middle of the New Kingdom?”

As Navi speaks these previous words Link moves closer to the STRANGE ORANGE LIGHT near the cavern wall, SMILING DOPILY. The PINPOINT of light is hovering in the air, slightly higher than the boy’s head, BOBBING AROUND playfully. Link hesitantly GRABS AT IT, snatching at the air like a cat playing with a laser pointer’s dot. The boy’s GRIN widens as he plays with the hypnotic dot.

NAVI
“I tell you: we can’t trust this guy to be honest with us! Who knows what kind of sneaky things he’s up to down here, not to mention whatever he was doing in the forest. Don’t you find it odd that he hasn’t told you anything about what happened in the Sacred Forest Meadow? Why so tight-lipped? He won’t say a word! And that’s certainly not your style, you know...”

NOTE ON PREVIOUS: SLOW PAN around NAVI’S BODY as she speaks; she is hovering in the air with her back to Link, who is visible in the distance near the far cavern wall, TOYING with the hovering orange light. When the camera pans to the other side of her body and Link re-enters the frame, however, we see the boy cavorting in front of Bongo-Bongo, whose massive tubular eye is the source of the orange glow. The creature is currently SPREADING ITS MASSIVE HANDS (each of which is approximately as tall as Young Link) out to either side of Link’s body, as if preparing to snap them shut and crush the boy.

SCENE-CUT to ADULT LINK: the man grips the Ocarina of Time tight and SNARLS in the darkness of the cavern.

LINK
“Hey!”

SCENE-CUT to YOUNG LINK: the boy is still TOYING with the orange light, however the image of BONGO-BONGO’S CORPSE reflects in his EYES; Link GASPS and stands still, surveying the giant creature before him that he is now able to see quite clearly.

BONGO-BONGO’S massive orange eye stops swaying around; the creature’s tubular head-stalk descends closer to Link’s face.

Link SWALLOWS uneasily.

Navi’s body quickly STRIKES at Link’s LEFT CALF with enough force to knock the boy on his back; Bongo-Bongo’s hands immediately SLAM TOGETHER, sending a RUMBLE through the entire cavern.

Link ROLLS BACKWARD and gets to his feet.

Bongo-Bongo LUMBERS after the boy, CHASING him across the cavern. Link SCRAMBLES over the uneven stone floor, dodging several GEYSER PLUMS that erupt around him as he runs. The boy moves through a mess of large stalagmites near one side of the cavern, which Bongo-Bongo immediately sets to work DEMOLISHING with its freakishly large hands.

SCENE-CUT to ADULT LINK; the man is still holding his Ocarina of Time, the camera pans very quickly around him as he pays attention to the battle he can sense. At one point the camera shows the mess of stalagmites in the cavern corner; when it again pans around them, however, many of them are BROKEN into shards. More camera panning reveals a SET OF DEEP CRACKS in the cavern wall being formed in a row.

SCENE-CUT to YOUNG LINK; the boy is racing along the cavern edge, Bongo-Bongo on his heels. The creature SLAPS at the boy constantly, managing only to carve out DEEP CRACKS in the cavern wall as it chases Link.

At one point Link uses the cover of an oversized stalagmite to ready a MAGIC BEAN in his SLINGSHOT; the boy aims and FIRES at BONGO-BONGO’S EYE; the bean hits dead-center, causing the creature to REAR-UP and raise its tubular head.

Link GRINS, triumphal.

Bongo-Bongo quickly lowers its head and GLARES at Link with its massive orange EYE; the magic bean is stuck about two-inches down in the shining ‘pus’ of the creature’s eye (like a raisin in a cup of Jell-o). Bongo-Bongo’s eye briefly turns RED, and then the magic bean quickly DISSOLVES, as if being eaten away by acid, leaving Bongo-Bongo’s eye immaculate. It regains its ORANGE color instantaneously.

Link’s smile FALLS quickly. The boy GRUNTS, almost appreciatively.

Bongo-Bongo approaches the stalagmite Link hides behind and LOWERS ITS HEAD; the creature suddenly ‘spits’ a tiny projectile from its eye; the molten goo HITS LINK directly between the eyes. The boy falls backward, SCREAMING, and then sits up in a daze with a small train of ‘GUNK’ tricking down the bridge of his nose (NOTE: he is not seriously injured).

Link dodges another ‘hand-clap’ from the creature and darts through the middle of the cavern; at one point he is partially lifted off the ground by a GEYSER ERUPTION, which sends him sprawling over the rocks, wet and slippery. Bongo-Bongo lunges after him once the geyser stops and GRIPS LINK in one hand, but the boy is too slippery to hold and Link falls out from the grip, landing on the rocks with a GRUNT.

SCENE-CUT to ADULT LINK: the geyser eruptions in Young Link’s time are reflected in ADULT LINK’S EYES.

LINK
“Hey!”

SCENE-CUT to YOUNG LINK: the boy’s head snaps up. The EXPOSED STALACTITE CAVERN ROOF is visible in the boy’s eyes. Link looks up above him, near the center of the cavern, at the VINE-COVERED cavern ceiling.

A particularly large water geyser ERUPTS a few yards away from the boy; it hits the ceiling vines with relative force.

The boy looks back at Bongo-Bongo, now towering above him.

Link TIMES his actions and then quickly SCRAMBLES away from the creature. Bongo-Bongo quickly pursues, but SLIPS on the wet rocks near the cavern’s center.

Link RACES away from the creature, but he only makes it a few yards before his left BOOT gets jammed in a rock. The boy falls forward and then desperately TUGS at his boot.

Bongo-Bongo regains its stability and approaches the boy, slow and menacing. Link TUGS even harder at his boot, GASPING.

Bongo-Bongo reaches Link, standing just before the boy with its hands parted to either side.

Link suddenly SMILES DEMONICALLY. The boy ROLLS backward effortlessly, boot and all, leaving Bongo-Bongo standing at the cavern center.

The same large water geyser ERUPTS again, sending Bongo-Bongo hurtling towards the cavern ceiling; the creature SLAMS into the viny ceiling, hitting the hidden stalactites.

The creature lands on the cavern floor again, WRITHING IN AGONY.

SCENE-CUT to ADULT LINK; the man is watching the cavern ceiling as one of the larger STALACTITE TIPS DISAPPEARS from the group. The man SMILES DEMONICALLY (in identical fashion to Young Link’s previous smile).

SCENE-CUT to YOUNG LINK; Bongo-Bongo’s head comes up, revealing the STALACTITE TIP buried deep within its eye and protruding nearly two feet (given the length of tip removed from the roof in Adult Link’s time period it is evident that the tip of the stone is buried VERY DEEP inside the creature’s tubular skull).

Bongo-Bongo’s EYE turns red, as before, and then BRIGHTER RED, still. STEAM erupts from the eye as a little mess of the massive stone pillar in its eye begins dissolving away, however this is too much material to handle; Bongo-Bongo’s EYE turns VERY DEEP CRIMSON before finally MELTING altogether, pooling down the creature’s body as a bright red tearstain.

Now blind and extremely pained, Bongo-Bongo THRASHES insanely around the cavern. Link TAKES COVER behind some stone rubble and WATCHES in horror as the creature thrashes about.

The SCENES CUTS at different points between Young and Adult Link as Bongo-Bongo hits various parts of the cavern, causing damage and destruction that are reflected in Adult Link’s time as well. ADULT LINK watches all these changes take place with WONDER.

Bongo-Bongo finally exhausts its temper and SLUMPS DOWN near the cavern’s edge; it has SERIOUSLY DAMAGED its own body through all its thrashing, leaving gaping, bleeding wounds. As it bleeds it is evident that the creature’s innards are at least partially filled with JUVENILE MIND’S EYE WORMS.

After a moment of pained struggling, Bongo-Bongo becomes still.

The ‘THROAT-SINGING’ NOISE ends here.

Link stands before the slain creature, PANTING. He TURNS to leave the cavern, but then STOPS; there is a sound, like SAND MOVING THROUGH AN HOURGLASS. Link turns around to see a FINE DIRT SHOWER falling near Bongo-Bongo’s body; the source is a DEEP FISSURE the creature created in its death throes.

SCENE-CUT to ADULT LINK; there is a SHOCKWAVE BLAST near one darkened corner of the cavern. Upon investigation Link finds the SKELETAL REMAINS of Bongo-Bongo now lying in the cavern corner, with a piece of rock still jutting from the creature’s large, empty eye socket.

NAVI flies up near the rock wall behind the creature, highlighting the DEEP FISSURE in the rock. Link SETS HIS HAND on this fissure, finding it to be filled with FINE DIRT. The man pulls several handfuls out of the crag, and then he looks back at Navi.

LINK
“Kid’s a giant-killer, alright, but I’ve still got to do all the dirty work...”