OOT: A TEAR TO SAY THE UNSAID
As Link ascended the last of the carpeted stairs, he could hear the most beautiful yet eerie music emanating from within the tower’s topmost room. The melody froze his steps only momentarily, however, and he pressed forward. He inhaled a breath through his nostrils and soon rose to the last step. He adjusted his belt and already felt perspiration draining down his cheeks.
The fate of all Hyrule rested upon the battle to ensue, the battle between the entities of the very Triforce that had brought them together. The very Triforce that had divided the lands and set fires across its shores. This was the Triforce that he, Link, Hero of Time, had caused to be stolen from its home. Everything, all that had happened, had been of his fault. Had he never entered the Temple of Time on that day seven years ago….
Things would be different.
Now, though, he stood outside the door that housed a great evil … and evil that he alone had to face.
He had accepted the possibility of his own death, that cold and silent nonexistence. A darkness to replace the light and life within him. But he rubbed away the thought and pressed upon the door handle before which he now stood. It creaked open and he
entered quickly, before his fear outweighed his courage.
The yellow light that peeked into the room from all the slits in the windows that covered the walls cast a sickly color upon the floor and surroundings. Before him hung the princess, suspended in her crystalline cage. Though she could barely move within its confinement, she immediately noticed Link’s arrival and gasped at the burning that scorched her right hand. The Triforce that resided within her had set fire to her skin, a symbol etching itself into the pale flesh, its brightness bursting through her white glove, pronouncing its presence within her.
Link nearly toppled to his knees with the same pain. Looking to his left hand, he watched as his skin underneath screamed in enlightened suffering. Within seconds, a nearly identical triangular mark shot out through his gauntlet. Though the simmering of his skin abated, he still found the experience shocking, his nerves on edge.
But that was when the music died away. “These toys are too much for you….” came the nasal voice that Link had long ago
associated with only one man. Ganondorf. Standing up from his giant instrument, he turned about to face Link with a swish of his cape. His yellow demonic eyes peered into Link, but Link had long ago fortified his soul against this assault, ever since his nightmare had come true. Ever since he had first met him on that day, in the rain and thunder, seven long years ago.
Sneering, Ganondorf hardened his gaze even further, angered at the shield that Link had constructed against him. “I command you to return them to me!” He held up a fist, and upon that back of his flesh spawned the third symbol, the last--and most destructive--piece of the Triforce.
Instantly, a wall of wavering violent and blue light surrounded Link, and was soon engulfing the entire room. Navi struggled against the tide of dark magic, as if clinging to Link’s garments with her tiny arms. The pulsating noise of the darkness muffled her voice, and she cried out in what sounded like a whisper. “The waves of darkness…. I can’t … Link….” And with that Link could no longer feel her fingers clutching his shoulder. She was gone.
After Navi had been forced from his side, everything fell into a whirlwind. The room was stripped bare save for a few curtains, and only Zelda and Ganondorf remained. The princess hung helpless above him, and she struggled against her magical restraints in vain. Ganondorf now hunched over him, and before Link could react to anything, tiles of the floor had exploded in a wall of violet power to fall into the abyssal room below. Link, however, had been suspended. Ganondorf clung his fist to Link’s collar, leering.
And then, gravity took him. He managed to stretch out his hand at the last instant and catch hold of the remaining brickwork. He
dangled there, nearly helpless with only one hand keeping him from his death. Ganondorf’s feet were planted directly beside his fingers, and the red-haired villain knelt down and put his hand over Link’s. His grip hardened like iron claws.
Pain overtook Link’s appendage, sweat dripping down his face. The pain was so great. He wanted to let go, to get away from Ganondorf’s evil. But something made him look past the embodiment of darkness, and he spotted Zelda.
So much they had both sacrificed for Hyrule….
So much unsaid between them….
A single tear dropped from Zelda’s radiant blue eyes, and as it ran down her cheek, Link began his plummet, detached from the
only thing that had served as his wedge into the living world. But as he slowly fell, he never lost sight of her, and the tear shed in her fear for him--a tear that had said everything that they had felt during the time that they had distanced themselves in order to save the people of Hyrule--renewed his life.
He threw out his left hand and caught the dangling cape of his enemy.