Chapter Text
Link had just offered the spirit orbs he had collected to the statue of the goddess. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but he was certain that the goddess herself had somehow made him stronger. He wasn't complaining. The monsters around the plateau were a hassle. He imagined the monsters beyond this place wouldn't be easy either. He expected to be on the road for a bit after this, so he needed to take what he could get.
Now Link just needed to get the paraglider from the old man. He had caught on that the old man must've been playing some sort of game with him in exchange for it. Link expected any other person would've been annoyed by that prospect. But he had only awoken two days ago in that mysterious shrine in the middle of nowhere with no memory of who he was or what he was doing there. It wasn't like getting off the plateau would automatically answer those questions.
His only lead was the voice that had told him to stand against that thing surrounding the castle; Calamity Ganon. Link was honestly considering doing it, but he knew how foolish it would be. Some random amnesiac like himself would have no chance against an ancient evil. If it could be done, someone more capable would've done it by now. The voice was probably nothing more than an auditory hallucination anyway, brought on by his senses slowly returning after his sleep.
And yet, when he recalled the voice, he became acutely aware of a feeling of emptiness. He wasn't sure why. The voice felt like a warm fire on a cold night to him. He had a desire to be next to it, giving it comfort and encouragement, and yet he didn't know why he wanted to do that.
"Link!" the old man's voice rang out.
Link turned round, and was surprised to not find anyone standing there. He looked around the area for a bit, and then spotted the old man above him, visible through a hole in the roof.
Link wasn't surprised that he'd shown up. He showed up all over the plateau during Link's shrine hunt. Link thought he was certainly an odd fellow, but his recent disappearing stunt after the last shrine exacerbated that strange air that surrounded him. The old man looked even stranger this time. Link certainly didn't remember blue fire floating around him.
"It seems you've received the goddess's blessing," the old man observed. "Very well then. Come up here. There is something I must tell you before I give you the paraglider."
Link watched the old man walk across the rooftop out of sight. He took a breath and followed after him.
"I am King Rhoam Bospheramus Hyrule," the old man said. "And it's time I told you what happened one hundred years ago."
Link sat down, listening to the devastating story of the fall of the kingdom of Hyrule. Rhoam went on about the weapons made to destroy evil-the Guardians-and how Calamity Ganon turned them against the kingdom, razing the town and slaying the four champions, the princess's personal knight, and Rhoam himself. The ghost king went on to talk about how Princess Zelda was single-handedly keeping Calamity Ganon sealed in Hyrule Castle, even after one hundred years of its return.
"Zelda is my only daughter," King Rhoam said. "And her knight..." Rhoam held his hand out toward Link. "...was you."
Link blinked in surprise. He was the knight that died one hundred years ago?
"You sustained mortal injuries," King Rhoam explained. "You were brought here to recover in the Shrine of Resurrection, slumbering in stasis until your wounds healed."
Link paused, overwhelmed by the revelation. Almost as if he were trying to recall the day he died, Link's body began to ache. First his chest, then his legs, and then his sword arm. Then his entire body seemed to recall faint memories of its injuries. Link has wondered where the scars on his torso had come from. Now he knew.
"Link, I have a request for you," King Rhoam said.
Link's mind turned away from his pain, and to King Rhoam.
"Save my daughter," he said, "and destroy Ganon. Will you do this?"
Link recalled the voice from earlier. It had asked him to do the same thing.
Link wondered...could that have been Zelda?
Rhoam continued gazing at Link. He realized that the king was expecting a response.
"Yes," Link replied flatly.
"Yes, you'll do it?"
Link nodded.
A smile spread out on Rhoam's face. "Still a man of few words and silent dedication, I see. You haven't changed a bit, my boy. You really are the Link I knew back then."
The king spoke with a nostalgic twinkle in his ghostly eyes. He was seeing Link as he did back then. Link himself had no idea what exactly he was like back then, but the king made him wonder if he was really similar to his current self.
King Rhoam handed Link the paraglider. And then he turned to the east and pointed. Its skies were getting darker as nighttime approached. Link could feel the cold wind stroke his cheek.
"Head east, through the Dueling Peaks Mountains, to Kakariko Village," he said. "A woman by the name of Impa will tell you what you can do to defeat Calamity Ganon, and how to recover your lost memories. I'm sure you're interested in hearing about your old life."
Link wasn't sure why, but the idea of reclaiming his memories filled him with a strange sense of dread. By all accounts, he should've been excited or even hopeful to fill in his blank mind. Some desire existed to recall who he was. But that odd, dreadful feeling overshadowed it. He couldn't help but wonder what it was that made him feel that way.
Rhoam turned back to Link, looking him in the eye.
"Link...you are our last hope."
The ghost faded into the approaching darkness. It felt as though his departure made the isolated plateau even lonelier and quieter.
Link glanced to the east. It looked like it would be a long trek to Kakariko. He figured that if he went now, he might be able to arrive there at daybreak or mid-afternoon.
But a sudden tiredness had possessed Link. His body ached. His brain felt like it had just been stabbed. Something else filled Link's heart as well. It wasn't the dread he felt moments ago, but he considered this feeling far worse. He wasn't sure what it was, but he, to his knowledge, had never felt it before. All he knew was that he didn't like this feeling. He didn't know where it had come from. But he had started to feel it after King Rhoam had told him his story, and revealed to him that he was Princess Zelda's personal knight.
Link shrugged it off. He had to focus and get to Kakariko. And yet, he didn't feel like he was in any shape to go just yet.
From the top of the temple, Link spied the log cabin of the old man. Now that the man had left, Link figured that he wouldn't mind if he used it for the night. Why a ghost would need an abode, or other basic survival necessities, Link didn't know. But he did know that there was at least a decent bed to sleep on, and some wood for a fire if he decided to cook something later.
Link took his new paraglider and leapt off the roof. And from there, he glided toward his rest stop for the day.
Link opened the door to the cabin just as the last ray of light was swallowed by the horizon. He dropped his bag by the door, and sat down on the bed.
He couldn't stop replaying Rhoam's story in his head. The parts of how Calamity Ganon destroyed the kingdom and killed his comrades and countrymen were the most emphasized in Link's mind. With that part came the realization that Link was alone. He had no one else in the world and had no home to return to.
Then Link felt a chill down his spine as he realized that he was still alive, that he had survived that horrible, apocalyptic disaster. He felt like he should've given thanks to the goddess for watching over him, allowing him to survive the ordeal. And yet, when he considered all the lives that must've been lost, he wondered why he of all people had survived. He wondered why the brave soldiers or frightened civilians were less worthy to survive than him. He wondered why the four other champions weren't granted this special privilege. Even the king was apparently less important than some knight.
Link felt more and more disconnected from everything as he thought about it. He wanted to lay down and sleep, but he couldn't. Anger and resentment boiled in his blood, though toward whom or what, Link wasn't sure.
Link sat on the bed, contemplating, when he heard the sound of a horse outside. Odd, as Link had never seen a horse on the plateau before. He pitied the poor creature. The terrain was not ideal for horses, and there was no way off this rock without either a paraglider or superb climbing skills. He wondered if there were horses that had become stranded here as the land changed over time. That sounded like a horrible fate.
The horse whinnied again outside, closer to the cabin. Then he heard its hooves outside the door. He whinnied again, loudly.
Link got up to chase the horse away. He wouldn't be able to sleep if it kept hanging around there.
He opened the door slowly so that he wouldn't hit the horse-or at least not smack the horse in the face with the solid wood door.
But when it was all the way open, Link saw no horse in sight.
Link paused in confusion. He surveyed the area quickly, but saw no sign of it.
He closed the door. But then he heard the horse's loud whinny again.
Link opened the door again. Nothing in sight. He stood still for a second, trying to see if he could track the direction the sound was coming from. The horse did not whinny again.
Link went back inside, awaiting another whinny. Nothing came, leaving only the silent night.
Link thought nothing of it. At the very least, the sound distracted him from his own thoughts. He felt like he could at least try to sleep now.
Link got under the covers of the bed, and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep quickly.
Link awoke with a start that night. He couldn't recall if he had any sort of nightmare, but he knew that he felt a strange presence somewhere outside.
Link glanced out his window. Sunrise still looked like it was a few hours away at the very least. He still felt tired. He laid back down in the bed, and closed his eyes again.
But no. He couldn't sleep. That strange presence was still around here somewhere. He just didn't know where.
He opened his eyes again. He turned his head toward the window, and his heart jumped.
Something was staring at him through it. It was too dark to make out the shape clearly, but Link saw two red glowing eyes. They fixated on him, almost leering at him. What chilled Link the most was that he saw no irises in them.
The thing put its dark hand on the window. It looked like a horrible mixture of a demonic claw and a human hand. Its fingers were unnaturally long and pointed, and the palm itself was disturbingly small. Link wasn't sure how it was supporting the weight of its fingers. It tapped three times, each tap more forceful than the last.
Link vaulted out of bed and grabbed a club that he had stolen from one of the nearby Bokoblins. He burst out the door and ran behind the cabin.
It was gone.
Link was breathing heavily. His body had poised itself for battle. His instincts were telling him that whatever was staring at him before was still around. But he couldn't see it anywhere. It had just simply vanished.
Then Link saw something. At the place where the thing had been standing was a shield.
Link picked it up and examined it. In the dark of the night, he couldn't make out everything clearly. But he could make out one detail, a red bird-like creature underneath a pyramid that was composed of three triangles, which was also painted as red as the bird.
Link had no idea where this shield had come from. It looked sturdier than the wooden shields the monsters around the plateau were using. So Link took it. He figured that it might come in handy.
Link would've just headed back to bed at that point, but then he heard it.
The whinny of a horse on the other side of the house.
Link didn't think much of it as he circled around back to the door again. When he arrived in front of the cabin, nothing was there. But on the other side of the gorge that was to the house's left, Link saw something.
He saw the shape of a man riding a dark horse. Link couldn't make out any features, but they were rather large. Link wasn't sure how he'd gotten up here, or across the gorge. He assumed that he and Rhoam were the only people there.
Link remembered his Sheikah Slate. The user interface was pretty simple for such an advanced piece of technology, which Link appreciated as someone who did not know anything about ancient machinery. He used it as a telescope during his shrine hunt. Maybe he could get a closer look at the rider from here using it.
He pulled out the slate, and zoomed in on the rider.
It disappeared. Link was sure it had been there a second ago. And yet it was gone.
Link shivered. He didn't know what the two things that appeared here tonight were, but they made him feel a strange sense of helplessness. He didn't like not knowing what his foes were, or what they were capable of.
Link found it weird that he was already referring to those things as foes...he must've been too startled to think about them clearly. His senses were still a bit wonky after waking up from the Shrine of Resurrection, so maybe they were just his eyes playing tricks on him.
Regardless of justifications, Link didn't like the idea of going back to sleep here. So he packed up his things, faced the edge of the plateau and leapt off, sailing across the sky toward the ground.
He flew in the direction of the Dueling Peaks as, without his knowledge, something watched him from the plateau.