Endings and Beginnings, Chapter 1

A Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time fanfic by Jennifer Califf
Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, characters, and situations are
copyright Nintendo



"Excuse me," Link approached the young girl with reddish hair.  The
closer he got, the more certain he was that he'd met her somewhere
before.  But why couldn't he remember?

"Hi!  Can I help you with something," the girl asked cheerfully as Link
stared at her.  Suddenly a word formed in his head.

"Maron," he said, frowning in concentration.  "Your name is Maron."

"Wow!" exclaimed the girl.  "You're right!  How did you know my name?"
she asked curiously.  "Have we met before?"

"I don't know," Link answered truthfully.  "I really don't know."

"That's okay, Psychic Boy," Maron said, smiling brightly.  "Let me
introduce myself.  My name's Maron, from Lon Lon Ranch.  I came here
today with my father.  He went to the castle to deliver some milk, but
he still hasn't come back.  I bet he fell asleep again!"  The girl
pouted a little and stomped her foot cutely.  "He always does that."

"I'm Link," Link replied.  "I think. . . I also have to go to the
castle."  That seemed right, Link thought to himself as he tried
desperately to remember.  

"That's great!  If you see my father, would you tell him that I'm still
waiting for him?" Maron asked sweetly. 

"Uh, sure," Link answered.  Hyrule Castle loomed down the road in the
distance.  Looking at it, he was more certain than ever that he had to
go there. 

"Thank you, Psychic Boy!!" Maron cheered, clapping her hands with glee.
Suddenly Link knew that something was wrong.

"Aren't you supposed to call me 'Fairy Boy'?" Link asked Maron, taking a
step backwards.

"Why would I call you that?" she asked confusedly.  "Are you a fairy in
disguise or something?"

"No, it was because of Navi. . ..NAVI!"  Link suddenly remembered his
fairy friend.  How could he forget!?!  The Great Deku Tree had sent Navi
the Fairy to guide Link on his quest, his quest for . . . for what?
Darn, he was forgetting again!  But where did Navi go?  He briefly
seemed to remember seeing Navi fly away, out the window in the Temple of
Time.  But why would Navi leave him without even saying goodbye?  

Link shook his head.  It seemed like every answer he came up with only
led to more questions.  He would have to find Navi, but first he would
go to the castle.  Maybe there he could find the answers he was looking
for.

"If you meet me by the castle gate tonight, I'll give you something
special," Maron whispered in Link's ear, startling him.  Maron giggled.
Link smiled at her.  Even though he'd just met her, he felt like he'd
known her for a long time.

*********

Navi watched in horror as Zelda took the Master Sword from Link's
unconcious body.  

"Link!  Link!  Wake up!!" Navi screamed, flitting back and forth.
Princess Zelda had played the Ocarina of Time, and it seemed that she
had sent Link's spirit into the past.  Always before Navi had been able
to follow Link across the passage of time, but this time she'd been left
behind.  How could she help Link now?

Zelda watched the little fairy with amusement.  "It's too late," she
told the hysterical fairy with a smirk.  "You can't reach him from here
anymore."

Navi suddenly felt very alone and very afraid.  She knew that she
couldn't fight Zelda.  She decided to try to appeal to the princess of
Hyrule.

"Why are you doing this?" the fairy asked, hovering in the air a few
feet from the monarch.  "You are the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom.
Link fought long and hard to bring peace to the land of Hyrule and to
help you.  Why did you send him away?"

"You're very naive, little fairy," Zelda replied.  "It is the power of
the Triforce of Wisdom that granted me the foresight to manipulate
events to suit my own ends.  Ganondorf is sealed away.  That means that
of those who bear the Holy Triangles, only Link and I remain.  With Link
gone, I alone will posess the greatest power in Hyrule."

"But you already rule Hyrule," the fairy countered.

"No," Zelda said, fingering the hilt of the Master Sword.  "As I am now,
I only rule this dead castle and a few loyal subjects.  But the Zora,
the Goron, the Gerudo, and even the Kokiri are all threats to my rule.
They must be bent to my will.  I will unify this land under one ruler,
and that ruler will be me.  It is my holy duty, as the bearer of the
Triforce of Wisdom and the heir to the throne of the Castle of Hyrule!
And then, there will truly be peace in this land."  Navi felt a sick
sense of dread at Princess Zelda's words.  It was clear to her that she
needed to find help.  

*The six sages!* she thought to herself.  *They will understand.
They'll help!  I have to warn them about Princess Zelda!*  However, just
as she was about to fly away, she felt a rush of air around her as a
glass bottle trapped her on all sides.  Panicking, she threw herself
against the wall of the bottle, but it was no use.  Through the bottle
she could see Princess Zelda laugh.  The princess held the bottle up and
addressed the trapped fairy.

"I'm sorry, little fairy," Zelda said with mock-sadness, "but I can't
let you run off.  I can't take the chance that you might try to tell the
sages how horribly evil I've become."  Zelda laughed again.  "Although I
doubt they'd believe you, there's no point in taking chances.  Did you
forget, little fairy?  I posess the Triforce of Wisdom.  I don't make
mistakes."  

**********

Dusk fell as Link approached the gate to Hyrule Castle.  Looking for
Maron, he glanced at a vine-covered wall.

"Link, I'm over here!" he heard her call, and was surprised to see her
standing under a tree not too far away.  Link walked over to her side. 

"What's wrong?" Maron asked, noticing a worried expression on Link's
face.

"I wasn't expecting you to be here," he answered with a faraway look.

"Silly, I told you that I'd meet you here tonight," Maron chastised.

"No, I mean, for some reason I thought you would be standing over there,
by that wall," Link said, pointing.  "And I thought that you might be,
well, . . . singing," he finished lamely.  "I guess that sounds pretty
strange."

"I don't think it sounds strange," Maron said cheerfully.  "In fact, I
love to sing!  I sing all the time back at Lon Lon Ranch."  Maron softly
began to sing, and to Link it was a hauntingly familiar melody.  The
song made him think of horses and cows, fresh milk and green pastures.
And. . .

"Epona!" Link remembered the name, but couldn't place where it belonged.
 Maron stopped singing, her eyes opened wide in surprise.

"How did you know that name?  Epona is one of our horses back at the
ranch.  You really are a psychic, aren't you, Psychic Boy?"  Maron
looked pleased and reached into a bag that she had brought with her.

"If you really are psychic, then you should be able to tell me what I
brought for you.  Take a guess!"  Maron said with a grin.  Link looked
at her bag and thought hard. 

"It's . . . an egg?" he guessed.

"You're amazing, Psychic Boy!!" Maron exclaimed, producing an egg from
her bag. "If you keep this egg warm, it'll hatch," Maron explained,
holding it out to Link.

Suddenly, Link sensed danger.  Looking over Maron's head, he noticed
emerald eyes glowing in the dark.

"Maron!  Get out of the way!!" Link yelled, pushing the girl to the side
just as a giant Skulltula dropped out of the tree.  Link drew his Kokiri
Sword and leapt at the huge arachnid, slicing it in half.  Even then, it
continued to twitch for several seconds until it finally lay still, dead
on the ground.  Breathing heavily, Link stepped back.  

Maron had fallen to the ground, but had somehow managed to protect the
egg that she held carefully in her hands.  She stared in shock at the
dead Skulltula, and then looked up at Link.  He hoped she wouldn't
scream or panic.

"THAT WAS SO AWSOME!!!" Maron cried, jumping to her feet.  "I didn't
know you had a sword, Psychic Boy!!  Here," she said, thrusting the egg
into his hand and grabbing his sword.  "Let me try!"

"Maron," he said, dumbfounded, as he watched the girl swing the sword in
wild arcs.  After a few minutes, breathless and flushed, she stopped and
walked unsteadily back to where Link stood.

"I've always wanted to learn to use a sword!" Maron said, inhaling
sharply as she tried to catch her breath.   In his hand, Link suddenly
felt the egg crack.  He looked in wonder as a baby cuckoo forced it's
way out of the shell and into the world.  

"It hatched," Link remarked as the little bird tested it's new muscles.

"Wonderful!" Maron replied breathlessly.  "That means that you can use
this cuckoo to wake up my dad if you find him!"

"He's that heavy a sleeper?" Link asked.  "Besides, wouldn't he have
woken up by now?  It's been hours!"

"You don't know my dad," Maron answered.  "If he's fallen asleep, then
he won't wake up until he hears a cuckoo.  I keep telling him that he
needs to see a doctor.  It's not normal."

"Well," Link said, taking back his sword, "I guess I should wait for
dawn if I'm going to try to sneak into the castle."

"You're going to sneak in?  That's SO exciting!" said Maron.  "But why
wait until dawn?  If you're going to sneak in, wouldn't it be better to
do it at night?"

"No, they increase the guard at night.  Besides, no one would expect me
to try to sneak in during the day."  Link spoke with confidence, even
though he wasn't sure how he knew these things.

"I'll stay here with you then, to keep you company."  Maron giggled, and
Link decided that he was happy she was there.

The night passed quickly, and dawn arose.  The little cuckoo crowed for
the first time as the sun's light illuminated the early-morning sky.  As
Link scaled the vine-covered wall, Maron waved to him from down below.  

"Good luck!" she called.  "I'll be waiting right here for you to
return!"

Link waved back, then quickly focused on the task at hand.  Sneaking
into the castle was much easier than he expected.  Somehow he already
knew where the guards would be, and exactly where to go in order to not
be seen.  Finally, as he made his way around the castle moat, he saw a
large man sleeping next to several crates, and without even having to be
told he knew that it was Maron's father. 

"Maybe Maron's right.  Maybe I AM psychic," Link said to himself.

Link took out the cuckoo, who, upon seeing the sleeping man, immediately
began to crow wholeheartedly.  The man woke with a start.  As he got his
bearings, Link introduced himself and told the man, who's name was
Talon, that he'd been sent to find him.

"And your daughter, Maron, is waiting for you at the castle gate," he
finished.

Talon gratefully thanked Link for waking him up and left to find his
daughter.  After he'd left, Link used the crates that the man had left
behind to help himself sneak into the castle garden.  Once inside, he
let his instincts guide him around the guards, sneaking deeper into the
palace.  Finally he came to a small, private garden.  And across the
garden, looking into a window, was a girl.  She turned around suddenly,
sensing his presence.  For a long moment the two children looked deep
into one another's eyes.  

"Princess Zelda," Link announced.  "I've returned."

Zelda blinked twice.  

"I'm sorry, but," she replied, "do I know you?"


TBC in chapter 2  


jcaliff@nsai-petro.com       http://www.topher.net/~jcaliff/iserlohn.htm

Broken mirror, a million shades of light
The old echo fades away
But just you and I can find the answer and then
We can run to the end of the world
-"Small of Two Pieces" lyrics by Masato Kato, end theme of Xenogears