Fan Fiction ❯ Professional Hero ❯ The ending ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1 - The ending (not what I had in mind)

Link thrust the Master sword deep in Ganondorf's heart, causing the huge monster to grunt as Link's face was next to his.

"By the way, thanks for Majora, I needed the vacation."

Ganondorf's eyes grew wide.

"What? Then next time I'll make things harder."

"There won't be a next time, Gannon."

Ganondorf threw Link back before crashing into the ground and bursting into blue flames.

The young man tried to get up. Quickly, before she reaches me.

"Link, are you alright?"

Just like the previous times he had the wind knocked out of him and couldn't say much, he had to hurry if he didn't want a repeat of the previous times. His hand went to his pocket and found a Deku nut.

"We will send Ganondorf's spirit to the Sacred Realm where he will be imprisoned and..."

Zelda averted her eyes from the flash.

"Link? What...?"

"Re...remember what I said when I first saw you." Link muttered.

"Princess, I have come from the forest?"

Link closed his eyes for a second. You've got to be kidding me.

"No," he said with his calmest voice possible, with an edge of 'bitch are you really this stupid or are you playing with me' underneath, "about not sending me back."

Zelda thought for a second and slowly started to nod.

"Yes, I remember now, but I didn't understand it then."

"It means now. Don't send me back to my childhood."

"Why not?"

"Because, if you send me back, Ganondorf will be back. It all restarts, with me remembering everything, and what's worse, Ganondorf remembers everything as well."

"What do you mean, He remembers?"

"I've fought Ganondorf already three times, and this time, there was something different. When I had gathered all the stones, and you stormed out of the castle gates with Impa, Ganondorf said he made a deal with a certain Majora to destroy a country and dared me to save them. I grabbed your ocarina, convinced Malon to give me Epona and I rode off to Termina. I saved the country from the moon falling down and then I returned here to get the Master sword and continue fighting Ganondorf."

"You saved the world two times?"

"Something like that. The thing is, if you send me back, he may find more henchmen to keep me occupied and I don't need this to be any more difficult then it already is."

"You don't want to be sent back?"

"No, I'm tired of fighting. I need a rest."

Link sat down, completely worn out. Zelda slowly nodded.

"Then I won't send you back, I'll arrange for you to stay at the castle and..."

Link raised his hand. He smiled as Navi returned to her hiding place under his cap.

"No, I, we, just want to go home."

Link turned and fell out his bed. He slowly sat up and looked around. The room was smaller than he remembered. Of course, in the time of his memories there wasn't a cow next to his bed and he was a lot smaller. How did Malon ever got a cow up here anyway, it was a tree house. Link shrugged his shoulders and put on his green tunic. He walked outside and stretched. Down on the ground he saw the Kokiri children play around like nothing ever happened. He watched them for a few seconds and saw they were playing tag. Mido was being chased by three kids and was ready to be caught. This wasn't right! Mido was the unofficial leader of the Kokiri, their protector so to speak. If he were to be tagged, it would be because there were no more free Kokiri and now there were still four kids who weren't tagged, including Saria. Just as Mido was to be tagged Link jumped in front of the kid who was scared shitless because of the big guy who suddenly appeared right before him.

"Hey Mido, care if I join?" Link said with a smile.

"Of course Link, you can always join." Saria said with a smile when Mido didn't react.

Mido grunted and started to run again. Link did a backflip, turned and ran away from the taggers.

A little hour later was the game finished (Mido won) and Link left Kokiri forest after promising to return sometime. Link felt in his pocket and his hand rested on Zelda's ocarina. He shook his head and decided to leave Epona with Malon and run to Hyrule Castle. A few hours later he arrived at the castle gate, which was repaired? They repaired the drawbridge and the gate in one night? Or did he sleep longer, in all the excitement he forgot to ask Saria or Navi how long he had slept. He had left Navi in the forest, he didn't think he would need her again. The drawbridge was closed although it was daytime. Link stopped before the gate and shouted. A guard came looking who was there and signalled to lower the drawbridge. Link ran inside and stopped next to the guard. He saw the guy only had a helmet and wasn't a real guard.

"You already fixed the bridge?" Link asked.

"Of course, sir, it's been three days since you killed Ganondorf."

He slept for three days? He was tired when the fight was finished but he didn't think he was that tired. Although that explained why Navi always had such a hard time waking him up every time after Zelda had send him back in time.

"Uhm, nice uniform." Link said.

The guard glanced at his clothes and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm one of the new guards, and they didn't have any armours left, so I just got a plain uniform and a helmet. But no complaints here, I'm just happy to be alive and serving queen Zelda."

"Queen? Way to go Zelda."

The guard nodded and started to rise the drawbridge.

"Is that really necessary?"

"There are still a few monsters left and some would even dare to attack during broad daylight."

"And there aren't yet enough guards." Link nodded.

"Correct sir."

Link said goodbye and ran towards the castle market. The carpenters were still fixing up some of the houses but commerce was starting to return. He looked around if he didn't see Malon by any chance but no luck. He quickly moved on and ran towards the castle. Ganondorf's tower had disappeared and the old castle was returned. There was still some damage but nothing that couldn't be fixed. There was however a wooden bridge instead of the old stone one, but the old one was completely torn down. Link nodded at the guards and ran inside to see Zelda. He really was looking forward living here. As long as he got a nice yard with trees to play in.

Link entered the castle courtyard and asked where Zelda was. After a few minutes and many pointless directions he finally found her in the throne room looking at some blueprints of Hyrule market place. He was ready to go up to her when he saw some guy standing next to her, standing closely to her, with his hands around her waist kinda close. Link thought about this. He wouldn't lie, he thought about him and Zelda together, but he had spend more time with Malon and knew more about her. In fact, he knew more about Nabooru than of Zelda. If he wasn't mistaken, Nabooru had said she liked Link, or at least that she liked the way he looked. Anyway, Link had been away for 7 years, so to speak, and Zelda was somewhere in hiding and not trapped like Malon was by Ingo. It would be perfectly be understandable if Zelda was somewhere else and met some guy. Link came closer and saw the markings of the Sheikah on his tunic. Ah, they had met at work. Link smiled a bit at his little joke.

"Hey Link, what's so funny?"

Link looked up. Zelda stared back at him.

"Oh, uhm, nothing," he mumbled, "just thought of something funny, wouldn't interest you."

Link saw now the guy was a kid, he was younger than Link.

"So, where do you wanna live?" Zelda asked.

"You got a place with a lot of trees somewhere?"

Zelda laughed.

"We can't expect you to live in the garden. Do you want to live near the market place or in the castle?"

"I don't like crowds, so get me a castle room, with a view o..."

"That's better, you'll be closer to the guard quarters."

"Guard quarters?" Link raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, so you can train them."

"Train them?"

"Yes, who better to train them than the Hero of Time?"

"But I don't want to fight anymore."

"You give up the title of Hero of Time?"

"No, I'll come back when I have to, but when it's not necessary, I don't want to fight. And I don't want a room looking out on the courtyard, I was raised in a forest, I want to see some trees."

Link was getting mad, because Zelda didn't listen to him. Yes, she knew more than him concerning Ganondorf, in the beginning at least, but now he was back in charge of his life so no one had to say what he had to do.

"I'll give you back the Master Sword and your ocarina, but you've got to leave me live my own life."

"But where will you live? In the forest again? Like some savage?"

"Fuck you," Link reacted, this was a personal assault, "just because the Kokiri don't have your luxuary, you consider they're savages, they're even happier than many people I know. Just because you're the queen you think you can be the boss of me, well let me tell you something. I found out I missed out on a lot of things because I grew up in Kokiri forest and because I had to fight Ganondorf, but thanks to him I learned a lot in Clocktown. Did you know I spend days there just doing nothing? I just played around with the bomber's gang or Romani, played my instruments and learned life's lessons from, if you would ask them, complete strangers."

"You played around when things were dire here? How long were you gone to fight this Majora anyway?"

"All together? Five days, if I'm not mistaken, in fact, I think I'll take a little trip to Termina now just to see if I can find someplace nice to live."

"Link, wait,..." Zelda said, but Link raised his hand and apparently threw something on the ground. With a sudden windburst he vanished in a green light.

"I knew he would react like this," Zelda sighed, "he thought it would be like in the fairy tales."

The Sheikah shook his head but Zelda did not see this. Link didn't think it would be like in the fairy tales, Zelda did. Alexis was sure that this was some childhood fantasy of a hero saving Hyrule and then getting her hand in marriage. But there was no hero, Link disappeared and there was no more hero. So when Alexis met Zelda, she knew Link would return, but she thought there was a chance he wouldn't. And since Impa trained both Zelda and Alexis, they grew closer. They started to care for each other, love even. But since Link had returned, Zelda grew distant, not knowing what to do. That's the reason she was too occupied with the whole sage thing. Alexis followed Link around to see if he didn't get in trouble he couldn't handle, but Zelda just rushed from temple to temple, kidding herself if she followed Link, he would find out and she would have to break his heart, but Alexis saw Link getting close to Malon. Link cared for Zelda, because they had some sort of friendship, but he didn't love him. Maybe nobody told him about the fairy tale where the hero saves the country and gets the princess, or maybe he didn't care. The more Alexis thought of this, the more he felt he had to do something. He excused himself en left the throne room.

Link stood in the temple of time with the Master sword in his hands, doubting if he would put the sword back into the pedestal.

"Is there something special about the sword or does it just come with the title?"

Link turned around and looked right into the Sheikah's face.

"Isn't Zelda with you?"

Alexis shook his head.

"She's busy rebuilding the castle town. And I would rather talk to you alone."

"Do we talk here or did you have somewhere else in mind?"

"How about Kakariko village?"

Link nodded and took his ocarina. He quickly played the Nocturne of Shadow and both men warped to the graveyard of Kakariko.

"This will do fine," Alexis said, "I've always liked the cemetery."

Link looked at Alexis for a second. There was a glint in those blue eyes that seemed to be laughing (mocking?) that disappeared as Alexis turned his head towards the graveyard. He shook his head as if he remembered something bad and went with his hand through his brown-red hair. Link sat down and waited for the Sheikah to say something.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" he asked since Alexis remained silent.

"Let's cut to the chase. What are your feelings for Zelda?"

Link shrugged.

"Maybe at first I had high hopes, but after a few times, I became more realist so to speak, and set my goals lower. Why?"

"She thinks there's more, that's why she's a bit uncomfortable with you. But also, she's still the queen and every one does her bidding, perhaps maybe Impa but that's because she's Zelda's instructor."

"Maybe it's for the best I don't stay at the castle. But I really don't want to fight any more."

"And what did you mean after a few times?"

"When I was ten the Great Deku tree summoned me and warned me of a great evil that threatened Hyrule. I met princess Zelda and she ordered me to collect the three spirit stones. After that I grabbed the Master sword but since I was just a kid, the sage of light kept me frozen, so to speak, until I was mature enough to hold the sword. I liberated all the sages and after I had defeated Ganondorf Zelda send me back to have a normal childhood, but unfortunately everything restarted. Logical, since Ganondorf wasn't defeated in the past. So I had to redo the whole thing with all my memories of the first time, but Ganondorf hinted he knew everything as well. We redid the whole thing three times in total."

"So you were stuck in a loophole?"

Link nodded.

"But this time, he had some help. He had found some evil spirit trapped in a mask and arranged for that spirit to break free. He endangered the nearby country of Termina and dared me to go and help them. I went to Termina and was stuck in another loophole but a shorter one with less violence."

"What do you mean?"

"I had three days to rescue Termina from the moon falling down, but thanks to the Song of Time I was able to relive those three days, so it was sort of a vacation to me."

Alexis looked at him.

"I was really tired of fighting and I learned other skills."

"Like what?"

"Well, I finally had the chance learn some proper swordskills, I also learned how to play the drums, the guitar and the Deku pipes, although I'm not really good at those, and I also paint."

"All that at Termina?"

Link nodded.

"Best thing was, when I defeated Majora and I returned to Hyrule I had only been away for five days. Gannon didn't see that one coming."

"So Ganondorf actually did you a favor?"

"You could look at it like that."

"So I'm not the only one."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if it's wasn't for Ganondorf, I wouldn't have become a Sheikah and I wouldn't have met Zelda. I just would have stayed here in Kakariko and have become a gravedigger."

Link looked at the boy. His memory returned slowly.

"You're the little kid on the graveyard that wanted to be like Dampé."

Alexis nodded.

"And now, nearly 8 years later, I'm a Sheikah and Kakariko still hasn't got a professional gravedigger."

"How much younger than me are you, exactly?"

"Well, if you were ten when you came to Kakariko, I was 8, and now I'm 16."

"I'm turning 18 in a few weeks. Or so I think."

"You don't know when your birthday is?"

"If you get warped through time as much as I do, you would be confused about the dates as well."

"So where are you going to live?"

"I would like to live somewhere in Hyrule where no one can bother me."

"If you want, I can help you."

Link looked at Alexis.

"You helped me in the past with that mask, and you saved Hyrule, so if you want to keep this a secret, I won't tell anyone."

"If I'm not mistaken, a bit south of the entrance of Kokiri Forest there is a piece of land which is a bit secluded. I would like to buy that to build a house."

"Do you have the money?"

"I have more than 15000 rupees in the bank of Clocktown, or at least I had that many 7 years ago."

"Get me plans of your house, and I'll get everything in order, you repay me later."

"Then I will leave for Termina and get your money. I'll return in a few weeks."

"I'll try to be finished when you return. Just go to the castle and ask for Alexis."

Link nodded and was ready to stand up.

"Oh, one more thing."

Link turned his head to the young Sheikah.

"How did you vanish like that?"

"Magic!" Link smiled.

"No, really, how did you do that?"

"Like I said, magic, that was Farore's Wind, granted to me by the Great Fairies."

"What else do you have from magic."

"Not much, I rather live by the sword. But now it's time for me to go."

"I hope you'll return soon."

Link shook his hand and set off.