The Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Cycle's End ❯ Prologue: The Cycle's End ( Chapter 1 )

Prologue: The Cycle's End

 

 

“The flow of time is always cruel… its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it… A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days…”

-Sheik, Ocarina of Time

 

 

 

It was time.

 

I gave a sigh. Looking out towards the window I could just make out the shape of the wind charms I'd hung so many years ago. They were blurred by shadows, not only from the evening but also from those that hid in my eyes, making forms two horses away seem distorted and unclear. A part of me wished that I could sit in the old rocker outside, beside the wind charms one last time, and watch the sunrise as my own sun set.

 

It seemed that fate would not occur.

 

Shifting in the bed, I had no choice but to wince as pain lanced through my bones, though I continued to push myself till I was up and sitting, panting from the effort. I refused to just lie here, waiting for the inevitable. I would meet it standing… or at least sitting up. My body might have withered with time, but my soul was strong. I wanted him to see that before I went.

 

“Kaula, you should rest.”

 

“Rest at this point would be foolish, I'll be resting soon enough.”

 

Fiona, impish in looks but skittish as a field mouse, gave a slight shake of her head. I had come across her three years back, before walking had grown unbearable. A vision in the mirror had brought me to her village, the Phantom God less than pleased at my brief disappearance while I'd retrieved her. The girl could see the future in the wind, tell what was coming by how the branches moved in the breeze, by the way the leaves danced, by how the reeds whistled. She foresaw my coming.

 

And my departure.

 

“I hate when you talk that way, Moeder Kaula.” Her lips were trying to smile but her eyes were sad. Her spirit was optimistic and cheerful, but there was no hope in this situation. She knew that and it pained her deeply. I wished I could take that away from her but it was not in my power to do so.

 

“You are too young to understand,” I replied instead. “One day, you will realize—”

 

My words were silenced by the slamming of the door as it was forced open from the outside. The chill of night seeped into the cottage, the fire in the fire place almost going out before it regained itself, as the Phantom God entered. He didn't spare Fiona a glance, his crimson eyes staring directly at me. For a moment, I remembered when I was young, when I could stand defiantly against him, knowing that it was not my time, that I wouldn't be dying that day.

 

I no longer had that unwavering truth to stand beside.

 

“Your song grows dim.” He took a step forward, the inside of the cabin seeming to dim and grow darker as he entered. His voice was quiet, firm, but with a tendril of worry I could just discern. “There isn't much time.”

 

I offered him a weak smile. “For me?” I took a deep breath, sighing again. “Yes.” Looking at him, I tried to find something different in his appearance, some hint of age or weakness that comes with time. There was nothing. He was the same as I'd met him some seventy years ago. “For you? You have nothing but time.”

 

A cough tickled in my throat and I turned my head away, trying to stifle it. Fiona rushed to me, her slender hands touching my knobby, bony ones as she tried to ease my pain. I would have told her that her energy was wasted but I did not want to shatter the comfort the action brought her. The sheer fact that she was doing something was helping Fiona cope with the fact that she could do nothing. I would not take that from her.

 

Besides, her powers did ease the pain and there was much to say, but as the Phantom God indicated, not much time to say it in.

 

“I have been patient.” His voice sounded tight, like the coils of a snake ready to strike. The memory of how easily he slew Moeder Badria entered my mind. “I have waited, at your insistence, for you to tell me what I need to find my farkas. Yet all you have ever told me is to wait longer.” Now, there was a hint of anger to his voice, the shadows of the room seeming to squirm and wriggle. “Do you expect me to wait till your last breath? Do you think to deny me?”

 

I shook my head slowly as Fiona finished her treatment, her hands shaking by the time she was through. The Phantom God had always managed to unsettle her, though I had tried time and time again to soothe her fears. I suppose the truth of the matter only made things worse, though I'd hoped it would have made things better.

 

“No. I would not deny you.”

 

“Then why?” His eyes were beginning to glow, a very easy sign that his temper was peaking.

 

I remained silent, going over the words I'd practiced, knowing I would have to give this explanation sooner or later.

 

“There are some things,” I started slowly, “that I can tell you.” I patted a spot on the bed. He remained standing, refusing to budge. My lips twitched, finding humor in his stubbornness, before seriousness took over. “First, I cannot tell you everything. Again, if I did, you would be denied your farkas forever.” The shadows in the room lurched and I gave him as stern a look as I could muster. However, being eighty two (or was it eighty four?), wrinkly as a pug, and hardly able to move from the bed I was in, I doubt it was all that intimidating.

 

“You can kill me now, or you can listen to what else I have to say. I am not hiding things from you out of spite and you damn well know it! So stop with the shadows already. It won't change anything.” The scowl on his face deepened but with old age comes liberation, if I was dying tonight I would be saying what I had to say, consequences be damned. When it seemed as though he would listen, I continued. “When we first met, I told you of the vision I had.”

 

“The thousand dead warriors, women, and grotesque men-beast things.” Fiona flinched away when the Phantom God cast a look at her, moving further away from him.

 

“Yes. That one.” His attention came back to me. “Your… farkas. He is always reincarnated, again and again, because the balance is never correct. Something is always wrong. Power, Wisdom, Courage, and Obsession, one always outweighs the other three. Till that balance is established, the cycle will continue till the one thousandth reincarnation.” I paused, taking another breath. “At that time, the cycle must either be completed and balanced or it will break, throwing all the souls trapped in it to Goddesses know where. Heaven, Hell, other dimensions, everywhere, nowhere…”

 

“I don't know if you noticed,” he all but growled. “But I am no hero.”

 

I gave a snort of agreement. “But you are selfish and self centered.” The shadows in the room stilled, unnaturally so. “You'll finish it because, otherwise, he will be lost to you forever.”

 

The shadows shifted again, moving naturally in the firelight and unnaturally in other spots. “Continue.”

 

I folded my hands, ignoring the mild discomfort the action brought. “The thousandth reincarnation will be the one most similar to the one you lost, your farkas. It is important you do not approach the others. I have seen how they would react to you… none of which will get you the result you desire. You must let the cycle run its course.”

 

“And if I approach them anyway?” His head was angled, daring me to command him, forbid him to do so. It was a foolish ploy and I wouldn't fall for. He wanted me to tell him not to, then he would go against my words without a thought. In fact, he would go against my words just to spite me, dead or not.

 

“None would yield the results you desire.”

 

One of the shadows leapt, causing Fiona to jump, as it lashed out and shattered one of the chairs, wooden fragments flying and striking the poor girl's arm. She recoiled but didn't leave, in spite of how obvious it was she wanted to stand outside the hut and wait.

 

“What else.”

 

Not a question, I mussed. He knew there was more. “I have spent most of my life seeking your answers. There is no definite way to get what you want, no one true path to walk. I cannot tell you, then, what to do.”

 

“You are of no use to me then.” His hand began to rise before I lifted mine first.

 

“But I can tell you of actions that will help lead to you towards the destination you seek.”

 

His hand lowered, his eyes smoldering a deep burgundy. As he exhaled, I was mildly surprised he wasn't releasing smoke and fire from his mouth. “Speak, then.” His teeth were clenched, his sword appearing in his hand, the dull steel seeming to drain the light further from the room. It was a silent but powerful reminder that I should get to the point.

 

“I have kept records of every insight, every hint or whisper that would assist you.” I motioned to Fiona. The girl kept as far a distance as possible from the god, retrieving the item for me to show him. “This book contains everything I've learned. Much of it will not make sense, it isn't meant to at this time. I hope that you will study it and remember it, that way you'll know, know when the time comes.”

 

It was a little harder to focus on what I was supposed to tell him and, for a moment, my mind drifted. It was only Fiona's quiet whimper that brought me back to what was going on as the Phantom God ripped the book out of the girl's hands. He flipped it open, scanning pages, flipping forward and backwards, trying to make sense of it. The shadows grew larger and began to slowly lean off of the walls as he threw it down in disgust.

 

“There is nothing of use in there!” He turned his eyes to me, sword still in hand. “What kind of seeing have you been doing?” The sword began to tremble in his hand, as though it were more than eager to seek my death. “'Follow the chain, it knows where courage lies?' What kind of rubbish is that? Better yet, `I've always wanted to see a geyser, I hear their power is amazing?' Is this a diary or just something you've given me to waste my time?!”

 

The shadows were making noise now, a chattering, hissing sound, tendrils reaching out towards whatever they could reach. Cups and plates fell from the shelves, shattering on impact with the floor. The other chair suffered a fate similar as the first, the table had all four legs ripped out at the same time while the shadows tore at the quilting on my bed. Unmoving, I remained still, though slightly hurt at his words.

 

“Reading those words will only help you, not hurt! I already explained that most of it wouldn't make sense now, you need to know it for later if you want your farkas to be yours!” My voice had risen, breaking a little with age. “I have done everything in my power to make your journey easier and you still think I wish you to fail? Fool!”

 

A shadow rushed by my face, moving so swiftly I couldn't follow its path. I could only feel the sting from the cut along my cheek.

 

“Maybe you were just waiting for the right time to deceive me.” His voice was low, silken, a hiss making his accent more prominent.

 

“Your obsession! It's as big as a mountain and twice as dangerous!” I set my shoulders firm, glaring at him. “It may cause you to lose your farkas!” I fought to keep my anger in check but I found I couldn't. “Wisdom lies deep, deep within us all. Sometimes it gets tangled up with other things so that we can't see it! Look for it! Listen to it! When all seems done, balance will emerge and lead you! If you cannot do that, you will not have him. You will never have him!”

 

The room seemed to be completely engulfed in black. I could feel the tendrils slither over me, their icy touch stealing the warmth from me. I could make out his eyes, still red as ever, watching me, waiting for me to break. I did not. I held strong to my words and met his stare back.

 

Reluctantly, the shadows returned to where they belonged and the sword in his hand vanished.

 

Continuing to hold his eyes in mine, I spoke firmly, making sure he was listening to what I was saying, knowing these may be the last words I speak. “Chaos and order, light and dark, harmony and dissonance… It is not one or the other. The answer…” I prepared myself, knowing that with the last of my wisdom would come my death. “The answer lies in twilight.”

 

He took a step forward. I knew, just as he, that my usefulness to him was done now. I had given him everything I had, not everything he needed, but hopefully enough that he would be successful. Head held high, I waited as he came to stand beside my bed. He was taller than I remembered, though perhaps I'd just shrunk. He reached for me but I did not flinch from his touch.

 

He was gentle. Out of all the things I was expecting, gentleness was not one of them. Half aware of what he was doing, his intentions were unclear to me till I found myself outside, placed in the seat of the rocker, the wind charms hanging but not chiming. Fiona remained inside, clearly sensing that it would be best not to interrupt. He stood beside the chair and when no words were said, I began to rock a little.

 

We remained that way, both in silence, till the sky began to lighten and pink hues bled into blue.

 

“Funny to think,” I finally spoke, my voice weak and old to my own ears. “The only friend I had was more demon than god…” I felt tired all of a sudden and the urge to close my eyes and sleep was overwhelming. Yet I wanted to see this last, unexpected sunrise. “Had a crush on you once, when I was young.” I gave a soft laugh. “Knew it wouldn't work then, didn't need a vision to see your… obsession with him.” The sky was beginning to bloom in a wide pallet of colors, all that more precious because of what I knew it to be.

 

A gift.

 

He was allowing me one last sunrise.

 

“Thank you…” My eyes closed and when I opened them again, I was no longer looking at the sunrise from my body. I was at the pond outside the cottage. At least, I had thought it was the pond… but it was bigger and cleaner. Looking into it, I saw no vision, only a reflection of myself, as I had been seventy years ago, upon first meeting him… the Phantom God. Colors rippled in the water, similar to the ones I'd seen in the sunrise, swirling into a brilliant light that just grew brighter and brighter… I could feel a gentle warmth coming from it and, with a smile, I took a step into the water.

 

And into the light.

 

=*=*=*=

 

On her last breath, the final note of her song, the charms that she'd hung above her house rang out, the pieces falling and clattering to the ground. The sound seemed far away, my mind focused on one thing and one thing only. Her last words… the last word she'd spoken as her soul had left her body.

 

“Olorun.”

 

She'd given me my name back.