Living With Myself

Chapter 8

In the middle of the sandstorm, Dark pulled Link against him just to shout in his ear

"I hate the desert!"

Link pushed him away, but kept holding on to Dark's hand. They had to keep running or the phantom guide would leave them behind. And they couldn't let go of each other.

After what seemed like hours of running, the Spirit Temple appeared before them, and with a last cackle the guide vanished. Dark collapsed to the ground, quickly getting covered by the sand.

"No! Get up, I don't want to find out what happens to me if you die!" cried Link.

Dark only grumbled incoherently in response. "Tell me again why we couldn't just teleport here," he complained.

"Dark, please," said Link, pulling him up. "Nabooru and Zelda would have felt it if I did. We don't have much time as it is, Nabooru's at some party on the castle, so..."

Finally the shadow deigned to stand, and Link turned to survey the expanse of desert that still separated them from the temple.

Dark huffed and pulled up fistfuls of sand. "A party for what?" he asked.

"I think it's some kind of ball," said Link, looking out towards the temple.

He felt like he was ten again. Or, had he really been ten years old back then? No, he hadn't. After his sleep at the temple of time, he had completely lost count of his age. He figured he could find out how old he really was if he sat down to count his trips back and forth, but the idea seemed too depressing to try.

"Why would they make a party for a ball? Does the princess has to make parties for her toys?" asked Dark.

When Link turned around to tell his shadow how much of an idiot he was being, he found the other's hand inside his shirt and sand falling all the way down into his underpants.

"Noooo!" he cried, but by the time he had shouted, Dark had already pulled his green cap over his eyes and ran out to the temple.

"Why?! Goddesses, I hate myself!" complained Link, pulling his cap away from his eyes.

A long time later, Link caught up with his shadow deep inside the spirit temple.

"I thought you would never arrive" said Dark, leaning against a wall and looking at his fingernails.

"How the hell did you dodge all the traps?" asked Link, realizing for the first time that his shadow didn't carry a sword or any kind of weapon.

"I didn't. I moved through the shadows when I found something I couldn't cross and investigated to my leisure," said Dark, strolling towards Link with a mischievous smile. "Did you know the Gerudos have a changing room in here?"

Link opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but knew the answer before he could ask the question, so he jumped straight to the order.

"You're giving that underwear back," he said, pointing at Dark.

Dark laughed, patting his hips. "But it's so comfortable!"

Link blocked out everything his shadow said from then on.

Around them, the spirit temple hummed with power, and Link couldn't help his mind from drifting back to Nabooru and the other sages. After Ganondorf had been sealed and Zelda had put time back together, the sages had become the rulers of the country, becoming far more powerful than Link had ever thought possible, and mastering abilities that awed him beyond anything he had previously seen. They had offered to train him, to make him even more powerful than them. And, in an unspoken question, to marry Zelda.

But he couldn't even stomach the idea. To become a powerful king and rule the most powerful kingdom in the continent. It all seemed like too much for someone like him, who delighted in fishing at the lake and reading books on a cabin deep in the forest. He was a hero, he would never deny or forget that, but true heroes never became kings. It was one of the things you learned after it was all over, and you were left to stare at the rubble of your past.

"Stop dwelling on it" said Dark, as they entered the central room with the huge statue of a woman.

Link frowned at the reminder that they could share their thoughts. "I'm not," he said.

"Of course you are, you keep wondering if you should have stayed in the city and if they still need you. But they don't. All they wanted was for you to destroy Ganondorf and restore them to power. Now all they want from you is to be a pretty jewel on their shiny pretence of a perfect royalty," said Dark, tapping the tip of Link's nose.

Link frowned and stepped away from him. "Stop it. Why should I even listen to you? You tried to kill me. I should be returning you the favor."

"But if you did, who would be left to really listen to you?" wondered Dark, with a seductive wink as he leaned against the railing of the stairs

Link wanted to hit him, to hit him again and again, even if he was sure he would feel the same pain. Because he already was feeling it. Because he was starting to understand that now, even if he found a way to get rid of his shadow, he wouldn't do it. He couldn't even imagine going back to the absolute loneliness he had isolated himself in. He didn't want the company of the people he had saved, but he still longed for someone.

His heart skipped a beat, as he understood why Dark had been so confident about Link wanting to get rid of him.

He knew.

He knew that Link had called him, in his dreams, wanting to talk to someone who would understand. Someone who would remember.

And who could understand him better than his own self?

Link took a step forward, opening his mouth to speak, when something on the level beneath them caught his attention.

Lying on the altar at the feet of the Gerudo goddess, was Sheik.

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