Living With Myself

Chapter 35

Sheik ran up to the dead tree. "Dark! Oni is gone!" he cried.

"Uh? Really?" asked the shadow, looking around for him. "Maybe he got bored? Gods are weird like that."

"I don't think so. I have a bad feeling about this. Can you look for him, like in your shared minds or something? Just to find out where he is?"

Dark jumped down. "Sure, I'll try. But his mind is wacko, so don't expect too much," he said, closing his eyes and crossing his arms. "Hmmm, I can't feel anything...This is weird..."

"Can you tell where he is?" asked Sheik.

Dark opened his eyes. He had turned serious. "Let me get Link, this is too weird. I can't feel him at all. It's like...Like, when a room is there, but now there's not even a door. It's all just black."

Saria screamed, falling to her knees as great black cracks opened all through her little body. "He's coming!" she yelled.

The darkness spreading from the cracks in the sky started dripping down on the earth. At the center of the cracks shone a red light like a far off torch.

Saria stumbled to her feet. "Sheik!" she cried, and Sheik was already running to her. Dark moved to stop him, but stopped himself right before he caught Sheik.

"No!" cried Link, but it was too late.

Sheik vanished in a flash of green light.

"Why didn't you stop him?!" shouted Link to Dark.

"I'm a hero too, you idiot," muttered Dark. "It was the right thing to do."

"I know! Damn it, I know!" said Link, wiping tears away from his eyes. He took a deep breath and held Saria's trembling form. "I'm sorry Saria. I knew we had to, but..."

Saria fell against him. "It's alright. It's...not too late. I sent him to the Temple of Time, but now we need you here," she said, and pointed to the flaming red light that burned brighter and brighter.

Link's heart sank.

"Ganondorf," he whispered.

There it was. All his nightmares about having to fight a battle that he couldn't win were coming back to him.

"Of course you can win! Come on, get your magical sword out!" said Dark.

"You're scared too," said Link, his mouth almost smiling at the whole situation.

"Bitch, I'm your opposite," said Dark, taking Saria and carrying her in his arms. "You should be filled with heroic courage or something while I cower."

Link sighed as he took out the master sword. Fear? Courage?

In truth, all he felt was a deep calm.

Even as he saw Ganondorf descend into the woods, surrounded by dark fire, as ready for battle as he had been the first time.

'At least now, I can see the sky while we fight,' thought Link, his mind a calm sea.

"I have been waiting for you," said Link, as the dark king descended in front of him.

Link felt like he had been waiting for him his whole life. All of his lives with all of his reruns through time. As if their battle had been merely postponed, paused in the middle.

"What an arrogant thing to say," said Ganondorf with a smirk, pushing his cape back. "Fitting to the Hero of Time. Your mindless courage makes a fool of you, when you should fear me with every atom of your body."