The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Part Three: Liberation

Chapter One: Seven Years

     He was vaguely aware he was conscious. Or perhaps he was in a very realistic dream. He did not move, nor did he feel the need to. He felt perfectly comfortable here.

     ...Here? Where was that?

     He had been at the Temple of Time, he remembered. The Spiritual Stones, the Ocarina of Time; they had opened the Door of Time. Then he had entered a chamber that towered, that had housed at its center the Master Sword. He had drawn the sword from its pedestal, and then... Something had happened, but he wasn't sure what. After that light had appeared, he had no memories.

     Now he was becoming more awake. Awake? Had he been asleep? It certainly felt like it, now that he was thinking a little. Had that been what happened after?

     "Link...arise, chosen hero..."

     Who was that? That voice had belonged to a man. Old, but strong, and rich. Was anyone else here? Was Navi with him?

     A new sound met his ears then, and he recognized it as flowing water, all about him. He began to feel too; he hadn't even realized before he had felt nothing, like the feeling of being weightless. He felt strange, like something about his body was unfamiliar. Why would that be? More curious than ever, he made the effort to open his eyes, hoping more than a little bit Navi would be there with him, wherever here was. He had grown accustomed to her being with him wherever he had gone, exploring the unfamiliar world with her had been almost a comfort, and he didn't want to give that up.

     The first thing he noticed was the water he heard. He saw no surface beneath the water, yet it maintained a form as if perfectly solid as ice would be. He saw other what appeared to be platforms of water elsewhere around him, and he quickly concluded he was on one such platform as well. Distantly, he saw that this place did indeed have a wall, made also of cascading water like he had seen at the Great Fairy's fountain, but he saw no ceiling, and he heard no audible sign of there being a surface below. The water itself gave off a faint light; other than that, there was darkness. He also saw on his platform there were other slightly raised platforms in circle shapes, and in them were markings like the ones he had seen surrounding the Master Sword in the Temple of Time, and the ones he saw were all colored differently. He imagined if he turned about, he would be greeted with a similar sight, but as it was, he was busy focusing now on the second thing that had grabbed his attention. In this place, wherever this was, was, in front of him, a man.

     "I am sure you are both confused. Allow me to explain, and introduce myself. My name is Rauru."

     Both? So Navi was here too! He turned his head to see her, and found her standing on his shoulder, just as she was turning to see him. She gasped.

     "Link! You...you're big now!"

     "What?" His voice sounded different. It was lower, stronger, but he could still hear a little of his old voice in it. What did she mean by big though? He looked down at himself, and now he too stared in shock. He was an adult?! But how?! His childhood raiment was gone, replaced now with an adult sized heavy tunic, green as his former one had been and belted at the waist, with a white long undershirt and matching white trousers. Thick leather boots in the same style as his childhood ones adorned his feet, and he wore leather bracers that covered his forearms and also covered his hands in a fingerless glove style. Reaching above and behind himself, he felt he also wore a cap of the same style as well, larger now to fit better. In the corner of his vision upon doing so, he recognized the hilt on his back as the Master Sword he had pulled. The weight on his back then...yes, he felt it too, it was his Hylian shield.

     "I'm...an adult? But how?" he asked, looking at Navi, and then, both of them, looked to the man who had called himself Rauru.

     He was taller than himself, balding, and what hair was left that he sported by a large mustache beneath his large nose and sideburns that ran past his pointed ears were white with age. His eyes, though bright, were small, and the man's puffy cheeks and heavily lidded brow concealed them well. Having no beard revealed a strong jaw and chin, but the man was portly, and he had very little neck to speak of. The rest of him was covered by a heavy hooded robe, dyed orange, with over-sized red embroidered trim at the neck, with more of the same material running down his front to the floor and draped underneath and around his arms. At his belly, behind a white cloth backdrop, the red material from above and below, as well as from either side, were stitched to another piece of the same fashion in the shape of a shield, and at its center the Triforce was stitched, with white stitching surrounding it in a design that may have resembled wings, but he was not sure. More white cloth could be seen draped underneath his arms from the red embroidered material, extending underneath the material that fell down his front. His robe covered his feet completely, and even his hands were hidden from view, for the sleeves were over-sized, and there was a red band that wrapped around the sleeves where one's wrists were likely meant to be when worn properly, bunching the sleeve together at that point.