Link opened his door and started walking down the hall. He felt better now, his headache was gone, but he was extremely hungry. It had to be at least 5:00.

“Now where would Zelda be this time of day?” He thought. He didn’t know Zelda very well. This past couple weeks was the first time he had actually gotten to know Zelda. She ran into him a couple of times during his quest to defeat Ganondorf, and after he returned from the future. Zelda knew Link even less. All she remembered was when he came to the castle once and retrieved the spiritual stones and came back. Link came across a guard that was off duty.

“Sir, would you happen to know where the dining room is?” Link asked.

“Well of course Link, right this way.” The guard gestured with his arm to come along with him to the dining room. Link had been there before but he would forget on an occasion. Maybe that was where Zelda was. They had finally reached the dining room.

“Thank you,” Link said giving the guard a nod showing his appreciation. Link opened the door. This room was huge. The wooden floor was so shiny that it looked like you could ice skate on it. Taking up most of the floor was a red carpet with a gold border. There were eight oval-shaped tables that could seat fourteen people. Link still couldn’t imagine how anyone could have that many guests at once. The ceiling, which was at least fifteen meters high, had five gargantuan chandeliers hanging from it. There was a painting of the goddesses all holding onto a piece of the Triforce and watching over Hyrule. The walls were covered with pictures of the royal family members. There was a podium with the Triforce printed on it. To get to the podium one would have to climb the steps to get to the top. On top were two thrones where the king and Zelda sat. Link looked around and saw Zelda sitting by herself at one of the tables eating her dinner. Then he looked at the long array of food. His mouth began to water. He walked over and started to take a little bit of everything. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast. There were a number of meats, fruits, vegetables, soups, salads, and sweets. Zelda had just noticed that Link was in the room. He walked over and set a plate of food and a bowl of soup down next to her.

“With you eating as much as you do, it’s a wonder that half the people in Hyrule aren’t starving already,” Zelda said kindly with a smile. Link gave her a smile back and went back to the table to pick up another plate that wasn’t quite as full of food, a plate with a few pieces of pie, and a glass full of white grape juice.

“Wow, you must really be hungry,” Zelda stated.

“Yeah, all I ate today was an apple for breakfast.” Zelda’s meal wasn’t half of what Link had. She had a piece of chicken, mashed potatoes, and assorted vegetables. Link began to devour his food. “Slow down, you’ll choke,” Zelda said.

“M’ll beff finmmh,” Link said with food stuffed in his mouth.

“What?” Zelda asked. It took Link a while to chew and swallow his food.

“I said I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Zelda watched in amazement as Link devoured the rest of his food. She had never seen anyone eat that fast. She was used to seeing such formal people eat and it would take them a century to eat what Link had with him. He was done in twenty minutes.

“If I had to guess, you didn’t eat since breakfast yesterday,” said Zelda.

“So would I. I feel so much better now.”

“Did the Zoras say they would help us?” Zelda asked on a more serious note.

“Yes, they have. It has now been proven that my living reflection does exist.”

“Really, how do you know?”

“I talked to a swordsman, the Zoras had a similar attack to the one we had a while ago. Everyone except for a few people survived. The swordsman saw the attackers face. His face was identical to mine. According to the swordsman, Wyndisis, he slaughtered them, and he took his son away.” That was just what the sniper saw when he attacked here, he killed off all witnesses that he saw and took one away.”

“Slow down, Link. How did that swordsman get to see his face if he killed all of the Zoras who saw him?”

“Master Wyndisis tried to fight him, he was knocked unconscious, but he wasn’t killed.”

“That’s fortunate, so how did they come about joining us?”

“Well it’s not official that the Zoras are on our side, but the swordsmen are prepared to defend Hyrule. They said they would try to get their king’s support.”

“Well done Link, you would make a good politician; you have done a good job rallying support for us, how do you do it?”

“Zelda, I would like to thank you for bringing that up,” Link said thankfully.

“What did I bring up that was so important? I just asked him a simple question,” she thought. “Link is something wrong? I just asked you how you get so many people to respond to your cause,” Zelda said showing concern.

“I just had two very strange dreams. In the first dream, I met my dark side.” Link folded his hand on the table and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Your dark side? How do you have a dark side you seem so friendly and kind and heartwarming.”

“I do have a dark side Zelda,” said Link as he stood up and began to pace back and fourth. He started to make hand gestures as he talked. “He is my own, living reflection, Ganondorf brought him to life and he did it in such a way that if he took one step towards darkness, he wouldn’t be able to go back. In my dream this hooded figure was standing about, I went up to talk to him, he looked board. As I came closer, the wind blew harder, I talked to him. Then he looked at me, and Ganondorf appeared behind him. He tempted this guy to join him. I tried to talk him out of it, but he couldn’t hear a word I was saying. He walked over to Ganodorf and took his hood off, and do you know who it was Zelda?” Link said almost yelling.

Zelda was in a complete shock, she had never heard of something like that happening. She looked Link directly in the eyes and said, “Who?”

Link could feel her concern. “It was me!” he said. “It was my own dark side that took over my reflection.”

Zelda was in a complete shock, she had never heard of something like that happening. “Link, are you sure this wasn’t just a strange dream, a lot of people have dreams like that and they don’t mean anything.”

“Please, Zelda, I beg you to understand me. You have had dreams like that before; remember the dark clouds, Ganondorf. I can feel the presence of my reflection. I can feel the darkness stirring within me. I can almost see what he sees.”

Was this really happening? Did Link’s evil reflection actually exist? Link seemed serious about it. He wasn’t like a nut or anything either. Zelda began to believe him.

“When we jumped into that mirror, your reflection was left in the past with Ganondorf, right?”

“Yes,” replied Link. He had calmed down a little.

“How do you suppose he got into the future?”

“I don’t know, but what I do know is that he is here and he needs to be stopped.”

There was a moment of silence. Link had so much to tell Zelda, he didn’t know were to go next.

“Oh yeah, in my other dream I spoke to the goddesses.”

“You did, did they tell you anything important?”

“Yes, they told me I should go back to the shadow temple to find out more. And to answer the question you asked about how I got so many people to support me, the people know deep in their hearts that it is the right thing to lend a hand to us.”

“Really, that’s what they told you?”

“Yes. There is another thing I have to tell you. Remember when we first met, a long time ago?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You told me that you had a dream about a dark cloud that symbolized Ganondorf. You requested that I go find three spiritual stones that would open the door of time and allow me to retrieve the master sword. I left a few days then I came back. Ganondorf had mysteriously left. You asked my to give you the three stones, so you could hold onto them until something bad happened. Now it is time for me to retrieve the master sword and head to the shadow temple. There yet another thing that I have to tell you.”

“What?”

“Ganondorf didn’t just go away. He was sealed inside the sacred realm, because of me.”

“What did you do, you didn’t open the door of time did you?”

“As matter of fact I did,” Link responded. Zelda was astounded.

“You opened the door of time, how, when?”

“You don’t remember because you weren’t the one time traveling, but I went forward in time just before I gave you the stones. Ganondorf chased you and Impa out of the castle. You threw me the Ocarina of Time. I went to the temple of time and opened the door of time. Unfortunately, Ganondorf followed. Instead of me retrieving the whole triforce, it was split between you, me, and Ganondorf. I went forward in time and defeated Ganondorf. You helped me along the way. When I defeated Ganodorf he was locked in the sacred realm, until now. We must send him back.”

Zelda just sat there. She could almost remember the whole thing; it was like it was all in the back of her mind. “Thank you, Link.” She stood up and hugged him. If it weren’t for him, there may not have been a Hyrule anymore.

“Your welcome, but now, I have to go and defeat him again, along with my dark side.

“Your right, we have no time to loose let’s go get those spiritual stones,” Zelda said firmly.

“Wait a second,” Link said. He picked up the large glass of grape juice that he had gotten and he chugged it down. He made a face. “Wow this stuff tastes funny. Do you know how old it is?”

“Zelda’s eyes nearly sunk into the back of her head. She had a worried expression on her face. “Link, that’s wine,” she said.

Link had never gotten drunk before, let alone drink more than a few sips of alcoholic beverages. The wine was immediately taking effect. Things started spinning around. He looked at Zelda and saw three of her. “Oh look Zelda, you have two evil reflection people, you got me beat,” Link said as he snickered at his own joke.

“Link, snap out of it we got important things to do. You told me that yourself.”

“I still can’t hear you Zelda. Quit playing mind games with me, I know which one is you.”

He reached forward at Zelda but his hand hit space. “Hey you’re cheating,” his speech was beginning to slur, “Where are you. Oh now this is hide and seek, I see the way it is.” Link began walking around looking for Zelda. He tripped over a couple chairs and nearly fell flat on his face. “I found you!” Link lifted up the table cloth and looked under the table. There was a fur coat under it. “Ain’t nothing but a dead squirrel down here.” He walked away but he forgot he had a hold of the table cloth, as he walked away, he knocked down some wine glasses and they shattered.

“Link just stop where you are, I am going to help you.” Just as Zelda finished her sentence, an obese, female cook kicked the kitchen door wide open. She looked to be about three-hundred fifty pounds, her apron was covered with yellow grease, and her hair was grayish and it was worn in a bun with two chopsticks holding it in place. There was a spatula in one hand and a rolling pin in the other. “What is all that hullabaloo?!” She yelled.

“Stop, drop, and roll!” Link yelled as he jumped on the floor and started rolling around as if he were on fire.

“Oh, princess Zelda,” the cook was clearly surprised and embarrassed by her mistake, “May I ask what is going on here?” Her voice was toned down a lot.

“Oh, Link just drank a lot of wine, don’t worry, it’s my fault, I didn’t tell him that it was wine. He drank it so fast.”

“This his first time drinkin’?” The cook asked.

Zelda looked down at Link, who was half asleep on the floor. “Apparently.”

The cook nodded her head, “So is there anything I can do to help?”

“You might want to send in someone to clean up the mess, I have to help Link now,” Zelda said.

“Okay, I’ll go get help,” the cook slowly closed the door.

Zelda reached down, grabbed Links shoulder and gave him a little shake. “Are you okay?”

Links eyes opened up, he looked left, right, and then he looked up at Zelda. She looked concerned. “I think I am going to be sick.”

“Do you need to get to the bathroom?”

“Yes, that would be greatly appreciated.”

Zelda helped Link stand up. He started staggering around. She grabbed Link by the shoulders and guided him toward the bathroom. She let Link go for a second and opened up the door. She put the door stopper down and guided Link in toward the toilet. “Uh, Zelda I’ll be fine right now, thank you.”

“Oh, right.” Zelda hurried out of the bathroom and closed the door. She stood there for a few minutes. Suddenly she heard a lot of gagging noises. Link began to vomit. She winced at the sound of him puking, this was going to last a while. He stopped. “Oh good, it’s finally over,” Zelda thought. Then it started up again. Zelda put her hands over her ears. She ran over to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of mints from the table. Hopefully Link was okay. He had important things to do.

Link felt better now, the dizziness was starting to go away, he walked out of the bathroom and Zelda handed him a mint.

“Here, it will get rid of the taste,” she said.

“Oh, thank you Zelda,” he said as he popped the mint into his mouth.

“Just be careful not to choke on it okay,” Zelda said. She hoped he didn’t choke, but if he did, she had seen the Heimlich maneuver performed several times. “We have to go get those stones right now.”

“Okay, sounds like fun.” Link was still out of it.

“I know. You can wait here.” She looked down the hall and saw a large comfortable chair with no one sitting in it. She took hold of Links shoulders once again and led him toward the chair. Link sat down and fell asleep. He couldn’t possibly throw up any more, so Zelda walked away to go get the spiritual stones.

“I’m back,” she said. Link looked into her hand and saw the three shimmering stones.

“You got any more mints?” he asked. Link wasn’t usually as off topic as he was now.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

“Let’s go. Do you have your ocarina?”

“Yeah.” He rummaged through his pockets until he finally found it and pulled it out.

“Follow me,” Zelda said as she began walking quickly down the hall.

“Whoa, slow down.” Zelda slowed down. “Slow down some more.” Link was standing back by the chair. Zelda decided to stop and wait for him. Link got so he was about three feet behind her, she started walking again. “Slow down.” Zelda was starting to get annoyed, she rolled her eyes, but she regretted it. After all, it wasn’t Link’s fault that he was drunk. She took a small step forward. “One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three,” she counted in her head. This seemed like a fair and steady pace. They kept going along the long, mind-numbing, journey toward the Temple of time.

“Oh good we’re finally here,” Zelda thought. Link was walking faster now; she only had to wait one second between each step. They finally made it to the temple, it was getting dark now. They got inside and stood in front of the Door of Time.

“Link, the Song of Time.”

“Right.” He took the ocarina to his lips and played various notes.

“Here, let me help you.” Zelda grabbed the ocarina, but Link still kept blowing air through it. She helped him play the right notes. The spiritual stones started to glow magnificently, the Door of Time gradually opened.

“Go get the Master Sword, Link. He walked to the pedestal and pulled out the sacred weapon. Zelda saw Link get engulfed in a bright blue light. The door closed. Zelda was really getting tired. She sat down against the wall and fell asleep.

“Zelda,” a voice whispered, “Zelda. Hey Zelda, wake up. Zelda!”

“What, who, oh hi Link, what took you so long?” Zelda asked.

“Well the first time I opened the Door of Time I waited in there seven years to get older. I suppose I just had to wait in there to sober up all little, that’s all.”

“Okay, now you got to go to the shadow temple.”

“I know. I plan to be back soon, go get some rest Zelda. Oh, and I’m sorry if I was too much of a hassle for you.”

“No, don’t worry; I should have realized that that was wine. We only serve grape juice at lunch time.

Zelda walked off to the castle and Link walked over to the guard that was in control of the bridge. “Sir, could you please let the bridge out.”

“Well sure Link, where do you plan on heading at these hours?”

“The shadow temple, it’s very important. I don’t have time to explain.” The guard lowered the bridge. Link ran out into the field. Then he stopped. He turned around and yelled, “Thank you!” to the guard. He sprinted across the field. His boots were soaking wet, the grass was still wet from it raining earlier. He could feel the long grass brushing across his ankles and water splashing him in the legs, arms, and face. He ran up the stairs to Kakariko village, his feet were pounding on the rocky stairs. He had to quiet down now, people were sleeping. Link slunk through the village, as quietly as possible. He reached the graveyard. “There’s got to be something in that shack that I can use as a torch,” he thought. He went into the shack and looked around, there were a lot of boards lying around in piles, but they were all wet because the roof had many leaks in it. He carefully rummaged through the piles of wood, being sure not to get any splinters. He found a nice dry three foot long board in the pile. Then he looked in an old dresser for a piece of cloth. He found one and rapped it around the end of the wood. He looked across the graveyard. “Is that ladder still there,” he thought. It was too far away to see, he moved forward. Sure enough, it was there. He climbed up the ladder holding the board in his right hand. He hurried down the steps and lit the cloth on fire. He unsheathed his sword and entered the Shadow Temple. It was dead silent. Link figured it would be best for him to go to the room with the mirror in it. That is just were he went. He slowly opened the door. He held his torch around the corner to see what was going on.

“Stop, what do you want with me, I never hurt one of you, don’t kill me, I have a life I don’t deserve to lose it,” a voice said from within the room.

Link forgot about being stealthy, he went through the door to see what was going on. There was a Zora, his arms were rapped in chains and two moblins were standing off to the side holding the chains. Link realized that the mirror was in front of the Zora.

“Is some one there?” The Zora asked.

“Yes,” Link said. “This must be Wyndisis’s son.

“Save me!”

Link ran over to the moblins with his torch in one hand and his sword in the other.

“I have no need for him anymore, kill him,” said a familiar voice. It was Ganondorf.

“Link stopped in his tracks. He was so shocked he couldn’t move. He wasn’t prepared to see this happen. The two moblins dragged him away from the mirror. Ganondorf made eye contact with Link. Link’s jaw dropped. Ganondorf gave him a cold stare and laughed. Link looked behind Ganondorf, the room was filled with Zoras all standing in rows. Ganondorf threw a spell at the mirror and it shattered and engulfed in flames. Link turned to see the moblins throw Wyndisis’s son against the wall. He ran over to save him, but it was too late. One of the moblins grabbed a spear and impaled him through the stomach.

“No, I don’t want to die!” He began to make sickening noises as the spear was shoved through him. The other moblin kicked his head against the wall. He was dead.

Link fumed with anger. He was so mad it felt as if his blood was boiling. He charged at the moblins at full speed, he was aware that he could get hurt by the moblins, maybe even killed, but he didn’t care, justice had to be served. They turned around just as Link was approaching them. Link slashed his sword at the moblin on the left. The sword dug deep into his muscular shoulder, hitting the bone, blood began to spurt out at a steady pace. He staggered around whimpering in pain. Link took the torch and hit it against the floor, causing chunks of ashes to fly up and burn the other moblins leg. It let out a great yowl and Link slashed him across the chest, stomach, and face. He didn’t cut too deep. Link clubbed that moblin on the head with the torch and went over to the one with the cut arm. He slashed him across the face and cut his calf, causing him to fall face first on the ground. Blood spilled onto the floor from his wounds. Link took his sword and dug it deep into his back. He went over to the other moblin, who was crawling on the floor to get to the door. Link slashed his forehead; the blood was going into his eyes. Link started kicking the moblin violently. It yelled in pain, but Link kept on kicking. The moblin stopped, but Link kept kicking. Then he stopped, he looked down to see a pool of blood below his feet. Link slipped out of his violent state and looked across the room to see a shadowy figure dressed like him. Link walked closer, still holding the torch.

“Welcome Link,” he said as he looked up at Link, “Sheath your weapon.” Link looked.

“Insane? Then what if I told you that our purpose is to steal the triforces of wisdom and courage from you and Zelda and eliminate the scourge of goodness for all time as we build an empire of evil and maintain order of Hyrule until the day we die.

“I would say you’re even more insane,” Link said giving him a glare back.

“You won’t be saying that when we triumph over you.”

“I assure you that will never happen,” Link stated in a threatening tone.

“If you let your evil control you, then all you have to do is sit back and watch yourself conquer everything. Remember that Link, remember.”

Link looked disgustedly at the monster that his own reflection had become, and he ran as fast as he could out of the temple and back to the castle. He had to tell Zelda.