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Wooded Minuet
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   Outside, the crisp air is welcomed with a heavily contented sigh, but the sound of distant cackling leaves you feeling alert but uneasy. You tiptoe in the direction of the sound and find yourself walking toward the Lost Woods, east of the ranch. The eerie darkness and moonlit shadows cast a frightening atmosphere upon the forest, but somehow this manages to bring a sense of comfort to you, in spite of the gloom. You notice the cackling has changed... It now seems more like celebratory laughter than witchy spellbinding. You glance back at the house for a sense of familiarity before moving on to follow the sounds of laughter.
 
    A small light comes to your attention and appears to move of its own accord, behind the tree trunks and through the branches, catching your curiosity, distracting you, beckoning you to follow. The light seems to keep pace with you; if you sped up, the light sped up, you'd slow down, and the light slowed down.
    With a sudden rise of courage, you decide to go for broke and dash after it full wind. It lagged ahead briefly but then, as if spooked, shot ahead at blinding speed! The laughter also grew clearer and a little louder and you dashed on. A mix between cackles and celebratory hollers echoed off the fat trunks of old trees. The light led you deep into the woods and suddenly darted off more directly toward the sounds of laughter.
    You manage to just barely keep up, sliding as you make a sharp turn and lose one foothold, but compensate with the other leg just fine. The light was way ahead, clearly visible, but stationary. You're running fast, but decide to slow down in hopes of not scaring this enigma away again. You approach the light, maybe ten feet away, the closest you've gotten yet, and as you inch closer, the light suddenly rings out and tings softly then 'jumps' back toward your face just before immediately humming away into the treetops before you could make out what had just happened.
A fairy?  
Voices rose up through the laughter and conversation could be faintly distinguished. You hold your breath and creep ever softly closer.
    "Well that fairy did a fine job, helping us scout for a new mushroom patch!" One harsh voice beamed happily, "Indeed, indeed! We can begin making new potions again! Hee-hee!" Arose another voice that sounded almost identical. "Who, ever, would have thought old hags like us could willingly work with a forest fairy?" The first one cackled. The two witches hobbled an awkward dance around an eerie blue flame that glowed as if with shadow rather than light. The flame abruptly went out and two shadows pooled up from it, before darting straight to you!
    Two hands from separate bodies grab you by the shoulders and forehead, pin you against a tree, and hold you firmly 2 feet off the ground. "Aunt Koume, we have a visitor!" one said simultaneously, as the other said, "Aunt Kotake". The witches cackled, the air carrying their glee into the sky, and they suddenly materialized broomsticks and hovered swiftly over to inspect you. The fire pit had turned to normal fire and its light revealed a fat hollowed out tree with a ladder and chimney. You found yourself admiring this forest house in spite of this situation. One of the shadow girls notice your gaze and looked at the house too. The twin on the other shoulder saw her sister turn away and so she, too, looked back.
They both returned to stare you down and ask in unison, "What?" Which sounded accusatory.
 
    Koume and Kotake alternated between one another with their speech. One would begin, the other would finish. "Twila, Midna, bring our guest inside," One started, "We have a gift to bring them pride." The other continued. "Special fate, this one wears." The red witch said "The destiny of Hyrule shall be theirs!" The blue witch finished.
    Twila and Midna exchanged doubtful and concerned glances but withdrew into the ground as shadows and retreated to the tree home. You hadn't realized the two shadow girls were holding you up so high until you fell unexpectedly. Koume and Kotake hovered closer and leaned in, just staring at you, then abruptly turned and flew into their chimney calling behind them together "Hurry along now, yes!" Koume said, "We've so much to address!" Kotake punctuated. You get up and brush yourself off, front and back. You looked up to see if you could find the mystery light, apparently a fairy after all, but you simply see this new place in the firelight, sans faerie light.
 
    Inside the witch-hut was a large cauldron in the middle of the room, a domed smoke stack hung over it from above, carved out of and supported by the tree itself, a low over hang with beds stacked on one wall, and an L shaped counter right beside the front door, where Midna or Twila stood, the other nowhere to be seen. Koume stood in front of the cauldron, stirring in mushrooms, and Kotake sat in a rocker beside the bunks, impatiently beckoning.
    You cautiously approach the red witch and sit before her, expecting a story or some such thing. The witch cackled "You heart is true! Joy!" she started, "True like blue! Oi!" Koume joked to finish. Kotake picked up, "We may not look it, hags as we are, but my sister and I trained the evil king in times long afar." Koume didn't look up from her brew, but kept the conversation going, "You might not believe my sister and I to have lived in ancient Hyrule as the centuries trecked by!" Then leaned in to sample the odor of her potion.
    "Seems impossible that we could so long have stayed alive" Kotake continued on, "But believe it or not, we are fifteen hundred and five!" Koume declared, to which her twin abruptly stood in her rocker, approached the cauldron, and began stirring, "You hag! we're twins! you can’t be younger than me!" Kotake approached the cauldron from the opposite, grabbing a spoon, and stirring with her twin. "Don't be so cruel dear sister! We're finally free! I'm only trying to save us some face!" Koume argued. Kotake shook the spoon at her, "But that's a lie, we're better than that! Know your place!" They continued bickering, "Don't blame me for learning how to survive!" And bickering... "Our student even might still be alive!"
 
    Midna had been hiding in the shadow of the rocker and silently slipped up to you. You showed a surprised face as she introduced herself with a sly smile, and Twila magically slipped over behind the witches, through Koume's shadow, to approach your opposite side, "and I'm her twin sister, Twila." They then spoke in unison: "come, meet us outside, our aunts are busy finishing your potion." You laugh to yourself quietly, 'is that what they're doing' you wondered silently. You remain in silence as you follow their floor shadows out the door. "Liar!" but not without passing the elderly, bickering twins. "Wretch!"
    The eerie blue flame had begun to enshroud the area again, and you hesitantly stepped in its shade. Inside the shadow, light was reversed, where shone bright appeared shadow, where shadow fled lurked light. It took a moment for your eyes to adjust, but you saw Midna and Twila standing together in what appeared to be a trance. They began to hover off the ground a few inches and the shadowy light dome around them changed and swirled, showing visions and events in a blur. Armies clashing for treasure, a giant mirror in the desert, a tall dark spire hovering over a pit of lava, and as the visions focused, you saw yourself as a young boy, maybe 2 or 3 years younger than you are now, asleep in a tree, stirring and restless.
 
    "The first Hero of Time was never the first hero, yet the first to touch the Triforce, so the goddess of time picked you from him." The twins spoke inseparably, "Your past is not your past, your present is not your present, but the future belongs entirely to you. This young Link was the first the 3 goddesses spoke to, the first to touch their treasure in his mind... with his heart... ... and the first to save Hyrule from Ganon." The vision continued to change, but focused on this one event. A fairy entered and began bouncing all about, and the vision swelled and warped into the spectral Link's mind.
 
    A dream of a young princess riding quickly with her attendant; fleeing Hyrule, followed distantly by Ganondorf, riding his steed out of an ancient Hyrule gate and drawbridge. A brief exchange of looks as the princess rides past the 'other' Link; Ganondorf, halting before the boy, and shouts at him about the white horse. Link draws his sword, and Ganon is laughing. He smiles evilly, firing a bolt of dark light into the vision of Link and paralyzes him... The dream hazed away back to the fairy who was shouting at Link, and then the vision fades away again to the eerie inverted light of Midna and Twila's dome.
    They continued their story, "You bear the heart, spirit, and soul of the Hero of Time, whose lives have been ever fraught with peril." This revelation shocks you and you catch a small gasp in your throat, feeling recoiled, and slowly sit down, trying to steady your swirling head.
 
    "When you first awakened as the hero, Ganondorf had already seized power and sought the Triforce, but you and the princess weren't ready to intervene. While you traveled over vast mountains, under deep blue water, through the realm of the dead, and even across the river of time, in the end, Zelda and the sages sealed the Ganon beast in the void between realms and with the help of the Goddess of Time, Zelda returned you to your original time as a child again, so as to give you your own life back... Or so they thought. Ganon was not as fully sealed as the sages had believed."
 
    A vision of three dungeons and six temples, Ganon’s castle, Great Faeries, and Ganon cursing the descendants of the sages; Fading out with Zelda playing the ocarina of time, and Link returning to the temple in his child body. The fairy that was with him at all times, throughout every moment of that long journey-vision, until the very end, when he was returned to his past, had drifted away through the cathedral window before a different scene came into view. "You did not forget your adventures, and you still felt duty bound, but this time you warned the princess of Ganondorf's deceit; you told her your story of having arrived as her prophecy had shown, then did her bidding and opened the temple of time. You explained how her plan worked against seven years of Hyrule's history, so Zelda made no requests of you, but offered a parting gift for your service to the royal family, and as a surefire guarantee that Ganondorf would not open the doors of time: the Ocarina of Time. Feeling empty, unfulfilled, and alone, you sought your old friend and companion who had accompanied you on your first journey. Requesting the horse of another young friend, buying a custom shield from Biggoron, and finally requesting a sword from your former childhood community from which you were growing too distant, you set out into the Lost Woods, in hopes of finding your fairy..."
 
    The vision warped into The Skullkid chasing Link through the lost woods, stealing his horse and transforming him into a Deku Scrub, followed by Termina fields' view of Clock Town, and showed the moon falling and warping back repeatedly, over and over again. As the twins kept on, the vision remained in a strange loop like this, the moon falling, and reappearing in the sky, then falling again, and again, and again, "The goddess of time saw how powerful you had become by wisely using the Triforce of Courage and used you to save another world connected by the dreams of Hyruleans. Upon entering the dream world of Termina, your presence awakened a sleeping evil, the Nightmare Majora, trapped in the Dekuwood of a stolen magical mask; a mask imprisoning Majora in the waking world of Hyrule. Though you had befriended a Skullkid with your own mask trading and musical talent, he had stolen that evil mask from a traveling salesman, putting all dreams, and thus all of reality, at risk; and for a time became your enemy! The goddess of time guided you backward through time repeatedly, as this old and forgotten evil attempted to destroy the world through dreams, by using your friend like a puppet! You needed to finish your first adventure... But you did not know how... So... Instead, you found yourself saving another world all together. Your adventure into the Lost Woods to find a former companion rather found you into rescuing the world from a deadly nightmare!"
    The vision panned in on a Skullkid wearing a strange mask, beckoning a giant and angry Moon overhead and Link playing his Ocarina.
    Then the vision warped into the moon's mouth and revealed an eerie arena where the mask took on its own body and form.
    Link put on a white mask, and the vision faded again...
 
 
    The twins were hovering, slowly circling over the dark flame together, "The goddess of time saw you through many adventures throughout the ages, and with the help of her sisters and their Triforce, you vanquished evil at every turn... Passing between the world of light and shadow, entering the Sacred Realm ala Dark World, and even passing through the dreams of the Majestic Wind Fish..." The vision warped through time and exposed the execution of Ganondorf Dragmire for his crimes against the Royal Family, warping around to show Ganon vanquished by Link in his lair in the Black Citadel, warping past to Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple, twisting light into a vast ocean and exposing a shipwreck, boiling away to a nightmarish battle against Ganon in the form of a Great Beast, before finally warping away to the twins again. "After Zelda originally sent you back in time, the Goddesses witnessed Ganon break free from the void between realms... While the people prayed for your return, you could not; for you and your very soul were fully removed from that world and its entire timeline! In order to save everyone from the wrath of Ganon, the goddesses flooded nearly all of Hyrule with the help of the King, and soon your heroism was eventually all but forgotten... So that you could be reborn, yet again, to face the revived King of Evil in his own deluge. Ganon, King of Evil met his demise at your hands countless times over countless eons, but never parted with the Triforce of Power until after the events of the Imprisoning War, whereupon he was sealed with the Triforce in the sacred realm and his evil magic twisted it into the Dark World."
    The vision disintegrated and dissolved, revealing another vision underlying. "Using the wizard, Aghanim, Ganon found a way to escape from his Dark World, and nearly succeeded until you were chosen once more to save Hyrule and attacked the Wizard, learning of his darker designs. He kidnapped the Princess and used her and the 6 other descendants of the ancient sages to break their barrier, but fell to your courage and lost the Triforce in the end. You vanquished him and laid claim to the whole Triforce after an epic battle. Your wish to restore Hyrule touched the Goddesses' hearts..." The vision was now warping around to show Ganon vanquished by Link in his pyramid lair in the Dark World; Link securing the Triforce in an adjacent chamber; then warping back to the twins and Link. "However, as ever you returned, time and time again, so too did Ganondorf Dragmire; and over time, he had returned to Hyrule yet again to secure the Triforce of Power."
    The vision flooded in again, with images of an older and more mature Link: Emerging from a cave, carrying a newly acquired sword and embarking upon his journey before the images faded back out - like the tides following the moon. "You had defeated Ganon once more and Zelda used her power of the Triforce of Wisdom to strip him of the Triforce of Power, thus returning the world to peace."
    Like a rising tide, the vision swells with prosperous celebration before draining back to the inverted darkness of Midna and Twila's domain. "Yet even as a hero, you walked away to live on in solitude and simplicity: For she was engaged to a prince, unworthy of her hand, whom inadvertently cursed his bride to be with a sleeping spell, cast by an evil magician whom the prince himself had hired... To secure the Triforce for his own selfish desires!" The vision swelled back into sight, to detail Link's battles against a shadow copy of himself as the young twins narrated, "Once more, you came to the aid of Hyrule and sought the means to rescue Zelda from disaster. Your shadow image guarded the Triforce of Courage, needed to awaken the princess who had separated the three golden triangles and sealed them in three separate locations. A time of great prosperity followed her awakening... The Triforce became the stuff of legend and was all but forgotten..."
    The twins hovered away from the flame on opposite ends and touched down to the ground. The blue flame dissipated and returned to normal fire, and the twins continued... "Farore, the Goddess of Courage, had grieved for you and wished you your own life, so with the help of the Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Time; Farore helped you and Zelda forget all your deeds as the Hero of Time and Sage of Wisdom after Zelda sent you back from your ordeals as the first Hero of Time."
 
    The twins became solemn, "You were genuinely returned to your own time, before all the events were ever set in motion. You did not wait with the Master Sword for seven years to battle Ganon, but were sent back to the moment you awoke from your nightmare. Zelda did not pursue her visions of Hyrule's demise. You left the Kokiri Forest in a daze and did not come back again to enter Termina, for you did not remember your fairy companion you never received. You did not return to the Kokiri village in the Lost Woods either, for your mystic daze guided you to your own Hylian people and reunited you with your mother's sister in Kakariko. You never became a hero. You instead grew to manhood, becoming a prosperous Hylian Hunter and introduced the Kokirish attire as huntsman's garb; when you became a man it had been since made the traditional attire for hunting. However, Ganon could not be parted with his lust for power, even after he was trained as a Wizard by our very aunts, Koume and Kotake!" You recoil, Twila and Midna continue, "He used their very teachings to pursue chaos magic and bind them to his own will for a time and became an evil Warlock. He seized the Triforce of Power and used it to vanquish you and steal the Triforce of Courage. With those two parts in place, he forced Zelda to relinquish the Triforce of Wisdom and vanished; all but without a trace, as his minions overran all of Hyrule for five hundred years of pure darkness. What has happened in the last five hundred, however, are enshrouded in mystery, as his monsters seemed to disappear and civility returned to the lands... ... but the existence of the Moblin police and Stalfos Knights remain testament to his presence even toda-..." Interrupting the twins, Koume and Kotake burst out of the tree hut and began scolding their twin nieces.
    "Twila! Midna! How dare you tell our tale!" Kotake began, "You pests spoiled our surprise and frightened the young child pale!" You got up and brushed yourself off again, standing tall, as to show you were fine, not at all traumatized, not the least bit scared. Koume and Kotake ordered Midna and Twila into the house with no more than a stiff bony finger, each, jutted to their front door, and the two youngers slipped away into the shadows. "Perhaps it's started all over again," Koume said to Kotake, "The hero does reappear now and then." Her sister agreed. They eagerly stared at you with great intent.
    You waited. The witches waited. You look them back and forth in their eyes. The sisters look you in your eyes. You shifted your weight, awkwardly, waiting. Koume and Kotake hovered on their broomsticks, awkwardly, almost as if confused. You scratch the back of your brown head of hair.
    "Oi! That's right!" Kotake burst out, and squirmed and fidgeted like slapstick, retrieving a bottle from her sleeve. "Bring this back to us tomorrow afternoon." She started, "We can help your friend's mother with our potion of blue." Koume finished.
    "Also, you might want these. They aren't worth trade anymore, like in the old days, but you can still find more by cutting down the shrubs you might find... Well if you had a sword... These were for the last bottle of potion we sold, hundreds of years ago, before everything changed." Kotake spoke, uncharacteristically, plainly. Koume handed over a purple rupee and a pair of red rupees, and the large bottle. You stare at the large bottle a moment and take it from the witch with caution, as if it might be cursed. Kotake cackled, and the two witches disappeared in a puff of smoke. You put everything in your satchel.
 
    You breach the forest edge about a mile behind the Ranch and trudge along, sleepily. It was dawning, and though no sun was visible, the light poured over the horizon, announcing it was not far from rising. By the time you make it to the front porch, you spot your two friends rushing about in a panic... They were looking for you. Malon caught sight of you and froze.
    "Link!" Was all Malon could really say, and you approached. The three of you stood on the front porch awkwardly.
    "What were you doing outside so early?" … “Didn’t you sleep?” She asked after an awkward silence. You opened your mouth to answer, but the smell of breakfast overpowered you, and, instead of speaking, your stomach growled loudly. Tired from lack of sleep, and now so hungry, so much as to feel like you're starving on top of it, you grip your stomach and fall to your knees, prompting Krystal and Malon to your side. "Link!" Krystal yelped, worried. Then your stomach growled loudly again cluing the girls in on, at least part of, your predicament. They laughed together and escorted you to the dining table. Talon was cheerfully standing at the stove, preparing eggs and bacon and, "Ho, young'un! I got the flapjacks almost done!" He greeted you without even looking up. "Glad you weren't far off. Early Riser, I could use a helping hand like that on the land! AH-HAW!"
    After breakfast, you passed out in the Living room, watching the early morning Super Mario Super Show cartoons with your friends.
    In your dream, you saw the worlds of Hyrule, all bound and contained together by the Triforce, with yourself standing amidst them all, as if a giant tree, binding the worlds of Hyrule across time and space, standing in the empty center of a gigantic Triforce.
    In one world, red with war, crawling off your right arm, in another, on your forehead, blue and deep with ocean and vast of skies, others showed peaceful melding of people, and some showed pristine nature, green and untouched, growing upward from beneath your left foot. You were seeing yourself from outside yourself: The giant Link, towering over his myriad adventures, peered down into a shadowy realm branching out from his heart.
    Black clouds and purple lightning, foreshadowing an olive sunset; a weak and sickly looking sunset, its rays not even beaming outward, but shining enough to express the hordes of monsters crowding together in the shadows. Deep into the darkness, where no monsters stirred, smoky, cloudy wisps of shadow gently tumbled about.
    Emerging from within were the twins, Twila and Midna. "The potion's almost done, wake up sleepyhead!" They said in unison. As they retreated to the billowing shadows, as you began waking up, as the dreams faded to darkness, you thought you could see yourself peering out of that blackness with glowing red eyes.
    You'd slept through the cartoons, and heard the front door click shut, opened your eyes and looked around; got up and left the house. You found Krystal mounting Epona, and Malon standing beside, helping her up, while giving her some riding instructions. "Hey sleepyhead!" Krystal called to you, waving then losing her balance. You approached them. "Krystal was jealous you 'got to' ride Epona last night," she said, slightly offensively, lecturing, "and she conned me into teaching her how to ride..." Then Krystal butted in, "You looked so fabulous and heroic, Link!" causing you to blush.
    Malon explained that she wasn't too happy with you, and didn't like sharing her horse, told you both, in a strong tone, it was a "one time deal" and that you'd have to find your own horses next time. "This might take a while, Link. Why don't you find something to make yourself useful? I'm sure Ingo would be more than happy to dump his responsibilities on you!" Malon half joked, but meant it literally, more as a warning than an opportunity. So you disappeared for a couple hours while the girls rode and Ingo labored, Talon at his frail wife's side.
    "You're late!" Kotake cackled inoffensively, stirring up a ladle full of blue from within the cauldron. "You'll have to hurry back, this isn't a proper potion," she continued, "it will turn red when it’s exposed to warmth or sunlight for more than a minute." Koume explained, "In the forest, the cool damp air will preserve it, but only in the shadows," she continued, followed by her sister, "When you reach the forest edge, don't step into the light," she emphasized, "Run through it!" They said together.
    This may have confused you, this may not have but excited you; perhaps you were simply very eager to finish the task, or perhaps you mistook their unison as an immediate command. Whatever may the case be, you ran as fast as you could the whole way there cradling the bottle, twice protected, within the satchel around your shoulder and neck you'd mindlessly kept with you since last night. When you cleared the forest, you ran even faster. Bolting into the house and up the stairs, you ran back to the room at the very end of the hall and entered Talon and Cremia's room. Talon got up with a shot, as if electrocuted, and approached you sternly. You ignored him and produced the bottle from your pack, then stood bedside of Cremia and held the bottled blue potion to her lips. The smell was inviting; invigorating and aromatic, so immediately so, she wanted to drink right away. A sip at first, then regaining her strength with miraculous speed, drank faster, and then, grabbing the bottle before halfway through, gulped that half of the bottle all at once, leaving not a drop. She jumped out of bed and stood tall, invigorated, proud, Healthy! Talon was so confused and angry about your sudden burst into the privacy of his room, yet so joyous and astonished at his wife’s recovery that he did not know what to do, just awkwardly shouted monotonously "What was that, youngun’?" unemotionally.
    Cremia had recovered so instantly that, suddenly, she was in tears and hugged her husband fiercely. Malon and Krystal had seen your haste outside, while riding, and followed you in cautiously at first; entering to the sight of two crying, happy adults. Malon was in shock at the sight of her mother out of bed that for a moment she could only stand and move her lips, yet said nothing. Krystal looked aside and saw Malon's reaction, then stepped away, beside you. Malon then burst into tears and cried out "MOM!" And ran over to embrace both her parents.
(❤️❤️❤️¼)
    You and Krystal had quietly left the family, without a word, leaving them to their joyous reunion. Without indication, you began the long walk back to your house and Krystal tagged along absent mindedly. She wanted to ask what happened in there but couldn't find the words and had been preoccupied with her own family drama on account of Malon’s life coming into focus. You walked slowly and silently together for almost a whole mile before she broke the silence, "How did you save Cremia? No one knew what was wrong, and you came in and out like nothing happened at all. I've only ever heard of the forest witches having that kind of healing power..." Her mention of the witches shocked you into a recoil. You turned with a start, your eyes peeled open in surprise, and Krystal recoiled at your own reaction, intuiting as to what had happened. Quietly, "no..." was all she could say at first.
    You both walked for only a brief silent moment, nearing the river "You went into the forest this morning, didn't you?" Your expression told all as your jaw dropped in surprise. Krystal blushed and turned aside, partially ashamed. She didn't know how to explain how SHE knew about the Forest Witches. Having never told anyone where she lived, Cremia being the only living soul but her own mother to know.... However, she stayed silent and continued walking, leaving you behind to catch up from her stunning revelation. You slowly began walking again, and then picked up the pace to catch up with her, though you still said nothing.
 
    Walking in reverent silence, following a winding pedestrian path to climb west across the highway bridge, spanning the river between east and west Hyruletropolis, through downtown, past the skate park, and onward toward your house; which was still a couple miles away and would be almost an hour of silence between you both, with nothing but the sounds of traffic and wind. You barely cleared the park when the silence was starting to irritate Krystal, but her mind was overly occupied with her home and her past; wanting to talk but not about her thoughts, unable to distract herself she broke off. "I'm sorry, Link! I've got to go home!" Krystal said, tears subtly welling up in her eyes. She ran back toward the park and followed the adjacent footbridge, south of the highway, and didn't look back. You were beside yourself, and also backtracked as far as the skate park, to find a bench to sit on and contemplate.

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Flowing Serenade

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