Shall We Dance 2... (Old Man's Story Part 2)

  While Zelda was laying unconscious in Impa's arms, as the old maid tried to console her, she had a dream or maybe another vision...  At first she was not sure if her imagination was playing tricks on her, but it did not seem to be just an ordinary dream.  She was floating in the air briefly and there was a shinning light above from an intense orange, yellow and red sun that was many times larger than the one that floated over Hyrule and a vivid warmth all around her, but also an undeniably cool and inviting breeze was blowing against the parts of her bare skin.  She landed gently; in her usual white slippers and looked down to see her Royal Gown of white and purple and parts of her hair was braided as was her usual Royal attire, on the cool familiar looking jade colored grass, but the grass it self was different.  It was the color of emeralds as her own grass she was used to seeing was, but the blades of grass themselves seemed to sparkle and shimmer unlike anything she had ever seen before, except for actual emeralds!  There were giant trees taller than any trees she had ever seen before, they were even taller than her own castle in many respects and they all were uniform in appearance and all were alive with many different types of birds and creatures that depended on them and that bore fruits of every kind that some she knew of and many more that she did not.  And the colors of something so simple as a red apple seemed to be magnified many times over, as the bright redness seemed to shine from them as if the apples themselves generated a light source all their own like tiny little red suns, by the contrast of the backdrop of the green leafy tree limbs with even the green being a different green than she was used to.  The color seemed brighter yet a softer hue some how... she could not fully describe it...  And all the trees were in perfectly aligned rows in groves lining the simple, but unbelievably clean and dirt free cobble stone pathway and she could not see a single crack anywhere along it's long straight narrow path.

  There were animals and plants of every species along the sides which again some she recognized and most she did not.  She grown scared when she saw a lion run by her chasing a baby gazelle and she covered her eyes as the lion went to go in for the kill and toppled the poor little thing over onto it's back.  It hung over the defenseless little creature with it's massive jaws wide as it lowered it's head low to the calf's tiny neck and then began to... lick it!?!  Zelda just shook her head in amazement!  The lion was only playing with the little thing and the calf's mother did not seem too worried and watched not too far off in the distance.  She saw people who looked like her gathering fruits and some who looked human and others who looked totally different altogether... some were short and wore green kind of reminding her of Link a little bit and others were females who looked exotic with red, tanned skin and golden eyes... and they were mingling with other people.  She saw a few shadows scoot across the ground and she looked up to the sky again and saw white puffy clouds that were not so much there to blot out the sun, but to just present a picturesque view as well as a few birds that looked giant and had long beaks reminding her of a pelican of sorts and they were very colorful...  The clouds looked so soft and inviting and they hung there as if... as if she could reach out and touch them.  But they were so high up or were they?  Zelda reached up and felt like she could almost grasp them...

  She looked ahead and in the distance saw a massive castle crystalline in appearance.  It was so enormous that it predominated over every thing else including the already giant trees and it looked as if it was carved straight from the rock face of a titanic mountain!  It's effervescent spires and towers reaching not only up towards the heavens, but in many cases seemed to succeed in attaining it and some times even surpassing it, the tops of some of the towers not even being visible due to the puffy white clouds or her lack of having something better than her normal vision which was quite excellent...

  She began walking the path towards the castle and what normally would have taken days or even weeks on foot to reach, she arrived at the bottom of the castle steps in mere moments.  She looked behind her and could not even tell where she had been standing.  She then looked forward again and then up and the magnificent palace seemed even taller and unbelievably symmetrical for such a tall structure.  She felt so insignificant standing so close to it... as if it was alive and breathing with power and magic and if some one was currently looking down at her from the unimaginable atmospheric heights above, she would seem to them but a simple grain of sand she was sure of, easily gotten rid of and blown away compared to everything else.  To her right and left she could see a lake, or at least what was a lake to this tremendous sized castle... to her it looked like an ocean that went on for aeons, further than she could look out over the waters.

  She could not imagine who resided in this castle.  She would have thought mythical giants for sure if it was not for the simple fact that the door was made, although still rather large, for normal sized people.  She began climbing the stairs that were an ivory white, with not a speck of dirt upon them or anywhere else for that matter.  She looked behind her again and even noticed that there was not a single patch of yellow or brown in all of the leagues and leagues of perpetual jade colored grass.  It was so plentiful and moved with the breeze that it looked like it was a sea of green as the tall blades of emeralds flowed and ebbed back and forth gently like waves.  This whole place looked so inviting... even if was a bit big... and that was an understatement!  She could imagine getting lost here with Link and having a lovely picnic here... and then she was brought back to reality... she must be here for a reason...

  She turned toward the castle again and continued making her trek up the long stair way.  It looked like a thousands steps, but much like it had been with the cobble stone path, it took only seconds to traverse it.  She reached the top and stood in front of the massive doorway and wondered how she would enter into it.  Obviously her tiny frame could not hope to even budge open the door... and yet... even if she was super strong she saw no handles or any other device to open such a door.  It looked like it was made from the same crystal and quartz as the rest of the palace.  In fact now that she was paying more attention she was noticing that the castle actually seemed animated.  She thought that it was the sun and or clouds moving or maybe now that she saw the water that that was what was making the castle shimmer from the reflections.  But now that she was this close and could look around the castle's walls they seemed to shine and reflect in patterns and would dance and move across them.  And what she had thought was just the wind making a whistling sound was actually the castle walls creating it, which sounded like music, like a symphony being played from wet finger tips being rubbed and maneuvered over thousands of fine crystal wine glasses with different levels of liquids in them.  And the colors seemed to radiate and alternate between hues of greens, blues and purples.  It was as if she was looking at an aurora of lights in the night sky that come only so many years and she had only been able to witness one of them, but this was even more awesome to witness!

  And the walls, because they were crystalline in nature, seemed like she could see into the castle where she was at and yet at the same time light was reflected back and she could see her self in them instead.  It was some thing she could not explain.  It seemed like everything here was amazing to her... celestial even.

  She was about to knock, not seeing a rope to pull to ring a bell or some other form of communication of her arrival and doubted anyone would even hear her knocking anyway, but as her right hand got close to the massive reflective door, the symbol of the Triforce of Wisdom began to glow and the door slowly at first and than with more speed opened in a 360 degree aperture all at once.  It made a sound, but not of a creaking like the massive gates to her castle, this was more like... she guessed crystals growing or in this case shrinking.

  She stepped through the massive doorway and the brightness and grandeur of the place hit her hard and practically took her breath away!  It was magnificent!  The floors were of unblemished white ivory marble and she could see her own reflection in them like a finely polished mirror, the stone columns supporting the ceilings were of finely carved white marble slabs themselves with intricate carvings of some recognizable features and others not of her knowledge.  They rose high and were so high in fact that although she could not see the details any more in them, she was sure they were still there.  There were chandeliers that hung from the ceiling and that looked like they could hold hundreds of thousands of candles each!  She heard the iris shut behind her and she looked back to find that besides knowing some how that the door was closed and that there were in fact walls there, it was as if she was looking through perfectly shined glass and she could see out side at everything!  She even went so far as actually going up to the wall with her hand out to feel it and it was there with a slight warmth to it and a shimmer every so often.  This place was truly magnificent!

  She turned back towards the great hall and saw that were great tall paintings on the walls of what seemed like different events; some were of a castle high in the sky with what seemed like floating clouds with people riding atop of large birds... the same birds she saw out side which she had never in her life seen before, other pictures with a castle not so different than her own, but smaller and also of a large tree in a forest that had eyes and a mouth and a rather large owl a top it's massive branches kind like the the massive trees out side...  And then of what looked like her own castle... actually it was her castle!  But how could this be!?!  And in almost every painting there was a boy or a young man dressed in green attire with a golden triangle on his left hand and in some of these a girl or a young woman with her own golden triangle on her right hand...  She deduced these were images created on tapestry from her past and present and there were many more hanging on the walls that she did not have an inkling to, including some with wagons being rode with no horses, birds with windmills on their backs seeming to just hover and even a large castle looking like it was floating in total darkness minus what looked like many twinkling stars... Was this her kingdom's future!?!

  She got the the end of the hall and there was a large winding staircase that when she looked up she saw that it spiraled up to eternity and she wondered how could she possibly traverse it!?  If the castle was really this high, it would take her a life time if ever to get where she needed to go.  But as she remember from before she decided to just take it one step at a time and sure enough she was soon at her destination although she had no idea how or why.  She just had a feeling of being driven there.  She got to the top and went through the open marble doors and found what looked to be three giant golden triangles, the Holy Trinity or the complete Triforce!  It was brilliant and the triangles were floating high above her and revolving around slowly and each individual triangle it self was spiraling themselves to their own speed.  As she grew closer the Golden Triangles stopped their independent movements and centered themselves and the entire set as a whole began to turn slowly until it was facing her squarely and lowering itself to her and stopped just with in reach.  She walked up close to it and with her right hand reached to touch what she knew to be the Triforce of Wisdom which was the bottom left as was her own on her hand and she felt a warmth coming from it as her hand got nearer.  She was wearing her long elegant white gloves which was also covering up her arm and touched the glowing triangle that at this low position she could see her own reflection and everything else behind her.  She put her hand to the warm glyph and she was surprised that it rippled like the surface of water... liquid made of gold perhaps... she pulled her hand back, but did not see any traces of the golden residue on her clean white gloves.  She put her hand back to it and reached a little further and her hand actually went into it and was surrounded by the warm inviting gold liquid almost to her elbow, but as she peered under the triangle and behind it, her hand was not seen at all and then... she felt something touch it!  Caress it almost!

  She withdrew her hand quickly and stepped back at the touch not sure what to make of it and then bodies, heads first, began appearing from the Golden triangles.  The bodies were naked, wearing nothing, but flames that were of different colors and rose from their feet and went upwards past their heads for a meter or so.  They came out featureless for the most part besides parts that defined them obviously as women and of golden skin, with red/purpilish flames coming from the top, blue from the bottom left and green from the bottom right triangle respectfully.  As they pulled away from the golden fluids their magnificent well shaped bodies not so much as had a single drop upon them, slowly glided towards the marble stone floor and touched down with naked toes with the Green on the far right, the Red on the far left and with the Blue being in the middle.  Her eyes went wide and then she realized that obviously she was in the presence of the Gods!  She knelt before them and prostrated herself upon the cold marble stone floor in penance and humility.

  She dared to speak and in a shaky almost a squeaky voice said out loud, "I... I apologize oh Great Ones.  I had not realized... I mean I had not figured... I mean... I am sorry...", she stammered with out realizing she had not shown her proper respect at first for the Goddesses when she stood before them and the Triforce, but she had been SO Awed and Amazed at their beauty and presence.

  One of the Goddesses spoke to her, although she did not know exactly which one.  "Rise my child.", it said in a soft nurturing and angelic tone.  "We realize you must be bewildered by your surroundings and of us.  Not many mortals ever get the chance to see or hold counsel with us."

  Zelda slowly stood up, but kept her eyes to the floor.  Than another one spoke, but not the same as the first, but she still did not know which one it was, but she had an inkling it was the one in the middle and the first had been on her right.  "Please bring your gaze to us.  We do not wish to speak to a child chosen of the Gods who can not look us in our eyes as we speak onto her."

  Zelda bit her lip and slowly brought her gaze upwards.  She was surprised, or maybe she should not have been since they were gods after all, that they changed from wearing nothing to wearing very fine clothes that now covered their nakedness and they indeed had lovely features.  Either they had formed eyes or at least they had opened them and they had fingernails and lips and ears, although the ears were not pointed like a Hylians... There was not a single blemish on any of their features that were visible and she doubted on those parts that were not.  Their dresses were of bright and shimmering colors, Din of red and purples like flames, Nayru as blue as the afternoon sky's and or the deep blue oceans and Farore as green as the trees and the grass in the forests.  They were all long dresses much like her own and reached to their ankles, but they had gold inlay designs on them and they were still barefoot.  Zelda was not sure if that is what they preferred as in having their feet firmly planted on the ground or if maybe this was all a show to her and the Goddesses, even in their infinite wisdom, was not use to hosting and simply forgot to appear to wear shoes... but it was not her place to question and she would dare not!  They wore no trace of make up showing that their natural beauty was all that was needed and although they had a more familiar skin tone of white, they still had a twinkling golden aurora about them.  Link always told Zelda that he was glad she never used any make up, because she did not need it and feared that if she had used any she would only cover up what was already PERFECT to him.  She wondered if Link was here standing in front of the three Golden Goddesses if he would still think that she was the MOST Beautiful in all the universe... she had a feeling Link would still say yes and that there would be no hesitation or any kind of misleading tone in his voice... he loved her so she knew and she him...

  Then it was the Goddess to her left that spoke and that wore the bright fiery reds and purples.  "I hope we have not scared you my child and that our appearance is pleasing to your eyes."

  Zelda bit her lower lip and received the Courage to speak.  "Oh Great Ones you all look Marvelous!  However, may I be so bold as to ask why have you summoned me?"

The three Deities looked to one another and then the one in the middle dressed in blues took a graceful step forward and addressed her.  "I am the Goddess Nayru, I Am WISDOM and the Mother and the creator of the laws that govern all of Hyrule...  This is my sister Din," she said as she looked to her right to the one dressed in reds and purples, "She Is POWER and the Mother and creator of all the red earth and bodies of water and every thing that grows on and in it that she had forged with her own hands in Hyrule..." And then she turned to her left and whom was dressed all in greens, "And this is Farore, She Is COURAGE and the creator of all sentient life on the land; be it animals on the ground, birds in the sky or fish in the sea and especially those who we decided to take charge of all living creatures and to work the land as they saw fit, thus she is the Mother of all Hylians and for that matter the peoples of Hyrule..."

  Zelda, ever since she was a tiny child, had learned who was who and of the legends of who had done what and why they were worshiped now, but she never figured in all her life, living and perhaps other wise, that she would ever actually get the chance to meet them... but something did not sound quite right... some thing was off from the stories she had read and had been told about all those many time, but she could not quite put her finger on it...

  Then Din took a step forward and began speaking.  "You have been brought forth because you have seen something you were not meant to see.  Mere mortals are not meant to see the future.  It is not some thing you are able to grasp or comprehend.  However, it is too late now and perhaps to our own or mutual benefit, you have...  Thus we have brought you here to tell you of what must be done now in order to prevent the catastrophe!"

  Zelda swallowed hard.  What could she do, she thought to herself, that the deities could not do themselves!?

  Finally Farore spoke after taking a step towards Zelda as well, "You are the one called Zelda, a long life line of the Royal Family from times long forgotten of mortal men, but not to us Gods.  You and everyone like you that had come before and if successful, after you..."

  Than her chosen Goddess, the one dressed in blues spoke again while walking towards her and circling around looking her up and down and nodding her head in approval and playing with the Princess's soft long brown wavy hair, softer and finer than the most exquisite silks, Link would always tell her as he enjoyed brushing it with his hands or her hair brush and sniffing it from time to time...,  "As you have seen from your prior vision that there are others... shall we call "Interlopers" from other lands...", Nayru looked down and walked a ways off and then continued while looking down at her finger nails and then back to the young woman standing in humbleness, "who have once again come to Hyrule to gain the sacred powers of the Triforce... OUR life essence.  These powers were never meant for mere mortals or for that matter anyone or anything else, but ourselves.  But since evil every so often has a way of trying to gain the powers for themselves...", Zelda noticed from the corner of her eye that Din looked down towards the ground and was astonishingly biting her own lips...," we have had to lend our powers to those who would defend not only Hyrule, but our own kingdom."

Zelda broke in, "You mean I am in the Sacred Realm?  THE Sacred Realm!?!"

"Yes my Dear, MY Child, the one I have chosen to bestow my powers to.  You are in the Sacred Realm as it is meant to be, but that has not always been and may not be...", Nayru was saying.

  Farore continued where her sister had left off also circling the young woman and nodding her approval for her sister's choice,  "And your husband, Link, as he is known, is the one who I have always bestowed my Powers to.  For we needed one with Great Courage that could defeat the forces of Evil and of the  King of Darkness.  Thankfully, Link has succeeded many times.  However, something much darker and more sinister has managed to get a hold of the..." she looked to her furthest sister, but she was silent and seemed to have moved a few meters from where she had once stood and looking away with her arms crossed in front of her chest, seemingly alone and over whelmed with some thing... was it guilt perhaps!?

  Nayru, the Wisest of the Sisters, walked over to her unhappy sister who begrudgingly accepted the reassurance and affection of her sibling.  To show such weakness in front of mortals was unheard of, but then again Zelda was not just any ordinary mortal and these were trying times.  Nayru turned back towards Zelda while still consoling her Sister in Red.  "It is not Din's fault.  She Is POWER thus has a chaotic, but good natured soul, although not inherently evil, evil people tend to gravitate towards her more and she is usually the first one sought after because they want over whelming strength and chaos to help facilitate their dark tasks.  She has no choice, she is who she is.  Just as I Am WISDOM and I am a neutral good in spirit, only caring that our laws are obeyed and enforced and I am usually the next to usually go due to the might of wielding Great Knowledge, I balance the other two sisters out and usually resolve any squabbles..."  Then she turned to Farore, "And simply because she is only COURAGE and is "true" good in nature and most Evil has courage to begin with to fight for what they want and only want more POWER because that is a false courage, they just want to dominate those weaker than themselves and more WISDOM for fighting  prowess and learning new magical arts... she is tended to be over looked until they want all three pieces because they are greedy and want complete dominance of not only your Kingdom, but of our's as well."

  Then finally Din appeared to gain control of her emotions and of herself and walked towards the open balcony and looked out from the Heavens and then motioned Zelda to do the same and the other two Goddesses followed suit with the Princess of Hyrule.  Even though they could see through the walls themselves, the balcony's ledge they could lean on and see abroad and Din had felt normal mortals were more inclined to do so anyway.  Zelda looked out and saw that the fiery red and golden sun seemed to be level with the balcony that she was standing on.  It was as if she could reach and touch it yet it did not seem any hotter as it had when she was all the way down below.  She was not sure if it was because she was protected for her own mortal short comings by the Goddesses or this is just how the world really was.  And she could see the clouds that seemed to be floating just with in reach as well and she could see past the clouds far to the Earth below, but everything was so tiny... even the huge trees themselves looked like acorns... and then some how she was gifted to see through the white clouds and upon the Earth and saw all the details needed for her to see and her vision was magnified many times over.  She could see the individual trees as they were; huge and imposing yet friendly and the small creatures that resided there in.  She could pick out the flowers with their beautiful colored petals and even the bees that were gathering their nectar to make the honey and even each individual shard of grass from one another.  It still looked like a wonderful day, the PERFECT day!  

  But then all three of the Goddesses began repeating themselves.  It was almost like a chant... just six simple words...  All they kept telling her was, "Don't let Darkness assemble all pieces..." over and over again... and it was getting louder and more humdrum by the moment.  Then she was motioned by a gesture to look further outwards and she did so.  And in the distance dark clouds were brewing and looming towards them.  The trees closest to the darkness and that was still out of range mostly even for her new vision seemed to be on fire and being felled row by row.  As the fire and destruction grew closer at an alarming rate, the animals and the people began running towards the castle in full sprint as the fire grew ever more present.  Then she could see many small dark figures that looked almost Hylian in appearance as before with her other vision, but they had snow drift hair, purplish eyes and dark ashy skin, the color of obsidian.  They were carrying all sorts of weapons and seemed to be helping the destruction of the land along with the huge storm cloud, that although was not bringing any rain at the moment, since most likely it would have helped put out the fires, it did however shoot lightning out from it's dark tendrils that were protruding from the giant cloud it self.  It was massive and only gaining in size and strength it seemed, as it over shadow everything it had already preceded and was feeding off of it and still it continued onward towards the castle.  It's lightning seemed to bring forth the fire at a more constant rate and those innocent creatures that were caught by the fire or the upcoming enemy and darkness never made it hence forth to the palace to safety.  There was evil laughter coming from the men and she could see a Lioness leap at a few of them as her cubs were kicked about and slain and she too died from multiple spear wounds as another human being tried to help it, once wild beasts and humans working in tedium, but it was for nothing.  Some of the other animals and humans also made their young ones run up into the castle it self as they tried valiantly, but vainly to defend or at least buy the youngsters some time with bare hands, but it was all for naught.  Even if they had known this was going to happen and had had weapons at the ready, this new enemy was merciful less.  Even the Dark Lord Ganondorf had not been THAT cruel... Due to the fires and the lightning strikes, even the lake or ocean to her seemed to boil with fury and the aquatic life were dieing in insufferable agony.  Those that could escape the boiling death and get on dry land only succeeded in either dieing of lack of breathable oxygen to them, were being burnt alive with the fire or were killed by the on coming Army of Darkness.  Even the birds, especially the giant ones, presented only easy targets to the crossbow men and they were slain and falling from the skies with some still alive hitting the ground and squawking pitifully as the flames got them in anguish and roasted them slowly...

  By this time the enemy was practically on their front steps and the iris that had been opened for those fleeing to come to safety was now closed and the creatures in side were safe at least for the moment.  The fire seemed to envelope the bottom of the castle and even his troops, but they did not seem to mind or even affected by it.  She looked over and saw in the rippling water and the reflection of what she thought was this castle, but it resembled more of her own and in fact upon closer inspection it was, but it was completely on fire and mostly destroyed while the rest of the town that she could see had been demolished and also set a blaze, her palace had been just the tip of the iceberg if this Army was wrecking havoc on such a holy land of the Gods and this palace WAS that iceberg!

  The lightning struck the palace walls and then struck again and again followed by ear drum deafening thunder claps, but the  Holy Fortification was still holding on strong... but for how long?  Then the cloud enveloped around the lower and middle half of the castle and with it's dark seething energies and tendrils began to shake and tear the palace apart with more waves of lighting.  It was a mighty structure, one that could never fall on normal conditions, but these were no normal circumstances.  Bits and pieces of the quartz structure broke off in shavings and fell.  But of course to those of normal stature... at least those more a keen to human beings in size, they were as if huge chunks of rock were sliding from a mountain and were pulverizing them.  The Dark Army began to fall back just to a safer distance as the cloud struck and tore at the crystalline fabric of the castle.  But amazingly the castle still held although cracks were forming in the walls and the ceiling with bits of dust and pieces of debris falling, scaring the huddled residence, but not actually physically harming them.  Then the dark mass of clouds concentrated to the front of the castle and then began to take shape of a being, a giant of sorts, and as the dark clouds that had fed off the innocence of the land had grown larger, so too did this giant who was reaching higher and higher skyward towards the Heavens.  Soon he reached eye level with the balcony and Zelda.  It laughed and closed one eye just to focus on her and the three Goddesses who were powerless to stop him.  He began shaking the foundations of the castle and punching at it, beating it with his mighty fists.  He drew his right foot back, mistakenly, but not necessarily caring either way, killing his own people in the process and kicked at the closed and protecting iris.  After a few kicks it broke free and his minions with swords, spears, crossbows and daggers stormed in slaughtering all that were huddled there for safety, mostly women and children with a few old men that could make it and a few younger men left to protect them if they could... but not a single well tanned, gold eyed, red haired woman was among them.  The people inside were utterly defenseless.  "Your time is up!" the giant said out loud, but was if he was yelling it due to his massive size.  Zelda turned towards the three Goddesses for guidance, but they were not moving, not blinking, no longer speaking and not even breathing.  In fact their clothes were not ruffling from the breeze or the giant's booming voice... they had been turned to lifeless stone gray statutes.  Their expressions told the whole story of their shock and horror, their arms and hands out stretched, their eyes wide and mouths open as if in an endless cycle of screaming and suffering.  And behind them the gold from the triangles were draining from it's shimmering bright pools and dripping onto the marble floor and spread out in a thick mixture, much like blood.  And as it was pouring and leaving the triangles it was being replaced by blackness...

  Then the giant figure who she realized was the one who had stabbed her Love from behind with the dark sword in her first vision, had reached for her with his right hand.  But as he was closing in on her she somehow began to float away, no doubt from what ever dwindling power the Goddesses had left and he had just missed her in his grasp and she clearly saw that he had obtained all three pieces of the Triforce and they glowed on the back of his hand.  He tried again, but she was gaining speed away from him.  Then she saw him reach in as his Dark Army had come up the steps finally from behind the statues and drenched in the warm blood of their innocent poor victims and the giant grabbed onto all three statues at once and crushed them into fine powered dust, only the heads of them were still some what complete only partially chipped and crushed, missing noses or a cheek etc.  They all said the same thing at the same time as their heads stopped rolling on the floor and they all seemed to be facing her and stare at her lifeless, "Only you and Link have the power to prevent this."  And then repeated again from before, "Don't let Darkness assemble all pieces..." their mouths actually moving to do so and finally the word, "Remember..."