The Legend of Zelda- Ocarina of Time

Hero of Time

Chapter 59

Hero of Time

It was finally over.

Link never expected to think, let alone say, those four words. Despite all his desire to stop Ganondorf, he never thought he'd live to see the Gerudo King defeated. So much had changed since those bygone days when he was just the Desert Man- an ominous and unknown sorcerer.

Link couldn't help but see Ganondorf in a new light, the product of one cruel injustice after another, a victim of both fate and the ploys of an ancient nemesis. A part of Link wondered if things could have turned out differently. If the Sheikah had tried raising Ganondorf as their own, would that have stopped the carnage to follow?

Probably not, he mused. There was every chance that would've provoked a war.

If there had been any hope of turning Ganondorf from his eventual fate, it had been shattered by the deaths of his family and his pledge to a demon.

"You did what you needed to," Saria told him sympathetically, having already guessed Link's musings.

"I still wonder about what you said. That maybe there could've been another way," he said at length, shifting his stance, tired muscles aching in protest.

Saria looked out across the decrepit streets, and her answer was a long time coming. "I'm beginning to think the others were right; it was too late for Ganondorf. He made his choice. He could've listened to the counsel of those who truly cared for him. Perhaps then, things would have been different." Here she paused and offered him a tired smile. "Besides, you had something that he did not."

"Oh?"

"Friends who did not give up on you," Saria answered, "and you listened to them, eventually."

"I don't think Navi was going to give me much choice."

"No. Perhaps not,"  Saria agreed, glancing at Navi, who looked torn between amusement and affront.

"There's no point on dwelling on what might've been, Link," Saria continued. "You'll give yourself a headache with all that brooding."

"You're right," he agreed, but still as their conversation lulled into another silence, Link found his  tangled thoughts dragging him back into a pit. He knew Saria was right; the boy in that vision inside the Spirit Temple had died long ago, consumed by thoughts of grief and vengeance. If there was any chance for him after that fateful night, the Twinrova sisters had swept it away when they had poisoned his mind.

None of these thoughts made Link feel any better. So many had died,  leaving the survivors to bear the scars of Hyrule's long and terrible war. Link knew he should have been happy; Ganondorf was defeated, the Triforce was safely back inside the Sacred Realm, and Hyrule would know peace for a time. How long would it take to rebuild the Ten Kingdoms? Without Zelda's aid, would the Ten Kingdoms remain unified, or would they one day forget the trials that had brought them together? One thing was for certain: the process would be long, and Link wasn't sure whether some wounds could be healed with time, despite what he had once been told. Some wounds, it seemed, left marks that neither time nor magic could erase.

Link wasn't the only one lost in thought. After the chaos of battle, a strange silence seemed to fill the once thriving concourse of Castletown, despite the buzz of activity. Sunlight bathed the flagstones, stones that not so long ago had been littered with the dead and dying. Why did the sun bring such promise of a beautiful day amidst such carnage, when Hyrule's future queen lay in rest.