Chapter 4
Link awoke on the third day and journeyed to Ikana Canyon. He discovered an ancient civilization had been there before him, and had covered the desert land in gibdos, redead, and ninja assassins. The assassins were especially annoying, because they would pop out of nowhere with a ring of fire and then he would have to fight them, and they weren’t particularly difficult to defeat, either.
He rescued a small girl’s father, the girl named Pamela. Her father had hidden himself in a closet, and was turning into a Gibdo, ostensibly in the name of research, but he attacked Link, who managed to duck the inexperienced monster and play the Song of Healing. Pamela came back from an errand she had to do, and was relieved to see her father again – apparently, she had only known that her father was hiding, but not that he was turning into a monster.
Tatl hid from the man in order to avoid being ‘studied’.
“Monsters inside, monsters outside… what a terrible place for a child. The Kokiri Forest…”
“Was really horrible also and you know it!” Tatl told him.
“…Was safe and welcoming to us.”
“Well, nyah, nyah.”
Link, armed with the gibdo mask the man had left behind from his transformation, ventured around Ikana, regarded as a mini-gibdo by his enemies. Some larger gibdos sent him on shopping missions, all of which he completed in about a day. His collected reward was a mirror-like shield, round with a face on it, that was the right size for his current height.
He finally found the way into Ikana Castle, the main gate of which had been sealed, and hunted around for signs of life. When he found none, except for some gracefully dancing redead, he began to cleanse it of monsters.
He came to the throne room and met three floating skulls. Two of them, bickering guards, challenged him, transforming into full-blown Stalfos. One was short and big-boned, the other was tall and lightly built. They both behaved in the most ridiculous way, yelling at each other, whining, and squabbling. Link wondered where he’d met them before… and then realized that they were just like the Twinrova sisters he had fought in the desert.
The windows were covered in heavy drapes, so Link was at a bit of a disadvantage in the dark at first, until he had the brilliant idea of opening the curtains. The controls were out of sight, so he simply burned them with his fire arrows.
The light hurt the two soldiers when they accidentally blundered into it, and he decided that instead of being like pure Stalfos, they were more like redead. The soldiers, although they fought together, were not coordinated, and he took them out quickly.
Then he had to fight the king. Already rather tired from his long trek through the castle and his fight with the two guards, the king was a much greater challenge. The King of Ikana fought with a massive curved katana, and he was much cannier than his hapless bodyguards.
Link thanked his shield many times during that fight, and his reflexes as well. The guards, still chattering, distracted him more than he would like to admit, but he managed to avoid becoming chopped in half.
Half an hour later, Link was almost too tired to fight any longer. He retreated to the centre of the beam of light and crouched, panting, watching the king warily.
The king charged him. Link could read his actions: it was a trick to flush him out. When he ducked or dodged, he would be dead.
Link charged back. The king skidded to a halt on his bony feet, not expecting a frontal charge, but Link rolled between his long, thin legs, leaped up, bounced off the wall, and kicked the king into the light.
The skeleton of the king, all but the head, vapourized.
Link sagged and breathed a sigh of relief.
The king scolded the two guards into golden silence, and then turned to Link.
“You, o brave warrior, have released us from eternal doom. If you will, I would ask you to go to the Temple and defeat the menace that dwells there also.”
“I will,” Link said.
“That’s our job! Don’t try to tell us our job!” Tatl squeaked. Link shushed her once again.
“Don’t be rude,” he said softly.
The king politely ignored Tatl and continued, giving Link another magic song that would come in handy. It made a statue of him with magic, and with experimenting, Link found that it would make four different statues: one in each of his forms.
So armed, he set off for the Stone Tower Temple. It was at the top of a very tall tower that appeared on the horizon of the canyon like a massive bees’ nest. Boulders were constantly rolling back and forth inside, and he heard the groans of undead. He never saw them, though. His hookshot was his life in that tower, although he had to do a fair bit of manual climbing as well.
Once at the top, where he was safer, he took a nap and had some food. He was getting very tired.
When he woke, he was refreshed. Link and Tatl went and fought through the confusing Stone Tower Temple, and found that the power of light arrows was also essential. Link had forgotten about them; he hadn’t used them since the battle with Ganondorf, and felt that they were too powerful and special for normal use.
There were several powerful foes to fight; a ninja master, who used teleportation, and fire, bringing back two bad memories at once. Link kept his focus, somehow, and defeated him. The next one was most unusual: a vampire, armed with an enormous scythe, and master of bats and Keese.
The creatures that ruled the temple were a pair of giant sand-snakes, or moldorm, and Tatl called it Twinmold.
Link put on a mask he had found and felt agony once more, but it was worth it. He was now as big as the snakes, and it was much easier to chop up their vulnerable tails.
He killed both snakes and found the mask they had worn.
When he picked it up, he appeared in the strange otherworld filled with iridescent bubbles that the giants appeared in. There were four giants surrounding the tall pillar they stood on.
“They’re saying… uh… stuff. Okay. They’re talking about the Skull Kid. Um… they’ll stop the moon… What? What? … … … “Forgive your friend”? What do you mean? What?”
“The Skull Kid is not to blame,” Link said softly. “The mask is.”
“Forgive… that’s all they’re saying now.”
The Hylian and the fairy found themselves outside of the temple.
“Forgiveness is a powerful thing,” Link said, taking out his Ocarina and going back in time.
“It’s hard, though,” Tatl said back.
Link found that going back in time had given him three days to prepare, so he remembered another thing that he had promised someone.
“I need to find Kafei,” he told Tatl.
“Right! That guy! Well, he had purple hair, and a pretty face…”
“We need to look more diligently. I need breakfast.”
He went to buy some fruit, like he usually did, and purple hair caught his eye.
“Hey! Who’s that?”
“It’s a little kid with a Keaton mask,” Tatl replied, bored. “So?”
“He looks just like the mask…”
“He put a letter in the mailbox. You gonna go talk to him?”
“No. He’s gone. Let’s find out who he was writing to.”
“You’re going to read people’s letters!?!?” Tatl screamed, shocking several people nearby. Link winced and resisted the urge to grab his fairy and squeeze.
“No,” he said with much patience, “but we will find out somehow if that was Kafei or not. Now, please, shut up.”
“Allll riiiight,” Tatl sighed.
The postman came, and Link followed him. He could hear the postman chattering to himself.
“Only one letter today… but I shall deliver it perfectly! Ya!”
The letter went to the inn, and Anju gasped and cried out at the sight of it.
“Where did this letter come from?”
“From a postbox.”
“Oh!” she groaned. “From a postbox where?”
“From a postbox in this town.”
“Ugh,” exclaimed Anju, and gave up. She took the letter and read it quickly, then turned to Link, who was sitting on a bench nearby. “Little boy, I mean, Link, can you meet me in the kitchen tonight, after everyone has gone to bed?”
“All right,” Link said. “Is it to do with Kafei?”
“Yes.”
“I think I saw him, but I’m not sure. He was wearing a mask, and I don’t know where he went.”
“I’m sure you saw him, because this letter is his. Shoo, now. I have work to do.”
Link left and sat on the edge of a balcony, swinging his feet. “I suppose she couldn’t remember me perfectly because of the time loop.”
“Yeah, don’t you know? She’s met you earlier today than ever, so… wait, that doesn’t make sense.”
Link waited for a few minutes.
“Oh, I know,” Tatl said. “It’s called… magic. It takes care of the things we can’t understand.”
“You’re odd,” Link said.
“You’re a doofus,” Tatl retorted, taking offense.
Link shrugged and went to go see the Bombers.
That evening he returned to the inn.
Anju met him in the kitchen as she said she would.
“Oh, Link, I can’t tell you what that letter’s done for me. He’s all right, and he still loves me. Remember our conversation?”
“You said at the end you would wait for him more easily.”
“Yes, I resolved to have faith. Now, I want you to bring him a message from me saying that.”
“I’ll do that.”
“This is my message,” said Anju, taking off a necklace and laying it in his palm. “Tell him I will wait as long as necessary.”
“Yes, I will. I’m almost ready to defeat the mask that’s causing all this trouble, but my mission right now is to restore Kafei to you. I’ll find out what’s going on. Without prying,” he added, seeing Anju’s face whiz through expressions.
“All right. I trust you.”
“Thanks.”
“What about me?” Tatl demanded. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” said Anju and Link at the same time, “but not with the necklace,” Link added.
“Hey!”
Anju laughed. “You can sleep here tonight, if you want.”
“Thank you. It’ll be a big help. I’ve been getting tired more early lately.”
“You’ve been working hard, to hear of your adventures. Take a rest.”
Link nodded, feeling that another thanks would be redundant, and went to bed.
The next morning, Link got up with the birds and went searching seriously for Kafei.
It took him until almost nightfall, questioning everyone, but at sunset, which was clouded with rain as it always was the second day, he found a small back door which was unlocked. He knocked.
“Go away!” called the voice of a small boy, about Link’s age or slightly younger.
“I’m looking for Kafei. I have a message for him.”
“From who?”
“Anju.”
The door opened a tiny crack and a yellow snout greeted Link. He started until he realized it was the Keaton mask. The wearer had purple hair.
“Come inside, quick,” hissed the boy. Link slid inside the door and closed it. He followed the boy up a steep flight of stairs into a loft. The boy turned around.
“Give me the message. I’ll see that he gets it. I know where he is.”
“You are Kafei, aren’t you?” Tatl asked, as Link held out the necklace, smiling.
The boy removed his mask and took the necklace with wide eyes.
“Okay, I am… startled. No one else recognized me in this mask, firstly.”
“Everybody else is idiots,” Tatl said, ungrammatically.
“Also, how did you get this?”
“This is Anju’s message,” Link said. “She got your letter and it made her very happy. She will wait for you as long as necessary.”
“Now answer some of our ques-“ Tatl was cut off by Link catching her in his hat.
“Sorry. My question is… do you need help with something?”
Kafei sighed. “Lots of things. My wedding is supposed to be the day after tomorrow, but my wedding mask was stolen. On top of that, some enchantment has turned me into a little boy. I hid, embarrassed, although I made a deal with the postman. He’s the only one who knows, and the only one I feel I can trust. He’s very reliable.”
“I think we’re already on the enchantment problem. I’ll deal with that tomorrow night.”
“Then, my mask. The antiques shop is just down there, and sooner or later the man who stole it will be there: Sakon. He’ll come in with something, and then I’ll track him to his lair.”
“I can help with that. Would you like me to?”
“You’re only a little boy with a sword.”
“Right now, you’re only a little boy, too.” Kafei glared at him, but Link kept talking. “I was once nineteen years old, and I was in love, too. Magic sealed me away for seven years so that I could use the Master Sword and defeat a menace that was threatening my homeland, Hyrule. Now, I’m living through the years I missed.”
“And you were in love? That happens.”
Link said nothing for a while. “I’ll wait with you.”
“Sure, if you’re going to help.”
They waited, taking turns peering through a tiny hole in the wall to the shop below, snatching bits of sleep and food. Tatl bothered them both, but Kafei bore it admirably.
It was almost dusk of the last day when Sakon came. Tatl, who was watching, although Link frowned at her almost continuously, not entirely trusting her to be trustworthy, started squeezing through the hole. Link dove at her, but she got through first. “I’ll follow him and tell you where he goes!”
“Tatl, no!” Link hissed softly.
Kafei sped down the stairs as softly as he could and in the direction of West Clock Town. Link followed.
Tatl and Sakon were nowhere in sight. Link ran to the exits out of the west town, but Sakon wasn’t there either.
“Drat!” Kafei spat. “He’s gone!” He ran out the gate frantically.
“Kafei! Wait!” Link ran after him.
After a few minutes of staring around, Link spotted Tatl, approaching them.
“You didn’t lose him?”
“No! I’m not dumb! Get on your horse and follow me!”
Link called Epona, mounted, and turned to Kafei. “Get on, quick.” Kafei, with some misgiving – Link guessed he’d never ridden a horse before – mounted and clung to Link.
“Fast, now, Epona. We have little time.” Epona obeyed.
Tatl led them to Ikana Canyon.
“Where’s his hideout?” Kafei yelled.
“It’s a cave on a ledge above the river!” Tatl answered.
“I hope we’re not too late!” Link shouted.
They came to the cliff and Link dismounted and got out his hookshot. “Hang on to me, Kafei.” Kafei grabbed him in a bear-hug.
“You’re amazingly competent and prepared. I’m sorry I underestimated you,” he said, as they whipped to the top of the cliff.
“’S fine. Come on!”
They came to a cave that Link hadn’t found before, but a large rock that was obviously the door was nearby. Kafei charged inside.
“My mask!” he yelled, running at it.
The golden mask began to move! It was on a conveyor belt under glass that led to a dark, deep hole.
“What’s happening?” Tatl squealed.
Kafei saw an open door and ran to it, but a hidden switch he had been standing on released, closing the door.
“I’ll get it!” Link called, jumping on it.
Kafei nodded and hurried into a room full of red and blue switches, and one yellow switch. He ran to the yellow switch, stepping on all the blue ones he could along the way.
Link could hear Sakon muttering. “Blast, these intruders are smarter than I thought.
No door opened for Kafei, but one opened for Link’s side. Link dodged and killed a white Wolfos, and Kafei could go forward again.
Sakon’s elaborate security system, in the end, was not enough. With their hearts pounding, the two boys jumped on the last switches and saved the mask from falling down the hole. Kafei cautiously stepped off his switch, and the mask stayed in place. With a sigh of relief, he took it from the conveyor belt.
“Let’s get back to town,” Link said, checking the clock on the wall.
The ride back was not nearly as panic-stricken as the ride from the town, but Link was getting anxious, watching the position of the moon in the sky.
“It’s all right for now,” Kafei said finally. “The doors are only going to open in about ten minutes, so you have plenty of time to get to the clock tower.”
“You go ahead and tell Anju what’s happened. I’ll check on you before I go.”
“Please. I have something for you.”
Link sent Epona back to the ranch and went after Kafei.
Kafei and Anju were embracing, staring into each other’s eyes when Link knocked and entered Anju’s room. They looked up, smiling. Tatl whispered that they looked like mother and child, but Link ignored her.
“So, you’ll be all right, now?”
“Yes. We’ll be fine. We each have a present for you, and all your help. I couldn’t have gotten the mask back without you, so here… in memory of my childhood.” Kafei gave Link the Keaton mask, which, Link had noticed before, had been bouncing around on his back the entire time.
“And from me, a mask in memory of us both. You’ll be leaving after you defeat the evil mask?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll stay an extra day to see your wedding.”
“You don’t have to,” Anju said, smiling warmly, giving him a silver oval mask.
“Thank you.”
“We will stay here now. Tomorrow, we will watch the sunrise…”
Anju held Kafei tightly as they watched Link and Tatl run down the stairs and out of the inn.
Link left and ran across the square to the tower. The door was open and the stairs were set up. He darted up, hardly pausing to grab his Ocarina out of its pouch.
The Skull Kid hovered in the air. When he saw Link, he giggled.
“Look who’s here! It’s the dumb guy!”
“Tael!” cried Tatl. “Look out! He’ll hit you!”
“I have something to tell you.” Tatl’s little brother fluttered forward a little way. “Jungle… mountain… ocean… desert… bring them here.”
“Look out, Tael! Duck!” Tatl yelled desperately. “Link, hurry up!”
The Skull Kid whapped Tael out of the way viciously. “Stupid fairy – talking out of turn!”
“Tael! No!” Tatl squealed. “Majora’s Mask! You’ll pay for this!”
The Skull Kid shrugged. “And why should I care? I don’t need friends anymore… not when they’ll all be sorry for not being nice to me… not when I do… THIS!” He flung his arms out and shrieked, a thin, piercing cry that sent purple waves up to the descending moon. The descent hastened. The moon was turning red from the friction of the atmosphere.
“Link, what are you doing?”
Tael stirred from where he had falled to the floor. “Jungle… mountain… ocean… … desert… hurry…”
Link finished the last note of the Oath to Order.
There was a massive tremor in the ground, and on the horizon, four great figures appeared and strode towards the town, singing in their sad, deep voices. They halted just outside of each gate, and swung their long arms up to balance the moon.
The eastern sky was getting light.
The moon shuddered to a halt. The quivering limbs of the giants held it at bay.
Link took a deep breath and turned to the Skull Kid and the Mask. Tael twitched and flew to Tatl, hugging her gladly.
The Skull Kid dropped to the ground like a rag doll, and the mask floated up, making malevolently gleeful noises. It disappeared into the mouth on the face of the moon.
Navi, her bottle smashed, flew in ecstatic circles around Link’s head. “Come!”
Link followed the mask on the wind trail left behind.
He found himself lying in a deep field of tall, brilliant green grass. The sun was pouring down on him, and he had a memory of another time when he had felt as rested and peaceful and joyful with the glory of the simple world, once, in Kokiri Forest, when he was very young.
He sat up, and saw to his right a spreading oak tree. The place was not Kokiri Forest, then, because the glade of grass had been entirely surrounded with young birches and this place was a wide field stretching as far as the eye could see.
Link caught sight of the three fairies, one purple, and remembered where he was, and what he was there for.
He headed quickly for the oak, the fairies bobbing in his wake.
Four figures of children in white were strolling around the tree. They wore the masks of the creatures that had imprisoned the giants.
Link caught the one with the Aztec warrior’s mask. The child demanded that he be a mask salesman, and though it was with misgivings that Link handed over one mask of his collection of twenty-three, he hoped that something good would come out of it.
Whiteness covered him, and he found himself standing in a woodland with no bottom and ledges around the edge of a chasm. Link turned himself into a Deku and flew to the other side.
Navi looked at him.
Link discovered a door in a tree trunk, and entered into a small room with the mask boy standing in it.
“Why do you do what you do?” he asked, but did not wait for an answer.
Link found himself under the oak tree again. He shook his head to clear it and walked to where the boy with the mask of Goht was standing, looking over the sunny field.
This boy, too, asked for masks, and took Link to a dark cave with one narrow walkway in it.
At the end of the runway was a pair of open metal treasure chests. Link peered into the darkness and saw another walkway, too far to jump.
That puzzled him for a long time. He was a little bit anxious about the time he was spending, but this place seemed to be timeless, so he was not too afraid that the moon would fall while he sat and thought about it. He didn’t want to make a mistake and fall to his death when he was so close.
“Well, you were a Deku in the last place, so maybe… this looks like a Goron place… can you turn into a Goron?” Tael asked timidly.
“Yes, I can. Thanks for the hint, Tael. I think we’re on the right track.” Link changed.
“Okay,” Navi said. “I have no idea what you’re doing or how you’re doing it, but you’d better explain after this is all over, partner.”
“I will, don’t worry,” Link said, giving her a toothy Goron grin.
He looked at the ledge. “Can one or two of you go and see if the path ends suddenly? Or, if it doesn’t end suddenly?”
“What, with the treasure chests as turns?”
“Yes.”
Tatl and Tael flew off. Link treasured each precious second with Navi until they returned.
“There’s a big broad part pretty close after that. Just steer really straight, and you should make it,” Tatl reported.
Link began to roll, picking up speed until spikes shot out of the whirling ball of Goron that he was.
He found his way around the rest of the dungeon without much incident.
“Why do you help people?” asked the mask boy dreamily as he sent Link and his escorts out of the cave.
Link found the boy with the fish mask, and gave up more masks, reluctantly. He was running out, and though he still had his favourites – the Bunny Hood, the masks Anju and Kafei had given him, and the transformation masks, and the mask that Cremia had given him – he had no doubt that the last boy would ask for all that he had left.
Mike was glad to take part in the solving, and Link borrowed his body to whip through narrow water tunnels, his fins carving long roiling paths of bubbles behind him.
He found his way through the maze by guesswork, but nothing appeared to attack him.
“What is the most important thing to you?” asked the third boy.
Link went to talk to the last boy, the one with the mask of the three-eyed desert snake. Indeed, the boy demanded all his masks but the ones Link used to transform into another race.
That dungeon was the hardest, and the most like a dungeon. Link needed all his resources. Many rooms and broken traps stretched behind him by the time he reached the last chamber.
“What are you?” whispered the masked child “How do you know what you are, and how did you choose to be that way?”
Link had no time to answer even one of these questions, as he found himself back under the oak among a crowd of butterflies. He turned toward the tree, and sighted a fifth boy standing among the roots, this one wearing the cursed Majora’s Mask.
He went up to him and waited patiently.
“Who are you?” asked the boy. “You have come to play with me, have you not? You cannot have even a fair play as you are. I will give you another mask.”
“My name is Link. I have come to… play,” Link answered. “What kind of mask is it?”
The boy’s voice smiled. “You’ll see.” He pushed the mask of a pale face, tattooed in blue, framed with white hair, into Link’s hands. “We can play now.”
“Wait,” Link said, but they had already gone into a warp. When they came out of it into a glowing blue chamber, he asked: “The other boys asked me questions, but didn’t wait to hear the answers. Do you want the answers?”
The child looked at him sharply. “I have all the answers. I don’t have time to waste playing riddles.”
For an ancient demon, he is very much in mind the way he appears; that is, a child, Link thought. The others all wanted to change, I think… and that is why they asked me… Majora must want to change also, or perhaps he is innocent and doesn’t realize what pain and hurt is… No, that’s not right. He does know, but not because he is born of darkness. People shunned him because of the darkness he came from, and he experienced it himself. Now he… wanted to hurt others because he was hurt? But why does he want to play? What can I do for him to show him the truth?
“Why do I help people?” he asked softly.
The child ignored him, waving at the walls. “Come out, friends!”
Four masks detached themselves from the walls and zoomed at Link. Majora himself went and attached himself to the wall at the back of the room.
Link looked at the mask in his hands. It seemed to be warm, or glow with an unseen, internal light, or it was the expression on the face was unsettling, but it was clearly the container of another demon. Link looked up at all the masks against him and knew there was little time left. He put it on.
Fire coursed through him. His body was stretched. Even as he felt his physical form changing, the demon in the mask came to life and fought with his mind and soul.
For this demon, why was everything. He wanted to be convinced, and quickly.
Link convinced him enough to move, and leapt aside just in time as the mask of Goht swept into the space he had been. His body felt heavy, and he knew it was a combination of the fact that he was fighting the demon, and that the demon was not letting him use the glorious new body he had yet.
“Lend me your strength!” Link cried to the spirit.
“You are… strong yourself…” said the demon. “You… are one who does not delight in destruction. Is that not strange? The beauty of inflicting pain… the glory of obliteration… are not these things the best things in the world?”
“No,” Link answered, glad to have questions he could answer. “The best things in the world differ from person to person, but I can tell you truly that they include peace, and delight in the beauty of the world, and the love of the people dear to you… You don’t know of these things, do you?”
“I… do not. You… are strange. Will you… show me… these new things of which you speak?”
“I will. If you lend me your strength, I can show you all this and more…”
The demon was silent.
“I will give you my strength. Your name?”
“Link.”
The fairies had stood amazed to see Link having a bizarre, un-Linkish argument with himself, and only dodging, not attacking with the weapon that was still sheathed, but now they understood.
Link himself was suddenly filled with the fierce joy of the demon. He was as tall as his nineteen year old self, with longer hair that was pure white. His clothes were the similar as his older self, but they, too, were pure white, with a blue sweater and pants under the tunic, and silvery armour protecting his chest. He saw his face in the mirror of the wall, and saw it was tattooed the same as the mask. He reached back with his left hand and drew a huge sword in a flattened helix shape, forged of gleaming blue steel. He swung it in circles, using first one hand and then two, twirling it experimentally as he tested his new strength, which was beyond anything he remembered. Magic flowed through the sword and shot from the end in a blue wave.
The demon laughed joyfully, and the voice, too, was like Link’s older self. “We are… more similar than you guessed at first. You, too, enjoy strength. I do as well. I will follow you… Link.”
“I do not enjoy strength for the power it brings,” Link corrected him. “I love strength for the ability to protect those who need it, and I do like it for the freedom of movement it brings, but I do not use it to destroy. That would spoil it.”
“You are… still strange. I will wait and follow. I will understand someday.”
“Thank you.”
Wielding the massive sword, Link brought down all four masks in a relatively short time.
Majora came forward. “You’re better than I thought. Those weren’t very good players, though. You have to play with me, now.”
“If this is play, why are the stakes for my life or yours?” Link asked.
Majora ignored this and charged, trailing red ribbons like tentacles.
Link swung the sword, the demon’s strength running through his muscles, and sent blue waves surging towards the mask.
The mask, taking hits, sprouted arms and legs, striped like the face of the mask. This creatures, while it hurt Link more when it managed to hit him, was a bit more unwieldy. Link hit it with the edge of his blade.
Instead of shedding a limb, Majora cried out and swelled again, its limbs becoming more bulked out and muscled, and a head popped out of the top. The monster bore hardly any resemblance now to the small mask it had spawned of.
Link, sweating with exertion, dodged the creature as it attacked him. He ducked right up against it and plunged his helix sword into its chest, between the circles that had been eyes.
It wailed and flailed grotesquely, staggering backwards as the world exploded in flame…
Link woke up lying on short green grass. He couldn’t tell if the sun was shining, since his face was smushed into it, but he guessed that it was since his back was soaking up incorporeal warmth.
He sat up and rubbed his head, since he found he had a slight ache on the left side. Further investigation revealed that he had a bruise there, but nothing really to worry about.
Navi bobbed into his view. “About time! I was getting worried. After they pushed the moon back up, and we fell out, you weren’t waking up, and I thought it wasn’t just because you had a bit of a rough landing…”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Link interrupted his fairy. “We fell out of the moon? Over there?” He pointed across the roofs of South Clock Town to where the faceless moon was setting normally into the western mountains. He shook his head and looked again. “Right. I’m behind the times. What happened? Did we succeed?” His voice was a soprano again, and he blinked at the pale mask clutched in his hand.
“You bet!” Tatl squealed, joining Navi, with Tael following her. “You killed Majora, and then I think we fell out of the moon, and the giants had just been able to push it back into orbit because we killed him.”
“And then one giant caught you. That’s why you only have a small bruise instead of being dead,” Tael added.
“They’re still waiting for you to wake up,” Navi said. “Look!”
Link looked, and saw the four giants, standing back from the four sides of Clock Town. The giant of the swamp was very near them, and trembling in front of him was the Skull Kid, looking very dejected and nervous.
Link couldn’t understand what was being said, and neither of his fairies translated for him, but at the end of it, the Skull Kid was not shaking so nervously. He turned to Link and smiled a bit. Link smiled back and waved.
The Skull Kid hopped closer. “I’m sorry…”
Link shrugged. “I think I fixed everything, so don’t worry.”
They were distracted by a nearby chortle. The Happy Mask Salesman was bending over a purple mask with yellow eyes and spikes.
“Well, well, it seems the magic has gone from this mask. I suppose that’s all right, since I’m just after the mask itself. The magic was a nasty side-effect. Oh, and by the way…” He handed Link a stack of masks, all the ones he had collected. Link’s face lit up.
“Wow! Thanks! Where were these? I thought I’d lost them forever!”
“They were just scattered around here… and there… and some over there…” said the salesman, gesturing in various directions around Link. The young hero sobered a bit.
“I guess that means… the spirits of the evil masks are dead.”
“Why is that bad?” Tatl demanded.
Link smiled at her. “They don’t have a second chance now. They showed signs… Everyone deserves a second chance… I think… if they want to change…”
“Ganondorf didn’t want to change,” Navi said, voicing Link’s mind. “If you had given him a second chance he would have blown it again.”
“I know. But there’s someone here who has been given a second chance. Let’s talk to him.”
The mask salesman had vanished, off on his journey, but the Skull Kid was still waiting apprehensively.
“I have somewhere to be in a couple of minutes. Do you want to come?”
The Skull Kid nodded happily.
They went to the wedding of Kafei and Anju, near the beach where two fountains played. Kafei was back in an adult form, and he was very handsome all dressed up. Anju was absolutely lovely in her gown. After the ceremony, they kissed each other, and the crowd of guests cheered. They caught a glimpse of him, sitting in a tree with the Skull Kid, and waved. He waved back, laughing.
Link played games with the lost forest boy all that day. The Hylian himself smiled and laughed as never before since Rana’s death.
At evening, Link and the Skull Kid carved a picture of the two of them on a fallen tree, with the three fairies around them, and went to stay with Cremia and Romani that night. Romani thought the Skull Kid was the cutest thing, and invited him to stay and help on the farm. The Skull Kid was happy. The ranch was also enough like the Lost Woods, being surrounded by trees, that he even felt at home.
Link had found that one of his transformation masks didn’t work, the Goron mask, but Navi told him that Darmani had passed on since Link didn’t need his help now. Link kept the mask as a souvenir anyway, but set out the next day to see about his other three masks.
He found the Deku Tree under the clock tower, and after trying several things involving healing fairies and potions, he pressed the Deku mask to the face on the tree.
The tree shuddered and sprang to life. With a scared squeal, the Deku rushed past him and out the door, heading in the direction of the swamp.
“Be well,” Link murmured after him, and mounted Epona to ride to the beach.
In the place where Mikau had changed into a mask, Link stopped and took it out.
He tried again similar things to the mask as he had tried to the tree, although he wasted a potion pouring it through the carved mouth and onto the sand.
The mask made a face. “Not only does that stuff taste horrible, it didn’t do anything. Dude, try the fairy.”
Link grinned. “I like the taste. It’s strawberry.” He got out a fairy, and it fluttered in circles for a moment before whirling around the mask.
Link dropped it as it began to quiver, but then it lay still.
Mike gasped out: “More. It’s working.”
Link clasped the mask to his chest as he ran to find a fairy fountain. When he got to the Ocean fairy fountain, he threw the mask into the middle of the fairies.
They all huddled around it, and there was a blast of light. Link peered through a shielding hand and saw Mikau grow out of the mask, leaning back on his hands in a sitting position.
The Zora slowly climbed to his feet.
“Wow.”
He walked towards Link, smiling like he would burst.
“It’s… just incredible. Not many people get a… a reprieve like that. Thank you.”
“No, I’ve only begun to repay you for your help.”
“You’ve more than repaid it. Look, Link, I can be just as stubborn in this matter as you. You taught me, anyhow. Want to come to a concert?”
“Sure! That would be great!”
“Tonight, if you can get in, then. No, come to the beach and I’ll pick you up. You Hylians swim funny, and you’ll never get in unless I take you.”
“Thanks.”
Mike left, and Link was alone with his fairy friends… and the Oni mask.
“Well,” said the demon, and turned into the Hylian form he had given Link. “You are… a strange person, but I think I am getting it… You like helping people. It makes you happy.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Link and all the fairies, smiling. The tall, handsome demon shifted his weight casually.
“I’ll stay with you until I find out why. I’ll even let you call upon my strength when you want it. Don’t forget. I may take the form of the mask, but I can always see you.”
Link did come to hear the concert, as promised, and enjoyed it very much, although he was startled when Mike called him up on stage to play his Ocarina. He played all the songs he knew from home, a hint of sadness touching him… he felt a bit homesick now, to see Kokiri Forest, and Saria and Rana… but if he went back…
A reprieve from death… that was what Mikau had meant. Could he work to give Rana a reprieve from death when he returned? Could he arrive in Hyrule the moment that Zelda took him away to the Sacred Realm to send him home?
Then he forgot everything, in making his music the most beautiful he could. The Zorans were wonderful accompanists, and Lulu’s voice was gorgeous.
Link looked at the sea beyond the Temple in the ocean. Demon was sitting on a log a little behind him, watching him. “You want to go there?”
Link had explained his story to him. “Yes. There will be new lands… and I will be back before Rana dies. I will.”
With Demon’s help, Link was sailing a small ship out onto the sea a short time later.