Shards

Chapter 3 - Only a Matter of Time.
In which Link hears voices and goes in circles.

	Three days.  For three days I searched fruitlessly for the Skull Kid.  Three days in which it seemed as though I spoke to every person in Clock Town.  The evidence of the Skull Kid's mischief was everywhere.  He had upset many of their lives.  And even those he left untouched still often had their own problems.  So many people needing help, and so little help that I could give!  I was still a Deku Scrub, and had little heroism to offer anyone.  I did what I could to help the townsfolk, but the night of the third day came and I was little closer to finding the Skull Kid than I had been.
	
	I had managed to find the scattered pieces of the Great Fairy, at least.  And she had granted me a gift of magic.  It was a small thing.  But then I was a small creature now.  I could blow bubbles.  Magical, yes, and capable of damaging an enemy, so I was not entirely unarmed, but I still felt nearly helpless all the same.  I wanted the familiar hilt of my sword in my hand!
	
	But though my quest hadn't moved forward, something else had moved quite a lot over the last few days. As the sun set on the third day the moon loomed unnaturally near.  It hadn't taken long for me to notice it hovering over the town.  I had thought at first that I was imagining things, but now it was clear that the moon had drawn closer.  Though it was not the moon of Hyrule that I knew, this moon bore a clear, malevolent face which stared down at the celebrating town below.
	
	And then, as darkness deepened towards dawn and the bitter taste of failure grew in my mouth, I saw him at last.
	
	Fireworks exploded over the clock tower.  It was some sort of festival, one they celebrated here every year.  How the people, looking up at the moon, could still seek to celebrate rather than flee I don't know.  But their celebration proceeded with manic energy.  
	
	As the celebration progressed the clock changed with a ponderous rumbling of gears.  It swung its face away from the town, up towards the moon above.  And there he was, capering atop it.  The Skull Kid.
	
	I ran to the clock tower.  I was unprepared, but time had run out.  I had to confront him.  Terror twisted my stomach.  Something within me was whispering panicked protestations, but I had to do it.  I just had to.  I climbed up to where he danced, half expecting to die.  What else could I do?
	
	He floated in midair, as he had before, but now he tossed my ocarina in the air mockingly.  I wanted to shout curses at him, but I held my tongue.  It would do me no good.
	
	The fairy by his shoulder cried out.  "Sis!"
	
	"Tael!"  Tatl floated in front of me.  "We've been looking for you two!  Hey Skull Kid, what if you gave that mask you're wearing back now?"  The Skull Kid just looked at us, still tossing the Ocarina of Time casually into the air and catching it again.  "Hey, c'mon, are you listening?"
	
	The Skull Kid said nothing.
	
	But Tael darted in front of him.  "Swamp, Mountain, Ocean, Canyon.  Hurry...  The four who are there, bring them here."
	
	The Skull Kid gave a cry of rage and swatted Tael from the air. "Don't speak out of line!  Stupid fairy."
	
	"No!" cried Tatl.  "What are you doing to my brother?  Skull Kid, do you still think you're our friend after that?!"
	
	"Well, whatever," he said dismissively.  I winced.  The fairies had been his friends.  Causing casual harm to strangers I could understand, if not condone.  But to abuse his friends and then act like nothing had happened?  "Even if they were to come now," he continued, "they wouldn't be able to handle me.  Hee hee."
	
	[i]:What is he talking about?:[/i]  Shadow's confusion mirrored my own.
	
	[i]:I don't know.  But... it might be important.  He seemed angry.  Try to remember what Tael said.:
	
	:Swamp, Mountain, Ocean, and Canyon.  I'll remember.:[/i]
	
	"Just look above you.  If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!"  The Skull Kid threw up his arms, and dark power radiated from him.  I stepped back, startled.  The moon began moving faster, drawing visibly closer.  It was going to strike the town, and it might well destroy everything there, including myself.  What could I do?
	
	I looked up at him, hovering above me.  I had no Master Sword.  I had no light arrows.  I had no sword at all, nothing but a Deku Scrub's body and a bare thread of courage.  I did the only thing I could do.
	
	I blew a bubble.  
	
	A feeble attack against a thing that could outmatch a Great Fairy, but it was all I had.  It struck his hand, and the ocarina fell from it.  I leaped.  Maybe I was small, but I wasn't slow!  The ocarina was in my hands an instant later.  The Ocarina of Time, that I'd used so often in the future that was my past.  The Ocarina of Time, that Zelda had used to send me back to the past that was my present. The Ocarina of Time that she had given me to remember her by.
	
	And I did remember.  I remembered her, and I remembered a song.  She had taught it to me.  And she had reminded me of it before I'd left Hyrule.  I could remember her words.  She had said that if something happened to me I should remember it.  Something had definitely happened.  I was about to die, killed by the Skull Kid or crushed by his moon.  But if I could try again...  If time were on my side and not on his...
	
	"Snap out of it!" shouted Tatl.  "Get yourself together!  Getting that old ocarina back isn't going to help us!" She flitted around frantically, screaming in panic.  "Somebody!  Anybody! Goddess of Time, help us please!  We need more time!"
	
	Time.
	
	I knew exactly what to do.
	
	I lifted the ocarina.  For a horrible moment I realized that I didn't have lips in this shape, then a strange thing happened.  The ocarina twisted in my hands, and I found myself with a set of pipes that seemed almost an extension of my own body.  Playing them was natural, even more so than using deku flowers had been.  The notes echoed on the evening air.  Even as I began to play the Skull Kid shouted something angry, but I didn't hear it.  I played the Song of Time, the song that, in Zelda's hands, had sent me seven years into the past.
	
	The world went white.  Reality swirled blindingly around me.  I felt Shadow, strangely, clinging to me.  Somewhere somebody was screaming in terror and confusion.
	
	And then the world settled into place again, and I was standing outside the clock tower, with the sun rising on Clock Town.  I was back where I'd been three days ago.  Whether I couldn't go back before this quest had begun without solving it somehow, or whether my ability was less than Zelda's I didn't know, but I did know that I had three more days.  And I had my ocarina again, the precious object the mask seller had spoken of.  Hadn't he said I might return to my own form if I retrieved it?  I turned and went inside the clock.
	
	He was there.  Even though from his point of view I must have stepped out only moments ago he didn't seem surprised to see me return.
	
	"Were you able to recover your precious item from that imp?"
	
	I nodded.  
	
	Suddenly he was grabbing my shoulders, shaking me, an unwholesome expression of manic glee on his face. "Oh!  Oh!  You got it! You got it!  You got it!  You got it!"  Something in me gibbered in fear and wanted to flee.  I pulled away from him.  He didn't seem to notice.  He only darted across the room to where a shadowy shape stood against the wall.  When he sat down before it I saw that it was an organ.  "Listen to me.  Please play this song that I am about to perform, and remember it well."
	
	His fingers caressed the keys.  The song that came forth was eerie and beautiful at the same time.  I lifted my strange pipes again and echoed it.
	
	The world spun for an instant.
	
	Then it halted, but it had changed.  I was looking at it from nearly twice as high.  I looked down at myself and grinned.  
	
	[i]:We're back to normal!  We're us again!: [/i] I almost laughed at that. Normal?  I was still a ten year old boy who remembered being seventeen, sharing my body with a shadow with a will of its own.  Was that normal?  But I suppose that for me it was.  And I had my sword and shield back!  I vowed to never again be without a weapon.  I didn't want to feel that horrible, defenseless feeling ever again.
	
	"This is a melody that heals evil magic and troubled spirits, turning them into masks," said the mask seller.  I shivered.  I didn't want to think about the implications of that.  But looking down I saw that a mask lay at my feet.  Its face was the face of the Deku Scrub that I had been.  "I am sure it will be of assistance to you in the future.  Yes.  I give you this mask in commemoration of this day.  Fear not, for the magic has been sealed inside the mask. When you wear it you will transform into the shape you just were.  When you remove it you will return to normal."
	
	Some part of me was strangely thrilled by this.  I had hated being a Deku Scrub.  Why should I also be happy at the prospect?  But perhaps it would somehow come in handy.  Less likely things had proved to be useful before.
	
	"Now, I have fulfilled my promise to you."
	
	My stomach suddenly sank.  On no!  He had told me to get my ocarina back, yes, but he'd also told me to get the Skull Kid's mask for him! And I hadn't! 
	
	"So please, give me that which you promised me..."
	
	[i]:We didn't promise him anything, he just ran right over us and insisted we do it!:[/i]  Shadow was outraged.  But I felt guilty.  Maybe I hadn't promised out loud, but I had meant to do it all the same. And he had returned me to normal.  I owed him.
	
	He held out his hand, smiling.  I swallowed and looked away.
	
	"Don't tell me... My mask?  You did get it back...  Didn't you?"
	
	I shook my head.
	
	His smile vanished.  With rage on his face he picked me up, even though he was hardly bigger than I, and shook me.  "If you leave my mask out there, something terrible will happen!"  He dropped me, sending me sprawling.  I looked up at him, shocked by his sudden anger.  He clapped his hands to the side of his head, shaking, looking as though he were having some kind of fit.  Words poured out of him.  "The mask that was stolen from me, it is called Majora's Mask.  It is an accursed item from legend that is said to have been used by an ancient tribe in its hexing rituals.  It is said that an evil, wicked power is bestowed upon the one who wears that mask.  According to legend, the troubles caused by Majora's Mask were so great the ancient ones, fearing such catastrophe, sealed the mask in shadow forever, preventing its misuse."
	
	[i]:Some forever,:[/i] said Shadow.  [i]:It's not very sealed right now, is it?:
	
	:Perhaps the shadow it was sealed in is here.  This place... I'm starting to wonder if this place is the same world as Hyrule, or whether we've fallen into a different reality altogether.:[/i]
	
	"But now that tribe from the legend has vanished, so no one really knows the true nature of the mask's power.  But I feel it."  I shivered.  Talking about the feel of the mask's dark power had made the mask seller smile again.  It was still nothing like a wholesome smile.  "I went to great lengths to get that legendary mask. When I finally had it I could sense the doom of a dark omen brewing.  It was that unwelcome feeling that that makes your hair stand on end."  Mine was standing on end right now, I was sure.  "And now that imp has it."  He started to spasm again, shaking his head frantically.  "I am begging you!  You must get that mask back quickly or something horrible will happen!  I'm begging you!  I'm begging you!  You must do it!"
	
	"I'll do it!" I said, as much to stop his flailing as for any other reason.
	
	He snapped back to that same soulless smile in an instant.  "Really?  You'll do it for me?"  I just stared at him.  What had I gotten myself into?  "I was certain you would tell me that."  He nodded, and waved his hands at me in some kind of bizarre benediction.  "You'll be fine.  Surely you can do it.  Believe in your strengths...  Believe..."
	
	I backed away.
	
	[i]:All right, we've agreed to help the raving madman.  Let's get out of here!:
	
	:Right.  Yes.  Definitely.:[/i]  I turned and fled, Tatl hovering close behind me as I ran.
	
	Outside the morning sun was still bright, and the people of Clock Town were still going about their day.  I ran out into a morning that replicated that first one in nearly every way.
	
	There were differences.  I was Hylian again, so some of the strange looks a Deku Scrub had gotten weren't there.  But most things were the same.  And with a sinking sensation I realized that what little good I'd accomplished as a scrub had just been undone.  I could help more people now, but did I have time for their problems?  I had three days until the moon fell again.  Just three days, and I didn't even know where to start.
	
	[i]:Swamp, Mountain, Ocean, and Canyon, that's where we start.:[/i]  Shadow reminded me of the clue Tael had given us.  I muttered the four words out loud, which prompted Tatl to explain to me that each of them referred to one of the four major regions of Termina.  
	
	Termina.  That was the land I found myself in.  The name seemed to suit this place.  It was a place of endings, that might have been gloomy even without a too-large moon looming over it.  I felt a pang of homesickness.  I missed Hyrule.  Things there had been simple compared to what I faced now.  The quest had been hard, yes, but I'd had time on my side.  Now... now I just didn't know.  Three days was so little time. And with four parts of the world to visit, would it be time enough?
	
	[i]:You can do it again, go back from that last night, if three days aren't enough.:
	
	:Very true!  Though if everything I do is undone...  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  For now we need to see what we can do in the time we have.  So first we have to get out of this town and explore the four regions.  The guards wouldn't let me leave before. Will they now?:
	
	:Let's go find out.:[/i]
	
	The guard I spoke to was reluctant at first, but on glimpsing my sword he changed his mind and admitted that I was adult enough to be let out on my own.  Thankfully.  Some part of me seethed at being considered a child, but I knew I still looked one.  It would be a long time before that began to change.

-----
	
	Tatl guided me to the swamp.  As I explored it, and spoke with the inhabitants there, I began to pick up scraps of lore that gave me a hint of what might be going on.  There was a temple there, somewhere.  A formerly sacred place that now had turned dangerous.  The swamp itself was being poisoned by it.  I knew something of such things.  Dark magic could turn a temple's holy power to poison.  And dark magic attracted dangerous creatures.

	Much of this lore came from the Deku Scrubs.  And in order to gain it, and help those who needed me, which I could not help myself from doing, I'd had to take Deku Scrub form again.  It was nerve-wracking and yet strangely comfortable, both at the same time.  

	They spoke not only of the temple but of a giant.  Or perhaps a god.  A guardian that had protected the swamp, but had now been replaced by a monster.  And there was a vanished princess.  I knew the shape of that story well.  

	I didn't reach the temple until late on the second day.  I knew already that I would have to play the song again.  I couldn't do the other three regions in the time remaining.  Just discovering what it was I must find here might take too long.

	The temple was designed to be traversed by Deku Scrubs.  It was their temple so that shouldn't have surprised me.  I was still torn about wearing that form.  Something in me was comfortable with it.    But I didn't like not having a weapon in my hand.  I no longer felt quite so helpless, I was gaining skill with bubbles and deku flowers, but there was a little fear in the back of my mind every time.  I didn't like fear.  Wasn't I supposed to be the bearer of Courage?  

	[i]:Being afraid not so bad.  You not let fear stop you from doing what needs to be done.:

	:If you say so,:[/i] I said to Shadow.

	[i]:Huh?  If I say what?:

	:The thing about fear that you just said.:

	:I didn't say anything, Link.  I was practically asleep.  You don't need me to traverse this temple.:

	:But... somebody said something.:[/i]  I stopped running and looked around the room where I stood.  Perhaps I'd heard it out loud?  But no, the voice had spoken in response to my thoughts, nobody else could have known what I was thinking.

	[i]:If somebody said something, and it wasn't me, and it wasn't you...:[/i]  Shadow sounded thoughtful.  [i]:Get somewhere safe, where you can sit for a while and be sure no enemies will bother you.:

	:All right.:[/i]  I was confused, but willing to go along with whatever Shadow had in mind.  I backtracked a bit to a small side chamber where I could shut the door.  I did so, and double checked the room again for anything, even a skulltula, that might be dangerous.  It was empty.  [i]:Now what?:[/i] I asked.

	[i]:Now you come with me,:[/i] he said.  I had a strange mental image of Shadow reaching out to grab my hand... and then suddenly the image was reality, and we were standing together.  I looked around.  We seemed to be in the room in the Water Temple where I'd fought Shadow, what seemed like an eternity ago.  But the room was darker, fading into blackness around the edges.  The only part that was illuminated was the little island, with its dead tree, where we both stood.  There was no sign of the doors leading out.

	"Welcome," said Shadow.  After getting used to sharing my body with Shadow, standing next to him as a separate person was strange.  He was taller than I'd ever seen him in a mirror, more like the shadow I'd fought as an adult, though his skin was still normally colored and his eyes weren't solid, glowing red blanks.  I noticed I was at eye level with him, and looked down to find myself also an adult, rather than a child.  Something very strange was going on.

	"Where are we?" I asked.

	"Inside your mind."

	"That's kind of weird."

	Shadow chuckled. "We're kind of weird.  I also suspect we're not alone."  He looked around the room.  I looked too.  The darkness was unbroken by any hint of light or movement.  "You can come out," called Shadow, his voice gentle and reassuring.  "It's all right, we won't hurt you."

	For a moment there was still nothing.  Then two faintly glowing eyes appeared in the shadows.  Footsteps splashed in the water, and slowly something approached us.  The eyes were low down, and set close together.  And they seemed familiar.  When the creature finally emerged into the light and stepped onto the island with us I wasn't surprised to see it was a Deku Scrub.  It was also me.  Or rather it was the Deku Scrub form that I wore this very moment, as I worked my way deeper into the temple.

	"H-hello," it stammered.  It's voice was like mine, but pitched higher, and carrying a nervousness that I'd seldom heard in my own voice.

	"Hi," said Dark.  "Who are you?"

	"D-don't know.  Don't remember."

	"What do you remember?"

	"It was dark. There was creature with scary mask.  I thought I was dead.  Then I was awake, but not awake."  He turned to me, his unreadable face turned up at me.  "I was watching, but you were me, you were doing things in my body.  You so brave.  I so afraid.  I always afraid.  But I help you.  I help you know to do things, even though I afraid.  That why I say being afraid not so bad.  I still help, even if I afraid."

	"Thank you," I said, feeling strange.  Having my own shadow occupy my mind had been odd enough.  Now a Deku Scrub lived there too.  And yet if he was the reason why I'd been able to use the deku flowers and bubbles with such ease I owed him a great deal.  

	"I glad to help.  Always, I glad.  You can ask me to help, do not worry, I want to help.  Just... please not be angry at me for being afraid."

	"We're not angry," said Shadow.  He ruffled the Deku Scrub's hair-like leaves and smiled.  It was very hard to tell if the Deku Scrub was smiling back.  But he didn't seem to mind Shadow's touch.  "What should we call you?"

	The Deku Scrub looked down.  "I not remember my name."

	"I'll call you Scrub then, at least until we can think of something better.  Is that okay?"

	"Scrub is good."  He looked up at Shadow and bobbed his head in a cheerful gesture.

	"You should probably go back out and finish the temple," said Shadow, turning to me.  

	I nodded.  "Yeah."

	"I help," said Scrub with another little head bob.  

	"Thanks."  I looked upward, towards the source of the light that shone down on the little island, and a moment later I was opening my eyes in the temple.  

	The rest of the temple was easier, somehow.  I wasn't resisting feeling at home as a Deku Scrub.  I felt a peculiar sort of peace.  I'd accepted something, and it had somehow changed me.  I wasn't sure how, or why.  

	The strangest thing about it was that I felt that same peace again after I'd defeated the monster that had polluted the temple.  Finding that it wasn't truly a monster at all, but a benevolent, god-like being that had put on a mask of evil... something in that spoke to me.  The freed giant and I had something in common, somehow.  I didn't understand it, but I felt it all the same.

	Fighting Ganondorf had changed me.  I'd traveled through time, seen dark things, and faced difficult challenges.  But being here in Termina was changing me too.  I was facing time in a different way, and facing my own identity too.

	I wondered if I would recognize myself when all was said and done.  Would I wear some strange mask, when this was over?  And who would I be beneath it?