You ride into the sunrise on horseback; an unexpected hero does unexpected things. You start in a dream, in darkness, alone and cold. You have visions and premonitions of flying lights, wings, more darkness, rain, drawbridges, and you know something is coming. There’s a white horse and a girl. She’s always on a white horse, she always has blue eyes. The same blue that haunts you when you look in the mirror. It must be fate that you see her in your reflection. She must be part of you, who you are, whoever that may be. Every dream is different. Every awakening is new and you start fresh. You don’t know who you are or where you begin, but you’ll know eventually. It always comes together in the end.
Part 1: The Spiritual Stones
Objective: Kill the monsters, save the _____________.
You always start off alone, dressed in green, and both suit you. You’ve done this before, though you’re not sure how you know this. Coming out of sleep, scared and shaking, a part of you wonders if that dream, that nightmare was real. You remember the flash of white, the cold rain, blue eyes scared, red eyes laughing, a shining light of pure power, and a sudden blanket of horror, but you only think of this for a minute. This is your reality today, though the loneliness has stuck around. But there will be a reprieve, for a little while at least. You are the hero. That’s all you know, that’s all you’ll end up being. Sometimes you wish you could just keep sleeping, just be no one. And when you wake up, you realize you are still the outsider, the boy without a fairy, dropped into another life you don’t remember starting, right in the middle with actions you don’t remember taking, and it’s all a little overwhelming because you’re not starting at the beginning, though maybe the beginning is the dream that plays like a movie in your head while you sleep and that’s the beginning that matters because it’s the start of what is to come, and soon you will be the Hero of Time. That’s all you know. That’s all you are.
(This section was previous published by Cartridge Lit. Magazine.)
Inventory
Clothes
- Kokiri Tunic: Green is your color, the color of nature to symbolize growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has a strong emotional correspondence with safety and in certain shades, particularly dark shades, connects to money. This is why green is your color. Let us review in the order given: 1) nature – you hail from forests, surrounded by trees of protection and stability; 2) growth – trees grow, you are a green hero, young and inexperienced, but growing with each passing day and battle; 3) harmony – you are a keeper of peace and balance, or at least will be when you become the hero you were meant to be; 4) freshness – you are always green and unsure of where you are, what you are capable of, but you are always what everyone needs at the moment of your awakening; 5) fertility – you dream of your future children and the image you imagine varies with the women who have fallen for you over and over, and if you weren’t such a moral man with scruples, perhaps every one of the children you imagined with every one of the women you imagined having them with could possibly be a reality, an army of heroes, but for now, as things look, you will have blonde hair children with haunted blue eyes; 6) safety – you always yearn to return to the forest when new dangers and missions arise because you second guess yourself sometimes and you’re still young and sometimes home is where the heart is and sometimes nothing feels quite as nice as being home; 7) money – this is not quite your color because you’ve never needed to worry about money as a frugal and self-sufficient forest dweller, you know how you forage and make due with what you have or what you are given and you’ve found that money is just one of those things that happens to find you. As reviewed, green is your color, and frankly, it just suits you.
Boots
- Kokiri Boots: The forest people are a sturdy and hardy people, surrounded by sturdy and hardy woods and their leather is no different. They are practically indestructible, barely harvesting the dust your footprints kick up as you walk over the land fifty times over, only having the soles replaced and repaired every so often, but they were made for your feet, built for solid comfort so that you can last for days without needing to take them off.
You have three hearts to start, three hearts to give till game over, till restart, then three hearts again. The trifecta. Always three. If you find pieces of other hearts, the hearts of people and past lives you don’t remember anymore, the hearts of your enemies freed from corruption by your ever justified sword swing, you can make new hearts, more hearts, strong hearts. Then you won’t do things in three anymore, at least in the hearts you can give, in the hearts you don’t leave behind for others because they aren’t for them, it’s all for someone else. But three is how you start, and it is a lucky number for you. Stick with three…three…three.
The Great Deku Tree has summoned you and you have to go RIGHT NOW! Never mind that you were just woken from a nightmare that left your skin cold and clammy, never mind that there are still dusty pieces of sleep crusted to your eye, and never mind that you have no idea why you’re being summoned or what for. You just want to stay in bed, ignore the shrill little ball of light you clinks at you to get up and stop being lazy, which you find a little offensive. This is the first fairy to have sought you out and you’re being called lazy because you might take an extra few moments to consider the situation, be hesitant to take her word as truth without any real explanation as to where you are, when you are, what you are. A lazy boy she calls you, and that’s enough to make you want to turn over and go back to sleep, but if the Greak Deku Tree has summoned you, it would be rude to keep him waiting. This is the only reason you decide to get out of bed and listen to her. But something is very clear: you are unprepared. You cannot see him without your trusty sword and shield, always a sword and shield. Quest for riches mindlessly dropped by others on the forest floor, find the sword hidden away. You have to start somewhere, jumping rocks, crossing small bridges between tree trunk houses, through the grass and holes in the wall on your hands and knees that never seem to have a scrape on them despite the number of times you will crawl on hands and knees looking for anything and everything. And you will find them, you will equip them, and they hardly weigh anything though you’ll never be that light again, only adding to the weight you must carry, and the boy who makes you feel more like an outsider than everyone else will not want to let you through, but he knows he must because you are now prepared and the Great Deku Tree has summoned you and all the forest natives you pass in your hunt for these things tell you not to keep him waiting, to hurry, though you don’t feel like hurrying because you are still feeling tired, which you blame on the startling wake up call. So he will let you through and you will not say anything. You are the quiet kind, all serious and business, lips tight, jaw taut and strong even though you’re only eleven, or maybe you’re ten, or twelve, but you’re still young and you hold yourself like a man. The man you know you must be sooner than you may think you are ready. And you’ll walk the small, impossibly long corridor to the tree with the mustache and all knowing brown eyes. Blindly. Destiny driven.
Inventory
Swords
- Kokiri Sword: Your default sword, small and stable for a child of your stature and a great tool for beginning heroes to practice with. A letter opener in the future, this weapon of choice is a little piece of home to carry with you, forged in good faith by good hands and good hearts for good heroes.
Shields
- Deku Shield: Light, with the symbol of the forest so no one would mistake you for someone else from another part of the land. A proud item of your heritage, made from the sturdiest heart of the strongest oak, and even then, in the face of fire, it is flimsy and useless, though effective.
Weapons
- Deku Stick: Every forest boy must learn to wield a stick in defense against bullies and the occasional angry wasp with a one track mind to sting you. It is also a requirement to know how to create, tend, and move fires with said sticks, otherwise one would surely die in the wilderness, cold and alone in the dark. Do not carry lit sticks close to trees as it might catch and destroy everything you have ever come to love. On that note, do not play with fire, period.
