Chess

Yes... My little rant. Link's POV, just him... talking. More of a thought bubble than a story. Still, I think it's pretty good. Based on some poetry some guy did that I can't remember. I don't own Zelda. Or that random poetry that isn't even in the story. Or anything. Read on.

You told me something once, I forget when. I'm not sure if it even happened. Who knows, this part of the river is so twisted, you could have told me a thousand times. You said that I shall never find peace. I shall wander the worlds till the ends of my days, never able to stop until I can walk no longer. I would go from place to place, time to time, dream to the waking world, defeating the evil that somehow managed to wrap its greedy paws around the lives of the innocent. That was to be my sacrifice. I was to give up my happiness so that others might feel joy. I was to put myself in danger so others would feel safe. I was to feel the pain of loneliness so that others might feel love. I was to be a hero.

I didn't believe you then. You said the worlds in anger, and I believed that perhaps, they had nothing to do with your frightening ability to see past the bend. I thought I could, would find happiness at the end of this all. After all, who in all the worlds deserved it more than me? I gave everything for a land I had never known.

You were right. I thought I could finally leave the endless war, finally see you, find you, love you like I had wanted to love you but couldn't. I thought that the two of us could find peace. It was the thought that gave me the strength to make it through all the horrors of my world. It gave me the strength to kill. But I had fallen in love with an illusion. A farce, created by the unintentionally cruel masters who made me a pawn, a great inside joke that must have had all the creatures of heaven laughing for eons. I lost my faith in the gods when the illusion fell.

I completed my destiny. I did what the chess masters had planned. I thought I was finished with the cruel world. I thought I could live in peace, if alone. But you were right. There was still evil in the universe, and I was the only one with the courage- or rather, without fear- enough to defeat it. No one else would stand.

I have had enough, my illusion. I am so tired. I have been fighting for eternity, and I am tired. I ask only for peace. Yet already I feel another evil calling to me. It will never end.

This time, the people will have to find their own courage. They will have to find the strength to stand against this new evil. I will no longer play this game. I will no longer be the hero. I will find my peace, even though I have to depart this realm to do it. I cannot be a hero in the shadow of the grave. Goodbye, my lovely illusion. Perhaps we shall meet again, in the eternal dream of that final rest. Till then, I love you.

Link