First-Person — Tone: Darkly introspective, laced with awe and slow hope
---
I walked.
Or maybe wandered. The word doesn't matter. I kept moving through a world that was too familiar to feel real, and too strange to call a dream.
Every step on this floating island sky was like tracing a memory I'd never had.
I knew that tree. That crumbling archway. That lake where the water shimmered gold when it shouldn't.
Because I've played this before… right?
Except no joystick could replicate the taste of the air. The gravity tugging at my bones. The hum of ancient machines under the ground, like veins through a sleeping titan.
Something had changed.
No… I had changed.
---
It hit me again when I reached the small pool near the cliff edge.
I kneeled to drink — reflex, instinct. I didn't even question the water's safety. The reflection staring back at me should've felt wrong.
It didn't.
But it also wasn't mine.
My face was older. Maybe 19 now — a few years older than I remembered. Stronger. My eyes weren't the tired gray I was used to seeing in photos — they glowed faintly blue now. Like something from the Zonai Shrines. Ethereal. Watching. Measured.
The right side of my body looked different too — leaner, more toned, with skin that shimmered faintly beneath the sunlight, like glass hiding something mechanical underneath. I rolled up the sleeve of the white, almost ceremonial-looking shirt I wore.
That's when I saw it clearly:
Glowing circuit-like veins running across my arm and hand. Not just a mark.
An interface. A key. A curse.
It pulsed with life.
I flexed my hand out of instinct — and suddenly, the air shifted.
The stone nearby floated an inch above the ground. My hair lifted as if the pressure around me dropped.
A HUD flickered in my mind's eye. I saw invisible ley-lines connecting objects around me. I could feel their mass. Their weight. Their orientation.
I thought a single word:
> Rise.
And the rock obeyed.
---
I snapped my hand back, and everything crashed to the ground.
I staggered.
Breathing hard.
"What the hell…"
> "Skyforge."
"Born from Zonai tech, bound to forgotten blood."
The voice again.
Soft. Measured. Not inside my ears. Inside my soul.
"Who are you?" I asked aloud.
No answer.
Only silence. And the weight of someone watching me.
---
The sun began to set. Or something like it. The sky dimmed, painted in hues of orange and lavender. I made my way toward the Temple of Time.
But I already knew: this wasn't the same Temple I remembered.
It felt older here. Heavier. As if reality itself resisted being forgotten. Giant stone columns were cracked with moss, the ground beneath them glowing with Zonai script that occasionally pulsed, like breath.
And the doors…
Massive. Towering.
Not meant for mortal hands.
I placed my palm against the surface. A faint spark ignited where my skin met stone. Then a sigil carved itself into the marble, glowing gold.
A winged eye.
> Not the Triforce.
Not the Goddess's Crest.
Something older.
The door refused to open.
> "You do not carry her Tear," the voice whispered again.
"You are outside the cycle."
I stepped back.
That word again: Cycle.
I turned and shouted into the sky, "What am I even doing here?! I'm not Link!"
Silence.
Then—light.
A crackling sound, like static pulled through silk.
And then… she appeared.
---
At first I thought it was a trick of the setting sun.
But no — she was real.
Or at least… present.
A figure emerged from the air in front of me. Tall. Robed in shimmering light. Silver hair flowing like mist. Her arms bare, marked with patterns — familiar ones — Zonai.
She wasn't a ghost. Or memory. Or dream.
She was a projection. Ancient. Alive.
> "So you live again," she said, voice calm, deep with loss.
"Who... who are you?"
> "Mineru. Sage of Spirit. Builder of the Skyforge Arm. And once…"
"...your guardian."
My mind reeled.
"Mineru's supposed to be… ancient history. A myth."
She stepped forward, eyes narrowing with sadness.
> "You think you know history because you played it like a game."
"But you were in it once. And then you were erased."
That word again.
> Erased.
I stepped back. "No. You've got the wrong person. I'm not anyone. I'm just a player. Some loser who—who barely made it out of high school. I'm not—"
> "You were meant to come before Link."
"Chosen once, but forgotten. A prototype hero, abandoned after the First Calamity failed to be stopped."
"When the cycle reset, Hylia chose another. Link. And you… vanished."
The wind chilled.
Not the kind that touches skin — but the kind that touches your soul.
---
I sank to the ground, overwhelmed.
If this was a fantasy, why did it hurt?
Mineru knelt before me.
> "You are not broken," she whispered. "Only misplaced."
"...Why now? Why bring me back?"
Her gaze softened.
> "Because the world is spiraling again. Ganondorf rises. Hyrule bleeds beneath the surface. Link will not be enough."
> "And because Zelda dreams of you."
My breath caught.
"…what?"
> "She sees you in dreams. Not as Link. Not as an enemy. But as something… she cannot name. A presence that haunts her heart."
"When the timelines broke, her soul remembered the one who was first meant to hold her hand."
I said nothing.
My hands trembled.
Mineru stood again, her form fading like mist under moonlight.
> "The Temple will open to you once you find the Balance Tear."
"It will call to you soon. Listen for it."
> "And when Zelda sees you again…"
"...do not be surprised if she falls in love. It is… inevitable."