Interlude - Remembrance
As he slowly walked through the desolate landscape that surrounded him from all sides, a faint air of curiosity firm on his features, Ganondorf took in the dreary scenery presented to his eyes.
It should have looked like nothing more than a castle, perhaps a little more flamboyant and heavily adorned than he would have personally preferred, but still made of solid stone and clearly developed with the intention of providing a defensive stronghold. It should have been a familiar sight to him, something calm and comforting.
Familiar.
But that was not the case. The aberrant nature of his surroundings replaced whatever feelings of warm familiarity his surroundings could have evoked with coldness and a hint of dread.
Everything, from the imposing pillars to the beautiful tapestries, from the rich oaken furniture to the exquisite paintings, from the well tended gardens he could glimpse through the windows to the masterfully carved statues that decorated the hallways, everything as far as the eyes could see was a dull monochrome grey. Everything was the same stale grey coloration, which, alongside the utter lack of even the smallest sign of movement or even the tiniest of sounds, gave the large castle the sobering feeling of a tomb.
Lifeless and forgotten.
As he followed the corridor towards a large central hall, even the sound of his hoof steps seemed barely able to carry into the distance, the noise being almost immediately swallowed by the dead silence that seemed to envelop everything else.
He stopped for a moment to observe an exquisitely crafted sculpture of the Three Sister Goddesses of the Triforce that dominated the room. But even the awe-inspiring sight of the masterful sculpture could not pierce the heavy choking shroud of apathy that seemed to permeate the very air, the monochrome coloration sapping all beauty from the art piece and leaving nothing but a feeling of desolation behind.
He turned away from the sculpture, a hint of sadness now lodged deep within him as he trotted toward a large opening that led to a stone balcony. And as the Lord of Darkness looked outside into the lifeless, endless grey expanses of what had once been a thriving kingdom, he felt a somber mood settle upon himself even as a spark of anger ignited deep within his heart.
He remembered this place. He remembered it far too well.
The sealed kingdom of Hyrule, buried beneath the seas by the whim of the gods, who had decided to simply bury the world he had conquered beneath the endless waves of the ocean instead of actually answering to their followers’ prayers and pleas for salvation. A whole world, abandoned as if it was nothing without a moment’s pause.
Forsaken.
The stone railing of the balcony he was standing upon crumbled beneath his hooves, as Ganondorf’s fury slowly rose to the surface, as he felt the biting anger of the indignity of it all, the casual disregard the so called gods gave to even their most ardent believers.
It had been here, amidst this lifeless tomb, this forgotten monument to a discarded world, that he had first started to remember. That he had started to realize that the odd feelings of familiarity brought forth by the two irksome pests who insisted on thwarting his plans were more than mere flights of fancy. That the strange feeling of déjà vu he kept experiencing again and again was more than justified.
It was amidst this dead, colorless tomb that he had finally remembered it all.
How ironic, that he would finally learn about the futility of his own fate amidst the most blatant sign of the gods’ disregard for the world they were supposed to guide and protect.
For a moment the King of Thieves thought about what his life would have been had he never come to learn the truth about the cycle of reincarnation and recovered his past memories, or what would have happened should the same had never happened to Link and Zelda for that matter. How they would be still nothing but puppets dancing at the end of strings, used for nothing more than the whimsical amusement of the gods. Ordered to dance and act their play, only to be swept aside and cast away the moment they inevitably lost interest of it all.
The mere thought sickened and infuriated him to his core.
Ganondorf fractured the stone wall by his side with one single mighty blow as he bellowed his anger in a vain attempt of controlling his rising fury. But to no avail, the mere fact that both his shout and what should have been the thunderous sound of solid rock crushing beneath his hooves were immediately devoured by the all crushing silence of this dead and forgotten realm only further stoked the fires of his wrath.
For a brief moment that seemed to last an eternity, he felt the overpowering urge to simply destroy it all. To unleash the roaring fiery wrath he could feel coursing through his very being, demanding to be released so that the whole of creation could be brought to a close. Just so that it could all end.
“No,” he snarled with the unwavering power of the very firmaments of the earth, immovable and unyielding. He stood there like a silent monolith that refused to bend, much less break, no matter what was thrown against it. “I control my fury! It does not control me!”
And against all odds, despite the scorching all encompassing strength of the fury that now flowed through his very veins, the roaring inferno deep within the Lord of Darkness was slowly swept aside, contained piece by piece and chained down by his unwavering will and nothing more. Until, slowly but surely, his breaths became more and more calm and collected, his wrath entrapped and controlled underneath the indomitable power of his will.
The very next moment, everything all around him exploded in a sea of sickly looking crimson flames. The fiery conflagration was accompanied by an otherworldly bellow of pure undiluted hatred that echoed throughout the entirety of this dead world.
Ganondorf opened his eyes with a sharp snap, his body already in motion as he rose to his hooves in one lightning fast fluid motion, before settling in a battle stance.
His blood hammered against his ears, his lungs worked overtime as if he had been already amidst a fierce hours long battle, and adrenaline coursed through his veins as he strained all his senses to their extremes as he searched for an attack that his instincts all but screamed at him was about to happen.
“Ganondorf?” the familiar voice cut through his hazy mind as if a clear spring breeze through the morning mists. Clarity returned as the sight of the small room he was sharing with Link in the earth pony village finally registered to his senses.
He took it all in, the rich brown colors of the wooden walls, the colorful wildflowers arranged near a clay jug filled with spring water, the calming murmur of the wind out past the open window blowing through the verdant trees as they basked beneath the slivery light of the moon.
“It’s nothing, Kid,” he explained to the slightly wary looking pegasus who had also abandoned his bed and adopted a battle stance of his own upon seeing Ganodorf’s unexpected actions.
“Are you sure?” the Hero simply asked, concern clear on his voice as he relaxed his body’s muscles from the ready state he had immediately forced them to take the moment he had sensed his companion’s distress in order to better react to any possible danger.
“Yeah, get back to bed, it’s nothing,” the Lord of Darkness gruffly reassured his former foe, having already retrieved his blanket as he moved towards his bed and forced his body to relax from its current hyper aware state, clearly intent on putting the whole thing out of his mind. “It was just a stupid dream.”