The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

Inside Hyrule Castle

On the other side was another garden, an inner one, even more private to the Royal Family. Link crept up the moat feed and found a hedge to hide behind. As he peeked from behind it, he saw long paths crisscrossing beds of petunias, tulips, marigolds, roses, and other flowers of the sort, outlined by well kempt hedges. On the paths were guards on patrol, many of them. Link needed to get by each and every one of them without being noticed.

He figured that crouching there accomplished nothing, and he soon gathered the courage to start sneaking past them, one by one, utilizing the hedges as they were just tall enough to conceal him from certain angles.

Link's heart pounded with fear of being caught, but the rush of that fear kept him going, and by the time he got to the other side, he felt a newfound confidence in his sneaking abilities. It soon occurred to Link how large this place was, and finding the princess would prove to be difficult.

He then heard a melody start to play. A soft one, it was... in a familiar tone. It was soothing, like a lullaby. Link carefully followed it around a corner, and into a large round courtyard. A stream of water flowed around the circumference, with a quaint bridge crossing over it, onto a luscious green lawn lined with more colorful flowers and small trimmed trees. At the front of this courtyard was a stone porch underneath an arched window engulfed in ivy. Looking through that window was a girl. She was wearing a bonnet...

She must have heard Link's footsteps, for she turned around at his entrance. It was the girl from his dream: fair, with blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. It was the princess. Link had finally found Zelda.

He froze in the middle of the courtyard and stood before the princess. The source of the familiar tone was a shiny light blue ocarina in the palms of the Hyrule royalty.

"Who are you? How did you get past the guards?" she asked in a soft, perplexed voice. She did not seem threatened.

Link suddenly remembered who was addressing him. He swooped to a knee, kneeling on it with his head down, quickly replying, "My apologies for sneaking in, Your Highness..."

"Is that..." she began before he could finish his thought, "a fairy?" Link's hat had flopped over his head when he bowed. This must have revealed Navi to her.

Link looked back up at her, and Navi started fluttering about Link's head.

"Then are you... are you from the forest?" she inquired, almost dumbfounded.

"I am, Princess. The Great Deku Tree sent me."

"Then you wouldn't happen to have...the Spiritual Stone of the Forest, would you? The green and shining stone..."

Link lit up at the description. He reached in his knapsack and pulled out the stone the Tree had bequeathed to him.

"You mean this, Your Highness?" he asked as he held it up, glimmering in the afternoon sunlight.

Zelda's face showed shock as she recognized the emerald. With that, Link approached her, and stepped up onto the porch with it so that she could get a closer look.

"Just as I thought!" she exclaimed as she examined it in Link's fingertips. Link was astounded himself that she knew he had it.

"You see," she explained grimly, "I had a dream, where dark storm clouds were billowing over all of Hyrule. A grievous despair I felt during it.

"But..." she continued, looking off in the distance, "suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the forest, parted the clouds, and lit up the ground."