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CHAPTER EIGHT - The Hero of Time

Zelda Cartwright had to wait several days before she heard any news, and what she heard was minimal. Both Link and Ganondorf were in comas, and it was not certain whether or not either of them would recover, although Link's injuries were worse. She'd gotten this out of the newspaper, which portrayed Link as some kind of mentally disturbed wacko and Ganondorf as the fallen hero. They completely failed to mention Julia or Zelda. Her parents advised her to lay low for a few days until the heat had died down, especially as she was involved, however they were completely supportive. Apparently the police wanted her to make a statement for them, but she hadn't been contacted yet. Zelda was dying of curiosity, and wanted to see Link. She also needed to give him something.

Just before Julia was arrested, she had thrown the Ocarina of Time over to her. For days she had looked up all of her books and information, but it was still a mystery to her. Tentatively, she'd tried playing a few notes, but nothing had happened. When Zelda was a girl, she had played the piano for a few years, and she decided to work out what the notes were on the Ocarina. As she played, she made up little tunes. One was very simple, three notes repeated. As she played, Zelda suddenly seemed to feel the notes coming to her. She closed her eyes and continued playing like her fingers had a mind of their own. She found a certain five notes began to play over and over and over and over, and then she began to slip into a kind of daze…

"Zelda!" Princess Zelda spoke loudly. "Can you hear me?"
The girl, Zelda, shown in the magic glass looked up, but kept her eyes closed. "Who is this?" she asked.
"It is Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule and seventh sage. Listen to me carefully for we do not have much time. As you know, Ganondorf, the King of Evil has been injured, however it is not fatal. However, while he is down he must be taken back. Either Link or Julia will need to do this, with the Ocarina and the song that will allow the door between times to be opened."
"But... but... what is the song... and can I do it?"
"No, only the Hero of Time can open the door." Zelda felt the magic beginning to weaken.
"Then why Julia?"
"She is the descendant of the Hero of Time. She is the Hero, of her time. Take the Ocarina to one of them and you should also get the…"
At the same time, both Zeldas felt a huge jolt that caused them to weaken. Princess Zelda flopped back on her bed, while Zelda Cartwright braced herself against a chair. It was the magic leaving them that caused this. Zelda Cartwright tried to convince herself that she had not been hallucinating. But could she really have been talking to the legendary Queen Zelda? There was only one way to find out.
"Dad!" Zelda yelled, running outside to where Rob was polishing his latest acquisition, a one hundred and fifty-year-old table.
"Yes dear?" replied Rob.
"Can you drive me to the hospital?"
"I think you should probably give it a few more days. There's not much going on anyway."
"Please, I really have to see him. I just have to!"
"Zelda..."
"Puh-leeeease!"
"Oh all right! Really, you sound like you're six, not sixteen dear. But, even at six, you were pretty convincing!"
"Thanks daddy!"

The fifteen-minute drive to Hyrule District Hospital seemed to take an eternity for Zelda. All she could think about was the vision that she'd had, and if it was really true or not. Finally, Rob dropped his daughter outside of the main entrance.
"Give me a call when you want to get picked up, or if you get into any trouble, okay?"
"Yes dad, thank you so much!"
"Bye dear."
Zelda didn't even bother watching her dad's little hatchback drive off. Actually, she had been surprised that he hadn't cracked it when she and Julia had driven the sedan after Link, even though it was now in police custody.
"Just as long as the King of Evil is destroyed... and I get my car back," Rob had said.
Zelda practically ran down the corridors until she found a nurse's station.
"Hello can I help you?" asked the nurse, who was wearing a name badge that said Nurse Georgia Mills.
"Yes, I wanted to visit a friend who is staying here, and I was wondering which room he was in?" asked Zelda politely.
"Well what's his name?" Nurse Georgia Mills asked.
"Link... well, just Link," Zelda said.
Nurse Georgia Mills frowned. "I'll have a look," she said, typing into a computer database. "No, I'm sorry, there's no one here with the first or last name Link," she said after a moment.
Zelda thought for a second. Of course Link wouldn't have a file, because he wasn't even from here.
"Well, do you have any John Doe's?" she asked. Nurse Georgia Mills typed again on her computer.
"Yes, we have two. One is, weird, in room 24B, and the other is in room 19 C. I suggest you try that one, I don't think anyone would be visiting the first."
"Thank you for your help," Zelda said. Taking the nurse's advice, she tried room 19C first. When she eventually found the room, after much messing around on the elevators, she saw it was full of old men. There was no sign of Link anywhere, but Zelda didn't worry. She decided to try room 24B. This time she took the stairs down to level B, and room 24B was an intensive care ward. It was quite large, and every bed was full. All except one. Zelda gasped in shock when she saw that Ganondorf was lying, unconscious, next to the empty bed. He looked so helpless, attached to several machines, and Zelda wondered how he could possibly be so evil. She heard talking coming from behind her.
"Wow, Dr. Chandra is a real miracle worker. He really saved this one's life."
"Oh I know... oh, excuse me miss." Zelda jumped out the way and let two male nurses past. They were wheeling a bed, and in the bed was Link! One of the nurses pushed the empty bed aside, and they wheeled Link right in, next to Ganondorf.
"This is weird, putting the attacker next to the victim," said one of the nurses.
"I know, but they need those certain machines to look after them," said the other. "And what can they do to each other? They're both unconscious and this room is monitored at all times."
"Okay. Now how about a coffee break?" The nurses left the room.
Zelda slowly walked in, and stood on Link's right, the opposite side from Ganondorf. For several minutes she just stared at Link. He looked peaceful, as though he had no idea what was happening. However, he was still asleep, and he wasn't much help to Zelda like that. She thought again of Julia, and what the Queen had said. "She is the Hero, of her time." Zelda pulled out her mobile, intending to call around until she found out where Julia was. Then she remembered the rule that said you couldn't have a mobile phone turned on in a hospital.
"Saria."

Zelda jumped and looked down. Link's face had changed and he now wore a pained expression.
"Link!" she whispered, leaning over him. "Are you awake?"
There was no response. Link was breathing heavily as if he was having a horrible nightmare. He spoke again.
"No, get away from me!" The beeping on his heart rate monitor was going very fast.
"Link!" said Zelda. Ignoring his injuries, she shook him a little. Immediately, he began to calm down, and Zelda saw his eyelids flicker.
"Can you hear me?"
Slowly, Link opened his eyes, but when he saw the comatose Ganondorf lying next to him, he yelled out and nearly fell out of bed.
"Whoa, calm down," said Zelda. Link looked at her with a confused expression.
"It's me, Zelda, remember."
Link continued to stare for a couple more seconds, and then slowly and quietly said, "You're not Zelda."
"Yes I am," Zelda said indignantly. "But I'm not the Princess that you know. Don't you remember what's happened?"
Link thought for a while, and finally said, "Yes, I think so. But how long was I unconscious for?"
"A few days."
"A few days! Oh no!"
"It's okay," Zelda comforted. She looked up to see a tall fat nurse standing in the doorway. The nurse was watching them, but when Zelda looked up the nurse turned and spoke to someone unseen down the corridor. Zelda heard the words clearly.
"He's awake."

Nurse Gwendoline Arnold turned and walked back down the hall to her colleague, Nurse Brenda Hughes. Gwen was a strict, no-nonsense woman who loved to get the job done properly. She tended to think lowly of people who weren't in her tight-knit circle of family, friends and colleagues. This was only a small group. However, this particular afternoon she was in a foul mood. Everything had gone wrong for her, and she was close to breaking point. Despite her usual high standards of work, this afternoon she really couldn't be bothered with anything. As she was supposed to check on the intensive care wards, she did it in a bit of a rush, just looking in at the still patients, and making sure that no emergency alarms were going off. Not that it mattered, because the alarms were also fitted into the nurse's station. As Gwen was about to breeze past the final ward, she had seen something that caused her to stop in her tracks. It was not at all uncommon for visitors to talk to their unconscious friends or family, and she saw a teenage girl doing so. However, the patient was talking back! Gwen had looked twice and saw it had been that anonymous criminal boy.
"He's awake." Gwen had called down the corridor to the nurse's station.
"Who?" asked Nurse Brenda Hughes. "The President?"
"No, the assassin." The two patients had been a source of hundreds of jokes for the nurses who had to look after them.
"Really? That means that..."
"Uh huh. I'll get the secure ward ready, and you can contact the police."
"Okay!" Gwen sighed. Brenda could be so annoying. She got excited at the smallest of jobs, and had a way too overactive imagination. Gwen left her to her phone call.

The two nurses paid no attention to the teenage girl standing idly nearby. Zelda pretended to be looking at a newspaper, however she had overheard everything the nurses were saying. The big fat nurse made her feel uneasy, and so she had followed her. Now the fat nurse had gone and another nurse with frizzy blonde hair was on the phone to the police.
"Uh, hi," the nurse said. "Can I talk to a Sergeant Morris please?"
There was a pause and then the nurse spoke again.
"Hi Sergeant. Guess what? John Doe has woken. We are preparing to move him as we speak... Yes, that's him. Number 41265… Uh huh, an hour? So you'll have the police guide here in an hour?… Okay, I understand it's not safe to keep them in the same room and we'll move him ASAP… Yes… No, he won't be going anywhere. Not in his condition… Okay, thank you. See you later…Bye."
No sooner had the nurse hung up the phone, Zelda was already back in the ward.
"Link," she said, almost out of breath. "You'll have to listen to me. The police are coming, and if you're here they'll never let you go. Can you stand up?"
With some effort, Link pulled himself into a sitting position. His entire body ached, but he swung his legs over the side of the bed and Zelda saw that one of them was encased in a plaster cast.
"Hey!" Link exclaimed when he saw it, "What's that?"
"Just a cast. You must have broken your leg. Now hurry."
Link tried so hard to stand but he couldn't. He felt like all of the strength had been sapped from his body. "I'm sorry," he said. Zelda's mind was running at one hundred miles a minute. In the corner of the room she saw a wheelchair. She grabbed it and pushed it over to the bed.
"Zelda?"
"Yeah," Zelda replied, busy with the chair.
"Why is Ganondorf just, lying there?"
"He's in a coma. He's badly injured."
"So this is our chance!"
"Our chance?" Zelda was puzzled.
"Don't you see? The whole point of my coming here was to destroy him and take him back to be sealed in the evil void. So while he's down now, I should take my chance. If only I had the Ocarina!"
Zelda saw the frizzy, blonde haired nurse peer in at them through the window and then leave. She knew that they had to hurry.
"Here," Zelda said, giving him the small instrument.
"Wow!" Link exclaimed. He played a few notes.
"That's lovely," Zelda said, "But we have to get out of here!"
"I know," said Link. His deep blue eyes met Zelda's dark brown ones. "Zelda... Zelda, thank you so much for all your help. You have no idea how great you've been. If it wasn't for you, my mission wouldn't have even begun."
"Thank you," Zelda said, touched. "But what are you saying?"
"It is time," Link said. He hated good-byes, so he raised the Ocarina to his mouth. Then he paused.
"Can you push my bed closer?"
Silently, Zelda pushed the portable bed in close so that Link was right near the dormant evil man. Zelda didn't want him to go, not just yet. It all seemed so sudden.
"One more thing," Link said. "When you see Julia, can you thank her too?"
"Sure," Zelda croaked. She closed her eyes, and heard the soft, high music fill the air.

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