The Legend of Zelda
Home---History---The Games---Downloads
VI. Masques of Fate
Link I , without even having time to savor his victory over Ganon in the Imprisoning War, found he must tend to the plight of Talmina.
The kingdom of Hyrule had been peaceful and in a state of
rebuilding after Ganondorf's dark reign. Returning just a few
months after his time travel adventures, young Link I, Hero of
Time, rode home on the back of his trusty (and equally young)
horse, Epona. As he cautiously made his way through the foggy,
dark woods of the home he had returned to in Kokiri Forest, two
faeries appeared out of nowhere.
Startled by the quick-moving,
glowing creatures, Epona reared up and sent Link flying to the
ground. As Link lay unconscious, a third stranger appeared out of
the mist: a mask-wearing impish Skull Kid by the name of Stalkid.
Looking for valuables, Stalkid soon found Link's Ocarina of Time,
took it, and made his escape on Epona.
Link, of course, quickly followed and soon came upon a doorway in
a large tree. He slowly stepped inside - and fell into a
bottomless pit that transported him into a weird, yet oddly
familiar world full of familiar faces. But while the landscape
may have looked familiar, one thing was clearly different: In the
sky above loomed a gigantic moon, slowly descending onto this
world...
"In a few more days, this world will end," so spoke
those living there. Even as they waited, time passed mercilessly.
"If you can find the masked one, you may find a clue to
saving this realm."
And so Link embarked on a new adventure to halt the setting of
the moon on this strange world and to find his way back to his
own land.
Link must stop the catastrophe in the new world, or at least
return to his own world. The world he found himself trapped in (called
Talmina), as Link learned, existed in a parallel dimension. The
passage of time seemed a factor from the start - Link was aware
that if he spent too much time in the other world, the moon would
impact the planet to apocalyptic result. Without the help of the
faerie Navi, Link joined up with the brother and sister faeries
Trail and Chat that had startled Epona at the beginning of his
quest (who consistently would warn Link of Stalkid's recurring
presence), then set out on his new journey.
The new key element of Link I's second adventure was the newfound
ability to transform into new characters by wearing the different
masks. By donning a variety of masks, Link assumed the form of a
Goron, a Zora, and even a Deku Scrub.
Each of these fantastic forms had its own abilities, as one would
expect. In Goron form, for example, Link could roll up into a
ball for some wild Goron rolling. When it cane time to make music
(a key piece to the puzzle), the Goron Link whipped out a set of
bongos and started to beat them repeatedly. As a Zora, Link
gained fantastic swimming abilities, and in the musical
department, he could play an aquatic guitar as if second nature.
Although becoming a Deku Scrub sounded rather undesirable to Link,
in this form Link could hover like a helicopter and play an
quintet's share of horns.
It is in each of these forms that Link explored different worlds
full of danger and wonder anew. He made a great many new friends
and battled an all-new army of enemies along the way until his
confrontation with Stalkid. When it was revealed that Stalkid was
actually good-hearted and that it was the Mask of Majora he wore
(stolen from the Mask Maker in Hyrule) that was evil, the Mask of
Majora itself had to be confronted. In the aftermath, Link I
returned to his homeland of Hyrule, his second victory then
behind him as he returned Majora's Mask to the Mask Maker, its
rightful owner.
Next chapter>>