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It’s pitiful. An insult, really. How long has he languished in a blasted wasteland of a prison, and this is the path to victory.
It’s nothing like he’s imagined; it’s exactly like he remembers. In his memories, Link has always been a child. The babe squalls, for fear or hunger or chill he’s uncertain. Ganondorf was raised by mothers, an eternity ago. It had been a very long time since he’s heard the sound of a child. This would be his easiest victory. His only victory. Disgusting.
“How is it,” Ganondorf says to the infant, “that you manage to spite me so thoroughly even like this. Your wretchedness knows no bounds, does it?” Perhaps the gods intend to take pity on him, just this once. The shimmering triforce on the back of the babe’s hand felt like a mockery. Or perhaps, a challenge.
Here he is: your oldest mortal enemy, an infant with nothing and no one beside it. Is this not what you have been waiting for, Demon King? Is this not what you coveted?
“You think me a fool, don’t you? I am no fool. If you will not send a hero of your own I will raise him myself! And he will fall to my blade just the same!"
Link has always known he was raised a warrior. The ultimate warrior, in fact, because one day when he was big enough he would have to wield The Sword That Was His Birthright, and he would have to kill Shaah.
Well. Try, at least. It was when he was big enough, after all, not when he was strong or good or smart enough. No, he would just have to work as hard as he could, and follow all of Shaah’s training, and hope he didn’t grow too fast. Once when he was smaller, he’d asked why. Shaah hadn’t hit him-- Shaah hadn’t hit him at all until he was sure Link was big enough to take it-- instead, he’d given Link a look so full of anger and disappointment Link had hardly been able to comprehend it. He wished Shaah had just hit him. It would have hurt less than the way Shaah had gone quiet barely spoken to Link for two full days after that.
Link has always known he is disappointing. Something in him is fundamentally lacking. Shaah has never said it quite so plainly (it is one of the only things he hasn’t) but he’s made it perfectly clear even without. Link would always, always have to fight just to be enough , and Shaah had never been satisfied with enough .
Shaah didn’t touch his head or look at him with satisfaction when he did just enough.
(Sometimes he wishes Shaah would just say it, though, because sometimes it's confusing. Things he thinks will satisfy him only make him sneer, and things he hides away, when found, make him nod his approval. Link would never ask, because the worst thing of all is when he asks why. Why does Shaah want these things from him. Why does Shaah teach him what he teaches him. Why is Link training to kill his father. It is your destiny , Shaah had said once, but Link didn’t understand that. There is no ‘why’, Shaah had said another day. It is simply what you are. It is what you must be. This is what you were born to be and therefore what you must become. You cannot do it on your own, so I am forced to guide you until the time comes.
I am not your father. Don’t ever call me that again.)
Link has always known, he is not what Shaah wanted him to be. He just doesn’t know what Shaah
does
want.
They lived their days on the distant edges of the desert, and Ganondorf taught the boy how to fight. On stagnant nights the wolves howl endlessly, enough to keep him from sleep but never enough to disturb Link. Loathsome creatures.
He discovers Ordon Village on a scavenged traveler's map. Ganondorf could have laughed from the simplicity of it. A young boy abandoned, raised by a village deep in the wood. You’ve not escaped me yet, Link.
“Shaah?”
He looked down at the boy.
“When’re we gonna stop for the night?”
It was strange, even still, how much Link spoke. Ganondorf studied the map. It was five days on foot to the forest.
"We stop here. Make camp."
Link does as he's told, and Ganondorf's lip curls.
“NO!” Link shrieks. “BEAR N BRIDLE! DON’T TOUCH ME!” And he turns and runs, like he always does.
No wonder Shaah left him behind. Coward. Coward. Coward.
You may be weak, Link. You may be foolish. It is the nature of humans, and young ones especially. But you may never, ever, be cowardly. Know the true meaning of courage, and live to that ideal in all that you do.
“Maybe I am a coward,” Link says, muffled by his knees, as Rusl comes quietly up beside him.
“Link, I don’t know why your father—“
“He’s not my father,” Link interrupts softly.
Rusl sighs. The water of the spring lapped against the pale sand. “I don’t know why Shaw left you here.” His accent tilts Shaah's name, just slightly. “But Uli ‘n I ain’t gonna let you be alone.”
“He left me because I’m broken,” Link says. “I’m not enough. I’ve never been right, and he could always see it, but he looked after me anyway. And he tried to teach me and tried to show me but I couldn’t get it an’ I couldn’t even get what I was ‘pposed to be getting even ‘cause I don’t even understand that an’ he knows it and--”
“Link--”
“--I ask-asked him once, w-w-what’re you training me for even, ‘n what-- what do-- what do you want me to do even ‘n he got so-- so-- ‘cause he knew right when I even ask ‘cause that’s s-s-s-s-s’pposed to just be in me , ‘n I c-c-can’t even--”
“-- Link. ”
“--’N you people keep-- keep trying ‘n I don’t know wh-what you want ‘cause I’m trying to do what he taught me but I keep messing it up so bad ‘n making it worse and then-- and then I ran-- ran away! ”
“LINK.” Rusl’s arms are wrapped around his shoulders, and Link's hands are pressed against the front of Rusl’s tunic. He smells like goat. And curry. It’s-- it… is. It’s real.
“Uli ‘n I ain’t gonna let you be alone, son,” Rusl says again. “No matter what.”
Link cries for a long time, and wonders if Shaah would think him a coward for it.
"You seek it, but the Mirror of Twilight has been fragmented by a mighty magic."
What lingers here is a stagnant rage. Ghostly remnants of an energy Link had thought he'd never feel again. The endless howl of wolves.
"That magic is a dark power that only he possesses."
Link stands on Arbiter’s Grounds. Link meets the eyes of a faceless thing. On this night, Link comes to understand what Shaah had meant, speaking of Link's destiny.
“His name,” says the Sage, with flat feet and flowing robes, “is Ganondorf.”