I remember the hum of the screen.
The glow of the title: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
I'd played it a hundred times. No matter how bad the world got outside — my grades slipping, my parents yelling, friends leaving — Hyrule was always there. Always waiting.
It was 3:17 a.m. when it happened.
The screen froze.
I blinked, confused. The controller slipped from my fingers.
Then, pain.
It wasn't cinematic. No dramatic fall, no final breath. Just a sharp, crushing ache in my chest, as if the world itself had gripped my heart and refused to let go. My breath caught halfway. I tried to stand — but the room spun. I crashed to the floor, my vision dimming like someone was slowly turning the world's brightness down.
My last thought?
> "If I could go anywhere... I'd want to go to Hyrule. Not as Link. As me. Just… one chance to be something."
Then, nothing.
---
I woke to wind.
Cool, crisp, ancient wind.
Grass tickled my cheek, soft like silk. My fingers dug into warm dirt. I blinked — and the sky above me was a canvas of drifting islands and golden light.
I knew that sky.
No way.
I sat up too fast and nearly passed out again. My heart raced, my body buzzing with something… unfamiliar. Like I had caffeine in my veins. Or electricity.
The world around me was alive — more alive than anything I'd felt on Earth. I recognized the Temple of Time's silhouette in the distance. The broken sky islands. A skyrail. This wasn't a dream. This was Tears of the Kingdom.
But I wasn't Link.
I looked down at my hands. They weren't mine — or maybe they were? Slightly older, more calloused. Wrapped in cloth. My right forearm shimmered faintly, covered in strange markings that pulsed when I touched them.
Then I heard it.
A voice — soft, feminine, ancient:
> "The cycle must be broken. The lost Hero of the Sky returns with a new fate."
I scrambled to my feet, panic building. "What the hell does that mean? Where am I?!" I shouted into the wind. My voice echoed across the floating terrain.
> "You are not Link. But you were meant to be… before time forgot you."
I backed away. "No. No, no. That's not how this works. I'm not a hero. I'm not—"
But something inside me stirred.
A warmth. A memory I'd never lived.
A blade in my hands. A Goddess's voice. A battle lost to history.
I dropped to my knees, gasping. Flashes of war and light filled my head. Skyloft. The First Calamity. Abandonment.
I wasn't just reborn here.
I was someone Hyrule had erased.
As I struggled to my feet again, the Temple of Time in the distance shimmered — and I swear I saw her.
A girl with golden hair and blue eyes, standing at the threshold of history.
Zelda.
Watching me.
Smiling.