8A/N: This is a little piece that was inspired by the poem on the tombstone in the Royal Family's grave. This is a ballad of how the Sun's Song came to be. Warning: It's kinda long :p
Zelda hopped onto bed clutching her pillow close to her, snuggling it close to her face. She smiled up at Impa, her attendant, who had just walked into the room as she began to bounce up and down joyously, letting out squeals of delight.
Impa smiled at the five-year-old princess, as tripped on the edge of her blanket and tumbled into bedclothes. Zelda stood up again, undaunted, and started jumping on the bed again.
"Impa?" Zelda asked brokenly with each bounce, "Do you-know-how much-fun it is-to jump-on a bed?"
Impa closed her eyes and thought back to her own childhood, recalling a straw mattress and three siblings, "Yes, Princess, I do remember. But as I grew older I then came to realize that beds are for sleeping, not for jumping."
Zelda flopped down and made a face, "Poo! Grown-ups are no fun!"
A smile, "Perhaps. Maybe the function of a bed just changes, as one gets older. However, there is a time for jumping on one's bed, and a time for sleeping in it. Now is the time for sleeping."
"But I don't want to go to sleep. I'm not tired!" Zelda complained, burying herself in a pile of blankets and pillows, "Not sleepy!"
"I apologize, Princess. But I do not think your father would appriciate you staying up past your bed time," the Sheikah replied patiently.
Zelda sighed in resignation and emerged from the mountain of pillows, "Can you tell me a story instead? Or sing to me? Please? Sing me a song Impa."
"What shall I sing?" Impa asked sighing, reaching into her bag and pulling out a harp.
"Something new," Zelda replied happily, bouncing slightly on the spot, "A song I haven't heard yet."
Impa thought for a moment, listing all the songs she knew in her head. Some were good ones, but she had sung most of those to Zelda already. Some were too frightening or too sad; the princess would surely not enjoy those. Finally she decided on one particular song, "Alright, I have a song."
Zelda clapped her hands together enthusiastically, "Ooh! What's it called, Impa? What's it called?"
Impa smiled as she held the harp in one hand and readied her fingers with the other, "It is called the Ballad of the Sun."
Zelda flumped down on her back and closed her eyes, as she always did when she was about to listen to a song. Impa strummed the harp gently, playing the first few bars of a sad and haunting tune, then she began to sing:
A thousand years or more have passed,
Since a fateful day long gone,
Dead now walk; the waking dead,
No longer are they put to rest.
A Shadow grim walked Hyrule's land,
Enshrouded in magics evil,
Havoc and chaos, pain and death,
Followed in his wandering path.
Born from the womb of a Sheikah woman,
He was born with noble blood.
Chieftain father, shaman mother,
A powerful leader he would become.
As he grew, evil magic enticed him,
Corrupting a gentle heart,
Through magic and deadly spells,
He slew his father with no remorse.
In stead of his father, he ruled the Sheikahs,
On to greatness he led them,
He had many great ambitions
And that what was caused him to fall.
He took an army and marched on Hyrule,
Bent on the king's destruction.
A murdered King, fire and flame;
He sat himself on Hyrule's throne.
Many days of weariness passed,
Unease grew amoung the oppressed.
A whisper: rebellion,
And their Sheikah ruler was dethroned.
The Hyrule Royal Family then decreed:
"The Shiekah must be watched!"
Attendants they became,
And no longer were they free people.
Banished from his Sheikah tribe,
Dark magic his only friend,
He wandered alone, on the land,
Hatred knowing away at his soul.
He attacked Hyrule's small villages
Sometimes braving little towns,
From wood houses to ashes,
He terrorized the Hyrule country folk.
He wasted away over the years to come,
Craving only for death,
He became well renowned
And the people longed for his death.
He soon was a wanted man in Hyrule,
A price was put on his head.
And many came for his life,
But he was always one step ahead.
One day the Shadow burned Hylia's Laketown,
No structure was left standing.
And out of the rubble,
Came a blacksmith set on revenge.
He hunted the Shadow from that day on,
Training in both sword and shield,
'Till he cornered the Shadow,
And won the fierce battle that was fought.
The shadow lay on the edge of death,
He made a curse with his last breath,
The cursed words came from his lips,
And from then on all who died were condemned.
"The dead will no longer sleep," he cried,
"They will rise from their grave,
and all will be alive once again.
The dead will now live without life!"
And so the dead rose on the of his death,
Wandering on the lands,
All living without life,
Yet still dead, without eternal rest.
The Shadow's mother, Shenwar, wrought in guilt,
Took her other sons, Vish and Ath,
Together they wrote a song,
One that would put the dead back to sleep.
Combing the arts the three of them knew,
Ath composed the melody,
Vish scribed the binding words,
And Shenwar wove magic into the song.
All three elements created the song:
A song with a cheery tune,
Magic words to rest the dead.
A song that became known as the Sun's Song.
"A rising sun will eventually set,
A newborn's life will fade,
From sun to moon, moon to sun,
Give peaceful rest to the living dead."
Across the realm the dead now found calm,
Lying down again in their graves.
Light bathed the darkened earth;
Peace was brought to the land and to the dead.
Shenwar soon after passed quietly away,
No marks of regret on her face.
As she was lowered to her grave,
Her sons sang the Sun's Song in final farewell.
Hyrule's King was greatly impressed,
And merited both men
With honor and recognition,
They became the Castle's composers.
Both were known as the Composer Brothers,
Ath was given the name Flat,
Vish was given the name Sharp,
Together they guarded the magic song.
In the fullness of time the song was lost;
Lost to the world of Hyrule,
The dead now grow restless,
And now they rise from their graves once again.
But now on the quietest of nights,
It is said, if you listen,
In the distance you will hear
The brothers and their mother singing:
"A rising sun will eventually set,
A newborn's life will fade,
From sun to moon, moon to sun,
Give peaceful rest to the living dead."
Zelda opened her eyes again as Impa played the closing bars. "What an eerie song."
Impa frowned slightly, hoping it hadn't frightened the small girl.
Zelda suddenly sat up, eyes wide with wonder, "Impa? Has the Sun's Song ever been recovered?"
Impa nodded slowly, "It has, and only a select few are allowed to ever learn it."
"Why is that?"
"A powerful man once sought the Sun's Song, and demanded that the Composer Brothers tell it to him. They refused and he killed them because they would not reveal the melody to him," Impa replied, and seeing the questioning look on Zelda's face, she explained, "It is a powerful song, it can call the Sun during night and the Moon during the day. But now the song is all but forgotten, and both Brothers are buried in the Graveyard at Kakariko Village"
"'From sun to moon, moon to sun...' Impa, I think...I saw the ghosts of the Brothers, when we went to bury mother at the Graveyard..." Zelda whispered quietly, seeming to become distant. Impa waited patiently for the emotional moment to pass. The small girl looked up at Impa, "Do you know the song, Impa?"
"Yes, I do," the Shiekah woman replied calmly, looking carefully at Zelda. A perceptive child she was, with a good heart. Perhaps…someday, with permission of the Shiekah Elders… "Someday, when you're older, maybe I'll teach it to you."
Zelda smiled boisterously, and flumped back down onto her pillow. A pause.
"Impa?"
"Hmmm?"
"In the song, it sounded like the Shiekah's were not happy when serving the Royal Family…" Zelda said quietly, "Are you, too, not happy?"
Impa smiled, "I am happy here princess. In the beginning of the Shiekah's servitude, we had many more restrictions put on us than we do now. I have more freedom now working under your father than one of my ancestors would have under their king."
"Oh," Zelda replied. Another pause, then another question, "One more thing; why were the Brothers named Sharp and Flat? They seem like silly names."
"Ath, and Vish are Shiekah words for half-step notes of a particular kind. Their names were poorly translated into Hylian tongue."
"I see," Zelda replied closing her eyes, "It was a good tale."
"One day Princess, someone will try and rule Hyrule again that is not of the Royal House," Impa replied serenely as she began to play the opening bars of Zelda's Lullaby, "One day someone will try again, and fail again. History has a tendency repeat itself."
"Oh?" Zelda replied sleepily, "Why's that?"
"People are a bit stupid that way," Impa replied as the Princess drifted off to sleep.
A/N: The end! I hope you liked it, it took me a whole day to write the Sun's Ballad. If you've gone out of your way to read this far, you might as well spend about 30 more seconds reviewing, since you're down at the end of the page anyways. Please let me know what you think.
-Drieldwin