Pain .~. Pleasure .~. Alone^feeling.
All these are emotions known to one such as I/Me.

But forgive Me/I. I/Me have forgotten my manners, as it has been so long since I have had occasion to speak – Oh, so long! The cruelness is encompassing, my dear self – As a near eternity it has been and I/Me forget things easily… but not all things…

First, allow me to explain. I was a young boy as this all started, as dashing and adventurous as the next. I believed I could never die, but I was wrong - So wrong, my dear self...… you could not have BEEN more wrong - but as I was enriched by the fluttering of my heart, for you see, I/Me was in Love. She was a fair child, as I remember her… she had yellow hair, as fair as gold… foolishly, even though she was pledged to another, I came forward and announced my love to her, secretly. She confirmed her love for Me/I, and we deigned to run away. She deigned she had nothing to lose, I suppose, as her suitor wanted her only for her money and inheritance. Perhaps she truly loved me/I, I/me do not know. But on with my tale, before I can tell it no longer.

Foolish, we were, held in the coils of Love, and her suitor, expecting something like this to happen, caught us on the road. There was a pitched fight, and… the last I remember of her is her locks flashing in the evening sun as she screamed and the battle began. It was over soon, though, as much as I/me can remember, for I was soon dealt a stunning blow to the back of my head, and darkness attacked me, like a great hungry cloud.

When I awoke, I was disoriented, and thought I heard yells and jeers and a few screams. I found myself in a cell crudely fashioned out of stone, with bars on the front and a tiny scrap of light coming from a small barred window at the top of my cell, if you could call it one. As soon as I could reorient myself and overcome my dizziness, I looked out of the window, and thought I was hallucinating, since all I could see was feet and the occasional torso. After a small period of confusion, I realized my cell was somewhat underground and the window at ground level.

I realized I had not been as disoriented as I thought I had, as I could now hear the cries and catcalls quite clearly. It took me a minute puzzling out what was happening, but I never reached a conclusion, due to what happened next. One second the catcalls and yells were there, the next they were gone as a booming voice commanded “Siiiillennce!”
The person with the booming voice continued. “The girl due to be married to his eminence Duke Reynull has committed an act of treason, and will be hung a week from now. That is all.”

Mingled gasps and cries rang out until some brave soul questioned “What heinous crime has she committed, that she be hung?” Murmurs of approval and dissent flew through the crowd, and the mob thinned somewhat. At this point, I was at a perfect angle to see the booming-voiced man, and I took in his features with a measure of distaste.
He had immense, fat lips, and they wobbled every time he spoke. His array of many chins also wobbled whenever he twitched or moved the slightest, and he wore expensive clothes. A shade of green and purple, if I recall, with tipped brown boots and a red-plumed cap to top off the outrageous outfit. From all this, I ascertained that he was rich, or at least well off enough to be taken seriously, and he was some messenger of some sort. My appraisal of him ended as he spoke, and the throng of people again blocked my way.

“She has attempted to run away” he replied. “With a boy, poignantly of the lowest rank.” As the crowd’s murmuring grew dangerous, he shifted his feet and proclaimed “If you want someone to blame, blame the urchin in that cell!” He exclaimed, pointing to me in my cell. “He’s the one to blame!” He gave a smug little smile and walked off. Oh, how I wished to tear off that feather and stuff it down his throat! Unfortunately, all contemplation was knocked out of me as a barrage of fruit, most of it rotten, hit the bars and splattered onto my face. ‘What are they thinking?’ I wondered. ‘Surely they can’t be taking his side?!?’ Again, my train of thought was cut off, this time by a sizeable rock, which promptly knocked me unconscious.

Waking up with a large bump on my skull, a pounding in my brains, and my throat parched, I discovered I was also ravenously hungry. As if attracted by my attentions, a guard wandered by, took note of me, and stopped, a grin on his face. “Have a good sleep, princess dozy?” He said.
“You slept for a good day and a half. I bet you’re huuungrry!”
He produced a plate of food and waggled it near the bars. Unthinkingly, I rushed to the bars to grab the food, but he pulled it back smartly, and I slammed into the bars. Nursing my new wound, I sat back as tears sprung into my eyes and the guard laughed. I buried my head in my chest and waited, and finally, the guard gave up and pushed the tray inside. Unfolding my arms and extracting my head from my chest, I tore ravenously at the food and water, though it was but a piece of bread and a small iron cup of murky liquid. My hunger unappeased, in fact, enlarged, I frantically looked around for more. Spying the remnants of the food throwing, I sucked and ate hungrily whatever there was in easy reach, though it was disgusting and moldy. Behind me, I heard a chuckle.

Spinning around, I spied my love’s suitor, with a few guards surrounding him. Pure fury rising within me, I determined to compose myself as best I could. “Yes?” I asked as imperiously as I could. “Ah, my dear little firebrand. Tried to get away with my to-be wife, eh? What amazes me is that you thought you could do it, a raggedy-ass peasant like yourself.” He chuckled and the guards laughed raucously. “All I want you to know is that you have failed. My to-be wife will be hung, I’ll get her estates, and it’ll all be because of you!” he hissed, bringing his face close to the bars. “Thank you so much for making it so much easier for me!”

I could contain myself no longer. Spitting, nearly frothing with rage and sorrow, I launched myself at the bars. Taken by surprise, the pompous suitor threw himself back…rather forcefully hitting his head on the opposite stone wall. Ripping and trying to bend the bars, I felt a rush of excitement as the bars seemed to move… but stopped. Slowly, almost painfully, I lowered myself to the ground, ashamed that I had ever believed anything different would happen. Nearly bellowing, the suitor shook his hand at me in rage. “You will die down here!” He yelled. “No one will remember you! You will starve to death for your insolence!” And he swept from the room in a huff, his guards with him. And so it was that I prepared to die.

A day later, it seemed as if all options were exhausted to me. The bars on the window were secure, made out of a hard metal and set deep, I probably couldn’t have fit out of the window anyway. The lock was un-pickable; whatever hard bits of material I had with me were strewn broken on the floor. The bars were unshakable, and the stones were firmly set. I prepared myself for the inevitable. The only thing was, it didn’t come. Something completely unexpected happened, one that I could not have been prepared for.

Do you hallucinate and hear things you shouldn’t when you’ve gone for days without food or drink? I do not know, but something decidedly…Strange happened to me.
One second it was there, the next it wasn’t, and then it reappeared. It may have said something to me, I did not care. Then, suddenly, it pulled out a… sword I guess you could call it, though where it was pulled from I do not know. It was just… there. And then, before I could scream or even move, it StabbedD me right in the heart.

At once, I leapt up, preparing to not have the strength in my legs to stand, but to my surprise, they held me. I scanned my chest for markings, but there were none. I looked up, and the… thing took my attention and asked me questions. I do not remember most of them, but I do remember being asked if I wanted to save the one I loved. I said yes, and the shadow LAUGHED in a loud sickly tone and hit me with the whole of its body. I cried out and tried to fend off the blow, but to no avail. However, I felt no impact, and as I was questioning this new turn of events, a voice spoke inside me. It said

“Ah, my dear new self,… there’s a lot on your mind, isn’t there?” I started, and without thinking replied back by thought. It urged me on and assured me that it had taken care of the guards, so all I had to do was get out of the cell. When I questioned it about this, It laughed and told me to gesture at the door, that it would do the rest. I gestured at the door and, with a mixture of disbelief and incredulity on my face, watched it explode. Before I had time to ponder this new development, however, the voice urged me on. I needed no second bidding; this was the day my love was to be hung. There was no time to waste; the hunt was on.

Harnessing the power welling up inside me, I took great strides, more like leaps out of the jail. A Guard wandered past, looked at me and proclaimed “Hey, what’cha doin’ out of-“ he had no time for further comment, as I gestured impatiently at him and he EXPLODED, blood and gore splattering everywhere. Shock stamped on my features, I started shivering uncontrollably, but the voice snarled “Move, you stupid oaf!” and I mechanically continued, still surveying disbelievingly the site of the carnage.

I entered the courtyard as the executioner was preparing to cut the ropes keeping the platform under my love’s feet upright. My eyes burning with rage, I blew the executioner to pieces, than a soldier, then another, then another. Still, an onslaught of soldiers pressed on, and I began to tire. Seizing a chance, I neatly cut the noose ropes, bundled my fainted love over my shoulder, and with a few explosions to set them reeling, fled off into the night.

She awoke when we were far from the town, in a secluded glade I had stumbled upon. Her eyes were full of fear, but I calmed her and comforted her. We were soon talking animatedly, the incident forgotten, when an arrow seemingly grew out of her shoulder. Her face went white and she gritted her teeth with pain, and I, with a cry, jumped forward and took another arrow that was meant for her. Right in the chest, piercing a lung. As my breath faded and the corners of my vision grew hazy, I tried to claw myself towards her, when her suitor and half a dozen knights rode in to the clearing. “Ah well” said her suitor with a little half-smile. “I meant to get her with that last arrow. Things never go the way they should, do they? And pulled out his dagger and stabbed my love with it.

It’s odd how, when certain things happen, how time seems to slow down and you notice unnecessary small things. For instance, the notches on his blade, the glint in her hair, the helmets on the knights. As fury mounted within me, the arrow incinerated and I blew the knights to pieces. The Duke I took a longer time with, though. Strangling him as he pleaded for me to let him live, until the breath died in his throat. It didn’t make my love any less dead though, as I crouched weeping by her side.

A long time later, or so it seemed, I emerged into the town, holding my love’s broken body. People bowed before me, pleading and begging I spare their lives. That was when I could not keep the power bottled inside of me any longer, and it exploded outward, holding me aloft in the maelstrom of power and taking the town with it. As I touched down again, all the people had degenerated into skeletons by the force of the blast. My love’s body was no more, instead a mask of her face lie where she had been. Looking at the mask, it seemed a very good likeness to me, and for some reason I cannot recall… I put it on. The mask twitched and I lost consciousness. I suppose I left the town to burn.

I awoke a very long time later in a strange building. It seems, gathering what the voice told me, that I had sold myself out as a mask-maker and seller. That seemed a strange thing to do while in a coma, but the voice assured me that everything was perfectly all right. I continued my sales during the rest of the day, but when night came, ennui fell upon me and I attempted to kill myself.

Killing yourself is somewhat difficult, to whoever wishes to try it or has. First of all, you have to get past your body’s restraints, then your mind’s, then finally your soul's. Beyond that, you have to work up the courage and find a way to die that’s possible and not too horrible. I first chose the exploding, but it didn’t work. The power wouldn’t work against me, and it kind of wrecked my concentration to have the voice screaming at me all the while. Then I tried a fall from a rooftop, which ended in a near-strangling by a cord and a concussion at the bottom. I tried death by drowning, but my body came up for air immediately. I also, as a last resort, tried to hang myself but I’m not too good with knots and the whole thing pulled free. I decided that my luck was still holding and that I couldn’t do anything about it. I slumped back, ready to live the rest of my piteous existence.

After a few days, my outlook on life considerably improved. I found myself humming as I did my work. The only problem was that I was running out of masks (I’m not sure how I had them, anyway). When I questioned the voice on how to get more masks, it gave a little sinister chuckle and told me that I either buy them… or make them.
When I inquired how I should make a mask, it told me to let it guide me. A little wary, but figuring I had nothing to lose, I followed.

We tracked a Zora for about 17 miles, until it sat down for a rest. We were on it in a flash, as the energy held it still and I slit its throat. Ah, how the blood poured, as my first clean kill writhed and gurgled. It was a male, I think, but I was caught up in the moment as the Zora wriggled its life away, so I could not tell. After the movement subsided, I questioned the voice “Now what?” It took control of my eyes, with a lot of pain and a nerve-tingling that I had never felt the likes of before. As I clawed at my eyes and yelled, the voice hissed for me to look above the Zora’s body. I did, through watering eyes, and noticed that everything was a bit darker and redder. As I pondered this, a movement caught my eye and I looked up to see a multicolored globe glow and rise above the Zora. The voice took control of my body, and it made me leap in the air and grab the sphere. Then, on a hunch, I let go of the power the same way I had in that town, so far away, but focused to a point now. The sphere gave a high-pitched emanation and combusted. When the smoke had cleared, there was a beautifully formed mask, depicting the Zora. So my hunt began.

A few years later, I journeyed to a place called Hyrule. I recall not how I came into the borders, but I was there now, and that was all that mattered. I set up shop near the castle, in an abandoned warehouse. I fixed it up nicely, and soon I had good business, and most of my masks were gone within another year. I was lamenting the loss of customers when this boy, garbed strangely in a tunic of green and a ridiculous cap, entered my store. I noticed his interest and the weapons he carried with him, and my keen mind began to devise a plan.

I asked him if he would be interested in becoming a sort of sales assistant, to go out and sell masks for me. After a minute or two of careful thought, the boy agreed and set off with one of my masks. He quickly returned with the cash in hand and I sent him off with another mask. He soon sold all of the masks I thought anyone would be interested in, so I let him have access to a few more of my masks. He seemed to have great fun with them, and for a while I was happy for and with him.

However, somewhere in there I erred. Seeing the amount of dogs that wandered the street at night, I decided to take one for a new mask. However, I was careless and the dog escaped from my grasp. The woman it belonged to raised a great amount of distress, and I retreated into my shop, fearing discovery.

Nearly at the same time, the strange little boy… disappeared. I was closing up my shop when I heard a horse running by, followed by another. As I leapt out of my shop, the scene I saw caught my breath in my throat. There my delivery boy was, standing before a great man on a black horse. As all my instincts and the voice informed me that this man was far too powerful for the child, he struck him. Just…once. That was all it took. The child fell to his knees, unconscious or not, I do not know, and the man stiffened, as if sensing something. I ducked back behind my door and prepared to leave Hyrule. It was far too dangerous here.

After a long, long time, it seemed, though I did not age, I stumbled through an odd kind of portal, straight onto the beach of some faraway land. As I straightened, I heard the sand hiss and many shapes come hurtling towards me, all of them cactus-like. I took to my feet and ran as fast as I could go, for I knew I was outnumbered.

Later, as I was wandering through the forest, in some unknown glade, a child heralded me. He was strange, dressed in outlandish clothes, and very bold, though if I made a sudden move he would jump back. Finally, he approached me and asked me about a mask I had sticking out of my pack. “What, this?” I said. “This is a mask of a monster I defeated long ago. It holds great power.” The kid demanded I give the mask to him, and laughing, I refused, telling him that it was of a great evil, too powerful for him. Then, his face grew ugly and he commanded something behind my back to attack me. As I whirled around, two fairies attacked me, setting me off balance. The kid quickly snatched the mask away and put it on. As the forest grew dark and great power collected to the mask, I fled for my life, knowing its capabilities. A mocking, inhuman laugh came from the mask as I sped away.

I took to an abandoned water-well-building… I did not check to see what kind of building it was; I was far too agitated. I was pondering how to retrieve the mask, a few days later, when I heard footsteps behind me. I whirled about and what did I find before me? My delivery boy, though in the guise of a Deku Sprout. Not willingly, I thought, considering the expression on his face. Another plan hatched within me and I told him what had happened. I promised him that I would take off his guise if he would just give me that mask. A few days later, he returned, and he said he had the mask, so I took the guise off, making it into a mask.

Tricked me! Oh, how the little boy tricked me! I was a fool to believe him- he did not really have the mask! I trusted him like a fool, and I took the guise off of him! I nearly killed him right there, but I realized that he might be the only one who could get the mask. I sent him off again and awaited the world to end.

Surprisingly, it didn’t. The boy mustered enough strength to defeat the boy wearing the mask, and you know what the boy did? He destroyed it! I should kill him for dishonoring our promise- but I figured that it might be just as well… The mask was far too powerful.

Powerful enough to reassemble and make its way back to me… piece by piece… bit by bit… fraction by agonizing fraction. But alas, Evil can only keep me young for so long… so here I lie, my days spun out… that is why I have told you my story… now… as a final request from something that used to be a man… would you put this mask on? Yes, I know it looks rather frightful, with the spikes and eyes and all… but would you just put it on for a moment?… no, it’s not the mask I was telling you about. Why would I give you that, unless I wanted the world to end?… now… I die. Just me… and the voice… please…put…it..on…
Thank…you.