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‘BOOM!’ A bomb went off. I continued running towards the outskirts of the city. Pyrrhon, an evil giant was attacking my city with his huge army that my people would never be able to stand up to. Especially me. A scrawny 16 year old like me would never be able to defeat even one of Pyrrhon’s army members. My only hope is to get out of the town and hopefully find somewhere else to live. I looked back and saw Pyrrhon destroying the town I’ve been living in my whole life. I held back tears and kept running away.
*
Luckily, I escaped Pyrrhon’s wrath without getting hurt, although I know other citizens won’t be so lucky. Maybe his army didn’t think of me as a threat and ignored me because of my short 5’ 3” height and my scrawny body type. I shrugged and kept on running away from the town. Strangely, as I get about 10 minutes out of town, a strange, angelic voice fills my ears. No words, but just a ringing sound.
As I move in a certain direction, the noise becomes gradually louder. I head into a cave which seems like the sound is coming from and as soon as my eardrums feel like they’re going to burst, the noise shuts off completely.
“Hello,” a soft voice says. I look around and see a tall woman standing in the cave. She was wearing a white dress, with lots of gold ornaments on it. In one hand she held a gold staff with a blue orb hovering above it, and in the other a gold shield with a blue mirror on the front. Abnormally, she also had long green hair flowing down to her lower legs.
“My name is Palutena, Goddess of Light,” she said in a soft voice, “I see you need some help.” I nodded, “To defeat Pyrrhon and his army, you must travel to the mountains and the ocean to retrieve the masks of the Goron’s and Zora’s.”
“But aren’t the Goron’s and Zora’s just a myth?” I questioned.
“And how would masks even help me defeat Pyrrhon?”
“The Zora’s and Goron’s are no myth,” Palutena explained, “and the wearer of the mask is given the form of creature from the masks.” I was too shocked to speak, Gods are real? Zora's and Goron's are real? I stood there for half a minute before opening my mouth.
“Are you serious?” She looked at me like I was insanely stupid.
“Of course I am!” She exclaimed, she then handed me a map, “This is what you need to find the masks.” I looked at the map, it was very detailed with an ocean and mountain marked.
“How would I be able to defeat Pyrrhon though, if he’s so big and strong?” I said, still examining the map.
“Size doesn’t matter.” she smiled, “Good luck!" I looked up and she was fading away.
“Wait—” I stopped myself from continuing, as she was already nearly completely transparent. She waved goodbye as she completely disappeared, but something fell to the ground where her body used to be standing.
I walked over to it, picked it up and noticed it was a mask that looked just like a Deku Scrub. I put it on my face and a strange purple aura surrounded my vicinity. The aura flew in between the gap between my face and the mask, pulling it in tighter. Until it felt as if the mask were apart of me, as if it always had been. The aura was gone now, I raised my hand to see that I’ve been transformed...into a Deku Scrub. Just like the mask suggested. I saw my reflection in a puddle near me, and the first thing that I noticed was that my body was made out of wood. Also, there was a little circular extrusion where my mouth would usually be, my ears had disappeared, my head was spherical, I was a lot smaller and my eyes were yellow and orange. No white whatsoever. I put pinched the part of my face where the gap between me and the mask used to be, completely ignoring it wasn’t there anymore and pulled. Purple aura flew out from me as the mask reappeared in my hand. “Welp,” I looked back down at the map, “I guess it’s time to go searching.”
*
After a couple days of searching, I finally saw Death Mountain, the mountain from my map, in my field of view. “There’s my mask.” I murmured jokingly to myself. I started running over to Death Mountain, admiring the view. It was magnificent, it was towering over everything around it, all the way into the clouds. Although the mountain seemed to be glowing red strangely. I shrugged it off and kept running over with my mask jingling around my neck. I had tied it around my neck with the help of a village in passed by yesterday.
I got to the mountain, just to be disappointed by the lack of a path up. “A quest isn’t suppose to be easy.” I thought to myself, as I started climbing up the steep rocks. But as soon as I made it a few feet up the mountain, a loud horn-style sound erupted. It filled my ears, invaded my brain, I had to force myself to continue holding onto the mountain. It felt like the noise was making me lose sense of reality. Remembering Deku Scrubs don’t have ears, I shoved the mask onto my face.
After changing form, the noise was half as audible as before. I wondered how Deku Scrubs could hear, but didn’t delve too far deep into that thought since I thought they were a myth until recently. I started from place to place up the mountain, as Deku Scrubs had the ability to jump quite high.
Although it seems whoever is doing this had another trick up their sleeve, as rocks started coming down from an indent in the mountain halfway up. I dodged them left and right but found it hard to continue upwards. A breeze had picked up on my way up though, so I did what any Deku Scrub would do, and conjured a couple giant flowers into my hands. The flowers started spinning and with the help of the wind I made a steady path upwards towards the indent in the mountain, while also being pushed left and right a fair bit.
Looking closely at where the rocks were coming from, I could see them. The Gorons. They were big, muscly but fat creatures that were a yellowy-orange and had rocks apart of their back. But unfortunately, they were trying to kill me.
When I was a bit higher than the indent in the mountain my hands abandoned the giant flowers and I leapt towards the ground. I did a survival role and took my mask off as soon as I got up from it.
“I come from the Goddess Palutena seeking the Goron mask!” I spoke loudly, focusing all my energy on saying that as the horn-style sound returned hurting my ears. But the sound stopped, and one of the Gorons beckoned me over and they all started walking up a path. One of them had a horn in their hand, that must be where the sound was coming from. I followed behind them, while keeping my distance in case they decided to pull something sneaky.
After about a minute of walking, we reached a cave entrance. When we walked inside the Goron’s I was following split in three different directions.
“Continue following me.” one of the Gorons said. I nodded my head and continued following while also looking around. The cave was quite circular, with a circle at the ground, and the walls going up from that, to create a circular path above it with various exits in the walls of the top path.
Quickly, the Goron i was following grabbed me and jumped down onto the bottom level of the ground.
“Sorry,” he said, letting me go, “I did that so you didn’t get hurt.”
“Fair enough.” I replied. On this level there was only one exit, and it was more grand than any of the others. Instead of just looking like a hole in the wall, it had carved stone around the edges with patterns on it. We walked through it and we entered a small room that was furnished with a larger, stronger looking Goron inside.
“Darunia,” the Goron I followed in here started, “he’s been sent here by Palutena looking for a Goron mask.”
“How do you know he’s not lying to get hold of the mask?” the Goron supposedly named Darunia questioned, glancing at me part way through.
“Because he has the Deku Scrub mask,” the Goron explained, “only Palutena would have something like that after the Deku Scrub’s died out.” Darunia looked a little closer at me, like he was examining me.
“What do you need the mask for?” he asked.
“To defeat Pyrrhon.” I replied. Darunia’s face went blank for a second before responding.
“I see,” he said shakily, “Quite a task you’ve got ther—”
“Darunia!” A Goron ran into the room yelling, “We’ve got a some trouble outside.” He ran back outside, while Darunia and the other Goron’s faces started showing fear.
“They followed you here?!” Darunia asked loudly, but shakily.
“I never noticed anything.” I said quickly. Darunia went to the back of the room and pushed a Goron statue to the side. Behind it was a tunnel that he ran into, and came back out soon after with a mask in his hand.
“Let’s hope Pyrrhon isn’t here,” he said, with fear in every word, “If it’s just part of his army, we can handle that.” He passed me the mask, “Take this, complete your quest, defeat Pyrrhon.” Then he ran out of the room, with the other Goron following.
I put the mask on my face. The purple aura flowed into the gap between me and the mask as always, but this time I looked just like a Goron. I curled up into a ball like a Goron and started quickly rolling outside the room.
I uncurled from the ball I was in when I was outside the cave completely, out here were a crowd of Goron’s rolling rocks down the mountain to stop the gigantic army climbing up. The horn-style sound was audible for me, but for some reason being a Goron made it so it didn’t affect me in any way. From what I could see, Pyrrhon was nowhere to be seen. So I curled back into a ball and rolled down the mountain, knocking down a few members of Pyrrhon’s army on the way. Moving to the west, next stop was Zora’s Lake.
*
I looked in front of me, at what I thought was Zora’s Lake. I moved my head back down to my map, seeing a distinct difference. The lake on the map was full of water, whereas the “lake” in front of me was completely drained of liquid and no one was around. Had Pyrrhon’s army gotten here first and wiped out everything here? Part of his army followed me to the Goron’s, so he could’ve easily sent another part of it to wipe out the Zoras…
“Help!” I heard what sounded like a girl yell out in the distance. I ran over to where the sound came from for a minute or two and found a Zora. She looked badly injured and there was blood over the scaly blue skin all Zora’s had.
“What happened here?” I asked quickly.
“Pyrrhon…” she said slowly, with a weak voice, “he killed...everyone and everything…”
“Just Pyrrhon?” I questioned, “Without his army?” She nodded her head. Pyrrhon must have gotten the Zora mask. How would I defeat him now? Just to make sure, I asked, “Did he take the Zora mask?”
“Oh...no…” she started, “It’s right here!” Her hand darted to her face, to pull off the Zora mask. In record time, the figure in front of me grew about 10 feet tall. The person had a giant steel hammer in his hand, steel bracelets and anklets, was wearing a toga and most importantly, had a long white beard. This was no helpless Zora at all.
“Silly child,” he chuckled, in a deep voice, “Pyrrhon would never let you get this mask.” He held the mask out, teasing me with it.
“Who are you!?” I shouted to him.
“Who am I?” He chuckled again, “Why child, I am the great Dyntos. Blacksmith for Pyrrhon. Now, begone with you.” He held up his hammer and swing it at me. I fumbled for a second and pushed the Deku Scrub mask to my face, which shrunk me enough to avoid the hammer.
“Ooh,” he said, with a dash of interest in his voice, “it seems you’ve got a trick up your sleeve.” He then tapped a symbol on his giant hammer and lines of neon blue quickly appeared on the hammer, forming symbols, then the front of the hammer grew a blue flame. He swung again.
I swapped the masks I was wearing and crouched into a ball as a Goron just before the hammer hit me. Being a Goron made me immune to fire, and the tough skin made the blow from the hammer dampened the pain enough for it to not affect me much.
“Stupid army,” he muttered, “they don’t even know how to beat a scrawny kid to Death Mountain.” I rolled backwards a fair bit, out of his reach, then stood up.
“Scrawny is something I may be!” I exclaimed, “But my strategy is what makes me win!” I then curled back into a ball and started rolling around him in a circle, still out of his reach.
“What are you even trying to achieve?” he chucked, “You look ridiculous.” He didn’t realise I was just picking up speed. While he was too busy laughing to notice, I used my speed and went up a rock, hurling myself into the air towards him. I hit him square in the face, bringing him down to the ground.
He was too surprised to react for a few seconds, so during that time I rolled over towards his hand. Uncurled, then grabbed his hammer.
“Not looking too tough now.” I laughed, lifting the huge hammer up and bringing it down on his hand, smashing one of his bracelets.
“Aaaah!” he bellowed, trying to get up. I smashed him in the side with the hammer. He screeched sounds of pain, while tumbling over to the left of me.
“Mind giving me that Zora mask?” He fumbled around and passed me the Zora mask. “Do you mind also making this hammer a bit smaller?”
“Of course I do.” he muttered. I brought the hammer up threateningly, “Okay, okay.” he whimpered, as he used whatever power he had to shrink the size of the hammer, to fit me.
“Great doing business with you.” I smiled, tapping the symbol on the hammer to deactivate it, then curled into a ball and rolled away. Next objective on the agenda. Kick Pyrrhon’s butt.
*
“Keep going,” I heard Palutena’s voice telepathically in my head, “You’re almost there.” I kept rolling towards my city. I stopped, uncurled and looked in front of me. Things were different. I could see civilians I knew slaving away. Dark clouds were blocking out the sun, buildings looked like they were painted black, even the grass looked darker. Everything about my city had gone dark. Pyrrhon had corrupted it.
It wasn’t hard to notice him either, sitting on a new giant throne in the centre of the small city. He was wearing dark steel battle armour, his face was barely visible. He towered over everything, but now was the time to change that. I took of my Goron mask, unsheathed my hammer and walked in towards the city.
“Pyrrhon!” I shouted, nearing him.
“Ooh, if it isn’t little Pit.” He smirked.
“How do y—”
“I know a lot of things, my dear boy.” He chuckled, “But isn’t it a sad thing you don’t know as much as I do, including not to defy me.”
“Oh Pyrrhon,” I exaggerated, “you rapscallion!” I then tapped the symbol on my hammer and swung it on his boot. The only problem was, it didn’t even make a dent.
“If only you knew not to defy me.” He snarled, standing up. He lifted his foot up with lightning speed and pushed it down on me with the same speed. Good thing I put the Goron mask I was below his foot and he couldn’t see me and curled into a ball. I rolled to the right and he punched his fist down to the ground, just missing me. I uncurled and jumped onto his hand and started climbing quickly.
“Get off!” He bellowed, shaking his arm. I swapped masks, changing to a Deku Scrub. I conjured a couple flowers and zoomed up high, leaning to the left. He sent his fist hurtling towards me in midair. But thanks to being a Deku Scrub, I was able to blow a burst of air underneath me to send me flying upwards to avoid the punch. I flew higher up, sent a gust of air behind me to fly towards him, then swapped masks to a goron to get between the armour and bash him in the eye.
“Aaaaah!” He shrieked, as I fell down through his armour, punching at every point I could, before falling out through a gap of the armour between his chestplate and leggings. “You asked for it…” he snarled, punching giant water towers near him, flooding the city. “Too bad Goron’s and Deku Scrub’s can’t swim.” He laughed, as I swapped masks to turn into a Zora, then unsheathed my hammer.
“Well isn’t it a good thing Zora’s can?” I jokingly asked.
“Dammit Dyntos!” Pyrrhon screamed, trying to kick me as I delve deep into the water. Going into the water as a Zora made me feel more powerful, like I had a chance at defeating Pyrrhon. I did incredibly fast aileron rolls as I swam towards Pyrrhon’s foot. I closed my eyes, and didn’t feel an impact. What? I opened my eyes and stopped swimming, looked behind me and there was a hole going right through his foot. I even heard quiet shouting being muffled by the water. He reached his hand down in the water to grab me, but I shot through it.
“I could get used to this ability.” I murmured to myself happily, as I created holes all through Pyrrhon’s feet. Eventually, I deteriorated his foot so much that he fell over into the water, where I could damage him even more. Oh joy.
“Please…” he whimpered after a while, “I can’t handle this anymore.” I swam to his head that was barely out of the water, which was falling in levels.
“This is what happens,” I replied, with small pain in my voice, “when you try to take what’s not yours.” I took off my mask.
“How could I let you beat me…” he moaned, taking off his helmet.
“Just because you’re big and strong doesn’t mean you can do anything.” I replied.
“But... you’re so tiny...and weak…” he wheezed.
“Size doesn’t matter.” I started, remembering the words Palutena said to me, “There’s this thing called strategy, you might wanna try it sometime.” I unsheathed my hammer, tapped the symbol, and swung it at his face as hard as I could. It was over.
“You’ve done well, Pit.” Palutena said, materialising in front of me. “Although, it’s time for you to hand me the masks.”
“How come?” I asked.
“Because,” she explained, “they must be returned.” That seems reasonable, so I took the masks off from around my neck and handed them over to her. She smiled as she took them, back away a few steps and spoke.
“Thank you for all you have done to defeat Pyrrhon.” She commended, as the masks started floating out of her hands.
“What’s happening?” I asked, worried. The masks floated to different spots in front of her, each in the position of a different corner of a triangle. Then they started slowly moving clockwise in a circle.
“Something that’s been a long time coming.” She smiled, then a light started glowing in the centre of all the masks. It was growing in size, until it engulfed the masks and I couldn’t see them anymore. But then it started dissipating, until it was completely gone. In front of Palutena, floating in the air, was Majora’s Mask.
“Y-you…” I stuttered, “you aren’t the Goddess of Light.”
“Well of course not.” She laughed, grabbing the purple mask. It had orange eyes, was shaped like a heart, had red lines, four horns on either side and two horns on the top. It also granted the wearer unbelievable evil power.
She placed it on her head. Instantly, tendrils of shadows writhed out from the side of the mask and grabbed me, lifting me high off the ground. A pedestal of shadows rose from the ground, under where she was standing.
“Any last words?” She asked, now level with me.
“Why have you done this?” I questioned, knowing that I’d be dead soon and there was no use struggling.
“Because,” she explained, “Pyrrhon and I have a long history together. We both share the same goal, world domination. We’ve always tried to defeat one another, but he’s always come out victorious. Although he sort of respected me, for wanting the same thing as him. So he never killed me, and always let me live. He also kept close tabs on the three masks that I set you out to collect. I was able to wipe out the population of Deku Scrub’s and retrieve the mask without his knowledge, though. The way I achieved that, was by going to the swamps when he was busy, attacking your city. But, I didn’t have enough time to collect the other masks, since your city didn’t put up much of a fight, so he didn’t spend much time attacking it. That’s where an idea came to mind. To get myself a little pawn and send him on a quest to collect these other masks for me. And a scrawny kid who wasn’t much of a threat to Pyrrhon like you, was a perfect candidate. But why you ask? You’re a scrawny kid. You don’t seem to stand a threat at all to Pyrrhon, so he didn’t bother coming to you himself. But since you had the Deku Scrub mask, you were able to complete the quest even while encountering Dyntos. Pyrrhon made the mistake of judging you for your small size, and that’s what brought upon him his downfall. With the added benefit of me getting my hands on Majora’s Mask. So you just played a vital role in my domination of the Earth.”
She continued evilly laughing, explained a bit more things. She’s pretty chatty, it’s kind of annoying. I was able to yank my arm free from the shadow tendrils without her noticing. She must be pretty proud of her life’s work. I grabbed part of the hammer sticking out from the tendrils, yanked it free, breaking the tendrils. I let go of it as I pulled it into the direction of Palutena. Hitting her square in the face and breaking the mask she had on.
I slid down one of the tendrils that had been holding me in place before and got to the ground safely. As for Palutena, she hit the ground with a more intense impact than Pyrrhon. I used my foot to roll her over onto her back. And she seemed to be quite indeed dead, with shattered pieces of Majora’s Mask scattered around her on the cracked concrete.
“Might want to rethink your battle plan.” I laughed a little to myself. But then I heard the sound of clapping. I looked around and noticed citizens of the city that had been enslaved by Pyrrhon cheering for me. The realisation hit me that I had just saved them all from harsh slavery for the rest of their lives.
“Size doesn’t matter if you know a thing or two.” I mumbled quietly, smiling. Who knew words taught to me by my enemy would help me achieve success?