The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Prologue

This is the prologue that appears in the instruction booklet for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.

Prologue
A NEW CHAPTER

Link awoke one day to find himself deep in a strange forest. As he started to walk through the woods, he heard cries for help coming from just up ahead of him. Link hurried toward the voice, only to find a group of monsters surrounding the woman who was screaming. When the monsters saw Link, they immediately fled.

The woman who was being attacked was none other than Impa, nurse to Hyrule's Princess Zelda. Impa said she had come to the forest to search for a singer named Nayru.

"Can't you help me look?" Impa asked. Despite the strange look she gave him, Link could not refuse her request. Together they found a large stone with a rune on it. Naturally, Link moved the stone, but Impa wouldn't so much as lay a hand on it.

As they traveled even deeper into the forest, they found a young woman singing. Invited to sit by the group of animals that listened to the girl's song, Link joined in the circle and let the beautiful song fill his ears and penetrate his heart. This was surely Nayru, the singer Impa was searching for. Just then, Impa erupted in a cackling laugh.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

A darkness surrounded Impa, and a frightening shadow lifted from her body.

"Nayru! Oracle of Ages!" I, Veran, Sorceress of Shadows, shall make you my own!"

The shadow that called itself Veran began swooping about the forest before flying straight into the body of the frightened singer. A blinding light shone forth from Nayru's body.

When Link's eyes had grown used to the light, he realized that Nayru looked very strange. Her force seemed veiled in shadow, and her bright smile had vanished. A piercing, evil gaze had replaced it.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Now the power of the Oracle of Ages is mine! I can travel through time at will! Now a new age shall begin -- an age of shadows!" And with that, Veran and Nayru vanished.

Naryu was actually the Oracle of Ages who controlled time in this land of Labrynna. When the oracle was kidnapped, the flow of time in Labrynna was distorted, and strange things began to happen. Before vanishing, Veran said, "When the past changes, so does the present." Her plan was to travel to the past and gather power from the sorrows of the people of Labrynna so that she could create her age of shadows.

Will Link be able to free Nayru from Veran's evil cluthes? Such is the quest that Link must now undertake.