LLink soon fell asleep in the plains of Hyrule, but his sleep was not troubled. Or not so far, at least. Then, in a dream, he saw a shining fairy surrounded by white light. It was calling him. "Link, Link, remember, remember..." It kept repeating these words until they faded off into the distance, as did the image of the fairy. When Link awoke, he had no memory of the dream, except that someone had been telling him to remember something.

Link awoke at noon. It was a beautiful day, just like the day a few weeks back when he had that terrible dream. He had no sword or shield, and no friend to travel with him. He was alone and defenseless, but he made his way to lake Hylia nonetheless.

When Link reach the southern region of Hyrule Field, he noticed that the gate that usually barred the way to Lake Hylia was knocked down, and some of the grass was burnt. Weird things are happening, Link thought. He walked down the path to the lake, wondering what he would see.

When Link reached the lakeside, he first noticed the Lakeside Laboratory, where a strange scientist was always busy concocting strange potions and studying strange things. The door was broken down, and green smoke emitted from the chimney. This was very odd. Then he noticed the lake water. It had turned purple, and poisonous-looking. Today was not a good day for swimming! Something else he noticed was that the tree on the island in the middle of the lake was knocked over and was mostly black, as if it had been burnt. He decided to go inside the laboratory and talk to the scientist to see what was going on. He entered the lab.

Inside, there was the scientist, muttering curses. The funny little old man wore a robe that was usually blue, but right now, it was black, drenched in soot.

"Oh, my old friend Link!" The scientist seemed to cheer up at the sight of a familiar face.

"What happened?" asked Link.

"Ugh!" said the scientist in disgust. "That filthy little Skullkid wearing the strange mask... He put Bomb Powder in one of my potions and the explosive nature of it ruined my laboratory. It will never be the same! And the Skullkid, I saw him go to the island in the center of the lake, and take out a bag and dump a bunch of purple powder out of into the water. It's made the water poisonous! As well, he used a bomb to blow up that tree, and then jumped into a hole beneath it. And that was the last I saw of him."

"Which Skullkid is this?" Link asked the scientist.

"Why I believe it was the very one you brought back from Termina!"

"What? My friend Skullkid would never do anything like that!" yelled Link.

"Well, if you want to know more, follow him down that hole if you like." the scientist told Link.

Taking the scientist's advice, Link dashed out of the laboratory and ran across the bridge to the island. Indeed, there was a large hole beneath the mysterious, leafless tree that was once there. Link grabbed one of its roots that was hanging down and he slid down it as if it was a smooth rope. At the bottom, he found himself in a moist cave, the ceiling enforced by the tree roots. The only light was of the daylight above.

Link walked deeper into the cave, and he found a set of stone steps. He walked down them. The further he went the darker it got. The stairs were still going down, and eventually, he couldn't see. He reached soft ground eventually. He walked straight into a wall. He felt around, and in the darkness tripped on a rock and banged against the wall as he fell. Ouch! He cursed. The wall toppled forward, revealing a room flooded with light. There were lanterns all over the walls. The room was huge, and there was a gigantic underground lake in its center. And there, across the water, was Skullkid, holding a lantern, and wearing a strange, skull-like mask.

"Skullkid!" Link yelled. But Skullkid jumped into the water and dove through an underwater tunnel. Link plunged into the cold water, took a deep breath, and dove through the hole after Skullkid. The tunnel was twisting around and around, and Link couldn't help but twist around with it. He began to get dizzy, and began to run out of breath.

But then, he came up out of the water as the tunnel twisted upwards. He looked below him, but the tunnel was gone. Gasping for air he climbed out onto a long, sandy beach. The air was warm and the sun bright. A couple of painted wooden boats were moored on the beach and further up were two small huts. Looking out toward the sea he saw some kind of laboratory on a platform sticking out of the water. Connected to the platform was a small, wooden dock. This place seemed extremely familiar. But where was he? He couldn't quite tell. But then he remembered.

Oh, no! Link thought. Not here!

Link was somewhere where he never thought he would go again: the land of Termina. Termina was a warped version of Hyrule in which he saw many familiar faces, but none of them knew him and they had different names. In his last adventure, Skullkid had stolen Majora's Mask from a wandering mask salesman and used it's power to try to crash an angry moon into Termina. It turned out, however, that Skullkid had not done such evil of his own will, but had been possessed by the power of the mask. Link destroyed the evil in the mask and returned it to the mask seller, then brought Skullkid, his newfound friend to his homeland of Hyrule.

But he was here again, with no way back (The portals from Hyrule to Termina all seemed to be one-way)! Here, in Great Bay, where the Zora Tribe of Termina dwelt. Link looked up at the sky. All seemed well, but then, over Clock Town, the central city of Termina, or where he thought would be near Clock Town, he saw a purple ring of darkness. Something was wrong again, and hopefully Skullkid hadn't caused it.

Sopping wet, he dashed into the fisherman's hut near the shore.

The fisherman who lived there was a big, hairy, muscular guy wearing a sleeveless shirt. The man stood behind a counter. Several fishing rods were propped against the wall and on a table on either side of the room were fish tanks. The one on the left held a seahorse within it. Link remembered how the seahorse guided him through the dangerous waters of Great Bay when he had been here last. It appeared as if the fisherman had caught the poor creature again.

"Hey, Link! What's up! Haven't seen ya in a long while!" The fisherman exclaimed in a gruff voice.

"Um...I was wondering what is... what seems to be happening in Termina right now." Link told him.

"Ah, things are not great in this land lately. The water is boiling hot again, not fit for fishing. Many of the Zora have died." he told Link.

"That does not sound good. What about the rest of the land?" Link asked.

"Well, ya see, I rarely go to town or to any of those other outlandish places around there. I'm a sea dog at heart. But, I have heard some news, ya know, anyway, a merchant from town came here the other day, wantin' ta buy some fish. I told 'im there was none left to catch, and he says, 'Strange things been happenin' in town, as well.' So I asked him what's been happening, an' he says 'That masked fiend is up on the Clock Tower again, but wearin' a differen' mask this time.' and then 'e says 'There a some kind of strange cloud over town, as well. The moon ain't fallin', but somfin' else is brewing up.' That all 'e told me."

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Link, "Not Skullkid!"

Before the fisherman had time to ask why Link was yelling, or to say goodbye, Link had dashed away as fast as his legs could carry him.

Wuzzup with 'im? The fisherman wondered.

Sand dwelling Leevers chased Link across the beach as he ran as fast as he could toward Clock Town. What kind of trouble could Skullkid have gotten into this time? He wondered as he ran up the pathway from the beach, through some trees, and onto the expansive Termina Field, the equivalent of Hyrule Field back in Hyrule.

Link never remembered running so fast in his life, except maybe when he was battling the fearsome King Dodongo, back when he was trying to overthrow Ganondorf the first time.

He was at Clock Town in less than two hours, a record time for him. Pausing in front of the south entrance to the great wall surrounding the village, he looked up toward the Clock Tower, and sure enough, there was the ring of darkness surrounding the tower's summit. He squinted and could faintly see a figure high up there. Skullkid! He thought.

Link dashed into Clock Town as fast as he could carry himself, right past the guards, which caused quite a disturbance. "Hey, come back!" yelled one. Another hollered "Get that little thief!" The two guards of the south gate chased after Link. He didn't bother to tell them he didn't mean trouble, for he was in too much of a hurry.

"He's heading toward the Clock Tower, that little vandal! He could harm its workings! Get 'im!"

Link thought he should tell the stupid guards that he wasn't going to vandalize the Clock Tower, so he shouted "I'm not your enemy!" The guards stopped. Link was in front of the top entrance to the Clock Tower. "How can we believe you, child? These are dangerous times in Termina."

"Don't you remember me?" He shouted. Apparently they did not. He had little time. How would he get into the Clock Tower? He knew that the door only opened on the eve of the Carnival of Time. But the carnival could be months away! The guards came up the stairs towards the entrance. Just as they were about to grab him, Link noticed a small sill that jutted out of the side of the Clock Tower. He dodged the guards and tiptoed across it as fast as he could without falling and getting hurt.

He came around and entered a small, wooden maintenance door in the back of the Clock Tower. This must be how Skullkid got up there! He realized. He entered the inner workings of the Clock Tower, a maze of turning gears and clicking sounds. He climbed a ladder onto a supporting beam, dodged past a pendulum-like thing, and rolled under a spinning gear.

The guards were right behind him. He grabbed onto another pendulum-like thingy, and climbed up it onto another wooden beam. He narrowly dodged many contraptions of the Clock Tower's inner workings as he climbed his way upward. The guards were closer.

He grabbed onto another swinging thing and held it tight so that it didn't swing. The entire mechanism stopped for a split second until he released it and it bonked a guard in the head, knocking him and the other guard off. They landed hard on their butts a little ways down. That bought Link enough time. He climbed up a ladder to a hatch in the ceiling and thrust it open. He climbed out onto the top of the tower. Looking him down at the huge distance between him and the ground made him feel queasy, so he focused his gaze on Skullkid instead, and the little white fairy he held in a little cage that was banging on the bars.

"SSSSTAY BACK!" Hissed Skullkid in a very un-Skullkid like way. He wore a mask that looked like a skull but had spikes protruding from its entire circumference. Skullkid hissed again. "I SSSSAID, SSSSTAY BACK!"

Link looked around and saw the purple ring of darkness, undulating and rippling around the tower top, like some evil halo.

"What happened to you, Skullkid?" Link demanded.

"I'M WARNING YOU. SSSSTAY AWAY!!!"

Link ignored the warning. "Skullkid! Listen to me!"

Skullkid raised his head, reared back, and breathed fire through the mask. Link ducked away, laughing at the sight.

"DO NOT LAUGH, CHILD! SSSSTAY AWAY, OR DIE!"

Link jumped on Skullkid and tried to wrench the mask off, but the imp whacked him and he fell down. The little fairy screamed "Link, Link!" That voice sounded very familiar. She pounded on the cage very hard and the door swung open. She rammed into Skullkid with force and knocked him down. Link raised his fist and hit Skullkid in the face. The imp went unconscious. Link got up and examined Skullkid. Before he could try to take off the mask, the fairy flew around him and tapped on his shoulder. "Oh, Link! It's really you!"