The Four Ladies

I had a very strange and mysterious dream last night.

I was in Link's body and I had just slain a pack of bokoblins in an unknown town. This town looked as if it was in real life, flat with modern houses and a slim river running around it. There was a part of town that was supposed to be off-limit to me, the player, and I had always been wondering what was in that area. Only the river could take me to those houses, so that day, as I beat the monsters, I decided to just give it a try with a tiny raft. And it worked.

I stood on that makeshift boat, stretching out my arms to the mild breeze ruffling through my hair as the raft moved on its own along the river and past houses and people. The first house I passed was big and expensive-looking, with a group of old ladies sitting on the terrace having coffee and biscuits. They were all excited to see a newcomer and were talking in hushed voices, some of them even shouting merry greetings to me. I waved back and continued along, even saying to them: ''May Ordona be with you.''

The river was making an arc through the gardens and houses, and all inhabitants greeted me happily. My raft made the turn with the water, and soon I was back to the first house I had passed, where the old women had now gone inside. I hid the raft in a bush and sneaked nearer to the two-storeyed house and onto the terrace. I was immensely curious to see what the house looked like and how the ladies were living, so I opened the entrance door and tiptoed inside.

Somehow, I had the feeling that the old ladies knew exactly that I was sneaking about in their home. There were four, I think, and all were tending to their business, one in the kitchen, another in the library, the third in the bathroom and the fourth taking a shower. I slunk past them and visited every room that was unoccupied to look at the furniture. Everything was looking out of date but cosy and comfortable. I felt as if I was invisible, making no sound at all that the ladies would hear. But there was always that feeling of them knowing I was there, and just keeping to their business out of fun and kindness for me to have a look at their house.

When I got back to the entrance, I noticed another door leading apparently to some sort of cellar. It looked new and shiny with golden locks and fittings, but what I found behind it was such a stark contrast to the rest of the house that I froze in my tracks.

It looked like the inside of a watermill, with high wooden walls made of planks like in a barn. A platform stretched into the big room, but I saw water at its edges slowly moving along. Everything was so dark – the only source of light being the sun shining through the slits in the planks of the walls – that I had trouble discerning where the water ended, and thought it wiser to leave it behind, unexplored.

Instead, I decided to leave a little something as a thank you for the ladies to have let me into their house. The big garden was loaded with the most colourful flowers and plants, so I moved from plant to plant to search for the best flower I could place on the terrace table like a note. None of the flowers I looked at were beautiful enough for my liking, and I continued searching. Buds were still half-closed, not perfectly round enough or had withered spots in their petals, so I discarded them all. I was moving across the garden when suddenly I saw one of the ladies come out of the door. I was standing in the middle of the garden, right in plain sight, so I tried to hush into a group of bushes, but on the way she saw me.

Her eyes grew wide, and instantly she was on my tracks. I panicked as I ran past the bushes and around the house to find an exit, but she was hard on the pursuit. Every time I rounded a bush and looked back, she was there walking after me. Walking, always walking. It was as if I couldn't run any more. I tried climbing onto a bush, but then I heard her voice call out to me from right behind me. I let out a high-pitched yelp. 

…

 

How could this dream have ended? What might be its meaning? I will probably never know, for I woke up at that moment to my darkened room. I tried falling back asleep to continue this dream, eager to know the suite, but alas, I could not. It had all felt very real, and like a true video game in the player's perspective (forgot the name of those video games) as I moved across this house exploring it.

Who knows? Maybe that dream will come again one day and keep on unravelling before my inner eye. Then I might know who that woman was, and what she intended to tell me.

– DragonRing