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ime would pass over Hyrule, and even Zelda's prophecy would be forgotten. It was, after all, the Second Golden Age in the land, and Hylians, Kokiri, Zoras, Gorons, and Gerudo alike were reveling in the newfound peace in the land. Even after Destiny had risen to the throne, the populous felt rather comfortable, keeping their gaze pointed towards internal issues rather than focusing outward as had been done during the First Golden Age.

Impa, one of the few Sheikah remaining in the magical clan, knew that the fear of Ganondorf was fading quickly throughout Hyrule. Because of this, a fear of her own welled up in her heart; she knew that Ganondorf was not dead nor could be killed all that easily. Zelda's last prophecy, which was told to her while Zelda was upon her deathbed, still burned in her ears, and she knew that precautions had to be set in place for the day when evil would return to Hyrule. She rode out of Hyrule Castle to both the Kokiri and the Zora, watching them carefully for a matter of weeks. In each of the cultures, she selected a single person to retain a magical secret. She gave them each an instrument -- the selected Zora received a lute and the Kokiri a violin, and with each Impa instilled a magic into a song for each instrument, a song that would protect the Master Sword's magic from fading, for like all artifacts, its magic of even the Master Sword would over time seep out into the world, lost forever. The Zora femme would be made the Sage of Earth and the Kokiri the Sage of Wind, and they would remain separate from their civilizations, hidden to the ages, to pray to the goddesses, protecting the magic of the Sword of Evil's Bane.

As the people were left to their own devices, the races grew evermore separate and distinct. The Gorons, once again within the walls of Kakariko, once again felt their calling back in the mountains. The Gorons seemed to be rather content with digging their tunnels in the rock, and as such the ebb of their visitations to Hyrule Castle Town and Kakariko began to wane; after they had all moved back into their halls of rock, occasionally, the Gorons would be so tardy in their trickling down the mountain that the Hylians further south would forget that the Gorons even existed. Neither race seemed to put too much thought to it, however. Though the Hylians did trade with the mountain people, it was far more convenient to find their wares closer to home rather than trek up Death Mountain. As for the Gorons, it was much the same, but it was also about comfort. The mountains were their homes, and like the First Golden Age, their attentions were drawn away from the Hylians.

However, Death Mountain, large as it was, was uncapable of holding their ever-growing numbers for long. Though Death Mountain had not erupted in quite some time, it was still a volcano as it always had been, filled with fire and magma, and the constant flux and change within the mountain made the Gorons pay close caution when building tunnels deep into the mountainside. The only logical choice was for the Gorons to find new homes elsewhere in the world, a new mountain to call their own. A good number of Gorons, albeit not a majority, set out on a journey through the wilderness, hoping one day to find a new mountain in a new land, starting again just as the Gorons had done at the dawn of time.

The Zora people continued with their effective separation from the other races. While they had already been divided in half, their numbers were still strong in Hyrule. It was perhaps because of this that the river people had always kept to themselves in spite of their official ties with Hyrule Castle Town. Though the alliance still held, to them it was largely unnecessary. The old ways of non-interference came back, and the Zoras continued living as they'd always done; their days would be spend swimming and fishing in Lake Hylia and the Domain, true to their aquatic nature.

The peace over Hyrule, however, didn't last as long for the Zora as it did for the other races. One day at Lake Hylia, a few Zora were killed by some Hylian trappers looking for Zora pelts to make waterskins; this was seen as a serious violation of the age old treaty between the Hylians and Zoras, and many Zoras became enraged by this. Many demanded that the Royal Family should pay reparations to the Zoras for their transgressions against the treaty; others demanded simply justice to be instilled on the murderers, not believing that it should escalate into a large incident. The Domain soon became divided, and all looked to the Zora queen for her decision. When she revealed that they would only ask for punishment on the murderers themselves and not the entire Hylian people, outrage struck. Many of the Zoras abandoned the monarchy and the Domain in anger. From that day hence, the angry Zoras would inhabit the streams and lakes of Hyrule, waiting for Hylians to pass. Whenever one would, they would leap out and attack them, seeking to avenge their fallen, and no amount of bloodshed would quench their appetite for revenge. So immersed with anger these Zoras were that they changed their name from the Zora to the Zola, meaning "River Monster".

The Zora that remained in the Domain were disgraced by the actions of the Zola. Never before had the Zora taken arms against the Hylians. Much to their fear, representatives from Hyrule Castle Town came to the Domain a few days later to arrange a meeting with the then King of Hyrule about the attacks, but such was the shame of the royalty that instead of agreeing to meet with the king, they decided that they would leave the Domain, banishing themselves, the Zora, from Hyrule. However, rather than leave and not atone for the sins of the rebel Zola, they instead marched away from the Domain towards the mountainside. It was there where they revealed to themselves the secret magic that the goddesses themselves had given them centuries ago. It was there they shed their fins and webbed hands and grew feathers and beaks instead. The Zoras were not necessarily merely river folk, but rather nature folk, adapting to whatever climate was around. The Zora would be no more in Hyrule, and the remaining Zoras loyal to the Hylians renamed themselves the Rito, meaning "Bird People". They would emerge to the Hylians in time, keeping their true origin in secrecy, and when they did they pledged their full loyalty and cooperation to the Royal Family, and an alliance was unknowingly reforged between the two peoples.

Off in the desert, the Gerudo continued to struggle living in the land of the dunes. The Gerudo race was near extinction, and it seemed that there would be no salvation for them. To the disappointment of the eldest remaining of the Gerudo, they found themselves abandoning the desert, and as a last effort, humbly pleading with the townspeople to live and evolve with Hylians. Though the offspring of the Gerudo women would be Gerudo by blood, they pledged to bring them up as Hylians and not as their own thievish clan. After much dispute, the Hylians agreed, and the Gerudos integrated themselves into the Hylian society, their race continued only by blood one, never again to be carried by deed.

The Kokiri, now known to the world, had become a spectacle of sorts. Many Hylians and a few of the other races were eager to see the little people attending to their usual chores. While at first it wasn't much of a worry, for the new visitors were as much a curiosity to the Kokiri as it was the other way around, more and more continued to come into the Kokiri Village, studying them and researching them, making them quite uncomfortable in their very own village. The Kokiri were afraid to stray too far from the Great Deku Tree, so integral the tree was in the lives of the forest elves, but they realized at the same time that they needed to remain hidden from the prying eyes of the guests inside their village. Ultimately, it was agreed upon by the Kokiri and the Deku Tree that they should hide themselves deep within the Lost Woods where they could not be seen. It would be deep in the Lost Woods where the Kokiri would remain in secret, even after many of those that had come to see them had left. To the Kokiri, it was in part a game for them to play, a perpetual hide-and-seek, but it was also a necessity to maintain their way of life. From the Hylian standpoint, the Kokiri's existence, though fact, gradually drifted back into being rumor, then mystery, and then myth and legend.

Finally, the Hylians continued about their normal everyday lives free from the worries of tragic evil befalling them. However, unlike the First Golden Age, they did not feel the need to continue expanding their influence in the world; plagued by the natural borders of Death Mountain, the Gerudo Desert, Lake Hylia, and the Lost Woods, they felt content with remaining introspective. The population grew slowly and gradually, and Hyrule Castle Town started to feel the need to call itself a city rather than a town. Kakariko was becoming an active place to, full of trade and merchants, though definitely not the size of Hyrule Castle Town's square. Life progressed comfortably and amiably, and just like the Kokiri, things that should not have been forgotten were. Though there were new Heroes of Time, one every hundred years, that arose to fight off challenges within the borders of Hyrule, but their trials and tribulations were never as weighty as those of Link's still told by storytellers, and so the story of Link, Zelda, and the Imprisoning War became legends in their own right.

Legends, however, seem to have to have a way of surviving when unchecked and forgotten. For while Ganondorf was sealed in the now Evil Realm, there was plan, a dark plan, that he was formulating. Zelda's prophecy would be fulfilled, and the anger and wrath that had built over the years of his imprisonment would be soon unleashed.