There’s a boy playing music for animals in a grove in the woods. He disappears if I come too close, and he won’t return until I leave the grove and then come back. I discover, as I progress through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, that this boy once lived in Hyrule, but the pursuit of greed drove him to ruin. Like so many souls habiting the kingdom, he went to the Dark World in search of wealth, only to become lost and hideously transformed. He gives me a shovel and asks me to find the flute he once played in the Light World.
I find a small patch of flowers in the grove and dig. Sure enough, the flute emerges, but the ghost of the boy fades away as a result. He no longer has a place here.
In the Dark World, the boy asks me to take the flute and play a song for his father before his soul vanishes and his body becomes a tree on the stump he performed on.
A Link to the Past tells a story about the consequences of greed. The characters who speak to Link in the Dark World confess how greed led to their downfall, their twisted bodies testament to the corruption in their heart.
The flute must be acquired to reach one of the temples in the game. In order to save the world from darkness, Link must silence the music that, for a time, provided nothing but beauty.
The sadness of watching his spirit fade, and watching his body become a tree — I can hardly bear it. The world will be saved, but the animals will never return. The grove will be forever silent.
Into The Spine