Link (the main character from the Legend of Zelda games) was in this area that was kind of desert like, but it was also like a town or a temple or something. He was in this valley type of area where there were sheer cliffs on either side (a couple of hundred feet apart or so) and about five stories tall. There were a few other people around, and it seems that he was looking for people to talk to. I'm not sure what he wanted to talk about, but I think it was related to his mission that he was either currently on or getting ready to go on. No one seemed to want to talk to him. Most of the people were older than him and seemed to be on business of their own, possibly relating to doing guard-like duties.
He eventually left this area and went exploring. I don't remember during this exploring adventure, but eventually he wound up under water. It was kind of strange in that he wasn't swimming underwater, but walking and climbing. It was either like he was just treating the water as if it was air and climbing around everything on the bottom and sides as if it were just out in the open, or he was in a series of tunnels that went through the water.
It turned out that the body of water was in a city. I'm not sure if it was a part of a river, a lake , a bay or something else, but it seemed pretty large and was right in the middle of a city. There was a ladder that went off the end of an old wooden dock and down into the water.
Link eventually found the ladder and climbed out. There were suddenly a number of people or creatures there with him (somewhere between six and ten) and they were supposed to be helping him out. I'm not sure if they came out of the water with him or not. They may have just been waiting there at the dock for him to show up.
After he got out of the water, he rested for a bit. Looking around, there was a big stone "feature" in the middle of the dock. It was almost like a representation of a "Casio Databank" watch that I used to have back in the late 80s, but without the strap:
The stone sculpture was about two feet long and three feet wide. Link lifted the portion where the buttons are on the front like it was a hood of a car, and when it opened, there were four pins inside. These were the spring-loaded pins that hold the wrist strap in place, but because there was no wrist strap, they were in here.
He realized that this was some sort of puzzle, and he needed to remove only certain pins in order for the puzzle to be solved. He thought about it for a while and then removed two of the pins. It caused a statue of a bird to show up. The statue changed quite a bit, but I'm not exactly sure how. I think it was changing to different kinds of birds, or the same bird in different stances.
Then things dissolved and Link grew up. It was evening time and he was wearing a tux. He now looked like the blind scientist from the movie "Contact", but he wasn't blind. Jennifer Connely was his date or girlfriend or wife, but I'm not sure which. She was walking around through the city and getting him to follow her. She was carrying something that looked like a brown paper bag of groceries.
Eventually she led him to the spot with the Casio Databank sculpture. He realized at that moment that while he had found the changing bird statue many years before, he never actually took it as his prize. I knew he needed to get it, and so he went at the puzzle again, but was unable to successfully complete it this time.
