(ZGen/Fan)The Legend of Zelda: Two Faces of Hope (T)

Here's the first chapter of my story. The chapters are divided up into Chapters and Sub-chapters. The Sub-chapter numbers are indicated in parentheses. Although Chapter One only has two, other chapters may very well have up to five.

Well, enjoy!



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Prologue

Seven years have passed since Link, the Hero of Time, fought and destroyed Ganon amidst the ruins of the demon’s castle. When the King of Evil was sealed in the Evil Realm, the threads of time were united and Ganon disappeared from the time lines Link had traveled. Hyrule was freed from the grasps of darkness and the Hero of Time was recorded in legends, never to be forgotten in the now-prosperous land. But his journey wasn’t complete.

The disappearance of Navi, Link’s fairy friend from the Kokiri Forest, inspired a search which led him to discover Termina, a mysterious land seemingly parallel to Hyrule. There, he learned that the moon was falling for some unknown reason, its landing point the Clock Tower in Clock Town. Link was sent to recover Majora’s Mask from the Skull Kid, whom Link met long ago in the Lost Woods. To do this, Link had to go to the four corners of Termina to free the Giants, the gods of Termina. Link summoned the Giants and they prevented the moon from falling, but then Majora’s Mask had fully awakened and possessed the moon itself. Link followed it into the mouth of the moon, where an epic battle took place. The moon was sent to its rightful place, and another journey was completed.

With the events in Termina long gone, Link settled down in Kakariko Village, the former dwelling place of the Sheika, and led a comfortable life. He occasionally visited Princess Zelda, being able to go to and leave the castle at his own discretion in his reputation as a hero. For a time, he thought his life as a hero was over, but Fate was about to prove otherwise.


Chapter One (1)

It was a never-ending chasm, lined with fire, with a mouth at the bottom that would swallow anything that fell to its demise. Out of the fire, arms with eyes on their palms reached out, trying furiously to grab at anything that happened to be falling. Mirrors fell along with the victim, reflecting every facial expression of terror, then cracked to multiply the effect. It was as if his soul was being ripped from his body.

Link fell even further into the chasm, then into the mouth. Darkness consumed his vision, and when it receded, he was in a dark place. A young girl was sitting in a glen, the only light illuminating a circle, ominously, around her. She looked sleepy, as if in a trance, fiddling with a lace on her poorly sewn dress. It was an image of surreal tranquility. That tranquility was shattered when a giant hand composed of darkness shot up, directly underneath the girl, then on coming down, brought the girl with it.

There were no screams. There were no desperate cries for help. The girl just . . . vanished, without a trace. Nothing on the ground could hint at anything strange happening. The whole process seemed so surreal. So unreal. Link tried to fall to his knees, but found he had no control over his body. It was as if he was stuck inside of a statue, willing to move, but bound by the impossibility. Movement was impossible. He was paralyzed in his own freakish nightmare, willing for it to end.

Link moved, but not with his own mind. Someone was moving for him. His arms shot horizontal, then he kneeled to the ground, swiftly, bringing a flash of light with him. As the blinding light faded, consciousness aroused him.

-----

In a sweat, Link woke up and rose, slowly. His head was searing with pain that being the fifth painful nightmare he had experienced in that week alone. They had come out of the blue, tormenting him each successive night. They all were the same too. Each one had a different girl, and all of them being dragged into ground by the massive hand composed of darkness. They all seemed so real, so vivid. The terror that welled in Link’s being increased greatly every night. His whole being ached from the despair.

Link slowly got out of his band, his face in his hands. He walked over to a counter in his room and cupped his hands together. He scooped out some water out of a basin, splashed it in his face, experiencing a few moments of comfort, welcomed oh-so-politely by the searing pain.

Drying off his face with a hand towel, Link sat down in a large chair. He looked out the window above the counter to the sky was blue. No clouds drifted lazily across the sky, but he felt like he was being smothered in them. From this window, Link could look at a large part of Kakariko Village. He could see the windmill casting its shadow over the main entrance. People were running in and out of the Octorok Arcade, having a bit of fun before their daily chores were to be done. Children were running into the graveyard, enjoying the creepiness, unaware that the spirit of the grave keeper Damp dwelt there. It was an ordinary, peaceful morning, but something felt out of place.

Link had to visit Zelda to talk about these nightmares. She seemed to have a talent for interpreting dreams. She predicted the inevitable downfall of Hyrule seven years back, which led him to fly across time. Not to mention he had nightmares whenever Ganondorf was beginning to take hold of Hyrule, which turned out to be true. What made truly made this unsettling was the fact that Ganondorf was locked away in the Evil Realm, trapped across the span of eternity. Whatever was the cause of this evil was someone other than a “familiar face.”

Link dressed in normal citizen attire: A plain button-up shirt, brown leggings, and leather boots. He left his traditional Kokiri wares as he accepted himself as a Hylian. The only he kept from his childhood was his sword: The Gilded Sword, a result of tempering. As a child, the sword looked too big. Now, as an adult, the sword suited him nicely. He finally felt like he had found his place in Hyrule’s society.

Outside, it was cool. The wind was soothing on his screaming forehead, and it gave a feeling of calm to his restless soul. But he didn’t have time to stand around and enjoy the breeze. Link ran to the back of his house and untied Epona from her post. He didn’t waste any time in mounting her and forcing her into a gallop. She took off, Link on top, to Hyrule Castle.

-----

Hyrule Castle Town was unusually busy this particular day. Link got off Epona and led her on foot through the crowded streets. The fact that the hero of Hyrule was walking in their midst wasn’t even a factor to them. They even nearly knocked him to the ground several times. Something was definitely wrong in Hyrule. What it was, though, was unknown to him.

None of the vendors were selling anything. If anything, they were gossip areas. People stood in crowds around the canopied booths, chatting excitedly about some unheard tragedy. People were even standing in the middle of the street, talking to each other with unnecessary enthusiasm. Arms were flying along with the spit. Link had enough confusion.

“Hey!” Link exclaimed, grabbing a scared man by the right biceps. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, hello, Mr. Link. Has word not reached Kakariko yet?”

“No. What word?”

“There’s been disappearances. Young girls, gone without a trace.”

A feeling of sickness shot in Link’s stomach. “How long has this been going on?”

“Five days now. It’s weird, they’re just–”

The man never finished his sentence. Link mounted Epona and galloped toward Hyrule Castle. His meeting with Zelda was going to have to be prolonged. He had to talk to the king. The sick feeling in his stomach grew worse each second. He was surprised he was able to stay on Epona. His head was swimming so much. He began to wonder about his dreams even more. Maybe they weren’t dreams. Maybe they were real. Maybe he was the cause of the disappearances.

-----

By the time Link reached the throne room, he was out of breath. He dismounted Epona at the doors and took off running. Everyone was looking at him, but the king eyed him with need and desperation. A look of relief swept over him when Link stormed into the room.

“Link!” He bellowed.

Link bowed down swiftly, then got back up. “You’re majesty; I take it you’ve heard what’s been going on?”

“Indeed I have, Link, Indeed I have. I was about to send for you, then you came barging through my doors like an answer to my prayers.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“I think that’s fairly obvious, Link. Track down the cause.”

“But how am I supposed to track down the cause, your majesty, if these girls disappeared without a trace. There’s no way I can track down the source.”

“Link, you’ve flown across time to destroy the King of Evil. You’re saying you can’t find the cause of this?”

“Well, no. I’m saying it would be ridiculously difficult. Near-impossible even.”

“But still possible?”

“But still possible.”

“Good, now be on your way. I have no doubt in my mind about your abilities.”

“Very well, your majesty.” Bowing once more to the king, Link stood up and took his leave.

-----

Laying in his bed, Link pondered what he was going to do. If his nightmares really did have a connection with the disappearances, he could try to focus on the point and hopefully subliminally try to pinpoint the location of the disappearances. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his target. Slowly, he felt all slipping away in a sleepy drought. Soon, consciousness left him, and he was thrown into a fiery chasm once again.

-----

It was the same place. The shadowy glen with the sleepy girl illuminated by an ominous spotlight. He felt the same too: paralyzed, impossible to move. Then his body moved for him. But he fought back. He willed himself to move himself, fighting against impossibility. It was like trying move while encased in cement. But somehow, he managed to break free.

He fell to the ground, breathing hard against the wet grass, a strangely sickening smell flowing through his nostrils. Then a strange feeling swept over him, like his body was physically changing. That didn’t matter, he had gained control of himself in this nightmare. Then a sickening truth dawned on him: It was no nightmare.

-----

He just noticed the searing pain in his forehead, the lifelessness of his body. It scared him, so badly, that his adrenaline spiked, and he got up, terrified. He looked around to see that the girl was lying in the spotlight, unconscious. He had managed to save her, but at what expense? He was the cause behind the disappearances, but how? He didn’t have the mental capacity in his moment of terror to think of the reasoning behind it. Instead, he ran, unknowing, unthinking, through a forest cloaked in darkness. He had to leave Hyrule, for everyone’s sake.




Chapter One (2)



The sky was blue. Not a rich, sky blue that would accompany most cloudless days, but rather a deep blue tinted with violet. On the circular horizon was a circle of bone white clouds. Four dirt paths, intersecting each other, stretching out to infinity. In the center of the intersection was a stone standing roughly two feet high. On it was a strange symbol resembling an eye, with lines encasing with spokes. Hylians knew them as Gossip Stones, while their creators knew them as Wisdom Stones.

One of its creators, or rather, a descendent, was walking towards it from the south facing path. He had short silver hair that covered half of his eyes. His mouth was covered by a cloth and he was dressed in skin-gripping clothes. There wasn’t any flapping in his clothes. They were skin fitting and made the man resemble a stealthy warrior. Across the length of his chest was a tattered white cloth with the symbol from the Wisdom Stone sewn in red in the center. At his side was a long dagger, and he looked ready to use it when need be.

He stopped at the Wisdom Stone and knelt down. He put his right hand in the center of the eye, staring at it with his powerful blue-grey eyes. He then closed them, his body tensing.

“I over heard this . . .,” the Wisdom Stone began. “I’ve heard a ‘traveler in green’ drenched in shadows is making his way to the Edge.”

The man stood up and opened his eyes. He looked around and stared towards the east. He stood, as if listening for something in the wind, then took off running down the west path, towards the horizon that seemed never to get any closer.

That was a spectacular piece of work. It really captured the idea that all Link wanted to do was fit in. The thing is, Link won't be able to fit in. The sad part is that he will always wander, almost cursed to do riddance to bad. It was a fantastic piece of work that really caught that idea, that has been passed around, and made it grow up.
Not always a fan of everyone knowing of Link's 'Heroic Deed's as you could put them, but you've really done it so well it turned my ideas around. Thanks.