Dark: Hello! My first story, yay! Um, sorry if summary sucks, but I didn't want to give anything too much away. Basically: After OoT, Link goes back to relive those 7 years. Navi leaves. Blah. Link meets a new girl (how will be mentioned later), and they become best friends. Link leaves. Comes back. Problem: Someones moving in on Zelda, and his old friend is missing! Oh, btw, new evil character of course. Everything else, you need to read.

Shokin: Wow. And she said she couldn't do a summary. Sorry for any and all grammatical errors Dark has made and will make, she's doing her best, but it probably isn't enough.

Dark: Hey! Meanie. But yeah, sorry. And sorry if format is messed up, I'm a newbie. And sorry if you like Zelink. It's just I think Link is not able to marry, etc., because he's the hero, and it would interfere with his hero duties. Plus, my character's cooler, XD

Shokin: Dark does not own Zelda, or any of it's characters. She does own Delyn, Nejora, The Pendant of Destiny, Delyn's rock, Lynda, and thesome old guy that was awake at around three o' clock in the morning.

Dark: And this fic! Please, R&R, and be gentle! This fic is my baby, it's fragile!

Shokin: Unlike your ego.


THE LEGEND OF ZELDA:

THE MISSING PIECE

The Legend:

In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend of a boy who saved the kingdom countless of times from great evils that threatened to destroy it.

One of the most well known tales is that of the sealing away of the King of Evil into the Sacred Realm. Although none remain who know of the exact events that took place in this fateful battle, that fact remains the same. One courageous boy became the hero of the land of Hyrule.

There's also another well known tale in the land of Termina of the same heroic boy. When threatened to be crushed beneath the moon, the boy rose up and defeated evil once again.

Many tales of the hero saving the lands have circulated throughout time, but little else is known about the boy. This tale is a tale that barely survived the years. It is of the boy, and a very special girl…

Prologue

In the heart of a vast desert, a man stood at the top of the head of a statue. A statue that was carved into a colossus. The man, dressed in brown and burgundy armor that was traditional for the only person truly meant to rule Hyrule and a flowing black cape, stood overlooking his temporary kingdom.

"Daddy, daddy!" A small girl came running out of the door to the top of the colossus and up behind the man's right leg.

The man turned slightly and bent down, his eyes level with the girl's. "Ah, my little princess," his voice was deep and strong, yet somehow smooth. He gently lifted the little girl up and onto his huge shoulders.

The girl held on tightly to the man's lines of short red hair. "Daddy, are you the king of Hyrule?" the girl said.

The man faced the hills of sand that stretched out for miles and grinned. "No, dear," he replied, "but I will be soon."

Across the sands below them, a very small figure approached at impossible speed. As the figure came closer, it started to take the shape of a very small boy, about the age of the girl. As the boy neared the steps leading to the entrance of the colossus, he lifted off the ground, rising to the top where the man and the girl were.

"Father, the Stalfo kids ran away from me today! Why did they do that?" the boy said with anxiety.

"It's because they did not know they were in the presence of greatness, my son."

"But they are my friends…"

"My lord!" A woman wearing golden pants, a golden top, and a red scarf covering her nose and mouth and carrying a large spear was standing behind the man. "Your first meeting at the castle has been approved. You have been requested to go there at once."

"Excellent." The man lifted the small girl off his shoulders and knelt down in front of her. "My dear, I'm going to have to go away for a while on an important mission. Do you remember who I've always said you look like?"

The girl nodded. "You say I look like mommy."

"That's right. And like your mother, you must be strong and brave like a warrior while I'm gone."

The girl's eyes brightened. "Like a Sheikah warrior?" she piped.

"Yes, a Sheikah warrior." The man turned his head towards the boy still floating in mid air.

"Be sure to look after your sister. She is to be the Princess of Hyrule when I return." He looked out over the sand for a bit, the turned towards the woman with the spear. "General, take my children to Ikana Canyon. The poe hunter will see to them. I may be gone for as long as a year or two, and I must be sure they are safe from and danger until Hyrule is transformed into the perfect kingdom."

"Yes, my lord. I will see to it immediately after your departure."

"Be sure you do."


6 years later…

A young girl with shoulder length dark-brown hair that was uneven and wearing a lavender tunic stood in the shadows of the town market back alleyway. She watched intently both ends of the alley, waiting. Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming from around the far left corner. A blonde haired young boy dressed in green rounded the corner, and the girl faded into the shadows.

The boy looked down the alleyway. He had been sure this was the last place left to look. Puzzled, he made his way slowly down the alley. He stopped just about halfway, in front of a closed potion stand. Sighing, he decided to call out.

"Okay, I give up! Where are you?"

"You mean you really don't know?" a voice giggled.

The boy looked in the direction of the voice. Then, smiling, he reached behind the potion stand into the corner and grabbed at the darkest area of the shadows. He yanked the shadow out into the light.

"Aww, Link, why did you have to pull me out of there?" the girl said as the light caused her to go from shadow back to person again. "I wanted to change myself, not have the light do it."

Link laughed. "I know what to look for too well. Besides, I said for you not to fade. It's not fair to me."

"So? It's hide and seek. That's how I hide." The girl looked at Link with innocent eyes.

Link crossed his arms and frowned.

"Aw, come on. You found me, didn't you?"

Link was about to respond when he heard the distant howl of a wolf.

"We'd better get going home now," he said as the darkness of night settled in. "The Stalchildren will be out soon."

The girl stuck her nose high into the air and put her hands on her hips. "I ain't afraid of no Stalchild," she said.

"No, but you are afraid of the Stalfos that come around midnight." Link looked up at the sky. He couldn't see the moon. Not a good thing if you were out in an alleyway at night. "Come on," he told the girl, "let's get going now."

The girl glared at him as he started to walk off down the alley in the direction of their homes, but she started jogging to catch up when he disappeared around the corner.


Link awoke to a very loud banging on his front door. After a few minutes, he opened the door.

"Ugh. Delyn, what are you doing here? The sun isn't even up yet."

Delyn grabbed hold of the front of Link's shirt and pulled him out into the alleyway, bringing his face close to hers. Their eyes level, she looked at Link with what he thought as an angry stare.

"Since when does a person get summoned to the castle and ends up being the last to know about it?" Her eyes then softened, and a smile spread across her face.

Link was obviously a little puzzled at this piece of information. "What? I've been summoned? This early?"

Delyn nodded. "And the sad thing is, the whole town market population knows about it. Around three this morning a castle guard came running to the market night guards in the square and whispered that the princess wants to see you. Well, some old guy overheard it, he told some old lady, and then by four everyone was out in the square talking about you being summoned." She paused for breath.

Link's eyes widened. But then he thought of something. "How did you find out all of this?"

Delyn looked down towards her right. "I was there when the old guy was telling the old lady."

Link had thought as much. As soon as the Stalfos had left, Delyn probably went back outside due to being bored.

Delyn looked back up at Link. "Well, what are you waiting for? The princess has summoned you!" She bounded off down the alleyway taking a sharp right when she got to the split-off.

Link sighed, making his way after her.

Before Link could wander out into the market square, he was pulled violently to the side.

"Hey, what's the…"

"Shhh!" Delyn covered his mouth and pressed him against the wall. "If you go out there, the people will swarm you. It's not everyday a kid is summoned to the castle." She put extra emphasis on the kid and winked at Link.

Link was not particular amused.

"Besides, aren't you like some sort of special hero or something? Let's see, what did you do? Seal some evil guy in some special Realm? Well, I would think that would draw a great deal more attention than just some average kid being summoned. Yep, you are most definitely too well known to go out there and waltz on up to the castle. You need a disguise," Delyn grinned. "Fortunately, I have just the thing."

Five minutes later, a strange old man walked out of the back alley. He wore an impossibly huge brown cloak that dragged on the ground with a hood that covered all but his off-white beard which resembled some type of animal fur. Not far behind him followed a dark-brown haired girl, who was apparently trying to stifle a fit of giggles.

"Delyn," Link whispered, "what is this that is supposed to pass for a beard?" He slowed down so as to not trip on the front of the cloak.

Delyn took her hands away from her mouth and swallowed her urge to burst with laughter. "It was once the corner of a rug," she said with the straightest face possible.

Ugh, thought Link. I'm probably wearing a rabbit. Part of the reason rabbits had gone extinct was people thought their fur felt cozy under bare feet.

Turning back to the task at hand, Link asked, "Delyn, how exactly is an old man supposed to get past the guards at the exit of the square leading to the castle?"

"I'll think of something. You just wait over by the Shooting Gallery next to the exit. When I give the signal, sneak past the guards and run to the castle."

"But what's the signal?"

"You'll know it when you see it." With that, Delyn jogged up to the recently closed Happy Mask Shop to the right of the guards.

Careful not to let his hands show all of the way, Link lifted his hood just barely enough for him to see forward and not just the stone of the pavement. Walking very slowly behind the mobs of people gathered around the market stands, Link eventually made it to the door of the shop with the big target logo above it. There, he leaned against the wall and looked in the direction of Delyn.

Delyn stood in the shadow of the closed down shop, trying to come up with a distraction. She saw Link positioned next to the Shooting Gallery's door. Good, she thought. The guards don't seem to know he's there. Now, if I could just think of something that would get their… Aha! She thought over the idea. Sure, it was stupid, but it would work on two dumbbells like the guards.

She reached inside the little pouch on the side of her belt and found a tiny round stone that she kept secure there. It had purple and yellow swirls, and captivated Delyn's eyes every time she looked at it for more than a second. The stone had been given to her one day by an ancient looking retired Sheikah warrior. Delyn had been roaming the rocky road of Death Mountain Trail off to the east of Hyrule Castle when the old woman, wearing what had once been skin tight armor of the Sheikahs but was now falling loosely due to her frail body, stepped out from behind a gigantic boulder and grasped Delyn by the shoulders. Delyn still remembered the words formed by the lips of the old warrior and the sternness of her eyes with the faded red lines beneath them, once symbolizing high status in an army.

"Young miss, I sense a great power lurking around you. You are one with no ordinary fate. One day, you will be the key cornerstone in the future of Hyrule. Here, I have something for you. I have been carrying this stone around for many years. It was handed down the generations of the greatest Sheikah warriors. I have never exactly known its purpose, for the legend that went with it has been lost, but now it is calling out to me, telling me that you are the one destined to have it. I believe it does, however, have some connection with the Hero of Time's fate. Now, go on; I will delay you no longer."

And with that, she had tossed a Deku Nut and disappeared. The Deku Nut, having created a convenient blinding flash of light, prevented Delyn of ever knowing where the Sheikah had gone.

Delyn had not really believed the whole thing about being "destined" to have the stone, but she had kept it anyway because it was pretty and it had come from an actual Sheikah warrior. Delyn had admired these people for as long as she could remember, and made a point to find as much out about them as possible and to keep any relics she came across.

Taking careful aim, she tossed the stone gently just beyond the guards. They did not notice the stone because they were too busy being absorbed in their conversation about how many enemies each one had defeated in the last war. The "enemies" were probably in fact pieces of pie and the "war" was probably an eating contest.

Putting on her best face of worry and panic, but also making sure the shadow part of her would conceal the distinctive features of her face, Delyn stepped out of the shadows of the closed Happy Mask Shop and broke into what would have been a jog had she been about five years old. She came up to the guards and clasped her hands together in a pleading motion.

"Oh, please, sir, you have to help me!" she addressed the first guard.

Looking slightly irritated, the guard responded, "Go away, little girl."

Fighting the urge to say, 'I'm not little!', Delyn continued. "But, sir, I'm in big trouble!"

The second guard looked at her and said, "He told you to go away."

Delyn bit her lip. They weren't doing what she wanted them to do. "But, sirs, I've lost it!" she said as anxiously as possible.

"Lost what?" asked the first, not really all that concerned.

"My ring! My grandmother's ring! The stone that goes in it! I was wearing it, when I wasn't supposed to, and while I was playing, the stone fell out! That stone is priceless! My mother will beat me if she finds out that I lost it! Please, you have to help me find it!"

"Alright," the second guard said, not meaning it, "we'll go and help you find it when the shift change comes." He and his buddy both turned away from Delyn and looked out across the rest of the market square.

They're not distracted! Delyn looked at Link, who had begun to inch towards them but stopped since the guards were ignoring Delyn. Argh! she thought. Then, taking hold of their breastplates, Delyn jerked the guards down towards her and yelled in their faces, "I can't wait until you change shifts! We have to go find it now! We have to go, now! Go NOW, I tell you!"

While she paused (breathing extra hard to make the act more effective), Delyn stole a glimpse of what was behind the two guards. Apparently, Link had taken the hint, because Delyn barely had a chance to see him before the tail of his cloak whipped around the corner of a small 'cliff' on the trail to the castle.

The first guard looked like he was about to say something to Delyn, but before he could get it out, she had already let the guards go, ran over to where she had tossed the stone, picked it up, yelled "Oh, here it is!", and vanished down the nearest alleyway.

About ten minutes later, the guards realized that they didn't have the faintest idea about what Delyn had looked like.


Link threw the huge cloak and the 'beard' down on the ground, thankful to be rid of them. Delyn's diversion had been strange, stupid, and apparently thought of on the spot. But it had worked, thanks to Link for having had enough intellect to see when the best time to go came. He still wasn't quite sure if the 'signal' had been Delyn grabbing the guards or not, but he had gotten past them and that was the important thing. Link also didn't understand why he couldn't have just walked to the castle normal, but he never had truly understood why Delyn got her crazy ideas, either.

Just as Link was beginning to realize he hadn't ate breakfast and that the sun was at about six o' clock, he sensed the presence of someone close to him. He had not yet been able to fully understand it, but it was a feeling of familiarity and of something not common to the land of Hyrule. Whatever it was, as soon as Link had that feeling, he knew instantly who was there in the shadows.

Link turned towards the lone tree a couple of feet away from the 'cliff' that rose behind him, and just as he had known, Delyn appeared from the shadows the tree cast. She leaned against the tree trunk and folded her arms as Link walked up to her. She smirked.

"Those guards are as dimwitted as they come. If I were king, I'd replace them," Delyn said, a look of amusement lingering on her face.

"If you were king, Delyn, the world would probably be covered in shadows just so you could fade into them and reappear anywhere you wanted."

Delyn grinned and raised an eyebrow. "You know, you're probably right," she laughed. She put her hand to her chin and tapped her forefinger on her cheek thoughtfully. She grinned a little lopsidedly. "The ultimate hide and seek terrain. That would be so cool." Delyn laughed again.

Link took a step back and looked at her. He'd never seen her grin like that before. Maybe it's just one of them girl things, he decided. "Well," he finally said, "are we going or not?"

Delyn nodded, and started walking towards the castle. She saw a guard waiting at the gate. Remembering the last two guards, she strutted up to him with her nose in the air.

"Excuse me, little girl, but no one's allowed into the castle."

Delyn looked up into the guard's eyes and stared at him, hard. "Well, excuse me, Mr. Guard, but we have permission to go to the castle."

Link came up behind Delyn. The guard saw him and his eyes widened. Then his face grew serious and respectful. "Sir Link, my apologies. You have been summoned to the castle by the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda. Please, hurry on through to meet with her." With that, the guard opened the gate and let Link pass.

Delyn was about to go through as well when the guard placed a hand on her shoulder and held her back.

"Hey, what's the idea?"

The guard spoke roughly. "He has permission to pass, but you on the other hand don't."

The gate closed, with Delyn looking past it, watching Link walk along the path to the castle.


Delyn heard a small whinny come from the castle. Then faint hoof-beats. Delyn sat up from her position on the ground. "Open the gate!" she yelled at the guard.

The guard, having heard the hooves as well, immediately opened it. Just in time, too, for Link then came riding around the corner. He slowed when he passed through the gate, stopped in front of Delyn, and dismounted the young pony he was on.

Delyn jumped up. "What's Epona doing here?"

Link turned to Delyn. "She's going to take me to the Lost Woods. Zelda said that she has gotten news of where Navi might be. It's somewhere in the Lost Woods."

"Navi? You mean your fairy that left you after you sealed away the King of Evil?"

Link nodded. "I've been trying to find Navi for a year and a half. And now I just might find her."

"So you're leaving!" Delyn's mouth dropped open.

"I have to. I'll come back soon." Making sure his sword and shield were secure on his back, he mounted Epona.

"But, wait, I want to come, too!"

"Too, dangerous, Delyn."

Link rode off, leaving Delyn standing there with the guard.