The Worth of a Heart
By Shini the megami
Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda in any way, shape, or form. I am only burrowing it with every intention of giving it back….maybe. (Shifty eyes) Anything that does not feel familiar to you from Zelda is mine.
Author's Note: This takes place after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, except I'm kind of combining OoT Hyrule with Twilight Princess Hyrule and adding some things in it and spacing things out more to make in a properly sized country. It always bugged me that Hyrule seemed so small. Anyway I'll eventually attempt to draw a map of my Hyrule, so you can see what I mean. 'Tis all for now.
Chapter 1: A Mystery Unsolved
"Take me wit you! Take me wit you!" came the high pitched squeal as a small body grabbed his leg in a vice-grip far stronger than Link thought possible for a four-year-old.
Link sighed and looked down at his small daughter, she looked very much like Zelda, or at least, what he imagined Zelda looked like as a four-year-old. She had golden colored hair tied back in a short ponytail, though it wasn't much of a ponytail anymore as most of her hair had escaped from its bindings. Large cornflower blue colored eyes stared up at him from a dirt covered face. Now that he looked at her more closely, her face was not the only thing covered in dirt. She, in fact, looked as if she had been rolling in a pile of dirt. Knowing his daughter, this was likely not far from the truth.
It had been four years since the birth of his daughter, five years since his marriage to Zelda, and truth be told Link had wanted a son. It was not as if he didn't love his daughter, because he did, she was his pride and joy. It was that he had not a clue about raising a girl; he was a man not a girl, despite knowing more girls than boys. He still doesn't quite know about raising a girl, mostly because he treated his daughter like a son.
Link detached his daughter from his leg and held her in his arms, not really caring that he was getting dirty himself. "You can't come, Kida," he tried to explain to her patiently, but she cut him off before he could get any farther.
"But why not?" Kida pouted, "You always go on a'ventrers, Papa. Why can' I?"
Link was starting to think using his adventures for Kida's bedtime stories was not one of the best ideas he had. Ever since he told Kida that first story she had been set on having her own "a'ventrer". But really, he couldn't help himself; Kida was the best audience he'd ever had. She gasped at all the right times in the story and everything. And plus it was hard to say no to her when she gave him those puppy eyes. Navi still chuckled at the Hero of Time's powerlessness against that gaze. "When you're older," he finally answered. Link had a feeling that this would come back to bite him when Kida was older. And really, Link wasn't going on an adventure. He was going to investigate a report of disturbances in a nearby village where some villagers have turned up dead.
When Link married Zelda, becoming a prince by marriage in the process, the King had taken pity on Link's utter boredom with politics and put him in command of the Royal Hylian Guard upon the original captain's retirement. Going on patrols and what not didn't allow him the same kind of freedom as before, but at least it was better than being stuck in the castle dealing with uptight nobles and their better-than-thou attitudes.
"You always say dat, Papa!" Kida's accusation brought Link out of his musing and back into the real world, "When will I be older?"
"Where is Auron?" Link countered, noticing for the first time that Kida's silent guardian was not present.
Kida's pout deepened, clearly not happy that her Papa wasn't answering her question, but answered anyway, "He got in trouble, so Mama is yellin' at him."
'Probably for Kida's state of uncleanliness and those guests that were arriving later today,' thought Link.
"When will I be older, Papa?" Kida asked again.
"I don't know, Kida," Link told here, he really had to go, his men were waiting for him, and he didn't have time to answer his daughter's endless questions, "But, you know who you should ask?"
"Who?" Kida asked, excited that she was getting her question answered.
"You should ask Auron, he knows everything you know. So, why don't you go find him."
"'Kay!" said Kida, apparently appeased with the answer and scurried off.
Link smiled, only feeling a little guilty for unleashing his daughter's questioning, which was likely to not stop after this question, on his friend. On that note, Link turned around to head for the stables to retrieve Epona.
After riding for about half an hour the village to which they were headed finally came into view. They hadn't talked much on the way and that suited Link just fine. His mind was on other matters.
Zelda had been having precognitive dreams recently of a woman who would bring great darkness over Hyrule. Then the deaths had happened, the timing had been disturbingly perfect. Not only that but the circumstances surrounding the deaths were unusual. The victims, four boys in their late teens and early twenties, had just turned up dead the morning after a visit to a pub. At first, one would probably think they had gotten a little too drunk and made the wrong person angry, but there was no sign of foul play on their bodies. No stab wounds or any sign they had been murdered. In fact, it was almost as if their heart had simply stopped beating in their chests. The same thing happened seven years ago, in which an entire village turned up dead with no apparent cause of death.
Link was abruptly forced out of his thoughts when a girl suddenly ran out in front of Epona. Link cursed, pulling back on Epona's reins to stop her. Epona reared up just as the girl seemed to have noticed them and froze for brief seconds before throwing herself out of the way in time to avoid being crushed under Epona's powerful hooves. Link dismounted and rushed over the girl. The girl, who seemed to be in her early teens, looked to be in shock. Link was not entirely sure she was okay, though she seemed to be, as she was staring down at the ground and her long, straight, dark brown hair was curtaining her face from view. "Goddesses, are you okay?" Link asked.
The girl looked up suddenly, as if just noticing Link was there, revealing a darkly tanned face and soft green eyes. In fact, it was her eyes that caught Link's attention the most. They were intense and seemed to stare through him, it made him a bit uncomfortable. "Yes," the girl said simply, she had a soft voice, but it was clear like the ring of a bell in cold air. The girl stood up then, Link standing with her, "I must go," she said. Then the girl turned, without another word or bow or any sign she had recognized who she had been speaking to, and walked away, rather quickly and somewhat tensely; like she would rather run away than walk away.
A young guard muttered something about the girl's lack of respect, but Link paid no heed to it. He watched the girl leave, wondering if it had been the best thing to let her walk the fields alone as they could be rather dangerous what with the monsters that sometimes roamed the fields during the day and at night. 'There's a town not far from here,' Link rationalized with himself, 'She'll likely make it there before nightfall.' Done reassuring himself, Link mounted Epona and they headed toward the village again.
"Wha-what is this!? This is more than a few villagers!" cried one of the guards. Link was inclined to agree with him. Villagers lay strewn across the ground, dead, but there was no blood, no wounds, no apparent cause of death. Link had thought it was far too quiet for a village at this time of day when they first arrived, but he had not expected this to be the reason why.
'What could have happened? Does this mean we just missed the—' something suddenly occurred to Link, 'That girl! She came from the direction of the village! Why hadn't I noticed that before?' Link ran to the entrance of the village and scanned the fields for the girl, but she was nowhere in sight, 'Where is she? She was on foot; she couldn't have gotten that far!' But, far she had gotten, it seemed. 'Did she teleport or something? Could she have used magic?'
The end for chapter one. Sorry for the rushed ending, I kind of, sort of wanted to get this done with. This chapter was pretty much to set some things up. Next chapter is when we get into the real story! So I hope you give this story a chance and stay tuned.
Anyway please review, I love to read what people think. I'll take constructive criticism, ideas, whatever you have for me. But, I'll tell you now, flames will be used to warm myself up because my room is freezing butt cold.
Also, I might change the title of this fanfic later on. The current working title: The Worth of a Heart was the best I could think of at the moment. So, until I think of a better title, it will likely remain The Worth of a Heart. Just a heads up, in case you decided to follow this fic.
Until next time then!