I. Am. Alive. Alive and well. It just so happens that I'm alive, well, and very lazy when it comes to writing projects. So! I'm rebooting my old fanfics to build up the motivation for some of my other works-in-progress. Completely rewriting them. I hope some of my old fanfiction buddies haven't given up on me and will find the time to at least give my new-and-improved stories a quick skim-through.

Random fact of the day: Bruce Lee invented his own style of martial art.

"Oftentimes, it comes to my attention," Rauru started, "that the laws of magic are always changing, and therefore cannot be so easily defined, taking for example…"

I groaned, loudly enough to complain but softly enough that the old man wouldn't stop his lecture. It had been a year since Ganondorf was sealed away, a year since Zelda had almost made me a kid again. Rauru had insisted on teaching Zelda and me more about Hylian mythology and magic, in the instance that the sages' seal broke and we had to battle Ganon again.

My mind wandering from the sage's lesson, I removed my left glove. The Triforce mark on my hand still prominent, it also itched whenever I was in the Sacred Realm. It might be because of the holiness of the place, or because Ganon was somewhere deeper in this world, locked away. Either way, it was an itch, so I scratched it.

Hearing the word "Triforce", I snapped to attention. "What?" I asked.

The Sage of Light sighed. "Link, you could use proper grammar. I was just saying, the Triforce is an example of a magical tool capable of breaking the three basic laws of magic."

Seeing my confused expression, he sighed again. "I know you don't pay attention, Link, but this is important! I can't teach you offensive spells if you don't know how they work."

"I can cast Din's Fire just fine," I pointed out.

"No, you can't," Rauru replied. "That gemstone you use is an embodiment of the spell, which anyone with a hint of magical ability can unleash. The same goes for the other two crystals: you're not casting them yourself, but rather finishing off a spell someone else started. Now, on to the three laws of magic.

"One, the caster must have the magical reserve necessary to cast the spell. High-level spells like Din's Fire use incredible amounts of energy without that gem. Two, the caster must have the strong desire to cast the spell. And three, while not an actual 'must', per se, ignoring this rule results in the spell going haywire: one must perform the correct form to cast the spell. The Triforce, I was saying, breaks two of these. Tell me what they are."

"What?" I had just begun dozing off. "Oh, right. Uh… You don't need inherent magic in yourself, and all you have to do is touch it. But you still have to know what you want. So… one and three?" I guessed, wincing in case I was wrong.

To my relief, Rauru smiled. "See? It's not that hard. Now, back to the lesson."

So my day came and went, lecture after lecture with no actual hands-on experience with spells. I learned best just by doing things, like whipping out that fairy bow in the Forest Temple and becoming a decent marksman in hours.

Finally being released from the sage's company, I collapsed exhausted in Dampé the Gravedigger's old hut. It was in his will that it be given to me, though he didn't actually write the will until I met his ghost and beat that stupid race. He was secretly a great wizard, he says, and still hangs around the graveyard from time to time. I learned more about magic in a week from that batty old spirit than I did in two months of Rauru's intense training.

"Link, wake up! I have something new to show you!"

"Speak of the devil…" I muttered, crawling right back out of the sheets. "Dampé, I'm pooped. Can we talk in the morning?"

"Sure, if you're fine with the hut burning down."

"What?!" I jumped up, already smelling smoke. "What did you do?"

"It's not what I did, it's what the cuckoo knocked over outside while I was trying to possess it. If push comes to shove, it's really the bird's fault."

Throwing my tunic on and shoving my feet into my boots, I ran outside and played the Song of Storms. Clouds forming, temperature dropping and air pressure changing, I started picking up dirt and tossing it at the flames licking the side of the shed. Finally, after about ten minutes of waiting, the rain grew strong enough to put the fire out.

"Perfect," Dampé started, hovering behind me. "And now that you're awake…"

"I knew it," I interjected.

"Yeah, yeah, I just needed you awake. Come with me," he floated toward the royal family's grave, "I found something you might wanna see."

I slinked over to the far end of the graveyard, water dripping from my clothes and sloshing in my boots. This had not been my day, and Dampé choosing this time for target practice was not my ideal situation, regardless of how much I normally enjoyed it. Sometime tomorrow maybe, but casting spells when one has to force his eyes open is not a good idea.

Regardless of what I wanted, what Dampé says, goes. He would just bother me all night if I hadn't agreed from the start, and working with him was usually worth the stress. Anyway, the wizard's specter stopped directly above the royal tombstone I had previously destroyed, and when I arrived there he turned to face me.

"Link, tonight something terrible happened. Are you aware of how Princess Zelda's Triforce shard has been waning in power over recent months?"

The area dropped ten degrees lower than the rain had caused, and tension between us grew to huge proportions. "She mentioned it in passing, but played it out to be less serious than her words implied. Was I wrong for falling for it?"

"No," Dampé replied. "Even I didn't sense the seriousness of the situation until just now. My power has only grown stronger with death, and even my safeguards and surveillance familiars failed to catch the shadows going on behind the scenes. Something divine has fallen from grace, and is now in danger of being captured by evil. We must rescue the holy being and find a way to restore its power, before wind of this reaches Ganon, and he uses it to his advantage."

The gravedigger had this strange way of speaking formally in serious matters, and it was an excellent way of grabbing my attention. Somehow, I picked it up in my writing skills; granted, he taught me to write properly. Dampé's tone gave me a sense of just how grave matters were.

"I'm not getting you, Dampé," I said. "How could a god just fall to Hyrule?"

"I didn't say it was a god," he answered me. "Even a guardian spirit's departure could spark tension and even chaos throughout the land."

"But how does the Triforce of Wisdom's weakness fit into it? Does a simple spirit have that much influence on the world of magic?"

Dampé hesitated. "No, one being couldn't cause this, unless it was incredibly powerful. We must be careful. Even if we were not already worrying about Ganon's seal falling apart, one must keep in mind that the Triforce is the very foundation of Hyrule. Losing it would be devastating. Our world will crumble."

Oftentimes Dampé's knowledge would cross the border between "odd" and "impossible", and recently I had been gaining the courage to challenge him. "Dampé… how do you know so much about this? I've never heard anything about the Triforce holding us together."

The wizard sighed. "I've seen it before, in another realm. It was truly a tragic situation, but that is as much as I will say on the matter. It has no consequence on Hyrule. Link, the forces of darkness are gathering in Hyrule Field even as we speak. I recommend making your way over there as quickly as possible. Use the finding spell we worked on to search for strong instances of holy power. Now suit up and GO!"

I turned, took two steps to build up speed, slipped in mud, hit my head on a gravestone and blacked out.

I woke up on Dampé's bedspread, his face two inches from my own. Shouting in alarm, I sat straight up. Normally this would have caused the simple cliché of us cracking our skulls together, but with Dampé not having any substance to his appearance, I instead passed right through him, getting a lovely view of his throat and stomach.

Standing up and shaking the fogginess out of my throbbing head, I began straightening out my clothes. "How long was I out?"

The wizard grinned. "Six hours. In that time, I discovered that the divine being you're going out looking for is definitely in the form of a Hylian somewhere in Hyrule Field. Somehow, no evil creature can get within 50 feet of it without dying instantaneously. Approach cautiously, but it should be fine, so long as you don't think of anything… naughty."

Feeling my ears go red, I brushed him off. "I remain honorable!"

"I know," Dampé chuckled. "Hurry up! We don't know when the situation will take a turn for the worse!"

Kicking off again, I noticed the sun rising over the Shadow Temple. I stormed through Kakariko Village, grabbing a cuckoo and jumping off the windmill hut's ledge to gain speed. Skipping two stairs at a time, I reached the town's entrance and called Epona on my ocarina. As she arrived, I jumped on her in one bound, lightly kicking her flanks and taking off. Something felt a bit off about my gear, but I figured it was just the last bits of sleep shaking off of my mind.

I muttered the finding incantation Dampé taught me, feeling my senses heighten. My sight blurred and dimmed, but I trust Epona to keep me going, or at least avoid obvious crashes. While my vision was nearly completely gone, I began feeling an innate pull from the left, and adjusted my course until I was heading straight for it.

As the pull grew stronger and I covered more distance, I angled my horse to match. Sensing myself closing in on the divine power I was searching for, I let the spell drop. I was surrounded by Poes.

Reaching for my sword, I realized what was missing: my sword. Swearing under my breath, I thought of how I would have remembered to bring it if I was allowed to keep the Master Sword. I smiled and waved at the Poes, hoping they weren't feeling too aggressive.

They were. Ducking as the first lantern swung over my head, Epona took the cue and bolted, not even waiting for me to grab the reins. Losing my balance, I grabbed the pommel horn, silently thanking Malon for her insistence on attaching one to my saddle. Struggling to regain control of my steed, I did just what any idiot would do: mix up my priorities and start firing arrows at the ghosts.

Finally, Epona reared up and I fell flat on my back. As she galloped off, I decided my best chance was to keep moving as I fought. I had barely taken five steps when the Poes stopped dead in their tracks. Something was preventing them from coming closer.

Never taking my eyes off the monsters, I paused to take a breath. While they were no longer chasing me, they certainly retained their violence, and finally one lost its temper and flew toward me. In a flash of blue light that surprised even me, it vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind.

Dampé did mention monsters die when they get too close to the… god! I jumped up and started looking around. Sure enough, there was a figure lying in the grass several yards away. I approached cautiously, not taking any chances that it might turn on me.

A girl. It was a girl. Distinctly a girl, as a matter of fact. It was easy to tell. She was naked. She couldn't have been older than I was, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. I was stunned by her beauty, until I realized what I was doing and turned around.

I tried thinking of what to do, but my mind was still really fuzzy, and all I could think of was the way her – no, I stopped there. Calling Epona again, I took a blanket out of the saddlebag and backed toward the girl, covering her as I went, forcing myself to look nearly straight up. When I finished, I worked up the courage to take a look at her face.

Her skin was flawless, and she looked relaxed as she slept. No, what I meant was, she didn't show any signs of injury. The only odd thing was… she had blue hair. It didn't look like some of the dye that I sometimes saw foreign nobles use; this was a vivid, sky-blue, perfectly straight and flowing all the way down to her waist. Looking at her stirred something within me, but I didn't understand it at the time.

After watching her for slightly too long to deem appropriate, I carefully picked her up, wrapping her multiple times in the blanket, and set her in front of me on Epona's saddle. Wrapping my arms around her waist, careful so as not to touch any sensitive parts, we took off at a trot back to Dampé.

She stirred in my arms, and I locked up. "Miss?" I asked tentatively, already wincing at the legal issues this would cause. "I know this looks really, really bad on my part, but I swear as a knight of Hyrule that my intentions were honorable. I was just taking you to a safe place to rest, since I found you out here in the wild."

She didn't open her eyes. As I was about to say something to see if she was actually awake, she spoke. "Are you taking me to a brothel?" she asked, calmly as if she was asking about the weather.

I was stunned. "Of course not, miss! I would never-!"

"Then it is fine," she cut me off. "May I rest now? I am incredibly tired…"

She laid her head against my chest, falling asleep before I could protest. I honestly wondered if she was testing my resolve on purpose, but I did my best to ignore any rising temptations. I spurred Epona on, eager to reach Dampé and end this torture.

It was still a longer return trip than it was to find the girl, because I couldn't make a full gallop, not to mention I had no idea where I was due to sensing my way to my target rather than using my eyes. Reaching the village, I realized another problem: the hero of Hyrule would not be able to carry a half-naked, sleeping maiden across town without arousing suspicion. I praised the gods that my fears were unfounded, as Dampé was waiting under the entrance to the town.

"Link, praise the gods, you've done it! Hurry, I'll cloak the two of you so that we can bring her to my shack." Turning invisible at the dead wizard's command, I carefully removed to girl from the saddle and sent Epona back to the ranch. Carrying the blue-haired maiden through the town, I started getting those thoughts about her again. I pushed them aside as they came, and was again relieved when I ducked under the rickety gateway to the graveyard.

"That needs fixed as well, Link. You promised to keep the place up!"

Ignoring Dampé, I pushed the broken door open and set the girl down I my bedspread, finally relieved of my beautiful burden. She woke up again, sleepily grinning at me. "Hello, sir knight. Where am I?"

"Uh, well, you're at my, uh…"

Dampé nudged me. If my mind was working properly, I would have wondered how. "Shack! This shack is mine. It is my shack. That I stay at. It's where we are right now."

She giggled, a light, resonating sound. "Well, so long as I am safe, as you said. May I sleep now?"

"Ask her name," Dampé whispered.

"May I have your name first, milady?" I obeyed.

Her brow furrowed for a moment, but then the serene expression returned, as she matter-of-factly replied: "I don't know." And then her eyes closed as she crashed yet again.

"She doesn't know?" I whispered heatedly to the ghost hovering over my shoulder.

"Well, what she doesn't know, she doesn't know."

"What's that mean for us?"

"It means, my dear pupil, one simple thing: Fate really screwed us over."

Well, there you have it. Completely rewritten, with just the same simple mental outline I had the last fic with. For any interested in reading the original, dropped project… No. It was atrocious. I tried reading the prologue and had to conclude I was drunk when writing it. I shall attempt to update weekly! Just not… the same day… a week. ^_^"

Signing off,

~F4R