The Legend of Lyric
Chapter 1
~Sister~

A page from Lyric's journal:

I am going to kill him.
I've already decided on how. A single, sharp sword thrust through the heart, so I can see the light leave his eyes. Then I will cut off his head and not only save my brother the hassle of having to re-fight his dark reflection in the Water Temple, but I will finally prove my skill as a fighter once and for all, prove I can fight by his side.
If only it could ever be that simple.


~ Lyric crept along the hallway of the Lakeside laboratory, where they had taken her brother after Dark Link had nearly killed him.
~ Dark Link, indeed, she mentally scoffed. How can such an evil creature bear the same name as my brother? This thing was created by Ganondorf to thwart Link in his quest to save Hyrule from his evil. She hesitated outside the door of his room. She could hear him snoring gently and smiled. Well, his plan has failed, and when Dark meets me, he's not going to know what hit him until it's too late.
~ But first, I need Link's Iron Boots.
She peered around the corner, into the room where Link was resting. She had to stifle a gasp. He just looked so bad! He had cuts on almost every inch of his skin, and bruises up and down both arms. His tunic, armour, and gear were piled neatly in a corner of the room, atop a chair. She spied his Iron Boots sitting together beneath it. There was nobody else around.
~ It's now or never, Lyric thought. She slipped silently over the threshold, then hesitated, looking at her brother again.
If I don't get back before he heals enough to come after me, there'll be hell to pay. She shook her head. Thoughts like that were not going to help her. She would just have to be quick, and get back before he came in to pull her out. Resolved once more, she crept to the chair, hefted the Iron Boots into her infinity bag, and crept out again, not looking back.


~ Dark sat alone in the Room of Illusions, absentmindedly fiddling with his sword, consumed by guilt.
~ He had felt the other one coming for him, heard him lower and raise the water levels in the Temple, until he finally got to the Room of Illusion. Dark had harboured no ill will against the Other until he stepped into the room. Dark had suddenly felt a fierce burning on every inch of his skin. Consumed by pain, he could recall nothing more, until the pain receded. When he finally awoke, he looked down, horrified, to see his black sword stained with blood. The blood of a boy who looked a hell of a lot like him- dressed in a blue tunic - nearly dead. Suddenly a figure appeared, dressed in blue and white, his face covered by a cloth - grabbed the Other, and disappeared again.
~ What the hell was that burning? He wondered. I have never felt that before. Seven years I have waited in this Temple, and for what? Is that what I was made for? To kill the one who looks like me? He sighed. Wondering was useless, but his mind was pulled back to the subject all the same. This event was a solitary stone tossed carelessly into a glassy lake, rippling the surface, interrupting the monotonous, endless waiting. He sighed again, frustrated. I have such strange things…memories, inside my head. He recalled, dimly, the moment he was created.

~ A huge man with green skin, dressed in black stood over him. Dark was shivering, naked. The man waved a hand carelessly, and shadows formed around Dark, dressing him in a tunic and pants of jet black.
~ You are mine," the man told him with an evil chuckle. But the man did not notice the woman hovering behind him, almost invisible. Her hair was vividly pink, and she wore almost nothing at all.
- "Your destiny is to be more than his plaything," she whispered in a voice only he could hear. The green-skinned man turned and walked away without a backward glance. The woman smiled kindly at Dark, then leaned down and kissed him. She breathed something into him. Not life, not air, but something more. His world exploded with pain, and everything faded to black.

~ When he had finally come to, he was already in the Room of Illusions. Here he had waited for seven years, all alone. Mentally, he shook himself. If I belong to the man in black, what does that mean for me? I know he was evil. I know it. I want nothing to do with this shit. But can I still be good, if someone so evil created me?


~ Lyric went back to her room to retrieve her gear. Now that she had the Iron Boots, she wasn't about to waste any more time. She had fought through most of the other Temples, trying to prove her skill as a fighter, but everything she did, Link had already done. And there were no bosses to defeat at the end. She huffed, frustrated by the mere thought of it. I am as good as any of them! She thought vehemently. Being a woman does not make me any less.
~ Both the Gorons, and more recently, the Zoras, had refused to aid her. Neither would sell her the tunics needed to survive the Fire or Water Temples. The Great Fairy of Magic herself, wild fuchsia hair flowing in all directions, stepped in and granted Lyric a special purple tunic, with the specific qualities of both the red and blue tunics sewn into one garment. Even Link, the Savior of Hyrule, the Hero of Time, had no such tunic.
~ Lyric stuffed everything she would need into her infinity bag, a bag that could hold an endless amount of items. Deku nuts, arrows, bow, bombs, her own Hookshot, modeled after the one Link had in his own infinity pack.
~ She had smuggled it down to the smithy one hot afternoon when her brothers had been sparring out on the front lawn. The smithy had studied it for twenty minutes, made some haphazard notes, then handed it back to her and told her to come back to him in two days. The smithy loved oddball projects such as this one, and she knew he would work hard to create an identical working hookshot. She snuck it back to her room only to be discovered. Link had been standing in his room, glaring at her. Covered in sweat and dirt, arms crossed, he looked formidable, despite the fact that he was three years her junior.
~ "What is your obsession with going through my stuff?" he'd demanded of her. He snatched the hookshot out of her hands before she could explain. "Stay out of my room!" he'd yelled, before slamming the door in her face.
Lyric shook her head, bringing herself back to the present. Here, now, her room, about to head off into the Water Temple.
~ Pay attention! She chided herself. This is not a game. Not having your focus on the task at hand could get you killed. She tossed off the yellow tunic and matching cap that she usually wore, and donned the purple ones. She strapped her belt around her slim waist, then slung on her sword and shield.
~ She had saved up, rupee by rupee to get that shield. Something they offered my brother for free. Her sword, the Valkyrie Sword, was a gift from the Great Fairy of Power. She had climbed Death Mountain in her brother's footsteps to see her and request her aid. The Great Fairly had indeed offered her help, in the form of the Sword.
~ "Go and see my sister," she had instructed. "She will give you magic to help you in your quest."
~ She had gone, and almost died from the effort of trying not to spontaneously combust in the Crater. She made it to the Great Fairy, and was given two gifts: magic, as promised, and the purple tunic.
~ "For resisting the effect of the heat, and for breathing underwater," the Fairy had told her with a mischievous smile. "May it aid you in your mission."
~ Lyric smiled to herself at the memory. The Fairies seemed to be willing to let her try her strength, to prove herself as something more than a kitchen maid, more than Link's sister, more than a shadow in his limelight.
~ She packed two bottled fairies, little pink ones that looked like Link's Navi. She also packed a bottle of thick, acid green potion. I'll not go into the Water Temple without a way to restore my magic, should I deplete it. I am no fool. She chuckled to herself at the thought. Finally packed, she quietly let herself out of the room that was hers as long as Link was here recovering. She took the stairs two at a time, and before she could chicken out, walked out the door of the laboratory, into the warm, later afternoon sun.
~ This is it, she thought, walking down the lake-bed of the nearly dried-up lake. This is the day I will prove myself in my brothers' eyes. She smiled with anticipation.
~ Lyric reached the edge of the water, then sat down and yanked off her own boots before pulling on the Iron Boots. She stuffed her boots into the infinity bag and stood. These things weigh a freaking ton, she thought. Slowly, she clomped her way down into the water. She was up to her neck when she stopped. Would the purple tunic work as well as she'd been told? She certainly hoped so. She started forward again, unconsciously holding her breath until the water had entirely covered her head. Then she breathed out, and took a shaky breath in. As soon as the water moved past her lips, it turned to air, and she gasped in a breath in delight.
~ "This is incredible!" she exclaimed, but the words were muffled by the water. If she hadn't had on Iron Boots, she would have joyfully skipped right into the Water Temple. Instead she satisfied herself with a gleeful smile, then continued determinedly ahead.


~ Inside the Room of Illusions, Dark sat up straight, terrified.
~ "Someone is coming," he whispered to the empty air around him. "Give me the strength not to give in to the evil that created me."