The Legend of Zelda: The Shadow Key

Note: (You don't actually have to read this, it's mostly informative): I do not own any of the Characters in the Legend of Zelda, nor do I own anything under Nintendo or any other gaming company. This is also not based off of any of the games, but makes hints to Hyrule's history every now and again. Most of the characters are new, and only a few dungeons are from the original series. I do use familiar characters like Zelda and the female version of Link, but the rest are based on future generations and what would happen if these famous individuals had descendants. I am welcoming to any advice or suggestions you would like to see in this series. I'll try to make a new chapter once a week, but no promises. I will try my best though.

Prologue:

Have you heard of the legends and stories of the kingdom of Hyrule? They were considered great tales of courage and valor! It all began with the dark being, Demise, wanting to conquer and rule over the humans. He would have succeeded, but Lady Hylia and a great hero stepped forward and vanquished the fiend. Before the final blow was struck, however, Demise cursed the land that he would return as a reincarnation of his evil and lust for power. This cycle would never end until he was victorious. Thankfully the Goddess' also blessed the land that Lady Hylia and the great hero would be reincarnated as well to fight and defeat this evil whenever the land was in danger.

And thus the cycle began. Eventually one reincarnation of Demise known as Ganon would plague the land over and over again, seeking to claim it as his own. This monster was defeated by the hero every time he had risen, but Ganon was not someone you could simply kill. His soul was sealed away by the power of evil's bane, and the triforce, as many times as he challenged the great hero. The hero had sealed his soul, split his soul and spread it across time and distance, and even had tried to insert his soul into insignificant animals. Every time he rose again to fight for his evil desire.

The last hero finally found a way to vanquish and destroy Ganon's soul, finally putting an end to the great enemy of Hyrule. This hero who was called "Link" warned us that the spirit of Demise would return through a new host, and enemy. All of us simply held to the hope that another hero would rise when Demise's soul did.

My father met this hero named Link when he was only 4 years old, but my father never had forgotten his experience. Link was old in age at that point, and it was said he would soon pass on, but he told my father to train and become a protector of the people. My father did so, and trained tirelessly to become a great warrior and champion.

He idolized Link, and thought of him as his ultimate role model. My father vowed to name his firstborn child after Link in his honor, but seeing as I was a girl, he named me Linkle, something a little more feminine.

My father trained and eventually was recognized and became the captain of the guard. He trained me as well, but seeing as I was a woman, the law said that I couldn't officially become part of the Hyrule corps without specific royal decree from the crown.

So I trained, and became quite exceptional with a sword and shield, and I even got to help train the new recruits. Even though I wasn't officially one of them, all of the soldiers considered me part of the corps. I was always happy to be where I was, but one day, everything in my life changed.

Chapter 1: The Hylian Thief

Linkle was standing there with beads of sweat across her forehead. The soldier she was dueling was incredibly skilled amongst the corps. He smirked and raised his sword for an incoming attack. Linkle tried to duck out of the way and rolled to the side. She lifted up her shield in front of her face just in the nick of time to block the soldier's practice weapon.

She leapt up with an upward strike of her sword, but the man was too fast. He parried and rushed in for what appeared to be the final blow. As he did so, Linkle used her signature spin attack that her father had taught her. She swept the soldiers legs from under his body and on the twist back, she hit the side of his armor with her sparring blade.

The soldier hit the ground with a thud, and Linkle pointed the tip of her weapon towards his face. A roar of excitement came from the other watching soldiers. Linkle lowered her weapon and held out her hand to the soldier she had just beaten. He gladly took it and rose to his feet.

"I was so close it seemed," began the soldier, "I should've stood firmer."

Linkle corrected him.

"You should have used your longer reach to your advantage. Remember, I'm short in comparison to you, therefore I have to get closer. Keep your distance next time and you'll increase your chances of victory."

The soldier nodded. The others watching were congratulating him on his attempt. Linkle had to laugh. It had been made a rumor amongst the guards that if you could best her in a duel, the captain would promote you for your exceptional skill. This rumor could never be confirmed, because the only one that had ever beaten Linkle was her own father.

She sheathed her sparring weapon and walked over to the captain who stood proud looking at her.

"My girl, you still have zero losses against my men. Good job, if you keep this up, I may have to send another petition to the royal family for your status as a guard."

Linkle smiled.

"Daddy, I know you want me to be a part of the corps, but the royal family has other matters to attend to. There are plenty of other things that are important to take care of."

Her father shook his head.

"There's nothing more important to me than my daughter, so nothing else compares in my book. I am the captain of the guard after all. I'm sure one of these days you'll be accepted into our ranks."

Linkle just shrugged. She was fairly happy where she was at the moment. She still got to fight and practice with members of the corps, and she was proud to be considered one of Hyrule's most skilled warriors.

Suddenly all of the troops including her father bowed. Linkle looked up and saw the reason. She bowed as well. Princess Zelda was walking along with her sheikah bodyguard. Zelda was born close to the time that Linkle was, and she was named Zelda as tradition dictated for the firstborn female of each royal generation. They had been close friends growing up together, but since she became eighteen a year ago, Linkle hardly ever saw her anymore. The Sheikah next to her was Shana, the granddaughter of the renowned warrior sheikah Impa. Impa swore that all of her future generations would protect the royal family.

Shana was Zelda's bodyguard, but she was only about four years older than Zelda and Linkle. She took her responsibility very seriously though, if you dared approach the princess without reason, you risked getting your head cut off by her huge sword. Linkle had never had an opportunity to spar with Shana, but she felt like shana might just be another one who could best her. After all, she had been trained her whole life to protect the future princess.

Zelda smiled a friendly smile to Linkle as they walked by the castle wall. Linkle was glad that even though they hadn't seen much of each other, she still remembered their past friendship. After they were out of site everyone stood up again.

Linkle walked over to a bench and sat down wiping the sweat from off of her forehead. She looked up at the sky, it was about midday. She sat there pondering whether or not she was in fact satisfied with her current position. She admittedly did want to join the corps officially, but even deeper down, she just wanted to continue to make her father proud.

Her father always sought to be a hero among men, hoping to defend those he cared about from evil. He still held to the tales his father would tell him of the great hero Link, and consequently he would tell those same stories to Linkle growing up. She wanted to have a chance someday to test her courage, but for now she decided to be content with her current situation. It wasn't like there was much she could do to change anything at the moment.

Linkle got up and decided to head for the bath house. Although she was a warrior, she was still a girl, and wanted to get cleaned up. She hated the feeling of being sweaty, but it was something she learned to put up with over the years. She still loved the feeling of being clean, and hated the feeling of filth, but she didn't complain vocally about it anymore.

When she turned her back she heard a commotion among the men. She walked over to see what the cause of it was. She could hear the soldiers communicating, but she thought the best way was to ask her dad about it.

As she walked up to him he was speaking with a couple of soldiers in a serious tone. Linkle noted how he was speaking to the fastest and most agile of his troops.

"What's going on?" She asked.

Her father looked at her and nodded to the soldiers as they left.

"A thief in the marketplace, it's nothing too big to handle. I've chosen my best soldiers for the job."

After he had relayed the information to her, he took off as well. Linkle ran up the steps of the wall to look towards where the ruckus was. She saw a man in light travel clothes with a scarf concealing the lower half of his face being chased by a number of soldiers.

He was jumping across some of the stalls and reached a rooftop. He had something in his hand, and after a moment, Linkle recognized what it was. It was the pendant of courage, something entrusted to the royal family! How did he get his hands on that?!

Linkle looked and noticed that the guards were having trouble keeping up with the thief. She was annoyed at how agile he was, occasionally stopping to mock his pursuers. Linkle had enough and leapt from the wall and onto the canopy of one of the market stalls.

She slid across the canvas, and landed on the stone street.

"They'll never catch him like this." She thought to herself.

Linkle looked around and could tell the general direction he was heading. She took the alleyway down to the south and knew she could probably cut him off if she ran. She could hear his footsteps coming closer to her direction from the shingles he was stepping on.

She kept up the pace, and eventually she made it to a door. She opened it to find a smaller alleyway. Not moments after she entered she heard the footsteps slow down and stop right above her. The thief jumped down into the alleyway she had just entered.

He looked quite surprised to see her, and she was fairly surprised of him as well. She honestly didn't think that plan of action would turn out so well. The only down side was that she left her real sword at the barracks, and only had a practice weapon with her.

She took a good look at him. He was Hylian it looked like, and he wore all dark clothing. He had black hair, and his eyes were yellow. Linkle also noted the long black sword that was strapped to his back. He appeared to be a swordsman of some sort. He chuckled, but the sound was slightly muffled from the scarf.

"Well, now sweetheart, it seems you've caught me."

Linkle held out her hand.

"Give me back what you stole, and I'll accept your surrender."

The thief laughed.

"I have no intention of surrendering sweetheart. Do you know what this is?"

The thief held out the green pendant. Linkle simply nodded.

"It's the pendant of courage, entrusted to the royal family's care. You do realize that you'll have an army pursuing you if you try to hold onto that, right?"

The thief simply laughed again.

"Exactly, they are willing to go through whatever it takes to get this thing back, all because of some sort of lame legend of theirs. I plan to ransom it back to them for wealth beyond measure."

Linkle was feeling the anger build up inside of her.

"It's not a lame legend, Link was a true hero! And how can you be such a brute?! That's a symbol of hope for all of Hyrule, that when evil invades the hero will return!"

The thief started to twirl the pendant in his hand.

"Whatever the case, it will still make me rich. Later sweetheart, I've got a pay day to collect."

He turned to get away, but Linkle jumped in front of him blocking the way. She pulled out her wooden sword and pointed it at his face.

"Why don't you pull out that sword of yours and we'll see who gets that pendant today?"

The thief pulled out a dagger from his sash.

"I'm a thief, not a murderer. If I use this sword, you won't live to tell the tale. Now if I use my knife, I can knock you out with the hilt. I'd rather not fight a damsel though."

Linkle was even more angered from that last statement. She was slightly glad that he saw her as a girl though, some of the guards didn't for some reason, but that may have been a good thing.

She charged forward with her sword and tried to land a strike on his head. The thief easily dodged the attack by moving slightly to the side. He rushed behind her with the butt of his hilt ready to smash her forehead. She twirled around and performed her spin attack which knocked him back, but his reflexes prevented him from being knocked to the ground.

He stood with his weapon ready.

"Not bad for a woman, let's see how you handle this one!"

He charged forward, and Linkle had her shield ready to block the attack. At the last second he leapt into the air and landed behind her. He made a slash at her, and she barely had time to block. She rammed him with her shield and pinned him to the wall. She knew if she was going to defeat him, she had to find his weak point.

She went into another spin attack which knocked him off balance again. She immediately followed up with a forward thrust and hit him in the chest. He coughed and dropped the pendant on the floor. He held his chest where he had been hit while trying to utter something.

"I was bested by a woman. I guess there's a first time for everything. Fine, you win for now, but I'll be back another day, trust me."

The thief jumped back onto the rooftops and got away. Linkle was more concerned with getting the pendant back to the royal family. As she walked back through the door, she was met there by her father. He was panting while trying to catch his breath.

"He got away, I can't believe this. He stole something very valuable to the kingdom."

Linkle smiling held up the pendant.

"You mean this?"

Her father snatched it from her and stared at it. With tears in his eyes he embraced his daughter.

"How did you get it back?" He asked.

Linkle explained everything that happened. When she finished her father was still hugging her.

"I see," he began as he finally let go of her, "you truly are a hero of Hyrule today Linkle. Perhaps the royal family will approve your entrance into the corps now? And you did this all with only a practice weapon, I'm so proud of you!"

He hugged her again. They both walked back to the castle together. Her father held the pendant in his hands smiling.

"I'm going to return this to its rightful owners." He declared.

Linkle simply smiled at her father again.

"And I'm going to take a bath. I probably smell awful right now."