"Your fortune, for five rupees!"
The old woman tugged on the sleeve of Link's tunic, looking a hundred years older than the Goddesses themselves. Link had come to Castle Town to buy a few things, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was some mad old woman out for his money.
"I'm in a hurry," he growled, pulling his arm.
"Please good sir, 'tis only five rupees, and I have children to feed…" She had a sad look in her eyes, and he could not help but pity her.
"Oh, alright," he said with a sigh.
She led him through the crowded market place, which was bustling with crowds of people haggling over the merchants' wares. Link rarely went to the towns, he was a man of little wealth and had little to buy, but today he had a few extra rupees, and they weren't doing much just sitting in his pocket.
A short while later the old woman took him inside a small, musty-smelling tent, with nothing within save for a small oaken table with chairs on either side.
"I should warn you, young man, that you may not like what you're about to hear!" she said with a cackling laugh.
Link rolled his eyes. After doling out the five rupees, he knew he'd most likely hear his "fortune" which would be obviously untrue and never come to pass, and he'd be five rupees poorer for it.
"Your hands, please."
Link took off his gloves and held out his hands, which the old woman examined closely, giving particular attention to the Triforce mark on the back of one of them.
"Hmm, what's this, then…?"
She appeared in thought for a moment, and then spoke in a low voice. "I think I see it now…here is how your future shall come to pass. When you go home to the woods tonight, you will see a new star in the sky, brighter than any other. You will be so fixed on this star that you will trip over a root and fall down, and you will receive a wound on the right side of your face."
Link frowned. "What kind of fortune is that?" he asked angrily.
"Quiet! I'm still getting things…all right, on the following day, you will be riding through the woods, and your horse will be stolen. On the day after that, you will find your horse on the north side of Lake Hylia, drinking from the water."
Crazy old woman, he thought. "Is that all?" He thought of all the things he could better spent those five rupees on.
"Wait! There is something else…yes, I see it now…on the day after that, the Princess of Hyrule shall chose you as her husband, and you shall marry her."
Link stepped up. "You silly sot! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You've beswiken me of my rupees!"
But the old woman did not get angry, and simply smiled at him knowingly as he stormed out of his tent. Link was now so furious for having wasted his money, even if it was only five rupees, so much so that no longer felt like buying anything else, and so he found his horse and rode off.
The sun had already set by the time he reached the edge of the forest. The woods were what he called his home, for he had no dwelling for himself. Many would think him foolish for living and sleeping under the trees, but Link did not care for the opinions of others.
Marry the Princess of Hyrule…Link could only laugh at such a thoroughly impossible happening. He knew that Princess Zelda would have a choice of the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful lords in Hyrule when it came time to choose her husband, and Link couldn't imagine ever choosing someone like him, who had little wealth and no land of his own.
But when he came to the forest's edge, his horse suddenly refused to go further. He urged her on, but she refused to budge. After a minute of trying to get her to go on, Link finally gave up and dismounted. As soon as he grabbed her by the bridle, she immediately began going forward again.
"What's wrong with you?" he chided. His horse had always ridden into the forest without fear before.
The woods were dark and foreboding at this hour, though Link had no fear of this place, unlike most people of Hyrule. The forest was where he had been raised, and where, he hoped, he would spend the rest of his life.
Then, as he walked along, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he looked up, he saw a bright, shining star in the sky, where he had never seen on before, and it was far brighter than any other star he could see.
Well that's strange…he thought.
But while he was gazing up at the sky, he failed to watch where he was walking, and stumbled over a large root. Link fell right on his face, and he quickly scrambled to his feet, cursing loudly. Beside him, his horse neighed, as though she were laughing at him.
To his surprise, when he brushed the leaves off his face, he saw blood on his hand, and realized that he had been cut on the right side of his face.
Exactly as she said…, he thought, but he dismissed that idea at once. That could have happened to anyone. It was strange, though, that it happened on this very night.
A short while later, Link decided he had gone far enough, and sat down beneath a large oak tree. This was how he slept, and while it would seem impoverished to some, it was what he was used to. After shuffling about, trying to get himself comfortable, Link finally drifted off to sleep, still thinking about the old woman and her ridiculous prophecies, and he had one last laugh before sleep took him.
Link awoke early the next morning, and his first thought was that he would go to the market again, though this time he would be a little more careful with his rupees. He got atop his horse and started riding out of the woods, still angry about having been cheated out of his money by that crazy old woman.
What did she say would happen today? That his horse would be stolen…well, he thought, if I just stay with her the whole day, that won't happen.
The path of the forest was long and winding, and it would take him nearly an hour to reach the town. Not that he minded, of course, for there was something comforting about the forest and the way the trees seemed to surround him. It wasn't something he could expect other Hylians to understand.
But when he had gone a little while, he saw a woman standing in the middle of the road, and beside her there was a man lying on the ground, not moving.
"Stop!" she cried. "Please, help!"
Link rode up to them, and asked what had happened.
The woman was hysterical. "My…my brother, he was just riding along here, when he fell off horse. Please, you must help him!" Beside her, Link could hear the man moaning in pain.
He didn't know much of healing, but it would heartless of him to leave this wounded man here, and so he dismounted from his and went over to the man, kneeling beside him. Link wondered what he should do, as moving the man about might only make things worse.
But Link had scarcely any time to think of things when the man suddenly took out a vicious looking dagger and held the point to Link's throat.
"Take his rupees, Gunnhild! Thorgeirr, get his horse!" he shouted.
Another man emerged from the undergrowth and immediately climbed aboard Link's horse. Without a weapon of his own, Link could do nothing, and watched in helpless rage as the woman snatched his bag of rupees from his tunic and other man saddled up on his horse. With his dagger still at this throat, the man then ran and get atop the horse as well, and the three of them rode off the now overburdened horse, leaving Link alone in a fury.
"Bastards!" he called out, but they were long gone. His face red with anger, he slammed his fists into a tree, crying out in rage. Link was so overcome with wrath that he did not even realize at first that the old woman's second prophecy had now been fulfilled. When this finally dawned on him, he thought little of it, and instead he spent all day and night searching across Hyrule for the horse thieves. He went back to Castle Town, to Kakariko Village, and all the way up Death Mountain, but he found no sign of them. Thirsting for vengeance, there was nothing he could do, and his frustration was overwhelming.
By now it was the following day, and Link's anger had turned to despair. His horse, his most prized (and only) possession had been taken, and there seemed no recourse or redress for him. The woman's words were finally beginning to sink in, and he wondered if it were a coincidence that two of the things she had prophesized had come true. Still, he was adamant that she was just some mad, babbling old lady, until he recalled her third prediction, that he would find his horse on the north side of Lake Hylia. Immediately, he set out for that place, doubting he would find anything.
She won't be there, he thought. Link didn't even believe in fortune tellers or the like. Nothing but a bunch of swindlers…
When he came to the south side of the lake, he saw nothing. But as he made his way northward, he saw a horse standing by the north shore, taking a drink from the water.
No…, he thought, please, let it be someone else's horse…
With a knot in his stomach, he ran towards it, and when he got closer it was clear that it was his horse, and she neighed at Link when she saw him.
Any other day Link would have been happy to find his horse after it was stolen, but not today. Suddenly, he could no longer discount the old woman's sayings. How could three of her predictions come to fulfillment, so quickly and as exactly as she had said? The star appearing, his horse refusing to let him ride in to the woods and making him walk, the horse thieves, and now this. No, it was too much to be mere happenstance, though Link would not quite accept it.
That only left her final prophecy, that he would marry Princess Zelda. There was no way in which that could come true, or so he thought. The princess lived in the castle, where he would never be allowed, and there was no way in which the princess could even find him with the way he lived.
But Link wasn't about to take any chances. There was one way he could prevent it from happening, and that was to get as far away from Hyrule Castle as possible. He urged his horse onward and rode to the forest, galloping through the forest as fast as his horse would go, and he rode until he his horse grew tired, and walked the rest of the way until sundown. By now he was further from Hyrule than he had ever been, so far that he did not even quite know where he was. And there was no way, he thought, that the princess or anyone from the castle could find him here.
Certain that he was safe, he laid down beneath a tree after tying up his horse. I'll show that old woman, he thought before he went asleep. When nothing happens tomorrow, I'll go back to her tent and demand my five rupees back!
"Excuse me, good sir!"
A voice roused Link from his sleep. Disoriented, he fumbled to his feet, and found that there was a black-clad woman standing by his horse, and immediately he felt a sense of dread come over him. She was dressed in a black cloak, with her face almost totally covered by a veil, with only a pair of blue eyes looking out.
"Y…yes?" he answered nervously.
"I'm looking for a great hero," she said.
"Do I look like I know any?" he answered angrily, and there was nothing he wanted more than to ride away, further into the forest.
"Well, I may be a simple peasant's daughter," she said, "but I've heard stories about a certain green-clad man who rides through the woods late at night. No one knows his name or whence he's from, but they say his skill at arms is unmatched in all the land."
At once, Link could tell there was something not entirely right about this woman. She did not talk with the accent of a peasant woman, and there was something strangely familiar about her voice.
"I don't know anyone like that," he grumbled, turning away and readying his horse. "Now, I really must be going."
"Won't you stay a bit longer, Link?"
He stopped, and began to turn around slowly. "How do you know my-."
But when he looked at her again, the woman was no longer a peasant's daughter, but Princess Zelda herself, dressed in her royal gown.
No! It can't be…
"What…what are you…"
"Please Link, I need you to come to the castle with me."
"No, I can't!" he cried, moving back towards his horse.
But Zelda grabbed his arm, so tightly that he could not shake her grip. "Please, Link!"
Link awoke with a jolt, and found the sun shining in his eyes through the window. Dazed, he sat up from his bed, dreadfully confused at first, until he remembered where he was.
A dream, he thought. It had only been a terrible, awful dream. He was back home at Hyrule Castle, in his quarters.
He rubbed his eyes and fumbled about for his clothes. His quarters were modest, as were all those of the king's men, but it to Link, it was the most luxurious place he could have lived. Living here was a great privilege, granted to him by the king himself, and Link never let himself be ungrateful for it.
As he buttoned up his tunic, he thought back to his dream. What a silly dream that was! Marrying the princess, hah! Link had never given much thought or attention to marriage, but he couldn't imagine the princess ever choosing him. True, he had saved her from Ganon, and gotten great honor and fame for it, but that had been merely out of duty and obligation.
A knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts. "Come in," he said.
The door opened, and in stepped Impa, the princess's bodyguard and attendant. She was a Sheikah woman, and a rather imposing person to behold to those who were not familiar with her.
"That's the third time I've knocked on your door," she said, scolding him. "You overslept again!"
"Sorry," he grumbled, fastening the last button.
"Well, I've got some good news, Link, that I'm sure you'll be glad to hear!"
"Oh? And what's that?"
"I've just spoken with the king, and I'm happy to say that the princess has finally chosen the man she is to marry!"
Link froze. "Oh…and…who might that be?"
Impa said nothing, but reached into her pocket and withdrew a small wooden box. She held it out to Link and opened it, and at that moment, his eyes went wide with horror when he saw a golden ring inside.
"I'm so happy for you, Link. I know you'll be a good husband to milady!"
Somewhere, in the far corner of his mind, he could hear the old woman laughing…