Alaia Skyhawk: Hello all, and welcome to the sequel to 'Zelda: Winds of a New Beginning'. If you have not read that fic then I recommend that you do so before reading this, as otherwise the 'Hyrule' depicted in this fic will make little sense and be very confusing, as will be several of the major plot points and locations. That said, if you have read it then you are likely itching to get stuck into this one, and so here it is. Zelda: Winds of a New Darkness.

I don't own the Zelda series or anything associated with it. I do however own this story and any OCs, so please don't steal them.

(Added: 24th June 2011. I've begun finishing this fic now, and apologise if my scene spaces have dissapeared. Some of FFnet's updates since I began this removed them, and I will get around to checking and fixing any missing ones eventually)

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Summary: (See the Intro Movie on Youtube, it's done in the same style as the opening of Windwaker. The link is at the top of my profile, and watching the movie is far better than reading the same info from just below this line. XD)

It has been almost five hundred years since the awakening of the Sage of Courage and the re-forging of the Master Sword, and during that time the Kingdom of Hyrule has flourished upon the Great Sea. The waters now rich with life, fish plentiful in this new age where no longer does the Hyrule of old sleep below, life moves on in peace as the Nine Sages watch over it all. But now something is stirring, a shadow from a distant land creeping into the waters of the Great Sea, while suddenly the Sage of Courage, who like the other sages had walked openly among the people since his awakening, vanishes into seclusion, all means of entry into his temple sealed. He leaves but one message for the world, etched in light upon the closed door of his Temple...

"Long did I fight for the world, long have I watched over it, and long have I protected the people who live upon it... but now is not my time, but rather the time of another... I am not the one who must face the coming darkness, nor are any of my descendants, instead it must be one who must discover the courage they hold within... Only when they have found it will this door open, so that they may face my trial and earn not just the right to wield the Master Sword, but also the Golden Power that I keep..."

And so the people can do naught but hope... Hope that the one whom the Sage of Courage speaks of will find it in themselves to take that first step... against the growing darkness...

Chapter 1: A Journey Begins in the Mist

"Hey, Arkai! Get your butt over here!"

The cry of the seagulls soaring on the sea breeze overhead filled the air, a shrill counterpoint to the hubbub of the busy seaport. Everywhere you looked people bustled back and forth, and one individual was especially in a hurry. After all, if he wasn't quick then he was going to be late. The young man in question glanced at the great clock whose four faces looked out to the four main compass points, high in its tower at the centre of the town. He was cutting it fine, but the look of relief in his hazel eyes revealed that he was going to make it. It was just as well really, since this was the first time since his sixteenth birthday that the opportunity to join the crew of such a prestigious ship had arisen. Competition was going to be fierce, and arriving after the chiming of the hour was a sure fire way to immediately get thrown out of the running.

With the briefest flash of a grin he skidded into place at the end of the mass of prospective sailors, directing it to the man who had called out just a moment before. A man with hair the same brown tinged blond as his own.

"Hoy, Jaran. Yara collared me trying to make me man her stall again. The whole family keeps telling her to hire an assistant, but she's such a cheapskate that she just keeps dragging in one relative or another to look after it when she can't be bothered to work. One of these days one of us is going to say yes only to leave the thing open and unmanned. Maybe losing her stock to those with light fingers will make her loosen the death grip she has on her purse strings."

Jaran shook his head before tilting it to indicate the mass of waiting men and women.

"She's a pain alright, and you're not the only one in your family who looks like they're trying to escape, Arkai. Two of your brothers are here, as well as five cousins and an uncle."

Arkai winced after an enquiring search of the crowd revealed that his friend was right. Not only was the competition going to be fierce, it was going to be a proverbial war zone. Bringing a hand to his face he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him without a trace.

"Great, just great. I may as well drop out now. My Uncle Tilgar has been a sailor for almost twenty years, and his son Galen for nearly eight. Both only left their previous ship because the captain turned out to be swindling the crew on wages and got fired by the merchant company that was hiring him. They've got flawless records along with all that experience; the rest of us won't stand a chance."

His friend frowned before folding his arms and directing a determined look at the nearby ship against its backdrop of sea fog, the ship which the lucky sailor picked would be departing on.

"Well I'm not about to give up yet; for all we know they might be looking for a newbie. Someone to train up the way they want them as a long term addition to the crew. That's a chance in a lifetime for you or me, the sort of start that gets you a place on a ship for your whole career, maybe even rising to become ship's captain one day." He planted a thumb in the middle of his chest. "I'm staying put. No way am I gonna let your relatives make me feel like this is pointless. You don't win if you don't try, after all."

The cheerful smile on his face quickly got Arkai smiling as well, the two of them looking at the ship that may well take them into a life as one of the Great Sea's best sailors, a dream both of them had had for as long as they could remember. Standing there with the other candidates, they watched with anticipation as with the striking of the clock's chimes three men descended to the pier from the moored vessel. Hope filled them as they listened for what they would have to do, guessing it would likely be some kind of test of skills, but that hope was crushed as surely as if those men had dropped a mountain on them as the centremost of them spoke.

"All those will less than three year's experience can leave. I need someone who can be trusted to know what to do already, and not have to be trained or supervised. Sorry to those of you without that. All I can do is wish you luck for finding a berth on a ship in future."

Jaran stared aghast at the man who had spoken, while all but Arkai's uncle and cousin walked away with expressions of dejection. Arkai himself was glancing enviously at the pair, knowing that it was highly likely that both would be hired. Their reputation as a team would mean that the captain would be mad to pass up an opportunity to hire them together... It just hurt that, for all he'd known he wouldn't stand much of a chance compared to them, he hadn't even gotten a chance to show his worth to the captain.

Taking his friend by the arm, he began to lead him away.

"Come on, let's go. I'm sure we can find some sort of job around here to last until the next chance comes. It's not like Nae Lanai is a quiet little place with few people hiring. We can probably get jobs within the next hour if we look in the right places."

Jaran sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind a pointed ear.

"You're right... But promise me that we're going nowhere near your cousin Yara's stall."

Arkai laughed as he looked up at the rising sun.

"No way! She drives me mad enough when I'm just a 'volunteer'! I'd be a complete nervous wreck in less than a week if she was my boss!"

They were both laughing now, so much so that it took several seconds for them to notice the sudden fearful hush as the people around them began to fall silent. Stopping and turning the two of them quickly saw why. Part of the perfectly normal sea fog was turning a sinister black, like the heart of a storm cloud, and it was rushing towards the port at an unnatural speed. Like a veil of shadow it swept over the shore like a breaking wave swarming over and through rocks on a beach. People were beginning to scream and shout in panic, the very air seeming to press down on the town from the sheer weight of the dark aura it carried. For dark it was, sending a shudder down the spine and leaving a feeling that something truly horrible had crept up behind you while your back was turned.

As both young men ducked into an alleyway to avoid the mad rush of people fleeing the dockside, it was then that Arkai felt a strange compulsion to look again towards the now obscured sea. Peering into the heart of the dark mist, he felt his skin crawl as the knowing of something watching from that blackness filled him, urging him to look deeper until at last he saw what he somehow knew was there; three pairs of slitted golden irises set into eyes as red as blood. They glowed with evil glee as they observed the panicked people, before with the slightest of movements they looked directly at him.

He tugged his friend's sleeve, prompting the man to look up at him.

"What is it?"

Hauling Jaran to his feet, Arkai pointed.

"Eyes in the mist! Look!"

Those baleful orbs were closer now, so close that one would be blind to miss them, but for all that Arkai was pointing right at them, and Jaran looking at them... Jaran didn't see them.

"There's nothing there, just more of this dark mist. Geeze, are you trying to give me a heart attack or something? This is bad enough without you seeing things."

"But..." Arkai never got to finish the sentence, for in the next instant the strange mist vanished. He walked out into the middle of the street, as others who had likewise gone into alleys and buildings came out, Jaran stood at his shoulder. He was all set to walk towards the shore to search the fog again for the eyes when the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. It was the only warning he got to duck the fist that had just taken a swing at his head. Rolling out of the way and getting to his feet, he stared in shock at his attacker. "Jaran! What are you doing?"

His friend didn't answer, did nothing but advance towards him with a sneer of pure malice on his face. Backing away Arkai found himself reaching without thought for the sailor's knife on his belt, before drawing it and using its hilt he knocked his friend unconscious to the floor...

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It was with eyes filled with fear and confusion that the people assembled in the town hall, all those who had witnessed the inexplicable change in personality of those seemingly affected by the dark mist gathered here before the town's leaders, and also the mayor of Hyrule Castle Town from some five miles or so inland. There weren't that many people here, barely fifty, but then only seven people in all the thousands living and working in the town had been affected. Only seven, but it was seven too many. Those seven were now locked up in the most secure wing of Hyrule Castle Town's jail where, from the accounts of the jail guard present, they now shrieked curses and dark implications like the insane from their confinement. One by one all those present named the one of the seven that they'd seen, and of how they'd changed, until finally it was the turn of the hazel-eyed young man sat near the back of those assembled.

Arkai stood up as those before him had done, lifting his gaze to regard the two mayors at the front of the white walled chamber.

"I witnessed the change in Jaran. We were just at the mooring of the Tempest Gull, to try for the place that had become available in its crew. We'd just learned that the captain was looking for an experienced sailor, and were leaving the dockside when everything went quiet. We turned and saw the black mist come in, and ducked into an alley to get out of the way of those running away from the shore. We'd just got there when I felt like something was watching, and when I looked towards the sea I saw three pairs of fiery, slit-pupiled eyes in the mist. When I pointed them out to Jaran he didn't seem to see them, even when they came so close that whatever it was must have been just beyond the end of the pier. Right after that the mist vanished and Jaran suddenly attacked me. After that I knocked him out with the hilt of my sailor's knife."

All eyes were on him, including those of a number of people who had also witnessed the change in Jaran... people who had said nothing in their accounts about eyes in the mist. At the front of the room Nae Lanai's mayor regarded him, eventually speaking after an almost endless seeming pause.

"You claim to have seen eyes in the mist, yet from the accounts of others who were on that street you were seen looking up at the sun just before the mist came in. Plunge someone who has had the sun in their eyes into the shadows and they will see yellow-red spots before their eyes quite clearly, and as since none of the other witnesses for Jaran spoke of eyes I think we can say that you were seeing things." Arkai stared at him and moved to speak only to be silenced by a wave of a hand. "Before you object to my assessment of your statement, do you acknowledge that you looked up at the rising sun just before the mist came in? And do you acknowledge that it was just a few seconds after that, that you ducked into the alley and looked out and saw the eyes?"

Arkai stared at him, a sinking feeling in his gut, before he nodded with a sense of finality... Unable to change the conclusion to which he knew these people were going to come.

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What was he doing here? Was he crazy? Or had that mist made him lose his mind like Jaran had?

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"So you said you saw eyes? After walking into the glare of the sun? How stupid are you?"

With hazel eyes he glanced up to glare at the ebon haired woman standing over him, taking in the smirk on her face.

"Go away, Yara. Shouldn't you be working on your stupid stall or something?"

She continued to smirk as she leaned a hand on the table in the spacious kitchen, the light of the sun coming in through the open back door of the house behind her to spill across the grey flagstones.

"Is that any way to talk to your cousin? I came to offer you a job working on my 'stupid stall', as you put it."

Getting to his feet, anger at what had happened to his friend coming to a boil, he slapped her.

"You can keep your stupid job! I have more important things to do!"

Holding a hand to her quickly reddening cheek, she stared at him with hatred.

"Like what?"

He strode out of the kitchen, heading for the stairs to his room.

"To tell the queen about the eyes in the mist... You might all think I was seeing things, but I know what I saw! It may be important, and I'm not about to leave the queen unknowing about something that might mean the difference between people like Jaran being cured or them staying the way they are! I'm not about to sit back and do nothing, when something I know might be able to help my friend!"

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Shivering, Arkai pulled the collar of his coat tighter around his neck, wishing that he'd thought to pick up a scarf against the bitter wind. It was barely into spring, with some of the deeper valleys in the area still covered with a layer of snow. Here he was, on the road heading west from Hyrule Castle Town, making his way on foot to a city that with the right wind could be reached in a day by ship... At this rate he'd be lucky to make it there in two weeks.

He pulled the collar in tighter, muttering.

"I'm doing this to save Jaran, and the others in Nae Lanai who have been changed. I can't back down, and no pompous sea captains refusing to take me are going to stop me."

With no further hesitation he strode along the road, on this journey that began the moment he saw the eyes in the mist...

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Alaia Skyhawk: And there you have it, the opening chapter of Winds of a New Darkness. Happy reading :D