This first chapter is just an introduction to the characters and how they will start the story. Also I tried to work around Paya's in game dialogue upon meeting you, for fun, but that's only for this chapter, so it's more awkwardly written than the others.

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Paya's days in the village were not very exciting in the traditional sense. Almost every day had the same rhythm, the same path to take, the same people to talk to and the same tasks to complete. She hardly ever left the village, and if she did it was either just to the nearby forest in the hills to gather some herbs for dinner or a small hike up and around the mountains to get some time alone. If she miraculously had a day where she was free for the afternoon, she would climb as high as she could manage and watch as the sun slowly dipped over the horizon before heading home to sleep. This lifestyle wasn't special when it came to Kakariko village; many people lived their lives very much the same, except with plum tree tending or fletching instead of polishing the statues outside of their home. Whenever the scant visitor came to the village, they were surprised at the apparent monotony of living there, and expressed how they could never live in such doldrums. Paya had only ever spoken to one other from outside the village before, and she didn't look forward to another meeting.

When she was a young girl, an older treasure hunter out looking for whatever he could get his hands on came into the village to buy some food for the road, and ended up staying the night. She remembered how after having a few drinks at the inn he bragged about how full of adventure his life was and how every day brought new horizons, belittling their way of life and expressed how a life of action is the only life worth living to him. He was a bit too fond of drink, and after a while she saw him being carried to a bed in the back. When he finally left, Paya decided that she certainly didn't mind the village keeping to itself. Outsiders were just troublemakers that didn't understand the way that Kakariko worked, could never slow down enough to really enjoy having such a close knit group of people living, eating, and celebrating with you for your entire life, and would never know the purpose living your life in a small village can give you.

Paya was outside on the porch of her home sweeping away the leaves from last night's storm when she heard the sound of hoofbeats at the village entrance. Electing to ignore it, she turned her back from the village center to start sweeping the pile off into the stream. Today had been a good day, and for the first time in a while Paya was feeling good. She had gotten an easy week and had used the extra time to catch up on some much needed sleep. She planned on finishing her chores and taking a walk around the forest later today, looking forward to the cool quietness there always was when the sun set beneath the mountains. Tonights dinner would need a few plants that grew on the ridge as well, and she wanted to enjoy some time alone before having to make dinner for her and Impa. She was trying to remember where she had found those endura carrots last time she went up when she realized that there were heavy footfalls on the staircase behind her.

Turning around quickly to see who it was, she found herself quite literally face to face with a young blonde man wearing an old tattered shirt and a beaming smile on his face. Taken aback by the fact his face was a good four inches from hers, she stumbled backward and nearly tripped over her own broom. It was a moment before her mind finally caught up with the fact that she had never seen this boy before, and how this obviously meant he was an outsider, and how outsiders were a very rare occurrence that she didn't particularly enjoy, but this one looked nice enough. But she also thought about how she had never really seen a boy her age before, there weren't really any in the village, and how she was definitely just staring at him, and how his golden hair seemed to almost float in the wind, and how he just said a second ago he's looking for someone named Impa and he's probably waiting for a response, and how she should really say something now but something nice because you haven't talked to him before and first impressions matter just like grandmother always said but more importantly he's very close and he's-

"A-a man?!"

Paya's mind was such a jumble from the sudden development that it was all she could do to shout out her most coherent and definite thought as a response: that he was certainly a man. Her mind finally recovered at just about the same time that confusion showed plain on his face. She had just realized how awkward of a response that was when she noticed the conspicuous Shieka technology hanging from his waist and forgot about her butchered introduction.

"Huh? Is that-?! Its... a Shieka Slate!"

Her mind raced to find the significance to those words, vaguely remembering something about ancient battles and resting heroes, things Impa would tell her as a child around the fire. She remembered the description her grandmother told her to remember, and then she realized what a young man with a Shieka slate meant.

"Could you be the hero that my grandmother told me about? What was his name? Li... Lin... Uhm..."

Her sentence trailed off into silence, her mind constantly trying to catch up with itself and just now realizing that if he really is the hero her grandmother told her stories about, then he is without a doubt the most important person she has ever met, and arguably the most important person in all of Hyrule. Trying to wrap her head around this in such a short time made her feel like she was sinking, concentrating hard on just speaking a coherent sentence.

"Oh, it's not that I forgot... I'm just bad with speaking. As for me, my name is Pa.. Paaaa... Paaaay... Oh! My name is Paya!"

She didn't think it was possible for this situation to get more awkward, but here she was barely choking out her name like a newborn in front of someone she just met. The look of confusion on his face was gone and replaced with pity, like someone watching an injured animal trying to stand up. Pity was definitely worse, she decided. Paya looked down at her feet.

"I know I should be able to say that easily, seeing as its my own name and all. Im so... sorry."

Paya felt like an idiot. Making herself a fool in front of such an important person, who she had been hearing about since she was a child, the person Impa always said was a great man and a great hero and how he was the only hope for all of Hyrule and how...

She realized there was a little more at stake than her feelings.

"Anyway, my grandmother's been awaiting your return ever since I was little. Plea... Please hurry inside."

With that the hero's looked towards the door and went through, and a moment later she could hear her grandmother speaking with him. Paya didn't listen to what they were saying, partly because it's in poor taste to eavesdrop but also because she was trying to stop herself from crying on her front patio. She had a bad habit of tearing up whenever she made a mistake, and Impa always scolded her for crying too easily over unimportant things. She covered her face with her hands and tried to keep the hitches out of her breathing. Here she was, looking like a damn idiot in front of someone monumentally more important than her, soiling her grandmother's name with her mistakes, and she could hardly believe that she could barely get her own name out in front of him, and how if she started crying he would probably see her and how pathetic she is, crying like a baby over a few sentences, and he'd probably ha-

A hand came to rest on her shoulder. She turned her head and saw him standing next to her, concern plain on his face.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Paya looked at him for a few seconds before burying her head back in her hands. Now he saw her about to cry over a stupid three sentence conversation, and he's probably going to be laughing himself silly later at how much of an idiot she was, and she probably would too if she was him. This was probably the worst first impression somebody's ever given in all of Hyrule, and she had to go and ruin it that badly with someone as important as him.

"You know I can almost see you beating yourself up. I'm sorry if I was rude when I surprised you back there, I shouldn't have done that to you and you have my apologies."

How gallant, she thought. Now he was apologizing for her mistakes. He really was a hero that Impa would tell her about, who says things like 'my apologies' and probably goes around helping damsels in distress. Part of her wanted to laugh at the fact she technically qualified as a damsel in distress, and not for the first time in her life. But she soon started to feel the heavy weight and foreign warmth of his hand on her shoulder and felt the familiar unease in the pit of her stomach. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Y-you're really close to me right now."

He drew his hand back and scratched the back of his neck, taking a step backwards.

"Sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to start crying."

Of course he knew she was going to cry. Anybody could easily see that. Didn't mean it made her feel better about it. Paya couldn't look at him anymore knowing that her distress was that obvious. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and sniffed.

"It's okay, I just cry too easily. It's not your fault."

"Hey."

Paya heard him take a step closer to her. Uncovering her face and instinctively taking a half step back, she saw that he was looking her dead in the eyes. She was surprised at how serious he looked, his face set like some kind of statue, suddenly stoic and serious. She was surprised this was the same beaming young man from before who bolted up a staircase to scare some girl he'd never met.

"I made you cry, so that's my bad. Don't try and tell me otherwise, because thats the truth. I apologize, and I hope you can forgive me."

He gave her a winning smile.

"And, I think we have most definitely gotten off on the wrong foot."

He held out his hand.

"Hi, my name is Link."

She considered at his hand for a second, before standing up a bit straighter. He was giving her a chance, so how couldn't she take it. With an amount of willpower she rarely had to summon, she managed to take his hand in hers and look him in the eyes, if even just for a moment.

"And my name is Paya."