I Would like to thank Yoru95 for all of the help and support with this story. Plus I would like to encourage you all to check out her story "Rise of a Knight". It and a few PMs back and forth are what gave me the idea and courage to write this story.

Also this is my first fic, so please don't bitch and moan if you don't like it.

Disclaimer: Believe me I don't own Legend of Zelda, only the idea for this fic.

The knife flashed through the moon light with a deadly gleam. With practiced ease it was deflected and the man in the black cloak stumbled. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Link slashed his sword across the man's chest and he fell with a dull thud. As Link kneeled before the still figure in front of him, he recognized him as a man from a few years ago who had been terrorizing a local farming family. Link thought he should still have been in jail where he had left him.

Allowing his mind to wander almost cost him his life as pain exploded up his arm, and he stumbled back. Looking down in horror, he watched as blood continued to seep from the large cut going from his wrist to elbow.

Link couldn't believe he had been so stupid, as to let his guard down and in the process get hurt. With a grimace he tore off a piece of his cloak, bound his am, and began to stumble towards the Castle.

Link felt nauseous as he burst through the door to his room. As Princess Zelda's chief protector, he was allowed his own room. He dropped his sword and shield by the door as soon as he was inside and able to close the door. Link grabbed the night basket from beside his bed as he expelled his lunch from earlier in the day before passing out on the cold stones in the middle of his room

It was a beautiful, sunny day. Link was sitting with his back resting on a tree in the castles garden. He watched as Zelda twirled among the flowers with a childish delight. Link noticed that Zelda had suddenly stopped dancing and was now looking up at the sky, which at this time was no longer sunny, but darkening quickly. As Link began to stand up roots burst from the ground and enveloped him. The darkness was now descending towards Zelda as Link struggled against the roots.

Zelda was now completely covered in darkness, hiding her from Link. From the darkness Link could hear Zelda screaming.

"Link."

" Link!"

"LINK!"

Link jerked awake, still lying on the floor with Zelda knocking softly on his door.

"Are you up yet…Link!? "

He could hear the worry in her voice. The events from the previous night quickly flashed through his mind: The man jumping out from the shadows, a dagger aimed at his chest, the knife wound to his arm…

When his thoughts returned to his wound, he looked down and his mouth opened and closed as if trying to speak.

The knife wound was only a faint white line on his arm. The continuous knocking on his door brought his attention back to the real world.

"Yeah…one moment" he managed to mumble loud enough for Zelda to hear "I'll be right out"

"Yeah, ok, but hurry. You know how my father is. I can't go anywhere without you there to guard me. Even in the throne room…you do remember me telling you that I'm listening to the peoples' complaints today, right?"

Damn he thought I completely forgot. "Uhh… of course I remember. How could I forget?"

He grabbed his sword and shield from where he dropped them the night before and he backed into Zelda as he left his room.

"Oh my goddesses! Princess, I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching what I was…"

"Link," she sighed, "how many times must I tell you, don't call me Princess?"

"Sorry Zel, It was an accident"

"Alright, come on" she groaned in a very unPrincess like fashion "We've got a long day ahead of us"

In the throne room, Link stood beside Zelda as people stepped forth to bring their complaints to her. He stood completely still, watching, but only hearing his own heart beat in his ears. With each passing second it seemed to get louder and louder, until it was a deafening roar in his ears. Almost as if in slow motion, Link noticed a man in the crowd step forward slightly, with his hand coming away from his belt with a knife in its grasp.

The man flung the blade.

With incredible speed, Link reached his arm out, plucked the blade straight out of the air and, as time seemed to return to normal, sent it right back towards the man.

The crowd became completely silent as the man crumpled to the floor, grabbing at the knife imbedded in his throat. After he plucked at it weakly for a few moments, the man gave a shuddering gasp and died while blood drained from his mouth. As if someone flipped a switch Link could hear everything else again. He heard whispers such as…

"He tried to assassinate the princess"

"Never seen such speed"

"Grabbed it right out of the air"

"Amazing"

"Princess" Link said as he grabbed Zelda's hand "I have to get you out of here and to your office"

The crowd stared in awe at Link's retreating form and the princess following a short distance behind. None there had even known what was happening until he had launched the knife back at the man in the crowd.

"Link? How did you do that" Zelda asked with a slight mixture of awe and fear after a display of such fatal speed.

Link shrugged "I honestly don't know, I just knew you were in danger, so I reacted"

"Well…however you did it, thank you. You saved my life. If you hadn't been there, I wouldn't be standing here now. "

"Zelda, you know that no matter what happens, I will always be right here by your side. I swear it."

Zelda smiled slightly and gave Link a brief hug before turning to enter her bedchamber off to the side of her office.

As soon as she had closed the door, Link doubled over as pain shot up and down his arm. No longer was his arm just marred by a faint white line, but instead was a maze of blue-purple tentacle-like veins extending from the scar the knife had left behind. After a moment of excruciating pain the veins and the pain disappeared, leaving Link with a knot in his stomach.

The doors to the castles library were thrown back as Link ran in. He quietly thanked the goddesses that the librarian was out because he would have had trouble explaining his sudden appearance to him.

"It has to be a poison, nothing else makes sense," he thought as he pulled book after book, on the subject, off the shelf

After almost an hour of searching through book after book after book on poison and how it works, he finally found what he was looking for in a book called Ancient Hylian Poisons.

Life Poison

A very rare poison from Ancient Hyrule. Very difficult to make and very expensive. Said to slowly sap the infected life energy, accompanied with an ever worsening pain each day, until the infected has been sapped of all life energy and the will to live. Only visible indication of having been infected is a scar. No known cure has been discovered.

Link's face went pale

"No no no no no no no NOOO"! He yelled." How could I have been so careless? What will happen to the princess now, who'll protect her if I'm not there to do it?"

In barely more than a whisper, Link spoke. "I swear to you princess, for what remains of my life, I will protect you".

Please review and let me know how I did.

FabledLegend

P.S. I will try and get Chapter 2 up as soon as I can, but I don't own a computer at home (sad right), So I can only work at school, but it being senior year and all, I may not get to it for a while. If I forget, send me a PM, because I usually check my email at least once a day...or a good kick to the crotch would achieve the same desired effect. So until next time, Keep on saving Zelda.