All characters belong to the creators of legend of zelda. This takes place after Twilight princess.
It was his third birthday: the start of his training. His first test was battling a single leever that had been imprisoned in the training arena. The arena was a stone hexagon with a bowl filled with sand at the center. The leever couldn't escape and without a pack it wasn't much of a threat. The hard part was that he had to kill it with his bare hands. He was standing on the stone edge of the arena. Cuts decorated his skin like bloody tattoos, it wasn't life threatening but by Din it hurt. He lunged onto the sand, baiting the leever to come get him. The creature burst from the sand, spinning like a top. It shot at him and he tried to grab it by its spines. He actually held it for a second before it broke free and plunged back into the sand, leaving him with nothing but a new set of cuts. He tumbled to the ground and rolled away from the spot, trying to retreat to the stone. He could feel the sand tremble beneath him, in front of him. The leever prepared to emerge between him and the stone, not giving him time to escape.
It burst from the sand and knocked him back, its spikes slicing him. He stumbled back and tried to retreat but it intercepted him again, and again, and again.
"I'm going to bleed to death at this point! What an end for the Gerudo prince, killed by a leever. I'm a weakling, a shame to the Gerudo." He stopped "No. I will not bring shame to my family's name."
He plunged his fist into the sand, grabbing the offensive creature and pulling it out of its hideaway. He hurled it onto the arena's stone edge. He ran toward it before it could reach the sand and pounded his fists into its center. He pounded it over and over, again and again. He didn't notice the blood starting to drip from his knuckles, his blood and the leever's. He didn't notice the leever's spines cutting across his chest.
But the pain he felt wasn't from wounds inflicted by a leever's spines. Where had he received these wounds?
If I can feel pain then I'm not dead.
Sword wounds. They were sword wounds. He remembered now. He had fought Zelda and Link.
Ganondorf opened his eyes and sat up slowly. He was lying in the grass… but it wasn't the field where he had battled Zelda and Link. It was some sort of ruins. He looked at his left hand. The triforce was gone? No it was there, he could feel it, but its light was too weak to show through his glove. The wound from his attempted execution no longer shone with the sage's power, which made sense seeing as the sword that inflicted it was broken in the battle with Link, but it was open and bloody. The triforce was using all its power to keep him alive.
"The big man is awake!
A child-sized figure appeared in from of him. It looked a little bit like a scarecrow, and it was carrying a lantern and a strange trumpet.
"Hello big man! What's your name?"
Ganondorf glared at the thing "Why do you care?"
"Hee hee! I dunno! I guess it's cause I don't have one!"
It leapt onto a broken down wall and started playing the trumpet.
Ganondorf sneered at the creature and stood up, stumbling a little from exhaustion.
Suddenly the skull kid blew a long note on his trumpet and four puppet-like golems dropped out of nowhere to surround Ganondorf. They began to hit Ganondorf, their wooden hands, surprisingly hard. Without even blinking Ganondorf stomped over to the skull kid, ignoring the slaps of the puppets, and snapped its trumpet in two.
"Hey!"
"Stupid scarecrow."
"Skull kid!"
"Same thing."
"It is not!"
"SHUT UP!"
Ganondorf hauled the skull kid up by the scruff of his shirt (if you could call it a shirt) so they were face to face.
"Look you stupid thing, just tell me where I am and maybe I'll let you live."
Suddenly the skull kid disappeared, leaving Ganondorf with nothing but air in his fist. Ganondorf cursed and punched the fallen wall, splitting it in two. He didn't having someone make a fool out of him.
"Oooh! Naughty mouth! Your mommy will spank you for that!"
Ganondorf spun around and found the skull kid standing on another stone wall. He started toward the creature, but the skull kid shook its head.
"No no big man! If you get any closer I'll just disappear again."
He held up his trumpet and ran his fingers over the broken section. As he did the two halves welded together again, looking good as new.
"Hee hee! Your in the sacred grove! It's the resting place of the master sword and the door to the temple of time."
Ganondorf's eye twitched in annoyance "The master sword was removed. Unless your saying there's another sword that exactally the same that Link used to run me through."
"That was a long time ago big man! The doggie boy put it back. Ya'know he's a lot more fun than you are. You just slept and slept."
Ganondorf was about to retort when the triforce suddenly pulsed feebly. It only did that when another triforce was near.
"Doggie boy is coming back!" the skull kid leapt into the air and disappeared, no doubt off to "play" with Link.
Ganondorf cursed again. He knew Link alone couldn't defeat him normally, he had needed a lot of help to defeat him before, but he was still weakened horribly from the last encounter. Even if he had been sleeping for a long time.
Link entered the sacred grove. he was a bleeding from wounds the golems had given him during the Skull Kid's "game". He stepped forward, his triforce pulsing. He closed his eyes and began to step in one direction, then another, seeing where he had to step to make it pulse stronger. If you didn't know what he was doing it would have looked like some sort of strange dance. He finally located a constant direction; he slowly walked forward, following the pulse. He was getting closer, closer… suddenly he ran into a wall.
Link stumbled backwards and rubbed his nose, making sure it wasn't broken. He looked at the obstacle and found that it was the now-broken steps from the Temple of Time. Suddenly the direction the triforce lead changed and Link felt the cold metal blade of a dagger press against his neck.
"How did you find me Link?"
Link looked out of the corner of his eye at Ganondorf and opened his hands to show empty hands, a gesture of peace.
Ganondorf snorted "Oh really? How did you win against Skull Kid without weapons then? You certainly didn't beat him with your bare hands!"
Link gestured toward the entrance of the temple ruins. There lay his bow and arrows, which he had discarded before he entered.
Ganondorf smirked at his enemy's stupidity "You should never leave your weapons Link, now you're going to die for it!"
He slashed his dagger at Link's neck, only to find it was now empty air. Link was already backing up. Ganondorf cursed again, that little freak was annoyingly fast.
Link did not however, head for his weapons. Instead he held up his empty hands again. Ganondorf was curious despite himself, why would Link try at peace?
"All right, talk fast then."
Of course Link didn't talk, Ganondorf realized he had never heard him talk; instead he headed toward the entrance of the sacred grove, pointedly avoiding his bow and arrows. Ganondorf gritted his teeth in annoyance and followed.
The world outside the sacred grove was Hell on earth. There was no sign life, not even a deku baba. The ground was bare and half of the cliffs looked like they had a giant bite taken out of them. The sky was entirely cloudless, a clear sign of drought. The blue of the sky looked garishly cheery in contrast to everything else.
Ganondorf stared at the scene in shock, even he had never been able to cause this much damage, and there wasn't even a trace of magic. What ever had done this had used brute force alone.
"It's called muerte."
Ganondorf turned to Link in surprise, he had spoken!
Link continued without looking at Ganondorf "It can only be locked away with the triforce seal."
Ganondorf began to smile, and it wasn't a kind smile. The triforce seal required all three pieces of the triforce to perform it. So in other words, Link and Zelda needed him alive.
"So the hero of time and the princess need me to help? Well well, how the mighty have fallen."
Link was silent for a moment then "Zelda isn't the one with the triforce of wisdom, she gave it to the twilight princess."
Ganondorf's eyebrows rose even higher "Ah yes, the one that Zant unsurped, pity I had to use the power that turned her into an imp to fight you. That form suited her, it was weak."
Link's eyes narrowed and clenched his teeth, willing himself not to attack Ganondorf for that.
Ganondorf's grin grew wider "Ah, so she's your sweetheart? So why isn't she here?"
Link began to walk again. He half hoping that Ganondorf wouldn't follow, but the king of evil was curious now, and follow he did.