Hi! I haven't written in awhile. This is an original story based on the Zelda universe, think of it as a new game if you will. I don't own Zelda, however, and that's the only time I'll mention that.

There is a lot of violence so beware!

Enjoy!

My life had been branded with a birthmark. Born on the streets of Hyrule, the only way my mother survived long enough to get me a home was by pleading with the citizens that I was going to be their hero and by the goddess I needed to get taken away from her. They would toss her bread or rupees and look the other way.

On her last standing leg, she left me at someone's doorstep and died where she sat. I grew up in that someone's home, ordered to call her Jaynzie despite the little boys and girls who cried, "Mommy." We moved out of the city when I was six and I've lived in Gration since with Jaynzie, her husband, and her five adorable children, number six well on the way by the time I was nearly seventeen.

I worked for a man in Gration who offered me a job when he remarked about how much I looked like a woman he once knew. It was a cozy little town well away from the bustle of the city I knew as a child. But it wasn't immune to danger...that I learned the hard way.

The sun was high and filtered through the windows and the door thrown open to let in the humid but cooler air. Anything was cooler than that small room we worked in, hammering metal at the point when you might as well as ruin your limbs if you were to skim them. In fact, my right hand was ruined. On one of the first days at the job I grabbed a piece that was just heated with my bare hand and burned it so thoroughly that my boss suggested I start learning how to use my left, the one with the birthmark.

I tried my best to hide the birthmark, wearing gloves at most times of the day, but despite my resentment of my left hand, using it came naturally. That day in the shop I saw the flags of Hyrule and the heard the legends play in my head as I made nails. There was something sinister about the mark on my hand, but I rarely chose to think about it.

"Lunch break." Hugor dropped his gloves and I dropped my work.

A soft breeze wound around the tree limbs, but it did little to cool the air. I sat down underneath a tree and pulled out a sack of food, sifting around for an apple without luck when a figure appeared at the top of my vision. She was outlined by sunlight reflecting off her golden red locks. Her smile as she offered an apple to me was as warm as the furnace in midday and as I accepted it I almost felt my hand get burned.

"I took it out of your bag before you left so I had an excuse to see you." She sat down next me and wrapped her fingers around her knee, leaning back into the tree and into my arm. "I miss you."

"You know your mom doesn't like you this far out of town." I took a bite, measuring her movements as she slowly inched closer into me.

Her shoulders shrugged, moving her body up and then down, down, until her hair was nuzzled into my neck. "She does for errands."

"Leonie."

"What?"

"I love you."

She was silent, grasping my arm tightly. "I love you too," her voice was in a whisper, but it was enough to make both of us smile.

By the end of lunch she was asleep, head up to the sky and hair strewn out over my lap. My heart sank as I began prodding her awake, shaking her arm until she opened her eyes. As Leonie sat up, she scowled but collected herself quickly and kissed my cheek goodbye before running off down the road.

Perhaps it was the brown eyes or the freckles or the pointed ears that kept her small image in my head for the rest of the day. Somehow, it made the heat bearable for once.

Hugor and I were closing up shop when he beckoned me to the back room. I entered slowly, watching him move around through a barrel full of swords before plucking one out and bringing it towards me. Its hilt was ornate, designed in a curly format. As he removed it from the sheath, he offered it up.

I took it hesitantly, gasping at how perfectly balanced it felt in my hand. The blade had an engraved design, like clouds that formed from the tip and cascaded down. "Thank you," I kept marveling at it, mouth agape.

"Birthday gift from the blacksmith in Castle Town." Hugor explained, handing over the sheath into my disabled grasp.

Afraid I would drop the sheath, I put the sword away and strapped it onto my back. "Birthday, right. Two days?" I looked at him but he just shrugged.

My birthday was a guess date. Jaynzie thought I looked to be at least six months and went with it. I headed home wondering if my mother could see me now, or if maybe spirits wandered endlessly alone in the world without a clue where their loved ones were. Jaynzie says I look like her, my boss says I look like someone he knew, and I can't help thinking maybe she's inside somewhere, peering out and calling to people who she thought she knew.

Leonie met me at the town gate, cheerfully glowering at my sword.

"Are you going to name it?!"

"What would I name it? It's a sword."

She grinned, "Name it after me, of course."

"What does your name mean again?" I stopped at the path to my front door.

"Lion," her eyes traced the hilt over my shoulder, "Call it Leo."

I nodded and hugged her before parting into the busy house. Jaynzie was setting up dinner plates, small portions of corn and bread and meat thrown on each one. She barely made time to notice me except for the generous, "Hi Link," without a glance. The kids were running their usual circles so I found my place in the office where Jaynzie's husband worked when he was home from whatever his new business venture happened to be.

In the stuffy room, the noises were muffled and I shut my eyes only for a moment. With a start, I pulled out the sword again and imagined the delicate Leonie somehow attached to it. She moved with grace, caring, but clumsy. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her eat anything and before I could worry about it too much I put the sword back and walked to my room to shove it away. Unfortunately, the oldest snotty kid noticed me moving through the hall, catching after me with a smirk.

"Is that a weapon?!" Daylin tugged at my shirt, "I'm gonna tell Mom!"

The twelve year old started down the hallway, ripping into the kitchen in a burst of energy. I rolled my eyes and stuffed it away close to the door, hearing Jaynzie's voice shouting my name. Before I stepped out, I thought of the answers I needed and fired them off one by one.

"Where?"

"When?"

"Why?"

I was left off the hook but not without an advisement to never become a knight. Her eyes moved to my hand as she said it, we both knew, but Daylin who was listening in anger just raised his eyebrows and went back to tugging on his twin sister's hair.

Reluctantly, I sat down for dinner with all of them, gazing occasionally at the empty chair and the half full plate. There was a choir of kids' voices complaining about the food and an ever growing persistence in the Jaynzie's. Normally I would help but my mind was elsewhere. When I was done I got up, but a knock from the door stopped any further movement. I dropped the plate and ran to it, opening the door to one of the townspeople, his face was ghastly.

"This is just a warning...I found my little girl dead...keep your kids inside until we find the killer." he moved on without another word. Passing by like a sweep of the plague, its effect lingering like death.

The night ended with caution, with hesitation. Jaynzie told me to sleep in the kids' room with the sword and I did without complaint. The next morning, another child went missing and was later found dead. At lunch time, I didn't see Leonie and I prayed to Farore that she was just being careful and wasn't attacked down the road. Thankfully, she was at the gate, delivering to me the news of the dead child.

It didn't happen again for awhile. The town was busy, but it was like winter had taken over a humid summer town as everyone stayed indoors. A week later, a week of wearing Leo on my back, I saw the first culprit of many, a bokoblin that was peering at me through the trees. Without panicking, I ran after it and stabbed it through the chest, a little crudely but enough to make it fall over and bleed out.

I told the people in town who tended to be the best with weapons and they figured there was an encampment somewhere. One of the men offered to help me learn to use my sword, I agreed but the moment he told me to hold the hilt with both hands I froze a bit. At my explanation he slapped a shield onto my right arm and showed the basics as quickly as possible before their group marched out in search of the camp.

Three days passed like ocean waves filtering in at high and low tide. Tensions were high, but the moment all eight of them came through the gate with smiling faces, the town rejoiced. The very next day Leonie came rushing into the blacksmith shop with a concerned look in her eyes.

"Weird, they're acting weird. Like...they just...don't seem right."

"All of them?" Hugor set down his work gently and turned to her.

"I overheard one of them say they could come here for more weapons, I think it'd be best not to sell them anything." Leonie was quivering, forehead wrinkled and eyebrows drawn. "One of the older men is missing along with his grandson."

I stepped closer to her and tucked her hair behind her ear, "I'm sure there's an explanation. Maybe they found more of them."

She moved her hair back into place and scowled, "Don't try to pull that on me. This is serious."

One of the other boys working watched us curiously, then as if from nowhere, he stepped into our circle and spoke, "My dad was one of them. He hasn't been acting normal since they all came back. I woke up the other night and I heard him talking to himself...but I couldn't tell what."

"Don't panic," Hugor assured, "Why don't you get the mayor to talk to them?"

Leonie perked up at the suggestion, "Of course!" her hand was suddenly on my wrist and she ripped me from the blacksmith shop. "I'll bring him back later!" she shouted, clambering out the door with me in tow.

On the long walk home she expressed what else had made her so worried, the men's stares and the way they carried themselves as if a hundred pound weight were hanging from their necks. "They're possessed."

"But what would...I don't know." I sighed.

Our hands had been woven together, but she withdrew at my sigh and stopped walking. "What, you don't believe me?"

"It's not like that, I just. I-I don't really want to be involved in something so...so…"

"Farfetched?"

Her lips were pursed and she wore a similar look to the concern she had at the shop, but there was more behind it. "No! No…" I attempted.

"Then what?!" Leonie snapped, "People could die if we don't say anything."

"It's just a fairytale...All of that stuff. Magic doesn't exist Leonie, get your head out of the dirt."

I couldn't tell if that's what I believed, but I had still been getting swordplay advice from one of the men and they seemed normal to me. On top of that, this hadn't been the first time she'd gotten hysterical over something. All the same, I felt pitiful hearing my mouth throw the words out at her like vomit.

And she didn't take it well.

"If you're not going to take this seriously, then why don't you just go back to your boring job. Slave away making weapons for the bokoblins that killed two of the town's children. I'm sure they could really use those."

In the blink of an eye she was gone. Rather than head back I went after her, thinking through a million ways to apologize. Right when I was about to enter the gate, I heard a loud snort from the woods. Startled, I unsheathed my sword and faced the treeline. For a few relentless seconds, I saw nothing, and then everything all at once. They poured out in droves, the first group swinging and knocking me off my feet, into the dirt.

By the time the last few tripped through the gate, screams were already erupting throughout the town. I threw myself onto my feet and sprinted in, stopped by shock when the sheer amount of them caught up to me. They were in every corner, ransacking, pillaging. The first place I thought of going was the mayor's house. Once I started moving, I didn't imagine myself stopping.

Left and right, tearing flesh and blood filled my nostrils. I couldn't stop them, but I could try to save them, starting with Leonie. The mayor's house was tall, but already there were broken windows at the top. A little boy sat curled up on the roof, holding onto a teddy bear. I rushed in, listening to a clatter from upstairs. In a small room, a bokoblin was rummaging through drawers.

With my shaking aim, I slashed through him. There was no more noise in the building, and to my horror, it seemed the only person there was the boy. I brought him inside, asking where his father went and listening to him whisper something about the armory.

The armory was empty.

I cursed myself, shaking as I realized I wasn't going to find Leonie as easily as I thought I could, not like the games of hide and seek we played as kids. Moving from house to house, I cut through two more bokoblins, gaining more than enough scratches than I needed from their grimy weapons. It was in the second place that the wife told me she knew she'd seen him walking by to a man's house, the one who had been teaching me.

There was a pungent smell of smoke hitting the air when I left, gross and all consuming. Two houses down there was a place untouched, but a door was left open. Inside vases were tipped over and candelabras rested on the floor. Deep in, I saw the first sign of life, the mayor, breathing heavily, his chest bloodied.

"Sir!"

"Link, you need to get out of here, try to get out as many people as you c-"

"Have you seen Leonie?"

He was silent.

"Where is she, she spoke to you, didn't she?"

"Shh!"

A shatter rang from one of the back rooms followed by a scream.

"He found her…"

All of my muscles went numb with adrenaline. One step after another I found myself in a large room, a dining table set up for eight. Just across the table was the man who owned the house, brooding, hand grasped around a blade. He was looking at a red headed girl, Leonie. On the floor at his feet was a shattered pot.

I sprinted towards him, sword drawn, and jumped in front of Leonie. Our blades hit and I stumbled backwards out of the collision. Before I could get my bearings he retaliated, knocking me further back into Leonie. In a flash, his sword came down across my chest and I fell to the ground.

Above, Leonie made a run for it and the man tackled after her. It wasn't two steps before he'd caught up, pulling her back by the shoulder. I tried to get up, wincing at the pain, screaming for him to stop. But he didn't stop, I watched him helplessly as he thrust his blade forward and through her chest, all the color in her face gone as she fell to the floor, eyes wide open.

He glanced back at me, strolling out of the room to goddess knows where, I didn't care. I pulled myself towards her, Leonie, lying still on the ground. When I reached her and turned her head towards me, I could see her chest rising up and down in short bursts, but her eyes were devoid. "Leonie," I whispered.

She moved her pupils towards me.

That was enough. There was a spring outside of the edge of town, but if I could get a horse I might make it in time. I sheathed my sword, scooped her up into my arms, and ran out, passing the mayor who had stopped breathing. Across the yard there was a mangy looking horse waiting for its bokoblin to come back out for it. Each step hurt, but I wasted no time throwing myself on top of it with her between my arms.

The horse obeyed and soon enough we were tearing out of the town and down the road I traveled every day by foot. Gazing back, the smoke from the burning houses rose well above the trees. The men at the blacksmith shop when I passed were mostly gone save for two who didn't want to go back to the town. Further along, the undergrowth grew thicker and the path constricted. We dove through cliffs and stone passages until one of them lead to a spring.

The water was a crisp blue, fairies hovered back and forth, summoned by the taste of death in the air. I jumped off with a barely breathing Leonie, kneeling into the pool of water and setting her down only to see nothing happen. A fairy approached, gliding downward and downward, fluttering on the surface. It faded into Leonie, but nothing happened.

Nothing, not a sound, not a stir. Leonie had stopped moving.

"What?!"

I froze.

"No, no, no," my fingers tangled themselves in her hair and held on, "no." The tears became one with the water, falling off my face like rain. There was a constant thrum in my head of no's that became methodical. Every time I looked at her face they came back stronger and tore my wound apart further. The sun behind her had been extinguished and what did I do? I was weak.

Night drifted in calmly, caressing my sore mind with crickets and stars. I finally picked her back up, heading somberly back to Gration. The remaining townspeople were elated to see us back until they realized the state of Leonie in my arms. The bokoblins were gone but no one knew to where. Before they could ask me anything, I brought Leonie to her family, kissed her cold forehead goodbye, and took the disheveled horse outside of town.

I was weak from losing so much blood, it had stained my clothes thoroughly, but I had nearly ignored it until I found myself back at the spring. The fairies fluttered towards me, circling around until my skin tingled, disappearing into the thin night air. Before I passed out, I checked on the wound again only to find it completely sealed over.

Perhaps magic was real afterall.