Fortune's Haze

Chapter One

"A young boy clad in green takes up a sword from a pedestal, it being too big for his small frame to weild. Next thing he knows, he's an adult. Still clad in green, a green tunic, to be precise, he takes up the sword, beginning his journey between times..."

A page turns.

"A young man takes to the skies, riding on a giant red bird. He soars above the clouds, before falling to the earth below...He's also clad in a spring green, his hair a sandy color of blonde..."

Another page turns.

"A young man washes up on the beach, a woman coming by and saving him from the creatures that lurk there. A mountain in the distance shows a large speckled egg. The young man is clad in a green tunic." The elderly man looks up from the journal to the young man sitting before him. "So, Link, it looks like you're still having these dreams."

Link looks down, a look of shame filling his face as he nods. He was scrawny, not like the person in his dreams, his hair a soft dishwater blonde color, his clothing a dark green shirt, with black pants. Green had always been his favorite color, and now he wore it almost exclusively. It reminded him of the forests...the forests he had never seen, unless it was in his dreams. He looked back up at the man that was speaking to him, and quickly looked away. For a moment, there, the man had swelled up like a goron. To his vision for a moment he was a large, music loving goron. He squeezed his eyes shut, and reopened them, seeing the elderly man there once more. "I can't make the dreams or visions stop. The medications aren't working..."

The psychiatrist nodded. They were almost at the end of treatment. Failed treatment to be exact. The boy's visions had plagued him ever since he was a small child. Always the same general story of saving the world. The triforce...which the journal had scrawled on it, of the Goddess worship that Hyrule had taken to be fact long ago. Legends and myths plagued the boy's mind. He would have to up the dosage of antipsychotics and perhaps antidepressants. The way that the visions were going, this young man would never have a normal life, get a normal job, or any of the things that most aspired to. The visions would accost him even when he was doing simple things such as driving, eating, or writing.

"I am going to increase your medication, Link." The doctor said, as he handed the journal back to him. He procured a pen, and began writing the prescription.

Link shook his head. "Dr. Darunia, I've been on some type of medicine since I was a child. What if... what if I would try to wean myself off of it, and see what would happen?" He looked up at him, his sky blue eyes pleading, near tears. He had never felt normal with the dreams and visions, but, somehow they had always felt pulling, teaching, like destiny...

Darunia looked at him. "Are you certain? This is a textbook case of schizophrenia. What if the visions and dreams take over, and you can't tell reality from fiction? Would you be willing to take that chance?"

Link smiled weakly at the doctor. The expense of the medications had left him destitute, and nearly homeless. They took away the visions, for the most part, when he was awake, and, if he took them right before bedtime, while he was alseep. Miss one dose, though, and they were back with a vengeance...like Fate was talking to him. "...What do I have to lose?"

Link tottered out into the daytime sun, and looked around. Chroniker was a fairly big city, with the accompaning smog and loudness. Gray and dull, hence why he never went out in the bright green of himself in his dreams. He had never told the doctor that. HE was the green clad boy and man in the dreams. He was the one that had pulled the sword from the pedestal, he was the one who had ridden the horse. "Now long extinct..." He murmured to himself as he began to walk down the street. He looked down at the paper in his hand as he stopped at a crosswalk. On it were directions for weaning himself off of the powerful medications which had kept him functioning, more or less, since he had been about 10 years old. He sighed, placing the paper into his backpack quickly, before the light told him to walk across the street.

He must've been a little slow about walking, because a thousand honks followed him back onto the sidewalk from the middle of the road. The honks turned into chicken clucks in his mind's ear, as he covered his head, and ran onto the sidewalk, not stopping. The clucking, and the pecking. He could feel it all through his body. He squeezed his eyes shut, and ran until he was out of breath, nearly knocking over several people in his mad dash.
He came to his right senses when he heard his steps echoing instead of just making the dull thuds that they normally made in a busier part of town. Back street? He opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. The rough part of town. "Wow, I had really ran far..." He said to himself before a feeling of danger eeked into him. He didn't belong here. He needed to get away. Biting his bottom lip a bit, he turned around, only to just about smack into the chest of someone that towered over him. "Ack! Ex...excuse me!" He stammered, as he backed up, and went to go around him.

The larger man blocked his path. "Aw, what's the rush, kid?" He said, his pale green skin, red hair, and gruff expression giving an indication that he was Gerudian. He stepped forward. "I bet you have something nice in that backpack."

Link shook his head, and stepped back. There was a flash, the Gerudian looking older, larger, and with a glowing mark on his hand for a split second, before turning back into what he was now. A common thug? The sinking feeling in Link's gut told him that he had come face to face with this person before,and that it was wise to get away. "I-I have nothing!" He stammered, turning around to try to get away, but only seeing some more thugs beginning to surround him. Some were Hylian, some were Gerudian, and some seemed to be a mixture between the two.

Link backed up a bit again, finding himself surrounded. He gulped. What was in his backpack? His journal, his ruple card, wallet, pen, money, basically his whole life. He felt something odd within himself. Strength? Determination? He had to get away. He looked around quickly for something to use, finding a metal pipe laying in the alleyway. Holding it, he looked back at the people, brandishing it similiarly like a sword or a baseball bat. "Stay away! I-I don't want to hurt anyone!" He stammered.

The leader smirked at this, "Looks like we have a fighter, guys."

Link felt a sharp blow to the head, then darkness.

"Where is he...?" A girl looking out the window of a quaint restaurant downtown says to herself, as she checks her watch. Link should've been there by now. He was supposed to go to the shrink, and then meet her here for lunch. He was half an hour late, which was unlike him. He was pretty forgetful at times, but when it came to being on time, he never let her down.

The waiter came by, looking at her pitifully. "Miss, if your friend isn't showing, then we will have to ask you to leave. We are rather full up, and-"

"Fine." She said crossly, and stood up, making a rather scornful look at the people that were waiting for a table, but not saying anything as she brushed past. She would wait outside for him, then. She heard a rather painful yelp down the street, and saw several guys come out of an ally carrying a backpack. One was carrying what looked to be a bloodied pipe. Narrowing her eyes, she reached in her purse, bringing out her glasses, putting them on. "Magnify." She said, as she looked at the backpack. There was an "L" inscribed in dark green on the front. "Well, shit." She said under her breath as she waited for the guys to continue walking before she crossed the street, and went into the alleyway.

There she saw Link, unconscious, broken, bloody, sprawled upon his stomach with his clothing ripped. "Link, oh Link!" She said, as she placed a hand on his shoulder, before turning him over onto his back gently. He let out a moan of pain, as he coughed, the spittle being dark red. "Link...hold on!" She says, as she reaches into her purse, grabbing the same glasses, pushing a button on the side of them, and speaking into it. "I have an emergency at the corner of Windfish and 2nd street! My friend...oh...thank you!" She pushed the button on the glasses again, and slid them back into her purse.

"They'll be here soon..." She said, as she surveyed the damage. A black eye, blood everywhere, a cut lip, and, by the way his chest was rising and falling, maybe a busted rib. Tears burned her eyes as they gathered. What had he been doing in this backstreet? She looked around. It was fairly common, echo-y, but also looked like several of the homeless lived here. She hoped that the thugs didn't come back before the ambulance showed up.

A cough came from Link. "T-tetra-?"

"Shh..." She ran a hand through his hair, feeling a knot on the back of his head beginning to rise up. He was probably concussed. Who was Tetra? That was an incredibly old name...

He was in the dreams again, the ocean stretched before him, then shrank.

"Link...Link...ye who were the hero... You were the chosen one again, but... Something is wrong... Go to the old shrine in Chroniker. I will meet you there."

The voice burned in his memory, then the waters of the world closed up, revealing a barren landscape, before he woke up.