Author's Note: After almost 6 years I have decided to come back to this story and rewrite it. I want to give my deepest apologies to everyone that read the original. Your comments were all super sweet and super inspiring to me when I made the decision to rewrite this. This story is my baby and I want to give it the respect it deserves. I wrote the original back when I was in middle school. I honestly do not remember why I stopped updating, but I am truly sorry. I hate when authors abandon their stories without saying anything, and then I went and did the same thing. I am now a college student studying English and Secondary Education, so I'm not sure how often updates will happen, but I promise I will not abandon this story again. The original is still up on my YouTube channel under the same user name if you're interested, but I advise against reading that version. I was 12 when I wrote it. The rewrite is also being posted on ao3 incase anyone sees it there. The only reason I'm posting it here as well is because I feel guilty about abandoning it here. I hope you guys, even if you never read the original, enjoy this rewrite.
The ring of clashing metal echoed in the sealed off room. Water splashed up with every strike, making it difficult to see. Link suddenly recoiled in pain. He reached up to touch the new cut on his cheek, just below his right eye. He grimaced and his fingertips came away bloody.
"Seriously?" His enemy giggled. The sound echoed unnaturally in the chamber, and even though the water had stopped splashing, Link couldn't make out where his opponent was. "One cut and you're taken out of the moment? You're not gonna survive this if a little scratch is enough to distract you!"
The faint sound of rippling water behind him was the only clue Link had telling him where his enemy was. He spun around just in time to raise his shield against an attack that was headed straight for his back.
"Of course, you'd aim there," Link chuckled humorlessly. "You stabbed me in the back years ago. Why would now be any different?"
"You haven't changed," his opponent smirked.
"Wish I could say the same about you," Link frowned.
The fight continued. With every attack, with every cut, with every shared insult, Link found himself reflecting on everything in his life that led to this moment; Everything that went wrong in just the right way to place the two of them in this very room and this very moment, fighting to the death, where no one would walk out a winner.
"Race ya!"
At those words, the two brothers tore across the open field, pushing their mounts to go faster. Zach was ahead by just a hair, but the cocky grin on his face made it look like he already won. Link gritted his teeth and patted Epona's neck.
"Come on, girl!" he begged. "If Zach wins, we'll never hear the end of it!"
"You got that right!" the older twin laughed. "All I need is one win against you. Orcus and I have been training for this!"
Zach and Orcus pulled a little more ahead to Link's dismay. Epona was holding steady, but Orcus still managed to keep the lead. Once the wall surrounding Castle Town was in sight, Zach laughed and made a comment about having the race in the bag. Link ignored his brother though, instead focusing on Orcus. The horse had started slowing down. They started too fast and now Orcus was losing steam.
Link grinned and pushed Epona a little harder, taking full advantage of the situation. Zach's laughter started to die down as Link and Epona took the lead. Link turned around as best he could to stick his tongue out at his brother. Zach growled in frustration and tried to get Orcus to go a little faster, but it was too late. Link and Epona had managed to reach the drawbridge leading into Castle Town first. Link let out a victorious cheer while Orcus slowed to a stop.
Zach sighed in defeat and dismounted. Link jumped down and the twins lead their horses over the bridge and towards the stables.
"We almost had ya," Zach said, elbowing Link's arm.
"You've been saying that for months!" Link laughed. "Just admit it, Epona and I are just a better team than you and Orcus."
"I'll admit that Ilia pulled some strings to make sure you got the faster horse," Zach teased. Orcus huffed in what sounded like annoyance. Zach winced and patted his horse's neck. "Nothing against you, Orcus! You're great! We just gotta work a little harder if we wanna beat 'em."
The two brothers handed over their horses to the stable boy along with a few rupees as thanks for watching them.
"Make sure they get plenty of water and hay," Link said as his brother started pulling him into the town. "They ran here, so please- Zach, I'm trying to talk to them!"
Zach rolled his eyes and kept dragging Link along. "They know what they're doing. Epona and Orcus will be fine. I'd rather not be here all day, so we gotta get moving."
"What's even on ma's list?" Link asked, pulling his arm out of Zach's grip. He still stayed close to Zach though since, like always, Castle Town was overly crowded and the pair didn't want to risk getting separated.
"Wheat, rice, four, salt-"
"Boring!" Link groaned. "Anything sweet?"
"…Sugar?" Zach said, raising his voice slightly, making it sound more like a question.
Link shrugged. "Eh, good enough I guess."
The shopping itself was easy. Between Zach's way with words and Link's sweet, childlike demeaner, the twins managed to avoid paying full price for everything. The older lady who sold them the sugar even offered the two a small bag of honey candies on the house.
After the shopping was done, the pair found themselves in an alleyway sitting on wooden crates, away from the crowd.
"I see why ma always sends us to do the shopping for her," Link said, popping one of the candies in his mouth. "Saves money in the long run."
"Don't think we'll be able to get away with it forever though," Zach chuckled. "You're bound to grow out of the whole cute kid act eventually."
Link shrugged. "Eh, hopefully by then I'll be a knight and making enough money to help support y'all."
"Ya know you don't have to become a knight if you don't wanna," Zach said, taking a candy for himself. "Just because you got that destiny triangle doesn't mean you don't have a say in what you get to do with your life."
"Yeah, I know," Link said, rolling his eyes. "But what if I choose to stay on the farm and Hyrule needs me to step up and be a hero?"
"You're twelve," Zach deadpanned. "If anyone in Hyrule- hell, if the goddesses themselves expect you to be a hero at age twelve, then they're delusional."
Link huffed in annoyance. "I don't think they're expecting me to do anything now! I meant in the future."
"Look, you're getting worked up over nothing," Zach sighed. "If ya wanna become a knight, no one's gonna stop you. But just know none of us expect you to commit yourself to something you don't wanna do just because some glowy triangle says otherwise."
"You're telling me that if one of the goddesses came down and told you to drop everything and serve the royal family, you wouldn't listen?" Link chuckled.
"Hell no!" Zach laughed. "I have no desire to work for the royal family. Nothing against them, but that sounds like a horrible way to spend my life."
"I just wanna do something exciting! It's not that I hate working on the farm, but I feel like I should be doing something more." Link frowned and stared at the back of his left hand. It was being covered by a brown, fingerless glove, but he still knew what was underneath.
"Laugh and call it the destiny triangle all you want, I don't wanna waste it. Farore must've given it to me for a reason."
Zach stared at his brother and sighed. He threw an arm over Link's shoulders and shook his head. "S'long as you're happy, I don't care what ya do. Just, if you're gonna move to Castle Town to serve the royals, don't forget to come visit us peasant folk back on the farm," Zach said, ruffling Link's hair.
Link laughed and shoved his brother off of him. "Ugh, no way! I wanna get as far away from you as possible! Maybe I'll send a letter or two if you're lucky!"
"Oh, thank you, noble hero!" Zach over dramatically praised. "We are unworthy of your words!"
Link laughed and shook his head. "I haven't left yet, don't worry. We still got a few years before I go."
A loud bell clanging from the town center stopped their laughter. Months of run errands for their mom, and neither one of them had ever heard that bell before. Their dad had warned them that if they heard the bell to go listen to the message, since it comes directly from the castle. Link and Zach hopped down from the crates, grabbed their bags, and headed back to the fountain in the center of town.
Castle Town was always crowded, but the bell ringer turned the constantly moving crowd into a condensed mass of people all pushing to get closer to the fountain. Link grabbed Zach to stop him from attempting to push his way through the crowd.
"What?" Zach asked. "I can't see from back here!"
Link let go of his brother and pointed to the roof of the building right behind them, smirking. "Give me a boost."
Zach grinned and linked his hands together, giving Link a step. Zach managed to help push Link up onto the low hanging roof. Once up, Link reached down to help Zach up. They climbed higher to a flat point on the slanted roof and laid down, resting their chins on their palms.
Once the crowd settled, the bell ringer stopped. Surprisingly, he didn't pull out a scroll or anything and just jumped right into his speech.
"This is an official emergency message from the castle!" he shouted. A panicked whisper arose in the crowd. The messenger picked up his bell and rang it again to silence them.
"What'da think happened?" Link asked, keeping his voice down.
Zach rolled his eyes. "I doubt it's an actual emergency. Rich people can be so over dramatic sometimes. It's probably nothing to worry about."
The bell stopped ringing, but the messenger didn't bother setting it down this time. The messenger was clearly shaking, but he still stood up tall to deliver the news.
"The queen has been murdered!" he shouted. "And the princess, Heaven, is missing!"
It was dead silent in the town. No one knew what to say. Link and Zach stared at each other, eyes wide with worry.
The messenger continued. "The murderer has yet to be caught, but the royal knights are doing everything in their power to capture the criminal behind this! A curfew is being put in place, and everyone in Castle Town in expected to be indoors by sunset until further notice! Any and all suspicious behavior is to be reported!"
"Zach, we gotta go home. Now," Link whispered.
"Will they even let us leave since they don't have the killer yet?" Zach asked. "What if us leaving makes them suspicious of us?"
"We have our goods with us. We also left our horses at the stable. We wouldn't have had time to go shopping, break into the castle, kill the queen, kidnap the princess, and make it back to the stables," Link explained. "But the longer we wait, the more suspicious we look! Worse comes to worse, I'll show them my hand. They aren't likely to turn down the hero."
"But you're not a hero yet!" Zach argued. "All you have is the mark!"
"It's the best chance we got, now come on!" Link urged, standing up. "We gotta go!"
Link slid down the roof and jumped down back into the alleyway. Zach stood up to follow, but a flash of color caught his eye. On the roof of a building on the other side of the fountain stood a figure cloaked in teal. It was too far away for Zach to make out any details, but the color was bright enough to stand out. The person had their hood pulled up and they were half hidden behind the chimney on top of the building.
Zach watched as another person climbed up and tapped the cloaked figure. The two then quickly made their way back down to the ground and vanished.
"Zach, come on!" Link called. The messenger was still talking, but Zach ignored what he was saying and slid down the roof to join his brother in the alleyway.
"What took you so long?" Link asked as they pushed their way through the crowd, trying to make it to the drawbridge.
"I saw someone on the roof across the fountain," Zach said. "I don't know, it was weird."
"We were on the roof too. They probably couldn't see just like us."
"Yeah, I don't know, I guess the news about the queen is messing with my head. I'm being paranoid," Zach sighed. "Let's just go home."
They pushed through the crowd in silence. Zach let his eyes wander every now and then to see if he could spot the teal cloaked figure, but he found nothing. The stable people handed over Epona and Orcus and vouched for the brothers to the guards at the front gate, so thankfully they were able to leave without Link revealing his Triforce mark. As much as Zach joked about it, he knew that if the guards knew who Link was, they would take him to the royal family immediately, and with the queen's murder and princess Heaven's kidnapping, Zach didn't want to risk losing his brother so soon. He only had a little over two years to spend time with his brother. He didn't want to lose a single day.
They didn't bother racing back to Oridon. Instead, Link and Zach opted to ride next to each other. Neither one of them spoke. They weren't exactly sure what to say. Sure, they didn't know the queen personally, but everyone always spoke of her in high regard. She was a caring ruler who looked out for her subjects. The fact that someone would want to murder her was insane, but clearly someone thought she deserved to die.
"What do we say when we get back?" Link asked after a bit. "Do we tell mom and dad first? Or mayor Bo? Or do we wait for a messenger to come and deliver the news?"
Zach shrugged. "We can tell ma and dad right away. As for the mayor, I say we either let dad tell him or wait for the messenger. I don't exactly want to be the one to deliver the bad news."
Link nodded in agreement and the two fell back to silence. It didn't take too long for them to make it back to Oridon. Link offered to take Orcus back to the barn, leaving Zach to go inside and break the bad news.
Zach opened the door and called out for his mom. She yelled from the kitchen and he went to find her.
"Perfect timing, Zach!" she sighed in relief, coming over to take his bag. "I was just getting ready to start dinner! What took ya boys so long?"
Zach handed over the bag and took a deep breath. "There was an emergency bell."
"Oh gods, are you two alright?" his mom gasped. She put the bag down and cupped Zach's face in her hands. "What happened? Where's Link?"
Zach shook her off. "Link's fine, he's putting up Epona and Orcus."
"What happened?" his mother repeated.
"The queen's been murdered and princess Heaven's missing. I'm assuming she was kidnapped by whoever killed the queen."
"Oh my, for the love of Nayru, Zach if this is some kind of prank-"
"I'm not joking, ma!" Zach snapped. "Queen Esmerelda's been killed and one of the princesses are missing! Do you think that's something I'd joke about?"
Link walked in to his mom and brother shouting at each other. Nothing new, but he still went to see what exactly caused the argument.
"-gonna take him sooner than we planned!"
"No one's taking anyone, ma! Calm down!'
Link walked into the kitchen and knocked on the wall. The shouting stopped and Zach turned around to see who was there. Link pressed his lips together and forced himself to smile despite all of the tension. "Is this a bad time?"
"Oh Link, I'm so glad you're safe!" his mom cried, running over to hug him. "Zach told me what happened! Are you okay?"
Zach rolled his eyes at his mom and pushed past her to go to his room. Link patted his mom's back in an attempt to comfort her.
"I'm fine, ma, really!"
"You're not going back to Castle Town anytime soon, mister!" she declared, stepping back from the hug, but leaving her hands on Link's shoulders.
"Ma, you worry too much," Link groaned. "We're not royalty. I highly doubt Zach and I have targets on our backs."
"Don't argue with me! You're not leaving Oridon until further notice!" his mom ordered. "Heck, you're not leaving this house for the rest of the day!"
"Mom…" Link groaned.
"Nope, I've made up my mind!" she declared. Link sighed and pulled away from her to follow Zach into their room.
"And don't even think about sneaking out later or else you'll be grounded, mister!" his mom shouted after him.
Link ignored her and closed the door to their room behind him. Zach was laying down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"She put you on house arrest too?" Link asked. He kicked off his boots and sat down on his own bed, across from Zach's.
"Nope. Didn't even ban me from going to Castle Town."
"What! That's not fair!" Link whined.
Zach just grunted in annoyance, still not looking over at Link.
"What? You wanna be banned from going into town?"
Zach sighed and shut his eyes. "No. I just wish she wouldn't play favorites and make it this obvious."
"What do ya mean?" Link asked.
Zach sat up and glared at Link. Link could tell his brother wasn't mad at him, just angry with the situation, but the glare was still shocking.
"Oh please! She doesn't care what happens to me, but you? Suddenly you're not allowed to even leave the house! I understand her being protective, but you think she'd at least make it a little harder to tell who her favorite son is."
Link frowned. "I don't get it. You think her keeping me under house arrest is her playing favorites? Zach, I'm the one being punished here!"
"You're not looking at this from her perspective!" Zach argued. "She worried for you, so she keeps you in town. She's worried because she loves you and doesn't want the royal family to snatch you up the second they find out your Farore's chosen hero! That makes sense!"
Zach stood up. "But now with the queen dead, she's worried about what dangers are out there! That's a different fear, but a fear she has nonetheless. However, instead of worrying about both of us enough to ban both of us from going into town, she only bans you! She doesn't care if I go into town with a murderer on the loose, so long as her special son is still safe!"
Link stood up and glared back at his brother. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't want to be Farore's chosen, but I didn't get a say! It's not my fault! I can't control how ma treats me!"
"I know!" Zach groaned. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad!"
The older twin fell back onto his bed and buried his face in his hands. Link softened his glare and walked over to Zach's bed, taking a seat next to him.
"You know she loves you," Link whispered. "She's just scared I'm gonna leave sooner than intended. I keep telling her I'm not going anywhere until I'm fifteen, but she doesn't listen, you know that."
"I know," Zach sighed. "It's just, sometimes I feel like she forgets she has two sons instead of one."
Link kicked Zach's feet and smiled. "I can't speak for ma, but trust me, I'll never forget that I have a brother."
Zach sat up and pushed his brother, laughing. "You're such a sap!"
"What do you want from me!" Link laughed. "You get mad that ma ignores you, yet you don't want me to pay attention to you!"
"Shut up!" Zach laughed, chucking his pillow at his younger twin. Link fell back dramatically at the hit and laid on the floor for a moment before throwing the pillow right back in Zach's face. The thrown pillow acted as a declaration of war as the two began to thrown whatever they could get their hands on at each other. Books, pillows, shoes, it was a full on free for all. The only thing that mattered was both brothers were laughing and smiling the whole time, trying to forget about the events from earlier in the day.