Author's note: Just did a few revisions on this chapter to better reflect what I now see as being Link's actual thought processes, not the trying-to-be-cool voice I had in mind for him when I wrote this back in high school. I'll be getting to the later chapters over the next few days. Comments and reviews are very much welcome, and I hope you all enjoy this.

Link sat in Ordon Spring, staring off at the waterfall, the sound of the rushing water muting his thoughts, the sunshine dancing off the water sending him into a trance. Ilia was sitting at his side, while Epona basked in the midday sun. This was the life that had been torn from him, and the life to which he could no longer return. He was a stranger to his home, and his home to him as a foreign land. Idyllic and down-to-earth, so unlike the harrowing and incomprehensible journey that he had experienced.

Months ago, he had been sitting in this very spot while Rusl told him about the legends of the Twilight Realm…

He quickly snapped himself back to reality and sighed with annoyance. He wouldn't think about that, he'd told himself over and over.

The only remembrance he let slide was a fragment of the Mirror of Twilight he wore around his neck, the one memento he took—half to honor Midna's wish to never forget the Twilight, and half to prove to himself that his adventure wasn't just some insane dream—or nightmare. He had difficulty much of the time deciding which was more accurate. As long as he had the physical reminder, he'd decided to leave the memories to his sleep and to the daydreams that stole his mind away from the world around him.

He turned his head to look at Ilia, who nonchalantly averted her gaze to Epona. She clearly liked him; not even losing her memory changed that. If anything, helping her while she recovered her memory made her like him even more. He was still devising a game plan: reciprocate the feelings or keep it as just friends with her? If he decided to keep it in the friend zone, how should he let her down, and how would he need to proceed with talking to Bo?

But, returning the favor to Ilia actually wasn't sounding too bad lately; she had a decent figure, she was overprotective, but that just meant she really cared about him (and the horse), and she could be incredibly sweet and very relaxed. And, of course, they went back a long way. And Midna was in a world he couldn't even get to anymore…

Damnit, he did it again.

Link sat on an idle Epona, staring off into space as a herd of Ordon goats milled about him. He was dragged back into reality with Fado shouting for him to get the job done. Link took a look at the rancher, nodded, and got to work, whooping the goats into the barn, making sure to not shout enough that the goats wanted to turn tail and trample him.

This work was supremely boring for him, and he was glad it never took him more than a few minutes. He sighed, gave a gentle kick to Epona's sides, and readied his vocal cords.

When he'd first returned home after his adventure, Link knew Fado would come calling, so he took off on Epona in the morning before. He had been dragged into the Twilight Realm and turned into a wolf, restored three light spirits, saved the village children, taken on massive foes that were the stuff of nightmares, and both made and lost a friend who he had grown to see as his other half. As it was, the Hero of Twilight just could not bring himself to settle right back into his old life as if nothing had ever happened. As he told Ilia, he needed time to wander for a while, clear his head and just process the last nine months.

Link had come back after a week, having tired out his mind and body. When he arrived back, Rusl tasked him with helping train Colin and Talo in the art of swordsmanship and being a man. The grizzled swordsman's ploy worked wonderfully; the Hero of Twilight was distracted from his adventure by the boisterous children who were always surrounding him, asking him to play, show him some cool trick or another—and in the case of the two boys, being a more mature mentor. The golden-haired youth was soon back to his old goat-herding (and child-shepherding) self.

His eyes snapped open as he jolted awake to the shroud of night. He sat up in bed, leaned his head into his hands and groaned after experiencing the same dream for the past four nights in a row.

It began every time with a strange short-haired girl, skin and eyes seemingly made out of sky-blue crystal, donning a cloak. One side blue, one side violet. Stockings a mesh of purple and forest green. A diamond the same color of her skin, embedded in her chest. Gold trimming surrounded this diamond. The girl hovering above the Master Sword, resting right where Link had relinquished it in the Sacred Grove. Every time, he got the vibe that something serious was going to happen. After this vision followed a dark, imposing figure similar to Ganondorf, but more… Menacing. More primal. Ganondorf was his own horror, to be sure; Link had barely escaped with his life. But this… Demon—so he decided to call it—was different. Far more imposing than Ganondorf could ever be, though Link had trouble imagining something more sinister than the monster that had torn him from the life he knew and had nearly destroyed two worlds. His eyes and hair were alight with hellfire, his skin dark and partially scaled, pulsating with sheer malice. His very image breathed evil…

Link sighed, rising from his bed to gaze out his window at the starry night. His legs were still stiff with grogginess and protested, but the Hero of Twilight didn't care one bit.

He stared out at the sleepy Ordon Village. During the day, he was busy with the children, herding goats, helping the townsfolk with errands, and Ilia. At night, the distractors disappeared and flashes of dungeons and monsters came flooding back into his mind. Now he was just intrigued at how the little hamlet could sleep so peaceably at night after all that had happened.

As the ambient drowsiness of the scene overcame him, he understood; the wounds of war had begun to heal, and all was back where it should be; the village children were once again reunited with their families, and Link had his old life back; no longer did he have to worry about collecting the Fused Shadows or the shards of the Mirror of Twilight. Zant was dead, Ganondorf defeated, Hyrule saved. All he had to worry about was herding a bunch of goats, entertaining the village kids, and deciding whether or not Ilia was just his friend, or maybe a little more. Link blew out the air that had been sitting in his lungs for longer than he'd realized. Maybe it was time for him, too, to move on. Back to a normal life.

Link trudged back to his bed and slumped back onto the floor, with one question seeped through his mind as he allowed sleep to retake him: What was going to go so terribly wrong?