Hyrule Academy

Prologue

Our story begins with the normal average kid that someone just decided should be the main character. That person was me. The kids name was Aster and he had shaggy brown hair with some natural blonde highlights. He was very tall for the age of 15 though. He was like any normal kid in school. He hated homework, had bullies, and hung out with some of the geeks that always did there homework. Not only did they do that but they actually turned it in on time and understood it! You know, the people you copy your homework off of. Even though he hung out with the geeks that didn't mean he was one. He didn't get along with the bullies but then again, who does.

He did have one odd thing about him. He loved the school uniform. It was a green tunic, brown leggings, and a dorky green hat that looked kind of like an elf hat. They wore this in honor of Hyrule's legendary hero, Link. Aster loved the uniform because he wanted to be just like Link and protect Hyrule. The only thing is that he had no combat training. Luckily for Aster though, the Academy started combat training when a male turned 16 if he wanted to. He could continue normal school to become whatever else they wanted to be but there was no doubt in Aster's mind that he would start his training on the 7th of January (his birthday).

Chapter 1

3… 2… 1… Brrrring. "Finally." Aster had been anxious for the sweet sound of the final bell because today was the 6th of January, the day before his 16th birthday. His parents had already signed the permission slip for him to start combat training.

As he ran home, he ran into the bully, Crush. That wasn't his real name, just a nickname he had been given and ever since then he has lived up to it.

"I see you're ready for your beatings. I felt like I would get lucky today."

"Not today Crush." Aster said as he tried to run but Crush's thugs already had him halfway down to the ground. Aster knew what was coming so he braced himself.

"What happened to you Aster? It wasn't Crush again was it?" His mom, Dee wouldn't get off his case about Crush but she just cared. They put some ice on it and Dee told him to go to sleep. She always said "Sleep is the best way to heal a wound." He went out in an instant.

When he woke up, he felt much better and his dad, Jay, was home. He was always on the road trading his goods with other cities.

"I heard about Crush. I can't wait until you start you're combat training so you can teach that guy a lesson." Jay was always like that.

"That is not why we signed him up for this." Dee hated that Jay acted like that and you know the wife always wins.

Aster actually was thinking what his dad was. He wanted to beat the crud out of Crush. Who wouldn't want to beat up a bully?

The rest of the night went pretty normally but Aster couldn't keep combat training off of his mind. Finally his dad pulled something from behind his back. "Happy birthday, son."

Aster couldn't believe it. A real sword. Wooden of course but still. He had been eyeing a steel one but his parents thought he wasn't ready for one and said they would get him one in due time. He was originally going to use one of the school's but know he had one of his own.

He couldn't wait to try it out. He went straight to bed so tomorrow would come faster but he couldn't fall asleep so he got one of his mom's famous sleeping potions and he was out in a second.

Chapter 2

"Wake up honey."

"I've been up since 4:00. Your sleeping potion must have worn off."

"Well, get ready for school."

Aster happily put on his school uniform and made sure his sword was perfectly slung over his back. He ran out the door while still having enough time to grab a piece of cheese for breakfast.

Each new combat trainee was assigned his own combat master. Aster went out to the courtyard where he would train the rest of his time in school. He sat on a ledge watching the older students train very complicated moves when a girl walked up to him. It took him a second to notice this and when he looked up, he saw his crush. Her name was Anna and Aster had a crush on her since he started school. Crush had a crush on her also (no pun intended). Luckily for Aster, Anna hated Crush but he proceeded to bother her.

"Hey, I didn't know you were starting combat training."

"Yeah, my birthday was yesterday." There was a long pause where they stared into each others eyes and Aster swore he felt some chemistry but he didn't want to be a jerk to her like Crush.

"Well… Good Luck."

"Thanks, bye" As she walked away, Aster felt like a moron for not saying anything else but his attention was quickly turned to something else, someone else had walked up to him.

"Hi, you will call me Sensei or Sir out of respect. If you call me anything else before you graduate, I will kick you out of your training. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, now enough of the small talk let's get started. I see you brought your own sword. That's good because I hate all the paperwork I would have to do to get you a school sword but we won't be using it until tomorrow."

"Aww c'mon."

"Sorry, rules are rules. Plus you need to learn the basic knowledge of a swordsman. Oh, before I forget, your parents gave me something to give to you that they forgot to last night." He pulled something off of his back. It was his own shield. Wooden again but still awesome. Aster was speechless. "Now let's begin."

He ran home and saw Crush. He was bothering Anna again and with his new found confidence after his first lesson, Aster attacked Crush. Aster charged and caught Crush off guard. Crush didn't have his thugs around to protect him. Nevertheless, Crush was still stronger than Aster. Aster leaped on his back but as soon as he did, Crush dropped backwards and pounded Aster into the dirt with his bodyweight. Aster's head was pounding as he fought for consciousness. The only thing he could of was how pathetic he looked in front of Anna. Then everything went black.

Chapter 3

Aster woke up in his bed at home. His head felt like it was on fire. His door creaked open and his mom walked in with a bag of ice to slow swelling. "Oh honey, thank God you woke up!"

"My head is burning. How long was I out for?"

"Just a couple of hours." After that it was the normal get well soon stuff that you see all the time.

The next day, he woke up to the throbbing pain in his head. He wondered if he should even go to school.

"Yes you are going to school!" Dee answered. "I know your head hurts but it is your partly your fault. If you hadn't jumped on Crush's back, this would have never happened."

He wasn't going to even try to explain what happened. She wouldn't understand and didn't need to know. Aster got ready for school but not as cheerfully as normal. Then he saw his sword and shield and felt a little better. He would be able to use them today. He securely strapped them to his back and headed off.

He was walking down the halls (trying an old trick his dad told him about trying to focus the pain in a central area making the pain get smaller and smaller until it was gone) and… "Wait up!" He turned around to see Anna running up to him. "Listen, I really appreciate what you tried to do for me yesterday."

This was Aster's chance, the perfect moment. "Do you want to… maybe, if you have the time… umm… go grab a bite to… umm… eat some time?"

"I thought you'd never ask. I'll talk to you later about when we should do it, I've got to go to class." As she ran away, his heart was racing, the pain in his head was gone, and he had a little skip in his step. Then he was snapped back to reality when the tardy bell rang.

He raced down the hallway into the courtyard to see that his Sensei wasn't there yet. Come to think of it, no one was there. BAM! A sandbag hit him in the back of the head. He quickly spun around when… BAM! One hit him from the opposite side. They were coming from all over. BAM! BAM! BAM! He grabbed his sword and shield. He blocked and cut his way through the sand bags for a whole hour until there were no more.

Then, wooden cutouts of people started popping up that had been concealed by the grass with targets over the hearts. He stabbed one, then another, and another until one a helpless girl popped up. He skipped over and stabbed the one behind her. This went on for about another hour when something slowly rose out of the ground. Aster walked up to it and discovered that it was a glass case with a bow and an empty quiver in it. He hit the case with his sword and nothing happened. He looked around and saw an uncut sandbag. He raised it up as high as he could and let go. It rammed into the case dead on but it still didn't break.

He tried everything he could find in the courtyard (including a combination of a sandbag and his sword) until he got and excellent idea. He walked up to the case and pulled the door open. He slung the quiver over his back and the bow over his shoulder. CLAP CLAP CLAP. His Sensei was walking towards him. "Good job. After the adrenaline rush of the attacks, the students don't usually get the bow before lunch. In fact, I was the first and last one to do it until now. For doing that, I'll give you fifty arrows. Use them wisely. We'll work on controlling your adrenaline and techniques after lunch. By the way, that bow and that quiver are my gifts to you. I made them myself. It's a little hobby I have."

Brrring… the lunch bell. He and Anna sat together and talked about going out after school. "No I'm drained already from training. Maybe tomorrow."

"Okay."

The rest of the trainees returned to the courtyard after lunch and Aster saw his Sensei waiting for him this time. "Let's start out with a basic slash."

They worked on the slash and stab for the first day until there was just a few minutes left. His Sensei picked up a pebble placed it in the center of his palm. "Grab the pebble and you can leave. You can not leave until you do grab the pebble."

Aster grabbed and Sensei's hand closed. Tried again and missed again. This went on for an hour and a half when he remembered what Sensei said before lunch. "After the adrenaline rush of the attacks, the students don't usually get the bow before lunch." He focused his adrenaline into thoughts and concluded with one final idea. He kicked Sensei in the nuts. Sensei dropped the pebble because this technique caught him off guard. Aster picked it up.

"Good job, Aster. You may go home. You have learned to control your adrenaline." Sensei's voice was a little high and wavy but I think we can all understand why.

Aster walked home after a job well done. Luckily, he got out later than the other students so he didn't see Crush waiting for him. He must have given up on waiting for him. Well, at least for today.

Chapter 4

The next month was pretty normal. When he got to school, he went out in the courtyard and had combat training with Sensei (he had already learned the vertical slice, jump attack, and spin attack). Sensei said he learned faster than anyone he had ever taught and that Aster would soon start combination attacks (helm splitter, final blow, back slice, etc.).

After lunch, they worked on yoga, meditation, etc. Anything to help Aster control his anger. Sensei said they did it after lunch because "You can't practice on a full stomach." Aster disagreed because you may have to fight on a full stomach so why not practice with one but decided not to argue with Sensei. After school, he would get beaten up by Crush but not all days. About twice a week because Crush started magic training on his sixteenth birthday and it was getting to him. He was always tired and just wanted to get home as soon as possible. This was a relief to Aster.

His relationship with Anna was doing very well, they always hung out but she did get a little annoyed whenever he said he was too tired to go out. Other than that, things were going fine. But Crush was still bothering her from time to time. Aster knew he could stop it when he was ready but not yet.

Aster headed off to school. As soon as he got there, Sensei rushed him out of the school. "This is someone's sixteenth birthday and they need the courtyard for the first combat lesson. I always liked these days because it gives us a chance to just walk around and hang out."

They walked around the town and worked on some form of meditation that only works while you're walking and your body will do the steering for you when Sensei said "It's lunch time. There's a place I like to take my students. It's on the edge of the forest. Follow me."

Sensei took Aster through the town until the appearance of houses became less and less. Sensei pointed to the West "See, up on that hill, that's the place." They went up the hill and opened the door. When they walked in, and one of those little bells that ring when you open the door, rang.

It was a nice little place that apparently not too many people knew about. They served anything you could think of and all of it was very good. Aster had a strange meat that he'd never heard of before smothered in Ordonian goat cheese. Aster wasn't paying any attention to what Sensei was having because his mouth was watering over the smell of the food in the back.

As soon as they closed the door to the restaurant, they heard something scream in the bushes in the forest. "Aster, go inside and tell the waitress to go get some back-up and you stay there. I don't want to endanger you in any way possible."

Aster watched as Sensei ran into the forest until he realized he should do what Sensei said. Well, part of it at least. He ran into the restaurant, "Send someone to go get some help. We heard something scream in the forest."

"I'm on it." One of the cooks in the back must've overheard their conversation and ran back into town. Aster knew he couldn't let Sensei do this alone so he followed him into the forest.

A little ways into the forest, Aster saw something lying on the ground. It was Sensei's unconscious body. He checked for a pulse and found it. The help would come and take care of him. Aster knew he must go find what did this to Sensei.

Aster didn't get ten feet from Sensei when he heard a chuckle. He looked up and saw a figure hovering near the treetops. It floated down to the ground and removed its black robe. The creature's skin was a pale white that was almost blinding to look at. It was wearing a black tunic with long black pants. It had a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. "Yes, I was the one that did this but only to get your attention. I really want you. Are you ready for a fight?"

"I was born ready." said Aster as his body started to tremble with fear and anger. He was scared to death by the sight of the creature and knew it would be a tough fight but he had to do it.

"By the way," the creature screeched "my name is Zaar. Let's battle."

Gulp "Yes, let's."

Chapter 5

Gulp "Yes, let's."

Zaar leaped at the young warrior and raised his sword. What happened next amazed Zaar and Aster alike because Aster jumped, rolled, and sliced Zaar's back. A perfect back slice but Aster had never attempted one before.

"I guess I've severely underestimated you."

"I guess you have." said Aster but he knew his luck (if that's what it was) would run out eventually.

Zaar started to levitate up to the heavens when Aster jumped up at him but Zaar batted him away like a fly.

Aster looked at Zaar's back and saw something very strange. Where he struck his back slice, there was a tear in the clothes but not a wound. Not even a bruise. Aster thought maybe the blow didn't land as clean as he thought it did.

Aster attacked over and over again with multiple techniques he had learned but there were no lasting wounds.

Aster pulled out his bow. He and Sensei had not only been working with a sword but with a bow as well. "This'll surely take you out." Aster fired arrow after arrow at him but Zaar didn't block any arrows even though he had a perfectly good shield. Every arrow landed where they were supposed to including the head, heart, and major veins but Zaar didn't shed one single tear, let out one single yelp, or even (most disturbingly) shed a single drop of blood.

"You're not human, are you Zaar?"

"I see you've discovered my dirty little secret and that you cannot harm me with those pathetic excuses for weapons. So, I've decided I'll give you this metal sword and this metal shield so next time, you'll have a better shot. I believe that you will be the challenge my apprentice and I have been waiting for but not yet. You still need some work. I'm sure your Sensei will do a great job but that is only because… I taught him everything he knows! By the way, hurry up with that training, my apprentice can't wait to get his hands on you. He says there is a little history between you two and he wants you to be just that, history. He says that you've given him a lot trouble trying to get his girl."

"N… no. You can't be serious. Crush is your apprentice!?!"

"Yes he is. I see I've left a lasting impression. Bye." Zaar said as he floated off.

Aster stood there, not knowing what to do until he heard voices behind him. He turned around to see the back-up and, most importantly, Sensei.

"What happened, Aster. Tell me everything."

After Aster spilled his guts as to what happened he went to pick up the sword and shield. The back-up left but Sensei stayed. Aster had left out the part about Sensei and Crush so he could tell Sensei in private.

"Is it true? Is it true that Zaar taught you?"

"Yes it is. He is a tough opponent and I am sure he has gathered some new techniques since he taught me so I won't be able to help you much when it comes to your battle with him. I appreciate you not telling the other people. I am ashamed of it but I have changed. I am not like him anymore. He has the essence of pure evil running through his veins and that is why he would not bleed. There isn't anything else you failed to mention is there?"

"Yes there is. Crush is his new apprentice. I will have to defeat him before I can even get close to Zaar, won't I?"

"Yeah, you will. I know there is a lot of history between you two. I'm sure it will be a tough battle. Let's go ahead and go back. I know it will be tough because you just went through a huge ordeal but you must get some sleep for that same reason. I know your mom makes a great sleeping potion so go ahead and have some. Sleep is the best medicine. I will explain everything to your parents so don't worry about that."

They turned back towards town but Aster couldn't focus on anything at all. He was shaking all over because of nerves until he got home and had some sleeping potion. But the ordeal never left his head and he had nightmares about it all night long.

When he woke up in the morning, he was still exhausted and knew this would be a tough day. He walked out into the living room where, to his surprise, Sensei was. "You get today off. You went through a lot and I know you didn't get a good nights rest. We will start training for your battle with Crush and Zaar tomorrow. Go back to sleep."

As soon as Aster's head hit the pillow, he was sawing logs.

Chapter 6

Aster woke up extra early so he would have time to tell Anna what happened to him two days earlier.

Aster walked to school wondering what techniques Sensei had in store for him when Anna walked up.

"Where've you been?"

"You'll never believe what happened to me."

"What?"

Aster told his story starting from when he got up in the morning to make sure he didn't leave out any details. When he finished, he debated about whether or not to tell her that Sensei was once a student of Zaar and that Zaar's new student was Crush. He decided to tell her because if he couldn't be honest about this, how was she to know that he could be honest at all?

"There are two other things. One, Sensei used to be his student."

"No! Your Sensei? That's unbelievable!"

"Yeah but it's true. He said he is ashamed of it and he is different now, though."

"What's the other thing?"

"Well, this one is a little more believable. Crush is Zaar's new student."

"That figures, I guess. I always knew there was something up with him. Wait, and you have to fight him?"

"Yeah, it's going to be one heck of a fight."

"Well, just promise me you'll be safe."

"Yes dear." Aster couldn't help but say it sarcastically. "I have to get to class. Bye."

"Bye."

In the courtyard, Aster waited for Sensei.

"Sorry I'm late, Aster. I've been figuring out some new moves for you to try on Crush and Zaar. Apparently you already know the back slice so we won't spend much time on it. This is just a warning, my classes never usually go this fast but you need to be prepared because they could attack at any moment. We'll start off the day with some review on moves I taught you. Then we'll work a little on the back slice. Before lunch I'm hoping to get in the helm splitter and the final blow. After lunch, we'll do our normal meditation but after that, we'll go over the moves we learned today. We'll finish learning the rest of the moves by the end of the week. Is that too fast for you?"

"A little but I guess it has to be done."

Little did Aster know, this would be the most challenging week of his life.

A week later, Aster had finished all the techniques just as Sensei had said and Aster was getting very good at sword and bow combat. Aster was leaving school when he saw someone he was hoping he could just forget about, Crush.

"You ready?" Crush asked. Aster was about to say no when he saw something that forced him to say yes. Anna was dangling in the air. It didn't look like she was being held up by anything but Crush probably put some spell on her so she would float.

"Bring it, punk." Aster said as he let the one thing take him over that Sensei told him never to get taken over by, anger.

With one flick of his wrist, Crush sent a huge ball of sparks flying straight towards Aster. The only two things that kept him from running were his love for Anna and his hatred for Crush. The battle for pride, honor, and love had begun.