Link sat on a worn wooden stool in the dim bar. He leaned on the counter, one of his hands clenched around the mostly empty whiskey bottle as if for dear life.

He coughed once and his raw throat began to burn.

Must be all that damn smoke in the air. When he'd first walked into this cheap shack , his eyes had burned from the heavy grey clouds that floated across the ceiling. That had few hours ago and he had long since adjusted to the burning smoke in his eyes, the sour smell in his nostrils, and the generally filthy quality of this place.

But Link still came here every day that he could, because it was all he could afford.

Tipping his head back and pouring the last of the bottle's contents down his throat, Link felt the whiskey bite at his throat as it continued to dull his senses.

Dropping the empty bottle on the surface of the bar along with the others, Link hailed the barkeep and ordered another bottle.

"Are ya sure you've got the money for it this time? Don't wanna catch you tryin' ta cheat me again."

"Yeah, I got your money." Link growled, placing the last of his money on the surface of the bar. " Just get me my damn whiskey."

The barkeep picked up the trio of copper coins and returned with a bottle and a glass. Setting the glass down he filled it with whiskey and handed it to Link.

"Hey, what are you tryin' ta pull? You know I take it by the bottle."

"Yeah I know that, I also know that it's seven coppers for a bottle. You gave me three, so the glass is what you get."

"Fine." Link scoffed, picking up the glass and pouring the amber liquid down his throat.

Turning to the man sitting next to him, Link said, "Ya know, a few years ago it wouldn't be like this. He'd be, be paying me to drink here. Not this bullshit, I come in here everyday. He's already gotten enough money off me. I used ta be somethin'."

The man looked over at Link for a moment with glazed eyes before collapsing onto the bar's surface and passing out.

"Eh I didn't want ta talk to you anyway." Link said dismissively, punctuating the sentence with a loud burp.

Throwing the rest of the whiskey down, Link stood up and left the glass where it was.

"Hey I think I'll, think I'll go home for the night. Just, do me a favor," Link yelled across the room at the barkeep, "If, if she comes here lookin' for me. Will ya let me know? Cuz she, she said she'd be here tonight. But it's, I'm gettin' tired. Think I'll head home. Will ya tell her?"

"Yeah, sure I'll tell her." The barkeep said, "But hey, don't go bothering the people who live there now. They don't wanna talk to some drunk this late at night."

"Whatever, "Link muttered, "Hey, who are you calling a drunk? I, uh, you're the drunk."

"Yeah, sure. See ya tomorrow."

Link left the dingy bar and stumbled out into the street. Light shone down from the moon up above, illuminating the street in a faint glow.

Watching his breath fogging up as it left his mouth, Link started thinking about how he got there. Walking away from a bar at what must be near midnight.

It had been cold like this night, or maybe not. The broken fortress had been floating just over a pit of lava.

The air was hot and the sky was dark, the moon and the stars were nowhere to be seen.

Just minutes before, Link had finally finished his quest, what had been his goal for the majority of the last seven years. And now it was over.

Some of Ganondorf's blood was still drying on the rubble of his once grand castle.

Then Zelda offered him something that changed it all. She said that she could send him back to before it had all happened. Back to the time when he was just an innocent little kid living with the rest of the innocent little kids in the innocent Kokiri forest.

Of course Link had agreed. Who wouldn't? He had seen all the atrocities that life had to offer, and he didn't want them. He wanted everything to be simple again. He wanted to be a kid forever.

He told her so and within a few moments he found himself standing in the Kokiri woods. He was ten years old again, innocent again.

But it was all wrong, and nothing went like it should've.

First of all, he wasn't innocent. All that he'd done, all that he'd seen, all the memories remained.
And as Link soon remembered, he was not destined to stay the same forever as the other children were. Some part of him had hoped that if he never left the forest he would never lose his identity as a Kokiri.

Soon enough Link found himself growing beyond the limits of the other children and they noticed.

Before long, Link was being expelled again and this time there was nothing for him to do.

He headed to the one person he though could give him something to do, since she alone knew of his predicament. He found no difficulty in sneaking past the castle guards a second time.

The only real problem was the princess herself.

"But you've gotta be able to get me a job or something." Link complained.

"I'm sorry Link, but I have no authority over the Castle staff. You'll have to make you own way in the world it seems."

Feeling angry at the princess, Link turned his back on her and stormed away. It took only a few seconds for one of the guards to catch sight of him and to throw him out on his ass.

Tripping over a small pile of trash and debris, Link stumbled and fell to his knees. He just sat there staring at the ground in front of him for a while, watching it swim and shift in front of his eyes.

Finally his arms gave out of their own accord and Link rolled over and into the gutter.

He lay there in the filth, staring up at the sky. At one point he felt his bladder let go of its urine and Link was soaked in the bitter smelling liquid.

But Link neither cared nor noticed. He just lay there looking up at the sky that was so full of stars and the bright face of the moon.

The moon had been just as big the night he met her, watching over him as he fell in love, though he didn't know it yet.

Link had managed to make a living by taking on a series of odd jobs. Sometimes he shoveled manure, sometimes he mopped up the vomit outside the towns bars, sometimes he carted away the corpses of the elderly deceased.

The only thing these jobs always had in common was that they were disgusting and demeaning.

He was cleaning out the fountain, a job that be done at night so as not to disturb the public.

Personally, Link didn't care about the public and would rather be cleaning the fountain in the daytime when he could see what he was doing.

But it wasn't his decision, and he was being given ten coppers for the work, so he did it.

As Link silently scrubbed down the interior of the fountain, he heard someone approach him from behind.

"Umm, hello? Is there someone there?" a voice called over the rim of the fountain.

"Yeah," Link said, "I'm down here."

"Oh, hi. I'm Malon" Said the girl.

"I'm Link."

Staring blankly, Link thought about the day he met Malon, and tears stung his eyes at the memory.

This is gunna be two or three chapters long. The whole thing as much or more depressing than this. I hope you stick along for the ride, you've made it this far there's not that much more to go.

Please review so I can know if this is an interesting idea to more people than just me.