Time has been toyed with.

The world has been divided.

Dreams have become reality.

Wishes have come true.

Children have grown up.

Generations have passed.

Nations have risen, fallen, and come back stronger.

These events are now but legends. Legends of the Royal Family's daughters, all named Zelda. Myths, believed only by small children. As some, if not all, of the people on this world will soon find out, myths are sometimes based on reality. Legends are born of great deeds, even the incredible acts of supernatural forces, and evil is among these. Just as evil lives on, so too do the legends spawned by it.

Welcome to Hyrule.

The Legend of Zelda

Legends Never Die

Chapter 1

Birds were chirping in Kakariko City's beautiful park. Children played and laughed. Cars rolled by, throughout the city's streets. Farore High School was full of noise, as teenagers rushed out for home, or friends, or whatever else they had planned. School had ended, and all that was left was to have fun. One of the teenagers ducked and wove through the crowd of students and faculty, hoping to attract as little attention as possible. Especially from...

"Hey, Link!" The teenager in the green shirt stopped in his tracks, mentally preparing to dodge. Conversations stopped, and teenagers parted. It was Minhaga, the blue-skinned bully of Farore High. He made it his business to make Link's life miserable. Usually quite violently.

"What do you want this time, Minhaga? The bruises from last time haven't quite healed up, yet. Might wanna give it a few days." His voice was exasperated. Link honestly thought he'd be able to go through a single day without having to deal with this. Especially today.

"Happy birthday." The elongated ears that poked out from under the dark brown hair pricked up a bit. These were the last words Link expected to hear, and they were enough to convince him to turn around. He didn't really notice what he was doing, but he just stood there and stared at his tormentor for a moment. Minhaga stood with his arms crossed over his tight black tanktop. Carefully chisled muscles were obvious through his shirt and on his bare arms, and kahki shorts displayed strong legs. This was a powerful body. And most of those muscles were used for inflicting pain.

"... I'm sorry, did you just wish me a happy birthday? You?" Link tilted his head forward. His first thought was that this wasn't really Minhaga, and that his mind was just playing tricks. His second thought was that Minhaga was up to something. A few seconds later, that fact became obvious.

"Yeah. What? Did you think I wouldn't? I'm hurt, Link. Really. One more thing." He smirked, a white fang gleaming in the afternoon light. "Say 'hi' to your uncle, for me. See you 'round... pal..." With a wicked laugh, he walked off. He was headed back into the school, but that's because he always left school on the opposite side as Link. As for Link, himself, he just stood there for a moment, unbelieving of what he'd just heard. He turned again to leave the school, but was somewhere strange when he walked through the door. It definitely wasn't Kakariko City.

The room, if it could really be called that, was totally black. It seemed almost like a dream, but more than that. Link could feel himself standing, almost floating, on a solid platform, of some kind. The rest was simply an unending field of darkness. He was surrounded by a white glow. There was a void of temperature, a total neutrality to this place.

"Link..." A soft voice called from the nothingness. A girl about Link's age, he guessed. It was familiar, too...

'Have I heard her before? I know her...' The thoughts rang loudly in his head. He looked around the nothingness, searching for a face to put with the voice, and found nothing. "Hello?" There was no echo to his own voice as he called out. Simply a death of sound.

"Help me, Link..." The white glow moved away from being centered on Link, and shifted position. It was behind and above him, casting a shadow, of Link's very height, along the platform. "Let him guide you... Let him teach you..." Two red glows appeared where eyes would be, on that shadow, and it slowly rose from the ground. The shadow-being stood in front of Link, facing him. It was Link, but it wasn't. This wasn't his shadow, that stood there. It didn't wear his clothing. It was wearing a black tunic, with a matching hat. Black boots. A black sword on his back. This was... Something from a story Link's uncle used to read to him. A picture he saw. This was the shadow of... Of one of the great heroes of legend. Which one? That's right. The legends never named the Hero. Just referred to them by adventure. It was odd how similar they all looked. The girl's voice spoke again. "Gather them, Link..."

"Who?" He didn't know what else to say. What does one say when confronted with this sort of thing? What was happening, anyway? "Wait... I know that voice. I know who you are! You're-" He was ripped from the voidworld in a sudden blue of white light, his consciousness thrown back to reality.