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Prologue

The air is calm as its tranquil winds carry the purified silence of the cool autumn afternoon across the shining blue waters of the Great Sea. The sun is bright and full at the peak of the cloudless sky, but its warm rays are shielded behind the chilled air.

Upon the deck of the Saint Hylia, a young man wearing a green tunic and cap over a white shirt and pants leans over the ship's oak railing, gazing out at the thin blue horizon. Different crew members bustle around the deck behind the young man, almost all of them rugged scallywags with unkempt beards and loose tattered rags for clothing. Yet for the young man, the noise of crates sliding and brushes scrubbing across the wooden deck are lost to the smooth gusts of wind blowing his bright blonde hair over his bold blue eyes.

"Link! You may jus' be the Hero of Hyrule, but that don' mean you aint a crew member on this 'ere ship. Get over 'ere and pick up a broom!"

The booming voice nearly tips Link over the railing, but he gains his balance and turns to face the demands. The voice is that of the Captain, a tall, thin man with a shining bald skull, deep, dark and lonely eyes, and a frightening hook screwed in place of his missing right hand. The Captain certainly did not look of a man with such a bellowing disposition, and to anyone who ever asked him about it, they were answered with words as empty as his eyes; words that kept the veil around his heart completely shut.

Link knew how the Captain operated, yet he could not avoid turning his eyes dark with disgust, for his words were so typical of the man he was required to call "Captain." Even for the four years they had been away from Hyrule, he hadn't remotely changed his methods. They were beginning to eat away at Link, for there were only so many demands he could take.

"Captain, you have five men swabbing the decks already" says Link.

The Captain scratched his head, "I suppose I do…What else could I have yeh be doin'?"

"Well, you have two men in the crow's nest, four men down below in the kitchen, five men sorting the supplies, three men trying to figure out where we are, and six men tying down ropes while praying to the goddesses that their efforts might just put some wind in the sails." Link sarcastically shrugs his shoulders. "There's just no room left for me."

"That be cucco fodder my boy! There's always somthin' to do on this ship!"

"How about you let me stay here at the bow, where it's quiet, and be completely rested in case we get attacked by a swarm of sea monsters, which I'm quite surprised hasn't happened yet with the excellent team of navigators we have on this ship."

The Captain's empty face turns soft with sadness and his stance wearily slinks downward. "Ah, you're just like the Princess boy; nothin's ever the way you expect it to be." The Captain regains his stature, and starts to stride away. "This voyage has changed us all…but not you."

Link watches the Captain with wide eyes as he leaves. Why did they make him take the journey then?

Link angrily turns back to the sea. With his face trembling in anger, Link violently raises his fists and slams the railing. As the pain strikes up his arm, the tension in his face evaporates and Link falls down to sit against the railing. Link calmly surveys his hands for damage catching a glimpse of the back of his left hand. His hands begin to tremble. The mark of the golden triangle, imprinted on his skin, sparkles in the sunlight.

Link sighs. The golden triangle was the reason he was sent away those four years ago; and perhaps it is the reason why the Captain can no longer look Link in the eye with the confident stare he's recognized for. Perhaps his journey had taught him nothing. Perhaps the legend of the Hero of Hyrule had chosen him incorrectly. Surely he could not be the savior meant to banish evil from the realm of Hyrule.

As the sun falls closer to the horizon, it turns the sky from blue to a streak of red and yellow.

"Yeah, you're right. Four years and I haven't changed at all" Link says.

The colors turn from red to black. The call for dinner rings out as the sun fades away behind the edge of the now black sea, and Link releases his grim focus from the horizon, returning to join the Captain's raucous crew.

Four years ago, life was simple for Link. His days were spent either playing in the castle with Princess Zelda, or causing trouble in the marketplace. Entire days would be spent in the immense gardens of the castle; the two of them searching for secret passages hidden in the foliage, or trying to find one another in the dense maze of floral bouquets. Sometimes at night, the two would sneak out into the busy market streets, lit ablaze with festive torchlight. Link would distract the shop owners with irrelevant stories of how he took down a particular monster, leaving Zelda to lift various treats for the two to enjoy. Regardless of what adventures the two were getting themselves in, they both, but especially Link, were innocent; free from the bonds of responsibility.

Though, life was not without trouble for Link. For every day he lived free of worry or doubt, he was constantly reminded of his eventual destiny by the mark on his hand; the mark that everyone around him took wonder in. From an abandoned infant left on the steps of the castle, the mark gave him his privilege to be fed, clothed, and sheltered in a place far removed from the fate of a normal orphan. It gave him the privilege of being looked upon as the pride of the kingdom, always being put a step above the rest, and never the focus of scorn or punishment.

But it all changed the day he turned fourteen years old. It was the day the scholars told him of, but the day he thought would remain hidden behind his childhood innocence for eternity.

Awoken in the dead of night by the lonely flame of a torch, Link was led out of his room in silence by the Royal Chancellor. The Chancellor tugged at Link's arm as he hastily pulled him through the pitch black halls of the castle.

The Chancellor was silent, and Link was much too afraid to say anything to him in fear of the angry response he might get from his intimidating teacher. He wanted to ask one final time why he couldn't say goodbye to the Princess, but his fear overpowered his curiosity.

Link was drug out to the empty desolate streets. As he passed by the unlit streetlights and the shadowy windows and doors, Link felt as if he might never see these places again. Even in their quiet, sleepy state, these houses and shops were his playground, his childhood, which seemed to all but fade away as he drew further and further away from the city.

Finally Link reached the cold, foggy docks of the Hyrule Castletown harbor. Most of the ships in the harbor bobbed gently in the calm morning waters, but one was surrounded by the gloomy flares of torchlight. The Chancellor released his grip on Link at the edge of the dock. "Your vessel is there," the Chancellor wheezed as he raised a finger to point at the active ship, "And so I must leave you. Good luck."

The Chancellor turned his back to Link with no hesitation, and walked away from the lonely confused boy. Link watched the Chancellor until he lost sight of him behind the fog. As a tear rushed down his cheek, Link felt a cold hand grasp his shoulder.

"Ye best not cry my boy. I have no room fer tears on this ship." Link quickly turned to see where the words had come from. His eyes met with the Captain's. The empty eyes of the Captain turned Link's spine into a column of ice.

Frozen with fear, Link struggled to move as he boarded the vessel. Met by snarling stares from the crew of the Saint Hylia, Link knew that his life really was about to change forever.

A crash of thunder jolts Link into jumping up from his cramped hammock in the bowels of the Saint Hylia. All of the other men are dead asleep in their beds. Another rumble of thunder rattles the nails in the ship's walls.

Link sits up and drops his head into his hands. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he begins to shiver from the frozen embrace of the cabin's air.

A louder crackle of thunder instantaneously illuminates the room with several flashes of white light. Staring at the gaping crack in the ship's boards, Link spies several distant streaks of lightning.

The ship starts to rock back and forth with much more vigor than the typical night-time waves.

Suddenly a deafening explosion jerks the ship violently, knocking Link and many other crew members from their beds. Link immediately jumps to his feet and sprints to the stairs leading to the deck. Topside, the Captain and the current night watch are scrambling around, their shadows dancing in the flickering yellow light of the blazing fore-mast.

"Captain!" Link's call is drowned out by the screeching winds. Suddenly the sky opens and the deck is submerged in blistering rain. Link tries to run closer to the Captain, but slips on the flooding deck, hitting his head on a crate.

The pain pierces the back of his head, spreading over his skin like a web of sharp thorns. Link's eyes grow foggy. He can see more and more men rushing to the deck, grabbing whatever they can to stop the fire as it begins to devour the bow. Through the intense chaos, the Captain's thin figure continues directing the men with unyielding authority.

Link struggles to gain his balance, but falls forward scraping his bare chest against the rough deck boards, his head pounding with the added pain. He raises his head to look towards the Captain, but the fires have grown, completely engulfing the bow in a vicious fire storm that continues rage despite the downpour of water. Suddenly Link feels two hands grab him underneath his arms. Link is forcefully raised to his feet as his head swirls and his vision fades.

"Link! I'll be getting' you out of 'ere."

Link feels himself being held tightly as the wind and rain continue to barrage his face. His vision clears slightly and he is able to make out the Captain's face.

"Cap…tain…" Link weakly mutters.

The Captain carries Link to the railing of the ship. There is a thick wooden barrel caught between some debris. The Captain tears off the lid of the barrel and places Link inside.

"The journey don' end 'ere fer you Link. No matter what ye may think, nothin's been put to waste. I'll be seein' you again, my boy."

Link watches as the Captain lets loose a smirk. Link's eyes widen with surprise. He never knew the Captain could make that kind of face. Put at ease and unable to find the strength to speak, Link simply gives a smirk back, before the Captain seas the barrel shut. Link rolls inside the cramped space before being thrust against the side as he hears the crash of splashing water.

The screams of the men fade along with the crackling of flames. The chaos seems to drift away as the barrel bobs up and down in the raging waters. The cool interior of the barrel becomes almost serene. Soon, the booming thunder, howling winds, and piercing rain fade away into silence as Link slips far, far away from consciousness.