"A true friend is one soul in two bodies."- Aristotle
Link was running. All around him, angry and scared shouts were bellowing in his ears. His village was burning, his mother and father had been murdered in front of his very eyes, and there were moblins chasing after him.
Four year old Link could not understand what had happened. He had been peacefully sleeping in his bed, when he was awoken by loud shouting and running from outside his room. His door was slammed open by his father, who was followed quickly by his mother, carrying a candle and panicked expression.
"Get up!" his father roared. "Be prepared to run!" He yanked young Link out of his covers, and lifted him onto his shoulders.
"What's happening?" Link cried, overcome by all the action. His father's reply was interrupted by screaming from the nearby house, followed by loud beastly grunts.
"Moblins…" Link's father growled, leading the family out of the back of the house.
"What do they want?" his mother whispered, staying out of the torchlight.
"Whatever they can get their hands on." Link's father replied quietly, lowering Link down onto the ground, letting his bare feet squelch in the damp mud. He quietly took his bow off his back, and drew and arrow. "I haven't seen this many attack a village in such a long time…"
Link's father stopped as they all heard a loud bellow from behind them. A large armoured moblin had worked his way through the village and was flanked by more moblins, all brandishing clubs or bows. Link's mother gasped and turned Link's gaze away from the moblins, but it was too late. Link had seen the dead bodies of his fellow villagers, all piled up in a heap behind the armada of moblins.
The leader of moblins grunted loudly as Link's father ushered his family back slowly, never taking his gaze off the moblin. A moblin behind the leader acknowledged this and raised his bow, aiming straight at Link's father.
"Get away!" Link's father had shouted. Link and his mother gladly obliged and ran, his mother pulling him by the hand. Link's head had not turned to where they were running to, and he screamed as an arrow plunged into his father's chest, quickly followed by another. His father didn't have time to shout out, and slumped to the floor, blood spilling out and staining the grass deep red.
Link's yell caught his mother's attention, who turned around and screamed in agony at the sight of her dead husband. Tears streaking down her face, she shouted, "Keep running Link! Don't stop!" With this, she pushed Link away behind her, but he stood still, overwhelmed.
"Link, what are you…" his mother started to shout, but grunted as more arrows were let loose from the moblins, slamming into her back. Her eyes rolled backwards in her head, and she slumped forwards.
The moblins let out horrendous, bestial laughter as she collapsed onto the ground, which to Link sounded like a booming storm. Link turned and fled, more arrows chasing his footsteps as he ran. He managed to dodge the arrows which came thick and fast, threatening to stop the four year old in his tracks. Link managed to reach the treeline of the forest, which completely surrounded his now burning village. The flickering of the inferno from the houses illuminated the entire treeline, allowing the moblins behind Link to track his progress.
They were unable to keep up with the nimble four year old, as they were heavy and slow, but had sheer numbers on their side. The lead moblin, wearing his dented and battered armour pointed in the direction that Link had fled, and two moblins chased after him, swinging their clubs menacingly.
Link kept running, jumping over tree stumps and fallen logs as if they were not there. Branches whipped at his exposed legs, drawing blood. Panting, Link slowed down as he saw a familiar clearing in the forest, with a small stream trickling through. He caught sight of a small den, which his father and he had made to play in. Without thinking twice, Link slid into the den, concealed by the damp moss which shrouded the entrance.
Link steadied his breathing, and then realised the back of his left hand was shining, dimly lighting up the den, and revealing the blood that was visible on his legs. Link quietly gasped as the light on his hand appeared to show a strange symbol, three triangles with two in a row on the bottom, supporting one on the top. The bottom left hand triangle was shining brightly, and seemed to only be getting brighter.
Link's attention was brought back to reality, as he head yelps and more grunts from nearby. He poked his head out of the den, and his eyes widened as he saw a young wolf pup darting out from the woods, panting heavily and terrified. It stopped at the stream, and through the moonlight, Link thought he saw streaks of red covering the pup's black fur, which the poor wolf was trying to remove, but only causing itself more pain. It startled, as did Link, as they both heard more yelping and a loud cracking noise, presumably bone.
The pup whined and started darting away from the noise, in Link's direction, its head turning in all directions. The shining light on the back of Link's hand caught the attention of the pup, which stopped in his tracks as Link's eyes met the pup's. Link said nothing to the pup, but gestured with his hand towards himself, inviting the pup in to safety. He remembered his father warning him that all wolves were dangerous, no matter how young they were, but this seemed to be an emergency.
The wolf pup needed no second invitation, and darted into the den with Link, nuzzling up to Link's body, covering the shining from Link's left hand. Just in the nick of time as well, as the moblins soon made their way into the clearing. Link closed his eyes in fear, thinking that the moblins would find the two of them, and finish their existence. He held the wolf pup close, feeling the racing heartbeat which matched his own, and just wished for an end to the madness. He didn't open eyes, but felt a strange sensation, almost as if something was being shared between his frail young body and the wolf pup. He felt a tingling sensation in his left hand as both bodies calmed down, and thought it was just the panic settling down. Little did either of them know how wrong he was.
Link woke with the sun early the next morning, hungry and worn out. The wolf pup had kept him warm all night, and seemed to have woken with him. With a yelp, the pup got up, and darted out of the den where they had slept. Link steadily crawled out of the den after the pup, and shivered, missing the warm fur of the pup already.
His train of thought was stopped as he heard a soft whining noise coming from nearby, and he slowly walked over to the noise. He stopped as his eyes found the source of the noise, and felt tears start welling up as he registered what he saw. The wolf pup was howling in front of the corpse of a fully grown wolf, obviously the mother.
"I'm sorry…" Link thought, as quiet sobs began to come from his throat. The wolf cub stopped howling immediately, and turned around as soon as Link had thought it. Staring at Link, the pup made a few quiet whimpers and started edging towards Link.
"Was that your mummy?" Link asked softly. The cub barked in response, which surprised Link. "Can you understand me?" he whispered, reaching out with a hand towards the cub's furry head.
The cub paused, but barked again, as if saying yes. It walked forwards, and met Link's hand with its head, rubbing against it. Link was stunned, as although he was young, he knew that wild animals could not understand humans, but this cub seemed to understand him?
"If you can understand me, bark twice." Link said in awe. The pup quickly barked twice, showing that he understood what had been said.
"I'm going to go back to my village and see if anyone survived. Do you want to come with me?" Link asked, feeling a sudden sense of loneliness. The cub seemed to take in its surroundings, but then stared back at Link, and barked, seemingly nodding his head. Link smiled, and started walking off in the direction of his village, casting a last look at the cub's dead mother. "'I'll take care of him, I promise", he whispered. The pup barked happily at this and chased after Link, obediently walking at Link's side.
"Do you have a name?" Link thought. "Bark once for yes, twice for no." The pup barked quietly twice.
"Would you like a name?" Link pondered, to which the pup replied with a single bark, showing his enthusiasm.
Link thought long and hard as they worked their way back to his village, jumping over the occasional ditch and fallen tree. "How about… Rogue?"
The pup seemed to squeal unhappily at this suggestion, making Link giggle. "What about 'Shade', as it fits with your fur?"
The pup seemed to cock his head, before barking twice happily. Link laughed and stroked the pup's head. "Alright, you are now 'Shade'! Nice to meet you Shade, I'm Link!"
Shade barked in response, rubbing his dark head against Link's legs. Link suddenly stopped walking, as the remains of his village came into view. Link felt his legs stagger as he saw the charred remnants of houses, and piles of bodies. His breath hitched as he saw the bodies of his mother and father, dumped in a pile. He began crying softly, and Shade stayed close as Link began to run down into the village remains, crumpling down by the piles of bodies, tears dripping down his face as he saw everyone who he had grown up with, dead and lifeless.
Some time passed, and Link began growing weak. Shade kept close to him, trying to comfort him. Link felt the earth shaking near him, and thought the moblins had returned, to finish him off. Glancing up, he was overjoyed to see multiple Hylian soldiers on horseback, all dismounting.
"Oh my goodness, we have a survivor!" one of them shouted, before rushing over and soothing Link. "Was this your village, lad?"
"Y…Yes" Link sniffled, Shade staying at his heels as the soldiers kindly lifted him onto his feet.
"Good lord, you weren't injured by the monsters were you?" another soldier asked.
"No, but my parents…" Link began, before his voice cracked and broke down into more tears.
"Poor sod…" one of them sighed, before he registered that there was a wolf pup next to the snivelling infant. "Um, is that wolf pup with you?"
"Yes…" Link murmured. "His mum was killed by the moblins, and has no one else. We sheltered together in the woods last night, before we made our way back here just now…"
The soldiers all began quietly talking at this point, before they heard the rumbling stomachs of boy and wolf. "When was the last time you ate?" one of them hurriedly asked.
"Yesterday evening…" Link groaned, as Shade whined next to him.
"Here, there is some cold meat in this pack", one soldier said. "Unfortunately, you can't stay here anymore. We'll take you with us now, and decide what to do when we get there…"
"Thank you…" Link murmured, as he ripped open the pack, and shared the sliced meat between himself and Shade. Both wolfed down their portions, before they were lifted onto one of the soldiers horses, and rode back with them to Hyrule Castle, and on towards a new life. Both boy and cub, and eventually, Hero and Wolf.
A/N: Welcome! I've had this idea for a story rattling around in my head since the end of my last fic. Just for those who have read the previous stories, this is not related at all to the previous stories, and takes place in an alternate universe, but assuming all the same things eventually take place. Timeline-wise, this takes place before OOT, but has no relation to that game either, but will use some of the characters from said game.
Enough of that though. This story should be a fair bit longer that both my previous stories, although that may change, depending on my ingenuity. Anyways, I thank you for reading this chapter, and will see you next time!