Just to be clear, this is part 1 of a completely original story featuring new incarnations of Link and Zelda. As such, most of the side characters are ocs. Updates will come weekly! Enjoy!
Chapter 1:
Link
People were waiting for a hero. What they didn't know was that he was already there… But if they'd known who it was, they would've been outraged.
For the boy was not only orphaned and blue-eyed, he was also mute and poor. And a thief.
You see, if it was hard for a Hylian adult to survive, imagine just how difficult it would be for a child.
Very difficult.
So they stole.
Of course, most of them were ashamed of it, and would only steal what they needed. But the problem was still there, and adults don't like former thieves saving the world.
The number of thieving had augmented, since more and more parents failed to feed their kids, which would often run away or get kicked out to fend for itself.
But kids are bad at living on their own.
So they find friends.
Link had.
Except for the stealing, Link was actually a nice kid. He picked up all the kids living on the streets that were younger than him. Of course, that doubled the amount of food he had to steal, but he couldn't just leave the poor kids out there.
Right now, he had four kids under his wing. Four times more stealing.
Woohoo.
And that's exactly what he was doing.
Or rather, it was what he was preparing himself to do.
He was in a side alley that headed into the marketplace, probably the only spot where they still sold food. H was praying to the Goddess, begging her to forgive him for what he was about to do.
Then, staying close to the wall, he edged towards the market entrance. Once he was at the corner, he slowly looked around.
Perfect. Right to his left, there was an apple stand run by a dark-skinned man.
Link waited for the man to have costumers.
When a fat man came to ask the man about his apples, Link saw his chance. He crouched.
He didn't understand why people made stands out of counters. It was so easy to sneak at their sides without being seen. There was an overhang to the counter, hiding Link from the merchant's view, and the market was so crowded, other merchants wouldn't pay any heed to some ten-year-old boy crouching. They'd probably assume he was looking for something, or if they knew what he was doing, they didn't care. And Link didn't care about them as long as they didn't give him away.
Link slowly risked a glance over the counter. The merchant was still busy bragging about his apples to the costumer.
Great.
Link swiftly snatched away an apple, before crouching back down as fast as possible. He slid the apple in his bag and listened.
Apart from the normal brouhaha from the negotiating men, the ones that stopped to chat to each other, and the far off clip-clop of a horse, there was nothing.
Most importantly, there was no call for thieves.
Link peeked once more of the counter. The dark-skinned man was now showing the other one his most beautiful apple. It was smooth, and red as a sunset. Link was ready to bet it tasted even better.
But he had to content himself with apples from the basket over him, from which he had taken two more.
He ducked and listened again. No mention of thieves was heard.
He popped his head over the counter one last time.
The fat man was now handing the merchant the rupees. How did Link wish he had some of those.
Don't waste your time, he reminded himself.
Then, his hand quick as an adder, he grabbed three apples and ducked under the counter.
His movement had been swift and calculated, but he feared ( as he always did) that the merchant had seen him.
But there was no shouting.
Link slowly backed into the alley, when suddenly, his back ran into something.
There wasn't supposed to be a wall there.
-You gonna pay for those apples, kid? asked a deep voice.
Link slowly looked up. And gaped. It was a knight.
Now, Link had seen knights before. Just never that up-close-and-personal. And this one had all of his armor, a shield and a sword hanging at his side. That's how Link knew he was in trouble.
Knights didn't speak to ten-year-old boys unless they absolutely needed to.
-I said, are you gonna pay for those apples?
Link slowly stood up. Even if he would've wanted to answer, he couldn't.
-Kid, you gonna answer me?
Link ran.
He somehow managed to get past the knight and deeper in the alley. It was one of those alleys that seemed to stretch on forever, deeper and deeper into the city, until it stopped. Link, knowing the alley quite well, knew he still had awhile to run, but he'd rather not be caught off-guard by an ambush (the knight was screaming for back-up, it might very well happen.
Link couldn't les himself get caught.
He was a scrawny kid, even for a ten-year-old, but he could run pretty fast. That, plus the fact he knew the terrain better than the knight, kept him up from.
The knight on the other hand, had a bit of a tough time running in all that armor, but he was well-trained and was as enduring as a plough- horse.
That was what worried Link. When he'd tire, the guard would simply catch up, and it would all be over.
Link couldn't allow that.
So while he ran and nimbly dodged the few people and obstacles in his way, he tried to figure out a plan to evade his pursuer.
There.
In front of him, the alley swerved to the right, so he could see that straight in front of him, there was a house with an open window, right under a conveniently-placed wooden crate. It was so perfect he wanted to cry.
He gave a burst of speed before swiftly leaping on the crate, grabbing the windowsill as he desperately scrambled in.
Not a moment too either. Another group of knights had stood to the right as an ambush to catch the runaway.
Meanwhile inside the house, Link had managed to get up to the second floor without too much trouble. The old lady knitting in the corner had been pretty surprised to see a complete stranger leap through her window before bounding up the stairs, but there was nothing he could do about that.
He had now opened a window and that looked upon the alley, and the guards who were still loudly swearing at him.
He looked up, and saw the roof had a slight overhang right above him. Link knew he couldn't stay long in the house, because the guards would eventually come in. He reasoned that was better than any way to come out.
He reached out, grabbed the overhang, and swung himself out there.
The momentary silence below told him the guards were quite surprised by this.
Meanwhile, Link decided his new best friends were roof and counter overhangs before crawling on top of the roof. He turned and looked down at them at the knights, now all gaping at him.
Their surprise lasted a moment longer. Before they started cussing at him again, madder than ever.
Wonderful.
Now, you must understand. Although food wasn't rare yet, it was awfully close. Soon, the only way to get food would be buying it from foreigners. The guards knew this most of all, and knew any Hylian food should be prized.
So they couldn't allow a ten-year-old boy to just steal it. To them, this thief wasn't worthy, and he should be stopped.
One of the guards had the brilliant idea to scare down the boy, with arrows.
Link was sure of a few things: They wouldn't shoot directly at him. They wanted him to get scared, not killed (even they weren't that cruel). But Link also knew bows and arrows were dangerous.
He decided to take out his hand-made slingshot and strike back. He got a surprised guard straight on the helmet, before dashing off to the next roof. He jumped, landed, and kept right on running.
He knew he couldn't stay on the roof for long. The guards would eventually find a way up. He had to keep going. Again.
Am I ever gonna get rid of these five?
Because yeah, they were now five. Argh.
The good news was they were all to his right. If only there was a way for him to go down to his left…
And then, maybe it was an accident or perhaps it was luck, but he tripped and fell to the left, and down towards the street.
Now, you may be wondering (with good reason) how in the world could that be luck?
You're right. It isn't.
But the fact that someone had put a laundry line right there to dry clothes was!
Link managed to grab the now life-saving laundry line , and gently slid down the street.
He looked around, nonchalantly dusting his clothes. He didn't see any guards, but the pedestrians sure were surprised to see a ten-year-old kid fall from the sky like it was nothing.
He casually walked on, trying to get forgotten. Everyone eventually came back to normal, although still slightly in shock.
Link blended himself in the crowd. He was headed the opposite way to his house, just to make sure no one would follow him there. He panicked a little when he saw the group of knights appear out of a side-ally, but reasoned that if he looked inconspicuous, they'd ignore him.
At first, it worked. He'd carefully avoid any guard weaving through the crowd.
But when Link looked around and saw at least one guard in almost every direction, he knew he'd been spotted. And they were slowly closing in. Link took the only possible exit, another alley (he silently blessed every single alley in town).
He walked a moment longer, before running again. He wasn't sure where the alley went, only that it seemed to head away from home. At least, if he got caught, they wouldn't find the others.
But he was still lost.
Behind him, he heard a metallic clatter as the knights (more than six now) followed him. They still sounded far-off, but…
Right then, all of his hope disintegrated.
Because all of a sudden, the alley ended.
A wall.
No no no NO!
Yes. A wall.
And behind him, the guards.
He was trapped.
