HELLO. Just like to say that YES, the Hero of Time is Link's father. I got the idea when I was done finding the Hero's Shade, when he said 'my child.' I know he's probably his ancestor and all that, but I like the thought of them being father-son.
Any-who, read and review please. I'd like to know what you think about this.
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Chapter 1
The Vision
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The lone figure ran down the dark corridor at top speed. What remained of his cloak was the deep cowl that covered most of his face in shadow. The rest of his cloak was burned just beneath his shoulders, revealing the bat-like wings on the young man's back.
Right now the wings were folded against his back. The corridor was too small for flight. What with the low ceiling and the constant turning and stairs going down it would be all too easy to run straight into a wall, or worse, a guard.
The man wore a green tunic covering a chain mail shirt, tan pants and a brown leather gauntlet on his left hand. On his right wrist he had a stiff leather cuff that protected his arm from the bowstring when he shot arrows at his enemies (and being the son of the Hero of Time there where quite a few of those). His soft leather boots made little noise as Link ran down the umpteenth flight of stairs that led to the dungeons.
Exactly what he was looking for there he did not know, but he did know it was something very important to him and he needed to get it, no matter what.
He turned left and found what he was looking for, a heavily guarded door under lock and key. The guards wore jet-black armor and bore heavy shields.
He had the key. And he WAS going to unlock that door.
Link drew his sword.
The Master Sword glowed with a golden light that revealed his threat to the guards and they drew their weapons. But they were too little too late, for Link was already on them and in just two swings he had all six of them unconscious on the dungeon floor. Link would never kill in cold blood so he simply used the Master Sword's power to knock out the six men. But that didn't matter now. Just a little further. He reached for the lock, key in hand. He put it in the keyhole and turned. The door swung easily on its hinges and he moved to enter the cell but a voice stopped him.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Link spun on the spot, and found himself looking right at one of his sworn enemy's.
"Zant," Link breathed.
Zant held out a hand and a black and red ball emerged.
Acting on instinct Link raised the Master Sword and swung it in a downward ark. The sword and the ball of darkness made contact.
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Link woke up with a start and sat bolt upright in his bed; his heart beating rapidly in his ribs, his face and the rest of his body beaded with sweat. He calmed himself by taking a few deep breaths. His eyes scanned the room, lingering on the painting on the back wall. The painting was his own artwork of princess Midna of the Twili. His blue wolf eyes found her ruby red ones. Link had recently taken up painting because of his dreams. And there were quite a few.
He had been having nightmares constantly about the Twilight realm and of Midna over the past week. Dreams of monsters in the Twilight realm, betrayal in the Twilight realm, war in the Twilight realm. All manner of nightmares about the Twilight realm and it was driving him crazy.
"Just a dream," he said to himself. But the golden triforce of courage was glowing on the back of his left hand. It was obviously more than JUST a dream. He rested his head in his hands and sighed. If it was not just a dream then that meant it was probably a vision and that meant that he was probably going to go back into the Twilight realm. He got up and walked over to a table where he picked up a small oil lantern. He lit the lantern and went over to a small cupboard near the back wall. He opened up the cupboard and pulled out a water skin filled with special water from the light spirit Ordona's spring. The spring's water was made from tears of light that stopped the symptoms of visions.
After seeing into the future, Link would get a knotted stomach, and it would tighten until sunrise unless he drank water from a light spirit's spring. But he would remain awake for about another hour, and he needed something to do. So he took up painting. He opened the water skin and drank. The water was good and Link felt the tension loosen in his stomach.
He let out a sigh of relief and moved to his painting easel. He uncovered the painting he had been working on and sat down next to it. This one was of the princess Zelda, who had been a good friend ever since the little 'incident' with Ganon. He was almost finished with it. Just a few minor adjustments and he would be done. He picked up his paintbrush and started to work. He was almost done with the eyes when there was a knock at the door.
"What the…?" he said.
It was probably three thirty in the morning, so who in their right mind would be calling on him now? He got up and went slowly to the door. He was halfway to it when he stopped and looked to Midna's portrait and moved toward that. The painting had a secret compartment behind it. Link opened the compartment and pulled out his sword. It was not the Master Sword, but it was a sword nonetheless. He approached the door just as there was another knock. His hand grabbed the doorknob and, sword in hand, he opened the door. What he saw almost made him drop his sword. Right there. Right in front of him was an inhabitant of the world of Twilight.
"How?' Link whispered. Midna had destroyed the mirror of Twilight, the only way in or out of that realm. Yet here was a twili standing right in front of him.
"May I come in?" the twili said in a high voice. All twili had somewhat high voices. (Except midna. She had, in Link's mind, the most beautiful voice in this world. Or the Twilight world.) Link recovered and showed the twili in.
When the twili stepped into the half-light of Link's lantern, he saw that the twili was a young man. Unlike most Twili men he had a full head of hear, (most of them were bald) and like all twili he wore dark clothing. He wore jet black pants and a jet black half shirt covering all his left chest and arm but revealing most of his right chest and all of his right arm. But he was wearing a black fingerless glove on his right hand just like the one Link had, he noticed.
"I see that you to have a painting of princess Midna," the twili said.
"Yes," said Link.
"You did well on her eyes," the twili continued. But Link interrupted, eager to know why and how the twili came to be here.
"How did you get here? The mirror was destroyed."
The twili simply smiled at him and said, "True."
"How did you get here?" Link repeated.
"That is not important right now," he replied.
"Then what is?"
"Finding the hero of Twilight."
"Well you found him. Now I'll say it one last time. How did you get here?"
"I'm afraid I can't answer you until you tell me what form the hero of Twilight appears as."
"A divine beast," Link said immediately. "Now tell me. How did you get here?"
"I came here by the power of Princess Midna. She told me to find the hero of our tribe and give him this."
This was a rolled up parchment. Link was interested to see the Triforce symbol on the seal. The instant he touched the paper the Triforce seal glowed with a golden light and broke. Link unrolled the parchment part way and saw that it was a sea chart. Only this was no ordinary chart. It had a map of the seas, yes. But at the top right corner there was what appeared to be a prophecy of the Hero of Twilight.
The Hero of Twilight will appear as a divine beast. But that would not be his true form. He will fall in love with our ruler and she with him. He will come back to prove his love for her and will face himself in a battle of point of view. The battle will decide our fate.
And their love.
While Link was reading, the twili moved to sit in one of the chairs. When Link was done, he looked up to the twili sitting on an oak chair.
'Oh great,' he thought. He knew he loved Midna. And being a perceptive woman, she probably knew it too. But facing himself? Now that had him confused. How could someone face himself? That was just maddeningly unhelpful. Shrugging the thought away he continued to examine the chart. He unrolled it all the way and saw that the chart was made out of circles. He turned one of the circles and could make out small words. They said 'ye hero of Twilight must come by Twilight by sea.'
'By Twilight by sea?' he thought. That didn't make much sense either. He turned another circle and made out more words. These said 'thy world shall be upside down before twilight at Twilight.' Link decided not to continue and instead ask a few questions.
"What is this?" he asked.
"I don't know. I'm not blessed by the gods so I couldn't open it even if I wanted to. It's been in the royal library for who-knows-how-long and no one has been able to open it because of that seal."
"Why do you need me now?"
The twili toke a deep breath and answered. "Some of Zant's followers managed to break into the palace and get him out of the dungeons. He wasn't dead. We don't know how he could be alive but the princess says it's only a matter of time before they come back to put him on the throne."
Link's eyes widened it the thought of Zant taking over the Twilight realm. The last time he did, he almost destroyed both worlds. "What are we standing here for? We've got to get to Twilight."
"Hold on just a minute. First of all, what was on that scroll?" he indicated the sea chart in Link's hand, "and how are we even going to get back into Twilight?"
Link looked at him in confusion. "You don't know how to get to your own world?" he asked. "You can get out of it but you don't know how to get back in?"
"I told you, the princess teleported me here. To search for you." He pointed a finger at Link. "I risked a lot to find you. There are more than enough of Zant's men to take me down. I'm guessing that piece of parchment is supposed to help get us back to Twilight."
"It's a sea chart," said Link. "I think that means we're supposed to go out to sea."
"No. Really?" said the twili in mock drama.
Link ignored the comment and continued. "So all we have to do is to figure out what this means in order to open up the portal. But I'm no good at riddles so this is going to take some time… By the way. What's your name?"
"My name is Shildow."
"Shildow?"
"Yes."
"Well, Shildow. We'll pack and be on our way." Link rolled up the sea chart and moved towards Midna's portrait.
"Wait. What? Where are we going?"
"To Hyrule castle obviously. Zelda has the triforce of wisdom and she should be able to solve this."
Link opened the secret compartment and pulled out his equipment. The hero's bow. Arrows. The Gale boomerang, the Hylen shield. "What makes you think we can just walk up to that castle and seek an audience with Princess Zelda?" asked Shildow.
"Because I'm the hero of Hyrule as well," Link said. The horse call, the ball and chain, the double claw shot. And the spinner.
"Okay I think we're ready," said Link.
"No, we're not. It will be sunrise in a couple of hours and I won't be able to go with you in the light. I'm sorry but will have to wait until tomorrow."
"What?"
"We'll have to wait until tomorrow night because it will take several hours to get to Hyrule castle. It would take another few minutes to get ME in there and then we have to talk to Zelda and explain everything to her. And then - this is my favorite part by the way - I'll have to get back to complete darkness before sunrise or I'll die."
"We'll wait until tomorrow," Link said.
Shildow smiled at him and got up. "I'll be back tomorrow night," he said. "I'm staying in the tunnel that leads to the Forest Temple if you need more information on this matter." With that he turned and walked to the door, stopping when his hand touched the doorknob.
"Oh, yes, if you want I can wait for you in the tunnel instead."
"I'll get you," Link replied.
Shildow nodded once and stepped out the door. Link looked at the chart and placed that and all his supplies back in the secret compartment. He closed the portrait and gazed into Midna's eyes once more. It had been almost a year since he had helped the princess get back to her realm, and it had been four months later that he realized he loved her. Now was his chance to go to her and prove it.
"Hold on, Midna. I'm coming."
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Twilight Palace. Throne room
Zant was polishing his two short swords when there was a knock at the massive double doors. He put the swords in his oversized sleeves. "Come," he said and the doors opened to admit four armed guards. One of them was dragging, by what remained of her robe, princess Midna of the Twili. "Ah Midna, have you reconsidered my generous offer?" Zant said to her with mild interest.
"If you call … serving under a coward … and watching my people die of … hunger generous. No," Midna said in a weak voice. Midna had been whipped and tortured constantly because of her loyalty for her people.
"Very well then. Take her down to the dungeons, Lt. Nyet," Zant said to his Lieutenant of the Guards. They all bowed and left, dragging Midna down to the dungeons.
"She will come to you before the end, my lord," said a voice to Zant's right.
"Did you find the one she sent out?" Zant asked his adviser without looking at him.
"Yes and no my lord. He has gone too deep into Ordon. We cannot find him."
"Ordon?" Zant asked.
"Yes my lord. Ordon."
Zant finally understood what Midna was up to and smiled. "Link," he said. "She has sent Shildow to find Link in the hopes he can defeat me." The smile was replaced with a set jaw and hate filled eyes. "Put plan E-7 into action."
"Yes," his adviser said with a smile of joy.
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Well, that's another chapter in my book, there will be more chapts later on. Shildow is in my other story 'A Hero's Soul' too, but he was first created in this one, which was written August 2009. Future installments will be coming to Fanfiction as soon as possible.
Anyways, see ya later.
