The hustle and bustle of the big city. There was the bazaar, the shooting gallery, restaurants, the circus, even a place to get a tall glass of milk. This city was Hyrule Castle Town.

The boy sniffed the air. It smelled of fresh fruit and vulnerability. Just then his stomach grumbled. The boy made an effort to silence the disturbance. He had not eaten in a few days, due to beefed up security in the market. Since he could remember, he had to steal his own food to get by. Nothing big, just the occasional apple pie or potato bag; just enough to keep him going. But he had been running on fumes and restless nights for a while now. It was time to get some sustenance.

He slowly inched towards the light at the other end of his dark alley. The people were moving and trading and going along with their business. The boy frowned. There weren't as many guards as the day before, but there were as many citizens as ever. In his past expeditions to the market, his face wasn't exactly shrouded. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if everyone in Castle Town knew what he looked like. He would have to wait for a much larger opening if he wanted to eat today.

So he waited. And waited. And waited. An hour passed and there was no favorable opening in sight. At this rate, the boy would either starve or get caught if he made the attempt. Now he didn't know how Hylian jails treated their prisoners, but he was in no mood to find out.

The boy gave up. There was no point in waiting for so long, in one place. He decided to go and check out other parts of the market. Of course with his reputation he couldn't just go for a stroll. So he decided to take the high road…literally.

The boy went far back into the dark alley and grasped the wall. He pulled himself up and positioned his feet to scale the wall. It had rained earlier that morning, so the wall was cold, wet and worst of all, slippery. Despite this setback, the boy had climbed soaked walls before and in a matter of moments was now on the sunny rooftops of Castle Town.

The sun graced his cheeks with its warm embrace. It was a nice change from the cold dank alley in which he lived. He took a look around the immediate area and sighed. No openings.

This was pure insanity. The poor boy would have to starve the way things were going. He had never done anything wrong. Sure he stole to survive, but that was just it. He stole to survive. He never stole anything valuable, like a sword or a jewel. He just did not need it. Now food…that was a different story. He NEEDED food.

Then there it was. Out of the corner of his eye, a fight broke out between two Goron merchants. Everyone else looked away to watch what was going on. A whole section of the street was left unattended!

It was now or never. The boy took the opportunity to drop down into the street as quietly as possible. He gazed upon the stands filled with food. Fruits, vegetables, hell even meats were available! The ravenous boy grabbed a nearby sack from one of the stands, and proceeded to fill it with food.

He filled it with apples, peaches, tomatoes, peas, carrots, kumquats, potatoes, grapes, and corn. The sack was starting to get heavy, as he greedily stuffed as much food into it as he could. He was going to move on to the meats…until the fight subsided.

"THIEF!"

"He's stealing our crops!"

"Guards!"

"Someone grab him!"

The boy took this as his cue to make like a duck and get the flock out of here. He ran straight into an alleyway as the guards popped into view. He ran and ran as fast as he could. However, he was no longer as nimble as he once was, now that he had that heavy sack of food weighing him down. Sure it wasn't as heavy as a suit of armor, but he wasn't exactly an athlete by lifestyle, like the Hylian Knights were.

His legs and knees began to burn with a horrid sensation, but the boy pressed on. He did not want to go to jail. It was dank enough in his alley, he didn't want to have to sacrifice his freedom to move to a place that was more or less the same. He turned a corner, only to be greeted by more Town Guards. He yelped and quickly changed direction, and went the other way.

There were guards everywhere. The boy was running out of options. He had traversed almost every safe place he knew…except for one.

'The temple of time! They will never find me in such a holy place!' thought the boy.

He sprinted as fast as he could towards the Temple of Time. He crossed an alleyway and saw the temple on the horizon. He looked behind him and the guards were all in confusion on where he had gone. He was going to get away!

WAM!

Someone taller than the young teenage boy, had stuck his arm out, thereby hitting the boy as his face ran straight into it. His body now against the pavement, and his stolen goods all over the floor, he grunted angrily, as his vision blurred. All he could see was a man, probably in his mid 50s standing over him as the guards grabbed him. They lifted him up and the boy blacked out.

The boy woke up in a dank cell. His vision still blurry and his head throbbing, he was surprised he could make out where he was. He grasped his skull, and pleaded with it to stop throbbing. Of course with his luck today, it did not comply. The boy sighed. His worst fear had just been realized. He was in jail.

Just then his cell door opened. A guard grabbed him by the collar and forcefully pulled him up.

"Let's go boy. You are going to the Hylian institution for juvenile delinquents. You're gonna learn how to be a model citizen of hylian society."

"Let me go! I don't want to go!"

"Too bad!"

The man who had stopped the boy was in the cell hall. He looked on and sighed. The youth of this world was just deteriorating more and more. And the fact that this war was going on, wasn't helping out. The Bulblin forces were already suffocating Hylian territory inside the Lanayru province. Sooner or later they were gonna reach Castle Town and the war would be over. The Gorons and Zoras were absolutely no help. They were not being besieged yet and saw this as a pure Hylian affair. Ever since the Invasion of Zant, it was every man, creature, or plant for themselves. Hylian forces were running thin, and the Bulblins just kept coming out of the woodwork. The old man looked at the boy once more.

"Let go of me you brutal guard monkeys!"

"Shut up kid!"

The boy had caused enough ruckus to beckon two more guards to help out the first one. Due to the war, volunteer guards were used since all the other REAL soldiers were pulled into the war effort. The old man turned away until he saw a flash of golden light.

The old man turned back to the boy in an instant and saw what he had denied could possibly happen. The boy had a triangular mark on the back of his left hand. The force of the golden light had pushed the soldiers back into the walls and had knocked them out. However, the old man was rigid and did not move.

The boy was panting heavily, and the mark on his hand vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. The boy passed out and the old man walked to his unconscious body.

"So…you are Farore's chosen one…"