"Hyrule is saved! Link has defeated Ganondorf!" the townspeople cheered. They've been cheering of this accomplishment for the past three days since the messenger dove returned with Link's letter. They had been cleaning and decorating for a festival to celebrate Link's return from his year-long trip.
A blonde teen with deep blue eyes had turned around to check the progress once again, rolling his eyes and turning back to the stream, "Oh sure- a kid loses his parents and is adopted into a family of swordsmen gets ignored. The kid with the same story gets adopted to a family with a bunch of old farmers and he's the hero."
"I'm not jealous, you know." A man sitting beside him said, "If that's what you're implying." He continued, "You do know there's more to life than heroism, right Claus?" he asked. This man had long red hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and eyes the same color yellow of the harvest moon. He wore a blue shirt that was loose and puffy and pale tan pants of the same nature, however, they tucked into his boots.
"Still." Claus mumbled, "You'd think." He wore a green tunic with a belt around his waist and across his chest. Claus was often mistaken for Link on several occasions.
"You'd also think that I'd grow up as a swordsman, and not an archer, right?" he pointed a thumb to the bow on his back, "Besides, I didn't come from a family of soldiers like Link did."
"True." Claus said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa- don't drop it!"
This snapped both of their attention, causing them to turn around and watch some of the townspeople try and stand up a tall arch made of wood.
Claus sighed and turned back. "Raud, would we ever get our chance?"
"What of?"
"Of… you know, actually making something with ourselves. Marry a princess, save a kingdom-"
"Link didn't marry Zelda." 'Raud' cut him off.
"You don't know that." Claus said, taking in the amber-colored glow of the scenery as the sun set. "But you get my point, right?"
"Yeah." He leaned back, "We should be getting back. Mother would be making supper at this point."
Claus stood up and dusted himself off, re-attaching the sheath of his sword to his waist, normally preferring it on his back like Link would. "Raudrey, how do you think things are going to change when Link gets home? Now that he's a hero and all?"
"I don't know." Raudrey stood up and dusted himself off. "Let's just go." He said, staring straight ahead, his gaze distant as they walked back to their home.
Claus watched him for a while, "Are you mad?"
"Not at all." Raudrey finally blinked, "Why would I?"
"Well… you and Link were close friends." He said, "What if Link stops being your friend?"
Raudrey laughed at his brother's naivety, "If being such a celebrity and such a big shot gets to Link's head, I'll have to hit him."
"Won't that get you arrested?" Claus asked.
"If he lets me get arrested, then you hit him. If not, then he's learned a lesson."
Claus opened the door and let Raudrey in first, closing the door behind him.
They were then greeted by a man, namely, Claus' father, "Boys. You're late. Where have you been? We thought you were going to help set up the village for the festival."
"What's the point? It's all gotta be taken down again anyways." Claus asked.
Raudrey nudged his ribs with his elbow, "Sorry, Father, we were talking at the stream."
"Well, no matter." He shook his head, "Your mother has supper set in the dining room."
"Right." Raudrey towed Claus into the dining room and sat beside him, as he always did.
Their mother turned around and set a plate in front of each of them, each loaded with meat and potatoes. Then she set a glass of water next to each plate. He remembered when his mother had a voice. However, there was an incident eight years ago that traumatized her to the point where she hadn't spoken since. This was the same incident in which Raudrey and Link's parents were killed.
The night was dark, flames engulfed a majority of the town and smoke suffocated its people. Stalfos and Moblins were setting fire to anything that hadn't been lit and demolishing what they could of the stone or metal structures. Raudrey's home was one of the last few to burn. At the time, the fourteen-year-old was running to grab buckets of water to put out the fires. He then saw that his home had caught fire, so he ran into the burning structure to retrieve a small cat.
"Raudrey!?" a red-headed woman, his mother, called. "Where's Raudrey?" she asked.
"He ran back into your house." An older blonde knight shouted, this was Link's father.
Raudrey's mother ran back home, "Raudrey! Get out of there!" she screamed. Then she ran into the house.
"Mother! I can't find the cat."
"He'll be fine." she grabbed his arm and tried running him out of the house. After taking a quick glance upward, she shoved him forward, letting herself get caught under one of the support beams that ran along the ceiling.
"Mother!" he called and tried lifting it off of her, instead, he burnt his hands.
"Raudrey, get out of here." She coughed, "Go."
"I can't leave you here." He tried again.
"And I can't let you kill yourself trying to help me. Go find your father."
Reluctantly, Raudrey turned and ran out of the burning building, ducking as a skeleton horse ran by with a Stalfos on its back. "Father!" he called out, noticing that the Moblins and Stalfos were all retreating, leaving the town destroyed. Bodies of people, Stalfos and Moblins laid everywhere. Amongst the bodies, was Raudrey's father. He stumbled and knelt by the crumpled figure, "Father?"
His father looked up at him weakly, several arrows in his front and back, ensuring that he wouldn't survive. "W-where's your m-mother?" he coughed, spitting blood onto the dirt.
"She's…" Raudrey looked down and wiped his eyes with his rough, charred hands, "She was trapped, I couldn't get her out…"
"Shh…" His father brought up a bloody hand to lower Raudrey's hands, "At least she won't be alone…" he said weakly.
"What about me?" Raudrey asked, "I don't want to be alone…" he cried.
"You won't be… y-you have Link and Claus, and all of your other friends. You'll be okay." He managed a bloody smile, "G-good night, Raudrey." He said, "Your mother and I love you… very… much…" he whispered as his eyes closed.
"Father, don't leave…" Raudrey cried.
"Mom?" a different voice called, "Dad, no!" the voice became panicked.
Raudrey looked over and saw Link on his knees beside the bodies of his parents.
"Raudrey?" a smaller voice asked, "Moma and Popa wants you to come with us."
Raudrey looked up at the owner of the voice, finding nine-year-old Claus, holding out a hand to help Raudrey off the ground.
Raudrey hadn't spoken in weeks after the incident. He'd only cried, and each time Raudrey needed to, Claus was there to keep him company. He'd heard several times what had happened to Raudrey's parents from Raudrey, he felt like he was there. The tragic story had turned itself into a memory and was now burned into Claus' mind as though it had happened to him, however his parents were still alive.
"Claus?" Raudrey asked, "Are you okay?"
Claus shook his head, realizing that he'd been sitting at the dinner table this whole time holding the top of his water glass. Everyone were halfway through eating their meals and he hadn't taken a single bite. He scrambled to try and catch up with everyone.
"What's wrong?" his father asked.
"Nothing. Just thinking." Claus shook his head.
Raudrey continued eating, disturbed to even imagine what Claus could've possibly been thinking about. He hadn't blinked a single time. His ear then twitched, "Anyone else hear that?"
Everyone listened carefully, hearing a commotion outside. Most of them saying, 'Is that Epona? Link's home early!'
The family of four ran outside and watched the horse and its rider come in, the rider appeared to be Link, his clothes torn, his cloak covering his face. His body was slumped forward and appeared very exhausted. His mouth barely parted as sweat dripped down his face. His breathing was almost absent, raspy and weak. His hands shook as he held the reins on Epona. The townspeople waited for him to speak, or move, or do anything. He took a forced wheezing breath and fell off the side of the horse, hitting the ground hard. The horse reared, black smoke peeling away its skin and muscle, revealing only its skeleton. It galloped off, leaving the crumpled body on the ground.
The mayor immediately knelt by Link's side, or who he thought was Link. He removed the hood and found Link's face. The same black smoke peeled itself away and only revealed a Stalfos, however, this Stalfos was dead, just bewitched to stay stable while it was on the horse's back. The mayor found a piece of parchment attached to the Stalfos' belt.
"What's it say?" a concerned woman asked, the entire town horrified at the sight of what had happened.
"I have your hero. If you want him back…" he shook while reading this, "Send your best men…"
"Who is it from?" another woman asked.
"It doesn't say." The mayor stood up, "Mikolas, Taro, Nikai, gather as many men as you can."
Claus and Raudrey looked at each other, nodded and began running to the community stables, only having Claus' father grab the backs of their collars. "Where do you think you two are going?" he asked.
"Um…" Claus stammered.
"We're helping everyone prepare their horses." Raudrey said, "Saves time. Just get armed and ready to go. Your horses will be ready to go by the time you get here."
Claus' father, whose name was Mikolas, sighed, "Alright. Don't do anything stupid, boys. Understand?"
"Yes, father." Claus nodded and watch him walk away. He looked back at Raudrey who was now equipping the horses with saddles. "Wait, we're just going to sit here?"
"Hell no." Raudrey said. "We're just prepping their horses before we get the heck out of here."
Claus smirked, "That's more like it."
"You armed and ready to go?" Raudrey asked, finally throwing the saddle on top of his horse.
"Duh…" Claus chuckled and jumped onto his horse.
Raudrey opened the back gate to the stables and led his horse out, followed by Claus riding his. Claus waited for Raudrey to close the gate and mount his horse. "Alright, let's go." He whispered and rode off with Claus.
The farther they got into the woods, the darker things got. Claus looked around, seeing the haze that made the nighttime woods seem haunted. "Raud? Are we sure about this?"
Raudrey took a deep breath. "No… but I'm sure Link wasn't either." He shuddered, "Just keep going. It'll be alright." He said.
Claus nodded, but was still unsure. "Are we lost?"
"No." Raudrey said, seeming distant. "If we keep going straight, we should reach the valley." After that, we can try and track Link down."
"Alright…" Claus said, "And we'll do that how?" he asked, doubting his adopted brother's plan.
"He'll ask around villages he had to have passed. We'll just ask them if they've saw him pass by."
"Do they even know what he'll look like?"
"Yeah. They'll have to."
"Why's that?"
Raudrey smirked, "He looks like you." He chuckled.
Claus' ears lowered, "Very funny." He grumbled.
Back at the village, in the stables in which the boys had fled from, Mikolas and his men stood and shouted at each other.
"I don't understand, you said that they were preparing the horses!" one man shouted at Mikolas.
"Technically, they are prepared…" another man said and scratched his head. "They're just… tied together…"
The seven remaining horses were indeed prepared to leave, but after Raudrey had saddled each of them, he took the reins and ties them all to the same post, each rein entangled with another, only to buy him and Claus time for them to escape. Three men were currently trying to untangle the horses.
"I swear, your boy's trying to leave Link for dead." One of the more sour men suggested.
Mikolas sighed, "Claus wouldn't have thought about this. This was Raudrey's doing." He sighed, "He and Link were close friends as children, I'm sure he just wants to help Link."
"He should've let us gone then." He growled.
"Gumbei, Raudrey is stronger than you think. And with Claus at his side, they'll be unstoppable." Mikolas said, "True strength isn't in numbers, true strength is in the heart of one."
Gumbei sighed, "Fine." He said, "But what if we have to organize another search party for your boys?"
Mikolas took a deep breath, "We won't have to." He said, "I have faith in them."
Raudrey and Claus rode close together. In fact, so close together, that their right or left leg would hit each other and bruise their shins. This action was not by choice, however. Their horses were beginning to feel nervous and even tried heading back. Eventually, they had lost all light to their path, so Raudrey had lit a lantern and held it in front of them. They never realized that there was a swamp just outside their pleasant little village's forest. They heard croaking and hooting from the toads, frogs, and owls that resided in the area.
Claus' horse jerked to the right, who was immediately pulled back to the left to stay straight. "Raud, the horses can't take much more of this. We should head back."
"Almost out of here." Raudrey said almost calmly.
"How do you know?" Claus snapped.
"This swamp is only a mile. We've covered at least more than half of it." He explained.
Something in the water beside them slithered and splashed next to Raudrey, scaring the horse and making him rear up in fear. With the sudden jolt, Raudrey was unable to keep his grip and fell off, dropping all of his things and the lantern. Claus flinched, but was able to keep his horse in control. After the horse whinnied and neighed away as he galloped off, there was then absolute silence and darkness.
Claus opened his eyes, seeing nothing, "Raud, mind lighting that lantern?" he asked.
There was absolute silence.
Claus furrowed his brows and carefully dismounted his horse, "Raudrey?" he called, keeling and feeling around for anything. The first thing he bumped his hand into was a straight stick, beside it were several more, he found it safe to assume he found Raudrey's quiver of arrows. He grab hold of one and searched for the bow successfully. He set the arrow and aimed straight up, knowing it wasn't going to do much. He shot and released the arrow.
A small stream of moonlight beamed onto Raudrey's face, unconscious, bruised and bleeding from whatever that horse had done after he was thrown off. "R-Raudrey?" he asked.