Chapter 1

Images passed before my eyes at lightning speeds. Buildings burning. Storms raging. People running for safety.

Sometimes I recognized something that came into view but it would always vanish before I could put a name to what I saw. The chaos continued until a new scene presented itself. A large gate built into an intricately carved stone arch exploded inward (outwards?) and a horde of monsters charged in from the wreckage. Soldiers banded together to thwart the invasion but a figure robed in white and wielding an impractically large sword rushed by and cut them down faster than they could react.

The figure stood, looking upon the destruction with a sadistic smirk on its monochrome skin. It took two steps forward before pausing as if in surprise. It turned its head to look at something (me?) before it smiled and said-

I faintly processed the feeling of someone shaking my shoulder as I woke up gasping for breath.

"Easy there, Link. Everything's alright." spoke a familiar voice. I looked up to find my uncle Talon looking down at me with a concerned face. "I came upstairs to wake you up for breakfast and found you tossing around in your sleep. You must have been having one heck of a nightmare."

I didn't trust my voice as I was still trying to calm my nerves and so decided to just nod instead.

"You wanna tell me what it was about? It might make you feel better." he offered as he scratched partially bald head.

"I-i" I stuttered out. "I don't really remember most of it. It felt like it was just one big blur." I told a half-truth. The only detail that stuck out in my mind was that robed figure. I didn't know why at the time, but something about it left me horribly unsettled.

Uncle knew I was hiding something but didn't press the matter. "Well, when you're feelin' up to it, there's food waiting for you downstairs," he said as he crossed his arms.

I smiled gratefully. "Thanks, uncle. I'll be down as soon as I get dressed."

He nodded in return and left to give me some privacy.

I padded downstairs wearing a plain white short sleeved undershirt and pair of brown shorts. Just as dad had promised, there was already a plate full of food sitting at the small brown table in the center of our kitchen. Uncle Talon and his daughter Malon were already sitting at the table eating their meals.

"Mornin' Link!"

"Morning Malon." I tiredly replied to my redheaded best friend and cousin.

"Dad says you had a nightmare. You sure you're okay?" she asked while leaning over the table to get a better look at me.

"I'm fine Malon. It was just a bad dream." I tried to reassure her.

"It's the fourth bad dream you've had this week!" she shouted accusingly.

"Settle down Malon." uncle stated. "If Link thinks that she's alright, then we'll just have to hope she's right." Malon sat back down with a pout."That being said, don't think you have to hide anything from us. We're family and we all love you just as much as you care for us."

"Thank you, uncle Talon. I promise I'll tell you if something's wrong." I replied with a smile as I finished my breakfast.

"Well, we've got a long day ahead of us." uncle stated as he sat up front the table. "The royal family's commissioned a hefty price for one of our finest horses, so we had better be sure their steeds will be in top condition for when they get here."

Malon's eyes lit up immediately at the mention of the royal family. "Oh yeah! They're arriving tomorrow, aren't they?"

"That's tomorrow, huh?" I said in mild interest.

"How are you not excited, Link!? We're going to meet the princess!" she practically squealed as bounced to her feet.

"I dunno. Guess I just don't see what's so special about meeting the heir to the throne." I paused for a moment to consider something. "Why is the princess coming here again?"

"It's a celebration of the princess's coming of age. Apparently, word reached her highness's ears that we raise the best horses in Hyrule. She picked us personally as the ranch she would be receiving her royal steed from." uncle explained with no small amount of pride.

This time Malon did squeal. "C'mon, Link! We got horses to take care of!"

"Hey!" I protested as she grabbed my arm and tried to drag me out the door. "At least let me put my shoes on first!"

Malon and I walked through the stalls with a bucket of horse feed in each hand. At the ages of thirteen and fourteen respectively, the two of us were considered old enough to perform basic chores and care for the animals around the ranch. Most of the heavier duty tasks were handled by uncle Talon and his assistant Mr. Ingo.

Malon may as well have been skipping down the stables for how much bounce she had in her steps. Her giddiness was contagious as I found myself humming along in sync with her singing. She had a wonderful singing voice and even the livestock knew it. Eventually, we came by a stall occupied by a young, rusty red-coated horse.

"Hey, Epona! How are you today?" Malon greeted her favorite horse. Said horse seemed to snort in response to her question. "I know, I know. You want your food first, don't ya girl." Epona softly whinnied in reply.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you could actually talk to horses," I commented.

"What makes you think I can't talk to horses." she retorted as she fed Epona.

"Because horses can't talk," I stated.

"Says you."

"Says anyone with a shred of common sense."

We kept bantering like that back and forth even as we left the horse stables to go tend to the cows. "You're just jealous that you can't talk to horses."

"Why would I be jealous of your craziness?"

"I'm not crazy, you're just dumb."

"If I'm dumb, then how did… I…" I trailed off as I noticed something missing. "Hey, Malon? Do you know where the milk buckets are?"

"Aren't they sitting on the shelf?" she replied while looking around me to check for herself. When she confirmed that the buckets were indeed missing, she said, "Huh. Maybe dad misplaced them somewhere?"

"Maybe…" I agreed. Before either of us could suggest anything else, we heard the sound of a very angry man shouting profanities off in the distance.

"Sounds like Mr. Ingo found something to complain about." Malon winced as she said that. Mr. Ingo was a hard working man but he had a notoriously short temper and little patience for incompetence. Which was unfortunate for uncle since his bad memory often led to him making silly mistakes while on the job.

"Five rupees says the milk buckets aren't the only thing that uncle misplaced," I said.

"How did dad ever manage to maintain the ranch on his own?" Malon asked whilst shaking her head.

Deciding we might as well at least ask uncle where he left the buckets (assuming he even knew), we both left out the barn house and quickly found where the commotion was coming from. Mr. Ingo was shouting at uncle from just outside the tool shack while uncle just stood there looking confused. By the time we reached the two of them Mr. Ingo was red-faced and panting. "Hey, dad? Have you got any idea where the milk buckets got put last?"

Malon hadn't even finished her question before Mr. Ingo started another rant stomped off. There were a couple of seconds of silence as Mr. Ingo disappeared into the Cucco house before uncle answered. "To answer your question darlin', probably the same place as all of the tools that used to be in this shack."

"Wait, all of them?" I asked in bewilderment.

"Every single one. You can take a look inside if you don't believe me." He said with a furrowed brow.

Malon and I did and besides the work table, every farming and crafting tool had gone missing. Even Uncles toolbox had mysteriously vanished. "Did a thief break in and steal our stuff?" I asked.

"What kind of thief steals tools and nothing else?" Malon wondered with a hand on her chin.

"It's prolly just some youngins pulling a prank. Ingo certainly seems to think so." Uncle crossed his muscular arms as he admitted that.

"Wait, so Mr. Ingo wasn't yelling at you?" Malon asked in mock surprise.

Uncle grinned before his expression fell back to seriousness. "Oh, he did. Tried to accuse me of not lockin' the door the night before but I happened to recall him having to use the keys to get in."

"So it was locked when you got here? How did the thief get in?" I asked in confusion.

"Maybe they locked it back up when they left?" Malon suggested.

"Yeah, but why though? I mean, it's not like we weren't going to notice a couple dozen tools going missing overnight." I pointed out.

"The how's and why's don't really matter much right now. Point is: we ain't got any tools which means we're stuck doing any chores that can be done without 'em." I let out a heavy sigh and ran his hand over his face. "And on the day before her highness is supposed to show up too."

Now Malon looked like she was panicking. "That's right! What're we gonna do if we can't get any jobs done before they arrive!?"

"If it was a bunch of kids causing trouble then the culprits should be in town somewhere." I reasoned. "Why don't the two of us go looking for them while uncle and Mr. Ingo do whatever they can around the ranch."

"That's not a bad idea." uncle agreed. "Why don't you two do that while Ingo and I get busy."

"C'mon Link! Let's go! We gotta find those brats before the princess gets here!" Malon said as she grabbed my arm and started dragging me to town.

"Ah! Malon slow down!" I pleaded as she shot towards the ranch gates with me in tow.

Author's Notes: Hello to anyone who might be reading this. For a long time now I've had an interest in gender bender fanfictions and have been in search of a Zelda based one to read in my spare time. Unfortunately for me, all of the stories I've found either a) gender swap all of the characters (which I find boring and overly confusing), b) have and/or are badly written plots or c) just when I think I've found one that hits all of the things I'm looking for, the author discontinues/stops updating it. So my solution: I'll just have to make my own. Here's my attempt at accomplishing that very goal.

As for the, like, nine of you who found and followed my Persona 3 fanfic and would like to see it update: I'd like to say I'll return to it some day but the fact remains that I just don't have the same interest in the game that I used to. Which sucks because I have so many ideas that I'd have loved to implement into the story now that I know exactly where I would have taken it. Maybe getting my hands on Persona 5 will reignite my passion for it but for now FDND will be put on an indefinite hiatus.

That's all I have to say for now. Here's hoping I have better luck writing this story than my last one.