Part I -

Tears always end something good. Never before in my life did anything ever end as quite good as it did just merely one year ago, until I returned home and discovered that things would be normal again; just as I had wished for them to be out of frustration on my great quest across the lands of Hyrule. I don't wear the clothes colored like the fields of green, the pointy hat that made me distinct from everyone else, and the most worshiped weapon of the land returned to its rightful resting place in the great depths of the woods. I no longer see the great people I saved from the hands of evil, and the person that helped me left so quickly. Saying goodbye to a lifestyle lived so well by someone like me seemed odd; I'd never said goodbye before. I'd returned to herding goats and watching the children of my village grow up – and living alone in such an unfamiliar place.

Sitting atop the ladder of my home which seemed to have become more popular, I held out my hand for birds blue as the waters of Lake Hylia, and feathers soft as the blades of green grass in Hyrule Field. Everything about being home made me miss the places I discovered and saved from the dark evils, never before had I missed something so much. I think I didn't miss the fame, the wonders of being the great hero chosen by the Gods; but I missed the people, my friends.

I looked into the small, black beady eyes of the bird perched on my pointer finger, and whispered, "You don't know what you have, until you lose it, little guy." The bird spread its fragile wings and flew off into the trees above me, leaving me alone to grieve on the past. Sighing, I threw my head into my hands and closed my eyes. The coldness of my hands somewhat calmed me.

I heard defiant footsteps coming up the path that lead to my village, the footsteps growing louder and getting more defiant as they approached me. Did I dare open my eyes? Opening them with caution, I saw Ilia before me, Beth in tow. I rolled my eyes; they often appeared in front of my house at this time of day to bring me fresh biscuits they made with Uli in the afternoon. Uli was teaching them "the skills of women", as Ilia was becoming of the age to offer her hand in marriage; I gulped at the thought.

"Lii—nk," Beth sang, carrying a basket with something wrapped in a velvet napkin tucked neatly inside. Still half-asleep, something small hit my temple, immediately awakening me. An acorn fell next to me, and I fingered it out of boredom and looked at Beth angrily. She stamped her foot, pointed at me, and said,
"Link! It is very un-gentlemen-like to not look at people who are talking to you!" She brushed off her dress that Ilia had made for her, curtsied, and picked up the basket gently. She was Ilia's spitting image.

"Sorry, Link, but she's right. You really should be more gentlemen-like because before you know it, you're going to ask for a girl's hand in marriage," Ilia explained. Then she further bored me with, "So anyway, we strolled up here after baking strawberry shortcake with Uli for the day. I love the new crop fields that my father had placed because of Hyrule's state right now. But this came for you, but you were asleep – as usual."

Nothing ever comes for me in the mail after not traveling on Epona as much as when I was the hero, but I hopped down from the ledge and Beth gently gave me the basket. "Be careful!" she scolded me as she handed it to me. I gently took the basket and put it next to me on the ground, making sure it was safe. Inside I suspected pottery possibly from Karkariko Village that the shaman there would like me to have; I always put it in my dark basement – the gifts made me sadder. I looked down at the basket with suspicion – on the corner of the velvet napkin stitched in gold was an H. After multiple celebration dinners in Hyrule Castle with Zelda and the members that were left of the Royal Family, I had become custom to recognizing dinner napkins; ones that were similar to the one in the basket. Is there trouble? "Thanks," I said, still shuttering at thought. I looked up, and Beth and Ilia were gone.

Shaking my head, I carefully lifted the basket onto the ledge and then climbed up the ladder myself. Deciding it would be safer to open it inside; I opened the door slowly and slipped inside without a sound. I lit the lantern on the side table on the couch in front of the warm fire cooking Ordon soup, and sat down slowly and placed the basket next to me. I stared at it for a moment in suspicion – there really is no trouble in Hyrule, the dark evils are gone now.

My newest joy trotted up to my feet, begging to be invited onto the couch with me. She had arrived in a basket similar to the one sitting next to me, with a pink bow on her head. She wagged her short tail and we became instant friends; once again, Ilia's perfection at everything, even matching people with puppies. The tag on the basket had already been half chewed by the small, excited creature, but it had read: Mishka, meaning "gift of love" in native Hylian. Mishka and I had grown to become great friends, and soon best friends… we still are.

I scooped up Mishka's brown wiggling body from the floor and she kicked her short, stubby legs. I placed her in my lap and pet her affectionately until she lay her head down and sighed. I never thought that a puppy could be so rambunctious, but Mishka kept me busy between helping out in the village and missing my old lifestyle. I looked at the basket, and found myself beginning to reach for it. As my hand got closer and closer, my heart was beating faster.

Peeling back the first corner of the cloth carefully, the door opened slowly and someone's head poked in. "Hello?" they called. They poked their head in more, and I recognized it to be Ilia. She smiled when she turned and saw me on the couch. She had told me that I had been a great friend to help her save the Zora child, and that she still doesn't remember me in any of the events I recalled of her. However, we had a new relationship, one that was fresh. She politely sat next to me on the couch, and smiled and looked at the basket. She seemed like she wanted to ask me something.

Mishka rushed over to her and followed her and returned to my lap on the couch. Her tail continued to move back and forth, begging for attention from Ilia.

"So, what's in the basket… anything cool?" Ilia asked. She tucked her hands between her legs and smiled softly. "I thought it was from Hyrule… and… I hope you aren't going away again." Hearing her words stung – did she know what was in the basket? Was there really trouble in the kingdom that only her father knew about, which was why Ordon was becoming so independent and on-its-own?

Were the hands of evil back once again?

"I'm sure it's nothing, just something from the Princess or maybe Telma even," I replied. I was now becoming more nervous, because things from Hyrule castle do not tend to come and go as casually as this one. I placed the basket carefully onto the wooden oak table in front of me and smiled at Ilia, trying to hint the subject change. "So, how did the morning go for you?" She smiled; she loved being asked about herself.

"Oh, it went great, thank you for asking," Ilia replied quickly. She looked around the room and smirked. "Link, how could you possibly live in such a place? Look at this…" she rose from her seated position and walked over to my icebox. She picked up an unidentified object on the top of it and said, "How disgusting, you probably don't even know what this is!" I opened my mouth to say something, but she continued. "Malo and Talo aren't even as messy as you, and they are children." She paused and examined the item for a minute more and then threw it into the rubbish bin.

She walked over to the door and took my sheepskin hat that she had crafted for me from the coat hanger next to the door. She put it on her head and adjusted it to cover her eyes, making her appear mysterious. I smiled – if only she had remembered her childhood, the laughs that we had shared. Thankfully, she did not remember being kidnapped by King Bulbin as well as the horrors of her experience as a lonely soul in the Twilight zone.

"Link…" she said, opening the door and facing away from me. I saw the profile view of her pointed nose, and rose-pink lips. The hat cast a dark shadow over her eyes, just like the one I had seen before in her moments of anger. "Come to the pig roast tonight, okay?" She smirked and shut the door softly behind her.

. . .

I sat, lonely and curious, in my home staring into the soft fibers of the velvet napkin. Should I open it? What is inside? I wondered aimlessly for minutes, to hours, to what seemed like forever. Finally, I reached out to touch its soft material and peeled it back farther, revealing another layer wrapped around something tightly.

Carefully lifting the basket into my lap next to a sleeping Mishka, it seemed heavier than it had been when I placed it on the table. I continued uncovering the secret item inside of the basket, and lifted the item out of the basket and placed it beside me on the couch. I unwrapped it slowly – revealing something I had never seen before outside of its resting place inside of the fancy cabinets in the dining hall of Hyrule Castle. In my hands was not something that seemed like it had been untouched for all its years, a vase inscribed with native Hylian that not even me nor could Zelda understand. The vase was read and the inscriptions where golden. Nothing else was painted on the vase; not even the initials of its creator.

I began to start solving the mystery that this vase held. It seemed to have been familiar, something that had belonged to my family: the Royal Family. I felt as if I had seen this vase before outside of its case. I sprang up from my spot on the couch, Mishka following, to my filled bookshelf. Books that had been collected from the secret-holding lands of Hyrule on my quest, books that had been given to me from Russel about swordplay, and books from my missing mother: all books that maybe held the secret to this vase. I slid my fingers over the old bindings, and finally stopped at one with the same writings as the vase. I snatched it from the seemingly endless bookshelf and flipped through the pages as I plopped down on the couch once again.

In the middle of the book, bookmarked with a red ribbon that seemed ages old, was the vase's very picture drawn like a masterpiece. I held the vase in my sweaty, shaking hands. I read the English text on the page, explaining the vase. "…passed down from the Royal Family…", "…never before been touched in Hyrule's history…", "…used as a method of secret communication between the Princess and an outsider…" My heart pounded as my eyes fluttered from word to word on the page. The final statement on the page made my heart drop to my stomach: "The communication usually is a hint that Hyrule is in grave danger." I gulped down my fear, dropping the vase onto the floor. The shattering of the glass shattered my pride and I dared to look down at the kind of warning written on the parchment.

My eyes slowly crept down to the parchment, and I reached through the shattered glass and unearthed it, leaving my Royal blood behind. I read the paper slowly, and I recognized the handwriting of the Princess Zelda, now residing in the castle. My blood soaked the paper, and I could not believe what I was reading. "This could not be happening again…" I said, dropping the paper on the ground. I rushed from my position on the couch and quickly departed for the spring.

. . .

My dearest Link: The bad things are happening again. The dawn of ages is upon us; Hyrule will fall. Nothing can stop the evil that is creeping upon us. The darkness is sweeping the land, and soon we will all be in the greedy hands of the unspoken one. You are the great Hero – I am just a Princess. What would you do?

Zelda

. . .

Still stunned, I rushed to the spring, running faster and faster. I quickly passed Beth and Ilia, who were collecting the basil leaves that grew near here for the pig roast tonight most likely. "Link, I…" Beth began, but I was already too far away to hear the rest of her small voice.

I reached the spring's soft, inviting shores and fell into the blue waters. Before me, the light of the spirit was emitting, but I could already feel myself leaving this world. "What would you do?" she asks again as I drift away. What had happened just moments before had stunned me; my lungs longed for air as I watched the great spirit of Ordon Province appear before me. The goat figure appeared finally, emitting bright light, and looked down on me with sorrow in his eyes. I lost my faith and dropped to the ground, catching myself with my hands. The water of the spring suddenly turned cold, and it bit against my shaking arms. "Do not fear, O Chosen One…" the spirit began. His whispers where soft and comforting; I stood up once again and acknowledged the spirit.

"The darkness has yet to come… There is still time…" the spirit whispered quietly. "Seek Hyrule Castle… There you will find your next quest…"