To be a Hero

Chapter 1 (Questions)

By Zeldagurl

Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda, but I wish I did.

(Begin)

A young man walked slowly through the decaying place, his sword and his shield at the ready for battle. He was tall, and well built; with a head full of blondish brown hair and hungry blue eyes that seemed to be searching the room for something. He wore a green tunic that covered his chain mail, and along with it, a long green hat that seemed to be more of a hindrance than a help.

"You know..." An impishly childish voice spoke, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

"We've been in this stuffy cave for the better part of an hour, and we haven't found anything. Wouldn't a normal person give up and go back to town for the night? You haven't even said what it is you're really looking for..." It continued, seemingly cranky.

The young man looked down at his shadow and spoke with a small smile, teasing it with a small tilt of his head.

"You've forgotten that I'm not normal Midna."

With that remark, his shadow seemed to reshape itself into the form of a little female imp with her little hands on her hips.

"You're the most normal person that I know!" She hissed.

"How many normal people would you know, Midna?" He said quizzically, sparing her a small glance.

"Well..." She paused and thought, obviously coming to a halt in her mind as she tried to define those she knew as normal.

"You would be the first by Hylian standards." She admitted lamely.

"By Hylian standards? Is this what you do when you're sitting there in my shadow, watching me flounder in a temple while I'm repeatedly asking you for help?"

"No, I laugh about how big of an idiot you are while I'm sitting there in your shadow, watching you flounder on a puzzle that is so easy I could do it while I'm dead." She said flatly, absently reclining while floating in the air beside him.

"You still haven't explained how I'm even remotely normal." He said, shrugging off her insult.

"You came from a small village where you were loved and adored, and you have no strange personality quirks. You're even good-looking from a hylian standing point; I don't see how you're even a little abnormal... other than your funny face." She snickered as she added her last quip, lifting a small black hand to her mouth to cover her laughter.

He rolled his eyes at her,

"That may be true; but the face remains that I am different from them. I have pointy ears, therefore showing that I'm hylian. I have a strange mark on the back of my left hand that I have no idea what it means and why I have it. I have no true family to speak of..." He stopped suddenly, feeling that he was going into unmapped territory with the little imp; besides the fact that they had never talked about anything that was serious.

He didn't want to break the fragile relationship that he and Midna had built over the last few months; he had accepted her leadership and ruthless nature when it came to what she wanted, while she had gotten used to his leadership and compassion, along with his complicated feelings.

He shook his head and pressed on, coming to an unstudied wooden door that barred his entrance further. He stopped and examined it from all angles, tilting his head and touching it lightly to test its stability. It wobbled as he pushed on it, he smiled lightly and stepped back, preparing to push harder in order to open it.

"I don't even get why you're doing this..." Midna looked cautiously at the dark designs of the cave, the laughing faces that were carved there. The whole place seemed to have a creepy feel to it; almost as though it was man made, yet not.

He pushed with all of his might and eventually the door worked, and was pulled up to open.

"It's a long story..." He said, avoiding her eyes and looking forward to the new hallway that was now earthen, and had the feel of a real cave. The place was obviously in disrepair, most likely owning to the fact that almost no one made their homes in the fields anymore. Everyone lived in villages or cities because of the convenience, though Link couldn't imagine someone living here...

"Since we're more or less stuck here for a while, you should just tell me." Midna followed him closely as he moved into the corridor.

He was silent for a moment as he walked, seemingly thinking.

"Every where we've gone, there's been some sort of comparison between me, and some hero who existed long ago; And although the only people who talk about this hero are either old, or are spirits; I wonder who this guy really was. What really did he do that made him so legendary and remembered?"

Midna looked at him, her bright eyes pondering his words as he spoke them.

"So that's why you're searching through this place; to find out some sort of clue about this ancient hero?" She said incredulously, sighing and closing her eyes.

"In a matter of speaking, yeah." The hallway became darker and darker as they moved forward, even though Link was using his lantern to his best abilities. Despite the troubles with the light though, the hallway ended, coming to a single clearing that had no other path connecting to it. A single ray of light showed through from the ceiling where a small opening sat. The light spilled down into the room, barely illuminating a small chest, and a plaque that sat before it.

"What's this?" Link said more to himself than to Midna; which was well enough because the imp was more interested as he was in the chest and the plaque. He walked forward, coming to the plaque and kneeling down before it, he peered down at it, trying to make it out in the weak light.

"This... This is really old." He said, creasing his brow to study it better.

"Thank you Captain Understatement." Midna snickered.

"Shut up."

Link attempted to ignore the little imp and concentrated on the plaque.

"Hero...Ages...Seasons...time...twig light...winds... fire... until the... cycle ends... These... shall be the... signs." He read aloud and frowned at it, looking at Midna in confusion.

"What's this supposed to mean?"

Midna looked up at him and frowned back at him,

"Well if you want to know, keep reading numbskull." Link rolled his eyes and shook his head, moving back back to the plaque, at the very spot where he left off.

"...Of those... chosen... by Din... Nayru and Farore... Something (I can't read those words) battling against the great swine and those... whom he... may command. These... of valor and courage... shall... bear the triangle... and... Remain in... life's light... and in... Death's darkness" He sat back and rubbed his eyes that ached from concentrating in such poor light.

"That made absolutely no sense." He said, finally getting up off of his knees and moving to the chest, placing his hands on it and using his strength to pull it open. The old object gave easily and opened slowly with his careful touch.

A cloud of dust came from within the chest as the top fell to rest open, Link coughed, closing his eyes and waving his hands in front of him in order to clear the air.

"They usually aren't this dusty, huh?" Midna said sympathetically, although Link had never really heard her be sympathetic and comforting, so he wasn't really sure if that could really be the case. After spending as much time with her as he had, he learned quickly that almost every tone of her voice was a form of sarcasm; rarely did he ever hear something that he could interpret as genuine.

He nodded and grinned at her lightly before leaning forward to see what was in the chest. He reached his hands in and gripped something cold and hard, though not even distinctly heavy. He brought it out of the chest and examined the odd looking object.

It was a lens, not unlike a magnifying lens that all of the Hylian scientists claimed to have in their armory of science instruments, it was a deep purple all around and the lens itself resembled an eye with a single tear falling from it. Link wasn't sure what it was but it seemed familiar, like he had seen it somewhere before but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"What is it?" Midna voiced his thoughts, peering at it over his shoulder with a look of curiosity on her small face.

"I don't know. I guess it's some kind of lens or something." He said, turning it over in his hands, trying to get some idea of it.

"Well, I think that since you've done what you wanted, we should go to some town or camp somewhere to eat and get some sleep."

"Figures, all you care about is food." He said, standing up with the lens and holding it up for Midna to hold onto.

"I also care greatly about my beauty rest and the fused shadow." She said brightly, zapping the tool with twilight and therefore making it disappear. She looked over at the plaque and then looked to Link with her little hand pointed at it.

"Should we take that too? Since I know you'll want to look at it again, and it would be smarter just to take it with us."

He looked down at it and studied it for a moment, furrowing his brow, knowing that the plaque presented questions that he still had yet to find the answers to. He knew that he wouldn't ever be able rest his mind until these insatiable questions were answered.

"Yeah, sure... Maybe I'll take it to a historian or something." He said nonchalantly, shrugging as he turned back towards the direction of the entrance of the dark place. She quickly zapped it and hurried after him, meaning to seriously think about whether she should point out the places littered about Hyrule that contained treasures and unexplored land, if it would only prevent another all-day excursion...

(Switch)

It was barely morning, the sun had just peeked out from behind Death Mountain and was slowly spreading its light across Hyrule; and Link was awake, lying on his bedroll with his arms behind his head, staring up at the light blue sky. Epona lay just a few feet away, her long legs folded beneath her and her head laid on the ground of the field that was just outside of the cave. Midna was asleep in his shadow, though he still wasn't really sure how the dynamics of it worked, but it was safe to say that he wouldn't be bothering her by waking up and moving about.

To tell the truth, Link hadn't been able to sleep the night before, and he was sorry that he wouldn't be very energetic for the day ahead; but he had been pondering things all night. He thought of everything that had happened since Ordon village was raided and he had first met Midna.

He could already tell that he was a different man than when he had first started out to rescue Ilia and Colin, along with Malo and Talo and Beth. There seemed to be a part of him that he knew they would never understand now. The light spirit, Faron, he had called it 'the power of the hero of old' or something like that, but he wasn't sure that being a hero had everything to do with it.

Now that he had been a beast, and had known the carnal desires that animals carried with them everywhere, he couldn't say that he was the same gentle man; Just the though of tearing a throat out with his teeth would have seriously disturbed him before his transformation, but now it was second nature to him. If he was ever found without his sword and his shield, than he knew that he could always go farther in his defense...

He had met so many people in the past few months, it was sometimes hard to keep track of everyone who came and went. Luckily, each of the citizens of Hyrule did their best to be memorable, even in the eyes of a passing stranger.

There was Telma, the flirtatious older barkeep, who never seemed to find anything that remotely ruffled her feathers in any way; and Renado, the mysterious shaman of New Kakariko, who seemed wise beyond belief. There was Barnes, the comedic bomb shop owner, whom Link had found interesting, and a good laugh. He had met the dead Zora queen Rutella, who had promised him some treasure if he would help her only son, which he would have done anyway, even without the promise of a reward. And there was even the princess of Hyrule, Zelda; who was beautiful and fair as he had heard, but had a strange sort of sadness and guilt that permeated the air about her. He remembered most distinctly the back of her cloak, which had some strange designs on it (he had been staring pointedly at it while growling at her.), and her deep blue eyes that seemed filled with something... something strangely akin to himself.

He pictured her in her cloak and remembered the strange designs... There were a bunch of loops, weren't there? And some strange signs and symbols... Now that he thought about it, there was one symbol that distinctly looked like... that lens he had found the day before...

He sat up suddenly (waking up the sleepy horse who was near him, who simply lay her head back down when she realized that he wasn't doing anything pertaining to her), his eyes widening as he compared the two images in his head and found that they were indeed very similar.

Well... there was one answer to a question... Though that answer led to another and another question... His only choice was to seek out what that symbol meant, and why Princess Zelda wore it on her cloak. He sighed and lay back down in his bed roll.

He wanted to know why he was connected to all of this... He really wanted to know why there was a reason that he was connected with the hero that was told about in Legends he had barely paid any attention to before all of this had happened to him. He wanted so desperately to know this hero, to know how he was supposed to measure up to a hundred years worth of story-telling and glorification. The people needed a hero like the one that lived long ago, and he didn't know if he was quite good enough...

How do you cure a country of civil unrest? Of strange droughts and evil beings plundering and attacking the people who had forgotten how to fight? How do you fight an evil you don't even know?

How do you cross the line between reality and Legend...?

All these things he wanted to know and more... He didn't even know how to start answering them.

Link sighed and looked back up at the sky that was now brightening with the sun as every moment passed. He didn't know when he would understand what was going on, but he hoped in earnest that he would find out...

He shook his head, rolling over and closing his eyes, trying in vain to sleep a little bit before the world woke up and demanded his attentions for another day...

Authors note: Ah, here I am listening to the Majora's Mask soundtrack, writing a Twilight princess fanfic. Hmmm, strange where I get my inspiration from...

Anyway, this is an idea I had while finishing the game. I didn't like how the game left things with the story (The graphics rocked though!), so I've decided to compose this story for the hopes of writing a good story, and also to get my creative juices going for my two Inuyasha stories.

If you've played Ocarina of Time, you will understand a lot of the stuff in this story. Oot is personally my favorite game, and I didn't like the lack of reference to it, even though it's only been 100 years; not that much should have been changed... Although, I do still love Tp, I think that it would have been better with a few more references to Oot and Mm.

I really hope you like where I'm going with this story, and I hope you will continue reading (those of you who are). Like any authoress who lives in a closet with her computer, I hope that you will all review and tell me how I'm doing. Good, bad, okay? Please let me know so that I can better my writing for the future!

Thank you!

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