The figure walking through the misted forest floor had gone by a whole assortment of titles, 'The Hero of Time', 'Sworn brother to the Goron tribe', 'Master of the Rosa sisters', 'Grasshopper' even, but now he was just 'The Hero's Shade'. Yes he was merely a shadow of what he once was, a cursed frame doomed to walk the earth in denial of his own demise. And yet with all that had gone wrong with him never would he blame another, simply accepting his fate as he had passed the point of blaming himself, and so he continued to traverse the lands, honing his skills at every chance and helping all that he found. A while ago he became a new type of guardian to the forest and after returning to Hyrule he worked together with the Deku sprout Tree to guard all of his old friends in the Kokori tribe which led to a new time of happiness for him in which he would watch over the innocent children of the forest and occasionally spring them from a tight spot that in the past the Kokori had no defense for as they never really trained for real combat past the Deku sticks and wooden shields. After time went on the children would recognize him if he was nearby and the older kids would often try to play with him which would result in a group of Kokori all hanging off the great tall guardian spirit as he walked around. At the time Link had finally achieved something he had thought he might never have again. Link was happy. Links happiness however, was something that fate seemed to have a time limit on.

It had been 500 years since links adventure in Termina, 200 since he turned, and 100 since he found his place back with the Kokori, but that was when it happened. That was when Fate decided Links Idle happiness was to come to an end. The cause, overpopulation, the humans in the kingdom of Hyrule were expanding so much that the town of Kakario was no longer enough. So they started pushing to the woods and in doing so were destroying the one home of the Kokori tribe. And so to survive they would be forced to wage war on the Hyrulian forces. And so Link the great 'Hero of Time' was forced into another bloodbath, this one involving his home and his friends. The Deku tree called upon all of the forces under his powers like the wolfos of the forest to obey the will of Link in their time of need and sent link out to fight for his home, or in other words, destroy the one kingdom you saved to begin with.

Link couldn't bring himself to immediately run out and destroy Hyrule, it was his job to save it after all, so rather than running out swords held high link played the his trump card, the Royal Family. As the monsters of the forest gathered link traveled to the castle in town and snuck in finding the same garden as last time and as he predicted the security had been tightened in that area so the second he turned around Impa was standing there ready for battle. Before the situation got out of hand however link pulled out his fairy ocarina and played the one song that he knew would stop Impa from attacking him long enough to finish his business and be done, Zelda's Lullaby. As link finished Impa went from a battle stance to a rigid, confused posture that never really left the battle ready connotation, nor did she relinquish her weapon. Link then pulled out a piece of paper however the action of reaching for his pouch made Impa raise her knife again. After realizing all the person had was a parchment she put one of her knives away and took the folded piece questioningly. Before she could say anything however link raised his ocarina again and warped to the forest temple, all that was left to do was to wait.

Link had explained everything in the treaty that he left with Impa that the forest was threatened and retaliation was going to happen if the cutting of trees did not stop. He also laid out several plans for the coming war that made it quite clear that avoiding it was all he wanted to do, with the fact that he clearly stated exactly what he planned to do and if that wasn't obvious enough for them he even wrote it down that he doesn't really want to fight but that his home and his friends are at risk so he would fight but only if need be. And so on the planned day Link lined his forces up in the forest early so they would be ready for the walk to castle town or if need be the battle. Then it happened, the one final straw that would break the back of the horse or in link's case his time at peace. Before the sun could even rise the forces of Hyrule pulled it off, the perfect ambush, they set the forest ablaze and tore through the forests panicking allies through training and leadership, an ambush that link could not recover his troops from so at the cost of the forest he sent everyone left on their final journey. Link took the Kokori children who were not part of the battle and the few who survived and, on a gamble, sent them to Termina in hopes that being a land inside of a tree they would still be able to receive the protection from the Deku tree. Then with all of the power he could muster he called to his kin, the stall children and all the monsters of the forest that were out of the jurisdiction of the Deku tree and called for their aid. The next day an army eight hundred million strong of wolfos, stalfos, Iron knuckles, Deku shrubs, and moblins marched out of the forest and walked straight to castle town.

There wasn't even a battle after that, link walked straight into the throne room with his monster army populating any spare space they could find in the city but most just stood in a giant mass outside the drawbridge and the crowd was about the size of castle town itself. When the king came in link handed him a treaty and when he was asked about some changes he shook his head no until the king signed it and they left. And so now that Hyrule has been granted the freedom to expand their land up to a certain point the Kokori village is accessible by anybody and so that's where we find our hero to this day. Guarding the sacred grove of the Deku tree next to the famous tourist site that the Kokori village has become ever since the old legend of the hero of time resurfaced when some guy found that one interview they did of him where they got him to spill his life story after he beat up Ganondorf before leaving to find Navi. He let people in but never let people past a certain point, other than children who would always climb on him, but the happiness wasn't there anymore. Sure he enjoyed having kids around because it stirred some sense of nostalgia inside of himself but it just wasn't the same, and the goddesses seemed to notice.

It was the 125th anniversary of the storming of the castle as they called it and more people than usual had come that day more to see him than the Deku tree because everyone knows who the general was that stormed the castle and supposedly made the king soil himself. However now it was night time and the only people left were link and the night guard left on duty for the rest of the village. After a few months link had garnered enough trust with the night watch girl who ended up full time and then working most of the day shift too. She's only about 26 and seemed to be working on a protest for part of an up and coming pro women's movement in Hyrule that seems to believe that women should do the same exact things as men like fighting and becoming guards as well as the other way around. And it seems that many of the men that wish to avoid the draft for guard duty have been joining up as well. So when night rolls around often the young girl will come back to talk to link about the state of Hyrule whenever she has time in-between her rounds and she does it knowing full well that in the body of a stalfos link can't say anything back, or maybe she does it because he can't talk. This night however rather than ranting and raving about some guy who insulted her about being part of the pro women's movement she decided to actually tell him the important stuff, why she fells the way she does about the whole pro women's movement, or from a male perspective, why should I care, plus a look at the world through the eyes of a woman which is a new concept for link. While link has always interacted well with girls. It was more of the girls pushing him around though. So as a male who would never have even imagined some of the things the night girl talks about when he was alive the new perspective fascinates link. After a while it was time for the girl to make her rounds so she got up dusted herself off and made her way back to the Kokori village. For a few moments link stood there but after ten minutes had passed link realized something was up because the rounds in the Kokori village take two minutes three if she's slow. Link turned to his mind to see if he could sense the presence of whatever had come to the forest however it wasn't his mind that recognized the presence first, it was his heart.

As link relaxed all of the tension that had built up in his muscles in preparation for battle a shorter woman with long flowing green hair stepped out from the trees, while not young she seemed innocent and while short enough to be a child she held both a beauty of no compare as well as an undeniable age. The Goddess calmly walked over to her former champion and reached her hands up towards his face and as if their minds were one he immediately knelt down to her placing his face in her hands knocking his helmet off. The second Farore's hands graced links withered face his entire body slowly renewed itself. In a matter of seconds though kneeling in front of the goddess was no longer the withered shell of a man but the lost hero of the ages as he should have been when he grew up.

My name is Casey, and right now I just witnessed ONE, some glowing girl in rags appear out of nowhere at the end of a particularly rowdy round through the Kokori village, she just walked right up to the great guardian as they call him and actually got him to kneel down to her so now there's point TWO, I started hiding from them as I watched the guardian guy go from a literal walking corpse to a perfect ten in the matter of seconds. They seemed to be talking to each other for a while but I couldn't make out any of it. Then all of the sudden they turn to me, seems I'm busted.

'Farore has a plan for me, I may break free of fates grip yet.' Thought link and a plan she had indeed. The plan was simple to say but the actual workings of it and some of the side effects were quite confusing. Put simply link had gained the entirety of the triforce and the goddesses theorized that the triforce was what was causing the instability in Hyrule. So rather than sealing the triforce and link the three goddesses devised a plan to send link with the triforce to another world that won't be effected by the triforce's power due to some implications in place by their own gods. however link has become an embodiment of all of his ancestors so when the goddesses transfer him over to the new world he is going to take along with him everything he'd and all of his ancestors had ever gathered on all of their journeys. Another side effect is that the goddesses are going to have to use the same spell Zelda used to send him back so not only will he be a kid he will be younger than he was when he went to termina. But link had a more important issue at hand and that issue involved the snooper who was dejectedly walking towards the two in the clearing. As the night watch girl got near link spoke up.

"I have to leave but there will be a replacement sent in to guard the Deku tree they will likely be wolfos but not the hospitable kind, meaning the times where I let kids climb and wrestle all over the grove will be over unless you keep people in line. Your best bet is to seek an audience with the Deku tree about how you should treat the grove. I never really asked him when I should have but this was my home and I think I did a pretty good job."

"Audience with the Deku tree? Are you serious I know its supposed to be a guardian spirit but talking to a tree?" said Casey but before she could say anymore a deep earthen voice spoke up from behind the group.

"Yes Casey I can talk now if you need any help you need only ask, madam Farore and I here are both willing to assist you for all you have done for or child link here. Come then now sit down and we'll discuss this."

At that link walked over and sat down cross-legged facing the Deku tree and Farore an over and jumped into his lap. Casey stood where she was for a second staring at them, especially link, until she gave up and moved to join them. After everyone was seated the Deku tree spoke up.

"Now then as link has stated he must leave but he neglected to mention that he will be leaving for good so from now on in order to protect the grove which in turn protects the Kokori children you must take up the task as overseer of the grove. You have seen in the past five years how little must actually be done but to be honest as long as it does not endanger me it is fine. Link did not really have to keep everyone back so far I will be fine as long as no one wants to start carving into me. I can give you a personal Wolfos who will be at your command if you need the help."

"Wait a second I thought all the Kokori were gone if that's so what's so important about your protection?" the second the words left Casey's mouth she knew she had messed up. "I mean no disrespect of course I'm just curious?"

Links face began to grow dark as he spoke up "the Kokori didn't die out during the war but their homes are no longer under the protection of the forest as you can clearly see, they were forced to move to a new land to survive unable to mourn the loss of those who gave their lives for their friends. Without the presence of the great Deku tree the Kokori will lose everything they have left and ultimately they will perish."

After that Casey knew what was being asked of her she was to protect the hope of a people, and suddenly all her other issues in the world had no significance. And so she accepted because what else was she to do, of course she took the wolfos because who wouldn't want a wolfos but the last Casey ever saw of the great guardian or link as the great Deku tree (who she became great friends with) called him, he just hind of walked into the forest with Farore and never came back.

Farore and link had been walking through the woods for a couple hours and all the while link was growing shorter and shorter losing all signs that he had aged other than the tone of this muscles. There was starting to become less mist filled forest floor as it was gradually replaced by snowfall the further they trekked. Finally he ceased growing and at this point he was shorter than Farore even. On his back were his Deku shield and the Kokori sword and he looked like he had just taken on queen Gohma all those years ago. Farore finally turned to link with a tear in her eye and said

"This is it, this is as far as I can take you. From here you will exit a forest in a country called Skyrim. You have not only the blessings of all of us here but you also have the entirety of the triforce so please, be safe and try to live a happy normal life."

Link bowed his head dropped to his knee and as he took her hand in one of his and put the other over his heart he told her everything.

"Madam Farore I have been your champion for over 700 years and never once have I hated my job, the journey Navi and I were on was the most important one of my life, on the way I met Tatl and while I may have been sad about losing my friend before we went together on a journey that would defy death itself, then I got to not only protect but to once again become a member of my long lost home, though my friends have moved away I was given a chance to spend eternity protecting their final hope. And now even now I am being given a chance at a normal life while still doing what's right to guard my friends. Thank you Farore for allowing me to become the champion that you needed me to be."

"Thank you" said Farore as she faded out of sight with tears in her eyes.

JOIN ME NEXT TIME WHERE LINK WAKES UP IN A CART HANDS BOUND IN THE LAP OF SOME STRANGE LADY WEARING RAGS. OH FARORE WHATS GOING ON NOW?