Here's chapter 2 of this tale. Lame references to the games are here, as what kind of Zelda thing would this be without them? After all, that's part of the fun of the actual games!

Chapter 2: Arduous Training and the Less than Ideal Student

Thursday, 11:00, Inner North Clock City

Alex walked into North Clock City as ordered, the following day.

'Where is that old man, anyway?' he wondered grumpily as he looked around the playground.

"Hey! I thought I told you to stay outta here!" Joe shouted, surrounded by his mates.

"Blast it!" Alex reached for his sword.

"Stop it!" Lucius had arrived. His hood was cast back, revealing his long, snowy white hair, tied with a slip-knot band near halfway along its length before it stopped at his waist. His red eyes glinted keenly behind his oval, silver rimmed spectacles that were perched halfway down his nose. His beard was as long as his hair, also reaching his waist. "He is here on my invitation and I will decide when he is to leave," Such surprising force was behind the words of this old man that the Bombers faltered.

"C'mon…" Joe grumbled, walking off sulkily with his group. Lucius watched them go before turning to Alex.

"See how your attitude has already made you enemies?" he said. "The Bombers are friends to the kind, champions of doing good,"

"Yeah, whatever, those idiots would all be in the hospital if they hadn't cheated," Alex grumbled. Lucius sighed, deciding not to correct the lad on missing the point.

"Yes, well…on to the lessons that you pressed so tremendously for," he gestured to the playground equipment. Alex looked skeptically at him. "Climb up onto that wooden pillar and then jump across the smaller ones until you reach the one with the bridge. Cross that and then use the bars to climb over to the next pillar. After that, use the beam to cross to the last pillar, where I have left a red rupee,"

"Sure, that should kill a few minutes," Alex muttered with a roll of the eyes. Lucius closed his eyes and smiled to himself as the preteen stepped forward to begin the task. He managed to climb up the three progressively taller wooden blocks and get to the top of the first wooden pillar. He hesitated at the edge, looking across at the four thinner wooden pillars of equal height that led to the slightly taller one that the bridge connected to. Taking a breath, he got a running start and threw himself forward, almost falling off of the pillar and having to flail to regain his balance.

"Be careful not to over-gauge your jump!" Lucius warned from below, sounding slightly amused.

"Can it, geezer!" Alex snapped, a little breathless. Lucius simply wore a small smile as he watched the preteen carefully hop over to the next pillars. Upon coming to the taller pillar, however, he paused again.

"What's wrong? Just jump at it and grab the ledge. You can pull yourself up from there," the Sage suggested from below.

"Easy for you to say, greybeard!" Alex snapped, eyeing the jump distrustfully. After a minute, he finally decided to go for it, but could barely cling on, despite the reinforced groove that was in the pillar's edge for this very reason. Breathing heavily, Alex struggled up, pushing his feet against the rough wood for momentum. He gasped for a bit, on his hands and knees, once on top of the pillar.

"What's taking so long?" Lucius called. "Are you giving up?"

"No!" Alex stood up at last, a bit sweaty. He tried to hurry across the bridge, but it started listing dangerously to the side the second he set foot on it.

"Don't try to hurry across strange bridges, they might not be stable," Lucius cautioned.

"Thanks for the update!" Alex barked from where he had jumped back in surprise. Lucius just chuckled. Alex tried to cross again, clinging to the ropes whenever the bridge threatened to throw him off. "This…is too…dangerous for kids…" Alex gasped upon getting to the other side. "The Governor should be sacked!"

"Well, I did put a couple of touches on it before you arrived," Lucius said from beside him.

"Ahh!" Alex jumped a couple of inches in the air. "How the Dark World did you get up here?"

"The same way you did, but faster," Lucius shrugged.

"No way! You must have teleported or something!" Alex countered. Lucius shrugged and then approached the meter and a half of monkey bars that led to the last platform. He easily jumped up and grabbed them before crossing with the agility of a much younger man, still clutching his staff, nonetheless! Alex's jaw dropped. "You…you must have cheated!" he managed to say.

"That comes far too readily from your mouth," Lucius replied patiently. "Now come over here," Alex crossed much less gracefully than Lucius had and his pace only slowed as he got to the end, as his arms were burning like fire and felt like they were about to cramp. "Just a little more…" the old Sage coaxed with a hint of teasing. Alex crossed the last four bars and finally dropped onto the pillar, arms limp at his sides and feeling like noodles. "Well, that was a new record, only 60 minutes," Lucius said.

"Don't patronize me," the preteen grumbled. "I sucked,"

"Perhaps…but that's only because you haven't trained enough, that all," Lucius picked up the red rupee. "I'll take this, as I made it first,"

"H-Hey!" Alex objected, but Lucius was already climbing down the series of wooden blocks that formed a ladder on the side of the pillar.

"Come, we're going back to my flat, its lunchtime," the old man continued.

After Alex managed to get down, he accompanied Lucius to East Clock City, his arms still throbbing and threatening to cramp up. The Sage had his hood up again and no one looked twice at him.

"So that's how you keep such a low profile," Alex deduced. "These people are so stupid,"

"You didn't recognize me either, you know," Lucius reminded him as the turned around another corner on the sidewalk and onto Kafei Avenue. Alex shot him a dark look.

At length, they came to a one-floor house that looked like it had been there for years. The windows were covered by black drapes and the door was made of very weathered-looking wood. A pull-chain dangled next to the door, but Lucius ignored it as he stepped on the mat and fished an old silver key out of his pocket.

"You live here?" Alex's tone told what he thought of the place.

"Well, it keeps the rain off of my possessions," Lucius shrugged and opened the door. Once Alex was in, he shut the door. The place was a bit musty-smelling. The front room had a few hooks for cloaks and hats and a rouge rug sat in the middle of the room. Lucius took off his black cowl and hung it on a hook, revealing his glittering silver robes that seemed to glow faintly with hidden power. Alex rubbed his eyes as the old man left the room through the far door, wondering if the glow was just a trick of the light. Following further, Alex came to a dining room with a scrubbed but old-looking wooden table, with matching chairs. The room was lit by a few candles lit with, Alex noticed, white-silver flames, hanging on a chandelier which, by magic, probably, lit as the Sage entered the room. The walls were all plain wood in all of the rooms, like most buildings in Clock City that had been built when the city had still been a town. Lucius didn't take long in coming back into the room from, presumably, the kitchen, as the far door in this room was where he was bringing the food from. He had a loaf of good bread, half a round of wax-covered cheese, a couple of joints of beef, and a pitcher of milk.

Alex enjoyed this simple but delicious fare far more than the complimentary breakfast at the inn. Naturally, he would never admit this to the old man, though it was obvious in the way he ate it eagerly. Lucius allowed himself a small smile before diving into a lecture about manners and how not to be rude to people to get what you want. People wouldn't always respond well to his brusque way of doing things, he warned. Alex ignored most of the lecture and finally interrupted impatiently.

"Can we just hurry up and get back to the training?" he cut across during the segment on table manners. Lucius sighed.

"All right, fine," he stood and started gathering up the plates and food remnants. "We need to work on your swordsmanship, anyway…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alex challenged as the kitchen doors swung shut. He was ignored. "Geezer..." he grumbled.

An hour after they had left, they were back at the playground. This time, Lucius, now back in his cowl, had elected to find an area that had few obstacles in it.

"All right, the basics of the sword are, 1, keep your grip firm. If you lose your weapon when you're hit, you've probably already lost. 2…"

"You're boring me. Can we just get to whatever scheme you have planned?" Alex interrupted impatiently. Lucius shook his head.

"So restless…it would do you good to learn some basics," he replied.

"Yeah, whatever, I know how to hold on to my weapon," Alex said dismissively.

"All right, if you say so," Lucius decided not to point out that he had watched the preteen lose his weapon just the previous day. "Draw your sword," Alex did so.

"Now what?" he asked, looking around for a target. Lucius held his staff out.

"Attack me," he ordered.

"What? I don't want to hurt you, old man," Alex objected. Lucius chuckled.

"Don't worry about that,"

"Okay, fine…" Alex rushed at him, attempting to cut across his torso. Lucius brought his staff up to block with a resounding clang. Skillfully, he deflected the blow and batted Alex back with a kick to the chest. The preteen rolled backwards and landed on his butt. Scrambling back to his feet, he angrily charged at the Sage. Lucius skillfully dodged a stab, deflected another, and disarmed Alex with an upward swipe of his staff.

"You don't even know the basic fundamentals of combat," Lucius shook his head as Alex went to retrieve his sword from where it had embedded itself in the ground. "Of course, I'm in a different league, altogether, but…" He pushed his glasses up a bit.

"So modest…" Alex said scathingly.

"Here," Lucius offered Alex a silver card.

"What's this?" Alex grumbled, examining the card.

"It's a membership card to the Swordsman's School in West Clock City," the Sage replied. "Go there and learn the fundamentals of swordplay," He teleported away like before.

"Hey! Why should I have to…ugh…"Alex grumbled to himself for a couple of minutes before deciding to head over to West Clock City and give this Swordsman's School a shot.

It took half an hour and much rude asking around before Alex managed to find the large, brick dojo that was positioned against the outer side of the inner wall of West Clock City. He barged in, being quickly stopped by the receptionist, a guy in a white tunic and shoes, bearing a sword on his belt.

"Hold!" the man demanded. "What is your business in Sensei's Dojo?"

"Lucius told me to come here to learn how to use a sword," Alex responded brusquely, flashing the silver card impatiently. "Where's the head guy?"

"Go on in. He is not busy at the moment," the receptionist stepped aside and allowed the preteen to pass through some white curtains. In the next room, an old man with very long hair sat, cross-legged, on a velvet cushion. He wore a white tunic, as the other man did, though his sword lay across his lap, sheathed, and the old man clasped it gently.

"Hello, my child," the old man said serenely. "I am Swordmaster Sensei," He indicated that Alex sit on a cushion in front of him. Alex, throwing the man an impudent look, slowly obeyed. "Now, I sense a great talent in you, the talent of the Hero. A young man came in here, many years ago, and requested training of me. He had little to learn, only refinement was required. You, however, know little of the blade. You smell of defeat and impatience," Alex growled.

"So what, old man?" he snapped. "I'm the grandson of the Hero! I'll take out anyone that gets in my way," Sensei stood quickly. Alex jumped up and took what he thought to be a defensive position with his blade.

"Can you carve a path through friend and foe alike, shunning all help and choosing the path of selfishness?" Sensei asked gravely. "Such a path, one man tried to take, almost his ruin. You will meet him, I am sure,"

"Can it!" Alex attacked the old man. In a flash, Sensei's blade was free from its sheath and deflected the clumsy stab. Alex took several more swings at his elder. He blocked, dodged, and deflected them effortlessly.

"Your strikes are clumsy. Your style is unrefined," Sensei commented calmly as he warded off the assault with ease. "One does not simply swing a sword at an opponent and call himself a swordsman," He easily disarmed Alex and sent him reeling with a kick. Alex's expression of anger quickly became one of shock as a blade was pressed, gently but noticeably, to his throat. "Touché, young man," He removed the blade and replaced it in the sheath with practiced ease. "Now, if you'll retrieve your weapon, we'll cover some basics," Alex, flushed with anger and humiliation, glared at the teacher and then slowly went over to where his sword was lying on the floor. Picking it up, he turned to Sensei.

"Okay, old man, what do you have to say?" he grumbled, coming back over, but keeping a safe distance away.

"Such impudence..." Sensei shook his head. "Oh, well, I cannot choose the attitude of my students," He shrugged. "All right, first of all, stances," He whipped out his blade and took a defensive stance. "This is a defensive stance. Notice how I am holding my weapon firmly in front of me at a 45 degree angle, using two hands for more leverage, and my feet are apart like so," He then held his arm in front of him and his blade at the ready behind him. "This is a defensive stance for one who uses a shield. When the foe's attack has been blocked, this will help you counterattack more effectively," Alex mimicked the stances clumsily. "That's not quite right, but practice will make perfect. Now, for attack stances..."

Alex returned to the inn, rather tired and a bit miffed, around 18 o'clock. The wolf howled as he trudged upstairs to his room. Entering, he locked the door behind him and went about quickly devouring the complementary meal on the table, though it was not to his taste at all. This done, he went to bed as the clock tower chimed 19:00.

Ah, tutorial references and the sword guy from Majora's Mask still being alive, somehow, and having gotten much more serene and whatnot over the years. Yes, his name is actually Sensei. It's a joke I like to do, for some reason, as it's kind of a pun, seeing as 'sensei' means 'teacher'. Anyway, review if you have feedback and I'll see you next chapter, whenever that is.