Chapter 1

Haunting in the Night

The knife plunged into his stomach as he stumbled backwards from the shock of what just happened. He felt a cold sensation run through his body and looked down to see a dark stain starting to appear on his tunic. He looked up just in time to watch as a ball of energy blasted into him. Pain now engulfed his entire body as he was blown backwards and slammed against the wall behind him, breaking through to the other side. As he lay in the rubble, barely holding on to consciousness, he watched his opponent who was laughing at him, charging another blast of energy.

"There is no need for me to delay this any longer Link. The Hero of Time, how pathetic. The last time we meet years ago you showed so much promise… I find it amusing that I had more of a problem killing Zelda than I have had killing you."

With his final words, he threw the gathered dark energy towards Link, who lay helpless against the rubble. He watched as it sped towards him. There was nothing he could do to stop it. There was only one thought on his mind as he watched the ball of energy screaming towards him. Sorry Zelda…I couldn't keep my promise.

Link awoke with a start, cold sweat running down his face. He looked down and grasped at his stomach to make sure that there was no dagger sticking out of him. This was the second day in a row that he had this same nightmare. Why was he having them? He shuddered as he remembered the details of the dream. This one was more terrifying than any previous nightmare he had ever had, including those that were real. He had fought Stalfos, Redead and even the Evil King himself, Ganondorf; but this opponent who he never saw the face of was even more terrifying than all of them combined. He sensed so much evil, so much power he felt nauseous just thinking about this night's experience.

He looked around the room he was in to make sure that what he had seen was a nightmare…He was still in his bedroom in Hyrule Castle. He saw the moon hiding behind some clouds through the pale blue curtains that fluttered in a light breeze. Nothing seemed out of place. His thoughts were disturbed by a voice next to him…

"What is it Link? What's wrong?" Link gasped a little, startled to see that he had woken up Zelda, who was now sitting up in bed next to him, looking at him with a worried yet comforting expression on her face. Just her gaze soothed Link's troubled mind.

"What is the matter, Link?" she asked again. She was awakened last night the same way, Link suddenly started out of sleep, sweat poring from his face. It frightened her to see the person she cared about in such anxiety.

"Nothings the matter, just a bad dream…Go back to sleep."

"Sorry, but I know that something is wrong. You are a very bad liar, Link," she said with a little smile, trying to hide the worry in her eyes. "Just tell me what is wrong, you can trust me."

Link sighed. He knew that by telling her his dream, she might become fearful of the future and what could happen, but if he lied, she would pester him until he told her anyways…so he told her. A look of horror crossed Zelda's face as she heard what Link was saying…

"How did Ganondorf escape from the Evil Realm? He was banished there by the sages over fourteen years ago for trying to take over the Hylian throne. There is no way he could have escaped."

"This wasn't Ganondorf, I could tell. I could sense even more evil emanating from this person, besides this thing didn't act like Ganondorf…maybe this was all just a nightmare of my previous fights with one of his monsters or…" he sighed, not really knowing how to explain this person and the dream he had.

"I don't think so, Link," Zelda said, "There was never any experience that was as horrifying as what you described.

Link pondered on Zelda's words. She was right about his dreams; they always seemed to predict the outcome of future events. He remembered his first dreams about Ganondorf when he was a child. Those dreams started out his quest that eventually led to the sealing of that evil man into the Dark Realm. This dream, he hoped actually wasn't a prediction of the future. Any future that included someone even more evil than Ganondorf was something that made him cringe.

"Lets just go back to bed Link and forget about all of these dreams. Don't worry about it anymore. It probably was just that, a bad dream."

"Your right Zelda…it probably was just a bad dream."

Trying to lighten the tone of the conversation a little she added, "Besides this is why I married you in the first place, you always seemed troubled. Somebody needed to be able to calm you down so you wouldn't get into any more trouble."

Link laughed at that. His life did seem to have calmed down after marrying the princess. He rarely went on adventures nowadays; usually what he spent his days doing was helping out the people around Hyrule with various jobs. His daily sword practice seemed to be the most exciting thing in his life right now.

"Your right" he said with a laugh, "the only adventure I get to have now is trying to find ways out of all of the formal occasions that the King keeps planning for us."

Zelda smiled and laughed. Link always had the most ingenious of ways to get out of the formal dinners and appointments that were planned for him, albeit some not as smart as others.

"You mean like the time you tried to pretend that Epona had kicked you and broken your arm so you couldn't attend that banquet two months ago?" she asked with a sly smile, her eyebrow raised slightly.

Link, with a slightly down turned face said, "Was it that easy to figure out?"

She giggled, "Of course it was, especially after I threw that apple at you and you caught it with your 'broken arm'. Now let's get some sleep for tomorrow, I heard that father had something special planned for us."

Link grimaced at the thought of what the King might have planned. "Well, I guess your right. We should be prepared for whatever special arrangement he has planned, I'll see if Epona wants to kick me again…" Link said with a wry smile as he tried to make himself comfortable again as he lay in bed. He slowly began to drift off to sleep, completely forgetting about the nightmare that had scared him awake just a few minutes prior. Less than a minute later he was asleep.

Zelda smiled as she saw that Link was again sleeping soundly, not worrying about the nightmare that had awoken him. Zelda stayed awake a little longer, contemplating what Link had said though. It really frightened her to know that what Link had seen had been so graphic like he actually was there in the room with this evil being…she shuddered at the thought of what the dream must have been like for him. She hoped to the Goddesses that what Link had dreamt would never happen. Her sleep that night was a restless one, filled with the dread of what would happen if the dream was to come true…