Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, or any of their franchise products, including the Four Swords on which this is loosely based (very loosely thanks to the Minish Cap, though this on a side note).

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Chapter 2 – Wanderers

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Lucy ran through the woods, just as she had done before. But unlike those time, this time she ran for her life. The woods had become dangerous, far more dangerous than they had ever been. Ever since Caleb had gone up the mountain monsters had began appearing in the woods. Now she was being chased by one of those monsters. She risked a glance backwards and saw two large Moblins coming after her between the trees. She shrieked and tried to run faster, but tripped over the root of a tree. Just as she tried to get up, she felt the hand of one of the Moblins around her leg. She turned on her back and saw the large monster grin as he slowly pulled her closer. His companion stood right behind him, with an even bigger grin. Suddenly he shocked three times and fell over, three arrows protruding his back. The first Moblin let go of Lucy and reached for his sword.

"That won't do you any good," a boy, barely seventeen, said as he stepped out of the bushes, "you'll be dead before you can make a decent swing."

The Moblin roared and stormed forward. The man dodged the blow, stuck his sword deep in the side of the Moblin and retracted it in one fluent motion. The Moblin did a few more paces, before his brain realised he should be dead and fell down.

"Are you alright?" the man asked.

Lucy yelped silently and cringed. She looked the man up and down and saw he wasn't one of the village. He was dressed in green, his long blonde hair framing his face under a green cap.

"Don't worry, you're safe now," he tried to reassure her, "they're dead. They won't bother you anymore."

"Is she alright?" a second man emerged from the bushes, looking identically to the first, followed by a girl, dressed in green with flaming red hair, and a young boy, also in green and blonde.

"She appears unhurt," the first man replied, "but she's till shaken up."

"Who… who are you?" Lucy asked.

"Ah, that's better," the man smiled, "I'm Darmani, and these are my brothers, Mikau and Dekaru, and my sister, Malon. We're from Hyrule."

-

Lucy had followed the strangers to their camp, which was nothing more than a fire with some backpacks around and four horses, and now sat close to the fire, trying to fully understand she was in fact saved.

"I'm Lucy," she suddenly said, causing the others to stop talking, "I come from the village Pollykin, just outside the woods."

"Hah!" the youngest (Dekaru said her mind) smiled, "told you we weren't far from the edge of the woods!"

The others hushed him and urged Lucy to continue.

"We guard the Four Swords," Lucy said, "well, we used to. Caleb, a former guard, went to retrieve the swords a few months ago to fight the returning demon Vaati, but then the world changed and the monsters appeared."

"What do you mean, the world changed?" Malon asked.

"The woods became packed with monsters, and the lake near the woods suddenly froze. Volcano's in the mountain range on the other side of the village suddenly erupted. And worse of all…" she looked up to the four strangers, "the dead have started to wander the swamps."

"Isn't anyone trying to figure out what has happened?" Mikau asked (or it could be Darmani, Lucy couldn't tell the difference between the twins), "this… Caleb, what happened to him?"

"Nobody knows, but only two of his recruits returned to the village. The other four have disappeared with Caleb."

"Where are these two now?" Darmani asked, "can't they tell what happened?"

Lucy shook her head and started sobbing.

"They went into the woods to find food and to take out some of the monsters, I was on my way to find them and tell them some news. But they can't remember what happened in the cave," she said, "they say they passed out and that the cave was empty when they woke up. There was no sign of Caleb, the other four, the swords or even the black stone that had the swords in it. Nobody knows what happened."

"I do," a voice said, causing them to look up.

Lucy couldn't see anyone except a great owl sitting on a large tree stump.

"Kaepora? Is that you?" Mikau laughed as he walked towards the owl, "I haven't seen you in what? Seven years?"

"Correct," the owl seemed to nod, "right after Link succeeded in stopping Zelda. I haven't had a reason to make my presence clear to you, although I have been watching over you. All of you have grown strong and talented. It is clear you are indeed Link's offspring. And now you face a task to see if you're worthy of his name."

"This… Vaati demon," Malon nodded.

"Indeed, it is time to live up to your legacy. It is time to become heroes."

-

Kaepora came sitting on Mikau's arm as he told them where they could find the ones fighting Vaati.

"It is most fortunate that I found you here," the former sage of wisdom said, "saved me the trouble of looking for you."

"Din told us something was happening here," Darmani said.

"Ah, yes, how is the Oracle of Seasons?" the owl asked.

"Finally allowed to take a breather," Malon replied, "the mess from the war is finally clearing up. The Moblins are roaming the boarders again, but they're not fighting the people of Holodrum or Labrynna anymore. In fact, they're doing their best to keep monsters out, giving the people time to rebuild their homes."

"Who really knows how the Moblin minds works." Kaepora mused.

"Don't you?" Dekaru grinned.

"I know a lot, but not all," Kaepora admitted, "therefore I will leave when you'll reach the camp, so I can look further into this matter. It appears not all is what it seems."

The owl opened his wings and flew off.

"He knows," Mikau said when the owl had left.

"And he wants us to find out on our own," Darmani nodded.

"We'll find something out soon enough," Malon said as she stretched to see through the bushes, "the camp is over there."

The only thing that proved it was a camp, were the remnants of a campfire and a small hut, camouflaged with branches and loaf. No one was seen as the four heroes dismounted with Lucy.

"Where are they?" Darmani asked, and Lucy couldn't help but thinking he said it a tad louder than necessary.

"I have no idea," Mikau shrugged just before he suddenly dove forwards.

As he rolled upwards, his arm extended and with a large arc something brownish flew through the air. The boomerang entered the bushes and two groans could be heard.

"Come out," Malon said as she and Dekaru aimed their bows to the place the sounds had come from.

Two men emerged from the woods, both holding a sword in one hand and rubbing their heads where the boomerang had hit them.

"Present from Daibe, prince of the Zora of Hyrule." Mikau explained Lucy, but she paid no attention to him.

"William! Are you okay?" she shouted as she ran to the boy.

"I'm fine," he said as he pulled her behind him, "my pride's hurt more than me. Who are these guys?"

"They're heroes," she said, "they saved me from the Moblins."

"You have nothing to fear from us," Malon said as she lowered her bow, "we're here to fight Vaati."

"I don't trust them," the other one said, "I think they're monsters in disguise."

"Don't be ridiculous, Franklin," William said, "we haven't encountered any like those before, so why should we now? I'm William, and this is my friend Franklin. Did you really save my little sister?"

"We did," Darmani nodded, "mind telling us what exactly is going on? Lucy said you were one of Caleb's followers to defeat Vaati, but that's all she could tell us."

William looked at Franklin and then at his sister.

"Very well, I'll tell you what we know."

-

"… and when they pulled out the sword, everything went black. We woke up at the foot of the mountain, and the monsters had come. We don't know what happened to Caleb or the others. And for some reason, we're unable to climb the mountain. It feels like an invisible force field is shielding it from outsiders."

"It's clear the monster set some kind of trap to ensure the destruction of the weapons that could imprison it," Franklin continued, "guess the Great Evil weakened the seal more than Caleb thought."

"Who's the Great Evil?" Dekaru asked.

"A monster that came here a couple of years ago. He killed a lot of people, including our parents who were soldiers in our army," William said, "he wandered around and killed a lot of people in almost every country. You must have heard of him. He was also called the Black Death."

Mikau, Darmani, Malon and Dekaru had indeed heard of the Black Death before, and they knew it under another name… Link, their father.

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AN: Just so you know (for any new readers), this is the sequel to Professional Hero, in which everything about Mikau, Darmani, Malon, Dekaru and Link as the Black Death will be explained. I should warn you though, it's rated M for a reason…