Author's Notice: The next update will include both chapters 3 and 4. This is due to the incredibly short length of chapter three. more details will be included with the next update.
Chapter 2
Pain of a Hero
It was about two years after the original incident with Ganondorf. Link had returned to his appropriate time and Ganondorf had been sealed within the Sacred Realm by the sages. Naturally, Link returned to the Kokiri Forest, after his small adventure in Termina, and resumed life as usual. However, it just wasn't the same. Saria had gone to protect the Sacred Realm as a sage, leaving Link hopelessly alone with the rest of the kokiri. What's more was the fact that no one even seemed to remember that Saria existed. Without Saria, for the first time, Link truly felt alone, like no one cared that he was ever around. Though, the way he was feeling, it didn't matter if he did or not.
Link tried to return to Zelda and make her remember what had happened. His attempts, however, were futile. He was never even able to see her. The guards thwarted every one of his attempts to even enter the castle grounds. Somehow Ganondorf had never existed either. He tried to warn the guards of him, yet they knew nothing of this Gerudo king named Ganondorf.
The only being left that Link knew for a fact would remember anything about his past adventures was Navi. However she had flown off into the woods. Knowing he had to go find her, he ventured back to the castle to request use of the Ocarina of Time. He knew it might be something that he would help him. Of course, not knowing who he was, the guards did not trust him to even enter the castle. He knew, however, that he would need it, so he snuck into the castle and took it along with a horse he found tied up in one of the royal stables. Having been there before, it wasn't that hard to find his way around the castle. He had even snuck in one time in order to meet the princess in the first place.
In the end, he did not find Navi nor did he even traverse the land of Hyrule. Instead he ended up falling into a completely different place and saved the land of Termina. This did not resolve his quest though. Returning the ocarina and the horse to there rightful resting places, Link went back to the Kokiri Forest, utterly defeated.
A year or so passed and, like pulling the Master Sword from its pedestal, Link began to age and grow up. The rest of the Kokiri children became frightened and distant. They began to shun Link and, eventually, forced him out of the Kokiri Forest.
Pushed from the one place he had ever called home, Link wandered the vastness of Hyrule Field, tired, hungry and hopelessly alone. The hunger jabbed at his sides, like small daggers, while the thirst dried his mouth to the likes of a desert. He could barely stand and yet it was the loneliness that truly hurt.
So many people I've met, people that don't even know I exist anymore, people that only knew me because of the things I did as a hero. I'm not even close to the person I was so long ago. He was a true hero, the Hero of Time. Who am I? I'm no hero; I'm just Link, your everyday Hylian who's going to die as unimpressively and alone as he started.
He started to think about the people that he had met along his original journey. He thought of Impa, Naburoo, the Zora's and the Goron's. He thought about Zelda.
None of them know me now. None of them care about me anymore. They knew the Hero of Time, whom I no longer am. Why do I think anyone would even care anymore...
The lack of food and water was starting to get to him. He was near the bank of the Hylian River, yet he lacked the energy to even lift his head to drink.
Am I going to die here? Here near the bank of a river filled with fresh, clear water that could save my life, yet I lack the strength to drink. No, that's not right, I lack the will to. Just let me die here, without troubling anyone and…without being…troub…le…d…
As Link lie near the river, collapsed and unconscious, subsisting on the last of his energy, a figure approached him riding a medium sized, reddish brown horse.
"Oh dear me! I think this boy needs some help! Boy, hey boy, are you hurt? What's wrong?"
The girl seemed puzzled by the figure at her feet. She stared at him, not knowing what to do. She had never seen this person before but...she felt as though she had to help him.
"Well, I guess we don't have much of a choice. We have to bring him back to the ranch, quickly."
Heaving Link upon the horse's back, the three of them headed off into the heart of the field, none of them knowing what their chance meeting may one day lead to, or what they would mean to each other.
