A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to post the second chapter up until now, but I promise it's long. And no, I still don't have Breath of the Wild yet (that won't be until July), But I have been busy with school and life, which is why it took me this long to post the second chapter. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy reading the second chapter of The Zelda Conspiracy!


Link, Sky, Nuck, Wind, and Lokomo walked out of the cave, while Wolf trotted alongside them, until they reached the entrance to the cave. They were then greeted to a grassy field with some trees off to the north, east, and west.

"Where are we?" Nuck asked. "This doesn't look like Hyrule field, and it's definitely not somewhere in Termina."

"Well, we're definitely not on an island…" Wind replied.

"And there's a lack of train tracks here, too" Lokomo added. Everyone looked confused when Lokomo mentioned the words 'train tracks', but they brushed it off.

"Could this be a part of Faron Woods that I haven't explored yet?" Sky asked himself.

"This looks like a part of the Great Plateau…" Link mentioned. "Let me check." As he moved his left hand to his hip, he reached for something that wasn't there. "Huh? It's not here."

"What isn't here?" Nuck asked.

"The Sheikah Slate!" Link answered. He had started panicking "I had it on me before, but now it's gone!"

"Retrieve that which you have lost…" Sky mumbled. He then checked his inventory, making sure he had everything. "The Goddess Harp is gone…" Sky gasped at the sudden realization. "Everyone! Check to see if anything is missing!"

While Nuck, Wind and Lokomo nodded in agreement, Wolf let out a disappointed huff as if to ask how he was able to do so.

"Not again!" Nuck yelled. When everyone turned their gazes towards him, he said, "The Ocarina of Time's gone."

"So is the Wind Waker." Wind said, concerned.

"I can't find the Spirit Flute either." Lokomo added.

"So this is what the voice meant when it said to retrieve what we've lost." Link pondered. Looking towards the field in front of them, he continued, "Could it be in different parts of this field?"

"What if we spit up into teams?" Lokomo asked.

Wind, catching onto what Lokomo was implying, added, "Each team can search the different directions of this field, then."

"Alright, so three groups of two then." Nuck responded. "Who wants to go with who?"

"Wanna go search together?" Wind excitedly asked Lokomo.

"Sure!" Lokomo answered with equal excitement. "Let's search the eastern area of the field."

As the two boys ran off, Sky then asked, "Any of you three interested in joining me to search the western part of the field?"

"I will." Nuck answered, and the two walked off to search.

"That leaves you and me, Wolf." Link said. "Let's go." Wolf barked in affirmation as they headed off towards the northern part of the field.

As Link and Wolf walked into the forest, they both noticed a small treasure chest a few meters away from them. Running up towards it, Link opened the chest, reached into it, and took out a pan flute.

"A pan flute?" Link asked. "Come to think of it, Lokomo said something about a spirit flute… Could this pan flute be it?"

Wolf Link tilted his head, not knowing the answer either.

"Let's keep it on us for now." Link said. Wolf barked in agreement.

Link and Wolf kept walking through the northern part of the forest, keeping an eye out for any hidden treasure chests. While Wolf sniffed out on the ground, Link climbed up trees to get a better view of the ground below.

Link heard Wolf bark as he started to climb down a nearby tree. He dropped down and ran to where he heard Wolf's barking, finding Wolf trying to open a medium-sized treasure chest.

"Here, let me open it." Link said. Wolf stepped aside as Link opened the chest. Upon opening it, he discovered a golden harp.

"A harp…" Link said, displeased. "At the rate we're going, we could start our own band. What do you say?"

Wolf yawned, scratched his ear with his back paw, then gave Link a disinterested look.

"Kidding, Kidding!" Link chuckled. "Anyways, let's keep searching."

They walked for five minutes before they found a third treasure chest. It was the same size as the first one they had found, which gave Link high hopes. He opened it to find an instrument in the shape of a pale blue-violet sweet potato.

"The heck is this supposed to be?" Link skeptically asked. Wolf tilted his head, not knowing the answer either.

"This marks the third musical instrument we've acquired." Link responded.

"All the lost items have been found." The voice called out. "Everyone, head back to the clearing."

"Hopefully one of the others has the sheikah slate…" Link sighed as he and Wolf headed towards the clearing. "I wonder what the others found?"

(***)

Sky and Nuck started had walked for about thirty minutes without coming across any of the missing items. While walking, they talked about their lives before they embarked on each of their journeys. While Sky had talked about his life before the day he and his childhood friend had separated, Nuck talked about his time before he entered Termina.

"…And when I woke up," Nuck explained, "the first thing I noticed wasn't the sage of light or that I was in a weird room. The thing I noticed was that I aged seven years! And that's when I found out that I had been asleep until I was old enough to wield the Master Sword!"

"Holy…" Sky breathed. "Just one question: what is the Master Sword?"

"It's the blade of evil's bane." Nuck answered. "It has the power to vanquish evil that has befallen Hyrule."

"I'd kind of like to see it." Sky thought aloud.

"Maybe one day." Nuck commented.

"Mayb-ahh!" Sky yelled as he tripped over a treasure chest. He blushed in embarrassment as Nuck started to laugh. "Hey, don't laugh!"

"Sorry, but I can't help it when you tripping actually helped us find something." Nuck apologized. He opened the chest to find an odd-looking slate. The front side had a black screen that confused both Nuck and Sky. On the back side, however, the two found a Sheikah eye – the symbol of the sheikah – as part of the slate's odd design.

"This thing has the sheikah symbol on it." Nuck commented.

"Could this be what Link was searching for?" Sky asked.

"I think so." Nuck answered. "For now, let's keep it safe." He gave the odd slate to Sky for safe keeping.

They kept walking until they came upon a small clearing, where they saw a sword sitting inside a pedestal. Nuck gasped, ran up to the sword, and rubbed his eyes. He recognized the sword's design anywhere.

"I wonder what a sword like that's doing in the middle of a forest?" Sky wondered.

"This is…" Nuck breathed. "It can't be… the Master Sword."

Nuck placed one hand hesitatingly on the sword's handle, then placed another one on before pulling the Master Sword out of the pedestal. The Master Sword slid out, engulfing Nuck in white light, forcing Sky to shield his eyes. When the light dissipated, Sky saw that Nuck had disappeared; replaced with a man wearing a bright green tunic and white clothing underneath. Sky also noticed the man looked like Nuck, and was even holding onto the Master Sword, which Nuck had pulled out moments before.

"Surprised?" the man said. "I don't blame you. Anyone would be if they saw someone suddenly age seven years in seconds."

Sky was confused. "…Nuck…?" He hesitantly asked.

Nuck sheepishly smiled at Sky, causing him to faint. "Sky?!" Nuck cried out as he sheathed the Master Sword, retaining his adult form. Rushing to Sky's aid, Nuck picked up his friend's unconscious body.

"All the lost items have been found." Nuck heard the voice call out. "Everyone, head back to the clearing."

Nuck sighed, "Looks like I'm dragging you back to the clearing."

(***)

Link and Wolf made it back to the clearing, seeing both Wind and Lokomo waiting for everyone else to arrive back. They were laying down in the ground, resting their heads against what was once a tree trunk. To Link, the young boys looked bored out of their minds.

"Hey, we're back." Link announced. "Find anything?"

"Welcome back." Lokomo replied. "We searched everywhere in the eastern part of the forest, but we only found one thing."

Wind jumped in. "It was the Wind Waker." He held up a conductor's baton, swing off its intricate design. Wind then asked, "What about you and Wolf?"

"Just some musical instruments." Link said.

Lokomo shot up in anticipation. "Which instruments?!" he asked restlessly.

Taking the three instruments out, Link responded. "We found a harp, a sweet potato-looking instrument, and a pan flute."

"The Spirit Flute!" Lokomo yelled, catching Wind and Wolf off-guard. "You found it!"

Link gave Lokomo the Spirit Flute. "Looks like the other two instruments belong to Sky and Nuck." He said to Wolf. Wolf nodded, stretching afterwards.

"Could someone please give me a hand here?" A voice asked from behind Link. He turned around to see a fully grown Nuck struggling to hold up an unconscious Sky. "He's getting a little too heavy for me." Instead of helping, Wind, Wolf, Lokomo, and Link just stared, mouths agape. "Not you guys too!" Nuck exclaimed. "If any of you guys' faint, I'm not going to help you!"

"What about fainting?" Sky asked as he regained consciousness. "Speaking of which," he said as he got off Nuck, "What happened while I was asleep?"

"Well, after you fainted, the voice announced that all of our lost items were found and that we were to head back here." Nuck replied.

"Since we're now on that topic," Link started, "Any of these instruments familiar?" he held up the harp and the sweet-potato-looking instrument

"The Ocarina of Time!" Nuck shouted.

"The Goddess Harp!" Sky gasped.

Both Sky and Nuck grabbed each of the musical instruments from Link's hands. Nuck glanced at the Goddess Harp, thinking aloud. "Your harp looks familiar…"

"How so?" Sky asked.

"Not sure." Nuck contemplated. "Just that it looks familiar."

"Um, you guys?" Link asked, fidgeting in place. "It's great that you two, Wind, and Lokomo all have their important items, but Wolf and I are still missing ours. So, have any of you, uh, got the sheikah slate?" After getting confused looks from everyone, Link clarified. "It's rectangular, got a handle, uh, it's got the sheikah eye on the back of it,"

"Are you talking about this?" Sky interrupted as he pulled out a rectangular object matching Link's description.

"That's it!" Link lunged at Sky, retrieving it from his grasp. He gazed at the oddly-familiar object in awe while the others just started at him in shock.

"So, uh, that just happened." Lokomo said. "But what about Wolf?"

"We don't know what he's missing, though."

"I don't know about you guys," Nuck said as he pulled the Master Sword out of its sheath. "but I don't really need to wield the Master Sword. All I need are my sword, shield, and my masks. So, who wants the Master Sword?" Sky, Wind, and Wolf were eyeing the sword, while Link and Lokomo looked at it, confused.

"No thanks," Lokomo said. "I don't know what's important about it to have the others gazing at it. Besides, I've got the Lokomo Sword." Lokomo pointed to the sword on his back.

"Mind if I hold it for a sec?" Sky asked.

"Sure." Nuck answered. He sheathed the Master Sword, then passed the sheathed sword to Sky. Once out of his hands, Nuck transformed back into a child.

As he pulled the sword out, the Master Sword changed, taking on a form of a sword with a blue-gray coloured handle; its crossguards shrinking down significantly. Meanwhile, Wolf tried to show interest in wielding the Blade of Evil's Bane, but was ignored.

"Huh." Sky dully grunted. "It's another Goddess Sword. Well, I don't need another one, so who wants the Master Sword?"

"I'll pass." Wind answered. "Like Sky and Lokomo, I've got my own sword: The Phantom Sword." Wind pulled out the Phantom Sword out of its sheath. The sword looked similar to the Master Sword, save for a different symbol on the blade and the crossguards having an hourglass instead of a jewel. Wind sheathed the sword after letting the others gaze at it for a few seconds. Wolf started to pace back and forth, becoming impatient.

"Another weapon wouldn't hurt." Link commented. "Mine tend to break after excessive use."

"Well, that sucks." Nuck said. "Maybe they're unreliable weapons?"

"It also happens to all of my bows and shields too." Link added.

"Oh, I know what you mean." Sky said as he handed the Master Sword to Link. "If I'm not careful, my shields can break."

"Whether I'm careful or not, every shield I use end up breaking." Link replied, taking the Master Sword in his hand. The sword took on its original form, but started to rapidly deteriorate. Parts of the blade became serrated and rust started to cover the blade, with the handle and the crossguards sharing a similar fate. While Link was surprised, Wind, Sky, Wolf, Lokomo, and Nuck were appalled to see the Blade of Evil's Bane on such a state.

Nuck acted quickly and took the sword from Link's grasp. Back in his hands, Nuck once again took his adult form, with the Master Sword restored to its original form. "Maybe let's not leave this irreplaceable sword with you." Nuck breathed. "No offense." He added. Before Link could respond, Nuck changed the subject. "Why don't have Wolf try to wield the Master Sword then?"

Wolf barked eagerly, finally being given a chance to hold the Master Sword. With his paw, he motioned Nuck to put the sword on the ground. Nuck followed Wolf's request, and he and the others watched as Wolf touched the handle of the Master Sword with his paw. Shadows covered Wolf's body for a moment before dissipating, transforming Wolf back into a human. The black crystal that had been pierced into his forehead was now hovering above it.

"Ah, Finally!" Wolf exclaimed as he stood up. "It feels good to be human, but I wish this crystal would just go away!" When he was greeted with confused looks, Wolf then sighed in frustration. "This crystal, as you've seen, can transform me into a wolf when I touch it. Only one person can hold onto it without being affected, but Apparently they're not with me. As long as I have the Master Sword, I won't be affected by this accused crystal!"

"Now that all of the items have been returned to their owners," The voice spoke to the six adventurers. "Your second task will begin once you step through this doorway." A door made of marble appeared in front of the west part of the forest. It had a symbol in the center that resembled the hyrulean crest, but without the triforce.

"That's the symbol of the goddess Hylia." Sky breathed.

While the four others looked at Sky in confusion, Link asked, "You know of Hylia too?"

"Yeah." Sky answered enthusiastically. "She's the one who-"

"Yeah, whatever." Wolf interrupted "Anyways, what's our task this time?"

"Defeat three evils within the world below." The voice answered. "However, there is one thing I must make clear. Link."

"Yes?" Link asked, back straightening.

"The laws you are bound to by your Hyrule will still apply in any Hyrule you may happen to visit."

"What do you mean by that?" Link asked, confused by the voice's words.

The voice ignored Link's question. "Now, all of you, make haste." After the voice was done talking, the door opened, pouring white light into the clearing.

"I think it's better not to think about it, Link." Nuck said. "Besides, I'm curious as to what's on the other side of this door."

As the others agreed with Nuck, Link couldn't help but worry. Nevertheless, The six heroes embarked from the clearing and into the light flooding out from the door.