THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: AN OLD THREAT, A NEW ERA

Co-Written by Brian and Erico

Chapter One: Hero of Legend

By Brian

"Where the hell were you last night?"

Link opened up one of his eyes partially, then closed it again. He then opened up both of them and looked at the digital clock sitting on his nightstand. It was six in the morning, much earlier than he would like to be woken up on a Saturday morning. Closing both of his eyes, he turned over to face the opposite direction of the voice, and instantly fell back to sleep. This didn't last very long because he immediately felt exposed as the covers to his bed were ripped off of him, revealing that he had slept in his clothes. His head hurt immensely and it didn't help much to hear the piercing voice of his mother in his ears.

"Now, that's interesting. Why would you be sleeping in your clothes? Care to explain just what happened last night?"

Link knew exactly what had happened. Some friends from school had invited him to a late night party. He didn't tell his parents, for he knew that they would never in a hundred years let him attend one. Upon arriving, he was offered a drink and he accepted, even though he had never had an alcoholic beverage before in his life; he only wanted to impress his friends. They offered him drink after drink, Link going through with each one. He must have gotten so drunk that he fell asleep right on the couch in his friend's house because he woke up with the biggest headache he had ever experienced, and drove home because he wasn't feeling so well. Reaching his house, he had crawled through the window to his room and slipped into the covers of his bed, silently so that it didn't wake his family.

His mother didn't need to know these interesting, little facts.

"Um, I, uh…" He couldn't think straight because of his hangover so he fumbled around for words to say. "I, uh… well, we went and, uh… saw a movie."

His mother's expression didn't change. "Oh really." It wasn't a question. "And…this movie lasted for six hours?"

"Yeah…I mean, no! I mean…"

"What do you mean?" she said, cutting him off from his babbling.

He saw that he wasn't getting out of it and that he was only digging himself a deeper hole than he was already in. He said, "Alright." His head was throbbing and he was tired of arguing. "I had a few beers…"

"And?" She lifted one eyebrow. The way she did this always threw him off guard because he had never known anyone who could raise their eyebrow to the height that she could.

He continued in a soft, guilty voice. "…And…I guess I…sort of…passed out…then woke up and drove home." Link swallowed hard and looked up hopefully to his mother.

His mother nodded with satisfaction. "That's what I thought." Then she smiled at Link, turned, and walked out of his room.

Link had more than expected his mother to ground him or take away his car privileges. He realized this new situation and almost laughed out loud. Link thought, "Wow, I have to have the coolest mom in the world!" Usually she could be pretty strict about things, but this incident surprised Link. He realized that he was going to get away with it, Scott Free.

Slowly and carefully, he got up out of bed so that he wouldn't give himself a head rush, resulting in a dizzy spell. He walked out of his room and to the bathroom to take a long, hot shower. Feeling much better than he had a few minutes earlier, he went back to his room and put on some clean clothes. He looked at his clock and realized that the gym would be opening up about now. Deciding that exercising might get rid of any ill effects that had happened upon him, he got ready and headed for the kitchen to tell his mother where he was going.

Finding her washing dishes, he said to her, "Mom, I'm going to the fitness center for a while. I'll be back in an hour or so."

Link was walking out the door when, suddenly, his mother looked over and stopped him by saying, "Oh, Link, I forgot to tell you something." Link turned around to listen. "I forgot to tell you that you won't find your car outside. I think it's been confiscated for about two weeks for under-aged drinking on your behalf." She half turned around then quickly turned back and said, "Oh yeah, and have fun walking." She smiled at him and then turned back to the kitchen sink. Link didn't enjoy her good humor one bit. At that moment, he took back everything that he had thought of her before taking his shower that day.

Link was feeling much better as he worked his tired body. Whenever he felt stressed or depressed in some way, he would always come to the gym to work out. He always felt that he needed the exercise even if he was one of the most athletic students in his school.

Stepping off the treadmill, he grabbed his towel set close by and wiped off the sweat on his face. He was about to head to the locker rooms to change his clothes and head home when he glanced at the television. The news was on again and they casters were doing another report on the man Ganondorf Dragmire. Seven years ago, the head of a successful company died and for some mistake in paper work, Ganondorf received everything the company had owned. Running the company for himself, he brought in billions of dollars, making the mystery of the rightful ownership of the company completely annulled. Upon making the business successful, Ganondorf brought in massive proportions of money for himself, eventually making him the richest man in the world in four short years. He became the first Trillionaire in recorded history. Not only did he completely take over, but he also renamed the company "Dragmire Industries".

The way the news portrayed this powerful figurehead was as if no one in the world knew about him yet and that everyone should know that he exists. There was news about him every day, even if the story wasn't that great. Almost every single one was another breakthrough in the known sciences of the world. This time, his company had produced a device that could take out a tank with sound waves. People thought of these as breakthroughs, but what they were really doing with their advanced knowledge of science was that they made effective weapons. Link always thought this to himself to be the truth, but he never really bothered with it too much.

After staring at the new story for a few minutes, Link became bored, and went to the locker rooms to change.

As Link walked out of the Fitness Center, he looked around the parking lot for his car, but suddenly remembered with dismay how he had been grounded from it. He knew he had to resort to walking again, and started down the street towards his house. Before going home, he stopped at a service station and bought a soft drink to take along the way. As he turned down the street to his neighborhood, he saw a long, jet black, stretch limousine coming down the street. Wondering what a limousine could be doing in his neighborhood, since there were no extremely rich families living here, Link watched as it drew closer to him. Surprisingly, the limousine didn't pass him, but in fact slowed down and stopped right next to him. The darkly tinted window slid down at the back seat, and a beautiful, blond-haired girl looked out the open window at him. She looked to be about Link's age, and by the way she was dressed, he could tell that she probably lived in an extremely rich family.

After she had looked at him for almost ten, whole seconds, Link couldn't stand this awkward silence anymore. To break the quiet, he said rather awkwardly, "Um, can I help you?"

After about five more, long seconds, she said in a clear voice, "Link. Your name is Link is it not?"

Link was taken aback when she said his name. He had never even seen this girl before, and, evidentially, she knew his name. She also spoke with a certain air, which made her seem like royalty. Link asked, "How…how did you know my name?"

"I have been looking for you, Link."

He laughed uncertainly and plainly said, "Well, you've found me."

She smiled, despite his tone of voice, and said, "I'm sure you are wondering who I am."

Link chuckled and said, "Well, I guess it would be nice if I knew who I had the pleasure of talking to. I mean, with the limo get-up and you in those clothes that shout out, 'Rich Family!' It seems like finding me must have been pretty important."

The girl nodded. "My name is Zelda, Princess of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Have you ever heard of me?"

Link frowned, "No, I'm sorry. Um…I don't mean to be rude or offensive with this question, but…should I have known you? I mean, does it look like I would know any of the upper-class people?"

"I suppose that's true," agreed Zelda. "Maybe I should rephrase my question. Do I look familiar to you?"

Link paused and leaned in a bit towards the open car window. He looked closely at the girl's beautiful features. "I can't say that you do, but…." Link looked harder. Yes, she does look a little like… "Are you related to me in some way?"

"I'm not sure." Zelda frowned. "That question has always been on many people's minds."

"What? There're more people in on this too? There's more than one person looking for me? How did I become so popular all of a sudden? Are there really people out there looking for me?"

"Why, yes, of course. My family and everyone else related to the Royal Family of Hyrule knows of your presence to this world."

"There's that name again: Hyrule. I've never heard that name before. Is it foreign?" Link asked, getting very interested in these strange, new facts. Before Link let Zelda answer this question, he then remembered whom he was thinking Zelda looked like.

"You look a lot like my… my real mother," he said to her. "Only, a younger version."

"Your mother was Abigail," she stated.

Not at all surprised that Zelda knew his mother's name, since she seemed to know a lot about him already, he continued. "Yeah, that was her name. I only have one picture of her, the one just before…" he broke off and looked away. Then he looked back at Zelda. "How do you know my mother?"

"She was a good friend of our family. I heard about how she died."

"I'd really rather not talk about it," pleaded Link. He remembered his mother and always wished he had known her throughout his years. Still, his adoptive parents, Charles and Samantha Yost, had been more than kind to him over the years.

Zelda's face grew stern. "I must if you are to receive your trust in me." He nodded and Zelda continued. "Your father became an alcoholic after he lost his job with the firm. He would hit your mother and beat her when he came home from his nightly rounds at the local bar. One night, he came home, strangled your mother, killing her, and the charges against him doubled because of the condition he was in. Thus, he was to be executed, and the state of New York took you into their custody. Then your new parents adopted you into their family after all of their children had left for college. You were five then, right?"

Link nodded as his eyes sparkled with a hint of tears. "I was five, yes."

"Now, do you trust in me, Link, despite the way I proceeded to gain it?"

He only nodded.

"Get in the car, there's still much to be told."

"Do you have a phone in there I could use to tell my mom that I'll be late getting home?"

Zelda lifted it up, smiled, and said, "That has already been taken care of. Please get in."

Link shrugged, and slid into a seat in the car. He closed his door and look around the interior of the limousine. Looking to the seats opposite the one he was seated in, he saw a very old, wizened woman seated there.

"Hello, Link," she said in a very clear and concise voice despite her age. "My name is Impa. We have matters of great importance, which we must discuss with you."

Link complied by nodding his head towards her. Looking at Impa, he realized that she must be well over a hundred years old. He asked her, "Impa, excuse me if this seems like a rude question because I don't mean it to be. I'm just wondering how old you are."

Impa laughed, looked at Zelda, then looked back at Link and said, "My dear. I am nearly 2,500 years old."

Link laughed and said in a serious tone, "No, really. How old are you?"

Zelda looked at Link and said, "My personal attendant, Impa, is exactly 2,447 years old."

Link looked slack-jawed at Zelda, then at Impa, then back at Zelda. "You mean to tell me that Impa's older than…than…"

"Than dirt?" Impa laughed in good humor as she finished the sentence for Link.

"Why… I mean, how are you so old?" Link asked, still disbelieving. "Ordinary people don't just live to be old, I mean, they usually croak before they reach a hundred years!"

Impa laughed again. "I am the Sheikah Sage of Shadow. Because of this I will live forever to guard the Shadow Temple of the Sheikahs."

Link was even more confused now than he had been earlier. A Royal Family of Hyrule and now Sheikahs? "What exactly is a Sheikah?" asked Link. "And where is this Shadow Temple. I've never seen or even heard of one."

"Sadly, the ruins of the Shadow Temple have long since fallen and have been buried under the earth. As for the Sheikahs, well, you're looking at one right now." For the past few minutes, Impa had been wearing a shawl over her head, but as she now took it off, Link saw the difference in her and himself.

"You have elf ears!" Link exclaimed. His excitement grew as she suddenly began to morph and to change her appearances. Her wrinkles cleared up and her hair grew from a snow white to a magnificent shade of silver. Her eyes unclouded and her hands lost their gnarled looks. When the change was complete, she was no longer the old woman Link had seen sitting before him. She now had the young, adventurous look of a warrior in her eye and muscles rippled in her arms. Another difference, besides the pointed ears of an elf, was that she had silver markings under her eyes, like the tips of leaves pointed downwards. After about ten seconds of this younger version of Impa coming into being, she changed back to her old self once more.

"That takes a lot out of me," Impa said, gasping for breath, "but you needed to see that."

"You bet I did! Now I don't think this is a load of BS"

"BS?" Zelda asked.

"Uh…I mean, I don't think this is some sort of scam," Link corrected himself, realizing that Zelda probably didn't know the true meaning to the slang truncation. He really didn't intend on telling her either.

"Are you ready to see more?" asked Zelda as she intently looked at Link, as if she still had not finished studying his features.

"Sure," agreed Link. He was more than ready for more. This was growing more interesting by the second.

Without any warning, Zelda reached across Link's lap and took hold of his right arm with her right hand, and then she took her left hand and interlocked her fingers with Link's on his left hand.

"Um…Zelda, what are you doing?" he asked, a little puzzled. As soon as he had finished saying this, a bright flash of light was emitted, and when the light's effect on Link's eyes died down, he looked around and saw nothing different. Then, he looked down at the back of his right hand and the back of Zelda's left hand and saw a strange symbol on both of them.

"Your Triforce, Link," Zelda said. "The Triforce of Courage. A relic of the Goddesses of Hyrule."

"Triforce?" asked Link. "Is that what this yellow mark is called? Will it be on here forever?"

"Link, you've always had the Triforce of Courage," said Impa. "Just like Zelda's always had her Triforce of Wisdom. You have had a third of the whole Triforce in your possession and we have now just revealed it to you."

"You mean, this thing, this…Triforce, has been with me my whole life and I never even knew about it?"

"That is correct."

"How could I not know about it? I mean, there it is on my hand!" Link looked back down at his hand and saw that the marking was gone. "What happened? Did I lose it?"

"No, you didn't lose it. It's still with you, safe from evil."

Link nodded. Then he remembered what Impa had just said a few seconds ago. "Impa, you said that there was a whole Triforce and I only have a third of it. What does this mean? That Zelda and I have two pieces and the third is lost somewhere?"

"Actually, the third is very much intact. It is not lost, but it is not in our hands."

"Who has it? Is it someone else in the royal family?"

"No. Actually very far from it. His name is Ganondorf Dragmire and the piece which he owns is the Triforce of Power."

Now, this made sense to Link. "Ganondorf Dragmire? I know who that is. He's the head of Dragmire Industries and is the richest man in the whole world he just exceeded Bill Gates, like, three years ago. So, like, this Triforce of Power thing he has like, lets him gain his power to build his World-wide organization?"

"That's part of it, but he's also very smart and with the help of his Triforce can make predictions on the future which help him. Not only with money, but with power over individuals as well. That is why everyone succeeds to his demands."

"So, has this guy had this Triforce from birth just like Zelda and me?"

"Actually, no. About 2,000 years ago, he sought after the Triforce, which resided in the hidden Sacred Realm. After the great, Golden Goddesses—Din, Farore, and Nayru—created the land, which was known as Hyrule, they departed for the heavens after their work was completed. Although, right before they left, they left a relic with the essence of their beings known as the Triforce, and the Sacred Realm formed around this relic. The Master Sword in the Temple of Time was the key to the Realm. Letting your ancestor open the way for him…"

"Wait, he used one of my ancestors?"

"Yes, and no. Zelda's ancestor, the Princess of Destiny, Zelda, had Link, your ancestor, help her in her fight against Ganondorf. In order to open the Door of Time, which led to the Master Sword, Link had to obtain three spiritual stones from the different races of Hyrule. Setting these on the stone altar of the Pedestal of Time, Zelda thought that she and Link would be the first ones to the Triforce, and one step ahead of Ganondorf. Link pulled the Master Sword from the pedestal of Time and was drawn into the Sacred Realm. Ganondorf had followed Link's progress for he could not obtain the Spiritual Stones for himself; the good protectors of the three stones had hid them well from his evil presence. So, Ganondorf used the portal which Link had created and drew himself to the Sacred Realm. The reason why Ganondorf actually obtained the Triforce instead of Link was because when Link had pulled the Master Sword, he could not use it for himself, as he was too young. The Sacred Realm sealed him in a deep sleep for seven years, preparing him for the use of the Sword. In those seven years, Ganondorf returned from the Sacred Realm, gained control of the land of Hyrule, and had become the King of Darkness. With the help of the Seven Sages, the Hero of Time, Link, was able to defeat Ganondorf and seal him in the Sacred Realm, which, because of Ganondorf's conquests there, had become the Evil Realm, otherwise, known as the Dark World. Peace then returned to Hyrule, so Zelda sent Link back in time seven years to be able to live life the way it was intended for him."

"Wow, my ancestor was a legendary hero. So, was my whole family heroes?"

Impa smiled. "Actually, yes. His forefathers were the heroes of Hyrule, and Link's descendants were also heroes. Each time evil struck, the Master Sword was donned, and it drove all the evil forces away. Link, you were meant to be next in line for the role of the Hero of Legend."