( Torrent ) CHAPTER ONE
"Give it back!"
"Go away!"
"Don't steal!"
The short boy of fifteen fled the angry mob. He was of poor origins and needed to steal to live. He had snagged a single apple from the market and was now fleeing from a raging tide of people.
"Thief! Thief!" one cried out.
"I'm gonna bust that kid up!" yelled another.
A third was screaming profanities while brandishing a pitchfork.
The young boy didn't know what was so wrong about his actions. He needed to provide for his family. He needed to… he HAD to…
He looked ahead and noticed the path ahead was thick with people. He darted in and out of their legs, tripping some of them and taking their fruit as well. Bananas, pears, peaches… anything he could grab before it hit the ground. He quickly dove into a nearby alleyway, climbing into a large clay pot to hide. The blue tarpaulin he held close to his chest held the precious food within.
The crowd passed by as he caught his breath in the pot. He climbed out of the pot and began to walk home, holding about twenty articles of fruit in his arms. He snacked on the apple he had originally stolen on the way.
A dark figure stood amongst the rooftops of the town. He laughed at the mob that passed by.
"That kid doesn't know how to steal properly," the man chuckled. "Why, I could steal all those things twice and still have enough time to grab a candy bar from the store… or a child. Yes, better… a young child's candy bar…"
He chuckled again and dove into a nearby alley. He looked out at the crowd and began to walk around the various people, as if he was crossing the street. He swiped two wallets, and thirty rupees before disappearing into the sky without so much as a whisper.
He leapt up into the rooftops and disappeared into the sunset as chaos ensued in the town once again.
"OW!!!"
A girl in a pink dress was slapped across the face by her father.
"You dare to come into the King's chambers without his knowing!?"
She was slapped again. A painful howl erupted from her lungs.
"I'm sorry, Dad! I'm sorry! I'll-"
CRASH!!!
The girl was thrown headfirst into her mirror. The mirror shattered.
"I hope you've learned your lesson, you incompetent whiner…"
The beautiful girl began to cry. Her blonde hair was frazzled and matted with blood. Her dress was stained with blood as well.
She was too weak to move, so all she did was cry.
He cursed twice, then continued. "Wimp…" the king muttered. "Big girls don't cry." He called her a few other nasty names, then stormed out.
Her door slammed shut. She sat up and weakly moved over to the window, peeling shards of glass from her hair and head. She cried to herself. She had no friends. She was kept locked up in the tallest tower of the castle like a trophy.
I have to get out of here… she thought. For my own sake…
She thought back to a few years ago, when her father was a warm, loving person. She recalled his gentle caresses, his soothing voice, and his amazing love, that which seemed to overflow from who knows where.
Then… he… came.
She recalled the moment when everything changed.
He came wearing a dark cloak and many black veils, saying he had come from beyond the Portal… but that's impossible. The Portal's been closed for years…
She recalled his cold eyes casting shivers down her spine and tying her stomach into such a tight knot that she swore it had sucked in on itself. She knew that night the world had changed.
But it wasn't the same kind of evil that had assaulted Hyrule before…
Thunder sounded and rain began to fall.
She wiped her cheek, threw off her royal robes, and dressed in a black ninja outfit with a single pink scarf. She pulled out a couple of knives from her drawer. She proceeded to slash her hair up into a short, chin-length style. She tucked it in the ninja hood, folded up the mask, and began to tie her bedspread up into sheets. She hoped she would be able to escape this time… she had to find out what this evil was.
The young boy arrived in his home and jovially declared his winnings.
"I got food!" he proclaimed.
No response.
He looked around and sighed disappointedly. He knew there was nobody home – there never was – but he always hoped his parents would be around… He knew they would rather do something else, other than raise their child.
He sat at the table and began to eat half-heartedly. He had gathered enough food to feed a whole family, he thought, but he realized once he was through eating that he had barely gathered enough food to satiate his fourteen-year-old hunger.
"Crap," he mused. "I go to bed hungry again, I guess…"
He sat back, looking at the pile of trash he had just created. He sorted it into groups – a pair of pears, a small pile of orange peels, crumb remnants of half a sample loaf of bread, crumbs of cheese, and an empty cup of water he had taken from the fountain in the middle of town.
"It'd be nice if I had parents…" he sighed as he brought himself back to reality.
He was an orphan, born in the north portions of Thrycia. His parents migrated south and were focussed almost exclusively on their family. He was with them on a camping trip back to the lake they used to hang out at a lot before moving to the big city of Kantoripeth. About six years ago, while they were on the vacation and during a fishing escapade, he fell overboard off a rented boat. His dad leapt over to save him, effectively capsizing the boat and throwing his mother into the lake.
She couldn't swim, but by the time they realized the boat was flipped, she was already beyond saving…
Nonetheless, his dad tried anyway… and dove too far. The boy clung to the boat for dear life and cried as it drifted farther into the middle of the lake...
The next day, the boy found himself washed up on shore, the boat a few yards away about two feet above the water and hooked on some shoals.
He looked around. His home now consisted of nothing but a tarp, an alleyway, and some ratty clothes that he hadn't changed out of for six years… some too-small-for-him shorts, a white shirt, and a green cap. He had found the tarp – one of only four items he possessed – in someone's garbage the other day. He pulled the wrecked, but still useful tarp out and used that as his covering on rainy days, and as his bedding on sunny days. He also had a pendant, a piece of jewellery his mother gave him, which contained their last family picture. He held it in his fist and looked upward to the darkening, overcast sky. Thunder resounded.
If the Triforce is real, I'm gonna see you two again, he vowed. You won't be dead for long.
He looked down and rubbed the Triforce he had etched on its' back before he slipped it back into his shorts pocket. He kicked at the third of four items – the cup. It was his dad's last gift to him on that trip. He kept it spotless and used it to drink from wherever he could. It was etched with his dad's favourite phrases.
He focussed on one, and smiling, recited it. "Fluids are your best friend." He looked up to the sky again and shook his head.
"Link, you can't be depressed. You'll see them again," he mumbled to himself.
"What am I saying…?" Another dose of reality set in again, and he kicked the cup. "Who am I kidding… the Triforce is nothing but a legend… Mom and Dad are dead… my school buddies won't speak to a street bum…"
He groaned and punched the wall. "I've got nothing to live for…"
He stood up and decided to set off for the nearby forest. Hopefully his old friend Sprigana would give him a place to rest for a while. It was getting tiring sleeping in the same alley night after night. He pulled the tarp out of his fourth item, a backpack with wheels so he could drag it around. Wrapping the tarp around himself, he was mostly protected from the onslaught of rain that fell in endless torrents that night, reflecting his tumultuous feelings inside.
Maybe I could earn some spending money and actually buy my food like a normal person… he contemplated as he set off into the rainy moonlight.
In a cave outside town, the large, dark-clad man laughed at his winnings.
"I have nearly 2,000 rupees here, plus some valuable credit cards… I'm a friggin' genius!" he gloated. "My uncle was right – thievery does pay, especially in a stupid country like Thrycia!"
He laughed and curled himself in his lush blanket, falling into a deep, secure sleep to the pitter-patter of rain about ten feet away outside the cave house.