The first thing I noticed when I woke some time later was the absence of the arrows. I remembered quite clearly being struck with heavy bolts, and I remembered how they stung and clacked together whenever I'd moved. Now, in the thick golden sunlight of early afternoon, those shafts had vanished, bandages left tightly (and, well, neatly) tied in their place.

"Arden?" Nothing akin to a whicker answered me. Hazily, I remembered him running off into the dark, and there was a thicket… right? And a clearing. But, it felt entirely too quiet, enclosed even, for me to still be in the clearing. I was in a clearing, right? When I finally convinced myself to open my eyes, I discovered that I'd been moved to what looked suspiciously like the old treehouse, and sitting in a padded chair at the end of the bed, staring directly at me, was Talo. Great. So I couldn't just sneak out of here. And goddesses knew how long I'd been out, just lying here, dead to the world, back in what was now enemy territory.

I risked standing because on occasion I entertained a stupid streak about a league and a half wide. It didn't hurt. I wasn't dizzy; a little wobbly, maybe, but nothing life-threatening. There was an empty bottle on the floor, and by the sparkling pink dust left glittering along the rim, it looked as though a fairy had squeezed her way out of there recently. I waited suspiciously for Talo to say something, to start berating me for my idiocy and lack of preparedness, but he didn't move. The house sounded empty. Despite the closed windows, I could hear some of the kids shrieking and playing, but other than that, there were no signs of life in the immediate area. Wonderful. Maybe there was an armed sentry outside the front door.

"So… what am I doing here, Talo? If I remember correctly, I'm no longer a member of this community, and you've got a village to look after..." When he didn't respond immediately, I filled the silence with, "Y'know, that big, sprawling piece of land with all those little buildings-"

"Can it, Link," snapped the chief. He squinted in apparent exasperation and absently set down the thick sheaf of papers he had been reading in order to adjust the collar on his loose, white shirt. Waving at my apparent state of emergency, he sighed heavily. "I can tell you one thing, you've got an absurd streak of luck. Just look at yourself; your mother would kill me if she could see-"

"Talo, my mother is dead; been dead for like, seven years – she isn't coming back, so she doesn't care if I haven't combed my hair this morning."

The older man shifted, his irritation making his movements jerky as he rose to his feet and strode across the room so that he towered over me, an accusatory finger pressed into my chest. "This is serious, Link. I want to know how and why I was led here this morning."

"Maybe because I'm a fugitive of the Crown? I don't know what you're talking about." Mirroring his irritation and somewhat anxious myself, I backed away and began collecting my gauntlets and tunic from a nearby chair, and hurriedly dressed. Din, but Desn was probably outside, waiting to escort me to my execution-

"How did you manage to climb up the damn ladder with the injuries you had?"

"What-?" I just looked at him for a few minutes. What the hell was his problem? Clearly, he'd been the one to attend to said injuries, but it wasn't like I'd asked him to do it. For Din's sake, he- Oh no. There had been a clearing. It was real. As if to confirm this realization, my bow was nowhere to be found, or my hat. I froze, refusing to look anywhere but at that ridiculous sword propped against the bed.

"Were my ribs broken?"

When he didn't respond, my stomach imploded. Slowly, the pieces were coming together in my head, and the holes in the puzzle began to stand out. Whatever happened last night had been real. Oh Nayru, but it was real. Nauseous, I sat back down on the bed and ran my hands through my hair, willing myself to not panic, but already I could feel the air struggle to fill my lungs. Oh goddesses- With my most honest, imploring look, I caught Talo's hard stare.

"Talo, I don't know how I got here. I was attacked by a shadow creature in the Lost Woods."

Something in that last sentence drained all possible color from the chief's face, and he nearly whispered, "Link, I swear to Din if you are making this up-"

"I wish I could make something like that up," I hissed back. "It attacked me and took my hat and then I passed out-"

"You were wearing your hat when I found you here." And there, in Talo's outstretched hand, was my hat. It was torn and crudely mended from an earlier incident with the goats, dried leaves and bits of dirt still clinging to the fabric of the brim, but there it was. Reality kept blurring into something surreal. I shivered at the memory of cold, damp fog. The thing brought me here. The thing must have brought me here, but how? Why? She had tried to kill me. It wasn't a dream.

"Talo, I swear to the goddesses there was a shadow creature," I started again desperately. Why I was desperate for him to believe me, I had no idea. Maybe I just needed to make sure I hadn't died and been trapped in some alternate reality. "I was in the Lost Woods – the soldiers were chasing me, and I went through this thicket, and this shadow creature attacked me-"

"Don't," he warned. "You don't understand what you're talking about, Link."

Oh, I understand perfectly, really. My ribs twinged with the bitter memory. "You don't understand- I was attacked by a sh-"

"Link banished the shadow creatures," Talo continued, obviously tense. "People don't just walk out of the Lost Woods."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Frustrated, I waved the abused hat in his face, trying to point out the patches as unquestionable evidence. "The shadow thing brought me here- I passed out in a clearing-"

"Link." He'd shut his eyes, squeezing the lids together, as his consternation became nearly palpable in the space between us. I caught him eying my hat disdainfully, and out of spite I jammed it onto my head, dirt and all. "Look, your parents and I... we were... we knew Link - the first Link. We were all friends, and then one day he just left the village and all these things started happening. Link had been working with this shadow-being – why, he never told us. But he apparently trusted it, and look where it's landed him. If it has returned…. You need to get out of here. You need to find the princess."

So, Link had encountered a shadow creature as well… and it had indirectly contributed to his death. Great. Sounded like I had a grim following me around. I straightened my hat, muttering, "So I'm exiled, not even a citizen of the goddesses-damned country, there's this thing creeping on me, and you want me to-"

"You're going to have to, Link. There are rumors she's still alive, somewhere – and if you can find her, I know it'll topple Dragmire's rule, and Hyrule will be peaceful again." Talo fixed his scrutinizing gaze on me. "Show her the sword when you find her. If you head into Castletown, find a woman there named Telma."

"Because, you know, I'm Link reincarnated apparently," I snorted.

Talo's eyes narrowed, then softened. "I believe you are Link reincarnated, in the sense that you have his courage and his dedication to what's right, and what needs to be done."" Something sank in my chest, and I knew for a fact that it wasn't a rib. I almost preferred the floating bone to this feeling and what it meant. Now, it seemed, I would simultaneously be running from death into death – if I were caught, I would be killed on sight, no questions asked, and Desn would finally get his wish. "You're a prolific archer, Link. I think you can learn the sword if you put your mind to it."

"Wait, you expect me to use this?" I pulled on the hilt and freed the top part of the weapon from its sheath with a tiny click; the shiny metal blinked in the dying sunlight, reflecting brilliantly against the dull grey walls. What the hell does he expect me to do with this? Stab something until it just keels over and dies? What in bloody hell would I do with the body? "I thought it was a party favor."

"It's a sword, of course I expect you to use it. You can't use a bow in close combat."

"No, really?" I probably wouldn't have to use it at all then. As long as I kept my distance and avoided the men in the Field and in the town and everywhere, I'd be in the clear. It'd be okay. I just had to stay hidden. …For the rest of my life. Actually, speaking of my bow….

Talo rolled his eyes at me, but the expression on his face hardened, instantly aging twenty years. "Luda found it in the Field, after that imp stole everything else," he added bitterly. "If the shadow-being has returned…" Shaking his head, he gestured outside. "You need to get out of here before they come back. There was a disturbance in the Field last night, and all of the soldiers were called from the village to respond to whatever it was." The last bit was said with considerable suspicion directed at me, which I determinedly ignored.

"Tell me something I don't know," I snapped automatically. "Where's my bow?" Talo gave me a pointed look and I groaned. "Great, so she took my bow. What the hell-"

"You need to leave," he repeated, this time backing away to gather his papers from the padded chair. "Now. You need to go before anyone sees you. The woods will be crawling with soldiers." At a loss, I just crumpled my hat in my hands and watched him walk away, but hesitate as he reached for the tarnished door handle. Almost reluctantly, refusing to look back at me, he said softly, "We're depending on you now. Renado is safe with me. Good luck, Link," and quietly shut the door behind him.

I felt suddenly, acutely abandoned. Betrayed. What the hell did he expect me to do now? Just walk out of the goddesses-damned village? For several long minutes, I just stared at the closed door, seemingly committing the patterns in the woodgrain to memory. How many times had I opened that door to escape Ilia's sadness at home, and fallen asleep in one of the threadbare armchairs? How many times had my friends and I camped out in here, telling our favorite stories by the fire? If I looked hard enough, I could almost see the memories here, like ghosts hovering in the fading light, frozen in time. Frozen in place – where I wasn't supposed to be anymore.

Numb, I slipped down the ladder and set off again down the trail to Hyrule Field. Despite Talo's claim that the 'woods are crawling with soldiers,' I encountered no one – no torchlight, no voices, no opposition. They were probably still dealing with whatever 'disturbance' he'd referenced, although I didn't encounter anything, and actually walked right out into Hyrule Field, and kept walking until something nickered softly and Arden's familiar form loomed out of the dusk.

"Hey, boy," I grinned, pulling myself up into the saddle. "Knew you'd find me." He shuddered a little under me and tossed his head, the anxiety and betrayal knotted in my chest already loosening. At least I wasn't completely alone… right? Oh, goddesses.

Out of caution, we skirted the main Field and stayed close to the forest, mostly because I'd never actually ventured very far into the Field; I had essentially no idea where we were in relation to anything else. I just knew that if we headed north, we'd eventually hit the Hyrule Castle trail, which would lead into the town itself, and if we stayed near the trees, there was more cover. I had a brilliant sense of direction, honest. And when the sun came up tomorrow, I'd be golden. But until then, I felt naked without my bow, and the clouds were still trying to blow out, so it was too dim to really see anything. A few hours after sundown, we caught a few pinpricks of light near the trail to Ordon but that was it – they continued down the trail and out of sight, while we huddled together in the dark underbrush and held our breaths some hundreds of meters away. And after they'd disappeared, I couldn't get up the nerve to move, so I sat with my back to Arden's warm body, mulling over Talo's words and their meaning, and turning the sword over and over again in my bare hands as I tried to decide if I had the heart to use it.

We're depending on you now.

I'd grown up an archer, not a swordsman. My mother had forbidden swordplay despite my father's advances, and with good reason: her best friend had been a swordsman, and, in Talo's words, "...look where it's landed him." And despite all of that, Talo expected me to essentially follow in Link's footsteps and to pick up where he left off in his strange little quest. No one actually knew what he'd been looking for, so that made it that much more promising. However, if it had been anything similar to locating a long-dead princess, then I could sympathize. Talo had pretty much set an impossible goal, and I couldn't help but wonder if that had been on purpose; if I stayed busy on a perpetual treasure hunt, I wouldn't bring trouble into the village, everyone else would be all right, and I could pursue a lifestyle based on an illusion of rebellion – until someone caught and identified me, and then hanged me for treason.

His parting declaration fluttered to the surface of my thoughts, fleeting in definiteness and glowing with ghostly foreboding. How could 'they' depend on me, when Talo himself had admitted that he was perhaps the only one who trusted me? I'd grown up hearing all the same stories about how heroic Link was, how courageous Link was, how everything Link touched turned to gold and an ethereal choir sang whenever he showed his angelic face; he was all Ilia and the rest of the village ever wanted to talk about. People had long placed false hope in the name I shared, more out of desperation than real conviction – why else would it be such a popular name in Ordon? I was the sixth Link born into the village, and so far, the only one to survive the test... and yet, people would continue to name their kids after what was probably a real person but an apocryphal hero, maybe hoping they might aspire to the legendary feats of the Hero of the Goddess. But no one talked about the old legends anymore. It was all wishful thinking.

Aside from the native villagers, there was also a seemingly wealthy family that spent every summer in Ordon. Their eldest children were twins, Effie and Keaton, and their youngest a girl named Link. The little girl had been born when I was nine; the twins had two and a half years on me. Despite the age gap, I'd spent most of my time working with Keaton in the pastures, herding goats. Effie had helped occasionally, but during their third summer in Ordon, their father had been drafted to join the Hylian army. Her mother had dissolved into an emotional wreck, neglecting her children, and leaving her daughter to take charge of the household. I remembered eating an Effie-prepared dinner more than once, followed by an after-dinner excursion to the dock behind their house. She and her brother had both resembled their dark-haired, dark-eyed father. The baby girl, Linkie, as she was later called, had fair hair – an insignificant detail praised by the villagers as a sign.

Yeah, a sign. Their signs and pointless stubbornness, all because of four measly letters, only earned them dead kids. Colin had been convinced that the test was a cover to eradicate anyone with that name, because the legendary hero always bore it. Maybe it was a smart idea. Or maybe it would completely backfire, as everything eventually did when it came to evil governments.

"What do you think he was like, Arden?" The horse tossed his mane. "Link, I mean. How do you exhaust yourself like that? Especially when you've got people depending on you. How can you just give up?" Arden looked at me with that evanescent flicker of intelligence and compassion in his liquid eyes.

I felt the gradual shift in the pit of my stomach, an exchange of something far heavier than any of the distant mountains combined. This was psychological. Those people were depending on me; had been, ever since I'd been given the name and survived the guards' murder attempt. I sat motionless against Arden's side and watched silently as the moon drifted higher into the sky. The first Link's sword weighed heavily in my hands, but the moonlight sparkled teasingly, harmlessly, around us. By now I had my boot caught in the door, so there was no backing out. I couldn't turn around anymore; after Talo's little chat, the deal had been consummated by the sword. The only alternative was death in a rigged game.

The sword, though. More doubt cluttered my mind at the thought of it. I was sure that if I tried, or if the circumstances were dire enough, I would use it. Just the thought of cutting through a living being's flesh set me on edge. With arrows, I shot and ran. Arterial spray was another matter entirely, and a matter I definitely didn't feel like dealing with at such close quarters. I didn't really want to do this. I didn't know where to start. I didn't want to know where to start, but nothing could be done now. Sighing heavily, I huddled against Arden's warm coat and shut my eyes. There was no way back.

But if I hadn't been so tired from the day's events, I might have noticed the eyes watching us from the brush.