Notes: This is Jin's POV. There will be chapters with OC's POV's besides Links.


Jin stood in front of Link's home the following day after his outburst at Lucent Lake. He was a little nervous, but after Dira, Una, and Aya tried to get him out of the house and eventually failed, Dira convinced him that Link would listen to him. He wasn't so sure about that, but lately he was thinking that Link needed time alone. Maybe he was simply stressed, but Una's comment about The Ancient Scourge found its way into his head. He couldn't think so negatively.

Shaking it away, Jin climbed the steps to the front door and rapped his knuckles against the hard surface. He cleared his throat and said, "Link. Are you there? It's me, Jin...it's only me."

He was afraid he might not get an answer until he heard the slightest sound of metal sliding loose and the knob turning. He tilted his head as the door opened, and Link glanced at him.

His eyes were red, and his face was a lot more pale than the sun kissed complexion he usually had. There was something more draining about his appearance as he ran his fingers through his coarse hair, walking away from the opened door as Jin stepped inside.

"Link," Jin said, closing the door behind him, but was confused at the sight of a bag sitting on the table, it was full with pieces of clothing and wrapped food. "Link...Where are you going?"

"I have to find her," Link said, his tone rough, either from crying or screaming like he was doing yesterday and the days before. His behavior has been strange of late, but this was worse than anything Jin would have thought was possible. "I have to find her."

"What are you talking about?" Jin asked, carefully stepping closer to the bag while Link looked around for something near his nook.

"Epona," Link gasped, going still before his shoulder shuddered as if whatever he was thinking of was too painful. It worried Jin to see him like this, and to know that his friend was about to walk out while spouting off words he wasn't sure Link knew he understood himself.

"Link, that was a dream. Okay. You were dreaming, the stress is getting to you. I'll ask Vin and my dad to let you off for a few—"

"No," Link snapped, turning around, his brows pushed together as he glared at Jin, "this has nothing to do with them, I'm not stressed and it's not a dream. It's real," he shook his head, hands shaking, "she's real!"

He believed it. Jin could hear it in his strangled voice that Link knew whoever this person was to him is real, but how could it be? Link never left the village without others, and he never brought it up until a few days ago. Why would a dream be affecting him this much?

"Link," Jin said carefully, stepping towards him, "it was a dream, she's not real."

"No," he shook his head, "stop saying she's not real. Please, Jin, stop saying that." Link wiped away stray tears from his face. "She's real. She's real and I have to find her." He seemed to snap out of his reverie as he moved back over to his pack, ignoring Jin altogether who felt the sharp pain in his chest.

He nodded, unsure of how he was supposed to say to Link while he headed upstairs. His mouth had gone dry, and his chest hurt. Jin turned on his heel and left Link's house, he ran down the steps and sprinted through the village until he found Dira and Keras sitting on the steps of Keras's parents shop.

"Hey," he waved, knowing he looked wild by the worried looks upon their faces as they both stood, "I need your help."

"Why? What's happening?" Keras asked.

"Did you speak to Link?" Dira asked next, also as frantic as Jin.

Jin nodded, "I tried to talk him out of it, but he won't let me. I think he is sick with something, he's not thinking straight."

"Jin, calm down, and explain what is happening," Dira demanded.

He breathed, smoothing out his thoughts as he said, "Link is leaving Akyllan. He's trying to find someone by the name of Epona." The name left an odd taste in his mouth, but he didn't want to focus on that at the moment.

Keras's eyes widened as she looked over Jin's head. "I think he's on his way out." She pointed, and Jin turned at the same time as Dira, and Link was walking by several people with a cloak, traveling shoes that he barely wore since he never left the village that much, tan colored pants, and a long sleeved shirt. His pack was pulled over his shoulders and he was striding toward the entrance to Akyllan.

Dira was the first to react as she rushed by Jin who joined her, while Keras also caught up to them. Dira called Link's name, ignoring how loud and frantic she sounded as they sprinted by.

Link didn't stop nor turn until he reached the front of the entrance and before he could step over the threshold, Dira grabbed his arm and tugged him back.

"Don't go," she pleaded, a raw sounding tone that left Jin still beside Keras as reality was settling in. Link was truly trying to leave the village, and he wasn't bothering to look back. It pained Jin that it had to come to this because of Link's dreams, that they would mean nothing to him.

"I have to find her," Link said, in a resigned voice, unlike how he sounded back at his house. He was determined to leave, to find a ghost in the wide ruined world.

"She's not real," Dira said, her voice breaking, "please, Link, it was only a dream. Epona is not real. You're not going to find her!"

Jin can feel the change in the air. Many people behind them were watching the scene, and Jin didn't know what else to do. Dira was right, they were all right.

Link's steady shoulders began to shake, his fingers curling at his sides as they heard him gasping for air. "I have to find her, I have to find her." His own voice was broken, and Jin could see tears falling from his eyes as Dira turned him around and held him in her arms while he buried his face in her neck, shaking and crying.

Keras turned and gestured toward someone as she said, "Come help us take Link to Tala."

A man and woman that Jin recognized as Zakka and Leya stepped past him and came to Dira's side, they were speaking to Link before they took him and began to lead him away from the entrance. Zakka held his bag while Leya soothed him with her words.

Jin, Dira, and Keras slowly followed after them in silence while people parted away, children asked their parents what was happening, but most stared at Link. His condition, whatever it may be, was worsening. If it was forcing him to leave the village, what were they meant to do if he does eventually succeed?

Link has no prior skills in sword fighting, nor in hunting besides the minimal stuff he does with Zakka or Eirel. Lok has never trained him horseback riding. The world itself besides Akyllan and Fado Lake was all he knew. If he ever explored the world on his own, what if something were to happen to him? They couldn't let that happen, Jin didn't want it to happen.

A few days later, Link has stayed with Tala in a quarantined space to keep him from leaving the village. He still muttered Epona's name in his sleep, and screamed it when he woke up. Crying frantically whenever he spoke with Tala, and she told them it was all he could focus on. He was barely coherent when trying to remember any of their names, or even the village he lived in. Which horrified, Jin, Dira, and Keras.

Jin sat in the waiting room of the inn whenever his parents didn't need him, but other than that, he skipped out on any other duties. He wanted to make sure that Link was okay. Tala told him it was too early to let him in the room, not when Link was agitated. It was all he could do for him at the moment, hoping that he'd get better. Even if Tala said Link suffered from no physical sickness, and it could be related psychologically. The memories could be an emotional trauma of when Link lost his parents and it was now resurfacing as an adult.

"Time will tell," she said, before moving onto her next patient.

One particular evening when Dira and Keras joined him, they brought berries they had picked that afternoon and shared it with him. As they waited, a woman wandered into the inn, there was something studious about her, some kind of knowledge poured off her, as if her eyes could see and understand more than any of them ever could.

Of course it was probably because she was Impa, the village Sheikah leader who had let many Hyrulean's to accommodate the village during The Ancient Scourge. Impa was revered by many, using her wisdom and patience to conduct many organizations, and to sustain the village.

Tala bowed before her as Impa stepped away from the door. "I didn't know you were going to come here, I hope everything is okay."

Impa smiled, her long white hair was aged and looked more like coarse pieces of string as it was pulled back. Her hands were displayed in front of her, her back straight, and her chin tilted up. "Everything is fine, Tala. I'm here for someone else besides myself."

Tala's face flushed, "I see. Who are you looking for?"

"Link," Impa said.

Jin, Dira, and Keras were as shocked as Tala who glanced toward the hallway that led to the room where Link was in. Why did Impa of all people want to see Link? Was it because of how he was behaving for the last several days? Jin didn't think it was that troubling for the village leader to make an appearance.

"Why do you want to see him?" Dira interrupted as she stood from the chair. Both Jin and Keras were shocked by her abrupt question that it was too late to pull her back.

Impa turned to her, her face serene as she looked at Dira. "Because, Link speaks of the Legendary Hero's horse." Jin blinked, taken back by what she said and what she said next. "His horse is named Epona. Like the Legendary Hero who reveals himself once a great evil appears, so does his horse, Epona, and eventually they will find each other."

"No," Keras said, shaking her head, "you can't be serious?"

"I am," Impa said.

Any words that Jin would've liked to say would not leave his lips. Confusion stopped his thoughts, and he had the sudden urge to disagree with Impa like his friends were currently doing.

Tala had gone still, but came out of her shock before dropping a pen she was holding and heading for the hallway. Jin could hear Tala's hushed voice before she came running back into the foyer, her eyes wide, pointing down the hall.

"He's...He's gone."

"What?" Keras was already heading down the hall, while Dira glared at Tala. "Your inn is supposed to be secure, how could you let him escape?"

"He went through the ceiling somehow," Tala said, almost on the verge of crying.

Impa was patient throughout the entire chaos, but there was a hint if disappointment on her face.

Keras returned to the room, "We can probably catch up to him," she said, Dira following after her through the door.

Jin stayed where he was standing. He was trying to process everything that was happening, and mostly what Impa had said and implied.

The Legendary Hero. Garik had told many stories about him, and Jin ignored them as time went on and other things had distracted him from those silly stories. But now, they returned, and he wondered what if he had listened and learned about this Legendary Hero. What he did know and what most in Akyllan already knew about him was that the Legendary Hero had saved Hyrule many times in different eras with different ages. He showed himself in similar green garb, wielding a sword, riding a horse, and saving a princess of the Kingdom.

Now that Jin thought about it, there was no Princess who sat on the present Hyrulean throne, and no hero had surfaced in this lifetime, and the darkness, Jin figured that the darkness came in the form of The Ancient Scourge. The plague that surfaced without known reason and killed many in its wake.

The thing that bothered Jin the most as he walked outside, the one thing that ran through his head once Impa had asked for Link, and when she told them who the identity of Epona was. The pieces had collided, but there was one missing, and it was a crucial piece in this particular story, at least in this era it was.

"Where was their hero?"