PROLOGUE

The scouts warning horns sounded over the hills. The raiders were upon them. They knew. It was the only reason they would dare travel this deep within Hyrule territory. But how? They had been so careful. The mission had been a secret to everyone but himself and the queen. To all others it looked as a simple trade caravan, complete with merchants, women, and children.

And yet, they discovered us.

One by one, the warning horns cut off. Replaced by the thunder of hundreds of hooves and high shriek of the barbarian's battle cry.

Arn looked about at terrified faces and only a handful of guards. There was no way they would defend against the Gerudo. "Form up!" He shouted. The guard closest to him didn't move, instead staring slack-jawed as the first wave of the red-haired demons crested the nearby hill.

With the practiced snarl, he grabbed the man by his breastplate and pulled him forward. "I told you to form up!"

"There's so many." He man said, his eyes wide, focused on the terrors behind Arn. "We can't beat them. We're going to die."

"Then we die as Hylians. Now move or I will run you through myself." That got him moving. Putting his shield by the others before the oncoming horde. Not that it would do them much good. If they all held strong they could last how long? Perhaps a few paces of the barbarian's spears? And what chance was it that they would hold at all?

The enemy was still half a mile away, he had some time. Though he needed to go fast. He ran in full armor, clanking with each step and shouted "Banzetta! Banzetta!"

His wife steered their wagon to him. Their child clutched in one arm the reins in the other. "What do you need, my love? I can organize the wives to bring water and designate a wagon for the wounded. Or-"

"There's no time for that now." Arn said. "I want you to take the fastest horse, our child, and leave."

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not going to leave you."

Arn pulled himself up the wagon and pulled his wife close. The movement must have woken the baby, as he started to cry. "I don't have time to argue with you. They're on us. We don't have the numbers to defend ourselves. I need you to run."

"Then come with us."

Arn, pulled himself from his wife's embrace. He kissed her once before he stepped back. "I wish I could, but I gave my oath." And the longer I hold them, the more time you have to run. "Take this, in case you need it." he unlatched the sheath of his smaller side-sword and gave it to her before stepping down from the wagon.

"Arn." Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears, but she swallowed them down. His wonderful wife, as fierce and strong as ever.

"Our fastest horse. Leave everything else behind."

"Arn!"

He turned away from them. The taste of his wife's lips on him and the smell of her hair in his breath. She cried his name three more times as he made his way back to the front. But he dared not stop to look back at her.

The Gerudo were close now, no more a mass of dark horses with red strips of hair between them Now he could make out each warrior, their armor, their weapons, their faces warped in sneers and shouts and laughter. All the warrior's women whose ferocity knew no bounds. All except one, a sole male barely old enough to be called a man. And yet his name had grown beyond his years, most trained knights prayed they never faced him.

The man shouted a word in the Gerudo's cursed tongue and a wave of steel flew through the air.

"Shields!" Arn barely had time to yell and raise his own before the arrows fell on them. Men screamed but quickly what noise they gave up was lost among the rattling of darts puncturing wood. "Hold!" He screamed though he knew no one could hear him. "Hold!"

Hot red liquid splashed over Arn as the man beside him fell to the ground. Then a shield rattled, dropped as one man turned to flee. "No! Idiots, if you run that'll be the end! Hold!"

But it was no use. Once the first of them fled, others dropped their shield to join him. And those that didn't died as arrows found the ever increasing gaps in the shield wall. Until Arn stood alone, and the horde rumbled around him.

One of the Gerudo charged at him, laughing as she lowered her spear. Arn waited until the spear was too close to reposition, before he jumped to the side, putting his shield between himself and the spearhead. He cleaved down with his sword. The blade took the horse in the leg. It screeched as it flew forward into the dirt and threw its rider from her saddle.

Then another spear came at him. This time he barely had time to lift his shield. The spear embedded itself in the wooden frame and knocked Arn off his feet. The force knocked the wind from his lungs, but he was still conscious. He could still fight. He lurched to his knee, his shield weighing him down. When his eyes focused upon it he groaned. A cracked spear jutted out of the front of it, it'd be too awkward and heavy to use. As likely to get him killed as save him.

"Goddesses, for my wife and son." He pushed himself to his feet. Just as another Gerudo rode past, she must have thought him already dead or beaten as she left her side open to him. He lifted his blade and she died before she even realized her mistake.

Another shout rang through the battle, and the warrior women pulled away from Arn. The man among their ranks rode forward. He overlooked the battlefield, his eyes never landing on Arn instead looking at the backs of those who fled.

"Pathetic," he said in clear Hylian. "Nabooru, deal with the cowards." One of the women beside him gave a battle cry and the horde rushed past Arn into the caravan guards that abandoned their post.

The man dismounted his black steed and stood before Arn. He could not be older than seventeen and yet Arn with his helmet only came to his chin, and the King of the Gerudo still had the lanky body of a boy with still more to grow.

"Well met, man of Hyrule," his yellow eyes roved around Arn as if studying him. His weapon, his battle stance, his face. Arn grit his teeth, the monster would get nothing from him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Everyone in the world knows you, King of Thieves."

Though his expression did not seem to change, the boy-king's eyes sharpened. "Gerudo. I am King of the Gerudo." Then he smiled. "Though I suppose today I will actually earn that moniker. I am not here to kill you, Hylian. I only wish for the scrolls you carry. You fought bravely. Put down your sword and no harm will come to you."

He was lying, he must be. You cannot trust a Gerudo, this one less than all the others. "I gave my vow to protect this caravan with my life. If you want to take what it carries then you'll have to go through me."

"Disappointing, but if this is how you wish to die." The man took a sword from his horse. A blade too big for any man to wear at their side, too thick for most people to even lift, black runes etched along its face. The boy-king held it before him as though it were a well balanced arming sword.

"For Hylia and the Royal Family!" Arn roared and charged. He swung his blade as fast as he could, but somehow the Gerudo parried every one of his blows. The sword shouldn't be able to move that fast. It didn't seem possible. "Die!" Arn screamed and thrust with all his strength.

The massive blade, batted aside the thrust and took Arn in the chest. Piercing the steel of his breastplate as easily as skin and bone.

"For the Gerudo," Ganondorf said. "And for myself."

The strength fled from Arn's legs. His knees hit the ground, his sword slipped through his fingers. He clutched at the massive sword. He opened his mouth to scream, but not even air came out.

The horse raced over the fields, Banzetta kicked it on as fast as it could go. "Please, Goddesses, please." Her child stared at her, eyes wide and confused. The sounds of the raiders yelps and the howls of the dead and dying filled their ears. "For my child. Please-"

Pain burst through her side. The air in her chest pushed out by the arrow that took her just under her arm.

"Hah!" a voice came from behind her. "Got you!"

The forest was so close. The raiders wouldn't dare follow her there. If only she could make it that far. Hot liquid slid down her stomach and arms. She looked over her shoulder at the Gerudo raider, bow in hand, her red hair flying about her like the flames of Din herself. She could not fight her, not even with her husband's sword. She was going to die. Her child was going to die.

The raider rode her horse beside Banzetta and drew another arrow. "Weak and cowardly, all you people-"

The child in Banzetta's arms cried. Banzetta looked down, her blood covered his wrapping, turning the blue cloth as red as the Gerudo's hair.

"Oh," the raider said. When Banzetta looked up from her child her eyes met the Gerudo. She was young, a teenager who looked at Banzetta with scorn and something else. Confusion? Pity? The raider turned her bow aside and kicked her horse to move away. Leaving Banzetta and her child behind.

"Thank you, Goddesses," Banzetta managed to gasp as her mount moved the last of the way into the forest. As she entered the woods a thick fog enveloped her so neither she nor her horse could see more than a few feet ahead. She rode until the undergrowth proved too thick for her horse to run through. She stumbled as she dismounted, and felt another spurt of blood drip down her clothes and onto her child.

It had to be here. The stories and warnings of the Kokiri forest had to mean something. For her son's sake more than her.

A spider the size of her torso scuttled out from behind a tree. Banzetta almost screamed, and waved Arn's sword about. But managed to catch her own voice before it would draw any further predators to her. She ran away from the spider, through trees and bushes all while she could hear the footsteps and rustling of leaves of something behind her. Chopping at branches that got in her way. Everyone who travels through the Kokiri forest dies. Why had she thought it would be any different for her? "I'm sorry," she whispered to her child. But what else could she do? Return to the battle and beg for mercy? Even if she thought the barbarians would spare her, she could feel her limbs growing cold. She'd never make it back out.

A speck of light flew above her head. Another, then another. Some blue, others purple, or pink. Was that the fairies? "I'm looking for sanctuary." She said to the lights, but they did not answer. "I don't mean you harm."

The lights danced through the air. Whirling as if moved by a breeze that Banzetta was too numb to feel. The sword slipped from her useless fingers, and she did not think she had the strength to pick it back up.

"The guardian of the forest. Do you know where I can find him?"

The lights moved deeper into the woods. She followed them, what else can I do? They twinkled and whirled about the trees. Sometimes disappearing then reappearing far away.

"Is this the way?" But the lights didn't respond. Her legs grew heavier, and she could feel her heart beat strain as it tried to keep her wounded body moving.

"I can't," she tried to say more as her legs collapsed beneath her. She barely managed to twist and land on her shoulder, shielding her child from the fall. "I'm sorry," she said to the crying babe. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" A deep voice rumbled around her, shaking the very roots of the trees. "I suppose thou hast good reason to be sorry, daughter of Hyrule."

"Are you the protector of the forest?" Had she made it?

"Yes, daughter of Hyrule. Why hast thou come? I decreed thy kind shall never bring war to my land, to my children. Verily, I decreed entering my forest would mean death."

"I know," Banzetta said to the air. "I come not for myself. I'm already dying. But, my son. He is innocent. You can take him, please."

"Innocent?" the words rumbled through the limbs of trees, shaking leaf and snapping twigs. "No, canst thou sense it? The taint of violence and war already spread about him. Blood clings to him tighter than his swaddling clothes."

"The blood is mine. He's only a child."

"It is a weapon. One of the greatest and most terrible of this age. Dare not lie to me, daughter of Hyrule! Thou wisheth me keep it safe until it grows ready to fight thy wars."

"I'm not lying."

A spindly leg touched Banzetta's calf. A spider shaped as a skull crawled on top of her. She wanted to fight it off, to be as strong and brave as Arn. But she could no longer move her body. Her child cried in her arms, wailing as though he understood what was about to happen.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to her son as tears filled her eyes. The spider crawled up her thigh onto her stomach. It's fangs raised to strike down on her. With what strength she had left, she tried to turn her body to protect her child. "I'm sorry Link. I love you. Your mother will always love you."

The spider stopped.

"Dost thou mean what thou hast said? Dost love still flow through the hearts of Hylians?"

"I love my son with everything I have left," The words stuck in her throat, she needed to force each one out as painful as the arrow in her side.

"I had not thought it possible." The spider moved backed off her, crawling away and out of Banzetta's sight. "I thought the wars and corruption hast turned thy love to hate long ago. Very well, Hylian, for the love of a fellow parent I shall take thy child."

"Thank you," Banzetta managed to say. Vines draped down from the tree and surrounded her son. Gently pulling him free of her arms. "You are merciful."

"Mercy? No, this is no mercy. His life will be pain and death. Sorrow and violence."

"But he will be alive?"

"Yes, daughter of Hyrule, he will be alive."

She watched as the vines pulled her baby up into the leaves, until she could no longer see him or hear his cries. Goodbye Link, she wished to say. But her lips no longer moved and no air left her lungs. I love you.

Author's Note: This is going to be a streamlined retelling of Ocarina of Time, focusing on the themes I find most interesting rather more than directly matching every character perfectly. It's sort of a mini project I'm using to distract myself at the moment. But I hope you enjoy.