Disclaimer: Say it aint so! Legend of Zelda just aint mine!

A.N. Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think that a kamehameha is going to make an appearance, but there may be a big Din's Fire blast a bit later if you want. See what you reckon at the end of the chapter and add to your review. (Hee hee hee, effective author blackmail for reviews!) Oh yeah, if you don't like it being slightly Link-Zelda then tough!

Chapter 2: Olaran's Old Enemy

Now it came to pass that during his rise to fame, General Olaran had made many friends and a fair number of enemies, the most dangerous and slow witted of these being a giant pig-Moblin named Moreth. Moreth had been in command of a Moblin army that had attempted to invade Hyrule twenty years before our story began, when the young captain (as he was then) had been twenty two years old. In an attempt to get the army to surrender, Moreth had promptly kidnapped Harkinian's queen Cordelia and held her to ransom, only to have his leg crippled by Olaran upon her rescue and his army beaten by the substantially better organised Hylian force (led and organised by Olaran). You might be wondering what relevance this little Hylian history lesson holds. I'm just getting to that part.

During the time of the tournament, Moreth was in a worse mood than usual. He was getting old and his crippled leg was causing him grief again as it always did when he was cold, but worse still was the incessant chatter of his Moblins, discussing the events of the tournament.

"Yesh, thish ish very intereshting." One of them commented to those that could be bothered to listen to him. "They shay that there'sh only two peoplesh that got perfect scoresh in the archery yeshterday, and they wash boysh in the juniorsh."

"Really?" The mass queried.

"Yesh!" The storyteller continued. "Two boysh. One ish the shon of he who we can't shpeak about..."

Moreth had forbidden anyone mentioning Olaran's name on penalty of death.

"... And the other ish a fairy boy from the foresht."

Moreth's ears caught that and a grin spread across his black, gap toothed mouth.

"Moblinsh!" He snorted. "Prepare to march for Hyrule Cashtle! We will finish what we shtarted all thoshe yearsh ago!"

The Moblins lined up and bowed.

"Yesh mashter."

Moreth grabbed his giant club and swung it over his shoulder, marching out of his lair towards the castle with a swing in his limping step and followed by his mottely crew. Revenge was going to be sweet.

******

News of the two perfect scores in the archery had spread throughout the kingdom and the crowd had doubled somewhat. They all regarded the adult swordfights respectfully, but everyone was there for the juniors to catch sight of the famous general's son and the forest boy who had come out of nowhere to tie for the best archery score with a boy five years his senior. Bookmakers had sprung up out of nowhere and the odds of it being Link versus Aidyn in the final were at two to one. Zelda noted all this with a grin of satisfaction and noticed that all of the adult Sages (minus Rauru who was cooped up in the Chamber of Sages) were putting money on Link to win. Olaran on the other hand, had been acting strangely quietly since Link's performance. Zelda imagined that it was just sour grapes.

Link, despite his amazing archery score, was still not being taken seriously by the other boys.

"He's a Kokiri, he must have bewitched it..."

"The arrows he was using had magnets in them and he fixed the targets."

"I'm sure I saw the targets move towards him..."

"Well he won't win the swordfights."

Link smiled and took hold of his wooden sword for the day. He snorted in disgust at it as it was too light and flimsy for his liking. How was it possible for him to issue any damage with this pathetic little thing?

Most of the morning he spent with Zelda, watching the adult competition while eating candied apples from the boughs of a tree. Zelda rolled her eyes as one of the incompetent castle guards tripped over his own feet and knocked his opponent flying.

"This is truly pathetic." She said, nibbling caramel from her treat. "Am I the only person alarmed that these numbskulls are responsible for my family's safety?

Link laughed.

"Yeah, but I'll show them how it should be done. I did yesterday and I'll do it today."

Zelda smiled at him and kissed his cheek, surprising him so that he nearly fell out of the tree.

"What did you do that for?" He asked indignantly.

Zelda looked embarrassed.

"Well I said I'd kiss you again if you won, and you did win the archery..."

Link laughed.

"I did didn't I?"

Zelda nodded.

"Looks like it."

Link laughed again.

"If I beat Aidyn, then I'm going to kiss you."

The princess blushed and looked at her feet.

"I'd like that." She said, playing with her mittens.

Link grinned and kicked his feet against the branch they were sitting on.

"Can I kiss you now?"

Zelda shook her head.

"No, you've got to win first."

Link frowned.

"Oh OK."

He was about to talk again until he suddenly saw something and nearly toppled out of the tree.

"No it's Ruto, hide me!" He yelped, scrambling further up the tree and behind one of the thick branches.

Zelda couldn't help but giggle and alerted her presence to the Zora princess. Ruto was wearing a golden circlet around her large head and a miniscule replica of her father's cape around her shoulders.

"Zelda, what are you doing up there? Have you seen my little Link? I've been looking all over for him..."

Zelda muffled her giggle and shook her head.

"No I haven't."

Ruto pouted and folded her arms.

"Well he'd better get here soon, he's supposed to fighting soon. And I have to give him a kiss."

Zelda didn't need to look up to see the horrified expression on Link's face.

"I'll tell him you're looking for him."

Ruto nodded her thanks and then spotted Epona.

"Ooh, I bet he's over there. Oh Lii-ink!"

Zelda giggled again and looked up at Link who was making a disgusted expression and forcing his fingers down his throat while making a gagging noise.

"If I have to marry that thing, I'm going to end up drowning myself." He muttered. "Either that or learn how to cook fish."

******

Olaran stood watching the Princess and her companion while they watched the finals of the duels. There was something about the little forest boy that had caught his attention and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was about him that he found so familiar. The boy had proved that he was not to be underestimated, but Olaran couldn't help but wonder what more he had in store for the spectators.

"There you are, I was wondering where you got." Aidyn said, laughing as he saw his father staring at the tree. "What're you looking at?"

He looked up at the tree and smiled upon seeing the two children hidden in the branches.

"He's a pretty brave kid." He said approvingly, "I wouldn't be surprised if we fought in the final."

Olaran nodded.

"It's strange you know, but he reminds me of your mother when I first met her." He said wistfully. "She was just as determined as he was, and as aggressive."

Aidyn looked at his father in alarm, surprised at his sudden nostalgia.

"Dad?" He asked quietly. "Are you OK?"

Olaran nodded.

"I'm fine son, I sometimes get like this when I come back here."

Aidyn nodded, understanding what his father was saying.

"Is there anyone I should watch out for in the duels father?" He asked, trying to take his father's mind off his mother.

Olaran smiled at his son and put his hand on his shoulder.

"I won't know for sure until the draws have been made, but you should watch for Yoric, he's got a very strong offensive thrust and also Tristian, he wears you down before attacking, but you mustn't underestimate Voren..."

Aidyn smiled to himself. That tactic never failed to get his father back to his normal self.

******

Two leather bags rested on a table and were the focus of the ten boys in the room. The fat, balding minister that Link had insulted, regarded all of the competitors as though he would really rather be somewhere else.

"You're all here because you ten scored highest on the archery yesterday..."

All eyes fell on Link, who was standing in one corner, and Aidyn who was standing in the other.

"In each bag are four numbered balls: the even numbers in the left and the odd in the right. You will all be represented by a number, but just in case you have forgotten your number I'll read them out again:

1- Aidyn

2- Forn

3- Yoric

4- Horeb

5- Pebo

6- Tristian

7- Voren

8- Link . Any questions?"

There were none.

"Right. I will draw each number and you will have your fights. There will be four fights, numbered one to four. The winner of fight one will battle against the winner of fight three and the winner of fight two will battle against the winner of fight four. The winners of those fights will go onto the final which will happen after the battle determining the third and fourth places. Everybody understand?"

The boys nodded.

"Right, here is the draw."

He plunged his hand into the left bag and then the right before reading the numbers on the balls.

"Fight one will be: 1 versus 6. Aidyn versus Tristian."

Link looked across at Aidyn, who nodded calmly and was shaking hands with a wiry ginger haired boy.

"Fight two, 4 versus 5. Horeb versus Pebo."

Horeb, who was stout and had a broken nose, grinned broadly at a rather nervous looking boy with mousy brown curls.

"Fight three, 2 versus 7. Forn versus Voren."

Voren and Forn turned out to be twins, and both laughed heartily.

"Which means that fight four will be Yoric versus Link..."

"Piece of cake!" Yoric yelled enthusiastically.

Link looked at the boy, who was built like a bull and had a face like the rear end of one.

"Yeah, for me that is." Link returned.

The others laughed, except Yoric.

"Pah! I'll have the squirt crying for his mommy."

Link narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest.

"My mother's dead." He said stonily. "But do send my regards to yours when I send you whimpering back to her."

"She probably deserved it."

"What did you say?!" Link roared.

"Now boys." The minister said, intervening. "Save the aggression until the fight."

"With pleasure." Link said, spinning on his heel and walking out.

Aidyn glared at Yoric.

"You're lower than a worm." He said angrily. "I hope he beats you into the ground after what you said."

The others nodded in agreement, leaving Yoric looking gobsmacked in the middle of the room as Aidyn walked out to find Link.

The boy was standing beside Epona, looking at her and shaking.

"Are you OK Link?" Aidyn asked, fearing that the boy was crying.

Link turned around with an irate expression on his face, and the older boy could see that Link was actually shaking in anger.

"He shouldn't have said that about my mother. That's just going to make me humiliate him even more than I was going to."

"No he shouldn't have. It was unforgivable and the others agree with me."

"Great." Link muttered. "Now I have their pity and they won't want to fight me properly."

Aidyn laughed.

"If that's all you're worried about then you're very thick skinned. You don't need to worry about them not fighting you because they will, motherless or not."

"How do you know? It's not as though you have that problem."

"Actually I do." Aidyn said, putting his arm over Epona's withers. "My mother died when I was six."

Link said nothing and set about comforting Epona who was startled by Aidyn's sudden gesture.

"How old were you?" Aidyn asked, eager to break the awkward silence.

"Me? Oh, I dunno. I was a baby when she died. I didn't know that I even had a mother until a short time ago, the Kokiri don't have any parents."

"So how come you do?" Aidyn was curious to hear his story.

"'cause I'm not a Kokiri." Link said, flicking a strand of Epona's mane back over to the right side. "They're just my foster family."

He said it in a manner that meant he didn't want to talk about it any more.

"Listen, I've gotta get going, my fight's in a minute. If you need to talk..."

"I'll be fine Aidyn. Good luck."

Aidyn smiled at the smaller boy.

"I'm looking forward to fighting you in the final Link."

Link nodded. If both boys won all their fights, then they would meet in the final, and it would be a fight worth watching.

Little did both boys know that they were going to have a tougher fight on their hands before they got that chance.