A small portion of the sun began to climb over mountaintops while the Hylian guard who was supposed to take watch during the day ran as fast as he could to his king. The clanking of the chains and gears lowering the drawbridge sounded loudly as the replacement approached. He sighed as he stepped before the still lowering bridge. His eyes slowly traced the ground as he waited seemingly forever. He acted on instinct and partial need to become known. The first thought was to alert the king… rather than his superior officer. He thought to alert the king because this might be something important and the king is the most important person. Finally, the drawbridge came down with an echoing clank.

The Castle Town was just beginning to wake up, the guard had noted that on a previous visit here that the place seemed to wake up at once. He often thought that the drawbridge was an alarm for these people. He walked quietly through the town, looking at the shops as the owners made the final preparations to the workday that was just beginning. The guards unlucky enough to have night shift were now being dismissed for home while those on the day shift took their places. In fact, all of the guards were switching shifts. It would be pathetically easy for anyone to walk right into the castle. Our little guard from Kakariko did just that without being stopped once along the way. This will be easy… he thought to himself.

However, what our little guard from Kakariko failed to realize was that explaining why he was here and nonetheless why he abandoned his post would be painful.

As he entered the castle an aura of hushed silence seemed to resound within. The guard crept in quietly, apprehensively, his hand close to the hilt of his sword. An echo of a horrifying events lingered in the air like thick smoke choking one's mind. Despite the menacing feeling the castle remained spotlessly clean, defiant against whatsoever stood against it, and marvelously decorated. The guard continued: staring awestricken at the beauty that is the castle of the Hylia while a nervous sweat began on his brow.

Suddenly a voice like booming thunder and harsh like dragon roar, the Sergeant of the Guard could not help but lose his temper as he saw his guard not at his post. "What are you doing here?? Why are you away from your post?!" Stress slid down the face of the sergeant in thick beads of sweat, while anger veiled his face in red. The Sergeant sighed to himself mentally: he knew this guard and he had never caused one bit of trouble before, he liked to help… and wanted a name for himself, but nothing more.

The guard from Kakariko jumped involuntarily, nearly losing his balance in the process as he spun around to see the source of the voice. He quickly looked up into the rage-reddened eyes of his superior. Immediately he stood at attention and answered.  "I-I… When I w-went to trade shifts with Leathrin… I-I found him huddled in a b-ball, whispering to himself like a s-scared child. H-he was white like snow; he looked as if he had seen a ghost… He spoke of d-darkness and fire… A demon perhaps… I c-came to warn the Kin" He could feel the eyes of the sergeant narrowing in disapproval "-you, Sir..."

What is happening to this land…? The Sergeant thought to himself, while showing an expression of neutral anger. "That will be all. Return to your post."

"B-but what about.."

"That will be all." The tone of the Sergeant of the Guard voice carried more threat than the sound of an order. Either way, it was not to be overlooked. "I will send for someone to move him. Now get back to your post before people start asking questions." The guard swiftly left for his post. The Sergeant watched the young guard flee, and sighed to himself as his head lowered to face the ground.

The silent song of the night wind filled the halls of the castle. It was late: she should have been asleep. The icy, solid white floors of the castle stung her bare feet as she made the trek down the hall, heading to the stairs so the adolescent could make the midnight snack run to the kitchen. The need for sleep overcame Zelda's senses, dulling them to the point where they were useless. Had she been awake, she would have noticed that the guard by the stairs was curiously gone. Warily, the Princess of Hyrule descended the stairs while her stomach led her through the shadowy, quiet halls of her elegant home.

As she moved her feet off the final step one at a time, a slumped form in a dim –unnaturally dim- corner entered her sight. The princess moved towards the slumped form. A faint glimmer of light came from the form's armor… It's one of the guards. She thought as the need for an explanation presented itself. Perhaps he sleeps… it is night after all… He works during the nights; he is supposed to sleep during the day. Something is not right. Pointlessly, her mind bickered with itself in a futile fight. In the darkened corner, she kneeled down by the man. Using her hand, she moved his face up so she could see it. When his face moved into sight, she met his eyes. Open wide, almost as if they were forced open, yet they held no emotion. She stared at him. He stared back. His eyes remained wide open, unblinking they stared back at her blankly, almost like he was staring through her. Then his mouth moved.

"I have seen it. It watches us. It has much knowledge to share. It wills me to share it with you…" With speed Zelda had never seen before nor could she hope to match the guard shot his hand up, tightly wrapping it around her neck. As his iron grip crushed the royalty's windpipe into silence, he brought his face to hers. Zelda did all she could do. She looked into his empty eyes.

Three hours before the sun had risen, a servant found both guard and princess unconscious on the floor. The guard's eyes had remained open to their own destruction. They had dried, rendering him blind. Zelda's neck had been badly bruised in the shape of the hand that had done so. The guard was locked away in the darkness under the castle: the dungeon. While the King fumed and the Sergeant of the Guard took the tongue lashing from his liege, Zelda, once she regained consciousness and chased the nurses away, lit all the lights possible in her room. Everyone thought her afraid of the dark; after all… she did say she was afraid of the darkness that comes in the night.

Has one of my men really caused such harm, mentally and physically, to the daughter of the King? The Sergeant wandered down the gloomy halls, pondering the previous night as he sought out someone to retrieve the frightened-beyond-sanity guard in Kakariko…