A.N.- Sorry for the delay. the really long delay. I'll be posting another chapter after this today, and another after that ASAP.

Arkan awoke, the sun shining brilliantly through his window. The memory of

the dream pushed into the depths of Arkan's mind. Not so far as to never be

remembered again, but just out of the grasp of consciousness.

He swung his legs out of bed and walked into the hallway. His father emerged

from his small study as Arkan walked down the hallway. "Hey, son," he

greeted happily, "I couldn't figure out the meaning of the inscription on

the blade your found. I need to use the castle's library. You want to come

along?" Arkan's face lit up with excitement. "Do you mean it dad?"

"Absolutely. Get dressed and have a decent breakfast, we'll leave as soon as

you're ready." Arkan's eyes twinkled as he rushed into his room to change,

he would finally go to the castle for the first time.

Once changed, Arkan rushed out of his room and downstairs toward the

kitchen; the smell of food wafted out of the kitchen, making Arkan's mouth

water. He sat down at the table, quickly, and waited for his food.

Arkan couldn't get over the fact that his father was taking him to the

castle. He had always wanted to go, but Zinc had always said he was too

young and irresponsible. From what his dad had told him, the castle was a

beautiful place; full of gardens, books, and many other exciting things.

Arkan's mother set a plate of two pancakes and a glass of milk in front of

Arkan. Trying not to be too disorderly and rude, Arkan devoured the food as

if he hadn't eaten in two or three days. Rising from the table, he wiped his

mouth and rushed outside.

The rain had finally ceased in its torrent upon the land of Hyrule. The wind

blew lightly through Arkan's long, blonde, hair; the sun shone brightly on

the land. The grass glistened as the sun's light hit their water-covered

blades.

Zinc was already saddling up two horses for the journey. On one horse, he

strapped on Arkan's sword; on the other, he fastened a bow and a quiver of

arrows. Arkan approached the horse, which held the sword, and prepared to

mount. "Are you going to need help getting on, son?" Zinc asked. "No," Arkan

assured, "I think I'll be able to get on by myself." Placing his booted foot

into the foothold, Arkan heaved his body onto the horse. He struggled to

swing his leg onto the other side of the beast, but eventually he was able

to situate himself in a comfortable position. Zinc mounted his horse with

ease and, looking at Arkan, trotted down the path that led out of Kakariko

Village.

Zinc and Arkan crossed the bridge in front of the village. The two trotted

upon their horses in silence; Arkan too excited to talk, Zinc too deep in

thought.

At last, Arkan saw in the distance the outer walls of the castle; the

drawbridge still up, apparently the guards hadn't bothered to lower it yet.

Arkan spurred his horse into a gallop, and sped towards the bridge. Nearing

the walls at an incredible speed, Arkan panicked and tried franticly to

bring his horse to a halt; but the beast refused to heed his command; it

continued its suicide route toward the moat. Arkan yelled and screamed,

trying in some way to make the beast stop, but still the beast ran; but

Arkan continued his attempts and halting the horse. Finally, the horse dug

its hooves into the ground and came to a screeching halt; this took Arkan by

surprise and he was, therefore, flung off of the horse, through the air, and

onto the ground. He skidded and rolled until he fell off of a ledge and plun

ged into the moat. All sense of direction had been lost to Arkan at this

point. He struggled to surface, to breathe the precious air of which his

lungs craved so earnestly. His head popped above the surface of the water as

he gasped desperately for air. Finally having obtained an idea of what had

happened he waited for his father to come to his aid, for the ledge he had

fallen off of was so high that he could not climb out by himself.

The sound of hoof beats could be heard. Soon, they came to a halt and

footsteps were heard, coming towards Arkan, who waited patiently in the

water of the moat. Zing looked over the ledge and at his son, with a look

that said he was sorry, yet wasn't sorry for what had happened.

Zing reached his hand out toward Arkan, who gladly reached and grasped his

father's hand in his. With a slight bit of difficulty, Zinc hauled his

sopping wet son out of the moat. Now out of the water, Zinc looked his son

over, as any father would.

Arkan was bleeding from his elbows, arms, and knees; but nothing fatal.

However, there was a rather deep gash in his right arm. Seeing this, Zinc

went to his horse and removed a pouch. From the pouch he took a few

bandages. He knelt down by Arkan and, with careful hands, wrapped Arkan's

wound. Arkan winced in pain, and yet he put up with it despite the

discomfort. "This'll hold for now," Zinc said aloud to himself, "but I need

to buy a potion." "What?" Arkan asked. "Nothing, I just need to buy

something now, don't worry," Zinc assured.

With this, Zinc took his son by the hand and led him to his horse. Picking

him up, he set Arkan down on the horse and then mounted his own. Now,

though, Zinc faced another perplexing situation, the drawbridge still hadn't

been lowered. Zinc sat upon his horse, contemplating how he would get it to

open. Arkan too, stared at the drawbridge and tried to find a way to get it

to drop. Finally, Zinc bumped head, wondering why the idea hadn't occurred

to him before. Beside the drawbridge was a window, rather narrow, though.

Zinc slowly trotted over to the window. Taking his bow and an arrow, he

aimed it at the window. The wind blew hard, forcing Zinc to lower his bow

and wait patiently. The wind continued to blow relentlessly, as if an

intelligence was what was causing the wind to continue to blow. Slowly the

wind died, seemingly reluctant. Again, Zinc raised his bow, aiming it at the

window. Zinc waited a moment, to be sure that the wind would not kick up

surprisingly; finally, satisfied with the lack of wind, Zinc let the arrow

fly.

The arrow flew through the window and could be heard ricocheting off several

walls before finally ceasing to fly about the room. The sound of footsteps

and voices could be heard, and a man's head popped out of the window and

yelled, "What do you think yer' doin.. Oh, Zinc, sorry. I didn't recognize

ya'." "That's fine, Trab. I just need you to lower the bridge." "Sure Zinc,

gimme' a sec'." Trab's head disappeared into the wall. Another voice could

be heard, which was followed by another. The drawbridge slowly brang itself

down and finally stopped. Zinc led Arkan across the bridge, turning into a

small alcove; where a number of pegs stuck out of the ground. A few horses

were already tied to a few of the pegs. Zinc led both of the horses to two

vacant pegs. Taking the reigns, he quickly tied both up and left; taking bag

from one of the saddles. He walked down the short road that led to the

bustling crowd that made up Hyrule's great market.

Zinc held Arkan's hand tightly, as to not lose him in the throngs of people

that passed by. The crowds around each section of the market formed a human

wall around them. Zinc pushed through them with difficulty, and approached

the door of the potion shop. Opening it, he rushed in and closed it quickly,

glad to be out of the madness of the market. He approached the counter where

a tall fair skinned man with short hair stood. Zinc pointed to a red pot on

one of the shelves, and motioned to a bottle he held in his hand.

"Sure thing, let me get it ready," the man behind the counter said. Taking

Zinc's bottle, he walked out of sight to the back of the store. Arkan

approached his father and asked with pleading eyes, "Dad, can I go to the

Happy Mask Shop. Please." Zinc stood a moment and then replied, "Sure thing,

Arkan. But just be sure not to go anywhere else. When I come to get you, I

expect you to be in the mask shop." "O.K. dad, I will," Arkan said with

delight. With this said, Arkan opened the door and exited the shop.

Arkan was caught off guard by the swiftness of the moving crowd, and was

swept away like a leaf dropped into a rushing river. Arkan fought to try to

and go against the constant flow of people, but soon gave up as he saw that

the effort was hopeless.

He continued to walk with the mob (if you will) until he saw an outlet in

the walls, looking like an alley. Arkan pushed and shoved his way over to

the outlet, but the current of people swept him away before he could get to

it.

Unknowing as to what he would do, he asked no one in particular, "Does

anyone know where the Happy Mask Shop is?" A large man with a red bulbous

nose turned to him, smiling, and said, "Oh, Link how are ya'.. Wait a sec',"

the man said, hesitantly, "Yer' not Link are ya'?" Arkan looked at the man

perplexed. Who was Link. "No sir, I'm not. But do you know where the Happy

Mask Shop is?" "Course I do," the man said, laughing in such a way that his

entire body jiggled and gesturing with his hand, "It's over there. Ya' can't

miss it." "Thank-you, sir," Arkan said, appreciatively. "Ah, it's nothin',"

the man replied. With that, the large man walked away, making a path for

himself through the crowd with his body.

Pleased with the direction he had acquired, he made his way through the

crowd with great effort. Seeing a door, he pushed with all the strength he

had to reach it before the rush of people could sweep him away. Reaching out

his hand, he opened the door and quickly entered. Glad that he was safe from

the crowd, Arkan took time to calm himself down as he looked around the

room. The walls were covered with masks of all shapes and sizes, colors and

hues, faces and figures. Arkan stood wide-eyed at the overwhelming amount of

masks that he saw. Finally, for the first time, he was at the shop his

friends had always been talking about. And, though he had never been to the

Happy Mask Shop before, he recognized a great number of masks. A bunny hood,

a mask shaped as a stone, a pig mask, a mask of a skeletons face. Arkan was

baffled at the fact that he recognized any of the masks at all.

"May I help you?" a voice asked from behind the counter. Arkan looked up to

see a man with slanted eyes looking down at him with a smile. The man was

tall, with read hair. Arkan approached the counter, behind which the man

stood. The man's eyes widened as Arkan approached. "Link?" he asked,

bewildered. "No sir, I'm not Link," Arkan said, calmly, "My name's Arkan. I

saw someone else who thought I was Link too. Who is he?" "Oh," the man said,

the expression on his face fading away, "just someone I once knew. But the

boy that I knew changed on that day, ten years ago." The man's last words

trailed off as he stared out into space, thinking back to a different place.

Seeing that the man did not seem to want to continue speaking, Arkan went

back to his examining of the masks on the walls. Something in the back of

his mind grew stronger, striving to be discovered by Arkan's consciousness.

But it was still too weak, it would have to wait for another chance.

The door opened and Zinc stepped into the room. He looked over at Arkan and

asked "You ready, son,". "Yeah," Arkan responded. Taking his son by the

hand, Zinc led him out of the shop and back into the madness of Hyrule's

market.

Zinc walked unhindered by the massive amounts of people rushing by. He

emerged from the crowd onto a road, which led to the castle. Zinc reached

into his bag and removed a bottle full of a red liquid. He handed it to

Arkan, saying, "Here Arkan, drink this." Arkan took the drink and removed

the cork. Lifting to his lips, he let the liquid flow smoothly down his

throat.

It tasted sweet in his mouth, and he enjoyed it while it lasted. But,

eventually the fluid was drained from the bottle. Handing the bottle back to

his father, he waited for something to happen. He looked at his father but

said nothing, Zinc simply smiled back. Suddenly, Arkan felt a tingling

sensation in his arms and legs. However, the sensation felt strongest where

the gash on Arkan's right arm was. Looking at his father, he removed the

bandage and was astonished by what his eyes saw before them.

The wound was closing up by itself. As each side of the wound met the other,

the line that was left behind disappeared blood and all; leaving nothing

more than a faint scar. Arkan looked around at the other wounds he had. They

too were closing up and disappearing.

Arkan looked up at his father again, a question in his eyes and about to

come out of his mouth, but Zinc came up with an answer before he could speak

the words. "It's a healing potion made of a special type of mushroom. I got

it so you wouldn't hurt while you were at the castle; besides, that gash was

pretty deep, I was worried." Arkan was too amazed by his experience to

answer, or say anything for that matter. Zinc saw this and simply led his

son down the road towards the castle.

Arkan looked to his side and saw a massive building. "Is that the castle?"

He asked, pointing to the building. "No," Zinc said, "that's the Temple of

Time" Arkan continued to stare at the structure. "It houses the Master

Sword," Zinc continued, "When evil encroaches upon the land of Hyrule, and

threatens to destroy the world we have labored so hard to create, the Hero

of Time will take the sword from it place and strike the evil down;

banishing it to the sealed realm, where it will live out the remainder of

its existence.. alone" "Whoa," Arkan said, but he said no more. He was

seeing, hearing, and feeling so much. His mind couldn't talk and sort out

all that was going on at the same time. Instead, he simply walked on with

his father down the road.

As the two walked down the road, they neared a gate, guarded by two men in

armor holding spears. Apparently, the guards knew Zinc, for they called for

the gate to be opened before Zinc could even ask. Thanking them, he walked

past the gate and guardhouse.

Finally, they both reached the end of the road. A drawbridge lay lowered,

which both entered. Arkan's eyes widened, yet again, as he saw the vastness

of the place he had entered.
A.N.- Review if you like, I'd appreciate it.