Zelda is not something I own. I own the actual games of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, the Oracle Series, and Wind Waker, but that's it.

Scroll I:

Bigger Than Ganon

'Huh…?' Link turned around.

He suddenly found himself walking through the Lost Woods, much like he had when he stumbled upon Termina. Everything was frozen; not a living thing moved.

Then the sky turned red. Something was coming.

Link turned around, and then he saw it. Some sort of black funnel protruded from the red sky and slowly made its way toward him.

He stood, frozen, unsure of what to do. As the twister came closer it devoured the landscape. Link looked past it, but all he saw was a reddish haze.

The winds picked up even more, and Link had to clamp his hat down on his head to keep it from blowing off. But if he did that, he couldn't hold onto anything. Dust flew in any and every direction, stinging Links hands, face, and anything not covered by clothes. Link's eyes widened slightly in fear as he felt his feet inch slide closer to the tornado. He reached out and attempted to grab a tree stump. But it would turn out that wouldn't be necessary.

Because just then, as suddenly as it came, the twister disappeared.

The dust settled on Link. Dazed, he lifted his hand from his cap and began to brush himself off. But he stopped when he noticed a red streak appearing on his tunic. Link looked at his hands; the dust had scratched them raw and to the point of bleeding. But normal dust couldn't have possibly done that, so Link merely assumed that there was something sharp mixed in with the debris.

He was halfway right. Lying on the ground was a pile of something shiny. Upon closer examination, Link found the pile to contain little bits of red, blue, green, and gold shards. Link picked up one of the red ones, and all the crystal bits began to glow. Looking up for a brief moment, Link saw holographic images of the three Spiritual Stones, before they shattered and turned into the crystal shards that lay before him.

'Wha…?' Link was confused. It wasn't that he forgot what those stones were. Those three crystals had almost been Hyrule's downfall, but not on purpose. They had been the keys to unlocking the entrance to the Sacred Realm seven years ago… was it only seven? However, Ganondorf stole the Triforce from the Sacred Realm, which was originally meant for him, and thus the land fell into a depression.

A booming voice interrupted Link's thoughts.

"Are you ready?"

Link blinked, amazed. T-that was…

Ganondorf?! What the hell was he doing in Link's dream!?

"Hero of Time, are you ready?"

Link stood up, getting ready to draw his sword-only to find he had none. He stood bravely, and shouted: "I've been through ten kinds of hell, you included. I'm ready for anything!"

"But, Hero of Time… are you ready for death?"

Link had little time to consider these words before a spasm of pain shot through his chest. He looked up, and found himself staring straight at someone he never thought would do such a thing.

"Feh." The redhead with the green eyes smirked, withdrew the sword from within Link, and stood over him as…

~~~

Link woke up shaking. He sat up, and tried to take a deep breath. His breath caught in his lungs, and he felt his ribs creak. He gasped a few times and looked down at his hands, clenching the blanket he was sleeping under. Though the blanket was a dark color, Link could tell that something red had seeped into it. He looked at his hands. They were raw and bleeding.

'What in the Sacred Realm was that?' Link wondered as he got up from his little camp out in Hyrule Field.

'First that weird tornado, then the Spiritual Stones… then Ganondorf!?' He washed his hands in running water, and wrapped them in white strips of cloth. From a distance away, Epona let out a little snort.

"Okay, okay!" Link called. "I'm coming, girl."

'But…' Link said to himself as he set off to Hyrule Castle. 'The guy who stabbed me… why was it…?'

~~~

Anyone would agree, upon seeing the six sages and Zelda in Hyrule castle, that the inhabitants were restless. Zelda was dead silent as she stared out the window, her left-hand on her chin and her eyes glazed over. Saria, Impa, and Ruto watched the Princess from the couch, anxiety on their faces. Darunia and Rauru were standing by the couch, also worried. And Nabooru… she was the most restless one. She paced the floor many times over, she stood and tapped her foot, she watched the big clock on the south wall, and she splayed out in a chair. Finally, she could take it no more.

"Well?" she asked, irritated.

Zelda suddenly came out of her trance, her glassy eyes returning to their normal baby blue.

"Na-bo-ruuuuu!!!!" the other Sages moaned.

"Well, Princess?" Impa repeated. Nabooru sulked.

Zelda shook her head. "Nothing," she replied. "Even before Nabooru interrupted me. No visions came to me whatsoever.

"Maybe we're just paranoid," Darunia suggested, stretching. "After all that hell, we finally have peace."

"I know something's there," Zelda said in that way she had that made someone shut up. "I just know something bad is going to happen."

The room was quiet for a very long time.

~~~

The passerbys at Hyrule Market paid very little attention to the four people and three fairies grouped near the alley entrance. The little yellow fairy was pacing, anxious, while the girl with blue hair watched, leaning against the wall. The dark-skinned, redhead girl next to her was asleep, also against the wall.

"They're late…" The yellow fairy snapped, "As usual."

"C'mon, Tatl," the redhead had woken up at this outburst, and turned to face her, "That's not true."

"I'm right and you know it, Din," Tatl flew right in the oracle's face. "Link too. If these people know so much about time travel and whatnot they should at least be worried 'bout getting somewhere on time."

The blue-haired girl pointedly cleared her throat.

"No offense, Nayru," Tatl added quickly.

"Maybe it just took longer to figure something out, Tatl," a dark fairy said, shy. "You know how it can be."

Tatl turned around to face the other fairy. "Whatever, Tael."

A red-haired boy with a blue hat took out his sword and swung it around, almost knocking the scrawny forest-kid off his perch atop a crate.

"Watchit Ralph!" the kid moaned, "What are you trying to do, chop my head off?!"

Ralph sighed and sheathed his sword again. "Sorry, Skull Kid. I'm just bored…"

"Hey!!" A blue-lighted fairy shouted.

"Ungh…" Din snorted, just about to doze off again, "Someone… warn me before Navi does that again…"

Nayru laughed. "Are we keeping you up?" she joked.

Din looked at her blankly, then turned to Navi. "Well… whadja say 'Hey!' for?"

"They're coming!" Navi pointed across the market, toward Hyrule Castle. The group could see a wide path being cut through the crowd, mostly because of Darunia.

"HEY!!!!" Navi yelled. The Skull Kid pulled his hat over his ears and gave a little moan. "OVER HEEEEEEEEEERE!!!!!"

Ralph grabbed Navi and stuffed her into his pocket.

"HEY!!!!" she bellowed, "WHAT GIVES?!"

"What's going on?" Saria asked as the sages came closer.

"Uh… hi," Ralph said uneasily.

"Ralph…" Ruto looked at him from under her eyebrows, "What's in your pocket?"

"Ummm… nothing!" Ralph said.

"He put Navi in his pocket 'cause she was being annoying, as usual," the Skull Kid jeered.

"SHUDDAP, BRAT!!!!!" Ralph yelled, frowning.

"Hey," Tael looked past Impa's shoulder. "Wasn't Zelda supposed to be here?"

"Boo," an unknown voice said from behind them.

"E-YAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" the little fairy yelled, and turned around. A boy of about Link's age put up his hands as a gesture of peace. He had light blonde hair that covered one of his red eyes, and Sheikah-like clothing on.

"Who are you?" Ralph asked.

"Indeed," Nayru agreed, "You seem familiar, but I've never seen you before."

The Sages agreed.

"Forgive me," the man bowed, "I'm-Huh?"

Saria had walked up and shaken his hand. After doing so, she darted around him, making close-almost too close-observations.

"What are you doing?" the man asked.

Saria turned to him at last, satisfied.

Finally, she bowed to him. "Hi, Zelda!"

"EH?! ZELDA!?"

Darunia looked at the Forest Sage strangely, "Saria, are you feeling okay? That's a guy…"

Saria shook her head.

The man, Sheik, smiled. "Why do you think that, Saria?"

Saria was extremely pleased with herself. "You can change your hair color, your eye color, and… some other things…" she said. "Butcha can't change the mark on your left hand!" Saria pointed to it.

Sheik looked at his left hand, acting confused, and smiled. "That's right, Saria!"

Nabooru cocked her head. "Eh?" She walked up to Sheik, and put a hand on his chest. "…………………….…Eh?"

WHAP!!

Darunia and Impa smacked her on the head. Sheik shook his-her?-head and smiled. In the puff and flash of light that made Nabooru jump back, the group saw their Princess standing in the alleyway with them.

"… Ohhhhhhhhh…" Nabooru nodded.

Ruto gave a little giggle, but then saw someone hunched over on a crate on the other side of the alley. "LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!" She squealed, and stampeded to greet her "fiancée" with a big bear hug.

~~~

"Ugh…" Link moaned, stopping in the back alley to take a breath, "Those crowds are hell on earth. Lucky no one's back here so I can-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!" A painfully familiar voice yelled. Someone stampeded down the alley, and proceeded to glomp Link, making him fall backwards off his crate.

"Aaaahhh-Ruto-" Link choked, "Air-help-me-anyone?"

The others came up. Tatl and Tael were hanging onto each other for support from laughing so hard, Zelda looked faintly unhappy, Rauru, Saria, Nabooru, and Impa looked a bit annoyed, the Skull Kid looked amazed that a high and mighty Sage could act like that, and Din and Nayru were letting out a few giggles. Darunia and Ralph, however, weren't holding back. The two let out roaring laughs, and Ralph was on the floor, pounding the ground.

"WA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!" Ralph howled, "The g-g-great and mi-mighty He-Hero of Time HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! S-scared of a Zora?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

"Turning into quite the ladies' man, arentcha, Link?" Darunia chuckled.

"Hey!" Ruto turned on Ralph, angry, "Don't make fun of Linkie!!"

"LINKIE?!?!?!?!"

THUD!!

Din, Nayru, and the Skull Kid fell down laughing as well. Link rose, and began to draw his sword when he remembered…

"Sowhatareyoudoinghereanyway?" he asked quickly before Ruto choked him again.

"Hey!!" Navi chirruped from Ralph's pocket. "Did you forget about me?"

"NOOOO!!!!" Link howled, "Navi's here too?"

Navi floated out and pouted. "I think Zelda n' the Sages have to tell us something! So LISTEN!!!!!"

"Ack!!" Link pulled his hat over his ears.

"Oh, Linkie, did you hurt your hands?" Ruto asked as she eyed Link's bandages.

"Uh, no," Link said, "I was working with uh, an um… a rope. Yeah, that's it, and I didn't want to get… um… blisters."

"Why don't we believe you?" Nabooru asked skeptically. "So, you've felt it too, huh? That feeling that something bad's going to happen?"

Link looked down and nodded.

"Will you be okay?" Zelda asked, concerned. "You're breathing kind of heavily..."

Ruto gave Zelda a Look. "Ohhh…"

Link nodded his head and closed his eyes. He didn't know where any of these injuries came from, he told them, just that he woke up and there they were.

"Weird," Ralph said.

Link avoided looking at Ralph. He shook his head and told them about his dream.

"Weird," Ralph repeated. "And what happened after that?"

"Nothing," Link lied, "After the Spiritual Stones shattered, I woke up."

"But why did your ribs start hurting?" Saria asked. "And your hands…"

"I'm not sure," Link lied again.

"But Zelda said she thought something big and dangerous was going to happen," Impa said, "Maybe your dream had something to do with that. Because that was no ordinary dream."

"Really?" Link looked at Zelda. "Are you sure?"

Everyone but the Sages looked at Zelda as well.

"I…" she looked down, embarrassed, "I don't know," she said. "I mean, I have this uneasy feeling in my mind, right? But… I… It's hard to tell what it is… But whatever it is, it's greater than anything we've fought before."

"Woah woah woah!" The Skull Kid looked shocked, "What do you mean? Like, huge? Bigger than Ganondorf?"

Zelda nodded.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! That's a good one!!" The Skull Kid fell over laughing. Everyone glared at him. "Eh, s-so-sorry. But that's impossible. Nobody's worse than Ganon!"

"Is Ganon going to come back?" Impa asked cautiously.

"No," Zelda shook her head. "This feeling came on very subtly. That's not how Ganondorf likes to show up. Whatever it is… may already be here."

"You know, she's right," a voice said, "Something's here. But lemme tell you kids right now it certainly has nothing to do with me."

"Huh!?" Everyone whipped around, searching for the person who had spoken.

"That sounded like…" Din said nervously.

"Ganondorf," Tatl spat. "I know."

"Where's it-" Tael looked around as well, "Coming from…?"

For awhile no one moved. Then, Link broke the silence.

"Why don't Zelda and the Sages go back to the castle before someone sees us?"

"What about you guys?" Zelda looked back at Din, Nayru, Ralph, and the Skull Kid.

"We want to stay, of course," Din replied.

"Why don't you just hang around here for awhile?"

"All right, then."

::Bows:: Sorry for it being so bad!! I swear, it gets better as it goes along. Less happy-go-lucky. I don't know what I was on while I wrote the first few chapters.