Years Away
By Joker's Specter

Chapter Four: The Guest of Honor


"What do you mean?" asked Link, wide-eyed. He wasn't used to being told when he could or could not leave. For a moment he thought the King was actually going to let him go, until he remembered that he had arrived in the throne room as a prisoner.

"I understand you were carrying these weapons with you when Commander Bronzen," he motioned to the man in the black cape," and his men found you last night," said the King.

Link turned around to look at the three men who had recently entered the room. Commander Bronzen had no expression on his face, but the two guards seemed nervous... Something was about to happen; Link could feel it. He knew that it wasn't going to be good, either.

"You summoned me, your Highness?" asked Bronzen while taking a bow. The two guards behind him mimicked the Commander.

"I did, Bronzen. I'll get to you in a moment; allow me to finish my conversation with young Link here," he said, pointing to Link.

For the first time since entering the room, Bronzen looked at Link. While a blank expression remained on the older man's face, Link couldn't help but feel like he was transparent. It was as if Bronzen could stare right through him and see all his thoughts and feelings. It made him highly uncomfortable.

The King resumed his little talk. "Now, Link, seeing as how you and I have become such close friends, I'm going to give you an opportunity that most people will never have the chance to come across."

Link was a little curious, but still braced himself for whatever the King's idea of an opportunity might be.

"I'm going to allow you to duel my Commander here as a test of your skill. Such a fine horse as the one you have shouldn't live with a master who can't hold his own in a one-on-one duel. Am I right about that?" the King asked, appearing smug.

The guards murmured their agreement.

"But you can't do that!" Link exclaimed while clenching his fists. He stared hard into the King's eyes.

"Well, you see, Link... You aren't in a position to argue. I have your horse in my custody, and if you disagree, you will be surrounded by my men in an instant and executed," said the King, smiling the whole time. "Since you and I are friends, I would hate to see you go like that."

Link was getting angry. He couldn't possibly understand why Godoro would do something so horrible. In the end, though, the boy didn't have many options. If he wanted to get Epona back, he was going to do it one way or the other.

"Alright," Link said, defeated. His arms fell to his side. "I accept."

"Very good! This will be a very big event. You see, Link, my town has grown rather...boring, lately, since all of the battles with Kain occur outside of the gates. We have a small battle arena that never gets used. Since you accepted, we will have you and the Commander duel there," said the overly excited King.

Bronzen bowed his head. "Sire, if I may... Are you sure this is a good idea? He is only a weak little boy; he may get critically injured."

King Godoro waved his hand in a dismissive manner and said, "Don't worry about that. If he does happen to take on injuries, we have the best curing facility of all: The Fairy Shrine!"

"Yes, my King," replied Bronzen, effectively removing himself from the conversation.

"Wait... What do you mean by 'Fairy Shrine'?" questioned Link.

The King's eyes narrowed on Link. "It is none of your concern. Not yet, anyway," he answered.

The boy knew what the Godoro meant by that. If Link was hurt in his duel, then this so-called Fairy Shrine was the best way they had to heal him. He wondered if maybe Navi was at the Shrine. If she were there, he'd have to find out where it was and check it out.

"The event will take place three days from now. That should give us ample time to prepare for it. Until then, lad, you will stay here in my castle as my, ahem, 'Guest of Honor', under careful watch. I don't want you trying to run off. I will, however, allow you to walk freely in the living quarters of the castle," the King said, as if he had everything planned out the entire time.

"Th-Three days?" Link said weakly. His hopes of getting out of there with Epona and finding Navi were dropping more and more.

"That is correct," the King said. Then he raised his hands. "Everyone dismissed!" he added, slapping his hands together.

Link watched as the three men left the room, carrying all of his things with them. The King obviously didn't want Link to have them in his possession.

"My guard will take you to your room, boy. Remember: you are confined to your room and the rest of the living quarters. The living quarters of the castle is located on the bottom floor; the exception being my own room," the King said, staring hard at Link. "You are not allowed to travel up a level, or into the basement."

The sole guard remaining in the throne room motioned for Link to follow him. Link trailed behind the guard slowly, wanting to just run away from Keystone, the King, and everything around him. He just wanted to find Navi...

!-F- -E- -E- -F- -I-!
!-F- -O- -F- -U- -M-!

The guard stopped in front of a wooden doorway halfway through a long hallway that was lit by many torches. "In here is your room," the man said half-heartedly. "The other rooms on this floor are the housing sections for Commander Bronzen, his wife Nell, his daughter Tifa, and any other high ranking soldiers and their families." The guard then turned away and walked down the hallway in the direction they had just come from, leaving Link all alone.

Link looked down both ends of the hallway, and then cracked open the door to his room. After peering in and deeming it safe, he opened the door the rest of the way and walked in.

The room was small for a castle bedroom, from what Link had seen. It had a two-person bed to the left wall as the boy walked in, with a window in the center of the same wall. A tall wardrobe was placed in the opposite corner from the bed, sandwiching the window between them. On the opposite wall was a picture of the castle, and below that was a simple wooden table with an even simpler chair. Placed atop the table was a candle.

Link was at least happy to see a real bed. His head still hurt from being knocked out, and sleeping on the cold stone floor of his jail cell hadn't done him any good. Even though it was the middle of the day, Link decided he'd better catch up on his sleep while he could.

Approaching the bed, Link saw that it was one of the fancy type of beds that had curtains you could pull around it. While it was typical for a bed found in a castle, it certainly surprised him when compared to the rest of the furniture in the room. But who was he to complain?

Link laid his head down on the soft pillow, not even bothering to pull the curtains around, and closed his blue eyes.

!-F- -E- -E- -F- -I-!
!-F- -O- -F- -U- -M-!

Link had another dream. While he could usually find some meaning in most of his dreams, he couldn't figure anything out from his newest nightmare. All he could pick out were numerous images. Things he'd seen amongst things he hadn't. In all of the images that he'd experienced before, Navi was there. The same was for the things he hadn't seen. The strange part was that in all of the images he could definitely say he'd never encountered before, he couldn't see himself in them at all. No green-clothed blonde Hylian to be found in a single one. He didn't even feel the self-awareness that he often felt.

It was as if in those new images, he wasn't dreaming for himself.

He couldn't decide if he was seeing made-up images, or what Navi had seen. The latter made sense when he thought about it, but they were all a jumble of pictures that he couldn't make out. His subconscious began to travel through them all again, giving him a second look, when he was thrust awake by a loud sound.

Link opened his sleepy, heavy eyes to find himself back in the room the King placed him in. The sun was still in the sky, bathing his room in its light. The young boy didn't have to wonder what had woken him up for long. A loud, continuous knock sounded at his door.

"Just a second," Link said loudly, letting whoever was knocking on the door know that he was awake. He didn't remember locking the door, so the person didn't need to knock. He reasoned that at least they were polite enough to knock, despite how annoying it was.

Yawning, Link stretched and jumped off of the bed. He hesitated, then walked over to the wooden door. Gripping the knob, he opened the door, and found himself staring at an unexpected sight.

"Hey, he's cuter than I thought he would be," said one of the two girls at the door. The one who had spoken had a face that reminded Link somewhat of Princess Zelda, except that her hair was about chin-length and blonde with some natural faint red streaked throughout it. Also, it was obvious the girl wasn't made for dresses, as she had her sleeves rolled up and her shoes were non-existent.

"E-Excuse me?" stuttered Link, not knowing what to say. He certainly didn't expect someone to greet him with that.

"Oh, yeah, uh... Sorry about my 'rudeness'. My name's Tifa, and this here is Piper," she said, pointing to the girl beside her. The shorter girl had light-blue hair, with eyes to match and a small, pale face. She gave a small wave to Link.

Both girls looked to be around Link's age, if not a little older.

"We came over to welcome you here," Tifa said. She walked past Link into the room, and then immediately sat on the bed.

Link looked from Tifa to the door, then back to Tifa. "Oh, um...that's nice of you, I guess," he replied. The boy then turned to look at the girl named Piper, who was still standing out in the hallway.

"Um, may I come in?" she asked politely in a quiet voice.

Shrugging, Link stepped aside and said, "Sure."

The differences in the girls were very noticeable. Link categorized Tifa as a loud, pushy, obnoxious girl, and Piper fell into the category of the quiet type who followed the outgoing ones.

Shutting the door, Link turned around and was a little surprised to see Tifa jumping up and down on his bed. Meanwhile, Piper was standing silently by the wardrobe.

"So...how's...life?" asked Tifa. She said a word each time her feet hit the bed.

"Good, I guess," said Link. He admittedly didn't know what else to say. The situations that plagued him continued to get stranger and stranger.

"I...know...you're...lying...because...everyone's...afraid...of...fighting...my...dad," the girl said, still bouncing.

"Your dad?"

Tifa stopped bouncing and sat down on the edge of the bed, saying, "Yeah. Bronzen, the guy you gotta duel in three days? It's going to be fun! Only the richest people will be able to get good seats, so I can already tell it's going to be a big event. Since my dad's dueling, I should get a front row seat!"

A sickening feeling washed over Link's stomach. He wasn't used to fighting in front of an audience, let alone in front of what sounded like thousands of people. As much as he wanted to run away, he knew he couldn't; he had to fight in order to save Epona.

A quizzical look came over Tifa's face. "Are you some kind of knight? I can't understand why my dad would duel someone like you," she said, eyeing Link closely.

"I...uh. No, not really," answered Link. He certainly didn't classify himself as a knight, despite the life destiny had given him so far.

"Oh," Tifa said, losing interest in observing Link. "You may as well be a court jester then, because only brave knights get recognized around here."

"Er, okay..." replied Link, confused. He wasn't even sure what a court jester was. He thought maybe it was a type of monster.

Continuing her questioning, Tifa asked, "So how come you came to this boring place? There's nothing fun here, because all of the battles with Kain take place out and about. There aren't even any cute boys living here."

Link wasn't sure why cute boys would matter to him. More importantly, he realized that Tifa was pressing him for something. He just couldn't figure out what it was.

"It's a long story. I'll just say I'm looking for my friend. She's been missing for a while," Link answered truthfully.

"She?" asked Tifa, suddenly getting more interested in what Link had to say.

"Yeah; Navi the Fairy."

"A fairy? I see," said Tifa, losing interest yet again. She flopped her head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

"Excuse me," Piper said, sounding a little hesitant. Link had almost forgotten that she was there. "There are a lot of fairies at the Fairy Shrine. Perhaps your friend is there..." she added, not making eye-contact with Link. It was obvious she wasn't used to talking to strangers.

"I was thinking that too, actually. I heard the King mention it," Link said in agreement.

Piper looked up and smiled.

"The only problem is that I don't know what or where the Fairy Shrine is," Link added with a sigh. He walked to the desk, turned the chair around, and sat down in it while facing the bed.

"Well, that's no problem," Tifa said, sitting up. "I could take you there.

"You could?" asked Link, amazed. He felt his depression leaving him.

A conniving smile spread over Tifa's face. "For a price, of course."

Link raised an eyebrow. "What price?" he asked.

Tifa thought about it for a moment. "Well, to my understanding, you don't have any money with you... And anything you had on you would've been taken away. Am I right?"

A nod from Link.

"In that case, it has to be something else," the blonde girl said, still pondering. Suddenly, she appeared to have a bright idea. "I know!" she exclaimed. She looked to Piper and grinned, then looked back at Link. "If I can take you to the Shrine, then you have to be my boyfriend and do whatever I say!"

Piper started to giggle, and Tifa leaned in closely, waiting for Link to answer.

"What?" yelled Link. He could feel his face turning red. "No, no... There has to be another way. I can't be your boyfriend; I'm trying to leave this place!" he added, trying to hold back his anger.

Tifa was by no means ugly, but Link didn't need somebody chasing him while he tried to complete his quest. Not only that, but twelve is far too young to settle down, as he saw it.

"Well, it's your choice," Tifa said with a shrug. She fell back on the bed, flopping her head down on the pillow. "Be my boyfriend, or you don't get to see the shrine."

Piper had stopped giggling now and was watching the two carefully.

Link was starting to feel like every aspect of his life was out of his control. It seemed like the people of Keystone loved forcing him to do things. Once again, he didn't have much choice in a decision.

"Fine... I'll be your boyfriend," Link said harshly.

Tifa sat up again, giggling. "Great! I'll be in later tonight to take you to the Shrine. It could be like our first date!" she teased.

The two girls left the room, giggling and laughing hysterically, leaving a red-faced Link behind them.

"What did I get myself into...?" Link asked nobody in particular. He sighed and shut his bedroom door.


End: Chapter Four: The Guest of Honor