Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda, but this storyline is mine.
Chapter 2: Tracks
Link walked into the devastated town and looked around. The destruction was horrible. Dead bodies all over the place, blood splashed everywhere. This had been a real bloodbath.
Link motioned to a soldier to come to him, and the soldier obeyed.
"What happened here?" Link asked.
"Apparently there was a raid during the night," The soldier answered. "The alarm was destroyed before the raiders came, meaning someone from within the village helped. They came from the East Mountains, allowing them to approach in stealth. From what we could tell, the only one to survive was the captain, and he won't make it through the next few nights."
Link looked at the mountains. They were a hazard for this town, being able to hide any approaching armies. They would have to do something about that, or Hyrule would be in danger from attack. But first, Link had to get some information.
"Take me to the captain," He said.
The captain was lying on a makeshift bed in a tent that the healers had put up, his red armor lying right beside him. It was obvious he was going to die; the wounds he had sustained were really bad.
Link knelt down beside him and spoke to him.
"How you doing, captain?" He said.
"I'm going to die," the captain answered, "and there's nothing the healers can do. How do you think I feel?"
"Okay, bad question. Tell me, what do you know about the attacking army?"
"All I know is that their colors are black and gold, and they really know how to fight."
"Okay, that might help. I'll see if there are any enemy countries with those colors."
Link got up to leave, but just as he left the tent, he heard some crying back inside the tent.
Link looked back into the tent. The captain sat there, crying into his hands. He was about to turn and leave, when the captain began to talk in between sobs.
"They're gone... They are lost forever. Curse him, that golden armored soldier." He sobbed some more, then talked a little more. "He killed my wife. He stole my daughter. I want revenge. I WANT REVENGE!!!" He screamed, and then noticed Link standing in the doorway.
"Don't worry, we'll find who did this," Link told him. "But do you have any information you're not telling me? Anything else that might help us find the one that did this? Tell me what happened with the gold armored soldier."
The captain told him everything he had seen. How he had noticed his wife giving her hand to the gold soldier. How he had watched as the sword had been forced through her face. How he had tried to get to them when someone plunged a knife into his lower back, and he had to watch his daughter get carried away, unable to do anything about it.
Link left the tent and walked to where the captain had said everything had happened. There was the body of the captain's wife. But the most intriguing thing was that the ground in that area was soft. The horse would have to have left tracks.
Link looked around and spotted the tracks. He could track this guy if he followed them. But he would need to call some help.
Link pulled out his ocarina and played a song. It was short, but it was obvious it had a purpose. He waited a moment, and a horse came galloping up to him, and Link climbed on her back.
"It's been a long time, Epona," He said. They rode off, following the horse tracks that marked the ground.
Link had been riding for about twenty minutes before they came to another town. This one was not destroyed like the one he had just come from. It was completely standing, a fact that Link found strange.
He followed the tracks into the town. Something was wrong here. If the golden soldier came here, shouldn't this town be destroyed? It didn't make any sense.