Chapter III: Unexpected Events

Link woke up early the next morning. The next few days, passed slowly by, with Link found either in the market or his room, taking care of his weapons. However, two days before the week was over, thirty-seven guards walked into the guest hallway, yelling that they were going to have a surprise inspection that morning. The hallway became chaos.

Link had just been walking out of his room when he heard. He swiftly dashed back inside, and made his bed, lit a fire and burned any trash around his room, organized his weapons on the shelves, stuffed his diary in his boot, and walked back outside.

The guards were going by two's to everyone's room. Some of the guests were panicked, while others were confused.

"Princess Zelda reported two days ago she believed the Hero of Time was somewhere in the castle," one of the guards said. He held up an arrow. "This arrow produced an aura of light."

Link's face paled. They were looking for him! The Gerudos looked strangely at Link. He shrugged. Link ran back in his room and performed Fayore's wind. He transported all his items except his sword, shield, and bow to the forest temple entrance. Link once again left his room. Two guards were coming his way. Most of the other guests who were checked looked relieved. Some others hadn't been, including most of the Gerudos. The Gerudos looked frightened. Link guessed they had been 'borrowing' stuff.

"Please escort us inside your room," one of the guards said. Link opened his door and let them inside. It was spotless, except for his bow which sat on a shelf. One of the guards checked the room, while the other seemed to take interest in his bow.

The guard checked his bed, underneath it, in the trash can, in the nightstand, under it, and every nook and cranny there was, even the cracks in the stone walls. The other guard picked up the bow, handling it. He inspected it, checking. He pulled the string back, and then relaxed it. He nocked an arrow, pulled back, and subsequently relaxed it. Obviously he was checking for the range of the bow.

"Well, this room is alright," the guard said. The one holding his bow set it back on the shelf.

"How long have you had that?" the guard asked Link. Link held up four fingers. The guard nodded and they both left. Link sighed. It hadn't been good to lie, but he didn't want trouble. Besides, how was he to explain that through the time process with the Master Sword that everything he found as a kid was fourteen years old? The items he found as an adult were actually seven years old.

Link left his room. The Gerudos were being searched now. The other guests looked as though they didn't want to stay. Link agreed. He left the castle and went to the market. There he indulged in simple little games to distract himself. He decided to turn in the diary tomorrow.

Something in Link flipped, and he turned around. A man had just been stabbed by a thief. Everyone in the market cried in outrage. Before Link realized what had happened, he had the man pinned against the wall with his left hand, and his sword at the man's throat. The thief was shocked for a second, then somersaulted and tried to kick Link in the stomach.

Link jumped to the side and took out his shield. He couldn't kill the thief, but he could knock him out. Link picked the thief up by the foot and tossed him. If it weren't for his golden gauntlets, Link could never have done that.

The thief caught himself and ran at Link. Link simple smashed his shield into the thief's face, stunning him. Link smashed him in the face a couple more times, and the thief fell unconscious. Then two guards arrived. One took the thief away, while the other took the dead man to the graveyard.

It just became apparent to Link that everyone was watching him. He put his sword and shield away and speed-walked to the castle. Link didn't like being the center of attention. He walked into his room and flopped down on the bed.

Link played the ocarina and returned his weapons to the shelves. He picked up a mask. It was the Fierce Deity mask. Link slowly remembered his adventure in Termina, and the attack against Majora's Mask.

Only Link and Zelda ever knew he had gone and left. But then, he had been constantly resetting time, so to everyone but him, only three days had passed. Link looked at the other masks he had acquired from Termina. Hyrule and Termina didn't even know each other existed, except in books. He had heard that if one traveled across a sea that lay behind Lake Hylia you could reach Termina in seven days. Link preferred the clock way. Why did everything have to be seven?

Hyrule and Termina, linked by a hero, the Hero of Time.

Link spent the rest of the day in his room. The next morning, he grabbed his diary delicately. He walked out of his room, and across to the scribe's writing room. There were almost all the guests there, turning in copies of their accounts. One of the Gorons spotted Link.

"Hey, what do you have there?" the Goron asked, pointing to the green book. The others turned to see him. It had already been pretty quiet, but now it was even quieter. Link wished they wouldn't stare at him.

Link walked to the eldest of the scribes and stood hesitantly. Should he give them his diary? After a moment of thought, Link handed it gently to the scribe.

"Thank you," the scribe said with a smile. He flipped it open to the first page and started to read. The smile faded from his face. When he looked back up, it was replaced with awe. He looked back at the book, did a bit of magic on it, and looker back up.

"The first page of this book," the scribe whispered the silent group. "Is dated seven years ago. Now, would anyone like to guess how old the magic said this book is?"

"Seven," one of the Hylians guessed. The scribe shook his head.

"Do you know?" the scribe asked Link. He shook his head. "This book is fourteen years old."

"What does that mean? How can that be? How can it be made seven years ago, yet be fourteen years old?" one of the Zoras asked.

"Because," the scribe stated, "This young man here found the diary of the Hero of Time."

Silence.

"Only the Hero himself could've done such wonders to this…" the scribe muttered, reading some more.

"Does that mean that he…" the Zora left off, staring at Link. Everyone had their eyes on Link except the scribe who was reading the book.

"No," the scribe answered, "This book says that he came out of the forest, accompanied by a fairy called Navi."

"So that's why you knew the Hero of Time was a kid with a fairy," a Hylian awed. "You had read parts of the diary!"

Link nodded in response. The room was silent a bit longer, and then everyone cheered. Link grinned in relief. They hadn't known. He had been lucky, that Zora almost got him.

There were shouts of "We have the Hero of Time's diary!" and other phrases. Link grinned with them. The scribe asked for their attention.

"Now we won't be publishing the actual diary," the scribe explained. "We'll rewrite a copy into a third-person view. We don't want to publish an original diary, or any for that matter. No, we'll take the information in here and write it into a third-person view. Also, I think that the Princess will enjoy coming down here to see this personally."

"You mean that the Princess will come down here?" one of the Gerudos asked.

"That is correct. I'll be sending someone right now," the scribe answered, and one of the younger scribes dashed off.

Everyone was making last minute preparations, cleaning themselves up. Link straightened his hat a bit, and tried to hide towards the back of the group. But the elder scribe brought him towards the front saying that "Princess Zelda will want to see you."

Everyone straightened up as the door opened. Link was slightly worried that he might be recognized by Zelda. She did have a good memory, Link told himself. Maybe he could pretend to be someone else? He trashed that idea.

Princess Zelda walked in, followed by the younger scribe. She smiled at the guests, and then turned to the elder scribe.

"Can I see this diary?" she asked him. The elder scribe gave it to her. She opened it and flipped through the pages. Link knew she would recognize it; she had seen him writing in it once.

"Who found this?" Zelda asked. The elder scribe smiled.

"This young man here had come across it," the scribe said pointing to Link. She turned to see Link for the first time. Link felt his temperature rise.

Zelda stared into his eyes for a while, then spoke, "Link? Is that you?"

Link panicked internally. Unfortunately for Link, this is the one time he didn't want this to happen.

The Triforce of Courage sensed Link's panic and came to life, glowing on his glove. It calmed him, but Link still knew one thing: I'm caught.

Everyone stared at Link's hand. Then Link performed something he hadn't done for a while. He reached for his back, and shot an arrow from his bow while it was on his back. The arrow launched into the ground, and released a Light Arrow. It didn't hurt anyone, but anyone who was Link to the Triforce, whether Sage or a Bearer, could see through it.

Link used the sudden burst of Light to run out the door. The brightness only lasted a second or two, and soon Link had guards running after him with the guests, trying to stop the Hero of Time from leaving.

Link ran into his room and grabbed his stuff. He turned to the door and left. Everyone was running down the hallway towards him. Link pulled out his hookshot and shot towards a window. He flew up and squeezed out the window. Out on the roof, Link climbed onto one of the walkways. Guards were already there, trying to reach.

"Wait!" one of them shouted, "Please don't go!"

Link used his hookshot and flew to the other side of the castle roof. He put on his hover boots and walked across a gap. He almost reached the end to where he could jump down to the bridge. But then he ran into Zelda, who was waiting for him.

"Link," she whispered, "Please don't go."

Link was now stuck. He didn't want to stay at the castle and be lauded with glory and fame. But he didn't want to leave Zelda either.

"Link, I haven't seen you in seven years," Zelda whispered again. "I miss you."

A guard was fast approaching them.

Link dropped his head. Zelda looked down sadly. Then Link looked up and lifted her chin gently. He looked her in the eyes. Zelda slowed nodded.

Then Link ran by and jumped. He landed on the draw bridge and rolled. He pulled out the fairy ocarina and played. Then he vanished.

The guard walked up to Zelda. "I'm sorry we couldn't catch him," the guard panted. "We know you've been looking for the Hero of Time for a long time."

"Don't worry," Zelda said, hope in her voice. "He said he would come back when I invited him."