A Supposed "Gift"

One morning, nearly two years after the kidnapping incident, my mother fell ill. Link, whom I felt was overreacting, sent out a messenger to fetch Impa.

Impa arrived within a few hours to examine my mother. As the last remaining member of the Sheikah race, Impa knew a few medical techniques that had been practiced by her people in the past. As she saw to my mother in her room, Link waited impatiently outside the door to give them privacy, and I, having absolutely nothing better to do, reluctantly waited with him.

After what felt like hours, Impa exited my mother's room, and closed the door quietly behind her. Link stood up abruptly beside me.

"So? What is it?" he asked impatiently.

Impa's face remained impassive. "She's pregnant," she said straightforwardly. I felt my heart suddenly skip a beat as I realized what this meant.

"Pre… pregnant?" Link stammered after a moment of shocked silence. "You mean, she… we…?"

Impa smirked. "Yes, Link," she said, nodding. "That means you're going to be a father. Again," she added quickly, her eyes briefly shifting towards me. "And Kiran is going to have a new sibling," she said, nodding at me.

"Yes, of course," Link muttered. "Can… can I see her now?"

"Yes," Impa confirmed. "Go on in."

Link opened the door and headed in, with me right behind him. I didn't particularly care if I was intruding on their "special moment" at the time. There was no way I was missing this.

"Zelda…" Link murmured, hesitating in front of the doorway. I peered around him to see my mother sitting up in bed, a bright smile lighting up her face.

"Link!" she cried, opening her arms wide. Link ran to her side and embraced her as she laughed with delight, her eyes sparkling.

My heart fell as I stared at the happy couple and realized what this meant. My mother was to have another child, one much younger than myself. Did this mean that I would receive less attention from her and Link? Not that I had ever been paid much attention to by Link in the first place, but still… it hurt.

Suddenly I heard a low, faint growl and an enraged voice. I couldn't quite make out what it was saying, only catching a few words:

Damn! ……complicates everything…… descendant……kill….

………………….

Shivering in fear, I glanced at Link and my mother to see if they had heard. But they hadn't apparently, as they were still embracing each other and proceeding to kiss each other.

Suddenly feeling nauseous, I ran out of the room into the empty hallway and listened for the voice. But I was met with an eerie silence instead, and eventually convinced myself that it must have been my overactive imagination.

For my twelfth birthday, and also to soften the blow of my mother's pregnancy, I received a unique gift a few weeks later. Link had summoned me to the courtyard, and I entered to find him standing anxiously in the center. Mother stood a few feet away, smiling encouragingly at me. Link approached me, an object covered with a cloth in his hands.

"Well, Kiran," he began, "this is my present to you." He glanced fleetingly toward Mother. "Your mother and I have decided that you are now old enough to wield it." He took the cloth off to reveal a short sword. "This was mine. I got it in Kokiri Forest when I was ten; right after I was summoned by the Great Deku Tree." He handed me the hilt.

I stared at it, rubbing the hilt and feeling its few grooves. "Thank you," I said, amazed at the fact that I now had my very own sword.

"Now, it's very important that you be extremely careful with this," he instructed me. "You will use it for sword fighting lessons and only during those times."

I furrowed my brow as I continued to stare at the sword. "How come you got to use it to kill stuff when you were only ten?" I asked. I hadn't meant to sound ungrateful. I was just being a typical young boy.

He narrowed his eyes. "Now, Kiran, you know why I had to use it. There were monsters all over Hyrule at that time, and there are hardly any around here now. Plus, you have Zelda and me and the guards here to protect you."

"But what if it was an emergency and no one was around to help me?"

He frowned. "All right. I suppose if that were to happen, you could use it to defend yourself, but that is it. It is to be used for defense only. Do you understand?"

I nodded excitedly, unable to conceal my delight. Mother smiled and winked at me as they left me alone in the courtyard. I had the feeling that she had been the one to convince Link to give me the sword.

After studying the sword carefully for a few more moments, I began to swing it around playfully. Before I knew it, my imagination began to run away with me, and I thrust the sword aggressively at imaginary enemies.

"Ha!" I cried, spotting a lone tree to my right in the corner of the courtyard. Pretending it was a rabid Wolfos, I ran toward it as fast as I could, slashing horizontally at the trunk.

But something was wrong. Something had happened when I hit the tree. I had not felt the sword scrape against the tree; instead, it felt more like it had sliced cleanly through something far softer than a tree.

Confused, I gasped as I looked down at my sword. The blade was covered in blood. And instead of a tree, a dead body lay before me, also drenched in the crimson fluid.

I dropped the sword as if it had burned my hand and turned away from the horrible sight, screaming as I ran from it. Unable to resist, I glanced back quickly and did a double take.

The body was gone.

Utterly stunned and baffled, I approached the area in front of the tree and bent over to pick up my sword. The blade was clean. I sighed with relief, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

Had I simply imagined it? It had seemed so real to me, though. But what could it have been other than a figment of my imagination?

I shoved my sword into my belt and left the courtyard, trying to forget about the strange vision. 'Man,' I thought, shaking my head. 'I have got to stop reading those old, violent war books in the castle library. They're starting to go to my head.'

A/N: Sorry, that was kind of a dinky filler chapter. I've been rather depressed lately and it's been difficult to write. Oh well. Thank you again for the reviews and keep them coming!