A quick note on Geography (seriously, its quick)

Since this fic is an incredibly loose zelda fic (I almost just placed Hyrule into my own world), some of the Geography changes. Since allot of it changes in the game, too, I didn't do much there. But where the stuff is in my Hyrule doesn't matter.

The world in which Hyrule exist is almost split in half. The split is because of a large and titanic mountain range, known as the Iaur mountains. It is so high, long, wide, and thick, that no known man has survived a journey through them. There is an old pass through, several weeks march on a road from Hyrule, where the Kingdoms on opposite sides used to use when they wished to meet each other. However, the path became dangerous, and the Western Kingdoms were destroyed by an unknown threat. Hyrule is on the east side of the mountains. They are slightly in the south of the continent, and are part of a large collection of human kingdoms called the East Kingdoms, which used to be allied but after a serious of wars are now simply friendly, but cautious of each other. There, now that wasn't that long.

Prologue

Dirge woke up suddenly two hours before daybreak. He blinked a few times, trying to remember where he was, then immediately stood up and began getting dressed in his heavy furs. He was barely up for two minutes before he walked outside his tattered tent, and felt the freezing wind break across his face. He breathed deeply, letting the icy air fill his lungs. It was another cold day.

He looked around at the makeshift camp he was standing in. To his great surprise, he saw everybody else was already awake and working, cooking their meager breakfast, chopping fire wood, and patching up holes in the tents that ripped during the night.

Dirge walked over to the large fire in the middle of the camp, where an elderly, white haired man in his sixties sat on an old log. He was cooking what looked like sausages on a battered tray. Dirge hesitated, and then sat down next to him. The old man nodded at him cheerfully.

"I thought I would be the only one up." Dirge admitted

The old man laughed.

"Well then, pup, I guess tha' one of the first lessons you learn here. Ya never first." he explained, as he used a rusted tong to flip a sausage. Dirge smiled, before saying,

"You old men never do let age slow you. You should be sitting down, inside some old, comfortable tavern, with a mug in your hand and a fire at your feet. Instead, you're out here, days from any town worth knowing about, tending a Beacon that's never use."

The man laughed even louder at that.

"Pup, it seems that you're the one that should be there. Tha' just wouldn't be my taste. Me, being in a tavern, with a fire a' my feet and an ale in my hand? Hell, I don't think I have even tasted some ale in over ten years. But I don't worry about that. Hell, we were all given the same Choice. I'm just surprised they let you in here. Jus' cause you got an injury doesn't justify bringing a youngling into this post." he remarked, followed by a wink. Dirge smirked.

"Youngling? Well then, great Palintheran, I guess me having my hand chopped off makes no difference, I'm just not old enough!"

Palintheran laughed. He had said all of that as a joke, as Dirge well knew.

They had been talking since Dirge arrived at the Beacon yesterday. All of the men were surprise when he came to the camp. They were expecting another old man, with a crippling wound and one eye. Instead, they found Dirge, a young boy in his early twenties, with strong features and a powerful chest. His strength was almost more like a bear's then a mans. It wasn't until they saw that he was missing his right hand did they even notice that he was crippled.

The rider that brought him told the men what happened. Dirge just was a young soldier, who had barely seen any form of combat, when he lost his hand. He was picked to be a body guard to Link, half because he was a skilled recruit and half because of his size.

A few months later, Link, Dirge, and a few others were heading to Kakariko village, when they were ambushed. Even though the Gerudo thieves were getting bolder in their attacks, no one thought they would dare assault the very prince of Hyrule.

In the first second of the ambush, Link's horse was slain by an arrow through its neck. The Prince was thrown to the ground, which the Gerudos took as a sign to charge out of their hiding spots. Link would have been slaughtered in seconds, if Dirge hadn't thrown himself on top of him. For that, Dirge got a spear thrown into his leg. A large Gerudo knocked Dirge off Link, and tried to stab the dazed prince, but Dirge shoved his hand out, blocking the blow. His hand was completely severed, but it gave the other guards enough time to grab them both, and pull them back to safety. Link was barley conscious, but was soon able to stand up and fight, which made the Gerudos break and run. They soon realized that the Gerudos weren't hoping to kill off the guards. It was an assassination attempt.

When Link learned of what Dirge had done, he profusely thanked him for several minutes, before offering him a choice. Since Dirge had no possible way of serving Hyrule after that fight, Link offered him the right to live back in the castle, with a steady supply of gold, or to be placed at the Beacon outpost. Dirge accepted the second option almost at once.

The Beacon in the Iaur mountain range was one of the greatest honors a man could get. It used to be a training ground for young recruits, but long lost its original purpose. Now, it was an area where the great heroes that were no long of use to Hyrule were stationed. To be a soldier of the Beacon was an honor that most men would die for, even though it had no practical use. The Beacon system, made roughly around a thousand years ago, used to be used to send messages between the Kingdoms on the East of the Iaur mountain range to those on the West, but the West Kingdoms were destroyed a long time ago.

For a while it was used as a warning sign by the Eastern Kingdoms of a great enemy that threatened them, but soon the Eastern Kingdoms began to fight each other. Civil war broke out, with Hyrule and Ulajid leading the two major sides. Those wars made the old Beacons useless, since if an unknown enemy was coming to attack one of them, they were definitely not going to let their other enemies know about it.

However, since current peace lasted for around two centuries, Hyrule began to place men at the Beacon once more. Since Hyrule didn't have a massive army like it used to, the King decided to place the old heroes of war there instead of young recruits. Surprisingly, most peasants didn't even know the Beacon existed, since it was never used in theirs, or any ancestors that they knew, life's time. Most still don't know of it.

Palintheran suddenly snapped back to the current time when he heard the sizzling of the Sausages. I God Damn/I he thought, as he slide them off the tray onto a makeshift wooden bowl. I I am getting old/I

Dirge was already gone, chopping up wood for the fire and Beacon. Every few weeks they replaced the oldest logs in the Beacon with the newer ones, which was no easy job, since the Beacon was over fifteen meters high, and almost that long across. If it was lit, then almost all of Hyrule could see the awesome light emitting from it.

Palintheran and the rest of the men hastily ate their meager meal of sausage, and were back to work before the sun crept over the horizon. It was just another day there. Dirge was learning the ropes of the place, and soon knew of the jobs he needed to do. Because of his great physical strength, his main job was cutting the wood, breaking up stones for the knee-high wall they kept for prestige, and hunting the little game that remained on top of the mountain. Dirge, as they all guessed when they saw him, was amazing at those tasks. That night he had brought back one of the rare deer that walked along the mountain, right after he cut up an extra three days worth of firewood.

The next morning, Dirge woke up an extra hour earlier. This time, he thought, he was definitely the first awake. In the same swiftness he did the previous morning, he put on his furs, and stepped outside his tent. Just like last morning, he breathed in deeply, letting the cold air sting his lungs, and awaken his senses.

"Mornin', Dirge. See you slept in." came a creaking voice from the center of camp. Dirge hastily turned his head, looking into the dim center, and saw Palintheran, wide awake, with an armful of firewood. He dropped all of the wood on the ground, in the exact spot the fire was last time, and began to stack the pieces.

Dirge smiled, and walked over to where his friend worked. He sat down next to him, on the same log as the previous morning, and began to help him set up the fire.

"What are you doing up this early? Thought old men were supposed to sleep in." Dirge said, as he grabbed a heavy piece of wood.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead, Dirge. We gotta work hard today. Tha' bonfire behind us needs fresh wood on 'er underbelly and those barrels of oil we got are too old now. Would probably light us on fire as much as the Beacon."

"The oil should be fine, Palintheran. I've never known oil to loose its flammability. I can do the wood on the bottom of the beacon now, though. You can stay here, cook us some more breakfast." Dirge replied, stacking a last log onto the fire.

"Nah, we don' use regular oil. We got a mixture of Oil and some other liquid the alchemists make. Don't know what it's called, but after a few months the oil and liquid separate. Won' light as good. We got to make us some new mixtures. You can do that, too. I'll just cook us some more breakfast."

Dirge got up, smiling, and left to go do his work. No one else was up. Palintheran did just his word, and continued cooking their breakfast. It was sausages.

After a few minutes, Palintheran got up and went to his tent, letting the sausages shimmer in the tray. Once inside, Palintheran began to bend over to grab some of the little salt he had left in his battered trunk, softly humming an old song to himself.

All of a sudden, an immense and overwhelming red light filled the entire tent, so bright it almost blinded Palintheran, who hadn't seen any light greater then the camp fire for several decades. Palintheran let out a cry, and reflexively covered his eyes with his hands, dropping the salt. The vial fell to the hard frozen ground and shattered. The light didn't leave, and continued shinning into his tent. It took him a second to realize what was happening.

"Dirge, you god-damn fool! You set the ruddy beacon on fire!" Palintheran screamed, as he ran outside. But to his surprise, the Beacon wasn't on fire. It was just as damp from the snow as it was before. In fact, Dirge wasn't even close to the Beacon. He was too busy standing at the northern end of the camp, staring into the distance, with an awed look on his face. Other people began to wake up as well, running over to where Dirge was looking.

Palintheran ran up beside him too, and suddenly saw what the red glow was. For a moment he froze, shocked and awed by what was happening, but then remembered their entire purpose for being there.

"Dirge…" he said slowly, still staring out at the light, "Light the Beacon."

Dirge looked over at Palintheran, stunned, but Palintheran looked at him with a dead serious and slightly scared look on his face.

"Now."