(first off all, This fanfic is pure speculation about the upcoming Zelda game, Twilight Princess. I wanted this fic out before more of the story was revealed. Thus, I would like to thank Nintendo for spilling their own beans about the storyline. Thank you for not giving me a chance. For that, this will be treated as an Alternate Reality fic. Don't complain I'm not following storyline. I just put the fic's genre in bold, so if you can't read disclaimers, that's your issue, not my problem. Also, Link talks in this fic –later on-, so if you don't like him talking, then you might as well leave.)

Disclaimer: I do not own "The Legend of Zelda" or any related characters. They're all property of Nintendo.

Curse of the Twilight

Act 1

Descent

"Attack!"

"Sound the alarm! They're attacking the castle!"

"Warn the King and the Princess!"

"Break the gates!"

"Heave-Ho!"

"They've broken in!"

It was a state of alarm in Hyrule Castle. A group of barbarians have just broken in on castle grounds. Their intention: an attempt to overthrow the current King and rule the land. The soldiers tried making barricades and fighting back, but their opposition did little to stop the barbarians' powerful boars. Eventually, the barbarians penetrated the main castle, resulting in mass chaos as they slashed left and right with their swords, daggers, spears, and other weapons of mass carnage. King Harkinian, while running to safety, overheard the barbarians say things like "Search everywhere!" and "Take no prisoners!" He feared for his life, but more so, for his daughter Zelda's life.

King Harkinian, Princess Zelda, and a few of their best soldiers were running to hide in a safe place when another soldier came running towards them. "Don't go that way! There are barbarians there!" The soldier yelled. Upon the shock of the news, even the highly trained soldiers became disoriented, and everybody started running aimlessly. After running through seemly endless corridors, Princess Zelda found out she was completely alone. Before she could feel officially panicked, though, a castle soldier found her and offered to assist her.

"Princess! What are you doing here?" The soldier asked. "Please come with me, and hurry. There could be barbarians close by soo… UGH!"

The soldier tensed up, then fell down due to a stab in the back given by a barbarian just behind him.

"Well, hello, princess." He said menacingly.

Meanwhile, King Harkinian was still running around with his guards, trying to avoid the barbarians. Unfortunately, they ended up on a dead end, and the barbarians caught up with him. They were too much, and the guards couldn't handle them. It was all hopeless for the King.

Suddenly, galloping was heard. Not just normal galloping, but thunderous galloping. The castle walls ricocheted the announcement the barbarians yelled with increased tension and fear.

"The sheikah are coming! The sheikah are coming!"

Indeed. The sheikah, longtime allies with the king and master warriors, got word of the attack and immediately set forth to protect the Royal Family. Immediately, the barbarians shifted their attention to their new threat. The sheikah's superior ability to fight in horseback, however, proved to be more than an even match for the barbarians. Around the battlefield, you could hear the barbarians shouting stuff like "There's too many of them!" and "We have to get outta here!" Finally, the leader of the barbarians gave the order to retreat. All the remaining barbarians mounted a boar and fled from the scene.

Once everything was secure, Impa, the leader of the sheikah, decided to check the situation inside. There were many downs, mainly from castle soldiers, although quite a few barbarians weren't exactly lucky. When she got to the king's room, she found King Harkinian on the verge of tears.

"My king, what happened?" Impa asked, surprised to see the usually brave king so feeble.

"Zelda… she… she…" That's all King Harkinian could say before breaking down.

Impa turned to one of the king's guards. "What of Princess Zelda?" She asked.

"Princess Zelda… is nowhere to be found." The soldier confessed. Impa's face completely fell. "We have searched everywhere, Lady Impa, but we found no trace. We fear the barbarians might've kidnapped her."

Impa was awash in sadness, but quickly masked it under a blanket of anger. Makkid, sheikah second-in-command, was searching for Impa when he heard the horrible news. When he saw Impa's determined look, he knew she had only one thing in mind, and there was no turning back. Still, he asked.

"Lady Impa, what are the orders?"

She turned to Makkid, then to the king, who was unable to enact an order right away, then she looked forward, to no specific point.

"We search." She said. "We find them, chase them out, we beat the living crap out of them and rescue Princess Zelda."

Somewhere far away on Hyrule field, the barbarians were riding off with their new "guest". Some were joyful for their bounty, while others questioned if it was really necessary.

"I still don't get it." Said one. "Why did we get the princess? We were aiming for the king!"

"Change in plans!" another one said. "You can thank the sheikah for that."

"But what good would having the princess do to us?" the first one asked.

"I can think of a few good things…" a third one suggested.

"No!" Their leader scolded that last guy. "If we want this plan to work, the princess must stay intact!"

"You're no fun, boss." The third one said.

The barbarian leader just let out a "Humph" as they kept riding straight into a forest. As they ventured deeper into the forest, the environment became darker and toughter to traverse. Eventually, it got to the point that the road was practically unrecognizable by some.

"Hey." One barbarian called another. "Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Don't worry." The other one told him. "A few more plants here and there, but this is the right roooo…" The guy's voice trailed off when he saw something unusual. There was some sort of carved stone on top of a tree stump with what looked like some sort of bright orange eye. The strangest thing was that it looked like the eye was staring at him. He needed to report this abnormality to their leader.

"Boss! Hey, boss! Something weird is happe…" He didn't finish talking when the forest took an eerie tone, and a voice boomed from within the trees.

"You who dare trespass the realm of sorrow. You are not welcome in this land. For this, you shall suffer the ultimate punishment."

Suddenly, the trees were making a freakish deafening noise. It was like a million Deku Scrubs running and shrieking at the same time. The barbarians were ready for anything. An army of animals, a rock-flinging onslaught, evil monkeys… you name it. Or so they thought. Before they could even react, a giant shadow enveloped them into eternal darkness.

Zelda opened her eyes, expecting to be dead. To her surprised, she was alive, but she couldn't say the same for her captors. Every barbarian and their boars were now frozen in place, and sported an eerie black and white hue. She wondered was happened, and why was she spared, when the booming voice spoke again.

"You who lack the right. You are not welcome in this realm of sorrow. However, your heart is cleaner than the other trespassers, and for that, you will not suffer the same fate as the others. However, you will be punished with a curse fitting your intrusion."

"No, please." Zelda pleaded as a shadowy figure approached. "I will leave, but please don't do this."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

To be continued…

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And that's the first chapter, breaking a personal record: I wrote it in just 3 days! Maybe that's why the ending may look kinda so-so. R&R, everybody. I feed off reviews. Next chapter is Link's debut, so keep your mouse smokin'.

Lightweight 20-05