A/N: Wow... I haven't updated this in over three years. And, I suppose, with good reason. I honestly have no clue where I was headed with this story, and the fact that it's very poorly written (especially compared to my newer stories) makes me want to totally ditch it, but I think I'm going to try and salvage this.
I am going to try to turn this into a great fanfic, but I can't promise frequent updates. I graduate this weekend, and hopefully will have the summer to write, but once I move into my dorm, I can't guarantee how much time I'll have. Hopefully I'll even be able to rewrite the first few chapters at some point.
Thanks to everyone who actually supported this fic. I really appreciate it!
Before I start, I have to address the characters and timeline.
Impa in this story is not Impa from OoT or LoZ(II), but instead Impa from OoS/OoA, which is why I gave her the dialect I did. It's just the way I imagine her speaking.
Din, Nayru, and Farore are not the goddesses, but instead the oracles.
I love Nayru too much to make her truly evil. You'll see soon.
The timeline is a little wishy-washy... When I started this story, I didn't really think it through... So I'm going to set it up like this (and if parts don't make sense, please forgive me...): OoS and OoA happened when Link was 10. After he'd saved both oracles, he returned home, which shall remain the Kokiri Forest in this. During the following year, he completed the tasks set forth in OoT, and returned to the past at the end of the game. After turning 11, this story happens, and once it is finished, Majora's Mask will take place. I'm completely disregarding LoZ, LoZ:AoL, LA, ALttP, and all the other games. I'll be effing around with age a bit. I don't think I could make a great story if they remained 11 the entire time.
PS. Don't ask why a bunch of 11 year olds are playing with swords, mmkay? Mmkay.
A Darkness Hidden(chapter 4)
(06.21.06)
Zelda looked at her mirror image with an increasing tremble beginning to rack her small frame.
She had seen countless monsters in her short life, but had no idea what sorcery there was that could create a person.
Deciding it was better not to be caught by surprise, she pressed her mouth into a grimace and, with a warcry, aimed for the shadow girl. Her eyes grew wide as the sword hit... nothing. The girl was gone. Then suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her back as the flat side of a sword hit it, immediately raising a welt. Zelda's mind seemed to race- thousands of thoughts flooding her head in seconds.
What? She could have killed me. Why didn't she? What's she doing?She spun as fast as she could, hoping to catch the shadow girl's side at least, but she had never fought before, much less with a sword, and the weapon's weight caused her to fall to the ground ungracefully.
The shadow girl did not move to attack. She stood in place, like a doll.
She's... playing with me! Zelda realized, taking note of how easily tired she was becoming and how foolish she must have looked, trying to fight.
"Now now, Zelda dearest." Another figure moved out from behind the garden's stone archway. Nayru, Oracle of Time. Clear blue eyes had clouded over to a much darker shade, a reflection of a rising storm. Something was wrong though. Nayru was as young as both of the other Oracles, no older than Zelda herself. Instead, she appeared as a young woman. "You should know to leave the fighting to the boys. Little girls just don't seem to be able to handle it, now do they?" The blue-haired girl sneered.
Zelda's mouth was still open, and she found herself stammering, unable to come up with the words. Nayru looked at herself as if she was surprised, and then, with a simple "Oh, yes, of course!" expression, placed both hands on her hips. "Yes, beautiful, isn't it? It's new. And do you know how I received this gorgeous new shell?" She stepped closer to Zelda, leaning over her with a cruel expression on her face. "I made it. I finally have full control over my power of time. At least the time that governs my own existence. And soon, I'll be able to fully control all of time." She knelt down, and reached out to yank Zelda's hair, forcing her to look directly at her. "I was going to be a proper hostess and invite you in, but you can get your sniveling face out of my sight now. Go find your friends, assuming they're not dead yet. Go and tell them I'm waiting." She let go with a rough shove and walked away, leaving the shadow girl still standing like a broken toy. Zelda scrambled up, and ran from the castle as fast as she could, cursing herself the entire way.
"My my, now wasn't that fun?" Nayru, having returned to her chambers, laughed gaily. "I'm starting to enjoy this game."
"Why did you not kill the princess?" A low, gravelly voice inquired.Nayru fingered the pendant hanging around her neck and looked down into the murky green depths imprisoned in the glass.
"I think it's more fun this way. Besides, I haven't finished playing with my new toy!" She took the sword out of Zelda's dark look-alike's hand and ran her fingertip down the blade. "I think it could be so much more amusing once I have the next model of my doll."
"Just make sure you know what you are doing, Oracle. I will not tolerate failure."
"Of course dearest... Of course." She said. Then she went back to fiddling with Dark Zelda's hair, smiling to herself.
Link and Din had not yet managed to figure out where they were, but it seemed that the further they traveled and the more exhausted they became, the less it mattered.
After deeming themselves too dirty to go on for the moment, they'd set up "camp" (consisting of a fire in a tiny grove among the trees), and headed down to the river to bathe.
Link sat on a rock and good distance away from the waterfall they had been lucky enough to find, and poked at some fish and berries that had been heating slowly. From where he sat, he couldn't see Din, but he could see the glow from where she was, and he knew that she was using Din's Fire (a spell he himself had learned only months before) to warm the water that was rushing down on her.
"Huh, and I can barely hold it out for five seconds..." He mumbled, both slightly shocked and slightly jealous of her magical abilities. He turned his attention back to their cooking dinner and tried to think of where they could possibly be and how they could leave. He wished he had kept the Mask of Truth that he'd received on his last adventure. Of course, he had no way of knowing if it would help, but it would certainly have been more help than absolutely nothing. He continued to poke absent mindedly at the fish, jumping when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"OMIGOSH!" He shot up, tripped over a rock, fell back, smacked his head on a tree, and looked up to see a very amused Din looking back at him.
"Nice, hero. Very nice" She smiled and pulled him back up. Almost immediately, however, her grin was replaced with a worried grimace. "I tried contacting the other oracles... I was able to reach Farore, who told me she's also in a place she doesn't know. I believe that means she must be here somewhere. She told me she will contact me as soon as she has reached a town, if there are any. But my link with Nayru... I think it's been severed. Farore also attempted to reach her, and got nothing."
"Maybe she's too far away? Or still in Labrynna? I mean... Just because you can't reach her doesn't mean anything horrible. She could be safe."
"Nothing has ever been able to break the bond between us three. Not distance, certainly." She paused for a moment. "Link, I fear for her." She looked down, and still didn't look at him when Link shifted next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Instead, she looked out into the river, and gasped.
"LINK!" She cried, standing up, and knocking him off balance to again hit his head on a tree. "Do you see what I see!"
"Ow, that hurt!" He cried, rubbing his head and pushing himself up off the ground. But when he stood, he did see what she had seen.
In the distance, he could see the very misty image of a building.
"A dungeon...?"
"I think so. And if we're lucky, we might find something in there to help us!" She grinned, eyes alive with fire. "Shall we?"
"We shall." And they ran off together in the direction of the rising sun.
A/N: Well... It's shorter than I wanted, and mostly filler.
Also, I'm not trying to give Zelda a bad character here. I don't think I've ever really felt the urge to bash any character from Legend of Zelda. She'll get totally kick-ass in time, I promise.
I'm beginning to piece together the story, and I think I'm capable of finishing this. This is the second adventure fic I've planned on finishing. And I promise I will make it great.
Replies to the ReviewersMist Hedgechidna: Yes, it is Link/Din. They're my favorite couple, and it seems like there's absolutely nothing for them.
Eneps: No, The Dark Doth Glow was an abandoned Inu-Yasha project of mine. And Zelda won't need Link to save her. Next time she'll be able to do it on her own.
