I was stunned at first by this newcomer. For starters, he looked almost exactly like me which was jarring in its own right, but this Link had a certain aura about him. When he was speaking he drew everyone's eyes towards himself, and he exuded an easygoing kind of confidence. The only people who could compete with him in terms of presence were the royal family.
Technically speaking, as far as I knew, Link was as commoner. For people in this time period who held their royal families in such high regard, it spoke volumes to see them treat Link almost as if he was on equal footing with them. I figured he must've already accomplished a lot throughout the war.
After what was probably too long of a pause, I finally came to my senses and shook Link's hand.
"It's nice to finally meet you," I said trying to sound sincere, but it felt forced. "I've heard so much about you."
At that, the hero shot a look at Zelda and said with a smirk "I don't suppose that was your doing, Princess?" Zelda turned away with mock indignation, but there was clearly a smile working its way across her face.
"Anything he has heard has come straight from the people," she said. "Don't assume I think so highly of you."
Link had just assumed a fake expression of hurt when the king interjected.
"Ahem," the king said, causing Link and Zelda to look away from one another bashfully. "I'm sure there will be plenty of time for catching up and lighthearted banter later, but for now we should continue with introductions.
"Of course, your highness," Link said, bowing his head in an apologetic manner. I was surprised by his total shift in demeanor when he was addressing the king, although I probably shouldn't have been. I guess seeing him interact so easily with Zelda had made me think that maybe status wasn't the kind of thing that affected this Link, but that clearly wasn't the case.
King Cepheus then turned his attention to me, saying "You've just met our young champion, Link. He will serve as your personal instructor for the next few weeks as he is unparalleled in swordplay. I'm sure it goes without saying that the cooperation between you two will be extremely vital to the survival of our kingdom."
I couldn't tell if I was excited or terrified at the thought of being personally trained by the single greatest soldier in Hyrule. I didn't really have time to form my opinion about it before the king went on with introductions.
Most of the rest of the people present were nobles or military generals whose names I forgot the minute I took my eyes off of them. The man who was dressed in orange robes was a Sage named Rauru who was in charge of watching over the Temple of Time. He had been recovering from injury when I had first come through the Temple of Time which was why I hadn't met him already. I wanted to ask about the nature of his injuries, wondering if they had anything to do with how Ganondorf had managed to use the Temple before, but King Cepheus moved along before I had a chance.
"Don't worry if you haven't memorized all of these names just yet," the king said. "You'll be regularly participating in real war meetings to discuss military strategies with all of the men here, so I'm sure you'll get to know them over time."
I looked over the room and marveled at the fact that all of these important people had come together to help turn me into the hero they needed. Everyone was looking at me expectantly so I figured I had to say something. I really didn't want to get into the habit of letting them down.
"Thank you all for helping me," I said awkwardly. "I, uh, I won't let you down." I glanced over at Zelda who smiled and nodded at me. I took that as an indication that I'd managed to do something right.
"Alright, we should adjourn for the night. There's much work to be done in the morning," King Cepheus said.
At that I started to walk back to my room, but before I left I noticed Zelda and Link talking and smiling again. For a moment, I thought about walking over to them and joining in on the conversation. I was going to need to get to know the other Link anyways, and it wasn't like I ever needed an excuse to talk to Zelda. I took one step towards them, but then I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks.
Zelda was blushing as she talked to Link. She was wearing her brightest smile, and she had a look in her eyes that I hadn't seen since the moment our eyes first met. Suddenly, I understood what must have been running running through Zelda's mind the first time she looked at me. I looked just like the man that she was in love with, but I wasn't the man that she loved.
Before either of them noticed me, I turned and made my way out of the room and back towards my bedroom. I tried to go to bed immediately so that I could get ready for my training with Hyrule's greatest swordsman, but I couldn't sleep a wink. I had probably only gotten two hours of sleep by the time morning rolled around.
"You've got to move your feet more," the other Link told me after knocking me on my ass for roughly the fiftieth time in an hour. We had been sparring with wooden swords and shields so that we could wear minimal protection. It was better for movement, but it meant that getting hit in any way hurt like a bitch.
"Last time you said I needed a firmer stance and to plant my feet more," I said as I slowly picked myself up off the ground and tried to ignore the intense throbbing in my side. "Which is it: plant my feet or move them?"
Link shrugged with a sheepish expression as he said "Well, it's a little of both." When I replied by looking even more pissed off than I had previously been, he hastily tried to explain.
"You have to stay light on your feet so that you can always jump into the optimal position to defend or attack, but once you get there you have to plant your feet immediately," he said. "Listen, why don't we take a break? We could both use some water, and I can explain things a little more in depth."
"Fine," I huffed. I knew It would feel good to take a break and rest my legs, but I wasn't particularly happy about stopping training just because I sucked so much.
Waking up that morning had been particularly rough. I was already exhausted from hardly sleeping the night before, and when I remembered exactly what had kept me up I was hit with a fresh wave of jumbled emotions, none of which were good. I knew I was being childish, getting upset by seeing Zelda and Link together, so I tried to shove those emotions aside and dragged myself out of bed. It was easier said than done.
It hadn't taken long to figure out why people considered Link to be the best warrior in all of Hyrule. He moved and fought like a force of nature. He was lightning fast, and all of his strikes really packed a punch. It was as if swordplay was second nature to him. And as if Link wasn't impressive enough, I could tell that he was holding back whenever we were sparring. It was both frustrating and awe inspiring.
We sat down on a bench underneath the shade of a tree and drank water out of glasses that had been set out. We had an entire courtyard all to ourselves for training, equipped with plenty of weapons, practice dummies, and archery targets.
"I think the main problem right now is your reaction time," Link explained. "You've got a good handle on how to move and counter, but it takes years to build up your reaction time. I've got a lifetime of swordsmanship under my belt, but you've only just gotten started so of course it's going to be harder for you."
"So, not to be negative or anything, but we don't exactly have a lifetime to build up my reaction speed," I said. "Captain Jeero told me that he could buy us a month before we both need to be back on the frontline. That was two and a half weeks ago. How am I going to become as good a fighter as you in just a week and a half?"
"Oh that's simple, you won't," Link said and I practically spat out my water. I guess the fear I was feeling showed on my face because Link slung a comforting arm around my shoulder and grinned. "The good news is, we don't need you to be as good as me."
"We don't?" I said, and Link nodded. "Are you sure, because that kind of sounds different from what everyone else has been saying."
"There's only so much you can do in the short amount of time we've been given to make up for a lifetime of inexperience," Link said. It was the kind of sentence that should have felt condescending, but somehow coming from Link, it didn't. "All we really need is your courage. Well, yours and mine."
It made me smile, knowing that somehow this other Link and I were in the same boat. It had been a frustrating morning, getting the shit kicked out of me for an hour straight, but I still had two hours of sparring left before lunch. I felt reinvigorated and motivated to do everything in the short time that we had.
"Alright," I said as I rose from the bench and sat down my water, "we better get back to it."
Just as I expected, I got the shit kicked out of me for another two hours that morning. I continued getting beaten to a pulp everyday for the next three days as well. Despite how grueling it was, I found that Link and I were actually getting along pretty well. He wasn't a spectacular teacher, but he was patient and obviously incredibly skilled. I learned a lot each day just from watching him.
Still, the work was utterly exhausting. I had never been so sore in all of my life. My only respite from the difficult sparring matches were meals, light fitness workouts, and war meetings.
It was interesting, to see great military minds strategizing and thinking about real battles. It was a completely different experience than my classes where I learned about military tactics, but I was glad that I could still find ways to apply what I had learned to real life scenarios. Zelda and King Cepheus were always at the meetings, which was a bonus, but of course I wasn't permitted to sit next to Zelda or discuss anything that wasn't strictly business.
I got to know the names of all the generals pretty quickly. I didn't talk much during the meetings, but they called on me every now and then to see what I thought about a certain situation. I guess they wanted to know how well I understood war tactics, and my suggestions usually weren't too far off from the solutions that they came up with themselves. Of course, I was still messing things up here and there, but it was going better than I had expected.
The meetings weren't too bad, but the best part about them was getting to see Zelda in action. I could understand why she was considered the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom. When she spoke in the meetings, her entire demeanor changed. She was strong, self assured, and calculating. Everyone in the room, her father included, hung on her every word, and people rarely disagreed with her. Just knowing she was on our side was reassuring.
I never got a chance to talk to her after the meetings, so I usually tried to catch her eye during the meetings. All I wanted was to share some kind of meaningful look or expression, something to tell her that I was still working hard, but she always seemed to be determined to look at anything but me. I tried not to get discouraged, and told myself it was just for the sake of professionalism, but something told me there was something else going on. I couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with the other Link being back in the castle.
I tried not to think about Zelda too much while I was training. We both had enough to worry about without me distracting her for reasons that I couldn't even wrap my head around. I needed to focus if I was going to even get close to Link's combat skills. It was on the first day of my last week of training that I finally came close to landing a clean hit on him.
We were a little over two hours into our second session of the day, and our current match had already been going on for twenty straight minutes. It was our longest bout yet, although they seemed to be taking longer and longer with each time our swords met.
I was keeping pace with Link although I was on the defensive most of the time. Finally after bashing his shield aside, I saw a good chance to throw an attack and swung my sword downward towards Link's head. He blocked with his wooden sword, but I guess I had put more weight into the attack than he anticipated because it caught him by surprise and knocked him off balance. I saw the opening that I had created by causing him to stumble and stabbed straight ahead towards his exposed midsection.
For a second, I thought I was actually going to win the match. I must have been mere inches away from landing a blow before Link recovered and knocked my sword away with the side of his shield. By this point, I had overextended myself too much trying to land this one attack and was completely defenseless. Before I had time to recover, I felt the wooden sword crash down on my back and send me face first into the ground. Aside from hurting like a bitch (which I was used to) it was a major blow to my pride.
"Damn it all," I groaned with my face still pressed to the grass. "I was so close that time!"
"I know, you actually had me worried there for a minute," Link said with a laugh before giving me a comforting pat on the back. "Don't be frustrated. That really was a good move. You're improving much more quickly than I expected."
"Yeah yeah, don't go patronizing me," I said and then rolled over onto my back. I took Link's outstretched hand and let him pull me to my feet.
"No really, I mean it. There aren't a lot of soldiers on either side of this war who could go toe to toe with you," he said. I tried not to let show just how great it felt to get praised for my swordsmanship. "Come on, let's stop for the day. We've got to get ready for the meeting tonight and we can't go like this."
"Wait, did you say we've got to get ready," I asked, feeling confused. "I didn't know you went to those war councils."
"That's because I usually don't go, but Zelda thinks that my input on a certain matter could make a difference tonight" Link said, and the smile that usually never left his face faltered. "I'm not too crazy about some of the generals and their tactics, but the princess called in a favor so I don't really have a choice."
At the mention of Zelda's name, my ears immediately perked up. I couldn't help but wonder just how he'd found the time to have a conversation with Zelda. We were training for at least half the day, and she was always rushing in and out of meetings so I figured she had somewhere important to be. It occurred to me that Link might be that 'important somewhere' she was always rushing off to.
"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with you two anyways?" I said and immediately winced at how poorly worded my question had been.
Link turned his head so that I couldn't read his expression before replying "What do you mean?" I couldn't quite tell, but he sounded like he might be a little offended.
"Sorry, I probably didn't phrase that right," I said sheepishly. "All I mean is, you guys seem really close, but you didn't grow up in the castle or anything right? How did you guys know each other before?"
"Oh, well I'm not sure I'd consider us that close, but I suppose we get along," Link said, and seemed to relax at least a little. "To tell the truth, we really don't know each other very well. When the war first started and Hyrule's military got things a little bit more under control, the King wanted to meet me so I was pulled off of the front lines and brought to the castle."
"I only stayed in the castle for a week, but it just seemed like I couldn't go anywhere without running into her," he said with a laugh. "It got to be a bit of running joke for us, and we talked a fair amount while I was here. Aside from that and the few letters we sent back and forth while I was away, we really haven't seen much of one another."
"Oh, well I guess it's good that you get along," I said, feeling awkward. "She really is something, isn't she?"
I expected a smile or some kind of jovial response from Link, but instead only received silence. After a few moments, he rose from the bench and started towards the exit.
"We'd, better get ready for the meeting," Link said and disappeared through a doorway. I sat there and tried to think of what I could've said to upset him, but was only left feeling more confused. Eventually I followed Link's example and left to get ready for the war council.
Author's note: Holy heck, I am so sorry that this update is coming so late! I tried to write it so many times but I just didn't like it no matter how I went about it. Then things started getting crazy before finals, and then actual finals came, and oh where did the time go? I'm still not crazy about this chapter but I guess it's presentable. Either way, the update had to come soon. I really am sorry about how long it took. I've finally got some free time so I'll try to get another chapter out before Christmas break ends. Anyways, drop a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter if you want. Or don't, it's a free country. Happy holidays!