By the time the sun began to set behind the castle, the streets were beginning to clear. As the good peasants of Hyrule Castle City retreated into their homes, bolted their barred windows shut, and, for the especially cautious, set their booby traps, Link walked closely along the buildings, near the torchlights and homebound people. Many years of traversing these darkened roads have enforced hard lessons about safety. Everyone knew: it was no one's land where the light was absent. Only a pair of city watchmen patrolling the grounds broke the stillness of the dark. Like a torch in an old, infested hut, their light scattered the vagrants like vermin into the sheltering, dark corners.

All Link wanted was a coil of unattended rope that could extend about four stories long, five just to be safe. Perhaps there was discarded rope in the back alleys? No. No amount of valuable treasure was worth braving the back alleys, dangerous enough during the day, especially unarmed. Of course, he could burgle a home and take a coil from a tool closet. And he would only take the coil of rope, no one would even miss it, and maybe an heirloom or two.

When Link reached the intersection of Tully and Revenant, he was suddenly brought to a decision-making moment. Left, right, forward? There was nothing interesting to the left or down the street, but there was a light coming forth from a residence on Link's right. And why wouldn't he want to check out the place that was open after hours?

Letters the size of an arm spelled out the name of store over the well lit, inviting entrance. Link peered in, expecting someone in the room. No way, his prayer was answered. Some stupid store owner was stupid enough to leave his door wide open for all the thieves to invite. All the candles inside the shop were still illuminating the narrow room with vigor.

There it was, a coil of rope sitting on the second shelf. Link grabbed the coil without hesitation and slipped his arm through the coil, comfortably suspended on his shoulder. That's all he was going to take…

But, as long as the shop owner was missing, Link figured he had time to at least search for a lucrative treasure, which ended up taking only five short heartbeats. The thief almost face palmed at how easily he found the small, locked chest tucked underneath the counter. It was almost a crime not to steal its contents. Even though he did not have the key or any means to pick the lock, he could at least open the chest in relative safety. He firmly grabbed the bottom of the wooden box with both his hands and yanked, only to find that the chest was nailed into the bottom. His plan to unlock it later mocked him the longer Link studied the lock.

A noise stirred him. It was the heavy creak of a door being comfortably open by someone assuming the room was empty. Link froze in place, looking for a way out. After a couple of footsteps, the door suddenly closed followed by the sound of metal bolts being locked into place. Link had overstayed his welcome it seemed like.

He needed a plan. Nearby the register, there was an open doorway into another room, probably storage, a good place to hide and wait for a better opportunity to escape.

He peeked around the corner and saw a balding man with limbs the width of a tree branch. Small eyes and an ugly wart on his cheek made this man's resting face look very unpleasant. Suddenly, he noticed the missing coil of rope. Alerted, he growled, removed one of the torches resting on the wall, and removed a sword hanging on the top shelf next to the shield and helmet. Dung! Now the armed owner was searching for an intruder. So much for simply walking out the door.

Link retreated behind the counter and began listening for the footsteps. His sensitive ears could source the location of each step, and any sequence of footsteps narrated the direction of the man.

He's walking towards the register. It's the first thing he's going to check. Unless Link gave him something else to check first. He quickly removed the rope from his shoulder, tossed it down the aisle, and then took refuge in the shadows underneath the counter.

"Hmm?" Footsteps rounded the counter. Link was close enough to smell the shop owner's feet. "Huh. 'Ow'd you end up 'ere?" squeaked the voice of the old man. That's right, the old man was just mistaken. There was no intruder; the old man had simply misplaced the rope. The relaxed gait in the man's step contagiously spread relief into Link's body.

While the shopkeeper's back was turned away was Link's chance to quietly touch ground again and gracefully roll through the doorway into the storage room. He froze in the dark shadows and listened to the footsteps. The shopkeeper shuffled past the door to the storage room and was putting the rope away.

Link was not leaving without that rope. Maybe he could find the key to the chest as well?

Ideally, he wanted to get the rope without getting seen. His long sleeved tunic, although stained with sweat and too warm to wear in the sweltering summer weather, covered up most of his scars, but there was nothing to shield his face, mangled through years of urban survival, from recognition.

Surrounded by boxes and crates stacked all the way up to the ceiling and occupying about half of the room's space in total, all Link had to do was find any one of the dozens of scattered niches and crevices between the crates and wait patiently for the perfect time to slip by and grab the rope unnoticed, or strike. Although the plan set in his mind seemed cunning and safe and was truly the best option available, a small light protruding from the opposite corner held Link's attention. He should have just waited, but instead he walked down the cleared pathway towards the brilliant light radiating against the swarming darkness.

When he reached the bend in the path, little balls of light froze in the air when they became aware of his presence. Eight jars separated eight differently colored fairies, unfortunate assets trapped in the black market trade.

"You!" the volume of the high register scream in Link's head almost felt like a sudden pressure from within. But he knew that the voice did not come from his own thoughts.

As his eyes adjusted to their bright energies, Link crouched down next to the light source, which felt like pressing his head into a headache, and whispered, "What about me?" unsure which one of the blinding idiots was speaking to him.

"You sold me!" the same voice screamed in his head. Did he? It sounded like something Link would do.

Link shrugged, "Yeah, so? It was probably worth the good meal." And what a good meal that must have been. Any fairy was guaranteed to sell for at least a silver rupee at the local bazaar, where an end user would purchase one for a hundredfold of what Link made. With that kind of money on the line, anyone could have sold this fairy, "Do I even know you?"

"HA!" boomed her response, intensifying her light energy, "You think I could forget that crooked scar from your right lip? That scar on the side of your face?"

"Lots of Links have scars," Link mocked. This was the second time today that someone recognized him by his scars, which was concerning.

"I promised I would NEVER forget the scar on your right lip when you sold me five years ago!" the fairy fired back.

"Sheesh whatever!" Link diverted his fed up frustration into a raspy soundless scowl, "Which one are you?" he asked.

"The Blue one," said the one adjacent to the magenta, green, and orange fairy.

"Okay then, blue."

"My name is Smoxy! I identify as she!" she said disdainfully.

"Sheesh! Smoxy, do you want to be free?"

Silence. Aware that the shop owner could enter into the storage room at any heartbeat, Link looked back nervously and waited for a response to what must have sounded like a rhetorical question. "Well?" Link spurred.

"Hmm," was her hesitant response. Every heartbeat she delayed was a heartbeat closer to the shopkeeper's entrance. "How can I trust you?" she finally asked.

"Because I need you to help me get out of here without killing anyone," was Link's sincere response.

"Ha! I don't care if you kill him!" a different fairy bellowed. A chorus of agreement rang through the group.

"I care if I kill him!" retaliated the intruder, who would be the one to face trial if he were caught for murder on top of burglary.

A richer, alto voice rang in his head, "Shoot, if she doesn't want to be free then I'll assist you instead!"

Suddenly, a cacophonous bombardment of voices filled his cranial space, "Free me too!"

"If you free me, you free all of them," Smoxy delivered her ultimatum, silencing everyone. There was no time for further argument.

"Deal," Link grabbed Smoxy's jar first, "When you're free, distract the old geezer until I can unbolt the door and get us all out of here."

One by one, Link tossed each jar into the air, producing the freeing sound of shattering glass. As soon as the piercing sound glass filled the room, he knew that the shopkeeper would come running immediately. A growl of frustration escaped from Link's mouth as the fairies circled around each other and celebrated prematurely, oblivious of the shop owner about to enter the room at any heartbeat. "Thank you!" they cried and sang in gleeful gratitude, once again bombarding and overfilling Link's head with uninvited happy sentiments.

Before the shopkeeper could say, "Where are you?" before his hide shoes crossed the threshold, before the light from his torch filled the room and revealed all before him, Link was already hidden in the shadows.

And when the light, the shoes, and the shopkeeper did in that order, they were met by the warcry of eight vengeful, bloodthirsty fairies, "GET HIM!" Smoxy led the charge. She dove first towards him and instantly circled around his torch. By the time the old man swung his weapon, the fairies had already followed her and were within striking distance, and the second swing nearly took him off his balance.

Now was his time to strike. Link climbed forth from his hiding spot and wasted not a heartbeat of his precious window of opportunity. Nimble, small, and light, the boy was able to reach the shopkeeper within the blink of an eye. He kept low and sidestepped around the store owner and pivoted around.

His left hand reached for the pouch sitting on the shopkeeper's belt, dexterously undoing the button on the leather flap. One heartbeat was all Link had to rummage through the contents and find the key, so he needed to simply grab a handful of the stuff and begone, key or no key.

Link was not subtle about his pickpocketing this time, but before the shopkeeper could whirl around and stop the thief, the old man had to deal with the orange fairy stuck in his right eye. Link searched through the contents in his hand and dropped everything but the four keys, each a different size and shape. Two of the keys were too large to be anything by door keys, and the small, rusted key looked like it could fit. When the minimal torque twisted the locking mechanism open, a sinister smile crept onto Link's face.

The opened chest revealed... a stick. A bent, wooden stick with an orange varnish and a blue jewel embedded on the corner of the bend that looked more like a toy than something valuable.

The owner of the "valuable" toy cried from behind Link, "'EY YOU! Stop - Gah! Gerroutta me nose!" reminding Link that he urgently needed to exit. As soon as his hand felt the smooth, cool texture of the stick's surface, the crystal began to emit a bright blue light.

No time to examine what that meant. Link tucked part of the stick in his pants, the other half resting against his back, and hopped over the counter. Before he could leave, Link had to find that rope again. The first place Link looked amongst the impressive collection was its original place, which ended the search quickly. Link grabbed coil again and then slipped his arm through the coil and rested it on his right shoulder.

Then it was time to escape. His fingers quickly undid the deadbolt and opened the door, and as soon as the door swung open, his legs sprinted down the path and did not stop running until his breathing was too heavy for his lungs to continue.

As he ran, he could hear in the distance, "Get back 'ere! I'll find you and kill you!"