A LINK TO THE PAST

Prologue

On a dark, cold, rainy night in Hyrule, a pale-skinned pointy-eared little girl of about seven with her father's bright eyes and golden hair whined to her mother.

"Awww, do we really have to go to bed, Mommy? Can't Daddy tell us his hero story one more time?"

Princess Midna supposed she would never understand her children. To her, the prospect of bedtime was very simple: lie down on the bed, pull the covers over yourself if you would like, settle down, close your eyes, and go to sleep.

To her children, however, bedtime was not so simple. Why should they have to sleep when there are stories to be told? That seemed to be her children's logic, anyway.

"Daddy has told you the story so many times," the Twilight Princess sighed. She would likely be amused if she were not so tired and ready for bed herself. "You should have it memorized by now."

"We do," replied a boy of about twelve with tan skin and his mother's dark eyes and fiery hair. "But that story never gets old! Especially the way Dad tells it."

"What's wrong with the way I tell it?" Midna feigned offence.

"All you really tell is how you and Dad met and ended up together," the boy responded.

The little girl chimed in with a "yuck!"

Midna snickered.

The story the children wanted to hear involved their father and his journey across Hyrule and the Twilight Realm to eventually defeat Ganondorf in single combat.

Truth be told, when Midna and her beloved decided to make their lives in quiet Ordon Village following his ultimate triumph over evil, she thought their lives would thenceforth be calm and uninteresting.

She discovered her younger brother was still alive, thrown into the streets by Zant but otherwise unharmed by him. He agreed to receive the responsibility of ruler of the Twili and allow his sister to live a normal life as a way to thank her for helping cure their realm of Zant and Ganondorf's influence.

Though the Hero of Twilight—as her beloved had come to be known—was knighted, his was only an honorary knighthood and imposed no duties upon him.

The two were married in Ordon Village and began to build their new life together. A calm, peaceful life, Midna thought.

But then she discovered she was pregnant, and several months later, their real adventures began.

And now, on a dark and stormy night, all she wanted was to sleep, but her children wanted a story. She already knew who would get their way and who would have to wait a little longer.

"Alright," Midna relented. "I'll go get Daddy and he'll tell you the story, okay?"

"I am not telling that story again," came a deep voice, soft but strong, from the hallway. Soon, the source of the voice was standing in the doorway.

"I'm full of good stories, I'll tell a different one this time."

Link.

Midna was sure that Link would never stop amazing her. He was the most handsome, gentle, loving, understanding, kind man she knew. She adored him.

"But Daddy, your story is so much cooler than any other ones I've ever heard!" whined the little girl.

"Well," replied the Hero of Twilight, his eyes glimmering with fatherly love, "this one is brand new. Uncle Gallius told me yesterday when he came to visit."

Midna raised an eyebrow (Gallius was a scientist and historian, not an author of children's stories), and her husband gave her a look that said I'll explain that part later.

"Come on, let's sit around the den where we can all get comfortable," said Link. "The weather is getting worse and you kids won't be sleeping through that anyway."

Link picked up his daughter and carried her into the den, followed closely by Midna, hand-in-hand with her son.

They all sat down and got comfortable—Link in his large chair with his daughter in his lap, Midna and the boy seated on the couch—and the Hero of Twilight spun his new tale.

"Do you two remember the story of the Hero of Time?" he asked, sitting on the chair.

"Yeah!" the boy replied. He always loved the story of the Hero of Time.

"Wasn't he your grandpa?" the little girl asked.

"My great-grandfather," Link responded. "From a bit over a hundred years ago."

"He beat down Ganondorf the first time, but then gave up all that glory and came back to this timeline to stop Ganondorf from rising to power in the first place—legend!" the boy remarked. "He's almost as awesome as Dad."

Link smiled and continued his story.

"Well, it's said that if that hero had failed to defeat Ganondorf, our world would be vastly different than it is now. Rather than being denied the power of the Triforce, Ganondorf would have been able to get a hold of it and become an all-powerful king of, well, everything!"

Both children gasped. The little girl asked, "For real?"

"For real," Link replied.

"But his reign wouldn't have lasted very long. The Sages would have locked him away with the Triforce in the Sacred Realm; they would let Ganondorf have it, but make sure he couldn't hurt anyone with it."

"Dad," the boy interrupted. "Is this a story or another one of Uncle Gallius's wild timeline theories?"

Midna chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair affectionately.

"Well," the Hero of Twilight responded. "Everything I just said is just a prediction of how the Sages would have reacted if the Hero of Time failed. What I'm about to tell you, however, took a little bit of imagination…"

Both children trained their attention on their father, as he told a grand story of a princess, a demon disguised as a wizard, and a boy who had to learn his place in it all—a boy who became a legendary hero.

A boy named Link.

Hey, everyone!

It has been a pretty long time since I have posted any writing here. My current stories have just been lacking in inspiration lately, and I've been really focusing on a huge musical project I have going on.

But lately, I've been intrigued by the story of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate it into my Zelda writing, but I wasn't sure how. Eventually, I decided to think about the timeline and how the downfall timeline relates to the other two. I do plan to post my timeline theory on here soon, so I won't get into that right now. My timeline theories will be incorporated into stories as "Lord Gallius's timeline theories," as he is my character from One World and stories I have planned after that. If you haven't read the little bit of One World that I've finished, that's okay. While the out-of-story-mode parts of this may reference stuff from that, I don't think you'll need to read that for this.

I plan for this to be a sort of novelization of A Link to the Past, but that is certainly a tentative plan—you will find out as I find out, ha-ha!And a lot of things may change from the original game, but the overall story should be the same.

This is kind of a spur-of-the-moment project, so I'm not completely sure where this will end up and where it will take us, but I have no doubt that it will be fun!

Last thing, I decided to have the story feature Twilight Princess Link because he is my favorite Link, and also because he's the one I would like to see settle down into a life of peace and relative calm after his adventures. Midna is here too, which will be explained in future writing of my One World stuff and is not relevant to this story.

Sorry for this long note, just had some things I wanted to say.

I hope y'all are healthy and making the most out of 2020, enjoying it as much as you can in this crazy environment! Take care of yourselves, and I hope you enjoy the rest of this story (however it may turn out)!

God Bless, see y'all soon.