Chapter 1

A warm afternoon sun lay low in the sky. It's light painted Hyrule field a glowing orange, the trees rustling slightly from a passing breeze. Upon a hill a green clad hero sat gazing out over the land before him.

He sighed, his mind restless with unmade decisions. It had been over three months since he and his counterpart Midna had rid the kingdom of its twilight invasion at the hands of Ganondorf. Since then the time had passed in a blur of cleaning, repairing, and rebuilding alongside celebrations commemorating the victory. His gaze shifted towards Hyrule Castle. The once ruins stood proud again, the throne again occupied by princess Zelda much to everyone's delight.

Among all this joy however, Link still found himself somewhat at a loss. With everything returning to the way it was Link was without a job. He could go back to herding goats but he knew he wouldn't last long at it. He needed something to keep himself busy while still being useful.

The thought of joining the royal guard had crossed his mind for a total of five second but was quickly discarded, the guards were well known for their incompetence and Link did not trust his patience enough to be surrounded by that everyday. He got to his feet and mounted his horse Epona. He had received a letter from Telma earlier telling him to come to her bar.

As Link rode toward the town he wondered what on earth Telma would tell him that she couldn't tell him through her letter. But Telma was well known for coming up with any excuse to get people to come to her bar.

Epona slowed as they reached the bridge; after Link got down she started to walk over to the grass to graze. Link straightened himself out and walked through the double doors.

Finding his way to the bar was no trouble for him since he had been there so many times before. He walked through the busy streets then down the dark side-road into the bar and found that there was only Telma standing behind the bar polishing a glass. As he paused in the doorway he looked down to see Telma's cat Louise brushing up against his leg. Pausing, he bent down to stroke her in way of greeting. Louise purred, looked up at him and meowed.

"It's funny, Louise isn't usually so friendly with people, but she almost seems to have some sort of hidden connection to you dear." Telma called from behind the bar. Link looked up at her with a small smile.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here," She said after a few moments. "Course I know you've been busy Hon, but would it hurt you to drop in every once and awhile?"

Link seated himself on one of the bar stools and looked up at Telma, her face had an almost childish pout to it, but at the same time it was clear to Link that she was quite disappointed that he hadn't come to visit her. Link flashed a nervous smile and mumbled some kind of excuse, hoping it would appease her.

"Well anyway that doesn't matter now, you're here. And not a minute too soon Hon, they should be arriving any time now." she said with a meaningful glance at the door.

As if on cue the Resistance burst through the door, Ashei led the group into the bar with her usual feisty look on her face. Following not far behind her was Auru; he was the first to notice Link lounging at the bar. He nodded a quick greeting to Link and continued past to the table that was situated at the back of the room. Shad came in last with his face in a book. It always amazed Link that he could navigate his way around without ever having to look up from his book. A few moments after Shad and Aura had settled themselves at the table and Ashei leaned back against the wall Telma spoke up.

"Well now that we're all here I suppose I should get on with the reason I called you here. Link; we've all been talking and we want to make you an offer. We want you to be a permanent member of the Resistance. What do ya say?"

Link was a bit taken aback at first but quickly regained his composure. He looked from one face to the next; even Shad had looked up from his book and was gazing intently at him.

"It's your choice yeah? We don't want to force you into anything." Ashei said from across the room.

Next it was Auru who said: "We just figured; now with the majority of the chaos gone, you would need something to fill your time."

"Plus, with Rusl having gone back home, we're a short a member" Telma put in from behind him.

Link paused to think, this was exactly the solution to his problem; it's true he would need something to keep him busy now, and it was head and shoulders above herding goats or working with the guards. Link paused for a few more seconds before turning back to the group and nodding.

"Wonderful! I'm glad that you came to see the light dear." Telma teased with a wink. The rest of the group came over and shook his hand in turn.

"Happy that you could join us Link" Auru said.

"Just make sure you don't slow us down yeah?" Ashei added with a smirk.

Link smiled back at her before looking up to see Shad rummaging around in his bag. Curious he walked over to see if he had lost something. Before Link could walk more than a few steps Shad stood up with a triumphant look on his face and said

"A-ha! There it is! I was worried I had lost it." Shad turned to Link and smiled "I had wanted to give you this before," he said "but there just never seemed to be the time."

Link simply smiled and waited for an explanation.

"This is to thank you for helping me with all those discoveries related to the Oocca" Shad held out a strange device to Link. Link stared at the object with absolute fascination. It looked almost like a bracelet but it was covered in oddly shaped jewels and what looked like some sort of ancient writing.

"It creates a magic barrier." Shad said after a moment. "If you attach it to your wrist a force field will surround your body and deflect any small projectiles that are thrown at you... But it only lasts for a short amount of time."

Link took it into his hands and the object began to float while that strange little melody that always played when he got a new object rang in his ears. The object then fell back into his hands and he carefully placed it into his pouch. He turned his attention back to Shad and with a nod he thanked him for his gift. Shad looked a bit shy as he muttered a reply. Just then Ashei punched Shad in the shoulder and said with a grin:

"Hey! How come he gets cool gifts like that? What about the rest of us?"

"A-Ashei! I-I- I didn't think of it! I'm -I'm sorry I'll get you something next time ok?" Shad stuttered.

The teasing then quickly escalated until Telma told them to knock it off. After everyone had calmed down and had re-situated themselves at the table Telma announced that tonight everything was on the house and that they should celebrate the joining of a new member. This was met by hearty agreements from all. After about midnight when everyone had had their fill of festivities they quietly excused themselves and left for their respective houses. Link had stayed by the request of Telma who had told him that she wouldn't hear of him returning to Ordon this late in the night. She forced him to stay in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs where Link promptly fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.