Link's POV

I held on to Malon for a couple extra seconds, breathing in her scent. If only I could freeze in this moment. As much as I hated goodbyes, it had taken me only once to learn that leaving without was worse. I could still remember her fiery indignation the next time I came back.

"Come with us," I said in a desperate attempt for our time together not to end as she started to pull away.

She looked at me with sorrowful big blue eyes. "You know I can't. Though you could stay," she said with a kind of guarded hope.

"I wish I could. But..." I turned my head to gesture at Sheik and was surprised to see him staring coldly at us. I groaned as I parted the rest of the way from her. Why was Sheik being such a creep this trip?

We both said a few other things, but any kind of moment we were having was gone, so I went to prepare Epona for wherever Sheik wanted to drag us next. Part way through this process, Talon approached me.

"Link I can't thank you enough for what you did last year. Are you ready to marry Malon yet?" There was the customary pause before he laughed and said, "Just kidding. Just kidding."

I awkwardly laughed along with him though I couldn't say I got the joke. When he said it to me the first time several years previous, it was funny (kind of) because both of us were way too young. But the last couple of times...? I guess maybe it was supposed to be a reflection on what a poor prospect I'd make due to my meager means and inability to settle down? Clearly it wasn't any kind of commentary on Malon. She had no shortage of interested parties. Honestly, I was surprised not to find her promised to anyone the last few times I had come back. Nicely surprised.

The hairs on the back of my neck started to rise in anger as I turned to see Sheik talking to Malon. Couldn't he just leave her alone? I was about to go over and tell him off when I saw him hand a pouch of rupees to Malon and realized he was just paying for the horse we picked out for the General. He slipped her something else as well, but his hand blocked my view.

Before I could think much of it, one of the twins needed my help, and I was busy from then to when I mounted my horse and regretfully waved goodbye. My time always felt too short in Lon Lon, but I hated that it had been sullied by Sheik's poor behavior. For once I was glad that he stayed his customary twenty yards back.

Right now I didn't care about his skill or his expertise, I just wanted to be done with him. If he weren't my only connection to Zelda... That's all I could think about as we rode to... wherever in the world we were going. I had no idea, and I honestly didn't care.

'What if' scenarios circled through my mind, and when we stopped, I charged over to Sheik, needing answers for my peace of mind. He seemed surprised to see me as if he expected I'd keep my distance today.

"You said Zelda's just as good at fighting as you, right?" I asked.

Sheik looked at me curiously. "Yes."

"Then theoretically, couldn't she have been my teacher? Wouldn't that have worked out more smoothly?"

"She wanted to. She even raised those same exact points. But it would have been too dangerous. Only Impa and I are privy to her disguise, and it is best kept that way. The more people who know, the larger the chance of something going wrong. Impa argued that point quite vehemently. She was the other person qualified to train you, given that she taught Zelda and me. The problem with that was that her connections were needed for a different part of the plan. I was the compromise."

"Zelda wanted to train me? That was actually a possibility?" While that was what I wanted to hear, the reality that I was robbed of traveling with her by Sheik hurt worse than I imagined.

"No," he said stopping that line of thought. "There was a reason even above revealing her disguise."

"What?" I asked testily. I hated when he held back just to be cryptic.

"If you were together, and she was put in mortal danger, would you trade your life for hers?"

"Of course I would," I answered without hesitation. Did he really think I was such a coward? I knew she was more important than me.

"Therein lies the problem. While I plead with the goddesses every night for the princess to make it through this war, she has already served her most important function by planning out a stratagem. She still has much to contribute, but were she to die, we would still have hope, however slim that may be, of defeating Ganondorf. But without you, nothing else matters. The prophesy says the chosen hero will be the one to deliver the final blow. Yet even as I say this, I know your heart has not changed on the matter. So in effect, you could say it is your own fault that I am with you instead of Princess Zelda."

I glared at him. He used such twisted logic. If I cared less, I could have the thing I now cared less about? Still, it stung just like he knew it would.

"Being willing to sacrifice myself for others, isn't that the whole point of what I'm doing, of what it means to be a hero?"

"Not needless or vain sacrifice. That is just a waste that hurts more than it helps. But since you are so interested in heroics, I have a question for you. Why are you fighting? Why do you want to overthrow Ganondorf?"

I gave him a confused look. "You're kidding me right?" His expression didn't change. "Because he's evil!"

"So you want to draw Hyrule into a war because you disagree with his ethics?" Sheik asked condescendingly.

"What? No. I mean, look at what he's done."

"You mean the people he has killed?"

"Well, yeah."

"Yet you have to know that if we are successful, you will effectively lead thousands, even tens of thousands, to their deaths, effectively killing them. How are you any better than Ganondorf?"

I stared at Sheik speechless. How could he even argue that? The most frustrating thing was I knew he didn't believe it. He couldn't seeing as how he was the one who set me on this path. But I didn't even know where to begin arguing against logic that demented.

"My tongue is not as talented as yours, but people know the difference. The people of Hyrule know Ganondorf is evil and that's enough."

"No."

I whipped my head around, surprised to hear Trenton speak up. Sheik had previously made it very clear that when the two of us were talking about these kinds of things, the twins were not to participate. However, Sheik looked more intrigued than angry, so Trenton cautiously continued.

"You don't understand people, Link. Not average people anyway. I don't know how you do it, but somehow, whenever we go into town, you manage to find the single most incredible and interesting person there. Saria, Malon, then you go to Castletown and become best friends with the freaking princess."

"That's unfair," I started.

"No, Link, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But it does mean that you are not the best judge of the average citizen. Because most people aren't willing to give up everything to fight evil just because it's evil. If Hyrule flourished under Ganondorf, ninety-eight percent of the population would not care one bit either way about his morality. You are part of a very small minority that cares on principle alone."

I felt totally taken aback. Where was this coming from? "I'm not that diff-"

"Oh come on," Landon interrupted. "The day of Ganondorf's takeover when Castletown was burning, you ran in. Everybody else was trying to get out, but you ran in. Of course most people don't think like you."

He looked down, but didn't stop talking. "When Ganondorf's monsters attacked our home village, we were wholly unprepared. We knew next to nothing about fighting. Trenton was apprenticing with a potions maker and I with the local blacksmith. Our family was well-off and we had seemingly bright futures ahead of us. That attack changed everything. That day we lost our mother, our father, our younger sister..." He paused, his voice heavy with emotion. After a few seconds he managed to compose himself. "We lost our careers, our house, our wealth. We could only escape with our two horses and each other. We did better than most."

"We may not all be as noble as you," Trenton said. "But Ganondorf's given us all a reason to fight."

"Revenge."

"Fear."

"Hope."

"Etc. But if you want men to follow you, you are going to have to convince them that not acting would be more costly than risking their lives. Decrying Ganondorf's evil nature won't get the job done."

"Remind us of what we lost, of what we can no longer bear, of what we stand to gain. Shake us out of our apathy, give us a reason to hope, and then even in our weakness, despite our impurity, we will strike with the force of giants. We will prove a match to the fiercest demons a sorcerer can summon."

"But," Sheik cut in, "before you can convince anyone to fight, you must know yourself why you fight." With that said, he stood, gave a slight nod to the twins-the first demonstration of respect he had ever given them-and left.

I sat back stunned. I never even knew the twins had a younger sister. I never asked. I had never wanted to make them relive that day-no, that's just an excuse. I didn't like talking about tragedy or loss. Even so, there was no excuse for not knowing the other parts of their past. I had met them poor, and just assumed they always had been. I was a jerk.

It had never occurred to me that I ignored people that could be described as common. And while I still didn't complete agree with it, I couldn't deny that there was some truth. I always let Trenton and Landon take care of finding work and dealing with the details because, to be honest, that stuff bored me. That's why I had let the twins join me. I cringed as those words entered my thoughts: let them join me. But in truth, that's how it had happened. They saw me fighting some sort of monster and pestered me until I relented to let them travel with me. I stayed with them so long because they took care of things I didn't want to deal with.

What did that say about me? If they saw me like that, how could the twins accept me as a hero? How much more flawed did I have to be before they realized I couldn't possibly have been chosen by the goddesses?

All those thoughts left me stomach unsettled, and I tried to focus instead on our next destination, but I quickly realized I had no idea where we were going. Sheik wasn't exactly the sharing type. He said all I should focus on is my training, on getting better.

Sheik got what he wanted. The next couple of months I threw myself into training. The others probably thought I was inspired, or that I finally accepted my supposed role. In truth, when I was focused on my training, I had little time to think on the twins' words. And after some time, I could finally push them from my mind.

My chest heaved up and down with great intensity as sweat poured down my face. As I leapt away yet again from the sword that wished to cleave me in two, I cursed Sheik. He hadn't even asked my consent before entering me into the sword fighting tournament we saw advertised as we rode into this most recent town. Not that I had complained. Not until I saw the local favorite anyway. He was hard to miss. I wasn't often at a disadvantage in height, but this guy had a foot on me, and he was twice as broad. I had demolished every opponent I faced in the preliminaries, and he was still a 10-1 favorite. I understood why the first time I blocked his blade with my own. His strength was incredible.

However, his strokes were slow enough to leave openings where I could use my superior speed to slash at his body. Unfortunately, I never had the time or positioning to deliver more than shallow cuts, which only served to tire him a little faster. And if this fight came down to exhaustion, I was in trouble.

As I backed up to increase the space between us so I could have a little time to breathe, I racked my brain for a different strategy. I looked into the crowd at Sheik, hoping he might be in the giving sort of mood. His expression let me know he wasn't, but at least he looked interested. He had barely paid attention to my previous fights.

The General, however, was going hoarse from all of his "encouragement." Based on the sheer number of times he yelled, "Footwork!" I'm pretty sure he wanted me to move my feet. That wasn't exactly the all-encompassing strategy I was looking for though.

I turned back to my giant opponent just in time to see him start charging towards me. I had stupidly put myself in the corner when I looked out into the crowd, so leaping away again wasn't going to work. Instead, I caught his strike on my shield, meaning I got to stay in one piece, but at the cost of absorbing the heavy blow on my arm. I could already start to feel the tingling that served as a precursor to numbness. I could take one, maybe two more hits like that before I could no longer lift my arm.

And if one of my arms was completely useless... The corner of my mouth turned up as I discovered my strategy. Risky, sure, but it was way better than hoping he dropped before I did. When I put some distance between the two of us, I threw my shield to the ground, making the crowd murmur. My shield had been seen as one of my few advantages in this fight since, despite the beating it had taken, it still looked good as new.

But it wasn't going to last me much longer anyway, so I figured it was best to concentrate on my other advantage: speed. Without the weight of my shield, I could move more freely, which would have to make up for my weakened defense.

Shedding my shield only served to anger my opponent. I doubt he had many matches that lasted nearly this long. He probably thought I was mocking him. Good. That would help my plan. His muscles tensed in preparation for another charge, and I tried to relax mine. Not that that was easy given what I was planning.

I waited to move until he started swinging his sword down mid-stride. Instead of diving out of the way or taking a step back to better defend the blow, I stepped into him, bringing my blade up enough to deflect the blow so that it just grazed my shoulder. Not even sparing the energy to wince from the pain, I dropped my sword and in its place, grabbed his extended arm by the wrist. Using all of the brute's momentum and every ounce of strength I possessed, I pulled him over my shoulder. The strain was so great that for a moment, I thought I had just doomed myself, that I was about to end up flattened beneath him. But somehow I mustered just enough strength to flip him over me. He landed with a loud thump, causing the ground the shudder beneath my feet. He was stunned and gasping for breath, giving me plenty of time to grab my sword from the ground and hold it above his throat.

The crowd that had been screaming a few moments before was now silent. If they thought I had a slim chance to win, I'm sure not a single one of them thought I'd do it by throwing him to the ground. Then the judge, snapping out of his own surprised stupor, declared me the winner, and the crowd roared.

Breathing heavily but feeling pretty good, I looked out to see Conrad and the twins cheering louder than anyone else. Sheik, however, had already disappeared. Before I could let that sour this moment, the judge grabbed my left hand to lift into the air as a sign of my victory.

As he called out my name, I felt a small sting across my hand before feeling the material of my glove shift. The crowd's cheering halted with a gasp. I looked around to find the cause, but they were all still looking at me. Then a man pointed a little above me and said with awe in his voice, "The mark of the goddesses."

With horror, I realized what had happened as I looked up at my raised hand. There was a small cut tracing right below my knuckles where my glove had torn back, revealing the Triforce on the back of my hand. I saw a shock of blue and black out of the corner of my eye and connected the dots. It was Sheik with one of his small knives. No one else had that kind of skill. Why would he do that? I thought he and I were on the same page as far as hiding who I supposedly was. He hadn't even told the General.

I looked back at the crowd, ready for the hate, for the looks of betrayal that would mark their faces. But then came a voice from the crowd saying, "Our hero's returned!" Everyone cheered. Some even started chanting my name. I didn't understand it. Why weren't they furious with me? I had abandoned them.

"You gave them a reason to hope again." I recognized Sheik's soft voice behind me. I swear I thought he wasn't human sometimes with the way he moved. Also since he seemed to be able to read my mind. "They just witnessed you accomplish something incredible and now they have a reason to believe in the prophesy of a hero that will save this land. Now you need to say a few words to the crowd."

"I don't... What would I...?" I said, panicking. I had no idea what to say, and the thought of speaking in front of all these people scared me more than fighting that seven foot terror again.

"Just repeat what I say."

It was amazing. No one annoyed me easier than Sheik, but right now, as I felt my courage failing me, he was this steadying force. In that moment I finally saw a glimmer of why Zelda trusted him so.

He whispered the words I was to say, and I projected them to the crowd, only changing a word here and there so as to feel more natural on my tongue. Sheik did have such a precise way of speaking, after all.

"I didn't expect to reveal myself today, but I guess you should know. Not only am I alive, but Princess Zelda is as well." There were a few gasps, but most people stayed quiet. They were hanging on my every word. "The two of us have been working together, preparing for the day we finally strike back. That day will be here soon. We will need all of Hyrule to stand with us if we are to finally free ourselves from Ganondorf's reign of terror." Shouts of approval rang out from a few of the crowd. "When the time is right, can I ask you to fight by my side?"

The response was immediate and emphatic. I felt cheesy and awkward saying those things, but apparently Sheik knew what he was doing when he fed me those lines. He knew exactly what they wanted to hear.

I looked back at him to check his reaction, but he had already disappeared. Figured. I stepped off the platform to make my way to the twins and the General, but I was immediately mobbed by people trying to shake my hand or ask questions. What was I supposed to say to them? I didn't have Sheik feeding me lines anymore, and I still didn't believe I was the destined hero. I just smiled and nodded awkwardly for the most part. But for now, it seemed, that was enough.

A/N: Wow, it's been a long time guys. I do still plan on finishing this story, but I'm sorry for the crazy wait. Updates shouldn't take that long in the future. A quick tease for what I have planned for this story: Kakiriko's going to come into play, so's the Temple of Time, a fun battle with some Stalfos, and in three or four chapters from now, a scene with Zelda.

Feedback of any sort is always appreciated, and thanks for reading.