Chapter 31: Falling Rain

Ten years earlier...

The little boy rode as quickly as he could, but due to his young age, that still wasn't very brisk in pace.

And before he had even reached main Hateno, he most certainly was not learned enough to prepare himself for a startled mount.

Epona skidded to a halt, shaking her head with a nicker.

"Epona," The boy asked, patting her neck softly. "What's wrong?"

Then Link let out a startled gasp as a swirl of cards blocked his path. They formed a figure in a red bodysuit, covered with leather straps that criss crossed over his torso. The man's face was not covered, and revealed scarlet eyes, reminding Link of the Sheikah he had seen on trips with his father. This Sheikah, however, had charcoal black hair, unlike the snowy white he had seen, but pulled up in a bun behind his head in the same likeness.

"Stop, boy," The Sheikah said softly.

Link whimpered slightly. His father had told him not to let anyone stop him, but his father had also told him that the Sheikah were a nice tribe, and with great wisdom. Perhaps the Sheikah knew what was happening?

"Come down from there." The Sheikah offered his hand gently. "I'm going to bring you somewhere… safe."

Every sense of logic in his not yet fully developed mind said to trust the Sheikah. But Link had a strange feeling in his gut. Some sliver deep inside of him, which he had never felt so strongly before, told him not to trust the stranger.

So Link kept his small hands firm on the reins. "I'm already going somewhere safe." The boy said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"If you go there, the bad men will find you anyway." The Sheikah said with a shrug.

Link froze for a moment. "What bad men?"

The Sheikah frowned, and when Link would remember it later on, he would remember how forced it had been. But now, the boy couldn't see anything hidden there.

"They want to find you." The Sheikah said. "They want to do horrible things to you."

The young boy felt a new feeling enter his mind. What was it? It felt… strange.

But whatever this feeling was… it reminded him of the way he had felt when his father had been creeping up on him, and had tickled him seconds later. What-

Suspicion. The thought was sudden, but didn't appear with a crash. Instead, it was more subtle. Like… maybe like a pillow dropping to the floor? No, smaller than that. A marshmallow?

"How do you know that, Sir?" Link asked.

The Sheikah seemed stumped, before he shrugged. "And I thought you'd be like every other little boy. You seem to have a lot of questions, don't you, kid?"

"And why are they looking for me?" Link continued to question.

The Sheikah shrugged. "I don't know! But we need to get you out of here!" The Sheikah's voice had risen, and was nearing the criteria of a snarl.

Link didn't know what to do. This Sheikah was nothing like the others he had met. They had been the picture of calm. This one was seemingly the opposite.

So he decided to do what his father had originally asked.

He urged Epona forward, letting the horse go faster than he normally would. Epona seemed to realize his desperation, and she quickened to what Link believed was a slower canter.

"Get back here!" The Sheikah screeched.

Link had a hunch that the Sheikah was not as good as he had first thought.

Then more cards erupted in front him, and figures clad in the same red garment, but with faces covered with white masks, leapt at him silently.

Link quickly steered Epona around. For some reason, these probably not-so-good guys had all done that weird card thing to get in front of him. Maybe they had thought he couldn't control Epona well enough to steer her around?

To be fair, it was difficult, Epona seeming to be a stubborn horse.

Link was sure his father wouldn't mind if he came back because he had been attacked by that weird Sheikah and his… henchmen? Well, his fellow bad guys.

He rode over the bridge, trying very hard not to think about the not so good guys that were probably trying to kill him.

He dismounted Epona as quickly as he could, which was somewhat difficult, despite the horse not being quite full grown. But the boy managed.

And he could hear the fluttering of cards behind him. He quickly made his way inside…

Where there was a sight he would never forget.

Ten Years Later...

"I won't describe all of it to you." Link said quietly, turning his piercing eyes to Zelda."But simply put… there were three of the Yiga ganging up on my father."

"You don't have to tell me anything else about this!" Zelda said quickly. Link looked stoic on the outside, but his eyes betrayed pain. "I just asked how you met Liari…"

Link shook his head. "Yes, but this is connected directly to that. And…" Link paused for a moment. "...I need to get this out of my system."

Oh, Zelda thought as she realized. He's been… he's never told anyone the entire story, has he?

Link looked into the flames, and Zelda knew that the best she could do right now was listen.

"My father saw me enter." Link said quietly. "He immediately shouted out to me." He seemed to be zoning out once again, back to the past. "He told me to get out of there as quickly as I could.

"And then… that man from before warped inside." Zelda could hear his voice shaking. It was subtle, and despite being so zoned out, he hid it well. But it was there. "The others backed away…" An image seemed to flash through his eyes. "And he…"

So that's how Sir Koruma died. Zelda thought with sorrow. "What of your mother?" Zelda asked quietly.

Link shook his head. Zelda couldn't imagine what he had gone through- a boy, who escaped back to his home only to find his father and mother dead. Not only that, but his father killed right in front of him.

"Like the…" Link seemed to be thinking many words to describe this. "Like the child I had been, I ran to my father's side. None of the Yiga moved to stop me.

"He had still been alive." Link said quietly. "But he was barely holding on. He managed to utter that he loved me, before he was gone."

Zelda felt so guilty. She had thought herself to have had a horrible childhood, but at least she had a living parent. And her mother hadn't been killed violently before her eyes - no, she had passed peacefully in her sleep after battling that illness for so long.

She had thought Link to have had the perfect life. But this experience was beginning to teach her quite the opposite.

So she felt even worse about the way that she had treated him.

After what seemed like hours of silence, but was merely a few heartbeats, Link continued. "The Yiga had begun to approach me. But then there was a flash, and I blacked out."

Zelda blinked at him. "What?"

Link looked up at her. He was drifting in and out of the past, now? "When I woke up, I was in Kakariko Village. There were Sheikah talking about me beside the bed they'd placed me in.

"They were deciding what to do with me." Link said quietly.

Ten Years Earlier...

"What do we do with the orphan?" One Sheikah asked. There were three in the room, none of which had realized the boy was awake.

"He must be important." Another mumbled. "If we bring Impa in, perhaps she'll be able to tell how strong his aura is. If strong enough, that could be the Yigas' reasoning to attempting to capture him."

"Who's son is he, again?"

"Sir Koruma and Lady Liana." One answered. One blinked at that Sheikah at the last name. "You know, the famous chef. Apparently she has… had been experimenting with elixirs, as well. Quite clever, she was."

"Yes, yes, the poor child." The first to speak said quickly. "But what do we do with him?"

"We can put him with the other orphans."

"He's no Sheikah." Another argued. "He wouldn't fit in."

"Way to complicate things." One huffed.

"And, if he has some sort of secret power, then we can't just dump him in an orphanage."

"Well, we can't exactly put a six year old in Sheikah training. Can we?"

That's when the door creaked open.

"Lady Impa." The voices said in unison.

"You know, it must be uncomfortable to have people discussing you as if you aren't in the room." The new voice, Impa, observed.

"What do you-" The Sheikah cut themselves off, and the room went silent.

Link could feel their eyes burning into his back.

"It's alright, my boy." Impa said soothingly. "Why don't you sit up?"

Link hesitated, before rolling over and sitting up.

Impa was looking right at him, her scarlet eyes reminding the boy about the Yiga. He resisted the urge to shiver.

"You've been through a lot recently, haven't you?" Impa asked.

Link remained silent.

"You don't have to answer." Impa said. "I can tell just by looking at you." She knelt down in front of Link. "What's your name, boy?"

Link once again hesitated, before mumbling something.

"What was that?" Impa asked.

"Link." Link replied quietly.

Impa glanced at the Sheikah behind her, before turning back to Link. "Link, let me see your hands."

Confused, the boy held out his hands.

On the back of his left hand were three united triangles, subtle against his skin, but still there.

"I see." Impa said quietly. "Have you always had this mark?"

Link nodded slowly.

The Present

Zelda didn't know that Link was hiding that last part from her. Instead, Link had skipped that small part.

"So, they decided to put me with a family. The mother was a Sheikah woman, her husband a Hylian knight. And they had a daughter just a year younger than me."

"Liari!" Zelda exclaimed excitedly. "So she's only half Sheikah?"

Link nodded. "Yet she's still one of the best."

Zelda's previously excited exterior turned a bit saddened. "I treated you so horribly before…" Oh, I was worse than horrible to him.

Link shook his head. "That's not true, Princess. You were merely taking out your frustration on me. That's what I'm here for."

"You know, let's just stop talking about this." Zelda said quickly. She was tired of Link making excuses for her selfish actions. She smiled, but it was forced. "You called me 'Princess.' Again."

"Perhaps I am simply doing it on purpose," Link suggested.

"You are quite infuriating, Sir Link," Zelda said with emphasis on his title.

"Well played, Zelda." Link smiled slightly. "Well played."

Zelda grinned triumphantly.

Night had completely fallen when Zelda spoke again."How old are you?" Zelda asked suddenly.

Link blinked. "Why do you ask?"

"I simply realized I don't know," Zelda said.

"Fifteen," Link mumbled.

"Yet already a knight of the Royal Guard?" Zelda asked, surprised. He's the same age as me?

"Well, they put a six year old in Sheikah training." Link shrugged as he gently dropped some temporary kindling for the dying flames of the fire. "I'd say it wasn't very surprising."

"You were six when they started training you?" Zelda gasped. "It's unheard of for them to start training before age ten!"

"That's not true," Link protested. "They start with small things like moving silently long before age ten!"

"And you merely snuck around when they were training you?" Zelda asked.

Link did not respond.

"That's what I thought." Zelda said. "But if you were six back then, and that was ten years ago, your birthday must be soon, right? After all, you had been six."

"What exactly are you trying to ask me, Princess?" Link asked. The slight happiness hidden in his eyes was contagious.

"When is your birthday?" Zelda asked. "And you have to answer honestly, Sir."

Link paused. "Do I have to?" He asked.

"Yes!" Zelda said with a mischievous smile.

"A couple weeks?" Link didn't sound entirely sure of himself.

"You don't know when your birthday is." Zelda rolled her eyes, expecting him to be faking his lack of knowledge.

Link frowned. "Ask Liari. She knows when. I think."

"Wait, you actually don't remember when your own birthday is?" Zelda asked incredulously.

Link mumbled something, Zelda making out the words "made" and "forget."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Link said with a shake of his head. "My, I've gotten far too vocal around you, Princess. Maybe I should just shut up for a few days."

"No, please!" Zelda said quickly. "I'd rather have you constantly call me 'Princess' than have that awkward silence again!"

Link shrugged. "If you say so." He glanced up at the dark night sky. "Well, Princess, it's getting late," Link continued. He stood up and stretched his arms above his head. "You should go to sleep."

"You aren't." Zelda said with a furrowed brow.

Link looked at her, as if to ask, aren't what?

"You aren't going to sleep, are you?" She clarified.

"Well, it's not like there's anyone that will wake me up if something goes wrong in the middle of the night." He shot a suspicious glare at the Master Sword, sheathed and lying innocently beside Link's sleeping mat.

"Well, good night, Princess." Link seemed to be holding in a yawn, considering the strange expression on his face.

"Good night, Link." Zelda sighed as she laid down and pulled her blanket over her, letting the dying embers lull her to sleep.

Some of you (One of you) pointed out that the flash backs were a bit confusing. I COMPLETELY agree. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to fix that, I WILL fix it! Because I don't like it! So YEAH.

Oof.

REPLIES! (Secret word is... uh... *goes to random word generator* salty. That's legit what it came up with.)

MeaninglessMayhem: YAY! Rusl being a TP reference? Uh... nope. Definitely not running out of original names. No sir. Not at all. ...Okay, maybe a little bit. GO AWAY, SCHOOL! NO ONE LIKES YOU... EXCEPT ME, BECAUSE I'M REALLY WEIRD! BUT GO AWAY!

SmokeyMirrors: Oh, yes, I completely agree. But I wanted to point out the things that Link was hiding from Zelda, and all that nonsense. So YEAH! I DID look up ways of doing flashback scenes, but none of them were really what I was looking for. Yep, put in some Zelda POV here. Keep writing, I'm on fire... Oh! *pats out flames on shirt* Yeah, I forgot about that. I was mad when someone didn't update, so I set myself on fire. Yay! Ah... Discord problems. That... sucks. But this is a message that is replied to SEVERAL days after the review, so... oops? EPONA. She needs some sunglasses. She's just THAT awesome.

Catseye: If you think it's good, then I must be doing something right (XD)! *Gasp* I tortured my readers with a cliff hanger! How DARE I?! Yeah, seems pretty traumatizing. Then again, I've never had my parents brutally MURDERED, so... I guess I'm not the most reliable source? Hah, he DOES sound a bit irritated. He's fine with Zelda ignoring him, but I guess it's weird for someone other than Liari questioning him about everything. Epona is a good pony. ACK! I didn't go into how they met, did I? Maybe I should do that somewhere later on. Oops? I mean, that's kind of what Zelda was asking him about. Oops again. I KNOW EVERYTHING. - Lies The one shot? Eh, I thought it was okay... could've been better, though. Yup, pretty much the same personality. Almost. And I found it ironic in THIS story that he said the day his parents were murdered was a day he'd never forget. Hah. Morbid humor. *Gets to the "I LOVE YOU FOR WRITING" part* And I'm quite fond of you as well? XD

Well, there we go! For a long time on the last chapter, our total reviews was 123. PERFECTION. But then SOMEONE had to go and REVIEW. Ugh. (JUST KIDDING! PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING! I'm SO lonely!)

Don't die too hard, everyone!

Most sincerely (My brother... nope... friend? Uh... DOG!: "That's what she WANTS you to think!"),

Ari