A few quick notes:

1. This story is rated T due to some very violent content.

2. I intend to update weekly. I don't write that fast, but the writing is all done. I don't like when a story I'm interested in dies without an ending, so I figured I would make sure this story was finished before I posted any part of it.

3. I don't own any Legend of Zelda character or setting. I'm just borrowing them and I hope Nintendo won't mind too much.

4. Thank you so much for reading!

Chapter 2: The President of Hyrule

Link got to work early, walking with three of his roommates, who worked in the same shop he did and who were largely ignoring him. Link didn't mind: they were there, which meant he wasn't walking in the dark alone, and that was good enough. Also, they were talking to each other, which made the walk a bit more interesting.

The hot topic of the day was the presidential visit. Link listened to them wondering if they would get a reward for being so close to finishing their quota, and whether the President would give them their next quota personally, and what it would be if he did. The conversation eventually slipped on historical names and the President's well known interest in them. Link cast his eyes downward so that he wouldn't meet those of any of his dorm mates.

"Say, Link," said one of them. "You have a historical name. The Hero!" He laughed, quickly joined by the others.

Link chose not to reply.

"He's got those weird ears, too." Said another. "You think the President will think they look Hylian?"

"He looks more like some kind of Kokiri, if you ask me."

"Yeah! Scared little Kokiri, hiding away…"

"It's going to be funny watching him trying to look like he's not there when the big scary President starts talking to him."

"Is the President really big and scary?"

"A Deku Scrub would be big and scary to Link, so for sure the President will be."

Link let his mind wander away from the conversation.

The door was not opened yet when his roommates and himself got to the shop, so they waited outside with the other early workers and supervisors. Link looked around to see how many people had arrived before his roommates and himself, and caught one of the girl supervisors staring at him. He quickly looked away, guessing she was staring at his ears.

They didn't wait very long until one of the key-carrying supervisors arrived. She opened the door and let everyone in. Link went straight to his workstation, intent on getting as much done as possible before the President arrived and interrupted them all. Belly and Koma joined him soon after, and the bell announcing the official beginning of the work day rang.

Link felt a chill run down his spine and looked around the shop, trying to spot Odupo. He had no luck, and turned to Belly and Koma, who looked back at him without the merest sign of being about to make fun of him. They were both as pale as Link felt.

They set to work in silence, and Link couldn't help wondering if his absence had worried his work mates as well. He figured it might have, but probably not nearly as much, because unlike Odupo, he simply wasn't Belly and Koma's friend.

"Maybe he's just late, like you were." Koma said.

"I was actually a bit worried, yesterday," Belly said to Link.

"Yeah," Koma said.

"You were? For me?"

"Not much, mind you. I mean, you can run faster than any monster, can't you?" Belly answered.

"And there's no law against making fun of dead people." Koma added.

Link rolled his eyes and got back to work. He expected Belly and Koma to start talking about how monsters would go about catching him, but they didn't. They stayed silent, and for the first time in Link's memory, concentrated on their work.

Their breakfast, a peeled banana per worker, arrived and they dropped their tools to eat it. The supervisor lingered, and Link, Belly and Koma stopped eating to look at him, waiting for instructions. After all, more instructions were all supervisors ever hung around for.

"You will get a new station neighbour tomorrow." The supervisor said once he had their attention. "Odupo was one of four victims last night."

Belly and Koma both started crying. They hugged each other and Link looked down, frowning. He felt angrier than sad. He was sick of being afraid the next one would be himself or someone he cared about.

The supervisor let Belly and Koma cry and hug for about a minute before he spoke again.

"I understand how you feel, but as you know, more people will die if we don't meet that quota. Get back to work, you need to make up for him."

Link grabbed his hand axe and went back to work. Belly and Koma went back to work as well, sniffling occasionally and otherwise silent.

Although he wouldn't personally be missing Odupo much, Link felt utterly miserable all day. Apart from the discomfort of not being able to do anything to ease Belly and Koma's pain, it was just a painful reminder that anybody could be next, including himself, Kariko or Dekussay. This in turn reminded him of the previous night's nightmare, where Dekussay had turned into a Deku Scrub and been cut into pieces.

Link was therefore quite determined to avoid looking at his two station companions and made a point of looking around the shop whenever he raised his eyes from his work. He soon noticed that the same female supervisor who he had thought had been staring at his ears outside the shop was constantly looking his way. He started to wonder whether she liked him and found the thought difficult to dismiss, ludicrous as it was.

His thoughts stayed on the fanciful theory all day, and he couldn't pretend to mind. He knew that the more he allowed himself to think the pretty girl was not just a victim of a morbid curiosity for his ears, the more he'd be disappointed when it turned out that this was indeed what was going on. However, it kept his mind from wandering back to Odupo, death and his dreams. Link figured it was worth risking being disappointed.

Shortly before lunch, the bell that signaled that the quota for shields had been reached rang. This bell, much to Link's chagrin, did not signal that the workers could take a break. It merely meant that from that point on, the supervisors, after gathering and inspecting the completed shields from each table, had to hide them instead of putting them into the room used to store finished products until they were taken away. Link didn't know where they were hidden, as the workers were not trusted with the information: if the inspectors ever found that a shop had significantly exceeded quota, they were bound to sharply increase that quota. Inspectors were wise to the practice of hiding extras, and shops that suspiciously just reached the quota, with no surplus at all, month after month, were searched. The supervisors had to decide, each month, how much over the quota it was safe to be. Because of the increased quota this month, it was likely that they would pretend it had barely been reached just minutes before the inspectors arrived, tomorrow evening. Link wasn't surprised when the supervisor, on his next stop at their station, told them that if the President asked, they were to say the quota had not been reached yet.

The day wore on. Almost every time Link looked at the girl supervisor, he caught her looking at him.

Zelda was trying her best to stop staring at Link, aware that he had noticed, but it was difficult and it got worst as the day went.

As his fatigue increased, Link was becoming less and less able to cope with his phobias. He was obviously nervous about handling his little blunt axe and he was slightly leaning away from the closest wall, seemingly anxious to put more distance between the fires and himself. He was also constantly looking at the high windows, the only thing other than the solid locked door that led outside the closed-in shop. She bit her lip and tried to tell herself that at least he wasn't actually climbing to the windows, or throwing his axe away, or screaming. It was hard not to notice, however, that he wasn't far from doing any of these things.

The bell for the swords' quota rang towards the end of the day. Zelda sighed in relief: no executions this month. She quickly went around to each of the tables she supervised to tell the workers that they were to pretend the quota hadn't been reached yet if the President asked. It seemed obvious, but it was an unnecessary risk to assume that all the workers would realize that not admitting the quota had been filled a day ahead was much more important than not lying to the President.

Said President arrived as the sun was almost done setting, mere moments before the shop would have been closed for the day.

Everyone in the shop had been waiting for this moment all day, and all were on their knees before the Presidential Speaker finished bellowing the command to pay respect to the President. Zelda sank to her knees like the rest, but was seized by violent shivers. She looked at the President, and was filled with the same dread as the night before, when she was hiding while Ganon trashed her room. She squinted, instinctively trying to see the President better, to see why he had the same effect on her as Ganon. She didn't see anything more than the man who had been elected the year before by making dozens of promises he never had any intention to keep. She suddenly realized he had started to speak and forced her mind as far away from Ganon and the previous night as she could.

"Good evening everyone," Said the President in a tone indicating rather plainly that he did not really care whether they had a good evening or not. "It is a pleasure to meet you all," he recited. "Workers like you make Hyrule strong and safe from invasion. I've been informed that one of your own was a victim in last night's attacks. I can only hope that it will inspire the rest of you to be more careful."

There was a bit of a stir in the workers at these words. Link could actually hear Belly and Koma grinding their teeth, and he found he was clenching his fists himself. The lack of verbal response to such a thoughtless comment could only be explained, Link felt, if the rest of the shop was as afraid of being executed if they dared criticize the President as he was himself.

The President wasted no more time on generalities and started going around the shop, asking each worker and supervisor for their name and saying some platitude to each of them. Zelda felt her dread increasing as he got nearer, mixed with cold fury: she was angrier than she had ever been. The President got to the sword-side worker called Link and when he muttered his name, the President's face lit up. Zelda just managed to repress a gasp of horror. The President's feature had moved to an expression of innocent interest, but his eyes had, for one second, expressed something quite different, like the President would have loved the rip the worker apart and drink his blood.

He did no such thing, of course. He merely asked the worker a series of personal questions, such as whether he had ever taken a particular interest in the legends of the Heroes, and whether he ever felt like he'd like to live up to his name. The worker answered with monosyllables, most of them being "no". The President's features were neutral again, but his eyes, once more, expressed something more for an instant: disappointment.

Those two fleeting expressions were enough for Zelda to know why she felt such dread and hatred. The President was working for Ganon, looking for the reincarnation of the monster's enemies: the Hero and the Princess. This was probably the very reason shops were visited: this little routine of going around and exchanging a few words with all the workers was simply a way to question anyone with the name of Link or Zelda.

Evidently, she had to make sure the President didn't suspect he had found them. She could only hope Link's ears, which were, unlike hers, in plain sight, would not betray him. When the President got to her, she composed an air of adoration and eager anticipation, feeling the best strategy was to act in every way opposite of how she naturally would.

"Hello, miss," said the President, standing in front of her. "What is your name?"

"Zelda," She said, putting as much happiness as she could into her voice. The President automatically looked a lot more interested in her.

"Ah, Zelda. The princesses of yesteryear... did your parents want to name you after a particular princess, or did they just like the name?"

"They just liked the name," Zelda said. "I mean, the princesses were just someone that the hero always had to save, weren't they? I don't know why he bothered."

Zelda knew quite well that the princesses often greatly assisted in defeating Ganon. However, since their role was usually discrete, though essential, she knew that the opinion she had just expressed was not unpopular. Furthermore, she knew she would have a key role to play herself: at the very least, she had to whip the current hero into shape, not to mention keep him alive. She was quite certain that if the President had any suspicion that the little shield maker who was afraid of everything really was the Hero, Link would be dead before the sun rose again.

Her answer did not have as much effect as she had hoped. The President still looked quite interested in her.

"The Princesses were deemed to be very wise," he said. "Perhaps you think you could have done a better job helping the Hero than they did?"

Zelda quickly considered and chose to stick with her strategy, but add a bit of idiocy and selfishness for good measure.

"Well, yeah, if I wanted to." She said. "I don't see why I would, though. I mean, if there's a big monster around, it's not exactly a princess's job to deal with it. That's what guards are for."

"Indeed," The President said, and his eyes briefly showed a bit of disappointment. Zelda decided not to push her role to the point of talking without being asked and contented herself with looking self important while staying silent. She spotted a few of the people who knew her looking puzzled at her behaviour but ignored them.

The President turned away from her and proceeded with asking everyone for their names. He stopped at each Zelda, and finally, arrived to the second Link in the shop. His eyes widened when he saw the ears. Link turned beet red and turned his eyes downward.

"Yes, I suppose they would be a cause for shame," The President said, his tone harsh. "What is your name, boy?"

"L...Link, sir. I... I'm sorry about... about the ears. Sir."

Zelda's heart sank as the President's eyes flashed in triumph. Clearly, the ears and the name were enough to convince him that he had found his quarry. Zelda had to change his mind. She forced a loud laugh.

"And what a name for THAT one!" She barked. She hoped that others would join in, and was not disappointed.

Link turned toward the voice and even though he had been trying to tell himself all day that the pretty girl was only staring at his ears, he still felt oddly betrayed. Most of the shop started laughing.

He cast his eyes back down and clenched his jaw, ready to ride it out.

"What is so funny?" The President asked, irritated. "Boy!" He growled at Link, clearly indicating that he was to provide the answer.

Link whimpered, causing the laughter to increase.

"It's... it's because I'm afraid of... a lot of things, sir." He said, wishing he could just disappear.

"Try 'everything'!" Zelda yelled from the other side of the shop.

Random people in the shop helpfully started enumerating. Link stared at his knees, wishing the President would just go away. This was beyond humiliating.

"Look at me, boy!" The President snarled.

Link slowly forced himself to obey. The President's expression made him shrink away and he barely held back another whimper. He couldn't remember being more afraid of anything. He had been feeling worse and worse as the President had been slowly making his way towards him, and he had thought his heart was bound to bounce right out of his chest when he had finally gotten to him. And yet, it had been nothing compared to the sheer terror he felt now. He desperately wanted to run.

"You are a shame to your name, and to Hyrule." The President said. "Then again, if you have Hylian blood, like those ears suggest you do, it's not surprising. Cowards who left when Hyrule needed them the most... you had better be good, boy. If I ever receive the smallest complaint about you, I will be all too glad to sign the execution order. You are a stain."

He finally turned to Belly and Koma and resumed his visit, not sparing Link another glance. Link stared at his back until he was a few tables away, trying to recover from the shock and to understand how he deserved that much hatred. He then turned to Belly and Koma, eager to see some good old fashioned, not hateful, mockery on their faces. They were staring at him, with no trace of a smile.

"What was THAT about?" Asked Belly in a whisper. Link didn't know what to answer and did not reply.

Of all the shop, only Zelda understood why the President was so angry. As everyone had started enumerating Link's phobias, and as the President looked at the trembling, whimpering boy kneeling in front of him, he had concluded that he wasn't the Hero after all, and was bitterly disappointed. He had done a good job looking disgusted instead, but not quite good enough to fool someone who knew better.

The President's tour of the shop ended fairly quickly. Once he had talked to everybody, he made his way back to the door, stopping long enough by Link's workstation to cast him a hateful look and spit on him. Link sank his head between his shoulders, his eyes closed. He was expecting to be hit next, but the blow never came. When he opened his eyes, the President was going through the door of the shop.

The supervisors waited a few minutes after his departure, just in case he came back, then told the workers to go home. Link stayed at his station, miserable and trembling at the thought of a Presidential goon waiting for him to come out alone, long after everyone else, so that he could be killed without witnesses – this way, monsters would be blamed for it.

Migo took one look at him and sighed. It was a bad precedent to set to let Link off so easily after being late the previous morning, but it would have been sheer cruelty to make him stay late tonight, especially with the quota already reached.

"You really think I want to stay here tonight?" He barked at him. "Go home!"

Link could hardly believe his luck. He thanked the supervisor and ran out to catch up with his dorm mates. Like Belly, they did not look like they wanted to make fun of him. Some of them looked like they had half a mind to hug him.

"I'm okay!" He grumbled, irritated. He didn't need to be reminded of how bad it was to be disliked by the President. Enemies of the President usually did not last very long... outcoming presidents even had a very clear tendency to get themselves killed shortly after losing an election.

His dorm mates turned away from him, embarrassed. They started down the road in absolute silence, and although he would have given anything to break that silence, Link could not think of a single thing to say. He looked at the sky, hoping to see some stars, but the sky was overcast again and there were no stars to be seen. His thoughts drifted back to the President's words, and he found himself wondering how long the President would take to find an excuse to have him killed or arrange for him to be one of the victims some night. He felt like screaming: he hadn't done anything wrong, he was always doing his very best at work... this was only happening because he had been born with pointy ears and his parents had had the bad taste of naming him Link. There was no way the President always reacted this strongly to people who were afraid of a few things: it had to be because he hated Hylians and didn't like to see a Link who was a coward. It was understandable: the Hero had never returned after his one defeat to Ganon, and most people felt that he was not showing much courage after all, while at the same time, refusing to admit the Hero was anything but the bravest soul to ever exist. When you thought of it that way, it was not surprising that a Link who seemed to be afraid all the time aroused some anger and resentment.

They had only taken a few steps when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He startled, then stiffened in dread. It had to be a Presidential Guard... it had to be that the President had chosen not to waste time waiting for a complaint, or used a past one. Maybe he had a complaint to his name from being late the day before. He closed his eyes before he turned around, and waited to hear his sentence. He debated whether he should try running, and decided that if the sentence was indeed death, he would. The Lost Woods were not very far and he was a fast runner, as most people loved to point out when making fun of him. The thought that an executioner might kill him without saying anything first did cross his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes.

"Link?"

Link was so surprised to hear a feminine voice, especially one that did not sound hostile, that he opened his eyes. He frowned upon seeing the Nayru forsaken girl who had been staring at him all day and had started the shop going on his being constantly afraid.

"You're going to make me fall behind my group." He said, controlling his voice not to shout at a supervisor.

He turned and started trotting after his group, who had indeed kept walking.

"Wait!" Zelda called.

Link ignored her, pretending not to hear.

"Worker Link, wait!" She called again, this time too loudly for Link to pretend he hadn't heard her.

Link stopped. He couldn't afford to get in trouble with a supervisor, now less than ever. He turned back toward the girl, fuming.

"What?" He said. He didn't quite manage to keep the anger out of his voice.

"I'm really sorry," Zelda said.

Link softened just a bit. She looked like she really meant it.

"Why?" He asked, whispering to be certain not to yell. "Why did you shout out like that? I don't even know you!"

"I was trying to help," She said.

"HELP?" Link could no longer keep his voice down. Sorry as she looked, she had still basically signed his death warrant. "I'M AS GOOD AS DEAD! I'M GOING TO HAVE TO RUN AWAY!" Link got even angrier as he said it. He didn't want to run away and live in hiding for the rest of his life: that was the only reason he hadn't already.

"You don't need to run," Zelda said. She did her best to hide her exasperation, but she could tell from Link's reaction that she hadn't quite managed: his fists were clenched and he looked like he'd love to punch her.

"You're a good worker," she explained. "Nobody at the shop wants you dead. Just because they make fun of you doesn't mean they hate you! And who else than a supervisor or the manager would put in a complaint with the President? Your dorm keepers would just throw you out if they got angry with you, wouldn't they?"

"The President wants me DEAD!" Link said, clearly enunciating each word as if he was talking to someone who did not speak Hyrulian. "He's going to kill me even if there is no complaint!"

Zelda looked around. There was nobody left nearby, so she felt safe to get to the point.

"He would have killed you on the spot if he hadn't been convinced you were a coward," She said. "He works for Ganon, and was looking for the reincarnation of the Hero."

Link stared at her in disbelief.

"The President works for Ganon, the Hero is reborn... you're insane, aren't you?" He said. He clasped his hands on his mouth right away. He hadn't meant for that last part to actually come out.

"It's not insane!" Zelda said angrily. "Why do you think he asks everyone's names and tries to evaluate the personalities of any Link and Zelda he sees?"

"He likes historical names. Everyone knows that!"

"Right, he likes them," she said. "That's why he spends so much time visiting shops. He's got nothing better to do than travel all over the place and waste hours in shops just to talk to people with historical names for about 1 minute each."

Link rolled his eyes. He could argue, point out the President obviously had some other reason for visiting the shops, but it seemed like a waste of time. It was dark, monsters could jump out at them at any time, and he was hungry.

"I'm going home." He said.

He started walking away from the girl but she grabbed his arm and spun him around. She didn't let go.

"Did you hear when I said he would have killed you on the spot?" She asked angrily.

Link's frown deepened. He really wanted to jerk his arm away and escape before he said or did something he'd regret. He tried, but her grip was solid and he couldn't risk hurting her.

"Well?" She said.

"I heard!" He sighed. "You think he thought I was the Hero because my ears look Hylian. I'm not stupid. I just think..." He stopped. He figured it may not be a good idea to question her sanity twice in a few minutes.

"You just think I'm crazy," She supplied.

Link was about to deny it when he heard rustling in the bushes to the left of the road. The girl seemed to hear it too: she tensed right up and looked nervously at the bushes. Link did not waste time looking. He twisted his arm to grab her instead of merely being in her grip, and took off running in the direction he was facing, which happened to be back towards the shop, dragging her along.

Zelda did her best to keep up, but Link really was a fast runner. She glanced behind and what she saw frightened her enough to make her legs move faster. Right behind them was a Stalfos, his sword out and his empty orbits somehow managing to convey a very strong lust for their blood.

Ganon was in the foulest mood the President had ever witnessed. It had been a good hour since they had left the shop, and the beast, still controlling the President's body, was using it to angrily pace back and forth in its encampment.

The President knew why, too. He had no control at all over what Ganon did with his body, but he could still see, hear, smell, taste and feel everything.

The President, like Ganon, had been sure right away that this had to be the Hero. Why else would he look Hylian? Hylians had been extinct for generations. His name had only confirmed what seemed already obvious. Not for the first time, he had desperately tried to seize control of his own body, but Ganon was moving the President's hand towards his sword and there was no stopping it, no matter how desperate the President was for the Hero NOT to be killed. It wasn't surprising, really. As strongly as the President wanted the boy to live, and eventually, to defeat Ganon, Ganon's desire to slaughter the boy was even stronger.

So, the boy had about five seconds to live, and busy as he was staring at his own knees, he was completely oblivious to that fact. The President's cape hid Ganon's movement to everybody else, so there was simply no way anyone would even know the boy needed saving. It was debatable whether anyone would have reacted had they known, but it didn't matter. The President could not even close his eyes: all he could do was brace himself to witness his own hand killing the only hope to free Hyrule and himself.

But then, someone - neither Ganon nor the President could tell who - had shouted something about the boy's name being a joke, and the rest of the shop had joined in. It had turned out that the boy they had thought was the hero was a spectacular coward, afraid of just about everything. The President could have kissed the girl who had started the mockery: even though she couldn't know it, she had just saved an innocent life.

Ganon had moved his hand away from his sword, but only because being seen murdering someone for no apparent reason was not conductive to finding the Princess and the Hero. It could even spur a coup, which would mean there would be no clear head of Hyrule for months, and thus, nobody to possess which would have much political power. Ganon was so used to ruling Hyrule, having done so first as King for centuries after defeating the last Hero, and by possessing every new President since he had allowed himself to be dethroned centuries earlier, that he could not stand the idea of losing power for any length of time. He would not allow that to happen for anything less than taking the Hero's life. This alone kept him from decapitating the boy out of pure spite.

So, Ganon was extremely disappointed. The President would have liked to think that his own happiness over Ganon's failure to find and kill the Hero fuelled the beast's anger a bit further still, but in all honesty, he did not think the monster was even aware that the person who actually belonged in this body was conscious, and even if he was, it was safe to assume that Ganon could not possibly have cared less about his host's feelings.

Besides, his happiness was very tainted. The ideal scenario would have been for Ganon to kill the boy, mistakenly thinking he was the Hero, and thus to stop searching for the real one. True, one boy would have died, but at least the night attacks would have stopped. Ganon would not need to hunt anymore, and more than likely, would not let his "pets" out either: doing so made the Stalfos, Wolfos and Moblins happy, something Ganon would prefer to avoid. He only let one of them out every night to draw the Hero out: the more dangerous Hyrule was, the more likely it was that the Hero would come out of hiding and start slaying the beasts. If Ganon didn't stumble upon him himself, the Hero was bound to find some monsters and destroy them. When that happened, the spell that Ganon had cast on said monsters would activate and Ganon would be able to identify the Hero.

The one flaw in the plan was that if one of his monsters killed the Hero, Ganon would have no way to know. It was entirely possible the Hero had been killed a long time ago. The President knew that Ganon was very keen on killing the boy himself, and could not figure out at all why this possibility did not seem to bother the beast: Ganon hardly ever spared it a thought.