Author's Notes: Second chapter of my fanfic. Read and review! (Man, I hate that phrase, and now I'm using it myself!)

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Chapter 2: The Birthday Present

Thunder. Lightning. Darkness.

Link found himself in a place he had never been. He was in an open field, it reminded him of Hyrule Field, but it wasn't. He wasn't even sure he was in Hyrule.

It was a terrible weather. Rain poured down and the occasional lightning brought with it loud peals of thunder. Dark clouds covered the sky, but they didn't look like any thunder clouds Link had ever seen before. They looked … evil.

Suddenly, something caught his eye. He looked straight up and saw a terrifying sight; the clouds began swirling, like they creating a vortex, and out of this vortex emanated a green light that grew stronger and stronger, until it was almost blinding him.

"Link!" he heard someone shout through the storm.

"Link! Wake up, Link!"

Wake up? Was he sleeping?

"Wake up, Link! You're dreaming."

Dreaming?

Link blinked a few times and the dark clouds began blurring. The image was for a short time completely blurred out, but it quickly began taking the form of a face … a face of a girl … with green hair.

"Wake up, Link! You're dreaming. Come on, wake up! Remember what day it is?"

Link opened his eyes completely, staring right into the face of his childhood friend, Saria. She was a Kokiri, one of the Children of the Forest, so even though Link was becoming a tall, young man, she still appeared as a 10 year old girl. Of course, she was much older than she appeared to be, and she was, as the Sage of the Forest, quite wise, too. But on the outside, she was still a kid, and so she could be quite playful at times and often teased Link.

"Come on, you sleepyhead! Are you always this lazy in the morning?" she teased him playfully.

"Ugh, I'm just not used to be awakened by an alarm clock," he shot back sleepily, slowly sitting up in his bed.

"Oh, behave now, or I might change my mind about giving you this," she said as she produced a long, thin object wrapped in colorful paper from behind her back.

"What's this?" he asked with a confused look on his face, still not fully awake.

"Don't tell me you forgot. It's your birthday, silly! You turn 17 today, remember?"

Link blinked a few times again until it began dawning on him; it was his 17th birthday, and he had completely forgotten.

"Now that you're finally awake, hurry up and open your present! I'm dying of excitement here!" Saria exclaimed.

"All right, all right, take it easy," Link said as he began unwrapping the object.

As Saria watched with excitement, the wrapping paper came off and revealed … The Master Sword. No, wait, it wasn't the Master Sword. It was a replica. But a very well made replica.

"The Gorons have worked day and night to finish it for today. It's a perfect replica of the Master Sword, except …"

She pointed towards the blade where the Triforce symbol used to be, but instead it bore the inscription: Belongs to Link, the Hero of Time

Link was speechless.

"Well? Do you like it?" Saria asked.

"It's … beautiful," Link replied.

"Come on, let's go outside and give it a try!" she exclaimed with excitement.

"One moment, let me just get my hat."

After Link had put on his trademark green hat, they climbed down the ladder of his tree house. Outside, Link demonstrated his fine sword skills with his new sword. Saria watched with amazement.

"It feels exactly like the Master Sword," he remarked, impressed.

"I told you, it's a perfect replica! The Gorons sure know how to make swords, eh, Link?"

"M-hm," he muttered, before being cut off by a voice shouting at him.

"Oy, Link! Someone wants to talk to you!"

It was Mido, the leader of the Kokiris and the most mischievous of them all. He had been quite a bully towards Link in the past, but since the incident with Ganondorf almost 7 years ago, they had become pretty good friends.

"Who is it, Mido?" he shouted back.

"Dunno, haven't seen him around here before. He says his name is Jace. Jace Maldon."