Okay chapter 1 (the first submission was a prologue) read and review...

Chapter One

The Plan

Link had been sitting in a grimey cold celler for 3,650 days. That was far to much time for his liking. The celler smelled of mildew and something that resembled spoiled milk, it was infested with rats and spiders, and the worst part was probably the darkness. There were no windows in the cellar, the only light was illuminated from under the cracks of the door. Link was sitting in his usual corner in the cellar, it was the one closest away from the door, he did this in hopes that the dark elves would not pick him for labor, but his plan never worked. Most of the dark elves liked to pick on Link since Link had made numerous attempts to escape, but of course his plans were always thwarted and his dreams of returning home were shattered, once again.

Link looked around him and saw the same pale faces of the sad and beaten Hylians that he saw everyday...some were dying, some WERE dead and left in the cellar to rot to spread disease amoungst the others, some were so skinny that their ribs poked out of their stomachs, most were ancient and withered, and of course there were always the new recruits they would receive, terrified and in disbelief. They were Link's favorite, it wasn't as if he liked seeing people getting their free will taken away, it was just that he liked seeing someone who still had hopes of escaping like he. No one ever spoke in the cellar, everyone just waited, with their gaunt faces fixed on the door...waiting to be taken to the fields to be put to work...or just waiting to simply die. It was depressing...Link imaged that he had started to look like some of these Hylians...pale and defeated. The only time he went in the sunlight was when he was put to work or when he made a bold attempt to escape.

The person who guarded the cellar was a women in her mid-30s by the name of Beorthric, stress had made her appear older then she actual was, her dark black hair had streaks of grey lined in and her face had many wrinkles from when she would frown, she was a very skinny woman, hardly ever ate and most of all she was considered to be one of the nicer ones at the ranch Link was held at. Link had never gotten to speak to her but whenever he was hauled out to the field she always looked at him with sorrow in her eyes. Link didn't know why she did this, if she felt so bad for him then why didn't she just let him go? He didn't understand the nature of the dark elves, so he would never understand Beorthric painful looks.

Since Link had been captured long ago by the elf leader who he learned was named Vathek, the only knowledge that he had gathered was that Vathek had teamed up with the orc leader Grunak, (who wasn't a smart leader but very powerful) and had overthrown the King of Hyrule Castle, it seemed as though no one knew the whereabouts of the King but apparently Princess Zelda had been hiding in the Gerudo Fortress with their leader Nabooru. Shortly after Vathek took over the kingdom of Hyrule he betrayed Grunak, by killing Grunak's men, leaving the Orc Leader alone and powerless. Vathek had turned Hyrule into a land of dark elves, leaving the land poverty-stricken, hungry, and broken. No where in Hyrule was safe...the only place the Dark Elf Vathek wasn't able to affect was the Gerudo Fortress,it was the place Link planned to escape to as soon as he was able to.

Link was contemplating another sceme in his mind when he heard the cellar door open. All of the Hylians stopped breathing as they prayed that the dark elf wouldn't call their name. The dark elf looked around for a bit until he found what he was looking for. "Link..." he said pointing at the young man in the corner. Link looked up from his corner of the room, he recognized the dark elf as Nyk, this elf favored Link, which wasn't a good thing, whenever Nyk was in charge he made sure to pick Link to work out in the fields, the elf had long greasy white hair that hung in front of his red eyes, on the left side of his cheek there was a pretty decent sized scar that Link had given a few years back, Nyk always tried to hide it with his long hair, but whenever Link would spot the scar, it made him feel like he accomplished something in his ten years he spent in the cellar. "Yes, you maggot. I've got a real good treat for you today." Nyk smiled as he walked down the cellar stairs kicking as many Hylians out of his way as he could...he bent down to unlock Link's from his shackles...one pair was connecting his two hands together and the other connected his two ankles. "Yes...a real nice treat today..." Nyk said as he drug Link up the stairs. Just as Link had predicted Beothric was giving Link her sad eyes again but Link just ignored her stares and looked at the back of Nyk's greasy white hair.

Outside Link tried best to shield his eyes from the sun, he hadn't been outside in months and the sun was blinding him causing him to trip over himself. "Get up you filthy pig." Nyk said picking Link up and then pushing him back down...Nyk laughed at himself. "Well...aren't you curious as to what your special treat is?" Nyk said smiling with his ugly teeth, all the Dark Elves in the army had poor hygiene, you could always tell the rank's of Dark Elves by their hygiene, Nyk was near the bottom. "Speak when you're spoken to." Nyk spat angrily at Link, he was mad that Link wouldn't play along in his sick game. "What?" Link said sounding irritated, his voice was hoarse and raspy from not talking and it surprised him by how weak he sounded. "No," Nyk said hitting Link in the back of the knee with a club, "it's 'Yes sir.'" "Yes sir." Link repeated, feeling very appauled with himself. "Oh I can't tell you it's a surprise..." Nyk said laughing again at his own joke.

Nyk had dragged the boy clear out to the training grounds like he always did with Link, Nyk never took Link to the fields, he always took him to the training grounds. 'A laughable warrior' Nyk had always called Link when they would duel. Of course that was before Link put a nasty scar on Nyk's cheek. But today it was different...instead of handing Link a sword, Nyk lead Link over to a large wooden pole that stood in the middle of the training ground. "Do you want to know you're surprise yet?" Nyk sneered. "Yes, sir." Link replied not wanting to get pushed down again..."You'll see soon." Nyk laughed as he tied Link hands behind his back and around the pole. Nyk had tied the ropes just tight enough so that they would cut off his circulation, Link didn't wince once...showing weakness was welcome at the ranch but he didn't want to give Nyk any pleasure today. Nyk looked at Link's face to see if he was wincing from the tight ropes but to Nyk's disappointed he wasn't...Nyk furrowed his white eyebrows for a second before he tied the ropes even tighter around Link's beaten up wrists. Nyk looked back up at Link's face and again to his disappointed Link wasn't wincing or complaining...Nyk spit in Link's face before laughing and walking away. Link tried to shake off the disgusting strand of liquid off of his chin. "What is that stupid elf up to? He's lucky I'm tied up...as soon as I'm free he'll be the first to go." Link thought to himself angrily. "The old Link wouldn't have thought like this." Link's conscious said in the back of his head. "The old Link would be dead by now." Link thought pushing his conscious back. "What is taking that stupid elf so long?" Link wondered. The elf had been gone for at least twenty minutes. Link was starting to sweat underneath the hot sun, it was making him drowsy, but no matter, he couldn't sleep in the middle of the training grounds, what would Nyk do if he caught Link sleeping? "I could've escaped by now if I really wanted to. No vile elf has shown up this whole time." Link thought feeling suddenly angry at his stupidity, he could've been free...or not.

Because just then Nyk showed up with about 10 other dark elves...each one was carrying a bow and arrow..."Would you like to know your surprise now? You're going to be target practice!" Nyk said doing a happy dance. The other dark elves gave him dirty looks so Nyk stopped his dancing and went into a more serious tone. "Well...boys you know what to do." Nyk said as he stepped back and waited for one of the archers to shoot the young boy who had scared his face. The first archer stood up and pulled back his arrow taking a few seconds to aim...fortunately for Link the wind picked up and the arrow whizzed past Link's left ear. With the second archer Link wasn't as lucky, the arrow grazed him in the side of his stomach, tearing his tatterted grey work shirt and piercing the skin, a little bit of blood dripped out of Link's side. When the third archer was about to shoot, Link started to panic.

He squirmed and wiggled his wrists around in hope to loosen the rope, thankfully the dark elves were cheap and they had purchused a very poor quality of rope...the rope began to fray and eventually one of the binds holding Link snapped. The third archer shot his arrow and barely missed Link by an inch. Link was working faster now..now two more binds had snapped and there were only three more to go. The fourth archer shot, this time it hit above the top of Link's head. "One more..." Link thought to himself frantically trying to undo the last bind which also happend to be the tightest. Nyk was laughing hysterically on the sidelines. The fith arrow was getting ready to shoot and as soon as the archer let go of the arrow Link had freed himself...the arrow hit right where Link's stomach should've been. Link started to run for the exit but to his misfortune the sixth archer was able to hit him this time.

The arrow hit Link in his lower left leg, Link pulled it out quickly before trying to escape again, it was proving to be difficult since his leg was in so much pain. "Stupid maggot! Trying to escape again." Nyk said as he ran up behind Link and tackled him to the ground before he pulled Link back up and pulled him by the hair back to the cellar. Link saw Beothric give him the same sad look and he just looked at her angrily, she could've let him out a long time ago. "You can stay down here and rot for all I care." Nyk said opening up the cellar door, the Hylians didn't look surprised that Link had gotten into trouble with Nyk again. Before leaving Nyk kicked Link in his arrow wound before he pushed Link down the stairs.

Link landed with a thud on the cellar floor, his leg hurt and was bleeding profusely but Link couldn't be happier. Nyk, in his haste and anger had forgotten to put the shackles back on Link. Link was finally going to be free. He was going to escape...tonight. Withouth the shackles to tie him down he could finally run, it was perfect, all he had to do was sneak past the guards and none of them would expect it since his leg was injured, but then again they would never suspect that stupid Nyk had forgotten to chain him up. In the corner of the cellar, Link came up with a plan.

Two hours after Link had been shot with the arrow the wound had at least stopped bleeding...now all Link had to do was wait for nightfall so he could make his escape. It wouldn't be too long, the light that came from under the door was getting dimmer and dimmer, it was almost dark outside, just a few more minutes. Link watched as the light under the door until it disappeared, it felt like forever. The next thing he had to wait for was the snores of Boethric, she normally went to sleep right after sun-down. Her snores were abnormally loud for such a tiny woman.

While he patiently and reluctantly waited he thought back to the times when he was young and free to do what he pleased. Even though he was a misfit at least he had a friend to be a misfit with, now there was nobody to talk to, the prisoners didn't talk they were too afraid and weak and the only conversation from the dark elves were normally not good ones. Link hadn't seen his friens since he had been locked up, he often wondered if she had forgotten about him which was a terrible thought. Then another terrible thought occured to him. "What if she had died?" The last Link saw of her was when her and Saria running of to the Great Deku Tree, after that it was a mystery. "No, she's alive." Link reassured himself.

He pulled out the shiny necklace from his pocket and looked at it with content. It reminded him of his friend, Saria, and his homeland, it was nice to know that he had something to hold onto that was from his childhood.

"What is that in your hand?" an old frail Hylian asked Link, snapping him out of his thoughts. The man was referring to the necklace.

"Nothing." Link said shoving the necklace back into his pocket protectively, concealing it from the old man's view.

The old guy was about to say something back, but Link cut him off for he had just heard what he was waiting for. Boethric was snoring, it was the most heavenly sound in the world. Excitedly Link jumped up from off the ground and ran up the cellar stairs. In his haste he tripped and made a loud thud on the stairs. "Slow down, you're going to ruin it." he reminded himself as he slowly approached the top of the stairs. He jiggled the door handle and to his surprise it was open. You would think that the dark elves would've locked the door just in case they had forgotten to lock up a prisoner. Link slowly pushed the door open and peeked his head through so he could survey the room. Boethric was curled up on her dirty stained cot in the far right side of the room, she stirred a bit when Link had opened the door but she began to snore again only after a few seconds. Link slowly crept through the small living space as quietly as he possibly could, he took baby steps and tried not to put to much pressure on his feet afraid that if he did the wooden flooring would creak and wake up the snoozing Boethric.

Link had reached the door, he grasped the doorknob in his sweaty hand and slowly turned the knob. He slowly pulled the door open and put one foot out the door.

"What are you doing?!?" a loud voice came from behind Link, causing him to jump. Boethric had woken up and she looked mad. She pulled on her robe and went over to the door where Link was standing. Link was speechless, he had been so close escaping, and what was he supposed to tell her? "Are you trying to escape again?" Boethric questioned him. Link gave a silent nod and then put his hands behind his back and waited for the woman to lock him back up.

"Well, you can't go out like that." Boethric said her voice softening. "Here put this cloak on, you'll blend in with the guards, try not to show your face." she said throwing Link a dark maroon hooded cloak.

"Um...thank you." Link said astonished that Boethric was helping him. He pulled the cloak over himself and made sure that the hood covered his hair and eyes, the only thing that showed on him was his mouth and chin. As long as he kept his head bowed the dark elves wouldn't recognize him. "Why are you doing this?" Link asked, he couldn't help he, he just wanted to know why Boethric had a sudden change of heart.

"You're different then the other people that come in here. And you're much to young to waste your life sitting in this dump." she said gesturing to their surrounding. "Just be careful and promise that later you will come back and rescue the rest of us." Boethric smiled and opened up the door for Link.

"I promise." he said before slipping out of the door.

Outside the cloak was doing wonders. Link stayed in the shadows of the buildings trying carefully not to be noticed, when he was he just got a wave from the other guards. The ranch Link was staying at wasn't very large so he didn't have to walk to far. He was near the stables when he spotted Nyk with another guard. Link veered over to the opposite side and walked as fastly as he could permit without being too loud. Link could see the exit this time, it was the farthest he had ever gotten to the exit. "Just a few more yards." he thought to himself and he picked up the pace.

"Hey, you! Where are you going?" said a voice that Link recognized as Nyk's. Link ignored him and continued walking. "Wait up." Nyk said as he ran up to Link. Link continued to keep his head down afraid to look up. Nyk was now tapping on Link's shoulder. "I asked you a question." Nyk persisted. Link still said nothing, if he did Nyk would recognize his voice. "Talk!" Nyk said getting angry. When Link still ignored him, he got even more upset.

Just then to Link's horror Nyk had pulled off his hood. "You!" Nyk shouted when he realized who it was under the hood. Link ran, fortunately for Link, Nyk was slow. Link made it out of the entrance with Nyk a couple yards behind him. Link ran until he could no longer see Nyk from behind him, it felt good to run and be outside.

He was free.

I'll write chapter 2 when I get some 5 reviews