A/N: Thanks to ZeldaRubix, Norkix and SuccessfulFailure23 for reviewing last chapter!

ZeldaRubix: Glad to be back, ZR! I'm happy to know you're always here reviewing my stories. It means a lot to me! And yeah, I think my writing has matured since my last contribution on here. Definitely improved since Visions haha. Oh, and btw, I don't go to school anymore haha :) PM me to hear more if you want lol.

Norkix: Thanks for the review man! As mentioned above, I definitely think my writing has improved. I guess things just get better with age hehe. Oh, and I hope I can bring this character more out of their shell in the future ;D (Thanks for the work you did on this chapter btw ^_^")

SuccessfulFailure23: Thanks for reading! I'm glad you liked that last one, considering it was really only an establishing chapter. I hope you find this and other future chapters much more interesting! Also, I know it was quite odd that this person was so impressionable, but all will be explained in due time :) Thanks again!

Special Note: As of this chapter and beyond, this story is being beta-read by Norkix! Thanks to him very much for his input and putting up with my future questions and blocks in advance haha. He just recently completed his biggest project to date on this site: Majora's Revenge. It's a great story! Funny and epic in just the right blend. Read it if you ship RomLink too!

II – Eon Part 2

The smouldering cinders of Hogsnest presented themselves to me, a soft orange and black hue now decorating the vibrant green that once filled the village. A work of art once, now an incoherent mess of colour. Everything was burnt down; the farms, the houses… the people. All that remained standing were the charred fenceposts surrounding the pigpens, but even they were starting to give way to their weight, falling one on top of the other like soldiers dying in battle.

The tree we were clinging on to had stopped shaking, with only the leaves swaying lightly in the morning breeze. I couldn't speak. My mouth had gone dry, and not only because of the smoke rising to the sky. My nostrils filled with the stench of smoke and cooked meat, that of both the pigs and their masters. Having that thought made me squirm in righteous agony. Everything I once knew was gone. All the people that once had lives here, who were to be woken up in the morning by their wives or the smell of their livestock, were now dead. The questions remained, however. What and why?

The man laying above me held his breath, presumably to avoid taking in any more smoke than we had already inhaled, and sidled backwards on his branch, beginning his descent. At least two minutes had passed since the explosion. Since then, neither of us had said a word. I had no explanation, or 'part of one', that would justify what I had seen. And I felt something I don't commonly feel, a sense of injustice that made my stomach feel cold and my heart beat faster. Although the air was warm, I felt cold. I felt numb. The only things rushing through my head were the people of Hogsnest and my interactions with them… or rather the fact that there would be no more.

"Are you coming down?" the man shouted from ten branches underneath me. Although his voice seemed a million miles away, I still heard it. I grew indignant.

"No, I'm not coming down!" I shouted back, even though we were barely apart from each other. "I would rather stay up here and see the mess that's been made of my village. What the hell happened?"

The man sighed and continued his descent. I guessed that I wouldn't get any answers out of him without both of us being at ground level, so I put my foot on the lowest branch I could reach and also started climbing down. He sighed when I got to him, a long sigh like he was telling a story he wished no more to tell. Soon after, the sound of Bokoblin words started to emanate from the ashes, along with a scuffling of feet every which way.

"Follow me," the man whispered. "We don't want them to hear us."

"Are they responsible for this?" I asked, not caring about the volume or tone of my voice.

"In a way. But I think something bigger is happening that they're just involved in. A scheme for a higher power."

As we walked further away from Hogsnest, I played everything over in my head, trying to grasp answers that floated past. What was so powerful as to destroy an entire village in an instant, not even setting it alight in the first place? Why, when I woke up, was my fire fully blazing, though I clearly remembered it going out? And what of the town drunk? I heard him both before and after I went to sleep. I couldn't wrap my head around these questions. I was only able to find a logical explanation for the second and third, and they weren't even plausible.

"Almost there," the man said. I noticed how strong he looked, even though I could barely see his actual body. Through the cloak I could see he had taut muscles, and the way he moved seemed to have an air of authority to it. I judged from the Hylian Crest on his cloak that he was a soldier of the Hylian Guard. But he seemed familiar somehow, like I had seen him elsewhere before.

Soon, we came up to a mountainside. There was a small alcove in it, and in front, a horse stood guard. It was terrifyingly beautiful, being the colour of midnight, contrasted with white socks and a silver mane. Its muscles, like the man's, were also strong and toned, suggesting that it had done a lot of running in its life. I assumed that it was a cross-breed of two species, since I had only ever seen a pure black or pure white horse before, and only in books. It was quite amazing to look at, really.

The man led me to the opening of the alcove. As I walked past the horse, it snuffled and leant towards me. Good to know it was friendly.

Inside shone a light from a torch, which stood on the wall near the entrance. The man grabbed it and beckoned me inside. For a split second I thought to run. Just kick up my feet and run anywhere else but here. The man was unnerving in the way he acted. He had mystery to him, though it didn't make me want to learn more. But where would I go?

The alcove wasn't very deep, and soon we came up to a pile of ash surrounded by bricks. Nearby was a pile of wood, one of which the man placed on the ash. He motioned for me to sit on one of the tree stumps next to the bricks while he prepared a fire.

In this time, I reflected on my life in Hogsnest. I always found it ironic that a split second could literally change your life. In my case, it had left me homeless, jobless, and had killed all those I held dear. I did not like change, and living in Hogsnest I didn't think I would ever have to change anything. But now… this had happened. I was forced to change.

However, I had another chance, thanks to this man. Maybe it was just because he pulled me away from the ruins, but I subconsciously felt the need to trust him with my life. But that being said, why only me? Did he not have time? Or was I chosen for a reason? I needed answers, and soon. I decided to start with the main thing on my mind.

"I feel like I know you from somewhere..."

"You might," the man replied, not looking up from his activity.

"Are you a soldier?"

"Yeah, but that might not be where you know me from." He gathered some dry grass and laid it out on the wood.

My memory was too foggy for me to guess who he was, so I just asked.

"What's your name? Maybe then I would know."

He grabbed some flint stones and began striking, trying to get the sparks to land on the grass.

"Link," he answered nonchalantly, continuing to strike the flint stones together. My jaw dropped halfway down my abdomen.

"Link?! The Link? The Hero of Twilight Link?" I shouted within three seconds.

"I don't like those titles, really. But yeah. That Link."

I had only heard tales of this man, some people who thought he was simply a myth. The man who had bravely fought off the darkness that was once enveloping the land of Hyrule. One man almost single-handedly saved the kingdom from an ancient evil and even allowed for the study of a completely new race, one which had never been encountered before: the Twili. Since the scourge of twilight had ended, new discoveries in magic had been made, with many learning the ways of the Twili. And I was standing in front of the one man whom some people didn't even know existed. But that wouldn't stop him being an imposter.

I regained my once scattered exposure and straightened out the collar of my cloak.

"The Hero of Twilight is known to be the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, which is a partial reason as to why he could do the things he did."

'Link' had been striking the flints for a full minute now, not looking up once. Whoever this man was, I could tell he was a focused man, never looking away from the task at hand.

"So," I carried on, trying to keep the anticipation out of my voice, "if you are the Hero of Twilight, as you so claim, you must bear the Triforce of Courage."

"I do. Sometimes I wish I didn't, but I do," he replied.

Finally, a spark ignited the grass, and 'Link' clenched his fist in a celebratory display.

"May I see?" I was shivering. Although in the back of my mind I thought there was a small chance he wasn't who he claimed, this was akin to meeting one of the royal family of Hyrule.

He stretched out his right hand, which I took. My eyes bored into the back of his hand like a fortune teller. Suddenly, three brown triangles formed before my eyes, and ever so slightly the bottom right one pulsed with a golden light. This was no tattoo. He was the real Hero of Twilight.

I gasped and lowered my hand slowly. Link's hand retracted into his cloak and he shivered slightly, scuttling a bit closer to the fire. Either he didn't know the gravity of what just happened or he didn't care, but my eyes grew ever wider the more I stared at his blue eyes.

I was in the presence of a legend, a man who answered to the royal family and was blessed by the Goddesses themselves! To say that this was the most important day of my life so far would be an understatement.

Now, I was a simple man. I had no idea of how to react to this news. I did not speak to royalty often. Even the mayor of Hogsnest would sometimes only give me jobs through his secretary. But while I was in his presence, and when I greeted and left him, I would perform obeisance. My mother always said that if I were to greet someone of authority, I should bow low and wait until they tell me to raise my head. So I did just that.

"Whoa, hey! What are you doing?" Link exclaimed, surprised. I jumped, my head shooting up.

"Uh, performing obeisance?" I had the feeling my mother gave me some duff advice. Link shook his head quickly.

"Save that for the royal family. I am not a prince or a king or anything. I'm just a simple country kid who wanted to save his friends. I didn't know what would happen when I followed them, but I never thought I would be involved in some sort of higher purpose."

"But you're the Hero of Twilight… I feel as though I should respect you in some form."

"Just respect me by treating me like anyone else, kid. I'm no hero. I'm just someone who wanted to save those he cared about. Anything else I did along the way was just a quest on the side."

Him saying that made me respect him so much more. He was so humble in what he did, a quality I strived to imitate in my life but often failed to.

"Oh, well… thank you," I said sheepishly. "And… thank you for saving me."

"I'm sorry I couldn't save anyone else," he muttered, "but time had gotten away from me."

I felt as though he had saved me for some higher purpose, something that was special about me that no one else in Hogsnest had. He seemed somewhat down about the fact that he couldn't save anyone, however, so I didn't press the matter.

He looked up at me with his azure eyes. Again, I was floored. Even though he had told me to treat him as anyone else, I couldn't get over the authority he had, the raw intensity of his eyes. The things he must have seen, while terrible in nature, had given his eyes the stern look of leadership and courage that people would feel safe with.

"I forgot to ask, how rude of me!" he exclaimed, palming his forehead in exasperation. "What's your name, kid?"

His question caught me off guard. I really shouldn't be getting lost in thought here and now of all places and times.

"A-Azelon," I stuttered.

"A lovely name," he mused. "The Hylian word for 'airborne'. Your parents didn't happen to spot a bird as they named you, did they?" He laughed musically, his voice echoing off the walls and mingling with our pulsing shadows.

"I think it had been my father's dream to fly. A foolish dream, to be sure. I guess he wanted his dream to passed onto his son."

Link scoffed. "Not foolish at all, Azelon. I myself have been to the sky before."

The way he said things were so ordinary, as if he were talking about that one hike he went on the other day. I mean, going to the sky? What kind of ridiculousness was that? Definitely one I would like to see, that's for sure.

"You've been… to the sky?" My mind skipped a thought trying to process that word sequence.

"I have. Home to an interesting folk, for sure. Very quirky and odd looking. But hospitable, definitely."

He palmed his forehead again.

"Ah, what am I doing? This isn't the time for us to be talking about other things. There is a matter of great importance I have to discuss with you."

I sat up like a child awaiting a story, my eyes widened with curiosity.

"A few years after the end of twilight, a discovery was made, far away from Hyrule. This discovery was made by a Hylian merchant who was selling his goods in this far-off land."

"What did he find?" I asked, finding myself caught up in the drama of the story.

"He found something of great power… a mineral which could grant people power over one of the things they had always wished to manipulate. The power of time."

I was thrown off somewhat.

"The power of time? To control it?" It seemed even more far-fetched than his adventure in the sky.

"Yes. Let me explain."

I knew the Hero of Twilight wouldn't speak of something he didn't think to be true. It just wasn't possible. Besides, I could tell he wasn't lying since his eyes had grown ever more intense since he started the story, if that were even possible.

"This merchant had only brought back a small amount of this mineral, which has been given the name aevium. However, in the land where he had obtained this mineral, it was plentiful. Just the area he had searched in contained enough to fill his wagon six times over. That was only a few acres of grassland."

As the night bore on, the fire began to dim, and our shadows started to fade out of existence. Link carefully placed another piece of wood on the fire.

"Nonetheless, this merchant brought back as much as he could, but kept it hidden from everyone he came across. He took it into his home, researching its properties and experimenting with it. He wrote down all he had discovered, keeping large journals of his findings. For years, his life was focused only on this field of study."

"He sounds like such a learned man," I remarked. "Why would he simply be a merchant?"

"The one thing people of his kind love to do is to discover things that were before unknown; to understand the innermost workings of the world," Link replied. "Being a merchant afforded him time and the ability to travel to new places while still making money. But regardless, his research went on for many years after he discovered aevium. Unfortunately for him, he did not live in a well guarded town like Hyrule Castle Town. He lived in a simple hut, which he had built himself."

"A simple hut?" I repeated incredulously. "Did he not have family?"

"He was quite old, so I think his parents had died around the time he made the discovery. But it is believed that he had no wife or children. He was the kind of person to focus more on his work rather than building relationships."

"I see…" I said, nodding. "A lonely life, then."

"I think he was satisfied with what he accomplished," Link said with a shrug. "However, things didn't go well for him for very long."

"Oh?" The juxtaposition of events made me sit up with anticipation.

Link leaned forward, gazing into the flames as he laced his fingers together. "As his hut was in a place unguarded by the Hylian Guard, he had no protection against any of the monsters that lived in the forests surrounding him. It's a miracle that he stayed alive with his house intact for so long. But one day he just got unlucky. A Bokoblin tribe were looking for Hylians to rob, and they had just hit the big time."

"Oh..." As I observed the Bokoblin tribes as part of my recon duties, I knew how tough and violent they could be. The one thing I did know is that they left no survivors in their raids. I uttered a silent prayer to Farore to watch over the man's soul, and carried on listening.

"They raided his home and killed him without hesitation. He didn't even have a chance to grab something to defend himself with. They took as much as they could. The usual stuff: Rupees, gold, anything of value. And…" He paused, looking me in the eye. "The aevium stones."

"They stole something with the power to control time?!" I exclaimed. Even though the Bokoblins weren't all bright, giving them a power such as that would be incredibly dangerous, given their violent and merciless tendencies.

Link nodded. "That, and the man's writings, which had information on what the stones did, how to use them, and worst of all, the location in which to obtain them."

"No way..." I breathed.

He nodded once more. "Soon they organised a party who would be in charge of travelling to this new land and bringing back more of the aevium. They remained undetected for many months, and during this time they made many trips to this land. Very soon they had a huge supply of aevium, ready to use however they pleased. But..." He paused, running a hand through his sandy hair and grinning. "The Hylian Guard soon found them with their pants down."

I laughed abruptly. That sentence alongside the seriousness of the story was such a jarring moment that I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sorry," I managed to wheeze. "Carry on, carry on." I waved my hand to signal him to go on with the story.

"One group of the Bokoblins attempted to make a raid on a village… which the Hylian Guard was coincidentally visiting for protective purposes. A big fight then ensued—which the Hylian Guard won handily—and the Bokoblins took off. But they had left some precious cargo behind: the aevium stones and some of the merchant's writings."

"Oh, fantastic!" I beamed widely. I had great respect and trust in the Hylian Guard.

Link nodded with a small smile. "After having read through these writings a little, they immediately took them and the aevium stones to Hyrule Castle. After liaising with the royal family, they left the writings and the stones with the Hylian alchemists, who poured even more research into the aevium. And they found out many things about it."

"For a noble cause, I'm sure," I remarked.

"Yes, they work under the royal family and give all their information to them." He frowned then, his tone growing serious once more. "But remember that the Bokoblins still had a huge supply of these stones. The Hylian Guard only got a fraction of the stash they had back home, so the royal family grew concerned. Therefore they gave the Hylian Guard the priority of finding and searching Bokoblins who travelled in groups in order to get more information on where the supply was coming from."

He paused and sighed. The fire was three quarters of the way through the log, but he didn't bother to put another on top. I assumed his tale was coming to an end.

"That's where we are now. We've been searching for this supply for the last twelve years, but we haven't found it. We've found a lot of aevium and the rest of the writings from the Bokoblins we have encountered, but not the main supply. And that's not taking into account the fact that they know where to get more."

"That is a huge problem," I agreed. "After all they could use the aevium to make raiding people's homes far easier."

"It's not just that that I'm concerned with," Link said grimly. "With aevium, they have the potential to unleash a devastating power the likes of which Hyrule has never seen before. In the wrong hands, aevium could end all life in Hyrule as we know it. Or…" He looked me in the eyes. "The world."

The weight of those words crashed down on me, and I fell silent for a while. "I didn't know it could run that deep," I said at last.

"Time may be the most powerful thing in the world right now. That we know of."

He took a stick and poked at the dying fire, a shower of embers raining down like a fountain. The fire was dying slowly, our shadows darkening along with it. It was pitch black outside, and the sounds of night slowly faded into life.

"It's getting late now, and there is much more to discuss. But right now, we must get some rest."

I nodded. I was definitely tired from meeting a legend and having him tell me of amazing new discoveries. I had the feeling that this may be my last sleep where I could wake up and stay in my bed. The gravity of the situation would be in the back of my mind for a long time. Link chose me to save for a reason, and it involved the aevium. Something big was going to happen. As the dying embers faded out of existence, I mourned the villagers of Hogsnest for one last time.

My biggest mission was about to begin.