Good night, Irene! This is one of the longest chapters I have ever written, and its all thanks to my wonderful beta Jaymzy! Without him I probably would have given up by now, which is pitiful seeings how its only the second chapter. So without further ado, the moment you have been waiting for!
Summer vacation is over!
The world around him looked to be a normal open field, except for the fact that everything was either a deep crimson or royal shade of purple. Before he had a chance to move, two large orange-yellow eyes with green irises appeared and glared down upon him. He found that he couldn't look away, that he was compelled to look into the eyes and see the anger and hatred they held, as well as the pleasure and joy of chaos and destruction.
The green irises began to shrink into green glowing pinpricks on the vast yellow and orange background. Then the noise, a kind of creaking and shaking erupted from all around the young man as the eyes got closer and closer to him. When the eyes were close to him, almost close enough to touch his own, and all the could see were the green glaring irises, the noise stopped. But instead of silence it was replaced with a soft whisper of a new sound that grew slowly until it had become deafening. It was a scream, an indescribable scream that seemed to be filled with pain and anger. It chilled him to the bone and he awoke covered in cold sweat, panting and panicked.
He had become accustom to nightmares, usually they were brought on by the recent memories of the events from only three months ago. But this nightmare was new and so vividly different than any other dream that it frightened him, frightened him in a way that he knew never felt before and yet... it felt familiar.
"By the goddesses," He thought, "what was that?!"
When no answer came he just shook his head, but then suddenly paused. There was a sound in his house he didn't recognize, it sounded like a noise he heard in some of the dungeons... a type of mechanical clunking. After a short look around he notices a large circular object that was rotating around itself. It had an odd picture in the middle of its face, he also noticed a small picture of what looked like the sun. Suddenly he remembered and looked off into the sky to check the sun's position.
"I'm late!"
The rest of the day for Link was a blur, it felt like his head was in a fog and everything he did was sloppy. From falling off Epona while herding to getting beaten up by the scarecrow during sword practice. He just couldn't focus, those eyes and that scream were playing over and over in his mind. The appearance of that strange object, the purpose of which he could only guess was some way of keeping track of time, didn't help his new found clumsiness.
The villagers quickly noticed that Link's behavior was off today and, almost by an unspoken unanimous vote, told him to get some rest instead of the chores he was going to do for them. With nothing to do now he led Epona by the bridal to the Ordon spring, to bathe. With the amount of chores he did for the other villagers he had little time to bathe her, so her coat had collected more dirt than he had ever let her get before. Sometimes he even asked Ilia, when she wasn't busy, if she could wash Epona for him.
Twilight fell as he was finishing Epona's bath, and once again he felt the melancholy atmosphere surround him. The effects of the hour of twilight were felt differently by all some reveled in it, some feared it, and some felt it had a very sobering edge. Before the adventure he felt it had a very somber beauty about it. But now it only served as a painful reminder that the heroes always have the shortest end of the stick. It wasn't long before his thoughts turned back to that time... When she broke the mirror of twilight... he felt as if he was to blame for it.
"Why couldn't I just say three little words." he had thought over and over again. But of course the answer had been with him for his whole life. He was born a mute, the most he could do was some indecipherable noises. It wasn't from lack of learning, he had great penmanship and had a vocabulary that could leave some dizzy... its just his vocal cords never developed the way they should.
With a bump from Epona's nose he was woken from his daydream. after realizing that he had been standing there for a while, with his hand just laying on Epona, he tapped her rear letting her know that he was done. With what could only be described as a sarcastic snort she trotted back home. Link smiled and shook his head in reaction to her antics, then following soon after her.
When he arrived home he finally noticed how dusty and cluttered his home had become in the three months of no cleaning. Cleaning his house was nearly a nightmare in itself, the broom had been buried under a pile of laundry, the feather duster had disappeared, so he had to go to the basement and get the gale boomerang, and finally five skullwalltula's had set up shop and made webs all across his house. Night finally fell as he finished cleaning his home, except the basement, and it nearly sparkled, he could swear that he saw his face on a wall somewhere. With all the chores he could think of done and out of the way he decided to head to bed. But not before getting a better look at that strange device on his wall.
"Now let's see what you are..." he thought as he approached the strange thing. Gazing upon its surface he noticed the small sun indicator was gone, and had been replaced by a small crescent moon. "So you do indicate time," he thought as he turned away from it, "but tough luck on me figuring out on how you work. Well with that mystery solved time for..." he paused his thoughts after he had gave it one last glance and noticed something he hasn't before, "Hello? What do we have here?" Upon further inspection of the strange time piece he discovered a small corner of what looked like paper attached to the inside of the inner face. After turning the circular moon piece, he found that it was in fact a piece of paper, probably left behind by the someone who left this thing here. Upon opening the many folded piece of paper he found himself looking at a very crude drawing, like that of a child's, of a small boy with a sword on his back and some oddly dressed creature next to him. Behind the two are four strange things with stick like limbs and round middle sections.
When the investigations finished he climbed his way up the ladder to his bed, he placed the paper next to the bed and covered himself in the sheets. Getting to sleep was difficult this night, normally he was tired enough from physical labor that he would fall to sleep easily. But tonight he kept tossing and turning, his mind wandering back to the events at the arbiter grounds, his nightmare last night and the strange picture of a two children didn't help. He was relieved when he finally closed his eyes for a few minutes and felt himself drifting away.
He was awoken from his slumber by the feelings of panic and desperation. Sitting up and looking out the window he saw that the village was on fire! The brave villagers were trying their hardest to put it out, but the fire spread from building to building until everything was ablaze with burning light. Then suddenly an army of stalkin and stalfos appeared out of the darkness and attacked the village. Link couldn't do anything to help, his body felt as if it were made of tungsten, as he was forced to watch as everyone in the village was slaughtered in front of his very eyes! The lifeless eyes of the villagers stared up in his direction as if blaming him for bringing this calamity upon them.
He awoke with a start, for the second time, and after a second to process what had happened, sighed as he realized it was only a dream. That is until he heard a scream coming from the village. Literally jumping from his bead and rolling on the floor below, he grabbed his wooden sword and headed toward the village. What he saw was like his dream had come true, stalkin and stalfos were attacking the town. But it seemed as they were looking for something and focused on ransacking people's houses instead of killing.
Without waiting another second he charged, swinging the wooden blade with precise strikes. Taking a group of five stalkin by surprise, he swung the blade in a wide arch and slashed through the vertebrae of two stalkin. By flowing the momentum of the blade in a lightning fast circular arc he was able to use centrifugal force to his advantage and cleaved through a third's ribcage and spinal column. The other two took notice of their suddenly destroyed comrades and hefted their crude spears. Before they could even resemble combat readiness Link fell upon them and with a swift twist of this body, launched himself into a spin attack that beheaded both skeletal nuisances.
There were plenty of stalkin in the town for Link to sharpen his combat skills on, but soon they were piling into the town in droves. It unnerved him how many of these creatures there were and he was slowly getting pushed back. Somehow he ended up on the bridge in the middle of town both ends literally covered in hoards of walking bones. Fighting them off on both sides was difficult, made even more so that he only had a wooden sword and no shield to block with. But then the raving crowds of bones quieted down, and from the crowd emerged the most unique stalfos he had ever seen. It wore red and grey patterned armor with what looked like the remains of a blue uniform covering its hands and feet accompanied by a warrior kilt suspended by a belt around its waist. Once it was only just outside striking range with his sword it stopped and most unexpectedly spoke.
"So you are this era's hero, you fought as skilled as the hero of time this day! My master wanted you dead as quickly as possible, but fortunately for you my honor won't allow me to stand by and watch any longer. Having you be picked apart by a horde of combat inept simpletons... is a hollow victory, NO! I want the honor of slaying you myself, one on one, as honorable swordsmen! En garde" and without further ado the stalfos drew forth a red undulating blade that looked as ancient as the stalfos itself. The battle had to have been one of the hardest battles Link has ever faced. The swordsman before him was truly a master before death and continued to hone his skills to perfection during the immortality gained with being a stalfos. He blocked every strike, parried every blow, countered every technique and the worst part, he never tired. Link's arms were straining with the sheer power of each of the hits he blocked till the point of his shoulders becoming numb. The stalfos brought his blade down once more and Link's arms moved the wooden blade to intercept. But that last strike proved too much and the wooden sword split, getting cloven clean in half.
"You were truly a worthy adversary. But today you shall die!" the moment seemed to last forever as the sword raised high above the stalfos' head and prepared to deal the death blow. Time seemed to slow as the sword reached its peak and began its decent. Suddenly a flash of light caught the eyes of Link as he saw a sword blade bury itself in the dirt in front of him. Leaping forward he gripped the handle of the sword and with a roll came up next to the stalfos and bisected him just under the rib cage.
"I guess it is not my destiny to defeat the hero after all. Link I'm sorry that we met this way, if it were different I would have been honored to battle along side you. Unfortunately... we stalkind... are but puppets... of those who... hold... power." the magic that animated the stalfos slowly dissipated and the glowing orbs of his eyes disappeared. Without a leader the stalkin could not fight effectively as a unit any more, but instead they charged the hero as a chaotic mob with a lust for death. But before they could touch him, a ring of familiar wooden puppets dropped down around the hero and began to battle the wild stalkin. Link felt a tug on his body and in a second found himself in a tree with a hand clamped to his mouth.
"Its a good thing I got here on time, isn't it Link?" whispered a high pitched voice that Link recognized. Turning his head to see revealed the one who had pulled him out of the large mass of wildly attacking stalkin was none other than the Skull Kid who protected the sacred grove. The puppets pushed back the stalkin and surprisingly picked up the fallen weapons of the ones they killed and used them against them. More and more puppets were summoned as the stalkin began to separate from a large hoard to smaller collected groups. For every ten stalkin the puppets killed only one puppet would fall and would be easily replaced by the skullkid. Soon the whole village was cleared of stalkin and the puppets disappeared to whence they came. Satisfied the Skull Kid lowered himself down to the ground alongside Link.
"Answers cannot be uttered here, stow your questions know not to ask, these words not meant for certain ears, later this knowledge will be your task. Gather your gear and meet me at the sacred grove." his voice and speech patterns were odd, as if something was affecting him. With a final wave to Link he vanished into the air not to be seen again that night. Soon the villagers gathered in the town near Link and one by one thanked him for his aid.
"So I guess you have to leave this village once again Link, grand adventures seem to follow your every footstep eh Link. Well good luck and if you ever need a place to stop and rest please remember to visit, our doors are always open to you!" the mayor said and patted Link on the back much in the way he felt a goron would given the chance. With all the congratulations and thank yous out of the way he was finally able to head home for some more sleep. It was still a few hours from dawn and he needed all the rest he could get before this journey. Looking down at the sword in his hand he realized that it was his Ordon sword. 'I locked that chest after I put back the gale boomerang... how did Skull Kid get into it?' his question, like the rest he had, was left unanswered and he made his way home. After climbing the ladders and finally arriving at his bed he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.