Author's Note: I wanted to get this chapter out much earlier but a virus broke out on my computer, erasing everything that was saved on it. I was forced to start over and the chapter was set back a couple of weeks. Needless to say, I'll be saving everything I do on a flash drive from now on. Anyway, enjoy chapter 3! I certainly enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 3: A Feast and a Dance

Link, Recht and Nascour walked through the open castle doors and were inside the magnificent Hyrule Castle. He had been in this castle twice before but he still had to look around at its impressive interior. The part of the castle that they were in now was the entrance hall. The entrance hall consisted of the circular room that they were standing in now and a hallway straight ahead that led to another circular room where several different rooms were. The walls of the castle were made out of gray stone, giving the castle a dark atmosphere. In the first circular room there were two staircases that hugged the wall and led up to the second floor of the castle and another hallway. Link hadn't been up there but he guessed, based on the shape of the castle, that it was a rectangular hallway with rooms on both sides.

One thing that he noticed however was that there were no guards standing at the top of the staircase. This was odd as the last two times Link had been in the castle, there were guards stationed at the entrance to the upstairs hallway. He felt conflicted, dare he go upstairs? He had wanted to see the room that housed the Four Sword for a long time and now was his chance. According to legend, the Four Sword contained a spell that sealed the powerful Minish wizard Vaati inside the sword. Vaati had tried to take over Hyrule with his magical powers granted to him by the Cap of Wishes. Hyrule, being a new kingdom at the time, was not prepared to take on such a threat and Vaati went virtually unopposed. However a boy by the name of Link stopped Vaati with the Four Sword and Vaati was then sealed inside it. It is said that the Four Sword is still hidden in one of the rooms of the castle.

"I'll catch you two later. I want to check something out first," Link said as he started heading towards the stairs.

"Ok, we'll wait for you in the ballroom then," Recht said as he and Nascour started walking towards the ballroom on the first floor.

Link turned around them and started walking stealthily up the stairs. He wanted to make sure that he made as little noise as possible, just in case any guards came along. He wanted his trip up the stairs and into the Four Sword room to be as smooth sailing as possible.

When Link got up the stairs, he reached a hallway that extended in both directions left and right. He quickly looked down each one and noticed that there were no guards there either. He paused to decide which one he intended to go down but realized that they would both take him to the same place eventually. He started down the red carpet of the right hallway, passing many wooden doors in the process.

Link reasoned that if the Four Sword room was here, it would be a room that stood out and he would be able to tell that it was the Four Sword room right away. His reasoning for this was that if the King ever needed to use the Four Sword room in an emergency, he would have to be able to quickly tell which room it was instantly because he would spend countless time looking for it otherwise. So Link felt that he'd know which room was the Four Sword room when he saw it.

The hallway came to an end and turned to the left. Link followed this turn, and was faced with another hallway. This hallway continued down in a straight line forward and was identical to the one he had just traversed, nothing but wooden doors on each side of the hall. Link reached the end of the hall and turned left again. When he got into the next stretch of the hallway, he immediately knew that he had reached the Four Sword door.

This stretch of the hallway only contained one door. This door was located in the middle of the wall on the right hand side of the hallway. It was at least twice as big as the other doors and was almost as big as the wall itself. Instead of the wooden brownish color of the other doors, it was a metallic gray color. Etched on the doors were four separate golden triforce marks. It was the Four Sword door alright.

Link took another look down the two hallways and when he saw that the road was clear, he crept up to the door. When he got to the door he grabbed the handle and before he opened it, he paused as doubt started to flood his mind. Should he really be doing this? There was obviously a mistake in the guarding assignments allowing him to get up on the stairs and up to the door. Maybe he should just get down to the ballroom before he caused any trouble.

And then again his curiosity was getting the better of him. He had heard so much about the Four Sword from his father and grandfather. His grandfather had been alive during the Vaati era and could serve as an eyewitness to the past Link's defeat of Vaati. Link's grandfather had told him many stories about that Link and the Four Sword when Link was a child. His grandfather thought that it was a shame that more people didn't know the story about the hero that had bested the Minish sorcerer. As Hyrule began to develop and grow, the story about the hero that had saved Hyrule from Vaati began to dissipate. The only ones who knew about the story were the ones who were alive during the time or the ones who had been told the story as Link was.

Link had made up his mind; he was going to go into the room. He opened the door and was met with a sight so magnificent he was surprised that his knees didn't give way. The Four Sword was sitting all alone in a small rectangular room with nothing in it except for a silver pedestal. The Four Sword was a long silver blade in a gold hilt. The hilt had a jewel at the bottom of it that was green, red, blue and purple along with black stripes towards the top of it. The sword seemed to be giving off a blue glow that made it seem very sacred.

Link was mesmerized by the blade. He closed the door behind him as softly as he could and walked up to the Four Sword. It was the most awe-inspiring sword that he had ever seen. As he got up close to it, he suddenly got the urge to hold it in his hands. Just once, he wanted to hold the legendary sword in his hands and pretend that he was the great hero of the past. He leaned over the pedestal and grabbed the hilt with his hands. He pulled the Four Sword out of the pedestal and held it high in his hands.

Once he had the Four Sword in his hands, he felt a weird sensation coming from them. Then a quick flash of light filled the room, blinding Link for a second. When Link opened his eyes, there were three other Links looking back at him, all with both their hands on the sword. They all had the same tunic that he had on except that they were red, blue and purple instead of the normal green that he wore. Link looked at the other Links and they stared right back at him.

"Ok this is a little too weird for me," Link said as he took the sword out from the other Link's hands and put it back in the pedestal. The three other Links disappeared as quickly as they had come. When he let go of the sword in the pedestal, he heard the door open. He whipped around quickly, his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he was afraid of who it would be. What would happen to him?

However the person in the middle of the doorway wasn't who he thought it would be. It was none other than Princess Zelda. She was standing with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face, mixed with a surprised expression.

"What are you doing in here Link? You could get caught and thrown in the prison!" Zelda asked.

"I just wanted to get a look at the Four Sword. I've heard so much about it and I guess I let that want cloud my judgment," Link answered. "You're not going to turn me in are you?" he added as he put on his best puppy dog face he could come up with. Zelda just laughed and her frown turned into a smile.

"No, of course not. But let's get out of here before any guards come along suspiciously," she replied. She then turned her back to Link and went through the door. Link let go a huge breath of relief, he had been so sure that he would have been busted. Breathing easy again, he followed Zelda out the door and into the hallway. Looking down both hallways, he saw that there were still no guards anywhere in the hallway. Not that it mattered since he was with Zelda, but he still found it interesting.

As he and Zelda started walking down the hallway, Link had a sudden thought.

"Zelda, how did you know I was here?" he asked. Zelda turned to look at Link with a mischievous smile.

"I just had a feeling. You seem like the kind of person who's really into anything dealing with swords or battle. When you didn't show up with Recht to the ballroom, I knew you'd be trying to look at the Four Sword. It's right up your alley," Zelda replied.

"I guess you're right. I must have been too predictable," Link replied with a smile. They both laughed and continued down their path to the stairs. When they reached the stairs, they saw two guards at the foot of them looking up at Link and Zelda.

"Are you alright Princess? One of the guards thought he heard someone sneaking around heading for the Four Sword room. We were just about to check it out," the guard on the left said.

"Yes I'm alright. Link and I here went to check it out but we didn't find anyone," Zelda responded.

"Alright then that's settled. I would suggest that you two get to the feast. The king is anxiously awaiting your arrival Princess."

"Will do," Zelda said and the two guards bowed and walked away.

"That was close. It's a good thing you got to me before they did. Thanks by the way," Link added, not wanting his gratitude to go unnoticed.

"No problem. Had they caught you, they would have thrown you in the jail that's underneath the first floor. I couldn't let that happen so I thought I'd get to you first. Anyway, let's get to the feast. You remembered your Royal Family invitation right?" Zelda asked.

"Um…I think so. Let me check my pockets," Link said even though he knew that it wouldn't be in there. He had been in such a rush to get to the Knighting Ceremony, he forgot all about the feast that would come afterwards and had left his invitation on the table of his house. He pulled out his pockets, showing Zelda that he had indeed forgotten his invitation.

"Link…Link…Link, what would you do without me? I guess I'm going to have to get you in myself," Zelda said with mock exasperation. Link made an apologetic face and the two of them headed down the hallway for the ballroom.

As the two of them walked down the hall, Link noticed that the walls were lined with pictures of previous kings. All the kings were part of one bloodline, stretching back decades, even to the times of the Hyrule that was attacked by Vaati. The Hyrule in those times was very young, having just been united. The King in those times was a very gullible and confused King who was very protective of his daughter. It was this foolishness that let him be completely overwhelmed by Vaati, even letting Vaati possess him at times.

At the end of the line of pictures was the King Gustalf, Hyrule's very first king. He was king before Hyrule was unified into the vast country that it is now. The areas surrounding Castle Town were vastly unknown areas before Gustalf came around and made them all part of the country. It is said that his spirit was a big help to the Link of old in defeating Vaati.

"Link, stop staring at the King of Hyrule pictures and hurry up! The feast is about to start!" Zelda pleaded. Link snapped out of his stupor and hurried over to where Zelda was standing. She was waiting for him with her arms crossed in front of the two double doors that led to the ballroom at the end of the huge circular ground floor. The ceiling was about fifty feet high and there were two more floors, each with many identical doors made out of wood.

Link and Zelda went through the twin doors to the ballroom and were greeted with a massive room that was not made of the same metallic gray stone that the rest of the castle was made of. This room was made of brown stone that gave the room a very lighthearted feeling. There were many torches lit about the room on the walls, illuminating the room so that it was very bright.

The atmosphere was very pleasant in general. Many people were already sitting down at tables and were enjoying conversing with the other people there. The ballroom was buzzing with conversation as everyone seemed to be having a good time. Nobody was out on the middle of the dance floor that stood in the middle of all the tables yet though. It was tradition that the entertainment would take place after the food.

Link could make out the Royal Family Section in the distance. It was the only section at the head of the dance floor with all the other tables scattered in front of ti. It was made of a big square table with a huge white tablecloth that had golden Triforces scattered all over it. He and Zelda started walking in the direction of the section, maneuvering through all the other tables. They crossed the dance floor and came to the section, however there were two guards blocking their way. The one on the left was carrying a scroll. When he and Zelda started to enter the section, the guards stopped them.

"Who is this person that is with you Zelda? Does he have an invitation?" the guard on the right said.

"Yes he does. However he left it back at his house. He should be on your list, his name is Link," Zelda said to the guard. The guard then scanned the list.

"Yeah his name is on the list. However how do I know that's really him?" the guard responded. Zelda raised her eyebrows and her smile turned into a scowl.

"Would I lie to you?" Zelda asked in an exasperated voice.

"No, but you have to understand Princess Zelda, that we cannot let this man in without an invitation. It's the rules," the guard on the right said. Zelda sighed a heavy, angry sigh.

"I say man let the lad in. We can't punish him for an unfortunate mishap. This is an occasion of fun and why ruin his?" said a voice from behind the guards. The guards turned around and saw the King of Hyrule, Phineas Iglacerous Hyrule standing behind them. The guards quickly bowed.

"We're sorry your majesty. We'll let Link through," said the guard on the right, still bowed on the floor. The two guards then moved aside, making room for Link and Zelda to walk through.

"Thanks your majesty," Link said with a thankful face.

"Not a problem dear boy. You and Zelda seem to be very friendly towards each other and any friend of Zelda's is a friend of mine," the King said waving his hand.

The Royal Family Section was one table that was arranged vertically. There were three seats on the right side of the table and four on the left. At the head of the table was a chair that was more extravagant than the rest. Link guessed that this seat belonged to the King. Five of the seven regular seats were already taken by people Link had never seen before. Zelda walked around the table and took a seat in the chair that was to the King's chair's right hand side. The only available seat now was the middle chair on the right hand side of the table. Link walked over to his seat and sat down. It didn't seem that the feast had started yet as there was no food on the plates.

"What a surprise, both of us having Royal Family Section family passes," the person to Link's right said. Looking to his right, he saw that it was Nascour.

"Nascour? You got a pass too?" Link asked surprised.

"Yes, I was invited by the King," Nascour replied, pulling out his invitation. Indeed it was the same type of letter that Link had received, only it was signed by the King "What about you?"

"I was invited by Princess Zelda," Link responded. Nascour was about to say something but looked to his right as eight chefs were coming up to the table.

The chefs came up to the table with plates of food and set them down in front of each recipient. To Link's surprise, a chef came up to his spot and set down a plate of food in front of him. On the plate was a steaming plate of steak.

"I'm sorry if it's not what you wanted. You weren't here so I didn't know what to get you. I thought that a simple steak would suffice," said Nascour.

"Are you kidding? I love steak!" Link answered enthusiastically. Steak was his favorite food. His mouth was starting to water just by looking at it.

"So, you're lucky that Princess Zelda was with you. Otherwise you would've been out of luck and her invitation would have been wasted," Nascour mentioned, starting up conversation.

"Yeah, lucky," Link answered. Only half of his attention was directed to Nascour as he was busy digging into his steak.

"One has to wonder though…What you two were doing alone that caused you to be late to the feast. Is there something going on that nobody knows about?" Nascour asked softly, testing the waters. Link put down his fork and knife, his attention now fully on Nascour. He also started to get a little nervous. Did Nascour know that he was in the Four Sword room?

"I mean, I'm sure the King would like to know if you're seeing his daughter and sneaking around the castle with her," Nascour continued. Link visibly relaxed. Nascour had assumed that he and Zelda were merely seeing each other in private.

"No, no it's nothing like that. Princess Zelda had merely heard a rumor that someone was sneaking around on the upper level of the castle. She wanted me to check it out with her," Link answered.

"Oh, I see," Nascour said with his hand under his chin as in deep thought.

"However that's not to say…" Link started saying as he moved in closer to Nascour and dropped his voice, clearly signaling that this was meant to be private. Nascour understood and moved in closer as well. Before Link continued, he looked over to where Zelda and the King were sitting. Both of them were deep in conversation so they wouldn't hear what he would tell Nascour. He looked back at Nascour and continued. "That I don't want there to be anything between us. Between you and me, I've had a crush on Princess Zelda for awhile." He didn't know why he was telling Nascour this, it was his deepest darkest secret. He had not even told Recht of his feelings for Princess Zelda. However lately he had been feeling that he had to tell someone otherwise he would burst. His confession seemed to pour right out of his mouth.

"I see," Nascour repeated, still looking to be in deep thought. Suddenly he smiled and closed his eyes as if he were laughing to himself. "If that's the case, why don't you ask her to dance when Meshtalita comes to perform?" Meshtalita was a band that had begun to become popular in Hyrule. They were a pretty soft tempo band that occasionally played fast songs. Their more popular songs however, were very slow which made them perfect dance songs.

"I could do that I suppose." Link said as he went back to his meal and Nascour did the same.

The rest of dinner passed without much happening, mainly just idle conversation between the people lucky enough to possess Royal Family passes. The more Link listened to conversation, it seemed that these people weren't lucky per say, just well connected. It turned out that everyone here knew the King in some way, often from school or business. Every year they are invited to the feast to sit in the Royal Family section. It turned out that this year, two of the King's friends couldn't make the trip, leaving two spots vacant at the table. The King and Zelda decided to split the invitations between themselves and invite one person each. The King had chosen Nascour and Zelda chose Link.

Interestingly, Link never heard an explanation of how the King knew Nascour. He had never even acknowledged that Nascour was here, never talked to him, mentioned his name, or even looked in his general direction. Link concluded that the King was too busy with Zelda and his other friends so he had just forgotten Nascour. Nascour didn't seem to mind, for the most part he kept to himself.

After the plates had been collected by the chefs, the King stood up and walked to a podium that was to the right side of the table. When he was standing at the podium, he pointed at his throat and said a couple of words under his breath, clearly a magic spell to make his voice louder. The entire hall became silent as they saw the King about to address his people.

"Everyone, what a great feast it was this year! Now give a warm welcome to tonight's entertainment Meshtalita!" The King called, clapping his hands. Everyone joined in and the members of Meshtalita went on stage and prepared to play. It was a group consisting of four members who wore raggedy clothes with numerous rips and tears. The band consisted of two guitarists, a bassist and a drumer. The rhythm guitarist appeared to be the lead singer as well and walked up to the podium and addressed the people.

"People of Hyrule thank you for having us here tonight! We'll do our best to give you a great show so sit back, relax and enjoy yourself!" called the lead singer. He went back to the other band members and strapped his guitar around his neck. The band then started playing a slow paced soothing melody. Once the song started being played, the dance floor became filled with people dancing.

The King came back over to the table but did not sit down in his chair.

"Friends, let us discuss our business elsewhere. It's going to get too noisy in here to concentrate," he said. All of his friends agreed and they got up and left the ballroom. Only Zelda, Link and Nascour were left at the table.

Link didn't even notice that Nascour was still there in the room however. He was focused on Zelda who was sitting in her chair and looked to be staring out into space. After a couple of seconds a major battle started to take place inside his head with his mind.

Just ask her to dance!

What if she says no?

What if she says yes?

I don't know if I want to take that chance…

So you are content with being a coward?

No, I don't want to be a coward

Then ask her to dance!

Link snapped out of his mental struggle and removed himself from his seat. Nascour, who was looking on, smiled. Link then walked around the table and came up to Princess Zelda. Zelda was looking in a different direction but when Link came in front of her, she looked at him.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, straight to the point. Zelda looked mildly surprised but her smile did not fade from her face as she looked at him. Link's stomach was in knots, he would be sick if she didn't answer soon. Every second she didn't answer felt like an eternity.

"Sure. I'd like that," Zelda finally answered as she extended her arm. Link put his hand under her hand and she rose up from her seat. Still holding hands, he led Zelda to the dance floor. When the two of them got there, they settled into a spot and Zelda put her arms on top of Link's shoulders. Link responded by putting his hands on Zelda's waist. His heart was beating a mile a minute and it felt as if his palms were about to start sweating. He tried to control himself by taking a deep breath.

The deep breath worked a little bit, he was calmer and his palms didn't feel moist anymore. The two of them began to sway with the music and soon later, they were dancing. Feeling bold, Link picked up Zelda and spun her around before bringing her back down. Zelda was taken by surprise but giggled when she came back down. The two of them went on revolving around the spot with Link leading. Every once and a while, Link would twirl Zelda around with his arm as they would stay connected via Zelda's right arm and Link's left. Neither of them said anything, they merely stared intensely and passionately into the other's eyes.

"I'm sorry if I'm not the best dancer in the world," Link apologized, trying to break the tension that was starting to build between them.

"It doesn't matter. This is real nice. I didn't think anybody was going to ask me to dance," Zelda responded softly. Link's heart skipped a beat when she said it was nice. He was doing everything he could to fight his nervousness because he didn't want this moment to be ruined.

Link and Zelda continued dancing from one song to the next, both of them absorbed by the music and by each other's company. Midway through the third song, Zelda rested her head on Link's shoulder and seemed to be completely at peace. Link almost lost his breath at this action but he continued on dancing with her. Her head left when she was twirled or Link picked her up by the waste and spun her around, however when they went back to slow waltzing, her head returned to laying on his shoulder.

Link was starting to feel completely at peace. The more and more he and Zelda danced, the more comfortable he got being with her. It was not too long after that he forgot his nervousness, forgot everything around him but the beautiful princess he was dancing with. They were inseparable, both of them perfectly in tune with each other as if they were mirror images. Eventually people stopped and gazed at the two young dancers, amazed at the chemistry they seemed to have, all the while saying very little to each other. It appeared to them that they could read each other's minds and would do exactly what the other wanted them to. The two of them danced through every song and eventually the band stopped playing.

The King seemed to be back from meeting with his friends and had appeared at the podium again to say something. Link and Zelda, still entwined on the dance floor, looked up at him.

"Thank you all for a wonderful evening. I hope you all had as much fun as I did planning it. This ends the celebration, may you go…huh?" the King paused confused. Nascour had seemed to appear next to the king and seemed to be asking to say something. "Certainly dear boy, you can make an announcement," the King said jollily. Nascour thanked the king and stepped up to the podium. The King did the same spell on Nascour's throat that he did on his throat to make Nascour's voice more audible.

"Thank you your majesty. People of Hyrule, you may not know me so I feel that introductions are necessary. My name is Nascour and I shall be your new king."