Hello again, this is the first chapter.

Enjoy.

The Timeless Shadow

"No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow." -Euripides

Chapter 01: Enter the Coward

"Father! Father! Where are you? Where is everyone?" A young female yelled, the sound coming out but not going far. "Christine!" She yelled when she spotted one of her neighbor.

As she ran to the side of the fair skinned woman she jumped to the right and instinctively covered her face with her frail arms, a small scream coming out of her. The building next to her had caved down, the fire too strong for the weakened structure. Gathering once more her courage, she moved till she was kneeling next to the woman whose blonde hair appeared red from a liquid substance and orange by reflecting the fire surrounding her.

"What happened? Where is father?" She murmured, her eyes scanning the body of the woman but the mass weaved hair hid her face. "Christine? Hey, hey!" She said softly but by the end her tone was reaching a higher note. "No, no, no, no, no! Are you hurt? Please say something! Come on! …please." The last word barely came out as a whisper.

She was shocked, was the woman she grew up with breathing? The teenage girl moved her hand to the woman, her finger starting to graze the clothing which was barely covering the body. "Christine… this isn't the time for a joke." She said seriously, fear already gripping at her heart. Her trembling hand resting on the shoulder of the motionless woman. "Chris…" She had lightly pushed the shoulder of the woman to see if that would get a reaction, but she was the one who reacted.

Her eyes went wide, her hand quickly retreated close to her body and her breathing had stopped. She didn't know if she had yelled, she felt lost in her own world, did she even have the ability to speak? She couldn't keep it in any longer and ran away, she was blinded. She ran till she entered the small forest that surrounded the village she grew up in. Once in there she found the nearest tree and found her lunch returning to the soil, with her hands holding her up she regurgitated her food. The substance coming from her body mixing with the dirt and some dark red matter on her left hand, the one smelling similar to rusted metal.

Within a room of the castle a blond man watched out of the window, his face starting to show aging elements and his light blue eyes giving away his thoughts. He was hurt at what he had to do, yet no one was to know of his weakness, so he faced away giving his back to a young soldier, the only man inside the room.

"Tell me…" The man spoke his eyes observing the movement of the city bellow. "Would you betray someone you love for your country?" His voice was cold, no feelings escaping the wall he put up.

"I…" The soldier was startled; would he do such a thing?

"Just say it." It became an order. "But tell me the truth and not what I would like to hear." The man said looking over his shoulder, his eyes glaring at the young soldier.

"I… I don't know." The younger man finally said; he didn't know if he had the ability to decide if such occasion did arise.

"Alright," The elder man said, his tone demonstrating he was pleased with the answer received. "You're dismissed." He was trying his best to hide a smile that was trying to surface, yet all he allowed was for a tiny smirk. As the soldier turned to leave the man spoke once more. "Remember that I'm your boss here." And without any word of response the man left the door.

Finally turning around and ignoring what others would call a beautiful sight of the city bellow, he moved over to his desk. The dark wood of it barely noticeable due to the piles of papers he received daily. Once there he sat on the only chair in the room his eyes examined the table, once he found what he was looking for in the mess he took a hold of it and ignoring the importance of some paper he placed his legs on top of the desk.

In his hand he held a small vial, the dark green coloring of it similar to the most potent medicine and of the most silent poison. He stared at it, his eyes showing tiredness; it had gone on for a long time. The more he looked at it, the more he tired grew with what he was told to do; he wanted to end it all. Looking away from the bottle and on to the corner of the room, his eyes met with a sheeted sword. And there it was, the gems gleaming in the low light, it was calling him in. As if being lured to the sword he placed his feet on the floor, leaving in his wake piles of paper that fell around him. It didn't matter, he could end it all before it started.

Just as he was moving closer to the sword, a knock on the door to his left brought him back to reality. He stopped, not answering his now calculating eyes moved over to the vial in his right hand. And the knock came again; this told him he was being slow to answer. Clearing his voice he said a 'come in' and the owner of the noise on the door stepped in the room.

"My lord." He said once he spotted him, his body quickly dropping to a kneeling position.

"Why such a rush?" He asked, his eyes analyzing the soldier who bid him respect, yet he already knew why he came in for.

"The lands of the north have been successfully invaded." The new arrival said, never once moving from his position near the floor.

"Any causalities?"

"Only one civilian and the daughter of the governor, both females."

"Then you can leave, tell the troops to retreat slightly to the sought, we'll attack once the village has been reorganized." He said, as his superiority and position of command leaving him with a strange form of pleasure.

"Yes sir! Should we tell the King?" The man asked still on the floor.

"I'll do that myself." The blond man said as he left him maroon cape blowing behind him. In his eyes a sinister look and in his hand the green vial.

A young female in her late teens was running, this one being highly aware of the men in light armor following her. She had nowhere to go, her village was in flames and her cowardly actions had to be punished in a way, her God must be mad at her. She kept running blindly through the forest she had known all of her life. The smell of trees not calming, it used to mean an escape from her problems, but this time her ragged breath didn't even allow her to process it. She was running around so fast she didn't noticed that she had gone too far, she had no recollection of this area. The trees surrounding kept getting thicker and it became more difficult to move.

'Everyone please forgive me.' She thought when she found herself cornered. The men had guided her to a cliff or was it her fault? With nowhere else to run she faced what was left of her future. There were easily around thirty men when she started to run but their numbers had gone down by half. The ones left in her presence, looked down at her with dark circles under their eyes; they hadn't taken that small race for noting.

She knew she was still alive but fear ran in her leaf green eyes, she was so close. For them she was something to laugh at, her body was in a pitiful state. Arms and legs full of cuts, shoulder length hair all over the place, the once ivory skin darkened by mud, blood and a substance that carried the smell of butyric acid; her short dress, that could once had been considered ravishing, was now barely holding on to her body.

"Hey mud cake, will you stop running already? You gave us quite a challenge back there." The seemingly spokesmen of the group stated, his comments causing an eruption of laughter behind him.

"You pretty little lady... look where we are. I mean, we didn't run all the way here for nothing." One of the men with a red mark on his arm and a spear for a weapon said.

This comment again had provoked another roar of laughter next to him. He was proud of his words, yet internally he was disgusted. This was just plain wrong, she was still too young. But most of the men surrounding him didn't share the same feeling; she was quite young but far curvier than any female her age, her hips being too wide for her small frame.

And there she was, trapped. Was she frightened? Of course, she simply didn't have any type of suicidal thoughts; she wasn't going to dare to jump to the emptiness below her. Staring at it once more she shook her head, it was quite tempting to try it. Then she started to think, she had some slight knowledge of the area surrounding her, behind her the gorge extended downward a few miles but also there was a deep river in which another species lived, yet she believed that was just a horde of rumors from the elders in the village.

Looking once more to the group of barbarians, those men who held the title of knights, she knew she had to think fast. Without any warning one of the solders ran up to her, he tried to take a hold of her arm but she slipped of his hold. Gaining her balance once more she got up and ran close to the cliff edge. Her sight on the lookout below, she knew there was a smaller lake before the famous Lake Hylia. She had definitively gone suicidal, yet she was no longer thinking clearly. Behind her she heard something similar to 'capture her' but she was no longer sure she was even listening.

And she kept running till she saw the lake to her right, she was amazed… if that was the small lake she could only wonder how big Laky Hylia could be. Yet something she hadn't quite noticed caught up to her, she had stopped running. However it didn't last long, as she was tackled from behind by a man nearly twice her size, she tried fighting but the man easily overpowered her and had her lying on her back. He smirked as he positioned himself on top of her and in between her legs.

"Good job." The leader of the group said once they all caught up to the soldier who had the girl pinned down. "Well guys enjoy her while she last." The man said to his smiling comrades, they all started cheering, some of them even laughed at the position she found herself in.

"You know, she could be sold as a slave." One of the soldiers that stayed behind said in a bitter voice, he wasn't planning on touching her for sure.

"Yea right! Who would buy something as disgusting as this?" The one on top of her yelled, once he was done with his words of knowledge he continued having his way with her, even though she was fighting back while at the same time crying. "She's a human!" He yelled discuss in his voice.

All of them starred at the girl. Some were wondering if she could be sold easy, but who were they lying to? They already knew the answer to that. She's young and perhaps if cleaned quite attractive, with small features that could be called 'pretty' somewhere in the world. However some of them were starting to think of having her as a slave for their own greedy deeds. Those who thought that were sure they wouldn't mind, their wives were growing old and not as active as they used to be. But then came the thought of their Queen, she was a woman of virtue. Any news brought to her like that would surely end in punishment for them.

The man having his way with her was having fun, laughing in glee when he ripped open the top of her dress, showing her small chest to him. She had tears coming down yet she fought, moving her torso till she got one of her hands free from the vice grip the man had on them, and with that one hand she started hitting him and pushing him away. It didn't seem to work and he quickly restrained her once more, she was truly lost by then. But it didn't last long; the man was suddenly removed from the female. When the girl had looked up all she had been capable of seeing was what appeared to be a white blurry mass.

"Arrkk!" The yell of a man came but the body was no longer in the area.

"What in the world..." The one that was leaning against a tree said. He had a perfect view of what had happened to the biggest soldier on their squadron. "It's better if we retreat." He said in a calm and collected voice.

"Retreat?" One of his fellows questioned. "You mean more like let's getting the hell out of here!" The now youngest one of the group yelled while running ahead.

"Well, you heard him boys." Said the commander in a clearly happy tone, it wasn't his idea after all. "Forget the girl." He said when a few of the men looked back to the topless female who sat on the floor confused; he knew she had seen something.

Once all of the men had left, the teenager looked around, in an effort to see if the white blur was still around. Seeing nothing she stood up still confused as to what had happened. Still looking around as if in a trance she didn't dare to move, was it a predator? 'What was that?' she thought but soon after the thought came she shivered, a soft wind that passed reminded her of her bare chest, with a small sigh she used the best of her ability to tie a knot and have the top cover her as a one shoulder. Once she had finished she looked up in front of her and there stood a white wolf, staring at her with its crimson eyes.

The young female looked scared, her green eyes widened. Without noticing she backed away but it was too late.

Inside a cavern a white wolf was pulling an unconscious brunette. The animal was being careful; it didn't plan on hurting the pale skinned teen he had in his mouth. She was dirty, but the lost soul inside the wolf was wise. It was capable of looking deep into the scrubby appearance of any human. That thanks to all his years of traveling around the world; the spirit inside was also capable of facing the greatest dangers that had called him to protect the world.

He stopped for a split second, letting go of her shoulder he stared at her. Worry grew quickly in its eyes, those once ocean blue eyes that showed wisdom of the aging and the bravery of the young. Thought it wasn't trained or barely knew the art of medicine he was smart in some sense. Not only was he starting to notice all the cuts in her body, but he also noticed the exhaustion of the limp body. He had wanted to take her directly to where he resided but she could give out on the way and he didn't plan on having causalities along the way.

After a while of pulling the female around some more, the wolf with some even lighter markings on its side decided to stop in the last opening of the cave. In this small opening one could notice the snow starting to melt on the other side. The temperature dropped drastically and the light of the sun was reflected by the snow. By the sudden drop in temperature the brunette started to slightly stir. The huge dog looked nervous and anxious at how she would react to his sudden appearance. All it wished was a bit of more time so that it could take her to a safer place, somewhere he knew she would be safe in case she ran away when she saw him, yet his plans seemed to have been completely trashed.

Two entrancing green eyes opened, at first they were slightly drowsy but then they appeared to be in frenzy, she had no idea where she was. As she sat up and looked around she froze, she was inside a cave, this part wasn't so dark, but it didn't hold her back from fighting back some tears. She was scared of the dark. As her shoulder shook all she could do was stare at the black abyss in front of her. She wondered if those solders from Hyrule took her here, but she knew better, she remembered falling off the cliff. But then she had somehow blacked out.

Finally gaining control of her body and making herself look away from the darkest part of the cave. She looked around the cave trying to see who or what had brought her to this place, then she remembered the wolf. Her eyebrows knitted deep in thought as she saw noting again, not even some slight trace of the animal, but the wise soul was hiding observing her movement. He didn't move from his spot until he noticed that she started to get up on her own. He got quite relaxed once she was up and balanced, with this cleared he moved away from his hiding spot and closer to the exit. Once outside he could tell that she was going to be blinded by the light and proceeded to take his time to pass her, without being seen or heard by the young female.

She felt a soft wind around and her body tensed her arms dangling by her side. She didn't expected feel anything other than air but felt as the fingers on her right hand grazed a smooth coat of hair. Feeling detected the wolf stopped a few feet ahead of her, his red eyes searching hers. She was paralyzed; the beast that had taken the man away from her was standing there just a few feet away. The animal didn't know what to do, yet he expected to see if she could understand body language, even if it came from an animal. And thus giving her a nod of its head the male wolf moved outside, waiting to see if she would follow. When nothing happened he returned back inside and there she was, still frozen in the same place he last saw her. Getting impatient he moved over to her side his eyes never once leaving her face.

'Move or I'll make you.' He said to her when his head bumped against her leg.

"You can speak?" She said loud enough to cast an echo in the cave.

'Just move, it's getting late.' The animal said, him once more bumping her leg with its head, he was starting to get annoyed. 'Come on, just follow me, if you have problems just hold on to my back.' He said to her this time appearing to be calmer.

"Um, ok… yeah…" She started to say as she moved behind the big animal, fear already clinging to her heart. "Eh… so… what's your name?" She asked this time feeling weird to be talking to a monster.

Startling her he turned and made his snot touch her hand, his eyes focused on hers. 'If you want to listen to me in this form you must touch me, and the names Link.' The animal, which she guessed was male due to the mental tone of voice, said, she was now confused.

"Well, names Lilia but you can call me Lily. I'm sixteen what about you?" She said starting to ramble, her nerves getting to her.

'I don't care, now move before the sun goes down.' The wolf said his tone cold and slightly menacing. He was sure he wasn't about to enjoy the rest of the days he had to share with her.