30FF submission!
Warning: I plan for this to be yaoi which means two males doings the do. If you don't like this, press the back button please and do not flame. Another thing: This will contain spoilers from OoT and TP (though I'm certain that if you're here, you know about OoT) Sheik is also his own character and separate from Zelda. I'm not too certain if I'll explain their relationship (AKA Sheik = Zelda or not).
Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, or any of its characters do not belong to be and are property of Nintendo. However, I do claim possession of this story's plot line and any Original Characters formed in the process of it (Characters:N/A ATM)
Link's infantile mind couldn't contain his memories, or at least in the front of his mind. While he slept in the skull kid's arms, he was carried from deep within the forest to a small village. He was placed on the mayor's doorstep in the middle of the night; a loud rapping woke the heavy-set man and his family up. When they opened the door, all they saw was a small baby boy wrapped in a green swaddle with the beginnings of yellow tufts of hair. He slept peacefully, his small hands clenched into fists. He couldn't be more than a week old.
The family took him in and raised him. Luckily, the wife had just given birth to a baby girl who shared her mother's milk with this young boy.
As Link grew, he began to have weird dreams. It involved a strange, but so familiar forest full of children with fairies. He didn't remember much of his dreams, that is until they reoccurred. They were always vague, but he knew that this green-haired girl named Saria was always in them. She was his friend and helper. She was wise and friendly. There was a boy named Mido who was always mean and jealous of him. He was bossy and seemed to hate him. He didn't like that boy in his dreams.
These dreams make him ask his adoptive father (he was told early on in his life that he wasn't their real son, but that it didn't matter) for a house made within a tree.
"Son, what do you mean? You would need a giant tree to build a house within it. How about I build you a tree house instead?"
Link settled for that. Once the tree house was made, the odd sense of déjà vu settled in his stomach. There was a ladder and a fenced balcony. His house wrapped around the tree.
It felt like he was home once again.
.+++.
A few months later, Link had taken practically living in the new tree house that (the mayor) made for him. It was right outside of the village, but Link liked the house. There was something about it that made him never want to leave. Of course, he still actually lived with his family, but it was only eating and sleeping there.
Then Epona was born.
When Link met the fawn, a song had entered his mind. He picked up the nearest piece of grass and blew a cryptically familiar tune.
The newborn animal raised her head and weakly got to her legs, walking towards Link.
"Hehe." Ilia said, "I think she likes you Link."
It was the same as his house. One look into her eyes and he knew. She was somebody special, she wasn't a normal horse.
"Epona… call her that." Link said, the name automatically coming to him.
Epona neighed in response and nuzzled him.
.+++.
New dreams came to him after that night. There was a farm, an overworked farmhand and a lazy farm owner. Epona was there too, as was a red-haired girl named Malon. Lon Lon Ranch it was called. Epona was an untameable fawn, wild and rambunctious. She only listened to two people: him and Malon. Malon sung the song that came to him earlier and she called it "Epona's Song."
.+++.
Eventually Link moved to his tree house. He had to beg his parents, but they had finally caved in. He told them he would be responsible, that he would take care of himself. He was almost never left alone for the first few months.
His dreams didn't stop either. He dreamed of a talking tree and mysterious woods. Of sacred meadows and seed-spitting, flower-dwelling creatures and aggressive wolves. There were fairy fountains and ruins. Songs and skull kids.
Why did skull kids seem so important?
After a nightmarish dream of wolfos and mad scrubs, Link sat on the edge of his tree house, kicking his legs. Then he heard a horn being blown and an impish chuckle.
Link's head snapped up to meet the upside down eyes of a… scarecrow?
"Hehehehe. Link." The thing giggled, not bothering to correct its sense of gravity.
"H-how do you know my name?"
"Do you still remember her song? The one you played to me on her ocarina?"
Link's eyes widened and he remembered the tune of the forest, the gentle sound of a clay instrument, and friend.
"Yes, that one. Hehehehe. Any friend of Saria's is a friend of mine. So I can't let her friends die in the middle of the forest can I? Hehehehe."
"Skull Kid…." Yes, that's what this creature was, "What are you talking about?"
"You'll see in time little Hero. Well… time is your domain anyway. Hehehehe. Well, little boys should get to sleep. Don't be surprised if a little sage comes to visit. We'll meet again."
Link sat there as the little impish creature disappeared into nothing. The lack of sleep was getting to him…. He was dreaming wide awake now.
.+++.
As the years passed on by, the strange , almost nostalgic dreams slowly disappeared and coming to stop. When they did return, however, things had changed drastically. Instead of being a child, he was an adult. He watched that forest he grew up becoming tainted by mad scrubs, deku babas and wolfos. They threatened his childhood friends who didn't recognise him, and who apparently didn't age. As he went further into the woods that echoed her song he found moblins patrolling the maze in replacement of those mad scrubs. However, once he got to the end of the maze with that giant moblin his dreams faded to darkness. When those dreams happened, he was left in a cold sweat with his heart beating erratically and guilt pooling in his stomach. His whole body hurt.
Such was a particular night.
He was much older, considered an adult. He now helped at the ranch, and his foster father wished to make him the mayor once he stepped down. He remembered many nights when he sat in the cool night air after a nightmare, watching the moon. He couldn't remember though, if the night when the Skull Kid visited was a dream or reality. The Skull Kid looked different from his dreams, but basically the same. The clothes had changed, but there was that mask. A skull mask that he had given to the Skull Kid in his dreams. So it had to be a dream, or an odd coincidence…
Link sighed and leaned back, humming the song that the Skull Kid reminded him of.
"Ah!"
Link looked around, but saw nothing. Where did that voice come from? He thought.
"No… it can't be…"
Oh great, first I start dreaming awake, now I'm hearing voices? Link groaned and rubbed his temples. Why though, did that voice sound so familiar?
"How do you know this song?"
…Now it's talking to me, great. I've gone insane. He'd better keep this away from his family…
"I'm not some voice in your head. Well… literally I guess I am, but I'm real." The feminine voice said to him again.
What is it with that Skull Kid? First it's a half-asleep dream, and next I have to deal with voices in my head. He goes on about a song that I supposedly taught him, and I sing it only to deal with insanity next. I should probably go to sleep, it worked the last time.
"Wait! He said that you taught him the song? You can't be…"
Oh! Be quiet voice, I'd rather enjoy my peaceful life. Link groaned. Yes, bed. He was talking to the voice now!
"Is this how you treat an old friend? Well… I suppose you wouldn't remember." The voice sighed. "Fine… if you don't want to talk to me, just don't sing that – my – song again."
Something seemed to shut down in Link's head as soon as the voice finished talking. His head felt normal, and he heard no more voices. Even though his head finally felt clear, he was still bugged by what she said.
My song.
How could he know a person's song when the song only existed in his dreams?
He really needed to sleep…
.+++.
His dreams took a rapid turn from the ones that orientated around that mysterious village in the woods. No, this time it was filled with nightmare, of an evil power reborn. Of terror and death.
Yet… it seemed all familiar to him. That dark laughter he heard before, that shock of vibrant red hair. The darkness seemed a little more surreal than before, too ethereal. His left hand itched.
However, he didn't wake up in that cold terror, nor feeling that guilty conscious as his other nightmares. No, in fact, he woke up expectant and paternal.
He wanted to rid the darkness.
AN: I'm not too pleased with this chapter. Hope it's not too confusing
Still looking for beta!