Chapter 8

The Twins Witches

"Link?" Link looked at who called his name. "Link, you're back!" She came running up to him and hugged him. He was surprised by the sudden hug, but hugged her back. "You scared me, I thought I'd never see you again." She stopped hugging him and looked at Raven. "Thank you so much for bringing him home, Raven."

"It was my pleasure, Miss."

"Wait, you two know eachother?"

"Yes, he stopped by here before heading out to find you so he could get a weapon. Come on, I'm pretty sure the others will want to see you. You too, Raven." Raven and Link followed Ilia to the village. Jaggle was sitting on top of one of the rock pillars by Sera's shop. He spotted them.

"Hey, it's Link!" Everyone was starting to come out of their houses then. Rusl saw and came running over. He looked Link over and then hugged him tight.

"You're a crazy, kid, you know that?" Rusl said.

"Haha, I know, Rusl." Link said. Rusl let go of him and turned to Raven.

"Thank you for bringing him home." Rusl said.

"It was no problem." Raven said. All the kids came running over. They all tackled him to the ground. Rusl couldn't help but laugh. Raven smiled. The kids got off him.

"Link, promise you'll play hide and seek later." Talo asked.

"Of course." The kids ran off. A few adults came over, each giving him a hug and thanking Raven for bringing him home. Then, Link spent several hours playing with the village kids, Raven had joined in at Link's request. They all had fun together. Raven felt like a child again. He had a lot of fun playing.

After all the fun and then eating supper, Link lead Raven over to his house. He gave him a tour.

"This is my house. Rusl, Fado, and Jaggle built it for me when I was younger. It has everything I need." He pointed to an alcove with a ladder. "That leads to my basement." He climbed the ladder to the next platform. "This is where I keep my bookshelf." He looked at the books and pulled one out. "Here's the book I was telling you about." It was a blue cover book with gold letters on the top saying, 'The story of the Hero of Time' in ornate writing. Raven recognized the writing. It was Zelda's. The Princess Zelda he knew. He looked through it and saw each chapter. The Kokiri Forest, Death Mountain, Zora's domain, everything, temple to temple, telling all that happened down to the last detail.

"This is amazing. I can't believe it." Raven said.

"You're welcome to have it if you want. I know every line by heart." Link said.

"No, that's ok. I already know the story. It is mine after all." Link smiled. He handed him two other books. Both blue and had gold writing. Link sat down on the landing.

"Those are two other books telling of the other Heroes."

"Interesting." Link got up and pointed to the top platform.

"Up there is where I usually sleep. There's nothing much up there, but there's a good window view." Raven smiled. Link sat back down. Raven sighed and set the books down next to him. "Is something wrong?"

"Link, I have no idea what will happen next. I just want to say goodbye. I don't know if I'll ever see you again." Raven said.

"W-We'll see eachother again… one day… This won't be forever." Link said hopefully.

"I hope your right." Link got down off the platform and hugged him. Raven hugged him back.

"I'll miss you if you have to go, but I'll understand if you do." Link said. Raven hugged him tighter.

"I'll miss you too." Raven tried to make sure he didn't cry, just as Link tried not to cry. There were three bright lights above them, moving. Link didn't seem to see them, but Raven did. He looked up and saw Din, Nayru, and Farore. They were flying above their heads.

"We can't separate them like that, sisters." Farore said.

"We could, but we shouldn't." Nayru said.

"The Hero of Light still needs the Hero of Time." Din said.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked. Link didn't seem to hear. It was like he was asleep or something.

"I put a spell over him so he wouldn't hear." Nayru said, seeming to know what Raven noticed.

"Something will happen to The Hero of Light. Protect him. We will grant you the ability to stay as you are as long as he needs you." Din said.

"Can't you at least tell me what will happen? So I can prevent it?" Raven asked.

"We've meddled too far. Goodbye." They disappeared. Raven was scared. He didn't know what would happen to his precious grandchild, but he had a feeling it would be worse than being kidnapped by a bunch of thieves for ransom. Raven picked Link up and carried him up to the top platform where he said he usually slept. There was a small pile of blankets on the ground and he set him down, covering him up.

"I got to make sure to protect him…"

~The next morning~

Link woke up to see Raven sitting next to him.

"Hey." Raven said

"Um, hi." Link said.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ok, I guess. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. Why would something be wrong?"

"Because you look tired."

"I didn't sleep well, that's all. I'll be fine."

"Raven… You're telling me to take better care of myself yet you don't do the same? Anyway, I probably should see if Fado needs help with the goats." Link sat up.

"Do you really need to help him with the goats?"

"That's my job. I am a ranch hand."

"Right…" Link was a bit suspicious, but passed it off. He went down to the bottom floor and found his sandals. Raven came down by him.

"So, what happened last night? I saw glowing lights and then nothing."

"Well, the Goddesses informed me that I can stay in this form for a bit longer. So, we can be around eachother more. Ok?"

"Ok. Raven seems to know something I don't. I wish he'd tell me." Link and Raven left the house. Link grabbed Epona's reins and they walked over to the ranch. It was still pretty early. The whole village was silent. Once they reached the ranch, they saw the goats were out and Fado was in the middle of the field. "Hey, Fado."

"Hey Link, how you doin bud?" Fado asked.

"I'm doing ok, do you need help herding the goats this morning?" Link asked.

"Sure. If you don't mind." Fado said, happy to have his ranch hand back.

"I don't mind at all." Link got on Epona. "Let's do our job, Epona. Hyaa." Link got Epona all the way to the edge of the Ranch and then they started getting the goats inside the stables. Fado locked the doors of the ones that got in. Then, one started to charge at Link. He got off the horse and waited for the charging goat.

"Link, what are you doing? Get out of the way!" Raven yelled. He started to run over. The goat came charging at Link. He grabbed it by the horns, sliding back a little. Raven stopped running.

"Chiyaa." He tossed the goat over to the side. "It's all good, Raven. You don't need to worry. I've been herding the goats for 10 years. I know all the tricks." The goat got up and started walking. Link pet its back. It baa'd and walked over to the stable.

"You are one strange kid. You scared me to death." Raven said, breathing a bit heavily for running so quickly.

"Sorry. Guess I should have told you." Link got back on Epona. "I still have a few more goats." Link got the rest of the goats into the stables and Fado shut the doors. Link got off Epona and grabbed her reins.

"Thanks for helpin me with the goats. They never listen to me." Fado said.

"They listened to your dad, but never you, which I find kind of funny."Link said with a smile.

"It's not funny!" Fado said. (In this story, Fado's only a few years older than Link)

"It is." Link said.

"Is not." Fado said.

"Haha, gotta go." Link said.

"See ya, bud. Glad you're back." Link smiled.

"Glad to be back." Raven and Link walked out of the Ranch, only for three kids to run up to him.

"Hey, Link. Can you teach me how to use a sword?" Talo asked.

"Me too?" Colin asked.

"Can you teach me how to fire a bow?" Beth asked.

"Sure. I'll find the practice swords that I had. I'll make a bow for you, Beth."

"Yay!" Talo yelled.

"I can't wait." Colin said.

"Thank you." Beth said. Raven smiled.

"These kids seem to look up to Link. I'm glad he has such a great bond with everybody." Along the way back to Link's house, they kept an eye out for a good branch to use for a bow. Raven found one and they decided to use it. Link had some string that would work for it. He found small wooden swords that he used when he was training. He gave them to the boys and gave the small bow to Beth. Raven stood over on the side with his arms crossed, leaning against the tree.

"Ok. I'll teach you boys moves that even Rusl doesn't know. That doesn't mean I'm better than Rusl. Rusl will still be on top. If you have any advice and I'm not around, go to Rusl."

"Ok." They both said.

"Great. This first move is called Mortal draw." Raven perked up when he said Mortal Draw." Link walked up to the practice dummy. "You wait for the right moment, with your sword on the hilt. Wait and pull out and slash. You guys go ahead and try." Talo and Colin practiced the move, having slight difficulty. "It takes patience and timing. Against a bokoblin, it would take it out in one hit." Link turned to Beth. "Ok, Beth. Take an arrow and put it on the string, make sure all the feathers are pointing out. If it isn't, then the arrow will lose speed and go off in another direction. You're right handed, right?"

"Yea." Beth said.

"Ok. So, you nock it with it on your right side. Forearm parallel to the ground. Pull back, keep your left arm straight and fire." Beth fired, but missed the target.

"Aw."

"Don't beat yourself up about it, you're still a beginner. I wasn't good with a bow at first either. With practice, you'll get it. Soon, you'll develop your own way of getting the target."

"Ok." Link walked back over to the boys who were still working on mortal draw. They both went at the same time and did pretty good.

"That was really good. Ready for the next hidden skill?" Link smiled to himself. Raven laughed a little bit. Link taught them a few more moves, such as the back slice, helm splitter, and the large spin attack. It was soon time for lunch for the kids and they went off to eat.

"You're a good instructor." Raven said.

"I learned from the best, right?" Link smiled. "I was thinking about going for a walk through the forest. Want to come?"

"Yea." Raven wasn't going to let Link out of his sight. They started walking over to the forest. The forest was huge and it's easy to get turned around and lost if you don't know the way. Luckily, Link knew every trail. As they were walking, Raven thought he spotted a flash of green out of the corner of his eye. He turned to it and saw it was gone.

"Is something wrong?" Link asked.

"No, just thought I saw something. I might just be tired. That's-" He saw it again further down the path. That time he knew he saw it. He heard a faint but familiar song in the distance. "Link, stay here, and don't move. I'll be right back."

"Ok…" Raven started running where he saw the flash of green, leaving Link behind and vulnerable for attack, though not entirely. Link had a sword with him. Rusl gave him a new one so he let Raven keep his old one. Raven kept following the music. He was trying to find the one playing it. He heard a familiar laugh through the trees.

"Saria? It's me, where are you?" He heard the music get louder around him. He was probably very far from Link. "Saria?!" There was another flash and he followed it. He kept following the flashes of green and music through the forest. Until he ended up in a dead end.

"We've got him in our sights." A young voice said. "Mistresses Koume and Kotake will take his precious child." The voice echoed through the tree. "He's such a stupid child for falling for such a silly trick." Raven's heart started racing. "The Hero of Time will pay! Yahahahahahaha." There was a creepy laughter that was all around him. Raven took off running to where Link was.

"Oh Gods, I'm such an idiot!"

~Link~

Link sat against a tree, waiting for Raven to come back.

"I wonder what it was that he saw. I hope he's ok." Link said.

"Heeheehee, I told you it'd work, Koume." A new voice said. Link looked up and looked around.

"Hehehehe, you were right Kotake." He got up and kept looking around.

"Koume? Kotake?" Link recognized the names from the book. He pulled out his sword.

"Well well, he seems to be an able fighter." One said.

"That's to be expected from the brat's child." Another said.

"We'll make him pay for what he did." The first one said.

"Show yourselves, Twinrova." Link ordered.

"Ooh, he knows our name. I guess he knows of us then." One said.

"Hehehehe, we'll take care of that." Another said. Link looked around. He couldn't see them. He heard a strange sound behind him. He turned around and looked up. He saw them charging up some kind of shot. He couldn't move in time before they were thrown at him. There was a bright flash and he disappeared. His sword laying where he was standing. Twinrova disappeared. Raven came running a few minutes later.

"I was too late…?" Raven started to tear up. "Dammit!" He sliced a nearby tree in anger. He started to cry. He took a deep breath in and let it out. "I've got to find him. Crying won't solve anything." He wiped his tears away. "I was such an idiot. Now, I've got to get him back. Just hold on, Link. I'm coming."

Oh no… Twinrova got Link! Now Raven must find him and save him once again. Can Raven even find him? What condition will he find him in if he does? Will Link be brainwashed? We'll have to wait and see. Leave a review if you wish.

See ya,

Hero of Twili :D