Chapter 1: A Sudden Change of Scenery

First came the intrusive squawking of a seagull. Then came the gentle crash of ocean surf. The smell of salty air came next and then the soft feel of finely grained mud against his body. Through his grogginess, a small groan came from him as he lifted his head. "Oh...what did I do to get a headache like this?" Feeling wind in his face, Link opened his eyes to see where he was. What he saw before him was an endless expanse of crashing water and the sky dotted with sea birds. The sun was high over his head, indicating the time to be around midday.

Looking out to sea, Link hoped to see a friendly zora hopping through the water who could tell him where he was. But all he could see was the empty sea and the birds overhead. Taking a look around, Link saw that the beach he was on was only a few yards away from a forest with unfamiliar trees and bushes.

Link stood, noticing that something didn't quite feel right. He patted himself down, and found no worrying injuries, aside from the one he sustained while fighting Ganondorf. Everything was fine there, but then something else occurred to him: he felt much lighter than he should. Reaching to his back, Link found his shield and sword both missing. His mind nearly snapped upon this discovery.

"No! This isn't happening," Link quietly panicked to himself. The two pieces of equipment were like living parts of him. The fact that they were missing made it feel like a piece of him had literally gone away. He was very distraught, but not so much that he didn't hear the voices coming from further down the beach.

"From what we've gathered, this should be where that massive magic signature was just now," said one voice.

"Do we have any idea what it was yet," came another.

Link had no way of knowing if the owners of these voices were hostile or not, so he hid in the nearby bushes to wait for the owners. What came into view were five men in black cloaks, all armed with swords. "No, just that it was powerful. And I'm sure that whatever it was, it will make a great sacrifice for Lord Zeref." Definitely hostile.

On any other occasion, Link would have jumped all of them. But as he was now, unarmed and defenseless, he went with his only viable option. He turned around and ran into the woods. The rustling he had made alerted the robed men to his location. "You two, over there," the leader barked an order.

Two of the men investigated and saw Link running deeper into the trees. "Over here," shouted one, prompting all the others to follow. Their chase led them deep into the woods, across rivers, dodging trees and over rocks. The men found it amazing that some kid was able to so easily make his way this far into the woods as if he'd lived there his whole life.

Looking back, Link was surprised that any of these men were able to follow him so closely. "How are they finding me so easily," he thought to himself, "Those dresses they're wearing should've stopped them a long time ago!"

With a sharp turn to the side, Link temporarily lost sight of his pursuers. After a jump over a fallen log, he hid behind a large tree. He could hear the men talking, and it seemed that he had succeeded in losing them. He dared to peek from behind his cover to see where they were going next, but strangely, it seemed they had already gone.

Instead of feeling relieved, Link was made more tense and suspicious. Carefully, he stepped out of his cover and scanned the surrounding area, afraid that he may be seen before he saw them. The sound of wood snapping nearly stopped his heart. He didn't see the source of the noise, making him unsure if it was one of the robed men. But this was no time to take chances. Not when he was exposed in the open.

Link ran even further into the woods, noticing the silence around him. It seemed that he had lost those strange men, but then he noticed something else: the trees around him seemed much bigger than they should be. And even then his body didn't feel right. It wasn't just the fact that his key equipment was missing, as there was something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on. These thoughts kept him from noticing the tree root that was sticking up from the ground, just ready to catch the ankle of a rushing passerby.

With a yelp, Link fell forward onto his face. Looking up, he was greeted by the sight of the robed men surrounding him. There was no escape now from the position he was in. If only he'd learned some kind of unarmed combat he could take a few down and keep running.

Another thing: why did these men look so tall? Link was a decent height at 5' 10", but these men all towered over him. The sight of these giants worried him, but not so much as when he saw the leader brandishing a short whip with with many prongs at the end.

"You have a lot of spirit, boy, running from the likes of us," the leader said as he menacingly patted the whip in his hand, "Unfortunately, that spirit of yours will soon belong to our lord." Link tried to escape by rolling to the side, but he felt one man's foot on his back before he could. "I understand your desire to escape, but a spirit must be broken before it can be made to submit," the leader said as he raised his whip.

Link shut his eyes, anticipating the sting of the blow. What came, however, was a sudden loud noise, a bright flash of light and intense heat as if someone just threw a bomb into their vicinity. The sheer force of the whole thing sent the group of men flying, and Link along with them. He rolled across the forest floor and came to a rough stop against a large rock, hitting his head hard against it. Before he blacked out once again, Link could see a blurry form of a new person coming towards him. He wasn't dressed like any of the men, but other than that, Link couldn't make out much else, besides that he seemed very large. He felt himself being picked up, and soon he faded out once more.

Hours passed, and Link began to awake again. He found himself in a small room, occupying a bed with what appeared to be homemade sheets. Looking around the room, he could see a fireplace that bathed the room in a quaint little glow. There wasn't much else in the room besides a dresser, a small bedside table, and the bed itself. Looking out the window, Link could see the sun had gone down, and nighttime had come. After a brief instance of wondering where he was, a noise came from the door to his room.

Link expected to see the giant who had picked him up, but instead he was greeted by a peculiar sight. In stepped an old man, somewhere in his mid-fifties. His face had strong features, and tanned skin. His hair was black with gray temples. These features were not particularly odd, so much as his attire. He had on a green t-shirt, layered over a white long sleeve shirt. Layered over the t-shirt was a gray waistcoat with pinstripes. His lower body was garbed with baggy, brown trousers and a pair of sandals. To top off his eccentric attire, he wore a black beret on his head. He hobbled over to Link on a cane he held in one hand.

"Awake so soon," the man said in a surprisingly deep voice, "And here I was thinking you'd be out until morning." He stood by the side of the bed and looked Link over for injuries, "How are you feeling, kid?"

"So far, so good," Link said as he rubbed the back of his aching head. As he did, he noticed something odd, "Hey, where's my hat?"

"Hat," the man asked as if he never noticed Link had one, "You mean this?" He held up the hat Link wore ever since he was bestowed the green tunic of the Goddess's chosen hero. Only now it looked like the old man made a few modifications to it. The pointed end of the hat now had what looked like a stuffed bird's head at the end. The beak was long and pointed, and made of some yellow cloth. A white button made the bird's eye. "I saw this lying on the ground and thought it was some kind of craft you were making before those jackasses started chasing you. Figured I'd help it along, but I guess I got carried away."

Normally, Link would have been upset if someone messed with his stuff, but the truth was that he never actually liked that hat. The only reason he even wore was because it was a part of the hero's garbs. But it was ruined now, and there was nothing that could be done to fix it. "Don't worry about it. As far I'm concerned, it's an improvement."

"You think so? Then here," the man said as he plopped the hat on Link's head. As soon as he had, his face changed to a disapproving grimace, "You must not have a strong grasp on the word 'improvement.' You look like a lawn gnome."

Link took the hat off and looked at the bird-like head on the top. "Yeah, in pink I'd look like a flamingo. I've heard them all," he muttered as he tossed the hat into the fireplace.

The strange old man looked at the smoldering hat and nodded, "Smart choice. Speaking of which: what kind of stupid made those men chase you?"

"Weren't we just talking about smart choices," Link said, not exactly following the flow of the conversation.

"No," the old man said, "We're talking about the lack of them, and the crap that happens when you mess with the followers of Zeref!"

Link was becoming more confused by the second. Now he knew who those men were, but this revelation led to more questions: who was Zeref, and what did he want with Link? "Yeah, about that," Link began, "I don't really know who Zeref is. But can I guess that he's a psychotic dictator of his own kingdom who wants to rule over other kingdoms in a conquest to become as powerful as he can?"

"More or less," the old man said with a shrug, "More accurately: he's an immortal dark wizard who's developed four hundred years worth of serious issues and a blistering hatred of all things living. The bastard's guilty of mass murder, corrupting lands, and even crapping out a few demons. He's probably the worst example of a human being who ever lived. If there were any reason to think the world's a rotten place: he's it."

Link took in this information, and his thoughts immediately went to Ganondorf. Though he and Zeref were different, Link couldn't help but notice a few similarities between the two. Link then remembered the men who were chasing him, and how one said that he would make a great sacrifice for Zeref. "This guy, Zeref: he doesn't accept sacrifices, does he?" The old man's face changed to an enlightened smile.

"So, that's why they were after you," he said with a small nod. He decided it would be wise to elucidate the details to the boy, "The psychos who follow Zeref believe that by sacrificing people to their 'mighty' Lord he'll be resurrected to our world." His face changed to a sterner look, "I say that's a load of bull. The only thing I've noticed is they're a bunch of kidnappers and zealots." Link didn't know how to respond to this information. He said nothing, and the old man continued, "But, this is only rumors. Truth is, nobody's ever seen the dark wizard for centuries. Chances are, he's buried himself in a hole somewhere, and those deluded freaks are just working off of blind faith."

Link looked at the ground, his mind in deep thought about what they would do if they had actually caught him. Link looked back up at the man and said, "Do you think he's gone for good," Link said with a shudder. The old man closed his eyes, pensively for a second before he answered.

"Given the lack of any recent sighting, I'd say he's gone."

Link let out a relieved sigh, "Thank the goddesses. Frankly, I've had enough of dark wizards for one lifetime. After all, I'm sure if you've seen one, you've seen them all." This statement made the old man raise a single eyebrow.

"You're saying that you've met with a dark wizard before," he asked inquisitively. It was quite uncommon for anyone to encounter a dark wizard and live to tell about it, so this little tidbit had quite piqued the man's curiosity.

"Met, and defeated," Link said remembering the battle against Ganondorf. He would have felt like boasting, but he was just very nearly made a sacrifice to an evil overlord, and that was rather humbling. Of course that didn't stop him from feeling a little proud of himself, "I actually defeated two, if you count his minion," His scary, scary minion Link thought.

The old man smiled slightly at Link's brief recollection, "That's a tall order for someone as young as you. Most people hit puberty before they go off fighting evil."

"Puberty?! What the hell are you talking about!? I'm seventeen," Link asserted.

"Well, then I don't know if you just age well, or really crappy," the old man said as he held up a mirror that Link swore he didn't have before. What he saw in the reflection was himself, but only how he looked when he was ten years old. Link very nearly passed out again, but as he began to fade the old man grabbed his collar and gave his face two solid smacks with the mirror.

"Oh no you don't! Everything you say makes no sense, and dammit, I'm going to find out why," he said as he shook the wooziness from Link. This seemed to work, as Link rattled his own head and perked up a little, though still a bit shaky from the shock of his renewed youth.

Over the next several minutes, Link elaborated his life in Hyrule, and the adventure he was sent on as the goddesses' chosen hero. The old man said very little, apart from the occasional question, and seemed to linger on every word Link said. During their talk they exchanged each other's names. Link found that the old man's name was Ronno Cronqvist, and he was smith for a nearby village. When Link was finished, Ronno finished with a short summary.

"So, you're a goat herd, who is the reincarnation of an ancient hero, who went to rescue his kidnapped friends, but an imp sidetracked you to liberate her own world from some nutter who took over her throne. That sound about right so far?

"Give or take."

"Mm-hm. And after that, you helped her collect the remainder of a lost magic, then you needed to repair the portal to her world, where the psycho king was killed, and then you went on to defeat his master who just appeared during the eleventh hour of this whole shenanigan, thus saving two worlds, both light and dark, before you came here through a portal made of the same magic your imp friend used?"

"Again, pretty much."

"And, sorry if I'm out of line, but you seem strangely fond of that imp."

Link rubbed the back of his head as he answered, "Yeah, I'll admit there were times when I forgot we were different species, but I could never get past that barrier."

With a sly smile, Ronno continued his questioning, "How did you manage to do all of this? I just can't believe you did this on pure, physical prowess, quick thinking, and just crap-dumb luck," Ronno inquired, "Don't you know any magic?"

"No, but Midna did. She was the management, I was the labor," Link said, remembering his friend's bossy disposition.

"Come on, kid. You must know some kind of magic," Ronno said to Link. Link thought about it for a second, and realized that he did have a kind of magic. He didn't really like to show it to other people, as he was prone to send them into a panic when he did, but Ronno asked to see it, and Link saw no reason to deny him.

Touching the shard of darkness in his pocket, Link's body turned pitch black, and he was momentarily blinded by the darkness that enveloped him. When the darkness burst from his body, he had changed into his wolf form. Link expected to see Ronno's horrified face, but what he saw horrified him. Instead of the old man on a cane, he saw in his place Zant.

Out of everything Link had encountered on his journey, Zant was one of the few things that he was genuinely afraid of. He had seen Zant raise the dead, commit ruthless acts of tyranny, and he even very nearly killed Midna. And through it all, he didn't bat an eye. He just remained cold and emotionless through it all as if he had no inkling of goodwill within him.

That is, until he was confronted in his throne room. There, Zant showed that this was only a facade, and that he was in actuality a raving, erratic, and even somewhat childish madman. This only made him seem scarier to Link, but in the end he and Midna put an end to him.

But here he was again, and he was looking at Link with a smile that made him uneasy. "That's an impressive magic," Zant said, his voice cold, low and steady, "Where exactly did you LEARN IT!?" As he spoke the last words, his calm and collected tone became the lunatic's yell that he used when he revealed his true colors in the Twilight Realm. As he shouted, he sprang forward at Link, his body twisting itself to an unnatural shape, and stopping just in front of the Hero of Twilight.

Link flinched when this happened, and when he refocused Zant had disappeared. Ronno was back where he should be and he was impatiently waiting for an answer, "I said: where exactly did you learn it?" Link took a second to recover from the shock and realized that he wouldn't be able to answer in this form. He quickly changed back to his hylian form to respond.

"I-I didn't actually learn it," Link stammered slightly. It had been a serious shock to his entire system when he saw Zant, and it was going to take a while for him to recover. "It was...given to me by Zant…"

"The psycho king? What did he do, hand it to you and say 'here, have a transformation spell?'"

"It was supposed to be a curse on me, but it backfired in my favor," Link briefly said. The last thing he wanted to do was keep talking about Zant. To his relief, the old man stood up and moved to the door.

"That's a hell of a story. I know a guy who knows a publisher. Keep this up, and you'll be a bestseller," Ronno said as he left.

Link felt indignant that the old man would just brush off his story like that, "Be sure to publish it as nonfiction." Sure the story was strange, but he was so serious about it. What could he do to prove it true. Nothing came to mind when Ronno closed the door and Link was left alone in his room. He yawned and realized how worn out he was after everything he'd just gone through. He laid down, and turned to look out the window into the moonlit forest. Thoughts filled his head on how he would get back to Hyrule from here as sleep began to take him.

Link awoke once again, but he was no longer in the small room from before. Now he was in the Hyrule castle courtyard as it was bathed in twilight, complete with black squares drifting up from the ground. He felt a familiar sense of foreboding, and reflexively reached for his sword and shield, only to find that they were still gone. He began to feel nervous, as he had no means to defend himself. A quick scan, and he saw he was alone here.

"Hello," he called. Maybe there was someone here who could explain things, "Hello?" Still no answer. Maybe the Hero's Shade was here? But then again, there was no golden wolf that he bumped into.

"Hello."

Link wasn't expecting a response to his calls, so he jumped from the sudden answer. He turned around to find the owner of the voice to be Zant. Link nearly lost his footing when he saw him again. The first time, he brushed it off as a kind of delusion, but now a second time, this had to be something more. "So, we meet once more, Hero of Twilight. You've changed since we've last met," Zant said with a sickening smile that sent a shiver down Link's spine. Link fought the urge to puke at the sight of his old enemy. "Are you surprised to see me? Did you think I was done away," he said, almost tauntingly, "No. The power that Ganondorf granted me will never allow me to be truly destroyed. It's the same magic that will ensure his return in the coming years."

Link's mind snapped at Zant's words. Ganondorf was going to return one day? But how? And when? Zant seemed amused by Link's reaction, but offered his reassurance, "You don't have to worry. He won't be back for a very long time. But return he will, just as he's done over and over before."

Link knew he couldn't believe Zant. Here he was, an enemy who was offering guidance, and Link wasn't buying it. Link was very hesitant to talk to his old enemy again, seeing Zant alive "again" was very shocking to our little friend. "Do you expect me to believe anything you say after what you put me and the rest of the world through," Link said, preemptively refuting anything Zant had to say. This was the wrong thing to do apparently, as it seemed to press Zant's crazy button.

"DO NOT SPEAK ON TOPICS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, BOY," Zant yelled in his grating, high-pitched yell. He abruptly teleported to the top of a statue in the courtyard as he dramatically waved his arms about, "LIVES ARE AT STAKE! NATIONS ARE ON THE VERGE OF RUIN!" Zant raved as he maniacally teleported about the ground until he stopped behind Link, causing the young hero to jolt, "DARKNESS WITH FALL ONCE MORE AND PLUNGE ALL EXISTENCE INTO THE FLAMES OF SORROW AND DESTRUCTION!"

Link silently thanked the goddesses as Zant seemed to come down from his lunatic raving.

"Now let's get this straight: you hate me, and words cannot express how much more I hate you," Zant said, now the low, calm voice he used for most of the time Link knew him. "But if we are going to survive in this land, we need to work together." Link had no idea what he meant when he said that, but he decided it was not wise to question him, and allowed him to continue, "From what I have gathered in this world so far: everything is run by magic which you seem to be lacking boy… So troublesome… Do you understand me?!" Zant said, nearly bordering his lunatic yell. He quickly calmed himself down and teleported right in front of Link's face with an evil grin on his face. "That nasty little rock I gave you back in Hyrule? Remember it? It was a piece of magic that I planted in you, but now in this world I can teach you how to unlock it's full potential. Isn't that lovely?"

Link still said nothing, but the look he wore on his face grew more confused by the second, "Why would he want to teach me this? What does he have to gain by this?" Though silent, Zant could read everything in the boy's face.

"Believe me, I don't have much to gain from this," Zant answered, shocking Link, who answered with a sputter. The usurper king smiled with delight at Link before he answered, ""It's perfectly plain to anyone who could see you. Also more so that you do not trust me… Well believe it boy! I'm stuck here with you, so I might as well teach you what I know."

Link couldn't hold his silence anymore. Zant was making even less sense by the second. "What are you up to, Zant? I sincerely doubt that you're just doing this out of the kindness of your heart. Hell, I don't even think you have a heart. Or maybe you do, but just because you ripped it out of someone else's chest!" As he spoke, Link temporarily forgot his fear of Zant, but it all came rushing back to him when he suddenly felt Zant's hand grip his shoulder hard.

"I don't owe you anything but a swift demise,you ungrateful brat." Zant's voice became more of a low growl as he spoke the last words to the troublesome little blonde in front of him."With my former Master gone, vanquished from our world, I have nothing. I have chosen you as my next master, and I expect the master I serve to be powerful. In your own world you are a symbol of triumph, but here you are a worthless novice!"

Zant's words dug into Link's mind. He glared up at his enemy, trying to come up with a brave word to counter Zant's aspersion. Link knew he wasn't weak, but from what he learned from Ronno, and from his own experiences with the followers of Zeref, he knew there was some truth in what the madman said as he released his shoulder. "I'm not any happier about it than you are. But we are both going have to deal with it if we are to survive."

Link looked down at his feet thoughtfully and sighed. "Alright. But we need to set some rules. The first: I'm the one who makes all of the decisions."

"Very well," Zant said simply before Link continued his list of rules.

"Second: no killing any innocents, civilians, or generally anyone who doesn't deserve it. I will be the judge of who or what we have to kill."

"A cutthroat in training, I see. Accepted."

"Third: don't hold anything back. I'm not a child anymore.

"I suppose I'll take your word for that."

"And finally: please don't be Zant. That means no executing others to get your way, keeping your temper under control, and please no twisting your body like you do."

"Does it make you...nauseous," Zant asked as he twisted his body to grotesque proportions, making Link cringe as he did enticing a sick smile from Zant. Zant soon snapped his body to it's correct stance, "Very well, if I truly scare you that much."

"I-I'm not afraid of you," Link said with a stammer, as if it were at all convincing. Zant responded only with a quiet scoff at Link's statement.

"If you're ready, then let's begin."

The two took their places apart from each other, just as Link had done before with the Hero's Shade. The gold-clad skeleton had made Link uneasy whenever he met him, but he always taught him something useful (or sometimes not so useful, depending on the technique). With Zant, the unease felt like it had become full blown paranoia. If Zant was anything like he was before, which all evidence pointed towards, then there was something that he was concocting, just waiting to be unleashed. Link figured that this would become evident, as Zant began to conduct his lesson.

"In your current form you are not able to use Twili magic but your Wolf form will," the former master of Twilight grinned. Link was never able to use magic before in his wolf form, other than what Midna used while riding on his back. This intrigued Link, so he allowed Zant to continue. "So, in order to begin: you must be changed into your beast form."

Things suddenly started making sense to Link, "So, that's it. You just want to trap me in the form of a wolf again. Isn't there a saying about repeating the past?"

"There's another one about old dogs and new tricks, but I plan to change that one," Zant responded as the magically drew the shard of darkness out of Link's pocket and lodged it into his chest.

The resulting transformation process took it's course and Link found himself on all fours as a wolf again. Were he able to speak, he would have cursed a blue streak at Zant, but in this form, all he could do was bark and growl. "Sit, doggie," was what Zant said as a large, disembodied hand made of shadow slammed down hard on Link's backside, forcing him to sit.

"What just happened was the first technique I'm going to teach you: the Dark Hand," he explained as two disembodied hands that had chased Link through the Palace of Twilight appeared on either side of him, though they were now much smaller. "With this technique, you can deftly manipulate objects as though with an actual hand. Much easier than a clumsy paw, I'd think."

Link had to agree with him there. A paw wasn't much good for holding a sword, or throwing a bomb. Sure his claws and teeth were useful in this form, but he felt much more at home when using his normal equipment in the body he was born with.

"Twili magic is difficult for a being of light to use," Zant began, "To do so will take a considerable amount of time." And the lesson commenced.

For the longest time, that seemed like hour upon hour to Link, he tried and failed over and over to conjure up the shadowy hands. For every failure, Zant 'showed him how it was done,' by smacking Link around with his own Dark Hands. Link knew that Zant was enjoying this, so he kept trying to double his efforts every time to master the technique.

Finally, after what seemed like literally the millionth time to Link, he was able to conjure up a pair of deformed hands identical to the ones from the Realm of Twilight that deftly blocked Zant's own and proceeded to slap him silly. If a wolf could laugh, this wolf would be holding it's aching sides. After what seemed an appropriate amount of abuse to Link (say, eight or nine hundred consecutive slaps), he stopped his assault and sat proudly before Zant.

Zant shook the pain from his head as he regained his senses. "It would seem you've mastered the Twili magic, Dark Hands. And what do you know, it only took a week."

Link growled his exclamation, and realized that in this form he had no voice. He extracted the Shard of Darkness from his body and returned to his hylian form. "A week," he yelled in surprise, elucidating Zant to what he had just growled. "How long have I been asleep!? What the hell were you planning doing this!? Do you have me under a spell already!? Is someone going to have to kiss me to wake me up!? The only other people around are you and that old geezer!" Zant shut Link up with another Dark Hand to his face.

"You've only slept the night through, 'Hero of Twilight,'" Zant said, using his name sardonically. "Keep in mind that this world is only one of your dreams, and that is where I'll be to continue our training."

"Oh great, there's more," Link thought to himself. If the training was anything like this one, he'd just be in for more abuse. Oh well. At least once the technique was mastered, he'd torment Zant all he wanted with it.

"I'll be taking my leave of you now. But don't forget to practice this technique on your own time," Zant said as he disappeared into a mass of black squares. The world around Link blinked out, and he awoke back in the room with the bed just as the sun was coming up.