A Link to the Past

Chapter Three: Following A Dream

Help me…

Trying as hard as he could to listen to his uncle and go back to sleep, Link was successful as far as getting into bed a few minutes after the Lord Sheriff suddenly rushed out into the falling rain, but from there the young man could only toss and turn. The dream that had awoken him seemed… no, it felt so real… everything about it as tangible as the walls of the small house around him, just not as warm and cozy. No, the place inside his dream had been even darker than the night outside, with nowhere near enough torches to illuminate the brick and stone surrounding him. Metal bars prevented exploration, but Link wasn't alone.

Help me… I am a prisoner in the dungeon…

She was barely visible, with long blonde hair and a dress that looked far too expensive for the typical inhabitant of the castle dungeons, and her voice was familiar. Now that the young man had awakened, he tried to convince himself that the young woman calling for help wasn't really Princess Zelda, how could anything inside of a dream be real? Was it just Link's desire to be a hero like his uncle and grandfather? Were the boyhood bedtime stories of Koholint Island and the mythical Triforce still influencing his imagination? Those stories probably weren't even real, he thought to himself while rolling over to make one last attempt to go to sleep… but something was stopping him.

Help me…

With a frustrated grunt, the young man sat up, rubbing his eyes and then doing a stretch after standing up. The storm outside was going as strong as ever, the rain pounding against the small house's rooftop while thunder and lightning flashed and crackled through the window… what was his uncle doing, heading out at this hour? The older man hadn't been summoned and there were no strange noises outside, Link would have heard them, so… so was there some trouble that the young man wasn't aware of? Now looking out the window, seeing the landscape brightly for a second each time the lightning flashed, he couldn't help feeling like something was wrong. But what should he do? Obey his uncle and go back to sleep, or head out into the storm without even knowing what he was really doing?

No, the dream felt too real to ignore, and now the young man was worried about his uncle, worried to the point where he knew that there would be no more sleep tonight. Removing his night shirt as the choice was made, Link got dressed in his normal traveling clothes, green colored like his uncle's, with boots and a phrygian hat. He didn't have a sword of his own, and the ones he had practiced with were locked inside the castle armory, so basically all the young man had was the clothes on his back, and, uh… that's about it. There was an oil lantern on the wall, but it was empty, but since he didn't really know what he was doing, maybe it was best to not be seen wandering around outside.

"You, boy." He mimicked the sound of a guard's voice. "What are you doing out here at this hour?"

"Oh, I'm following a dream voice." He replied to the question in his own voice while opening the door. "You know, because I'm an idiot who doesn't know fantasy from reality."

Wow, what a miserable night, Link thought when the wind blasted him with rain. Having blown out the candles around the house so that the place didn't burn down, the young man closed and locked the door behind him, and was then soaked almost instantly after stepping out from under the awning. There was enough lightning to let him see which way to go, yet enough periods of darkness to slip past the guard checkpoints along the roads, but even if Link managed to get to the castle, what was he supposed to do then? Just bang on the gate and demand to know if any dream-girls had been arrested recently? Since he was so focused on these thoughts, it felt like no time at all had passed before the torches along the castle wall were visible, but again… what was he supposed to do?

In his training to one day become Lord Sheriff himself, the young man learned that there were several alternative ways into the castle, however just about all of them could only be opened from the inside so that potential invaders couldn't use them to get in. No, right now the only way for Link to get inside was for the front gate to open, but what were the chances of that happening? Of course, would it really hurt that much to ask to be let in? After all, the guards knew who he was, and since this storm was getting so bad, maybe they would take pity on him? Worst case, he would be detained, and then hey, that was one way to get into the dungeon.

"Halt!" The armored guard ordered when the young man stepped into the light. "You there, halt! What is your business here!"

"Uh, good evening." Link replied, trying his best not to sound too stupid. "It's me, Link, the Lord Sheriff's nephew, I uh… I got caught in the storm."

His uncle had been talking about how the guards had been much more aggressive lately, but this one didn't seem so bad, inviting the young man to stand closer under the awning next to the gate, and then asking what would possess him to be outside in this weather in the middle of the night. Even though it was ridiculous, Link answered honestly that he was out looking for the girl of his dreams, to which the guard laughed before replying that he was on the lookout for one of those, too. Suddenly one of the others from on top of the wall called out for them to stand back since the gate was opening, so they both had to move out of the torchlight in order for a covered carriage to become visible as soon as the way was clear.

"You better run home, boy." The guard advised, stepping over to the carriage's driver. "I thought you were all in for the night, what's going on?"

"Agahnim wants us to go out again." The driver replied, pulling his hood tighter around his face. "I don't know who this old man is, but the wizard wants him found, and none of us are going to get any sleep until we bring him back."

With that, the carriage moved across the bridge, vanishing into the night a few seconds later, but instead of going home or standing around to find out any more, Link had used the distraction to make his move. Staying in the darkness while the guard went to talk to the driver, the young man was sure that he was going to be caught as he edged along the wall, but nothing happened even after he had rounded the corner and ducked down behind the hedges… and then the gate closed a few seconds later. All right, he had made it inside the castle courtyard, but again the question popped up as to what he should do now. Climbing up to a window seemed too dangerous with as wet as everything was, but… but how was the young man going to sneak in through the front door?

Yeah, this was going to take some thought… most of the servants had been told to leave, according to his uncle, so anyone entering the castle who wasn't a guard was going to be spotted pretty easily. Heh… too bad he wasn't a guard… hey, maybe that was the answer. Now, Link wasn't about to try attacking a guard to steal their armor, but one of the guardhouses was nearby, just on the other side of the courtyard and partway up the stairs to the top of the wall, used so that the guards on the wall could rotate into a sleep schedule. Thanks to all the ones patrolling the wall carrying torches, it was easy to see when the best time was to sneak inside, but it was still a risk to sneak up on them even if they were sleeping.

It wasn't a very good plan, but better than both trying to sneak through the castle as he was or attacking a guard outright, so the young man waited until the torches up on the wall were moving away before creeping his way up the first part of the stairs to where the wooden shack had been built. As he had hoped, there were two sleeping guards inside lying on their cots, a set of armor next to each, and… and now after a couple of deep breaths, it was time to make his move. Boy, was Link going to feel like an idiot this feeling drawing him to the dungeons turned out to be nothing at all, especially after breaking into the castle grounds and stealing a set of armor. Worse still, even if he pulled it off, it would only be so long before the guard found his equipment missing and sounded the alarm.

"Hey, did you see those girls being brought in on the carriages?" A voice said, Link's mouth running dry before realizing that it came from passing by outside. "Beautiful, prettiest I've ever seen, around half a dozen of them."

"Best to not even look." Another voice grumbled as they got farther away. "Any girls that pretty probably come from noble families and they…

By this time the voices were too far away to be heard, obscured by the pouring rain, and anyway the young man had his stolen armor on now, and he hoped that the storm would muffle his movements as well. Just had to make it back outside, and then into the castle and after that even if the alarm was sounded he could just pretend to be another guard searching for the intruder. Creeping slowly toward the door, Link froze when he heard one of the snoring men behind him snort and move around as if waking up, but thankfully he was just rolling over and was snoring again in seconds.

Part of him was jealous, wishing that he was still at home, sleeping comfortably warm and dry throughout the storm… instead of stepping back into it and trying not to slip down the wet stone stairs. With the helmet down, and carrying a guard's sword and shield, the young man hoped that it would be enough to fool the others, at least as long as he didn't get too close or speak to them. Of course, now that he was down the stairs and walking back across the courtyard, doubts entered his mind once again, making Link wonder what in the world he was trying to do here. He dreamed that a young woman was calling for help from the dungeons, and because of that he left home and broke into the castle… had he lost his mind?

Apparently so, because a few moments later the young man was standing in front of the entrance into the castle, the torches next to it struggling to stay lit against the water that kept being blown underneath the awning in the wind. At this point, getting out of the castle was probably going to be just as hard as going further inside, so Link took a deep breath, and again wondered if he had gone crazy as he stepped forward and pushed open the door.