Slight Clarification

When they passed through the front gates to the castle, Zelda had to go to the King's quarters, providing him the opportunity to find Link. He cycled through a few of the common entrances to the castle, not having any luck. He was about to give up looking and result to asking around when he found him guarding the doors to the library. He only knew it was the library because Zelda's teacher would have them regularly meet there.

"Hey there! Almost done?" He called out as he walked toward them.

Link spirits appeared to lift at the familiar face, "Almost, I think I've got another hour or so."

"Dang." Young Link looked between the two of them, "What's it like being on guard duty? Just a bunch of standing?"

The other guard spoke, "Not always, sometimes there's a spare bat to stab at night. Can't say it's anything more than that."

"Yeah, in all honesty it's pretty boring," Link laughed, "But we all can agree that it's very necessary."

"No kidding," He nodded, "After spending a week here I realized that all these entrances are more to a fault than they are of use. If someone was smart enough, they could easily get through."

"Trust me kid, the thought of what could happen because of that keeps us all on alert when we do this," the other guard explained. He looked at Link, speaking softer, "Also why does this kid keep coming around you? There's not a problem, and it's not like he's got a bad attitude, I'm just surprised."

"Ah, I made a promise to him. We're also kind of similar if I'm being frank," he replied.

'Heh, if I were back to where I couldn't understand what they were saying, I'd be annoyed. It's nice to know that Link doesn't find me annoying or something. It's one thing to be some lame ancestor, but it's another to be a lame, bothersome kid!'

"So how was the town? Did you like it?" Link asked.

"Oh for sure, you could buy practically anything you wanted. The variety is amazing! I did however run into some of the kids," he heavily sighed as the memory returned, "Did you know you can't leave town without an adult!? I can't believe it!"

He nodded, "Yeah, that's generally the rule. It keeps the children from getting into trouble."

"I get it, but usually showing them the sword gets me through," he thought back to when it worked in Termina after not being let through as a deku shrub, "They just thought it was my dad's."

"Well you are awfully young. I mean, it's a part of what we call you so it's not all that surprising. They'd also get in trouble for that too."

"True, I even asked like what if I don't have parents, because that would make the sword mine alone. They told me to go back to my friends and that they probably told me to say all that, but it's true, I literally have no idea who my parents are."

Link and the guard had sorrowful looks on their faces, "Man, I'm sorry about that."

"Meh, Zelda was sorry about it too, but it is what it is. Speaking of which she totally saved me from those kids!" He groaned, "I entirely forgot just how pesky they can be, especially when you're someone they've never met before." 'It also doesn't help that I'm mentally far older than them too, but still,'

"Is that so?" The other guard smiled, "What happened?"

He explained it to them in detail, the two of them laughing by the end of it, "Just ugh! The Piper girl reminded me of a zora princess I met a really long time ago. I was nine and she was eight. After helping her get out of a giant fish that swallowed her, and then me, whole, and her not being very nice to me and moody even while I helped her, when we got out she gave me the thing I needed and then said we were engaged because she gave it to me! I never swam so fast in my life!"

"Wow a zora princess? How old are you again?" Link asked.

"Ten, almost eleven," 'Technically seventeen going on eighteen, but that's less believable so there's no point.'

"Interesting, the Zora princess is Mipha, but I'll have to ask if you've met her before. She certainly wasn't eight two years ago, I think she's more like twenty-five or thirty, I'll have to ask."

"Oh right, well the Zora princess I'm talking about was Ruto. She's from a different land, so, y'know, a different princess entirely," He explained, "I've never heard of Mipha though. She sounds nice based on her name."

They both cocked their heads, "Huh, makes sense. I was going to say, the zora also don't have any massive fish pets nor is it like Mipha to try to get engaged to a ten-year-old, haha."

He felt his lower eyelid twitch, 'Okay I should've definitely avoided that story. Though, it's nice to know that they have Zoras here. I wonder if they have Gorons too.' "Well otherwise, the only thing I have left to tell you is that Princess Zelda is gonna give me a note to give to the commander so I can go on you guys' expeditions. It's really nice here, but this world is so huge! I must go see some of it for myself and I've been feeling cramped not being able to leave the castle until as of late. I can't even go see the dungeons or the prison," his ears drooped at remembering the guards rather rudely telling him that he couldn't go down there.

"Hey, that will be interesting," Link said, surprising the other guard, "I understand what you mean about it feeling cramped. Luckily for us, every couple of months we get to have a two week break to go wherever we want. Whether it be spending time with family or going home."

"Well hopefully we'll be together on a few of them. I just need to impress the commander so he can put in a good word. Then bam! I'm gone! Free! It's not like I won't come back of course, my stuff is here."

"Alright, well meet me by the big tree near the back of the castle and we'll see about those ears, okay?"

Young Link's eyes sparkled, "Sweet! See you there!" He had a skip in his step as he walked away. He stopped by the Dining Hall to get something to eat before looking for the tree. Eventually he passed by some guards that wore a different kind of uniform. It lacked armor and looked mostly for show since the boots and gloves were white. "Oh hey, I didn't know you guys had different uniforms. Are you guys like higher up or do you guard something different?"

"We're mostly in—Hey! Ow!" The guard beside him smacked him in the head, an annoyed look on his face.

"You don't need to answer his questions, dumbass. Especially since he's the reason why we have more watches for the Yiga."

"Hey, I understand not telling me, but as far as the Yiga goes, I've heard their attacks have been normal. I guess they didn't even care about that guy."

"Of course a kid like you would think that after getting pampered for what could have been a grave mistake. Go play or something."

He rolled his eyes and kept walking toward the back of the castle, seeing Link in the distance going to the tree he had mentioned earlier. When he got there, he saw that his descendant had a needle, a couple of earrings, and an expression that was too calm for his liking. "Oh, you pretty much just need a needle?"

He scratched the back of his head and shrugged, "Yeah, the only thing I can apologize for is having no ice to numb your ears with. It would melt instantly, and I figured you would be pretty tough about it."

"As long as you don't have poor aim or screw around with me, I think I'll be fine." 'I've been in battles where having a red potion saved me either from infection or dying entirely. This should be nothing.'

And it was for the most part. His ears were just a little sore afterwards. Link had given him blue earrings just like his, which was fine since they were nearly the same exact ones he wore after he pulled the master sword and grew seven years. "Thank you, thank you! I'm finally like all my other descendants."

Curiosity gleamed in his eyes as they sat in the shade of the tree, "Speaking of which, what do you mean when you talk like that? It's just weird since…you're ten. As far as I know it's impossible for you to have descendants. I can't help but think about what you said with me being a descendant of yours," Link chuckled.

"Ah, well...truth is, you'll understand later."

"Huh? You usually give pretty good answers. What's that mean?"

"It means I can't tell you. As much as I would like to, some things need to happen first. I'm not from the future, so I don't know what they are, but I'll know eventually and so will you." He got up from where they had both sat in grass, dusting himself off. "I need to go see if Zelda wrote that note yet, or if she left it in my room."

"I guess, now that I think about it, me and you are kind of alike." His eyes glanced at the triforce, "Why do you have that, though? I've only heard about those from legend having them, and Zelda has one. Again, it just doesn't add up since—"

"I'm a 'kid', I know. Trust me, you'll see." He could tell that Link wasn't a fan of his lack of actual response, but even he knew that he would be messing something up if he told him everything. That's not how time works, especially since nothing has happened yet other than him getting here.

It was late in the evening when he got to his room. The first thing he did was check out his ears at the vanity, he was impressed with the knight's work, "His aim really is impeccable. I'm so proud." He soon noticed the note that was left there, Zelda's signature being in plain sight. It reminded him of when his Zelda wrote him a note to give to the guard so he could go up Death Mountain. He wanted to read it, but her handwriting was very loopy, basically the New Hylian form of cursive, so he didn't understand anything other than her name and his.

"I'll give this to him in the morning," he mumbled, throwing off his tunic, putting on a regular shirt, and going to bed.