The Expedition

The next day he didn't bother with the Keaton mask nor his ocarina. He didn't want to lose them as they were both extremely important. More the ocarina than the mask.

He felt like wearing his blue tunic today, perhaps he might fit in better with the royal guard. After taking his sword and Deity mask, he went straight to the commander's quarters and found him leaving his room, "Excuse me," he said in Old Hylian.

The commander cocked his head, an eyebrow raising.

He did a facepalm, "Sorry about that. I forget since they're so similar." Young Link handed him the note, "The princess wanted me to give this to you." He watched as he read the note.

"Ah, feeling adventurous, are we?"

He nodded.

"Hm, well since you're up so early, why don't you go get something to eat and then meet us by the front gate. We'll get you a horse and then set off for the day, okay?"

The young hero saluted him, "Yes sir!"

He did what he was told and waited by the front gates. He greeted the captain of the group as they got closer, "Morning!"

"See Henry, what did I tell ya? If this kid can get up early and act like he's got a reason to live, then you can too." He said to one of the men that rode behind him.

"Yeah yeah, but he hasn't been through multiple girlfriends and wonders why no one is bothering to stay."

The captain shrugged, "Anyways, mornin' to ya as well. You're gonna ride with me until we reach the Ranch." He leaned forward and reached his hand down, Young Link taking it and being lifted up into the saddle in front of the captain.

He patted the horse's neck, "Thanks."

"No problem! Okay boys, let's get going. I doubt we'll see much, but who knows." They continued through the gates and through town, some of the people waving them off as they passed by, and others whispered to each other at the sight of him being with them. It wasn't long until they were in Hyrule Field.

The young hero couldn't contain his wonder, "Wooow! This place is absolutely massive!"

The men behind him all chuckled in some form or another. "That was all of us our first time as well," The captain said, "By the way, you can call me Charlie. What's your name kid?"

He explained, "Well, me and Link have the same name, so technically I go by 'Young Link.' Any variation of 'kid' that comes to mind works too. I'm used to all of it."

"Will do. Men! Introduce yourselves."

"You already know my name is Henry, my baggy eyes are my most noticeable trait." His voice sounded depressed but was quite deep.

"I'm Kevin," the knight to the right of him said, signaling that he was talking, "I guess me having orange hair is a good tell, but you can't see my hair and I'm not sure if my eyebrows are visible." He was easily the youngest next to Young Link, he was likely sixteen.

"I'm Lucas," another said, "I'm literally the brownest one here, it should be a no-brainer." He was right.

"And I'm Isaac," the one in the back greeted, "I don't really know what's all that differ—"

Kevin butt in, "Don't start that, you know your big honker is your giveaway."

"Dammit Kevin! Shut up!"

'This is quite the group. I think I'll like them.' He thought as the other guys laughed. Charlie's whistling caught his attention.

"Alright girl," he was talking to his horse, "Let's get this party started."

They galloped southeast of the castle, staying on the path. The young hero was caught up in the beautiful view of the field, the fact that everything was so massive just amazed him. He also kept in mind of places he wanted to go, like the mountain he eyed in the distance or the glimpse he caught of a fort.

The smell of horses and, unfortunately, their poop filled the air as they neared the Ranch. To Young Link's surprise it was also guarded. Kevin tied up his horse and helped him down from Charlie's, "Let's go get you a horse, kiddo."

When they walked in, he could hear the sounds of chickens and cows. Kevin strolled up to a counter where a guy stood, and while they talked, he took in the sight. 'This sorta reminds me of Lon Lon Ranch with all the buildings being made out of wood and the chickens freely feeding on the ground.' He crouched and held his hand out in hopes of one coming over to him. To his surprise, a golden brown one walked right over and started pecking at his hand. He giggled, "Haha ow, darn thing." Without thinking he scooped it up into his arms and pet it, Kevin turning around right as he did so.

He looked back at the guy he was talking to, "Yeah he just picked up one of your feisty chickens, I think he'll be fine. Alright kid, here's how it's gonna work. We're gonna go out into the pasture and whichever horse you can catch is the horse you can ride."

"Oh okay," Young Link set the chicken down, "It shouldn't be too hard, I've done it before." They both walked in through the tall gates, Kevin handing him a halter with a lead rope. He was getting ready to play Epona's Song when he realized he left his ocarina at the castle. 'Guess we gotta do this the old-fashioned way.'

He scanned the pasture for the calmest horses, they wouldn't be up for the task since they're used to grazing all day. Link wanted an alert horse, one who could sense danger before he could. He spied a young filly who was playing around with the other colts. She didn't look like Epona, but the behavior reminded him of her. If she didn't work out, then one of the colts would.

Being cautious of how he came off, he confidently walked up to the palomino with white hair. She quit playing with the other horses as he came closer and watched his every step. The young hero held out his hand for her to come sniff once he was a good ten feet away from her.

She seemed interested and sniffed in the direction of his hands before taking a few steps toward him. After a couple of minutes, she was calmly licking and halfly nibbling on his fingers. Without startling her, he took his chance and quickly put a halter on, happily leading her over to Kevin and the guy who was behind the counter.

Kevin smirked, "You know, I'm starting to see why you're also called Link."

He handed the lead rope off to the other guy, "Really? How so?"

"Well if being called Link means that you're good at everything, the two of you might as well be the same person. He came in here and pretty much did the same thing you did, except he had no farm experience at all! Me and him grew up doing this knight stuff together, so I would know. I'm sixteen and he's seventeen."

'Wow, he's actually the same age as me, interesting.' "Haha I guess you could say that, he's a pretty good fighter for sure."

It wasn't long before the guy came back with the palomino saddled up, "Whatcha gonna name her?"

"Mmm," He looked her up and down, "I think Grace works fine." Young Link didn't need to be taught how to ride so they were back on the patrol in no time. They mainly did lines across Hyrule Field to check for monsters that could have appeared overnight. They were about halfway done when he felt like it was starting to be too quiet of a day. 'I know I should never ever say that nothing is happening since it always makes something happen, but we haven't run into a single monster and my hand is starting to fidget.'

He patted Grace's neck once him and Isaac were allowed to break for five minutes. Isaac was resting up against the tree. The young hero turned away to look at the horizon when he heard a flitter of paper, his hand immediately going to his sword.

" Nuh uh uhh ," A wicked voice taunted, "Unsheathe your sword and your friend dies."

After slowly uncurling his fingers and removing them from the hilt, he put both of his hands in the air and turned even slower to face Isaac. It was one of the Yiga Clan members holding a sharp scythe to Isaac's neck with three others standing behind him, their bows drawn on him and his comrade. "Okay. What do you want?"

"We want you dead."

He blinked, "Then why don't you let him run away while you guys have at me?"

"Because then you'll have a reason to draw your sword."

Young Link was appalled that no one shot an arrow at him yet. A moment of silence passed, allowing a soft breeze to flow by. His eyes flicked to each of them as a frown formed on his face, "Are you gonna kill me now? What's this hesitating for?"

They all hissed at his comment, "Why I oughta! Get him!"

The three bowmen fired their arrows at once, the Hero of Time rolling forward and kicking the bow out of one of their hands. In the same breath, he shot the guy threatening Isaac in the back. He dodged the next round of arrows and killed another bowman with an arrow to the chest. He was getting ready to kill the other one when he heard Isaac yelp, causing him to whip around and witness the Yiga member getting ready to shoot him in the face.

Without thinking, he lunged forward in time to block the arrow with his right forearm. He hardly even flinched as it pierced through, it stopping halfway down the arrow's shaft. Unable to shoot a bow, he pulled out his sword and hacked at the clan member, blocking a couple more arrows from the other with his blade. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the scythe beside Isaac, picked it up, and threw it at the further bowman, the point lodging itself into their side and them disappearing into thin air.

The bowman in front of him disappeared as well once he saw his comrade get impaled. Link rushed to Isaac's side, "Are you okay!?"

He sat up, the body of the Yiga scytheman crumbling off of him, "Just traumatized," his eyes widened the young hero's forearm, "More traumatized! We need to get you back to the castle! We don't know if they tipped their arrows with something!"

Before Isaac could get on his horse, the captain came racing up the hill with the other two behind him, "What's going on here!? I heard fighting!"

"The kid's hurt after defending me! He's got an arrow through his arm!" He called back, scooping up him up, "Hey, call your horse so it follows us to the castle."

Starting to feel the pain of the arrow ebb at his arm, he whistled for Grace and tried to hold it as still as possible.

"He got an arrow through his arm!?" Kevin yelled.

"Yes! I'll explain when we get there!" He put his horse into high gear and raced back to the castle, Young Link watching his other teammates notice the dead Yiga members on the ground.

The two of them got into town and past the castle gates quicker than he'd expected, 'Wow, his horse really is fast. Nice.' Isaac carried him to the medical wing where he was immediately put in a bed and was force fed some sort of potion that knocked him out faster than he could object to ingesting whatever foul taste strangled his tongue.

Several hours later, his eyes flicked open to a dimly lit room. The moonlight made it obvious that had become night in the time he was unconscious. After attempting to move his heavy limbs he realized his arm was wrapped in a bandage. Then, not long after that, he realized his brain felt like it was trying to burst through his skull. "Ugh my god…what the hell happened?" He rubbed his temples, hearing the doors open.

He was glad to see it was the nurse and not Link or Zelda, "Hello dear, how are you feeling?"

"My head really hurts, but otherwise I feel fine." Now to address why all of this was necessary in the first place, "Why did I need to be knocked out just to get an arrow removed?"

"Honey, I'm sure you don't want to feel what it's like to have an arrow pulled out your arm while being completely awake. It was to make things not only easier for you, but for us as well." She sat a tray in his lap, "Are you left-handed or right-handed?"

"Left."

"Ah," she sat a bowl of soup on the tray, "You should be able to feed yourself then. It's pumpkin soup, I think you'll quite like it."

"Thanks. I'll be good to go by tomorrow right? I'm pretty sure a red potion will fix me really quick, and then I can get back to things."

The nurse smiled, sighing, "We actually advise against using healing potions on children since it can lead to them not growing correctly, so no, you'll be here for a while until you can go back to your room."

He waited for the nurse to leave before sinking into his bed with a look of disdain, 'You have literally, seriously, gotta be kidding me. I see the world once, get into a battle once, and now I might be here for weeks!' He meekly looked at the triforce on his hand, 'You better heal me super duper fast! You know how important this is to me.'

Young Link grumpily ate his soup until it was no more and lay awake for a while until he passed out.