The young man had not known what to expect when he had woken up in that dark, dank chamber. He had awakened with his head woozy and his body weak. The air was stale, and he felt cold. Nonetheless, he managed to stumble over to the nearby pedestal and grab the strange object. It was a smooth black rectangle. He could not recall seeing it before, but he grabbed it deftly, watching in amazement as a blue emblem lit up in the center. The emblem looked like an eye with a large teardrop, but he could not deduce what it meant.

He had yelped as the pedestal suddenly flashed blue, but it did nothing more than produce a low rumbling sound. Next to the pedestal, a section of the stone wall split apart, revealing a passageway. Cautiously, he stepped into the tunnel.

Halfway through, he had yelped as he stepped on a small, sharp rock. It had occurred to him too late that he had no shoes. In fact, he did not have any clothes except for a set of dark blue undergarments. No wonder the chilly air was so unbearable. Hissing, the youth kept going. The light at the end seemed to get bigger, bigger, and bigger...

And then he was outside, on top of a hill. The green fields were lush, the sky was pure blue, and...he breathed through his nose. The breeze was sweet...so wonderful.

"You are the light..."

His pointed ears twitched

"Our light...that must shine upon Hyrule once again."

He looked from side to side, wondering where the voice was coming from. There was no one else around. Had it just been his imagination?

As he turned his head, he found his eyes had more to behold. There were tall trees, and steel gray mountains in the distance, and what looked like a small palace at the bottom of the hill. There was something else at the bottom of the hill, too. A fire.

The young man began to descend, mindful to watch the ground and not step on anything else. Step by step, he got closer to the fire. It occurred to him that there was someone sitting next to the fire, holding up what looked like a kabob of apple slices. The figure turned slightly, revealing himself to be an old man with a great white beard and a hooded maroon poncho. He slowly cracked a smile as he saw that he had a guest.

"Hello, there. What is your name?"

And the young man had no idea what to say.

"So, Link...you do not mind if I call you Link?"

Link, as the old man referred to him, nodded as he looked down at the object in his hand. The old man had called it a Sheikah Slate, and that it was the key to getting inside the Temple of Time. Those terms had no meaning to the youth, but he could not have imagined what he could do with it.

The Temple of Time had been surrounded by heavy stones and broken chunks of limestone. At the old man's direction, Link had touched one side of the Slate, a smooth black expanse opposite the side with the strange eye. An image of a blue sphere had popped up, and Link had almost dropped the item in shock. When he had touched the blue sphere, an identically shaped and colored orb had appeared out of thin air. Link had stood, amazed, as the old man grinned and picked it up. He had thrown it at the closest mess of debris. When Link touched the Slate again, the result was the thrown orb disappearing in a terrific explosion that scattered the debris.

It had taken some time, but Link had been able to clear out the front of the Temple of Time thanks to what the old man had called the "Bomb Rune."

The inner rooms had not been pretty. They were dirty and dilaptidaded, with cracked pots and broken furniture littering the floors. The walls were covered with weeds and abandoned beehives. The old man had lost his good mood as he had stumbled through the rooms, walking stoically until he found a room and shut the creaky wooden door behind him.

Alone again, Link had gone outside for another apple skewer, and had found another use for the Bomb Rune when he found the monsters tormenting the girl.

"You might not think much of them, but you should not play around with Bokoblins."

The old man sat before Link, cross-legged, on the ruined stone floor. He was looking more hopeful and more at ease than he was before. He held up the arrow he had taken from the girl's leg.

"They may not be geniuses, but they surely are not fools. This is their usual tool for hunting their prey. One short arrowhead, dipped in poison. It might never go further than the length of your fingernail, but as long as the bloodstream is hit, there is nothing the poison will not fell. Squirrel, bear, boar, it does not matter...but as the poison only taints the bloodstream, the meat itself is safe to eat."

Tossing the arrow aside, the old man pulled an empty bottle from the folds of his poncho.

"I spent a long time alone here in the woods. I decided one day to make an antidote, but apart from the animals the Bokblins wanted to eat, I have had no one to share it with."

"Hmmm..." Link hesitated. "But will she be okay? The girl?"

"She should be." The old man winked.

Link smiled, relieved. "Thank you, um..."

He bowed his head. "I'm sorry I'm only asking this now, but...what is your name?"

The old man's face lost its levity.

"I'll spare you my life story. I'm just an old fool who has lived here alone, for quite some time now."

He paused. "But I would like to help you. You have seen what that rune could do, correct?"

Link nodded cautiously.

"What if I told you there was a way to make the Sheikah Slate even more better for you?"

Airi groaned as the first crack of light hit her eyes.

She was laying flat on her back in the small cot. She kicked the blanket away and stared down at herself. She still had her jerkin, but her pants were folded next to her cloak, sword, and bow. Looking past her black underwear, she saw that the calf of her left leg was wrapped tight with a crude leather cloth.

She grimaced as she took hold of her pants. Dignity aside, she knew she was lucky that someone was around to help. She dressed herself, put her sword at her side, and found the quiver beneath the bow. She slung the quiver on her back, put the cloak over it, and picked up the bow.

The girl looked to the side to see an open exit, with only the rusty hinges indicating that there had been a door at all. She walked straight towards it, and found herself walking in on her savior as he was undressing himself.

She stopped suddenly, and the startled stranger looked up as he dropped his tunic. They were barely five feet apart from each other.

"Oh, I'm...sorry..." Despite herself, Airi's face flushed.

The young man was naked from the waist up. His frame was lean, with tight muscles beneath his unblemished skin. She noticed for the first time that there was a hint of green in his blue eyes...

"I was just getting ready to go to the mountains."

Airi snapped back to concentration as she saw the youth pick up a different shirt from a nearby table, a more form-fitting shirt without sleeves. Over that he put on a heavy fur jacket. She noticed that he had a pair of hiking boots on as well, with the legs of his pants tucked neatly into them. They looked old, but serviceable enough.

"Why so?" She did not know what else to say.

Then the stranger picked up something else from the table.

"The old man said I could power up this thing up there, whatever that means."

Airi went cold. She looked at the Sheikah Slate, her heartbeat growing still as she pointed a finger from her numb hand. She recognized it at first glance.

"Where did you get that?"

The Slate's holder looked a little taken aback by his guest's sudden twinge of hostility. "I...it's nothing, really. It was in a cave up the hill."

Airi blinked. This had to be a fluke, it simply had to. There was no way this callow wanderer could be the Hylian Champion. She forced herself to think. If the Slate had been in the cave, then he must have stumbled in and grabbed it himself. His face and uncertain voice made it clear; he had no idea what he had stumbled upon.

Could he be lying? Possibly, but if he was really the Hylian Champion, then there was no way he would have saved her.

She straightened her back. The implications were obvious. If the Hylian Champion had lost his Slate, he would surely be looking for it. He could not afford to leave it unattended.

Wherever this boy went, the true owner of the Slate would find him. And when he did, Airi would be ready for him.

Chapter 2 is out! I know I can't keep up the act of Airi not knowing who Link is forever, but I do hope to see what angles I can use for this situation.