Chapter 6

That night he dreamt of Ganondorf again. Of his dark beams of energy, of how when they hit, he fell like a puppet who had its strings cut. Writhing and screaming on the floor, he felt his bones break, his blood boiling and freezing all at once. He felt his soul being torn apart at the seams, each tear and split more painful and harrowing than the last.

Gannondorf smiled, triumph shining in his eyes as he said "Bow down to me boy! Proclaim me as your King and God, give me the Triforce of Courage and you shall live."

Link only laughed in response, a weak and pitiful laugh that ended in a violent coughing fit, but a laugh of determination all the same. Ganondorf was not impressed. "Fine hero, have it your way!" The Demon King boomed with a mocking laugh. Ganondorf's eyes gleamed as he flew towards Link, his great ugly black blade poised to strike.

Link awoke with a gasp, the dream had not been a pleasant one. He shook away the unpleasant memories and let a grin form on his face. Today was the day, he thought. The day of the tourney.

For the past few days, he had been training in preparation for the tourney, with his new friend Triston Massey, Triston was always laughing and always up for a fight, he reminded Link of his uncle Gerion and how much he missed him. He'll be back, Link thought, he swore it that he would.

Triston had been worried for Link when he had told him of his plan to disobey his father, he cautioned Link to be patient to which Link replied with a grin and said "I'll be fine Triston, I swear, my father will never know."

Triston shook his head, his pale hair shining in the sun, and squinted his laughing blue eyes at Link. "Why not enter the squire's melee as well, if you're going to enter anyway?" Triston shouted more than asked, the other squires looking over at them with suspicion.

Link winced and said, "Keep your voice down, someone might hear. For why the archery contest and not the melee, well it's more likely that my father would be at the melee than the archery contest and I would be spotted in the chaos of the melee."

Triston only shrugged in response.

Link had decided that to avoid being caught out for not being able to be in two places at once, he would say he was sick and stay in bed. With his father being none the wiser he would change into the most plain and threadbare clothes he owned, with a hood to cover his face. His plan was perfect!

He had called for a servant to tell his father that he was sick and that he may not be able to attend the tourney today, all I have to do now is wait! Link thought with a grin, and so he waited, and waited. It had been almost an hour before Grand Maester Pycelle finally arrived.

The old man was slouched and breathing quite heavily, revealing his bald, spotted head. Pycelle had a long snow white beard that went down to his stomach, and when he opened his small mouth to take a big gulp of air, he saw that it hid the Grand Maester's missing teeth and warts.

His maester's chain rattled as he walked forward, and what a chain it was. Encompassing rare metals like platinum, silver and steel fitted with an assortment of jewels like amethyst, rubies and emeralds as decoration. Pycelle stood up straight and smoothed down his red velvet gown with gold accents. Lannister colours! Link realised with a jolt. It seems that Pycelle is my father's man, Link thought.

Pycelle finally looked up at him with his pale, watery eyes "Hello my young Lord," he wheezed "terribly sorry for taking so long, Maegor's holdfast can be confusing at times, even to me." Link looked at him in confusion but nodded along anyway, hasn't he been stationed here since before I was born he thought. "It is to my understanding that you are feeling ill today, tell me my Lord, what is wrong?" He asked.

"It's my stomach, Grand Maester, it's terribly sore." Link said weakly. Pycelle nodded in sympathy and stroked his beard whilst letting out a ponderous "hmmm".

"Well it seems, my Lord, that you won't be able to attend the tourney today I'm afraid." Success! Link thought with triumph, and made a disappointed face for Pycelle. The Grand Maester saw this and quickly said "Do not worry my Lord it is only a stomach bug that will be gone quickly enough in the coming days, there will be other tourneys. I will tell my acolyte Walder to keep you company today so that you do not feel all alone in this room." Pycelle nodded, pleased with himself and quickly said his farewells and left.

Link felt his face drop and let out a loud groan of frustration. Don't panic. He thought to himself. We'll figure something out.

The door opened and Link quickly made a sick face. The man who walked through was undoubtedly Pycelle's acolyte, equipped with the traditional long grey maester robes. Walder was a thin pimply man with a weasel like face, and as Link thought about it the acolyte reminded Link of his Aunt Genna's husband. A Frey! Link thought. Acolyte Walder looked around his room with greed and envy. That's good, Link thought as he looked over to the monthly allowance his father gives him, I can work with this.

As Walder sat in the chair next to his bed Link said, "Look Walder, I'll give you this bag of gold dragons, my monthly allowance, if you tell Pycelle that I stayed in bed all day resting, okay?" Greed flashed in the Frey's dark eyes and he nodded repeatedly. "Do we have a deal?" Link asked, suddenly very nervous.

"You have yourself a deal, Lannister." Walder said with a huge grin on his face, showing his crooked teeth.

As soon as Link handed Walder the money, the Acolyte fled the room in glee and with a dangerous glint in his eye. When the oak door bange closed, Link jumped out of his bed in a flurry of motion. I'm going to be late! Link thought. He quickly got dressed and fled his room, sprinting through Maegor's Holdfast, passing nobles and servants both without sparing them a glance, and then exiting the Red Keep itself.

He ran down to the tourney grounds with his bow in hand and cloak secured in place writhing through giant crowds of people until finally he got to the grounds. He paid the fee for admission into the tourney and registered himself under the name of Mido.

The archery tourney itself was pretty simple, he got three shots and the competitor with the worst gets eliminated and the more rounds there were the further the target was away from the competitors.

As he walked into the arena he noticed ten archery targets had been set up. Nine other competitors then, he thought. He noticed his other competitors were all nobles or knights with shining armour. I'll beat them.

The horn was sounded for him and his fellow competitors to begin. As Link drew his bow back all noise around him drowned out until all that mattered was him and the target. The arrow released with a sharp twang and embedded itself into the target with a dull thud. Bullseye! Link thought with a relish. He looked over and noticed all but one of his competitors hit the target.

This process continued until there was only Link and two other competitors, the target was the furthest it could be away from them, this would be the last round. Link drew his arrow back and focused on his breathing. I can do this, he thought I will prove my father wrong. His arrow released and hit the bullseye once again.

The crowd cheered and Link grinned, he had won! King Robert called him up to the podium where he and the rest of the Royal Family were sitting. He ran more than walked there and kneeled before the King.

"Reveal who you are, and claim your prize!" King Robert boomed with a laugh, waving the winner's purse at him. Link stood up as he was bid and tentatively took his hood down, aware of how the entire crowd's eyes were on him and him alone.

Cersei gasped in horror when she realised it, but Robert only drunkenly laughed. He threw the purse at him and laughed once more at the dismay that was on his family's faces. He felt his father's eyes drilling a hole into the side of his head but ignored him for now.

Link looked out to the cheering crowd and saw the smallfolk there, saw how thin and hungry they were, even if their faces were lit up in delight, and he knew what he had to do. He bowed once more to the King and jogged down to the smallfolk. He handed the bag of gold dragons to a Lannister guard telling him and some others to hand them out to the smallfolk.

They chanted his name in thanks, they chanted the name Lannister in thanks even more. Link frowned, he didn't want fame or recognition for any good deeds he did, all he wanted was redemption for his failures.

As he turned around to face his father at last, what he found shocked him. Tywin nodded at him in approval and just for a moment he smiled at him. It was a small thing, only the slight upturn of his lips and gone so quickly that he thought he imagined it. His father was pleased with him.

I'm sooooo sorry on how long it took to get this chapter out but I have some incredibly important exams on right now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and review, seriously it helps me grow as a writer and I do take your criticisms into consideration and try to grow from them. But yeah Bye!