Hyrule Castle

Zelda

It was still early morning for the young heiress to the royal throne, Zelda, with the sun just barely peeking over the horizon; She was currently laying in her opulent bed, with a well quilted blanket comforting her in her sleep. While the sun's ray had yet to fully enter through the doorway of her room leading out to the balcony, Zelda's face scrunched while making murmurs and whimpers.

The girl began to toss and turn in her sleep, seemingly from the dream she was experiencing; the covers and comfort of her bed gave her no reprieve or protection from the dream her mind was playing out to her.

Dream

A harsh wind blew across the fields of Hyrule, with a blazing fire ravaging the country lands. Amidst the chaos of the flames and harsh winds, dark clouds accompanied by thunderstorms rocked the countryside, the rain that fell from the clouds failed to extinguish the flames that ravaged the lands.

Zelda felt she was standing atop the castle walls, waiting for something, or someone to stop it all; her home was beset by a catastrophe that she knew not what to do for nor halt the process of. Amidst it all, a lone wounded and battered wolf pup emerged from the woods of the east, its gait was slow while walking out through the flames that were ravaging the countryside, the fire itself not bothering the wolf pup in the slightest as if the very nature of walking through the flames was second nature to the pup.

Feeling the need to reach out for the young wolf, Zelda witnessed as a green light hovered with the wolf pup, undeterred by the elements around it as the canine marched himself towards Zelda.

Reality

"Please help me!" Zelda abruptly screamed as she awoke and sat upright, while shoving her covers off herself at the same time. Small droplets of sweat permeated from her face. The princess found herself calming down from hyperventilating, she palmed her chest and felt how fast her heart was beating.

Zelda breathed slowly to calm herself, it was all a dream…a dream that has been replying the same thing until just now. It was always the same, her atop the wall of castle town overlooking the countryside, forced to watch as it was ravaged by an unstoppable fire.

The princess swallowed down her nervousness in a bid to try and make sense of what was going on with her dream, her father had told her that the civil war was over, something that had existed long before she was born, and had just ended not but a few days ago. She had asked how bad the war was, but her father and mother were adamant that she learn later in life of how bad the war was.

But then, why did she keep having nightmares of such awful events? And not just that, the recent dream was the stark difference to all her previous ones. A stray young wolf had emerged from the woods, paying no heed to the disaster around it.

She really wanted to ask her father or mother what these dreams meant, but the last time she told them about her dreams, she was told it was all just nightmares, nothing more, nothing less.

Zelda refused to believe that her nightmares were anything but; with a hardened gaze, while clutching her covers, the young princess cursed herself for feeling helpless. Her dreams were definitely the goddesses way of telling her that something was coming, and the recent dream was foretelling her that someone was coming to either help her…or something else.

Resolving herself to ask Impa about her dreams, princess Zelda breathed out one more calming breath to steady her heartbeat, and removed herself from her bed. She had a big day ahead of her, if she remembered her schedule right.

Various envoys from each race would be meeting her father to discuss politics of peace and prosperity, to settle past grievances and make sure war never broke out once again amongst the races. Her job was to watch from afar in her private garden, a single window would allow her to see it all play out.

As much as she would have liked to live up to the expectations of her mother and father, and watch, her mind kept going back to the dreams she's been having, and the more recent one that involved a young wolf pup.

Later

Tending to the garden her father gifted her on her birthday, Zelda smiled a bit as she held a small watering can to give her flowers their daily dose of water; it had not rained in a week, so she needed to be sure her flowers were well off.

Tapping the bottom of her watering can to get the last drops of water out, Zelda set aside her watering can and kneeled a bit to gaze at the colors her flowers beheld on their petals; it was a calming moment for the princess, one she wanted for the moment after trying one more time to tell her father and mother about her dream.

Zelda frowned, all she got out of either of her parents was to not worry as peace was now among them, her nightmares were all just figments of her imagination of how bad the civil war was.

Again, she refused to believe the repeat of the same dream was anything but, not to mention the new addition of a young wolf breaking his way through the flames.

"Princess." Impa's voice broke Zelda out of her musing, while her personal bodyguard spoke to her in a soft voice, "I asked the other Shiekah, I've even deferred to the history of our land…" she informed her young charge. "There is something about your dreams that have some merit to it."

Zelda, having heard the Sheikah approach her by allowing her footsteps to be heard, stood up and turned to face her caretaker that has been looking after her ever since she was but a baby. Zelda offered a warm smile towards Impa, "I thank you!" She greeted her attendant/bodyguard, and fully approached Impa at the center of her garden.

Impa smiled warmly back at her charge as she looked down at the young heiress, she nodded in acceptance, before fully divulging what she managed to dredge up from what Zelda's dream may foretell. "As you know, the Royal Family descends from an era dating back hundreds of years, all the way to when our people once lived in the sky." she informed her young charge.

Zelda understood where Impa was going with this, of how her family descended from the first Hylians that had descended to the earth to settle the land for themselves, of the calamity that was defeated by a hero so that their kind could finally live beneath the clouds; it was an old tale of yore, passed down through the family.

While it wasn't something the wider populace knew much about, save for some rumors of how the kingdom came to be, it was still a tale to be told.

Zelda looked up at Impa's face with an urgent expression, "Right, and?" she questioned, asking for her guardian to keep going.

Impa agreed to keep going, while her arms were crossed as she regaled what she managed to learn from her elders and ancient library. "There are some old texts, describing how a hero of yore, defeated a calamity. How upon the defeat of this demonic being, this…beast of demise swore to curse the future for his return in another form. He cursed the future of his incarnation to ravage the lands, and bring it to heel under his foot with otherworldly power." she informed the princess.

Zelda furrowed her brow, while palming her chin and resting her elbow into her other palm as she thought on what Impa told her, "This…do you think…this curse might be what my dreams have been warning me about?" she asked, pointedly looking up at Impa.

Impa nodded, and took a knee to be almost at eye level with her princess, "My princess, please, tell me more about this new dream of yours, try and be descriptive of what you remember." she requested.

"I'll try!" Zelda nodded, and began to pace back and forth in front of Impa, "While each dream had repeated itself until now, my recent dream showed a lone young wolf. I vaguely remember it being bruised and scarred, but paid no heed to the flames that ravaged the fields." she described to her guardian, and halted to stand once more in front of Impa to stare up at her face, "It walked through it all while a green orb hovered with it…it was as if that wolf pup was coming to the castle for a reason…" she explained with a curious look on her face.

Zelda continued to stare at Impa's eyes as she explained her dream, "I don't know if I may be right, but I suspect…someone young may be coming from the woods, with the Spiritual Emerald stone held by the Great Deku Tree."

"I see…" Impa remarked with a thoughtful look to the side, before palming her charge's shoulder, "I'll see if what the elders have anything else to say on this, if the King and Queen will pay not heed to your dream, then at the very least, your Sheikah will look into it." she nodded with a warm smile towards her princess.

Zelda was over the moon that Impa was more than willing to look into what her dreams are telling her, and flung herself over to hug her caretaker, "Oh thank you, Impa! I don't know what I would do without you!"

Impa kept a warm smile up as she patted Zelda's back as the princess hugged her, "I live to serve, princess, and I've raised you your whole life. I know when to pay heed to your questions and requests." she affirmed, earning another 'thank you' from Zelda.

Impa

Keeping her warm smile up as she left Zelda's garden, she soon dropped the expression into that of intrigue and pondering, while raising her fist into her chin as she thought over what her charge described and told her. As Impa passed through the archway that allowed one to enter into the personal garden of Zelda, her peripherals caught her understudy, leaning up against the stone while with his hands behind his hand to rest his head against something else other than the wall he was leaning up against.

"Judeau." She began to order while she continued to walk forward. The person shoved himself off from the wall to follow his teacher, "You said you saw a boy heading for the woods some few days ago, correct?" she questioned the boy.

Judeau, garbed in the usual Sheikah garb, scratched at his brown hair as he thought back to the day he traveled the field to survey the damage done to the lands, among the many other Sheikah in training. The primary goal was to roam the lands and survey everything he could across the fields, all the while keeping oneself from being seen in broad daylight; the secondary goal of course, was to tally up all the dead bodies and destroyed pathways that needed repaired.

"Yeah, looked about my age, or older…it was almost hard to tell on my way back home." Judeau said to his teacher as he followed her through the normal castle gardens, "A boy survived all that mess, only to be attacked by wolves, and won in the end." he shrugged to himself, Impa seeing the action from out of the corner of her eyes as she observed her pupil while keeping an eye on where she was walking.

"...hmm…I see…" Impa murmured, while looking forward with her pupil still tailing her, "Perhaps he's the one…" she told herself.

"You know…it might help matters if you let me know what the question was for." Judeau pointedly remarked, earning Impa to look back at him from over her shoulder, seeing him give her a raised brow of intrigue.

"It's that dream princess Zelda has been having again." Impa told her young pupil, the two of them continued walking through the garden until they entered a walkway beneath a stone roof, Impa halted to stand in the shadows of one of the pillars that held the roof up, while Judeau stood opposite of her against the wall in the shadow as well. "It can not be a coincidence, the royal blood has its own mysterious magic, coupled with the many songs passed down through generations…so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch that the young princess is getting visions in her dreams."

Judeau pocketed his hands, and relaxed against the wall as he conversed with his teacher, his red Sheikah eyes shined with curiosity, coupled with a frown, "Yeah, nightmarish visions." he corrected, earning a nod of agreement from Impa, her eyes trailed to the side in thought.

"Goddesses bless her." she murmured, before hardening her gaze, and looked back at her student, "You still remember how to traverse the lost woods and into the village of the Great Deku tree, correct?" she questioned him.

Judeau smirked, and gave a quick snap of his fingers, "Yup. I memorized what you showed me." he answered her, remembering back when he was a younger pupil of Impa, and when she took him to learn the ropes of the underbelly of all that was the seedy underworld of Hyrule. It was a day he remembered very vividly, and how large the Great Deku Tree was. It was a memory that was hard to forget.

Impa nodded at her pupil, and sighed to herself, this next order would determine if the boy was still alive at all, and if he was in the Village of Forest Spirits at all. "Take an observant look in the village of the Kokiri, return to me once you find any evidence of this boy you saw leave the field and enter the woods." she ordered.

Judeau gave his teacher a two finger salute while expressing a wry smirk, and pushed himself off from the wall he was leaning against, "Sure can do!" He responded, before leaping up in the shadows of the ceiling, disappearing from sight.

Impa observed her surroundings a bit more, a mere parlor trick to most Sheikah that learn the art of hiding in the shadows and using it to traverse places, she was pleasantly glad her student was advancing quite far into his lessons…albeit… "I should tell him next time, to avoid jumping into water…it creates too much noise." She had strained her hearing just enough to hear Judeau leap across the castle rooftops, before leaping into the moat.

Removing herself from the shadows, Impa continued walking to her destination; so many things were moving in motion, only time would tell what would unfold from here on out.

Gerudo Valley

Moving back time a bit to when it was still morning, a few horses were crossing the bridge that connected the two ledges that connected two overhanging ledges over the massive drop to the river below; the leader in charge was of male stature while the rest were female. The male was the Gerudo's King, leading the group of other Gerudos to head to the Castle town and make peace with the other races.

From the crowd of Gerudo women that were seeing off their sisters and King, among them were a few young girls, of which one of them pushed her way through to catch up with the last horse and rider of the group heading to the Castle Town. "Sis! Sister!" the young girl called out, her expression was hardened but kept some air of innocence to it. While young, many girls had to live with the conditions of the desert, not to mention, many young ones lost a mother to the civil war.

The last rider of the group halted her horse, and looked down at her younger sister, "Ah, Casca." The Gerudo greeted with a warm smile, "Managed to wake up in time?" she questioned her sibling.

"Yeah!" Casca bobbed her head with a brimming smile, before making a faux angered look, "I was hoping I'd ask you to find that boy that injured mother, and give him a beating!" she declared with her fists clenched.

From the crowd of Gerudo that were seeing off their sisters and King, said mother stepped out to pull her youngest daughter away and to stop pestering her older sister, "Oh shush now." she chided her daughter.

Ubena, a Gerudo warrior and the mother of both Casca and Nebiri, had a face and body heavily marred with scars from the civil war she fought in. Ubena gestured for her eldest daughter to keep moving, "Get going." she ordered with a soft smile, earning one in return from Nebiri, before said daughter got going with her horse, making it gallop at a fast pace to catch up with the rest of the sisters and King.

Ubena frowned a bit, before smiling once more down at her young Daughter Casca, "Honestly, I come home with scars, and that's all you think of? Revenge?" she questioned her daughter.

"But mama!" Casca spoke back with an annoyed look, and glowered a bit, "You had such a beautiful face, then the next thing I know, you come home with all those scars!" she cried out with her fists clenched.

"Hmhm." Ubena chuckled with mirth, while bending over to look her daughter more into the eye, in the background, their fellow Gerudo sisters were already dispersing to begin their daily chores and activities. "I am unsure if that boy survived the war's aftermath at all, it was the most bloody hour, something I dearly hope you'll never experience." She comforted her daughter.

Casca, skeptical of what her mother told her, gave a critical look up at her mother, "But mama, you said that boy was like a berserking dog! It was like you were praising him!" she pointed out with a grumpy look, "You even said you once commended him for matching you in battle! How could he not have survived the war!?" she insisted.

Ubena simply gave her daughter a wry smirk, while patting her daughter on the head, "Who knows, that boy might have survived." she remarked, before standing back up and shooing her daughter off, "Now be off with you, you have Archery lessons with your fellow sisters today." she urged Casca, earning a nod of understanding from her.

As her young daughter jogged off, and in the process joined up with other girls her age, Ubena frowned as she watched the back of her daughter disappear into the crowd of other Gerudos; reaching up to trace the scars that marred her face, to the largest one that went from her brow, over her eyes, down past her nose to the bottom of her left cheek, she still vividly remember how persistent that boy was.

Persistent to survive, to win, to struggle, to deny death his life. Realistically, Ubena did hope the lad did the entire war after she faced him…

Past

Clang!Smack!

The body of the boy went flying into a broken down war carriage, wood splintering and breaking against the lad's back while he kept a firm hand on his sword the entire time; his entire body went through the side of the carriage, bringing the wreckage of it down on him in the process.

Ubena lowered her foot, and kept an eye for the boy, around her were her other Gerudo sisters, fighting off the mercenary group that was hired by one of the lords of the lands as extra fodder for the ongoing war. Ubena twirled her dual scimitars she fought with, and anticipated for the boy to come out of the heap of wood. He had survived many times over, she had heard how one of the mercenary gangs employed children to shore up their numbers. Ubena figured the talk was of children in their teens, not someone like this boy, he was undoubtedly around Casca's age.

"RRRGGGHH!" The boy yelled in anger as he pulled himself out of the pile of wood, blood seeped from his chest and arms from various cuts. The boy seethed at her with pointed canines, like a mad dog of war, before charging at her with emotions broiling in his eyes of rage, fear and panic, carrying with him a sword bigger than most children his age could barely wield.

Ubena prepared herself as the lad closed the gap between her and him with a well timed upwards swing, making her swing her scimitar downward to block his attack from cleaving her from her crotch upwards. Sparks flew between their weapons as the boy snarled, he was like a wolf snarling at his prey three times his size, not caring for his well being.

Ubena grunted as she pushed the boy's sword away and parried it to the side, allowing her to swing her swords down at his shoulders, "Nice try." she smirked, only to drop her smirk of disbelief as the boy intended to stay in place and allow her swords to dig into his shoulder blades protected by simple leather.

A small splatter of small blood leaked from the boy's shoulders, as he gave Ubena a nasty smirk, "My turn!" The boy yelled in seething rage, his eyes peering up at her through his helmet's visor, all the while bringing his sword back from the side to swing up at her face.

"GAAAH!" The stinking pain was felt across her face, she felt blood begin to fall over her eye, down her nose and cheek, the boy definitely gouged a deep wound into her face. Ubena glared at the boy as he wound up another swing at her, "I'm not that simple to defeat!" she denied him, as she blocked the follow up of the boy's swing.

Clang!

Another round of sparks fell from their swords hitting and scraping against each other, the boy kept his nasty grin up as he fought Ubena, the both of them leveraging what ground they could in the clashing of swords.

The mad dog that was the boy, snarled more as he lifted their power struggle of clashing swords, and before Ubena knew it, the boy found more strength in him to push her swords up and out of the way, allowing him a window of opportunity to thrust his sword into her stomach. "HRRAAAGGH!" The boy yelled in exertion, intent on skewering Ubena.

"I don't think so!" Ubena yelled back in anger as she leapt up out of the way, and landed a few feet from where she stood, she breathed heavily from the exhaustion she was feeling. The entire day of fighting this war, had her winning her battles until now. 'This boy isn't normal' she thought to herself, while narrowing her eyes at the boy in question.

"Get back here and fight damn it!" The boy yelled in indignation, his eyes were full of fury as he charged at her again with his sword raised above him, keeping it level with the ground while doing so, quite a feat to still be carrying a big sword this long.

Ubena snarled back, copying the boy's annoyance with how the fight was playing out between them, "This boy…does nothing stop him?" she whispered to herself, before steeling herself to charge at the boy as well with her scimitar raised.

Clang, clang, clang!

The two of them trade three consecutive strikes against each other's weapons, neither finding perhance into their defenses, before ending in another stalemate of weapons being pushed against each other. Ubena glared down at the boy, whom glared back at her. The lad now suddenly smirked, as she felt a sudden shift as the boy angled he sword forward, and made her slip into his defense.

While she managed to slice at his arms, the boy however lunged at her to strike a hard headbut into her skull with his helmet; Ubena found herself stumbling backwards, feeling her world swim while her head felt like it was cracked open.

Present

Ubena rubbed where the boy practically ended their fight between them, because after that, she heard her sisters cry out for her before feeling herself get carried off; the next day, she woke up and found herself looking at the damage done to her face.

She truly did wonder if that boy survived at all. A part of her thought he must have died like a common soldier, but having experienced how the boy fought, Ubena betted her bottom Rupee the boy escaped the fields while dragging his bloodied body off to somewhere safe.

Ubena smirked to herself with rueful expression, before marching herself off to begin making her rounds of patrolling the grounds with her sisters. Who knows, perhaps she'll be able to meet the boy again on better terms.

Guts

"Atchoo!" Guts sniffed in discomfort, and rubbed his nose, before glaring at his awful work of peeling potatoes, he shaved off too much skin along with the inner parts of the spud, "Damn it." he cursed.

"Guts!" Saria admonished the boy, as the two of them were in the midst of preparing potatoes to be boiled, "Language!" she tried to chide the boy, only to earn an annoyed look from said person.

Rather than apologize, Guts responded to Saira with an annoyed grunt, "Got another spud? I sneezed all over this one and peeled too much off." he grumbled.

Saria puffed her cheeks out in equal annoyance, before sighing in a bit of amusement at Guts's behavior, "honestly." She reached over and took the spud from the boy's hand, and offered another one into his hand, "You're lucky we have plenty for you to practice with." she informed the boy, earning an eye roll.

"Right…" He drawled how, doing his best to peel off the skin of the potatoes Saria brought in from the local Kokiri garden.

"And cover your mouth next time you sneeze!" Saria chided the boy once more, before returning to her own spuds.

Guts simply responded with a grunt of acknowledgement. With lunch over, there was quite a few more hours into the day, before night time, then dinner. I really wasn't looking forward to waiting a whole week for his wounds to heal.

Author's Note; I had to freakin upload this chapter through the moble app. FanFiction isn't working right at the moment.