Chapter Text
Chapter One: Festival
"Legend speaks of a hero, who pulled the four sword and split himself into four in order to defeat the wind demon, Vaati. But that of course, is the old legend," Princess Zelda began, a smile gracing her lips as she looked around at the gathering of people before her.
The small wooden stage she stood upon that would later be used for a puppet show had raised her a good foot or two as she told the story of the five heroes just as she did every year during the festival.
She took a deep breath before continuing. "The new legend is quite similar, but rather than four, there were five heroes. And though the fifth hero wasn't always one, he still proved he was just as much a hero on the inside as the other four," she paused as a few adults began to scowl at her words, some whispering and even walking away.
She pretended not to notice and went on. "He sacrificed himself in order to defeat the wind demon and save the other heroes only to have the evil behind Vaati, Ganon, show himself. The other four heroes then quickly defeated the King of Darkness by sealing him inside the four sword and all of Hyrule was at peace once more, and that is why we celebrate on this day."
It had been three years to the day the five heroes saved Hyrule from being enshrouded in darkness and had sealed Ganon away in the four sword. The land had been at peace since, and most had been able to rebuild and get on with their lives. Most, but not all.
"Hmph! That demon was hardly worth deeming a 'hero' after all he did!" A woman remarked as she pulled her daughter away from the Princess.
The Princess could only watch as a few others agreed with the woman and walked off as well. "I suppose I can't blame them. Shadow Link did cause quite the amount of damage," she sighed to herself just as the remaining children began bombarding her with questions.
"That story is so cool!" A child declared as he put his arms in the air. His enthusiasm had made Princess Zelda forget about the others that left and a smile formed on her face.
"Yeah, I love hearing it every year," an older girl added, twirling a dark ringlet with her finger as the little girl beside her raised her hand.
"Um, I have a question," the younger girl spoke quietly, slightly hiding behind the older girl.
"Yes?" The Princess asked as she stepped off of the stage to kneel before the timid child.
"Um, what were the heroes' names?" The girl questioned in a meek voice. "I know you said the hero's name was Link, but you also said they had nicknames for each other."
"Yeah, and what were they like?" the enthusiastic one added.
" I bet they were tough and really strong!" a younger boy said as he attempted to make muscles appear by striking a pose. Princess Zelda covered her mouth to stifle a giggle before a voice from her right suddenly caught her off guard.
"We are strong. Well, I mean I'm strong!" The children turned to see the hero standing behind them. "They don't call me a hero for nothing."
"Yay! It's Link!" They cheered, causing the hero to blush at the sudden attention.
"Hello, Link." Zelda smiled as she stood straight.
Link grinned back, "You ready?" he asked, to which she nodded.
"Um, Mr. Link? Can you tell us about the five heroes?" a child asked with big, pleading eyes.
"Yeah!"
"We wanna know more!" another chimed in.
Link sighed, and after looking at the Princess, agreed. "Oh, alright." He paused, tapping his chin as he wondered where to begin.
"Well, their names were Blue, Red, Vio, and Shadow.” Link tapped a finger to his chin as he took a moment to think of the right words to describe his individual sides. “Blue was a hothead, but he was always looking out for the rest of us. Red was a little too sensitive, but optimistic and always kept our spirits up when things were looking low,” He smiled as memories came flooding back. He then continued, “Green insisted he was the ‘original Link’ and often fought with Blue over it,” he chuckled, “But he was a good leader. As for Vio, he was very clever. He was the one who infiltrated the enemy and learned their secrets. Last is Shadow. We all thought Shadow was evil, but he sacrificed his life to save us.” Link continued talking about his adventures as four separate heroes, leaving out a few arguments and some embarrassing details here and there.
The Princess waited as he went on, noticing the melancholic look spreading across his face as he spoke. She knew he missed his other halves quite a lot, especially on the day of the festival. He'd confided in her about it shortly after they had returned to one, and at times she'd even seen him speaking to his reflection or even to his shadow. He didn't know she knew of this behavior though, and she had decided to remain quiet about it until he was ready to talk about it.
"And that's about it." Link finally finished.
"Vio sounds so cool!" A little girl smiled.
"Yeah, but Blue's more awesome because he wears blue!" the boy next to her replied as he pointed to the blue jerkin he wore.
Link turned to Zelda and held out his hand, "Let's go."
She nodded with a smile as she took his hand and they left the children to enjoy a puppet show that was about to begin.
As they walked around people would stop to greet the two, and a child even gave Zelda a daisy, which Link helped her put in her hair. As he did this a girl holding an armful of treats from one of the nearby stands ran into him.
“Watch it!” Her claret colored eyes narrowed at him before she ran off into a small crowd. Link glared as he watched her running off, noticing the red sheikah symbol on the back of the black capelet she wore before accepting the hand offered to him.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” He replied as he brushed himself off. After another quick glare in the direction the girl ran off in, a voice beckoned to them.
The two turned around to see a ring toss booth just a few steps away, the vendor calling to them. "Hey there! Care to try your luck at one of these prizes?" The man's gruff voice caught their attention as he leaned an elbow on the table where the bottles were stacked.
The Princess smiled, pointing to the array of prizes on the shelves at the back of the stall, one of which caught her eye. It was a large golden-yellow cucco doll. "Oh, Link, look!” she put one hand on his shoulder and pointed with the other, “Isn't it just so cute?"
The hero looked from the stall to the Princess and flashed a smile, "I'll win it for you."
"That'll be five rupees." The vendor held out his hand as Link handed over a blue rupee. In return the vendor gave him five small rings. "Alright, here's the rules: You try and toss a ring around one of the bottles." "If ya get three or more, ya win. Got it?"
"Yup," Link replied confidently. He tossed the first one and easily looped it around a bottle to the left.
"Beginner's luck," the man had scoffed at first, but soon had his jaw on the ground as Link had thrown the next two just as perfectly. Afraid Link would make his game seem boringly easy, he decided to change the rules a bit.
"Alright kid. I'm gonna make ya a deal. If ya can hit the farthest bottle with this," He brought out a ring that was twice as small as the rest, "Then ya can have three prizes. What do ya say?"
"You can do it, Link. I know you can!" Zelda cheered him on from his side.
Link gained a look of confidence as he took the ring, "Okay, you're on!"
The man scoffed and shook his head, "Kid, there's no way you can get this one!" He crossed his arms as Link tossed it, expecting to see it bounce off the bottle.
Instead the vendor’s jaw once again hit the ground as he stared at the ring looped around the furthest peg.
"I'd like that one, that one, and that one," Link pointed out the prizes as the vendor was still in shock. The man's eye twitched as he turned to grab the prizes from the pile, but his irritation soon turned to fear as a flicker of blue caught his eyes.
A blue fire had begun to spread from the side of his stall to the top of it. Link held a hand out in front of the Princess as though such a simple act could stop the flames from burning her, and the vendor grabbed his barrel of rupees and ran off yelling, "Fire!"
It took no time at all for the booth to collapse, and before the fire could spread, a couple of guards came to toss a few buckets of water from the town's well onto it.
"Thank you," Zelda smiled at the young guards, one of which seemed nervous once they realized they were in the presence of the princess. "Without your quick reaction those flames could have become much worse."
They bowed, "It's our pleasure, Highness."
"By the way, Link," One began as he looked to the hero then at the sky, "You haven't seen something big in the sky recently, have you?"
The hero shook his head as the other guard spoke, "You know, I thought I saw something, too. Looked like a huge bird or something." He then looked to the Princess and Link, "Ah, don't worry about it. I'm sure it was nothing." They bowed to the Princess then jogged off to continue patrolling.
Later on, as the once blue sky was fading to hues of gold and orange, the captain of the knights approached the two. "Your Highness," he greeted with a slight bow before turning his attention to his son, "Have either of you seen anything suspicious? There have been reports all day of sudden fires starting seemingly out of nowhere and many people have reported missing rupees and other items."
"Only the fire at that one vendor, but that's it," Link replied.
His father placed a hand on his shoulder and sighed, "Alright, then. Go have fun, but keep an eye out. It seems we have a troublemaker at the festival." He turned to bid farewell to the Princess and as he turned to take his leave Princess Zelda seized her companion's arm.
“Do you think whoever is doing it will try sabotaging the fireworks show?"
"I'm sure the guards will catch them before that happens," he gave her a reassuring smile, "So shall we find a spot to watch them?"
She smiled back and nodded, and as they passed by a tree the same girl that had bumped into Link earlier watched from a branch. She kicked her feet back and forth as she bit into a pear she'd pulled from the tree.
A small white dragon, about the size of a large house cat, popped its head over her shoulder through her silvery-white hair and chirped, reaching a paw towards the fruit. She smiled at the creature and held the rest of the pear up for the dragon to eat.
"Master Zole is going to be upset with how long we're taking, but oh well. He never said I couldn't have a little fun before bringing her back, right?" she patted a large stuffed cucco that sat next to her, braced up against a few branches. The dragon yawned, now done with the fruit, and sank back into her hood while she looked down at a few people walking below. Choosing a target, she dropped the remainder of the pear on a rather plump middle-aged woman.
The woman yelled at a younger man that stood nearby, thinking he was the culprit, and the girl snickered and waited for both to leave before she made her way down the tree and towards where the fireworks were being set up.
Meanwhile, Link and Princess Zelda were sitting on a small hill just outside of Castle Town, the best spot to see the show. A few others had the same idea, and as one by one fireworks shot skyward from farther out in the field the people watched. There was a high pitched sound before an explosion of orange in the sky above, followed by pink then blue. "Oh! Look Link, a blue one!" Zelda shouted happily, along with a few others.
Link nodded with a smile as the evening sky became lit with an array of flashing colors, each one just as dazzling as the last. Despite doing his best to continue smiling, his happy expression faltered at every blue, red, and purple firework that went off. Zelda noticed this, and took hold of his hand and was about to say something when there was shouting and panicked cries from the crowd.
Each firework in the sky was engulfed in a blue fire that caused them to explode dangerously close to the crowd. A small part of one of the blazing objects had almost hit an elderly woman if not for Link using his shield to protect her. As he went back to protect Princess Zelda he noticed a spot just down the hill where blue flames were being blasted skyward from the fields.
When everything had fallen from the sky and it appeared safe, Link turned to Zelda, "Princess, stay here!" He ran down the hill to where fires were now spreading on the ground.
"Run!" a man yelled as he seemed to emerge from a fire growing larger by the second. He was joined by a few others, and as they ran across the field, large avian monsters swooped down from the sky at them, attacking with razor-like talons and sharp beaks.
Link rushed into action and slew one of the kargoroks before it could attack a young child then took down a few more to allow the townspeople to get back to the safety of Castle Town.
By now the fires had connected to one another, and Link reached for his ice-rod as they formed into a blazing dome. He aimed the ice-rod at the flames, hoping the ice would melt to water and quell the flames, but it was ineffective.
"It’s about time you showed up," A female voice said from inside the dome as an opening appeared in the flames.
Link forwent the ice-rod and walked towards the fire cautiously, unsheathing his blade as he entered.
Almost immediately his brow was beaded with sweat. He tried to take a few deep breaths and scanned the area. "Who are you?" he demanded, looking around at the small blazes throughout the dome of fire.
Something caught his eye and he moved just in time to avoid a blade that swung at him. Holding onto the hilt of the weapon was a girl about the same age as him, the very same one that had knocked him over earlier. “You’re the one that bumped into me!” He exclaimed accusingly.
She gave him a mischievous smile, "Master Zole has asked me to bring the Princess back to him, but first I wanna have a little fun with you, kay?" She charged at him and swung her long-bladed sword.
He blocked with his own sword before slashing at her, missing her as she spun away from him but leaving a tear in the capelet she wore.
She stopped to grab the fabric where his blade left a nice long tear and examined it before glaring at him, "What the hell? Why would you do that?!"
Caught off guard, Link lowered his weapon, "You attacked me first!"
"Yeah, but that's no excuse!" she held out her hand, "Give me your hat. I need to cut it so we're even."
"What?" he scrunched his face at her strange request, "No way!"
"Yes! It's only fair, so hand it over!" She stepped closer, her hand still outstretched as though there was a chance he'd give her his hat.
He backed up for every step she took, until she rushed him. "Gimme!" she demanded as she chased him around the arena of fire. He avoided her, one hand gripping his sword and the other keeping his hat secured to his head.
"You're crazy!" he ducked in time as a hand came just a hair's width away. His attacker gritted her teeth and stopped chasing.
"Nova," she called out as her eyes remained on Link. The hero watched as a small winged creature lifted its head over her shoulder and let out a trill.
"Is that a dragon?" Link's question was ignored as the girl held up her sword and smirked.
"Light," she commanded. The dragon pulled itself higher onto her shoulder and shot a small blast of blue flames that engulfed the blade.
Link's shoulders slumped forward, "Oh, come on...!"
He jumped back as the fiery blade swung at him. Thinking quickly, he aimed his ice-rod and fired at the flaming weapon. The ice melted on contact and the fire continued burning.
"Ha! Wow you’re stupid! It didn’t work the first time so why would you think it would now?" She mocked and he frowned, before an idea formed in his head. He used the ice rod again, only this time it was aimed at her foot.
It froze her in place and she fell to the ground and let go of her sword, which landed a couple feet away from her just out of reach. Her dragon had tumbled out of her hood, and as she pushed herself up and wiped at the blood from her now split lip the dragon spit a small ember at her foot to free it. She went to pat the dragon's head and praise it before lifting it back into her hood and grabbed her sword.
She then faced the hero, who was currently panting heavily with his hands on his knees. "I guess you're not so incompetent after all," she said as she strutted towards him, "But it seems the heat is getting to you."
He forced himself to stand straight, mentally wondering how she didn’t seem affected by the sweltering temperatures at all. "Worry about yourself. I've dealt with worse!"
"If you say so," she replied and began to chase him again. It didn't take long before she caught up to him, but he defended by smacking her hand with his shield, knocking her sword out of it as he did. She retracted her hand with a pained gasp, clearly hurt as she cradled her hand close to herself and glared at him with teary eyes. She stuck out her tongue and went to retrieve her weapon.
With a huff she looked back at him, "I'm bored of you, so let's call it a tie."
"Wait! You can't leave just like that! Explain who you are. Just who is this ‘Zole’ and what does he want with Zelda?!" Before he could ask any more questions, she reached into a pouch at her hip and pulled out a deku nut.
"I'm Kira," she winked and gave a small wave, "See you soon, hero." She threw it at the ground that caused a flash that temporarily blinded him.
When he opened his eyes again, she was gone and so too was the dome of fire. Link sheathed his sword and wiped the sweat from his brow as the captain of the knights approached.
"Son! Are you alright?" his father asked, giving him a look over for any serious injuries.
"I'm fine, Dad. Just a bit overheated is all. Where's the Princess? Is she safe?"
His father nodded, "The Princess was escorted back to the castle. She’s safe.” He replied.
Link breathed a sigh of relief, “Good.”
“I saw you fighting against someone,” His father began as they headed back to the town, “I assume they had something to do with the swarm of kargaroks that were attacking the townspeople?"
"Yeah," Link placed a hand on his hip, "But how did you see anything inside that dome of fire? I couldn't see anything outside." The captain stopped abruptly and gave his son a perplexed stare.
"What dome of fire?"