A/N for Chapter 1: This is that Zelda story I've been ranting about for a while now. I'm going to post a new chapter every time I write one (I have Chapters 1-3 done, but until I finish Chapter 4, Chapter 2 will remain on my computer). And I also want to see how you all react to this so please, review!

Thank you.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Zelda or Nintendo or anything of that sort.

WOOSH! There was a blur of green and red as Epona leapt over the gates of Lake Hylia into the field beyond. Her rider, a tall, muscular teenager clad in a green tunic with a green hat and blonde hair, had just defeated Ganon, an evil humanoid pig, and had just picked up a potion he had asked the Lake Doctor to make to treat his wounds. The boy, named Link, urged his horse on faster down the path eastwards, towards a small gray mass at the horizon: Hyrule Castle.

He and his steed reached the castle in good time. Link tried to urge Epona further across the bridge into the town. Epona neighed and stood on her two hind legs.

"Whoa, Epona!" Link cried, calming her down. Returning her two front legs to the ground, Epona stepped backwards and Link slid off of his saddle. Now he could see the bridge better: What used to be a fine, well-made drawbridge was now separated in half and mostly submerged in the moat around the castle. Link knew of its condition the whole time, he just wanted to see if Epona would change her mind about crossing it. The answer was apparent.

Link jogged through the middle of the main street leading out of town. The street, as of seven years ago, was a nice, strong street of gray cobblestone. It now had charred pockmarks in it, and Link had to make sure that he didn't trip in them. He traveled this road into the town square, where waited six ReDeads, half-dead zombies of what used to be people. Link had read in a document somewhere that one person did the physical destruction to Hyrule Castle Town, and that one person wasn't Ganon, which surprised him. The ReDeads were caused by a ferociously contagious epidemic. The Hylain boy ran past the slow-moving zombies easily, locating and ascending a small set of stairs into the yard that was formerly a garden in front of a large, worn building. The worn building was the Temple of Time, one of the last remaining structures in the Castle Town since Ganondorf had used his weapon against the world a year before Link's re-awakening in the Temple of Light. Off towards the northeast of the Temple, Link could see Death Mountain, the highest point in all of Hyrule. Just a month or so ago, the now-peaceful ring of smoke around its summit was red, fiery, and angry, as Ganon's appointed guardian of the Fire Temple there, Volvagia, had invoked.

Link savored the moment for a little bit. This was the last time he was to ever see it.

He entered the Temple of Time, wiping his dirty boots on the already dirty entry rug that was there. Link took a look at the temple. The windows were smashed in, leaving the marble floor littered with broken glass and shards of wood. Also, there were bloodstains of those who had tried to hide from Ganon's attack, but failed. Their skeletons were whole and still clothed, and dotted the floor like some sort of sick decoration. He followed it about a quarter of the way into the Temple before the rug stopped and he was left to walk on the tile floor with his footprints already on it. Link walked towards the small pedestal at the end of the hall.

The pedestal was made of black marble and was inscribed with Hylain words that he had read many times before. In three nodes lining horizontally across the pedestal were three stones: the Kokiri Emerald, the Goron Ruby, and the Zora Sapphire. Link had gathered these three stones as a child seven years ago and used them, along with the legendary Ocarina of Time, to open the Door of Time. In the octagonal room beyond was the Pedestal of Time, which held the Master Sword which only the Hero of Time could withdraw. Link had taken the sword when he was a child, and hibernated in the Temple of Light for seven years, when Rauru, the Sage of Light, had deemed him of age to become the Hero of Time. Since then, Link had traveled back and forth through time many times before. This would probably be his last time making the journey.

Link bowed down and prayed to the goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru for a safe journey home, then took the simple metal shield he held on his back off and laid it face-down on the littered floor. Taking a sharp knife out of his boot, Link held it in his right hand and drew a simple design on its back: a Triforce figure.

Standing up, he reviewed his handiwork, then sheathed the knife in its original place and continued on to the octagonal room beyond the temple hall.

Link climbed the short voyage up to the pedestal of time, and then took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, and then took out the Master Sword from its sheath on his back. He remembered everything that had happened here in the past month or so. Raising the sword up, he let out a cry as he thrust it back down, stabbing it into the pedestal of time. He stayed kneeling down as a familiar blue light enveloped him, taking him back through time to when he was a child.

A few minutes later, Link opened his eyes. He felt smaller, and the load on his back was lighter. Looking over his shoulder at the Temple hall, he found that it was clean and tidy. He was home.

Link strutted out of the temple, smiling. The garden had returned to its usual, celadon state and the reflecting pools that people liked to thumb coins into had been filled with the cool, clean water from the nearby Zora River. Traveling further towards the square, the young boy found that it was neat and filled with people, like usual. He took a deep breath of the clean air and smiled. These people were completely unaware that he had just saved the world, and that was the best part. Link had never liked being in the spotlight.

Depositing his hat into his pack, Link shook the dirt out of his hair. The dirt had traveled with him back to the past. He decided that he should return home to the Kokiri Forest and wash up. Taking out his treasured, luminescent blue ocarina, he raised it to his lips and played a song. In a flash of light, he turned into a group of small green sparks that flew into the air in the direction of the Kokiri Forest. Landing on his porch, he returned to his human form. The Kokiri had the relieving lack of knowledge about Link's quest as well.

The day was just as if he had started his quest over again. There was no Navi, his fairy, and his sword and shield were gone from his back, but tucked away under his bed. Link turned and tossed his hat into his house, seeing it land on his table. Turning back, he saw Saria run up to him, waving.

"Hi Link!" she cried.

"Hello Saria," Link smiled.

"Good job on defeating Ganon seven years from now!"

Link immediately grew a large cartoonish sweat drop on his left temple, which made its way so that the bottom touched his chin before it disappeared. His eyes turned T-shaped.

Saria laughed.

"Link, I'm a Sage! I get to remember these things!"

"Oh, right." His face remained annoyed.

"Oh, cheer up, Link! I won't tell anyone, promise!"

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Link's face returned to normal. "Well, I have to go wash up," he said. "So if you don't mind, I'm going to head to the woods maze and use one of the pools there."

"All right, I'll see you later then!" Saria turned around and waved to him, before walking to the main path of the village.

Link took a towel from his room and hopped over the guardrail around his porch and landed on the raised land behind Saria's house, then made his way up to the Lost Woods, and went through the maze to...erm...the other maze. The Deku Scrubs that were there back before he defeated Ganon were gone without a trace. Following the maze around to a water-filled dead end, he looked around to make sure nobody was looking.

Link dumped his stuff off near the edge, and then kicked off his boots. Lifting off his tunic, he leapt into the water. It was cool and refreshing, and now filled with billowing clouds of dirt. Link ducked under the water, scratching his head with his fingernails, and then running his fingers through his hair to get the dirt out of it. Snatching a bar of homemade soap that he bought from the village's general store from his pack, he wet it down then started to wash himself.

He was so busy with his grooming that he didn't hear the Kokiri girl come around the corner. Not until she cried out in pain.

"AAAAHHHH!!"

Link turned his head and looked, then blushed profusely.

"Umm...."

"Help...help me...!"

Link's heroic subconscious leapt into action and he leapt out of the water, throwing his loose tunic on over his body and dashing over to the wounded girl.

"What's wrong???"

"They're-they're after me! Please, you gotta help me," the girl stammered. She had a few bruises on her limbs and face, and a large, arch-shaped cut diagonally across her back from her shoulder to her hip. Link recognized the wound immediately as being the work of a single type of knife: a Gerudo dagger. Her red hair had marks of blood in it, and her green tunic was brown across her back and dotted brown at her shoulders, the burgundy color of blood blotting out the emerald of her tunic. Around her neck was a chain with a small Triforce shape on it. The Triforce was silver except for the top triangle, which was gold.

"Oh my goddess," he mumbled. "Go-"

Just then a bomb went off in the courtyard at the entrance to the maze.

"They're coming for me! Please don't let them get me! Please!"

"Shh, I won't. Come with me," he said quietly and headed to go through the maze hanging onto the girl's hand. He didn't get far though. When he had taken three steps, two Gerudo warriors tumbled artfully into their section of the maze, both wielding two daggers. One of them had a bloodstain on it.

"RUN!!!" Link cried and the girl started to drag herself in the direction of the pool. One of the guards leapt over in front of her, then flung a smoke bomb down, keeping the girl and herself from view. Link ran without thinking into the smoke and found nothing there. "No...!"

"Now it's your turn to die!" the remaining warrior cried, setting herself in a temporary battle stance. She ran at him from the other side of the canyon. Link looked over his shoulder at the pile of his belongings: a towel, a belt and two boots. Nothing to protect him...wait! His boot! Checking on the progress of the warrior for a split-second, he dove for his belongings, taking in his hands his right boot and drawing from its sheath the knife he kept in there. He examined it to make sure it was intact, but he had used up his spare time. The Gerudo jumped onto him, knocking him into the water.

It took Link a moment to figure out what the hell had just happened. He was now underwater, and he hadn't been prepared for it, so now there was water shoved up his nose and most likely in his lungs now, too. He recovered quickly, standing and coughing up water, but his break was short-lived. The Gerudo knocked him down again, and started kicking his body underneath the water.

After a couple seconds of taking his severe beating, Link got the mind to defend himself. Adjusting the dagger's position in his hand so that the point was down, Link drove the knife as hard as he could into the desert woman's foot. She cried out loudly in pain. Link withdrew the knife from her foot, allowing clouds of maroon to flood out into the water. He came up for his long-awaited breath of air, to find the woman leaning against the wall, holding her foot, her face angry and her eyes billowing with tears.

Link just then noticed that the girl was only about a year older than he was. Her hair was red and her skin was golden tan like usual Gerudos, but her eyes stood out, colored a radiant icy blue.

Link stood there for a second, surveying the girl. Her outfit was Gerudo, as were her weapons that were now at the bottom of the water hole. Her shoes were those of the western desert, but those eyes....

He was silent for a second. "Let me help you," he said, dropping his knife into the water and reaching a hand out to her. "I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

When he moved toward her, she flinched, moving closer to the wall.

"I'm sorry, let me help-"

"Leave me alone!"

There was silence for a moment.

"Just let me-"

"NO! Stay away!" The girl took a hand and rummaged through the pack at the back of her waist, then pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it against the wall. The whole area was enveloped with sand-colored smoke. Link coughed for a bit, trying to wave it away with his hand. When the smoke cleared again, the strange Gerudo was gone.