A/N...This is my first Zelda fan fic that I've written in over three years. I stopped writing them because I got into Teen Titans and then got further into Kingdom Hearts, but I've had a story that's been bothering me that I had to write down. My Zelda ideas hasn't been fresh for a while, but I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda, though I very much wish I did. Maybe the Lord will grant me my wish.

Chapter One

Theft

The icy wind whipped against his exposed arms, chest, and legs. It was different, since he was so used to the heat from where he came from. But even though this chill was unbearable, he loved it and welcomed it. It let him know that he was alive and that he had made it out of Ohiko.

He could remember how it felt there, the scorching heat from the many fires started by minors. The screams that were heard from Ohiko castle as his very wife tortured and killed Hylians that some how managed to crossover to Ohiko. That's one of the reasons he was so determined to leave that place and never look back upon it, his wife, who snarled and dripped with evil in every cell of her body. She who fed off of other's pain.

If he could go back in time, knowing of how cruel she was, he would have stopped the wedding from ever happening. It would be done and over with and he would never see her again. But he remembered at the time how beautiful she was, though he learned that beauty wasn't everything. Of course, he was cruel. He had killed hundreds with the tip of his trusty sword. And most of those hundreds were innocent. But I guess you could say that he saw the light, and now he was able to see the difference between good and evil.

He looked at his surroundings. It seemed like a church, with the stone walls, stone floor, stone ceiling, everything was pure stone. But there were no pews or alter that indicated that it could have been a church. There was only a stand, where three stones lay upon it; one green, one red, and one blue. Past the stand was a long and very wide hallway. Above the hallway threshold was some sort of triangular symbols, made up of three triangles stuck together to form a large one. He thought nothing of it and thought about leaving. But curiousity got the best of him.

He walked past the stand with the three stones and entered the hallway. It was dark and damp, but it didn't bother him, since he was so used to the darkness. The hallway led to a large room, where a ray of light falling from a high window fell upon a pedestal in the middle of the room. Stuck in the middle of the pedestal was a sword, which gleamed with a bloody beauty.

There was a man kneeling in front of the pedestal, praying. His eyes stood closed until he heard him approaching, where his eyes shot open, alarmed.

"Sir Link!" the man said as he saw him. He raised one eyebrow. No one had ever called him without addressing him with the name "Prince" first. In fact, he wondered how he even knew his name at all. He had never seen him before.

"This place," he said, "What is it?"

"Why, it's the Temple of Time, Sir Link," the man said.

"And that sword," he pointed to the pedestal, "What is it's purpose?"

The man laughed, "Sir Link, you have a sense of humor. Of course, it is the Master Sword, and you used it to defeat Ganondorf, or as the legends say. It had the power to purify all evil."

"You must have me confused with someone else," he said and he walked over to the pedestal, grabbing the handle.

And the man stood up, "Uh, Sir Link, I am the protector of the Master Sword, you know you cannot take it."

"I am not who you think I am," and he slowly pulled on the sword and it slid out of the pedestal easily like butter. The man gasped and drew out his sword.

"This is your last chance," he said, gripping the sword, "Either put it back or fight me, and believe me, you might lose."

He rolled his eyes and gripped the Master Sword, "Ok, first blood wins."

It was a custom that every third Sunday the princess of Hyrule was to play shuffle board with all of the Hyrule's castle's head guards and official advisors, though sixteen-year-old Zelda didn't very much like it. She enjoyed games that needed strategy to win, but for some reason this type of sport never phased her before, and still hasn't. She had to play for at least an hour, which wasn't that bad, if you liked shuffle board, I mean. But when you utterly loathed it such as Princess Zelda had, time seemed to go by slowly.

It was her turn and she grabbed her stick and shoved the disk to the other side of the playing field, knocking one of her own pieces into a twenty, ending the round. The other team huffed with defeat as they followed her to the end of the playing field and picked up their disks. Then they retreated back to the foul line and began another round after writing down some points.

Zelda sighed as she awaited her turn and gazed up at the grandfather clock. She had only been playing for ten minutes and already she was getting bored of it. She prayed to the goddesses that they would bring her faster time.

Then, as if there was an answer to her prayers, one of the newer interns knocked on the door and poked his head in. He made sure to bow, because he was in the presence of a princess and higher ranks than him, and then said, "My lords and princess, the Temple of Time's game keeper has come with an urgent message. He requests that all of you to listen to his story, for something has happened there."

Zelda said a silent prayer of thanks, grateful that this blasted game had come to it's end. She quickly hung her stick back up on the wall and made her way down the stairs, where an injured game keeper stood, a hand to his bleeding eye. Apparently, the conversation had already began.

"You're supposed to be one of Hyrule's greatest swordsman!" said one of the guards, angried and worried, "How do let a seventeen year old defeat you!"

"I don't know how this boy got such strength, such agility," the game keeper explained, "Or how he learned such talented sword fighting skills. I tried the best I could, I wanted to protect the Master Sword! But the boy insisted."

By the sound of the Master Sword, Zelda's ears were perked and she was well into the conversation, "You say the Master Sword was stolen?" she asked.

"Taken right in front of my eyes!" the game keeper shouted. He removed his hand away from his eye, revealing an empty socket, "Or should I say one eye!"

Zelda gasped upon the wound that was inflicted on him and immediately went into action, "Come on, don't you people have no hearts! Call the royal doctor! He's injured badly!"

Some guards retreated to go and fetch the doctor. Others just stood there, mostly in shock upon seeing the game keepers injury. Silly, how highly trained royal guards tremble at the sight of blood.

The doctor arrived and insisted that the game keeper would go with him to his chambers. Zelda stopped them from going for only a slight moment.

"I need to ask you," she said, walking over to the game keeper, "Do you know who stole the Master Sword?"

He frown and his eyes trailed to the ground, "I believe it was Sir Link, princess."

The doctor took the game keeper away, leaving Zelda in a state of total shock. She felt the eyes of many guards fall upon her and she blushed, for she knew why they stared. They knew that Zelda had an infatuation with her childhood friend, Link. He was a knight that served her castle. But now seeing that he may have committed a crime, it made him and her look bad.

Thinking quickly, she called upon her attendant and also her nanny, Impa. She then cleared out the room free of all guards, since there was no longer a duty for them to stay, and then closed the doors behind them. She turned back to Impa.

"He's been accused," she said, "I can't believe it, but Link has been accused of stealing the legendary Master Sword."

Impa nodded. She had overheard the entire conversation through the door, "Well, we have duty, then. We have to go find Link, where ever he may be, and question him. Either way he will be forced to go under the royal court. Stealing the Master Sword is a serious crime. You and I both know that, Zelda."

The sixteen year old sighed in frustration, "Yes, I see. I just wish that it would be anyone but him. He..."

"Zelda," Impa said sternly, "The best thing you can do for yourself now is to forget about your little thing for Link and focus on getting that sword back in its pedestal. Understand?"

Zelda nodded, "I understand."

"I'll round up some soldiers. If he's willing to put up a fight, then we'll need a lot of help to take him down."

Zelda dismounted the horse as she stood in front of the entrance to Kokiri Forrest. She breathed deeply, heart pounding hard in her chest. She couldn't believe what she was doing, going to question her childhood friend about a serious crime that he had been accused of. She wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Go ahead, we will be right behind you," said Impa and she gave Zelda a little push to get her going. Suddenly she felt like a child again, being made to do something to a friend she didn't want to do. She had forgotten about that feeling, but now as she climbed the ladder up to Link's house, it was returning.

She hesitantly knocked on the door. There was a moan from the other side, "Announce yourself," Impa commanded.

"Um, this is Princess Zelda," she yelled to the door, "Open the door now."

The door opened and a tired, messy haired Link stepped out. At first he looked dazed and confused, then he straightened up and became aware as he saw that Zelda was accompanied by Impa and a few of the castle's finest soldiers.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes," said one of the soldiers and he whipped out a piece of paper and handed it to Link, "We have a warrant to search your house."

"For what reason, may I ask?" Link asked.

There was silence. Impa probed Zelda in the back, "Go on, tell him."

Zelda took a deep breath, "Temple of Time's game keeper came to the castle today complaining that the Master Sword was stolen."

"And this has what to do with me?"

"He accused you of stealing it," she said with a bite of her lip.

Link's eyes widened at the sound of this, "I did no such thing!"

"Well," said the same soldier as he snatched the warrant back, "If you don't mind, we'll search your house. If you've got nothing to hide, then you will let us."

Link stepped aside, letting them in, "Please, go ahead. Make all the mess you want, too. I surely have nothing to hide."

The guards went in, searching his things, making sure they didn't over look a single object. Impa was looking as well, searching through his closet and drawers. That left Link and Zelda together outside, alone and unwatched. This gave Link the cue and the security to ask Zelda a question.

"So what's really going on?" he asked her.

Zelda looked down, "Exactly what I said, you were accused of stealing the Master Sword from the Temple of Time. We have to investigate it. And even if we don't find anything, you will be most likely be hauled to the royal court."

"Do you believe I took the sword?"

This question tugged at Zelda's heart. Of course she didn't believe that he would do such a thing as steal an important sword and from such a holy place. And even if there was proof, like, suppose they found the Master Sword in his house, she still wouldn't believe it. She loved Link and she would never believe him doing anything like the accused. But she felt as though she couldn't tell him this, so she only replied, "I don't know."

Now it was Link's turn to look down, "Well, they aren't going to find anything in there. I stole nothing."

It wasn't too long after when the soldiers and Impa was finished searching through his house. It such a small house that it had only taken them a mere twenty minutes.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you," said Impa, patting Link on the shoulder, "If you don't mind, I'll ask you a question before we go. Where were you yesterday at around noon?"

He didn't even have to think as he answered immediately, "At Saria's," he replied with a nod, "You can even confirm that with her. Her house is right down the road, the cottage with the large patches of grass growing on it," and he pointed in the direction of her house.

Impa nodded in the direction Link had pointed and two soliders climbed the ladder down from Link's house and started off towards Saria's house.

"Come now, Zelda," Impa said, grabbing her arm, trying to lead her down the ladder as well, "We must go, our work is done here."

Zelda stepped back, allowing Impa to let go of her, "If you don't mind, I'll stay here," she said, "I wish to speak with Link. If you could leave my horse at the entrance, I will make my way back to the castle on my own when I'm ready."

Impa sighed. She didn't like the idea of leaving Zelda alone, even though she was going to be left with one of Hyrule's most respected knights. But she knew she couldn't argue and she agreed to let her stay, giving her a sword for protection, telling her to be back before eight, when the sun was fully down and the moon would be out. Then with a formal goodbye and another apology for searching his house and leaving him with a mess, she along with the other soliders left Kokiri Forrest.

Link walked back into his house, rubbing his temples in frustration, "Great," he said, "Left to clean up this pig sty."

Zelda slowly walked in after him while strapping the sword Impa had given her to her side, "I could help you clean up, if you like," she offered.

He shrugged, "I really would rather just go out somewhere, clear my head a bit from this stress. You say you have your horse?"

"Yes, I do."

"Would you mind taking me to Lon Lon Ranch?" he asked, "I want to see Epona. You remember, my horse?"

"I remember," and she turned to walk out the door again and climbed the ladder down from the tree house, followed by Link. They made their way to the entrance to Kokiri Forrest, where a large white stallion stood patiently there. Link mounted the horse in front of Zelda and then the two rode their way over to Lon Lon Ranch.

They rode to the front of the coral in Lon Lon Ranch and the two of them dismounted. Zelda took the time to tie up to horse to the coral's post.

The door to the barn opened and one of the ranch's attendant's, Malon, walked out. She didn't notice the two of them at first until she got closer. When she did, she ran over and jumped into Link's arms, kissing him on the cheek.

"I had a feeling you'd come today!" she said with a smile. Then she noticed that Zelda was standing next to him and she quickly regained her composure, "Oh, goodness, look at my manners!" and she curtsied to Zelda out of respect. Zelda smiled, "A pleasure to meet you, Princess Zelda."

"No need to bow," Zelda said, "Link came here to see his horse. Where is he?"

Malon looked at Link and the two of them seemed to exchange a look that Zelda felt eneasy when she saw it, "Oh, came to see his horse, didn't he?" she giggled, "Say, Zelda, why don't you go get him. He's in the barn. You'll recognize him, he's the only one that isn't black."

Zelda stared at the two of them for a few more minutes and then went to do as she was told, walking over to the barn and slipping into it. Inside it smelled like manure and she had to hold her nose in disgust. How could Malon stand such a horrible stench? She looked around and found Epona by the corner. Petting him softly, she untied the rope that held him to the stable and began to walk him out.

As she opened the door, she became aware that it was much quieter now. She couldn't hear Link or Malon talking. She looked in the direction to where the two of them where last seen and her heart nearly stopped at what she saw.

There stood the two of them, embraced in each other's arms, kissing each other, passionately. Zelda dropped the reigns of Epona and covered her face, feeling tears falling from her eyes. Turning frantically, she ran out of the ranch, crying hysterically.