The reason I noticed him was because of the animals.

The guards noticed it too. Old hounds would drop their well-gnawed soup bones and follow after him. The mousing cats would stop their hunts immediately and pick up the parade, only for their prey to hesitantly follow a moment after. Horses, if able, would follow him; if not, they turned their heads in his direction. As did all manner of tame and wild animals.

It was strange particularly because, while the hounds were known for following the smell of meat, and the horses sugar, the cats would only follow their beady-eyed nemeses, never turning from their tasks, and hissing at those that tried to grant them a loving stroke. And the mice, walking along so close, the cats completely… ignoring them to follow him in his tracks! All manner of birds were reported to circle overhead, doves with hawks, following him with their keen eyes. At night, wolves and owls would linger at his room window, the latter peering in at him, and the former howling at his window in high-pitched, soulful voices.

In the morning, he was ordered, by my decree, to be the first in the long line of gentlemen come to fight for the honor of playing Regent Protector to me. I was only fourteen then, and my father had just died, leaving me as queen to all of Hyrule. He was a farm boy, hardly older than myself, as far as I could tell. I could also see how he shifted nervously, like a horse champing at the bit, looking around in the grand hall at the stern guards, the high stone walls. They made him nervous to be there. I sat in my throne, an ornately carved wooden beauty, polished until it shined like gold, with red velvet cushions for my back and seat. "Who is this that stands before me?" I asked in as imperial of a voice as I could muster. He shifted, unsure if he needed to bow, be on one knee, or what. In the end, he remained standing on both feet, choosing to look at me with those eyes, the sight of which finalized my decision to have this man play Regent Protector.

"My name is Link, Your Majesty."

He came to Hyrule not to compete with the other gentlemen vying for a coveted position, surprisingly. Had no clue yet, in fact, that the king was dead. Hardly surprising to me; the farmers on the farthest reaches of Hyrule rarely knew of any major events within a month of them happening. He came from the southernmost crest, and it showed; his hair was nearly blonde from days in the sun, and his skin was a deep tan color. The eyes, those striking eyes; blue, which wasn't too extraordinary, in my opinion. My own eyes were blue. But it was the way they could focus on a person that startled me. It was the same gaze a hunting dog had when it found the end of a scent trail, or when it noticed the uncovered rabbit. Completely focused, unmoving from their subject. It was a wildness in his eyes. To be honest, it scared me, until I truly got to know him. When he identified a person as no longer being a threat, they softened. But, as I was saying, he came not to win the honor of being my champion.

I knew of the troubles my country was facing; the hardships it was enduring. What would have been a roaring storm passed our country by without a wink. Grass, once lush and green, was trampled and yellow, scratching with brittle leaves for water. Lake Hylia was lower than ever; most of the Zora had headed farther west, following the oceans. He came to the castle to ask that they be spared from the cruel grip of the duke who owned their land. It was a desperate move, asking me to take back land the duke paid taxes on, land they rented from him.

"Things are gettin' tight around home with th' drought, Your Majesty, an' I don't know how much longer we can last." I was looking not at him as he spoke, but rather at the cat twining around his ankles. It was an old grey tom, named Butcher. He was sire to many of the other mousing cats, large savage animals that killed in the night and ate their prey quickly. Butcher had his name from the curious way he dispatched the mice and rats, though I don't know how he performed it, as the handmaids and guards that'd seen him at work felt it was too horrific of a subject to share with me. It also came from what he'd done to one silly new scullery maid's hand when she tried to stroke him, though she was warned. So, to see our most savage mouser purring and butting his head against the farm boy's ankles, well, there was something most mysterious about this young man. I looked up when I realized he'd finished speaking, a bit embarrassed. "Ah, yes, I'll see what I can do. What is the name of the duke in question?" Out of the corner of my eye, I could vaguely recognize Butcher sitting down and meowing at Link in a gravelly cat voice, purring and butting his head into the offered palm.

Link was speaking, and my secretary of estate was writing it down, but I could hardly hear him. Finally, I stood up. Link shut his mouth, the guards flinched and grew wary. All the while, Butcher was mewling and purring.

"Guards! Bring me that cat." Link stepped back, Butcher stepped forward- a guard picked Butcher up, who rewarded him with a furious hiss and yowl, his ears folded back. Cautiously the guard approached with the cat held outstretched. I reached out to pet him, and was dually rewarded with a furious swipe across the hand and a high-pitched, almost screaming yowl. Butcher was dropped, and he hid himself behind Link's ankles as the guard went to punish the tom with a quick smack on the nose.

"Don't," I commanded. A thin stripe of blood had grown along the scratch in my hand, and I let a maid quickly wrap some bandage around it for the time being. "Link, what exactly is it that you do on this farm?" He shifted uneasily. "I'm the horse master, your majesty."

"Anything else?"

"Well, em… No, not much, your majesty."

I studied him for a few minutes. He was shy, and I found I liked that; he was also polite and clean for a farm boy. And he was quite humble. Plus, there was still the matter of the animals' attraction to him; that could be very important.

"How would you feel of living in the castle?" His eyes widened. They were like an animal's even more so now- the wariness of a frightened deer. "I uh… never considered it, your majesty." I chewed at one nail. The guards looked at me suspiciously. "You see, Link, I have a bit of a… conundrum. My father, Goddesses rest his soul, has recently passed on. While he was alive, he was never able to assist me in finding a Regent Protector." He looked confused here, and I explained further. A Regent Protector was essentially the guardian of a young princess's virtue, if her father passed on before she was betrothed. The Regent Protector is also usually the princess' escort to balls and ceremonies, so they were usually quite well-bred, handsome men. There are still all sorts of terribly inappropriate half-rupee dreadfuls about the relations between Regent Protectors and their princesses. It was never intended to incite any illicit affairs- in fact, most kings chose far older or already-married men to trail their daughters. But I didn't choose Link out of girlish whimsy. He was strong, he was humble, he was honest. These factors alone drew me to him.

"So, I suppose now, we must formally ask you. Master Link, would you do us the honor of serving as Regent Protector to the queen?"

"Well… um, your majesty, I'd be honored." What else could he say?

Link settled rather easily into the role of Regent Protector. His sword skills were a little subpar, which was no surprise. What use would a farm boy have for swords? But he learned quickly enough, that was the good thing. Guards showed him the grounds, tutors for etiquette came in to help show him how to dance, speak, all the little necessities that would help to cloak his rather low beginnings, though he never did manage to understand which fork went to which meal.

His parents were informed, and sent a monthly stipend, which was more than enough for their rent on the farmland. The duke that was bleeding them dry was threatened with an audit of his yearly finances in comparison to what he took from the families renting his land, and he loosened his grip dramatically on the little farms after that.

The drought was still choking the land, however, and with no end in sight. Rebellions cropped up now and again, difficult to dampen. Whole fields of grain toasted in the sun until useless. Hyrule needed relief, but the goddesses weren't listening. Many joked that they were going to move in with the Gerudo women, as the desert was colder. I felt helpless, and spent most of my time in my tower rooms with the windows open to the cool breezes, which were few and far in between. We needed a miracle of a storm, at any price.

When the storms did come, it was wholly unexpected. That morning, there was a haze, thick as cream poured over the grounds. My shift had become a second skin, my hair matted to my own neck with sweat. Guards were forever carting around massive water bladders on their duties, as their armor and underclothes formed a stifling hot prison, they were prone to fainting without. I allowed my clothes to be removed by my handmaid, and a thorough sponge bath before she applied a cottony dress with short sleeves. Another shift, but it was formal enough and thick enough to get away with wearing in public. Ten minutes into the new clothes, I could already feel the hot prickle of sweat starting between my shoulder blades. I gritted my teeth and wore as little makeup as possible for facing the day.

Link met me on the stairs halfway down to the great hall, where the tile floors were flooded with cool water at night. The servants wore special-made shoes to prevent slipping, or they went barefoot to splash in the water for some relief. He wore little formal clothing as well, loose pants and a bell-sleeved tunic. His hair, so long and disheveled when we first met, was now clipped and combed back from his face, accentuating his cheekbones and those blazing, wild eyes. I greeted him as formally as I dared, and he bowed clumsily in return, still shy of his proper place. "Did you sleep well?" I asked him as we headed to the main throne room, where I would receive the daily reports. He nodded. "Y… yes, my lady. Quite well." I nodded. There were still reports of hearing wolves outside near his tower, and the guards never managed to catch them. Cautiously, I paused at a window and dared to push it open, gasping and recoiling from the heat that rolled in like an avalanche, shutting the window with difficulty. We finally made it to the main hall, where scouts were waiting patiently, drinking out of enormous pitchers of water, red-faced and sweaty. I sat down at my throne and folded my hands in my lap as the first scout came forward. "Your majesty, the Zora apologize for their retreat towards the ocean. As it is-"

A deep rumbling growl from the sky interrupted him. I noticed the light streaming through the windows grow dim, and I looked at Link, confused. "What was that?" His eyes seemed to glow with promise. "Thunder, my lady." The court people that heard him looked on in doubt, a few running outside, only to come back shouting about the grey and green sky. I stood up, my eyes wide. Lightning split the sky like a snake's forked tongue, a sizzling purple color, and the roar of thunder made the very castle shake, I could swear it still to this day. And then the water came. It was as if the goddesses took up all of the wide ocean in their arms and slowly poured it over the country. The maids scrambled throughout the castle to try and shut the windows tight; a few of the scullery maids had escaped outside to dance in the rain, laughing and screaming with happiness.

Link and I looked at each other in surprise. Neither of us could quite believe that this was happening. I ran to a window and pushed it open, sticking my head out with wide eyes. Raindrops the size of peach pits thwocked on the ground and my hair, almost hurting. Lightning continue to whip itself across the sky, white and purple, while the thunder bellowed like an angry mountain beast. "Well," I could only comment with some relief, "at least that is taken care of." But in the end, we'd wish the rains had never come.

The reason I noticed him was because of the weather.

When he walked, his black cape flicked and flowed on the breeze, and deep, black storm clouds followed. When the cloak was removed, the clouds stayed, lingering and growling their threats, making the air dry and sticky, but never breaking. Shocking, this, that a man seemed to have the sort of control that belonged properly in the goddesses' hands. Though to infer that the goddesses were the ones who would soak our beloved country in a rain so strong as to cause flash floods down Death Mountain almost seems to paint them as malevolent. His presence was almost their absence. Flowers closed when he came near, grass withered until he was gone. The very air seemed to shrink back from him, a man cloaked in a stench of evil.

How I came to know him was that my international affairs ambassador died, in mysterious circumstances. To lose two great men in so short a time- less than six months! The country was reeling from the news. First, of the dead king, second, of the flash floods ravaging Kakariko, nestled at the very base of Death Mountain, and with little protection, and finally this. I needed to appoint a new one, a man that I trusted beyond reason of a doubt. This man certainly wasn't one of them- I didn't even know him!

I put off having to encounter him for as many days as possible without running out his patience. Those that I interviewed were longtime friends of my father, men who had held me on their knee when I was a child. Many of them also remembered my mother, who died giving birth to me. But one after another, something happened to interrupt these fine upstanding men from taking their place as a newly appointed position. A death in their families, a tragedy of other proportions, undiscovered debts of some sort. Strange little things along these lines made them fall out one after another, until the only choice was this malevolent figure in black, red hair and evil eyes, grinning like a cat with the cream. "Your father and I go way back, your majesty," he said, down on one knee, a smile on his face. I did not know this man- how could my father have? "He and I attended church and school together; we grew up with the same education and the same exposure to many of the details of Hylian life." I studied the embroidery on his clothes, thinking I had found a loophole.

"But you are a Gerudo, are you not? How could you be said to have attended the same schooling as my father?" He chuckled. "Your Majesty, surely you realize that I was sent to the very best of schools, same as the late king? As a rarity to the Gerudo, I was to have the greatest learning we could manage." I nodded reluctantly, unable to hide the frown on my face. "I'm sorry to say that my father never spoke of you, Master…"

"Ganondorf, Your Majesty."