Okay. This used to be chapter 1, but now it's chapter 2. Same story, but now it's chapter 2. Thanks!

Chapter 1 - Lux

I remember my mom and dad telling me, when I was a little kid, that Hyrule used to be a really beautiful place. It was full of happy people, large towns, castles, magical forests, clean water, and vast sunny fields. Suffice to say that it's not like that anymore. Or so I've heard. Honestly, I can't tell you how bad it is. I haven't left the village since I was a toddler. All I know is that the moment you set foot into the Waste, you're monster-fodder.

They say that the guards are stationed here at the village for our protection. To keep the monsters out, they say. But I think they're actually here to keep us in. They treat us like livestock, telling us how much we can eat, where we can go and when. I think that the Crown might be afraid of one of us, and that's why there's all this secrecy and terror. The Dark Prince wants to make sure we're all under his thumb, one-hundred percent.

I think I might run away. I hear some people survive in the Waste, living in caves and eating raw meat and stuff. I could try my hand at that. It sounds a hell of a lot better than living here.

I sat in the bushes, waiting. The Crown's guards were doing their nightly search around the perimeter of my village. Their pretense was that they wanted to make sure all the animals were locked up tight, so no monsters would get them, but they were really counting heads to make sure we were all at home and complying with the curfew. Not like I'd never broken curfew before. Tonight was just...different, that's all.

The second the guards had their backs turned to me, I catapulted myself out of the bush and scrambled to the tree line. I was technically outside the village now, but still in danger of being caught. So I got on my knees and elbows and crawled as quietly as I could through the underbrush, down to the dried-up river about half a mile away. Not the first time I'd done this, either.

Once I couldn't hear the guards anymore, I straightened up and wiped the dirt off my tunic. Not like it mattered much. I strolled along, thumbs stuck in my rope belt, looking around at the nighttime scenery nonchalantly. The leaves beneath my feet were dry and cracked as I stepped on them - no fooling; it was the middle of summer, not autumn. The drought was just at a high point. Some trees were completely bare. The grass and weeds were parched and yellow, too.

As I climbed up the bank of the riverbed, I could see the Waste way off in the distance. It was the part of Hyrule that was once supposed to be a marvelous open field, where heroes of old ran free.

Coincidentally, I spied something new that night. Maybe it was because it was really clear, and the moon was full. On the other side of the riverbed, I saw what looked like a steeple. Sort of like the temple in the village, but made of stone, and a lot taller. I rubbed my eyes. It couldn't have been my eyes playing tricks, seeing something that wasn't really there. Ah, even if it was only a tree, I hadn't run away for nothing.

To my satisfaction, it wasn't just a tree. It had been a steeple. It was in ruins, mind you, and so was the rest of the building attached to it. But I decided to check it out anyway. There seemed to be two rooms. One room was much, much larger than the other. The floors were checkered in black and white marble. At the end of the big room, there was a tiny altar, with three indentations in it. In the second, smaller room, there was one, round altar right in the middle. I stepped up onto it, and brushed some of the dirt off a rocky nub with my sleeves. It was sort of a slot, with a triangle-y thing engraved into it.

I felt like I'd seen the triangle-y thing before. It was called the Tri-power or Tri-strength or something. People used to believe that it had magic powers, but then it sort of went missing after the Dark Prince took over. Or so they say.

There was one last thing that caught my interest. On the very back wall, there was a series of murals. There were five or six of them, all of similar-looking guys. They all had fair hair and blue eyes, and all wore the same green outfit. The last one in line had the triangle thing on his hand, and was gingerly holding the hilt of a greatsword that also had the triangle thingy on it.

I sort of hated these guys. They were meant to be remembered as heroes, people who had risked everything to keep Hyrule safe. But I hated them because they had failed. I didn't care how many gods "chose" them, how much they were "destined" to be heroes, or any other fancy weapons or magic they knew. They were still all losers who had let us down. More importantly, they were losers who had let me down.

I scuffed back into the first room, and laid flat on the triple-altar. It was kind of lumpy, but better than sleeping on the ground. I reasoned that the Crown would never find me there, so I curled up to take a nice long nap, and then maybe try hunting-gathering in the morning.

It was to my great surprise that a crazy old woman hobbled into my new house the next day, waving her walking stick, and calling me by name. "Link, Link!" she croaked.

To my dismay, she collapsed on the floor in front of the triple-altar. She looked worse than I felt. Pale face, shaking hands, raspy breathing. "Link," she coughed, "you're the only one who can save the princess." To be completely honest, I hadn't known that we even had a princess still. "Ganon has taken her to his palace, on Death Mountain, in the Wasteland. You must be the one to save her, and reclaim the Triforce of Courage." She coughed and wheezed a little bit more, before she wheezed her last.

I'm only a little sorry to say that I looted her body before settling in that night. Don't worry. I buried her properly. It was lucky for me that she had a nice pipe and some tobacco on her, so I sat on the triple-altar that night, thinking, munching on the old woman's leftover trail-rations and smoking blissfully. On top of that, there were a few other issues to consider.

Issue one: Should I go back to the village and tell someone? Resolution: No. The Crown would probably regard it as good news that a Hylian royal (whom I didn't know existed until that day) had been captured by the Dark Prince.

Issue two: Did I care enough about the princess to go save her? Resolution: Inconclusive. Sure, it would be nice to save the damsel, but at what cost? How far would I have to go? What would I have to give to get her back? Considering that I hadn't known she'd even existed, her political power was negligible. But still, the thought of a girl in danger didn't sit well with me.

Issue three: Given that the Triforce exists, is it really up to me to get it back? Resolution: No. I already told you, I don't buy in to the whole "destiny" idea. What does it matter if I'm the one to get it back? I wasn't even sure what the Triforce was for. Lore told me that it came in three parts, representing Power, Wisdom, and Courage, individually. Apparantly, whoever had all three parts became ruler of the universe or something. So, no, it wasn't specifically my problem.

Issue four: Will you go anyway? That's what I guess I'd been working up to all night. Should I go headfirst into the Hyrule Waste? Thinking back to my younger days, when I was unfortunate enough to have gotten in there by accident, all I rememered was a mazelike geography studded with monsters of all shapes and sizes, including giant octopi, killer cyclops spider-beasts, flying potatoes, centaurs, bats, and sea-monsters. And I mean it when I say that they're everywhere. I do not exaggerate when I say that each and every one of those abominations would sooner kill you than look at you.

Resolution: Yes. I will go. I might not believe in being a hero, or princesses, or destiny. But I did believe in fixing things that were broken. Even if it meant sticking my neck out on this one. I bet it sounds a little selfish from where you're sitting, eh? The life of one guy against the security of a whole kingdom. Seems like a no-brainer.

I'm going to prove all those loser heroes wrong. I'm going to save Hyrule. And not because I'm destined to, but because I want to.

I woke up the next morning feeling extremely pessimistic. I had a whole job ahead of me that I wasn't sure I wanted to do. But I'd made up my mind, and I was going to stick to my resolution. I gathered up the rest of the trail rations and set off towards the Waste.

The place that I saw fittest to enter was on the southern border, towards the center of the waste. It was an extremely dense forest, overgrown to the gills, as it were. I almost considered going back to the town and stealing a sword to hack through the undergrowth, but I decided not to. I later found out that this was the best plan after all, because to the East, there was only sea, and to the West, an impassable desert and mountains.

Suddenly, I burst out of the woods and into a clearing. I looked around and saw that the opening I had just hacked through had closed. It was like I had never been there. The woods were still dense all around me, except for three paths. There was one headed dead North, one at dead West, and one dead East. It didn't take long for me to figure out that the Dark Prince had turned the whole Waste into a sort of labyrinth, a system of clearings connected by thickets, bridges, and tunnels.

I felt naked for just a moment, standing there, all alone, with nothing but the sounds of far-off monsters to keep me company. Then I spotted a cave off to one side, and hastily barreled into it. Imagine my surprise when I found an old man inside.

"What, what-ho!" he remarked. "Do my eyes deceive me? Pray, they do not!"

"Sorry," I found myself mumbling automatically. "I panicked."

"And who wouldn't, boy? It's frightful out there. Come, come, sit down. Seldom to I get visitors!"

The small cave-thicket was actually quite cozy. It was not too different than my house back in the village. A single fireplace, a single cot, and a tiny array of shelves. The contents of the shelves were bizarre to say the least. Among at least ten books were piles of beautiful dazzling crystals, broken arrows, spiders' webs, and what looked like an old wooden sword.

"So, tell me your name," urged the old man, after we had both taken up before the fire.

"Link," I answered. No reason to lie to this guy, right?

He stopped short all of a sudden. "Really?" he asked. "That is your birth name?" "Yeah," I replied. "Why?"

"Well, that is a very special name, my boy. Many great heroes before you have borne that name. And they all went off to save Hyrule, you know."

"Pfft. All but one."

"So you're well-versed in history," he remarked. "Very good. But alas, where are my manners? They call me the Wise Old Man of the Waste, but you may call me Om for short. Short for just Old Man, I mean."

"Right. So, what's a guy like you doing here?" I asked.

"Aha, I could ask you the same question!" he twittered. "I am assuming that you are here on purpose."

"I am," I said. "I came here once as an accident when I was little, too."

"Then you must not have come through here," Om said, "for I have been here for a very long time indeed. So, may I inquire as to your noble purpose?"

"I have no higher purpose," I answered him. "I'm just here to get the Triforce, grab the princess, and go home."

Om looked at me with eyes that were both bright and sorrowful. "Alas, you are not the first." He walked idly over to his shelves and started to move things around, to keep his hands occupied, I figure. "Many have tried, and many have failed. I myself was once young, and at the beginning of all this, 50 years ago, when the princess was first taken away by the Dark Prince, I tried to find her. And behold: I have failed."

"The princess was kidnapped 50 years ago? She must be dead by now."

"The fantasy of youth! Am I not still alive after 50 years? We elders can be rather better preserved than you youngsters think."

"Sorry, just speculating," I covered. "No offense. You look good for your age." That was a downright lie. The guy looked more like he was 100.

"No need to lie," Om said, chuckling. "A mere warning that the land is worse than you think: It is eight miles from North to South, and twenty-six from East to West. You will pass through deserts, burned forests, deceptively bountiful plains, and, most importantly, you must climb Death Mountain to get to Ganon's palace."

"Ganon is the Dark Prince, right?"

"He might be. Orders from the Dark Prince are so few and far between nowadays, and nobody can ever recall seeing him in person. Ganon is a frightful beast, half-man, half-boar, who lives in a hidden dungeon on the slopes of the mountain. It's protected by flaming rocks that fall from the sky, and monsters – ooh, the monsters!"

"Look, if you're trying to talk me out of it, forget it. I know what I have to do and I'm going to do it."

Om gave me a pitiful glance. "Of course, of course. But do you know why you are so interesting, young sir?"

"No. Why?"

"Because you have a touch of destiny around you."

"Don't say that!" I blurted. "I can do whatever the hell I want. Destiny has nothing to do with anything. I'm just doing this because I want to."

"But you do not want to, am I right?"

"Well, I'm going to anyway. Someone has to. This has gone on long enough."

"And that is the definition of bravery, right there. Doing something even though you are afraid of it. And that is why you are the worthiest one to hold the Triforce of Power."

Om let me lie down on his cot and rest for a few hours, and then made me broth with chunks of mystery meat in it.

"Say," I said, mouth half-full of broth, "I've been thinking. You've been here since the beginning of time, right?"

Om giggled. "For our purposes, yes. Yes, I have."

"Can you tell me more about the Triforce?"

"Well, what do you know already?"

"I know that there are three parts to it: one for Courage, like you said; one for Power, and one for…damn, it starts with a 'W'…"

"Wisdom, dear boy. Wisdom."

"Right, that. And Ganon has one piece, and the princess has the other. The Triforce of courage is still floating around, though, right?"

"Yes, it is. May I give you the extended version of the lore?

"By all means."

In the beginning of time – yes, before I was born – there were three Goddesses. They were Farore, Din, and Naryu. Farore was the goddess of courage, and of the forests, and of the wind. Din was the goddess of power, and of great mountains, and of fire. Naryu was the goddess of wisdom, and of love, and the deep oceans. Together, they created Hyrule. They then manifested their powers into three pieces of solid gold, each shaped like a triangle, and each called a Triforce. They endowed the mortal world with the Triforce, and said that any mortal who had all three Triforces before him would be granted one wish.

And, for our purposes, there were many villains and heroes and et cetera, more than I care to remember. That is why I have books, to remember for me. Those things do not matter much now. Anyway, thousands of years passed. Maybe millions.

One day, Link the Last, as he is known, fought the Dark Prince's Beast, Ganon. And failed. The Dark Prince stole his Triforce, Farore's Triforce, and added it to his own, the Triforce of Power, and to the princess', the Triforce of Wisdom. He wished that all Hyrule was his, and the goddesses granted his wish in accordance with their promise.

Now, some say that Ganon is the Dark Prince, but in bestial form. Others say that the Dark Prince and Ganon are separate, and that the Prince uses Ganon to do his bidding so that he can stay safe in the castle. Some say that there is no Dark Prince at all, but a committee of sorts that sits on the throne, using Ganon as a puppet and to scare people into doing what they want.

At any rate, a darkness descended over the land. For a few centuries, the Dark Prince let the Hylian King rule over the land as usual, but secretly controlled him from the shadows. About 50 years ago, however, the Dark Prince made his move and set Ganon loose, whereupon he kidnapped the Princess, took all three pieces of the Triforce, and barred himself up in the Mountain. The Prince gracefully took the throne in the King's absence.

Now, the Triforce itself is a strange creature. Once a wish is made upon it, the pieces must be ritually separated before another wish can be made. Only priestesses of the demigoddess, Hylia, know the secret rite for this, and it has been lost over the ages. Sometimes, pieces of it go missing. Sometimes they all go away and don't come back for thousands of years. Sometimes they pop up individually, and sometimes, in times of great destiny, they all appear together.

When they do appear, there are some parallels that can be drawn through history. One is that the Triforce of Wisdom is drawn to a maiden of the Royal Family, and she keeps it. Another is that the Triforce of Power is the one most likely to be captured and manipulated by evil. A third, and the one that most certainly concerns you, is that the Triforce of Courage, the one you seek, finds its way to a boy. Always as peasant boy, always a boy named Link, with eyes as blue as the sky. And though you're not interested in destiny, I'm afraid that the world might have something else in mind for you.

"Ganon has one. The princess has the other. The third, when it was last ritually separated from the other two, was broken into eight smaller pieces and hidden in the Waste. Is that right?"

"Yes, that is correct. In brief, your mission is to find the eight smaller pieces, restore the whole Triforce of Courage, go to Death Mountain, and slay Ganon."

The dawn was bright and cool, and there was even a hint of a breeze flowing through the clearing above Om's house. I cracked my knuckles. "Right. Any hints on where to start?"

"Only one. The first labyrinth, or dungeon, wherein a piece of the Triforce is hidden, is North of here, over a rope bridge in the middle of a lake. I found the dungeon but could never get to the end. It was too much for me; unfortunately, they broke me and I had to stop and settle down."

"Right. I'll see what I can find."

I put my best foot forward – my right foot, naturally – and was about to head North out of the clearing when Om stopped me: "Wait, I have something to give you."

I turned back around and saw that he had a green bundle in his hands. Rolled in it was the wooden sword. "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this." I took the bundle out of his hands, and discovered that it was a gorgeous green tunic and pair of brown hose, complete with a leather belt and green cap. Glad to be out of my farm rags, I slipped them on at once. Oddly enough, they fit perfectly. Explain that without using the word "destiny."

The sword felt light, but sure in my hands. It was more of a bludgeon than a stabbing or slicing weapon, but hey. It would work for the time being.

"One more thing," Om said. He pulled a small metal plate out of his pocket. It was unbelievably smooth and shiny. "This is a mirror," he explained. "Just take a look at yourself before you go, won't you?" I took a hint and, rolling my eyes, looked in the mirror.

What I saw almost bowled me over. I didn't see me looking back. I mean, of course I saw me, but I didn't see me. I saw the hero-boys from the temple staring me dead in the eyes. The brown-blond hair. The cap. The tunic. The bluest of blue eyes…funny, I hadn't known that my eyes were blue.

"This doesn't prove anything," I said, turning away from the old man.

"Of course not," he said slyly. "But there must be something in the world, a thing even greater than coincidence."

"If you say 'destiny,' I swear I'll hit you with this swordy thingy."

"Alright, just… You're going to find things and you're going to lose things out there. I just want you to be ready."

"Sure, thanks. And I mean it. I do kinda feel ready now."

But dear Goddesses, I was not.