Author's Note: This is my first fan fiction and I was a little hesitant about posting it. However, I did, and I made several edits afterward. Well, I hope you enjoy the story more than the author's note, and please write a review.

Disclaimer: Everyone give a big hand to Shigeru Miyamoto for making up Legend of Zelda. I am just a humble Fan Fiction writer, and he is a god of the video game industry. Anyway, enough chatter. On with the story!

Chapter 1: A Nameless Village

Link knelt quietly in the grass. Every lean muscle of his body was tense. Through the narrow slit in the foliage he spied a large boar, probably enough to feed the entire village. The village was tiny, too tiny to be marked on a map of Hyrule. In fact, Link had never even seen a map of Hyrule. All that mattered to Link in this moment was the fact that he had eight hungry mouths to feed, including his.

The six people in the village who were not too young or too old rotated nights to hunt, thus establishing a six-day week. Nobody needed the seven-day week that the rest of Hyrule dutifully obeyed. But to Link, in this moment, the only measure of time that held any relevance was the time between heartbeats in which he could fire, the time in which his aim would not deviate due to the slight movement of his heart.

This is how the village survived, living strictly off the animals and vegetation of the bountiful Faron Woods. The woods that surrounded the village were lush and beautiful. It was autumn, and a canopy of gold stretched far as eye can see, penetrated occasionally by a warm beam of light from the life giving sun. However, beauty, like the week, had no relevance now, when Link had his bow pointed directly at the beast through the trees.

The beast was ignorantly enjoying its evening when it felt a stab of pain in its side. It jerked about, and after much struggle, it fell. Link, letting his muscles relax, stepped out of the trees to retrieve his kill. This would be enough for the village tonight.

When Link arrived at the shallow pit that encompassed the four wooden shacks that had been his home for his entire life, he saw his friend, Dysor, running up to greet him.

"Now that's what I call an animal," Dysor said with a smirk, "I guess my hunting shift is off, now that we've got enough meat to last us for two nights."

Link smiled and said, "Don't think you can squirm out of hunting so easily. Besides, I thought you enjoyed hunting."

"Your right, I was just joking." Dysor concluded. "Anyway, you can put that monster right over there near the fire pit. My parents are cooking tonight. They've already started on some vegetable stew and they just need some meat to go with it. Here, I'll help you carry the pig."

With much effort, Link and Dysor lifted the boar off the ground and hauled it over to the fire pit, placed conveniently in the center of the four houses. Link could see his younger sister, Diaxa, watching from the doorway to their house. Link and his sister had lived by themselves since his mother had died and his father had gone off to war. Nobody ever thought about the war, which had plagued Hyrule for seven years now, unless they were remembering the people who had left because of an unexpected attack by several Lizalfos. Seven years ago, when the war was just beginning, the reptilian warriors had swarmed the Faron Woods. Link, who was nine at the time, was told to stay inside the house with his three year old sister and his mother. His father, Rayand, went to defend as best he could. Along side him were Dysor's father, Thraer, and another man by the name of Semak. They had managed to hold off the monsters until the Hylian Army arrived.

The unimaginable happened: a massive battle in Faron Woods, this place that had been peaceful and undisturbed for many years. The battle lasted for a few hours, but to nine-year-old Link, it seemed like years. He and his sister were huddled, frightened, in their mother's lap. The clash of steel, the cries of men, and the hiss of Lizalfos were painful to Link's ears, each noise striking a new fear in his heart. He wondered if his father would come back from the battle. However as the noise continued, all the sounds seemed to blend into white noise and all the violence seemed miles away. In here, they were unreachable. The fighting existed in another world altogether and the walls of the house were impenetrable. Then that vision shattered.

A blade jutted sharply through the door, sending splinters flying. It violently jerked upward, cracking the door in two. The wood pieces clattered on the ground and each sound became loud and distinguished as ever. Once again every clash, every cry, every hiss was clear and individual as Link gazed in horror at the silhouette of the single Lizalfos standing right inside the door. Link's mother, Leali, immediately lifted the children off her lap, stood up, and got ready to tackle this creature herself. She drew her knife and skillfully sidestepped a quick downward slash of the Lizalfos' sword. She threw the knife directly at the Lizalfos' head, but it simultaneously ducked and stabbed, a move too quick for Leali. Link watched, horrified, as the cold blade impaled his mother mercilessly. A lifeless expression came over her face, and she fell forward, limp, onto the sword. Satisfied with its kill, the Lizalfos ceremoniously retracted its sword and prepared to turn on the children. What it did not expect, though, was the wrath of a boy who had just seen his mother slaughtered.

Link ran full speed at the Lizalfos, ducking under its swinging sword, and tackled it. Both boy and lizard hit the ground hard, but Link was on top. He stomped on the monster's sword hand, causing it to scream and flail. The reptile's mouth was gaping open, sending saliva spewing in every direction. Link took advantage of this and jammed his elbow deep into its throat. Blood and saliva mixed and were staining his clothes and blinding his eyes, but Link kept his elbow pressed into the Lizalfos' flesh. Finally, the lizard lay still.

When the Army drove off the Lizalfos, Rayand and Semak were recruited into the Hylian Army. Thraer refused to leave the village. The commander of the division in Faron Woods, whose name was Eko, urged all three of them to come. Eko told them that they would be valuable warriors in the Hylian Army. All three had refused at first, but eventually Rayand and Semak gave in. However, Thraer was stubborn and would not go fight in the war. "You say I would be a valuable warrior? I'm already valuable here, thank you very much, and I don't want go off and slay lizard creatures for, possibly, the rest of my life. Don't tell me how noble it is to help defend Hyrule." So, Rayand and Semak left, mournfully and reluctantly, while Thraer stayed. There was no punishment for an individual to refuse recruitment into the Hylian Army, but in this time of war, it was a great dishonor to turn down a commander. Thraer received many hateful glances and insults from the soldiers, but he ignored them. To him, his family was more important than his nation.

However, there was punishment if an entire human establishment, like a city or a village, turned down recruitment and sent no men to fight. If all the young, capable men of a city or village refused to go fight in the war, of which in this case there were only three, then that village would be branded rebellious. Once the small village appeared disloyal to the nation of Hyrule, there would be guards posted all around, watching the daily lives of these people. The village that nobody even knew of before would be marked as a threat. Rayand and Semak couldn't let that happen. Before departure, Eko told both men that they had one night to stay and prepare for the journey to Castle Town.

When Rayand returned, his face went white. Link and Diaxa were huddled in a corner and the bodies of his wife and a Lizalfos were sprawled upon the floor. He made eye contact with his son and understood immediately what had occurred. Bearing a look just as deathly as his wife's when she had died, he knelt beside the body of Leali and wept. Sorrow filled his soul and left no room for other emotion.

Link didn't know what to do. Three impossible events had happened today. First, the Lizalfos attacked. Second, his mother died. Third, his father was crying.

When a bit of the sorrow emptied from Rayand's soul, he had room enough to be proud of his son. In the face of fear and danger, and after seeing his mother slain, he protected Diaxa. He, a nine-year-old boy, weaponless, had taken down a skilled and dangerous warrior in order to avenge his mother and defend his sister.

"Link," Rayand said softly. Link looked up, face stained with tears. "You are a very brave boy. Mother's death was my fault. I should have stayed and defended our home. But you have done a deed of valor. You and your sister are both alive because of your courage."

Link didn't know what valor was, but he was happy his father was back.. Weak and tired, he forced himself to stand up. He shuffled over to Rayand and hugged him. They stood there, embracing, for a long time. Link could not have known that he wouldn't see his father again for another seven years.

The whole disaster was a distant memory to Link now, who was currently chewing on a piece of ham. His father was just as dead as his mother was, in Link's perspective. So was Semak. He had no hope of seeing them again. His friend, sitting beside him, also chewing a piece of ham, didn't share this perspective. While Link was not thinking about much but his delicious piece of ham, the war was at the forefront of Dysor's mind.