Here's my new story. I hope you all enjoy. Let me know what you think and if you like it be sure to follow or fav, it would make my ego very happy.

Prologue- The End of Times

How has it come to this?

Twenty long years of peace and prosperity at an end, I was only a young man in the last Great War. When I look back it now, I was a child playing at being a soldier. All the friends I lost and all the blood spilled seems meaningless now. In just a few weeks the enemy have overrun every part of Hyrule waiting till the last minute to rush Hyrule Castle.

This Kingdom has been here for thousands of years, its castle a beacon of civilization, a place where all could look to with wonder and hope. For the past twenty years I swore an oath to protect it from enemy forces. It fell in less than a day.

I should have been there with my King, fighting to the last breath, perhaps to join my brothers in whatever lays beyond the land of those with hot breath still in their lungs. Whilst I walk all my regrets haunt me but there is little time, I have to get her safe, I have to get her north.

I've heard the stories, every child has. We all doubted them as children but as I travel further and further north I feel a sinking sensation in the bottom of my chest. The very air seems to still here; moving slower than normal and I find myself on edge constantly. I feel eyes from the very grass and hills, like the earth itself is alive and watching.

Still despite all my thoughts I cannot help but be captivated by the beauty before me. The hills gently roll up and covered in rich green grass, hemmed with beautiful wild flowers that burst from ground with unorthodox colours of deep purple and blood red. The soil beneath my feet is a deep rich black that would've excited my father back while I still lived on the farm. If not for the stories I would think it strange that the slopping hills remain wild, staring blindly in defiance of all those who oppose it.

The grand mountains in the distance glazed with a thick snow on their peaks, look down with ominous foreign beauty. From here they make the peaks of Hebra look like the mudcastles I made as a child during those hot summer days. I can only imagine what lurks within those sheer stone walls.

The princess is not far behind, her head sinks low and each step has now turned to a weak shuffle. I cannot imagine how difficult the past few days have been for her. All she has known, her whole world has been utterly obliterated within days and something strange and perverted has taken its place. Now I am the only thing she has left and even I must leave her soon.

It has been several days since we were last separated from the other remaining resistance forces. The danger of trying to reunite with them through Hyrule is too great. I know the Red King will be desperate to capture the last remaining figurehead of the old order of Hyrule. With Zelda the last hope for Hyrule lies.

Rhoam made me promise to keep her safe and I tried my best but in the end my attempts were futile. We tried to make it to the coast on the east where the God's Road stretches north but the Red King had known before even taking Castletown. Separated from the others and with the men I used to call brothers snapping at our heels I had no choice.

Long ago Rhoam talked of a knight that played a huge role in the last defeat of the red king and relinquished his oaths long ago. I've heard the stories of this man, some even make the claim that it was a just a child, blessed by the goddess herself. I do not know why such a warrior was not present during the battle for the castle but I have no choice to search for him. The King once talked of a home in a grove on the border of Hyrule and the North. It is a shot in the dark but it is the only choice that remains to me.

I hear a noise behind and turn back. Zelda is kneeling in the dirt looking up at me with tearful eyes. I would do anything to take her right now in my arms, like my own little girl but she is a woman now and soon to be the queen. Royal etiquette is the only grasp I have left on any semblance of order we had in the past. This feeling I get when I look at her crying makes me think of my own family. I hope they have made it past the border and onto the Gods' Road.

"Princess?" I kneel down before her.

She looks up at me and for a second I see the desperation and sadness behind those green eyes. Within seconds the tears dry and her face returns to its normal reserved self. I cannot help but smile at her. I have protected the princess for many years and even now in her darkest hour she still finds a way to put on a brave face and keep going.

"It's not far just one more hill left and we'll get there…" I say as I help up holding her trembling arms.

She nods to me to carry on and I begin to walk once again up the ragged stones. I glance back more regularly over the next few minutes but she seems to have straightened up significantly. Every so often she catches my concerned stare and her face becomes even more resolute. My wish is to comfort her in some way but I was trained to fight and protect not to offer emotional support.

Eventually she can't take the silence and speaks up: "Rocco…"

I look back but try to keep up the pace. It's unlikely we're being followed on our strange route but I'm not willing to take any chances, she needs rest and a warm bed. More than anything she needs safety

"What is it princess?" I ask.

There is a long silence and I turn once more to see if everything is okay. The princess' face is twisted with pain. I have seen that expression before but not on her. It looks as though she is trying to force her way through it.

"Where are we going?" she asks with an edge of curiosity that I can only help but entertain. It will be good to keep her mind off all that's happened.

"The Land to the North" I say. "It goes by many names, the Land of Giants, the Land where Time Sits Still and the Old World. Most today know it by one name though."

"The Land of Ice…" Zelda whispers. "I always preferred the others."

I laugh surprising both of us. It has been some time since I have heard the noise. The noise of it echoes out into the air until it is devoured by silence.

We keep climbing the hill. The grassy slope turns a little steeper and rocks begin to jut out of the earth. The path begins to veer to the left. Rocks and pebbles along the path begin to get fewer and fewer, as though the ground itself is swallowing them up.

"Tell me about it," she calls out.

"Princess I'm sure your teacher told you. You probably know the stories better than I do," I reply.

There's not a soul in Hyrule who doesn't know them. They aren't the type of tales that are written down but told father to child, no one really knows what the truths are and where the myths end. All I know is the people and creatures of the North are stranger than any of the Gorons or Birdmen I've seen.

"Please… tell them to me like you did when I was a child," she says. I hear the tremble in her voice reminding me just how vulnerable she is right now.

I remember when she was a girl. It was a few years before I had a daughter of my own. I was a staunch man when I was appointed to her, devoid of any real emotion but even the driest of knights would've been broken down by the young princess. It was only a few weeks before I was telling her stories every night. I have my doubts if I would even have had a daughter, if not for my time spent with her.

I clear my throat and begin like all those years ago, "We are taught by the priestesses and books that in the beginning there were only three goddesses but that is not true. Long ago across the great ocean to the east there is a land far older than our own where ancient gods battled giant leviathans. These creatures dominated the oceans with their merciless teeth, frozen breath and even boiling the seas with pure fury. Tired from constant battle some of the gods fled the old lands and settled to the North of the newly created Hyrule. They looked upon the lands of Hyrule and the creatures within them with envy but fearing another war they simply created creatures of their own.

"The Northern lands were prosperous for some time but the gods were flawed. Soon they began to battle like they once did, only this time amongst themselves. They twisted their creations in the sole purpose of war until eventually they became monstrous creations unrecognisable from the beauty they once had. Only the men and giants remained uncorrupted as the rest were driven to insanity. The Gods ashamed of their ways retreated to the forest, mountains and depths never to interfere again. But the lands never recovered and have been frozen in time ever since."

"Have you ever seen a man or even a giant?" Zelda murmurs half consciously. She could probably recite the story herself but perhaps like us all she wants to remember some form of normalcy. If my voice can do that for her then so be it.

"The city of Svartrjǫrð is near here, I have met men from there but few have ever seen a giant. They are a private race that keeps to their own" I say as I finally peak the hill looking over a small lake.

Trees cling from the base of the waters to the sheer slopes of the hills that form a small grove. I see the small roof of a hut just next to the lake. It has to be what the King was talking about. It fits the description perfectly.

"Rocco..." Zelda reaches my side. "We've not been going towards Svartrjǫrð, where are we really going?"

I feel her eyes question me but something inside stops me from saying what is about to happen.

"Follow me. No more questions now."

My pace gets a little more frantic and I already feel anxious to return back to the chaos in the south. Salvage what little I can from the aftermath. I just hope this warrior is just borne straight from the stories. He needs to be strong to keep the princess safe. Soon we will be ready to fight back, but for now she needs to hide.

As trees surround us I can hear a sound that takes me back to my childhood, of axe cracking through wood and the clonk of it hitting the pile. I remember those days where all we worried about was getting through the short winters.

The woodland gives way to a small clearing. I see the source of the noise, his axe raised high for one last thwomp. As I call out he turns slowly blinking through sweat.

It's time. I take my cloak off revealing the garb underneath, my red crest of the loftwing no doubt making it obvious who I am.

His face stares at it and grimaces. He looks…annoyed?

I gesture for the princess to stay where she is and approach tentatively keeping my hands low to the ground. He slams the axe down onto the chopping block and for the first time I see his face properly.

He's young, looks old enough to be one of the late trainees in the academy. Ears point out from the sides of his head elegantly and piercing blue eyes stare across at me silently. Though his skin is clear and youthful there is something old and tired in his face.

His back stays straight and shoulders stay rounded and rolled back relaxed making him just as tall as me. As I continue to approach he scratches his cleanly shaven face and ties his hair back neatly behind his head.

"How's it go there?" I call out to him.

"When I said your kind weren't welcome I meant it, I don't care what the king says," His voice appears to sound freshly broken but there is something about it and it's not the slight north Hylian accent. The words themselves carry a weight I've heard before but cannot place.

"I mean no offence; I'm only looking for someone." I put my hands to my belt, my sword handle tingling against my left wrist.

"I'm the only one here," he says returning to his work casually.

"Looks that way," I remark awkwardly. "Look… I need to find an old knight, an experienced warrior. Do you know of such a man he should have lived around here?"

His face has turned grim changing as fast as a lamp turns on and off and he scratches his forehead. "The man you're looking for died years ago, I suggest you return home and get the king to find someone else to fight his wars."

"No," I mumble absently. "That doesn't make any sense."

This can't be happening. The only hope I had left blown out like a flimsy match. He watches my distress with a new interest.

I stare at him for a few moments. His calloused hands and athletic figure and my mind begins to whir. All I need to do is keep the princess safe while I spend some time gathering support. When the heat of her pursuers dies down there may be a chance smuggle her to the god's road.

"What's your name boy?"

He scowls. "Call me boy again and you can ask the gods what Rhoam meant when he said there was a warrior around here."

"Please this is important,"

Watching for a few moments finally he relents. "My Hylian name is Link."

"Link… You know this land well yes…?"

He eyes me cautiously, "Better than most. I don't like where this is going."

"That girl there is the princess. If she is taken by the red king the world will fall into a new dark age," I spit my words the second they come to my mind.

Link holds up his hands in front as though he is creating a wall between us, "Woah, slow down. What has that got to do with me?"

"I need you to get her to safety… please," I beg him.

"If we're talking about the red king I'm not too sure where 'safety' is."

He's right the red king is not one to relent when he wants something. Such a man would chase the princess to the ends of the earth, just to see her dead at his feet. I cannot think how someone of such evil could be born to this world but the desert he comes from is a harsh place, especially for men.

"Our forces will assemble at Veðrness—" I start.

"You have to be joking Veðrness?" he shakes his head and picks up another block of wood. "You're going in the wrong direction 'friend'. The only way there is along the coast and that lies on the other side of the Pyke Mountains."

"I don't need you to take her across the mountains, I just need you to keep her safe for a few weeks and then smuggle her to the God's road when the Red King's men have left this area."

Link snaps another wood block in two with a swift stroke. "Why don't you just smuggle her back through Hyrule to the God's Road now."

"We can't go back into Hyrule." I say quietly.

"Why not you're a knight?"

"Hyrule has fallen," I say loudly confirming what I haven't wanted to admit in my mind, I was too afraid. I look over to the princess who is fixated on the conversation she can't hear.

"We can't go back," I repeat retracting in my body. "I need to gather any support I can within the country and I can't do that with the princess. She's in too much danger; the Red King will be desperate to capture her."

"If Hyrule has fallen that means…"

I nod to the question I already know is to be asked.

He sighs grimly, "Fine she can stay here with me until the patrols die down. From there we should be able to cross back into Hyrule. This time I'll have to make it clear I'm doing no more favours for the Rhoam."

He begins to leave but stops as I say, "The king is dead."

Link stares at me for a few seconds and then nods respectfully. "I'm sorry. It's best you say goodbye to the girl now."

He disappears into the hut and for the first time since leaving the castle my muscles begin to cry out in pain. The cold is finally settling into my burning body.

"Who is that Rocco?" Zelda asks moving next to me.

Like a coward I cannot meet her eyes, "His name is Link. He knows the area. You can stay with him for a few days, just until everything settles, then he'll take you to safety."

"Rocco you don't mean—"

"Here is where I must part ways with you little princess." I catch her pleading stare finally.

"No. Please. Listen," she begins.

I wave her quiet. "My body is not what it used to be and I will just slow the two of you down. The Red King will already know you have fled and riders will pursue you relentlessly. We have to act with decisiveness and strength even whilst we seem weak. You will hide here with Link, I will head into the Kingdom and gather any remaining resistance. If we trust in Hylia I will see you in Veðrness."

Zelda looks me dead in the face. Any emotion she was withholding during our journey is now released from her eyes and her face begins to catch the light in a sheen. "Please… don't leave me."

My heart begins to wrench but I grab her shoulders firmly to more to keep my own resolve than to strengthen hers. I know now just how afraid I am.

"You have to be strong, you have to survive," My voice begins to break but I press on. "This is our only hope."

I throw manners to the winds as I take her into my arms like I would do to my daughter. A sob echoes in my ear and I close my eyes. When I release it may be the last time we ever see each other. All I can hope is that it is her not me who will survive the coming war.

"Goodbye princess," I say.

"Rocco…"

My face turns firm as my gaze locks to Link. He watches from a distance, expression flat and unreadable. I nod to him respectfully, knowing he will not return it and then turn my back on them both. My next breath in doesn't seem to end as I know what comes next for me will not be easy. But the task that lies before the princess is a greater burden then most could imagine.

If they do not make it to Veðrness two moons from now the world as we know it will fall.