'Mm... agh... huh?' Link opens his eyes, seeing himself in the middle of a dark field, but a field nonetheless. There was grass all around him, accompanied by the biggest sky he's ever seen. 'It's intimidatingly endless.

'What...?'

He notices himself clad in a tunic of green, with heavy equipment strapped to his back. A, sword and shield? He felt his head. At least he had a hat still on, though it was unusually longer.

"Link!" yells out a man's voice. "Link!"

He turns, seeing a storm of knight soldiers running in one direction past him out of nowhere. Link has to put his arms up and stand his ground before one soldier grabs him by the shoulders. "Hurry into the castle and get the princess to safety!"

"What?" Link asks, clearly confused.

The soldier seems aggravated. "Link this is no time to horse around! Hurry up and get the princess out of here now!"

Without another word the man ran off with the rest of the metal clad soldiers into the night. Instinctively Link ran back into a suddenly-there castle where the soldiers had emerged from.

On the other side of the dark door is a small dark and hallow room, with a young girl inside, covered from head to toe in this light royal-like garment. "Um... hello?" Link called out. "I was told to escort you out...?"

Eventually, the princess turned around, but before Link could see her face, everything disappeared into water. Link was falling. Sinking down into the water with nothing else around him.

He couldn't breathe.

"Gah!" Link screams, shooting up from his old mattress. He was covered from the next down in water. Cold, ice water - courtesy of his grandpa and the now empty flower vase. His previous fear turns into frustration and annoyance "Grandpa!"

"Rise'n shine, kid!" he greets, obviously amused by this wake up call. "Time for detention!"

Link shakes his hands of the water then glares at his exiting grandfather. He'll get him back.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Somehow Link manags to shrink his half-hour morning routine into a ten minute one before he's on his way to school. Third day and he's already making a bad impression. The last thing Link needed was to be late to detention.

Link rushes to his assigned homeroom, knowing he was already one minute late. But when he burst into the room, he finds the entire room completely empty save for a new teacher at the desk. Rather nervous and odd-looking for a teacher. "Um..." Link called, hiding his tired breath.

The newbie teacher acknowledges Link then hurriedly looked to his clipboard. "Link Ronce?"

"Yeah."

"Have a seat then," he says, crossing Link's name off the paper before taking out a rubix cube.

While doing so, Link can't help but notice that this Shiek girl isn't here yet either. Knowing her she wouldn't put up with this detention, Link thought negatively, sitting in the middle of the room. He stares at the board, sour from his early (and cold) morning, and the fact she's late for their shared punishment. Something didn't see fair about that.

But, no later than ten minutes after, the girl finally showed. Her blond hair was back in a small messy bun.

About time. His lack of his last hour of sleep appearingly put a toll on him, but he was more annoyed that he came on time for his detention while miss slap-a-lot came on her own accord. She didn't even look sorry - not that she had to anyway.

"Zelda Chic Landerson?" the young awkward teacher asked. She's late and she doesn't even get reprimanded for it, Link thought annoyed before something sparked in mind that cleared away everything else.

Wait. Zelda?

"Sit right there next to Mr. Ronce," the teacher says lowly before returning to his rubix cube, failing at it still.

The girl with apparently a lengthy name comes up and takes the seat in the desk next to Link, and only then did he realize they truly did share a homeroom. He never recognized her. But that wasn't his main priority. "Pst," he tries to call discretely. No answer. "Pst!"

"Shut up. Are you trying to get me in more trouble?" she snaps silently, sinking further in her seat.

"Do you really think this guy will mind?" Link's thumbs point to the 'newbie teacher'. Link and Shiek eye him, fruitlessly turning the rubix cube many directions without progress. He surely wouldn't be able to overhear a quiet conversation. "...Is 'Shiek' really your name?" Link whispers.

She looks at him questioningly. He didn't blame her; why would he ask such a weird question out of no where? "It's my middle name, spelled C-h-i-c," she explains harmlessly. "Kids in my old school called me 'Shiek' instead so that's the name I've been going by." She stopped talking, but found Link still staring intently at her. Was he expecting more. "... What."

He stared for three more silent seconds. "Nothing," Link said indifferently before facing the front again, nothing else to say. Zelda. Zelda. Why does that sound so familiar?

It takes the rest half hour of the detention period for the memory to finally sink in.

Link sees mental images of a little blond girl, unfamiliar to Link. She's smiling happily, with him. They're playing together and she's on the brink of crying before they quickly lock pinkies. Like... like a promise? The last scene Link remembers is her image shrinking as he drives away for 'vacation'. No way.

Looking discretely at this girl one more time, almost afraid, Link is finally able to piece together, well, everything. Zelda.

That was why she looked so longing when she first approached him in the cafeteria yesterday! She must've recognized him while he didn't. Ugh, and he even introduced himself, showing he had no recollection of her whatsoever. No wonder she was so upset with him.

Still, it's been how many years? Seven? Eight? Would a girl like her really get so hung up over something like this? The image of the little girl from Link's memories sure didn't look like the type to hold a grudge.

Then again, this tough looking Zelda, or 'Shiek', now looked like she would. Picturing those two totally different girls side by side looked so... not right.

"You've got to be kidding me," Link says absentmindedly.

"Would you keep it down," the girl hisses again, trying to keep her focus on the pencil markings at the end of her desk. "You're gonna get me in trouble again."

Link doesn't say anything, but he steals glances at her at the corner of his eye. Zelda. She was so different now. What happened to her? Even before the cafeteria incident, Eric said she was a loner. The Zelda he vaguely remembered didn't seem like a loner. She didn't seem like the type to be angry at the world the way this girl beside him was.

Then again neither was he as a kid.

"Guys I'm going to take a quick bathroom break," announces the teacher in an authorative voice, as if he had more than two people who needed to hear him. "You stay put and no talking while I'm gone," he says before leaving in a hurry with his rubix cube.

But the instant the substitute superviser teacher was gone, Link was just about ready to confront the girl. But, what would he say?

Sorry?

Sorry I didn't recognize your shadow of your former self?

Sorry I turned out to be such a jerk anyway because I really am?

What was he supposed to say?

Instead he just remains quiet.

In the mean time, Link tried to recall as much of he could of this Zelda. He knew they were friends but, that was it. He could tell he was forgetting more. A lot more, but for some reason it just wouldn't come to him. It was like, he literally could not remember - no matter how much he felt like he should or wanted to. And now this girl would hate him forever for it.

The only sound in the room is coming from a tiny radio voice on the teacher's desk. At first Link thought it was a radio, but it's actually a tiny television. "Breaking story: It would seem that there is a police force heading downtown right now to the Coveting Mall Construction Site."

Weird, Link thought. Wasn't that where his Grandpa would be for his dig or something?

Sources are telling us that there seems to be a... monster, attacking the archaeologists on sight."

It takes Link a second to register what the radio voice said. When it does, his eyes widen. "Grandpa!" Without warning Link bolted from his seat, running to the teacher's desk to find the monitor.

This obviously caught Shiek, now Zelda, of guard. "What the-"

"Wait shut up," Link ordered, turning the mini television around so he could see it from in front of the desk. It really was tiny, and black and white on screen with the occasional static, but Link could read. And the story was true.

The camera man, whoever it was, seemed pretty shaky on the scene, but he captured the image of the said monster. Zelda leaned to the left a little, wondering what Link was making such a commotion about. On screen, the monster looked like this shadow goul thing, with red dots, maybe eyes, and long vine line shadow claws, marching throughout the dig site. It was giant, and flinging archaeologists around like they were nothing.

It was like it was looking for something.

But before long, Link managed to see the monster lifting up his grandfather on city television. Link gritted his teeth as the monster threw him away, most likely injuring him by the fall. "I have to go to him," Link says out loud, turning the television back towards the board and running to the side of the room near the windows.

Zelda widens her eyes as she watches Link open one of them. "Link what are you doing?"

"That was my grandpa at the dig site where that monster thing is. I have to go to him!" Link climbs onto the radiator, ready to jump out of the ground floor window.

Zelda's expression only changes slightly, but you can read her surprise. "Are you crazy? You can't just leave school, let alone through the window! Are you trying to get into more trouble?"

Link scoffs. "I never liked school anyway. And I'm already a delinquent according to the teachers. Might as well go out with a bang," Link says smugly as he leaves the girl on her own.

Zelda stands, dumbstruck. Her mouth remains open while she stares where Link had once been. Has this guy seriously just left detention? Through the window?

But now she would be the only one there, and the only one to give an explanation when the teacher returned. She looks around before holding her head and groaning. "This guy really doesn't know the consequences of just leaving school." Not wanting to take all the blame, she's forced to follow through the window as well.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Link runs down the street, mentally having memorized the way during his and his grandpa's occasional drives. The construction site downtown shouldn't be too far. Now, Link is no athlete, but his grandfather's life was at stake, or at least it appeared to be, so he ran without stopping the entire way. The closer he got to his destination, the less people he realized was around. All cars in the street were abandoned, and there were no civilians. Authorities probably cleared the area.

But at the site, all the policemen appeared unconscious, littering the streets and sidewalks, along with just about all the archaeologists. They all looked the same, anyway. Link halts to a stop, assessing the situation. His sides are burning from the run, but he can't find his grandpa. There's no monster around either. Does that mean it was still there? Link knows it exists - it did this. He saw it on the television monitor. "What the heck is going on...?"

"Link!"

He recognizes that shrill voice. Turning around Link sees the same annoying tomboy who got him in trouble. Wait, did she follow him? "Zelda?" Link says instinctively. He mentally hits himself for accidentally calling her by her first name, but it doesn't really matter right now. She stops in front of him to catch her breath. "What're you doing here?" he asks her.

She's still bent over her knees. "Did you really expect... me to just sit there... and take all the blame?" With a deep breath she stands back up. "Now come back to school with me or else we'll-" She stops herself, realizing her surroundings. All the unsconsious police, and all the out cold archaeologists. No conscious soul was around. Her exhaustion from before disappears as she looks around. "What the...-"

"Shh." Link covers her mouth with his hand, leaning in. "Do you hear that?"

Listening carefully, both teens hear the sound of footsteps. But they're no ordinary footsteps. They sounded... lighter. But bigger. Link's eyes widen. "It's the-"

A screech bellows from behind a giant crate, causing Link and Zelda to cover their ears. It came out of no where, and sounds like nothing they'e ever heard before. Something of a mix between a high pitched eagle, but like the roar of a bear or dragon. It almost hurts to hear, as it rattles you to the bone.

Looking up, the two see the said shadow monster from the news. And it looks a lot bigger in person. Maybe ten or twelve feet tall, and totally gruesome - like it's made of shadowy vines ot tenticles. It's claws and toes looked like slithery black shadows, and it's torso mixed with its head, a number of red glowing dots over it. "Ew," Link frowns, immedietly disgusted.

"Don't just stand there run!" Zelda yells. They jump out of the way before the monster's hand could slam down on them. Looking back at it now, that hand is almost the size of a car. They could've been crushed had they stayed.

Link finally stops his roll across the dirt and then looks desperately for the girl. Did she make it out in time?

Carelessly he finds himself right in front of the monster, who's appeared from behind onf of the construction beams. Almost like a cat cornering its prey. Link just stands still in its growing shadow, a knock of fear and panic settling in. Before it can slam its hand down over him, Zelda flies in out of no where and knocks him out of the way.

The two roll out over the dirt and she recovers quickly, pulling Link up. "Geez you are lazy! Look where you're standing next time or you'll get yourself killed!" she lectures as she tries to get Link to stand. Mid way they hear the monster's roar no too far away. "Hurry this way! I know where we can hide!"

Without another word Zelda runs with Link following close behind. Zelda leads them behind a tall beam and behind a small wooden fence surrounded by some more crates piled up on one another. It should provide a good enough cover for the mean time.

The two sink to the dirt ground, out of breath once more. Was this really happening? Was this seriously really happening? "Do things like this happen a lot in this city?" Link panted.

Zelda makes the effort to shake her head, just as tired. "No. But we should be safe." A loud crash ensures somewhere else. "For now."

"How did you know about this spot anyway?" Link asks, turning his head in their hide out. They're surrounded by tall stacks of wooden and metal crates. Entering more through the construction site would just end up making it a maze. "This was no where near the entrance."

"I come here a lot," Zelda admits, wiping her forehead of sweat. "I found this place deserted a few days ago and since the city's taken a real long pause on the construction, I sort of taken it myself." Link couldn't help but think wow. She can do that?

But their is short lived, as the bigger crate hovering behind them is lifted up by the monster. The two turn heads and jump back up, cornered again. The monster throws the crate away, only proving its strength and ability to rip them apart as easily a paper. Link and Zelda back up as far as they can before their backs hit another crate. The monster then proceeded to grab Zelda. She extends her hands out to Link as its dark and viney hands encircle her. Link reaches out too but he can't grab her in time.

"Ahhh!" Zelda screams, stuck in the monster's fist. "Put me down!" The monster holds its other hand in front of Zelda, and she watched as a golden piece from her necklace started to float up from around her neck. "Hey!"

But just as their doom seemed evident, Link hears the sound of a familiar languagage, the same language he'd hear his father mutter in his studies. It can talk? Link can hear Zelda's screams overhead.

Link looks around the struggling monster, following the voice and spots an old man standing further away, holding a book. He's the one speaking the weird words. But the oddest part is that Link recognizes the old man. He's that janitor from the gym he caught staring at Link the other day. As the janitor's words grow louder, suddenly the monster freezes it's movements, glowing with a golden aura around it.

"No way," Link stares. The janitor pays no mind to Link and spooks him, walking past Link's shorter figure. The older man limps closer while reciting foreign words from a book of his. A few more moments of this and the monster has fallen, seemingly harmless now. Bound, even, but by nothing. The golden aura goes away, and Link sees Zelda able to escape the monster's grasp.

Link runs quickly to her, but she get up before he can help her stand. "Are you okay?" he panics, only for her to nod. It's a miracle she survived that monster's fall.

"Yeah. What'd you do?"

As if to answer that, the old man that saved them walks up to them, holding the large, closed book under his arm. It's Rellu High's custodian alright, but, why? "You two alright?" he asks sternly. All they can do was nod. He then looks to Link, and points suddenly straight at him. "You, we're going to your house."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

No longer than an hour later, the strange old janitor is laying on Link's new couch, resting with some amateur soup made from a can from the dollar store. Zelda came too, and this was her first time in their 'abode'. While the said janitor, 'Orca' apparently by his name tag, was lounging with his boots kicked off and his legs up, Link and Zelda were left to their own on the other side of the room. Link obviously wasn't as approving of Orca - He can't even remember why he allowd them all to come to his place.

"So this is where you live?" Zelda asks, having the same... bewildered reaction as Link did when he first arrived.

"It's... enough," Link summed up, supressing a scowl at Orca. Suddenly he finds himself in a very awkward situation. He had a girl in his home. And aside from Orca they were alone, ditching school at that. Having a girl over shouldn't be this nerve wrecking, but for some reason to Link it was. "Uh, do you want anything to drink? We don't really have a fridge yet so I'm afraid we only have some water bottles."

"Water's fine," Zelda smiles gratefully, to be polite maybe. But after all they've just went through, water sounded very good.

Link brings Zelda with him instead of leaving her with Orca. While going into the kitchen, they pass the old man on the couch. He sips the bitter-made soup, appearing deep in thought. "The hold will only last for three days on the monster," he mentions as the kids pass.

"What?" Link turns, not hearing. By now Orca's wearing an unusually serious face, kind of startling Link.

"From what I've gathered from my radio, the city's locked the monster up on the site, barricaded it and everything for 'investigation' or what." He coughs a bit and sets aside the soup on the floor, seeing as there's no table near by. "Those police folk don't know what they're dealing with, messing with it and checking it out."

And this know guy knows? "Well they're police. That's what they're supposed to do."

"Police deal with the law. Not with this." Orca leans his elbows over his knees. "In three days time the magic will wear off and the monster will resume whatever it was doing before."

Link rolls his eyes at the janitor's nonsense, but Zelda seemed intrigued. Wondering, even. "What magic?" she asks, though Link wishes she hadn't. "What exactly did you do back there? To the monster? You made it stop."

"See that bookshelf?" Orca points. "Get me the old red book would you?" Zelda willingly retrieves the book for the old man, but Link gives Orca a warning look. Incidently, Link notices Zelda pulled out the same book with the ancient unreadable text from yesterday. "I know what you're thinking Link, but I'm afraid this is serious business. Do you see any hint of excitement on my face?" What excitement? He has the same grumpy stern look he's always had.

I still don't trust this guy. "How do you know my name?" Link asked warily.

"Custodians know everything."

Zelda returns and carefully hands the heavy book to the janitor. Orca starts flipping through the old pages, and Link wonders if he could read it like his grandfather could. It's all a bunch of symbolic letters to him. Maybe. "Those archaeologists were excavating that site for the Triforce of Wisdom, an old relic," Orca informs. "But that monster, it wasn't supposed to be there."

"What was it?" Zelda asks as Link leaned against the side of the couch.

"A Goul," Orca tells, finding the page he was looking for. On it is an picture of the exact same shadow monster from before. Its errie image gives Link and Zelda uneasy matching looks. What's it doing in the book? Much less outside the book? "This monster is a, deliverer, if you would. A monster, sent by Ganondorf."

"Ah, the dude with the dorky name," Link recalls. Something clicks. "Wait. What? How do you know that?"

"Your gramps studies this stuff, doesn't he?" Orca laughs bitterly. "He's not the only old man in this city intrigued by Hyrulean legend, you know. Gouls sent by Ganondorf are only sent to retrieve the Triforces, or in this case the Triforce of Wisdom. Only, why now..."

"What the heck is this guy going on about?" Zelda whispers cautiously to Link, to which Link can only cluelessly shrug with a sheepish look. Inside, Link was SO panicked. This all, wasn't actually real, is it? And where the heck did this Orca dude come from in the first place?!

"And the Goul even got the right location for the dang thing. But, the only way it could've is if the Triforce of Wisdom had reawakened-" His eyes widen. "Oh dear..."

"What," Link snaps, still somewhat untrustwory of the janitor.

"The prophecy. The legends are coming true," Orca recites solemnly. With urgency he looks to the boy. "Link, has your grandfather ever told you the story of how the Hero and the Princess shall rise again one day?"

"I, thought it was only if that third guy did, too," Link tries to remember.

"Yeah and that monster wasn't proof enough for you?" the janitor's voice rises. "Ganondorf sent his monsters because he is back, looking for all tree parts of the Triforce. But the only way he could've known about it is for that Triforce to have awakened."

"You mean this?" Zelda speaks up, taking off a small string necklace. In its center is a golden shard wrapped with this string. "When the monster picked me up it tried to take this."

Orca immidietly takesit from the girl's hands, which Link is about to repremand him for, but his expression stops Link. On it is complete and utter shock. But more over, fear. Orca speaks low and slowly. "Where did you get this, child?"

"From the construction site," Zelda answers, confused. "I found it there three or four days ago in the ground."

ou found it?" Orca asks again, only for Zelda to nod. "Mm... it's only half... But the Triforce has been reawakened nonetheless... By you," he adds, slowly looking back up to Zelda. He reachs out for her hand, and carefully returns the necklace into her palm. He closes the hand and pushes it towards her. "You child, must guard this with your life."

"What is it?"

"The Triforce of Wisdom," he smiles with a firm shake of her fist. "Well, part of it anyway. That Goul must've been looking for the other half, probably still somewhere in the dirt. But you managed to find that one. Your presence in the construction site has reawakened the Triforce of Wisdom, young lady."

"What are you getting at...?" Link asks, sort of knowing himself.

The custodian sits back lazily in the couch, closing his eyes. "Your young friend right here just may be the long lost princess of the legend." His eyes open and become once more. "Though I never would've suspected. You have quite the rowdy reputation at school, you know."

Zelda's eyebrows furrow down, though he did have a point. "Just who are you anyway?"

"Good question," Link mutters with an accusing frown.

"Just an old man, waiting for something to happen," Orca says, stroking his long beard. "I got this job at your school because I knew it would lead me to one day telling the two chosen ones of their destiny. Or in this case, Zelda Landerson. That's why I asked if we could come here. It's the only real place we can talk in private. And your grandfather won't be coming home any time soon, I believe. Hospitals and what not, imprisoning us old folk."

"Whoa whoa hold up," Link interrupted. "You're telling me, this rude basketball player brat, is a princess." Even Zelda held her skepticness.

"That's right," Orca shrugs. "Got a problem with that?" Zelda and Link exchange looks. "You can choose not to believe me if you want. Your choice. But I did what I had to do, and that was tell her the truth. You, young lady, are one of the two destined to save Hyrule, or Rellu City in this case. Modernization's destruction of nature wound up building over the old kingdom a long time ago. But, a legend is a legend and it will go on."

"I... really am?" she asks, only to receive a look from Link.

"You don't seriously believe this guy do you?" Link's been listening to this magic mumbo jumbo all his life. And this tomboy who appeared as skeptic as he did, was buying into it so easily?

"I don't appear to have much of a choice," Zelda says with one of the most vulnerable looks she's ever manage to give in public. She lifts her hand, showing a golden triangle symbol appearing on top of her hand before it disappears. Link stares. "That's been happening ever since I found this gold piece. At first I thought I was hallucinating but, there's a picture of it on that book's cover."

Link looks over to the red textbook with the three golden triangles that made up the Triforce.

Secretly, Zelda could also recall a few stories that Link's grandfather used to tell in their days of childhood.

"Well, now you know," Orca starts, happy with his work, though Link obviously wasn't.

"So what do we do now?" Zelda asks, back in her strong affirmative tone. "If this is all true, you said that magic thing you did will only hold on that monster for three days."

"And once it's free, it'll look for the other half of that Triforce still missing and return it to Ganondorf. And believe you me that is the last thing we want. Even him having half of a Triforce is enough to wipe out half this city." Link and Zelda hold their breaths. Then Orca glances over to Link, trying to look as passive as possible. "Do you really want to test if that's fiction or not?"

This is so much to take in. Link couldn't tell if it was al real or not. But he'd seen the monster. And he'd seen what it can do to people, much less cities. Were there more? Was his grandfather even okay? Would they all be okay?

Somewhat left without a choice, Link sighs. "So, what do you want us to do about it?"