Sometimes people make mistakes. I mean, REALLY make mistakes. They don't just shoot THEMSELVES in the foot, but everyone around them. And it's horrible, yes, it's terrible, but what will feeling guilty about it do?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The only thing you can do is keep moving forward. Make amends.
Even if it takes your entire life.
And that...is the cross I must bear for my failure.
SUPER SMASH BROS: THE UNITY TRILOGY
GENESIS OF UNITY
PROLOGUE
"When you think about it...we're the victims here." The being said. "We didn't even want him here. But he's here and he screws everything up. He's like a freeloading cousin that makes your whole house dirtier than it was when he first came. And...and I'm hurt."
"I can understand that."
"This is such incredibly selfish behavior! All we want is complete control over the Multiverse. Is that so much to ask, really?"
"And he's going to threaten it all if he helps them realize "it"."
"...well..." The Being would have sneered if it could have. "We're just going to have to make sure he can't."
"And how do you intend to do that? He DIDN'T come alone."
"I'll handle things on my end." One person spoke up. "I've got a plan for "that" one. My powers will be quite helpful in this regard."
"I know that girl is in MY territory. She shall not pose a threat."
"The Briton goes under MY jurisdiction, then?...lovely. Sigh..."
"You sound depressed."
"Well YOU'VE got the more interesting one to contend with..."
"Interesting, yes. But also the more annoying one."
"...true. True."
"My Goddesses, is that a SMILE?"
"Well it's much like when I was a wee lad and I saw my old, nearly-blind grandmother was trying to hobble towards what she thought was the house, only it was actually a bunch of trees by a lake. I thought "It's too late to stop it, so you might as well just enjoy yourself while it lasts"."
"Ahhh. Yes, yes this IS going to be a good day. I can tell!"
...
...
...
...It was going to be a good day. He could tell. There was just something in the wind, some sense of unbridled glee. The sun was shining just a bit more brightly, the grass seemed just a bit more green. It was as if all of nature was putting in 110%.
He wiped his sweaty forehead with his arm as he leaned against the thick, recently-washed light brown stallion, one hand resting on her fine white mane. Ahhh, what a good girl, he thought, smiling over at her big brown eyes as he looked out over the plains of Hyrule.
The youth worn a plain, white, loose-fitting garment with brown boots tied together with straps. He had a small little headband made out of an old rag which was soaked through with sweat from plowing the fields outside of the farm, and pointed ears that indicated his Hylian heritage. His blue eyes scanned past the hills towards the sight of Castle Town quite some miles away, and he let out a light chuckle, as if feeling sorry for the poor suckers who couldn't live the simple life.
With eyes bluer than the sky and hair an earthy shade of yellow, this particular young man was an ordinary sort with a fairly ordinary name for his kind. The name of a hero from yore.
Link.
...
...
...
... "Didja get the fields plowed?" A man in a brown garment inquired, tilting his head slightly as he shoved some hay into a feeding trough for the horses as Link led his favorite horse in all the wide world into the barn. The man was balding, with a w-shaped beard of brownish/blond hair, and eyes as blue as his son's. Seeing his son nod, he smiled and stood up, the last of the hay put away in the feeding troughs of the animals. He walked over to his son, patting him on the shoulder and nodding in approval. "Nicely done!"
Link nervously shrugged as he then led Epona over to the feeding trough with the other horses, who all began hungrily chowing down on their lunch as his father wiped his forehead. "Hot today, huh? Need another rag for your head?"
His son shook his head and just headed over to one side of the barn wall, taking off an axe from the wall as his dad nodded. "Good, you remembered!" He remarked cheerily, laughing a bit. "You're such a good son, I never have to remind you of anything." He told Link as Link waved goodbye with one hand, the other hoisting the axe onto his shoulder as he headed back out of the barn, out to the forest some distance from the farm. "You'll be careful, as always?" He called out.
His son nodded and waved again, and his father smiled with pride as several other men in similar earthy outfits stepped inside the barn. "Valiant, we need some help killing some rats in the attic, and some horses for the hunt tonight. We plan to ride to the river and get some wild deer when they're taking a drink, maybe do some fishing. Think you and your son would want to join?" A dark-red-haired man, folding his arms, one thick eyebrow raised as he grinned broadly.
"Link and I would be honored, lads." Valiant insisted, walking over to a closet with a thick lock upon it. He took out a key from his shirt pocket, turning it in the lock and pulling out several crossbows, tossing them to each of his friends, grabbing one for himself and then locking the door. "How big? 4, 5 inches?" He inquired, holding the crossbow up.
"More than a half a foot and they tried to make their way into our beds to nibble at our toes." The red-haired man told him solemnly. "They're gettin' BOLD."
"They can't be bold when they're a-nailed to the floor, now can they, laddies?" Valiant asked, raising an eyebrow as he and his friends headed out the barn. "Could be worse. Could be Stalchilds!"
"Don't go a-jinxin' it, Val." The red-haired man laughed as they all began to sing a rousing chorus of their people's anthem.
You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now!
You noble Diggers all, stand up nooooow!
The wasteland to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name,
Your digging does maintain...and persons all defame,
Stand up now, stand up nooooow!
...
...
...
...People think that moving through time and space is something big and spectacular and rather frightening. They've got different ideas on what happens, usually from the films they see, the stories they read. They think when they see it before their eyes, it'll be amazing.
I'm here to tell you this...they're right. But not in the way you'd think. It's not complicated. It's not frightening. It's actually something...familiar.
As the brown-haired, hazel/green-eyed youth walked through the expanse of white around him, he found himself surrounded not by an empty space, but by sights and sounds forever replaying all in long, thick rows. He moved by moments in time and space one step at a time, his head turning left and right, his hands reaching out and faintly brushing against them.
Old movie reels displaying their feature presentations over and over, comforting to the touch. As his hand brushed against them, he could feel, he could FEEL the emotions being carried in that place in reality. He saw and felt the joy of a beautiful wedding by a lake and could hear the happy cries of the crowd as two lovers embraced for the first time as husband and wife. He could feel the sense of pride flowing through the boxer as he held his gloved fist up, a very-much unconscious, vaguely blue-skinned man lying nearby on the ring, smelling of rancid pork. He could hear...
Horses. The whinnying of horses and a slightly folksy, rather charming tune being played on what sounded an awful lot like some kind of...
He turned his head to see, and see he did. That blond hair. That PLACE. The smell of the grass and the mane of the horse. All too familiar. He'd seen it a dozen times before. It was him. HIM.
He waited and watched as those all-too-easily-recognized eyes made their way into the trees, and he found himself drawn towards the strong smell of warm and deep forest. Closer...closer...
His hand grabbed hold of the reel. And with that, he was taken.
...
...
...
...it was going to be a good day. She could tell. There was just something in the way the swirling lights within space were twinkling today, they seemed to be lighting up with some sense of unbridled glee. The stars was shining just a bit more brightly, the nebula she was passing through seemed just a bit more Technicolor, there wasn't an asteroid in sight. It was as if all of nature was putting in 110%.
"I'm gonna LOVE it here." Erin Nightshade remarked, her long locks of red hair falling down past her face as she held up her communicator, flipping the thing open. She'd decided to go with a classic "Cap'n Kirk Flip-Flop" model. In fact, it even had the same paint job. She loved that hammy ol' dude. "Hey honey." She remarked cheerily. "You about to enter the portal?"
"Yeah. Erin, listen, this...is a very serious place. Are you POSITIVE you don't wanna...y'know...trade places?" A voice on the other end asked her, filled with clear concern.
Erin's bright blue eyes twinkled as she kneeled back in the chair she was sitting at. She was currently wearing a maroon t-shirt with a headband as blue as her jeans, and was calmly reclining in her private space shuttle, waiting for a particular target. A particular ship piloted by a particular woman. "You know if I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to talk me out of kicking ass." She commented cheerily.
"Sweetie, you know I love you. You know I think the world of you. You know I think you're bright and talented in all sorts of ways." White insisted.
"I'm waiting for the "but"."
"Me too, baby!" White laughed raunchily, earning him a "harrumph" from Erin. "But...this place is more dangerous than you'd think. Regardless of what changes have occurred because of her, it was dangerous before and is still dangerous now. We don't even know how much she's changed. Maybe Nick should have gone inste-"
"White. It'll be okay." Erin said. "...have a little faith." She laughed, and with that, she closed the communicator just as her ship's sensors began to pick something up. Turning to the circular-shaped screen to her right, she grinned broadly. "Show...me...the SAMUS." She whispered.
THA-THOOOOOM! A bronze-colored ship with glowing green "visors" for front deck windows rocketed past the small, cloaked shuttle, sending Erin spiraling away a few hundred feet. She managed to re-right herself as the ship she was tracking headed off in the direction of a nearby space station where several dozen Space Pirate ships were stationed. Erin grinned and placed her hand over the joystick of the shuttle that was stationed in the center of her control console.
"Okay, Miss Aran...Nick spoke so highly of you. Let's see what you've been up since last year..."
Samus's ship docked in secret, hidden away from the Space Pirates as Erin followed maneuvered her ship above the station, then "parked" it. Keeping it and herself cloaked as she popped a tiny, disc-like object into the front of her belt, a shield surrounded her, faintly glowing for a moment before fading.
She was quickly dropped into an airlock, then dropped out of the ship, landing right on one edge of the space station. Smiling, she shimmied towards an entrance where trash was deposited, and slipped inside, climbing up mountains of garbage to finally reach her destination...
How fitting that the kitchen was so close. But luckily, that kitchen was also close to the dining hall, where the pirates were. Insectoid yet almost avian in appearance, the huge-clawed, bug-eyed space pirates were all sheathed in exoskeletons similar to some kind of alien crab, with "helmets" to match, and buzzing wings. Most had blood on them.
That wasn't there's. Almost vomiting out of the vent she'd snuck into from the kitchen, Erin suppressed the urge and tried to ignore the smell. This was an important mission and she needed to prove to the others...herself included...that she could handle meeting up with one blond-haired, blue-eyed bounty hunter that was...
Sharing...a DRINK...with a purple, draconic pterodactyl at a table near the front entrance?
"To another successful raid on the Federation Stocks!" Samus Aran, Space Pirate cheered.
"I can't believe you guessed right on the encryption key they had set up for the doors." The space dragon remarked, grinning toothily before sipping on his drink. "Aran got it right." He said smugly to an armored space pirate that seemed more humanoid than insect.
"Well Aran had a lot of HELP." Samus laughed, holding up her glass at the armored humanoid. "Good work on the guards, Weavel. You're getting very good lately."
"It's my pleasure, Sub Commander." Weavel the Space Pirate commented cheerily.
"...something...is very...wrong here..." Erin muttered under her breath, eyes narrowing. "Very...very...WRONG..."
CHAPTER ONE
Link whistled nonchalantly as he walked past tree after tree, the sunlight filtering down through the forest canopy above, a gleeful spring in his step. The mere smell of the green around him filled him with a deep sense of peace. This forest was his home away from home, it was where he went when he had nothing else to do. And, unbeknownst to everyone else, it was where he kept a bit of a secret.
He reached one tree that looked sturdy but small enough to lug back home, and he hoisted the axe up, slamming the edge deep inside and getting to work. It wasn't long before it was cut down, and he was soon ready to get to work on the REAL reason he was here. He deposited the axe in the tree he'd just down, dragging said tree over to a special little clearing some distance away.
Approaching a large stump in the center of the flower-filled clearing, he picked the stump up, revealing a hole that was clearly in frequent use, dug up and filled in over and over. Quickly his digging revealed what he was after... several wooden swords that he'd hand carved, all fine longswords with a fairly large cross guard, the "crest" between the hilt and the blade. He'd painted each one a lovely shade of blue like his eyes, using blueberry paste that had been long-since dried up.
He picked one up and twirled it around in a circular motion, then did some rapid, swift swings, the hard wood cutting through the air as he pretended to circle an enemy. He practiced every day, and every NIGHT...
Mostly to keep himself from dreaming. He kept having those dreams. Those dreams of adventures and fighting, of monsters and demons and a human...
But humans didn't exist. They were make-believe. He KNEW that, it was common knowledge. But why did the dreams hurt him? Why did they fill him with such deep, incredible sorrow...a feeling that he'd lost somebody of infinite value...
He needed to think of something else. ANYTHING el-
Hmm. Wait. The others hadn't hunted in a while. What if tonight they DID go on a hunt? He wouldn't be able to practice on the Stalchilds.
Ah well, he decided, shrugging as he finished up his usual rounds of swordsplay, finally depositing them back in their hidey-hole, heading off back to the farm, unaware that somebody was watching silently from far off in the distance., hazel/green eyes staring at earthy blond hair.
...
...
...
... "Hmm." The King of Hyrule frowned darkly, his dark blue eyes scanning down from his high balcony of the castle that was his home. The blue-roofed castle had soaring ramparts that towered high over the town below as he watched through a telescope down at the people in the town. A man was being tossed out onto the street along with his family and their belongings. A man was yelling furiously at them, shaking his fist at the man and his family and ripping up what appeared to be a contract. "Another tenant evicted."
"Daddy, why are you spying on the town again?" A voice called out from the interior of the room, a voice belonging to a young woman who was sitting in a chair and reading a book with a thick red cover. She had a small golden tiara on her head and wore a royal blue vest and a white shirt to go with it. She had a golden necklace on that revealed the bird-like family crest, symbol of the "Thunderbird".
"It's not the town itself, Zelda dear. It's the people I fret over." He said, frowning through the telescope at the landlord that now closed the door on the family with a SLAM that he could almost hear.
Zelda's long, thick golden blond locks bounced slightly as she shook her head, sighing. "Shouldn't you be concerned with things like outright rebellion and border disputes, not the rising prices of rent?" She wanted to know.
"It's the small things, my dear. The small things that can make or break one's relationship with the people you care for. And a king must be there to care for his people, as your mother was, rest her soul." The king added quietly, stepping back from the telescope and heading back inside his bedroom/study as his daughter put the book down and looked up at him.
"I miss her too, dad." She said quietly, and he could see genuine hurt in her navy blue eyes.
"Well, you'll be Queen when I'm dead, so I want you to take care to notice even the so-called "small things" when you reign." He told her, patting her on the shoulder as he headed over to his desk to look over a new trading treaty between him and the Zora Kingdom. "And don't just stick with the title "Princess". I INSIST you take the title Queen even if you've not got a king yet."
"Even if you just go missing?"
"Queen." The king insisted. "And nothing but. Now then...how much do you think would be fair to trade for 200 pounds of fresh salmon?"
"That's a lotta fish." The princess remarked, raising an eyebrow as she looked down at the treaty. "Hmm." She tapped her chin. "How long have they been trading with us again?"
"9 months, remember?" The king asked her.
Zelda stepped back and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Let's see. 9 months is 15 months under 2 years. Invert that...add one and multiply by the base rate...divide by the "ruled by a woman" coefficient of 1.05 to show we respect their people all the more...add 5 pounds for such short notice since the treaty just came in yesterday and they want it shipped within the next four days...round to two decimal places..."
"You know my dear, for a girl who claims that math is the "most challenging and most easily forgettable" of all her studies..." The king said quietly, his moustache flicking back and forth as he sighed, shaking his head back and forth. "Oh. You have a letter, by the way." He handed her a small letter with a seal and she looked at it, eyes widening. She quickly ripped it open and walked off to her own room, opening the door and looking at it.
"Meet me immediately. This concerns the Diggers. Sincerely, Linwood Dragomir."
...
...
...
...Slowly but surely night was beginning to fall. The sun was setting over the horizon as businesses began to close one after another...and, unfortunately, this also included the offices of the landlords that made up the Castle Town of Hyrule. For a society that had so recently begun to truly progress in science, their souls were not catching up to their minds, which continued to desire more...and in some cases, desire ALL.
The landlords were tight-fisted hands to the grindstone, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous bunch of sinners.
"...and you would be?" A short-nosed, blue-eyed man with a thick beard and mustache of blond hair commented, raising a thin eyebrow up and rubbing his chin as several other landlords in the town sat at a nearby circular table.
Yes. Sinners all. And this one...was the worst.
And unfortunately, though he didn't look it, he was in a mood as he looked down at a slightly short man with orange/red hair and a stubby little beard who was clutching onto a small hat.
"Ah, that's Mr. Appleby, dear Linwood." Another man commented, one with receding brown hair atop his head that didn't seem proportionate to the immensely thick eyebrows he had. "He wants to talk to you about the rent."
"I KNOW you're upset, Mr. Linwood sir..." Appleby began as Linwood raised an eyebrow, folding his arms. "And I didn't mean to fall behind in my payments, by all the Three Goddesses! And please don't shout at me sir!" He went on as Linwood calmly took in a deep breath, holding the space between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. "And of course, my daughter's lungs aren't as good as they used to be, and the doctor takes HIS share, doesn't he? You can yell and scream all you like-" He went on as Linwood picked him up by the collar and walked over to the door, opening it up. "And you'd be right, but I'm the stone you can't squeeze blood from and that's the TRUUUUU-"
THWOMP!
He landed outside in a nearby carriage that was pulling dung along and managed to squeak out "Thank you for not yelling at me" as the carriage drove off and Linwood closed the door.
"Well." Linwood turned to the others and rubbed his hands together. "Let's get talking about those Diggers, shall we? Or rather, one in particular who's soul we've been trying to keep un-awakened for some time?"
The others all chuckled evilly. "Ah, yes." The brown-haired landlord remarked. "We can't forget dearest-"
CLONK-CLONK-CLONK!
The door opened and Zelda stood there in the doorway, one eyebrow raised. "Hello Linwood." She said, sighing. "What's all this about?"
Linwood Dragomir smiled and motioned for Zelda to sit in a nearby open chair. "You might need to know a thing or two we've discovered about the Diggers. One in particular, named Link."
He unfurled a small paper from his pocket and handed it to Zelda. She saw the seal upon it, glowing bright like gold...three triangles...
Symbol of the Triforce. A prophecy. "The Answer to Armageddon is Among them. The Digger named Link will bring Hyrule to Hell." She read out loud.
"This is one prophecy we cannot allow to come true. Or even come CLOSE to coming true." Linwood said firmly. "The prophecies have-"
"Never been wrong before." Zelda sighed. Prophecies were given to the people daily at the Temple of Time. They instructed people on what the weather would be, what to name their children, when people should be wed, when somebody would die...and they were never wrong. People were waiting for the other shoe to drop on one particular prophecy regarding humans, but many believed that one to be a simple fairy tale, since it had been made at the start of Hyrule's creation and no human had yet to ever be seen...
But this?
This was something to take seriously.
"Another glorious hunt!" Valiant cheered, holding a mug of freshly-brewed beer up into the air and happily clinking it with one of his many friends as he and the others all sat around in the dining hall of the farm. It was an enormous room with large rafters overhead, and many long, long tables to allow dozens of people to eat together. Wooden bowls and plates heaped with food were being handed left and right, with a fresh mixture of roasted potatoes, chunks of cheese and, best of all...
The venison. They'd caught themselves four deer and dozens of fish, and were all eagerly enjoying a lovely little group feast tonight. They would indeed eat well, Link thought as he put the cup of beer to his mouth and allowed the warm liquid to slip down his throat. But he wanted to hurry up and finish off his beer so he could get out and do some patrolling...good, old-fashioned nighttime training.
"Those cityfolk. I wish they could enjoy themselves the right way. More beer?" One woman asked Link, holding up a mug and pouring him some more as he nodded in thanks at her, the other people in the dining hall beginning to sing, waving their mugs or food in the air.
With spades and hoes and plowes, stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plowes stand up nooooow!
Your freedom to uphooooold, seeing Cavaliers are bold!
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold,
Stand up now, Diggers aaaall!
Meanwhile, one aggravated-looking middle-aged woman tied her hair into a ponytail and tried to scrub a chunk of tossed, slightly-undercooked fish off of one of the many handwoven tapestries that hung around the hall to spruce it up. She looked over at Link and gave him a "what can you do?" look as she headed over to his spot and kissed her son on the head. "You want some more food, son?"
Link shook his head and his mother Marian smiled kindly at him. "I'm going to go get Epona ready for your little "stroll", alright?" She said with a knowing wink, leaving the hall as more and more people began to sing even more raucously than before.
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now, stand up now,
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up nooooow!
To arrest you they adviiiise, such fury they devise,
The devill in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes,
Stand up now, stand up nooooow!
The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
The clergy they come in, stand up noooow!
The clergy they come iiiiin, and say it is a sin
That we should now begin, our freedom for to win,
Stand up now, Diggers aaaaaall!
Link took another swig of his beer, finishing it off and deciding to just let them finish out the song before he headed out to go on patrol. He thought about what the woman who had poured him beer had said. What was her name...Rosa, right. He remembered. She was always going on about those "poor cityfolk" as if they really didn't know any better, and in many ways, they didn't. She was right, they didn't understand the Diggers and their ways and didn't even WANT to.
The club is all their law, stand up now, stand up now,
The club is all their law, stand up nooooow!
The club is all their law to keep men in awe,
But they no vision saw to maintain such a law.
Stand up now, Diggers aaaaaall!
The Cavaliers are foes, stand up now, stand up now,
The Cavaliers are foes, stand up nooooow!
The Cavaliers are foes, themselves they do disclose
By verses not in prose to please the singing boyes.
Stand up now, Diggers aaaaaall!
It wasn't like they looked differently, like the bulky, rock-headed Gorons or the aquatic and fishlike Zora, or foul murdering big-nosed thieves like the Gerudo. The only difference between those outside Hyrule Castle Town and those within were personal beliefs. And it saddened Link to think about this. He shook his head slowly as the song finally came to an end and he headed out the door, thinking about the last verse.
To conquer them by love, come in now, come in now
To conquer them by love, come in nooooow!
To conquer them by love, as it does you behove,
For He is King above, no power is like to love,
Glory here, Diggers aaaaaall...
...
...
...
...the moon over Hyrule hovered in the night sky, gently glowing a pale white upon the many beautiful plains as Link had his sharpest wooden sword strapped onto his back, and was now currently wearing some leather gauntlets that had metallic tips on the knuckles. He did a few practice swings in the air, then continued walking through the plains as the stars began to appear one at a time now that the moon was rising all the more highly.
Just another day, just another night, he thought, sighing slightly as he heard the sound of crunching soil being turned over as skeletal beings began to rise up from the ground behind him. Red eyes sunken into hollow sockets, a head that was missing the lower jaw, sharp reddish/brown claws and a faint tattered brown loincloth that swayed back and forth...
This was a Stalchild, and it was slowly lurching towards Link as others began to rise up from the ground to get a piece of him...and they wanted him RAW. He held his sword up and twirled it around slightly.
"Every single night, the same arrangement, I go out and fight the fight!" He swung the sword and it struck the Stalchild before him in the chest, which he followed up with a swift kick, knocking the thing back.
"Still, I always feel this strange estrangement..."
It rushed back at him, snarling but he jumped up through the air, stabbing his sword in through it's head, making it disintegrate into dust that floated to the ground. "Nothing here is real, nothing here is right!"
Another Stalchild howled with fury, scuttling at him like a bony crab, but he quickly backhanded it away, and then slammed his fist into what passed for his "chin", knocking it flat on its back. "I've been making shows of trading blows, just hoping no one knows...that I've been going through the motions...walking through the part."
The last punch knocked the Stalchild to the ground and he sighed, shaking his head as he held his sword up and looked it over. The Stalchild popped up to try and grab ahold of him again, but he twisted around, and the sword shot through it's bony body, ripping the chest open like tissue paper and turning it to dust. "Nothing seems to penetrate my heeaaaaart!"
Several Stalchildren rushed forward, trying to attack Link as he twirled around, slicing and slashing at the undead hordes, leaping through the air and continuing to sing. "I was always brave and kind of righteous, now I find I'm wavering!"
He turned to notice a much LARGER Stalchild was staring down at him. He sighed and jumped up, punching it across the face. "Crawl out of your grave, you'll find this fight, just doesn't mean a THING!"
It rubbed it's chin. "He ain't got that swing!" It commented, kicking Link to the ground, who rubbed his head.
"Thanks for noticing!" The blond youth muttered darkly.
The Stalchild rolled it's eyes and turned around to shrug. "Link does pretty well with fiends from hell, but lately we can tell...he's been going through the motions...faking it somehow! He's not in even half the man he..."
SCHLUCK!
Link's sword was thrown right through the center of his forehead and the thing sank to it's knees. "OW..." It announced before turning to dust.
Link sighed as he pulled the sword up and swung it at a group of nearby Stalchildren, cutting them where they stood. "Will I stay this way forever, sleepwalk through my life's endeavor?"
One Stalchild managed to grab his arm, raising a set of claws up. "We will make you PAY-"
"Whatever!" Link cut the offender's head off. "I don't wanna beeeeee...going through the motions...losing all my drive! I can't even see...if this is really me! And I just wanna be..." The last of the Stalchildren rushed forward, leaping through the air to try and squish him, but he held his sword up with a quick thrust and THWOOM. It speared the thing, turning it to dust that scattered through the air.
"Aliiiiive!"
And with one final, wistful sigh he headed back towards the farm, not noticing that somebody was sitting rather uncomfortably in a tree, watching the whole thing with interest. "Heh...those moves. He's exactly like I'd hoped he'd be. If only Kevin could see him now. He's going all "Highlander" on villains now. All he needs is the "Brenda" to his Conner MacLeod...where IS Zelda anyhoo?"
"You want me to WHAT?" Zelda asked as she put her hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised.
"Meet with the Diggers. Get to know them. Live among them. They've no idea of what goes on in the city and WE'VE no idea of what really goes on in their home. Frankly, that's no way to live in this world. They're our next door neighbors and we don't even know any of their names." The King informed his daughter as he put the last button in on his pajamas. "Tomorrow you are going to go there, to the farm. You'll be in disguise and will ask to stay there in exchange for work. I want you to make up a believable story as to why you're going out there."
"But-but-but...they don't even have BATHS! Or...or electricity! Or-"
"Or studies."
"...okay, fine, that's ONE reason to go, but still-" Zelda began.
Her father held his hand up. "I'll give you one very, VERY good reason to go. I'm your father. You're my daughter. You do what I say. And that's FINAL." He said.
"Not the " Because I Said So" excuse!" Zelda whined, tugging on her pointy ears. "Isn't...isn't there anything that TRUMPS "because I said so"?" She whimpered.
"No, sweetie." Her father said.
"...I'll be weeks without a shower." Zelda mumbled as she staggered into her father's embrace and he held her tightly.
"Theeeeere there. It's alright. It'll be okay." He crooned to her. "It'll be okay, sweetie."
But inwardly, Zelda was grinning. This was her chance to find out about that mysterious Digger that Linwood had warned her about.
A name that seemed eerily familiar...
Link.