the shadow of hyrule - chp1

The bedroom was dark. At the far end of the room, a bed sat against the wall, and a small oil lamp stand next to it. A young man, Link of the Sheikah, lay in bed, awake and breathing softly. The door creaked open, and soft footsteps walked closer to Link. The owner of the footsteps raised a small knife over Link's body.

Link threw the blankets off at the other person, blinding them. He grabbed a long silver needle from under his pillow, and lunged at his attacker. The needle and knife sparked at contact, and the female aggressor jumped back. Link threw the needle at her; she used her knife to knock the needle away, and swept his feet from the floor. He hit the ground with a thud, and the next moment, he realized that cold metal was pressed against his throat.

"Good morning, Link. Looks like we'll need to work on agility today, huh?" Rensafi smiled as she got up.
"G'morning, Aunt Safi," he grunted as he supported himself onto his elbows, and then to his feet. "Do we have to work on agility today?" he asked groggily as he pulled on a white long-sleeved shirt and covered his bed-head with a green windsock-like hat.
"Don't worry, I'm not having you do timed runs today. We're doing something different," she replied as she walked into the living room that held a small oven in the corner. Link followed.
"Really? What are we doing today, then? And is that salted beef I smell?"
"No, not beef. You iknow/i how expensive it is. But we do have pork, fish bones, lentils, and leek in the soup pot today."
Link frowned a little. "Do you need to put bones into every soup you make?" he mumbled as he plopped into one of the chairs that sat at the table. Safi placed a bowl of soup in front of him along with a small loaf of bread, and then proceeded to hit Link over the head with the soup ladle.
"It's very healthy for you. Now eat, we still need to put meat on those skinny bones for the festival this month," she ordered.
"Sir, yes sir," he muttered. Safi brought the soup ladle over his head once more.
-

At the end of breakfast, Link was dubbed "moving target practice" of the day for all the children in Kakariko. His goal was to dodge as many flying projectiles as he could with his hands bound together.

"Are you sure about this?" Link asked warily as his aunt pulled the rope tightly around his wrists. Rensafi was usually considered the more "extreme" of the Sheikah tutors, since she always came up with new "innovative" ways to train. Safi laughed.

"The way I see it, this way the others will be able to refine their hand eye coordination while you practice speed. It's like two birds with one stone, isn't it?"

"For the love of Nayru," Link hissed as a rock hit his head. He looked pleadingly at Aunt Safi, who smiled back at him. A girl's doll came whirling at his face, which he dodged a moment too late. Safi laughed, and finally called everyone to stop. A chorus of "aww"s and "do we have to"s rose from the younger kids, but the older ones reluctantly shuffled their feet to their rows quietly. Link wrestled his way out of the ropes, and got into line.

Hours later, Link fell backwards into the grass, breathing heavily. All of the others had finished their day's worth of combat lessons, but yet again Aunt Safi was pushing Link to his limits. The festival which he was training for was more of a competition then a festival. It was a tournament to find out who Princess Zelda's guardian would be, and it seemed as if all the men in Hyrule were preparing for the event.

This year, the princess had finally assented to finding another guardian, or at least it was rumored. Other sources said she never agreed to it, but was forced to the task. Still others said that Zelda's previous guardian was killed in a freak baby dodongo accident earlier that year, which half of Hyrule knew was a lie. After all, Link's mother had died when he was a child.

Safi placed a water skin on Link's forehead. "That's enough for now. Rest and wash up, and in half an hour you have music lessons," she said. Link groaned. Safi laughed, and placed Link's flute on his chest. "Oh, stop complaining. It's only music. Afterwards, I'll train you to be a bodyguard as well as an assassin."

"Why would I need music lessons for the tournament?" he sighed.

"Because when you ibecome /i the princess' guardian, you'll need to keep her engaged. The palace can be rather boring," Aunt Safi explained. Link looked at her questionably.

"Why do you think I'll get in?" he asked. Aunt Safi leaned in.

"Because I like to think it's destiny that two possessors of triforce pieces will come together," she whispered. Link looked up in surprise.

"She has a triforce piece?" Link whispered back. She nodded, and pointed to the bottom left triangle of the triforce that was on Link's shoulder. iWisdom,/i he thought to himself. Aunt Safi smiled.

"Now come. I need to teach you the royal family's lullaby."