Modern Zelda: Legacy - Chapter 1

The hero approached the large tower. It was a tall stone castle with back spires and black moss growing all over the pale gray stone. He was a small speck of dust next to its immense size. A few skeleton enemies blocked the grotesquely Baroque entrance adorned with snarling gargoyles. The hero approached the entrance and quickly took down the skeletons with his sword and a couple bombs and ran inside. Inside the tower was another inner tower surrounded by a barrier, and outside the tower, the floor was a teaming mass of monsters. A path lined the walls where he was with two stairways heading down from the entrance, and another pair on the other side. The hero grinned to himself and ran around the raised path around the floor and started dropping bombs on the monsters below.

When he reached the staircase on the other side, he was greeted by a band of skeletons and cyclops. All of them had their weapons brandished. Some of the skeletons had bombs of their own and threw them at the hero, but he jumped over them, stepping on the faces of two of them and a cyclops on the way to find a clear space behind them. One skeleton tried to strike at the hero from the back with its sword, but the hero threw a flash grenade in its face, blinding it. He held his sword out and let it charge, then sent out a beam of energy that disintegrated a good handful of them. But before he could turn around, a large suit of armor approached him from behind and hit him on the head with the brunt of its sword. The hero collapsed to the ground, face-down and remained motionless.

The monsters were unsure how to respond to this and stood back. Did we defeat him? Is he dead? I can't believe it was that easy!

They soon began to argue among themselves. Somebody should go check on him. You go check him. Are you crazy? No way! You go check on him! I'm not risking my life! And you think I do? Well somebody has to go look at him!

One goblin felt brave enough to approach and poked at the hero; he remained motionless. The others grew braver and began gathering around him, touching him, feeling for a good place to take a bite. One really brave dog beast picked up his arm and placed it between his jaw. A flame sparked from his other hand and spread out, consuming everything in its path except the hero. The hero jumped up and leaped at another dog beast, thrusting his fist in its mouth pulling out its tongue. Drawing out a dagger, he sliced through the tongue and kicked the beast down.

The few monsters left coward away and retreated. The hero looked up at the barrier in the center. He saw something sparkle near the ceiling and pulled out his bow. He aimed an arrow, glimmering with a yellow light, and shot it up. A loud crack and small pieces of a large, red jewel rained to the floor and the barrier dissolved. Inside, the room had more candles, but they created obscure shadows all over the wall and it seemed almost darker. A plush, red carpet with gold fringe lined the floor, leading from the door to a flight of curving stairs just ahead. The room was vacant and all too still. The hero stepped closer to the center of the room; a dark portal opened in the ceiling and his black doppelganger slipped through, landing on one knee and crouching with one arm rested on the higher knee, and the other reaching for his sword. The hero reached and drew his own sword. The doppelganger responded by standing and drawing his own.

The hero stood still, waiting for his doppelganger to make the first move, but the doppelganger did the same. The doppelganger drew a cruel smile.

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“Ooh! This is my favorite part!” a young boy said. Reality changed from the dungeon to a brightly lit, pale blue and white-themed playroom in an orphanage. The children were gathered around Ms. Bondye, a young dark-skinned woman with her long, red hair pulled back into a ponytail. The boy who had cried out, Mido, had a smaller frame than the other kids at the orphanage and had strawberry blonde hair, freckles and pointed ears.

“Yes!” the girl next to him exclaimed. Her name was Aryll and she had blond hair in twin pigtails and like most of the other kids in the group, she had rounded ears. “This is the part where the hero...!”

Ms. Bondye laughed and interrupted the two children, “Mido! Aryll! That's enough you two, we don't want to spoil the story for the others, do we?”

At the back of the room stood two boys in their late-teens, clearly the oldest in the group, they leaned against the wall, waiting for story time to be over. The first, Groose, laughed. He was tall and very athletic, and had red hair styled wildly into a pompadour, but unlike the teacher he had pale skin and his ears were slightly pointed. “Can you believe Ms. Bondye still makes the two of us sit around for story time to hear that same old story over and over again?”

“Heh. Tell me about it.” The other, Link, was shorter and smaller than Groose, but still quite athletic himself. Pointed ears peeked out from his long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail with long, profound sideburns and thick bangs that swept into his eyes. “Between these little sessions and Aryll's insistence of ranting on about how cool it is every night before we go to bed after we read it here that day, I can practically recite it in my sleep.”

Groose laughed, “Oh yeah, I'd forgotten you and Aryll have been here longer than I have.”

“Yeah. Much longer.” Link folded his arms. “I was the reason Ms. Schatten started the orphanage after all.”

“Yeah.”

“Link! Groose! Are you two telling the story?” Ms. Bondye asked. One look into her sarcastic expression told the two boys what she was really telling them.

The two closed in tighter on themselves and hung their heads low, “Sorry ma'am.”

“Very good.” She turned back to the book and continued reading in an excited voice. “The hero swung open the large, heavy oak double doors. The organ music was almost deafening now, but the hero endured. 'Ganon!' he cried. 'You won't escape this time! The Sages' Seal is stronger than ever!' The evil king stopped playing the organ and turned to the hero. When the music stopped, it almost seemed as if time had stopped with it.”

“Too bad Ms. Bondye is so bossy. She's frickin' hot!” Groose yawned. “C'mon, Link. She's almost done. Let's blow this Popsicle stand. See what they're making for dinner tonight or something.”

Link couldn't hold his own yawn back as he followed Groose out the door, “Right.”

Ms. Bondye looked up from the book and watched as they left, closing the door behind them, and smiled to herself, continuing on with the story. Once out in the hall, Link and Groose were approached by a pair of redheaded twins. One wore her hair in a partial and was dressed in pants; her name was Malon. The other had her hair in a braid and wore a miniskirt; her name was Marin. Marin grabbed onto Groose's arm and Malon onto Link's. Both guys blushed and let the girls pull them.

“Come on!” both of them said.

“We just got permission from Ms. Schatten!” Malon said.

“The four of us can go into town this evening!” Marin said.

“Great!” Groose punched his fist in the air. “I was feeling bored, a night outside the orphanage is just what I need!”

Link was a little nervous, “Where are we going?”

“Tingle's Karaoke Club!” The twins exclaimed together.

“Karaoke?” Groose turned his head. “That sounds like fun.”