Chapter One - The Hero of Fate

 

 Rono glanced at the bow of the ship. It was tall and at the end had a carving of one of the golden goddesses. He was leaning on the sail of the boat, watching the waters around him. He was there with three other boats, each one with another goddess carving on the bow. Rono and those with him were sailors, searching for an ancient island called Outset. Legend had it that this had once been the home to a descendant of the hero of time. Then again, it was a myth. Rono looked at the horizon. It stretched smoothly before him. Blue. Nothing but water. Then he saw a shadow. Not on the horizon, but beside him, in the water. A fin rippled the water. A shark had come. It was drifting dangerously close to the left side of one of the other boats. The sailor there, a man called Ortho hadn’t seemed to notice.
“Ortho!” Rono yelled at him. Ortho looked up at him. “There’s a shark!”
“Where? I don’t see one!” Ortho yelled back. Rono scanned the lake. The shark had disappeared. He settled back against the sail. Maybe it swam away. Or it could have been a different shadow. Then something bumped into the boat. Rono’s first thought was that he had hit a reef. Then he saw the shadow of the shark he had seen earlier slip under his boat. The shark was underneath him. He took a step back and a fin ripped the bottom of the boat open where his foot had been moments ago, leaving a small hole in the centre. Water had begun to pour into the boat and it was sinking quickly. The shark had disappeared, but the water had filled up to his ankles.
“Rono! You okay?” yelled Ortho from his boat.
“Pretty much!” Rono replied. “A shark ripped through the bottom of the boat, my boat’s sinking, apart from that it’s all fine!”
“I’m surprised you can find something to be sarcastic about when you’re seconds away from death!” Ortho said rowing over to him. The shadow reappeared near the top left corner of Ortho’s boat.
“Ortho! Shark off the port bow!” Rono yelled at him.
Ortho had tried to steer away, but he was too late. The shark ripped straight down the centre of his boat and tore it in half. Ortho fell into the icy water. Rono scanned the ocean for any sign of his friend, but the few moments before Ortho had fell were the last Rono would ever see of him. But right now, the water in Rono’s boat was up to his chest. He was basically swimming in Hyrule ocean. But with sharks. Bloodthirsty sharks as well. The shadow of the shark tore towards him, the fin breaking the surface. Rono started to try to swim in the other direction, but he wasn’t out swimming a shark. A sharp point dug through the flesh around his ankle and into his bone. Rono felt an icy chill run up his spine. He looked behind him. The water there was already turning red with blood. His blood. His vision blurred. He was going to lose consciousness. But if he fell unconscious here, he would be dead in seconds. He dragged himself onto some floating debris and grabbed his ankle to stop the blood flow. He covered the wound in some torn sail, and was about to try to steer the debris towards an island in the distance, but lost consciousness before he could.
When Rono woke, he was lying on sand. A beach, on an island. The debris was next to him. He got up to walk towards a nearby house, then collapsed. He had forgot about his leg. It was still covered by the sail, but he couldn’t walk on it. He managed to crawl towards the house and knock on the door. He pulled himself up on a nearby banister and the door opened to reveal an old man dressed in a green tunic.
“Who might you be?” the man in the green tunic asked.
“I was attacked by a shark while sailing. I was hoping I could stay on this island for a while.” replied Rono.
“Of course, come in. Here-” said the man, helping him in and to a seat.
“Now, who are you?” asked the old man. Rono guessed he must be at least 70. He had grey hair which stuck out around his head.
“Rono. A sailor from Windfall. Might I ask, where am I? And who are you?”
The old man pointed to a map of Hyrule.
“Well, right now you’re on the island of Outset. My name is Abbot, the mayor of our island.”
“Outset?” Rono almost choked out. “You mean, the home of the descendant of the hero of time?”
Abbot laughed.
“No. That was merely a myth made up by a sailor who left here years ago. What was he called again? Never mind.” he said, shaking his head.
Rono who had previously been sitting up in his chair slouched back down. Outset wasn’t the home of a hero? Does that mean that his friends had died and he almost killed to find out that no legend ever lived there?
“However,” said Abbot. “We do have a shrine of worship which holds the hero’s remains.”
Rono sat up again. “Really? On the island?”
Abbot nodded.
“Then, will you take me there?” Rono asked.
“Of course!” said Abbot laughing again. “Here, get up.”
Rono steadied himself and made his way to the door. He’d taken about three steps when everything blurred and he collapsed.
Rono found himself in what appeared to be some sort of void. No light, no dark, no temperature. Suddenly, a voice spoke.
“You should not have survived.”
“What?” asked Rono.
“You should not have survived that accident.” said the voice.
“What- What do you mean?”
“Next time I will need to try harder. It seems that you are stronger than I expected, Link.”
“Link? No. I’m Rono. Link’s the hero of time. You’ve got the wrong person.”
“I do not. You are Link. You may not know it. But you will.”
Suddenly there was a bright light. Rono jumped up. He was on a bed in a house. It was the mayor’s house. He recognised the painting on the wall across from him.
“Ah, our guest finally wakes up.” said a woman’s voice. An old woman walked into view. She wore a pink dress dotted with white flowers. Abbot walked into view as well.
“Ah, Rono, this is the towns nurse, Aryll. You collapsed while leaving, so I called on the nurse.” said Abbot.
“I’ve put a proper bandage on you leg.” said Aryll. “The other one you were wearing was letting too much blood out.”
“Right…”said Rono. “How long was I out?”
“Three days.” said Aryll.
“Th-three days?!” Rono repeated.
“Don’t worry about it.” said Abbot. “If you’d like, you can go to the shrine now.”
Rono had almost forgotten about the shrine.
“Yeah, sure.” he said getting up. He walked towards the door. Then he stopped and turned to face Aryll.
“I can walk again.” he said.
“Yeah, it was a pretty simple wound. Nice and easy to fix.” Aryll replied.
Rono turned and walked towards the door. He left the house and headed towards the shrine, just behind the house.
Inside the mayors house, Aryll turned to face Abbot.
“Why did you let him go there? He could find out.” she asked.
Abbot turned to look out the window, and watched Rono enter the shrine.
“The boy will go in there an average human. He will emerge a hero. Do you understand sis?”
Aryll blinked.
“You haven’t called me your sister in over fifty years, Link.” she said.
Link turned to face her.
“Times change Aryll. You may leave.” Link said.
“Link-” she began, but he interrupted her.
“Link?” he asked. “No, Link died many years ago. I am Abbot.”
Aryll stopped.
“Yes, Abbot. Thank you.” she said, leaving her brother.
Abbot heard the door close behind him. Then he faced the shrine again and smiled.
“Link.” Abbot said. “How long has it been since I abandoned that name? Oh well. Soon there will be a new Link. He went by the name ‘Rono’.”
Link laughed again and left the window.
Inside the shrine Rono could see an ancient Hylian language carved into the walls. He spoke Hylian, but this was different. It appeared to be an old tongue. The only words he recognised were those like “Hyrule”, and “Winds”.  Then he noticed a hand print in the wall. He reached over to touch it. His hand fitted perfectly in the opening. The moment he placed his hand in the print, all the carvings on the wall lit up .A blue light covered everything. Then something at the end of the shrine lit up. It was a picture of the hero of time, carved into the wall. It’s blue light shone onto a stone casket at the end of the room. Rono guessed that this must be where Link’s remains lay. There were some carvings under the Link carving. He deciphered “Hero of the winds”. Not the hero of time then. Suddenly the tomb glowed and an image of Link appeared before him.
“What?” coughed Rono, falling backwards. The image pointed at him.
“What about me?” Rono asked him.
Link drew his master sword and Hylian shield. He jumped towards Rono. Rono held his arms up in front of him. Then when he next looked the Link was gone. It took him at least six seconds before he realised he was wielding the master sword the Hylian shield and the green tunic that Link had. He looked at the wall. New inscriptions had appeared. They were in modern Hylian so he could understand them. They read “Link, formerly Rono, the Hero of Fate”.
Rono took a step backwards and ran out of the shrine.
“Rono!” said Abbot greeting him as he left. “Changed your outfit, eh? Anyway, some sailors just showed up in a ship, saying they were looking for Windfall. Maybe you could go with them if you wanted to go home.”
Rono looked at the ship. There were six people in view. They were heading for Windfall? Sure, he thought. I’ll go with them.
“Alright.” Rono said. “I’ll go with them.”
“Great,” said Abbot. “I’ll go tell them that you‘re coming.”
Rono walked towards the ship. Abbot met him.
“There’s rigging at the side. You can climb on.” he said.
When Rono was onboard, he was immediately greeted by someone who looked around his own age, sixteen.
“You must be the one who’s joining us on our trip to Windfall. I’m Treda, daughter of the famous pirate Tetra. Captain of this here ship.” Treda said.
“daughter of a famous pirate?” asked Rono.
“Yep. Tetra. As for my father…” Treda shrugged and turned away. “He died when I was young. Can’t even remember what he looked like.” She walked to the bow of the ship. Rono joined her.
“Anyway,” she asked. “What’s your name? Rono was it?”
“Ye-” began Rono. But then he stopped. He looked at Outset, now a shadow in the distance. He was the Hero of Fates.
“No.” He said.
“No? Then what.” asked Treda.
Rono looked back at Outset. He had said goodbye to lots of things there. Aryll, Abbot, Link’s shrine, but most importantly he had said goodbye to Rono. He turned to face Treda.
“The name’s Link.” he said, as Outset vanished over the horizon and the ship sailed further towards Windfall.