The Family of a Hero

Disclaimer: This go for all the chapters, I own nothing of Nintendo. All the original characters, places and other are mine. The language that you'll see in part of the fic is invention of Kasuto of Kataan (check his page), other words were just made because they sound fine for me.

Dan's note: Now, this is very important. This version of the Family of a Hero is very different from the one I posted in FF net. The biggest change is that the entire fic will be from Ari's POV (not a first person fic, mind you). This means that many of the events in the original fic will not be here. Also, I'll add more meat to the narration than I did before. Before it was pretty cold and sterile compared to what I write now.
Another important thing is that this is an AU, derived from all the previous games (I'm not using TP elements because I haven't played it yet).

The time is set 10 millennia after Ocarina of Time, so technology is more advanced, there are many new races and more things. This happened around 2000 after the Great Seas dried. There's been peace for most of this time so there are very few wars, at least, in the continent that houses Hyrule. Oh and Hyrule is a country, not a world!

Ari: And now your incredible heroine will enter to say her line! Ahem. Now, we hope you enjoy of this new fic from teh Dan's!



Hyrule's castle town's market was always full of people, merchants, sounds, sights, artist and travelers from so many different races, types and lands. Hyrule was like most of the countries in the world of Toerre, housing many different races and many different beliefs. It was a place where you could walk in a street and you'd find people from at least five different races. You could see a group of the long eared Hylians chatting with a group of round eared Ayikes and then turn on a corner to see Sheikas buying in a store run by Harincos and then bump with a group of Gerudos, Gorones and Zoras. The whole scenario was a picture filled with so many different characters and scenes playing all at the same time. Different languages were spoken but nobody had problems getting to understand their neighbor. Words were spoken but music played too; the different rhythms of different songs could reach your ears while the delicious aroma of different foods would play with your nose.

This was a moment of peace, peace achieved after many centuries of wars and brief moments of peace; those brief moments had become a seemingly perpetual calm now. It had been over ten millennia of written history and the differences between genders and races were long forgotten.

The architecture of the city was nothing flashy or majestic, it was very humble and it gave an aura of calm to the entire city. It was a Hylian design, being them the majority in the country; not that anybody complained about it. An aqueduct provided clean water from the Zora domain for the whole city, while the Zoran River ran around and under the city. Many cities were powered with electricity but Hyrule's city moved with the energy of tlahui crystals. Those little wonders were used for almost everything you could think of.

Life in Hyrule was sometimes complicated, not that there were problems with poverty or big criminal syndicates but rather because of the rushed life style of the city. Restaurants, museums, markets, schools, music halls and many more were always full with people from different races and beliefs. Obviously, arguments weren't rare but people usually came to an agreement point most of the time. Businesses were always in need of more help thanks to the constant flow of people into Hyrule although almost all the people only visited Hyrule for business, pleasure or education matters and not to live in there.

All the people had something to do and it seems that no one could wait to attend it. Maybe that's why nobody saw a little Hylian girl turn the corner to the shadows of the modest Temple of Light.

The girl walked by the flank of the white temple, scanning her surrounding with big alert eyes. The big but sober structure of the holy temple provided shadows that were used by the kid in her attempts to hide from curious eyes; she moved almost as if she could blend with the shadows, waiting until the right moment the shadows became particularly darker to move to the next one. She crawled in the darkness until she reached some lush shrubs that would more likely be used to hide her. The shrubs weren't very tall, but the ten year old kid wasn't the tallest of the girls either, in fact she was smaller than the average girl. Her skin was pale, and relatively clean, giving her an eerie color, almost like the one of a corpse. She wore a blue blouse and a skirt, both torn by time and the weather. Her bare feet were callous, walking like that for countless months had roughened up her skin; she didn't even remember using any kind of shoe. Her blond hair was tangled and mistreated, reaching her waist cut diagonal from her waist to her right shoulder. The hair fell in front of her face past her jaw and on the sides of her face reached her shoulders.

Her face, just like the rest of her body, was thin and had spots on her cheeks. She knew they weren't freckles but signals of her countless months of little to no food.
Her eyes, which were of a beautiful violet blue color, expressed all her being. The spark of light that once had shined on them had gone long ago. One could have avoided all her aspects and only seen her eyes to know what this girl had felt.
Boredom and sadness.

Bored to have to live the life of a homeless, sad for not being able to die. Her entire persona was a paint of misery.

The kid sighed after she was sure that no one had followed her and she sat behind the plants. Her small stature allowed her to hide easily; something that she had taken vantage of for a very long time. When she was comfortable she put down her backpack and opened the main bag, then removed a large piece of bread. It wasn't a candy flavored one but that couldn't concern her less. She hungrily bit it, taking large chunks each time but she stopped after only a few chews. For some reason stolen food tasted somewhat bitter.

She sighed and put the bread back inside the bag. The hunger could be calmed once she had forgotten that she had to steal it.

To steal.

It seemed that that day she had stolen more that her moral could handle. The bread was a necessity –one that her stomach and drooling mouth kept reminding her of to satisfy as soon as possible–, but the wallet by her hip had been nothing more than an anger impulse.

She still remembered having asked a person for money, just a couple of rupees or a small chunk of food, and he seemed to have a lot of both. Nevertheless he gave her nothing, not a spare rupee, not a crumb of bread, not even a second glance. She felt her cheeks catch on fire and her tiny knuckled turning white as she clenched them when she saw on his belt a finely adorned large wallet.

Without a second thought she had lightened the man's load. Her hands and fingers had been fast, stealthy, almost as if they were moved by some innate skill only seen in the Desert Thieves. She had obtained near to four hundred rupees in just one second, unlike the seven that she obtained begging in a whole hour.

Having money could be good, that of course if the people didn't prefer to kick away a street girl, a street rat. Even if she had the money to pay for whatever she wanted to buy, people didn't wish to touch her, not even to accept the fact that she existed. She could have an easier life for a couple of months now if she could handle the little treasure she had stolen, and by the goddesses, she knew how to do it, but…

She sighed.

Sighing was the only way that she knew to express herself, besides the tears. What was the point anyway?

She lowered her head and her eyes traveled to her bag and noticed that there was plenty of light around and probably was a little after midday.

A full day to be her. A whole day to keep thinking of everything she didn't have, about every little thing she missed every day, about the whole depression that was in her being even if she didn't even known that feeling was called depression.

Slowly, almost bored, she turned her head a little to see if there could be clouds that brought friendly shadows. She had always liked the refreshing and warm shadow over the suffocating and burning light. But instead of shadows or light she only saw a pair of eyes that matches the color of hers.

Eyes? The girl thought. Then her mind raced to process what was happening. Somebody was turned upside down seeing towards her. That somebody had long and golden hair and was hanging off the tree that she had at her side.

Perhaps they had discovered that she stole. Perhaps they would punish her. Or perhaps more and more negative things that they could do with her like in every country she had visited.

All her thoughts happened in less than a second, a second that didn't really let her make a rational thought. Instead she did the most primitive thing her infantile mind could think of.

Run away.

She jumped and turned on her heels, running as fast as her little legs allowed her, leaving her chaser far behind in hopes they wouldn't find her again… well, at least that was the plan. Instead, she jumped so fast and so high that she struck her head against a low branch of the thin tree that just happened to be right above her head. The violent blow shook the tree and caused the person on it to fall and hit his head on the ground.

Stars, dragons, guays and keesees flew over the two kids as they both held their heads with both hands trying to ease the pain. Tears began to form in her eyes but she didn't let them fall. Worst things she had endured and she rather saved her tears for these occasions. She bit her lower lip and cursed herself for not remember that she was so close to the tree.

She was usually a very cautions person most of the time but there was these moments when she acted impulsively with more than disastrous results. Suddenly she remembered why she had hurt herself, freezing on her spot. Fearing the worst she opened her eyes and her eyes fell on a Hylian boy, maybe her same age or perhaps a bit older. Long, dark, golden hair, almost as long as hers topped his head. He had two marks –or scars, she couldn't tell– adorning his left cheek that went upward from underneath his ear and reached almost the corner of his lips. His left ear had a small blue piercing in the lobe, curiously attracting a big deal of her attention towards that particular part of his body. He wore a green tunic, and underneath it trouser and a sweater of turtle neck, all in black color. Over it all an old black cloak with a hood that fell to his back, badly battered by the elements. On his head he had a long green cap that fell passing his shoulders.

Even when his face was almost touching the ground she could hear him cursing in an almost audible voice, "ati."

This started to scare her; if this boy had come for her, now she was in bigger trouble. Perhaps he wouldn't only take her to the people that she had stolen from, but maybe he would hurt her. She was causing him one too many problems now.

"A-are you all right?" asked the boy incredibly worried.

"Uh?" it was her initial and only answer, her face a very comical mask of confusion. Had she listened well? Probably not, she hadn't cleaned her ears in a long time, she should remember to do it soon… however, first she needed to get out of the problem in course.

"Didn't you hit too hard? Are you hurt?" he said again with that warm and concerned voice of his while he approached to her. But as soon as he was on a dangerously close range she'd crawl back the same distance he moved forwards. She tried to put more room between then but the shrub that had hid her moments ago was now keeping her in a little prison.

This time she had heard him well and she couldn't believe what her long ears had heard. She didn't know what to do so her body took the initiative and forced her to moan in pain when her head touched the thorns on the branches of the shrub.
The boy tried to approach to her but stopped before his hand could reach her. He hesitated a moment as if he were afraid that she were made of crystal and could break her with his touch. Both remained in silence watching the other do or say a thing at all.

Then she heard him, or rather, felt him.

Gomi, er, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, said the boy without saying words. She didn't listen with her ears, but with her mind, her heart, her soul and the rest of her being. It was as if it arrived simultaneously from all sides within her but from none at the same time.

It wasn't your fault; I was scared, she replied in the same way. The Hylians could communicate through their souls, not needing of language, signs or any kind of outside communication. This was something that they could do naturally, so she wasn't scared by this in the least. It was the way of the Hylians to talk without being able to say lies.

No, I scared you. I only wanted to talk with you, not scare and hurt you, he replied, hanging his head low.

I'm all right. I have hurt myself a lot in my life. This will be only a small bruise later, nothing serious, she reassured him.

The boy smiled and this calmed her. Then the boy lowered his glance and saw the bag. Her heart sank in her chest and she felt overwhelmed by the shame. She closed her eyes and heard him picking up her bag. It seemed he had come for her, after all. She would be punished. Even this nice boy was a bad person. Like everybody else…

However, she was wrong.

She felt the weight of something landing on her lap. This is yours, you need it.

Without thinking it twice, she took the bag and embraced it against her chest. This time she spoke with words, "I-I didn't want to steal," she said trying to not cry a river of tears. Especially because she knew she was unable to keep telling him the truth.

"You had to do it, unless you wanted to die by starvation," the boy put a hand on those of the girl and she calmed.

Nevertheless, what the boy had said had a great meaning for her. If she truly wished so much to die why did she push herself so much to survive? Then her hand moved so delicately that the boy didn't notice this and touched one of the smaller bags in her backpack, her determination to live returned to her.

"Why you didn't keep eating? There is much to eat," he asked while he sat far from the shrub's sharp branches and gesturing to her if she wanted to sit with him. Hesitantly, she crawled over and sat next to him.

"It happens whenever I steal, I feel a horrible taste in my mouth and the hunger disappears," she informed him. She… she felt she needed to say something.

"And if it weren’t stolen food you would eat it then?" the boy asked and she thought it for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders. "Then I will buy you some food and you will be able to eat it, what do you say?"

What did she say? She felt her ears dropping along with her shoulder and mouth, and her eyes went wide open. She still was trying to think what he had proposed to her before her body made her nod without waiting for her decision.

"Well, wait here and I will return with something rich. I am Link Corú Amkan, moka goeare, I mean, nice to meet you," he said extending his left hand, giving her a charming wolfish grin. She saw him introduce himself and remembered that people usually did that when they met for first time. Slightly nervous, she extended her left and took Link's. First it was a smooth gesture, but a second later she shook with more force and shook it gladly.

With a smile she said, "I'm Ari."

"Well, Ari-kumi, do you want to come with me or would you rather wait here?"
"Uh, well, I want to stay here, if that doesn't bother you. If it does, then I will go with you, if it doesn't bother to you that the people see you with me…" she ramble nervously, between the fact that Link could not want to be with her and asking herself what those words meant that Link spoke in a foreign tongue.

"Don't worry, I will bring it for you," he said smiling and Ari smiled wider.
"Thanks," she said happily. Link stood up and began to walk back to the market. Ari saw Link wave goodbye and soon he disappeared in the mass of people.

She lowered her hand to her bag and opened the same bag that she had touched before. She reached inside and felt the smooth and plain surface of a small object. With a dreamy look she said to the emptiness, "it seems like a fairy tale."


To be continued…


Ari: Wow, I never thought something like this could happen to me. Of all the people. Me! After so many years of being on my own, it's the first time I feel truly close to somebody. In the next chapter of The Family of a Hero! Decisions! I feel something big is going to change.

Author's note:
Well people, as some of you may already know, teh Dan is Mexican, so English is simply a second language for him. If you see any grammar mistake, please, e-mail me to dan_of_aztlan@yahoo.com.mx and let me know about it. Spellcheck doesn’t find little mistakes, so I need your help to fix these flaws.

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