Quick Author's Note: Welcome to Book 2 of 8 in my series. I can't begin this story without giving credit to some wonderful individuals for the hard work they put in. 

When their images are featured, I'll always name them so no one is ever neglected. 

I want to thank toasterfricker and sammoham for the great cover art and cover design respectively. 

Horidy deserves credit for this chapter heading and several others that will be featured in the piece. 

Shannon and Alana were my beta-readers/editors and they did a fine job helping me fine-tune my story so it was up to par with the high standards of Wattpad. You'll find their profiles in the Acknowledgements Section, in case you wish to use their services. 

And, of course, I want to thank you for reading. Your curiosity is appreciate and (hopefully) rightfully rewarded. 

Happy reading.

Once upon a time, everything was normal.

An ordinary boy lived in a humble little town tucked away in a quiet corner of his world.

He had three friends in this quiet town. He spent many days with them and it was hard for them to remember a day when they were apart—until the fateful day.

While life was still normal, they were out and about in a beautiful field. Then, the sky turned black and the ground tore open. It was as if the world around them decided to die.

The ordinary boy tumbled into endless darkness. While plummeting through the void, he thought death awaited him.

He opened his eyes in a new world instead.

It was a strange place so unlike his home. He was in a world of castles, kings and princesses. He traveled to villages teeming with humble folk, majestic mountains harboring fire and forests brimming with mysterious magic.

Everyone around the ordinary boy called this new world "Hyrule." In the same breath, they called it their home.

The ordinary boy searched for answers to the only question he had in mind. When a guide crossed his path, they pointed him to new friends on a journey of their own; Trevor met a child of the wood and his fairy.

The child of the wood was named Link and his fairy, Navi.

They were destined to save Hyrule and protect a golden power. The golden power could only be found with the help of three different treasures.

If one held the power in their hands, they could wish for anything their heart desired—a wealth of power, the depths of wisdom or even the slightest sliver of courage.

Or maybe even an escape. The ordinary boy did well to remember all this.

He helped Link and Navi meet a princess in a castle.

He followed them to the forest from which they came.

He reunited with one of his friends in the village full of humble people—she was the girl with red eyes.

He found his closest friend on the highest mountain, living with creatures called Gorons. There, they found a treasure they sought.

To earn the prize, the children conquered perilous obstacles as well as great beasts. They claimed a fiery ruby crested with gold and were one step closer to the golden power.

The ordinary boy only thought of the end. He only thought of Oak Shire and the warmth of his family's embrace.

He only thought of how everything was normal, before Hyrule.

He was ready for the day when he could finally go back to his world, to his humble little town.

There, everything was normal. The way his life had to be...

~*~

Trevor had an idea.

"What about Death Mountain?" he asked in his usual tone of voice, which was just as loud as the sound he made when he slammed his palms on the wooden dining table before him.

The act vaulted an array of hearty breakfast food into the air—a plate of sliced bread, bowls of different fruits and platters of scrambled cucco eggs hopped, then thankfully fell with little consequence.

Still, the other children seated at the table pulled their meals closer to themselves. Trevor waited for answers.

Jerome Bailey sighed. He was a quiet kid and Trevor's best friend. Trevor always saw him as a wall of silence—someone who couldn't be moved or changed, but always stood in the spot he was at.

"The Gorons don't know anything," he said, picking up a forkful of eggs.

"Can we stop by there and ask them again?" Trevor asked.

Jerome shook his head. "Bro, you know the Gorons don't know anything. They told you that when I was knocked out."

Trevor palmed his forehead. "Yeah...you're right. Wait—" Trevor pointed at a meekly postured girl with a raven bob and red eyes. "Sheila! Do your psychic thing. Come on, tell us where to go next!"

Sheila Norwood scrunched her forehead. "That's not how it works," she said, her voice as soft as the gentlest wind. "It has to come to me."

"Then make it!"

"That's not how it works." Sheila's voice wasn't as gentle that time around. "If it worked like that, we would have found Rebecca by now."

Trevor's chest tightened at the mention of Rebecca Santos. She was the only one of the four Oak Shire kids still missing.

He knew she was out there and didn't want to know how bad she might have had it. He was sure they would find her—somehow.

They just needed the Triforce. It would solve all of their problems, one by one, with the last wish being a trip back home.

"Well," said Trevor, who ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe you'll get to find her soon. Maybe you'll see everything we need to do! Then we won't need to get the spiritual stone to get our wish!"

"I hope so," said Sheila, "Rebecca...I hope she's OK."

"Me too," Jerome said in agreement. "I think we can all agree that we're not a full group without her."

"That's why we gotta get on the road!" Trevor exclaimed as he flung both his arms in the air. "We have a friend to save and a home to get back to! Isn't that right, Mr. Hero? Don't you want to go back to the woods with your lost boys and girls?"

Trevor now looked at a quiet boy garbed in green. He truly reminded Trevor of the Peter Pan tales his mother used to read for him when he was little.

The quiet boy's blue eyes held a steely expression. Beside him was a glowing orb of blue-white light. It floated with help from a quartet of transparent wings.

"I do," said Link, the boy from the Kokiri Forest. "But we need to rest a little. Our journey's been tiring."

Trevor clawed at his brown hair. "But that desert king might get ahead of us!"

Link kept his calm gaze. "Without the Spiritual Stones, I don't think Ganondorf can do anything. He doesn't even know about us, Trevor."

It was true. According to legend, the Triforce was a relic created at the beginning of the world by the three golden goddesses.

It was supposed to grant its wielder a wish—or maybe more, Trevor didn't know, but hoped for the best—and one needed to get three spiritual stones in order to obtain it.

Link always had the first spiritual stone, as far as Trevor knew. The Kokiri Emerald, or Spiritual Stone of the Forest, was passed down to Link and Navi when they started their quest. Link and Navi traveled far away from their home to Hyrule Castletown, where they both met Trevor.

With Trevor's help, Link managed to meet a princess named Zelda. She told the forest boy the legend and it became clear that the Triforce had to be obtained by the group that was now together.

They faced many obstacles along the way, but the children survived them all. After going through Dodongo's Cavern on Death Mountain, the Goron ruby was in the group's hands.

Now, there was only one spiritual stone left and the only obstacle between them and the golden power was a villain by the name of Ganondorf. As far as Trevor knew, all the children were invisible to the King of Thieves.

"Can you figure out where we need to go?" asked Trevor.

Link shrugged and shook his head. "If I did, we'd at least know."

Trevor rolled his eyes. "Great, so we're stuck here forever."

"That's a little dramatic."

The winged orb of light floated across the table. As it closed in on Trevor, the image of a girl took shape within the glow. She had ivory skin, blue hair and cerulean eyes that shined like polished marbles.

"We've been lucky so far," said Navi, Link's guardian fairy. She had guided the Kokiri boy through all his trials, keeping him balanced and encouraged. It often spread out to the others in the group as well—but not so much with Trevor.

"We've been very lucky," Navi continued. "We ran into you. The Deku Tree gave us the Kokiri Emerald before we even knew about the other two Spiritual Stones. We found most of your friends, saved a nation of mountain dwellers and have the Goron Ruby as well. A lot has gone our way. Why don't you soak up the rest for a moment?"

Trevor thought if Navi were a full-sized human, he'd bump his forehead against hers, just to show her he meant business.

"Resting won't get us home," he said through gritted teeth. "Continuing will."

"But Hyrule's safe for now. It couldn't be safer. We have the Spiritual Stones and Ganondorf has no idea about us. I bet he doesn't know how to get the last one either."

"Which makes us leaving here even more important."

"What makes you in such a hurry to leave? All you talk about is going home to Oak Shire. I get that, and I'm sorry you're lost. But honestly, you don't seem to care all that much about helping or giving to others. You just complain about your itchy clothes or something else weird like that and it's honestly just getting on my nerves! And everyone else's, I'm sure. Do you have something better to do than just whine at us?"

"Yeah. I do."

Trevor hopped down from his chair and stormed out of the farmhouse's dining room. He stomped past a gaggle of cuccos in the next room over, a humble little space with golden straw strewn across the floor.

He shoved the farmhouse's front door open, then froze at the gasp he heard on the other side.

"Oh, will you be careful?!" A chirpy country drawl boomed directly at Trevor. "Your strut nearly knocked me over! What gives, Green Eyes?"

Trevor looked to his right and met the glare of young Malon. She was the daughter of Talon, who owned Lon Lon Ranch.

After a giant owl gave the children a ride back down from Death Mountain to Kakariko Village, Trevor remembered an important detail about the journey at that point.

In Hyrule Castletown, Malon gave him a cucco egg. She said it would help him wake up her father, who fell asleep at the door of the royal family's home.

Eventually, she expected Trevor to give the baby cucco back. Trevor did just that, convincing the others to take a detour to Malon's home.

After fulfilling his promise, Trevor was ready to say goodbye but Malon grabbed him by the arm with a bright look on her face.

"Y'all should stay here!" she said, spanning her bright stare to everyone else in the group. "You look sooo tired. I bet you could use a small break, just for a day or two!"

Trevor opened his mouth to protest, but everyone else was about the offer. Malon giggled in delight as the others ruined the trip's progress one-by-one.

Trevor had grumbled to himself about it for the past three nights, though he couldn't really complain about a warm bed, cooked meals and a wide open space where the sun always shined. Four against one wasn't worth it, anyway.

"Where are you heading?" Malon asked as she placed a hand on her hip. "I was about to ask if y'all wanted to ride some horses in the stable."

Trevor didn't look Malon in the eye. "I'll...pass."

He sensed Malon's jaw dropping as if he said a bad word. "You'll pass?" she echoed. "Are you scared of horses, Trevor Berenson of Oak Shire, Illinois?"

"Do you have to say my name like that?"

"It rolls off the tongue pretty well. Answer my question."

"I just don't like horses all that much."

Malon rolled her eyes. "You also didn't like baling hay. Or feeding the big cuccos. Or milking the cows. Or anything else. Is there anything you like about the Lon Lon Ranch?"

"No, there isn't. I don't even want to be here!"

Trevor heard the wind whispering through the ranch's sudden silence and nothing else. Malon's eyes wilted.

She was a girl who constantly carried happiness with her, especially with the way she bobbed about from place to place. Nobody would've ever expected her expression to dim so much.

Of course, Trevor would be the one to hurt her feelings, to make her look out into the distance so she wouldn't have to remember that he was there.

"I..." The words were caught in Trevor's throat. "I just meant—"

"You know what?" Malon glared at Trevor and he was sure he would shrink from her anger alone. "Fine, Trevor Berenson of Oak Shire, Illinois. I don't understand why you don't like me saying that. You're always saying the name of that town of yours. Figured you'd want to hear it too, since it's all you care about. You're just raring to get your running shoes on and dash back to Oak Shire! I guess roughhousing with your buddies is a lot better than the no-good ranch my Papa and I allowed you to stay on."

"...I'm really—"

"I'm going to ask the fairy boy and your other friends about the horses. I can let them know you needed time for yourself. That's all you seem to want— Trevor this, Trevor that, everything for Trevor—but no one else."

Malon went inside the farmhouse, slamming the door as she went in. Trevor wanted to disappear. He swore under his breath as he stormed down a path leading to the ranch's front entrance.

When Trevor got outside the ranch's boundaries, he sat with his back against the outer fence. He stared out at the endless stretch of green grass, which trickled to unfamiliar mountains which stood over the land like giants.

Trevor didn't know what else there was of Hyrule, but he knew none of it was familiar. None of it would ever feel familiar.

None of Hyrule should have been real, but here it was. Life was different than what Trevor had seen. Of course, he should have expected it.

After all, he had a gift. A gift that couldn't be real. He had—

A presence.

Trevor failed to recognize the presence looming over him. It came silently, landing high above his head. Before Trevor could react, its shadow cast itself over him like a net.