The Hero's Squire

Chapter 1

Four years ago

On starry nights when the glow of the moon filled Karusa Valley, Rat came alive.

A slim figure in a white mask raced down the canyon. Rat's sandals skimmed the rock, and he ran like his master chased him. But no one was chasing him, not tonight. Tonight, he was free.

Thin veils of sand slithered over the canyon rim, dissolving in the midnight wind. Talismans swung overhead, strung on lines between the red walls, clacking like teeth chattering in the cold. Guardian frog statues perched on the walls, blindfolded by the mark of the Yiga Clan. Rat felt their desecrated eyes burning silently into his back, watching, but never speaking. These nights were their secret.

The boy pivoted and ducked under a stream of sand, twisting into a tight crevice in the wall. Back pressed against the rough sandstone, he shimmied sideways, holding his breath as the walls pinched him, like a last test of his resolve. He wiggled and shuffled, then the walls released him and he stumbled into a grotto.

Scoured by wind and time, the grooved sandstone walls wrapped around in a near-perfect circle. A hot spring bubbled gently in the bottom of the canyon several feet below his perch. Tufts of desert grasses sprouted at the edge of the water and clusters of violets and mushrooms dotted the round walls.

He exhaled. Alone, at last. The spring bubbled, releasing warm mist into the cool air. Rat pulled off his red hood. He picked at the strings binding his Yiga mask to his face, but the knots stuck. Rat impatiently yanked out his pocketknife and cut the ties. As he lifted the mask free, he drew a deep breath. His fine, black hair loosened and fell to his bony shoulders. He dropped the mask to the rock and grinned up at the stars.

"I'm back!" He flung his thin arms out and turned a circle. The stars reflected in his dark eyes and the moon smiled down at the skinny boy as he removed his sandals and peeled off his red shirt. His light brown skin blended with the night, like he was one with the shadows.

Barefoot, Rat stepped to the edge, curling his toes over the rim. He braced himself and somersaulted with a splash into the spring. Eyes closed, he sank in a froth of bubbles. They tickled his arms like his mother's touch when he was very young, when she used to dance her fingernails across his belly. Before she left on a mission one day and never returned.

Rat popped up to the surface. He floated on his back, massaging the tips of his pointed ears, sore from his tight hood. A scrape on his elbow tingled in the warm water, healing. A bruise throbbed on his cheek from Master Kohga's fist.

He didn't say how he wanted his bananas, Rat thought. Fried, steamed, sliced, frozen, on rice—you have to tell me. He clenched his fists, but as the pain released in the healing water, he slowly relaxed.

If only peace could last. As he floated, suspended by the water, gazing up at the stars, fear twinged in his belly. He tilted his head, lifting his ear from the water, listening for the sound of footsteps in the crevice above. Had anyone noticed the boy-shaped bundle in his bed? Would the Yiga take this from him, too?

A shadow skittered through the grass.

He rotated upright in the water and swam to the edge of the pool. Slowly, making as little sound as possible, he pulled himself from the water and laid flat on his stomach. Goosebumps rose on his wet back, but he stared into the grass where the shadow had fled, and waited.

The grass rustled. A lizard slipped into the light and froze, head cocked, listening.

Like me. Rat held his breath.

The lizard ran to the edge of the pool, claws scratching the stone. It listened again. Then its tongue darted out and lapped the water.

Slowly, like he was one with the stone, the boy lifted one elbow, the other. He crawled forward. Your name will be Luna because I caught you under the moon. You'll live in my pocket. I'll feed you crickets and bananas. You will be my first friend.