Heartless Courage Book One: Kingdom Hearts meets Legend of Zelda

Chapter XV: The Bond

They began their day long journey towards the desert. Link and Goofy took the lead, while Sora and Donald followed closely behind. Link had never traveled with such a group before, so he had demanded that they travel close together in as tight a formation as possible. After a few hours of rounding the first couple hills, Donald complained "I'm hungry."

Now that Link thought about it, he hadn't eaten anything since he had escaped the castle..no..since before Killing Gannon seven years in the future?..shit. He stopped. Now that he had thought about his own stomach for the first time in forever, he realized that it was close to digesting him from the inside out.

"Oh, I have something!" Goofy proclaimed cheerfully. He reached into his deep pockets and pulled out what was the equivalent of a heart container. "Nobody seemed to want to stick around for breakfast, but I brought several lumps of Lon-Lon cheese, Deku Baba root, and Grilled Cucco. At least, that's what the Innkeeper called it all." The group decided to make camp. Donald lit a fire, draining a little power, but it burned bright and hot. They gathered in a little circle, and Donald warned not to stay any longer than a few minutes.

"So.. how did you spend your time before this all started? "Sora asked Link, mouth still full of roasted Cucco meat.

"Well.. honestly I used to just live a quiet life in Kokiri village. Didn't really do much other than explore the woods. I.. well.. I might as well tell you. I didn't have too many friends. A lot of the Kokiri made fun of me for growing so fast, and for not having a fairy." Link paused. He thought of Na'vi, and wished she was here with him. She was his companion, and his only true friend in a long, long time. Sora seemed to notice and to change the topic began to talk about his adventures. Link tried to counter with his own. It quickly turned into a competitive debate on who killed the biggest bosses.

"So after falling about three hundred feet down into the cavity of the hollow Deku Tree, I had to face the terrifying spider queen Ghoma. Mind you, I'm ten so.." Link started.

"Wow...well, I had to fight a giant heartless version of myself that could have easily crushed me with one hand. I don't care how old you are, getting squashed is getting squashed."

"Oh? Well I also had to fight against a giant Goron eating dragon with only a hammer to kill it."

"I don't know a Goron is, but for the dragon bit I went up against the giant three headed dog from the underworld. You ever hear of Cerberus? Hades's pet?"

"The underworld?"

"Ugh..."

Sora changed topic and began asking more about Link.

"So, you said you were in the future? What was it like? What did this Gannondorf guy do that makes him so evil?"

Donald and Goofy, also interested cut their chat short to listen in.
Link sighed, having to recount the horrible details of Gannondorf's reign.

"It was very dark. Gannondorf had killed off most Hyrulians, changing them into ReDead, and all the other races were cursed in some way to prevent their interference. The Zoras were frozen nearly to death, the Gorons were used as food for the dragon Volvagia that Gannondorf revived, and most of the Kokiri died not too long after the Great Deku Tree had withered away. Even the weather changed.. I think his dark magic somehow reacted to the world around him. Everything he touch either died or was cursed. "

"What was he King of then? If he killed everyone off?" Donald asked.

Link thought for a moment.

"I think...he just wanted everyone to die. The Gerudo didn't follow him for long after they saw how he ruled and they just went back to the desert. He ruled over only monsters...I really didn't stop to ask why."