I've really been wanting to do a story for you all, but I seriously am drained of creative, original ideas such as Circles and A World of Lies. So what I did is pull the fanfiction author's ace in the hole: the novelization of a Zelda game. This, in particular, is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

But I am pulling some creative spins of my own to separate this from the other Twilight Princess retellings that are bound to be out there... Mainly that this is from Link's point of view, and it's written like he's actually telling the story of his adventures to you to create an actual storytelling atmosphere. I'm changing some scenes and dialogue so it's less predictable if you've played/finished the game, but important scenes pivotal to the plot retain all their original dialogue.

Also, Link doesn't talk during the retelling to recreate the atmosphere of the game. All of his thoughts are communicated through the first-person perspective. Kurai Hitokiri's The Courtship of Princess Zelda influenced me to do this. :P

I dunno. I hope this turns out well. I haven't written anything in a while; hopefully I haven't lost my touch. :)

I do not own The Legend of Zelda.

Bedtime Stories
SirJoshizzle

“Daddy, tell me a story.”

A twenty-seven year old Link looked down at his ten year old daughter with a questioning look. She looked up at him with hopeful eyes, a telescope he made her when she turned seven tucked under her arm.

“Aryll,” Link said, taking a seat on the edge of her bed. “It’s midnight, honey… It's way past your bedtime.”

“I know…” She shrugged, fiddling with her blanket. “...Please though? Just one story… And then I’ll go sleep! I promise!”

He smiled warmly at her. Those big, expressive blue eyes, her brown-blonde hair… She looked exactly like her mother. He couldn't refuse that look. As much as his travels and adventures hardened him, that look undid all that in an instant.

His travels... and his adventures... Maybe he could use this as an opportunity to finally let his daughter know about her old man...

“Well... I do know one story…" Link scratched the back of his head, reaching underneath his floppy sleeping cap. "It's about me though, and I don’t know if you wanna hear about your ol’ dad's life.”

Her eyes lit up at that. “Oh, tell me the story! Tell me the story, Daddy! Please!?”

Link laughed and got on the bed, lying down next to Aryll. She cuddled up next to him, nuzzling his chest. He took her telescope. He looked to the sight, zoomed in on her face, and she just laughed at that, earning a small chuckle from her father as well. He placed it back under her arm and kissed her on her forehead.

“Okay… Once upon a time…”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Act One, Chapter One
-Looming Twilight-

“Tell me… Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?”

I looked at Rusl with a questioning look. 'Sadness as dusk falls’? …What did he mean by that?

He didn’t look at me though; he just ran his fingers along the clear water of the spring, looking up at the orange clouds roll by, the sun slowly setting behind us.

“They say it’s the only time when our world interacts with theirs… The only time we can feel the lingering spirits who have left our world,” Rusl continued. A small blue bird descended on his right shoulder. He smiled softly as it chirped in his ear. Taking his hand out of the water, he offered his index finger to it, and it climbed onto it before flapping its wings and taking flight into the deep forest beyond the spring. “That is why loneliness always pervades the hour of twilight…”

What… is he talking about? ...Who is he talking about? ‘When our world interacts with theirs’? I opened my mouth to say something, to ask him if he was feeling alright, but he cut me off.

“But enough talk of sadness,” he laughed softly. He turned to me and said, “I have a favor to ask of you, Link.”

‘A favor’? I wasn’t surprised; I was a ranch hand—I got “I have a favor to ask of you” a lot.

“I was supposed to deliver something to the royal family of Hyrule the day after tomorrow,” he told me. “Yes, it was a task set to me by the mayor, but… would you go in my stead?”

My brow rose slightly at that, a small gasp escaping my lips. Me? Go to Hyrule? ...To the royal family!?

“You have… never been to Hyrule, right?” He smiled at my amazed look.

Honestly… no. Well, up until that point, I had never stepped out of Ordon… At the time, Faron, maybe, was the farthest out of the province that I’ve been.

Ordon Village, and the province in which we all lived, Ordona, were annexes to the country of Hyrule. We exported goods to Hyrule, mainly to the royal family, and they in turn supported us whenever we needed assistance. The only two people in the village at the time who have ever set foot beyond Faron, Hyrule’s southernmost province, were Rusl himself and our mayor, Bo. Rusl knew the country much better than I did… Why he wanted me to go instead of him, I had no idea.

“In the kingdom of Hyrule there is a great castle, and around it is Castle Town, a community far bigger than our little village,” he said, the sky and the clouds steadily turning a darker shade of orange. “…And far bigger than Hyrule is the rest of the world the gods created. You should look upon it all with your own eyes.”

I smiled slightly at an image of me walking around that ‘Castle Town’. Me in my simple ranch clothing, my tattered sandals, and my dirty dark blond hair… surrounded by city folk in their clothing that’s… well, far nicer than mine.

I almost laughed aloud at the image of me in those same clothes in the throne room of that ‘great castle’, surrounded by royalty. A king… a queen too, maybe? A prince and a princess? Had either Mayor Bo or Rusl ever met the members of the royal family? They would go to Hyrule on “diplomatic business” on occasion… I assumed that meant they would be seeing people of pretty high status, specifically the royal family. What did they wear when they went to visit them, I wonder? Their normal clothes? ...What would I wear?

Rusl raised his head to the sky. The stars were beginning to show. The moon was beginning to rear its head from behind the clouds.

“It’s getting late… We should head back to the village,” he told me. He pat my back softly as he got up to his feet, and offered his hand to me. I chuckled, accepting his offer to help me up.

He walked over to Epona, my dark brown mare and he ran a hand along her side, her ears batting rapidly in contentment. He took hold of her reins and gently led her to me.

“Link,” he spoke my name, offering me the reins and nodding his head slightly. I took them into my hand, and the three of us slowly walked back to Ordon, crossing the rope bridge that over passed the chasm and the flowing river below.

- - - - - - - - - -

I took a bite of my cucco chicken leg hungrily and gathered a ball of rice with my fingers before stuffing that into my mouth as well. I had been thinking about what Rusl told me at the spring in Faron… If Mayor Bo approved of my going instead of Rusl, then I’d actually be going to Hyrule! Meeting the royal family!

…I wondered what royalty was like. How they lived, the way they acted… I really did wonder about the family themselves, what it consisted of. Was the country ruled by a king like I thought? …Maybe a queen? Neither of them had told me specifically… Maybe both? Did they have children? A prince, one that I could talk to like a guy? …I’m really the only guy in Ordon that’s my age. How about a princess? If there were one, was she… pretty? …Not that I’d ever have a chance with a princess…

I stopped chewing a moment when I heard a voice and Epona making some noises outside my window. A female voice… One all too familiar.

I grabbed a napkin beside me and uncrossed my legs, taking the almost empty plate off my lap and placing it on the floor. Wiping my hands, I got up and looked out the window. And sure enough, down below was her.

Ilia.

“Hey Epona,” I heard her say. “Has Link been treating you well?” She undid the tie on the reins around the sign in front of my house and led her towards the Ordon spring. “…C’mon, let’s give you a little bath so you can look nice and pretty for him… I heard Fado’s been having trouble with the goats again…”

I chuckled to myself and sat back down on the ground, finishing the last of my food.

“Hey! Link! You there!?”

I turned back to the window and looked out… Sure enough, there was Fado. He smiled up at me, rubbing his index finger underneath his rather large nose.

“Hey, you mind helpin’ me herd the goats?” He asked. Heh, Ilia was right, I guess.

I laughed and nodded in reply, and I guess it made him chuckle too. “They ain’t listenin’ to me lately!” He looked around, his eyebrow raising. “Hey… Where’s Epona?”

I shook my head with a lopsided smile. I grabbed my plate, climbed down a few ladders to the floor and put it in my sink, dunking it in the water a few times, and headed out the door.

Fado was maybe five or six years older than I was. He was also a pretty tall guy, maybe a head taller than me, give or take a few inches off the top of his head. He was built pretty well too, with all that goat herding he does down at the ranch… I only help out when he really needs the assistance… like then.

“C’mon now, hurry up an’ bring Epona with you,” he said, patting me on the head like a kid. I just laughed and swatted his hand away.

I headed down the road towards the spring, Ilia’s humming and the splashing of water growing louder with each step I took. Before long, I was at the gates to the spring, and there was Ilia and Epona. She caught sight of me, and the brush in her hand slowly lowered.

“Oh… Hi, Link,” Ilia said, a soft smile on her lips. I returned the gesture as I walked towards them. Epona was quick to greet me as she nuzzled the side of my face gently. I just smiled at her and pat her on the back.

“I-I washed Epona for you!” She grinned, tucking a few tresses of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Epona is a girl too, you know? So you have to treat her nicely like one!” She smiled.

I chuckled softly, nodding in understanding.

“Oh, but listen, Link…” She added. I looked at her with a slightly concerned face. Was something wrong? She was looking down as she kicked the water slightly, her toes spreading and closing into the sand. She looked up at me and asked with hopeful eyes, “Can you do something for me?”

I tilted my head slightly.

“Can you use a piece of grass to play that song for me? ...You know, the one Epona likes?”

I had learned to just blow ever so gently over a blade of grass—granted it the right size—and play simple melodies with it. Growing up in a small ranching village will do that to you sometimes... And one day when I was twelve I played a song I thought of off the top of my head… And a horse came running… Epona came running. To this day, wherever I play it, she seems to hear it and trots right over to my side.

“I tried to play it for her, but I just can’t seem to play it the way you can, Link.” She blushed sheepishly. I smiled warmly at her request and nodded. I walked over to a patch of grass, examining the individual blades. One caught my eye. It was just the right size. I picked it off the ground and whistled the song. And sure enough, Epona let out an excited neigh and walked right over, licking my cheek. Ilia and I laughed at that.

“It’s such a nice melody…” She smiled, closing her eyes as the birds in the trees copied the tune and chirped it in unison. She opened an eye and stared at Epona. “She looks happy.”

She grabbed a carrot from out of a pouch around her waist that I made her for her sixteenth birthday, and fed it to Epona. She looked at me and giggled softly. I raised an eyebrow at that. What was funny? Did I have something on my face?

“Link,” she reached over to my cheek and withdrew it, a few grains of rice between her fingers. “Did you just eat dinner or something?”

Oh… So I did have something there.

I chuckled, blushing slightly, but I waved it off.

“Ah… Well, she’s all prettied up now,” she told me quickly, hiding the shade of pink that was growing on her face too. “So I suppose you can ride her back... But don’t make her do too much, okay?”

Epona finished her carrot and I nodded. I thanked Ilia for bathing her and I got on Epona’s back. Clicking my tongue, Epona took heed and led me out of the spring and back to the village. Ilia waved goodbye, picking up her brush and bucket, and I smiled back.

- - - - - - - - - -

I rode into the village, saying hi to the various people that passed by me. Epona and I walked by Sera and Hanch, the owners of the village convenience shop… Well, Sera runs it, anyway. Hanch… Well, he does…

“Stupid monkey!” Hanch yelled, trying to catch up to a white-haired monkey scampering its way out of the village with a pumpkin from his garden. But the little creature easily outran him, leaving a coughing and wheezing Hanch behind.

…Hanch pretty much does that.

“C’mon, Dad!” Beth, his daughter laughed at him, patting him on his back. “You can’t even catch a silly little monkey?”

He coughed loudly, catching his breath. “Uhh… Well, no. No, I can’t…”

Sera simply shook her head. “Good-for-nothing…” She paused when she caught sight of me. “Ah, if it isn’t young Link. You gonna help Fado close down the ranch tonight? Yeah, I just closed up the shop here too. Closed it up real good; you can imagine the trouble we’ve had with the monkeys rolling in and out of the village these days.”

She and I looked at Hanch and we laughed together as he grumbled to himself.

“Oh, but listen to us go on, keeping you from your work. Go ahead, Link. Come by and shop a bit tomorrow, you hear? We’re getting some more food to sell then, so you’ll be eatin’ well tomorrow!”

I smiled and said bye to the three of them, and they all waved goodbye in reply.

- - - - - - - - - -

“Sorry to come off on you on such short notice, Link,” Fado apologized to me, but I told him it was alright. This is my job, after all.

“But these guys have been pretty edgy lately,” he shrugged. “Don’t listen to a thing… So you think y’all can help me out? Just round ‘em up into the barn?”

I nodded, and Epona did too. Fado laughed and scratched her behind the ears. “Thanks in advance, buddy! And you too, Epona! And don’t worry about comin’ in for tomorrow. I’ll take care o’ things here; y’all take a good day off.”

I thanked him and got Epona trotting, whopping and calling for all the goats to get into the barn before the sun finally set into the horizon. Epona, Fado and I like to have a little bet, especially during closing: Epona and I try to get all the goats away before sunset. Though Fado and I haven’t actually made a bet over it in a while; he’s decided that a hundred rupees in the hole is enough.

…

“Thanks again, Link!” Fado said as he closed the doors to the barn. Thanks to you too, Epona. You two get faster everyday… Good thing I didn’t bet nothin’, haha.”

Not that he really had any money to bet. Trust me.

“Y’all can go on ahead,” he nodded. “I can take care of the rest here. Later, Link! Bye, Epona!”

I smiled and saluted him with a finger before riding off back home. Epona kept a steady, slow walk as I looked up, the glittering stars becoming more visible over the violet sky. But something was strange as I looked into the horizon... As I looked north beyond the sprawling forests, where Hyrule was... It amazed me though, especially when it was much too late for it to still be sunset, just how orange the skies were in the distance...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“What happened next, Daddy?” Aryll asked, yawning softly. “What was the orange in the sky?”

Link chuckled softly at that. “I’ll tell you later, sweetheart. But for now, you really should be sleeping… Your yawn told me you’re really tired.”

She pouted cutely. “I’m not tired!” …But another yawn escaped her lips.

That caused him to do so too. “Daddy’s getting sleepy too…”

She frowned, her eyes drooping. “Aww…”

“…I’ll tell you what?” He said. “We’ll continue this story next week.”

“Next week?” She repeated. “That’s so far away! …But if you promise me…”

“I promise, Aryll,” he nodded, running a hand through her hair. “Same time, same place… If you can remember to stay up this late again, that is.”

“Oh, I will!” She nodded. “I wanna find out what happened to you!”

Link laughed and tickled her softly. “Good… Just don’t tell your mom that I’ve been letting you stay up so late… Daddy’s gonna get in biiiiiig trouble!”

“I promise!” Aryll grinned. “It’ll be Daddy and Aryll’s little secret!”

“Yep,” he nodded. “Now go to sleep. It’s late.”

“Mhm,” she nodded. Link got off the bed and she pulled the covers closer to her, snuggling into her pillow. “Good night, Daddy. I love you.”

He smiled lovingly and kissed his now fast asleep daughter on her forehead. “G’night, Aryll... I love you too.”

And with that, Link blew out the candle on her nightstand and walked out of the room, slowly closing the door.

Bedtime Stories will be updated every Sunday at midnight my time (Pacific Daylight Savings)... It even says in the story! So there will be no surprises with updates this time. Everything stays nice and organized that way. You can find out more about the backstory of how this fic came to be at my blog at sirjoshizzle(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2008/07/daddy-tell-me-story(dot)html

Reviews with thoughtful feedback are gladly accepted and appreciated. :)

Enjoy Life and Smile.