-Link-

What luck! Link was interested in joining the first army he could find upon reaching the capital, he had expected it to be a month, at least, but one was already waiting! And a massive one at that! It was like a hundred thousand men were waiting just for him!

Link ran into the mass of men and quickly immersed himself. Everywhere he looked were grown men, strong men. Yet Link also saw that they were not soldiers. The men gathered were strong from toil, but had no training. They were farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, inn keepers, bakers, merchants, stone carvers and stone smiths, and the like. They had no armour to speak of, little more than pieces of metal or wood slapped on, and only covering a small portion of their chest and waist; and this was only the men who could afford armour. Their weapons were shabby and blunt and rusted.

There were real soldiers mixed in, but the army was far from elite.

Link saw a black bird fly by. Feeling particularly nostalgic, Link stepped onto a rock and put his hand up as if to snatch the bird out of the sky. The bird reminded him of Midna, for some reason.

"Just wait for me, Midna. I'm going out to my first war. I'll catch up to you before you know it."

Of course, there was no answer. He expected none, but he felt if Midna was there, she would be telling him he was a moron while laughing. He clenched his fist as if to grab hold of the memory. The triangle on his hand shimmered. The bird flew over the wall of Genyuu Pass out of sight.

"ALRIGHT, YOU IDIOTS!" Link yelled. "I'm here now! You can all relax! I'm going to win this war for the lot of ya!"

"SHUT UP, BOY!" Someone yelled back.

"Who is the dumbass?"

"Idiot..."

"Shorty."

"Which of you called me short!?" Link barked.

"Me." A very large man made entirely of muscle replied. The man was twice his height, and had more muscle than Link in just his neck alone. Link chuckled nervously.

"Right... I guess I would be shorter than you..."

Link backed off from the much taller, meaner, looking mountain of a man. He sighed. 'Watch yourself, Link. Don't want to get yourself in shit like you did with the Zora, again.' He thought to himself. The last thing he needed was to be broken like a twig.

"Link?" A voice said.

"I know that voice." Link murmured. He turned to see the last people he ever expected. "Tou?! Bucktooth?! What are you dumbasses doing here? How'd you find me?"

"Saw you making a fool of yourself on that boulder there." Tou pointed.

"Ah, right." Link chuckled in embarrassment.

Hei glared at Link over the 'bucktooth' remark. "Shorty..."

Link's eye twitched. His smile disappeared into a snarling glare. "Don't make me kick your ass."

"You can't reach that high!"

"Show's what you know! I've grown taller in the last year!"

"You're still shorter, and younger, than me!"

"Yeah, well. In a few years I'll be older, and taller, than you! Then you'll be the pipsqueak bucktooth dumbass!"

"Wha- That! THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS! I can't even comprehend you!"

"Too smart for ya?! Yeah, I've gotten a taller brain too while I been gone! I learned a thing or two about... you know... Uh-" Unable to put into words the things he had learned, Link settled for, "Stuff!"

"Stuff..." Hei deadpanned.

"Yeah!"

While Hei and Link glared at each other, Tou shoved himself between them. "Can you two behave? You're making a scene." Tou explained, "There was a conscription of our village. One man was chosen from each major family. Small as our village is, Hei was chosen and I volunteered for the other. Gotta keep an eye on my little bro, you know."

"Cool." Link remarked. "What's a conscription? Is that some kind of fancy party? Like marriage?"

"It is where you are forcibly pulled into an army by a government official."

"Aaaaah! Gotcha."

"I don't need a babysitter..." Hei whined.

"Bit late to say that, little bro."

"Yeah, 'little' bro." Link smirked.

"I swear to Naryu, I will bury you up to your neck and then we'll see whose little..." Hei growled at Link. "Besides, you're late. Tou and I were already here, and I don't think number three should be making fun of number one. Know your place."

"What does it matter, you can't read..."

"That's not reading, that's counting! I've learned to do both. You're the one that can't do either!"

Tou could only sigh and put his face in the palm of his hand. If Zhao didn't kill them, they would kill each other.

Tou was nearly at the end of his rope with the two of them by the time they stopped bickering. Hei was well into, and so was Link, but Link suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked at his hand. He smiled widely. The complete shift in him made Tou wonder about his sanity.

"Guys, come on! A friend is near!" Link turned and ran into the crowd.

Hei and Tou looked at each other, equally confused. Tou said, "Come on. Let's keep him from doing something stupid. We got to stick together."

As for Link, he felt the triangle in his hand shimmer again. This time it was much stronger, and was that of a heartbeat. Ganondorf's triangle was giving him a strong heartbeat. That meant only one thing: the Majora king was near.

Link put his hand out and let it act as a compass of sorts. He had come to learn from the previous occasions that when he was near Zelda or Ganon that they had specific triangles on his hand that glowed slightly and gave heartbeats. The closer he was, or when he was facing them, the stronger the heartbeat. Ganon had his own triangle and Zelda had hers.

As Link suspected, he saw the massive wolf, Kagami, in the crowd next to a cloaked man. The man was purposefully walking away from him.

"Hey!" Link called out, but Ganon continued walking away, and with his long stride Link had to run to keep up. "Don't ignore me, bastard!"

Link growled. He picked up a small pebble and threw it at him. It hit him, but no effect. So Link threw a larger pebble. Still nothing. So Link picked up a rock larger than his fist and threw it.

Instantly Ganon spun around furiously, grabbed Link by the throat, and shoved him so hard into the ground it knocked the breath out of him. Link squeaked in pain and clawed at his hand. Hei and Tou both squealed in fright.

Ganon's eyes widened. "You!?"

"Hey, buddy." Link rasped out. "I missed you too."

"You could have injured me with that stunt! I should kill you right now for endangering a king!" Ganon looked up to see the two young men who had accompanied Link. Ganon was full blown angry from being hit in the shoulder with a sizable rock, and his red-eyes and his red hair was on full display. Hei looked like he was going to wet himself, never having seen his personage before.

"Tou... Hei... This is my buddy, Ganon." Link squeaked out. Ganon was still choking him with one hand.

Tou and Hei both stared in disbelief. Their eyes drifted between the massive growling wolf at Ganondorf's side and the almost demonic personage of the man himself.

Link squeaked like a rubber duck as Ganon clenched his throat harder for a moment. Ganon found he liked the sound, so he did it again.

"Oh, come on!" Link rasped. "Gah! Stop it!"

Ganon released Link and looked towards Tou and Hei. "And you two are?"

"I am Tou Bi, this is my younger brother, Hei Bi." Tou bowed nervously. "We are childhood friends of Link."

"Hm." Ganon hummed without commitment. Despite the fact he had asked, he found he couldn't care in the slightest. Probably would have been better off just staring at them until they leave in fear.

"If I may, sir, how did you come to meet, Link? You must have met him recently, as I have never seen one of your... fierceness around our village."

Ganon nodded. So it seemed at least one of them was polite. He would allow him an answer, then. "We met about five seasons ago. Link broke into my village illegally. He was caught. I very nearly had the privilege of executing him had the floor not thrown me across the room." Ganon explained simply and without hesitation. Hei paled in fright and Tou's eyes widened in surprise. Link just rubbed his head bashfully.

"Yeah... Not the best start."

"Since then I find myself unable to kill him without fearing the High Princesses wrath, as she favours him."

Tou stared at Ganon before looking to Link. "And this is a 'friend' of yours!?"

"It's complicated." Link replied.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ganon snorted, "To you, perhaps. To me, you are that pup that follows the alpha, trips over its own feet, runs full speed into every tree, wall, and fence, and yelps annoyingly loud and often."

"Aw, sounds cute." Link smiled.

"'Cute' is not the word to comes to mind. To me the word that springs to mind is dull, naïve, dumb, senseless, and most especially, stupid."

"Say what you will, I think a dog like that would be cute."

Ganon sighed. Of course, he would think that. But then, Ganon had found that animals often were similar to their owners. Kagami was fierce, large, powerful, and was tame yet had a carefully controlled wild side, as Ganon. Zelda had a proud, young hawkling. And Link wanted a retarded puppy. How fitting.

-Later-

A call went out from an officer on horseback for all the men to group up in groups of five. With many armies, it was every man for himself within their larger groups. But with General Ouki Mitagi, his armies worked under a different structure. Every one-hundred thousand man army was made up of smaller officers ranging from ten-thousand to thirty-thousand. Each group was then further dissolved into thousand-man armies and five-hundred man armies and then one-hundred man armies. But even every one-hundred man army was split further into a unit of five men called 'squad's.

With the Mitagi clan's support, this structure was becoming the standard across Qin.

"We're being led by Ouki Mitagi?!" Hei blurted out in surprise.

Link looked around quickly, searching for him, but did not see Ouki. None of the less, Link hid as best he could in the mass of men. Thankfully his small size benefited him. He also quieted down. This did not go without Ganon's notice.

The moment the call went out from the officer, the men all around them grouped together. Tou and Hei stayed together, and they stuck with Link, who stuck with Ganondorf, much to his annoyance. Ganondorf had planned to work alone. Ganondorf roped his arms together and growled when they got a little too close.

"If I must tolerate you... then I have some rules. Don't annoy me. Don't touch me. And do what I say when I say it. I have more experience in war then all of you put together in one finger. I'm in charge of the 'squad'. And whatever you do, don't touch Kagami. He is tense enough as it is. Will most likely take your hand off."

"Sure, thing." Link said. "Now we just need a fifth guy."

"Have fun with that."

Ganondorf waved him off. He stood by a rock and waited. The army would be marching soon. Time was limited. Link ran off to search for the biggest, strongest, most powerful guy he could find. Everyone he found already had a group centered around them though, and the rest either kicked him to the ground and told him to buzz off, laughed at him, or backed off with one glance from Ganon.

"You aren't helping!" Link exclaimed at Ganon. Yet another man backed off when Ganon looked at him with his red eyes.

"I'm standing here." Ganon grunted.

"Yeah, stop what you're doing!"

"You want me to stop standing here?"

"No, I want you to stop with the red eye evil look. Its giving everyone the creeps! Even Hei and Tou are scared of you!"

Ganon grunted with a shrug. What did he care what two weaklings thought of him. He'd keep them alive as long as they were near him. That was all the obligation he could offer them, provided they stayed out of his way.

A one-hundred man officer rode up with a wagon and started gathering groups. Link rushed off to search for the fifth man, but the time over. The officer rode up and said, "You five. Who is your leader?"

"Me." Ganondorf said.

"Then come here." The officer motioned to the wagon behind him. "Hope you brought your own tents and blankets because none will be provided. Pick your weapon and you may have one water sack."

The wagon was full of barrels of swords, spears, axes, and so on. In a chest was a hundred full water sacks. Ganon picked up two spears, four water sacks, and threw the spears to Hei and Tou. Link had his blade on his side still, and Ganon knew he would make do with it. Meanwhile Ganon had his two broadswords on his back.

"Drop the crap you both have. You will be using spears. If you want to survive your first war, then do not fight up close. Fight from where they cannot reach you and always choose the same target. If I am fighting someone, you stab him from the side with spears. Same with any of you. You will never fight one on one, do you understand me? This is about surviving, not about proving anything."

Ganon threw them all water sacks. "We will be given water over time, so drink if you get thirsty. But don't drink it all at once. I will tell you when to drink, and how much."

"Do you have any idea how wet I've been this last year?" Link groaned. "I've had enough water this year to last a lifetime! I mean, seriously, this is the first time I've been dry!"

"Where have you been? In a river?" Hei asked.

"Something like that." Link replied.

"Get another for your fifth man." The officer ordered. "Hurry up." He turned and started giving orders to another squad.

Ganon shrugged and picked up another spear and a water sack. "More for me then."

"Fifth man?" Tou wondered.

Link shrugged. He sat down on a rock, only to squeal as he sat on a person. He jumped and turned. Tou and Hei jumped in surprise, and Ganon's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't seen the person at all.

"He means me." A boy said.

The boy had a white scarf around head that could barely contain the blond hair popping out. His clothes were also white and aged, with a picture of an eye on the chest.

A Sheikah.

"What are you doing sneaking up on people?!" Link exclaimed.

"I was already sitting here." The short Sheikah replied simply.

"Don't lie!"

"I've been sitting here the entire day. It's not my fault you haven't noticed."

Ganon inserted himself, "Its fine. Leave it, Link... boy, can you fight?"

The boy nodded. He patted two small blades on his sides.

"Have a name?"

"Solitare."

"What kind of a name is Solitare?" Link chuckled. "Ah, well. Sorry for bumping into ya."

"I am not offended. People commonly bump into what they do not notice."

"So the five of us against the enemy, eh? Finally, someone shorter than me." Link mused.

"Actually he's still taller." Tou smiled.

"What?!" Link walked up to Solitare. True enough, Solitare was two inches taller. "DIN DAMN IT ALL!"

As they bickered, Ganon studied the Sheikah. While Link and his friends hadn't noticed, Ganon did. The boy was a nobody. He was no one worthy of notice. But that was the point, the boy had no presence. Even standing in front of him, Ganon almost couldn't see the Sheikah at all. The only time they had noticed the boy was when Link accidentally sat on him, and the boy spoke, both of which things the boy would have allowed, meaning the boy wanted to be noticed.

It was unbelievable. The Sheikah could have truly been right under their nose the entire day and they wouldn't have noticed because the boy had blended in completely. Only the officer, with his viewpoint from horseback, had noticed there was a fifth one standing among them.

The order to march came and the group entered into the throng to march. The mass of one-hundred thousand men packed tightly through the gate, but by the end of the day as they marched out into the open plains the line of the army extended as far as the eye could see. Ganon made sure to keep the squad together. Hei and Tou were easy to keep in control. Link, less so, as everything to draw his eyes and attention inevitably drew his steps as well. Ganon had to assign Kagami to being a shepherd dog in keeping the energetic boy in line. The biggest problem proved to be Solitair. The boy had a tendency to disappear. He would be there one moment and the next moment Ganon lost sight of him, the boy would be gone, only to reappear soon after. Ganon didn't feel the boy was running off, in fact the opposite, the little Sheikah was obedient, quiet, and stayed near as they marched. The problem was simply his lack of presence. It was like trying to watch for a ghost amidst a fog.

The first day morale was strong and energy was good. The peasant army was full of a thirst for vengeance and desired to defend their home. The news that Ouki Mitagi was leading the army gave them hope, a sense of pride, a feeling they were playing a part in history, and other positive thoughts. Ouki had yet to truly do anything except order a march and structuring of the army. His name, his reputation, did the work for him thus far. With just his name he was moving mountains.

Ganon found himself jealous. He had to break skulls to move people. He had a reputation created by fear, even to a good degree in his adopted clan. He had tried to do better in the last decade, and show himself to a just leader, albeit perhaps lacking in mercy, but he had earned the name 'Demon of Majora' for a reason. Past deeds rarely pass from memory.

Ganon made sure the squad drank during the hottest hours and kept his peace when they wanted to bide the time with excited talking.

In the hours following the falling of the sun, Ouki ordered the army set up a camp that can be quickly and easily uprooted. Rain was coming. As such the army was gathered together, small barricades were set up on the outer perimeter, fires were lit, and tents were perched. Ganon had little experience in tents. He usually had others do it for him or just laid under the stars. He, begrudgingly, accepted help from Tou in setting his tent. He ordered the others to set up their tents around his. To his surprise, he had to order Link to stop trying to set his in a tree. The kid had wanted to set it as more of a hammock. If they were not in a formal army, Ganon might have allowed it and actually observed out of sheer curiosity. (He liked a good hammock.) But they were in a formal army and needed to be able to leave at a moment's notice, and they needed to stick together and act as a unit.

"Swear to Din, sometimes I think my wolf is smarter than him." Ganon whispered to himself.

"Who are we even fighting anyway?" Link wondered. "The Termina? I heard rumours all of our armies are near them and the Gerudo right now."

Ganondorf answered, "We are fighting the Zhao. They invaded with one-hundred thousand and are sieging Bayou."

"The Zhao!?" Link gasped. His faced hardened angrily. "Isn't that where the Princess came from?"

"I believe so." Ganon mused.

Link grit his teeth, and his eyes hardened with resolve. "I was wondering how long it would be before we pay them back. Good. I have a bone to pick."

"What's gotten into you suddenly?"

"You know the Princess is scarred, yes? And her personality..." Link glanced around, suddenly realizing his words could be construed as treason. "Has its moments when it gets really dark, like she is scarred in the mind as well. And then the moments her mother is brought up... she either snaps or can't say the word without choking."

"I have noticed."

"It doesn't take a scholar to know Zhao tortured her." Link stated firmly. "So yes, I'm pissed. I will admit, I joined this army on a whim. If I am to become a general even greater than Ouki, I need experience. This army was a good opportunity to start. But now..."

"Now?"

"Now, I have a purpose beyond that whim. Ouki is leading it. We are fighting the Zhao... and you said Bayou is sieged. Isn't that a Qin city?"

"It... is." Ganon blinked in surprise. He knew it was, but it surprised him that Link would know. Link struck him as energetically stupid half the time and ignorantly dumb the rest. "I am surprised you would know."

"I don't, I guessed..." Link stopped perching his tent a moment and gulped. "Do we know how many are dead?"

"How many what?"

"Villages. People. Qin."

"..." Ganon sighed. "It is a lot. I will put it this way: Be thankful you cannot count."

Link grit his teeth, his eyes piercing, and Ganon felt the triangle of Link burning on his own hand.

"Tame your anger, and unleash it when the time is right. Right now it is a waste of energy." Ganon advised him. "Keep it at bay, lock it away, and open it freely when the battle starts. Let it fuel you in war, but not in peace."

"Aren't you supposed to be the angry one?"

"I am." Ganon answered. "My anger is not fury all the time. It is not always on the surface. It is in my blood, in my bones, in how I view people, in how I see myself in the world. I am annoyed at anything, and am liable to verbally bite. I am always angry... That is not for you. But for when we meet the Zhao in battle... it will be."

So the first day ended with good energy and many miles trekked.

The fourth day was when reality started to hit. The army spoke in whispers and Link and Ganon both heard people whispering of what was to come in a more subdued tone. The energy was still good and high, but fear of death and the reality of being away from home to possibly die was starting to set in.

Link was visibly more subdued, more focused, this day. He was no longer bursting with energy and bright curiosity. He was like a coiled snake building itself up; tense, silent, and prepared. The complete change in him didn't help with the mood either. Ganon wasn't affected, but Hei and Tou seemed to rely on Link's boyish nature for morale and the seeds of fear and despair would start to instil itself in their hearts by the days end. They had yet to experience people killing each other; and as much as they were on the side of Qin, they were also on the side of not killing or being killed. Their young heroism dimmed, and while Tou handled it well, Hei did not. He stared into the fire the second night with wide eyed fear.

They were going to have to kill another human being, or die.

Ganondorf Dragmire pitied them.

The morale was further diminished by the rumour of deserters. Over a thousand had fled the army. Ganon reasoned it was bound to happen. They were one-hundred thousand fighting one-hundred twenty thousand. They were outnumbered half-baked conscripts fighting Zhao's elite.

"Tomorrow we will reach the region of Bayou and possibly will have our first engagement with the enemy." Ganondorf said. "Start an early night. Drink a full flask of water before you sleep, the need to relieve yourself will wake you before dawn. Make sure your weapons are beside yourself and exposed enough that it won't tangle if you must rise quickly. We may be ambushed in the middle of the night."

"Wha-what if we can't sleep?" Hei asked.

"Do it anyway." Ganon looked to Link. "That goes double for you."

Link nodded. His eyes never left the fire and his mouth was unusually shut this day. Ganon saw the purpose in his eyes. It was as if he was a different person. More mature... taller. Good. Ganon found this side of him was far less annoying.

"Come on, bro." Tou tugged at his brother's shirt. "Let's do as he says. The big guy knows what he is talking about."

"If you are afraid, then remember what I said the first day." Ganon said one last time before he entered his tent. "Fight to survive, not to kill."