A boy with wavy blonde hair was plodding along a clean stone paved road with a lady companion by his side. His green eyes were duller then usual because of his appalling mood. He was wearing a plain brown cloak to hide his frilly white shirt, glossy pants and squeaky boots.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed.” Coaxed Polan, “Believe me, the others will wear very similar things.” Link grunted back, “I’d rather have my old stuff on.”
“But you put it in the bin remember?” Link twitched with guilt. He didn’t want to lie to Polan, Mala, or Rachel. Instead of throwing away his clothes, he threw away some of his cleaning rags he brought in case his foster parent(s) worked as house cleaners. He hid his other special possessions into the back of his wardrobe. Except for the one around his neck. A flute his father had made for him was Link’s most prized possession. He felt for the familiar touch of the flute and was reassured that it was still there. He grimaced at the books he had to carry to school. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy carrying things. It was the insides of the books that drove him crazy.

Words.

Not just the kind of words you’d find on signposts and maps. Words that he’d never even tried to read or write, words that he didn’t even know that existed. And the numbers! He visibly shivered as he thought of all the functions, theories, formulas and equations all crammed into a single book. He felt like a small animal hunted down by un-needed knowledge. He desperately hoped that there was such a thing as sword’s class. That was the only thing that he was good at.
“Here we are.” Polan stated. Link’s jaw, stomach and heart dropped instantly. The school looked like an over sized cathedral. There were absolutely no playgrounds what so ever. Only benches to read, eat and talk on. A forest surrounded the back area. When Link saw the forest his face lit up. His favourite way of entertaining himself was to climb trees. But his smile turned upside down as soon as he saw the signpost.

No entering the woods

That really put the sugar on the bun. Polan escorted him into the school, where he noticed that there were many boys and girls with the same kind of clothing on.
Oh thank Farore. Link said in his head. The cloak he was wearing was airy, but it had started to get hot underneath the extra cloth around him. Both of them were soon in the cool interior of the school’s building and were headed toward Link’s new classroom.

The students in the classroom were staring at the new kid with interest. Link had taken off his cloak and had put it in his new locker with his un-needed books. He was standing in the front, trying to introduce himself.
“Hi. My name’s Link. Um . . .” the boy scratched the back of his head and glanced towards the teacher with a ‘I don’t know what else to say’ look on his face. The teacher looks nice enough was the first thing that entered Link’s mind when he first met her. She was fat, jolly and had a glitter in her eye that couldn’t help making people smile. As soon as Link gave her the look of hopelessness, she asked him,
“Is there a interest that you would like to share with the class?” The students shifted with interest. Oh boy
“Um. I love horse riding, music, and . . . animals.” Link chose his words carefully. He didn’t want to make a bad first impression and one of the first things his mother taught him was to always think before speaking. You can’t take back what you say. Thankfully, it worked. No one laughed or mocked about his interests. And hand shot out from the crowd of students. Uh-oh.
“What kind of music do you do?” The voice belonged to a girl. She had black shiny hair and was wearing a very adult like brown gown with lots of lace on it. Link felt blood coming towards his face. He hastily answered “I play the flute . . .” but was interrupted by another girl.
“Do you have it here?”
“Well. Yeah. I . . .” Before Link was finished, boy’s voice rang out. “Let’s hear you play it flute boy!” A murmur of agreements echoed through the classroom. Link just stood there, not knowing what to do. He looked towards the teacher for help.
“You don’t have to be shy.” She encouraged. Link sighed in defeat. He grabbed at the string that held his instrument and pulled it from behind his head and out came the flute. It was crudely made out of wood and it was a little bit out of shape, but it gave out a wonderful sound. Link inhaled to calm himself and played his favourite tune. He called it ‘Moon’s laughter’. It was a lullaby he had composed for his mother when she had gotten sick and couldn’t sleep. It was fairly short and finished quite quickly. An applause was given to him when he had finished. Link was definitely not expecting that. He gave a sheepish smile and sat down at his seat, ready for his English session. In a desk not too near, a boy was looking towards the new incomer. He had black hair, wore a blue glittery shirt and white pants. His eyes were a cold piercing blue and he was staring at Link with disgust. The boy nudged a red haired student next to him and said,
“What do we do when a threat comes along?” the red head snickered and replied,
“Hunt it down and tame it or . . .” The black haired boy smirked and responded
“Kill it.”

In the half hour break after three lessons, Link was officially ready to quit and run. In English he did okay, in math he did horribly and in science he was absolutely appalled at how much he had to catch up on. He lay back on the bench in dismay, not really looking forward to this break. His form teacher Mistress Palmi had told him to go hunt out some friends but right now, Link wasn’t in the mood. He took out his flute and was about to doodle with it when the same girl with the brown hair came running over to him. “Your good with animals right?” She huffed,
“Yeah sure. Why?”
“My cat’s stuck in a tree and he won’t come down! Do you think you can help?” Before Link could respond, he was pulled away by the girl (her turned out to be Lisa). When they had finally finished running, the girl pointed up to a high up branch on a middle-aged fig tree.
“How the heck did he get up there!” he exclaimed. The branch the cat was in was roughly 4 meters above ground.
“He likes heights.” Lisa groaned.
“You could say that again.” Growled Link, frustrated at how hard it was to take off his goddess-forsaken boots. As he dusted himself off of any excess dirt, he hauled himself onto the first branch (bare footed) and stood there, measuring the distances between each branch and which one he should take to go up and come down. Once he had finished thinking, he got to work. This way and that, he jumped, swung and hauled himself onto branch after branch. But there was a slight problem when he reached the kitten. The branch was quite thin, and had somehow snapped, so he couldn’t get the animal out of safety without killing himself. I guess I’ll have to do it the cheesy way.
He sat in a close by branch and mentally talked to the little kit. Come on fella. Your friends are waiting down on the ground. It kind of worked, since he moved a little closer, but stayed a little back, not trusting the stranger.
“Ok. Plan B” Link pulled out his flute and played ‘Moon’s laughter’ again. It worked. Seduced by the strange melody, the cat came to Link like a magnet. Link grabbed the Kitten gently by its loose skin and cradled the kit against his chest. He rumbled and purred against his warm body while Link tried to get out the tree with only one hand to support him. When he realised he couldn’t go back with only one hand free, a brain wave struck him once again. He sat down on a nearby branch, held the kitten with both hands and leaned back. If I didn’t mention it before, there was no trunk behind him. As Link fell, he did a back flip in the air and landed safely on his feet.
“A cat’s jinx. While holding one, you always land on your feet.” Link told the cat with amusement.

After giving the kitten back to Lisa, two boys approached Link. One was a fat orange head with the same kind of green eyes like Link’s. His orange, buttoned shirt struggled to keep in one piece and his dark blue pants were in better condition. The other was blonde with hair reaching to his shoulders, tied up in a ponytail. He had brown fox like eyes and a thin-lipped mouth. His multi-jewelled tunic had a murky, swamp like olive colour to it and his white tights made him look extra scrawny.
“Hey.” The red headed one beckoned to him, “My name’s Nigel, this is Tanji. We’re going to the woods to look for some squirrels. We could use your help.” Link cocked an eyebrow.
“Seeing squirrels would be nice, but isn’t the woods out of bounds?” Tanji snickered at Link’s comment. He crossed his arms over his chest and replied, “We’re the ones that made it out of bounds.” That answered his question, but he still didn’t understand. Oh well, he shrugged I guess they’ll explain as we go.

But they didn’t say a word as they travelled through the forest, Link didn’t like the two more and more. What it was about them that he disliked he didn’t know. They suddenly stopped outside a circular clearing with a tree full of red autumn leaves in the middle. When Nigel gave the signal, all three of them hid beside some bushes and waited. Sure enough, three squirrels jumped into the clearing, rolling around and playing. They were mud brown in colour and had white spots on their heads, backs and tails that looked like specks of snow, making the little creatures look like the cutest animals in the world. There was another rustle from somewhere else, but Link dismissed that.
“Play your song!” Tanji whispered with urgency.
“Why?” Link asked
“Do you want to catch them or not?” hissed Nigel.
“What!?” whispered Link “No way! Leave them alone!”
“Fine then!” Tanji shoved Link onto the ground and pulled a string, which Link hadn’t noticed before. A small net sprang to life from underneath the leaves and caught one of the squirrels. It squeaked in fright, scrambling with the ropes, trying struggle free.
“Yes!” screamed Nigel
“NO!” cried out Link. The two other squirrels were trying to free the trapped one when Tanji and Nigel grabbed them and stuffed them into a cotton bag each.
“Let’s get out of here before . . .” in mid-sentence, Tanji tripped over something. When he looked, an arrow had sprouted by his foot.
“Wha?” started Nigel, but was cut off when he felt a surge of pain in his wrist. A nutshell bounced off his now red hand. Link took the chance and grabbed Nigel’s bagged squirrel.
“Hey!” he screamed. He was about to throw an insult when an arrow went past his face, burying itself in the ground a few inches away from Link. It also left a shallow cut on the fat boy’s face. Another arrow soared through the air and cut into Tanji’s sleeve, leaving a gash on his arm. Link took the opportunity and snatched the other bagged squirrel from Tanji.
“Give that back!” the furious Tanji shouted. Then a shower of seeds hit the two enraged kids, making them shriek in pain. “Let’s get out of here! This hunt’s over!” Tanji called to Nigel. In unison, they screeched their way out of the clearing, leaving Link all by himself. Holding the trapped squirrels as carefully as he could, Link hurried towards the rodent that was caught in the net. But before he was able to touch it, a flash of fiery red appeared and an arrowhead placed itself in front of Link’s forehead. A feminine voice around his voice rang in his ears.
“If you move a single millimetre, I will turn you into a pin cushion.” The threat was enough to keep Link still as a statue. He’d seen her use her bow first hand he knew not to mess with her.
Great. His mind’s words sunk into his head. The hunter becomes the hunted