Yaaay! This children, is the Hidden Truths sequel! I have started it. Huzzah! It's also been approximatly one years since Hidden Truths fist came out. Anyways, this is about Link and Reena's daughter Ryin who we met briefly last story. There were multiple suggestions I didn't get to in Hidden Truths so now I'm getting to them now. Enjoy!
~Prologue~
"OW!" Ryin crumpled to the ground holding her foot. Glaring up at the tree. "Dumb tree! Give me an apple!"
She was too short to reach even to lowest branches and she couldn't climb due to the lack of footholds. She glared dubiously around for something, anything to throw in hope of knocking an apple down, or at least use as a footstool. She spotted a basket about half full with vegetables nearby. With a quick look around, she tipped it over, spilling the vegetables and dragged to the base of the tree. She stood on the flat side and could barely reach the branches. But she still managed to haul herself upwards onto a flimsy looking branch; she smirked and began to climb.
About half way up she saw it, at the very top, the most perfect apple ever. Her apple. She made a beeline towards it.
"Hey you! Get away from those apples!" The voice caught her off guard and she lost her balance and tumbled out of the tree, skinning her palms and knee.
The boy ran up to her, furious. "Just what do you think you're doing? These aren't your apples! AND you knocked over our vegetables!" he glared down at her "Well?"
She looked up at him teary eyed, holding her knee. He backpedaled, "Um, sorry, not important, right now." He knelt down beside her and she flinched away. "Look, I'm not going to hurt, you, let me just fix that up."
Ryin watched as he pulled out a handkerchief and dowsed in some water from a nearby pump. He looked about a few years older than her, maybe 8 or 9 with chocolate brown hair and sky blue eyes "I'm sorry I tried to steal your apples." She hiccupped through the tears.
The boy didn't even look at her "we'll talk about that in a minute." After washing her knee and palms he tied a new handkerchief around her knee. "Sorry, there's not much I can do for your hands."
He finally looked up at her, and was surprised to see all traces of her tears and disappeared and was instead glowing with happiness. "Thank you ever so much! You're really nice."
He blushed and scratched the back of his head nervously "It was nothing really, I couldn't just leave you like that." He looked back at her, she was still smiling.
"I still think you're really nice! My names Ryin, what's yours?"
"My-my name? Uh…Shaoran"
She giggled "That's a funny name! Well, Shaoran, I suppose it's only polite to ask you now that we're friends, but may I please have an apple? I saw them when I walked by and they looked sooo good! I really only want one."
He stared at her, still taken aback by her sudden change in attitude. "Uh, sure I guess." He reached up and grabbed one from one of the lower branches, and handed it to her.
She rolled her eyes and looked skeptically at him "Not one of those ones, even I could've gotten one of those."
He looked at her, bewildered "Then which one do you want?"
She pointed upwards "Those ones! The ones at the very tippity-top. Everyone knows that the apples taste better at the top of the tree. Can I have one of those? Pleeeease?"
He stared at her like she was crazy. But her hopeful face got the better of him "Okay fine, gimme a sec." he used the upturned basket as a step and started climbing. When he reached the top he called down to her. "Okay! Get ready to catch."
She held out the base of her dress as a net to catch it in. "Ready!"
He tossed down about five apples, each one bouncing lightly in her dress. "Wow! Five apples? You're really giving me five whole apples!?"
He jumped down from the tree, and snatched one from her dress "No silly. I want to try your theory for myself. I want to see if the apples at the top are better than the ones at the bottom."
They both sat down to eat "Well they are. My daddy says so and he knows everything."
"Right." He took a bite. "Mmmm, hey, looks like your dad was right. They are better."
"See? I told ya so!" she munched happily on her apple, content "Mmmm, so good! I've tasted good apples before but yours apples are the bestest!"
He handed her an apple "Here. You can take this back for your dad as thanks for the tip."
"Fank you!" she could barely speak around her mouthful.
He watched her eat happily "If you like them so much then you can come back whenever you want and have some."
Her mouth dropped open and a bit of apple fell out-she didn't notice "Really? Really really? You're not even joking right now?"
He chuckled "Of course, we are friends."
Her eyes grew wider than before, if that was even possible "Friends? Really? I've never had a friend before. I only have my brother and my sisters, but never a real friend. If you're my only friend does that make you my best friend?"
He laughed "Well, If you want."
She nodded vigorously then grabbed his hands. "I'll come see you all the time if that's alright with you."
"Not all the time, I still have a lot of chores and stuff to do most of the time, but you can come over when I'm not working. But you can't disturb me when I do them because-"
He was suddenly interrupted by the clattering of hooves and whinny of horses. They looked up and saw a squadron of soldiers ride up. Ryin blanched.
"Hmm I wonder what they want..." Shaoran asked, turning to her. He was surprised by her reaction "Ryin? What's wrong?"
"Halt! Unhand the girl, peasant!" The lead guard shouted from atop his horse, pointing her sword down at Shaoran.
He stood up defiantly "Excuse me? Unhand her? I'm not keeping her captive. Who're you to question me?"
Ryin squeaked and tugged on his sleeve "Shaoran..."
He shrugged her off "Who do you think you are coming on to my land and trying to take away my friend? What do you want with her anyways? She doesn't want to come with you."
"Foolish boy! I am the captain of the Royal Guard and I've come to save Lady Ryin from being your prisoner."
"Prisoner? She isn't my prisoner; she came here on her own accord. I won't let you-"
"Now, now, no need to fight." Ryin had stood up. She walked towards the guards placing a hand on Shaoran's shoulder as she walked by. He gaped at her. "Captain Loren is right- I should be going soon." She turned to Loren "Now apologize to Shaoran."
He stared at her "L-lady?"
"You heard me. Apologize. Now. Or I won't go home." She said, crossing her arms defiantly.
"But he tried to kidnap you!"
"Uh-uh, I kidnapped myself. I came over to visit, and you came and started being mean, so apologize."
Loren set his jaw "I'm-sorry, Master Shaoran." He gave a curt bow from atop his horse to which Shaoran awkwardly returned, completely bewildered. "Now, Lady Ryin, may we please go? Your parents are waiting."
She cringed "Are they? Well let's go." Loren helped up on the horse. She called out to Shaoran "Bye Shaoran! I'll see you again soon!"
"Wait! Ryin! What-what's going on?"He called out jogging to keep up as the horse started away.
She giggled. "Sorry! I forgot to tell you, I'm a princess!" She called after him as the horse started galloping away towards the castle.
He stopped chasing the horse. "You're WHAT?"
She called to him again, her voice fading fast "A princess!"
He just stood there gaping, watching the horses until they were just a speck in the distance.
*astrix astrix astrix*
Link sat in the study reading his usual book in his usual chair just as he did before his life was changed so drastically these past few years. 5 children in 6 years and the most beautiful and kind wife he could ever imagine.
"Reading that book again? Haven't you read it like a bijillion times already?" Reena said as she walked in. "That's all you ever seem to read. Do you have it memorized yet?"
He rolled his eyes. "Pretty close."
"Useless. You really can't do anything, can you?"
He snorted. "We've know each other for how long? I would've thought you'd of figured it out by now."
She shook her head, laughing "Why did I even marry you anyways? I should've just given you over to Ruto. Eh, maybe she'd still take you." She laughed seeing his reaction of pure horror.
His eyes narrowed "I hate you."
"Love you too Link." She said sweetly.
Before he could retort Captain Loren walked in with Ryin in tow. "Here she is your Majesties."
Ryin skipped up "Hi mum!"
"Thank you Captain." Loren bowed and backed out. When he was gone Reena turned to her daughter. She crossed her arms and surveyed her for a moment. "Really?"
Ryin smiled sheepishly. "Really."
Reena smirked "Good."
"Wait-what!? That's it? She leaves the castle without telling anyone and that's all you say? She's as bad as you!" Link said, making himself known in the conversation.
Reena gave a short laugh "You make it sound like such a bad thing, being like me."
"Escaping the castle is not a good thing. What if something had happened to her?"
"Really? She's our kid; she can take care of herself."
"Mommy used to leave the castle too?" Ryin interrupted.
"Yeah, although it was a couple years before I actually realized and by then it was too late to top her." Link said dryly. Reena smirked but said nothing. "She'd sneak out and come see me."
"But if she went to go see you, how come you didn't notice her?" Ryin played her hand carefully, she knew from years of experience that if she asked the right questions she could divert their attention away from her to avoid getting in trouble and get a story out of it too.
"Well, for one reason or another I was always too...busy to go see her." Ryin curled up in her father's lap and listened expectantly "And as you no doubt know by now, your mother and castle life don't really mix. Well she'd get really bored without me to talk to, so she'd write me a letter and disguise herself as a man named Sheik in order to come see me."
Ryin giggled "Why'd you hafta disguise yourself to go see daddy?"
"Well, like you someone didn't approve of me leaving the castle." Link rolled his eyes. "So I disguised myself as Sheik to bring him my letter so he wouldn't get suspicious."
Ryin giggled. "But how did-"She was interrupted by a servant bursting through the door.
"Your Majesties!" he panted "I have urgent news!"
Link stood up "What happened?"
"We just received news from a Termian messenger. He wishes to speak with you immediately! He's in the throne room."
Link turned to Reena and they both nodded, then took off down the hall. Waiting in the throne room was a messenger looking thoroughly stressed and nervous. He turned abruptly as they hurdled into the hall. "What happened?"
"My Lord and Lady," he gave a quick bow. "I bring horrible news! Ikana has been destroyed!"
They gaped at him. Reena was the first to find her voice "Ikana? Destroyed? How is that possible?" She turned to Link looking for an explanation.
"Well, I know they've been going through a difficult time these past eight years. The civilians have been somewhat upset with their royalty. Maybe they did it?"
The messenger shook his head. "There was no one left alive. If they had destroyed it, they wouldn't of destroyed themselves, only the palace."
Link turned to Reena again. "I should go investigate. You stay here with the children."
She stared at him "What? Are you stupid? You can't go by yourself! You're useless, remember? What if it's a trap? If the civilians did destroy everything, they may have only wanted to draw us out for some reason. They could be hiding somewhere. I'm going with."
He sighed "Reena I don't have time for this. I need to go now and check the scene while it's fresh."
"You needn't worry about that Sire. It has been approximately one month since the attack."
They both spun around in shock. "What? A month why've you waited so long to tell us?"
He held up his hands "I assure you we've only just found out! Ikana trades goods with us once a month due to the fact that they're so isolated. They made last month's shipment just fine, but this month there was a significant delay, until the mayor sent someone to go find out the cause. When he arrived it was a ghost town. But none of the buildings had been destroyed, only the people had disappeared."
Link and Reena were speechless. Until Link broke the silence quietly. "Reena. I think we should both head out. Disappearing people sounds like something I'd need help with. I doubt we'll find anything, but we should go check it out in any case."
"Right."
Link turned to the man. "Don't worry. We'll take care of it." Then by some unspoken signal, they were off.
*astrix astrix astrix*
The wind howled through the deserted village, dust blew in little tornados around their feet as they stood at the edge of the cliff and looked onwards. A lone tumbleweed rolled past then. It was silent, save for the wind, and not even Ikana's famous crows were heard. Link and Reena just stood there surveying the wreckage of the once proud City of Royalty.
Link broke the silence after what felt like an eternity. "It's so empty." Reena only nodded.
They head off, following the river as it cut the village in half. "Oh... They destroyed the Music Box House." Reena stated as they came to a decrepit house with a water wheel. The beautiful paint colours were faded and peeling and the large speakers on the roof were cracked and sagged. Despite the plentiful amount of water coming from a cave at the top of the hill, there was no music playing.
Link nodded. "No wonder it's so quiet."
They kept moving, silently making their way through the carnage. They toured around the entire village once and finally stopped at the entrance to the palace. "We needn't check inside the palace, we've seen all the emptiness we need."
"Link, I don't like this. What happened here? It looks like everyone just upped and walked away. The palace and the Music Box House are the only places that look affected, and that's only because of the civil war. I remember hearing about the citizens giving the professor and his daughter a hard time for it."
He looked around. "I really have no idea. I thought coming here would give us an idea but all it did was fuel our doubt." He was silent for a moment. "I guess there's nothing more we can do here. We can't bring back these people. There's nothing more we can do."
"But Link, what about the rest of the country?"
"How do you mean?"
"Just like we govern all of Hyrule, the Ikanian royal family is in charge of all of Termina. With no king, mass chaos will break out."
Link smiled wryly and looked at her. "You act like that's something new."
Yay! Prologue done! I have chapter one done too but I think I'll space it out a bit before you get it. How was this chapter? Please tell me?