~/ Prologue/ A Tainted Gem~

"Daddy…why do I look a little bit different from the other kids?" Said the young girl as she stared up at her father. The father looked down and made a somewhat irritated face, but the look in his eyes said that he felt this was coming for a while now… He replied "Because you're tainted…" The little girl made a very confused face as she cocked her head to the side, and after staring for a moment she said "What do you mean, Daddy?" She could not understand what he meant; well she was only 6 after all.

He replied "*sigh* …You'll know when you're older…" The little girl nodded at this, and turned to walk away but before she could leave the house to run back outside, her father said "I want you to know, that no matter what you do… you will always be different." She nodded quietly… and left… She did not think much about it… She was so young, but already her troubles were beginning.

~ Chapter 1/ Who am I? ~

Sapphire was preparing to leave to the castle when her step-father shouted "Sapphire! Don't be gone long, you have things to do here in the house, and you better make dinner tonight!" Sapphire hesitated, sighed, and then replied saying, "I know Step-dad…" "Why don't you call me father?" Sapphire made a strange face and replied quietly "Ok…father…" "That's better". Sapphire said her goodbyes and quickly went out of the house, and said to herself,

"Why does he want me to call him 'father'? He treats me horribly, but then acts like he wants a better relationship…I wish he would make his mind up!" Sapphire made her way to the castle to meet with her friends, Zelda and Link; but her friends aren't your ordinary friends!

Zelda is the famous princess of Hyrule and Link is her 'Knight' of sorts. They're really the only people who treat her completely normal. Of course Sapphire has a lot of friends, but some of the parents around town don't want their children associating with the likes of her, they think she's a bad influence. But none of them really know her. You see Sapphire may not know it yet, but she's part Zora, a majestic tribe that watches over Hyrule's water supplies, Lake Hylia.

The Zora's resemble humanoid fish people, but despite how weird that may sound, they are actually quite a beautiful people. Sapphire is defiantly more Hylian looking than Zora, but the evidence is there, Sapphire has slanted blueish-purple eyes, long hair that is white at the top, and slowly shows a blue-purple tint towards the bottom, her ears are pointed like Hylians, but are far larger than a normal Hylian, And her skin is very white, with hardly any pigment, and she's tall for her age among the Hylians. And very shocking to her she has a patch of scales on her arm and stomach , it's small, but It bothers her, and to make things worse for her, Sapphires step-father, Aren, has went through the trouble of keeping Zora's a secret from her. He wont let her go near Lake Hylia, he tells her it's dangerous over there, but Sapphire often thinks "Why would it be dangerous?" although she's stayed loyal to this wish her whole life. But that's about to change.

Sapphire finally arrived in castle town and made her way to the castle courtyard, when she saw Zelda sitting on a bench by the small body of water that circled the castle, she was quiet and looking at the butterflies that fluttered silently over the flowers.

Sapphire, without saying a word, sat down next to Zelda, she didn't make a sound, she acted as if she did not even notice her. "Umm Zelda…can I talk to you about something?" "Zelda looked at her and said "Yes…if I can tell you something..." Sapphire smiled and said "Sure."

She continued on "So… you know how my step-dad always keeps me from going to lake Hylia" Zelda started to get nervous…and she quietly muttered… "Yes…"

"Well…" Sapphire continued "I'm going to go there…" Zelda gasped and stood up rather fast and shouted "NO! You can't! I promised I would help so you wont find o-" Zelda stopped herself from talking further… and looked as pale as a ghost, And said "I've said too much" Sapphire looked angry now and grabbed hold of Zelda's shoulders and said loudly,

"YOU KNOW! You know why I can't! You've been keeping it from me! Has Link too? And King Harkinian? There's something over there that will tell me about myself right? About me and my appearance! And my mother and real father!" Sapphire was saying this because, according to her step-father, her mom and her real father we're killed in the Hylian war many years ago and Sapphire was saved. She always felt this was a lie. However, she always felt everything her step-father said was a lie.

Zelda looked down and said "…come with me…" they began to walk to the castle, and Zelda continued talking "You see. As you know, my father and your step-dad are good friends, so naturally they've shared secrets with each other, but there's one secret your step-dad kept from you that he shared with my father, a horrible, selfish secret. And for some reason, my dad promised him he would not tell you, but now, what ever the consequences… I will tell you." Sapphire looked shocked, what could have been so horrible that they would keep it secret for so long? Sapphire looked down as they were walking down the long corridor then said "Zelda… Where are we going?" Zelda replied "We're going to the secret treasury…Where all of the lost and recently found ancient artifacts of Hyrule are kept, as well as pieces of artwork."

Sapphire thought "Why would we be going there? I don't get this at all…" Finally Zelda and Sapphire came to a large door that seemed to be a hundred feet tall because of how much it towered over them. It made sapphire feel really small. Zelda pushed open one of the huge doors to reveal a huge room filled with many beautiful artifacts, just as Zelda had said.

Sapphire carefully looked over a few, awing over them, and then Sapphire looked up at Zelda and said "Zelda… Why is all this here, Why is the king in possession of all these!"

"Because they all have been passed down through the royal family. They belong to us now. All of these have special meaning! Why, look at this, this is the Ocarina of Time! Legends say, a great Hero used this to travel through time to save our land from the legendary Ganondorf!" Sapphire looked at it very impressed and said

"THIS was used to travel through time?" Zelda nodded "According to legend it was!"

"Wow!" Zelda turned around and started to walk over to the other end of the room and said seriously "But this over here…this is why I brought you here…" Zelda stopped, and looked up at a painting on the wall, it was placed next to six other paintings, and they all seemed to go together.

Zelda began to talk "This…is your grandmother" Sapphire gasped and stared at the painting with complete amazement. She thought "Why would a painting of MY grandmother be here?!" Finally Sapphire managed to get some words out. "I…I don't understand… she…she looks like a different species or something!"

Zelda could not help but laugh a little then said "That's because she is!" Sapphire looked more confused than ever but thought "Well we do have similarities" sapphire said to go with this "Well she does look a bit like me, and this would explain why I look the way I do…but I still don't understand."

Zelda quickly replied "Neither do I. I only know that your part Zora. I sadly was never told about your parents. I know nothing besides this… I…I'm sorry." Zelda sat down on the floor and looked slightly depressed, Sapphire got down on her knees and put one of her hands on Zelda's shoulders and said "Zelda, its ok, you don't know how much you've helped me… I mean… I've been treated horribly my whole life by my step father for being different, and he got other people to treat me the same way… now I finally now what I am…but…what IS a Zora anyway?

Zelda laughed and said "Oh yeah, I guess I should tell you, do you know how exhausting it is keeping a secret like an entire species hidden from a person?" Sapphire replied "Well, you all did a pretty good job of it…" Zelda continued "Well, you know, I could tell you, but what if I were to show you?" Sapphire looked shocked and said excitedly "Wait, you mean you'll take me to meet them?" Zelda sighed and looked down for a moment then replied "…Yes, no matter what happens…It's time we all discovered the truth, me and Link will go with you too. I'm curious about this as well…I can't understand why my father would help keep your past a secret…it does not make sense…what could be so important that he would go to this much extent to keep you from knowing…" there was a moment of silence, then Sapphire said "I ….I don't know…"

Zelda broke this moment of silence by saying "Well, lets go tell Link what we're doing…we'll leave tonight…" as she was saying this, Zelda got up, and began to walk out of the room.

"Well, lets go… we had better hurry before father sees us.."

Sapphire replied "Right." And quickly followed Zelda.