Author's Note: I don't own Hyrule, nor do I own the races of Hyrule. I own the characters though.

Enjoy!


"Marien, wake up!"

"Marien?"

Something poked Marien's side.

"Erghhh," she mumbled.

"C'mon, Marien!" a male voice called to her. She opened her eyes.

A scrawny-looking blonde boy with a weird face slowly came into view. He was wearing green. Lots of green.

Marien rubbed her eyes. "Mido! What the-" She sat up quickly.

"Heh heh, guess I surprised you today!" Mido grinned. He was holding a string.

"This isn't another one of your tricks, is it? If it is, you know, you'll be in trouble."

"Nah. Just a present." Mido yanked the string.

Marien rolled her eyes. "Nothing's happening." She flipped her fiery red hair (quite a lot of it there was too) and flopped back down onto the bed. "Guess your 'present' isn't working."

Mido, looking confused, stared at the rope in his hand. He tugged again. "Um… I, uh, I'll give it to you later!" He dropped the string and charged out the door.

Marien shrugged and got out of bed quickly. Today was her monthly meeting with the Great Deku Tree. She supposed it would be like normal: the Deku Tree would ask her how things were going, she'd reply, as usual, not the greatest, and the tree would almost tell her something but change his mind right before. It had been like this for the last twelve years, ever since she started growing much past a normal Kokiri size. She now stood at a good 5'4" and found herself thinking that she didn't quite belong.

"Marien! You're late," scolded a deep voice.

"I'm sorry, Great Deku Tree, I was-" Marien panted as she arrived in the great tree's meadow.

"I need no excuses. I, like most, am a patient tree; however, I will not tolerate continual tardiness," the guardian of the Kokiri said, without a trace of anger. "Now then, I have a few very important things to tell you.

"First, I realize you have been teased much more lately, correct?"

"Um, yeah," Marien muttered.

"What do they say?"

Marien looked down. "Um…just – well, they, uh, call names, that's all."

"Marien, look at me. Do you think I will laugh at you?" the tree said calmly.

She bit her lip. "They say stuff about…they call me…oh, why do I have to look so different? It's always, 'Oh, look, her skin is too dark, and her hair looks like fire!' 'No-fairy girl!' 'There goes the giant,' oh, just because I don't have a fairy, I'm taller and-" She stopped and bit her lip again. "And…"

"Marien, I need to tell you something. I don't know if you are ready for this, but-"

Something swooped from the sky and caught Marien in the back. She was sent flying and hit the ground hard in front of the Deku Tree. When she looked up, hundreds of the flying things were swooping in from all directions, diving towards her.

She screamed as thousands of claws started tearing at her back. She felt them grasping, scrabbling to hook onto her. She was dragged to her feet. As she felt herself leaving the ground, she heard the Deku Tree bellowing, "Marien! You are not-"

But the screeching of the creatures dragging Marien off drowned out even the great voice of the Deku Tree. A claw found its way to her face. As she felt a trickle of blood run down her cheek, everything slowly faded into blackness.

Marien awoke to the sound of screeching, like nails on a chalkboard. She opened her eyes to find everything blurred. "Wha…" she said drowsily. "Mido!"

But no one answered. She was getting a headache from all the noise. As she rubbed her eyes vigorously, her vision gradually returned to normal. "Ahhh!"

She found herself in a room of brown rock, surrounded by bat-like creatures, Keese. They were everywhere, covering the walls and ceiling, screeching and squawking, soaring across the room.

Marien stood up slowly, not wanting to get the Keese angry. She looked around. "There has to be an exit somewhere," she muttered angrily. As she watched, the Keese all left their perches to some unseen signal, and, in a cloud of pure black, exited the cave.

Left alone, Marien explored her little alcove. She still could not tell where the Keese had left. As she reached the wall of the room, she stumbled on something. Looking down, she saw that she had fallen on a gigantic ruby jutting out of the ground. "Wow," she breathed. She immediately knelt down and tried to pry it out. She had managed to get it to move a considerable distance to the left when the Keese returned.

They flew, clad in fire, into their nest. The heat in the room was almost unbearable for Marien, but she kept working on the ruby, however hot it may have been. She looked up to see a wall of red and black advancing towards her. Screaming, she flung herself onto the ground.

As the first Keese reached her, she swatted it away, managing to knock it to the ground without burning herself. Almost instantly a blanket of fiery bats surrounded the girl. Pain like she had never known filled her body.

She heard screaming; with a jolt she realized it was her own. She was writhing, rolling, kicking, but none of it did any good. If only there was water around!

Strange, Marien thought dully, they're leaving…

And she was lying alone, water drenching her.

She was in a man's arms. Another, older man was standing next to him. He was saying something, but she could only make out bits and pieces.

"…Those Keese almost got you…good thing we came…major burns…healer…"

The last thing she heard was, "…Who is she...?" Then darkness completely overtook her.