I think it was when I first saw her that I realized that she was different.

I was in Hyrule Castle Town. I not quite sure what I was doing there. But that was where I saw her first.

It was what she was wearing the caught me eye. A red shirt with a blue bow, a green skirt that went down past her knees, and blue stockings. Quite an unusual outfit, all though I'm not one to talk.

She looked confused as she walked around. Like she'd never been here before. Of course, that made her a prime victim to any young males looking for fun.

I saw them coming towards before she saw them. Three of them. I believe their leader's name was Butch. Whatever it was, though, they had their eyes on her.

To head off any controversy, I went up to her, grabbed her arm and said loudly: "Come on, sis. We can't stay here all day." She had a really surprised look on her face when I said that. I just gestured towards the three boys. She nodded, and played along.

"Of course, brother. Silly of me to forget the time." We walked out slowly, so as not to draw attention.

Once outside, she fell to her knees, laughing her head off. I was curios as to what was so funny.

"I guess I know have an adopted brother," she said, looking up at me. "Hey, what's your name, anyways?"

"Link," I replied. "And yours?"

She grimaced. "Do you really want to know?"

That made me want to know even more. "Of course! You're not some murderer on the run, are you?"

That made her laugh again. I don't know why, but it made me feel good to make her laugh. "My name… it's really stupid." She said, sighing. "You don't want to know."

"Come on," I said.

Getting to her feet, she looked at me curiously. "And just what makes you want to know my name so bad?" she asked.

I grinned. "I guess it's the challenge. You don't want me to know, so I can't rest until I find out."

"You know, you have a very weird sense of enjoyment"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, nothing."

"What can I do to get you to tell me your name?" That seemed to catch her by surprise.

"What do you mean, what can you do to get me to tell you my name?" She fumbled over the words, and I could tell she wasn't expected that. Good.

"Like, what would I have to do? There must be something."

She looked towards the sky, and for a moment I was afraid that she wouldn't answer me. After waiting what seemed to be forever for me, she replied.

"Tell me some bad memories."

"What?"

"You heard me." She sighed. "My name, it has a lot of bad memories attached to it. So tell me some bad memories, and I'll tell you my name."

It seemed fair enough. But I didn't want her to know my past. To know that much about me. Those memories were private. I couldn't even talk to Saria about most of them.

But she said that her name had unpleasant memories attached to it. Maybe she felt the same way about her name as I felt about my memories.

"Okay," I said. Or more I thought. I didn't realize that I had said it out loud until she replied.

"Good. Is there anywhere you want to go…?"

Anywhere I want to go? "What do you mean by that?" I asked, a little more sharply then I guess I had intended.

"Most people have a special place where they like to go." She shrugged. "I just thought that maybe it would be a little easier if you were at a place like that."

"Oh." A special place? I smiled as I thought of one. "Okay, but we're going to have to go there by horseback."

She shrugged about half-way, the paused, a confused look on her face. "Okay." She said, slowly. "How can we go by horseback if there is no horse?"

I laughed. "Just watch," I said, pulling out my ocarina. I played the familiar Epona's Song. The girl just raised an eyebrow.

Before long, though, Epona came galloping up. "Wow." The girl said, obviously impressed. Mounting up, I motioned for her to get up behind me. "Me?" She squeaked. She gulped, and came over. She grabbed my hand, I together we got her up there. Before heading off, I just had to ask her one more question.

"What should I call you?"

"Firefly of the Earth."

"What?"

She laughed. "Just call me Firefly."

I nodded. "Hold on tight," I said to her. Nudging Epona, we set off at an easy gallop. Or at least it seemed easy to me. Firefly didn't share my opinion.

"Oww!" I turned my head and looked at her. "Could you try not to squeeze so hard?"

Her face was pale, and her arms, which were around my waist to stay on, were like a vise grip. "I'll loosen my hold when this horse slows down!"

I grinned. "Sorry Firefly, but it's going to get worse soon." She gulped, hard.

I'm not sure whether or not she believed me when I said that. But I could see that ground getting rockier, signaling that we were close to the entrance to the Gerudo Valley. I tried to lead Epona on the smoothest path, but I couldn't avoid the jumps.

"AAHHH!" she shouted, squeezing tighter. I was starting to have some breathing problems, but decided against saying anything. Firefly seemed stressed out enough.

"We're… almost… there…" I said.

When we reached the bridge, though, she refused to cross.

"I'll walk from here," was all she said. I shrugged. It was nice to be able to breathe again.

"Whatever." I replied. I pointed to where the other bridge was. "I'll meet you there." With that, I kicked Epona, who went into a full forced gallop.

Firefly arrived there only a few minutes after me. She was panting hard, though, so I suspected that she was running. Flopping down in the shade, she asked me if there was where I wanted to talk.

"Yes." I said nodding. "I guess I'll tell you about the trick Mido pulled on me…

****************************************************************************************************************

"So are we really going to get me a fairy today?" I asked excitedly. Mido nodded.

"When a Kokiri reaches five years old, the go to the fairy fountain to get a fairy," he said. "And today's your fifth birthday."

We were in the Lost Woods. I wasn't quite sure where we were heading, but Mido said that it was a fairy fountain to get my fairy. I was happier then I'd ever been in my life. Mido was being nice to me. That was enough of a birthday gift in itself. But he said that I should get my fairy today.

"Where is the fairy fountain?" I asked.

"It's right down that hole," he said, pointing.

I ran over and looked down. "Are you sure it's down here?" I asked.

"Positive."

I inched a little closer to the hole. "But I don't see" I began. That's when someone shoved me down the hole.

I could hear the laughter above me. Cruel and unrelenting. "Hey!" I shouted. I was scared. No, I wasn't scared. I was terrified. Who knew what kind of creatures lived in this hole.

"Hey twerp!" I looked up and saw Dore's face. "Do you know what kind of creature live in the hole?" He asked.

"No." I replied.

The smile on his face got bigger by the second. "That hole is the home of a Wolfos!"

I screamed. I couldn't help it. I was just so damn scared right then. I heard a low growl behind me, and began to scream some more. I didn't even realize I was crying then.

"Please! With somebody please help me! PLEASE!" I couldn't stop screaming or crying. And Dore and Mido just kept on laughing.

In the midst of my screaming, I somehow got the idea to try climbing the walls to get up. The growling was getting louder behind me, and there was no way Dore and Mido would help me.

The walls weren't the best for climbing, though. Every time I tried to start pulling myself up, the dirt rolled away from underneath my fingers. But I was moving so insanely fast in my terror that I began to make progress up.

I heard a loud roaring sound, and I then felt a burning pain in the back of one of my legs. The Wolfos wasn't about to let a good dinner go.

"PLEASE!" I shouted again, as futile as it was. I was going to die. That was all I could think about then. I was going to die, and no one would care. They would just laugh at me, the freak. The twerp. The strange one. I tried to climb some more, but the Wolfos started to pull me down.

"Hey Mido, do you think we should help him?" Dore asked, looking a little worried. "I mean, Saria will kill us if Link is eaten."

"I guess you're right," Mido said, sighing. He reached down and grabbed one of my arms. Dore did the same thing. Together they pulled me up.

I just laid on the ground after that. I was pain. My back felt like it was on fire, and my leg… I couldn't feel my leg.

"Get up, freak." Mido said sharply. I tried to stand up so he wouldn't do anything else to me, but I couldn't. My leg hurt too much.

"I said, get up," he said again. This time, though, he sounded a lot angrier. When I didn't respond, he grabbed my shoulders, and pulled me to my feet.

I screamed, and started crying again. I couldn't stand, and after Mido let go of my shoulders, I fell back down. He ignored how much pain I was in, though. He ignored how much I was hurting, and how scared I was. I was scared of him.

"I though I told you to get up," he growled. He was about to pull me up again when Dore stopped him.

"Come on Mido, stop it."

Mido turned and looked at him strangely. "Stop what?" he asked. I just sat there, trying to stop crying.

Dore frowned. "We had our fun. Now let's scram."

"All right," Mido said, nodded. And they left.

*********************************************************************************************************************

Firefly sat there, her mouth wide open. "You… You mean they just left you there?" She asked. I nodded.

"How could they!" she exploded. "How could they just leave you like that!"

I shrugged. "It wasn't that bad. Saria found me, and took me back to the village. And I lived, didn't I?"

"That still doesn't excuse what they did," she said, her eyes glowing like they were on fire.

For the first time I notice the unusual color of her hair. When I first saw her, I had taken her hair for black. But now that I saw it in the light of the setting sun, it seemed to be purple.

Firefly caught me staring. "What?" she asked.

I blushed. "Um…, well, what color is your hair?"

"The same color as my eyes. Purple."

"But it looked so black before."

She grinned. "I know. Sometimes it looks black, but it really is purple. Or it could look purple, and really be black."

I shook me head. That girl could be so confusing at times! "Hey!" I said, suddenly remembering. "You said that I if told you a bad memory, you would tell me your name."

"No," she said. "I said that if you tell me bad memories I would tell you my name." She sighed. "But if all your memories are that bad, I really don't want to know any more."

"So are you going to tell me your name."

She sighed again, and looked at the sky. She had to be sitting like that for at least fifteen minutes. But I didn't bother her. I didn't want to ruin my chance of learning her name.

Finally, when I was positive that she had gone to sleep with her eyes open, she answered.

"My name is… Hotaru."