AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following work is ACTUALLY very much in-progress. I thought it would be interesting to release it in a sort of serial format, as I'm writing, and see how things go.


What day was it? What year? What temporal plane had he come onto this time? Link shook his head, then remembered, shaking with rage... the Triforce of Courage. It was his. He licked himself angrily, his black tongue sliding over his body like oil. He shook his head. Water. Why was there water?

Then more came back. More Links. Link, Link, why, why, why, it was wrong, he was Link, he was the only true Link, ever, ever, ever, ever.

"EVER EVER EVER," he shrieked, and the words bounced off the walls. Walls? He lay in a pool of water. Ankle-deep. He was outside, wasn't he? Fog obscured his vision. A tiny island, a lone tree in the center. He blinked, cleared his head, and the fog cleared, and the wasteland he was in was a room. Nothing but a room.

Hissing, he stomped over to the door, which slid up like butter. A blue spider immediately hurled itself at him, but Link shrieked and swallowed the spider whole.

"Destroy him," Link shrieked. "All him."

And he went.


19 Nayru's Moon, 3712

Din reddened. Link watched her, silently. The shadows lengthened. Kasuto didn't anything either.

It had been possibly a moon since they'd left Hyrule. And left Hyrule they most definitely had, finally coming out of the Lost Woods in a blast of glorious Dinlight, the land growing with strange vegetables and animals, most of which Link had never seen before. Kasuto had been less surprised; he, after all, was the more world-weary. Apparently they were in the land of Torasc. Now, however, Kasuto lay on Link's chest, also watching the sun.

"What are you thinking?" Kasuto's voice reached Link's ears, and his eyes landed on his white-haired lover. Link smiled ever so slightly.

"Absolutely nothing."

Kasuto looked down and didn't say anything, his chin on Link's chest. "I can't believe we're doing this."

Link laughed. "What's so hard to believe?"

"I don't know. It's just... kind of amazing. We have no obligations, to anybody. We've been traveling for almost... how long?"

"A month, almost. See the moon? It was full when we left. It's full now." Link was right; the moon had risen already.

"I feel absolutely marvelous, Link." Kasuto's eyes sparkled. "There is nobody, nobody, except for you." They kissed.


Anju had lost track of the days. Sedgwick pulled on her dress.

"Mommy, I have to pee!" he shrieked.

"Darling, please hush, can't you see I'm cooking dinner?" she said, rushing over to the table. The broccoli was burning. Of course.

"But I wanna pee NOW!"

"Why don't you ask your father?" she snapped.

"Daddy's not here," Sedgwick moaned.

"Darling, baby, sweetie, I have to cook dinner for twenty people right now, all right? So please, hold it!"

Sedgwick burst into tears. Anju chose to ignore it. Her mind wasn't even on the broccoli anymore. Where the hell was Kafei?

"Mommy, Ellis kicked me!" Wonderful. The twins were home.

"Ellis, don't kick your sister," Anju mumbled.

"She started it!" Ellis whined back.

Anju had had enough. "For goodness sake, children, everybody OUT of the kitchen! Go play with Grandma! Go! Shoo! Get out!"

Sedgwick, Ellis, and Dinshava stared at her. They didn't leave. Anju sighed and continued cooking.

This inn was going to be the death of her.


"we don't know."

"We do know."

"BUT WHEN IS HE COMING?"

"lots are coming. More, lots."

"BUT WHEN?"

"it doesn't matter when. It matters that more are coming."

"He's changed."

"of course he's changed. Eight years have passed."

"No one else belongs here. Only him. The others will disrupt the balance."

"NOT IF ENOUGH COME."


"Oh, Din." Zelda stood. Her head hurt. Very badly. She looked up. She was used to falls, but not like this. There was no way she'd be able to get back up now. At least, not without some help. She looked down and inspected the strange plant she was sitting on. It was a giant, pink, flower. She sighed and looked around. The cave she'd fallen into was quite small. It was like some sort of well, or basin.

There was a door across from her little island.

Zelda shrugged, walked across the water (she could do that), and opened it. A hallway. She walked through it and emerged into a vast cavern. She almost gulped. Another pink flower lay in front of her, almost inviting her to do... something with it. She looked around and saw an exit in the upper right hand area of the cavern. She muttered a short spell, wrapping her arms around her, and reappeared next to the exit.

She stopped, staring at a small tree that stood there. Or whatever it was. The knots in it formed a face, almost, one intensely sad, and, somehow, horrifying. Zelda shivered, put a hand on it, and gasped.

It was alive. Still, barely, but alive.

"Good Farore," she breathed. "Gods, let the evil be gone from this tree."

Nothing happened.

"Gods," she snapped, and she felt the tree warm beneath her hand. Before she knew it, there was a tiny Deku Scrub boy there, curled up like some sort of shrimp, shivering. Shaking, Zelda bent down.

"Darling," she whispered.

The Deku Scrub didn't respond.

"Sweetheart, it's all right. Everything's all right. Come here, my darling," Zelda said, surprised that such syrupy words were coming out of her mouth. The Deku Scrub looked up now. Its eyes were almost exactly those of the tree, but bright red, amber almost. It was adorable, and yet the eyes held a pain no child's should have held. How long had he been in there? Zelda realized, watching the Scrub, that he reminded her of Link.

"Do you remember anything?" said Zelda. "Where are we?"

The Deku Scrub didn't say anything, but blinked.

"Can you talk?" said Zelda.

The Deku Scrub blinked. "Yes," it honked finally.

Zelda smiled. "Well, what's your name, darling?"

"No name to human!" the Deku Scrub squeaked.

Zelda frowned. "First of all, I'm not a human, I'm a Hylian. Second of all, I'd like to help you."

The Deku Scrub stared at her. "Help?"

"Yes, help. Do you know what that is?"

"I know what help is," said the Scrub, looking scandalized.

"Well, I'm lost, just like you. My name is Quee--Princess Zelda. Nohansen Hyrule. I'm lost, too."

The Deku Scrub's eyes widened. "You're a princess?"

Zelda nodded, smiling.

"Did you save me?"

Zelda nodded.

The Deku Scrub suddenly started shaking violently. Zelda, alarmed, grabbed onto it, lest it should fall into the depths below. He fell into her, emitting sounds she could only take as bawling.

It really was a child.

"But I need someone to protect me," said the Deku Scrub, when it was done crying, looking up at Zelda.

"I'll protect you," said Zelda, wondering why she was doing this. "I promise." Promise? Promise? She had to get back home! HOME! She had an entire country wondering where the hell she was!

"But... you're a princess. But," said the Deku Scrub, answering his own question. "You have magic that saved me. So you must be brave. And strong."

Zelda could only nod.

"Can we go now?"

"Where?"

"There," the Deku Scrub said, pointing to the exit.

Duh. "Then where?"

"You'll see. I'll tell you."

"Do you have a name now?" said Zelda. "Unless you want me to call you Deku Scrub?"

"Ki," said the Deku Scrub, slipping its little wooden hand into hers. Zelda smiled and the two walked out of the cavern.


"Wait." Kasuto pulled on Arion's reins slightly, slowing her to a stop. He jumped off the mare and bent down to the ground.

"What is it?"

Kasuto took off a glove and felt the ground. "They were here."

"Does that mean they're close by?" Link had gotten off his horse.

"Yeah." Kasuto didn't know why he wasn't grinning wildly. All he'd wanted for the past year was to see them again. "Close by. We're catching up."

"What is that?"

"It's a Renlforge," Kasuto said, his hand still on it. He was staring into space. "It's, um, our sign. Sign of the Gerudo."

Link peered at it. "A Renlforge?"

"There's an old Gerudo story, this spirit, god, whatever, created the world. When the world was created, it was really hot, burning, seething. And something was forged in it, something that contained all human joy and love, and creation and hope and so on. But it also contained things like death, greed, hate, misery, envy. It was broken open, and the Earth calmed, but only physically. The spirit's name was Renl."

"Like your name," said Link. "Demrenl."

"From Renl."

"What does Kasuto mean?"

Kasuto grinned at Link, despite himself. "Fierce prince."

Link smiled at him, and Kasuto looked away.

"I don't know what my name means," Link offered behind him.

"Sounds pretty obvious," said Kasuto, getting up and dusting himself off. "Link? A link, a bridge, a connection. What's the rest of your name, anyway?"

"That's it. Just Link."

"You have to have a second name."

"Well... I mean, there's Hero. Hero of Time." He frowned. "Boy without a fairy. I've been referred to as Link of the Kokiri."

Kasuto said nothing. Then, all of a sudden, his face opened up and he started to cry, completely unprepared.

"Kasuto!" Kasuto felt Link envelop him, but he pushed him away and walked off a bit. He didn't say anything.

"Sorry. Sorry. I... sorry."

"Kasuto, what's wrong?"

"I'm scared," he said bluntly.

"What could you possibly be scared of?"

Kasuto turned to look at him. "Me. You. My family. My family." Kasuto spat it out. "They hate me. I don't belong anywhere."

"Neither do I," said Link.

"But I want to, Link. I want to. I want to have a point, a reason. I don't want to go hoe, not even to say goodbye. It's too much. Way too much. Andrew and Yasha, I love them, don't et me wrong, I do, but they don't get me. They don't. How could they?"

"I get you," said Link.

Kasuto stared at him. "No, you don't," he said. He climbed up onto Arion and they clip-clopped away without a word.


"Oh, Din," Zelda breathed. There they were, smack dab in the middle of the marketplace of a bustling town. And yet it all looked somehow familiar. "Ki, where are we?"

"Clock Town," said Ki, gazing sadly into space. Zelda turned around and craned her neck upwards. The building they'd emerged from towered up, not to the heavens, but high enough. A huge, ticking, clock adorned the front. Zelda could only stare.

"Let's go," Ki said, tugging on her hand. Zelda pulled it away, irritated.

"Don't rush me. I need to get oriented. Where's the castle?"

Ki blinked. "Castle?"

Zelda huffed and grabbed a woman passing by. "You. Where's the castle?"

The woman stared at her, and three brats ran up to her. "Mommy, let's GO! Come on!"

"Quiet," the woman snapped. She turned her gaze back to Zelda. "I beg your pardon." She looked back at Zelda, obviously staring. "You said you were looking for... a castle?"

"Yes, that's right," Zelda said, pulling herself up to her full height. "I am Pr--Queen, the Queen Zelda of Hyrule, and I dem--request to see the leader of this realm."

A crowd had gathered, and the woman blushed. "Leave me alone." And she rushed off with her brats, leaving Zelda to the mercy of the crowd.

At least she wasn't wearing her royal dress.

She tried again.

"I am the Queen of Hyrule! Who will direct me to the castle!"

The crowd said nothing, then burst out into wild laughter. Zelda flushed crimson.

"I'll direct you to my castle!" a man hooted.

"Go suck off a pig, lunatic!" someone else yelled.

Zelda shuddered. She had had her share of crowds after her father's funeral. "Fine," she muttered. She grabbed Ki's hand, cursing herself for being an idiot. The crowd jumped back, still hooting, forming a visible radius around Zelda as she moved through. Thank Din they didn't follow her.

"I don't understand, Ki. Is there no castle around here?"

Ki was dumb.

"Lady! Hey, lady!" Zelda spun around angrily. But she softened when she saw the girl looked positively harmless. She blinked down at her, who was quite homely, with long greasy brown hair, freckles, a big nose. She looked around fourteen.

"Yes?"

"Are you... are you really a Queen?" the girl said, staring at her.

"Yes! Thank you, Din!" Zelda smiled wildly down at the girl. "Is there a castle around here, my dear?" She was horrified at the response when the girl shuddered.

"Castle? No castle, castle, castle's gone, never, dead, oh it's dead, but you're okay, you're a Queen, not a King you're alive and pretty, pretty. I'm Pamela, Pamela, what's your name?"

Ki was squeezing Zelda's legs so hard she thought they would pop. Zelda grimaced and looked at her concernedly befrore shaking her outstretched hand. "Zelda."

Pamela shuddered again. "I'm sorry, Zelda, I just get all..." She shivered. "Don't talk about it. Don't."

Zelda frowned. "Maybe you shouldn't be helping me, then."

"No, it's okay," said Pamela. "You can talk to my father."

Zelda looked at her for a minute, and then remembered herself. She smiled, like a queen should. "Thank you, Pamela."


"Tael. Tael! Where are you?" She was shrieking now. Tatl though she might blow a blood vessel. Where was he? "Mother is going to kill you!"

Not in the freischia plants. Not in the mirror room. Not anywhere. She shrieked again. "TAEL!"

Tael whizzed out of one of the rooms and clapped his hands over Tatl's mouth before Tatl could yell at him. "Shh, sis! Jeez!"

Tatl scowled. "What?"

"Jeez, sis, don't act like such a stereotype!"

"I am NOT a stereotype!" Well, maybe she was a temperamental, flaky, spoiled fairy stereotype, but so what?

"Tatl--" Tael lowered his forehead. "I'm going to show you something, but you can't tell anyone about her."

"Her? HER?"

"Tatl!"

Tatl scowled. "Fine."

The fairies' mansion--not that the Faeries of Morovian Bush were rich; mansions were simply the names of the houses in which fairies lived--had been hollowed out of a rotten tree trunk, strung with curtains of spiderwebs. Now Tael slipped past one of the spiderweb curtains into Tael's room.

"Turn down your light. She's sensitive."

Tatl tried, though it kept flickering because she was actually rather curious.

There, on the bed, lay the most beautiful fairy Tatl had ever seen. Her eyelids were dusted with a fine layer of natural fairy dust. Her skin was unusually pale, even for a fairy, almost like pure limestone. Strands of long, thick blue hair fell down her back; her wings were folded under her, and she gave off no light; she was unconscious. Tatl looked closer.

"Her wings are broken!"

"Shhh," Tael said, softer this time. "I know. I found her in the mountains."

"The mountains?"

"She would have drowned, I think, if I hadn't saved her."

Tatl looked at her brother, who was looking down at the blue-haired fairy with a strange expression on his face. If she didn't know better, she would say he was falling in love with her. Except that Tael liked boys. Tatl frowned.

So did she.


"We'll make a deal, then? The mask for the boys?"

"I... I guess. Yes. I'll get them for you."

"You're sure?" The man giggled, making Holland's skin creep. It seemed to echo. "These masks... they're not normal masks. They have... powers."

"I'll manage."

"Very well." The man grinned now. His eyes were unusually narrow; he didn't look local. "I will see you in a week."


"Oh, he's gotten so big!" Aroma picked up Sedgewick with such ease Anju started. "You're not feeding him enough."

"I feed him plenty," Anju said testily. "And I don't think he likes that, Aroma." Sedgewick was screaming.

"Don't be ridiculous, he likes it plenty. You love your old Grandmama, don't you, Reggie!"

"DON'T--CALL--ME--REGGIE!" Sedgewick managed to shriek.

Anju didn't point out the fact that Sedgewick was seven and that Aroma was treating him like an eight-month-old.

"Oh, right, what's all this Sedgwick business about?"

Anju sighed. "I told you, he's crazy about the Brookwyne Chronicles. He insists we call him Sedgewick."

"Yes, you told me that. Now I'm asking you what it's really about."

"Aroma--"

"It's the truth!" Anju practically screamed.

"No five-year old in the history of the world has read the Brookwyn Chronicles, much less even been interested in them."

"I know, Aroma."

"So--"

"Drop it, Aroma," Anju snapped. "The bottom line is, he wants to be called Sedgewick."

Aroma lifted her eyes as if impressed, but said nothing. Sedgewick had stopped screaming.


Zelda could only stare.

"Is it that far?" said Pamela's father, whose name was Sam.

"Well... you might say so," said Zelda, choosing her words carefully. She didn't know how wise it was relay the true nature of Hyrule and Termina to perfect strangers. Link knew, and probably the Sages.

And Kasuto as well, she thought darkly, and somewhat bitterly. She'd never been completely all right with the two of them, even with the Goddesses' blessing.

"A friend of mine passed through here, a short time ago," she continued. "I doubt you'd know him."

"How long ago?" said Pamela. Her voice was extremely nasal, and the girl sounded positively slow.

"Oh... maybe not that recently. Seven, eight years ago."

Pamela suddenly shuddered, and Sam looked serious. "Not... not around the time of the Moon?"

"The Moon?" For a moment Zelda was nonplussed. Then she recalled. "Oh, yes, I suppose. He--well, his name was Link."

Pamela gasped. "You knew him?"

"I did," said Zelda, already worried she might be giving too much away.

"Where in the world did he run off to?" Sam said immediately. "Kings, we never got a chance to thank him, he rushed off so quickly."

"People said he actually stopped the Moon from falling," Pamela said quietly.

"Pamela, be rational," Sam snapped. "How in the world could he have done that?"

Pamela cast her eyes to the ground.

Zelda said nothing, and decided to change the subject. "He is quite a do-gooder. In my opinion, he's a tad too full of himself. Always going out of his way for other people, good gracious, it's like he doesn't have anything better to do. Anyway, I thank you sincerely for your hospitality this evening. If you don't mind terribly, I think I'll retire."

Zelda traipsed upstairs tiredly but happily, satisfied with her decision not to go blasting her royalty all over the place, completely forgetful of the fact that she had never been invited to stay the night.

Ki followed.


"I hope you know where we are," said Kasuto.

"Hopes dashed," said Link. "But isn't it romantic?" He smirked, but Kasuto stared ahead stonily. The plains had turned into dense forest some time back, and the night coming on hadn't helped things. "We should stop for the night."

"No. I want to keep going," Kasuto said simply. Link wished he could see his face, though he knew if he could, he had the feeling his jaw was set, his eyes staring straight ahead, very unsuccessfully concealing something.

"Kasuto."

Kasuto stopped.

"Please talk to me."

"I..."

Link waited.

"You know what's going on. Basically. I really just need to clear my head. Take a walk."

"It's too dark. You'll get lost."

"I'm not your wife!" Kasuto snarled.

Link stared at him. It was too dark to see Kasuto's expression exactly, but he seemed to have regretted his words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't--"

Link turned. "Just don't talk to me."

He had Epona trot some ten feet away, climbed down, and set up his sleeping bag.