Rain crashed down heavily from the darkened skies above as thunder cracked, resonating throughout the once quiet, unfamiliar fields. The wind whipped through the air and collided with my skin, causing a rush of cold to shiver down my spine. I could barely see where I was running to; only the thunder guided me every once in a while as it flashed across the dark skies. My bare feet collided with the damp ground as I dashed through the field, ignoring the throbbing pain that appeared what felt like two hours ago. The emotions of pain and fear coursed through my veins as I looked around, hoping to find something or someone to help me in this time of need. Water dripped down my face, yet I could not tell if it was from the tears of fear and sadness or the rain as it cascaded down from the heavens high above me.

I could not remember anything that had happened; not a single memory of how I suddenly came to be here came to mind, and it frightened me to know I was unable to remember where I came from or how I came to be in such a place. My fear and loneliness kept me from taking stopping in my tracks for even a second. Why or what I was running from was beyond my knowledge and understanding. Was I running away from home? Was I escaping from an unknown enemy or creature? My brain racked itself for answers as I ran into what I believed were the woods. The woods were unfamiliar to my eyes, as well as the fields I had been running through for what felt like forever. However, whatever the case may have been, I did not look back for even a split moment. I did not dare to look back, afraid of finding something unusual chasing after me. Why I felt such a way was beyond me, yet I chose to stick with my instincts and keep moving.

My shoulder length, dampened auburn hair stuck to my pale face as the rain continued to fall, while my fear stricken forest green eyes continued to look forward. Eventually, I found a two way split in the direction I was running toward. I could not tell which way would be the best route to take as I ran, but at the moment I could care less. Immediately, I chose to go right, sliding across the mud and landing on my side with a small yelp. Pain shot through my arm as I landed on the ground, but I ignored it as I back up onto my feet and ran through a log like pathway, still not daring to look over my shoulder. Soon, as I exited the oversized log, I took notice to a large spring nearby. The waters would have been calm if it had not been raining so hard. However, as much as I wanted to stop at the spring to receive a drink, my legs did not stop moving as I ran past it without a second thought.

Obviously, my mind did not want me to stop running from whatever was possibly chasing me. But why? And for what reason?

As I continued to run through the forest, I suddenly found a large fence blocking my path. I groaned under my breath, knowing it would be difficult to jump over with an injured arm. However, I braced the pain and climbed over the fence, nearly falling face first into the mud. Luckily, but also sadly, I landed on my hands and knees, forcing pain to shoot through my injured arm once again. I winced a bit, but braced the pain, returned to my feet, and continued running without a second thought. The sound of thunder crashed throughout the land, causing me to jump at the sudden sound, yet I ignored it like I had been doing for quiet sometime. I looked around the muddy forest, slowly forcing my legs to stop its constant running motion and start walking. Despite the fact it was raining, I could tell this was a calmer place to be in. I sighed and lowered my head as I silently crossed a wooden bridge leading to an unknown destination.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Celia...?" I asked myself, rubbing my arms in a failing attempt to keep myself warm. "You've been running around a large field and a forest you've never even seen before..." I hugged myself tighter than before, sighing as I began walking on normal solid, yet muddy ground. I continued to look around the area for another moment before staring at the ground. "And you don't even remember how you got here. Grand..."

As I silently spoke to myself, I took notice to myself walking across the old wooden bridge I had seen before. The drop from where I stood was pretty far down, but I paid no mind to it at all. The bridge looked stable enough to walk over safely, so it was nothing too serious to worry about. I slowly looked back forward as I slowly stepped off the bridge and back onto solid ground once again, slightly relieved to be off the bridge (I was not exactly a happy camper when it came to heights). After a several more steps, I suddenly stopped for a moment and looked at the trees. Drops of rain landed on my face as I looked up, but most of the water by the canopies above me. Then, I turned my head to my left and noticed another spring similar to the one in the woods.

"How many springs does this place have, I wonder…" I muttered, sighing before walking over to the pool of water slowly. When I reached the edge, I came to a stop before plopping down onto the ground. My legs seemed to give out and no longer wished to move. The water was very soothing as it brushed against my skin. Pretty soon, the pain in my legs began to disappear, as if I had never been running through the fields the whole time. A relieved sigh escaped my lips as I slowly fell onto my back, my body becoming numb within seconds. However, for some reason, a strange feeling of pain and sadness still lingered within me. It was as if it had been etched into my soul like a craving on a gravestone. It would never go away, no matter how hard I tried not to worry about it. Thing was I did not know what exactly I was trying to forget to begin with.

Talk about severe memory loss.

As I watched the opened skies-the rain slowly was beginning to stop, by the way-up above me, my eyes slowly began to close. Sleep was starting to take over, and I actually felt happy that it was taking over. Instead of trying to fight it off, I allowed my eyes to close completely and sleep to take me to a place beyond my imagination.

Hours Later…

"Father, I think she's walking up."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. She keeps stirring and moaning and stuff, like she's trying to wake herself up or something."

"Give her some room. We don't want to frighten her when she awakens."

At that moment, my eyes slowly began to open. The environment was completely different than what I felt before falling asleep. The feeling of warmth enveloped my body instead of the feeling of water crashing against my body from the ever-present rain. How I suddenly became warm in such a short (or what assumed was short) amount of time was beyond my knowledge, but my curiosity began to rise as I realized I was no longer lying in the dirt near that refreshing spring. Instead, I found myself staring up at a brown colored ceiling. The sound of crackling entered my ears, almost as if a fire were close by. Fire was to warmth as a ceiling was to a room. And a room equaled a house, which equaled to shelter. It lead me to believe I had been found by someone, but whether or not the person was nice was something I needed to figure out for myself.

After another moment, I lifted myself into a sitting position and began looking around my new surroundings, blinking every once in a while to get the sleep out of my eyes. Just as I had predicted, I was in a house, or what appeared to be a house. There were shelves of books in one area, almost as if I were in a room, a bedroom to be precise. It was not much, but it looked very comfortable enough to be cozy bedroom. Like before, the sound of fire crackling was heard, but I could not see it from where I sat. Speaking of which, I slowly glanced downward to find a soft material covering my legs. It took a moment to realize what it was: a blanket. If a blanket sat over me, that meant I had to be sitting on a bed. To confirm my analysis, my hands moved about to feel sheets, sheets that could only belong to a bed. I blinked once in confusion while I kept searching the room.

'Where…am I,' I thought to myself.

"It's good to see that you're okay," a young voice said. My head turned into the direction of the voice, only to find a girl with blonde hair and kind hazel eyes. She looked to be around my age, twelve years old to be precise. I sat there, staring at her in shock, not even realizing she was sitting there watching me the whole time. I was not exactly sure what to say at that point, and she was able to see that. "Oh, there's no need to be afraid. My name's Illia," she introduced herself with a smile to match her kind eyes. Instead of responding, I looked over the girl's shoulder to find two older men looking over at us. She followed my gaze as well. The first one seemed to be an old, very round man whose eyes looked like they were closed and was bald possibly due to his age. Somehow, I could sense he now had a look of relief. The second was looked a bit younger; around his late thirties at most. He had brown hair with a headband in it and a goatee.

I continued to sit there and stare at them, eyes widened slightly out of fear. My breath had caught itself from the amount of fear that sat within me, unsure if trusting these people was a good idea. I was alone, and being alone for a while made me feel a little hazy around new people. Silently, I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself and speak. However, instead of doing just that, I got the opposite reaction. I shrieked, jumped out of bed, and sprinted right past them. 'What are you doing, you idiot?' I mentally kicked myself as I nearly tripped down a set of stairs, ignoring the calls of the people who waited for me to wake up. 'They were trying to help you, not eat you alive!'

Ignoring the voice in my head, my eyes caught sight of a door. My legs unconsciously ran right toward the door and straight out, nearly tripping a few times in the process. As I continued to run, I did not realize there was yet another stairs until I fell right the ground, landing on my side instead of my face. Ignoring the pain surging through my arm, I looked around. There was a flowing river nearby to my left and a path that led to who knows where at my right. There were buildings across the river as well, but they were not very fancy. Just simple house suited for a place like this. Without a second thought, I decided to go with the riverside. Returning to my feet, I quickly ran in the direction of the river and across a small bridge. I refused to stop for anyone who stared at me with confusion, since I had no idea where I was at the moment.

I came up to a pathway and ran up the small hill. After another few seconds, I came across a tree house looking building. It did not look like much, but it did look like someone lived there. However, I did not worry about where people lived. I looked around once again to see another path, one I assumed would take me out of this strange place. With a small smile, I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming. Fortunately, I could not see or hear anyone. As much as I wanted to apologize to them, my body just would not listen to me now as I turned my head back. However, I suddenly came face to face with a long faced creature, causing me to shriek once again and fall back onto the ground. I began moving back in fear, but my arms were shaking so much I constant kept fumbling. The creature continued to move toward me, not caring if I were moving away. Giving up, I moved my arms over my face, waiting for the end to come. However, this day was turning out to be a strange day for me.

"Epona, you didn't have to go and do that." A voice spoke. Blinking at the new voice, I slowly moved my still shaking arms and looked up. I found a young boy, also around my age, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a regular t-shirt, pants, and sandals. Now, he was looking down at the creature as he sat on its back. "That's not a nice way to greet a new person." He said to the creature as he got off its back. The creature, or Epona, simply neighed and ate some grass. What confused me was that it looked somewhat orange despite the time of day, which was twilight. I glanced at the boy again, who was now kneeling next to me, a warm smile on his face.

'Who is he?' I thought to myself as I stared back at him with a worried expression.

"You okay," he asked while lending me a hand. I stared at it for a moment, then looked at him, and then back at his hand. For a long moment, I felt unsure as to whether or not I should take his hand. However, he did choose to help me out, much like Illia and the two older men. I mentally sighed, thinking there was no use in running anymore, as I slowly moved my shaky hand and placed it into his. It felt warm against my near pale skin and it tingled as he helped me to my feet with ease. "I apologize if Epona scared you," he apologized. "She's still getting used to people."

"E…Epona?" I asked, blinking once in confusion as I glanced at the creature.

"My horse," he said. "The one you saw and got scared of."-A short pause as he glanced at the young, yet majestic creature-"The one eating grass right now." I glanced at the "horse" for a moment before I looked back at the boy.

"Umm…I-it's alright." I stuttered. "I-I just didn't see her there…"

"So, where were you headed off to," the boy asked me. I thought for a quick moment, and then shrugged.

"I don't know…To be honest, I was away from here…" I explained. He turned his head to the side in confusion, blinking.

"How come? Ordon is such a nice place," he said. "Why would you want to leave?" I looked away from him in embarrassment.

"I'm not really used to being around…people…" I told him, feeling my face burn up a bit. "There was this girl and these two older guys when I woke up, and I got scared. I didn't mean to, since they were nice, but it just happened…Maybe everyone is just as scary as them…" He leaned closer to me, his eyes glistening in the remaining light in the sky.

"I'm not scary…am I?" He asked. I did not hesitate as I shook my head.

"No…" I replied. It sounded like more of a question than an answer. "You don't look scary…"

"Well, if I'm not scary, wouldn't it mean that everyone here wouldn't be scary?" He asked with a childish smirk. I giggled as his face. He knew how to cheer up a situation when it was needed or possible. He had…charisma. Yeah, that was the word.

"I guess so…" I answered him after a moment of silence. He laughed and I gave him a confused look.

"That's good!" He said happily before examining me for a brief moment. "Where did you come from, anyway? Judging by your inexperience with people, it sounds like you never really got out much."

My mind went blank as I continued to stare at him, my smile fading along with it. I could not remember where I came from. A knot began to form in my stomach. I did not know what to tell him. I was afraid of embarrassing myself more than I all ready had. However…this boy seemed different. He seemed like the kind of person who would feel sorry for someone like me, someone who had no idea where she had come from. He looked like he would feel sorry for someone who could not remember where she came from. However, I could not make assumptions simply by looking at a person. Looks could be deceiving. Who knows what could happen if I slipped up even for a second? Nothing bad so far, but who knew, right?

"I…I don't remember…" I answered truthfully, my head lowering in shame. His face became sympathetic at my words.

"I'm sorry to hear that…" He said. Instead of questioning me further, he changed the subject. "Do you remember your name at least?" At those words, I looked back up at him with my forest green eyes. For a moment, I thought he was staring into them, but I pushed the thought out of my mind.

"Y-yes, thankfully," I explained with a small smile. "It's Celia".

"Celia…" He repeated, sounding as if the name were completely foreign to him. For a moment, I shrank back, wondering if there was something wrong with my name he did not like. However, after another second, he smiled. "That's a really pretty name," he said. Surprised slightly by his words, I put on a smile before looking away from him.

"I-I never got your name…" I spoke in a timid voice, moving my hands behind my back. "I think it would be polite to know the name of a…friend." I chose my words carefully. Friend was the only word I could think of at the moment, but it seemed to fit the situation.

"I'm Link," he replied with a grin. I nodded, smiling a bit.

"Link…" I muttered, smiling. "You have a nice name, too." His grin widened as he chuckled, his way of saying "Thank you." Link looked like a trustworthy young boy and very kind toward me and I supposed to everyone else who lived in "Ordon." I was half-surprised to know I was not afraid of him much like before when we first met. In fact, I felt…safer…around him, like he was going to protect me from any harm that came to me in the years to come. I had a feeling we were going to become great friends as time progressed and we spent more time with one another. I just hoped I could get to know him more as time went on. I no longer wanted to feel as alone as I had been for a while.