Sometimes I find myself thinking of the old days. The days when I was free to do whatever I wanted, flying around with my brother Tael… The days when fairies weren't so scarce, when fairies were part of a community.

It was a happy time for fairies. We had no worries. We were a lot younger then, me and Tael. Too young to be assigned to a Kokiri. Too young to know about the warning signs… too young to care.

Our last days were happy. Me and Tael were inseparable, going about our fairy tasks and chores, always together. Me leading, him following. He was a naive little guy, and someone had to watch out for him. That someone was his older sister, me, Tatl. That someone was going to be assigned until He came…

He. Ganondorf.

I was so excited. Fairies are born a lot earlier than the average Kokiri, seeing as we're an older race. A fairy is born, raised, and if a Kokiri-Fairy (the special type of fairy that is bred to be companions with Kokiris) makes it to 8 moons (8 months in Hylian), we begin training. We train for 3 summers (years!) to be assigned to a new baby Kokiri. From then on out, we are independent. Fairies aren't bosses, or in charge; we're more like guides. We warn a Kokiri when there's danger, and offer advice when needed. Yes, being assigned to a Kokiri was a huge achievement. Every kokiri-fairy's dream. It was mine, too. And it was just about to come true…

Tael had been crying that day. His wings were all droopy, and his unique pink-purple color was faded. He kept crying, "Tatl, if you stay here with me, I won't whine when you boss me around, I'll never cry at your insults again!" Pleading, and pleading.

"Tael, grow up. Your almost old enough to be assigned, you know. Only 4 moons to go. You'll be fine without me," I scolded. Truthfully, it hurt me to see him hurt. But I couldn't let him know that. I need to be one step in front of him. I need to be the older sister. And he needs to toughen up so when he gets out in the real world, he won't fade out.

"And FYI! I never insulted you. Don't say those kind of things."

It's not true, I'm actually rather harsh with him. But I have to be. He's a weak fairy. He needs to toughen up. Sure, life with a Kokiri really isn't that hard, but a Kokiri has some strong reliance on her fairy, and that fairy has to be prepared for any situation.

I had just nudged Tael goodbye. That's like a hug. We don't have arms, so we nudge. He was whimpering, but he wasn't crying- for the moment. "Come on, it's not going to be forever. There'll always be gatherings. Cheer up." I ordered. He sniffed, but his wings didn't perk up at all. I sighed to myself. Oh, Tael.

I didn't see what would come next.

I was third in line. We line up, and face the Elder Fairies. They then are supposed to give us some words of wisdom, assign us, and then it's off to the Great Deku Tree. He gives us our final instructions, and we fly away to our assigned house.

We had gotten to the Elders. They were talking about remembering the flying-in-the-rain instructions, and then it happened.

There was a horse neigh, and then an evil laugh. And then Ganondorf came. He stormed into the fairy haven tree, with his huge shadowy horse. Every kind of evil followed him. Poes, Gerudos, Dodongos, and much more. The whole haven erupted into a chorus of bell noises. When fairies are upset, we don't scream like humans. We 'ding'. And the mixture of the noises was chaotic. I was overwhelmed. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, until I found myself hurling at Ganondorf himself, and then everything caught up with me.

I hit him right in the face. But I didn't hurt him. He sent me flying with a smack of his green fist.

"Tatl!" I heard my name and then my brother's ding. I was flying out of control, and I rammed into my brother.

"Tatl!"

"Tael! Get out of here!"

"Not without you, sis!"

"Tael, did you hear me? Get out of here. NOW!" I shouted at him. I puffed my wings up as big as they could go, and I flew above him. He whimpered, and then fled the scene. I was surprised he obeyed, but I didn't have time for that. I needed to focus on the problem at hand.

I was about to take out another Poe, but one of the elders, Navi, bumped into me. "Watch out!" She cried. Even though she was an elder, I ignored her. "Hey, listen! Get out of here!" She shrieked at me. I stared at her, amazed at how annoying she was. But she was right. I was inexperienced. I had the spirit, but not the skills. So I flew.

"Tael!" I made my loudest bell noise, and the pink-purple fairy in front of me turned around. "TATL!" He screamed. He rushed at me, and almost knocked me out of the air.

"Calm yourself, Tael! Don't be such a child!" I scolded, a little too harsh that time. His wings drooped. I sighed.

"Uh…sorry. Don't take offense, okay?" He perked up. There we go. I smiled to myself. Oh, that little fairy. He was such a screw-up. So… ignorant. He had a lot to learn.

We were trying to catch up with the pack, trying to get into the thick of things. But we didn't find them. We came to a fork in the road. Tael, being the rushed child that he was, flew fast down one lane.

It was the wrong lane.

We wandered on, our wings getting lower, us getting closer to the ground. "Just a little more, Tael. We can do this." I said, trying to encourage him.

We had run out of steam. I couldn't go any farther, and neither could he. We sought for cover. We found some. We thought we had flown into a tree stump. We thought we could rest there. We thought…

We thought wrong.

We flew into a hollow tree stump, ignorant of what it really was.

"Tatl, there's no floor!" Tael exclaimed.

"Don't be stupid, it's just really dark, we can't see the floor. Feel free to settle down." I told him. Unfortunately, he obeyed. He slowly started to let himself ease down, awaiting to hit some sort of surface that would prove to be a place he could rest on. Instead, he just kept sinking, and he sunk into the darkness. "Tatl! I can't touch any surface! I'm drowning!" Tael shouted, sounding far away.

"Drowning? There's no water! Can't you just fly back up?" I called. But he didn't call back. Just a scared sounding 'ding ding ding' and then…nothing.

I was scared. For the first time ever, I admitted it to myself. I was alone, and I had lost my brother. I failed my job of older sister. My wings started to droop, and then so did I. Before I realized it, I was falling. Falling…falling…

Strange images swirled around me. Was I hallucinating? I must have been. Masks and faces and other fairies all swirled about me. Was I falling? I felt like I was floating. But suddenly, I was falling again. I was being sucked down! With a loud ding, I tried to fight it. I don't even know why I did. It didn't do anything for me. It didn't help me, because I was still going down. I don't know why I had to go down with a fight. I just… don't know.

I landed with a thud, and I passed out.