It was only a vague consciousness of reality she found herself waking to – the dull awareness that something very, very important had happened and she had, in some way, been apart of it. The cause of it, maybe…? Whatever it had been, that was. Something… important…

Sairah…

The breeze was her first hint of the reconnection of all her various cognitive functions. It was a warm, gentle touch that ghosted across the bare skin of her face and brushed her hair across her forehead. A tiny, urgent voice began calling from the haze in her psyche and she forced herself to listen to it the best she could – and it spoke of something, an injury, that was possibly fatal unless she checked for it at that very moment. All she needed to do was focus; force her thoughts to form into clear objects, clear patterns and sounds. That was all…

She drifted back, the voice silenced before she could completely heed its words. Memory surfaced – the scent of rain, the feel of air settling heavily onto her skin, the sounds of screaming lost in the blanket of fog… that was right. There had been a fog. Where had she been? School? Yes… school. In school, in choir specifically, when the fog had begun seeping in through the cracks underneath the door… no, not the door to the outside. The door that lead into the hallway, into the building itself. Hadn't it seemed like everyone was oblivious, didn't see it, couldn't smell… couldn't smell what smelled like blood? Why hadn't she called out a warning, then? Why-

The breeze came again, brushing her hair across her skin, and this time, the movement sent such a shock down her spine that everything was forcibly shoved back into place. Her eyes flew open to the sight of the velvety blue sky above-

The sky was unusually blue, for such a cold day. There wasn't a cloud anywhere in sight, and the weather man had been vague and indecisive as to when there would be. Such a strange winter this had been – cold, freezing cold, but not a snowflake in sight, and never a cloud. And in a place that was known for its high levels of precipitation, it was almost unnerving.

"Will you not stop in the middle of the road!" Someone shoved her from behind, out of the parking lot and onto the sidewalk. "You're such an idiot sometimes!" She turned-

"Once again, from the top!" She lifted her head from the book in her lap and frowned – this song was horrible, especially for this choir.

"Why do we even sing this crap?" she wondered aloud, turning to look at someone sitting next to her-

She was running, running as fast as she possibly could, across the grey streaked grass, blindly through the fog that left a copper taste in her mouth. She could still see it in her mind, all of them, their life drained away, sucked into the fog that now glittered with all of the color it had taken away. No matter which way she turned, there it was, always at the edge of her vision. It never touched her, though, not like it had touched them… over their skin, past their lips, reaching deep inside to steal away everything they were…

She sobbed then and felt all of her will leave with that one small sound. Her knees hit the grass and she curled around herself, shaking and screaming in turns. It all seemed so scattered, so wrong, because what had they done? None of them had deserved that fate… why wasn't she with them? Why why why? Why did they not feel this overwhelming, choking pain that pressed against her chest and forced out these sobs?

"Why won't you take me!" she screamed out finally, suddenly overcome by a blind, red rage that drove her to her feet and into the prismatic fog. "Take me!" she hollered, to the fog, or to whoever was listening, "Take me, damn it! Take-!" A cement stair appeared seemingly out of nowhere and with a yelp, she stumbled down it, landing in an undignified pile on pavement still warm from the sun that had been burning distantly that morning. Another sob heaved itself out as a sharp pain ripped through her leg, but she forced herself to get up and look at what she had done to herself. The fall or the landing or both had ripped a long, jagged hole into the right leg of her pants, and into the leg underneath is at well. As she moved the flaps of fabric aside to examine the wound, blood welled up and spilled over to soak into the heavy weave. She cursed loudly and pressed both hands down onto the wound to slow the blood flow, then leaned all of her weight forward over her leg. Thin lines of red began to seep through her fingers and were almost instantly diluted with the tears that were once again dripping down her face. She sniffled and dropped her head to arms, to hide her crying, though there was no one left to see it. Something touched her shoulder, and she heard a voice whisper in her ear-

The waves churned at her feet, but she was only distantly aware of the movement, and never of the sound. She could hear… all that she could hear was that sound, that light, twisting melody that had wrapped itself so firmly around her mind and had called her so deftly to this place where she stood… something told her it was a pond, the part of her that was still fully aware told her it was on the complete other side of the school campus. Had she wandered that far? And this pond… this pond… there had been life lost here, in these waters, something told her. Or not these waters… waters like these… waters like these once had swallowed up a hundred lives or more…

The melody stopped and the water stilled almost instantly, becoming like glass. Something whispered to her, tickled her ear as the idea entered, something she had heard not that long ago…

The lake is the way… across the water is the way you must go…

One foot stepped out and into the water. No, onto the water. It was solid now, this once energetic body of life-giving water. Solid enough to support her weight as she placed both feet on the surface and began to walk across. Walk, then jog. Jog, then run. It was so cold here, so very cold and it pressed into her, pressed her down, slowed her steps, but she had to keep moving, had to get away, had to-

A bird sang, or a frog croaked, or a cricket chirped and she opened her eyes again, not to the sky, but to a large expanse of water, one that she now stood in up to her knees. It was warm and lapped at her like the tongue of an ecstatic puppy. And something was coming towards her, cutting across the water at a rapid pace, so even as she was stepping backwards, up onto dry land, it was gaining on her. She stumbled, as the beach came up behind her, and landed hard on her rear end. Whatever it was pulled itself out of the water and stood over her and was like nothing she had ever seen. His (her?) skin was as pale as something that teased at her mind, and decorated with what seemed to be natural blue tattooing. It took a step towards her and fear welled up in such force that all she saw next was black…

"Ow!" A sharp pain jolted her awake and her hand flew to the spot where it originated from, inadvertently smacking something else, and causing someone else to yelp out in pain. In one instant she became aware of her initial surroundings, and was trying to pull out of it in the next. The man who was apart of those surroundings grabbed her waist just as she started to fall and only then did she expand her mental area to include the horse she was currently sitting on.

"Are you all right?" inquired the voice her captor/savior. She hauled herself up by his shoulder and found herself looking him directly in the face because of it. His eyes were a blue she had seen before but could not place, and the hair that fell from his cap was a brilliant blonde yellow that framed his face. If his nose was a bit too big, that was easily overlooked by the warm smile that radiated out from underneath it. "Please don't scream before I get a chance to explain everything," he continued as she examined him. "You can scream after that, I promise." In truth, she hadn't really been planning on screaming, though in the hindsight brought on by his statement, screaming seemed like a perfectly fine idea. A little girly, however, a damsel-in-distress cliché that she wasn't particularly fond of.

"I'll scream in a moment," she agreed, her voice surprisingly weak and dry. From out of almost nowhere, he offered her a canteen, which she accepted gratefully and, after draining it, demanded with a new found strength, "who the hell are you, however?" He only laughed at this and took the empty canteen back from her gently.

"My name is Link," he said carefully, as if this was somehow news she should pay attention. "You're in the land of Hyrule. Do you remember how you got here?" Though the images were fresh in her mind, she had subconsciously repressed all emotion attached to them – and realizing this, all she did was nod. He heaved a sigh of relief, bringing confusion to the forefront of her mind. "That's good. Do you remember your name?" She was silent a moment, her eyes narrowed into slits of desperate concentration. Who was she? Why hadn't that question come up sooner?

Then, her eyes widened, and she blinked.

"My name is Sairah," she said in wonder, "And I'm the Hero of the Second Realm."