Link awoke to the sudden splashing of water over his, now hers face. The sight above her was that of Navi, and then just as suddenly, a small wave from Lake Hylia splashing over her head. She pulled herself up and away from the cold water, ignoring the weight on her chest, which she realized after a few seconds, were breasts.
"Sorry, I tried everything else I could think of to get you to wake up."
"It's…its fine Navi." She curled up, sitting, with her legs up against her body and her arms around them, just sitting there, considering her current state.
"It's a big shock…but you've gotta pull yourself together. You've been though a lot, this is just one more challenge, right?"
"…I guess you're right…can it be undone?"
"To be honest…I don't know, if it had just been Kias, then yes, but when I broke the link, I created a new magic, something both more complex, yet simpler than what Kias was trying. If there is one person in all of Hyrule who can help you now, it's Princess Zelda and the court mages of the royal family."
"Then let's get going!" She quickly stood, and then just as quickly stumbled. Navi giggled a little.
"Link, before we go I better teach you a few Fairy tricks, you probably can never do as much as a real Fairy, but this trick is simple enough that I think you can."
"What is it?" She asked, sitting cross-legged now.
"Magically making clothes that fit you. It's fairly simple, but since you're just starting, let's try just producing proper fitting undergarments and altering your clothes. Maybe if you're good enough at that we can move on to magically reducing the weight and size of an object, like a sword."
Link thought it over and mentally agreed. She was no longer as strong as she was as a boy, she could probably carry her Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield on her back, but actually using them with even just slightly reduced strength would be tiring and dangerous. "Alright, how do we start?"
Three hours later, and at least ten times that number of explanations of what a bra was and what it did, Link had achieved what Navi said was 'acceptable' in the clothing department.
"I just keep on telling you, it's all in the visualization!"
"Well I'm sorry that I couldn't visualize what you were trying to say when you kept on pausing and stuttering!"
"Well excuse me for never having to explain undergarments to anyone!"
Needless to say, they were both tired, both hungry, and both very ready to get to Hyrule castle town. Link sighed, looking at her new outfit. It wasn't that much changed from her normal tunic, she still had her hat, it was still green, but now it fit a bit more snugly, particularly in the waist. Her belt was gone, as Navi had explained what 'mass' they couldn't move or rearrange would have to be taken from it. For some reason Link didn't understand Navi had insisted on lengthening the bottom into a skirt. She had also insisted on adding leggings and making her boots slightly smaller but higher up on her legs. Link would have asked why all these changes were necessary and why they required the use of her favorite belt to make, but she was so tired by now she just didn't care.
"Let's just get going to Hyrule Castle town then, so then Zelda can either fix this mess or at least get me actual clothes!"
"Fine, I'll get into your hat like always, and you can ride Epona there top speed, galloping all the…oh for the love of Nayru! I completely forgot about a saddle!"
"What's so important about a saddle? I rode Epona all around Terminia without one."
"As a boy! Your…never mind, I'll just do it, and pull out your sword too so that I can alter it. "
Link, more out of being tired then actually caring, let her do as she pleased, and after Navi fashioned a simple saddle of brown leather and adjusted Link's sword to fit her better they sped off to Hyrule Castle Town.
"Navi," she said, looking up at the fairy in her hat. "Why do I need a saddle anyway?"
Navi turned orange again. "It's er…a long story and it deals with lots of new stuff for you."
"We have a lot of time, so why not start?"
"Eh…" Navi's orange aura seemed to have a streak of deep blue for a moment. "Alright…"
"…That had BETTER be the worst I have in store for me if Zelda can't fix this!"
They were near Lon Lon Ranch by the time Navi had finished. With each passing moment of the quite embarrassing and long talk Link got quieter and quieter as realization dawned on what Navi was saying. Navi laughed a bit nervously.
"There's MORE?" Link yelled.
"Well…once a month you'll start having cramps and bleeding out of…"
"OK! That's enough! We are going to Hyrule Castle, we are getting Zelda's help, and she is changing me back!" Link kicked Epona into a flat out gallop as the walls of Hyrule Castle town slowly came into sight.
Link found it a minor miracle that no one in Hyrule Castle Town even noticed her as she just walked right though the town center and up to the castle gates. It was there she had a problem.
"Oh-oh…" she said, patting down her skirt and leggings.
"What? Navi asked, coming out from the hat to float just above Link's eye level.
"…I lost my pass."
"Pass? What pass?" Navi asked as her aura started turning yellow.
"Before I left and found myself in Terminia, Zelda gave me two things; one was the Ocarina of Time and the other was a special pass signed by the king himself that gave me free access to all of the protected areas of the kingdom, including the castle. I must have lost the pass while in Terminia."
"Do you remember what the pass looked like? It's another simple fairy trick to produce paper and writing on demand." Navi floated, ready to try her hand at teaching again.
"I do, but if there was even one error in it I'd be sentenced to death."
"What about showing them the Ocarina?"
"Again, no good, only those with the pass are supposed to be able to carry it."
"So…" Navi took a good look around, and spotted the vines Link had first used to climb up and enter the castle's courtyard. "We could always use the way we used first time we were here."
"Oh, please don't tell me they ignored me, I kept telling them for the entire time I was here that they needed to remove the vines…" Link looked over to where the vines were, and saw much to her dismay that the vines, if anything looked healthier than ever before.
"Well," Navi said, turning a happy shade of sky blue. "Their stupidity is our gain."
"True…" Link said, and taking a quick look to make sure that the gate guard wasn't paying attention as usual, climbed up it, and was easily half way to Zelda. Looking down at where she would want to land she noticed something. "They haven't changed their patrols or where the guards are stationed at all!"
"Hm, well, that explains why Hyrule's Finest can miss a child in green move across the dirt colored road, jump over the fence, into the moat and into a small drain hole that just happens to lead to the courtyard were the Princess is waiting. They've been guarding the same damn stretch of land for all their lives."
"Remind me to talk to Zelda about it." Link said, falling down, rolling into a run across the road, up the grassy hill to the cliff which she jumped into the moat, and made it all the way around to the main door entrance to the courtyard, were unfortunately, the guards' stupidity stopped, as the crates of Lon Lon Milk were gone.
"Well, now what?" Link asked, staring at Navi.
"Well, we can either try the door…or I can try and teach you how to float enough that you can enter though the drain hole." Navi suggested helpfully.
Link thought carefully about Navi's suggestion. On one hand, the guards in the courtyard were the best ones in the castle. On the other hand if it took as long as changing her clothes did, the guards would find them soon anyway. Then she had an idea.
"Navi…are there any fairy skills on detecting life, or metal, or anything a normal guard would have?"
Navi took a moment to consider her answer. "Well, yes but it's even harder than making clothes."
"Floating isn't?"
"Please, floating is something that fairies are born knowing, the stuff with the clothes is what a one year old can do."
"Really? You didn't think to start me on floating and then work my way up to the clothes?"
"You wanted to get to the castle!"
"You…" Link paused, and composed herself. "Whatever just tell me how to float."
"…Fine, picture yourself raising from the ground, just a little, and then when you're ready, take a single step onto over the edge."
"Over the edge?"
"If you've done it right you should feel a solid ground under your foot, if you haven't I'm here to catch you."
With a sigh, Link closed her eyes, and focused, willed herself off the ground, picturing in her mind's eye that she was above the cobblestone. Then, slowly, she took a step forward, putting all of her weight on her outstretched left foot. It hit solid ground. She opened her eyes, and looked at the strange sight of her foot just there, perfectly balanced over the gap. Quickly, she took two more steps, and entered the drainage hole.
"See, nothing to it," Navi said as Link crawled further into the hole.
As Link cleared the drainage hole, with a slight pull to get her hips uncaught from the exit, she found that much to her dismay, delight, and absolute horror that the guards that had once occupied the main courtyard area where no longer there.
"What are they thinking? Anyone who can do what I just did can get in to the very heart of the castle and start killing the royal family!" Link said, anger, fear, and rage combining into a yell of such fury Navi started to look for hiding spots, as there was no doubt in her mind that the guard to Death Mountain Trail had heard that.
"Link, let's just move on, ok?" Navi said as her aura flashed orange. "Maybe Zelda isn't in the courtyard today, or maybe they're in training exercises, or maybe we caught a break and we're in the middle of a shift change? I mean, there are plenty of perfectly rational reasons why the guards aren't here."
Taking several deep breathes, Link calmed slightly. Enough to see Navi's point, but not enough to ever forgive the officer of the day, or the captain of the guard. "Right, right, let's find Zelda, and worry about the…lack of proper security at some point when it won't get us caught…"
It didn't take too long to figure out why there were no guards in the courtyard. As Navi had suspected, Zelda wasn't in the courtyard at the time.
"Alright, you were right. She's not here…what time is it?"
"Um…12:52," Navi said while looking at the shade that the flowers made, she had always been good at telling and keeping track of time."
"Right, every day at 13:05, Zelda comes out to the courtyard to watch her father hold audience for general pleas."
"General pleas?" Navi asked, her aura glowing yellow.
"Basically, anyone who has the money, the influence, or by law the right to ask for an audience. Mostly merchants asking for favors and lower taxes, sometimes lords asking for more land or Zelda's hand in marriage, occasionally messengers from the Gerudo, Zoras, or Gorons. And very rarely, a murder suspect whose case has not enough evidence for either a guilty or innocent verdict."
"Sounds very boring."
Link snorted a bit. " Mostly yeah, but occasionally there is some kinda excitement, like an assassin posing as a merchant that was killed by bandits a few days ago, or a complete psychopath somehow making it past the outer guards to demand the King makes him 'Duke of the Lands Beyond the Northern Seas'."
"Really?"
"Only happened once, but yeah, the King was very nice, told the man 'I will consider your request' set him up in guest quarters under guard, and after about three days summoned the man, and in front of everyone said 'while I do believe that you could do rather well managing those lands for the Goddesses and the Crown, I am not yet prepared to name someone Duke of the Lands Beyond the Northern Seas. However, when I feel that it becomes necessary to name a Duke, I will reconsider your request'."
"Wow, how'd the guy take it?"
"Very well…until he boasted of it, started a bar fight, got stabbed several times, and finally died three days later in the town's healer house. Anyway, what time is it now?"
Navi very carefully studied the flowers' shade around them, then double-checked what she saw. "13:06."
"Huh, something must be keeping her, oh well; she'll be here in a few." Minutes passed, long boring minutes in complete silence, until Link finally asked, "What time is it?"
"13:14."
"The audience starts at 13:15 on the dot…Maybe the King asked her to sit in on this one…" She walked slowly up to the window of the courtyard that looked into the audience room. The window was one where she'd first seen Gannondorf, though that event now seemed a lifetime ago. She peaked in, and saw the currently empty Throne, covered in rich fabrics of purple, blue, red, and green. It's gleaming gilding somehow meshing in with the fabrics to be soothing to the eye to look at. She waited for 13:15 on the dot, and when it came, a voice boomed from a skinny man, in full gleaming armor of a place guard. With every word it sounded as though he would break his armor off just by his voice.
"Taking audiences today, in the place of His Royal Highness, King Daphnes Hyrule, who is ill, Her Royal Highness, Princess Zelda Hyrule!" Zelda, in a long, white dress, with a purple torso emblazoned with the crest of the royal family entered, her developing figure somehow calmly fitting into the throne. From her lengthening blonde hair, shone a simple golden crown with a ruby, emerald, and sapphire in a small representation of the Triforce at the middle.
"I will now hear pleas." She said calmly.
