I spent most of the night trying to come up with a plan, but failed. Either I send her back and hurt her, or I keep doing what I'm doing and hurt her world. Putting it out of my mind for the time being, I came back into the room and found the little bunny awake, sitting up on the bed and lovingly stroking the long hair that fell down past her shoulder blades.

"You just noticed that?"

"I always wanted long hair, but Uncle said I had to keep it short and neat," she mumbled. "...Boys don't have long hair."

"Nonsense, I had long hair when I was hu..." I stopped midsentence and looked at myself. "...Younger. When I was younger."

The little bunny's eyes lit up, and she crawled forward on the bed. "You did?! A boy with long hair! No one made fun of you?"

Made fun of me?! "Of course not," I growled. "The Gerudo have always prided themselves on their beautiful red hair, any one of us is free to wear it as we wish."

"Red hair!" I could swear her eyes went wider. "My hair's pale pink, but I've only ever seen real red hair on that one thief in the forest... And what's a Gerudo?"

These Hyruleans don't know their history... Looks like I'm going to have to educate her. "You've heard of the Hylians, haven't you?" I asked as I pulled a chair over and sat down. "Your ancestors?"

"A little... The kindly sage at the Sanctuary used to tell me stories, about the long eared people who lived in Hyrule many centuries ago," she answered. "He said that through their long pointed ears they could hear the whispers of the Goddesses, and that their language and writing was far different from ours. It's what I had to get the Book of Mudora for."

"Right. Well, little hero, those 'ancient Hylians' were not the only people to have inhabited this land. Hyrule is, or rather was," I corrected, realizing what time period I'm talking about, "a land of six nations. The Hylians are only the first nation. You may recognize a second nation... Tell me, have you ever visited the source of the river in your homeland?"

"Yeah, I have, but there's no one..." The little bunny gasped, and bounced on the mattress. "King Zora!"

I nodded. "Yes, the Zora were once proud citizens of Hyrule. These days, they've mostly lost their senses and become mindless pests, but in the past they were great allies to your king. One of them was even part of the Seven Wise Men."

"A fish?"

The little bunny curled her nose, making me laugh. "Well, the hero is a bunny, after all." That got a little giggle out of her. Such a cute little thing... I must stop thinking this way! "Anyway, Hylians and Zora aside, there were also the Gorons of Death Mountain, the Kokiri of the forest, the Sheikah of the mountains and plains, and last but certainly not least, the Gerudo of the desert. Each race represented Hyrule via the Seven Wise Men, with the Hylian Royal Family's heir providing the seventh."

"So the Gerudo come from the desert?" Little bunny drew circles in her blanket, before looking back up at me and tilting her head. "There's not very much in the desert, how did you survive?"

"We tried, but eventually as time went on, we were assimilated just like everyone else," I answered with a sigh, before discovering that she had no idea what 'assimilated' meant. "That means that over time, the different nations mixed together until there was only one nation left. That's why you're all called 'Hyruleans' instead."

As I rose from my chair and headed for my pantry stash for a cup of tea, I suddenly had a pink shadow. "Um, well if everyone mixed together, how come all the girls that got stolen are all pointy eared? Shouldn't they be a mix of everyone? Or one of each?"

"Hey, I don't know the particulars of intergenerational crossbreeding, kid, and even if I did, it's not appropriate conversation for a ten year old!" This is ridiculous. I was trying to teach her about Gerudo, not Hylians. "Gerudo, I'm teaching you about Gerudo."

"...Can I have some?"

"What?" I looked down to see her pointing at my cupboard, and here she spied the bag of tea biscuits I had Agahnim fetch for me. After a long groan, I was forced to surrender them in return for a happy cheer from the bunny.

"The Gerudo were the people who built the shrines in the desert," I continued, trying to hide the smile that crept up my face due to the little snacking bunny. "We were called thieves, and we did steal, but there was so much more to our people than that. Now we're just a fragment of history, and we probably don't even have a page in your fancy book."

I think she responded with, "dunno, book stolen," but I could be mistaken. She apparently was never told not to talk with her mouth full, that or she was extremely hungry and didn't care. But now that I think about it, she hasn't eaten anything for the day that she's been in my care, and who knows how long before that.

It looks like I'll be having a guest for breakfast this morning...

A/N: To give you an idea what Link looks like, she does NOT look like Lola Bunny. She's ten. Just take the Bunny Link sprite and give her some hair that falls just past her shoulder blades. Her floppy ears can poke out through just fine. She still has pink hair, even in the Light World. I grew up with the 1992 version of LTTP, so that's the one I'm using for the story (hence Wise Men instead of Sages).