A/N: Hi, remember this one? Still working on it... This is one of the most important chapters in the story. You may have seen the events of this chapter coming, but perhaps it doesn't turn out the way you thought...

For the record, I haven't played the new game yet so this story won't have anything to do with it.


I had fallen asleep while contemplating the meaning behind Ganondorf's kiss, but was jerked awake as the carriage suddenly lurched to the side. I heard the maids screaming before I realized what was going on, then I was suddenly thrown onto the roof. A shard of broken glass from one of the windows had carved a large gash in my forehead, and I struggled to see past the blood stinging in my eye. The carriage had been completely upturned, and as the door was thrown open, I saw a claw of some sort grab the two huddled maids and rip them out of the cabin. Their screaming was cut off by a sinewy growl, and then a horrendous sound which I can only describe as snapping filled the air.

I panicked. Some kind of dragon or monster must have attacked us, and the carriage was shaking as the monster swiped back and forth. I could hear thunder strikes and smell the odor of magic spells, so Agahnim must be fighting it. I needed help, but I didn't want to scream for anyone, lest that thing hear me and hurt the baby...

Could I crawl away? Peeking out the broken carriage window, I first saw the shattered armor and corpse of the iron soldier. As I craned my neck to see how Agahnim was faring, the back end of the carriage suddenly compressed on top of my legs.

The scream that came out of me had to be the most horrible sound I've ever made. I couldn't feel sensation in my legs, I couldn't move, and the worst part, I felt wet. Like something was leaking.

...Oh no.

"AGAHNIM! SOMEONE! HELP!"

I tried pushing on the debris, to see if I could lever myself out. I had no strength to even wiggle from underneath it. If only I knew magic...

Just then, the carriage above me was slashed away, and the monster peered in at me. It's nostrils flared, probably on account of all the blood and fluid I was leaking. I screamed from fright, and tried to throw a piece of nearby debris at it out of desperation. Instead, I only managed to anger it. In retaliation, it swiped at me, knocking my head back against the ground. It's cries became a distant whine as I faded into darkness.


Agahnim woke in the realm of Shadow, his robes torn and his face bloodied beyond belief. He'd never lost concentration on a spell so badly that the blowback knocked him here. He stumbled to his feet, not an easy task as one of his legs was clearly broken. Blinking back into the realm of Light, he cursed at what he saw. The creature was nowhere in sight, and the carriage was completely destroyed. The Iron Knuckle had fallen alongside him, this he knew. But he did not know that the dragon killed the two handmaids, as evidenced by the bloody dress scraps and caps laying along the rubble.

Bracing for the worst, Agahnim limped over and inspected the remains of the carriage. There was a large stain inside what was once the cabin, composed of a mixture of fluids he couldn't readily identify. Leading out from the debris was a wide and obvious blood trail, most likely human. A few nightgown scraps and red hairs were caught in the carriage debris, and laying just beyond the blood trail was Marin's little travel bag.

Agahnim picked up the bag, and let out a deep sigh. "This is going to break Master's heart."


Pain... It hurts... so cold...

Is that... humming...? It was a struggle but I finally opened my eyes, and was greeted by the ceiling of a wooden cottage. I could smell soup cooking nearby, and whoever was humming was getting closer.

The pain suddenly returned with a vengeance, and it was centered in my abdomen. I could barely move, but I forced my hands to reach out and make sure the baby was okay. Don't let that pain be anything serious... But when I touched my stomach, I stopped breathing. The baby was gone.

As soon as I started shaking and crying, the person who was humming stopped and hurried over. "Oh no, my dear, what's wrong? Is it the pain? Your medicine isn't quite ready yet..."

An older Gerudo woman...? She glanced at my chest, before looking back at me. "My baby," I mumbled, and patted my stomach. I couldn't bear to say she was gone, so I hoped the woman understood. After a second of confusion, she smiled and rubbed my tears away.

"My Little Princess... there's nothing to worry about. Look." She helped me look down at my chest, and when I did, I was stunned. Laying there, fast asleep, was the cutest little newborn baby in all of Hyrule. My little baby was sleeping on my chest, and I didn't even realize it. The tears of pain became tears of joy, and I flailed around trying to hold her.

The woman very carefully rearranged me so that I was cradling the baby closer to my cheek. "You'll need to be very gentle with her," she warned. "From what I can tell, she's born about a month earlier than she should be. I've started putting together some medicines that should help boost her systems a bit, but for now we need to keep her warm and make sure she gets fed on time. I just hope being pure Gerudo doesn't mean she'll more susceptible to sickness..."

Pure Gerudo? Wait a minute, how could this woman know about Ganondorf's suspicions? Unless... "Are, are you Nana?"

The woman stopped fiddling with the blankets, and looked up at me with surprise on her face. "What?! Oh, child, don't tell me those Hylian fools have forced you to forget your own childhood... I am indeed Nana, though you've never called me anything but Nanny."

Nanny...? So both Ganondorf and I had the right idea, I was raised by Gerudo because I was a Gerudo. My father was killed by Hylian soldiers not as an accident but on purpose, and my convenient orphaning coincided with enough time to harden me for battle and then a visit to the forest by the king. We were used. "...What happened to you when I was six?"

"I went looking for your necklace," Nana explained, picking up the charm around my neck. "It belonged to Nikolai, your father. He left it to you, and I'd be damned if I let some enchanted pile of leaves steal it. Well... those Skull Kids tricked me into entering the Lost Woods." Shaking her head, she continued, "I have protection from the Forest Sprites against becoming a Stalfos. They granted it to me because I took care of your mother. But the Skull Kids can still manipulate what you see, and so they caused me to fall into the underground Forest Temple. I defeated them and found the necklace, but it took me a year in your time to get back out of the labyrinth. That's how I found out that Harkinian had taken you away from me."

"I see..."

"Don't fret, it's all in the past, now," she said with a smile, wiping my forehead. "I'm going to have a look at your stomach now, how about you try feeding the little dear?"

"Feeding?" I looked down at my baby, she was squirming a little almost like she was going to start crying. Does that mean she's hungry? "How do I...?"

Nana chuckled. "Start by opening your shift, of course. The baby will do the rest." She positioned me and showed me how to express a bit of milk, and sure enough, the baby started drinking on her own. "Let her have what she wants."

The focus then switched to my stomach. Nana moved the blankets aside, and pulled up my shift. "I do not wish to alarm you, but I must tell you that I had to cut you open to save the baby." My eyes immediately snapped to her direction, and she had a grim look on her face. "You were unconscious and bleeding in several places, not to mention the fluid leaking from your womb. My flash grenade scared that dragon off, but who knows if it would return. I had to act quickly, so I made a decision." She held up a mirror, and I could see a long, red line leaking through several layers of gauze bandages wrapped around my stomach and lower abdomen. I looked away while she applied medicine and changed the bandages, as my imagination would suffice.

"...How did you know?"

"That you were attacked? I've been following the activities of our great Lord Ganondorf for quite some time now," Nana admitted with a snort, "ever since he started poking around my home. Since he was an adolescent, he has been fascinated with the legends surrounding your father. I was able to remain off his radar until this past year, when he began asking about me in the village. He had discovered this cottage, and immediately deduced it belonged to me. That's how I figured out he breeched Hyrule Castle, and had captured you. I learned from some contacts in the village that he had taken a girl who resembled Zelda as his consort, who I knew had to be you. So I left some things out for you when I heard him sneaking around the house, and I planned to come see you when you arrived in the Valley."

But that dragon messed with everyone's plans, didn't it? I shuddered as I watched the baby stop suckling and start nodding off. To think I almost lost her... Nana showed me how to burp a baby after feeding, taking care of it since I was injured. While she was doing so, a thought occurred to me. "Nana, what was my mother's name?"

"Hmm? Oh, Filimena."

I like it. "I think I'll call her that. It's pretty."

Nana smiled. "I remember when you were born, it was almost a month before Nikolai remembered that he needed to name you. He was very shaken up over your mother's death, of course, but he loved you very much and was asking me all kinds of questions about what would make a good name... Eventually I told him the story of the forbidden king."

"Forbidden king?"

"Do you know how the Gerudo choose their leaders?" I nodded, having listened to Ganondorf's ramblings about genetics multiple times. "Many years ago, there was a young king named Kafei Marin," Nana continued. "King Kafei was a very popular king, having brought wealth to the people and even come close to making peace with the Hylians. However, during his reign, another young male Gerudo appeared and accused Kafei of improperly taking the throne. Back in those days, it was common practice to sequester male Gerudo until they turned sixteen years of age. Rather than face a war for the crown, Kafei Marin admitted to the people that he was really a woman, and abdicated."

"You mean the Gerudo were led to prosperity by a girl?" I shook my head. "Don't women always lead in the absence of men?"

"King Icarus was supposedly ashamed that his family were unable to achieve the level of prosperity in several decades that a young commoner found in only a few years," Nana explained. "It is rumored that he was responsible for hiring the Hylian soldiers that eventually assassinated her in her adult years." She paused to shake her head. "Anyway, after I told your father this story, he immediately decided to name you after her. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised Ganondorf didn't connect the dots. From what I've heard, he adores the Forbidden King story more than the legend of your father."

"Maybe he did," I mumbled, cuddling Filimena tighter. "He knew I wasn't Zelda the second he laid eyes on me, and kept asking questions to find out what race I was. As soon as he found out I had Forest Sprite blood and resembled one, he made me his plaything. Then when I remembered my father speaking to me in Gerudo, he flipped out. Immediately afterward, he started calling me 'your highness'. He had to have known."

Nana scowled, before laying a warm rag atop my forehead. "Then terrible things are going to happen when he discovers the wreck from that carriage."