"And this is the Mystery Hall." King Daltus said as he led Ganondorf into a hallway that had an intricately detailed mural of a landscape painted onto one wall and a number of portraits hanging on the other.

"Why is it called that?" Ganondorf asked as he admired the mural.

"Because no one has any idea what the location depicted here is or who any of the people depicted in these painting are." King Daltus explained. "In fact, we don't even know where all of this art came from or why it's here. It all apparently just showed up one day a long time ago and no one has been able to learn anything about it."

"That is odd." Ganondorf realized that he couldn't recognize the depicted hillside either. He had never heard of a place full of such oddly squared-off mountains. "Why haven't you simply taken this stuff down if you don't know what it actually is?"

"We've tried." Daltus said. "But none of it will come down."

As if to prove this, King Daltus grabbed a painting of some kind of large, turtle-like creature and tried to pull it off the wall, but it wouldn't budge.

"We've even tried using magic but nothing will work." King Daltus looked out a window next to the portrait that he had just tried to remove and a concerned look passed over his face.

"What is it?" Ganondorf asked.

"Oh, nothing." Daltus turned back to the Gerudo King. "It's just that my daughter is usually in the castle's courtyard around this time."

Ganondorf peered out the window himself and looked down at the grassy field below. True enough, there was no one down there at the moment.

"Well, she is a growing girl." Ganondorf mused. "You can't expect her to always stick to the same schedule. I would know, seeing as I grew up with well over a hundred sisters and already have several dozen daughters of my own."

King Daltus stared at Ganondorf blankly for a moment, taking in what the other King had just said.

"I know that probably sounds like a lot to a Hylian." Ganondorf smiled at Daltus' reaction. "But when we only have one male born to our entire race every hundred years it is the duty of that male to father as many children as he can."

"I suppose that makes sense." King Daltus still couldn't quite wrap his head around what Ganondorf was saying. "But, then that would mean…"

"All of my many wives are also my sisters." Ganondorf finished King Daltus' thought. "And one day my future son will marry my daughters and his son will marry his daughters and so on. I know that Hylians have a taboo against close family members getting married and having children, but for us, it is the only way."

"I suppose so." Daltus said a bit uncomfortably, desperately thinking of a way to change the subject. "Oh, Zelda, there you are!"

The young princess walked up to the two kings, escorted by her bodyguard, Impa. She seemed to have something important on her mind, though Daltus didn't seem to notice. He was just glad to have a reason not to keep talking about incest.

"What brings you up here?" The King asked his daughter.

Princess Zelda looked away from her father nervously and stared at the wall for a moment before turning back to the King.

"I, uh… well…" Zelda glanced up at Impa, who gave her an encouraging nod. "I'd like to… um… well… the leaders of the other races haven't shown up yet and I was wondering if I could… you know… lead a small group to go out and see what's holding them up."

"Hmm…" King Daltus considered pondered the idea. "I suppose that we should send someone out to check up on them and as long as you bring Impa along I know that you'll be safe."

"And I was also wondering if, well… King Ganondorf could come along."

"What?" Both Kings asked at once.

"Well, I was thinking…" Zelda tried to come up with an excuse without bringing up her dream. She knew her father didn't believe in her prophetic dreams and she didn't think she was ready to tell Ganondorf about them yet.

"What the Princess is trying to say is that she thinks it will be seen as a sign of good faith among the other races if King Ganondorf were to come along." Impa said.

"Um, yeah. It would show them that you are concerned about their well-being." Zelda added, thankful to her attendant for coming up with a logical reason why Ganondorf should come with them.

"I'm not really sure about this." King Daltus said even though he actually did like if the idea, mostly because he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable being alone with the Gerudo King.

"I think that it sounds like a good idea." Ganondorf said. "And we can't continue the peace treaty negotiations without them anyway so I don't really have a reason not to go."

"Alright." King Daltus said, trying not to sound relieved. "If you want to go then you should. I've actually been wondering what's been taking the Goron and Zora leaders so long to arrive, anyway."

"Great!" Zelda said a little more enthusiastically than she meant. "Then let's get going."

"Hold on, now." Ganondorf shook his head. "I still need to prepare for the trip."

"Oh, right." Zelda's cheeks flushed lightly from embarrassment.

"Take as much time as you want." Impa said. "We will meet up with you at the castle's entrance once you are ready."


Link sat outside the castle, where he had been told to wait. The soles of his boots skimmed the surface of the castle's moat as he kicked the air out of boredom. Navi hovered around his head, thinking about everything that Princess Zelda had told them.

"What happened to the Great Deku Tree must be connected to the darkness we're supposed to vanquish." She realized. "We've got to stop whatever it is and avenge his death."

Link looked mournfully down at his own reflection in the crystal clear water running by beneath him as he thought about the Great Deku Tree. The Deku Tree had raised him for as long as he could remember and he was still struggling to deal with the knowledge that the closest thing to a parent he had ever had was now dead despite his best efforts to prevent it. He tried to hold back a tear as he grabbed the Deku Shield strapped to his back and held it out in front of himself. Navi looked down at the wooden slab as well.

"That was carved from the Great Deku Tree, wasn't it?" Navi asked.

Link gave a silent nod in reply.

"I guess in a way that means that it serves as a reminder of him, doesn't it?"

Navi settled down on Link's shoulder and the two former forest dwellers sat there is silence as they both remembered the Great Deku Tree and everything that he had done for them throughout their lives. This moment was cut short, however, as the castle's drawbridge started to lower and Link suddenly realized that he was directly in its path. He quickly rolled back away from it and onto his feet before the drawbridge was fully lowered. Princess Zelda and Impa rode white horse adorned with a decorative purple and gold saddle across the lowered drawbridge, coming to a halt directly in front of Link.

"I'm sorry for making you wait out here." Zelda said as Impa helped her get down off of the horse. "But we should be able to go soon. We were able to convince Ganondorf, er… King Ganondorf to come with us so now all we need to do is to wait for him to get ready and we can leave as soon as he gets here."

"Although there may be a slight problem." Impa said, looking around.

"What?" Zelda was startled to hear this. "What is it?"

"Link does not appear to have a horse of his own and Storm won't be able to carry all three of us all the way to Kakariko." Impa pointed out.

"I didn't think of that." Zelda said dejectedly. "I guess we'll have to get another horse from the stable."

"It's not quite that simple." Impa shook her head. "I would say that it's safe to assume that Link does not know how to ride a horse and you are only at a beginner level yourself, Princess."

Zelda glared at Impa for a second before conceding that the assessment of her horse riding skills was accurate and turned to Link, who looked as if he had never even seen a horse before.

"I suppose you're right." Zelda sighed. "Does this mean that we'll have to go on foot?"

Before Impa could reply, the sound of another horse approaching caused everyone to turn their attention to Ganondorf as he rode up to them on a giant black horse.

"I am ready to head out." Ganondorf said, bringing his horse to a halt beside them. "Shall we be off?"

Zelda suddenly had an idea. "Actually, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you let Link here ride with you? He doesn't have a horse of his own."

Ganondorf turned his attention to the young boy in green that Zelda motioned to. He couldn't see Navi, who had been startled into hiding inside Link's hat when she saw Zelda and Impa's horse. As he stared at Link he couldn't help but feel that the boy seemed oddly familiar to him, though he had no idea why.

"I don't see why not."