A/N: This took a long time, but it's here! I'm really excited about this chapter and the future ones. I'm hoping to update this a lot more now that I'm taking a Youtube break for Lent... Hope you guys enjoy! Best, Ani.

I lose track of time in my room behind the crawlspace. There's lots of time to do nothing. Lots of time to think. Mostly I lie in the hay and play back everything that's happened in the last month or so. Training. The long walk to Hyrule. The prisoners, the thought of stealing arrows, Abana almost choking to death.

Nabooru's kindness.

And her lies.

My nightmares are of my old mirror's Skulltula eyes and the question that is always on my mind, hiding with the other thoughts. Why?

Why everything.

What did the Goddess – Goddesses – want when they made me so different from everyone else? Why did she – they – allow me to be beaten, to be cast out? Am I just some sort of divine joke, someone she – they, curses! – can heap their anger on? For whatever reason, they seem to be mad at me. Maybe for planning to destroy Hyrule like I did. Maybe for revering Ganondorf.

If I can save the king for Hyrule from him, maybe then they will know how sorry I am.

Thoughts of Princess Zelda swirl with the others in the dark.

They press down on me in the small space, making me want to scream. I want to be outside running around, fighting something. Doing anything.

And when Malon comes in, I want to kill.

The lantern she brings with her does nothing to hide the hand marks across her cheeks, though she tries to pretend they're not there. Bruises circle her head like a crown. She tries to hide them with her hair.

Out of courtesy, I don't look when she is looking at me. But the candlelight is harsh; it is hard to hide imperfections from it, especially on skin so sun-cracked and ruddy.

My own skin is burnt and almost done peeling, but I look nothing like poor Malon. Unlike the Gerudo, her red hair makes her as pale and as burnable as I am. In the day, she seems happy and unaware of how horrid the work must be for her. But at night, as it must be now, for the lantern – at night, she sometimes lets the tiredness show.

She sets the lantern down far from the hay and allows her bundle to fall beside me. A few loaves of bread and a bottle of milk. I am grateful for it, for my water is almost gone. I take the loaves and split them each in half.

"Share with me," I say, and she sits beside me, on my ride side, as I've told her not to sit on the left pile of hay.

I have to pee somewhere, don't I?

"Thanks," she says, and bites into a half loaf. Her nose wrinkles. "You stink."

"Sorry," I whisper, sipping the milk. "I have been here a long time without a bath. How long has it been?"

"Almost two weeks. The crates are almost full. It's getting a lot harder to move them to come in here."

"How long until there is another shipment?"

"Two or three days. And guess what?"

"What?"

"We're delivering to the castle this time."

I look at her. "To the castle?!"

She nods and smiles. "It's a special delivery this time, for a party taking place there in a few days. Daddy says the milk is special because it's laced with magic, but I think it's just alcohol."

"A party for who?"

"I don't know. Daddy and Uncle Ingo were talking about the thieves – I mean, the Gerudo – again. So maybe your king is coming back?" I curse low in Gerudo. When she asks me what I said, I do not reply. "Maybe your king will come pick you up so you don't have to hide anymore?"

Her chipper voice makes me sick to my stomach. There's no way she would understand… "No," I whisper. "He doesn't know I'm here."

"Do your parents know?"

Oh, Goddess. The million rupee question. "No," I say at last. "They don't know either."

"Why not?"

"Because they're dead… Maybe."

Her voice turns sad, hesitant. "What do you mean 'maybe'?"

"I don't know who my dad is. Not many Gerudo do… It's our custom to have only women in the tribe, unless a king is born or another man earns our respect. Most girls have a mother, but I am an orphan… I was told by the caretakers of the orphanage that my mother either died or gave me away when I was born; same as all the other orphans."

"Oh… I'm sorry," she says, touching my hand. "Don't you have any older brothers or sisters?"

"I had…" My throat tightens. I force myself to drink more milk, then pass the bottle to Malon. She drinks and starts on her second half of bread. "I had someone who called me sister, once…." Before she can ask who, I lay into the bread. When I'm finished, I stand up. My stomach hurts, now, because of the food and sadness.

"Is there a place I can wash up?" I ask. "I stink."

"Sure." She stands, too, dropping the remaining bread for me to eat later. She does this whenever we eat together, and it always makes my chest feel lighter. She has been kinder to me than Abana ever was.

She takes me to the stable she showed me before, where I saw a cow for the first time. One of the back stalls is empty. She tells me to undress while she gets soap and towels. When she comes back, she brings more than that. She brings me her hairbrush and a few of her old dresses, old work boots and an old knapsack. As I wash behind the closed off stall, she sings to the sleeping cows.

I've never heard anything so beautiful in my life.

When I'm finished, I change into these Hylian clothes and look down at myself. The dress is white and blue and the boots are of worn leather. A little small, but they'll do.

Malon smiles at me. "You look so cute!"

I feel myself blush. I am still an outsider, but I'd rather get used to life here than go back. Malon cleans up the mess I've made, then grabs my hand and leads me back to my hidey-hole with the lantern.

Then she takes away the brush and towels, folds the other two dresses she's given me and puts them and my sandals away in the knapsack.

"Goodnight, friend," I tell her as she takes up the lantern one last time.

"Goodnight." She hesitates. "Anali?"

"Yes?"

"Can we be family?"

The question breaks my heart and heals me at the same time. Tears spring to my eyes. It is a long time before I can answer her. "No," I tell her. "There has been too little time…"

She sounds sad. "Oh…. Okay. Sorry…"

Taking the light with her, she is soon gone.

This we repeat for the next three nights.

xxx

She wakes me before dawn the fourth morning. "Anali! Quick! Get in the carriage!"

It takes me a moment to wake up. I almost fight her off.

"Wake up or we'll leave without you!"

That gets my attention. We sneak past the doors to the stable and her house while Ingo is busy tending the horses. My sword and shield, stuffed in the great mound of my rucksack, gets thrown in back with me. It's cramped and smells like old wood and milk and the farm. Sunrise barely reaches through the mound of boxes behind me. I curl up between the seats and the crates of milk and pray that they don't move in and crush me. I barely breathe until the last of them are loaded and I hear Malon and her father sit in the front.

"Better hurry, Malon," the man says in a deep voice. "We're aimin' ta dock a' the castle by noon!"

"Daddy, is that possible?"

"Sure! All we gotsta do is keep drivin' fast, no rest."

"If you're sure…"

"Course I'm sure!"

"Okay… But if we get stuck or hurt, I'm gonna be so mad at you!"

"Relax, darlin'." He pats her back. "We'll be fine."

Fine my fanny. It's only been a few minutes and I'm already cramping up in here!

It gets worse on the road. We pass over rocks and sticks at break-neck speed. Hooves hit like rain on the ground and every step makes us bounce. The sound is worse than anything I've ever heard. Any faster and the boxes will come toppling down on me!

"Daddy, go slower!" Malon screams. "You'll break the bottles!"

"Can't, princess!" He replies.

A square shadow looms over me. There's a crash. I scream.

The carriage stops. "Wot was dat?"

Oh no. Stupid idiot! The box fell at an angle and was caught between me and the back of the seats. They wouldn't have hit me in the first place! The weight shifts as Malon's father gets out. Now I've done it…

"Wait, Daddy!"

"Hold on, Malon. I heard somethin' back here!"

Malon scrambles out after him. "Wait! You don't understand!"

Weight shifts again as the man climbs in back. He draws closer.

I can't breathe.

Thick, hairy arms lift the box. A face appears. He has a hairy face and a nose as big as a fish. Blue eyes peer down at me.

"What in tarnation?!" He cries. "Who're you?!"

I can't move. My heart is pounding.

"Daddy," Malon begins. My eyes flick to her voice. "This is my friend Anali. She needs a ride to Castletown."

"To the castle," I say suddenly. "My friend lives in the castle."

"Please, Daddy! She won't be with us long, I promise!"

Ouch. She makes it sound like she doesn't want me around. But whatever will help. The man looks between his daughter and me, then back again. He settles the crate upright and then asks, "But… W'ere'd she come from?"

"I hid her away on the ranch for a while. I thought you and Uncle Ingo would be mad if I asked her to stay…"

"I will not be a bother to you," I say, hoping to hide my accent. "In fact, I will leave right now if you wish it."

He twists his mustache. "I can't leave a little girl out ta die in th' dark…"

"So you'll let her stay?!" Malon claps her hands together. Though I can't see her, I imagine her eyes shine like stars.

"'Course," he says, moving the crates so I can stand. Then he offers his hand. "Call me Talon."

I take his hand. "Anali."

"Great ta have ya aboard, Anna-Lee." He sniffs and wipes his mouth with a goofy grin.

"It's Anah-lee," I say, though he doesn't hear me. He's already getting out. "Anali." I follow him, knapsack in hand. Outside, Malon has the brightest smile.

Once all of us are in front, we set off again, Talon yapping away at us both as though we were not children, but his friends. His eyes, like bread dough, look softly even upon me. I can see now where Malon gets her heart.

"I will make up to you this," I say. "You have been too good to me."

"Nonsense!" Talon replies, but I will not hear of it.

"There will be monsters," I continue. "I will fight them for you."

"You, a little girl?" He says, doughy eyes wide.

Malon smiles. "Daddy, she can do it. She has a sword!"

I open my bag to show him. He looks from it to me, tooth-rotted jaw at a gasp. "Still," he mutters, brows down.

"I can do it," I tell him. "I will prove it."

And it was so. Later that day, a wheel broke, and Talon had to fix it. Malon sat in the carriage with a loaf of bread, and I, sword drawn, shield ready, found prey. Taking pauses in his work, I could feel Talon watching me. Stallchildren rose and advanced, all clacking bones and beading eyes.

Finally, some of the rage I had built up inside my tiny body could be released. As long as I stayed out of reach of their claws, I could not be hurt. The rupees, also, were a good thing; they would serve me well in Castletown.

After an hour, I can feel my strength draining, as well as a strange sort of shift in the grass and trees around us.

A wrongness. Had that always been there? Suddenly, the world feels like it's been cursed. The trees seem wrong. Far off behind us, the forest seems wrong, too.

Horse hooves.

Who else could be travelling? And why are they getting closer?

A black steed halts and snorts in the nearby shadows. Its rider is suited in black armor. I see a flash of red hair and my heart begins to pound.

I dive behind the caravan before he can see me.

When he speaks, I almost faint.

"Have you any food to spare? I've been riding for days in hunger."

Ganondorf. At the thought of his name, I almost puke. What is Ganondorf doing here? Is he going to the castle, too?

"Sure, stranger!" Talon laughs. "Malon, get this man some bread and milk, will you?"

As Malon obeys him, Talon attempts to make small talk. Ganon replies little and eats like a starving man, apologizing on behalf of his "fatigue". I peek from behind the caravan at his horse. They'd come from the direction of the forest… And I can feel something strong lingering about them both. I can almost smell it; the magic.

Dark magic.

Has he done something to the forest, halfway across the kingdom?

It would take weeks to get there from Gerudo Valley, even on horseback. He would have to have left around the time I was exiled. We must have just missed each other…

But why? What's so important in the forest that he'd travel all that way…?

Soon after he's had his fill, he mounts his steed and disappears.

A short while later, Talon fixes the wheel.

In spite of the danger to the king's life, I'm glad for the distance between Ganon and me.

All of us climb back into the carriage and head off again. Battle-worn, I fall into a restless sleep. Red afternoon light sweeps over the road as Malon shakes me awake.

"They're opening the castle gates!" She chirps, and watches, bright-eyed, as a group of guards lets us in. From far away, the castle is just as awe-inspiring as I remember it; but now, a shadow seems to hang over it.

Now that I know Ganondorf is here.

The guards guide us through the castle's inner gates and around what looks to be a small river.

"We'll have to inspect your cargo, sir," one of them says. "You'll all have to get out and back away from the car. Standard procedure."

"Dat's fine!" Talon says, wiping his face. "I got nothin' to hide."

"It's a pain, though. We know you're not trouble, but still we have to…"

"It protects the royal family," booms a voice.

The guard salutes at once. "Lady Impa! What are you doing here?"

It seems odd that even though Impa is a housecarl, a fellow servant, the men treat her like she's superior. Perhaps she is.

"I've come to oversee the inspection," She replies. "I heard we were getting a shipment early, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't some kind of ploy…" Her eyes fall on me, and though she doesn't show it, I can tell she recognizes me. She approaches, points to my bag, still in hand. "Has that been checked yet?"

I shake my head.

A guard steps forward to grab it from me. "I was just about to – "

Impa holds up a hand. "No, let me." She takes the bag and makes a show of rifling through my things, then stops and looks at me, raising a horrifyingly sharp eyebrow. She glances at the guards and makes sure she makes eye contact. Then she looks me in the eyes, face grave. "Come with me." She grabs hold of my arm and drags me away, toward a door to our right.

"Wait!" I cry, twisting in her grasp. But her grip is like a shackle and there's nothing I can do to break free. I spin around. Malon looks on, worried, and Talon just stares with his gooey eyes.

We're behind the door before I can even say 'thank you'. The room she's taken me to is a small storage space. There's not much in it. A few boxes, crates, rope, things covered in sheets; the air smells of old paper and milk.

Impa releases my wrist and turns to me. Even without that grave look, she looks severe enough to make me quake.

"What did I do?" I ask. It comes out as a squeak.

She gives me a sharp smile. "I had to get you away from them. What better way than to make them think you'd done something wrong?"

"But… Why?"

"The princess knew you would return. I must get you to her."

"I have to see Princess Zelda, too! The king is – "

"Shush! Not so loud!" Her eyes are keen on the door as she listens to the commotion outside. "There is time for talk later. For now I must get you to Princess Zelda's side."

Handing me my knapsack, she takes a sheet from one of the boxes and sizes me up, shaking out the dust. She flicks her wrist and a dagger appears from the bracers around her arms; her foot holding most of the sheet down, she makes a clean, straight-lined cut with the dagger, tearing off a piece of it. She replaces the rest of the sheet and drapes the cut piece over me. It falls on me like a cloak.

"For your hair," she explains. "It's not good for others to see you as you are; you'll cause whispers amongst the staff, and that could hurt you while Ganondorf is here." Her piercing eyes look into mine. "You have come here on your own, haven't you?"

I can't bear to tell her I've been cast out, but my silence seems to be the only answer she needs.

"He will be here for a fortnight or more, celebrating with us and working with the king. We must keep you safe until then."

"I'm to stay here?" I hadn't thought about what I would do after I told Zelda about Ganon's plan. But staying at the castle…?

Impa nods. "There is much that Princess Zelda wishes to tell you."

A guard speaks from beyond the door. "You've brought us too few crates, sir."

"Wot? I coulda sworn I 'ad the right amount…" Talon replies.

"Come," Impa says, taking my hand. "I'll take you through the castle safely."

As she leads me away, I can hear the guard again. "Don't worry, sir. Just bring more in a few days…"

Through the servants' hallways, packed and bustling with people preparing for breakfast, few stop to look at us, but I make sure my head is covered.

When at last she leads me through a set of large, gold-inlaid doors, I find myself in a bedroom more spectacular than anything I've ever seen. Plush carpet covers the floor and silk hangs from the headboards of a bed larger than a dining table. Beyond the bed is a giant set of windows, purple drapes sparkling in the sunlight. There's so much light in the room, it makes my own back in the Valley look like a grave.

A vanity stands against the wall, and at it sits Princess Zelda, brushing her hair. Hearing us come in, she turns to us and stands.

"Impa, who…?" Then she sees my face. "Anali! You're back?"

I lower my hood. "Princess…"

I try to tell her that her father could die. I try to tell her what Ganondorf is going to do.

But when I try to speak, my lips freeze.

"I'm glad you're safe," she says with a smile. "I knew you would come back!" Then she looks concerned. "Did my dream come true? Were you hurt?"

"You were right." Somehow, my accent seems thick. "The Gerudo beat me and cast me out for a crime I did not commit."

"I'm so sorry," she whispers; her eyes become like pools of rippling water. "But you'll be ok now. You're safe here with us. All we've got to do is keep you from Ganondorf." She looks up at Impa, who nods.

"Until further notice, should you be asked, you will be my attendant alongside Kiraji. We will have to dye your hair as well. You can't have a sheet over your head all the time."

Zelda nods. "I think that would be best. Father won't need me while Ganondorf is here, and if you're around Impa and me, you'll definitely be safe."

"Why must I stay? Would it not be safer for me to leave?"

"No, you have to stay!" Zelda cries, grasping my hands. "There's something important here that you have to do."

"Something important? What?"

"I…" She looks away. "I don't know. The dreams aren't always clear."

"What dreams?"

"In one, I saw a figure shining in light, guided by a fairy, and dark clouds… I think the clouds represent Ganondorf, and the figure in light… I'm not sure."

"What has this to do with me?"

"There was another dream. The same figure, only shrouded in a deep blue light, as though it was shielding him from me. He and the fairy were sleeping, and I felt like the blue light was trying to wake him up… I think that light represents you."

My thoughts turn to the boy in green.

"Even so… Why should I have to stay here, with Ganondorf under your roof? If I have something to do with this person, shouldn't I go look for them?"

"No! Just… Trust me. You've got to stay here. I just… I just know! I don't know how I know, but I do."

"What the princess has said is true," Impa murmurs. "For generations, her family has inherited the Triforce of Wisdom. Do you know what that is, child?"

"The Triforce of Wisdom is the gift of the Goddess Nayru, connected with order and knowledge."

Zelda nods. "Its bearers can sense evil and have visions of the future, as well as hide truth from those that wish to harm it. No one in my family has ever inherited it below the age of twenty; that's why my father doesn't believe my dreams are more than nightmares…"

"Pity a good man could be so foolish," Impa spits.

The princess clasps her hands. "I just know Ganondorf is going to do something terrible to Hyrule. Especially if he gets his hands on the Triforce!"

So she may know, already, what's in store for her. I don't understand all she's saying, but I nod anyway. "All right, Princess. Because you're so sure I must stay, I'll stay."

"You will! That's great!"

Her smile is worth the doubts.

After three days, my hair is dyed black, I'm fitted for more suitable clothes and light armor, and I'm taken through the castle always at the feet of Impa and Zelda. Though the princess is not allowed in with her father and Ganondorf, she frequently tries to spy on them and overhear something, anything, that she can use to convince her father of Ganondorf's plot.

I don't know why I keep silent. Isn't saving the king what I came here to do? Would my words make any difference to the king when he won't even listen to his own daughter?

Something deep inside me tells me that even if I did speak, it would be useless.

That I would be useless.

For two nights in a row I sleep by Zelda's bedside, where Impa always is, at the ready. Over and over again, I hear the princess in her sleep: "Hero… and Guardian… of Time…"

She talks no more of dreams, and my own sleep is blank as well. Dark and imageless.

On the third morning after my arrival at the castle, Zelda and I are in the courtyard, spying on her father. Ganondorf is soon to arrive in the throne room, into which the window looks.

I keep away from the window, but watch as the princess ducks out of the line of sight at the first sign of danger, then leans in close when the coast is clear.

I'd felt a tingling in me all morning. This… static under my skin. Like today's the day the world shifts. The wrongness I felt before has died in some way, but persisted in another.

Like the evil is still here, but part of the curse had gone away. The grass is living, but has a dead air to it. Like it's lost all hope in life.

But the rest of today feels different.

As I awoke this morning, dawn playing with Zelda's curtains and windows – as the day came beyond darkness – I felt that today…

Today is the day when fate's wheels start turning.

I felt him before I heard him, and heard him before I saw him.

First came the static running down my spine. Then the clink of weapons on shield. Footsteps and the flutter of wings.

Then, up the steps toward the window where Zelda stood came a boy my age in green.