"Mommy, look!" a child, no more than three years old, grinned as she held out a flower to her mother. The scene was blurry, and the woman's face unrecognizable.

"Oh wow!" the woman smiled and took the flower, "It's pretty!" The comment made the child smile even more. "Now let's go home and when Daddy gets back you can show him, too."

The scene changed, to a small house where the child watched as her mother prepared supper. Just then, a man walked in. His red eyes, which were the only thing not blurred, watched for his little girl to come around the corner. She did, and jumped straight into his arms. "Look, Daddy!" she showed him the flower.

"Where did you find that?" He asked.

"In the ground." She replied and her father chuckled.

Again the scene changed, this time to one more dark. The village was ablaze, and people were running in a panicked frenzy as a group of masked horsemen rode through, slaying anyone that got in their way. The mother grabbed her child and hid in their home. "Mommy? What's happening?" the child asked.

"It's okay. We just have to wait for Daddy to get here." Her mother replied, trying hard to swallow. A moment later, her father burst through the door.

"Daddy!" The girl got up to run to her father but stopped when he suddenly fell to the floor, his lifeless eyes staring at the two as blood seeped out from the wound in his back. The girl's own eyes went wide and as she stumbled back, one of the masked men let himself in.

"Get behind me!" Her mother urged and grabbed her daughter's arm to pull her behind her as the man came closer.

He examined them for a moment, looking between the woman and child before saying, "Hand over the child." The woman just stared in horror while the girl gripped tightly to her mother's clothes. Seeing as she wasn't going to comply, the intruder took a step closer. THe woman backed up for every step he took, until she was against the wall. The man then raised the bloody dagger and the scene changed again.

The little girl watched as the man plunged the dagger into her mother's chest over and over. "Mommy!" she screamed.

"R-run aw-way!" Her mother struggled to say through the blood that bubbled in her throat. The child did as she was told and fled, stepping on broken glass and pools of blood. She looked down and saw a trail of bloody footprints behind her, but ignored them and kept going.

She ran past lifeless bodies and burning buildings until she tripped. When she heard footsteps coming closer, she did the only thing she could think of and hid behind a stack of crates. "Where did that girl get off to now?" She heard him say as he got closer.
A minute passed and she heard him leaving. She let out a breath and just then did the pain kick in. She dropped to the ground to examine her feet, which were bleeding from all the glass that had cut them. After pulling out a large shard she thought of her parents, not fully realizing their fates, and despite the pain stood up, to go back to them. All of a sudden, the crates flew away and the man grabbed her. "Mommy! Daddy!" The girl screeched.

"They can't help you!" They man that grabbed her spat and despite her kicking to get free he quickly made his way back to another man riding a horse. This one, unlike the others, who wore red masks, his was white. Next to the man, was a cage of children from the village. All of them were knocked unconscious. Once the man holding the girl he stopped walking he held her out by the collar of her dress for the other man to see. "What shall I do with this one, sir?"

"Is she one of them?" the horseman asked in a deep voice.

"She doesn't appear to be, but she called a man who was clearly one of them 'Daddy'."

"Hmm… Take her as well. She may have their blood flowing through her veins."

"Yes, sir." The man holding the girl walked over to the cage and dropped her as another man went to speak with the white masked one.

"We're almost finished collecting them, sir. What shall we do with the place when we're done?" he asked as the one who'd been holding the girl unsheathed his weapon.

"...Burn it. Burn it all." That was the last thing the girl heard when she felt a huge force slam into her head, and the world around her went dark.

Kira awoke screaming as tears streamed down her face. She sat there for a moment as she tried to catch her breath then looked around. Slowly she got up and walked to the balcony. Seeing as it was still early in the night, she whistled for Yasha. Once he arrived she hopped on and took off into the night.

Later, as Nova woke up, she didn't see her master anywhere. The little dragon pawed at the door and cried out, hoping for someone to let her out. Soon a knock came from the other side of the door before it opened to reveal a woman. She was tall, and wore a white outfit with green designs that stood out from her slightly tanned skin. "Kira, Zole wants you to come to the…" The woman trailed off and scanned the room with her amber eyes when she noticed the room was empty. Seeing as the girl was not there at the moment, she sighed and and she shut the door. Unknown to the woman, Nova had snuck out under her feet and was heading down the staircase in search of Kira.

Meanwhile, Shadow Link had just arrived back after spying on the heroes. He was exhausted and ready to get some rest. Just then, the same woman who was searching for Kira stopped him. "Shadow Link." She called. He stopped and glared.

"What."

"Zole requests your presence to the meeting room in three hours." She replied.

"Fine."

"Oh, and have you seen Kira? He wanted her to come too, but she's not in her room."

"Why would I know where she is? As long as she's not bothering me, I couldn't care less." And with that he slammed the door. The woman ignored his attitude as always and went to inform the other members of the fortress of the meeting.

A few moments passed and Shadow was about to fall asleep, when he felt something lick his face. "What the hell?!" He jumped up and saw Nova sitting on his bed happily. "Damn it, Kira." He mumbled. "Shoo." He tried shooing her away. Nova only whimpered, and continued to stare at him. He stared back for a moment then rolled his eyes. "Go away." He said and laid down again, pulling the blankets so Nova fell off the bed. The little dragon determinedly climbed back up, and nudged Shadow's arm. Shadow ignored her, so she kept it up until he finally had enough. "Fine, I'm awake!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. Nova, happy with her accomplishment, danced around until she tripped then looked up. "Now what do you want?" Shadow asked and Nova jumped down and over to the door. Shadow opened it, and waited for her to leave. Instead, Nova nudged Shadow's leg. "Alright, alright, I'm coming." Shadow sighed in irritation. "If this is one of Kira's pranks, though..." He trailed off and followed the small dragon as she scurried through the halls. Every so often Nova stopped and looked back to see Shadow was still following, then continued on her way.

Pretty soon, she had led him into a part of the castle-like structure he'd never been in before. "Just where are you leading me?!" Shadow demanded, knowing full well Nova couldn't reply. Instead the dragon turned a corner to a very tall spiraling staircase. "I am not climbing these steps!" he said and turned around to go back. But before he could take another step Nova had shot a small ball of fire at his feet, almost causing him to trip. He glared down and was about to say something, when Nova hopped back over to the steps and looked back to Shadow happily. Sighing, Shadow gave in and began the long climb up the staircase. There were a few dimly lit torches that seemed close to going out, some of which actually had.

Halfway through their climb Nova had opted on riding on Shadow's shoulder. "Kira better be up here so I can get rid of you." Shadow muttered as the end of the stairs came into sight. The staircase had led into a short hall where it turned to the left, and only a single door. Nova jumped off of Shadow and raced to the door. Shadow followed her over and she started clawing at it. He stared at her curiously for a second before turning the handle and letting the dragon in. He took a look inside, and saw that it was a bedroom. As he walked in he took a look around. The walls were made of stone, and the carpet a velvet dark grey. On one side was a large bed with blankets that had been ripped off the bed halfway. There was a balcony slightly obscured by some dark blue draperies that seemed to have been torn greatly. On the other side of the room were a couple of shelves filled with random things like seashells, some sort of small jewels formed into shapes and a few books. One of the books, Shadow noticed, had something sticking out from one of the pages at the bottom of it. He swiped it off the shelf and peered inside. The book was filled with drawings. The first one, at the front of it, was of three people. It looked to be a family, with a mother, father and young child. The child looked normal, but the parents' faces were smeared, as though the artist was unhappy with the way they looked, or just couldn't figure how to draw them. The only thing that was recognizable of the taller two, were the red dots where the man's eyes should have been.
Turning the page Shadow found an even more disturbing drawing. A group of children sat in a cell-like room. The children had purple and red smeared over them, and the same child from the last picture was crying in this one along with the others. Skimming through the pages a bit he finally stopped on one with a less dark theme. A young man with blonde hair and the same child, who was a little older than the last picture, held a flower and grinned happily as the two stood in a field. This one wasn't smeared what so ever, and Shadow then realized the child was Kira, and the man Zole.

Shadow was going to look some more when the wind lightly pushed the drapes. Shadow went out to the balcony to see the sea of lava that paralleled Hyrule's seas on the horizon, and far below was a patch of wildflowers. Without warning Nova let out a loud cry then stared into the distance as if waiting for a reply. She called again with the same results. "So she left you here alone." Shadow stated in realization then turned to the door. "Well since you're back in her room I'll be leaving." He'd only made it to the door, when Nova startled him by jumping on his shoulder. "What the...?! Will you get off?!" He took her over to the bed and dumped her. "Now stay here and wait for Kira." Within a second she had jumped back to his shoulder. "Off!" he commanded, losing his patients. Nova hopped down and whimpered while looking up to Shadow with big eyes. "That won't work!" he folded his arms.

"Kira, you better get back soon!" Shadow grumbled as he advanced down the hall, Nova riding happily on his shoulder.

Later when it was time for the meeting Shadow had no choice but to attend with Nova. Zole glanced over to see Nova with Shadow, then sighed before beginning. "As you all know, There's been a bit of a rebellion going on. Some of the people think they have a chance to stop us." he chuckled at the thought, "But we know they're nothing but a nuisance to us, right?"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered.

"Well, we're wrong." Zole continued as the other voices died down, "We mustn't ignore this threat, however minor. Shadow recently had a few monsters check them out, but they never made it back. Alana," he turned to the woman from earlier, "I want you to go and infiltrate their group and gather any information that could be of use to us."

"Yes, Sir." she nodded.

"Good. Now that that's settled, we can move on." Zole replied then continued on about other things and giving orders.

After the meeting was over and everyone else had left, Shadow stayed to ask Zole a question. "Sir, have you seen Kira?"

"No, why?" He replied.

"Because I need to make her take her dragon back." he held the little dragon out, "It's been bugging me since I got back."

Zole took a moment to think. "...She may have left to search again..." he said as he stared off into nothing. Before Shadow could ask what he meant, Zole continued. "She'll be back in a few days."

"Great. That means I'm stuck with you." Shadow rolled his eyes while looking at Nova. Nova only stared back, her little tongue sticking out as she tilted her head.

Seeing as how he was now stuck with the little dragon, Shadow gave up all thoughts of sleep, and instead went to check on a group of Hinox he'd left to terrorize a village at the foothills of a mountain, just on the outskirts of Hyrule. Once he got to the mountain he'd left them, he saw that half of them were gone, and the few still left were lounged about, some munching on rocks, and some even napping. Disgusted by the sight Shadow blasted them with a ball of dark energy. "What is the meaning of this?!" He yelled, "I told you to cause chaos for that village down there, so why does it still look peaceful?!" he pointed to the quiet village below. The Hinoxes all started talking at the same time, scrambling to think of what to say.

"Uhn, we did! we go but people no there! It empty!" One finally explained, shakily.

"What? Empty?" Shadow looked again. "Stay here until I get back." he ordered before warping somewhere. As soon as he was gone the Hinoxes went right back to what they were doing.

Down at the foothills, Shadow could see what they meant. The village was deathly quiet, the only sound coming from a few shutters as the wind rattled them around. Shadow looked around, trying to see if he could find at least some signs of life. But there was nothing. Nova had jumped down to go take a look around as Shadow came to a stop. "I was sure there were people here before." he mumbled to himself as Nova climbed into a window of one of the houses. Nova looked around the empty house and spotted a children's ball, which she excitedly jumped on top of and began rolling around, making little clicking sounds of approval. as she played around with the ball it rolled away into a dark corner. Nova followed it but soon stepped in something wet and sticky. Ignoring the liquid Nova went right for the ball. But just as she was going to pounce it, something shot up from the floorboards letting out an ungodly ear shattering shriek. Nova froze in place, petrified. The thing stepped closer into a light shining in from a hole in the roof to reveal a decayed face with a body covered in moldy wrappings that even covered its weapon. It was a ReDead Knight. It lifted its sword slowly and brought it crashing down, missing the tiny dragon by mere inches. Nova finally snapped out of it and ran away, jumping back out the window. She tried going back to Shadow, but he was nowhere to be seen. Just then the ReDead smashed through the wall, causing the whole house to crumble. THe undead creature advanced towards Nova, who shot a blue flame at it. Ice covered the ReDead for a few moments before it broke free and continued after her. Nova ran off again down a path through the village as fast as her little legs could take her, her heart pounding as she went. Nova soon came to a dead tree that's root was sticking up enough for Nova to hide in the ditch under the tree.

Meanwhile, Shadow had found what remained of one of the Hinoxes. Its face and part of its torso had been eated off, and its eyes pulled out of their sockets, one of which had a bite out of it. Shadow noticed the trail of dried blood that came from the Hinox. He followed it to the other side of the village thinking he'd get an answer to what had happened to the Hinox. The trail led to a well that, when he peered inside, was filled with a dark red, almost black liquid. An overwhelming metallic scent wafted from the well, causing Shadow to become slightly nauseated. Shadow looked up from the well to see if the blood led anywhere else when out of no where a boney hand reached out and just brushed his hand as Shadow had already warped a good distance away. He stared at the well for a moment, wondering if he'd just imagined the skeletal fingers. Before he was able to verify his thoughts a familiar cry came from somewhere else in the small village, followed by an ear piercing shriek and something heavy falling, causing the ground to shake. Immediately he rushed to see what had happened.

When he arrived he saw what had caused the ground to shake. It was a large dead tree that had been smashed into and up-rooted. Next to the pitiful tree was a group of ReDeads, all fighting over something small as the tallest ReDead lifted it above its head. The ReDead propped its neck back in an awkward position before dislocation its jaw to make its mouth wide enough for the thing it held to go down easily. One of the ReDeads moved so Shadow could see what the other was about to eat and saw Nova, who seemed to have passed out.

Shadow quickly cut the ReDead with his sword and snatched Nova from it. One of the others then shrieked before grabbing onto Shadow, sinking its razor-like teeth into his shoulder. Shadow sucked in a sharp breath before facing his hand towards the decaying monster and sending a blast of dark energy into its face causing it to be blown off. The thing let go, and Shadow wasted no time in slashing it. After a few more blows the ReDead fell to the ground and the others seemed to all but forget Shadow as they went to kneel by the fallen ReDead. Shadow took the chance to get out of there before they could resume their attack. Seeing no reason to go back to the Hinoxes on the mountain, he warped back to the Fortress.

As soon as he got back Nova had woken up as Shadow went to clean his cuts. Afterwards he was walking down a long hall when a man in a pale colored cloak that stopped him. "Shadow Link." He called , looking up from his hood which covered most of his face and dirty blonde hair. "Zole is looking for you."

"Fine." Shadow replied before continuing on his way.

As soon as he reached the doors to the room Zole was in he walked in. "You wished to see me?" Shadow asked. Zole was about to speak when his eyes widened at the cuts on the small dragon that he carried.

"What happened?" Zole asked instead.

"Huh? Oh, she got attacked by ReDeads. She's fine, I think. So what'd you want me for again?"

Zole thought about asking what he'd meant, but decided to let it go. "I was going to ask if you've seen Kira yet, but I suppose not since Nova's still with you." He sighed.

"Where exactly did she go all day anyway? And why didn't she take her dragon with her?"

Zole thought for a moment of how to answer. "Kira... tends to run off after having nightmares. She's done it since I found her. Although I know she'll be back, I can't help but to worry."

"How can someone like her get nightmares? I mean, she's always so... Cheerful." Shadow tilted his head the side.

"Whatever you do, do not mention it to her!" Zole warned quickly, making Shadow flinch at the urgency in his voice. "...You may leave now."

Shadow said nothing as he left, feeling confused. "Whatever. Like I care." he shrugged as he made his way down the hall. He passed a few Lizfos and a member of the group of thieves, all of which he ignored. Shadow was on his way to his room so he could finally get some well needed sleep, regardless if he had to bring the tiny dragon or not.

A couple of days went by and Kira was still gone. Everyone seemed more relaxed since they didn't have to worry about Kira and her quick temper, and Shadow was even able to get things done. At times he wondered when, and if, Kira would return, or where it was she even went, but didn't really care enough to ask anyone.

Pretty soon he was sent to spy on the Links, to find out their location. It didn't take long for him to find them, as he simply listened and followed the sound of bickering.
He found them resting near a river, just outside some woods. "Shut it, Red!" he heard Blue yell as he watched from atop a tree. Nova, who had followed him, hopped down from his shoulder and into his lap and purred.

"Get off!" Shadow whispered so the heroes wouldn't hear as he pushed the little dragon off of him, almost causing her to fall out of the tree. Giving a small whimper, Nova climbed to a branch a little higher up and curled up to take a nap there instead.

"What? It's true! I could even be the best man!" Red clasped his hands together, a dreamy look on his face. Blue suddenly slammed his hammer down onto the Red Link's head, causing him to cry.

"Knock it off, Blue." Green, who was soaking his feet in the water, warned.

"Then tell Red to shut his trap!" Blue snapped back.

"Why? He's only trying to help you prepare for when you marry Princess Ruto." Vio smirked.

"I am not marrying her!" Blue screamed at the top of his lungs. A few seconds went by before anyone spoke again.

"So anyway, I wonder where the wedding should be?" Red questioned. Blue slapped his forehead and stomped off. A few minutes of listening to them argue later, Shadow had enough, and decided to warp back to the fortress.

Later as it got dark, Blue had fallen asleep under the tree Shadow was in earlier, Vio was reading, and Red and Green were talking. Suddenly a small greyish blur fell from the treetops and hit Blue in the head, waking him up. He stared at the small dragon in his lap for a second before she blew fire at him. Blue yelled, scaring the poor thing. Red, seeing the dragon called to it.

"Awe, come here." he smiled and kneeled down. Nova quickly jumped to him.

"The hell is that thing?!" Blue jumped to his feet.

"It looks like a baby dragon." Vio said as he walked over to where Red was cuddling it.

"Can I keep him? Huh?" Red pleaded.

"No, 'cause I'm gonna kill it!" Blue said, unsheathing his sword.

"Wait a minute, doesn't it look familiar?" Green asked.

"Yeah, didn't Kira have a baby dragon just like this one?" Red asked.

"Then that means we're not alone." Blue stated as he got into a defensive stance, expecting to be ambushed.

A couple minutes went by and nothing happened. "I don't think its the same one. Knowing Kira, she would have already attacked us by now. That, and judging by the way she seems to treat her dragon, I don't think she'd let it just wonder around Hyrule." Vio stated.

"You're right." Green agreed.

"So can I keep him? Please?" Red begged.

"Red, what happened last week when you decided to keep a pet grasshopper?" Blue asked.

"Um..." Red trailed off.

"Exactly." Blue folded his arms. Red then stared at Green, giving him puppy dog eyes.

"Green?"

Green sighed, giving in. "Alright. But you have to take care of it."

Red gasped, "Really? Oh, thank you, Green!" he exclaimed and hugged Nova. "I promise I'll take the very best care of Gary!"

The other three blinked. "Gary?" Green repeated.

"Uh-huh. That's his name!" Red smiled.

A few days later Kira had returned. Shadow, of course, was trying to avoid her at all costs. He knew she'd try to kill him as soon as she found out about Nova. Not that he thought she could actually do it, let alone even harm him much. He just didn't feel like having her flip out on him.

Shadow was currently on his way to Zole's throne room, when he noticed the door slightly ajar. He peered inside to see a cloaked figure standing in front of Zole. "Where's Nova? I can't find her." Shadow recognized the voice as Kira's, and was about to leave when Zole brought attention to him.

"Last time I saw, she was with Shadow Link." he motioned to Shadow, and Kira turned to face him. Her hood fell back to reveal that she had dark circles under her eyes, looking as though she hadn't slept the entire time she was gone.

She stared at him expectantly. "Where's Nova?" she tilted her head.

"How the hell should I know? It's not my responsibility to watch your pet." He spat before walking out of the room.