A.N.: Thank you for all the reviews, and a big apology for not updating this story in a long time. School have been a nuisance and I haven't had any time to write. But now things will change! I just got my own laptop so now I'll have enough time to continue this fic so yeah, party hard woohoo.
This chapter isn't really long, and doesn't include very much happening in it. It's more of a catch-up chapter, so I'll get into the mood of writing again. Hope you enjoy! Also, you can expect the next update maybe on the upcoming weekend, or then next week!

As you know, italics are thinking/animal's or spirit's talk.

I own only my OCs and ideas, everything else belongs to Nintendo.

Chapter 11

Everything was dark. Her eyes were open, but she saw only blackness around her.

Am I dead?

A wave of panic flushed through her body as the thought hit her. But no, she couldn't be dead. She could feel every part of her body, sore and trembling. She could feel her wounds as she inhaled, but it felt like something was tightly tied around her chest and sides... And also head. That must be it, a bandage over her eyes so she couldn't see. The next thing she realized, was that someone must've been here to care for her wounds and wrap the bandages. But who? She could not sense anybody near, not human nor monster. What she could sense was that she wasn't in the same place she had been when that... black monster attacked her. Her whole body shivered at the thought, and she could only wish she wasn't to meet any of those in the future.

Only now she seemed to start paying attention to her surroundings, lifting her head carefully and turning her ears around rapidly. Even the littlest of movements were painful to do, and her sides felt to be burning every time she tried to inhale longer than a few seconds. The only things she could make out of the place she was, were that it was definitely in the middle of a forest, pretty old probably, and that very close to her was a pool of water. What she also sensed, was a weird charge of energy, and for a split second she feared she was still in that dark world, but the pressure wasn't the same. It was definitely the world of light she was in, but where there, she couldn't say.

The atmosphere gave her an uneasy, restless feeling, like she should have been hurrying to somewhere instead of lying there, but it also made her feel strange tiredness, like she would be on the edge of sinking into hypnosis. And before she recognized it herself, her head had hit the cold, hard ground below and she had fallen into peaceful sleep.

"I gave him one job! One job!" a female voice shrieked, the dangerously dark tone of it echoing from the stone walls. Pitch black, furious eyes glared at the old scroll-map in front of her, pale hands tightening into fists and slamming the table. A frustrated growl came out of her throat.

"I should have known this..." the woman gnarled under her breath, "I should have known he wouldn't be capable of doing even that..."

There was a moment of silence, filled only with the woman's heavy breathing. A lightning flashed outside, filling the room with cold, white light for just a second. Right after that, a loud, dull rumbling of the thunder shook the ground. It was right above. The woman narrowed her eyes and straightened herself from leaning on the edge of the table, seemingly looking for something that should have been in the room. She frowned lightly.

"Don!" she cried out after was sure the thing wasn't in her presence. It was quiet for a moment, but then a series of hurrying steps echoed from the stairwell. Soon after, the heavy oak-door was opened wide and in came a slim, very human-like creature, with large eyes, bony body and a long tail on which end was a tuft of hair. On its head was a worn, grey and long hat, and it carried a long wooden pole with a large scythe on the other end of it.

The creature, apparently named Don, bowed down low in front of his mistress. "Ma'am, you called?"

"I did. Have you seen my sword around?" she asked sounding almost bored, but still her voice didn't lose the cold, pressuring tone.

Don seemed to be surprised about the question – or then the way she spoke. Either way, he responded with a doubtful shaking of his head, quickly glancing around the room just to be sure.

"No, ma'am. I haven't seen your sword."

The woman frowned deeper this time. As Don gasped as to say something, her gaze flew back at the pale, dirty-green-colored goblin who was still standing at the door. Even if the goblin couldn't see her face nor eyes, he could feel her stare demanding him to speak. Hesitantly, he opened his mouth again, revealing a row of yellow, sharp teeth.

"Speak up!" her voice commanded, and Don had little but to speak again.

"I think... I think I saw the sword down in the halls, Your Highness."

"Halls?"

Her voice has increased again. I hope things won't end up the same way as the last time... A cold shiver ran down Don's spine as he remembered the last time someone had taken her sword. It had been such a carnage back then...

"Don't tell me you mean the lower class' halls." she snarled, but she knew the answer already before the goblin in front even opened his mouth.

"Those goddess forsaken little brats, I am ripping those dirty green skins of theirs off them at this instant..." Her tone dropped low, and made Don to take a shaking step out of the way as she swept past him. Just before getting out of sight, she turned around and glared at him.

"You stay here and keep an eye on the map until I come back. And remember to shut that damn door, I would not want anything getting stolen again." She said the last sentence with a sarcastic tone, and the goblin gulped loudly, but replied with a nod. Whenever the mistress went as far as talking with sarcasm, it was like holding a time bomb in your arms. Could explode at any second, and it would not be pretty if it did.

The sturdy stone castle was built ages ago by the clan that once owned those rocky hills, but now in it roamed hundreds of creatures that were driven away from their homelands by the four light spirits. Most of them were monsters, hybrids or other strange creatures not found in the surrounding lands of Hyrule, but there were also human amongst them. If you could call them that...

The upper class included most of the human-like ones, like goblins and imps, but the main reason they were called by the name 'upper' was because all of them were able to speak and understand Hylian, and many others languages spoken in Hyrule. As the woman, still cloaked, hurried through the large halls of the upper class, everyone greeted her with a low bow and then hurried out of the way. She then continued her way down another flight of stairs and into the middle class' territory.

The many halls of the middle class were populated mostly by lizards and other reptiles, most of them wearing armours and carrying weapons. They were very clever, but not enough to speak any Hyrulian language, though they still understood Hylian. The reaction to their mistress was that of a fear-ridden respect, and it didn't differ that much from the upper class' one.

But as she entered the lower class' dark and crammed hallways, it was like stepping into a slaughterhouse. On the dirty walkways lay tens of bodies, bruised and some even lifeless. Ever since King Bulblin had appeared into this castle, the bulblins of the lower class had been rioting and protesting, even attacking and killing each other in order to get some freedom, but little did she care. Although those 'little brats', as she had said, exasperated her too much sometimes, even just her presence was enough to calm them down. And that was all because of the fright she caused in them, of course.

As she determinedly made her way along the many hallways of the lower class, a slight doubt crept into her mind. She had been walking for a good half an hour, but has yet to see a bulblin in full powers of life. Her brows frowned almost automatically as her hand went down to her hip to clutch something that wasn't there. Damn those little brats... Took my sword and are planning on something right now... I really do not want to end up using magic and wiping the whole lower class into the netherworld.

Bulblins would be useful in the future for sure, and she wouldn't be wiping the entire race out just because of one sword... Unless there would be no other choice.

Something had awakened the white-furred wolf, but she herself was too dizzy to even have interest in what it could have been. Her head hurt like hell, and the same was with her sides and legs. Actually, her whole body hurt more than earlier. She couldn't even lift her head without falling instantly back down, she felt so helpless and annoyed at the same time. If a monster was to come there now, that would be it. She couldn't even fight back.

She didn't hear the light footsteps coming towards until they were right next to her, and as she finally noticed someone's presence, she had no energy to even look at the direction. It wouldn't even be necessary to look, she would not be able to see anyway. There was still something oddly calming and familiar about the presence of the stranger, and by the smell it wasn't a monster. Maybe it was the someone who had bandaged her? She could only wish they weren't there to harm her.

"Hey..." a small voice spoke. The wolf's muscles tensed at the sudden sound, but she managed to calm down eventually. There was something very, very familiar in the voice... But she had hit her head, and couldn't remember well.

"I brought you water and something to eat... if you want." he continued, tone being very careful and almost hesitant, as if he – the voice was obviously of a young boy – feared that the canine would attack him. She tried to turn her head, but was forced to settle on whining weakly. A moment of silence. The boy felt to be thinking.

"Oh, right... I think you would like to take a look around, right? L-let me just take this off.."

She felt him reaching towards her head, and slowly untying the bandage. He took it off careful not to poke at any of her wounds, and laid it on the cold stone tiles on the ground.
The light was blinding white for a few seconds before her eyes got used to it, and then could see again. And boy what she saw! It surely was the most beautiful and the most mysterious place she had ever seen with her own, green eyes. Tall, thick oaks growing meters apart from each other, branches interwoven together dancing calmly in the wind. The sun was shining bright, rays of light perking through the trees and reflecting from the glittering surface of a small lake in front of her. Small birds were chirping and jumping around on the ground which was covered with old stone tiles, so old that most of them near the lake were covered in moss, and several tufts of green grass were growing between them. The place was indeed beautiful, but something about the atmosphere made her feel a bit uncomfortable. She felt chased even if she couldn't sense any kind of danger drawing near.
As she slowly and carefully turned her gaze to the right, she saw the boy, and immediately she remembered everything. The boy, whom she had protected from that shield-headed monster, sat there right in front of her eyes, alive and breathing. He had ripped off the sleeves of his shirt and the legs of his pants, and apparently used them as bandages to tie her wounds. She could have smiled if she would've been able to.

"T-thanks for saving my life, wolfy... that monster was scary." he said with a trembling voice. She crawled closer to him, laying her head down just close enough for her nose to touch the boy's hand. He smiled his warm, shy smile at her.

"A-and I think that I kind of saved yours too..."

That got her eyes to flew up and look into his blue ones with a questioning gaze. He totally owes me an explanation.