Chapter Twelve: Lake Hylia

Nabooru awoke in a strange bed with some weird looking old man standing over her. "ACK!" she screamed as she fell out of the bed.

"Ah, you're awake!" said the old man. "I was so worried about you! You just came floating down the waterfall and right into the lake! I was afraid that you might have drowned! Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!" He took Nabooru's hand and helped her stand up.

"Wait…I don't remember any waterfall. Where am I?" she asked the old man.

"Why, you're in Lake Hylia! Or, more specifically, in the Lakeside Laboratory that resides on the banks of Lake Hylia."

"I've never seen a lake before. What is a lake?"

The old man let out a friendly laugh. "Dear child, let me show you!" and he led her out of the door and out into the bright, outside world.

Nabooru gasped, and a huge smile spread across her face. "Wow! I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life!" she exclaimed. She twirled around and tried to take in as much of the scenery as she could handle. She forgot about all of her worries and just drank in the beauty all around her.

The old man laughed again. "So where are you from? No, I shouldn't ask you that. Judging by your dark complexion, the fact that you've never heard of a lake, and that you floated down that waterfall over there leads me to believe that you're from the desert, am I right?"

Nabooru plopped herself down on the ground, dizzy and exhausted from spinning around. All of her memories from the previous night flooded back into her mind at that moment. She had been running away from the Spirit Temple and wound up at the canyon that was in front of where Gerudo Fortress had stood before it had been demolished by the sands. In relief, she collapsed on the ground. Then she realized that she must have rolled over in her sleep and fallen into the water down below. Then she finally answered the old man. "Yeah…"

"Well, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like until you feel ready to take the journey back to your home."

"No, I think I'll stay here for a while. There's nothing to go back to in the valley."

"Don't you have a mother who's waiting for you?"

"No. Mama's guard said that she went away on vacation or something like that and she's not coming back."

The old man felt his heart almost stop. A great wave of pity rushed over him. He tried to hide the sorrow in his voice. "Well, wouldn't your mother's guard want to know that you're all right?"

"No, she just left me all alone after the sandstorm that destroyed my home. Some guard she was."

The old man was filled with sympathy for the young Gerudo girl. "I'm sure she must have had her reasons. Well, then, you'll have to go back some day. But until then, feel free to stay here as long as you want. If you need anything, I'll be in the lab." Then he got up, a lump in his throat and a tear in his eye, and went back into the lab. "That poor girl," he said to himself.

Nabooru lay on the ground, staring at the sky for a while longer. She had never seen the sky so blue before. And she had never seen so much water in one place. And there was grass. Such a thing was only found at the small oasis out in the desert.

After a while longer, she got up and walked over to an area that had vegetables planted there. There were also two scarecrows, one on the upper level and another on the lower level. She walked to the one on the upper level and poked it. "What in Hyrule is this?" she asked herself.

Then the scarecrow came to life. "Hey, baby! I'm Pierre the Scarecrow! Do you like music? Because I like music! Why don't you sing me a song?"

Nabooru shrugged. "Sure, why not?" And then she started singing the native song of the Gerudo Valley. "The crows will fly, but pass us by… You see, until the day we die… Forsaken as all-knowing eyes… We can not cry…" Nabooru had a very beautiful singing voice.

"That is a nice tune, baby! If you ever want to see me again, just sing that song! I'll be sure to come and help you out!" And then the scarecrow burrowed into the ground.

"That sure was strange…" Nabooru said to herself. "Oh well. I think I've had enough fun for today. I'm going to go back to that old man's lab and see what he does in there all day." And with that, she walked back over to the lab. "At least I can stay here for as long as I like. That might be able to buy me a few years before I have to face those witches again." Little did she know that she would be going back to her home in the desert much sooner that she would have hoped…