The next morning, I woke up feeling sore from last night's fight. The sunlight was peeking through my window brightly. I got up and changed out of my nightgown into a short-sleeve blue dress, then walked to the dining room. Impaz was in there cleaning off the table.

"Good afternoon, Sapphire," she said when she saw me.

"Afternoon?" I mumbled tiredly.

"Yes. You slept in late today."

"Oh." I sat down. "Where's Father?"

"He's out in the barn working, as usual. The prince is in the living room reading. He found some of our books appealing, I suppose."

"Really? Hm." I rested my head in my arms on the table.

"Are you hungry?" Impaz asked.

"Not really," I mumbled.

"Still sleepy?"

I nodded.

"Well, you did have a late night yesterday. But you probably shouldn't go back to sleep. It's already late enough. Oh, by the way, Impa left something for you in the living room. She went back to the castle this morning, saying she had some business to take care of."

I yawned, "Did she? Okay." I stood up and walked to the living room. Sure enough, there was a large bag sitting on the floor beside the front door. I opened it and inside was all of my belongings that I had taken to the castle, plus the tunic I was supposed to receive last night. It was a medium shade of purple. With it was a tight and thin long-sleeve white dress with a folded collar. The skirt of it was about as long as the tunic's. I sighed and put them back in the bag.

"Well, it's about time you got up," I heard Prince Liam say.

I shrugged. "Oh, whatever."

"Seriously, it's the middle of the afternoon. Do you normally do this?"

I gave him a look. "Did I do it at the castle?"

"We get woken up back there, in case you have forgotten."

I sighed. "Then no. I don't. I was just really tired, okay?" I picked up the bag and headed to my room.

"By the way," he added, "your hair is sticking up all over the place."

I casted him an irritated look. "Thanks," I muttered sarcastically.

After entering my room, I set the bag on my bed and decided to not bother with my hair by just sticking it up in a ponytail. I then decided I wanted some fresh air, so I pulled on my boots and walked outside. I could feel a slight breeze in the warm air and it felt nice.

As I just walked aimlessly around the village, I saw Rico looking at me from his porch. With all memories of that day from a week ago flooding my mind, I felt my face heat up into a blush. I looked at the ground and started walking a bit faster. Even thought I was probably hurting Rico's feelings by doing that, I honestly did not want to talk to him. It would just be too awkward.

I suddenly thought about Bethany. I thought about how she would be teasing me right now if she knew about what had happened between me and Rico. She'd be having a great time with me right now. I shook my head to rid myself of the thought and decided to go visit her.

I made my way towards the graveyard and to Bethany's grave. A deep sadness filled my heart once I set sight upon it. I tried to not think about her death while I was away at the castle, but because of that, it felt like the thoughts I avoided while I was away just attacked my soul over and over again. I sat on the ground and felt a tear roll down my cheek.

"Bethany..." I whispered, "You've missed a lot in just the one week you've been gone." I whispered everything that had happened to me. My voice slowly became louder and louder.

"You miss her a lot, don't you?" I heard someone say from behind me. I jumped from surprise and turned around to see Rico.

I sighed with relief. "Rico, don't scare me like that!" I said with an unintentional harshness.

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"You sure?"

"Yes." I looked back at Bethany's grave.

"Hey, um...Sapphire?" Rico mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

He hesitated before asking his question. "Have...have you been avoiding me today?"

I looked at the ground. "I...um...well, I did just wake up a few minutes ago."

"You slept until the afternoon?"

"I guess so."

"You guess so?"

"Yep," I murmured and started pulling at the grass.

There was a moment of silence before Rico spoke again. "I...need to talk to you about something." He sat down on the ground beside me.

Part of me knew what he wanted to talk about. The other part of me didn't know or wanted to know. But, I decided to not be distant and muttered, "Sure."

"About...about...um..."

I sighed. "Just say it."

"The...your trip."

I was slightly shocked that he didn't say what I thought he would, but I shrugged it off and asked, "What about it?"

"How was it?"

"It was alright," I muttered, hoping to be able to leave it at that. I didn't want to think about all the events that had happened yesterday.

But, of course, Rico then asked, "Did anything interesting happen?"

I just sat there quietly as the memories unwillingly flew back into my head.

"Sapphire?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I quickly shot at him and pulled at the grass harder.

I saw Rico nod slightly in my peripheral vision. "Okay. Sorry for bringing it up."

"It's fine." I stopped pulling at the grass, but kept staring at the ground. I heard a plucking sound and looked in the direction it came from. Rico had plucked a flower and was starting to pull at the petals. I looked down slightly. "That's not what you wanted to talk about, is it?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Then why didn't you say what you wanted to say the first time?"

He hesitated before answering. "I don't know."

There was a long silence after that. Before it became awkwardly long, I asked a question that had been on my mind since last week.

"Why did you do it?"

Rico dropped the flower that he was picking at and sighed. "In all honesty, I'm not even sure myself. I guess it was a sudden impulse."

"A sudden impulse?" I asked with a hint of disbelief. "Really?"

"...Yeah..." He muttered.

There was a bit more of silence before he spoke again.

"I guess I was just afraid that I would lose you."

I raised an eyebrow and gave him a skeptical look. "Rico, I was just going to the castle."

"I know that, but still…"

"But seriously, why did you do it? I mean..." I started to talk faster. "We're just friends and you were supposed to end up married to Bethany and-"

"Don't bring that up," Rico snapped. "She's gone now, so that doesn't matter."

I furrowed my brows and snapped my head in the direction he was in. "What do you mean, 'that doesn't matter'? She was our friend! You were pretty much engaged to her!"

"But I didn't love her, Sapphire!" He said frustratingly. "I was forced into that."

"It's the thought that counts, though. Even if it was arranged, and even if you didn't 'love' each other," I put love in air quotes, "you didn't need to put a move on me so suddenly. I mean, Bethany died on the exact same day-"

"-Sapphire, just stop...you...you don't need to be stressing out like this." Rico sighed and stood up. "I'm sorry for kissing you." With that, he turned and walked away.

I quickly stood up. "Rico!"

He kept walking and didn't even turn around.

I stared at him as he walked out of the graveyard and felt ashamed at myself for snapping at him. I then sighed and slowly walked out of the graveyard as well. Once I arrived to the main part of the village, I heard extremely loud clanging coming from Father's barn.

*earlier, Link's P.O.V.*

I sat in the loft of the barn, silently enjoying the view of Hyrule Field. But, more importantly, I was thinking about the strange guy that Sapphire told me about last night when she arrived unexpectedly. His name, Ghirahim, didn't sound all that familiar, but by the sound of him, he had to be either mentally insane or just straight up sick.

I sighed, stood up, and decided to go see if Sapphire had woken up yet. This had been the latest she has ever slept in, but I didn't blame her. She was probably exhausted.

I turned around and headed down the loft. Once I set foot on the bottom floor of the barn, I sensed something strange in the air. I looked around, but I didn't see anything strange.

At first, anyway.

I turned back and started heading towards the door when I almost ran into someone. The person was dressed in a black cloak. I couldn't see the face at all.

"Um...may I...help you?" I asked cautiously.

The person removed the hood from his head. They had white hair and pale skin that honestly made me wonder if they were a guy or a girl. Their eyes were a very dark brown.

They chuckled. "Yes, actually, you can. I'm looking for someone...but, I can't seem to find them. Maybe you could help?" He, I assumed they were a he, anyway, had a strange voice. It was a little high for a man and it had a slightly proper accent to it. It was almost disturbing.

"I'm sorry," I started, honestly not wanting to be around him any longer. "I'm actually very busy. Some other time, maybe." I started to walk around him.

"I think you misunderstood me," He said threateningly. A sword appeared in front of my neck. I glanced sideways and saw that he was glaring at me. "You will help me find her."

I suddenly got the sneaking suspicion that this was Ghirahim, the creep that Sapphire told me about last night.

"And you must be mistaken," I said with clenched teeth. "I said I was busy."

He sighed. "You're pressing my patience." He lifted the sword to directly under my chin. I didn't move a muscle to show that I wasn't intimidated.

"Hmm..." He hummed. "Other people would normally start to freak out by now. What's the deal with you? I mean, I could just instantly kill you right here, right now." He pushed the sword into my skin without drawing any blood.

"Still not getting nervous?" He raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me that you're not the average person."

"That's more of an opinion, isn't it?"

"I suppose that's true...well, anyway, I am growing ever so bored. Are you going to help me or not?"

I didn't respond, but rather sent him a glare.

"I didn't think so. Oh, well. I would let you go, but I don't want you telling anyone about my visit. I don't want people coming after me, you see? Well, it's not like killing you will make a difference with all the blood I already have on my hands."

'How sadistic is this guy?' I wondered.

"Anyway, it was nice to meet you." He swung the sword back and quickly brought it forward. I dodged out of the way just in time and ran to the nearest sword I saw. I turned around just in time to block his attack.

"So you know how to fight?" He asked. "Good. Thank you for not making this boring." He gave a creepy smirk and licked his lips. I snubbed my nose in disgust and readied for any attack.

*Sapphire's P.O.V.*

As soon as I heard the clanging, I cautiously walked towards the barn. What in the world is Father doing? I wondered. I was only used to hearing any sort of clanging when I was in there with him and we were having a duel.

Once I got to the door, I peeked inside and saw Father defending himself from that Ghirahim guy. Thinking quickly, but not rationally, I ran to the sword wall, grabbed a sword, and ran to help Father. I did a jump strike between the two to separate them. Ghirahim jumped back and Father just stood there, giving me a wild look.

"Well, it seems like the subject of my search has found me instead," Ghirahim smiled.

I just gave him a glare.

"Hmm...you know, I see quite the resemblance between the two of you," he stated. "Relatives? Or perhaps..." He walked close to us and glanced his eyes back and forth between me and Father. "...Well, what a convenience. Father and daughter, it seems..." He chuckled. "And you both know how to fight." He then took a step back. "I like a challenge. Especially if it involves feisty women like you, my darling Sapphire."

I heard Father let out some sort of growl. "Leave her alone," he shot at Ghirahim.

Ghirahim looked at Father and sighed. "You're the protective type, aren't you? I was just being nice."

"It's not nice if it's sickening," I retorted.

He tilted his head. "You mean you don't like my compliments? How rude." With that, he charged at us. I quickly brought up my sword to block his attack, but suddenly, there was a bright flash. Father and I covered our eyes and Ghirahim jumped back. Once the light dimmed down, I looked around and saw a figure shooing Ghirahim away. He vanished into a bunch of diamonds and the figure turned around to look at us.

Once she turned around, I couldn't help but gasp. She was a fairy with white wings, around my height, had medium length flowing white hair, bright green eyes, had on a blue dress, and I could've sworn she was glowing.

"I apologize for the sudden appearance," she spoke smoothly. "But it was near the time that we met anyway." She smiled. "I am Kildea, the Fairy of the Sages."

"I wasn't aware that the Sages had a fairy," Father stated.

"Well, I am fairly new...I suppose. Ever since Ganondorf has broken out, the Sages have been needing…let's just say help."

I furrowed my eyebrows, hopelessly confused. "So...are you a new fairy or...?"

"Um...more so of a new addition," she said. There was something strange about her. I couldn't figure out what it was, though.

"Well, um...Kildea," Father started, "what are you here for, then?"

"I've been ordered by Rauru to aid Sapphire and Liam on their quest."

"Rauru? So the Sages are alright?"

"Of course. Ganondorf didn't do much damage to them. However, the Sacred Realm is a huge mess and has been in an irregular state for some time now."

"It's good to hear that the Sages are alright, though," I replied.

I then heard Impaz call out for Father. He bid a goodbye to Kildea and left the barn.