Wow, you guys must hate me for taking a long time last chapter, because we had an all-time low for reviews. Many apologies! Although I can't promise I won't take that long again, I do try to get chapters out as fast as possible.

This interlude is formatted a bit differently than the others, let me know if you like it better than the way it was before and I'll keep doing it this way!

Thanks again for being understanding, and thanks for all the encouragement!

~Alyssa

Then

"That looks like it hurts," she said matter-of-factly, making no move to help me as I dragged myself out of the gates of Death Mountain. Her usually covered golden hair was pulled up into a severe bun that looked completely out of place above her cherubic face. She wore a uniform that looked as though it was supposed to mold to ones body but instead was baggy on her less than womanly form, the sleeves and legs rolled up several times. A blood red eye stared at me from her chest in the darkness.

It was late, and Kakiriko unusually quiet, no one occupying the street save for a stray cuckoo, clucking around happily and pecking at the ground for scraps.

"Just a little." I said with the most sarcastic voice I could muster, flinching as my eyes came in contact with the scorching black-charred skin of my leg, which in turn caused a stabbing pain as I disturbed the flesh. I swore as I fell to the ground, using a word I had learned from one of the Gorons and thinking myself quite impressive.

"Did you get the stone?" she asked, looking a tad disgusted as I rolled up my pant leg past my burnt thigh, taking water from my canteen and pouring onto the festering tissue. The relief was brief, but immediate.

Nodding weakly, I rummaged around in my bag until my hand encountered the cool surface of glass, drawing out a potion and unsteadily uncorking the bottle, throwing it down in a long gulp. It burned going down my throat, but almost immediately the pain in my leg began to ebb away.

"Impa says I have to take you home." She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest in a very un-princess-like fashion. "Can you walk?"

"Can you help me up?"

She reached a bandage-bound hand out to clasp mine, and I hoisted myself from the ground, wincing as I became accustomed to the weight.

"This way."

We walked to the edge of the town, not even looking at each other until I spoke up. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Her mouth twisted unpleasantly. "I…am in training. To defend myself against the darkness. It was Impa's idea." She paused, her eyebrows turning down at the edges. "They say that soon, they shall turn my eyes red. Some sort of enchantment."

I grinned. "Cool."

"One of my companions has red eyes as well. They can change the way they look, see, to whatever they choose, but once I receive my enchantment, I will not be able to turn them back to blue without help like they can."

"Will I get to meet them?" I asked curiously, eager to see the shapeshifting people I had only heard about in bedtime legends by the Deku Tree.

"Perhaps." She said, turning away from me and looking off into the distance. "They also want to cut my hair." She reached up to touch her bun. "I do not agree."

"I think you'd look pretty no matter what hair you have." I murmured under my breath.

"I'm sorry?" She turned to face me, an eyebrow raising.

I felt my ears redden as I looked away. "Nothing." I said quickly. "I was just talking to myself."

"Oh."

We continued on in awkward silence for a bit longer until we reached a dead end, a one way alley, barren aside from a large brown crate stowed away in the corner. She went to it, pulling open the lid, then turning to look at me expectantly, confused at my hesitation.

"Are you coming?" She hoisted a leg over the edge.

"Where?" I asked, terribly confused. "It's a crate. There's nowhere to go!"

Pulling her other leg over, she gripped the edge, shooting me a smile. "That's what you think."

And then she disappeared.

"Princess?!" I cried out, rushing over to the box and looking in its depths. Empty, completely empty. She was gone. Impa would kill me, I let the Princess be kidnapped on my watch, oh, Farore, I was so done for!

But then, a quiet giggle cut through my terrified thoughts.

"Come on." Her disembodied voice said, and my eyes grew to the size of saucers, thinking myself hallucinating. "Come down!"

"…Princess?" I asked again, slow and deliberate as I lifted myself up into the crate, bending at the waist to look inside. "Where are you?"

"Come on!" She urged again. "Inside! Or are you too scared?"

My eyes narrowed. I was not too scared. Her challenge would have to be met.

Reorientating myself so I was going in feet first, I slid into the crate, fully expecting to hit the bottom immediately.

Instead, I fell right through, just as she had.

I landed lightly on my feet despite my wounded leg, as if some force had grabbed me by the scruff of my collar and set me gently down. I laughed once, my head spinning from a combination of the shock and the injuries the potion didn't heal.

She must have noticed I was going off the edge, for she grabbed my hand and started dragging me in a forward direction. "I have to take you to the infirmary." She informed me, knocking on the first door on the left and tapping her foot impatiently. Hanging over the door stood a wooden crest; two very regal looking arrows crossed over a sword.

The door flew open, a smiling boy with sandy hair about the same length as mine and crimson eyes just as she described stood in the threshold. "You're back!" he said happily to her, and then turned to me. "This is the Hero?" he asked skeptically. "I couldn't help but picture someone…bigger. Not such a runt, you know?"

"Hey!" I said indignantly, at the same time that she rolled her eyes and snapped "Shut up, Archer."

The boy, apparently Archer, rolled his eyes in a similar fashion, leaning against the door. "Whatever," he said, but the smile did not leave his face. "Am I allowed to help train him, too? I bet I could put him on his butt faster than I did you."

She flushed, offering him a low glare. "He's too busy saving Hyrule to have time for training. Once he's healed he has to go." She declared loftily, grabbing my by the wrist.

Just then, the door pulled open, and a small blonde girl, no older than two, opened the door, clutching a raggedy doll, her inquisitive blue eyes looking up curiously at me.

Archer turned around, putting his hand on her shoulder, his gaze fond. "Go back inside, Alix." He said gently. "It's bedtime. I'll be inside in a minute, okay?"

She nodded lightly, wrapping her arms around his leg and smiling shyly up at me before turning back around into the room.

"We've got to go, Link." said Zelda impatiently, tugging on my wrist again.

"It was nice meeting you…Link." Archer said, his hand on the door, offering me a light grin. "Good luck saving Hyrule." He paused, staring at me thoughtfully. "I'm sure I'll see you again."

And with that, he turned around and walked inside, closing the door shut behind him.

Zelda dragged me further down the hallway to the infirmary, setting me up at a bed and helping the old nurse tend to my wounds.

I stayed for two days after that night, and could never shake off the feeling that the boy knew something that I didn't, something consequential that he was keeping from both me and Zelda. But I left the caverns on the third night to continue along with my adventure, and I never saw him again. In fact, I completely forgot about him. Even when I met him again, nothing in my head clicked that I had known him, that because I gave up my duties I ruined his life.

And although I didn't realize it at the time, somewhere a baby, a brown haired, green eyed baby, was being born, withering in the cold, her cries ignored and becoming weaker and weaker until finally she went limp, curled up, and died.