Hey everyone. So I'm definitely back and working to get this fanfict back on the road. I felt like I've lost some of what made this so exciting to work on, so I'm working to get back into it. I plead patience as I dust off my credentials and work to get back into it. This features a lot of talking, but next chapter will pick up the story and have a lot more action in it.

Civilization


I barely remembered the trip back to Skyloft. This was becoming ever more common, trip to the Surface, and return to Skyloft emotionally and physically worn out. What I wouldn't give for Hylia to imbue me with some kind of stamina energy. When I finally made it to Mallara's house, she was apalled.

"Oh dear, the Goddess mission really does seem to be taking it's toll," she said, helping me to my bed. "Rest here dear, until I can get some soup."

When Mallara had left, Karane sat down on her bed. It was three or four hours until sundown, so we had plenty of time to do anything we needed too.

"Here's some of my famous Loftwing soup," Mallara said, coming back from the kitchen.

I was excited; Mallara's soup was the best. I drained it in one gulp...and my eyes involuntarily rolled into their sockets. I was out before I hit the pillow.


Karane shook me awake some hours later after darkness had fallen.

"What happened?"

"She spiked it with some of her homemade medicine," Karane said. "Don't give me that look. I asked her not too. Remember, it's Mallara. Anyways, we have an invitation."

"From whom?"

"Pippit, he wants to meet us at the Lumpty Pumpkin like right now," she said.

"What are we waiting for?"


"So, how'd you get up here again?" I asked, not believing what I was seeing.

Groose and Pippit were sharing a drink together in the Lumpty Pumpkin. Together...the two boys had always been at each others throats for as long as I could remember. Karane and I just stared in disbelief at this impossible scene.

"What's this?" I asked Karane in true atonishment. "Are the boys not fighting?"

"No can't be, they must be drunk or something," she said, loud enough that they could hear us. The restuarant was empty with just the bartender left.

"Ha, ha," Groose said. "Can we bury the hatchet for just one day? Pippit here is quite the man. Never seen anything like it."

"Him too," Pippit said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine this guy would ever build a machine like that. The Im..."

"...Eagus never stood a chance," Karane cut him off, eying the bartender who was taking far too long to clean a nearby counter.

"Drinks?" Pippit asked.

"Pumpkin juice," Karane and I said together, taking seats across from the boys.

The bartender brought out two drinks of orange pumpkin juice and placed them on the table in front of us.

"So what's next?" Pippit asked.

"Next in what?" I said, confused at the fact everyone was glancing at me.

"The mission?" Groose said. "That was some challenge."

I sighed; a nagging worry resurfacing. I had so much support up to this point that I often wondered when I'd have to do this on my own.

"I don't know," I said, glancing at Karane, who shook her head just an inch from side to side. "Listen boys. I know you want to help, but this job falls to me and me alone."

"Why?" Groose asked.

"Because I'm...what did the Old Woman tell you?"

"Just you had a mission to rescue Link and defeat that beast," Groose admitted.

I glanced at Karane again who nodded. They could be trusted with my secret.

"Look, I'm not going to explain how, but I'm Hylia reincarnated as a human."

Neither one of them said anything.

"What?" Pippit said. "Are you still sane?"

"It's true," Karane whispered. "I've seen it myself. Don't ask us anymore questions please. Things are stranger than it seems."

Both boys nodded. The door opened and Skye entered, along with a girl who I didn't recognize. He spotted us and walked over, drawing confused looks from Groose and Pippit.

"Sorry, this is our friend Skye," I informed them. "He's a Shiekah. He knows everything too."

"I'm Pippit," Pippit said, shaking Skye's hand.

"Groose," Groose said.

"I know who you are," Skye said, not taking his hand.

"It's okay, he's changed, he helped us beat..."

Karane nudged me in the ribs. The nosy bartender was back again.

"Everyone this is Leanne," he said, nodding to the girl lingering behind him. "She's one of us."

"Hi Leanne," Karane and I chorused together.

"Hi," she said shyfully to everyone, pulling up a chair alongside Skye.

"Two pumpkin juices," Skye called to the bartneder, who quickly obliged.

For awhile, Skye and Leanne (rather bashfully and rather forced) introduced themselves to Groose and Pippit. Soon, it became indivilual conversation. Pippit and Skye quickly found a common interest in Loftwing saddles, while Karane and Groose made up for lost time. Which just left me and Leanne.

"So...um...why...?" Leanne muttered, a flush covering her cheeks.

"You're shy," I observed, watching the girl stutter.

"Too much," she said. "I don't know why Nayru..."

"You talked to her?"

"Yes, she just showed up out of the blue one day and pulled me out of the pumpkin farm I was being raised on," Leanne confided. "Before I knew it, I was farming during the day and training with the Shiekah at night."

"It must've been difficult."

"Very," she said, taking a swig of her beverage. "And Skye's..."

She blushed ever more red and looked away.

"You like him?" I observed in a whisper that only the two of us could here.

"It's intoxicating," she said. "I've never felt like that around anyone before."

"Push through it," I told her. "I felt like that around Link for the last year."

"What about now?"

"I don't know..." I muttered, looking away. "I've been so caught up that..."

"I know," Leanne said, taking my hand in hers. "Confusing."

"Zelda," Groose said, drawing our attention.

"Yeah," I said.

"Karane informed us that...you're going to the pond tomorrow," he said cryptically. "Pippit and I are going to 'cook' the food and make sure it's good tomorrow."

"Fine, we'll see you tomorrow sometime."

"Come on," I said, pulling on Karane's arm. "We need to visit my father and let him know how we're doing."


"Zelda, it's been so long," Gaepora said, swinging me around several times before setting me down again. "What's happened to my little girl?"

"Well, she just found out she harbors the soul of Goddess," I informed him.

"While you were napping, that ghost, um Fi I think, visited me and recounted everything that has happened so far. You make me so proud Zelda, struggling under a burden no resident of Skyloft has ever had to bear."

Karane and I sat down in his office.

"So how's the Academy?" Karane asked.

"Abuzz with the upcoming Hylia Festival," Gaepora said. "Don't worry, your two-week.."

"It's been two weeks?"

"Yes Zelda, two weeks since you drew the sword."

"Funny, honoring me," I said jokingly, causing Karane to giggle. "Do you know anything about me being Hylia reincarnated as a human means?"

"Nope, only that the Spirit Maiden, as the ancient texts know you as, has some of her powers."

Karane and I just shrugged at each other.

"So, how does me drawing the blade change that?" I asked. "Link's already in the ancient past, so there's that."

"I don't know," Gaepora conceded. "All I know is what the last ancient tome I read said. The Spirit Maiden will be tested beyond all that she knows, along with her appointed knight."

Karane and I glanced at each other again. What kind of trials did it mean? I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that we were about to find out very soon.

"So tell me about your most recent adventures..."


Later we went back to Mallara's for the night. I quickly changed into my nightgown and joined Karane in the bedroom we now shared. Mallara had reorganized her house to accomodate the additional living space, placing us in the downstairs bedroom. It was like old times when Pippit, Link, Karane and I would gather here for game nights.

"So, what do you think?" I asked Karane as I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. "About all this."

"It's so different," Karane said. "Everything is. It won't ever be the same."

"Hopefully it'll be better though," I said, still feeling a pang of loss for the days where my sole responsibility was making sure my homework was turned in. "Good night Rosalina."

"Good night Hylia."


"Hylia, they've broken through!" Rosalina yelled as her men faltered. She gathered her sword and her personal guard gathered around her, ready to plug the hole.

Beyond them, a massive of demons were charged through the hole in the line of knights. She checked behind her; the civilian evacuation of the towns wasn't complete yet. The designated point, the castle and the surrounding town, the doors were still open with people fleeing the devastation.

Hylia swept in, unleashing a golden aura that blasted hundreds of demons into oblivion. She plugged the gap, allowing more of Rosalina and Link's human soldiers to reform into another wall. Several knights lie dead in front of her, the latest victims of Demise's ongoing assault. She choked back tears, trying to remember the task at hand.

The White Goddess took the Master Sword, recently reformed by Link. Her golden blonde hair flowed around it and she spoke in a tone no one could hear but her two personal knights.

"My people, take to the skies, my country, my beloved people of Hylia..my humans. Live on and bear descendants where the hands of the wicked cannot touch you. Beyond the sea clouds...guard the Triforce...my beloved people..."

Rosalina looked at Hylia...me...and transformed into Karane. Suddenly a cursed blade swiped across her chest as a massive monster broke through the lines of knights. Blood came out and I caught her as she fell. I blasted the monster skyward with a white ball. I put my hand on her stomach, dropping the Master Sword, but Karane pushed it away.

"Hylia, please press on," she said. "Don't worry about me. I'll be with you always. It's too late, the wound is cursed. Your magic won't effect it."

Tears began to leak down my cheeks. I was a Goddess and I couldn't save my people! Much less my personal knights! First Link and now Karane.

"Go, hurry, before it's too late..."

Karane went limp and I screamed.


(3rd Person POV)

Karane tried to seize the riving mass that was Zelda. Drenched in sweat, hair everywhere, Karane had never seen anything like this as Zelda twisted and tossed, sobbing hysterically. Zelda's sobs and screams also awoke Mallara, who rushed into the room pulling a cloak over her blue nightgown.

"What the?" Mallara said, not believing her eyes.

"Help me wake her," Karane said as Zelda let out a pained cry that she was sure could be heard everywhere in the residential quarter.

"Zelda wake up, please," Karane sobbed, shaking the mass.

Zelda awoke suddenly, letting out a gasp of terror. She latched on to Mallara and Karane hugging both so tightly both women soon felt like they were suffocating.

"It's just a dream Zelda," Karane said, helping the terrified girl back to bed.

(Zelda's POV)

"Shh, quiet," Mallara said, the same thing she'd said to me when I was little. She began to hum a lullaby she'd used after my mother had died.

She shifted so that she was laying next to me on the bed.

"Don't worry, I won't leave."

"Neither will I," Karane said, getting on the other side of my bed.

I couldn't get the image of a lifeless Karane out of my mind. Would the Goddess mission end like that? Was it the future? I whimpered into Mallara's bosom as no answer came. Nobody slept a wink that night.