Gwilin was highly aware of the two former prisoners watching him as he dabbed at Aryll's forehead with a wet cloth, and the only thing that he could think to say was, "We're not a couple."

"We didn't say anything," the boy replied.

"I was thinking it," admitted the girl, "but I didn't say it. Still, you are close friends, I presume?"

"Hardly. Yesterday was the first day we actually talked." The Bosmer felt Aryll's wrist for a pulse, then continued dabbing. "She's kind of distant, you know? Usually off doing her own thing. We're barely in the same town together, much less the same cave."

"Oh." And, that was all that was said for the next few minutes. Now that they weren't running for their lives, Gwilin had had a chance to see and interact with the newcomers. It made sense that Aryll would say she knew them, as she had claimed before. These people looked just like her, not exactly human, but not exactly elvish. The girl was thoughtful and composed, and Gwilin felt as if he were in the presence of a queen when she spoke. She was beautiful in her own way, but she still seemed so youthful and naïve. Gwilin wondered how old she was. She can't be older than Ary, he thought. The boy, meanwhile, was quiet in a more threatening sort of way. He kept glancing at the party, towards the cave entrance, and back. I will fight anyone who tries to disturb us, his eyes seemed to say. The message was brave, if not impulsive. At any rate, Gwilin was glad to have him on their side – something told him that this stranger was not to be underestimated. I shouldn't underestimate either of them, he decided. Now that he thought about it, the girl was just as dangerous.

"Do you still have your dagger?" she had asked, as she led the way back to their friends. Gwilin had been told to bring both prisoners to safety; but the boy had run off without warning, and the girl was too stubborn to move on without him.

"Yep," Gwilin gasped for breath. He had not anticipated so much running on this trip.

"I need it. If you please?" She held out her hand, and Gwilin just reached for it and gave it to her. It never occurred to him to refuse. For a moment, she held it close to her and murmured something incoherent. Then, she gripped the weapon by the hilt and threw it as hard as she could, javelin-style, towards Alduin. Gwilin could swear that his dull and slightly-rusted dagger actually gleamed for a moment in the sunlight, as if the heavens themselves had blessed this attack. He did not expect anything but for the tiny knife to bounce off of the looming monster. Instead, it had split a scale.

Sometime before Aryll had used her last conscious moments to use a protective ward – Or, shout, I guess, Gwilin thought (Aryll had mentioned shouting practice before, but he'd never actually seen her do it before today) – the girl had retrieved the shard of a scale and pocketed it. Now, she held it in her palms, closely examining its look and texture.

"It's a lot harder than the dragon scales back home," she said to no one in particular. "And unlike Farosh, Dinraal, and Naydra, I can't immediately sense any specific attributes that might make it usable for potions."

"Potions?" Gwilin could not help but ask. "Wait, you have dragons where you're from?"

"Three of them. And they're all quite docile. They act as guardians for the sacred shrines."

"They've never attacked us," the boy contributed. "And, they don't seem to mind if you harvest scales from them. I've done it more than once."

"But yes," continued the girl. "In our land, dragon parts are used to create very powerful tonics. Each of the dragons is attributed to an element – fire, ice, and lightning. Whichever scale you use affects the outcome of your potion."

"You seem surprised about us having dragons," the boy said to Gwilin, "but one showed up today. You mean to tell me they aren't normal around here?"

"The dragons haven't been in this realm for hundreds of years," Gwilin said. "I grew up thinking they were just stories my Pa would tell me before bed. I never thought one would show up after all this time." He now set down the cloth and turned to them. Aryll's pulse was getting stronger, and her feverish temperature had drastically decreased; she would awaken soon. "I don't know about potions," he said to the girl, "but you should hold onto that. Who knows? It could come in handy." She smiled at this and undid one of the thin braids in her hair, carefully unwinding a blue ribbon in the process. Then, she tightly wrapped the ribbon around the shard and tied the rest of it around her neck so that she now wore what looked like some kind of demented amulet. The whole time, her companion watched with admiration and pride.

"I'm sorry I lost your knife in the process," she apologized.

"It was a steel dagger. You can find those anywhere." He had forged his own before leaving Windhelm, but he was not about to tell her that. "So," he said, quickly changing the subject, "I never did get your names."

"I am Zelda, Princess of Hyrule." For such a dignified title, the girl said it so casually. "This is my Champion, Link."

"Champion?" Gwilin asked, eyeing the boy.

"We were recently involved in a long war," Link explained. "Originally, five Champions were selected to protect the Princess and ultimately defeat our enemy, a monster known to our people as Calamity Ganon, or simply the Calamity."

"Why didn't she introduce you as one of her Champions?" Link and Zelda looked at each other.

"He is the only one of the five that survived," Zelda answered softly. "The others met a warrior's demise." They died fighting, Gwilin interpreted. By the Nine: How much death have these two witnessed firsthand? The grim expressions on their face confirmed that the number was higher than Gwilin could ever guess.

"Did the war end?" he asked. "Or did something happen that you both became uninvolved?"

"It ended," Link said. "We defeated our enemy about a month ago. Since then, we've been trying to rebuild our land, piece by piece."

"Link still serves as my bodyguard while we scout for potential knights," Zelda said, clasping Link's hand. "The war may be over, and the Calamity might have been destroyed; but Hyrule is still home to many dangerous creatures – bokoblins, lizalfos, lyonels…" Gwilin had not heard of any of these. "There are also rogue assassins."

"The Yiga," Link explained. "When the Calamity was around, they tried to kill me millions of times. Some even disguised themselves as villagers for an element of surprise. I was paranoid for months."

"But, once it was defeated," Zelda went on, "the clan faded. We aren't sure what happened to most of them; but we do know that some of them have not given up on the ways of chaos."

"These ones roam the wild seeking revenge on the Destroyers of Ganon."

"Which would be you," Gwilin realized. Again, he was baffled. He just couldn't imagine being so young and being forced to carry the burden of an entire land upon his shoulders. It sounded exhausting. But, on the other hand, their experience could be helpful, given the new situation. "How powerful was this Calamity?"

"He threw our world into one hundred years of chaos," Link said. "He's powerful."

"But, if you're asking if we could defeat this dragon ourselves, that would be impossible," said Zelda. "We don't know his weaknesses; and while Hylia blessed that one shot I took, I'm afraid it will take more than a few broken scales to bring him down for good."

"Oh… I see." Gwilin would have felt a lot more disappointed if something Link had just said hadn't grabbed his attention. "Hold on: my lady…"

"Just Zelda," the princess said.

"Zelda, then – you said that the Champions were chosen specifically for you to battle the Calamity."

"I did."

"But… Link said he was around for a century."

"Yep," Link said.

"If you don't mind my asking," Gwilin gulped, "how old are you?" He had no idea what he was expecting, but the laughter wasn't it. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Zelda said. "Nothing. We're just a couple of youth…"

"Going on one hundred and eighteen," Link mumbled. The Bosmer blinked and rubbed at his ears.

"I'm sorry… what?"

"It's a long story."

"Ngh…" came a soft groan. "Stop fus-ing me into the cliffside. I don't like that." Gwilin turned to find Aryll slowly coming to. It appeared to take a lot of effort to finally roll her eyes to look at him; but when she finally accomplished this, she closed them again. "Are we dead?"

"Not yet," he said.

"Huh. Surprising." She rolled onto her side. "Our ambition must have humored him. Can't think of any other reason why we wouldn't be barbequed by now…" As soon as her eyes fell on Link, she glared. "You."

"Me?" It was as if that one word had given her a whole new burst of energy. Gwilin wasn't quick enough to stop her from lunging forward, grabbing Link by the collar, and shoving him against the cave wall.

"Ary, what are you doing?!" Gwilin shouted, but she completely ignored him.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Ow," grunted Link. "Okay – wasn't expecting this."

"I thought you told the guardsmen you knew them," said Gwilin.

"I know who they look like," Aryll said, "but I want to know why. Who are you really? Priests of Vaermina? Why are you manipulating my dreams?"

"Priests of who now?" Link said.

"Why do you look like him? Why do you look like my brother if he hadn't aged a day? And you…" She whirled towards Zelda. "Why do you look like the girl who watched him die? He always dies in my dream, and you're always with him."

"Ary…" Gwilin said. "Stop."

"No. No. You want to know what I dreamt about the other night? What left me in tears?" she asked him. "You want to know? Really? Well, prepare to have your wish fulfilled." She glared at Link. "I see myself as a child wondering where he is, why my home is being destroyed when he promised it wouldn't. I see myself wandering alone and scared, hearing nothing but ruin and death. And somehow – somehow, even though we've been separated – I see him die, completely exhausted, no strength left… and I never have the chance to tell him goodbye. So, you are going to tell me," she said, tightening her grip, "why you have disguised yourself as my nightmares; and if you don't, Gwilin will send you straight to whatever Daedric plane you expect to eventually arrive at."

"Why me?" the Bosmer demanded.

"Because I'm a pacifist," she said, and Gwilin decided now would not be the best time to point out the irony of that argument.

"And, you're assuming I'm not? Ary, they're on our side. They saved our lives."

"For some ulterior purpose, I'm sure," she said.

"You were willing to die for them."

"It was a bluff. I assumed if the Imperials saw how important it was that they live, they would let us all live. Then, I could question them, like I'm doing now."

"This isn't questioning: this is an interrogation. And, you're scaring them."

"Ary…" Link mumbled.

"WHAT?!" she screamed at him. "YOU PICKED ME FOR A REASON. TELL ME WHY!"

"That's short for Aryll, isn't it?" was all he said. She did not release him, but her grip faltered.

"You heard Gwilin call me that," she said.

"You were eight when I left home," he said, "assuming… assuming it's actually you."

"That nightmare sounded like the destruction of Hyrule," Zelda said. "Impa said that she was never found."

"Now we have an idea why."

"But, even if she had survived, shouldn't she be…?"

"Maybe time is different here," Link said.

"You expect me to believe you're him?" Aryll gave a rueful chuckle. "That all of that actually happened?"

"You grew up in Castle Town," he said. "Your favorite spot was the clocktower. You would go stargazing all the time."

"You had your own telescope," contributed Zelda. "Before Link left to protect me, you gave it to him. He would look through it every night."

"Stop lying..." Aryll growled. "If you're really him, tell me something that only he and I know, something that wasn't in my nightmares."

"Well, that's hardly fair," Gwilin said. "I mean, if you only know him from a dream, and he tells you stuff that wasn't in the dream, then how will you know if anything he says is right?"

"I thought you were on our side," said Zelda.

"I'm just being reasonable here."

"I'll know, okay? I'll just know," Aryll said and redirected her gaze at Link. "You're up."

"You always hated it when I used the cuckoos to fly," Link said. "You said it was inhumane and unnatural, and that you hoped one of them would leave a nice-sized poo on my head." If Aryll hadn't been holding someone in a death grip right now, Gwilin might have laughed at this. As it was, the girl's face had grown blank. "You refused to wear dresses, because you wanted to be a knight like me and Father. There was a festival the three of us went to in the town square one time, and you asked almost every guardsman to dance with you, even though they were older by at least twenty years. Uh, what else? You wet the bed until you were four…"

"Link…" Zelda said.

"You always asked me to check under your bed for a lizalfos."

"I think she gets it."

"And, you tried to secretly keep a wild boar as a pet. I'm not even sure how you got it in the house, but it wasn't a secret for long." All that could be heard was the crackling of the campfire. For a full minute, no one moved.

Finally, Aryll released her grip on Link and rose. Without another word, she stalked out of the cave and into the woods. Zelda exchanged glances with her Champion.

"It's really her, then?"

"I'm not sure how it's possible, but yeah." He brushed himself off and exhaled. "It's her. She's… older than me. I mean, not actually, but technically…"

"Gwilin?" Aryll called. "A word. Please." Great idea, he thought. Maybe then I can ask what in Oblivion just happened.

"I still have no idea what's going on," he apologized to them, "but I'll go talk to her anyways." He rose from his spot and left Link and Zelda to recover from whatever chaos had just ensued.

Aryll was leaning against a tree looking like she was about to vomit violently.

"Where's Klimmek?" she asked softly.

"Oh, um…" Gwilin shifted. "We got separated. I was bringing those guys here, and they kept insisting on coming back for you…" He stopped when he saw her face screw up.

"This is a dream, right?" she said. "I'm still asleep. You're still salting the fish in my place. I still have that dumb boot of yours sitting by the fireplace."

"Ary."

"Market Day hasn't come yet. I still haven't talked to Arngeir. I haven't left the house yet. I'm still under a bunch of blankets…"

"I may not know what's happening, but it certainly seems like a lot to you."

"Hit me."

"What?"

"Hit me. Hard. Smack in the face. Do it."

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because the only thing that will do for you is make you hurt!"

"Ah – not if I'm asleep. It should snap me out of it. Come on: hit me."

"Ary…"

"Help me out here!" Aryll screamed. "This is just a bad dream! It has to be! Helgen, Alduin, now this…"

"Do you mind explaining to me what this is, even?" asked Gwilin.

"This! I spent all of my life thinking that wherever I came from, whatever I saw was some kind of trauma-induced hallucination that I could never fully explain. And now…" She shook her head. "Now, I'm finding out it actually happened, that all of those things happened, that they not only happened but they actually make… some semblance of sense… I'm…" Aryll blinked hard and took a shaky breath. "I'm out of cards for this. I don't know what to think."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what all of this is about," Gwilin said. "So far, I've only been able to conclude that that guy," he jabbed a thumb back, "is your brother?"

"I… you know, after everything he said, I want to say yes. But, he shouldn't look exactly the way I remember him, right?"

"Logically, no."

"She shouldn't either."

"So, you do know her."

"Not personally. She surfaced every once in a while, but she was always either in the castle or running off. And, I was eight, you know? I couldn't care less when it came to politics. Sure, I knew we had a princess; but kids always think they have better things to do than think about that kind of stuff. Uck, my head hurts just thinking about this."

"There's something I still don't understand," Gwilin said. "Supposing that is your brother, and it definitely seems like it is, especially since you believe it as well, why aren't you happy that he's here?" At this, she covered her face and sat down on the ground. Her whole frame shook, and Gwilin was surprised to hear her crying. Not knowing what else to do, he sat down next to her and waited for her to respond.

"Wasn't supposed to happen," she sobbed. "He… he said he w-would never let it happen. He said I'd b-be safe!" And suddenly, her reaction to Helgen's execution earlier this morning made a lot more sense. Gwilin glanced at the cave and readjusted his position. He had a feeling they would be out here for a while.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They had heard everything Aryll had said, and Zelda had no idea what to say to the expression on Link's face. His wonder and amazement had turned into a pale flush of severe guilt.

Zelda moved to sit next to him.

"Did you really tell her that?" she asked softly. Link closed his eyes.

"I thought we could beat him in time," he said. "I thought we would be prepared enough to defeat him before he hurt anyone. I didn't realize… I shouldn't have promised… I just thought…"

"I suppose we all did," she said, thinking back to Daruk, Mipha, Revali, and Urbosa.

"I told myself that I would see her again. I know," he looked at her, "in my oaths, I promised to fight for the kingdom; but really…"

"You fought for her."

"And, she was counting on that. I let her down. I… I think I destroyed her. I was trying to assure her, but all I seemed to do was break her."

"No," Zelda said. The Champion risked a glance at her.

"No?"

"Did you see how she reacted today when we first met? She might have been scared and confused, but she took on a dragon. And despite the fact that she thought we might be enemies, she was willing to save our lives."

"Because she thought we might be trying to manipulate her, and she wanted to know why."

"Either way, she did so with amazing resolve and determination. We might have shaken her by showing up here. But, we haven't broken her. Something tells me it takes a lot to do that."

"Look, the point is she hates me."

"Give her a reason not to, then. You said she used to look up to you, that she used to depend on you. Make it clear to her that you don't plan on losing her ever again."

"But, she's been living here her whole life. And, when we get back to Hyrule…"

"If we get back to Hyrule," Zelda said. "Keep in mind that we haven't found a way yet."

"What if she doesn't want to leave?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," she said. "But, you're still her older brother. Show her that."

"It might be too late. She's grown up."

"It might not be. You're never too old to want your family." She recalled her father's face peering out through the mist in the in-between world. They may not have always gotten along, but he was always there to hold her to the highest possible standards. I am who I am because of him, she thought. Perhaps, Aryll's the same way with Link. If I can get her to see that, I might be able to help.

"I can't believe she's alive," he said. "After all this time, after all of these years. I barely recognized her." Zelda put an arm around his shoulders and sat with him while he tried to work himself out of a daze. "My baby sister's okay." They could still hear her sobbing. "Well… sort of. This is still a disaster, isn't it?"

"She'll get used to this. We all will."

The crying lasted for hours. By the time it ended, the outside world had grown dark. Link volunteered to take the first watch while Zelda rested. As she closed her eyes, she could see Link sitting by the cave entrance, grasping his shield, his gaze locked on the silhouettes outside. He got to see her again, she thought. Incredible.

Even as she said a silent prayer of thanks though, something told her that this experience was nowhere close to being over.