CHAPTER THREE

"Wow, a treasure hunt!" Zelda exclaimed to Link after Jamie and the king had left together to organise the soldiers to leave as soon as possible.
"It sounds great," Link agreed.
"What are you talking about," Zelda said. "You always get to go and do things like this. I never get any excitement."
Sometimes Link wasn't sure if he would describe his adventures as exciting. A lot of the time they were downright scary.
"Anyway," Zelda continued, "I say we follow those soldiers."
"WHAT?" Link exclaimed.
"It can't be that hard," Zelda argued, "I mean they just have to follow a map and then see a huge treasure. Maybe we could even get some of it."
"I don't know," Link protested.
"You obviously haven't heard of the Royal Family's treasure before, have you?" Zelda asked. Link shook his head.
"Well, hundreds of years ago, when gold was first discovered in Hyrule, my relatives planned to mine as much of it was possible. They wanted it so that future generations of kings and queens would have something to support them. They also wanted to ensure that Hyrule would be a wealthy and peaceful land. However, thieves from not only other lands but also Hyrule decided that they wanted to get their hands on the gold. Eventually the gold caused more trouble than it was worth, and my great-great-great-great grandfather employed someone to hide it. A single map was drawn, and he always kept it by his side. After his death, it went missing. After a while, most people thought that the gold must only be a myth."
"So why does everybody suddenly want it now?" Link asked.
"Well, I think that someone must have found the missing map," Zelda concluded. "It was said to be an awfully vast amount of treasure. But that's not all. There is a certain treasure hidden with all the gold, a treasure that is said that if it falls into the right hands, then it can be used for extreme good. However, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, well, then the world would face an almost unstoppable force."
"What is it?" Link asked, his mind blown away by the thought of so much treasure.
"It is a golden suit of armour, that is meant to bring invisibility to anyone who is wearing it."
"And you think we should go after this treasure?" Link asked again.
"Of course! We'll follow the soldiers, and if anything bad happens to us, we'll tell them. They probably won't want to abandon this important mission just to take us back home, so they'll have to let us stay!"
"How long do you think this will take?" Link asked, still unsure.
"I'm sure it won't be that long. Daddy's sending his best men!"
"Well, I guess so then," Link consented. It sounded like fun to him, and after what he had already been through, he didn't see how this could cause any harm.
"Excellent!"

* * *

Saria had reached the castle drawbridge. She was astounded because she had never seen anything like it before, but she was also a bit intimidated. The only thing that kept her feeling brave was that she was going to go and see Link soon. She crossed the bridge and entered Hyrule Castle Town.
The market place wasn't very busy due to the bad weather, and as it was getting later in the afternoon, most stalls were either closing or preparing to close for the night. Saria noticed a young girl who was playing with a dog, and decided to talk to her.
"Hi," Saria said to the girl. The girl gave her a strange look and began to giggle. Saria didn't know what to say, but then the girl spoke.
"Your clothes are funny," she said, "They're like that boy who sometimes comes here!"
"Have you seen that boy?" asked Saria.
"No," said the girl. "But he almost always goes to the castle. You should try there."
"How do I get to the castle?"
"Just down that path there," the girl pointed.
"Thank you," replied Saria. The girl just giggled some more. Saria realised that this is what Link often had to put up with her. She was sure that she would get used to it, just as Link had. She turned down the path that the girl had pointed out, and approached the castle.

* * *

Lyla gulped and drew in a deep breath, fearful that it would be her last. But then, as her eyes wandered to the sharp knife being dangled in front of her, she noticed that the man Zol wasn't holding it properly. He looked almost uncomfortable with it. His hand was kind of twisted and disfigured, like it had been broken and never healed properly. Lyla didn't realise that she had hit on the truth. Many years ago Zol had been injured in a rock fall, and his right hand had been crushed. He had only regained about half of the feeling in it. However, Zol was too enraged and just wanted her dead to notice it right then. And although his right hand was injured, he still used it better than his left hand.
Lyla loosened her muscles to pretend that she had given up and accepted her fate. Zol raised his arm higher, and then brought the knife down towards her throat. As it was deadly close, Lyla jerked her head to the side as far as she could, and Zol's knife slammed into the hard wooden floor, missing Lyla by centimeters.
"Aaaagggggghhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed as the pain reverberated up his arm. The yell was so loud that it made Bowan and the other man jump, and they loosened their grips. Lyla jumped up and darted out the door before the men had even realised. She sprinted down the long passageway until she reached a side exit. She slammed the door shut behind her and ran down a steep hill, leaping over the waist-high stone wall. Lyla ran as fast as she possibly could go and didn't even want to look back to see if she was being pursued.
Bowan immediately dashed out the door after the fleeing girl, however Zol stopped him.
"Let her go," he ordered sharply, still in severe pain. "She will not be a problem to our overall plan. We should concentrate and go after the treasure that our good friend over here..." he gestured to Delfire's corpse, "... has provided."
"Yessir," the other men agreed.

* * *

When the Jamie and the king's soldiers had departed half and hour later, Zelda and Link made their way to the front of the castle, planning to follow them. However, they did not expect a surprise visitor.
"Hey," someone called out as they rushed past. They usually would have ignored it in this kind of situation, but Link recognised the voice and turned around.
"Saria?" he asked.
"The one and only," the small Kokiri replied, a huge grin on her face.
"But you came out... you're here... what the?" Link was astounded.
"Yes, I was an idiot before and I didn't want you to feel bad so I decided to surprise you.
"Okay!" Link was happy that Saria had finally made it out of the forest. He always knew that she'd be okay.
Zelda on he other hand didn't like the delay. "Ahem," she said, trying to get Link's attention.
"Oh yeah!" Link exclaimed. "Zelda, this is my best friend Saria. And Saria, this is Zelda, Princess of Hyrule."
The girls shook hands. "It's nice to finally meet you," Saria said.
"Yes, I've heard a lot about you," Zelda replied.
"Likewise," Saria agreed."
"But Link, we'd better hurry before we lose the soldiers. Saria can come, just explain it on the way!"
"Yeah." Zelda and Link began jogging, and Saria followed them, confused.
"What are we doing?" she yelled.
"Hang on," Link yelled. "I'll tell you soon."
They ran further, but there was no sign of the soldiers at all.
"We lost them!" exclaimed Zelda in despair.
"Well they were on horses remember," said Link. "It would have been hard to keep up with them anyway."
Zelda felt annoyed with Saria for holding them up, but she decided to keep it to herself. In silence, the three of them turned around and began to head back to the castle.
"What was that all about?" asked Saria, still confused.
"It doesn't matter any more," replied Zelda, feeling downcast.
"We were going to follow some soldiers, because they were going to find some treasure," said Link.
"Oh," Saria replied. She thought that it sounded like it would have been fun. The three kept walking back towards the castle, taking it slowly because they didn't know what they were going to do anymore.
Saria was still fascinated by the world outside the forest, and she gazed across Hyrule Field in amazement. As she looked across to one of the hills to see the sun begin to set behind the clouds, she noticed a small figure moving. However, she didn't pay any attention because she was enchanted by the way that the setting sun had turned some of the distant clouds a beautiful pinkish-orange colour.
"Wow, would you look at that," she said. Link and Zelda looked up.
"Yeah, what is that?" Link asked.
Saria gave him a weird look. "This is the first full sunset I have ever seen," she said.
"Too bad it's cloudy," Zelda replied, at the same time as Link said, "No, I meant, who is that?"
They all looked as the figure had drawn much closer, and now they could see it was a person. They got closer and closer and soon saw that the person was running, and soon they saw it was a girl. Then, finally, the girl approached them, getting closer and closer. Link, Saria and Zelda all stopped and watched her. The girl ran until she was about five meters away from them, and then she stopped, and collapsed to the ground, turning her head to look in the direction that she had just come from. She didn't say a word; she probably couldn't because she was desperately panting to catch her breath.
"Are you all right?" Saria asked, her voice full of concern. The girl looked up at her but was still breathing heavily. She nodded. Although she was sitting on the ground, she seemed to be quite tall. She had long brown hair that was now messy and windblown from running, and her blue-green eyes showed signs of exhaustion. However, the thing that the three children noticed the most was her clothes. Actually, they were more like rags than clothes. Nothing more than just a thin, tattered pair of thin pants, and an equally thin shirt. In one hand she tightly clasped a rolled up piece of paper, which caught Link's attention, but before he could get a good look at it, she climbed to her feet.
"Are you okay?" Saria repeated.
"Yes, I'm fine now," the girl replied, looking at the three children who were staring at her as if she had fallen from out of the sky.
Saria didn't believe her. "You look tired, and those clothes look awful," she said.
The girl gazed down at her rags.
"Yeah, you're right. Do you know where I can get some new ones?" she asked.
"Why don't you come back to the town with us?" Zelda suggested.
"Okay," the girl agreed.
"Great. By the way, I'm Saria, this is Link, and this is Zelda," Saria introduced, pointing at Link and Zelda respectively.
"I'm Lyla," the girl said.

* * *
Several hours later, Link, Saria, Zelda and Lyla sat inside Hyrule Castle eating dinner. Saria could not believe that one building could be so large. She thought of her own home back in the Kokiri Forest and compared it to Zelda's home, the castle. She could not get over the decorations and the luxurious furnishings. However, although she did not say anything, she did not really like the food. She was used to simple foods, and spicy pasta that they were eating was a bit too exotic for her tastes, because she had never eaten it before. Link, on the other hand, wasn't able to find any food that he hated eating.
Zelda had managed to find some spare clothes for Lyla. The two girls spent about half an hour trying them on, until Lyla had settled on a pair of gray pants and a blue sleeveless top. She also had a blue woolen jumper, but she wasn't cold enough to put it on yet. She was also wearing a new pair of leather boots. Although she had tried on skirts and the simple flat shoes that most Hylian women wore, she simply did not feel comfortable in them. She had never worn a skirt in her life, and she was more at home in pants. Lyla was glad to be able to say goodbye to her flimsy old clothes, and was forever grateful to Zelda, who had said that she owed her nothing. Lyla could not believe that the princess of Hyrule could be so... nice to someone unimportant like her.
"Hey, what's that?" Link asked, pointing to the folded piece of paper that Lyla had placed on the table next to herself.
"Oh, it's just something I found," Lyla replied.
"Can I look at it?"
"Sure."
Link grabbed the paper, opened it, and when he looked at the contents, his eyes opened wide.
"What is it?" asked Zelda, leaning over. Saria got up and stood behind Link, and all three of them studied the paper.
"I think it's a map," Link said.
"Yeah, it's a map," Lyla replied, remembering what she had heard Delfire and his men talking about. "It's supposed to lead to some treasure or something."
"Do you know anything else about it?" asked Zelda.
"Well, it was stolen from some soldiers by my ex boss. He gave it to some other men, but then they killed him, because they wanted the treasure for themselves. I overheard them, and when they realised that, they tried to kill me. I managed to grab this, which is actually only a copy of the real thing, and then I escaped. I didn't stop until I met you guys in the field."
Link and Saria were speechless.
"Do you know who the other men were?" asked Zelda.
"Not really, I think one was called Zol and one was called Bowan, but there were a couple more."
"I see." Zelda looked at everyone. "I think that this is the same treasure that my father is after. I can tell by that symbol there..." Zelda pointed to the crest of the Royal Family of Hyrule. "Anyway, dad's soldiers only had an incomplete copy, but look at this one! I reckon we should go after it. We might beat the soldiers to it!!!"
"Whoa Zelda, I think you're getting a bit too excited. The soldiers left hours ago. And besides, if they do find the treasure, it's basically yours anyway. Why are you so desperate to find it?" Link asked.
"You wouldn't understand," Zelda said in a sulky voice. "You always get to go off on your little adventures, while I'm stuck here, being a princess and having to act all posh and proper all day. You have no idea how much I'd give to be like you."
"I do," Saria added. "I feel the same, whenever you left the forest, I'd wonder what you were doing, and if you were okay." She didn't add the fact that she really wanted Link to agree that they should go and hunt for the treasure.
"But won't your father..."
"Link, he'll get over it. It won't take long if we follow the map."
"Well, if you're sure..."
"I AM sure."
"Well, okay then."
"Yes!" yelled Saria. Everyone turned to look at her. She placed her hand over her mouth. "Oops," she said.
Zelda had a serious look on her face now. "Lyla, since it's your map, I would say that it's only fair if you came along. That is, unless you don't want to, or if anyone disagrees."
"Well it's better than cleaning ponds," Lyla said. No one disagreed with Zelda's statement.
"Okay," she said. "I'll go and grab some food. Link, can you help me?"
Link and Zelda disappeared down the hall, leaving Saria and Lyla alone together.
"Hey, Lyla," Saria asked, "How old are you?"
"Seventeen," Lyla replied.
"Hey, that's the same age Link was when... oh, don't worry. You know, your hair is really pretty."
"Thank you," Lyla smiled at Saria.
"I wish I could grow my hair that long, but it never seems to get past my shoulders."
"I'm sure it would if you gave it some time," Lyla said.
"No, I don't think so. Nothing about me really grows. I don't grow, my hair doesn't grow, but I don't care."
"Of course you'll grow," Lyla disagreed. "You've got nothing to worry about."
"Don't you know, Kokiri remain children all of their lives."
"You're Kokiri?" Lyla was surprised. "But I've never seen one, I mean, I heard that they lived in the forest and they couldn't come out."
"Well, usually," Saria replied. "But I'm a bit different."
Lyla was about to ask why when Link and Zelda returned. Zelda dumped a pile of blankets on the ground, and Link dropped an even larger pile of food and water.
"I figure if we split this up and carry a bit each, it won't be that hard to carry," Zelda said. She had inherited her organising skills from her father. It was the skill that made him a good king.
"Okay," the others agreed, sharing out the items.
"And Lyla, you look old enough, so we'll just tell the guards that my father asked you to accompany us when we try and leave the castle."
With that, the four of them prepared to leave. Saria was jumping with uncontrollable excitement, Zelda couldn't believe how bold she was being, Link felt tired, and Lyla felt happy. She was finally free from her boring life, she had met people who were actually nice to her, and she was about to do something interesting.