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Authors note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and if you haven't yet, I would appreciate it if you did. Sorry, if you want to read more of this fanfic soon as I'm going on a 2 week holiday. However when I get back (hopefully) there should be a shorter time delay between chapters. This is the second draft of the fanfic, and the first few chapters need quite a lot of work (they've been virtually rewritten) whereas the later ones (which are also a lot longer) shouldn't need as much work. Anyway, enough of my rambling:

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Two

What was that?

Zelda found herself jerked out of any sleepiness she might have had. Sitting up in her bed, she looked round the dark room and tried to remember what had disturbed her. It must have been a sound that had awoken her, she finally decided. Probably one of the Gorons still messing around outside the castle. Why couldn't they be quieter? It had taken her so long to get to sleep as it was, and the last thing she had needed was to be woken again.

She remembered now how she had tossed and turned, trying to get Link out of her mind. At points it had seemed impossible as her mind went over the events of the evening. Why had he had to speak to her again? Everything had been going so well, and now it seemed almost like everything was just waiting to go bad again.

How terrible those seven years had been, just watching Ganon's forces expand and expand, with nothing seemingly able to stop it. How she had cried at night; guilty at being so safe while noone else was. Every day she had woken up to some new piece of bad news, and at times it had seemed like it would never end.

She couldn't bear to think that Rauru's warning might be right, and something of that kind could come to happen again. But, it was silly to blame for her fears. Silly to associate him with what had happened. It hadn't been his fault; well, at least, not much of his fault.

Again. She had definitely heard a sound again. And this time she knew that it was no Gorons partying. Someone was climbing up her wall. How could she be so sure? After all, it was ridiculous that anyone would be able to go up the steep smooth stone cliff. Yet she knew that she was right.

For a minute she stayed silent, listening for any sign of the person. She heard nothing; nothing until the face of her mystery intruder was smiling at her through her window. The face, with its deep red eyes and matching hair, only looked her for an instant before its legs swung round and through the window.

This would be a good time to move, Zelda told herself as the almost Gerudo-like figure approached. Her muscles evidently disagreed with her, as she found that not one of them would obey her.

The figure stood above her, and revealed the old dagger it had been holding. Finally, it bought it down it an arc of deadly intent. Please let this be a nightmare, Zelda prayed, as the cold blade finally touched her flesh...

Is this death? Zelda wondered, as she seemed to float without gravity; the only feeling being a terrifying coldness which enveloped her totally. Strange, it seems more like swimming. She forced open her eyes, and the thing that touched them certainly felt like water. Her mouth opened next, before she could realise what a mistake it would be. The terrible salt water flung its way down her throat, and for the first time she realised that she couldn't breathe.

She kicked out with her legs desperately, and then her arms. All thoughts disappeared from her brain, and they were replaced by the animal instinct to survive. Her head finally broke free of the water, and she finally began to cough long and hard; her body retching. As she began to breathe in again, she finally began to wonder where she was. People don't normally find themselves magically transported from a nice soft bed to the ocean.

Her eyes could pick out very little about her, only the bright stars above her, and the terrifying waves stretching about her. For the first time in her life, Zelda knew without a doubt, that she would die.

There seemed little point in trying to keep above the waves, for eventually her head would only sink below them anyway. Even if a ship passed, in the deep blackness of night it would not be able to see her.

She could at least be proud that she would die with honour. She felt sure that when her brother died, if he was able he would be screaming louder than a pig. But no, she would drown silently. It was a pity that there was noone to see her brave act, she couldn't help telling herself.

The night was bitterly cold, and Zelda had just about made up her mind that her death might as well be now, when it happened. It was just the faintest of notes travelling through the sky but somehow it filled her with hope. The note changed, and then again, and she realised that she was listening to the simplest of tunes. The water could crash down on her all it wanted she decided, but as long as she had that tune she would be happy.

If it had been day she might have caught sight of a small black dot in the sky, and guessed that was where the music was coming from. As it was, she had no idea. The dot moved closer to her, as if it was studying her. And then it began to leave, its music growing in the distance.

When it finally came back it was no longer in the air but below her; deep in the sea. And another sound had been added to it. The sound of men shouting; men fanatically chasing their prey, desperate to catch what would give their riches.

But the sound died away, and the depressed men began to turn the ship around to go back onto their original course.

"Hang on!" one of them called. "Isn't that a body?"

His friend snorted. "You're seeing things again."

"You never know," a third joined in. "Maybe it dropped what it had been eating."

"It wouldn't hurt to check it out," the first decided, and finally the second assented.

Their little boat travelled over to nearer the supposed corpse, and the men picked it out of the sea.

"It's a girl," said the first in wonder.

"Clever," muttered the second dryly. "Is she alive?"

The first nodded, and then went back to steering the ship while the second took Zelda below deck where it was warm. And so Zelda slept under her borrowed blankets while one of the men always watched her, and when she finally awoke it was them who were the first Nurans she ever saw.

*-*

The desert was nothing more than a bland yellow when it came down to it. A bland yellow, unbearably bright light and an even worse heat. Nothing else, nothing above from the terrifyingly cold nights.

She had no possessions. No money, no clothes, no food, no name. Nothing apart from her own body that she had been born with. They were her identity, her all. She hadn't even got her memory left. She couldn't remember anything. No idea about her birth, her childhood, her children or her lack of. No idea how long she had wandered through the desert - it could have been days, weeks or even months.

Except then she would have needed water to survive. She had a terrible thirst, but her mind told her that she would have needed water to survive more than a day or two in this heat. That was one of the worst things about this desert. The other was not knowing whether she was getting nearer the edge or just in ever lasting circles.

And finally an ecstatic difference. For an instant the doors of her mind were unlocked and she knew who she was, and a thousand memories flooded back. Yes, even her name. She was called...

And as quickly as it had come, it all went. What had caused it? She turned round and spotted something in the sand. Something long and metallic. She dusted off the sand covering the now revealed sword, and examined the carvings on its handle. This memory did not come back as quickly as all her others had, but soon Tai had realised what this legendary sword was. The Master Sword, the sword that had defeated her master.

Why didn't she feel more annoyed? Why did she feel so blank to her old master and even to him. The traitor, after all, hadn't done any of the cruel things that Ganondorf would do when he was angry, even to his own people. Was he that bad?

What was happening to her? She had never before felt anything other than hate for the traitor. The sword that she was holding, that must be it. Angrily she threw it away and was relieved to find that she could remember everything.

"Afraid of a sword?" came a scornful voice. "It can't kill you without a user."

"Sir... Sir, I..." she stuttered, dropping to her knees and suddenly becoming deeply embarrassed because of her lack of clothes.

"Just call me Ganon. Dorf if you wish." He smiled. "How's things?"

"What did you do to her?" Tai asked the tall green man who had appeared behind her.

"You are devoted to your goddess, aren't you?" remarked her king. "You'll fit in well here."

"Here?"

"Welcome to Nurai," he told her. "Either original or adopted home of the Gerudos, it hardly matters which. As was Hyrule created by Din, Farore and Nayru this land is made was made by your Nura."

"How come I have never heard of this place before?"

"I believe the term is dimension. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of worlds which are all alike only slightly different. This one being rather different from say Termina or Hyrule as another land is in their respective place."

Tai only understood half of what he said, but she still had many questions left. "What has happened to Hyrule? And you still haven't answered, where is Nura? What do you mean by the original home of the Gerudos?"

"Hyrule is destroyed, don't you remember? At least temporarily while I am still free. Nura is trapped in this sceptre, and is forced to do my every wish." He waved the sceptre he was clutching in her face while she stared at in horror.

"As for this place," he continued. "This is where the Gerudos live! Not a small tribe of them like in Hyrule, but a whole country. You're not just pathetic desert thieves either. Pirates, warriors, even simply merchants. You've become almost exactly the same as the Hylinians."

"But, what about men?" she asked.

"Hasn't been one born here for a millennia," he told her. "At least not a proper Gerudo man according to their definition. Apparently, all their men have unclean blood with Hylinian mixed in it. The only proper Gerudo male in this country is me. Well, me and him."

"Him?"

"Tai," Ganondorf asked her. "What do you think of Link?"

"I hate the traitor with all my existence," she said bitterly, temporarily choosing to forget her earlier thoughts.

Ganon laughed. "He is annoying... Yes, he is very annoying. But he is no traitor."

"What?" Tai stared at him, not sure whether she had heard right or not.

"You didn't know my age, did you?"

She shook her head.

"One hundred and seventeen years."

Tai stopped breathing for a second as the full flood of realisation hit her; her whole world turned upside down.

"And unfortunately," Ganon continued. "Now I have told you I guess that you will no longer be of any of use to me. Which is just as well, as your pathetic devotion was getting a bit boring."

For a moment he rose his sceptre as if to command it what would surely be her death. And then he hesitated. His eyes closed and he seemed to actually be whispering to the weapon he held. He smiled at her one final time, spun around on his feet and then marched back into the desert. A gust of sand blocked him from view a moment, and then he was gone.

Still staring after where he had disappeared she picked up the sword, and strode on again. Now that she had her old desert instincts back to her the heat and the thirst did not seem so bad. Besides she had other things to concentrate on in her thoughts.

Her whole life's aim, useless? Had she really spent all her time following that monster? For a moment she considered whether he had cast some spell which had made her blindly follow him, but as much as she wished it she knew that it was not true.

At last she found the edge of the desert and soon she spotted a woman working with some crops in a field nearby and a town not far behind her. Quietly she crept up behind the woman and then she knocked her out from behind. After quickly putting the other woman's clothes on to her, which just about fit although she wished that there was a sheath where she could place the Master Sword. Finally, she turned around and made her way on into the town

*-*

The sea was much calmer now, and almost seemed relaxing in the security of the daylight. It lapped up against the side of the boat, and for a while Zelda trailed her hand along in it. Her clothes had by now almost dried off, and the slight breeze was actually pleasantly fresh.

Her body may be alright, but her mind was more confused than it had ever been. When she had woke she had quickly questioned the friendly fishermen. Only one of them had even heard of Hyrule and he had thought that it was a mythical far off place. Which was more than she had known about this Nurai country that apparently she was near. What had happened to Hyrule? Where was everyone else? Had she been the only person to be sent here or was Link or one of the sages somewhere? So many questions, no possible way she could think of to find answers.

"How did you actually find me?" she asked the fisherman steering the boat behind her, hoping that she could at least find out the answer to this one.

The fisherman smiled a little sheepishly as he answered. "I don't know if you've heard of it in Hyrule, but..." He paused for a while as if he didn't really want to go on. "We have children's tales of creatures in the sea. Silly really, but we were sure that we sure one of them last night. It's like a great flying whale, but it's supposed to be quite intelligent. Likes music as well, apparently."

He laughed as if it was absurd.

"We thought that we heard its song last night, and we couldn't resist following it. If we found it... But whatever the sound was that we were following it disappeared as soon as we came near you. Who knows, maybe it was showing us the way to you. Stupid, huh?"

"Not really," Zelda replied, thinking of the Zora's chosen deity. "I don't suppose you could help me but there is a chance that some people I know are also in Nura. Do you know how I could find them?"

The fisherman considered a while. "I guess the easiest way of getting the best information would be to contact the church. They know more about everything than anyone else does. What with their Xi bodyguards and..."

"The Xi?" Zelda interrupted.

"Sorry," the fisherman apologised, "I should have guessed that you might not have heard of them. The Xi are almost as old as Nurai itself. They're a group of trained warriors who having amazing skills. I've only personally ever seen one in action, but trust me you wouldn't want to get in a fight."

"The Xi," said another fisherman scornfully as he came up from below, "are one of the biggest wastes of money in this country. They send off all the strong young girls they can find to be trained in that big mountain of theirs, and then half of them run off to become hired assassins."

"Don't be too hard on them," the first fisherman argued. "Without the Xi we'd be in a lot of trouble. I mean, what would have happened if they hadn't stopped the Sadia?" He shivered as he said the last word.

The second fisherman shrugged. "The Kalen would have stopped them," he suggested.

The first snorted. "Kalen fan," he muttered. "Sorry, we seem to rather have got off subject. As I was saying, the church are probably the people you would want to talk to. If you want, I can arrange a meeting with one of them. What they can't find out isn't worth knowing. They should be able to held you."

"For a price," the second remarked.

Zelda nodded absent mindfully, thinking that she could pay them with some of her jewellery. She stared out at the horizon, and to her surprise found that she could now see land. Soon she would finally be able to get off this rocking boat and onto nice solid land.

Soon, she thought, I'll know whether anyone else is here. She tried not to think what she would do if noone was, for then she would truly be stuck here.

*-*

"Who is she?" asked Barlz, as he downed his tankard of beer.

The rest of the inhabitants following his pointing finger, and none of them could help but wonder who the strange girl was. As much as she tried to hide it, it was obvious that she was not the kind of girl who normally walked around in a pub. She was even trying to stop herself coughing at the thick atmosphere of smoke. Surely the girl hadn't just walked in the roughest pub in miles by mistake?

Zelda couldn't help wondering the same thing herself as she walked through the only dirt covered building. It wasn't that she didn't think this was the right place; on the contrary it looked like the perfect home for pirates. However, she was getting more and more uneasy about the mission that the man from the church had given her. Why couldn't he have just accepted her necklace? Instead, she had been assigned to some crazy undercover mission pretending to be a pirate. Her, a pirate? Worst of all, then she would have to double cross all her new comrades and get in touch with the church again. The only good part about the whole business was imagining the look on her brother's face if he heard about it.

She walked over to a particularly dark table in the corner and tried to remember the name she had been told to ask for. Lain Tarn, wasn't it? At last she took a deep breath and spoke to the man who was sitting there.

"You seen Lain recently?" she asked casually.

"Who hasn't?" he said bitterly.

Zelda was annoyed. If had a grudge against this Tarn then he might not help her. Still, she would get nowhere if she gave up this easily.

"Where is she now?" Zelda asked.

The man shrugged.

Zelda sighed, flicked him one of the coins she had been given, and then looked hard at him again.

"Behind you," he said slowly.

Zelda turned around quickly, and saw the laughing face of a woman around 8 years older than her.

"What is it?" the woman asked.

Zelda was surprised. It was not a mocking voice, more friendly, as if she was encouraging her.

"I...I wanted to join your group," she said.

Lain raised her eyebrows.

"Thomas - what have you done," she said, more to herself than anyone else, but then louder, "first, who are you?"

"I'm...I'm Zelda."

"Well, first you'd need a new name," Lain said, talking resignedly.

"What's wrong with my name?" Zelda said defensively.

"Well its not exactly very good for a pirate is it?" said Lain laughing, "No seriously, what about..."

"Hail," suggested someone on the right, which caused a great laugh from the crowd which had gathered around as the conversation went on, and even Thomas chuckled.

"Fine, Hail it is," said Zelda, which only made the crowd laugh even more.

"What is this?" said a cruel, sinister voice from behind.

Zelda turned around and saw a tall, dark man who was now being watched by everybody.

"I will prove you are no Hail," said the man, drawing a sword quickly.

"Leave her alone, Oliver," Lain said defensively.

Oliver laughed, and pushed forward his sword, but Zelda was not defenceless as she looked. When she had been young, Impa had taught her simple defence skills and her reactions were better than most. She quickly kicked his hand and his sword flew up into the air. Then, as a finishing touch she caught it and pushed it right against his chest.

There was silence in the pub.

Oliver growled, grabbed his sword back, and marched off angrily.

Lain looked at the girl who had just approached her again, and studied her earnestly.

"All right, Hail," said Lain softly, "you're in."