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Author's note: Thanks again for all of you that you that review, it really helps motivate me to work (although from the month it took for me to write this one it might not look like it). Hopefully the fourth chapter should be up quicker (less to rewrite, I'm not going on holiday and school isn't starting). One thing that I would like some comments on is whether or not to put up at the beginning of chapters a summary of what has happened so far to make it less confusing (especially if I don't start writing quickly). Thanks for reading:

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Three

"Here she is," said the young girl enthusiastically. "The Pride. Lain's Pride, for its full name."
The newly named Hail stared up at the massive wooden boat. Her knowledge of ships may have been limited to the books that she had read but even she could tell this book was at the upper end on the scale of impressiveness.

Slightly nervous she put her left foot on the wooden gangplank that would take her from the safety of the land, and wondered what it would be like to captain such a vessel. Stop dreaming, she told herself firmly. All she had to do was get off at the nearest port, and find rep of the church to help her.

The deck of the ship seemed huge to her, as she looked across it, wondering if soon she would be watching the people around her attack another ship from it. It was all so overwhelming. The ship, the new land, the loss of everything she had known.

"This way," called the young pirate who was showing her around, as she made her way down some wooden steps. Dayla, was her name, or so she had told Hail. Hail, that new name was another thing to get used to.

"Here is where we'll be sleeping," said Dayla, motioning around the dingy room. Hail stared at horror at the old worn hammocks that she would have to sleep in. She picked a place to sleep that night and then went back on deck to help loading in the provisions.

The afternoon soon passed by, and eventually all the other pirates had made their way back on board. Most of them were singing or laughing loudly, almost certainly drunk. Then the ropes were untied, the land was waved goodbye to, and they were off into the great unknown.

*-*

Tai smiled as her mind finally cleared and she could let herself relax. Here, so high that could see for miles around her she had found a nice private place where she could stand and let the torrent from the great waterfall tumble over her. As the water fell it seemed to wash away her fears and give her new strength. The great cleansing waters of the river Akai were doing their job for her and she began to understand how they had become legendary. No wonder the villagers had recommended it to her. She could have stood there forever, but finally she made her way back down to the forest where she would sleep that night. She had no money to pay for an inn.

But in her now crystal clear mind there was one purpose, to find her king and make up to him all her years of treachery. And it was all too clear from Ganondorf's remarks who that was.

Link.

A Gerudo male is born every hundred years. The statement that had been one of many hammered into her head when she was a child. More times than she could remember she had asked her mother why there were no boys there, or why she could not go and play with them down the stream. She had not fitted in with the rest of the Gerudos, that had been clear from a young age. Desperate for companionship she had run out into the wasteland and had spent days wondering through it, determined to never stop or go back.

Finally she had come to her oasis in the desert, the huge and all-powerful Spirit Temple that she had only heard of before. Running closer, skipping over the lizards as she went, she had slowly crossed the sunny desert plain. When she finally came to the entrance she had had no fear, and had not thought twice about crawling through the hole on her left. For the first time she saw the huge statue which dominated the centre room, and recognised it as the same as on the tapestries that sometimes were shown.

When she left she tried to remember the path she had taken and by some fluke managed to find her way home. As Ganondorf grew in strength, her mother and friends had been ever more busy preparing for the ultimate climax when he would claim Hyrule and the 'power'. Tai had run off more and more to the Spirit Temple, the only place she could find sanctuary in. She could get there and back in under an hour and soon it became her favourite den.

She spent hours exploring the temple, staring at the strange writing on the walls and finding hidden passages. In one of those she had found her first bottle of the strange yellow dust and had taken it. She had vowed to carry it around forever until she could what it did. It had been one of her more adventurous activities when the bottle had smashed and the dust had been let lose. And when she had met Nura for the first time.

When she had first seen the statue glow red she had run out of the room screaming, scared of what she had done. But later that night, unable to sleep she came back and saw what had happened. The first thing she had noticed was that all the monsters had gone which seemed impossible. Why had they run out just then? And then she had walked into the main room and saw the statue still glowing red. But she just managed to hold in her terror - even when the first message came.

Who are you?

"Tai," she had breathed in a whisper.

Slowly her friendship with the god grew, until she spoke to her everyday. But it was only after six years that she realised that she might be able to free her king Ganondorf from the prison Nura had spoke about. Slowly she built her customised spell and begged Nura everyday for the god's power. For the last ingredient she had to search the desert for weeks, knowing that the chances were that she would never find it. And when she had returned Nura had finally given in and Ganon had escaped. Only to destroy her homeland.

And all the time she had served the wrong king. Why she hadn't Ganondorf's age she never knew. Why hadn't someone else checked it? Why hadn't Nura told her? But she was willing to wager that seventeen years ago on Link's day of birth it had been Ganon's hundredth birthday. Yet why hadn't anyone noticed Link? He was a boy - not a common sight to a Gerudo! Surely someone should have noticed that. The only thing Tai could think of was that he had been born in the War for the Triforce. Many Gerudos had left the fortress then and Link's mother must have been one of them. She probably died later in the fighting.

She would keep on going until she found him, and then she would serve him in whatever way was necessary. But how could she ever make up for what she done? And how would she find him in a land as vast as this?

*-*

"A ship!"

The cry seemed deafening in the enclosed room, but its result was instantaneous. Immediately all of them dropping the cards they had been playing or the bottles they had been drinking and ran up onto the deck. Even Hail felt excited as she realised what was going to happen. She ran along with the others.

Up on deck Lain Tarn was staring out to sea, while two men quickly hauled up the famous red pirating flag. The ship seemed to jump from wave to wave as it cut its prey off. The other vessel was half the size of the Pride and was bolding flying a blue flag with a golden crescent in its centre.

Then the first bangs came as the cannons spat out their lethal flames at the crescent ship. Soon answering bangs came to them and Hail had to dive out the way as one came dangerously close. The excitement of the crowd around her seemed to seep into her and for the moment she did not even feel any sympathy for the crew of the other ship.

"We've got them!" said Tarn triumphantly, and Hail had to agree with her.

The other ship suddenly did a desperate turn as it tried to escape, and Hail found herself swearing at the ship under her breath for not just giving themselves up. This is silly, she told herself for the umpteen time. I'm not Hail the pirate; I'm Zelda the princess.

Princess of what? That nasty nagging side of her personality was making itself know again. It was useless to tell herself Hyrule. Standing here in the middle of an excited crowd of sweating, bad mouthed louts Hyrule seemed like just a dream.

Yet I am Zelda. To surrender that would be to betray Hyrule even if it didn't seem real. She had to remember why she was doing this - to find information out about the sages, Link, anybody.

While she had been arguing with herself the other boat had been quickly overrun, and now the Pride and the crescent were side by side. The other captain screamed surrender, but that didn't stop the pirates jumping onto his ship and killing several of his men.

Finally Tarn called a halt to the rampage. "Enough. Give us your goods and the rest of your men will be spared."

"The ship." The distraught captain managed to force out the words. "What happens to my ship?"

Tarn shrugged her shoulders. "You may keep it. I have enough ships already."

Zelda gave a quick smile while noone was looking. At least the other innocents would be safe. She had had horrible visions of them all having to walk the plank. Gladly, she helped to tie the two ships together and carry across the furniture it had been transporting.

"Trouble!" The warning shout came from an officer looking out from Tarn's crow's nest, but soon everyone else could see the reason for it. Three huge galleons cutting across the horizon, each with an identical blue and golden crescent flag.

"It was a trap... it has to have been a trap." Thus was the muttering which went from pirate to pirate. And with good reason. The two ships were firmly connected together; to get away before the other three arrived was impossible.

Which means we're booked for a big fight, Zelda thought. She wasn't sure whether to be glad or scared.

*-*

Tai glared up at the tall mountain ahead as if its steepness was its own personal fault. Its foot was covered with dark forests and above that was not exactly welcoming rock. It wasn't going to be the easiest climb. She hadn't expected the Xi hideout to be.

"The Xi," she remembered one small boy saying, "they're the best. I wish I could be one. It isn't fair that boys can't join."

"The Xi?" she had asked, which had led to a lot of curious looks.

"Yeah, the Xi." People would reply as if she hadn't heard them right. Finally when they actually believed that she hadn't even heard of them before they would normally back off seemingly expecting her to be some lunatic.

It had taken a drunk to explain it to her before she had finally found out a bit about what they were. "The Xi? You mean the women with the big swords? I once knew one of them. She looked nice... You know, I reckon the church couldn't last without them. Heck, they talk about as if the church knows the most but any fool can tell they only know what the Xi tells them."

And that was about all she got from that source. Finally, she had now found out that they were an ancient group of warriors who were the church's official bodyguard. Their fighting skills seemed to be legendary, and it was well known that the best way to get rid of someone was to hire a corrupt Xi as an assassin (of which, there were apparently many).

It was probably stupid of her to think that she could meet up to their standards; but then again, she had to try. In total, she had found two ways of getting information about where Link was. Join the church or join the Xi. The church wouldn't have believed her story. She had taken her pick.

Still, she wasn't sure that this was the easiest choice. Enough grumbling, she had thought, and had started the long hike upwards. She had hired all the equipment she had needed a few miles away - ropes and a sword. She was pretty confident in her fighting skills, as she had learnt many of them from Nura herself.

According to all the people she had spoken to this was the millennia old home of the Xi where their leaders lived and trained their new recruits. The traditional way to join the Xi was to be noticed by another Xi travelling the country. Hopefully they wouldn't object to her way. At first she had been worried that she would have to join for her lifetime or something like that, but now she had heard too many tales of gone bad Xi who she could always join up with.

Probably the most crucial thing would be making ground fast. She had no preconceptions that the Xi would not swiftly see her if they had not already. She would have been disappointed if they had. She quickly jogged when she could, and walked at a fast when she could not.

By the time she had cleared the forest she had seen noone else. Surely they wouldn't let a pure stranger just enter their base?

"And who would you be?"

Her body seemed to uncoil as if it was a spring as it leapt around to see who had spoken. The challenger turned out to be an old woman, who by the laws of age should have been frail and weak. Instead the woman's body simply rippled with strength, and she stood upright and straight, her keen blue eyes examining Tai.

"I... came to join you," Tai said, the words sounding pathetic even as she said them. Surely she would need a better reason why she was worthy of joining?

"Why?"

Why indeed? To use your information resources and then get out as quickly as possible probably wouldn't have been the most tactful answer.

"I'm lost."

The woman nodded. "In the Xi you would indeed be found. But you may not like where you find yourself."

"I can cope. I will cope." If you want to impress someone sound confident, her mother had always told her.

"I have a daughter around your age." The woman looked at Tai again, this time gazing into her eyes as if they were the gateway to Tai's soul. "Tanya. She wanted to be an Xi too. But we're not just some group dedicated to philosophy. To join us, you will have to prove yourself physically.

"Follow the path behind me; there you will find a temple and someone who will meet you. From there you will know what to do, and I hope that I shall see you again. You are just so like her..."

Tai thanked the woman and then made her way down the path that had lay hidden behind her. A few moments later she turned back to see if the old woman was watching her, but could see nothing. It was as if she had faded into the bushes.

*-*

Zelda flinched as she heard Tarn swear savagely. No one had ever sworn before out lead near her apart from a few anti-royal protestors. It was strange to hear someone swear as if it was a normal part of life. It sounded alien, ugly even. Yet she could not think of any other reaction that would fit now.

No, a voice inside her said. A captain should always remain calm. Stand upright, observe everything, and never show weakness. To show weakness was tactical suicide. Tarn is weak.

What was that voice that would not stay quiet in her? She stared out at the sea again at the three crescent ships that were still approaching. Then she looked up at Tarn. She was doing nothing. Zelda knew as she looked out at the crescent ships that this trap (for it had obviously been one) was designed to capture or even kill pirates. She had a feeling that they would not believe her story about being an undercover agent for the church. After all, she had no proof.

To stand here is stupid, the voice was speaking again. Die or do what you have to do. This is your chance to prove to everyone that you're not just a figurehead monarch. You can survive if you want to.

Zelda hesitated and then let her body fall into what seemed like a natural series of actions. "Abandon the sailors on the other ship," she told Tarn. "And cut the ropes connecting us."

Her words seemed to shake Lain out of her trance, who started to order some men to do what her pirate Hail had said. Then Hail quickly asked Dayla to find ten people who could swim who had swords and to get them to meet up with her.

"If you say so," said Dayla. "The captain seemed to trust your judgement."

Hail ran back down below decks and fetched a sword of her own. When she came back she found ten strong men and women waiting for her. She nodded at them, and then told the men at the cannons to fire their weapons. As the smoke threatened to block out sight, while the noise was deafening she and her swimmers slipped down into the water.

The three ships finally had come close enough to be in weapon range. The flags they were flying had a famously simple message: Surrender or you will be destroyed. For a moment an observer might have thought that the Pride was going to ignore the warning and continue to batter the other ship. But then, gradually all her weapons stopped their attacks and the ship was silent. It looked defeated; like a dead animal floating in the water.

The captain of one of the newcomers shouted out commands to the other two ships until the Pride was surrounded. All the pirates on board dropped their weapons and raised their hands. They knew when the show was over.

Unfortunately for the crescent ships, the pirates in the water didn't. A shout rang out from behind the Pride, which was followed by three answering shouts in the water behind each of the new crescent ships. The sailors staring down over the sides of their ships saw three pirates at each ship. Furiously these pirates smashed their sword through the now seemingly thin under water wood which separated the air and the water. Then their blades started carving through the old hulls; their result being three large breaches which the water eagerly rushed into.

Men and women who spend their lives on such a fragile environment as a wooden ship have very similar nightmares. Fire, for example, on a ship is about the worst nightmare of all. But having your home being destroyed as it quickly sunk into the water near enemy boats was almost as bad. Terrified as they were, the sailors did not think of trying to take over the Pride. Instead, as if they were one mass, they leapt into the water, trying to swim away from the death trap that had been so secure a moment before. Even those that could not swim clutched onto neighbours that could; which resulted in both victims being dragged down.

Some of them had the presence of mind to look for the pirates who had got them into this situation. But the saboteurs had long ago swum back to the Pride and were now watching the three new crescents sink.

"Sail us out of here before they try to repeat our trick," urged Hail to her captain, but Tarn did not make a sign.

"I am the captain here." Her voice was cold. "We have not captured the other ship yet. I do not need you to order me around."

"Let them have it to get back to land on." Hail could not believe that Tarn was being so stupid. "There was probably nothing valuable on it anyway."

"We will not be frightened by the church's pathetic navy!"

Zelda was taken back by that. Those ships had been church ships? Maybe they would have spared after all and she would not have had to act the pirate. Somehow, she did not like sinking into her Hail form. It made her feel strange, made her for a while forget her past and everything she was. To be honest, Hail scared her.

"What... I told you not to take us away from here." Tarn stared at some pirates who had taken it upon themselves to put up the sails and start getting away before any of the angry church sailors could get near.

"You will obey your captain!" Tarn was almost hysterical now.

"Why should we when she only gives stupid orders?" That was Dayla.

Staying was out of the question now. Already the ship was streaking away.

"Say that again and I'll charge you with mutiny," said Tarn viciously.

"Then you'll have to charge me as well," said a man Zelda did not. He stepped out besides Dayla who had had walked to the front of the crowd. Almost unconsciously Zelda followed him.

"Very well, you three. Hail, Dayla and Carn will forever be known as traitors." Tarn sounded confident now.

At the mention of Hail's name all the pirates began muttering. Zelda wasn't the only one who had noticed Tarn's lack of action. Slowly others began to step forward towards Dayla and Hail as they realised how close they had become to capture.

When more than half of them had stepped forward Lain Tarn knew that she was beaten. "Very well," she told the crowd, "it seems that Dayla will be your new captain."

"Not me," said Dayla, "Hail will be the captain."

That night as Zelda lay down onto the covers she knew that the next morning Zelda, Hyrule, her undercover church mission and everything else would have been forgotten. Only this new strange voice would remain. Only Hail would be there.

*-*

The forest path that she had been following for the last hour finally emerged into a clearing. Not a particularly big one, especially to Tai who was used to the vastness of the desert, but at least ten metres across. As she could see no corresponding path lying outward she sat down on the grass and just let herself relax.

The footstep behind her was almost non existent in noise, but it was loud enough for her to hear. In a single movement, she jumped up and spun around to see the newcomer. In another instant her sword was out in front of her.

A figure dressed completely in black awaited her, the only sign of humanity in it being two blue eyes staring out of the only holes in the suit. Somehow Tai could tell that there was a leering smile hidden behind that black mask, whose hands were carrying their own sword to confront hers.

She swung her own sword down in a fierce arc that should have sent black's sword flying from his hands. Instead he somehow managed to have side-step, drop down onto his back with his hands supporting him on the ground and then use his feet in a sweeping motion which easily tripped Tai over. Then his hands easily swept him up onto his feet again and his own sword was flying down at her sprawling body.

You're not the only one who can do tripping tricks, she thought angrily. She used her own hands to do a sidewise roll at his feet. He calmly jumped over her and then pivoted around on one foot to meet her as she got up.

For a few moments they forgot the acrobatic tricks while their swords crashed and parried, and then she swung her foot around in a savage kick. As she hoped he would, his spare hand caught her foot. Using her other foot as a kind of spring she shoved forward with her caught foot. He was sent flying back, but managed to turn it into a roll and was soon on his feet again.

The two of them stared at each other's eyes, both of them slightly unsure about what would come next. Then they were charging, sprinting at each other, and both of their legs were swung up in new kicks. Like they were fencing swords they connected, and not without some pain.

Tai hesitated as her leg screamed with hurt, and black took the opportunity to swing his other leg round and send her flying to the floor. For a moment Tai considered getting up, but she knew that she was beaten. Her whole body just wanted to relax. Her head had hit the floor hard, and everything seemed harder to concentrate on. Finally she let herself sink into that delicious blackness...

When she regained consciousness, she lay still for a while and then finally opened her eyes. Above was a tall young man (still dressed in black from the neck down) with orange - golden hair and smiling blue eyes.

"You passed," he said simply.

*-*

Ganondorf was laughing.

Laughing as he stood in front of that so desirable light, his shadow nearly blocking out the intruder of this deep darkness. And he knew that if only he could get past Ganondorf and through the gap then he could get out of this horrible place. He hated Ganondorf. Ganondorf was trapping him, and laughing, laughing on and on...

Now Ganondorf was getting closer... That laugh seemingly ripping his brain into shreds. He screamed, screamed as loud as he could, willing it to block out that horrible, horrible laugh....

His eyes jolted open to see 2 anxious eyes staring down from above at him. His gaze wondered up to the nice blue sky above and his legs finally remembered to tell him about the warm water that was surrounding him.

"You'll be alright," said the kind voice that belonged to the anxious eyes.

Yes, he thought as he stared around at the sea and beach he was lying on, I'll be alright.

Because Link knew that at last; he was awake.