Disclaimer: For the millionth time, I don't own Zelda! Lol

AN: This is Story 7 of 'A Goddess Three' so if you haven't read any of the others, you won't know the new characters, but I encourage you to read just the same. It's not that big of deal, I don't think. Anyway, please R/R! I really like reviews. *wink wink*

I'm slowly making my way to the 'ultimate point' where Ganondorf comes back, yadda yadda yadda, but I'm long winded. *grin*

Many Happy Birthday Returns

         11 months, twenty-five days

Chapter One: The Duvidth

                  Link rode hard across the field. There wasn't a sound other that the beating of Epona's hooves and the buzz of the insects around him. Epona neighed happily as Link urged her to go faster, sprinting over the grass like the wind. Link hadn't had the pleasure of Hyrule's company lately. Shortly after he returned from Gerudo Valley, King Harkinian had sent him to meet with the Orator of Londium to help work out a trade deal that would hopefully start to bring more grain into Hyrule. There was a bad storm that ruined about a third of the crops last year and this season the storage bins were not as full as Harkinian wanted. But the whole time he was gone, all Link could think of was that day in the Valley, when he saw Megeara and Loraefin there. What had they been doing? He wondered. The image of the Gerudo gathered around Loraefin, a Loraefin he could barely recognize, and hearing her eerie voice call out that name and all of the shrieks and yells that followed. He had been waiting for three weeks to finally confront her about it, and he hid his own worry about her with anger. He was fuming. How stupid was she? She could have been killed in the Training Ground! What was she thinking!? Aye, he remembered how she had helped win the battle against the smoke demon, but…it was still stupid! She could have been hurt!

                  It was late in the afternoon when Link and Navi finally made it through the tunnel and the sky was lit with a brilliant blue hue with just the faintest touches of the evening purple. Many people stopped him on his way to say hello, but he excused himself and said he needed to speak with someone quickly. They let him be on his way sometimes without a second question. He was just outside of the Hake's home when Loraefin appeared from around the corner with Joshuan and their dog Gabriel. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him surprisingly. Joshuan got the subtle hints that he should go ahead inside without his sister and left with Navi, mumbling a hello to Link as he passed. Gabriel slowly stalked behind them with his tail halfway between his legs and just the faintest glimmer of a deep growl as if to give warning to Link about harming his pack-sister. Link glared at her as an older brother would when he caught his sister doing something she was not supposed to. Loraefin likewise glared back at him. She knew perfectly well he was there at her Rites, and she foresaw that he would be angry with her, but that was his problem. Link approached her about to speak but Loraefin stopped him.

         "If you want to talk about it I suggest we do it when were not in everyone's earshot!" She said sharply with Link looking down on her. "We can go to the bridge, hold your tongue until then!" She was just as angry with him for he being angry with her. What right did he have to say what she could and could not do?

         "Fine by me," Link grumbled and followed her down the path. Once there, Loraefin shot around to face him and crossed her arms.

         "Well what? Is there something you want to say to me? Hmm? Come on, say it," she said. She wore her working breeches and a loose off-white sleeveless shirt that was only tight enough to subtly fit the curvatures of her breasts and waist. Link could plainly see that the markings she had last time he saw her had washed off and disappeared. Oh aye, there were healing scratches on her arms, but only a few that were notable now. Link exhaled irritably to try and calm himself before he spoke, but he couldn't hide the cold edge that rode on his words.

         "Like to explain the cuts of your arms?" He replied simply, still staring at her. Loraefin glanced down at her bare arms and then back at him.

         "I told my mother that I had fallen down when a snake scared Balius," her voice was low, "the Gerudo took care of the other wounds before we left. She doesn't have a clue…yet." Link took a few steps toward her and Loraefin didn't budge.

         "How could you…what made you…you could have been killed!" Link stammered, his face flushing red. The blue of his eyes had gone dark with anger and Loraefin could see the veins lift into ridges on his forearms he had his hands clenched so tightly.

         "I did it because it was my right!" Loraefin exclaimed. "Who are you to say that I shouldn't have done it!"

         "Fin you could have been hurt! What were you thinking?!" Link shot back. "The Ground is dangerous! It was a damned stupid risk! Who cares about what the Gerudo think of you if it endangers your life, it's not worth it!" Link saw Loraefin's eyes flare and narrow. Until now he didn't quite realize how seriously she had taken the whole affair.

         "Not worth it? Not worth it!" She choked on her words she was in such an uproar, "Have you ever been separated from everything that could tell you about yourself?! Have you ever felt like you were trapped in a box with a window to see out but couldn't touch? What about that ache when you feel like your soul is suffocating?! Hmm? Tell me!"

                  Link was silent for a moment not being able to find the words to say. Loraefin's hard expression slowly melted away when she saw the hurt look in Link's eyes. Her heart wrenching at causing such a look on that sweet face of his.

         "Yes, I have." He said coldly. He had told her briefly about his childhood, never going into great detail. All she knew that he was an orphan and had found refuge with the Great Deku Tree. She never knew how young he had been when he came to the forest, nor how hard it was to live there as a child. As he looked at her, he could see no physical change in her, but in her eyes, it was there. She was still the same innocent girl he had met, thick brown hair, sturdy build and only reaching just to his shoulder in height, but in her eyes she no longer seemed a child.

         "Then if you have then why are you so upset?!" Loraefin demanded.

         "Why didn't you ask me if you wanted to meet the Gerudo? I would have brought you to them but I thought you were afraid of them! You sure were with Tiamra at the Temple of Time!" Link shot back, not answering her question.

         "And what about Nabooru?" She retorted. "She's Gerudo and I wasn't afraid of her! By the Goddesses Link, they are a part of my family not monsters! You know that!"

         "Nabooru doesn't count! She's a Sage!"

         "What does that matter? She's Gerudo!"

         "She's a Sage! Her world doesn't revolve around the Nation any more! The people here in Murieope aren't an issue she needs to worry about! But for the Gerudo that are here in Hyrule that information could have had serious repercussions on them the way you just showed up at their doorstep! These things take time Fin!" Link immediately knew he should not have said that. "Awe, Fin, I didn't mean it that way," he began apologetically, but it was too late, the damage had been done.

         "What? We're not important enough to worry about?" Her usually dormant temper flared. "Oh well, in that case why are you here then if we're not important enough? Certainly the Hero of Time has better things to do than to waste his time us. For the love of Nayru Link did you ever stop to think for a moment that maybe my Rites on the Ground were one of the most important moments in my life?! Did you ever stop to think that maybe it meant something to me? No, of course not! You were too busy being the biggest Kantes of all time!" She swore using a Gerudo curse she had picked up from her Grandmother Usa. She tried to brush past him and walk away but Link caught her by the forearm.

         "Hey wait a minute! Don't be so angry, I didn't mean it like that!" He tried to reason. "What I meant to say is that barging into the Valley like that was reckless! No matter how I made the Gerudo out to be to you, it still doesn't mean that they will let just anybody into their land. All I'm saying is that is you don't know this land, you think you do, but you don't. If you had gotten hurt on the Ground I could never have forgiven myself!" Loraefin wrenched out of his grasp, which she couldn't have done if he truly wanted to hold her there, and looked up at him.

         "I am not your responsibility," she said a bit more calmly, "and being part Gerudo, Megeara and I had every right to be there. I have the opportunity to explore my Hylian heritage easily enough through you, but my other half is hidden from me unless I make the effort to find it. My grandmothers say so little that I think is true. I've never had the opportunity to learn and see things outside of this valley like you have Link…I'm curious."

         "I know you are," the Hero replied gently, glad that she was calming down and his own temper winding down as well, "but that doesn't mean you can be reckless. You may not realize it, but you have more of an impact on Hyrule than you can see. You might have had every right to seek out the Gerudo Fin, but that was the wrong way to go about it," he sighed and looked her intently in the eyes then placing his hand lightly over hers on the rail of the bridge. "I saw you, or what I thought was you when you came out of the Training Ground. You looked feral, not like you at all."

         "Perhaps the part I didn't know I had," said the girl, "I can't explain it." There was still an edge on her voice that ran cold, but it was warming ever so slightly. "I haven't told my parents yet and I'm not sure when to either. Things here will change even more if I do."

         "Do you want them to change?" Asked Link curiously, rubbing his thumb absently over her knuckles as he watched the expression on her face contort in thought and then back again.

         "Yes and no," was all she left it as. "Tiamra has left it up to me in the time being to convey the Gerudo's wishes to reconcile. She says I need to do what I feel needs to be done. It isn't time yet to tell them, perhaps after Megeara has proven herself on the Ground we might---"

         "You're not thinking of going back are you?" Interrupted Link. "I won't have it, it's a miracle that you came out safely, I won't let Megeara go in." Loraefin's eyes narrowed again and she backed off from him.

         "You have no right to say so or not, this was Megeara's decision. Her ankle is fine now and she wishes to take the challenge." It was not Loraefin talking anymore, but her Gerudo pride and heritage. She took her hand out of his and paced to the other side of the bridge. "Link, don't stand in her way. This could be more important to us than you will ever realize." Link closed his eyes angrily, not hearing her.

         "Loraefin! You may have gotten through the Ground safely but not safely enough!" He took up her arm and pointed accusingly at the cuts. "Would you wish Megeara the same thing? Fin, you are not Gerudo warriors and you should have nothing to prove to them! Don't be stubborn!" Link could see and feel the soft muscle tense in Loraefin's arm and he let her go. Loraefin's upper lip curled and her fists clenched with the Gerudo temper that had just recently been reanimated within her flowing off of her like water. Link took a step back in awe of her changed nature. In the few weeks that had passed since her initiation on the Training Ground, Loraefin could feel the change within her. The Gerudo had told her that it was the spirit that had been reborn within her stirring once again, being brought out by the Ritual of Passing. In time they said, her body would learn to control it and use its power, (which was an asset in battle) then would she start to feel more like herself again. But now the power was free to use her as it willed, and the part of her that was still her own felt miserable that it was Link who had to be a focus point of it now. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to control it, but it was very powerful and she struggled to keep it contained. It had already shown itself, no doubt Link could see that she wasn't acting like herself and she only hoped that he would forgive her when it was all done.

        The more she tried to control it, the more it would manifest itself physically within her. Sweat beaded her forehead and her muscles quaked more violently as she tried to hold it in. Link watched in fear as she tried to simply keep herself standing. A wave of nausea swept over the body as her muscles contracted and left her doubled over in shock clutching her stomach and crashing down to one knee.

         "Fin, Fin!" Link yelled at her, supporting her with his strong hands. "Loraefin, it's okay, let it go! Stop it you're hurting yourself! Please Fin!" His pleading voice seemed far and distant from her, like an echo off the valley walls. Even her own voice seemed detached from her body as she could hear herself just screaming at him.

"Bastard! Get away---Rou yassen hardicata es' vee're! Oun now gat usen es' ca'leren Kantes! Loraefin started to laps into native Gerudo in her anger. And yet, mixed together with the familiar tongue she had been raised among, were words of an older language that she had never heard before. It scared her. From somewhere deep within her subconscious the words were springing forth, tapped from an unknown source and slurred together with venom. Link was too baffled to speak as the girl was on the verge of striking at him and cursing in a language he did not understand. "Rou ternaire es' gat usen, fre'ya, lo lee!" She could barely feel her other leg give way underneath her only to have Link catch her fall. Her head reeled and became disoriented; she wasn't even aware that she was trying to strike Link who was hovering above her, calling her name, trying to make her come back to him. She felt herself being lifted up and carried like a child though she was thrashing about and struggling; they were strong, protective arms that held her and their warmth seemed to sear her already feverish skin.

                  Link knew he had to hurry, surely the Elders would know what to do? She may have not wanted to reveal yet what she had done, but now he didn't have a choice but to make that choice for her. Loraefin shouted as he ran, ranting of things that were not distinguishable as words. He shoved open the Hake's door with one, brute push from his shoulder and laid her on top of the barren table. Lindie came running down the stairs at her daughter's screams with a look of horror on her face. Joshuan followed with Navi behind and ran to his mother, who was trying to calm down her poor daughter. Another figure loomed on the staircase before it slowly made its way across the room. Lindie shouted for her, and Re'ale looked her over calmly, knowing exactly what had happened. Loraefin lashed out, unaware of what she was doing and grabbed a hold of Link's gray tunic and pulled at it violently. Her shaking but deft fingers stumbled with the laces on his collar and she began to tug. The sweat from her struggles made her skin slick and the firelight glimmered off her cheeks. Link was tugged down to her, giving little resistance not wanting to harm her further as she raised her head to his ear all hot breath that lingered in the air as she spoke. Link's eyes went wide and his face flushed red as she whispered something into them smiling, sending a wave all up and down his body and the scent of her from her struggles called to that primitive side irresistibly, taunting him.  Re'ale pushed him up from Loraefin's grasp and Link tried to compose himself.

         "She knows not what she says Link, please, go and get the others, tell Semele to bring her herbs and Reamari hers also, quickly." She placed her cool hand on her grandchild's forehead, nodded once more for Link to go, and tried to calm Loraefin's writhing body on the table.