Hi, glad you liked the last chapter as well! Cliff-hanger or what! Yes, I do love leaving the reader in suspense! You just come back for more! Isn't that right? Meh heh heh! It proves the point because you are reading this right now!

Hey I'm also keen to hear your ideas on the stories so far and where you're think they're going, or what you'd like to happen. I think it's great when readers interact with the author and I'd really love to hear your opinions and ideas. I sort of know where I'm going but how I'm going to get there depends on you and me. So email me or review and tell me what's going on in your head!

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda



Anju had tried to stop me from leaving, saying supplies weren't ready and such, I think she thought I was running out on the bill, but I assured her Sao would be using the room and had agreed to pay the fees at the end of his stay.

Ha! Shout at me will you Sao? Getting you back, hope you have money!

She also expressed concern on my injury and haggled me about the Women's Protection from the temple of the Goddesses, but I persuaded her all was well and I'd slipped, she agreed, although a little suspicious that I'd been beaten by my man.

Another drop of persuasion ensured me with a few days of food and water to store away in my bag. After been shown out the back way by my request and to the stables. I'd saddled a rented horse and was ready to set off in ten minutes.

Unfortunately the horse I'd been granted was a beast of a mare with a rather large stubborn streak called Bite. I saw she'd earned her name when, as I took the reins, her large teeth shot out and caught me on the elbow.

At the laughter of the stable hands I hit her on the nose and whispered haughtily that if she did not like me then she was going to have to put up with me for a while because she was the only mount I had and I was not about to let a badly behaved horse stop me from what I was going to do.

After a flaring of nostrils to indicate that she had heard me, she just wasn't going to pay much attention, we saddled up. She had a huge back and my legs could barely fit across her and she didn't seem very impressed and my horsemanship.

"Bite is going to give off the wrong impression of a 'gentle' and 'noble' steed like you," I said sweetly as I settled myself on her giant spine "So I think I shall give you a new name"

Bite snorted.

"I think I shall call you..." I thought for a moment "Bertha"

I heard something that sounded like a disgruntled protest from beneath me and I grinned, that was the name all right.

"Yes" I squeezed her sides in "Bertha it is! Onwards Bertha"

The huge bulk suddenly jerked beneath me and Bertha lumped me along on top of her as the laughter of the stable hands drifted out from the gates behind.

I wrapped the cloak around me against the cold air and rode out through the cobbled back alleys and out into the chilly courtyards, Bertha's heavy iron shoes echo being masked by the powder snow.

I had no idea where I was going to start looking. I could either look for Link first or the tribe and Lucy first. Once I decided that I was going to have to decide where to start my search from and then which direction to in.

Maybe if I camped in one spot they'd come to me.

What would I do once I found them? What if I didn't find them? What if I was found first?

I shook my head, no need to worry, I'd go back to where the camp site had been, it wouldn't be covered yet but it had taken a few hours to get here earlier so I'd have to ride hard to find it before all the light was gone.

And since I'm not an experienced horse rider, I wasn't going to make it in my right mind.

So I tied myself to the saddle.

Pretty good idea I thought.

So I squeezed Bertha as hard as I could and threw my hands around the saddle horn and the reins as tightly as I could as she threw herself forward, purposely I think trying to unseat me.

That is how we rode until I could hold on no more and pulled bertha to a stop by the best way I could think of: pulling the reins and screaming at the top of my range.

We'd ridden solidly at Bertha's top speed for half an hour. Unfortunately, she was puffed.

So we went for a while slowly, then sped up, then slowed down, then sped up. I'm sure she hated me for it but all the time we were riding the sun was setting and covering the ground even more than the snow.

We rode in what I considered a straight line, I kept the sun on our right at all times and looked back to check we were in a straight line and headed for the same rocks all the time.

I was heading generally in the direction of the swamp. I had no idea what there was over here, but if we'd come into town from the south then presumably the camp was to the south.

This was probably wrong, but then, what else could I do?

We rode and rode and soon, as the sun had gone down, the camps burned cinders and metal had appeared beneath the squatting of rocks that I'd grown used to over my days of waiting. The timing was perfect, the sun had set and just as it had we had reached the spot.

I thanked the goddesses, considering this was their place, and dismounted. Looking behind me and back into the dusk of the Termina field.

A small cloud of dust was rising from beyond a small heath ahead. A rider, I presumed. I smacked my head and told myself off, snow didn't give off dust! Stupid girl, that meant that the rider in the distance...was riding so fast he was throwing up snow!

That was scary...

I frowned and lead Bertha carefully across the bare patch of ground to the shadows underneath the rocks; she sniffed the burnt ground and put her nose up in the air. Not impressed at where I'd brought her.

I was worried about the rider behind us. I back Bertha into the space between the rocks, as far as her bulk would allow us and how far she'd allow me to be squeezed in beside her.

I figured that if we pressed into the shadows then the rider wouldn't see us because of the darkness and the colours we were wearing (horse hair and clothes) and pass by without seeing us.

We stood there for what seemed like forever.

The rider drew closer.

And closer.

I waited with baited breath and I'm sure Bertha would have done as well if she hadn't been a horse.

The sun was gone. The moon was rising. The small light available shone off the snowy ground and allowed us to see further than we would have been able to normally.

I was getting a little scared, if I rider could throw up snow like that then he'd be here in no time.

This is when I wish I knew how to fight properly.

I drew the sword out of its scabbard as quietly as I could and rolled it about in my numb fingers to warm my palms up in case of a fight. I patted Bertha's neck and whispered for her to calm and be cool.

She snorted; of course she was calm and cool, calmer and cooler than me.

I gripped the sword tighter, the rider was just behind the nearest roll of a hill now. Closer, closer, closer...

And a shadow dropped from the rock above.

Screaming out loud and trying to avoid Bertha's massive hooves that were crashing down from the sky above me, I darted out and ran out into the moonlight.

Exactly the opposite of what I'd intended to do.

I didn't care about the rider anymore; I knew exactly what had dropped down.

I spun around to face my attacker...

A Stalfos?

I leapt out of the way of his huge sheet of metal and scrambled away again.

A Stalfos was attacking me! Ha! I'd been so worried and it was a just a Stalfos. Just a Stalfos? Stalfos is bad! Good thing I had a sword. Just needed enough hits and it would disappear.

I dodged his sword again, luckily although the pile of bones was strong, every time he swung his sword, the momentum carried him around a bit more and I had time to dodge back behind him and swing at his back.

But the swings carried me off balance because I couldn't get enough force behind several quick ones.

This is when I wished that I'd had body building sessions or something. Upper arm strength would really help here.

My riding cloak also got in the way; I had to keep flinging it behind me which was a pain considering I was going to be dead if I got hit.

The Stalfos smelled awful, it was putrid and almost made me feel like throwing up, over the bones were various pieces of rotting flesh and it wore a loincloth sort of thing made of animal skins, which were also rotting. The blade it carried was rusty and I had the suspicion it also was covered in dried blood, and the shield it had was no better.

My arms muscles screamed in pain as the blades met and the Stalfos pressed in, it's awful stench half blinding me.

Well, I was dead. Again, no way I could match the speed of a dead person who probably never tired.

The Stalfos grinned its toothy grin and pressed down on its blade, hurting my arms and my hands, and pressed harder.

"You're a hard girl to find" the Stalfos said

I almost fell backwards in surprise.

"But this is a big place, and you're all alone so you better come with me" it continued

I stared at the Stalfos, it didn't have a voice box, how was it talking?

It then occurred to me that the Stalfos looked as surprised as I did and then a sword ripped through the Stalfos bones and the Stalfos crumbled and more or less 'died' with the surprised expression fixed on it's bones. As surprised as a scull can look when it's got no muscles anyway.

I stumbled back away from this new intruder and threw my sword into an arc to attack them; it was swiftly blocked and parried. I didn't bother to look at them, I was just going to attack them and protect myself, it was probably the Shadow Man

I drew it back into another crescent arc horizontally, with my muscles screaming as both arms felt the grind of a motion they weren't used to, and my body almost followed the sword with the force I was putting behind it.

To no avail, it was blocked again and this time the sword twisted my own out of my grip and drew to a screeching halt inches away from my neck.

"Hey, is that anyway to treat someone who just saved you?"

I took my eyes off the sword and looked into Sao's flushed face.

He registered my surprise and turned away on his heel to inspect the bones of the Stalfos.

"Thought about what you said," he said briskly "You're right, there could be a chance to track them and, well, I should have agreed with you. There's nothing I would rather have than my tribe back together, including the men that I...left"

"Right" I walked to draw Bertha back to me

"But, what you said~ it was, well"

"I know" I acknowledged "I don't expect you to forgive me for what I said, I was nasty and horrible and it was perfectly right to punch me"

It was also part of my plan, I hid a grin. Well, sort of, I hadn't expected him to come after me when I'd made him so mad. Or had that been my plan? Oh well, he was here now.

"Oh yeah" Sao grimaced and scratched his head, "I didn't mean to give you such a...um...beautiful purple eye"

I'd forgotten about the bruising. I reached up and winced as the pain sprang up a little, a raised bruise was forming along the bone.

I grinned, then regretted it as a sharp stab shot around my eye, "Never mind, I deserved it"

"Ok" he nodded then looked around us in the moonlight "So...find anything?"

"No, I was only here a few minutes before the Stalfos and you turned up, and now it's too dark to see any tracks or anything"

"Well the sky is clearer than it has been for days, I don't think it's going to snow just yet"

I blew on my hands "I wish it was warmer" I pulled the riding cloak around my shoulders even tighter and sheathed my sword again "So what should we do?"

"I thought you knew what you were doing?"

"Not past getting here," I said turning my nose up, "I guess I was too full of CONCUSSION to think ahead"

He grinned and shrugged "Well now you have a big strong man to help you out" I rolled my eyes "And luckily I was one of the best hunters in my tribe after my father"

"Who's your father?" I asked, thinking of my dad

He looked surprised, "You don't know?" he asked back, "My father's Shigeru"

"Oh" I said and then felt sorry for him, I guess he'd changed his mind to come with me because there might be a chance his dads alive.

And now that I thought about it, they had the same eyes and the same nose. Strange how family members can only look alike when you know they're family.

They hadn't seemed that close, maybe that's why I hadn't picked it up.

Sao mounted his horse and stared out into the darkness ahead.

"The skulls will be coming out soon" he said grimly, and as if to make his point a small blue light appeared out of the dark in the distance, very faint and small and far away and it began to dance "We better do something or we could get cursed"

I nodded and went to mount Bertha, who, despite the Stalfos attack, was just as indifferent as when I'd met her. I put my sword on the side of the saddle and got comfortable for a ride. Apologising to Bertha for another part of a journey without a break.

"Can you see any footprints in the leftover snow?" I asked, figuring this 'master hunter' would be able to see better than me

"Well, there are tracks over there, but we just came from there, and over there, there are a LOT of tracks from the way which we didn't come from"

"Let's go that way then," I said and trotted Bertha forwards

"It's the other direction"

"I knew that"






So what do you think guys? I think this is a shorter chapter, right? Well please do feel free to come forward with your ideas on what you thinks going to happen or what you want to happen! You never know, your wishes might be granted! Sp please, read, review and be happy!