Disclaimer: I still don't own Zelda. (No shit sherlock) No matter how much I fantasize about owning Zelda and Hyrule etc, (I need a life) I never will. (You think?) Since we've got that established, (No, I really think we should run through it one more time) on with the story, eh? (Finally!)

*

The door can only be opened by those with the key. The key is only available to those who can open the door without it.

*

Link returned to the castle for the night, determined to follow Shiek the next day. As he entered the castle gates, it seemed as though even the rain clouds wept at the loss of Zelda, and they wept heavily. The heavens boomed and crackled with thunder and lightning, voicing anger at the murder of the Princess.

Link was smart—brains and brawn, to defy the old saying. Now that he thought about it, there was something wrong with Damion—just like Zelda had thought. And there was something all too familiar about Shiek…in the way she had taunted Link, in the way she held herself, in the pained way the red eyes looked at him. If those eyes had been blue, Link would have sworn Shiek was Zelda…But Link had to trust Damion and hate Shiek, even if he didn't really know why. Oh, he told himself it was because doing so was his only way to avenge Zelda, but deep within the recesses of his mind, he knew that wasn't the real reason. But if it wasn't, what was?

Link sighed and ran indoors, annoyed and frustrated. When he caught Shiek, he would find out everything about her…and Damion.

*

In his high tower study, Damion stood in the elements. His arms were held akimbo; his eyes fixed ahead in a trance-like state. He cried terrible, dark words into the winds. The wind carried the black and red anger into Hyrule Proper, where it infected all but three citizens with a murderous desire for blood…Shiek's blood.

*

Because Lindsay already had a rather strong bond with Shiek, Damion's terrible spell did not affect her. Damion hadn't counted on anyone actually befriending Shiek; he thought, with his scrying spell, that she was trespassing in a innocent's home. Shiek also was not affected, for obvious reasons.

But Damion also didn't count on Rhia D'nalz the archseer.

*

"Hurry up!"

"Shiek!" Lindsay snapped. She turned around, obviously angry. "I'm doing this as fast as I can! But I'm leaving behind everything I've ever known, even if I've never liked it…I want to at least prepared if I'm going to travel with a wanted woman."

Shiek swore sharply but didn't apologize. "Link could be back at any time," she reminded Lindsay—for the thousandth time. "I don't want to hurt him, Lindsay, I want to be gone."

"But he wants to hurt you, Shiek," Lindsay said. "Remember, anything you to him in between now and whenever we find a solution for this is self-defense." Lindsay glanced over her shoulder at Shiek. Lindsay was packing travel sacks with clothes and food. "Are you going to take anything, Shiek?"

"I'll carry the food," Shiek said. "I have everything I need after that."

Lindsay shrugged. "All right," she said. She glanced out the window. It was raining heavily. The thunder and lightning had died during the night. Though there was no sun, dawn was obviously close by. "Do you at least want a cloak, because of the rain? I have an extra…"

Shiek shook her head. "You don't have any pets, do you?"

"No, why?"

"I wouldn't want you abandoning them," Shiek said. Her eyes fell to the window also. "Almost done?"

"Yeah," Lindsay said. She tossed two bags at Shiek, who caught them. "That's the food, I've got more and my clothes and bedroll and…yeah, that's about it." Lindsay took a worn leather weapons-belt from her closet. She put it on over her rather plain traveling clothes of a tunic and pants. She took an old sword from the closet as well and hooked the sheath to the belt. "All right, we're done. We should hurry though; today is a big market day and it gets crowded early, rain or no rain."

The two exited the house. Out of habit, Lindsay locked the door but put the key under a stone near the threshold. The rain was gradually getting lighter; by noon, it would probably have stopped. Lindsay led Shiek through the streets. The going was fine until they reached the market. A woman looked over at them. "You!" she cried, pointing a gnarled finger at Shiek. "You're the one who murdered the princess!"

Shiek glanced at Lindsay. "Shiiiiit," Shiek moaned. "Um, Lindsay, I have some bad news…" The people in the market began advancing murderously on Lindsay and Shiek. Lindsay hesitantly drew her old sword, and Shiek slipped needles into one hand, the lightning whip gripped tightly in the other.

"NO!"

Shiek and Lindsay looked over to the crowd to the speaker. A girl of 15 or 16 pushed hurriedly through the crowd. She was Rhia D'nalz. Being an archseer, or master prophet, she had not been affected by Damion's spell over the city. Rhia burst through the crowd and stood protectively in front on Shiek and Lindsay. "Don't hurt them!"

"Step aside, D'nalz," hissed a shopkeeper. "Or we'll kill you too!"

"Oh, no you don't," Rhia said. She grinned threateningly at the crowd. "Fowlus articinus!" Suddenly, Rhia was engulfed in smoke. When the rain had cleared away the smoke, a chicken stood clucking in Rhia's place. Shiek quickly pointed at Rhia and yelled, "Fowlus deminius!" Rhia was abruptly returned to her place as a human. Rhia looked pouty. "Well, that didn't work," she muttered. "Trying again…Fowlus articinus!"

The rain stopped falling.

Or rather, the rain stopped falling. It was replaced by chickens.

"Oh, dammit!" Rhia said, stamping her foot on the muddy cobblestone. "Oooh…FOWLUS ARTICINUS!" The chickens stopped falling. Everyone in sight—barring Rhia, Lindsay, and Shiek—turned into chickens. Rhia spun around, a happy grin on her wet face. "Did it right!" She began running through the chickens. "Come on, step lively now, guys, we don't have long until the chickens turn back!" Lindsay and Shiek looked at each other, shrugged, and followed after Rhia.

*

When they were safely out of Hyrule Proper, Lindsay, Shiek, and Rhia stopped. The rain had reduced to several drops. Shiek leaned against a tree. "What was that? With the chickens?"

"My name is Rhia D'nalz," Rhia said. She had thick, shoulder-length brown hair that was now hanging in wet clumps. She had freckles all across her cheeks and her nose. "I'm 15, and an archseer."

"I thought archseers didn't come from Hyrule," Shiek said.

Rhia shrugged. "Go figure," she said. "Anyway, I've also got archmage-type powers. Like, really, really powerful. Transfiguration, prophecies, and more. The only problem is, my powers are wildly unpredictable. When I'm lucky, I'll get something close to the original thought, like the chickens in the marketplace. When I'm not lucky, I could have changed all of those people in bloodthirsty cougars or venomous cobras. And my magic frequently explodes."

"Why didn't you try to kill us also?" Lindsay asked. "Everyone in town was about to kill us!"

"I told you, I'm an archseer," Rhia said. "I had a dream last night where I was doing just that—not killing you guys. It was exactly like today, except for the whole chicken incident. I don't know why I didn't, thought. It's just what the vision told me I had to do."

Shiek told Lindsay about what had happened. Rhia nodded understandingly, or at least partially understanding. "So you guys are going to the Tourney?" Rhia asked at the end of the tale. Shiek and Lindsay nodded. "Can I come too?"

"There's the whole issue with traveling with a marked woman," Shiek said. "You're probably already wanted in Hyrule Proper."

"Well, if anybody tries to kill me," Rhia said threateningly. "POOF! Chickens." The three girls cracked up. After a moment, Shiek said, "I don't know about you two, but I want to put as much distance between me and Hyrule Proper as possible."

"Motion seconded," Lindsay said.

Rhia poked her red leather armor despondently. "I'm waterlogged," she pouted. She looked up at Shiek and Lindsay. "Huh? What? Oh, oh, yeah, sure. Going, going, onward and upward, etcetera!" The three girls continued walking a quick pace away from the city. They didn't stop again until dawn. They had reached the edge of the Kokiri forest. Wordlessly, the three girls set up a small camp underneath a large oak tree.

Shiek leaned against the tree, knees hugged to her chin. She was dizzy and nauseous. "Hey, Shiek, you okay?" Lindsay asked. Shiek shook her head. Rhia, carefree and giggly the moment before, was now concerned and serious. "What's wrong, Shiek? You were fine a minute ago."

Shiek stood up slowly, using the tree as a support. "Something's…something's watching me…"

Rhia and Lindsay were alert and defensive, Lindsay with her sword drawn. "Where is it watching from?" Lindsay asked, circling around slowly. "The forest or the meadow?"

Shiek shook her head. "It's not," she said. "Not from here. It's watching me from far away…"

"But Damion's powers can't extend beyond the Proper," Rhia said. "So who else would be watching you?"

Shiek swallowed hard. "Don't make me answer that," she said. "If I say his name, he could come back…"

"Who—" Lindsay began. "Oh. Him."

"Now you're getting the hang of this magic thing," Rhia said to Lindsay. "It's hard, but you have to learn how to speak in italics."

Shiek and Lindsay stared at Rhia. "Now you're just being weird," Shiek said. "And PMSy," Lindsay added. "Moodswings, darling. Gotta watch those moodswings."

Slowly, Lindsay and Rhia took Shiek's mind off of him. While Lindsay built up a fire, Rhia regaled Shiek with tales of magic gone wrong. "…and then they really were standing their in their bloomers, and it didn't help but I couldn't stop laughing."

"Soup's up," Lindsay said. "C'mon guys, let's eat so some of us can sleep!"

Rhia offered to take first watch, Lindsay second. Shiek knew they were purposely leaving her out of the rotation, but she really didn't care. It was different from what Zelda was used to, but to Shiek, it felt like home. It was damp, sure, and it smelled a little funky, but hey, that's life. Shiek sipped bland soup appreciatively; it was the type of stuff Zelda would've gone hungry instead of eating. But it was fine to Shiek, especially because she knew she'd be eating a lot of it.

Not long after, Shiek was asleep. Lindsay was talking quietly to Rhia as she poured water over the fire. "It can't really be him, can it? I mean, didn't Link and Zelda destroy him a long time ago?"

"He's still part of the Triforce," Rhia said. "He's not really gone. Just…out of the picture. But maybe not, anymore."

Lindsay went to sleep soon after. Rhia wasn't watching Shiek, but the wilds around. She didn't see the bloody symbol carving itself on Shiek's hand. But she did feel a presence of malice and utter evil…She looked around, but no one was there. Deeply scared and worried, Rhia continued her watch.

*

He was brooding. And pissed. Brooding and pissed; yes, that quite described his mood. So, that little fool Shiek had felt his presence. Not good, but not necessarily terribly bad either. From where he sat, he had very little power. But that puppet Damion was regaining much of it for him. He had won Damion over by telling him that once the royal family of Hyrule was dead, Damion would rule. But that was not the truth, not by a long shot. When Link and Shiek were killed, so Damion would be.

But why? came the voice.

He shuddered and wondered, for the zillionth time, where the voice had come from, when it had started. It enjoyed taunting him more than anything else it did. It whispered taunts and criticisms and analyzed him as he listened, trapped within his own head. "I'll tell you why," he growled. "Because Damion is powerful enough to steal the Triforce away from me!" He yelled that last bit, but no one could hear. He opened his mouth in an agonized yell.

In the tiny mountain village nearby, everyone heard the sound as the wind carried it near. The people all stopped for a brief second, shuddered, and continued on with their lives. They blamed it on the wind, and on the mountain and empty black castle at the top of the mountain. They called it Gerudo's Lament.

*

*

Simi: Ah, the plot thickens.

Lil' Blue Muse: Simi, do you even know what happened to Ganondork?

Simi: Seems like someone's rooting for the good guys.

Lil' Blue Muse: (*flushes a gorgeous purple*) Well, do you?

Simi: Sure. I don't remember, I never played the game…but I like to think I'm rather knowledgable in LoZ stuffages.

Lil' Blue Muse: That implies that you're not.

Simi: Well…I never did play it...

Winkybunnion! Do you like your character? I hope you do cuz I can't change her now! Also! Everybody! Please Review! It would make me immeasurably happier! Actually, a pizza and a soda would make me immeasurably happier, but I swear, Reviews (not the capital 'r') are a close second! And send in a character, because I'm telling you you know you want to!

Goonight, goodbye, I have to go babysit…thank you, I'm here till the end of eternity! Winged One