Disclaimer:The Legend of Zeldais property ofNintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto, all rights reserved. I am in no way affiliated with these companies, or any legal proceedings concerning The Legend of Zelda. This story has been written purely out of enjoyment, and is not intended to make a profit, steal ideas, or offend anybody. Any similarities between my work and anyone else's is purely coincidental.

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"Elements of Hyrule" — Chapter Twelve: The Road to the Castle

By The Last Princess of Hyrule

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"Did you hear that?" Link asked. He cupped one hand around his ear, trying to hear the sound more clearly.

"Hear what?" Navi asked, poking her head out from under his hat, where she had taken to hiding that day to escape the beating sun they were so unaccustomed to in the forest.

"That . . . sound . . ." he replied vaguely, trying to listen. Multitasking was not Link's strong suit and it was difficult enough for him just to hear the sound, much less try to explain what it was at the same time.

"Link, all I can hear is your heavy breathing!" snapped the fairy. She zipped out from under his hat and hovered a foot from his nose. Link had to go somewhat cross-eyed to see her clearly. "What're you listening for?"

"I think I hear a horse," he answered, hardly noting her words. He was rising slowly from his seat beneath the stunted tree, his eyes searching the bare hills surrounding them for the source of the whinny. "It sounds like it's close by."

"A horse? So what?" Navi failed to see the Kokiri's interest with the animal and she was beginning to get frustrated with their argument. "It's just another creature, big deal. I thought we were looking for the castle."

"Hylians are supposed to ride horses," Link tried to explain, brushing himself off, but his point was not as definitive as he wanted it to be. "If we find one, maybe we can ask directions."

Navi looked cross and doubtful. "Sure, whatever you want." With that, she darted irately back under his hat.

Fairies and sun obviously don't mix, Link thought to himself sourly as he started in the direction of the whinny. It was a long and tentative going; Link found himself forced to stop multiple times to listen in order to be sure he was traveling in the right direction. The sun was still bright in the sky but slowly moving down toward the western horizon, conveniently right in Link's eyes. The blinding rays made it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead of where he was going, so he was constantly stopping to hold a hand to his forehead and check his progress.

Before too long, however, he began to hear a noise more constant than the sporadic horse's whinny, the sound of someone singing. From far away, Link had difficulty hearing the words, but as he came closer to the source, they became fairly to make out.

"E tsoj acn't hlip afleng en vue weth tau,
Ssewi neim ays,
Ulny lufus shro en,
Tob e acn't hlip afleng en vue weth tau,

"Aishle e yast,
Duowl te ib a nes,
Fe e acn't hlip afleng en vue weth tau,

"Keil a veirre lwfus,
De hith sai,
Us te uugs,
Co htegns rai tnaem de ib,
Co htegns rai tnaem de ib,

"Atki aym adneh,
Atki aym hwuil lef uut,
Qua e acn't hlip afleng en vue weth tau,
Afleng en vue weth tau . . ."

It was a pleasant tune, a dancing, joyful, outdoors-type tune. The way the rhythm, the words, and the scale flowed over him gave Link the feeling of tall grassy plains and wide stretches of nothing but peaceful lands. Maybe it was just seeing Hyrule while he was hearing the song, but he felt it truly sang the essence of the open field. In a way, it reminded Link of a Hylian version of Saria's song, by the way made him feel.

"What's that music?" Navi called from her hiding place.

"I don't know."

The sound of the music was clear now and, amidst the tall strands of grass, Link could see several large shapes silhouetted by the sun. Squinting, he shaded his eyes and came closer.

The grass abruptly ended some few feet away and Link found himself standing on hard packed dirt, like a forest trail, only much wider. In the middle of the path was a large wooden box-like object with three wheels attached to the corners. The front right corner had no wheel and it dug sharply into the dirt. Piled inside the box-with-wheels were many smaller boxes covered with strange symbols.

Hitched to what Link took as the front of the box were two tired looking russet mares, the horses he had heard neighing, hanging their heads and searching the ground for a rare shoot of grass. Tied at the back was another big horse, this one black, and a small chestnut filly, both looking full of energy and ready to be moving. By the state of the wheels, it did not look like the wooden object was going to be moving anywhere anytime soon.

"Hey there!" called a voice from atop the pile of crates. "Who're you?"

A small figure climbed nimbly down and came over to him, moving out of the sun. The person who called to Link was young girl, a little smaller than he, about the size of a Kokiri girl named Rayti. This girl had bright mahogany hair that, when the sun's rays hit it directly, the way it was at that moment, turned a blazing copper. She had periwinkle blue eyes that were wide and curious, and a face that had never known the need to hide its emotions.

The little girl examined Link from top to bottom with an utterly confused look on her face, her forehead constricted and one eyebrow up. Link did not even have a chance to answer her question when she spoke again. "You're clothes are really weird," she stated blatantly in a high, twinkling voice, a sound like breaking porcelain, but in a somewhat pleasant way. "I've never seen anything like them before. Not anywhere. Not in Kakariko, not in Faykousni, not in Tyrandora, not even at the castle market!"

She walked around Link in an investigative circle, the boy trying to watch her as best he could. "You're not from around here, are you?" She stopped and put her hands on her hips, her chin jutting out in a frown. "Who are you, anyway?" she demanded.

"My name's Link," Link told her, feeling somewhat lost. How did she change moods so fast?

Navi peeked out from under Link's hat, catching the girl's attention. Her scowl instantly became an amazed gasp. "Wow, a fairy! You have a fairy! Then you must be one of those fairy boys from the forest!" She clutched her hands together in awe as Navi, realizing someone was admiring her, crawled onto Link's head and stood up, glowing brightly for show.

The girl smiled and turned back to Link, holding out a hand. "I'm Malon!" she declared brightly.

Link looked dumbfounded at the hand. Malon watched him expectantly. What am I supposed to be doing? Link wondered. After a moment, Malon reached out and grabbed one of his hands, then shook the two up and down in a vigorous motion and let go. Link was left to stare foolishly at her as the little girl giggled madly.

"You're really strange, Fairy Boy," she said.

Link confused look caused Malon to laugh harder, so hard it caught someone else's attention.

"Malon?" called a burly voice from the other side of the box-object.

"Dad!" Malon turned around. "Dad, there's a fairy boy here!"

From around the other side of the box came another person, a big, round bear of a man with patched denim overalls and a red shirt. His face was as round as his stomach and his expressions open, like Malon's, with no hair on his head yet very much on his face.

"A what?" the big man asked as he came over to Malon.

"A fairy boy!" sheproclaimed excitedly. "From the forest!"

The man looked down at Link. The little Kokiri took a step back, staring up at him in awe. The only big person Link had ever seen was the Gerudo from his dream who came to the forest, but he was so much different from this person. It was hard to believe they were both real when they had polar characteristics of the other.

"He's not dangerous, Dad," Malon was saying. "He just walked onto the road from over there." She pointed to the path Link had made through the grass.

The man turned back to his daughter, who beamed at him, showing all her confidence in Link's good character, and smiled, his thick brown mustache bristling. "My name's Talon," he said and held out his hand to Link.

This time Link grabbed it and shook it, the way Malon had his. Talon laughed. "What's a little guy like you doing all the way out here? I thought you fairy folk didn't leave the forest."

"I'm, uh, going to the castle to see the Princess of Destiny," Link answered. Though he did not think Malon and Talon held any intention of harming him, Link was reluctant to tell them of his quest. Something in the way the Great Deku Tree had stressed the urgency of its task left Link with the feeling that it was an important secret. But what else could he say?

Malon and Talon, rather than look threatening as Link almost expected, seemed confused.

"Princess of Destiny?" asked Malon. "Don't you mean Princess Zelda?"

"Who?"

"The Princess of Hyrule, silly!" she said with a giggle. "She's the one who lives in the castle. Say, we're going to the castle town to sell milk. Do you want a ride, Fairy Boy?"

"Malon—" started Talon.

The little girl looked up at him, her eyes wide and pleading. "Oh please, Dad, can we take him with us? I'm so bored just riding in the wagon and I want somebody to play with. Besides, he's going the same way and it's a long walk to Hyrule from here."

Talon looked unsure. "I'll think about it," he finally said, "but unless I get that wheel fixed, we aren't going anywhere."

"Oh, thank you!" Malon's face lit up in a smile and she hugged his waist tightly.

Talon's stern façade melted away into a goofy smile as he gently pulled her away and went back around the wagon, mumbling something about "getting back to work."

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The prophetess Havieze of Hylia finally left Zelda's bedroom just after midday. For a long time she explained to the young princess the events of Purhpciy fu hith Papuulcespi as they had occurred up to that point. Unfortunately, the explanations left more Zelda with more questions than answers about prophecy and her dream than ever, not to mention that she was thoroughly confused most of the conversation. So many questions rolled around in her mind that she didn't even know how to ask them all. The ones she did pose, however, Havieze answered only with a riddle "find the old scripts and surely you shall find what you seek" rather than explain plain out.

Frustrated as she was with the prophetess's mysterious character and shifty answers, Zelda kept herself well composed, as she had been taught during her etiquette lessons. It could mean bad things to upset a prophetess, especially one so strange and probably powerful as Havieze.

When Sir Talmar at last escorted the woman away, Zelda fell back onto her bed with a tremendous sigh. "My head hurts," she complained to Impa. "That woman talked too much."

"And said very little," Impa agreed, "but what I heard sounded very important. Did you listen carefully to what she said?"

"Yes."

"Good. You will have to tell your father about her as soon as you can." Impa looked serious. "I have a feeling he would very much like to know about this meeting."

"How come?" Zelda sat up and looked over at her caretaker seated in a plush chair on the opposite side of the room beside a cold fireplace.

Impa did not answer. Havieze of Hylia . . . that name was so familiar. The caretaker could remember years ago, on the night James's father was assassinated, when the castle received a visit from a blonde healer of the same name. Then there was a time before this, before Impa had even been in residence at the castle, on the day of Zelda's birth when her mother, Liana, met with a blind brunette claiming the same name and clairvoyance powers as Havieze had proved to possess today. Even if all three of them are the same woman, the first two meetings happened over ten years ago. Surely this Havieze would have aged some noticeable amount since then. Today she still looked only twenty, just like when I saw her heal James the night Clarence was killed . . .

"Impa?"

Zelda's voice brought the Sheikah out of her reverie. Impa gave her head a little shake and turned back to her charge.

"Do you remember what I told you about the night your grandfather died?"

Impa had explained the concept of assassination to the young princess several years earlier. Though her father had expressed his esteemed wishes that Zelda not be told until she was much older, Impa reasoned that it would be better for her to learn early and grow used to the idea than grow up wondering about her grandfather's death.

"Yes." Zelda had heard all the details, from the assassin's sudden leap from the shadows, to his arrows striking Clarence and James, to the knight who had put his own life in jeopardy to stop him.

"Your father would have died if it weren't for a healer who arrived at the castle that same night. She saved him, I don't know how, but your father lived because of her magic." Impa paused. "She said her name was Havieze of Hylia."

"How is that possible?" Zelda asked in shock.

"I don't know," Impa replied, mostly to herself. "I saw her today and she looked exactly how I remember her from that night. Except that her hair was blonde then . . ." Impa trailed off. "Well, it's of no consequence. It's high time that you dressed for the day."

Zelda groaned. "Can't you just tell me more about the prophetess? I don't want to go to lessons today."

"It's your duty, Zelda," said Impa, ignoring her request. Filled with purpose, Impa walked swiftly around the bed to the door. "I'm going to go find someone to bring up a hot bath, then I'll be back to get you some clothes for today."

As the door opened and closed again, Zelda squinted her eyes shut and clenched her hands into fists in frustrated exasperation. Why does she always have to be so stuffy when something interesting happens? She asked herself as she opened her eyes again and relaxed her body. Impa doesn't know anything about having fun. All she knows are rules and etiquette and proper behavior!

Zelda hopped off the bed and threw open the heavy drapes over her windows. Leaning on her elbows on the sill, the young princess looked out over the busy town of Hyrule spreading out below her. Beyond the Inner Wall, in which stood the magnificent Hyrule Castle, were clusters of mediocre wood-and-plaster dwellings in which the common folk lived. In the town square stood a fountain billowing crystal water, and brightly colored merchants' stalls attracted bustling crowds of people with all varieties of wares. Beyond this was the high Outer Wall, encircling and protecting the city from whatever threat might invade.

Everyone down there must be having a lot of fun. Since the ambassadors arrived, there've been parties every night. Everybody's celebrating this treaty and it's such a good thing for Hyrule, so why do I feel so unsure? It's a good thing, this alliance with the Gerudo, but still . . . something about it just isn't right.

There was a knock on the door and Impa entered, two servants carrying a heavy tub brimming with steaming water followed after. Reluctantly, Zelda wandered away from the window and left herself in the grooming care of her nurse.

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". . . And we had to wait for hours until the guy came back, but when he did, he told us he didn't have any money after all. Dad was so angry!"

Link and Malon were seated in the grass just off the road beneath the shade of a leafy tree. The farm girl was in the middle of a long, involved monologue telling Link about her father's latest trade with a merchant in a town called Tyrandora. It was a slow process, since she had to stop every now and again to explain things to Link, whose confused looks tipped her off that he knew very little about things in Hyrule.

"The guy got really, really scared when Dad got angry, so he said he'd give us something else instead. Then he brought out Epona—" Malon pointed to the chestnut-and-white pony tethered to the back of the wagon, "—and said we could have her, free of charge. Dad didn't want her at first, but I convinced him. Isn't she so cute?"

Epona yanked her rope and whinnied pitifully.

"Yeah," Link agreed. He was leaning against the tree chewing on a piece of bread Malon had given him. "But she doesn't look very happy tied up like that. Why don't you let her go?"

Malon looked appalled. "But then she might run away! I want Epona to stay with me forever."

Epona neighed again.

"You could at least give her something to eat," he suggested instead. "She sounds like she's hungry."

This cheered Malon up considerably. "Okay!" With boundless energy, she leapt to her feet and rushed back to the wagon to find some grain.

Link gave a tired sigh as Navi peeked out from her hiding place under Link's hat. "Is she gone?"

"Yeah."

The fairy crawled the rest of the way out. "Finally! I was beginning to wonder if she'd ever shut up."

"That's not very nice," Link commented.

Navi shot him a look. "Maybe you enjoy pointless rambling but I find it a bit, well, pointless. The girl just didn't have anything useful to say."

"I learned some useful stuff," said the boy. "This place we've been walking around all day is a field, we're about a day and a half from a town called Hyrule and that's where we'll find Princess Zelda."

"We didn't learn," Navi countered, "whether or not Princess Zelda and the Princess of Destiny are the same person, why there is a town called Hyrule and a country called Hyrule and yet they aren't the same place, or why Malon keeps calling Talon 'Dad'."

She had him there. Link had asked Malon why she called Talon Dad instead of just using his name. Malon looked at him as if he was crazy and answered that you just don't call your parents by their names, you call them Mom and Dad. Link asked what parents were, but Malon couldn't quite answer. She just kept saying, "They're your mother and father. Don't you have some, Fairy Boy?" Link had not been able to explain that, in the forest, there were no 'mothers' and 'fathers', just brothers, sisters, and other Kokiri. Both children were thoroughly confused after that and did not press the subject further.

"But who cares about all that," Navi went on, "when we're still a long way from the castle. We should just ask for directions and walk there on our own. We'll probably get there a lot faster than if we wait for Talon to fix his wheel."

Link groaned. "I don't wanna walk anymore. Besides, what if we get lost? Who knows how big this field place really is. It could go on forever."

"But at least we wouldn't have to put up with Miss-Incessant-Jabber."

Navi had a very good point, Link realized. Despite the fact that he did not like to think ill of Malon, considering she had fed him and answered many of his questions, she still ended up being more of a pest than a help.

"All right,"Link finally agreed, "we'll go on by ourselves."

However, just as he was getting up to ask Malon for directions to Hyrule, Talon's voice boomed over the other side of the wagon, "I've got it! It's fixed!"

He rushed excitedly around to where Malon stood tending Epona. Clutched in his hands was a big wooden wheel exactly like the three others already on the wagon, save that this one was fitted in several places with different colored wood, obviously product of repair, which Talon had been working on since Link found the wagon.

Malon smiled and hugged her father. "Does this mean we can get going?"

"As soon as I put this wheel back on its axel," Talon answered, beaming.

Malon rushed over to Link, her face flushed with giddy excitement. Talon bent over the corner of the wagon where there was no wheel and began to attach it. "This is great, Fairy Boy! We can get going when Dad puts the wheel back on! Won't that be great?"

Link forced a smile. "Yeah, wonderful."

The farm girl gave him a quick hug before skipping off again, singing her song at the top of her lungs.

"It's going to be a long couple days," said Navi pessimistically.

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At the castle, Zelda was finally clean and dressed for the day only to find that her History of Hyrule tutor has suddenly taken ill with a stomach sickness.

"I'm afraid your lessons have been cancelled for the day," Impa concluded upon giving Zelda the news. "None of your other tutors are feeling in top form today either." She gave Zelda a suspicious look, as if she thought the princess had made her tutors sick on purpose to get out of lessons. "I guess you have the day for yourself."

"Yay!" Zelda leapt off her chair and gave Impa a big hug. "Oh, thank you, Impa!"

"But there is something I would like you to do . . ."

Zelda heaved a sigh and backed away. "What?"

"Don't sound so pessimistic before I've even told you what it is," Impa said with a wink. "I want you to go to the royal library and find some books for me."

"Some books?" Zelda repeated.

"Yes, I want you to find The Book of Mudora, Prophecies of 2000 H.R. to Present, and Secrets of Hylia Lore. I think these are the old scripts Havieze was saying would tell you the answers to your questions. Find these books and look through them. I'll come to collect you later this evening when it's time to dress for supper."

"Why don't you come help me look?" Zelda implored. "There's a lot of stuff in those books I might not understand."

"Then I'll help you when I get back," Impa told her decisively. "I have some things I need to do. You know, errands and stuff . . ."

Without another word, Impa quickly turned and headed out of the chamber before Zelda could catch the guilty look on her face, but the princess knew something was going on that Impa was not telling her. Normally, Impa was far less obvious in her secretiveness, yet Zelda seemed to have a sixth sense for detecting things unspoken.

The princess shrugged her shoulders. Might as well do what she wants. It's not like there's anything else to do. With that, she headed toward the library.

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