Disclaimer: I, the author, do not owe Legend of Zelda®: Ocarina of Time™ or any of the game characters used in this story. Original characters are owned by the author of this story. All Rights are reserved.
A very surprised and somewhat terrified Airas, not knowing what to expect, was led underneath a long stone arch corridor before brought out to one of the largest courtyards she had seen. The field was a large decagon with a small stream flowing around it, beautiful flowers blooming colors of the sunset all around in circular patterns. Ahead was a small staircase leading up to a dais overlooking a window, a view presented of the castle indoors.
Zelda stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and with eyes never opening, turned to Airas and looked up into her face, knowing the girl stood well above her.
"Seeing that I have caught your interest now, might I make a bargain with you first before I tell you of the dream?"
"A bargain?" Airas asked, knowing the word from making trades with Tima, Deku roots to make Deku wine in exchange for story-telling.
"Yes. Come, sit."
The two sat on the stairs while Rael came to stand beside the queen, eyeing the both of them with his own reserved interest.
"I wish to see of how much knowledge you know," Zelda inquired. "Else you may know nothing of what the dream means if I tell it to you."
"Are you sure she is the one to tell?" Rael asked. Zelda nodded. Airas noticed his hand rested on the hilt of his sword and suddenly felt uneasy, tension building up as she pondered if she could reach her dagger in her boot quick enough. Sitting, her head barely came to his waist, even when sitting a few steps higher than the ground he stood on. His body towering over her and the queen, she wondered how her mother could not shiver in his dark shadow he cast over her.
"All right," Airas said, turning her attention away from the intimidating captain. "But how will you be able to tell?"
"I will test you," came the simple reply. "Just a few questions, nothing too hard."
Airas was about to nod when she remembered the queen could not see, answering instead, "Fine. Ask what you will."
"Very good. Can you name at least ten animals?"
Airas could not even name half of what was asked.
"I see. Looking up at the sun, can you tell what time it is?"
The Kokiri-born girl confessed she only knew when it was noon.
"That is better than knowing nothing. Do you know what the Triforce is and the legend behind it?"
Airas could only shake her head, noticing the appalled look on Rael's face.
Even Zelda seemed slightly surprised of this. "Saria told you nothing of the Triforce or the legend?"
"No. I was taught that if I am not told the answer I seek from asking a question, that I should explore and find it on my own. I was also taught that some things should be heard from others than from those you ask."
The Queen of Hyrule smiled, her brown cloak shifting as she stretched out her legs more comfortably. "Perhaps I can do both. One last question. Do you know of the sages?"
"Sages?" Airas asked, the word familiar to her.
"I doubt she will know of them if she does not know of the Triforce," Rael said sharply.
Zelda kept her face turned to Airas. "Do you know the word?"
"I heard of it before, from Keihs. He was speaking of the Forest Sage."
"Keihs," the captain muttered. "What does that whelp know?"
"Be gentle now," Zelda commanded her escort firmly.
Closing her eyes, Airas forgot all that was around her and focused on only the single word, her method of treating it as a name coming natural to her as breathing.
Sage. Protectors of the Realm. Insignias. Temples.
These visions came to her clearly, yet slightly began to blur when a familiar view came to her closed eyes. The Door. The three triangles.
Shuddering, she shook her head before the door could be opened, before the impalement of her father could be seen. She wondered than if the queen had had visions of Link in the same manner.
"Ah," Zelda said, smiling. "You know."
"I do not understand—"
"Nor do you need to. Not as of yet," Zelda interrupted gently. "I see how you come to know of things that are new to you. How you explore."
"You see this?" Airas asked in disbelief.
The older woman laughed. "I suppose you wonder why my eyelids remain closed. It is because I am blind, child. I can no longer see. My sight is gone."
"How did that happen?"
Rael intervened with clearing his throat, eyeing Airas carefully. "Your Highness, I do not wish to be rude, but the council is expecting you. It is ten past."
Looking up into the sky, Zelda could feel the rays of the sun and deciphered from where it sat. "Oh, is it time already?"
She began to stand, declining the offer of Rael's arm with the shake of her head. Airas stood quickly, her own arm reflexively outstretched, Zelda grasping it with a smile.
"Ah, your warmth is inviting," she said, beginning to lead the two out of the courtyard, stopping in the middle at the center of one of the patterns of flowers. "You heat an old woman's cold bones."
Turning, she looked up to Airas, a hand reaching up to caress the girl's soft cheeks, and for a moment, Airas could feel eyes the color of sapphires on her, looking into her very soul.
After a moment, Zelda turned to Rael. "Captain, make arrangements for Airas to stay here at the castle. Explain the situation to Malon when she comes looking for her."
"And what is the situation?" Rael asked, his face in a heavy frown.
Zelda released Airas's arm from her grasp and began to steadily walk off of her own with a natural grace at her walk, walking with pride and confidence that would not be yielded. "That I am settling my part of the bargain. Airas is to remain here and learn the knowledge needed until she may understand my dream."
She stopped for a moment and turned. "Forgive me, Airas, I meant your dream."
Smiling, she vanished around the corner.
After a moment, Rael sighed heavily in irritation and looked down at Airas who met his gaze with eyes full of questions. He had no intention of answering any of them.
"Since when was I made to look after a child?" he asked bitterly.
Airas's eyes narrowed. "I am not a child."
"Oh no?" The captain asked in sarcasm. "I know a handful of children that are scholars compared to the knowledge they know you are not even acquainted with."
"A shame than they lack the wit to be acquainted with you, else they would know better," Airas shot back.
The words had really slipped from her tongue, she had not meant to say them aloud. Afraid, she only looked on to wait for Rael's apparent temper to surface and strike at her with his sword he seemed so ready to unsheathe, yet was surprised when a faint smile crossed his pink lips, impressed by her quick remark.
"So you can smile," she said in awe, watching as his anguished expression transformed into the handsome face of a gentle man.
"There you are!" a voice called out, Airas turning to see Malon walking up to them. "I have been searching all around for you."
"I am sorry, Malon," Airas said, bowing her head.
"Where were you?" the woman asked, catching Rael's eye. "And what are you doing here? Your boys have been muttering some nonsense about magic and ominous winds or something like that."
Rael muttered a curse under his breath that was too low for either of the females to hear, snatching Airas's arm. She let out a painful yelp, looking up at him startled, quickly turning into anger.
"Under Queen Zelda's orders, Airas is to remain here in the palace until give permission to be released."
"By the Triforce! What for?" Malon asked, scowling already the moment Rael's hand touched Airas.
"Queen's orders!" he barked. "I need not explain why."
Airas sighed beneath his grasp. "Queen Zelda told me she had a dream, a prophecy that I was to fulfill," she explained, though had no idea what any of it meant herself. "She says I do not have the knowledge to understand the dream, therefore she wants me to stay here until I learn enough. Than she will tell me the dream."
"All this over a silly dream?" Malon remarked, appalled at such a strange reason for being ordered to remain in the palace. "She thinks with the wave of her hand she can lock up anybody here like a prisoner for a whim?"
"Woman, you will hold your tongue, lest I bring you to the council for treason," Rael growled, his hold tightening until Airas's thought her arm would lose all feeling.
"Treason?" both her and Malon asked.
"Speaking against the queen will not be tolerated in any form."
"Oh, she has you trained well, doesn't she?" the older woman murmured, though loud enough to make sure Rael heard. "Her little dog at her heels, obeying obediently at the snap of her fingers. Even the flinch of an eyelid would bring you running to her as if you had an itching in your pants!"
"Malon," Airas began, "the queen cannot open her eyelids, because she is—"
"Wench!" Rael snarled. "I would suggest you remove yourself from royal ground unless you wish for my boys to remove you themselves. And at the snapping of my fingers will they have you running with an itch of their own to see you satisfy!"
"Bastard!" Malon shouted, bringing her hand up to land her palm on the side of Rael's face. Neither her nor Airas saw as Rael brought his own hand up to catch the rancher's, the sound of flesh slapping onto metal instead. Malon cried out and tried to pull her hand back, but his metal fingers had already wrapped around hers in a death grip, Malon's face paling at the pain.
"Let her go!" Airas screamed. She did not even give herself time to think as she mimicked Malon's gesture and brought her hand to slap Rael across the face. She did.
Hard.
Airas's hand was throbbing, yet she knew Rael's pain would be greater, and that was satisfactory enough. His head had turned sharply to the side, and when he slowly turned it back, his eyes were aflame, piercing into hers with fury threatening to be unleashed.
A trickle of blood seeped down from the corner of his mouth where her hand had whipped so swiftly across his skin, it tore at it. His whole right cheek was red, steadily turning into a light shade of violet.
"Ha!" Malon cried out, despite the feeling her bones were being crushed in her hand. "Serves you right, you dog! So everyone says no man has ever struck you before? That's because you've never faced a woman."
Slowly Rael's eyes averted to Malon, and Airas feared than his fury would be brought down on her friend instead.
"Guards!" he shouted, his voice so loud it made both women wince. The word echoed throughout the courtyards, until several pairs of feet and metal slapping metal could be heard nearing toward them. Soon the four guards from earlier came around the corner, their pace quickly slowing and approaching with caution at the sight of their captain's face.
"Yes sir?" a bold one asked, the other three taking slight comfort standing behind him.
"Take her back to Lon Lon Ranch!" Rael growled, throwing the woman at them. "And make sure she does not try to come back! The next time Quinn sends out a delivery, you will fetch it and bring the supplies here yourself! Understood?"
The guard caught Malon effortlessly with gentleness, only to be shoved back when Malon pushed away from him in disgust, directed toward Rael.
"You blasted, filthy, low-down—" Malon began, shouting again, only to be hushed when her eye caught Airas's. Silently, the girl was pleading with her to cease. Rael was already burning in flames alit by anger. She was only feeding the fire with her tidbit remarks.
"All right," she said instead in a calm voice with quite a bit of visible effort. "Have it your way. But if I hear you so much as harming a hair on her flesh, I will put your own sword through your neck, and to hell with Queen's orders!"
Airas was shocked with Malon's outburst, the woman's face redder than her hair, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. Malon came forward and hugged her tightly, despite Rael being right next to her with his unmoving hand still on Airas's arm.
"I am sorry," Malon whispered hoarsely, soaking the girl's bare shoulder. "I could not protect my own daughter, and again I have failed with you. But I promise, that woman will not keep you from me!"
Confused, Airas stared at Malon in dismay as she slipped her arms off her shoulders and turned away, walking back to the awaiting guards who held sympathy in their gazes. Airas did not fully understand why this was being treated as such a tragic loss. She would return eventually…wouldn't she?
When Malon and the guards were out of sight, Airas felt the grip on her arm loosen, feeling pain once again as blood flowed freely through her body, tingling in massive waves at her rapid pulse. She looked up to see Rael staring at her, uncertain of what to make of his expression. He himself seemed lost in thought as he regarded her silently through his mind.
"What?" she finally asked, beginning to feel uneasy in his gaze.
"What I felt from you…just now," he said, his metal hand feeling his cheek, flinching at the sting of it.
"I am sorry about that…I was just afraid you were going to hurt Malon."
"I would never harm her intentionally. That woman just does not know when to stop." He shook his head. "And I did not mean the slap either."
"Than what did you mean?" Airas asked.
Rael's green eyes only stared into hers for a moment before turning away. "Nothing important."
When Airas did not move, he only looked over his shoulder, still walking. "You better keep up or you will get lost."
Gathering her skirts, Airas questioned herself why she was even following this man as she took off after him.