AN: Hello fellows. It has been quite some time since I updated, but believe me, I have been working. Wait no, I lied. I haven't been. But this is chapter 3. I hope you much enjoy it. reviews are accepted, especially negative ones. flames are stupid, but you can flame if you so desire. chapter 4 will be soon.

seriously.

Chapter 3

Miriam's typical day involved lots of work, including but not limited to taking care of her three younger siblings. The situation she found herself in was one of familiarity to her, for her mother was out asking around town about the robbery of only last night. She longed to go with her mother, for she knew herself that she had great ability to reason. However, Helen didn't trust anyone to watch her children today, for it was her belief that someone in Lakeland was a traitor and a thief.

Joe and Tutor were playing some sort of game in their room, as far as Miriam could hear. The only other responsibility that she had as of now was Thomas in his cradle. Fortunately he was asleep, so she had time to rest. Peaceful contemplation wasn't an event experienced very often in this household, so she was grateful for these few moments.

Miriam's mind wandered, and puzzled over a frequent question in her mind. Why would the enemy have left us alive? They seemed fairly cruel, at least from what her mother had told her. It just didn't make sense to her, to leave a helpless people alive. Unless…they needed something from us. Miriam's thought immediately went to the village supply that was taken the night before. In her mind, she almost arrived at the conclusion that it had been the same enemies who had sealed them in. However, after thinking it over for a second, she wondered why they would need such a small amount of wood, food and clothes. It just didn't make sense. According to Helen and lots of the learned folk of Lakeland, their numbers were immense. This small town's store would be too insignificant to explain the dark ones keeping them alive as harvesters. Once again, Miriam was puzzled.

Her dilemma was put on hold when a cry was heard from the baby's cradle. She hurried over to comfort Thomas. She picked him up and sat on the floor, free to think again. There had to be a reason why the magicians had sealed her in. They could have killed them. Why? It seemed to be a question without an immediate answer, so Miriam put it out of her mind for the time being.
Meanwhile, Helen's "interrogations" were going smoothly, but without wanted results. People Helen knew and trusted hadn't seen or heard anything suspicious last night, which was starting to frustrate Helen. She was sure that it was a Lakelander. In her mind, it was the only logical answer.

"A supply shed like that doesn't just empty itself," she muttered under her breath as she approached the next house. It was Ty's. Helen had never much cared for Ty, the two had never gotten along, mostly because most of the women in the town felt that Helen could have done a terribly better job than Ty was doing running the community. Nevertheless, this was the way things were, and were probably going to be for a while.

"Good afternoon, sir," she said politely. Ty grunted, as he was resting in his chair and probably unhappy that he was being bothered. "I just need to ask you a few questions, then you can go back to sleep if you wish." Helen was rather repulsed as Ty wiped the drool from his mouth and stood up.

"Alright," he mumbled. "Let's get this over with. I have no idea what's going on"
Helen sighed, and tried to follow the same pattern of questions that she had been using with the other Lakelanders today.

"Where were you last night?" she said slowly.

"In bed." Ty replied defiantly.

"When time was it when you retired?"

"I'd say it was around 10, I was pretty wiped out."

"Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary before then? People acting suspicious, anything?"

"Nope. Can I go back to sleep now?" Helen sighed, nodded, and got up to leave. She wondered if these interviews were going to help her at all, or if this was the wrong way to go about things. She only had two more houses to go, so she figured that the best thing to do right now would be to just finish asking around.

The next house she came to was Annas and Saphra's. Helen knocked, and when nobody answered, tried opening the door. Much to her surprise, an alarmed voice from inside snapped, "Don't you people have any patience? I'm an old man! Give me a minute." Annas' mood changed quickly when he saw that it was Helen trying to gain entry into his home, and welcomed her in, for even though he wasn't pure of heart, he knew the importance of manners in these situations.

"What can I help you with?" he inquired, sitting down at the table in the middle of the room. Helen sat down across from him, and just as she began speaking, Saphra entered the room, and surprised to see Helen there, he stopped in his tracks.

"Oh hello there miss." He said shyly.

"Oh yes, Saphra, I almost forgot about you.Would you care to join us?" Saphra shrugged and sat down next to Annas as Helen began her questioning.

A few minutes later, Helen was exiting the last house, the house of the Numers, friends of the family. She started to make her way back home, feeling that this afternoon had pretty much been a waste of time. The only interesting visit in her eyes was the talk she had with Annas and Saphra. According to Annas, they were taking a walk last night and heard some suspicious noises coming from the woods to the west of Lakeland. They weren't sure what the noises sounded like, but for Helen, any tidbit was good enough. She didn't know why someone or something would have been in the woods. They knew that there was a sizeable wall around the outside the woods as well. When they had first decided that they were going to try to live and establish a way of life around Lake Hylia, one of the first things Ty decided he was going to do was explore. He took a group of men, most of the men in the town, and circled the outside edge of the wall, just looking for a sign of a door or some way of escape. Their enemies had picked a good spot to seal the Kakariko in, for there was already a wall around most of the area, all they had to do was seal off a couple small areas, and the people were trapped.

Helen decided to call it a day as far as investigating went, for she was exhausted, and needed some time to take it all in. She arrived home, and was pleased to find Miriam had done a wonderful job taking care of the children, as nothing was broken, and all the children were still in one piece.

"How did it go, Mom?" Miriam asked, expectantly.

"You'll be glad you didn't go, it was fairly dull, nobody told me much of anything. I'm pretty disappointed, but I really don't know what I was expecting. I'll watch the kids for a while if you want to go out and play or something. After all, you've been inside with Thomas most of the day. Why don't you go have fun?"

Miriam was thankful that her mother would allow her to go play, because she hadn't expected to be able to do anything for a while, with her mother running a bunch of investigations and things of that nature. After all, the food would be scarce for a while, so it would be nice to get this problem figured out as soon as possible so everybody could go back to his or her normal lives.

Later that night, Miriam was talking with her mother at home, and learned that Annas and Saphra had heard some strange noises coming from the woods. Miriam was obviously intrigued, because she had been puzzling over this just as much as her mother had. Helen had ruled out the possibility that the woods had anything to do with this, and once she made up her mind, there wasn't really anything Miriam could do about it. Therefore, Miriam decided not to mention her decision to pay a visit to Annas and Saphra tomorrow. After all, what harm could come of a conversation?

XXXXX

Juran Goldhelm sat at the fire of his small encampment near the Zora's River, pondering if anyone had noticed his disappearance. It was probably around midnight, he thought, and decided that he should go to bed. After all, he had a big day ahead of him tomorrow. Earlier today he had been given orders not to assault Gargantuan, the fortress that potentially eliminated three peoples.

xxxxx

"But sire, not attacking could be..."

"I have made my decision, and I shall say it again. We are not going to attack yet. We don't know enough about our enemy. Good day, Goldhelm."

xxxxx

Those words cast a cloud of dismay upon Juran's aggressive and hopeful spirits. He thought the king, who had been feeling down on himself because he hadn't stopped the Dark Army thus far, would be extremely eager to launch an attack. His hopes were dashed, and apparently he was wrong. The skirmish yesterday morning had been the first real battle between the two forces, and Juran was extremely invigorated by the fact that they suffered no loss and minor injuries, while driving the enemy away and slaying what the soldiers believed to be about half their host. It was odd, he thought, that they hadn't really battled before then. The fortress had been there for around 11 years according to the reports from a man who fled to Hyrule Castle from Kakariko village named Lodeem. The only details they could get out of him before he died was that there was an attack a couple days before he wound up at Hyrule Castle, and he didn't think there were any survivors except himself.

His mind went to the Dark Army. Juran Goldhelm, Captain of all the king's armies, had fought and won many battles. However, when he fought this new enemy, it felt different. He didn't know why or how, but he could sense a real evil in the presence of these creatures. Some seemed like distorted humanoids that had extra limbs sewn on, others just seemed like carnivorous animals. He couldn't tell their age, or what sex they were, so he had no way to judge what type of a host was attacking him. After all, he had never seen things like this before. Could be genderless for all he knew. They didn't seem very strong, and he wondered how they would have taken on the Gorons, for the Gorons were known for their formidable strength, and wouldn't have given up easily. There must be thousands of these things, or they must have a secret.

Juran had directly disobeyed the king's orders. He was given an order not to attack. Juran wasn't usually a man to disobey his king. He was a noble man, a man of conviction. Today was different, however. Juran felt that the kingdom would be in serious danger if this looming enemy was not dealt with as soon as was possible. Besides, the king was in a semi-altered state of depression, and it could have affected his judgment. Therefore, this afternoon, he had gathered a surprisingly strong force to join him in this combination of an attack and a scouting. Juran wanted to fight against this Dark Army in the Dark Army's lair. He had seen Gargantuan, and it seemed impenetrable, but that was one of the reasons he wanted to attack soon. One, he knew the enemy was weak, and two, he had to find out if this fortress could be breached with any mortal army.

"Tomorrow I shall." He whispered to himself, and headed towards his tent.

XXXXX

Hyrule Castle was in a state of confusion. About fifty of its men were all missing, all soldiers in the King's Army, including Juran Goldhelm. This evening, the marketplace was filled with women asking around, wondering where their husbands had gone. It was a kind of rapture for the citizens, as they couldn't figure out where these men had either gone to or been taken to. The King gave strict orders that he was not to be bothered, so he heard nothing of this. Zelda however, while looking over the town, realized that something was wrong. She decided to make her way down to the bazaar where most of the townsfolk were gathered and see what the commotion was about. Much to her grief, she learned that men were missing, and the last anybody had seen of them was a couple groups of men leaving through the castle gate. Zelda asked a nearby woman why nobody had inquired where the men were going.

"It seemed like commonplace then, I mean, there's a few men taking a leisure walk in Hyrule field. I'm guessing nobody thought to ask."

That was the answer Zelda got from most of the women, more or less. Zelda's thoughts then went to Mortimas. How would he take this? She dreaded the moment when she would have to break the news to him. It had to be done, however, so she made her way back up to the castle.

Mortimas was fast asleep in bed when Zelda entered the royal bedroom of Hyrule Castle. She stared at him for a while, wondering why it was so hard to love this man. To even get along with this man. He was a troubled individual, and it had only gotten worse the longer they had been together. A divorce would only throw this kingdom off, however, so they decided that they would endure until death did them part. Love. It had become strange to her.

xxxxx

"Princess Zelda, is that you?" A voice spoke from above.

"Yes, it is, and by the by, it's Queen Zelda now." She answered in a matter of fact tone, trying to hide the fact for the time being that she was glad to see these people again.

A small figure dressed in green jumped down from a sycamore, and ran to Zelda, embraced her, and cried "Oh it's so good to see you again. I worry about you, now that you're running a kingdom!"

"Saira." Zelda smiled.

"Come, we have much to talk about!" Saira led her into her small hut, and the two got talking.

The Kokiri were an innocent forest people, all children, and children for life. Their innocence and good spirits were just what Zelda needed. However, the escape from society wasn't the only reason Zelda had ventured to Kokiri Forest. There was another reason.

Him.

This place reminded her of him.

It was so long ago, but she could still see his face clearly in her mind. The face of a hero. The face of the Hero of Time.

xxxxx

Zelda sighed and slid under the covers next to her husband. She didn't want to tell him about her journey to Kokiri Forest, for he had enough on his mind already. She decided tonight was a good night to rest, and let the morrow play itself out.

AN: That was exciting. actually not really, not a whole lot happened in this chapter. oh well. next chapter will have lots of fun-filled excitement. so...