Chapter Three

"Zelda?" Link exclaimed.

"Yes." K'arah said. "You are acquainted with her?"

"I've know her since I was about ten."

She frowned slightly as though considering something, tilting her head slightly to the side and pursing her lips. "This is very interesting."

Link looked closely at the package in his hands. "What's interesting?"

"Tell me, have you tried to open it?" K'arah asked, ignoring his question.

"Well, yeah." Link moved toward her and sat down on the stool next to his bed. "I couldn't get the knots to untie, though."

"Well, at least that means the spell is still holding. May I see it?"

Link passed the package to her. She examined it closely for several moments, inspecting the seals and intricate knots very carefully. Finally she settled it back into her lap, relaxed against the pillows, and turned her marvelously violet eyes on him. "Tell me, are you per chance related to the princess in anyway?"

Dumbfounded, it was all Link could do not to choke on his tongue. He coughed and sputtered for several moments.

"Okay, I guess that's a 'no'." K'arah answered for him. She glanced at the package in her lap again. "Then why can you touch it?"

Link didn't know what to say.

"Don't answer that." She glanced over to where Saria was standing next to the doorway. "How long do you think it will be before I can travel?"

"Several days, at least. I want those wounds to be well into healing before you even look at a saddle. All that bouncing around will just pull them open again." Saria said.

K'arah made a small sound of displeasure. "I suppose it can't be helped. May I walk around?"

"If you feel up to it." Saria was looking at her as though she thought something was up.

Without waiting for anything else, K'arah swung her legs off the side of the bed and gingerly rose to her feet. Caught unawares, Link almost choked on his tongue again. After all, the only thing K'arah was wearing was one of his old shirts. She wasn't a short girl, and his shirt only came about a third of the way down her thighs. Speaking of which, her aforementioned limbs were long, slender, and leanly muscled possessing a deep golden bronze hue.

Saria jumped to her feet. "Now wait just a minute, you can't go parading around this village wearing that!"

Puzzled, K'arah looked down at herself. She twisted and looked at the back of herself, then looked back at Saria. "Whyever not?"

Saria very nearly had an aneurism. Link was having problems breathing, as his tongue seemed to be trying to retreat into his stomach. "This is a village of children!" Saria exclaimed, stomping her tiny foot. "You absolutely may not go parading about half-naked."

Genuinely perplexed, K'arah sank back down onto the edge of the bed. "I'm decent enough. My pelvis is covered and so are my breasts. What more do you want?"

Link felt decidedly faint. 'Where does she come from? A land of naked people?' He thought.

Saria looked about to pass out from a combination of shock and upset. "You can't wear that; you need to put on more clothes. At least some pants."

"Well, you said you took my clothes for laundering." K'arah shrugged. "What else should I wear?"

Apparently satisfied that K'arah was amenable to wearing additional clothes, Saria calmed down somewhat. "Link, you must have something else you could loan her."

Finally regaining his Goddess' given gift of speech, Link exclaimed, "What am I? Do I look like a general store to you? I get rid of clothes that don't fit me any more. I don't have space to store tons of stuff, plus I travel all the time so it's not like I can take all that much with me."

Looking decidedly panicky around the eyes Saria looked at K'arah again.

"Okay, well…" K'arah trailed off, looking around the room for something with which to cover herself. She wasn't sure why it was such a big deal, though, and figured that their customs must just be different. Lacking anything like true clothes, K'arah took up the bed sheet, folded it into a large triangle, and wrapped it about her waist twice, tying it in a knot at her right hip. There was enough of a gap that she could still move fairly freely. "There! Is this acceptable?" She turned once in a circle.

"It's better." Saria sighed. "But I suppose it will have to do until I can mend your clothes for you."

"Nonsense, just bring them to me. I'll mend them myself." K'arah said. She moved her arm a bit experimentally. "This feels better the less I think about it."

Saria nodded and moved towards the door. "Alright, I'll get them for you." And she was gone.

K'arah moved towards the door as well and glanced out past the beads. After a few moments she turned back to Link. "I must leave as soon as possible. I can't afford to wait for days. I want to leave tonight."

Link frowned at her abrupt change in demeanor. A few moments ago she had been almost bubbly. Now she was all business. "What's the hurry?"

"I have to get that package to Princess Zelda as soon as possible. Some one's after it, and he'll catch up to me eventually. I wouldn't want that meeting to take place here."

Link understood that variety of urgency. He'd experienced it many times himself. "I understand. Do you have the strength?"

"Not really, but that's unimportant." K'arah said with a shrug. "What I'd really like to do is get the things I left behind after I was shot. I wonder if my horse is alright."

"I could take you back to the spot where Saria and I found you." Link offered. "From there we could try and track your path back to where you started."

"That would be much appreciated." K'arah said. She shifted her shoulder again. "Would more of that potion help this heal faster?"

Link glanced at the bottle on the table and rolled his eyes. "Why didn't she give you the whole bottle?" He sighed and grabbed it up, unstoppered it and offered it to her. "Down it all. I know it tastes like shoe soup, but she should have given you the whole thing in the first place. I think she thinks it's unhealthy."

K'arah pulled a face as she swallowed the last of the potion, shuddering at the horrible flavor and the wave of heat that swept through her body, concentrated at her shoulder. "Is it?" She shifted her shoulder again and found the pain to be nearly gone.

"No." Link took the now empty bottle and poured a bit of water in from a pitcher on his table. "It's made from natural ingredients and fairy magic. The only thing that could possibly be more wholesome is cuckoo soup."

"What's a cuckoo?" K'arah began gingerly unwinding the wrappings that had held her left arm against her body.

"It's a kind of bird that we eat." Link said. He sloshed the water around inside the bottle the carried it to the window and dumped it out. "About yea big," he held his hands about a foot apart and made a rotation around the empty space with his hands, "White feathered, makes a clucking sound, nasty temperament."

"Oh, a chicken." K'arah said, understanding the description.

"Sure." Link shrugged and set the bottle back on its shelf. "If that's what you call it where you're from."

"Uh-huh." K'arah removed the last of the bandaging and slowly raised her arm. All the pain was gone, though her muscles felt as though she'd been lifting a boulder overhead, and she felt quite able to continue about her task.

"How's that feel?" Link asked.

"Almost new again." K'arah assured him. She rolled the wrappings into a messy wad and set them on the table. She stretched her arms over head, locking her fingers then, pulling them down as far as she could behind her head, she stretched the muscles on the fronts of her shoulders. "Ahhh."

Link glanced outside again when he caught the sound of Saria's humming. He watched her come up the ladder with a wad of clothing under one tiny arm and held aside the beads for her.

"Thank you, Link." Saria said as she bustled inside. "It's nice of you to actually…" She trailed off when she saw that K'arah's wrappings had been removed.

To head off the explosion that was building, Link caught Saria's attention and explained. "I gave her the remainder of the bottle. She should have had it all in the first place."

Hissing between her teeth, Saria narrowed her eyes at her childhood friend. "That stuff is too strong to be taken all at once."

"Nonsense, Saria. For an adult Hylian a whole bottle is the proper dosage. For a child or one of the Kokiri half would do. But since K'arah is neither a child nor a Kokiri and she's almost certainly an adult she should have had the whole thing in the first place."

Both being stubborn, and neither willing to admit defeat, this argument continued for several minutes slowly gaining volume and momentum until they were both nearly shouting at each other. Finally Saria threw up her hands and stormed out of Link's house, beads dancing crazily on their strings at her passage, and stomped down the ladder as hard as her little body would allow. Link followed her to the door and yelled after her, "If you break my ladder, you're fixing it!"

"Go jump off Gerudo Bridge!" Came the reply.

Once Link had calmed down a bit he turned back around to see that K'arah had settled herself on his bed once more and was patiently placing tiny stitches along a tear in her own shirt. Not a tear, rather an arrow hole at the shoulder of the garment.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that."

K'arah glanced at him and smiled almost playfully. "I have many siblings. I'm well aware of how well they fight. I'm an expert myself."

Swallowing past the lump in his throat that had appeared with her smile, Link began to move around his house gathering up the things he would need for their journey.

K'arah could not help but notice the pattern in his chosen implements; rope, grappling hook, bottles, food stuffs, a spare change of clothes, several interesting looking weapons, the list went on. "Were you planning to accompany me?"

Startled after the long silence, Link glanced at her. "Well, I thought you might like my help. You've never been here before so you won't know your way around; there are animals and plants here that you should avoid, plus bandits and so on. Plus I haven't seen Zelda in months and it would be nice to catch up." A sudden thought occurred to him. "You don't mind my tagging along, do you? It was rude to assume."

K'arah waved off his apology and shook out her pants. "No, don't apologize. I was just asking. I would certainly welcome your company and guidance." She rose to her feet and began undoing the knot in the bed sheet she had around her waist. "I've made all the repairs I'm willing to put into these old clothes. On they go!"

Link spun rapidly and dashed out his door. The sunshine outside provided a relative haven to the image that had danced to the front of his mind; K'arah as she had been earlier that morning, wearing only his shirt, one shoulder exposed and her long, lean legs bare. He shivered. "You've got to give me some warning before you do that."

"What?"

"Start taking off your clothes. It's rather shocking."

"What strange customs you have here. Are you all so conscious about personal exposure?"

"Nevermind, just please give me some warning next time."

"I'll try and remember."

"Try hard." Link muttered, too quietly for her to hear.

A few moments later she emerged, stamping her feet into her boots which she had doubtless found beside his door where they'd been left that morning. Her outfit was obviously foreign, made largely of dark leathers and pale beige muslin. She had of a full sleeved tunic that was cut close to the shape of her body and came down just past her hips. Over that she wore a dark brown leather vest that fit her like skin. The vest was sleeveless, though it did protrude out a little from her shoulders to a rounded point and seemed well padded. It laced up the front and sides with a dark slender cord and the vest only came just to the tops of her hips, making her tunic look a little like a short skirt. Her pants were snug and wrinkled at the hips and knees, and the leather was scuffed and worn, evidence of their heavy use. Her belt was wide and hung with various implements and necessities; money bag, several differently sized and shaped pouches, and a sturdy dagger at her right hip while another matching dagger was strapped to her left thigh. Her boots came up to mid calf and looked to be well traveled. Her cloak was mottled dark green and grey and seemed to have a tendency to make his eyes slide away from her and gave him a slightly unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was caught in a cleverly fashioned broach at her throat and the deep hood hung down her back almost to her waist. Her hair had been braided again and was held in a coiled pile on top of her head by a set of slender sticks. All in all she looked like a very well put together traveler.

"I'm not entirely happy with the mending, but it will have to do until I either retrieve my belongings or buy new ones." She shifted her belt and sighed. "I must admit, it feels nice to wear my own clothes again. Not that your shirt wasn't serviceable, but I like a nice snug set of leathers when I'm traveling."

"Cultural peculiarity?" Link queried as he ducked past her into his house again.

"I suppose." She moved to the table and picked up the package for Zelda. "In Andor we take great pride in our ability to produce some of the finest animals and animal products in the world. My family's holdings are substantial, but our true wealth lies in our horses and our services to the King and the Hierocracy."

Puzzled slightly by her explanation, Link gathered together the remainder of his things. At one point when he was a child he had acquired a very useful item. It was a satchel of only medium size, but no matter how much stuff he put into it, it never got full nor did it ever become cumbersomely heavy or oddly shaped; rather, it always stayed a comfortable size and weight. He began placing things into this bag, rhythmically picking up and putting in.

K'arah's eyes grew larger and larger at the sheer volume of the things he would take with them and the sack's apparent bottomlessness. "Where ever did you acquire that marvelous sack?"

"Picked it up on an adventure as a kid."

"I wish I had one like it."

"I think there's just the one."

"Can I buy it from you?"

"It would take a king's ransom to part me from this sack. It's far too useful."

"I may have to steal it, then."

Link looked at her in alarm but immediately saw the joke dancing in her eyes. He glanced at the package she held protectively against her chest. "Would you like me to put that in here so you don't have to carry it?"

Her arms tightened reflexively around the object and she edged away from him one step. "Thanks all the same, but I think I should hang on to it."

He sighed and went back to packing and soon was finished. He pulled on his hat and settled his sword belt around his torso. He then pulled on his cloak, which had an opening in it for his sword hilt to stick out for easy access. K'arah took up her odd sword-staff and followed him outside and, after he'd grabbed his saddle from its place beside his door, down the ladder.

After Zelda sent Link back through time, after his return from the other-world of Termina, Link had done some re-modeling work on his home in the Kokiri village. For one thing it had higher ceilings and doorways now, but he had also built a tiny stable underneath the tree house as a place for him to keep Epona when she wasn't out on her own. It was only big enough for one horse, but there was plenty of interior space to move around in and it had lots of storage.

K'arah gasped in awe when she saw Epona. "What a magnificent horse!" She breathed.

Link smiled at the overwhelmed expression on her face. He clucked at Epona gently and she came to the edge of her stall, whickering pleasantly. He tossed a saddle blanket across her back and thumped the saddle into place. She threw him a slightly reproachful look at the rough treatment, but he rubbed her neck in assurance and bent to tighten the saddle girths.

"She's beautiful. Where did you get her?" K'arah asked from her position on the outside of the stall.

"She was a gift from the owner of Lon Lon Ranch here in Hyrule." Link answered as he settled the bit in Epona's mouth and drew the bridle back over her head. "I helped him out one summer as a labor hand when one of his men left, and Epona took a liking to me. So instead of paying me for my labor he gave me a horse."

"Quite the gift." K'arah stretched a hand out and gently stroked Epona's velvety nose. Pleased at the attention, Epona moved forward for more, but stepped on Link's foot in the process. After some moderate cursing, Link limped out of the stall with his horse in tow. He pulled her outside and closed the gate behind K'arah.

Hoisting himself into the saddle he lent a hand down to K'arah. She took it and he pulled her up behind him. She gently placed her hands along his sides for a grip of some sort, and Link became acutely aware of her presence; her hands on his sides, her thighs touching his, her warm breath on his neck.

This trip through the forest might feel longer than it should.