Chapter 5! Woo-hoo! I'm sorry it took a while to review, I really am! I just haven't been in the mood to write. The third person in this chapter will be in italics. Note for the Future: Other points of view will be labeled and in bold. Okay, let's go…

Chapter 5 – Malon: Found

"Who is she?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know. I just found her by the river with a huge gash on her shoulder."

"Did you treat it?"

"Yeah. It should heal within a few days or so."

"How did she get by the river?"

"Well, the portal is right at the river…"

There was a brief moment of silence. Then the girl asked, "Do you think she's from…?"

"I think so," he said, interrupting.

"But why would one of her kind be here!" she yelled.

"I don't know."

"Where is she now?"

"Sleeping."

"Where?" she asked loudly. "She can't be sleeping in the d…"

"No, she's not. She's in the extra room. I have blankets and what-not. That's what they sleep on."

"Why would you have blankets?"

"Past visitors…the council confiscated their things, and some had things for sleep. They didn't want them, so I took them in case something like this would happen."

"You planned on housing one of them when you found one?"

He ignored her question.

"She's not welcome."

"Not by the council. But we can keep her here until she heals..."

"But, Kyle…"

"If we send her off right now with that injury, she'll never make it three steps out of this home."

"But if we keep her here and the council finds out we're housing one of their kind…You know the consequences!"

"Yes, Felicia, I know, but…"

"Of course," Felicia said angrily, crossing her arms.

"Of course, what!"

"You want to keep her here because you think she's cute, don't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"She's not one of us, and yet you're willing to care of her. You don't even know her name!"

"Not yet."

"Psh." Felicia turned quickly and ran down the slant to where she slept. Though she was stomping as hard as she could to show her anger, her bare feet made little sound.

Once again, Kyle had done nothing, but, still, he had made his sister mad at him. And, again, she'd be over it in a few hours.

I opened my eyes slowly. I felt soft blankets under me and on me. But the ground through the sheets was hard and bumpy. Where was I? I was supposed to be finding the cure for my father. I was supposed to be going to Gerudo Valley. I was supposed to…

I sat up quickly, but a massive wave of pain from my shoulder made me fall back down into bed. Plus, I hit my head on a low ceiling. I put my hand over my shoulder tightly and looked at it. It was covered in bandages. Some of the blood was seeping through. A think line of it was clearly there.

I didn't know what happened, but I knew it happened as fell. Something…or someone…had cut me…badly…And someone had healed me.

Then I realized that I didn't have my shirt on anymore. Instead, a ragged brown cloth was wrapped around my midsection, failing to cover a lot of my belly. I checked under the covers. My shorts were still there.

Then I looked around me. I was in a small cave, just small enough to house about two people, if they both stayed low. The ceiling, I knew, would hit me as soon as I sat up, so I sat up slowly, turning as I went onto my belly. I crawled toward the opening at the end of the cave.

When I made it through, the ceiling was high enough for me to stand. I was still in a small cave-like hallway. I walked through it. At the end of the hallway was a cloth like the one I was wearing, acting as a door. I pulled it aside and walked through.

I was inside what looked like a normal one-roomed home. The walls were plain wood. The floor was also wood, but had pieces of cloth like the one in the doorway spread in places on it, like rugs. On the left wall from where I was facing was another doorway blocked by a cloth. There was one table in the middle of the floor. Other than that, there was no furniture. At the table there were two chairs…and someone was sitting in one.

He was a well-built man, looking to be about 20 years old. His skin was slightly tan. His hair was black with silver tips, short and spiked. He wore a simple brown short-sleeved shirt with grey pants.

"Have a good rest? How's your shoulder?"

I walked over to the table, but didn't sit down. I put my hand on my shoulder and looked at it again. "It's okay. It doesn't hurt, at least."

He motioned toward the empty seat. "Please, sit."

I did as he said.

"So, did you have a good sleep?"

"Sort of," I said. "I'm not really used to sleeping on rocks."

"Well, you're lucky you got the blankets," he said, smiling. "We don't use blankets."

"You just sleep on the bare ground?"

He nodded. "Yep."

"How do you stand that?" I stretched out my back to get normal feeling in it again.

"Well, I guess we're just used to it. We sleep like that from birth."

"Doesn't it…I don't know...Make your back hurt or something?"

"No. We sort of sleep curled in a ball."

I pictured a family of people sleeping on the ground, in a small cave, curled up in balls…The image made me wonder about these people and their lifestyles, but I didn't ask about it.

I decided to change the subject. I gestured down to the rag wrapped around me. "Where is my shirt?"

"There was no hope left for that shirt. It was covered in blood and stains from the dirty ground I found you on. Plus it was ripped in multiple places. I had no choice but to toss it."

I looked down at myself. "Is this what all the women here wear?"

He paused for a moment, as if my sentence didn't make any sense to him. "No. It was just an old top my sister doesn't wear anymore."

"Who changed me?" I asked, suddenly thinking of the issue.

"I did."

I felt my cheeks heat up at the thought of a strange man undressing me while I was laying there unconscious.

He smiled. "Don't worry, I didn't do anything to you. All I did was heal your cut."

I put my hand back onto my shoulder. "How did I get cut anyway?"

"I think you hit a tree branch as you fell." He looked at the ground, pausing for a moment. "Um…mind if I ask you a question?"

I shifted in my seat to make myself more comfortable. "Yeah...sure…What is it?"

He looked up at me with a serious and solemn look on his face. "Where are you from?"

I stared at him. There was something in his eyes that hit me, some emotion that was directed right at me. It wasn't anger, love, or sadness…Then I realized what it was. It was fear. But why would he be afraid of me?

"I'm from Hyrule."

He looked back down at the ground and closed his eyes tightly, as if trying to shut me out of his thoughts. "What are you doing here?" It sounded almost angry.

"My father is deathly ill," I explained. "And I was told there was a cure here…"

"Ah…" he said in realization. "…another one…"

I looked at him with a confused expression on my face. "Another one? What do you mean?"

He looked up at me. This time the look he gave me was a mix of fear and sadness. But it was still mostly fear. "Unlike Hyrule, we don't have a king or queen. No one family or person rules us. Every pa…I mean, family…has a group of people who get together with groups from other…families…" He said the word "family" as if he'd never said it before. "These groups get together and they form what we call a council. They discuss any problems this world may have, and they all agree on things before we do anything. We always work together."

"Wow," I said. "That sounds nice. You know, wolves work like that, too…" I looked at him. His face was turned away now. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, you didn't," he said quickly. "Look, my point is, people from your world…they're not welcome here."

"Why not? What did we ever do to you people?"

"I don't know. I'm not in a position to know that. But my kind fears your kind. Any one of your kind found here is immediately executed."

I was beginning to dislike this place a lot. "So why am I still alive?"

He stood up and walked toward the door. He turned back to me. "Because I don't think your kind is all bad. I want to convince my people that yours are not as horrible as they think they are."

I stood up. "How would you know we're not horrible?"

He opened the door. "Because I'm good friends with someone you know, someone from Hyrule."

"Really? Who?"

Before I could even finish asking, he was already out the door.

I heard the rustle of a cloth curtain behind me. I turned to see who it was. It was a girl. She was about a head taller than me. Her hair was a silver-ish color, bordering between a shiny silver and a dull silver. It reached just below her shoulders. There was a line of black running along from left to right around her neck on her hair. She wore a tight black belly-shirt and black pants. Her eyes were a piercing blue color. She stared at me with anger so intense I thought it would burn a hole right through me. I assumed that this was the man's sister.

"Umm…hi." I held out my hand. Even though she scared the crap out of me, I thought that if I could get on her good side, she'd stop glaring at me. Or at least I wanted to stay off of her bad side, if I wasn't there already.

She looked down at my hand with disgust. I drew it back and put it by my side. "I'm Malon. I…"

"I know who you are," she spat back at me. "You're one of them. The people from Hyrule. The people who killed so many of mine. The people who consider us filthy animals with no place in the world."

"But none of us have ever met you. How could we have…?"

"You're just a mere girl, who has no idea of her world's history, aren't you? You don't know what happened to separate my kind and yours."

"But I didn't do anything…"

"All you had to do was be born one of them, and I'd already hate you."

I looked down at the ground. I thought that if I argued anymore, she'd kill me right on the spot.

"Can I ask you one question?"

"Psh. Fine, if you must."

I looked up at her. The anger was still showing, more vibrant than before. "If I could prove to you that my people aren't all bad, would you change your mind about hating us?'

She thought for a moment. Her angry expression didn't change, but I knew she was surprised by my question. "If you can, I'll try. But it has to be good proof, not some stupid excuse."

I nodded. "Okay."

She headed for the door. As she opened the door, she said, "But before you go looking for and good proof, I suggest you learn the history of our people, and of yours."

"How will I…?"

"The council could tell you. But if they see you, they'll execute you right on the spot. So you'll have to send my brother. At least he gets along with them more than I do."

"Who's your brother?"

"Did you see a man at the table this morning, thinking?"

"Yeah. I talked to him a bit, too."

"Okay. He should be back soon. He went out for fresh air, as I am going to do now. But you'll have to talk to him before six. That's when all of our kind goes out to…" She broke off. "Just, talk to him soon." With that, she left.

I was left alone once again, puzzled and confused as ever. Whatever was going on with these people, I was intent to find out. But I couldn't do anything now. I had to wait for the man to get back. I sat down in one of the chairs at the table, and I waited for a few hours.

The house was silent except for my quiet breathing. I got up every now and then to stretch. Once I got up, I saw a dark figure standing in the window. As soon as I had looked up it had ran away. Suspicious, but I didn't think anything of it.

A few hours later, the door opened. My first instinct was to run and hide. If it wasn't one of the people I'd met already, it'd be stranger who would either turn me in or kill me. But then I realized that I had nothing to hide behind, so I just sat there, staring as the door opened.

The man I'd talked to in the morning ran in from behind the door. He looked over to me. His expression was full of fear and panic. He ran over to me and grabbed me by the hand. He lifted me up and led me to the door.

I tried to free myself from his grasp, but his grim was firm. "What's going on!"

He looked back at me after he peeked out through the small opening he had left in the door. "A member of the council found out you're here. She's going to tell the rest of them and they'll come to get you. They'll also get me and my sister for not turning you in the second we found you."

My eyes widened. This girl he was talking about must have been the dark figure I was in the window a few hours ago. "What will happen if they find us?"

"We'll all die. You, me, and Felicia."

"Felicia?" Then it hit me. "Oh, your sister?"

"I take it you've met her?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

There was a brief moment when he smiled and looked at me. "Don't worry. She should eventually warm up to you."

"Doubt it," I said.

He laughed a bit. Then the happiness was wiped away when he slammed the door shut.

"They're here. Already." He dragged me out to a door across the room. We went through it, and we were outside, right at the edge of a dark forest.

"We're going in there!"

He nodded. "Yes." He was staring into the forest. "I can't see anything like this." H turned to me. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this." He balled his hand into a fist and raised it above my head.

"Wait, what…?"

I was cut off when he slammed his fist into the top of my head. MY head immediately stopped throbbing, but my awareness of the pain and what was going on around me faded away as I started falling. The man caught me. My last thought was, "I'm getting knocked out a lot."

Then everything was black…again.

YAY! FINALLY! I'm done with chapter 5! I'm SO sorry for the long time it took to review. I've just been preoccupied with other things lately. But, as I promised, I got it done as fast as I could. Please review! Thank you!