Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda

Missing

Chapter 3: The truth

Armelle stopped and stared blankly at the girl. "Yo…your sister! What do you mean I'm your sister! Cremia and Romani are my only family!"

The girl looked down at Armelle with a sad look. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"Of course I believe you! It's just…um…come as a very big surprise to me, that's all." Armelle choked up.

"ARMELLE!" She heard Cremia scream again.

"We have to get going, maybe you can actually explain what's going on after breakfast." Armelle said and started running while holding onto Tula's reins.

Once at the barn, Armelle helped the girl down and tied up the horse to a post. They walked through the front door only to be greeted by Cremia's "I'm going to kick your ass" look. Romani was sitting patiently at the table as usual.

"uh…hiya!" A sweat drop ran down Armelle's face.

"Yeah yeah…save it. So who's your new friend?" Cremia asked.

"This is uh…"

"Merina." The young girl spoke up.

"…Merina. Well…nice meeting you. Well, since you're here please join us for breakfast." Cremia tried to be polite while still steaming from Armelle.

"Thank you." The young girl bowed as sat next to Romani. "Hiya! I'm Merina, who are you?"

"I'm Romani." Romani answered back quietly. "How old are you?"

"I'm eight!"

"Ok…it's time to eat! Hurry up before it gets too cold" Cremia set a huge bowl full of porridge on the table and sat down.

"So where are you from?" Romani asked while taking a bite of the hot food.

"Hyrule." Merina answered quickly.

"I see…" Romani said with no knowledge of what Hyrule was. "Is it far from here? I mean, it looks like you've traveled quite a distance to get here."

"Romani! Where are your manners!" Cremia barked.

"I'm just asking a question!" Romani snapped back.

Armelle stared at Romani and Cremia after stopping to put her spoon full of food in her mouth. Romani had never snapped like that before.

"It's ok, I don't mind questions." Merina said with a smile.

Cremia sighed and drew her attention back to her bowl.

"Hyrule is far from here. It took me three days to get here. I'm sure mommy and daddy are starting to get worried." Merina said joyfully, like most kids do.

"Wow…you traveled pretty far for an eight-year-old. You know you could've been picked up by one of the robbers or monsters in the woods." Cremia halfway scolded. "So what possessed you to come out here?"

"I am on a quest!"

Cremia laughed. She knew that children had a wild imagination. "Haha…look. I know how kids your age are. You get bored of the same old things in town and venture out into the wild lands outside of Clock Town. Because of children's robust imaginations, they like to believe they're on a quest as if they were some legendary hero. Everyone knows that Hyrule is just a city made up in folklore that the old folks like to tell."

Merina's face quickly turned from joyous to sorrowful. "But I am on a quest! And I AM from Hyrule! I'm here on search for my sis—"

"AHHH!" Armelle screamed, interrupting Merina. Everyone stared at Armelle. "Uh…I saw a spider…" She tried to fib. There really wasn't a spider. Armelle didn't want her telling Cremia and Romani about Merina and herself being sisters.

"Get a backbone, Armelle." Cremia growled.

Armelle blushed red. "Well…I think I should get into town before the crowd hits. I need to pick up some things and get food for dinner."

"Alright. Make sure you take Merina with you since you brought her here. She's your responsibility now."

Armelle bowed to Cremia and walked out the door with Merina. They walked to the barn where Tula was and headed off. This time Armelle was riding with Merina in front of her. After galloping along the long, dusty road the two finally made it to Termina Field where the city walls could be easily seen.

"Oh! There's that place where I came from! Everyone seemed scared and the guards were mean." Marina pointed out as Armelle jumped down to tie Tula up to a tree.

"You mean Clock Town. The people are generally scared of strangers, but they are really nice people if they get to know you. The guards are very protective because if you wander too far into the woods you can turn into an imp or worse." Armelle tried to sound intelligent. "What do you mean you came through there?"

"I came from Hyrule through that town!" Merina followed Armelle as she walked through the huge door of the wall.

Armelle raised an eyebrow. "That's impossible."

"No it isn't! I went through daddy's old maps to find a way to get to a place called Termina. But it wasn't on one of the normal maps that we saw around the local kingdoms. Once I found the map I followed the path until it took me to this underground place and then through these double doors that opened up into the town." Merina said quite intelligently for an eight-year-old.

Armelle blushed because she felt dumb compared to her "mini-me". "Ok…ok…lets just get what we need and go. Cremia hasn't been too thrilled with me lately." She said as she started to pick up some fruit from the nearby vendor.

The sun was high and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The town psychic said it would be record heat today. Armelle hopped from one vendor to another, completing Cremia's list. Merina started getting antsy after a bit. She had her father's adventurous spirit.

"Well…I think that's about it." Armelle said as she double checked the list. "Wait a minute. I need to pick up the mail so once we're done with that we can go!"

"Ok…but I want to show you something." Merina commented.

"Ok, just as long it's not too long."

Merina smiled as she took Armelle's hand. She dragged Armelle all through town and ended up in front of the Clock Tower.

"Ok…so why are we here?" Armelle asked.

"These are the doors I came out of! See…I'll show you!" Merina started walked towards the doors.

Armelle didn't recognize the building since she hardly went to the town carnivals and celebrations. "Wait! That could be dangerous! Don't go in there!" Armelle tried to stop Merina.

"It's ok! Trust me." Merina said as she opened up the door to start walking into

I'm not trusting an eight-year-old I just met today. Armelle thought to herself.

"HEY! You two! Get away from there!" A guard yelled out.

"Shit…Merina! Let's go!" Armelle grabbed Merina's arm and ran off towards East Clock Town. Merina shrieked as they escaped.

They stopped running when they reached the entrance of the Inn. Armelle was hunched over and out of breath. Merina stood there and stared at her older sister.

"I hope you don't hate me now." Merina said almost in tears.

"Oh…no! I don't hate you." Armelle said while trying to catch her breath. "It's just that that place beyond the doors could be dangerous and you don't want to be caught by the guards."

"I came from there! It's not dangerous!" Merina pleaded.

"You just got lucky. You might not be so lucky this time. I'll tell you what. Lets go into the milk bar and get something to eat and we'll talk about what all is going on." Armelle offered.

"But I'm not hungry."

"Fine. We'll get something to drink."

"But I'm not thirsty."

"Ok! We'll just go and sit down in there anyhow!" Armelle's blood was almost boiling as she trotted over to the milk bar. Merina followed close behind.

Once they entered the bar Armelle chose a small booth in the corner where they could have some privacy. The place wasn't very busy during the day, but there were a couple of travelers sitting on the stools and liquoring themselves up for their trip ahead. A short while after Armelle and Merina sat down a waitress came by.

"Hello and how can I help you two today?" The waitress said cheerfully.

"We're not having anything, sorry." Armelle answered back and then watched as the waitress stomped away. She just shrugged it off.

"So…tell me EVERYTHING, Merina." Armelle started off.

"Please call me Rina. I only let people close to me call me that."

"Ok…Rina…"

Rina smiled. "So what do you want to know?"

"Everything. Especially how we're sisters."

"It's a very long story, so I'll try and condense it."

"It's ok. We have time."

Rina looked down. "I always thought I was an only child, but I knew that there had to be something more. There was this picture of my parents with this baby that they always dwell over. My mother cries herself to sleep every night and from what I've been told that ever since 'that day' my father turned sour compared to his once charming and generous disposition. Every so often I'll hear one of them slip call me by some name of a person that I never knew, and it just happened to be Armelle. They're both extremely overprotective of me. I can't even walk down the halls without a servant, maid, or knight with me. Once they find out that I ran off they're going to be furious. But there was something that triggered me to find out what was going on."

"What was that?" Armelle broke in, quite interested.

"I confronted my parents about why things the way they were. They were hesitant at first but they finally came through. My parents didn't want to tell me until I was much older, but since I figured out that something was fishy they decided to tell me now. What happened was that they did have a child before me. Her name was Armelle and she was their pride and joy. One day she was kidnapped and the whole town was in an uproar. No one ever found out who took her but they ended up putting the blame on one of the servant girls who last handled the baby. Ever since my parents told me that I wanted to seek out my sister."

"Didn't it ever cross your mind that your 'sister' could've been dead?" Armelle asked.

Rina seemed unchanged. "Yeah…but I knew deep down that she wasn't. I could feel her spirit. I was informed from a couple of the town elders that they heard that the baby was taken to a far away land called Termina by who knows. So that's when I set out and the rest is history.

Armelle looked down and chuckled. "So that explains it…"

"Explains what?"

"Everything. Why I'm different from whom I thought were my sisters, this feeling of being out of place that I've had my whole life, and you coming."

"Can I ask you something?" Rina started to get more serious.

"Go ahead…"

"I want you to come home with me."