A/N: Wow what a response! I personally didn't think that chapter was that great, but authors are always picky about their work. Anyway, here's chappie 4!

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda. I wouldn't really want to own Zelda anyway, I'd prefer Link

Breath of a Dragon

Chapter 4

Lira set her knapsack down upon the cold smooth floor of her grandfather's home and sat down cross-legged behind it. Link sat across from her and Sharanan sat beside her, the three of them forming a triangle. She dug through the sack and pulled out a little brown pouch. She tossed it to Sharanan, who caught it easily. "I brought back some snagweed for your medicine, Gramps," she said. Sharanan sniffed the pouch. "Thank you, Lira. There's a lot more this time. It will last me a lot longer than the last bunch you brought me." She nodded and turned to eye Link.

Link shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, but then she smiled, lighting up her whole face. "It's been so long since I last saw a Hylian," she said softly, her gaze floating over Link's figure, lingering on his pointed ears before resting finally upon his eyes. She tilted her head to the side. "You have the most beautiful blue eyes," she commented. Link blushed, unable to tear his eyes away from her. "Thank you," he mumbled. She giggled, able to hear the pounding of his heart from her place three feet away from him, unbeknownst to him.

Lira smiled at Link. "Did Firagaht-sama give you any trouble?" she asked. Link scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Sort of. He told the guards to kill me." Lira gasped. "That Firagaht," Sharanan began, "Always acting like he has a stick stuck up his-" "Grandpa!" Lira interrupted scoldingly. Sharanan shrugged. "I am only stating my opinion, dear Lira." Lira gave him a scathing look. "That is no way to speak of our leader, even if he is a cold-hearted bastard...oops!" Lira covered her mouth, blushing. Sharanan chortled. Link chuckled too.

"Is there a reason why he's a...jerk?" Link asked. Lira cooled down a little and played with the hem of her skirt. "No...I-I don't think so," she replied. She didn't look at him when she answered nor did she sound too confident in her answer. Lira stood upabruptly. She bowed to them both. "I must take a bath now, so please excuse me," she said. She left the hut rather briskly. Link watched her go, a bit disappointed.

He turned to Sharanan. "Sharanan, did you notice that she seemed a bit uncomfortable talking about Firagaht...er sama?" Sharanan sighed. "I suppose anyway would prefer to avoid mention of him. He isn't exactly the most pleasant person in the world. But not to mention the fact that she is going to marry him! Of course it would-"

"WHAT!" Link interrupted. "She's going to marry him?" he repeated disbelievingly. Sharanan nodded solemnly. "Yes, unfortunately." "But why?"

Sharanan sighed once more. "It was an arranged engagement. She is betrothed to him. I suppose he wanted to marry her to ensure he has strong heirs to pass his position as leader down to. Did I ever mention that Firagaht is Shura's grandson?" Link shook his head.

"Yes, well, Firagaht's father also died of Ryuu no Yamai, it is a hereditary disease you see, and therefore Firagaht took over his father's position as leader at the young age of 162. Before his father died, though, he sealed my granddaughter's fate by having her betrothed to his son. He noticed Lira's potential for bearing healthy strong whelps." Link raised an eyebrow. "How did he notice that?" Sharanan squinted skeptically at Link. "Have you not noticed her aura, Link? I know you can sense it too. Her aura is indeed different from other dragons. Some have said that perhaps she could be the Chosen One...I do not think she is though. She simply has a stronger spiritual awareness than most."

Although Link really wanted to know what the Chosen One was supposed to be, a loud explosion from outside dashed any hopes of Link finding out just yet. "What was that?" he exclaimed. He and Sharanan rushed out the doorway into the broad daylight and looked up in the sky. It was hard to tell what was going on, but Link could decipher that a battle was raging above them.

"That devil!" Sharanan murmured from behind Link. "Link! Take your horse inside the hut! She will be safe there!" he commanded. Link quickly complied, taking the frightened mare within the secure confines of Sharanan's home. Coming back out, he shielded his eyes from the sun and stared up at the sky.

From what he could interpret, a blue dragon was doing battle with an ugly pale white creature with a long neck, a much smaller head than its opponent, no arms, instead of legs it had a long tail, large brown wings, and a horrible screech that was in no way beautiful but very frightening. "What is that?" Link questioned. Though it was rhetorical, Sharanan answered him. "A wyvern. Our sworn enemy."

The blue dragon rammed into the slightly smalle flying beast, but the wyvern retaliated with a deep bite in the right arm. The dragon cried out in pain as the wyvern still held its jaws in its skin and clawed at the creature, furiously trying to remove its grip. The wyvern let go of the dragon then and spun around, slamming its tail into the azure creature. Unfazed by the attack, the dragon grabbed the wyvern's tail with its teeth and bit down hard. The ugly flying beast shrieked in pain and the dragon easily flung it out of Link's sight range. The azure dragon let out a cry of victory and slowly descended from the sky. It transformed in midair and landed neatly on a house nearby. To Link's surprise, the dragon person looked familiar.

"Lira?" Without really thinking about his actions, Link climbed up the side of Sharanan's house and onto the roof. He leapt across the next house and the next until he reached where Lira was. She was holding her arm and panting slightly. She blinked and turned to watch him as he approached. "Lira! Are you alright?" he asked, concerned, when he reached her side. "Link, you shouldn't..."

Link didn't hear her though. He was about to reach for a bottle of Red Potion to give her for her injury when that horrible cry from before sounded in his ears. He turned ever so slowly to see the wyvern hovering just a few hundred feet away from them. Its dark beady eyes were directed upon Lira and it opened its mouth wide. Dark beads of energy permeated its head and became absorbed into a black ball of pure energy upon its tongue. Lira's eyes opened wide in fear, for Link, and horror. "No...!"

It fired the dark beam at her and would've connected if Link hadn't jumped in the way at the last minute. A bright flash of light blinded the three of them, Link, Lira, and the wyvern, and also all the villagers, including Sharanan who had been watching.

In an instant it was done: the wyvern was hit by a dark ball of energy and reverted to a human form before slamming into the inner side of the gates that walled the town, Link flew back, off of the roof, and landed in the alley below, and Lira stood there, dumbfounded and totally unscathed.

She blinked and noticed something shiny at her feet. She bent over to pick it up and discovered it to be a shard of metal. It was crimson in color and very smooth between her fingers. She pocketed it and leapt down in between the houses, landing beside Link who lay prone on the ground. She shook him gently.

"Are you alright, Link?" she asked. He groaned and rubbed his head, sitting up with her help. She noticed that he was covered in the strange shiny smooth metal she had found on the roof. Lira sniffed the air, suddenly smelling the metallic scent of blood. Link opened his hand to reveal the same shiny metal Lira had discovered. Most of it had cut into his skin with its jagged edges and blood dripped from his palm and fingers. "My shield..." he muttered, slightly dazed and disbelieving.

"Link, what happened?" Lira pressed. He snapped out of his daze to stare into her eyes. "I reflected the beam that wyvern sent at you back at it with my Mirror Shield and I guess it was so strong it shattered my shield upon impact," Link explained. He pulled the pieces of his once prized possession out of his skin and examined them skeptically. He realized the shards covered him and he brushed himself off. "It'll be impossible to put back together..." he mumbled to himself.

"Where did you acquire such a shield?" she asked him incredulously. Link shrugged. "It was an item I recieved in a temple back in Hyrule," he replied nonchalantly. She helped him to his feet. "It is, well, it was an interesting artifact," she smiled. "Thank you for saving me, Link," she kissed him daintily on the cheek, "I am forever in your debt." She giggled when she saw that his face had turned as red as a rose and his eyes became unfocused. Sharanan entered the alleyway and chuckled at the scene.

"I don't know what you'll die of first, loss of blood from the cuts in your hand, or from a nose bleed," he joked. Link blinked and touched the skin below his nose, with the uncut hand, to check for moisture. Indeed his nose was bleeding. He pinched his nostrils together and began to lean his head back to stop the blood from running down his face, when he felt Lira's hand on the back of his head, forcing him to keep his head level.

"No. You shouldn't lean your head back. The blood will suffocate you," she said. She reached into his pocket and pulled the Red Potion vial out and helped him drink it. Almost instantly, the bleeding stopped. Link thanked her and let out a breath of relief. He suddenly remembered Lira had been injured and was about to offer her some of his potion when he saw that the formally large gash in her arm was nearly completely closed up and was surrounded by dry blood. He pointed his finger at her arm, mouth agape, speechless. She noticed the direction of his attention and glanced at her nearly healed wound. "Oh. Dragons heal a lot faster than humans, or Hylians for that matter, do," she unveiled. Link nodded, closing his mouth.

At the gates of the town, a figure was slowly coming too. She groaned softly and was suddenly jerked from the ground, flanked by Kimon and Loe'n, the gate guards. She bared her sharp canines and struggled with them, fruitlessly. Link, Sharanan, Lira, and a great deal of the town gathered there to see this intruder. The aforementioned three were at the front, and when they were sure the woman was properly detained, approached her and the guards.

Lira crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the woman. She had long blond hair that reached to her waist and olive green eyes. She wore beige short shorts with a matching tank top. Both were torn probably due to skirmishes she had with adversaries. On her feet were light brown boats that came a little past her ankles. Affixed to her skin were strange markings: single stripes of lime green on her shoulders, forearms, thighs, and cheeks going horizontal wise. Speaking of her skin, she was as tanned as a Gerudo, which Link found odd because he thought all Gerudo had red hair and amber-colored eyes.

She glared daggers at Lira. "So, wyvern. Have you not learned your lesson in attacking our village?" Sharanan reproached. Her gaze shifted to him and she spat on his face. Sharanan flinched and wiped her spit off his facade, displeased with her response. "She's a wyvern?" Link asked. The girl now looked at Link and her eyes spread open slightly in shock. She scoffed. "A Hylian? I haven't seen one of your worthless kind in over a hundred years." Link frowned, not liking being called worthless. She winked at him.

"He's certainly a cute one. I'm sure you'll have fun with him, Lira!" she said suggestively as the guards carried her off. Lira and Link blushed furiously. She turned to Link. "Please ignore what she said! She didn't mean it!" Sharanan laughed. "You two are too easy to embarrass! (A/N: wow I used all three different types of "to" in one sentence!) You make her job easier!"

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Link and Lira sat on the roof of Sharanan's house while he cooked dinner. The wind swept her cobalt tresses majestically around her and her scarlet eyes were dim, as if she wasn't truly all there. Link sighed. "She seemed like she knew you," he stated. She jerked her head in his direction as if she had been pulled from her thoughts. "Who?" Link glanced over at her. "That wyvern girl. She said your name, and she seemed to have a grudge or something against you."

Lira smiled. "I guess you could say I'm rather popular with the wyverns, only not in the good way. They all hate me because I am to marry Firagaht-sama...Oh I forgot to mention that." Link shook his head. "I already knew. Sharanan told me." "Oh." She twisted a strand of her hair around her finger. "They know I would be able to bear strong whelps and so they have been trying to assassinate me to prevent Firagaht-sama from continuing his line of descendants."

Link glowered. "That's horrible! Why are the wyverns so against you dragons?" he demanded. Lira sighed. "It is a long story and I am tired right now. I will be willing to tell you after dinner though," she suggested. Link nodded and they both leapt down from the roof to enter Sharanan's home for dinner.

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I decided to end the chapter right there because it was getting kinda long. So how do you like? I kinda suck at action scenes, but I think I'm getting better than I used to be at it. Writing this chapter and introducing the wyverns made me change my whole original perspective for this story. Wheeeee! Next chappie will come soon. I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with a title for my story that I'm gonna write with the Zelda chars in the modern day world. A better summary is in my profile. Any ideas are welcome!

LunaRyuu