Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda.

A/N: means telepathy. Whoopsie that's kind of a spoiler, but I wouldn't want my
readers to be confused!

Chapter 8

In the conference room, they sat down at a large round table. Firagaht was at the head, if you can really call it the head of a round table, and Lira sat two seats to his left. Link sat across from her, two seats from Firagaht's right. Lira stared down at the table, avoiding all eye contact with Link and generally making him feel even worse for hurting her feelings. 'Damn the cultural barrier!' Link thought to himself.

Firagaht sat reclined in his comfy velvet-cushioned wooden chair. He noticed that there was an air of unease between Lira and Link and briefly wondered why, but decided to ignore it for now.

"Lira," he began but she cut him off. "Firagaht, I would like to know what that monster was in there and why you kept it a secret from me all these years," she said, an air of determination surrounding her as she spoke.

For the first time and probably the last, Link saw Firagaht surprised. This expression immediately changed to one of annoyance as he regarded her sternly. "I had no reason to inform you of that creature, Lira, that is why," he replied. Lira stood from her seat abruptly, startling Link.

"We are to be married, correct?" It was rhetorical so she didn't wait for an answer, "What if one of our children came across that key and somehow connected it with that door and decided to open it? You would be the only one to know the dangers of that room. What if you weren't around when it happened? What would you expect me to do? Tell me Firagaht. What would I be able to do?"

Firagaht almost chuckled. "Dear Lira, such a tale is greatly fabricated and I wonder what kinds of stories your grandfather tells you," he began. She glared at him hotly. "I assure you, such a situation would not occur. Too many unrealistic measures. You think quite highly of our unborn children. So please, sit down."

She sat down in a huff, glaring daggers at him. He crossed his arms over his chest. "But, I suppose I have been leaving you in the dark for many things. Perhaps I should start informing you of more matters, since you are to be my wife soon."

He kept adding that into the conversation as if he was bragging about, Link noted, and it really annoyed the young hero.

"That room you found was used to house that creature. That creature was a Tree Lurker. It is a type of monster that lays eggs in the bodies of young creatures smaller than itself, preferably female... It gets its name from the fact that it plants a seed that grows into a mammoth tree like what you saw in that room and uses it as its nest for its young. They are very powerful creatures, as you probably figured out the hard way, Lira, they give us dragons quite a bit of trouble."

"Why was it being held in there?" Lira asked, having calmed down from her outburst from before. "It was being studied. A few of my scholars have been observing its behavior and such to further understand it and therefore overcome its overwhelming advantages over us."

Link looked confused for a moment. "But you defeated it so easily. How can it really be a potential threat if it was so easy for you to kill?"

Firagaht looked at him for the first time without much contempt. "It was old, not to mention we have gathered enough information on Tree Lurkers to know its weak spots," he replied.

"Then, tell me why...those girls...why were they in there?" Lira asked uncertainly. Firagaht closed his eyes for a brief moment, perhaps thinking of a way to explain their presence in that room to her. "The scholars...were to provide food for the creature...I suppose they used the-"

"How could you let them!" Lira burst out, fighting off tears. "How could you let them use those girls for food!" Link's heart reached out for Lira, feeling her pain. He would've probably acted the same, sans the crying, if his friends had been fed to a disgusting creature like that. He leaned forward in his seat, wanting to know what Firagaht would say to this.

"I knew nothing about it, prior to today," he replied simply. Lira scowled at him. "Liar! You knew about! You're just lying to me!" she exclaimed. "Calm yourself, Lira. I am not lying to you, so do not accuse me of doing so. My scholars probably did this on their own and did not inform me. If you wish, I shall punish them for such actions."

Lira crossed her arms over her chest, wiping furiously at her eyes. For the most part, she had calmed down, though Link was unsure if she believed him. Link didn't know why, but he felt he could trust Firagaht on the matter. He didn't think he was lying about not knowing. He had had experience, second-hand, with officials doing things under the King of Hyrule's nose.

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Link rushed after Lira after they had been released from the conference room. He caught her arm and forced her to stop. "Lira, please, I'm sorry for what I said in the hot springs. It was a misunderstanding, I swear!" She didn't reply nor did she turn around but Link had a feeling she was listening.

"You see, in Hyrule, it's...well, improper for a man to bathe with a female if they are not married. And when you were in there with me, I just felt kind of...you know uncomfortable because I don't usually bathe with...ah other women," Link explained. He hoped Lira would forgive him. Seeing her hurt sent a great pang through his heart and he didn't want to see her sad.

She turned to face him, eyes slightly shimmering with unshed tears. "So you don't hate me?" she asked hopefully. "Of course not! Why would I hate you? Why would anyone hate you? You're such a pleasant person!" Link added for flattery. She smiled brightly and flung her arms around him. "Oh, I'm so glad!" she murmured into his shoulder. She pulled back, showing him her brilliant smile. Link grinned too. Her smile was so infectious.

Outside the castle, Lira leaned back and stood on her tiptoes-toes, breathing in the afternoon air. "Link, you've been cooped up in this village for a few days. Would you like to see the outside?" she asked the Hylian. Link grinned. "Sure. I'd love to." Lira lead him to the gates, and nodding at the guards, passed through out into the large field that surrounded the village.

They were walking together and it was peaceful on the outside. He could hear birds chirping and flying gracefully overhead in the deep blue sky. He could smell all the wildflowers that bloomed at his feet. It was an altogether tranquil atmosphere and Link greatly enjoyed it. He folded his arms behind his head and leaned his head back a little to let the sun shine warmly on his face. He wanted to forget everything, but certain thoughts kept nagging at him.

He sneaked a glance over at Lira and saw she was in her own little world, smiling at everything. She bent over a flower to place in her hair and skipped along, a little ways ahead of him. Link wanted to ask her but he had a feeling she didn't want to talk about it. The thought of being forced to marry someone who you weren't entirely compatible with was enough to make Link want to stay celibate forever. How could you spend your whole life with someone you couldn't stand? It was a mystery to Link. He wondered suddenly if Zelda was going to have an arranged marriage.

He cringed. He hadn't been gone too long and he already felt homesick. It was understandable though. He had never been this far from home before. If you exclude Termina, he had never really left Hyrule in his life before. He had been gone only about a week and a few days and already he had made some friends. Speaking of friends, he glanced over at Lira again. She was staring at him.

"What?" he asked, a little unnerved by her steady gaze on him. She giggled. "You were so deep in thought, you didn't hear me call your name," she replied. Link blushed. "Oh, sorry." She tilted her head to the side. "I could nearly see the thoughts on your face. You were thinking about your home, weren't you?"

A little weirded out, Link nodded in affirmation. "Yeah. How did you know?" he asked. She gazed up at the sky. "I guess you could a call it a gift," she said vaguely. "What kind of gift?" Link urged.

They had reached the mountains that Lira had told them they were going to see. They seemed to stretch for miles and miles. Lira had told him they had been heading west. He was stunned by the size of the mountains, each one making Death Mountain look like a really big boulder. Even the smallest of the mountains dwarfed the home of the Gorons back in Hyrule.

"I'll tell you if you promise to never tell anyone else," she said, stopping and looking at him with a serious expression, quite contrast to her previous cheery look. "I promise," Link replied, wondering what could cause her to become so solemn all of a sudden. "Well, I have-"

CRASH!

'Crud!' Link thought. Up at the top of the smallest mountain there was a congregation of wyverns. At least twenty of them in all were circling the mountain while several were perched on its peak. The crash had been caused by three of them shooting breath attacks into its side and breaking apart large pieces of hardened sediment that were rolling rapidly down the mountain. Right in there direction.

"Looks like they knew it was us," Link muttered. He was yanked out of his cynical mood when Lira jerked his arm. "Link, climb onto my back!" His face turned bright red and he stared at her incredulously. "What!" "Just do it!"

He obeyed, climbing onto her back a little awkwardly and was briefly disoriented when she transformed into dragon form and flew high into the air. He held on tightly to her back and observed with fascination as the ground sunk away and his stomach descended into his feet. He watched with relief as the boulders that had come down the mountain smashed into the ground right where they had been.

Link! Can you hear me?

Link, puzzled, looked in all directions for the location of that voice. Was that Lira he had just heard?

Link! Answer me!

Link rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. The voice was coming from inside his head!

"Yeah, I hear you...Lira?" Link replied uncertainly.

Dragon Lira turned her head to look back at him. Though her mouth wasn't moving, she was speaking again into his head.

Yeah, it's me. We won't be able to head back to the village just yet, not with those wyverns attacking us. We'll need to ward them off or they'll strike the village. You shoot arrows while I attack. And this time cover me!

Link sweatdropped. "Heh heh. About that-"

Don't worry about it right now. Just shoot!

Quickly, Link strung an arrow as Lira approached the herd of wyverns. He let it fly and caught one of the flying ones, in the wing. It shrieked and shot a jet of icy cold air at the duo. Lira dodged then countered with her own breath attack, fire. It scorched the wyvern and it flew to the ground sizzling.

The other wyverns, seeing their fallen comrade, charged at Lira who was ready for their assault. She shot several jets of flames at them, only catching two of the five that came at her. Link fired a Fire Arrow at a wyvern that was coming from the left. It screeched in pain. Link lowered his bow for a moment. "Huh...They seem to be weak against fire," he mused. He was jerked to the side when Lira dodged sharply to the right. Link felt a cold breeze nick his face and knew Lira had just barely dodged a breath attack.

Are you alright Link?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look out!"

It was too late though, the wyverns that had been perched on the mountain top had shot a combined breath attack their way. The large wave beam was much to expansive to dodge in time and they were hit with it full force. In an instant, Lira untransformed and she and Link tumbled to the ground. Link caught Lira in the air and protected her from the fall,
landing hard on his back with her on top of him, her back against his chest.

He grunted in pain. "Din, that hurt!" he growled through gritted teeth. Luckily, his Hylian Shield had absorbed most of the shock. His back still felt like someone dropped a boulder on it though. He slowly sat up, holding Lira in his lap. He looked up at the sky and saw the wyverns circling overhead. He held Lira protectively to himself. He had a feeling they had a reason for attacking them and it wasn't just for revenge from long ago.

Ten of them landed, sending large shockwaves through the ground beneath Link. They transformed into their human shapes. He had a hardened expression on his face as they approached.

They all looked like rogues. Their clothes were in tatters, though Link had a feeling it was because it was a style rather than a lack of better attire, and were always cut short, the females wearing short skirts or short shorts and the men wearing shorts. Their hair colors ranged from blue to pink and they had tanned skin just like the previous wyvern Link had met in town the other day. Stripes of various colors adorned their skin as well.

They were sneering at him and it made Link angry. He drew his sword, laying Lira gently down, and stood to his feet, ready to attack. Two of them charged at him and he braced himself, he was going to let them attack and then counter them.

His plan would've worked if he wasn't hit from behind. He fell hard on his face on the ground and felt someone grab his arms and twist them painfully behind his back and their knees press down on him as if they were kneeling on him. "Got ya!" he heard a female voice say in his ear.

He soon heard sniggers from all sides. "Huh, look at the little Hylian, trying to fight us off. What a riot!" one male voice said and the others roared with laughter. Link rocked back and forth trying to knock the wyvern on his back off to no avail. He was pulled roughly to his feet. One of the male wyverns with short spiky green hair had Lira slung over his shoulder.

Link tried to pull away. "Let her go! Take me instead!" he pleaded. A silver haired male wyvern with blue streaks, who seemed to be the head honcho of the posse, crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at him. "And what would we do with a Hylian?" he asked.

A female with pink hair and white streaks came into Link's view smirking at him. She cupped his chin and lifted his face to look at her. "I think he's kinda cute," she said. Link jerked his chin out of her grasp. She turned to the leader. "How bout we bring him along too?" The leader shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. We only came here for Lira. You can do whatever you want with him, Salar," he replied. He motioned to the others to take flight. All of them did except for him, Link's captor, Salar, and the wyvern holding Lira. Link felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck and suddenly felt the world going cold and black. The last thing he felt was falling forward into Salar's arms.

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