A/N: So yes, I'm very late, I don't a good excuse other than procrastination. You'd think spraining my ankle would give me plenty of time to lie around and get things but. ..I digress.

Someone said Eliza reminds them of themselves, and that relieves me, I tried to make Eliza a fun OC. If they think want to make any insights on how I should portray her, feel free to comment.

This chapter will be a doozy, it filled up about 36 pages in my notebook. I didn't intend on making it so long but it happened. Anyway, here we go!

Week 3

She felt a bit off when she woke up that morning, sitting up in bed, she placed a hand over her midsection. There was a strange pressure in her stomach, hmm, it's probably just that time of month, haven't had one in a while.

Shrugging it off, she continued through her usual morning routine, preparing for another day of work at home. It had been almost a week since her demotion, Eliza assured her that wasn't what it was l, but she knew better.

She stared at her ragged expression in the mirror, she'd been having trouble slerping recently. Why do I even bother? It's not like their here to see me, or rather, do I do this just to feel like i'm in control.

Just then she heard the doorbell ring, she allowed herself a small smile knowing who it was. She quickly left the master bathroom and headed down the long hallway, then proceeded to head down the extravagent staircase into the spacious foyer.

As she opened the door, she was greeted by the kind face of her neighbor Mrs. Gangreen. Mrs.Gangreen had lived out in Faron Province as long as anyone could remember, she was an herbalist, an excellent cook, and a widow.

Zelda helped the woman with her bags into the kitchen as she directed. She then had Zelda sit down at the table as she began to pull out various ingredients to cook with.

Zelda sighed good natrually, "You really didn't have to this, I feel bad making you think you have to walk all the way here everyday just to cook for me."

Mrs. Gangreen waved her away, "Nonsense, I always enjoy cooking for other people my dear, besides, its been so lonley in little cottage since Tom passed away."

Tom; her late husband, who had died a year prior was quite the amiable old man, always shared a good joke and seemed to know almost everyone in the province. Zelda admittex he was one of the few men she was ever fond of.

"Alright m'dear, breakfast is served." She ambled over to the table and began setting down plates of food. There was always a lot of variety and in large amounts, she wondered how the old woman had enough room in her fridge for leftovers.

She then set down a heaping platter of steaming, delectable food in front of her. The best thing about her cooking wss that it was incredibly healthy, but still delicious. Mrs.Gangreen never used to cook this much but she suspected she was trying to occupy her time in her husband's obsence. And ever since a couple weeks ago, had began cooking for her like this.

She couldn't bear refusing to eat all the food on her plate after seeing the forlorn look on the woman's face after she objected once. She began eating then made a face, her neighbor noticed, "What is it?" She looked horrified for a moment, "Its not the food is it!?"

Zelda raised her hands quickly, "No, no, its wonderful, its just it has a strange metalic taste to it."

When the old woman raised an eyrbrow questioningly she sighed, exasperated.

"Since a few days ago my food has had that strange taste to it. I can think of no other explanation other than I'm getting sick."

Her neighbor immediately began too look concerned.

"Well why didn't you say so m'dear! Come, we must send you to bed straitaway, I have just the right remedy for-"

"Oh no! Its not like that! I assure you I'm perfectly fine, besides, I need to get back to work."

She huffed, "Nonsense, you've been working the entire time you were here, take a break from it. You've proably become ill from overworking yourself."

Zelda sighed, there was no reasoning with her when she was like this. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll go outside for a bit, but i'm not laying in bed like some invalid."

Mrs.Gangreen looked relieved, "Yes, I do believe some fresh air will do you good, it is a lovely morning."

She went and hurried to get her coat before her neighbor changed her mind. She took a deep breath of early autum air, looking around at the rows of vast trees that surrounded the fields around her home. As she began to walk down het driveway and out the gates, she took notice of the beautiful fall colors decorating the landscape and watched the leaves drift downward.

She shook herself out of dreamland, it wasn't like her to daze off like that, then again, it had been such a long time since she'd been outside for pleasure only.

She headed out and took a path around her property, gazing contentedly at the forest next to her and the silhouette of man ambling through them. Wait, what? She abruptly turned around and peered into the thicket of trees.

There was no logical reason for anyone to be here, there was nothing else around for miles, not even a hiking trail. So what was that man doing here? She suared her shoulders and headed after him, no man had the right to wander around her land without her permission and she was going to find out his motives were one way or another.

She called out to him and he swerved around; eyes flashing in the darkness of the woods. Due to the hood he was wearing, it was difficult to discern his features.

As soon as he saw her approaching, he turned and ran deeper into the grove, irritated; Zelda followed him, weaving around the undergrowth, unfortunately, he was gaining distance. She ran into an overgrown path within the trees. She halted in her chase, bewildered by the sight of it. This shouldn't be here, no one else in living memory has ever dwelled here.

She furrowed her brow, if that was the case, the path must've been incredibly old. She looked around, curses, she'd lost sight of him and now she was lost. She peered up at the sky hoping to determine the time by seeing the sun's height in the sky, unfortunately, the thick cluster of leaves snd branches blocked her vision.

She sighed and turned to gaze at the worn path suspiciously. It was the only hope she had of getting out the forest and into civilization (however slim that might be)

She began heading down the path walking for an indecipherable amount of time, it could've been hours or minutes before she finally reached what appeared to be a small town in the middle of the woods. It seemed as though it were a relic from an era long past, with it being half covered in growth and the small buildings wilted in their archaic style. Indeed, she thought as she tenitively began to enter the ruin, all of these structures look well over 400 years old, perhaps even older.

There was almost certainly no one here, as all she could hear were the sounds of the forest around her. And yet, for some reason she felt drawn to the drawn to the center, where a dilapidated fountain lay, covered in moss.

A sense of deja vu struck her, and though she was confused by it, she relied on the feeling as it guided her to a structure with a high roof and three tall spires.

Looking at it, she guessed it might have been a church or a temple at some point. She froze at the sound of a soft voice singing within the spired building, both relief and wariness filled her at once. Relief at the fact she wasn't alone in the wilderness and wariness at the fact this person could be a deranged hermit.

Still she decided to take her chances and headed up the worn stone steps to the entrance way and stepped over the remains of what proably was a door and headed inside.

For a moment she was in awe as sunlight filtered through the ruined, stained glass, windows, giving the room an almost otherworldly glow. At the center of the room stood a woman, reverently singing, surrounded by a pile of books and scrolls.

Almost as if she could sense her presense, the woman slowly turned around to face her. There was an ageless quality to her face, making it difficult to discern her age. The woman was wearing a long orange and brown robe, arms folded into the large sleeves.

To Zelda's surprise, the woman smiled gently at her and beckoned for her to come closer. Though hesitant, she complied to the woman until she stood a short distance away.

The mysterious woman sat down on what must've been a marble floor at some point and Zelda awkwardly followed suit. The woman spoke to her warmly,

"Pleased to meet you, Your Grace. My name is Serhild, I was once a preistess of this temple. I'm glad I could assist you, as you appear to be rather lost."

Zelda figeted uncomfortably, "My name is zelda not- oh nevermind. What is this place?"

She raised her brow nervously, "Y-yes I'm lost, but what did you mean by-"

"This was the birthplace of Hyrule, this village and its people were a testament to the prowess of the Godess Hylia. They thrived on the gifts granted to them by the Godess, however with the passing of time, Hylians have fallen far from all they used to be."

Zelda sat speechless, was she being pranked? Unlikely. It did seem more plausible that the woman was simply a hermit who'd lived in these ruins for far too long and became delusional.

Though she still had many questions about what Serhild had told her and called her, it was best to leave before Mrs.Gangreene worried about her. Deciding to cut to the chase she asked;

"May you direct me to the route I need to take to leave these woods. It has been . . . insightful chatting with you, but must return home before anyone worries I'm gone."

Serhild stared at her thoughtfully for a moment,

".. .. .Of course."

She brightened fora moment then caution set in. It almost seemed to easy. Serhild spoke up,

"However,"

Zelda grimaced, she'd known it was too good to be true.

"-You will need a guide, those who wander these woods without one will be trapped in it's depths forever."

She felt a chill crawl up her spine, she tried to write off Serhild's word as meaningless, crazy talk from a hermit, but she couldn't ignore the feeling of dread she felt at the words.

She followed Serhild out of the decayed temple and across the faded streets through the village that once was. Though it was eerily empty amd in ruin, if she listened hard enough she could almost hear the sounds of children laughing as they ran past, woman gossiping as they folded clothes and the shouts of merchants at their shops. That chilled her more than anything else.

She shook off the vision and continued on until they halted at the edge of the village. Serhild gestured to an arch of branches interwoven, leading into the forest, a little ways off.

"That, is your way out of this place with the help of the guide it will take you where you wish to go."

"What a about the guid.. . ."

She trailed off, noticing a familiar dark silhouette.

"You!"

She was almost certain he was the one she chased though the woods. It did beg to question though, what had he been doing on her property in the first place? If he was a so called 'guide' of this forest, what was he doing around hwr house in the first place? Did-did he intentionally lead me here? Well now, at least she had the chance to demand why he was stalking her.

Serhild turned to face her again, and pulled out an antiquated looking tome from somewhere within her robes. She held out the worn tome to Zelda expectantly.

Hesitantly, she took it and subtly tried to hold it as far from herself as possible. Honestly, who knew what disgusting things it had come into contact with in the dilapidated temple.

"That; is the Book of Mudora. It contains all the greatest secrets of our people. You must know them and learn of your forgotten past, before you can face the Man with the Evil Eyes."

She could not hold in her disbelief any longer, "A man with evil eyes! Do you honestly expect me to buy your nonsense?! There is no such thing as an evil man!"

It was true, men could be incredibly cruel people (especially in her line of work) but there was, realistically, no truly 'evil man' Her stomach turned uncomfortably but she ignored it.

Serhild's expression had remained unreadable throughout her entire outburst and waited for to finish before speaking.

"I see that the blindness affecting your predecessor has been passed onto you, but I know from recent events you have not forsaken ypur children at the hands of Ganondorf, Your Grace."

For the first time, Zelda saw fear on her face.

"He Sees you; Zelda, even though you cannot or perhaps will not, choose to See yourself."

Alarm bells were going off in her head. Ganondorf. Had it been any other thing, she would have written off the woman's words as meaningless drabble but for some reason whenever he was mentioned, she couldn't help but feel anxious.

As she was about to ask her what she meant, her stomach suddenly heaved and instead she vomited all over Serhild's robes.

The next few moments were a blur of embarrassment as Serhild calmly gave her a glass of water (from who know where)and gently rubbing her back, saying it was to be expected in her condition, (how did she even know she was sick?!)and sending her off to the path where her mysterious guide was waiting.

When she reached the arch of trees, she realized her 'guide' was nowhere to be seen. The bushes rustled beside her and the dark silhouette of a figure appeared, face obscured by a hood.

She whipped around angrily, "Before I go anywhere with you, I'd like to know exactly what you were doing around my house!"

The man's voice was soft, yet severe as he spoke,

"The daylight is wasting, come, I will tell you everything on the way."

He started on ahead the winding path, leaving a rather disgruntled Zelda to follow after him. Despite his hushed voice, he spoke with perfect clarity.

"You are the harbringer of The Seven, those who hold the balance of Time in their hands."

He scoffed, "He somehow believes that being a part of your beloved Lorule industries will somehow convince you to join the Yiga clan."

She stopped abruptly, "what in Hyrule ate you talking about?! I asked what you where doing on my property and that was not an answer."

"Ah, but it is, we would never follow some insignificant life about, if they didn't have a hand in the fate of this world as you do."

She breathed in deeply through her nose, "That's it, I'm done with this; this nonsense about fate and magic and whatever other hare-brained idea you're about to come up with."

She strode forward, determined to make as much distance between herself and that man as possible. The man spoke again with that same soft yet severe tone.

"If you will not join us. .. .. then you will die!"

With a yell he lept forward,scarlet eyes blazing beneath his hood, as he pulled a kunai from his sleeve.

She stood frozen in shock, internally screaming at herself to move. All those years of self-defense training went out the window, she'd never been in a situation like this before and didn't know how to handle it. Suddenly a dark blur raced past her and met the hooded physco head on.

He ducked beneath him as the stranger lept and snatched the kunai knife away in one smooth motion, rolling into a crouch as he hit the ground. The hooded man didn't waste a second, pulling more kunai from somewhere and threw them at the stranger.

Said figure dogded them fast as lightning and charged toward him with his own combat knife. The hooded man anticipated the attack and caught him by the wrist, making him drop the knife and began to quickly swing the stranger about as if to toss him away.

Using the momentum, the stranger swung his legs inward and kicked the hooded man hard in the stomach to send him flying. The stranger then tumbled to the ground and rolled to his feet, stance tense.

Zelda let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and it took all of her willpower to not crumble to her knees in shock. She didn't quite know what to think of the stranger, on one hand; he saved her life, on the other hand; who knew what his actual motives were? After all, most people don't attack physco's with knives in the middle of the woods with martial arts level fighting skills.

She watched in a wary daze as the stranger precessed to tie up the physco in an odd metallic bond and call someone, hearing only bits and pieces of their conversation. Words such as 'princess', 'hero', 'seven'and 'Yiga' popped up several times.

At last he turned to her, stepping into the light. She was greeted with the face of a young man, probably not much older than her. He had wild, dark blond hair and seemed to be only a couple inches taller than her. As well as having a muscled but lean form, but perhaps the most mesmerizing thing about him were his eyes.

They were a stunningly bright blue, like the sky on a cloudless day. He smiled at her tenetively.

"This is going to make my job a whole lot harder isn't it."

She blinked out of her stupor, "Your job? May I ask, what, that is exactly? Because so far today I've had to listen to a deranged hermit woman, chased a stalker through the woods and almost murdered by a lunatic. So I'm sorry if I assume you're another physco." She breathed harshly, wondering where her sudden anger had come from.

His only reaction was to blink, "Well, it would be kind of redundant to hurt the person I was hired to protect wouldn't it?"

He took her dumbfounded expression as permission to continue.

"Link Forrester; I work for the Sheikah Agency." he said, gesturing to the symbol of the red eye with a tear drop on his navy blue vest. "I was hired by an important higher up to guard you. I believe she was worried that Dragmire would try to make a move against you."

He gestured to the body beside him, "And he definitely has."

It was all making sense now, the figure she chased through the woods was him. Her mother had probably picked him up to be her secret bodyguard after her stand against Ganondorf a couple weeks ago. She shouldn't be surprised her mother hired a Sheikah, they were the best there was.

Still, she wished her mother would ask her permission or at least give her a heads up about these things. Though she was grateful agent Forrester had saved her life, She didn't want some big muscle head following her around.

Zelda looked up sharply, coming to a realization, "Did you imply this 'Yiga' was working for Ganondorf Dragmire?"

He scratched the back of his head uncertainly, "Well, we don't have enough hard evidence to say for sure. ... "

That was all the confirmation she needed, if the Sheikah thought so, then they were probably right. They'd been Hyrule's #1 intelligence agency since the founding of Hyrule and their guidence hadn't let them wrong so far. A wave of relief washed over her knowing that her accusations weren't for nothing.

She folded her arms across her chest,

"I certainly hope you know the way out of these woods, agent Forrester, else you'll no doubt lose the large paycheck my mother offered you."

If she was being forced to work with this man, she would have to assert who was boss from the very beginning. She didn't care what sort of danger her life was in, she wouldn't leave the entirety of her well being up to muscle head.

He gave her a slight bow, "Rest assured, I know my way around these woods Ms. Lorule, we'll be home again before you know it."

He began to lead the way through the forest with confidence, reaching the front Gates of her house in what seemed like no time at all. As she began the gates behind her he spoke up,

"I'm a little hurt you think that I protect you just for the money." He grinned at her.

"Maybe I just enjoy your company."

And with that he gave a slight bow and dashed off in a blur, the same way her came, leaving her wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.

As promised, I introduced our other main character in this chapter. Originally, he was going to be a lot more stoic and serious like an actual bodyguard, but I realized that I wanted another exciting person in Zelda's life, she can never have enough of those :)