Chapter 8

I woke up when I had the sudden urge to vomit, which lead to the predictable event of me actually vomiting. I had a bucket shoved into my face and I managed to keep my fluids inside of it. When I was done the bucket was taken away and I collapsed back down on my back.

I was in a bed. I knew that much. I peeled my eyes open and looked around. I was in the familiar old hut from before. Sitting in a small chair next to my bed was a familiar redhead. Her hair was pulled back this time. Revealing some distinctly rounded ears like mine. I got a jolt of excitement and tried to get up but she settled me back down.

"I have so many questions!" I exclaimed. She shushed me quietly. I lowered my voice. "Please, I need answers."

"You need to rest. You had a heat stroke." She explained. She took a cool rag and laid it on my forehead. It felt so refreshing.

"Please, I know you know what's going on. I won't be able to rest right until I get answers." I stressed. She sighed and smiled as she rubbed her hands over her eyes in slight annoyance.

"Ok, what do you want to know?" She sighed.

"Why do you look like me? Are you human?" That was the first thing I needed to understand. I wanted to know why I was different.

"Yes, but I am not a goddess's human." She explained. "When I was fourteen I lived in a place called Chicago. I was an orphan and the year was 1979." I had never listened so hard to anything anyone has ever said before... not even in classes at the academy. "I was frustrated because I was a teenager and I probably wasn't going to get adopted anytime soon, so I ran away and started living on my own, which was basically on the streets. At one point I stole someone's wallet and it had a bus pass in it. You probably don't know what that is but it was a way for me to get out of there. I snuck on the bus and took it to a small town. I didn't know where I was but it was a ghost town. It used to be a hideout for people, which was perfect because I was trying to hide. I didn't realize it was a hideout for people practicing some sacrilegious things.

"So I went in and started having a look around. I ate some old food and tried to see what I could find. There was a mirror that was shattered on the floor but most of it was still intact. And it didn't show a reflection, it only showed clouds and birds flying. I thought it was a television, but again you won't know what that is. So I touched it and my hand went straight through. I felt a windy breeze and I could see my hand on the other side. I decided to put my head in. However, when I did, I slipped and fell through. Before I knew it I was falling through the sky. I was able to see floating islands and a town as I shot past it, but no one saw me or heard me screaming. I fell straight through the clouds and landed in Lake Floria and that's how I got here." She shrugged and finished her story. My mouth was dropped. She was either insane or telling the truth, at this point I was going to believe anything.

"So there are other worlds?" I asked, "Well how did you meet Ghirahim?"

"Well, that's what happened next. I fell into the lake in the middle of a huge battle between Ghirahim and the dragon, Faron. Ghirahim's troops had boats and were taking over a good portion of the lake while Faron fought back. I had the luck of falling in the middle of the lake during this. Faron saved me and was going to take me in, but Ghirahim stole me back. Of course, I didn't understand what they were saying because I didn't speak Hylian. I'd be honest, at first, I was mistakenly relieved to not be going with the dragon. Ghirahim had me work for him and taught me how to speak, read, and listen. He wouldn't let me leave the house, or if I did I was by his side. I watched him murder and kill and conquer. There was plenty of yelling and threats but I noticed that I was the one thing he wouldn't lay a harmful hand on. I took up healing and medicine as soon as I could read the books in the library. I would help whoever I could. With Ghirahim being immortal, I caught up with him age-wise.

"When I was nineteen I made a sailcloth and ran away to Skyloft. I hid out there for a while and met some great people, turned twenty, got a bird, and got really sick." She paused to take a deep breath. "I soon realized that I missed Ghirahim. He was an important part of who I was and circumstances brought me back to the surface, but I was really sick. It was hard for Ghirahim to watch me die. I think it really messed him up further than what Demise did to him. And when I died he felt like he failed." She looked down at the floor. "He rescued me. He used a spell to bring me back but it had a large cost. And because of the spell, I am stuck in the body of a twenty-year-old woman."

"Why did he save you? Why did he care for you so much?"

"He fell in love with me." She answered flatly. "And I had feelings for him, but it was a complicated relationship. After years of being around him, you notice that he isn't the character he puts on. He has a heart and he gets pretty lonely. Being raised by the evilest being in the world just takes a toll on you, yah know? And when I woke up after dying I saw him at his most vulnerable, he was really small and really scared. The spell he cast linked his life with mine, so I naturally felt more intimate with who he was. And since we were linked for life... we were married." She didn't smile when she said this even though it felt like a touching happy ending. Then I remembered that Ghirahim was in a different part of the world, and she was in a dinky hut.

"Why did you separate?"

"I got pregnant. There were a lot of people who hated us, understandably. I get it though, people don't change no matter what world you are in. Women who sleep with power guys are deemed as whores. And Ghirahim being with a human was seen as taboo. I had my baby and I decided to separate from him to protect us. It's harder to kill all of us when we aren't together."

"So there are more humans like us? Where are they?" My heart was racing. She was immortal, which means she could be the founder of a whole colony of people.

She laughed and shook her head. "How old do you think I am?" She giggled.

"I don't know, Ghirahim is ancient-"

"I got pregnant at twenty-two, I am now thirty-nine. This happened seventeen years ago." She stopped laughing but just smiled at me. She pointed to the walls of the hut which were covered in tally marks. I nodded but kept waiting for her to keep talking. She rolled her eyes, "God, you're as thick as your father. I left my baby in Skyloft with someone I knew would keep her safe." She reached her hand out and caressed my cheek. I was frozen and without words.

"S-s-so, Ghirahim is my-" I tried to spit it out but I was shaking.

"Yes," She took her hand away.

"You're my mom?" I asked for clarification. She smiled and nodded but she looked sad regardless. "When did you find out? I had my hair and ears-"

"You're my daughter. I knew the second I saw you." She got up to grab my bag and my stuff. She gathered it together. I watched her quietly. She snagged her own bag and shoved some papers and books inside it.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I sat up taller and swung my feet off the side of the bed. I forgot how sick I really was. I got a quick rush of nausea. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about it.

"The point of us separating to stay safe only works if all three of us participate it in." She explained, "Since you've already been reunited with the two of us, and Ghirahim isn't strong enough to leave me alone, our best bet is to stay together. We are probably stronger now than before."

"What about your dragon friend?" I asked.

"He should be fine, so long as the tree keeps growing in the past. The robots know how to take care of his wounds and medicine. He just prefers a real person to keep him company." She laughed and closed her bag.

"How-how are we getting back? We need water-"

"You think I lived with him that long and didn't learn how to teleport? Do you not remember yesterday?" She laughed and grabbed my arm to help me stand. I remembered that it was her that snapped her fingers and sent me back. I was weaker than I was expecting. She gave support, even though I was much taller than her. I held her tight and breathed deeply. She held all our stuff and looked around her hut one last time. And with a snap of her fingers, it was gone.

We stood on the front lawn of the house. The same dead grass and dead potted plants decorated it. It was overgrown and disgusting. Her face looked irritated. She scrunched up her nose as if she smelled something bad.

"He always hated begonias, but he didn't have to let them die." She complained. She started to walk towards the front door. "And it probably would have killed him to water the grass." She didn't seem too thrilled to be back. I was expecting her to be happier to see her husband after seventeen years. Then again, I'm not too thrilled to see my own father after twenty-four hours.

She shoved open the door and I followed behind her, still leaning for support. I closed the door behind us. It was the same as I had left it. I was expecting her to call something to let him know we were here. Instead, she just had us pace around quietly. The old broken furniture was still in the pile that I left it in after cleaning the hall. She looked at it and shook her head. She walked towards the supply closet where I found the bandages and alcohol when I first came in. She opened the door, peeked in, and then closed it.

"That was the room he let me use when I would bring creatures back to heal." She explained. I looked over to the door that I still hadn't been in yet.

"What's that room?" I asked quietly pointing to the door.

"The ice-room." She said looking at the door. That made sense why it was so locked off. "But also, a prison." She added. I swallowed hard, a little relieved that it was locked. "That's why the medical stuff is so close to it." She shrugged. We began to walk down the hall and stood ourselves before the door to Ghirahim's room. She knocked lightly. We waited a couple of seconds and Ghirahim answered the door. He looked down at Catto without any expression and the peered over at me. He took a deep breath and then slammed the door in our faces. Catto shrugged it off and continued walking down the hall.

We made it to the library, and she opened the doors. She didn't walk in she just looked in from the hallway. She saw that it was all cleaned up and the nodded as she closed the door again. Then we made our way to what was my room. She opened the doors wide and walked in.

"All my art is still here." She mumbled. She walked over to the desk and picked up some of the journals on the desk. She flipped through them and smiled with hints of nostalgia. I went over and sat on the bed to rest and watch her as she examined the room silently. "This was my room growing up. I probably spent all my free time here."

"I'd argue that you spent more time in the library." A voice groaned from the door. We turned around and Ghirahim was leaning in the door frame with his arms crossed. "But what do I know?"

"How to hold a grudge." Catto spat.

"I'd say the same to you." He huffed; he didn't seem to care for the conversation.

"I don't have anything to hold a grudge against." Catto retorted.

"A blind fool could see through your deceptions." He looked up and around, avoiding her gaze.

"Well, what do you want me to do? What words do you want me to say? What will make your royal ass happy-"

"How about an apology, Catto?!" He yelled. He stood tall and proud in the doorway.

"I don't have anything to be sorry about." She crossed her arms and stared him down. He stared her in the face. He looked hurt by her answer and didn't respond. "I did what needed to be done."

"Well, I had it under control!" He gritted through his teeth.

"You really didn't." She rolled her eyes.

"Then what would you have wanted me to do?" She got stumped by his question. She had her mouth open but no words escaped. "I knew that I wasn't the most important person in your life at that moment." For a split second, Ghirahim let his face glance over at me. I got a feeling of shame wash over me. "Did you want me to swoop you up from your little dragon-land and bring you back here?" Catto looked down. She shook her head. "Then what? All it took was one look at that brat to get you melting into her palm and to do whatever she wanted!" He pointed at me but wouldn't look at me. "You wouldn't come back for me but you would break your so-called 'brilliant plan' to do what she wanted because you haven't seen her in seventeen years!" Catto stood there quietly with her head down. I didn't know what to do but I figured it should be something.

"Just leave her alone." I managed to blurt out. Ghirahim growled in frustration and snapped his fingers. I was now inches away from his face. Before I had time to react he kicked me to the ground. Catto screamed out and ran to me on the floor.

"Know your place." He spat.

"Ghirahim!" Catto yelled.

"She's not my daughter," Ghirahim sassed. "She's the Hero's daughter." He turned around swiftly and left.