(Edit 05/02/18)

(Updated: 01/04/17)

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Chapter Eleven

Zelda groaned, stretching her body. Her muscles pulled and her joints popped like an old lady as she came to terms with the pain flowing through her body. After a brief moment of amnesia, she remembered the cliff edge; she remembered toppling over it, and falling down.

Huh. So that was the reason for her pain.

As Zelda's drowsiness wore off, she discovered to her absolute horror she was in an unfamiliar place. It was a bedroom, and seemed quite homely with a fire crackling in the corner and various curios lining the walls; but it was an unfamiliar place none the less. Millions of scenarios ran through Zelda's head, and she wondered if she'd been kidnapped. She struggled to get up, only to fall back with a yelp, her injured body refusing to cooperate with her.

"Careful, dear child," a croaky voice warned her softly, and Zelda's panic-filled eyes shot to the door. Stood, well, hunched there was a woman, well-wizened with age. She stood only a few feet high, her back bent over almost grotesquely. She walked with a large knobbled wooden stick, which made a hollow tap on the floor as she made her way over to the bed where Zelda lay.

"Who are you?" Zelda demanded. The old lady shook her head.

"My, you are a rude one. A simple 'Thank you' would suffice," surprised at being chastised, Zelda blushed and closed her mouth. The old lady shook her head again. "Though I guess you must be confused, especially after taking a fall like that."

"Who are you?" Zelda asked again. She couldn't be sure this wasn't some sort of trick; tales she had read in her father's books had long taught her to be wary of strange magic, and this woman practically exuded magic. Even though Zelda had witnessed magic and magical beings many times on her travels before, there was no telling this woman's magic would be the same. The old lady laughed.

"Clearly you won't see sense until I answer that question," she shifted her weight, the walking stick creaking alarmingly "My name is not important. I have no need to use it, and have long since forgotten it. I go by the name Grannie."

Painful memories of the past surged up into Zelda's mind, but she pushed them aside. What had happened before, with Impa, had been buried deep in her mind.

"Where am I?" Zelda asked. She was aware she was being rude, but the pain surrounding her made her irritable, and the unknown frightened her.

"You're in my cabin, in the woods," Grannie told her, "Found you yesterday, whilst me and my new friend were out searching for food for our dinners. He caught two rabbits, and I caught you!" She burst into laughter much too animated for a woman of her age.

"Thank you," Zelda quickly said, feeling extremely rude for her previous behaviour. "I'm sorry for being rude."

"You should be thanking me. Any longer there and the wild beasts would've gotten to you. You must've been there for a while, you were freezing. That fall did a number on you, so I got my friend to bring you back here and I mixed up some potions for you. All herbal, mind you, no magic. It would've healed you quicker, but I'm not sure how your folk would take to it."

"My folk?"

"You didn't notice?" Grannie blinked, and Zelda noticed. The eyes of the old woman shone a strange mix of colours, noticeably red and yellow. She couldn't be sure, but there seemed to be a hint of green. These were not the eyes of any Skyloftian.

"You're not from the village," Zelda observed stupidly. Of course not, Zelda would have seen her up on Skyloft long before she would've seen her in the village.

"I'm not. I'm from a different place, down here on the surface. I won't bore you with the whole story, but I ran away from my clan when I was young. It was many, many years ago now. I set up here, in the woods, and survived. I managed to scavenge everything you see here; I found it all. Mind you, I've been around a fair bit in my younger age," she paused, her face nostalig as if recalling an old memory. "I found an old library once, six days walk east. It's how I learnt how to speak many languages, including yours. There were many books there. I did it mostly to pass the time, then, but now I have you and my friend to talk to, my knowledge of the sky language has come into use."

"A Library?" Zelda asked, enchanted. Grannie nodded.

"When the Goddess ended the war, a lot of the land was damaged. But, not all of it was demolished. A fair few buildings still stand, if you know where to look. Like I said, I spent a lot of my life exploring this land."

"Wow. That's the kind of life I wanted. To be able to explore and be free to go where I want, when I want," Zelda looked at the woman in a new light, not as a potential threat but now as a potential role model.

"Mind, it wasn't without its difficulties. The amount of times I nearly died!" She laughed again. "Good thing I taught myself medicine. Speaking of, I should probably give you your evening medication. You must feel terrible now that the last lot has worn off."

Zelda's body tinged with pain in agreement, and she nodded. Grannie feed her a delicious soup with a spoon. Zelda noticed at some point that her arm was in a splint, most likely broken. She ignored it long enough to finish the soup, and afterwards she felt so tired that before she could fuss she drifted off into a deep sleep.

She moved quickly through the jungle, leaping over roots and ducking under branches. Her lungs screamed at her to stop, the take a break, but her mind and legs spurred her on. She was being chased, and the chaser was set to kill.

She went to jump over another root, but this time she missed; her leg caught, and her momentum threw her over, slamming her into the ground. Her heart rose in her throat, and her brain screamed at her to get up. But, she was exhausted. She'd been running for what seemed like forever, and she just didn't have the energy to continue.

She felt the beast's breath before she heard it. A surprisingly soft, warm curl of hot breath shifted her hair and it tickled her face. She held in a scream, as she was sure the beast was about to strike.

But it didn't.

She opened her eyes, looking straight at the beast, straight into its own eyes. The beast no longer seemed angry and violent. In fact, it seemed worried. She felt a sudden, strong urge to protect the beast.

Just as she set to move, another, much larger beast shot out of nowhere, and took the smaller beast by the neck in its teeth. The smaller beast howled and yelped as the larger one held it down, and with one final screech the beast ripped out the neck of the smaller one.

The girl screamed now, and the beast turned to look at her, bearing teeth now covered in blood. The last thing she saw was the deep black eyes of the beast as it leapt at her.

Zelda woke up sometime the next day. She had had a strange dream, and it unsettled her greatly. She had learnt before that her dreams meant something; it was a riddle. One she had to find out the meaning of before it was too late. Despite this, she felt a lot better physically; her pain had pretty much gone. She looked at her arm, where the splint was. It was clear to her now that her arm had been broken, but Grannie had set it for her and it had healed back to normal. Zelda flexed her fingers, and then rolled her wrist, and when there was no pain she pulled the splint off.

Growing curious as to what was beyond her little bedroom, Zelda gently swung her legs round, and after testing the strength of her legs, she got up out of the bed. Zelda wondered over to a bookcase in the room, and picked up a book at random. It was bound in red leather, and quite heavy. Zelda flicked through the pages, but the language was strange to her and with no pictures she found it hard to understand any of it. She put it back.

After looking at a few more curios, including a rather cool looking painting showing three women, Zelda braved leaving the room. She could faintly smell some sort of meat cooking, and her stomach rumbled, telling her she was hungry. Zelda opened the door, and slipped out into the unknown.

The unknown turned out to be a rather boring living room, but it was who was in the living room that was not so boring.

Grannie had mentioned the night before that she had a friend. This friend was sat in the middle of the living room, cooking on a large fire. He turned the skewers of meat, and looked up when he heard Zelda gasp. He grinned.

"Hey Zelda," he rubbed the back of his head somewhat nervously. "Long time no see, eh?"

Can you guess who the friend is? Leave a review and see if you can work it out!

Thanks for reading!

Meiko x