The march across the great plain took around four hours. Always, the rocky hill was before us, getting ever nearer. Directly behind us lay the city with its great castle towering to an unbelievable height. Behind and to either side of the castle, a high rocky plateau dwarfed the surrounding lands. Just to the east of the castle, a narrow valley pierced the plateau, under the shadow of an awe-inspiring mountain, almost perfectly conical, and topped with some ancient volcanic crater. West of the castle, the plateau continued, ringing the plain, punctuated only by a single valley. Directly east of us, I could make out the eaves of a great forest. And always we drew nearer to the high rocky hill, crowned with its palisade.

As we approached the foot of the hill, I could discern the red roofs of some buildings within the palisade. The place did not seem so much like a ranch, as much as a stronghold. One, in fact, to rival the soaring castle to its north. Perhaps even to rival the great fortresses and castles in my own world. We journeyed around the foot of the great hill until we reached its southern slope, which was a far easier climb than its northern or western slopes. It was there that we approached the gate into the ranch. The ascent was easy, but the gate was set in a well-built wooden palisade, topped by a battlement, upon which I could see the tops of helmets as a number of soldiers patrolled. A clear, sweet horn call greeted our approach, answered with the opening of the gate.

The "ranch" seemed to me more like a military encampment on the inside. The red-roofed buildings contained smithies, kitchens, and numerous small, simple dwellings. There were two large open areas; one contained a ring, inside which several horses grazed, and the other hosted several soldiers engaged in training.

Finally, our small party stopped before a large house, the only building that appeared remotely ranch-like about the place. A young woman around my age came out through the front door to greet us. She was a little shorter than me – perhaps three or four inches under my own five feet and seven inches – and was garbed in a plain white dress with blue trim. She let her red hair fall naturally over her shoulders, and her keen brown eyes surveyed us. Eventually, she curtseyed to Zelda. "Welcome, honored guests," she said, "to Lon-Lon Ranch, my home."

Zelda dismissed the soldiers who had accompanied us, and she stepped forward to greet the redhead with the Sages; while she was stepping forward, Impa ushered me forth as well. Zelda granted the redhead a sisterly embrace, as did Impa. Clearly, the redhead was on friendly terms with the two.

Then Zelda spoke: "I've brought someone you may want to meet, Malon. This…" She indicated me. "…is Brian Glenn."

Malon, the redhead, turned to study me. After a few seconds, as if satisfied with whatever she saw, she nodded and asked Zelda, "Is this the one who is going to rescue Link?"

Zelda nodded. Immediately, I felt the reality of the task at hand sink in. I had just surveyed the environs around the castle, and they seemed so much grander than anything I could possibly hope to encounter in a video game. The magnitude of the challenge would be great, I realized. For a split second, I almost wished I was writing a term paper.

The thought faded quickly, though, as Impa turned to me and said, "We'll use this ranch as our base of operations while you plan the rescue. As we're on a bit of a war footing, this ranch is doubling as a military garrison, so there is ample space and provisions for all of us to stay here for a good while."

I nodded in acknowledgement, before Zelda said, "Now that we're here, we might as well make ourselves comfortable." She, Impa, and the other Sages went their own separate ways. Malon and I were left standing in front of her house. After a few awkward seconds, I looked at the shield I'd been carrying. If I was going to be doing any fighting, I decided, I would need to know how to handle the weapons I carried. So I walked over to the training ground, hoping maybe to find a sparring partner and some practice weapons.

It was another five hours before I managed to drag myself into one of the dwellings, completely exhausted and dripping with perspiration. I had spent all of those hours sparring with numerous different soldiers with hefty, durable wooden swords and spears. I had learned a lot from the troops, which probably spoke mostly to my total lack of experience in actual combat. Sure, I spent hours on end researching military history on the internet, or hiking the trails and climbing the numerous large hills around Eugene. But fighting on an individual level forced me to combine everything I knew about military strategy, distill it to a small scale, and recall all the physical training I had done in my spare time to stay in shape, all in one chaotic scenario after another.

Now I leaned my shield and my metal sword against an unclaimed bed, wiping the sweat from my brow with my U of O t-shirt. I laughed to myself at what a ridiculous sight I looked in this entire world, with my modern fashions juxtaposed with the simpler, older garments of this world's denizens. If I ever found Link, I imagined, he would likely be confused by my strange garb.

A door inside the building opened, and a person stepped into the room who, to my eyes, appeared like a ninja. She – I could tell the figure was a she – wore a tight blue suit, tall, cream-colored socks and soft black shoes. Her head was crowned with a tight cap of white gauze, and her face, save for her eyes and bangs, was obscured by a mask of the same white gauze. Printed upon the front of her suit was an odd device: a red eye, crowned by three triangles – like rays of light or arrowheads – and atop a single, long tear.

The ninja walked up to me and asked, in a muffled but familiar voice, "How does it look?"

My eyes narrowed slightly as I tried to figure out who this unknown figure was. Then she took off her cap and mask, revealing Zelda's face underneath. Startled, I replied, "I didn't recognize you. Is that what you wear when in action?"

Zelda nodded. "This is how I disguise myself when I wish to remain undetected. I managed to fool even the Hero of Time for a good two months while he was banishing Ganon's evil two years ago. The time may come soon when I have to wear this again."

I nodded soberly at that. I hoped Link would be easy to find, and just as easy to rescue. It would mean that Zelda and her kingdom would have someone more qualified than myself to defend them.

Then, too tired to do anything else, I pulled open the sheets on the bed I'd just claimed and immediately lay down, falling asleep within seconds.