A/N: Nothing much to say this time except to my one (one!) reviewer: thank you for reviewing, and reading, and although I realize I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I'm sure you can see how I could have come to that one. Eye of Truth, Seeing Truth, girl goes to Hyrule, girl goes to Hyrule... Not to mention the Taliba thing. But it's all fanfiction anyway, it doesn't matter. :) And now, the story continues! Still don't own Zelda, also don't own Epona's Song, which was written by Koji Kondo. Want to know what the words mean? Look up Epona's Song lyrics on google, you'll find 'em.

Epona's Song

Elizabeth gasped and ducked back. Heart pounding, she peered carefully around the corner. Please don't let him see me, she prayed. Please, whoever's up there that loves me, don't let him see me... He was facing the other way. Elizabeth began to thank her lucky stars, but then she saw where he was going. Oh, not the choir room... she moaned silently. That's where I have to go! For a moment she stood and debated what to do. The bell was going to ring in a moment; was it really worth being late to avoid him? Yes... whispered part of her, but a bigger part said no. Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth steeled herself and, turning the corner, began to walk down the hall.

The choir room was entered by an antechamber with a wheelchair ramp leading up to the choir room itself. Wishing as she usually did that there was a way to avoid this silly maze (the rail was too high for her to jump), Elizabeth wandered about halfway up before she stopped. Through the window next to the door, the girl could see Mr. Smith, but the person he stood facing was not Ms. Fullerton. It was another substitute, a young woman with long red hair, the biggest, coolest, most anime-ish cowlick Elizabeth had ever seen, and a look of rage and -- Elizabeth blinked -- terror in her vibrant blue eyes as she and Mr. Smith argued over something. Unable to resist, she went over to the door and, putting her ear against it, listened:

"...their champion this time, the one upon whom all their petty little hopes are placed. A little ranch girl." Elizabeth felt her hackles rise at the irritating, condescending tone of Mr. Smith's voice. "Ordinarily, this would be the point where I said something about how the mighty have fallen, but, well, their first hero was a little forest boy. You can see how I wouldn't really be all that surprised at this turn of events." Elizabeth's eyebrows were up in her biggest 'I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-here' expression. Forest boy...? But her mind stubbornly refused to give in. It's not possible. I'm not falling for this again! "Speaking of whom," the intimidating band substitute went on, "I wonder why it isn't he that is here today, and not you. Is it possible that everyone's favorite hero has been replaced!" The sarcastic shock in his voice irked Elizabeth, despite the fact that she had no idea what the two were talking about.

"No one will ever replace Link!" this voice was new, female, and defiant. The other sub. Elizabeth's mind was reeling at something else, though. L... No. It's a coincidence. This... isn't... possible! She shook her head fiercely.

"No," she whispered, barely audible even to herself.

"And you," the choir substitute continued, even as Elizabeth battled with herself, "will never succeed. Never! I... I won't let you!"

Heavy footsteps, followed by a terrified gasp. "And just how do you propose to stop me?" Mr. Smith was practically snarling. Elizabeth was just glad she couldn't see his face. In spite of all her daydreams in which she boldly assaulted some villain or other and somehow managed to save the day, all Elizabeth could do at that moment was sit like a frightened rabbit at the door and listen. "I will admit, I underestimated the brats last time around. But not this time. This time, I'll be ready. And no one --not you, not the Sages, not even that little brat of a hero -- no one will stand in my way!" There was the sound of something (or someone, Elizabeth realized with a shock) hitting the ground, and then footsteps headed towards the door Elizabeth currently had her ear against. With a gasp she lurched away from it and did what she had never done before: leaving behind her tote bag, she scrambled over the guard rail on the ramp and landed in front of the door into the antechamber just as the door to the choir room itself opened and Mr. Smith came out.

For a moment the two stared at each other as Elizabeth prayed that he wouldn't notice her tote bag sitting in the corner; then the moment passed. At a speed that belied his immense size, Mr. Smith started down the ramp. Quickly Elizabeth scrambled away from the door and, pressing herself back against the railing, waited for him to leave. When he did so, it was as if a thundercloud had lifted. Elizabeth let loose a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Proceeding up the wheelchair ramp, she picked up her tote bag from its abandoned position and entered the choir room.

The room was completely empty, with the sole exception of the choir substitute, who was currently picking herself up off the floor. Elizabeth felt a flash of rage towards Mr. Smith, who was probably back in the band room by now. She fidgeted in place uncomfortably. "Uhh... is there chorus today?" she asked, looking around at the empty choir room. Elizabeth was never the first one to choir.

Malon had to restrain her laughter at the sight in front of her. As she stood there shifting her weight from foot to foot uncertainly, the girl Malon had been sent to find looked exactly as Link had when the farmgirl first met him, in the marketplace so long ago. In spite of her little encounter with the King of Evil, Malon felt uplifted. Maybe -- just maybe -- inside this shy, insecure young girl there could be found a hero similar to that which had resided in that little Kokiri boy, so many years ago.

"Nope!" she said cheerfully in answer to her young visitor's question. "No chorus. Your usual director wasn't sure who she would get for a substitute, so I guess she didn't want to take any chances." Disappointment registered on the girl's face. "But you can stay if you'd like," Malon added quickly. This was far too good an opportunity to pass up. "Truth be told, I was a little disappointed when I learned that all the choirs were cancelled. I would love to teach someone today!" She beamed.

"All right," the girl said uncertainly. "If it wouldn't bother you..."

"Oh, no, this is wonderful," Malon told her as she began to shift through the pile of papers on the teacher's desk.. "I had a long, boring class period ahead of me, and I wasn't really looking forward to it." She made a face, then smiled. "Well, you can set your bag down if you'd like. My name is Miss Trotter; what's yours?"

"Elizabeth Grass," the girl answered, placing her bag against the wall.

"Any nicknames?" Malon inquired, sincerely hoping that she did have one. There was no way she was going to get that right, with the Z, and the syllables, and the weird. Where do these people come up with their names, anyway?

"Usually either Liz or Lizzy. Never Beth," she added. "I am not a Beth. Or anything related to Beth."

"Okay then... Liz," Malon said with a smile. "Shall we get started? Come on over here next to the piano." The ranchgirl headed over to it and sat down. "Now, let's start with some warm-ups." She played a chord and hummed five descending notes. Elizabeth began to copy her, but Malon cut her off, frowning. "Have you ever had voice lessons before?" she asked. Elizabeth shook her head. "Sing a scale for me." The girl obliged. "Did you hear that break in the middle, where you switched registers?"

"Yeah," Liz said with a nod.

"We're going to try and get rid of that," Malon said. "Sing a kind of siren noise for me, like this." She sang a sliding note up from Do to Sol and back down again. "Try and keep it all in the upper register." She played the chord again.

Elizabeth looked dubiously at her teacher, but nodded. No matter how hard she tried, though, she just couldn't get those first notes into her upper register. Miss Trotter frowned. "Okay, let's just try it going down," the teacher said. Elizabeth tried it. It was still hard, but not as hard as before. At least I'm actually starting on a note I'm used to placing in my upper register...

Warmups proceeded with... well, quite a bit of difficulty, in fact. Sometimes Elizabeth understood what Miss Trotter told her to do ("Support the sound from your diaphragm") but sometimes the teacher's instructions just made no sense at all to her ("Open up the inside of your mouth -- but don't let the sound go back!"). After what seemed like a thousand "Oooh"'s "Eeee"'s and "Aaaah"'s, Miss Trotter finally sat back.

"Okay," she said. "Let's try a song now. How about... this one!" She handed the music to Elizabeth, who looked at it. Her jaw dropped.

EPONA'S SONG, read the cover, in flowing, curly letters. Elizabeth looked up sharply at her teacher. Now that I think of it, she looks a lot like... But no. That was impossible. It was a coincidence, that was all. It had to be. Her substitute just happened to like Zelda, that's all. And look like a character from one of the games. And Elizabeth just so happened to be the only one to show up for choir that day...

She shook her head, trying to shake these thoughts out of her head. It wasn't that implausible.

"Something wrong?" Miss Trotter asked, jolting Elizabeth out of her thoughts. She was looking at her student with a concerned expression on her face.

"N-no," Elizabeth answered. "No, I'm fine. Everything's fine." Miss Trotter glanced a little curiously at her, but Elizabeth avoided her eyes. The teacher let it drop.

"So... Those lyrics. I know they're not in English, but do you think that you can pull it off?" Miss Trotter asked. Elizabeth scanned them for a moment.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "I think I can handle it."

"All right then," Miss Trotter said with a smile. "Let's get started!" Placing her fingers on the key, she began to play the introduction. Elizabeth was surprised at how it sounded on piano. It sounds kind of nice, in its own way... Opening her mouth, she began to sing:

"Epona, Epona, soba ni oide
Futari de ireba sabishiku nanka nai

Dakara Epona koko ni ite
Omae dake o mamotte ageru."

She was stumbling in a few places, Elizabeth knew, but overall she was doing okay. The lyrics were very pretty and flowing, and she didn't really have to look at the translation to get a general sense of what they were about.

"Koushite iru to omoi dasu
Ano hi no yoake
Tsuki ga shizumi taiyou to
Omae ga umareta

Epona Epona soba ni oide
Futari de ireba kanashiku nan ka nai."

Even though she didn't know exactly what the words meant, for some reason they reminded Elizabeth of her stuffed animals and how they had all acted as her friends whenever she had none. Her vivid imagination had provided them with personalities of their own, so much so that Elizabeth had begun by now to truly think of them as living creatures and not the creation of fabric, stuffing, and her own mind.

Dakara Epona koko ni ite
Watashi no uta o kiite ite ne

Koushite iru to omoi dasu
Ano koro no koto
Omae no tame ni kaazan ga
Tsukutta kono uta."

Elizabeth found herself swaying in time to the music as she began to hum, as the music indicated.

"Hmm.. Hmm..
Hmm-mm-mmm...
Futari de ireba kanashiku nan ka nai

Hmm.. Hmm..
Hmm-mm-mmm...
Wasurenai demo kono uta
Kono uta..."

She held onto the note longer than the music indicated before letting it trail off. Miss Trotter finished the song, then sat back, looking at her pupil with a very odd look on her face.

"That one suits you," she said quietly with a small, strange smile. "It suits you very well." Then she snapped out of it. "Now," the teacher said briskly, flipping through her music, "there are a few spots that still need a little work..." They continued to smooth out Epona's Song until the bell rang, at which point Elizabeth gathered up her tote bag and thanked her teacher. She tried to hand the music back, but Miss Trotter told her to keep it.

"Take it home and practice. Study those lyrics, see if you can memorize them. That always helps me," the teacher told her.

"Okay," Elizabeth said, a little awkwardly. She wasn't very good accepting things, whether they be compliments or gifts or anything of that nature. "Thank you." She tucked the music carefully away in her tote bag, hoping that it would be the one thing that didn't get destroyed by being put there. "Bye Miss Trotter," she said, and walked out the door. She went to lunch in a daze, and even though she saw Mr. Smith on the way, even he wasn't scary enough to break through her mood totally. She felt a distant pang of fear, but it passed quickly and then she was off to lunch, singing softly under her breath:

"Wasurenai demo kono uta
Kono uta..."

That night, Elizabeth had another dream.

She was floating in an endless expanse of white, so bright she had to close her eyes against it. Somewhere far off, some sort of woodwind was playing. The melody was somber, yet beautiful, and though she felt as though she should recognize it, perhaps the mind is less apt at these things while asleep...

Am I asleep? she wondered. This experience had that slightly unreal quality about it, but her thoughts were clear and she found when she raised her hand and turned to look at it that she was in complete control of her own actions.

That was when the darkness came, a tangible thing that wrapped around Elizabeth and tried to pull her in one direction. Some instinct made her limbs thrash against it, and when she realized she was being dragged away from the source of the music, she fought even harder. The same instinct that made her fight told her that she did not want to be taken away from that music.

Suddenly another song began to mingle with the other one, the notes coming in on the other song's rest. If she listened, Elizabeth could make out words:

"Epona, Epona, soba ni oide..."

Getting a sudden idea, Elizabeth began to sing along, projecting her voice into the whiteness:

"Futari de ireba, sabishiku nan ka nai..."

The darkness shrank away from the song as if in pain. Breaking free at last, Elizabeth fled in the direction of the music...

Meanwhile, a bright light flashed in Elizabeth's bedroom. When it faded, a person was standing there, amidst all the mess. The person swore abruptly in a masculine voice, having evidently landed on something that was not fun to land on. Looking around, he located Elizabeth on the top bunk right in front of him and eyed this problem with a frown. This was going to be awkward; he didn't want to hurt her, after all. Spotting a ladder at the end of the bunk, he clambered up it and onto the bed itself, avoiding treading on the girl. So far so good; no sign of the barrier. Carefully he gathered her into his arms. "Got her, Zel," he whispered into the empty darkness, and with another bright flash, Link the Hero of Time vanished, taking the Fourth, a youngest child, and a misfit girl with him out of her home world.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form