Chapter Twelve:
The last rays of light that had been seen seemed like hours ago, the darkness of the void consuming whatever rays of light was generated from outlaying sources. There was no warmth within this darkness, a coldness that seeped from every corner imaginable, a chill that went straight to the bone. There were dots of lights that could be potential Worlds, stationed in this vast void as though they had been placed there by whatever God or Goddess decided to put them there, orbs of life where other beings lived and thrived in however they managed to cling to their own life. The void was like a cloudless night sky with stars shining brightly to mark the other places which one could gaze upon from the comfort of their own gardens during a calm before a hard storm. Those planets, these Worlds, had been out of reach to her and to so many others but now one such person could reach out and touch those same Worlds if she wanted to and yet still was so far away from the one she had grown up in and the one she was going eventually land on.
The darkness of these surroundings left Kaya to wonder where she was going, if she was ever going to get there, or if she would continue to move along in this seemingly limitless void of nothing. She spiraled in the vortex that did not look like it had an end in sight, her mind racing with the possibilities that she may never see a World again and just die out in the space of nothing. Since she had entered the void through the cold waters of the Hylia, her clothes now dry despite having dived under the surface of water, she wondered if she had made the correct choice in leaving her World behind as suddenly as she had. It was too late to fix the haste that she had left Hyrule in and the horror that she had left Zelda and Impa with, it had to be done or else she would not have lived to see another month go by. By this time, however long she had been in the darkness, the guards would have known that the queen was not at the lakeside and most likely had drowned in the lake, if they believed Impa's tale. They would be on their way to the castle-town by now if they had not already entered the Market, hurriedly going to the castle to tell the king of what had happened. There was no telling how long she had been in the void, no sense of time or how far she had traveled; for all she knew ten years had passed since leaving Hyrule and now, and this was her afterlife.
The queen had seen Zelda's paralyzing look on her face as soon as the queen had dived into the water of Lake Hylia; despite her resolve at the time not to look back at her daughter, she had to take one last look at the child before she left. It would be something she would never forget in the time she had remaining nor would ever live down for the same period of time, the thought of her daughter's face imprinted on her mind. The princes-heir was the only reason she had momentarily hesitated in the first place and why she wanted to go back to her own World to retrieve her yet she did not, could not as since didn't know how in this damnable space. For some reason or another she felt it wouldn't be fair to a greater destiny to do so and would create a rift in the stream of Time, a rift that she might have already created now that she was no longer in Hyrule. Something pulled her into this path and it held her to it regardless of what she did and didn't want to do, such the way was destiny and, in her mind, she cursed destiny for making her chose between freedom and her own flesh and blood.
She held the bag she had brought with her close to her chest, making sure that nothing would be lost or dropped in case she needed these items in the future. Kaya didn't trust the vortex of the void, or herself, if she reached into the bag to check on the two books and jar of rupees she had placed into it; for all she knew it would take those things from her as well. Those items would serve her in the times to come, the books to write her thoughts down and memories of the World she was about to go into so that she would be able to somehow send it to her daughter to read. The jar of rupees would most likely last her for the remaining years left despite her not knowing if these gems could be used in the World she still had her mind set on or if she would have to find a way to get by in the World she was, hopefully, headed to. She held onto the hope that whatever little time she had left, whatever life she could live, there would be no fear like she had felt back at the castle; she never wanted to live like that again.
Even though she felt a dizziness wash over her that made her close her eyes several times, she continued to go through the path that lead her from the World she was familiar with to the World she knew nothing of. When will this end? She thought to herself as she tried to open her eyes once last time, to make sure she had not strayed too far from her given path regardless if she could see it or not. When she did she still found herself enclosed in total darkness, the same darkness that would lead her to the World of the Humans and not straight into hell itself, if she was not headed that way to begin in. I can not stand falling like this much longer if I am falling in the first place.
Kaya took in a deep breath to steady herself, her body seemingly starting to slow down to a point where she didn't feel like she was spinning downwards in a spiral of nothing. The darkness began to fade away into a gray-like color which she welcomed more then the darkness that had consumed her, the gray becoming more and more lighter like the darkness had when the first wave of light had left her when she had left Hyrule. Like it had begun when she had first started her journey the gray soon turned into white then into a clear, almost transparent color before a flash of light blinded her for a split second. Suddenly she felt herself drop from a sky that was not familiar to her and into a thick tree branch below, the ground below her many feet below; she had to quickly grasp the tree branch so she wouldn't fall onto the grass below. She hung like that for several minutes before she managed to pull herself towards the trunk of the tree and take in a deep breath of air; where she had come to she could at least breath in oxygen.
After she put the bag into her lap and placed her back against the trunk of the tree she made sure that she had not lost any of her belongings, her fingers shaking with more then just fear and worry. The two books she had with her and the jar of rupees was still there, a sigh escaping her lips as she leaned her head against the tree and took in a deep breath to steady herself. She had come into a new World now and was far away - or so she hoped - from Hyrule as possible; it was a new start in a strange land that she would have to learn to adjust to. She kept her eyes closed for several seconds before opening them again and pulled her head forwards so she could take a good look around at the place she had fallen.
Down below her people were walking along on hard paths and not even taking a single look up at her as though they did not care nor as though they had even seen her; these paths ended at the grass that lead up to the tree. They were dressed in strange clothing and were talking to each other in a language that she not only heard from several Sheikah when she had still been living in Kakariko but also learned herself, others talking in different languages that she could not make out yet. They did not look Hylian to her, her mind now assuming that they were Humans or they were in a clever disguises that mages could turn themselves into. Several of these Humans had small, dog-like creatures on what looked like leashes and were moving away from her, some putting odd-looking devices pressed against their ears; what they were used for she didn't know and would eventually learn about if she had time for that. Others moved about with shoes that had wheels attached to them, going in a different direction then the ones that had the dog-like creatures on the leashes, some were riding two-wheeled contraptions as well.
"Did I make it? Am I in the Human World?" She breathed, continuing to look around. There were tall buildings in the distance that were made of some sort of metal, rising up to the sky and at different heights and dimensions. There were weird sounds coming from somewhere, honking, screeching of something against stone, and other such noises that she did not know what they were or how they were being made. Booming music came from behind her, scaring Kaya for a moment before it faded into the distance; people were talking around her and still continued to ignore the strange woman in the tree as though she didn't exist. All she knew so far was that she was safe in this World for the time being and no longer in her own realm; perhaps she could find some place to stay without much interference, difficulty, and wouldn't cost all of what little money she had brought with her.
"Hey, lady! What are you doing up there?" A voice demanded from below her. Kaya blinked her eyes, surprised that someone actually saw her as she looked down with an attempt to conceal her surprise and a twinge of happiness that she wasn't imagining being invisible. She saw what appeared to be a man standing there on the hard path with his hands on his hips and his head and front of his body turned towards her. He wore a pair of black pants, a blue shirt, and a pair of shoes that enclosed his feat entirely; there were badges and other devices on his body that she didn't know what were for and she assumed he most likely was part of some sort of military branch. "You need to come down from there now, you can't be up there. There are laws about climbing trees in this park, and I already arrested three people this week because of it. If you like to join them you can stay there for all I care, I rather you not."
"Can you repeat that please?" The queen asked in her own tongue, a vague smile on her lips. While she understood the words that he had said from the Sheikah that had taught her other languages, thankful she had learned the obscure language, she had to be sure that she wasn't in Hyrule any longer. The ones that had taught her this language and others had long since departed Hyrule, taking what she had thought to be an old language with them to their new homes or their early graves. Few could understand this outside her former home and she had to make sure that he wasn't one of Ganondorf's followers or a soldier of the Royal Family; she was keen on not being dragged back to the castle or, worse, the Valley. "I do not understand your words so please repeat them in our tongue."
"Oh great, a foreigner. Just what I needed to end this day," he muttered to himself as he scratched the back of his head and sighed. He looked around for a moment like he was trying to figure out what he was going to do and how to deal with a foreigner; he had confused look on his face as he did as though he was trying to figure something out. "Okay, I...damn it. Now, I don't know what language you are speaking but I am sure that it is Spanish or some language close to it. I'll call one of my officers to come coax you down from your perch so we can take you down to the station. And here I though I was going home early, too."
Kaya had to suppress a laugh when she saw the confusion on his face, the man in front of her shaking his head as he was talking about whatever nonsense that made sense only to him. All the while he had spoken and looked around, she smiled and held her words back for as long as she could stand it. Swinging her legs over the side of the branch but keeping herself steady on it, she watched as the man lowered his arms to his side and placed a hand on an odd-looking device on his belt. At that moment she tensed up, her smile vanishing and her game of fun ended; she didn't know what he was going to do and this man was the first one to acknowledge that she was there. If he was going to get someone else to attempt to translate when she didn't need anyone to, she would have to speak before he could. After all she still did not know if he was someone that knew who the Gerudo were, would force her back home, or, in the most extreme case, force her to take him and others back to Hyrule.
"No, no. There is no need to call for a translator," she told him in the basic words she could remember from her teachings; they weren't perfect but as long as they could understand each other then she could learn as she went along. He was about to pull the device from his belt when he looked up at her in surprise, blinking yet still frowned deeply at her. "I am perfectly capable of speaking your language."
"Good. For a second there I thought I'd have to call someone to try to get you to come down," the man mused, putting the device back into the holder it was in. "That makes my job a whole lot easier."
"Well the old Sheikahs have taught me the language, what little they have. There were few in my World that could speak it, and I had a choice in which languages to learn, so I suppose learning an obscure language did me well." Kaya suppressed a nervous laugh, not intending to fully speak of where she was from at the moment. Instead of looking surprised the man stared at her unblinking as though this was the first time he had seen her; that made her even more uncomfortable then she was already. What had she given away to make him give her that look for? Did he know what a Sheikah was or did he know what World she was from?
"Huh? Sheikahs?" He asked, frowning. "Lady what kind of drugs are you on?"
"They are a mystical race that lives in my World," she said flat out as though that should have been common knowledge. Inwardly she sighed and rolled her eyes at the man; she knew she wasn't in Hyrule now and she had to reason with herself that the things she knew, Humans wouldn't understand. The man was not a child and she should not speak to him as such if he was not from the World she was form and hadn't learned properly by now; that was something she would have to learn now that she wasn't in her home. Now she was her turn to learn like a child all over again, learn the ways of a world that would be strange for some time until she did learn properly.
"Sure they are, sure." The man was hesitating at something, his face contorting into what looked like disbelief to her but she could not be certain, not since she knew next to nothing about him. Kaya had only been in the Human World for ten minutes, maybe less, and she couldn't be sure if Human expressions were the same as Hylian. They resembled a race that was outside the boundaries of Hyrule, sure, but appearances could be deceiving; Kaya had learned that early on in her life. "And which country did you come from? India? Russia? Japan maybe?"
Kaya furrowed her brow at him. "No, Hyrule. I'm sure that you haven't heard of that land."
In all respects she assumed he didn't since she was far away from her own World, or as far away as the pendant had allowed her, and she felt that maybe she could give him a few hints about where she came from. Mechanically she put a hand onto the bauble that hung around her next all the while keeping her eyes upon him to make sure that he didn't move suddenly; she didn't trust him more then he trusted her, which wasn't much. She was new to a World that didn't know where she had come from or who she was and she would have to learn that she had no authority anymore, her reign as queen over with as soon as she had rode out of the castle-town that morning. All of that was gone now, put into the past that she had left behind and jumped into an uncertain future that she could not control. That would be her lesson for the next few months, a self-taught lesson that not even Impa could see her do or help her with. People here would not know what a Hylian was or the sweet taste of Lon Lon Ranch's milk during the summer months.
In turn he kept his own eyes on her, the inner workings of his mind thinking of some what to excuse the strange lady's words besides the ravings of a lunatic or someone that took cosplaying too seriously. To most people around him he couldn't disprove of what she had just claimed but he wasn't most people and he could prove it, just not in the traditional sense of proving something existed outside the normal constraints of this reality. How soon he could get this woman back to the station in one piece, and didn't scare off into the wild unknown, was only a matter of time and respect; he had a whole force of people that he couldn't disprove that things that the average person couldn't know. Not without every government in this Worldcoming down on this backwoods town like something out of a movie and taking over what had been put into place so precise that anyone outside of the few that knew would cause everything to fail - even things he knew next to nothing about. In time he would show her that one simple word - Hyrule - was a place that could exist outside the imagination and beyond that but that was all it was in this World: imagination. It also meant that something was about to happen that he had been warned about years ago and most likely had already begun, a block of fear settling into his stomach. For now, though, he feigned that surprised look and would play dumb for now.
"Hyrule?" He asked mockingly, a toying smile coming upon his lips. "Lady either you are on some kind of drug or you have been playing those Zelda games too much. It's giving you delusions or something along the lines of that."
Now it was Kaya's turn to look surprised, her face looking horrified and all color drained from her face as she gripped the branch even tighter with the one hand that still kept her stationed on the branch. Her entire body froze where it was, her hand part way from the bauble she had been fingering around her neck as she stared down at the man in shock. The man had just mentioned Zelda's name; had she been followed from Hyrule to the Human World already? Did someone force the Zora King to come to this World, possibly others, before her and spread the names of the Royal Family in every direction? Or had someone known she left in advance and come before she had to this place? Her mind flashed back to what Impa had told her earlier, that there were three other pendants that had been created and one of them had never been found; the other two were safe, or so the Sheikah had assured her. Was Zelda's life in danger now or even her own? What had she done?
Then her face went ridged to mask the horror that had once been there, fury replacing that horror as the anger rose in her. She was not going to let a Human impose fear in her, not when she had important things to protect and she was done being afraid; but hadn't she left something important behind unprotected? No! Zelda's safe with Impa, she would never let my child come to harm, Kaya thought to herself, carefully trying to think of something to say to this man. Anything that would make him give up his ruse of being innocent, that maybe the name 'Zelda' was more common in this World, or his own masters that he served to cause harm to the Royal Family. He was an impostor of a Human, if she could prove it to herself that he was. Dispelling magic had never been her strongest point and she couldn't see any aura's around the man that would prove he was of Hylian decent or even from the World she came from. In fact she couldn't see any aura around him; was he even alive?
"How do you know of my daughter's name?" She hissed out as soon as she could formulate the correct words to spit at him and found her voice. The man's playful smile deteriorated slightly but nonetheless still danced on his lips, his head turning to the side ever so slightly.
"Sure she is your daughter, I've heard odder claims. I've played those games myself but you don't see me sitting in a tree talking about a land that isn't real," he said before waving at her to get down. "Now get out of that tree before I have to come up there and force you down myself, I don't want to do that."
Kaya did not comply with him as she stared down at him with the intent to kill him when she go the chance to, despite there was no weapons around for her to use nor did she feel confident enough to strike without knowing what he could do. Regardless of the laws that governed this World, ten years locked up in some forsaken place had the same effect as behind caged in the castle; she would be looking out rather then looking in. A voice of reason shouted at her from within her own mind, telling her she had not left Hyrule just to be imprisoned in another cage; had that not been the reason she had left? She couldn't very well move from one prison to another, that was not the reason Impa had shown and given her the pendant nor was it the reason why she left Hyrule behind. No, she couldn't stand being in a prison, trapped once again.
"I am not joking about this," the man said when the queen did not respond to his order, his voice much more rough and demanding then it had been a minute before. "Get down now, you're under arrest for disobeying a direct order from a police officer."
"I'm not joking either. I shall get down but you are arresting a Royal Family member." Kaya narrowed her eyes at him, moving her body so that she could land onto the ground safely. She wasn't getting out of the tree because she was ordered to but because it was starting to get rather uncomfortable where she was sitting and she wasn't about to spent the rest of her days stuck in a tree. Besides, she was starting to become hungry and she mentally kicked herself for at not bringing at least something small to eat on the way there or had eaten something before she had decided to jump into the Hylia.
"That is it, good. I will..." he started just as Kaya launched herself off of the tree and jumped down from the branch. She landed onto the grass below with, smoothing out the clothing that she wore and placing a bag strap back onto her shoulder; she then straighten her back and turned towards him, a light smile appearing. "...catch you. Never mind then."
"There is no need to catch me as you plainly see," she responded with a slight bow and smugness, having jumped from trees like that all during her childhood. That had made the man nervous and she took a bit of pleasure in knowing that she had; she wouldn't let herself get too smug just yet, she told herself. "I've climbed the trees of the castle and a few at the entrance to the Kokiri forest many times in my youth; I've learned how to get myself down."
"You still on that damn Hyrule crap?" He muttered more to the wind than to himself or her, stepping onto the grass and grabbed the queen's arm roughly. He started to pull her towards the pavement that he had been standing on to get her to where he could properly put her into his car, fully intent on taking back to the police station so that he could get some questions answered and hopefully not bring the end of the world as he knew it. There he would either lock her up for a bit or show her that things weren't all that they seemed, even in an unfamiliar World that she didn't know and old sayings from one he didn't.
He didn't pull her too far as Kaya pulled her arm out of his grasp, backing up far enough so that he wouldn't grab her again without a fight. Rolling his eyes to nothing in particular and to keep the woman from seeing him do so, he turned around to face her and shook his head; why was she being so difficult to help? His intentions were not to harm her the slightest and whatever she had been through had scarred her enough to pull away from him; he knew his actions and words did not help the least bit but he couldn't have her wandering around the streets as she was. He wasn't known to be gentle and Kaya wasn't used to be ordered around like this much less being pulled in the direction she didn't want to go in. She was starting to wonder if coming to this World had been a grand idea to begin with and there were other Worlds to go to; why had she gone to the first World that had been mentioned to her?
"How dare you do that!" Kaya protested loudly enough that warranted hostile glances towards her and not from the man but from those that were walking behind him. Ignoring the others, she starred daggers at the pavement to curb her anger before raising her eyes back to him. "Are all Humans this rude?"
"No, just me but there are worse out there, and I don't think you want to be around when they come out. You just haven't met them yet and pray that you never will," he said with a quick nod. "Come on, a night behind bars should do you good. In the morning we'll find your family so that they cane be aware that you are safe, sound, and not in a gutter somewhere."
When he mentioned the word 'family', Kaya's face lost what little color it had regained after the initial shock of him knowing Zelda's name and paled once again. What family she had left was now elsewhere else and she couldn't go back to them, not that she wanted to now - there was nothing left for her to go back to save for her own daughter, of which she knew she couldn't go back for even if she wanted to. She pushed back loose hair out of her eyes and behind her ears, which the man now could see were not rounded but rather pointed; anyone that saw them could assume they were Elvish in appearance and that she looked like she was from another World entirely. If her words had convinced him fully her ears did now.
"They do not care if I am okay or now, I don't think they are even looking for my body right now but they won't find what isn't there," Kaya told him which was the truth as far as she knew. She couldn't be sure if her husband had even bothered to look for her if Impa, Zelda, and the guards had gotten back to the castle safely nor not. At this time she was more then sure that they had and there would be no search for her body just yet, not until he could prove that the queen of Hyrule was dead and hadn't run off like she had threatened to several times since Zelda had been born. He was a man of his word and he would send the guards out after her, just like he promised; they wouldn't find her, not unless pendants were used and she prayed to whichever Goddess that could still hear her that none of the other pendents were used.
It was time for her to move on now, time to ignore this man and start her way into a new life, a life that would be much more difficult then she had imagined it would be. She did just that, standing up straight and walking to the path with her few belongings with her and pressed firmly over her shoulder where they should be; there was no going back to her old life now. There would be time for her to get to know Humans, if she could find ones that weren't so ready to place her into custody of the law, and she would have to find out how to make a living here in this place. If there are Humans out to harm a woman then I must find those who do not, she thought to herself as she turned to her right and started to walk towards the entrance of the park without much thought. She didn't know where she was going or where she would end up, just that she would be getting out of there and fast before she could falter.
"Lady, wait!" The man called out to her when she got far enough away from him so that he had to jog up to her to close the distance between them. The queen did not slow down as she continued to walk away, ready to get out of this park and into the World beyond that.
"What do you want?" She asked heatedly as he came up to her and walked beside her. The sun above them was unusually hot, she hadn't prepared herself enough for the seasons of this World quite yet but she would eventually learn.
"If you say that you are from this place called Hyrule then how did you get into this World?" That was a question she had dreaded to answer and she proved to be a know-it-all already to him regardless of the precaution she should have taken when the two of them first spoke. It was too late for her to go back onto the words she had already spoken and she couldn't very well tell a lie to him when she already gave him the truths. If he was an ally of Ganondorf then she would much rather face the reality of death after she spoke then to be forced to go back living a lie.
"This pendant gave me the power to travel here from my World to here. Don't ask me how it works because I don't know how to explain it or how it does work." She patted the bauble around her neck, giving him a sideways look. That was a half-truth, she did know how it worked just not the Sheikah magical properties it had been given and she wasn't going to say much more then that, even if she did not speak the whole truth. "I'd show you my kingdom but I'm not going back there, not for the rest of my life. You can try to force me to use it but you'd have to kill me first before I do."
"That fair and it's quite alright. I believe you then," he said, holding his hands up in defeat. Kaya stopped in her tracks, the man walking two feet more before he stopped as well and turned around to face her, her mouth opening slightly in surprise. Staring straight ahead, she tried to keep her face neutral from all the emotions she was feeling at that moment besides the slight surprise and to keep herself from lashing out at him even more then she did already. The man had tested every last nerve that she had and she was beginning to wonder if using the pendant would be a good idea to get out of the way of a meddling fool and into a world that didn't go from one thing to another.
"If you believe me when you say you didn't, why question my words?" She asked without so much as to look at him. The strange man walked up to her with the impression that he had said that just to make her stop, his face just as neutral as hers but the look in his eyes said otherwise. It was time for her to know something that he knew and for him to find out what was going on that involved these two Worlds so much.
"First there needs to be some explaining to do and you'll provide half of it to me. Second, you'll listen to the other half when it comes to you once all of the pieces fit. And third, you'll do as I say so that you won't get lost in this place, it's easy enough," he snapped at her as he took her by the arm once again but holding on to her more tightly then he had before. He wasn't about to let her go again as he started to lead her out of the park to go who-knows-where in a World that she did not know. What he meant by his words she didn't know and it intrigued her that there had to be some sort of explaining to do, something else that might fit all of the pieces to a puzzle she didn't know she was trying to put together. What it was and why it involved her only made her fearful of what was to come, if she could pull herself out of the rut she was in and hide from it all. She would have to allow herself to get mixed up in something she didn't know of to understand things better; that would most likely cost her life or worse, Zelda's life.
"Where are you taking me?" Kaya demanded coldly, glaring up at him. He didn't let go of her arm but instead held onto her tightly to ensure that she wouldn't get away from him again; he didn't want to go chasing after her again and she didn't feel like trying to flee, either.
"I'm not going to harm you," he assured her softly, giving her a sideways smile. That alone didn't help her as much as it should have but the gentleness in his voice gave her the impression that she wouldn't be in danger just yet. Not until she understood what was going on and once she got more information she would then assess just how much danger she was in and act accordingly. "There are a few things we both need to learn and it's time to set things straight."
The look in his eyes told her to remain quiet and not to question his decision, a look that the queen had learned from her husband rather quickly and to be quiet when both did not budge on their stances. But this man didn't have the aura of the man that she had once been married to, no it was a wave of greens and silvers that she couldn't remember the meaning behind at the moment. The aura was too light, too faded, for her to properly make out and watch for patterns of; the brightness of the sun above gave this aura the appearance that it was nearly invisible. That was why she couldn't see it before, because it was too bright for her to see properly! She made a mental note to herself that she would watch him more closely to see if the aura would be more clearer to her then it was in bright light.
Time would tell if the decisions she had had made had been too hasty or if they had put two or more Worlds in more danger then they should be.