BlueboxTimeParadox: Salutations! It is I, BlueboxTimeParadox! This will be my first attempt at writing a chapter for this story, and I do hope you all enjoy! Tempest tells me that writing this story will be a lot harder than writing normally is, but it can't be that hard, can it? Can it?!

Tempest Bound: It's not that that it will be necessarily hard; it's painful to have to reread parts of MIL, to say the least. Which, believe me, you'll have to do.

Chapter 1

"Ara, you don't want to sleep all day, do you?"

The voice is that of a woman. It's familiar, but distant, echoing inside my head. I feel as if I've heard it before, but where? Do I know this voice?

"Great job, Ara! I'm so proud of you!" Another voice, this one of a man.

Proud of me...what did I do? Did I impress this voice—whoever it belonged to—in any way? What would've I done to impress them? After all, I'm just a merchant girl. Nothing terribly special there.

Suddenly, images flash, barely long enough for me to recognize who is in the image: a man, a woman, and what I assume to be their child. I reach out to touch the image, to hold it, but it turns to dust on my fingertip. Another image flashes in its place—or, rather, a movie.

Red-orange flames light up the scene as the man and woman run, trying to escape the growing inferno. Their skin is burned and covered in soot, their eyes red and watery from all the smoke. Their clothes are in tatters from escaping fallen debris from the house.

"Baby, run!" the woman cries. "Please just run!"

And she does, but doesn't go far, waiting for her parents. She sits by the burning wood of her house and cries. Cries for her mother who can't find her, cries for her father who needs her, cries for herself. She is the cause of this calamity.

The child hears the screams and metal hissing. She watches the flames climb higher and higher, sparks flying and dying in the night sky. Then the screams stop.

The girl returns to and stays in the house even after it burns down, sitting in the ashes of her home. Two bodies, curled against each other, smolder and smoke in the remains of the fire. Their faces are unrecognizable with burns, but she knows.

"Mom? Mom, wake up! It's me, Ara!" the child says. Her voice is no more than a whisper, hiccupping with terrified tears. She can't even touch them. "Please, just wake up..."

She stays by their sides, as close as the smoke and stench will let her, whimpering. She doesn't realize that she is splattered with their blood, even as she lays there in the ruins of her home.

It's hours before anyone finds her. A woman is her saviour. My saviour.

"I've got you. You'll be fine, don't you worry," the woman said, but when she looks around, her soft smile melts. "I'm too late..." Then, as if steeling herself, she says emphatically, "You're safe now, honey. My name's Fayne."

"Fayne…" I whisper, half-asleep and delirious.

I open my eyes and lay there a while in my bed. Those images…Are they memories? I suppose logic would say yes, but I've experienced those images dreams, where logic is optional.

Regardless, I recognize the voices and people in the memory: my parents and I. Their final act of parental love was the thing that killed them.

Fayne couldn't support herself, much less a child. She brought me to an orphanage, where I spent next few years of my life. There I was adopted by a man named Shae. He took me in, raised me and helped me become the woman I am today

"Shae?" I call into the hallway. "Shae!" No reply, but of course there wouldn't be.

It all comes flooding back to me now: Shae had died two months ago on the way back from Castle Town. He left me his livelihood, and the home I grew up in.

The same house where he told me all the stories I could handle before falling asleep, head heavy with tales of Hyrule and all its people, like the Kokiri and Zora. I would dream of its legends, of the Princess I met when I was so young. Rumors came and went, but never anything substantial. Who could believe that a child, of all people, could save a kingdom, no matter how valiant?

We live—or, I should say, I live just outside the borders, on a secluded piece of land, because Shae never liked bustling towns too much. But that was years ago. Today, I whisper a small prayer to the Goddesses and thank them for having Shae adopt me and Fayne for finding me, as usual.

"Guess I better get ready now," I say to no one in particular. But usually there is someone to answer. "I have to be in Castle Town by noon."

I sigh as I pull on my boots. The trek will be quick on the wagon.

But I never realized how empty the house is, without Shae's laughter echoing through its walls, until now.

As I'm setting up my stall, I can't help but think of the dreams I had. I had been too scared to move, to run like my mother had told me to, and what did that do? My parents suffered for it. In my deep thought, I begin to pace in front of the table, and I'm thinking so hard that I don't notice where I'm going and bump into someone.

"I'm so sorry!" I say, torn from my thoughts.

"Oh, it's quite alright," a woman says.

I start when I realized who it was that I bumped into.

The Princess of Hyrule herself, Zelda.

Bowing as low as I can go, I apologize, "I'm so sorry, Your Highness! I should've paid more attention to where I was going!"

"My Lady," her guard begins, "how dare this woman disrespect you! Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, Alistair, and she didn't disrespect me," Zelda replies. Then, a little bemused, she asked me, "Have we met before?"

I blink. How would she even remember me? "If we have, Your Highness, I understand if you don't remember."

Realization dawns in her eyes, then, with a small smile, she says, "'My name's Zelda. What's yours?' Is that how we met? It was in Castle Town, wasn't it, when I was younger?"

My eyes widen. "Y-Yes, it was, Your Highness." I hastily bow again, remembering my manners. "I'm honored that you would remember someone as unimportant as me."

The Princess smiles triumphantly, "Ara, wasn't it?" She turns to her guard. "I know this woman. Be nice."

The guard—Alistair—straightens up. "You do? I beg your forgiveness, Your Highness," he says to her, bowing deeply. "Infinite apologizes to you as well, miss. A friend of the Princess is a friend of all the Royal Family. We've been on edge lately, but of course that doesn't excuse my rudeness."

"I… I see." I say, a bit bewildered and overwhelmed.

"Come," says Zelda. "Alistair, watch her goods while I return to the Castle."

Alistair starts to protest, "Your Highness—"

"Don't worry," Zelda says, quirking a smile. "I'll be able to protect Ara, I should think." She laughs when Alistair tries to say something. "Oh, it's just a joke, Alistair."

"M-me, Your Highness?" I say like an idiot. "I don't mean to contradict My Lady, but shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Zelda laughs at that, however, and replies, "It will be my pleasure."

I follow her. The people look at me with confusion and envy, as if to say, "Why does she get to walk around with the Princess? What did she do?"

And I can't help but feel a bit out of place.

BlueboxTimeParadox: Well? It wasn't too bad, actually! I had a lot of fun writing this! I looked up and read the first chapter of My Inner Life today and… *shudders* it was awful. How could someone write something so bad? Word is, it was never completed, either! Thankfully, I don't have to write this alone, otherwise that'd be… *shudders* I can't even begin to think what that'd be.

That aside, I hope you enjoyed my writing, and don't be shy to put criticism on a review… or something. Next chapter is written by Miss Tempest, and as usual it'll be spectacular.

Tempest Bound: Oh, shush. You have no idea how many drafts I go through, how much I edit...