Author's Note:

So I'm on a role guys. One chapter after the next.

"EY! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY STUFF!"

The three jumped about a foot in air and stumbled back in shock. The woman who had shouted so ferociously at them, short, yellow-skinned, and red-haired; stormed up with a dark pan raised high above her fiery head.

"Yah damn cloud-skin spawns!" she shouted in a thick, west town accent. "The hell do yah think you're doin'?"

Pipit's face turned bright red and and spat, "That's no red's business! And what's a yellow-skinned witch doing, hiding out in a damn-?"

Link shoved Pipit back and stepped in front of the enraged senior. "We're passing through. Have you seen another girl come through here?"

The older woman looked at Link with narrowed, jaundiced eyes. "Anotha' girl, huh? Hmph. Maybe."

Pipit grit his teeth, purple faced and ready to blow, when Link stomped on his foot. "We'll be out of your hair in a moment, we just really need to know," he said bracingly. Pipit needed to chill the hell out.

She crossed her arms. "That so?"

This Geru woman scrutinized every last inch of him, as if to look for physical evidence of deceit. Link shifted in discomfort under that watchful gaze.

"Yes," he said. "Please?"

The woman narrowed her eyes and continued to calculate him.

"Why don't we just make her talk?" Pipit hissed. "She knows something about Karane, and she's holding back on purpose!"

"You don't know that, and you didn't even give her a chance!" snapped Fledge. Pipit blinked, surprised by the younger's outburst, then gave Fledge an ugly look. Before the senior could retort, however, Link stepped in.

"Pipit." The boy looked up at Link, who had put a hand on his shoulder, and gave him a long look.

Pipit had a long, bad history with Geru's, and stumbling up on one's camp proved just what kind of luck he had. His friend just became so...irrational.

Link turned his gaze to the Geru's woman's eyes, and felt a jolt of surprise to find a look similar to Groose's, on those first days in the academy. A look of...acceptance? A sad, ironic kind. One that you might expect to see on the guy who always got brushed aside in the ticket line, complained to an unrepentant booth, and after a while, gave up. Link still caught traces of it on his adversary's face every now and then, but Groose's always looked sadder. This woman's expression seemed more...bitter. Link had always thought the look strange.

"Yah done hissin' yet? I gotta be somewhere's," the woman grunted, cutting through them to get to her stuff. Pipit stared down in shock at where she'd shoved him, and Link contemplated taking the frying pan out of the woman's hands and knocking the senior out himself.

"Um...ma'am?"

The woman looked back with a high, arched brow. "Uh...what?"

Fledge backpedaled. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! I just-"

She laughed. "Offend me?" She chuckled, then said in a softer voice, "Ma'am, huh?"

Fledge shifted nervously. "Is that wrong?"

The woman shook her head. "Just a bit odd, is all." She crossed her arms. "Now come out with it. What do yah want?"

"Um...would...would you like any help with that, ma'am?"

Link and Pipit looked at him like he was crazy. Like sure, it was nice and all but they didn't have the timefor this! The woman gave them a look, then back to Fledge.

"No, I've got it," she said, dowsing out the fire. "Don't go troubling yourself."

Fledge sagged. "Oh...well, um..."

She turned back and narrowed her eyes, a darkening look of suspicion filling them. "Why so disappointed, kid?"

Fledge seemed to have gotten his color back, as the blood rushed to his face. "I-I just felt bad...we didn't mean to intrude or anything..."

She snorted before going back to packing her things. "A cloud-skin offering me help. Now I've seen everything."

"Well, what reason would we have?" Pipit snapped.

She gave the student a sizing-up glance before turning to grab the pot hanging above the fire.

"I'm sorry about that, ma'am. I wouldn't listen to that." Fledge seemed determined to go against the senior.

"I don't," she said, rummaging through a little sack in her make-shift tent. A second later she pulled out a familiar slip of paper and stuffed it in her pocket. Link recognized it, as did Fledge.

"You're going to the Wing Ceremony?" the boy asked.

She raised an eyebrow and seemed taken off-guard. "Eh...yah. Got someone ta' see."

Fledge beamed. "Yah, Link here is going to be in it too! I mean, if-"

She straightened and turned to stare at the boy. "Link?"

Fledge nodded. "Yah, right here!" He pointed at the sandy-haired boy standing next to him.

The woman turned her stare to Link. "You are Link?"

He didn't know how to respond. The boy stared back at her in confusion and gave her a slow nod.

She threw her head back and laughed. The hearty sound thundered throughout the cave. "I...I can't believe i'..." she chortled, out of breath and tear-eyed. She looked up at him. "But yah so tiny!"

Link, who had been very, very confused up to this point, turned bright red. "Says you! You're shorter than me!"

She gasped. "I'm sorry...is jus..." The woman shook her head so her fiery curls danced in the firelight. "Oh, sweet Onou..."

"Is she crazy?" muttered Pipit.

The Geru, as if in response, straightened and wiped away a tear. "Yah...yah know Goosey?"

"Goosey?" Link said, blinking. "As in Groose?"

When she nodded, blithe to the wonderful, wonderful thing she had just revealed, the three bent over and howled their delight.

"Goosey!?" cried out Pipit. "Oh sweet goddess..."

When their laughter finally died down the woman looked somewhere between crossed and amused. "I spose' I did it first. Yah, I guess you do know about him. He always complainin' about this Link fella, and watta' yah know? It's some girly, short lil' wimp." she smiled. "Hope yah don't take offense; jus' how it is." It sounded exactly like she meant offense.

To say the least, Link forgot about "Goosey" and felt his face turn bright red. "I'm not girly!"

Fledge's lip trembled and Pipit, shameless, fell into another bout of laughter.

Link grit his teeth in embarrassment. "Listen, we need to find a girl. She'd be in yellow. Have you seen her?"

She smiled; her teeth shone bright against her dark skin. "Hmm...lemme think..." She pointed towards the tunnel behind them. "Yah mean the one right there?"

Pipit abruptly froze, and all three turned around. Sure enough, there stood their yellow-clad friend, looking quite proud of herself.

"Man you guys are loud," Karane said, shaking her head. "Anyways, I found your bird, Link. She's right around the next corner." Karane raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you guys be hurrying? You've got like, twenty minutes before the bell rings."

Link yelped and shouted, "Where!?"

Karane looked at the Geru woman, eyebrows raised, then back to Link in annoyance. "Weren't you listening? Right around-" No sooner had she pointed to the tunnel behind her had Link sprinted ahead, waving and shouting a few catch-you-later's back.

"Wait!" She called, "Zelda's meeting you-!"

Karane shook her head and looked down after the tunnel Link had disappeared down. "Unless he can walk through walls, he shouldn't get lost. It's only one-way." She turned to face the others. "We should head back too, guys. I found a quicker route back to the outside this way.

The Geru woman nodded. "Yah mi' wanna be careful though. Lot of jellies that way."

Karane huffed. "Pah, I can handle them easy."

Pipit had looked up at her in utter disbelief, then a bit of anger. "Where the hell did you run off to? We were looking everywhere!"

Karane shook her head. "You guys were too slow. Besides, I like to scout ahead." She smiled at him. "You know that."

Pipit growled. "We were kids, then, and this is a cave of monsters!"

"Is' not too bad, yah know? Jus' keep the fire goin', and they'll leave yah alone jus' fine."

Pipit boiled. "Are you completely stupid? Those "jellies" are explosive!"

The Geru shrugged. "So? They stay away."

Fledge grinned. "That's what I said!"

Pipit let out a growl of frustration and stalked down towards Karane, having had enough of those fools. He took her hand, and Karane looking no less than starstruck, led her down the tunnel.

Fledge and the woman shared a look and the boy shook his head.

"Yah've got some gang," she commented.

Fledge shrugged. "I guess. I don't really know anyone but Link too well though."

"Hmm." she said. "Yah gonna folla' them?" He shook his head. After a second she said, "Eh...I'm Jandalee. Yah?"

"Fledge."

"Good name, that. Yah parents must think you're gonna make somethin' of yourself."

Fledge gave a sad sort of chuckle. "They never named me. They didn't even know me."

She frowned. "Another orphan, huh? Yah must live in the academy then? Like Goosey?"

Fledge nodded and looked away. "Yah..."

Jandalee gave him a long look. "He a big guy, yah? Take advantage of that?"

Fledge blushed.

"Thought so." She sighed. "Don't think too poorly of him though. He had a rough time of it. Rougher than most."

Fledge looked thoughtful, and a bit sad. "Yah, I figured," he said.

Jandalee raised her brow. "You're a strange one, Fledge. Very strange."

The fire crackled behind them until Fledge asked, "Um...so...are you his mom or something?"

The woman snorted. "Ha! Yah kidding? I'm an ol' friend of his ma's! Do we look anything alike too you?"

"Um..."

"Don't answer that. 'Cause any red'll tell yah otherwise."

Fledge frowned. "I don't think you should say that."

"Say what?" Her eyes narrowed.

The boy shifted his feet. "You know...the R-word. I don't think...it's not a good thing to say about yourself."

She laughed humorlessly. "As long as I live in your world, it is a fine word."