The young mother looked upon the child in her arms and smiled softly. It was hard to believe that this beautiful being was of her own flesh and blood. Sparkling blue eyes stared sleepily up at her. The baby girl had just been fed and was quickly falling asleep, but it was clear she was trying very hard to stay awake because of her obvious fascination with the beautiful woman cradling her. This was Zelda's firstborn, but not her first child.

"Shall I let the young Prince in, your Highness? He's bouncing all about your sitting room and he's sure to break something," said the Hylian attendant with a small smile on her lips.

"Where is Link?" asked Zelda quietly so as not to disturb the infant girl falling asleep in her arms. "I thought he and Oru had gone hunting?"

"They returned about an hour ago, your Grace. I think His Highness may also be jumping on the sofa cushions as well."

Zelda chuckled quietly. "Like father, like son."

Unfortunately, the only think Link and Oru really did have in common was their childish antics and Oru was sure to grow out of those eventually. She sighed softly. Oru had never had a chance to meet his biological mother again and was sure that Zelda was his mother, despite his unusual outward appearance. Nabiri had died at the hands of her tribe and a new leader had been instated. Since, Hylian and Gerudo relations had gone very poorly.

The door creaked open and Impa strode in, towing a five year old boy by the collar of his tunic along. A wild grin was stretched across his face and his red hair was unruly. Impa set Oru down and he quickly scrambled onto his parents' bed. He sat down with a huff beside his mother and collapsed into the pile of pillows. Oru had only seen his sister once and Zelda had feared every time thereafter, Oru would begin to question why the baby princess looked not a thing like him.

He'd already begun to question the magic Impa placed upon him whenever he was required to step into the public's eye. Impa had turned Zelda into a Sheikah once, and now she was turning Zelda's adopted son into a Hylian. He had every right to ask questions, of course, and Zelda didn't like to keep him in the dark. Still, she dreaded the day she would have to explain to him that he wasn't her son. She loved him as though he were, and she wished that it was as simple as that.

"Would you like to hold Ayra, Oru?" Zelda asked and her son grinned and hastily nodded. Zelda showed him how to hold the baby before gently placing Ayra into his small arms. She was now fast asleep and couldn't be bothered by the movement from mother to brother. Oru looked down into her tiny face. Already there were tufts of blonde hair coming up from Ayra's relatively bare scalp.

Oru put his hand against his sister's very tiny one.

"Will her skin turn dark like mine?" Oru asked, looking up at his mother. Zelda had a hard time keeping the awkward expression off her features. Impa stood straight and tall by the door and the attendant paused in her current task of folding and putting away the bed linens.

"No," Zelda said gently, wrapping her arm around her son and pulling him close. "No, she'll stay like this."

"Like you?" asked Oru, his bright golden eyes peering up at his mother. Despite his heritage, he was probably just as beautiful as her own Hylian daughter. Zelda often regretted placing the illusion magic upon him and hiding away his handsome features. "Is it because you're girls?"

Zelda couldn't help a laugh and kissed the top of his head affectionately. "No, it's not because we're girls. You'll understand when your older, I promise." Oru made a face. He seemed to be getting restless, so Zelda took Ayra from her brother and he immediately bolted from the bed towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"Papa said he'd show me how fight with a sword later. I'm going to see if it's later," he said before running excitedly out the door. As the door clicked shut behind him, Zelda gave an aggrieved sigh.

"Impa, how am I to tell him?" she asked, handing her daughter to the attendant and climbing from her bed. She was still weak, but she wouldn't lounge about in bed all day. That would surely kill her.

"He loves you, your Highness. Do not think that simply because you are not his birth mother, he will no longer love you," Impa advised solemnly, her arms crossed over her chest. Zelda had once wondered how Impa could be so stern and without humor, but she had quickly learned that Impa simply had her own way of showing her kindness. "That's foolishness. You can't keep it from him forever."

"I know," Zelda sighed. "But I wish I could."

- - -

A tall cloaked man stood before a crowd of snarling, drooling beasts, all of various shapes and sizes. All equally grotesque in appearance. They were his monsters - his minions. With them, he would rule the prosperous countries above. A fight broke out amongst the demons and monsters and he rolled his dark eyes. Hardly any of them had anymore than half a brain. Just enough to do what they were told - and he would be the one to command them.

"Silence!" he roared, his voice booming in the large and spacious cavern. The beasts fell quiet, though an occasional snarl or growl rose above the crowd and reached his ears. He drew his sword from it's sheath at his side. The dark, twisted metal glinted in the torchlight. "Forced into this dark imprisonment by the Hero of Time, do you not wish revenge upon those who sent you here?"

The beasts snarled their answer. They all wished to tear out the throat of the King of Hyrule.

"Today is lucky for you, then," the cloaked man spoke slowly, dark amusement thick in his deep voice. "For I can release you from this hell." An uproar filled the cavern with deafening sound. "And you will obey me as you did the Dark Lord Ganondorf! I am as great and powerful as he! With your help, I will plunge their land into shadow and we will tear the Royal Family to shreds and burn their empire to the ground!"

The man shed his cloak, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered Gerudo. Golden eyes glinted maliciously in the flickering light. His red hair was short and unruly and he looked truly ferocious. He was the very image of the Dark Lord Ganondorf, though his face was younger and his body more lithe. "I will release you from your prison and you will bring me the Royals of Hyrule. Do you understand?"

A roar of vicious applause and cheers met the Gerudo's rounded ears and he smiled. His raised his sword and struck the top of the cavern with it's tip. A ripple of energy shook the cave's ceiling and it began to crumble.

"Go and bring down Hyrule!"

- - -

Oru lay by the large fireplace, resting on his side with his head in his hand. His red hair fell haphazardly into his eyes. Ayra sat behind him, re-braiding the thin tail of his hair. She was humming the lullaby their mother so often sang to them as children, while Oru read from the book in front of him. It was about the history of Hyrule, but it was so dull that he kept reading the same lines over and over. It was for his studies, but the seventeen-year-old prince didn't care much about the history of Hyrule. His father had told him enough tales as a child and why should he care about the history of country he didn't even belong to?

Besides, it wasn't as though he were going to become King some day, he thought absent-mindedly. It had already been agreed upon that Oru would abstain from the throne and Ayra would rule Hyrule once the Queen and King stepped down. It hadn't offended him, though. He wouldn't have felt right ruling over Hyrule when he wasn't even a proper Hylian in the first place.

"Done!" Ayra announced, clapping her hands together. Oru rolled over onto his back and stared up at his young sister. She grinned, her blonde hair falling into her startlingly blue eyes. Occasionally, Oru envied her. She was always full of life and excitement, just as their mother was, and she always found triumph in everything. Oru had no such luck at any of these things. He was quiet and kept to himself, always wondering 'What if?' Triumph often eluded him. "Oru?"

"Hm?" Oru sat up, brushing strands of red hair out of his face.

"I -"

A loud crash from just outside the window cut swiftly across Ayra's words, and Oru jumped to his feet, startled. Ayra's eyes became the size of teacup saucers but she didn't move from where she sat.

"What is it?" she asked quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. The ruckus outside nearly drowned her out but Oru caught her words and ran quickly over to the window. He flung open the shutters and his heart leapt into his throat at what he saw.

The village below the castle was burning. The rooftops were aflame and the screams of women and the crying of children carried on the wind that fanned the flames higher. Squinting past the fires, Oru spotted several strange beasts running down the streets, using large, rusted iron swords to cut down any villagers that stood in their path. There was a screech from above and he pushed himself out the window just a bit further to look above the tower of which he and Ayra were in. He quickly dove back inside as a hot flame shot past his head and what he thought to be a dragon knocked the tiles off one of the tower roofs.

"Ayra, find mother and father!" Oru shouted at his sister, but she was frozen in fear and could do nothing. The horror and dread in her blue eyes pained him and he slammed closed the shutters. He leapt to the fireplace where he grabbed hold of the sword that hung above the mantelpiece. There was a loud bang outside the room from the stairwell and the oak door shuddered. Another bang and the door crack down the middle.

"Oru!" Ayra ran over to him, clutching the sleeve of his tunic and placing herself slightly behind him. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Oru answered sharply. He gripped the sword tightly in his left hand, suddenly very thankful for the fencing lessons his father had given him when he was younger. As he had gotten older, he'd thought sword training to be a useless waste of his time. Because of this attitude, however, he wasn't the best swordsman, nowhere near the like of his father, but he was fair decent enough. The door gave way and two ugly beasts slunk into the room. Ayra shrieked and hid herself completely behind her older brother. Oru squared himself and tightened his hold on the sword.

"Give up the Princess!" snarled one of the disgusting beasts. Oru scoffed, gritting his teeth. There was no way he would be handing his sister over to the likes of these monsters.

Seeing that he wouldn't give into their demands, both monsters leapt forward, hacking and slashing the air with their crude swords with about as much grace as an ox on ice. Grabbing his sister's arm, he easily maneuvered them away from the monsters. The beasts were too large and too stupid to be much of a fight, so holding the large sword in both his hands, Oru plunged into the fray.

Dodging the heavy blades of the beasts, he quickly thrust his sword through the eye of the first. It could have possibly been the one that had spoken, but there was no way for Oru to tell. They both looked identically ugly and disgusting. The beast shrieked in pain before slumping to the floor and Oru quickly pulled his blade from the dead creature. He then swung with fierce determination at the second monster. The sword sliced through the thick neck of the beast like a knife through hot butter and dark blood splattered Oru's clothing.

Ayra had covered her eyes and wouldn't pulled her hands from them until Oru assured her it was okay to look. He took charge easily, quickly leading the way down the spiraling tower steps towards the main halls of the castle that would take them to the throne room. It didn't surprise Oru when he was forced to fend off more beasts traveling up the stairs that resembled those Oru had cut down in his and his sister's living quarters.

Ayra grabbed a torch from one of the brackets on the wall of the stairwell and was using it valiantly to defend herself if any of the beasts happened to come too close. It made Oru's job slightly more difficult, however, when she set them aflame, but he was more than happy to praise her when she knocked one or two out with the end. Although he barely had time to pause, he couldn't help but feel impressed by his sister's own strength and bravery. Still, he had neither the time to pause and admire her skills or his own.

Oru stumbled to a quick halt when, as they reached the bottom of the staircase, he nearly ran into a beast twice his size. Cursing, he quickly shoved Ayra backwards into the stairwell and shut the door in her face. Even if she scraped herself on the stone steps, it was better than leading her into the large monster's clutches. It was for her own protection. He could hear her pounding on the door behind him, screaming his name, but he shut out her voice. She may not have been of his blood, but she was his family.

"Give us the Prince!" snarled the beast, his gnarled voice echoing through the hall. Through the phlegm, Oru could barely understand what the beast was saying. "Give us the Princess!"

It was in this moment that Oru realized the beasts couldn't tell he was the prince. Of course! No one had seen him in his true guise in public. Whenever he'd been in the eye of Hyrule, he had been masquerading as one of their own. To these monsters he was nothing more than another guard to protect the Royals. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage - he would be left to defend only Ayra and not himself included.

"You think I would hand something so precious to an vile monster like you?" Oru sneered, clutching his sword tightly. The beast gave an outraged snarl and leapt at him, his incredible axe outstretched. Oru raised his sword to block the attack, but the sword shattered upon impact. Shards of thin metal flew into the air. Quick thinking managed to save Oru's face from being damaged by the sharp metal, as he threw up his arms to shield himself. The beast, however, wasn't as quick and a shard caught it in the eye. With a gargle of pain, the monster dropped his axe. The end caught Oru in the shoulder as it fell, and he jumped away before it had a chance to do further damage. He winced in pain, blood staining the fabric of his tunic.

Without anything to defend himself, Oru made towards the only weapon in sight: the fallen axe. The beast, however, being twice his size managed to simply outstretch his thick arm and grab up the axe before Oru had a chance to reach it. The monster aimed to slice him in two, but Oru was agile and lithe and now the bumbling beast only had one eye to work with. Rolling out of the way, the axe sunk into the thick wood of the door Ayra was locked behind. There was a small yelp from inside the stairwell.

A sharp twang came from Oru's right and an arrow whistled through the air. It pierced the monster's shoulder. Angered, the beast swung around and raised his axe threateningly. Another arrow sang through the air and made a sickening squelch as it struck the beast in the eye. It sunk through to the brain and the monster was dead before it hit the ground with a crash. Oru looked in the direction the arrows had come and saw what appeared to be a Sheikah warrior.

It was quite a surprise for him. Impa was the only Sheikah Oru knew of. He'd been told that she was the last remaining descendant of the Sheikah. Even as a false member of the Royal family, he knew nothing of any other Sheikahs and he would have, had there been any. Sheikahs were bound to serve the Royal family as loyal guards - save for a small group far before he was born that had betrayed the Royal family and fled to distant counties. Even so, Oru couldn't dwell on this. He turned and quickly swung open the door he had locked Ayra behind.

"Don't you dare do that to me again!" she shouted at him and he grimaced. She opened her mouth to continue but spotted his shoulder, instead, and gasped. "Oru, you're hurt!"

"I'm fine," Oru shrugged her away from his shoulder, no matter how it pained him to do so. There simply just wasn't time. "Let's find mother and father, okay?"

Ayra's brows furrowed for a moment before she nodded. Oru turned and noticed the Sheikah striding towards them.

"I'll protect you from here," said the Sheikah, his arms crossed in front of his chest in a very good imitation of Impa. "They've come to kidnap you and the Princess. I've been instructed to protect you and it's far too dangerous for you to be wandering about the castle alone." When Oru gave him a look that told the Sheikah that he truly didn't care what was dangerous and what wasn't, the Sheikah began to look obviously annoyed. Oru ignored him. He was seventeen and could think for himself. The Sheikah hardly looked a day older than himself, anyway.

"I have to do something," Oru said with determination and Ayra nodded enthusiastically behind him.

"We have to do something," she added. Oru grabbed Ayra's hand and began leading her towards the throne room.

"You both are foolish! You'll get yourselves killed before you do any good!" the Sheikah shouted after them. It wasn't long before they were forcing the side door to the throne room open. Oru stopped abruptly and stepped in front of his sister protectively.

The King and Queen stood at the head of the hall, grim determination in their eyes. Both were holding swords tight within their grasps. Oru was surprised. He'd never seen his mother touch a weapon, let alone use one. It was hard for him to believe she even knew how. Despite the previous action in the castle, the throne room was fairly still. Monsters and beasts were shuffling here and there, but none were advancing. It wasn't this that caught Oru's attention, however, but the figure standing amidst the fiends. He was tall, broad-shouldered and cloaked, shrouded in mystery and pulsing darkness.

"Mama!" Ayra cried from behind Oru. She pushed his arm out of the way and ran towards her mother.

"Ayra, no!" Oru shouted, taking a few steps towards her. He was immediately surrounded by filthy beasts. They snarled and hissed and all were as grim and ugly as the next. Ayra scrambled up the steps towards her parents and the figure laughed. It was deep and malicious, sending ice cold chills running down Oru's spine. He gritted his teeth.

The figure raised his hand towards the Royal family and a cold beam of swirling black energy short forward and engulfed the three Royals within it. It sparked before the energy crackled to an end. Ayra, the King and Queen were trapped within foggy crystal. They stared unblinking upon the hoard of monsters that had invaded their castle.

Oru gave a cry of anguish and pushed forward desperately, trying to reach his family. A spear caught him in the side and stopped him from going any further. The cloaked figure seemed to not notice him at all, and turned to his army of disgusting ghouls.

"Fine the Prince and kill him!" the dark man snarled, his voice booming unnaturally over the shuffling and snarling of the beasts. Oru felt something grab the back of his tunic and pull him backwards. The side door slammed shut in his face and a wrapped hand quickly locked it.

"Ayra!" Oru said despairingly. He reached for the door, but instead doubled over in pain. "Mother..."

"They're alive," said the voice from before. The Sheikah had been the one to pull him from the throne room. "As long as they're trapped within that crystal, I think. If you try and fight their leader, he will kill you."

The Sheikah took his arm and pulled him away. They slipped through several rooms and stairwells unnoticed before descending into the kitchens. Oru winced and clutched his side, his vision turning spotty. Once inside the kitchens, the Sheikah shoved a small table aside and drew back a dusty rug, revealing a trap door beneath.

"Follow this tunnel," the Sheikah said, opening the door and holding it ajar. "It leads outside the castle walls. I'll met you at the entrance."

"I -" Oru began to speak but the Sheikah cut him off.

"They call me Zai," said the Sheikah without flourish. "Now go, before we're both caught."

Oru stared for a moment at the other boy before stepping down the steep stairs slowly. Suddenly, he changed his mind, his heart aching to return to his family and he turned back but the Sheikah was already closing the trap door on him. After a moment, he could hear the scraping of the table against the floor as the Sheikah - or Zai, as it were - pushed it back into place. Oru sighed.

He was tempted to simply sit on the steps and stay there. What had just happened? Should he trust this Sheikah and leave his family? Was everything he had ever loved really gone? His sister, his mother, even his father. They may not have been his birth family, but they were his family nonetheless. His chest tightened.

He would save them. No matter what it took, he decided, he would rescue them from their crystal prison and he would kill the beast that had taken everything from him in the blink of an eye. Oru descended the steps as quickly as he could in the dark. He'd find a way.