A wild update appeared... two months overdue!

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DISCLAIMER: I don't own LoZ. If you thought I did, then you are sadly mistaken.

Chapter III: An Assembly of Magic

Unlike the day before, Link got a full night's sleep – but perhaps a little too full, for when he woke up that morning, his alarm clock read 7:43, which meant that, even if he ran to school at his top speed of about eight and a half miles per hour, without once pausing, he would have, like, one second to get ready for school.

...That was a rough estimate.

Panicking, Link threw on one of his many green shirts and beige pants, and, not bothering to brush his messy blonde hair, sped out of the room. In the dining room, Grandma Master was trying (and failing) to shove an extra-extra-large container of sunscreen into Aryll's already-bloated, sky blue backpack. Link could also spot his sister's telescope in there.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, Grandma... what are you doing?" he questioned awkwardly.

The old woman, not once looking up from her task, grunted, "If you give me a hand with this sunscreen like any elder-respecting grandson would, I might consider telling you."

Link rolled his eyes good-naturedly, but he went to help his grandmother anyways. In the end, he was pretty sure he crushed Aryll's homework or something, but, with her grades, it wasn't like it was crucial or anything.

...Probably.

"Okay," he said, "now that that's over with, would you mind telling me why we had to get it over with in the first place?" Grandma shot him a pointed look. "Please," he muttered under his breath.

The feeble old woman nodded approvingly. "That's better," she told her scowling grandson. "Now, if you weren't such a forgetful oaf, you'd remember that today's the day your sister is going on her little field trip to the history museum over in Ordon."

Ordon was a larger city about two miles away from Aboda. Of course, hardly anyone in the town ever went there unless it was either really interesting, or really necessary. That was partially because nobody in Aboda actually even had a job outside of the town, but it was mostly due to the fact that the townsfolk didn't own any cars, and were unwilling to pay the two-dollar fee that came with the bus between the two cities.

"Uh... why would I bother to remember something that doesn't involve me, my friends, or food?" Link questioned skeptically.

"Because," answered Aryll, who had conveniently appeared from the depths of the bedroom, "after we're done at the museum, the museum staff are going to host an assembly at your school, and we're coming with them!"

Horror dawned on Link's face.

"By the way, Big Brother," Aryll said slyly, "you do know that it's already 8:01, right? You'd better hurry if you want to get to school on time."

Even more horror dawned on Link's face as he grabbed his backpack and raced out the door. Aryll and Grandma watched the horror continue to dawn on him as he scampered down the street.

Link crashed into his seat the moment the first period bell rang, breathing a long sigh of relief at having made it on time. However, that relief quickly dissipated upon viewing the sight that was on his desk: two extremely fancy shoes belonging to none other than Zelda Nohansen herself. The rich girl was once again swiping away at her phone, which wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that she was using Link's desk as a footrest.

Still, remembering how his friends treated Zelda nicely the day before, Link decided to try to replicate that. "Hey, Zelda," he began awkwardly, "would you mind moving your feet somewhere else? I kind of need my desk."

Zelda slowly and deliberately looked up from her phone. Her eyes were not the energetic periwinkle-blue eyes he'd seen when she was interacting with the others – instead, they were a rather dull and lifeless shade of bluish-gray. "Unless you can pay me in cash exactly four hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, yes. I do mind," she said emotionlessly. "And I would ask that you learn your place and not speak to me again."

Link was rather disturbed by this turn of events. It wasn't because of her bluntness or her harshness, or her refusal to do something as menial as moving her feet off of his desk. To be honest, he'd kind of expected that. What had startled him was how robotically she'd said, as if all of her emotion had been forcefully leeched out of her body. The day before, her words had been rude, yes, but also dripping with sarcasm. He was going to comment about it, but remembering that she literally had enough money to retire at age eighteen, he wisely decided not to.

The next few hours were an interesting sight to watch if you were Link. This was due to the fact that Zelda's outward personality had changed dramatically over that period of time. At first, she had seemed like an emotionless robot, but after interacting with all of Link's friends, her personality had slowly yet surely begun to appear more akin to that of the day before.

The only difference was that she still seemed a lot more distant – sometimes she wouldn't notice when someone was calling her name, and sometimes she would just stare at that person blankly. But other than that, she seemed to be normal enough.

At last, it was time for the assembly. Not that Link was excited in any way at all for it, seeing as Aryll would be there, but Leif and Melody were chatting excitedly about it, with Greenie and Zelda listening politely. But at least they seemed to anticipating it.

"Alright, children," Mr. Gaebora called out, "line up in an orderly fashion so that we can all go and attend this helpful and informative hour-long assembly that I'm sure you won't be bored by at all!" The class groaned, and after they were done, the teacher continued his announcement. "At the assembly, you are free to sit wherever you wish, as long as it's in one of the chairs. You are allowed to get up, but only to ask a teacher a question or to go to the bathroom. There is to be no talking while the speakers are giving their speech, are we clear?"

"Yes, Mr. Gaebora," the class murmured. Of course, they didn't actually mean it, but it wasn't like they were actually going to say that to their teacher's face.

As they arrived in the assembly, the first thing Link noticed was that aside from his class, the only people there were two nearly-identical old ladies and one much younger girl on the stage whom he presumed were museum employees, and the children from Aryll's school, all scattered about the seats. Aryll was waving to Link, and gesturing for him to sit down next to her, which he grudgingly did. Greenie took Aryll's other side, and Melody and Leif both sat next to Greenie. Zelda sat next to Link, though she didn't look happy about it.

As the minutes crawled by, more children from other classes began trickling into the auditorium, most looking bored, but Link could see a few that seemed genuinely excited. Link, of course, fell into the category of those who were bored, and it was in that boredom that he failed to notice some odd details about the two old women on the stage: namely, their pointed ears, their wrinkled skin that was such a peculiar shade of brown that it could have been green, and the giant crystals on their foreheads. These oddities, however, did not slip past the others, and Aryll leaned over to whisper to Greenie, "What's up with their foreheads?"

It was Melody who responded, chastising, "Don't be rude. They're probably just accessories, or... something." She didn't look entirely convinced.

Leif, of course, piped up at the entirely wrong time, "I'm kinda with Link's sister on this one. I mean, look at their skin! There's no way that's normal!"

"Says, the person who has pointed ears," retorted Melody.

"Hey," protested Leif, "you're one to talk! You have pointed ears, too!"

"And that's why I don't make it a point to point out other people's oddities," Melody responded wryly.

"Uh... Well... I..." Leif struggled to think of a decent enough comeback. "Come on guys, help me out here," he stage-whispered.

This prompted differing reactions from the other four. Greenie shook his head, silently telling the rest of them that he didn't want any part in their petty bickering. Aryll looked like she wanted to help, but seemed to be having trouble coming up with a good enough response. Link looked like he had just woken up, which in actuality wasn't too far off from what had really just happened. And Zelda, for some odd reason, suddenly looked very upset, before wordlessly rising from her seat and going over to Mr. Gaebora, presumably to ask to go to the bathroom. However, rather than going to the bathroom, Zelda instead ran outside of the auditorium, and into the main hallway of the school.

The five of them shared looks. What had happened caused Zelda to be provoked so easily? Eventually, Link got up and jogged after Zelda, with Greenie following closely behind. Melody and Leif stayed behind to watch Aryll (and, in Melody's case, the actual presentation, seeing as she was one of the few students who had exhibited any real excitement towards the thing.)

The two boys exited the room just as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, revealing an imposing figure in a red robe that completely covered everything except for his eyes, his nose, and his hands. His skin was a sickly shade of bluish-gray, and his nails were so sharp that they almost looked like claws. "Greetings, students," the man said in a scratchy voice. "I am Agahnim. I'd assume that you are all here for the demonstration, am I right? Ho ho ho."

The other students nervously laughed along with him, unsure of what to make of this odd man. "Very well," said Agahnim. "Before we begin, I will need three... volunteers to help me. Would anyone like to come up?"

The students didn't respond, as none of them wanted to be anywhere close to Agahnim – not even those that had been excited for the assembly. "Oh, what a shame," Agahnim lamented. "I guess I'll just get to choose who volunteers. How about..." He made a spectacle of wildly gazing across the room, making exaggerated "hmming" noises every so often. "How about you three," he called out suddenly, pointing directly to Melody, Leif, and Aryll. "Yes, come on up here," he encouraged.

The three reluctantly did so, though the unexplainable sense of trepidation that they had been feeling sense Agahnim first walked out on to the stage was stronger now than ever.

Meanwhile, as Link and Greenie walked into the hallway, the first thing they noticed was the sound of sobbing. The second thing they noticed was that the sound of sobbing they had noticed was emanating from Zelda, who was curled up in fetal position with a puddle of tears surrounding her. The third thing they noticed was that the lights in the auditorium had dimmed, but that was besides the point.

"Uhh... Zelda?" Greenie called, taking a tentative step forward.

The distressed girl looked up. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, even though it had been, at most, two minutes since she had run out of the auditorium. Link was about to question this logistical paradox, but realized that he didn't exactly want to have an existential crisis in the middle of the seventh grade, so instead he simply asked her, "Are you okay?" He then came to the realization that she was clearly not okay, so instead he questioned, "What's wrong?"

"Why are you trying to help me?" Zelda muttered quietly, although it was still quite easy to detect both venom and confusion in her voice.

Now Link and Greenie were confused. "...What do you mean?" Link inquired.

"I mean," Zelda said loudly, getting to her feet, "why are you trying so hard to get to know me? What's your motive? Is it for my money? Do you want to kidnap me? Hmm?"

"Can't we just want to be your friends? Can't it be from the goodness of our hearts?" Greenie pleaded.

"Oh, don't make me laugh." Zelda smiled mirthlessly. "My father taught me a long time ago that there's always an ulterior motive for everything. I'm sure you're all just waiting to stab me in the back." Suddenly, her demeanor shifted. "But that doesn't explain why I... want... to get to know... YOU! GAH! I don't understand! Why can't you just leave me alone? If it wasn't for you, everything would be so much simpler!" Zelda looked ready to tear her hair out. She uttered a crazed, desperate laugh as she sank onto her knees. "...What would father think if he knew I actually wanted to make friends with the likes of you...?"

Link and Greenie shared concerned glances, neither one knowing what to do. Finally, Greenie walked up to Zelda. "Look," he began, "We're sorry for any trouble that we've caused, but... we can help you get through this, I promise. And we can do it together." He held out his hand, which Zelda reluctantly took as she wiped away tears.

"Well," Link exclaimed, "now that that's over with, maybe we can finally get back to-" Before he could finish his sentence, a large BOOM! shook the school. "What the heck was that?!" Link shouted.

"It came from the auditorium!" Greenie replied. "Come on, let's go!"

The three of them rushed into the auditorium, only to find a very strange sight: a blue-skinned man garbed in red robes stood on the left side of the stage, with the unconscious bodies of Melody, Leif, and Aryll suspended in midair next to him. He was flunked by the three women from the stage. On the other side of the stage was none other than their history teacher, Mr. Gaebora. Somehow, all of the light in the room seemed to be attracted to him, making him look like he was bathed in a warm glow. They hid behind one of the walls.

"Let those children go," Gaebora commanded in a strange language that the three found they could comprehend perfectly. "They have no idea of their true heritage – their magic is weak, I am sure of it."

Magic?, Zelda mouthed to the two boys, who shrugged in response.

The man laughed an evil laugh that chilled all to the bone. "Don't be so sure, descendent of Rauru. I can feel great power emanating from all three of these Hylians. Their magic rivals that of even you, Sage of Light. I would be willing to bet that some of them are even Sages themselves." Gaebora's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "Funny how a man who claims to know so much of his people's history is not even aware of when powerful Sages are right under his nose. I bet that you don't even know who I am."

"I know that your name is not Agahnim; that you are an imposter who hides behind the name of another! The true Agahnim died for your foul purposes!" Gaebora shouted defiantly. "I know that you are simply another dark wizard who wishes to bring about the destruction of this world!"

"You are correct," the man admitted with a demonic twinkle in his eye. "But you also couldn't be more wrong." Without warning, an tornado of pure darkness surrounded the man, so much so that not even Gaebora's light could pierce it. By the time it dissipated, the man had transformed. His skin color had changed into the same shade of green as the two old women, though his hair (and newly acquired beard) was a fiery shade of red similar to that of the young girl beside him. He wore ornate black armor, and a torn blood-red cape. On his forehead was a yellow crystal. "I am Ganondorf Dragmire, Prince of Darkness, King of the Gerudo, Guardian of the Desert, Champion of Din, and the rightful owner of the Triforce of Power! And once I obtain the Triforce, this world will be mine!"

Now, Link could see something in Gaebora's eyes that had not been present before: fear. Not just fear, but complete and utter terror. Whoever this Ganondorf guy was, he was not someone to be trifled with. However, despite this, Gaebora still stood tall, although there was a noticeable tremor in his voice. "You will never win! The Triforce will never be yours! The Hero will defeat you!"

Ganondorf's mouth curved into a malicious smirk. "But you are not the Hero, are you?" He snapped his fingers, and all of the light surrounding Gaebora left him as the teacher was lifted into the air by some invisible force. Ganondorf walked to the center of the stage, and all four of the floating bodies began to circle around him. "Now," he addressed the frightened crowd, "allow me to give you a taste of what this world will be like once I am through with it." He lifted his hands as they began to crackle with dark energy. Simultaneously, the four bodies around him each began to glow with a different-colored aura – brown for Melody, dark green for Leif, light blue for Aryll, and white for Gaebora.

The bodies began to convulse as the crackling in Ganondorf's hands grew louder and louder. "Aryll!" Link screamed, unable to control himself. Fortunately, at this point, the rest of the student body was so frightened that nobody noticed him.

Once Ganondorf's hands were filled with so much dark energy that they weren't even visible anymore, he thrust them into the ground, imbuing it with darkness. Suddenly, the earth seemed to shake, and the ground began to change, starting from where Ganondorf had struck the ground. What had once been the stage had transformed into red, sun-baked earth. The carpeted floor of the auditorium was slowly suffering from the same fate.

But that had nothing on what happened to the students at the school. Link, Zelda, and Greenie watched on in terror as the children and teachers were slowly transformed into hideous beasts. Their skin became a variety of different colors, from purple to orange, and their stance became hunched over. Their clothes became filthy rags, and they grew piglike noses. Their mouths became filled with fangs, and their ears became long and pointed – not elven like Link and his friends, but more goblin-like. They grew a single horn and pointed tail each, and their fingers and toes transformed into claws. Most disturbing of all, however, was the fact that their now-yellow eyes held no feeling whatsoever except for pure malice.

"Th-that is all kinds of messed up!" Greenie cried.

Suddenly, the entire building began to shake, and dust rained down from the ceiling, followed by larger debris. The school had begun to collapse. Zelda immediately leaped to her feet. "Come on, you two!" she cried. "We can't just stand around; we have to get out of here!"

Greenie stood up to join her, but Link stayed frozen in place. "I'm not leaving without Aryll," he stated, gesturing to his sister, who was still floating behind Ganondorf.

"If you don't move this instant, you won't be leaving at all," Zelda countered bossily. Just then, a large chunk of whatever school ceilings are made from fell inches from Link's face. "See?" Zelda emphasized.

"I'd rather stay here and fight for my sister's life than run away and leave my sister with that maniac," said Link with complete seriousness.

"Link, think about this," argued Greenie in a considerably less bossy voice than Zelda. "If you die here without saving Aryll, what good will it do?"

Something in Link's eyes softened a bit, but he remained persistent. "I wouldn't want to live with the knowledge that I just left Aryll here without doing anything about it."

It was then that Greenie decided to play his trump card. "What would your grandma think if two of her grandchildren died before she did?"

Suddenly, Link jumped to his feet, all of the stubbornness in his eyes replaced with panic. "Guys," he said, "our families are still out there. We can't let them turn into monsters, too!"

"My parents are on vacation in the Bahamas," Greenie told them. They'll be fine. Probably."

"And my father left for a very important political meeting this morning," Zelda stated. "He won't be back until five days from now."

"My grandma's still in Aboda, though!" Link cried. "And worse, she probably has no idea what's going on! We have to save her before she turns into a monster!"

"Dude, relax," reassured Greenie. "If we haven't turned into monsters yet, that means that we have plenty of time... to..." He faltered as he gazed upon the ground: red, dry earth.

It was then that they realized that Ganondorf's dark magic had already completely engulfed the school (where it had left only but a few walls, including, conveniently, the one they were currently hiding behind) and was eating away at the surrounding houses. Despite the fact that they still had not been turned into monsters yet, they panicked.

This turned out to be a very dire mistake, as their panicking alerted Ganondorf to their presence. "What?" he snarled. "More Hylians? Get them!" he shouted to the monsters. Every single monster within the ruins of the school suddenly swiveled around to face them. The group proceeded to panic once again, although this time they made good use of it by utilizing the adrenaline rush that came with it to escape to a completely random direction (which, conveniently, was the fastest way to Link's grandma).

After running for a few minutes, they realized that a) they were already outside of the dark spell's reach, and that b) it was quite literally moving at a snail's pace, which meant that they could quite literally take an hour to get to Link's grandma's house, and still have time to spare. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief. "That... was a close one," Greenie summarized for all of them.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the spell heard them, because the moment the final word left Greenie's lips, the magic began consuming everything ten times as fast. "Run," Zelda gasped. The other two nodded their heads in agreement before whipping around to follow Zelda, who was already sprinting away from the rapidly approaching wave of dark magic.

"There's no way that we can outrun this thing!" Link cried as the spell pulled ever closer to him. He cursed. "You know, it's really inconvenient how nobody in this town owns any cars!"

Zelda scoffed. "Oh, please! It's not like this is some cheap 80's action movie where we can just hijack a car to escape! We're twelve! We can't even drive!"

"Maybe we don't know how to drive," Greenie yelled, "but I'd be willing to bet that we all know how to ride a bike!" He pointed to a nearby sidewalk, where three teens were rather stupidly leaving their bicycles leaning up against a wall as they walked inside a store.

The three of them steered themselves towards the bikes, where they, with some difficulty, got onto the bikes without losing too much speed. "Sorry!" Greenie called to the three teenagers, who by now were probably already turning into goblin creatures.

"Uhh... guys?" Link called as he looked behind him. "I don't think those teenagers really liked that we took their bikes." The other three looked behind them, where they saw a horde of monsters chasing after them (albeit, all within the boundaries of the spell). The mob was led by three very irate-looking creatures that seemed to be more intent on catching the runaway bicycles than the runaway children on the runaway bicycles. As the spell consumed more of the town, the amount of monsters steadily increased.

"How are they running so fast?" Zelda questioned incredulously. Just then, a spear whizzed past her, narrowly missing the tire on Link's bicycle. "And since when did one of them have a deadly weapon from the Middle Ages?"

Link looked behind him once again, and was met with the rather startling sight of a couple hundred monsters all holding a variety of severely outdated weapons, including spears, swords, wooden spiked clubs, and the occasional flaming torch. "Uhh... it's not just one of them who has a weapon now," he informed the others. He tried to steady his nerves by thinking of something positive. "Well... it's not like they have cannons," he supplied.

Just then, a deafening boom! was heard, followed by the sight of a cannonball hurtling over their heads. "Oh, come on!" Link complained, looking back to see the sight of a giant wooden cannon with four monsters sitting on top of it. Just then, the cannonball crashed a few yards ahead of them, forming a huge pothole in the middle of the asphalt.

"Swerve left!" Greenie yelled as they came upon the impact site. They all veered to the left, narrowly missing the hole. They would have sighed in relief, but several more booms! informed them that it was far from the end. "Left! Right! Middle! Right! Right! Left! Middle! Left! Middle! Middle! Right! Left! Left! Middle! Left! Right! Left! Right! Middle! Right!" Greenie instructed as they came upon the landing sites of each cannonball.

Abruptly, the stream of cannonballs stopped, which prompted Link to look behind him. He found that the boundaries of the spell, while not necessarily far away, were still distant enough for the monster army to stop trying to rain fiery balls of death upon them. However, he didn't dare slow down, as he would need all the time he could get if he wanted to get his grandmother out of there in time. Not to mention, if he slowed down now, the monsters would probably start shooting again, which was not desirable, to say the least. He did, however, allow himself to unleash an unsteady sigh of relief. "I think we lost them," Link muttered, mostly to himself.

The three of them rode on to Link's grandma's house in an uneasy silence, none of them wanting to jinx their good fortune so far. "How long do you think we'll have for this?" Greenie inquired worriedly.

Zelda gazed out to the horizon, where the town was rapidly being consumed by the faraway, yet swift, magic. "I'm not sure. Maybe a minute, at most," she estimated.

"Okay," Link said, mentally preparing himself for the task. "Greenie, you come with me in case my grandma's being stubborn." Greenie nodded, and they ran inside.

They found Grandma making her special soup in the kitchen. "Oh, Link, Greenie," she greeted. "You two are here early. Where's Aryll?"

Link, instead of answering the question, instead told the elderly woman, "Listen, there's no time to explain, but we need to get out of here right now."

"What's the matter?" Grandma asked, an expression of concern growing on her wrinkled face.

This time, it was Greenie who responded, "Please, Mrs. Master, we'll explain everything on the way. Just please trust us for now."

"If you insist," Grandma agreed hesitantly. "Just let me get a bottle for this soup."

"Guys," they heard Zelda say from outside, "I estimate that we only have about twenty-five more seconds!"

"There's no time for this!" Link snapped. "Come on!" He grabbed his grandmother's arm, and made to yank her with him.

However, before he could do that, Grandma had already slapped him away. "Now, is that any way to treat your grandma?" she reprimanded harshly, shaking her finger at him.

"Fifteen more seconds!" Zelda cried.

"Grandma, I'm sorry for this," Link told the elderly lady.

"Sorry for wha-" was all that Grandma Master got out before Link draped her over his shoulder. "Hey! Put me down now, young man!" she shrieked as she was brought out of the door, and stuffed into the front basket of Link's bicycle. "Oof!"

"Let's get out of here!" Link shouted as he and the others picked up speed. It was just in the nick of time, too, as it was no sooner that they had left that the dark wave worked its magic on Link's house, reducing it to rubble.

It was also then that the monsters began firing their cannons again.

"GAH! Why won't these things just leave us alone?!" Zelda shrieked.

As soon as she said that, the monsters stopped firing their cannon. "Wait... what?" Zelda exclaimed, stopping her bicycle.

"Look! The spell's stopped!" Greenie cried, pointing at the remains of the town. Sure enough, the red earth that marked the edges of the destruction had stopped spreading – ironically, exactly on the border between Aboda and the forest that separated it from other cities. They were safe. For now.

"LINK MASTER!"

Well, most of them were safe.

On the other side of the road, Grandma Master was pulling on Link's ear so hard that they were sure it would fall off. "Would you mind telling me what that was about?!" she roared, livid at her grandson.

"..." Link said nothing.

"Well?!" Grandma bellowed. "I'm just dying for a good explanation here!"

"Uhh... a murderous green psychopath kidnapped two of my friends, my literacy teacher, and Aryll, turned everyone in the town into monsters, and we are currently the only survivors," Link supplied meekly.

Grandma looked confused. Link took her silence as an opportunity to change the subject (kind of). "But hey," he told her optimistically, "at least the spell stopped! Now we can just call the police and have them rescue Aryll for us! After all, it's not like we can't get back into town, or anything-"

Just as he said that, a large, mustard-yellow crystal flared to life in front of them, completely cutting off their access to the town. Link's eyes widened. "No," he whispered. "Nonononononono!" He banged on the crystal, but to no avail. "ARYLL!" he cried in anguish.

Ganondorf collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. That spell that he had performed would have been as simple as lifting a finger back in his glory days, but now, he had needed the magic of four powerful Hylians just to terraform one tiny section of the earth. It had taken the rest of his energy simply to erect a simple barrier. He needed more power if he ever wanted to defeat the Hero. Specifically, he needed the Triforce.

But first...he looked disdainfully at the four bodies laying at his feet. Their lives were so insignificant and trivial; it was infuriating that they were so needed to his plans. However, he observed that their magic levels were halfway back to normal, whereas his were barely beginning to recover. His lips curled up in a malicious sneer.

He tapped into the magic levels of the two most powerful – the two adolescents. One reminded him of the earth; the other of the sky. Both of their souls felt older that their appearances suggested. There was no doubt about it – these two were the Sages of Earth and Wind. He grinned once more. These two would be perfect. Attaching their magic to his own, he envisioned a tower fit for the goddess of power herself.

Black bricks rose out of the earth. Stairs materialized out of nowhere, leading to dizzying heights. Soon enough, the tower was complete – just as he remembered it from long ago.

Standing on the newly-created obsidian floor, he beckoned to his three henchmen, and pointed to the Sages on the floor. "Take them to their temples. Make sure they don't escape," he instructed. The three Gerudo females nodded, and dematerialized out of the room.

He grabbed the wrist of the smallest one. She seemed so unassuming, yet he could practically feel the way the Hero loved her radiating off her body. There could only be one explanation. "I've finally found you... Princess."

A/N: I apologize for the extreme delay in between updates. I blame school, which is probably the most-used excuse on this website. But hey, it's summer now! Which means that updates might actually be consistent for once! Crazy, right?! :0

Also, I changed what I imagined Zelda to act like again. Now I can't help but imagine her as acting like Peridot from SU. That's the character that inspired Zelda's... breakdown, by the way. Oh, well. This is just how I imagine Zelda to act like under stress. She probably won't act this way most of the time.

Also, in case you didn't know, Zelda is the Princess, and Aryll isn't Zelda, so Aryll isn't the Princess. Ganondorf is just really dumb and apparently thinks that any girl with pointy ears is automatically Zelda, as long as they aren't already a Sage. At least, that's what it seems like in Wind Waker, but it's literally impossible for this story to take place in the adult timeline seeing as that's the only timeline in which Ganondorf is killed off for good, so I'm not sure if that really counts...

...I'll stop my rambling now.

~I Am A Toad