Author's Note: Um… hi. I'd like to start this author's note out with a gigantic I'M SORRY. Seriously, I am so sorry. I barely have any good excuses, but I'll try… So… high school. Enough said. I just finished my very first grading period of high school ever, and let me tell you, it kicked my butt. When I started this story, I was in eighth grade, and school wasn't hard at all. However, now that I have ALL ENRICHED CLASSES, I barely scraped by with all A's and B's. And of course, with me being a control freak, I DO NOT want anything lower than a B.

Conclusion: school comes before fanfiction. Also, I'm in marching band, and that takes a lot out of your free time. I've had about two free weekends this entire school year so far. BUT, now that it's a new grading period and marching band season is over, I have a lot more free time to write stories for you lovely folks.

All of that being said, there is a positive that has come out of my absence: I've had a lot of time to think about where this story is heading, so there shouldn't be that much more writers block for the next few chapters.

Also, there were a few things that happened in my absence. First of all, this story is 1 years old (October 7). So that's cool. Also, the Wii U came out. That's pretty cool. We can look forward to having a new Zelda game in the next few years. And, Shigeru Miyamoto turned 60 years old, and without him none of this would even be happening.

I've been rewriting some of the early chapters, so if you haven't gone back to reread those, I highly suggest you do so. Now that I know exactly what is going to happen from now on in this story, I changed some things. I am still in the process of editing a few more early chapters, though.

So, wow. Now that all of that is out of the way, let's get on to this much belated chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda. All of this belongs to the wonderful Shigeru Miyamoto. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HIM.

Zelda

I wake up to the sound of water splashing violently onto the ground. I open my eyes to witness the downpour. It's raining so hard that I can barely see ten feet ahead of our little outcropping of rock that we have made our camp under. I let out a small sigh and hold out my cupped hand to get a quick drink. I cringe at how warm the water is as it runs down my throat.

How can this happen? I think to myself. How can a frozen wasteland turn into a lush land of rain overnight? It's got to be seventy degrees out, and the rain does little to nothing to cool it down.

With the land being mostly rock, the rain does not soak into the ground, but instead creates a small ravine rushing downhill in the direction of Zoras Domain. The rest of the group gets up a few minutes later and they all take a look at the storm with surprised expressions.

Seeing how we won't be able to make it anywhere in this storm, we wait for hours, hoping it will let up. We wait so long that our fingers look like prunes and our clothes are almost completely soaked through. We sit on about an inch of water, munching on food that we brought from Telma's.

The rain finally lightens up hours later. We can see that the sun is just starting to set.

"Well, a day wasted, I suppose," Shad mutters.

We all let out an irritated sigh.

"We can't do this again," I say. The group gives me questioning looks. "We can't just wait around for another day. Obviously shadow is getting much stronger," I gesture to the rain falling behind me. "We can't just wait for things to get better. The weather is going to get nothing but worse. If it's like this tomorrow, we have no choice but to head out into the storm."

"But Zelda," Link starts. "We don't even know how to get into the temple. What do you expect us to do? Dive? We aren't Zoras."

A sudden thought occurs to me. Some tourists who frequently visit Zoras Domain use Zora Scales to help them dive deeper into the water.

"A Golden Zora Scale!" I exclaim with a small smile on my face.

"Ah, yes, the Zora Scale," Shad remarks. "It minimizes water pressure and maximizes lung capacity," he explains to Link and Ashei.

"Well where can we get one of those things?" Ashei asks.

"Prince Ralis is the only one I know of to possess Golden Scales. I suppose we should head back to the domain tomorrow and ask him for a few," I suggest.

"What if the storm is just as bad tomorrow? We won't be able to tell north from south," Link points out.

"We'll follow that stream until we reach the domain," I explain, pointing out the steam that the storm created.

Sure enough, the next day storm is worse than before.

We don't bother packing up our supplies and taking it with us, so we just head out into the harsh rain with our cloaks pulled tightly over our heads. The cloaks don't help at all, and we are soaked to the bone within minutes.

We trudge forward in our water-soaked shoes towards Zoras Domain. We reach it in less than two hours, actually having to swim to it. The domain has at least an extra five feet of water, so we swim up the throne room.

Prince Ralis is there, sitting on the throne, appearing very deep in thought. He seems so weary and concerned that I forget for a second that he is only about thirteen.

He is still so young, I think to myself. To be a ruler of an entire race before even becoming an adult….

He looks up upon our arrival and only seems to recognize one person in our group. I'm not particularly surprised that he doesn't recognize me, considering I've only seen him a few times in my life.

"Master Link!" he exclaims, surprised to him.

"Prince Ralis," Link responds, bowing a bit.

"What can I do for you?" Ralis questions.

"We need to ask you a favor," Link states.

"We?" he asks.

"Oh, yes. This is Shad, Ashei, and Princess Zelda," Link says, pointing to us respectively.

"Princess!" the Zora Prince blurts.

"Prince Ralis," I say gently, curtsying as well as I can in a tunic and pants.

"I'm sorry," Ralis says, still a bit shocked. "I did not recognize you in your current attire."

"That's quite alright Ralis. I understand that I am not exactly formally dressed," I respond.

He blinks, snapping out of his surprised state. "What was that favor you need?" he inquires.

"Right," Link begins. "Do you happen to have any Golden Scales handy?"

"A few," he says, hesitantly. "Why would you need them?"

"We don't really have time to explain, but I can assure you, you would be doing a great service to all of Hyrule if you would give us some," I plead, just about ready to get on my knees and beg.

He seems to mull this over for a few moments until finally saying, "Alright." He calls a Zora guard and tells him to fetch four scales before turning back to us. "Surely you've noticed the change in Hyrule as of late," he says quietly.

"Yes, Your Highness, and we are doing everything we can to try and stop whatever is causing it," Link assures, his bright blue eyes shining with determination.

A few moments later, the guard comes back with the scales, a string tied to each of them. He hands the shiny golden scales to me and I place them in my pouch for safekeeping.

"I trust you will make good use of them, especially in this weather," Ralis says, gesturing to the falling raindrops around us.

With a final nod, we make our journey to the mountaintop temple.

The trek takes much longer than the time it took to go downhill, due to the strong stream of water moving steadily against us. When we finally make it to the entrance of the temple, we can tell the water level has risen by at least a foot since we've been gone.

I take the Golden Scales from out of my pouch and hand one to each member of the group. We tie them around our necks, and with a deep breath, Link is the first to jump into the slightly dirty water. I jump in after him, followed by Ashei and a hesitant Shad.

Opening my eyes, I can see Link's dark outline diving deeper and deeper until he swims into what looks to be the entrance.

I enter after him and begin swimming upwards about as far as we dove down. I feel my air starting to run out as I near the surface. So close… I think to myself as my oxygen runs out, desperately trying to get to land. I feel my fingertips meet air as I'm hauled out of the water. I begin coughing up a bit of water as I try to tell my thanks to Link.

"Thank you," I say as I regain my breath, turning to face him. However, the face I am greeted with is not Link's, but rather his dark look-a-like, his red eyes peering back at mine.

His face turns upward into a small grin, showing off his pearly white fangs. "No problem."

Author's Note: And there we go. Again, sorry for such the long delay on this chapter, I will really try to get these out sooner.

Don't forget to go back and read the first few edited chapters!

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!