It was getting darker, twilight was barely lingering and the guards were preparing to shut the gate, making sure no unwelcome visitors could come at night, when Zen, a young guard, spotted a moving shadow, edging ever so nearer to the city. At first, he tried to ignore it, but whatever it was got closer and closer, and soon, it made him nervous. Grabbing a lantern, he made his way down onto the streets, told a fellow guardsmen what he was about to do, and left to find out what the shadow was. Monsters no longer plagued this land at night, and he had nothing to fear, yet he had this feeling, a feeling of foreboding, which made him extra cautious this night.

Right before he reached the shadow, it collapsed onto the ground. It wasn't too long until the first rays of his lantern hit whatever it was, and Zen nearly peed over himself once he released what exactly he was looking at. Two girls, hardly past their teens, were lying close to each other. From the way they were positioned, he could see that the one with the long brown hair had been pulling the one with the reddish hair along. Gashes and cuts littered both girl's body, and judging from the paleness of their faces, they had lost a huge amount of blood.

What on earth were wounded Gerudo doing so far from their dessert?

It didn't really matter right now. Zen was sure that he had to make haste, every second ticking away could mean the end of their lives. So he pulled his horn from his belt and blew harder than he had ever before, signalling the others that he needed assistance.

It was dark when the guards carried the girls to the castle, as quick as they could. Inside, doctors were present, and if they had any luck, so was Impa. Surely, she would know what to do.

Hours passed and night turned into day when Nayla awoke. The first rays of daylight stung her eyes and made her headache a lot worse. She tried to move her hand to shield her eyes, only to realise that she couldn't. Panic started to flood over her when she realised that she didn't recognise the room she was in either.

Her trashing must have started the nurse who was tending to Kisota, because she was there within a second, standing next to Nayla's bed, holding her down. "Relax dear, it's okay, you're in capable hands" The nurse kept muttering that as if it was a mantra, as if repeating it could make it true.

Nevertheless, Nayla calmed down a tad. No longer did she try to get away, no, in fact, when her memories hit her, she wanted to stay here, where ever she was. |There was no way that they could go back, not after what had happened.

"Uh…" Her voice sounded raspy and her throat was as dry as the dessert sand of her home.

The nurse handed her a cup of water and spoon-fed her some of it. "Don't push yourself honey, you're safe here" The water tasted funny, yet she couldn't really pinpoint what it was. It probably was nothing; everything was weird right now….

"We…" Her voice broke again. "Have…to tell …the princes….. He's back" Fatigue took over and she struggled to remain conscious, but it was getting hard every second. Then it hit her. The nurse probably put some sedatives into the water to calm her down…..

"No!!!" Nayla screamed with all her might… "No!!! I won't let you"

"WHAT"S THE MATTER OF THIS?" The voice sounded distant, yet it held so much authority that Nayla wished that she could look at the persons face.

"Nothing my lady, she just passed out from fatigue" the nurse tried to bribe the other person, tried to get her to leave.

"Se..da…tives.." She still managed to slur those words before sleep overcame her.

[

She never expected to wake up again, yet she did. More hours had come and passed, judging the light that now entered the room. A quick glance told her that the nurse was no where in sight, so who had been taking care of her?

As she glanced across the room, she noticed that Kisota was lying in the bed next her. She felt so guilty. She hadn't paid even a small thought to her from the moment she passed out into the fields, and she had known that her friend had been critically injured. Of course, it wasn't as if she didn't have a proper reason for it, but it still bothered her. Gerudo weren't raised to be individuals; they were part of the clan and were raised as one. Heavily sighting, she rolled over, attempting to get out of bed to correct her error. And that's when she noticed her. In the chair right across the room was a woman, tall and strong, with white hair making her look old while her face told a whole different story. Her bright red eyes twinkled in the ever darkening room, telling Nayla that who ever it was was still awake and alert.

"I don't know what you're here for, but whatever it was would have gotten you killed if I hadn't conveniently walked into the room right before it would have happened."

"wh..who are you?" Ever since she had been a child, people had told Nayla that her eyes made her stand out from the crowd. They had always been slightly redder, slightly brighter, and slightly more proud. They had been her most offsetting feature. In battle, she could nail an enemy down with a well placed stare, yet the woman before her was unaffected.

"I'm a friend, that's all you have to know right now. Are you able to stand?" the unknown lady observed her a couple of seconds before realisation hit her. "You're friend is doing fine, she's just asleep, nothing bad will happen to her if we leave right now. If we don't" The lady left reassuring "then I can't say the same about you".

Walking took a lot of her energy and it felt like ages before they reached their apparent destination. The hallways they passed where filled with so many precious things that Nayla was almost afraid to walk around. Everywhere she looked, she saw the royal insigne, the phoenix, and she now understood why Gannondorf wanted to have Hyrule castle so much.

Shaking her head, she decided that all these riches still weren't worth the blood shed, and so she continued on, hopefully to meet the princess.

The room they entered was far less beautiful and exquisite than the hallways had been, in fact, the walls were a simple white and the room only had some bare necessities in it. The woman with the white hair left her standing there, so Nayla assumed that this was some sort of waiting room. From the door to her left, Nayla could hair voices, hushed, sometimes screaming, and they were unlike any voices she had ever heard before. One was calm, like the quiet breeze on a summer day, while the other sounded more like a storm in autumn, like a wild animal crying out to the moon. The loneliness of the second voice touched her, it seemed so familiar.

Just as she was about to set herself on one of the chairs, the door to her left opened, revealing another room with three people in it. From what she could see, there were two women and one male. She hardly ever saw any men around in the fortress, but from what little experience she had, she could tell that the boy was extremely handsome. He had hair that resembled the golden sunrays and eyes so blue…so blue that she could have gotten lost in them if their loneliness hadn't shaken her from her trance. Small scars littered his face, providing him a ruthless handsomeness, showing that he was one worth his weight in this world. In the fortress, they would have described him as perfect breeding stock…

The woman standing next to him was even more beautiful, and in her eyes, so elegant and exotic. Violet eyes holding all the wisdom of the world pierced through her soul. For the first time in her live, Nayla felt uncertain. Both of the people in that room where so…foreign…so beyond her reach. They had this glow over them, setting them apart from everyone else, even from the weird lady with the blood red eyes and the snow white hair.

It was as if the goddesses had chosen these two themselves.

And then realisation hit her. She had been staring at the most important person, wait scratch that, the most important people of the country, if not the whole world. She had been caught staring at Princess Zelda, her mighty rules of Hyrule, bearer of wisdom, and her chosen hero, Link of the kokiri, bearer of courage. Clumsily, she fell to her knees in an awkward attempt to bow, but hands clothed in stainless white gloves pulled her up and placed her on the chair. Violet eyes never left her own.

"Please sit, you're in no condition to bow to anyone right now"

Nayla flushed. Being raised as a Gerudo, she was taught never to show any sign of weariness, and right now, she had shown hers in front of the rules of their mortal enemy, in front of the princess of Hyrule. But now, time had changed and she was no longer their mortal enemy. No in fact, Nayla hoped that she, and her hero, could save her once proud tribe. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. Oh, the humiliation…For her, for her people, for everyone…

In between sobs, she managed to stutter that he was back. The hero and the princess shared a glance, his intense and sorrowful, hers calm and fearful. She could tell that they disagreed on something, but she couldn't quite figure out what, so instead, she tried to gain control of her emotions and so she continued her story, shakily.

"Yesterday, we were told to come to the training grounds, to attend a meeting. As I was heading there, I met Kisota, who dragged me along to find Nabooru. From what she told me, Nabooru had been missing for a few days but they did want her to attend the meeting. I was kind of surprised that there was a meeting at all, since Nabooru was the only one with the power to call upon one, but we went to search for her anyway. But our attempt was fruitless, so we hurried back to the training ground, only to find that they had already started without us. Twin rova, they were there, holding a speech, informing us that He was back. So far, no one had noticed us, and we didn't quite like the way the meeting turned out so we hit behind a crate. A blinding flash pierced the sky, and all the Gerudo started to act so strange after that. It was as if they could no longer think for their selves. We knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong, so Kisota and I ran for the weapon chamber, fetched our weapons and tried to make our way to the outer gate. By then, they had already spotted us, and they started to chase us as if we were wild animals. We managed to evade most of their attacks while running toward Hyrule field, but they managed to hit Kisota somewhere during our run. I threw away our weapons and carried her on my back for a while, but two of them caught up with us."

Her voice broke and she once again busted into tears. She recalled the battle that happened after they had caught up with them, she recalled the faces of her friends as they died due her hands, and she recalled their screams as they died. She remembered it all.

Worry flashed over the princess' face and soon, the white haired woman escorted her back to her room. The rest of the story could be told another day, but right now, Nayla had to rest, leaving a disturbed princess and an angsty hero behind.