"Mother?"

Evangeline brushed the blonde locks of her beloved child's head through with her fingers and smiled, lovingly, down upon him. "Yes, Sweetling?"

"Everyone... is upset over the Treaty with the Gerudo... and..."

The Lady sighed, cupping Lincoln's cheek, and stopped messing with his locks. She leaned back into her seat and smoothed the folds of her dress. "You want to know why." He nodded and Evangeline felt something in her heart ache. "Oh, my darling boy... You are so young but I do believe you will understand this... and that you deserve to."

Navi bit her lip and sat cross legged on her charge's chest. She had changed from her dress that she wore during dinner and was in another hand sewn gown though this was a soft silk for sleeping. "We've heard, and know, that much of it is because of everyone being afraid for the older boys' safety but..." She blushed. "It must be more than that. War, or so the Great Deku Tree tells us, is commonplace in Hyrule."

"It is." Evie nodded. "And you are correct, our boys' safety is not our only concern though it is a great factor. If this Treaty does not pass or goes sour there is a risk that our men will be called to arms... Your Father, Thomas, Rowan, Vicktor, Darion, and even Bryan are either experienced warriors, trained at the blade, or of age to be drafted and this is a scary thought to all of us." She paused and took a shaky breath. "And we must also think of the other families who are under our banners for they have sons, husbands, and brothers too... War is a vile thing, my Lincoln, and I do not wish for you to know of it."

"But all of that is 'ifs' and I have yet to hear any reason other than 'they are Gerudo and traitors' that gives anyone claim to be frightened." Link sat up from his pillows and took his mother's hands. "Tell me. Tell me because I need to know."

Evangeline felt her heart drop as she gazed into the coblat eyes of her son. She saw something inside of him... something that frightened her but it made her feel more safe than she had ever in her life. It struck her as she peered at that young eight year old's face... she had never seen such courage before. "Thomas... Thomas told me that you had eaves dropped on a conversation that your father had with Rowan."

Link nodded. "I did." He paused. "I had been training my archery teacher."

"Adele the Shiekah."

"Yes." Lincoln bunched his covers into his hands and felt that familar but peculiar feelings rising in his heart. He hated it. "I saw her give Rowan some odd nod like a secret message and when Rowan asked to speak to Father alone, because Jason goes with them everywhere, I decided to follow them." The eight year old released the quilts, relaxing, as Navi sat on his shoulder and brushed his hair back. "I told Adele what I was doing because she would catch me anyway and she said that I would owe her a favor for not saying anything about it... I watched the door shut behind Rowan and snuck through the Servant's Way. I know no one ever uses them so I would be safe to listen there."

"And what did you hear?" She closed her light blue eyes, ignoring that motherly instinct to scold him for his wrong doings, and listened with fear beating in her heart.

"We heard them mention something about dark magick." Navi spoke up when Lincoln seemed to lose his words. "Rowan said that he thought this King of Thieves, Ganondorf, might be controling the Gerudo but what we don't understand is how this directly effects everyone. Why is that a problem?" The Faerie stood and paced from Link's neck to the end of his shoulder. "I mean, the Fae do not allow such things because it is cruel to take away such rights as freedom but... the Gerudo are feral, aren't they?"

"Freedom is freedom." Evie replied, softly, with emotion clinging to every word. "The Gerudo are a dangerous force and, yes, they have been known to be 'feral' as you put it... but if someone, a single person, can control that many people... Can you imagine, my Little Ones, the damage that would be done if that man could gain access to the King of Hyrule? That power is forbidden to all of the Goddesses' Creations and if Ganondorf has truly dared to go against Their Laws than this is not a man whom Hyrule should share alligience or at least allow go near our King or Princess."

Her words hung in the air and all three could find no more words to say. Lincoln and Navi now understood... and the young Lordling could now put a name to that feeling stirring in his heart.

Fear.

The son and mother wished each other a long and good night of rest which left the Fae and Hylian by themselves to their own thoughts.

"We have to talk to the Deku Tree."

Navi frowned. "You're only upset because of what is going on amoungst the adults. You're reflecting what you thought you heard on the threshold of death to what is taking place, now." She rested in his outstretched hands and both could feel the unease radiating off the other. Navi was playing at naivety but she was just as worried at her partner. "Please, a night's rest will do you some good. Go to sleep, Link."

But Lincoln would not let the subject rest.

He made every attempt that he could to see the Deku Tree though he never listed his true purpose and instead proclaimed that he missed the Kokiri but all of this was to no end. The family departed all to their seperate homes after a while except for Raven and Jason's brood... the Treaty was being prepared... and Hudsons needed to be ready.

For Hyrule's sake.

- Two years pass -

"Bless the Gods, I have a Grandaughter!"

Lincoln jerked awake from where he had been sitting at his study table writing a letter. He required a new horse for Spirit had finally given himself into old age. The mount would be retired and taken to Talon's Lon Lon Ranch where he would rest in green pastures until his dying day. Link would also retrieve a new horse from the famous Ranch.

He looked down at his paper with some disconcertment and rubbed the ink that had left a large stain on his hand. "Was that Myra?"

Navi nodded her head, sleepily, and yawned from where she lay on Link's Korkiri hat. "Freya and Bryan have a daughter." She sniggered while she stretched herself out before a lit candle that flickered a little too closely to her wings, making her flinch. "Looks like you're a great Uncle, now."

The ten year old smiled, slipped from his chair, and popped his back which still gave him ocassional trouble during especially cold or rainy nights. His cobalt blue eyes peered out the stained glass window of White Tower's Library and found the moon. "It is late...almost midnight." Link smirked. "She is a child of Nayru..."

"Who?" Navi asked but her thoughts caught up with her and she nodded in agreement. "So she is." The Faerie heard Myra, now forty, let out another joyful outburst about the birth of her first grandchild. "Oh... I wish she would stop all that rachet...Gods know we've heard enough."

Freya's delivery had been an eight hour long process that would have left the frail dark blonde, comely lass exhausted. She was the first at twenty-three to give Lord Raven a great-grandchild... a matter that Myra would rub into Jason's face for years to come.

"You can stay here and sleep then. You need all the beauty sleep you can get." The Faerie shot him a nasty look which the ten year old returned and Link pondered on taking his hat from his partner but decided not to once he heard his mother calling his name. He slipped from the door, straightened his pale green doublet out that had his family's Howling Wolf embroidered in gold and tied his shoulder length hair back. "Mother!"

Lady Evangeline beamed at her son and walked over swiftly to greet him. "Have you heard, sweet one?"

Lincoln smirked. "All of White Tower has heard."

"Well, come now!" Evangeline smiled with joy in her voice and ignoring the sarcasm in her son's own. "Let us go and see Bryan's blessing." She pulled up her crimson skirts and dashed away with all the energy that a woman of thirty-five years in heavy clothing could muster.

It was a known fact that Raven had taken Evie to the altar with reluctance for he had not wanted to marry again and he had only done so after Myra claimed him "a depressed old man who needs a woman's love". Anyone could see, now, that Lord Raven smiled more often than he had in his ten years of loneliness before Lady Evangeline... though he would not be one to admit that Myra was right.

All were grateful for the Lady's presence these last trialing months for the Hudsons did have their anger problems and Evangeline did not tolerate her husband's for any moment.

She had been the one to ease him when Bryan and Freya got pregnant before their wedding. Myra had been another factor for she helped quicken the ceremony along... the child was ushered into the world, to everyone's joy, eight months after the union of her parents. A scandal hidden away to lessen the tension admist the rumor of war.

Bryan met them at the door with the face of a worried husband and a proud father. "Uncle." He embraced the boy who was sixteen years his junior. "Evie." A kiss was placed on Evanegline's cheek. "She is beautiful, you really have no idea."

This was to be the first of his kin that Lincoln would see born with a heartbeat. Three years past, his own mother had weeped in a bed soaked with blood from her own loins while she cradled his dead sister, and two years previous his sister, Anju, also lost a daughter. Both events came back every once and a while to haunt the young Lord. Recently, it had been revealed that Anju's reason for her long visit to White Tower had been due to Kafei not wanting to try for anymore children...

Still, this was a joyous occasion for all of White Towe for it had been craving the sound of a new babe's cries.

Myra stood at the bedside, beaming, and gazed down at the squirming bundle of blankets in her hands. "Freya is asleep."

"Of course, she is." Evangeline nodded with her blue eyes threatening to weep. The Lady turned and took the hand of the mid-wife. "Thank you, Hally, for your services. You go on and rest, now."

Hally bowed. "Thank you, My Lady. If you should need me then ring a bell. I will come." The woman swept from the room, silently, and looked as if she may pass out herself.

"What's her name?" Lincoln pondered, eyeing the infant with interest though he had a fear of actually holding a baby.

"Christa." Bryan took his daughter from his mother's arms and pressed a tender kiss upon her brow. The twenty-six year old chuckled at himself as the baby took a breath in to release a mighty wail. "I feel more weepy than a willow."

"That is called a father's love, my dear Bryan... May I hold her?"

"Of course, Evie."

Evangeline smiled at the newborn who released another a healthy cry and squeezed her tiny pink fists into white knuckled balls that shook with great fervor. "Tell us all about it, sweetling." She cooed, rocking the child gently. "Has she fed?"

"Just a few minutes ago."

"Good, good." A pause. "I wish Raven and Jason were her to meet her."

Myra leaned over Evie's shoulders and gazed upon her grandchild. "Jason has never enjoyed small children and Father shall get to see her in a week... After all, his buisness his just as important as our little Christa."

Link frowned when six sets of eyes drifted to him. "What buisness? I thought Father was just going to settle a trade dispute."

Evangeline gapped and he could see her fumbling to cover what ever secret they had been hiding from him. "Disputes amoung the People are important, my Lincoln." She settled with and gave him a small smile that was broken when Christa gave a mighty cry. "Oh, come now, Little One. Shhhh."

The babe continued to whimper without stop and was passed to Bryan to Myra, back to Evangline then to Myra, and Bryan again but all attempts at calming the infant was to no avail. "She has her Father's mouth, I see!" Evangeline laughed, sighed, and rocked the baby then, when she tired, she gave the girl to her father. "Perhaps we might leave the room?"

"Yes, let Freya rest... Uh, here help me gather some supplies."

It was an odd moment for all when Bryan handed Christa to Lincoln who had dodged the offer to hold his great niece several times. Lincoln seated himself in a chair, feeling more comfortable holding Christa that way, and after a moment of great akwardness began to hum a soft melody beneath his breath... and to everyone's surprise, the newborn fell asleep.

Myra smirked. "Well, well, well, Little Link, looks like you have the makings of a great father."

Bryan ruffled his hair and chuckled. "Thank you, Uncle."

"Now, if only you had been around when Vicktor was born! Then I would have been impressed." Myra appeared very tired at the mention of her youngest son who suffered from colic, often, as a newborn. "I hope Christa does not take after her Uncle."

"She is just new to the world and afraid...we all were, once." Evangeline turned to Myra and placed a hand upon her shoulder. "I can watch over Freya and the babe tonight... you and Bryan get some rest." The new father opened his mouth to protest but was silenced by his young grandmother. "Now, now, Bryan. You will be of no use to Freya and Christa if you do not sleep." The Lady winked at Myra. "Your mother and I can testify to that fact, can we not?"

"As sure as I know Farore is green, I can!" The redheaded daughter of Joanna, first wife of Raven, laughed and her jade eyes danced with mirth. Eyes of her mother, Joanna Pembrose, whom she shared with Jason, Rowan, and Anju. They all had Joanna's look though only Jason shared her plumpness, the rest took after the slim sixty year old Lord of White Tower. "As always, Evie, you are right!" Myra laughed, again, and shook her hair from the bun it was in.

"Lincoln?"

The boy looked up at his older Nephew and shifted Christa a bit so that she did not rest so heavily on his left arm for it had grown tired "Yes, Bryan?"

"What was that tune you were humming?"

Link frowned. "I...I have no idea..." He found himself confused. "I heard it in a dream..."

Myra smirked. "I wish I had dreams like that then maybe I could hum something to shut Henrick up when he goes on those rants of his... and Gods, if you mention his family...damn Waterworths."

"But, Mother, you are a Waterworth."

Myra laughed and patted her son on the shoulder. "I am a Hudson and so are you and so is your brother." She laughed, again, and shut the door behind her. "Your Father is a Waterworth." The mother and son departed from the room and after a few moments as did Lincoln. He had handed Christa to his mother, gladly, and made his way through the dimly lit halls to his room.

He paused at his door and frowned. "Navi." A short trip back to the Library and the two returned feeling much more tired than before. "Next time, I'm going to leave you." Link mumured, jerking his covers overtop himself.

"I'd sleep better." The Fae replied, sticking her tongue out. "You snore too much."

"No, I don't."

"Do too."

"Don't."

"Too."

"Shut up."

"Too." Navi smirked. "Good night!" Her voice rang out in mock song and soon the Fae had fallen asleep... to the boy's amustment, her snores filled the room up not long after.

"Don't." The boy rolled his eyes and lifted his pillow to protect his pointed ears from the offending noises of his partner. Sleep took him, quickly, but the boy felt little gratitude for a dark and vivid dream emerged... one born from the stress born from the impending Treaty and the odd stirrings in the child's gut.

A great expanse of green waves rolled and tumbled before him drenched in darkness provided by a thundering storm blocking the sunlight. Link felt compelled to move and soon he found himself charging towards the gates of a large drawbridge... chains screeched and sparked as the bridge dropped open and splintered. A woman on a steed lept the moat beneath her, soaring over Lincoln's head as well, and kept the horse going at break neck speed.

"Go!" She screamed at it, digging her heels in and clutching at a girl. "Run, you stupid beast, run!"

The violet eyes of the child met Lincoln's own and her lips moved but he could not hear her words for the winds had picked up and had begun to beat his face. He raised a hand to implore them to stop, to let him help, but he could not speak. A whistle caught his pointed ears and his sharp eyes saw a blue blur splash into the waters next to the bridge. Link felt his heart sink with it. The feeling of terror washed over his body and settled deep into his core... but that girl, something was important about her... He turned to see what direction she had ridden to.

She was gone!

The realization dawned on him as a shadow crept over his form. Cobalt met fiery eyes of red and a deep voice boomed."Where did she go, boy?"

Link felt his fists clench hard, his nails biting into the flesh of his palm, and he growled. "Burn in Hell."

The man laughed, draped in darkness and saturated by Evil, and sneered. "I have no time for this." He frowned. "Where is the girl?" The sky bellowed and lightening screeched across the sky.

Lincoln dug his heels into the ground, grabbed the sword holstered in his belt, and lept toward the man's throat...Shearing pain scorched over his skin, his eyes were filled with purple light, and a burning filled his lungs.

He could not breathe!

Link woke up to the sound of someone screaming and the feeling of nails digging at his throat... little did he realize that his voice was the one filling up his room and that his own fingers had left bloody trails down the soft skin of his neck.