Aries groaned, rubbing her head as she pushed herself to her feet quickly, straightening the bottom of her kimono. Her cheeks blushed red at the thought of how undignified she must have looked. 'Who even thought that was a good method of transport?' she scowled to herself, 'Have they never heard of a thing called stairs?'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp, burning pain in her wrist. She let out a gasp of pain, clutching it with her other hand, brows furrowed. It was in exactly the same spot as last time – previously she hadn't payed it much attention, but it was acting up again. It didn't feel like a sprain, and she was sure it wasn't broken – it was a different kind of pain. Thankfully, the sensation only lasted a few minutes, before vanishing like it had never happened in the first place. 'Strange', she thought, but dismissed the thoughts as she spotted a door in the side of the building. Pushing it open, she found herself on a platform above a relatively open, and strangely empty structure. Well, if filled with chickens counted as empty, of course.

'Chickens?' She mused, 'If going up was bad, I don't even want to imagine how they get down. And I wouldn't be surprised if they had something to do with it'.

Aries darted down the ladder and across the floor, dashing through the door on the other side - she unwilling to encounter any other strange people. Trailing a hand along the wooden fence, she glanced around the area. To her left stood a stone bridge, cutting across Lake Hylia from above. To her right, there was a winding path, cut through stone. There was a small clearing-like area up ahead… She had to had to admit, the entire area was rather beautiful – especially with the slowly setting sun passing behind the bridge… Aries did a double take, focusing on the sun. It was that late already? She cursed at herself for losing track of the time, before glancing back and forth between the bridge and the other path.

'Should I find somewhere to set up camp or keep going? And if I do keep going, do I cross the bridge or do I follow the path?' She shook her head; she might as well check out the area before making any decisions. Walking over to the bridge, she glanced across, assessing the path. It opened into a rocky area, roofed by a… massive tree stump? That's what it looked like, anyway. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a sign.

'GREAT HYLIAN BRIDGE. This large bridge spanning Lake Hylia is the largest in Hyrule and offers excellent lake views' she read silently. 'I guess Lanayru wasn't lying – I really do seem to be in the land of 'Hyrule' .'

Spinning around on her heels, she walked over to the other path. Not much was visible from where she stood, and she wasn't really sure she was in the mood for exploring. The moon was already rising, and it was getting dark. She could see fairly well in the dark, she could thank her mother's side for that, but her vision wasn't as clear as she would have liked. She also noticed that she was beginning to get tired – she could usually last a lot longer than this. Aries scowled – it felt as though this strange land was draining her of power, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

'I may as well just set up camp' she frowned to herself, striding toward the clearing. It was fairly open, but there were two alcoves in the wall, each of which was roughly 2 metres above ground level, she could use this to her advantage. Setting camp in one of these would mean she wouldn't have to worry as much about wild animals or lesser demons attacking her in her sleep – she doubted many of the creatures of this land could jump high enough or climb the flat surface.

'One of them has a weird statue in it… The empty one looks like my best bet' she mused, before searching the ground around her for some fallen sticks and some rocks to start a fire. Thankfully there were a few trees around, and there were fallen dead branches and sticks littered around their roots. There were also a multitude of small stones that she could strike to create sparks and start the flame. Tearing a small strip of fabric off the hem of her tattered kimono, she tied the sticks in a bundle and tossed it up onto the edge, followed by the stones.

Aries backed up to get a running start, before launching herself at the rock and digging her claws into the shallow grooves in the rock, scaling the wall with ease. If only the walls of Lake Hylia hadn't been so tall, and hadn't curved in an odd fashion; she could have climbed them without having to ride that insane contraption the crazy man had dared to call transport.

Sitting herself against one of the shallow cave walls, she arranged the sticks in a small tepee shape near the edge of the cave to help filter out the smoke. Striking the rocks against each other (numerous times – they just didn't want to spark at first), she got the flame going, providing her with a comforting warm glow.

Something shiny caught the light at the edge of the cavern, catching her eye. Shuffling over to it, she scanned her eyes over the bulky object. 'A treasure chest?' She thought, hooking her claws in the groove under the lid and pushing the heavy lid upwards. Inside laid an orange crystal. Holding it up to the light, she squinted at it in wonder. 'Might come in handy later.' She thought to herself, tucking it inside her outer kimono – she had nowhere else to put it.

With nothing else to do now it was dark, she took her place by the edge of the cavern, near the fire, enjoying its warmth as she stared out into the night. She was annoyed that she was getting tired so easily, like a lesser being would, but in a way she was thankful for the haze of lethargy – it helped block out the emptiness that was her stomach – she would have to find food tomorrow.

Her thoughts ceased as she unconsciously slipped into a soft slumber.

A/N: I was listening to Zelda Reorchestrated: Twilight Symphony while writing this - it really helped me with my writing. I also had to go back onto one of my old files to explore the local area a bit - I couldn't remember what everything looked like. I have a file going at the moment that I almost have up to the needed point - should help with writing this and placing events and stuff. I also went back and added a few extra details to Chapter 3 (Listed as 4) and am currently working on making minor edits to earlier chapters. I'll let you guys know in the next update if any major changes are made. But yeah, I believe that this is one of the longest chapters to date - and it's not even that big. I can't promise you guys what date the next chapter will be up on, but I'll try and get it up in not too long.

As always, R&R! I'd love to hear from you -

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Even if you could just answer one of these questions, heck - even if you just left a 'yes' if you liked it or a 'no' if you didn't, it would be very helpful and motivating. If not, well, thanks for reading!