Chapter 2:

"Capital Slums"

I jerked awake. That dream again - why must it haunt me so? Steadying my breath, I rolled over, the straw prickling my sides as I did so.

It was always the same dream - I was a little girl again, in the slums of the Capital, searching for food scraps at night in a narrow alley. People always threw out leftovers onto the streets for the local animals. I picked up what looks to be a chicken bone, and I hear a hiss from behind. I turned around.

And that is when I always wake up. I never saw what hissed at me - could it be a cat?

I sighed - it doesn't matter what it was. I have never been afraid of cats. Sure, there were lots of cats back at the Capital, but they were never vicious. Unless you cornered them, that is.

I grew up in the Capital. Never knowing my father and losing my mother to disease, I grew up alone, and learned to survive out in the streets. My days mostly consisted of scraping food off the filthy cobblestone streets, and whenever I was not searching for food I was trying to keep warm. I had no friends - well, no human ones at least - and was very lonely.

It wasn't until I turned 14 years old, when I found a slingshot lying on the road, that my life changed for the better. The wood was in bad condition, and the string was cracked and worn, but to me it was priceless. Most of my free time now, instead of daydreaming of what should have been, consisted of practicing with the slingshot. I wanted to get better - I wanted to be able to do something with my life and not live the rest of my life in the slums, barely scraping by. And I got that chance. A year later, I won the local shooting gallery's competition. With a tidy bag of rupees in hand, I was able to rent a room at the inn. And while the room wasn't much, it was a lot better than living out on the streets, to which I was entirely grateful.

I looked down on the floor and opened my rucksack. There, at the bottom, my trusty slingshot lied. Not like I needed it anymore - I had something better to shoot with now. I still keep the slingshot with me – it was my good luck charm, my saviour, my precious.

Eventually, I had managed to get a job at one of the Capital's many stables as a stablehand. By the time I reached 18, I was given a beautifully crafted bow for my birthday. Samuel - my elderly boss at the stable - had said it was his son's whom didn't return from the War. I still remember that bittersweet smile - he must have saw something in me that reminded him of his son.

I smiled at the memory and look over to one of the shadowed corners in the room. My beloved bow lay there - leaned up against the wall - with my quiver of arrows beside it.

I looked out the window. The first rays of light were beginning to peak over the hillside, casting the room in a weak orange glow. Time to get to work - there be pumpkins that need tending to.

I grunted and fell over backwards, onto my buttocks. Hands raw, I grasped the troublesome weed and pulled harder. This darn weed does not want to come out, does it? My breath came out in an exasperated huff, and I sat down, feeling exhausted. It was a bright sunny day - not a cloud in the sky - and here I was...pulling weeds in a pumpkin patch.

"Hey Terra," I turned, the unexpected voice surprising me, "Would you like a break from that exasperating work?"

I look up, and see Link. He smiled down at me, his head blocking the sun. I grunted, and Link, apparently taking this as a 'yes', continued.

"How about you help me catch a fish? Sera's cat has been staring at the river all day, I'm afraid she'll fall in!" He gestured, vaguely reminding me of a fish himself.

I rolled my eyes and nodded in compliance, "Okay, it would be nice to go down to the valley anyways, I could use a drink,"

And that's how, later, I found myself face to face with an angry Ilia. She marched over, seeming to be in some kind of rage, and while I expected for her to tell me off for socializing with Link, she stomped past me. I looked over my shoulder and couldn't help a little sarcastic grin: she was heading straight towards Link. Probably to give him a lecture on how she thinks Epona should be treated - she insists the horse shouldn't be jumping fences, but I've seen her in action - and that horse seems like a natural.

Not wanting to attract any of Ilia's wrath, I quietly made my way over to the edge of the river to take a drink. I saw Link trot over on Epona - apparently everything was all right. From her back, he shouted in the village's general direction, "Mayor Bo! I will be back in a couple of days, do not worry about the sword, it is in safe hands. I will ensure it is delivered to the Capital safely,"

It was not long after he had left - I was still relaxing at the river - that the monsters appeared.