A/N: The action kinda dies down for this chapter.

Chapter 8: And Then There Were Four

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I was not sure what to think of Cody. He appeared to be the same age as me, but he was so unaware of what was going on, that I could not help but think that he will be more of a liability than a potential ally. I guess that only time would tell.

Impa was not gone for very long. She walked in, carrying a package, which she handed to Zelda.

"This is a gift for you. You might recognize it."

Zelda looked at Impa curiously, then opened the package and peered inside. She smiled, tears welling up in her eyes as she reached inside and pulled out the contents. I recognized the clothing as the Sheikah outfit Sheik wore in the alternate timeline. Also included with the outfit were a sheathed kodachi, several throwing needles, and a chain.

Zelda wiped the tears from her eyes, and then smiled at Impa, "Thank you so much."

Impa returned the smile, "I hope that these will aid you on your journey."

Zelda hugged Impa, then turned to me, "I'll go ahead and change then."

She went into her bedroom, leaving me and Impa alone.

"I trust that you will remember to take good care of her," Impa told me.

"I will protect her with my life."

Impa nodded, "Good. In the meantime, I will go and investigate the Shadow Temple. I have some hunches as to where the orbs are, and I feel that the Shadow Temple may be our best bet at finding them."

"Good luck, Impa."

At that moment, Zelda came out of her room. Whatever she had done to herself in the alternate timeline to change her appearance, she did not bother doing it now. She did not cover her face up this time, and she kept her feminine figure and her blue eyes. She had her hair done up in the traditional Sheikah braid. Her kodachi was set at the small of her back, and she sported a new belt that she did not have in the alternate timeline that had several pouches for carrying items and slots for her throwing needles.

She spun around once to show off, and then with a grin asked, "What do you think?"

I could feel myself blush. The outfit she was wearing hugged her curves a little too well.

"Y-y-yeah, looks gr-great…"

Zelda giggled.

Impa sighed, causing both me and Zelda to turn to her, Zelda's face turning pink.

Impa then said, "Again, time is of the essence. I will distract the guards for you," she turned to me, "Please get the princess out of the castle safely."

I grinned with confidence, "You can count on me."

Impa quickly left the room. I then turned to Zelda.

I held out my hand and asked, "Ready to go?"

The trip out of the castle took a little while. There were guards everywhere. Luckily, none of them figured out that Princess Zelda was missing before we got out of the building. When we got to the town, Zelda covered her face, making her look more like the Sheikah warrior she had impersonated in the alternate timeline. As we walked over the drawbridge leading out of Castle Town, we finally saw Malon and Cody just outside the town walls. They were standing there awkwardly. They had their backs turned, so they did not notice us yet.

Zelda took off the covering on her face, and grinned, "They look rather cute like that, don't you think."

"I don't know. Looks almost painful."

Zelda stuck out her tongue at me, "You're no fun."

I shook my head, exasperated, "You are acting so different right now! Did that outfit come with a personality switch!"

"Well, I always have to act so stiff and formal at the castle," she said, smiling broadly at me, "I just want to relax a little. This is so refreshing."

I sighed, "We're going on a dangerous mission, one that you insisted on coming on by the way, and you want to relax?"

She turned to me with a pout, "You don't like it?"

I could feel my face heating up, "It's not that, it's just…"

I'm not used to you acting so cute…

She frowned, "Is it because I'm dressed like Sheik?"

I smacked my hand to my head, "I wasn't thinking about how odd that was until you just said that."

She giggled, and then gestured to the two in front of us, "Shall we?"

She immediately started walking towards the two in front of her, calling out to them. With a sigh, I followed.

Malon and Cody turned around, clearly startled. I had to hide my chuckle at that.

As soon as Zelda and I got to them, Malon said, "You guys might have a problem."

She turned to look out at the field. I followed her gaze and saw Epona grazing in the field (Malon must have brought her out here when she and Cody walked through town).

I do not understand. What kind of problem could involve…

Wait a minute…

"Epona probably can't easily carry all three of us for long periods of time," I said, feeling my hopes starting to dwindle, "and we can't afford to walk all over Hyrule."

"What about the teleportation spells?" Zelda asked, "They can get us to our destinations quicker than a horse."

I shook my head, "Ever since Ganon was sealed in the alternate timeline, the songs have not worked for me."

"Great, we haven't even started and we already hit a roadblock," Cody said, sounding bitter.

Cody's attitude was really starting to wear my patience thin. I know that he may not have chosen this, but neither did any of us. He is not so special.

Before I could put him in his place, Malon interrupted, "I may have a solution to your problems."

Uh oh. I really do not like the look on her face.

"So, what is your plan," I asked cautiously.

"Well," Malon said with a coy smile (argh…), "I may be able to get my hands on a wagon for you to use…"

I sighed, "What's the catch?"

She quickly moved directly in front of me. She looked up into my eyes as she raised her arms up, her hands clasped in front of her.

"You have to let me come with you."

"Absolutely not," I said without hesitation.

"Pleeeeeaaaaasssse?"

"It's going to be extremely dangerous."

"You're letting the Princess of Hyrule come!" she said indignantly.

"If Zelda didn't have Sheikah training, I would never in a thousand years let her come."

"You're going to need someone to drive the cart, and," she said, her face becoming hopeful once more, "I'm a pretty good shot with a bow."

"I never knew you practiced with a bow," I said, feeling impressed in spite of myself.

I heard a loud 'harumph' from to my left. I turned and saw a very annoyed Zelda staring (was she glaring?) at us.

"Just let her come," she said, once she saw she had my attention, "The more the merrier, right?"

Is it just me, or did her smile looked a little forced?

Cody looked first at Zelda, and then looked to me and Malon. He grinned (the first time I ever saw him do that) and said, "So what, is this like a love triangle or something?"

The reaction was instantaneous. Malon quickly backed away, Zelda's face turned beet red, and I turned and stared at Cody, completely shocked.

"Ah. I guess it's a sensitive subject," he said, his smile getting wider.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said a very flustered Malon.

Zelda took a breath to compose herself, "Can we get back to the matter at hand?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head, "we should head to Lon Lon Ranch."

Cody rolled his eyes.

It took us an hour to walk to Lon Lon Ranch, Malon leading Epona the entire way. Thankfully, Cody did not say anything the entire time (he was not my favorite person at the moment). When we go to the Ranch, Malon excused herself while she went inside to talk to her dad (Cody, Zelda and I waited at the gate).

Shouting could be heard in the ranch, causing Cody to comment, "I guess her Dad doesn't like the idea of his daugher going on a dangerous errand."

Cody seemed be thoughtful. It was hard to tell if his comment was serious or a joke.

"So, Mr. Williams…" Zelda began.

"Just Cody," he said absently.

"Cody Williams," Zelda began again, "I was wondering if you would tell me about the world you come from."

As much as I would hate to admit it, I was also curious about where Cody came from.

He seemed surprised by Zelda's inquiry, "What do you want to know?"

Zelda immediately launched into a barrage of questions, "What kind of people live on your world, what kind of magics do your people use, what does your world look like, what…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," said a flustered Cody, "One question at a time please."

I chuckled. I almost felt sorry for him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Williams," Zelda smiled apologetically, "What does your world look like? How is it different from Hyrule?"

Cody took a moment to compose himself. It was just a guess, but it looked to me that he probably did not want to think of his world.

"As I said, the world I come from is called Earth. Unlike here, there is no magic…"

"Really," I said, surprised.

Magic might not be the most common thing in Hyrule, but everyone in this world has seen it at one point or another. Of course, seeing as Zelda and I use magic on an almost daily basis, we cannot imagine a world without any form of magic.

Cody nodded, "Yeah, my world relies on science instead of magic. We have some pretty advanced stuff, especially compared to here."

With a grin, Cody stated, "We actually have horseless carriages."

"Amazing," Zelda said with awe.

A horseless carriage does sound pretty amazing, but it seemed a little too far fetched to me.

At that moment, Malon came back to the gate, followed by a very irritated looking Talon. I was kind of surprised. Talon was a very laid back individual. I have never seen him this angry before.

I looked over at Zelda and noticed that she had already covered her face. It was probably a good idea not to reveal to anybody that she was the Princess of Hyrule.

He walked right up to me and started to stare me down (which was impressive, because he is shorter than me), "Listen here, boy. I am trusting you to watch over my little girl. You ain't gonna let anything happen to her, now are you?"

Judging by the glower, I could almost believe the unspoken threat coming from Talon. Malon mouthed 'sorry' at me over his shoulder.

I looked Talon in the eyes as I gave my response, "I swear to you: no harm shall befall your daughter. I will protect her with my life."

"Me too."

We all turned to Cody. He looked abashed, then mumbled, "Two swords are better than one, right?"

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Malon was actually blushing a little.

Talon looked at Cody, sizing him up, and then turned back to me, "I trust you Link. Bring her back safe."

I nodded. With a deep and weary sigh, Talon turned and headed back into the ranch. Malon motioned for us to follow, and she too went back into the ranch.

We followed the father and daughter into the ranch. Like in the alternate timeline, Lon Lon Ranch did not change much in the past seven years. Out by the barn, I saw Ingo, muttering as usual, getting Epona and a horse I did not recognize attached to a carriage. It looked like the carriage that Talon normally delivered milk in. There were already provisions packed into the carriage, including a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Epona did not look particularly happy to be tied down and was giving Ingo some trouble. Since Malon was still talking with Talon, I ran over and helped Indigo.

It took me a moment, but Epona eventually calmed down. She still snorted unhappily but at least she was standing still.

Ingo muttered a brief "Thanks," to me before he went back into the barn. At this point, Cody walked up to the carriage, Zelda trailing behind him.

Cody looked at the carriage, and then looked back at me, "The wagon was being prepared before Talon actually came out to talk to us."

"You going somewhere with this?" I asked him.

"It means he had already given Malon permission to go before he came out to speak to us," Cody said simply, "I guess that means that Talon really does trust you a lot."

"I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult."

"Neither, just making a statement. It means he has a lot of respect for you," then Cody added, "You can take that as a compliment."

But was that not what he just said to me? I do not think I will ever understand Cody.

Talon and Malon walked over to the carriage. Malon wiped her eyes and smiled at us, "Well, are we ready to go."

"As ready as we'll ever be," Cody said before I could say anything.

Before I could express any annoyance, Zelda nodded and said, "We must make haste."

Malon and Talon hugged, and then Malon climbed into the driver's seat while Cody, Zelda and I piled into the back.

"Take care Malon. Be safe."

"I will dad," Malon told Talon with a sad smile.

Malon snapped the reigns, causing the carriage to lurch forward. As the carriage started heading out of the ranch, Malon turned around in her seat and waved to her dad. Talon waved back. It was hard to tell, due to the late afternoon sun, but I could have sworn that I saw tears falling down Talon's face.

As the carriage pulled onto the road, Malon said, "It'll be dark before we arrive at the forest. But it should not be too late."

"Guess we should hurry then," I said.

Looks like I am going back home.