Heroes and Royals Alike

The heroes found themselves in an area surrounded with trees. This made them wonder if they had been transported to a forest. Looking at themselves, they saw that their clothes had changed once again. Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba were dressed in tunics of their signature colors. Yugi was wearing a dark blue tunic, light blue tights, and black shoes. He also had a black belt around his waist with a gold buckle with the symbol of courage. Kaiba was wearing a red tunic with a matching red hat with white tights and black boots. Like Yugi, he also had a belt around his waist, but the buckle on his belt contained the symbol of wisdom. Joey was wearing a yellow tunic with a matching yellow hat and white tights and brown boots. The buckle on the belt around his waist also had the symbol of friendship.

As for Emily, she wore a white dress with a gold belt around her waist. Below her waist was a garment containing the Millennium symbol along with a blue zigzag pattern below it. She also wore a gold plate over her chest with a heart in the middle, white gloves reaching up to her shoulders, and a white pearl necklace around her neck. On her head was a golden headdress with a large white jewel in the center and on the sides of her head were white accessories that looked like feathers. She also wore white shoes on her feet.

Max was wearing dark blue pants that went a bit below her knees and a lavender shirt with a dark purple vest. She also wore a simple purple cap on her head and black shoes on her feet.

Just by looking at themselves and each other, the heroes had an idea on where they were. Joey was the first to speak up, "So," he began, "does anyone besides me think we may be somewhere in Hyrule?"

"Gee, Wheeler, what do you think?" Max asked sarcastically.

The blonde lad didn't take kindly to her tone. "Well, obviously our clothes are a dead giveaway," he remarked. "Me, Yugi, and Kaiba are all dressed up like Link." He then looked at Emily. "And, Emily," he chuckled, then continued, "I gotta hand it to ya, Em, you look like you could be Princess Zelda's twin sister."

Looking at herself, Emily couldn't help but agree.

"Hold on, time out," Kaiba interrupted. "What are you going on about, exactly?"

It was obvious to Max and the others that Kaiba had never played the Legend of Zelda video games. Neither did Emily, but she had watched her friends play sometimes. And the way it turned out, earlier, Joey was actually playing one of the games before he was notified of a door to a new world appearing.

Now Kaiba understood what his friends were talking about as they filled him in with the details. He actually had heard about the games, but never had time to play any of them.

"I guess our mission is to help Link save Hyrule from the forces of evil," Yugi assumed.

"How are we gonna do that?" Joey asked.

"Good question, actually," said Max. "In most of the games, Link has had different kinds of enemies. So there's no telling which adventure we'll be having with him."

"I guess we won't know until we meet Link," Emily figured.

Suddenly, a sweet voice called out, "Hello there!" The voice came from a young girl who was coming their way. She looked exactly like Emily. She had light blonde hair and blue eyes, except her hair only went down to her waist and her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. She also wore a gold headdress on her head, but the jewel in the center was red and the pearls around her neck were magenta. Also, the top part of her dress was magenta while the bottom part was pink and her purple garment contained the image of three triangles joined together. Max recognized it as the Triforce – the kingdom's trademark and the symbol of the royal family of Hyrule. There was no denying it. This was Princess Zelda.

"Princess Zelda," Emily said softly.

The Hyrulean princess began observing the girl standing in front of her. "Oh, wow, you look just like me. And your clothes are similar to mine."

"Um, yes," Emily replied shyly. "Oh, but I'm not impersonating you or anything. Honestly, I'm not.

Zelda sweetly smiled. "Oh, don't worry. I understand. It's always amusing to see someone want to be like me." She then looked at the others with astonishment. "Hold on, I don't mean to pry, but you look an awful lot like the warriors of Millennia."

This amazed Yugi and the others. So Princess Zelda had heard of them. "Well, actually, we're descendants of the Children of Millennia," Yugi clarified. He grinned and added, "However, Max isn't."

"Gee, thanks," Max said sarcastically.

"Cold, but true," Kaiba pointed out.

Zelda had also heard of Max and how she was a warrior to the Dark Lord Cobalt. But the Hylian princess showed no signs of fear or hate. She instead pulled her dress to curtsey and said, "Well, it's an honor and a pleasure to meet all of you; especially you, Lady Max."

Max was surprised at this. "Really?"

"Oh, yes," Zelda said sincerely. "I know that the Dark Lord Cobalt had a warrior named Max, but I also know about how she tried to help the royal Egyptian family save their kingdom."

That was actually true. And it was commonly overlooked because a lot of people who heard the story only paid attention to the detail that Max tried to help destroy the royal family. Even Yugi and his friends couldn't believe that they had forgotten about that.

Zelda looked back and Emily. "I presume you are Princess Emily?"

"Yes, your highness," she answered.

"Please, just 'Zelda' is fine," the Hyrulean princess insisted. She allowed her friends to simply call her by her name and she didn't mind at all.

Emily smiled. "Well, then, you can just call me Emily," she returned. "And these are my friends Yugi, Joey, Kaiba, and Max." Though she knew that Zelda already knew Max's name, she didn't want to exclude her.

Once the introductions were complete, Joey asked Zelda what she was doing here in the forest. The Hyrulean princess explained that there was a festival in town today and she came here looking for Link so she could invite him to join her.

This sounded like an opportunity for the heroes. "Princess Zelda, would it be all right for us to join you? This festival sounds like fun and I would also like to meet your friend Link," Yugi politely asked.

"Of course," Zelda said happily. "I'm sure he'd love to meet all of you too." So she began leading the way to Link's house with her new friends following her.