When Emilia opened her eyes and saw something other than darkness, she gasped. She was looking up at a stylized red horse head embroidered onto a blueish-green canopy, not straining her eyes in the pitch-black of her casket.

It all came back to her—how she had seen the light, how that weird naked boy had rescued her, how she had devised a plan to run to the funeral home only to realize that she wasn't in her hometown, how it had looked like she was actually in Hyrule and how the boy had confirmed her suspicions...

...No, that last part couldn't have been right. That had to have been part of a dream that had blended in with the reality of being saved.

Stretching as much as she could, she let out a yawn. She was still quite sore, though she felt better than she had in ... however long it'd been since that night. The bed she was laying on really wasn't all that soft, but anything was an improvement over the cramped casket she'd come to know.

She would've liked to have stayed in bed for longer, yet she knew that the longer she spent in bed would only be the longer she spent away from her family. Whether she was in Hyrule or not—and obviously, she thought, she wasn't in Hyrule—she wasn't home, where she should've been. Her bed didn't have a canopy and her house didn't smell faintly of hay. She needed to get to the bottom of this. She needed to return to her family, to let them know that she was okay—or okay enough—and to apologize, because she knew this had to be awful for them. She couldn't even begin to imagine how heartbreaking it had to be, finding out what had happened to her and having to bury her... Or worse yet, not knowing what had happened to her at all, if she'd been buried by the man who'd tried to kill her rather than them.

Slowly, she sat up and slid her legs over the side of the bed, her muscles aching from the movement. Her chest tightened as she caught sight of the numerous red scars across her skin. The ones on her hands, she remembered clearly, were from when she had desperately, stupidly, tried to grab the knife by the blade to push it away. The ones across her arms and torso and hips were also more or less unintentional on the would-be murderer's part, a result of her struggling so erratically. She knew there was one she couldn't see on her jaw, as well, from when he'd jerked the knife up closer to where he'd wanted to use it on her all along. ...And then there was the one that was the ultimate reason for all of the others, the one she'd fought so hard, and failed, to prevent—the long one across her neck.

She still couldn't fully comprehend how she was even alive after that one. Cuts across the neck were supposed to be extremely lethal, and it had seemed so to her; she'd felt searing pain as the knife began to slice through her neck, then the memory rapidly faded to nothing. But maybe that was merely the point when all the pain—so intense that no amount of adrenaline could mask it—had finally made her pass out, and she'd survived by the guy missing her carotids?

She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She couldn't think about it any longer.

In an attempt to distract herself, she reopened her eyes and looked around the room she was in. The room didn't have real walls, or a real ceiling—it was all made of sturdy drapes held up by wooden posts, more like a tent than an actual room. There was another bed identical to the one she was on across from her, with a small nightstand between the two. A lantern was on that nightstand, along with a cup of water.

The prospect of finally quenching her thirst was so enticing that right away she stopped caring about everything else.

She quickly grabbed the water and took a drink. The feeling of it washing over her chapped lips and dry tongue and gliding down her raw throat was divine, and she promptly became desperate for more. She closed her eyes and started taking in big gulps. In seconds, she had downed it all. She tried futilely to get out the tiny droplets leftover in the cup as if such a minute amount of water would help, then finally pulled it from her lips with a dissatisfied whine.

After returning the cup to the nightstand, her eyes trailed back over to the bed opposite her. The beds in here ... really looked like the beds in the stables in—

Emilia pressed her palms to her eyes. Shut up, she told herself. You're only seeing connections because you're looking for them. Had she not dreamt of that boy saying they were in Hyrule, she probably wouldn't have noticed any similarities. Lots of beds looked like that, and the room she was in didn't even match the stables. They had no separate bedrooms in the game; the beds were all lined up around the stables' singular rooms. So what if there were horse motifs all over?

Finished with trying to rationalize away her outrageous presumptions, she stood up and wrapped the blanket from her bed around herself tightly. She would prove herself wrong—she would walk out of this room that was definitely not part of Dueling Peaks Stable, she would find someone who was certainly not a Hylian, she would borrow the cell phone they absolutely had to call her parents and tell them to come get her, and then she would do everything she could to get them to not be mad at her for putting them through hell.

Just as she was about to take a step, she froze up. There were footfalls coming from the other side of the drapes. Her heartrate escalated as they got nearer and nearer, and she startled as the drapes moved. When they opened fully, they revealed none other than her rescuer.

It was only now as he entered the room that she fully realized a few things about him. His blue eyes were so unnaturally vivid that she was almost certain he was wearing contacts, but they looked strangely natural on him at the same time. He was also exceptionally short for a guy, no taller than her own five feet and three inches, and he was surprisingly muscular for someone with a face so soft. Some things had changed about him, though; he had his long blond hair pulled back into a low ponytail, and he was, thankfully, at least wearing underwear this time. But his underwear looked exactly like—

She stopped herself again. She wouldn't let herself so much as think that name or anything related to it. Him wearing those underwear and having that object on his belt didn't have to mean anything like that at all. All it meant was that he was a nutjob, which she'd already figured out early on from him deciding it was cool to go gravedigging while butt ass naked.

"I got some underwear," was the first sentence to leave his lips.

Words escaped her, so she simply nodded.

There was an awkward pause before he spoke again. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable yesterday. It's not like I usually run around naked—well. I wouldn't remember. Maybe I would usually do that. I don't really know who I am. But I was only naked then because I woke up naked. Much like you."

She nodded once more, and then there was another awkward pause because she didn't know how to respond to that, either. When she decided to change the subject, she ended up asking a question that she almost didn't want to hear the answer to. "What's your name?"

"Link."

A lump grew in her throat, restricting her breathing. That doesn't mean anything, she tried to reassure herself. Whether it was yet another sign of his nutjobiness or a weird coincidence didn't matter in the long run—the real kicker would be their location, which no amount of him playing pretend could change. "And where are we?"

"Not far from where I found you. I brought you to Dueling Peaks Stable."

Dueling ... Peaks.

She felt as if she wasn't in control of her body as she pushed past him, past the drapes he'd come in through, to see where they were with her own eyes.

The lump in her throat grew and her chest tightened even more.

It wasn't quite like it was in the game—there were no beds in the main room, and there were multiple tables and chairs—but it was close enough. Two guys standing together turned to look at her, as did the receptionist at the counter toward the front, and they looked like real-life versions of the men from the stable, pointed ears and all. The man behind the counter said something to her, but she didn't comprehend it. Through the large open arches, she could see the bottom of a steep mountain, a man pacing around with an oversized beetle-shaped backpack, and a glowing shrine.

Emilia ran back into the bedroom and fell to her knees in front of the bed she'd been on.

...This can't be real.

The isolation from being stuck in her casket for so long had to have finally shattered her mind and driven her completely mad.

"Snap out of it," she whispered. "Snap out of it. Snap out of it."

She was only vaguely cognizant of the boy appearing in her peripheral and crouching down next to her. Two words managed to break through to her: "What's wrong?"

"I'm hallucinating and I need to snap out of it. Snap out of it," she said, voice rising in pitch and warbling.

"...You aren't hallucinating."

She didn't realize he had spoken until after the fact, but when she realized what he'd said, his message truly went through.

He was right.

She couldn't have been hallucinating. She'd had plenty of experience with hallucinations during her time in the casket, and they were never like this. She could see the boy crouching to her side, feel the blanket wrapped around her, hear people talking outside, taste the lingering freshness of the water on her tongue, and smell a hint of hay in the air—she was experiencing far too much at once for everything to be a hallucination. Beyond that, when she'd had hallucinations before, she had never been aware of how unreal they were. The mere fact that this felt unreal, in itself, pointed to it being real.

But that would mean that she was genuinely there. In Dueling Peaks Stable, in Hyrule, speaking to Link. It made no sense. She had been nearly murdered, then buried alive, and somehow her casket had been transported to a world that only existed behind a screen?

"Are you okay?"

Emilia blinked several times in quick succession, coming out of her thoughts and looking over into his eyes. "I'm—no, I'm not okay," she said. "I don't—I'm not—I shouldn't be here. I'm not from here. I'm from—I'm from..."

She had always been truthful to a fault, vastly preferring the consequences of telling the truth over the guilt of lying even at times when it would have been so much easier to lie. Now, she didn't know whether to tell the truth or not—because the truth was so crazy he'd think she was lying if she told it. It was lie or be seen as a liar. She didn't know which would be worse.

He didn't seem bothered by how long it was taking her to try to get the words out. "From where?" he gently encouraged.

Her mouth gaped as she attempted to make a choice amid all the panicking going on in her head. When she settled, she settled on the middle grounds—not the whole truth, but not a whole lie, either. "Another country."

"Ah." There was no hint on his face that he didn't believe her. "What country?"

"Arizona," she blurted out. Her eyes widened. Did you seriously just say that?!

Before she could start digging herself in an even deeper hole and making herself sound stupider by correcting her mistake, he tilted his head and said, "Oh. I don't remember... Is Arizona close to Hyrule?"

It took her only a second this time to come up with an answer that would satisfy his question and adhere to her personal stance on lying. "No, it's not. I mean, I don't even know where Hyrule is. I've heard of it, but... I know I shouldn't have been able to get here from Arizona."

"Do you remember what happened before you showed up here?" he asked.

She's heading home from Jasmine's house—her car breaks down and she realizes her phone is dead, so she can't call for help—she decides to lay down in the back to sleep for the night—the blurry-faced man pulls up and convinces her to let him drive her home—she gets out of her car and—

She already felt like she was going to throw up whatever was left in her stomach, if there was anything left in there at all. Before she could get lost thinking about it, she focused on coming up with a bare-bones version that she could tell.

"I was outside in Arizona one night, and this man came up to me," she slowly said.

"And...?" he prompted.

And... She couldn't say it.

But it must have been clear enough on her face. "...Something bad happened," he said.

She gave a tiny nod. Her eyes started to sting, but tears didn't come, leaving her grateful that she was still dehydrated. He didn't need to see her cry. She'd already unwillingly exposed enough of herself to him.

"I'm sorry... But I'm sure we can figure out what's going on," he said.

"We?" she quietly repeated. "You... You'll help me?"

He offered a kind smile. "I already talked to someone who I think can help you. She's an old woman who knew what was going on with me, so she'll probably figure out what's going on with you. She lives fairly close to here, in Kakariko Village, and she asked me to bring you to her when you woke up. Her name is Impa."

That name gave Emilia hope. If anyone in this world would know what was going on, it would be Impa. "Okay," she said, voice wobbling with—nervousness? Anticipation? She didn't know. "A-are we going? Now?"

"And miss breakfast here?" he said, raising his brows.

Someone's a glutton in real life, too. "I didn't know there was breakfast here."

"Meals are included with the room." He stood up. "We'll go to Impa after we eat. I'm starving."

His words made a strong pang of hunger hit her, leaving nausea in its wake. She nodded in response, worried that opening her mouth would lead to retching. Her legs felt like jelly beneath her as she wordlessly followed Link out of the room.

The two guys standing together eyed her again, but said nothing; the man behind the counter spoke to her again, asking if she was all right, and she fully heard it this time. She parted her lips as little as needed to tell him that she'd been better. A breeze wafted in the smell of food through the open arches, intensifying her nauseating appetite. She quickened her steps, catching up with Link.

She paused for a moment as she stepped out, stunned by the Dueling Peaks. Somehow, they looked even bigger than she remembered, reaching impossibly high into the air.

Outside the stable was the cooking pot, along with several round tables and stools. They were a bit farther away from the entrance than she recalled them being in the game on account of the stable itself being larger, and it seemed that the stalls where they kept the horses were somewhere else, because she couldn't see any. Two plates of food, two cups of water, and a tall water pitcher were atop a table with no seats right next to the cooking pot. The man standing in front of it was a duplicate of the receptionist.

"Your omelets are ready," he said to them, gesturing to the plates.

They each thanked him as they grabbed a plate and a cup, and Emilia wasted no time gulping down the water as she followed Link's lead over to one of the tables. A mature woman, familiar to Emilia as a character that always stayed around this stable, was already sitting at one of the four seats around it. Link sat down, and Emilia chose to sit at the stool opposite him where she could still have the view of the Dueling Peaks. He dug right into his food, but satiating her thirst continued to hold priority over eating for her.

"My, you were thirsty, weren't you?" the woman asked as Emilia sat her emptied cup down.

"Still parched," Emilia sheepishly admitted.

Hearing that, the man who'd prepared their food came to the table with the pitcher of water and filled her cup to the rim. She thanked him once more before bringing the cup back to her lips.

"You've been looking much better since I gave you that elixir yesterday," the woman said.

Emilia lowered her cup and looked inquisitively at her. "You gave me an elixir?"

"You woke up very briefly yesterday when Link brought you here. I gave you an elixir, spoke to you some, and helped you settle in bed. Do you not remember any of that?"

She searched for a memory of that happening while taking another drink, but she found nothing. The last thing she remembered before waking up was Link telling her they were in Hyrule. She shook her head. "I must not have really been conscious..."

"I guess I should've expected as much with how you were talking," the woman said with an easy grin. "My name's Sagessa. You said yours is Milia...?"

"Emilia," she corrected.

"Emilia. All right. Well, I'll stop holding you up from eating, now. I'm sure you're hungry."

After finishing the last sip of her water, Emilia placed the cup on the table and grabbed her fork. She thought she should be desperate to eat, yet she could hardly make herself swallow the first bite of her omelet. It took every ounce of willpower she had to force the food down, knowing she'd only regret it later if she didn't.

She took in her surroundings as she tried to ignore her churning stomach. Two young boys, clearly twins, were running around and playing. They reminded her of her brothers when they were younger, though the sets of twins didn't resemble each other physically. Being reminded of Nic and Bas made her miss them so much it hurt, and she couldn't look at the boys for long. Her attention went back to the mountains and stayed there.

With her omelet only halfway eaten—and Link having been done eating all of his for a couple of minutes already—she pushed her plate away. Her stomach, shrunken after all that time being empty, was unable to handle any more.

"You gonna finish that?" Link asked. When she shook her head, he reached his hands across the table and asked, "Can I have it?"

"Um, sure...?"

Her answer was barely out of her mouth before Link was picking her plate up and digging into her leftovers. He scarfed it all down in less than a minute while she watched, feeling weirdly impressed.

"So," he breathed out, standing up. "Ready to go to Impa?"

Emilia stood, and her eyes flitted to the gap between the mountains. "...How long would it take to walk to where you found me?"

He glanced over his shoulder. "Ten, fifteen minutes. Why?"

"I just... I wanna see what I was in all that time from the outside." She shrugged. "I know it probably sounds stupid, but..."

"We can go if you want."

Sagessa bid them safe travels and the man by the cooking pot told Emilia she could keep the blanket for now. Link thanked Sagessa for paying for their stay, and Emilia echoed him before they started off. Though her legs were already feeling stronger and less jelly-like, Emilia still walked away slowly, each step making her stomach slosh around. Link kept pace with her without complaint.

"You won't need that blanket for long," he said conversationally. "You can get some clothes in Kakariko Village. That's where I got my underwear."

She thought that was strange—he was supposed to wake up wearing underwear, not receive them later on, and he was supposed to find the old shirt and pants in chests in the Shrine of Resurrection, then the Hylian trousers out in a chest by the Temple of Time, and then get the warm doublet from the old man...

But he also wasn't supposed to find her buried alive on his way to Kakariko Village, so who was she kidding?

"I don't have any money to buy clothes, though," she said.

"You won't have to. Impa gave these to me for free, and her granddaughter gave some of her clothes to another girl that woke up like you."

Emilia perked up at that. "Somebody else woke up in a casket?"

Link nodded, and her mind started racing at a hundred miles a minute. What if this girl was from her world? What if it was someone she knew? It might not make everything okay ... but at least she could have someone to connect to. Someone else who knew firsthand what it felt like to be caught up in this insane situation.

She hastened her stride, wanting to see her casket and then get to the mystery girl as soon as possible.

Between the mountains, she saw corpses of Bokoblins splayed out on the other side of the river—what happened to exploding away into purple mist?—but that was it as far as monster sightings went. Their quiet and uneventful walk neared its end some time later when they emerged on the opposite side of the Dueling Peaks and a long, rusty box came into view.

Link let himself fall behind as Emilia approached her casket. She stopped a few feet away to examine it. There was a large pile of displaced dirt behind it that the opened lid was resting against, and the bottom remained mostly in the earth. She could see where part of the top right corner had been poking out, obvious from the relative lack of dirt ingrained into the metal there.

It was so badly corroded that had all of it been unearthed to begin with and not just that one corner, she knew she would have been able to kick the lid off herself. Despite its condition, though, there were clear indications that it had been professionally crafted, throwing a wrench into her theory that the man who'd nearly killed her had slapped together some metal sheets to create a homemade casket. On the other hand, she'd known from the start that the inside lacked the satin lining and pillow that conventional caskets had, and that threw a wrench into her theory that she'd received a proper burial.

In the end, seeing her casket only left her with more questions than she'd had beforehand. Her only other idea was that maybe she hadn't originally been buried in this casket to begin with, that whatever being or beings out there that had decided to bring her to this world had simply plopped her body into it—and if that was the case, she had a bone to pick with them for not using the powers they clearly had to plop her literally anywhere else.

With a frustrated sigh, she turned to Link. He was standing yards back, looking down at the Sheikah Slate in his hands. Suddenly, it felt like the wind was knocked out of her as everything hit her all over again with a shock unlike before. That really was the Sheikah Slate being held by the Link—who had spoken to her—and he was going to take her to the Kakariko Village to see the Impa... Though she had already considered it and come to the conclusion that she couldn't have been hallucinating, she almost expected to come to in the darkness of her casket at any second.

"Link?" she called. It felt bizarre to say his name, like it signified an acceptance of the reality around her.

As his vibrant eyes made contact with hers, she momentarily felt breathless again. "Are we done here?"

She nodded, and he came up to her, holding the Sheikah Slate out between them. The map was pulled up on the screen, zoomed into what Emilia identified as Kakariko Village by its distinctive lake and surrounding mountains.

"I wanna try something," Link said. He pointed to a glowing blue symbol on the map. "This is a shrine that I can teleport to with this device. I want you to grab onto it, and we can see if it can teleport both of us. If it can, we'll be in Kakariko Village in seconds. If it doesn't bring you with me, I'll come back to get you."

Emilia reached out to grab the sides of the Sheikah Slate with trembling hands. "Okay. It doesn't hurt or anything, does it?"

"No, but it does feel ... different. Ready?"

Ready? To do something that shouldn't exist, to get to a village that shouldn't exist, to talk to a person who shouldn't exist?

"No," she said. "But I'll never be, so let's go anyway."

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