Legend of Zelda 1. Shades of Grey

Prologue – Shades of Grey

Rain fell in heavy sheets.  It pounded down on the Vanishing Woods, pelting straight through the forest's dense canopy and soaking the ground.  It beat mercilessly on the head of the girl staggering between the trees.

Her head was the center of all pain in the universe.  She felt as though with each faltering beat of her rapidly pulsing heart her head was laid against an anvil and struck with a white hot hammer.  How long ago had those men attacked her?  How had they even found her?  She'd set out at night, three days before scheduled, alone and in common garb.

She shook her head to clear her fogging thoughts and the pain made her lurch into a tree and drop the precious bundle wrapped tightly in layers of oilcloth.  It was tied tightly with strong cords and set with wax seals imbedded with magic.  Only the person intended to open the package could.  It was the best way to ensure a secure delivery.

She picked the bundle up with weary arms and staggered on, dragging her Bladestaff behind her in the mud.  Most of her gear had had to be abandoned during the ambush; none of it was worth the painstakingly wrapped parcel falling into the wrong hands. 

The Bladestaff was not an uncommon weapon in Andor.  It took years of training to master the odd technique required to wield it correctly.  Part quarterstaff and part spear, it was an odd weapon to someone unfamiliar with it.

Her Bladestaff was something even more exceptional.  It was the Ashan'darei, the Nightsong Blade, forged hundreds of years ago of magic-wrought dark steel.  It was an heirloom of her family, a gift given hundreds of years ago by the Queen of Andor for services rendered above and beyond the call of duty.  It had been passed down from generation to generation of her line; her father had made her a gift of the Bladestaff when he heard of this mission, insisting the magic of the blade would protect her.

In the end it had done her little good.  She'd killed three of her attackers from horseback, before getting clubbed over the head with a rock from behind.  In a flash of darkness she'd tumbled from the saddle clutching the Bladestaff and the Package to her, rolled out from beneath her dying horse and made a break for the woods.

She stumbled and sagged to her knees.  Glancing down at herself she saw the dark stream of blood that ran down her chest and stained her blouse.  The Package tumbled from arms suddenly too weak to hold it and she raised one shaky hand to the back of her head.  Or tried to; the motion sent a wave of fire down her arm and up her neck.  On top of everything else the pain was just too much.

The world slipped into shades of grey as the rain soaked ground rushed up to meet her.  She hit with a soft moan, landing atop the Package, and the world faded slowly to blackness.  She could hear the steady downpour of rain for a while longer, feel it pattering against the side of her face, but even that faded, leaving her in silent oblivion.


	2. Mysteries in the Forest

**Chapter One**

Morning dawned bright and cheerful on the Lost Woods.  Rain from the night before had soaked everything and predawn mist had covered the world in a shawl of dew sparkling like diamonds.  The storms from the night before had passed and today was a new day.

Saria turned her face to the warm sunlight and smiled peacefully.  She was out gathering bluebell blossoms to dry for making tea.  Early morning was the best time to search for flowers; the flowers had just opened to drink in the sun's light and the heat of the day hadn't caused them to wilt yet.

Dew soaked the toes of her dark brown ankle boots as she kicked her way through the short grass that covered the ground here under the forest's canopy.  Shade tolerant grass was about the only thing the Kokiri could get to take root here, excepting a few types of shrubbery and some low lying flowers.  In this particular part of the Lost Woods the ground was carpeted in dark grass, broken up occasionally by patches of soft violets and Creeping Charlie.  Climbing up a slope and hopping across a narrow brook, Saria turned deeper into the woods to search out a meadow where she knew bluebells grew in abundance.

She stepped around a tree and stopped dead in her tracks.  In the middle of a patch of violets, soaked in rain from the night before, was a body.

Saria's pulse jumped.  She looked around the clearing, trying to see where the body had come from or perhaps find the killers, but found nothing in evidence.  She could hear nothing, her ears twitching from the strain.  With extreme care she walked slowly towards the figure lying still as death upon the ground.

It was swathed in a dark green cloak soaked with rain and blood and on the ground beside it lay the most peculiar weapon Saria had ever seen.  It was essentially a staff with a two-foot slightly curved sword blade at one end.  Saria was no expert on weapons, but it didn't look like it was from Hyrule.  A pair of arrows stood out from the left shoulder of the figure, one just under the other, and the figure's arms appeared to be folded beneath its body.

Saria knelt down beside the figure and did her best to role it onto its side.  She was met with the face of a girl, younger than twenty but certainly older than fifteen, pale as bleached death and very still.  Rain streaked mud caked her face and matted her eyelashes.  She'd been lying atop a bundle wrapped in dark material and thick twine tied in complex knots and sealed with dark red wax impressed with an image of a bird.

Curious, Saria reached out to pick up the package.  A force of some sort stopped her.  There were no lights or explosions or special effects; one moment she was reaching for it, and the next it was like her hands were stuck in jelly.  She pushed harder and it was like trying to push her hands through a stone wall. 

She sat back on her heels but jostled one of the arrows in the girl's shoulder and jumped at the tiny groan that escaped from the girl. 

She was still alive!

Saria leapt to her feet and sprinted back towards Kokiri Village.  This girl needed help and there was only one person Saria knew was big enough and strong enough to carry her to a place where she could get it.

Ten minutes of full out run and Saria made it to the base of the ladder that rose to Link's tree house.  She shimmied up it and burst into Link's forest home.  He was apparently already awake because he sat up in bed staring at her, the thin sheet sliding down his tanned, sculpted, naked chest, and Saria was glad her cheeks were already flushed from running so he couldn't see her blush.

"Saria, what in the world are you doing?" Link queried, shifting around in bed and putting his feet on the ground.  "It's barely past dawn."

Saria shook her head and sank to her knees, heaving air into her tiny child sized lungs for all she was worth.  Sensing something was wrong, Link rose quickly and moved about the cramped space that was his home, rummaging in cupboards and tossing gear on the floor. 

Saria was relieved to see he'd at least had the decency to wear trousers to sleep in last night.  Some nights Saria suspected he slept in nothing at all!  How could he, when he lived in a village populated entirely by children?  She suspected it had something to do with the fact that when he traveled, and he did much of the time, he basically had to live in the same clothes for sometimes weeks on end.  It must be a relief to shed it all and sleep in the comfort of his home unrestricted.

After a minute Link joined her on the floor, pressing a pale wooden cup into her hands that was somewhat too large, so Saria had to hold it with both hands.  She gulped the cool water down greedily and her panting slowed somewhat.

"Now tell me, Saria, what's the matter?" Link asked.  His so-blue eyes were concerned behind their screen of golden blond bangs.

"I – I was out – in the forest," she paused to swallow, "And I – I found a body – only it's not a body – it's a girl – and she's alive, barely – injured with arrows in her back.  You've got to come with me – you can carry her – I can't, I'm too small."

Link was on his feet again before Saria could blink.  She composed herself and finished catching her breath as she watched him pull a dark green tunic on over the tan colored trousers he'd slept in, stamp his feet into his boots, buckle on his belt and the shoulder harness with his sword, snatch his hat off a peg on the wall and plop it on his head.

"I'm ready, let's go."

Saria pulled herself to her feet and led him down the ladder of his house.  They ran back through the woods to the place Saria had found the girl.  She lay there still, unmoving.

"Can you carry her, Link?" Saria asked, wringing her hands.

In response, Link squatted down beside the near-dead girl and lifted her bodily, one hand behind her knees, and one hand behind her shoulders, careful not to jar the arrows protruding from her shoulder.  "Saria, grab that package and the weapon."

Saria reached for the dark package, but once again it was like trying to reach it through a wall; her hands stopped dead several inches from it.  She picked up the weapon instead.  Well, she picked up one end of the weapon, the end without the blade, figuring she could drag it.

Link glanced at her over the girl's shoulder.  "C'mon, pick them up!"

"I can't pick that one up!"  Saria exclaimed, pointing at the cloth and twine wrapped bundle.  "It won't let me!"

Link rolled his eyes and squatted down again, easily picking the rectangle shaped package up with one hand, and tossed it onto the girl's stomach where he could easily carry them both.  Saria stared for a moment, and then followed Link as he strode out of the clearing, dragging the odd spear-like weapon behind her.

They went back to Link's house and put her in his bed; it was the only one in the village large enough to hold her, and it was important that she be comfortable and warm.  It took some creative work to get her up the ladder.  Saria went up first, dragging the spear-like weapon after her, and then helped Link by pulling the girl from the top while he climbed up the ladder with her over his shoulder.

They negotiated her into the warm confines of his house and deposited her on his bed laying on her right side and facing the wall.  Saria dashed straight back out to get Toia and her bag of medicines.  Saria and Toia were the two Kokiri who knew the most about medicines and healing.  While Saria went to get the other girl, Link went back outside and down to the ground to collect the cloth wrapped bundle from where he'd left it so he could carry the girl up the ladder.

He picked it up and stared at it for a moment, weighing it in his hands.  Whatever was beneath the wrappings felt… warm.  Frowning slightly, he carried it inside and put it on a corner of his kitchen table where he could examine it later.

To pass the time until Saria returned with Toia and some medicines, Link filled a bowl with cool water and grabbed a clean rag and set to cleaning his house guest up a bit.

"What on earth happened to you?" He asked quietly, keeping his voice low and soothing.  He hoped that the sound of someone talking might revive her a little, and continued to talk as he gently wiped the mud and blood off her face.  "You're in awfully rough shape.  You're too young to have enemies, aren't you?  Who am I kidding?  I'm only eighteen, and I have more enemies than I can count.  Well, I have been eighteen twice.  And what's in the package?  I bet that's what whoever attacked you was after.  You should have just given it to them.  Wow, that – that's an interesting tattoo…"

Under the dirt and blood on her now mostly clean face, Link had come across a tattoo next to her left eye.  It was a dark blue/violet in color, a line that came out of her hairline and curved slightly near the corner of her eye, then hooked back and down the line of her cheekbone and tapered to a point above her jaw.  There were various other smaller markings around it, one that traced the outer most edge of her eyebrow, and another that hooked behind the first and tapered higher.

Looking at her cleaned face Link noticed two things. 

First, he noticed that her hair was black.  Now, Link considered himself a fairly well traveled person; he'd traveled all of Hyrule, Termina, and various other lands between and around them both but he had never in his entire life seen hair the color of ink and raven's feathers.  Her eyebrows were the same surprisingly dark color, and her eyelashes were long, resting softly against her cheeks.  He gently pushed back the travel and blood stained hood of her cloak and pulled out a braid as thick as his wrist and also raven black, long enough that it would probably easily reach her waist were she standing up.  As it was, it dangled off the side of his bed and nearly touched the floor.

Secondly, he realized that despite her injuries and state of filth, she was unbelievably beautiful.

Link sat on the edge of the bed again and rinsed out the rag.  It was then that Saria and Toia walked through his door.

They were busy for the next hour or so.  First they had to remove the arrows from her back, and that took some work.  Toia and Saria held her stationary while Link pulled them out and deposited them on a rag on the floor.  Saria then shooed him out of his house so she could sew the wounds closed, so on his way out he grabbed the cloth wrapped bundle again.

He sat outside turning the package in his hands.  He couldn't seem to get the knots in the string to untie, no matter how he wheedled them, twisted, turned, and pinched his fingers.  Frustrated he gave up and began pacing.

After about a half hour, Saria called him back inside.  He ducked through his door flap to see the girl lying on her back.  Her left arm was bound to her side to keep her from moving it and reopening her wounds.  Her hair had been washed and spread out across Link's pillow to dry.  It was a cascade of loose ebony curls and waves that gleamed an odd bluish violet and pooled darkly on the floor.  Bandages wrapped around her forehead then down low on her skull holding a thick compress in place behind her left ear.

"It looks like someone clubbed her from behind." Saria told him.  She sat on the edge of the bed and held the girl's right wrist in her tiny hands.  "Probably with a rock.  Her skull's not broken, but I'm not sure her brain isn't damaged.  She's stable for now."  Saria sighed, and placed the girl's hand back at her side.  "Her pulse is very weak."

"I'll make a trip to Kakariko and pick up some red potion." Link offered.  "That should bring her strength back up and help her heal faster."

"That would be good." Saria nodded.  She pulled the blanket up under the girl's chin.  "Be back as quickly as you can.  I'll have Kita lend her some magic to heal faster, but it will take something as strong as a potion to heal her fully."

"I'll warp to the graveyard, and then back to the Forest Haven.  I should be back by noon."  With that Link pulled out his ocarina, not the Ocarina of Time admittedly, that was safely back in Zelda's possession.  He played the Nocturne of Shadow and disappeared in a sheet of violet light and sparkles.

Saria turned back to the girl occupying Link's bed and smoothed her amazingly black hair away from her forehead.  She asked her faerie to lend the girl some magic, and Kit did so, flying slow ovals above her prone body.  Some color came back into the girl's cheeks and her breathing grew stronger.  Saria felt her pulse again and shook her head; it was still very weak.

'Hurry, Link.' Saria pleaded silently.


	3. Delivery For

**Chapter Two**

* * *

K'arah felt sunlight on her face. 

But, hadn't it just been raining? She felt warm and dry and was sure she was lying in a bed, but wasn't she out lost in the Vanishing Woods, fleeing her attackers…

'The Book!'

She opened her eyes and tried to sit up but found she lacked the strength. She was in a strange little hut of some sort. The atmosphere was warm and calming, and it was decorated with an odd mix of drawings by children and weapons of every manner. She lay in the only bed and her left arm was bound to her side. She tried to reach her left shoulder with her right hand.

"I wouldn't do that."

K'arah's eyes flickered to the only door where a little girl had just walked in. She was pretty and of delicate frame, and was dressed in a dark green jumpsuit. Amazingly, her eyes and hair were both green, and her elfin ears were very tall, pointing up and back all the time! She was carrying a bottle of some bubbling red liquid.

"You will reopen your wounds if you move around too much." The little girl said. "It took a lot of work to sew them up, and I know you won't let that work go to waste. By the way, my name is Saria."

"Where am I?"

Saria sighed and came inside all the way, letting the beaded hanging fall back into place over the exit. "You are in the village of the Kokiri, on the edge of the Lost Woods. I found you there early this morning. You were badly injured. I wasn't sure you would live."

"The package I had with me, where is it?"

Saria's lips twisted into an amused smile. "Somehow I knew you would be asking about that. It's there, on the table." She gestured across the small room.

K'arah's eyes followed Saria's gesture and, sure enough, sitting on the edge of a table littered with bowls and dishes of carved wood and brightly colored pottery, sat the Book, still wrapped in its protective packaging. She relaxed somewhat, leaning back against the pillow and doing her best to smile at the little girl with green hair. "Thank you for helping me. I was sure I was a goner. You may call me K'arah."

"Cara… it's nice to meet you." She totally slaughtered the pronunciation, but the smile on her face was sweet.

K'arah smiled back politely. "What's that?" she asked, nodding towards the bottle the girl held.

Saria went into motion again. She bustled across the room and grabbed a small cup of poorly blown glass, wrenched the cork out of the bottle and poured about half of it into the glass. "This is a health potion. It will heal your wounds and put you on your feet again in no time, flat. I think half of it should do the trick. Drink up."

Frowning slightly at the potion, K'arah accepted the proffered glass and took a whiff. It smelled like cinnamon and wet dog. "What's in it?"

Saria rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. "I have absolutely no idea what's in the stuff. But I have taken it, and it does work."

K'arah was still mistrusting.

Saria picked the bottle up from the table and took a sip. Nothing happened.

K'arah brought the glass to her lips and swallowed the potion, trying not to taste it, as it was positively awful. Heat shot through her body as the potion slid down to her stomach and when the heat was gone, so were all her aches and pains. She shifted her shoulder experimentally and there was no discomfort.

Saria smiled. "There." She said in a no nonsense manner. "Now that won't heal you entirely, but it will do you a lot of good. You shouldn't move too much, you're still very weak, and don't even think about trying to use your arm."

Slightly amused by the girl's behavior, K'arah nodded. She slowly inched herself up wards into a sitting position. "Where are my clothes?" She asked, noticing that the garment she had on wasn't hers.

Saria turned from her task of bustling about the room and clucked her tongue at K'arah and the fact that she'd sat up. Frowning with displeasure, she responded, "In the wash. They were filthy with blood and mud and several repairs will need to be made. And before you ask, your weapon is in the corner, there." She indicated the Ashan'darei where it leaned in a cluttered corner near the main door.

"Again, thank you."

Saria nodded, the displeasure leaving her face. She continued moving about the small house for several more moments, picking up this and replacing it there in a generally tidying manner, before she moved to the door and pulled the beads aside. "Link, what's taking you so long?" She sounded like a hassled housewife.

"Pardon me, Saria! One thing involved in riding a horse is stabling and feeding it." Came a slightly surly reply. The voice was male, a low tenor of a warm timbre. "Honestly, woman, its just common sense!"

Saria positively bristled. "Don't you call me 'woman', you surly brat! I paddled your bottom when we were kids and I'll do it now, too!"

The man laughed. "First of all, I don't think you can reach my bottom anymore." K'arah heard the sound of a foot being set to the rung of a ladder and someone beginning to climb. "Second, you couldn't catch me let alone overpower me physically." Reaching the top of the ladder, the foot steps stopped for a moment and were followed by the booming thump of something heavy hitting wood. "Thirdly, do you really think I wouldn't reciprocate?"

Saria gasped, but K'arah could hear the mocking humor in the sound. "You wouldn't DARE hit a child!"

"You're no child, Saria, we both know that." Pushing the beaded strings aside the man stepped into the room.

K'arah found herself staring. She had been half expecting a child, but the man who entered the room had to duck to come through the door. He was at least six feet tall and he had yellow hair! Well, not yellow. His hair was the gold of sunlight on harvest wheat and that rare and sought after metal of the same name. His eyes were as blue as the summer sky and so vibrantly bright they seemed to glow. His skin was fair and his face was finely structured with a straight but slightly turned nose, thin and provocative lips, and kind eyes with a sense of calm assurance behind them. She could see that he was slim but well muscled in a way that bespoke quick strength, lithe and deliberate in his movements, and he moved as though he knew his own body well.

K'arah swallowed once and forced herself to blink. She had only seventeen summers. It was perfectly understandable for her to admire a handsome young man of a similar age. But why did she feel so flustered?

* * *

Her eyes were purple. They were large and slightly almond shaped and the color of amethysts and royalty, flecked with silver. Her skin had gained some color and looked golden bronze and tan and a light flush touched her cheeks. Her amazingly dark hair cascaded around her in curls and waves like a cloak of black velvet and she was positively swimming in one of his old shirts, which had slipped partly off one of her shoulders revealing a smooth curve of golden tanned skin. Her lips weren't blue with cold any longer, but were now a dark mauve, full and almost slightly pouty. 

She was stunningly beautiful, Link thought, and she needed her clothes back soon, for his own sake.

"Saria found you in the woods this morning, barely alive. I helped her bring you here and tend to your wounds. I'm glad to see that you're looking much better. By the way, my name is Link." He smiled gently and moved to sit down on a small wooden bench next to the door.

The girl smiled back slightly. "I'm feeling much better, thank you both. You may call me K'arah."

"That's not a name I've heard before." Link commented as he pulled off his boots and set them aside. "Where are you from?"

"Far to the east." K'arah responded. "I'm from a country called Andor on the other side of the Vanishing Woods."

"Is that the same as the Lost Woods?" Saria asked. Link glanced at her in surprise; he had almost forgotten she was there.

"Probably." K'arah shifted slightly so that she was sitting more upright and grimaced as she did so, stilling her arm against her stomach. "My attackers chased me for quite a distance, but I never left the trees. I couldn't have gone much further than that afoot and pin-feathered. How far was it from here that you found me?"

"Not far, maybe a few miles." Saria answered.

"I'm probably only a week's travel on horseback from home, then. Maybe a few days more."

Link shrugged off the shoulder belt for his sword and hung it on the wall. "So what brings you westward, if I may ask?"

"I have something to deliver." K'arah responded evasively.

Nodding, Link moved to his table and picked up the dark fabric-wrapped bundle and moved to hand it to her. He stopped, however, when he saw the stunned expression on her face.

Her eyes locked on the package in his hand and then locked with his eyes. "How is it that you can pick up this package?"

Link frowned. "Why shouldn't I be able to? It's just a cloth wrapped bundle."

K'arah frowned consideringly at the bundle in his hands and sighed. "There's only supposed to be one person who's able to touch that package besides me." She locked eyes with him again and cocked an eyebrow. "And you are definitely not her."

He blinked. "Who is it for?"

"The Princess of Hyrule." K'arah replied, watching him closely. "Zelda."

* * *

(A/N) Took me a looooooong time to update. I kind of lost the inspiration for this story and just found it again recently. I hope someone out there is reading and enjoying this. Thanks! 


	4. Relationships

Chapter Three

* * *

"Zelda?" Link exclaimed.

"Yes." K'arah said. "You are acquainted with her?"

"I've know her since I was about ten."

She frowned slightly as though considering something, tilting her head slightly to the side and pursing her lips. "This is very interesting."

Link looked closely at the package in his hands. "What's interesting?"

"Tell me, have you tried to open it?" K'arah asked, ignoring his question.

"Well, yeah." Link moved toward her and sat down on the stool next to his bed. "I couldn't get the knots to untie, though."

"Well, at least that means the spell is still holding. May I see it?"

Link passed the package to her. She examined it closely for several moments, inspecting the seals and intricate knots very carefully. Finally she settled it back into her lap, relaxed against the pillows, and turned her marvelously violet eyes on him. "Tell me, are you per chance related to the princess in anyway?"

Dumbfounded, it was all Link could do not to choke on his tongue. He coughed and sputtered for several moments.

"Okay, I guess that's a 'no'." K'arah answered for him. She glanced at the package in her lap again. "Then why can you touch it?"

Link didn't know what to say.

"Don't answer that." She glanced over to where Saria was standing next to the doorway. "How long do you think it will be before I can travel?"

"Several days, at least. I want those wounds to be well into healing before you even look at a saddle. All that bouncing around will just pull them open again." Saria said.

K'arah made a small sound of displeasure. "I suppose it can't be helped. May I walk around?"

"If you feel up to it." Saria was looking at her as though she thought something was up.

Without waiting for anything else, K'arah swung her legs off the side of the bed and gingerly rose to her feet. Caught unawares, Link almost choked on his tongue again. After all, the only thing K'arah was wearing was one of his old shirts. She wasn't a short girl, and his shirt only came about a third of the way down her thighs. Speaking of which, her aforementioned limbs were long, slender, and leanly muscled possessing a deep golden bronze hue.

Saria jumped to her feet. "Now wait just a minute, you can't go parading around this village wearing that!"

Puzzled, K'arah looked down at herself. She twisted and looked at the back of herself, then looked back at Saria. "Whyever not?"

Saria very nearly had an aneurism. Link was having problems breathing, as his tongue seemed to be trying to retreat into his stomach. "This is a village of children!" Saria exclaimed, stomping her tiny foot. "You absolutely may not go parading about half-naked."

Genuinely perplexed, K'arah sank back down onto the edge of the bed. "I'm decent enough. My pelvis is covered and so are my breasts. What more do you want?"

Link felt decidedly faint. '_Where does she come from? A land of naked people?_' He thought.

Saria looked about to pass out from a combination of shock and upset. "You can't wear that; you need to put on more clothes. At least some pants."

"Well, you said you took my clothes for laundering." K'arah shrugged. "What else should I wear?"

Apparently satisfied that K'arah was amenable to wearing additional clothes, Saria calmed down somewhat. "Link, you must have something else you could loan her."

Finally regaining his Goddess' given gift of speech, Link exclaimed, "What am I? Do I look like a general store to you? I get rid of clothes that don't fit me any more. I don't have space to store tons of stuff, plus I travel all the time so it's not like I can take all that much with me."

Looking decidedly panicky around the eyes Saria looked at K'arah again.

"Okay, well…" K'arah trailed off, looking around the room for something with which to cover herself. She wasn't sure why it was such a big deal, though, and figured that their customs must just be different. Lacking anything like true clothes, K'arah took up the bed sheet, folded it into a large triangle, and wrapped it about her waist twice, tying it in a knot at her right hip. There was enough of a gap that she could still move fairly freely. "There! Is this acceptable?" She turned once in a circle.

"It's better." Saria sighed. "But I suppose it will have to do until I can mend your clothes for you."

"Nonsense, just bring them to me. I'll mend them myself." K'arah said. She moved her arm a bit experimentally. "This feels better the less I think about it."

Saria nodded and moved towards the door. "Alright, I'll get them for you." And she was gone.

K'arah moved towards the door as well and glanced out past the beads. After a few moments she turned back to Link. "I must leave as soon as possible. I can't afford to wait for days. I want to leave tonight."

Link frowned at her abrupt change in demeanor. A few moments ago she had been almost bubbly. Now she was all business. "What's the hurry?"

"I have to get that package to Princess Zelda as soon as possible. Some one's after it, and he'll catch up to me eventually. I wouldn't want that meeting to take place here."

Link understood that variety of urgency. He'd experienced it many times himself. "I understand. Do you have the strength?"

"Not really, but that's unimportant." K'arah said with a shrug. "What I'd really like to do is get the things I left behind after I was shot. I wonder if my horse is alright."

"I could take you back to the spot where Saria and I found you." Link offered. "From there we could try and track your path back to where you started."

"That would be much appreciated." K'arah said. She shifted her shoulder again. "Would more of that potion help this heal faster?"

Link glanced at the bottle on the table and rolled his eyes. "Why didn't she give you the whole bottle?" He sighed and grabbed it up, unstoppered it and offered it to her. "Down it all. I know it tastes like shoe soup, but she should have given you the whole thing in the first place. I think she thinks it's unhealthy."

K'arah pulled a face as she swallowed the last of the potion, shuddering at the horrible flavor and the wave of heat that swept through her body, concentrated at her shoulder. "Is it?" She shifted her shoulder again and found the pain to be nearly gone.

"No." Link took the now empty bottle and poured a bit of water in from a pitcher on his table. "It's made from natural ingredients and fairy magic. The only thing that could possibly be more wholesome is cuckoo soup."

"What's a cuckoo?" K'arah began gingerly unwinding the wrappings that had held her left arm against her body.

"It's a kind of bird that we eat." Link said. He sloshed the water around inside the bottle the carried it to the window and dumped it out. "About yea big," he held his hands about a foot apart and made a rotation around the empty space with his hands, "White feathered, makes a clucking sound, nasty temperament."

"Oh, a chicken." K'arah said, understanding the description.

"Sure." Link shrugged and set the bottle back on its shelf. "If that's what you call it where you're from."

"Uh-huh." K'arah removed the last of the bandaging and slowly raised her arm. All the pain was gone, though her muscles felt as though she'd been lifting a boulder overhead, and she felt quite able to continue about her task.

"How's that feel?" Link asked.

"Almost new again." K'arah assured him. She rolled the wrappings into a messy wad and set them on the table. She stretched her arms over head, locking her fingers then, pulling them down as far as she could behind her head, she stretched the muscles on the fronts of her shoulders. "Ahhh."

Link glanced outside again when he caught the sound of Saria's humming. He watched her come up the ladder with a wad of clothing under one tiny arm and held aside the beads for her.

"Thank you, Link." Saria said as she bustled inside. "It's nice of you to actually…" She trailed off when she saw that K'arah's wrappings had been removed.

To head off the explosion that was building, Link caught Saria's attention and explained. "I gave her the remainder of the bottle. She should have had it all in the first place."

Hissing between her teeth, Saria narrowed her eyes at her childhood friend. "That stuff is too strong to be taken all at once."

"Nonsense, Saria. For an adult Hylian a whole bottle is the proper dosage. For a child or one of the Kokiri half would do. But since K'arah is neither a child nor a Kokiri and she's almost certainly an adult she should have had the whole thing in the first place."

Both being stubborn, and neither willing to admit defeat, this argument continued for several minutes slowly gaining volume and momentum until they were both nearly shouting at each other. Finally Saria threw up her hands and stormed out of Link's house, beads dancing crazily on their strings at her passage, and stomped down the ladder as hard as her little body would allow. Link followed her to the door and yelled after her, "If you break my ladder, you're fixing it!"

"Go jump off Gerudo Bridge!" Came the reply.

Once Link had calmed down a bit he turned back around to see that K'arah had settled herself on his bed once more and was patiently placing tiny stitches along a tear in her own shirt. Not a tear, rather an arrow hole at the shoulder of the garment.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that."

K'arah glanced at him and smiled almost playfully. "I have many siblings. I'm well aware of how well they fight. I'm an expert myself."

Swallowing past the lump in his throat that had appeared with her smile, Link began to move around his house gathering up the things he would need for their journey.

K'arah could not help but notice the pattern in his chosen implements; rope, grappling hook, bottles, food stuffs, a spare change of clothes, several interesting looking weapons, the list went on. "Were you planning to accompany me?"

Startled after the long silence, Link glanced at her. "Well, I thought you might like my help. You've never been here before so you won't know your way around; there are animals and plants here that you should avoid, plus bandits and so on. Plus I haven't seen Zelda in months and it would be nice to catch up." A sudden thought occurred to him. "You don't mind my tagging along, do you? It was rude to assume."

K'arah waved off his apology and shook out her pants. "No, don't apologize. I was just asking. I would certainly welcome your company and guidance." She rose to her feet and began undoing the knot in the bed sheet she had around her waist. "I've made all the repairs I'm willing to put into these old clothes. On they go!"

Link spun rapidly and dashed out his door. The sunshine outside provided a relative haven to the image that had danced to the front of his mind; K'arah as she had been earlier that morning, wearing only his shirt, one shoulder exposed and her long, lean legs bare. He shivered. "You've got to give me some warning before you do that."

"What?"

"Start taking off your clothes. It's rather shocking."

"What strange customs you have here. Are you all so conscious about personal exposure?"

"Nevermind, just please give me some warning next time."

"I'll try and remember."

"Try hard." Link muttered, too quietly for her to hear.

A few moments later she emerged, stamping her feet into her boots which she had doubtless found beside his door where they'd been left that morning. Her outfit was obviously foreign, made largely of dark leathers and pale beige muslin. She had of a full sleeved tunic that was cut close to the shape of her body and came down just past her hips. Over that she wore a dark brown leather vest that fit her like skin. The vest was sleeveless, though it did protrude out a little from her shoulders to a rounded point and seemed well padded. It laced up the front and sides with a dark slender cord and the vest only came just to the tops of her hips, making her tunic look a little like a short skirt. Her pants were snug and wrinkled at the hips and knees, and the leather was scuffed and worn, evidence of their heavy use. Her belt was wide and hung with various implements and necessities; money bag, several differently sized and shaped pouches, and a sturdy dagger at her right hip while another matching dagger was strapped to her left thigh. Her boots came up to mid calf and looked to be well traveled. Her cloak was mottled dark green and grey and seemed to have a tendency to make his eyes slide away from her and gave him a slightly unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was caught in a cleverly fashioned broach at her throat and the deep hood hung down her back almost to her waist. Her hair had been braided again and was held in a coiled pile on top of her head by a set of slender sticks. All in all she looked like a very well put together traveler.

"I'm not entirely happy with the mending, but it will have to do until I either retrieve my belongings or buy new ones." She shifted her belt and sighed. "I must admit, it feels nice to wear my own clothes again. Not that your shirt wasn't serviceable, but I like a nice snug set of leathers when I'm traveling."

"Cultural peculiarity?" Link queried as he ducked past her into his house again.

"I suppose." She moved to the table and picked up the package for Zelda. "In Andor we take great pride in our ability to produce some of the finest animals and animal products in the world. My family's holdings are substantial, but our true wealth lies in our horses and our services to the King and the Hierocracy."

Puzzled slightly by her explanation, Link gathered together the remainder of his things. At one point when he was a child he had acquired a very useful item. It was a satchel of only medium size, but no matter how much stuff he put into it, it never got full nor did it ever become cumbersomely heavy or oddly shaped; rather, it always stayed a comfortable size and weight. He began placing things into this bag, rhythmically picking up and putting in.

K'arah's eyes grew larger and larger at the sheer volume of the things he would take with them and the sack's apparent bottomlessness. "Where ever did you acquire that marvelous sack?"

"Picked it up on an adventure as a kid."

"I wish I had one like it."

"I think there's just the one."

"Can I buy it from you?"

"It would take a king's ransom to part me from this sack. It's far too useful."

"I may have to steal it, then."

Link looked at her in alarm but immediately saw the joke dancing in her eyes. He glanced at the package she held protectively against her chest. "Would you like me to put that in here so you don't have to carry it?"

Her arms tightened reflexively around the object and she edged away from him one step. "Thanks all the same, but I think I should hang on to it."

He sighed and went back to packing and soon was finished. He pulled on his hat and settled his sword belt around his torso. He then pulled on his cloak, which had an opening in it for his sword hilt to stick out for easy access. K'arah took up her odd sword-staff and followed him outside and, after he'd grabbed his saddle from its place beside his door, down the ladder.

After Zelda sent Link back through time, after his return from the other-world of Termina, Link had done some re-modeling work on his home in the Kokiri village. For one thing it had higher ceilings and doorways now, but he had also built a tiny stable underneath the tree house as a place for him to keep Epona when she wasn't out on her own. It was only big enough for one horse, but there was plenty of interior space to move around in and it had lots of storage.

K'arah gasped in awe when she saw Epona. "What a magnificent horse!" She breathed.

Link smiled at the overwhelmed expression on her face. He clucked at Epona gently and she came to the edge of her stall, whickering pleasantly. He tossed a saddle blanket across her back and thumped the saddle into place. She threw him a slightly reproachful look at the rough treatment, but he rubbed her neck in assurance and bent to tighten the saddle girths.

"She's beautiful. Where did you get her?" K'arah asked from her position on the outside of the stall.

"She was a gift from the owner of Lon Lon Ranch here in Hyrule." Link answered as he settled the bit in Epona's mouth and drew the bridle back over her head. "I helped him out one summer as a labor hand when one of his men left, and Epona took a liking to me. So instead of paying me for my labor he gave me a horse."

"Quite the gift." K'arah stretched a hand out and gently stroked Epona's velvety nose. Pleased at the attention, Epona moved forward for more, but stepped on Link's foot in the process. After some moderate cursing, Link limped out of the stall with his horse in tow. He pulled her outside and closed the gate behind K'arah.

Hoisting himself into the saddle he lent a hand down to K'arah. She took it and he pulled her up behind him. She gently placed her hands along his sides for a grip of some sort, and Link became acutely aware of her presence; her hands on his sides, her thighs touching his, her warm breath on his neck.

This trip through the forest might feel longer than it should.


	5. On the Road Again

**Chapter Four: On the Road Again**

* * *

"Here, you say?" 

Link turned from his inspection of the ground beside the stream that wandered through the clearing to look at the place K'arah was indicating. "Yes, that's right where we found you."

It had been about twenty minutes since they left the village; the clearing hadn't been that far away, especially not on horseback. K'arah had slid down from behind Link immediately and moved around the clearing, pausing occasionally to examine bent twigs and impressions in the ground.

"I think I came from there." She said indicating a faint trail of foot steps that came from off through the trees on the east side of the clearing. "The foot steps point west and this impression is where you found me and I was heading that way." She pointed toward the afternoon sun, just visible above the tops of the trees. "Let's continue east and follow this trail."

Link gave her a hand up onto Epona again and they continued through the forest.

> > >

About an hour later they were riding through an area of dense undergrowth and the sun was almost to the horizon. K'arah's head was lolling forward against Link's shoulder and he could feel her even breathing against his back. She was leaning against him pretty heavily and her arms were much further around his middle than they had been earlier in the trip; she was very nearly hugging him. He could feel her lean body through all of their clothes, a leanness that was only accentuated by her soft curves.

Feeling distinctly warm, Link was attempting to shift positions slightly without waking her.

When the attack came it came suddenly and without warning. A Moblin and three Miniblins leapt out of the underbrush at them. Link's sword was out of its sheath in a heartbeat. In the next heartbeat K'arah had slid off the back of Epona's saddle, completely awake now, and taken up a fighting stance brandishing her sword-staff like a Bo.

Moblins are pretty stupid but Miniblins are much cleverer. The three Miniblins moved after K'arah and encircled her, waving their wide bladed curved swords low and threateningly. K'arah stood ready, legs well apart, knees bent, hands griping her sword-staff firmly while the blade wove a smooth ∞ figure through the air.

The Moblin however, was extraordinarily dumb and roared a challenge before leaping across the clearing and swinging its massive club over its head to bring it down onto the ground with enough force to leave a small crater. Only Link had had plenty of time to move to the side of the Moblin and it hadn't even tried to change the trajectory of its club. When Link didn't liquefy with the force of the Moblin's blow it looked puzzled and only let out one shriek of pain as Link's sword slid through its back and found its heart. It fell heavily to the ground and didn't move again.

Link spun Epona to run to K'arah's aid… and stopped in his tracks to watch her.

She moved like fluid lightning, her staff whipping out with the blunt end to catch the side of one Miniblin's head with a loud crack. It dropped to its knees in a daze and before it even had time to fall forward K'arah had reversed the motion of her staff, spun it end over end and brought the blade whipping around to stab it through the chest. It fell without a sound and K'arah moved to the next Miniblin, planting her staff blunt end in the ground and using the rigidity of the pole to lift her body and kick her assailant in the head so hard his feet left the ground and he didn't land for several seconds and then about seven feet from where he'd been standing. Leaving her staff upright in the ground, K'arah released the shaft and spun through the air using the force of her previous kick and catching the last Miniblin in the side of the head with her foot. It fell like a sack of potatoes and K'arah spun in midair again moving from a position parallel to the ground to one perpendicular with it. She snatched her staff from the ground, spun it around once to bring the blade forward and raised it over her head, slamming it down through the Miniblin's chest. It gave out one bubbly cry and lay still. She jerked it free and switched ends one more time then threw it like a javelin at the Miniblin she'd kicked in the face. It had recovered and was trying to flee but the staff caught it blunt end first in between its shoulders and it grunted as it collapsed.

Link closed his mouth and surreptitiously wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. '_That was amazing! I wish I could move like that!_'

K'arah walked calmly over to her sword-staff and picked it up off the ground before using the blunt end to flip the Miniblin onto its back so that she could talk to it. Link moved to her side and slid out of Epona's saddle. He reached back and swung his blade to get some of the blood and gore to come off, before squatting down and resting his hands comfortably on the pommel of his sword.

"Hi there, neighbor." Link said amiably. "That wasn't what you had in mind, was it?"

The Miniblin made a harsh grating sound that Link thought was supposed to be a laugh. "Not exactly."

"Tell you what. If you answer our questions, we'll make your end very easy." Link offered.

The Miniblin shifted its weight experimentally, then sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Why are you after me?" K'arah demanded.

"We were commanded to kill you and take something from you."

Link frowned, glancing at K'arah. _The Package… _He thought apprehensively, eyes straying to where it was strapped to the back of Epona's saddle. _What is it that they'd kill her for it?_ "Who gave this command?"

"My Lord and Master, the Great Aghanim."

K'arah gasped. Link looked at her in alarm and watched her eyes narrow as her lips pulled back in a grimace that bared her teeth. He noticed that her canine teeth were rather pronounced and wondered how he hadn't noticed this before. She hissed between clenched teeth and her hands clenched convulsively on the staff of her weapon.

The Miniblin saw all of this and laughed, a thin, sickeningly bubbly sound. "You are well advised to submit to my Lord's will. He will get what he wants in the end."

"Right." Link mumbled. "You've been most helpful, neighbor. As promised…" Link rose to his feet and kicked the Miniblin in the side of the head, knocking it unconscious. He did not, however, carry out his promise. He was not one to kill his enemies in cold blood. Instead he grabbed it by one ankle and dragged it under some bushes where it would wake in a few hours. It would have one hell of a headache, but otherwise it would be fine.

K'arah was standing off to one side, rhythmically gripping and twisting her swordstaff and staring off into the trees. Link watched her for a moment before moving to her side and saying, "You okay?"

K'arah started and glanced at him, visibly forcing herself to relax. "I'm fine."

"I take it you know this Aghanim character."

K'arah's hands tightened on her weapon once more. "He's a member of the Hierocracy of Andor. My father has been telling the King that Aghanim is bad news since he first showed up a little over a year ago. He came from an outlying province to the north and climbed the ranks of the Hierocracy faster than anyone could believe. His influence is broad and inestimable; he has the ear of the king himself and has been poisoning the king's mind against his most loyal subjects, so his desires are carried out at will with little opposition. He's systematically destroying the government and eliminating his rivals for the Archprelacy. My father is afraid his ultimate goal is to kill the current Archprelate and take over as the spiritual leader of the country. A man as unholy as that does not deserve to even contemplate the Goddesses let alone presume to speak as their voice on this earth."

Link was slightly overwhelmed. Somehow he was uncomfortably reminded of his struggles against Gannon. "Why does he want that package? What is it?"

K'arah bit her lip in hesitation. She looked up at him and her eyebrows drew together showing her troubled thoughts. Her eyes were dark and cloudy, turbulent. "Can I trust you?"

Link frowned. "I've done nothing but help you since I found you this morning. I healed you. I housed you. I'm helping you now. What more do you need?"

K'arah didn't speak for a moment more, but kept her eyes locked with his so that he began to sweat. He felt like she could see his thoughts in his eyes which made him uncomfortable, but he could no more have looked away from her during those moments than he could have picked up all of Death Mountain with one hand. Finally she blinked and he felt himself released from her scrutiny.

"Let's go." She said, moving to stand beside Epona. She glanced around the clearing at the dead bodies of their attackers, her eyes pausing on the clump of bushes where the one Miniblin who was still alive lay unconscious, and then looked at him again pleadingly.

Understanding, Link stooped beside the massive corpse of the Moblin and used a patch of its clothing to clean the gore from the blade of his sword. She wanted to move away from this area so that if any of them weren't as dead as they seemed to be they would not overhear the conversation. Link sheathed his sword over his shoulder and moved to Epona, putting one foot in the stirrup and pulling himself up effortlessly with one hand to the saddle horn. He offered K'arah a hand and pulled her up behind him. Gathering up Epona's reins he gave her a gentle squeeze with his thighs and she stepped into motion, still moving away from the setting sun.

After they had left the clearing behind, K'arah stirred behind him. She scooted close to him until the insides of her thighs were flush against the outsides of his and he could feel the firm softness of her breasts against his back. Link felt a blush rise to burn his cheeks as she brought her hands around his stomach and her mouth up next to his ear, which twitched against the feel of her warm breath.

"The Package is a Book of Magic." She told him. Her voice was quiet and tense. Link realized that she wasn't trying to make him uncomfortable as he had first thought. Instead she was merely getting as close as possible so that she could talk as quietly as possible and he could still understand her. "It was entrusted to my family by the Hierocracy many years ago. In that time there were a number of corrupt Prelates who wanted the power of the Book's magic for themselves. The Archprelate at the time was aware of the threat, so she gave it to my great grandfather for safe keeping. My family has guarded it closely since then and most outside our clan forgot of the exchange. When Aghanim came along last year he did some digging in the Library of Records in Andorahl, the Capital city of Andor.

"He uncovered the exchange and knew we still had it, and began whispering lies into the ear of the king, saying that we were using the Book's magic for our own purposes. The king recently proclaimed that the Book was the property of the crown and commanded my father to return it. The king had forgotten something that was never recorded in the Library of Records, something that was common knowledge about the Book until the Book itself was forgotten. The Book doesn't belong to anyone in Andor. It was put under our protection centuries ago by a Queen of Hyrule.

"During that time there was great political upheaval in Hyrule while Andor was stable and peaceful. This queen knew that the factions were after the book and so she entrusted it to the king of Andor to keep it out of the hands of her enemies. She told no one. When she was assassinated the secret of the Book's whereabouts was lost to them. The Book is written in ancient Hylian and few in Andor can read that dead language. Still, there are those who can, so when my great grandfather was given the book by the Archprelate he Sealed it so that no one but a rightful heir of the Hylian Royal bloodline could open it again. My great grandfather was a powerful sorcerer. His Seal has stood the test of time and is as strong today as it was the day he cast it. But my father has become convinced that Aghanim has found a way to break the Seal. So he sent me to return the Book to its rightful owner, the Princess Zelda."

Link gave a low whistle. "That's quite a story. But he only sent you? No guards?"

He felt K'arah shift against his back. "One person can move much faster than a whole troop. The thought was the faster I could get it back to Princess Zelda, the better."

"So you **were** supposed to have guards."

"I left three days before I was supposed to!" K'arah snapped. "Under the cover of night. By My Self. There was no way of knowing who Aghanim had bought over and so I knew the only person I could trust was myself. Yes, I set out on my own. Wouldn't you have done the same in my place?"

Link sighed. "I probably would have." K'arah didn't reply to that. Link sighed again. "Thank you for telling me."

"Why? You were right. You've done nothing but help me. I should thank you."

"Well, for trusting me, for starters." Link shifted in the saddle and readjusted his grip on the reins. "It couldn't have been easy to let go of all that suspicion and tell me your mission. But now I know exactly how important this Book is, so we can move at a better pace. By the way, you're wel—"

He cut off abruptly, pulling Epona's reigns and bringing her to a halt. Off in the trees he had heard something. Ears twitching, he turned his head to look for the cause of the sound.

K'arah sensed the intensity of his frame and remained silent, even though she hadn't heard anything.

Off in the trees the sound came again, and this time K'arah heard it as well. The sound of a hoof on packed earth, the jingle of reins and harnesses. K'arah recognized the note as that of her own saddle. She whistled a rapid chirp.

The horse stepped out of the trees where he'd been hiding, awaiting his mistress' call. He was a gorgeous black gelding of about fifteen hands with a long braided mane and tail. He was very leggy and looked like a fast runner. The saddle was of a different make than Link had ever seen; made of black leather and some dark polished wood with copper colored trappings and studs. There were several saddle bags hanging on either side of his flanks and they seemed full, bulging strangely in places.

"Dark!" K'arah exclaimed. She pushed away from Link and slid off the back of Epona's saddle. Her horse moved to intercept her, stepping lightly and tossing his head. K'arah laughed when he nuzzled her shoulder hard enough to push her into Link's leg. She turned her head to smile up at the blonde. "This is my horse, Dark. He has a bad habit of thinking he's a big dog and not a horse, so watch out for his surprise attacks."

Amused, Link said, "I'll keep that in mind. Does he have everything?"

K'arah clamped gentle hands over Dark's nose and pulled his head down so that she could gather his reins before moving back to check her saddle bags. She popped them open one by one and rifled through the contents. "Everything seems to be here."

"Then let's make camp for the night." Link said. He looked up at the rapidly darkening sky and then around at the clearing they were in. "This seems like a good enough spot. We should move quickly or it will be too dark to see what we're doing."

* * *

(A/N): It took me a while but there you are! I'll see how long it takes me to get the next chapter out... 


	6. Family

Chapter 5: Family

* * *

The weather that evening was cool enough to make K'arah pull her cloak around her tightly and scoot nearer to their tiny campfire. They had no tents as they would just have added bulk to their already bulky saddlebags, so they spread their bedrolls on the deep grass of the forest floor. Epona and Dark, once they had been watered and rubbed down were let loose to graze on whatever they chose.

The two horses seemed well suited to each other's company. Dark was a young gelding, full of energy and boundless enthusiasm, and his attitude seemed to amuse Epona, who had several years on him and was much more mellow. She would make playful bites at his flanks when he got too close to her and in response he would dash wildly across the clearing whinnying and tossing his mane then canter back for another nip. K'arah was having great fun watching them.

Because it had been so near to dark when they stopped they had decided not to hunt or lay any traps for game, but to merely subside off of food they had packed and brought with them. K'arah was more than happy to share the foods that she had brought and began digging in her saddle bags for it.

"Have you ever had olives, Link?" She asked, pulling out a small cask of said fruit. The cask was a pale wood treated with oils to keep it water-proof and was only about the size of a small melon. She pulled the corking out of the top and brought the opening to her nose to catch a whiff.

Link glanced over at her from where he was polishing the blade of his sword. "I don't think so. What are they?"

"They're a kind of fruit we grow in Andor." She fished one out of the cask and held it up to be seen. "We pick them off the trees and pickle them in this brine. They're really salty but very flavorful. Here, try one." She passed off the small fruit to Link who looked at it curiously in his fingers. "Just be careful when you bite into it. There's a pit in the center that's as hard as a rock."

Link tentatively tasted the olive with the tip of his tongue, puckered his lips slightly at the saltiness of it, and then popped it into his mouth, chewing carefully. His face was thoughtful for a moment before K'arah asked, "What do you think?"

Link nodded. "They're good! Wow, you weren't kidding, they are salty. Can I have some more?"

"Sure." K'arah rose to her feet and moved over closer to him to sit down again. She offered the small cask and said, "Just go ahead and dig in."

Link selected another olive for himself and popped it into his mouth before twisting and rummaging in one of his saddle bags and producing a small round loaf of crusty brown bread and a pair of apples. He broke the loaf in half and offered one part to K'arah along with one of the bright green apples. K'arah accepted gratefully and positioned herself more comfortably on the ground, drawing her legs up and crossing one foot over the opposite knee. "Thank you, Link." She said.

Link chewed his mouthful of bread thoughtfully for a moment, still concentrating on the task of polishing his sword, before swallowing and looking at her. "For what? The bread? It's only fair; you gave me some of your olives, so I thought—"

"I didn't mean for the bread, though I am thankful for it." K'arah said. She set her bread and apple in her lap and leaned her weight back on her hands, tilting her head to the side and considering her companion. The fire light was highlighting his hair, making it shine like molten gold, and playing across the strong lines of his face. She revised in those moments her guess at his age; she had first thought him to be several years older than herself, perhaps twenty to twenty-three years, but looking at him now she could see that there was still a level of boyishness about his face. He was probably only as old as she was, seventeen, maybe eighteen. There was a subtle smattering of gold flecks along his jaw and chin, pale peach-fuzz that showed he'd probably never shaved. And the firelight was dancing in his eyes that were blue as sapphires. There was no denying that he was exceedingly handsome.

K'arah suddenly realized she'd been staring. She lowered her eyes to the bread in her lap and smiled shyly. "I meant thank you for all your help. You've been so kind to me and I'm basically a stranger to you."

Link nodded thoughtfully. K'arah thought that he must be very level-headed; he seemed to think things over very carefully before acting on them.

"Well, tell me about yourself." Link suggested. K'arah tipped her head the other way and looked at him again. "If you tell me about yourself and I tell you about myself, then we won't be strangers anymore."

K'arah smiled. "That's a wonderful idea. What do you want to know?"

Link sighed and leaned back on his hands in imitation of her pose. "Tell me about your family."

K'arah's smile deepened. "My family… I don't think you could possibly have picked a more convoluted subject if you tried. My family is old. As old as the kingdom of Andor itself, in fact. We were the original founding rulers and we were in power for several hundred years. But, just as the moon waxes and wanes, our dynasty began to wane about two thousand years ago. I'm starting in the middle, though, without giving you all the facts…

"My full family name is Taedanyu'dai Rhakir jun-Inrah." Link looked at her with slightly wide, disbelieving eyes. "It's a mouthful I know, but it all means something. The actual clan name of my family is Taedanyu. The era we ruled was called the Taedanyu Dynasty. Rhakir is the name of the province my family rules nowadays and the name of the capital city of that province. The suffix 'dai' is a designation of rank, and it means that we are only one step below the current ruling family in terms of wealth, strength, and power. It literally translates from the ancient Andorian language to mean 'one step down from the top'. 'Jun' is the suffix in the royal family's name phrase and it means 'insurmountable', which is why when the ruling family falls out of favor they have to change their name. Where it appears in our name it is attached to a military designation, 'Inrah', which means 'Lord of Horse'. I told you before that my family's greatest pride is our horses and that is why. The Horse Lords are the highest ranking nobles and military officials in Andor, so the combined word 'jun-Inrah' means that my family holds a hereditary military position as the Leading Generals of the King's armies. So the whole thing together means that my family is the highest ranking family in the country underneath only the King's family itself. And even then the lines of power are sometimes blurry and no one quite knows who outranks whom. For instance, one time when I was a child my third cousin Cayn tried to pull rank on me. He wanted something and I wanted something else and we got into a fist fight over it, so we went to my father and the King, who is his second cousin, and asked them who was right. In that case, because of dispersion and exact political sway, I held rank over my third cousin, even though he was born into the ruling family and I was not. It's all very confusing to an outsider, I've been told, even though it makes perfect sense to us in Andor."

K'arah looked at Link again. She had been looking up at the night sky while recounting her tale. Now, looking at his face she could see he looked slightly overwhelmed at all the information. "That probably wasn't what you had in mind when you were asking about my family, was it?"

"Not really." Link shrugged. "It's a lot of cultural differences to hear about all at once, but I think I understood what you said. What I meant was tell my about your parents, your siblings, that kind of family."

K'arah nodded and moved her gaze to the fire. "Family is very important in Andor. I only have six immediate siblings, but I have so many cousins that I've lost count and I see them just as often as my brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house anyway. I have two older brothers and one younger brother, one older sister and two younger sisters, so I was born right in the middle. My sister Rishana is the eldest, then my brothers Daraken and Darien, they're twins and they look so much alike that we usually can't tell them apart. Then there's me, then my sister Tiyana, my brother Sorin, and my baby sister Raen. My father is Drinaan, who is the second cousin of the King of Andor who is called Zangulus. My father is a mighty warrior and the greatest Horse Lord alive. My mother is Dhalgara, originally from House Madrikhor'shen Nieda jun-Ondin, a house of performers of world renown. She's one of the most beautiful women in all of Andor and she has a grace from the Goddesses themselves. I wouldn't even know where to begin when telling you about my cousins."

K'arah shook her head, smiling fondly and turned her head to look at Link again. The expression on his face surprised her and she didn't quite know how to read it. It was a cross between sadness and longing mixed with a touch of envy. Uncomfortable, K'arah looked away and shrugged. "I've been yammering on and on though. Why don't you tell me about your family?"

Link was silent for a long time. K'arah thought he hadn't heard her and was about to repeat herself when she caught his eventual answer.

"I have no family…"

His voice was rough and low, spoken barely above a whisper, and hollow with untold emotions.

K'arah's heart went out to him. She was from a land where family was more important than almost anything else. You always knew who you were related to and how closely, and no matter what they were always there for you; to help you when you needed help, to fight by your side, to share meals together. Family was everything in Andor. She couldn't even begin to fathom life without her family.

"I've never known who my parents were, or if I had any siblings. I don't even have a surname. I've just always been Link. That's all. I've always lived alone, in my own little house, away from everyone else. Most of the time when I was a kid I played by myself. No one wanted to play with me, because I was different from them, and they didn't understand that. I went on my adventures alone. Though I made many friends along the way, none of them have stuck with me for very long. It's not so bad, I'm used to it. I actually get uncomfortable when I'm around too many people. I don't particularly like towns. Cities are even worse. I avoid them whenever possible. But sometimes I get lonely." He looked at her then and smiled. It was a slightly sad smile, but all the more genuine for that. "It's nice to travel with someone, too. Usually it's just me and Epona. So, what I'm trying to say is thank you for letting me tag along."

K'arah just smiled at him. "Thank you for coming with me. You're doing me a great favor by showing me through lands that are unfamiliar to me and introducing me to your princess. It will make things much easier to explain further down the road."

They were silent for a long time and merely sat there, munching on bread and apples and passing the cask of olives between them. After a while they came to the silent agreement that it was time to sleep, so they packed up their food and put it away. Epona and Dark had long since ceased their play and taken up space on the grass near the fire. K'arah pulled her blankets over herself and lay back to look at the stars before falling asleep.

* * *

(A/N) - I was pretty quick this time! Yay for me! We'll see how the next one goes. I've kind of been going in a pattern when doing updates. I cycle through my stories so that no one is left un-updated for too long. It works well for me, I guess. Anyway, as always, R&R, please!

Rae Tarules


End file.
