Mkay chapter 4...tada! it seems that i have made a mistake concerning Araxia, her hair color is black and her eyes are supposed to be purple in the past chapters i've been putting red hair and green eyes...oops...anywayz i'm sure you're sick of me talking so on with the story

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda, but I do own some of the characters, if you want to use them (I don't u will) ask me

Chapter Four

The Lost Woods

The next morning Link awoke to the sounds of birds chirping opposed to the sound of Hylians screaming, it was a nice change. He slept the best he had slept in his whole life, the fortress had provided him with a bed, which was new to him, when he had been with Saria and his best friend the two of them would sleep on the floor or if Saria came home late they would sleep on her hard cot, then when he was at the the dark elf ranch he would sleep on dirt with his arms and legs hooked together. Link stretched out his arms and legs before he picked up his tattered grey workshirt, it had once been white but it was his only shirt that he had throughout the years so it had turned an off white yellow color, then a mud brown, and finally the greyish brown color it now was along with the various stains and blood it had accumulated. The more he looked at it, the more disgusted Link got. On second thought he decided not to wear it, he'd look dirtier with it on. Instead he just put on the long maroon cloak and put the hood back over his face. It was extremely hot out in the dessert but by the way the other house residents had acted the night before Link would rather feel hot then be felt sorry for. The last thing he needed was their sympathy, last night they had looked at him as if he were a monster. Link hadn't had a chance to catch a glimpse of himself yet but he imagined that he looked pretty unhealthy and dirty. After making sure that the hood was carefully pulled over his face he stepped outside to join the other housemates eating breakfast.

In the dining room there sat Araxia, Owyn, Raen, and even Zelda. "How embarassing, its my first time meeting the princess of Hyrule and I have to be dressed in this stupid cloak." Link thought to himself as he sat down with the others. Araxia smiled at him as he sat, Owyn ignored him and so did Raen, and Zelda screamed.

"It's okay, he's not a dark elf, he came in last night. His name is Link." Araxia said cheerfully as she ushered Link forward to the princess. Link offered a gloved hand to shake Zelda's hand.

"Isn't it hot in all that clothing?" Zelda asked, looking at Link's attire warily.

"Trust me, you don't want to see what's underneath." Link joked lightly. Araxia laughed, while Zelda gave a polite chuckle.

"I'll explain later." Link heard Araxia whisper to Zelda behid his back. He wondered what the princess would think of him after that. Link felt awkward sitting with the four others. He didn't know how much time they had spent in the fortress but Owyn and Raen were giving him the cold shoulder and Araxia was trying to make polite small talk, either that or she was just always talkative. Link surveyed his surroundings, they hurt his eyes, everything was so bright out in the dessert. The dining room wasn't very large it just consisted of a few chairs and a table and some odd painting of Gerudo warriors on the wall, while the lounge room was a bit bigger, it was where Link had first met Owyn and Raen. The lounge had an old oak bookshelf and severel plush armchairs and couches and in the middle of the wall was a large fireplace. Surrounding the lounge's doors were various bedrooms and to the right of the lounge was the kitchen and then down the hall there was a nice balcony. Link's eyes were burning from all the light that was emitted in the fortress. It was nice though to be back in the real world even if it was taken over by dark elfs.

Link was taken aback by the sound of later, he had been so busy day dreaming that he hadn't noticed that someone else had joined the table. A very tall Gerudo woman had joined in on the table's conversation. Link could tell that she was a Gerudo by her tan skin and red hair. Link felt even more out of place.

"Do you have someplace where I can wash up?" he asked, he had felt gross for ten years, it was time for a bath.

"Oh? Who are you the mysterious man that broke into my fortress last night?" the Gerudo woman said stiftly. Link couldn't tell if she was angry or not by the tone of her voice.

"He did give us quite a scare." Raen said his silver eyes fixed down on the table.

"Nabooru, he meant no harm." Araxia said, then she whispered the next part, "He was held prisoner by the dark elves down on Lon Lon Ranch."

"I see...do you wish to fight the dark elves and restore Hyrule?" Nabooru said abrutly catching Link off guard.

"Umm...I guess." Link said, although he didn't know how he could, his fighting skills weren't great since he had learned them from Nyk.

"Good, then you can join the rebellion. Do you have any...better clothes?" she said looking at Link's maroon cloak and tattered pants with a look of displeasure.

"No, I don't." Link said quickly.

"I'll get some for you. After you get done washing up I should have them for you." she said as she quickly turned and rushed out of the door.

"Don't mind her, she's always crabby." Zelda said as a scowl played across her face.

"Right...where's the washroom?" Link said ignoring Zelda's comment, he was too excited to be clean to care about what the princess had to say right now.

"I'll show you!" Araxia said eagerly as she jumped up from her seat and hurried Link off to the washroom.

Zelda was now alone with Raen and Owyn. She didn't expect much conversation from them after Araxia left, they were hardly saying anything to begin with. Owyn hadn't looked at Zelda since yesterday, he looked angry with her although she had done nothing wrong that she could think of. "He is just rude..." Zelda thought to herself angrily. She didn't get why Owyn didn't like her or anyone to be more specific, except for his brother.

Raen on the other hand was wishing for someone to talk, he was sick of silence, back in the Deku Tree no one talked, on the ride to the fortress no one talked and now that he was in the fortress no one talked except for Araxia, but she always talked, it was hard to carry on a decent conversation with her since she was so scatterbrained, but at least she didn't wallow in silence like the rest of them. Raen wished he wasn't so shy. Him and his brother were complete opposites, Owyn used to be so outgoing before the accident happend. His brother was braver and stronger then Raen ever wished to be, Raen felt as if he was always living in the shadow of his older brother, even when they were younger, Owyn had outshined him in school and sports and was their parents were always so proud of him. At first Raen had liked the new Owyn the quiet, underachiever Owyn, but now he wished more than ever for his old brother. If Owyn had still been the same guy they wouldn't be in this stupid fortress or stuck in a rotting tree for so long, they would be out fighting with the rest of the Hylian Troops and Vathl would have been dead by now. Raen still sat across from his brother, he couldn't think of anything to say. As always. Raen had wanted to talk about the night of the accident with his brother for so long but Owyn had always shrugged him off and refuse to talk. Raen noticed that Zelda was staring at Owyn again, the first time was last night when they had the pointless meeting with Nabooru and she was doing it again. Owyn of course was too angry to notice that she was looking at him. "Luky..." Raen thought, "The Princess of Hyrule has a thing for my brother and he is too stupid to even look up."

"Isn't Link done yet?" Nabooru reappeared in the fortress with some clothing in her hands.

"Nope, not yet. He was dirty what do you expect, I mean can you imagine not having a bath for ten years? I mean if I didn't have one I would've probably died from being so disgusted with myself...I remember this one time when I was six I was playing outside and..." Araxia continued to ramble on.

"I'll just leave these outside the bathroom." Nabooru said placing the clothes by the door. Araxia stopped talking and scowled, she had noticed that no one was listening to her.

"I have good news!" Nabooru beamed up at the four young adults at the table. When they didn't respond she continued with less enthusiasm. "We've got more people coming to join the rebellion. A group has been found in the lost woods, they want to take destroy Vathl also, the problem is, is that they have refused to come here. Impa found them on her search for food, she said they weren't the friendliest bunch but we could definately use them. Now when Link gets done with washing up I want you to take him and go to the Lost Woods and try to find them." Nabooru said in practically one breath, she inhaled deeply and then looked eagerly around at the people sitting at the table.

"Am I permitted to go?" Zelda asked as she glared at Nabooru.

"Don't be silly, of course not. If something happens to you Impa will have my head." Nabooru laughed while she shrugged Zelda off.

"I want to help!" Zelda argued, it was something she had never done with Nabooru but she was getting sick of waiting in the stupid fortress, it was more like a prisoner instead of a hideout. "I would rather die then stay here any longer." Zelda said while she stood up. She was very angry, and sick of being treated like a little kid, she was as old as Araxia and she would probably be going. "I can fight, I've been practicing with all of the spare time I've had in this ridiculous place." Zelda said, her face was turning red.

"Zelda, I'm sorry, you can't go. It's too dangerous, you could get hurt." Nabooru said quietly.

"You're not my mother, you're only a few years older than I? Why should you be the one to decide what I can and can not do?" Zelda said persuing the arguement, she wasn't going to give up as Nabooru wanted her too.

"I'm the leader here, I say what goes." Nabooru said her voice was rising, Zelda could tell she was making her angry.

"I'm going and there is nothing you can do to stop me." Zelda said smirking.

"I'm afraid the guards will think differently." Nabooru said her voice returning to normal. "I'm sorry you had to see this, please go on with what you were doing." Nabooru said as she walked out of the fortress.

Zelda stormed off into her quarters leaving the rest of the group shocked. Even Owyn had looked up to watch the arguement. Link had returned now wearing a black tunic, it smelled a bit funky but it was much better than what he had been wearing before. "What happened I heard yelling." Link said, the others turned to look at them, Link saw Raen flinch when he looked at the direction where Link was standing.

"Look I know I look bad, get over it. Don't feel bad for me." Link said angrily at Raen. Raen averted his eyes back to the table as he blushed.

"You're coming with us to the Lost Woods to get more recruits." Owyn said while standing up. "Eat this. You still look too skinny." Owyn said while shoving a muffin in Link's hands.

"Oh, when are we going?" Link said taking a bite of his muffin.

"Right now. Take one of these." Owyn said handing Link a sword, it was better than the ones the dark elves carried. Link grabbed the sword from Owyn with his free hand and threw it over his shoulder for easy handeling.

"Do you know how to use this?" Owyn said still not looking at Link in the eyes.

"Sort of..." Link said, the only training he had was with the dark elves and Link didn't know how good he would be compared to the others.

"Well I guess we will have to find out then." Araxia said smiling broadly.

"Go get your shoes on and then we're going." Owyn said impatiently.

Link headed down the hall towards his bedroom door, on his way over he heard sniffiling and a tearing noise. Due to his curiousity Link peered through the door the noise was coming through. Zelda was in her room crying and tearing apart her dresses. "That's probably what the yelling was about." Link thought to himself, he knocked on the door causing Zelda to jump.

"What do you want." Zelda said, her voice was strong despite her crying.

"May I come in." Link asked with a worried look plastered on his face.

"Fine, but hurry and shut the door behind you." Zelda said wiping her face.

Link cracked open the door as little as possible for him to squeeze through and then he shut it abruptly behind him. Inside of Zelda's room there was cloth every where. When Link entered she continued to tear up on of her dresses and then placed the strips of cloth carefully together and then continued to rip them. "What are you doing?" Link asked, he was apparently very confused by Zelda's peculiar actions.

"Your face! It's so white...what did they do to you...oh sorry." she said after she realized the look of hurt that played across Link's face. "It's not you're fault it just surprised me that a person should get so pale." Zelda said with sympathy.

"Don't feel bad, and you'd be surprised, I'm not even that pale compared to the others." Link said chuckling a bit although he found nothing funny about what they were discussing. "Still, what are you doing?" Link asked reverting back to the original subject.

"Oh, Nabooru said I couldn't come so I'm making up a disguise, I've done this before it normally works. But from now on my name is Sheik, okay?" Zelda said as she continued the tearing motion. "Tell the others to wait for me, it'll only be about a half an hour." she said, her voice was becoming more cheerful.

"Um...alright." Link said, he figured that Nabooru was the Gerudo leader he had met earlier. He was still a bit confused with what Zelda was doing. Her make-up was still smeared from when she had been crying and her blonde hair was a tangled mess.

"Go tell them, please?" Zelda said again getting impatient that Link wasn't moving."

"Oh...right." Link said exiting her room, he walked back down to Owyn's room which had been appointed to as Link's now and Owyn had moved into an empty room, and Link grabbed his Kokiri boots, he had made a stop to the Kokiri Forrest before he had come to the fortress i hopes of finding his friend but when he was unable he scrounged around for some fitting boots since his old ones had grown to small and pinched his feet.

When Link told the others about Zelda's plan. Owyn seemed displeased, he rubbed his hands through his jet black hair and sighed while he plopped down into a overstuffed dark red armchair. Raen on the other hand looked happy.

"How long?" Owyn said he was sitting with his head in his hands.

"Only about 20 minutes now." Link said not sure if Owyn was going to hit him or not.

"20 minutes? That'll take forever." Owyn whined while glaring at Link.

"That's not even that long, be quiet." Raen said. Link could've sworn that he saw Raen smile a bit when he thought no one was looking.

"So...Zelda's going right?" Araxia said finally catching on to what was being sad."

"Yes, are you retarded?" Owyn said hatefully.

"No!" Araxia said taken abash. "I was just thinking that now we don't have enough horses." We only have the three we brought and then Nabooru was lending one to Link. We can't just go ask her, she didn't want Zelda to know. Who's the retard now?" Araxia said while she pushed her black hair out of her face glaring with her purple eyes at Owyn.

"Oh darn, we can't go now." Raen said, he wasn't a very good lier. Even while he said this he didn't bother to stop smiling.

"Yes we can, she can ride with me." Owyn offered. "The horse is big enough it'll fit both, and Raen grow a backbone for once, you're embarassing me." Owyn said insulting his brother.

"Shut up." Raen said, although Owyn had just insulted him Raen was happy, his brother was becoming more and more talkative by the hour. It may have been the fresh air or the fact that they were out of the stupid tree, but it didn't matter, the old Owyn was streaking through.

"How do I look?" Zelda, well now Sheik said. Sheik had appeared out of Zelda's bedroom, Zelda had covered up her entire body so just that a few strands of her blonde hair peaked out and covered up her now red eyes.

"Whoa, how did you change you're eye color?" Araxia said hurrying over to Zelda to inspect her clothing.

"Impa taught me how to do it. Apparently I am 1/8 Sheikah and I use Sheik as my alter ego, when I was younger this was how I would escape out of the castle. Are we ready to go?" Sheik said.

"Yes, lets go." Owyn said he had been waiting by the door ever since Sheik had first appeared.

The five of them exited out of the fortress, Sheik stayed towards the middle, she still didn't want the Nabooru or one of the guard's to notice her. When they had reached the stables four horses stood lazily, Nabooru had already went through the trouble of saddeling them up for the four.

"Um...where do I ride?" Sheik asked looking even more confused as the four had already mounted the horses leaving her on the ground.

"With me, hurry up. I don't want Nabooru to come." Owyn said while he picked up Sheik and placed her on the back of his dozy dark brown stallion. "Grab on or you'll fall off." Owyn said sounding a bit irritated.

"Oh..sorry." Sheik said as she placed her arms awkwardly around Owyn's waist. It was weird riding throughout Hyrule field, the horses were running quite fast and the thunddering of the hooves made it difficult to speak. One would have to yell if they wanted to be heard. Zelda had never been on a horse before, her father had forbidden her to ride before, he said it was too dangerous and that she could get trampeled to death. Her father worried too much, and so did Nabooru. Zelda missed her father and mother terribly she hadn't seen her father since the dark elves had taken over when she was six and her mother had died when she was four. Zelda had basically been raised by the women of the gerudo tribe and when Zelda was fifteen Nabooru had been appointed to the leader after the old leader had past away when Nabooru was only eighteen.

"How do we get to the Lost Woods?" Araxia shouted from somewhere left of Zelda.

"We can either get their from Goron City or from the Kokiri Forrest. Our best bet is to go to the Kokiri Forrest, the dark elves have taken over Kakariko Village and part of the mountain." Link said, surpsing everyone with his knowledge. Everyone expected him to know nothing from being imprissoned for so long.

Link suspected this so he answered, "When you're in a place full of dark elves you overhear things." Link said simply, while he kept his eyes focused on the plains ahead of him. "I went to the Kokiri Forrest before I came to the fortress last night. There's hardly any dark elves there."

"We know." Raen said harshly, he had been in a grumpy mood ever since they had started riding. "We were just there yesterday, we came to the fortress about four hours before you surprised us."

Araxia scowled at him, him and Owyn may be different but when they were angry they could get so idiotic and rude. It made her mad. "Just because you're scared doesn't mean you have to be a jerk." Araxia shouted at Raen. Raen was taken aback.

"I am not scared. I'm just a little mad that we have to go back to that stupid Deku Tree." Raen lied. He knew Araxia and Owyn would see right through him but Sheik and Link wouldn't know.

"What is there to be scared of? The elves?" Link said, his confidence was going up now that he knew that the group had only formed a few hours before he had arrived.

"I am not scared! I know for a fact that I won't get captured like some of you." Raen said angrily, he didn't like Link.

"I was seven. And you are a jerk when you get frightened." Link said, he wasn't necessarily angry with Raen since he was scared but that didn't mean Raen could blab off his mouth either. Link continued, "If they come for you, I'll let them get you." Link said looking over and Raen.

Raen's face had turned white, and his knuckles had too since he was clutching onto the horse's reins so tightly. His older brother Owyn laughed. Araxia looked over at Owyn surprised, she hadn't heard him laugh like that in years.

"Aren't you happy today?" Araxia said while looking over at Owyn and Sheik.

Owyn ignored Araxia and instead pointed up toward an opening in the forrest. "We're here."

the end...that one was a bit longer then the others but no matter...chapter 5 is in progress so it won't be long until my next update