Hi! It's Hyaci! I'm back to this fic after a hiatus of... many, many months. Updates may be sporadic, but please stay... interested lol.

Zelda looked in the mirror before her, and saw a stranger staring back. No longer was she the crown princess of Hyrule. Now, she was disguised as an ordinary girl. Everything about her was ordinary now- her hair, her clothes, everything. She even thought that, in comparison, her even her face looked rather plainer than before.

"Nobody should recognize you now," a voice said tiredly. That voice belonged to a large, plump woman with red hair and a weary disposition. Zelda momentarily wondered if, perhaps, it was the long war that had robbed this woman of her personality. She had met many people like that- people who had been changed by the war. Her mother was one of them.

She shook herself from those thoughts. It would do no good to think of her mother now- not when it made her lust for revenge. She had to concentrate on her escape- to even think of revenge would be detrimental to her chances, especially if she let her impulses control her.

"No," Zelda answered softly. "I'm completely different now." Her voice held a mournful tone- she was dismayed at the thought of shedding her identity in its entirety. Being a princess was how she was defined- without it, she had nothing, was nothing.

"Tough luck, honey," Telma replied, correctly interpreting the situation as something that would bubble into an identity crisis, and evidently not having the patience to deal with such things. She gave an exhausted sigh, and pointed towards the door. "The carriage is outside. There's a secret compartment under the seats- you'll hide down there. Of course, you'll need magic to open it-"

"Magic?" Zelda interrupted, panicking. "I can't do magic!"

"You can't?" Telma asked her incredulously. "What in the world was your mother teaching you these past five years?"

"Ettiquette! Propriety! Domestic skills! Things that princesses are expected to learn! Not magic!"

"So basically nothing useful?" Telma rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Your father's influence, no doubt. He never liked it when your mother used her magic... it made him feel inadequate. Weak. Less of a man." Another sigh, deeper this time, more despondent. "That makes everything me and your mother planned so much harder."

"You mean you can't smuggle me out?" Zelda asked, her voice breaking and colouring with fear as she did so. She began to wring her hands out of a nervous habit she had never been able to break.

"Do you listen?" Telma snapped. "I never said anything like that. I just said that your inexperience would make things more difficult."

Zelda said nothing. Instead, she just looked at Telma with a timid look on her face. Telma softened at this, perhaps due to maternal urges that had been long buried by the war. "Look," she said, her voice a tad bit kinder, slower, less angry. "I'm just frustrated by all this. Look, maybe we can get Fanadi to help us."

"Fanadi?"

"The fortuneteller," Telma explained. "She can help us open the secret compartment. For a price."

"She can use magic?"

"No," Telma said with a brittle laugh. "She can pick locks. One of the few who can crack magical ones.."

Zelda nodded. So not all hope was lost- this fortuneteller would assist them in leaving the city, and then from there...

"And what do we do afterwards?" Really, she hoped that there was some sort of plan. She didn't want to have to leave the town with nowhere to go, and no idea of what to do- that was asking for death. Especially during these troubled times.

Telma shook her head. "You'll be going alone," she said. "The carriage will take you all the way to Ordon- that's the part of Hyrule that's furthest from castle town- and hopefully you'll be able to stay there until all this dies down."

A sinking feeling materialized in Zelda's stomach, and she sunk into a thoughtful silence. She was going have to be by herself. This smacked of cliche- undoubtedly, the carriage would be accosted on the way there. Then, the story would take one of two possible routes- either a prince would come along and whisk her off her feet, or she would be kidnapped by some sort of evil. Currently, the latter seemed much more likely, especially if her fears were correct and there was some sort of conspiarcy...

"Don't overthink it," Telma spoke, again correctly gauging the source of Zelda's newfound pensiveness. "Even if the carriage is attacked, only someone who can use magic can find you. You just have to stay quiet until they're gone, and you're safe."

The princess nodded. "Okay," she said, trying to make herself sound determined. "Okay."

Leaning down, the bartender gave Zelda a kiss on the cheek. "You'll be fine," she said in a motherly tone. "You'll be just fine."

The carriage came to a sudden stop, and Zelda found herself worrying immensely. The ride hadn't lasted long enough for them to have reached her destination- they had only been on the road for a couple of hours, when everyone knew it took a matter of days to traverse the distance between castle town and Ordon village. Even if they had made it, why would the carriage stop so abruptly? A slow stop was far more convenient, as well as far safer. Something was off- she just knew it.

The carriage lurched. Chills ran down her back, and she shivered instinctively. Even her body knew something was wrong. Really, it would be nothing other than denial to not acknowledge the potential danger. Quickly, she began to plan her possible courses of action. Either she could stay within and hope the whole thing blew over, or she could try and escape now while the attacker was distracted by the horses and the carriage driver. Neither of the options seemed particularly attractive, but she was leaning towards the latter.

Her hand was reaching towards the handle that would let her out of the compartment, when all of a sudden, the carriage began to move again. Zelda felt herself sink back in relief- so it was nothing. She had just let her fears carry her away. Now, the carriage was moving again, and she was back on the right track to Ordon.

Was it... was it just her imagination, or was the ride bumpier than before? They were currently on a plain, weren't they? Grass... wasn't grass supposed to be soft? Smoother. Fear once again wormed its way past her subconscious and invaded her mind. Whoever was driving the carriage was evidently taking her off the right path. But... who?

An epiphany struck her, and she began to maneuver herself until she was facing the ground. Zelda moved her hand up and down the wood beneath her, testing it for any flaws. Sure enough, there was a weak spot close to her midsection. She curled herself up until she was face to face with the spot, and in a swift motion, pulled the ring off her finger, and used the gem to break it.

"Yes," she hissed in triumph, before stopping herself in fear of being heard. Quietly, she listened to see if there was any reaction from the new carriage driver, but when the carriage failed to stop, she knew that she had not been overheard. Quickly, she moved herself so that her eye was right over the hole, and looked the the outside ground below.

Rock and gravel... rock and gravel? The ground was red- a rusty color... no, this was definitely not on the way to Ordon. Both Ordon and Hyrule field had ground covered by lush green grass. She had been kidnapped...

Or, perhaps, not. Maybe whoever it was that had appropriated the carriage only did so for the material riches they thought it would contain. Surely her presence hadn't been detected. And besides, she reminded herself, even if she was discovered, they would never be able to get to her. As long as she remained in the hidden compartment, she was safe- safe unless they knew how to break the lock . And, as far as her knowledge went, there were very few people who were skilled enough to unlock the door. Even Fanadi had struggled with the task, and was really only able to do so after plethoras of failed attempts...

If nothing else, Zelda was vaguely comforted by the thought. She knew it was no true assurance of her safety- after all, there was the possibility that her kidnapper knew of Fanadi's methods- but it assuaged her worries to some degree, at the very least. In any case, the thought that her kidnapper did would not have the chance to kill her gave her some sort of morbid amusement. Assuming that the person who was steering the carriage had neither the knowledge nor the ability to unlock the secret compartment, she was, in effect, cheating him or her out of the chance to have the princess of Hyrule at his or her mercy. In that hypothetical situation, it was a small victory that Zelda could revel in, even if she were destined to die. Even if Hyrule was destined to suffer the loss of its princess, at least it would have the satisfaction of denying this person the right of killing her...

But who was she kidding? That was no compensation. She shook her head to clear herself of such thoughts. She couldn't just sit here and accept the situation as it was! Zelda felt something harden within her- yes, she told herself. A princess of Hyrule shouldn't have to suffer the indecency of such a death. The newly uncovered steel within her rewarded her with both an epiphany as well as a burst of adrenaline, and she brought her fist hurtling down to the bottom of the carriage.

A bright triangle suddenly appeared on the top of her hand. It was shimmering, splendid, and golden. Her eyes could barely see it due to the brightness that illuminated it, but what she could see was wondrously beautiful She had no chance to even feel surprised before her hand broke through the boards with force she knew she was incapable of. In the split second before she fell through the newly made hole, her eyes widened and she registered the fact that she hadn't felt the pain she had been expecting the floorboards to give her. Strange, strange. The triangle that had appeared on her hand- what was it?

And then she was hurtling out from the bottom of the carriage, her brain once more resumed its activity. As she had planned, she curled into a ball to minimize damage to her body. She rolled as far as she could from the carriage, and when she rolled no further, she stood and dusted herself off. A quick glance behind her told her that it had been bokoblins that had taken control of the cart. The fact that one of them looked at her briefly before looking away made it evident that they were aware of her, but felt that she was of no value, presented no interest to them. For the first- and most likely only- time in her life, she felt grateful that she had been rated as insignificant.

There, far too close to Eldin Gorge, stood a little girl, no more than five or six years old. Her face held an strangely solemn expression- one unusual for someone of her age. Tiny fists were held to her sides, clenched. Clenched so tight that her little fingernails were sure to make half-moon marks on her palm. But the most jarring- the most out of place characteristic- was the expression in her little, blue, almond shaped eyes. It was an look that could rarely be observed in young children such as she. An expression that was, however, certainly to be expected on the face of someone who had gone as much hardship as this little princess. Indeed, it was the only one anybody could truly expect for her to wear on her face.

Hate.

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