Prologue : Seven Years Ago

Something was wrong.

Link had just managed to sneak his way deep into the castle. He made it to an interior courtyard where a girl peeked at a window, and he was getting ready to approach her when the wave of nausea hit. He staggered and put a hand to his stomach, then leaned forward against a bout of vertigo that nearly brought him to his knees.

A loud ringing filled his head. He had the most intense feeling of missing something going on in the other room. Ahead of him, the girl put a hand to her forehead and swayed, then turned and met his eyes.

Immediately the feelings of ill ease dissipated, but he felt as if a fog fell over him. The girl's brow furrowed as she stared at him. "I… know you," she said, her voice soft.

She looked familiar to Link in a way he couldn't describe, but he knew he'd never seen her before in his life. He shook his head and took a few steps forward. He felt the way his forehead wrinkled, a mirror of her confusion.

Gradually her expression began to clear. She lowered her hand from her head, interlocking her fingers against her skirt. The sigil of the royal family was emblazoned on the fabric behind her hands, the three golden triangles of the Triforce above a red bird-like design. "I've dreamed about you," she said. "A boy all in green, a boy with a fairy, come from the forest. You're here to help. You're here because of him." She turned back to the window and peered through. Her head turned from side to side, and then she pulled back, raising her fingers to her lips. "He's gone."

"Who?" Link asked, stepping up onto the marble platform beside her. He could hear raised voices coming from the room she spied on, along with the clatter of weapons and armor.

"Ganondorf. The Gerudo king." She shook her head, the corners of her mouth pulling down. "It's like he just… disappeared." She breathed in sharply as she watched through the tiny window. "Oh, no…"

Link ducked so that he could peek through beside the girl. He could just see a handful of women in gauzy, midriff-baring clothing pressed up against a line of castle guards. All of them had hands on their weapons, though none were drawn, and raised voices echoed from the walls. "You bring him back! You dishonor the Gerudo in your own palace! You invite war with us!"

And the king's voice: "What sorcery is this? I'll have none of your tricks in my castle! Leave at once!"

The girl turned slightly to look at Link. Her face was inches from his. "Did you do this?"

"No!" He met her eyes. "I don't even know what's going on."

Sudden weight on his shoulder made him jump and whirl around. A woman with white hair and deep red eyes had one hand on his shoulder and one on the girl's. She drew them away from the window. "Link. Princess. It isn't safe here. I will escort you to your chambers."

Link started to pull away. What was going on? This strange woman knew his name. He didn't have chambers in the castle. Where was she taking him? But Navi settled on his shoulder and spoke, her voice soft and urgent: "Trust her, Link. Do what she says. I have to go. Your quest here is done. The Great Deku Tree has summoned me back."

The Great Deku Tree was dead last time Link saw it. But Kokiri did not question their fairies. Link wouldn't either.

Locked in a guest chamber that night, Link found it almost impossible to sleep. The feather bed was far too soft. Too many strange things were happening around him. And he didn't like the feeling of being trapped. When he finally fell asleep, horrible nightmares came to him: flashes of pure terror, fighting for his life in a dozen deadly situations that wouldn't clarify long enough for him to find a strategy. He thrashed hard enough to nearly knock himself from the bed, and the sensation of falling ripped him awake. There were no more pillows on the bed. The blanket hung off one corner.

He heard or felt something—maybe a breath, maybe a footstep—and knew he wasn't alone. He scrambled away over the bed and rolled off the other side. The impact knocked the air from his lungs. "Link, it is just me. Impa. The princess' guardian." The woman from the courtyard seemed to melt out of the shadows. The lines of paint extending down her cheeks looked like ghosts trying to escape her eyes.

He pushed himself up against the opposite wall of the room. "What do you want?"

"I didn't mean to frighten you." There was something false about the lightness of her tone. "I heard you in here. It sounded like you were having trouble sleeping." She slipped a small set of pipes from the sash at her waist. "I thought I might be able to help."

The thundering in Link's chest slowly began to ease, but suspicion weighed heavily on him. "What happened today? I heard things, but I've been locked in this room…"

"Don't worry about that now," Impa said. She gestured to the bed. "Just try to sleep for now. We can talk about everything else in the morning." She didn't wait for him to respond. She set the pipes against her lips and began to play.

It was a short, happy melody that seemed eerily familiar. Despite his unease Link found that calm rolled through him and made his eyelids heavy. He slid toward the bed and climbed back up, but he didn't lie down. He sat with his arms hugged around his knees, watching her play.

When the last note faded away, she said, "Zelda's Lullaby. It has sent the princess off to sleep more nights than you could count." She put the pipes away and tilted her head, watching him. "Sleep, Link. You'll need it."

He didn't want to listen, but his body obeyed her command. When he drifted off, no nightmares came calling. He was alone in the dark with Zelda's Lullaby haunting the back corner of his mind.

Thank you for reading! I'd love your feedback. This will update on Tuesdays. I've uploaded the first two chapters today to catch me up to my progress on my Wattpad account. If you like my work, please find me there, where my name is Karrie Zai.