Author's Notes: This is an Elseworlds Story of Ocarina of Time, the second half.

Moon Pearl

I. The Raid

It really all came down to random events. A random event and a child of a noble house vanished along with his mother into the woods. A random event and a man learns of a great power beyond all things.

When Princess Zelda Lyris Hyrule was five, her mother vanished. One day, she was there, bright, beautiful, and blonde. The next day, she was no longer there. When the king was asked about the whereabouts of his wife, he shook his head sadly and said, "Where she wants to be." And said no more on the subject.

There were many things said about it. She had been assassinated. The king of Hyrule had killed her because she bore no sons and was buried in the basement of the castle. Finally there was everyone's personal favorite… she had been killed by the ever fierce Impa Miyako, Zelda's bodyguard and nanny who had showed up around the time the queen's vanishment.

But whatever the reason, little Princess Zelda thrived and had become somewhat of a tomboy by her tenth year of life. Perhaps that was the reason that the warrior Impa was able to train her so well. But I being an old scholar digress.

It is impossible to know what happened in the time of the Imprisoning War. There have been many theories that have popped up to explain this. One is that there were many Zeldas and many Links. Another is that there are many realities and this one is the reality we live in. People tend to be vague on that account.

Which brings me to this following account. It is impossible to know if this tale is the one we are looking for. The culmination of tales. The true Legend of Zelda. It is impossible to tell whether the events are true or false. Some scholars of the period believe that the Legend of Zelda is an allegory, cleverly disguised as historical fact.

The container in which the following story was found dropped onto the head of one of my colleagues. A portal measuring one meter by one meter dropped open and deposited it upon his head. Also falling out of the portal was a tray loaded with tea, lightly boiled eggs, toast, and a little pot of jam. Obviously, the story within was ancient, being written in the most ancient and sacred tongue of the Hyrule Empire. No record of this exists, but the theories contained within explain many of our own cultures and races. Indeed, this story might come from an Alternate Universe as proposed by several of our scientists. I am only the man who writes as I see and see as I write.

-Sage Greene, Chief Scholar and Historian at The Southern Hyrule University by the Sea, New Kasuto City, Hyrule

PS: The tea was excellent as were the eggs. The jam was a bit runny and the bread was slightly burnt.

ooo

"My lady!"

Let me sleep. Zelda didn't say it, just thought it in the back of her mind. Didn't being a Princess mean you could sleep all the way through the night? Certainly, because of her prophecy dreams, Zelda hadn't been enjoying peaceful nights. So why after finally having a dreamless sleep, did she have to be woken up?

"My lady!"

One of her maids was slapping her face. Reluctantly Zelda opened her eyes and wished she hadn't. The maid's face was dripping with blood from a gouge that had been carved in her cheek. And her ears. Goddess, her ears.

The ends were shredded and blood oozed from them. "Anne," she said, her hands coming up to cover her own ears, "Your ears." Years later, she would mentally slap herself for how immature she had sounded. She did have a right to it. She was only twelve, a few days away from thirteen, after all. "Your poor, poor ears."

Anne pulled the young princess out of bed. "There's no time for that now," she said, hissing slightly at the pain. "Get dressed, your highness. As quickly as you can. Evil lurks in these walls."

Zelda hopped out of bed as quickly as she could, pulling on the nearest dress and headdress she could find. There was no time to argue. "What is it?" she asked although she already knew. Had known for over two months. "Is someone attacking?"

Her maid opened her mouth as if to answer but blood bubbled out of her mouth. Shocked, Zelda followed Anne's gaze down to the sharpened staff that pierced through the woman's gut. And holding that staff was a Gerudo, lean, red-haired, and amber eyed. "Hello, kitten. Our esteemed lord Ganondorf holds the castle." Her eyes gleamed crueler than those of the legendary demi-god Shapeshifter Keaton. "Little Princess Zelda … your time grows short. Let me hasten that for you."

Zelda could do nothing. She trembled, whimpered, backed away, and nearly wet herself. The Gerudo woman laughed mockingly. "Surprised at all, little kitten?"

"Go away." Zelda's back hit the wall and she kept scrambling back until her back brushed the wall. Biting back a scream, she continued to press against it as if she could pass through it. "Go away. We've done nothing wrong to you."

The Gerudo woman laughed harshly as any desert jackal or a giggling poe. "Done nothing," she repeated, pulling her staff out of Anne with a horrible crunching and wet noise. Anne hit the floor twitching, bloody froth seeping out of her nostrils. She twitched once, twice, and finally still. "My dear, you have done everything wrong."

Please let me go through the wall, Zelda begged to the goddesses on high. Let me pass through and run away. There was the rising taste of vomit in her throat couple with a new taste… the acrid bitter taste only smoke could bring. The paintings and tapestries in the halls of Hyrule Castle were obviously on fire. Centuries of art and history were being destroyed in a matter of minutes. Coughing, Zelda edged her way along the wall, fingers searching for anything that resembled a secret passage. The castle was said to be littered with them. That had been how the forest child Link had found his way into her private garden. She found no button or hidden door; just plaster covering something that at one point might have been a door. Clearly, her father's endless remodeling of the castle was going to be the death of her. "But I promise you that we have done nothing."

The Gerudo's eyes narrowed. If anything, Zelda would say that the thief had seen that as a challenge. "Then why do you hide the sacred triangles? Move your hands away from the wall, little princess who shall be nothing momentarily."

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped several degrees. Zelda watched as gooseflesh formed on the Gerudo's exposed arms and belly. Rolling black fog was moving along the floor. Impa was coming to aid her. Zelda quickly realized the fact and tried to hide a smirk.

It was immediately noticed. "What are you smiling about?" the Gerudo demanded, ripping off the veil covering her mouth and nose. "And answer me quickly."

"I smile," Zelda said, as the black fog behind the thief formed into a column. "Because…"

"Because why?"

Impa's fully formed arms shot out and twisted the Gerudo's neck. There was a simply pop sound and the life in the Gerudo's eyes went out. "Because," Zelda said, smiling broadly, "That's why."

Impa's head and neck, followed by the rest of her body, condensed out of the fog. "This, your highness, is no time to be smiling."

"I know that, Impa," Zelda said, trying to not smile even though she could still feel one tugging at her lips and cheeks. "Where is Link?"

All she got from Impa was a slight pursing of lips. "Still at Zora's Domain, I expect. The other Sheikah in the kingdom haven't reported anything to me yet. Meaning…" She let the last word hang in the air. Even if Impa didn't answer right away, which she never did, there was a chance that her bodyguard was mulling it over. "Meaning for all I know, your hero could be on the way at the moment."

Zelda nodded. "I understand that," she said, straightening her headdress, "But I think that I've forgotten something." She thought for a moment and squeaked, "The Ocarina!"

"Zelda…"

Zelda tore around the room, tearing through her various boxes. "I need to find it, I need to find it."

"Zelda…"

Impa's hand grabbed her and held her young charge still, while the other hand produced the Ocarina of Time. Zelda sighed in relief and immediately found something else to protest about. "My mother's music box! I won't let that brute have it! The family's crown jewels! He'd melt them down in an instant!"

"In any case," Impa said, bending down and picking up Zelda before she could think up another worry, "This is where we leave."

Suddenly, Impa's feet turned smoky. Zelda watched at the smoke rolled up Impa's legs. "What's happening?" she asked.

There was a silence, save for the crackling of the fires in the castle and the whistling noise Impa's transformation was making. "We must phase through the floor, Princess."

"Why?"

The smoke rolled up Impa's legs and up around Zelda. Zelda would later describe it as if she were trapped in an ice cube. The world whistled around her for a few brief moments and she found herself in a void where floating across from her was a mirror. Despite her great fear, Zelda looked into it.

A small Sheikah girl floated in the mirror, a twisted reflection of Zelda. She nearly screamed if her lungs still existed in Impa's strange nothing form. The reflection's skin was tan as any Gerudo warriors. The hair was pale blond with a silver tinge to it. And the eyes. They gleamed from the young female reflection's eyes like little rubies with sparks like embers trapped in their depths.

She is me, Zelda realized. The mirror shattered and the world surged around her. Zelda saw bedrooms, bathrooms, stone walls, and stone floors alike. She saw Gerudo roaming the halls, from veiled priestesses to scantily clad warrior women. She nearly gasped, but held it back. Even within Impa's mist form, she was unsure if the sound would be heard or not.

Seconds later, Impa's feet reappeared at the bottom of the mist. Her legs reformed, silver sparks reforming her armor. Her torso shimmered into being with a silver and black poof. As soon as her arms solidified, she placed Zelda down. Zelda stared up at the swirling mass of darkness with pinpricks of red that was her guardian's head. "Uh," she began. It was very disturbing to see Impa that way.

"We're down behind the throne room," Impa said, cloud pulsating as she spoke.

Zelda tugged at Impa's hand. "Impa, your head…. your head is…"

If Impa had a face, it would be frowning. "I see," she said and seconds later, Impa's face and hair flowed into being. It was longer that her usual shoulder length style. "That will not do," Impa said, as if sensing what Zelda was thinking.

Impa pulled her sword from her belt and grabbed her hair in one fist. With a simple pull of her sword, she had cut her back to its normal shoulder-length hairstyle. "So, it's simple as that," Impa said, taking Zelda's hand. "Shall we go?"

"Impa, should we really being going through the throne room?" Zelda asked as Impa cracked open the door.

The door was ornate and painted heavy wood. Even with Impa's strength, it would take much to open the heavy door a tiny sliver of a ways open. "It's the only we can go," Impa said, "Going to mist form and back twice in a row took a lot out of me."

"We're taking a great risk here," Zelda said as Impa peered around the door.

Impa frowned and leaned against the heavy door. "As the Sheikah say, 'Any risk is one worth taking. To delay means making the wrong choice.' This, it would seem, is one of these times," she paused and braced her feet against the door. "And I do not see Ganondorf anywhere."

Zelda smiled nervously. "Do you want me to help you? You seem tired."

The only response she got was Impa shaking her head. Obviously, Impa thought she could do this even if she was tired. "Let me hold the Ocarina then," she said, holding out her hands.

Impa nodded slightly, handing the blue clay instrument to her. Zelda cradled it in her arms. It was warm and smooth, pulsing as if it was alive. "I won't let it out my sight."

Her bodyguard nodded and with a final push, opened the door far enough that only one person could slip through. Eagerly, the young princess slipped through the door. She felt Impa grab for her, but all her guardian could snag of the princess was her headdress. Zelda continued past the statues and tapestries to the back of the thrones. She stopped as soon as she passed her father's throne. There was an eerily quiet and stillness to the room and if time had stopped. Blood red moonlight filtered through the shattered windows as if Ganondorf had enchanted the heavens themselves. A distant roll of thunder loomed in the distance and it seemed almost false in its mocking roar.

Then from nowhere, a voice Ywhispered…

"Zelda… my Zelda…"

Something grasped her ankle causing her to stumble and fall. She squeaked and landed hard, teeth slicing into her tongue. Zelda spat blood onto the stone floor and turned to see who had grabbed her leg.

Then wished she hadn't. A flash of lightning illuminated the horror and the poor man's plight.

The man lying on the floor was badly beaten, his pale eyes nearly swollen shut. He had no hair for his scalp had been cut off taking every hair with it. Such a sad looking man with a bruised face. Ganondorf had shown this poor soul no mercy. "Zelda… my Zelda," he repeated, hands out-stretched to touch her ankle, "Please forgive this old fool…"

"Impa," Zelda called out and Impa was by her side in a moment.

"Careful, your highness," Impa said, pulling Zelda back. "Running out like that…"

Zelda looked at Impa, eyes wide with terror. "Impa," she whispered, clutching her guardian's leg tightly, "That poor man."

The man's eyes rolled up to look over at Zelda, blood still trickling from the ruin of his mouth and nose. Whoever this man was, Zelda decided, he was a man to be pitied. "Zelda… my Zelda," the man repeated.

Zelda wished she could bury her head into the walls. Anything to not hear the piteous death cries of this poor soul. "Impa, who is this man?"

Impa remained silent, stroking Zelda's hair through her headdress. Finally, she managed to say something. "Don't you know?" she whispered fiercely. "Don't you know? Dear gods, child, don't you know?"

She looked up at Impa, eyes wide. "Know what? Impa… tell me…"

All she received was Impa shaking her head, tears streaming out of her eyes. Her silver eye marks smeared beneath them and trickled down her cheeks in the tears. "Don't you know? Don't you know? Don't you know?"

The man continued to gasp for breath. Such horrid wet-sounding noises he made. "Impa, please tell me. I don't know. So tell me or I shall slap you. I will! I'll slap you hard and if you don't tell me then…" She chewed on her lip while she clenched and unclenched her hand. "I'll slap you again."

Impa looked down at Zelda finally. "Zelda, please forgive me for assuming you knew, but that man…" She chewed her lower lip until it was bloody. "That man is your father."

ooo

"Are you awake?"

Link tried to answer, but it was like answering through a mouthful of tissue. Navi wouldn't let up until he had. He didn't want to get up, even if he had to. His legs, up to his knees and both his hands stung sharply. "Mmrph," he said.

Navi's small hand brushed against his brow. Okay, so she was almost acting maternal. Not bad. Suddenly she smacked him with a wing. "Get up you lazy boy!"

He sighed and batted at her. So much for nice fairy. "Go away, I hurt."

Two small hands pried open his left eyelid. A small blue face with eyes like two bits of coal stared back at him. Navi was obviously ticked. "Why do you think I brought help?"

Link opened both eyes. "Help? What are you talking about?"

"Grr…" Navi stormed back and forth. This would have looked serious except she was doing it mid air, wings buzzing. He muffled a snort. "And don't laugh."

Link nodded.

"Open your other eye."

Grumbling, he did, although it felt like scrapping sandpaper. The world was a blur of color and he blinked until it became clearer. There was another fairy next to Navi. She glowed rose-colored instead of blue-white, but otherwise was the same sort of translucent fairy as Navi. "This is Ceruel. Say hi to the silly Kokiri boy who got himself into the belly of a fish."

Link tossed his hat at her and regretted doing it because of the wounds and his hands. "Ow, ow, ow… my poor hands."

Ceruel turned a brighter shade of pink bordering on red. "I'm pleased to meet your acquaintance," she said, small voice trembling.

"Is that all you have to say?" Navi teased, the halo of light surrounding her flickering. Link had recently realized this was Navi's way of laughing. "You shouldn't need to talk to this bumpkin so formally."

Link tossed a nearby vase at Navi. She dodged it, thumbing her nose. "Let's see if Ceruel heals you, Mr. I traipsed around in a fish's gut!"

"Um," Ceruel said tugging on Navi's dress, "I do intend to heal him no matter what."

Navi turned with a whirl of dainty skirts made from the flowers of bluebells. She held a finger up to her mouth. "Sssssh," she whispered, not aware that Link could hear every word she said. "I want him to think-"

Link took one finger and whacked her on the head. Navi squeaked, wings folding in on themselves as she clonked down on the desk. "Hey," Link said to Navi's twitching legs, "Wait until I'm out of earshot."

Navi's wings fluttered as she tugged the skirt of her dress over her momentarily bare bottom. She straightened her wings and shoulders and walked over the bedclothes, up Link's neck, and sat on his nose. "Who cares if you're out of earshot or not?" She walked over and bounced on one of his ears. "With these pointed things you could hear a bug burp on the other side of the world."

He glared.

Ceruel fluttered in midair and smoothed her dress.

Navi continued to bounce.

Link glared some more and complimented the universe. Which, at the moment, was the throbbing his wounds were giving out. It was a small universe.

Ceruel's glow pulsed bright and then dim in a sequence that could drive anyone mad.

Navi bounced some more.

Link sighed and tilted his ear to the side, Navi falling off. "Okay," he said, "I'm getting sick of this." He straightened the hood on his head. "Did you just bring this Cer-ule character…"

The pink of the other fairy's glow dimmed slightly. "Actually, it's Ce-rue-el," she said, pointing at herself. "Ce-rue-el. Ce-rue-el."

Ordinarily, Link would have been polite to Ceruel, but he honestly didn't care. "And I don't care!"

Ceruel burst into tears.

"Great," he said to the roof of the cavern he was in, "You must hate me. All three of you."

There was nothing but the sound of rushing water and Ceruel's sobbing. Navi glared at him. "Look," she said, "I didn't bring Ceruel to laugh at you." She folded her lower set of arms and drummed her upper arms against them. Like all fairies, she had four arms, each capable of yanking pointed ears. "It's rather too easy to laugh at you."

"Ha, ha, Navi."

Navi smiled softly. "Well, you just make it so easy."

"That's great," he huffed and poked Ceruel's small shoulder. The fairy continued her heartfelt sobs. "Hey you."

Ceruel's face raised, eyes shining wet. "Yes, good sir?"

Link took a deep breath, knowing that this would be hard to say. "I'm sorry for making you cry."

He waited for her to say anything or start crying harder. Ceruel sniffled a bit more. Navi cleared her throat.

"What?"

She extended a hand toward Ceruel. "Repeat what I say."

He blinked. "Why?"

"Obviously, you're going about this all wrong," Navi said. "Now repeat after me."

"Now repeat after me."

Navi looked like she wanted to toss herself off a cliff.

ooo

Zelda's hands clung to her father's mangled ones, unheeding of the blood now. It didn't matter that she could barely recognize him. When her hands touched his, he almost smiled. That was enough for her. "Father, you can't die."

The stone under her feet grew warmer and wetter as her father's blood spilled out onto the floor. Nevertheless, her father's hand gripped her own tightly. "Please, my Zelda," her father said slowly, liquid gurgling underneath the sound of every breath he took. "Forgive this fool for not believing you."

She held her father's hands as long as she knew she probably could. How fragile life other than those of the goddesses were. "Of course I do… it must have seemed like the silly dream of a child."

Impa shook her head and glanced at the King. Crouching low, she pressed two fingers against the King's bloody throat. She sighed and looked at Zelda. "He's weakening, Princess. Obviously there is nothing potions can do."

"Are you sure?" Zelda asked.

"Princess," Impa said sternly, "It is simply your father's time."

The King rolled his eyes up to look at Impa. Was that love Zelda saw in his eyes? For Impa? Or for someone long passed away. "It's all right, Lyris," he said, saying the name of Zelda's long dead mother. "She's simply scared. We all are."

Impa bowed lowly. "Of course we are. Ganondorf's forces attacked swiftly and without warning. My small unit of Sheikah fighters can barely hold them out."

This was impossible. How could they give up hope so easily? Zelda stomped her slipper-clad foot against the ground. "Stop it!"

Impa frowned. "And what can be done? Your father is dying."

Zelda managed a watery smile. "How fast can we get to the Great Fairy's Fountain?"

ooo

Ruto was a Zora with a dream. All Zoras had dreams of course, for all Zoras dreamed because the goddesses above deemed it so. How could they not? However, Ruto's dream was far better.

To find a husband.

He would have strong fins, of course. How else would he carry her across the waves? He would have eyes the color of jet, for what shade could be lovelier?

"Stop watching me," her future and non-Zora like husband said.

He would be a most becoming shade of blue.

"But I like watching you be annoyed because I'm watching you," Ruto chirped.

He glared at her. By Zora standards, Ruto could say he was downright ugly. That nose, those golden stands of hair, and the lack of desirable ridges. "Go, go," he said, "I'm trying to pull off these bandages so Ms. Whatever Her Name Is…" Link pointed at a point of light and wings that managed to waved somehow. However, on closer inspection, the fairy was smiling with its beady eyes shining, waving one of its four arms. "Says she's going to heal my wounds."

Ruto blinked. "Ow," she said, wincing at the same time Link did when one of the bandages stuck to his skin. "That must hurt."

His hands and feet were raw and bloody. They were the color of raw fish, but looked neither tasty nor remotely edible. Tiny blisters the size of her nails covered his hands. "Yeah," Link said, "It hurts like I stuck my hand in Din's Inferno."

"Don't you pink-skins have mucus to protect you?" Ruto asked. After all, all Zoras' skin oozed a substance that kept them safe from Lord Jabu-Jabu's spit and pre-acidic juices in his first stomach. They need such mucus so they could clean his stomachs and keep the guardian happy. Why would someone without such mucus climb inside Jabu's acidic insides? Even his spit could dissolve since Jabu's throat muscles were extraordinarily weak. "You just dove in with your fragile skin?"

"From what?"

"From our lord's spit and stomach acid of course."

Link held out his hands to the nameless fairy. "No, I don't. Why?" To the fairy he said. "Look, you better do a good job Ceruel."

The fairy squealed happily. "Oh, happy day. He got my name right!"

Ruto giggled. This struck her as very humorous. "What sort of fool would go into a fish's stomach if he knew that he didn't have a mucus producing skin?"

The instant Link's hands healed (although they were a nice shade of bright pink), he mockingly bowed while his feet were being healed. "Oh, forgive me, your royal fishiness. I had no idea that I was supposed to produce… what was it again?"

Navi's glow flickered with what Ruto supposed was laughter. She didn't know. Faeries were a rather boring species anyway. "Mucus, ya' dumbass," Navi twittered.

Link blinked for a few seconds before swiping his hat at Nameless Fairy (whose name was evidentially Ceruel) and Navi, trapping them in a single movement. "I know that," he said with an air of long suffering that Ruto found charming. "That was sarcasm."

"Let us out ya bully!" Navi fumed through the hat.

Ruto giggled as Link shook the silly hat. "Make me," he challenged.

Maybe it was the goddesses that caused what happened next. Maybe it was fate. Ruto still couldn't decide even years after the event and she was telling this to her spawn. The hat started to smoke. "What the…?" Link said, poking at it slowly.

The hat caught on fire.

ooo

"The Great Fairy's fountain," Impa repeated, before bowing her head and thinking.

"Impa?"

She felt her father's hand growing cold and could hear the ragged breaths he took become more and more slow and wet sounding. "Lyris, dear queen of mine. Our daughter will be a good ruler. Won't she?"

Impa nodded. There was a grave air to the throne room. When she finally she spoke, it was with solemn voice that her mother used when she felt Zelda had done something to disappoint her. Usually these were trivial thing such as letting Peaches, her pet dog, eat scraps from her hand or tracked mud into the her chambers. There was that one time where she had blown her nose on a priceless tapestry and her mother had used the same voice. She had been young… yet she should have known better. "Yes," Impa said, "I believe that Zelda will be one of the best queens Hyrule will ever have." Her voice broke on the last word as if she was going to sob her eyes out.

Had Impa and her father been lovers? Zelda wondered this as Impa brushed her father's ruined head. There was a certain tenderness between them. As if they had known each other for ages. "Yes," he wheezed around, "That's very good. Very good."

Zelda couldn't stand it anymore. "I don't want to be a queen!" she shriekd.

Impa's hand slammed over her mouth as Zelda's whimpering cries seeped out around it. "Quiet, princess," she hissed, eyes glowing with rage, "Do you want Ganondorf to find you?"

Zelda shook her head and hiccupped slightly behind Impa's hand feeling hot tears trickle down her face. "Will you scream if I take my hand away?"

Zelda shook her head.

"Good girl."

ooo

Malon was dreaming. She had always been a vivid dreamer.

Usually she dreamed of horses with wild eyes and coats the color of flames. She dreamed that they were hers and hers alone. They would be Lon Lon Ranch's claim to fame. It gave her pride when she stared at her little red filly Epona.

There were three glowing women stand there underneath a tree. Between all three of them was a table with pieces laid out. She recognized the smallest pieces as being the Princess Zelda in her finery and the simple green clothed boy from the forest. Link, he said his name was.

"Cast the stones sister", said the red sister to the green sister, "I do fancy a good game."

"Cast them yourself… I did it last time and the time before that," the green sister snapped and looked over at Malon. Her eyes gleamed like hot coals. "Is she listening?"

"Maybe, already the lines are coming unwound. Those who normally would have had no part are being written in."

"Interesting, Din." the blue one noted. "I shall make note of this, right away." And promptly did, writing the notes down on a scroll.

"Such a shame, I like the prophecy we had laid out."

The three voices talked on and on. Malon found herself listening. Evidently there was some sort of battle that was about to start. About the… Triforce? Why would anyone be concerned about the Triforce? For one thing, such a holy relic couldn't exist. Malon remembered the stories about the realm where it was said be stored.

The sacred realm was supposed to be beyond all senses. Its sky was gold for the Triforce itself was the sun. But that didn't make sense. Even at the age of twelve, Malon knew that no records could agree on the size of the Triforce. It was the size of a hummingbird's egg… it was bigger than Hyrule Castle and every size in between. It was solid or it was smoky or crystalline or barely there.

"If I were you", one of the beings said, turning to look at Malon and interrupting her thoughts, "I would wake up now."

Malon woke up and found chaos.

ooo

"I'm sorry, Impa," Zelda said as Impa pulled her hand away, "But the fairy fountain. We have to get to it."

Impa held Zelda's hands in her own. "And even if we did… what then?"

Zelda didn't know what to say, but turned to look at her father. He was obviously dying and that left him in immense pain. How could she let her father suffer like that? How could she? Was that the only thing she could do? Was it her destiny to watch her father die? "I'm not going to let Ganondorf be the man who killed my father."

"That's not a good reason, Princess," Impa said, mouth set in a thin straight nearly lipless line. "What happens if it doesn't work?"

Zelda smiled softly. "Well," she said softly, brushing her father's forehead, "At least we know we tried."

Impa sighed and closed her eyes. "The Great Fairy's Fountain is near the northern gate. It was blocked with a stone until our little hero unblocked it."

"That's good," Zelda said as Impa heaved the King over one of shoulders. "Right, Impa."

The Sheikah woman nodded slowly. "Maybe and maybe not."

They made their way out of the castle slowly. Impa obviously couldn't use her mist form. Although Zelda couldn't guess the reason. Maybe there was some hidden factor to Sheikah warping that Hylians could never know. Her bodyguard looked tired and haggard and there was a hue of grey to the sides of her mouth.

She was strong. She had to be. It inspired Zelda and she hoped that her father sensed that as well. If he still breathed. "Father," she whispered, "Are you alive?"

Her father laughed and it was a wet and ragged sound. "For now I am," he said, lisping from what Zelda could see were several missing teeth. "I can hold on a little longer."

"That's good," Zelda whispered as a Gerudo thief walked just inches from their current hiding spot, several of Zelda's best dresses in her hands. "The nerve of that thief."

Impa hushed her.

ooo

Link only had one thing to say about whatever Ruto had been working on since ten minutes ago when he said he had to leave. He really didn't get her and didn't really want to.

"It's… um… a boat…"

Ruto twisted off the last of the reeds that made up the structure. "It's a raft," she corrected, obviously proud of herself.

Navi fluttered over and inspected the work. It was a rather flimsy, whatever it was, barely held together by long slimy rope. Riverweed, Ruto had called it when Link had asked as she had him braid it together with hands that were still a bit numb from his fish-crawling adventure. "It's a stupid, weak thing," she said, hands on her hips, "That's what it is." She fluttered her wings and poked at one of the more slimy sections. "It's not even going to get us a little ways down the river."

Ruto glared. "Firefly, you know nothing about boats."

All the Zora princess got in return for the firefly comment was a razzing from Navi. So far Link had to go through hell and back as well as get engaged and have his hat caught on fire by fairy light. Navi had said sorry but hadn't sounded sincere. "I do," Link said, "So why do we need a boat?"

It was like he had grown a second head. Ruto stared at him. "You said you wanted to get there before dawn, right?" She paused and thought for a moment, "Although there seems to be no end to this night. So you could help Princess Zelda…"

"Yes, well, I do want to get there before dawn. But..."

Ruto's fins flared and she put her hands on her hips. "Well, don't complain. Besides, I'm coming with you so there shouldn't be a problem."

It suddenly dawned on Link that Ruto was one obsessed fishy person.

ooo

And the stones were cast… and the prophecies were made useless.

… to be continued…