"…for it's all simply too exciting, Link! I knew that this village was a goldmine for my research of the sky beings, but I can't believe the plethora of knowledge I've unearthed here in regards to the past society of Kakariko itself! The ground is just full of historical artifacts, and it's absolutely astounding what I discovered while I was…"

If there was one thing Link had never been good at, it was acting what he did not feel, and so standing in the middle of the street in Kakariko Village listening to Shad talk a mile a minute about his latest finds, it was more than obvious that the hero's mind was drifting. He nodded his head every time the young genius paused for effect, but there was a far off look in the hero's eyes the whole time.

Shad noticed this with a little disheartenment. He had been so excited about his discoveries and was sure that Link of all people would be, too. Nevertheless, said friend only seemed to have his head in the clouds, that unreadable expression all over his distant demeanor.

Using his foot to smooth over the uneven dirt below his feet, Shad finally stopped his rant, and although Link nodded for him to continue, he didn't.

"You know…" he sighed a little. "Although I believe it to be crucial information, I… I'm terribly sorry if all this garble is a pestering bore to you..."

Remembering that he was talking to the most adventurous person he had ever met, he suddenly wanted to kick himself "…I mean, prevalent as such news must be for you in your vast experience with the extraordinary in Hyrule."

Link shook his head apologetically, quickly snapping back to reality at Shad's sad words. He simply couldn't get the image of the princess riding off out of his mind. "No, I'm sorry. Please go on."

Shad's smile picked back up a little as the hero sat down on a boulder and intently fixed his attention on him. "Yes, well like I was saying, as I was walking around the other day mapping out the area, I came across a strange find in the spring over there," he motioned to the guardian's fountain.

Link looked to the fountain, his interest piqued.

"It seems that there was once a well there; its actually the source from which water flows! It also seems that the rock outlining the fountain was not always there, but that the small ridge was once an expansion of the town itself. The grass and dirt around the rock line are packed full of signs of previous activity, however strange that may sound. Of course, that wasn't enough to convince me- one mustn't hope on weak evidence alone!" He smiled and placed a knowing finger out, as though he were teaching a life lesson. "I needed more evidence. I hunted around the fountain and was practically swimming in it trying to dig anything up- rather unsuccessfully, might I add. So instead I moved to that small cave beside the spring, where I spent a good amount of time digging a little here and a little there…" he looked almost giddy. "And Link! I unearthed wooden frames and floorboards! There were houses where that rock is!"

Link observed his friend carefully for a moment. The scholar's accounts sounded simply ludicrous, but he had always known Shad to be a reliable in his accounts. Perhaps a little idealistic, but never crazy.

"And who knows what else is down there! It's almost like…" he tapped the frame of his glasses thoughtfully, "Almost like the rock was just laid over top the radius of the well as a blanket… almost as though it were placed to cover something up. Rocks don't just jump like that…right?"

"No, they don't." Link looked back to the spring. "Not naturally."

"Oh, yes," Shad tried to hide his embarrassment with nervous laughter. He had hoped his wild question would jog a wild story from the hero, for who knew what he had seen in his adventures? "Of course they don't. How silly of me! I just get... too excited sometimes; jump ahead of the obvious."

Link looked curiously to the group of people working near the inn, where the chief's tall frame towered above all the others. "Have you asked Renado about any of this?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid. He's been too busy for me to get a word in edgewise." He tsked under his breath and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Link kept his smile small and his thoughts to himself. "You'd get more than just one word in, Shad."

"I still can't believe the tragedy that has struck here…" the small, knowledgeable man looked over his shoulder at the mess of a once fruitful village, his tone taking a sadder underlying. "Everything has been a work in progress for these poor people. What a terrible disaster."

Despite the late hour approaching them, the town bustled with working Gorons, soldiers and volunteers from Castletown, all repairing the damage to the Inn and the homes that were nearly destroyed. They had been working hard all day clearing broken and charred wood from around the town and heaping it into a huge pile to the side of the road. That pile had now been set aflame to shed some light to the darkening village.

"Disaster is right," came a deep, earthy voice from behind them where a Goron stood, intently stroking his stone cheeks. "I'll admit that some of the blame should fall on us for not helping sooner, but we weren't the only ones who should have been on the lookout for this town. It's such a shame they weren't here."

"They?" Shad echoed curiously as he turned around.

The Goron's eyes rose and fell. "Those Sheikah."

Link eyed the Goron, his interest more than caught at their mention. Shad, however, drew a blank. "I'm sorry, who? I can't say I've ever heard of them."

The bulky Goron nodded, his shoulders rolling loosely with his motion. "That's because they kept it that way. When they didn't come to the aid of their own pioneered town, we figured they had finally decided to sink back into that goddess-forsaken hideout forever." His small head shook, though there was no real emotion to it. "But it seems they've met with a worse fate than Kakariko."

Shad was shocked. "If they're so secretive, how do you know about them?"

"We Gorons were their sworn trade partners." He paused, and his tongue grew a little bitter. "And brothers. Until they pushed all outsiders away from them without reason."

Link's brow furled; he had never heard any of this.

Shad's mind ran on a different direction, however. "So you say they use to live here?"

"They didn't just live here- their ancestors built this town up from the ground. It seen its fair share of evil and misfortune over time, but it's never been this bad off."

"How strange…" Shad rubbed his temples inquisitively, millions of questions brewing within. "Tell me, what were these people like?"

"Well…" the Goron scratched his bald head.

Down the road, a black cat casually strolled by, unnoticed to all but Link's sharp eyes.

"The Sheikah were a mysterious people, to say the least. There used be lots of them… and they believed they had this duty to protect the royal family- a command straight from the lips of the goddess, they claim."

"You don't say?" The scholar conned the Goron's casual bearing for more information. He was only getting started with the questions. "What happened to them?"

"Well," the Goron continued although he noticed Link's attention was now divided, his focus leering off some other direction. What the Goron didn't see was that above them, along the rooftops, a dark silhouette was slinking along with the shadows. "We don't really know. They all died out somehow."

Unbeknownst to the enthralled Shad, Link stood, his eyes following the figure's path. They were making for the entrance to Hyrule field by the spring.

"We Gorons think they were cursed with a responsibility too great for them. Those people were on the lines of darkness itself in order to maintain their heritage- which we didn't understand much anyway. But it was always dark, serious business with them."

Link's mind was already running after the dark figure, and his feet couldn't help but follow. The figure was just jumping the last rooftop when it noticed someone following them. It stood stark still for a moment, and Link's breathing grew heavier. He knew they were looking right at him.

He blinked. The figure was gone.

"They just seemed to mysteriously disappear…" the large rock eater trailed off, looking to the huge bonfire near the spring. "No one really knows what happened to them."

Link's breathing quickened in discontent. Before him the large fire crackled, the high flames illuminating the area around him and stretching out the shadows of the people around it as they finished up the last of the day's work. No one seemed to have seen anything. But he knew he had.

Near Eldin's spring, Epona whinnied. Everything was peaceful.

"How interesting... Link, have you heard of the Sheikah before?" Shad breathed in the mystery thoughtfully before turning to find the hero gone. "Link?"

-.-

Link hadn't run so fast in a long time. He hadn't really needed to, considering he had no reason to run anymore, and Epona could more than help him travel long distances should need for one arise. Yet for sake of stealth, he had left Epona behind, and to his pleasure, he found that his body had retained all the beatings and physical strain he had undergone. He hadn't run out of breath or stamina yet.

"I know I saw you," he spoke quietly to himself as he ran. He ran over the bridge and up the hill, finally stopping to look around. The whole valley was quiet, seeming to hide the mysterious figure who had to of come through it.

Or was still in it.

With trained, silent steps, Link crept up to the rocky path and hid in the tall grass of the first path he had travelled into the twilight world after being transformed. Midna had pulled him through the great wall of Twilight then.

He contemplated waiting, but he had a feeling the figure had gone through there. To his surprise, the black cat from the village strolled through the path silently, and he left the grass to follow it.

"Hey," he called, not really sure why he was talking to a cat. He felt something different about it, for it stopped and looked at him expectantly. "Uhh…" he scratched the back of his head, wishing in vain that he had his wolf form at his disposal.

After a moment of silence, the cat turned and continued along its path down the road. "Wait," Link called to it, scrambling to follow behind it. This time it didn't stop. It picked up its leisurely stroll to a vivid sprint, and Link found himself running again to keep up. "Maybe it knows something about that figure."

If the cat and that figure were connected, then one should lead to the other.

-.-

From her hiding place in the tree top, Zelda let out the faintest of sighs. Link was pacing back and forth, blocking the path to the forest. Although she knew she could use Link's help, she had not been given a disguise so she could give her identity away; no one was supposed to know about this. Tarin had assured her of that.

"Little cat," she whispered to the ground, where the cat sat with its tail sweeping back and forth. "I don't know if you can understand me, but…"

The cat blinked, and then stood and darted off towards the path.

"No, wait!" she groaned quietly. The cat had walked right past Link, who was now hiding in the grass. He followed the cat down the path and disappeared out of her sight.

She jumped from her place and ran after it, keeping a good distance from herself and the figure she followed. Her feet ran with stealth she wasn't aware she had, but she kept a safe enough distance none the less. She could hear Link's rare voice, and she honed her ears to pick up on the one-sided conversation he was having with the feline.

"You saw it, right?" he asked between breaths. They were still running.

The cat didn't answer.

"I don't trust it. There's something suspicious about whoever it was. People don't just disappear in such a way."

Again, the cat remained silent.

Zelda found it strange hearing the young man talk so much. It was usually a struggle to get a word edgewise from him, yet he talked freely as though they were old friends having a good conversation. She couldn't help but smile a little at the thought.

Finally, they came to the clearing's opening to Faron Woods, and the cat came to a stop.

"What?" Link asked. The cat meowed, and he sighed. "I've been following you because I thought you and that shadow were related somehow. But I guess you're just a stray running around the fields."

The cat watched him, its dark eyes shining in the moonlight.

"You're right. I better go back to Epona. And Shad. He really did have some interesting information."

He turned back the way he had come, about to wonder what in the world had come over him for chasing down a cat, when he sensed the presence of another person. Whipping back with uncanny speed, Link was met with the sight of the back of the strange figure he had seen in Kakariko, only now, he could make out their features.

They wore a strange suit, tight and so dark blue that it almost looked black, and tightly wrapped bandages over their hands and feet. He didn't have time to look at the face, for when they saw him, they darted into the woods after the cat he had followed.

-.-

The dark twists and turns of the forest were whipping by faster than seemed humanly possible for Zelda. Her body felt more agile and alert than she had ever been, and her attention never left the small animal guiding her. Truthfully, she felt just like the cat. She didn't feel like herself, and although all her training had built her into a stronger and more skilled woman who could have done what she was doing now if she pushed herself hard enough, there was something else driving and pushing her, fueling her and almost forbidding her to stop. It was a power housed like a well inside of her, an ambition and fervor that was foreign to her.

She had never felt such a surge before.

But no matter how fast she moved, she knew Link was close behind. He was just as sharp as she, and he knew his way around the forest better than she could ever hope to. As much as she hated the thought of dodging the very person she wished to talk to most now, she knew there was no other option for her. She wanted to trust him –no, she did trust him- but this wasn't about her, or him for that matter. This was a world of its own, a hefty duty left in her hands, and her hands alone. She couldn't let Link know what she was doing. Surely he would try to protect her, which likely meant stopping her. She had dragged him into more than he already deserved.

The cat dodged around one last corner and came to a stop in a set of small tunnels carved of brick and stone. A few torches hung off the walls, mysteriously lit and well-kept for an abandoned ruin site.

Yes, she had heard of this place. She wasn't there yet, but now she knew where she was going.

A deep breath from behind her alerted her to Link's presence only a few moments after she had stopped to scan the passageways. She stood stark still with her back to him, not daring to let him see her face and lose her cover more than she already had- if he would recognize it, that is. She didn`t even recognize herself when she had stopped and stared at her reflection in a puddle, but she had to be safe.

He didn't speak for a long moment, seemingly eyeing the strange person before him with his usual intense stare. It made her pulse roar in her chest.

The cat was gone now, goodness knows where. She knew she would have to deal with this on her own. It was a matter of how that kept her mind racing.

"Get back, Link."

Those were not her choice words in such a situation, but they came from her lips so suddenly that she didn't have a moment to consciously formulate them. She wasn't the only one surprised at them, either.

A rigid breath drew from the man at her back, who suddenly stopped his circling of her to try to catch a glimpse of who would dare to wander through the forest. He had intended to barter the person with questions, but their gruff voice had touched something that was housed within him, something he hadn't known was there. Something familiar and distant at the same time.

In the back of his mind, images of burning houses and fire danced wildly. A windmill. A lone figure standing in front of the well.

His eyes widened in shock as the familiarity of the person seeped into his memory until a blinding flash that tore away his vision forced him backwards.

-.-

If her heart had been pounding before, it was wildly raging now.

"What was that? I did that?" Zelda wondered sub-consciously as she jumped over a ledge and into a clearing laid with stone bits of grass. It was the Temple of Time, or at least, what was left of it. She just knew it. This was where she was supposed to be. In front of her sat a door that looked a little out of place, for it stood alone on the platform, away from any wall or other material that could connect to it.

"This must be the door Impaz was talking about," she deduced aloud. Not wasting a second, she went to push it open, but it wouldn't budge. Her bottom lip twitched nervously, knowing that Link would catch up fast, and there was nowhere left to go. She needed in now. With another more forceful attempt, she sent a blast of energy at the door, but it still wouldn't budge. She could feel herself getting angry, which at the moment she didn't fully realize to be strange for her. Her calm persona was never one to teeter on impatience.

Or tricking the most trusted man in all of Hyrule.

But none of that really registered with her then and there. She was about to lash out at the door again, but the symbol on it caught her attention before he foot made contact with the stone. Obviously, it was the Triforce, as any faithful relic in Hyrule would don, but the way this one was constructed looked different, as if each piece of the Triforce had been placed into a music staff and... each piece was a note.

Left. Top. Right.

"No," she breathed, realizing something that all her years of harp practice and sheet music had never shown her before. "The lullaby..."

-.-

When the blinding white cleared, Link caught sight of a black tail ducking through one of the corridors, and with still blurred vision, he ran after it. He was quickly tiring of playing games and chasing after something that would only constantly evade him. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. Whoever this was, clearly, was already suspicious enough and if they were a threat to Hyrule, he wouldn't hesitate to change that.

He had chased it back all the way to the end of the woods. Just as the cat was about to run back through the entrance to the Lost Woods, he dove at it and snagged its feet from underneath itself. He readied himself for it vicious retaliation, but to his surprise, the cat seemed to accept its defeat.

In fact, it purred a little.

"What the-?" he wondered as the cats large, soft eyes got larger and softer. Now showing no signs that it was about to take off, he released the small creature and it walked towards the singing stone. It stopped in front of it, seeming to expect him to follow, although he didn't. He remained where he was.

Until the familiar song caught his ear.

It was the song he had to learn the first time he had entered these woods, the song that had opened the doors of the woods and brought that strange and tormenting child to him. Part of him cringed at the thought of the little kid appearing again and having to chase it through the woods, but the melody was so enticing that he couldn't help but step closer to hear it. It was like floating on a cloud, or being lulled to sleep. The simple melody repeated itself, and the cat watched him expectantly.

"What?" he finally asked it, still wondering why he was talking to the animal.

When the melody stopped whistling from the stone, a frown tugged a Link's face. He had almost forgotten about the person he had been chasing.

"You brought me here," he began at the cat. "And that person had to be following you. Where are they?"

The cat said nothing. It didn't need to say anything, nor could it, for from somewhere over the trees and doors, a faint melody cut through the silence of the woods. It was a low pitched whistle, and while Link could not derive where it was coming from, he knew who the song was coming from. And he knew what song they were playing.

It was the lullaby the stone had taught him.

As if reading the young hero's thoughts, the cat rose and began walking -not darting- back into the woods. It seemed to think Link would automatically follow it, but he didn't. He watched it suspiciously.

"Where are you going?" he almost threatened. He felt ridiculous for talking to a creature that couldn't talk back, but he had the feeling it understood him somehow. If not his words, then at least him.

It sat back down and meowed, waiting for him to follow it along some charted path.

"I suppose I don't have much of a choice," he quipped as he followed it through the changing conduits of the Lost Woods.

Firstly, I want to say ujryejetjetyjyhrtw (my head hitting keyboard). MAN I've been working on this chapter for a long time. This one is especially important and tricky, because its setting the stage for a whole new part of this show. Its taken a while, but like a few reviewers have mentioned, the plot is really falling into place now. Thank you so much to everyone who has left their thoughts and comments as reviews. If I haven't already messaged you (or can't) to say thanks, then I'll say it again! I appreciate every one.

Also, I would like to thank my new Beta reader Aurora Shadowglen, who just started with this chapter and was a very big help. Having someone read over your work to edit is a little scary, but I recommend it to anyone who genuinely wants to develop their skills.