Note: Even though this story takes place in the same settings as Twilight Princess, it has nothing to do with the actual game.

Prologue
The woman struggled against the forest itself. Bent low, her long hair in her face, she hurried deeper into the thick trees, hiding the tiny child in her arms.

The queen was dead. The king was dead. Hunters were searching for her. Everything was happening far too fast for the young woman who had cared for the baby girl for only a month. The evil ones must not find the child! If they found her, the kingdom's last hope was gone. Everything depended on the maid's success...or failure.

Suddenly, arrows whistled through the trees. The woman ran faster, lower, until an arrow struck her. She screamed in pain, falling to her knees and dropping the girl. More arrows flew and the woman covered the baby with her body, her only thought to protect the child who would be Hyrule's only salvation. In a few moments, it was over. The woman's pain ended, as quickly as it began. She rolled and fell to the ground, unmoving, and the last heir to the throne of Hyrule was alone in the world.

The woman who walked through Hyrule Forest several hours later did not know that the tiny form lying in the leaves was the princess of Hyrule. She did not find the maid's body. It was many years later that she found out who the girl was, but the nurse's death was the end of one life, and the beginning of a war.


Chapter One
Adventure

Link walked slowly back to his house, deep in thought. As he neared his home, the sword-maker Rusl stopped to talk.

"Any luck, Link?"

Link shook his head. "There's precious little food to be found in Faron Woods these days."

"Yes," said Rusl, "there is." He shook his head sadly. "If only someone had survived the attack on the castle..."

"I don't remember that," said Link, frowning. "What happened?"

"Yes, you would have been too young to remember it. The king and queen died. Everyone knows that. No one knows whether the infant princess survived or not, but either way, we are without a ruler."

Link continued to his house then. If only he could go on an adventure! He had lived with his grandmother half his life, before moving to Ordon Village, but the move was the biggest adventure he had ever had.

"Link! Link! Will you come here?"

He turned and saw Ayala , Rusl's wife, walking toward him. He stood and waited for her, and then started to walk again.

"Link, I have a favor to ask you."

"Yes?"

"Will you take something to Hyrule Castle for me?"

Link had been prepared for something unusual, but that he had not been ready for.

"That sounds like an adventure," he said, forgetting for a moment that Ayala was there. "Yes!"

"Thank you, Link. I knew I could count on you!"

"I'll do it tomorrow, okay, Ayala?"

"Yes, it's fine," she replied, beaming.


The next morning, Link walked to the home of Rusl, Ayala, and their son Colin. Only Ayala was there.

"Here it is," she told Link, handing him a wrapped package. "It's a golden shield that I had made, with the crest of Hyrule on it. It's for anyone who's in the castle. Really, it's for the castle itself, so just go to the castle and give it to the first person you see there. Can you do that?"

"Sure thing," Link told her, taking the package, and he left.

Link got his horse, Epona, ready and rode into the woods, carrying his bow and arrows, his sword, and his shield. He had gotten the sword and shield as gifts, and now it seemed he finally had a use for them. He had never carried them, and he felt proud to hold them.

The problem was, as Link would soon realize, that Link had a glorified image of adventure. He did not know what adventure really was like.

It was three day's ride to Castle Town, the central city of Hyrule. By the time he got there, Link had gotten more of a taste for adventure than he cared for, as he had discovered. Still, he reached the town in one piece and decided to look around before going to the castle. Anyway, he wasn't entirely eager to enter Castle Hyrule after hearing what had happened to it, so he walked around town for a bit.

Link wondered if there was a stand or shop where he could get his friend Ilia's broken necklace fixed. She had been talking to him and fiddling with the necklace, and it had broken and send beads flying everywhere. Link had picked up as many as he could find and promised her he would fix it, but so far he had not had the time or materials to do it. He thought that perhaps there was a jewelry store where he could do it.

Link saw a stand that looked good, so he went over to see. Sure enough, it was a bead stand, so he took out the necklace and began looking to find beads that were similar to the ones on the necklace. As he was searching, he accidentally backed into the only other person there, a girl about his age whose face he hadn't seen because she had been turned away.

"Sorry," they both said at once, turning to face each other.

"Hi. I'm Link," he said grinning at her.

"I'm Ellya. Sorry for bumping you." She was a very pretty girl, with long, golden hair and sky-blue eyes. She was wearing a necklace with a triangular pendant on it.

"Don't worry about it. Do you live here?"

"Yes." She frowned. "Sometimes I wish I didn't, though. It's an okay place, but no one talks about anything anymore except for how terrible all of Hyrule is since the royal family was assassinated almost sixteen years ago. My mother says I was only about a month old."

"So would I have been. Rusl, he's the village sword maker, said that I would have been too young to remember it." "I want to travel to Kakariko Village and see the Shaman. He could probably help me stop having weird dreams at night, but my mother says it's too dangerous," she said. "What kind of weird dreams?" Link asked. "Well, it's the same every night. I'm really small, a really young child, and I'm being carried through a forest. I think it's Hyrule Forest, north of here. The person carrying me has really long hair that's hanging in front of her face, and mine. Then, out of nowhere, arrows start coming at us. She gets hit and drops me, and I fall to the side in the leaves. She gets ver me and keeps getting hit by more arrows, and then she falls in the leaves. Then everything goes dark, and when there's more to see, my mother comes and picks me up and takes me to our house. The funny thing is, she's taking me back the way I was carried away from in the first place. Isn't that weird?"

Link nodded. "Strange that in the dream, you get carried away, and then carried back. I wonder where from."

Ellya replied, "Here. If it's Hyrule Forest, anyway. I've walked back and forth in Hyrule Forest, and it's exactly like in the dream, just different angles and porportions."

Link picked out the rest of the beads he would need to fix Ilia's necklace and said, "I have to go. Perhaps we'll see each other tomorrow?"

"Yes," she said, touching his side, "Perhaps."

She ran off to the north, and Link felt into his pocket. There was a piece of paper. It said just two words:

Center Fountain

He stared at those two words for a few seconds, then, realizing it was growing dark, set off to find a place to stay until tomorrow. After a few minutes, something struck him as odd and he looked at the paper again.

The paper said "Center Fountain," which seemed like a meeting place. It couldn't be a house, because he had seen pretty much all of the town. But the strange thing was, she certainly hadn't written it after he started talking to her. How could she have known beforehand that she would meet someone and want to talk again tomorrow.


The next day, Link went to the fountain in the square early to refresh himself with the cool, pure water. When he looked to the north he saw a familiar person coming towards him.

Ellya seemed excited. She told him that she would be finding out a secret today. Her mother had said that she would be told very important information today.

"Great!" Link told her.

"Yes, I can't wait," she replied. "But I'm supposed to run a lot of errands, so will you see me back here? Promise?"

"I promise," Link told her solemnly. He couldn't think of anything to do, but then he remembered the package he was supposed to deliver to the castle. He went back to get it, but there were so many people he couldn't get there. He didn't care to find out what was happening or to fight his way through the crowd, so he went back to the fountain and sat there. Since there was nothing else to do, he took out Ilia's necklace and started working on fixing it. He had bought a new wire and clasp, so he began restringing the beads. He almost finished when Ellya came along. He quickly put a holder on and put it away.

"We have to wait, Link. I haven't learned my secret yet, but I told my mother I would either be on errands or be here, so we should wait."

The wait wasn't a long one. Only a few minutes later, a woman came walking towards the fountain. She stopped next to them and sat down.

"Ellya..." she began.

"Yes?"

"I need to tell you. You have been troubled, and I must explain something."

Link noticed that Ellya and her mother were nothing alike in looks. Her mother was dark-haired with brown eyes, but she was fair with sparkling blue eyes. He wondered why that was.

"Ellya...You and I are very different. That is because....you are not my daughter."


Submitted by: Indi del Isle