Feet pounding a desparate rythym, Vitanre raced to reach the village. Her scimitar out and thirsting to punish those that would dare raise blade against her home, she reached the main street and raced down it.

Before her, pin-pointed by the torches they carried, were no less than twenty dark horsemen. Even as she sprinted for them, one of them lobbed their torch into a broken window as perhaps half of them galloped away out of her sight. Shouts issued from within the home the torch had just entered, and a great anger arose in Vitanre.

Without regard for her own safety, she threw herself into the middle of the remaining horsemen, slashing out in all directions with her scimitar. Saddle straps severed and horses spooked, the bandits were very much aware of her presence now. Three fell from their horses, their saddles useless, and all drew blades as they backed up to size up their challenger.

Three on ground, and three more still on horses faced the angered female now. Blade held high, she lunged forward at the three that stood on the ground. They seemed unready for her charge, and not used to wielding their weapons in hand-to-hand combat. One fell immediately to Vitanre’s assault, throat split open in a viscious slice. The other two scrambled back into the protection of their fellows that were still mounted.

Blade stained crimson, Vitanre growled ferally and ran forward again, leaping high to cut at the midsections of the men on the horses. Shouting back and forth to each other in a language unknown to her, the men wheeled their horses around and galloped away. The two left on the ground shouted in terror and ran after the mounts, but Vitanre ran them down and slaughtered them.

She then began to chase after those that fled on foot, spying them just up ahead. She saw one veer to the side and slash downwards with his blade, then he turned back with his group, laughing nastily. Vitanre hurried on, until she neared the place where the horseman had attacked.

Laying there, a deep gash across his chest, was Hiram. Vitanre immediately abandoned her chase and dropped to her knees by his side.

“Hiram.”

He coughed, a thin line of blood seeping from his mouth. “You...you are out...of the Shrine...”

Vitanre just stared at him. “How can you think of such a thing at a time like this? ”

Hiram merely shook his head and coughed again.

Vitanre helped him into a sitting position. “The villagers? Why aren’t they defending themselves?”

“Not enough of them...scared...I don’t know,” Hiram wheezed.

Vitanre’s features hardened and she stood, scimitar coming up again. She began to once again chase the horsemen when Hiram reached out and caught her leg.“Why...don’t you ever call me...father...when it is just the two of us? Why only...in public...or around your...mother?”

She paused, staring at the dying man. “Because...I do not wish you to lose face before the people...and, after all you’ve done to me, I cannot find it in my heart to call you father.”

“Harsh...but fair enough...” Hiram smiled weakly. “I only wanted...to keep you safe...”

She nodded, then turned away...and then froze. She whirled to face Hiram. “You! If you are here, then Darian and your wife are alone! ”

She sprinted off, leaving Hiram where he laid, keeping an eye out around her for any sign of the bandits. The village, aside from the crackling of multiple fires, was eerily quiet. It was as though the horsemen had simply vanished into thin air.

Then, a scream pierced the night.

Vitanre, recognizing it as the scream of her adoptive mother, urged her feet to move faster and ignored the burning in her lungs. She HAD to come to the aid of her brother and Hiram’s wife, she had to

She came upon the archway leading out of the village, and saw that the stone itself burned with intensity. She slowed to a light jog and approached it carefully, and just as she was judging it safe to walk under the archway collasped.

Vitanre leapt backwards and slammed into something very much real and solid. She whirled around, scimitar coming to bear upon this new threat as red hot stone rained down around her. Her eyes widened and the scimitar returned to her side when her battle-fogged brain recognized who it was.

“Link! ”

He was breathing slightly hard and his face was smeared with ash from the fires.

“I cannot find anyone anywhere...where could they have gone?” he asked.

“This entire village was built over a system of caves...nearly every building here is connected to one,” she answered distractedly, turning back to the fire. She shielded her face from the blistering heat...the flames shot high into the night sky, much too high for her to leap over.

Link was speaking to her, but she didn’t hear him as she frantically searched for a way over the fire. Another scream, this one being Darian’s no doubt, increased her frenzy. She was just preparing to attempt the leap anyhow when Link grabbed her firmly about the waist and pulled her to him. In his other hand he held his longshot.

“Hold to me tightly,” he said into her ear.
He sighted at the plank that held the crows cage, that was not yet flaming, and fired. The end of the longshot thunked home and pulled both Hylians over the fire and to the top of the stone wall.

Vitanre quickly wormed her way out of Link’s arms and dropped down to the forest floor. Link dropped down beside her and within mere seconds both were bolting through the trees.

Raucous laughter met them as they burst from the trees and into a clearing where a single small homestead stood. The entire group of horsemen, numbering perhaps 16 or 17 when you considered the three Vitanre herself had killed, were standing about the home. Most carried sacks of items they had looted from the homes and shops in the village, and those that could carry no more all turned in unison and galloped away into the forest.

Now, perhaps eight men were left, although two horses stood nearby without riders. Vitanre shouted a cry of challenge, and the bandits turned towards her. Link stood at her side, Master Sword drawn, the firelight from the bandits’ torches flickering off the gleaming blade.

They pointed and muttered in their odd language, when two more exited the house, shoving Darian and a woman out infront of them, solving the mystery of the two riderless horses.

Darian, arms bound behind his back, spied the two hylians. “VITANRE! ”

Vitanre started to rush to his aid when two of the mounted bandits got between her and the boy. They kicked out at her and she was forced to duck. Between the horses’ legs she spied one of the men give the woman a rough kick that sent her sprawling to the ground while the other threw Darian up onto his horse and then mounted behind him.

“Darian! ” She came up to her feet and began slashing at the men between her and her brother. Behind her, Link was attempting to circle around, and was also cut off by the riders. Three now blocked him and were engaging him in battle, while Vitanre struggled to either knock the two before her from their mounts or squeeze past them.

With both Link and Vitanre thus distracted, all but the four who were fighting turned their mounts to the forest and fled. Darian fought against his captor and received a few brutal slaps to the face that dazed him; nonetheless, he kept screaming for his sister.

Vitanre slashed upward with all her strength and gouged deeply into the chest of the mount to her left. The horses, up until just this very moment, had been led well by their riders and had avoided all injury. But now, the wounded horse bucked and thrashed about in it’s agony, and Vitanre slipped past it and sprinted for the forest.

Link saw Vitanre bolt past the staggering horse, and did his best to keep the attention of those that harried him. He ducked low under a wide slash and severed the saddle strap of that agressor and then stepped back as the man tumbled to the ground because of the momentum of his own swing.

The remaining horseman called harshly to his fellow, who was fighting for control over his reeling mount. Finally pulling the horse under control, the man forced it to stand so that it’s ghastly injury was facing Link.Before the Hylian’s eyes, the wound drew together and sealed, healing itself as completely as though it had never been there.

Clambering back onto his horse, riding bareback, the one man gave a last parting jab at Link to force him back, and then the three charged off in the same direction as Vitanre and their fellows before her.

Link hurried over to the struggling woman on the ground and cut her bonds, helping her up.

“Are you unhurt?” he asked.

She nodded shakily, then froze. “They took Darian...Vitanre?”

“She is chasing after, as I will. Will you be alright if I leave you here?” Link asked, although he was truly anxious to go after the bandits and Vitanre. A sudden flash of light, and thunder above him...rain began to splatter to the dusty ground.

The woman flinched at the flash of lightning, then began to wring her hands together. “Please, bring my children home safely...”

“I will, I promise,” Link called over his shoulder as he ran for the darkness between the trees.

Far ahead of him, Vitanre followed the men as it began to rain harder.

She cupped her empty hand around her mouth as she ran. “DARIAN! ”

“Vitanre! ” from somewhere ahead, a faint cry. A glimmer of hope spurred Vitanre on.

Tree trunks and squat bushes flashed past her, lit up in brief flashes of light, and her breath burned in her lungs. Nothing would keep her from catching the men that had stolen away her brother; she’d run to the ends of the world until she found him.

A sudden agonizing pain in her right calf, a sudden failing of that leg, and Vitanre crashed to the ground. Gasping in short, choppy breaths, she twisted around to see an arrow shaft protruding from her leg. She rolled to her side and grasped at it, crying out when even her gentle touch shot pain through her leg and so she let it be, clambering to her feet and doggedly pursuing the riders once more.

She could hear their hoofbeats up ahead, she just needed to go faster...her injured leg shook beneath her with each step she took.

The rustling of foliage and the loud whinny of a horse made her turn. Behind her, another horseman approached; he held a bow in his hands and laughed wickedly when he spied his arrow sticking from Vitanre’s leg. He fitted another arrow to his bowstring and aimed, the arrow twanging off the string and racing for Vitanre.
She threw herself to the ground and the horseman leapt his mount over her and disappeared after the others. Soon after, the three others came and made a loose circle around her.
“Wut’s wrong girlie? Don’t want ta’ play?” one of them asked in very rough Common. He charged at her and gave her a kick that sent her flying into one of his fellows, her scimitar flying from her grasp and clattering to the ground.

She hit the side of the horse and would have bounced off to the forest floor, had the man not caught her by a handful of her hair. “Looks like all the fight’s left her, boys,” he chuckled nastily and flung her down.

Vitanre’s attempt to catch herself failed miserably as her injured leg dumped her down to her knees. She struggled to rise as the two men rode off, laughing wildly.

“Darian! ” Vitanre struggled and managed to get one leg beneath her before the third man struck her squarely across the back of her head with a heavy club.

She crumpled to the forest floor, landing facedown and falling into darkness.

Link darted through the trees, nimbly leaping obstacles that lay in his path. Rain dripped off the leaves in the canopy above him, seeming to double the amount of rain hitting the Hylian. He blew repeatedly as drops gathered at the tip of his nose, blowing them off before they became an irritant.

He rounded the trunk of a large tree and spied a shape laying in the mud ahead. At first thinking it to be a fallen bandit, he approached it carefully. Then, when he had tripped over a familiar object he’d missed in the dark, he realized his mistake. He scooped up the scimitar and dove to his knees beside the still form of Vitanre.

Wincing when he saw the arrow shaft sticking up from her leg, he carefully turned her over and cradled her head in his lap. Reaching two fingers up to her neck, he felt a steady pulse. Good, that meant she wasn’t dead.

Removing his hand from the back of her head, Link came away with blood. Gritting his teeth, Link looked up towards the escaping bandits, and then down again at Vitanre.

“I need to get you help,” he breathed, gingerly picking her up after sheathing her scimitar. He walked, as quickly as he could without jostling Vitanre, back towards the village. The first building he came to was the small house where the woman waited.

She let out a small cry and came running for them, nearly knocking Vitanre from Link’s arms, reaching out to stroke the mud-streaked face of the girl.

“She needs healing, where-“Link started, when the woman pointed back towards the village.

“Meriweather is who you want. First building you come to, across from the inn,” she said quickly. “Come, I’ll show you ” She all but ran the way she’d pointed, Link following much slower.
She led Link right up to the doorstep; luckily, the building was one that had escaped the fires. She opened the door and stepped back to allow Link to enter first.
“Unnn...Darian...” a whisper that may have been words, may have been only a sigh, escaped Vitanre’s lips as her eyes fluttered open. She weakly tried raising her head, then groaned and shut her eyes once more.

“Link...”

“It’s all right, I’ve got you,” he answered her, stepping through the doorway and into the single room beyond. The woman entered behind him and then shoved past, heading for the far corner and beginning to stomp in that one spot.

A muffled shout, and she ceased her stomping and hopped back. Before her, a trap door swung up into the room and a short, squat little woman popped up her head.

“What’s all this ‘ere, Adra? Making a racket! I’s thought my house was coming down round me ears.”

Adra, Vitanre’s mother, grabbed Meriweather and started pulling her from the trapdoor, causing her to squeal loudly.

“Hold! Hold! I’s can get out by meself! ”

“Meriweather, quickly! Your healing is needed! ”

Meriweather blinked large eyes and looked about. “Whats that? I’s thought the whole village was hidden in their caves! ” Her gaze finally fell on the muddy forms of Link and Vitanre, and she whooped loudly.

“Young ‘uns, get mummy’s potions and bag! ” she shouted behind her as she clambered from the hole and scurried over to Link.

She reached up and carefully felt the arrow in Vitanre’s leg. “Nasty, nasty, and in deep as well. Come, get ‘er over ‘ere,” Meriweather flitted around Link and headed back towards the area where the trap door was concealed. Opening a door, that Link saw was designed to blend in with the wall around it, Meriweather waved him inside. Through the door was what appeared to be an infirmary; a few cots lined the closest wall, and shelves of multicolored bottles were cluttered together on shelves that were low to the floor, (they would have to be, considering Meriweather was just tall enough to stare at Link’s lower back.)

With Adra hovering nearby like a brooding mother hen, Meriweather helped Link gently deposit Vitanre, who was slowly coming around, onto a cot nearby. The squat woman squealed again when she spied the blood staining Link’s tunic arm, where Vitanre’s head had rested.

“Girl took a beating she did! I say, YOUNG ‘UNS! ” she shouted in the general direction of the trap door.
Finally, a short, frizzy-headed little girl scampered through the doorway, weighed down by a large brown bag that was slung across her back.
Meriweather snatched it from her and the girl disappeared back into the other room as the woman began to pull cloths and another small leather bag from within the larger one. She also carefully lifted out a corked bottle that was full to the brim with a bright blue liquid.

“Always keeps me strongest potions down below, so’s no one steals or breaks ‘em,” she said, winking at Link.

She paused when Vitanre groaned again and stirred. Placing a hand on the girl’s stomach, Meriweather peered anxiously into her face.

“Haloo there, are you awake then?”

“Wha...where...”

“Easy now girl, if you’re awake then this’ll be much easier on my part. Can you roll over for me?” Meriweather went on, as Vitanre mumbled a few things.

“You, boy, get me water,” Meriweather pointed a pudgy finger towards a large clay pitcher that was sitting on a shelf across the room. Link grabbed it quickly and returned, handing it over to the healer and standing back as Meriweather bustled around the cot.

Vitanre, seemingly for the first time, opened her eyes and SAW, recognizing things around her. Her bleary eyes fell on Adra first, who timidly went to her side and knelt down.

“Vitanre, it is me, your mother,” Adra said quietly, grabbing up one of Vitanre’s hands and hugging it to her chest.

The girl blinked repeatedly, letting out a pained sigh. “My head...” she reached her other hand up for her head, but Meriweather seized it and put it back beside her, then waved away Adra.

“You two, out out out! ” she ordered, pointing to the door. “I can’t do me job with so many people staring! ”

Adra stood and reluctantly released Vitanre’s hand. Meriweather bustled along behind them, ushering Link and Adra from the room.

“She’ll be fine, ain’t a wound Meriweather can’t fix up in a jiffy ” she said cheerily, shutting the door behind them and leaving Link and Adra alone in the first room.

From beyond the shut door, they could hear Meriweather speaking to Vitanre. Adra stood motionless, staring at that door, before finally turning to Link.
“Darian? Is he...?”

Link sighed, looking away. “I followed, but came upon Vitanre in the woods...she needed help, I couldn’t just leave her there.”
Adra looked like he had just cut her heart out, but still smiled tearily. “Of course dear, I would do the same had I been in that situation-OH! ”

Just then, an agonized yelp that could only be Vitanre’s, sounded from behind the door. Link intercepted Adra as she headed for the door.

“Peace, Meriweather probably just removed the arrow,” Link said soothingly.

Adra sniffled, looking forlornly at that door. “My poor dear...why didn’t she stay in the Shrine?”

Link wasn’t sure how to reply, and was saved at that instant when the door behind them swung open, punctuated with a flash of lightning that lit up three figures crowded into the doorway. They clumsily came in further, revealing Shino and another man Link had seen in the shooting gallery but didn’t know his name, both supporting a bleeding Hiram.

Adra choked out a cry and ran to her husband’s side.

“Stand yerself back now, Adra, he’s hurting bad,” the nameless man said.

Shino grunted as Adra backed away, and the three moved for the door that Link guarded.

“Stand down, Link,” Shino said, and Link quickly stepped aside and opened the door.

“I say now, she’ll heal up in a matter of hours but ye can’t see her now! ” Meriweather grumpily said, turning around. She yipped and the roll of bandage she held fell to the floor.

“Heavens! Is the entire family daff?” she exclaimed, picking up the bandage and hastily beginning to move her things as Shino and the other man eased Hiram down onto a cot.

Hiram’s head lolled to the side, and his wide eyes focused on the form of Vitanre laying on the cot next to his. Her head and leg were thickly wrapped in bandage, the white stuff standing out drastically against her mudstained clothes. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head slowly.

While Meriweather began to attend to Hiram, Shino and his companion left and joined Link and Adra in the first room.

Link looked out the broken front windows. The rain outside was dousing the fires, though the archway and a small stretch of the stone wall still stubbornly burned.

Shino joined Link at the window and sighed, which came across sounding like a low growl.

“Isn’t the first time troublemakers attacked us,” he said, turning away.
“Won’t be the last either,” said the other man, who was attempting to comfort Adra.

“I was out when they attacked...where were the villagers? Why didn’t you defend yourselves?” Link asked.

Shino sighed again. “We prefer the loss of property, to the loss of lives. Vitanre in there’s the only one of us who’s got any reputable skill with weaponry...we prefer to hide in the caverns below the village and allow them to pass.”

“Here, the shops display their goods in the windows, sure,” the other man said, guiding Adra to a chair. “But they’s keep the important down below, in the caverns.”

“Why? You shall always be attacked if you never try fighting back,” Link said, looking at them all in amazement.

“It’s just how we choose to live,” the man replied, shrugging. He patted Adra’s hand and came to stand with Link and Shino.

“I saw you fight tonight, against Vitanre,” he said, nodding. “You must have given those bandits a time of it, eh?

Link shook his head quickly. “No, I did nothing of any great importance...Vitanre did more fighting than I, and paid dearly for it.” Link snuck a glance at the doorway, behind which he knew Vitanre laid. “She killed three, if I remember right.”

“That she did, I saw ‘em meself,” the man said, nodding. Shino looked at them both as though they were crazy.

“Are ye both mad? There’d be bodies if’n’s she’d killed anyone.”

“There was,” both Link and the other man answered in unison.

“I ran past them, running after Vitanre,” Link said.

“Aye, and I found them shortly after finding Hiram and right before you came out of your hidey hole Shino,” the other man insisted.

Shino cuffed the man behind an ear. “We walked the entire street, Forns, and saw not a soul besides Hiram, if ye’d recall.”

Forns’s eyebrows furrowed, then he whistled. “You know...come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing those bodies again, and we must have walked past where I saw them at least twice.”

The sudden image of the horse that had healed itself, almost magically, came to Link’s mind. “There were bodies...I’m sure of it...” he heard himself say, every scrap of logic in his brain screaming that if he would just step outside and LOOK he’d find his dead men.

Following the voices’ instruction, Link did go to the door and walk outside, Forns and Shino following behind him. He led both men to the exact spot where he was sure he’d found the three dead horsemen. The area lay empty.
“See? I told ye,” Shino started to say, when a rustling behind them made all three males turn.

Link barely had enough time to leap between the two defenseless villagers and raise his shield to defend as one of their ‘dead men’ lunged for them from out of the darkness. As soon as the man connected with the shield, he exploded in a mass of gooey black mud that splattered everywhere.

“Well...” Shino said, wiping black goop from his face. “THAT didn’t help anything...”

“Maybe so, actually...” Link said quietly, staring thoughtfully at the oozing mass that coated his shield, even now beginning to wash away in the downpour.

“Let’s get ourselves inside a’fores we catch something...or something catches us,” Forns said then.

When they entered Meriweather’s home again, the front room was empty. Further investigation revealed Adra was inside the back room, sitting beside her husband. Meriweather herself was packing away her things back into the big brown bag. She looked up when the soggy, muddy men entered.

“No no no, ye three are getting baths if I’s got to give ‘em to ye meself before you come in here! ” she said, shooing them back out of the room. Shino and Forns looked at each other, and hurriedly made excuses before running out the door with a ‘good luck kid ’ to Link.

Link blinked and then stared after them, before turning wide eyed to Meriweather as she stalked towards him. Seizing an arm, she began to drag a protesting Link down towards the trap door.

“No really! I’ll just go back outside, no need to bother-“

“Ye’s need a bath and a bath is what yer getting, boy. ”

Link sighed heavily and let her drag him down a small stairway and down an equally small hallway until they came to an open space. The walls were solid stone, and the ceiling above them was crowded with stalactites. The floor beneath Link’s feet was smoothed out, and little cubby holes were carved into the rock walls.

Sitting on a large pallet of blankets in the middle of the room were four children, two boys and two girls, of varying ages. The same frizzy haired girl that had brought the bag to Meriweather stood up.

“Wot’s he down here for, mama?”

“Hurry along then and heat the kettle. This lad needs a bath! ”
The girls giggled while the boys gave Link looks of pity as Meriweather pulled Link past their pallet and into a smaller room off of the large carvern. There was a sizable iron tub that took up nearly all the space in this tiny room. It was partially full of clean water that was decidedly chilly when Meriweather stuck a finger in.
“Ooh, that’s a bit nippy...hurry then! ” she called after the frizzy girl. Within moments, the girl came staggering in with a large steaming kettle. Meriweather helped her pour it into the tub, and as the girl left one of the boys came in bearing a basket covered with a thick and fluffy cloth.

“We warmed the stones too, ma,” he said. Meriweather used the cloth to grab two rocks the size of Link’s fists from the basket and she dropped them into the water, the rocks sizzling for a split second when they went under.

Meriweather stuck her hand in again. “That’s a nice temperature now.” She kept the cloth and shooed the boy from the room. She folded the cloth neatly and sat it within reaching distance of the tub edge.

“Now then,” she said, looking around. A small hand reached through the doorway, holding a small tan brick. Meriweather snatched it from the hand and gave it to Link, who was still standing silently where he’d been shoved. “Ah, thank ye dear. Soap, drying cloth, and- ” she said, stepping out the door and yanking a heavy curtain over the doorway. “Privacy. Take yer time, dear. Wash the dust of travel off yourself.”

Link, now alone, stared at the steaming water. It HAD been awhile since he’d actually taken a bath...but he felt a little selfconscious doing it in the home of strangers, no matter how kind they happened to be.

‘And,’ he thought wryly, ‘the constant giggling of little girls just outside the curtain isn’t helping matters either...’

He heard Meriweather chide the girls, and the curtain ruffled as they ran off. He sighed heavily...might as well, then.

He quickly undressed and stepped into the tub, wincing at how hot the water was. The tub was big, big enough to hold him even if he sat down in it. Quickly cleaning himself, he got back out and grabbed at the cloth.

Belatedly, he realized how muddy his tunic was...he couldn’t put that back on! AND, all his other clothing and such were in his saddlebags on Epona

As though she had read his mind, Link heard Meriweather’s footsteps pause outside the curtain. “That horse brought in belongs to ye, right boy?”

“Yes, she’s mine,” Link answered, wrapping the cloth around his waist.
“Oh, good. I’s took a wild guess that all yer belongings are on the horse, am I right?”

He blinked in surprise. “Uh, yes in fact.”

“Good. I sent one o’ me boys after your things. Just wait a few, he’ll have him here.”
‘Not that I have any choice,’ he thought with some amusement. He picked up his muddy tunic and folded it; he’d see to that later. At the present, he had some time to himself, so he picked up his shield and rinsed the black ooze off it’s surface, restoring it to its gleaming regularity. Next, he carefully cleaned the Master Sword on a sleeve that wasn’t quite so filthy as the rest, and then slid that back into it’s sheath.

Just as he finished, the curtain raised just a tiny bit and his saddlebags were shoved underneath. Thankful that he wouldn’t be stuck naked any longer, he quickly threw on an older but clean tunic and stuffed away the dirty one. Once he stepped out of the bathing room, Meriweather hooted at him.

“Well, ain’t you the cutey once ye can see beneath the grime! ” she chuckled. “You go ahead on upstairs and speak with the girl, if’n’s she’s awake that is. If she’s sleeping don’t ye dare wake her! ”

With that parting threat, Link took his things and headed back out the trap door and quietly made his way to the room where Hiram and Vitanre lay resting. Adra was laying in the floor, her head and arms resting on the cot next to Hiram, with her back to her daughter. Vitanre was alone, quiet and appearing to still be unconscious. Link walked closer, to get a better look at her, and when he approached she opened her eyes.

“Link...”

He nodded, not knowing what to say. Vitanre shut her eyes and raised a hand to her head, then began to sit up. Link swung his saddlebags to the floor and headed for her.

“What are you doing?”

“Going...after Darian...” Vitanre bit out, one hand pressed to her head, the other ready to heave herself up and into a standing position. She did just that, just as Link rounded the cot and got beside her.

And good thing too, for her leg immediately gave out and she fell sideways into Link. As soon as his arms reached out to steady her, she swatted them away irritably.

“I don’t need your help,” she snapped, shoving away from him and awkwardly hopping a few steps.

“You are not yet healed,” Link started to say, when Vitanre waved him silent and took another shaky step.

“I do not care. Darian needs help, he needs me,” she said, turning to glare at him over her shoulder.
“Please listen,” he tried again. “You are still injured and weak. You will not be helping your brother at all if you get yourself killed.”

When she turned to look at Link again, her eyes were tear-filled. “I know...but you do not have to tell me that...” she whispered.
She put her back to Link and shut her eyes...she’d failed her little brother. As his older sister, she was supposed to be there for him and protect him...and she’d failed.

Vitanre opened her eyes when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulders. “You should probably lay down now,” Link said quietly.

Indeed, her bad leg was trembling horribly and she felt weak inside. Nodding meekly, she allowed Link to help her back to her cot, but she refused to lay back down.

Link sat beside her, in companionable silence, and Vitanre was grateful; she feared that any words coming from her mouth may cause her to break down and cry.

Both Hylians looked up at the rhythmic tapping that was heading for them. Within moments, the elder was framed in the doorway.

“It is just as well that you both are here...saves me from telling the same story twice,” she said, hobbling over to them. She plopped herself down right between the two, Link scooting over quickly to make room and to save Vitanre the effort of having to move herself.

“Now, my dears, it is time you learned of a chapter in the history of Hyrule that has been nearly forgotten, lost in time,” the elder said, tapping her cane upon the floor to be sure she had both Link and Vitanre’s attentions. Turning her gaze towards the wall across from them, she took a deep breath and began.