Princess Zelda and I stood at the headwaters of the Hyrule River. It seemed to be a dead end, a canyon whose head was covered by a series of waterfalls, blocking any further progress. But I knew better.

"I've never been here before," she said. "I visited the Gorons once when I was just a little girl, but I've never come here."

"The Zoras can be somewhat secretive," I said. "But their password shows that they honor their alliance with your family." I took out the ocarina and played. Once again the tune was Zelda's own song, the song the royal family had passed down for generations. When I finished the last note something above us shifted, and suddenly the waterfall divided in two, leaving a clear passage through to to a cave mouth that had been hidden behind it. "And speaking of secretive, Mikau has a plan here, so I think I will let him take over."

I changed, and Zelda didn't stare this time. She was apparently starting to get used to me. Together we stepped behind the waterfall, into the Zora's Domain.

We had returned to the Kokiri forest, after gaining the aid of the Gorons. Already messengers were beginning to pass back and forth between the forest and the mountain. The Gerudo camped there were taking part too, and Nabooru and Saria were working together to plan our future strategy, with both the Great Deku Tree and Darumia lending them advice.

While we had rested briefly there, I had stepped into my inner world to consult with the others. I'd known how to approach the Gorons. They'd always been fairly willing to accept me, once I'd initially proven myself to them. But the Zoras... the young Princess Ruto was the only one of them who had ever paid me much mind. And it was her father the king whose attention I needed to catch. Last time that had proven problematic.

"Yeah, given everything that happened last time I'd say their King isn't much inclined to listen to strangers," Mikau had said, nodding. "The bunch I'm from were much more open, you saw that yourself. I mean the band played gigs all over Termina, and we never hid our home with magic the way these guys do. But even without knowing anything about the Hyrule Zoras, I do have some ideas. Zoras aren't quite as straightforward as Gorons. You can't just waltz up to them and tell them something. They do like stories though, so if we can hook 'em the right way, they'll listen. It's just a matter of getting their attention. And I think I know just how to do that."

Inside the Zora's Domain it was peaceful and serene. The huge cavern was a natural one, unlike the Goron's home. A vast underground lake filled most of it, with the rough cavern floor around it smoothed into paths that twisted between the various levels of the cavern. Above, a diffuse magical light shone down over the whole scene in an eternal blue twilight.

Mikau would have dove into the lake and swum across, but Zelda wouldn't have been able to keep up with him, so instead he led the way along the shore, following the cleared path that dipped down to the lake and then rose again to end in a flight of stairs carved out from the stone.

At the top of the stairs was King Zora's throne room. He sat, as he had on my first visit, on a throne that was also a raised river bed, a waterfall flowing around and tumbling down beneath him. The princess Ruto, slender and delicate next to the vast bulk of the king, stood beside him.

Zelda stayed near the door, while Mikau stepped froward and knelt on the platform that stood before the throne. "Your Majesty."

"Who are you? I know all my subjects, but you are a stranger."

"Just Mikau, a humble guitarist from the Great Bay." Even in the face of royalty, Mikau still had that same air of casual ease. Few things seemed to intimate him. Certainly speaking to a Zora king wasn't among them.

"The Great Bay, you say?" He sat a little straighter, obviously interested.

"Yep." Mikau nodded.

"I have not seen the sea in a very long time. We river Zoras came from there, long ago. You say you are a musician?"

"Yes, your royal dudeliness."

That got a flicker of a smile from the king, who didn't seem to mind Mikau's casual attitude.

"Play me a song about the sea."

"It'd be my pleasure, but I lost my axe."

The King looked a bit bemused at that. "Your axe?"

"Yeah, my guitar. Had to leave it behind while running for my life, in fact. It's a long story." Mikau waved one hand, dismissing that tale as a minor aside.

"Easily remedied. Here, bring this Zora a guitar," he called. An attendant that had stood near the throne ran from the room. He returned carrying a guitar. Mikau took it, and plucked the strings.

He nodded in satisfaction. It was a fine instrument, and was even in tune. Mikau sat on the platform, settling the guitar into his lap, and began to play. He sang a ballad of the sea, as the king had requested. Other Zoras started to drift into the room, drawn by the sound. By the time he was done a small crowd gathered in and around the pool beneath the throne. They applauded him when he finished, and he smiled and gave them a little bow.

"Very nice," said the king.

"These digs remind me of another song" said Mikau. "One I wrote myself, after hearing a mondo strange story about this place. Care to hear it?"

"A song about my kingdom? Of course!"

Mikau smiled and bent over the guitar again. The song he played this time was in a minor key, soft, sad notes evoking a dark mood. He sang about a frozen realm, empty of life, those who had once lived there trapped beneath ice. The faces around him showed confusion and dismay as he played, and when he was done the king was frowning deeply.

"What is this? You said you would play a song about my kingdom!"

"I did"

"The Zora's Domain has never frozen!"

"Hey, I have no reason to lie to you. Everything I've said and sung has been straight up. The dude who told me this saw it with his own eyes."

"Nonsense!"

"Not nonsense. Just one of those long stories. It goes right along with the one I mentioned earlier, about running for my life, in fact."

"Tell it, then. I want to hear what brings you to sing of such things."

"All right. Settle in and I'll tell you the whole thing. To start though I gotta tell you about how I met the dude who told me about seeing your digs all iced over. See, a little while back I'd met this girl. A lot of stories start that way, don't they? Dude meets a girl, then something bogus happens and everything goes all wrong. That's how it was with me and her. It was pretty sweet, but then she had some eggs. Now I know you're thinking that eggs aren't exactly going wrong, but the deal is that my girl's eggs got stolen by some pirates.

"I wasn't going to lie back and let them, no way, but I'm a singer, not a fighter. I wiped out pretty badly. The pirates dumped me back in the sea after they were done with me, thinking I'd just float out into the bay and die. But I guess fate had other plans or something, because I floated in to shore.

"Now I won't lie, I was in pretty bad shape. I was about to catch the big one. But this Hylian found me and dragged me out of the water. He tried to heal me, but it was too late. It's pretty far out to say this when I'm standing right here in front of you, but I died that day."

The Zoras didn't gasp as the Gorons had, but every eye in the room was riveted on Mikau. "My body got laid to rest in the sand, but my soul couldn't rest. I'd promised my girl I'd save her eggs, and I failed. This Hylian though, I could see he was the kind of hero I wasn't. He was the kind of mondo fighter who could beat the pirates and save my girl's eggs. But he was a Hylian, and they were out across the bay. You gotta have fins to get out there, you know? And here I was, a swimming Zora, able to get there, except that I was dead and couldn't fight. But hey, between the two of us we had everything we needed, right? So a bit of strange magic let him take my shape, use my fins, and go out and do what I couldn't.

"We became one, and we're one still. And I'll let him finish telling you this story, 'cause the rest of it is really his story, and not mine. "

Mikau stepped back. I stepped forward, ready to continue the tale as we had planned.

There was a rippling murmur of surprise as Mikau's Zora form changed to my own Hylian self. But that was brief and the room was immediately filled again with a listening, intent silence. My stomach clenched, feeling their eyes on me. But Mikau was still with me, helping me find the words to say as I once again shared my story.

When it was done, and I had described what Ganondorf's rule would do to their kingdom, I fell silent. For a long moment there was no sound at all but the soft play of water over stone. Then the king spoke. "You tell a very strange tale. That some of it is true I've seen with my own eyes, but how do I know I can trust you?"

I looked behind me to where Zelda had waited all this time and nodded. She smiled and walked up to stand beside me. "Your majesty, you can trust him because I trust him."

King Zora squinted at her. "And you are?"

"Princess Zelda, your majesty."

"Zelda!" He peered at her again, then nodded. "You look much like your mother did at your age, my dear."

Zelda curtseyed. "Thank you, your majesty."

"So the story is true..." The king fell silent again, frowning in thought.

"Father." Princess Ruto, standing at his side, spoke for the first time. "You should help them. If their story is true, you have to help them, or we'll all die."

"And what help do you require of the Zoras, Princess?"

"Any help you can give, your majesty. We are waging war against Ganondorf, though it's a secret war as yet. But soon I hope to be at the walls of Hyrule Castle and eject him and his monsters from it."

"I see. Not a light thing you're asking."

"I'm fighting for the survival of all of Hyrule's peoples, your majesty."

"Yes. Including my Zoras, it seems. Very well. We are with you."

The deep spring that was the source of the river, the underground lake, and all of the waterways in Hyrule, was a still and peaceful place. Zelda and I had gone there after speaking with the king in order to find the Great Fairy of Magic so that Zelda could learn. The entrance to her fountain lay on the shore of the small lake formed by the spring. She went inside the hidden entrance, and I sat outside and waited for her.

While I waited, I returned to Mikau's form and picked up the borrowed guitar. It was relaxing to watch while he sat and played, and put the dangers and burdens of our current situation out of my mind. Or try to at least. But no matter how I tried to just sit back and listen to Mikau's music, my mind kept circling back again and again to our situation. I'd felt it was the right thing to do, to rouse all of Hyrule against Ganondorf. The seven years of oppression I'd seen couldn't be allowed to happen. But was plunging the whole nation into war really the best way? Perhaps it would be better to draw the Master Sword after all, even if it gave Ganondorf more power. Then I could face him alone, and no one else would be hurt.

But I didn't have the light arrows, nor the help of the sages. Without their power how would I even be able to reach him? With access to the Sacred Realm he could once again raise his black tower and I wouldn't even be able to touch him. But then if I drew the sword I too might be able to reach the Sacred Realm, and the sages. Except... I sighed. Impa was dead. And Zelda and Ruto were still children. I didn't know if they could become sages so young. That path might well lead to the seven years of waiting again. Or six now, but that was still too long. I remembered again the shattered Hyrule I'd seen. The Zoras almost extinct, the Gorons barely surviving, a Kakariko Village that held far too few battered Hylian refugees, nothing but moblins walking where Deku Scrubs had lived in peace, the eroding innocence of the Kokiri... No. I couldn't go that way. I had to try to find a better path.

"You're cute."

Mikau jumped and nearly dropped the guitar.

"You were cute as a Hylian too." Mikau looked over to see Princess Ruto swimming in the lake beside him, smiling up at him from the water.

"Uh..."

:Not this again.: I had thought that being obviously too old for her might head off the obsession with me that Princess Ruto had developed last time, but it seemed that hadn't helped.

"My father says I should get engaged soon."

Mikau looked down at her with a wry smile. "And do you have some handsome young Zora in mind?"

She scowled. "No. I don't like any of them. I like you though."

"I'm a bit old for you, little dudette."

"Oh that doesn't matter! A princess can marry whoever she likes."

"I see."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Mikau paused, and he and I both thought about that. For him there was Lulu, of course, but that was part of a past life, when he had rather literally been a different person. For him now there was no one. For me... well, I had some feelings for Zelda, but they were decidedly mixed, and I had no idea at all how she felt about me.

"No, I suppose not," Mikau finally said, though we both suspected that admission might be a mistake.

Sure enough the princess gave a delighted squeal and jumped out of the water. She flung her arms around Mikau, who nearly dropped the guitar yet again. Mikau tried to pry her off with one hand while holding the guitar out of the way with the other. It wasn't working terribly well. I could hear Shadow laughing at Mikau's discomfort. I had no idea what to do, I didn't think I could help much if I stepped in.

"Ahem!"

Mikau stopped trying to pry Ruto off of him and looked up, somewhat guiltily, to see Zelda standing there, her arms crossed, her expression anything but pleased. Ruto finally let go of Mikau and looked over at Zelda. "Hello princess!"

"Just what are you two doing?"

"Mikau is going to be my boyfriend," said Ruto.

"Hey now little dudette. I never agreed to that!" Mikau stepped away from Ruto. "You're cute and all, but I can't."

"Why not?" Ruto batted her eyelashes at him and giggled. I could nearly see Shadow rolling his eyes, and Mikau was obviously not impressed either.

"Well for starters we have a war to fight. That has to come first."

"Oh." Ruto heaved a dramatic sigh. "Of course. One's responsibilities always come first. Especially when you're a princess."

"Exactly. Hit me up after the war's won and we can talk. Just talk though. I'm still probably not your type, little dudette."

Ruto giggled again. "You're still cute though. Even as a Hylian!" She immediately turned and dived into the spring, vanishing from sight.

To my relief, and to Mikau's too I think, Zelda didn't say anything further about it. "I've learned what I came here to learn," was all she said.

With the Zoras now on our side, it was time to turn our attention to the Hylians. Most of those who survived were in Kakariko Village, so that was where Zelda and I next turned our steps. There was no single leader to approach there. Instead, Zelda and I stood in front of the windmill, on the slope above the town square. I wore my adult form, and Zelda stood beside me, still in Kokiri green as well.

The day was chill, overcast, and gloomy. Rain drizzled down fitfully from a sky so choked with clouds that there was no sign of the sun. A few townsfolk glanced up at us, but most ignored us, trudging wearily and warily about their business. I would have to get their attention.

I took out the ocarina of time and lifted it to my lips, playing a song I hadn't needed since before Ganondorf's first defeat. The notes sailed out brightly into the gloom, and suddenly sunlight speared down from the sky, a golden beam that first centered around me, then swept outwards as the spell cleared the clouds away. In the square below heads came up and people looked around in wonder, a sudden confused babble of conversation erupting into the formerly quiet and dreary air.

I tucked the ocarina away and stepped forward, looking out over the crowd. "People of Hyrule!"

Head turned towards me, and voices stilled as the crowd looked up, their faces full of curiosity and apprehension.

"People of Hyrule! I come to you today on behalf of the Princess Zelda. She lives, and she needs your help." A murmur went through the crowd and that, and I smiled just a bit. The Hylians too responded to her name. "You all know by know that Ganondorf the usurper has killed the king and taken the throne. I have come to tell you what will happen if you leave him to reign unopposed. In seven years time Hyrule will be empty, this town nearly a ghost town, the other peoples of Hyrule killed or driven into hiding. Monsters will walk the land freely. It will be a place of darkness and fear. But you can prevent that!"

There was another murmur, growing slowly as he spoke, and a voice called out from somewhere in the crowd. "What do you expect us to do? We're just ordinary people. We can't fight giant monsters and those crazy warrior women."

"You can! I know you can! And you must, otherwise you're doomed. In seven years-"

Another shout from the crowd interrupted. "Dying in seven years sounds better than going out to die right now!"

A few laughed at that, and I saw agreement on many of the faces in the crowd. I was losing them. I struggled to find the right words to say, but I realized that I didn't know what the ordinary people of Hyrule were like. I knew the Gorons, the Zoras, even the Gerudo, but I knew so little of these people. What were their hopes and dreams? What would make them want to fight?

"Let me speak," said Zelda softly. I glanced back at her and saw that she had cast an illusion, replacing her Kokiri garb with a royal dress and a shining tiara. I nodded and stepped aside.

"My people," she called, over a suddenly silent crowd, "We did not come here today to ask you to die. We came to ask you to live. But if you want to live, you must fight. Ganondorf is not just a usurper, he is a black mage of the worst sort. He will destroy everything that is good in Hyrule if you don't stand against him. But do not fear. You won't face Ganondorf's creatures alone. The Goron warriors have sworn to our cause, as have the Zoras. We will take the field with a strong army, do not doubt. Still, mighty as the Gorons are, and skilled as the Zoras may be, they can't win alone. They need you. I need you, my citizens, my people. Please."

I scanned the crowd. Her words were reaching them more than mine had. I still saw fear, but hope and determination were beginning to appear on a few faces. One man in particular caught my eye. His expression was terrified, yet grimly determined. His eyes were fixed on Zelda, and I saw determination overtake fear. Then he bent, vanishing for a moment amid the crowd, and when he straightened again, he was lifting a crossbow.

I acted on pure instinct, pulling my shield from my back and flinging it in front of Zelda, only an instant before the man in the crowd fired. The crossbow bolt rebounded from my shield with a sharp, clanging sound. Zelda yelped in surprise and shock. The crowd gasped almost as one. I clearly heard the man who'd fired the bolt curse.

As if that were a signal, the crowd began to growl. Those near the would-be assassin turned on him, and in a moment he vanished amid a knot of enraged Hylians.

"Don't kill him! We need to know what he knows!" called Zelda.

A moment later the little knot opened up to show the now somewhat battered crossbowman being held between two Hylians. One of them was vaguely familiar to me, a carpenter I'd dealt with briefly during my time in the future whose name I couldn't recall.

"Find somewhere to lock him up," commanded Zelda. "I'll come and question him shortly."

The men who held him nodded, and dragged the would-be assassin from the crowd.

Zelda beamed at them, and at the other Hylians gathered below her. "You see? You have already struck a blow against Ganondorf! You, all of you, were willing to leap to be heroes, without even needing to be asked. The capacity for such great deeds lies within all my people, I know it! You know in your hearts that you can no more stand by and let Ganondorf destroy Hyrule than you could stand by today and let him have me killed. There may still be dark times ahead, but I know I can count on you, my heroes, to be at my side, fighting with me to free my kingdom."

The fear in the crowd below seemed to have vanished entirely, replaced by a certain surprised wonder. I smiled. I knew, a bit, what many of them must be feeling. I too had once thought I had no capacity for heroism. Discovering otherwise was a strange thing.

"I know I do not even need to ask if you are still my people," said Zelda, smiling down at the wondering crowd. "So come! Let us learn what we can from Ganondorf's failed assassin, and let us begin to make plans for his ultimate downfall!"

As I followed her down off the hill and in among the crowd, and saw the way they crowded around Zelda, wanting to touch and be close to the child-ruler who'd suddenly made her way into their lives, I knew we'd done it. They Hylians were with us. Ganondorf's own actions in placing the assassin here had played directly into our hands.

Now, though, I was forced to think about the one group of Hyrule's people that I had not yet called to battle. The Hylians had been difficult. These would be more difficult still. Not just because of their own nature, but because of my conflicted feelings towards them. How could I bring myself to ask the people of the peaceful Lost Woods, my childhood refuge, to go to war?

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this update. Sadly, it is the last update of any kind I'll be making to this site. I now upload my stories to other sides, including 50+ pony stories at FimFiction, under the username SPark, and several non-pony stories at Archive of Our Own, under the same username as here. If you'd like to see how this story ends, the whole thing is now up over there.