Lya's Story (prequel to Shades of Gray and The Death/Return of a Hero)

[HeartOfTheHero]

I'm trying to come up with a better title, but for now that's all I've got.
Anyways, I'll try to post a new chapter every few days, but I won't have the first one up until I talk to Keeper of Memory and Venexts to find out what their characters names are going to be.
Obviously this story is about Lya, one of the main characters from my other two stories. It's going to explain how she got from Earth to Hyrule, and then eventually how she ended up in the KH Universe during Shades of Gray.
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Prologue

How many days in a year?
She woke up with hope but she only found tears.
And I can be so insincere,
Making her promises never for real

My story starts off like any other one. My life was a train wreck, nothing was ever going right. I don’t know why everything ended up the way it did for me. But I guess sometimes you just have to make the best of things.


I was 23 years old, living a few minutes away from a big city. I had a little apartment all to myself, which was nice, I guess. I never kept a job for very long, so I pretty much did whatever work came my way.


When this story starts, I was working as a waitress for a small restaurant just inside the city limits.

This is the story of a girl,
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world,
And while she looked so said in photographs,
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles…

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Every chapter will have song lyrics at the beginning and end, so have fun trying to figure out what song it is, lol

[NaminesNobody]

I know that song! Absolutely(story of a girl) xD can't wait for more!

[TwilightRiku_13]

Aaah, Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days!!!!! That is one of my favorite songs of all time; God only knows how many times I have played that song over and over. Anyway, that was a really good start to your story, and I eagerly await to see what happens next.

[HeartOfTheHero]

ok, I finally got Venexts and Keeper's characters' names, so here's chapter 1
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Chapter 1

Everyone keeps talking,
They promise you everything,
They don’t mean anything

“Lya!” screamed my boss as I stumbled into the restaurant a few minutes later than usual and quickly tied on an apron. “Where have you been?! There are people waiting for their food!” She shoved two plates at me gave me a glare that told me I was on thin ice this morning.

“Sorry Ms. West, it won’t happen again,” I said meekly as I took off to serve the only two people in the restaurant their breakfast. When I got over to their table I saw that they were laughing quietly at me.

“You better watch out, or you’ll lose another job,” my best friend, Hannah, whispered as I set her plate down in front of her.

“Leave her alone,” my cousin, Steven, said as I gave them both an annoyed look, “it’s not her fault that her car broke down. Again.” he added as he examined my hair, which was even more frizzy and unkempt than usual. “Ran to work again, I see.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice. If I had taken the bus I would still be waiting for it, and if I had been a few seconds later I would have been fired.” I sighed as I flopped down in a chair between the two of them. “Besides, it’s not that far…”

“Yeah, well let’s hope you never get a job any farther in the city, I’d hate to see what you would look like if you had to run through all that traffic,” he said as he chuckled softly.

“Ha ha, very funny,” I said as I gave him a playful shove, “look guys, it’s nice to see you here, but I’ve got to get back to work,” I looked to make sure that Ms. West wasn’t paying attention before I added, “before the Wicked Witch decides to do something to me.” They both burst out laughing.

“You know we only come here to see you,” Hannah said, “Definitely not for the food. It’s awful.” she said as she looked down at her plate.

“What did you order?” I asked as I considered the heap of….something on her plate.

“It was supposed to be pancakes,” Steven said, then looked down at his own plate, “but I’m not so sure…it looks like…” he trailed off as he gave the ‘pancakes’ another look, “you know what, I think I’m going to skip breakfast this morning.” He pushed the plate across the table with his fork.

Hannah and I giggled at his expression, and then Ms. West started screeching at me to take the other customers orders. I hadn’t realized that a few more people had come in and sat down. I waved good-bye to Steven and Hannah and went back to work.

Every time I sat a plate of ‘pancakes’ down in front of someone they looked at me like I was trying to poison them. I felt sorry for them, but hey, Ms. West had taken over the kitchen that morning, there was nothing I could do to improve the cooking. Not that I could have done much better…


It was almost seven o’clock, and I had been working for close to ten hours straight. The other waitress had shown up at noon, but Ms. West had told her she could go home after only an hour. I swear, she was just waiting for an excuse to fire me. She knew that the restaurant didn’t get busy until after three, and I couldn’t handle the crowd all by myself.

I was rushing back and forth between the tables, taking people’s orders, carrying food to the tables, running back into the kitchen every time the smoke alarm went off (which was every ten minutes). So it was no surprise that when I was carrying out a particularly large plate, I tripped and fell, and my face ended up in the customer’s dinner.

“LYA!!!!!” I sat up and turned back toward the kitchen. Ms. West stood in the doorway, and her face was as red as mine, except hers wasn’t covered in spaghetti sauce. “YOU ARE FIRED!!!!” she screeched. I stood up and threw the stupid apron I had been wearing on the floor.

“Fine! Just give me my paycheck and you’ll never see me again!” I cried as she stood seething.

“You lazy bum! I won’t give you a penny, and I’ll see to it that you never work in a restaurant in this city again!” she started to come towards me, and I realized that she was still holding a knife. I don’t know what she planned to do, but I didn’t want to stay and find out. I took off running out of there faster than I had ever run in my life.

When I finally slowed down enough to see where I was, I found myself outside of Steven’s apartment building. He was walking towards the door when he saw me. “Lost another job?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” I looked down at my shoes.

He sighed, and looked at my face, which was still covered in spaghetti sauce. “Come get cleaned up and I’ll take you home.”

“Thanks,” I said as I followed him inside.

Say goodbye, these days are gone,
And we can’t keep holding on,
When all we need is some relief,
Through these hard times

[HeartOfTheHero]

Chapter 2

Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by,
Hoping that he’s bent for more than arguments,
And failed attempts to fly, fly

Two days later, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I had found another job, delivering packages throughout the city from a small business that supplied various items. They hadn’t told me specifically what I was delivering, and I hadn’t asked. I got dressed and headed out to the bus stop. My car was really messed up, and I didn’t have the money to get it fixed yet. I really needed this job to work out, and not just because of my car. I was a few months behind on my apartment, and I had been living on peanut butter and crackers for quite a while now.

I looked at my watch as I walked to the bus stop. Not good, I thought, I can’t be late on my first day… I started running, and when I got to the bus stop, it was nowhere in sight. This isn’t fair! Just as I was considering how far it was to my new job, a car pulled up in front of me.

“Need a lift?” Hannah asked as she unlocked her car door.

“Thank you so much!” I said as I jumped into the passenger’s seat.

Where are you headed today?” she asked as she pulled away from the curb. I told her the address and she nodded as she headed in that direction. “So what’s the new job?” she inquired curiously.

“Delivery girl,” I said enthusiastically.

“Wow, you actually sound excited about this one,” she said skeptically.

“Well, it’s better than the last one.”

“True, but how are you supposed to deliver stuff without a car?”

“Um, I’m still working on that…” She smiled, like she knew that I was going to say that.

“Just be careful,” she said as she pulled up in front of the address that I had given her. “And try not to lose this one!” she added cheerily.

I could always count on my friends joking about my constant change of jobs. They knew it wasn’t my fault, and they had offered to help me out a few times, but it didn’t change the fact that I was clumsy, uncoordinated, and somewhat forgetful.

I smiled and headed into the building.

Over the next few hours, I took the bus or walked to different parts of the city, delivering packages. Towards the end of the day I was feeling really good, and headed back to the building to make sure they didn’t have anything else for me to deliver. When I turned the corner, I saw three police cars and a bunch of cops swarming around the building.

I joined the group of people who were trying to see what was going on. As the police dragged out my new boss and the other two people who worked with him in the building, I heard them talking about how those three were drug dealers.

Wait, what?? I was working for drug dealers?? I can’t believe this! Just as I was thinking this, one of them caught sight of me in the crowd.

"Hey! She one of us too!” he shouted as he pointed at me. All of the cops turned to look at me. “She’s the one who delivers the stuff!” Before I knew it a pair of policemen were pulling me towards a car.

“Wait wait!” I cried out, “I didn’t know!”

“That’s what they all say,” one of them said as the closed the car door and went back to the other three guys, who were putting up a fight.

Well this is just great, I thought as I sat there fuming, I can’t wait to hear what Hannah and Steven have to say about this one.

It turns out that after a few hours at the police station, they realized that I was telling the truth, and after I gave them all of the addresses that I had been to that day, they let me go.

Hannah and Steven were waiting for me when I got home.

“Oh my god, are you alright??”

“We saw you on the news and we went to the station, but they told us to wait for you here. Are you sure that you’re alright???”

I waited for them to calm down some before I answered their questions, and then they insisted that I let them find me a new job. I sighed and agreed. It’s impossible to win an argument with them anyway.

By the next morning, it was agreed that I would go to work with Hannah, who gave private violin lessons to a few people throughout the city. I was supposed to be looking for a job while I was with her. I guess they didn’t feel safe letting me pick another job by myself, but it’s not like I got hired by a drug dealer on purpose.

Maybe we’ve been living with our eyes half open,
Maybe we’re bent and broken, broken
We were meant to live for so much more,
Have we lost ourselves?

[TwilightRiku_13]

Okay, in the first chapter, the song was "These Hard Times" by Matchbox Twenty, and, in the second chapter, I don't know what the song is. You really need to tell me because I'm curious now. Anyway, back to the story. Man, oh man, poor Lya!!! She just has the worst kind of luck. She gets fired from her waitress job, and then she goes to work for drug dealers. Well, all I can hope is for her life to turn around, which I know it will. Anyway, great job, and I look forward to more.

[HeartOfTheHero]

The second chapter was "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot
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Chapter 3

I close both locks below the window,
I close both blinds and turn away,
Sometimes solutions aren’t so simple,
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way

I spent the next few days job hunting under Hannah and Steven’s supervision. It was actually kind of fun following them around all day long. I found out how horrible Hannah’s students were, and I learned to keep a pair of earplugs with me for when they were practicing, but I always listened while Hannah was playing.


I learned how much fun it was to be a newspaper reporter while I was with Steven. He wrote for the city newspaper, and we would go around searching for good stories all day long, even though we were supposed to be searching for a job for me. We went to every part of the city, and to a lot of places outside of the city.


After five days of looking, we still couldn’t find a decent job for me. I was ready to give up, we had searched everywhere, and even though there were openings, my reputation had spread from my previous jobs. No one wanted to hire me.


On the sixth day, it was Steven’s turn to babysit me. They kept insisting that that’s not what they were doing, but honestly, there’s no other word for it. Someone had tipped the newspaper that there were some odd noises and strange creatures appearing a few hours south of the city, so that’s where we were headed. We both doubted the stories, but it was a chance to escape the hectic settings of the city and replace them with the calm and soothing scenes of the countryside. He, Hannah and I had all grown up in rural and suburban areas, and sometimes we liked to get away and visit a quieter place.


As we were nearing the area where these strange sightings were taking place, the scenery changed from fields to a large forest. We parked on the side of the road and made our way down a narrow trail that wound through the forest.


The farther in we got, the more things started to look like we might have been wrong to doubt those stories. We found the remains of several small animals that looked like they had been torn apart. I was starting to feel nervous, but I wasn’t about to turn back. I always hated to leave a mystery unsolved, even if it was something as simple as figuring out what animal was responsible for these events.


A few minutes later, we heard a rustling in the brush off to our right, and then some screeching and hissing. We turned to see what was coming towards us, and saw a small group of lizards coming toward us. That wouldn’t have been very alarming if they had been regular lizards, but these were at least as tall as I was, and they walked on two legs while carrying swords. I gasped and turned to look at Steven, but he was already pulling me down and farther along the trail before the lizards could see us.


He shoved me in front of him and whispered, “I think I saw someone back there, I’m going to check it out,” then he turned and crept back along the path. “Keep going, and don’t look back,” he added over his shoulder. I wanted to follow him, but the look he gave me made me feel like I would rather face a hundred of those sword carrying lizards than suffer the consequences of disobeying him.


I was only a few feet farther on the path when Steven’s voice reached me again. “Lya, RUN!!!!” He shouted as I heard something large running up the path behind me. I turned around to see where Steven was, but all I could see was another group of those lizards coming towards me. I spun around and took off running as fast as I could. I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was going, and I ran off the path and couldn’t find it again. I fought my way through the bushes and trees, but the farther I went, the closer those things got to me.


The trees and bushes thinned out around me, and before I knew it I was running towards a small cliff. I couldn’t stop myself in time, and I tumbled down the steep slope, and into a group of bushes at the bottom. I guess the lizards gave up after that, because I didn’t hear them come down the slope. I peeked through the bushes, and looked around. When I was sure that there wasn’t anything around me, I started crawling away from the cliff.


I had been wandering around for what felt like hours, and I was hopelessly lost. After a while I stopped crawling and just kept a wary eye out for anything weird. I was exhausted, and I was on the verge of tears. I had no idea what had happened to Steven, and I couldn’t find my way back to where I had last seen him. Even if I could have, he probably wouldn’t still be there.


I had to stop abruptly when I came to a small clearing. In the center was a dark, swirling portal. There was nothing else around it, and even though I knew I shouldn’t have, but I walked toward it. I felt drawn to it for some reason. I looked at it, and started to step closer, but I pulled back and looked around.


What am I doing? I thought, I have a life here, and friends, and I have no idea what this thing does. Sure it could send me somewhere else, or it could kill me. I backed away slowly, and I was almost to the edge of the clearing, about to leave, when I stopped. My life’s a wreck, why should I go back? Maybe this is my chance to find better things…


I strode up to the portal, and turned around to look at my surroundings. A few tears rolled down my face as I stepped through the portal and left my life behind.

Put cards and flowers on your window,
Your friends all plead for you to stay,
Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple,
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way

[TwilightRiku_13]

Oh, that was "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot. Man, I cannot believe I forgot that song, I absolutely love Switchfoot; huh, maybe because I like "Dare You to Move" better than that song. Oh, and the song in Chapter 3 is "Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park, another one of my favorites. So, Lya has officially gone through a portal to another world. Well, I don't know how well this is going to turn out, but at least she is out of her own hellhole world; seriously, her life really sucks. Anyway, great job, and I look forward to more.

[HeartOfTheHero]

Originally Posted by TwilightRiku_13

So, Lya has officially gone through a portal to another world. Well, I don't know how well this is going to turn out, but at least she is out of her own hellhole world; seriously, her life really sucks. Anyway, great job, and I look forward to more.

yeah, things just kept getting worse and worse, and the only things in her life that weren't negative were her two friends, who are now out of her reach....but of course things can only go up from here. or so you would think.
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Chapter 4

Just because I’m hurting,
Doesn’t mean I’m hurt,
Doesn’t mean I didn’t get what I deserve,
No better and no worse

When I woke up and looked around, I had no idea where I was. I was surrounded by trees, but there wasn’t as many as there had been in the forest that the portal had been in, and where Steven….no, I refused to think about what could have happened to him. Right now I needed to find people and figure out what was going on. I started walking, and I soon came to the edge of the woods. What I saw beyond them took my breath away.

Large rolling plains started at the edge of the forest, and several miles further a mountain range stretching up. To my left I saw a large castle, with a town surrounding it, and to my right was a smaller village. A river came down from the mountains and led towards the castle. The color of everything was so much more vivid that anything I had ever seen, and it was beautiful.

I started to walk towards the castle. I figured that I had a better chance of finding someone who could help me there than in the sleepy little village, even though it was closer. As I walked farther away from the forest, I heard a loud cawing noise behind me. I turned around to see what it was, and saw a huge … thing coming at me. It looked like a pterodactyl, but that was impossible. As I stood watching it, several more showed up, and then they flew straight at me, cawing and screeching. I was sure that I was hallucinating, but then I remembered the sword carrying lizards, and I took off running.

I screamed as one of them swooped down and grabbed my hair with its claws. It was trying to lift me off the ground and fly away while the others pecked at me and tried to take me for themselves. Before they had gotten me more than a few feet off the ground, an arrow zipped through the air and hit the one that was holding me up in the chest. It let go of me and fell to the ground.

Since the others were still fighting over me, I didn’t touch the ground again until all of the others had been shot as well. When the last one was dead, I hit the ground and had the wind knocked out of me. I gasped and tried to stand up, but all I did was get entangled in the bodies of all of the creatures. I closed my eyes and tried not to scream again.

I heard hoof beats, and then someone had a hold of my hand and pulled me up. They carried me a little ways away from the pile of creatures, and set me down on the ground gently.

“Are you alright?” I opened my eyes and saw a young man kneeling next to me. He had a look of concern in his bright blue eyes. I guess I was still in shock, or something, because I couldn’t talk. It had nothing to do with that fact that I was face to face with one of the cutest guys I had ever seen. Nothing at all.

“Uh, um,” I blinked and looked away, “yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Because you got pretty beat up…” he said as he gestured at all of the cuts and bruises I had gotten from the creatures fighting over me.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay, just a little sore for the next few days,” I said with a wry smile. “What were those things, anyway?” I asked as I looked back at the creatures.

“Just more of Ganondorf’s monsters,” he said as he pushed his dark blonde hair away from his face, “C’mon, we should get out of here before more show up.”

“M-more?” I squeaked.

“Yeah…” he said slowly as he looked at me, “there are a lot of them around here.”

“Is there anything else? Like, sword carrying lizards, and stuff like that?”

“Lizalfos? Not here, but there are some closer to the castle.” I gulped and looked around nervously. “You’re not from around here, are you?” He asked curiously.

“No. I don’t even know where here is,” I said as I stood up slowly. He cocked his head as he considered me. The look he gave me wasn’t very friendly, like he was trying to decide whether or not I was a threat. “Look, all I know is that I was lost in the woods, and I found a portal. I didn’t really have any other options, so I went through it. The next thing I knew, I woke up back in those woods, and then I was being attacked by those things,” I said pointing at the creatures, “I have no idea why I was sent here.”

His expression softened, and he smiled a little bit. “Okay, okay, take it easy, I believe you.” He turned around and walked to his horse, which was a large, red Clydesdale. He leapt up into the saddle easily, and then offered me a hand up. “I’ll give you a ride to the castle, and then we’ll talk to Princess Zelda and see if she has any ideas about what’s happened.”

“Okay,” I said as he pulled me up into the saddle behind him.

“What’s your name?”

“Lya.”

“I’m Link.”

I just got lost,
Every river that I tried to cross,
Every door I ever tried was locked,
Oh, and I’m just waiting ‘til the shine wears off

[TwilightRiku_13]

Hooray, Lya finally met up with Link!!! That's awesome. I really like those as a couple; I just think they are cute together. So, what is going to happen next? Lya has just met Link, and now she is going to meet Zelda. Is Zelda going to be a complete and utter bitch in this story? If she is, please let Lya beat the hell out of her. Seriously, she was annoying as hell in the other story. Anywya, great job, and I look forward to more.

[HeartOfTheHero]

Originally Posted by TwilightRiku_13

Hooray, Lya finally met up with Link!!! That's awesome. I really like those as a couple; I just think they are cute together. So, what is going to happen next? Lya has just met Link, and now she is going to meet Zelda. Is Zelda going to be a complete and utter bitch in this story? If she is, please let Lya beat the hell out of her. Seriously, she was annoying as hell in the other story. Anywya, great job, and I look forward to more.

Zelda is very posessive of Link, she wants him for herself, and when Lya showed up and he fell in love with her in the other story, Zelda hated her for it, which is why she acted the way she did. Since this is when they first meet, yeah, Zelda is still acting like that, but don't worry, Lya will get in a few hits before the end of the story (they might just be verbal, but who knows, they might have a cat fight)
EDIT: nevermind, look forward to Chapter 8, Lya might get in a punch or two
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Chapter 5

Forgetting all I’m lacking,
Completely incomplete,
I’ll take your invitation,
You take all of me now…

After a few minutes of awkward silence on our way to the castle, Link started telling me all kinds of things. He had a good sense of humor, and told me all kinds of jokes and rumors about some of the inhabitants of Castle Town. His cheery mood helped me to relax and stop worrying about everything so much.

He was a knight, but a different type than any of the ones that I might run into in Castle Town. I laughed as he told me about the knights that hung around the castle. They were mostly all just guards, but Link was a Knight of the Realms.

When I asked him what that meant, he told me that he traveled around different kingdoms to make sure that everything was peaceful. He was very modest when he started to tell me about some of his adventures, and I had to keep asking questions before I could get him to tell me something more interesting than the times that he settled quarrels between people. He surprised me with the variety and extensiveness of his adventures.

“You really went up against a whole group of those lizard things all by yourself?” I asked him in awe.

He blushed a little as he said, “It was really no big deal, and they’re nothing compared to some of the other things I’ve faced.”

He wasn’t boasting, the way a lot of people would have if they’d been able to say that, he said it like he was just stating a fact. I liked that about him. Even though he could have told me all about the things that he had done, he focused more on the people who had helped him and told me about how great they had been.

By the time we had reached Castle Town, Link had told me about so many different things but I couldn’t think of a single thing to tell him about myself. I wanted to impress him, but there was nothing in my life that could even come close to some of the things that he had just told me.

He jumped down off his horse’s back and helped me down. “Wait here, Epona,” he said as he gave the horse a pat and walked off without tying it up to anything or putting it in a pen.

“Wait, won’t it run away if you don’t tie it up?” I asked as I followed him.

“She,” he said putting a slight emphasis on the word, “won’t go anywhere. She’s very well trained.” He started walking into Castle Town and gestured for me to follow.

We passed so many shops on the way to the castle, with so many colors and fragrances, that I felt light-headed, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t had anything to eat for who knows how long. Link caught me staring longingly into a small bakery, and smiled as he told me to wait outside for a minute. When he came back he had two small loaves of bread and offered one to me.

“Thanks,” I said as I took it. He just nodded and led me to a large fountain in the middle of a section of town just a little ways in front of the castle. We sat there and watched people rush by as we ate.

I was still trying to think of something to talk to him about as we entered the castle a little while later. We went through elaborately decorated hallways and rooms, until we reached a small garden that must have been at the very back of the castle. There was a small fountain in the center, and a beautiful young woman stood watching a few birds playing in the water.

She had hair a few shades lighter than Link’s, and her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. She turned and smiled when she saw Link, but when she caught sight of me her smile quickly turned into a frown.

“Who’s this?” she asked stiffly. Whoa, I thought, someone’s jealous of me spending time with Link…

“I’m Lya,” I said as I stepped forward. She looked at my clothes, which weren’t in the best shape on account of the pterodactyl things that had attacked me earlier. Then she looked at my hair with a slightly disgusted expression. Okay, fine, I looked a little mangy, but she didn’t have to give me a look that harsh.

“She not from around here, Zel,” he said, completely oblivious of the staring match that she and I were having.

“I’m aware of that much,” she said, “Why did you bring her here?”

“I thought you might be able to help her figure out how she got here. She’s not entirely sure about what happened, and I think if the three of us put our heads together we’ll be able to figure out what’s going on.”

She looked like that was the last thing she wanted to do, but she must have realized that if she didn’t agree Link probably would have left and tried to find someone the issue of how I got there. She gave me another glare, then said, “Alright, but first we’ll have to find her some…proper clothing.” Oh, so she didn’t like my jeans and t-shirt? What was she going to do, try to put me in a dress? Nuh-uh. Not going to happen. I don’t care if that’s the only way that I’m going to get some answers, there is absolutely no way that she’s going to get me to wear a dress. “I think I have a dress that might suit her. Come, Lya.”

Darn it! But there was no getting out of it, so I followed her up to her room, where she watched as I took a bath (can’t a girl have some privacy??) and then picked out a fancy dress for me to wear, but it wasn’t nearly as fancy as some of the others that she had. In fact, it looked like it was the plainest one there, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and not complain. Answers, I thought, after this I’ll get some answers…

Desperate for changing,
Starving for truth,
I’m closer to where I started,
Chasing after you…

[HeartOfTheHero]

Chapter 6

One minute I held the key,
Next the walls were closed on me,
And I discovered that my castles stand,
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I sat on a stone bench in the garden where Link had taken me to see Zelda. I was sulking for a few reasons, the first of which was the fact that Zelda had insisted on talking to Link where I couldn’t overhear them. It was obvious that she didn’t trust me. When we had gotten back to where Link was waiting for us, she ran up to him and asked to have a word alone with him. Then she had turned and ordered me not to move from that bench.

Another reason that I was in a bad mood was that stupid dress. The whole time we had been coming down the stairs from Zelda’s room, I had been tripping over the long skirt. Not only that, but I could barely breathe. Who knew there were places on Earth that still demanded that women wear corsets? Even after all of the strange things that I had seen, I was convinced that I had just been transported somewhere else on the planet. I wasn’t sure where, exactly, but that was the only thing I could think of.

But those things weren’t bothering me as much as this last thing. I knew that I had seen this place before. And these people, they all looked familiar. But that was crazy….I had never been anywhere like this before. Still, there was something about Link, and Zelda too, that was bothering me. I know I’ve seen them before…

While I was pondering this, they came back. Link sat down on the bench next to me, and look on Zelda’s face was absolutely priceless. She stood in front of us and glared down at me. I guess she thought that since she was royalty I should have jumped up and offered her my seat. But hey, she was the one who had ordered me not to move…

After a few seconds of glaring at me, she realized that I wasn’t moving, so she said, “Why don’t we go inside while we discuss your situation, Lya.”
“No thanks, I like it out here,” I said sweetly as I smiled up at her.
“Fine.” She sat down on the edge of the fountain and arranged her long, extensive skirt around her. Oh please, I thought, is she really that desperate to get attention from him? “Please inform us of your dilemma,” she tried to sound interested, but it was obvious that the only reason she was still sitting there was because Link was there.

“Okay,” I said and began my story. When I got to the part where Steven had yelled for me to run, tears started rolling down my face (they were only a little bit fake, I’m not really one to cry about stuff) and I had to stop talking for a few minutes. Link put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a hug. It was only the type one friend would give to another friend, but Zelda looked like she was about to explode, which might have been what I intended….it was fun to toy with her obvious crush on Link. I kept an eye on her expression, and when it looked like she couldn’t handle anymore, I stopped crying and went on with my story. When I finished, Link sat thinking about everything that I had told them for a little bit, but Zelda didn’t seem to care at all.

“So you saw lizalfos in this forest, but you had never seen them before that?” he asked me, and I nodded.

“I’d like to know where she came from, if she’s never seen a lizalfo before,” Zelda said sharply, “there isn’t a place in Hyrule that hasn’t suffered from their raids.”

I gasped and my eyes widened as she said Hyrule. No, that’s impossible… I looked back and forth between her and Link, who were both staring at me, Link with concern and Zelda with scorn. Zelda…The Legend of Zelda…oh my god, I’m in a video game…

“What is it, Lya?” Link asked since I hadn’t made a noise since I had gasped.

“I…I’m sorry, I just realized that…none of this is real,” I said as I stood up quickly and walked off a few steps. I turned around and saw that both of them were looking at me with confused expressions. “Hyrule is a fictional place, which means that everything that happened in the forest with Steven and me, and then the portal, and everything after that has just been a dream. None of this is real. So I’m just asleep, I never left my apartment, and I’m going to wake up any second now.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Zelda said as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and laughed cruelly at me. “She’s obvious delusional,” she said to Link, “we should turn her over to the doctor in Castle Town and let him worry about her.” But Link wasn’t listening to her.

“Tell about where you come from,” he said as he leaned toward me.
So I told him. I told him everything about anything that I could think of. Zelda just sat sulking at how easily I held his attention when she had such trouble at it. I didn’t care, and for once I wasn’t thinking about messing with her, and her obsession with Link.

The longer I talked, the more I realized that this couldn’t be a dream, it was too real. The scrapes and bruises I had gotten earlier were hurting terribly, and the dress that Zelda had made me wear just made them worse. And as the sun started to go down the temperature dropped noticeably. The details of this place were too intense for it to be a dream.

I finally had to stop to catch my breath. When I looked up at the sky it was almost dark. Wow, have I really been talking for that long? I looked at Link and Zelda, and had to try not to laugh. Zelda was fast asleep, and Link was about to fall off the bench he was sitting on, he was leaning so far forward. I guess what I had said really interested him.

“Do you think we should wake Zelda up?” I asked him. He turned and looked at Zelda. He looked at me, then up at the sky.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He shook her slightly, and she jumped up and looked around. Her hair was sticking out at slight angles. I had to try to keep from laughing. “Zelda, it’s getting late, so I’m going to go.”

“It was nice meeting you,” I said to Zelda and I started to walk away.

“Wait, Lya,” Link said, “You should stay here.”

WHAT??” Zelda and I screamed at the same time.

“It would be best if you stayed here at the castle,” he said as he stood up and walked past me. “I’ll be back tomorrow. But I think I’m going to see if I can find any information about this portal that brought you here.” He smiled at me as he waved good bye. He didn’t even look back at Zelda.

If looks could kill, I would have been dead the moment that he was out of sight. Zelda looked like she was considering every possible and painful way to murder me. I was starting to regret some of the stuff that I had done earlier…

For some reason I can’t explain,
Once you go there was never,
Never an honest word,
And that was when I ruled the world

[TwilightRiku_13]

Oh man, I would so love to see a fight between Zelda and Lya, and I can definitely seeing Lya winning the fight. Zelda doesn't come off as a person who can kick ass and take names later; she comes off as a whiny little bitch who runs to her daddy to take care of her problems. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to see what happens in Chapter 8. Anyway, great job, and I look fprward to more. Oh, one more thing, what are the names of the songs in Chapters 4, 5, and 6? None of them seem familiar to me.

[HeartOfTheHero]

Chapter 4 is Lost! by Coldplay
Chapter 5 is Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse
Chapter 6 is Viva la Vida by Coldplay

I might have Lya and Zelda get into a more serious fight later on, Chapter 8 is more of a little disagreement....which doesn't end too well for Zelda, lol

[HeartOfTheHero]

Chapter 7

Pictures of you, pictures of me,
Hung up on your wall for the world to see,
Pictures of you, pictures of me,
Remind us all of what we used to be

Zelda gave me a room just down the hallway from hers. It was luxurious, to say the least. I was a little bit uneasy at first, but after she left I relaxed and decided to try and enjoy myself. I got one of the maids to help me take off that stupid dress, since it was so tight I couldn’t get it off by myself. It felt like it had been sewn on, and it would surprise me if it really had been.

I asked the maid if she could find me something simpler, and she gave me a very plain dress, with no decorations at all, a straight skirt which didn’t quite reach the floor, and best of all, it didn’t have a corset. I thanked her and let her go back to her normal duties.

After she had been gone a few minutes, I peeked out the door, and made sure that no one was around. When I didn’t see anyone, I left my room and started to wander around to castle. It was pretty late, so I didn’t run into very many people, and if I did see someone they were servants, so they didn’t say anything about my exploring the castle without permission. Actually, Zelda had ‘requested’ that I stay in my room, which may have been why I didn’t, but like I’ve said before, I can’t leave anything unsolved, and I was sure that this castle had some mysteries hidden in it somewhere.

I had been wandering around for about half an hour, when I came to a portrait gallery. I stayed there for a while, looking at all of the paintings. The paintings were of all of the generations of the royal family. When I came to the last portrait in the room, I saw Zelda when she was about 5 years old, standing next to her father, King Daltus, and her mother.

At this point I was using all of my knowledge of the video game series to help me understand things here, and I had never seen Zelda’s mother mentioned in any of the games that I could remember. I tried to find something around the painting that might tell me her name, and I found a plague beneath the painting. The queen’s name had been scratched out.

I don’t know why it bothered me so much, but I wanted to know what the queen’s name had been. Maybe it was because she had a much more pleasant expression than her daughter. I sighed and looked back up at the painting again.

“What are you doing here?” a deep voice boomed behind me. I spun around and saw the king standing in the doorway.

I curtsied awkwardly and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I was just exploring –”

He seemed to relax as he looked at me again, “You’re the girl that Link brought here, aren’t you? No need to answer, I can see that you’re not from around here. My daughter was telling me about you.” I looked at him nervously. What had Zelda told him? “But, she does have a tendency to over react a little.” He smiled slightly and noticed which portrait I was standing in front of. “Ah, I see you found the only remaining picture of my wife.”

I nodded respectfully, then turned to look back at the painting. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, what was her name?”

“Zaria. Her name was Zaria.”

“Did something happen to her?”

He hesitated before answering, “Er, yes, you could say that.” I looked over my shoulder at him, and decided not to ask anymore. The memory was clearly painful for him. “You said you were exploring the castle?” I smiled and nodded. “Would you like a tour, or do you want to continue on your own?”

“A tour would be great!” I said as I followed him out of the portrait room.
Over the next hour and a half or so, he showed me all over the castle. There were so many rooms and hallways, I’m glad I didn’t try to explore it all by myself; I would have been lost in an instant. There were more portraits, but none of them were of the queen. I gave up on finding out anything else about her at that time.

After King Daltus finished showing me around, he gave me directions back to my room. When I passed Zelda’s room, the door was open. I peeked in without her seeing me, and saw that she was looking at a small portrait. She put it in a box on her desk and turned towards the door. I turned and ran to my room, and glanced out into the hallway. She left her room and headed downstairs.

I knew that I shouldn’t, but I had to see who that portrait was of. I snuck into her room and opened the box. Sitting among some little knick-knacks that Zelda must have saved from her childhood, was a black and white photograph of her mother. I closed the box and left the room quietly, and decided that I would try to be a little bit nicer to her from now on.

Pictures of you, pictures of me,
Remind us all of what we could have been
Could have been, we could have been