"Have you made any progress?"

                "We are progressing today."
                "I see. All the preparations have been made?"

                "Of course. Everything and everyone is in place. All we need is confirmation from the Inspired."

                "They have already agreed."

                "I know, but they have to give the final order."

                "Well, are our sect leader is o

One of the Inspired."

                They looked at each other with nervous eyes. They were both fidgeting with something; nervous habits were you harboring one of the Inspired?"

                "Of course, rising to the surface.

                "So, what's the plan?"

                "That, my friend, is something I can't tell you. The organization had authorized you, but I have specific orders from the Inspired not to tell anyone more than they need to know. I think you know all you need to, don't you?"

                "All I have to do is go and kidnap boy and girl right? My observations saw

                "What if they put up a fight? The boy has been training, with a Sheikah as that she never left his home last night, so it shouldn't be a problem. "Well. He might recognize some of our techniques."

                "He has not learned them yet. I can assure you of that. I can handle it, I promise you. At worst, I'll grab the girl and run-we can use her as bait. I know its cliché' but it has never failed me in the past."

                "We are not concerned with cliché’s here, so you have no reason to worry about that. Everything seems in order. I will notify the Inspired and then give the order. Get to your position."

                The officer went to the door to talk to the Inspired. "Good luck."

                "Thank you," the other said unemotionally. He would most likely have to kill . . . again.

"Sakaratte!" Saria yelled from the bottom of the stairs leading up to Aikoka's hut. "Sakaratte!"

                Sakaratte came to the door of the house with a pair of sleeping pants and tunic. She looked like she had just woken up. "Yes, Mom?"

                "When are you planning to be home? I was called to the palace. Link said that Queen Zelda was eager to see you for some reason."

                "Saria?" Aikoka asked, arriving beside Sakaratte bearing nothing but a pair of sleeping shorts. "Is Sheik going to be there? I have some questions about my training."

                "I wouldn't count on it." Saria said, using the easy mask she had learned to show when speaking about the Sheikah.

                "Alright," he said.

                "See you two there?"

                "Yes, I suppose so," Sakaratte told her mother.

                "Good," she said. "Oh, and Aikoka, please put some decent clothes on for this."

                Aikoka managed a grunt and went back into the hut. A soft thud was heard as he plopped down onto his sleeping mat.

                "See you later!" Sakaratte said.

                Saria walked away, toward her and Sakaratte's home. Saria waved to a few citizens of the town as she walked to the small hut that she had lived in all of her life (except her time spent in the Lost Woods). She had never longed to escape from the forest, but now there seemed to an itch deep inside her that overwhelmed her and drew her out: to where, she did not know. There did not seem to be a change in pace in her life since the death of her husband.

                Saria reached her house, feet exhausted. Sheik was sitting there at the table. “Well, are they coming?”

                “Of course they are! Surprisingly, my own daughter listens to me,” Saria chuckled.

                “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about raising children. Link wants to wait a little longer,” the disguised queen said.

                “Do you want children?”

                “Of course I do. What married woman doesn’t? And we have to have children, we’re royalty,” she said the last word with a kind of disgust.

                Saria kept prodding into the subject. “And if you don’t have kids, what will you do then?”

                “Link was actually thinking about preparing Aikoka for the position,” Sheik said.

                Saria’s eyes went wide. “We are talking about the same person aren’t we? Link would never do such a foolish thing. He has more brains than that. Not much more, we both know, but more none-the-less. Besides, Aikoka isn’t a Hylian. You know the law Zelda.”

                “Aren’t we a little testy today? Well, since Aikoka has been raised here, and will most likely soon become the son-in-law of one of the Great Sages, Link thought he would be an excellent candidate to succeed him.”

                “It just doesn’t seem like something Link would do.”

                “Many would argue that he shouldn’t have become king because of where he was raised.”

                “But he married in.”

                “Yes, but in the Hylian laws, that doesn’t matter. This is why he doesn’t care if Aikoka is from somewhere where else.”

                “Fine, you win. Now, I have to prepare for the meeting.”

                “Alright, see you there!” the queen turned and walked to the door, and switching to the “more manly” voice she uses when she is Sheik, she said, “And don’t get yourself hurt!”

                Saria shook her head. That had been a strange meeting with the queen of Hyrule. Usually they agreed on everything. Today, they seemed to argue, and Saria, for the first time, felt annoyed by the queen and her antics.

                Aikoka and Saria walked towards the exit of Kokiri village holding hands. Mido, a "friend" of Saria and Link since childhood greeted them from his hut. He was pulling weeds; He had given up on hiring people long ago. They stopped on the bridge for a moment to look down onto the forest floor and then followed the winding path out of the forest and started on the path toward the castle market.

                “Let’s go look at the water!” Aikoka said, easily distracted as he dragged Sakaratte behind him.

                “We better not be late!” she scolded, but followed willingly. She didn’t see the point of protesting to him anymore. (They seemed to have an unspoken truce-they would follow where the other leads without protest, but Sakaratte was a little borderline on the rule.)

                The river sat peacefully as it always did. The other bank was the cause of interest. A team of suspicious figures had gathered-they looked like they might be from the desert.

                Aikoka, wide-eyed, pulled her behind a rock that lined the closest bank. Sakaratte motioned for them to run, but Aikoka insisted on waiting it out. This was all done in hand gestures and expressions, but they got their points across okay.

                They waited there for a while, but they soon heard the stepping of feet heading toward Zora’s Domain.

                Aikoka pulled Sakaratte with him as he ran the opposite direction. “What the hell was that?” he whispered to her.

                “How should I know?” she replied in the same tone.

                “Well . . . we should probably hurry to the castle . . . .” Aikoka dropped to the ground, a growing puddle of blood around him. Sakaratte ran toward the castle, every step she took made her feet feel heavier and heavier. Her thoughts slowly slipped away from the man she had just left dying on the ground in desperation. She jumped up onto the drawbridge and slid down it’s rising planks; her head spinning; she hit the ground. She fell unconscious.

                A.N.- Oooh . . . plot development!! Hope you liked it. Please review and tell me what could be fixed, not what is so great about it (but hearing a little bit of that is always nice ^_^.) Thanks for reading!!!