Apocalypse Here...

{Hmm.... this is too dull. Let's liven it up a bit!}

Fell finally managed to rip herself from Tara's grasp. "Stop. Now. I'm not going any further until I get answers. Real answers, too. Not just your old, 'I'm old and I know what should happen because I've dabbled in the future' crud."

Tara smiled wickedly/cheerfully (don't ask) and nods. "Okay, but you're still coming." And with that, she grabbed Fell's arm again and dragged her around the Castle Town to the rear of the Castle itself.

{....Enter Guards??}

"Halt. What business have you here?" a guard demanded.

---

Zelda didn't know what it was...something didn't feel quite right about her mother...it was like there was some distant feeling she didn't understand

Tara smiled disarmingly and curtsied to the guard. "We are travelers from a faraway land," she crooned, doing a jig. "We wish to entertain the Royalness of Hyrule."

Fell eyeballed Tara. -Have you lost your marbles?-

*****

'Rosaline' tilted her head. "Are you feeling quite alright, dearest?"

"Uhm...right...this way, ma'am...and is she part of your act?" one queried, pointing at Fell.

------

"No, mother, it's not..."

Tara nodded. "Yes, indeed! She has quite the range of magical abilities.
-Tara...-

*****
"What's wrong?"

"...Mother," Zelda said, "Do you remember what I had nightmares about when I was little?"

---

"Go on in." the guards said

{Crap. This is bad.}

Iko's eyes widened. "Why...no, dear. That was so terribly long ago..."

-------

Tara bowed. "Thank you, good sir."
Once inside the Castle, Tara abandoned her kind air and flattened herself against the wall. "Remember how you suggested that I dabble in the future, Fell?"
"...Yes..."
"Well, you're right. Kind of."
Fell punched the air. "I knew you weren't telling me everything... but why--mmgph!"
"Shh," Tara hissed. "She can't know we're here. Not yet."
Fell's eyes said it all. -Who?-

"I find it hard to believe you could forget, Mother. You're the only one that took it seriously..." Zelda commented, looking at her mother oddly.

{If I scour the site, will I find her nightmares?}

Time for quick thinking...
"The--the sickness, dearest! It took away so many of my memories and replaced them with ones of terror..."

--------
Tara had entered the courtyard, Fell tiptoeing behind. She seemed to be headed towards the main hall, but took a jackknife turn to the dungeons.
Fell was completely lost. "The dungeons?" she whispered. "Why there?"
"If Zelda and Link have come back already, then she's most likely turned the King against Link..."
"WHO?"
Tara shook her head and pursed her lips. "Quiet, now. The guards will hear."

Zelda backed away from her mother, "Come to think of it..." she said, "I don't remember any sickness..."

[You could always ask in the CB lol]

Link leaned back on the prickly hay, staring at the walls of his cell. There were unintelligible words scrawled across the brickwork, most likely the product of some poor soul going insane.

"That's why I left! I was sick, and I feared that I would get you and your Father sick, and--" Iko was breaking up, but she couldn't let it show. Not now, not when she was so close...

-------
Tara and Fell were nearly invisible in the gloomy dungeon. The wyndryder pointed at the posted guards. "Think you can take care of them?"
Fell nodded, shifting into her cat and slinking across the dank floor. She had dappled her fur with darker fur, along with splotches of black-red and dusty yellow. She was only a shadow under the torchlight, and the guards fell, out like lights...

Link's head shot up.

"The rats..." he said, eyes narrowing. "They're back."

He stood to his feet, fists clenched, "YOU WON'T GET MY BREAD THIS TIME, FIENDS!" he said rather loudly. "I'll flatten you like pancakes! Rat pancakes! Big...big rat pancakes."

Link's resolved held firm; the oversized rodents wouldn't have his meal this time...

He glanced down at the hole in his tights.

...Or his clothes.

----------------------

Zelda frowned, "Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't anyone know?"

Iko dropped to her knees. All an act, of course.
"I couldn't, dear! How would our people react, hearing their queen leav because of an illness?"

---------

Fell reared up and flattened her paws against Link's cell bars. -Shaddup, will you?- she hissed.

"...Oh my Goddess...I'm hallucinating!! It's a talking kitty...ROGERS! YOU SAID THERE WASN'T ANYTHING FUNNY IN THE FRUIT PUNCH!!!"

-----------

Zelda frowned, "You of all people should know how compassionate and understanding the people of Hyrule are." she said calmly.

Fell hissed through her teeth and shifted back to her Gerudo. "You're an idiot. Now shut. Up."

Tara slipped over to Fell. "Don't yell, or Fell might MAKE you shut up."

"Fell?!" he whispered, "Don't scare me like that, okay? I'm nearly out of my mind as it is, and if things continue at this rate, I'll be worse off than Tim over there."

He jerked a thumb in the direction of a middle aged man who was complacently muching on his big toe whilst mumbling about cuccos.

"Get me out of here!"

Fell cocked an eyebrow. "Then don't call me a talking kitty. Ever again."
Tara had been rifling through a guard's pocket. She held up a keyring. "Okay, let's break loose this bird.
Fell grinned. "I like birds."

--------

Iko nodded slowly. "Yes, I do, but I didn't at the time...you see how the sickness ravaged my mind?"

"Yes, my liege." Link said, waiting impatiently for them to bust him loose. "I have to find Zelda."

----

"...You must remember my middle name, don't you mother?" Zelda said

She had to test her...something was terribly wrong

Tara unlocked Link's cell, swinging the door wide. "WHere's Zelda? Has she been taken?"
-----
Iko nodded, feigning weakness of mind. "Marie. It's Marie..."

Link moaned, "The King and Queen have her!"

----

Zelda sighed in relief...this was her mother...it was...

And somehow, that was the thought that frightened her the most.

Tara narrowed her eyes. "The Queen? Are you sure?"
Fell shuffled her feet, wondering why the normally jabbering Tara had turned deadly serious.
-------
Iko shook her head slowly, acting the part of the confused, sad Queen perfectly. "I'm sorry, my dear, sweet daughter...I'm sorry," she whispered.

Zelda patted her on the back absently, "I forgive you mother," she said dazedly, "It's alright."

-----

"You heard me! The bloody Queen of Hyrule!" Link fairly shouted. He had his hands twisted into his blonde hair, on the verge of pulling it all out, "Don't ask me how she got here! She's been gone since Zelda was about seven or eight. Claims it was some sort of sickness. One thing's for sure though, she sure as I'm standing here LOOKS like the Queen!"

{I really need to explain Tara's....knowledge...TO THE LAPTOP!}

Tara's eyes were mere slits now. "When you first saw the Queen...was she actually the Queen? Or did she look ike someone else?"

-------

Iko hugged Zelda tightly, her eyes filling with tears. "Thank you, dearest...I just hope things will get better..."

"Heck, I don't know!" Link said, "I thought I saw Zelda at first, but she looks bloody well enough like her mother to pass for her, and I was in a daze, so I'm not quite sure of anything."

Tara hissed in a breath. "It is her," she muttered softly.
Fell's ears picked it up. "Her? Who her?"