"We'll make it home. I promise."

Trevor didn't really know. He just didn't want the others to worry.

Jerome led the way through the strange canyon the Oak Shire children were trapped in. He had the boldness to look ahead into the dark passageways and find the secrets Trevor couldn't bear to glimpse.

So far, their walk seemed endless. Every turn led to another blackened, rough path. It led to an uneasy feeling.

Maybe the children would be lost forever. Trevor fought to disbelieve the lie.

"Do you really think you we'll find a way out?" Sheila asked, wanting the same mind as Trevor.

Trevor nodded. He felt glad to be cloaked in the dark with his back turned to Sheila.

"Totally," he said. "We're not dead, so that means something."

"I hope so," Rebecca chimed in. "I'm not letting myself grow old and die down here. I got too much to live for."

"We're only ten," said Trevor.

Rebecca scoffed. "Which means I make sense!"

"I know, I know, I just..."

"You were just being stupid, like usual."

"Quit yelling at me!"

"I'm not...I'm just calling you dumb, idiota."

"Guys. Please."

Trevor made out Jerome's shape in dark. He kept feeling around, just in case.

His hands traced over the ridges of the wall to his right. He reached around a corner, paused for a moment, then peeked.

"Look," he said. "I see a light. At the end of this road."

Trevor rushed by his best friend's side. He leapt around his tall, wiry frame and peered down a long rocky stretch.

Surely enough, his best friend told the truth; a marigold beacon beckoned for travelers to walk towards it. The light beamed and glowed on the ground before it like a sunrise or dusk. Trevor felt relief.

"See?" Trevor said. "That's the way home. Don't you realize? Now we can go back. Come on!"

The children rushed to the light. With how lost they were, who could blame them.

No one wanted to be far away from home. So, they ran as fast as they could.

When the children reached the end, brightness covered them. They found themselves in the strangest place.

They stood in a stone room. Its shape was round, with smooth rock walls and tables scattered about.

A pair of obelisks rested in corners across from one another. Strange markings had been etched into their surfaces.

By who, no one knew. At least none of the children did.

"Where are we?" Jerome asked, fascinated.

"How would I know?" asked Rebecca. "None of us knows."

"I think I remember seeing this," said Sheila, who took in the room's ancient sights with wide eyes. "I...I don't really know but I feel it. It's so familiar."

"We have to go somewhere else," said Trevor. "Is there a door here, or something?"

"Yes." Sheila looked at Trevor, who returned her stare. "I saw it open one time. That's how I remember this place. I saw a lot of gold. Golden light. Then we go through the door."

Trevor raised an eyebrow. "We're supposed to find a way out of here. Home. That didn't sound like home. And what are you talking about? You're acting weird."

"Back off!" Rebecca pointed a finger at Trevor. "You always talk like a jerk. You can do that with me, but not with my friends. Got it?"

"Knock it off, you're not helping!"

"Perro!"

"Speak English!"

"I found the door."

Sheila pointed at a wall in the room. When the others looked in the same direction, they froze.

In awe, they saw five colorful symbols painted on the rock. Red, blue, violet and orange, standing side-by-side.

Each child suddenly drew close to the wall.

Jerome walked before the red symbol, which was shaped like a flame.

Sheila walked before the violet emblem, which was triangle encircled by three orbs.

Rebecca gazed at two amber swirls spiraling around one another.

From a distance, even Trevor saw the blue symbol, which was shaped like crystals grouped together.

Everyone seemed to have their symbol.

Everyone came close except for Trevor Berenson.

"Guys," he said. "We have to go. Now. How are we getting home?"

Before anyone could respond, a strange sound crept into the space. Trevor didn't know where it came from until he saw small pebbles crumble from the wall where the symbols rested.

Then, like in the field, the room rumbled and quaked. Trevor barely kept as his footing as violent movements shifted the world around him and his friends.

Suddenly, the rock wall split open. It tore in half at the very center, dividing the symbols from one another.

In the space between the two halves, golden light poured out. This was the door.

Trevor already knew it wouldn't lead to home.

NOW

"This is him, eh?"

The Zora Doctor was very different from the rest of his people. His eyes were stern. They weren't dark marbles like the other Zoras' gazes.

He was shorter than Claudius and had an olive green complexion. His head was flat and wide, stretching from side to side like a board.

Honestly, the man's head reminded Trevor of a stingray. His mouth was a thin line that barely opened and shut whenever he spoke.

"Yes," answered Claudius. "This is him."

"I can't believe we're about to give a human my golden scale treatment," said the Zora Doctor. "He's not even Hylian."

"But his potential is tremendous." Claudius clapped Trevor on the back. Trevor gritted his teeth and swallowed a response.

"...He's not even Hylian." The Zora Doctor tapped his foot on the floor of his laboratory. "Why not try this forest boy I heard of? Kokiri children have very redeeming qualities. They're adaptable to the world around them. That's not an easy thing for the pure humanoid type to do."

"Help is help, Doctor Finn. This one has qualities worthy of the golden scale."

"Don't they all, now?" Doctor Finn skimmed Trevor with his harsh glare. Trevor's stomach knotted up as he was observed. He didn't need all this nonsense.

"Fine." Doctor Finn threw his arms in the air while closing his eyes. Trevor was relieved. "Come along, boy. Jabu-Jabu is rabid, eh Claudius?"

Claudius nodded solemnly. "His cries can be heard across all the land,"

Doctor Finn shook his head. "Strange...well, young ensign, down this way." He gestured toward a wooden door that apparently led inside his laboratory.

Inside were different tables with tools on the surfaces. They scattered everywhere, overwhelming Trevor's mind. He sat in a chair in the room while watching Doctor Finn prepare himself.

"If you could roll back a sleeve," he said. "That would be appreciated. This process is precious...and it's important for us to get it just right."

Trevor obeyed Doctor Finn. He rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt until it folded past his elbow. When the doctor faced Trevor, he showed him a pair of tweezers which held a small, glimmering gold disc.

"Here it is," the doctor proclaimed. "The fabled golden scale. With this, you'll be able to breathe far better than you do now. Zoras are unable to take this scale themselves—it's against their nature to be better at breathing underwater than they are now. Their bodies would literally reject it." The hammerhead Zora seemed to marvel at his own creation, as if someone else made it and trusted him with the item. "Well. Let's get the procedure underway, shall we?"

The Zora doctor peered down at Trevor's exposed arm, his fingertips feeling for a place to embed the scale. When his pointer finger pressed down on a spot in the middle of Trevor's forearm, he gave a satisfied hum before taking out a scalpel. Trevor felt a lump in his throat.

He also felt a prick of pain as the scalpel's small blade opened his skin. Blood slowly seeped from the wound.

The doctor wiped the red away with a white cloth, making it easy for Trevor's stomach to slosh at the sight of the stains. Then, the golden scale came back, glowing above the cleaned cut.

"Be still," the doctor murmured.

Trevor wanted to close his hand into a fist, but thought that would get in the way of the process. He clenched his jaw and grinded his teeth as if they were gears.

The pain wasn't great, but Trevor wondered if it was just the start of what he would feel. He closed his eyes as the scale slid into the cut.

It slithered beneath the skin like a snake burrowing in the ground.

Trevor shivered. So much of him—all of him—felt cold. As the scale took root in his arm, he swore he'd have other changes—webs between his fingers, gills in his neck, and maybe a change of color in his eyes.

Trevor would be different, more different than he already was and the strangeness could finally become something he might embrace...

AT THE ZORA ARMORY

Link was getting better at this.

He mastered the Zora spear, though it came at the cost of his energy. His body burned with hours of training.

Both the Kokiri's arms were like hot lead, shaking and wobbling after an endless session in the armory.

He wandered outside the Zora Doctor's office on Navi's advice. She said Trevor was taken to this place to get something that would help with containing Lord Jabu-Jabu.

"Maybe he'll settle down if you show him some support," she said.

"Why don't Sheila and Jerome do that?" Link asked.

Navi folded her arms while staring at the doctor's door. "They've known him for longer than either of us," she said. "But..I've seen the look on his face. He's still alone."

"How is that?"

"You'll know better than me, Link. Trust me."

Navi turned to face Link. She leaned forward and looked her charge in the eyes.

"I still see the same look in your eyes," said Navi. "What's hurting you, Link? Won't you speak with me?"

Link stopped sharing his gaze with his guardian. He looked off to the side, where he saw Sheila and Jerome training.

They spoke to each other, giving words Link couldn't hear. He saw the smiles on their faces, the way they seemed to encourage each other. Link hadn't felt this way for a while with his own friends, who were few in the forest.

"Link..." Navi's voice had pain in it and Link's heart sank. He didn't mean to push her away, but there were parts of him that couldn't open up to what weighed him down.

Link stared at the corridor's ground as he waited for the Zora doctor's door to open. Navi went along with the silence. The flutter of her wings wasn't as strong as it had been.

When the door opened, Link looked up to see Trevor. He seemed to be in a world of his own.

The boy's green eyes stared past the forest boy and his fairy, which made Link think Trevor was focused on his friends from Oak Shire. Instead, as Trevor walked past Link and Navi, he went off somewhere else, away from the domain's openness.

Link started realizing why Navi wanted him to be around Trevor more. It all made sense.

"Excuse me."

Link turned and saw the Zora doctor smiling at him while standing in the doorway of his quarters. The Zora's yellow eyes seemed to carry many thoughts in them as well. Link wanted to connect the dots of what he had just seen, with Trevor's zombie like walk and the doctor's own quiet astonishment.

It was going to be interesting to figure out what was going on.

"I have a procedure," said Doctor Finn. "One that I believe you'd be perfect for."

Link looked back at where Trevor walked, though the boy was out of sight. "But...I thought that was for Trevor?"

The Zora doctor waved off the statement. "Ah, but I've come to find he's already well-equipped for the quest ahead. You, on the other hand, are a skilled young man with a great need for more refinement. The procedure will, erm, fit you more. I'm sure of it. Will you please make your way into my office, if you're comfortable in doing so?"

Link looked up at Navi. Navi looked down at her charge, giving him an encouraging smile. This was always going to be their exchange, their way of speaking without words.

Link knew he didn't need permission from his fairy. He was capable of making up his own mind, but sometimes it was hard to not seek out wanted to know what happened in the doctor's office.

Trevor's shocked demeanor made Link think for the longest time. As he gained the golden scale the Zora doctor spoke of, he realized that something about the procedure didn't work.

It must have been what shocked Trevor—not being able to get what helped. At least Link would be able to do it himself and finally feel of use.

LATER ON

Doctor Finn didn't reveal the development to anyone—he actually made Link promise to keep it a secret. However, he was still stunned by the fact that Trevor's body rejected the scale.

Only those of Zora origin would do such a thing—again, there was no reason for them to add an extra scale to their person. Only people of Zora blood would be able to do what Trevor did.

It made the Zora doctor think of legends from over the years. Once, there was a Zora warrior who donned ancient armor during a time of war. Without the warrior's bravery and skills, the river Zoras of Hyrule wouldn't even be alive now. Instead, they'd be enslaved or worse.

Perhaps this boy was part of the legend. Much more could be said about the forest child the Zora doctor had treated—he had an even greater air about him despite his humble demeanor.

The events of the day caused the doctor to ponder who these messengers of the royal family were. They weren't mere prodigies. Even the children themselves seemed unaware of what their actual potential was—but someday it was destined to be realized.

Doctor Finn took great interest in these facts. They were beyond his own personal beliefs.