After the whole commotion regarding the bank robbery, we stepped outside and at least attempted to not be distracted—well, that rule only applied to me.

"Miss! Excuse me, Miss!" I hear a woman call. She runs toward us, with a cut on her cheek. That's the woman that was being held hostage, among the others. Coming forward, her pace slows and stops in front of me. "Thank you so much, Miss! As soon as he let me go, I ran to the police office. I would be dead without you! How can I repay you?"

"I... U-um..." I stutter sheepishly. I really don't need payment of any sort. "It's alright. I'm just happy that I could help."

She nods, and then waves as she walks away. "Thanks again!" Waving back, I see her slowly disappear and a warm fuzzy feeling grows in my stomach.

"Isn't Neri popular with the people?" Link pokes fun from beside me.

"Shut up!" I say playfully, and slap his shoulder.

"Who knows, with that attitude and bravery, you might actually be the incarnation of the Forgotten Goddess."

"I already know I am!" I raise my left hand and wave it in front of Link's face. "Isn't this proof enough?" He raises his hands defensively.

Midna snickers from her unseen place in Link's shadow. I roll my eyes and start walking again, trying not to look at anything so that I don't get sidetracked. When we first came here, I saw a man playing an accordion-like thing in the main square, which we are passing now. He has a jolly, carefree expression and looks a little elderly. Many people are also dancing with partners north of the fountain before the grand doors that lead to Hyrule Castle, merrily swinging their partners around. It looks like one of those square dances where every so often people switch positions and swap partners, like a square dance. Looks fun—too bad I can't dance for my life.

Link strides behind me leisurely, keeping his sights on me at all times to make sure I don't book it. As we almost walk past, a man comes up beside me. He taps my right shoulder, and slightly startled, I turn to him. The man looks to be in his mid-forties and has a slender build. His head is balding, but he looks content nonetheless. He bows slightly and holds out his hand.

"Care to dance, Ma'am?" he asks, motioning to the large mob dancing around the accordion man.

Link shoots me an exasperated expression from the corner of my eye. His finger slices across his neck, warning me that he's had enough.

I have a problem with saying no to people, sue me.

So I gratefully take his hand and let him lead me to the square, where everyone is dancing and twirling north of the fountain. This would really be a great moment for me to know how to dance, and I feel my heart sink in my chest a little at how much I know I'll humiliate myself.

The man pulls me in front of him with a twirl, half-scaring me to death after bringing me out of my trance. It gives me a mini heart attack, but I guess he knows what he's doing—more than what I know.

"The name's Salvador. And I apologize for stealing you from your boyfriend—he didn't seem too pleased," he says.

"O-oh, he's not my b-boyfriend," I quickly deny, my face heating up.

Over the man's should I can see the top of Midna's head poking out of Link's shadow, watching me with interest, the stone pinnacles of her mask hovering above her glowing yellow eye. A very large woman walks up to Link, prompting Midna to take cover again. I let my gaze rest on Link with a smirk, wondering what is happening. The larger woman appears to ask something of him while I attempt to read her lips; and he raises his hands. Link shakes his head and respectfully declines, but she grabs his wrist and practically drags him to the square, and I just realize what the lady asked him: "Would you like to dance?"

The look on his face is absolutely priceless—his jaw completely slack, his eyes wide, and is waving his other arm around to try and pull himself away.

Link and the monster of a lady are about two couples over from me, and all I see is the woman flailing her arms around with Link's hands in hers. The way that she flings Link around makes him seem like he weighs no more than ten pounds, his feet barely even touching the ground. He may have fought Ganondorf and won plenty of times, but not even he could get out of that large lady's grip.

Once I'm satisfied, I turn back to my partner, Salvador. He I'm dancing with looks humble and happy, and he puts his hand on the small of my back and the other clasped in my right hand. I just guess where I put my arms, and somehow just loop one around his neck as his hand keeps me steady. He does some box step while I try—and fail—to follow, peering at my feet even though I know it's disrespectful not to look him in the eyes. Right when I snap my neck up to apologize for looking like a fool, he spins me to the left and lets go of my hand.

Flying and tripping, I smack into another man when my right foot becomes caught behind my left ankle. He smiles up at me and I apologize. He is rather short, but grabs my hands similarly to the last man and continues dancing—I guess everyone switched partners, and everyone seemed to get the memo but myself.

Looking through the couples, I see Link has landed with another woman, who is beautiful. She has bright red hair, and a model body. Link sure looks like he's enjoying it. She's making no attempt to hide her huge rack under her low-cut collar, and I feel a little bit of jealousy—stupid typical me. I give an unconscious glare to the woman clearly flirting with Link. The way she bats her eyelashes and wraps her arms around his neck, squishing herself—and her large shameless friends—against his chest.

I get twirled and tossed again, but this time to a little boy. He looks about six, and is just the cutest thing! The boy bows to me, trying his hardest to impress. "I am Julian! Would you like to dance?"

I almost want to squeal at how innocent he is, and bite my cheeks to prevent myself from doing exactly that.

Giving a small curtsy, I say, "I would love to." I take Julian's small hands and we somehow manage to dance, except I twirl him and play the gentleman's part. He has the biggest brown eyes and the most adorable laugh whenever I spin him around, and it makes my lips spread into such a large, true smile that I feel like it will split. Now that I've finally gotten the hang of this dance, it has become a little easier, but I probably still look like a chicken on stilts compared to even Julian.

Predictably we switch, and I wave goodbye to Julian as I pirouette away. To make sure Link doesn't get another woman like the red-haired wonder, I peep over my shoulder for the third time. Link seems to have gotten a small girl who looks about nine. He leans down and takes her hands, in his and they dance. He looks so kind, and incredibly happy to be dancing with that little girl. For the first time since he was suckered into dancing, he grins and compliments the little girl—at least, I think he does—because the girl blushes and shakes her head bashfully. He nods as though he believes what he said wholeheartedly. Link must be great with children—he'll make a great father one day, I'm sure.

Holy crap, Neri, where is that coming from?

We switch partners another five times, and finally, everyone has been partners with everyone. The man I will get tossed to next is Salvador, whom I began with. But because Link and I are in the group that is getting swapped counter clockwise, we haven't danced together. I don't know who I'm currently dancing with, but he keeps looking at the slight cleavage of my chest through the unzipped collar of my hoodie. Resisting the urge to slap him, I force a thin smile. One of his hands is holding mine, and the other is at my waist—and it's going down...and down.

Now that his hand is on my butt, I've almost had enough. He squeezes it, and I squeal, gritting my teeth and jumping a little. Can we switch partners already?

The man with the instrument is playing faster, and is reaching the climax. The scratchy sound of the accordion rings through the air, filling my ears with sounds that are off the charts. However, even if I end up deaf after this it will all be worth it; I'm sure.

I get thrown again, but this time much harder, and not to the side. I get thrown backwards, to the center of the circle, with every couple looking at me. My feet stumble as I try to face forwards to catch myself, but instead race into Link; who was also thrown into the middle. People clap for us to dance, but I collide into him with such force that I slam into him and start to fall. Link backs up too because I hit him so hard, but lunges at me when he sees that I'm falling.

In a fraction of a second, he sprawls forward and catches me—but not in the way you'd expect. When I say not what you would expect, this is what I mean: I'm held about a foot from the ground, with Link's arms around my waist and mine thrown around his neck. His chest is pressed right to mine, and Link's leaning forward with me in his arms, keeping me from falling to the ground. 

Per contra, Link's nose is resting on mine.

My eyes widen when I realize that we almost kissed and ended up nose-to-nose. The crowd erupts and hollers, and I am in shock and gaze into his blue eyes until I recollect my common sense and push myself away from him, catching myself with my hand before my tailbone smacks against the ground. I push myself up and Link follows me as I stalk away, pushing through the crowd clapping my back and telling me about 'what a keeper I've got', whatever that means. Both Link and I are pretty red-faced, and we retreat quickly. We evade the crowd cheering for the 'young lovers' and begin walking down the marble walkway that leads to the monumental wooden doors that give sanctuary to Hyrule Castle.

"Well that was..." Link starts bashfully.

"Eventful," Midna finishes.

"No kidding. Some guy grabbed my butt," I add, and self-consciously rub the mentioned area.

After what seems like an eternity of distractions and an infinite piazza, we reach the castle doors that tower above us at the end of the stone road. Link and I still haven't said much after I fell and he caught me, and we ended up... I'm not going to finish that sentence out of fear that I imagine it.

I go to open them but before I can so much as touch them, two spears wave in front of my face and two guards follow suit. My feet stumble, and I retort, "The hell?"

Link runs up to me and rests his hand on my shoulder, and I feel him squeeze it—hard. A mild cautioning for me to cool down and step back. He pushes me behind him and I give a wary scowl as I take a few steps back. "My apologies, gentlemen," Link says formally.

I give him a ridiculing gawk, never having heard him converse like that.

The guards spare him a glance, and then straighten up and stand tall with a salute. "No, it was our misunderstanding, Hero of Hyrule!" they advocate after they get a good look at him.

"Hero of Hyrule?" I repeat, dumbfounded.

Link's hand behind his back straightens and shifts side to side sharply, conveying to me to shut my trap.

"Please, I told you that you didn't have to call me that. Just Link," he continues.

They nod. "What brings you here today, Mr. Link," they correct themselves.

He smiles. "I was wondering if I could request an audience with the princess."

"Ah, yes! She mentioned you earlier this week. We offer our deepest concessions for having wasted your time."

Link waves his hand. "No, it's quite alright. Now if you wouldn't mind, could we get through?"

They exchange of glances when they hear 'they', until they look at me and point with disapproval. "Her, too?"

"Of course."

The first scowls to the second, and nods before turning back to Link. "We'll have to search her before she can join you."

"Excuse me, but stop talking about me like I'm not here!" I fume.

Link grabs the crook of my elbow and drags me with him. "I assure you, she isn't dangerous."

Yeah...sure.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind?" Link's tone changes slightly, not up for negotiations or any further delays.

"Y-yes, Hero of Hyrule!"

The guards grab for the handles of the gargantuan doors and pull, slowly opening up to the green luscious garden within.

I wander aimlessly, admiring the enclosure as I follow Link. Midna pops out of his shadow with a gasp, thanking the Goddesses that she no longer has to be chained up in a shadow. Link takes Midna and I to the main throne room after detouring through prodigious halls. All walls and portraits, decorations and suits of armor are astonishingly elegant. The halls are composed of sparkling cream marble floors and large windows that stretch all the way to the ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, it's endless—at the top is a huge dome with designs etched into each spiral. From that hangs a beautiful and grand crystal chandelier in the center of the new room we enter.

"Wow..." I murmur to myself.

"Exquisite, isn't it?" a voice says from the other side of the room. My attention is brought to the voice, and I look over to where it originated from, the window next to the throne. A beautiful woman steps away from the window to face us.

She looks to be Link's age, with beautiful long brown hair streaked with sun. It's like mine, but hers is much longer, shinier, and well kept. Her eyes are amethysts and small golden accessories adorn her dress. Her dress is a faded burgundy raiment that separates to a slim cream gown that reaches her feet. She wears gloves that stretch to her shoulders, while her shoulders are layered with engraved gold plates. From the front of her dress hangs a tapestry on golden adornments, imprinted with the Triforce.

It's Zelda—Twilight Princess Zelda.

"P-Princess Zelda!" I stammer. I'm so starstruck that it isn't even funny.

"Good afternoon, Zelda," Link addresses her informally.

She nods and smiles. Zelda seems much happier now than she ever was in the game. "Hey, Princess!" Midna greets from Link's shadow.

"Hello, Midna."

She turns to me and I'm struck by her beauty for some reason, and can't say anything beyond an incomprehensible stutter.

"I don't believe we've met. What is your name?" Zelda questions me.

"I-I... a-a-am uh-h..." I stutter again—real smooth.

"This is Neri," Link says. Thank you, Link.

Zelda just smiles flawlessly. "What a beautiful name."

"W-well actually," I will myself to not stutter. "That's not my real name...uh... B-but there's another person here, too." The princess looks confused, but still cheery. To prove that I'm not crazy, I call, "Fi? Come meet the princess."

Her blue and purple crystalline figure pops out of the sword to my right, gathering herself before turning from me to letting her steady gaze rest on Zelda. "Greetings, Princess Zelda. I am Fi," her monotonous voice rings.

Zelda recovers from her shocked state and returns the favor. "Greetings to you, Fi. I trust that you are Neri's sword?" Fi just looks at her blankly, but bobs her head in agreement.

"Well, now that we have all been introduced," Zelda starts, all business, "the Goddesses have informed me to relay your mission to all of you."

Finally, we'll know what the hell we're doing instead of improvising and leaving ourselves wide open to the enemy. "The Forgotten Goddess has arranged for you all to acquire certain items to magnify your powers. Crystals, to be exact. And there are four in total, one for each element—earth, fire, water, and air. In order to defeat Ghirahim, who is seeking to resurrect his Master, Demise, you must collect all four Elemental Crystals.

"By following and completing this mission, Neri will be successfully returned to her world," the princess finishes. How does she know that I'm not from here?

Wait, never mind—that was a stupid question. Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom, so of course she knows that I'm not from here. As though my clothes, speech, and attitude weren't already a dead giveaway.

"But where are the crystals?" I manage to ask with stammering.

Zelda closes her eyes like she is trying to remember something deeply hidden away in her memory, and her hand presses against her temple. She looks enveloped in thought, and then recites,

"In a hidden place never to be found,

Is where the Earth Crystal is deeply bound.

In fiery depths of land's sweltering core,

Lies the Fire Crystal forevermore.

In the place where there is no sky,

Is where the Water Crystal sank and lies.

In the place opposite of the last,

You will find the Air Crystal far in the past."

I struggle to remember the stanzas, and recapitulate them in my head so I can jot them down later for us to refer to.

Understanding our mission and finishing our short audience with the princess, we all get ready to depart again. She nods and beckons us to start the mission. The sooner, the better. As we turn to run out of the chamber of a throne room and down the posh halls, Zelda's voice echoes, "Now, hurry and save Hyrule, heroes!"