Lila ate her breakfast in the dining hall. She was tired of being in her small room all the time. Admittedly, she didn’t spend much time in there anyway, but it was too much. The dining hall was much better.

She still got looks and praise wherever she went. She figured all of the attention would eventually die down. At least, she hoped it did. She wasn’t used to receiving accolades from everyone around her. All growing up, she had been like a pariah, someone looked down on. It was because she grew up among the Gerudo, where everyone else was stronger than her, a Hylian. Now, she was looked to as the strong one.

Link joined her while she was still eating. Zelda wasn’t with him. A couple of servants standing at the ready were the only others in the room.

“Are you here to take my sword?” Lila accused.

Link held up a hand. “No, no. Not this time. I actually want to make a peace offering. How would you like to meet my Loftwing?”

“Your what?”

“Loftwing. It’s a rare bird large enough to fly on. Zelda mentioned that she told you about the ocarina. Loftwings come from a time long ago.”

Lila glanced at the servants but could read no reaction. She was worried that Link was too loose with his words. Out loud, she said, “Yeah, I guess that sounds like fun. Maybe we can race. You on your Loftwing and me on a horse.”

“Great idea!” Link said.

He waited for her to finish eating and then they went to the stables together. Lila picked out a horse and guided him to Hyrule Field. In the field, Link pulled out a whistle and blew. Then they waited until a large, bright red bird landed next to him.

“This is Crimson,” Link said, the bird’s head and beak. “He has been my faithful companion throughout my journey.”

“He’s beautiful,” Lila said in awe. Her horse brayed as though feeling left out. “You’re beautiful, too,” Lila said.

“Shall we get going?” Link asked.

Lila nodded. “Let’s see what you’ve got!” She mounted her horse and waited for Link to do the same. Once he did, she pointed out Lon Lon Ranch. “We’ll race to the ranch,” she said. “Ready?”

“Go!” Link shouted and took off.

Lila spurred her horse forward. “Hey, that’s cheating!”

All she could hear was Link’s laughter fading away as he climbed into the sky. She concentrated on riding as fast as she could. He swooped down and glided next to her, taunting.

“Looks like I’m going to win,” he goaded.

Lila pushed her horse, willing him to go faster, but it just wasn’t enough. Link landed his Loftwing easily while Lila skidded to a stop. He was the clear winner. Both riders were panting fiercely when they dismounted.

Lila stomped over to Link and got in his face. “You cheated by starting early!”

Link laughed and backed away. “I didn’t need to cheat. I was way ahead of you.”

Lila had no real response to that, but she was still angry. “Why you–”

She heard a scream and all of her anger evaporated.

“Someone’s in trouble,” she said, looking around.

“Yeah, so?” Link said, frowning.

“We have to help them!” Lila ran off to the entrance of the ranch. Link shrugged and followed her. The Loftwing flew off, and the horse ran away in fear.

Within the ranch gates, the ranch keeper and his daughter were cowering from deformed black figures. The figures had big, flat heads, and walked on two legs. They had two arms and a number of whip-like tendrils sprouting from their heads. There were nine of the creatures.

“Help me defeat those things,” Lila said to Link and then rushed to attack the nearest one. Link grunted in acceptance and attacked another one. As soon as they were within range of the monsters, a translucent fence fell out of the sky to trap them. Lila didn’t care. She wasn’t planning to leave until they were gone.

Because there were so many creatures, Lila tried to lure them all close to one spot. It wasn’t hard. Five of them had their attention on her. The other four were surrounding Link. Once she deemed her five were in a tight enough circle, she raised her sword to the sky. Her sword glowed with blue light, and she spun on her toes, hitting each monster. They fell to the ground and didn’t get back up. She checked one to make sure it wouldn’t fight anymore and then went to help Link.

He was holding his own, but since he didn’t have the Master Sword, he couldn’t use the spin attack like Lila. She slashed at one of the monsters, drawing it away from the others and Link. After that one was defeated, she drew a second one away. Then only two remained.

“Wait!” Link warned. “You can’t leave one still standing or it’ll awaken the others!”

“What?”

“Trust me!”

“We’ll kill them together, then,” Lila said. She squared up beside Link, ready for the final kill.

“Together. One, two, three!” Link said.

On three, the two of them attacked the remaining monsters, both of which fell at the same time. With the battle over, the monsters burst into black squares. The squares rose into the air and into a portal that Lila hadn’t noticed before. Then the fence also disappeared.

“What were those?” Lila wondered, looking at the portal. It shrunk until it also vanished.

“Shadow Beasts,” Link answered. “But it doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

Before Link could answer, the ranch keeper and his daughter came up to them with smiles on their faces.

“Thank you!” said the ranch keeper.

“You saved us!” said the daughter.

Link looked uncomfortable, but Lila said, “It’s all in a day’s work. I’m used to fighting monsters.”

“Wow,” the daughter said.

Then they heard clapping from near the barn. They turned around to see a tall Gerudo woman with green skin walking toward them. Her two-toned hair was pulled up into pigtails to emphasize the red and blue portions. Something about her gold eyes made Lila’s skin crawl.

“Rova, what are you doing here?” Link asked. Lila saw that he stiffened, but didn’t seem ready to attack. So he knew the mysterious person. Things seemed tense between them, but she obviously wasn’t an enemy.

“Those monsters chase me here,” Rova answered, drawing near. “Thank goodness you arrived when you did.”

“So, those monsters weren’t your doing?” Link asked.

“Good heavens, no,” Rova responded. “I don’t know how they got into this realm.”

“Excuse me,” Lila said, “can someone tell me what those monsters were?”

“They were from the Twilight Realm,” Rova explained.

Link added, “Which was supposed to be sealed off.”

“What’s the Twilight Realm?” Lila asked.

“Long story,” Link said.

“Yes, it is,” Rova said dramatically. “I’ve had such a hard day. Maybe we can go someplace to get a bite to eat.”

“You can eat with us,” offered the ranch keeper.

“No, no,” said Rova. “Let’s go to Castle Town. Link, lead the way.”

Link shared a look with Lila and shrugged. Then he did as he was told.

“Thank you for the offer, but we really do need to go,” Lila said before following Link and Rova. The ranch keeper tipped his hat as she hurried away.