((Well, was hoping to see a post from Mhina.  Oh well.))<br/><br/>Sarah moaned quietly as she started to stir, feeling...strange to say the least as she looked up into Tyger's transformed face.  She doesn't shy away though, feeling warm and safe on his shoulder as the group follows a mysterious black robed woman.  Wait, a woman?  What was going on?  And...what was this strange feeling she was picking up on from the tiger man that held her so easily in his arms?  It...felt like coming home in a way.  Coughing once, the paladin sighed but wiggled out of her friend's grip, landing lightly on her feet.  "I feel like I got hit by a carriage.  What happened?"  Her head still hurt from earlier, but beyond that she felt fine, more than fine really.  She felt healthier than she had in a long time to tell the truth.  Her shoulder itched, and looking over to it, Sarah gasped at how much blood there was, but there was no wound there anymore.  "What...oh gods, that thing bit me.  What's....gonna happen to me?!  Tyger, Mael, Andrew?!  Tell me I'm gonna be alright!"  She was afraid of becoming one of those rats that had attacked them.  It was in her eyes let alone her body language, but she looked to the woman that led them on and she had stopped to look at Sarah beneath her hood.<br/><br/>"You needn't be afraid.  Tyger, as you call him, saved you from such a fate."  How did she know?  Who was she?  Looking to her friends, Sarah sighed but nodded as she fell silently in line.  They had reached the castle gates by then.  They swung open silently, the massive metal doors being pulled open by gears and chains from a nearby gatehouse in the castle walls surrounding the giant stone structure.  The night was still very young yet, but considering they had fought almost every step of the way to get here, it wasn't surprising that they would all be exhausted.  Zelda knew this, and so had already had rooms prepared for them all.  First things were first though.  Passing through the front doors of the castle next after crossing the small bridge that spanned the river, the throne room stood before them.  The chamber was massive, a statue behind the tall chair that was meant for only one person.  It was the statue of a girl, the Hylia royal crest above her head, and it was cut in half in a way.  One side of the statue was bathed in light, and the other was shrouded in shadow, a reminder of the past if ever there was one.  The black robed woman continued to the throne without pause, guards stationed at every door and every pillar that held the roof of this majestic place up, a window in the back wall high above the floor that showed the Triforce as well as the three sacred goddesses surrounding it.  Zelda turned around and a light appeared around her body that blinded the group she had led here, and when it faded she stood revealed to them in her true form.<br/><br/>"Welcome to Hyrule Castle.  I am Princess Zelda, ruler of this land from the sea to the south to the mountains far to the north.  Most of you are native to this land, but there is one among you that is not.  Tyger, you are a stranger to this world, this land.  Please, stand as your human self so we can talk face to face."  She asked the were-tiger, turning her face to him as she sat down in her throne.  "We have much to discuss, but I realize the hour is late and you all have seen battle this night.  In the fields you faced our regular creatures you call Skull Children, but in the tunnels you faced off against something not native to our land.  Were-rats, and it is because of this fact I have called you all here.  Still, we shall speak more of this in the morning.  Rest and be comforted in the knowledge you are safe here in my home."  She nodded silently for them to go where they would, a servant gesturing for them to follow her upstairs to where they could rest and bathe as well.  Sarah was shocked to say the least that they had just met the Princess herself, and she had not been able to get a single word out.  She was too tired to worry about it though, and so when they reached the rooms that had been prepared on the second floor, three floors below Zelda's own private chambers among the maze of corridors and side passages, the paladin silently disappeared into the right hand room that was closest by the stairs and immediately collapsed on the bed without another word.  She didn't shut the door, figuring one of the others would come and tend to her wounds while she slept.<br/><br/>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>The captain arrived shortly after Zelda had sent the group on their way with his men and Darin in chains.  The man's dueling glove and sword was in the captain's possession, his hand bandaged from when the man had grabbed it to stop him from being arrested.  Dragging the mountain man behind him, the captain had two of his men holding the unconscious 'brute' between them as they approached Zelda's throne.  Upon seeing one of the last members of the group she had been expecting with a wound to the back of his head and in chains, the captain was not expecting what came out of her mouth.  "What have you done to him you fool?  I asked you to bring me this one, not to bind him in chains and hurt the man in the process."  He was about to protest but a her cold as ice stare silenced him as her hand hovered at her sword belt, a beautiful straight sword resting there that was almost as long as she was.  She didn't pull it though, but instead approached the dozen men and their captain who was suddenly very afraid for his life.  "Release him immediately."<br/><br/>The two holding Darin didn't waste time but the captain floundered to find any way to explain himself that would put him in a favorable light for his actions.  Nothing came though and he knew, even in his limited intellect, that he couldn't fool his ladyship no matter how much he might try, and so remained silent as the chains fell loudly to the floor.  When it was done, she knelt by the unconscious man and closed her eyes, putting a hand to the back of Darin's head, and used her power to heal the damage.  A rare sight indeed was seen then as her Triforce of Wisdom appeared on her right hand, the two other sacred pieces of the three piece symbol were faded since she didn't possess them, nor did she wish them.  Bathed in light, Darin's head cleared up immediately before Zelda stood again, locking eyes with the captain's own who was powerless to look elsewhere.  "I hereby strip you of your rank, your title, and your right to be in the castle anymore.  Go home, and never return.  Strip him of everything save for the clothes on his back.  A new captain will be appointed tomorrow."  The man couldn't protest even though he badly wanted to as the order was carried out right then and there.  it didn't take long for it to be done, and the princess sighed, turning her back on the man as he was pushed out the doors.  She didn't like her duties sometimes.