Dearly Departed

Konbei rolled his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to have to go up to the castle, but Zelda sounded a little urgent so he reluctantly started heading back to the oasis.

Gwene had gotten out of the water and made her way to her clothes, realising that no one knew this place, she lay down on the grass and let nature dry her off.

Konbei smiled to himself when he saw Gwene. "Zelda wants to see us," he said, finding it hard to look her in the eye.

Gwene sat up "What for?"

"Dunno, something we need to see apparently," Konbei said.

"And here I was hoping we could spend the day together." Gwene sighed as she got up "Oh, and there is some food on the blanket if you wanted some.

She proceeded to get dressed.

"Sweet," Konbei said and picked up a piece of fruit and started eating it. "I reckon it's probably something to do with your kidnapping."

Gwene put on her belt with her weapons on, it felt nice to have them on again "Yeah, probably. But I guess the quicker we get this out of the way, the sooner we can spend the day together." she sat down on the blanket and started on a banana "Where should we go after we are done with speaking to Zelda?"

"Where ever you want," Konbei said as he finished eating. "You're the one who's been gone 5 years."

"Okay." Gwene thought for a few moments "You know what, whereever we go is fine, so long as you can enjoy it with me. What about if we go see Celeste and Nuala afterwards." she scooted over to him and held him closely.

"Sounds good, Celeste will be excited to see you again," Konbei said, smiling a little at the thought.

"Can't wait to see her." Gwene said. "Seeing as we are together now, you want to take us to Hyrule Castle?"

"Sure," Konbei said and warped himself and Gwene to the castle.

Zelda spotted the two as they warped to the Throne room. "Goodness! I didn't think you would be here so soon."

Gwene smiled at Zelda "So. What did you want to talk about?"

Zelda pointed to Niamh who was looking out the window, enjoying the sights. Gwene get a better look at her and couldn't believe what she saw, this little girl looked exactly like her, except her hair, it was a very light blonde and had green tips on the ends. She looked at Konbei and back to the little girl with a sense of confusion.

Konbei looked at Gwene, just as confused. "Um, Zelda... What...?" said but couldn't finish his sentence as he was too busy staring back at the girl.

Zelda shrugged "I'm just as confused as you two are. This little girl was a part of that group that appeared yesterday."

The little girl looked over at Konbei and Gwene, when she saw Gwene she squealed in delight and leapt into Gwene's arms "Mama!" she yelled.

"Shit..." Konbei said to himself as he took a step back. He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled deeply. "How...? No way."

Gwene felt her heart instantly connect to this young girl upon her touch. But she was very confused, she held the girl away from her, studying her up and down, there was no doubt this little girl looked exactly like her, except for the hair.

"Mama. What are you doing?" the little girl asked.

Gwene's mouth was open in disbelief, she swallowed before answering "I'm just...... I'm just looking at you."

Gwene looked at Zelda, whose mouth was wide open in disbelief, she then looked to Konbei, not sure what to say.

Konbei was still quite shocked, he just stood there staring at Niamh and Gwene trying to figure out how this all made sense.

Gwene decided to speak again. "Niamh, is it?"

Niamh giggled "Of course Mama, don't be silly."

It felt strange to Gwene to be called 'Mama' "Niamh, how old are you?"

Niamh began to count on her fingers "Four!" she said proudly.

Gwene didn't know what to say, or think. But her heart reached out to this little girl, as if trying to hold her closely.

Konbei started to approached Niamh, up close he could really see how much she looked liked Gwene.

Niamh noticed Konbei approach and gave him a smile, her sight sifted to the tattoo on his arm "Oh! I have a birthmark just like that!" she pulled up her left sleeve and showed a tattoo that was the exact same as Konbei's, only smaller.

Konbei knelt down to her level and showed her his tattoo. "Yeah, you do..." he said.

Gwene knelt down to Niamh's eye level "So... where have we been all this time?"

"We have been staying with the nice people. They looked after me while you were sleeping." Niamh said

"Sleeping?" Gwene said confused. She had so many questions to ask. "So, how did you know I was your mother?" she decided to get this one out of the way as it would be the toughest.

"The nice people told me you gave birth to me and that you were hurt badly so you needed lots of sleep. But I always came to visit you and I talked to you, although I knew you were sleeping, I enjoyed talking to you Mama."

Gwene couldn't help but smile, she bought Niamh into a hug just as tears began to flow. She looked at Konbei, knowing what this meant.

"Is this for real...?" Konbei said. "Holy shit, Gwene."