Malon stood in the grassy field, soaking up the morning sun. Around her the horses milled about the area. Some grazed on the knee high spurts of grass while others cantered playfully around the pen. Malon reached her hand out and softly petted Epona's nose. The young horse whinnied and nuzzled the girl's palm. With a sudden twitch of motion, Epona's nose pushed Malon off balance and knocked her to the ground. Malon landed, giggling, in the soft gtrass and lay there. After a few moments, Epona dropped to the ground beside her and licked her across the face. "Eww." Malon squealed, trying to wipe her face and suppress her giggling to various degrees of success. Rolling over toward Epona, Malon threw her arms around the horse and let out a peal of laughter.
Link walked across the grassy expanse of Hyrule field. Looking up at the sky, he paused and held one hand up to shade his eyes. As Link watched, as distant silhouetted bird crossed the sun's orange surface. Turning his gaze away from the sky, Link took another step forward and felt his foot catch on something. He was thrown forward, off balance, and sent tumbling downhill. Along the way he felt a few sticks and stones jab into his already sore body, surely adding new bruises among the others. After a few moments, he came to a stop, lying flat on his back at the base of the hill. "Ugh…" Link moaned, trying halfheartedly to stand up. "Hey!" Navi squeaked from her perch on his forehead. "What?" Link asked wearily, his voice soft and weak. "The ranch!" the fair said, "It's right there! Come on, get up!" The realization sent a jolt of energy through Link and he leapt to his feet, startling the perched fairy. After apologizing breathily, Link took off toward the ranch. The two of them had been traversing a hazardous dungeon for days, and both of them agreed that Lon Lon Ranch was just the place to rest off their fatigue. Plus, Link couldn't wait to spend some time with his friend Malon.
"Malon! Hey Malon!" a voice called from another part of the ranch. Malon recognized the voice after a moment and turned to see Link running across the field toward her. Navi floated around his head like a sparkly little bird. A few moments later he had crossed the expanse of the field and was hunched over beside Malon catching his breath. It only took a few seconds for the boy to bounce back, though, and soon they were running through the fields playing tag. Navi had excused herself and gone to sleep in a nearby tree, saying that her usual sleeping place was too bouncy at that moment.
"No fair!" Malon wailed as Link tapped his hand on the back of her head, tagging her. "It's so hard to run in this dress, you catch me so easy!" She crossed her arms over her chest turning away from him to pout. "Fine…" Link muttered, feigning frustration, "then what do you want to play?" Malon paused to think it over for a moment, then responded with, "Hide and seek, you count first." Before Link could object she had run off toward the pair of wooden buildings that were the house and barn. "And close your eyes," she shouted back after looking quickly over her shoulder, "Cheater!" Link sighed and put his hands up over his eyes. "One… two…" Link began.
I know it's not much (it's nothing, really), but I felt like I needed to write this. I was thinking about my story Until I Remember, specifically the contrast between the innocence of them playing together as kids and the stylistically dark second half. Well, the thing I realized recently is that after that I got really wrapped up in the dark half and completely let the contrast of innocence of my stories. So this is going to be a few chapters of happy/innocent drabble. Just two kids playing together, no tragedy, no heartbreak, no death. I think it's kinda refreshing and I hope some of you will enjoy it too. Think of it as a sister story to The Hero Hyrule Forgot. That was all bleakness and despair, this is the opposite. It'll probably be four chapters long as well, we'll see.