Please read the A/N at the end. Thank you!
Chapter 1: Red Hair and a Blue-Eyed Stare, Part One
Rain beat the ground in Hyrule Field. It almost seemed like it was solid ice instead of liquid water. Dark, angry clouds covered the sky, with lightning being the only source of light during the unusually dim day. Speeding through the wall of rain was a young man riding a horse at breakneck speed. Close behind him was something no traveler in Hyrule wished to run into.
A guardian.
Its six legs carried the autonomous being quickly over the rolling, grassy hills of Hyrule Field. It only paused in its chase when it tried to aim its laser at the unfortunate traveler. The man disappeared from view, however, before it could fully draw a bead on its target. Then, without a second thought, it began its chase again.
For his part, the traveler had already damaged the guardian to the point where sparks and smoke were emanating from it. Even after all the damage he had caused the machine, it wasn't enough to bring it down.
"Dammit," the cloaked hero known as Link muttered. "Only one arrow left. Faster."
Those were the few, choice words he spoke as he urged on his mount, Epona. Link trusted her implicitly, so he let her ride on without his guidance as he tried to aim at the guardian scrambling behind them. Yet every time he was about to let loose his last ancient arrow at the automaton, it would aim its laser at him. Then, the hero would have to usher his mount faster and break his concentration away from the guardian.
And so this game of cat and mouse continued, neither finding a way to finish the other. That is, until Epona left the hills of Hyrule Field for some rural ruins.
Once Link noticed where his mount was taking him, he gave Epona a grateful pat. "Good job", was all he said as he began formulating a plan in his head.
As soon as they entered the ruins, Link realized it was a ranch of some sort. A sense of familiarity surrounded it, but he shook his head and ignored it for the time being. Epona then began circling the small track located in the middle of the ranch, as if she knew where she was as well. For a moment, Link tried to urge her off of the track. Then, as the guardian came to the middle of the track, the hero had an idea, and let Epona keep racing around the track.
The automaton's head circled around as it tried to shoot the hero and his steed. However, whenever the guardian shot its powerful laser, it would miss by inches. It couldn't catch up with Epona's speed, even at this close of range. That was what Link was counting on.
He patiently waited and timed the duration between the guardian's attacks when it would try to draw a bead on the hero. After the fourth shot, Link had the pattern down.
Immediately, the hero jumped off of Epona. He drew his last ancient arrow and aimed his bow right at the guardian's blue eye, the only weak spot the ancient machines had. Taking a deep breath, he drew back his bowstring. Then, time seemed to slow down as the guardian turned its head to Link. Ever so slowly, inch by inch, the guardian's sole eye came into view. Link waited, and waited, seconds seemed to turn into minutes as he watched for the perfect shot.
When he saw it, he let his final arrow fly.
His aim was true and the arrow flew directly into the guardian's blue eye.
Sparks arced from the guardian's eye, spreading throughout its body. After a few seconds, its six legs gave out simultaneously, causing it to collapse in a metallic heap. Link knew what was going to happen next. As he landed back on Epona, he sped her away. Then, not much later, the guardian exploded in a mixture of blue sparks and red fire. Bits of the monstrous machine were thrown about everywhere, seemingly turning the ranch into a junkyard.
Link turned Epona back to where the machine had been, smiling a little at his handiwork. He dismounted his steed as he came to the scorched earth where the guardian's remains laid. Several gears, screws, and shafts were still intact. The hero gladly helped himself to the machine's remains, knowing they were valuable in different ways.
Once he had sifted through the guardian's remains and was satisfied with what he had found, Link saddled Epona.
He couldn't believe he had been caught by a guardian. Usually, he would go into Hyrule Field by himself without Epona when he needed to. That way he could sneak in and out with little trouble. However, this time he needed to rely on speed, as he was traveling further into the interior of the field than he had before.
And it was all for a memory.
A simple, precious memory that Link desperately needed if he was going to be ready to face Calamity Ganon and save Zelda.
Even though the hero was unhappy about being chased by a guardian, he was glad to be another step closer to regaining his memories about the princess. He needed to know everything he could, and those memories were the key to that.
As Epona approached the entrance of the ranch she suddenly reared on her hind legs, almost bucking Link off. The hero quickly calmed his mount after he was dragged out of his reverie. His steed settled down after a moment, but refused to move every time Link urged her on. Shaking his head, he jumped off of his steed to examine her for any wounds.
As he dismounted Epona, he caught sight of the ranch's entrance. For some reason, he turned his attention to the rotting wood of the ruin's entryway. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out what the sign said.
The hero struggled to read the sign, even as he walked closer to it. When he could read it, he sounded out the rotting words. "L… Lon… Lon… Ranch…"
Then Link's eyes widened as the words caused something in his mind to click. Memories that weren't his immediately made their way into his head. He remained standing, motionless as the rain continued pouring from the sky and pictures from another time sprang to the forefront of his mind.
The young boy, who could have been no older than eleven, walked through the iron gates of Lon Lon Ranch. They were so familiar to him, and yet not. He didn't know what had happened in this timeline – or what would happen – now that Ganondorf had been stopped after Princess Zelda had sent him back in time.
After returning the Master Sword to the Pedestal of Time, and bidding farewell to Navi, he went to warn the princess about the future Ganondorf would create. They went to warn Zelda's father, the King of Hyrule. Willing to trust his daughter, and the words of the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, the king ordered an investigation of Ganondorf's suite. Soon after, the Gerudo was hastily detained by the Hylian Knights after sufficient evidence against him was found. Then, after everything was done, and without thinking about where he could go, the young boy left.
His place wasn't at the castle, and it certainly wasn't back in Kokiri Forest. So he returned to the only place he could have any chance of calling home. Hopefully, the owners would remember him. After all, they did help him and he helped them in turn, so they had to at least remember him for that. If he was still an adult in the future, he could have returned to Lon Lon Ranch without question after all he did.
But this was a different time, meaning it was also a different place.
The boy continued walking through Lon Lon Ranch, offhandedly noticing Ingo working away in the stables while muttering about a sleeping Talon. The Hero of Time rolled his eyes and chuckled, realizing that no matter what time they were in Talon would always be sleeping. Yet, it wasn't either of them he was searching for. No, he knew where he was going, he remembered where he first met her, and on a day like today, she would be there.
As he walked through the ranch's second gate into the corral, he wearily eyed the cuccos that were out grazing for the day, knowing that they were eyeing him back. For whatever reason, cuccos had hated this boy, even he had never done anything to them. Without warning, or mercy, they would attack. So, every time he passed a gathering of cuccos the hero would have to watch out for any sudden movements. Today seemed to be his lucky day, however, as the cuccos continued grazing and let him walk by without incident.
The young boy breathed a sigh of relief as he continued walking towards the corral. His ears twitched at the sound of a familiar song being sung over the breeze. Its descending cadence entranced him. He knew where it was coming from and gladly followed the song to the red-haired girl standing in the middle of the ranch with a young, brown filly. Just as the young hero was hypnotized by the song, so was the horse.
As the boy came closer to the pair, however, the horse snapped out of her trance and noticed the stranger. She whinnied and galloped away. The young girl stopped singing and confusedly stared after the horse, unsure why she had left. Then she turned around and noticed the young boy dressed in green. Instead of being mad at him for scaring her filly away, the redhead smiled.
"Hey, it's you!" she said. "So, followed me all the way from Castle Town, Fairy Boy?"
The use of his nickname made the young boy smile. She did remember him.
"Well, either way, glad you're here! Sorry about Epona, she's skittish around everyone but me." The young girl turned her attention back to the horse. "She only calms down whenever I sing that song. I don't know why, but it works. Here, let me try to get her back here."
Just as the redhead was about to sing her song again, the young hero put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to stop singing before she even began. He smiled at her as he pulled out a blue ocarina. Taking a quick breath, he then played the song the girl was singing only moments ago.
Epona's ears twitched upon hearing the ocarina. She turned away from grazing and studied the boy in green from a distance for a moment. Then, as it happened every time Epona's Song was played, the filly trotted over to its source.
By the time the strange boy had finished playing the song, Epona was standing entranced in front of the young boy and girl again. Once he noticed this, the young hero stretched his hand out to gently stroke Epona's mane.
It was at that moment that the young girl broke out of the trance the song had put her in.
"Wow! That was amazing, Fairy Boy!" she exclaimed with a smile. "Did you pick that all up by just hearing me sing?"
The young boy turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, you could say that," he answered cryptically, not revealing he had learned it from this same girl in a different time.
"That's amazing!"
"Thanks."
"So, can I ask what you're doing here?" the redhead questioned innocently. "It's not often we get visitors who are my age."
"Well, actually…" The young boy immediately became nervous, knowing why he was here and how much he was asking. "I, um… Well, I'm looking for a place to work and live, actually. And I have nowhere else to go. So, I was-"
"Of course!" the redhead cut him off, knowing exactly what he was going to ask her. Even at a young age, she was understanding and intuitive. "We could always use an extra pair of hands. Plus, it'd be nice to have someone here my age. Come on, let's go talk to my dad!"
She dashed off towards the other half of the ranch. Before she made it far, she turned back to the young boy. "Oh, but first, I think we should introduce ourselves properly. After all, it's what friends do and we didn't have the chance in Castle Town." The young girl walked back to him and held out her hand. "I'm Malon, my dad's Talon and I live on Lon Lon Ranch!"
The young hero stared at Malon's outstretched hand for a moment before smiling and reaching out to shake it.
"I'm Link," he greeted.
"Oh yeah, that's what it was! But I think I'll call you Fairy Boy, it's easier to remember. Now come on, let's go talk to my dad!"
Then, she took off towards her house. Link watched Malon for a moment before following her.
And he laughed. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the young hero laughed as he followed the redhead.
Link, the Hero of the Wilds, was violently thrown back into the present. He opened his eyes, which he hadn't known that he closed. His breaths came in quick, shallow gasps for air. Once he had regained control of himself, he looked back up at the sign.
"What in Hylia's name…?" he said aloud in confusion. "That was like one of Zelda's memories. But that wasn't mine, and Zelda wasn't there."
As his attention returned to the ruined ranch, he began seeing small pictures of him and the redhead he saw in his memory. There were horses, and a bigger man, and a lanky man, and… more. There was much more.
Without even thinking about it, Link walked towards the remains of the ranch. He muttered exactly what he was thinking, "There's more."
Hey y'all, guess I'm back?
I know you guys have been waiting for updates for other fics of mine, but this just popped into my head. So, I decided to use this as an opportunity to get back into writing for this site and as a way to practice. God knows I need it, I'm a bit rusty after my hiatus.
The idea came to me after finding all of the memories in BotW and seeing the ruined state of Lon Lon Ranch. I thought, 'Well, what if Link began seeing memories from other Links when he visited certain locations?' That's my thought, anyway. So, this story will be focusing on Links from all across the Zelda universe, as well as other characters. The first one, as you can tell, is Malon, and it will be going through different stages of their relationship in the form of memories, since I'm pretty sure Malon and Link do end up together after OoT. If that's the case, then these memories would be important to the Hero of Time Link. And since the hero's soul resides in all Links, I figured that, if the memories were strong enough, the Hero of the Wilds Link would see them (don't know if that's BotW Link's official title, but hey, I'm going with it).
Anyway, let me know what y'all think, and if y'all want to see a specific memories between one of the past Links and a major character. Leave a review, a follow, a favorite, and I swear I'll be getting back into my writing soon. Just need time now.
Thank y'all for reading!
Peace,
nickdaman6