WARNING- This story is rated M for a reason. No, not every single chapter will have touchy subjects such as rape, or gruesomely graphic battles full of gory detail. I simply am throwing it out there that I am not going to hold back due to a possible naughty boy or girl adventuring the net. This is the only time I will post my warning. Amen.

Disclaimer- Also, as I'm sure you're very well aware, I do not own Zelda.

Prologue

And there's a demon in my head who starts to play,

a nightmare tape loop of what went wrong yesterday.

And I hold my breath 'till it's more than I can take.

And I close my eyes and dream that I'm awake.

Narcolepsy, Third Eye Blind

Malon sighed softly as she groomed Kaz, the only stallion out of Lon Lon's horses. Glancing up to the blue sky, which was nearly bereft of the puffy white clouds she adored so much, the red head allowed her mind to stray. She began meticulously piecing together a daydream where she lived in a warm household with a little sister to dote on. She had always wanted a sibling. They would have adventures together and come home dirty often. Such behaviour would be looked upon with tolerated fondness from her loving parents, until their dirty feet messed up the clean floor that is. Then her soft spoken mother would kindly point out her little sister and her carelessness with a motherly grin. Or something like that. Perhaps a scolding would be more appropriate?

Kaz stamped a hoof in impatience.

"Sorry." Malon offered sheepishly. Her habit of slipping off into a daydream was not a new development.

The chocolate stallion turned his head to give the young woman a knowing look. His dark eyes stated clearly that even though the apology was accepted, he fully expected her to go into her own world again. It was too bad that her hands always stopped moving whenever she became fully immersed in her daydreams.

She did her best, truly, yet it was futile. Her ultimate desire to escape her situation fueled her inability to remain in the present. Luckily, the animals didn't take offense. She'd seen the pitying looks the cows gave her, and so she knew they understood far more than anyone gave them credit for.

The chickens had even come together to save her on more than one occasion from Ingo's heavy handed method of persuasion.

In all reality, the animals were all she had for friends nowadays. She sighed again. Not that she ever had many friends to begin with, but one loss in particular stood out in raw detail. Five and a half years ago her fairy boy stopped visiting. It wasn't as if she invested her young heart into the cute boy, or anything silly like that. Who would want a little farmer girl's attention anyways?

Malon scoffed at her own line of thought.

She knew that her personal feelings didn't matter to the world at large, but sometimes it seemed almost like it was her fault everything went to shit. After her heart wrapped itself in hurt and began tasting the bitterness of loss, the evil Ganondorf took over and nothing good ever happened from then on. He had even brought his vile disease to her ranch. Malon's lip curled in disgust at the thought of Ingo practically kissing the ground where the loathsome man walked. Ganondorf had exuded such wickedness she could practically touch it. Whether it was due to some sort of magic or not, the red head didn't know. She did know that the oddly pigmented man was hate incarnate, and how someone could not see that was beyond her.

Soon after that visit, a twisted Ingo was put in charge of Lon Lon Ranch. He wore the same clothes, but he became horribly mean. Ordering her father and her around had been his new pleasure. The red head knew it was only a matter of time before her father would fall behind. Malon was used to hard work, but Talon had always relied heavily upon Ingo and his daughter.

As years passed by, the girl learned to live with fear and anxiety out of necessity. Whenever Ingo would walk by she would hold her breath and do her best to be invisible - anything to keep attention off of herself. Unfortunately, that would only cause more reprimands to be directed toward her father.

Malon felt selfish for letting her dad get treated badly, so she started doing his work as well as her own whenever Talon fell asleep during his tasks, which happened more than she cared to admit. Ingo might have caught on eventually, but the red head fell ill and her father's short comings were brought to light while she couldn't leave her bed.

That was right before her poor father was exiled from the ranch with only the clothes on his back. Sure, her father habitually took the lazy way out, but he didn't deserve the vitriol that flowed from Ingo's mouth that day. The tears were impossible to hide when the man who practically owned her stormed his way into her room and informed her that she had a day longer to rest and then she would be required to fulfill her duties again. The "or else" had hung dangerously unsaid in the humid air.

The red head still felt a confused jumble of emotions at being forced to remain behind. Hurt and abandonment fought with the happiness that her father was now free in a sense. There was barely any hope left in her heart, and she couldn't help but direct that hope toward the wish that her father would come to save her. Or maybe her fairy boy would come out of nowhere and rescue her? She had several daydreams about the latter. Rolling her eyes, she blew a rueful sigh between her dry lips.

She had no idea if her father was all right, but she missed him desperately. Even though most of the time he was asleep, he still had been a huge part of her life. There was a small piece of her that wanted to hate her father, but she'd experienced enough hate while living with Ingo to decide to never allow such emotions to fester long in her heart.

Another sigh.

Patting Kaz's flank to let him know she was done, she then went over to Ava to begin untangling the light brown mare's mane. Used to the routine, Ava allowed her caretaker to groom her with little fuss. It didn't take long for Malon's mind to shift from her task to other matters.

Would she ever see her father again? With an odd looking minion showing up nowadays to take all the ranch's shipments to Ganondorf, Malon never had an excuse to leave the ranch. Would he even recognize her if she found him?

She looked down at herself, frowning. So much had changed in her life that she barely had time to notice the changes in herself. Over the years she had begun to grow into a young woman and she didn't like the way that Ingo leered at her. It wasn't too hard to distance herself from the man considering he preferred to stay inside, but sometimes even that distance wasn't enough.

Just too much bad in this world, the young woman thought wearily.

Malon tried to focus on her duty at hand, but she knew her heart wasn't into the work today. She wished that someone would hurry up and come save her, despite the fact it was foolish to do so. Yet another sigh. If she wasn't careful, she might just sigh herself backwards.

When she finally finished grooming the horses the sun was setting, so she sought her best friend out. Epona was lazily chewing some hay when she spotted her in the corral. Malon leaned against her best friend and told her that she missed the good ol' days, like she did every day. Then Epona nuzzled Malon's shoulder in sympathy, like she did every day as well. Epona went back to eating and Malon lifted her gaze to the darkening sky. The ring of fire above the mountains to the northeast was getting thicker, she noticed. The foreboding presence it gave off reminded her of the dense fog that started to stray toward Hyrule Market Town the last time she was allowed to deliver the milk there.

Slowly but surely Hyrule is being destroyed, Malon thought. She wrapped her arms, as much as she could at least, around Epona's neck for comfort. Does anyone else notice the pain the land is in?

"Hurry up out there, girl! I'm hungry!" Ingo's shouting broke apart her thoughts successfully.

"Coming!" She called back before she heard the door shut. "Rotten bastard."

Hugging Epona one more time she raced across the ranch to go make dinner. A hungry Ingo was a very cruel Ingo, so it was worth the cooking of meals to Malon.

"Did you get everything done today?" Came the usual greeting from Ingo once she began organizing a simple dinner. His words were lethargic and loud, leading Malon to believe that he'd been drinking. No surprise there.

"Yes, of course." She kept her stiff back to the table, unwilling to watch as he eyed her.

"Good. Now get me another bottle, girl! Stop wasting my time!" Malon flinched at his raised voice. Quickly she opened the liquor cabinet and took out one of the various bottles. He never seemed to care what he drank as long as it wasn't water, or anything else nonalcoholic. She did her best to keep her gaze downcast while bringing Ingo his drink. Though it was impossible not to feel his large hand brush hers before he snatched the bottle away.

An hour later Malon just finished washing the dishes and was quite ready to fall asleep. She walked up the stairs quietly so she wouldn't wake Ingo and slipped inside her small room. Not daring to light a candle, Malon headed straight for her bed.

Suddenly, the world slowed as she realized that she wasn't alone. Someone else was breathing in the darkness of her room. She knew something was terribly wrong even before her eyes met his crazed ones.

He grabbed her before she could make it out the door and a scream escaped her. Ingo scowled as she kicked him, but instead of letting go of his harsh grip on her arms he just shook her roughly. She screamed again. He tossed her onto her small bed and backhanded her when she tried to get away. The coppery taste of blood made her want to retch, but her heightened sense of fear clamped her throat shut.

"Stay still, you stupid girl." He growled, breath reeking of alcohol. Malon knew what he was going to do if she was still, and that was most certainly not on her agenda. Therefore, she fought with all her might. Eventually she began to tire due to her long day of labor, while Ingo had plenty of energy after lazing about and drinking.

After he tore at her skirt until it fell to the side in tatters, she crossed her legs tightly and turned on her side. She heard Ingo chuckle and damned him to the deepest pits of hell for the hundredth time. Soon she realized what amused him so - he had torn parts from her ruined skirt and almost had one wrist tied to a bedpost. Crying out fearfully, Malon began to struggle anew. It only took a few minutes for Ingo to restrain both arms regardless of her kicking and clawing.

Hot tears streamed down her face while she helplessly fought the makeshift bindings Ingo used to tie her wrists to the bedposts. Malon's screams were muffled by her own shawl, which Ingo tied tightly behind her head. She felt his painful grip on her legs as he finally pulled them apart. Malon refused to give up, so she kept turning and twisting away from the malicious man above her. She whimpered when she felt his fingers push her panties to the side and then a scream tore out of Malon's throat as he thrust into her. And then again and again. Agonizing pain spread throughout her abdomen, and inside she felt herself tearing apart.

His hands went from her thighs to her hips and every now and then she felt her breasts being roughly handled. She could hear his grunting becoming louder and tasted bile mix with the blood from her busted lip. Disgusted and betrayed, she found herself staring up at the ceiling and going numb. Then heat spread inside her and everything seemed to go still.

There was a long moment of horrific silence, but Malon felt a distinct lack of interest. She supposed she should do something to get Ingo off of her, yet the emptiness felt so soothing. When the man above her finally stirred, she remained motionless. Even when he pulled out of her, she didn't respond to the pain or stickiness. She vaguely acknowledged her wrists being freed before she felt herself being carried. She knew she should pay attention from a distant place in her mind, but didn't care enough to focus.

When she hit the ground she didn't even bother standing. The pain had returned and she had started sobbing again, or maybe just crying even harder? She didn't really know.

Looking around she realized that Ingo had left her outside the house. A solid idea finally pushed past the blank numbness, and so she began crawling toward the barn's door. It wasn't too far from the house, but it felt like an eternity to the injured young woman.

Reaching up to open the door caused pure agony to race through her stretched muscles and she hissed in pain. At long last, she was able to grab the knob and twisted it for all she was worth. Malon fell to the ground once again as the door flew opened due to her weight against it. Quickly crawling through the barn she found the empty stall where she hid a bottle of Lon Lon milk within the hay. By sniffing the milk she knew it wasn't yet spoiled, so she drank the entire bottle.

The effect was instantaneous. Warmth and energy rushed all over her body replacing her pain. She swept her tongue over her once busted lip to find it merely a bit swollen. Using the barn's wall to lean on, Malon slowly stood up. The pain was bearable, so she blinked her eyes clear and walked over to where she placed the horses' riding gear. Wrapping a horse sheet about herself, she tied it so it looked somewhat like clothing. Then she set Epona's reins on her shoulder and found her best friend's saddle on its rack. Knowing she'd find a use for it, she made sure to fasten the empty bottle safely in the saddle's pack before hoisting it up.

All the riding equipment was too painful to carry all around the ranch in search for her friend, but Malon's hoarse voice couldn't sing Epona's song. Exhausted, she tried humming and sure enough Epona came galloping to her. The horse evaluated her life-long friend and then ferociously stamped the ground.

"I know, Epona." She whispered hoarsely. "That's why we're leaving. Okay?"

Epona whinnied in agreement.

"I know this is a lot to ask... are you sure you don't mind leaving the ranch behind?"

Malon wanted to smile, but started crying again instead when Epona lowered her head to give her a look that simply stated 'duh.'

"All right, then let's get you saddled up," she said through her tears.

Epona stayed as still as she could while her friend's hands hastily placed her saddle over the thick fabric that made the uncomfortable thing endurable. The horse patiently let Malon tighten the girth and then lowered her head so she could secure the bridle. Epona nuzzled her friend's cheek softly in thanks for using a bitless bridle. Although Malon usually did, she still felt thankful. After fixing the saddle pack firmly in place, she ungracefully mounted Epona and wasted no time leaving the ranch behind her.

Edited: 2011

I wanted to add a bit more substance to the prologue. Hopefully, you'll now have a better grasp on what Malon's life was like and so on. Oh, and I also wanted it to be apparent that Malon kept the bottle, since prologue Version 1 didn't make that clear.