"This is a melody that healsevil magicand troubled spirits, turning them intomasks."
Arpeda stood outside of the shop, staring admiringly at the fine delicacies along with all the others littluns of Pagalia Village.
Pagalia Village was one of the leading fudge beetle producers in the entire world, so it was only natural that its residents got the best of the best. Fudge beetles were just as the name implied. They were beetles made of fudge. You could order them with their heads or without, but the masses preferred without so they wouldn't try to fly off.
Arpeda loves fudge beetles; they were tasteful and tasty for any occasion. The whole village loved them, which contributed to the amounts bred every day. Unfortunately, they weren't for sale. Not yet, anyways. The store was closed and wouldn't open until tomorrow at 7 in the morning. There was no point in her gawking anymore, so she walked away.
It was cold. There was pretty snow everywhere. She blended in, like the other Pagalia natives. Gosh, the snow was so beautiful. Sometimes, she could swear it was sparkling.
And before she could comprehend what had happened
she was on the ground, in the snow she was so focused on before
She gasped in surprise- she was so focused on the snow that she hadn't been paying attention to where she was walking and bumped into someone. It appeared to be a man carrying a heavy load.
"Oh! I'm sorry; I wasn't looking where I was going." Arpeda apologized, collecting the man's...merchandise? Masks, masks everywhere. Very lifelike masks. Very creepy masks. She didn't like it.
"It's quite alright, little one," he smiled.
Arpeda handed him his masks. His fingers touched hers in the process; she quickly retracted her hand. He looked to be the unnerving person.
"You're Hylian?" she asked, taking notice to his ears.
"Why, yes I am. The Happy Mask Salesman, at your service."
"What are you doing all the way up here, if I may ask? We're very far from Hyrule."
"I'm a salesman, I travel all over the world."
"Oh, that makes sense...well, I must be going now...nice to meet you, mister...?"
"You can call me Happy," he grinned. Oh my, how disturbing.
"Okay. Nice meeting you...Happy..."
"The pleasure is mine, Arpeda."
She turned and began to walk away when she realized he had said her name. She turned back to ask him how he knew, but he was gone.
She ran home and refused to look back.
_
The following morning was beautiful- clear skies, fresh snow, and the sound of littluns fawning over their newly acquired fudge beetles. Arpeda rushed downstairs, in pajamas and all, to find her box of fudge beetles on the kitchen table. She let out a squeal of delight; they had heads. She loved biting the heads off.
She rushed back upstairs to change into her usually day wear, grabbed her fudge beetles and out the door she went. Her parents worked at a small cafe, every morning she met up with them to help out. In a few years she would actually be able to work there full time and earn money, but in the meantime...she settled for taking dishes to the back for her brother to clean.
At least she got to sleep in late.
While skipping to said cafe, she remembered how last night played out. Happy, creepy, ran home. She didn't tell anyone about it. As she had thought about it over and over again, she began to doubt that she had heard him say her name at all. It was most likely just a mishearing. And just because she found him creepy didn't mean he was a bad guy.
At any rate, she didn't dwell on it. He was a salesman; he was probably kingdoms over by now.
Before she knew it, she was taking a family's dishes to the kitchen to be cleaned. The place was getting packed, dishes were mounting. She was used to this kind of work and managed to get them all to the sinks with ease. Eventually, it was lunchtime. Arpeda loved lunchtime- it was when people wanted to just sit and talk instead of hurry up to start their day or get home. It took longer for people to finish up with their dishes, so she got longer breaks.
During those breaks, she sat at one of the tables for two and sipped milk.
This break would be different.
Her mother was approaching with a seemingly fake smile. She knew the look; there was a customer behind her. She also knew that stare she was being given meant to vacate the table. Arpeda begrudgingly did so.
And what a customer; it was Happy.
"This is my daughter Arpeda, she'll collect your dishes whenever you're ready," the mother smiled kindly and hurried off to take orders.
"What a pleasant surprise."
It was definitely a surprise.
"Hi, Happy."
"I noticed you were sitting here earlier. I don't want to keep you standing the whole time; please, have a seat."
She sat.
"I thought you would be out of town by now, to be honest. Being a salesman and all."
"Oh, I have a couple more days left here."
"Ah. Where will you go next?"
"I'm not sure."
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence as he examined the menu, eyes still closed.
"So...you sell masks?"
"Of course. I also collect them, the strange and unusual ones, that is," he grinned. Eyes closed.
"How can you tell if a mask is strange and unusual; different from the others?"
"Oh, you can feel it. Sometimes you'll come across one that makes the hairs on the back of your little neck stand up, and then you know it's a special one."
"Do you have any special masks with you right now?"
"Yes, in fact- I do!" and as soon as he said this, he pulled a frightening mask from his bag thing. It had spikes and was shaped like a heart. She didn't like looking at it, she felt sick from it.
"I...I can tell its special..."
"Really? Not everybody can, you know. It takes a very observant soul in order to feel it. This one is called Majora's Mask."
"Who is Majora?"
He laughed. He didn't answer, just laughed and continued glancing over the menu through his eyelids.
"...Have you decided what you w-"
"Don't rush me! Can't someone look over a menu in peace?! How completely obnoxious, you insufferable little girl!" he snapped.
She was taken aback by this; such a sudden outburst of anger didn't seem characteristic of him. He always seemed so...Happy. She flinched and turned away from him, really wishing somebody would get done with their dishes so she could get away from him for a few moments. That drastic mood swing made him seem more...dangerous.
"...I'll think I'll have coffee bean bisque and a side of fudge beetles. Oh my, I have a bit of a sweet tooth today!"
And there was no trace of any negative emotion in his voice.
"O-Okay...I'll relay your order..."
She walked to her father, gave him the order, lingered a while longer, and for some reason returned to her seat.
"Your order will be here shortly."
"Thank you."
Somebody had finished with their dishes. Thank goodness.
_
She didn't see him yesterday, and today was his last day, if what he said was true. She wanted to lock herself in her room until it was safe and he was gone, but her parents wouldn't allow it. Today was Sunday, and she had a day off. She should be allowed to stay in if she wanted to.
But she wasn't, and there was no sense in dwelling on it. She put on her white dress, grabbed her box of fudge beetles, and out the door she went. She didn't know where to go.
She settled on plainly walking around the village. She would leave the place entirely, but at this time of the year, there were dangerous creatures roaming about.
She passed by the cafe, busy as usual. She walked around the playing areas, yet every toy and game was filled up. She roamed the housing areas, and it seemed to be a ghost town. Probably because people were at work and kids were playing. She stopped by the ranch and fed grass to a pony. She went to one of the gaming parlors to play a round of target practice.
That's when something happened.
Of course, it was the Happy Mask Salesman.
As soon as she exited the building, he had walked past. He didn't see her, luckily. She did see him drop a mask. He didn't see that either.
She went to pick up the mask, and upon closer inspection noticed that it was a mask of a normal Hylian face. As soon as she touched it, the world around her seemed to vanish into white.
_
She had walked around in the blank nothingness for a while now, and was starting to worry, until the white faded into greenery and landscape. The distance faded into a town. The space next to her faded into him. That same smile. Same closed eyes. Same clothes, same masks, he was almost identical to the one in real life...except this one looked younger.
"H-Happy?"
He didn't respond to her. He didn't even hear her. He didn't move a muscle, just stood there, facing the town. He would be staring at it if his eyes were open.
It was all too eerie. No sound. No movement.
Until a moment passed.
Happy Mask Salesman suddenly walked ahead, towards the town. Arpeda decided to follow, since he wouldn't notice her. Besides, she had touched the mask, it must have been his memories. She was seeing them for a reason, and though she was scared, she couldn't pass it up.
It took a while to get to the town; it was farther off than it looked. It was unnerving. It was still completely silent; she couldn't even hear him breathe. She couldn't hear his footsteps. She couldn't hear the wind blowing. She couldn't feel the temperature.
They continued to walk.
Eventually, the grass turned into cobblestone. They had entered the town. There seemed to be a bubble around the town, allowing sound to be heard, unlike outside of said bubble. It was so much more lively, a shocking change. Kids ran past, she had to jump back to avoid them. She began to wonder if she could actually touch them.
Happy approached a little girl.
"Hello there, little girl."
"Hi there!"
This girl seemed a bit dense, being so warm to a stranger. Then again, this was a memory, so no telling how long ago it was, or how old the little girl was.
"I see you have a piccolo, there. Do you happen to know any songs?"
"I sure do! Listen to this!" she raised her instrument and played a mediocre tune to some nursery rhyme or another.
Happy's smile never faltered.
"Beautiful, absolutely magnificent! Would you like to learn another song? It's a magical one!"
Arpeda felt her mouth twitch upwards. Maybe Happy wasn't such a bad guy after all.
"Really? Teach it to me, please!"
Suddenly, in the middle of Arpeda's blink, a contrabass saxophone appeared in position, ready to play. She was surprised, needless to say. Where did that come from...?
"This is called the Song of Healing. Whenever in a time of crisis, play this song, and it will end it all. Listen closely now..."
It sounded sad for a Song of Healing.
"Now you try."
She did. She surprisingly nailed it, but it was just a couple of notes.
"Wow, thank you!"
"No, thank you."
Then he left for the playground. Arpeda followed behind closely, cautiously. She didn't like that last line. She didn't like him. Part of her wanted to leave this memory, but the other part knew that wasn't possible and was curious. She wasn't leaving until the memory was done.
He loosened his bag a bit, very subtly. For a split second she was proud of herself for noticing it. He pulled out the special mask, what was it called? ...Majora's. Majora's Mask. He casually, discretely dropped it. What was he doing? Why was he leaving it there? Turn back and get it, dummy!
"Hey, mister! You dropped your mask!" a little boy chimed, running over to Happy, mask in hand.
"Oh? How very nice of you to return it to me. Most kids nowadays would take it and run off."
"Yeah, I dunno why they do it."
Happy laughed.
"Say...what do you think about this mask?"
"It's really cool, mister."
"Would you like to have it?"
"R-Really? You mean I can have it?"
"Yes. This one wasn't really selling, and since you were nice enough to return it in the first place, I don't see any reason not to!"
Happy handed the mask to the little boy.
"Wow...thank you! Thanks a lot!"
"Not a problem, child. Not a problem at all."
That grin. That horrible grin.
As soon as the little boy ran off with the mask, Happy walked as quickly as possible to get out of there. Arpeda had to run to keep up with him. He had tall legs, he was faster, even with the bag that looked to weigh about 200 lbs. Eventually she had to break out into a sprint to keep up, he was in a rush to get out of there.
Only when the cobblestone turned to grass did he slow down.
He returned to the same spot he stood before, spying on the town. The sound had stopped. The movement had stopped. Everything felt wrong and she was creeped out.
And she stood there.
For hours.
Hours were days.
For days.
For 7 hours.
They watched as the town slowly turned to chaos. Fires would break out. Crime appeared to grow. Happy grinned but continued to wait.
And a familiar tune began to play, a familiar, sad tune. She recognized it as the Song of Healing. It somehow broke through the bubble of silence.
Everything stopped within the town.
And then everyone seemed to scream. Screams, painful, horrible screams of agony, as if everybody was going through a personal torture. It was so terrible. Arpeda covered her ears and tears began to stream down her face. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get into her bed, she wanted to be with her family. She never felt so scared and sick in her life.
The screams gradually began to fade. Once they had stopped, Happy finally moved. He walked towards the town. Arpeda chocked out a sob, got up from her knees and followed him. He was as blissful as ever.
When the grass turned into cobblestone, it was just as silent as it was in the grass. Some houses were in ruin. Burned, ripped apart, chopped down, etc. Crops were ripped out by the roots or dead. Decomposed bodies of animals were scattered about, mainly livestock. Finally, bodies. Bodies of all the people and in front of them were masks. Their faces. Arpeda wailed and covered her eyes. Happy began to pick up the masks nonchalantly, paying no attention to the faceless bodies that littered the streets. In the center of it all was Majora's Mask. After collecting all the human masks he could find, he tucked them away in his bag and picked up Majora's. He grinned at it and continued on his merry way.
_
She dropped the lifelike mask and screamed. She screamed and tears dried up, leaving her eyes to sting. Just looking at that mask made her want to vomit.
Happy stopped in his tracks and slowly, ever-so-slowly, turned around. His mask on the ground. Little Arpeda screaming and crying.
He opened his eyes.
Arpeda made eye contact.
She stopped crying.
He walked over to her, picked up the mask, patted her on the head, and walked away. Walked out of the village. Never to return as long as that little girl still lived. He would have to continue on and make another round about the world before he came back; next time he wouldn't wait a few days.