"Tell me...do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?"

Link resisted the urge to say, "Yes. I cry myself to sleep each night", considering Rusl's thoughtful, sad expression. Instead he shrugged. "Do you?"

Rusl gave a slight nod of the head. "They say it's the only time when our world intersects with theirs...the only time when we can feel the lingering regrets of spirits who have left our world."
As soon as Rusl said this, Link thought of his grandmother, who had raised him. She had died five years ago with the words, "You should know, Link...You aren't who you think you are. But you will figure it out one day," on her deathbed.

Link closed his eyes, remembering the way her shaking fingers had then gripped his left hand, which possessed a strange, glittering mark on the back made up of three triangles, which he'd had since birth. "You are destined for great things," she'd whispered. But when she saw him shed another tear, she added, barely audible, "Just don't let your hot head get you into any trouble..."

Link smiled. He rubbed the back of his hand absentmindedly.

"That is why loneliness always pervades the hour of twilight..."

Link looked down at the ground as the sun slipped lower into the sky. Maybe he could feel it...just barely. Maybe there was more to the world than what was plainly seen. But it only crossed Link's mind for a second.

"But enough talk of sadness...I have a favor to ask of you, Link."

Link turned to look at Rusl in the eye.

"I was supposed to deliver something to the royal family of Hyrule the day after tomorrow..."

Link sat up straight. "The Hyrule family?" That couldn't be right. "The Royal family?"

"Yes, it was a task set to me by the mayor, but...would you go in my stead?"

Link's eyes widened, and a grin cracked his face. This time, he couldn't resist: "No thanks, I mean, it's only the Royal family of all of Hyrule. No big deal, right? I'd much rather sit around at home wondering what Hyrule's like."

Rusl just rolled his eyes. After seventeen years he was used to Link. "You have never been to Hyrule, right?"

"I've always wanted to go," Link said, trying to stop grinning, but to no avail. As much as Link loved Ordon Village, he already couldn't wait to see Hyrule.

"In the kingdom of Hyrule, there is a great castle, and around it is Castle Town, a community far bigger than our little village..."

Link began to zone out. "Are you sure you want me to go?" he interrupted

.
"Far bigger than Hyrule is the rest of the world the goddesses created. You should look upon it all with your own eyes." Rusl stood up and stretched. "It is getting late. We should head back to the village. I will talk to the mayor about this matter."

Link smiled again and stood up. He followed Rusl over to Epona and lifted a stack of logs onto her back. He buried his face in her mane, taking in a deep breath, then said gently, "C'mon, girl," pulling his horse's reins after him.

They crossed the long, swaying bridge and Rusl locked the gate behind them. They soon reached the village, and Rusl bade Link goodbye as he came upon his wife, Uli, and son, Colin. Colin looked back at Link with a smile before walking away.

Sunlight poured through his windows, and Link eased open his eyes.

"Hey!"

Link groaned hopped out of bed and to his window. Fado stood in his yard. "Link! You there?"

"When have I been anywhere else?"

"Good point. Nothin' wakes ya up past noon. You sleep like a baby."

Link stuck his tongue out at him.

"Hey, you mind helpin' me herd the goats? They ain't listenin' to me lately!"

"No problem! Just let me get ready."

Link ran to his closet and pulled a white tunic and beige pants on, mumbling, "I don't sleep THAT much..." He heard Fado call from outside, "Hey, where's Epona?"

"Isn't she out there?" Link called through the window, but he could see no trace of his horse either.
Link stepped outside. "I'll have to go find her. I'll bet Ilia took her to the spring again." For some reason, when Link thought of seeing Ilia, his stomach did a little flip.

"Just hurry up an' bring Epona with you."

Link turned and headed down the trail. The gates to the spring were wide open, as he had suspected, and there Ilia stood with Epona. Her short, brown hair caught a ray of sunlight, and Link's expression softened. He smiled.

"You know Epona's MY horse, right?"

"Oh, hi Link," Ilia said with a flirtatious smile. Her bright green eyes were so pretty. "I just thought she could use a bath before you leave tomorrow."

Link's smile faded. "I would have washed her," he said, walking over to her.

"Yeah, right. You don't bathe yourself."

"Hey!" He poked her in the stomach, but she grabbed his finger. He tried to twist it free but she held firmly, so instead he poked her with his other hand. She giggled and blocked her stomach with her arms. They began to relax, and Ilia said, "Listen, Link...Could you do something for me?"

"That depends..." Link said with a grin, patting Epona on the back. Ilia giggled.

"Could you use a piece of grass to play that song for me? You know, the one that Epona likes?" Ilia gripped her hands together and looked at him pleadingly.

"Yeah, of course." He walked over to a patch of grass and plucked one from the ground. He placed it to his lips and blew. A low, whistling tune soared through their ears and Epona came dashing over to him.

"It's such a nice melody..." She giggled. "Epona looks happy. Well, she's all prettied up now, so I suppose you can ride her back." Ilia looked longingly at Epona. She really did love that horse. She turned and looked at Link. "But don't make her do too much, okay?"

"Of course not!" Link hopped up on Epona. "Thanks for washing her," he said, waving goodbye. Ilia smiled and waved back to him.

"Thanks for helpin' today, Link. Couldn't have done it without you! How 'bout you take the rest of the day off?"

"Thanks," Link said. "See you tomorrow."

Epona ran over and jumped the fence, and Link felt wind rush past his face. A bottle of cool milk sounded very good, now, so Link headed to Sera and Hanch's shop. "Hey, Hanch," Link said. He was staring at the roof of his house. "What's up?"

"Well, hey, 'morning, Link. Get off early from work today, m'boy?"

"Yup."

"Not me. The wife's been hassling me... Today's the day to restock our store." He grunted and looked back up at the roof of his house.

"What's wrong?" Link asked. "Is there something there?"

"Look! See that? Up in that tree..."

Link craned his neck. "The beehive?"

"Yeah, some Ordon bees built themselves a fine nest up there, and I was thinking about knocking it down...Our cat hasn't come home since yesterday, so the wife's in a bad mood. At the very least, I need to bring something home to her."

"I'll keep an eye out for your cat," Link said, heading into the shop.

"Ohhhh...Awwww...Oh, my...Link..."

"Is this a bad time, or...?" Link walked up to Sera, who tried to smile, but couldn't quite manage it.
"Welcome, m'dear...You didn't happen to see my little cat out there, did you?" Sera whimpered. "He ate the fish we were going to have for supper last night, and I gave him a good scolding...but then he went out and hasn't returned. I'm so fraught with worry for him...I've exhausted myself."

Link winced, but he couldn't help but feel sorry for Sera. "I'll find him. He's probably up a tree or something."

The corners of Sera's lips turned up slightly in a sad smile, and Link headed out.

"Here, kitty kitty!" Link called, looking around the town. Link walked over to the edge of the lake to get a better look, and saw a furry, brown feline on the other side. "Dumb cat," he whispered to himself, "trying to catch a fish."

He stepped in the water carefully, not wanting to slip. He carefully edged his way across the lake and to the other side. Hoisting himself up on the grass, Link called, "Come here!"

He reached down for the thing, but it slipped away. Every time he got near it, it managed to scamper away. "Fine, I'll just chase you back to your house," Link muttered, but ten minutes and a few scratches later proved that didn't work, either.

Link heard a soft, "Dammit!" come from a little ways behind him, and he turned to see Uli, the pregnant wife of Rusl, leaning over the edge of the river in distress.

"There are children around, you know."

Uli's mouth twitched. "You're hardly a child, Link. You become eighteen in a month," she pointed out. She looked back at the river. "You haven't seen a cradle come floating by here, have you?"

"A cradle?" Link asked, glancing back at the cat.

"Are you trying to get that animal back to Sera?" Uli asked. "Oh! I might have something that could help you...Colin made you a fishing rod, but, I don't remember where I put it..."

"Maybe if you got the cradle back you'd remember."

"Maybe," Uli agreed.

"What does it look like?"

"It is a baby's cradle made of finely woven tree bark...Oh, such a misfortune...How far could it have drifted, I wonder?"

"Don't worry, I'll find it for you," Link said, patting Uli on the back.

"Thank you so much, Link."

He wandered along the edge of the river, searching for any trace of the cradle.

"Yo, Link! Up here!" Link heard the familiar sound of his friend, Jaggle. Jaggle was Malo and Talo's dad, but he was still pretty young. Talo, the oldest was - Jaggle hated this phrasing, but - an "accident." So Jaggle was only twenty five, the person closest to Link's age in the whole village, other than Ilia.

Link turned and saw him standing on a pillar sticking up in the water. "So listen, why don't you climb up those vines there, Link?"

He had little grip, but Link managed to get a hold on a few clumps of vines and hoist himself up. "There you are! You got a minute?"

"Well, I'm trying to catch a cat for Sera, but in order to do that I need Uli's fishing rod, who won't remember where it is until I find her cradle. And I need to do it all in the next hour or so because I need to start getting ready for tomorrow." Link grinned. "So, nope, not busy."

"That's a relief," Jaggle said with a smile, "because I want you to take a look at something." Jaggle pointed to a few feet in front of them. "See that grass growing there on the edge of that rock? Haven't I seen you whistling with that stuff?"

"I doubt Epona's grass would grow there," Link said. He looked closer at it. It DID look like Epona's grass, though. "Well, maybe..."

"I figured it was pretty weird to see it growing in a place like that, so I thought I'd let you know. I bet you could hop across these rocks to get to it, eh?"

"Yeah, like I'm going to - " Link stopped mid-sentence when he heard a high-pitched sound, almost like a...

A monkey?

It was standing on another pillar, several feet away from the one with grass on it. What was that it was holding?

The cradle!

Without thinking, he ran forward and jumped at the edge, landing cleanly on a nearby rock. He backed up again, and jumped across to the next pillar, where the grass was. He backed up a third time to jump, ignoring Jaggle's shout: "Link, what are you doing?"

Maybe one of these days he'd learn to think before he acted.

But not today.

His fingers barely brushed the edge of the pillar, and hope sparked in him...

The next thing he knew, his back was colliding with hard ground. He heard Jaggle shout, "For the love of Nayru, what didja do that for?" as he coughed some of the water out of his throat and got up, careful not to slip. "Damned monkey," he muttered, trudging out of the shallow water and climbing back up the pillar.

"You're not actually going to try that again, are you?" Jaggle asked, helping Link up. "It's just a dumb cat."

"Well, I've got nothing better to do." Link grinned. "Plus, I really want some milk."

"I guess."

Link jumped across the first two pillars again but stopped at the third. He could never make that jump...

He kicked the ground in frustration and sighed. He glared angrily down at the patch of Epona's grass, as if it was the grass's fault. But after staring at it for a while, Link could tell it wasn't Epona's grass. Link smiled inwardly at being right, then bent down and plucked it. He examined it for a moment, then placed it to his lips and blew.

A high, sweet melody wafted through the air. Link nonchalantly tossed it over his shoulder, as it seemed to do nothing, but a second later he heard something, like the sound of wings flapping. But it grew louder...and louder...and louder...until it was right behind him.

Link spun around and saw an eagle flying in place, sizing him up. Weren't eagles supposed to be dangerous? Bloodthirsty carnivores? Farore...he was doomed.

Link helplessly glanced from Jaggle to the eagle to the monkey and backed up as much as he could, which wasn't actually too much. Great. Him and his great ideas...

Suddenly, the eagle took off. Link ducked and cried out, covering his head, but the bird wasn't after him. It soared toward the monkey and plucked the basket out of its arms. It then carried the basket back to Jaggle and flew off.

Link turned to Jaggle and they just stared at each other, unable to do anything but blink.

* * * *
"Oh, Link!"

"Lose something?" Link grinned, placing the feline on Sera's counter. Thank the goddesses that was done.

"Thank you, honey! Thank you, thank you! I was so worried!"

Link sighed. After he had given the cradle to Uli, she had remembered where the fishing rod was, as he suspected. The cat followed him around after he fed it a fish, so it was pretty easy to get a hold of him and carry him back to Sera's shop, despite some minor scratches on his arms and face. Ugh...cats.

"You know, I'm so grateful, I think I'll give you a little treat. Nothing much, but..." She turned around and dug through a container, until she found what she wanted and pulled it out.

"Really, it's okay..."

"Here," she said, handing Link a slingshot. "It's not very well crafted...but you can have this one for free. Oh, and share it with the children, would you?"

"Sure." Link fully intended to simply give it to them. "Say, could I get some milk?" he asked, tossing a yellow rupee on her desk.

"Oh, please. This one's on the house."

"Don't have to ask me twice," Link said with a grin as Sera placed the bottle and rupee in his hand.

"Have a good one, Link."

"You too."

Link ran into Rusl on his way back to his house. "Ah, just in time, Link! I just delivered something to your room."

A crooked smile cracked on his face. "Lemme guess...Ilia gave you some Ordon beeswax to give to me so I'd finally glue my big mouth shut."

Rusl chuckled. "Oh, I see you got the fishing rod. Colin will be pleased. And it works better than you would think, right?"

"Yeah, I didn't think Colin crafted so well." They were quiet for a moment as they watched the kids - Beth, Malo, Talo, and Colin - run around Link's yard

"Well, have a good one," Rusl finally said, walking away. Link nodded to him and headed over to his house.

"Hey, kids," Link called the the children running around, "you should probably head home soon."
"Awwww! Okay..." nine-year-old Beth whined.

"Wait, what's that?" Talo, about Beth's age, cried, pointing to Link's pouch. "Hey! Link has a slingshot! WOAH!"

Beth gasped. "Wow! You had enough money to buy it, Link?"

"Well..." Link rubbed the back of his head with a crooked smile on his face.

"Can I see it, Link?"

"Yeah, please?"

"It's yours," he said, handing it to Talo.

The kids all gaped at it in wonder...except Beth.

"By the way, Link," she said, "were you expecting Colin's dad to bring something by here? 'Cause he did."

"Oh yeah!" cried Talo. "That's right...What was that, anyway?"

"I command you to tell us," Talo's little brother, Malo, muttered. Link chuckled, but then realized that Malo looked quite serious.

"O-Oh, well, I don't know what it is," Link said. "I was going to go up and see. And you guys should probably head home. You'll have to eat supper soon."

"Can we PLEASE stay? At least until you see what Colin's dad left?"

Link sighed. "Okay. Fine. I'll be right back."

Inside Link's house, a simple, wooden sword lay on Link's couch. "Yes!" he cried, shooting his fist up in the air. He'd wanted a sword for years now. Rusl finally thought he was ready!

He walked out of his house holding the blade with pride.

"Ooh, my!" Beth cried. "Isn't that a wooden sword, Link?"

Talo jumped up and down. "Woa, she's right! Can I hang onto it for a sec?"

"Please?"

"Seriously! Lately these monkeys have been coming out of the woods and playing tricks on us! We want to get them GOOD!" Talo was hopping from foot to foot, full of energy. "C'mon, teach us how to use a sword!"

Link ginned. "Nah, you can beg and suffer."

The kids smiled at each other, fully able to tell when Link was being sarcastic.

"I'm not that cold-hearted. Let's get started!"

"YES!"

Link explained the basics. He showed Talo how to simply slice with a blade, and also how to maneuver around an opponent.

"Thanks, Link! So, uh, I...I think I get it," Talo said. "...Kinda...Hmm...Maybe not."

Link shrugged his shoulders. "Takes practice."

"So this means that anytime one of those naughty monkeys shows up..."

At that precise moment, a small, brown monkey with a pink flower in her hair came scampering through Link's yard. "WAH!" Talo cried, racing over to it. "C'MERE, YOU!" The monkey scampered away, and in mere seconds, so had all three kids.