Terebithia was one of Link's favorite lands. Here the many elements of nature crowded into its own corner, but somehow harmoniously mingled. Just by walking a few miles in any direction would be like traveling to one of the four corners of the world; an abridged adventure. He had been there before, saved it actually. Now that he returned to it, the strange nostalgia that it held the time before was even stronger. It had been seven years after his adventure, and now he returned. He had changed. He wondered how this place had too. No one could really go through life unchanged, as The Hero of Time, he knew this quite well.
Link had come from the canyons of Ikana that had led to Lathrian; a destert land. In Lathrian he explored for a few weeks, hoping to encounter with an old friend. After a while of searching and retracing their steps from six years ago, the strange emptiness of the place told him she was gone and had taken the place's peculiarity. So now with a heavy heart he came to revisit the adventure he had had before he ever met her.
He wasn't all blue though. A few years after his adventure at Gyde's Rock, Link did find someone he had originally come to Terebithia to find; Navi his fairy from his first and biggest quest in Hyrule. Navi didn't seem to have changed much at heart. She still nagged and got a bit annoying, but after awhile he had gotten immune to it. Before it had gotten to the point that he would wonder if he had made the right choice in finding her. But then he'd look up at her pink light, dulled a bit, and her translucent, rainbow-like wings that had lost some of their shimmer. The loyal bravery still shown brightly in that floating orb. It was a letdown though that she never met the person he was looking for now. Navi's ongoing courage kept him hanging on.
Link rode swiftly through the entrance to Terebithia Field from Ikana Canyon. The ground cracked and crunched as his mighty, brown horse Epona surged through it. She remembered Terebithia quite well too. She yearned for the rich, spongy greens of the Southern Swamp just to the west of where they were. Then on the eastern horizon, icy streams trickled through the great mountains where the Gorons lived. But then the spicy ocean breeze wafted over the dot that was Clock Town ahead of them and teased her nostrils. The sea! Epona remembered that from last time! She could jump over the crumbling walls, barely grazing the spikes, then her hooves would crush pleasantly into the white sands. How she could play there all day with the giant sand urchins called Leevers, that would frighten her as a colt. Epona perked her head up high, neighed joyfully, then put on a burst of speed, causing Link to tighten his grasp on her reins and grab a hold of his green hood. He just laughed and kicked his heels on her side in encouragement.
Navi had been hiding from the strong winds created by Epona's speed that would abuse her old wings. The increase in velocity was the last straw though. She exploded from underneath Link's hat in a shower of fairy dust and began to complain to her companion, "Link! Slow this thing down! I thought you and this rocking horse would have gained some caution and maturity after seven years!"
The young man just laughed, "Navi, I'm glad you're back. You're like the mother I never knew!" Then just to spite her, he pulled the reins to the side of the path and the horse's clamoring got the attention of the real life Bombchus. Soon many of the explosive rodents left their wanderings and were ticking after them with their bombs tied to their tails.
A panicked jingle escaped from the fairy, "There's at least a dozen of them following us! Hurry up! Faster!"
KABOOM! Explosions followed the single rat that went off in a domino effect. Navi hid under Links hat. The boy chuckled smugly and his horse beneath him chortled. Navi poked a bit out from his head, "Um.. never mind."
The brown, dry terrain soon was littered with tufts of grass as the old relics, columns, and gravestones of Ikana melted away into the white walls around Clock Town. The gigantic barriers surrounding the city hadn't changed, but less immense to Link now. He sighed a smile. From afar the tips of the roofs could barely be seen over the walls, but the thing that rose up for all eyes; the clock tower which gave the town its name. The gigantic wooden clock face was carved with strange hieroglyphics dating back hundreds of years. Workers had apparently just added a new coat of vibrant colors, for the shimmering was not there last time Link had looked back on it. It was only three days until the Moon Festival, the exact day that Link had originally arrived at the land.
"Seven years," he said allowed softly and looked up at the day sky. No moon. Good. Last time that gigantic moon didn't care what time of day or night it was, it would still be looming over the town, ten times its normal size, not to mention its huge yellow-red eyes and maniacal grin.
Link's memories were interrupted by the soft tinkling of bells that suddenly came up behind him.
"Greetings, Hero of time, we meet again!"
He whipped around and came face to face with a mouth full of smiling teeth, slanted pale eyes, and unnaturally red, shiny hair. It was the Happy Mask Salesman!
Link must have looked pretty dumbfounded, so the strange man spoke up first, "It's okay boy, no need for formalities. How you been? I'm doing very well, the business that is, and since it's my business I guess you could say, we're doing very well... even though I'm the only person that runs it.... Oh.. .never mind. Business is booming so I am quite pleased." He jerked his frail thumb behind him and, as if on que, a tiny donkey with his tongue dragging to the ground heaved into view with a wagon laden with all types of masks. "It's a great relief to not have to carry all that stuff anymore, killer on the back, eh?" He breathed a creepy chuckle then as soon as he had conceived it, he turned solemn and glared at Link expectantly. Link had remembered the Happy Mask Salesman's extremely sudden mood swings.
"Umm...," glancing around the Salesman's purple and sparkly coat and seeing the mask reminded Link of something, "Majora's M-"
"Ooooooh!!! Don't worry about Majora's Mask, boy! There's no power in it anymore. I had been offered many a price from the most colorful of people..well..not always offered....threatened? Well! I never did give it up! Aren't you proud of the Happy Mask Salesman? So one day me and Beto there...um...the ass... were traveling about a rocky road when- oh what a dimwit!" The man started banging his fist together in rage as he reflected, but then snapped back into his businesslike smile, " the creature got the left front wheel into a pothole and so it was ruined! Thanks to his incompetence, I said to Beto, 'What do you think we do now!?! You expect me to carry that stuff! I'll eat you first!' And the little donkey started to squeal and try to jerk the wheel from the hole, when out pops Majora's Mask . ' You genius!!' I take up the mask and just like that I have this new wheel! Look!"
Now that Beto had come to a hault and lay spralled on the ground sweating, Link saw the many colors and fragrants of yellow, staring eyes throughout the rim and spokes of the wheel. He couldn't decide if he was inuslted or happy about the Happy Mask Salesman's feat.
"Ok..." it seemed the only right thing for him to say at such an "interesting" story.
"So boy-o! You going to the Moon Festival? I'm going of course! It's tradition for people to sport masks, so of course it's my favorite holiday of the year!"
"Yeah, I think I'll go. Would be fun, I never went to one."
"What?! Never been to the Moon Festival?! But seven years ago- ah!!!" The Happy Mask Salesman jumped and put his hand over his mouth. Then his eyes went white and he glared at Link as if he was the fowlest of demons, "...you didn't go....Sinful."
"Well, I'll make up for it this year."
" You better....and since you're going to go, why not buy a mask!?"
Link surveyed the poor creature still dying on the ground, "Um... I'll get back to you on that later. I have some stuff to do..and it may take me a while to choose." He hoped his agreement would make the man happy.
"Okay! But you promise?"
"Yes I promise."
"Sooooooooooo I'll see you later, right?" The Happy Mask Salesman clamped his hands together as if praying and leaned close to Link with that creepy grin of his.
"I promise!!"
The man let out a strange yell of joy, then just like that was gone, along with Beto.
Link looked dumbfounded at the spot the salesman had been standing a blink ago. That's no change.