Chapter 2
Despite the hours that Link had been awake, he felt the burden of his dreams weighing heavily on him. His eyes were still heavy, drooping even as he sat atop Epona and attempted to count the Ordon Goats on the ranch for the fourth time. Each time, he'd come back with a different number and had to recount. This time, he was on 14… or was it 24. There was a four in there somewhere.
Running a hand along his face, he sighed and began again, starting with the ones nearest to him. Ever since the goats have been escaping, him and Fado, the other ranch hand, have had to keep a closer eye on the livestock. Just a few weeks ago, Link had found a missing goat in the woods.
"Hey! Big Brother!"
Link turned toward the fence and the large, locked gate. Fado poked his head from outside the barn to see what was happening. Link rode closer to the entrance, losing count of the goats once again.
"Aryll?"
The bright-eyed young girl propped her body up against the wooden post. "I missed you! Can I help?"
"I'm at work, Arry. If I did this for fun, yeah, you could help. But this is my job."
"You always work! You're here, you're at Lon Lon! When do I get to hang out with you again?"
"Aw, Link," Fado called. "You can let her help. I won't split your pay, if that's what you're worried about."
Link turned back to his eager-eyed sister. She was hopping up and down excitedly. With a roll of his eyes, he held out his hand.
Aryll let out a joyful squeal and took his hand as he lifted her over the fence and onto the horse. She was a small thing, still light enough that he didn't think his arm would pop out from the weight of her. He nodded at Fado, a thank you for letting her join. He knew that Aryll was struggling with him being gone at Lon Lon Ranch so often, and then here when he wasn't at the other ranch. His life was essentially just trying to balance his new apparent profession with his family. He knew how disappointed his uncle was with Link's dismissal from the Knights of Hyrule. It had been a family legacy that the men served as knights. While many women in their family had also served the Royal Family, Link was the first male in generations who'd break the tradition.
Turning his attention back to his sister, he slid off Epona, leaving her alone atop the horse. She was a fairly good rider, and he pointed to the goats.
"Your first job is to count those goats over there. Remember, you can't mess up!"
She rolled her eyes and gently kicked Epona forward, mouthing the number of goats as she counted.
Link jumped when he saw Fado beside him. "You're a good brother, you know that? My older brother never made an effort when he came home. Now, we don't even talk."
"I wonder what would have happened if I'd been a knight," he wondered aloud.
Fado tsked. "You can't be thinking of things like that. It wasn't meant to be, so it didn't come to pass. Now you don't let your mind stray to that path and you'll be all set."
Link started to laugh at his friend. "Did you visit the Wise Men while I was gone?"
Fado turned to Link with all seriousness. "Link, I am a Wise Man."
Unable to hold back their laughter, both of them burst into hysterics. Link missed the easy companionship of Fado, who'd been his friend for years. While he'd been living and training at the academy, however, he lost touch with most of his friends from home. It was only recently that he'd reconnected with Fado and Illia, though the village kids treated him like a god, constantly asking him to teach them to fight. One of the kids, however, a boy named Colin, often offered a change of pace, asking Link to teach him to fish instead.
"Forty-eight!" Aryll called out, causing both Link and Fado to turn to her.
"How many?"
"Forty-eight."
Link and Fado turned to each other with an amused look of annoyance. Two missing goats today.
"You and Aryll do the Cuccos, I'll go look for the goats," Fado sighed as he climbed the fence, preferring not to open the gate and lose more goats.
Aryll chuckled. "Does that happen a lot?"
Link walked over and ran his hand through Epona's mane affectionately. "You've seen them in town, haven't you? They're little escape artists. Almost like you used to be when you were a baby. Mom used to go to get you from the cradle and you wouldn't be there, preferring to lay in the grass or wherever she was."
"Great," she scoffed. "I'm a goat."
"A cucco, too. You ran from all of us whenever we tried to get you inside."
"Was I that bad?" she laughed.
Link gestured to the cuccos. "Go ahead; try to round them up so you'll know how we used to feel."
And he was doubled over with laughter as he watched Aryll struggle to come close to any of the angry cuccos, who preferred to flap their wings in a panic and cluck incessantly as she chased them until they grew tired of her agitation and began to chase her.
Zelda leaned against the counter with the broom in her hand, avoiding sweeping the entryway of the Stock Pot Inn 0for the third time, watching the clock wind with a painful slowness.
"Are you that eager to get out of here?" Anju asked from behind her.
Zelda spun and couldn't help the squeak and nervous chuckle that she let out. "No, but you know that the Indigo-Go's are playing, and I'm so excited that I get to see the show, even if I'm working."
Anju tossed her red hair up into a bun before letting it down again. "Kafei and I are going as well. Can you hide one Chateau Romani behind the bar for us?"
With a playfully mischievous look, Zelda nodded. Anju clasped her hands together excitedly.
The clock made a loud clicking noise, the sound of the clock reaching an hour mark. Springing over the counter with the broom in her hand, Zelda laughed at Anjus's dismayed expression.
"You know it's only a few extra steps to go the long way."
"Where's the fun in that?" Zelda said with a smile, returning the broom to its place and already peeling off her nametag, stashing it under the desk before running to get her uniform for the Milk Bar from the closet. She still had five more minutes to get from here to the next-door building, so she took her time changing.
On the other side of the closet door, she could hear Anju. "Do you have a place to sleep tonight?"
"Actually, here!" Zelda said cheerfully. "Lulu offered me the spare bed in their room so we could hang out after the show before she heads back out on tour."
Anju laughed, "Where's my friendship perk? Lulu is a friend of mine, too."
"Maybe you can ask her for an autograph and then you can sell it."
"That's not a bad idea for both of us," Anju said.
Zelda emerged a moment later in her white button up shirt with black pants and suspenders. "You and Kafei could get a house."
Knowing it would be busy and warm, Zelda tied her hair up into a bun out of her face, though some wisps fell into her eyes, too short to stay firmly in place. Better than her entire head, she thought.
As Zelda was about to head out the door, Anju stopped her. "Zelda. Can't you just stop supporting him?"
Zelda smiled tightly, though she knew this conversation would come up tonight. Lulu was usually the one who mentioned her poor financial situation though, not Anju.
"I have to go, but I'll save you that bottle for whenever you're ready."
Anju nodded sadly, knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer.
Zelda jogged out the door and into the next building, eager to end the conversation with Anju before she'd have to hear it again from Lulu.
"Hi Barten!" Zelda called as she slid under the rope leading behind the bar that Barten put up whenever there was a show. The building was already packed and patrons were crowding every free space possible.
She saw one of the bartenders she was relieving slouched against the wall, looking miserable, as he often did. "Grog, you can go home now."
He sighed and slowly pushed himself off the wall. "You're never early, you know that? You're always right one time."
"That's how it works," she said, slipping on an apron. She was almost positive that he hadn't served anyone for at least thirty minutes and instead went to the other bartender to be caught up while Grog slipped into the back room to slink away.
Starting a fresh pot of coffee, she began to take care of several disgruntled looking patrons, quickly easing them back to a more positive mood. She didn't know how long it took her, but when she finally made her way to the back of the bar that was also roped off, she could see Anju, Kafei, and the entire Indigo-Go's band sitting together, laughing.
When Lulu noticed Zelda, she sprang up and ran toward her old friend, pulling her into the largest hug.
"Zelda! It's been so long! Why couldn't you have gotten today off so we could all hang out together?"
Zelda made a face and gestured around the room. "And miss out on these tips?"
Lulu rolled her eyes, though she couldn't have been less insulted. She'd known Zelda for years even when they were back in school. Back when her life had been normal.
"I know you have to get back to work," Anju said, joining them, dragging Kafei from where he sat. His blue hair bounced as she pulled him beside her. "But while we're all together, I have something I wanted to say."
Anju reached behind her back before holding out her hand, revealing a ring on her finger and a beaming grin across her face.
Lulu shrieked in excitement, grabbing at her friend's hand and examining the ring. Zelda hovered over it, almost as if she were too afraid to touch it herself, before pulling Anju into a massive hug, joined quickly by Lulu.
Zelda pulled herself away and moved to offer Kafei a hug and congratulations as well. Despite him being her closest friend's fiancée, she still didn't know Kafei very well. He showed up at the inn often, so it wasn't as if he was a stranger, but she could only recall one time that Anju had invited Zelda to sit and really talk with Kafei. So when she hugged his tall, lean frame, it was awkward.
She was more inclined towards Lulu's boyfriend, Mikau, who sat with an uncomfortable expression on his face. He was the lead guitarist of the popular band, but Zelda had spent more time with him and the other bandmates than she had with Kafei. She slid down next to Mikau and tisked.
"You know you're the next in line, right?"
He gave her a dirty look and let his fin extend to thwack her in the arm. "Don't you start, too. This is just going to give Lulu even more incentive."
Zelda made a fake interested face at him, and Evan, the band leader, chimed in. "He and Lulu aren't allowed to move forward in their relationship while they're a part of my band. I won't be entertaining a new singer or guitarist because these two had a fight or anything. They're lucky I let them date at all."
Mikau snorted. "You know how that went. You aren't our life bosses, Evan. Just accept that."
With a grimace over what she'd started, Zelda ducked away from the bandmates and back to Anju. "I'm going to get in trouble if I don't get back, but I've got your Chateau Romani behind the bar at any time, if you want to celebrate."
Anju and Lulu made an excited face, and Zelda just shook her head. "Okay, just give me a minute to make my rounds then it's all yours."
"You just hold it here," Link said, adjusting the hand of one of the rowdy village boys, Talo, as he held on to his toy sword. "Then swing like this," he said, moving Talo's arm to demonstrate.
"I got this!" Talo yelled, practically pushing Link away. He lunged forward toward his baby brother, Malo, with a loud HYAHH! The younger boy barely flinched, looking unimpressed and bored, if toddlers could even offer such a range at once.
Malo looked at an older girl, Beth, and wriggled his eyebrows. "Now that's gonna show 'em monkeys!"
Beth flipped her short, strawberry blonde hair away from her. "As if. You looked like you were going to fall over."
"True," Malo said under his breath.
Talo stomped his feet in annoyance. "No! Link! Tell them! Tell them that I'm good enough to be a knight like you!"
Link smiled wryly, not wanting to betray his own emotions to the kids. "I'm not a knight. But keep practicing and one day you can be."
He turned to see Aryll and Colin, another boy in the village about her age, playing a game with a ball that they rolled around while clapping out a tune. Neither took any notice of him, or of the approaching figure.
"Still trying to get these kids into trouble?"
Spinning on his heels, Link beamed as his old friend, Ilia, walked into view. She shook her head at Talo. "Your mom wants you. And I'm sure she won't want to see that sword."
Talo grumpily placed the sword beside a training dummy and grabbed his brother by the hand, dragging him along. Beth lingered for a moment before deciding to follow.
"Beth has a crush on you!" Ilia said, grabbing hold of Link's arm.
He rolled his eyes. "She's not even old enough to have a crush. She's Aryll's age."
"She's a year older, but she absolutely has one on you." Her green eyes locked on Link's and he smirked.
"How do you know?"
She just laughed. "It's pretty obvious. Is my girl doing okay? You didn't hurt her, right?" Ilia headed towards Epona and ran a hand through her mane. "You let her get her 'hair' all tangled. If your hair was longer, you'd understand that pain."
"Your hair is short," Link argued, looking at Ilia's short but styled blonde hair.
Ilia gave Link a bland look. "Why do you think its short? Because I can't stand it long." She paused and saw Aryll watching them with Colin. "Isn't that right, Aryll? Long, tangled hair is no fun?"
Aryll's hand went to her pigtail braids. "Not at all."
Link turned his back to his sister so his voice would muffle. "Why are you coming in so late?"
Ilia's face reddened, and she shook her head as she started to walk. "I don't want to say."
"What?" he asked, now cutting her off physically. "Wait, what? Are you okay, or is this a good kind of 'don't want to talk about it?"
Her face flushed some more, and she glanced at Aryll and Colin. "I'll tell you later when they're gone."
"I can do that," he said with a mischievous nod. "I—" Link stopped short of whatever it was he'd planned to say lowered his voice. "Aryll, Colin! Come here."
The two kids ran over without question or hesitation, and Ilia turned to see what Link was so intently staring at.
At first, she couldn't see a thing. But soon, a wild shadow burst through the trees of Ordon's woods, and a tall woman collapsed to the ground in front of them.
Link thought she was a Gerudo woman at first glance. Her dark skin and colored, wide eyes had him questioning who this woman was. If she was a Gerudo, she was far from home.
Her short, white, close-cropped hair clung to her skin with sweat, while she clutched at her side with a long, black-nailed hand. Her other hand rested on her leg, just over a long, red tattoo that ran all the way from her waist to her ankle. And her clothes hid practically nothing of her body.
It wasn't like she'd been running for so long that she'd lost or taken off articles of clothing. It wasn't even that she'd been prisoner, and her proper clothes had been taken. The front of her long dress-robe covered only one shoulder and then ran down one side of her leg. The other hald of her body was only covering the basics, leaving everything else exposed. But the woman didn't seem to care.
"Please," she said quietly.
Ilia was staring, mouth open, at the woman, while Link pushed Colin and Aryll away and toward the rest of the village.
"Colin," Link started, "Go get your dad."
Colin and Aryll hesitated for a moment before running off towards the village.
"What happened? What's your name?" Ilia asked, bending beside the woman.
"Water…" the woman croaked. Ilia handed her her own flask and the woman guzzled it down greedily. "My name… it's Cia."
"Zelda!" Barten called.
Rolling her eyes, Zelda grabbed two new glasses off the top shelf in the back and tucked the dustpan under her arm before hurrying back into the front of the bar. She placed the glasses in front of Barten before hurrying over to the table who'd dropped their glasses.
She bent onto her hands and feet and carefully started to place the larger chunks into the pan. The bar was lively and loud. There was a band playing before Lulu, and then another act would go right before she was meant to sing.
Boredly placing the shards into the pan, Zelda couldn't help her ears wander to the girls' conversation at the table above her head.
"He's working at the other ranch, though," one of the girls said with a small whine in her voice. "I wish he was just at ours. Do you have any suggestions?"
A voice that was slightly familiar answered her. "You can offer him a raise, I suppose. But if he's doing the job, you have no reason to complain. I wish I had an experienced rancher helping us out. Grog does nothing, and Mama just plays with dogs all day. All I have for help is a little sister who's more concerned that ghosts want our cows than whether or not the cows want to eat."
The first girl sighed. "I'm sorry. That was selfish of me to complain."
Zelda could hear the silence that passed, an agreement from the second. But the girl finally did speak. "Well, I can't fault you. I know it's because you like him."
Zelda picked up the rest of the glass, spotting a small red line in her palm, and wrapped the glass away, pushing the rest into the pan with her broom. As Zelda stood, the girls at the table watched her with interest.
"I'm sorry about the mess," said the first girl. She was about Zelda's age, fiery red hair and an outfit that said she'd come straight from the ranch.
"It's no problem. Happens all the time," Zelda assured, looking at the second girl. Recognition washed over her at seeing the girl, but so did the shock of seeing how similar the two girls looked. It was eerie.
"Do I know you?" the familiar second girl asked Zelda.
"You deliver our milk products. I usually take the order. It's good to see you enjoying your work, Cremia."
Cremia slapped her hand on the table. "Yes! That's where I know you! It's Zelda, right?"
"It is."
"This is the Hylian rancher, Malon. She supplies Thelma's."
Zelda politely smiled, but her palm was burning, the small red line of blood from the cut glass stinging her whole palm. "I hope to see you both again soon, and enjoy your night, but I'm afraid I have to get going. No time to talk on the night the band plays," she said with a forced laugh.
The two ranchers either didn't notice her clearly false demeanor, or they were too polite to call her out on it. They bid her farewell, and Zelda rushed to dump the glass into the trash behind the counter, washing the blood off her palm just after.
"Are you alright?" asked a sultry voice.
Zelda spun quickly, splashing water everywhere. "I'm sorry!"
Vaati laughed, wiping some off his cloak. "Forgive me for startling you."
Zelda took in his outfit and tried to stifle a laugh as she handed him a towel. "What are you wearing?"
He feigned a hurt face before it softened up. "I'm the next act. Did I never tell you?"
Zelda eyed Vaati suspiciously. "No, you didn't. Why is that?"
He knew she worked at the bar, the bar which was most popular for its shows, and she'd seen the roster. The next act was called "The Sorcerers." A band… right?
"I didn't want you to get star-struck," he jested, but he cleared his throat at her expression. "I didn't want you to think that I was only talking to you because I'd be performing here."
"Are you a band? Like Lulu?"
He looked around the room and his eyes rested on an unfamiliar woman. "We're sorcerers. That woman over there? She's my partner. Veran!" he called. She looked annoyed at the summons, but still strode over with elegance that rivaled the Queen's.
"Yes?" she asked simply.
Zelda looked at the tall woman. She wasn't Hylian, but she couldn't pick out where she was from. Labrynna?
"Veran, this is Zelda. I've been bothering her for the past few days now. Zelda, my partner, Veran."
Zelda looked pointedly at him. "You're not bothering me." But she held out her hand to Veran, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Veran looked at Zelda's hand as if it were holding an outstretched sword. "I don't shake."
"Oh," Zelda said, smoothing her hand against her pantleg. "Sorry."
"She's shy," Vaati laughed, patting his friend on the shoulder.
Slick and sharp, Veran's gaze pierced his, though she didn't speak.
Zelda backed away awkwardly. "Well, break a leg when you both go on. I'll be watching for tricks!" She winked and all but ran back to the counter. If she ever thought Vaati gave her the creeps, it was because she'd never met Veran.
Grabbing the Château Romani, Zelda hurried over to Anju and slipped it onto the table discretely.
"Who was that?" Anju asked in a whisper.
"He's staying at the inn. Apparently, they're the next act. I keep running into him."
"Let us know if you need him off your back."
Zelda smiled at Anju and squeezed her shoulder before heading back behind the bar. She grabbed Barten by the sleeve before he could head into the back room. "I just wanted to make sure it was still alright that I take tomorrow off?"
He glanced at the calendar behind him and sighed. "I'd almost forgotten. Of course, do whatever you need to do, and our door is always open if you want a few friendly faces at dinnertime."
Zelda kissed his temple with a smile before grabbing a rag. "Thank you."
Blushing, Barten chuckled. "Ingo will get jealous if he sees my employee has a crush on me."
"He should be jealous!" Zelda said, quickly wiping up the counter. "He's lucky to have you, and so am I."
AN: OOOOO getting into it now! It took me a while to figure out which baddies I wanted where, and then I remembered Cia existed and everything fell together. So, I don't think I have much to say except that I need the next chapter to fill a gap I accidentally already made, but from then on, I'm very excited to write what I've been planning! And AriTheDoggo, I did draw the cover! It took me forever to figure out how to draw everything hahaha! It's much easier to just Photoshop a cover together like the "Heart" and "Spirit" covers. Thanks for reading this one, too!
